Back in the saddle?

I hear ya! Good job on getting out and running. I was feeling sluggish today to. I opted for the bike instead using the Bryce Canyon 1/2 marathon tomorrow as an excuse. My advice for the blister is to pop it with a needle then put neosporin on it and a bandaid. As for the heat just keep telling yourself its only a couple more months. LOL Have a great weekend.

LOWS IN THE 80s!!! Yuck! It makes me realize I like my cold winter runs more than I would like your hot summer runs! Good luck!

Some thoughts on your training. Mile repeats or shorter intervals are counter productive. At this point, the more miles you run, the better. When you do short intervals you end up running fewer total miles in the same amount of time, and the fatigue also takes away from your ability to run more miles productively.

One 3 mile tempo run a week to monitor your fitness is a good idea. Make sure it is always the same tempo run - do it on the same day, same course, use the same split markers, same time of day, same level of fatigue coming into the run.

Eat healthy, but do not put too much weight on your weight measurements. Your weight will fluctuate overtime for a number of reasons, and will eventually stabilize around 125 after a year or two of ideal training and recovery regimen, but do not force it there. Let it get there naturally, and do not worry if it stuck at 140-145 for a while. You seem to know whether you are eating right regardless of what your weight happens to be, so eat right, and the weight will take care of itself.

Sasha,

Does Shauna's "stabilization" weight of 125 take her height into account? If so, to where do you believe the weight of a 5'10" woman who has ran an average of 10 - 12 miles 6 days a week for several years and has eaten well 80% of the time should stabilize?

Thanks for the training input, Sasha. I also forgot to thank you for your input on my VO2 max data a couple of weeks ago. So, thanks for that too! I'm looking forward to my times dropping after the heat goes away (and the fitness goes up).

Stacey, FYI, I am 5'8".

Weighing myself every day will keep me accountable. I have never weighed 125, but that would be great! I have a lot of muscle, so I weigh more than I look, but that doesn't really matter as far as running goes. I feel like I am on a roll right now, and I need to adopt my current regimen as a lifestyle, as opposed to just training for the next race.

Stacey - I did have some earlier weight data for Shauna, as well as an idea of how she trains and eats, so the 125 guess was somewhat educated. But I could be wrong - it could stabilize at a different number, and if it does when you are doing your best, then let it so be.

As much as the world is obsessed with weight today, in truth weight is more of a variable of curiosity when it comes to evaluating your health. There is no such thing as ideal weight for everybody even if you adjust for the height. To make things more interesting, it is possible for the same individual at different times to be at two different extremes of health scale while weighing exactly the same. A physical fitness test tells you much more about your health than your weight. Therefore I try to encourage people to focus on their fitness rather than their weight.

Monitoring your weight is a lot fun though. I weight myself a couple of times a day because I like numbers.

Having said that, Stacey, your weight should probably be anywhere between what it is now and 5-10 lb less depending on a number of factors. Mainly how bad is the 20% when you do not eat healthy, and how well your body can deal with that 20% slip-up. A lot of times you pay for unhealthy eating in injuries, slower recoveries, or reduced cardiovascular performance rather than weight.

The only way to find out your ideal weight is to start eating healthy 100% of the time, and continue to train. What it stabilizes at in a year or two will be the ideal weight.

Thanks for the responses, Shauna and Sasha. I agree with what both of you wrote and appreciate your insights.