Keto Questions

Oh that was a horrible long 16km run this morning - with a great deal of walking being done; mostly on the up hills, and even the inclines, of which there seemed to be quite a few. A long slow run, at around 8.30/km - how can you run that slowly?! Trying to keep my cadence at 180 and practice my chi running, just seems to push me forward with the end result that my HR shoots up to way above long slow run level and I end up having to walk. And my legs? Buggered! From the word go! They were alright on the downhills and down clines (?!) but anything else and they were just lead weights :-( 

So, this Keto diet thing, can I make it work for me? I love the idea, and the science, behind it, but right now I need to make some changes and find some help and answers. 

I know I am Keto adapted, the little test strips tell me so, although I don't count my carbs. I do check everything that I put in my body, carb-wise, and I eat natural, home-cooked food the vast majority of the time. I'm now wondering about my electrolytes. Can you buy over the counter test strips for potassium and magnesium? Maybe I'm not getting enough sodium, although I do eat bacon just about every day (yum!)? 

This morning I felt a bit light headed a number of times, and at one point, if I'd had some puréed apple and banana with me (organic baby food in a pouch) I'd have troughed it down - which is why I deliberately didn't put one in my water belt pocket! So, I just walked slowly up the very steep hill and thought about how beautiful the morning was :-) 

Perhaps yesterday's food wasn't sufficiently suitable; a smoothie with Greek yoghurt, coconut cream, almond milk and cocoa (before, during and after a 2 hour 40 min gym session which included 50 mins of step cardio), 2 coconut flour pancakes with marmalade butter sauce (mmmmmm!), a small, thin-crust quiche from Bakers Delight, and homemade chicken curry with lots of cream and cauliflower rice. Oh, and some cheese and a glass and a half of red wine - well, it was Saturday night!

So, off to do some more reading - I will not be beaten! 

Feet and Food

Taking advantage of a bit of free time to make a few notes. Sunday evening and long run done. Notice I said a long run, not a long, slow run. Well, it wasn't fast, coz I don't do fast as such, but it wasn't the keep the HR below 130 kind of slow; impossible with hills. Today ended up being a mixture of everything - running, walking, stopping and resting, with some intervals (uphill) and a bit of speed work thrown in (downhill!!) Heart rate got up to 180 at one point! Well, I didn't run on Friday, as I should have, because of family commitments, as well as a sore Post Tib, so I thought I might as well take advantage of my high HR and push it up further - I do like a challenge! All in all reasonably happy with my  outing. On the other hand, or may be that should be foot, I am quite down about my injury. 

It's actually been sore all week, and my orthotics have been uncomfortable, especially in my right shoe - not even my poorly foot! 

That's all I managed to write on Sunday! It's now Tuesday and another 8.5km done to Glenfield College and back, with altered orthotics. Similar tactics to Sunday's run and last Tuesday's - if the HR goes really high, might as well start doing some intervals. Each time I started up again after a rest, I actually felt really strong felt that I was running quite hard, I just can't maintain it yet for any length of time, but I do think I'm improving. 

I am not totally sure yet that my LCHF diet is the best thing for my running. Great for losing those stubborn kilos on my bum, and my abs are pretty visible now, but my legs felt really rather heavy for at least half of that run and I'm sure if I'd eaten some more carbs I'd have felt a lot more lively. However, I'm going to persist for a while yet, and so some more reading about Keto diets and ultra running because I do think the idea makes sense, and I think there are runners out there following this type of diet who are very successful with it. 

There's lots to find out about - Sunday after my 15km long run, although I actually felt great during it, not once feeling the for need sustenance, I kept feeling incredibly light-headed, obviously needing food. That was only after 2 hours, so when I'm out for probably about 10 hours on my race day, I'm going to be needing to eat plenty on the run, and probably some carbs too. So, just in case anybody else is reading this, and you happen to know a bit about Keto diets and ultra running, then please give me some tips!