Tags
diet, endurance, ketodiet, Macronutrients, nutrition, nutritionist, PB, running, sean vigue, sports massage
At the start of the year my hubby Andy embarked on a diet primarily to lose weight and started weight training. His diet I thought was questionable as he started living just off eggs. He lost a great deal of weight at the start of the year but then was adding meat back into his diet. Nutrition is something I have been very interested in over the past year in particular and as a runner over the last six years I know what foods don’t agree with me before a run, even from the night before.
I had hoped last year to start a course to qualify as a nutritionist but I had to put it on hold because of the pandemic. However I have been using some great recipes from the “Runner’s Cookbook” which had some great energy balls (8 of which sustained me along with 1.5 litres of water) during my first 40 mile ultra last November. With this evidence before me it poses some interesting questions about what types of macronutrients work.
Andy suggested an app he had trialed called Calorie Counter so I loaded it up to my phone and added what I was eating into it. After a week I had already lost 4lbs (1.8kg) and 2cm from my waist. Now I’m not a heavy person and I don’t particularly eat a great deal although I find it very difficult to stop snacking at night. I am also extremely active given that I run and walk dogs for a living. For example today which is Monday and the hardest day I ran two back to back hours with dogs clocking in 10 miles and a further 3 miles of walking for an hour after that. Yesterday I ran 11 miles and walked 4 miles. These are regular days for me clocking between 10-15 miles a day yet until Andy put me onto this app I wasn’t able to see what I was actually eating.
I loved “playing” with the app so much that I decided to sign up for it and keep following it. I also wanted to do some more research into diets for endurance runners and how ultra-runners should eat as it will differ from the diet of a sprinter where carbohydrates will play a bigger part.
So everyone should know what macronutrients are : Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. These are the three main groups.
The common knowledge for runners is that we need to take in at least 60% carbohydrates to fuel our body. But the advice in relation to carbohydrates and running is changing. For an endurance athlete they should not be consuming carbs 90 minutes before a long race and the suggestion is “carbohydrate moderation” rather than “carbohydrate restriction” is advised (https://www.endurancesportsnutritionist.co.uk/nutrition-for-ultra-marathon-running/).
I have found that my balance seems to rest around 40% carbs, 40% fat and 20% protein. Since I have changed to these ratios and reduced the amount of carb intake I am feeling so much more awake. Following the calories each day allows me to be more aware of what I’m taking into my body and balancing everything out more whilst still being able to enjoy a glass of wine (or let’s face it half a bottle) and a bit of chocolate too!
There is further evidence now that the keto diet which is very popular amongst weight lifters is becoming more so with ultra-runners as the protein intake “optimises fat metabolism” Protein aids in muscle recovery so the older you are it seems to make sense that you should consume more protein to aid in recovery. It does seem to be the case that with playing the balance of the three main macronutrients we can establish what works best for each individual body.
Current research suggests now that “we can run happily on even 30-40% carbs, so you need to find what works for you. While some runners do use Keto and basically no carbs, research has also shown us long term health issues with that” (https://www.runtothefinish.com/iifym-for-runners/)
I had intended to use it to get to what I considered my optimum weight as despite running 30-40 miles a week during the initial period of lockdown I gained weight. I have been following the intake of macronutrients and calories for three weeks. It’s given me a real focus and if it is my intention to qualify as a nutritionist to add on to my sports massage qualification then it seems only right that I actually take care what I actually put into my own body. The saying “you are what you eat” may have more truth in it that just some carefree words.
I am currently averaging over 50 miles a week with a further 20-30 miles of walking a week. Out of these miles 25-30 are run with the dogs so I consider these simply clocking over miles which help towards continuing to maintain a high level of endurance. I then have a 10-13 mile run on Sunday and have been adding in some short speed sessions at the end of dog runs to improve this aspect of my running. I am finding that this has given me a great sense of achievement and focus of which I am really enjoying and I can see that the change in diet and the weight loss and a further area of greater flexibility are assisting with making running faster so much easier.
Last Saturday I found it extremely easy to run a 10km in under 49 minutes. I stopped once to take a “selfie” because I really just can’t help myself but I didn’t need to stop and I felt absolutely fine and if time had permitted I would have run further at the same pace.
I think the key the flexibility lies in adding in 20-30 minutes of Pilates almost every morning for the last few weeks. I have started to add this almost religiously into my daily schedule. Some of these have been extremely intense sessions where I’ve actually seen sweat dripping down my arm and onto the floor (either I was working hard or it was super hot in the house). I absolutely love using the Sean Vigue Pilates sessions that he has for runners and athletes. I have really noticed a massive difference in the tightness particularly in my right hamstring.
Perhaps I will find that at some point I am doing too much but at the moment it doesn’t feel like that at all. I feel absolutely amazing at the moment physically and I think it may also now be starting to affect my mental state of mind about my own personal feelings of who I am as a person.
A lot of my goals for last year had to go on hold, not just running goals but career goals. I had hoped to add in the nutrition qualification as well as adding the England Athletics Running Coach qualification as well to further expand. There are lots of strength training course and qualifications but this is where I want to focus. I really enjoy working on the interval sessions and I feel I have a lot to give to help other runners improve their running. Just little changes I have made myself like just add a 1-2km faster run at the end of one of the dog running sessions has obviously made improvements into my general fitness. Adding a mile of Strides at the end of my long run has really given me another focus.
I am not sure if I can smash the club’s gold standards this year but the main focus will be to try for the 5km which is below 21.28. Now taking into account the slow dog runs but balanced out with the speed work and the steady long Sunday run my Garmin has given some interesting race predictors. Currently the 5km predicted time is 21.16 and 10km is 44.06. I don’t even want to think about the half at 1.37.42 or the marathon at 3.23.16 as these seem absolutely ludicrous. In previous years with the dog running these times have been so much lower but the speed work is obviously balancing the predictions out a little.
So I’ve made three clear changes over the past three weeks: diet, Pilates every day and several speed sessions a week. Other than weight loss and reduction in body measurements there have been some other changes to. My VO2 max has increased from 46 to 49. My average maximum heart rate has reduced from the mid 170bpm to mid 150bpm.
So with regard to getting to that 5km optimum time I am enlisting the help of my runbuddy Jack Pilkington who is going to help pace me! I’m also going to continue that mile stride session. I did one mile a couple of weeks ago and achieved 6.26 mile. Ok there were all the rest recovery time. This Sunday I reduced the time to 6.09 and the recovery time was also reduced by a minute overall. I didn’t feel like I needed to recover as much as I did and the second half of the strides were faster. I will continue to work on this little session until it is a mile of running without a break. If I can get this down to a 6 minute mile then the 3 miles at 7 minutes or just under for the 21.28 will be more realistic.
I am in the process now of trying to set up a group through Run Together which is part of England Athletics. I have to renew my DBS check as a Run Leader and also do a safeguarding course to get back on track with that. Looking forward to continuing to improve my running and education in fitness and health.
So with some baby steps my main goals for this year are to obtain the nutrition qualification (of some description), obtain my run coaching qualification and sports coaching qualification from England Athletics and with the little spare time I have where I write my blog is start to work on the book I was writing the year Harmony was born which was about running during and after pregnancy. It also had lots of information I had gleaned over the years from many running books. It’s currently in a very rough format and was to include my blogs from the 9 months that I was pregnant. As well as that I have been getting a book of recipes together that are my favourite so that I have them all in the same place. Now with the nutrition knowledge that I am starting to gather together and the Calorie Counter app which you can add your recipes onto and it gives you a breakdown of how that meal is broken down into macronutrients I will be able to also include this information in my book (that I was creating for personal use but no reason it can’t be available for everyone). There are quite a few cook books out there that do focus on runners and food. The Runners Cookbook is the one that I have really enjoyed as well as Ronnie O’Sullivan’s cook book. To a lesser degree there is Scott Jurek’s “Eat and Run” where he provides some great vegan recipes but I’ve not had a chance to try those yet.
So the first afternoon with Harmony back at school and I said I would get back from the dogs and relax. What do I do I sit down and write an almost 2000 word blog. But then this is relaxing to me. I find regurgitating words onto my laptop one of the most relaxing things and probably (aside from reading) one of the only things I do that doesn’t require physical energy. The thing is as I can type at 90 words a minute, there are a lot of words I can spew out in effect in a short period of time!
Will keep you posted on the progress as always! Very much looking forward to where these positive changes take me in 2021.