Running in maintenance

paxbfl

Curious if anyone else here is running in maintenance. I ran 5 miles today, plus some walking. I burned over 900 calories. I'm not even sure what to do with all those calories.

The_Enginerd

I run a 10k (6.2 miles) twice a week in addition to my lifting. I am having to eat over 3000 calories a day on those days to keep up.

dorothytd

Sure do, as well as kickbox, lift, etc. I eat the calories back! Look at the whole week and not just today... It will balance out.

TavistockToad

Curious if anyone else here is running in maintenance. I ran 5 miles today, plus some walking. I burned over 900 calories. I'm not even sure what to do with all those calories.

Eat them. Otherwise you are creating a deficit and therefor not maintaining...

paxbfl

Thanks for the responses. I am eating the calories back. It's just a LOT of calories! As another poster said, it's close to 3,000 calories a day, which is quite a bit.

It's weird for me because usually I run to lose weight. So here I am running in maintenance - to be able to eat back those calories is a pretty amazing feeling.

STrooper

I have really just added running to my maintenance plan. I discovered a whole different set of muscles when I ran a 10K in April without really training for it. I had a good cardio fitness base to work with and ran a decent 11:40 for more than 5 of the 6+ miles (for 1 mile I was taking pictures so I ran and walked and took pictures before putting my camera away and going back to running the rest of the race). And when I finished the race, I felt strong enough to run another 10K (which was a surprise to me). I was tired in the afternoon and evening, but not overly so or even overly sore.

I am now running 3 days a week (30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursday and for distance on Sunday). I was up to 8 miles on Sunday two weeks ago and this Sunday I'm going to 9. Yes, I am doing marathon training without a marathon (yet) but what it reminds me of is what one does climbing high mountains in acclimatizing oneself to the ever greater exertion as one gets higher up on the mountain).

I am eating to feel satisfied without really having to sweat the calorie level. I am consuming 2500 calories per day while leaving a deficit of about 600-900 calories per day.

My weight is stable and has been for 6 months, though my muscle structure is (still) changing (though since I have added both core strengthening and running I have noticed ( on the days I check my weight) that there is less interday variability in weight except when there are long runs).