"It never gets easier, you just go faster." - Greg Lemond

Monday, October 1, 2012

Paleo Week 1

First week of paleo-style eating and ultrarunner style running complete.  Overall the energy levels have felt pretty stable, which is a good thing since I was hoping to come close to that magical 100 miles this week.

Monday:  10 miles at an easy pace at the trails.  Refueled with a bottle of grape soda after the run.  Once refueling was complete I made paleo style fish tacos for dinner.

Tuesday:  10 miles at the trails at an easy pace at the trails.  

Wednesday:  6.5 miles at lunch at a very hard pace.  Ran it in just under 41 minutes.  Refueled with 350 calories of orange juice.  10 more miles at the trails in the PM.

Thursday:  10 mile road run at an easy pace.

Friday 6.5 miles at lunch at an easy pace.  9 miles at Bird Hills in the PM.  Very high intensity hill sessions.

Saturday:  5:30 am wakeup to be out the door for a 21 mile road run with Jack.  Ryan Case joined in for the first 9-10 miles.  Longest road run I have done in a very long time.  Refreshing yet reminded me why I don't generally pound the pavement for so long.  Tired out the rest of the day.  Drank about 800 ml of water and had 1 gel for the entire run.  breakfast was 1 banana slathered in almond butter.  Refueled with 500 calories of OJ and a big egg omelet when I got home.  Paleo style burgers for dinner (romaine lettuce bun)

Sunday:  Goofed around in the AM, until I got motivated and legs woke up.   Breakfast was a cup of coffee, several handfuls of nuts, an apple and a banana.  Got running by 12:30.  22 miles at the Potowotami in Pinckney.  Good old fashion fun.  Great to be out in the woods with the fall colors changing. Had to stop and eat a handful of animal crackers at about mile 17 (animal crackers - that sounds paleo right?).  Interesting run - I felt pretty fatigued at mile 9 (uh-oh), but then dialed in and felt great until I decided to have a quick snack and hammer the last 5.  Not sure if the fatigue was due to the diet, the previous days outing, or just generally not quite recovered from Woodstock.  Refueled with an Ensure, OJ, and raisins.  Hillary made some delicious chicken soup from scratch that I feasted on when I got back to Lansing.

Final mileage = 104.5 miles.  Not a bad week.  Especially since I resisted the urge several days to go for runs twice daily and just focused on the nice aerobic ten mile jog.  The new diet seems to be working well, I feel very satiated, I think because I have been focusing on getting a lot of calories from healthy fats.  This includes mostly monounsaturated fats from nuts, avacados, and olive oil, but also some omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fats from canola oil (and nuts too).  Overall, I was pleased with my ability to do back to back long runs this weekend without really needing to eat a ton of carbs in-between the runs or even during the runs.  Part of it is staying at a relatively aerobic heart rate (not always easy when I enjoy running hills).  I think I am adjusting, albeit slowly to metabolizing more fat.  Even if I'm not, I will continue to tell myself that I am.

The hardest part so far for me has been the refueling aspect.  As a nutrition student, I know how important it is to optimize nutrition during the recovery window in order to maximize gains, limit soreness, support the immune system and prepare ones-self for the next days outing.  Overall, I am sticking to things that normally work for me, which is high glycemic index sugars and a light protein snack.  Working on swapping out a chocolate milk for a glass of orange juice and a few almonds.


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