Marathon training and Fat Loss page 2

[Go-Pre]

Because all goals are good and unassailable, just because they are goals. Is that right? I'm not sure I follow you.

My apologies. While we certainly could debate the merit of many individual goals, we are talking about his goal - running a marathon.

You told him that it's not an achievement and that by participating he is part of the problem. Problem? The man justs wants to go on a long run to test himself!

I was struck your lack of support for anothers choice, simply because it's different from yours.

[pace2race]

Great advice, thanks!

I am doing my training with a local running store club, so my workouts will be mostly "planned" for me. We meet twice a week with Saturday mornings being our long run. I won't be able to make the other weekly run most of the time, so plan on just doing that day's "run workout" on my own. Then I was planning on doing a 3rd run on my own (an interval workout or hill repeats). The long runs start at 4 miles I think, then gradually increase up to 20 miles. The longest run during the week is most likely no more than 6 miles, so I am not expecting to be doing a lot of weekly mileage, especially the first month or two.

In addition to the running, I would like to do my own Crossfit workouts 2-3 times a week, and maybe spinning once a week as cross training.

I will most likely eat a Chipotle bol on Saturdays after my long runs What's your opinion on eating right away upon finishing a hard run/workout? I'm getting mixed feelings... beneficial for preserving muscle, but I also want my body to burn my fat stores!

I trained for a marathon 3 years ago at 200lbs and didn't lose any weight (instead I got a stress fracture in my foot a month before the race), so I am really hoping this time around I can lose the fat! In that regard, do you know how long it takes the body to turn to fat for its fuel source? I've been slacking on the primal/paleo diet due to all of the temptations now with Christmas coming, but I plan on going full force on January 2nd by starting the Whole 30 challenge!

Thanks again!

I need to eat after the workout. I run fasted in the morning, usually 7-miles unless doing intervals, and an hour after workout I'm ready to eat. For me it took a month to stop craving carbs so much. I was lethargic and ate often to keep feeling full. No grains or potatoes at all that first month. Just fruit and dark greens for carbs and almonds along with the meats and fats. After I switched over I dropped the almonds and went from weighing over 180 lbs to a low of 157 lbs. this weight loss took from August to the end of October. I'm about 165 now and am 5'9" tall. Once I started eating more fat and dropped the grains completely, I started using fat and got much leaner.

This far from your goal race, I think you will be amazed at how much you can change with this way of eating and regular training. It worked much, much better for me than just training and trying to eat to support the training.

[Grumpycakes]

My apologies. While we certainly could debate the merit of many individual goals, we are talking about his goal - running a marathon.

You told him that it's not an achievement and that by participating he is part of the problem. Problem? The man justs wants to go on a long run to test himself!

I was struck your lack of support for anothers choice, simply because it's different from yours.

Why should I support unhealthy behaviour?

[Owly]

My partner is training for a marathon--his second time training but first time running one because he had a really bad run-in with a radial arm saw 10 days before his race last year (but hey, they saved his finger!). My role is feeding him, reminding him to go use the foam roller, and massaging his legs. As such, I may know more about what he's eating than he does

First off: keep it as primal as possible. We don't do VLC around here--it doesn't work for either of us with our levels of physical activity--but we use primal carb sources. Sweet potatoes, root vegetables, white potatoes, sometimes white rice, and fruit. Plenty of protein from meat and eggs (I counted 90 eggs in the fridge yesterday), and also a high-quality protein powder because he has a moving and delivery business and absolutely cannot lose muscle mass. Also, a lot of people don't realize how essential fat is to repair and recovery. There's a lot of sport nutrition research that supports eating higher fat for athletes, even from CW medicine approaches. Your body needs more of everything when you're putting it through that kind of hell. You simply don't have room in your diet to eat crap because you need quality food to recover properly. People think long-distance runners can get away with more junk, but you really need to focus on eating even better than the average primal might.

If you're eating right, the fat loss will happen. The trick will be to keep the muscle mass from going with it. Some strength training will help, but I'd watch out for overdoing the Crossfit and spinning. The coach at our box who runs long distances feels that twice a week for CF is enough during marathon training, scaling back to once a week closer to the race and then none for the final push. Crosstraining with bodyweight work is good, and cycling or swimming once a week, but I'm not sure an intense spin class is a good plan. You don't want to add even more catabolic stuff on top of a marathon training schedule.

At this point, he's maintaining muscle mass through bodyweight work twice a day--the basics of pushups, situps, squats--and the lifting he does through his job, supported by good nutrition. His body fat is dropping like crazy, and I'm guessing he's maybe 8% fat at 6'3" and 230 lbs. That's heavy for a marathoner, so he's facing the challenge of having to eat ridiculous amounts of food to fuel the run. The race is still four months off, and he's already consuming well over 3000 calories per day, mostly from protein and fat.

And yeah, I've had the "it's not healthy" conversation with him. He's aware. And he's planning to do the Canadian Death Race next.

[dml]

I am basically a retired long distance runner. I have done over 125 marathons and ultras over the past 26+ years. I've done 11 100 mile trail races. And, for those 26 years, I fought my weight constantly. I would occasionally get my weight down to 168 or so for a peak race, but I could balloon to 200 in a few months on the diet I thought I was supposed to eat. To achieve a PR at any distance required so much work and discipline, and food was a constant issue. After averaging over 2000 miles per year for a quarter century, I've run about 250 miles each of the past two years. Much of that was sprint work or an occasional longer run with friends, plus one slow run/walk marathon with friends. These days, I either run very hard and short, or very slowly if I go longer, usually mixing in walking. I do it for fun. And, CrossFit and heavy lifting are my real workouts these days. They fit in better with my fitness goals and body composition goals.

However, I'm not trying to talk anyone out of a marathon. I do think it could be difficult to do adequate training on a Primal diet. If you are interested, I have used a supplement called Vespa for endurance activities done while eating Primal. The president of the company, Peter Defty, is very supportive of Paleo/Primal endurance athletes and he might be able to answer questions for you. Just be aware that he will also try to sell you his product.

[Livnfree]

I am doing a half marathon March 10th, first one primal. I have done two before, very excited about it. I hopped on the site to see if I could find some support and this thread is exactly what I was looking for .

Runbikelift, when is your marathon? All these replies with great info are very exciting.

P.S. As you can tell I am still pretty stoked about all the cool information I am finding on this website.

[finishstrong]

I'm training for my first and probably last marathon at the end of Feb. A few times after my long runs (10+ miles) my stomach is upset for 4-5 hours and I have to stay close to the restroom. Has anyone experienced this and know how to stop it from occurring? I'm not drinking anything but water and eating Stinger organic energy chews during the run. I really appreciate your feedback.

[honeypig]

I'm training for my first and probably last marathon at the end of Feb. A few times after my long runs (10+ miles) my stomach is upset for 4-5 hours and I have to stay close to the restroom. Has anyone experienced this and know how to stop it from occurring? I'm not drinking anything but water and eating Stinger organic energy chews during the run. I really appreciate your feedback.

The honey Stingers may be causing the stomach upset. Honey has this effect on some people. If you are doing your long runs as slowly as you should, you probably shouldn't require gels or the like. However, this will depend on how acclimated your body is to using fat as an energy source. Also, it's very common for people to run their long runs way too fast.

If you're running this marathon at the end of February, you must have been training for some time already. Can you tell us a little about your running experience, training plan and pace? That will help also.

[RunBikeLift]

I am doing a half marathon March 10th, first one primal. I have done two before, very excited about it. I hopped on the site to see if I could find some support and this thread is exactly what I was looking for .

Runbikelift, when is your marathon? All these replies with great info are very exciting.

P.S. As you can tell I am still pretty stoked about all the cool information I am finding on this website.

Hi, mine is the beginning of May...

Ok here is a question- I am trying to stay within the fat burning heart rate zone, which I understand, but in regards to when it goes higher and switches to burning glucose- what if we don't have glucose in our system? I'm eating paleo and limiting carbs, etc, so if I dont have the glucose, will I then burn fat despite my heart rate?