Sunday, March 13, 2011

Always Gaining Experience

Every time I put myself out on a limb with a big workout I learn something new or relearn from past mistakes. Wait a minute, I am not supposed to repeat past mistakes; I already learned this damned lesson. Yet when your life takes you in so many directions, as happens to us all, it is easy to open yourself up and be exposed all over again. How do I manage life and eat properly to fuel this level of fitness?

I find myself extra busy at the present. Slammed with work, the boys are growing so fast and this amazing weather has my brain concocting more fitness schemes than a week can handle. As I become more tuned into my body from a fitness and nutritional perspective, I REALLY need to focus on what fuel I top off with. For years, I have not worried about this too much and my body has grown accustomed to high intensity training sessions based off a marginally healthy meal. Now that I have been fortunate enough to lose some pounds, I think my body is more efficient and needs to be cared for as such. Thursday night was a small chicken and pasta plate at Noodles and then Friday night was an organic beef hamburger. Both meals seemed independently healthy and fine for me. But their combined net affect on my muscles hurt my final weeks' run.

With a few big runs under the belt and my confidence high, I felt it was no big deal to try and rattle off a 36 mile run this past weekend. But what do you do when you realize this is not your day for running and you are 13 miles from home with no escape hatch? You gut it out. My legs were pretty worn down from high miles in the past few weeks, combine that with a few poor dinner choices and too much coffee and the results were sub par. I had no leg turnover and my stomach was not normal. What really hit me was the hamstring tightness. At about mile 20, the tightness closed down my running form and I began the dreaded heal strike. Knowing this was not good, I kept reminding myself over and over again to stay forward.

I was able to run home for to round out the 26 mile "Learning Run". I am disappointed in the effort, but proud that I could finish up without too many ill effects. Now, the programming for run preparation has to be much more systematic. I need to eat more regularly for a consistent fuel supply, stay away from the high salt, processed foods and bring in more fruits and vegetables leading up to a strong weekend. This is not rocket science, but forming these small habits into a consistent nutritional plan and properly executing on the key training sessions will be paramount to my success. Oh man, it is hard to drop coffee consumption...

1 comment:

  1. I learned a very important lesson this weekend as well. Although I did not have to suffer through 20 plus miles to do it. I have been working really hard on my diet all week. It was tough, but i took it as another challenge and dove into it. It went great, and I have been feeling so much better. But then Saturday night came, and I went out with Emily and some friends. 4 Surley benders later, I had a buzz, and was munching on snacks, appetizers, and anything else I could get my hands on, easily talking myself into them. I paid for that Sunday. Felt horrible, weight was up and just felt guilty. Now, I have been having a beer throughout the week with dinner or in the evening, which is fine. What I learned is that by over indulging just a little bit, it was enough to let my inhibitions and guard down and went back to my old eating habits of eating because it was there, and for no real other reason. Lesson learned.

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