Today was rough. I didn't have any coffee before heading down to the gym and my body was acting extra tired for some reason. Headquarters snapped down at the fray briefly but then got distracted. My pal Robin (who I am now convinced lives at the gym) was there and we got to talking about her bad night's sleep, about how she was tired too, and you know - two downers don't make a right. Part of me longed to put my iPod on and focus, the other part was enjoying the commiseration. When I could, I stared at my shiny new 26.2 necklace and remembered my goal. (I always knew jewelry could solve the world's problems.)
Today's assignment was to run 3 miles. I started out walking a quarter of a mile at 3.5 mph, like I usually do, and then forced myself up to 4.4 mph. My feet were literally dragging behind me on the treadmill. I went about another half a mile, and then reverted to walking, then back up and down like that for the rest of the distance. I was breaking a nice sweat and turning medium roast beef pink, versus my usual rare roast beef pink. The whole thing took me 49:00, which is only slightly longer than it took me to run the Turkey Trot in November, when I was really pushing myself -and huffing and puffing the whole way. So, even though I walked a lot and wouldn't call today's display a triumph, it was fine. I met the requirement. I checked the box.
Another reason I don't feel all that bad about my lackluster spirit today is because of something I read last night before bed. I'm studying the mechanics of what I'm doing. You'd think I'd start with the chapters about how to get stronger, but of course I'm starting with the ones about fat burning. The truth is, when I started this, I had about 40 lbs to lose. Yeah, I'd be completely anorexic if I lost 40 lbs, but I'd like to be anorexic just once in my life and this might be my moment! 25-30 lbs is a lot more realistic and would be healthy. I haven't made weight loss a conscious part of my process though; I just sort of figured it would happen in due course - but it hasn't.
After my first month of training, I'd lost just 3 lbs. I tried not to be disappointed by that because I knew I was gaining muscle, and people kept telling me not to worry, the weight loss would come. Now it's been 7 weeks and while I briefly was down 5 lbs, that seems to waiver a pound or two, in a pattern that's totally uncorrelated to my eating, hydration or any other factor. Such a mystery until now; but here is some insight.
The body doesn't burn fat when it thinks there's an emergency... If you're running away from a hungry lion, it will instead dip into glycogen - the energy stored in the muscles. If however you are just running to get somewhere, it will source from the body's fat stores. So, when I've been training to the point of being a hot mess, huffing and causing my body extreme stress, I've triggered the "hungry lion - run!" response, versus a fat burning response. The key to fat burning is to run like you need to get somewhere... as fast as you can but at a pace where you aren't huffing, and for as long as you possibly can. It's recommended that you endurance run like this for 45 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week, and then do one 90+ minutes endurance run once a week.
The thing you're trying to do with your body during these endurance runs is induce an "artificial fever" in your body. You want to get your body temperature up well above 98.6 degrees, so that the fat literally melts off. Since it's critical that you not trigger the emergency/lion response, these endurance runs should incorporate walking - as much walking as necessary to make sure you never "over heat" and slip out of the fat burning zone. It takes about 15 minutes to warm up to this artificial fever, but once you're there, you can stay indefinitely. (I wonder if that's the secret to the weight loss TV shows, like "The Biggest Loser.")
So today when my body wasn't bouncing with enthusiasm for Marathon training, when I didn't feel like pushing myself to run at 5 mph, I focused instead on making sure I sustained conditions conducive to the great state of artificial fever! I made myself into a fat burning furnace. Kind of an interesting way to look at things, no? Also good for justifying a lame run!
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