National XC Championships

A few weeks ago I ran a personal best and a personal worst, all in one, very muddy, race.  It was the 2015 National Cross Country (XC) Championships, at Parliament Hill in north London.  I took part in the Senior Men's category, which was two laps around the hill for a total of roughly 12 kms of running. This was my first ever XC race in the UK (thus the personal best) and it would be fair to say I was totally unprepared for the scale and difficulty of the event (thus my personal worst over 10k!).

Let's break it down...

The social aspect - the XC champs are more than just a chance to run around a muddy field, it is an amazingly social event with runners, club tents and families everywhere. Clubs have their colours and banners up everywhere, giving it more of a festival feel than a race.  Sadly I was the only Vegan Runner running this year, so I wasn't able to jump into things socially.  I did meet up with the super-speedy vegan Matt Woodman (thanks for all the photos Matt!) which picked me up a lot.  Next year I shall endeavour to rally more of the club!

Club colours everywhere (Photo: Matt Woodman)

The scale - I've been to big city marathons where 20,000 people run and it takes 10 minutes to get across the start line.  I'm used to the city scale of things.  However this was different from these pristine and manicured events.  XC races don't have wave starts, instead runners within their category simply line up across a 100 metre wide starting area and everyone just belts off in a giant muddy scrummage when the gun goes off.  The Senior Men's race had in excess of 2,000 starters.  2,000 people in club colours, bantering and jostling into position and ready to go as a single great charge.  It is awe inspiring see the wave of runners burst out at high speed, straight up the hill in an effort avoid being bottlenecked when the course narrows.  I wasn't prepared for this start and was subsequently left battling to get around and overtake people throughout the race. Schoolboy error!

Charge! (Photo: Matt Woodman)

The conditions - I'd heard that XC races can get muddy, so I really should have expected this one.  I've done plenty of ultras and training runs that involve muddy trails, so I thought I'd bring my trail shoes.  Big mistake.  It isn't that it was muddy (it was) rather it was the fact the mud was churned from many thousand runners and had the consistency of treacle.  My big, wide and comfy Altras were not suited to the conditions at all. Don't get me wrong, I love those shoes, but I would have honestly been better off wearing road shoes as any grip in the tread was buried under clingy mud.  Lesson learned!  On the bright side, those with XC spikes seemed to be enjoying themselves running (playing) in the mud.

Not so speedy, but suitably muddy, finish (Photo: Matt Woodman)

The competition - I'm not a super fast runner, but I'm no slouch either. In most mass participation races I like to come in the top 5% and I figured this would put me in pretty good stead for the race.  It did not.  With all my other mistakes piled up and lack of any race specific training, meant I finished much closer to the back of the pack.  I can take some comfort in that everyone is a club runner and thus fairly keen, but it doesn't absolve me of totally underestimating the event and the quality of the runners.  It does however give me a lot of room to improve and come back next year stronger. Hill and speed training beckons.

Some very speedy guys coming through (Photo: Matt Woodman)

All said, I'm amazed that XC has remained such a niche event. The quality of the runners is stunning, it is open to all ages, it is very exciting to watch and running it is great (if somewhat humbling) experience.  By all rights it should be so much more popular, but it has somehow stayed under the radar all this time.  Probably for the best though as I can't imagine many more people fitting onto the course.

Although the next nationals are back up in northern England, I now have the XC bug and I'll definitely be taking part in a lot more events in the future!

On Dropping

Yesterday I dropped out at mile 58 of the Thames Path 100 mile run. I've had had a day to reflect on why I dropped out and here are my thoughts thus far...

I started the day feeling pretty good. I'd slept poorly the night before due to nerves, but that is nothing new to most people. My training since the South Downs Way 50 miler 4 weeks earlier had been okay. I've found it hard to get the motivation up to get out the door and everything was feeling really mechanical.  But no injuries or anything coming into the race.  The weather was just about damned perfect with blue skies and 16 degrees predicted. So everything was looking up from the start.

Also I had the lovely Julie to keep me company at various points throughout the day.  She was the best crew I could ask for, always cheery and ready to help with food, water, salt or hugs.  I especially liked the hugs :) 

The first 11 miles was fairly breezy, with no issues and reasonably high spirits.  On reflection I didn't really feel "in the zone" at all, which should have been a sign that I wasn't mentally in the game. Also, I didn't really feel like talking to people, which is odd as ultras are all about the social connection and the chatting to people as you go.  But things were still looking pretty good.

By aid station 2 at 22 miles I was starting to feel a bit rough.  This isn't entirely unexpected as I always feel a bit of a hump at the 20 mile mark, which coincides with the hard part of a marathon.  It was here that I had an inkling that it was going to be a challenging day.

Beautiful scenery all along the Thames Path

Moving on through the aid stations I was feeling worse and worse. Nothing catastrophic like a ruptured tendon, but a general all-body ache that by about mile 40, made any type of running to be a challenge.  No hills, no excuse to walk, but I just couldn't motivate my legs to keep any type of pace. It was something I couldn't quite understand and the walking bugged me more than it should have.  It made me think of the run not taking 18 hours, but 20, 24 or worse.

By mile 51 I was pretty darn tired and not in a happy place.  But here I had my secret weapon in the form of Raf, my pacer for the next 20 miles.  I was hoping this would keep me focused and motivated to just make it through to mile 70.  From there it would just be little more than a marathon to get to the finish.  Nothing really!

It is all in the mind...

Sadly I just lost it around here and couldn't carry on.  Sure there were physical aspects (which I'll mention later) but ultimately I couldn't bare to consider being out for another 10, 12, 14+ hours for the final 42 miles. Something in my head just went "this isn't worth it" and from that point it was a losing battle. What I realise now is that I didn't have the mental framework to carry on through suffering for the rest of the race.

So I dropped at the aid station at mile 58. Very disappointing, not the least for poor Raf who only got to run 7 of his 19 miles.  He was awesome about everything, but I could tell he was frustrated.

On a side note, the aid station at mile 58 had a special vegan treats table.  There were all sorts of vegan goodies such as vegan jelly beans, pumpkin hummus, vegan wraps, soup.  I thought this was brilliant and I made sure to have my fair share while waiting for Julie to come pick me up.  A silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud :)

Coming into Henley at mile 51

Dropping...

What this has helped me realise is whereas some people have an innate ability to push on, I always hold a little back, afraid of feeling too much pain and suffering. My experience with really long runs is limited, with my 3 longest being - my 5 hour 52k training run, the SDW50 and now the TP100. In these I've not properly learnt the trick of letting the physical pain go and to just keep pressing on, one step at a time. This, more than anything, is the aspect I need to address if I decide to take on another 100 miler. Thinking about it, it is probably limiting my potential at all distances from 5k upwards.  If I'm holding something back to protect myself, I'll never break through that self imposed barrier and see what I'm truly capable of.

On the physical side, it was a rough day, but nothing game wrecking. My shoes weren't cut out for the terrain and gave me blisters (which didn't show on my 30k long run). My hip gave me some issues, but is fine today.  My left knee is very painful today, as is my left foot. Likely an imbalance related to the underdeveloped medial glute the physio gave me exercises to strengthen a couple of weeks ago. But again, nothing that would have stopped me carrying on.

On somewhat weird physical issue was I was getting really bad shivers at the aid station at mile 51. They were seriously wracking my body and I needed an emergency blanked to keep me warm enough to sit and eat some food. It was like hypothermia, but it wasn't actually that cold. I had the same issue after my first marathon, but hasn't bothered me since until now. I will have to do some further research on this one.

Today I think to myself "only 42 miles to go, you had time to walk it all!" while last night I couldn't even think of walking all that way. So disappointment is mixed in with everything, but I know at the time it was all I could give (mentally in any case) on the day.

South Downs Way 50

Yesterday I finished my first proper ultra run, the South Downs Way 50 mile run from Centurion Running. Here I sit, a day after the race and it still hasn't quite sunk in yet.  Overall the race went pretty well, but it is hard to put the 8 hours and 49 minutes of hills, clouds and English countryside into words.

At the start - check out the cheeky bugger in the background!

What went well:

1. Stayed hydrated
2. Nutrition was fine with no stomach issues
3. Feet had zero blisters!  I highly recommend pre-taping your feet and finding the right shoes
4. Found a special "uphill" gear to my running which let me run past a lot of people
5. Didn't fall over

6. Beat my target time, yay!

7. The weather was damn near perfect
8. Having a crew was awesome. It a great pick-me-up to see Julie and to have goodies delivered throughout the race. Made a big difference

9. The race was super well organised and had marvellous volunteers
10. There were plenty of food options for vegans at the aid stations. Never went hungy!

What went less-than-well:

1. My hydration pack rubbed against my back and caused a lot of chaffing.  Never run with it for so long with all the mandatory kit before. Lesson learnt.

Wooo, finished!

2. I had a few mental lows, especially around 2/3rds of the way. Mostly brought about by pure fatigue I think.  Coming out of the mile 42 aid station I felt great after some food and salt tabs.
3. Still not great with hills. I feel if I can get strong with them, I will save *a lot* off my overall time.

I will admit that straight afterwards I was questioning my ability to do a 100 mile run next month!

The Verdict:

The South Downs Way 50 is a brilliantly run and organised race. If you are considering your first 50 mile ultra, you would do well to consider this race. The runners are friendly, the volunteers amazing, the food at the aid stations was varied and yummy. 

Go on, sign up for 2015, you know you want to :)

Here is the Strava breakdown of the race http://app.strava.com/activities/127233674 if you are curious.

The Long Run

[Apologies for not posting for a while, I've been doing fairly boring training over the winter and only just now coming onto my big races]

Only partly true...

I have my first "proper" ultra coming up in less than two weeks, the South Downs Way (SDW) 50 mile run. I say "proper" because I technically did an ultra a few weeks ago at the 45km long Six Foot Track Marathon.  But that was barely longer than a marathon and doesn't count. To me anyway.

To prepare for the SDW50, my coach gave me a challenge for last weekend of running 5 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday.

Eek!

Well, as you have likely already worked out, I survived.

The past two days were a great learning experience for me.  I gained insight into the value of mental focus, nutrition, recovery and correct pacing.

Saturday - ran at roughly 5:30-5:50/km for 2.5 hours along the canals and then turned around to come back. In this time I covered a little over 26km and was feeling great at the turnaround.  I passed the marathon mark at 3:59:04 - which is not bad for a training run! At about 44km the wheels started to come off though. I was hurting (nothing specific, just normal body stuff) and I lost my focus.  At 48km I gave up running and walked for about 1.5 kms. However as I was starting to get cold I managed to put my head down and run in the remaining 3km.

I was also feeling a bit sick of the gels - I don't think they work for me past about 4 hours. 

Afterwards, my feet had a few small blisters, but nothing exciting. I guess my pre-taping was successful on the whole.  My legs were really tired and I was hobbling around the house somewhat on the Saturday evening. I made sure to get lots of high quality food into me and to avoid sitting (I'd seize up and standing up straight took me 5 minutes).  Following some sage advice, I went to bed at 9pm to heal up.

Sunday - woke up feeling pretty decent all said. Still quite creaky, especially in my left hip socket and lower back. Maybe 1.5 or 2/10 on the pain scale though, not too bad all said.  After a morning slothing around the house I made it out for a 18km run at 5:15/km pace.  Started off at 5:45/km, but by the time I warmed up again I was down to 5:00/km flat for the last few kms.  I forgot I was supposed to do the fast finish (how convenient!) for the run.  Not sure I would have had a 4:20/km 5k in me though.  Not without someone yelling at me anyway :)

So this weekend I learnt that:

1. If your mind gives up you are screwed.  But don't worry, just walk it off and things can come good.
2. I should try more real food on longer runs. I could pack sandwiches or bagels without too much hassle.
3. 5:30/km is my "ultra cruise" pace on flat.  Takes a long time to get anywhere at that speed though!
4. Lots of sleep and healthy food makes for a good recovery.  Especially the sleep.

All said and done, the weekend wasn't 100% successful as I didn't do the fast finish run.  But I certainly learnt quite a bit about myself!

Long Overdue Update

As Julie has mentioned to me several times, I haven't been updating my blog recently.  This hasn't been because of any falling-off-the-wagon or somesuch.  Nope, still proudly plant-powered, going as strong as ever.

Wales:  Hot, hilly, hard.

It also isn't because of a lack of athletic endeavours either.  I ran the Wales Marathon, finishing a respectable 21st place out of 287 finishers. I also ran did the 5 mile National Lottery Anniversary Run, getting a handy-dandy 413th out of 11,841 people.  Both were challenging events, Wales due to the heat and hills, the Anniversary Run due to the speed required and the fact it was a week after Wales.

So why haven't I rushed off to Blogger to write down a detailed blow by blow of my events?  I've thought about this a bit, and I think it is primarily because I didn't learn anything from my diet that I thought interesting enough to share with others.  No secrets to vegan fuelling (unless "enough Clif Shot Bloks over a 3 hour period to make you want to be ill" counts as advice) and no sage-like knowledge on how avocados can help you push through "the wall" and reach your goals.

Why this post at all then?  Well, in retrospect I did learn some non-foodie things that may be worth sharing, namely:

• 600 metres of elevation over 26.2 miles isn't much for some, but it was enough to destroy me completely. If the course description says "hilly" then do some proper damn training on hills beforehand you nonce.
• If you are entering a race with nearly 12,000 people, some of whom who have never run 5 miles before, get as far to the front as you can. Otherwise you will be stuck for over a mile trying to get past the agonisingly slow bastards who assume 10 minute miles is "pretty fast".
• Much of running a race, regardless of distance, that is run at your maximum effort is mental.  Not 10%, not even 50%, probably closer to 80% of it is in your head.  If you let the devil on your shoulder convince you for 1 second that you "don't have to do this you know" or that "maybe you could walk this bit" you are toast.  The little bugger won for a bit in Wales, but with the help of another runner I was able to block him out and salvage the performance I owed myself.
• High-5'ing Paula Radcliffe while running in the Olympic Stadium is awesome.  Highly recommended should the opportunity present itself to you.
• The quote "Living well is the best revenge" from George Herbert, English poet and orator, is quite applicable to vegans.  Most people find it difficult to be critical of my lifestyle when I'm clearly quite fit. Saves quite a lot of time and somewhat pointless discussion really.

What's next then?  I have a 10k race on Sunday, which I'm going to try and pace myself to a 41 to 42 minute finish (crowds permitting). I'd like to get under 40 minutes, but I'm not quite there yet I don't think. After that my next race is the Nike Run to the Beat half marathon, which I'll be angling for a PB at.

Let's see how it all goes.

Incremental Progress

In today's world we expect everything to happen fast. Fast food, fast transport, instant weight loss, same day delivery, we want more of everything and in less time.  While this is (probably) fine for things that are mechanical, it doesn't work so well for biological processes.

Let's use diets for example. You can indeed lose a lot of weight very quickly if you take radical action, such as cutting out all carbs (done it) or only eating apples for a month (no, I'm not that nuts).  But it won't last, it isn't a lifestyle, it is a transient fling with food and before you know it, you are back to where you started.  Nature doesn't like being rushed.

What brought on this line of thinking you may well ask? Well, today I looked back on my running times from way back in July 2010, when I had first started into running.  I did 3.8km in 29 minutes and 47 seconds, or 7:50 per km pace... and I remember that run, I honestly thought I might die.  Seriously, visions of lungs exploding or feet falling off were going through my head.  That wasn't even my first run, it was just the first I recorded with an app on my phone.  My first "run" involved a run/walk "strategy" whereby I would shift my fat ass for a few hundred metres before falling back into a gasping zombie-like lurch until the pattern could be repeated over and over. 

Post run

Flash forward a little less than 3 years later and I can comfortably bang out a half marathon in less than an hour and three quarters (~4:45 pace) on any given weekend for the sheer joy of it.  Now that's progress!

Upon reflection, this has taught me a number of important lessons:

• Keep a log of your progress.  Change doesn't happen quickly, but if you capture the metrics, you will be able to look back and take pride in what you have accomplished.
• Don't rush it.  Looking back, most of my injuries came from pushing too hard too early.  4 weeks of slow progress beats 1 week of awesome and 3 weeks of limping around cursing yourself.
• The best stuff in life is worth struggling, striving and fighting for.  Seriously, life is one hard slog after another, but totally worth it.  Consider the alternative.
• Running is awesome. Everyone hates it at first, but if you stick with it, what you get out of it far exceeds what you put in.  It becomes fun to do, fun to stop doing and makes everything else in your day better.  

So while my progress thus far has been aided immensely by my new plant powered life, it is all built on a solid platform of constant effort and steady payoff.  Sustainable change rocks :) 

Healthy Podcasts

Rich

I listen to three, very different, podcasts on nutrition and health - the Rich Roll podcast, Ben Greenfield's podcast and Vinnie Tortorich's podcast.  Taken individually, they are each totally entertaining, each presented by fascinating people and subscribe to very different approaches to a healthy athletic life.  Collectively they highlight that the "standard American diet" that has been exported globally, is killing us bite by bite.

Ben

I've spoken about Rich Roll before, the plant powered athlete with the qualities of personal determination and holistic ethos that is something I can both admire and relate to in equal measure.  He doesn't push a specific carb/protein/fat ratio that many others do, instead Rich leads with his vision of a spiritually more connected world where we use plants as fuel and medicine for our bodies and minds. His primary message? Eat more plants. Can't go too far wrong with that concept, making it beautiful in it's simplicity and adaptability for each person's situation. 


Now Ben Greenfield is something different altogether. His approach is much more bottom up, which focuses the details and how the individual variables can be tweaked and tuned to "hack" our systems. This appeals massively to my inner geek - I'd love to think of my body as something I have as much control of as my PC.  Don't like how it is running? That's fine, just take this supplement, do this exercise, use this programme or take this test.  While he does stray quite far into pseudo-science at times, usually it is fairly rooted in a modern understanding of health.

Vinnie

Last up we have Vinnie, "America's Angriest Trainer", who for someone who is supposed to be so angry, he sure likes to laugh a lot!  Vinnie's #NSNG (no sugar no grains) approach is basically a healthy low-carb approach that helps simply the process of cutting out all the processed crap that we normally shovel into our mouths with great abandon. I cut out excess sugar a long time ago and have reaped massive benefits to both my energy and weight.  While I still think that carbs have their place, I totally agree that sugar's place should be complementary, not superior to, fats and protein.  Vinnie also swears a lot and occasionally says completely inappropriate things - something I can certainly relate to personally :)

The more I read and learn about nutrition and health, the more I'm confronted with conflicting and contradictory advice and views.  Especially around the topic of nutrition and fitness.  However I think this is actually quite wonderful!

Why? Well, we only understand a tiny fraction of our world, so no-one has all of the answers. Each of us is trying to work out how to best function within the system, based on our own knowledge and beliefs. These three guys are each trying their best to get out of the rut of apathy that is quite literally killing us. Each of them is advocating change.  When I realised I was getting increasingly more sedentary, fat and heading for an early grave, I had to change as well. 

I'm now in a constant state of change; evolving my diet, attitudes, ethics, beliefs and training. Trying to find that sweet spot that works for me. And do you know what? That probably won't work for you - you have to find your own system that works for you.  In the meantime, I'll take what I can from people who have something to share, see if it fits and even if it doesn't, I'll have learnt something else new about myself.

Love the journey :)

The Diet Jouney - Part 1

It has been quite some time since my conversion to plant powered and I've been reflecting a bit on my diet and the road I've taken getting to where I am today.  I realised it is quite difficult to separate the improvements brought about from my not eating animal products from the general improvement due to my taking more care with what I put in my body.  Applying conscious thought to what I am eating is almost as important as what sort of thing I decide to eat...

Those who know me will already be aware that I went from some 99kg down to 80kg using a low-carb diet called the TNT diet from Men's Health.  For a year and a bit, I cut down my carb intake to less than 20g a day, started going to the gym to do resistance training and a bit of cardio (primarily the elliptical initially, later more running).  While the diet was massively successful for me, I wouldn't recommend this diet to anyone, as I believe it isn't particularily healthy.  The near-daily fry up breakfasts of bacon, eggs, tomato, cheese (yes, melted onto the bacon) and mushrooms will probably kill you.  It will be a delicious death, granted, but possibly not worth it in the long run.

Like this, only not as healthy looking...

All that said, it was successful.  However... why did it work???

I think the success came down to three main things:

1. It broke my sugar addiction.  Since I couldn't have carbs, I finally gave up casual chocolate, muffin and chocolate-muffin consumption.  This alone probably accounted for 50% of the weight loss, due to the removal of low nutritional content, high calorie and low satiety foods from my diet.  
2. I started to learn what is in or added to food.  I found out about the evils of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), learnt to read labels and generally become more aware of the crap I was putting in my body. Companies put a lot of stuff in food to make it taste better, make you want to eat more of it and make it cheaper to produce.  Almost none of those things are aligned with a goal of making anything healthy.  So I learnt to read labels and start being much more picky about what I bought.
3. Exercise.  Doesn't matter what sort you do, but do as much of it as time allows.  You will feel better, live longer and be able to do more in life.  As a certain mega-corp admonishes - just do it.

Each of these opened up new processes - I could eat a muffin as a special occasion (making it all the more delicious), or choose a healthier option when out shopping, or actually enjoy group physical activity without being the guy at the back gasping and wheezing - that changed my life for the better.

After I lost the weight, I dropped that diet and went back to a "balanced" diet, keeping the knowledge I'd gained and employing it in a more natural way.  I stayed off chocolate for the most part, kept exercising and always checked the labels of anything I bought. I also stopped the fry up breakfasts.  Seriously, after a year I was utterly sick of meat and cheese.

In the next post I'll go into why I think the vegan diet has been the logical progression from this and how it has taken me from somewhat healthier to truly healthy.

I'm back!

The post title says it all, I'm back baby! After nearly 6 weeks of no running due to a pulled calf muscle, I was able to bang out a slow 40 minute run last night.  Thank goodness.

So, a couple of lessons learnt:

1. See a physio and determine if you have any biomechanical issues.  This will help avoid injury in the first place.
2. Make sure you monitor your protein intake.  I'm pretty sure I was below 50g of protein a day around the injury time. Without protein your body can't repair itself between exercise sessions.  I've since invested in Clif Builders bars, which are both yummy and packed with 20g of vegan friendly protein per bar.

The diet is still going well. My weight has normalised around 74kg, only 1kg from my self imposed ideal weight. I'm also finding more and more food options, including everything from cakes to full vegan meals that is rounding out my diet nicely.

The next stage is to up the exercise to 6 runs a week (including recovery runs) and keep a close eye on the nutrition.  This combined with some exercises to target my weak spots, should give me the lead up to the Edinburgh Marathon that I want. Sub 3:30 marathon here I come!

2 months on, a review

So here we are, nearly 2 months on from when I started this adventure.  My original intent was to try the diet for 30 days and see how hard it was, measured against the benefits delivered.  Let's take a look at the breakdown:

The Good

• The food is great.  Seriously, vegan food is better than omni food.  Without the overpowering taste of meat and especially cheese, the other flavours have a chance to come out to play.  
• Energy levels have stabilised and I no longer have the rollercoaster highs and lows from my big meals. I'm not as run down by the evenings and my gym sessions have been strong. Snacking really is the way forward folks.
• I've lost all the weight I wanted to. Now I need to make sure I am having enough calories to maintain that weight.  I have to eat more... Wow, I'd never thought I'd end up in that situation.
• I feel pretty good about my decision.  This is a weird one, but the psychological benefits of knowing you are doing something ethically responsible are quite tangible. 

The Bad

• The diet hasn't managed to magically stop me from injuring myself.  I pulled my calf when in Australia and 3 weeks later I'm still struggling with it.  So no super-human powers for me.
• It can be a hassle.  Seriously, egg and milk make their way into everything processed. This means either being careful by reading a lot of packaging or making lots of my own meals.  I've gone for a compromise between both - if you have ever tried my cooking you will understand why I still like packaged food :)

  

  Tanilba Bay, the best journeys off the beaten track!

The Ugly

• Looking back at my attitudes prior to "the conversion", I see a lot about myself I don't like to admit. I was bigoted and revelled in my meat eating ways.  I didn't think about or look into why people chose to be vege or vegan, instead I only considered how annoying it was to have one around.  To anyone I ever said anything stupid or insensitive to - I'm sorry.

So what's in store for me?  I'm sticking with the diet for the foreseeable future.  I can't see myself ever going back to meat eating and the more I learn about milk and egg production I don't expect to be including those back in my diet in a hurry.  The journey continues...