Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Ultraclyde's Diet Tips for Clydesdale Runners
Every runner wants to be faster. Maybe you're in denial about why you aren't fast (like I was), and maybe your're thinking about perhaps trying out 100 km weeks to get faster. But part of training smarter, not harder, is looking at your own physique and comparing it to the fast guys.
It finally took an injury to sideline me. I was training for my fourth ultramarathon, a 100km road race, when I finally had to reduce my training a lot or the injury wasn't going to get better. So I had 2 choices. I could either start losing weight to maintain my speed and fitness on reduced training, or I could just keep eating like a clydesdale, and lose my speed and my fitness.
Here are some tips that came out of my own declydesdalization that may help other clydesdales and athenas to move their racing up a level or two:
It finally took an injury to sideline me. I was training for my fourth ultramarathon, a 100km road race, when I finally had to reduce my training a lot or the injury wasn't going to get better. So I had 2 choices. I could either start losing weight to maintain my speed and fitness on reduced training, or I could just keep eating like a clydesdale, and lose my speed and my fitness.
Here are some tips that came out of my own declydesdalization that may help other clydesdales and athenas to move their racing up a level or two:
- Treat the weight loss like your next big race. Its not just a race, it your 'A race'. And when you are training for a race, you are targetting a certain known date. Pick a date to finish the weight loss, and stay focussed on reaching your goal weight by your goal date. My goal date is the day when my 18 week marathon training program starts. You shouldn't be training for any other race while you are losing the weight. If you do decide to do a race during the weight loss, keep it to 10km or under, and treat it like a 'B race'.
- Don't worry about losing fitness. Just remember that every pound that you lose is going to take 2-3 seconds per mile off your pace. The fitness you lose through a short period of reduced training will be completely outweighed by the speed you gain through the weight loss.
- Count calories, not carbs. Runners need carbs to function. Low carb diets will result in some of the most unpleasent bonks of your running career. There are lots of great and inexpensive software packages available that streamline calorie counting. I use Fitday PC. Be sure to track calories burned too! You can either target a certain calorie deficit every day, or target a certain number of calories eaten every day. I started out targetting a certain calorie deficit, but I found myself behaving like I had exercise bulimia. So I ended up targetting a certain number of calories eaten.
- Weight yourself frequently, and vigilantly manage your calorie intake and calories burned. You need to restrict 3500 calories to lose one pound.
- Take a multivitamin every day. Its really hard to hit the RDA of every essential vitamin and mineral while you are restricting calories. A daily multivitamin (or even two) is essential.
- Do weight training for your upper body. Your body will turn unused muscle into fuel. Do weight training for your upper body, and lift the heaviest weights possible for 6-12 reps. If you have a lot of upper body muscle, you may choose to delay the weight training until midway into the weight loss program. Upper body muscle doesn't make you run faster, so you may actually want to shave some muscle off. Lower body muscle loss will be minimal for a runner, especially if you do a lot of training on hilly terrain.
- Eliminate long runs. Anything over an hour is going to make you feel ravenously hungry.
- Cut your mileage. A large cut in mileage will suppress your hunger. Your typical midweek runs should be 30-45 minutes. Long runs can be 60 minutes.
- Run at an easy pace. You body will have a harder time recovering from injuries when you have a calorie deficit. Take it easy. Slow running will actually help with your endurance.
- Run every day. That's right, 7 days a week. You are doing short runs at an easy pace, so you don't need a rest day.
Comments:
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Great summary. You have proven that with discipline anyone can lose the weight they need to. It's as simple as calories in vs. calories out, no matter what anyone tries to say. I was only moderately overweight last year at this time (20-25 pounds), so I was able to train for a race while losing. Losing the weight helped me shave 13 minutes off my half-marathon time from a previous PB (I was only about 10 pounds heavier at the previous race, so not all the speed increase was due to weight loss).
I also like your advice about running daily. I have started doing that recently, even though it goes counter to all the "standard" advice about injury prevention. I have actually found that running daily keeps me looser and my injuries are lessening. Of course I'm running very easy each day, and I'm alternating shorter and longer runs.
One word of caution though about multivitamins-- taking two a day regularly can be dangerous for certain nutrients like vitamin A. Be careful that you don't go overboard.
I also like your advice about running daily. I have started doing that recently, even though it goes counter to all the "standard" advice about injury prevention. I have actually found that running daily keeps me looser and my injuries are lessening. Of course I'm running very easy each day, and I'm alternating shorter and longer runs.
One word of caution though about multivitamins-- taking two a day regularly can be dangerous for certain nutrients like vitamin A. Be careful that you don't go overboard.
# posted by 
: 9:15 PM
: 9:15 PM
Some really good advice there, runs over an hour were causing me to energy crash badly resulting in a desperate need for sugars as soon as I got home.
Must say I have enjoyed going over your blog. I admire all you have done and plan to do. Your tips are an inspiration for me to get back out and start exercising. Well done.
Heather (frolicking filly)
Heather (frolicking filly)
# posted by : 8:39 AM
: 8:39 AM
Sounds about right, especially for the running every day. I do 4-5 times/week, but my runs are never less than 6 miles. If I was doing 4-6 miles/day I could go day in and day out for a very long period of time, and you're right about long runs encouraging hunger. I find the only way to buck that trend is to make it a REALLY long run (ie. marathon), so that you feel too sick afterwards to want to eat so much :D
Hmmm. Very interesting going over _all of your blog. I really enjoyed it and am glad I found it. I am inspired once again. Thanks.
# posted by : 11:57 AM
: 11:57 AM
That's an interesting idea to run and loose weight, the same time. There is a lot of logic in your advice. I will try to follow your post.
I too am a clydesdale b class runner, though I am not in any club. I run 4-5 miles a day during the week and that burns about 1000-1200 calories. I do long runs on saturday of around 9-11 miles, this burns around 2300 calories. I know fast weight loss is not good for the body but it is coming off like nothing. I did join a food program that I saw on tv and it was hard at first but like you said. Attack it like it is your next race. 30 pounds later and I feel great and look it. Good luck this summer at Ironman Canada...
Hey, really interesting blog. I always wanted to run every day but was afraid due to advice from other people. Do you strength train your legs or rely on hilly runs and speedwork? What does your upper body workout look like?
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