Wednesday, July 16, 2008

day 18:

today i woke to the alarm and discovered i am feeling quite refreshed. allowing myself a little extra sleep by skipping my usual morning run session in favour of a lunch session did the trick. unfortunately getting out of bed this morning i made the discovery that my legs are feeling a little beat up. not to worry yet still 10 days out but hopefully after an easy run today (instead of the planned workout) they should feel better.

it is amazing how quickly weight drops off when i take in no carbohydrates and exercise. i ate what i thought was quite a lot of food and i hydrated throughout the day but when i stepped on the scales i found that i am the lightest i have been for years. dropped two pounds in a single day - yes i know glycogen depletion is responsible for this. after my run at lunch i might need to add a few carbs just to restore some lost glycogen to my muscles.

personal stats:
weight: 163lb (-9)
feeling: good
sleep: 6hr (good/refreshed)
legs: average

today's exercise:
run: 60' - (8 mile total) workout: 1.5mile LT, 1mile LT, 2x3/4mile @ 10k, 1x1/4mile hard, 1x 3/4mile @ mp (2-3' jog/walk).

today's diet:
breakfast: fried bacon (diced), eggplant, chilli beef, turmeric, carrot
snack: almonds
pre-run (10' before): banana + sports drink (also during)
lunch: salad (lettuce, tomatoes, avocado) w/ sardines + apple and orange + black coffee
snack: carrots, almonds
dinner:

today's summary:
i had a good run session considering how depleted i was feeling earlier in the day. my legs were a little sore but i decided to give the session a go and use the next two days to get in the recover that i need to run a reduced long run of 13-15 miles on sunday morning. as i wanted to have a good session i took in some pre-run carbs 10 minutes prior and finished off a sports drink throughout the session. the session went well and i managed to push myself out of my comfort zone with some longer intervals. i pushed the pace progressively faster from threshold to 10k and faster before settling down for a cool down which also include 4 minutes at marathon pace.

My pace for the session averaged out to around LT pace ~6:00 per mile, 10k ~5:55, MP ~6:30-40 with some faster running (30 second striders) at closer to 4:40 per mile pace. they felt good and helped get the legs turning over. i love the feeling i get in my legs after a hard interval session. all i need now is to focus on recovery with the last longer workout completed successfully.

2 comments:

Brett said...

I am following your progress closely, as I'm an endurance athlete who eats much the same way. Good luck, and keep up the good work.

Have you found that eating carbs only during and after your training results in more weight loss? I need to lose about 10 pounds, but never can seem to, despite eating Paleo.

Primal Runner said...

hi brett

i'm finding it pretty easy to lose the weight but my partner has suggested that i don't lose anymore so i have upped my calorie intake a little.

i have found that only eating carbs during and after training has resulted in some great runs though.

for weight loss i would probably limit the quantity of carbs in my post-run feed. I think it all depends on how hard you are training. For the easier runs (60mins and shorter) and even when adding some short sprints i found i can get by without carbs during or after. the result is usually seen on the scales as i drop weight very quickly. experiment a little and see what works for you.

cheers

Day 2: Early start

After discovering that my wife's bike had been stolen from the bus stop where I had chained it up for my ride home last night meant that...