Have you heard the story about the Australian fella who only ate potatoes for a year? Yes that is right. Just potatoes. Only potatoes. For one year.
He is called Andrew Taylor and his story is an amazing one. A chronic overeater (even though he was a vegan) he decided to cure his food addiction by eating only potatatos for a year. He was perfectly healthy for this year, lost a shed load of weight (about 50kg) and now runs https://spudfit.com/, where he helps others do do the same thing.
Now I am not a chronic overeater, but I am prone to making very bad food choices and I am terrible at sticking to any sort of diet. I also need to lose weight (all be it no more than about 15kg (I currently weight 95kg). I found Andrew’s story hugely inspirational when I first heard it on the outstanding Rich Roll Podcast.
Left – Andrew “Spudfit” Taylor Right – Rich Roll. Two heroes of mine.
So hear is the plan Batman. I am going to base my diet almost entirely on potatoes until I lose 15kg and get under the 80kg mark. This is about the right weight for my height in terms of race fitness, and as I mentioned in my previous blog post It’s time to address the elephant in the room, carrying too much weight is not a good idea when running.
I am not doing pure potatoes like Andrew did. I will still munch an occasional salad when out and about and I cannot get my hands on a potato, but if I am at home, or heaven forbid at a friends house (where I will asking for potatoes) then I am sticking with good old spuds.
If I stand any chance of completing a 100mile Ultra not only do I need to be at the best possible weight I can be, but I also need to be at that weight quick so the impact on my body is less during training. As the miles ramp up, carrying round 15kg of extra baggage is just not an option.
So if you see me at the greengrocers with a big sack of potatoes, you know what I am up to.
TTFN
Snooky
PS – if you are interested in finding out your idea weight for running, you should check out the Racing Weight website. A brilliant resource and well worth a look. They have a book too 🙂
I have read time and time again, that to get better as a long distance endurance athlete you need to run/cycle/swim more slowly.
The idea is that I should be exercising at an intensity that I could hold a conversation with somebody. That my heart rate is up, but not up too much. That I am in “Zone 2”, meaning that my heart rate is in that sweet spot for maximising aerobic capacity.
I usually run my training runs with a heart rate monitor, so keeping track of my heart rate is relatively easy. Using a calculation taken from the Don Fink book “Be Iron Fit’, and having achieved a maximum heart rate whilst running of 191bpm (just after crossing the line at the Great South Run following a sprint finish), I know that I need to keep my heart rate under 162bpm to stay in the magical “aerobic zone”.
Borrowing further from Rich Roll, who mentions in his excellent book “Finding Ultra” the need for him to slow down his training speed to get fitter for the mega endurance events, I have concentrated on keeping my heart rate at around the 140-145 mark. This feels about right to me. I am not out of breath, feel like I can run forever at this pace but am still getting a reasonable workout. At least I think I am. But there is one problem. I am getting slower.
Using good old Strava (click the link to follow me), I can keep an eye on my runs and track if I am getting quicker or not. Almost universally, I seem to be getting slower. Despite now running 5 days a week and concentrating on keeping in Zone 2, I am definitely getting slower.
I keep telling myself that perhaps this is not such a bad thing. Perhaps you have to get slower before you get quicker. After all, I am not trying to break any world records. That being said, it would be nice to at least feel that I am fitter and faster than I was two years ago. I simply must be fitter. There is no way you can do the amount of training I have done over the last two years and not get fitter. I have done an Ironman for God sakes. The problem is, the evidence just does not show this.
In April 2015 I was well over a stone (7kg) heavier than I am now, but I ran the Brighton Marathon in 2015 a full 4 minutes quicker than I ran it just a couple of weeks ago. I am lighter than I was in 2015 and am almost certainly fitter, but I am slower. All of my runs on Strava are tracking slower too.
If anybody out there is reading this and has experienced something similar, please get in touch and let me know. I am especially intrigued to know if you did eventually get faster, or if I am destined to be the slowest fit person in England.
So it is now about 4 weeks since I got injured running the Hellrunner. Just a badly sprained ankle. It still hurts now, but I did manage to go out for a run at the weekend. I thought I would just do a couple of kilometres to ease myself in and ended up running 12. Still, I survived, and as long as I don’t try to change direction too quickly and stay on flat surfaces my ankle feels OK.
Whilst I had 4 weeks off running I thought I would concentrate on some other areas of fitness. Below are the 5 things that I have learn’t through this period.
1. I am very bad at losing weight through diet alone
I have been a lot more careful about what I am eating (well at least during the week I have been) and have managed to stop myself from putting on any weight. I haven’t gained any, but haven’t really lost any. I eat healthily in the week and it all goes flying out of the window at the weekend. This seems to maintain some sort of equilibrium; however I would not necessary recommend this method to anybody. Essentially I have been beating myself up about this quite a bit. Why can’t I just stay on course with a diet? Why do I sabotage myself? Why do I not care more. Luckily this moves me onto number 2
2. I should stop beating myself up so much
By way of a regular email update I receive from the superb Darin Olien website Superlife, I was directed to this article on the website of Nate Green website, simply entitled “Why is it so hard to stay consistent at the weekend?” It is well worth a quick read, but essentially says that it is easy to skip out on the healthy habits that you may have formed and be able to stick to during the week when you are out of routine at the weekend. Now I am an absolute MASTER at this, but took some comfort from the article and have subsequently adopted number 3 into my life
3. I have created myself a shortlist
This is a shortlist of things that I will endeavour to do each and every day in order to keep my healthy habits in check (as per the article above). The shortlist I have decided on is this:
Get 7-8 hours sleep every night
Do a minimum of 10 minutes meditation every day
Eat a vegan diet, with a minimum of one whole food plant based meal per day
30 minutes exercise per day
20 minutes of stretching/yoga per day
Work on your book / practice piano / updated your blog for 30 minutes per day
I should probably break these down a bit more to add a bit more context.
With two children under 4 this is not always in my control, but I will be going to bed earlier at a minimum
I have the Headspace App and this is easy to fit into even the busiest day.
I eat Vegan 99% of the time, but it is easy to eat a fairly poor vegan diet (chips, sandwiches etc). From now onwards I will make sure that one meal is whole food and plant based entirely. Nothing processed.
This can be either weights, running, cycling, swimming, whatever. Just must get my heart rate up for a minimum of 30 minutes
This will either be first thing in the morning or just before bed, but is essential as I do absolutely none of this now.
I have wanted to write a book about my Ironman exploits ever since completing it. I also have a piano and want to learn to play it, and should definitely be better at updating my blog. It’s only 30 minutes after all.
4. No more watching TV
Due to being injured I had a very good excuse to just flop on the sofa and do nothing every evening in front of the TV. I was getting really good at it too. Often I would fall asleep on the sofa and never even make it into bed. I was enjoying my lazy lifestyle far too much. So I decided no more TV. Since stopping watching it I have achieved far more every evening. So to allow the 6 things above to happen, TV has had to get out of the way. Do I miss it. Not one bit!
5. I can really achieve anything if I just go after it hard enough
You would think that somebody who has completed an Ironman would already believe this, and to a large extent I do. The difference now is that I spent time educating myself whilst I was off injured. Looking into the amazing feats of others. How do they manage them? What makes them different to me? You know what I realised? Nothing makes them different to me.
David Goggins
I have been hugely inspired by the stories of both David Goggins and Andrew Taylor. Goggins is an ex Navy Seal, and is widely considered the Toughest or Fittest athlete in the World. He held the world pull up record (over 4000 in 24 hours), ran a 100 mile running race with absolutely no training at all and has gone onto complete multiple ultra-marathons, triathlons, ultra-triathlons, bike races and arduous mountain ascents, setting new course records and regularly placing in the top five. His entire attitude is, you only fail if you don’t want it enough. The Rich Roll podcast with him on is absolutely worth a listen to if you fancy some inspiration from a truly remarkable person. The best part is, he is no different from you or I. He just wants it more!
Andrew Taylor is better known as “Spud Fit”. A genuinely fascinating antipodean who ate only potatoes for an entire year! He lost over 114lbs in weight, his health improved exponentially and most of all he survived with no adverse affects. That’s right, a diet of only potatoes for an entire year. Once again, dedication and a bit of self control and this crazy Aussie did something pretty damn amazing.
Andrew “Spudfit” Taylor
Both of these guys have reminded me that if you want extreme results, sometimes you have to go through extreme measures. I want to run 13 marathons in 12 months (including two ultra marathons now, not just one). To many this is pretty extreme, and perhaps it is. But I am going to go to extreme lengths to make it happen. I am going to train hard. I am going to focus. I am not going to beat myself up every day, but instead do something every day to move me closer to my goal. I am going to endure, through pain, through injury, through doubt, through fear, through whatever this journey throws at me and I will complete my marathon journey!
Just like Goggins and Taylor, if I want it badly enough I will be able to get it.
Now it’s off to the garage to lift some weights, then yoga, then meditation then bed!
TTFN
Snooky
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I have been a lot more careful about what I am eating (well at least during the week I have been) and have managed to stop myself from putting on any weight. I haven’t gained any, but haven’t really lost any. I eat healthily in the week and it all goes flying out of the window at the weekend. This seems to maintain some sort of equilibrium; however I would not necessary recommend this method to anybody. Essentially I have been beating myself up about this quite a bit. Why can’t I just stay on course with a diet? Why do I sabotage myself? Why do I not care more. Luckily this moves me onto number 2
Snooky's Adventures 