Doing the hard yards

Well it has been six weeks since the back to back (b2b) UltraMarathon. When I embarked on this endeavour I expected to experience many things, physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion but the one surprise that hit me hard has been emotional exhaustion. After the b2b I was left with a nasty ankle injury, a doctor friend had a look and suspected (along with me) that it was a stress fracture of the distal tibia. So for a week I had an ankle like an elephant but I still needed to train so I switched to the cross trainer to allow the injury to heal, I’d hate to see the state of my kidneys at the end of that week as I was knocking back the ibuprofen like smarties to bring down the inflammation. On the Sunday following the b2b I managed ten miles on the cross trainer the Sunday after I was up to twenty miles again and the swelling was down somewhat. In fact in the last six weeks I have run 257.2 miles. One cross trainer marathon 26.2 miles in 3:40 hrs. The following weekend was a 15 mile run on the Saturday followed by 30 Miles on the Sunday. It was very difficult to get back in to the zone and overcome the emotional effect of being injured. But I’m back in the saddle, very focused and fully committed to my training.
Its just over ten weeks to go now and its time to do the hard yards. I’ve got to burn down the remaining body fat to be able to run across the desert and manage the heat, if I’m carrying any fat it will be like running in a thermal jacket and I’d brew up; I’m aiming to drop down another 4Kg to be ripped for Namibia so that I’ll be able to dissipate the heat efficiently.
Today is the first day of being back on my burn down diet, the complex carbohydrates are off the plate for the next few weeks and the training regime is in full swing. For the last few weeks my dietary needs have looked something like this:
Target weight is 88KG which is 194 Lbs
Multiply target weight by 10 (Add 1 for every additional hour of exercise you do per week over 1 hour)
I do 13/14 hours of training a week. Therefore multiply by 22 for non marathon weeks and 23 for marathon weeks.
Therefore my calorific intake per day is 194 x 22 = 4268 Cal
Eat 1g of protein per lb of target body weight (1g is 4 Cal) therefore 194g of protein per day which is 776 Cal.
Eat half a gram of fat for every lb of target weight; therefore I need to eat 97g of fat a day. 1 gram of fat is 9 Cal therefore fat supplies 873 Cal per day.
Carbohydrates: Add the protein and fat Cal totals and subtract the total from my total daily calories. Therefore 776 Cal + 873 Cal = 1649 Cal
Daily Calorie total is 4268 Cal – 1649 Cal = 2619 Cal of Carbohydrates a day. (1g of Carbohydrates has 4 Cal; therefore 2619 Cal = 654.75g of Carbs per day.
Summary: Grams per day Cal per day
Protein per day: 194g 776 Cal
Fat: 97g 873 Cal
Carbohydrates: 654.75g 2619 Cal
Total: 4,268 Cal
Actually its surprisingly difficult to eat enough good food in the correct proportions regularly every day, now on my burn down I’ll be on a restricted diet of 1850 Kcal a day.
I’ve ordered my sleeping bag and backpack which I’m looking forward to getting packing and running with. Now the intensity steps up and I’ll be running more back to back marathons and beyond to get as many miles in to my legs as possible, when that is accompanied by a restricted diet it is quite stressful on the body. I can feel the fat melting off as my metabolism fires up, its most likely stress but it feels like a cross between anxiety and fear, that strange physical feeling you get just before you skydive for the first time.
To help with the fat loss I supplement my diet with Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA )
CLA is also known for its body weight management properties, which include reducing body fat and increasing lean muscle mass. Over 30 clinical studies have been published investigating the effect of CLA on weight management. The trials have quite variable designs, which leads to inconsistency. However a meta-analysis conducted in 2007 clearly shows that CLA does indeed have an impact on fat mass.

I’m also trying Maximuscle Thermobol which has been shown in research to mobilize and burn body fat, each capsule contains:
Per 1 capsule
Bitter Orange Peel (Citrus Aurantium) 325mg Vit B12 - Cyanocobalamin RDA - 20,000% 200µg
L-Tyrosine 300mg D-Biotin RDA -117% 180µg
Caffeine 153mg Chromium RDA (From Chromium picolinate) 83µg
Green Tea extract(90% polyphenols) 100mg Capsaicin extract from Hot Cayenne pepper 120µg
Guarana seed power 12mg Vit B5 (D-Calcium Pantothenate) RDA - 500% 30mg
Bioperine® (Black pepper extract) 5mg Vit-B1 (Thiamin Hcl) RDA - 1786% 25mg
One of the things that I enjoy about preparing for my UltraMarathon is that there are some many aspects that are involved. Physically its hard work, mentally it requires training to cope with the mental stress that running for hours on end can induce, it develops discipline to keep focused and it allows me to put in to practice everything I learnt when I studied Nutrition and human physiology. I’ve met some great people from every walk of life and have the deep satisfaction of being able to raise money for chronically sick children and their families...
the adventure continues