Friday, June 1, 2007

Pfitzinger 18 Week Schedule...

If you want the original Excel file for your own customizations let me know.


Standing Friday Hill Run

While on Cricket Hill this morning, I was pleased to see Rick buzzing by and he happened to join me and "B" for a few rounds on the hill. Moving forward, you can count on a weekly Eduardo Ledesma Memorial Hill Run which will be taking place around 6a on Fridays. As the heat begins to beat down, this likely will move forward, but you can count on company (not responsible for the quality of company) on Fridays on the hill. This was previously requested via an annoying email string that went nowhere, but put it in your books.

Ed, we'll expect to hear about the hills you run up in order to get to the bar on Fridays until your return.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Relay -- Interested?

Since we were snubbed by the Nike Hood-to-Coast Relay this year - despite our strong performance and tremendous enthusiasm and spirit - I was wondering if you guys would be interested in getting the band back together for a relay in late August.

Matt has all those mullets and banjo music that he's dying to use -- and this looks like a pretty good event. (LaCrosse, WI to St. Paul, MN)

Don't know if this conflicts with anything on the race schedule of the triathletes - it's after the Distance Classic, prior to the Chicago Half and should be prior to Ed's return to Harvardland.

Check this out and let me know what you think: http://www.ragnarrelay.com/greatriver/index.php

Muffin Top Update


I decided to include a status report per Rick's request. See photo.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Pfitzinger 18 Week Plan

I'm starting the Pete Pfitzinger 18-week marathon training plan next Monday. I've been working for the past month to build my base. The peak mileage week tops out at 93. The longest long run called for on the plan is 24 miles (7 weeks before the marathon).

Instead of over-distance, Pfitzinger suggests doing portions of the long run at goal race pace -- with one of the long runs having 15 of the 20 miles done at race pace.

I'll need running partners for Wednesday and Friday mornings -- where the distances range from 10-16 miles depending on the week. Many Tuesday and Thursday workouts call for am/pm workouts.

It's a challenging plan. If this won't make me lose weight - I don't know what will.


I'll post my training schedule if I can figure out how to do so...

Dessert? Yes please!

Today I had an appointment at the UIC Human Performance Lab. They have a hydrostatic water tank available which is the current gold standard for accurate body composition testing. The purpose of my visit was to find out how much excess fat I was carrying around. We all know that carving off the non-essential "dead" weight makes us faster, but like all good things there are limits. So I wanted to know how far I should go before cutting into essential fat and protein.

The shocking result: My percentage is 6.6% !

Good news: I am officially non fat. The ACE Personal Training Manual states the healthy range for male athletes is 6-13%. However, they also state that “Essential Fat” is from 2-5%. This seems to be quite a big range. From what little I could glean online 5% is a typical fat percentage for elite male marathoners. That being said with my natural chunkyness, there is still no mistaking me for an elite Marathoner these days.

Bad news: It comes as an unwelcome realization that I don’t have the gold mine of performance gains in reserve that I thought I had via weight loss. My plans of someday easily converting 10 more pounds of fat into pure speed might never happen. And there is not much more I can do to reduce unused musculature short of going under chemo. Definitely not hoping to go the Lance Armstrong route to better performance (testicular cancer).

I guess the silver lining is that I can now pretty much eat what I want!

Finally in the land of beer and honey(s)

Just got to Spain. I must admit I neither ran before I got on the plane nor when I got off it. I was too drunk for either. My send off involved a few drinks, and when I got on the
plane I discovered that they had double booked my tourist class seat. Regrettably, I was escorted to the front of the plane, thats right, first class. So for $350 (700 round trip) i got to sit next to some that had payed 3-5000 bucks. Needless to say I pointed that out to them... and proceeded to request repeats on all the free drinks the cute stewardesses kept bringing over... Then I slept it off in a reclining chair that was almost as big as a twin mattress.

Tomorrow I will run...,

Monday, May 28, 2007

WOW, eulogized and not even dead YET!!!

After reading JP's more than generous assesment of my running acumen I feel so moved I want to go out and hug someone. Preferebly a 16 year old, large breasted girl. Just kidding, I meant 18.

Seriously, I am very pleased that JP has joined our little blog, eat your heart out marathon pundit, no politics here this is a strictly BI-party-san venture which revolves around the love of running, and how fat who is getting due to the strange muffin top effect.

Now for a disclosure: I have been slacking. Today I woke up at noon, and missed a half marathon that started at 8 AM and which was to be my swan song till mid july. Need less to say, the guilt is killing me.

Then, I open the blog, after being AWOL for a few weeks, and find JP's praise, its words burning a guilt path through my rapidly enlarging belly (no Chris, I'm not pregnant!).

So I take this oportunity to make a public resolution: I WILL MAKE IT to 2:30. And I intend to drag a few of you with me into the 2:30's.

Now dont get me wrong, this will not be easy, and it may take some friendly competition and good natured ribbing for all of us to keep improving. I will do my best to try and stay ahead of you while I can, but you better get your asses out there and try to catch me. Inevitably, and sooner, rather than later, someone will. Which is fine, because that will give me further reason to train HARDER.

Now I'm going to get my ass back to bed, tomorrow I fly to Spain. but I'lll be damned if I dont go for a run before I get on the plane and AFTER I get off it. Lets quit screwing around, we got a marathon to run in October....

See yall in late July. JP welcome to the blog.