A funny start to March down here. Everyone seemingly failed to realise that it's a new month. Even government bodies and officials: the government-run radio station today (March 1st) had the local government-employed meteorological officer on the air, and he and the announcer were happily chatting away about how today was the coldest February day on record. Actually though, to be honest I forgot about it as well. It was only because people were tut-tutting about this faux pas on the radio that I realised it was March already.
Certainly though, it was cold today - cold, wet and terribly wintry. I'm not ready for winter just yet, and while it is great to see some rain, I'd prefer just a little more warm weather before resurrecting the winter woolies from the depths of the wardrobe. Please.
...
Hey, guess what - I've hit upon a new theory, which I call my amazing shrinking stomach theory. It's kind of serendipitous. When I started getting serious about losing the flab a few weeks ago, I reduced my daily energy take by about 2,000 kJ per day to 10,000 kilojoules (2400 calories). This wasn't really enough to lose much weight, so once I was comfortable with this level, I reduced it again, to 8,000 kJ (1900 cals). At this level I started losing the flab pretty rapidly, but I also (thankfully) found that I was far from starving. In fact I got pretty much used to it quite quickly. When I found that without really thinking about it, I was even going for 2 or 3 days at a time eating less than 6,000 kJ (1,400 cals)/day without getting significantly hungry, I figured that either I had heroic will-power/mind of matter, or my stomach had shrunk.
I concluded that it was the latter (at least virtually if not physically) because on those days when I had social obligations and had to pig out, I found myself quite incapable of doing so. Can only be a smaller stomach, I reckon.
Anyway, it seems to work a treat for me.
If there's a secret to this weight-loss business, I reckon it's eliminating the huge evening meal*. I eat a large breakfast (about 3,000 kJ), a reasonable lunch (2,000 kJ) and just a protein drink in the evening with perhaps some fruit. And that still leaves plenty of scope for snacks through the day if necessary, and I still come in well below 8,000 kJ. On that regime, I just don't get hungry, and have plenty of energy throughout the day.
Of course, it helps enormously that I don't have much of a sweet tooth. Quite honestly, I can't remember the last time I had ice cream or cheesecake or raspberry gateaux, or a creme brulee or...
Sigh.
* I notice one of the big diet fads this year is the "reverse diet", which basically espouses the same idea - eat your big meal at breakfast and have very little in the evening.
A really tough run this evening. 45 minutes of hard slog, even though it was an "easy, gentle" run. For some reason I just wasn't up to it: had no energy, no stamina, but I ground it out. And the good news is that knees, shins and feet are all holding up pretty well. But I felt great afterwards, once I'd recovered that is. It could just be that my glycogen stores are depleted, so I'll probably do a mini-carbo loading Saturday night for my "long" run on Sunday. The longie is only 90 minutes at this stage, but after today's effort I'm not taking any chances. It has also been a helluva week, with the death of a friend and the imprisonment of another (sad, but true)... I'm not sure which event is the more shocking. Anyway, it takes the stuffing out of you, that sort of thing.
A little more positively, I dared to weigh myself today. From 85 kgs six months ago, I'm now down to 78kg, just 3 kilos short of my target, so I'm doing well, as this is the least I've weighed for quite some years now. I'm even going to have to buy some new running shorts a size smaller!
So all in all, the year's going pretty well for me. A long way to go before I'm race-ready, but I'm travelling well at this stage.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:From 85 kgs six months ago, I'm now down to 78kg
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Antipodean has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
A nice, gentle 90 minute long, slowie today. No dramas, no major niggles, all green lights, endorphin highs, and several more miles safely banked. Great stuff! That's now three 90+ minute runs in as many weeks with no serious knee or shin pain to report. So my confidence levels are now way up there in nose-bleed territory
So the deal now is to just keep going at this level for a while and get a good, solid base mileage down for a few weeks to get everything right before even considering hill climb and speed training. I want to get it right this time, and time is on my side, as we head into winter and the season of little racing, meaning there are several months to go before any serious competitive challenges appear on the calendar.
I envisage long runs along deserted, sweeping ocean beaches as winter storms blast in from the south, and bush trails in the mountains slick with snow and ice... or maybe I'll just stick to the treadmill conveniently located near the beer fridge...
Either way, it's a long winter ahead, with the prospect of a great many more lonely miles to be racked up.
I'm telling myself similar things. If I could just make small incremental improvements and keep it that way, I'd be happy. It's the five-small-steps-forward, one-huge-one-back syndrome I need to guard against.
Anyway, stick with it, and I'll do the same.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Yep indeed. Another Tuesday 45 minute session in the book, and a pretty good one at that. Quite comfortable, which is the way it should be just for the moment. Still very much in that base-building phase.
What I did do a little differently however, was - and this was in honour of Sweder's great run on Sunday (whilst certainly not forgetting everyone else's fab races as well) - I did the only thing I am currently capable of in emulating the Big S and loaded the mp3-thingy with metal classics. So it was out with Engelbert Humperdinck (j/k) and in with the Metallica, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc etc. Gotta say I enjoyed it too. Makes a change from all that Percy Faith I've been cruising to (j/k again).
Of course I included Sweder's evergreen "Ace of Spades" (ever considered how much like the said Ace of Spades Sweder must look like after some of his mud-scapades?), but the track du jour would have to be (drum roll please):
Megadeth's Peace Sells!
Don't ask me why - just seemed the right track at the right time - a great one to run to, and I just loved it. Just as I'm loving my running at the moment. Like Bardy said, I'm becoming dangerous
Dangerous indeed, forsooth!
Good to see you're sampling some of Satan's soundtrack there MLCMan.
Megadeth? Can't say I 'own' any - the full-on metal mayhem is a shade harsh for my tastes - but in for a penny . . . I'll make an i-tunes purchase and who knows? Perhaps make some new fiends - er, friends.
Sounds like your campaign is off to a flyer; this is great news. Something about the scream racing up and down my battered legs this morning tells me we'll need input from other sources to slake the communal running thirst for a while.
Have at thee; let limbs and reason fly!
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Yep, another good run today. 45 minutes on the back of little sleep and a crap day, so not one I really wanted to do, but it was a breeze - really have hit a new level of running fitness, so feeling just great, guys.
Track du jour was a toss-up. Wanted to give it to Black Sabbath's classic Paranoia but in the end had to give Darude's Feel The Beat the nod for being both timely and right on my cadence. Methinks Darude must be a runner - so much of his stuff is great to run to, and the running sequences in his Sandstorm film clip are great fun.
By the way, joining the multimedia throng, here's some vid of my training regime of late...
Another 90 minute run today to round off the first month of training. Nothing much to report, it's simply all systems go. Slow, careful running to be sure, but it's paying off.
And I'm really wrapped now in my new Asics Kayanos. With 50km underneath them, they're now broken in quite nicely, and I think I can objectively say they're the best shoes I've had thus far.
So all is brightness and light in this corner of the globe.
Dear MLCMan,
I have start with my best of RC file as well, and as you, I have included Andy's post of 28th feb. Now, I should find time for going back and found out again some posts that I have really enjoied and made me take part at this forum.
I loved a very old one, from SP, who proposed Antonio some english rules and I have loved too one of you with a joke about foster's beer and a widow... Descriptions of Almeria race made me specially smile a lot, as they were talking about Spain and their point of view is so funny for me...
Ok, going to the point...I was looking for but until now... it was impossible to find Orange Pekoe, but... I have found and tested Darjeeling. It is expensive but really a fine taste.
Better than beer, I suggest that you drinks this product. You will be feel lighter. For you diet, I mind...
Ana Wrote:... it was impossible to find Orange Pekoe, but... I have found and tested Darjeeling. It is expensive but really a fine taste.
Better than beer, I suggest that you drinks this product. You will be feel lighter. For you diet, I mind...
Is this the sort of thing we want to advocate on this site?
I almost swallowed my dentures!
______________________
Outraged of East Grinstead
I think I'm right in saying that Darjeeling is known as 'the champagne of teas'; best drunk after a relatively short infusion, without milk or sugar. It's certainly a favorite of mine. Although my tea palate has been slowly but surely busted by strong cups of Taylor's Yorkshire Tea drunk by the bucket. Morning, noon and night. Tea is undoubtedly the greatest and most restorative hot beverage. But should never be compared to beer. It's a different subject. Let's keep the two apart eh?
Ana Wrote: Dentures?
calm down please, otherwise your wig-hairpiece could fall down too
Sadly I lost that one windy morning in the hills. It's probably still flapping around somewhere over the English Channel, calling to fishermen and scaring the seal pups.
Still, I can always borrow SP's if I need one
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
This tea talk is all very well, but it does rather remind me of the scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral where the crashing bore is relating tedious details of the tea industry at the wedding reception ... "There are over 400 different varieties of tea, and that doesn't include all these so-called fruit teas..."
So, getting back to the far more exciting subject of running...
Er, somewhat abstrusely, I was rather pleased to see Andy is getting stuck into writing his book. I'd had some of the wind knocked out of my sails today and needed to read Andy's bit of upbeat positiveness and optimism to get my head back into gear, especially on the subject of rapid perambulation.
Like it usually is, it was only a small matter, but the timing and manner of its delivery was rather deflating. At work I happened to bump into the guy who after the Point to Pinnacle run last year convinced me to have a crack at it again this year, the idea being to form a corporate team of 4. Well great, that's been a major influencing factor in my training thus far this year. But blow me down if he didn't today calmly announce that not only is he not going to run it this year, but by the sounds of it, had never intended to! How things change in a few short weeks.
Anyway, it really doesn't matter that much. As much as it may have been fun to enter as a team, my primary aim is to set my own goals and run a personal race. Even so, it was good to read Andy's new bout of enthusiasm about both his book and his running, which helped pick me up a bit.
And to get down to the fleet-of-foot nitty gritty... well this is something of a step-back week for me. An old friend is visiting from out of town this coming weekend, and so it'll be two days of wineries, pub visits and restaurants. And therefore, no long run on the Sunday. So instead I've scheduled three short mid-week runs this week, two of which I've now completed satisfactorily. Only slight concern is the earliest hint of some shin soreness, so an easier week is probably prudent anyhow.
So this week is a bit of a mixed bag thus far, but all in all it's been a great running month to date, and I'm still basically very happy with my lot.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:Er, somewhat abstrusely, I was rather pleased to see Andy is getting stuck into writing his book. I'd had some of the wind knocked out of my sails today and needed to read Andy's bit of upbeat positiveness and optimism to get my head back into gear, especially on the subject of rapid perambulation.
I've edited that bit out again for the moment. It's tempting fate.
Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote:Like it usually is, it was only a small matter, but the timing and manner of its delivery was rather deflating. At work I happened to bump into the guy who after the Point to Pinnacle run last year convinced me to have a crack at it again this year, the idea being to form a corporate team of 4. Well great, that's been a major influencing factor in my training thus far this year. But blow me down if he didn't today calmly announce that not only is he not going to run it this year, but by the sounds of it, had never intended to! How things change in a few short weeks.
Sorry to hear that. Can you not take up the initiative yourself and send round a mail to see if you can find some others to form a team? It might shame the original guy into joining up again. Don't go off the idea of doing it though. It was a great adventure for all of us last time round.
Anyway, don't let it get you down. The journey has to have a few bumps and sharp turns. It isn't much of an achievement otherwise. Keep going.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
March maundering.
Actually though, to be honest I forgot about it as well. It was only because people were tut-tutting about this 
Is this the sort of thing we want to advocate on this site?
