Long Term Goals

So Sunday, I had finished my last 5k101 podcast run while in Lake Oswego, and then after a wonderful dinner, in honor of my brother's and aunt's birthdays, I went back to Corvallis. Monday, I wanted to do a 2 mile run, nothing special, but something to keep me active, since I knew I wouldn't be up to a long run. I started, and quickly realized that I was not going to do so well that day; I decided to quicken my pace and just go for 1 mile instead. I made it 2/3 of a mile and gave up. Was just too tired and couldn't manage anything else. Well, shucks. I made sure to do very little on Tuesday, in order to rest as much as possible. Wednesday rolls along, and I decide to go for my longest run yet, 3.5 miles, without walking (none of my runs from now on will involve walking, unless I can't manage to keep up my pace on a run, or if I'm purposefully doing intervals for more anaerobic training).

Three and a half miles, just keep a steady pace, and it shouldn't be a problem. First mile, perfect. Pretty decent pace. 1.5 miles in, starting to feel it, but still doing well. I noticed my pace slowed down a lot after my first mile, a little slower than I had hoped. And then I'm just a minute or two away from 2 miles, and I realize all my energy and strength has been depleted. So I finish up 2 miles, and walk the rest of the way home, saddened by the fact that I failed pretty badly at my attempt of 3.5 miles. Oh well. Friday then!

I wasn't planning on anything today (Thursday), but Nick asked me if I wanted to go to Dixon tonight. We weren't sure if we really wanted to go, but with my lazy Tuesday, I didn't really want to have another lazy day this week. So we ended up going. I spent 30 minutes on a bike, doing an "aerobic" workout as they call it (pre-set workout). But it was basically like doing hills. Was pretty good, although I wouldn't be surprised if my legs are too tired for a 3.5 mile attempt tomorrow... But who knows. I'll just have to try my best. We then took a bit of a break, in hopes to get a basketball and a basketball hoop, but we finally resorted to ping pong until something opened up. Then shot a few hoops, and we called it an evening. Minus the biking, was pretty relaxed. I weighed myself at 212, but I don't know how accurate it is, considering I've eaten today, it was at night, with clothes on, and after my workout. So we'll just have to wait until Sunday (busy Saturday, so will do my weigh in on Sunday morning instead) and see where I am. I think if I do a long run tomorrow, workout Saturday evening, and control what I eat pretty well, I could end up at 210 by Sunday, which would make 200 possible in ~4 weeks.

Whew, I expected to talk about my week much quicker than that. Nonetheless, my long term goals. So these last few months, I've been only focusing on losing weight. And the best way to do that is by minimal muscle gain, and lots of fat loss, since muscle weighs more than fat. But I want muscle. So ultimately, I want to weigh as low as my body can handle (basically a plateau), while still building up muscle. Now, most would think just do a combination of weight lifting, as well as cardio, and you'll achieve your goal. But the problem is that when you're gaining weight back with weight training, you don't see as much weight loss, which can be discouraging (even if your body is doing terrific), and it's hard to judge just how much muscle you're gaining, besides by doing regular body composition tests. So I want to focus solely on fat/weight loss first. This way, I can regularly keep track of my weight and see how well I am progressing, but also, if I have the motivation, and the momentum of losing so much weight, why not keep it up? If I were to start throwing in weight training, it'd deter me a bit, since I wouldn't lose as much, as fast as I am now. So I'm figuring that once I hit a comfortable point in my weight, I'll start transitioning over to weight training. Maybe gradually work into it by doing something like, 25% weight training, 75% cardio, then work to 50-50, then eventually up to 75% weight training, 25% cardio. Something like that.

However, that's not all the details. I've decided I'm first going to continue to run and workout, and eat healthy, until I plateau. And when I say that, I mean that I hit a point where just losing 1 pound is difficult. Where using my current plan, that losing weight seems nearly impossible. But once I hit this point (I'm guessing it'll be around the beginning of next school year, in the fall, but who knows), I will then increase my efforts in order to lose another 5-10 pounds (depending on where I plateau). This means I'd have to really pay attention to how much I eat, and be very strict, as well as doing a lot more cardio than I usually do, in order to burn more calories. I don't know any exact numbers, since it completely depends on when and where I plateau, but after I've lost just a bit more weight (and this could take months and months to do, who knows, just for 5-10 pounds), I then turn my attention to weight training. My goal will then to basically gain back the weight that I had just lost, but with muscle. I'll have to still be on a strict diet during the first little while, so that my weight gain is primarily through muscle, and not through fat gain. But I figure this way, I'll be at a point where my body is a comfortable weight, but with a low body fat percentage, plus I'll have the motivation to keep losing weight until I plateau, and then I can take my time to build up the muscle that I want.

So that's the basic idea behind my long term goals. If I were to give a hopefuly timeline, I'd say that I'm hoping that by the end of next school year, so about 12-13 months from now, I'll be at that point. But you never know, these are just estimates. And I could always change my thinking behind all of this. At least, these are my preliminary thoughts on how I'll accomplish my long term goals. Until Sunday, stay fancy. Then after Sunday, I don't care how fancy you stay.