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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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.

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.

Training for a Half Marathon – Week 2 Running Schedule

I finished my first few days with Mark’s training schedule. So far, so good!! I have been given a official distance I am training for and it is a Half Marathon! So exciting isn’t it 🙂 This week will be fun and I promise myself I’m not going to torture myself again by making my runs at 1 or 2 in the morning. (That, and the husband was not too happy when he found out I was running in the dark.)

Today Mark has sent me a new schedule which I’m very excited about. (You can see, i’m pretty pumped up!) 

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.

Tuesday – Cross train for 30-45 minutes or run easy for 30 minutes.

Wednesday – 10 minutes of easy jogging to warmup.  20 minute fartlek.  I want you to alternate running fast (don’t grind and grit your teeth, run fast not “hard”) and running easy.  Just go as fast as you can as long as you can and then go easy until you are ready to go again.  5 minute cooldown at the end.

Thursday –  Cross train for 30-45 minutes or run easy for 30 minutes or day off.

Friday – Progression run.  Start off easy and run very easy the first ten minutes and then gradually pick up the pace for 15 minutes, staying relaxed and just letting your legs gradually go faster.  Try to run the last 30 seconds all out.

Saturday – Cross train for 30 minutes or take today off.

Sunday – Long run.  7 miles.  The pace does not matter.  Just run by feel.  Start off very easy and try to gradually pick up the pace.  

 

The oddest thing happend. When I looked at Sunday to see how far my long run would be, I got giddy and excited! Each week my milage increases, my longest run will become longer and longer. Here is to a successful week of training! 

Day 1 Run

Today I was to do a 25/e and this run beat me. I have been slightly sick but I was hoping I could make it through this run without much trouble. I ran for about 12 minutes and then started coughing. Kept going, and then I started hacking and by 15 minutes I decided to stop. While I am bummed out I didn’t make it the full 25 minutes, I still went and did the best I could. Covered 1.4 miles and other than my cough, my body feels fine. I did notice one thing though…

It got really hot in my gym. I work out in an apartment gym and it felt like a sauna when I was running. Last time I ran on that treadmill, I had to take my coat off and was sweating. I sweated even though I only ran for 15 minutes. I think my core temperature is really shifting and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m sick or because of how my body has been changing. We’ll see about that. I’m definitely bummed out but I know I did the best I could today!

 

A Running Experiment

First of all, I’d like to tell everybody that’s reading this, Coach Mark has a few custom coaching service giveaways left! If you’re interested in testing out a coach for a month! I decided that since Mark has been so generous to provide his services to me and whomever else decides to take advantage of the offer for a month, I’m going to share how it goes for me! 

For most people, they don’t know that I have already shelled over 300 dollars at one point for a personal trainer/dietician only to find that I did not feel like she was worth the money. She did not give me enough feedback on my eating habits, did not require enough from me, and gave me too much leeway in the gym. I felt like I was spending a lot of money for hot air. This is the main reason why I was reluctant to even think about asking anybody to draft up a running plan for me. This opportunity is great for me to see if Mark is a good fit for me and what I think of his services. 

With that said, I want to first of all comment on one thing so far. Mark has been very quick to reply and a great motivator with his words. He has set up my first week based on my history of running. He had sent me a questionnaire with a few more questions later to determine what my level of fitness is. While that is generally not enough, he has also set up my first week to be a bit of an experiment and a bit of a repeat of what I am already doing.

I’m sure since my running history is not really set, he needs some more data which is to be collected through my first week of running.

This is what it looks like:

2-14 Thursday – 25 minutes easy.  You should be breathing easy to moderate.  If you need to take breaks in there that is fine for now but the time spent running/jogging should be 20 minutes.

2-15 Friday – 20 minutes easy or Cross-train or off day

2-16 Saturday – 5 miles.  Let’s just shoot for distance and not worry about pace.  

2-17 Sunday – Same as Friday ( 20 minutes easy or Cross-train or off day)

He said:

I’d like to hold off on these days and use them as a test of what your body can handle now.  We are going to eventually add some things in to work on your speed and strength.

So far, I’m really impressed with his punctuality in responding to me! Now, tomorrow I start fresh. Thank you again Mark for all you’re doing and I look forward to a productive month!! 

 

Finding Inspiration to Run

Sometimes we look at inspiration as something that must come from friends and family but the truth is it’s everywhere! Yesterday, I had been inspired to go on a long run because I saw a blog post about a blogger taking a 18 mile trek. There is nothing more inspiring than knowing you inspire someone else. (Which is why I mentioned it TWICE now!)

Today I took the day off from running but the day isn’t over yet and I’m itching to go for a short-ish run?? Instead of going for a run, I can gather all my running data and put it in one place. I had seen this beautiful calendar posted by another runner showing all of her work-outs and days that her and her husband had been exercising. Having a calendar full of results can be very inspiring for some people.

Another way to be inspired is to sign up for races! There have been many people that talk about the need to have a “push” to get started running. The best way to get that little push is to pay for something and tell yourself that you’re not bailing! Post those races on your calendar and get busy training!

It doesn’t take much to be inspired but it takes a lot to follow up with the inspiration! The support from your family and friends is invaluable especially when you’re getting ready to train for a marathon or if your’e already training and your diet sucks. Use that to inspire you to go and remember what you do inspires other people whether you realize it or not!