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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Tour de Chippie 2011

As it is national chip week plus I have not had chips for weeks, I am doing Tour de Chippie 2011.

The plan is 7 days and 7 different chippies, as a bonus 7 different meals (if possible due to my strict limited food options). These are proper chip shops (may be also serve other types of take way) but not fast food chains.

* Tour de Chippie is as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle, any changes to your diet and/or exercise should only be attempted after consulting your medical professional.

As part of my normal training I build up my effort, so I am easing in to the chip week with the chip efforts increasing to the end of the week. Days 1 to 5 are based in Hampshire with the last 2 days being set up north with the last day being in the most appropriate pla(i)ce to finish the challenge.

Day 1 (Monday) = Chips and Fish Cake

After a few miles ran I headed the 1/2 mile to the chip shop in North Hampshire, luckily the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so I did not smell the chip shop when out running. There I had chips and fish cake which I ate outside in the fresh as I did not want to smell my new car out. This is the only fish I normally have so I thought it would do me some good due to protein and omega fish oils.
The chips and fish cake tasted nice possibly a bit expensive for the amount/quality.

Day 2 (Tuesday) = Chips and Pea Fritter

After work I headed straight to the chip shop that is closest to my home. This chip shop normally wins all the local awards so I decided to try something different with my chips, a pea fritter which I thought would be a bit healthier as was in the vegetarian section of the menu. When I got home I added to this baked beans a some brown sauce. The pea fritter was a bit different then what I was expecting as must have been concentrated peas as the flavour was really strong. The chips tasted nice and where slightly thicker than most but are expensive for the amount.

Day 3 (Wednesday) = Chips and Spam Fritter
Today's chip meal is my favourite combination in the last year or so, so I really enjoyed this compared to the new option I tried yesterday. To make a change I and to fit in to my training I had this at lunchtime but had to wait a few minutes to get my spam fritter freshly cooked to order, so I got a few supplies from the tesco express next door. As it was raining I sat in a bus shelter eating my chips and spam fritter and loving it. The chips tasted nice and was slightly more portion size than the previous places which was topped of with a big spam fritter on top, mmm. This is the best option so far.

Day 4 (Thursday) = Chips and Curry Sauce
Today's lunchtime option was introduced to me a few years ago by some relatives in Ireland and is surprisingly a good combination. This chip shop generally has the biggest portion size in the area but there was a separate menu option for chips in tray with curry sauce (or a few other sauce options). So was smaller than a standard chip portion there but this was still about the same amount of chips for about a third of the price and tasted nice and was not as greasy as previously had from here. The curry sauce was tasty but was not too hot but spicy enough. As it was a nice fairly warm day so I sat outside sitting on a half missing park bench in the sunshine eating chips with curry sauce.

Day 5 (Friday) = Chips and Battered Sausage
Today's lunchtime option was a classic choice for me. As the chip shop was in a built area I drove to a nearby park and was walking round there eating them. So I got a bit of exercise and found a new park I had not been to. The chips tasted nice and was not as greasy as previously had from here, although they looked the smallest portion so far but the meal cost about a third less than those at the start of the week.

Day 6 (Saturday) = Chips and Home-Made Shepard's Pie
Today's option was a large portion of chips shared between three and home-made (made by my brother) shepard's pie and gravy. The chips were nice tasting and where a big northern portion :-)
However the shepard's pie was nice with cheese in the mash on top of the veggie mince, my only problem was there was onion in it!!! I had to have extra chips to take the taste away :-)

Day 7 (Sunday) = Chips, Meat and Potato Pie, Scraps, Gravy and Mug of Tea
As I was up in the seaside resort of Blackpool after doing a half marathon, I had to get some chips on the Golden Mile. This was the last day of national chip week so I splashed the cash with lots of options and sitting inside.

After a few minutes deciding what to have due to all the tasty options available with my chips I had a nice meat and potato pie, topped with some scraps and then some proper northern gravy with a mug of tea to wash it down. This had essential carbs, protein, fat, sodium and anti-oxidants to help the recovery process after the half marathon.
I still had my race top, number and medal on (underneath tracksuit) while eating the chips that's how dedicated I am.

Great North West Half Marathon 2011

Day 8 (Monday) = Chip Detox Starts :-)
Anything but chips!!

Post Chip Week Review

I successfully completed ALL the set chip targets this week including the bonus 7 different meals.

This actually made me think more about what I was eating and adjusting the rest of my daily nutrition to balance it out. Plus it gave me incentive to do more training to feel that I "earned" them rather than felling guilty for having them. Strangely I was quite restrained as I did not have a large portion of chips to myself at any point during the week.

I enjoyed all of the chip meals but I think the best were on the last day perhaps due to feeling I really "earned" them.

More shockingly I actually lost 1 lb (0.45 Kg) this week (Chip Week Tuesday to following Tuesday) on the chip diet but I did do a lot of exercise as well.

Weekly Weigh In

This week I lost 1/4 lb (0.1 Kg), my % body fat went down by 0.5% but my waist went up by 0.5cm.

I think this is due to longer runs but with more rest days while staying about the same amount of food. This week I am trying to do some double training days as well as some rest, although I don't think my nutrition this week is ideal for weight loss.

Last Week's training

Last week I did 10 1/2 hours of exercise which included a 20 mile race. Below is my breakdown of training as % by time.

Run     47%
Walk   27%
Cross  13%
Bike     9%
Swim    5%


This week there was less cross training, with a lot more running and even a swim. At the moment I am doing a few build up races for the marathon so I would expect my running be higher.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Bramley 20 Mile - Race Report

My goals for this race was just to get the miles in, test some nutrition and kit options.

The miles increase was my biggest concern due to a big jump from my last big run which was a few weeks ago but a fast half marathon last week. So I had decided to use a run/walk method where I would run for 3 minutes and then walk for 1 minute for as long as I could and then a few miles out just run.


Before the race I decided to cycle the 4 miles to the race, which gave me a bit of a warm up (more than I would usually do) but I was a bit concern about the cycle back. I then meet up with a few club runners at a persons house for a last minute isotonic drink before heading to the race.


For the race I lined up a bit behind my estimated finish time but I was not racing this so it did not bother me. Not sure what was said over the muffled speaker but the race was a few minutes late starting. So I took my designer black bin liner off and wrapped it around my bum bag belt in case I need it later.

Once we got going I started my GPS watch and my other watch timer for the run/walk part. It took a bit of nerve to start walking in the first 1/3 mile, so I stayed on the side for the first mile or so as there was a lot of runners still due to the 10 mile race as well. The first few miles of this was ok but I was thinking my pace was a bit quick as I knew where the hills were on the route but I would see how far I would last. Not sure what happened to my club mates who were taking it easy which I did not see again.

Once I got to 30 minutes in I started the stopwatch, this was to allow the eat and drink at regular intervals (30 minutes and 15 minutes) to be displayed and beeped. So this watch had 4 beeps going regularly for run, walk, eat and drink and my GPS watch had beeps every mile with my pace. I waited to 30 minutes to start my race nutrition to give my muscles time to warm up to running. I had started with a two different flavour powerade isotonic drinks (make used at the marathon) and in my bum bag a few gels (3 different makes) and a powder mix isotonic drink which I used on the bike at Ironman Austria last year which has some protein in it. So every 15 minutes from then I was taking a few sips of drink and every 30 minutes a gel.
When the first bottle was getting low I finished it out of my drink schedule to a water station coming up after 8 miles. This was fairly straight forward but may have been better if I stood still instead of walking while trying to pour the powder in, this took me twice my normal walk length so I ran through the next walk schedule to balance this out as I was feeling ok.

The next few miles there was people going quicker and even some overtaking me until I realised they were just doing the 10 miles and were close to the finish. I had to run past and start another lap when there was runners with the medal walking back to their cars. I noticed on my watch was just past 1:40 when I complete the first lap which was the faster end of my estimated pace. Then there was a lot less runners even in the distance than the first lap but I maintained my pace and run/walk, this made the pit stop en-route a lot easier to find. This also test my mental strength and techniques as I was running alone for lots of parts of the second lap.

At this point I was still overtaking people some may catch-up again when I walked but others did not. The last 2 gels I took a few minutes ahead of schedule due to the positioning of the 4 drinks station on the 10 mile lap. When I got 18 miles I felt ok so I stopped the walk part and picked up the pace until the end. I had forgotten one of the hills which required a bit more effort than planned but I made it to the end with enough for a good sprint (was downhill a bit) and overtook people even with in the last 10m of the race.

On my GPs watch I completed it in 3:20:41 which I was happy with.

After I had recovered a bit and hot my heart rate down, I had a drink and a mars bar which were in the goody bag along with the medal (almost a trapezium shape medal, top and bottom not parallel).
Bramley 20 Mile Medal 2011

I then headed back to the club members house where there was a lot of dicussion abotu people's races. There was also various food and drink but after a long run I find I can not eat much, so I had a few things to eat plus some drinks before heading bike on my bicycle which was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Below is my mile splits in minutes per mile from my GPS watch.

Bramley 20 Mile Pace


From this the mile splits are fairly constantly around 10 minutes  my average pace for the race was 10:01. I was running at about 9:30 pace so the walks did not slow me that much. Miles 8 and 9 are both slightly higher than average due to this was when I was refilling my bottle so required a longer "rest" time when pouring the powder in and when filling it up with water. Mile 12 is when there was pit stop required. The last two miles were significantly lower than the rest of race due to no walk breaks and picking the pace up a lot.


For my race goals the main was being able to make the distance and even pick up the pace near the end.

The multiple layer kit I had picked on the day was ok for me as I did not get cold or too warm despite 2 layers of leggings, 2 pairs of socks, 3 layers on top and hat gloves but this was suitable for the conditions of 5c (3c with windchill). The multiple watches and functions worked will apart from I had accidentally stopped one of the timers for a few seconds but I realised what happened and corrected it.

The nutrition I used for this race including testing out the marathon drinks on a long run and various gels worked with the timings. I was also happy with using the other powdered sports drink part way through which gave a different taste which was good on a long run and I was able to stomach running even though is designed for cycling..

I was happy with the time as it was an ever split of 1:40 for both laps (to nearest minute on my GPS watch) and was at the quicker end of the 3:20 and 3:40 estimated time range I had calculated for this race.

Overall it was a good run out.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Pasta with Custard Doughnut

I got some strange looks and comments at lunchtime for my lunch, it was a well balanced meal which had all the main food groups. It was a pasta, sliced smokey sausage, spicy baked beans and custard doughnut and it tasted really good.

Below are cooking guidelines, if you are interested in making it.

Pasta (about 150g of Tricolore Fusilli) cooked with no salt in water for 12 minutes, drained and some olive oil and a sprinkle of lemon juice added. Then about 30g of a pre-cooked smokey sausage was sliced thinly and added.
While the pasta was cooking a tin of baked beans a dollop of brown sauce and a squeeze (about 1 tbsp) of Marmite was added and mixed in. Then a sprinkling of spices (black pepper, hot paprika and ginger) was added mixed in and microwaved for 4 minutes stirring half way through.

About 1/3 of this was packed up in a tupperware container. Then the following day this was heated up in a microwave for 90 seconds, then a custard doughnut was added and the lid added and left to settle for a few minutes at my desk. Then the slightly warm doughnut was cut up in to chunks which allowed the custard flavoured filling to settle in to the pasta which made a really nice starchy and sweety meal.

Not sure of the exact amount of food groups but contained carbohydrates (both starchy and sugary), protein, fat and fibre and tasted great.

Weekly Weigh In

This week I have lost 0.5 lb (0.2 Kg) with my % body fat remaining the same  but my waist down.

The weight loss was helped by the volume of training this week and a fast half marathon but not so much the recovery food I had. This week should be less volume and more tapering but should include a long run/race.

Wokingham Half Marathon

On Sunday I took part in the Wokingham Half Marathon. The plan was to take it nice and easy at marathon pace for the first 10 miles and then pick up the pace for the remaining 3.1 miles, that lasted just a few strides.

I think the problem was caused by the cold, wind and light drizzle so I wanted to get back quickly in to the dry and warmth plus I was with a group of club mates. We started of at a fast pace which I thought we would soon easy back but the first 3 miles got quicker and quicker. They stayed fast in the 8-9 minute mile range for the rest of the race until the person said can we get back in 12 minutes to set a new PB. The 12th mile was done in 7:52 and the mile pace for the remainder was 5:23 and we got back just under 1:50 which was the fastest I had done for a while and the person I paced got a 7 minute improvement on there PB.

During the run I was trying a new watch in race for the first time which I had set regular intervals for drink and food which I maintained throughout the race and felt ok. I had also tried three new food/drinks in the hour or so before the race which luckily was ok as well.

The recovery food included a home made chocolate fudge cake that one of the group had made, other recovery food included some 81% cocoa chocolate and dark chocolate jaffa cakes :-)

The only problem with the race (excluding the weather) was the medal had a yellow and green ribbon :-(

Last Week's training

Last weeks training was a total of 14 1/2 hours and totalling 58.1 miles and was made up of the following by time.

Run      45%
Walk    22%
Cross   18%
Swim    10%
Bike       5%

This was a good volume and mixture of training but could be more cycling and less walking. The bulk of it was done on my day off with a total of 23 miles ran, 3 consecutive gym classes, 30 minute swim and a full carvery dinner :-)

It also included a half marathon.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Weekly Weigh In

This week I have lost 1 1/4 lb (0.6 Kg) and my % body fat down 1.5%.

This was better than expected due to only 7 hours of exercise the previous week but there was a lot of high tempo work. Food wise I was eating better food choices and more appropriate portion sizes.

The following week should have a higher amount of exercise, so as long I keep my food intake in proportion to my training I should have a good week.

Monday, February 07, 2011

This Weeks Exercise

This week I exercised for 7 hours which was due to a rest week but should have been slightly higher but will be ramped up again next week. Below is the breakdown by time.

Cross    37%
Run       24%
Walk     23%
Bike      17%

There is no swimming in this but does include some gym class sessions which should hopefully improve my form for swimming, cycling and running.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Weekly Weigh In

This week I gained a massive 2oz and an increase of 0.5% body fat.

There was a reasonable amount of exercise but I may have eaten more calories while recovering from a cold, hopefully next week will be better.