The Marathon Adventure Begins

What you can read above was going to be the original title of this blog but I thought it highly unimaginative and wouldn’t get as many views.  I think it fair to say I waited as long as possible to officially declare the marathon programme underway.  In my defence I’m not sure how many people would have been in the gym of their hotel on Christmas morning at 06:30 hours.  I did put on a little bit of weight over Christmas but nothing to write home about.  I begin this journey at what I think is my heaviest weight ever (circa 87 kg/192 lbs/13 stone 9 lbs) so even though I’ve got until October there is a long (& painful) way to go.

Fortunately I have precedent to go by.  I think I may have already mentioned it but Mrs C completed a marathon last October in a little over four hours but the bit I left out was that she followed a programme as laid out by myself.  I did briefly think about becoming a professional personal trainer but you probably need qualifications or something which sounded like hard work.  The gist of that programme was 2 x 5 km runs a week and a long run at the weekend.  The length of the long run increased over time (about 10% a week is a good rule of thumb).  If memory serves Mrs C started at 6 miles and before the marathon had completed 21 miles at least three times.  The plan also included 3 x HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routines every week, typically 30 seconds of an exercise followed by 30 seconds of rest.  Over time you can reduce the rest periods to as little as 10 seconds but that is up to you.

I very much preach a minimal running approach.  You can tell those who run 5 times a week and do little else because they turn up to races strapped up with yards of tape.  I very much believe in strength training to prepare the body to run and absorb the pounding of running on the pavement.  More strength usually means more speed as well.  You can throw in a bit of variety such as yoga and Pilates plus you don’t have to stick to one workout a day but especially when you are starting out what I have outlined above is all you need.  For myself I’m taking a near identical approach but I am utilising 400 m repeats and tempo runs in place of the two 5 km runs.  I’m also going to use some kettle bell exercises and dumb bells to have more of a strength focus which I plan to build in with some bonus early morning workouts.  By all means if you’re not a 5 km runner now start small and build yourself up.  Consistency is the key and developing new positive habits.

But what about nutrition you ask?  What will you be eating?  Well the answer isn’t nothing – your friends who in the New Year are skipping breakfast and eating salad a couple of times a day are stupid and you should tell them so.  You can eat SIX TIMES A DAY and lose weight no problem.  It’s what you eat not how much that matters.  I’ll go into detail in a future blog but simplistically eat more vegetables and white meat (chicken and turkey).  If you like your bread and pasta make sure it’s brown i.e. whole wheat.  Low sugar yogurt and porridge are great options for snacks.

In the coming weeks I’ll be providing updates on my progress (and no doubt occasional set backs).  I’ll also talk about the two books that greatly influenced my approach to nutrition and training.  Next week I plan to blog about my money saving purge for 2018 and possible some other investment stuff if I don’t ramble on too much.  Finally hear comes the nudity (partial & embarrassing on my part) that I promised in the title.  You have been warned: