Eat Y'self Fitter

Eat Y'self Fitter


It happens every year. Every bloody year.

Every year since 2004 (with the worrying exception of this year), I have run a Spring marathon. This means that come race day in March or April or whenever, I will have been following some sort of training plan, more or less to the letter, for the previous sixteen weeks.

Let's take a moment to think about what that really means. It means that during those four months I'll have been going out 6-8 times a week in all weathers for a weekly total of 50-70 miles (80-110kms). In a typical week I'll have bashed out an interval session of some description, let's say 6-8 x 1000m at 5-10km race pace, a tempo run of 6-10 miles, a medium-long run of 13-16 miles and a long run of 18-22 miles. On top of that little lot are the easy runs designed to flush your legs of toxins and get them ready for the next hard session. Oh, and if I've been a good boy I'll have been doing core-strengthening exercises, as well as lunging, squatting and stretching like it's going out of fashion. This, for sixteeen weeks. It's a marathon in itself.

So if I haven't succumbed to illness and/or injury (it's a big if), when I stand on that start line on the big day, I'll be in good physical shape.

Actually, no. No false modesty here - I'll be in great physical shape. There'll be hardly an ounce of fat on me and my arm, shoulder, leg and stomach muscles will be toned and pleasingly defined. That probably goes for my arse, as well...Anyone under 30 reading this will no doubt be thinking that with a bit of self-discipline, this is fairly simple to achieve. My advice to them is wait until you're into your forties, mate, and then tell me about it. Horrifyingly and bafflingly, I turned 50 last month, and let me assure you that it takes a lot of hard, sustained work to get into that kind of shape.

It is definitely worth it, though.

So, I run the marathon, bask in my personal glory (if appropriate) for a few weeks afterwards, do a half marathon or two on the back of all this fitness, and then, come the end of June, I declare "the season" to be closed and decide, with a sigh of relief, to take things a bit easier for the summer.

The pressure's off, so I'll just keep things ticking over nicely, run for the sheer pleasure of it, go into the mountains a bit more, maybe even finally get the bike fixed and go out on that a couple of times a week. Then when September arrives I'll be rested, refreshed and ready to give the Autumn races a really good crack and so build up a nice solid base on which to start the marathon programme again after Christmas. That's the plan, and you've got to admit it sounds like a bloody good one. So do I do it?

Do I fuck. What happens is that as I don't actually have to go out running, I generally don't, or maybe only two or three times a week. So there's a massive drop-off in terms of mileage and also in intensity. But - and this is where all of this is leading to - doing less running is only half the story, or even less. The problem is I also start to enjoy myself (God forbid, eh?) with the eating, and if I'm honest, more particularly with the drinking.

Yes, the living is easy. A bit too bloody easy, to tell the truth

This is not a tale of galloping alcoholism, but it's definitely true to say that over the summer I drink too much. It's "only" beer and the odd glass of wine, but when you get into the swing of things and get to like it a bit too much, before you know it, that cold beer on a terrace in the sun turns into two, three or even four, and in the evening a similar amount goes down.

Summer looks like this. Just a bit too often, though

I'm generally a sensible eater, but again, over the summer all bets appear to be off, and multiple bar snacks are fair game. At home, so are cake, biscuits and chocolate, and although as I write this I realise I actually don't commit too many food-based atrocities, I don't do myself too many favours, either.


A sunny morning: coffee (with sugar), a chicken pincho, and the paper...I mean - why wouldn't you?

So, every bloody year I get to October ten kilos overweight and totally unfit. It's like digging a massive hole in June, jumping into it and then trying to dig my way out of it.

I do actually feel genuine remorse and self-loathing after eating one of these

What's to be done, then? The first thing is to wean myself off so much beer, something I've managed to do, and now I'm on a maximum of one a day during the week and a couple more at weekends. I did consider going totally dry for October, but I know I'd never manage it, so why torture myself unnecessarily? I will try to have at least two alcohol-free days a week, I promise.

Food-wise, I think it's just a question of common sense. I already eat plenty of fruit and green vegetables, and these days I eat far more fish than I do meat. This fish (sea bass, red mullet, cod, hake, sardines etc) is always fresh from the fishmonger and I grill it or bake it.

You couldn't make it up, could you?

There so many debates as to what a runner should and should not be eating that it's a veritable minefield of contradictions, but I think as long as I cut out processed stuff as much as possible and reduce my intake of bread, I think that just being a bit more particular about what I'm shoving down my neck, combined with a greater volume and intensity of training, should, over the space of three or four months, be enough to get my weight down to an acceptable level.

Simply running more will not get me to my race weight, that is clear. I'm always hearing that because I run, I can put away whatever I like, but this is totally missing the point. I am fully aware of the importance of good, healthy eating and how it affects my running performance. Why throw away all the benefits of a good, long workout by going home and eating a load of rubbish? It makes no sense. Besides, I don't equate healthy food with boring food at all.

In the last couple of weeks my weight has come down two kilos by the application of the above principles. Let's see how this progresses. Christmas is just around the corner, after all!!

As for some actual running, well, last week the total mileage crept up to 24.3 (39.2kms), with the longest run one of 8.5 miles (13.6kms), so still a paltry amount. However, I definitely feel some green shoots of fitness starting to come through, I have no injury/niggle woes, and this week I increase the number of weekly runs to five, so I should be getting up to 30 miles per week soon. The idea is to get to 40 mpw by Christmas. I have just decided that, by the way. 

Well, it's time for dinner (smoked salmon salad), so until next time, keep well and thanks very much for reading. Please do feel free to leave comments below, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Bye for now!


Eat Y'self Fitter