As for sustainable loss, I don't know if there's research on health effects for dropping weight too fast; but my feeling was mostly that the rate of loss was more to keep a person from depriving themselves so much that they break the diet just out of a desire for satiation or satisfaction. That or eating so little that the body goes into starvation mode out of a lack of fuel. That said, I recall reading losing ~2lbs/1kg a week as a good baseline. Losing at a greater rate is certainly possible, I did it. But I wouldn't really recommend it off-hand as it takes a lot of focus and drive.
What gets called starvation mode isn’t really actual starvation; I think that deficit mode is a more appropriate way of thinking about it. When the body is in a mild caloric deficit, it starts slowing down processes, especially non-essential processes. Stuff happens like a person’s NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) decreases, their sex drive decreases, some women may see their menstrual cycle change or be interrupted (though that’s also potentially a sign that their caloric deficit is too steep and that they should eat more), the body raids less necessary muscle tissue for the protein to repair necessary tissues, the body starts digging into fat stores for calories, resting heart rate decreases, respiratory rate decreases, etc. That’s all normal order of business for the body, running inside normal human operating parameters. We evolved to be able to handle a few days or weeks or even months with a mild caloric deficit and minimal long term impact.
The ways in which a minor caloric deficit is most likely to cause dangerous or long term physical harms are usually associated with the pancreas and the gallbladder. Pancreatitis and gallstones are generally considered the leading dangerous side effects for GLP-1 agonists, not because of the effects of the drugs directly, but because pancreatitis and gallstones are relatively common side effects of rapid weight loss.
GLP-1 agonists also slow down stomach emptying and should not be used in people with a family history of certain endocrine cancers.
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Random shot in the dark:
Anyone have protein recommendations that -
1. Are not whey/dairy (I'm lactose intolerant and seem to react to whey as well)
2. Do not use Stevia (I fucking hate the taste)
3. Include some BCAA's
The ways in which a minor caloric deficit is most likely to cause dangerous or long term physical harms are usually associated with the pancreas and the gallbladder. Pancreatitis and gallstones are generally considered the leading dangerous side effects for GLP-1 agonists, not because of the effects of the drugs directly, but because pancreatitis and gallstones are relatively common side effects of rapid weight loss.
GLP-1 agonists also slow down stomach emptying and should not be used in people with a family history of certain endocrine cancers.
Slow stomach emptying isn’t a harm in of itself. It’s similar to the slightly elevated heart rate side effect - it definitely seems to be happening, but isn’t associated with any particular problems. And in either case, the effects aren’t long term - they go away when the person stops taking the GLP-1 agonist.
The cancer bit is one of the really interesting things about GLP-1 agonists. Animal testing, primarily in rats, showed elevated thyroid cancer rates. The FDA and other drug agencies have therefore taken a cautious approach. However, the mechanism that led to cancers among the rats doesn’t seem to exist in most humans, and may not exist in any humans. Humans don’t seem to have a mechanism in our thyroid cells to process GLP-1 agonists like rats do. In any case, I was talking about the typical negative long term side effects, and for most people, GLP-1 agonist use is not associated with increased cancer diagnoses. I’m on mobile, so I’ll just post a raw link to a meta-analysis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37531876/ But really, pretty much every paper on the class of drugs is coming to the same conclusion. That doesn’t mean to ignore the warnings, but it does mean that it’s not a typical side effect.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
Random shot in the dark:
Anyone have protein recommendations that -
1. Are not whey/dairy (I'm lactose intolerant and seem to react to whey as well)
2. Do not use Stevia (I fucking hate the taste)
3. Include some BCAA's
No specific brand recs but I've heard some people do better with whey isolate as opposed to concentrate if they have issues with lactose. Otherwise there look to be unsweetened pea protein powders on Amazon which should meet your needs.
Did my bench test today, hit the 280 for a real genuine lifetime PR and hit 305 in the slingshot.
It was a toughie, I got up to a smooth 270 raw and then lost my nerve on 280 and set it on the safeties at the bottom. I threw on the slingshot, hit 275/295/305 and then had to decide whether I was going to get my wife to spot me on 315 or drop back to try 280 raw again and I decided to do that. I cranked up Dethklok and committed to the full send and it went ok, didn't feel good exactly but it never paused and my form stayed mostly intact so I'm calling it a win.
Oh hell yes! I matched my pb pace for a 2 mile run. 8:34 average.
Only slightly annoying that Strava won’t add it to my tracker page because it was an indoor run and it only displays outdoor activities, because it uses gps data.
I was thinking about marathons during my run today. A few things that were bouncing around in my mind.
I’ve seen it said and noted in many times and places, but: one of the coolest things about the marathon is that it’s basically the only sporting event in the world where you get to compete against the best in the world directly. No none-pro gets to run out onto the field at the Super Bowl or to hop on a bike and cycle alongside the Tour de France riders. But you can run in the World Marathon Majors (Berlin, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Tokyo) alongside (or rather, well behind) the best runners in the world, to say nothing of the “smaller” marathons like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Valencia, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Osaka and so many others. That’s incredibly cool.
Secondly, there’s a quote that I love: “Q: How long does it take the average person to run a marathon? A: Average people don’t run marathons.”
The Running Channel finally got their founder to run a marathon. Andy Baddeley is a former Olympian in the 1500 metres, a four minute mile runner, and former holder of the 5k Parkrun world record. He did Valencia last weekend. And like I think just about everyone who runs a marathon, he got to experience what it’s like at kilometre 35/mile 21, when your body is empty of energy, your legs are in agony, you’re ready to beg for the sweet release of death, and you keep going anyways.
Here’s a longer video on the run, after he had a chance to recover mentally. A few hours later, and he’s already changed his mind about whether or not he’d ever do another marathon. https://youtu.be/bRkW7wON-RY?si=B_bCqPFwzyvuRadr
This is a long way of saying congratulations Kyougu on the PB! I think that to go to that place at the 35km mark seven times now, knowing what’s waiting for you, and to push harder than ever? I think that that’s far more impressive than most people will ever understand.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
Okay, rested up and here's my race recap/thoughts for anyone interested.
Leading up to this marathon I honestly had no idea what to expect. My summer training had gotten me stronger but then I got hit by the car last month which threw off my training cycle for this race. Worst, the day before I started feeling not great so I was loading up on orange juice, Gatorade and dayquill.
Morning of I woke up a bit off, but getting ready stepping outside into the cold and race excitement soon had me feeling okay. So I decided to stick to my goal of 3:50 finish time/8:46 pace. That would be a 1 min pr and about what I expected I could do.
My strategy was to bank time for when I would hit the wall around mile 20. Started at 8:40 for the first couple of miles and felt strong so moved into 8:30ish. The first 7 miles were a gradual incline but I was moving through them with no problem and kept my pace. . The biggest hills would be from 18 to 20 though and that's where I expected to start slowing down.
By mile 16 I was still feeling shockingly strong. No signs of cramping and the pace I was doing felt good. Hit the hills, and I powered through them, still keeping my pace and passing a bunch of people.
That's when I realized I was running my best race. The crampings that usually came never arrived. At mile 21 I just felt like I was in one of my long runs and I started passing walkers. This section was mostly downhill which helped a lot but I kept making sure I wasn't pushing myself more.
At 24 is when the exhaustion really hit but there were still no cramps so I knew I could keep going. Forced myself to just try to keep my pace and yeah ended up finishing faster than I started.
This was the best race that I think I could have possibly ever ran and part of me wonders if I can top it.
Anyone know anything about appetite changes? I know there are a ton of different factors, but I had an unusual weekend.
I've been sticking to a caloric deficit nutrition plan. I'm currently on 1600 calories a day with 135 grams of protein. As I mentioned awhile back, I've been very surprised that this plan is not only working for my goals, but I'm also typically at normal hunger levels at normal times throughout the day.
Last week I ate my normal plan and did my normal exercise throughout the week. On Friday, I went to a dinner at a friend's house. I had my normal food for breakfast and lunch, but ate dinner with everyone (not a crazy dinner by most standards, though the snacking was the main problem--call it 2100 calories for the day). I had two drinks as well. Saturday started off normally, but by midday I was just ravenously hungry, like I hadn't eaten in a half day. I still stuck to my normal meals, but I did supplement slightly with some granola bars. On Sunday, everything was back to normal.
I have to assume that since Friday's dinner was a deviation, that's something to look at, but why some delayed intense hunger effects?
Anyone know anything about appetite changes? I know there are a ton of different factors, but I had an unusual weekend.
I've been sticking to a caloric deficit nutrition plan. I'm currently on 1600 calories a day with 135 grams of protein. As I mentioned awhile back, I've been very surprised that this plan is not only working for my goals, but I'm also typically at normal hunger levels at normal times throughout the day.
Last week I ate my normal plan and did my normal exercise throughout the week. On Friday, I went to a dinner at a friend's house. I had my normal food for breakfast and lunch, but ate dinner with everyone (not a crazy dinner by most standards, though the snacking was the main problem--call it 2100 calories for the day). I had two drinks as well. Saturday started off normally, but by midday I was just ravenously hungry, like I hadn't eaten in a half day. I still stuck to my normal meals, but I did supplement slightly with some granola bars. On Sunday, everything was back to normal.
I have to assume that since Friday's dinner was a deviation, that's something to look at, but why some delayed intense hunger effects?
A few theories:
How much protein did you eat at the friend's house? Protein is a giant satiator and your body might be expecting bunches of grams of protein but receiving lots of carbs and fat instead.
When you started on the diet, were the first couple of days harder than the rest? Your body might have metabolically splurged on the excess calories, your stomach may have stretched, or your body may have secreted more enzymes and hormones in expectation of a return to feast mode, then got harshed when you psyched it out.
Sort of along the lines of the second theory, with that much protein you're eating you probably accidentally atkins'd yourself, and you've been in sugar depletion mode for a while. Your liver and brain saw the excess sugar (especially in the alcohol) and the opportunity to switch gears, and now it's punishing you by putting you through sugar withdrawal again
Paladin on
Marty: The future, it's where you're going? Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Did you get less sleep or sleep any worse than normal? Alcohol can affect sleep quality and that in turn can affect appetite/satiety.
But also you're just going to have days that are easier or harder to maintain a deficit and may not always be able to point to concrete reasons why since hunger signals are complex and lots of things contribute to them.
One thing I remember reading which surprised me, and I don't know at all if it would be relevant for you, is that while marijuana can help you fall asleep and stay asleep, the actual overall quality of your sleep and amount of time spent in REM can be typically negatively impacted
Okay, rested up and here's my race recap/thoughts for anyone interested.
Mile 10 split and a hundred feet of drop just sticking out like WHEEEEEEEE
The part that sticks out to me most is the difference between miles 25 and 26. Mile 25 was 8:43 going 56 yards (?) downhill, mile 26 was 8:36 going 39 yards uphill. It looks like a “leave nothing on the road” effort.
But also, I just want to mention that I hate Imperial. Switch to metric, it’s the democratic thing to do!
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
In the last six months I've been largely lifting and board climbing. Lifting to get basically stronger. Board climbing to keep my climbing strength. During that time my time spent actually climbing has probably dropped to 4-5hrs a week. Weather has been shit and indoor circuits haven't excited me
In the new year though that's changing. Lifting and board will be one session a week each. Bouldering specific training is coming back in (two pulling two fingers and two core sessions a week) and I'm gonna be hitting the climbing volume hard, 9-10hrs a week. My skill on techy shit has gone down, and I can feel it. I need to regrow mentally, and get in long session shape, but with a higher base.
I've gained weight but I'm not looking to lose it. I'm just gonna live at 77-78kgs and climb loads. Dry Jan and Feb, fontainebleau in March after months of focused training. So psyched.
Being home for the holidays is nice and all but I don't think I can take one more person gushing about my weight loss (it's been a few years since they seen me in person).
I know it's mean as a compliment but Im just do more about that. And there's always that part of me that wonders what they'll say if I ever gain weight back.
Alright I went to the gym for the first time this year and boy do I feel terrible. I actually can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this level of running on empty, like I feel like I walked home entirely on momentum.
Holiday breaks should probably be respected more than a 10% deload
jmcdonaldI voted, did you?DC(ish)Registered Userregular
Monday did not bring anything and neither did today as I returned home from visiting family with some sort of cruft. Hoping to be able to return to lifting Friday, albeit with reduced weight as it will have been three weeks by that point
Due to technical issues with my watches (for example, the face popped off my Apple Watch during my marathon, as I ran through a post-tropical storm. . .), I don’t know exactly how many kilometres I ran. But as near as I can tell, I ran over 3,900 kilometres, at an average pace of about 5:27 per kilometre or so. It’s about 300 kilometres more than my 2022, at a pace that was 20 seconds faster per kilometre.
I ran my first marathon (and achieved my goal time of under 3:30!) and set a half marathon PB at the same time.
My 5k and 10k times seems to have stalled out. I improved my 5k very, very slightly, but made no headway against my 10k PB. A sub-21 5k and a sub-45 10k continue to elude me.
I had my first real running injury at the end of June, as I slid on loose grave and tripped over the edge of a sidewalk, going flying. Funnily enough, it hasn’t affected my running - the damage was mostly in my right shoulder, as that was the arm I used to break my fall. I used to sleep on my right side all the time, but several months of pain in that shoulder had me learning to sleep on my back and left side. Fortunately, it’s most of the way to better now, and the only time I ever really notice it is when doing dumbbell shoulder presses and similar exercises, and it doesn’t cause any functional problems.
I tried to do a 5k a day in December. Sadly, I had to give it up on the 27th. Ankle pain early on a run led me to abort the run and take a few days off. I’d rather fall short of a challenge than do injury to myself trying to complete it. But the experience really drove home the importance of rest days and post-run care. I was averaging fewer daily kilometres in December than normal, but I felt more tired. Learning from that, I’m not skimping on post-run stretching and using the massage gun, and I’m obviously going to be using rest days as normal.
Looking ahead to 2024:
I’ve signed up for a half marathon in February and my second full marathon in May. I’ll also be doing a 5k the day before the marathon. I’m not 100% sure if I’ll treat the 5k as a tuneup and try hard on the marathon, or if I’ll go hard on the 5k and just aim for a sub-3:45 on the marathon. Given that the half marathon is in February, on a trail, and with about 250m of climbing over its 21.1km, I don’t really have high hopes for a PB. But I’ll probably try!
I’m hoping for 4,000 or more kilometres of running this year. Three days in and I’m on pace for over 4,600 - that won’t last!
My main goals right now: a sub-21 5k, sub-45 10k, sub-1:40 HM, and to complete my next marathon in under 3:45.
I plan on doing more strength work, more hill running, and maybe even intervals to try to pull my speed up. I feel like I’m in an odd place when I compare myself to others - there are a fair number of people who are much faster than me at short distances but who are well behind my times for longer distances. I think that I’ve built up a pretty good aerobic base (Garmin thinks my VO2 is 57, which is pretty darn good) but either my legs are too weak or my lactate clearance is too slow or something.
I’m considering taking a European vacation in the late fall next year, and if I do I might try to target some race while I’m over there. Probably a 10k, but it’s all pretty hypothetical right now.
So that my 2023 running recap and 2024 plan, spoken into the world.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
I'm cleaning the holiday junk out of my diet and I don't care for it. Eating junk is fun and my body is displeased at the amount of fiber and nutrition and not sugar I'm putting into it. I know the road leads where I want to go but bugger all if this first part isn't a pain.
well folks it's attempt number x to build a regular habit of working out. I was doing a LOT of rowing in the beginning of the year but a series of health issues has derailed me completely and I haven't spent more than 30 minutes a week on the thing in several months.
Climbing wise I want to do more outdoor climbing in general. I mainly stayed away from it due to not enjoying traveling, having busy weekends and part of never feeling strong enough to be outdoors but I gotta get over all that. I have friends who do outdoor trips all the time that I can join and my hometown is literally next to Hueco Tanks, I have no excuses.
I also want to really get stronger in lead, and that involves pushing past my fear and be willing to take falls. I rest too much the moment I start feeling a pump, instead of just pushing onto the next move.
Running wise, I'm really happy with the progress I made in 2023 and want to keep it up. Planning on doing my usual 3 marathons, with one being my first trail race in March, then looking at an out of town marathon for summer or fall and then my local one in December. If things go to plan that'll be my 10th one and hopefully my PR attempt of sub 3:40.
I'll be running a bunch of random 5k and half through the year and I don't usually take them too seriously but it would be nice to get a sub 21min 5k and a sub 1:35 half. Current PRS are 21:17 and 1:37 for those, so I think I could pull it off.
I rode 1,747 miles (2,811 km) this year on my indoor bike. Despite that I averaged under 3 days of riding per week. This is partially explained by taking a month off for vacation, but still it's way lower than I want. My goal for this next year is 2,500 miles (4,023 km), and averaging as close to 5 days a week as I can. My main area of improvement here is weekends, which I almost never used as exercise days last year. I have two real bike races that I want to do this year: one in spring and one in fall. They're both really easy 30 mile routes and it's more for the sake of doing it than actually pushing myself.
Over the last year I've dropped about 6% body fat. Nutrition has been my main problem since I started this whole thing in early 2022, and since November I think I've finally gotten myself onto a good eating routine that will help me hit my goals. For this year, my goal is to get to 12% body fat, so I have somewhere in the 8% range to go. In addition to keeping up with the bike stuff, I've begun a dumbbell routine and purchased a bench from a friend to support that.
Over the last year I've dropped about 6% body fat. Nutrition has been my main problem since I started this whole thing in early 2022, and since November I think I've finally gotten myself onto a good eating routine that will help me hit my goals. For this year, my goal is to get to 12% body fat, so I have somewhere in the 8% range to go. In addition to keeping up with the bike stuff, I've begun a dumbbell routine and purchased a bench from a friend to support that.
I'm also hoping to drop a bit of weight in the new year. I've been maintaining between 185 and 190 lbs, and I think that I want to maintain between 180 to 185. That'll drop my BF% down to probably between 13% to 15%, which is still healthy I think for a man in his forties.
Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
Thinking about the new year. I basically let my old job destroy my gym schedule but then I spent a lot of this year unemployed job hunting which also wrecked my mental energy. Then I went on a trip with my partner to one of her cousin's weddings and the trip was a lot of mountain hiking which was amazing, but seeing the pictures from the wedding kind of inspired a desire to change for both of us. I've taken over meal planning each week and slowly this has helped me also get back into the gym rhythm mentally and literally. Of course the holidays wrecked it all right at the end haha so now It's getting back into it (again).
I did a minor deload on it all yesterday, so the short term goal is to get back to where I ended the year, then to get back to working against my previous bests from before all of this, then to hit 2 plates on my deadlift (was working at 205 right at the end of the year), then idk kinda vague goals after that, add +x to each of my core lifts.
I do feel a lot different about my body now though. I was always a skinny person that had a bit of a gut since after college and it made me feel really bad. Then obviously lockdown was bad. I had started lifting reliably during covid to the point where I saw a friend at the start of last year for the first time since the worst part of lockdown era and they said i looked like I'd lost 30 pounds while gaining 10lbs of muscle. Then of course last year I gained ~20lbs, came back from that trip, and have now lost it again so I guess I'm kinda back where we started but a little bit stronger this time.
idk, I can't pretend to not care about how I think I look, but focusing on the strength side has felt a bit like a cheat code, and certainly better to track than weight fluctuations.
Over the last year I've dropped about 6% body fat. Nutrition has been my main problem since I started this whole thing in early 2022, and since November I think I've finally gotten myself onto a good eating routine that will help me hit my goals. For this year, my goal is to get to 12% body fat, so I have somewhere in the 8% range to go. In addition to keeping up with the bike stuff, I've begun a dumbbell routine and purchased a bench from a friend to support that.
I'm also hoping to drop a bit of weight in the new year. I've been maintaining between 185 and 190 lbs, and I think that I want to maintain between 180 to 185. That'll drop my BF% down to probably between 13% to 15%, which is still healthy I think for a man in his forties.
Have no idea how accurate, but my electronic scale app says that anywhere between 13% and 17% is considered "athlete"
Thinking about the new year. I basically let my old job destroy my gym schedule but then I spent a lot of this year unemployed job hunting which also wrecked my mental energy. Then I went on a trip with my partner to one of her cousin's weddings and the trip was a lot of mountain hiking which was amazing, but seeing the pictures from the wedding kind of inspired a desire to change for both of us. I've taken over meal planning each week and slowly this has helped me also get back into the gym rhythm mentally and literally. Of course the holidays wrecked it all right at the end haha so now It's getting back into it (again).
I did a minor deload on it all yesterday, so the short term goal is to get back to where I ended the year, then to get back to working against my previous bests from before all of this, then to hit 2 plates on my deadlift (was working at 205 right at the end of the year), then idk kinda vague goals after that, add +x to each of my core lifts.
I do feel a lot different about my body now though. I was always a skinny person that had a bit of a gut since after college and it made me feel really bad. Then obviously lockdown was bad. I had started lifting reliably during covid to the point where I saw a friend at the start of last year for the first time since the worst part of lockdown era and they said i looked like I'd lost 30 pounds while gaining 10lbs of muscle. Then of course last year I gained ~20lbs, came back from that trip, and have now lost it again so I guess I'm kinda back where we started but a little bit stronger this time.
idk, I can't pretend to not care about how I think I look, but focusing on the strength side has felt a bit like a cheat code, and certainly better to track than weight fluctuations.
you will get the strength back much quicker having already built it once.
Posts
GLP-1 agonists also slow down stomach emptying and should not be used in people with a family history of certain endocrine cancers.
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
Anyone have protein recommendations that -
1. Are not whey/dairy (I'm lactose intolerant and seem to react to whey as well)
2. Do not use Stevia (I fucking hate the taste)
3. Include some BCAA's
Slow stomach emptying isn’t a harm in of itself. It’s similar to the slightly elevated heart rate side effect - it definitely seems to be happening, but isn’t associated with any particular problems. And in either case, the effects aren’t long term - they go away when the person stops taking the GLP-1 agonist.
The cancer bit is one of the really interesting things about GLP-1 agonists. Animal testing, primarily in rats, showed elevated thyroid cancer rates. The FDA and other drug agencies have therefore taken a cautious approach. However, the mechanism that led to cancers among the rats doesn’t seem to exist in most humans, and may not exist in any humans. Humans don’t seem to have a mechanism in our thyroid cells to process GLP-1 agonists like rats do. In any case, I was talking about the typical negative long term side effects, and for most people, GLP-1 agonist use is not associated with increased cancer diagnoses. I’m on mobile, so I’ll just post a raw link to a meta-analysis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37531876/ But really, pretty much every paper on the class of drugs is coming to the same conclusion. That doesn’t mean to ignore the warnings, but it does mean that it’s not a typical side effect.
No specific brand recs but I've heard some people do better with whey isolate as opposed to concentrate if they have issues with lactose. Otherwise there look to be unsweetened pea protein powders on Amazon which should meet your needs.
Sub 3:45 marathon by a hair. New PR. I'm crying.
Did my bench test today, hit the 280 for a real genuine lifetime PR and hit 305 in the slingshot.
It was a toughie, I got up to a smooth 270 raw and then lost my nerve on 280 and set it on the safeties at the bottom. I threw on the slingshot, hit 275/295/305 and then had to decide whether I was going to get my wife to spot me on 315 or drop back to try 280 raw again and I decided to do that. I cranked up Dethklok and committed to the full send and it went ok, didn't feel good exactly but it never paused and my form stayed mostly intact so I'm calling it a win.
Thanks, I grabbed a mix from them but all their sweetener options are stevia or sucralose. Bleh.
Only slightly annoying that Strava won’t add it to my tracker page because it was an indoor run and it only displays outdoor activities, because it uses gps data.
I was thinking about marathons during my run today. A few things that were bouncing around in my mind.
I’ve seen it said and noted in many times and places, but: one of the coolest things about the marathon is that it’s basically the only sporting event in the world where you get to compete against the best in the world directly. No none-pro gets to run out onto the field at the Super Bowl or to hop on a bike and cycle alongside the Tour de France riders. But you can run in the World Marathon Majors (Berlin, London, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Tokyo) alongside (or rather, well behind) the best runners in the world, to say nothing of the “smaller” marathons like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Valencia, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Osaka and so many others. That’s incredibly cool.
Secondly, there’s a quote that I love: “Q: How long does it take the average person to run a marathon? A: Average people don’t run marathons.”
The Running Channel finally got their founder to run a marathon. Andy Baddeley is a former Olympian in the 1500 metres, a four minute mile runner, and former holder of the 5k Parkrun world record. He did Valencia last weekend. And like I think just about everyone who runs a marathon, he got to experience what it’s like at kilometre 35/mile 21, when your body is empty of energy, your legs are in agony, you’re ready to beg for the sweet release of death, and you keep going anyways.
Here is he immediately after the race:
https://youtube.com/shorts/uFbZ9X4zNCU?si=wRercq-B0CAN5gsb
Here’s a longer video on the run, after he had a chance to recover mentally. A few hours later, and he’s already changed his mind about whether or not he’d ever do another marathon.
This is a long way of saying congratulations Kyougu on the PB! I think that to go to that place at the 35km mark seven times now, knowing what’s waiting for you, and to push harder than ever? I think that that’s far more impressive than most people will ever understand.
Leading up to this marathon I honestly had no idea what to expect. My summer training had gotten me stronger but then I got hit by the car last month which threw off my training cycle for this race. Worst, the day before I started feeling not great so I was loading up on orange juice, Gatorade and dayquill.
Morning of I woke up a bit off, but getting ready stepping outside into the cold and race excitement soon had me feeling okay. So I decided to stick to my goal of 3:50 finish time/8:46 pace. That would be a 1 min pr and about what I expected I could do.
My strategy was to bank time for when I would hit the wall around mile 20. Started at 8:40 for the first couple of miles and felt strong so moved into 8:30ish. The first 7 miles were a gradual incline but I was moving through them with no problem and kept my pace. . The biggest hills would be from 18 to 20 though and that's where I expected to start slowing down.
By mile 16 I was still feeling shockingly strong. No signs of cramping and the pace I was doing felt good. Hit the hills, and I powered through them, still keeping my pace and passing a bunch of people.
That's when I realized I was running my best race. The crampings that usually came never arrived. At mile 21 I just felt like I was in one of my long runs and I started passing walkers. This section was mostly downhill which helped a lot but I kept making sure I wasn't pushing myself more.
At 24 is when the exhaustion really hit but there were still no cramps so I knew I could keep going. Forced myself to just try to keep my pace and yeah ended up finishing faster than I started.
This was the best race that I think I could have possibly ever ran and part of me wonders if I can top it.
I've been sticking to a caloric deficit nutrition plan. I'm currently on 1600 calories a day with 135 grams of protein. As I mentioned awhile back, I've been very surprised that this plan is not only working for my goals, but I'm also typically at normal hunger levels at normal times throughout the day.
Last week I ate my normal plan and did my normal exercise throughout the week. On Friday, I went to a dinner at a friend's house. I had my normal food for breakfast and lunch, but ate dinner with everyone (not a crazy dinner by most standards, though the snacking was the main problem--call it 2100 calories for the day). I had two drinks as well. Saturday started off normally, but by midday I was just ravenously hungry, like I hadn't eaten in a half day. I still stuck to my normal meals, but I did supplement slightly with some granola bars. On Sunday, everything was back to normal.
I have to assume that since Friday's dinner was a deviation, that's something to look at, but why some delayed intense hunger effects?
Bit scrappy but unquestionable
Very close to that 100...
Mile 10 split and a hundred feet of drop just sticking out like WHEEEEEEEE
A few theories:
Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
But also you're just going to have days that are easier or harder to maintain a deficit and may not always be able to point to concrete reasons why since hunger signals are complex and lots of things contribute to them.
The part that sticks out to me most is the difference between miles 25 and 26. Mile 25 was 8:43 going 56 yards (?) downhill, mile 26 was 8:36 going 39 yards uphill. It looks like a “leave nothing on the road” effort.
But also, I just want to mention that I hate Imperial. Switch to metric, it’s the democratic thing to do!
In the new year though that's changing. Lifting and board will be one session a week each. Bouldering specific training is coming back in (two pulling two fingers and two core sessions a week) and I'm gonna be hitting the climbing volume hard, 9-10hrs a week. My skill on techy shit has gone down, and I can feel it. I need to regrow mentally, and get in long session shape, but with a higher base.
I've gained weight but I'm not looking to lose it. I'm just gonna live at 77-78kgs and climb loads. Dry Jan and Feb, fontainebleau in March after months of focused training. So psyched.
I know it's mean as a compliment but Im just do more about that. And there's always that part of me that wonders what they'll say if I ever gain weight back.
Holiday breaks should probably be respected more than a 10% deload
Looking ahead to 2024:
So that my 2023 running recap and 2024 plan, spoken into the world.
Climbing wise I want to do more outdoor climbing in general. I mainly stayed away from it due to not enjoying traveling, having busy weekends and part of never feeling strong enough to be outdoors but I gotta get over all that. I have friends who do outdoor trips all the time that I can join and my hometown is literally next to Hueco Tanks, I have no excuses.
I also want to really get stronger in lead, and that involves pushing past my fear and be willing to take falls. I rest too much the moment I start feeling a pump, instead of just pushing onto the next move.
Running wise, I'm really happy with the progress I made in 2023 and want to keep it up. Planning on doing my usual 3 marathons, with one being my first trail race in March, then looking at an out of town marathon for summer or fall and then my local one in December. If things go to plan that'll be my 10th one and hopefully my PR attempt of sub 3:40.
I'll be running a bunch of random 5k and half through the year and I don't usually take them too seriously but it would be nice to get a sub 21min 5k and a sub 1:35 half. Current PRS are 21:17 and 1:37 for those, so I think I could pull it off.
I rode 1,747 miles (2,811 km) this year on my indoor bike. Despite that I averaged under 3 days of riding per week. This is partially explained by taking a month off for vacation, but still it's way lower than I want. My goal for this next year is 2,500 miles (4,023 km), and averaging as close to 5 days a week as I can. My main area of improvement here is weekends, which I almost never used as exercise days last year. I have two real bike races that I want to do this year: one in spring and one in fall. They're both really easy 30 mile routes and it's more for the sake of doing it than actually pushing myself.
Over the last year I've dropped about 6% body fat. Nutrition has been my main problem since I started this whole thing in early 2022, and since November I think I've finally gotten myself onto a good eating routine that will help me hit my goals. For this year, my goal is to get to 12% body fat, so I have somewhere in the 8% range to go. In addition to keeping up with the bike stuff, I've begun a dumbbell routine and purchased a bench from a friend to support that.
I'm also hoping to drop a bit of weight in the new year. I've been maintaining between 185 and 190 lbs, and I think that I want to maintain between 180 to 185. That'll drop my BF% down to probably between 13% to 15%, which is still healthy I think for a man in his forties.
I did a minor deload on it all yesterday, so the short term goal is to get back to where I ended the year, then to get back to working against my previous bests from before all of this, then to hit 2 plates on my deadlift (was working at 205 right at the end of the year), then idk kinda vague goals after that, add +x to each of my core lifts.
I do feel a lot different about my body now though. I was always a skinny person that had a bit of a gut since after college and it made me feel really bad. Then obviously lockdown was bad. I had started lifting reliably during covid to the point where I saw a friend at the start of last year for the first time since the worst part of lockdown era and they said i looked like I'd lost 30 pounds while gaining 10lbs of muscle. Then of course last year I gained ~20lbs, came back from that trip, and have now lost it again so I guess I'm kinda back where we started but a little bit stronger this time.
idk, I can't pretend to not care about how I think I look, but focusing on the strength side has felt a bit like a cheat code, and certainly better to track than weight fluctuations.
Have no idea how accurate, but my electronic scale app says that anywhere between 13% and 17% is considered "athlete"
you will get the strength back much quicker having already built it once.
the rest is just diligence and time