Food Loading

I'm not going to call it a "carb load" this year. I'm going to call it a "food load." And I'm starting a week early.

Let me explain the difference between running now and running a year ago. A year ago, it was fine. I was in shape and running was easy. I'd sweat, I'd get all out of breath, I'd run my distance and I'd feel just, well, fine. This year - wow. It feels like I'm gliding from foot to foot, my shoulders square and twisting, my breath just a tick or two above standing still.

Of course, a year ago, I weighed 28 pounds more than I do now. Watching the size drop on my clothing tags over the last year has been ego-inflating. Wearing a bikini last summer for the first time since before my pregnancy was a GREAT feeling. It's been fantastic to get reacquainted with my cheek bones in the mirror.

But I have found running skinny comes with a whole different set of issues - like having enough fuel to complete some of the tougher runs, and eating enough to keep myself from going over the edge into unhealthy, scary skinny. For the record, I am not a fan of the sickly, skeletal, scary skinny thing. And I have a *thing* for blue cheese burgers and hot crisp french fries coated in salt.

Early on in this training season, I discovered I seemed to lose a significant enough amount of weight after a long run that people would comment that I'd lost yet-more-weight. Not good. I also re-discovered the horrible, dizzy, heart-palpitating feeling of completely running out of fuel on a long run - a long long way away from the car - and realized that I cannot take eating or not for granted anymore. Also not good.

A year ago, I could run 18 miles having eaten only peanut butter toast for breakfast and nothing else. Of course, I was carrying plenty of fuel on board. On Christmas Eve, I crashed and burned attempting 18 miles. As I passed the 11 mile mark, I felt weak and dizzy and sick. I made it to 11.81 miles according to my Garmin and I had to stop. Had to. I made it back to my car slowly and without incident, except for a couple of tears. This kind of burnout - a "bonk" in runnerspeak -always comes with the bottom dropping out of my mood for a few hours until I can rest and eat and drink water.

So lesson learned, I inhaled a blue cheese burger and a side of sweet potato fries 15 minutes after completing a 17 mile run the next week. In the days after that, I ate chocolate chip cookies and a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting my daughter and I made to begin 2011 on a sweet note. I ate fried Japanese dumplings and scoops of steaming sticky white rice. I crunched on Baked Cheetos and noshed on cheese pizza and made biscuits in my oven and slathered them with salted sweet cream butter. I gulped down a lovely pasta with prosciutto and basil and a cream sauce. I've spooned up buckets of Greek yogurt and swallowed loaves of whole wheat toast. I've had handfuls of banana nut Cheerios and imbibed salads made of organic lettuce and heirloom tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles and red grape halves. I've scrambled free range eggs with artisan cheddar cheese and rolled them up in warm tortillas with homemade salsa.

Yeah, I'm food loading.

I've completed yet another very long run and have one more this week. This year, I believe I'm on track to at least break that frustrating four hour marathon mark. I'm not so sure about qualifying for Boston,
but we'll see. If I don't make it, it won't be because I left out one of the biggest components of marathon training - food.

Comments

[FreeDiveGuy]

Great explanation of life on the trim side for an athlete. It's a bit like a sports car with a small tank versus an SUV with a large tank, a reserve tank and a spare tire. You don't have to carry all your fuel for a cross-country trip. You just need enough to get you to the next filling station.
...and we know which one looks better in a bikini. :-)

[Marie Valadez]

Adela, you really look great (although, I thought you looked great before weight loss!). You are such an inspiration & I am trying. Of this subject, where did you get those great looking leopard gloves you had on the other night?