Stepping up the Running
Another month went by, and I decided to start my monthly health update posts again 😊 May ended up being interesting with some sickness and a step up in my running. Let’s start with the weight change.
As you can tell, I’m down to 98kgs / 216lbs with a total loss of 6kgs / 13lbs in May. It is not a huge loss but based on my experience, I can say that this is a nice pace considering my total weight and the percentage of fat loss. I would be thrilled if I could keep this pace moving forward. However, that’s not my expectation. I expect weight loss to slow down with the decrease in body fat percentage.
Looking at my fitness activities above, you might notice two irregularities. First off, there are no activities between the 20th and 25th. That’s because I got sick and managed to get Rotavirus. There was no way I could run, and I had lessons learned from my past that suggested I should give my body time to recover. That’s what I did. Thankfully, everything went well, and I managed to get rid of the virus in 4-5 days. When I got back on track, I had a plan 😊 I wanted to step up my running.
Half-Marathon Running Plan
I decided to run a half marathon 😊 The last time I did a half marathon was in 2014. I finished in 2 hours and 7 minutes, which is faster than my current pace. However, the pace is not my goal right now. My goal is to be a finisher 😊. So I registered for a half marathon in Eskisehir, Turkey, on August 27th. That gives me two months to prepare. I have already increased my regular runs from 6kms to 10kms. For now, I’m building up the volume. I might increase dailies a little more and compliment them with one longer run per week. This is why my runs after May 26th are longer than those before.
Sleep and Food
When stepping up cardio, it is equally important to step up the sleep and food game as well. Increased cardio can easily lead to injuries without proper eating and enough sleep.
As you can tell from above, the cardio load on my body has drastically increased. Cardio load from Polar is calculated “after every workout from your heart rate and session duration, and it’s affected by your physical settings, resting and maximal heart rate, and gender”. The system comes up with a load estimate based on your past seven days’ load, comparing it with your body’s tolerance, which is calculated from an entire past month’s training. To help my body, I have slightly increased the total amount of food I eat. This can be as simple as adding a banana and some nuts.
In terms of sleep, I’m targeting an 11 PM bedtime and a 6.30 AM wake-up. This is getting me 7 hours of sleep time on average. Before May, my wake-up time was around 7 AM. I managed to pull it 30 minutes earlier. I want to pull it to 6 AM, but not sure when to do it. I will wing it as it requires sleeping a little early as well. Time will tell.
That is pretty much it for this month’s health update. See you next month, and always hit me up on Twitter if you have any questions or comments!