How to get lighter leaner and FASTER!

Did you ever notice the many different shapes and sizes of men and women who are runners? Ever seen a FAT marathon runner? HECK yeah, I have! What gives? Ever see marathon runners who look frail like they are dropping skin, fat and bones with every mile they run? It's amazing how many different body shapes there are amongst runners. Something I wasn't used to seeing, since I was in the bodybuilding world for so long. To me, Runners, bodybuilders, triathletes, etc where are suppossed to look lean, ripped, fit and have low body fat. Not the case with runners, that's for sure! If we are talking WORLD CLASS runners, that's a different story! Look at Paula Radcliff- 5' 8" tall and super lean! Her bodyfat is super low.

Knowing your bodyfat is a great predictor of your running performance, did you know that? The leaner you are, the faster you can run at lactic acid threshold intensity. All top level runners are lean and the best of the best runners have the leanest legs.

There are two categories of body fat. Storage fat and essential fat. Essential fat is stored in bone marrow, the vital organs and the muscles and tissues of the central nervous system. This fat is for insulation, protection and energy for those organs and tissues. The reason we call it "ESSENTIAL" is because SOME fat in these organs and tissues are required for general health.

 

When we talk about storage fat, this is fat in the adipose tissue, mostly in the belly on men and in the hips and glutes on women, underneath the skin on both women and men.This is a long term energy storage. Eat more calories then you burn off and guess what happens.......you store it in your bellies, abs or glutes! This type of fat is not ESSENTIAL for health functions and if you have too much, well then you are at risk for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and well, you know the rest.


Running is a great way to ignite and burn that "STORAGE" of body fat!

Being TOO lean has its risks as well as carrying too much body fat. If you don't have enough energy in your diet to maintain your body's essential fat, you will begin to breakdown, and you will suffer poor health consequences, like low energy, poor recery and even muscle loss. It is very common especially among femal women to result in an easting disorder. It happens in men, as I recently just watch a show on this, but more common with women.

So, if you want to learn your body fat in order to become a more effiicient runner, there are body fat scles available on line like AMAZON, department stores like Target and Kohl's and sporting goods stores like Sports Athority. They cost anywhere between $80-$800, and are all pretty easy to use.

I just purchased the TANITA IRONMAN SCALE From AMAZON-

I am siked to get it! My reson for getting this scale is simple. I am training myself to become a faster more elite runner. I want to contine to run for many years to come and I want  to KNOW that I am doing everything I can in order to achieve this goal. I want to sign up for more races and see where this passion can take me.

This scale will measure:

Weight, body fat recall, body water and muscle mass recall

I know at times I feel as much as I watch my diet and as much as I train and run, I feel I should be leaner. Most runners will agree they have felt this way at times, right runners???

Well what I am learning is that you can't focus on becomming a fatser runner while trying to lose body fat at the same time. I have to focus on one goal at a time. For example, right now I am in trainnig for a half marathon in April, so I have to focus more on OPTIMAL nutrition to gain speed  while running.

Here are some tricks:

By now you all know that running is a sure fire way to shrink your bodies and lose body fat. Running MORE is one of the most effective ways to perfornm better. You must be careful of overtraining and getting injured...I AM YOUR ROLE MODEL! I had about 2 injuries within 6 months! GRRR. 

Simply add short-term increases in your volume so you're not pressuring your body of too much in so little time. AN example from my training: I currently run 28 miles per week. I will carefully add 5 miles each week over two weeks so it's not overdone and I don't piss off my legs! :O)  Guess what! I also end up burning an extra 400- 800 calories each week! YES!

I learned the hard way to listen to my body and give it respect and rest when it calls for it. Respect and REST are two very important  words to remember as a runner. The third one is PATIENCE!!! AHHHH!

High Intensity intervals are fun, fat burners and awesome for fitness building, plus they are NOT BORING! Try in icorporate 2 HIGH INTENSITY runs and 2 Tempo runs and 1 long easy run, with two days of completely from running!

One thing that has led me this far with my running passion is CONSISTENCY! I am consistent with my running schedule unless I have an injury and I am also consistent with my diet ALL YEAR LONG! Some runners pack pn some pounds during the winter, I DO NOT. My weight stays between 111lbs and 115lbs all year long. It fluctuates because I'm a woman and with that comes....well, ya know! :O) If your are not running outside, run inside, cross train, weight train, keep your body moving!

Stay tuned for my next blog on Caloric Intake, protein and nutrient timing....