Diet is a Four Letter Word - Seriously

I will start by stating the obvious. I've been blessed, fortunate, whatever that most of my life I have been more thin than not. Sure there were a couple of times that I sort of gained unneeded weight like in 1993 from eating too many donuts when I worked for Martin Marietta and then again in 2002 when I ate and lifted in earnest to actually bulk up intentionally. Still the progression through my life was skinny, trim, fit, muscular, bulky, bulkier, to, well... beefy.

But one thing was always constant. Start running again, lift a bit, and I mean moderate efforts here, and the weight would melt off. Well I am here to tell you that on the edge of turning 43, that shit just doesn't work anymore.

My philosophy has always been to eat, drink and be merry. Sin at night and pay penance the next day through miles of running. And for most of my life that worked just fine, maybe even too well as it often encouraged me to over indulge way more frequently in things than I probably ever should. One of the perks of being young(er.)

My sins included cupcakes, BEER, Mtn. Dew, Tons of Big Macs, fries... I would schedule my weeks by what restaurants I wanted to eat out at and when. Huge assed Chipotle Burritos and don't forget the chips and salsa... AND that large Coke thank you very much. Regardless of my age or my denial of it, I still believed that my metabolism as a result of my high levels of activity would burn it all off. Well guess what? It didn't.

I would or could run and workout for many hours per week and my weight would not budge. Only in cases of extreme load and I am talking like over 60 mile weeks would the needle start to show improvement on the scale. The truth was obvious and right there in front of me. The old philosophy of run, run, run and burn everything off just did not work anymore. To say that I was in denial would have been an understatement.

But in my defense, I was lucky my whole life and yes, with a bit of work on my part I managed for the most to wear the same sized jeans most of my adult life as I did in high school. But that fostered my core beliefs. I did not believe in diets. I believed you could eat too much of course and moderate intake but ultimately I fully believed that all it would or could take for simple weight management was the appropriate amount and type of exercise performed consistently as a part of ones overall lifestyle.

So imagine my dismay when I started running ultras a few years ago. Training harder than I ever had in my entire life,yet my weight at best would stay the same...

Well, after the Leadville 100 this year during my recovery phase I ate, I drank, I smoked cigars and I ate and drank some more. The pounds piled on quickly. I started running again and still those few pounds stayed. WTF??? Worse yet, I felt it. Again, the answer was RIGHT there in front of my face, I just refused to believe.

Okay I admit it, I did diet once. I did the the Atkins diet with spectacular results. I dropped weight and gained lean mass at an amazing rate. I understood from that experience that cutting back on sugar (sodas especially) would be of great benefit. Of course I had to cut out other junk as well.

I struggled with this. I didn't want to do it, to deny myself some of the basic simple things in life that I enjoyed? WHY!? It wasn't fair.

Well... thankfully, when I was contemplating all of this back in mid to late October, Melissa was on travel and she had sort of the same idea as I had, for different reasons but the overall concept was the same. We would be a lot better off if we cut sugar out of lives. Sodas, junk food, etc... all of that. I was so relieved and even excited when she brought the idea up. I needed this and really the truth as I saw it, this wasn't for just simple weight loss and management. this was really the start of a different lifestyle and set of eating habits.

Most things I could give up readily... sweets, candy, things like that... but caffeinated soda's? That was going to be tough. Another dirty secret... diet sodas? I am one of those lucky people who gain weight even drinking diet sodas and probably more so than regular sugared ones. Nope, even they had to go.

So the great purge happened... all of the snacks thrown out, no more soda's, etc. Ground rules were discussed and agreed upon. Free days would have to happen every once in a while.

In a month, I saw great improvement. I felt better for certain. I missed stuff definitely but the the benefits I felt outnumbered my cravings.

Weight started to drop off a little bit at first. I felt less bloated heavy as had become the norm. My "gut" was falling off as well. Jeans started to fit more loosely till the point I had to go down a size.

So... the proof was in the sugar-free pudding so to speak. Clean up the diet and the weight drops. I didn't do anything drastic or restrictive just started to make what I considered better decisions. But to be honest, even in the light of my success, I still resisted the notion that it was that simple. But it was.

To sum it up I eliminated these things and pretty much in this order. Sugar. Anything obvious of course, ie Pop Tarts and pastries, cakes, etc. Sodas! Along with soda's anything containing HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which is the center of a lot of attention these days. I realized that "all" sugar could not be avoided so like I said, I stuck to the obvious things and it worked.

So that sums it up. Just another perk of middle age I guess... you just can't get away with stuff like you did 15 - 20 years ago. Eventually you are going to have to start practicing some discipline. Damnit!

The Race That Didn't Happen

I'm back from a whirlwind weekend of visiting Wyoming and Steamboat Springs. The plan was to go to Wyoming Friday night. First thing Saturday morning, register for the San Juan Solstice at 7:00 a.m. After that race registration, go to the Twin Mountain Trudge, run that race, then scoot on down the road to Steamboat to rest and relax the rest of the weekend.

Well... it just didn't go that way. We made it to Wyoming sort of late Friday night. The hotel was very nice. Probably the most quiet hotel I have ever been in. Had a good night sleep and woke up at 6:45 to get register online for the SJS 50.

I logged on and when the time came to register, the registration site, imATHLETE.com did not enable the option to register for the race at 7:00 as they were supposed to do. Nope... not even a few minutes late. More like one hour and fifty minutes until the runners wanting to register were enabled to do so. By this time any hope of making it to the start for the Twin Mountain Trudge on time was out the window. So my plan became to just show up, run a loop (11 miles) instead of two and call it a day.

Well, not even that worked out. Someone (me) got twisted around driving to the start. I made it to BW road, but the wrong end of the road. So basically once the error was discovered it was way too late to even consider racing. On top of that, it had clouded up and the winds (about 30mph sustained)had kicked up out of the west. As a token effort, we went out for a quick 3 mile out and back on the course since we were there, making it back about the same time the top finishers started coming in.

Disappointed a bit as this was to be my first significant race for 2011. There weren't any great expectations but I did want to have this opportunity to gauge exactly where I am now in regards to speed and endurance.

Had an okay time in Steamboat. We really need to plan to spend more time there.

Past that, just trying to get on this week. Still sort of dropping weight. It is amazing what ditching soda's, beer, chips, and cupcakes can do for weight loss regardless of how many fucking miles one runs in a week. In a way it isn't fair.
I plan to do an entire blog entry on this subject at a later date.

Waiting still on the Hardrock 100 lottery. Just under three weeks to go. As of today, there are 490 some applicants, compared to the 430 some total from last year. That definitely is not helping to put the odds in my favor.

That's all for now. I will write more later and try to be more consistent.

Good Days

At this time of the year good days running are just rare but when they happen they are borderline miraculous events. Good days happen typically when the weather is just so... the sun is out, the wind isn't blowing and though it is not warm out, the temperature is still comfortable in a way.

The physical aspect of a good day happens when the body just does everything with what seems like an overall greater ease in running. The legs feel stronger and faster, the breathing is less labored and the heart rate stays "just right." On a good day it feels like you can run faster than ever and maintain that pace forever. Like I said, borderline miraculous.

The greatest thing for me when a good day happens running, like today, is that it completely frees my mind to dream, scheme and contemplate feats that seem otherwise impossible most other days. In other words, everything feels so great that the delusions of grandeur run rampant. But hey, isn't that all part of the fun?

Today was just awesome and I am so grateful... probably the easiest nine mile day in awhile. As I was running my thoughts were indeed able to float off to bigger and better things...

Having a great race at the Jemez 50 in May... Crushing my old time in the San Juan Solstice next year... Probably not running Hardrock but again getting PR's at both the Leadville Marathon and 50 miler in July. The most grand and fun delusion and dream of the day though was to have the speed, the health, and everything else to grab that Big Buckle in August... Yeah... sub 25 in Pb... Only if.

I love it when I have good days. :)

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say

Then spew it all out in your blog...

Seriously, with the exception of one personal victory, this week has stunk more than a bum's nut sack. I usually look forward to the week leading up to Christmas and New Years as a time for things to slow down. A few days to enjoy a little quiet and a chance to reflect on the past year while starting to usher in and plan for the new one.

Not this year.

I feel like I have done nothing but scrape by this week giving everything pretty much minimal effort... not out of laziness mind you but out of being spread thin. It's nuts.

I hope that the next few days will allow me to catch my breath, relax, get centered and get back on the ball.

Anyway, enough griping. I hope everyone has a wonderful and SAFE holiday! And if you are having an abortion of week like I have been, hang in there... it's gonna get better. :)

Another Week

I am about to close my second 50 mile week in a row tomorrow. Just a short run and I am there. Thankfully too, because after today's outing I felt like I was on the wrong side of a prison rape scene. Okay it wasn't that bad but miles 0-5 were okay... miles 5-10 SUCKED, but then I came back and had a good run the last five or so. Actually got in 22.5 miles today.

I'm disappointed with the Western States 100 drawing. Only six runners got in from Colorado and nobody that I really know at that. I guess the next big drawing to watch will be the Hardrock 100 drawing the first weekend of February. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

So tomorrow, a short run, lifts some weights then I am going out to do my biggest and bravest outing of the year yet. Yup, I'm going to mall to go get my holiday shopping done. I will be armed with lists and a solid plan in place to get me in and out with little to no effort and then I will hopefully be done.

Annie had her first swim meet of the season this past week and she did awesome. I just can not express how much of a pleasure it is to see her do something she loves enjoys and also does so well. It is a magical experience almost to see your child thrive in "their element."

Finished reading a neat book last night, Once a runner. It was okay and I enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend it to any non-runners but there are some points in the book regarding runners that is so true. Next I think that I am going to read Meditations from the Breakdown Lane.

Not much else to report. Life has settled down into a nice little routine for the most part for the first time really in months. It is very nice.

Schnee!

Well I can no longer live in denial that winter is here. Those local to COS all know that our first snow of the season came last night. Along with that, a cold ass 25 MPH wind out of the north.

When I walked with Annie to the bus stop this morning I commented that as I get older my tolerance for cold and snow and wind becomes less and less each year. Somehow after 21 years of living in Colorado I might have to start considering how to reconcile my love for the mountains and streams of Colorado with the complete disdain I have for winter now.

The problem is that all other places warm just aren't as fun. Well, unless it's Acapulco! :)

That Time of the Year Again.

Finally it is the weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday. The Incline Club will be doing their first Sunday run preparing for the 2011 season tomorrow. The slack time of autumn is over now. Now it is time to get back to work in earnest.

Actually I don't plan to run much with the IC this year. I do plan on being there most Sunday's to get my star, but I don't intend to the the commonly prescribed runs of the club. I am planning to use the Sunday runs with the IC to allow me to fill in my mileage target of the week and to also work on training which I think might be more specifically geared for the San Juan Solstice course. Up the Incline, then through the Experimental Forest, down Longs Ranch Road for my much needed downhill training, then back out on the Ute Pass Trail.

For my long runs I plan to run with the CRUD (Coloradans Running Ultra Distances) group on Saturdays. http://www.teamcrud.com/ I did a 17 mile run with them this morning and though I spent most of the time lagging behind, it was still a great run.

Thanksgiving was great. Melissa got to meet my folks and that went very well. Actually it was probably the best Thanksgiving ever. We all just had a great visit. Wednesday night we all went out to see Burlesque with Cher in it and it was a very fun movie. Thursday we all ran the Turkey Trot (Mom placed 3rd in her division) and even though the course was cut short (Thanks CSPD) it was still a fun run. Dinner was amazing followed by playing some fun games and having dessert.

Next race will be the Stocking Shuffle December 11th. Melissa registered us for that one and I am looking forward to it. I bet she drops two minutes off of her time from October.

I am still finding it hard to be excited about the cold and winter coming.