7 posts tagged “nutrition”

So I've been mainly keeping up with maintenance runs which are all pretty much the same, BOR-ING.  I'm starting to train for a 10k beginning this week.  I don't have an actual 10k I just feel that I need more structure.  I'm also looking at perhaps a half marathon in April.

When my next paycheque comes in I'm going to invest it in a spinning class.  I think incorporating some cross training will be a good thing and I'm curious to try spinning.  I'm still doing my at home strengthening sessions which are helping but I'm going to ramp up the ab workout to diver style soon (read: painfilled.)  I have not been doing yoga as much as I want to but overall everything seems to be starting to sort itself out.

As far as the "funk" goes, I analyzed my nutrition log for the previous month and think I found the main problem: iron.  I was getting WAY below what I should be and now seem to be feeling a bit better since I'm paying more attention to that.

Bizarrely (is that even a legit word?!), I keep getting this "twinge" in my foot when running (and sometimes while just walking.)  It's in the arch but near the side.  I can't figure out what the deal is.  It doesn't get more painful once it appears and is just kind of an annoyance.  I'm thinking I might try some sole inserts?  No idea, haha.

Not really running related except that this post is a result of Ironman Brendan Brazier being awesome.  I need to purchase this book when I am at a bookstore next...I usually try to avoid this because a bibliophile like me should have stock in Chapters, seriously.

Taken from this site:
Fully researched and developed by Brendan Brazier, professional Ironman triathlete, The Thrive Diet features:

• the best whole foods
• a 12-week whole foods meal plan
• over 100 easy-to-make recipes with raw food options that are all wheat-, gluten-, soy-, corn-, refined sugar-, and dairy-free, including exercise-specific recipes for pre-workout snacks, energy gels, sports drinks, and recovery foods
• an easy-to-follow exercise plan that compliments The Thrive Diet
• environmental preservation – learn how The Thrive Diet can help

I already love VEGA and I am excited for some great recipes in this; I have a feeling I'll be able to recommend this book to patients as well!

That's a whooooole lot of running.  Seriously.  I am in shock I ran that much and didn't collapse or anything, haha.  Wow.  It took a long time; it got to the point where the legs were feeling like lead.  Took a few extended stops (washroom, stretching, water/Gatorade refills.)  Still, I did it!!!!  I'm surprisingly not super sore, either (we'll see if that still holds tomorrow!) At the advice of one of my teammates I took an ice cold bath when I got home in order to reduce inflammation.  Then I took a two hour nap because I was pretty beat.  When I woke up I iced my legs on and off for an hour or so.  I just took an Epsom salt bath and am icing my legs again.  I'm hoping all this will ward off the stiffness for tomorrow.

The morning was looking pretty dreary: rainy, overcast, a bit chilly.  I decided to not take my jacket figuring the running would warm me up enough.  I'm glad I made that decision because it stopped raining and the sun came out and it was great weather for most of the run.

We went around Science World, through Gastown (where homeless people and the motorcycle show people cheered us on, lol.) Stopped at a Starbucks for a washroom break where the manager was really nice, cleaning up one of the washroom's for us.  As we were waiting to use them he asked me, "so how far are you running today?" to which I replied "oh, just 30 kilometres." (It came out sounding a lot more casual than I intended.)  I went into the washroom at that point and one of my teammate's said the guy looked at him like "holy crap?! 'just 30km?!' like it's a walk around the block...I'm going to go back to my espresso." lol.

We then ran through Coal Harbour, stopped at the Nike Runner's Lounge for some Gatorade, which was great.  The employee's were all excited to see us so I think that gave us a boost of energy.  They had a couple of massage therapists in there and I think everyone on the team was looking at them thinking "JEALOUS!  I want a massage now!" We were about half way into the run at this point.

We continued along the seawall and up Prospect Point, which is where some pain started in my left knee.  Finally made it up that steep (and seemingly endless) hill and stopped a bit at the top for a stretch to try to see if the pain would dissipate.  We continued on to Third Beach...Second Beach (stopped a couple of times for stretching/speed walk break lol)...to the Burrard Street Bridge. (Yes, that's right we went around the entirety of Stanley Park!!) May I reiterate once again how spoiled I am for getting to run along the gorgeous beaches, forest, and with the Rockies in clear view as a bonus?  Sooo incredible, as always.

I think the hardest part was after the Burrard Bridge because we knew we were sooo close to Granville Island but we had to take a round about way to get the distance in.  Followed Cornwall to Cypress, went down to Macdonald (which is quite a ways.)  Looped around up to another stupid (albiet shorter) steep hill  which REALLY hurt going up so we decided to walk at a fast pace up it because at that point the legs weren't going to pick up enough to run at a decent pace anyway.

Fortunately, it leveled out and we came back around to Macdonald and made a wrong turn, having to backtrack two blocks and then ran back to Burrard Street and over the homestretch to Granville Island.  It's amazing how as soon as you realize how little left there is left that you get a burst of energy.

It was definitely a tough run in the mental sense.  When we got to three hours of running we started laughing because it just seemed so ridiculous that we had been running THAT long, like "this is insane; we are insane" haha.  I think we knew we were crazy when we had been running for two hours and it seemed like no big deal. 

Endurance running is a funny thing because you get to the point where you're lungs and heart are fine running for 2.5-3 hrs but your body is just screaming at you while your brain is telling you to go faster.  I had some doubts at points and every time a tourist trolley went past it was tempting to  get on.  After walking for about two minutes I had to give myself a pep talk.  I've come extremely far and the end was in site...I knew I could do it but it was certainly hard to muster some extra inner strength when my legs didn't seem to want to do what my brain was telling them to.  At another point it was kind of like running fartlek's in the sense of "make it to that tree ok now to the saltwater pool" etc. (though I assure you no sprinting was being done at that point!)  Also, I think going from 24k one week to 30k is a pretty big leap and quite the accomplishment no matter how long it takes.

In terms of on-the-run nutrition and hydration I didn't managing that well today.  I brought along with me one gel and a pack of Sharkies.  I forgot to take the gel until over an hour into it and hated the flavour.  So I couldn't force myself to finish it even and didn't remember I had the Sharkies.  I had probably the equivalent of maybe 350mL of Gatorade and 500mL of water through the entire run.   At one stop I was able to get another gel and ate about half of that.  I did run out of liquid for maybe the last 8k or so which was a bit tough to deal with.

After the run I forced myself to eat a Clif protein bar and drink a bottle of water.  I wasn't hungry but I knew that I needed to replenish nutrients to help aide in muscle recovery.  I think I consumed around 500 cals with the gel, Gatorade, and energy bar.  I still only ate about 500 more cals today but I just don't feel hungry and had to force that still.  Which is not good considering I burned probably around 1,300 from the run anyway.  Does anyone have suggestions for this? (I know, lame that I am asking a nutrition question, haha.)

This post is really long as is so I think I will just end it here!  All in all it was an amazing run!!!

Today I was mega-stressed out, boooo to that.  So I REALLY was looking forward to my run at the lounge.  I borrowed the shoes and iPod again today and just ran!  I was supposed to only go for 40 mins but ended up doing over an hour...um, whoops...but I needed it in order to melt away my worries.  I went around a portion of Lost Lagoon and then back through some trails and then along the seawall a bit to finish up.  The trail was gorgeous and no one else was around which I relished!  Once again it was around 22 degrees but there was a great breeze along the wall and through the trails the shade from the trees made it cooler, too.

Technology-wise the run was a success; I am finally getting used to the iPod and Nike+ system. I had the songs on "90's playlist" which was a bit more my taste than Tuesday's tunes.  Though I still think I prefer to run without music..I did turn the volume down so I couldn't hear it for a good 20 minutes because I wanted to listen to the water :)  I think the next time I use it I will just use the no music option.

Oh, and when I uploaded my info to the Nike+ website I wasn't paying too much attention to it, just noticed it said 12.5k for the day...well when I got home and looked I guess it had transferred a bunch of runs onto my account, oops.  So I THINK I found my actual run, which was logged as 9.04k in 52mins (though for 10 minutes I had not started the iPod) My estimate is 11k. (I think the 12.5 wasn't mine along with some others.)

The PHYSICAL running itself wasn't as stellar as usual because I had more fluctuations in pace and my knee was acting up again, that little bugger!  Then my calves started to go spastic on me :P  I think that's because I hadn't eaten or hydrated enough prior to the run. You'd think I would have the nutrition down but apparently not...::smacks self::

Part of the reason I love running so much is because of the freedom it holds.  It's also empowering for me.  I felt pretty agitated beforehand but while I was running I could sort through my thoughts and then just enjoy running for the sake of running.  I thought about cancer a lot and those I know affected by it and it helped put my woes into perspective.

Later in the evening there was a social for the team which I enjoyed!  Because I ran earlier in the day I missed the GTS.  It was good to see everyone again!  We mainly talked about random things and also a lot about fundraiser's so that was nice!  I'm in the midst of trying to plan some so hopefully they'll go over well!  That reminds me that you should donate to help cure cancer!!!

*Kirsten is aware that she's sometimes a dork.

I had another GTS run at the Nike Runner's Lounge today and it was great, as usual!  We ran a little under 10k I think: going around Lost Lagoon, through the Stanley Park Rose Garden and a bit of trail, back to the seawall, past the lighthouse and totem poles, back into Coal Harbour.  It was a fantastic route!  All of the running in Vancouver is but I really enjoyed the variety of this one!  The weather was at a perfect temperature for the run and rain clouds were looming but I guess they were just being threatening, haha.

It was a bit bizarre because the last time I had been through that portion of Stanley Park was the day of my grandmother's funeral.  I was tempted to cry a bit but I held it in; the run was emotionally cathartic for that reason, which is always good....I don't even know why I felt like crying per-say I suppose it was more out of happiness that she is no longer in pain and of course because I do miss her.

My knee was bothering me again on this run (it had stopped for quite some time so I don't know why it decided to flare up again ::shakes fist!!::) One of the employee's at the lounge said it is my IT band (which I suspected but wasn't positive) and was nice enough to run with me at a slow pace (I was the last one today but it doesn't bother me, I completed my run!!)  I think I finished in an hour ten minutes, so that's still a decent pace. 

While running with him we chatted about running and sports in general he's completed three marathons so far and asked me what made me join TNT as opposed to just running.  So I replied that I was already wanting to run a marathon and that raising money for cancer was an even better reason to do it and I also thought the group runs would be nice to have.  He said he raised money for the Diabetes Association for one of the marathons and that he also really liked the GTS' and being able to run for more than personal fitness. 

This made me think about the runners that I've met in general and I think that largely the running community has a lot in common: we all like to compete, possess a great deal of determination, and a great one is that we want to help others if possible.  Even just doing runs by myself; passing runners always smile or nod.  I have also never met a runner I don't get along with!

Despite feeling a bit emotionally overwhelmed and my knee bothering me a bit this run was fantastic in my book!  I love the clarity that comes with running, today was no exception!  Let's help raise money for cancer research!

Now for a tangent: NUTRITION!!! I mentioned in a previous post that I needed to be watching more closely my caloric intake.  However, today after the run I realized I had at best 400 calories today...though probably more like 300.  NOT GOOD.  AT ALL.  BAD ME.  Then of course I get home and everything I can think of eating has a tiny amount of cals in it.  RAWR!  The one day I need something not so good to eat I can't find anything, go figure.  So at best I've had 700 calories today.  Tomorrow I'm really going to make sure I get in my 1,400 or a little bit more.

So there was no running today; though I did walk a whole lot throughout the day.  I also did some pilates and core strengthening exercises we used to do in diving....holy crap I need to work on that more, haha. 

I've also realized that I need to eat more.  I've been eating healthy but just not consuming near enough calories for my body.  So I'm going to try to work on that.

Here is a great running site if you're interested: Canadian Runner

Oh!  I purchased a running hat and will be sure to test it out soon :)

Help my fight against Leukemia & Lymphoma!