Runners and Gluten

I don’t claim to know much about dietary requirements for runners but I do want to bring up some interesting things every now and then for my readers to think about! My rants usually mean I am considering or am thinking about the very topic I am discussing! In this post, going gluten free is something I’m considering. I do experience a lot of bloating and feel fatigued a lot and that means I need to think about what I’m eating and perhaps that’s what is causing me to feel tired. 

I stumbled across a great article in Runners World called, “Goodbye Gluten?” In this article it indicates that considering a gluten free diet might be for you. There’s no guarantee that it’s a great idea because usually when people talk about feeling better after giving up gluten, that’s usually because of their poor diet including processed food. That is one reason why it’s important to eliminate only one or two things at a time in your diet as you go. 

There are some great grains that we could be eating instead of wheat and they include Quinoa. Quinoa is a grain I have had in my cupboard for the last two years and I absolutely love it! There are some other grains that I haven’t tried such as millet and so forth. It’s something worth considering especially since I’m still losing weight and want to change my diet for life. 

For a list of gluten free items, Celiac is a great website especially since it’s for people with celiac disease.

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February almost over

I started this month after only running 23 miles last month believing I should at least add a few miles this month to feel better about how badly January went! As of today (with only one day left of the month) I have 6.48 miles from doubling the milage from last month. I don’t know if I should be ashamed that I haven’t doubled my miles or if I should be proud of the miles I’ve run this month. So far, I have run almost 40 miles. This just means I have to up the ante next month! We shouldn’t forget that this month is 3 days shorter than January.

Coach Mark reminded me that it’s not the short term goals that matter in running, it’s the long term results! We need to focus on what makes us happy and keeps us going. Today I told myself I’d run at least 3 miles and I ended up doing a .78 mile warm up and then doing 5 miles in 1 hour 10 minutes. I know that’s super SLOW but I am proud of myself for finishing a long-er run of five miles. I had argued with myself in my head about whether I should keep running or go home and I had decided to go home because my water bottle was empty.

It was, in a way a good choice because I ended up feeling really tense around the same area I’ve had trouble with my right leg. At work later tonight I limped and it was not a fun event. Spending 3 hours on my feet limping around the restaurant is not my idea of an ideal recovery but I made it through. I think it might have to do with my new running shoes! Yes, I got new running shoes along with my watch so I’m all set for long runs but need to break in my new shoes.

Diet and Exercise

Part of training for any kind of race requires a lot of commitment and that includes changing your diet if you eat processed food and/or fried food. Getting healthy means staying away from bad fats and incorporating good fats within your diet. Over the past few weeks, my diet has gone down the crapper. I do prep for a restaurant called Quaker Steak and Lube. While they have salads and grilled chicken, everything else is fatty. Even their ribs.

Their ribs are slathered in butter. While ribs sound fabulous, being a good weight sounds even more fabulous. So, I went grocery shopping yesterday and bought stuff for stews, sandwiches, and so forth. With that, I can focus on eating at home and going to work not hungry. indulging doesn’t mean you eat a bad meal everyday but maybe a bad meal once a week or once every two weeks. Don’t make food a reward!

Exercising is not something difficult to incorporate within your daily routine. There is an hour here and there that you can take the time and exercise. If you don’t have an hour all at once, take the time to split down your exercising. I need to get back into that. My body is not reacting adversely to not exercising much lately but I know I need to get back on the horse. That means today, going running for as far as I can and then taking time to figure out weight-lifting and cross training. My hardest thing about cross training is understanding that just because I run doesn’t mean I can NOT cross train. I need to be lifting weights and running both to get a faster metabolism and get into shape.

This all sounds like a no-brainer but it’s much harder to put something you talk about into action.

Cross Training Heaven

On the 23rd I decided that working out was necessary but I couldn’t figure out why in the world I would want to run on the treadmill. I hate that thing. Ever since I started running outside regularly, I have come to realize how much I loathe running on the treadmill. There is only ONE reason why I don’t like it. That is, because it forces my legs to move. It is not a good feeling when your body fights against the movement.

The elliptical machine has always been my least favorite machine at the gym but for some reason that’s the first machine I jumped on. I cranked out three miles in just over 30 minutes and then jumped on the bike and rode 4 and a half miles. This was not running but I felt good with my work out. Working out is never something I regret doing, not working out is. Often I will go to the gym and jump on the treadmill and then only do a few minutes because I’m bored or I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything. When that happens I jump off and go home.

Over the past month I have slowly declined in my running and this is for no obvious reason. I believe that a lot of the stress I’ve been dealing with over the past two weeks have really screwed up my ability to focus on exercising and getting on top of things. I feel bad that Coach Mark has put his time and effort into me and I’m not panning out to the best I can. Today is a new day. I am going to put my mind into follow last week’s schedule and get my butt moving again. Those 7 miles last sunday never happend and there is no reason why! Shame on me. Instead of sitting around and being bummed out with my running or lack thereof; I have decided I’m just going to see how much I can get done this week and  work my way back up!

Nike Plus Watch

My biggest aggravation with running outside is that I have to carry my phone with me everywhere just so I could get my milage and time. Finally yesterday I decided to go and look at watches and decided on a Nike Plus watch. It’s a very simple watch and will make do until I figure out how much running I’m going to do. When I have a routine set, I’ll be getting a fancy watch. My thoughts are geared towards the Sunnto Ambit watch but it’s a whopping 500 dollars!

The Nike Plus watch connects to Nike Plus. It’ll be interesting to see how that works! I already had the tracker for my shoes but I still had to have my phone with me. I took the watch out for a quick spin last night (.75 mile) and at first it took a good while to connect with the GPS system. That wasn’t fun, standing around and waiting when I was all ready to go. Once it connected, it performed pretty well. Connected with the system and tracked my run really well. I had set it to recognize .25 miles as a lap. This gave me a high school track feel to my run.

This is the most exciting thing that has happend to me this week when it comes to running.

Two Days Off From Running

Sometimes when you set a schedule, you have to accept it when things don’t go the way you expect. Instead of dropping off the face of the earth, you can accept that you had a reason for not running. Mine was my calves. Goodness gracious, my calves were sore and I don’t usually get sore calves from running. I think it had to do with the shoes I was wearing or with the fact that I ran nonstop for 20 minutes. 

I usually end up doing a few walks during my runs so that way I can relax a bit and then start up again. The point in me running the full 20 minutes was to help me get used to running longer periods of time. It’s okay to take a few days off but get back on the horse as soon as you can and focus. Today I am doing two different work-outs so that way I can make up for missing my work out yesterday. One is to be TurboFire which is my cross training, the other is my wednesday run. 

“The miracle is…

“The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.”

― John Bingham, No Need for Speed: A Beginner’s Guide to the Joy of Running

Hot Food for Runners

Hot Food for Runners

Great article on hot food for runners. We’re at that time of the year where everybody’s getting ready to train for their next big race! (and gosh darn it, it’s still chilly!)

Eating Before Your Run

Food is a very important tool for your body especially since it is the gasoline to keep it going. Everybody has their own preference on when to eat and if they want to eat before running or after. The only thing that’s not up for discussion is keeping your body hydrated properly and eating regularly.

With that said, I have run both on a full stomach and an empty stomach. Based on my experience, I prefer running and then eating rather than vice versa. It’s much easier on my stomach and I’m more focused on what I’m doing rather than trying to find a bathroom. It’s either that or feeling nauseated while trying to run. Food feels very heavy to me and it’s never a good feeling when I’m trying to run with food in my stomach.

The most important thing is to feel energized and able to carry yourself through any run that you have planned out. Eating a big mac and fries along with a large coke is not the most ideal pre-running meal because of all the grease and c r a p you’re putting in your body. I’ve always believed that runners should worship their bodies and eat good food. Food is your fuel, you want to be sure to put the right fuel in your body to help break down and build up cells.

Great Runs Make People Happy

Today is Monday which means:

Monday – Run easy for 20 minutes.  Try to breathe in through your nose as you run and out through your mouth.  Let those breaths in each be viewed as giving you more power and strength.  Let each breath in and out relax your shoulder, necks, and arms more each breath.

I decided that since I was having trouble with my shins while running in my other shoes, I would try to run in my Vibram 5 Fingers. I have had these shoes for well over two years but I have not run in them very much and have always tried running in tennis shoes. I have to say, I was really impressed with my performance tonight even though I ran an average of 13:04.

I started out not worrying about how far I would run but telling myself this is to be a 20 minute run. What a world of a difference it makes thinking about time rather than distance. No pressure in performing a particular way but rather focusing on getting those minutes in. Sure, I didn’t run three miles but I did run 1.6 miles and nonstop too! I spent the whole time pretty much keeping the same pace throughout the run.

Using Map My Run app, I tracked my run as I usually do and just stuck my phone in my sweater and ran. Being Deaf, I can’t really enjoy music as much as other people which makes running a bit difficult sometimes. I was really concerned about my stamina and how I would feel, after all I did run five miles this morning too.

Finishing this run was the best feeling I could ever imagine having! Feeling great that I kept my pace and didn’t feel any pain in the normal areas. (I did start to have slight pressure in my lower back.) Looking forward to tomorrow!! I definitely need to look into getting a watch that can track my miles too. That will eliminate my need for my phone but I want to make sure the watch I get will be worth the money.