Let's Talk Nutrition...

Hey there. So with all the Diabetes Spin for Fitness insanity I've been neglecting my running posts, so here we go.

As I mentioned in a previous post I went to see Sandy (my trainer) on Friday to talk nutrition. Now I assumed that meant diet, but I was wrong...for runners nutrition is replenishing what your body depletes when you run, as you're running. There are apparently many different ways to do this and I'm now in the phase of my training where I have to experiment with different things to see what works best for me. Hears the deal, when you run you burn approx. 700 calories per hour, up to 3 litres of water and some crazy amount of sodium that I can't remember right now and the bottom line is that you can't absorb what you lose after you run so you have to do it while you run.

The first experiment was with a product called Infinit. It's a powder that you add to water, that can be custom created to provide you with the right amount of sodium, proteins, carbs, etc. for your own body. I used in on Friday when I ran my 70 minute run, with which warm up and cooldown became a 1.5 hour outing and 7.75 miles. I found out that it makes me burp a lot uncontrollably as I run, which is apparently due to the protein and my body will adjust...still a little odd running down the street burping away. It tasted good and was easy to mix and digest, I'm just a little worried how I would mix it during a marathon...apparently theres a solution for that too. I also learned to open the little water bottles on my fuel belt with my mouth instead of my hand, or you end up with sticky infinit mix all over your hand and you have to just deal with it until the end of your run...not cool!!!

Anyhow, it seemed to work well, so we'll have to see how the next experiment works on Saturday...gel packs (the hammer gel) and sodium tablets. Today I did my 60 minute run (4.5 miles) and tomorrow is speed training (Yasso 800's). I'll keep you posted.

Will