Training? Feeling a Little Run Down?

Runners are notorious for digging a hole and jumping in. We'll push, push, push, thinking that if we just push a little harder, we'll break through that wall hindering us. While sometimes a little push is just what you need, other times, REST is what you need. So how do you tell the difference of when to push and when to rest? Listen to your body, know the difference between, "I don't wanna" and "I can't" and know the signs of fatigue and over training.

Do you feel that burn after a hard workout or a hard run? That's from pushing your body past what it's used to. Challenging yourself to harder more intense workouts (resistance training or aerobic training) over a period of time is called progressive overload. Progressive overload is how you train your body to adapt to the new conditions being put upon it. The key, however, is making sure that along with the progressive overload you are also giving your body time to recover. Ever notice how most marathon plans have you run a 20-miler followed by a day of rest and then the following week's "long run" usually isn't as long. That's progressive overload or stress adaptation. Build up. Back off a little. Build up. Back off a little. Overloading the body and then giving it a chance to recover, adapt, and heal before placing more stress upon it, is a great way to train.

The S.A.I.D. principle (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand) refers to the idea that your body adapts to the specific type of stress put upon it. So, when an endurance runner pushes to finish that 20-miler in a specific time frame, his/her body is adapting to that specific type of stress being put upon it.

The problem is many athletes (aerobic or anaerobic) don't give their bodies time to adapt before imposing more stress on their bodies. The create a recovery deficit....that hole they've dug and can't get out of. They're constantly stuck in the recovery period or worse, they become injured. This is called overtraining.

Often I hear a runner say, "but it's in my plan" or "but my plan says." Runners often mistake a training plan for LAW. A training plan is merely a guide to help you reach your goal. A training plan sis like a travel plan...a map. Change will most likely need to be made along the way. A plan doesn't know the factors you may be dealing with in a given week...the stress of the job, lack of sleep from a sick child, dealing with allergies, that pothole you stepped in and twisted your ankle, that unplanned work trip thrown at you. Some times life has a different plan for you than what your race training plan had in store of you. A training plan is based on an ideal world. A training plan also, does not know how long your particular body may need to recover after that first 20-miler. The plan is your map. You are the driver and your running coach is your AAA consultant.

Some common signs of over training include:

• persistent achiness, stiffness, or pain in the muscles and/or joints (beyond the typical delayed onset muscle soreness felt a couple of days after a workout)
• waking up with an elevated pulse (good idea to take your waking resting pulse frequently to give you a base from which to compare)
• lack of energy
• fatigued and/or achy muscles
• frequent headaches
• feeling lethargic or sluggish
• drop in athletic performance
• not able to complete your normal workout
• depressed, moody, unmotivated
• nervousness
• lack of sleep and/or appetite
• weight loss
• lowered immune system

An elevated pulse is also a good indicator of possible overtraining or even sickness such as a respiratory infection. If your waking resting pulse is elevated more than a few beats, you could have an infection or be suffering from overtraining. In either case, taking a day off may be the best thing. Rest is the best thing for overcoming overtraining. If rest doesn't do the trick, schedule an appointment with your doctor.

Other Causes of Fatigue When Training Include:

Improper Hydration can also be a source of fatigue. Most people in general don't get enough water (2-3 liters) each day. If you fall into that category and you're also not replacing the water you're losing through perspiration from running, you're risking dehydration. A sure sign of dehydration is fatigue. In addition to your normal daily hydration requirements, you should drink 12-16oz of water about an hour before your run. One good way to determine how much you need to drink after your run is to weigh yourself before your run (without your running shoes), then weigh yourself immediately after your run (without your running shoes). For every pound lost, you should drink 16oz of water. Don't have to drink all that immediately after your run. Drink some and then make sure you get in the remainder within a few hours after your run. No need to weigh before and after every run, but if you do it on a mild day and once on a really hot/humid day, then you'll have a frame of reference to help you determine how much to drink after runs in various conditions.

-

If you're running less than an hour, water is perfect. If you're running an hour or longer, a sports drink will be a better choice especially on hot/humid days because it will help replace vital electrolytes (mainly sodium and potassium) lost through sweating.

Alcohol consumption should be decreased during training. Excess alcohol consumption can increase your chance of dehydration in several ways. Alcohol decreases your body's production of anti-diuretic hormone. This hormone is used by the body to reabsorb water. Having less of this hormone causes you to urinate more increasing your fluid loss. Side Note: The average beer is about 4-5% alcohol. When you drink a 200ml beer, you don't just urinate 200ml of water, but more like 320ml of water which calculates out to 120ml of dehydration. (Sorry, for the bad news.)  

Lack of Sleep is a big-time cause of fatigue. Your body does most of it's repair and rebuilding while you sleep. If you're not getting enough sleep, then you're not giving your body time to heal. Plain and simple. Sleep requirements can vary from person to person. Teenagers need about 9 hours on average (mine seem to need about 15!). Most adults need 7 to 8 hours a night for the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Fatigue can result when your normal sleeping hours are shortened for whatever reason—stress of a new job, a new baby, or that heartburn you got from the 5-meat pizza you ate just before bed. If you're not getting your normal amount of sleep, then you need to back off on your training until your sleep hours are back to normal.

Low Iron Levels can be another cause of fatigue. If you've ruled out other possible causes of fatigue, it may be worth having your doc take a blood test to check your iron levels. This can especially be problematic for some women during their menstrual cycle. Sometimes just a change in diet can help boost your iron levels, but sometimes an iron supplement may be needed. (Check with your doctor before taking an iron supplement.) Good food sources of iron include: turkey, clams, enriched breakfast cereals, beans/lentils, pumpkin seeds, blackstrap molasses, canned beans, baked potato with skin, enriched pasta, canned asparagus.

Sometimes you may not experience the fatigue during your run. For some the fatigue may come after the run. Insufficient Post-Run Re-Fueling can be the culprit. If you've had an intense workout, it's normal to feel tired, but if you're feeling fatigue that just won't go away, you may not be giving your body enough refueling carbs and protein after your run. A good rule of thumb is to consume a 4:1 ratio of carbs and protein within 30-45 minutes of finishing your workout. Oddly enough, lowfat chocolate milk has the optimal ratio of carbs to protein to help refuel tired muscles.

Here's the Story...of a Lovely Potato...

Let's face it. Pasta is the "Marsha" of the Brandy Bunch of training foods. It get's all the glam, all the attention, all the pre-race dinners. The potato on the other hand, is the "Jan" of the bunch. I can hear the ole spud now sitting in the burlap sack in the back of the pantry saying, "Pasta, Pasta, Pasta! All I ever hear is Pasta!" Well, before that spud runs off feeling unloved and gets replaced in all the reunion movies with a doughnut or a bagel or something, let's take a closer look at this "plain-Jan" misunderstood veggie.

This step-child of the veggie world often gets a bad rap. Many people seem to have the misunderstanding that potatoes aren't nutritious. I guess it's because they're not leafy or dark green, but actually potatoes are loaded with vitamins and minerals. Did you know that a regular baking potato contains 64% of your daily value of vitamin C and 53% of your daily value of vitamin B6, and a sweet potato has 700% of your daily value of vitamin A? Being prone to calf cramps, the thing I like most about potatoes is that they contain over 1,500mg of potassium. That's three times more than a banana! It's a bit of a myth that you have to eat the skin to get all the vitamins. The skin accounts for about 50% of the potato's fiber, but actually most of the nutrients are inside the spud.

-

Potatoes are also a great source of complex carbohydrates. Pasta doesn't even have as much! No, they're not as romantic as pasta. And you don't normally have them by candlelight. And Lady and Tramp would have looked kind of funny sucking on opposite ends of a potato, but the fact is, potatoes make a great food for runners.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Hey but aren't potatoes high on the Glycemic Index?" Yep, they do have a high GI, but for runners that's a good thing. It means they're easily and quickly digested and get into your system to be used as energy quickly. If you have trouble with potatoes spiking your blood sugar too quickly, you can remedy this by eating a little fat or protein along with your potato. Greek yogurt is high in protein and is very similar in consistency to sour cream. Adding a dollop to your spud will help prevent that spike and slow down the digestion helping to provide a steadier stream of energy. You'll get the same result if you add a little Smart Balance margarine which will provide some fat(the good kind--polyunsaturated and monounsaturated). Or try eating a potato with a little chicken or turkey.

After a run, you need to replenish your spent carbs really quickly and that's the perfect time to ingest fast-acting carbs. Potatoes are perfect for this. Add a little protein and you have the perfect post-run recovery snack.

Now beware. Your sedentary friends will be quick to tell you (as they munch on their Mickey D's fries) that potatoes are bad, that they spike your blood sugar, and will turn to fat on you quickly. The sad thing, is that for them, that thinking is exactly right. If you're not active and you're not using those carbs as pre-run fueling or post-run re-fueling, it may very will have all of those negative effects. But I for one am elated, that I can mix-up a little homemade potato salad (using lowfat mayo) and wolf-it down after a run.

So Marsha...I mean Pasta, move aside! Potato Jan is moving into her own!

To Eat or Not To Eat? That's Often the Question.

Just recently I had an email from Brad, a reader of the blog, about fueling during the long run. Then this past weekend, one of the runners in my half-marathon training group, Amy, had a similar question about fueling your run. "To eat or not to eat?" is often top of mind for runners. Or probably even more accurately, "What to eat or what not to eat?"

For those of you hoping for a definitive answer, I'm sorry to disappoint. There are so many factors involved—likes, dislikes, allergies, digestive tolerance, and on and on. What works for one runner may have another runner praying to the porcelain god (or more accurately the plastic port-a-john god) the entire run.

There are however, some good rules of thumb to follow. The first rule of thumb is "Test well in advance." It's best to try new foods when you're not in training. If you are training, it's best to test new things early on so you'll know well in advance what's going to work and not work. When you're in your local GNC or Vitamin Shoppe two weeks before the big race, fight hard the temptation to try something new. Better yet, just don't even go in until after the race. Ask your wife, husband, significant other, sister, brother, mother, the guy on the corner, somebody to pick up what you need. Same thing goes for the natural foods. Stick to what you know works when it's close to race day. And the biggest warning of all...Avoid the "Try me! Try me!" barking of the sales reps at the marathon expo. Although the marathon expo can be an exciting place the day before the race, try really hard to avoid much (if any) taste-testing. You never know what may throw your tum-tum for a loop!

Okay, I've rambled on enough. Sorry, it's the dad in me (as well as being the son of a preacher) feeling the need to give a little sermon on the dos and don'ts of pre-race eating. Here's the info you're really wanting to know.

Pre-run Fueling: Fueling before a long run should actually start the day before. Make sure your snacks and meals the day before your long run are comprised of complex carbs (vegetables, whole grains, etc.). In doing so, you’ll maximize your glycogen stores. Glycogen is the main source of energy for your long runs. When completely full, your glycogen stores have will provide enough energy for about 2hrs of running (~2000 calories). Some runners will tell me, "I ate breakfast before my long run, but I still bonked." There could be several things at play which caused the "bonk", but more than likely, even though they ate breakfast, if their glycogen stores were not full, the breakfast they did eat would only take them so far. Fueling is a continuous thing, especially when you're in training.

-

The pre-run meal the day of your long run is important too. What you eat before an endurance run can greatly impact your performance. No food or too little food before a long run can result in fatigue. It can also cause you to burn more muscle which can result in injury. Lots of runners don't eat prior to a run because they fear the dreaded upset stomach. But not eating before a long run can result in a less than stellar run. Just like you train to increase your mileage, you need to train your body to eat something prior to running. What you eat and how much will vary from runner to runner. You don't need a heavy breakfast, but a combination of carbs and protein is a good plan.

-

Eating prior to a run will give your body some fuel to use before having to use its reserves (those glycogen stores I mentioned earlier). If you start off using your reserves too soon and they get depleted, fatigue will soon follow as well as the dreaded "bonk." Fat is needed and is important in the absorption of nutrients, but avoid eating high-fat foods before a long run. These foods take longer to digest and will make you feel like a slug and may even cause you to feel nauseous on your run. For some runners it’s also good to avoid complex carbs right before a run. Yep, normally I’d be telling you to make sure your diet is rich in complex carbs, but for some runners, eating them shortly before a run can cause cramping because it takes complex carbs longer to digest. So, it’s okay to save the whole-wheat pasta for the dinner the night before and eat eat some white bread or other form of simple carb in the morning before your long run. Because your body will digest these foods quickly, these simple carbs will go directly to fueling the body, protecting your glycogen stores for later in the run.

-
Some pre-run foods to try include:

• a bagel with peanut butter
• a waffle with peanut butter
• two graham crackers with peanut butter
• dry cereal
• a banana with peanut butter
• Greek yogurt with fruit
• Uncrustables (those little round peanut butter sandwiches with the crimped sides in the frozen foods section)
• an energy bar (check the label and make sure it's not loaded with saturated fat)
• a hard-boiled egg and toast

Keep in mind that you’ll want to avoid running on a full stomach so, you’ll need to wake up a little earlier in order to let your food digest. Eating 1.5 hrs before a morning long run is a good rule of thumb

You can train you body to use fat as a fuel source too. This can come in very handy on really long runs. Basically, running some shorter distances (4-8 miles) on an empty stomach will force your body to go to an alternate source of fuel—fat. The thinking is that if you’ve trained your body to burn fat as fuel, then during a long run, if you run low on your glycogen stores, your body will know to kick-in its fat-burning abilities. But just as I said earlier, you need to test this out well before race day. Don’t wake up race-day morning and decide not to eat anything before your 26.2-mile run so you can burn off all your fat. It ain’t gonna work for ya, and not only will the big brick wall hit ya in the face, it will land right on top of ya!

Fueling on the Run: For runs lasting more than 60 minutes, it's a good rule of thumb to take in 30-60 grams of carbohydrates every hour. Use the chart below from Runner's World to help you select some foods good for during your run. Be careful when using sports gels. There’s nothing wrong with them, but if you’re using them along with a sports drink, some may find themselves having stomach issues. Both are packed with carbs and usually the carbs are of the simple sugar variety. While your body will need to replenish is glycogen stores during the race, you don’t want overkill. Everyone is different and there’s no one cure-all, but for some carrying a bottle of water to use when taking a gel works well. Some may find that they can continue drinking only water throughout the entire run, if the gels they’re using contain carbs and essential electrolytes.

I’ve discovered that 100% coconut water contains the right amount of carbs and electrolytes for my long runs. I have problems with calf cramps and coconut water naturally has 15x the potassium of a banana and 2-3x the amount of potassium as most sports drinks. Others do better to drink water, take an electrolyte replacement tablet and then pack some pretzels, crackers, jellybeans, or Fig Newtons for their carb source. I have one running buddy that takes an Uncrustable along. Uncrustables are those little round frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crimped sides. He says it thaws on the run and by the time he needs one later in the run it’s ready to eat. Like I said, everyone is different.

Post-run Refueling: Eating 300 - 400 calories with a 4:1 ratio of carbs and proteins within 30-45 minutes after finishing your run will help ensure a quicker recovery. During a long run, you deplete your glycogen stores as well as create microscopic tears in your muscle tissue. Eating a carb/protein mixture helps to restore the glycogen and repair those tiny tears which is the muscle-building process.

Some good post-run eats include:

• a glass of low-fat chocolate milk (it has the perfect 4:1 ratio of carbs/protein)
• a bagel with peanut butter or almond butter or Nutella (I love Nutella!)
• whole wheat crackers and peanut butter or almond butter
• a smoothie made with fruit and yogurt
• baked potato with Greek yogurt
• brown rice pudding with sliced banana
• whole-grain cereal with skim milk
• lowfat yogurt and fruit
• Uncrustables

What are some of your favorite pre-, during-, and post-run eats?