Thursday, March 23, 2006
Dieting and Marathoning are like Fueding Siblings
Last night I got a little bit too greedy with my running, upping the mileage without upping my calorie intake during the day. The result was after about 16K/10M I was literally running on empty.
I felt good for the first 12K/7.5M, but soon after I could feel myself slowing down. I pushed on, slow and easy, but by around the 16K point I was really having to fight to keep running, I felt like I had no energy and I was getting cold. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds and it was cooling down fast, so I decided to stop and put on my fleece sweater, eat a sport bar, and drink some water (I was wearing my new CamelBak). I ran about 10 minutes more and decided that 19K/12M would be enough for the day and took a shortcut home. I could feel my blood sugar dropping really low so thought it was the best decision at the time.
After a warm shower and some food I felt good again. I guess the moral of the story is that I need to eat more when I want to run more, last minute decisions to tack on more mileage absolutely do not work with the diet I’m following this week.
A couple comments yesterday (thanks guys) left me wondering if I am getting enough protein when I’m dieting. Generally I eat the most protein during my evening meal, but on Monday and Tuesday night we had a broccoli casserole that did not much/any protein – and I didn’t make it up elsewhere.
Usually when I do my Saturday long runs I eat a warm lunch and supper at least two days prior to the run, including sufficient protein and carbs. Last night’s run was a good lesson as it showed me that I need to make some adjustments in my diet.
I imagine that my diet will be forgotten (like always) once I start tacking on more mileage. In the meantime maybe I can at least drop another pound or two.
I felt good for the first 12K/7.5M, but soon after I could feel myself slowing down. I pushed on, slow and easy, but by around the 16K point I was really having to fight to keep running, I felt like I had no energy and I was getting cold. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds and it was cooling down fast, so I decided to stop and put on my fleece sweater, eat a sport bar, and drink some water (I was wearing my new CamelBak). I ran about 10 minutes more and decided that 19K/12M would be enough for the day and took a shortcut home. I could feel my blood sugar dropping really low so thought it was the best decision at the time.
After a warm shower and some food I felt good again. I guess the moral of the story is that I need to eat more when I want to run more, last minute decisions to tack on more mileage absolutely do not work with the diet I’m following this week.
A couple comments yesterday (thanks guys) left me wondering if I am getting enough protein when I’m dieting. Generally I eat the most protein during my evening meal, but on Monday and Tuesday night we had a broccoli casserole that did not much/any protein – and I didn’t make it up elsewhere.
Usually when I do my Saturday long runs I eat a warm lunch and supper at least two days prior to the run, including sufficient protein and carbs. Last night’s run was a good lesson as it showed me that I need to make some adjustments in my diet.
I imagine that my diet will be forgotten (like always) once I start tacking on more mileage. In the meantime maybe I can at least drop another pound or two.
# posted by Jack : 7:43 AM
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I know that feeling of being underfueled, it's no good. I hope you can find some kind of balance between the running and the dieting. Definitely need protein, especially for recovery.
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