Training Weight

By no stretch am I a heavy guy...never have been. But, when it comes to distance running and where I WANT to be, I've always been a little heavy for such performances.

I can go through "history" of my weight changes/challenges in another post, although they are not all that drastic, so it's not all that interesting, quite honestly. However, here is kind of a progression of what I've been running at.

Back in 2003 when I ran my first Houston Marathon, that was probably the best time to get myself in the right shape for a fast time. I think I did a lot of things right, but definitely not everything. I came into the week of the marathon weighing 151 lbs. I was 27 and in pretty darn good shape, but cratered at the end, and honestly, didn't know how to handle it mentally and physically when your body begins to break down the way it does in the late miles of a marathon and brought it home in 3:14.

I don't do another marathon for 5 years. When the 2008 marathon came along, I got into that one hoping for a 2:45-2:50 marathon, but again cratered at the end, bringing it across the finish line in 3:02:59. Going into that race, I weighed in around 163 or 164 lbs. It fluctuated a lot, and it just seemed difficult to get back below 160. Honestly, I had almost resigned to the idea that below 160 was just going to be too hard to do... sort of. But I qualified for Boston and decided to spend the next 12 months getting ready for that.

When Boston came around in April 2009, I had definitely trained better, run better, and managed my weight better, but still only got down to around 161 for that one. I covered that historic course in 2:54:34. Coming out of that race, I felt strong from the training and wanted to carry the lessons learned in training, in the race and in post race into my Houston Marathon Training. And I did so...however, something different happened along the way.

I participated in a couple of Tuesday workouts with Sean, Luis and Bill, with Geoff joining a time or two. One time, in the heat of summer, shirts off getting ready to begin, I made a joke saying to Sean "If I ate better, maybe I wouldn't be the fattest guy out here." This started a running sort of joke, sort of serious, commentary between myself and Sean. He sorta challenged me right then to a hardcore, 3-week crash diet, so to speak that he was certain would drop 10 lbs, and at the time, would have taken me to 155. He and Luis went back and forth on this discussion and agreed... 1-second per pound, per mile, over 5k at least. So, my current PR being at 16:29, they were convinced 10 lbs lighter, current fitness level, I'd be sub-16.

This was right before 4th of July weekend, so I opted to begin this a little after that, but I wanted to be trimmer and lighter come the first race in the Warmup series, so by October. So, late July, early August, I start on this 3-week diet. I got 2.5 weeks into it before I "broke", so to speak, and had shed over 7 lbs...I was now officially back in the 150's...a place I hadn't been for a while. During this 3 weeks, I could hardly run more than 7-8 miles a day, and I was wiped out. No speed work, no nothing. Just kept running and being disciplined.

I hung out there for the rest of marathon training, and entered the Houston Half in October thinner than I'd been in a long time, and posted a 2 minute Half PR, running 5:46 pace. When the Chevron Houston Marathon came around, I was right around 154-156...don't know exactly, but I was in good shape, felt trained, and felt light and fast. I PR'd there @ 6:06 pace, and a 2:40 marathon.

After that marathon, a goal that had been in my mind for the prior 12 months was pushing back towards the front of my brain, and things began to come together to make it a top running priority in early March, and I began this trek of 2-a-day training, high-mileage training, and just really starting to test my body on the training so I can test it in racing.

In the last 2 months now, I've shed more lb's. On Sunday morning, I jumped on a scale for the first morning weigh-in in a long time....and it read back @ me 148 lbs. I couldn't even tell you when I was last under 150 lbs. In all honesty, I knew I was there, but hadn't gotten the official reading. I could see the change in my body, not to mention the comments of those who see me out running, or even at work. To top that off, though, there is more to lose. The elite training/racing weight is around 2lbs per inch of height....and being a 6 ft tall guy, the ideal "elite" weight is around 144 lbs. Am I elite? Hell-to-the-No. But we can all dream, can't we?

So, here I am, with a waist size I've not been in about 6 years, a weight I've not been in possibly 17 or 18 years...or more, and at a training and fitness level I have never been. Why? Well, after that 2:40 @ Houston, plain and simply, I want more. That description up on the top of my blog says it all. I want to find out just how much my body can take, how far I can go, and honestly, just how fast I can get. For all I know, I'm at the limit already. But we all know that there is really only one way to find out what your limit is...and that's to test it, over and over again. When I get to that limit, know that all the credit goes to Him who gave me the ability to get there, and put those around me that can help me get there.

I'll get into the discussion of the goal in another post. I've told enough people, although not many, that it's no big secret, but it's definitely not been officially made public at this point. Like I said...that's for another post.