Running Without Pain

What a pleasant experience! I'd almost forgotten how it felt.

Week of Nov 19 ~ 25

Monday
8k — 500 x 2, 1000 x 6, 500 x 2 (100m walks in between)
Average 5:25/k. Slight soreness at time, but knee was basically ok.

Tuesday
Weights, abs and 20 mins elliptical (10' x 2). Knee was feeling a little sore after the second 10', so stopped.

Wednesday
8.4k. Track workout - 1600, 1200, 1000 x 2, 800, 400
All at about 5:00/k - good!
No pain at all in knee - good!

Thrsday
Rest

Friday
10k - 4k to and from Makuhari (from father in law's) and another 2k watching the Chiba International Ekiden. Lots of fun, even though it was raining. Kenya 1st, Japan 2nd, USA 3rd. Great 10k runs by Jake Riley (2nd in leg in 28:46) and Galen Rupp (1st in leg in 28:20). I talked to Galen a little before his leg and watched him and also the 4th leg runners (Emma Kertesz of the US also ran really well - a name to remember).
I did also cheer for the Canadians and the Australians (by name)!
For the complete race report see japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp (with my comment on the bottom)

Saturday
8k - 1000 x 8 (100m walks)
5:47/39/32/34/38/33/23/10. No pain.
Great Thanksgiving dinner at the Griffen's, where the guests included Jake Riley and his coach, Keith Hanson (of the Brooks Hanson Team). Real interesting to talk to them.

Sunday
10k - 1000 x 10 (100m walks)
6:10/5:30/17/23/18/18/10/11/16/00. No pain.
Still taking it easy - don't want to push too much.
Planned to go to the gym today and run tomorrow, but forecast is rain all day tmrw, so will rest then. Fortunately, the knee was fine, even with 3 days of running.

First week of ketogenic diet, although I still ate too much carbs and protein, esp. on Saturday!
Still, I lost .5kg. I'm liking this diet, and think it will be good for me. Went to Costco and bought lots of nuts, cheese and sausage. Now that's a good diet!
I hope after one more week I will be back to normal (but not high mileage) training, ready to start my buildup for Boston.

Some Running; New Diet

Week of Nov. 11 ~ 18

Ran 6k Monday (500m run, 100m walk x 12) and went to the gym on Tuesday.

Ran 1200 x 3, 800 x 2, 400 x 1 on Wednesday night, all at 5:30/km pace.

Went to the gym on Thursday and did 30 mins. on the elliptical machine (10' x 3). Plus abs and weights. I like the elliptical, although like a treadmill, it gets boring. Namban member Fabrizio told me it was good for sore knees because there is no pounding, so I gave it a try. I will keep doing this a few times a week, probably even after my knee is all healed.

Friday: 10' x 3 on elliptical, wts and abs.

Saturday: 8k with 500m x 4, 1000m x 6, all at 5:30 pace. Knee was ok.

Sunday: 10' x 3 on elliptical, wts and abs.

And now, as Monty Python said, for something completely different. My new diet, recommended by another Namban member, the brilliant (and fast) Frenchman Harrisson Uk, who likes experimenting with training and nutrition even more than I do.

The first reference article (down on the bottom) is a good introduction.

Bob's Ketogenic Diet (not 100% ketogenic)

A ketogenic (from ketosis), low carb diet is NOT a high protein diet. 

It's a high fat diet, with a moderate protein and a very low 

carbohydrate intake. When you reduce the amount of 

carbohydrate and increase the fat and protein in your diet, it has 

the effect of switching your body into fat burning mode. 

Instead of using the easily exhausted sugar from carbohydrates for 

fuel, your body burns stored fat for energy (goes into ketosis state), 

and it's this fat burning process which greatly improves health 

and well-being.

Main points of the ketogenic diet are:

1. Sugar in all its forms is toxic. This includes fruits and fruit juices.

Eliminate it 100%.

2. Starches are bad: bread, rice, pasta, noodles, potatoes, crackers.

3. Carbohydrates (including vegetables) are to be avoided as much as possible — ideally zero, but small portions of rice (brown rice better), 

pasta, vegetables (better with creamy or oily sauce) can be eaten.

4. Protein is ok, but not too much.

5. Fat is your friend.

6. Good foods: FISH, meat, nuts, avocados, cheese, all dairy, 

olives (& olive oil. Also coconut oil and palm oil. 

Note that other types of oil are not good, they have omega-6 fats).

Breakfast (6:00 or 9:00)

Toast with butter and ham or sausage or bacon

Glass of whole milk

Cup of tea with cream or whole milk

(I need the toast because I can't eat just ham, etc. and it gives me 

something to put the butter on. Eggs would be good but I don't like eggs.)

(Previously: Summer - veggie shake with orange juice, spinach 

or komatsuba, carrot, banana, protein powder. 

Winter - dish of oatmeal with low-fat milk, banana, raisins and sugar)

Lunch (12:00)

Half a block of tofu, often with half a can of tunafish

Soy-based dressing (Japanese style, regular oil)

A few pieces of cheese

A few olives

(Previously: 1/3 block tofu with non-fat dressing, bread or crackers with peanut butter)

Note: I don't like natural peanut butter, but love Skippy. 

Reason: Skippy has sugar in it. Bye bye Skippy.

Snack (4:00)

Handful of nuts, coffee with cream or whole milk, no sugar

Dinner (6:00)

No change (whatever my wife makes, usually fish or meat with rice or 

pasta and vegetables). No bread. Sometimes a glass or two of wine.

Coffee with cream or whole milk, no sugar. No dessert.

(Previously: coffee with low-fat milk and sugar. Used to also eat 

a few cookies or dark chocolate, but gave that up in June)

Snack (11:00)

Mixed nuts and cheese

(Previously: sweetened yoghurt with muesli and raisins. 

Also a banana or crackers with peanut butter)

References:

http://www.mh.co.za/nutrition/healthy-eating-tips/the-tim-noakes-diet

http://eatingacademy.com/my-personal-nutrition-journey

http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/what-i-actually-eat

(the above one is great - when you get down to what he eats, you will be amused and shocked, and, if you're a vegetarian, appalled)

http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com

Encouraging Signs

Had a nice 11 days with my daughter and son-in-law, who were visiting from Bangkok. We went to Kyoto (lots of shrines and temples) and Nikko (one huge shrine and an old Edo village, which was fun), as well as sightseeing in Tokyo. Did a LOT of walking and a lot of eating too.

And a bit of running. Did some 3 and 4k runs the previous week, then 6k on the 7th and 4,8,6k on the weekend and today (Monday).
The 6k included 600 x 4 and 1000 x 4, at about 5:30/km. Only slight soreness in the knee.
The 8k and 6k today I did as kind of a test, the 8k being 500 x 4 and 1000 x 6, and the 6k being 500 x 12. All with 100m walk in between each run, and all the runs at 5:30 - 5:50/km. Again, only slight soreness, which did not get worse. In fact, at the end today, the knee didn't hurt at all.

If the knee had hurt, or had hurt significantly worse today than yesterday, I would have gone back to the orthopedist, but now I think I can get away without doing so.

Anyway, it was encouraging, although I'm sure if I tried to run faster or longer, it would start to hurt.

Interestingly, I found that if instead of a normal "barefoot" type stride (short strides, fast cadence...you know what I mean), if I kind of glide along, not raising the knees high, it puts less stress on the knee. I'm going to keep running like this. You can't go fast that way, but that's just as well.

I'll try to increase distance gradually, sticking to the run/walk regimen for a while, and hopefully, one month from now I will be back to normal training. I'd better be!