The Unconventional Running Coach

As much as I love carnivore and taking the evolutionary approach to live sometimes you have to conceded defeat and ask a doctor for advice, modern medicine can do some things right after all. So I have recently had a few little issues that warranted a blood test and I came back as having a massive folate deficiency. I haven't been eating as much liver as I used to but it could also be through malabsorption as whilst my IBS is better it is far from perfect. With the amount I have been running I have tried to up fat and that ups the IBS and things might have spiralled from there.  Not content with that I was also 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 ...

  Score - 9/10 Very Dated) Coverage : Training, mental (some), strength, elites Summary : I heard about Percy Cerutty in one of my other books and he sounded like a coach with a difference and someone whose training approach was broadly similar to mine, minus the low carb bit, but then this was years ago just as fats were getting ripped to shreds and he was work with pros, and he also did more intensity than I would generally suggest. Overall though it is a really interesting, if somewhat outdated read.  Full Review:  I recently heard of the coach Percy Cerutty and after some digging ended up with one of his books, “How to become a champion”, as a present for a birthday. The book is interesting and goes into a lot of his philosophies as a coach. The book is outdated in a lot of respects however it was a really interesting read and overall I feel my approach has a lot in common with what Cerutty was doing so many years ago. The book is well worth a read for the dedicated c...

Now I don't think there is a superfood out there but if I was to pick something to categorise as a superfood it would be liver. Liver has so many nutrients it is off the charts compared to most other foods out there. Even mainstream media sings the praises of Liver . There are lots of great resources out there but I have been known to neglect liver and honestly I felt worse for it. Evolutionary speaking should we eat it everyday or even every week? Probably not but I am going to make sure I get some liver every month and might look into the capsules again. Are they necessary? No, but then neither is running 70 miles a week whilst doing a full time job, looking after a child, a dog and all the other things we do so a little extra everyday with the real thing once a month probably won't be a bad thing. 

This is part of my reviewing historic episodes of marathon talk 10 year after they were released, in part to give me something to think about with running and because I always enjoyed listening to them and 10 years was a long time ago so I can enjoy them again.  It's only running. We must remember, especially as amateurs that it is only running and there is much more to life. Easy to say but can be hard to implement when you use it as such a driving force / purpose in your life. I dedicate so much time to researching and thinking about my training that I would struggle mentally if it were to be taken away from me.  Daft - extra physical activity as punishment. Should be encouraged and enjoyed. Physical activity is a gift not a punishment.  I agree with this, they discussed how in schools a lap round the field can be seen as a punishment. We should see physical activity as something to be enjoyed and loved and not something to traumatise people with. If you are forc...

Well this was a bit more of a step forward and is the performance I was looking for, ideally 9 seconds quicker would have been perfect but I still can't quite believe the streak I am on at the moment. This is a run I was really happy with. I set off at a solid pace and let the other 3 out front go off into the distance. Chris dropped slightly off the back of the other 2 and I had reeled him in by about 1.5k. By 5k I caught and passed Fin and Stuart but I know they are class runners and Fin was just using us to shelter from the wind.  I pushed hard after the turn around point, as per my visualisations, and knew Chris couldn't stick with the pace. Until last week I hadn't really beaten Chris when we were both trying and last week I ran the kick out of him and this week dropped him completely. At about 3k Fin kicked for home and I knew I couldn't go with him. I stuck with Stuart until 4.5k and then fought to stay as close to him as I could. It is actually the fastest he ha...

Episode 212 - Ben Livesey (British marathon debutant and prospect Ben Livesey  Here I listened to this episode of the podcast 10 years after it was released to see what training or just general information I could glean from it now that I am a more experienced runner and coach, I mean 10 years ago I was obese and eating rubbish.  Age isn't a barrier So my first observation was the longevity of some runners, they were talking about how well Galen Rupp is going and this weekend he is hoping to qualify for another Olympics. Just goes to show that age isn't a huge barrier, and for those of us that didn't run when we were younger we could still have many years of improvement and for us "high level" performance ahead.  Impact of flying / travel and recovery One of the hosts had to travel and as a result ended up with stiff legs. Just to remind everyone to be careful to their body and sometimes forgo a rigid schedule - as per Percy Cerutty " Rigid schedules… and lai...

Can you run fast without carbs? I certainly think so. 

My Score :  Coverage : Mental Training  Summary: Some powerful mind play here that expands on Alia Crum's TED talk, worth it if you want more detail. Has some overlap with the confident mind and think these 2 books combined make for a powerful mental training combo.  Review : This book, as you might expect, is about Expectations and the impact that can have with the mind body link. Think to the work I have discussed from Alia Crum , this is basically a book explaining that work in more detail along with practical examples of how to use it. Of course part of the benefit of this book is that in understanding the expectation effect you can benefit more from the expectation effect because you that is, at least in part what the mind body connection relies on.  Now, as I understand it, you can't of course make your mind do stuff to your body that it isn't capable of doing but the books outlines experiments / cases where the brain has been tricked into releasing opioids...

  This is a great talk on the mind and how powerful it can be off the work of Alia Crum. 

My Score 8/10 Category : Debunking myths on nutrition "The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It" by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick challenges conventional wisdom regarding cholesterol and its alleged link to heart disease. The author presents an alternative perspective that questions the validity of the widely accepted cholesterol hypothesis. Dr. Kendrick delves into the history of the cholesterol theory, examining the research that has shaped our understanding of heart disease. He argues that the demonization of cholesterol as the primary culprit in cardiovascular issues oversimplifies a complex set of factors that contribute to heart health. It is well known that the Ancel Keys published selective data to start the world on a route towards high carb, low fat and things snowballed from there. One of the strengths of the book is its accessibility to the general reader. Dr. Kendrick avoids overly technical language, making it easie...

  This is a video breakdown of my recent 10k race. 

 Today I ran a 10km PB in very windy conditions, I finished 6th in 37:05. Overall I am happy with the performance but would have liked 6 seconds quicker. The conditions were tough with gusty winds that have resulted in sever weather warnings over here and I basically ended up running it solo with the lead pack of 4 ahead and one guy passing me with 2k or so to go. My pacing was excellent and I couldn't have done much more. 

Honestly my standard day involves 2 burger patties (homemade, 250g uncooked weight each) for breakfast at around 9am, if I am hungry then another patty between 10:30-11:30 and then my final meal, another 2 patties, around 1-2pm. It is normally beef but sometimes lamb, the middle meal will sometimes be swap for lamb chops but at the moment my life is around 1kg of burger patties day. Ah I should add they will be lightly or heavily salted to taste.

My Score 7/10 Categories Covered: General Running book This book, Run Britain, is an interesting tale that could be useful to inspire those looking to do Ultra's or multi day events or indeed just those looking to see what the human body can do.  Nick will take you on a tour of the country hitting the most Southern, Eastern, Northern and Western points of the mainland and coming out of it with a lot of tales and friends. Now is this book in any way a guide on how you should train and run? Certainly not. If anything he drives himself well past the limits of what the human body should do, essentially running on broken limbs and to the point of reaching an unhealthy level of body fat  What he achieves is remarkable and I would love to see how someone even better prepared could do. He mentions how badly he got through his shoes, would barefoot shoes / exercises in training have better prepared his feet, ankles, shins and body in general for what he was going to endure? He talks ab...

So this weekend just gone I grabbed another PB with 17:23 at my local event, crazy I hadn't run a sub 18 in 8 months at the start of November and now I am getting towards the low 17 minutes. As someone who always struggles with their weight I am still amazed at the progress I have made and have recently started wearing extra small clothes, not bad considering I used to be XXXL.  This weekend I have the joy of pacing one of my athletes at parkrun as I am racing a 10k on the Sunday. Annoyingly the weather forecast is changing from still and cold to warmer and windy but it will be the same conditions for everyone. I set my PB on this course last year and it is quick but on the prom so the wind will determine if I get a PB or not this year, all I can do is run my best race.  I approach all races with a positive mindset and I am in such good form that I could easily bag a PB and maybe a top 10 finish. My weight is in a great place and I have been sleeping well, and my diet is the c...

I decided to create a Carnivore Facebook Running Group. I find it really hard to find people to talk about low carb running let along carnivore running. This group is for anyone who finds this page and is interested in both running and the carnivore diet. https://www.facebook.com/groups/340193732143896

Another Saturday morning and another PB, another 2 seconds off. Honestly I was a little bit disappointed with this one. I felt that the conditions were a big improvement on recent weeks so was hoping for low 17:2x, perhaps I was being a little too optimistic. I mean looking at the results there were not many PBs, certainly up the front there were only 3 in the top 20. Again I got out kicked but myself and the other guy worked really well together. So now I have run under 17:30 and am 2 seconds away from entering the top 100 of all time. 

 So on Saturday, oh wait hang on it was a parkrun special, on Monday1st Jan I set a new parkrun PB of 17:31. Obviously I am self coached and things have been going really well recently. I am finding my stride, if we could just get good conditions at parkrun who knows what I might do. With some more consistent training I am hoping to get into 17:1x before we hit the summer course again and things slow down due to the grass, turns and the heat. Then next winter I want that 16:59!  This is my run over Christmas, on the morning of 11th / 11 my PB was 17:53 so I have knocked off 22 seconds in the last 6 weeks! I am the one on the left, this is at around 4.2k and it was feeling hard!

 My nutrition is very important to me, as it should be. The saying:  "You can't outrun a bad diet"  Is certainly right for me, I seem to only have to sniff something off my standard lifestyle and I gain a few pounds. Feel free to keep reading but a good background to my approach is the following video. You can break my history down into the following phases:  Childhood - Was active and ate what I like but got away with it.  16+ - Ate rubbish and decreased activity so my weight went up to around 20 stone.  End of 2014 - Went low carb and lost weight quickly, by the end of the year I was 154 down from 263lbs.  2016 - 2017 - My weight remained pretty stable although I added more nuts, cream and things like Grenade bars. During the start of 2017 I marathon trained and got injured but continued to eat like I was marathon training so gained weight.  2018 - Complete write off. I stayed low carb but "dirty" with things like keto cakes and the other th...