Browsed by
Tag: chicago marathon

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Comments 0 Comment

I’m now officially over the hump.  It feels good to say that now, since we just closed out week 10 of Higdon’s Advanced – I marathon training program.  Last week I was just shy of 48 miles for the week and closed out over 1,100 miles for the year.  And we still have another good 7 or so weeks of training before I put it all out there and pursue that 3:35 at the Chicago Marathon.  Terrifying to articulate, and especially in as transparent a venue as this blog, but hey… it’s part of the goal-pursuit process, no?

Along those lines, I’m finding that I’m sleeping a lot these days – at least 9 hours a night.  When it doesn’t happen, usually on Friday nights because I choose to wake up so early on Saturday to avoid the August heat and humidity, I’ll get up to run, then have breakfast afterward and shower, and go back to sleep for a couple hours.  Same thing for Sunday, more or less.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to sleep this much, and as well as I am, because the literature out there suggests that there’s a good connection between sleeping, training, and weight management.  This Running Times article from a couple years ago talks in pretty good detail about what happens to our bodies during our sleep and underscores how important it is to get in a good night of interrupted sleep—and especially so for marathoners (and runners of all distances, really).  Likewise, this Runners’ World UK write-in question talks about the possible ways that running can affect our sleep patterns, and this concise about.com article quickly makes the connection between running and weight management.

When I started marathoning in 2007, I effortlessly got up to run my long runs on Saturday, and then proceeded to go about the rest of my day without a nap.  How I managed to do that befuddles me.  Elite runners often work a daily couple-hour-long nap into their days as part of their training regimes.  While I don’t have that luxury, I don’t mind taking the time to nap on the weekend, especially when I’ve spent a couple hours churning out the miles.

I know some people can operate on fewer hours of sleep and still run as well and as often as they’d like… but at this point, I’ve learned that I’m just not one of those people 🙂

Hello? It’s me, your GI. You’re not running today.

Hello? It’s me, your GI. You’re not running today.

Comments 0 Comment

Ah, yes.  A post about my gastrointestinal (GI) tract.  We all knew this was coming, sooner or later, since it’s often the subject of many a conversation on the run.

I was inspired to write about this because last Saturday, my 14-miler ended pretty abruptly when I first had to start walking because of what felt like knives going through my gut.  After a bit of walking and bathroom break #1, I felt a lot better, though I still had some seriously sharp pains in my abdomen.  As Jack and I ran a little more, natured called yet again, and by then I had finally realized that my GI was giving me a big “F-U,” middle finger for the morning.  14 miles suddenly, and without any opportunity for me to plead otherwise, suddenly became a lousy 7.   This hasn’t happened in a while, so I guess it was “time.”  Yet another way that the human body, particularly my own, humbles me…

I read a lot of running-related publications, typically online, and I can say with 100% certainty that I’m not alone when it comes to negotiating, for lack of a better word, with my GI when I want to run or, sometimes, when I’m actually on a run.  I’ve read or have heard horror stories or have endured them, myself, when I’m out on a run and suddenly my stomach decides that it’s done for the day.  My stomach says “no more miles,” yet my legs cry, “Go on!  Go on!”  And it’s always the stomach that wins out.

I’ll spare the gory and fairly disgusting details, but suffice it to say that, since I started partaking in all this marathon business in 2007, I have had many a run cut short, and end rather unpleasantly, because of GI issues of some shape or another.  At first, I thought it was strictly related to what I was eating immediately preceding my runs, so I got smarter about that — minimize the volume of fiber I had consumed, be really careful with dairy (which is a breeze now, thanks to my vegetarian-yet-vegan-like-tendencies), don’t drink pop or anything carbonated or caffeinated immediately before, go easy on the sugary Gatorade or sports drinks, chase the gels or gus with water, etc. — but sometimes this isn’t enough.  Some days it seems like the wind blowing the wrong way can affect the way my innards (again, very scientific, I know) handle all the repetitive pounding that is part of the territory of running and long-distance training.  I have often wondered, especially of late, if there is some sort of food allergy or intolerance I have besides those I already know, and it’d probably behoove me to get tested so I can adjust my diet accordingly.  I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.

Though I haven’t been marathoning for very many years, I think I’ve gotten smart enough to realize that when my body is trying to tell me something, I better listen…or I could be paying for it, substantially more, later.  I was irked that I couldn’t complete my long run on Saturday, yet as the day wore on, my GI freak-out continued, so I figured it was for the better that I didn’t push it.  Besides, there will always be other times and days to run.  If you don’t take care of yourself wisely, today, you may be jeopardizing your chance to run well, tomorrow.