Running in the Dark

I’ve been trying to encourage my body to burn fat for fuel rather than carbohydrates. Not only will this make me a more efficient, faster runner, but it should also help me lose weight by reducing my body fat percentage. So far I’ve tried upping the percentage of fats in my diet to 30% while reducing the percentage of carbohydrates, and only drinking water or water with electrolytes when I workout (no sports drinks). It has sort of worked, I’ve lost a couple of kilos and some body fat, but I think that has more to do with exercising five days a week.

So yesterday I went running before breakfast. As I’ve had nothing to eat for at least 10 hours, my body is in a carbohydrate deprived state, forcing it to use my body fat to fuel the run. I’ve done this before, its how I fit in working out when I had a proper office job (a quick 30 minute workout before breakfast). I have to say yesterday’s morning run was about as depressing as you can get; hill repeats in the dark, in the rain, when its only 4 C. I did find I was quite tired most of the day and craving carbohydrates, which was not satisfied by the lentils and vegetables I had for lunch. Cue rice pudding, chocolate and baked potato in the evening!

But I was also very proud of myself for going. There is something incredibly satisfying in being able to casually mention to people that you ran so many miles before breakfast. And I’ve forgotten how not having to slot in a workout somewhere run frees up the rest of the day. So even if it doesn’t result in the desired fat loss, I can still see myself becoming a regular morning runner.   

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1982.92	106.88g	277.90g	50.94g	0	26.33g
	22%	56%	23%
Calories burned through exercise:		379

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
07:00	Cold water	250mL
07:15	Hill run
08:00	Cold water	500mL
08:30	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	20g (1 scoop)
	mixed with skim milk	150mL
08:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Mattesson's Turkey rashers	3 rashers
	Mesa Sunrise cereal	60g
	Alpro Soy milk	120mL
	Sainsbury's Orange, Mango and Passionfruit juice	200mL
10:00	Black Tea	500mL
11:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
12:00	Twinings Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	250mL
13:00	King Prawn Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce	350g
	Merchant Gourmet tinned puy lentils	105g
	Irish Yoghurts Diet Fruits of the Forest	125g
13:45	Green Tea	250mL
17:15	Brazil nuts	6g
	Cashews	17g
	Red grapes	105g
	Muller Rice vanilla custard	190g
	Caffeine free tea with milk and sugar	500mL
19:30	Sainsbury's Pork loin	53g
	Baked potato	122g
	with Philadelphia cheese light with chives	20g
	Stir fried Kale	45g
	in Olive oil	7.5mL
	with Pine nuts	4g
	Caffeine free tea with milk and sugar	500mL
21:00	Lindt Excellence 70% cocoa dark chocolate	20g
22:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.