Braving Boston: Amy’s Journal [Part II]
Posted January 24, 2008 at 06:00 PM by Amy Hinrich
Section: Her Adventure, Her Fitness, Athletics, Training Programs, Her Health, Her Motivation
This April, Amy Hinrichs will embark on her first ever Boston Marathon. Whether you run ‘em, or only dream about it, join Amy on her training adventure as she prepares to join the thousands of intrepid runners in treading those incomparable 26.2 miles. Check out her first entry here, and then read on for more.
Remember how in my first article I noted that I was not Deena Kastor? Well, nothing has changed. Deena gets massaged by a professional following each of her runs. Amy is lucky if there happens to be a frozen bag of peas she can use to ice her shins after her grueling 6 mile run in 30mph winds and 8 degree weather.
This brings me to my next point. Sometimes, it’s a low mileage run that brings more torture than a 15 mile training run; example being my latest Monday morning. It was supposed to be a simple 3 miles in and 3 miles out run, something I have done more times than I count. I had run 15 miles on Saturday, taken Sunday off, and was all ready and rarin’ to get a nice run in on Monday. Well, if by “nice” you mean “exhausting, painful, thirsty, weird chest pain, and all together horrible,” than yes…Monday’s morning was nice.
One thing I have come to learn in my previous marathon training is that you expectations are rather useless. You can expect a 6 mile run to be easy, but it has the possibility to feel sort of like Marathon Boot Camp. So, I can’t control how my run will feel, but there is one thing I can control. (Kind of…) What I eat! I say “kind of” because I have this secret affair with cookies, and by secret I mean loud and proud. I have a loud and proud affair with cookies, and I refuse to let anyone stand in my way, and I lose control easily when they are within a 12 foot radius.
People who are training for their first marathon often do it to lose weight or to get in shape. You will definitely get in shape. So in shape that you might consider throwing a party for your newly acquired leg muscles, but losing weight is more like a surprise party (you randomly step on the scale and - surprise - you’ve lost 3 pounds!) and it shouldn’t be your main focus in marathon training. When people see training for a marathon as a way to lose weight, they often quit before halfway through. Why? Well, losing weight isn’t going to get a person out of bed at 7 a.m. on a Saturday to run 20 miles, it definitely isn’t going to be enough of a motivator to train 6 days a week for 16 weeks. Oh, and let’s not forget trying to eat less when losing weight and training for a marathon is basically your invitation to an all you can eat buffet. A buffet that lasts for 16 weeks.
With that being said, I find myself having the craziest eating patterns while in training. For instance, I woke up two nights ago at 3 a.m. and was starving. I literally would have consumed my sheets for a snack if there hadn’t been food in my apartment. Luckily, I ditched the cotton consumption idea and had a huge bowl of cereal. When I’m hungry, I eat. It’s really that simple. It’s what I eat that is important, and it’s what I eat that fuels my 72 mile week. There is one week in my training where I run 72 miles, and you can bet your Boston that I am eating not only at 3 a.m., but also at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., 6 a.m., and usually every hour on the hour for seven days straight.
Runners, trainers, food lovers of the world: eat and eat well. For me, eating well is all about balance. Today I had a pre-run banana, followed by a post-run bowl of cereal. For breakfast I had a smoothie of berries, an apple, a banana, and some soymilk. I also had oatmeal mixed with flaxseed and peanut butter. For a snack I had an orange, and for lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some carrots, peapods, and a couple handfuls of almonds. Later on I had another bowl of cereal and some grape tomatoes. For dinner I had a burrito the size of my running shoe, and a couple of cookies.
My point? I eat when I am hungry, and I try to make sure that I am healthy. However, for me, healthy doesn’t always mean celery and carrot sticks. Healthy means eating happily, eating enough, and eating sweets when my sweet tooth shows up for a little visit. Why deprive yourself? Especially when you’re demanding so much from your body as far as running and energy is concerned. My body is only as good as what I put into it, and if I don’t put enough into it, I can’t expect much from it.
I’m not a certified nutritionist, nor am I a professional dietician, but I am happy, healthy, full of energy, and training for my fourth marathon, so I’d like to think that I have a pretty good idea about what I need to fuel my body. But that’s my body. I can’t tell someone what they should be eating in order to train at their best level – I just know they should be eating. Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook is a book I recommend to people who are concerned about fueling themselves properly.
Ultimately, I can control what I eat (other than cookies as previously mentioned...and don’t even get me stared on peanut butter chocolate bars) and I believe that nutrition is such an important part of training, if not the most important. A lot of people would say that running is the most important part of training, but you can’t run without fuel, and you can’t be fueled without food. Eat up!