The Primal Blueprint

Over the past few weeks I've hinted at some lifestyle changes I have made and the effects these have had. After being challenged by Frank in his response to a recent post I confessed that I have gone primal. Well sort of. I have not commited 100% but even so, the impact has been significant. This post is not going to be a promotional advert for primal living but will just report the effects that going primal has had on me.

It was about 2 months ago that I decided to make the change. A friend had been convinced and was committed and I will admit that my curiousity was aroused. I like to think that I have an open mind and that following conventional wisdom is not something I usually do (for example I have been an advocate of 'reverse periodisation' for some years) and so I decided to buy the book. The book is written in a very straightforward and easily understood way and it all seemed to make sense. Our ancestors ate a lot of fruit and veg with meat and fish and moved a lot at a relatively slow speed and then sprinted at full capacity when required (eg to make a kill or to avoid being killed). By all accounts our ancestors were lean and fit (or dead!), so why shouldn't this approach work in the 21st Century? The Primal way of living is also supported by science so is not some sort of wacky 'fad'.

I will admit that part of my interest was the relative simplicity of it; avoid all grains and anything processed. OK, that is a vast over-simplification but in my own mind this is what sold it to me. Yes, I had to give up a number of foods that I really enjoy: bread; pasta; pizza etc are now off limits. But I am allowed a small amount of chocolate and red wine, so it's not all bad. I will admit that there were some things I did not give up; I really enjoy my breakfast of weetabix and muesli so I continued with this, although reduced the amount by half to at least show willing (if only to myself!).

So what effect did these changes have? The most obvious is that I lost weight, and a bunch of it, quite quickly. In 2006 I raced Ironman at 11 stone 4 pounds (71.8kg) and since then have considered this to be my 'race weight', ie the lowest weight I could reasonably achieve. When I went Primal I weighed 11 12 but I now weigh 11 2, a loss of 10 pounds and less than when I raced IM when I considered myself to be lean. I feel energetic and am really enjoying my meals so there seem to be very few negatives.

But training has also become much simpler as well; do a lot at low intensity (less than 75% of max heart rate (MHR)), avoid the 'chronic cardio' zone (75 - 90% MHR), and 'sprint' a couple of times a week (in excess of 90% MHR). I will confess that this has challenged me more than the eating aspects of going Primal, but I do not appear to have suffered any loss of performance and, based on how I rode the New Forest Spring Sportive last weekend, it could be argued that I have made some improvement. So maybe this is working as well? The proof (at least for me) will come in October when I ride the bike leg of Quelle Challenge Barcelona; I rode 5 hours 17 minutes in 2009 based on a 'conventional' training programme. It will be very interesting to see how I manage on a Primal programme. If it's right I will go under 5 hours; if it's wrong I will have wasted a year.

Please don't ask me to explain the science or try and dissuade me from my chosen path; all I will say is that I am very pleased I made the choice and would certainly encourage others to at least take the time and read the book.

Train smart folks.