Rest day. Have been thinking about diet and training schedules of late, as things start to ramp up alarmingly from next week. In recent weeks I've modified my diet considerably, and it's been all to the good. I've basically eliminated all red and white meat: in fact I've had one meat meal in the last 8 weeks. I am instead eating a lot more fish, which I eat every day, and much more vegies, fruits and carbohydrates.
Apart from just feeling a lot better for not eating meat, I'm fairly certain it has helped in cutting down the flab. This is probably because I'm eating less overall (I just seem to eat less when there's no meat involved) and probably because there's a higher proportion of carbs which helps the running, which in turn of course helps with the flab reduction.
I've also cut out alcohol to a large extent. Instead of drinking 5-6 times per week it's only once or twice, and I'm more likely to be satisfied with one beer, so it's in fact a quite substantial reduction.
These things can only help as I move into the more difficult part of the training schedule. Not only are the distances ramping up, but I really should pay some serious attention to intervals and hills. I need to include some hill training so I don't leave myself with too much to do between finishing the Adelaide marathon and training for the Point to Pinnacle mountain climb in November.
Such things have been occupying my mind recently, probably to the exclusion of cross-training, which has very much fallen by the wayside. Still, problems with insomnia have left me exhausted for much of the last two weeks (that, and early morning shift work) and it's better that cross-training fall short than the actual running, which I have pretty much kept intact.
So in short: less saturated fat and more carbs in my diet, less alcohol and more running has been the order of the day. Just need to get the sleep situation sorted out and I'm full tilt into the next part of the schedule.
We'll see how we go...
Adelaide Marathon Campaign - Week 5 of 16.
