Progress so far on the plans

After my initial weight loss down to 203, back up again, and now down again, I've stayed pretty steady in the 201-202 range the last week or so.

The big difference I've noticed is my running workouts are going so much smoother, being able to maintain hard efforts better and going on longer than usual runs. 

A majority of my runs are 1.5 to 2.5 miles, many times they are interval efforts in those distances.

A favorite of mine is 4/4/4, going 4 minutes easy, 4 minutes hard (think 5K pace) and 4 minutes easy.  This gets me around 1.55 to 1.6 miles total, but the hard effort is what does the trick.  Sometimes I'll add a little more and just make it a round 2 miles at the end of the run. 

I have been mixing up speed interval runs with easy pace runs, such as what I've done on Monday and this morning.

Monday's run was 4/4/2/2, meaning 4 minutes easy, 4 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes hard. It condenses a lot into a little bit of time, and this little 'trick' is what got me in great shape years ago. 

I had a very busy summer of training athletes around the clock, so early morning runs were my only choice of time for getting in a workout.  I read up on interval training and played a lot with interval sessions of short durations.  I knew it went against the grain of conventional, long distance training programs, but I noticed when I returned to coaching the XC kids that summer, my times were better than theirs, even on less distances totaled per week.

My weight loss has now brought me back to feeling like I did a long time ago with my running performance.  I feel I could knock out a good 5K time from a few years ago, when I was running the best that I ever ran.

My diet is still sticking with the basics of protein shakes for lunch, nuts and fruit for breakfast, and a good sized dinner with minimal snacking in the evenings.

The Achievable Body's program in the end has helped me out greatly, paired up with my running and biking workouts.  The weight has stayed off and I should be dipping down under 200 shortly.

Take a good look at this program by visiting The Achievable Body's page today!

#WinTheDay
Coach Rick