several days on...

several days have past since the primal challenge was completed. i can safely say that i have largely stuck to the primal eating diet that i have adopted. although during a dinner party last weekend i did eat a bowl of homemade apple pie and ice cream. mostly it was easy to keep primal while at the dinner party and safely eat from the cheese and nut platter, avoiding the chips and crackers. dinner was a nice lamb stew with steamed green beans and i avoided the bread. but when it came to the pie i was always going to eat some. i also enjoyed two glasses of great red wine.

post-primal challenge i am allowing myself to eat without guilt as long as i largely make good choices throughout the week. the odd compromise whether within guidelines or not will be included when i feel the impulse. mostly i will try and live as close to 100% primal as possible with compromises to be able to train as an endurance athlete.

it's funny though when i weighed myself in the morning following the dinner party i was a full pound lighter. i think i have found the eat more, lose weight diet plan.

personal stats (4th august):
weight: 163lb
feeling: great
sleep: 7hr good
legs: a little niggly (right hamstring and achilles are tender)

today's exercise:
run: 60min moderate - 9 hilly miles

today's diet:
breakfast: fried bacon (2), eggs (3), tomatoes (2), mushrooms (6) + black coffee
snack: carrot and 100% natural peanut butter
pre-run: coffee
post-run: chocolate milkshake + banana
lunch: salmon (tinned), asparagus, greek yoghurt, avocado w/ turmeric + apple
snack: carrot w/ PB
dinner: chilli beef w/ fried veggies (peppers, squash, zucchini)
snack: raisins, grapefruit

summary:
was a bit sceptical about today's run prior to heading out but about 5 minutes into it i was moving quicker than usual at an easy effort. looking at the garmin i was seeing sub 6:30 per mile pace. i'm finding it hard whether physical or mental to run slower than the marathon pace that i have been working on over the last few months. it also appears that with the reduced training volume due to the taper and post-race recovery allows me to run at a quicker daily pace. when the volume returns the pace on most of my runs will slow down as i accumulate training fatigue.

as i think it is especially important to recover from my runs at the moment so that i can back up and run more often i am focusing on what i have picked up in the research. like today i had a chocolate milk post-run to aid recovery. i will probably buy some protein powder and make my own fruit smoothies to consume after long and intensive runs but at the moment i am going with what's available to me....chocolate milk.