Thu, May-22-08, 09:13
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Senior Member
Posts: 6,378
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Plan: Atkins72/Paleo/NoGrain/IF
Stats: 285/220/200
BF:
Progress: 76%
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ValerieL
Janine, if you don't mind some suggestions from my experience ~ I run, too, and also find I'm dragging through my runs when I'm on very low-carb. In my experience, your impulse to stop running and concentrate on losing the weight is a step in the right direction. Don't stop running, just stop working on speed and concentrate on your mileage, even if you have to drop the pace you are currently running at. Put away your watch and just start running at a pace you feel comfortable at, increasing your mileage as you want to. You'll be slower, but you'll be building that aerobic base you need for a half and burning lots of calories to help lose weight. If your protein intake is adequate, the large muscle exercise of running will help you retain your muscle base. You'll get faster as you get lighter and you'll get faster as your body adapts to the very low-carb. And when you are closer to your half, maybe 3-4 months out, you can start adding back in some work to increase your speed.
I don't know if you have the same problem, but I tend to run at a fairly high intensity on most of my runs (maybe 7-7.5 out of 10 perceived exertion) and it's just not possible to keep that up and improve while doing very low-carb. It bugs me to no end, but when I cut back my intensity to maybe 5ish out of 10, I can run without feeling like I'm dragging my butt due to the lack of carbs.
Just my experience, if it helps.
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That's very helpful. Thank you. I think a couple things happened. I had a fall on my knee and a bone bruise on my leg from over a month ago that started acting up when I whooshed down so I need to take care of those in addition to fighting the fatigue. I'll be running in the pool for that until I feel like I can run without reinjuring them. I am a lucky runner in the sense that my perceived exertion is not very high and I can run very comfortably for a long time, but if I ramped it down at all I would hardly be running (I run 12:30 miles). My lung capacity is very good and I can talk through any workout, so in that sense I am not overdoing it ever. I think my body is just rebelling in all sorts of ways right now and I need to take it easy. I'll run in the pool today and see if I can get to work next week running on at least one day (about 5 miles on my new route). Thanks four your suggestions - I just bought a watch but I'll wait to use it and just enjoy the warm weather running I can do now.
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