Time for Better Nutrition

Deep down every runner is really motivated by the food, drink or chocolate.

Runner's high? Bullshit.

Bucket list? Maybe.

Prerace carb-loading and post-race beers?! SIGN ME UP!

I freely admit I'm guilty of running for other reasons - particularly food. It justifies the additional piece of cake or the trip to Red Robin on the weekends. But throughout my running career, I've been satisfied with being 'fit enough' and not really concerned about a couple extra pounds (or belt loops).

Going into the next couple races however, I've committed to try a nutrition system that promotes whole body improvements. Weight loss is a benefit of course but the gist is that the body rids itself of all the toxins we might normally take in with our food, our environment and occasional over-indulgences. I'm excited and worried at the same time...what if this stuff doesn't work and I end up tanking at my race on 9/27?

It's a 30-day trial so what could go wrong right? Maybe lose a little weight? Maybe build more lean muscle? I can't imagine these are bad things by any stretch...

I'm on Day 2 and so far, I don't feel bad but I don't feel overly amped up like huge changes are happening to my body. I did feel like I slept better last night though. I feel like I've lost weight already too. I haven't weighed myself but the fit of my shorts tells me that either my ass is shrinking or somehow I swapped clothes with Fat Albert. Hey hey hey...

My overall concern is just being able to fuel my body enough to continue to put on the miles necessary for training. While it's still early, I hope I can find the right balance between staying healthy, eating enough and fueling myself for longer runs and more miles.

We'll find out soon enough I guess. I'll continue to capture how things are going on a weekly basis in case you're interested.

Happy running and be safe out there.

Real Ironmen don't walk, do they?

Not a whole lot going on in the training world these days - other than, well, more training. I've been very pleased with the last couple weeks and I can feel the incremental gains coming back in both the endurance and mental category. More than anything, consistency has been good. This means I'm doing more running more often and doing what I need to recover correctly.

I ran a report from Garmin to see what my miles were for the last couple months. I just wanted to see where I was at and where I was going...

February = 90 miles (running), 11,380 calories
March = 61 miles (running), 7,900 calories

The last couple weeks has been an interesting mental shift for me as I make this transition from Ironman/marathon running-as-fast-as-you-can-for-as-long-as-you-can to running-a-slower-pace-knowing-you'll-be-running-for-8-or-9-hours-straight trying to finish a 50-mile run with 9,100 feet of elevation gain.

Most everything I've read about endurance pacing preaches the 5:1 ratio - 5 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking. Certainly this is not the rule but for beginners and those races that have massive elevation gains, this is by far one of the most suggested shifts in training.

Admittedly, this is hard for me to succumb to walking during a run (WTH!?! The guy with the Ironman tattoo is walking?!). The idea of slowing down and being passed by other age-groupers young and old can be infuriating and frustrating. Not to mention a chink in the 'pride armor'.

I'm not a jerk about these things nor do I care that other people have different race plans than me. I'm going to run my race no matter who passes me. So pride aside I've used a couple of training runs of 8-10 miles to test this idea of a brief brisk 1-minute walk. It really does break things up enough to give your legs and feet a break and lower your heart rate, but also mentally it's a great relief to walk a little bit. Heaven knows that with 9,100 feet of elevation gain during the Black Hills 100, there are bound to be some ascents and descents that are going to require a snail's pace walk (or crawl?!).

Do real Ironmen walk? This one does.