February Training and Race Nutrition Planning
This was a packed strength building month; I managed to up both my mileage and intensity. I also managed to shovel a ton of snow, great cross training, right. I swapped out my Monday tempo runs for hill repeats but stuck to the rest of my previous schedule of hill, easy, tempo, easy, race pace, long, off. I was able to climb almost 7000ft over 10 miles (15%ish) when you add up the repeats that I completed, not bad for flat land WI.
This month I also wanted to race a ½ marathon, there were not any that fit my schedule, so I decided to run one on my own. There were two reasons I wanted to race; first was to benchmark my training, and second I wanted to be able to test out my race nutrition strategy.
Of all of the race efforts I have laid down, from 100m to 50 miles, this was the most mentally taxing. Racing yourself and having to maintain pace is mentally exhausting, several times I had to fight off demons begging me to just sit down in a snow bank and rest. Another reason this effort was tough was that I had to dig my house out a heavy snowfall as a warm up. Never before has my upper back cramped during a race, so going forward I will not be utilizing snow shoveling as a pre-race warm up. The race effort ended up being good I finished in 1:21:32, with the final 10k being run at 6:00 pace.
The reason that I wanted to focus on my race nutrition was that I have been running all of my long runs on minimal calories and my tempo and hill runs on no calories. As I have written before I follow a higher fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. In an effort to keep my body burning fat during exercise, I have begun all of my workouts in a fasted state. This means the last time I ate food was 10+ hours before the workout, I will have green tea with coconut oil before some of the more intense sessions with a VESPA before the longer sessions. I wanted to see; first how my stomach would tolerate my planned nutrition strategy at sub race pace, and second what my energy would be throughout the run. I am happy to report that my plan seems to be a success, I not only tolerated the drinks and gel combo, but my energy both mental and physical was stable throughout the race. What follows is a description of how I ate the day before my race, morning of the race, during the effort, and after. Keep in mind this is not all I ever eat and the post-race dinner meal happened to be a sushi date.
Day Before
AM: 12oz warm water with apple cider vinegar, green tea with coconut oil, 1 multi vitamin, 1 fish oil, 1 vit D3
Easy 5mi run with 5 pickups at 5:00 pace.
Full fat Greek yogurt with cinnamon, flax, 1/4C blueberries, 1/4C pineapple, ½ banana
1 multi vitamin
Snack ¼ C raw almonds
PM: Large kale salad with avacado, beets, broccoli, asparagus, chicken, ½ sweet potato, walnuts, and shredded mozzarella cheese
Foam rolling, active isolated stretching, & 1 magnesium
Race Day
Pre-Race: 12oz warm water with apple cider vinegar, green tea with coconut oil, 1 multi vitamin, 1 fish oil, 1 vit D3
1 Packet of Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter (3 hours pre-race)
1 VESPA JR (45 min prior to race)
Race: 1 20oz bottle with chocolate coconut water & 3 gels.
Post-race: Coconut water, ½ grapefruit, ½ sweet potato, and full fat Greek yogurt with cinnamon, flax, 1/4C blueberries, 1/4C pineapple, ½ banana
1 multi vitamin
Snack: ¼ C raw almonds
PM: 12 piece sashimi, seaweed salad, miso soup, edema me, 1 glass red wine, 1/2C almonds & walnuts mix, Kale Chips
Foam rolling, active isolated stretching, & 1 magnesium
Going forward I am going to stick with the chocolate nut butter for breakfast pre-race, I believe it provides me with adequate calories, fat, and carbohydrates, without spiking my blood sugar too much pre-race. It is also extremely convenient and travels well! In a pinch I could use Nutella, although the sugar content is higher. I will increase the amount I consume based on the distance of the race. Another pre-race food I have used is ½ sweet potatoes with raw almond butter on top.
TOTALS
RUN 197.1 Miles 27:22:42
BIKE 6.5 Miles
SWIM 5.6 Miles
Elevation Gain (Hill Repeats)
6600ft 10mi (15%)
Race
Me VS Myself ½ Marathon
1:21:32 (6:14) pace last 10k at 6:00
