Best. Mood. Ever.

I've started training again. Best. Mood. Ever.

As I rolled into June I turned 38. I hadn't run a parkrun since December last year, hadn't ridden my bike properly since Lanzarote (where my ITBS came back again in full force and I was so pissed off I couldn't even bring myself to blog about it), and hadn't got in the pool for ages. I'd followed my re-hab exercises relatively well for a few months, and then dropped off most things for a month or two. This is pretty standard behaviour, I suspect there's a "5 stages of rehab" pattern that most people follow.

Well, enough is enough! I hadn't had a twinge for ages - gotta be fixed by now, right? You know what they say, shit or get off the pot. So the day after my birthday Mrs and I went for a run...

Running

I decided to follow C25k (couch to 5k) plan, but accelerate it a bit. I'm doing the first two runs of every week, skipping the third, and running every other day - it sounds a lot but there's really not much running in the beginning, just a few minutes followed by a few minutes walk - but I don't care, it's running, and I love it. It's strange that running was always my weakest discipline and took the most work to improve - yet it turns out it's the one I have missed the most.

Running in Moscow on a beautiful sunny day

Since then I'm now up to repeats of 5 minutes running and 3 minutes walking - still no knee/ITBS pain, and I reckoned good enough to get me round parkrun. I bimbled off to Wimbledon Common yesterday with Mrs, met up with Abradypus, and ticked off my 69th parkrun. I've never ever been so elated to have run 5km in a leisurely 34:08.

Me & Mrs - she ran/walked with me, so pleased to share my come-back parkrun with her

Wimbledon Common parkrun - two laps, trail, no hills (plus a walking cool-down at the end)

It's been a while since I've received a parkrun results text - 34:08, my "come-back PB"!

Absolutely loving it, but I must make sure I build up really slowly - running is really hard again, HR goes through the roof on a medium-paced jog. I've decided when I get to 5km non-stop (a couple more weeks) I'm going to sit there for a couple of weeks before trying to go longer/faster, just to let everything adapt (muscles adapt quickly, ligaments and tendons take longer - don't overdo it, kids). Best. Mood. Ever.

Swimming

I got off my arse and got in the pool while we were away for my birthday too. Shattered after just a few lengths, I think I managed a total of 20 in the 20m pool with frequent breaks. Worth sticking with as I remember just how fast endurance comes on in swimming - and so on Friday I went to Virgin Active Merton Abbey on the way home from work, warmed up a bit, and then smashed out 16x 100m off 2:30, starting at 1:52 or so, drifting down to 1:58, then putting in a massive effort at the end and finishing on 1:53 followed by a monster effort to make 1:46 (the only sub-1:50 in the whole set). OK so I couldn't move my arms (or anything else) afterwards - but what an achievement, my hardest effort swim since, well, probably November 2012! Best. Mood. Ever.

Check that last 100m split!

Cycling

I've had a few cycle-commutes, taking it easy so about 5-10 minutes slower than "normal" each way, but I haven't gone out on my proper bike yet. Today was the day. I popped out for a 55km easy spin to see how it goes. Only one hill (Box Hill) but that holds no fear.

Can you spot Box Hill?

The short version - no pain, big smile, chewed up the 55km no problem and felt relatively strong when I got back home. Cadence was nice and high throughout, and although I wasn't particularly fast I was consistent on speed and didn't drop off at the end. Next week I'm going to take on our "Three hills" route - covers a lot of the same roads but with a longer route to Box Hill - total of about 90km. Can't wait. Best. Mood. Ever.

Even had time for a selfie at the café - loving the Freespeed London top

Gyming

Not sure "gyming" is a word, but never mind. If I'm going to build up again it has to be supported with a real effort at also building strength and core. A lack of glute strength is what led to my injury in the first place, so I have to take it seriously. Ben and Tarsh recommended The Athletic Edge - so I popped in. Ben and Josh have a small outfit in Hampton Wick. They are focused on functional strength for athletes, and triathletes in particular. I'm going for a coached session every Wednesday, and a self-managed secondary session in the gym at the weekend. Follow @EdgeAthletic on Twitter and check them out on Facebook.

My new Mecca (I'm already mayor of it on foursquare :)

It's a long time since I've seen a PT and it felt great to be put through my paces again, even though it was only the first session. Focus is on pre-hab, strength, and triathlon-specific performance - perfect. They've already shared a structured training plan with me in Dropbox, and that's exactly what motivates me - working through a structured plan and seeing the incremental improvements, I'm so pleased to see this approach. They plan season-long cycles with a sub-structure based on when you need to peak for races. Looking forward to getting strong and not getting injured again! Best. Mood. Ever.

...and Racing

I have a few events coming up. Virgin Active London Triathlon is 4 weeks from today. I'm signed up for the Olympic Plus (1,500m swim, 90km bike, 10km run), basically an Olympic distance but with a double-length bike (it's not my fault, I entered last year when I was on an Ironman high and felt invincible). The task for this one - get through it without hurting too much and enjoy some race experience. No need to smash it hard before I'm ready. 

After that, Ironman 70.3 Zell am See in Austria in 10 weeks - a fast flat course but again I'm not going for a PB, I just want to end the year in one piece and strong for next year (plan TBC for next year, no rush to make plans).

I'd also really like to do the Thames Turbo Marathon this year - but I'm not prepared to do that if I'm not ready by then. It's the first race I missed last year after being injured so I would take great psychological satisfaction in being fit enough to complete it this year (plus, I *still* haven't ever run a stand-alone marathon).

Oh, and shhh don't tell anyone, but I entered Ironman 70.3 UK for 2014 - I also made a stupid challenge on twitter that I was going to break 5:30:00 for it - 45 minutes quicker than last year. Oh well, I like a challenge!

So all is good. Take it easy, don't go too far too soon, stick to the gym, and all will be well.

Best. Mood. Ever.

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.

Time to man-up and hit the reset button

This blog was about my quest to become an ironman. Well the votes are in and the results are out: I made it. Wimbleball, Bolton, Galway, Tenby - all finished, and I've got the incredibly rare Ironman Ultimate Finisher glassware to show for it.

My second full distance Ironman finishing chute, Ironman Wales 2012

At some point after Tenby I got a bit too wrapped up in entering more events, and wanting to go faster and further. I went balls-out on the Royal Parks Half Marathon and got myself a bout of ITBS to show for it. That wasn't fun, and it still isn't. I haven't run since November. I thought cycling was fine, so I got excited about cycling and put my efforts into completing a turbo-trainer mega-set over Christmas. Turns out cycling brought on ITBS too, so no more cycling either.

Rolling into 2013 the races I wanted to do and in some cases had already entered are ticking past without me in them. The first Hell of The Ashdown (last year's report) I've missed in 4 years, The London Ultra (Mrs ran it, she had an amazing day, and so did parkrun extraodinaire abradypus - I cheered them on), Thames Turbo Race 1 (Mrs raced it she had a good day - I marshalled and cheered, good fun). Next up is Thames Turbo Race 2, I won't be in that either.

I was signed up for Coach Joe Beer's tri-camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote. I went there at the end of January with a month of pain-free knee. Lanzarote was great - incredible place, if a bit windy. I had already paid to take my bike out, so I took it. I cycled a bit too much, and on the morning of the last day the pain came back.

The leisure pool at CLub La Santa (the only Sports/Holiday camp with its own theme song)

I did absolutely nothing for 2 weeks afterwards, then got back onto my exercises (as scheduled by Mountain Man Rob Turner). I've been sticking vaguely to my rehab exercises since then - probably not as well as I should though.

I went Low Carb High Fat from mid-November, I saw great results up until Christmas with everything positive - the weight fell off and I got lower than I've ever been before. As I got more unhappy and rolled into 2013 I totally broke it. I made a string of very poor nutrition decisions, including stopping logging my intake entirely since the start of February. I thought I had everything in check and could freewheel. I couldn't. Recently I've put on weight at an astonishing weight due to continuing poor meal decisions. I've broken my adaptation to being a fat-burning athlete, I've eaten cake, pizza, toast - all of which now leave me with a horrible bloated stomach and a real toxic stomach ache as I'm just not used to processing carbs in such volumes lately. I've totally over-consumed alcohol, and I commented when I started this journey over a year ago that I have a problem with that.

I have stopped working with my coach (thanks Joe, you were great), and I'm not going to South Africa for Unogwaja or Comrades (I got accepted, I got excited, then ultimately declined - though not because of this injury).

Terrible clip-art, shamelessly stolen. I'm not proud.

The only person that can turn this around is me. So I am. It's time to man-up, take control, and hit the reset button. There it is, above. You can hit it too if you feel you could use a symbolic action.

The positives are that I am getting stronger. I can now cycle-commute twice per week as long as it's not on consecutive days, and I don't get any pain. If I carry on improving I could start running slowly and minimal duration as early as the end of April. I have an aim to run Wimbledon Common parkrun on my birthday - that would be a significant moment. I really miss parkrun.

I'm going to remove those races from the countdown on the front page (apart form the couple I'm still signed up for). I'm going to freshen up the colour scheme a bit. I did consider just not blogging any more (I achieved the point of the blog after all), but I think there are more races and adventures to come. I'm going to celebrate the success of last year - without feeling the need to go bigger and bolder this year.

I'm logging my nutrition in the wonderful Weight Loss Resources again to get a grip. I know the weight falls off when I'm well balanced - recently I haven't been, but I can be again. It'll all be good again, and I'll return stronger than I ever was before, ready for my next challenge, whatever that turns out to be...

The 12 Turbo Sessions of Christmas

Mrs had a turbo for a while last year, and it was the least domestic-friendly thing I've ever encountered. Loud, pointy, heavy, loud, did I mention loud? It sounded like there was a helicopter in the house, there was no escaping the throbbing roar. We swapped it for some swim sessions with the coach I was working with at the time.

Fast forward 12 months, and given my ITB problem and inability to run for a while (more on that in a moment) I needed to up my cycling and I didn't feel like my low-intensity commute was really cutting the mustard.

Time to look for a turbo trainer again. I googled for "the quietest turbo trainer in the world" and this is what came up:

Elite Crono Fluid Elastogel

I took the plunge and got it from Wiggle.

I asked my coach, Joe Beer (twitter, website), for some turbo sessions and he sent me a set of 12 (actually, a set of 10, but session 9 has three variants). I thought a nice Christmas project to get my legs going around again would be to do one per day, starting today and finishing on January 3rd. Maybe I should have started 3 days ago?

Historically, every time I've announced an intention to do a training block in this blog, something has happened to scupper it. Let's hope I can keep to this one!

With regard to running, well I made the decision to quit running all together until next year. I've been religiously foam rolling, stretching, completing my asymmetrical exercises, and aqua running at Aqua Physio (excellent fun, much more than I was expecting). I still found though that 3x 5km per week was too much, and I didn't feel like I was letting the various exercises I was completing work to the best effect by continually stressing the area by running - it is an overuse injury after all. So I dropped to just 1x 5km parkrun for a couple of weeks, and then a couple of weeks ago after quite some ITB pain after a run I elected to cease running completely until next year. I think it's the right choice, and three weeks off completely, combined with the multiple angles of attack we worked out, I'm hoping to start next year in good shape.

On the plus side, it means I can get a few parkrun volunteer sessions done over the holiday period. I'd urge any parkrunners who find themselves injured to look towards volunteering - particularly if like me you very rarely ever volunteer normally (I think once, ever, until this injury!). It feels good to redress the balance.

Follow-up to: Why the insane Heart Rate suddenly?

This is a follow-up to my previous post, Why the insane Heart Rate suddenly? - you should read that first. It's OK, I'll wait...

I've had the same feedback from a couple of people now. Garmin HR sensors take some time to settle when you start using them, either as a result of needing to warm up a bit (get a bit "moist under the strap", as it were) to improve the contact or because of the static caused by a fresh clean dry technical t-shirt.

We've had our first tastes of cold winter air in the UK over the last few weeks. Cold air has a lower capacity to hold moisture, and when it's cold it'll take longer for your body to warm up and start to perspire. As I explained in my last post, I was making an effort to warm up very slowly in Brighton, and it took 20 minutes (twice as long as I've noticed before) for my heart rate measure to come down. I don't cycle in technical t-shirts and by the time I moved onto the brick run example I gave I'll have already been very well warmed up, and therefore no spike was evident. I run with a Garmin Forerunner 910XT.

So the question becomes - did my heart rate ever go up that high in the first place? I'm starting to think that maybe it didn't.

Firstly, thanks to Louise for showing me her Garmin plot featuring exactly the same thing up to a positively humming-birdesque 220bpm! Follow her parkrun and ultra exploits on twitter and on her blog.

2-hour run from Louise, with a phenomenal spike in the first 5 minutes

Finsbury parkrun, again from Louise, with a similarly extreme first 5 minutes

Secondly, thanks to Rob and Sam for their comments on my last post bringing my attention to the moistness/technical t-shirt behaviour.

Finally, thanks to Robbie C who shared the activity from his easy (for some, maybe!) run round Regent's Park which also shows a starting peak, though not quite as pronounced as Louise's or mine form the weekend. His run was on December 7th which was a cold day, so that might explain why it took longer to read accurately and drop down - 20 minutes, about the same as mine.

Run from Robbie C - I wonder if he knows he ran straight past my office twice? :)

I'm going up to Darlington this weekend to visit my Dad and take in a parkrun (I think we can be fairly sure it'll be cold there) - so I'll make sure I moisten my strap properly in advance and I won't wear a technical t-shirt - I have a very warm Nike base layer I can wear, plus a jumper or something.

I'm planning a hard run, so even if there is a peak it should be narrow as I'll warm up quickly. Let's see what happens...

Why the insane Heart Rate suddenly?

In the last couple of weeks I've found that my heart rate has gone absolutely sky high in the first 10 minutes of a 5km run. I mean, really sky high. I'll start jogging and will feel absolutely fine and  breathing no harder than if I were sat on the sofa, but my HR has hit 170+ BPM, the kind of rate that should mean I'm sprinting, squat-jumping, or absolutely hammering it up a hill on my bike.

This is not normal. At Frimley Lodge parkrun last weekend I hit 190 BPM which is utterly insane given my peak HR is considered to be 192 BPM - I should be at near-maximum output to warrant that, not jogging along looking in alarm at my watch!

Saturday 1st December, Frimley Lodge parkrun

After 10 minutes it drifts down a bit, but is still very high. For jogging round a parkrun in 28 minutes I'd expect to be 125-135 BPM for most of the time.

Initially I suspected this was as a result of the Bulletproof Coffee I'd been having for breakfast - however there is another occurrence, this time in the evening. On Thursday I went for a run when I got home from work, unusually I hadn't cycle commuted so started the run from cold.

A 5km run after work on my local route

Similarly, I set off very slowly and suffered a huge spike in heart rate before it settled somewhat. Still higher than I would normally expect but closer.

This morning Mrs and I took a drive to Brighton & Hove parkrun. I had decided to warmup slowly, and then run at whatever pace was required to keep my heart rate in HR Zone 1, under 152 BPM. During the warmup I walked briskly with a heart rate of around 100 BPM as expected, but as soon as I took the first few slow jogging steps it rocket straight up to over 170 BPM, literally (and I mean literally) within 5-10 seconds. I've never seen anything like it. I stopped jogging after a few steps, and it came down just as quickly. I carried on in this fashion for 15 minutes, gradually able to jog very slowly for slightly longer each time.

Warmup, featuring ridiculous heart rate responses

For the run I decided there was no way I could stay in Zone 1, I'd have to walk round the course! Instead I set off very very slowly, and held a pace keeping my heart rate under observation.

Brighton & Hove parkrun

So it did come down, eventually! A big step down after 10 minutes, before finally getting more normal after 20 minutes or so. Note that my speed was relatively constant throughout this variation. Is it all due to not warming up slowly enough?

After a very slow first km my pace was relatively constant

There's an interesting data point from earlier this week. I went for a 5km on my local route earlier in the week, but this time I had cycled home first. My commute home starts in the West End of London, and is therefore very slow for the first 15 minutes, and not much better after that being punctuated as it is by hundreds of sets of traffic lights.

This heart rate plot looks totally normal for a cycle commute, well within HR Zone 1 (under 152 BPM)

I took this as a brick session, meaning I got in, got changed as fast as I could, and ran out immediately. I was still thoroughly warmed up form the bike ride. I wanted to blow out some cobwebs, so this run was harder than many recent runs, and I completed the 5km in a little over 24 minutes. Still a couple of minutes outside my personal best, but fast enough to have to work hard - the upward drifting heart rate during the run validates that I was certainly working hard to maintain pace.

A faster 5km brick run on my local route

This shows that following a 45 minute low to medium intensity bike ride I don't experience the same spike. This graph is exactly how a hard 5km run always used to look, and just what I'd expect to see. No starting spike whatsoever.

So it looks like there are a few options:

1. Warm up really very very slowly (so slow I can barely even jog!)
2. Warm up with a bike ride every time I run (potentially impractical), or find some other way to warm up (drills? some squat jumps?)
3. Warm up with a 15 minute jog ahead of the start of a run and just let any spike happen and pass - or if there's no time to warm up just accept that I have a huge heart rate spike at the outset of a run and jog through it, saving any harder effort for after 8-10 minutes

Maybe this is a side effect of a low carbohydrate and high fat diet? Why is it happening? My suspicion is that as my metabolism and fuelling has changed, there's some trigger which is not yet attuned to this physiological state.

My body goes "Right, get ready to exercise!" and everything plays according to the rules apart from my cardio-vascular system which for some reason thinks it needs to get a record amount of oxygen to my muscles, or the signal to say that it was already delivering enough is suppressed (fat metabolism takes more oxygen, but I wouldn't have thought that alone explains this).

So, why the insane heart rate suddenly?

It just got (even more) real

I'm in! I hope you'll be tracking race number 22,280 on the big day!

Confirmation email

So Comrades Marathon entry confirmed, place on the Unogwaja Challenge team confirmed, ITBS feeling like it's on the mend (I'm sticking rigidly to the plan).

Suppose I'd better look into booking some flights!

Recipe: Pork sausages with Courgette & Cauliflower purée

The purée is lovely, you don't have to have it with sausages, add whatever you like. It may work with a strong fish - it'll need to be able to stand up for itself though. You could add the vegetable stock back in and blend it into a soup. Next time I may add some garlic, or possibly a little chilli. This is definitely a recipe you can (and should) play with.

Per portion, recipe makes two

Ingredients (makes 2 portions)

For my delightfully simple but rewardingly scrumptious sausage with puréed vegetables you'll need roughly the following:

• Two medium courgettes
• A chunk of cauliflower
• Six mushrooms
• One vegetable stock cube
• 20g salted butter 
• Six sausages
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Get the sausages on first, they'll take longest. 35 minutes or so at 175C.

Now the sausages are in, add 250ml of water into a saucepan you have a lid for. Crumble the stock cube into it, drop all the vegetables in, and turn it on. The vegetables half boil and half steam. They'll take 10-15 minutes depending on how coarsely you've cut them. Nudge them about from time to time with a spoon.

When cooked, pour off the stock. Keep it in a bowl in case you need to add it to the purée to thin it out. Add the butter and season lightly. Use a blender with an attachment that isn't going to explode purée all over your kitchen.

Spoon the mixture onto the middle of a plate and place the sausages artistically onto the top. Job done!

The purée was runny enough without needing to add any of the vegetable stock I'd poured off... So we just drank it out of the bowl :)

The plate test

It looks like a success - Mrs virtually licked the plate clean!

Nutrition breakdown

For one portion, recipe makes two