FATBUSTER

You might be wondering (or you might not) what I've been up to the past month ... well.....it's not running. Okay I've run every week but not much, 10-15k, so what have I been doing. I decided to have a serious go and cutting body fat whilst increasing lean muscle mass. There were several reasons;

1) To increase my overall fitness.
2) To improve my body conditioning for future challenges.
3) Vanity - to look good.

I began just before Christmas with 6 HIIT's per week. These included weights as well as high intensity exercises for on average 9 to 18 mins per day. After 2 weeks I then began German Volume Training or GVT for 4 weeks. GVT is 26 sets of 10 heavy reps in 4 different exercises over 3 days in a 5 day rotation. This could take up to an hour per session. Then after this I returned to 2 more weeks of HIIT's

     The results speak for themselves. After 8 weeks of this training my Body Fat % has dropped to 8.9%. This was achieved in two ways. Firstly, the exercise routine just mentioned and secondly nutrition.
     I ate twice as much food in this period as normal and dropped weight and fat whilst increasing my lean muscle mass and yet hardly ran at all. So how was this done?
    Paddy Warwick, my coach, prepared this plan by combining Crossfit regimes, GVT and general targeted weight sessions. I stuck to this rigidly and when I visited California in January I just went to Gold's gym  and kept at it. U.S. gym's stay open 24/7 so there are no excuses.
   But what did I eat? I recently saw a picture that said:-

           'Feed the muscle.........Starve the fat!'  ... and that pretty much sums it up what I did.

Breakfast 1- One teaspoon of Glutamine, one Probiotic, two omega 3 fish oil capsules, 4 JuicePlus, One tablespoon Superfood Green Drink, 7 Almonds,5 Cashew nuts, Two eggs and Bacon with vegetables OR Chicken with vegetables Or Ham etc (Atleast 20 grams of protein) Once a week porridge with honey and cinnamon.

 Breakfast 2 -Glut -4 opening exercise routine (120 seconds), followed by one Chocolate croissant and two strong coffees.

Mid morning snack- 7 Nuts or half a greek yogurt plus half a banana.

Exercise - 2 weeks of (Weights, Hiit's 18 mins per day- 6 days per week)
                  4 weeks  of (GVT- one hour - 3 days per week)
                  2 weeks  of (Weights, Hiit's 18 mins - 6 days per week)
            After a workout a 35 gram Protein shake including Glutamine and BCAA's

Lunch -   Chicken OR Fish with LOTS of salad and a few nuts (No dressing). Some dry crackers with butter.
                  Tea with 5 squares of 70% Dark chocolate and 3 plain biscuits.

Afternoon snack - Slice of ham or chicken

Dinner- Fish eg Tuna or Salmon, OR Chicken OR Minced beef with 3 or 4 different vegetables- with 3 times per week maybe sweet potatoe or small portions of rice or pasta.
                 Tea with a few chocolate biscuits.

 Before bed- 300 miligrams of Magnesium with Vitamin B6

I drink 2.7 litres of water a day not including teas and coffees....and just for the record I don't drink or smoke....but you knew that anyway.

 If you do this for 8 weeks you will cut fat. If you just do HIIT's and no GVT you'll cut even more.

So how does it work? Its not a trick as its all science based. There is an even faster way - If you have a full Protein breakfast and NOTHING WHITE eg Bread,cakes,pasta,rice etc at all, for one month but eat as much as you want of everything else, then you will lose weight.
    My goal was not to lose weight but to cut fat whilst increasing my lean muscle mass, hence the GVT. My weight was slightly down but my body composition it radically different. For guys this means you look, feel and are stronger......and for girls the same, except you drop a dress size or two!
       High intensity exercise burns fat during AND after training for up to 24 hours, whereas long slow running burns limited calories for just the duration of the run. Hiit's also improve your overall fitness, strength and endurance. The shortest HIIT you can do is a Tabata (4 mins) and that is the equivalent of a one hour run.
   So why run at all ?......I like running in the hills, it's good for my Karma, life affirming, energizing etc etc...but as a tool to cut fat it's not the most effective thing you can do.
      I must point out that exercise is only about 35% of the fat cutting equation, the rest is what you eat. Remember if you eat right or 'clean' you can pretty much eat as much as you want. I have never, ever dieted...... It doesn't work because you are starving your body of food so in simple terms it hangs on to your stored energy (fat) and doesn't let it go. If you eat constantly throughout the day the body is not stressed and therefore lets the excess fat go into energy for your exercise......and so voila, you lose fat and weight. I get lots of comments about how people find it hard to eat a protein breakfast,it really isn't. If you had an evening meal at 7pm and then breakfast at 7am you just did a 12 hour 'fast', the body wants and needs nutrients, (Not poor quality Carbs like white toast, Cornflakes or, God forbid, waffles).
     It's really not that hard its just consistancy of effort that eventually becomes a habit.
    


  

THE YEAR AHEAD

It's January. Fitness gym membership goes through the roof, magazines for women are selling the latest diet or detox, new books are out promising the 'lose 10 pounds in 7 days' crap and men's health mag's with the 'great abs in 2 weeks' promise. The list goes on and on. I'm afraid  most plans when hatched at the end/ start of the year nearly always end up discarded by March. Everyone has the best intentions but it's basic human  pyshcology and so within a few weeks of hard effort the goals and dreams start to fade and the old habits return ... and the next year, the cycle is repeated. So what's the answer?

       In my humble opinion and from my own experience you have to start by setting small attainable goals, it could be something as simple as doing a brisk walk (ie quick, fast paced walk) for 30 minutes... or maybe a short run or a walk interspersed with sprints. As your confidence builds and fitness improves then look at a more ambitious plan with a target and a time table to achieve it. This could be food choices, fitness or preferably both but it must be a definitive target. For the more focused who have a proven track record of setting and achieving goals then one can be very ambitious indeed. I find most people who are like this have set their goals independant of year ends etc ... and I believe therein lies the secret. One should already know what your goals are and be already living a healthy and fit life independant of any arbritary calendar dates. Still, if you've made your mind up over Christmas and you're commited, then go for it. I think you have to either enjoy the experience and/or feel good about yourself for doing it. I believe we all have a responsibility to make the best of ourselves ... as well as a responsibility to our loved ones to be fit and healthy.
      At present I am in the middle of some serious body conditioning. I will be running a few smaller  events in the spring just to 'get my legs back' and so at present I am just doing easy 10-15k trail runs for fun. When running ultra's it is important to have 'downtime' where you do not stress your body through running. It is a time to strengthen your body and crosstrain or do different sports just to have mental as well as physical variety. Running and training for ultra's is stressful and the body needs time to rest and recuperate. This does not mean sitting on the sofa eating donuts!.....Sleep and clean nutrition is paramount.
      My goal is to strengthen and stretch, with sprints and HIIT's over the next 8 weeks so that I can start training in earnest for my next big event. I already know what I am going to do and it will put great demands on both my strength and endurance and so at 58 years old I need to be in 'more than' the best shape of my life, mentally and physically. At this stage I'll just give you a clue ... it's in the USA, of course. I am a sucker for American enthusiasm and I love the positive energy that the organisers and competitors bring to the big events ... and as a Brit, I understand what they're saying - which always helps... More on this later.
        In the meantime it's back to training 5/6 days per week and not going too crazy. Unusually for me I've had a few training partners over the last few weeks. My coach Paddy and I did some seriously heavy workouts together before Christmas and over the holidays I've been in the gym with my son, Alexander, who has really developed his physique through training, strict nutrition and no alchohol - not easy for a 21 year old. His friend Will has also been training hard and has done quite a few trail runs and hill sprint routines with me. It's great to see these kids getting it together and learning the importance of fitness and health whilst in their youth. If it becomes a habit now then it will stay with them all their lives -what a gift.
    Happy New Year to all.
 

    
    

       

 

AFTER THE RAIN HAS FALLEN.....

The normally dry trails

My two favourite places in the world to live are Southern California and the South of France, both have up to 300 days of sunshine per year which is one of the main reasons for living there but they also share another similarity in that when it does rain, it rains with a vengence. Southern California's PCH has mudslides and floods whereas the Riviera has torrential rain with just about everything getting flooded, roads, rivers, houses, etc. The reaction in the US is to clean it up fast; I was once told that with 3 continous days of rain, the first day is, its good for the gardens......the second, it won't last much longer....and on the third day, everyone visits a therapist. In France, the first day they shrug and do nothing......and on the second and third day........they continue to shrug and do nothing.

      Today was the first sunny day in 3 days and after a brutal workout week with Paddy I thought it time to hit the trails for an easy 10k jog, just to chill out. It was a lovely day but within minutes I was met with trails that though normally dry, were now rivers! The hills were literally 'full' of water. It was a bit tricky running up and down streams and brooks but highly exhilerating.....and refreshing. These pictures are the actual trails which are normally bone dry! On the hilltops,the trails were much drier and the smell from the wet pine trees was intoxicating. What a great way to celebrate your birthday, yes folks I'm 58 today!
     Its been quite a year. Three big races including 2 ultra's as well as many 40k training runs. It was nice just to jog along like a normal person without caring how far or what time or speed. My body composition has changed dramatically ( now 9.9% body fat), as has my overall nutrition. My muscle mass has also increased to the point that my quads and general strength has enabled me to go further, faster. It still hurts but I can go longer before it starts to hurt and the improvement in my sodium/potassium pump gives a much faster recovery time between events.
    I'm still working on my Paddy/Crossfit regime's by incorporating more strength work with high intensity training and no doubt next year I will look at race distances to establish the most effective distance for me i.e. not neccessarily the most challenging but also the most fun....because if it's just a constant slog for 10-15 hours....what's the point? I love running through the mountains and forests and I don't mind suffering to reach my goal....but not for the whole *^/#"* day !
    On a more personal note I lost one of my best friends this year, Steve was 51 and an alchoholic.....but that's not how I remember him. He loved having fun and he loved to laugh.....and he was even happier if everyone around him was having a good time. I often wonder where all that positive energy went. Today I was running through the hills where I scattered his ashes and sometimes I find myself just laughing at his craziness.......he definitely is somehere, laughing at mine.  
      I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas....thanks for all your support and encouragement......I hope you too can find some stimulating fitness goals for the New Year, it's amazing what you can do if you commit yourself to something. Find a goal, make a plan and do it.....and when it comes to a sports event I'll let you into a little secret of how to succeed, which was shared confidentially to me, many years ago.................are you ready?............'It's all in the training.'....and it is. 'Bonne Sante' :)

The birthday boy

 

A SUPRISE RESULT

 So a few days have gone by and my recovery has been excellent, 2 days after my run I went for a 10k easy jog in the hills and felt great. Crossfit Endurance do say that recovery times are much quicker as a result of their training......its all to do with an efficient sodium potassium pump. I could explain this further but suffice to say that an efficient pump regulates the balance of sodium and potassium in the cells thereby aiding recovery......and it works.
     Helen thinks that my calf injuries were more of an over elongated stretch in training rather than a pull or a tear, (a grade 1) and this would be the reason why they held up okay despite the dull pain. 'Obviously' she said, 'they didn't like running that far and definitely didn't like the beach.....but they just had to put up with it.....and you......just like we all do'. So there you go.
      I reckon on consuming 85 grams of carbs per hour from gels and other food, plus I have my natural glycogen stores (about 450 grams) and then fat stores after that, but on 5 hours + running I probably didn't burn that much fat and two days later, voila my weight was exactly the same as before the race. I have written many times that you don't lose weight by going on lots of runs, it keeps you fit and healthy but that's not how you lose weight, if that's your goal.
     I did get a bit of cramp later on so I popped two S-Caps and was fine in minutes. ( For those of you who have never used S-Caps salt tablets, I recommend them highly). In a normal ultra I'll take one every hour and they work brilliantly.
    My Brooks Cascadia 7's running shoes managed to dispel all the water from the sea, streams and rivers very well, they call it, 'In/Out technology', or something like that. However, I do have one criticism, the laces keep coming undone and I have heard other runners mention this before, it seems bizarre that they can make such a good running shoe but can't supply laces that tie up properly! Go figure.

      So what's the suprise?

      I have to be honest, I found this race quite tough even though it wasn't an ultra. It was a fab day and a stunning place and I was very fortunate to be able to do it but the beach running wore me down over time. The comments from other runners on the sand was 'C'est dur'........'Its hard' and it was. It really slows you down and then the climbs in the hills afterwards are just much more tiring due to fatigue, nevertheless it was a great new experience and one that I wanted to try. At the end of Pampelone beach a small river enters the ocean and at one point I was up to my waist wading through it and thinking, 'this is nuts!' I felt quite forlorn when I looked back down the beach and found that I was alone.......I couldn't see anybody, I thought, I must be last, this is terrible! I'd never been in this position before, even though I'm usually the oldest kid on the block. But, I had one thing going for me, as an ultra runner you have to pace yourself and run your race , not anybody else's, and you have to trust in your ability and knowledge and most importantly you have to keep going; its relentless forward progress.
    What happens is over time you start to real people in and the longer the race goes on the more people slow down, so if you can keep up an even pace, then you eventually, over many hours, catch them up. Exactly 88 runners started the race and at the 12k stage I was, if not at the back, then not far off it......but 5 hours-19 minutes later I managed to finish in 48th place! Its a good metaphor for life, over the course of the race I'd improved my position by about 40 places, just by staying constant.
      Its the highest position, pro-rata, that I have ever come in a race, which is great but why was this? As you no, firstly, I hardly did any long runs, it was mostly high intensity crossfit type training and secondly, I saw my coach Paddy today and I have just hit 9.9% body fat, the leanest I have ever been. This  race was partially an experiment to see if this type of training works, well you can't judge things on one race alone but the evidence, if not convincing, is certainly thought provoking.
      My conclusion is that I am definitely staying with this program. Paddy and I have been discussing a new 6 week schedule to further increase my fitness levels by using more weights, high intensity exercise and sprints. However, there is one thing I will always do 3/4 weeks before a big race, I will do at least one long training run.....I still say its important to attune you to the mental fatigue.....and how to deal with it. You have to keep going, no matter how painful or tired or fed up you feel and until you've experienced it and got through it then you can't possibly know what that feels like.
      Anyway those are my thoughts.....I'd be very interested to know how others feel. You can comment here or email me at phil@modelplan.co.uk

    
     


 

RACE REPORT-TRAIL DES CAPS

Wow, what a weekend. Last night Sue and I went for a pre race dinner in St Tropez and then back to our fab hotel, the Villa Begude, for an early night. My view is if you're going do these tough challenges then you might as well make it as pleasant as possible........before the drama begins.



         It was a stunningly beautiful day with a chilly Alpine wind blowing on the exposed cliff tops. It was 100 of the usual fit French guys, thin, wiry, short cropped hair.....; its like a uniform, they all look the same but they are very good at this sport so they have my respect. I really thought that my calves were going to 'pull' in the first hour so I was pretty relaxed.....ooops! The pace was really fast over the first kilometre and the reason, I was to discover, was because it was the only flat, level, open piece of trail on the whole course. I would say 90% of this trail was 'technical' which means rocky, roots, slippy surfaces, mud, and constant up and down.....and thats before you hit the beach. The total elevation gain was just under 4000 feet which is okay but the surface was very tricky. Still it was a great temperature and clear blue sky so you have to be grateful, it could have been a full blown storm.
       Anyway 45 minutes in, I'm twisting this way and that, ducking under trees whilst trying to prevent myself from catapulting  over the cliff edge, when Bang!! No, not my calf, I just smacked straight into a low tree branch and keeled over. With blood pouring from my head I am instantly surrounded by a collection of concerned runners. 'Ma tete frappe le branche' I exclaimed. The only reason I knew how to say this was because luckily these are 4 of about 20 french words that I know and I only knew 'branche' was branch because of the comedian Eddie Izzard's French sketch.( You tube). Now trail runners are a hardy bunch and although they were concerned they just expect you just to get up and get on with it......and so that's what I did, although I was now the 'headless' trail runner and my vision a little hazy, to say the least......still it woke me up a bit and I forgot all about my calves.
      The 4 k's of Pampelone beach were basically terrible, I tried running in soft sand, hard sand, by the sea, even in the sea, it made no difference, its just hard. When we finally began a steep climb back up into the hills I was actually relieved. Somehow I got to the 20 k aid station in 3 hours which was okay considering I'd been half decapitated and was half legless.
       The aid station was out of the back of a van with a few bottles of coke and water...and that was it. This is trail running French style.....it ain't California, if you don't bring all your own stuff you could have a problem. Later two french guys passed me and attempted to have a chat, which was a complete waste of time but I did manage to say that running in such a beautiful place was a 'privelege'. This brought instant nods of approval and off they went.
        By now my calves were starting to ache quite a bit as if they were saying to me 'Come on, we got you this far but now your really 'pulling my leg'. (By the way for my foreign readers this might not translate but trust me, it was quite funny.)

         To be fair the endless rocks and beaches started to take their toll but I was going to finish no matter what.......and finally over 5 hours later I hit the last beach and arrived at the 'plage du Debarquement' and the finish. The beach is called this because this is where the American troops landed in 1944, which is pretty cool.......and now it was my turn. (Steve would have loved that).
      Sue had enjoyed a lovely day at the hotel whilst I'd been doing my thing so all was well and, lest I forget a big thanks to Helen, my physio, for her 'therapy by phone', it could be an all knew buisness venture and to Pam for the KT calf tape suggestion. I didn't use KT but I did my own DIY version when taping my calves this morning. The moral of this story is that, tape, physio, ice , massage, TENS machines, elevation and rest, actually work.......that and a bit of stubborn belief.

 

PRE RACE PANIC

Well what a weird Taper week which began, as you know, with a calf strain last Friday. Super physio Helen came over on Sunday and got to grips with the problem. Not only did she find some very painful spots she even found some in my other leg.......which was a little strange as I hadn't injured that one! As Helen said "Don't worry I will always find some way of exacting torture."
      Now you may ask yourself why I put up with this hour of agony......well the  reason is; Helen is very good. The next day my legs  were so tired I felt like I'd been on a 3 hour run and this was due to her deep tissue massage....yeh it sounds nice......but it isn't.
        But, on the following day my legs felt fantastic, no pain, swelling nearly gone, etc, etc: so I did a couple of 20 minute high intensity workouts over the following two days with no pressure on the legs and all was well.....And then I did what all idiot athletes do........I went for a little jog.....and again felt fab.....and so I began some tabata sprints......and guess what?...I pulled the lower calf. When I told Helen this I think she wanted to throttle me, "I told you to rest and do nothing till the race!"
  "I know but I felt great and just wanted to stretch my legs".
    "Well that was stupid".
     "Guilty" I meekly replied. Unfortunately Helen was flying out to the UK that morning so it was 'therapy by phone' followed by ice, rest , elevation, compression, self massage, stretching and the ubiquitous TENS machine. This race was starting to look more impossible by the minute and I hadn't even started.
     The last few days I really have rested and done nothing and so feel quite sluggish but there's still a dull pain. 9 months with no injury's and now two strains in 4 days, the week before a race........is someone trying to tell me something?
      Needless to say I have no idea how tomorrow is going to go.......to be honest it doesn't look good as calf strains always seem to come one after another. If I get another 'pull', then c'est la vie, there's very little I can do about it. I hate the phrase "I'll do my best", as only losers say that, so all I'll say is, 'I'll give it everything'....Its bloody annoying though. I tried a 2k jog this morning and unfortunately the pain has not gone...and I had to walk the last 500 metres. My leg is now wrapped in ice and as Sue sagely pointed out, 'Aren't you supposed to 'ice' it after a race?.....that's not a good sign is it?'....Well quite. I've decided to split the race into bits, ie mini challenges. Its 8k to Pampelone beach, 4k across the beach, 8k to the aid station and 12k climbing up and down to the finish with more beach. It will all be dependant on the pain. You never no I might wake up tomorrow and feel great....gotta stay positive.
         The last bit of advice Helen gave before she left was, 'Whatever you do, don't run on the beach, its the worst thing for calves"......As 7k of this 32k race is run on beaches I guess I'll just have to walk on water!
        Wish me luck :)
 

THE CROSSFIT ENDURANCE QUESTION.

As its only 2 weeks to my 32 k Trail des Caps, I thought it might be a good idea to give a flavour of what I've been doing. As you know I have incorporated a lot of Crossfit type workouts and a lot less running over the past few months. I felt this would be a good opportunity to experiment with Crossfit Endurance. My normal training would be 60+ plus kilometres per week with 10 minutes calisthenics 3 days per week and a hill repeat sprint session once per week (this would include a long run of 4-5 hours). My schedule for this race has been very different......The first 6 weeks were 4 days per week of HIIT (High intensity workouts for 20 mins max) with  3 runs including interval and sprints totalling only 25-30k per week.....and the last 6 weeks were as follows......(please note that all Crossfit workouts have names).

Monday     AM 10k Tempo or Interval Run (60 sec sprints/60 sec rest)
                  PM Crossfit- 3x8 Clean and jerk, 5x5 Weighted barbell squats & (GRACE- 30 reps Clean
                  and jerk).

Tuesday   AM Crossfit - 4x8 Snatch, 5x5 Bench press & (BARBARA - 4 rounds as fast as possible of
                   20 x Pull ups, 30 x Chest release push ups, 40 x Sit ups, 50 x Bodyweight squats).


Renegade Rows....one of my favourites.

                   PM 1500 metre timed sprint.

Wednesday REST

Thursday    AM Crossfit- (PATTY - 5 Rounds of HIIT 40 secs of each exercise, 20 secs rest,
                    Kettlebell swings, Let me inns, Barbell push press, Running mountain climbers)
                    PM 800 metre x 4 sprints with 90 second rest.

Friday        Long 20-24k trail run with 2/3000 feet of elevation gain (2-3 hours).
                  * (Paddy and Crossfit Endurance don't agree with this Long run, 90 mins would be the max that they would recommend....but I believe its neccessary from a psychological perspective)

Saturday    AM Rest
                  PM Crossfit. Either 4x10 Overhead squats, 3x AMRAP Toe bars and    
                  (LINDA 10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3, 2,1, reps of Deadlift, Bench press, Cleans)..............OR...........
                   Crossfit 3x 6 Handstand pushups, 3x5 Box jumps and (MARY - one round as many reps
                  as possible of 5 x Push press, 10x One-legged pistol squats, 15x Hang cleans.)

Sunday       REST

..........and thats it. Total time in gym per week.....  2 hours.
                              Total time running per week ....3-4 hours
                               Total exercise time...................5-6 hours

Sidenote  This includes 2 full rest days per week. Paddy, my coach, would have preferred it if I'd done even less running. In my first 6 weeks I only did 72 mins of High Intensity exercise per week, ie averaging 12 mins per day and in that time I  decreased my body fat to under 10%.....
  *Also, I realise that 3 hours is not a very long, 'Long run' as regards ultra training but as Crossfit advise against any runs of this length at all, then in this program it is.
       I have tried to be specific here to show more clearly that its what you do and how you do it, not how much. Nutrition of course is even more important. Sue and I have worked out that I eat probably twice as much as I used to but the balance of carbs to protein to fat has changed radically....in fact our diet now is probably about 75% Paleo.
       I'm sure Paddy and I could work out a more effective routine than the one above but everyone is different so this is a learning curve to see what will work best for me at this stage. A female friend of ours, married with 4 kids, does 20 hours training per week to run marathons, so you can see my type of training is nothing in comparison, but if this is effective which would you choose? My training is more varied, stimulating and carries less injury risk than only running up and down mountains for 20 hours per week but we all have a choice and if thats what you want to do.. ...and have the time....then good luck to you.
     After this week I will taper the mileage further with just Tabata's and intervals and ease back completely on any strength work. Apart from a brisk walk I'll do nothing the last 3 days before the race. I will increase my carbs in the last week but I won't go crazy because otherwise I'll feel too heavy as I'm just not used to it....and besides I don't believe in changing your natural diet too much the week before a race. I normally run and train on my existing diet so if I double my carb intake then that should be enough to build up my glycogen stores.( However, I reserve the right to screw up completely.........just in case any of this goes wrong.)
      I admit I am concerned about the lack of mileage and to be honest I should have done more sprint/interval work but this is partially an experiment to see what happens with this type of program. Also one can feel good or bad on any given day and the weather too can play a part plus the terrain is quite different to previous races so its bound to be 'interesting'.There are always suprises in trail running and that's part of the fun so you have to be prepared to adapt.... ..and speaking of suprises, today I was doing a 10 k interval run, feeling good and suddenly I pulled my calf muscle. I have had no injuries for 9 months and 10 days before my race, Bang!  So annoying, and worrying as I thought I was over the calf issue. So it was the normal R.I.C.E. protocol and then back to the TENS machine. I can still do most of the Crossfit stuff but I'll have to think long and hard about any running this week. This will of course be a worry during the race but what can you do? My physio Helen is coming over tommorrow and she will no doubt administer some horrendous torture in order to get me fit.This is going to be a very strange 'taper' week, hopefully my fitness will be okay and the rest period should help muscle recovery.......we shall see, I'll just have to roll with it.
    Funnily enough this summer I  was doing a quick 10 k with a friend of ours, Jules, who is no stranger to road marathons, and he was quite suprised at how much you had to concentrate on where you are putting your feet and how mentally tiring it must be in an ultra........which is very true because I can guarantee that in an ultra the moment you look up and admire the view you'll be flat on your back and looking up at the sky!
    On a completely unrelated note I was in chilly London last week and went training in a small park at dusk. I was doing sprint repeats for about an hour and suddenly a voice from the darkness, an American voice, shouts out;-
    'Hey man those negative splits are a bitch aren't they?'
     I had to laugh.... Yanks, you gotta love them......for a moment there I was back in sunny Southern California.

 

WHICH ONE ARE YOU ?

On reflecting about the recent US election and the polarising effect of politics it made me ponder on that other great division, not only in the US, but throughout the world. It is of course between the have's and the have nots........those who have a lot of fat and those who don't.
      'Oh I can hear you saying, he's off again, having a go at us unfit fatties'....well yes, repent, repent the time is nigh......the day of reckoning is approaching......ha ha, I sound like Elmer Gantry. Who? don't worry about it, (there was a time when I would have to explain this reference but I guess anyone interested will Google him in 5 seconds). I digress. Why is it that 'obsession' is a word that is always applied to the fit and healthy whereas if someone eats crap, drinks too much and watches TV all night then they are considered 'normal'. I think its a con and a great many people have fallen for it, I meet them all the time.....'I eat very well'........'Nothing wrong with having a few drinks'.....'People who excersise are always dying of heart attacks'.........'I'm happy with my weight'........'My grandma lived to 98 and she smoked all her life'.......I could go on and on but you get the picture. So many people live a life of denial......and as my friend Crazy John used to  say.....'Yeh they think de nial is a river in Egypt'.
        We all succumb to easy ways and lazy thinking, its a natural human trait but when it comes to being healthy you have to fight the easy option......'Shall I go for a run or have a pizza and watch X factor?' The facts are that the majority will do the latter but the fit minority will not only choose to run, they prefer it and herein lies the problem. The 'fits' believe in the idea and the reality of being healthy and any action associated with it whereas the 'fat's' believe, or want to believe, that the pizza/X factor option will do them little or no harm.......and while that thought predominates they will always be fat.
       Belief is everything. I don't think the 'fats' neccessarily believe that over eating is healthy but neither do they believe that eating well and exercising leads to Nirvana. So what is going on in the old cerebal cortex and how do we flick the 'fit' switch and get everyone off their backsides ?



WHICH ONE ARE YOU?

   Its a big question as many people have good intentions and 'want' to do something but 'want' is no good, it has to be a 'must'.The other challenge is that a great many 'fat's' actually think they are a 'thin'........or atleast not as fat as they truly are. Before I get accused of being fattest we have to understand that everyone has and needs fat, if you didn't you'd be dead. Top male athletes are well under 10% but the average American male is between 18-24% and over 25% is considered to be obese. In Women its 22-25% with over 30% being obese. Female athletes are below 18%.

      Fat percentages don't lie which is probably why most people stay away from them. I see women, especially, buying more and more varied outfits designed to hide the obvious. A friend of ours owns a very successful ladies store in England and she told me that atleast 4 or 5 times a day a customer would say 'Does my bum look big in this?' The sad thing was that she would be polite in her reply and avoid the question but the reality was, 'Yes, it does!'......'Hello!'





   So, step one....Get real
         step two....Get disturbed
        step three...Decide to do something about it.
and step four.....DO IT.
   and I don't mean join a gym or pass on that extra slice of pie...I mean do something structured with a plan and a time horizon and a goal. To say I'm going to exercise more and/or cut down on cakes and biscuits is not a plan that's just a floaty thought.
       Educate yourself on what you are eating and on what exercise is the best for losing fat whilst improving your fitness and health. As you can tell I'm pretty passionate about all this. I think its great to see people improving their health in which ever way works for them....and I also think its terribly sad to see unfit, overweight people indulge in some kind of false happiness that they clearly don't feel. Just for the record if you are fat and happy then good luck to you.......
     As all health proffessionals I know will tell you, its not easy, it takes commitment and effort, sometimes its fun, sometimes its boring.....and sometimes you just don't want to do it and thats's why you must have a plan and a goal and stick to it.....no matter what, no excuses, period.
I like the quote 'Nothing tastes as good as fitness feels'........that biscuit is a 2 second thrill....fitness and health is a life time experience.
  Many people email me about my blogs but if you want advice on nutrition, fitness.....or God forbid, ultra running, then email me at phil@modelplan.co.uk  and just ask.

TIME TRIAL

Following on from my stats in my last blog of my improved speed it occurred to me that the best way to check my race time over 18k was to do the exact same race, in the same conditions and at the same time of day....the only difference being it would just be me and there would be no aid stations. The fact that I would racing alone could make me slower so I would just have to push myself harder.....and the aid station thing is pretty irrelevant over such a short distance.
   It is 18 months since I'd run this route, so it was going to be interesting, now I know its not ultra distance but still, it would be a valuable experiment. Last time I did this I was full of gels, water, sports drinks, banana's etc.......and its only 18k!....my glycogen stores would hardly have been used up at all....what an idiot.
    This time I set off much better prepared, lighter, leaner, fitter and in better shape altogether, the only nagging concern was that I'd been doing  a lot of crossfit lately and I had read that in the first few weeks your times can drop before they get better. Not quite sure what the reason is but I suspect its due to fatigue in the muscles that have not yet rebuilt themselves.
       Undaunted I set my watch and off I went instantly feeling under pressure which was ridiculous because nobody knew or cared what I was doing.......but of course I did.....and I'm pretty good at beating myself up if I have too. In my mind this was a pretty serious time trial and, as in any competition, if you are racing against others you automatically go faster so I had to race against someone.......and today the someone was myself. The elevation gain is about 3000 feet and although the course is tough in places, with one long hard climb and three really steep rocky descents, its mostly okay with single track trails. The time to beat was 2 hours-23 minutes.
        The watch hit 9:00 am and we were off!.......well....I was off, what a strange experience this was. I took only 1.5 litres of water and a couple of gels (just in case). I decided early on not to check my watch, as I didn't do it in the race, the only bench mark I would have would be how I felt.
        Two things became apparent in the first 5 minutes. Firstly it was hot and secondly we'd had a lot of rain over the past two days and the normal flat soft single tracks were now either very muddy or mini rivers!
    Whatever, after 30 mins and in a dense forest I nearly crashed into a Chinese guy (who spoke a bit of French), who was lost. I suggested he follow me until I could show him the way to go. There then followed a rather bizarre conversation about Ultra running in French/Chinese/English.....very surreal. He seemed most impressed with my 55k run this year, he'd done the 32k and had stopped due to cramp......interesting stuff isn't it? Well I was hardly going to discuss the effects of Deng Xiaoping's reforms on modern day China, not with my dodgy French....Anyway he went east and I went west...... I found the next 6k really hard, its a big climb and the ground was heavily rutted, rocky and wet and once at the top then its a precipitous rocky descent down. In the race this was a lot easier but today I nearly twisted an ankle several times. One good thing about the wet was the smell of the pine trees, just intoxicating and the air was clear and the mountains stunningly beautiful. I pressed on trying to keep up a decent pace, I realised that in a race the other runners really do push you inadvertently.
     After a few hours I neared the ocean and the final few kilometres were along the beach. I arrived back at the start/finish and checked my watch..... 2 hours- 23 minutes. Bizarre! The exact same time as nearly 2 years ago, what's all that about ?
    Initially I was very disappointed, all that training, 1000's of miles and hundreds of hours and I do the same time. Last month I covered a similar distance a lot faster so why was this? Firstly  my leg muscles felt very heavy on the climbs, there were no quad aches, they just felt heavy. I had just done my first intense week of crossfit conditioning and so I guess that had to be it. According to the Crossfit Endurance guys after a few weeks I'd really see the difference. I certainly hope so.
Secondly although it was warm, the wet  surface conditions were much worse than than last years race. Thirdly I was running against myself and fourth, I'am older, 58 next month, maybe at this age there is a law of diminishing returns. To be honest I don't know but over the coming weeks I intend to find out.....and improve. My 33k race is in 4 weeks time so I better get myself sorted out and fast.
       My plan is crossfit conditioning 4 days per week, 800/1500 metre and tabata sprints, a couple of 10k interval runs and one long  20k plus run per week. I probably will have to do some of this on the beach for specificity. Paddy thinks I should run a little less than this and just do intervals....he's probably right but I find it hard not too, I suppose its a mental thing due to my lack of prep (because of injury) for the Way to Cool 50k earlier this year.....but I feel I just can't take the chance of not doing enough miles, still.....any advice will be gratefully received.





 

LIFE'S A BEACH

Sue and I went off to St Tropez last weekend to have a look at the trail I'll be running next month. Actually thats not true, Sue wanted lunch on the beach and I wanted to check out the trail, and although St Tropez may be very glamorous, the trail I'm running on is rugged and wild. It is on the peninsular and most of the coast line is inaccessible unless you take the rocky path around the headland. The only area where the tourists go is Pampelone beach which covers only 4k of the 32k course, the rest is really quite tricky, this surprised me as I was imagining lovely soft trails besides the azure blue ocean. After lunch Sue and I drove to the lighthouse at Cap Cammarat and then hiked down to the rocky exposed coves below. Half way down the twisting steep cliffs the rocks, roots and slippery surfaces were quite a challenge.... 'you don't run on this do you?' said Sue.....'Well yeah, that's why its called trail running'.........'you must be mad'. Well, there's nothing like support and encouragement.......and Sue certainly wasn't giving me any of that! I went off on a little recce and thought to myself , 'I hope the weather's good next month or this will be a nightmare,' and just as I said this the clouds began to roll in.....it felt like Brigadoon. I must have been tempting fate because we'd had lunch in warm sunshine and yet by 4:30pm the weather had turned into a storm of  almost biblical proportions.....bizarre.
     By the time we got back home our house was flooded, roads were blocked and electricity cut....what a day. I do hope this wasn't an omen as I don't fancy running along the clifftops in that kind of weather....you could die of  exposure. I'd really like an easy 32k morning jaunt to get my legs working.... still, if there's one thing I  know about trail running in France it is that they're never easy; 32k should be a doddle but I suspect there'll be a few surprises.
           I've been doing a few beach and coastal runs to get the feel of the terrain but its difficult where I live because its not really the same trails as my normal hill and mountain running, which is a very different discipline. The danger is I may go off to fast and the problem then will be later on when I may just 'blow up'.........which basically means having unwittingly expended too much energy at the start you just run out of gas towards the end. Its all about pacing, when you're running up mountains the pacing kind of takes care of itself (well it does with me) but on flatter paths (even rocky ones) the tendency is to get caught up with all the excitement and get dragged along too quickly. I think this may have happened at the 'Way to Cool 50k' . I did the first 30 k in about 3 hours and then it all went a bit 'pear shaped' and I struggled for the rest of the race. Hopefully the rocky/beach surface will slow me down, (not that I'm quick).... and cool my ardour.
      Just a another point about high intesity interval training, HIIT's. Just to simplify how all these different protocols work in relation to myself. It can all get very confusing but this is what I have found to be true. With 20 minute HIIT sessions I burn my glycogen (carbs) and fat but not muscle because the HIIT is very short. If I do runs longer than 60 minutes I will burn a similar amount, it just takes longer. If I do long runs  of 4 hours or more, I will burn carbs, fat........and muscle (if I don't fuel properly)....and as I explained previously the stress will cause me to even retain fat in certain areas. Anybody who saw me this time last year will tell you how thin and gaunt I looked, this was because of muscle loss or catabolism, my body was literally eating away at itself. I retained a normal healthy diet but because of my ultra running I should have been eating a lot more. My muscles were weak and so my performance actually detiorated throughout last year. My first ultra/marathon in the mountains at 42 k and 8,200 feet of elevation gain was one of my best performances time wise because I was very fit and strong and I had not, at that early stage, began the process of eating muscle.
    This year I began the process of strengthening my muscles AND feeding them and then my body condition improved as well as my fitness. My last ultra was by far the hardest but my body felt good and performed well for the whole 10 hours, tired yes, but no quad or calf problems at all. I could still run the last 10 k reasonably well (just as I did in my first ultra) but my body condition and strength were totally different. Last Saturday I did a 23k training run in 2 hours and 30 mins that's about 9.2k per hour and 4,600 feet elevation gain. 18 months ago I did an 18k race with only 3,000 feet gain in 2 hours and 21 mins which is 7.6 k per hour. Basically I have improved a lot, I ran 1.6 k per hour quicker, 5k further and 1,600 feet higher and this was only a training run., if it had been a race I would have gone much faster.........(I can feel I'm losing some of you here).
    The point is that high intensity workouts, strength, speed training, pilates, yoga and long aerobic runs all have there place, and they work, they are interdependant............BUT sometimes they are not, for example, very long 4/6 hour runs are not generally recommended by many fitness trainers.....unless your training for a marathon or ultra. My conundrum at the moment is that ultra running in itself is not the healthiest thing you can do. It hurts, you can get injured, it takes up a lot of training time, it is not good for your cardiovascular system, its mentally demanding and is occasionally dangerous, it is after all an extreme sport. I do it because its a challenge and I love being in the wilds of nature but, 4 HIITS and a bit of speed/strength training plus a few 10k runs every week would be much healthier. Still I suppose I could argue that smoking, drinking and over eating aren't very healthy either.....so I guess we all have a choice. As you can tell this conundrum is something I am struggling with.....now its one thing to struggle with it at home and quite another to struggle with it whilst doing it!........Did that make sense?  It would be at this point that my old friend Steve would have probably said, 'I think you need a drink.....I know I do'. I can see the headlines.....

        'Ultra runner has a heart attack due to stress of considering whether to run ultra's or not'

Byeee.