190 lbs!

190 lbs...ish

190 lbs.  And that only took a couple of weeks!  I'll hit my 175 lb. weight target for sure by Reggae Marathon this December.  Piece of cake!

OK, so it's mostly water loss from sweating that's responsible for this weight loss so-far but I'll take it!  I'm using every trick I can think of:  I run first thing in the morning before eating then weigh myself right after coming back before drinking any water...hey, every ounce counts!

I have 175 lbs marked on the bathroom scale and now it's only 15 lbs. to go.  I'm not sure I'll be able to eliminate the beer or salty snacks but I've started to drink more water throughout the day and make sure I have a glass with every meal.  I've also included higher-intensity workouts each week but take a lot of care with those.  I don't want any recurrence of foot injuries (Broken foot).

The higher intensity workouts include hill repeats, negative split out and back runs and speed work and strides on the nearby highschool track.  I'm even using a Navin trick: Telling myself to run 'just a little faster'.

And while they don't burn a lot of calories, I Plank every morning before and after my run.

So 5 lbs down from 195 lbs feels pretty good.  Now if only I could cut out the salty snacks and beer...

Until next time...
ThatRunninGuy

2014 Running goal: The Negative Split

Navin, #418 after completing his Negative Split at
Reggae Marathon

I blame it on Navin.  In a nice way of course.

Back in December at Reggae Marathon he not only burned up the full Marathon in a time nearly 20 minutes under his target time (we barely made it back to catch his finish) but he achieved the runner's dream of running a negative split for the second half of the race.

The negative split is when you run the second half of the race faster than the first half.  Yes, this is as hard as it sounds, especially in an event as long as the 26.3 miles of a Marathon and and really challenging in a warm weather run such as Reggae Marathon.  And Navin did it with a smile on his face and with barely a sweat. He even had enough energy to walk the mile along the beach back to our hotel chatting all the way.  A machine!

So that's the target for my first race this year, the Sporting Life 10K on May 11 in Toronto:  run the second half faster than the first. It's something I routinely did back in the peak of my 10K racing days. My trusty Timex Ironman watch tracked the 5 km split quite nicely.  I realize this is 'Old School' what with everyone using Garmin's with heart monitors, but I like the I recently upgraded to a brand new Ironman watch.  Back then it was in the Q 107/Coors Lite 10K running series that ran every summer for years.  The irony of a beer company sponsoring a running series was not lost on us...unfortunately given the liquor laws of Ontario there was no 'Cold One' waiting for us at the finish.  But I digress...

Here's the twist in the Sporting Life 10K when it comes to the Negative Split:  its downhill for the first 6 km's before flattening out for the final 4 km push to the finish.  Do I sandbag it for the first half saving myself for the flat finish?  Do I let gravity do it's work for the first half hoping to have something left in the tank to go faster on the flat?  Is achieving a Negative Split just a crazy pipe-dream for the Sporting Life 10K?  All that will be answered on May 11.

If you're interested in how to run a negative split, check out this article from Runner's World:  The benefits of a Negative Split.  

I'm totally focused on "The Negative" now.  Thanks Navin :)

Until next time...
ThatRunninGuy