Is there such a thing as being tooooo thin...?

As I mentioned in the last post, I gave up eating sugary foods about 4-5 months back. I also gave up eating fried stuff, which wasn't that much of a sacrifice, greasy food isnt really what gets MY knickers in a twist. Anyway, I happened to lose some weight.

(so what does this have to do with a running blog, you're asking... wait, Im getting to it...)

Since then, everyone's been telling me things like You've really lost weight, I can look around you now. The polite ones have been saying stuff like you've sort of lost your belly, which was like your butler, it announced your presence three minutes before you actually entered a room.

Charming. I must have been a real Miss Piggy before, without really realizing it, since as per me, I have lost only about 4kgs over 4 months, which is a decent amount, but its not like I dropped 150 kgs in 6 months, like those poeple you see on Oprah. In response to their stupefaction at my new silhouette, I have been preening piously and gabbing on about not having eaten sugar yada yada yada. And feeling quite pleased with myself in a non- butler- belly sort of way.


Ok, enough already about the boring diet bit. Here comes the running part.

Sunday was supposed to be my long run for this week. I was supposed to do 11.2 kms - 7 miles. So I get up in the morning, hit the track, start off great, am running along ok, legs feeling strong , mind feeling positive. Then, all of a sudden after 6 or so kms, with no premeditated plan, literally on the spur of the moment,I simply run off the track, cut across the rolling little hills and paths and thickets of jacaranda trees and frangipani trees, lope with an intensity I havent experienced in my running of late, all the way to the parking lot, sit in my car and drive home.

Hmmmmmmmm.

While I drove home I thought about what had just happened. It's almost as if I simply could not run another step. It wasnt as if I was stumbling and fumbling and fighting with myself to carry on and then deciding I really didnt have the energy to.One minute I was running ok, and the next I had veered off across the trees and was sitting in my car.

If this were some sort of lawyer show on TV, and instead of simply driving home, I had taken a pick axe to somebody, I would now be pleading not guilty by reason of temporary insanity. Because that's exactly what it felt like. Temporary insanity.

When I think about it, my runs have been tortured of late. I'm not a natural long distance runner, i know that. I adore running about 5 kms or so, more than that i really have to work myself into. However I have never been so unable to push my body for such a long period. So maybe I'm doing something wrong.

You're too thin to run, my (non runner, butler belly comment) friend chortled when i called her up to report on this momentary lapse of reason. I always knew this silly diet of yours would boomerang on you. You have no fat on you, and you arent eating any fat either, so where will you get your energy from?

Ok, its not a diet. Giving up sugar and fried stuff isnt really putting oneself on starvation rations. Also, how terribly charitable to think that i have to spend my life veering between a butler belly and the lack of it boomeranging, how unfair is THAT? Most importantly, Paula Radcliffe my friend aint- she's never run three steps in her life and has no clue about nutrition so its not as if she knows what she's really talking about.

I havent been eating badly at all. By a long shot. I eat two fruit for breakfast, along with tea, whole wheat toast and an egg. Sometimes I skip the egg and eat oats instead. For lunch I have vegetables, lentils, rice, salad, yogurt. At tea time I eat fruit, tea, millet biscuits, whole wheat crackers and dinners the same as lunch. Occasionally I eat meat ( not very fond of it!) and not so occasionally I have many glasses of beer. or wine! I drink lots of water every day. I think i eat fine.

But I cant deny, I havent been able to push up the mileage the way I generally can. Running 7 miles isnt really something that's like climbing Mount Everest. Yet my body is scuttling away from the task before I get the chance to intervene. So could she be right?

Was eating sugar ( lots of it) and the occasional fried samosa what was nurturing and nourishing my butler belly and therefore allowing me to run? Was my adipose fuelling my adrenalin? Has my body, independent of me, managed to prove that you really CAN be too thin...? And can you really be too thin without being too thin? ( as in too thin to run without being to thin to exist, since at 5'5" and 55 kgs, I'm not exactly fading away)

What do YOU think?

And right after you've figured it out can you please help me disprove the too rich part as well....?