Last night's record breaker / appointment with nutritionist

In all my whining about my lunchtime binge, I forgot to mention that I jogged for 50 CONSECUTIVE minutes last night. It was pretty awesome.

I consulted with one of my PeerTrainer buddies who is a runner, and she thinks I should concentrate less on endurance and start working more on increasing my speed. She writes:

"About the running, once you have reached the point of running 30+ mins consecutively you need to add more of a challenge.
Do you currently run with any resistance? If not make sure all runs are at least 1% incline. You will work both your quads and glutes a lot more...this may be the only change you need right now but if you want to bump it up a notch add intervals a couple times/ week.
Interval workouts are shorter (30-45 mins) will improve your speed. If you look back at my workouts you'll see one from my trainer where I sprint at 6-6.5mph for 1 min and walk 1 min both w\ a 3.5% incline...this is a tough one but you get the idea. The main thing is to go all-out (what ever that is for you) for 30-60 sec's and recover for 60-120sec about 15 times or more. Shorten the recovery time and lengthen the all-out time as you get fitter. Finally, change your endurance runs to 10 & 1's, Run 10min / Brisk Walk 1min start with 5 set and add a set each week...you'll be running races in no time ;) "

I was able to build up to 50 minutes at 5 mph by using the principles of interval training, so I know it works. I just need to try a different interval now. Perhaps I'll do 6 mph for 1 minute, then walk for 2 minutes, and work my way up to running at 6 mph for 45 minutes or so.

Sounds like a plan!

In other news... did anyone catch The Biggest Loser last night? In the beginning, a couple of the contestants reveal to Jillian (one of the trainers) that they've been cutting their calories back. One girl was eating 1000 calories per day, and the other dropped all the way to 500. This is obviously too low, but it made me wonder if I'm on the right track with my nutrition.

I picked up the phone right then and called a nutritionist I saw in the newsletter of the local community center. I have an appointment on Monday, February 25th. I need to get her opinion on how much I should be consuming, and just get a general consultation. I'm looking forward to it, and I'll be sure to write about what we discuss.