Send in the Clowns - BAC 10K Challenge

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Best of luck.

On subject of beer, there’s a great off license on Fenian Street, Dublin 2. Probus Wines. Lots of unusual pale ales, with a good (but expensive) selection from Norway. The guy that works there is the beer fountain of knowledge.

Do you mean the NØGNE Ø beers? Some fantastic beers in their range, but yes frightfully exclusive expensive (Now who's the snob, Kurt?!). I was in Norway a couple of years back (did some long runs for my first ever marathon while I was over there, including this inter-island hop) and yes, everything related to beer is very expensive over there. You can pick up cheap beer in the state off-licenses/supermarkets, but it's pretty crappy stuff. NØGNE Ø is top-notch but more of a special occasion.

Just to close out on the whole race-weight experiment, here's how thing ended up:

Starting weight: 11 stone 8lbs (73.5kgs)
Race weight target: 11 stone 3lbs (71.2kgs)
Race weight actual*: 11 stone 1lbs (70.3kgs)

*: Race isn't until Sunday and I will be eating extra carbs on Friday/Saturday so will gain some weight, but that's planned/expected, so outside of the scope of the original goal.


So, one success that will hopefully offer me some benefit on Sunday. I didn't go without food (in fact, I often used it as an opportunity to eat a lot more food) I just ate less junk. Staying off the beer certainly helped too. Looking back over the last week's food diary, there are lots of entries like:
Cup of tea + 7 ginger nuts
McVities Chocolate Digestives - 5 biscuits
So the junk certainly wasn't entirely cut out, I just had a hard stopping point!

A couple of closing thoughts on the experiment:

1. I figured if I was to have a chance at hitting my goal, everything would need to line up correctly. Weight, weather, training, injury, health,... everything. I'm glad that at least one of those things is ticked off, heading into the race.
2. Dropping the weight hasn't been a big challenge. Admittedly, I've averaged 11 miles per day so far this year, which kind of helps. I'd imagine keeping that weight off after the race will be far more difficult (particularly with all of the beer I plan on consuming in the weeks after the race!). I thought it would be more difficult, but as it turns out, as long as you are running and keeping pretty active, you can eat an awful lot of food, without gaining weight, particularly if you watch what you are eating.
3. The impact of beer should not be under-estimated. I love beer (I think that's pretty apparent from this training log!). But I love racing too. Life is too short for me to not enjoy both. But, If I want to really focus on one, I have to ease up on the other!
4. Like running progress, losing weight takes time. So much time, that you barely notice it happening. Stand on the scale on a Monday and the following Wednesday and you probably won't see any difference. Give it a week, and you'll have forgotten what your weight was on the Monday. It's only when you step back that you see the progress.
5. There's just something fitting and 'proper' in my mind about managing weight/diet in this manner. If you run 10 miles, you get to consume an extra 1,000 calories. Run 20 miles, and you can enjoy a veritable feast of beer, biscuits and chocolate, and guilt-free gluttony. Anyway, I can't see myself keeping up the tracking regime after London, but I hope the subconscious balancing act will keep me on the level.