Do not run to lose weight. Lose weight to run.

Or, my almost thirteen miles in a ten pound fat suit.

I was overdue for a humbling run.  They happen every so often.  The worst one was last year around Alviso loop.  It was supposed to be an easy nine miles -- easy because I think I was already in marathon shape at the time.  Yeah, because I had done track the night before and Wednesday morning yoga.  So that was relatively recently.  I exploded and ended up having to walk part of it.  Still not sure what the heck happened, but it was a total bonk on a super short run.  Today was nowhere near that bad, but certainly humbling.

Remember that post about being able to justify eating more and skipping workouts during the peaks of racing season and how to manage the extra net calories?  If not, you will not have to go back far to look for it.  This week has been good for that balance.  With two off weekends between RA and Quicksilver, I have had fewer excuses to train less and eat more, and my habits have been better.  But it has not kicked in yet, and I am carrying about an extra ten pounds.  Jeez.  I felt all of them.  In addition to feeling fat and slow, my joints really seemed to feel the extra hammering of the extra weight.  I know this is just a phase, and that if I am patient and consistent with my good choices it will be a short phase.  Nonetheless, this run was much harder (and less pleasant) than it should have been.  I am taking two lessons from that, and hope any of you hoping to run and lose weight pay extra attention to the second one.

The first one is easy.  If I eat more and workout less, I will gain weight.  I need to manage calories better during racing season.  I should just eat like normal, perhaps only slightly less just the day or two before and after races -- but that is it, not a week!  I will probably burn fewer calories.  There is no way around that with the rest periods that I will need.  But I can work my fitness to shorten my recovery, find other ways to burn calories while resting my legs, maybe take in fewer, and overall just manage calories better.

The second lesson is that I was very lucky and hindsight-wise to have lost the weight first, instead of running to lose weight.  Running and extra pounds is a terrible combination.  Now that I run, and with the experience of today's run in a ten pound fat suit, I am highly motivated to trim extra pounds.  They friggin suck to carry around!  And the extra hammering on the body of just a few pounds is disturbing.  OK, back on my training diet.  Steady on with the cross training.  And you out there: Do not run to lose weight.  Walk or elliptical.  Then lose weight to run.