LCHF and high intensity training

Still writing the next big post on Sugar. We met Aseem Malhotra after his lecture at Guy's Hospital and this inspired me to write something. Maybe next week.

Aseem in the news today; bad boy for saying that 20% of people taking statins get side-effects; it might only be 10% but that's still awful when you consider that statins don't actually make you any better unless you already have cardiocascular disease; and for those that do we don't know what it is about statins that lower your risk for death, apart from the fact that it has nothing to do with lowering cholesterol!

So anyway, my LCHF thought for the day is this: how is it that I can get a PB on the local 1K hill sprint powered by fat?

One commonly suggested feature of LCHF for runners is that whilst it can be good for endurance (as we have an almost limitless supply of fat) it is not so good for high intensity training. This is a land where apparently carbs are still king.

Well I am currently doing longer kettlebell sessions with bigger weights than I have ever done before. I am also doing rep sessions at just as high intensity as I was doing prior to my Brighton Marathon PB on carbs last year. And finally, I run up the Tank Tracks yesterday in a time faster than 3 years ago when I was fighting fit for a sub-4 3 Peaks. I bashed myself to bits to achive that and now I have beaten it on LCHF. What's more, I know I can do better.

Another myth busted?

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