Saturday 5/1

RUN

5 miles on Thursday, 10 on Friday and 8 miles today.

The 5 miler felt great despite going 8 on Wed. HR looked great. Easy run.

The 10 miler had over 1000ft vert but really no climbing, just steady grades.
The pace looked good in the latter stages. Just a great run despite 8 gazillion sunflowers stinking up the joint. Uhhhg.

Today I ran 8 miles (4 on sand, 4 on pavement). The beach is tough, especially when you're running in the sand up hill. Couple of point about this. I felt really really low on energy. Forgot to take any preventive meds before the run since I felt really good this a.m. But I could feel yesterday's run as I headed-out. This has been the routine, unfortunately, at this point in the season. After a "big" run, the next day is a little less than 100%, relatively speaking (I'm working on 75%, which means the day after a big run I'm at 65% :(

The other point that also explains some of the low energy is I consumed nothing before the run, other than a little water. Team Fast Eddy posted this the other day

"I read a very good article in Running Times last night in regards to nutrition and, in particular, teaching your body to burn fat. The credible part of the article is that it referenced Meb as taking on this strategy for 3-4 weeks. The article makes 3 points: 1) skip the gels for training runs up to 20 myles 2) Schedule two workouts per week before breakfast 3) Do a depleted double; meaning do a morning workout w/o carbs, don't refuel on carbs alone, then do a second high intensity workout later in the day. The big take away for me was to do runs in the morning when no carbs are on board and use what's left of the liver glycogen. Today I tried that. I noticed a change at the 45 minute mark when I started to feel fatigued, then at the hour mark energy started to pick up again. My take is that I ran completely out of liver glycogen, my body shifted gears and found another source of energy that I was able to finish on. The question is, what was the source? If it was some residual fat in my blood then that's good. Now I've gotta try it again and see if I come up with the same thing but go a little longer and see how long it lasts."

Although I wasn't wearing a HRM today, I was running on around max 140-145, just a typical aerobic, easy run. So the point is that I was primarily burning fat anyway, but in the morning, without any carbs on board, I was perhaps dipping into the my liver glycogen? I was light-headed, pretty fatigued. The post-run bliss was ridiculous underscored by the great morning sunlight. Awesome. Felt pretty healthy.

Went home and ate some left-over noodles and real tomato sauce with tofu and qunioa on top, plus Braggs apple cider vinegar, Braggs aminos, and olive oil. Yum. I'll be snacking all day!


RECOVERY

Ran into some Ale Smith IPA (bottle), GF Le Freak (cask), Port Hop 15 (draft), and Avery IPA (bottle).

Happy weekend, all you fiends, especially those of you racing!