Thursday, September 4, 2008

day 5...

After a long day at work, a hard running session and three hours spent at the shops picking up some clothes for the children and a gift for father’s day by the time I got home I was completely stuffed. That is when I weakened to the smell and look of the blueberry and white chocolate scones that my wife had made. There were also some very yummy biscuits that contained apple and cinnamon. A favoured combination of mine and even harder to resist. I gave into temptation and enjoyed every morsel. I can’t be 100% primal and continue to enjoy some of the happiness around me from time to time. My wife and young son spent yesterday cooking together and I was excited (as my son was) to enjoy his offerings. Very special indeed.

After the late night eating though as much as I tried not to, I fell asleep sitting on the lounge while my wife finished reading the last of her book.

So where is this all leading? Well when the alarm went off at 5am to get up for my planned weekly long run of 2.5 hours I hit snooze put the alarm under my pillow and sleep through the next two wake up calls. When I got out of the house at 6:30am it immediately felt like the right decision was made. I struggled through a 30 minute shuffle around the neighbourhood and hopefully that will now allow me to recover before the weekend of intensity that I am now planning.

Now that today’s focus will be on recovery tomorrow’s plan for a long tempo and big hill climbing session – think about 90 odd minutes of solid work in the middle of a 2 hour plus session is back on the agenda. Sunday will hopefully be the long run that I missed today but at a somewhat easy pace.

With the sessions getting longer, harder and more specific the next step in my education will be on the recovery side of things. I am going to try and go with the small window prior, during and immediately after my sessions to get in all (well most) of my carbohydrates needed to fuel my workout and replace the glycogen that I use during the session so that I can go into the next session ready to perform at an optimum level. I am also going to look at using recovery aids such as cold baths, hot/cold, compression garments, massage, etc and see if that helps too.

Personal stats-

Weight: 168lb (still no change)

Feeling: Tired

Sleep: 6h

Legs: 6/10 they feel good but rather lifeless.

Training-

After three solid days of back-to-back-to-back it came as no surprise when I got out the door that I was a little less than enthusiastic to run either long or fast. With the well-worn Nike Frees on I tried sticking to the grass verges and enjoy the increased cushioning to give my legs a little break. The cool of the winter rain was a refreshing way to end the run.

Diet-

The email reminder about the morning tea for charity at work made me think today was going to be a little less than primal. Perhaps a traditional low fat, low protein, high carbohydrate eating plan typical of most endurance athletes is the order of the day. I will be interested to see how I perform during my training over the next day and two. If they go well then I will look at eating more carbohydrates prior to hard intense sessions and reserve the low-carbohydrate, high protein and fat days for the days when training is low intensity, highly aerobic and on recovery days.

Breakfast: 3 hard-boiled eggs and 2 blueberry and white chocolate muffins with butter + black coffee

Snack: goji berries

Morning tea: where do I start – homemade pastries, date scone, gluten-free chocolate cake (made with 85% dark choc), lemon cake, and a few others a less grandeur

Lunch: yoghurt w/ berries, date/coconut rolls (better not buy these again except to carry while running perhaps)

Late lunch: 200g salmon, carrots, tomato

Dinner: bacon and spinach quiche w/ salad

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