Raw

I guess I have to come clean about the remark regarding my weight in my previous entry. I hesitate even to say it, because it might make me sound like a fully subscribed member of the self-reliant earth-centred revolution, which I most definitely am not. Well here’s the thing. Nearly a year ago I decided to follow Niamh in her vegetarianism (well, almost. We still eat fish and shellfish), but the practical change was minimal, as all food at home had always been vegetarian, and we don’t often go out to eat. Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to take the whole nutrition thing one step further and started experimenting with a raw food diet. It’s not entirely raw food, I still have a cooked dinner, but I only eat fruit in the morning, and have a salad for lunch, usually with things like self-sprouted beans and such. I feel pretty good about it, I certainly have a lot of energy, and I think I might keep it going for a bit longer. One side-effect was that the pounds have melted away from my frame at the rate of about one pound per week. All this was achieved without going hungry, because I certainly was not looking to lose weight. In fact, when I look into the mirror I keep thinking that I look almost too thin, and I thought the same about the video from Ballydavid. However, if it is true that you run 2 seconds per mile faster for each pound lost then I certainly won’t deliberately try to regain the weight; at least not until after Dublin.

You might think this is a bit radical, and it probably is. I’m getting ever so slightly obsessed with my sub 3hr target and I’m prepared to push the boat out further than ever before. If it requires a few radical steps like eating raw food, then so be it, as long as it doesn’t have any negative effect on my family.

The last few days have been pretty good running-wise. Thursday saw the last fartlek workout, and because it required a lot of running at very fast pace I decided to wear my racing shoes; all other workouts in the training cycle were done with normal trainers. I was supposed to run 8x2 minutes at my 3k pace, which, after my blazing fast 5k last Saturday is now allegedly 5:41. I didn’t quite hit that pace, but I came close. The paces were 5:58, 5:45, 5:46, 5:49, 5:40, 5:45, 6:09, 6:01; the first and seventh were uphill, and the last one ended in a steep hill sprint because I ran out of flat road. All in all I did close to 3 miles at nearly my 3k pace, which made this a rather strenuous workout, but I was pretty happy with it.

Since I do my long runs immediately following a fast workout I ran 17 miles on Friday. I had to get up at 5:15 am, which is not something I am used to any more, and it felt awfully early. It took me a while to wake up properly, but the initial sluggish pace increased soon enough. I’m always trying to end my long runs strongly, and I started accelerating after 11 miles. I wasn’t sure what pace I would tune into, and ran by feel. 7:15 felt good, and that’s what I kept at for the first 3 miles. Then I lost my concentration on the next mile, which took 7:40. This annoyed me sufficiently to accelerate further, and I ran the final 2 miles at almost 7:00 pace. Rather surprisingly, the legs felt much better than last week. I never felt tired, and even after 17 miles, including 6 fast ones, I still had plenty in the tank, and could have kept it up for longer. Things were looking quite good, but my left achilles started hurting a bit towards the end. I didn’t pay it too much attention, and it didn’t bother me at all for the rest of the day.

However, it was really sore as soon as I hit the road today for an easy 7-miler. The first mile was rather painful, things improved over the next one, and I was ok for the rest of the run. I think it was just the endorphins kicking in rather than a real improvement though, because it hurt quite a bit once I returned back home. It’s not too bad yet, and I’m still hoping that it will go away all by itself soon enough without interfering with my training. The last thing I need is an injury.

24 Jul

9 miles, 1:08:11, 7:34 pace, HR 153
incl. 8x2mins @ 5:58, 5:45, 5:46, 5:49, 5:40, 5:45, 6:09, 6:01

25 Jul

17 miles, 2:14:06, 7:53 pace, HR 145

26 Jul

7 miles, 54:25, 7:46 pace, HR 142