Running and Still Gaining Weight?

Running is supposed to help you lose weight right? Right. But....... There's always a "but" isn't there. And this time you're trying to avoid the "big butt." I know, it's not a laughing matter. You're determined to get fit and lose weight and you're out there every day running, but each time you get on the scale you're not seeing any weight loss or even worse you may be seeing some weight gain.

Well, there's a few things that need to be discussed first. Basically, your body is like a machine and food is the source of the fuel you need for that machine to run. Your body has something called a BMR or basal metabolic rate. Your BMR is the number of calories needed for all your body systems to function when you're at rest. The number of calories beyond your BMR is determined by your activity level. So, if you're a sedentary person, you'll need very few extra calories, if you're lightly active, you'll need a little more. If you're moderately active you'll need still more, and so on and so on. Basically it's a calories in calories out type of system.

To figure out your BMR use the following formula:

Women's BMR Formula:

655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) - ( 4.7 x age in years )

Men's BMR Formula:

66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) - ( 6.8 x age in year )

Remember, once you've found your BMR, this is the number of calories you need just for your body to function at rest. To determine the additional calories you'll need based on your activity level, use the following information:

sedentary (little or no exercise) = BMR x 1.2
lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) = BMR x 1.375

moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) = BMR x 1.55
very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) = BMR x 1.725
extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) = BMR x 1.9

So for example, my BMR is 1470 calories. That's the number of calories I need just to lay in the bed. Right now, I'm in training for the Marine Corps Marathon and I'm running 4 days a week plus doing cross-training two days a week, so I'd fall into the Very Active category. My daily caloric needs while in training are 2535.75 calories (1470 x 1.725 very active level). If I have a lighter week where maybe I didn't get in the cross-training, I'd need to lower my calorie intake.

Now, I'm not a numbers person, and counting calories is not my thinking of fun, so basically I know that when I'm training, I need to eat more and when I'm not training or when I'm training less, I need to eat less.

In general , the problem is that many times we take in more calories than we burn off and so we end up with a calorie surplus. When those calories aren't used as fuel, then they end up becoming fat which is stored all over you body. So becoming more active should help take care of the problem, right? Right....in theory.

Newbies to fitness, be it running or resistance training, will see big gains in their fitness levels the first few months and they'll probably see significant weight loss too. That's because all of the sudden they've jacked up their metabolism and they're burning off more calories than normal. As long as they don't over eat during this period of new fitness, the weight loss usually happens.

The thing is that your body will eventually acclimate to the new level of fitness and even though you may be burning the same number of calories as before, you may see a stall in your weight loss or even some gain.

There can also be something else at play. Have you ever heard someone say, I run 5 miles a day, but I can't seem to lose any weight? Not only will your body acclimate, if you're doing only slow steady runs, your body will release something called cortisol. Cortisol is a nasty hormone that eats muscle mass. Muscle is what burns those calories. So, less muscle means less calorie burn. Less calorie burn means stalled weight loss or weight gain.

So, now you probably have the clinched-up perplexed look on your face. You're wondering, "Well, what in the heck can I do, if running every day causes me to release stuff that makes me gain weight?" That's a logical response. But have no fear! There actually is something you can do and it doesn't involve buying something for $19.95 from an infomercial that comes with a complete set of Ginsu knives.

So, how do you do it? It's simple. Speed work and resistance training are the two best ways to get you over that hump. Both speed work and resistance training (weight training) will up your metabolism as well as increase the release of testosterone (men) human growth hormone (women) which counteracts the effects of the cortisol.

Okay, now you're probably thinking...."Well, I don't have access to a track and I can't afford a gym membership." Well, guess what? You don't need either. Speed work can be done in the form of intervals on a track, but you can also do something called tempo runs and fartleks.

Tempo runs are when you up the pace/intensity in the middle of a run. For example in a 4-miler, you begin with a 1-mile easy warm-up, followed by 2 miles at just below your 10K race-pace, followed by a 1-mile easy cool-down. Fartleks are informal intervals thrown into a regular run. During a five-miler you may throw in 3 or 4 fast segments. These segments can be time-based or distance-based. For example, you begin a five-miler at a slow easy pace for 5 minutes, then ramp it up to a 10K pace for 5-minutes, followed by 5-minutes back at the original slow steady pace. This is repeated throughout the course of the run. The segments can be any time-frame you want or it could be based on distance such as 1-mile slow, 1-mile fast, etc.

Hill workouts are great too. Find a hill with with a 5-7% incline and run up it as fast as you can. Then jog or walk back down the hill. Then back up the hill again fast. Repeat this 3-5 times. Hill workouts create a great calorie burn as well as strengthen your hamstrings and glutes.

Resistance training is weight training, but you don't need a lot of fancy equipment or gym memberships to see great effects. Body-weight exercises or exercises using dumbbells will work fine. Don't have dumbbells? Do what famous marathon coach/trainer Hal Hidgon does—fill gallon-sized plastic detergent jugs with sand and uses those as weights.

Exercises that target the larger muscles groups such as the hamstrings, glutes, and quads will help you get the largest calorie burn. Remember that muscle is what burns the calories, so if you're working more muscle mass, you'll burn more calories. Squats and lunges are some of the best lower-body exercises that will help up your metabolism. Plyometric exercises (hopping, bounding, jumping) will also get a great calorie burn. Jumpsquats, mountain climbers, burpees, ice-skaters, and lateral hops are simple and effective plyometrics exercises that are great for upping the metabolism. (Look on the blog later this week for a video posting of these exercises.)

So, if you're running the same-ole same-ole and feel like you've stagnated, even gained some weight, give speed work and/or resistance training a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Periodization Training for Runners!

Periodization is a fancy word for training cycles. The sports world (particulary football, baseball, basketball, and soccer) has made use of periodzation training for decades. You've just heard it called pre-season, in-season, post-season, off-season.

To use even fancier words, periodiazation training is broken down in to the following cycles:

• Macrocycle—The macro cycle is "the big picture." It's the entire year of training. Or if your training for something specific such as a marathon, it could be for a specific period of time such as 4 months. If you're an Olympian, your macrocycle might be as long as 4 years!

• Mesocycle—2 or more mesocycles (depending on the needs of the athlete) make up a macrocycle. The mesocycles are the pre-, in-, post-, and 0ff-seasons. They ususally last anywhere from several weeks to several months.

• Microcycle—2 or more microcycles make up a Mesocycle. A microcycle is typically a week long, but could last up to 4 weeks. The microcycle consists of the daily workouts.

If you're running track or cross-country in high school or college a more traditional pre-, in-, post-, and off-season training approach will work fine. Traditional running periodization plans typically consist of a base-building phase, a sharpening phase, and taper phase. This works really well for a marathon when you have a 4-month training window. But if you're a year-round runner with competitions scattered throughout the year, what do you do? Even if you don't have particular races in mind, most runners want to get better, be more efficient, and improve their running techinque year-round. Lack of variety and high mileage (even if it's low-intensity) day after day tends to increase your chance of injury.

More of a Multi-Pace/Multi-Volume Periodization approach may be the answer. This approach to periodization includes high-volume/low-intensity, low-volume/mid-intensity, and low-volume/high-intensity throughout the year and doesn't break it up into distinct phases. Depending on your particular goals for the year (i.e., 5K, 10K, half-marathon, marathon, ultra) you'll incorporate more of a particular volume and/or intensity geared for that goal when you need it, but even during your "off-time" or "in-between-race-time" you'll still be incorportating a variety of workouts into your routine. Implementing a multi-pace/multi-volume approach may even drop your overall total miles logged, but remember, it's not the amount of miles you're logging that's important, it's the quality of those miles.

High-volume/low-intensity workouts consist of longer slow runs (your Saturday-morning long run at an easy pace). Low-volume/mid-intensity workouts are comprised of tempo runs where a portion of the run is run just below race-pace. Low-volume/high-intensity workouts are comprised of speed work consisitng of intervals, fartleks, or hill work. The duration of these workouts will be short, but very intense.

The goal of multi-pace/multi-volume periodization is to get your body acclamated to and maintain a certain level of endurance as well as speed throughout the year. Then when you have a particular race to train for, you're not starting from ground zero. You'll be able to fine-tune what you're already doing to meet the particular demands of your event. A specific type of training may be emphasized in each mesocycle of your race training, but you'll still be incorporating all the types of training (long runs, tempo runs, speedwork). For example if your training for a 5K, there will be more stress placed on increasing your VO2 max, speed, strength, and power. If you're triaining for a marathon, the focuse will be on endurance and race-pace running so, your long runs will be longer and your tempo runs will be longer, but you'll still have some speedwork in your plan which will help especially around mile 20 when you may need to kick it up a knotch to fight off muscle fatigue.

Multi-pace/multi-volume year-round training helps you fine-tune your training to meet your specific needs. Have a good pace, but no endurance? You can ramp up the endurance workouts in your training. Have the endurance, but you can't keep a steady pace? You can make pace the focus of your training no matter the distance. The chart below shows a sample month from a RunnerDude Multi-Pace/Multi-Volume year-round training plan.

There are some racing training plans available (such as FIRST) that make use of more of a integral approach to training which include, distance, speed, and pace workouts that dovetail nicely into a multi-pace/multi-volume year-round periodization plan. Many of my running buddies have used FIRST with awesome success.

The main thing to keep in mind, is that all runners are different and there really is no right or wrong method, but if you want something that may decrease your chance of injury as well as have more of a customizable element, you may want to consider adopting a multi-pace/multi-volume approach to training.

Two more aspects of training that should not be ignored are resistance training and plyometric training. Runners should not shy away from resistance training. If done the right way, it can greatly enhance your strength, stability, balance, and form. The focus of resistance training for runners should be on muscle endurance. This involves using lighter weights (less than 67% your 1 rep max), higher reps (12-15), and less rest (30 seconds or less) in between sets.

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Plyometrics is a fancy word for exercises designed to increase speed and power. Plyometric exercises involve jumping, leaping, or hopping movements such as jumping rope, jump squats, burpees, and bounding. Adding 30 minutes of resistance training and/or plyometrics training 1-3 times a week into your weekly routine is a great way to improve your overall strength, endurance, and speed. Plyometrics for Athletes At All Levels (Ulysses Press, 2006) is a great resource for plyometric exercises.

Caution: always warm-up before doing any resistance or plyometric workouts. Hop on the treadmill, elliptical machine, or bike for 8-10 minutes before your workout and then you'll be good to go.