This was a pretty average week in the life of my Operation Melt journey. Though there were a couple of events that I thought might be worth sharing with you. I am continuing my quest to be more brief to help improve readability so let me know if you like the shorter posts.
Half Marathon Prep
I continued my training for running my first half marathon at the Columbus Marathon 2 weeks from today. My training hit a big milestone this week as I completed my last long run. I will have a series of shorter runs this week and then I will be mostly resting and walking during the week of the marathon.
My Saturday long run started out early in the morning just after sunrise. It was a beautiful morning in Columbus though it was a bit humid and that helped my #Sweaturday run live up to its name.
I had planned my last long run to be 5-6 miles but ended up being close to 8. I was just feeling too good and enjoying this city so much that I didn’t want to cut it short.
In addition to being longer than I expected my pace was also much faster. My marathon strategy includes alternating miles of walking and running. My pace is improving with each training run because I have been shortening the walk portions and increasing the run segments. This is also my strategy for how I get to a full run for my second half marathon.
The other thing I did this week was to start reading about how to physically and mentally prepare myself over the next 2 weeks. I am not going to lie, I am nervous about this undertaking so I am trying to get myself ready in whatever way I can…. Mostly mentally.
Weight Lifting Goals
As I have mentioned I have shifted my focus away from exclusively weight loss to other goals too. One of these alternative goals includes running the half marathon and I am just 2 weeks away.
I also have some other goals for fitness accomplishments including being able to deadlift my body weight and to be able to do 10 pull-ups. This week I got closer to accomplishing both of these but I still have work to do.
On Thursday I deadlifted 65% of my bodyweight which I my new personal record. I am feeling really good about meeting or exceeding this goal by year-end.
On the pull-up goal I made more progress this week too. I have been doing assisted pull-ups in my training where a machine adds assistance through varying amounts of weight. This week I decreased my assistance weight to under 50% of my total bodyweight. While I am making progress on this goal I am less confident about accomplishing it by year-end.
Weight Loss Struggles
Part of why I started setting goals outside of weight loss is that my rate of loss has decreased significantly. I have become way more sensitive to sodium and it really impacts my weight.
For example on Friday I finally fought through a sodium driven weight fluctuation and got back down to my low weight. Then I had a high sodium day on Friday and was up 3 pounds on Saturday and another 2 today! That is 5 pounds of fake weight gain in 2 days. I say fake because it is just my cells retaining water because of the sodium. It sucks!
Additionally, the other goals are causing my muscle mass to increase. On top of that my body fat percentage has gotten pretty low (17%). Plus my marathon and weight training mean that I need to focus on properly fueling my body so I need to continue getting plenty of calories and my body burns fewer calories at rest than it used to. So my net calorie deficits are WAY less this year than they were last year.
These factors combine to make it more difficult to continue losing weight. Though I still want to lose 5 more pounds before moving into weight maintenance mode.
It is definitely a major mental adjustment after 15+ months of losing weight. I love still having goals that I am seeing myself make progress towards. But it is hard not to be making the same progress on the weight as I have been accustomed to achieving.
After reflecting on the events of the week I guess the week was a little better than “average” and I am feeling good. I am feeling strong. I am feeling powerful. I am feeling very happy to be me.
Thanks for reading! Check back next week for more!
Last week’s stats (9/24-9/30):
Distance walked/run: 40.5 miles (+4.1 vs. LY)
Total calories burnt: 23,164 (-6,206 vs. LY)
Total calories consumed: 14,688 (+1,042 vs. LY)
Net calories this week: -8,476 (+7,248 vs. LY)
Weight change: 0.9 pounds lost (-4.2 vs LY)
