Low carb / Maffetone / other regimes

[Sweder]

Love this. I may even be tempted to give the old Ramblas another seeing-to.

[Antonio247]

Hola everybody

I'm glad you're succeeding in your weight loss, ex El Gordo.

I've just read Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes in a Spanish translation. I've found very interesting the fact that if we want to lose weight it doesn`t depend on the calories we take and the calories we burn but it depends on what we eat. He also says that the fewer carbohydrates we have, the better our glucose, cholesterol will be. I'm trying to eat little bread, very little products with sugar and doing some exercise ( walking, riding on mountain bike and jogging a little in spite of the heat ). I've lost two kilos in three weeks. My weight is 81,9 kg and my aim for Almería half marathon is to reach 78 kg.

Looking forward to being with you all at medio maratón de Almería or the 9 K. and the Moyleman 2018.

Best of luck with your training and healthy diet, amigos y amigas!

Saludos desde Almería.

[twittenkitten]

Hola Andy!

I thought of you on your birthday (esp as it was also mine) and I'm both thrilled and fascinated to hear about your progress I don't have anything to add on low carb diets as I've no experience of them. The common thread I have is wanting to lose weight and get more active. I want to lose about a stone in total.......

Are you planning to get to Almeria for the medio maraton in 2018? In my half-crazed state, I'm telling everyone (er, my wife) that I plan to run the Almeria Half 2018. 

Ha ha!! Hurrah for temporary weight loss hysteria and delusion!!

:-) I'll have a look into this low carb stuff - I AM curious about it, if nothing else!

I'm THRILLED to hear you talking about heading to Almeria in 2018 for the half - keep talking :-) It'd be wonderful to see you again and hey, every journey starts with the first step eh? I will definitely get to Almeria. I'm still worried about my ankle so not sure about the half, but committed to the 9K. I may up the ante if indications on the ankle are good.

So - see you there then? :-D At the very least enjoy the hysteria :-P

[Antonio247]

Hola TK,

I'm glad you're so motivated in doing Almería 9 K or half marathon. Hope you get better from your ankle injury soon.

Saludos desde Almería

[El Gordo]

An update.

I mentioned that 3 or 4 Sundays ago, after a rather gentle cycle ride down the lake to enjoy a Starbuck's coffee in Thalwil (oh yes, we know how to enjoy ourselves over here), I managed to pull a muscle in my back. As I think I said before, I treated it as a blessing in disguise as it encouraged me to go the doc's and arrange some lovely Swiss physio. Which I did.

After 2 crunching sessions on the old massage table left me looking like a quivering pretzel, I finally graduated to the comically misnamed stability ball last week. Still under the sadistic tutelage of the same physiotherapist, I was led to the elliptical cross-trainer and told to keep going until he came back. 32 minutes later, within moments of my expiry point, and just as i was wondering whether health insurance covers funeral expenses, there was a loud crash and the gym door burst open, followed by a white-faced physio racing across the gym to rescue me from certain death. "I'm sorry," he said breathlessly, "It was only supposed to be ten minutes!"

But I survived, and have even repeated the 30-aerobic-minutes feat twice this week. Plus more core exercises and stretching. I'm back in the green zone.

The low carb eating regime has continued without serious breach. The odd bottle of vino is about as naughty as I've been, and one plate of pasta a couple of weekends ago, when we visited an Italian restaurant that had nothing low-carb on the menu. Or nothing that I wanted. It didn't kill me.

The near-three weeks of no exercise explains my weight-loss plateau, but I'm still nudging downwards. Am just about 20 pounds lighter now than I was in the early part of last month.

My plan is persist, and to get back out there. I still have Almeria in my sights, plus some other possibilities.

I remain unbroken, people. Hurrah!

[marathondan]

Excellent stuff. 20 pounds is simply amazing. And the physio episode is straight out of Carry On Doctor. Sounds like you've gone from a Terry Scott to a Charles Hawtree.

[glaconman]

Cue Sid James laugher at that comment Dan.

Great news Andy. Keep at it.

I've managed to ditch about 10 pounds myself. Although not from any particular dietary regime. I may be eating abit less. But I'm also exercising more regularly. And some long bike rides have done a job. I think the holiday kick-started things.

[El Gordo]

I've managed to ditch about 10 pounds myself. Although not from any particular dietary regime. I may be eating abit less. But I'm also exercising more regularly. And some long bike rides have done a job. I think the holiday kick-started things.

Sacré bleu! A foodie loses 10 pounds after a holiday in France. You don't strike me as a fellow desperately in need of "weight management" (as Boots call their shelves aimed at products for fat people, noted today at Gatwick), though I suppose all that Timothy Taylor's and excellent home-cooked curry has to end up somewhere. Well done though.

I need to get a few more decent bike rides in before the clocks change. Driving back from Basel today, I could see the distant mountains looking just a little less green and a bit more greyish-white -- a sure sign of cooler temperatures arriving on higher ground. Am hoping to be released from elliptical duties tomorrow and allowed to stretch my legs on the static bike and treadmill, and from there, to resume some real-world cycling, and even jogging. Though anything like a strenuous, long-distance bike ride is now unlikely to happen this year.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Hey Andy, were you aware of the UTMB in Switzerland over the weekend? Best race ever apparently with the long awaited head-to-head between Kilian Jornet and Big Jim Walmsley (neither of whom ended up winning!) Don't know if they make much of a sing and dance about it outside Chamonix ...although it is the biggest ultra-trail running event in the world today.

[El Gordo]

Hey Andy, were you aware of the UTMB in Switzerland over the weekend? Best race ever apparently with the long awaited head-to-head between Kilian Jornet and Big Jim Walmsley (neither of whom ended up winning!) Don't know if they make much of a sing and dance about it outside Chamonix ...although it is the biggest ultra-trail running event in the world today.

Hi BB -- sorry to say I'd never heard of it until now. From its Wikipedia entry, it sounds like quite an event. 166 kms around Mont Blanc, with an elevation gain of nearly 10,000 metres. But still oversubscribed.  I won't be joining the waiting list. Today's 40 minute struggle with the elliptical was enough.

Talking of mountains to climb... I'm back in Vaduz tomorrow night after work, but this time the 6,000-capacity stadium is not host to FC Vaduz but to the Liechtenstein national team. Did I mention that I have a season ticket for the national team's World Cup qualifiers? Six games for about 100 CHFs, but these include contests against Italy and Spain. Indeed, it's the turn of the Spaniards tomorrow evening. We'll be seeking revenge after the first leg. Made it to half time still only 1-0 down, but managed to concede seven flukey goals in the second. Record so far: Played 7, Lost 7. Scored 1, Conceded 26. After Luxembourg's heroics against the French last night, I think it's the week of the minnow. I can see an historic giant-killing on the cards. 2-0 Liechtenstein, I reckon. Hurrah!

[Antonio247]

Hey Andy, were you aware of the UTMB in Switzerland over the weekend? Best race ever apparently with the long awaited head-to-head between Kilian Jornet and Big Jim Walmsley (neither of whom ended up winning!) Don't know if they make much of a sing and dance about it outside Chamonix ...although it is the biggest ultra-trail running event in the world today.

Hi BB -- sorry to say I'd never heard of it until now. From its Wikipedia entry, it sounds like quite an event. 166 kms around Mont Blanc, with an elevation gain of nearly 10,000 metres. But still oversubscribed.  I won't be joining the waiting list. Today's 40 minute struggle with the elliptical was enough.

Talking of mountains to climb...  I'm back in Vaduz tomorrow night after work, but this time the 6,000-capacity stadium is not host to FC Vaduz but to the Liechtenstein national team. Did I mention that I have a season ticket for the national team's World Cup qualifiers? Six games for about 100 CHFs, but these include contests against Italy and Spain. Indeed, it's the turn of the Spaniards tomorrow evening. We'll be seeking revenge after the first leg. Made it to half time still only 1-0 down, but managed to concede seven flukey goals in the second. Record so far: Played 7, Lost 7. Scored 1, Conceded 26. After Luxembourg's heroics against the French last night, I think it's the week of the minnow. I can see an historic giant-killing on the cards. 2-0 Liechtenstein, I reckon. Hurrah!

I wish you enjoy the match, EG. I expect  the Spanish national teamwill play well and score many goals. On Saturday they played very well against Italy. By the way, the Spanish spectators will probably eat sunflower seeds ("pipas" in Spanish).When I watch the match on TV, I'll try to see you.

Saludos desde Almería

[Bierzo Baggie]

Great! Like Antonio I’ll be looking out for you on the telly.

Spain are looking ominously good right now. Iniesta is still there but the backbone of the team is no longer Guardiola’s Barcelona.  Zidane’s Madrid provides a more flexible and in my opinion more exciting version.  With new players like Isco and Asensio they can play the tiki-taka without a number 9 but they also have the option of bringing on a superb traditional striker like Morata.

And Julian Lopetegui is an excellent, excellent coach/manager. So glad for him that he didn’t end up in Wolverhampton as originally planned 

Have fun at the match. I suspect that one of the teams you’ll be watching will go on to win the world cup.

OK, now back to the Maffetone diet.

[OutAlongTheRiver]

Just to say that Rick Curtis - who runs Ground Coffee in Lewes/Brighton - mentioned to me that Brook Barbieri who has run the Moyleman was taking part in UTMB this weekend. Not sure how he got on!

[Bierzo Baggie]

Just to say that Rick Curtis - who runs Ground Coffee in Lewes/Brighton - mentioned to me that Brook Barbieri who has run the Moyleman was taking part in UTMB this weekend. Not sure how he got on!

https://utmb.livetrail.net/coureur.php?rech=997

Plus decent write-up here
https://iancorless.org/

And remember this really is THE race. OutAlongThe River... if you get the chance to have a chat with Mr Barbieri he will tell you first hand, even better, get him to do a write-up here!

[Charliecat5]

He came in 940th having run 167.5km in 41:35 hours.  The elevation profile is scary.  Particularly if you overlay a Twitten elevation on top. 

http://utmbmontblanc.com/en/live/runner/997

[El Gordo]

Great! Like Antonio I’ll be looking out for you on the telly.

Spain are looking ominously good right now. Iniesta is still there but the backbone of the team is no longer Guardiola’s Barcelona.  Zidane’s Madrid provides a more flexible and in my opinion more exciting version.  With new players like Isco and Asensio they can play the tiki-taka without a number 9 but they also have the option of bringing on a superb traditional striker like Morata.

And Julian Lopetegui is an excellent, excellent coach/manager. So glad for him that he didn’t end up in Wolverhampton as originally planned 

Have fun at the match. I suspect that one of the teams you’ll be watching will go on to win the world cup.

OK, now back to the Maffetone diet.

Hmm. 0-3 after 15 mins. Time for Plan B.

[Bierzo Baggie]

Nice little stadium, not unlike Ponferradina's. When's the next game?

[El Gordo]

Nice little stadium, not unlike Ponferradina's. When's the next game?

Friday 6 October -- vs Israel. I fear that Liechtenstein's chance of ultimate World Cup glory may have eluded them for another campaign.

As for FC Vaduz, the next home game is this Saturday, against FC Rapperswil, who should really be my team as they are local. I should give them a go as it's a nice boat trip to the end of the lake -- as @Sweder and @MLCMM will testify. I won't be there this time though. We are driving to Poland on Saturday -- or halfway there. Will be in Prague or Salzburg, depending on the last-minute decision.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

As for FC Vaduz, the next home game is this Saturday, against FC Rapperswil, who should really be my team as they are local. I should give them a go as it's a nice boat trip to the end of the lake -- as @Sweder and @MLCMM will testify. I won't be there this time though. We are driving to Poland on Saturday -- or halfway there. Will be in Prague or Salzburg, depending on the last-minute decision.

Indeed, a marvelous boat trip and a beautiful locale ... highly recommended!