Learning to Eat
Sunny Blende (how's THAT for a name?) describes an ultra-marathon as “An eating and drinking contest, with a little exercise and scenery thrown in.” That being the case, my long runs of late have been all about learning to eat and run at the same time.
Over the past two weeks, I did one 18 miler and a 21 miler yesterday. That's not particularly impressive. In fact, when I tried to talk smack about it with my daughter yesterday, she said (in a way that only a 14 year old can), "Like you haven't done that before," decidedly unimpressed.
But what's different this time is how much food I'm eating. Previously on such runs, I'd take a gel or two and sip some Heed or Perpeteum, but the nutrition was there solely to accomplish the run at the pace I wanted to. NOW, consuming the food is one of the key points of the run.
At present, my "go to" food is a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. The bread makes good carbs, the peanut butter provides good protein and if I need to tell why I like Nutella, you simply haven't lived.
At any rate, I eat one sandwich just before I start, and another every hour after that. Yesterday's run was 3.5 hours, so I had 3 sandwiches - each about 250 calories. I also sip water the whole time.
To be honest, I think this is easier for a diabetic. We're used to eating when we don't want to because of low blood sugars and over the years, my stomach has learned to pretty much work all the time. So, so far, so good.
And finally, I leave you with a little video I made on Xtranormal just before the holidays about the "good" and "bad" kind of diabetes.
Over the past two weeks, I did one 18 miler and a 21 miler yesterday. That's not particularly impressive. In fact, when I tried to talk smack about it with my daughter yesterday, she said (in a way that only a 14 year old can), "Like you haven't done that before," decidedly unimpressed.
But what's different this time is how much food I'm eating. Previously on such runs, I'd take a gel or two and sip some Heed or Perpeteum, but the nutrition was there solely to accomplish the run at the pace I wanted to. NOW, consuming the food is one of the key points of the run.
At present, my "go to" food is a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. The bread makes good carbs, the peanut butter provides good protein and if I need to tell why I like Nutella, you simply haven't lived.
At any rate, I eat one sandwich just before I start, and another every hour after that. Yesterday's run was 3.5 hours, so I had 3 sandwiches - each about 250 calories. I also sip water the whole time.
To be honest, I think this is easier for a diabetic. We're used to eating when we don't want to because of low blood sugars and over the years, my stomach has learned to pretty much work all the time. So, so far, so good.
And finally, I leave you with a little video I made on Xtranormal just before the holidays about the "good" and "bad" kind of diabetes.
