The first week of Paleo

Well thank goodness training is over for this week - I am hoping now that I have gone through all the withdrawal from no wine and no dairy on this 30 day paleo challenge that I will start to feel so much better.  However, its hard to know if the tiredness follows the jet lag from the flight back from Auckland last weekend or the total change in diet - both  take a week or so to get over!  Perhaps the combination magnified the effect.  Anyway I have completed 7 full days on Paleo.  I am feeling leaner so will continue along for another 23 days and see how I feel. 

My coach, Sue Dorman, has suggested I trial a different approach in training for this marathon which includes running for 10 minutes and then walking for two minutes during my longer runs and this is also what I will do on the day of the marathon.  It gives the legs some respite from the constant pace that in a marathon can go on for 4 hours or more and can get very painful.   Yesterday I had an 80 minute run scheduled  so headed off to try the new approach.  I realised as soon as I started the run that it was going to be hard work - I felt like my legs had concrete in them - a feeling I am used to at about 35 Kms in a marathon not at the start of a training run.  It was 31 degrees but I am used to training in the heat now.  As mentioned above I guess this could be a side effect of this new eating programme. 

I managed to keep the alternating run/walk going until about 65 mins.  I had finished a 750 litre bottle of water with a Nuun tablet to replace lost electrolytes and was very tired.  I think I then changed to walking 10 mins and jogging the last few minutes and was really glad to get home - I even had to lie down for a while to recover.  Very unlike me.  In future I need to make sure I eat a Kumera or a banana before heading out on the long runs as I usually run without eating if the session is less than 90 minutes.  But this didn't work for me today.  Thankfully I have mum staying who is a wonderful massage therapist and gave me a great massage in the afternoon.  Very rejuvenating.

This morning I had an aqua jogging session in the pool which was a welcome relief and I was feeling much better so hoping my body is now adapting to using fat as a fuel rather than carbs.  Mum and I then headed down to our local cafe 'Flock'  for a great  paleo breakfast  of bacon, eggs and mushrooms - we are both feeling good!