Modifying the Norwegian approach to lower mileage

It took me probably a month before I stopped being so hungry and now I’ve lost 4kgs. I will actually eat less on easy days and slightly more on harder days. I make sure I don’t do any runs fasted these days and I think that’s made a big difference also.

Any runs over a hour I take on carbs during the run - sports drink in hand held soft flask and gels every 40 minutes.

Cutting back from 4 to 5 beers every Friday and Saturday night has no doubt helped too.

So I think all of above contributes to me losing weight and not feeling as hungry as I used to

not so serious: Sir, the mars bar is for the RACE only. not before every run...

(and I am on the heavy side of runners as well, as I picked up gym also 2 years ago 5 extra kilos since then)

Serious: add some weeky miles without changing anything else?

Hmm I do all my runs early morning starting 5:30 to 6am, eating a couple of hours beforehand is not practical. Does it make that big of a difference? How long do you eat before your runs?

I start my runs 6am weekdays. I eat a muesli bar (30 grams carbs) right before I go out door plus 1 espresso. So not a proper breakfast but something. I then eat a regular breakfast after. Usually wake 530 and eating around 545am. So not waking up long before I run. I used to never eat beforehand but something I’ve found is I don’t seem to get anywhere near as sore.

not sure if that’s cos of the training, eating beforehand or fact I have incorporated some harder downhill work at times

Having the same issue. I think the solution is probably the same concept as the big-picture view of NSA: a training load that is just enough to increase fitness but is so sustainable that it's possible to maintain it week after week with no down weeks. Meaning, for dieting, it probably needs to be a stupidly small calorie deficit each day (50kcal??) with weight loss therefore taking quite a while to happen but with the deficit staying maintainable day after day after day.

In the end, I think the key to improvement lies in eating enough ice cream and having Nesquik at night. I'm 46 years old, I train in 26–27°C temperatures with 80% humidity, and the key to controlling intensity is understanding that easy days must be easy. The problem is that with this heat and humidity, after 30 minutes your heart rate tends to spike even if you're going slow.
On easy runs, try adding 1-minute walking breaks every 15 or 20 minutes, and during intervals it's much easier to recover with 1 minute of walking than 2 minutes of jogging at an easy pace.
In short, it all comes down to consistency. I haven’t even been running for three years, I run six days a week with no injuries, and I’m getting faster. Don’t overthink it—45-year-olds aren't old, just a little less young, but you can still perform really well.
I went from being completely sedentary for over 20 years to running a 20:10 5K in less than three years, and there’s still a lot of room for improvement. The key is finding a method that lets you stay consistent and injury-free. Bottom line: lots of easy running and interval sessions at threshold or sub-threshold pace—and adding one slightly faster day won’t get you injured.

Why start your post with this ?

What the guy posted could easily be sirpoc approved.

My biggest takeaway from this whole thread, is his pre marathon breakfast lol then go out and run a perfectly paced marathon on debut on a day where even experienced guys fell apart.

At that point of the thread I stopped caring about how careful I was with my diet and legitimately hasn't made one iota of difference. Devastating I spent years of eating what I thought I needed, for it to make zero difference.

What you’re saying is not what that poster was saying, and it was at best a silly, unfunny joke wholly disconnected from the other part of the post

And sirpoc has run well over time. Increasingly faster. He ran a good marathon on that day.

And what you infer from his progress is that being careful with one’s diet makes “zero difference.”

That’s not as spurious as the reasoning from those who posted in another thread about Rono’s alcohol consumption making “zero difference,” but it’s at least the lite version of that brand of foolishness.

I’ll concede that once you reach a certain level of having a good diet, additional attempts to be strictly “correct” about diet yield diminishing returns. Is that the same as being careful about diet making “zero difference”?

Exactly, when Sirpoc posted his breakfast I thought — I'm doing it right 😂😂. Last year I ran Siete Aguas in Valencia and the pre-race meal was two choripans. I don’t really watch my breakfasts either — milk and donuts, muffins... and in December I devour 5 kg of polvorones. I do have to watch my cholesterol, it's a bit high… 215. But maybe these extra calories actually help with running

I typically wake at 4:15-4:20 a.m. and am out the door by 5:00. Aside from ensuring a good dinner the night before, the first thing I do is head to the kitchen and chug down 8-10 ounces of Skratch Hydration (with some LMNT added this time of year) and eat 1/2 to a whole sheet of graham cracker. Right before heading out the door I take a GU for a quick hit of carbs. This holds me over just fine for weekday 60-65' runs on subT days. On non-subT days, I skip the GU.

On long run/subT combo day, I do the same but also take a PF30 gel at 35-40 minutes into the run (75-80' total this time of year). This along with a handheld of Skratch seems to work well.

Don't forget your AG1 and the BPN Go One More Powder (click the link in description for a free BJ by either huberman or nick)

Are you going to sleep at 8 pm ?

9 p.m. bedtime most night. On days where I work from home and on Saturday's, I can usually slide those times by 30-45 minutes. But I'm also post-kids and my wife works an all-over-the-place retail schedule, so on nights where she closes, I definitely take advantage and go to bed earlier.

Isn't the perfect runner pre-race/workout meal just pop tarts and bananas anyway

The problem is, most people could never accurately count a deficit that low and stay motivated losing 1 lb every 10 weeks.

What I'll probably try doing is eating back calories from runs, meaning my workout days and long run day I'll eat more, and try to maintain a 300-500 calorie deficit. As far as staying satiated, I guess I'll try and eat as cleanly as possible so I get plenty of fiber and protein? In my experience, losing a few extra pounds is never fun or easy when you're not "overweight" but are on the higher end of the "normal" BMI scale, regardless if you're running or not.

I thought you were supposed to put away 4-5 beers BEFORE the sub sessions

Ive been doing this backwards the whole time