A long (in time not distance) slow run

First long run in ages tonight. Decided to stick with the low heart rate training that I'd started a few weeks ago - will aim to keep that up for the next few weeks. In all, done a tad under 7.5km in just over an hour - hardly flying. Average HR was 151bpm with an average pace of 8m 08s per km!

Managed to keep the nasal breathing up for the most of it as well. Pretty boring run besides though.

MRI scan

Had that MRI scan this morning ... was a bit weird. I went into it with stories of people being scared in the confined space, thinking they were all a bit "soft", but it is actually a bit daunting as you're going through the tunnel. I wasn't exactly scared, but it was a bit freaky with all the noise (wasn't as loud as I'd assumed though).

The scanner kept asking me to hold my breath, which was tough for some of the longer durations - reminded me a bit of how I feel while swimming.

Exercise wise, I haven't done a tap since last Saturday (actually first football training session was yesterday but was very easy). Hoping to get out on the bike tomorrow at lunch...we'll see. Maybe a run would be a better idea.

Well fatty...time to lose some weight

I'm taking part in (what I think is) a pretty cool study at the moment, to compare the body fat measurements from a new bio-electric impedance device against my actual body fat (as measured by X-Ray and MRI). I done the first part of it yesterday and I'll be doing the MRI tomorrow morning.

The results from yesterdays examination was the following (from memory but will be getting a report in the next month or so):

• I weight 111.5kg (weigh in this morning had me at 109.55kg so my scales is probably off)
• My body fat percentage is 27.7% - can't remember which device took this measurement or if it was the average.
• My Bone Density is pretty high - think the value 3.4 was mentioned and the guy said it's the second highest he'd seen.
• I look fat on an x-ray :)

The body fat percentage is probably the most interesting part of this ... according to those figures, my body contains almost 31kg of body fat. Now assuming I lost EVERY single kilo of this, that'd put my weight down at 80.5kg which equates to a BMI of 23.77 (I'm 1.84cm tall). Considering elite male athletes only get down to around the 6% - 13% mark, then it looks extremely unlikely that I'd every get into the "normal" BMI range (18-25).

I'm not going to get into a debate about BMI, just to say this doesn't really bother me - it's absolutely great as a risk factor for populations but individual results may vary - maybe my high bone density means I actually am big boned :)

So, if I aim for the lower end (18%) of the fitness category described on the wiki article, then I've got 13.2kg's of body fat to lose (using the formula M x (A - D)/(1-D), where M = current mass, A = actual body fat percentage (as a decimal) and D = desired body fat percentage). That puts my target weight at 98.3kg (BMI = 29.03) - a good target :)

What I've been up to lately

Been on holidays for the last week or so in Madeira, which was very nice indeed. Very nice break, good weather for the most part with plenty of walking and a little running thrown in for good measure. Some lovely meals, snacks, etc., etc., but I figure the walking counteracted that a bit. It'll be interesting to hop on the scales tomorrow.

So back to the present then. I've got the Reading Half Marathon in less than two weeks! To say I'm in trouble for it is an understatement...my sub 2hr goal at the start of the year is a distant memory. I'm still hoping to set a PB and run it non-stop, but more about that closer to the time.

Nothing major planned besides, but there's a few options in the pipeline that I need to sort out sooner rather than later (a duathlon and a 10km).

Cycle

Got out for a cycle at lunch today...same route as I done on Tuesday but done it eight minutes faster. Most of that eight minutes was made up at a point where we had to stop on Tuesday to wait for one of the lads who'd got a phone call. I was a bit surprised by this, as I felt I was taking it a bit easier on Tuesday.

To that end, went back and had a look at my average speeds for some of my rides last year and was surprised to see a few of them were actually faster than todays ride. I think the main difference with them though was that they were done with other riders.

In any case, I'm very happy with my 27kmph average today...hopefully get that up over the next few weeks.

Weight Update

31/12/08: 108.45kg
30/01/09: 108.52kg
03/03/09: 108.61kg

Creeping up slowly, but hopefully now that the longer days and better weather are on the way...

I done it (again)

Haven't posted anything in a few days. Training's been a bit mixed (as seems to be the norm at the moment)...good efforts followed by absolutely lazy days. So here's a summary of what I've been doing since the last post:

• Saturday - 51km cycle, pretty tired after it but was very happy with it. Averaged 25.5kmph, which I'm sure would have been better due to the first few km's being in an urban environment.
• Tuesday (lunch) - 26.5km cycle with two lads from work. Averaged 24.3kmph in windy conditions, but I could have definitely gone better.
• Tuesday (night) - went out for a run. Absolutely terrible effort. Started focusing on doing some low HR stuff and nasal breathing. Averaged 7m 02s per km over 5.62km.
• Wednesday (lunch) - got down to the pool.
  

Hoping to get out on the bike again tomorrow - really keen on that at the moment and while exactly the opposite with the running :(