Nutrition

Simplify your life to run faster.

After the Australian Masters Championship in April this year my running literally fell off a cliff. All of a sudden I was struggling to make 10k and pulled the plug on quite a few training runs early. Now this for me is unheard off ! A few times I even had that ‘sit on a fallen tree trunk and ponder ‘why am I doing this ?’ feeling’.  As anybody who knows me will testify this is not what I do. I love running and for the last 10 years have made it my goal in life above all others to improve, everything has been sacrificed for this and I mean everything. They say you can do two things well and for me it’s running and family, though maybe my kids will disagree on the second point. The first point though is something that nobody can argue I don’t put in 100%. Dark nights, early mornings, hot midday runs are all taken onboard gladly and I’m always looking to the next race as one I will try and run faster than I have ever ran before. As I have said many times if I have a bib on my chest ‘it’s on for young and old’ , every race.

After a couple of visits to the Doctors and a blood test it was confirmed I had just run myself down with a poor diet of late not able to sustain my running program. This was purely self inflicted but a big lesson to learn. (My skip lunch diet and just eat free fruit at work is one to avoid apparently. You may drop a few kilos but feel like  ‘weak as a kitten‘ constantly and are unable to run. Not one of  my brightest ideas!) No matter how good the engine if it runs out of fuel you stop, you can be the best runner in the world but with no fuel you still stop, simple really. I have said it so many times nutrition and hydration are so important and it really is common sense but sometimes even the most experienced runners forget this. Cost me 3-4 weeks of running on empty and generally questioning ‘why I  was doing what I was doing’.? A few steak dinners later and a small fortune on supplements (still not sure about these but just in case….???) and my running is back,  albeit curtailed by Plantar Fasciitis lately so mostly round and round grass ovals.

For racing success you need the grind of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly training, it doesn’t happen over night unfortunately. Once you reach a certain standard your goal is to maintain or improve.Of course other factors start to creep into the equation. I remember reading recently that the reason Kenyans do so well in marathons, and running generally, is their life is uncomplicated. Not for them the worry of mortgage payments, second cars, interest rates, credit card bills, private education or college fees for our American cousins. All these eventually start to wear down the Western runner. All the Kenyans worry about is should they have two teaspoons of sugar in their tea or should they splash out and have three, bless ’em. ?  (I suppose in the back of their mind is always the possibility of getting eaten on their run but we probably have more chance of getting run over ? Swings and roundabout really…) An uncomplicated life makes a happy, better,  runner and unfortunately we all seem to have forgotten this.

Happy little future Olympic Champions…with three sugars probably?

 

This week was the perfect example of this. So far this week my weekly total is 10k where I planned at least 50-60k as I’m tapering for the Perth marathon. (I digress but this aways reminds me of my mate Mike Adams who would always produce all these weekly predictions of massive totals and more often than not come nowhere near to hitting them, a lot of the times just flat lining with an injury. We joked that in planning there are many curves to record progress, the early curve, late curve, bell curve etc..  We always reckoned there should be the ‘Mike Adam’s flatline’ curve , basically just a straight line moving along the date axis on zero. The things you talk about on long runs. Sorry Mike ).. What happened you may ask ? Life just got in the way. I’m just about to complete a four unit development and as the same time we are submitting a tender at work in which I am heavily involved. Add into the mix the worst weather in Perth for many a year, what the English would call Summer, i.e. constant rain. Finally a head cold and Plantar Fasciitis finished me off and my running was a non starter. On the bright side I had enough sugar for my tea so at least that was a positive and we even managed to find a carton of Yorkshire Tea bags at work, best tea in the world accordingly to my mate Steve Dale ?  This also explain this being the first post for nearly a month.  The image below of my last few weeks sums it up perfectly, all consistency out the window, and as I have always maintained consistency is the key to running success.

Not a good few weeks…no consistency which will end in tears me thinks?

Right, the point of this post is to improve your running you need to work on the mental side as well as the physical and to this end make your life as simple as possible. Concentrate on good diet, as much sleep as possible and an uncomplicated social and professional life, basically make running your number one priority. As I mentioned at the start of this post you can do two things well in life, make one of them running. (Maybe best to keep that last snippet of information to yourself and not mention it to your significant other, just saying.) As always this ain’t rocket science but sometimes it just needs someone to state the obvious for you to take stock and reevaluate. I’ll say it again but the old saying ‘if the furnace is hot enough it’ll burn anything’ is basically crap, concentrate on your diet and make it the best it can be, within reason. Let’s face it you’re probably not an Olympic athlete and thus do not need to make the sacrifices they make but if you are serious about your running and want to be the best you can be then a good diet is paramount to success. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise so lets make some easy inroads and watch what we eat. (and that doesn’t mean eating with your eyes open !!!….)

 

The City Beach version? Please note this is the old carb-loving Jon, he’s a lot thinner now !!

 

Want to improve by doing less, easy.

“Suns out, Guns out” … well maybe a couple of pistols ?

 

It’s a flashback Friday post today. This is where I look back at the blog and find interesting articles I wrote when only my Mum followed me. (Truth be told my readership is probably not that much larger 18 months later but Mum always like a mention.)

All runners can relate to this post on weight. If you run , and worse,  run competitively, you worry about weight and this then goes hand in hand with nutrition , another one of my favourite subjects.

Have I discovered the perfect diet yet, after many years of looking, the answer is no but I have found opportunities to improve my diet, lose weight and run faster. Of course this means sacrifices but this is a ‘runners lot’, what we do demands sacrifices. Friday night drinks with your work colleagues, sorry ‘going long’ Saturday.  Game of kick around on the oval, no way baby, tight hammy’s ! Chasing kids around the back yard, are you mad, all that lateral change of pace, has long term injury written all over it . You get the picture, a runners life is one of sacrifices but these are sacrifices I am willing to make. (Never been one for Friday night drinks anyway and my footie kicking is poor at best!)

Diet unfortunately is another form of self sacrifice that can return dividends. The old days of the ‘if the furnace is hot enough, it burns anything’ approach is flawed and if you really want to improve your running you need to look at what you are using for fuel. Of course there will always be the runners that seem to survive on junk food but constantly produce jaw dropping times but these are few and far between and are normally just blessed with natural talent and genetics. I am not unfortunately, like 99% of the running population it is just plain old boring hard work that gets me where I need to be. Again I’m ok with that and must admit to enjoying the runners post long run pancakes or waffles as a form of recovery; it’s not all bad.

Carbohydrates or the high fat, low carb diet, I’ll leave it to you to decide but the most important final statistic is your racing results. Get it right and hit your racing weight and you’ll see the benefits, too low or high and you’ll also notice the difference. We’re all different of course but lets face it , when’s the last time you saw an over weight runner at the front of the pack. Sorry people the ‘just escaped form a concentration camp‘ look is the way to go, much to my Wife’s disgust. She often encourages me to put on weight, drink more and tries to butter me up with digestives (normally with dark chocolate!) , not many men can say that about their partners. I of course rebuke her advances and proudly mention I am at racing weight and have no need for any extra muscle as it serves no purposes for us runners. Muscle or fat are merely an extra weight we have to carry around the race distance and this need to be jettisoned as soon as possible. Sorry Karen but the ‘Schlinders List‘ look is what all us runners aspire to and no amount of chocolate digestives is going to derail me…..

 

 

I have mentioned weight in relation to running a few times on this blog but with all good subjects there is always another good article to highlight. It really is common sense that the lighter you are the faster you will run with the same amount of energy. My Dad use to always sprout ‘It’s Physics Son‘ at me on so many occasions over the years for numerous different scenarios, in this scenario it really is.

So to improve with the same amount of training all you need to do is put down that donut (Jon !) and pick up that lovely celery stick, Yum ! Hang on, to quote Homer Simpson ‘Donuts taste good‘ and I agree with Mr.Simpson whole heartedly but to work off a donut it’s about 30 minutes of moderate exercise, and who can stop at one donut which is why you buy Krispy Kremes in boxes of 6 or more. That’s 3 hours of running nearly a marathon for 10 minutes of pleasure. (Would you have to run the 3 hours straight after eating 6 donuts or can you wait, either way I would probably envisage trouble ahead.)

I can certainly testify that at my racing weight of 70kg I am considerably faster than if I let myself go and hit 72kg. You feel the difference and also in training with every step you moving that extra 2kg, remember physics, not a runners friend when he’s been embracing his friend Mr. Kreme.

So the answer is to find your racing weight and stick to it. How easy is that ? Actually not easy at all as your racing weight is always so damn low and to get to it in the first place you normally starve yourself or have to avoid all the food groups you love.  Then when you hit the racing weight you spend all your time worrying about putting weight on. No one said being a runner was easy, we train hard in tough conditions, give up our social life, friends out with running are ignored and even sacrifice family time but to forego the donuts or worse the Yelo muffin, life is cruel.

Is there an answer to the weight conundrum, there may be. Rather than try and maintain your racing weight all year you can train using the periodisation technique. (Is it a technique or just a way of training, you decide?) . Periodisation is the theory and practice of how to vary a training program over time to bring the runner to a physical peak for major competitions. It is considered simply as planned and organized variety. The periodisation variables we can manipulate include frequency, intensity, recovery, variety, specificity, and duration of training. I suggest part of this could also involve Krispy Kreme donuts, though when Arthur Lydiard, first started experimenting with periodization in 1947 I’m not sure he had donuts at the forefront of his mind.?  Anyhow you could define periods of your training when you can add a little weight and enjoy life a tad more than normal before then starving yourself back to your racing weight.

It would be easier of course if we didn’t have a sweet tooth and we could maintain our weight by enjoying the good things in life like cabbage, celery, carrots, swede or my favourite green peas. Not going to happen,  so until they make chocolate calorie free it’s back to my old friend ‘hunger pains’ and the odd Yelo muffin when I can persuade myself that running 100 miles does justify one muffin as it normally contains fruit (mixed in with the chocolate)

Amanda MacMillan wrote this article for Runners World in 2014 but it still holds true today unfortunately. Worth a read but we all know what we should weigh, it’s our decision whether we reach that goal and when we do how long we can hold it for. That is of course until chocolate becomes calorie free then it’s on for young and old…

 

The root of all evil...
The root of all evil…

It may have been a while since you’ve stepped on a scale.

You’re fit, you feel great and you run, a lot. So who cares if your abs aren’t as flat as they used to be? Even if your weight’s not on your radar as a health issue, though, it should be as a performance one. Because there’s a good chance you’re not at your ideal racing weight—that is, the weight at which you run your fastest and feel your best.
Perhaps you have always had the same body and never considered what adding a few pounds of muscle or dropping a few pounds of flab might do for your performance. Alicia Shay, a professional runner and nutrition counselor in Flagstaff, Arizona, says weight shouldn’t be overlooked. “Anyone who cares how fast they’re running should consider their weight part of their overall training strategy,” she says.It’s most common for runners to find their weight has crept up over the years. Pete Magill, author of Build Your Running Body, didn’t think much about his own gradual weight gain until, at 44, his usual 15-minute 5K times began to suffer.“When I ran 16:20, I knew I was in trouble,” Magill says. “I’d been racingat 170 pounds since starting masters competition, almost 10 pounds over my race weight back in my 20s.” He couldn’t train any harder, so he went on a diet and dropped to 164. Over the next few years, he set the American men’s 45–49 record for the 5K, at 14:34.Magill’s not alone. “I can’t imagine you can talk to a competitive runner who doesn’t have a weight-loss-equals-faster-time story,” he says.But getting to that ideal number can be hard work—especially if you’re already logging major mileage and are used to eating whatever you want. And it’s a delicate balance: Dipping below it or losing weight in unhealthy ways could put you at risk for injury, illness and disordered eating behaviors.Why Lighter Equals FasterAs a general rule, runners move most efficiently when they’re at the low end of what’s considered a healthy body mass and body-fat percentage. “Running is really just a form of jumping,” says Matt Fitzgerald, certified sports nutritionist and author of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. “You can’t move forward without moving up, and the more you have to lift against gravity, the more energy it requires.” Imagine running with an extra 5 pounds strapped around your waist, he explains.Body weight affects performance in running more than it does in other sports, such as swimming and biking, according to a 2011 Swiss study on Ironman triathletes. And lower body-mass index seems increasingly important as race distances get longer: A 2014 study found that the optimal BMI for male 800m runners was between 20 and 21, while it dropped between 19 and 20 for male 10,000m and marathon runners. (Generalizations about BMI shouldn’t be used prescriptively, Shay says, because it doesn’t take into account lean muscle or body fat.)There are other reasons lighter means faster: Larger people are less efficient at delivering oxygen throughout the body. Losing weight doesn’t change your lung capacity or function, but it does mean that each breath doesn’t have to go as far.Leaner athletes can dissipate heat better, too, because they have a higher surface-area-to-body-weight ratio and less insulating fat tissue. They also burn carbohydrates more efficiently. So while weight isn’t everything, it’s certainly a big thing. “Four factors determine how fast you are,” says Sean Wade, a top masters athlete and coach of the Houston-based Kenyan Way running program. “Genetics, form, how hard and smart you train, and your weight—and not necessarily in that order.”

Age Makes a Difference

Masters runners may have the hardest time losing weight—no matter how much they run. Fred Zalokar, 54, averages more than 100 miles a week and for years oscillated between 170 and 180 pounds. But since he cleaned up his diet four years ago, he’s dropped more than 20 pounds, increasing his speed and turnover along the way.

“Weight loss has never just happened for me, even when I was regularly running ultras,” Zalokar says. “If I’m not consciously cutting my calories, I can make up for all that mileage without a second thought.”

That’s because adults begin losing muscle mass in their early 40s, which can impair performance and decrease metabolism, says Emily Brown, RD. Getting enough physical activity (including resistance training to maintain muscle) is especially important, as is cutting back on junk food and oversize food portions.

Tom Storey, 50, who has run Boston seven times, attributes his first qualifying run, in 2007, to weight loss. In just more than a year, he went from 205 to 150 pounds and shaved more than 30 minutes off his previously 4-hour marathon time. Today, maintaining his weight requires sacrifices he’s willing to make. “There aren’t a lot of things I can do to make myself a better athlete,” he says, “but if I can keep my weight down, I know I’ll be faster.”

Crunching the Numbers

Finding your ideal weight—the healthy weight at which you really perform your best—takes some time. “You can’t predict your optimal race weight beforehand,” Fitzgerald says. “You can move toward a goal, and when you have the race of your life, you weigh yourself and get your body composition tested, and there you have it.”

Andrew Lemoncello, 2012 Olympian for the U.K. and a coach for McMillan Running, didn’t find his ideal race weight until going pro after college. “I used to live by the saying, ‘If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything,’ “ he says. “I ate healthy foods, but I also loved desserts and never paid attention to my portions.”

When he began spending time with other pro runners, Lemoncello realized he needed higher-quality fuel for his furnace to run at its most efficient. He began planning his meals and stopped mindless eating, and he dropped from 150 pounds to 145. “I started setting PRs and had more energy and confidence,” he says. “If I’m eating well and training hard, that’s the weight my body naturally gravitates to.”

For any weight loss or gain, it helps to have something to aim for. Several online calculators, like Fitzgerald’s at RacingWeight.com, will estimate your ideal racing weight based on your age, gender and current fitness level. In this case, ideal is defined as what you would weigh if your body fat was at its lowest attainable-yet-healthy percentage, Fitzgerald explains.

Then there are the stats about how much quicker you’ll be by slimming down, like the commonly cited 2 seconds per mile, per pound you are above your ideal weight. But this will vary from person to person, says exercise physiologist Paul Vanderburgh, creator of the online Flyer Handicap Calculator, which helps runners see how their race times stack up against competitors of other ages and weights. Based on VO2 max estimates, it computes your predicted time if you were 25 years old and a scale model of yourself at 110 pounds for women or 143 pounds for men. “It’s strictly meant for comparisons,” he stresses, “not for figuring out the weight you should realistically be to hit a certain time.”

In Build Your Running Body, Magill and his co-authors plot a chart of estimates based on VO2 calculations—for example, that a 200-pound runner can shave 19 seconds off a 20-minute 5K time by losing 5 pounds. Wade takes a simpler approach: “One minute slower per 1 pound overweight is what I tell my marathoners,” he says.

These tools can be good motivators, according to Rasa Troup, a certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD), a 2008 Olympian and current nutritionist for Team USA Minnesota, but she adds that athletes shouldn’t take them as gospel. “My biggest concern is that they distract runners from listening to and understanding their own bodies, because they’re caught up in reaching some number,” she says. “It’s more important to be aware of how tired hungry or sluggish you are feeling.”

Kimberly Mueller, CSSD, owner of San Diego-based Fuel Factor Nutrition Coaching and a 2:52 marathoner, warns that calculators can skew too low with body-fat goals, as well. “Some have estimated my ideal body composition to fall around 12 percent,” she says, “but I know I lose my menstrual cycle if I fall below 14.”

How Much is Too Much?

Many runners could benefit from shedding a few pounds, Troup admits—but only if they have excess weight to lose and only if it’s done in a way that supplements their training, rather than sabotaging it. “Well-fueled athletes will perform well, and well-fueled means something different for every person,” she says. Of course, losing weight isn’t a good idea for all competitive runners. For those who are naturally very lean or who work hard to stay at the low end of their healthy weight, the threat of falling below that point at which you race your best is real.

Stephanie Bruce learned that the hard way when she finished a disappointing 16th at the 2013 Boston Marathon. She and her husband, pro runner Ben Bruce, have spent years perfecting their race-weight strategies, she says, and weigh themselves daily leading up to a big race.

“We didn’t have a scale in Boston, and it was difficult to get in as many calories the day before as I would have been able to at home,” she says. (Bruce has celiac disease and has to be careful about eating food prepared outside of her own kitchen.) “I was probably under by only 2 or 3 pounds on race morning, but it made a huge impact. I had no power; I just couldn’t hold the pace.”

Bruce says she works hard to maintain a healthy weight and has never dropped so low that her health has suffered. But many runners, without enough calories or nutrients, can develop weak bones and compromised immune systems.

That’s what Brian Rosetti figures happened to him. After he graduated from college, he spent two years training almost full-time. His mileage was increasing, but he was focused on low weight instead of nutrition for performance. Just as he made a breakthrough in his training, and as his weight dropped to an all-time low of 146 on his 6-foot-1 frame, he suffered a sacral stress fracture. “My bone density was below the median level, and I don’t think I was getting the right nutrients,” Rosetti says. “I was focused on keeping as light as I could. That’s a scary place to be.” The injury, in effect, ended his career.

Fitzgerald says impaired performance is usually the first sign that a runner has dipped into dangerous territory. “It’s the canary in the coal mine—your body’s signal that it’s under too much stress.”

For women, a missing menstrual period is also an indication of an unhealthy and unsustainable weight, with potential complications like infertility and osteoporosis. And while it’s less talked about, competitive men can struggle, too. A recent Southern Utah University study found that almost 20 percent of male high school cross country runners were at risk for disordered eating behaviors like bingeing and purging. Some boys expressed a desire to gain body weight to be more attractive, while others wanted to lose it to improve their running.

To keep your weight loss from becoming detrimental, the American Council on Exercise recommends maintaining a BMI that stays at or above the normal weight threshold of 18.5 and a body fat percentage above 14 percent for women and 6 percent for men. Some elites dip below these guidelines, Troup says, but it’s not recommended without careful monitoring.

Fitzgerald also recommends tracking your performance. “If you’re getting skinnier but your times are getting worse, you’ve passed the point of beneficial weight loss,” he says.

And above all else, Shay says, listen to your body and your mind. “If you’re starving all the time or you’re irritable and cranky or you’re bonking on runs, you’re probably being too ambitious and getting too light.”

Timing is Everything

The time to prioritize weight loss is in a four- to nine-week period before you start ramping up your workouts, while you’re building your base. “You can’t maximize fitness gain and weight loss simultaneously,” Fitzgerald says.

Mueller agrees. During a competitive season, athletes shouldn’t restrict themselves by more than 500 calories per day. For those who want to lose only a few pounds, 200 to 300 is even better. Stop restricting calories the week of a big race, she adds, because your body will perform best on a full tank.

Bruce says she goes into her training cycles about 3 to 5 pounds over her racing weight, a product of relaxed eating habits and less exercise during her offseason. “I like to have a reserve to pull from, because once I start working out harder, I lose it pretty easily,” she says.

Lemoncello follows a similar schedule during his training period, gaining 5 to 10 pounds when he’s not racing. “It’s good for my running,” he says. “The break helps me feel energized, and I come back motivated.”

Can eating omelettes and bacon make you run faster ?

After four weeks of solid training and a race every weekend I am well and truely knackered. (its a running term mean very tired!)  Today I ran a recovery 10k at just under 5min/k pace and finished like I’d just ran a marathon. As I sat outside my house in a pool of sweat I realised that yet again I’d pushed myself too far and was certainly suffering from fatigue. Truth be told it is becoming the norm these days and I’m finding my daily runs are slowing but the effort seems to be increasing. All signs of over training. Will I take time to recover ? Probably not, I enjoy running too much to ‘back off’ but have made an effort to try and change by reading  Mark Sisson’s book ‘Primal  Endurance’.  Mark is all about HFLC (high fat, low carb) paleo type diet with cross fit type fitness routines, short explosive workouts. This goes against the normal runners ‘run till you fall over training regime, gorging on carbs and sugar. ‘ Mark has some interesting ideas but it is certainly a challenge taking them onboard. His website is worth a visit. ( https://www.marksdailyapple.com) I’ll keep you abreast of my findings and I must admit I’m looking forward to eating more omelettes, bacon, salmon and yoghurt on a daily basis, not so sure about the cross fit training. ?

The new holy bible of running?

 

I’ve written so many posts on fatigue which are available on my website and can be easily accessed using the search dialog box, wonderful things these ‘computer thingy’s’….  Rather than reinvent the wheel I’ve attached a post I wrote in 2016 on the subject. Greg McMillan wrote a great article on recovering and its certainly worth a second visit, plus it lets me sneak off for a cup of tea early without spending the obligatory hour or two typing away. Remember people work smarter not harder, it even works for blogging.

 

I was sent this article by my friend Mike and it really does hit home. Will I take time off because of it, probably not but what I consider ‘down time’ is just running a lot less. My recovery still involves running albeit a lot less and I’ll be on this reduced training for at least a month. Is it better to have a complete break as advocated by this article by Greg McMillan in 2016 on his website.?  ( https://run.mcmillanrunning.com/ )

Looking at my training log for the last 8 years I have has no real down time as such. Maybe a week off after the Rottnest Marathon as I vacation with the family counts ? Not as long as recommend by Greg in his article. I do have a ‘reduced workload’ period for 2-3  months over the summer months in Perth where most of the major races dry up due to the heat. Maybe this has been enough to keep me focused while still maintain the intensity and running goal times in the ‘running season’.  Truth be told it isn’t reduced that much though when it gets really hot I jump on the bike and commute to work and reduce my running to once a day.

Maybe I’m actually following Greg’s advice without actually realising it ? Like all things running it is not a ‘one shoe fits all’ sport. What works for one person will not have the same affect with another. What Greg preaches is common sense and well worth considering and I will take it onboard. (maybe this will justify a trip to the local deli and another muffin ?)  Spending more time with my family, that always put a strain on the marriage ? I’ll consult with my Wife before I embark down this road. I’m not so sure the family will appreciate more BK time…

THE LOST ART OF RECOVERING BETWEEN TRAINING CYCLES

I see a bad habit forming in many runners: the lack of a recovery cycle after their big races or racing seasons.Today, far too many are simply finishing one race (often a marathon) and immediately starting to train for the next one. You can get away with this a few times, but usually runners get burned out and leave the sport for new activities after doing this too often. The grind of always “training” weighs you down. Runners may also reach a performance plateau after a few races and fall well short of their true running potential, simply because they don’t allow a proper recovery phase.

In fairness, I understand this drive to move from one race to the next. I love running, too, and there is nothing better than being fully engaged in training for a big race. But never taking a break ignores one of the most important principles that we learned from great coaches and athletes over the last century: Top runners require a regular, full recovery cycle.

Great athletes build annual breaks into their training year. Not a reduced week or two of training every now and then, but weeks of complete rest. They don’t only rest, but they gain weight, too. Some add 5 to 15 pounds to their normally light frames while they enjoy time with their families, take vacations and generally do things they normally can’t because of their training.

If you follow many of today’s great runners, you’ll see that they, too, take the time to get away from the sport. Nick Symmonds goes fishing after the track season. Bernard Lagat talks about getting “fat” during his downtime, and the Hansons require their marathoners to take two weeks completely off after a marathon.

How can they do this? How can great athletes allow themselves to get out of shape? How can they tolerate the downtime without worrying about the competition?

While we worry about losing our fitness level, or that the competition is training and we’re not, these athletes know that planned annual breaks rejuvenate the body and mind in ways that outweigh losses in fitness. The worriers who plow through often take similar breaks, but rather than planned vacations, they are mandated by injuries, overtraining and burnout. Planned breaks take the pressure off — you don’t feel that your training is never-ending, jumping from one goal to the next. Science is discovering that the chemistry of the brain, the hormonal system and the immune system are compromised during hard training. Breaks rejuvenate these systems, allowing us to train better, more consistently and with more zeal across the next training plan.

Will you lose fitness? Yes. How much is hard to calculate and will depend on how long a break you take. But it’s not about how out of shape you get, but about how recovered you are and how ready to attack the next training cycle.

Remember that the recovery phase isn’t just the downtime, but also the time needed to rebuild mileage and pace. Many runners fail even when they do take time off, because upon their return, they jump right back into full training — again feeling the need to “get in shape.” You’ll need to plan on three to five weeks of rebuilding to your full training load. I usually start at 50 percent of full mileage, then increase 10 to 20 percent each week (with a recovery week of lower mileage every two to four weeks) until I’m back to 100 percent. Use common sense and build back slowly.

In the end, what’s the rush? A few weeks of downtime never ruined anyone’s running career — quite the opposite.

COACH’S NOTES

I took nearly a month off after my last marathon. I gained a few pounds. I enjoyed some new hobbies and time with family. But most of all, I rediscovered the desire, motivation and passion that drive me as a runner, and I couldn’t wait to challenge myself to do better. The next training cycle went even better than expected because I carried all the fitness from the previous cycle, plus my recharged motivation. I was able to run 2 minutes faster in the 15K than I had the year before. I’m convinced the recovery phase played a large role in this breakthrough.

 

If only everything was black and white...
If only everything was black and white…

 

Nutrition and weight are the key to success.

One of the best ways to improve performance is to drop weight. This , of course, has diminishing returns as you come close to dropping too much weight,  resulting in constant fatigue as you derive your body of the fuel needed to complete your exercise. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise so the ‘if the furnace is hot enough everything burns’ type approach to eating whatever you want as long, as you exercise enough, is flawed.  I still find it amusing that runners constantly seek out trainers that save them 10-20g of weight but ignore their 2-3kilos of extra weight they are carrying around their waist. It has the double-whammy effect because the extra weight being carried by the runner is then transferred through a racing shoe with little or no support, resulting in the higher risk of injury.

Surprisingly enough so many coaches offer their clients all sorts of different combinations of aerobic and anaerobic exercises but completely ignore diet and thus weight. Have a look at the winner of every marathon , globally, they all look similar. In my view Robert ‘Deeks’ Costello was the last marathon world record holder who looked what the public would consider ‘normal’ , i.e. not like they had just escaped from a concentration camp after a long stay in the section which considered eating an option.

One of the greatest Australian marathon runners of all time. ‘Deeks’ in full flow… I’m assuming it was just before the finish…

I have met ‘Deeks’ on a number of occasions over the years and he is still a gentleman of the sport, a true legend and all round Mr. Nice Guy. He does a lot of work with the Aboriginal communities in Australia and has send many of them to run the New York marathon, a life changing experience for all. Check out the Indigenous Marathon Foundation website ( http://www.imf.org.au/ )

Right, I digress  back to the post…… although we cannot hope to get down to the 45-50kg’s that is the average weight of todays  marathon winner we can all make an effort to drop a few kilos. Over the last couple of years I have written numerous posts on nutrition and weight and have attached one below I wrote in 2016, at the time my blog was just starting so I suspect that no one, apart from my Mum, would have read this. (Thanks Mum.)

Well this post is another cup of tea and digestive biscuit or two type post. What is the best diet for runners or the population as a whole ? With most things in running there is no reinventing the wheel. You’re normally faced with the ‘norm’ and one alternative. e.g. run less, run faster as opposed to run slower,  but more,  to run faster. I personally suspect either method works if you follow them religiously. The problem occurs when you half heartily follow one but add in some of the other.  Anyhow this post is about what is the best nutrition for achieving the best performance.

In the good old days it was always high carbs, low fat and sugar, normally natural, as fuel. Even today if you google best running diets it’s mostly pasta, rice, bread, honey, orange juice, low fat yoghurt, skinless chicken, semi-skimmed milk etc. We’ve all seen it a thousand times. I’ve been following this for many years and it has certainly helped me. Or has it ?

Recently Tim Noakes, a highly respected write and MD changed his view on nutrition virtually 180 degrees. Noakes is the author of one of, if not the defining book on all things running, ‘The Lore of Runing’, a 944-page tome known as the distance runner’s bible. He has come out and said forget everything he wrote in that book about carbohydrates. Back then, he questioned whether they were as necessary to a runner’s diet as many experts believed but still recommended them, particularly as fuel for workouts and races.

Now, Noakes won’t touch most carbs and tells others to avoid them, too. His book about this new lifestyle, The Real Meal Revolution, has sold more than 200,000 copies in his native South Africa the last two years, making it one of the country’s all-time nonfiction bestsellers, and it has helped launch a change in dietary thought much the same way the Atkins diet did across America years ago.

Noakes originally started his low carb, high fat diet in 2010 after research led him to believe the carbohydrates he’d eaten all his life contributed to his Type II diabetes, which runs in his family. His new eating habits resembled those of ancient foragers, most similar to a late 1800s European fad known as Banting. Noakes’s diet consists of about 5–10 percent carbohydrates, 60 percent fat and 30 percent protein. Sugars and processed carbs are forbidden. The mainstays are eggs, fish, meat, leafy but not starchy vegetables and nuts. His advice opposes dietary guidelines laid out by the Nutrition Society of South Africa, which recommend making “starchy foods” part of most meals and using fats sparingly.

Compare this to the ‘norm’ e.g. this article on Runners Connect advocating all the things Noakes is dead against. (  https://runnersconnect.net/running-nutrition-articles/best-carbohydrates-for-runners/ ) or this article from Runners World.

CARBOHYDRATES AND RUNNING
Carbohydrates (sugar, starch, and fiber) play an important role in maintaining a healthy diet and fueling your runs. Carbohydrates are stored in your muscles as glycogen, which your body taps into during a workout.

But not all carbohydrates are created equal. The more processed a carbohydrate is (like packaged foods and sweets) the more it becomes stripped of its nutrients, making its calories “empty.”

To fuel your body and your run, reach for complex carbohydrates like whole fruits and vegetables, dairy, whole grains, potatoes, and legumes. These foods provide a host of nutrients, including fiber, vitamin C, and calcium, that will help runners feel full and perform their best.

You can benefit from simple carbohydrates (like table sugar, maple syrup, or dextrose), which provide quick bursts of energy. This type of sugar (found in energy gels and chews) is good for on-the-run fuel because it is quickly absorbed and can help replenish the glycogen stores you’re depleting on a long run. You’ll want to refuel regularly on the run before your muscles become fully depleted. Try to consume 30 to 60 grams every hour, depending on your intensity and also body size.

Carb-loading may be a runner’s favorite part about marathon day. But to do it properly, it’s important not to eat heaps of pasta for days on end—you’ll feel sluggish and it could lead to GI distress on race day. Instead, slowly increase your carbohydrate intake about three to seven days leading up to your race. For example, have oatmeal and fruit for breakfast, add a dinner roll to your salad, have a handful of pretzels as a snack, and add rice or other whole grains to your dinner.

Activity Level Recommended Intake
Light activity (less than 1 hour per day) 1.3 to 2.3 g/lb. body weight
Moderate activity (1 hour per day) 2.3 to 3.2 g/lb. body weight
Extreme exercise program (4.5 to 6 hours per day) 4.5 to 5.5+ g/lb. body weight

Are all the running experts wrong and is Noakes a visionary preaching a complete change on how we fuel efficiently ? More importantly has he found the cure for diabetes and obesity.? Finally if he has will big business let him? I read that if Noakes is telling the truth it would be the end for four large pharmaceutical companies  who survive on providing the drugs necessary to combat the 20th century diseases associated with over eating and bad diets. Then all the industries built up on providing all these carbohydrates and sugar we rely on currently. Big business does not like change as it normally affects the bottom line, they are not at all interested in finding cures for most diseases they supply drugs to combat, why would they?

Personally I feel Noakes has some good points. We all eat to much sugar and can certainly do without it, there are natural alternatives. Can we go low carb, high fat. ? I’m happy to eat bacon and eggs for breakfast , as encouraged by Noakes, but giving up probably my main food group will be a big ask.

Finally what about pancakes, protein surely ? Not even Noakes would try and take my pancakes away, would he? I regret eating that digestive biscuit now, well maybe regret is a tad overboard….

 

I have attached an interview Noakes gave to Marika Sboros ( http://www.biznews.com/health/2015/01/19/complete-idiots-guide-tim-noakes-diet-banting-lchf/ )

 

Strictly speaking, it’s not correct to call Cape Town sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes’ low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet ‘Banting’, but he doesn’t mind if you do. The eponymous William Banting was fat – a heavily overweight, ailing British undertaker, and he ate low carbs on the advice of Dr William Harvey in 1862. Banting lost weight and felt great. Harvey wrote about it, but under pressure from medical colleagues, modified the diet into high-protein, low-fat. German physician Dr Wilhelm Ebstein took it to Europe, and changed to high-fat, low-carb after realising the key was replacing carbs with fat, not protein, as fat reduced hunger more effectively. So it’s more correct to call Noakes’ diet ‘Ebstein’, or ‘ketogenic’. Banting may stick in SA, where it is a culinary ‘revolution’, with Banting restaurants, meals and products popping up all over the place.

That has had some doctors and dietitians frothing at the mouth, and looking on Noakes as SA’s next ‘Dr Death’. President of the Association for Dietetics in SA Claire Julsing Strydom has reported Noakes to the Health Professions Council of SA for telling a mother on Twitter that good foods for baby weaning are LCHF – in other words meat and veg. The hearing is looking like the nutrition equivalent of the Spanish inquisition, as orthodoxy seeks to silence Noakes and his heretical views once and for all. Whether they will succeed is anyone’s guess. What’s more certain is that Banting is going global , as evidence piles up in favour of its safety and efficacy to treat insulin resistance and for weightloss. Here, Noakes gives clarifying fundamentals, followed by an Idiot’s Guide to his LCHF diet.

Cape Town sports scientist Prof Tim Noakes is in great shape. At 65, after four years on his low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet, his energy levels are stratospheric; his running has improved spectacularly.

“I don’t run as fast as I ran in my 20s, but I’m running faster and further in training, and with more enjoyment than I did 20 years ago,” he says.

He hasn’t gained a gram of the 20kg he lost in the first two years on the diet, and his health has improved. Noakes has type 2 diabetes (it’s in his family history) and developed it despite religiously eating the recommended high-carb, low-fat diet for 33 years that experts told him would prevent diabetes. He could probably do without medication to control it, but prefers to have “perfect blood glucose control’’.

He sleeps like a baby and no longer snores – for which wife Marilyn is deeply grateful – and no longer falls asleep in front of the TV. All other ailments – recurring bronchitis, rhinitis, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, and gastric reflux for which he was considering surgery – have disappeared.

Controversy still peppers his diet, with some saying it’s unscientific and dangerous – and so is Noakes. The science for and against LCHF and Noakes was scrutinised by an international gathering of top LCHF scientists and researchers at the low-carb, high-fat summit in Cape Town from February 19 to 22. Noakes hosted the event with Karen Thomson, granddaughter of the late pioneering cardiac surgeon Prof Chris Barnard, and the cream of international LCHF medical and scientific experts on the speakers’ panel.

Here he clarifies terminology of his LCHF diet, and gives an Idiot’s Guide to getting started:

Is your diet Atkins?

No, Atkins is higher protein than ours. Ours is high-fat, moderate-protein.

Is it Paleo?

No. Paleo is low in carbs, but not as low as we go. It excludes cereals and dairy, but includes fruit, which we don’t, except for some berries that are high in nutrition and low in carbs.

Is it Banting?

It’s probably more correct to call it Ebstein – after German physician Dr Wilhelm Ebstein who first made it high-fat. That was the diet Sir William Osler promoted in his monumental textbook: The Principles and Practices of Medicine, published in the US in 1892. Anyone who claims Banting or Ebstein diets are fads simply knows nothing about medical nutrition history. Nutrition did not begin in 1977 as our students seem to be taught.

Any weighing of food on your diet?

No. That’s a joke. You can’t predict accurately the absolute calorie content of foods when eaten by humans. You don’t know how many calories each person needs. The only way to work that out is by weighing yourself. If your weight stays stable, you’re eating the same number of calories you are expending. If you are lean, that’ll probably be the correct number of calories for your body and activity level. There’s no other way remotely accurate enough to measure your calorie needs.

Is your diet extreme?

Only in that it’s extremely low in carbohydrate – the one nutrient for which humans have absolutely no essential requirement. In 1977, when we were told to eat diets extremely high in carbohydrates, human health started to fail on a global scale. Moderation is a smug, puritanical word. No mammal eats in moderation. In nature all diets are extreme – lions eat only meat, polar bears mainly fat, panda bears only bamboo shoots, giraffes only acacia leaves. Balance is what has worked for each of these species for millions of years.

Is it right for everyone?

No diet is right for everyone. LCHF is best for people who are insulin resistant.

Critics say the Tim Noakes diet is dangerous because of high saturated fat. Is saturated fat ever a health threat?

It can be, in the presence of a high carbohydrate/sugar diet that causes elevated insulin concentrations due to the excessive carb intake. Insulin directs an altered metabolism, with the formation of the damaging oxidised (LDL) cholesterol that is probably a key component in heart disease.

So what’s the key?

To eat a diet that keeps blood insulin and glucose concentrations low, because elevated insulin concentrations especially are linked to long-term health problems. We say: eat what your appetite directs you to. Once you cut the carbs we think your brain will tell you if you need more fat or protein. It’s about finding the balance that works for you.

On to the fundamentals when starting on your diet – what to cut out?

Bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, pizza, sugar, all grains and cereals, processed, packaged, boxed, adulterated foods, cakes, sweets, biscuits, fizzy drinks, all the addictive things. Anything sweet and starchy has to go – and low-fat foods.

What to keep in?

Fat and protein. You can eat fat in relatively unlimited amounts, but only moderate protein. A healthy high-protein diet for humans doesn’t exist. If your diet was 100% protein, you’d quickly get sick and die. You can’t really overdose on fat; it reduces appetite, and it’s the best way to get over sugar addiction.

What are good protein sources?

Start with eggs, full-fat dairy, cheese, yoghurt – good fallback foods. Fish and chicken – with the skin, not battery fed – and some meat, preferably organic, or at least pasture-raised, not from animals raised in feed lots and fed grains, because that destroys the meat’s quality. Meat’s not a main focus, but we like lamb because it’s fatty and pasture fed. Boerwors is fine, but without cereal in it, and bacon, preferably not very smoked.

And good fat sources?

Butter, cream – ladle meat and veg with butter; put cream in tea or coffee. Coconut oil, very healthy, everyone should have two tablespoons of it daily. Avocados. Nuts – almonds, walnuts, pecan nuts, especially macadamia nuts, they are like drops of fat – all tree nuts. Not peanuts or cashews. They’re legumes, not nuts.

Dairy can be problematic?

Only for people with diarrhoea, lactose intolerance, or who battle to lose weight – that happens mostly to women. It may well be that fat increases their hunger rather than satisfies it. We don’t know if it’s just an effect of saturated fat in some people. The easiest way to cut fat in that case is to cut dairy, and eat other sources of fat, such as oily fish, and avocado.

What about vegetables?

All vegetables have carbohydrates, but we recommend those with lowest carb, highest Tim Noakes Real Meal Revolutionnutrient content: leafy greens such as kale, it’s one of the most nutritious vegetables; also cauliflower, broccoli, they’re on our green list – (in The Real Meal Revolution, co-authored by Jonno Proudfoot, Sally-Ann Creed and David Grier).

Can you be a vegetarian on your diet?

Yes, if you eat dairy products, but we advise adding eggs and fish. Vegetarians who cheat can be incredibly healthy.

You can’t be a vegan on your diet?

Well, I know a vegan athlete, a former professional cyclist who eats 80% fat in his diet – lots of coconut oil and avos. It’s an extreme diet, but it works for him. Clearly his gut flora can handle it. I met someonewho eats only raw meat. We don’t know what the bacteria in their guts are doing, and how those bacteria might compensate for what we might perceive as intake “deficiencies”.

What carb-fat-protein ratio is best?

Depends on how sick you are. If you’re diabetic, we say 20% to 30% protein, 60% to 70% fat, 5% carbs. The sicker you are, the more fat you need, because fat is insulin neutral. The more insulin resistant you are, the more fat you can eat, because even when the pancreas fails, fat is the only fuel you can metabolise safely without requiring insulin. It’s perfect for blood sugar control. We don’t tell people how many grams to eat, except for carbs – around 25g if you are really sick.

What about alcohol?

It’s a toxin, and slows weight loss on our diet significantly. We say: first lose the weight, and reintroduce alcohol in small amounts if you must. The diet is a fine line. If you don’t fall on the right side of the fat, protein, carb ratio, just one apple, a beer or two glasses of wine will put you on the wrong side, and you will not enjoy the benefits you should from cutting carbs.

No sweet ‘cheat’ treats at all?

A small piece of dark chocolate is fine, but many people can’t eat just one small piece – like smokers who can’t have one cigarette. The key is to get sugar out the diet. People don’t understand how addictive sugar is, or what it actually is – not just sucrose, the white stuff, also high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in processed foods. That’s what I classify as sugar, the really addictive one. If you can get people down to 25g of carbs a day for a few months with no added sugar, the brain no longer searches for sugar. That’s what makes our diet so successful.

And best snacks?

Nuts, biltong, cheese, coconut – I love coconut chips best of all. And fullcream yoghurt.

How often should you eat?

Depends on how sick or obese you are. I’m diabetic, so in my opinion the less frequently I eat the better. I eat a big breakfast, snack a little at two in the afternoon and eat dinner at seven.

Friend or Foe.
Friend or Foe

“The first ‘k’ is the hardest” to quote Cat Stevens.

This week I have been adding Elliptigo time  to my training schedule for a number of  reasons. One, the extra cardio time is surely better than sitting on a train commuting to work daily.  Two , the Elliptigo is probably the nearest to running without the impact , thus avoiding injuries while still adding distance and finally it may look ‘unusual’ but I tell you what it is so much fun. I was lucky enough this week to be blessed with a strong easterly wind which was perfect for the morning commute as the head wind made the journey even harder, after an initial 10k run to warm me up. (on these muggy Perth summer mornings!). Of course with all things running if you add time and distance you eventually need to pay then piper for the privilege. Payment was called for Friday after a ‘quad‘ day on Thursday i.e. a 10k run in the morning followed by 15k ellipitgo ride into a strong headwind . Lunchtime was a 10k run with my work colleague and aspiring sub 3 marathon runner, Sascha,  in a cauldron of heat and humidity and finally the commute home into another headwind. ( how does that happen?)  Needless to say at 7pm I’m asleep on the couch before my 10 year old daughter weeks me to inform me the dogs need walking, joy ! After stumbling around the park in the dark I hit the bed totally and utterly knackered ! Time for one of my favourite Brendan Foster quotes…not sure if young Brendan had an Elliptigo in the seventies, probably a Grifter or a Chopper . (Note: you would need to be in you late forties or early fifties to appreciate that last statement !)

 

I hear you Brendan, I hear you…..

 

Right back to the point of the post, Friday and there was no way I was cycling to work for a fourth time. I scuttled off to the sanctity of the bus and train combination and into Panache Cafe on St. Georges Terrace for a Banana and Walnut bread , Cappuccino morning breakfast. The temperature didn’t look too bad with an overcast day for a change. (In Perth it is normally sunny, a lot and in Summer it is constant for months and months, I know this sounds incredible but with all things familiarity breeds contempt and I long for rain !) Unfortunately once I got outside I realised this was not going to be the comfortable recovery run in ideal conditions I was contemplating. It seemed the temperature had creept up to the low thirties and the humidity was going in the same direction. Add in tired legs and my appetite for the lunch time run was dissolving quicker than a chocolate cornetto in a heat wave. So finally I get to the point of the post. The first kilometre was a struggle as I stumbled (and that’s being nice.) down towards ‘stinky lake’ , a circuit of about 900m give or take. This was my run of choice as it gave me the option to bottle early and return to the air conditioned haven of work if needed, as I said before I was not enjoying the run. Anyhow after a first kilometre of just over 5min/k I decided to try and increase my pace slowly for a kilometre or two and try and work into the run rather than abandon at the 2k mark. After 3k I felt a second wind of sorts and made my mind up to increase the pace for another 2k to at least give me a good work out for 5k and maybe test some fast with muscles that hadn’t been used for a few weeks. Thus I ended up doubled up, destroyed,  with a nice 5k progressive under my belt. Mission accomplished you would think but no thought I , that actually wasn’t that bad so after a couple of minutes rest the Garmin (and Strava , remember in Strava we trust.. http://www.strava.com ) was reset and I decided to repeat the 5k progressive but this time starting faster and hopefully finishing faster. This was achieved finishing with a sub 3:30min/k and the feeling you get when you have nothing more to give. As I crawled back to work I reflected on what had become a great session, 2 * 5k progressive runs, back-to-back, in some serious brutal conditions with some testing time in the VO2 /threshold zone. What a difference to 50 minutes earlier when I was contemplating pulling the pin at 600m scuttling back to work with ,my tail between my legs.

 

Progressive #1 . Notice the slow start !!

 

Progressive #2. Quicker start and finish and some serious ‘pain box’ time, perfect!

 

 

The moral of this post is you need to ignore the first few kilometres and work into any training run and then ,if you need to, on-run (excuse the pun) make adjustments due to conditions (for me a brutal Perth Summer’s day) and/or general fatigue. The Kenyans are past masters at this and although they have regimented training programs if they feel they cannot achieve a set run on a set day that don’t, the run is either discarded or attempted later in the day/week. They run by feel and sometimes they don’t feel like running. I have just finished reading a book by Toby Tanser describing in detail how the Kenyans train and it certainly opened my eyes to ‘running by feel‘. The Kenyans seems to spend their whole life either running, eating or sleeping; there are no other distractions. This is a subject for another post but one of the major takes from the book was if you don’t feel like running then don’t.

 

A great read, highly recommended.

One final thought for the day, would an Elliptigo work in Kenya ? It would certainly stand out probably, who knows maybe one day I’ll find out , now that would be a post worth writing……. until then I’ll stick to the Perth bike paths and chase down the native animals that live in this habitat, cacooned in multi-coloured lycra…..

 

Weighing 19kg the Elliptigo is not built for headwinds!!

The magic pill to a PB does exist.

 

Thursday is Yelo muffin time.

This morning as we say outside Yolo ( http://www.yelocornerstore.com.au ) eating muffins and drinking coffee the conversation turned to weight. Bart’s had lost 5 kilos over than last few weeks and this was evident in his running. No longer was he getting dropped early in the 14k progressive pain train that is Thursday mornings. He was lasting till the halfway point and although he would then be dropped quicker than a Kevin Spacey video he was finishing stronger each week. We had to take his word for it of course as, being a sports teacher , he’s not one for these new fangled devices like GPS watches, Bart’s is old school and his cheap Casio digital watch is good for telling the time only, how quaint?

So around the table we went divulging our current weight. Bart’s was a shade over 67 kilos’ which was getting there for a long distance runner, myself , I was around the 72 kilo mark which is at least 2 kilos over my racing weight but with the next few months not offering up any fast marathons I generally ‘let myself go’ a bit. Mike K.’s weight fluctuates more than the stock market with a recession in town, it all depends on how many times he has eaten out that week as well as the little treats he gives himself when he returns from eating out. Next was the King of Carine, young Nic  Harman,  who had just probably set the fastest time for the 14k progressive by a country mile. Nic weighted in at 54 kilos, which is the weight that most Kenyan marathon runners aim for.  Funnily enough Nic just drank water while the rest of us gorged on the best muffin and coffee combination in WA, go figure ? Could Nic had run the time he just had if he weighed in at a ‘normal’ weight, no way.

So can we get to Nic’s weight and turbo-charge our running, unfortunately not. If I weighed 54kilos I would be single (my Wife struggles with my current weight as she grumbles the man she married was nearer 90 kilos than 70 and spent time in gyms rather than pounding the pavement. They’re a funny bunch Wifes? ) and probably struggle to get out of bed no matter run anywhere. This is the card I have been handed by my parents and genetics. Is this the reason why I’ll never challenge the Africans, it certainly plays a part I believe. The other part of course is God given talent and the ability to draw on it. This morning as Nic disappeared into the distance I pondered why I probably put in more time running than Nic but was nowhere near his pace and had no chance of ever finishing a race anywhere near him. Of course this goes for 99% of the running population and I get a lot closer than most but sometimes you need to face facts, there is nothing I could do, nothing, to get anywhere near Nic and his times. Of course this then also translates to the same equation for Nic and the Kenyan runners that currently dominate the running scene of today. What do they have that we don’t ? They have the genetics and the hunger to draw on their talent, mentally they are strong because they face poverty daily and running is their escape. They are also very, very light.

So the magic pill to improve your running may be a pill that you don’t need to take, abstinence may be the answer to all you’re running questions. The cost of course is a big one and the sacrifice substantial but if you really want to improve it can be as easy and walking past the fridge in the evening and choosing a healthy option. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned many times on this topic,  we give up so much as runners , food can be the hardest one to swallow, or not as the case may be. I love my food and side with Matt Fitzgerald and his marathon diet as it advocates carbs and the ‘normal’ runners diet of food I adore. The high fat, low carb diet is something I can never follow because it advocates the complete removal of sugar from the diet. I know sugar is bad but I justify it as fuel that is needed for my running. Imagine no sugar in my diet, the world would be a bland place.

I suppose how we reach our ‘racing weight’ is a personal choice, if you follow the Fitzgerald plan it may mean a smaller portion size or if you go down the HFLC diet it would be the removal off sugar from your diet. The thing is when you get to your racing weight the rewards are huge, as described in the post below. Runners put so much emphasis on the weight of their training shoes stressing about a few hundred grams while adding kilos to their body weight with bad diet and/or poor training. It doesn’t add up.

 

A post from Amanda McMillan written for www.runnersworld.com explains how your racing weight can make you fitter, faster and more resilient to wear and tear.

Perhaps you have always had the same body and never considered what adding a few pounds of muscle or dropping a few pounds of flab might do for your performance. Alicia Shay, a professional runner and nutrition counselor in Flagstaff, Arizona, says weight shouldn’t be overlooked. “Anyone who cares how fast they’re running should consider their weight part of their overall training strategy,” she says.

It’s most common for runners to find their weight has crept up over the years. Pete Magill, author of Build Your Running Body, didn’t think much about his own gradual weight gain until, at 44, his usual 15-minute 5K times began to suffer.

“When I ran 16:20, I knew I was in trouble,” Magill says. “I’d been racing at 170 pounds since starting masters competition, almost 10 pounds over my race weight back in my 20s.” He couldn’t train any harder, so he went on a diet and dropped to 164. Over the next few years, he set the American men’s 45–49 record for the 5K, at 14:34.

Magill’s not alone. “I can’t imagine you can talk to a competitive runner who doesn’t have a weight-loss-equals-faster-time story,” he says.

But getting to that ideal number can be hard work—especially if you’re already logging major mileage and are used to eating whatever you want. And it’s a delicate balance: Dipping below it or losing weight in unhealthy ways could put you at risk for injury, illness and disordered eating behaviors.

Why Lighter Equals Faster

As a general rule, runners move most efficiently when they’re at the low end of what’s considered a healthy body mass and body-fat percentage. “Running is really just a form of jumping,” says Matt Fitzgerald, certified sports nutritionist and author of Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. “You can’t move forward without moving up, and the more you have to lift against gravity, the more energy it requires.” Imagine running with an extra 5 pounds strapped around your waist, he explains.

Body weight affects performance in running more than it does in other sports, such as swimming and biking, according to a 2011 Swiss study on Ironman triathletes. And lower body-mass index seems increasingly important as race distances get longer: A 2014 study found that the optimal BMI for male 800m runners was between 20 and 21, while it dropped between 19 and 20 for male 10,000m and marathon runners. (Generalizations about BMI shouldn’t be used prescriptively, Shay says, because it doesn’t take into account lean muscle or body fat.)

There are other reasons lighter means faster: Larger people are less efficient at delivering oxygen throughout the body. Losing weight doesn’t change your lung capacity or function, but it does mean that each breath doesn’t have to go as far.

Leaner athletes can dissipate heat better, too, because they have a higher surface-area-to-body-weight ratio and less insulating fat tissue. They also burn carbohydrates more efficiently. So while weight isn’t everything, it’s certainly a big thing. “Four factors determine how fast you are,” says Sean Wade, a top masters athlete and coach of the Houston-based Kenyan Way running program. “Genetics, form, how hard and smart you train, and your weight—and not necessarily in that order.”

Age Makes a Difference

Masters runners may have the hardest time losing weight—no matter how much they run. Fred Zalokar, 54, averages more than 100 miles a week and for years oscillated between 170 and 180 pounds. But since he cleaned up his diet four years ago, he’s dropped more than 20 pounds, increasing his speed and turnover along the way.

“Weight loss has never just happened for me, even when I was regularly running ultras,” Zalokar says. “If I’m not consciously cutting my calories, I can make up for all that mileage without a second thought.”

That’s because adults begin losing muscle mass in their early 40s, which can impair performance and decrease metabolism, says Emily Brown, RD. Getting enough physical activity (including resistance training to maintain muscle) is especially important, as is cutting back on junk food and oversize food portions.

Tom Storey, 50, who has run Boston seven times, attributes his first qualifying run, in 2007, to weight loss. In just more than a year, he went from 205 to 150 pounds and shaved more than 30 minutes off his previously 4-hour marathon time. Today, maintaining his weight requires sacrifices he’s willing to make. “There aren’t a lot of things I can do to make myself a better athlete,” he says, “but if I can keep my weight down, I know I’ll be faster.”

Crunching the Numbers

Finding your ideal weight—the healthy weight at which you really perform your best—takes some time. “You can’t predict your optimal race weight beforehand,” Fitzgerald says. “You can move toward a goal, and when you have the race of your life, you weigh yourself and get your body composition tested, and there you have it.”

Andrew Lemoncello, 2012 Olympian for the U.K. and a coach for McMillan Running, didn’t find his ideal race weight until going pro after college. “I used to live by the saying, ‘If the furnace is hot enough, it will burn anything,’ “ he says. “I ate healthy foods, but I also loved desserts and never paid attention to my portions.”

When he began spending time with other pro runners, Lemoncello realized he needed higher-quality fuel for his furnace to run at its most efficient. He began planning his meals and stopped mindless eating, and he dropped from 150 pounds to 145. “I started setting PRs and had more energy and confidence,” he says. “If I’m eating well and training hard, that’s the weight my body naturally gravitates to.”

For any weight loss or gain, it helps to have something to aim for. Several online calculators, like Fitzgerald’s at RacingWeight.com, will estimate your ideal racing weight based on your age, gender and current fitness level. In this case, ideal is defined as what you would weigh if your body fat was at its lowest attainable-yet-healthy percentage, Fitzgerald explains.

Then there are the stats about how much quicker you’ll be by slimming down, like the commonly cited 2 seconds per mile, per pound you are above your ideal weight. But this will vary from person to person, says exercise physiologist Paul Vanderburgh, creator of the online Flyer Handicap Calculator, which helps runners see how their race times stack up against competitors of other ages and weights. Based on VO2 max estimates, it computes your predicted time if you were 25 years old and a scale model of yourself at 110 pounds for women or 143 pounds for men. “It’s strictly meant for comparisons,” he stresses, “not for figuring out the weight you should realistically be to hit a certain time.”

In Build Your Running Body, Magill and his co-authors plot a chart of estimates based on VO2 calculations—for example, that a 200-pound runner can shave 19 seconds off a 20-minute 5K time by losing 5 pounds. Wade takes a simpler approach: “One minute slower per 1 pound overweight is what I tell my marathoners,” he says.

These tools can be good motivators, according to Rasa Troup, a certified specialist in sports dietetics (CSSD), a 2008 Olympian and current nutritionist for Team USA Minnesota, but she adds that athletes shouldn’t take them as gospel. “My biggest concern is that they distract runners from listening to and understanding their own bodies, because they’re caught up in reaching some number,” she says. “It’s more important to be aware of how tired hungry or sluggish you are feeling.”

Kimberly Mueller, CSSD, owner of San Diego-based Fuel Factor Nutrition Coaching and a 2:52 marathoner, warns that calculators can skew too low with body-fat goals, as well. “Some have estimated my ideal body composition to fall around 12 percent,” she says, “but I know I lose my menstrual cycle if I fall below 14.”

How Much is Too Much?

Many runners could benefit from shedding a few pounds, Troup admits—but only if they have excess weight to lose and only if it’s done in a way that supplements their training, rather than sabotaging it. “Well-fueled athletes will perform well, and well-fueled means something different for every person,” she says. Of course, losing weight isn’t a good idea for all competitive runners. For those who are naturally very lean or who work hard to stay at the low end of their healthy weight, the threat of falling below that point at which you race your best is real.

Stephanie Bruce learned that the hard way when she finished a disappointing 16th at the 2013 Boston Marathon. She and her husband, pro runner Ben Bruce, have spent years perfecting their race-weight strategies, she says, and weigh themselves daily leading up to a big race.

“We didn’t have a scale in Boston, and it was difficult to get in as many calories the day before as I would have been able to at home,” she says. (Bruce has celiac disease and has to be careful about eating food prepared outside of her own kitchen.) “I was probably under by only 2 or 3 pounds on race morning, but it made a huge impact. I had no power; I just couldn’t hold the pace.”

Bruce says she works hard to maintain a healthy weight and has never dropped so low that her health has suffered. But many runners, without enough calories or nutrients, can develop weak bones and compromised immune systems.

That’s what Brian Rosetti figures happened to him. After he graduated from college, he spent two years training almost full-time. His mileage was increasing, but he was focused on low weight instead of nutrition for performance. Just as he made a breakthrough in his training, and as his weight dropped to an all-time low of 146 on his 6-foot-1 frame, he suffered a sacral stress fracture. “My bone density was below the median level, and I don’t think I was getting the right nutrients,” Rosetti says. “I was focused on keeping as light as I could. That’s a scary place to be.” The injury, in effect, ended his career.

Fitzgerald says impaired performance is usually the first sign that a runner has dipped into dangerous territory. “It’s the canary in the coal mine—your body’s signal that it’s under too much stress.”

For women, a missing menstrual period is also an indication of an unhealthy and unsustainable weight, with potential complications like infertility and osteoporosis. And while it’s less talked about, competitive men can struggle, too. A recent Southern Utah University study found that almost 20 percent of male high school cross country runners were at risk for disordered eating behaviors like bingeing and purging. Some boys expressed a desire to gain body weight to be more attractive, while others wanted to lose it to improve their running.

To keep your weight loss from becoming detrimental, the American Council on Exercise recommends maintaining a BMI that stays at or above the normal weight threshold of 18.5 and a body fat percentage above 14 percent for women and 6 percent for men. Some elites dip below these guidelines, Troup says, but it’s not recommended without careful monitoring.

Fitzgerald also recommends tracking your performance. “If you’re getting skinnier but your times are getting worse, you’ve passed the point of beneficial weight loss,” he says.

And above all else, Shay says, listen to your body and your mind. “If you’re starving all the time or you’re irritable and cranky or you’re bonking on runs, you’re probably being too ambitious and getting too light.”

Timing is Everything

The time to prioritize weight loss is in a four- to nine-week period before you start ramping up your workouts, while you’re building your base. “You can’t maximize fitness gain and weight loss simultaneously,” Fitzgerald says.

Mueller agrees. During a competitive season, athletes shouldn’t restrict themselves by more than 500 calories per day. For those who want to lose only a few pounds, 200 to 300 is even better. Stop restricting calories the week of a big race, she adds, because your body will perform best on a full tank.

Bruce says she goes into her training cycles about 3 to 5 pounds over her racing weight, a product of relaxed eating habits and less exercise during her offseason. “I like to have a reserve to pull from, because once I start working out harder, I lose it pretty easily,” she says.

Lemoncello follows a similar schedule during his training period, gaining 5 to 10 pounds when he’s not racing. “It’s good for my running,” he says. “The break helps me feel energized, and I come back motivated.”

Eliud Kipchoge and his training team on a sunrise run, probably no Yelo muffin and coffee combo to finish.

Sometimes muffins can actually make you faster.

A thing of beauty, and it seems for three days pre-marathon a performance enhancer.

 

Marathon training involves months of sacrifice to be able to be in the best condition possible on the day to achieve your personal goal. There are so many things that can derail you it’s a wonder anyone even gets to the start line at all. Of the ones that do a high percentage have ‘issues‘ or have had ‘issues‘ over the course of their training,  so very few are standing at the start line in the best condition they could possibly be in, full of beans about to explode into the run of their life.  This in itself keeps runners returning to the marathon because most of the time they know they could have done something different in their training or have been better prepared if ‘x‘ didn’t happen (for ‘x‘ insert one of hundreds of ailments or injuries) Very few get to run the perfect race.

Sometimes though marathon training gives back and three days before the big day is such an occasion. It does this by advocating carbo-loading, which translates into ‘muffin time baby!‘ . The common held believe is that carbo-loading is good for a 2-3% performance increase ; which over a marathon is a few minutes. I’ve said this before but what other sport allows you to eat muffins for three days before a big race and actually improve your performance, it is a wonderful thing. It’s just a pity it only lasts for three days and you need to probably work  your balls off for 3 months before, minimum. (Imagine if it was the other way around, I’m not sure my bank account could cope with the Yelo muffin bill !)

Of course I’m not talking about going ‘muffin crazy’ for three days, you can have one per day as well as lots of pasta, OJ, honey on toast, yoghurt and for my American cousins bagels. You need to aim for 10g of carbo-hydrates for every kilo of body weight. For me , at around 70kg, I look to consume about 700g of carbs a day for the last three days before the marathon. Trust me people this is a lot of carbs. (and a lot of muffins if I choose the ‘muffin only’ approach, which is probably suicidal!, probably….) You will feel bloated and, if not, you’re probably not eating enough carbs unfortunately.  I would suggest a very large proportion of runners who try to carbo-load never actually do it right and just end up putting on weight, feeling like crap and achieving no real benefit. It, like all things in life, takes practice and experience.

Personally I eat a muffin (Yelo of course) for breakfast or weetbix and a banana ,  2-3 bananas per day,  2 rounds of honey on toast throughout the day, a few OJ’s, two smallish serves of pasta (lunch and dinner) and some yoghurt in the evening, while sipping on either electrolytes or water constantly. This leads to plenty of time in the men’s toilet and your urine should really be virtually clear most of the day.  Staying hydarated is another pre-requisite of a successful carbo-loading process.

Do you need to stuff yourself full of carbs for three days pre-race ? There are alternatives and/or other options. The first alternative is from a Western Australians University who studied the carbo-loading process and came up with a different , quicker, option while consuming less food.  Matt Fitzgerald studied this approach and two others in his article below :-

 

The practice of carbo-loading dates back to the late 1960s. The first carbo-loading protocol was developed by a Swedish physiologist named Gunvar Ahlborg after he discovered a positive relationship between the amount of glycogen (carbs stored in the muscles and liver) in the body and endurance performance. Scientists and runners had already known for some time that eating a high-carbohydrate diet in the days preceding a long race enhances performance, but no one knew exactly why until Ahlborg’s team zeroed in on the glycogen connection.

Subsequently, Ahlborg discovered that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion. The most obvious way to deplete the muscles of glycogen is to eat extremely small amounts of carbohydrate. A second way is to engage in exhaustive exercise.

The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and stores, and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen.

Ahlborg referred to this phenomenon as glycogen supercompensation. Armed with this knowledge, he was able to create a more sophisticated carbo-loading protocol than the primitive existing method, which was, more or less, eating a big bowl of spaghetti.

The Ahlborg Method

Ahlborg came up with a seven-day carbo-loading plan in which an exhaustive bout of exercise was followed by three or four days of extremely low carbohydrate intake (10 percent of total calories) and then three or four days of extremely high carbohydrate intake (90 percent of total calories).

The Ahlborg
Carbo-Loading Method

  1. Perform an exhaustive workout one week before a long race (90 minutes-plus).

  2. Consume a very low-carb diet (10%) for the next 3-4 days while training lightly.

  3. Consume a very high-carb diet (90%) the next 3-4 days while continuing to train lightly.

Trained athletes who used this protocol in an experiment were able to nearly double their glycogen stores and exhibited significantly greater endurance in exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes.

After these results were published, endurance athletes across the globe began to use Ahlborg’s carbo-loading plan prior to events anticipated to last 90 minutes or longer. While it worked admirably, it had its share of drawbacks.

First of all, many athletes weren’t keen on performing an exhaustive workout just a week before a big race, as the plan required. Second, maintaining a 10 percent carbohydrate diet for three or four days carried some nasty consequences including lethargy, cravings, irritability, lack of concentration and increased susceptibility to illness. Many runners and other athletes found it just wasn’t worth it.

The No-depletion Method

Fortunately, later research showed that you can increase glycogen storage significantly without first depleting it. A newer carbo-loading protocol based on this research calls for athletes to eat a normal diet of 55 to 60 percent carbohydrate until three days before racing, and then switch to a 70 percent carbohydrate diet for the final three days, plus race morning.

The No-Depletion
Carbo-Loading Method

  1. Perform a long workout (but not an exhaustive workout) one week before race day.
  2. Eat normally (55-60% carbohydrate) until three days before a longer race.
  3. Eat a high-carb diet (70%) the final three days before racing while training very lightly.

As for exercise, this tamer carbo-loading method suggests one last longer workout (but not an exhaustive workout) done a week from race day followed by increasingly shorter workouts throughout race week. It’s simple, it’s non-excruciating, and it works. Admittedly, some scientists and athletes still swear that the Ahlborg protocol is more effective, but if it is, the difference is slight and probably not worth the suffering and inherent risks.

Note that you should increase your carbohydrate intake not by increasing your total caloric intake, but rather by reducing fat and protein intake in an amount that equals or slightly exceeds the amount of carbohydrate you add. Combining less training with more total calories could result in last-minute weight gain that will only slow you down.

Be aware, too, that for every gram of carbohydrate the body stores, it also stores 3 to 5 grams of water, which leads many athletes to feel bloated by the end of a three-day loading period. The water weight will be long gone by the time you finish your race, however.

The Western Australia Method

The newest and perhaps the best of all the carbo-loading strategies was devised in 2002 by scientists at the University of Western Australia. It combines depletion and loading and condenses them into a one-day time frame.

The creators of this innovative protocol recognized that a single, short workout performed at extremely high intensity creates a powerful demand for glycogen storage in both the slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers of the muscles. They hypothesized that following such a workout with heavy carbohydrate intake could result in a high level of glycogen supercompensation without a lot of fuss.

In an experiment, the researchers asked athletes to perform a short-duration, high-intensity workout consisting of two and a half minutes at 130 percent of VO2max (about one-mile race pace) followed by a 30-second sprint. During the next 24 hours, the athletes consumed 12 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of lean muscle mass. This resulted in a 90-percent increase in muscle glycogen storage.

 

The Western Australia
Carbo-Loading Method

  1. During the pre-race week, eat normally while training lightly until the day before a longer race.

  2. On the morning of the day before the race, perform a very brief, very high-intensity workout

 

Runners have cause to be very pleased by these findings. Doing just a few minutes of high-intensity exercise the day before a competition will not sabotage tomorrow’s performance, yet it will suffice to stimulate the desirable carbohydrate “sponging” effect that was sought in the original Ahlborg protocol. This allows the athlete to maintain a normal diet right up until the day before competition and then load in the final 24 hours.

The Western Australia carbo-loading strategy works best if preceded by a proper taper–that is, by several days of reduced training whose purpose is to render your body rested, regenerated, and race-ready. In fact, several days of reduced training combined with your normal diet will substantially increase your glycogen storage level even before the final day’s workout and carbohydrate binge.

When you exercise vigorously almost every day, your body never gets a chance to fully replenish its glycogen stores before the next workout reduces them again. Only after 48 hours of very light training or complete rest are your glycogen levels fully compensated. Then the Western Australia carbo-loading regimen can be used to achieve glycogen supercompensation.

Having said all of this, I would like to note finally that carbo-loading in general has been shown to enhance race performance only when athletes consume little or no carbohydrate during the race itself. If you do use a sports drink or sports gels to fuel your race effort–as you should–prior carbo-loading probably will have no effect. But it doesn’t hurt to do it anyway, as insurance.

 

For the purists, who want their daily muffin,  Karla Douglass Thom describes the stereotypical approach :-

 

Endurance athletes have long touted the benefits of carbo-loading – which, for most, simply involved scarfing down lots of pasta and bread the night before a race and calling it good. A smart carb-cramming plan, however, is slightly more strategic.

Research suggests, for example, that starting to ramp up carb intake a few days before an event can provide the best results. It also shows that by carbing up properly, an athlete can maximize endurance, maintain focus and improve strength.

Carbo-loading – the practice of increasing one’s intake of carbohydrates, particularly for a performance-related event or intense training session – is critical for endurance athletes. Carbo-loading tops off muscles’ glycogen stores, which power your muscles for maximum performance. The more glycogen you have socked away, the longer you’ll last. And those who exercise hard enough to deplete their muscles of glycogen (a process that generally takes 60 to 90 minutes of strenuous exercise, so think runners, cyclists and cross-country skiers – not low-key walkers or joggers) will need more than their usual dose of carbs to keep them going.

A Method to the Macaroni

Carbo-loading works best when you’ve already been eating a carbohydrate-rich diet during your training regimen, according to the Mayo Clinic, because during that time your body has learned to use the carbs you eat more effectively. In fact, research from the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., suggests that well-trained athletes who log long training sessions teach their muscles to store up to 25 percent more glycogen.

Ideally, endurance athletes’ diets should already be carb-rich, so carbo-loading mainly consists of bumping up your ratio of carbs to fats and proteins even further. You shouldn’t take in more calories; rather, just eat more oatmeal, fewer eggs, more potatoes, less steak. A week before your event (when, ideally, you’ll begin the carbo-loading process), you should also reduce the intensity and duration of your workouts in order to rest and rebuild your muscles.

During your carbo-loading phase, carbs should constitute about 60 to 70 percent of your daily caloric intake. Specifically, shoot for 3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight each day. So, a 130-pound woman would need from 390 to 650 grams of carbs in her diet per day, and a 180-pound man would strive for 540 to 900 grams per day. (At the beginning of your loading cycle, start at the lower end of the range; by the end, strive for the higher end.)

Keep in mind, though, that carbo-loading isn’t an excuse to scrap your nutritional needs: It’s important to maintain a healthy diet that includes vitamin- and mineral-packed foods such as fruits, veggies and legumes. According to the Mayo Clinic, about 10 to 15 percent of your non-carb calories should be from lean protein in meat, poultry or fish, and about 15 to 20 percent of your calories should come from healthy fats.

Load Your Own Way

Carbo-loading isn’t just for high-stakes competition, according to sports nutritionist Monique Ryan, MS, RD, author of Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes (VeloPress, 2002). She notes that both athletes and fitness enthusiasts should experiment with carbo-loading throughout their training.

Every body responds to carbs a little differently, so your training cycle is the perfect time to figure out what your body likes and digests the best.

Generally, complex sugars, such as those in whole-grain pasta or an apple, are absorbed by your system more slowly than the simple sugars found in a white-flour bagel or cookie. That means complex carbs deliver more long-lasting energy. Simple sugars, on the other hand, provide a quick burst of short-lived fuel for your muscles’ energy needs, but they don’t usually offer much nutritional value.

To each his own digestive system, however. “All carbs have their own unique glucose and insulin curve in each individual,” notes Ryan. The point is, what works best for your training partner might not be ideal for you.

Keep It Clean

Carbo-loading priorities aside, when it comes to nutrition, the old rule still applies: “In general, athletes want to focus on quality carbs from fruits, vegetables and wholesome grain foods for the bulk of their carbohydrates. These nutrient-dense foods offer not only the fuel needed for top performance, but also the vitamins and minerals that are like spark plugs for the body’s engine,” says Nancy Clark, MS, RD, a Boston-area sports nutritionist and author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook (Human Kinetics Publishers, 2003).

Athletes don’t necessarily have to avoid sugar altogether. Most dietitians assert that it’s acceptable for them (like everyone else) to take in up to 10 percent of their calories from refined sugars. For the athlete who eats 3,000 calories per day, that might equate to a midafternoon Frappucino or ice cream for dessert. But if you’re eating processed energy bars or shakes for training, or nursing a soda habit, you could easily be getting your sugar quota that way, too.

Read labels carefully, and remember, because refined sugars are a pro-inflammatory (and thus antirecovery) food, and because they tend to reduce your immunity, you’re best off minimizing your refined-sugar intake as much as possible. Try the natural supplement stevia for everyday sweetening, and save your sugar for feel-good treats you really enjoy.

Calculating Carbs

It’s a good idea to know which foods provide the biggest carbohydrate bang per serving, but you don’t necessarily have to approach each meal with a fork and a calculator. Marathoner Deena Kastor, who won bronze at the 2004 Olympics, believes that once you understand how your body processes different carbohydrates – that is, which foods provide lasting energy for you – you can approach your meals with an intuitive sense of what you need.

“I focus on adding another heaping spoonful of pasta or a few more potatoes,” she says. “Before the Athens marathon, I also ate a lot of dense fruits with high sugar content: pears, bananas, grapes. They replaced a lot of electrolytes and minerals I knew I was sweating out.”

But while emphasizing fruits might work for Deena, Clark warns that, for some athletes, the fiber content in some fruits might result in unwanted pit stops along the racecourse. Generally, though, the more adjusted your body is to eating whole foods, the less of a problem this is likely to be.

Common Mistakes

As you perfect your personal carbo-loading plan, there are certain things to avoid. For instance, research supports skipping the “depletion phase” of classic carbo-loading. The old-school depletion approach included hard workouts a week or so before competition to drain the muscles of glycogen, followed by a few days of a low-carb diet to further sweep out the shelves. In the final few days before the race, adherents then switched to a high-carb diet to saturate the muscles with glycogen.

While that approach does work, a study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine in 1981 found that eliminating the depletion phase works just as well and can prevent athletes from feeling sluggish and irritable the week of their event. “The depletion phase accomplishes no more than what simply resting and eating properly does,” Ryan says.

Other tried-and-true advice you can take to the table:

1. Don’t experiment with new foods during the week before competition. If you’re traveling to an event and are tempted to try the local fare, hold off until after the race.

2. Skip the high-fiber foods the day before the event. Unless you are used to eating them as part of your regular diet and know you tolerate them well, raw vegetables, beans, bran and the like may leave you feeling bloated and gassy when the gun goes off. Also, avoid fatty foods that take a long time to digest. Stick with high-carb, easily digestible foods like pasta and fruit.

3. Don’t obsess about weight gain. Proper carbo-loading will cause you to put on a little weight, because with each gram of glycogen your muscles store about 3 grams of water. “A well-loaded athlete will gain about 2 to 4 pounds of water weight,” Clark says.

Burn, Bagel, Burn

“Carbo-loading will provide higher-than-normal glycogen stores,” Ryan says, “but even ‘fully loaded’ marathoners will lose steam between miles 15 and 20. If you’re exercising for that long, you’ll still have to take in carbohydrates during the event.”

An hour or so into a training session or competition, it’s wise to begin refueling your muscles with glucose. At this point, whether you eat a cookie or ingest a sports gel doesn’t really matter, although packets of gels and other foods designed for eating and drinking on the go are convenient to carry, go down quickly and tend to be easily digestible.

If you’re eager to stretch your glycogen stores and your athletic potential to the max, keep these carbo-loading guidelines in mind: Experiment with your carb intake during your training routine, start carbo-loading well before race day, and push the carbs while controlling your calories and nutrition. Do this on a regular basis and you’ll find that carbo-loading isn’t much different than any other aspect of race preparation: It all comes down to practice, practice, practice.

 

Faster running without running, sounds too good to be true?

Although runners have less opportunities to increase pace without actually putting in the hard yards there are limited options to increase your race pace and bring down your finishing time. Of course we are not offered the easy options experienced and embraced by cyclists. While running long on Sunday we were once again passed by a ‘gaggle’ of cyclists freewheeling down a hill merrily chit-chatting away, cocooned in lycra, and excited about another stop for frothy light frappacino’s and banana bread. As runners we can’t free wheel, when we run downhill we actually have to run downhill, funny that ? We can’t spend thousands of dollars on Zip Wheels, silly helmets or extra-extra light carbon-fibre bikes to shave a  few minutes of our finishing time. Admittedly there is the Nike Vaporflys 4% now available which offer a 4% improvement in running economy but that is about all us runners can hope to achieve without doing the extra hard yards, or is it ? ( I have attached a review of the Vaporflys at the end of this post from http://www.roadtrailrun.com . I have mine and will be testing them tonight, very excited !!)

So how do runners gain that few extra seconds without training more or harder. I’ve added a list of things below which are guaranteed to improve your finishing time and you don’t even have to lace up your runners

Race shoes on race day. Sounds obvious right, you train in comfortable, high heel, extra padded trainers which help with the constant pounding you subject yourself to while you train. On race day though you can add a turbo-charger by bringing out the race shoes, lighter, less forgiving but a race-only treat. These race shoes make you feel like you’ve been running in concrete , or Kayano’s as I like to call that feeling, and as well as a placebo effect, they also make the whole running process easier due to good old fashioned physics, less weight attached to the end of your legs. I’m lucky that I can run marathons in racing flats and have used Asics Piranha’s, Adidias Takumi Sen3, Nike LunaRacers  and Saucony Kinvara’s on a number of occasions. All these are light , around 210g , compared to a ‘training’ shoe like the Asics Kayano which is about 326g. So my first tip to shave those seconds (or even minutes) off your time is to find your favourite shoe manufacturer racing version of your everyday runner

A free turbo-charger .

Taper properly. One of the hardest thing for a runner is to stop running just before a goal race. It is counter-intuitive to stop doing what you love to do and, paranoid as all runners are, you grapple with the ‘I’ll lose my fitness’ argument that always rages as you taper towards the big day.  Well I’m here to tell you that the week before the marathon (we’re doing a marathon right?) there is nothing you can do to add to your fitness levels, all you can do it too much.  Thus you could do nothing all week and this would actually help towards your finish time. Of course no runner can do nothing, especially with a marathon on the horizon. I generally run a 10k Tuesday and Thursday of marathon week and that’s it. Twenty kilometres in a week (bar the 42k on Sunday of course) when I’m use to running 6-8 times that. How do I do it ? Easy, I tell myself that I am improving my finish time for every day I don’t run and also with the experience of running 41 marathons I know this is a tried and tested method that works for me. When I first started running I use to taper for three weeks before the big day and I look back now and I’m amazed I even finished. A good week of tapering may be extended to two at a push (assuming you put in good numbers in training) but three weeks is too many for me. I’m more of a ‘aggressive two week taper’ rather than a gradual three week taper. As with all things running though you need to find the ideal fit for you and that comes with experience but the last week doing little or nothing is a guaranteed finish time improver

Carboload well, some pass me a muffin ! Running is an unforgiving mistress, she (she is a she isn’t she ?) insists you train hard, eat right, get up early, miss family time and spend quality time in the pain box on a regular basis. For three days before a marathon though she relents and turns into your best friend EVER. This is because she allows you to carboload to improve your finishing time. Hallelujah , for three days you get to eat just about as much carbohydrates as you can physically stomach. I use the 10g of carbs per kilogram of body weight , per day for three days before the marathon. For me this equates to 700g of carbs a day. Trying to eat 700g of quality carbs a day is actually very hard and you need to be careful you don’t add too much sugar into the mix or you and the bathroom scales are going to fall out big time. For me I aim for a toast for breakfast,  pasta meal every evening, orange juice and electrolytes, honey on toast (probably twice a day), yoghurt, bananas  and more pasta for lunch. This gets me to around the 700g I need. Very few runners actually make the right mix of carbohydrates to protein and the other major food groups, they either fall short on the carbohydrate count or add too much sugar (assuming a ‘if  looks good I can eat it mentality’) This can lead to weight gain (rather than the ‘good’ weight gain due to more water in the last few days. This also needs to be addressed, you should be ‘peeing’ clear the three days before a marathon as you hydrate before the big day.)

Got to love marathon training for the last 3 days, pass me a muffin !

 

 

Of course there is the one day carboload for runners who feel that three days of gorging on carbs makes them feel bloated, heavy and generally lethargic.  Dr. Paul Fournier from The Conversation published this post on the subject below:-

During the London Olympics, and beyond, many endurance athletes will attempt to increase their muscle glycogen stores by carbohydrate loading. This is because, despite its importance, glycogen is a fuel present only in small amounts in skeletal muscles and can be rapidly depleted during prolonged intense aerobic exercise, thus causing fatigue.

Unfortunately, many athletes aiming to increase their glycogen stores find this aspect of their preparation challenging. It is thus important to remind them that nearly a decade ago my colleagues and I developed some carbohydrate loading regimens to make this task easier.

Six-day regimen

Close to the end of the 1960s, a team of scientists from Northern Europe introduced a carbohydrate loading regimen that resulted in a near two-fold increase in muscle glycogen stores.

treehouse1977

This regimen involved a glycogen-depleting bout of exercise followed by three days of a carbohydrate-poor diet. Another bout of exercise was then performed to deplete once more the stores of muscle glycogen.

For the next three days the athletes were asked to eat a carbohydrate-rich diet and to avoid any strenuous physical activity.

As one would expect, despite its benefits, this regimen was difficult to tolerate and highly impractical, particularly for athletes wishing to train during the carbohydrate-deprivation phase of this regimen.

Three-day regimen

It is in part for this reason that nearly 30 years ago, Sherman and colleagues introduced an improved carbohydrate-loading regimen that resulted in comparable increases in muscle glycogen levels, but without the disadvantages associated with the classical regimen.

These investigators found that the accumulation of high levels of muscle glycogen is possible without any glycogen-depletion phase.

Emily Barney

All that is required is for athletes to taper their training over several days and rest on the day before competition while ingesting a carbohydrate-rich diet for three days prior to competing.

Unfortunately, even this three-day carbohydrate loading regimen was difficult to adhere to given the large amounts of carbohydrate that needed to be ingested over several consecutive days.

For this reason, nearly a decade ago my colleagues and I at UWA undertook to develop an improved carbohydrate-loading regimen that allows the attainment of maximal muscle glycogen levels within a shorter time period.

One-day regimen

As a result, we introduced two novel one-day long carbohydrate loading regimens (published here and here).

Since the rates of muscle glycogen synthesis are generally higher during recovery from a short bout of high intensity exercise than during recovery from prolonged exercise of moderate intensity, we examined whether combining a short bout of high intensity exercise with a one day high-carbohydrate intake could provide a faster way to carbohydrate load.

To this end, we asked a group of participants to cycle for 150 seconds at 130% of their maximal aerobic capacity followed by a 30-second all-out sprint. For the next 24 hours, we fed them the equivalent of 10 grams of carbohydrate-rich food per kilo of body mass.

To our surprise, after only 24 hours their muscle glycogen stores increased to levels comparable to or higher than those reported in previous studies on carbohydrate loading.

foodiesathome.com

One limitation with this regimen is that many endurance athletes may not wish to perform three minutes of intense exercise on the day before competing. Ideally, it would be better if they could accumulate as much glycogen within one day but without a glycogen-depleting exercise bout.

Sherman and colleagues had shown it was possible without a glycogen-depleting period of exercise to store maximal amounts of muscle glycogen if a carbohydrate-rich diet was adopted for three days while tapering exercise-training.

We examined whether this approach could work in endurance-trained athletes fed the equivalent of 10 g of carbohydrate-rich food per kilo of body mass while remaining physically inactive for a whole day.

We found that muscle glycogen stores reach maximal levels within only one day of starting this regimen, with no added benefits by extending the high-carbohydrate intake period for up to three days.

In other words, all that is required of our endurance athletes who trained regularly and want to carbohydrate load before competing is simply to interrupt their training for one day and eat the equivalent of 10 grams of carbohydrate-rich food (e.g. pasta, bread, rice, potatoes) per kilo of body mass during that day.

Simply, the best

To the best of our knowledge, no better carbohydrate loading regimen has been published since then, but many athletes still rely on earlier regimens.

Our carbohydrate loading protocol sounds simple, and it is simple – but it works.

 

A good review of the Nike Vaporflys 4%, basically save up your pennies and buy a pair when they become available, nuff said !

 

Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% Detailed Breakdown and First Run and Race Impressions Review: Sensational, A Game Changer

The Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4% ($250) is the non customized version of the shoe worn by Eliud Kipchoge at the recent Breaking 2 attempt where he ran the fastest (unofficial) marathon time of 2:00.25. It was worn by both the men’s and women’s winners of the 2017 Boston Marathon.

The Vaporfly 4% is the product of extensive bio mechanics and materials research as part of the goal of  Nike’s goal of breaking 2 hours in the marathon, the 4% representing Nike estimate of the potential improvement  in running economy, with individual runners varying up or down from the shoes. Added to running economy are the ideal training, course conditions and nutrition required to break the magic barrier.
Stats
Official Nike weight: 6.5 oz/184 g size 10, equivalent to approx. 6.2 oz size 9
My production pair in US size 8.5 weighed 6.56 oz /186 g, so a size 9 would weigh approx. 6.8 oz.
-approx.1.6 oz/145 g less weight than Zoom Fly)
Stack height: 31mm heel/21 mm forefoot, 10mm drop.
-2mm less stack heel and forefoot than Zoom Fly)

RoadTrailRun first tried on a single VaporFly 4% at the Boston Marathon here, tested and reviewed the heavier, “similar” Zoom Fly ($150) here and now have had a chance to take a first run in a pair of our own.
Unlike the Zoom Fly, with nearly identical stack heights and midsole geometry, the lighter weight (by approx. 1.6 oz), Vaporfly with its soft and bouncy ZoomX Pebax midsole foam and full carbon plate provided me in my first test run a similar but far more cushioned, responsive, shock free and fluid ride than the Zoom Fly.
The Vaporfly 4% is far more forgiving on the legs than the Zoom Fly and for sure the Zoom Streak 6, easier on the legs is part of the Breaking 2 goal of getting runners to the marathon’s later stages with something left.
Time will tell as to durability of all these new materials but I would not hesitate to not only race but do all faster workouts in them.

First Run
I struggled at faster than my marathon paces in the Zoom Fly but not at all in VaporFly. While of course I was excited to try them, my 4 mile run at 6800 foot altitude on a fairly hilly course with lots of sun and temperatures above 85 F was a solid 15-20 seconds per mile faster than I would have expected for the effort, coming in at 8:17 pace.  It was my second run of the day, the first being a slower 4 mile run. The only place I struggled was on a very steep 600 meter hill, the stiffness of the carbon fiber plate, the Vaporfly being a completely flex free shoe in the conventional sense, requiring knee lift and drive something I do not have.  I walked away from the workout with fresh legs but a touch of soreness in the achilles.

First Impressions and Fit

  • Impossibly light and yet highly cushioned.
  • Step in is soft and slipper like, a bit squishy up front.
  • The “falling forward” I felt when I first tried them on at Boston is noticeable but not extreme when walking and becomes part of the flow when running.
  • The sole is literally tacky and sticks ever so slightly to pavement.
  • Trying them on with light socks at true to size I was initially concerned that the very minimal heel counter and collar would not stabilize the heel.  On my first run no issues or concern with heel hold so far and my test run had steep uphills, downhills and flats but it was short run so more testing is required
  • The fit everywhere was impeccable, roomy secure, and pressure free.
  • This is not a race flat type such as with the Zoom Streak 6 or even I would say the Pegasus but a marathon fit, clearly designed for some foot expansion. The toe box has high vertical volume.
  • The mid foot is eerily secure without any pressure as the VaporFly does away with Flywire and uses an internal underlay tied into the laces. I felt a touch of pressure under the arch trying them on but not on the run.

Upper

Fit was true to size with light socks. 
The upper is a single layer Nike’s Flymesh with no lining and with lots of ventilation across the top. There is a touch of stiffener baked into the toe area to create a soft toe bumper and vertical volume.There is only one visible overlay, a strap running from the last lace hole to the rear and only on the medial side. It is bonded on the outside and stitched on the inside so this strap means business and is effective.

The mid foot hold does away with any Flywire, as the Zoom Fly has, adopting a similar approach to the fine Zoom Terra Kiger 4 trail shoe (RTR review).

An inner ventilated suede like “strap” is attached at the top of the midsole bucket seat side walls on both sides, the foot does slightly sit down into the midsole on both sides of the mid foot. It free floats up to the lace loops, wraps to the outer upper where it is attached becoming the lace loops.

As in the Kiger (which also adds a second inner stretch bootie sleeve) the wrap is consistent and pressure free.The sock liner is flat and securely glued down..
The heel counter construction or lack of it had me initially concerned as for sure I am a heel striker.

The far rear at the red “timing themed strap” is moderately firm down low then gets softer up to the heel tab. A thin wishbone of decently firm padding wraps the heel collar just below the top of the knit upper.

Part of what I initially felt, and which concerned me, was the fairly loose last rim of mesh. On the run the  hold action is down lower at the padded collar. While I might prefer a bit more heel counter especially given the pointy rear foot landing all has been just fine so far and in fact more securely held than the Zoom Fly, although I was a half size up in those which was not really necessary and maybe contributed to some of the instability I felt.

The bottom of the tongue is an extension of the forefoot mesh material with the top an asymmetrical plasticky but soft enough material covering most of the lace up and then lower down running down each side in strips on either side of the mesh to provide some structure to keep the tongue from bunching and folding.

Lace up was perfect. I found that over tightening the laces creates some top pressure as the tendency given the unstructured upper is to cinch down which I found was un necessary as foot hold is more than adequate without over tightening.

Midsole
The midsole is Nike new ZoomX Pebax foam with the embedded 100% carbon plate. The plate is located as illustrated by the pen line drawn on the midsole in the picture below.

Once the plate reaches the outsole it runs directly above the outsole, at ground level. The location of the plate appears to be the same as in the Zoom Fly with the Zoom Fly’s is a polymer carbon composite and not full carbon.
It is clear the combination of 2mm less stack, ZoomX foam, removal of the full heel counter and carbon plate is where most of the weight reduction comes from compared to the Zoom Fly with its more conventional EVA and carbon polymer composite plate.

Essentially Nike has put a spike plate in the Vapor Fly. It is close to the heel at landing with 20 mm plus of foam below to cushion impact and provide 10mm of drop, accommodating for the fact that marathoners don’t run on as much on the forefoot as track runners do but also cleverly given the plate near the foot even heel strikers won’t linger long. As the foot transitions it sinks into the front foam which is effectively thicker over the plate than at the heel.

So from contact at the rear where the plate is close to the foot it is clear the design wants us

  • to not feel shock at the heel but also to move along, all that cushion below the plate at the heel,
  • then get/fall forward as the foot compresses the front foam on the way to toe off.

The front cushion is sublime  and when the foot pushes down and forces meet the plate at ground level the toe off is immediate but smooth and fluid quite unlike the firm harsh response of most road flats. So while response is not as instant as a firm midsole race shoe, even Zoom Air ones such as the Streak, or the Zoom Fly which relies on EVA, there is much less shock transmitted to the legs. The shoe is forgiving where it needs to be for long races and then just at the right moment.  Pop!

Usually saving such weight or putting a shoe way down below 7 oz means that in comparison the ride will be firmer and more responsive. Well here the Zoom X carbon combination is actually far easier on the legs than the Zoom Fly. The cushion is silky smooth and softer under load, softer, more forgiving but at the same time with far more bounce back when combined with the carbon plate which surely plays a role.  The softer yet more dynamic cushion and response upfront is particularly noticeable when compared to the Zoom Fly . There is a distinct sensation of  sinking into the foam on transition and “falling” forward to toe off.  While the stiffness takes some adjusting to, as the Vapor Fly is completely and totally stiff the stiffness is far less noticeable here than in the Zoom Fly. With my poor knee lift and drive I didn’t struggle at all to transition and drive up and away expect on a very steep uphill where things went south.

Some have commented on the wrinkling of the outer midsole side walls as being a sign of compression of the midsole.  After 4 miles I see some wrinkles but think the midsole has an outer “skin” which will for sure wrinkle and something I have seen in other shoes. I have no idea yet how long this super light and lively new midsole will last. This is after all a race shoe.  I will carefully tabulate miles for our full review.
Outsole

The outsole is full contact up front and patches at the rear with very thin sipes cut in to the material.

It is literally tacky and slightly sticky on the pavement. I could feel the slight stick both walking and running.  The heel rubber feels slightly firmer than the forefoot rubber which makes sense as that carbon plate is right under the forefoot rubber.  It is not particularly thick.  I do wish, as with the Zoom Fly that the rear of the heel geometry on the ground was more conventional less pointed and more rounded.  While the elites likely land further forward most of the rest of us could use more ground contact back there.
It is important to note that while the Vaporfly 4% is a very comfortable up tempo trainer this is a racing shoe which was not designed for trainer class mileage. Depending on your landing, foot scuffing during gait, etc… the outsole has significant areas of exposed midsole which can scuff and wear. I have seen some wear at one heel in particular. Use a layer of Shoe Goo as I have to protect these areas.

Initial on the Run Data from a Road Trail Run Reader
Road Trail Run reader Joshua Sun also received an early pair from Running Warehouse where I also purchased my Vaporfly. Joshua is a former avid cyclist who has run a marathon and several halves. He focuses his running on short fast efforts on the same loop and has also run the Zoom Fly. He was kind enough to share his first run impressions and comparative data using a Garmin Forerunner 935 and Running Dynamics Pod (see our article here) with us:

“There’s a 3.25 mile route that I run frequently near my home.  I use this route to benchmark my performance and to test out running shoes.  Basically I run this route as fast as I can.  There’s not much room for placebo effect because I’m pushing myself about as hard as I can without blowing up.  Over the years, I’ve developed a good sense of how hard I can push without blowing up and I run this route with a very consistent effort.  I track these runs using my Garmin 935 with RD pod.  Based on how much better the numbers were with the Vaporfly, I’m pretty certain that I would run faster in the Vaporfly than any other shoe out there.  I’m less confident in exactly how much better it is without a lot more data.

Here is some data about my runs in the Zoom Fly and Vaporfly – about 1 week apart so fitness level shouldn’t be much of a factor.

Distance 3.25m
Pace: Vaporfly 7:18; Zoom Fly 7:33
HR Avg: Vaporfly 156; Zoom Fly 155 (However, both of these are about 4% lower than my average heart rate when I try to run this route fast – so it matches up well with Nike’s claims.  I think the range is about 2-6% in Nike’s testing.)
Cadence: Vaporfly 157 Zoom Fly 160
Stride Length: Vaporfly 1.39m; Zoom Fly 1.31m
Vertical Oscillation: Vaporfly 10cm; Zoom Fly 10.9cm
Ground Contact Time: Vaporfly 264ms; Zoom Fly 248ms

What this shows is that I’m running at a slightly slower cadence but that my stride has gotten longer and lower (more horizontal and less vertical, which is how better runners usually run).  You can see from the ground contact time that the shoe really takes longer to compress but then propels me forward longer and lower than with the Zoom Fly.  (And I’ve run faster in the Zoom Fly than any other shoe.  I ran about a 7:37 pace in the Zoom Streak, which is next fastest.) ”

Ride and Conclusions
What more can I say. Only one run in, the ride and performance is incredible. Vapor Fly is light, cushioned, dynamic and despite the stiffness of the shoe far more fluid than the Zoom Fly for me.  I ran 15-20 seconds faster per mile than I would have expected to for the course and effort in my first run. Can I sustain those kinds of improved paces over longer distances given the unusual stiff geometry? Only more runs will tell.  I will be running a downhill 10K race Monday and will update this post.  I am particularly curious as to how they will perform at faster than half marathon pace for me. I had difficulty running faster paces in the Zoom Fly as I had difficulty transitioning to toe off rapidly enough with my poor knee lift and drive.  Here I am almost sure I will not struggle nearly as much but racing will tell.
More testing to come but I will certainly reach for them for 10K and  half marathon and if the heel stability is adequate and the stiffness not issues when tired for a full marathon. Faster runners may still reach for “racing flats” for up to a half but many will consider the Vapor Fly for the marathon.

Considerations
Are the VaporFly 4% worth $250? Well sports “toys” can cost big money, just think bikes and ski equipment. Lighter weight and performance advantages claimed, real or otherwise, always come at a premium cost and some downsides as well.
Are they only for world record setting elites? Absolutely not!  These are very forgiving if unusual shoes. I think they will provide at least some of the advantages of Breaking 2 to serious recreational runners, not the least of which is the demonstrated advantages of lighter weight for racing shoes yet here with plenty of cushion. Here incredibly light weight is combined with outstanding bouncy cushion, plenty of it and response.  My initial run was considerably faster than I would have expected.
Are they only for racing? I say for most yes.
While they are fabulous for up tempo training the exposed midsole under foot may see accelerated wear depending on your foot strike and scuffing patterns. I see some at 25 miles I am saving mine for races, their intended use, and will protect these high wear areas with Shoe Goo. To date apart from some creasing of the midsole walls the cushion and stability is intact.
Some caution advised
Some may struggle with the stiffness so caution getting used to them is advised as I think you will work your achilles and calves more than usual if you have poor knee drive and the narrow landing in the back may not be for everyone.

Update: My 10K went very well. 1st in my 60-64 age group at 7:04 pace on my watch which is certainly faster than my marathon pace and with no issues. The course was at altitude between 5100 and 4500 feet so downhill with about 1.5 miles of flats and the Vaporfly performed magnificently on flats, moderate downhills, and uphills. The first half mile was a very steep downhill where they did feel somewhat unstable at the heel. The combination of the outstanding cushion, fluid transitions, snappy response was outstanding and truly unique. My legs were none the worse for wear the next day.
Update: Ran another 10K race in the Vapor Fly, this time a flat course at sea level. I have run this race 3 times since 2013 and this was race was my fastest time by 7 seconds. Faster isn’t easy at my age… 60.   The entire difference came in the last 1.2 miles. My legs were just fresher in the finishing stretch. I had no soreness the next day and the day after “ran” a very mountainous (over 4000 feet of vertical)  half on slick trails none the worse for the 10K race. While there may be faster shoes, even for me, for a 10K as race distances increase the advantages of the VaporFly in terms of performance also seem to increase.

 

Fitzgerald vs Banting , next weekend it is on like ‘donkey kong’!

As you will know I have spent many hours pontificating over diets since my injury earlier in the year gave me so much free time. I mean if you can’t run you might as well spend time talking about all things running, via a blog of all things, now there’s a thought ? Anyhow next weekend it will be time for two diets to go to war, in the words of Frankie goes to Hollywood (google it!) In one corner we have Jonny ‘boy’ Pendse, the Banting diet poster boy,  ( http://www.health24.com/Diet-and-nutrition/Weight-loss/The-golden-rules-of-Banting-20140409 ) while in the other corner we have the  Matt Fitzgerald ( in Matt we trust) up-and-comer Mark ‘extra maple syrup with my pancakes please’ Conway.  ( https://mattfitzgerald.org). Both have been following their respective diets over the last few months and this has culminated in similar times for City to Surf marathon pre-race indicators.

Mark’s improvement has been nothing sort of spectacular since purchasing  an individual training plan from Matt (available on his website and training peaks ( http://www.trainingpeaks.com  ) ) Our running group is in awe of Matt and we have all read most of his books and live by his high carb, low fat diet (with extra maple syrup whenever possible) so when Jon announced he was following a different diet it was met with much rebuke by the group. Once we looked further into this ‘banting diet’  there was much shaking of heads and murmurs of discontent. The major stumbling block, which stood out like an ISIS suicide bomber at an ‘eat as much bacon as you can‘ party, was no pancakes  after our long runs (or at all really?) , which meant no extra maple syrup. This was enough for nearly all of the running group to give this banting thing the cold shoulder, as they gleefully tucked into their pancakes. We won’t even get into the ‘no Yelo’ muffins or no sugar rules. On the plus side banting does recommend high fat which means bacon, good quality meat and lots of eggs. This was acceptable even if it meant adding salad and vegetables but the no or little sugar was the real killer. As I have said many times a runner gives up so much in their pursuit of excellence or their goals, with the Matt Fitzgerald , and the long held running diet, we don’t have to give up too much diet wise. I mean who doesn’t like pancakes after a long run and muffins when we’re carboloading, running is a possessive and demanding soul mate but at least once in a while we can treat ourselves.

Mark C., far left, living the Matt Fitzgerald dream, muffin in hand at Yolo, after a 10k PB earlier in the morning. Also in the shot Mark L. and Mike who both also advocate the carbs, carb, carbs diet !! (albeit Mike finds a lot of his carbs in beer ?) 

So Mark is thriving on his Matt Fitzgerald training plan, and the diet that he recommends, while Jon has now decided after the ‘Mr. Squishy’ (search for the posts on this in the blog.) comments that he needed to change to a banting diet to improve and lose some of that puppy fat he was holding onto,  albeit into his thirties. Photos start to arrive on Whats-app of Jon’s chosen breakfast options and they are worlds apart from the choices the old ‘Mr. Squishy’ Jon would have made. In the photo below he even puts the toast to one side and adds bacon. This diet has helped Jon lose a lot of weight and his half marathon time has dropped by 9 minutes in a matter of months (albeit it was pretty slow to start with thanks to the extra ‘puppy fat’ he was carrying.) The new diet and weight loss has allowed Jon to improve enough to contemplate a sub 2hours 50 minutes City to Surf next weekend , which coincidentally is the same time Mark is looking for. This will be a 5 minute PB for Mark and a return to 2012 times for Jon. Either way it is going to be one hell of a race and I am desperate to join them and watch the whole thing unfold.

 

Eggs, salad, vegetables and always, extra bacon. Jon’s new breakfast of champions. He tells me he doesn’t eat the bread.

 

This is where we come to the crux of the problem. I  have had 6 weeks of quality training under my belt since my 3rd comeback from my calf tear and realistically should be targeting a safe sub 3 hour marathon. Due to the rehabilitation from my calf tear I have only ran two long runs and both of those have been in the last week, come race day at 30k , if I go out too fast, I could be in a world of pain with 12k to go to enjoy the sensation. A safe sub 3 though would mean I don’t get to watch Jon and Mark , and their respective diets, go at it and unfortunately this is too good an opportunity to miss. Fitzgerald, the poster boy of the present running community, globally, a best selling author and accomplished runner against an undertaker from the early twentieth century who wanted to lose weight and goes against everything that is sacrosanct in running diets. This could redefine running diets as we know it , globally and save the lives off billions of people if Jon and the banting diet come through. Pancake sales would plummet and the world would be a ‘thinner’ place, runners would probably improve and we’d all live a lot longer and we get to eat more bacon. On the face of it this sounds like a good thing but you must then give up our sugar addition , which if managed, ain’t that bad , is it ? Pancakes once a week after a long run, is it too much to ask and maybe the odd muffin or two weekly, surely not?  So next Sunday I’m going to run with boys and see how long I can hang on while these two runners fuelled by diets poles apart  go head-to-head. Probably won’t make the finish but I’m sure the winning runner will tell me all about it and, as an added incentive, I’ll let them have free reign for a post on the subject, better than winning the event I reckon.

 

Long runs, do you really need them ? We are about to find out next Sunday.

 

 

Of course you could always sit on the fence and go for a high carb, high fat and high sugar diet as shown in my lunch after completing the Australia Day Ultra earlier in the year but it would probably be best if you run a 100k minimum before eating this on a regular basis, mores the pity !

High fat, high carb and high sugar, is this the answer ?

 

The diet that offers good food, eat as much as you like and helps you run faster.

I was reading through comments to some of my posts this morning and came across one from my running buddy Jon who has transformed himself over the last few weeks into a fat burning machine taking on board the Banting diet.   ( https://realmealrevolution.com/the-facts ) It really is worth a read as the results are amazing.

My lightbulb moment commenced as I was, for the  2nd time (unrelated) on same day  called Mr.Squishy! First one being as my son gave me a cuddle goodbye in the morning (cheeky git), and the 2nd one being by yours truly out on a lunch time run asI found myself dropped at the back of the pack (on an ‘easy’ run!)… what happened to me pushing the pace at the front, seems longer and longer ago in fact I think my age began with a 2 back then !! (approaching 36 now) Enough was enough, time to do something.

It was then I started an unsustainable ‘calorie restricted diet’, this is truly short term focus as never works long term, however a few weeks in I remembered an Ironman mate Toyney had mentioned several years ago about Banting (LCHF), I laughed it off at the time thinking along lines above loving my carbs too much !

Anyway, I looked at some of Toyney’s material he had given me at the time, and what I read seemed like perhaps this is what I had been waiting for all along ! Forget ‘calorie restricting’, instead eat and eat how much you like, caveat being based around a Traffic Light system (good enough for kids at school, yet as adults we have instilled good eating habits and moderation being the key?); Green eat as much/Orange in moderation/Red to avoid: http://www.bantingfood.com.au/banting-food-list.html Note: This list has actually been modernly adapted to now green/light orange/dark orange/light red/dark red ! (I’d recommend reading ‘The Real Meal Revolution 2.0 by Jonno Proudfoot’, about $30)

Bingo. Weight came off, week by week, in fact around 10% in 10 weeks. About 15/16 weeks in now, and weight has plateaued (anyone looking at me would say nothing left to lose !) – food seems and feels ‘sustainable’. To me, it doesn’t feel like a ‘diet’. Truly a clean way of eating. Who doesn’t love eating fresh food every day, it doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact its equal if not cheaper than the way I ate previously (but wasn’t about the cost). First weeks hardest adapting over to carb depletion, but since then training as usual.

Where to from here, well i haven’t missed my carbs (mostly); training and volume consistent. Still have plenty of energy for double days/long runs etc. I have several new gears in my training regime not seen for many years. I have new motivation to achieve some real PB’s so watch this space. I am testing out a shortened carb load in the marathon for that ‘intense’ effort, but otherwise carbs are gone (for now).

Jon has always been a good runner with a pb of sub 2hrs50mins and many sub3 marathons but he has struggled over the last few years to regain that high standard but lately the ‘old Jon’ is back and then some. What brought it home to me was his morning run yesterday. A 32k commute to work where he progressively got quicker and ended up running sub 2hrs50min marathon pace. He then backed up the morning run with another quicker 10k at lunchtime. That’s a marathon distance at, or close to, his marathon pace.

32k morning run to work at Marathon pace.

What really impressed me wasn’t the distance, though that is still pretty good re-work on a Winters morning, but the way he finished. If you look at his last 10k they were as quick or quicker than the middle section of his run. He was accelerating into the ‘death zone’ (that distance from 32k onwards where the body tends to start to malfunction, the wall as us marathon runners call it!) This is what really stood out, it wasn’t your normal long run where most of the time it is just watching the watch and hitting the ‘time target’, this was a proper test. To then get back out a few hours later and throw down another fast 10k brings home how Jon has transformed his cardio fitness and fat burning.

If you wanted proof the Banting diet works look no further than Jon, bye-bye Mr. Squishy, you will be missed.

The old Jon would eat anything, including medals !! Not sure that is a High Fat , Low Carb. option ?