Whilst losing weight

Nutrition Discussions
1

Whilst losing weight, should you notice any drop off in levels of performance?

I am English, and ran last European season. I ran relatively well, in that I had improved my pbs from the previous season. My last run of that season was in September, and I was relatively happy with my performance. Then I did a brief bit of winter training uptil the end of November.

On November 20th I came to Australia, and didn’t get athletics training specifically right away. I did my best to keep fit though, uptil the end of December I jogged 10-15km a week, and was doing sit ups and press ups on a daily basis, nothing major though. At the very end of December I started doing general gym work. Just what the guy at the gym set me. It was a relatively comfortable weight, and doing 2x20 on each excericse. The exercises were the usual machine weight ones, like chest press etc. Towards the end of January I got more specific in concentrating on weight training as a sprinter. Also in mid/late January, I started trying to lose weight. I was very strict on what I ate, keeping carbs very low, as well as fat, and having lots of protein. I lost 5kg since then, so we’re talking a month or so, maybe just under. At the very beginning of February I started doing some track work with a club out here.

As it’s Australian season now, I decided to do a couple of races, and I thought I would be in good shape, as I’m lighter, and stronger than I was for the Uuropean season. However, I was devestated to find my 60m time was 0.3 slower than I ran indoors this time last year. My 100 time was 0.7 off my PB, and 0.3 off what I was consistently running. Also, my 200 time was 1.3 seconds off my PB, a PB which I ran at or very close to consistently last year (the 60 and 200 were run into a headwind, the 100 with a slight wind). I’m concerned that my European outdoor season is going to be affected, and I will not improve. I am trying to work out what it is that has affected my performance, and I wonder if it’s anything to do with the fact I’m trying to lose weight. Can anyone help me out here? Does anyone know what the problem may be? I wasn’t expecting to go out and run PBs particularly cos of the time of year is was, but I was expecting to get close to my PBs, within a couple of tenths of each maybe.

Please help me on this one. I dunno what I need to do to get back to where I was. incidently I won’t be competing again until May when I’m back in the UK.

2

You spent a considerable amount of time DE-TRAINING the qualities you developed during the European season and now you must re-train them. This is why you never want to get very far away from speed work in the first place. You’ll now have to be a little patient while you re-acquire the sprint- specific abilities. Thoughts?

3

Yeh, I can see exactly what you mean. How long do you think it will take?

I’m aware of what you are saying. However, I have a feeling there may be something else as well as the de-training, because in June 2001 I injured my hamstring, which prevented me from doing any proper training till November that year. Then in January 2002 I ran a 60m, and ran a PB by 0.2 seconds. But could that be because those 2 months or so training was enough to re-train my body? And then improve it some more? Also in May 2002 I injured my other hamstring and had about 3 weeks off training, but I ran a 200 after a session or 2 back from the injury and ran a PB by 0.1. Then I re-injured that hamstring, and had another 3 weeks or so off, but came back so after coming back to training to run just as well as I had done before the injury, or before both for that matter.

So you don’t think it’s related to weight loss?

4

All factors must be considered, but, first get your therapy situation organized and have your hams checked over before you start raisinf the stress levels too far. You need to break up any scar tissue or adhesions that might be present.