Ralph's Health

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/articles/running/a-runner's-guide-to-fabulous-abs.aspx There is an interesting section in here on body fat percentages and how the Americans have defined it. According to this, for men to be in the Fitness Range the target is 14-17% body fat. I need to investigate further... Ok... so the first thing I noticed was that it was not age dependant. I'm going to stick with the mibody readings at the moment: I'm currently sitting at 19% so this suggests I can lose a bit more.

I have started to make some progress on this now. This morning I did a combined exhastion test and my reps. I did not achieve 45 consecutive pressups as per my target, but got to 40 before I had to stop. In total during November I did 718 pressups.

I'm relly cross that my scales have lost a chunk of data for November. Some observations: My weight is now stabilising at around 81 to 82kg. This means I've consistently been at or below my target BMI of 23.5 since mid November. There was a blib this weekend just gone. I had too much beer on Friday, then on Saturday I ate at least 3200 calories. Lunch at Pizza express followed by tea at M&D. I did a very slow run that day too. So on Sunday my weight moved from the months low on Saturday of 80.7 to 82.4kg! This shows that alcohol has the effect of making it look like your weight has dropped, only to surprise you the next day, especially if you then consume too many calories. There is more slow but steady progress on body fat reading and muscle mass. Today happens to be my lowest reading for body fat at 18.9%. Here is the data: Here is the data plotted onto the historical chart. I've not yet reached the lowest weight I reached in 2009 and 2010.

I have found that the challenges I've been setting myself have been, in some cases, good motivators. I worry that I'm only motivated to do those things I'd have done anyway, but at least it gives me a focus for my activities. I've been thinking what I could do in December, and given that my 5000m ascent was tough it will not be vertical ascent based this time. Some ideas for running: To increase my average mph whilst maintaining the level of hill running More speed runs, or a focus on Fartlek type running, but while on the hills Run 20 miles on the flat Other ideas: 1000 pressups in December Food and drink: Still struggling to make good progress with this. My food and drink is slipping so maybe need a more focused approach as things are not working out well in this regard. I also need to take into account that it is December, traditionally time for getting ill, eating and drinking lots. I'm away in Gran Canaria too so need to plan this in. ...

I ran the Middlewood way 4.2 mile run last night in 32 mins dead. My average speed was 7.6 mph. 2 mins 47 seconds faster than previous best. Here is the data for the run:

Last night I achieved my November goal of running 5000m of ascent in the month. It was really hard work, and I'm not going to set that as a challenge again for a while. Here is the data for my running for the last three months: This shows that I'm running further and harder yet my heart rate has gone down. Unfortunately my average speed has gone from 6.5 to 5.5 mph since I really started to pound up the hills. I think it is time to see how my performance compares to the last time I 'raced' my 4 mile route.