Thursday, November 4, 2010

Three Things Thursday

1.  I am tired.  My runner's high from the weekend took me all the way through yesterday.  That's pretty good, right?  Now though,  I'm officially tired.  I even went to the gym on Tuesday!  Felt great.  Kicked out 3 miles, no problem.  Snoozed the alarm yesterday.  Snoozed the alarm today.  Maybe I'll go tonight.

2.  I'm thinking some of you may be curious to how my carb loading went last week.  In my humble opinion I think it went awesome!  In the moment I really felt like I was eating a lot - the goal was to eat an extra 800 calories a day.  My usual intake is around 1600 calories a day, give or take.  I came across this interesting article a couple weeks ago and I really wanted to put it to the test.  If you checked the calculator when I posted a couple weeks ago, check it again now - they added some explanation at the bottom of the page.

So I began on Wednesday, which was a car travel day for me.  I almost made it to 2000 calories.  Of course I could have probably made it to 2400 but I didn't want to eat a ton of convenience food crap.  So 2000 was okay with me - plus it was the first carb day.  Here's what it looked like:

1 bacon       80
2 egs           140
toast w butter 170
1/2 c OJ      50
rasp scone   200
trail mix      100
ham sand   160
chips     120
pb & crackers 200
turkey & ham sand  300
chips    150
lt lemonade  40
pb & crakcers 200 

Thursday still included some car travel time.  We didn't make it to Oakland til late afternoon.  I got my calories in though.  I also wanted to get a run in that night but it just didn't happen.  In that same article he mentions getting in some running in the days leading up to the race - even some sprints at the end of the run.  I really wanted to try it but couldn't.  In the past, Tuesday or Wednesday is my last running day before the race and it's usually just an easy 3 miler.  Here's what Thursday looked like:

wheat toast             120
butter                       50
1 egg                       70
1/2 c OJ                  50
yogurt                      60
1/2 banana               50
muffin                     150
2 1/2 pieces pizza   750
soda                       100
cinn stick                200
salad                      150
2 c rice                   200
chicken & noodles  150
toast                       150

On Friday I definitely made sure I got my calories in and tried to eat only carbs.  This day I really felt roley poley.  And of course ended the day with pasta.  Here's Friday:

2 toast          300
butter            100
yogurt           170
granola         150
pear             80
peanut butter
& crackers    200
ham sand      400
banana          100
2 c pasta      400
1 cup rice    100
toast             300
butter           100 

Race morning I felt really good.  I ate a peanut butter sandwich and banana about an hour before the race.  The other big thing that was different at this race was that I had to carry my own water.  On my training runs I've been putting in electrolyte drops in my water instead of using sports drink.  This was the first time I did it in a marathon and it worked amazingly well.  It was easier to get all my clif shots down and I honestly never got that yucky tummy feeling like I have in the past.  Too much sports drink sloshing around does a number on me, but you need those electrolytes!  So I use Endure Drops - I think they're fab.  You can check out some of the supplements I use here.

I also took 4 Pure Endurance pills a half hour before the race and 3 more at about the 2.5 hour mark.  The ones I took half-way through had caffeine and I'm pretty convinced that it made a difference.

So a lot of things going on with nutrition here.  My big point - I never hit a wall.  I was happy the whole race.  You might remember in Park City I was pretty angry, frustrated, miserable.  Even Top of Utah marathon I PR'ed but cramped and pulled my hamstring at 21 miles.  I think those 3 days of carbs really made a difference.  I had the usual post-race soreness for a couple of days, but I was running on Tuesday and other than being tired no soreness whatsoever.  Pretty great.  I can attribute some of that to my slow finish time and the soft trail but I'm pretty convinced in the carb theory. (btw - in the past I have only carboloaded the day before a race, so that's what I'm comparing to.)

I think next week will be the true test.  I'll do it all over again starting Wednesday to get ready for San Antonio.  I'm not sure if this is a PR course but it will definitely be faster than Napa - at least I'm planning on it.

3.  I came back home to a week of everything.  Super busy week, so as always I'm trying to be a better blogger, get more info out, keep track better and also be a better blogger friend.  : )  Be patient, I'm trying to juggle right now!  Hopefully a giveaway will be coming soon as well!

Happy running today friends!

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link to that article --- had never read that. Interesting. Like it.

    Enjoy SA. Which marathon are you runnning in January?

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  2. So glad the race went well. I am going to checkout the drops. I will probably be hitting you up with some more emails soon but you can put me at the bottom of the everything list :)

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  3. Cool to hear the carbo-load worked for you. I really didn't like the calculator when it first came out but I'll go look again.

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  4. if i'm too lazy to even count my calories, it's a sure bet a marathon ain't happenin for me.

    eating seems like such work for you now. at least you have butter though. what would this world be without butter??

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  5. Emz - I've got RnR Arizona on the schedule for January, but nothing is set in stone!

    Wrath - How can I eat toast without butter? It's just not right...

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  6. I just read that article yesterday. Sounds like it worked for you!

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  7. Very interesting. I always feel we never eat/drink enough for the long runs. You confirm this here. It seems we need to eat/drink more than we feel comfortable with.

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