Caffeine and My Run

Today I did a 9 mile run. I felt fantastic - even kept up (or could at least still see them!) with my running group's 11 minute pace - until mile 6. And then I hit a wall. A big ole brick wall where I had to stop running. I begrudgingly walked. And walked. And walked some more. I walked for a whole mile. The whole time, I was contemplating why I had hit my wall. Here are some things I came up with.

1. I haven't been keeping a regular running schedule. Because of our move, my lack of a gym, our week long family visit/vacation, and my hesitation of outdoor running (until recently that is!), I haven't really been running consistently at all. I did an 8 mile run a few weeks ago, but that was the first long run I had done since my half marathon on Memorial Day. I am now feeling more confident about running outside, so it's just a matter of getting out there and doing it.

2. It was hot. It wasn't as hot as it has been, but it was still probably in the 80's during my run. Once you add in the humidity, it got downright sauna-ish out there. Being so hot, I had started sweating before I even got out of my car. By the time I was three miles in though, I had stopped sweating. Which is never good. Your body uses sweat to cool off, so when you stop sweating, the logical thought would be that you start overheating. And overheat I did! I was really dehydrated. I had bought a hand-held water bottle that holds 20 oz of water earlier this week, and then I also bought some Nuun. I had drank about 40 oz of water and then one 20 ounce bottle with a Nuun tablet (which, are you supposed to take the whole tablet, or break it up? I'm new to Nuun). Still, it wasn't quite enough for me I guess.

3. I had switched up my nutrition. And this, my friends, is where the caffeine comes into play. I have been using Clif Chocolate Cherry Double Shot gels for my running nutrition. They taste fantastic, and they have the equivalent of two cups of coffee in them. But, I thought that the caffeine and the chocolate taste in the heat my have adverse affects on my stomach, so I went to the GU Vanilla Bean gels. I took one at mile 3, and expected it to kick in at least by mile 4. But it didn't. I was dragging. So at mile 6 when I felt like I just couldn't go on, I took my Clif Chocolate Cherry Double Shot gel. And bam! At mile 7, I felt renewed energy. It was really miraculous. When I got home, I started researching the effects of caffeine on running and found that there is new(ish) research showing that caffeine is actually beneficial to long distance athletes. They used a lot of fancy words, but the gist of it is this: caffeine helps your muscles recuperate faster. This might be why, after my last half marathon when I took a 5 hour energy, I felt great for the rest of the day. So my new theory is this: until I actually physically get sick from my fave gels, I'm just going to keep using them. Messing with your nutrition really messes with your run!

So there are a lot of reasons that I might have hit my wall. But the good news is, I was able to work through it and finish my run. I even shopped around Walmart for an hour afterwards and then took the kiddos for a half hour swim afterwards. Then, I spent the rest of the day on the couch :) And ate which wich for supper and loved it! I had a buffalo chicken salad. It was yummy!

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

I've been getting some gnarly charlie horses in my right calf. Like BAD. Like when I was pregnant bad. And don't worry, I'm not preggers. If that happened, I would start to think God had something against me haha. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out why for the last week or so I've been getting these charlie horses/leg cramps. And my only conclusion? Not enough water. The past three days, I made it until about 3pm and realized I hadn't drank anything other than my morning coffee. Yikes! So, today, I'm going to pile on my water and see if it changes. I think part of the problem is that I'm not a real big fan of Texas water. It tastes like it has dirt or clay in it to me. I miss the Spokane Aquifer! When I drink water here, I put a Crystal Light on-the-go thing in my water and right now I'm out of them. Ergo, I cannot drink water. I *do* have a whole case of bottled water in my laundry room, but let's not talk about that now :) I have been drinking obscene amounts of Cherry Coke Zero in the evenings too, so that might have something to do with my leg cramps, but I would prefer to leave the glorious Cherry Coke Zero out of this.

I weighed myself this morning and I'm back down to where I was before I ate massive amounts of food at Chuy's. Woo-hoo! I was looking back through my food journal (I write down everything I eat) this morning and noticed that I"ll have about 4-5 weeks of good eating followed by 1-2 weeks of BAD eating where I just about blow all the work I'd done in the last month. My new eating goal is to try to not have those two weeks of  bad eating and really buckle down. If I'm ever going to make it to my goal, then I have to eat better. Exercise only gets you so far. I can workout for hours, but if I follow it up with three hot dogs or a whole medium pizza, I kind of just wasted all my hours on working out. I have to put good things in my body!

I've been reading "Born to Run." It's a very interesting book and I'm loving the information on ultrarunning and discovering how our bodies really were made to cover long distances and to run. Right now I'm at a part where the author is getting some nutritional advice. He was told to try salad for breakfast. My first thought was a breakfast salad??? Eww! But really, I'm not a huge breakfast foods person (my sister can attest to me cooking asparagus for breakfast as a kid!), and salads are yummy...I think my next thought was how much work it would be to make a big salad every morning. All that chopping! But the more and more I think about it, how nice would salad be in the morning?? Maybe I should just prepare a big weekly salad on Sunday and eat it all week. I did that years ago when I lost all my weight, and it helped me get my veggies in for the day. Why not do it again, and just eat it for breakfast?

So now my mission for today is to go shopping: buy some Crystal Light so I can drink gobs of water, and get some salad fixings. Oh and my Dad and Grandma come tomorrow(!) so I better get them some food and do some meal planning for their trip too. And my indoor triathlon is Sunday! I'm so excited :) And a little nervous. Mostly about the swimming part. Can you doggie paddle in a triathlon without getting laughed at?? I'll have an answer for you on Sunday.