Runner Insight

We’ve included here an audio interview with Vision Runner. It runs 18 minutes long as she talks about her life as a legally blind runner.

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“Do or Do Not…There Is No Try.”  – Yoda

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Marathon Training – Diet and Nutrition

Over the past few years, we have been working on improving our overall health. One step in that process was to cut out fast food. Not being one to have eaten fast food that often, it really wasn’t a very hard thing to do – especially if you’ve watched the movie “Super Size Me“. And with places like Subway available for reasonably healthier choices, it makes it a lot easier when you just want something quick. Junk food, like potato chips and Hostess Twinkies were not a problem either as, other than my addiction to M&M’s and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Nuggets, I rarely indulge in that kind of food.

The biggest challenge came with finding foods without high fructose corn syrup or enriched flour or the hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats. We emptied out a lot of cabinets! I was amazed at the kind of foods that we thought were healthy, only to find they contained one or all three of the no-no’s within the first three ingredients.

But that’s not really the focus here. This is about diet and nutrition in relation to marathon training, and how to eat before, during and after long marathon training runs.

Since I had several long training runs before the actual marathon, it provided me with the perfect opportunity to experiment with my pre-race evening meal. One thing I discovered was that the meal I prepared at home settled better in my stomach and gave me better next-day results than going out to our favorite Italian restaurant.

Most of the meals I tried were pasta dishes, with either chicken or tuna. One evening I had a turkey sandwich, but found it was not enough fuel for the next day’s long run.

The pasta dish I ended up using as my pre-race evening meal was one that a friend suggested to me. When he first told me about it, I was not at all sure I even wanted to try it. It sounded horrible. He called it “Tuna Spaghetti”. Well I love tuna and really love spaghetti, but the thought of the two together did not sound appetizing at all. After Shawn told me how to make it, I was willing to give it a try. And now, this quick, easy and great tasting pasta dish is still one of my favorite meals.

This is how you make it: Cook some pasta, it can be spaghetti or any other kind of pasta. As the pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil in a skillet. As the oil gets hot, add some oregano to it – but just a dash or so. Cut up an onion and break the rings in half into the skillet. Saute the onions, and then add a can of tuna, juice and all (we like the albacore). Break up the tuna with a fork or spatula, then add a can of mushrooms (or fresh) and some garlic powder. I personally like to add just a couple of drops of Tabasco sauce. Then add a couple of tablespoons or so of the water from the pasta, but not too much. The starch from the pasta will help thicken up the sauce. Drain the pasta. Add some parmesan cheese to the sauce and mix well. Pour the tuna mixture over the pasta and stir it up and serve! It only takes as long as it does to cook the pasta to make this meal! The prep work and the sauce can be done as the water is getting ready to boil for the pasta. We love it. Not only is it fast and tasty, it is low in fat. And I get lots of carbs and protein without it upsetting my tummy.

Immediately preceding any run (usually it’s early in the a.m.) I will eat a banana or low fat yogurt. These foods are easy on my stomach, not too heavy, and provide me with the fuel I need to start a run.

Never having used energy drinks or power gels or goos before, I wasn’t sure which ones, if any, were good. So I bought one of each of the three most popular brands of power gels to try them out. I ended up liking the taste of PowerBar brand, and found that it did the best job for me. A lot of people don’t like the goo and gels, finding them to be too sweet, but I really liked them. But I also am one that could eat sugar straight from the bag or icing from the can! So I would eat one of the gels about 8 to 10 miles into my run, to give me a shot of immediately accessible fuel. Blue raspberry and caramel were my favorite flavors.

Energy drinks were a challenge: I couldn’t find any that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup in them, so I ended up just buying a case of the 12 oz Gatorade All-Stars at Costco. I would start drinking the energy drinks about ½ way through my long runs. Depending on the temperature, I would usually consume one or two of the 12 oz bottles and probably 24 to 36 oz of water. Fortunately I had my friend Vickie riding her bike alongside me on my long runs. So she was able to haul all my water and energy drinks and gels, leaving me free to just run.

After a long run of 14 miles or more, my appetite was gone. I didn’t feel like eating anything! Knowing this was going to happen, I brought along chocolate milk. This liquid meal after a run would get me the protein and carbs I needed. Even though I knew it was not enough, it did what I needed it to do, and that was quickly replenish my glycogen stores. Everything I had been reading told me that for better recovery, it was important to get refueled within 30 minutes after running. So after the chocolate milk, I would usually stop and get a turkey sandwich at Subway on the way home.

One day I had chocolate pudding at my mom’s after a long run. I was amazed at how well I recovered from that run, but when you think about it, it’s just like chocolate milk - only thicker.

No amount of gels, goos or energy drinks will get you through a long run if you haven’t prepared the night before with a good pre-run meal. And it’s just as important to eat something the morning of the run. Training for the marathon got me into a lot of very good habits when it comes to fueling my running. I used to skip eating before a run, and I definitely didn’t eat anything right after a run, at least not within the recommended 30 minutes. Now I find that my recovery time is much quicker, and I’m not nearly as fatigued during the day after a long run, because I’m fueling properly, and my body likes that much better.

 How ’bout it?

-Vision Runner

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The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim

 Hi ho…

Vision Runner here…

Today I’d like to share with you a blog post from a Twitter friend: triathlonmom. She did the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim last summer. OR perhaps I should say she battled her way through the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim…

I really like including the story of other people’s accomplishments here on the blog, as they really inspire and motivate me to focus on breaking through my barriers. The whole point of this blog is to inspire people to Dare to Envision a New Reality for themselves. Everyone has obstacles, whether they’re physical, mental, emotional, financial, spiritual or some combination thereof. So we all have barriers to break through and a story to share…

So even though this story isn’t mine, I’d like to share a little hope and inspiration with you.

I’ve included the first part of her story here, and there is a link at the bottom of this page to the rest of the story including her great pictures (check out her incredibly scary sunburn – yikes!) . So please enjoy…and be inspired!

As always, we welcome, plead and beg for comments below. Thanks!

How ’bout it?

-Vision Runner

I guess I should start in telling this story by telling you where my journey began. I’m not sure what year it was, perhaps it was 1983 when I was 10, or perhaps it was several years later. I read an article in The Washington Post. It was a first person account of swimming across the Chesapeake Bay — some kind of officially organized event…..The author described hearing this kayaker blow a lifeguard whistle repeatedly. The author/swimmer couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong, was he breaking some rule? Going off course? Later he found out that the man swimming beside him was blind and was following the sound of the whistle to get across the Bay.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I found this story incredibly moving. My dad is blind and I have watched him year after year as his sight has diminished. Bit by bit, it seems my dad was swallowed whole by his vision loss. And with each year there was less and less that he could do. In contrast, here was someone who was accomplishing something great, doing something that many many sighted people wouldn’t dream of attempting, and he was doing it in spite of his blindness. The blind swimmer had found a way to strip the power from his blindness. And while I watched my father take one path, I knew that when I grew up, whatever hardships I was dealt in my life, I wanted to be like the blind swimmer, not my dad.

I guess to help you understand this I should mention, that I have no idea what it would be like to go blind. I can’t imagine the pain that my father has endured at having his sight taken away from him bit by bit over all of those years of my childhood. But before you question me for judging him, I should also tell you that the blindness he has is heredetary. And while I am not a high risk to be blind myself, I could. Growing up, I had doctors visit after doctors visit where they were always testing me for it. And, I was always on the lookout for it come up behind me like a shadow over my shoulder. And more than one time in my life, I was convinced that I was going to lose my sight too. Mentally, I spent many years preparing myself to suffer the same fate, and many years I tried to push myself on the path of the blind swimmer, so if fate dealt me that card I would handle it better than my father, who allowed himself to be defined by his illness, growing more bitter and frustrated each day.

Simply stated, I was amazed — that there could be someone who responded to his fate so differently than my dad. At that time, I was not inspired to swim the bay myself, but just inspired by the will of that man. The passion, the desire for life. By the iron will that he found and the strength and courage he displayed, to try something great in the face of adversity.

Years later, in my 30′s after doing triathons for a while, on some race calendar or on some blog, somehow I was reminded again of the The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. Instantly, I remembered being so moved by that article when I was so much younger. I searched for several hours trying to locate it in the Washington Post archives, but with no luck. I did learn the history of the Bay Swim though, and read a newer article about open water swimming by Caroline Kettlewell, who I actually got to meet at the swim.

Then, the thought crossed me. I could swim. Triathlons had served as a vehicle for me to realize that I could swim across the Chesapeake Bay if I put my mind to it. Last year, at this same time, I had conquered many fears and obstacles to complete my first half-iron distance race, Eagleman. That took me over 7 and a half hours and over 6 months of intense training. I could certainly swim the 4.4 miles of the bay. I’d done the 1.2 miles in the VERY choppy waters at Eagleman in 39 minutes. I guess this is what made me think I might actually complete the Bay Swim in 2 and a half hours or so.

After researching the history of the bay swim, I realized that maybe I was getting in a little over my head. Not only did I have to qualify for the swim, but also, I had to enter a lottery to be selected to participate.

Then I read this information on the Great Bay Swim website:
Is it dangerous? Among the difficulties that may be encountered during the
average 2 hour 25 minute swim are flailing arms and legs during the “Cuisinart
start,” cross currents, swells, chop, hypothermia if the water is cold, nettle
stings if the water is warm, and collisions with the bridge supports or rocks
surrounding the jetties, islands and causeways.The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has measured tidal, current and weather
conditions prior to the event and compared the results with predicted
conditions to determine the optimum starting time for the event. How does
it affect the race? As a result, 79-97 % of the starters finished the race in the
last 5 years. Prior to this, in 1991 and 1992, a strong ebb current of about 2
knots in the main channel beneath the 200-feet high spans (one and a half miles
from the start) precluded all but the strongest and most determined
swimmers from finishing the event (only 15-19 % finished the swim).

And, for some reason, I still signed up…  

Here’s the link to the rest of the story…. Great Chesapeake Bay Swim Race Report

(Side NOTE: when you get there, there’s a pink circle on the right that’s going to start playing music at you if you have your speakers hooked up. Click the bottom section of the circle to stop it if you prefer.)

Here it is again in longer format:

http://triathlonmom.blogspot.com/2008/06/great-chesapeake-bay-swim-race-report.html

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