Sweet Sixteen

Oh how sweet it is to have a good run! After last Saturday's mishaps, today was practically a walk in the park. Some might argue it was practically a walk in the park because I was practically walking. To them, I say "phhhhbbbbbbbttttttt!"

I learned from last weekend's mistakes. Firstly, I slowed down. Instead of going out at an 11:30 pace and then trying (unsuccessfully) to hang on to a 12:00 pace later in the run, I started out at about a 12:45 pace. Ahhhh, comfort. Sure it's slow, but the goal of the long run isn't to break land speed records. A long run is supposed to be about 1-2 minutes per mile slower than your goal race pace. So, if I want to run an 11:45 pace in my marathon (which may be ambitious for a hilly marathon, but we will see), I should do my long training runs at 12:45 - 13:45. It seems so slow compared to other runs I do, but as I so successfully demonstrated last weekend, going faster does not a fun run make. Especially when there are a lot of hills. We'll get to the hills in a bit.

Secondly, I carried fluids with me, so I wasn't dependent on two or three water stops to get me through the whole 16 miles. Having Gatorade ready for me whenever I needed it was wonderful. And I consumed my entire bottle of Gatorade (as opposed to last weekend when I had drunk barely 1/3 of my bottle). Combined with my Sport Beans, and a mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cup - I was well-hydrated and well-fueled the entire run.

Thirdly, I didn't try to "power through" the hills. Especially the early ones. I just tried to keep an even effort by keeping my heart rate in check. My body thanked me later when I had a BIG hill to climb from Miles 12 to 15.

What was the net result of all this? Well, I felt better the entire run. My heart rate stayed low for most of the run. And I was able to finish strong - my fastest mile of the run was Mile 16. Indeed, the entire last 8 miles were faster than the first 8 miles. Not by much, but considering that the last 8 miles were far more uphill, I think this is quite impressive. It can be hard to finish strong on a flat course, but to finish strong uphill means you did something right early on.

So, without any further ado, here's the run graph and map. The spikes in the pace graph (blue) are where we had to wait for a crosswalk signal. The elevation graph (green) is more or less accurate. As you can see, we basically ran into a canyon and then ran back out. Well, it sure felt like a canyon.



I had the privilege of running with a friend today. It's not often I can find someone willing to run my slow pace, but today was my lucky day. One of my FAST buddies, Jess, ran the entire 16 miles with me and it was so nice to have someone else there to chat with and to share in the suffering.. er, I mean... the fun. That's right, the fun!

Actually, it was kind of like a Team Scream reunion today. You see, back in October '09, we had a four-person marathon relay team for the Screaming Pumpkin Marathon. Our team - we called ourselves Team Scream - actually won the relay (it was a prediction marathon, not a timed marathon). Today, the four of us ran the same 16 miles. And then the four of us had lunch afterward. It was good times.

So let's talk about lunch, shall we? We purposely planned our route to finish right in front of one of our favorite cafes - Cyd's Gourmet Kitchen. The food there is fresh, tasty and, for the most part, healthy (unless you include the bakery!). It's perfect for post-run. There's nothing there that isn't good. And the bakery has a huge selection of sweet treats, which are also perfect for post-run. I had a Caprese Baguette - fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh tomatoes with basil pesto and balsamic vinaigrette on a toasted bun. So delicious! And then I followed that up with a Chocolate Chubby cookie. It was the perfect end to a good long run.

I must say, I'm glad that the upcoming week is a recovery week. The reduction in mileage will be nice, and my long run will "only" be 12. It's kind of funny to think of 12 miles as a recovery run, but after 16 today, it really will be.

Right now, I'm ready for a little catnap. Tonight, the hubby and I are going out for a nice dinner to celebrate our 6th anniversary (which is actually tomorrow, but our favorite restaurant isn't open tomorrow). Oh, and by the way, my hubby, who isn't even training for a marathon, was one of the Team Scream members who ran 16 miles today. What's he training for, you ask? A 10k. Or so he says... I think he's training for some secret marathon that he's not telling anyone about. Only time will tell...

Peace. Love. Train.

The best thing about marathon training: carb-loading

I love my carbs. Yessiree, I do. Bread. Pasta. Cookies. Pizza. Cake. Fruit. Chips. Potatoes. I've never met a carb I didn't like. So it's only natural that I would gravitate toward an activity where a major component of preparation is eating lots of carbs. Unfortunately, many of the above listed carbs are not the IDEAL carbs for carb-loading before a long run. If you carb-loaded on cookies, cake and chips, you would also be fat-loading, and that's really counterproductive. Drat! No Cookie Casserole for dinner tonight! (I don't think Cookie Casserole is a real thing. I could be wrong...)

So, alas, I have to be careful about my carb selection. Even though I'm logging 30 miles per week these days, I'm still prone to weight gain (because running 30 miles per week makes a gal HUNGRY). So eating any old carb just won't do. I try to stay away from processed stuff, going for whole grains, veggies, and legumes as much as possible.

So what exactly is carb-loading, why do we need it and how do we do it?

Carb-loading is a way of increasing your body's stored glycogen before an endurance event. Glycogen is the body's readily-available fuel source, and is stored in the liver and muscles (thanks to Julie for clarifying that!). The body typically stores enough glycogen to get a marathoner to about Mile 20 (give or take a few miles - it depends on the runner's unique physiology and running intensity). But, as my alert readers know, a marathon is 26.2 miles... So you may be wondering how you would run those remaining 6.2 miles with no fuel. Well, simply put, you can't. That, my friends, is The Wall. When you run out of glycogen, your body will not go any further. You cannot will your way past The Wall. Once you hit The Wall, you're done. The best way to deal with The Wall is to prevent it. Carb-loading is one way of doing this. Carb-loading actually increases the body's capacity to store glycogen, so you have more fuel available come race day (or long run day, as the case may be).

The old school of thought for carb-loading was that you should deplete you carb stores for several days before switching to a high-carb diet, to maximize your glycogen stores. This method has come out of favor, thankfully. Today's carb-loading method simply involves eating a greater percentage of calories from carbs over the 2-3 days before a long run or long race. This is a method I can get on board with. More carbs? Sign me up! But if you read the fine print, it says "Eating more carbs should not be the result of eating more calories." DOH! Stupid fine print!

So, basically, eat the same amount of food you normally do, but make more of it carb-based. Have pasta, but don't have two pounds of pasta.

And let's not forget our good friend, protein. We need him too! Protein slows the digestion of said carbs, giving a sort of time-release effect - that sounds perfect for a long-distance endurance event! So it's important to have a little protein during carb-loading.

What's my carb-loading meal of choice? Though I am a fan of pasta, my carb-loading tool of choice is usually homemade pizza. We make the crust from scratch, using a blend of whole wheat and white flour, and top it with lots of tasty veggies and part-skim mozzarella cheese. Here's our fabulous pizza:

The hubby and I will be making one tonight, as we prepare for our 16 mile run in the morning. We'd love to share with everyone, but we're carb-loading and need all the pizza we can get. So you'll have to make your own.

Peace. Love. Train.

Will run for sushi and cookies

I'm adding a new post label today. It's "food". For those of you wondering what the heck a post label is... At the bottom of each of my blog entries, there's a list of labels associated with that entry, assigned by me. They're basically keywords, so people can find posts about specific keywords. So, if you wanted to look up all the posts about FAST, for example, you could just click on the FAST label and see all my entries about FAST.

Today, I felt it necessary to add "food" as a label. Because I love food. But also because for a runner (or any serious athlete or fitness guru), food is nearly as important (if not just as important) as the workout. Food is fuel. If you fill up with low-octane junk, you will get sub-par performance out of your body. If you give yourself high-octane, high-quality, pure food, good performance will follow.

With that said, there's nothing wrong with enjoying food and eating the indulgent things you love in moderation. I have a weakness for chocolate chip cookies. Especially soft homemade ones. I don't eat cookies very often because they go straight to my hips, but what was I to do last night when one of my FAST friends brought me an entire platter of homemade chocolate chip cookies? (Thanks again, Becky!!!) Well, run hard, of course! Run hard first, eat cookies later. I'm sure that's the mantra of all great marathoners.

So this was our FAST workout last night... warmup, 3 x (2 laps hard, 1 lap recovery, 4 laps hard, 1 lap recovery, 1 minute rest), cooldown. Did ya get that all? It's a mouthful. It may make more sense when you look at the graph. The 2 laps hard was to be at 5k race pace, and the 4 laps hard was to be at 5k race pace plus 20 seconds. The recovery laps were to be half-marathon pace (so not really EASY, but easier than the hard laps). Here's the run graph:
This was a fun workout. There was plenty of variety in pace and distance to keep it interesting. And it was quite challenging as well. My last hard lap was run at a 7:15 pace - not bad! Can anyone spot where I messed up? I skipped a recovery lap in the 2nd round. Whoops.

And after the tough run, we did some tough core work. I held a plank for 1:30 - I didn't know I had it in me!

The reward for all that hard work was sweet indeed. Cookies!!! Okay, I had a cookie. And it was delicious. While it would have been tempting to eat half a dozen (or more) cookies post-workout, what I needed was REAL food. A good post-run meal has both carbs and protein to replenish your glycogen stores and to rebuild broken-down muscle fibers. Whenever possible, it's preferable to eat real, fresh food, rather than a sugary energy bar (most of which are nothing but glorified candy bars).

I can think of few foods as ideal for post-run recovery than sushi. It's fresh, it's packed with protein and carbs, low in fat (unless you get something fried) and it tastes REALLY good! (You could probably argue that white rice is, well, devoid of any nutrition, and there is much truth to that. But it's also very easy to digest, which makes it good after a tough workout when your tummy might not be so happy.) So a few of us from FAST headed off to Sushigawa in Peoria for some fresh, tasty food. I ordered some steamed edamame and the Tokyo Maki, and as always, it was outstanding. The presentation is as wonderful as the flavor. For my followers in the Peoria area, if you've never been to Sushigawa, you must put it on your to-do list. I wish I had taken a picture of my dinner, but I was so hungry, I ate it all before I thought of taking a picture. *burp*

Peace. Love. Train.