For those new to this blog, I and a bunch of other tweethletes embarked upon this year’s 10in10 challenge, with the outcome goal to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. This report covers progress through week 7 of 10.

How’d I do? (The Outcome Goal) The bagel week. This was a crazy week and the bottom line is that I ate too much and worked out too inconsistently. The result is that I lost another 2.75 pounds. Hunh? Proves yet again that this weight management stuff is highly irregular, the benefits are cumulative and not even close to linear. I’m down to 209.75 pounds which is really exciting but I can’t say that it’s due to a great week on my part. Only tangentially related to my weight loss objective, my athletic performance continues to climb, including having paced out a 16-miler at a 9 min/mile pace, which isn’t fast historically but it’s the fastest I’ve run distance in quite some time.

I use three levels of performance measures. Less than Expected, Met Expectations and Exceeded Expectations. My grade?

Less than Expected Overall, for week 7 of 10 I gave myself a self assessment of Less than Expected. How can I say that when I had my largest weight loss week to date? Because the focus must remain oon the process goals if I am meant to achieve the objective and then sustain it after the fact. I’m totally supportive of the motivational mantra of celebrating small victories but I can’t let the variability of the outcome goal give me a false sense of productivity. With some significant changes to my routine coming up, I really need to step it up this week.

Report Card – Week 7

February 15 – February 21:

Caloric Intake/Nutrition = Less than Expected

Portion size: Actually pretty good this week.

Eat Healthy Breakfast: I’m not sure about healthy but I ate breakfast most days.

Eat light every three hours: Think this stretched to four, five or even six on some days.

Eat fresh whole foods: Good. Salads almost every day.

Avoid junk food and sugar: Ice cream a few times this week. Just silly on my part.

Eat protein first: Sort of.

Stop eating 60 mins. before going to sleep: Crappy as all get out, eating too late almost every night.

Caloric Expenditure/Positive Stress = Less than Expected

February 15 – February 21:

Workout early: Finally got out for a 5:30am run this week, but only once. Still having trouble waking up full of energy.

Min 45 mins of Cardio: Didn’t work out from Wednesday morning until Saturday, but when I did the quality was good.

Resistance training: I know I needed to do more but got a bit ill on Thursday so I only got one day of lifting in, which I focused on my legs on Saturday and definitely am paying for it.

Recovery/Adaptation = Met Expectations

Sleep min of 7 hours per night: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Conclusion: It’s great that I dropped the 2.75 pounds but there is no rational reason for me having done so, and that can’t continue. More resistance training this week and a ruthless commitment to stay away from the sugar.  Results from all of the other great folks participating in this challenge can be found at the 10 in 10 blog. Have another great week.

For those new to this blog, I and a bunch of other tweethletes embarked upon this year’s 10in10 challenge, with the outcome goal to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks. This report covers progress through week 6 of 10.

How’d I do? (The Outcome Goal) Well last week I gave back all of my losses from the prior week and this week I recovered it back losing 1.5 pounds and dropping to 212.5. I’m starting to sense a pattern here and it’s not yoyo dieting, it’s yoyo weight loss – two steps forward and one step back. Losing the 1.5 pounds only took running over forty miles including a 20-miler on Friday and a seven-hour spin class on Saturday. Clearly cardio is not the issue, and while my diet wasn’t perfect, the one thing that was missing was resistance training. It’s pretty darn obvious, to even get close to reaching my objective this month, I need to hit the weights.

I use three levels of performance measures. Less than Expected, Met Expectations and Exceeded Expectations.

Less than Expected Overall, for week 6 of 10 I gave myself a self assessment of Less than Expected, mostly because the nutrition needed a lot of work and I did hardly any resistance training. Need to step it up this week.

Report Card – Week 6

February 08 – February 14:

Caloric Intake/Nutrition = Less than Expected

Portion size: OK except for Saturday night after the Spin-a-thon and Sunday when we went to Troy’s birthday party. Pasta and salad seem to be the Ohio staples of dietary nutrition and I needed to prepare better.

Eat Healthy Breakfast: Pretty good each day.

Eat light every three hours: OK.

Eat fresh whole foods: Salads almost every day.

Avoid junk food and sugar: Cake at Troy’s birthday party threw me off a bit.

Eat protein first: Failed miserably.

Stop eating 60 mins. before going to sleep: Ate right before going to sleep almost every night.

Caloric Expenditure/Positive Stress = Less than Expected

February 08 – February 14:

Workout early: Not even close.

Min 45 mins of Cardio: No problem with the cardio this week but it wasn’t as moderate nor consistant as I would have liked. I did get used to pounding out 10 milers on the treadmill and did a 20-miler in McDonald and a 7 hour ride at the Spin-a-thon in Y-town.

Resistance training: After a great week at Equinox, I failed miserably at lifting this week.

Recovery/Adaptation = Met Expectations

Sleep min of 7 hours per night: Sleeping has not been a problem.

Conclusion: It’s great that I dropped the 1.5 pounds but it took an irrational amount of cardio to do it, an amount that I obviously can’t continue. Need to get back to basics this week.  Results from all of the other great folks participating in this challenge can be found at the 10 in 10 blog. Have another great week.

It’s too damn hot for a penguin to be just walkin’ around here. I gotta send him back to the South Pole. – Billy Madison

Winter running is not something that should be dreaded or avoided. In fact, some of the most memorable runs you will ever have may be on a snow-covered trail, running past icy streams and snow-covered lakes. Winter running can be as serene and pure as running ever gets. But winter running can also present a host of issues for the uninformed, uninitiated or the stubborn.

On February 10, 2010, I co-hosted episode 68 of The Runner’s Round Table where we discussed Cold Weather Running, it’s opportunities, it’s risks and how runners can prepare themselves to enjoy this whitest of seasons. A number of questions were asked during the episode specifically about what to wear. I encourage you to listen to this episode either by subscribing on iTunes or listening through your computer.

Cold is both personal and subjective. While 40F may be cold for those running in Los Angeles, it’s down right balmy for those running in New England. Therefore the recommendations that follow are based on my reality.

The best thing you can do is create a gear log of your running wardrobe that documents what you wear under a variety of conditions and includes commentary about whether you were too hot, too cold, too wet or too chilled. This information will be valuable for years to come and can finally take the guess work out of running in the cold.

Below is an example of a clothing log that you can adapt for your own circumstances and preferences. Click on each of the orange hyperlinks for photos of various outfits for the described conditions and temperatures.

It’s important to remember that you don’t need to buy a ton of expensive gear to run in the cold. It’s most important to cover your head to minimize heat loss, protect your breathing areas (e.g., mouth, nose, neck), and external appendages or exposed areas that have a tendency to freeze (e.g., fingers, toes, ears, eyes). You can accomplish this with the clothes you already have. Yes it may mean that the articles won’t be feather-weight or ideal, but it shouldn’t deter you from getting out there and enjoying the roads.

Hope you’ll add your own thoughts and recommendations below in the comment area.