Met with Lucho this AM at Davidson Mesa and did four laps (3 miles each). After a warm up with Justin (21:10), we moved it up just a tick for the next two (19:34, 18:58) and then backed off to jog it in (19:57).
This felt really good. It is probably the fastest 12 miles I have run in several months and it was not hard, just keeping steady and honest. Had a great conversation re: nutrition with Tim.
Beautiful morning, good running, good conversation, good company. Sweet way to start the day. Topped it off with a bowl of oatmeal when I got to the office.
PM - ran an easy 30 minutes, laps around the fields, in the grass, barefoot
Thanks for coming out! I appreciate the company. The article you sent to me.. did you have a question about it? I know I said that weight gain the week of a race is necessary because by storing glycogen with water (carbo loading) weight gain is of course going to happen. When you start Pikes you will be climbing with a few added pounds which is fine.
ReplyDeleteHey Tim
ReplyDeleteSo the article I sent Tim was a Joe Friel article: http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/06/weight-loss.html
Tim and I were talking about topping the tank as part of race prep, and as Tim says above - some weight gain is appropriate as you will be loading with water and carbs.
I agree with Tim. I also know that I have little issue with topping the tank. My issue is with topping the tank every day. In fact, I might be near an ultra athlete when it comes to topping the tank (sic).
Anyway, I found it interesting that I had this article show up in my reader so quickly post our conversation. The topics are not totally tied, but obviously there is a tie via the nutrition part.
What I got out of the post from Joe was that
a.) wt loss when managing high intensity / volume can increase incidence of injury.
b.) Protein intake is important. My nickel to add to this is that runners tend to focus a bit more on carbs than protein, although that trend seems to be changing. Triathletes, fwiw, focus much more on nutrition then runners and resultingly seem to be more balanced in their diet. In any case, lower protien appears to lower muscular mass.
c.) If you want to lose weight, the entire carb-protien-fat make up of your calories is less important to weight loss (although it does effect the type of weight you will lose) as much as the number of calories are.
I am not quite at "race weight" (about 138) but a bit over that (140). This is mostly because I have kept my caloric uptake pretty high (in other words, I eat seconds). Once I drop that a bit (until taper time), the weight will begin to drop again. But I don't think I need to do much in this department versus instead focus on nutrition that is right.
Thanks again Tim for a great run this AM.
How far are you from Lake City? Looks like that will be open: http://www.lakecity50.com/07entrants.htm if you're still looking for some races to do.
ReplyDeleteThat might be good training as it is essentially 2 Pikes Peak Marathons. :)
I kind of get one wife-approved trip out west each year...I think after a few Pikes Peaks I may shift over to something else like this next year. Soon when the kids are a little older I'm sure we'll make a trip into it together...
I am about six hours from Lake City. It is certainly a race I want to do someday. The allure of 50s and 100s is there ... but I have not done one yet. There is a whole chapter on that ... probably will re-assess if that is still in the future post this year's Pikes.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I will not do a 50 at this point. It is too much of an unknown for me, particularly how I'd bounce back being 8 weeks out.
Plus, I can get in some good races closer.
And ... I am trying to balance the races I do ... probably deferring to less races so that I don't pound that into my family so much. Although in exchange, I will look to get some good long runs in, and even a recon trip to Manitou or two in (100 miles).
Brett - we got to plan a meet up when we get down there.
GZ
Yea I'd love to say hi...more than just a wave at mile 11 as you come screaming back down. :)
ReplyDeleteAs we get closer we can chat more about it. My brother isn't coming - he's been trying to find a new job for a couple months now and doesn't have the money to drop, so I'll be wide open while I'm there.
To maximize my altitude adjustment, I will probably fly in Saturday night and on the red-eye back out Sunday night. :)
Ooops, in my sad attempt at humor I typed fly in Saturday night instead of Friday night.
ReplyDeleteI plan to fly in Friday night, and drive up top to watch the Ascent finish Saturday morning...then relax all day...
Sitting and watching the Ascent is one of the coolest things ever. It is like watching OUR super bowl. I am not convinced it is the best thing to do before the marathon physiologically, but it is awesome emotionally to watch those folks living it.
ReplyDeleteI love the posts and comments about nutrition... it's definitely a very interesting side of the training. I would have loved to been on the that run and been in on that discussion. I have some interesting thoughts and learned a lot about my own nutritional stratey when it comes to race week/tapering/topping off.
ReplyDeletekeep at it!