Weight: 217.4 (-13.8)
Fat: 31.5% (-7.8%)
Meals: 2292 kcal
Exercise: Cardio (Treadmill 30:00 WL5 - 388 calories, 2.20 miles)
Pictures: Front/Side/Back/Flex
Today is my first day running 30 minutes at my latest speed. Starting at level 2 of the weight loss program on my treadmill, I walked for 1.52 miles and burned 218 calories in the process. Now at level 5, I ran 2.20 miles, burning 388 calories in the process. I'm also a full ten pounds lighter than the last day I spent at level 2, which does make a difference in the number of calories burned.
The difference isn't very big, but it does exist. To give you an example, I ran 29 minutes yesterday which my treadmill calculated at 372 calories for my 217 pound weight (216.6 rounded up). The day before I ran the same time and distance, but recorded a 372 calorie burn after reporting my weight at 219 (rounded down from 219.2). So even though the workout remained the same, the 2 pound difference resulted in 4 less calories being burned. Again, that's roughly the energy equivalent that eating an M&M would give me, so it's not major. But you can imagine that a longer or more intense workout, with a much bigger change in weight will start to show a big difference.
Incline is automatically changed by the weight loss program. I'm not sure exactly what the starting inclines were, as I suspect they've increased from when I first started. Currently though, when running under 5.0 mph the incline is at 2.5%, at 5.0 mph it's at 2.0% and above 5.0 the incline drops to 1.5%. I don't remember the incline going that high previously, so I might have to experiment to see.
My top speed originally was 4.5 mph, now up to 6.0 mph, whereas my low speed (excluding warmup/cooldown) has increased from 2.5 mph to 4.0 mph. That means when I increase to the next level, my lowest speed will be the same as my highest speed was originally, which I think is kind of cool. My average speed should be 3.5 and 5.0 respectively, but the warmup/cooldown throw that average speed off. Accounting for those, my original speed was 3.04 mph and my most recent is 4.40 mph, a substantial increase. For comparison, when I first started level 5, I only ran 1.63 miles in 23 minutes (I ran more in 23 minutes than I did 30 minutes of level 2!) which gave me an average speed of 4.25 mph.
Since I'm still able to walk-run at 4.0 mph, depending on how hard I pump my arms, next week's increase to level 6 will mean that the only time I walk is during the warmup/cooldown phase. When I first started, the only time I got to run (or really just jog) was the 30 seconds at 4.5 mph.
Ultimately I'd like to be able to meet two rather ambitious goals: to be able to run a 6 minute mile, and to run 3 miles in 21 minutes. The first goal will mean running 10 mph (the top speed of my treadmill incidentally) for a full 6 minutes. The second goal requires running at 8.6 mph for a full 21 minutes. Interestingly, the second goal is much longer than I've run so far (today was my furthest at 2.20), but in less time than I've run so far (my shortest run so far is 23 minutes). Both of these feats are faster than I ran in high school, I think. If not, they're darn close.
Of course, back when I ran track and cross country in high school, I was about 100 pounds lighter than I am right now. Yes, right now, not when I started my weight loss program. I don't plan on dropping down to that weight ever again, but dropping 40-50 more pounds will really help me achieve this goal, and I don't expect to meet it any time soon. Probably after I hit my goal weight I'll put muscle building, strength training, and long distance running goals into action.
Tomorrow I might spend a little fun time making some graphs to explain the weight loss program on the treadmill, and maybe some comparisons of my runs so far.
