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Cant get rid of this itch! Another zero – Iron Man post
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I have Lands end to John O Groats in late April with 3 other lads...and although I think I will be ok with the schedule - its a 12 day unsupported tour and I have quite a bit of sorting out to do with what kit I am taking ect ect. I am very likely going to have to keep the extra weekend job and work 7 days a week up till that point too so I can fund the trip without being too selfish with household income
I will probably enter the Cotswold crank up sportive again in May - its run by a local club and is pretty hilly ...Last year I did the 80 mile route but did 40 miles before and 30 miles on the way home so it made it my first 150 mile ride as a warm up for Coast 2 Coast in a day. I would like to make it a 200 this year.
If I dont crack the double century that day I will definitely get one done somewhere through the year. I am also entering the strava century challenge for 2016 and would like to target 20 century rides for the year.
Then I am looking at several local triathlons ... maybe a half marathon or 2 as well.
The plan then is to target swimming with lessons and a set schedule next winter. Realistically I do not have the time or funds to start with the swimming before then.
Basically I want to keep the cycling ticking over and enjoy the summer - but bias the training more in favour of running ..and keep the weight coming off
Sounds good, I will enjoy watching how you progress.
Swimming lessons is a must in my opinion. Swimming is a very technically biased sport. Its one of the few sports where you can be relatively unfit but beat very fit people if your technique is correct. unlike running for example where obviously technique helps but its more about your stamina.
Your obviously good on the bike so if you nail your swimming technique you will be up there with the top half of the field getting off the bike which will make for a much more relaxing run
I think swimming is neglected at Ironman by some people. I say this as someone who has been at a lot of events including IM Wales and it never ceases to amaze me how little respect people pay the water. Too many people have told me after being fished out of the water things like 'I've never swum in open water before (IM Wales!!), I've only tried my wetsuit on once (many events), I don't like swimming... and so on. If you come out of the water trashed after the swim right on the cut offs then you are more than likely to be chasing the bike cut off and then the run cut offs. It'll ruin your day if you do IM and don't make the first lap cut off never mind the final cut off.
If you are going for IM in 2017 why not join your local Masters group? The quality of coaching at ours is incomparable to the local tri club. IMHO a lot of people seem to say a few lessons will sort you out and whilst this is true to some extent 18 months or so of 2 or 3 swims a week where you are constantly coached will develop endurance and technique much more effectively.
Runner, swimmer, cyclist and triathlete
Devoid of a competitive streak
Who cares, I'm in it for the medal!
Quick update to log progress. Unfortunately I have no weight update as my scales have broken! (never a good sign). I had a few days of proper gluttony over Christmas and again during New Year but I have had a near perfect 9 days since then and feel like I am right back in the swing of things. Exercise log for the Christmas period was as follows...
15th Dec - 100 mile road ride at 16.6mph
18th Dec - 5 mile run at 11.1m/mile
20th Dec(am) 6.2 mile treadmill at 13.5m/mile
20th Dec(pm) 3.1 mile treadmill at 10.18m/mile + weights
21st Dec - 27 mile road ride at 18mph
26th Dec - 26.5 mile road ride at 17mph
27th Dec - 30 mile road ride at 18mph
2nd Jan - 10k Treadmill in 1 hour 20 plus weights
3rd Jan - 5 mile run ay 11.18m/mile
4th Jan - 1 hour eliptical at gym + weights
5th Jan - 5k Treadmill at 11.16m/mile + weights
6th Jan - 25 mile road ride at 14mph (On singlespeed bike)
7th Jan - 12.3 mile road ride at 16.8 mph (singlespeed intervals)
8th Jan - Half hour on eliptical plus a few weights
9th Jan - 15 mile road ride intervals at 18mph average
all going nicely and will now be building in Lejog training rides with the three other guys I am going with - they are all novice cyclists so they naturally go a bit slower than I am used to, Hoping to use those rides as good recovery, low impact runs - or I can do them on the singlespeed to make them tough
Jedi - hope you are still training! I don't post much a the moment but this thread struck a chord.
I have lost weight before (19.5 to 14 stone12) and put on again a few times. Three Ironmans, 20+marathons and ultras etc. So I know what it is like to train fat and thinner.
It also sounds you are a typical weak willed goal orientated person (I am) and find black/white rules (no cake) for food easier to cope with than grey ones (some cake is OK).
Now for some hard truths. This isn't a diet. This is your new life. If you see it as a 'diet' then it infers that the diet will stop at some point and you will revert to being a fat bugger. I stayed sub 16 stone for 3-years but currently I am being a fat bugger - it is a personal choice.
1000 kcal deficit/day, which given your training you should be easily achieving if you are only eating 1800, is 7000 kcal/week. A lb of fat is 3500 kcal so you should be seeing a consistent 2lb/week drop. This may not always be visible on the scales due to body changes. (If I did a 20-mile run Monday night then I was 2lb lighter in the morning but back to normal the next day etc). But 2lb/week is easily achievable. So 8.5lb per months is easily doable.
Now the 2lb a week loss is designed for normal people. You (and me) aren't a normal weight and can sustain a greater weight loss for a longer period of time.
3/lb per week is 10,500kcal = is a 1500kcal per day deficit. With exercise you should be able to eat 2000kcal/day and burn in excess of 3500kcal.
If you were a lightweight female (lower basal metabolic rate than male) and burning 1500 kcal per day and sedentary then a deficit of 1500kcal per day is starvation and not good for you.
Given your size you should be aiming to eat at least 1800kcal per day and probably 2000kcal per day. Be truthful with exercise and on big training days a little more is important to keep the engine running.
Running will burn more calories than cycling so should help a lot. Keep building the run mileage.
But the advice is simple:
Be truthful with the eating, the exercise calories, and the tracking of data. There are no short term rewards (like cake). Every day there is a deficit it builds towards the next 3500kcal deficit and 1lb loss.
Good luck.
Thanks meface, that is quite possibly the single most sensible and informative post I've ever read on the whole dieting v training thing.
Yep, there should be a like button
Aaah but then I ruin it by getting all geeky and talking about basal metabolic rate and other boring stuff. Homework for anyone interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris–Benedict_equation
Effectively you need to eat at least your Resting Metabolic Rate to avoid starvation mode. Then calculate your activity burn rate. In theory with no extra exercise this is the most you can lose per day in kcal. But factoring exercise can allow a much greater loss.
However these are all average calculated from a study group. We are all different.
If I track all exercise, count all calories, calculate RMR and an allow an activity rating of 2 I still end up losing weight faster than the model predicts. Typically 250-300kcal per day difference. I have dieted continuously for 4-months tracking everything and losing 3-stone, plus other shorter periods. I always lose more than expected.
Conclusion. One of the following is true:
I err towards the latter as the most likely, lucky me.
There are some things that can influence your overall BMR most likely around times you eat, food types etc.
There is also a fat to energy transport mechanism that works both ways and is different for us all. Therefore some will find it easier to get fat, but will also find it easier to get thin.
(Note: I used to work with a larger lady. She always said wasn't I doing well on my diet. I said I was. She said great, but you do reward yourself as well don't you. What like 'I haven't eaten for ten minutes, well done me, I'll have a cake'. No. Guess why I'm doing well).
Losing weight requires a deficit of 3500kcal for every 1lb of fat you want to lose. Simples
M.eface
Training is still going well and my calories in have been sub 2500 per day for all of January = looser clothes.
Oh and I spotted this one on the RW home page tonight.
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/health/biggest-weight-loss-myth-revealed/14469.html
Some clever bloke says the 3500 calorie per lb of fat rule is wrong. But then goes on to say it is broadly right for burning it in a lab. Either wrong or broadly right but not both.
He has constructed a much better model than Harris Benedict Or Miflin StJoer presumably. Well if you follow the link the model is Miflin StJoer but it only calculates the figures at the start (when you weigh lots) and thus as you lose weight the apparent deficit contributing towards the loss will reduce.
So for me it gives a maintain of 3,256, a diet of 1,813, and an end of diet maintain of 3,009. (3256+3009)/2=3132 for the average kcal burn.
Subtract 1813 of 3132 = 1319 per day deficit for a 90 day period to lose 29lbs.
Well that works out at 4095/lb of fat. Or a difference if 4lb over the 90 days.
But he states that you lose weight faster at the start so just averaging the start and end calorie burns will give a figure that is too high. So the actual calorie deficit will be less than 1319 per day averaged across the period. This will bring his result closer to the 3500kcal per lb of fat.
So he uses Miflins calorie burn model but adjusts the deficit for the duration compared to the 3500kcal estimate. So what, we are all different. He also doesn't mention that the calorie burn should be recalculate daily as you lose weight (which my excel tracker does).
And the difference from 3500 to his figure. Is probably within the margin of error of the Miflin model which differs from Harris Benedict (maybe mifflin was wrong and Harris was better), the calculations of kcal in food (which aren't exact anyway), and the calculation of exercise loading.
So he doesn't like the method to calculate 3500 kcal in 1lb of fat, as they just burn it in lab. Well guess how they calculate the kcal in food?
He does make some valid points. It gets harder later, the last albs os tougher than the 1st etc. Yep common sense. He also uses some very long term timelines. We all know adaption takes place in running, cycling and swimming. We get more efficient (a better runner, a better cyclist, a better swimmer). We therefore do the same stuff more efficiently which burns less calories. We are human our bodies are lazy. So if you walk 5-miles/day at the start of the study and the end the calories burnt will be less partly because you weight less but also because you have adapted.
Oh and the longer the diet goes on the more lax you will become unless you have the will power of the captain of the will power team from will power university.
He's not wrong but don't think there is much to say he is more right than before.
Do you own research.
M.eface
I really appreciate all the info Meface, I read a few pages of this thread, but not all. My biggest struggle is the calorie counting. I've been using the lose it app, but for everything you put in your mouth there are so many varieties in calories. Is there a better app you can recommend or do I just count every spoon of oil and every flake of oats? I calculated my BMR to1430 - could that be right? Any help will be much appreciated. I am 5 months of the cigarettes, back running but have gained about 6 kg's...
Guess I should check in! Can not believe it has been so long since I last posted. I guess the good news is that my non appearance has been down to general lack of time and pace of life rather than giving up on the whole idea.
LEJOG was completed in awful conditions (blizzards, gales force winds, constant hail and thunder storms) in May. Since then I did Ride London at almost 20mph average pace and have done loads of big solo rides. I am on 4500 miles for the bike this year and in general my performance on the bike has gone through the roof. Much of that to do with my weight which is now at 16 stone dead and dropping steadily. I was 17 stone 10 when I started this thread last winter.
I have been sticking to the 5-2 for the past few months but at the moment I am doing 300 miles or more each week so im finding the fasting really hard so I am having a few weeks off the diet and the miles are keeping my weight the same (in fact its still going down at the moment). Once winter comes I aim to start running again and then pursue some swimming lessons and see how I get on from there.
Had my first sports massage session today as I am starting to get some leg grumbles...spent 50 minutes not breathing and the other 10 in tears! My calves were in a bad way!
Thought I should check in just to say I haven't given up on the Ironman goal. I finished last year with almost 8000 miles on the bike and followed a strict Keto diet with my partner from September to December. My partner is now expecting so Keto isn't sustainable and I have gone back to a more varied diet but completely eradicated bread, pasta, rice and most refined sugars from my diet. HFLC has been a revelation for me and its something I want to pursue long term.... Now our weekly food shopping is based around low carb I find it really easy to eat well and feel satisfied. I still have a few cheat meals (if we go out ect) but I try to time this so it is immediately before or after a big training effort.
Im now down to 14 stone 13 and losing fat every month (at my heaviest I was around 19 stone)
I needed a training goal for this year but with a baby due in late August I really couldn't get enthusiastic about another huge bulk of road cycling. Its just too much time and money for me currently .....so I went back to the gym and started to work on all the core and upper body strength I had lost from cycling. I also got back on the treadmill and actually started to enjoy running.
After a couple of months of strength training mixed with treadmill intervals I got back out on the road and ran my fastest ever 5k without it feeling too difficult.
So I decided to go big and enter our local marathon (Abingdon) in October. Its pancake flat with a 5 hour limit and seems to be targeted by local club runners looking for PBs. If I can get through a marathon I will start swimming lessons next winter with the goal of a 2018 Ironman attempt. Few weeks ago I did my first ever brick session with a 50 mile road ride followed up by a 5 mile run. The "run" was predictably slow but I really enjoyed it and it has given me a good taste of what I am letting myself in for.
Marathon training is going well. I am up to 10 miles on the long run and my 10k time is under an hour now. I am doing one long run a week, one tempo run of around 10k and then either one 5k effort or treadmill intervals at the gym. In addition to this I am fast walking a 5k in my lunch hour 2-3 times a week. I also do an hour or two of strength and condition work at home several times a week aimed at improving flexibility and stopping me getting injured from the running. I do lots of the ironstrength for runners exercising with dumbells and a kettlebell and im foam rolling and stretching in front of the TV
Hoping to get back on the bike now the weather is improving to supplement the running and I have turned my singlespeed road bike into a bombproof tank (36 spoke, handbuilt wheels) so I can use it for commuting and training with minimum servicing costs.