Running with Jack

I went on a nice easy 14K/8.7M run yesterday. It was kind of a blustery day, 10C/50F, windy, sunny, cloudy, rainy, sometimes all at once. Mentally I was perfectly comfortable laying on the couch reading, but finally about 15:00 I pried myself off the couch and suited up. The first few K’s were rough, I was really not into running. But then the sun came out from behind the clouds and motivated me to continue. Finally I dropped into the groove and the rest of the run went without mental complaint. There were a lot of people out taking their Sunday walks, the most bundled up in winter jackets, hats, even gloves. The wind chilled things down considerably. I ran my route in 83 minutes, which is about average. I felt satisfied as I came home, glad that I had motivated myself to burn some of the weekend calories. Actually my lack of motivation at the beginning of the run was an advantage, it kept me from running too fast. With a 30K/18.5M long run coming up Saturday I need to keep the pace down this week.

This morning on the train I was thinking a lot about what I’ve been eating lately. A couple problems seem to be surfacing:

1) I’ve been eating too many sweets lately – no excuse!
2) I am wondering if I need to have more protein in my diet, especially with the long runs I have been doing lately.
3) I need to eat more pasta the days I run and not rely so much on sports bars. This worked well last year – basically I only used sports bars for the really long runs.
4) I need to start writing down what I’m eating, somehow my energy level is not what it used to be. I was doing this for most of the year, but the last few weeks I slacked off – time to get back to work!

I really would like to lose another 5kg/11lbs before my next major run in May. On the other side I have to keep my energy level up for the long runs that I have going on this month. If I can cut out the sweets and extra sports bars I may find a compromise in the middle. We’ll see – happy running.