I'M FAT !!!

Some people might say I'm a little OCD when it comes to running, and I guess they might just be right. I know (being the coach and all) what is needed to take me to the top, well as high as I can go! And while I train hard and do a whole lot of other little things to 'fine tune' my body I don't do it all.

I'm lazy... I know it's hard to believe but it's true! Morning runs and those extra km before session, the longer warm downs needed for the long races I do... what about the bits of cross training I would love to do? Well life gets in my way, and why shouldn’t it, running isn’t my jog, it’s just a passion!

Now also needed to take you there is a good diet! Don't get me wrong I eat well, but I would guess I eat to well. I like food and the odd drink! 

Wine tasting last week

So where am I going with this? Well on Sunday I ran The Table Mountain 16km for the 26^th time, and while I’m not as young as I was in the ’90 nor as fast, strong or fearless, I still like to take the youngsters on…

Like most mornings before races I was up in plenty of time and pottered around the house doing the things runners do before heading out to put their bodies to the test… One of the things I do most morning, whether racing or just heading out to work is climb on the scale! Yes I weigh myself all the time…

Race day morning: 68.3kg oh sh… that isn’t good, somehow in the last 2 days I’ve picked up 1.1kg, Dawn was in the passage as I left the bathroom: Sorry Love I’m not going to have a good race today! How do you know? Well I’m fat… What? I’ve just weighed myself and I’m heavier than I’ve been all week!

So does that really make a difference? Well yes, but only a kg… It’s not that it’s 1.1kg, it that I’m heavier than last week, and that is what it’s about, maybe if I was running an ultra the extra weight, (read here nutrition/energy reserves) might help… But this is a “sprint” up a mountain and I would really like to have been at racing weight… OK maybe I can only dream of getting back to the 62kg that I weighed back in the ‘90s, but 67 or even a high 66 would have helped.

From the gun Admire and Jareyd took off with me following… In the old day I would have run them down, but that wasn’t happening the body felt heavy (and I’m not talking about the extra 1.1kg) and I was sluggish but I pushed on. Admire was strong and while I kept hoping that he was break he didn’t! Jareyd is a junior and it took me a long time to run him down, I’m guessing if he had started with me I would never have dropped him and it would have been me dropping into third. I watched Admire as he opened a nice lead and I watched the time as he reach the top. 26:40ish, me, I was 50 sec back in 27:30. Now there have been studies about weight and how it affects your times on the flat, most of the studies I've seen have used track TT to measure things. Me, well I have run a set of R/Mem hills with a pack on, and then for the last 2 (numbers 9 and 10) I took it off and without pushing was a good 10sec faster, and that was over 500m (ok the pack was about 3-4kg). So I’m guessing if I had watched my diet those couple of days before the race I could have stuck with Admire on the way up… (but we will never know)

Climbing up

Jareyd was about 45sec behind me and I would need something special if I was going to keep him there… I was running hard and pushing myself all the way, but it looks like I’m not only fat,  I’m also getting old, he caught me on the early parts of the down and while I chased hard I had no answer to his speed… 

flying down

I was lucky to hold on to my 3^rd while the rest of the field was also flying down the hill.

Next year we will try again.