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Darn it, I may just have to eat more.

2004-03-23 - 9:10 a.m.

Speaking of carbs-as-fuel, on Sunday I had a hearty brunch of one scrambled egg, bacon, toast, homefries, and coffee, and then headed to the gym (the third day in a row I made it to the gym to train � go me!). I was facing that particular run with some trepidation as I was feeling pretty full and my head was filled with colourful visions of tossing my cookies right there on the treadmill if I pushed too hard. Instead, I astonished myself by having one of my best runs so far this training season.

I started off fairly slow but once I settled in I decided to nudge the speed up to see how it felt. I had every expectation of backing off again but instead felt that I could maybe do a bit better. I ended up doing the last third of my � hour at 6.3 or above (I was even bumping into the front of the treadmill at 6.6 by the end). This was a huge contrast to my previous runs where I was fighting with myself to not let my speed drop below 6.0 before the end of my � hour. Just the day before I�d succumbed to hitting stop at 25 minutes. I�d started my usual internal battle at only 15 minutes in, and the scales were tipped when a man wearing too much cologne got on the treadmill beside me 5 minutes later. Yech.

Now 6.6 is still a far cry from the pace of 7.45 miles per hour I need to reach and maintain for the entire 10k if I want to reach my target of 50 minutes, but the fact that I wasn�t hot and tired and mentally lamenting how much I hate, hate, hate this damn running and why, oh why, did I sign on for this again, was a huge deal. Over the preceding week I had wondered how I could possibly, in the past, have reached the point where I would feel ok while training and when the heck was I going to feel like that this year? I feel very foolish to have forgotten the lessons I should know by heart by now: one, that having fuel in your body goes a long way towards not running out of steam and maintaining a positive feeling while running, and two, that taking the treadmill in front of the fan really helps keep me from getting overheated. Above all, the important thing that I intellectually know but still, after several years, haven�t learned to feel deep down, is that running is more a mental challenge than a physical one. Feeling hot and grumpy sabotages a run more surely than any sort of physical fatigue in the muscles that are actually working.

I think part of the problem is that I�m carrying more weight than I�m used to this year and had been unconsciously viewing my training as a weight-shedding opportunity. And to eat before I worked out would mean I was burning the calories I had just consumed instead of the calorie reserves I have stored in that layer of pudge I�ve developed in the last couple of years. I want those reserves gone! But lesson learned, I�ll try to remember to eat something before beginning my workout. After all, the main reason I�m training is to get faster and that won�t happen if my brain gives up the fight after 15 minutes at 6 miles an hour.

Before - After


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