Rather than running, I was strategically poised on the curb at the end of the Queensboro Bridge as the runners came down and around the sharpest curve in the race and into Manhattan after passing through Brooklyn and Queens. Here is the eventual winner, Lel from Kenya, taking the turn with the other men's leaders.
It's Marathon Weekend in New York, with the Men's Olympic Trials yesterday and the ING New York Marathon today. The city has been filled with foreign runners, easily identifiable by that gaunt <15% body-fat look and matching tracksuits, clogging up the sidewalks as they gawk at the tall buildings and figure out ways to spend overvalued Euros and Pounds. Frankly, half of them, particularly those who don't stand a chance of finishing in under four hours, should stay home and the New York Road Runner's club (NYRR) should open up an extra 10,000 lottery slots for those of us who live in New York City.
This is the third year in a row and the sixth time in the last seven years that I have not gotten into my hometown marathon, run by my local running club. Granted, this year with my knee problem, I would have taken a deferment, but still there is something screwy and totally commercial about the way the NYRR allocates too few slots in the lottery to US runners, and in particular the limited number of entries for both NYRR club members and NY city residents. Of course, any foreigner can run in New York if they book through an Official International Travel Partner, since they come here and spend thousands of dollars at restaurants, and hotels, pumping up the local economy. However, if I spend pay taxes in this city and dues to the NYRR, I want a better chance to run in the marathon that passes three blocks from our apartment, without having to run in nine club races a year or raise thousands of dollars for charity. It's a racket!
However, for the 2008 New York Marathon, I'm guaranteed an entry because I have applied for three years in a row and been rejected. So, barring injury, in 363 days from now I'll be running again through the five boroughs.
Next year, it will be 30 years since my first marathon in San Francisco in 1978. Although I'm not likely to beat my time that year (3:14) or best my fastest marathon (2:48), it would be great to run under 3:30 so that I automatically qualify in my age group for NY next year, and certainly good to do at least a 3:45 so that I can get into Boston in 2009. Turning 55 next year, means that I'm in a new age category!
This renewed interest in the marathon is due, in large part, to the very positive results of my knee arthrosopy last week. The stitches come out tomorrow, but I can already tell from going up and down stairs that the surgery was a success. Each day I've been increasing the resistance on my favorite two low-impact machines, the elliptical trainer and stationary bike. If my orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Silver, gives me the OK, I should be back on my bike this week and maybe even running on the treadmill. I'm also feeling trim enough to run again, after dropping from 190 to 176 pounds over the last six weeks.
The two secrets to off-season weight loss are to: a) approach eating like you do training, with a strict externally measured and proscribed regimen; b) ensure that the reduced calories meet all your nutritional needs by tracking food and combining it with moderate exercise. I use a system that I call "1000 + exercise" to lose weight. Using the DietPower software, which tracks weight, metabolism, exercise and the nutritional components of thousands of foods, I log everything that I eat, consuming just 1000 calories per day plus an allowance for the number of calories that I burn in exercise. If I spend, as I did today, 60 minutes on the stationary bike, cranked up so that my heart rate is between 125-135 bpm, I can take a 589 calorie bonus. This, combined with the bonus of weightlifting another 20 minutes, gives me a total calorie allowance of 1746. However, the most important thing is to make sure that those 1600-1800 calories per day have all the essential vitamins, minerals and combination of protein, fat and carbohydrates. This is one thing that DietPower does, giving you a grade each day for your Nutrition Quotient, measuring the contributions of everything you eat toward your recommended daily allowances. It will even give you suggestions for food that you can eat or things you can do, like get more protein or more Vitamin C, to stay balanced.
Taking food consumption out of the amygdala (the emotional impulsive part of the brain) and placing it under the responsibility of the cerebral cortex (the rational, planned and decisive area), removes the emotional, improvisational part of food selection, reducing the power of our deceptive cravings. Those three cravings that got our ancestors through the Pleistocene Period, cravings for salt, sugar and fat, simply don't do us any good in an environment filled full of all three. Advertisers and food companies figured out a long time ago that they can sell anything by making it salty, greasy and sweet, since we have taste receptors that are stimulated by these. These cravings may have kept our predecessors alive, when we needed salt, fat and sweet to survive, but they are killing us today. So, making food choices each day based on good dietary principles and having to account, by entering it into the program, is a very effective way to lose weight. I also don't lose muscle mass, which is often consumed by the body on an unbalanced diet, since I'm not lacking for the minimum protein or vitamins/minerals needed to survive. Obsessive, yes, but terribly successful. If I have a metabolism that burns 2600 calories a day, on average without exercise, and I only eat 1000 calories per day plus what I exercise (600-800 calories), I can get the required vitamins and minerals, plus fats, protein and carbs from the 1600-1800 calories and still run a deficit of 1600 calories a day, or about two and a half to three pounds of fat loss per week.
So, hopefully this time next year, I'll be walking home from Tavern on the Green after the 2008 NY Marathon. With a newly refurbished knee and lighter by twenty or thirty pounds by the end of the offseason, it should be a great year next year for training and competition.
