I discovered this when I was scouring the Internet for anything dealing with running and Keto. It was mentioned in another blog by a woman who was extolling the vertues of running while on the Keto diet. She was explaining that it was easier for someone new to running to pick it up if on the Keto diet and harder for those already used to running. The main reason for this is the need to SLOW DOWN. Which can be very hard for experienced runners to accept. She suggested this book, so I decided to check it out.
I’m only half way through reading it, but I can see how it dovetails into Keto well, even though the author never mentions it. The idea is that to race faster, a runner should spend 80% of their training time running at low intensity and 20% at high intensity, avoiding moderate intensity altogether. Most recreational competitive runners train almost exclusively at moderate intensity. The author makes the argument that most elite runners follow this formula and so should recreational competative runners.
I know, it sounds crazy that practicing slower can make you race faster. But then again, we’re on a WOE that says eat fat to lose fat, so these contradictions go well together.
The reason it works well with Keto is that after getting through the adaption phase, I’ve lost so much performance that I have no choice but to slow down. But most importantly, by running slower, we keep our heart rate in fat burning levels longer, thus optimizing the fat buring potential of Keto.
I’m currently doing what the author calls the Week of Slow. He compares it to a diet cleanse. It’s not intended to be long term but instead break your habits before moving onto a longer term, healthier way of exercising. The idea is to spend a week running at the slowest pace possible. Find that transition pace between fast walking and jogging and stay there. You increase your distance each run, but not your pace. It’s kind of hard not to speed up and you have to keep telling yourself to slow down.
After this week I will set up a training schedule that will use my heart rate and pace to stay in low intensity 80% of the time and high intensity 20%.
The thing I’m liking so far is 1) having the energy to run again. I know this is coming from becoming adapted finally, but also because the pace makes me feel like I can go forever. And 2) I’m enjoying the actual run vs trying to keep a pace close to my racing pace, thinking I need to do that to improve my times. I’ve always said “I’m not a runner” and people will say of course I am. But my definition of a runner is someone who loves to run. My runner friends would tell me I would learn to love it, but I never really did. I loved how I felt after running, and I loved how I felt winning races for my age group, but the actual running not so much. It was a means to an end. Anyway, I found myself really enjoying my super slow jog. I enjoyed the sceanery and did more deep thinking than I normally do running when much of my mental tasks were take up thinking about what muscle ached or playing mind games with myself to just reach a certain point in the distance before I could consider giving up and walking.
The book is called 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower by Matt Fitzgerald.
I’ll let you know how it goes when I get into the actual training portion.
