Body fat? I wonder...

I got up on Wednesday and all that I knew was that I did not want to go for a run in the 25 degrees. Having run the Yasso 800’s the night before the legs needed a rest. The fitness center would be opening back up toady and I had trouble deciding just what I wanted to do today. I could ride my trainer and watch some television on the internet or I could go to the gym and ride the exercise bike and read a book. I have been enjoying reading but with my race bike on the trainer it is difficult to read - I am in an aero position in the aero bars – it just does not work well for the reading. Watching television is not a problem.


Anyway, I weighed the pros and cons and it cost me valuable time. I do so much better when I actually work a plan and just follow it. With the running I have not been following a plan but there is some structure. I am doing my main workouts – intervals, tempo and long runs – with several races spaced throughout the plan. It is the cross training where I am having difficulties.

So I decided to just stay home because driving to the campus and then walking to and from the gym would eat up even more minutes. I only rode about 20 minutes on the trainer – it was a little more intense but I should have managed my time better.

At lunch I got in the pool for the first time in about 2 months. I took my wetsuit but, fortunately, it was not necessary. I do wish that swimming was like a bicycle. I feel like I have lost a lot of swim fitness. Sam and Chris were also in the pool and we just worked on drills. I only got about 1000 yards (20 minutes or so) but it was productive – the numbers are just not impressive. I spoke with Chris about a Dexa Scan – so that I could get a baseline on my body fat. I have a Bioelectrical Impedance scale but it is not accurate, however, I do believe that is precise. I have always just used it to track trends. Used in this method it is functional. But, I would like to know the offset. In the athletic mode the scale reads my body fat in the 7’s but in the normal mode it reads about 20 – big variance. I had calipers done a year or so ago and it was around 15 or 16. Before the ironman they had a Bioelectrical Impedance scale at check in and it read 12 percent. So I do not know where I am – with the Dexa Scan, the new gold standard for body fat analysis, it will give me the offset – I will know how much to add to the 7.x. Much better tracking.

I had some time on my hands after work and I hit the gym again. I wanted to run on the treadmill at a 7 minute pace – to see how that felt and make a determination if that is the pace that I want to run this weekend’s half marathon. That was my gold medal pace for the Ole Man River Half. I ran that at a 7:09 but I went out way too fast. I think that I have some more speed – just not sure if it is 7 or FASTER. The last race that I ran – the Steam Whistle 12k – I was able to ‘hang on’ for the 7.45 miles at 6:39. I have been thinking – wondering – if I could have held on for another 5 miles. The answer is NO – but what about a 6:50? Not sure on that one but I would love to see a 1:29: xx!

The run did not work out – my legs were just too tired. In addition, I lack motivation in the evenings. It is much harder to get the job done. I canned the run after mile and did a little strength training. I then called it a day.

I am still working the health eating plan and I am having success. I weighed in at 159.8 – the first time that I have been in the 150’s since just before my ironman (just prior to the taper in fact). I have been eating very well and it has been easy. I do very well when bad food is out of sight – it truly is out of mind. This is what my dinners have been looking like – good stuff.