Jumpin' Januaries!

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Your Daily No-Bread

Some years ago (2009 to be precise) comedian Eddie Izzard generated some excitement when he embarked on an epic run around Britain, essentially running a marathon or more every day, six days a week for eight weeks to get the job done. He did this on the back of only five weeks training and no history (at all) of running. He also for most of the time ignored pretty much all the advise given to him by the team of experts he took with him or had available on tap, yet still managed to complete one of the great feats of endurance by an 'average' non-sporting person. Although I was of course aware of the feat at the time, I've only just today watched the first two and a bit instalments of the three-part documentary of the run this morning, during my scheduled two-hour long, slow treadmill run.

A couple of things really stood out for me about this, perhaps the main one being that he ran each day very slowly, which of course ties in very neatly with my own, current Maffetone-method training of low heart-rate running. In recent times much of my running has been conducted in what I long considered the no-go zone; that region of pace between a fast walk and what I had until recently considered a very slow jog. There is however, a considerable region of pacing there that I had fervently avoided on the basis that it was so slow as to be a waste of time. Since reading Dr Maffetone's book however, I've come to realise that my thinking on this was completely wrong, and for true endurance running, this appeared to be the best speed at which to train. Izzard's jaunt around Britain seems to have in part, at least, proven this idea correct. Although he of course suffered considerably, he did manage to finish the feat, and I think a combination of his sheer bloody-minded determination to see it through and the very low pace at which he ran helped to make the accomplishment possible.

I may not have the brutal determination he has to run ridiculously long endurance events, but I can run as slowly as him, and have been doing so. Whilst not sticking precisely to Maffetone's strictures on low-heart rate training, I am finding surprising results from my greatly reduced pace. This morning's two-hour effort, for example, was almost ridiculously easy, despite my undisciplined on-again-off-again approach to festive season training. To be sure, I'll probably run Almeria in a personal worst time, but I've always hankered more for finishing a race in good form rather than setting a good time, and if Maffetone has given me hope in any area at all, it's to be able to finish an event feeling good and suffering few, if any, ill effects from the effort.

The other thing that has been helping me is finally having found a solution to my cramping problems, now almost completely vanquished. In the end it was a very simple matter. It was, or so it now seems, a basic question of sodium deficiency. I have been supplementing my diet over the years with potassium and magnesium, the latter in particular having worked wonders for me in avoiding cramps in the past. But in recent months it hasn't helped at all. I have never added salt to my diet, as I don't particularly like it, and everything I have ever read on the subject says we consume far too much salt from processed foods anyhow, so adding more salt seemed unnecessary. However, removing bread from my diet three months ago seems to have been the trigger which caused my cramping problems, and I've concluded that bread has perhaps for a long time been my main source of daily salt. Removing it from my diet (we've not bought a loaf of bread since last October) caused serious cramps, the likes of which I'd not previously experienced, and which created considerable gaps in my training schedule as I recovered from strained and constantly sore calf muscles (in particular). Since adding a small amount of table salt to one of my daily meals, the cramps have all but ceased, hence the conclusion that the problem was a mere sodium deficiency.

The other benefit of removing bread from, or at least severely restricting it in my diet, has been the ease with which I've lost weight and kept it off, being now very close to my ideal running weight despite in all other respects eating a reasonably typical and gluttonous festive fare (including the booze) in recent weeks. Which is great, because it means I can modify my strict NBNB (No Bread No Booze) diet to more of a relaxed NBnb (No Bread notquitesomuch booze) arrangement.

The lack of bread also makes me a little feisty, I think. And feistiness is of course good for endurance running. If not, in fact, essential; rather like salt!