Steady State Aerobic

    On an interesting aside is the weight shift I experience after an arduous event. The Big One is a perfect example. I went into the race at a solid 155 pounds. Now, one would think that the next day I would weigh less, due to calorie burn and inevitable dehydration. No. I weighed an easy 160 pounds, and carried the extra weight for 4 days. I know what it is. It is a combination of increased blood volume, which occurs in endurance events, and muscle inflammation, which is also inevitable. Yesterday morning, 7 days after the race, I am down to 153 pounds. That is the calorie burn registering on the scale. I thought I would be ravenously hungry all week, but actually my appetite was fairly moderate. It helps that my heirloom tomatoes are in full production right now so I have been gorging on tomatoes with every meal at home.
    I don't want to stay at this weight. I never in my life thought I would say, "I need to put on a few pounds." Yes, I still see the bit of fat around my waist that bugs me, but I am female, and not wanting to sport ripped, six-pack abs. I have two more major events in the next few weeks: The Firefighter Stairclimb, and The Portland Marathon. I will go into each of these at whatever weight my body settles at after fully recovering from 70.3 miles.
    I do know that one of the keys to the weight loss that has occurred over this last year, from 170 down to 155, the last vestiges of being overweight, has been cycling for long periods of time at a fat burning aerobic rate. The body has to learn to burn fat. A body will burn the glycogen stores in the muscles, then feel tired. It does not want to tap into the fat stores. But it can be trained to do so with long, steady state, aerobic exercise such as cycling, swimming, and/or running at a steady rate. Go just hard enough to elevate the pulse and respiration, but don't go so hard that your tongue is dragging in the dirt, and your heart is trying to pound its way through your ribcage.
    This was just rolling around in my brain this morning.