I'm a loser...

I took a look at myself in the mirror last September and didn't like what I saw.

There was more of me than there used to be. I resolved to do something about it immediately. I put myself on a strict eating regime and within five weeks had lost the unwanted extra five kilos.

I only exercise for health these days; jogging two or three times per week with a gym workout on another two or three days. While losing weight I was conscious on a few of the runs that I was very low on fuel (muscle glycogen) and close to bonking. In fact, on one run I even turned back within five minutes I was so fuel-low.

This was no surprise. Foods are made up of protein, carbohydrate and fat, and to lose excess weight it is important to control the carbohydrate intake (ignore those who recommend a low-fat diet, dietary fat is not the problem).

A rough guide is to reduce the intake of kilocalories (kcals) per day by 500. For example, a typical male might require 2,200 kcals per day, and so would reduce his intake by 500 to 1,700 kcals.

In this way, by creating a calorie deficit he would force his body to "spend" more energy that day than he was consuming.

Faced with this deficit, his body would turn to its own energy stores (body fat) and reconvert some of it back into fuel to make up for the fewer kcals being eaten.

One kilo of body fat contains 7,700 kcals of energy. So, it can quickly be calculated that by burning 500 kcals per day from his fat stores, our typical male should lose one kilo of body-fat every 15 days (7,700 divided by 500).

Not renowned for my patience, I had wanted to lose my five kilos more rapidly and had therefore put myself on a stricter calorie deficit than a negative 500 kcals per day.

However, by doing so, I had left myself prone to bouts of low energy on workout days. Since I was not training with any event in mind, but simply for health, I didn't mind.

Too often over the years I have seen runners at this time of the year talk about needing to lose weight.

Thus motivated, they alter their eating habits drastically. And very quickly the problems begin. The thing is, to lose weight you must reduce your carbohydrate intake (bread, pasta, pizza, cakes...).

Unfortunately, the prime fuel for runners is muscle glycogen (the fuel form in which the eaten carbohydrate is stored) and that is the one fuel you are cutting back on. It's like putting less fuel in your car and somehow expecting to cover the same amount of miles. Can't happen.

I have seen it so often: runners decide to lose weight before the Half Marathon and their eventual performance in the event suffers. So, here's my advice; don't be a loser.

With such an important event coming up, make no sudden changes to any part of your lifestyle that would negatively affect your performance.

That includes eating habits. The time to do these things is far in advance of the event, or afterwards. Not in the last few weeks.

Time to apply

Further to last week's article, a question that came up more than once was why the urgency to apply?

I thought I had explained it completely, but here's another way to consider it. Everywhere I turn I meet groups of walkers who intend taking part.

We all know that 6,000 walkers/joggers showed up for the President's Run, surprising everyone concerned. If as little as five per cent of those walkers show up on the Half Marathon start-line we're talking about 300 people. And those 300 people are all new to the event, which means those are 300 places that went to runners last year.

I repeat, we have a limited amount of medals. We already have close to 600 applicants and they are mostly foreigners. Add in a potential 300 walkers. You do the maths, that doesn't leave a lot of places left for runners. Don't leave it too late.

Final point, walkers need to apply just like everyone else. There will be no entries on the day so don't even consider waiting to see what the weather is like that morning and then deciding whether to take part. Apply today at maltamarathon.com.

Take care out there and enjoy your training.

johnwalsh42195@yahoo.it