A Triathlon Diet and Tracking Weight Loss vs Run Speed

I competed in the White Oak Tri back in June and was more than a little miffed to discover that I hadn't really improved my times since last year's race, while my run was actually slower.

I had a good hard think, and decided that it was finally time to start shifting a few pounds. I lined up at White Oak, about two stonea (28lbs) lighter than my heaviest ever weight (in my late 20s), but still some three stones (42lbs) above the twelve and a half stone that I'd guess would be my ideal triathlon weight. I've tended to use the biking and running I do as an excuse to eat and drink whatever I felt like, rather than taking the more sensible approach of using my diet to improve my performance. Time for a change, right?

So since early June, I've been cutting the booze, the fatty food, and the calories, and upping the protein (lots of cottage cheese, beans, and Quorn), the healthy carbs, and the training miles.

From doing a little research on the internet (e.g. here) I've discover that for every pound of weight lost, I should be able to expect about a two second improvement over the course of a 5km run. As I usually track my runs with Strava, and have been tracking my weight with DailyBurn, I thought it might be interesting to track how my run speed improves as I shed a few pounds, and find out whether this gain is realistic or not.

So here, courtesy of my wife, is my tracking for the first month of my triathlon diet.

Weight Loss vs Run Speed: Month 1

Weight in pounds is on the left, average run speed for the different runs I've done are on the right. Dates are along the bottom.

My run times are up and down of course, as run routes, distances, and running effort have varied, but the graph suggests a steady downward trend: if anything, the two seconds per pound over 5km might turn out to be a little conservative, though I suppose it's hard to tell after just four weeks and ten runs. Subjectively, I feel like my running is improving as I get lighter. Instead of making progress on the bike (my strongest discipline), and then just watching people go past me on the run, I'm starting to more or less hold my own, overtaking roughly as many people as I'm overtaken by.

Stay tuned, as I keep tracking my progress over the next couple of runs. Any comments more than welcome!