A Passion for Running

Welcome to the home of Mark aka The Running Blogfather – a 40 year-old dad, husband and marathon runner who's beaten injury and is on the comeback trail!

smashing the equilibrium

passion for running category: running on Thursday, July 22 2004

I run a lot. I train for marathons year round through rain, snow heat and bitter (like -35 bitter) cold. When I returned to running four years ago I lost about 30 pounds but guess what? I still have a spare tire around my waist.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not obese by any stretch. I’m 6′ and weigh 175 pounds so, pretty light by most people’s standards but when I take my shirt off I’m always dissappointed to see some jiggly stuff covering my abdomen and in that “love handle” area.

Argh! Why is that? I imagine the main reason is that I’m 37 years old and at an age where metabolism is slowing down. I know if I wasn’t running, I’d pack on weight pretty quickly so it’s pretty apparent to me that all the work I do is basically to “hold the line”.

But I sure would kill to get rid of those love handles!

Well, guess what? I think I finally might be. After all this running, I think I finally may have found the key to losing those final few pounds of blubber. It’s called cross-training.

I read that runners who maintain their usual running schedules and add one 30-minute cycling workout per week can lose one extra pound of fat every 10 weeks, provided they don’t increase their food intakes. Well, I’m doing way more biking than that with no decrease in my running plus I’ve started working out knowing that one of the benefits of building muscles is that they burn calories.

It’s just the past week or so where I think I’m seeing the roll around my waist shrink. I haven’t lost a single pound of weight but I can see a slight difference in how my mid-section looks. Obviously I’m losing fat and replacing it with muscle. That’s just fine with me since I’m too skinny in my upper body and am currently a good weight for my height anyway. No sense in losing weight – lotsa sense in losing fat.

The other great thing about all this cross-training is my body is adapting really well and doesn’t feel worn out. If I were to just up my running mileage, I think I’d get burned out and overtrained. The biking and weightlifting is allowing me to be super active without risking injury. I’ve never felt better.

I’m gonna win this battle of the bulge (dammit!) and then I’ll be much better equiped to get my next marathon PR!




6 Comments

501

Comment by Mike Paus

Thursday July 22, 2004 @

You should get a Tanita body fat scale so you can see how much fat you are losing and how much muscle you are gaining. I don’t even look at my weight any more as it is a useless indicator of health.

502

Comment by Lara

Thursday July 22, 2004 @

I really admire how you worked to integrate the biking, in particular, into your fitness routine. I’m glad it’s paying off.

503

Comment by Dianna (running chick)

Thursday July 22, 2004 @

Even better than the scale, have your body fat tested — calipers are good, underwater weighing is best! Body fat percentage is a much, much better indicator of health (which is why the BMI charts don’t work for everyone). Your smart to depend more on how you “feel” and less on what the scale “says.”

And to answer your question, yes I added the “Referring Web Pages” thing, which somehow broke my page today (depends on which browser I use) AND I honestly have no idea what it does. LOL. Very astute of you to notice!

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Comment by Another Pam

Thursday July 22, 2004 @

oh my god I totally hear you! I still have a good bit of weight to lose since my last pregnancy (and by last..I mean LAST EVER). And it’s not falling off of me. Maybe I will add a cycling night.. yeah..hubby should love that idea.

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Comment by Chris...

Thursday July 22, 2004 @

I have love handles so big I call them love luggage.

But seriously folks, I just read a great article in Hers magazine that says athletic types typically keep pudgier (especially runners) because they UNDER feed their bodies. The problem with this is that if you go into calorie deficit too often (and this is across the span of a day, not a total in a book at the end of the night), your body is barraged with a signal that says, “Oh crap. We’re not being fed. Slow down the metabolism.”

Rumour is, if you fuel more often (but only 300 calories at a pop), you’ll burn a bit better because the deficit thing should be lessened.

My 41 cents.

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Comment by Mark

Friday July 23, 2004 @

Chris, my friend Corinne and I were discussing that very subject yesterday (we agree with you). She is convinced she’s not eating enough. By and large I eat really well but like anyone, I have my moments where I don’t. I think MY biggest issue is that I don’t have enough muscle mass up top to burn those fat cells off so that’s what I’m working on. We shall see!

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