The beginning of Week 3 I felt just as sick as I had on my original Week 2. I had to break my schedule and take Monday and Tuesday off to make sure I didn't actually get sick if I was going to. Thankfully, that did the trick and I had a great week 3. I went at it Wednesday through Sunday straight with no breaks. Due to these experiences, I've had to take an army of supplements to help my immune system. I have been under incredible stress because of my daily demands and responsibilities which I believe was the cause of my illness. Thankfully, the supplements have helped.
Week 4 went relatively well although I had to miss a day of training. It's so frustrating when that happens. I know one day is not going to undo the fitness I have built up but I feel like it is strain on my discipline. Must stay focused! This week was monumental as it is the last time I will run 3 miles until I taper. Eek! Now we are starting to climb to the big numbers.
This week just ended Week 5. Talk about a strain on my discipline--I only ran 2 days this week. I had a huge event on campus on Thursday, Friday I was fried after working 10.5 hours, and Saturday well...it's my mental health day. Sometimes the brain says stay in and I have to obey the brain on mental health day. It's her day. However, today I definitely made up for it. Today was the first 6 miler of the season and on top of that I trained legs since I missed it on Tuesday. I killed those legs! I can usually walk fine the day and don't feel the hobbling pain until the next day. However, today...today...I needed a cane. On top of that, I burned so many calories between the run and lifting that I couldn't make it home for my shake. I had to stop at Publix and buy a MuscleMilk. The cashier asked me if I wanted that in a bag...please! I'm sweaty and stinky and can barely walk...I opened the bottle in his hand because I was so desperate. After getting home I made myself a big delicious salmon burger and an hour after that I killed a whole bag of plain PopCorners and a tub of guacamole. Yea, that training appetite is kicking in. Week 5 is also monumental because because it will be the last week I get 2 days off until taper week. I will only have Wednesdays off and Tuesday will start speed work. I'm really excited to start building those fast twitch muscle fibers!
Now that we are getting to runs that need supplemental nutrition, I've had to come back to the drawing board to find out what I will use. Hansons suggests just using an isotonic drink but they have so much sugar! I've had some digestion problems for a while. I figured pretty early on they were connected to sugar but I thought this was only due to the obvious--candy, desserts, and alcohol. However, I have learned within the last couple of weeks that anything white--white bread, white potatoes, white rice, etc. are causing this issue as well because the body breaks these down into glucose as it does with candy, desserts, and alcohol. I also have to be super meticulous with everything that I buy--everything prepackaged has sugar, there's no way around it, but as long as I keep my sugar consumption within a certain limit and from certain sources, I can deal with it but I have to monitor my intake on a daily basis. Therefore, the conundrum with race nutrition is that the gu, gummies, and wafers are all packed full of sugar. I decided to try dehydrated peaches but my body couldn't take it. I had a small 8 oz. bottle of Gatorade today after a nasty battle with my bowels right before I started my run and surprisingly my body responded just fine. I'm going to try it again in a couple of days to make sure it wasn't a fluke as my body needed the sugar and electrolytes after the civil war inside my body. I've had honey stingers in the past and loved them but I need to double check the sugar content. Everyone says they are a good low-sugar option. I will duly report my findings next post.
Week 4 went relatively well although I had to miss a day of training. It's so frustrating when that happens. I know one day is not going to undo the fitness I have built up but I feel like it is strain on my discipline. Must stay focused! This week was monumental as it is the last time I will run 3 miles until I taper. Eek! Now we are starting to climb to the big numbers.
This week just ended Week 5. Talk about a strain on my discipline--I only ran 2 days this week. I had a huge event on campus on Thursday, Friday I was fried after working 10.5 hours, and Saturday well...it's my mental health day. Sometimes the brain says stay in and I have to obey the brain on mental health day. It's her day. However, today I definitely made up for it. Today was the first 6 miler of the season and on top of that I trained legs since I missed it on Tuesday. I killed those legs! I can usually walk fine the day and don't feel the hobbling pain until the next day. However, today...today...I needed a cane. On top of that, I burned so many calories between the run and lifting that I couldn't make it home for my shake. I had to stop at Publix and buy a MuscleMilk. The cashier asked me if I wanted that in a bag...please! I'm sweaty and stinky and can barely walk...I opened the bottle in his hand because I was so desperate. After getting home I made myself a big delicious salmon burger and an hour after that I killed a whole bag of plain PopCorners and a tub of guacamole. Yea, that training appetite is kicking in. Week 5 is also monumental because because it will be the last week I get 2 days off until taper week. I will only have Wednesdays off and Tuesday will start speed work. I'm really excited to start building those fast twitch muscle fibers!
Now that we are getting to runs that need supplemental nutrition, I've had to come back to the drawing board to find out what I will use. Hansons suggests just using an isotonic drink but they have so much sugar! I've had some digestion problems for a while. I figured pretty early on they were connected to sugar but I thought this was only due to the obvious--candy, desserts, and alcohol. However, I have learned within the last couple of weeks that anything white--white bread, white potatoes, white rice, etc. are causing this issue as well because the body breaks these down into glucose as it does with candy, desserts, and alcohol. I also have to be super meticulous with everything that I buy--everything prepackaged has sugar, there's no way around it, but as long as I keep my sugar consumption within a certain limit and from certain sources, I can deal with it but I have to monitor my intake on a daily basis. Therefore, the conundrum with race nutrition is that the gu, gummies, and wafers are all packed full of sugar. I decided to try dehydrated peaches but my body couldn't take it. I had a small 8 oz. bottle of Gatorade today after a nasty battle with my bowels right before I started my run and surprisingly my body responded just fine. I'm going to try it again in a couple of days to make sure it wasn't a fluke as my body needed the sugar and electrolytes after the civil war inside my body. I've had honey stingers in the past and loved them but I need to double check the sugar content. Everyone says they are a good low-sugar option. I will duly report my findings next post.