August already 2014

[Charliecat5]

If anything is to prove how important nutrition is to running it has been my diet of the last week - although I would have to admit my diet hasn’t been at its best for a while.

This week has been epic; my average day has seen me start with a pain au chocolat before eating my own body weight in French bread, butter and raspberry jam. Lunch (which follows about 2 hours after breakfast) involves more bread, pâté and copious amounts of cheese, and a tomato – just to balance the diet. And then, after a couple of hours of holding in my expanding stomach on the beach, I return home for crisps and a G&T before dinner and an evening of beers (Moules-frites last night cooked in cream obv. and Leffe Blond being my favoured tipple of the week).

It is a small wonder during the course of this food and beer orgy that I’ve managed to go out running three times. Each run being approximately 3.3 miles – give or take getting lost in the woods. On the face of it these runs should have been relatively easy given the topography and the running conditions. Ok, it is hot, but apart the bits where I got lost the majority of these runs were under the cover of pine trees and over the softness of pine needles. I was surprised how hilly it was, hilly being a relative thing – it is not the South Downs, but even so running up small sharp inclines covered in loose sand does have an impact, but not as much an impact as my diet has had.

I worked hard this morning, trying to maintain a cadence of 90 strides per minute which was fine for the first mile, but by the end of the run I was down to below 80 with a pace that wasn’t that far short of 10min/mi. At home on my usual three milers, which often include Sweder’s Hill, I run an average pace of 8.45min/mi. So why the difference?

I am sure there are lots of reasons, but I can only put this down to diet. The main reason I put this down to diet, apart from the obvious gluttony experienced this week, is that in-between stuffing my face and pouring beer down my throat, I have been reading Eat and Run by Scott “Jurker” Jurek. This is a fascinating read and having now read a good proportion of the book I have discovered that his idea of eating and running is a little different to mine… his doesn’t involve pain au chocolat for instance. Now I am not planning any time soon to become a vegan, a lifetime of farming would never allow that, but he does reinforce how important a ‘good’ diet is. I know when I eat healthily I feel better; have more energy and can run further and faster.

Today is a tipping point in my holiday, as today is the last day on the coast with my extended family before we move inland for a week with my immediate family. This is important as it signifies my last day with my sister who is a very bad influence in terms of drinking in particular. So next week, whilst not being silly (I am still on holiday after all) I am looking forward to eating more sensibly – perhaps a little more fruit and a little less wheat/butter based products. I plan to run another three times during the week, so we’ll see how this goes.

Then on my return I really do want to up my game and extend my distances, so it will be a concerted effort to eat more healthily, to lose a few pounds (at least the ones I have put on this week) and to put in the miles.

As an aside, I am really enjoying Jurek’s book, the man is a machine, albeit a machine that still doesn’t stop when it breaks. I like his attitude to running and he shares some ideas and tips that can even help the likes of me. I am not sure he has persuaded me that I want to embark on a journey to ultramarathon greatness, but I do want to be able to run the Moyleman (probably not on the 15th March – because I will be biking it then) and the Aquilianos has captured my imagination for 2016.

Three slow miles in French woodland to 40 miles in the mountains of Northern Spain… I have a long way to go. For now, my next stop is the fridge