Supporting my Long Run

Pretty much my entire day yesterday was centred on my long run. My husband and I had a good lie in then a very leisurely brunch. As I knew I would be running for over an hour and not having a mid morning snack, I ate more carbohydrates than I normally would (toast and jam with blueberries on the side). While I do understand the concept of training the body to burn more fat by running in a carbohydrate depleted state, it only works if you can control your cravings after the run as well. The last time I did an hour I was exhausted, headachy and craving sugar and carbs all evening.

So not only did I eat a large breakfast, I also took a small (250mL) bottle of sports drink on the run. I don’t know if it was the drink or if I am just getting fitter, but the run went really well. I had no trouble maintaining an even, easy pace and I had little trouble keeping my heart rate down until the very end. When we got back we did a good 30 minutes of cool down and stretching, immediately followed by lunch, a shower then a nap. This combination seems to have done the trick – no headache, reasonably awake and alert the rest of the evening, and no particular craving for sweets.

While I am trying to lose a couple more kilos of body fat, I’m not willing to sacrifice my running performance or feel like crap all the time. So from now on I will be taking on some carbs during my long runs, in order to prevent the headaches and cravings after. And in truth I doubt the 70 calories from the sports drink will make that big a difference when I’m burning 500 calories an hour. Now the amount of cheese I had for an afternoon snack, with its 22g of fat, I doubt that did me any favours in the weight loss department!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
2181.62	106.22g	262.40g	80.58g	0	32.69g
	19%	48%	33%
Calories burned through exercise:		603

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
10:45	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Scrambled eggs	2 large
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	185g
	Mushrooms	100g
	in butter	5g
	Raw tomato	120g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	with Flora Light	5g
	and St Dalfour 4 Fruits jam	16g
	Blueberries	100g
	Sainsbury's pressed apple and cherry juice	200mL
	Black tea with milk and sugar	400mL
12:45	Long slow run - 60 min
	250mL Sponser Isotonic fruit mix drink	20g (1 scoop)
14:00	Lemon lime Nuun electrolyte tablet in water	750mL
14:45	New Covent Garden Moroccan Tagine soup	300g
	Genius brown bread toast	1 Slice
	Sponser Chocolate Recovery Shake	30g
	in Skim milk	225mL
17:00	Green Tea	250mL
18:00	Saint Agur Blue cheese	15g
	Brie	28g
	Extra Mature cheddar	15g
	Wensleydale with cranberries	21g
	Red grapes	95g
19:00	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
20:15	Baked salmon	100g
	Merchant Gourmet Red and White Quinoa	100g
	Kraft Light Honey Mustard dressing	10g
	Stir fried Kale	33g
	in Olive oil	7.5mL
	with Pine nuts	3g
	Sainsbury's Be good to Yourself chocolate mousse	62.5g
22:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.