Remember folks I am an endomorph, and this blog is once again aimed at this amazing yet annoying body type.
Running is so accessible it's no wonder that so many of us choose to bring this into our training regimes and it does bring results. I'm not writing this to bash it or to put anybody's marathon ambitions down, I write it so if this is something you're doing or thinking of doing for the first time you don't make the same mistakes I did. So by all means go, run like Forrest, break boundaries of endurance and raise some money for charities along the way.
Many people are serious marathon runners who compete to win and this is their chosen sport but it also attracts a wide range of backgrounds, from people who are raising money for loved ones, people who just love to run and people who love a challenge and new things. I was the latter two there.
I ran the Manchester Marathon,mApril 2013 for Macmillan Cancer Support, I did not do it alone, I ran with one of my closet friends. In fact I don't know what was worse the pain of hitting the wall or the pain of having to put up with him all day. And I know he probably feels the same :) 4:30 was our time, the weather was horrific and the route was dismal.
Like anything I've trained for, I trained like a man obsessed, possessed and went totally anal with my diet. Running miles upon miles ( I followed a full beginners plan off the actual website) and adding some strength training in too when I could to help against injury. I thought to myself "this is the ticket to getting ripped Dan, easy with all this cardio." Well I was wrong. Dead wrong.
MISTAKE NUMBER 1
Like most folk who run for charity I had a full time active job with pressures, and on top of that worked a 24 hr shift pattern. This was my first downfall, not recognising the stress my body was under already. But I was determined so trained exactly the same as someone who may have a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday job, I'm not saying they are less stressful jobs, but in terms of stress that the body is under it is less because of the routine, normal sleep patterns etc. So already my body's cortisol levels are elevated simply due to my work life. Now, CORTISOL is released by the body in response to stress and elevated levels can inhibit the burning of fat. That is as simple as I want to put it. CORTISOL can also inhibit INSULIN, insulin shuttles carbohydrates into the muscle tissue using it for repair, energy etc. CORTISOL can stop this therefore leaving carbohydrates unused in the blood stream. These unused energy sources have to go somewhere right. Yep, straight to your love handles, ass etc.
MISTAKE NUMBER 2
I thought my diet was spot on, protein, veggies, fats and carbohydrate (the starchy kind, brown rice sweet potato etc) every meal and then snacks made up of carbs in between. After all I was running so much for long periods of time I needed the carbs for energy and repair. I needed to load up, especially before big runs. Wrong! Dumbass. My previous blog://thebjjboxer.blogspot.co.uk/2013_01_01_archive.html
Explains that I am endomorph and that I already have a poor tolerance of starchy carbohydrates and these go straight to my love handles and stomach if I have to much or have them at the wrong time of day. I was probably eating 5 times the amount that I should have been. Brown rice, sweet potato, whole meal bread, ryvita, whole grain pasta. You name a "healthy" carbohydrate and I was eating it with my meals.
So my body had far too many carbs swimming around in it, it was so physically and hormonally stressed that I started to put fat on and couldn't understand why. In the last 3 weeks of training I put 10 pounds on and it wasn't lean muscle!
Awesome feeling and accomplishment though.
Now I know I'm banging on like I became a right fat lad, I didn't but I did put weight on and didn't lose fat like you would expect. This might be a serious problem if your are well over weight and choose a marathon to make big goals with weight as some often do, so........
What should have I done?
I should have realised I was under too much stress and just adjusted the training slightly, not training with as much frequency or for as long. After all I wasn't trying to break the world record although I approach everything like that nowadays. When I was tired and fatigued I should have backed off and rested making for a better training session the next time round.
I should have been getting my energy from healthy fat sources such as nuts, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil etc as my body is far more fat adapted and deals with it a lot better rather than packing it full of starchy carbs.
I should have used these starchy carbs for recovery post workout, for example eating some white rice with my meal after or a small sweet potato, you get the idea.
Now this is not the right thing to do for everyone, my partner in crime was eating plenty of carbs but he has pigeon legs and arms (cant miss the opportunity to have a dig , I know he will read this) and is a typical ectomorph, a typical runner so he did very well with them and would have probably been fatigued without them. I was stupid to think I would also. As it all comes down to the individual.
So if you're an endomorph, have a tough job and are embarking on a marathon training schedule and doing something awesome to raise money apply the right principals and think about the above, you don't want to work like a war horse only to have negative results.
Will I run a marathon again, I don't think so, its not for me, but I never say never. :)
And after all it doesn't have to be on a road does it.
http://www.ratracemanvsmountain.com/
Dan
The BJJ Boxer
Twitter: @thebjjboxer
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