Friday weigh-in & marathon training update

Still steadily dropping some weight; down to 163, total of 12 lbs since April.  Additional long (45 minutes) walks with Daisy seem to be doing the trick.  The idea with the walking - at a pace of about 15 minutes per mile - is to increase fat loss without putting too much stress on the leg muscles, bones & joints.  Of course I could also increase my weekly running mileage but the risk of injury goes up exponentially, and intensive aerobic exercise like running tends to burn a lower percentage of fat. Running consumes a much higher overall number of calories per time unit, than walking.  So ergo, if you run for 30 minutes versus 30 minutes of walking, running is by far the most effective weight loss tool.  Up to the point where injuries start being a factor.

Have now completed 6 weeks of the Hal Higdon Intermediate II training program.  So far so good. Long runs still very slow but there's only so much you can do under these extreme temperatures. I try to keep my heart rate under 140bpm on the regular training runs, and close to 150 or so on the Saturday pace runs.  Completed last Saturday's 7-mile pace run at the planned 8:35 pace overall, even though the last couple of miles or so were considerably slower. Struggled mightily with an 8 mile mid-week run on Wednesday morning; seemed to run out of gas after 6 miles. Pretty dreadful.
 
Coming up?  An 8 mile pace run this Saturday and then a 16 miler on Sunday. At least on Sunday I will be with some other Strider running buddies!