An Easy parkrun and ongoing issues

So there have been some positives over the last few weeks, I am back running and strength training consistently but I am also far away from where I want to be. With a week long holiday coming and then hopefully my operation my return to fitness might be a longer journey that I had hoped for. 

On the plus side I am back off dairy but I really haven't fancies burgers since my infection, and burgers were my staple meal. Whilst I still seem to have fitness I was only able to do a very badly paced 20 minutes at parkrun and not sure I could go much quicker. At least a minute of that is the weight I have put on from the dairy but hey ho. 

My goals now are to stay as fit as I can and get to the bottom of my health issues. I am still fatigued and still having regular bowel issues. I am going to push for a follow up calprotectin test as the last one was through the roof and from speaking to a doctor earlier in the week a lot of my other symptoms like the low folate I had, the electrolyte issues, fatigue and obviously the bowel issues could be explained by IBD of some description. 

I don't want it to be IBD but at the same time a diagnosis and explanation would be great. So for now I am accepting the place I am in, attempting to work on various weaknesses and preparing for my holiday and op. Hopefully I can get lots of videos recorded on the holiday and in the post op recovery, videos that people will find interesting. I also plan on documenting any appointments etc. I have on my pathway to get back to full health. Whilst I still have belief in the Carnivore way of life modern medicine has its place and hopefully it can help me get to my full health and potential. 

Having 24 hour ECG

I will do a video on this, probably tomorrow, but for now I wanted to get something out there. This morning I was fitted with a 24 hour ECG. I use the word fitted but that is generous really. Basically 3 pads were stuck to my chest and a little device to record the activity was attached to them and now I have to keep it on me for the next 24 hours.

 

So why am I having this? 

Well back in February I was scheduled in for some minor surgery, nothing related to running or carnivore and just one of those things. You’ll be seen in the morning they told me…. well come 3:30 I was finally seen having not eaten since 3pm the day before (due to running at 7 with my club and IF) and not having drunk since 6am (as instructed).

They wheeled me into the room to perform the general and put the cannula in (though the first one didn't take), no meds yet and I started to feel light headed and dizzy. As a runner my resting pulse is pretty low, around 50-55ish, but it started to drop, 45, 40, 35, 30… and then for 5 seconds it was so low the machine read it as 0 and I blacked out, had a seizure and ripped the cannula out.

I came to with a jolt, sitting upright and with no clue what had happened. My temperature then plummeted and I felt freezing. They covered me with some magical warm blankets and something like a leaf blower that pumped hot air over me, that felt lovely. I regained my bearings and felt fine but they decided the op needed to be scrapped and now I need to be referred to cardiology. On the plus side I was in the right place for this to happen! I ended up on Oxygen and requiring 2 doses of atropine to get me back to a good place.

Could just be low electrolytes and dehydration so when the op gets rescheduled maybe I will be first on the list? I have had a standard ECG and an Echo but belt and braces they wanted this as well.

So what am I doing and why running?

Annoyingly as I am still getting over the infection I am not able to do as much activity as I would like. I ran home from the hospital and did some strength training and will run back to the hospital with it attached tomorrow. Other than that I will do some walking, Why the running? Well it might not be linked but I have history for getting low blood pressure after races that are half marathon distance or longer. In 2017 I once spent 2 hours in the medical tent, nothing wrong but my blood pressure was low.

What now?

Now I wait and see if they see anything in the results. I also have a blood test to check my kidney function tomorrow and a catch up with the surgeon next week. Despite all this I try and continue with mental and physical training and try to think of myself as one of the healthiest people I know. When it comes to lifestyle and the choices we can make to be healthy that is true, just need to catch a break with everything else.

Running Comeback Week 1 Day 1

 

running, carnivore, diet, return, Campylobacter, fitness, parkrun, PB, 

Every setback is a chance for a comeback - Campylobacter

Campylobacter infection, fun times. Feels like ages ago now but it was just 3 weeks. I started to come down with having to tun to the toilet, I felt hot and cold at the same time and a little sick and weak. I had actually just beaten 2 guys that I normally battle with at parkrun and felt a sub 17 was close. Sadly the diarrhoea just kept coming and coming until I have to go to the doctors. 

Over the last few weeks I have been sat at home, in lovely running conditions, as the people I was beating have been breaking the times I want to break. And with my fitness down the drain, my weight increasing, the summer coming, a holiday coming and an op coming I am looking to next week now before I can get anything like back to where I want to be. Anyway, I have ended up having numerous blood and stool tests and finally it was found that I had a nasty Campylobacter infection. 

As I say it started out with be getting worse and worse diarrhoea and generally feeling naff. It peaked with me going to the loo over 20 times a day, for a week, and feeling so run down, so much so that we can to call in support to take my daughter to school as I couldn't manage the 1km walk. After the week of 20+ times a day I had a week of around 10-12 times a day and then another 4-5 days of 4-5 times a day and so far a few normal days. 

I did slip from being completely carnivore as I couldn't bare meat by itself. I have been ok with pork belly but not burgers, instead I have been cooking some mince in tomato passata and putting some cheese on top. So heavily meat based but until I am back to full strength and fancying full carnivore I am going to stick with this. 

I am hopefully in the final stage of recovery now and I have managed to do a few short runs, that being said I am still very fatigued and my bloodwork suggests my kidneys are still far from right. Hopefully that will rectify itself over the next few weeks. 

So with all that being said, every setback is a chance for a comeback. Life will be getting in the way over the coming months and then my local parkrun moves to the slower summer route.... So I am setting up sights on next winter and how I can best prepare for that? I have a few things I want to take to target this, and ideally smashing my goals next winter by being aggressive but without compromising my core values.  

1. Use ActionCam to record my return to fitness as a series - This will keep me accountable

2. Different speed sessions

3. Consistent and better strength training including Plyometrics 

4. Back to the mental training - Confident mind etc.

5. Stricter feeding window - start with 6 hours to get weight under control.

6. Do challenge parkruns- slightly dehydrated, too many clothes - overheated, post intervals on the way down, long run Friday.

7. Consistently / Vlogging Blogging again

P2 This morning, again in 17:30 ish

Still waiting for the official time to come through but I was somewhere around 17:30, which would be my joint 5th/6th fastest time ever. No excuses really for being nearly 20 seconds down on last week, that being said if I had I did have some good reasons for a slower time: 

1) I did not sleep well the last 3 nights, last night was especially bad and I had been awake since 3am. 

2) I had a slightly dodgy gut last night, might be the cause of the bad sleep. I think I shouldn't have taken the magnesium that I did. 

3) I did run hard up a 1km hill, one that is very steep, on Monday, maybe I hadn't fully recovered. 

4) Whilst I didn't think it was too bad the forecast was for 20 mile  per hour wind with gusts up to 40. 

Whilst I felt good I do think the above all came into play, that being said I think this was a good run and look forward to seeing the Run Britain rankings as. 

1) I paced myself well and flew along the 2km again. 

2) I beat someone who usually is close to me by 30 seconds. 

3) I beat someone who I have never finished in front of before, last week he was inside my PB. 

So overall it was a good run, with a decent time but not quite what I was hoping for. Had my breakfast and wondering when to tackle that steep hill again... Maybe this afternoon? 

 Ah there we go, 17:29. Decent enough, surprising number of PBs, though it was pacer day so will be "interesting" to see how Run Britain ranks it on Monday.

Time for a Proper Update

I have been a but lax on this channel because, well, I guess it hasn't really generated as much interest as I hoped it would. Shock horror there isn't much of a cross over in the Venn diagram when the 2 major subjects are Carnivore and Runner. 

So what have I been doing since my last update in December? 

I set a 10k PB in January of 37:06, now that may seem good or bad (comparison is the thief of joy) but I was relatively happy with it. The conditions on the day were awful and I ran basically solo to a 6th place finish. 

I went on an amazing streak at parkrun and am working my way back to where I was after a medical incident, not related to carnivore, detailed me for a few weeks and I have since struggled to recreate the same form as I was in. 

But if you had told me last November, when I hadn't broken 18 for 10 months, that I would be down to 17:08 and consistently running under my then PB of 17:50 I would have been thrilled. Even just this week I ran 17:35 and wasn't completely happy yet it is 7th best ever time on that course. 

Another Summer Course PB

Another Summer course PB this week. Below are the splits between last week and this week. You can see I had a much more aggressive start and was 17 seconds up after 3k, I suffered because of this or the heat, it was really hot, in the 4th km and pushed through that in the last km to end up 12 seconds quicker. 

The table below shows my recent results. You can ignore the 21 and 22 minute runs as they were intentionally slow due to races, pacing or something. At the start of August I was struggling to break 20 minutes and by September was down to 19:14 and then over the last 3 efforts I have taken off 30 seconds, 24 seconds and 12 seconds! Some of that is weight as being back strict carnivore I have been getting back into race shape, the temperature has also decreased, though as I said it was hot, humid and breezy today. Really excited to see what I could do on slightly more rested legs, much cooler conditions and on a quicker course. 

The other bug change I have made that has contributed to the improvements over the last few weeks has been mindset. I have been listening to all the resources I can on it and have been implementing some changes. I won't go into details here but I think the changes I have made are going to continue to help me going forward in training and racing as well as processing when things don't go according to plan. 

25 second PB on the Eastbourne Summer Course

Please rewrite the following text, keep it as accurate as it is now but make it sound interesting and like it is written by a professional sports journalists. As always Saturday is parkrun day. This morning I head to Eastbourne parkrun where we are still on the much slower Summer course. I have heard slower runners say the grass and dampness underfoot costs them as much as 2 minutes, for me though it is more like 30 seconds. Last summer my fastest time on the summer course was 18:50 and when we got back on the winter route I ran a then PB of 18:30 followed by a 18:17. The below image shows these in reverse order. 

 Note that the 24:39 was the day before a 10k race and the 21:59 was me as the 22 minute pacer. 

Earlier this year I was hoping to get somewhere near my overall PB (17:50) whilst running the Summer course but it wasn't meant to be. Due to the path being rutted we didn't start the summer course until it was really hot. In the heat of the summer I lost my mojo, I forgot how much the heat impacts me, and during the holidays I overindulged on yogurt and put some weight on. I have been back on strict carnivore with some IF and the weight has started to come off nicely and I have been working on my mindset and this is helping me as well. 

2 weeks ago I ran 18:44 for a summer course PB and was pretty happy with this having not run sub 19:14 on the summer route this year. Today I managed to smash that with an 18:20, meaning I have gone 30 seconds quicker on the summer course this year compared to last year, if that improvement translates onto the winter route I am already in PB shape and I am just ramping up training and entering the cooler conditions. I know I have a break that I will have to take at some point over the winter and depending on exactly when that is and how much of an impact it has I think I can, going with a positive mindset here, break 17.

Here is the breakdown of todays run, note my watch always measures these things short and the first km and last km contain the grass so a slower first km is to be expected.: 

1st finisher and 17:53!

So a massive confidence boost before the half marathon next week, I have completed 4 parkruns in Feb and all 4 are the fastest I have ever done. I also have completed 8 volunteers in the month as well. To top things off I was first finisher at parkrun for only the second time in 235 runs. 

This time I was recording a video which you can find on the YouTube channel linked on the right. Naturally this was fasted that morning and all done on the carnivore diet wearing my Altra Carbons. My next target is now the Eastbourne half. Whatever will be will be and just going to see what I can do without really training for a half. 

My journey to a sub 18 parkrun through the carnivore diet

I have been thinking about this post for a while and starting the YouTube channel made me think it was time, the next question was where to start the post from. I figured the best place to start would be around 2009. I will be breaking this down by running / weight and creating video content for that as well with more details. Well hopefully.

Pre 2009 – Boring stuff

No real running and since about 16 weight was between 16-20 stone and I had tried things like low calorie diet to lose the weight but it always came back on faster than I could keep it off. 

Me before any weight loss, bigger than my pregnant wife!

2009 to 2012 – The Ledderhose Years

Most people won’t have heard of the condition called Ledderhose disease / plantar fibromatosis but it dominated my life between 2009 and 2012. The condition is when a non-cancerous tumour presents in the base of the foot. Often described as painless this is often not the case of many patients and for me it started to become painful in around 2009. At its worst the nodule was pushing into a nerve in the arch of my foot causing pain and shooting sensations up my leg, like stepping on lego with every step. I was even using a walking stick a lot of the time to take some of my considerable weight off the foot. 

I went through various treatments and in the end had radiotherapy that put the pain into remission, I still have the lump in my foot and standing around all day can still trigger it but running seems to be ok for it. 

2013 to 2014- A failed attempt

After 67 min 10k

In 2013 I started running a little but followed standard dietary guidance. My weight got down to around 15 stone, I think, but I used running as an excuse to eat extra, even if it was a pre run banana. I started my parkrun journey at around 33 minutes and managed to break 30 minutes once. I also took part in a 10k race and finished in around 67 minutes. 

At this time however running didn’t become a habit, in 2014 we moved house, other priorities took over and my weight went back up to at least 18 stone. At a Christmas party my wife said we both needed to do something about our weights and a little research later we started low carb. 

2015 to 2016 – Riding the wave of beginners luck 

In 2015 the weight flew off with low carb and I kept riding the wave, my 5k time trials and eventually parkrun times kept coming down and down. To me it was shocking, my original aim was consistently sub 30 and by the end of 2015 I had a sub 20 and a 42 minute something 10k under my belt. I was one of those annoying people that would go flying past you with a running buggy with my daughter asking why we were going so slow today. 

My Weight loss in 2015 using Low Carb

2016 kicked off with my first half marathon and I got round in around 1:34, remember my 10k time on a normal diet was 1:07. I was thrilled, training kept going well although I had niggles throughout. Shin splints, ITB pain, runners knee, I had most things! By the end of the year I had a PB of 19:14 at parkrun and 1:30:10 over the half marathon and even did a sub 20 at parkrun with the running buggy. Life was good. 

2017 to 2018 – Dark days on injury and some weight gain

With Everything going so well we entered Brighton Marathon and things spiralled out of control from here. Honestly I probably started to introduce too many nuts, too much fruit and cream and much weight started to come back on a little. Especially as marathon training completed busted my knee and I basically has to resort to cycling a lot. Physical therapy, strength training and everything I tried didn’t work and I basically missed 2017 and 2018 with my knee injury until December when I picked up a pair of Freet shoes. 

Me slightly chubby in 2018 whilst injured and eating too many carbs. 

2019 – Barefoot running to the rescue 

Going low carb changed my life in 2015 but finding minimalist shoes, and I do sometimes go barefoot, got me right back on track. I struggled much more to get my weight down and although I broke 21 minutes it was hard work but I was running again and things were going well. My weight was not perfect but was far more sensible than when I was injured. Around this time I also trained to be a fully qualified running coach under the England Athletics training schemes.

Running a 10k in Vibrams

2020 – Lockdowns and fasting 

Like many people my mental health suffered with lockdowns but I kept getting out for fresh air by doing some gentle plods. As soon as club sessions were allowed we returned keeping in line with whatever restrictions were in place. Still not happy with my weight in 2020 I used various types of fasting and thought that I had found the solution. I was losing weight easily and mostly felt good. I can’t remember why I stopped fasting but once I did it seemed impossible to get going again. 

2021  - now – The Carnivore Journey, return of parkrun

Around Easter 2021 I yet again found myself with my weight increasing. Now it was not high carb bad but still around 14 ½ stone, which coinciding I am only 5’9 is not great. Honestly not sure how I got there again, likely a combination of too many carbs through fruit and dairy and too many low carb treats. I decided to give carnivore another crack and started weight training as well. 

I always seem to do better the lower carb I go and after starting in Feb at around 205lbs by the end of the year I was down to 150lbs. Sticking to meat only my weight has not gone above 155lbs but as soon as I allowed fruit and yoghurt (feeling sorry for myself when I had an infected back) I did reach 165 and learnt my lesson. I am now pretty stable around 147lbs 

I will do a more details review on all these things including what I do eat on Carnivore but it is mainly beef, sometimes some lamb mince and pork belly or bacon and for variety I do have some cheese and salt everything to taste. I only drink water but have never been a fan of much else anyway. In terms of running I continued to be injury free through using barefoot shoes by various brands. When parkrun returned in around August 2021 I was in about 23 minute shape but through the weight lost with carnivore and the motivation of parkrun I was back under 20 minutes for the first time in 5 years by December and hit 19:37 in Feb 2022. 

In March 2022 I had the back cyst infection that required surgery and was either at reduced or no running for around 2 months and gained the weight mentioned above. I came back to parkrun in about 22 minute shape and we were onto the slower summer route. By August I was feeling in good shape and had found Altra’s. Whilst I love my barefoot shoes I do find I am quicker with at least a little padding under food and the foot shaped toe box and zero dropped seemed to be great for me. So we headed to another local parkrun which is known for being pretty fast and I ran my first PB in 6 years with a sub 19. 18:57. I was pumped. 

Back on my usual course I then got my first ever first finisher and the next week broke my PB even though we were on the slower route in late September. Come October I set a PB of 18:17, then I got a cold and never really got back in form. I mean I was still running well and took my 10k PB down to 39:57 and then 39:30, though the latter was on a fast course and should have been quicker. I eased off the gas for December and reminded myself just to enjoy running and training and forget about the times. 

January 2023 and I was feeling strong again. I had one of my best ever runs on a very windy day running 18:29 on 14th January. I knew I was in PB shape as the conditions were horrid. Sure enough at the end of Jan I smashed all targets and ran 37:58 for 10k and then Feb 2023 has been awesome and has seen me set my 3 fastest ever times (with one Saturday left) and included my first ever sub 18, running 17:59. 

So I am still, hopefully going strong. My plan is to enjoy training and see where things go. I have a half marathon coming up but I am still just training as I feel I haven't done longer than 10 miles in a single run but have done 14 miles in a day and back to back days of 10,10,12,6,14. Assuming conditions are good, and taking into account the steep hill, I want a time of under 90 minutes but it will be what it will be and worst case a good training run. 

Sub 18 parkrun

 So today, despite windy conditions I made it and ran what I had threatened to do the last few weeks, a sub 18 minute parkrun (according to the time keeper it was 17:59.8. Phew happy to strike whilst the iron is hot, one more chance next week before having the Eastbourne half the next week and then likely needing to recover for at least the next week. Also have a few busy weeks at the start of April. 

So I am officially now a sub 18 minute parkrunner and it is in no small part thanks to the carnivore diet and of course the support of my family :-D 

If you want more details check out my YouTube channel where I am starting to document this stuff as well. 

parkrun PB!!! 18:02!!!

So on Saturday I set a new parkrun PB, I thought I had this sort of time in me but conditions have been so windy or icy or I have been tired that I hadn't had the day to do it. This time things came together and I finished in 18:02. 

Of course I am annoyed that I didn't find the 3 second more needed to break 18 but surely now that is just a matter of time. In terms of details, pre race I had fasted as usual and had been on an even stricter carnivore kick for a few days having dropped cheese and bacon and purely eating beef with some lamb. I had had a stomach bug on Monday night and Tuesday morning so had taken the day off work and running and only ran a mile on Wednesday but felt great by Thursday and did some hill reps. 

On the morning I was fasted and had done a mile walk with the dog followed by a 2.5 mile run down to parkrun as a warm up. I did race in my Altra Carbons as I was generally feeling good. At the start I was thinking there were quite a few quick runners around forgetting just how quick I cam now. 

As it turned out myself and Isaac set off at the front with Aleix close behind in 3rd, though by 1km I was fairly sure it was going to be a first or second place. I probably did feel like I was pushing slightly too hard to stay with him but equally he was taking all the wind for me and I didn't have much to lose my trying to hang with him. I felt strong around 3k and actually tried to kick into the lead but Isaac came back past and gradually ramped up the pace, I started to drop off around 4km and my legs started to feel heavy, might have been the hill reps, the dodgy tummy, the lack of sleep (my wife had a cough) or perhaps just the pace we ran the 4th km in (3:30!!). Anyway I pushed as hard as my little legs would allow in the final km and came over the line in 18:02. 

I am chuffed with 18:02, a 15 second PB when I run most weeks and am already this quick is pretty good but at the same time would have loved those 3 seconds. I then did barcode scanning and the 2.5 mile jog home to have my beef for breakfast. 

A great run

So far the year has gone really well, I have felt that my fitness is improving and my mileage has been higher than required, even for my super push target. I will admit that today I am taking a day off running, my legs felt tired and this afternoon I even closed my eyes on the sofa, so I clearly needed a break. So far this year, and we are on the 15th, with today being a rest day, I have run 119 miles! To be on target for 2000 / 2200 / 2500 I need to be on 82 / 90 / 102, however I only see myself doing around 40 miles this week as I am tapering for a 10k but even that would see me stay ahead of my push target assuming I can recover well from the 10k on Sunday. 

My strength training is also consistent and I have even started with my Airofit again and the odd session of meditation. I have also been sleeping great which always helps, using my massage gun and balls and compression gear when I feel it will help. Of course debatable whether these things help but in my head they do which means they do help. I am also doing great with my target of lots of parkrun runs and volunteers with 3/3 runs and 5/5 volunteers. 

I am going into the 10k on Sunday full of confidence after my latest run at parkrun. Conditions were awful, last week the were over 300 runners and this week only 150, it was raining with winds of 20mph and gusts of 50mph with all the local prom parkruns getting cancelled. 

I started in the front line and soon settled into 6th, just behind someone I know is about 30 seconds quicker than me but I felt comfortable. Around 800m one of the faster runners dropped back, think he was just running the start with a friend as it was cross country the next day. Turning onto the back straight, in theory with the wind behind us, the 2 of us caught the guy in 3rd and cruised past (he ended up over a minute behind us). Myself and the other runner stuck together, each taking time in the wind, not that he let me stay in front for long. He put in a burst around halfway but didn't get more than a few metres ahead. 

I know that my strong point is not kicking so around 3k I made a move to pass him into 3rd place and it stuck and I put some air between us, judging by his footsteps it got up to around 10m by 4k but I could always hear his trainers splashing behind me. I kicked on in the last 500m but could hear him reeling me in but I managed to stay ahead for my first podium (well it is a run not a race but still) since October and my 2nd fastest ever time, only 12 seconds off my PB. *** Note the guy who got his PB hasn't run at this parkrun in a while and has been running 30 seconds quicker on an arguably slower course in recent weeks. 

Looking at everyone's results and chatting to people the conditions were probably worth 30 seconds which puts me in sub 18 shape on a perfect day. Even at a result not taking into account the conditions it puts me in 38:30 shape for the 10k. But then that also doesn't fact in the 115 miles in the preceding 2 weeks with no taper, so hopefully with an easy week and good conditions I will get a 10k PB on 22nd and at least break 39 and maybe get near that 38:30. 

2023 training goals

As a runner I like to run fast, sure it may not be as evolutionary appropriate as the slow training and barefoot, low carb stuff but it is fun. I wanted to track my progress against my 2023 goals somewhere and whilst I would love to break my 5k, 10k and half marathon PBs (18:17, 39:20 and 90:10, the last from 2016) I am not too bothered about the times. I had a great year last year, knocking a minute off my 5k PB in the span of a couple of months over the summer and going from a 42:30 10km PB to running 2 sub 40  10kms, one on a relatively tough route. 

So with performance goals not really a factor this year I have gone for process goals, primarily running distance and total reps of strength training. So my hopes for the year are: 

• 2000 miles / 2200 miles and at a real push 2500 miles 
• Various numbers of push ups / pull ups / squats / crunches / planks, around 7000-10,000 of each. 
• Stick to carnivore and keep my weight under 11 stone. 
• Have fun and put family first. 
• Achieve at least 100 parkrun events i.e. 40 runs and 60 volunteers

Hopefully at some point in the next few weeks and months I will get round to publishing some dashboards or something with the information for tracking this. 

First 8 days done and so far I have stuck to my strength training goals, had lots of fun and am up on even my push target for miles with nearly 60 miles in the bag already! The parkrun target is also going well with 3 volunteers and 2 runs in the bag over the first 8 days of 2023. 

I am hoping to add a few extra things as the year progresses, so long as things go well, such as 5 minute meditation each day. But see how things go. First things first I have a 10k coming on 22nd January. Hopefully will do another post on that.