So after 4 weeks on the Ketogenic diet, the question is: “Am I ready for Whistler?”. O Saturday I race the 5 Peaks race at Whistler – a 6.6 km with a good amount of climbing and a huge descent to finish.
Whistler is actually the first trail race I did last year so this is my first time running a race for the second time. So I have a time to compare from last year. Last year I finished 8th overall and 4th in my age, so not a bad start. I’m curious where I will be at this year after much more training and this new diet
My discipline in maintaining the diet has been good, though my protein and dairy intake are probably higher than ideal. But the real indicator is how I perform in workouts.
So the real workout tests would be my two high-intensity routes: The Grind and Old Buck.
I try to do the Grind weekly but have done a pretty crappy job of that this year. And my performance has not been great. I have yet do do a sub-40:00 time (Did a couple below 36:00 last year) and haven;t felt good on too many of my climbs. That said, I did a number of them while transitioning to this new diet.
Old Buck, up Seymour Mountain is where I go to do hill intervals. I do 8 x 30 second sprints with 1:30 to 2:00 walking rest in between. I push hard on these intervals and then either sprint the whole way down or interval down (to go easy on my knees).
Last week I did both – Old Buck in the evening followed by the Grind in the morning. Not a particularly clever training strategy when fighting an IT Band injury, but these things happen.
In short, both workouts were great. I killed it in Old Buck, sprinting hard to my last interval and doing some good downhill technique work to strengthen my glutes to aid my IT issues. I had no energy drop whatsoever. The Grind the next day was a bit tiring, but still on par with others I have done this year, which is a good result considering the previous evening’s workout.
So heading into Whistler I feel pretty good. I worked out only lightly this week including some upper body work, and may do a short run tonight. I do very well with a good week of rest before I race.
And what will my pre-race nutrition be if I am not carb-loading? I think I will eat light on Friday with lots of oily fats and light protein to really get into ketosis, then on race morning I will go with my version of the bullet proof coffee: Strong coffee with 2 TBSP of coconut oil. It’s become my daily favourite!
Oh, and my weight going into this race? Last measure was about 181, but we’ll see how we are tomorrow morning, which will be my less weighing before heading off.
And away we go…
