Run to Win

Jeff Galloway recently came into the Maine Running Company to share his experiences with us. All of my notes from the clinic will be linked at the bottom of this article as they are available.

This morning’s notes are about what Jeff had to say about nutrition and how to eat to fuel your training.

Food & Training

“People tend to over-record their exercise and under-record their calorie intake…Imagine that!”

Fat is a very efficient source of fuel, but it can be a little too abundant of a fuel source that involves carrying around extra weight, which means that you will require more fuel to begin with.
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The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the second part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment. This part covers the presentation on nutrition and fueling.

Nutrition Basics & Fueling for Performance

The second presentation of the night was presented by Karen Hodge Knapton from Whole Health Consulting, who covered what a basic and healthy diet should consist of for an athlete.

“You cannot expect to start the season without a healthy diet.”

It takes months to prepare the body through healthy eating, and you can not concentrate solely on race day. To that effect, you need to be aware of the 6 basic nutrients that make up your diet.

1. Water
2. Vitamins
3. Minerals
4. Carbohydrates
5. Protein
6. Fats

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Sue asked last week, “How difficult is eating healthy for an individual? Exercise is not as difficult, it’s just being motivated enough to do it. In my honest opinion, I think eating healthy is really difficult because a lot of us are busy people, and eating the right foods are not as convenient as eating the foods that are readily available. Also, if there are healthy foods readily available, it’s hard to come by and costs a lot more.”

I do not believe that eating healthy is all that difficult, nor does it have to be very inconvenient or expensive. With a little planning ahead, you can easily provide yourself with plenty of healthy snacks, meals and leftovers with which to fuel yourself.

I actually think that eating healthy can be easier when you are busy because a small amount of time up front can prevent you from wasting a lot of time throughout the week.

You will not have to worry about going out to a restaurant or fast food establishment for your lunches, you will not have to go to the grocery store every day or two to get the staples that you need to prepare dinner, and you won’t have to waste time by going out to eat when you don’t have anything to cook.

In my household, we are the definition of being busy. I work full time, run part time, and am trying to start a home business. My wife goes to law school full time, works part time and spends almost all of her free time studying. My cat, well she mostly just alternates between sleeping and running around like a mad-woman, although she does her best to help my wife study (as long as the books are not in my wife’s lap that is.)

My wife constantly tells me that we need to eat healthier, and every time I have to remind her that I am perfectly content with the healthy content of my diet. The difference between our two diets are that I have more of an opportunity to snack throughout the day. Our dinners are the same, our lunches are usually similar, and if anything she eats a healthier breakfast than I do.
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Nancy Clark will be featured on 20/20 today on ABC in a segment about food vs. supplements. She is one of New England’s premier nutritionists and has clients such as the Boston Celtics, the Red Sox, multiple Olympic athletes, as well as collegiate and elite competitors from multiple sports.

She has just published the 4^th edition of her bestselling book, The Sports Nutrition Guidebook. She details the latest research in sports nutrition and diets and lays out some simple plans for better fueling without providing any hype or fad diets.

Nancy Clark has a regular column in New England Runner magazine.

• This week last year, I wrote a bit about nutrition. First, I reviewed a few nutrition books, and I also discussed a study that found that our brains ignore calories from beverages. That makes it easier for us to eat more than we should when we drink juice or soda.
• Another study found that children who do not get enough sleep tend to be overweight. The study did not determine why that is so, but it did seem to point out a direct correlation. I think that sleep is very important, being one of the best times to allow your body to rest and recover from a workout.
• This week last year, I explained why there is always a headwind when you are running.
• Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin ran 4000 miles across the Sahara Desert to raise money for H2O Africa. That is quite a feat.
• This week two years ago, I described how to do chinups, suggested that you always eat breakfast, and reported on a story about a deer that bandited the Austin Freescale Marathon. The guy that got tackled by the deer didn’t run again last year.

John Berardi at Precision Nutrition has come up with a new promotion to get people in shape. He is hosting the Body Transformation Challenge for folks who are willing to take some measurements and before and after photos of themselves.

There are three prizes:

• Grand Prize: Free groceries & supplements for 1yr
• 1st Runner Up Prize: Free meal delivery for 3 months
• 2nd Runner Up Prize: Free camera & Results Tracker

There are a few catches to the contest, though. First, you need to own Precision Nutrition to take part. Second, you have to want to change your body. That singles me out; I am happy with my body and have no desire to transform it into anything else. My interest in his site is all about performance and not about fat or weight loss.

The contest starts next week and registration for it is open through mid-July. Head over to Body Transformation Challenge home page for full details, and a slew of before and after pictures of people that have already succeeded with the program.

I just discovered the Precision Nutrition Forums through Alwyn Cosgrove. The forums used to be a bonus for paid customers of John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition program, but he recently opened the forum up to the public. It has a lot of e-books, exercise programs, and a good back log of nutrition and exercise related Q&A from the customers and members of the forum that are answered by experts in the field.

I signed up for the forum about a half hour ago, and I have seen enough to know that there are a few programs that I am going to try out after I run the Boston Marathon. You don’t need to register to be able to read the topics; you can just click through and see what other people have written. You can download some of the PDF e-books that are on the site, but some of them are still protected and for member’s of the system only. It looks like all of the interviews are for member download only. There is still a lot to see, though, and I am looking forward to digging through the archives.

I will link some of the more interesting ones that I find here at Run to Win.

In a collaborative effort with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about books throughout the month of February. This week I would like to talk about the diet and (mostly) nutrition books that line my shelves.
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