What has been going on with my fitness

A week from tonight I will be in Eugene hoping to get a good nights rest for the Eugene Marathon. I am very nervous about this, but I am also confident that I will finish it.

I am still losing weight steadily, but I am definitely trying to curb any weight loss, or at least keep it to a minimum. But, I am also struggling not to gain weight. See, I am used to eating 2,500 to 4,000 calories a day, depending on my workouts. However, before a marathon you taper your workouts, which is basically under training so your body is well rested for Marathon day. But, this means my calorie requirements are closer to 2,000 to 2,700 calories a day. So, I am having to be careful to watch my calories.

I am down to 221 pounds, but I have been trying not to lose much or any weight lately. I am asking a lot of my body by asking it to do a marathon and I am not wanting to ask it to lose weight aggressively, and run 26.2 miles. It is not a good idea at all.

Overall, I am feeling good, my body is feeling right, my legs are feeling fresh. However, I am already looking past the marathon, and I have a definite plan for this summer. It is too late to do anything big on the bike, like a double century, and I am not sure I want to do Seattle to Portland again anyway. I am going to work on being faster on the bike and on the run. I have a pretty good pace on the bike. Over the long haul I can average pretty good speeds, but I can't sprint on the bike to save my life. I just don't have that "top end". The same goes for my running, but I am a slow runner all the way around.

For the summer, I am planning on running two to three times a week, and riding three or more times per week. I am planning to run a half marathon at least two to three times a month, training runs, not showing up at races. The other days I am going to work on intervals and and overall increase of my pace and running economy. Two of my co-workers, David and Tim, are going to be doing track workouts every Wednesday at Dunniway Track and I am going to join them.

For the bike, I am going to be doing hill repeats and intervals at least one day a week, and the weekends will be doing 50 to 75 mile training rides.

The end goal is I will get faster, but I will also be within reach of doing any standard distance race, bike or run, and be able to perform at a respectable (to me) level.

My goal around these would be to do a half marathon race at 1:50 or less and for a bike race, I would like to actually contend for a top ten finish. I can do bike races and I can do well wen it doesn't matter, but I have no finishing power, and that is what I am truly looking for.

Oh, and on top of that, I want to drop to below 200 pounds by end of the summer. Ultimately, I want to get down to 195 pounds. That will be 100 pounds lost, which I think would be a cool thing to say. Once I get there, I am going to try and love weights, or at least tolerate them. I want to get my upper body built up a bit so I don't have a wire thin upper body and massive legs. I am not looking to get huge, just to have a well rounded body.