Run to Win

This week last year I gave a lot of good advice about how to find a place to work out, how to choose a race plan (including a case study) and explaiend how your racing problems are all (quite literally) in your head.

• The week began with a new series with Scott, this time focusing on travel. I offered advice on finding a track to work out on when you are traveling. My favorite tip is to just look at Google Maps or some other aerial or satellite photography of the area you will be visiting, because running tracks are very distinctive and easy to pick out on a map.
• I created a case study on developing a race plan so that you could follow my thought processes on how I decided what to do during a specific race. I then followed that case study up with the actual results of the race after all was said and done.
• One of the reasons that I needed such a detailed race plan was because a few days after the 5k race, I ran a 50k. It was my first time racing beyond the distance of a marathon.
• Some of the latest research in muscle performance found that most racing problems are probably mental rather than physical. There is a chemical influence in the body relating to muscle damage, but there aren’t any actual problems with the muscles themselves that would inhibit performance.
• This week 2 years ago, I shared the 2^nd best way to avoid hangovers (the best obviously being to avoid drinking to excess.) I also suggested that you check your gym or race bag before you leave in the morning. It is much more convenient to remember something before you leave than after.
• This week 3 years ago, I wrote about the best marathon training run…ever! Not only did I get in a good 17 miles, but my girlfriend also agreed to marry me along the way. We’ve now been happily married for a little over 2 years. A little less exciting but more useful to everyone else, I also wrote about losing weight by cutting out sugar water by drinking more water and less soda or sports drinks.

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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This week last year packed two very good tips in amongst all of the news and Autumn sports. I began publishing weekly NFL picks, but I am not going to do that this year since I do not plan on paying for cable and will only be able to watch a few games this season.

• Have you ever woken up with a splitting headache after drinking too much the night before? That does not happen very often to me, and almost never happened when I was in college. There were certainly some days when I drank more than I should have, but I knew the secret to avoiding hangovers. Obviously, not drinking is the easiest way, but if one if you do, then be sure not to skip your morning run the next day.
• Have you ever gotten to the gym or to a race and realized that you only have one shoe or forgot your towel or some clean underwear? You can usually avoid that problem by packing your bag the night before, but it is also important to check your gym or race bag before you leave in the morning.
• The Dan Cardillo 5k is a very fast race in Falmouth, Maine. I am running a 50k in New Hampshire, but if you are going to be in Southern Maine tomorrow morning then I recommend making your way over to Falmouth High School to put in a fast time.
• On the sports news front, a coach and 5 members of the USM cross country team went to the hospital after getting hit by a car being chased by the police. They were all released quickly, but 2 of the runners were not able to run until later in the season. In other criminal news, someone tried to smuggle fake Nike shoes worth about $16 million from China into the US. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada were allowed to appeal their sentence after refusing to identify who leaked grand jury testimony for their book, Game of Shadows.
• Two years ago this week, I wrote about the best marathon training run…ever! Not only did I get in a good 17 miles, but my girlfriend also agreed to marry me along the way. We’ve now been happily married for a little over a year. A little less exciting but more useful to everyone else, I also wrote about losing weight by cutting out sugar water from your regular diet such as soda and sports drinks.

I wrote a couple years ago about how drinking sugar water can lead to weight gain, because your body does not feel as full when you consume the calories in a liquid form. The Kansas City infoZine News has an article this week that covers some research into why we do not feel as full when we drink an equivalent number of calories compared to when we eat those calories.

Scientists offer several explanations as to why we may not notice calories from some beverages. A drink’s rapid passage through the mouth provides less time for signals to trigger the brain you are eating. Compared to beverages, solid food seems to provide more of a feeling of fullness, which signals the brain to stop eating. Thick liquids (like smoothies and shakes) provide considerably more fullness signals than thin liquids, such as soft drinks, fruit drinks, and sweetened tea and coffee. As portion sizes of calorie-dense beverages increase, it is easier to gulp down larger amounts than to eat larger portions of solid foods. Finally, some researchers suggest that there may be a psychological component, too. Many of us consider beverages a separate category that does not “count” in the same way as solid food.

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Looking back at this week last year is a bit late this weekend, due completely to the fact that I have a really bad infection in my right index finger and up until today it was too painful to bother typing anything. I’ve managed to drain a lot of the crud out, though, so I can use the finger a little now; at least enough to catch up on my work. This week last year was concerned mostly with The New Rules of Lifting and my email exchanges with one of the authors, but there was a bit of news, workout tips, and making fun of Olympic Athletes thrown in as well.

• I demonstrated how to do pullups in the continuation of my animated series. I also explained how to do a negative pullups when you are overloading your muscles or are not strong enough to do a full set of pullups yet.
• I learned a new reason to keep myself well hydrated, since thirsty people feel more pain. I also included a recipe for cooking shark steaks after they went on sale in my local fish market.
• I wrote a review on The New Rules of Lifting, which has proven to be one of my more popular reviews. I exchanged a few emails with Alwyn Cosgrove after he responded to my review of his book. I also asked him about how well the workouts would translate across gender lines, since the book seemed to ignore women.
• In lawsuit news, Nike sued Adidas because they thought that Adidas was ripping off the design of their Nike Shox shoes.
• In Olympics news, Lindsey Jacobellis made a fool of herself in the snowboard cross finals when she decided to showboat a jump and fell off of the course. This is just further proof that you should never showboat in the Olympics or in a race with $5000 on the line no matter how much you think you have the bonus money in hand.

Wes recently asked me about how to hydrate for a half marathon:

Blaine, we have a bunch of folks that are getting ready to get into their longer runs on Team HM Express (teamhmexpress.blogspot.com). Do you have any articles on hydration and nutrition while running over (x) miles?
[...] This is primarily for folks training for a half marathon. Thanks!

My advice on hydration is always the same, because I always hydrate the same whether my goal race is a 5k, a marathon, or I am in my off season and just lifting some weights. I very rarely have more than a week or so off at any given point unless I am sick, and then I drink even more water in an effort to drown whatever has me down. If it is true that thirsty people feel more pain, then you will want to be sure to keep well hydrated any time that you are getting ready for a good workout or race.
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This week last year I concentrated on getting the site updated and writing articles concerned with one aspect of weight lifting or another. There was a small bit of football news that snuck in there as well.

• I continued my animated series by demonstrating how to do a back extension with your hands behind your head. I also described the wife’s weight program and highlighted an article from the St. Louis Post about beginner exeriser tips.
• I reviewed the PowerBar ProteinPlus bars.
• I shared one of my best “workout” tips, which is important not only during a workout but throughout the entire day. It is very easy, as well. You just need to keep a water bottle handy at all times.
• In football news, I predicted the results of the second half of the Rose Bowl, but I wound up being wrong. Within hours after winning a game against the Bears, Mike Tice got fired from the Vikings.

When you finish a race or a tough workout, remember that you need to rehydrate yourself. Otherwise, you will be tired and may get sick later in the day. A tough workout or a race can lead to overextending yourself and becoming dehydrated, no matter how well hydrated you are at the start. It is difficult to drink enough water during a workout or especially during a race to keep yourself completely hydrated. It is not hard to keep yourself hydrated enough to not have to worry about a drop in performance and to finish your event, but you still need to drink a lot of water afterwards.

As an example, I ran the Beach to Beacon yesterday. Despite drinking plenty of water after the race, I knew that I was a bit dehydrated but I did not have an opportunity to consume more liquids for a few hours once we had left the finish area. When my fiance and I got home, she had a headache and took a nap, but I stayed up and neglected to consume enough liquids. Yesterday afternoon, I was exhausted and had a headache of my own. Some nausea and tight muscles in my back and shoulders also accompanied the headache. Had I drank a few more glasses of water or Gatorade, I probably would not have felt so terrible for most of the night.

The moral of this story is to try to remember to keep yourself hydrated when you finish your race or workouts. Most of the time, we only consciously think about staying hydrated before our races, and it is only an afterthought (if we think of it at all) after a race.