A busy couple of days, even though Hull's flat and grey, and people laugh and point if you try and race walk in the street so just brisk walking trying to keep 5.5mph when moving. After getting home on Monday, I got up early Tuesday with an agenda to get as much done as possible, with walks between each visit/appointment. I started off by making a couple of mixes of food and drinks that I'll be using during the parish, and planned to use them sparingly throughout the day. You only need to take in half of what you need as a lot of the necessary fuel will already be in the body as glycogen and stored fat. Visiting friends though, lots of cuppas were drunk, and when you're on a strict diet it's suprising how many friends start offering bacon butties, cakes, buns, or whatever is available. It seems that everyone has some food on standby for visitors just on the off chance. I got fed up explaining why I was turning down their hob nobs or french fancies.
So, by the end of the day I had 27 miles under my belt, mostly in lumps of 3 to 6 miles, and had taken in only tea, water or watery food which seemed thin and offered little in the way of substance, but appeared to do the job. I felt neutral, neither bloated or hungry, although it was feed every hour or so to make sure I had a steady fuel supply.
Wednesday morning was check up time, no results yet, but I know my weight is similar to last year, just under 13 stone, but Body Fat is down from 17% to just over 14%, with muscle mass changing in the opposite direction which can only be good, but still very heavy with 1st 9lb of fat to lug the 85 miles. I need to drop another 5 or 6 pounds in the next few weeks if I can, but fat loss at this late stage can have an adverse effect on muscle mass if done too quickly.
Wednesday afternoon it was down to the track for interval training. 3 laps at about 6mph, then 1 lap as quickly as possible, then repeat 10 times. You are left gasping for breath and with painful muscles, but the idea is not to recover completely so working on strengthening the muscle fibres. It didn't feel too bad as I walked home the couple of miles. A good protein shake to aid muscle recovery, then walk into town as we had tickets for the comedian Milton Jones at City Hall. Very funny, he's the wild haired guy off Mock the Week.
I walked home, its about an hour, and that's where I felt the effects of the track work as my knees were trembling and threatening to give way beneath me at times, so today was a rest day, protein and carbs on a 50-50 mix (steak and chips...) and a light walk tomorrow in preparation for the inter area 10k on Sunday.
Looking at the Parish starting line up, if I've got it right I'll be number 10 on the day, which is a shame, I was hoping for a single number because it'll be less ink on the number to carry round... all the weight of that ink adds up, you've got to manage every ounce! It's a step up for me every year, 674, 74, 63 then 30 and now probably 10. When the number starts going up again, that'll be time to give up and try something else.
One last thing today. I put in a previous blog that if you entered just to show off to mates then you had to start by decree from the House of Keys by order of the new law passed to stop time wasters. Clearly this was jesting and most (yes, most) people knew this was written in jest. Except for one, er, person, who shall remain unnamed. I was asked in all seriousness when this law was passed and just in case there are others out there who didn't realise it was a joke, it was a joke. The MHK's are far too busy planning and preparing the 85 miles of fresh new pavement on the parish course in non slip green cushioned tarmac to stop people skidding, with arrows to stop walkers going the wrong way. I'm sure you'll agree, a much more important and worthy cause.
No comments:
Post a Comment