Monday, October 22, 2007

Fatter

Yesterday I felt stronger. Today, I feel fatter. Would someone tell me how you gain weight while running 55.88 miles in a week?!? No, don't. I already know. It's like this:

Thursday night: "I have a twenty miler tomorrow; I need some carbs and lots of water."

Friday morning: "I need something in my stomach before I start. I'll take a few drinks of this Power-Aide." Then I proceed to drink OS Endurance during the 20 miler because it rocks as far as keeping me fueled and not hurting my stomach.

Friday post-run: Finish off the Power-Aide because I am dying of thirst. Chocolate milk for recovery. Gotta have that protein.

Friday lunch: beef stew, fried okra, and baked apples at Cracker Barrell.

Friday night: Tailgating at the HS football game, we have BBQ, chips and beans. I don't eat that much....but I do get into the cookies. Cookies, cookies, and more cookies. And you know the story "I ran 20 miles this morning - I deserve a couple of cookies!"

No, Lana, you do not. You deserved the 400 calories of OS Endurance and the chocolate milk. It helped you through a fantastic 20 miler and made your legs feel brand new for Friday afternoon. You did not deserve the cookies.

~sigh~

But it's so hard.

My pants were tight this morning. I saw it coming. I knew it was coming.

I got up at 4:00 a.m. and ran 11 with Michele at 4:30 a.m. I drank Power-Aide because I needed it. I ate a banana for breakfast with my coffee. I will do better this week. Maybe I can wear those pants next Monday.

14 comments:

Lance Notstrong said...

You deserve at least 1 or 2 cookies :-) If you're like me and can't stop at 1 or 2, then it's better to have none.

My Life said...

Hmmm... are you sure its just not your muscles getting bigger ;) ?? I really think that must be it!

Anonymous said...

Hey, Lana - my wife the butritionist tells me that weight gain/bloating is a natural consequence of extreme training, and the one thing that you absolutely do NOT want to do is cut calories in an effort to avoid this. It will only adveresly impact your performance. My/her advice to you would be to suck it up for now, and know that, once your training eases, you'll go back to your normal size.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

edit - the wife is actually a Nutritionist/Dietitian, I just can't type.

:/

Anonymous said...

The training increases your appetite. Then you also need to recover from the workouts, so you might lay around a little more, consquently you may be burning less calories during recovery, than on a normal day.

I asked Nancy Clark the nutritionist this question recently at a nutrition workshop I attended. She said she gets that question all the time.

I feel like I've put on a couple of pounds since my training increased too. Sometimes we just want the cookies after a hard day of training. :)

Michele said...

As you know, I gained weight during peak week too. It just isn't fair. Logging these kind of miles should allow for some splurges.

I wish I had run the VO2 max with you. Great job.

RunBubbaRun said...

I would not worry about the weight to much, I sure it will shed off when you least expect it.. Maybe it's all that leg muscle you have gotten lately tipping the scale for you..

Woohoo, 55+ mile run week, that deserves some junk food.

SingletrackJenny (formerly known as IronJenny) said...

No way.. I have the same thing!!! Drives me crazy. Now I am at the point of thinking, "well, I only ran 20 miles so I better skip those cookies". It's madness!
But I am 45, and there are no more free bites of food. None. Twenty miles or no twenty miles.
It sucks, but it just is what it is... ;-(

Lisa said...

I just think you're both a little swollen, it's NOT weight gain! :P

Anonymous said...

i was just about to write what lisa did...it's just water retention from running so much...you're not getting fatter. promise!

David H. said...

I often feel like my weight is stuck. It's mind boggling to run so much and stay the same, or gain, no matter what everybody says!

Papa Louie said...

It's not fat it's muscle. All that workout is making you more buff. Enjoy those cookies but make sure there is no partailly hydrongenated oils or high fructose corn syrup in them.

Benson said...

Curly su is so rught on. It's water weight and water is good.
Too many cookies is bad for anybody but listen to your body, if you gotta have a couple cookies, enjoy it. You're a fricken badass athlete so you're allowed to eat like one.

Rae said...

I always had that issue marathon training too, esp going from one thon to another. My problem wasn't water at all, it was always allowing myself to eat things that I would justify with my mileage. And it's taken quite a while since I've given up marathoning to get it back in check! It's just not fair!