Monday, August 27, 2012

Marathon Madness Monday - Week 10

Woo hoo!  I did my first 20 miler this weekend.  It was HARD.  Everyone else was doing 16 as it was a step back week for them, so I started early and did 4 miles before the group started at 7.  This was not a great week to extend the run as the route was HARD.  It's called "Potpourri of Hills."  We did 6 sets of hills, and did a double loop of the last hill - which I hit at mile 17.  You know that children's song, "This is the song that never end"?  Well I sang that to myself in my head and changed the word song to hill.

These are the hills that never end.  They just go on and on, my friend. Some people started running them not know what they were and they'll continue running them forever just because...
But I survived and was impressed that my overall pace was 9:51.  I definitely struggled at the end, which is to be expected - you can see those 2 hill loops I did at the end on the far right of this elevation profile.

So running 20 miles means I burned approximately 2000 calories.  Add on the 1,200-1,600 calories a person needs, and well, you need to eat a lot on the days when you do long runs.  I think some people think that you lose weight when training for a marathon - but that is really not the case.  Many actually GAIN weight.  That hasn't been the case for me - my weight has stayed the same.  But it does seem to change the way a person thinks about eating.  I eat for performance and recovery and really think about what I put in my body.  Now I am far from perfect, so I definitely eat some things that are not healthy (hello, m&m's), but in general, I eat pretty cleanly when I am running.

I'm always curious about what others eating when they are training, so here is a selection of most of the things I ate on the day of my long run last Saturday!

coffee w/ French Vanilla creamer + PB on GF toast = my standard pre-run breakfast

Post-run breakfast of 3 scrambled eggs w/ salsa

Left over brown rice spaghetti with ground turkey marinara sauce for lunch!

An hour after lunch, I was hungry, so I had some vanilla yogurt (I'll re-introduced yogurt into my diet) + GF granola

A couple hours later, I was STILL hungry, so I boiled 2 ears of corn.  I know it's a lot for a snack, but I was insatiable at this point

Dinner was foil packets of baby red potatoes and zucchini with a small serving of steak, all grilled on my charcoal grill!

That is pretty much everything I ate.  The only things I left out were the 3 gu's I ate during the run and the chocolate milk I drank after the run (can't stand the dairy-free versions so I still drink this once a week).  So all in all, not a CRAZY amount of food, but I definitely consumed a lot of calories.  Obviously there was no dessert or sweets consumed yesterday, unless you count the chocolate milk and yogurt which are both on the sweet side.  This isn't out of the norm for me as I am just not a sweets person, and the one item I would want - frozen yogurt - would have been too much on top of the yogurt I had (my body can not handle much dairy in a day, especially since I cut back my dairy consumption last year).

Here is how the training broke out for the week!

Monday:  8 mile recovery run at 9:30 pace.  We took it easy on this run as most had ran 20 on Saturday.

Tuesday:  30 minutes on a stationary bike - 8.5 miles

Wednesday:  Yassos!  For those not familiar w/ Yassos, they are 1/2 mile repeats.  If your goal is a 4 hour marathon, you run the 1/2 mile in 4 minutes.  4 hours is my goal, so my goal was 4 minutes.  I ran my 4 yassos in 3:54, 3:49, 4:00, and 4:03.  Pace deteriorated, but I am still happy with how they went.  We will work our way up to doing 10 of them!  Eeks!

Thursday:  4 mile recovery run at 9:22 pace.

Friday:  Rest

Saturday:  20 miles of hellacious hills, pace of 9:51.  First ice bath of the training season.

Sunday:  Rest

****
 Training Tally:

Week 10:  39 miles
Training-to-Date:  308

Are you a sweets person?  If so, what is your favorite sweet indulgence?  I am not a huge sweets person as I prefer salty/savory foods, but I do like m&m's, starburst and frozen yogurt!

18 comments:

  1. nice! i am so a sweet person. (as i am drinking my coffee with sweet cream natural bliss creamer hahaha). i am in awe that you can eat so nicely after knowing you burned so many calories. i would have had to eat some nachos or pizza before going to the veggies. ;)

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  2. I'm so impressed! You are going to rock this marathon for sure. I'm not huge into sweets. I usually crave salty, crunchy chips. Mmm, chips. They're my nemesis.

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  3. I have SUCH a sweet tooth. I'm not as into salty foods, although every now and then, I get a craving. But mainly, I crave anything sweet!

    Way to rock your training this week... especially your hilly 20-miler. You are going to rock this marathon!

    And thanks. Now I have "This Is the Song That Never Ends" stuck in my head. ;)

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  4. I, too, crave salty snacks like popcorn, but love a piece of chocolate now and then! I also love ice cream!

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  5. Great job on your 20 mile run! You are looking so strong this training cycle....I sense a PR coming for you!

    I love sweets but I also love salt too. I would eat a brownie/cookie/puff wheat square any day!

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  6. YOU RAN 20 MILES? That is just so unfathomable to me, wow... GOOD JOB! Call me crazy, but I think it's totally normal that you were so hungry after that kind of run. Your body must have been working on overdrive by then! You ate really well considering, and you're quite lucky that you don't have a sweet tooth. Mine is just AWFUL. ha :)

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  7. Great job on your 20 miler! I am a huge sweets person!

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  8. I would definitely be one of those people who would gain weight if I ran a marathon. I have such a hard time satisfying my body after a really hard workout, especially when weights are involved.

    I would say I am more of a sweets person but I do like all potato related products too including chips, fries etc and I like those maybe more than sweets haha. So maybe I just love everything bad for me, which is convenient!

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  9. Wow, I cannot believe you're already up to 20 miles! This just means October is right around the corner and that is CRAZY!

    I'm not a sweets person. I would much rather eat something hearty or savory! If I do get a sweet tooth something small usually satisfies it.

    I hope I get to see you when you're in DSM. It's still up in the air!

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  10. Way to rock 20 miles with hills! I really hate hills, they're by far my biggest challenge when running. Last year, the city I lived in was really hilly so I had to face my fear, but since then I've pretty much completely avoided them! haha

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  11. Wow! Way to go on getting your 1st 20 miler done! That is such a great landmark to hit in marathon training. That will be great conditioning for you that it was hillier! You are awesome

    I love how much one can eat on long runs. Mmm food

    I'm a little bit of a sweet person - I like a good piece of chocolate, candy, or frozen yogurt. I have been craving sweets lately, so finally caved and bought a box of Sour Patch Saturday night. It was heavenly and worth ever calorie & gram of sugar!

    As for cookies, bars, cake, baked goods -- I will pass! Not a big fan.

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  12. You are amazing! And "Potpourri of Hills?" That's someone trying to make it sound nicer than it is - proud of you!

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  13. Wow you weren't kidding about a hilly 20 miler!! Great job!

    I love sweets and have a HUGE sweet tooth. I've been working on satisfying it with fruit over the last couple of months and most of the time it works, sometimes I really need some ice cream or chocolate. ha

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  14. Great job on the 20 miler! Those are so tough and to add hills on top of it! Well done!

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  15. I am like you in that I prefer salty/savoury. If I do eat something sweet though, I like cinnamon buns!

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  16. YOU are absolutely awesome. Period.

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  17. I love your Fiesta meals. I do the same thing; I have a lot of photos of things in blue bowls! I eat a ton of veggies as well, and no, I am not really much of a sweet tooth. I eat a butt load of food though, especially on running days. Today I had garden zucchini, garden tomatoes with garbanzos, garden Kohlrabi salad (yum) and lots and lots of fruit. I have been LOVING the fresh garden veggies, but the calorie count on them is lower, so you tend to eat more times!

    When I do crave a sweet, frozen yogurt is definitely the way to go! I love the serve yourself one, so I can taste a few different kinds.

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  18. Oh man, I would have eaten a ton more than that (not that I necessarily should), but on long run days I just eat a LOT. And usually throw some kind of dessert in there - ice cream, cookies, etc. But yes, fueling for your performance is important (and refueling). Some marathons I gain a lb or two, but by now I tend to stay pretty even most of the time. I also think it's interesting to hear about what others are eating during training.

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