Food - By the numbers

Part of my HIM goal is to slim down by another 15 lbs. or so. This will actually put me below my high school weight, but will firmly place me in the normal BMI "zone" as prescribed by the CDC. For whatever that's worth. I also seem to pick up about 1-1.5 mph on my bike for each 10 lbs I loose. The same is true for running, I saw my times come down 15-30s per mile last year for each 10 pound increment. (Not sure if it's a weight thing, a training result, or a combo - but I'll take it!)

If the same rule holds true for this last 15lbs. - it will put me right on track for the speeds I'll need to achieve my 'aggressive' HIM goal time - 5h:30m. Right now I think I'm capable of a barely sub 6h time, but I'd like to do better.

I was looking through my calorie intake tonight trying to ensure that I am on track to loose "the final 15". I found a pretty good calorie calculator on the web. (well, functionally anyway. I haven't cross checked the numbers yet.) This thing claims that I'll burn on average about 3500 - 4000 calories a day based on my activity levels & planned training distances for this week.

Wow, that sounds high!?!

Weekday Analysis:
Turns out I take in about 1000 to 1250 calories during the breakfast, lunch, and pre-dinner times of a typical workday. Of course, this leaves me starving by the time I arrive home and I tend to go a little nuts at dinner time. Even at nutso I don't go over the 4000 mark. So, my plan is to up the daytime calories slightly to reduce the nutso factor at night. The target calorie mark will hang at 2500 - 3000 calories daily which should result in a reduction in tonnage by a couple pounds per week.

Weekend Analysis:
Oh Crap. Weekends. I tend to click into nutso mode on Friday night and pretty much eat all weekend. Saturday usually includes a post workout big breakfast followed by a big supper. Sunday's sometimes include brunch out at Mesa Rosa or Trudy's. Ug. Well, yummy! But, Ug. I have to get this under control.

I used the export feature from BeginnerTriathlete.com to look at my weight over the last 8 weeks. I seem to be in a rut where I loose 2-3 lbs during the week, then gain it back over the weekend and turn around and loose it again over the week. Getting weekends under control is the key to making my goal. I'm going to try to chart my food intake in my log over the next 3 weeks to see if it will keep me honest and on track.

Looking ahead:
In March, Phase III of the training plan kicks in. Mileage, mileage, mileage. I tried to use the trusty calculator to forecast a little. Turns out that the projected weight loss and increase in mileage seem to offset a little and the needed calories remains almost unchanged?!?

I'm not sure what that means. Looks like I'll have to check in every couple of weeks to get a good idea of where my intake should be.

There you have it. I've managed to take all the fun out of food and eating for the next 12 - 20 weeks in one post. Go me!