Nutrition

RunJPRun, a race report from a local legend.

JP doing it hard at the ADU 2019.

As I was taken down with the dreaded man-flu a week out from the Australia Day Ultra I will leave the race report to my usual partner in crime, Jon ‘swipe right’ Pendse. Jon is a marathon and ultra marathon running machine and it has been a honour to run with him over the last 10 years or so, after meeting in out office changing rooms.

In the early days Jon was a lot quicker than me and I regularly ran  with him for the first 10-20k of a marathon before dropping off the pace. It wasn’t until the City to Surf Marathon of 2011 when I was able to pip him to the finish line by a few seconds after we both discussed finishing together. Sorry Jon but white line fever got the better of me !! Since then we have ran most events together and a large proportion of my training runs.

Anyhow I digress, Jon has written a great race report on the Australia Day Ultra which is certainly worth a read and it’s fitting he should be the first ‘guest writer’ for the blog as he has been involved with most of my posts in some manner and had to put up with man hours of BK putting the world to rights, which, truth be told has normally been a two way process… Enjoy.

 

 

 

Coming in to this year’s 100km ultra (http://australiadayultra.com/) I felt I had done my apprenticeship having completed the previous 3 years of ADU (having ran 8.53, 8.56, and 8.06), and this year was to be my first year ‘racing’ over 100km. This is a ‘race’, not a long training run right?

Although I had a breakthrough result in 2018, I didn’t really feel I was ‘racing‘ the distance at that time. Off the back of a consistent year with plenty of k’s in the legs (around 6,300 clocked up over the year), 2018 completing 7 marathons, 3 ultras, 5 half marathons, I felt I was ready to push for a sub8 hour 100km, given 2018 I only really aimed for sub 8.30 and managed 8.06!

Going in this year I set the following Goals; A sub 8 hours, B sub 8hrs-30, and C sub 9hours. Hmm an hour difference between an A goal and C goal, only races over 100km could you get away with such a large variance!

So here are my race splits;

Lap splits (12.5k) of 55, 57, 60, 67, 80, 80, 72, 64

25k splits of 112, 127, 160 (ouch), 136

Spoiler (it’s a very long race report!): I finished in 8:58:53

What I didn’t really consider was ‘racing’ in humid warm conditions, ok, even if its 18-20 degrees,  the sun isn’t out so surely it’s not that bad? After all I’ve ran the previous years before in similar conditions (although I guess I treated those as long training runs), whereas this year I was going out at race pace, basically 10-15 minutes slower than a 50k race time.

To make things harder, my wingman & ultra-extraordinaire BK (www.runbkrun.com) narrowly avoided pneumonia only 2 nights before race night and gallantly chose to DNS rather than risk a death sentence.

So, this race was set to be a solo time trial. This is not a Sunday stroll! 😊

Unfortunately, I came undone in the 4th lap where I knew I was working way to hard and dropping too much time. 8 laps and sub 8 hour target even my 8-year-old can work out the pacing strategy… 1-hour laps or less and repeat x 8, easy?

Well the first lap was quick, but I felt good (probably due to the taper) and more importantly I felt in control. Second lap slightly slower but 57 was about spot on to where i needed to be (57-58), knowing I would need close to 10 minutes banked by 50k for the customary slow down on the second 50k. The plan was to hit 50k in 3.48-3.55 (which is 12-20 minutes slower than 50k race pace).

The 4th lap blowout meant I hit 50k just on 4hrs, at this point i knew sub8 was off the cards.

Suddenly I hit the dreaded marathon wall around 53k and was soon reduced to a walk/jog strategy… problem being hitting the wall in a marathon and you might have 10-15k left to go (I’ve hit the wall many times in marathons) … but this time around I still have 47k to go! I remember thinking how the f**k am i going to run the remaining 47k (which is the 6-inch trail marathon distance minus the hills). I was walking and could barely run. This km split was around 10minutes! Doing maths at this pace I’d be lucky to finish before noon! I should have been finishing around 8-8.30am.

This was never part of the plan, what the f**k  can I do… (Please note Runbkrun does not condone this language but in the context of this post it is allowable!)

I did have a few positives going for me though… 1. Yes, I’ve hit the wall but it’s very early and only around 4.30am, the sun hasn’t even come up yet. 2. the chase pack (Margie and Chris) will very shortly be approaching 3. I wasn’t cramping or injured, so it was ‘possible’ I could regroup and rebuild.

So once Margie and Chris joined me, I soon found out they were in quite a similar state having hit a similar wall not that much earlier…

All 3 of us ran several km’s together, running low 6-minute k’s.

At this point I was happy just moving along and ticking of a few more km’s.

Margie told me she’d been running through a couple of niggles/injuries and was now seriously considering stopping. It was here I also agreed and said I’m seriously thinking of making it to 75k and calling it a day. Only in Ron’s race can you stop at any shorter distance and still claim a finishers medal albeit a shorter distance.  (There was that famous DNF from Rhys a few years earlier when he stopped at 25k thus winning the race 3-4 hours before it had even started!) Besides 75km is still an ‘Ultra’ marathon and you get a finish time. That’s still a good day out in my books, and an experience to learn from for next time.

So, at my slower pace laps 5 & 6 I managed 80 minutes each, but usually in a marathon you get slower not quicker, and so after some more maths i was staring at 90 minutes for lap 7 and +90 minutes for the last lap… that would put me around a marginal sub10 hours.

This was all in the back of my mind, I’d now been dropped by Margie and Chris, and was heading back to complete my 5th lap.

It was here I saw Mick Francis on the middle aid station (must have been about 59km), and I quickly stopped for a brief chat, I heard he had to withdraw earlier with injury! But was still out supporting those remaining in the race, what a champ! [Mick’s our local legend and ultra-marathon god (he’s run more than 100 marathons and if that wasn’t enough has also ran more than 100 ultra-marathons), I’ve known mick for many years now, good mate and many races completed together], perfect place now for me to pick Mick’s running brain;

I told Mick I’d hit the wall at 50k and i could probably just make it to 75k and what’s the ultra-etiquette for pulling the pin…? Surely no point me running the extra 25km just to finish, that could be an extra 3hours in the sun walking and jogging! Besides I’ve run the 100km three times previous so have nothing to prove, surely he would agree and say yes stop at 75k call it a day recover and look for the next race, or try again next year.

Mick said it so simply… Jon are you injured? No. Then get back out and do the job. You’ll get respect and will teach you something you can’t read about. (Wise words from the man known as ‘Yoda‘ in the WA running community. A real , true blue Aussi’ Icon; Mick not Yoda.. please note I am assuming Yoda is not from the WA?)

Well the way he said it I was like why did I even ask, ha-ha. I knew the answer already, but I was also seeking acceptance that it would have been ok for me to stop. (Obviously I still could have stopped, but ultras aren’t for the faint hearted, those out there have something regular runners don’t have and many will never experience – no offence, but wait until you’ve done 100km, it will teach you many many lessons – I’m still learning).

This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and I continued my marathon shuffle at 6min k’s.

Margie was still a good 6 or 7 minutes ahead, I was stoked to see she went back out for the 6th lap which meant she’d make at least 75km, and likewise I went back out to start my 6th lap.

Meanwhile T-Train express had been setting a blistering pace in the 50km, well in front of his counterparts… he went on to win and smash out a PB and run 3hrs-27, wow!

But when T-Train was coming back on his final lap I yelled out to him phone BK at the finish line tell him Jon’s f’d, reckons he won’t break 10hours, can he do a quick poll in the BK Run Group and get the opinion on stopping at 75km?

I needed at least one person to say stop if anyone would the BK Group would… surely better to claim a 75km finishers medal than the +10hour potential finishing time (please).. Besides 75km is the point of no return, once you run past 75km there are no more finishers medals left other than the next barrier at 100km.

So, if you’re going to pull the pin, stop at 75km!

So now on this 6th lap I was still struggling and still shuffling.

I saw Margie again on the turnaround and she was going back out again for her 7th lap, wow what a champ especially with injuries and hitting the wall. Well that was it, if Margie is going to see it through, so am I (not that Mick hadn’t already told me earlier). And just before i went back out again for my 7th lap, T-Train looking fresh as ever… goes “spoke with BK he says it’s a 100km race not a 75km race.” (He lied, Tone never called me , though I would have said that !)

Alright decision made well and truly.

So, going back out now on my 7th lap things are warming up, but I’ve had almost 25k of shuffling along, and I’m starting to feel a slight second wind.

I started running a few sub 6-minute k’s, and soon enough was running around 5.30’s… so a lot more running and a lot less walking! Albeit tough and still a challenge ahead but at least I only have less than 2 laps to go! Things are starting to look up.

The whole race I’d been consistent with nutrition/hydration, had my strategy and didn’t really deviate. Setup my own esky at mid aid station, have a gel every 10k, and grab 2x250ml water bottles every time i passed that aid station. Although I’d been drinking around 600ml-700ml per hour (the other 300ml-400ml) I’d tip on my head to try and cool the core body temp) I still felt dehydrated and physically couldn’t take on any more fluids. It had been a long warm night that was for sure.

So with my new determination, I had the remaining 25k to go. Between 75k-82k I averaged around 6:30s, however I was definitely starting to feel some running legs returning, a lot less walking! The tide had turned. At the out turn-around I had a quick toilet stop, and then I was good to go. It was from here I was able to hold 5:15s, more importantly I was feeling great again, and could almost feel the finish line in sight although I did still have the final lap to run. Ron had chocolate medals this year right…! We often joke ultra-running is not actually about the running, it’s all about the food and my impartial attraction to the distance.

On completion of the 7th lap I clocked in at 7:54:05, which was a 1:12:45 lap time. Maths time again… I was feeling great, could it be possible I could break 9 hours? Sub 1:06 final lap?? Hmm. Challenge accepted. After all, given how I was feeling and could taste the finishers 100k medal, may as well go for it I had nothing to lose. Sub9 hours would be a fantastic result given where I was at 53km. Still managing to hold 5:15s, felt great at this speed again… I couldn’t work out what pace the sub 1:06 equated to, however if I could hold the 5:15s and get to the final turn-around in 33 minutes, then I would be in the ball park. And that’s exactly what happened, held the pace and got to the turnaround just under 33 minutes, a look at my watch slightly under 8hrs27. About bang on if I wanted to go under 9 hours. Still feeling great at this stage, no sign of cramping, and this was it, the final home stretch. Only 6.25km remaining and the last time I’ll see this end of the course for 12 months. It’s game on. I didn’t really have to do anything special, I didn’t need to speed up, just hold the pace and see it through to the finish. As I left the mid aid station, I yelled out to Mick I’ve got a sniff of a sub9 hour so bring it on. The final 3k was magical, this is how I had hoped I would run the final lap or at least this feeling, something you can’t replicate. I’d smashed my mental barriers and now I could enjoy the achievement of finishing my fourth 100km. I soaked up the atmosphere and ran beaming with smiles. Ok, not a sub8 and not a sub8:30, but who cares. I was so close to calling it a day, getting to this point everything was forgotten. The endorphin runners high here was more than worth hitting the wall at 53km.

This was a personal journey and my story of the day. Never give up. Respect. Pride. Proud. Redemption.   And just plain mental! We are runners. And we are warriors.

I’ll be back next year to join the 500 Club -ADU Hall of Fame! Hopefully BK will have recovered by then and raring to go, I still have a sub8 hour in me?? (have I learnt anything, hmm)

Anyone interested here is my Australian 100 marathon club profile page as I endeavour to run 100 marathons (currently at 56 and 13 ultras).

https://australian100club.org/member_list.php?runner=148

 

No bacon and pancakes this year… the best part of the ADU is the post race celebration !!!


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Middle of December, 6 inch time!

This Sunday is the 14th running of the 6 inch trail ultra ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) , probably my favourite race of the year as its not about the finishing time , the 6 inch really is all about the journey.

I’ve written various posts on this race over the course of this blog and they’re probably worth a revisit for some back ground before I wax lyrical about the main event…

Due to getting lost twice in the last three years (and three times in the last nine years!) I even went down to Dwellingup with the lads for a couple of recon runs this year. So am confident this year there will be no navigation errors. Saying that in previous years I’ve worn two Garmins and still managed to get myself lost, it’s a curse ! Funny thing is the 6 Inch is probably one of the easiest trail events around, on a proper trail race you might as well send out the search party now, I’m not coming home without help.

6 inch recon with the posse. 27k of fun on the trails…

This year we are expecting good conditions with a low of 14 and a high of 25, which for December in Perth is probably about as good as you are going to get. For example today was 38 ! Last year was unseasonably wet and driving to the start line Brett’s wipers could hardly keep up with the deluge. Once we got off the scarp things calmed down and we had a great mornings trail running.

The lads and I all stay at the Heritage Centre in Dwellingup the night before the race as it’s a 4:30am kick off and if you factor in a couple of hours driving from Perth and getting ready at the start it makes for a very early wake up call on Sunday morning. This way we get to lay-in until 3am!

The couple of recon runs this year has really wetted my appetite for the trial running and combined with the Choo-Choo run earlier in the year I feel I’m turning into a trail runner as I mature.  The Choo-Choo is another trail run where this time we race a train, hence the name… worth a read..I digress…

 

 

 

So what to expect over the weekend. It’s a boy weekend away truth be told and a time to relax , albeit after racing 47k, and finish the year running with good friends on amazing trails looking forward to a few days break and Christmas with the family. The 6 Inch has found a place in mine and the boys hearts and if you are ever in Perth for the last Sunday before Christmas you really need to come and join us.. ho ho ho !

Footnote: I never published this post in time pre-race and now it’s Monday and the race has been and gone. I’ll post a full race report this week and it’s worth reading, it was a beauty !! 

 

 

 

 

 

Gotta love the heat…love my esky time at the end of the 6 inch.
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Time to roll the dice.

Tomorrow I’m having Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) in my last attempt to finally get rid of this Plantar Fasciitis that has been hanging around since the Australian Masters Games in April this year. I know what most of you are thinking, ESWT sounds like something from ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest‘, (For all the younger readers of this blog that film is an absolute classic starring a young Jack Nicholson; he was a famous actor once !..worth watching, that and ‘The Shining’…I digress…)

Who here has got Plantar Fasciitis? Jack Nicholson at his very best, with Danny DeVito.

So what is ESWT ? Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) involves the conversion of a sound wave into a shock wave that is applied repeatedly to a specific area of the body. The technique is similar to lithotripsy, which is used to treat kidney stones. In recent years the technique has become popular in the treatment of a number of recalcitrant musculoskeletal conditions including tennis elbow, achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, and tendinitis of the shoulder.

There are several theories about how this treatment works but the most accepted theory is that the micro-trauma caused by the repeated shock waves increases the blood flow to the area and this promotes healing. The treatment is simple, quick and non-invasive.

I have heard good things from a number of my running friends who have had miraculous recoveries using ESWT so I figure I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Currently there is very little chance of me completing my 10th Perth City to Surf Marathon (in a row) on August 26th and also continuing my sub3 streak. Of the two the sub3 streak is the most important so if I feel there is a DNF or a 3 hour plus finishing time I’m not risking racing. Reading the information on ESWT it seems three visits , spaced a week apart, is the minimum for a total cure; or at least get me to a point I can run unimpaired. This coincides with how long I have left before the marathon, just less than 3 weeks, what could possibly go wrong ?

Of course this is not a 100% guaranteed cure but the odds seem pretty good and they must be better than my current rehab programme which seems to have me going backwards rather than forward. Either way I’ll have something new to write about over the next few weeks and I’m sure a lot or runners reading this post have had, or are going to have, plantar fasciitis.

 

My most cherished possession…my sub 3 streak! Only a runner knows the feeling….

 

I’ve written posts lately about missing the lads as I spend hours running around in Kings Park, alone, hiding from the asphalt protecting my PF in my foot. If ESWT works I’ll be able to join this motley crew in a few weeks for another 42.2km of fun, fun , fun. Last year it was a duel between Jon, on the Keto diet,  and Mark (and Matt Fitzgerald) going all in on the good old fashioned carbohydrates. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/08/28/matt-fitzgerald-wins-by-a-muffin/ ) Unfortunately this year Mark has succumbed to a foot injury that has seen him sidelined since Boston but Jon is going from strength to strength and won the last marathon he entered. This was his fourth of the year and he is in the form of his life, maybe all that bacon and eggs really do work ? Worth investigating as , let’s face it people, bacon and eggs taste good, real good….

 

A bunch of happy marathon runners and Mike…


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You really do need friends to run better.

The last three months have been a dark time in my running career as I was struck down by first a blood disorder , mainly due to my “no lunch” diet (what was I thinking?) and lately a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis. The worst part of not running is not the not running part but missing time with my mates.

Over the years my non-running friends have fallen by the wayside as I became more and more focused on running and less and less focused on sociable activities, much to my Wife’s disgust. My Wife has often remarked how she’d like me to put on weight and drink more ! Not the normal grumblings of a partner of course, it’s usually the opposite. Anyhow when you’re injured there is no one to share your grief with. (because it is grief! )  Funnily enough I have written a post on grief , in relation to running… https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/04/17/injury-what-injury-the-five-stages-of-grief/

What run do I miss the most ? Need you ask, my Thursday morning 14k progressive, starting at 5:30am and finishing at the best café in Perth to take onboard the best muffin and coffee in the Southern Hemisphere. If you are lucky enough to live in Perth, or even Australia, you need to go to Yelo at Trigg and indulge with one of their banana and dark chocolate or even berry and chocolate muffins, warmed up of course. They really are so good, there is a caveat of course. Once you taste a Yelo muffin you will never be able to eat a muffin from another source, they really are that good.  The coffee is also very good or that may be just because your taste buds are enjoying them muffin so much anything tastes good !

As this is a running blog and not a culinary one I need to justify that last paragraph. To earn the muffin and coffee combination we would have run a 14k progressive run which is one tough affair,  with the obligatory sprint for the last 4-5k as each runner pushes themselves, and each other towards the Yelo café. To make this run special you need friends to initially talk to for the first 7k and then, finally,  to run against for the final 7k. Runners pride will always make you put in that extra bit of effort when chasing (or being chased) by running mates.

Then there is the long runs on Sunday. These , for me, are mainly for the food and conversation after the run, to tell you truth I prefer to run twice a day compared to one long run , all bar the Sunday run. This is do able because of the company, by myself a long run is torture.  We’ve had some great experiences over the years running long on Sundays , as most runners will attest to.  As a group we tend to run at a reasonable pace on the outward journey but pick up the pace as we turn and head back towards the coffee and pancakes, I’m sure all running groups are the same.  The photo below is from a 30k Yaberoo trail run a few months ago in the heat of the Perth summer. The T-train has organized a water drop but it was too little , too late for the journey home. As the group splintered it was every man for himself in the race back to the car and air conditioned safety.

Return journey, a few less smiles , more grimacing. ?

 

As well as the Sunday long runs there are the “special’ runs. These are organized, normally annually, and nearly always ‘up the ante’ with either more mileage or elevation. In the photo below its racing against a train which makes the ‘choo-choo’  run so special. Again I have written a couple of posts on this run which are worth a read and a chuckle… 2016 : https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/15/the-choo-choo-run-an-exercise-in-living-on-the-edge/   and last year https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/09/15/choo-choo-run-2017-man-against-train/ (Still not sure how Mike made it last year ? I suspect Uber?)  For those living in Perth this run is scheduled for two weeks after the Perth City to Surf marathon, so probably early September. There is a facebook page somewhere ? Just heard from Simon Coates,  the Choo-Choo this year is on September 23rd, the long weekend in WA. If you get lost at least you got a few days to get home…

 

Choc milk time at the Deli, job done.

Then there is the work lunch run. Working on St. Georges Terrace, Perth, we had some great running tops made up thanks to Rhys and Mel. This photo was taken at the height of the St Georges Terrace Running Club glory days when we always had a good contingent that would meet every midday at the lights outside the Woodside building.  Together we’d explore the various bike paths around the city  and trails in Kings park and it was a welcome relief from the work related problems that would often plague you. As with all runs they would start at a leisurely pace before Jeff or Andrea got to the front and then it was on for young and old.   Today the group has splintered to some extent but most of the people pictured below still make an effort and regularly get out there just not together as much, all bar Big Paul (front right) who wandered to the dark side of lycra wearing cycling due to a bad knee.

The St. Georges Terrace Running club.

 

Couldn’t leave without one more photo of the Yelo café with some of the usual suspects, in the photo below you have Gareth, Mike and the elusive Mark Lee, a rare sight but always good for some quality banter. Happy days and I hope to be back with the lads soon, just got to get rid of this Plantar Fasciitis but that’s a post for another day….

 

Yelo muffin carbo-load frenzy..why wouldn’t you?

 


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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.