A Big LCHF PB in the Beachy Head Marathon

Nearly two years ago I made a big change to my life. I adopted a diet that had me fuelling my life and my running with fat, not carbohydrates. The low carb high fat diet is hugely beneficial for treating type 2 diabetes but it also has benefits for the distance runner.

There have been positives and negatives along the way but the positives, particularly with regard to my health have now made the diet a permanent change.

There was a big challenge too. Could I prove that it is possible to run just as fast fuelled by fat as I could when fuelled by carbs?

I thought I had reached a peak in performance a few years back. I ran a 3:06 flat marathon, I ran a sub 4-hour 3 Peaks and I ran the Beachy Head Marathon in 3:36:30  5 years ago. That last race was amazing, I was on top form and I came 24^th. I was very proud of that achievement and I thought at the time that I would never better it.

But I’d heard a lot about how the low-carb high-fat diet can enable you to perform better and better the longer you stick with it. The science here is simple enough, we adapt to oxidize fat as a fuel source more efficiently over time, to the point where we can perform at perhaps 80% of our VO2 Max burning mostly fat. I knew that If I could do that then perhaps I could still get close to that Beachy Head time.

Well today I did just that. I’ve had an almost injury-free year that has enabled me to prepare perfectly for today. I ran a PB in a tough 20 miler a fortnight ago. I had a scare a week ago when I couldn’t run at all because of an odd knee problem but I rested up and this morning I felt great. The weather was perfect and so were the conditions.

I won’t bore you with a big description of the race, I wrote a long post about it last year. But for the record, today I knocked 6 minutes off my unbeatable PB!  I came 21^st in 3:30:39.

Tomorrow I will be 50 years old and I am entering my fifties knowing that I am fitter and faster than ever before. 

The Beachy Head Marathon on Low Carb High Fat

When I started writing this blog I had one particular target in mind. The Beachy Head Marathon. This has been my favorite event for some years now and I have a decent record in it, finishing in 3:36:30 4 years back. Not bad for a 45 year old.  The blog has often wandered into the public health aspects of the diet as that has become a topic of great interest to me, but today I’m wandering back to where it all started: how fast can I run my favorite race on LCHF?

Ascending the last hill in the BHM on a good day

It’s been a difficult year of injuries and frustration and at times it seemed like I might not be running this marathon at all, never mind performing well in it. But something happened on holiday in France; my back got better, my walks turned into runs and for the last 2 months I have had no pain at all. I have not done any speed training, just hoping that I might be able to run at all has been enough; but I have done more distance training than ever before with three 20-mile plus runs in the last month including a steady circuit of the Edale Skyline, which is actually rather harder than the BHM.

I’ve notched up a fistful of decent tempo ParkRuns in the last 4 weeks (including 3 in a row last Saturday); each time reminding myself to take it easy when the temptation is to start at the front with the big boys. Then a fortnight back I surprised myself by coming 2nd vet in the 20 mile Jog Shop Jog, a traditional hilly warm-up for the BHM. And gradually I came to realise that I would not only be running the BHM but might actually get to go quite fast. Even so I set a reasonably safe target of under 4 hours and would honestly have been very happy with that.

The LCHF diet can be a bit hard at times.  I still crave a peanut butter sandwich some days. But the knowledge that I have been getting fit again has spurred me on. I think that this is why exercise and diet work so well together. I strongly believe that weight loss is mostly about the diet, but you need motivation to stick with diets (even LCHF at times) and getting fitter provides a huge boost to your sense of well-being and hence to your commitment to other things that are good for your health. For me it is not about weight loss, but for so many people less fortunate than myself that is all it is about.

In a previous post on LCHF and distance running I referred to the optimal output at which we can keep going for long periods as a fat-burner: (http://lchf4runners.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/lchf-and-distance-running.html) Finding this optimal level of effort is relatively easy to measure in a lab but the only way for most of us to find it is to get out there and run; hence the long hilly training runs over the last month. Apart from the obvious need to train long, in this time I hoped to have learned enough to know what level of effort I could sustain for 4 hours of hill running.  

And in order not to burn out (by which I mean to start burning the few scraps of glycogen that my liver makes to keep my brain happy) I need to try to stick at this same level of effort as consistently as possible. So I planned go up the hills rather slower than I once did, and to come down them rather faster. I have trained for this also and my past fell-running experience is a big help here.

With 1 day to go I ditched the carbs altogether (from my norm of about 50 grams per day). There may have been about 10 grams of carbs that day but no more. For breakfast on the day I had a cup of soup, a cup of creamy coffee, 4 slices of streaky bacon and 2 buttery fried eggs. After that just a cup of water at each of the feed stations and 4 salt tablets.

The start of the BHM can be chaotic. After 100 meters there is a steep hill rising up about 90 meters towards Beachy Head on a narrow path with several flights of steps. In order to avoid the mayhem I put myself near the front next to a chap dressed as Gandalf, knowing that I would be going up a bit slower than many others. This was a bit selfish I know, but I knew I had to get into my tempo straight away and the chaos behind me would have made this very difficult. About 100 people passed me on that first hill! I soon re-passed most of them as I started to get into my stride on the hill-top.

Gandalf follows the race winner up the steep first hill

We passed the lone piper playing his pipes at the same place as usual and the pace and crowds started to settle down. The sun was out, the air was cool and the views were opening up. It was a beautiful and a nearly perfect day.

I had barely slept the night before. A dear friend named Piglet had died in the early morning after a long struggle with cancer and I had spent the night wondering what on earth I thought I was doing going off and running a marathon. Piglet had loved the hills though, and always supported my running. On several occasions over the last 10 years she and my father-in-law had driven out into the countryside to provide me with a meal or a drink as I was passing through someone remote farm or hilltop. And Beachy Head was one of her favourite places. I know that she would have approved. There were a few tears in my eyes at times, but they were good tears.

The lone piper playing an appropriate lament

For the next 10 miles I played an amusing game of see-saw with a group of perhaps 20 runners. They would pass me going up the hills and I would pass them going down them. This gave many of them the opportunity to see the “Fuelled by FAT” message on my shirt and I had interesting but rather too brief discussions on the subject with several of them.

Jane and the kids we planning to meet me at Bo-Peep hilltop car-park and I was sorry not to see them there. I cursed myself for telling Jane that this was half way and that I’d not be there before 10:45; I’d forgotten that it is actually about 12 miles, and I passed thought 10 minutes earlier. 

The next 4 miles are mostly downhill and I got a bit despondent for missing Jane on this section. I knew my speed was lower than previously here too. But I reminded myself that I was actually well within target as I went through half way in 1:45; and I resisted the temptation to stick with a number of runners who passed me on this section.

The BHM route profile

There is a feed station at High-and-Over at 15.5 miles and it was here that I saw the first signs of what was to come for the next 10 miles. Several runners were stopped there, feeding and feeling sore. You can see most of the 12 remaining hills from this point and it is a daunting prospect. I breezed through the station and flew down the hill quite happily. Things were looking good. I then slipped and fell flat on my face in the mud at the bottom of the hill! I gave myself a big telling off for that.

The next hill out of Litlington is short and steep and I have always walked it before. This time I ran it. There are then 2 long sets of stairs on the hills in the Charleston Estate that everyone walks most of; I got half way up each of them before reverting to walking (I use the fell-runners technique with hands on knees supporting your upper body in the lift phase of each stride). A chatty couple passed me easily but I passed another 10 runners on that section.

Exceat hill is where it has always started to go wrong in the past. At 18 miles you still have the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head to go, but first they make you run 60 meters up this hill and back down it again before you start the Sisters. I have always got hamstring cramps at the top of this hill before and lost several minutes stretching and trying to relieve the cramps over the next hour. But this time it felt different and I was confident that this was not going to happen; I put this down to either the salt tablets or the diet or the distance training, most likely a combination of all three. There was just one calf twinge when I tripped on a stone, that was all. 

Marcus from Arena 80 caught me up on Exceat hill and we ran together for a while. He was going well and was confident of a PB having done the Marathon De Sables earlier this year.  

Marcus passes me on Exceat Hill

Marcus’s pace was a bit quick for me though so I let him go ahead, but I kept him in sight as we traversed the Seven Sisters with a steep jog/walk up the face of each one and a long-striding decent on the downside. I passed another 10 or 15 runners here and started to feel that I had something in reserve despite going longer that I have run at pace for a long time. 

Descending to Birling Gap in my first BHM in 2007

I came down into Birling Gap at good pace and passed another group of runners at the feed station. Still no sign of Jane and the kids but this time I didn’t mind, I was in no mood to stop as I passed another group of runners on the next hill up towards the Belle Tout lighthouse.

I have always prided myself on running up all of Beachy head. This may sound a bit daft to some runners, it is only 150 meters high after all; but after 24 miles and about 17 hills this last one looks like a monster. I was gradually catching up with Marcus again and it was at the top that I caught him. Neither of us had any breath left for chat but I think this spurred him on a bit and he stayed with me for a while.

I was feeling great (in an almost completely knackered kind of way) and looking forward to the best finishing mile of any race I know. The last mile of the race is back down the big hill towards Eastbourne finishing  with the same wickedly steep slope that we started up; and I have always regarded this as a bit like a fell run.  I caught and passed another 3 or 4 runners including another Arena 80 colleague Andrew on the top half of the hill as I got faster and faster.

The last very steep section I took about as fast as I can run with my arms flying out like a bird as I tried to keep my balance. My son Cam was there at the top of the finishing slope; I knew Jane was there below but at the pace I was going I couldn't afford to look up. There was another runner about 100 meters ahead of me at the top of the slope and I caught him just before the line by sprinting down the hill and leaping over the long sets of concrete steps near the bottom . It was dangerous and perhaps a bit stupid but  I loved it!

Cam and me on the finishing slope

It was lovely to see Jane and the kids there at the end. Great to share this moment with my family. I couldn't quite believe it when a young chap gave me a ticket that said I’d clocked  3:38:31. I’d stopped looking my watch at about mile 15. I knew I had done well but that was only 2 minutes away from my PB.

It was the second half of the race that made the difference. My steady fat-burning pace paid off and I was only 8 minutes slower on the second half than the first. 

In fact it seems that the whole LCHF approach to running has paid off, in exactly the way that I hoped that it would. I can now truthfully say that a half decent club runner like me can run a marathon on LCHF at about the same pace that I ran on carbs. And maybe next year with a bit more training I might go even faster!

Saturday was also my 49^th birthday. It was a sad day and a happy day and it marked the start of my next big adventure, which my family and I have named 50@50. Starting and finishing with the BHM I plan to complete 50 challenges in my 50^th year, followed by a suitably big party. 

Some challenges will be big, some not, some on my own but most with family and friends; some will be running but others (like the “All You Can Eat Sausage Challenge” with Cam, or the “Shop Till We Drop” challenge with Molly) will not. I’ll try not to bore you with them all but I am looking forward to the coming year enormously!

Carb Loaded? Not today thanks

With 3 days to go before a big marathon thoughts usually stray to the subject of carb loading.

When I ran on carbs I always found carb-loading to be widely misunderstood. The intention is supposed to be to increase the ratio of calories consumed from carbs as opposed to fats or proteins, the general idea being to increase the consumption of low GI carbs (and lower the consumption of fats in particular) in the last few days so as to steadily build up muscle glycogen stores.  

Most carbs are not low GI and fructose (fruit, juices and 50% of table sugar) doesn't get converted to muscle glycogen very well, so they are a bad idea when carb-loading.  Some folks think you need to eat a lot and others not. Some say eat big meals, other say graze.  

It’s all actually rather complicated, and represents a change that you have possibly not tested unless you are a regular distance runner. And when you consider that carbohydrate loading is estimated to improve performance over a set distance by just 2-3%, is it really necessary? Add this to the ubiquitous advice "Don't try anything new just before Marathon day" and you may have a big dilemma to deal with. My advice: don’t try it unless you have tested it first.

Clearly carb-loading is a thing of the past for me on LCHF but it is interesting to consider if there are any last minute dietary changes that fat-adapted runners like me should be adopting. Prior to a big race should we eat more fat, less protein or even, dare I say it, more carbs?

Some fat burning runners chose to train low and run high. They will train on LCHF but load up on low GI carbs the day before and use gels during the race to supplement their fat burning. I have to confess I don’t really understand this fully as insulin generated by eating those gels may directly block our ability to burn fat during exercise. Are these people actually training better and longer on fat but racing purely on carbs?  Mark Sisson of Primal Living talks about this approach here:  http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-fuel-a-marathon/#axzz3GraMzjck

Others, such as Bruce Fordyce, a prolific ultra-marathon runner and past winner for the Comrades Marathon will eat normally on LCHF up to race day, have nothing before the race except a cup of coffee with cream and then run for many hours on water alone. http://citizen.co.za/153910/looking-beyond-carbs-can-pay-major-dividends/

For now I prefer, like Fordyce, to change nothing.  Just eat normally and re-hydrate normally. I have practiced the early breakfast routine that gets my breakfast of eggs & bacon digested before a 9 a.m. start and that  is what I will be doing again come Saturday morning.

Low fat, weight gain and back to running

So after 3 months of almost no running due to back and calf problems I am now moving again on two legs, albeit rather slowly! In order to recover carefully I have been mixing fast walking and running. This allows different muscle groups to take turns and lessens the stress on a recovering body; it is also the method by which I now plan to complete the Beachy Head Marathon in 8 weeks’ time as I doubt that I will be able to run it all as I have in the past.

We just had two weeks in Bordeaux and when in France we eat like the paradoxical French; which means croissants and baguettes. A beer or two by the lake in the evenings is also a tradition that we are unable to drop.  I put on 8 lbs during this brief return to low-fat living!

Luckily another holiday tradition is that it includes lots of activities, principally running in the woods and down to the sea, windsurfing, kayaking and cycling.  I think that perhaps camping is good for my back – sleeping on a harder bed and moving about all day long being so much better that sitting in a chair for 9 hours per day. There were still twinges in the calf but these settled down with my Roman March style of walk-run soon becoming more of a run than a walk. I also find back in Blighty that this approach gives me more opportunity to enjoy the scenery on our local hills rather than just watching out for flints the whole time. So despite the weight gain I feel fitter than I have for some time.

So I am back to training for over 2 hours at a time and soon back to what I see as the investigative side of LCHF Running.  Only eggs and bacon for long-run fuel. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to switch back to burning ketones instead of glycogen. Will my previous adaptation allow me to switch back more quickly than the first time? Will the side-effects be less? Will I be able to train enough over the coming 8 weeks to cover the Marathon at a good pace on zero carbs?

April

Surprisingly the LCHF diet is easy enough to follow in the longer term. I had expected to get bored of the same meals being repeated, but I didn't. Perhaps the reason is that we are eating the same things as before, only slightly modified.

Where we used to have pasta or rice we will now have a fried mixture of vegetables or some steamed shredded cabbage, or crumbled cauliflower or just a pile of wilted spinach. Perhaps the biggest surprise is how we and the children are all enjoying vegetables so much more, now that we are free to smother them in butter. It's not surprising how serious cooks use so much butter, it tastes great.

I’ll be honest and say that I do sometimes crave a peanut butter sandwich, but not often. I think we are helped partly by the fact that Jane and I love cooking.  Jane is starting to compile a recipe book of our LCHF meals. Notable entries include pork scratchings (a treat that I have refused to east all of my life up until now), roasted chicken skins, and fatballs (you will have to wait for the book to learn what they contain but the clue is in the title). We save the fat from grilled bacon and sausages to fry with and our current favourite pudding is a mixture of Greek Yogurt and Full Cream with a chopped mix of hazelnuts and a bit of preserved ginger. You spotted the sugar there I am sure but there is not much and we are allowed some carbs after all!

I had been looking forward to the London Marathon enormously. I grew up in London and have always watched and wondered what it would be like to run this one. But I picked up a knee injury running the marathon for Sport Relief and it had not gone away. It hurt after just 1-2 miles of steady flat running.  I tried several things but what my knee needed was some rest. So reluctantly I pulled out of London. I want to run consistently this summer and not be injured like I was last year. So I watched it on the telly again.

Now it is the end of April and things are steadily improving. For some reason I was able to run up and down hills if not on the flat. I’ve run the Tank Tracks (a local 140 meter hill) more times than I like to admit and things are now improving on the flat. I’ve also been to several kettlebell sessions (see http://www.aspirefitnesssolutions.co.uk/kettlebell-classes.html for details of the best kettlebell training in Mid-Sussex) and my core strength is improving quickly. 

My diet and training are now both firmly fixed on the Beachy Head Marathon. 
http://www.visiteastbourne.com/events/BeachyHeadMarathon.aspx