Thursday, July 26, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Feeling Groovy
Hi, folks! You may not know this because we haven't been blogging lately, but I think I speak for both of us when I say that we appear to have finally drifted out of our training slump. For the past couple of months, James and I have both been tired. And frustrated with nagging issues like nutrition and injuries. And just getting tired of training in general. And just ready to get this whole Ironman thing over with. I was definitely in a bigger funk than James, but we were both feeling it.
But, two weekends ago, we went to Penticton with our coach and our training group to train on the Ironman course, and boy howdy did that give us a boost! (See, I'm bringing out the twang for our Texas readers.) Being there, on the course, surrounded by fellow triathletes made it all seem very real and brought the end into sight. It also made me incredibly nervous because James and I both had nutrition issues on the bike and ended up in the ER, but at least we knew what the problems were and still had some time to fix them.
So, upon our return to Victoria, I decided to consult a naturopath to help me with my Ironman nutrition struggles, and I wish I had done it a long time ago. She is already helping me so much! And with things I didn't even know were a problem.
Example: throughout my Ironman training, I have struggled with food, and not just during workouts. I'll eat what seems like a normal amount of quality food for breakfast, and lunch, but instead of dinner, all I want to eat is cookies. Or a Slurpee. Or those awesome baked Kettle chips. Or some other crappy junk food. Or all of the above. In my pre-Ironman life, I rarely ate crappy food and never really struggled with weird cravings for it.
Enter FitDay, a calorie calculator which I knew about already but wasn't using because I thought it was unrelated to my bike nutrition issues. My naturopath told me I should be eating about 3000 (I think this includes training foods) calories per day and gave me guidelines for percentages of carbs, protein, and fat to shoot for. And she wants me to track all my food on FitDay for a while so I get a feel for how much to eat. So yesterday, I ate what felt like A LOT of food throughout the day (way more than normal), but even including my on-bike food, I was still under 1700 calories for the day. A far cry from 3000, no? But even with just 1700, I felt stuffed all day and didn't even want an after dinner snack of fruit. And lately I have been eating a lot less, especially for breakfast and lunch because I just haven't felt like eating. So perhaps this is why I come home ravenous and turn into a cookie monster and then feel bad about it later? Maybe I just needed more real food earlier in the day. Why did I not do this months ago??
I gotta say, my list of "things to do differently for my next Ironman" is getting longer and longer...
But, two weekends ago, we went to Penticton with our coach and our training group to train on the Ironman course, and boy howdy did that give us a boost! (See, I'm bringing out the twang for our Texas readers.) Being there, on the course, surrounded by fellow triathletes made it all seem very real and brought the end into sight. It also made me incredibly nervous because James and I both had nutrition issues on the bike and ended up in the ER, but at least we knew what the problems were and still had some time to fix them.
So, upon our return to Victoria, I decided to consult a naturopath to help me with my Ironman nutrition struggles, and I wish I had done it a long time ago. She is already helping me so much! And with things I didn't even know were a problem.
Example: throughout my Ironman training, I have struggled with food, and not just during workouts. I'll eat what seems like a normal amount of quality food for breakfast, and lunch, but instead of dinner, all I want to eat is cookies. Or a Slurpee. Or those awesome baked Kettle chips. Or some other crappy junk food. Or all of the above. In my pre-Ironman life, I rarely ate crappy food and never really struggled with weird cravings for it.
Enter FitDay, a calorie calculator which I knew about already but wasn't using because I thought it was unrelated to my bike nutrition issues. My naturopath told me I should be eating about 3000 (I think this includes training foods) calories per day and gave me guidelines for percentages of carbs, protein, and fat to shoot for. And she wants me to track all my food on FitDay for a while so I get a feel for how much to eat. So yesterday, I ate what felt like A LOT of food throughout the day (way more than normal), but even including my on-bike food, I was still under 1700 calories for the day. A far cry from 3000, no? But even with just 1700, I felt stuffed all day and didn't even want an after dinner snack of fruit. And lately I have been eating a lot less, especially for breakfast and lunch because I just haven't felt like eating. So perhaps this is why I come home ravenous and turn into a cookie monster and then feel bad about it later? Maybe I just needed more real food earlier in the day. Why did I not do this months ago??
I gotta say, my list of "things to do differently for my next Ironman" is getting longer and longer...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
