I got the results of my GXT (treadmill exercise test) and annual fitness assessment today! As Lisa Simpson says, “Grade me! Look at me! Evaluate and rank me!”
Since last year’s test, my VO2 max has improved from 35 to 38 ml/kg/min. That moves me from “good” to “excellent,” or 60th percentile to 80th percentile for females my age! I’ve also decreased my resting heart rate by 6 BPM and blood pressure by 8 points each in systolic and diastolic (which important; I’ve been flirting with hypertension for a few years.)
I have only lost 5 pounds since last year. (Er, or rather, gained five pounds and lost ten . . .) However, my body fat percentage has dropped from 43% to 32%. According to this measure, I’ve lost 20 pounds of fat, and gained 15 pounds of muscle. This was measured by the skin fold test, which I realize is of limited accuracy, but still! And ya can’t argue with this: I’ve lost 4 inches off my waist and 6 inches off my hips.
I still have a ways to go on weight loss, but lemme tell ya, I’m stoked about these figures. I mean, I know I’ve lost weight. I know that I can now run 3 miles, whereas I could barely run three minutes a year ago, which tells me that must have added muscle and improved my cardiovascular health. But it’s a whole different thing actually seeing the numbers! Woo hoo!
And they made me “Member of the Month” at the gym!
I don’t know anything about the numbers, though, so you’ll have to get a doper with more understanding of those sorts of things to properly appreciate your accomplishments in a quantitative sense.
Those are some serious stats, gains and losses. The good news is that further changes will actually come easier and faster because you are a) motivated by the improvements and visible results, and, b) fitness is now a lifestyle not a punishment. There will be plateaus and they can be frustrating (I’ve been frustrated by them on more than one occasion) but persevere and push through. You know you can and it’s all worth it.
Thanks for the encouragement! I’m plateauing right now in weightloss, not because of obscure metabolic reasons, but because I’ve been overindulging just a bit . . . But I’m keeping up my spirits. I keep reminding myself that I’m plateauing at my all-time lowest adult weight. WOW! Not to mention that I feel awesome. I’ve always hated the slogan “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels,” but I think I’d agree that nothing tastes as good as feeling fit feels. I wouldn’t trade the way I feel now for all the hot fudge sundaes in the world.
So, how wrong would it be to go to the grocery store and load 20 pounds of lard and 15 pounds of lean steak into my shopping card and just stare at them for a while?
What’s a motto?.. Nothin’… What’s a-moto with you?!
Hell, you can have steak! Make it a lean cut and skip the lard. Add a giant salad with fresh veggies and fat free dressing. Or just take the lard and apply it directly to your hips 'cuz you know that’s were it’s going anyway.
My weight at the time of my last fitness eval was 192. My all time high, a couple years ago, was around 207.
As of this morning, 180.
Around 45 minutes. My average pace is around 14:30 min/mile. This is a little misleading because it includes a 10 minute cool-down walk. Still nothing to brag about, yet, but I’m working on improving my pace. Here’s my workout schedule for the week:
Saturday: Run 3 miles on the road. After warming up, I keep my HR around 80% of max. Sunday: Rest. Monday: 35-minute interval workout on the treadmill, including 5 min warmup and 5 min cool-down. All intervals are at a challenging pace, 11:00 min/mile (5.4 mph) or above, with some short intervals at 6.8-7.0 mph, with 1:30 recovery at 4.3 mph. Tuesday: 3 mile run. Wednesday: Yoga. Ommm. Thursday: 35-minute interval workout. Friday: 35 minute run on the treadmill, attempting to maintain my goal pace, 11:00 min/mile, but recovering at a slow jog for 2 min when my heart rate gets to high.
My trainer is also going to help me incorporate some resistance training in there somewhere. That’s not going to be easy with my schedule this semester. unfortunately.
When giving a pace, you should separate this from that time. I’m not going to second guess your trainer, but let me say this (since you are trying to be a better runner):
You probably want to keep this day as a long run, meaning, run for time, don’t worry about pace, just run – almost painfully slow. Try 60 minutes, increase the time out at your leisure (not more than 10 mins at any given time), repeat the same increase for the week (week 2), decrease by half the increase for the third week, week four starts by adding time to the new time established in week 3.
Rest is good.
Do you wear a HR monitor? Since I’ve been wearing one, I feel like my workouts are more efficient. That is, for intervals, I start timing my rest when my HR has dropped to a certain percentage.
Also, I am unclear of your interval routine. Do you have two types of intervals (long and short)? I believe intervals should all be of the same length (Fartlek type running), rather than sporadic lengths and speeds. Actually, if one is available, I really prefer track work outs. 200’s to be precise. Run 200 at faster than goal pace (or, 10k pace, if you don’t have one, find a running calculator on the web), jog recovery the second 200, start with four (increase one weekly, or until your confident you can run them strong), try to get to 12. 12 = better than avg, in my book; 16 = really good; 20 = great, 24+ = elite; 30+ = olympic/masters champion If you can do 8 fairly easy, your 10k time is not fast enough. I can do about 14 before I feel like I’m going to vomit all over the track. Don’t look at your HR, it will only scare you. If you don’t have a track, run for time on the treadmill, at least 1 min (you can decide how much rest you need, but keep it consistent), elevate the treadmill to .1 incline to similate real world running.
2 interval workouts in the same week? Personally, I think that’s too much. YMMV Try running hills.
This is actually quite tough, and imo, produces bad habits, or at least, boxes you in as a runner. It forces you to concentrate on your heart rather than on your time. You may not know it, but your heart may actually be stronger. Even if you took one of those tests that indicates your optimal heart rate (rather than just looking at a chart), you could’ve had a bad test day. Anyway, even without my recommendations, this is still a lot of running. You may want to rest again.
Lifting is essential. At a minimum (if I’m competing this season in a race), I try to hit all the major body parts at 2 sets of 12 reps. Remember, the more work the more rest you need.
