Sunday morning I got up early. I was looking forward to an easy 6 mile long run. I ate a little something, got dressed and headed out. I did my warm up walk and then hit the ground running. Slowly. Very slowly. My legs had never felt this heave before. I was on pace for a 14:30 miles. My legs just kept getting heavier and heavier.
It was hot. It was humid. Why was it so hot and humid so early? And then it happened. I stopped. I started crying. I could not run any further. I checked my runkeeper. One mile. I went one mile. One mile of six. I could not run any further. Ii walked home, trying to hold in the tears. I took off all my gear. I went to bed. I was still in my running clothes and shoes and I cried myself to sleep.
I woke up about ab hour and a half later and realized this should not happen. Something was wrong. I felt tired, run down and always hungry. I need more calories. I need to eat more. But how much more? I don’t want to gain. I’d actually like to lose more, maybe 10-15 pounds.
I gave myself permission to eat for the last 3-4 days. And eat I did. Now I need to eat to survive and conquer my half marathon and the training that goes with it.
I am currently set to maintenance for moderately active (3-5 days/hours per week) but my miles are starting to rack up and I still want to do some strength training. Do I then use very active (6-7 days/hours per week)?
Here is what I am currently doing:
Tues/Thurs/Sat: 4-5 miles 45-60 minutes (not including warm up, cool down and stretching)
Sunday: 10+ miles (starting this week) 90-120+ minutes (again not including warm up, cool down and stretching)
You Are Your Own Gym: 4 days a week but thinking of cutting it to two days a week. I would do this Tues/Thurs/maybe Sat after my run. Then Mon and Wed would be complete rest days. Each YAYOG workout is about 40 minutes (including rest breaks).
Should I be moderate or very active? Or somewhere in between? Do I cut 10% to keep trying to lose weight? I don’t know why but my brain is just swimming with all these numbers. I am feeling completely lost.