Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
A Weighty Matter
by Russell Turner - 17:49 on 22 January 2018
Matchgirl fears that if I don’t take care I could fade away. Before I began my marathon training regime my weight hovered around 15st (210lbs) – a reasonable bulk for 6ft 6in. This morning it was a tad over 198lbs, and that was before the week’s long run in which I expended more than 1,000 calories over eight miles. The average male daily intake should be 2,500, probably more for my size. Hmm…
One report states that male athletes need 20cals per pound of bodyweight. If I’ve crept into that bracket I should be on 4,000+ calories a day, which sounds like a good excuse for cakes and biscuits. Not so. More protein is what’s really needed, and as steak is not on the menu in The Rural Retreat (even though veggie Matchgirl says she wouldn’t mind) I’ll have to up my consumption of fish, nuts, cheese and yoghurt. I’m not averse to that. I still can’t stand eggs though.
The good times won’t last forever. Eventually my body will come to terms with the new me and its demand for calories per mile covered will fall. That’s according to a despondent Matchgirl, who says she can run for miles without affecting the readout on the bathroom scales.
Today’s run, the last of Week 4, was a good one, once the initial walk along some icy paths was out of the way. My running pace was probably higher than needed but, as the Garmin revealed, was sustained across all six completely run miles. Maybe psychology was at play. I knew I had to run in 30-minute blocks which now seems an easily achievable time. A lot’s changed since the couch to 5k.
I also consumed my first energy gel during the walk break (strawberry yogurt – very tasty) and ran with a dinky water bottle strapped to my hand. It didn’t get in the way.
With the required walking sections, and a few minutes’ running outside of the full miles, in the 90 minutes demanded by the training schedule (plus 27 seconds) I completed exactly eight miles. That keeps me well on target for completing the programme. So far, so good. Time will tell if the pace is sustainable.
Wildlife Update: The rustling in the walls, which has driven The Pride wild, ended this afternoon when Matchgirl had the bright idea of removing the wall panel in the living room which hides our stopcock. Moments later a wren soared to freedom via the open kitchen window. Silence reigned. Then yet another wren found its own way out and into the jaws of Pandora. Sigh. Who knows how many more are queuing up for take-off?
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