I am determined to up my running miles so planned a mid week run after a meeting that I was attending in Leeds, popping into a disabled toilet at the venue I was attending and reappearing fully kitted out. I had settled on a nice looking run from a place called Spofforth along a disused railway track dubbed the Harland Way a few miles to Wetherby with the idea that I would run 40 mins on the outward leg and then return. Starting out was pleasant despite the freezing weather and flurries of snow and the route was mainly in a cutting so sheltered from the wind. The cycle route signs disappeared in Wetherby town centre so I ended up just running randomly through the town as blizzards swirled about my pace slowing even more with the change in surface to pavement. It was good to get back to the car just as it finally got really dark. Nearly 7 miles in total.

The Harland Way

I picked up the The Primal Blueprint this week which I had ordered online after reading all the rave reviews. Unfortunately I absolutely hated the whole style of the book which deemed it necessary to impart small parcels of facts whilst contrasting an archetypal modern family vs one from caveman times. Anyhow a chapter on exercise highlighted short sharp sprints as being what our bodies used to do (to escape wild animals) and should therefore be an approach we ought to follow today. This information must have been lurking in the back of my mind when after prevaricating for most of the day about going for a run, I started my power walk about an hour before dusk. My lack of keeness manifested itself in a total inability to actual commence running so I decided that some short intense bursts might salve my conscience. I headed for the local playing fields which had 3 football pitches end to end. I then did sprint a pitch walk a pitch back and forth until I had accomplished 10 sprints. I quite enjoyed this and the length of a pitch was just enough to get my breath back before sprinting again. Of course calling it sprinting would be pushing it a bit but hey ho. I had pinched my other halfs Garmin Forerunner and the trace did give a nice visual representation of what I had been doing. Total mileage 1.5.

Power walk to start with as I am determined to avoid running on any tarmac whatsoever after my calf muscle went after about 20 yards just before Christmas. Then got going down the superbly scenic leas owned by the National Trust that line the coast between South Shields and Sunderland. Unlike the other day my legs felt really weak. At one point a had quite a feeling of tightness in my chest and my mind drifted to wondering negatively to – a) Has eating 2 eggs for breakfast every day for over two weeks been wise maybe my arteries are choking on all the cholesterol,  b) Is my extremely low carb diet just leading my body to cannibalise my muscle, before ending on a more positive note of c) My body probably still hasn’t recovered properly from the 10 miler I did on Sunday. Distance 6 1/2 Miles or so.

Today I did a 10 mile run starting out at c.3.30pm with a half decent shuffle on the outward leg followed by a not so fast shuffle on the return. The return was justifiably slower as it was dark and I couldn’t see where I was going until I diverted to run alongside a road (hard surface = slower) there was also a strong and bitterly cold headwind which impacted too.

To be fair, the bitterly cold bit wasn’t an issue as I was wrapped up with more layers than Scott of the Antarctic. More notable though was the fact that I had had no nourishment at all before setting out and suffered no weakness, lightheadedness or anything else. This fat burning thing is amazing now it has kicked in. I did have a reminder of the issues I face the night before as I finally succumbed to a mini carb binge consisting of two bags of crisps at c.11.00pm. Within about 20 mins my heart was going like the clappers which is, so I have read something to do with adrenaline kicking in to sort out some inbalance. Anyway a good result and not hungry at all this evening either.

P.S. I use a small rucksack to carry provisions etc on longer runs but now wear it on any length run as I really need the waist strap secured to hold my belly in place.

I did a 7 mile run today and really do feel that these ketone things are doing what they are meant to.

This is my fifth day of a very low carb, high fat and protein diet. The last time I tried this back in the summer it was in the lead up to the 20 mile Chevy Chase in Northumberland. I deliberately took no refreshment with me and started out with legs like lead. No matter, I told myself my body will soon be forced to start burning fat for food, just keep with it. It didn’t happen though I just got worse and worse and more fatigued and only got through by monopolising the checkpoint jelly babies in the latter stages. I have had more than a few issues with food etc. and had felt that things were slowly getting worse. My take from the Chevy Chase was that my body just wasn’t capable of burning fat at any decent rate and that this probably was something to do with insulin resistance.

I have been taking raspberry ketones on a daily basis for about 3 months now. Not for any particular reasoned basis but just that they seemed interesting and there was the Holland & Barrett penny sale which meant I ended up with two bottles of the stuff.

Anyhow today I started off thinking my legs were going to feel like lead after several days without carbs but they didn’t and I felt good throughout. Ok I wasn’t running at any pace just trundling along but still this was quite unexpected. So maybe the raspberry ketones had played a part in improving my body’s ability to burn fat. Not really sure but I’m certainly going to keep taking them for the time being.