Back in September I made a vow to cut out junk food and focus on getting fit for the Saddleworth Santa Dash, a 5km run through the leafy villages of Oldham’s Yorkshire end.
This took place today. I ended with a respectable 30:53, my fastest on a Santa Dash.
In prepping for the Dash I focussed on repping out, bodyweight exercises, gym classes and running. I managed, yesterday, to dip below 80kg again. The gym computer told me my body fat is down, but so is my muscle content, which doesn’t surprise me. I’d done a bodybuilding project back in March where I put on quite a bit. Back in 2013, I managed to run at 14.1 km/ph for 10 minutes. I then went to Ibiza, came back, and I couldn’t get anywhere near it. Make of that what you will. But for a decade, I’ve been intermittently trying to hammer away at this running record via diet and outdoor road running. I’d get better, then worse again. I’d tend to run at 14km/ph for as long as I could, and add 15 seconds on every time. I’d rarely get above the 5 minute mark. More recently, though, my fitness seems to have taken a leap forward, and I managed the full 10 minutes at 14km/ph on the 25th last month. On the 28th, I had another go at 14.1km/ph and got the full 10 minutes again.
Not sure what’s allowed this leap in fitness, tbh. This is my oldest gym record. I was so hoping I could beat it before the race, but no. And now it’s advent, and I’m unlikely to be eating as healthily.
This is where psychology ties in: in order to get my fitness to where it is, I had to fight cravings, ignore junk food, eat well, up my vegetable intake and stay focussed.
Big up the Saddleworth Round Table for organising. Great work.
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