Sunday: 0. Day off. 84 miles in the week. All weekly goals exceeded. ----------------------------------- Monday: Workout 1. Starvation run-caveman run. I experimented today and fasted from 8pm last night to this workout at 3pm today, taking only coffee and 0 water to see what I could do with no food and water during that time. I wanted to push it to a level that simulates the last 12 miles of the marathon. 13 miles, 12 of which were a medium-easy-type progression run on the Betzwood. 1 mile cool down at the end. Mile splits as follows: 1. 6:53 2. 6:38 3. 6:33 4. 6:35 5. 6:22 6. 6:32 7. 6:29 8. 6:15 9. 5:54 10. 5:56 11. 5:50 12. 5:51 13. 8:01 Workout 2. 4 miles on the dread. 3 miles progressed from 7:00 down to 6:15 pace. Last mile 7:30s. 17 miles in doubles today -------------------------------- I'll have to say, it's been enjoyable not being the Lawnmower Man these past couple days, but I'm still going to write about the Penn Relays at some point. ----------------------- Mail call: "Gary G." posted the following comment with question on Friday. "Hi Duncan, this is my first time to your site. I must say that I am amazed at your running ability. You're awesome. I currently weigh 230 pounds and I'm 5'7. I have been running but Im really not making any progress. I have been on the Atkins diet for about 6 months. Im actually down 25 pounds. My neighbor is an avid runner(4:51 miler in college) and has been advising me. He told me a good start-up program would be to run 3 minutes as hard as I can followed by 2 minutes of jump rope (3x/week). Easy days consist of a moderate walk for 10 minutes. I also do 10 chinups and 40 situps twice a week. My goal is to get down to 190 and be able to complete a 10 mile run within the next 3 months. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated." To which I will reply: I'm no exercise physiologist; I don't have a good grasp on weight loss techniques and really don't feel comfortable trying to craft some formula for completing a 10 miler in 3 months while losing weight--all apparently starting from ground level. However, if I had to give some commentary, it would be more a list of should and shouldn't do based on your comments. Should not do: -"run 3 minutes as hard followed by 2 minutes of jump rope." Why run hard at all? If you want to lose weight and just complete a 10 miler, then forget that Rocky crap. Jumping rope on a heavy frame sounds like a recipe for a career-ending injury to me. -Atkins diet. This thing royally sucks ass. I have seen people in diners on this diet in line with plates of sausage and bacon and fried eggs. The evil apples--the natural sugar carb demons and enemies of Atkins' greasy proteins---are left off the plate for some reason. You want a diet? Read Enter the Zone. 40-30-30 ratio of carbs, protein and fat broken down into good vs bad of each. Rather simple stuff. -10 chinups. Why? Use the time spent on that to do more walking or running/jogging. Become a strongman after you lose all that weight. Good for abs..40 situps 2 x week should be 40 situps a day..abs are amazing muscles..1 day recovery is sufficient. Increase the reps. Buy a Swiss ball. Work the back to balance the opposing muscle groups out. Should do: -Walk. Walk during work. Park far away from the work door and walk. Walk to work. Walk around the halls during your coffee break;walk everywhere. Walk to the park, walk to the store, walk.....burn more calories than you consume...simple math at the end of the day. -Jog/run. Don't do any easy/hard offsets. Everything is easy pace. Your goal is to complete 10 miles so completion means just doing it. I don't know enough of your history to write some plan here, but if you are going for 10 miles..work a long run into your week and increase it 10% per week until you are around 15 miles. 3 months ain't much time if you are ground zero. Again, no hard/easy stuff. Just run. Just jog. As you keep doing this, your pace will naturally quicken. -Cross train for weight loss. Anything you think of...swim/bike/elliptical/stairmaster/hike...anything to burn calories. Hope this helps...good luck. ------------------------------------ Homework assignment for those of you that use the following equation: PR = (rigid schedule x 180 days)^pi / (width of Himalayan trail running shoe) + 1 tsp of bingoggamawhaddy Seriously, some people have written to me lately asking me why I have quoted Hudson and then made correlations to lotus flowers and Buddha. The article has influenced my running. I think he's on to something (though I disagree with him on quarters).