William Chong

One of the more frequent questions I get asked when I tell them I’ve been training for a half-marathon is:

“How much weight have you lost?”

To be honest, I haven’t lost more than 2 or 3kg in body mass for all the months of ugly-running bluster. My waistline has remained marginally unflattering largely because of my diet; I’ve pretty much increased my food intake to match my running. Post-exercise nutrition is usually something like a banana, or a muesli bar. That’s in addition to water during short runs, Powerade for longer ones (>60 minutes) – and I always succumb to large meal portions after everything else!

Another reason I haven’t made the transition from soft-toy belly to the 6-pack of envy is that I’ve largely ignored strength and core training. I think I did it for a few sessions earlier on… but trying to fit that into my schedule – in addition to all the running – would have been a little crazy and unmanageable.

And besides, no one said you had to be perfectly chiselled to hit the streets.

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Hope everyone’s having a good long weekend – if you’re reading this you should be out and about enjoying your holiday! Go forth!

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Hi everyone – just thought I’d type this out while being stuck in heavy Auckland traffic.

Today I’ve been flirting with the possibility of upping the ante on my half-marathon attempt, and perhaps going the full 42 km instead. It’s apparently not too late to switch, and all of those donations would then be worth twice as many kilometers! Of course, it could end up being a disaster if my body suddenly finds itself unable to cope with the extra burden, and I fail to complete the race before nightfall!

One of the more frequent questions I get asked when I tell them I’ve been training for a half-marathon is: “How much weight have you lost?”

To be honest, I haven’t lost any weight for all the months of ugly-running bluster. I think that my waistline has remained marginally unflattering largely because of my diet; I’ve pretty much increased my food intake to match my running. Post-exercise nutrition is usually something like a banana, or a muesli bar. That’s in addition to regular Powerade and water during runs, and large meal portions after everything else!

All the serious runners will be using their own specially-formulated drinks and crazy hi-energy gel foods and camel packs. That’s crazy stuff…