Part III
More Thoughts on Running 50: Race Nutrition I started a Fat Adapted Athlete lifestyle on July 24, 2017. It is a version of a keto style way of eating with clean, whole foods and strategic carbs for racing. I lost 111 lbs (weight I had gained) eating this way between July 24, 2017 and May 19, 2018. I'm not quite where I'd like to be but I'm at a healthy weight and body fat percent and this is good.
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Part II
More Thoughts on Running 50: The Physical. My legs feel good, just tight but no pain at all. Stairs, no problem. I'm functioning great. My feet are OK now but my ankles are still a tad bit swollen. I know this because after North Country I suspected swollen ankles but couldn't really tell until 2-3 days later and the swelling had subsided, I could tell they were smaller. Part I
Thoughts on running 50: The Mental. Amazingly I was determined to finish with every step. It's like I was 2 people, the negative thoughts would try to speak up, and I'd yell at them to be quiet, I was fine and I was doing this, one step at a time. I was great for quite a while, consistently slower as expected and almost what I predicted but to my longest projection. I really thought I could do 12-12:30 but finished works. What an incredible adventure at Yankee Springs Winter Challenge. I thought the challenge would be the cold but it was so much more. Mentally, I've been having a hard time with this cold and snow. This was negative temps, even colder windchill. I switched from the 25k to 10k earlier in the week. With the hills, cold and the fact I'm not sure I'm ready for 15.5 road miles let alone a hilly trail in the cold, I made the switch.
Workout: 4 x 800 (2 min RI)
Target pace: 5.33mph / 11:16 min per mile Lots of lessons learned on this one. I warmed up slowly for half mile, then cranked it up to target. I alternated between 5.3 and 5.4 mph, too heavy on the 5.4 for a 5.34 mph average. With only 2 min rests, the next interval came quick. It's supposed to be hard, recover and repeat but I was so maxed out by the end of the first run interval I walked the 2 minutes rest.
I started the year with a goal to be able to run again. I thought if I committed to a race, I'd train and the finish would motivate me to continue. With only a few short walk/runs behind me, I showed up to Martian half marathon with the support and motivation of a good friend. I finished that half marathon, with great difficulty, huge blisters and pain but I did it.
I will have to do another post on my current diet but I will summarize to get to my point. I am on a LCHF diet currently of the keto variety. I choose to follow a whole food, no junk keto type of diet for athletes which is lower fat than many. My body has plenty of fat to burn. The fat I eat is typically for cooking or that comes naturally in meat or other foods. Lately I haven't been very hungry at all. I have been getting full quickly and not able to finish meals and generally not wanting to eat with no loss of energy. I was feeling bloated and backed up, I was concerned. I questioned everything I was eating including the probiotics I started a couple weeks ago and decided to eliminate cheese and that amazingly did it. I was hungry again. Well, tonight is a run night and I wanted to go run but I was hungry so I ate and now I have to wait. Typically my lunch meal will tide me over to run before dinner but I just could not wait. This is why I prefer morning running but I'm competing for time with my husband so I typically get run club evenings. Balance and Rebalance. That is my life. I am learning something new all the time.
Balancing weight loss with performance improvements is hard. Also a LCHF diet is best for distance and not so much short distance. This is where I have to experiment with more carbs. What do I want more, speed or distance. I want it all. Really I just have to accept being slow for a while, stay in a fat burning zone, but some HIIT in the form of speed intervals isn't a bad thing either.
Yoga emotion day. Crazy. I've decided I should focus practice on planks, warriors and interval training. I know I can run faster but only in short bursts. I've been focusing on steady paced miles this last week but now that I know I can, I think I want to start my old training plan with focused intervals once a week. I'm trying to keep my heart rate in an aerobic range for my fat loss goals which is slow but I think if I want to get faster, focused speed work is key.
After a reasonably good first mile the last 2 were slower than usual. I ran mostly non-stop but could not seem to push harder. I questioned pms, legs or feet weren't ready after Sunday's 15k, just a bad day then I saw the temp, 88°, I had no idea. So I'll consider it a success in those conditions. Also, I found 2 blisters I didn't know I had from Sunday. I thought I survived without any but the extra rubbing from last night's 3 exposed them.
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January 2018
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