Sunday 3 May 2015

Running to New York

Its time to get Blog “active” again and the motivation to do so is my entry in to the 2015 New York Marathon. I have always wanted to do a Marathon, one Marathon, and figure that I may as well do the grand daddy of major city events, which means 1 November 2015 and New York.

My entry is as part of the group representing the MND and ME (Motor Neurone) Foundation and it is with much pride that they have adopted me for this event.

I have a training program courtesy of myasics.com and with this, I am transitioning from cyclist to runner, be it only (at this stage) until the conclusion of the Marathon.

And the transition is interesting. In the space of three weeks, I have run my best 10k road run in some 25 years, begun to enjoy, even look forward to running and am watching my diet from not just a health perspective, but looking in to diet from a performance and recovery perspective.

Which brings me to my training run on Saturday morning. My program called for a 12 kilometre medium paced run. I have gained great confidence the last week or so by completing similar runs very comfortably. My average heart rate has been getting lower, my energy burn reducing and my times improving. It has actually been comfortable, verging on the edge of being easy.

However, this morning was really difficult. It was hard to get in to a rhythm, I was aware my heart rate was higher than usual and I just felt sluggish.

Not withstanding, I pushed on, paid particular attention to my running posture and breathing while at the same time looking for anything to distract me.

I completed the run; in fact, I added extra 2 kilometres just for the sake of it and was quite surprised to find my average pace was 4 seconds per kilometre quicker than the equivalent run only two days before. However, my average heart rate was 27 beats per minute higher and my energy “burn” was 334 units more than 2days prior.

So, what was different? Why the sluggish feeling? Why the higher heart rate?

I went over the period since my last run, 36 hours previously. What had I done differently?

The answer was simple and obvious.

I left work for home at about 4.30pm Friday hoping to get a head start on the weather ravaged traffic in a Brisbane that had been hit by freakish weather conditions. After driving nearly 3 kilometres, in 2 hours 10 minutes, I executed a “doubtfully legal” U Turn and returned to the office.

Back at work, I consoled myself with three Gin and Tonics supplemented by a large packet/container of Pringles.

On finally getting home at about 10.30, I had some soup, watched the end of a movie and went to bed.

Given my attention to diet has been somewhat fastidious, and my alcohol consumption basically zero, it is obvious that the difference was wholly and solely diet related.

I should note that sleep time was consistent as have been weather conditions (run in the rain excluded).

I have never been a fan of supplements but will now research them. I will also look closer into diet and what further I might be able to do to assist training performance and recovery.

If one relatively small diet divergence can have such a huge negative impact, it stands to reason there is an equal positive impact ready to be discovered from more attention to diet detail.

Watch this space…..





1 comment:

Groover said...

Wow! A marathon! Good luck, Colin!