Dietary Fiber

I'm not going to even begin to pretend to have the right knowledge to preach about the need for dietary fiber in your diet. I'll let this article from the Mayo clinic do that.

I have always known it was an important part of a healthy diet. I usually have a bowl of cereal for breakfast on the weekend. Since I'm dieting, I decided to peek at the labels to see what was my healthiest option. All were within spitting distance of each other in things like calories as I expected. But I settled on frosted mini-wheats because of the dietary fiber content. It was 6g per serving. The closest to it was 3g from the Special K yogurt and oatmeal cluster option.

Every little bit helps.

200 lbs

Today was an easy scheduled 4 mile run. I've also started to see some positive results from changing my diet. I'm happy to say that I broke the 200 lb mark. I weighed in at 199.6 lbs today. My "official" weigh ins are every Monday, post run. But I was thrilled to break the 200 mark anyways.

Diet Soda and Weight Gain

In my attempt to lose weight, I have decided to give up pop. I've heard more then once now people ask, "Why not just switch to diet?" My answer is usually a fuzzy, "Well I remember reading something on the ill effects of diet pop or any pop for that matter." Then a friend shared this video on facebook. It offers so much in just a few minutes of viewing.

5 Hours to 3:10

I'm in the midst of training for my 2nd marathon in 3 years. I ran a 4:46 marathon time in 2008, and I had my eyes set on breaking 4 hours last year before a knee injury derailed me 4 weeks before the race.

I found myself more motivated here in 2010 to run that sub-4 hour marathon. However, as I sat down to set my training goals for this year, I found myself asking the question, "What would it take to qualify for Boston?" I turn 31 this August. I have 4 years to run a sub 3:10 marathon before my age puts me in the 3:15 target.

Here are the goals I have set for myself:

1. Lose weight - I am still carrying extra pounds that need to come off. I figure 180 lbs is a safe target, but that's just a number. As the pounds come off, I'll reassess periodically against my running times.

2. Run that sub 4:00 marathon - I'm running the Grand Rapids Marathon on October 17th. I'm in the midst of a 18 week training program preparing me for that day right now. It is the Hal Higdon Intermediate I training program found here!

3. Increase my miles - my base for this training cycle was a 20-25 miles per week average. I will take a short rest after this fall marathon, then I fully plan on increasing the duration of my runs, adding a 5th training day, and pushing 35-40 MPW averages.

My hope is to get 6-10 weeks of increased mileage training after the marathon, and I will reassess my goals to get me to that Boston Qualifying time.

If you have read this far, you may wonder how I could even think about 3:10 if I haven't even ran better than 4:00. I realize this is not going to happen overnight. My hope is to see a steady improvement in my times of each marathon I run before I turn 35. I also have the luxury of having a convenient Spring and Fall marathon very close to where I live. I will run in Grand Rapids this fall, and if all goes well, I may push 3:50 as a goal for the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse city next May.