Maffetonovember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Maffetonovember.

And so the saga of October's strained calf finally resolves in the positive. A 3km plod two days ago, and a better, 6.7km outing today shows the calf being no longer a problem. But, because of the injury a scheduled step back week therefore extended out to two weeks, and a big dent in the training schedule. More significantly, it played havoc with my confidence as I had to assess why a simple and not particularly significant calf strain took two whole weeks to mend, and worse, all the usual treatments of ice, heat, ibuprofen, stretching, massage and rest only made the strain worse, not better. Go figure! It certainly messed with my mind, I can tell you.

Amongst all this angst, and in one of those nice moments of positive synchronicity, I picked up a copy of Christopher MacDougall's Natural Born Heroes, in which he attempts to link heroism with feats of endurance, concentration and so forth. It's a riveting read, and if not entirely convincing, it certainly did have me researching Dr Phil Maffetone's 'method' for adapting the body to endurance events, which is strongly postulated in MacDougall's book as one of the essential ingredients of heroism. Of that fact I am not completely certain, and I haven't yet received Dr Maffetone's own book, so I'm working purely off what I gleaned from MacDougall's references to him and from the good Doctor's own website. On the matter of endurance running however, it does all seem to make some sense to me...

Essentially Maffetone and MacDougall are saying that for endurance sports, you need to properly train the body to run on fat and not carbohydrates. The devil will no doubt be in the detail, but the guts of it requires an initial two-week no-carb diet and exercising only at your purely aerobic heart rate, which for me corresponds to a range of 120 - 130 bpm. If the no-carb diet is hard enough (and it is, more or less, but more about that later), then running within this very narrow and highly restrictive range turns out to be far harder.

It seems, at least so far as I can tell from my research and my own experience thus far, that the transition from fat-burning (aerobic) activity, to carbohydrate-burning (anaerobic) activity is not a smooth, linear transition. Those 'heart rate zones' are listed in bands for a reason, or at least so it seems. As you exercise and your heart rate goes up, it tends to jump quite rapidly from the aerobic zone to the higher, anaerobic zone, switching from fat-burning to glycogen depletion very rapidly. This transition is to be strenuously avoided, according to Maffetone, if you are to train yourself to run further and faster whilst still burning fat. If successful, this will allow you to run for many hours without the need to refuel on the run, rather than burning glycogen in the anaerobic zone which will last for only 30 - 36km at best, and be subject to the usual up/down response as sugar levels rise and fall depending on your pace and ingestion of further carbs as you go.

As I say, this all sounded very logical to me, and with the other problems I've been experiencing it seemed worth a shot. Having struggled in recent weeks to lose some girth, the no-carb diet, which is just an extension of my 'no bread, no booze' regime and which has worked for me in the past, came along at the right time and appears to be just the fillip I need to get on top of things.

With that in mind, I  did a couple of test walks and the 3km run mentioned before, to see just how difficult staying within the narrow aerobic zone would be. All the reading I did suggested it would end up being the proverbial (but inverse logic) 'walk in the park' as staying down in that zone is surprisingly tricky at running pace. This definitely proved to be the case, and for today's first serious outing using the method I had to be very disciplined and stay well down at the very gentlest of jogs to keep my heart rate below the threshold, because beyond that it simply races away to an alarmingly high and definitely anaerobic rate. This morning's jog was by far the slowest run I've ever undertaken, covering a mere 6.7km in an hour, and requiring several walk breaks (yes!) as my heart rate nudged the maximum range and needing to be brought back within the confines of the fat-burning zone again.

So it all seems a bit strange. To run so slowly, and yet have to take walking breaks just goes against all intuition as a runner. And yet that's the point of it. Nothing changes unless you yourself change something, and now seems the time to begin this. It's a long, slow process by all accounts, but the results are impressive. The Maffetone Method is credited by Mark Allen for his six Hawaii Ironman Championships, and I think it's this that really caught my attention. I've regularly used Hawaii Ironman videos as motivation, and it always struck me how the athletes gorge themselves on everything they can shove in their mouths. This is hardly surprising given the vast outlay of energy required to complete a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a full 42.2km run (and the winners routinely do it all in about 8 hours), but two things have always struck me about this in particular. Firstly, how on earth do they train their stomachs to not only cope with the influx of foods, but digest it properly (something I've never been able to do), and secondly, if the human body is actually adapted to cope with long distances by burning fat reserves rather than relying on glycogen, for my own modest goals which do not require a winning time, would this latter option not be preferable and more sensible? Mark Allen apparently mastered this, and whilst my goals are obviously far, far more modest, I can still see the potential benefits but will it really work for little, humble, rank-amateur me?

The answer, I think, is a qualified 'yes'. The qualification is that to do this properly is a long, slow process. The potential payoff however is worth the attempt, or so I think at this stage. As I say, I haven't yet read Dr Maffetone's book on the subject, but if nothing else, in the short term I will lose (am already losing) those excess kilograms of blubber.

To go entirely carb-free for two weeks is probably an impossible quest for anyone except perhaps the strictest and most pedantic of carb-counting extremists. If nothing else, the usual round of family birthdays, work functions and social outings make the task very difficult. But thus far I am four days in and the results have been brilliant (despite one birthday party and a work function). Already the weight is dropping off and I feel generally better and healthier. My daily carb intake would be close to zero, and certainly under 10 grams per day so far. Compared to the typical recommended daily intake of around 310 gm/day this is vanishingly low, but I've had no ill effects at all, in fact quite the reverse. My calorie intake has probably about halved, yet I have no cravings or real feelings of hunger at all.

How this will translate into endurance running will take time to tell, of course. My goals are simple: run well for long periods of time and remain injury-free, and eventually to run another marathon without hitting the wall. Beyond that, who knows? I'd like to think an ultra was possible, but not at the expense of limiting time with family and friends. Distance training is a time-consuming, and ultimately an isolating thing to do, so there will need to be balance. But I think at least one more marathon, just to prove to myself that I can run one well within myself would be a worthy goal.

Getting back to this morning's run then, a mere 6.7km in an hour seems so bizarre to me. To put that into perspective, ten years ago I walked my first Point to Pinnacle at a faster pace, even up that bloody mountain, than this morning's 'run'. However, I covered the distance this morning without once moving into the anaerobic zone, barely breaking into a sweat at all, and most importantly with no pain or even tiredness in the legs.

To build this into something less embarrassing will take time, but heck, who really cares? The important thing is time spent on my feet, burning fat and gaining great aerobic fitness and health.

Really, when I think about it, this is really just a slightly more scientific variation of Jeff Galloway's run/walk method which achieves the same results in a slightly simpler format.

So, let's see where this all ends.

[Antonio247]

I'm very glad your calf injury is over, MLCMM. I'm really interested in your experience with the Maffetone method both the 2 week carb-free test and the 180 formula. I hope you'll be successful and enjoy it. I'd also like to experience it although the fact of not eating any fruit or bread for so long will be quite hard for me but I'm sure it will be good for my health as well.

Looking forward to hearing about your progress.

Best of luck!

[Sweder]

Jeez, that sounds like a ball-ache. But, as I'm in a not dissimilar position vis a vis niggles/ excess blubber, I should perhaps take heed. I've been trying to run the Twittens 'on heart rate'. However, I've been trying not to exceed 170 bpm (quite tough on hill sprints) as that is my self-calculated safe max heart-rate (225 minus your age). If that sounds a little plucked out of the ether, it is. I think I heard it somewhere ...

Any road, burning fat is where it's at. I'm not sure I'll be able to join in the non-carb part, as I'm booked in for a tour of Harveys brewery tomorrow and am at a Girlschool gig on Saturday night. That said, losing a few pounds of lard seems the quickest way to improved running, no matter what beat one runs to.

Thanks for the insight, MLCMMan

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Thanks for the comments guys, and welcome aboard Sweder, this should be quite a ride!

Already, just one week in I've seen a massive difference to my weight. In recent weeks my weight had basically plateaued around 81kg, despite 'conscientious' eating and regular running. This is 6-7kg above my proper race weight, but wouldn't budge. Since moving to a low-carb diet (a bit hard to count accurately, but well below the 30 gm/day that is normally prescribed on these programs) at the point indicated by the red arrow, you can see the weight has fallen away despite very little running. It's early days, being just one week into this business, but thus far it is working and even better, I have no hunger and no cravings to speak of at all. But more about that in a day or so...

[glaconman]

I'm in. I'm always around 6-7 kg above what I think my race weight ought to be. And this ties-in nicely with my plans for Nov/Dec being long, slow base miles. The hard part for me will be the food bit. Looks like omlette for breakfast.

[Sweder]

The hard part for me will be the food bit. Looks like omlette for breakfast.

Agreed, G-Man. I'll eliminate bread, pasta and rice for sure, but beer ...

The Tour last night was exceptional. Ed Jenner gave us a fully-rounded guide through the history of Harveys, ending with a thorough examination of their finest array. One revelation was that keg beer, now on the rise, is not to be sniffed at. That is, ale that has been prepared in the correct manner, then kegged (without yeast). Yeast produces a natural CO2 (and, therefore, bubbles), hence the need to add gas to keg beer on serving.

In the interests of research I took myself off to the Elephant and Castle to test the 360 Keg IPA. It was so good I needed another, just to be sure this wasn't a fluke. It wasn't. My nod to this here enterprise was the choice of a chicken kebab from the Charky, sans sauce. We must all make sacrifices on the Road to Wellville.

[Charliecat5]

The hard part for me will be the food bit. Looks like omlette for breakfast.

Agreed, G-Man. I'll eliminate bread, pasta and rice for sure, but beer ...

This is somewhat of a relief.  

I was out running this morning (5 miles up onto the Kingston Ridge) reflecting on the amount of beer I’ve drunk over the last couple of days (still in the bar at 1am on Thursday morning) and the impact that this was having on this morning’s run (knocked a good min/mi plus off the pace).

But my reflection was along the lines of: “isn’t it a good job I run to balance the beer intake” – I take you back to the “scientific” principles of the BMR. 

It certainly was not along the lines of: “I’d better give up beer as part of a carb reduction programme” – as that would be complete madness.  

So as I was falling in a barely controlled manner down the hillside this morning, I was thinking about three of my running heroes who have all stated on here in recent days that they are cutting out carbs (beer) and I had to conclude that either they had to leave these hallowed pages, or it was time for me to go.

Hence my relief that the Goat is well and truly being dragged through the dust behind the wagon with little to suggest he is going to climbing on board in the near future.  I’ll drink to that. Cheers

[marathondan]

So what's your target BMR, GM?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

More on this later, but just needed to quickly state that I'm not on the waggon, not even for these first crucial two weeks. I've merely cut out the beer - wine is perfectly acceptable as it has zero carbs. I'm still awaiting the arrival of Maffetone's book, and then I should know a little more about what I'm doing. Thus far it's a very successful weight loss program, but as regards to more than that, the jury is still out.

More soon.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Space beer.

I am reliably informed by a Flight Operations Engineer from the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne (whom I just happen to know) that there is only one beer on the planet that has been certified and approved by NASA for use in space. This would be fine and dandy for astronauts of all nationalities except that the focus of Euro-American space activity is of course aboard the International Space Station, and alcohol just happens to be banned there, which somewhat puts a downer on the whole space beer idea.

This, of course, does not preclude the manufacturer of the beer making and selling it on planet Earth. The beer in question is a stout and just happens to be manufactured in small batches by a micro-brewery just a short distance from my home. So when our engineer friend announced she was in Sydney for the weekend (accompanying Buzz Aldrin on his National Geographic 'Mars: The Live Experience!' presentation tour), well we just had to meet up at the '4 Pines' brewery/hotel and chew the fat and drink some of the much-vaunted 'Vostok Stout' (although its earth-bound version is rather anti-climactically called '4 Pines Dry Irish Stout').

That is the long way of explaining that on day 9 of my stint aboard the proud ship 'Maffetone Method' I broke my pledge of abstinence from beer and drank a solitary ale, well, an 'approved for space travel' stout in fact. I'd love to be able to say I rubbed shoulders with Buzz Aldrin and perhaps bought him a pint, but at age 86, he doesn't get out so much anymore, apparently. I did learn from our engineer friend, Andrea, that Buzz is great to work with, is very professional (of course) but does tend to 'go off on tangents' when giving talks, which only makes it sadder that he didn't join us for a pint. Actually, Andrea's main role on this trip isn't so much to accompany Buzz on his tour, as to represent the European Space Agency at meetings to establish the Australian Space Agency, slated for next year (and about bloody time, too. Australia is one of the very few developed nations with an active space industry not to have its own Space Agency).

But back to the beer and my two-week, low-carb diet. A solitary beer does not, of course, destroy an entire two-week dietary plan, but I was careful enough to ensure almost zero other carbs passed my lips through the day, so the total count is still way, way below what is considered normal. And just how is it all going? The answer is 'really well', and in surprisingly easy fashion. Essentially it has required eliminating from my diet all bread, grains, sugars, starches, pulses and so on, and instead focusing on protein, fats and non-starchy vegetables. This has not been as difficult as it may sound, as the fats and proteins that replace the carbs are delightfully tasty and satisfying, with a resultant, almost complete cessation of hunger pains or cravings of any kind.

Being neither space engineer nor dietitian I am not 100% certain of the science behind all this (but the book explaining it all is winging its way to me), but the result is a loss of just over 4 kgs of weight in 11 days, 9 of which have been solid Maffetone Method days of little to now carbs.

And the running? Well, the jury is still out on that one. The positive aspect of maintaining a very low heart rate whilst running is that I suffer no soreness or tiredness and can run more often. The downside is that I am running so slowly as to cover relatively little ground, although I am on my feet for considerable periods of time, which is another positive. The pace will (so Maffetone declares) come with time as the body adapts to running on fat rather than carbohydrate. We shall see. The results are encouraging enough to persist for the time being, but I'm desperately awaiting the arrival of his book so that I can understand and really work this method properly.

But for now, the weight loss is the thing. Having this year struggled and struggled to lose even a single kilogram of blubber despite a lot of running and a careful diet that in years gone by has generated meaningful results for me, this low to no-carb diet has after just a few days seen the lard (I suppose literally) melt away. And I know this is not just 'water loss' because my body water percentage has actually increased over the same period of time, as has my muscle mass. So, it's all good gear so far as this body is concerned.

As for side effects of the low-carb intake, there have for me, been very few. I had a slight headache on day 2, and on day 7 I had a minor bout of 'ketosis flu' in the morning and 'brain fog' in the afternoon. These are, I gather, common symptoms associated with going 'into ketosis'. This is when the body gives up trying to find glucose in the blood stream or glycogen in the muscles and instead has the liver produce high levels of ketones, which the body uses to break down and burn fat for fuel. This, of course, is what we're trying to achieve, and which if perfected allows an endurance athlete to perform for extended periods of time, such as those last 10 kilometres of a marathon when all your glycogen stores are depleted.

So, thus far, it's all looking tremendously positive and even a little exciting. If nothing else, it will get rid of those excess kilograms of weight, which will be a huge step in the right direction to getting back into shape.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the space stout is delicious!

[glaconman]

Great beer story MLCMM. I think you can be forgiven that minor detour given the opportunity.

Overall, you seem to be leading the way Sir.

I brewed an Oatmeal Stout myself this year. It was a bit tame in some respects (strength, body, mouth-feel) but had a great flavour profile (plenty of chocolate and coffee going on). Probably something I need to try again to get better.

[glaconman]

So what's your target BMR, GM?

I'm looking to go from 77 to under 70 Dan. Right now it feels like a very big ask. But who knows, stranger things have happened.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Space beer, part 2.

‘It’s called beer belly for a reason’ said my drinking companion, who, like me had switched from the much-lauded Vostok Space Stout to red wine. A burst of summery weather had descended, and the upstairs bar at the 4 Pines Hotel in Manly*, one of Sydney’s tourist hotspots, was full to the brim with hot, thirsty clients looking to slake their thirst in the late afternoon on any number of that establishment's fine in-house brews. So my drinking companion (I think his name was Gerard**), myself and Mrs MLCMM stood out, had anyone bothered to pay us that much attention, as we firstly drank stout - not exactly the most obvious of warm weather drinking choices - and then switched to red wine.

My reason was, of course, the current low-carb Maffetone Method diet which precludes beer but allows dry wine. A cool, steely Eden Valley Riesling might have been a better option given the warm conditions, but none of the choices on the wine list appealed, so we stuck to safer territory and ordered the shiraz. Gerard (or Gabriel, I'm not sure now) had answered my polite enquiry as to the reason for his switch to wine with the beer belly quip. He then expanded on his observation with: ‘and you never hear anyone speak of a wine belly, do you?’ as he downed his tempranillo with a wry smile and not a little gusto.

I had to concede the point. When I thought about it, I had indeed never heard reference to a wine belly, although I can think of one or two people who clearly do have one. But in general, it’s true that beer contains significant carbohydrate which, especially in blokes, does tend to lead to an excess of wobbly stuff in the general vicinity of the belly, whilst wine has considerably less tendency to reside about the waist. As evidence of that, quite a few beer bellies were on clear display right there and then at the 4 Pines, their owners doubtless having contributed significantly to the profits of that establishment (and probably many others), and who, by the looks of them, will soon also line the coffers of some of Sydney’s finest cardiologists.

It’s somewhat ironic then that I, relatively lithe and athletic by comparison to some of those gut-busting spheroids, should already be on the books of two different cardiologists. However, I suppose that’s the point of all this: having had my scare I’m now taking great care to avoid further trips to intensive care cardiac wards and the need to lay inside gigantic toroidal magnets having all my molecules realigned in order to take an internal photograph of my ticker. A slightly more disciplined approach to this caution was then the reason for switching to wine at the Manly 4 Pines, albeit on a day rather too warm for the chosen vin du jour.

So, a drastic reduction in carbohydrate intake has not precluded the imbibing of alcohol, and it’s probably true to say that I have consumed the demon drink on most of the 12 days now completed of my initial 14-day Maffetone Method starter programme. Despite this, I have lost prodigious amounts of belly blubber, which, like the consumption of fine wine, is incredibly satisfying.  

I’m now delving deeply into the good Dr Phil Maffetone’s book on the subject, and I shall report back my findings as I experiment with the aerobic training, low-carb eating techniques therein. But thus far, it’s tremendous fun, and yielding some excellent results.


*Readers not familiar with Sydney's history may wonder how this particular suburb came by such an odd name. According to the history books, Manly was named by Captain Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, after he observed the indigenous people living there, and noting in his log that ‘their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place’. The suburb that grew alongside the shoreline was named more simply ‘Manly’.

** Mrs MLCMM thinks it was Gabriel. We'll go with that.

[Sweder]

Mate, I've read up on the 180 rule. My MHR is 125!
This is going to be challenging and some ...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Mate, I've read up on the 180 rule. My MHR is 125!
This is going to be challenging and some ...

I cut myself a little slack and moved it up to 130, which is do-able. More on that later...

[Charliecat5]

Mate, I've read up on the 180 rule. My MHR is 125!
This is going to be challenging and some ...

I cut myself a little slack and moved it up to 130, which is do-able. More on that later...

Just out of interest, what's the end game here?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Mate, I've read up on the 180 rule. My MHR is 125!
This is going to be challenging and some ...

I cut myself a little slack and moved it up to 130, which is do-able. More on that later...

Just out of interest, what's the end game here?

In a nutshell, superior endurance and better general health. It's a long road, though. More soon.

[Charliecat5]

Mate, I've read up on the 180 rule. My MHR is 125!
This is going to be challenging and some ...

I cut myself a little slack and moved it up to 130, which is do-able. More on that later...

Just out of interest, what's the end game here?

In a nutshell, superior endurance and better general health. It's a long road, though. More soon.

I get the health bit - we all need a bit of that... but superior endurance? My understanding is that to benefit from fat burning you need to be in 50 mile territory?  Is that were you're heading?   As that is quite some distance from the pub.   Plus what about the fun* that comes from running up a hill like a loon?  

*pain and mayhem

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

As you will discover CC5, glycogen stores run out after about 30 - 36km (say, 20mi), after which you have only fat reserves to burn. Fat reserves can last for days, even running, so the idea is to switch over to fat burning as the principal source of fuel from the outset. This, of course, requires training in the fat burning (aerobic) zone and takes time. A lot of time. Gradually, pace quickens and endurance increases, allegedly significantly.

However, the health benefits also appear profound.

I'll write more soon when I understand it better and have a little more first-hand experience of which to speak.

[glaconman]

I remember the one-and-only marathon I ran. I trained for 4 months and nothing really happened to my body shape. Then, the day after the event I looked like a different person. Clearly going beyond that marker had a significant impact.

I'll be very interested to hear your precis on these theories MLCMM.