I Take That Back

Some years ago, Tiger Woods made a difficult decision. He was top of his game, but very erratic. He decided to ratchet back his success, but train up to be more consistently effective at what he was doing. This stung in the short term. He slipped from top place to somewhere obscure for two years. And then? He came back and kicked butt for several years. (Let’s not talk about Singh).

I’m not Tiger Woods, but after printing out my running training schedule for getting up to a 50K, and after talking a lot about it with Kat, I’m going to put off my first ultra until summer or fall.

In my case, I believe that dropping 30 or more pounds will be more beneficial to my overall running career. Last year, I trained and ran several races, but I stayed the exact same weight all year. Training involves proper nutrition, and you must consume a lot more calories for endurance racing, so it goes counter to creating a decent calorie deficit.

I jumped on the scale this morning, and if things stay the same, I’m on track for at least two more pounds gone this week. I’ve had positive motion two out of the last three weeks, and am trending generally towards sustainable weight loss.

According to the government, I should lose 50 pounds not 30. I’m aiming to get down to 210 and see how things work there. The government wants me to be 190. I can easily see where 30 pounds will come from. I think 50 might be a stretch, but who knows? If I do drop 50, I’ll have lost an even 100 since August ‘03. There’s something attractive to that number, but I’m not certain it’s realistic. We’ll see. I never knew I could drop 57 pounds and be in the low 230s, either.

Losing the weight would give me a better body for running. It would also be much easier to propel less weight off the ground for things like climbing, which seems like a challenge I’m interested in for 2005 or 2006. Though there are obvious aesthetic benefits, I believe the reasoning for my decision is based on athletic purposes.

So, no 50K in April. There’s still Pisgah in September, which is a mountain race. There are plenty other ultras in the area. I’m okay on that front.

Finally, I learned something about myself. I think part of why I like training for ultras is that there’s a snob boost to my ego. Man, just when I think I have that kind of stuff in check. Apparently, I much prefer telling people I’m training for an ultra instead of saying, “I’m just trying to knock this leftover fat off my gut.” Thankfully, I’m married to a wife who checks such behavior. She’s great at popping my “bad” ego boosts and then she’s very supportive and uplifting on the stuff that does matter.

Isn’t it neat to learn about yourself?

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