'That's no moon'.. that's an ultra runner', is kinda how I've felt the last couple of weeks. This back/hip issue is irking me hugely right now, and is leaving me feeling especially heavy when running. Probably because each jarring step is magnified when you have a chronic pain compounded by the fact that I am, in fact, heavy.
This week was not much different. Despite starting treatment on my SI Joint and Glutes, it's not releasing. No sweet pop of the joint that I just know my body needs right now. This is having a negative effect on my training and last week meant I had to change a few things around with my running.
I should have been out on a 20km run on Saturday. Instead I had to cut it short at 15km. The mud was even worse than before, and I ended up taking another nose dive into it halfway through the run. I then proceeded to lose both my running gloves which meant back tracking about 3km. Of course, I didn't lose them together... no, no. That would have been too easy. No... they were spread a couple of Km between them while faffing around with my new Camera.
This meant the run was one of those shitty ones where nothing really goes smoothly at all. Crap underfoot. Hurting from the start. Water inside my gore-tex running shoes. A tumble in the mud... just one of those shit-happens-days you want to put behind you.
I called it quits at 15k and decided to put in a 10k the following day on the roads of Stevenage. Again uncomfortable but at least I put my weekly distance target pretty much to bed and am still on-plan with my overall schedule. Not bad considering.
Good old Suunto TSS scoring from my watch is telling me I'm still in the productive training zone. Though, this last week was a little less intense due to the injury issue. You can see the Fitness level starting to step up each week, which is a good sign. It also means that I'm getting the training and recovery balancing about right (The red Fatigue line). The good news is that my Achilles/ankle/Peroneal tendons appear to holding together and are not causing me anything like the pain they did last year... but this appears to be displaced by the problem with my back and ass right now.
Weight Loss Progress
Good news is that the direction of travel is down. About 3Kg since the start of the year. I'm doing One Meal A Day (OMAD) fasting twice a week.
My weight is around the same level as March last year after two hard months of low-no carbing (10kg lost in that period in 2021). This makes me feel that I am in a good place compared to then, however it's taking a little time to start moving the needle much on the scale.
Given I'm eating about 900 calories twice a week, that should lead to half a kilo loss (I should be eating around 2200 per day without the training added in to maintain my weight and am doing so the last 3 weeks). This is indicating my body is being frustratingly stubborn in letting go of it's excess fat.
I've also dialled the carbs right back, just allowing myself a sanity cheat day on Saturday after my long run. This means I'm hardly triggering my insulin response (which is notorious for me to put on weight). I'd have hoped for a little more given I'm using 4500-5000 calories a week in exercise, and 3000 calories cut due to my fasting schedule. That should be about 2kg in fat loss per week. Presently the weight is dropping around 1kg.
There are a couple of things I'm putting this down to:
1. Adding more muscle, which is holding my weight up for the moment. My legs especially are developing really well again and muscle weights more than fat by volume by about 2:1. i.e. You could lose 2kg fat, add 1kg of muscle and have the same measurements as before you did anything. This might be a reason for the loss. Only tracking bodyfat measures (skinfold test) will really tell the story, and I haven't done that from the start so it's hard to say. I'll have to dig the calipers out and start tracking it I think.
What I have to keep in mind is that genetically I have always been heavy. Even when I was very lean and competing at the highest levels at 18 years old, I was still 89Kg! ( I did not want to fight in the over 90Kg category as those fellas hit haaaard!). It's a very big ask to get my weight lower than when I used to fight in the Heavy Middle Weight Category at my peak when I was still a kid (though I ate anything and everything I wanted in those days)! Back then I was around 13-14% Bodyfat. That was almost 30 years ago! I've learned a lot since then, though, so I'm going to see how close I can really get to that 85Kg number.
2. My Gut health. I've also been supplementing based on some research on my Biome (gut bacteria). This means I have added in:
1 tbsp of MCT Oil each morning with my Coffee with cream to help speed fat adapting
1tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar diluted in water (which tastes like shit) as a pre-biotic
1 tablet of Lactobacillus Acidolphus (good bacteria probiotic) in the morning
10mg of Inulin powder in water (pre-biotic) in the evening
1 tablet of Lactobacillus Gassieri (probiotic) in the evening
The reason for the above is that I'm becoming more convinced I have issues with my Biome. After the shitty candida infection before christmas, and having to take antibiotics for it, I just felt I needed to balance my Biome better and there is a school of thought that problems with your gut flora can also make it hard to lose weight. The above two pre and pro biotics are meant to be good for this. It's certainly having an effect on my *cough* 'movements'. I can feel a difference in my stomach (less bloating) but that could be down to the low carb regimen as well. It's too early to tell. I'll certainly be keeping it in mind as some of this stuff isn't cheap and no point in taking it if it's not yielding much benefit other than giving my toilet a 6 hour half-life before another human dares enter.
Overall though, I'm making progress. This is a win. The frustration is there, of course, because I am impatient when it comes to hitting targets, and changes you make don't tend to show in results for a while. I know this, but it doesn't reduce my frustration. I just tell myself this to help me manage them.
Weight-wise, I have just over 17Kg to go to target. The chart predicts I'll do this by May (and when I run the 100km) if things stay as they are. Like before, I can see it slowing down as more weight comes off. I'll keep at it though.
Thanks for reading...
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