Ben's Fat Loss Diary

[Llama]

Not binging despite being under so much pressure is a win in itself. I hope things ease up soon though... Have fun on your half-marathon!

 

[Cate]

Thanks for checking in with us, Ben. I'm sorry about your friends losing their jobs but glad you kept yours. All the best for the half marathon!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

The main story of today ended up being the weather. It was *quite* a bit warmer and more humid than I expected when I signed up for a mid-November race in Mt. Airy, NC. It was in the mid-60s--and mostly running in direct sunlight--by midway through the race, where lately most of my running has been in the 40s and low 50s, with a little in the 30s. My body wasn’t ready for this today, y’all!

So, my 1:51 time wasn’t as good as I’d envisioned back when I signed up for this race, but given the conditions, it wouldn’t be accurate to say that I’m disappointed in the performance. It was nearly six minutes faster than my HM in April when the temperature was around 20 degrees cooler than this morning, so that would indicate that I’m quite a bit more fit than I was 7 months ago. And as far as race strategy/execution, I had pretty even splits overall, was able to finish strong, passing quite a few folks in the last mile and a half or so, and never got passed down the stretch. Given the speed of my last full mile and the number of people I passed, it’s fair to wonder if I was a bit too conservative early on, but that’s a minor quibble. (I mean, I was slowing down at the end and I couldn’t run the final .1 miles as fast as I ran mile 13, so clearly I didn’t have THAT much gas left.

I guess all in all, the running/life lesson here is that when you do the best you can despite challenging circumstances, the results may not be as good as you’d hoped for, but you can still be happy with the process. (And after all, I’m supposed to be in this for health/fitness reasons, not fast times. It’s not easy or natural for this heavily numbers-oriented guy to make peace with that, but I’m getting better! )

I’ve got some work to do in the next 14 weeks if I want to be proud of my first marathon time. (Surely it won’t be warm in mid-February, right?????) Looking forward to it.

 

[Cate]

Ben, you look super fit & happy.

but you can still be happy with the process.

As you should be. Well done!

 

[Llama]

Awesome work! Also: you look great. Every outdoor athlete has to accept that the weather plays a role in the outcome but the fact that you were overtaking multiple people in the last mile says you did something right

 

[liza3]

Nice work Ben! NIce to see you beaming and happy after a race like that. Of course to me that seems like an amazing time to complete the half, but I do understand about wanting our absolute best time in a race, but yes, weather and other things do need to factor in. It would probably be a rare day when all our ideal factors come together.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Hey y'all,

I'm coming off of what was probably the least encouraging of this 22ish month fitness journey. I was sick most of the week and did pretty much nothing from Sunday-Wednesday. I managed a short slow jog on the treadmill on Thursday, lifted on Friday and felt good enough (about 90%) to do my scheduled long run on Saturday to at least salvage *something* from the week. And also, being sick, I ate pretty poorly, and I'm up to 191 on the scale.

In short, I need this place, but to be totally honest, at least in the short-term it's going to be a selfish return. In other words, I probably won't have time to read/comment on others' diaries until around 12/23. Starting then, I'm off work until 1/3.

The marathon is a little under 10 weeks away, and I need to take some pounds off if I'm going to perform optimally. So, a few goals for me from now until race day (2/18.)

ACTION GOALS

• Pre-plan meals for next day every evening.
• Post here daily with weight and training updates.

OUTCOME GOALS

• Weigh 175 or less on race day.
• Run marathon in 3:45 or faster.

Short-term goals for this week:

1. Get running mileage back up over 40. I plan to do this with all easy running. No speed work. Just want to feel healthy, log the miles, and remind my body of the training volume it's capable of handling. I got off to a good start today with 6 miles.
2. Reconfigure training plan. Next week was supposed to be a "recovery week" which is kinda silly given I ran under 20 miles last week, and this week will be all easy runs. I need to sit down and make those adjustments.

Thanks in advance for your encouragement/help. It's much appreciated.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Oh...nutrition today was great. Nailed calorie goal and food was quite tasty. About to prep some overnight oats right now for tomorrow morning as well.

 

[Llama]

In short, I need this place, but to be totally honest, at least in the short-term it's going to be a selfish return. In other words, I probably won't have time to read/comment on others' diaries until around 12/23.

Don't worry about that for now: health is much more important! Use those 10 weeks to your benefit so that long run won't harm you.

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Don't worry about that for now: health is much more important! Use those 10 weeks to your benefit so that long run won't harm you.

Thanks! I do think I'll be back in full force late next week, and on into 2023. Work is starting to settle in to a "new normal," and I think I'll be adapted to the new rhythms when I go back in January.

Tuesday morning weigh-in: 189.4, down 1.5 from yesterday.

Lifted this morning. Planning to run at lunchtime.

 

[Llama]

You, Sir, are a machine. Last week was just maintenance.

 

[Cate]

You are amazing Ben. Go, you!

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Tuesday: ran 45 minutes (4.4 miles) easy. Overate a bit on chicken wings from Costco. So, I’m not so much the machine y’all are giving me credit for

Wednesday: morning weight 189.2, down .2 from Tuesday. Ran 90 minutes (8.44 miles) very early. Leg day at the gym at lunchtime. Nutrition pretty much perfect.

(All runs so far this week have been pretty much exclusively heart rate Zone 2 as I continue to work towards getting the weekly miles back over 40.)

No lifting tomorrow and a shorter run, probably 45 minutes.

 

[Cate]

Overate a bit on chicken wings from Costco. So, I’m not so much the machine y’all are giving me credit for

Haha. We don't think you're perfect
No one is perfect

 

[Llama]

Running 4.4 miles in 45 minutes a couple of days after having been sick sounds pretty machine-like to me. Just a hungry machine

 

[Ben_In_NC]

Thursday morning: scale up a pound to 190.3. Could be partially due to the wings, but I'm also more sore than I've been in a LONG time, so I'm sure the extra water weight associated with that has something to do with it. That said, it's not readily obvious why I'm so sore today. Yesterday's run was fairly long for a midweek one, but nothing excessive for my recent training volume, and the lifting was one of my standard workouts, and was actually cut a little short due to time constraints.

The soreness in the lower body in particular is intense enough that I may do the exercise bike instead of run today.

 

[Llama]

Seems like your body may not have been 100% recovered from that virus. Exercise bike sounds good

 

[Cate]

Seems like your body may not have been 100% recovered from that virus. Exercise bike sounds good

It does sound like it to me too. Take it easy, Ben

 

[Ben_In_NC]

So a LOT has happened since I stopped posting here, and I need to get back to it, so here are the highlights:

• In retrospect, I'm reasonable certain that I had COVID in December 2022, (i.e. the last few posts.) Based on how much slower I was in the immediate aftermath compared to where I was within a few weeks.
• I got out of the habit of posting because life went crazy: my younger brother(by just 21 months) was an alcoholic. He basically drank himself to death. Finally went to the hospital (after much pushing) in December 2022. Never came out. Died in hospice in March 2023 of liver cirrhosis.
• I was down in Georgia (where I grew up and where he lived) pretty much every weekend in February 2023 through March 11th (his funeral) EXCEPT of the weekend of the marathon--2/18/2023. He actually came out of ICU on the 15th-ish and we thought he was getting better, so I felt good about going to Oak Island to run the marathon. Was there for the weekend, ran a 3:46, and got word on Monday that he'd taken a turn for the worst and had to go to hospice.
• Got back to NC after the funeral. Recovery from marathon went really well. Strong training that summer. Ran a 1:38 half marathon in October 2023, and then a 3:33 marathon in December 2023--technically qualifying for Boston 2025 by about 2 minutes, but the cutoff ended up being nearly 7, so I wasn't accepted.
• Very rough December 2023 sickness. Got quite off track and let weight get up around 215.
• STRONG January through July 2024. Great training, won my age group in the largest 10K in Greensboro on July 4th by like 7 minutes, but probably overdid it bit. Pretty burnt out on running from August-October.
• Was ready to get back to running last month, but some knee issues cropped up.

So that's where I am now. Kinda of resetting--focusing on health and not racing. Primary cardio will be elliptical, not running. Weight this morning was 209.6--not terrible, but probably 30-35 pounds more than I want to be. Refocus began this morning. Starting a new thread later today most likely.