That was weird

Had easy eight-miler with some speed work tonight.

First, I still can't get used to the idea that I now see an eight mile run as 'easy'.

It's just plain weird.

Second, after Sundays 20 miler, I've been pleasantly surprised - nay, amazed - that my legs haven't felt completely battered.

For the last week I've been trying to eat the recommended 100g* of protein a day for marathoners, which it turns out is a lot.

But I'm a northern bloke so eating meat is something of a speciality of mine!

One of the possible effects of this (though possibly coincidental as training should be helping too!) has been my muscles seem to ache less as they're getting the stuff they need to repair themselvses**.

Would be interested in hearing a few others thoughts/experiences on that one.

Anyway, this less-aching-than-expected meant I was feeling pretty good for tonights run, so I got home, got changed and got out for what I call a 'naked run'.

This isn't as illegal/graphic/unpleasant as it sounds - it's just me not loaded down with mp3 players, passes, bottles etc. Just a key and phone (just in case).

First couple of miles were pretty sweet, but then my calves started to feel it (after my second 600m*** increase of pace).

They felt tight so I had a stretch and carried on. It wasn't painful, just really uncomfortable - if that makes sense.

The weird thing was they'd been fine all day yesterday and today.

Hopefully they'll have got their act together for tomorrows 12 miles...

* It's something like 1.5g for every kilo of body weight. Check out Runners World for the proper thinking, it's escaped me for now, but I do remember working it out and being delighted at the prospect of eating a quarter-pounder a day. Sadly, it doesn't quite work like that.
** There's some science to explain this, but, frankly, I've done too much of that lately. I don't want people to confuse me for an expert, instead of an amateur who bumbles about into whatever I find interesting at any given time.
** I have no idea how long that is, so I just pick it up for a couple of minutes.

8 comments:

  1. You think 100g of meat is a lot? Hmmm.... I must be overdoing it. I seem to easily eat 200-300g of meat a day, almost always with brown pasta too.

    And I was pleasantly surprised that I felt great yesterday after my 16 mile (longest to date) run on Sunday.

    It's good this running stuff!

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  2. @ ulen - I'm prob eating about that too as it's 100g of protein I'm aiming for, and everything seems to have other stuff in there (seems a waste to me, but to change it would enter GM food conversations which I don't think would end in a happy place!)

    Brown rice is becoming my staple food, though it annoyingly takes slightly longer to cook than basmati/long-grain.

    And it needs a hell of a lot of work to make it taste less dull!

    Think back a couple of months - how daunting did 16 miles seem?!

    It's witchcraft, I'm telling you.

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  3. Hey Phil, good luck with the run.

    I'm doing the opposite to you; I got around last year without mishap but am screwing up royally this year having left things far far too late.

    Will take the big decision two weeks before the race, as want to have covered at least 15-20 by then.

    Sure you'll walk it, so to speak, this year!

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  4. @ OFM - that is a bit late really. If you tihnk you can do it, great. If not, bail!

    Is it worth not being able to walk for weeks?

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  5. So Mr nutritionalist, how much protein is in the 405g of steak that I've just eaten to reward me for the 5.6 miles I just ran in 52 minutes? I get that if you buy a chunk of meat a lot of it is actually water these days...

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  6. @ ulen
    Firstly, kudos for the massive steak - I'm now hungry!
    Secondly, depends on the steak!
    Roughly speaking it's around 30 per cent protein, so you've had about 120g of protein, which sounds perfect to me.
    Wonder if I can cram one of them a day into my diet?

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  7. Well it was a Tesco Finest 28 day matured Scottish rump steak. 305 calories and 7.2g of fat but I never knew that meat was only 30% protein, so I've learnt something there.

    I think it could have been two portions? There were two steaks, but each was way too small for a single meal. So I had both with a large portion of brown pasta & veg.

    And this morning I still weigh less than I did yesterday (12st3¼), it's great to be able to eat loads and not put on any pounds!

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  8. @ ulen - my hat goes off to you for your steak eating.

    Might run home via Sainsburys tonight to see if I can grab a rump!

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