Race report: Croydon Ultra

I have had a previous attempt at an ultra, and it didn't end well. I had to stop after 30km with my old friend ITBS irritating my knee. I have wanted to take another go for a while. On a whim I signed up for the Croydon Ultra about 6 weeks ago. I've been running relatively regularly, and relied on running every day in June (Juneathon) to give me what I needed.

I went to check the circuit out a fortnight ago, and didn't enjoy it too much. So I went back for another go a few days later and had a much better day. I still wasn't entirely confident I'd make it round two laps, but it was worth a shot.

Normal breakfast - anti-hystamenes essential

I got up early and ate a normal breakfast before heading out. I know I can do three hours of exercise on a cup of coffee, not sure about six! The night before I made a couple of snack packs too - a boiled egg, stick of cheese, and a bit of bacon. I was going high-fat low carb all the way, no cakes, sports drinks, or sugary sweets for this athlete.

Snack pots!

The trip to the start was easy, just 30 minutes on the tram. The two-lap course meant easy access to my bag at half way so that, plus an aid station half way round, meant very little to carry. I wore my trusty Flip-Belt with iPhone and inhaler, then in my shorts pocket an emergency bank card, cash, and copy of the route. Pretty sure I didn't need the instructions thanks to my familiarisation runs, but better safe than sorry.

Race start was at 9am, and at about 8.45 it started drizzling. By the time we started it was really raining hard. I decided to go for shorts and a vest, expecting warm dry weather - at least in a vest I wouldn't get bogged down with the weight of wet clothes, or poach myself in a waterproof top.

Registration - before the rain

At 9am on the dot we set off. There were around two dozen of us. A lot like the most recent 2nd Sunday 5, everyone shot off into the distance. I was fairly sure that within the first kilometre I was in last place. I didn't mind, I'm OK with that. Maybe they'll come back to me later, maybe not. For me it's about getting round.

There were a reasonable number of orange arrows painted onto the floor at opportune moments, and a few orange streamers tied to trees. Better markings than I was expecting for a small low-key race.

The rain continued, and I held a good pace. Jogging along the flats and downs, walking briskly up the hills. The White Bear aid station came round fairly quickly, I had a cup of water and a surprise piece of cheese (I was surprised, not the cheese) - nice to see something other than the usual sugar fest - maybe ultras are more accommodating? There wasn't any coke/pepsi, just flat water or orange cordial - it looked somehow more appropriate than the sugar-fest aid stations I'm used to from Ironman.

I'd enjoyed the first half of the lap, it's interesting and mainly trail. The middle section was country lanes, bit boring, and then the last part was mainly around suburbs - quite housing estates and some seriously nice houses.

I got back to the start to see two runners just leaving, maybe I wasn't so far at the back after all. I stopped for a few minutes, I don't know what my mid-point time was, I'd already decided I didn't care (within reason) about the time - it was about finishing. I was wearing my Garmin and it was recording, but I was just ignoring it. It buzzed regularly as the kilometres ticked by, but they passed uncounted. I consumed one of my snack pots - it was good! Felt so much more reviving than an energy bar or gel.

2x 15 glorious lumpy miles, South of Croydon

Setting off from the aid station to start the second lap I was still going OK. I clearly had a few hours' running in my legs, but I wasn't too tired. I enjoy the first third of the course, on the vanguard way, and was looking forward to seeing it again.

It had rained all the way round lap one, but had slowed to a drizzle now. The trail section was a little slipperier but still manageable. I'd made the right choice by picking my shoes for the two-thirds of the course that's on-road, not the third that's trail. After three or four kilometres I caught the pair who had left in front of me. They looked very tired, we exchanged greetings and "hang-in-there"s, and I pushed on forward.

My first twinge of worry was following the transition to the road section. I pushed a little to keep my rhythm on the flat, but couldn't run down the hill - yup, knee pain! Before long I was finding it hard to run for any more than few minutes, the pain built up gently until it made me stop, then I walked a bit, then I could run for a few minutes again.

The line up - I was at the front for approximately 1 second

By the time I hit the mid-point aid station I couldn't run at all, but I could walk - and I could walk fast.  For some reason that was fine. I was determined to finish - I need to pop my ultra cherry! I decided there and then to power-hike the whole second half of lap two, and not do any more damage by trying to run.

While I was there one of the pair I'd overtaken arrived - from the wrong direction! He'd lost the guy he was running with, and then got lost, and eventually chopped off the whole bottom end of the circuit, so he came back up the course to the aid station to get the distance covered. It was his first ultra, he was determined to get a finish too.

I set off at quite a stride, visualising the various sections of the course that remained - walking it in for 7.5 miles was going to take a while. My knee seemed OK on the flat but was complaining increasingly on gradients. At one point even walking up and down kerbs was uncomfortable!

Finally, now with sore feet because my shoes were certainly designed for running and not walking, I rounded the corner back to the aid station. 30 miles done - 22.5 running, 7.5 walking. Still, to get the bling all you have to do is get to the end - and I got to the end, so I get my little medal :)

Look at that drop off in pace!

I'm still not sure I'm an "ultra runner", but I certainly covered an ultra distance, and completed an ultra race, so that's good enough for now. Since Sunday I took Monday off exercise, and today (Tuesday) I cycled home from work. Knee is absolutely fine - as soon as the irritation subsides I'm back to normal in no  time.

Fell into the pub on the way home for a recovery wine

We have a train strike for the next few days, so I'll cycle for the next couple of days too, then parkrun on Saturday (of course), and the third 2nd Sunday 5 trail race on Sunday, which I should be right as rain for.

Done

I think I'm going to stick to races that are just up to and including half marathon for a while. I'll try longer again at some point, but I'm not going to get over excited and enter loads of races (I was kind of considering some 50-milers next year - but there's utterly no point if it's 25 miles running, and then 25 miles "walking it in").

Still, it was fun, and I had a nice day, and I'm pleased I showed some resolve to get to the end and not give up. Job done :)

Race photos are here, but apart from the start line shot I was too slow to end up in any of them! The official results are here, together with a short blog post form the organiser. The men's race was won by last year's winner, David Ross, in a new course record of 3:43. The women's race was won by Daisy Rolfe in 5:02. I eventually rolled in at around 6:20, but I managed not to come last!

I'll take that, thank you very much :)

Juneathon day 08/30 - Wimbledon common

I want to get a bit more familiar with the 2nd Sunday 5-mile course ahead of Sunday's race, so I drove up to the windmill, jogged the few km down to the start, ran the course (sort of, I got a bit lost on one lap...), then jogged back to the windmill (sort of, it's a bit of a hill to get up there so I deployed a run/walk strategy). So today saw 13.59km in 01:19:49 added to the Juneathon running total.

Today's route - trail paths all the way, rivers, and golf courses - bloomin' lovely!

I covered the 5-mile course in 44:14, compared to when I ran the race a few weeks ago in 43:47. 27 seconds off race pace is perfectly respectable time for a familiarisation trip (probably a bit fast, even), and so I'll target myself to beat my previous 43:47 this coming Sunday. Longer term I'd like to get round the course in under 40 minutes but, just like my dream of a sub-20 parkrun, that's going to take a while...

Up the "toast rack" (between 2 and 6 on the map above), and down again. Twice.

Today's run felt good. Less good were the scales this morning. My birthday zone week of indulgence has pushed me over 90kg for the first time since 12th November 2011! I know why - it's been cakes and wine a-plenty, and as far from LCHF (low carb high fat) as you could imagine. The problem with being well adapted over a few years now to low carb is that when I eat other things the rate at which I gain weight is phenomenal!

The trails that criss-cross Wimbledon common are beautiful places to run

Thankfully as I adopted LCHF as a lifestyle choice (i.e. for ever) rather than a fad diet I don't need to "get back on the diet", I just need to stop eating the non-foods that have crept in. Refined sugar, grains, and other carby foods don't even make me feel good, it's just that we're so conditioned to see sweets, cake, and pastries as "treats" that it's hard to break that link. I had a big birthday, I had a lot of "treats" :)

Sweaty cool-down selfie

Just need to go back to not seeing such things as food - I nailed it a while ago and dropped to well under 80kg with very little effort, no hunger, and no shortage of energy (more than I have now for sure). Let's see how it goes! But for now, it's all about running every day in June!

My Juneathon totals: 8 runs for 58.81km in 6:10:33

Taking a look at weight data

Warning: This might well be the most boring blog post I've written so far (and that's some claim). It's immensely interesting for me, and probably not for anyone else on the planet. You have been warned...

So, I finally gave in to this damn cold. I've struggled through this week at work with an annoying cold (sore throat, blocked nose, main-lining Lemsip) but enough is enough. I'm sitting at home on the sofa today, catching up on the wonderful Talk Ultra (twitter) podcast by Ian Corless. Thinking about weight in my last post, I wanted to take a closer look at the last few years.

Firstly, I'm not weight-obsessed, and I've never had a weight-related illness (in case you're concerned I'm dwelling on the topic in an unhealthy manner). I am however far more informed and observant than I have ever been previously in my life. Part of this is thanks to Mrs who successfully lost a lot of weight earlier in her life and has kept it off - it'll be 7 years in May, she's done an amazing job. She was far more tuned in to food, weight, and general health and general wellbeing than I was.

I thought a useful past time this morning was to sit for a while and see if I could see where the major directional changes were, and why.

On 78.4% of the last 1,650 days I've weighed myself first thing in the morning - 1,294 data points

The orange line is logged data (and it's always been from the same pair of scales), and the black lines are interpolated. If I was away for a weekend and measured 90.0kg on Friday, and then 90.3kg on Monday, I'd add in 90.1kg and 90.2kg for Saturday and Sunday. I never tried to weigh myself on anything other than my home bathroom scales. If they're poorly calibrated, I'll at least assume they are consistently offset each day.

When Mrs swapped from her old analogue scales to my digital ones, she had a discontinuity due to differences in calibration.

A fake 5kg discontinuity due to a change of scales

The overall trend over the 54 months is downward, but there are some serious ups in there too! The following graphs span 12 months on the X-axis and 15kg on the Y-axis. This means the angle of the trend line (the rate at which my weight was changing) can be compared from year to year.

2008: The first time I'd ever weighed myself twice in the same year

Only a couple of months of data for 2008. The thing I can't believe is that I started at virtually 100kg (15st 10.5lb) - and I'd been heavier in the past, during my fairly unhappy days in Scotland. At this point I was taking a lead from Mrs, all about low fa and calorie restrictions. It worked well - I was clearly ready to ditch the pizza and shed a few pounds. This period from October to December is one of the most rapid weight loss periods in the whole 5 years.

2009: Can you spot my honeymoon?

I got married in April we spent a few weeks in California on honeymoon - that added a few kg! The second half of the year shows a gradual and sustained decline (Right! We're married! Let's not get old and fat!) - with one or two exceptions. At the start of November I went to a work conference in the US and came back a week later and 4kg heavier! It falls off quickly, but it's worth noting that sudden increases never come decrease at the same rate.

2010: The only way is up!

Looking at the years in isolation, 2010 is the "worst" (making the bold assumption that a downward trend is "best" and is desired). There was a lot of being out and boozing during this period - my team at work was expanding rapidly, and "team building" was very high on the agenda.

2011: A year of triathlon

We raced quite a lot in 2011, but not with any serious or structured training. At the end of the year, start of November, we went on holiday. That was bound to cost a few kg! Trend was down over the period. What's interesting is that almost never is there a period without a gradual trend up or down - not just in this year but in any year. I'd think it would be fascinating to see a graph of my weight since I was born.

2012: Year of the Ironman Ultimate Challenge and going LCHF

This is one of the most interesting years. I came into 2012 with my first ever triathlon coach, and an objective to compete in Ironman 70.3 UK and Ironman Wales. My training was the most consistent it's ever been in my life (it's actually the only year I've ever done anything that would count as structured training).

Jan to June were perfect. I was getting leaner, faster, stronger. I hardly drank any alcohol during this period. I believed alcohol was a main inhibitor to previous weight management, and it would affect my training. The odd effect though, was that as soon as my big races started towards the end of June, I steadily gained weight all summer and throughout all the other races. In retrospect the focus and limitations I'd put myself under for the first part of the year were simply unsustainable. I hadn't got the right balance. I also had a blow-out after each big race, and never quite recovered afterwards. You can see this by the upward spike in black (interpolated data from while I was away racing), followed by an immediate not-quite-recover in orange when I got back home. I'm pretty sure I still don't know what my "racing weight" is, I don't think I've ever reached it!

The end of the year, starting about a third into November, was when I went Low Carb High Fat (LCHF). My weight fell off a cliff. December is the longest sustained period I've spent under 80kg - 25 days. The trend breaks at Christmas with a spike back to 80kg - yesterdays graph map that directly with my carb intake increasing above my target max of 50g/day.

2013: When LCHF becomes HCHF!

An example of how not to do it! Note the downturn in the last few days as a result of changes made since Saturday. Let's see where this curve goes...

I am what I eat

I mentioned in my slightly cathartic last post that I'd lost control a bit (a lot) on the weight front. Let's look at that a bit more closely.

Last year when I moved to LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) eating I lost a lot of weight (around 6kg) rather dramatically - this is expected and is very well recorded.

Absolute carb intake against weight for Nov & Dec 2012 - Christmas is where it started to break!

I was logging everything I ate and drank. I was keeping relatively close to my self-assigned target macro nutrient profile of 75% calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbohydrate (note that there isn't an absolute calorie target - this isn't a "calorie counting" plan).

Macro nutrient split by % - no crazy carb binges at all, but a lift at Christmas has an impact

The decline continued until just after Christmas. I decided I needed a break from hyper-focus on logging every mouthful (I was taking a general break from being quite so analytical about food, training, exercise), and reckoned I was settled in enough to LCHF to "freewheel" (after all, they say you can eat as much as you like, right?).

There's also a well recorded phenomenon of weight gain on an LCHF diet plan if you over-ride (accidentally, or on purpose) you satiety signals. That is, you (continue to) over-eat. The reason you can "eat as much as you like" and not need to calorie count on LCHF is because the high caloric density foods give you a good clear "I've eaten enough" signal at the right time, and you listen to it.

It is possible to ignore that signal. I think I do, mainly unconsciously but occasionally as a result of a bad decision - particularly on the few days I've committed wilful "carbicide" courtesy of Dominos (and the fastest way to gain weight is the worst of all worlds, high fat, high carb, high protein, high calories - way too much of everything!).

My weight whilst "Freewheeling" from Jan to mid April 2013 - Argh! Stop climbing!

It's nothing to do with exercise - I was actually getting marginally more exercise into Q1 2013 than I was at the end of 2012, but was gaining weight. Why? 

I decided to start logging my food again on Saturday, and it was instantly apparent what the problem was. The caloric density of my meals was far far higher than I though. Here are some examples:

LCHF "cooked breakfast" - 571 calories

LCHF "lunch salad" - 712 calories

LCHF "yoghurt snack" - 592 calories

The macro split isn't too bad - there are just way more calories than I was accounting for. Compare that with what my previous low fat, high protein diet used to give me.

A typical lunch from last year - it's no wonder I was on 4-6 additional snacks per day!

The problem was that I was augmenting these meals with occasional other (high fat) snacks, and - importantly - a full cooked dinner (all be it still on the LCHF theme). Over the last few weeks I lost a lot of control and was enjoying a nice big slice of cake from the coffee shop with my coffee at work, and even caught myself making a couple of slices of toast with peanut butter at work (it was lovely, but I felt terrible afterwards). High everything.

During this fortnight I was feeling more and more ill in my stomach, like there was a toxic buildup. I didn't feel actively sick apart from once or twice, and there weren't any problems with, er, "waste", I just felt terrible. Bloated, laden, heavy (feeling heavy as well as being heavier). I felt like the handbag on the constipation commercial where the troubled lady just keeps on ramming food in (I had a brief look for it on the YouTubes but I don't want to end up being followed around by constipation ads so I stopped).

I also don't think it's any coincidence that I have had a sore throat and heavy cold over the last week, the first trace of illness I've had since going LCHF in November (and I always have a cold at Christmas/New Year). I certainly made the right call last Saturday to restore some greater awareness.

My first day of logging again.

On my first day of logging I hardly ate anything compared to recent weeks. Ignore the "-61" in red - that's a hangover from last year where I had WLR set on a daily calorie target deficit of 500 calories under that which I should need to maintain my weight. Looking at calories only is a flawed approach, but you can't ignore them all together. That's what I've learned this year.

A real eye opener as to how little I needed to eat to reach these numbers. And Saturday I felt much better, and the day after that, better still (apart from the cold, which I'm only really just shaking off now).

I'll stay on alert for a couple of weeks and see what happens to the weight graph. Since Saturday (5 days) it's already dropped by 1.3kg. I'm astounded I shot up to 86.7kg, almost around 9kg heavier than my minimum before Christmas - that was only three and a half months ago!

So, since I hit the reset button on Saturday I've felt much better. And you know what? I've been more productive at work, my brain is quicker and more useful, and I'm feeling positive - hmm, just the feelings I discussed the first time I went LCHF. No coincidence.

Look after yourself, eat well - you are what you eat.