Tag Archives: nutrition

Don’t go near the water

Posted on February 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

I always thought water was a reasonably healthy beverage selection.  Lots of good stuff (water), no not-so-good stuff (things I can’t spell). 

My confession: I drink tap water.  I know, no added vitamins, energy boosters, and fruity colours.  Hold your gasps.  It never occurred to my how deficient nature is in this regard. 

This could be the missing piece in my slow-twitch puzzle.  If I want to be a skinny fast runner I should drink Skinny Sport Water.  All the goodness of water and more.  More chemicals yes, but skinny sporty chemicals.  With four sport flavours (blue fit, pink power, green active, red shape) to suit your sporty needs.  0 calories, 0 sugar, 0 sodium, 0 guilt.  Only natural flavours found in fruits and vegetables.  And given that there are no sugars or calories, probably no fruits or vegetables.  But there is a wee bit of sucralose and Ace-K as sweetners.  And patented extracts.  Sounds deliciously refreshing.

Title: The Beach Boys – Don’t go Near the Water.  1971.

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Posted in Running Tids & Bits

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And a buck and a half for a beer

Posted on October 26, 2010 | 7 Comments

I did IT.  Under cover of darkness.  And it was harder than I expected.  A lot harder.  Perhaps the hardest race I’ve ever run. 

I nearly threw up at the 3/4 mark.  Lucky for me it was only in my mouth.  Because if I threw up outside my mouth there would have been a penalty. 

 I would not have survived the penalty.

Did I mention I did it near the scene of a recent shooting?  I ran in fear of the hoodlums lurking nearby.  I have an unfortunate track record with hoodlums.  Lucky for us they were only interested in their fancy smelling cigarettes.

I made the rookie mistake of starting too fast.  I never really recovered.  I was drunk by the end.  Truthfully, I was drunk by the middle, as evidenced by my compulsion to yell OMG I’m totally drunk into the darkness and my lane weaving that added unneeded distance to my course. 

I am a beer miler. 

And I am never doing it again.

Title: Tragically Hip – Little Bones. 1991.

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Posted in Running Tids & Bits

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Wheat kings and pretty things

Posted on October 15, 2010 | 5 Comments

Husband eats Chia almost everyday.  I’m less dedicated, but am a fan nonetheless.  It’s the same food those Tarahumara Indians, popularized in the book Born to Run, eat.  But Husband started eating Chia long before the book became a best seller and before I learned how to spell Tarahumara (that’s right, I didn’t need to look it up).   Husband was introduced to Chia by Husband of Ruth, of Ruth’s Hemp Foods, maker of Chia Goodness.  We train with Husband of Ruth, a man who wears the nickname “Fastest Geezer” with pride.  He has been known to mix chia into his water on long runs.  I’ve never seen him run out of energy.  In fact, on those runs his challenge is slowing down.  Coincidence?  

In the November edition of Runner’s World magazine Ruth’s Chia is listed as one their Top Ten “Good Without Gluten” foods.  Now that Husband of Ruth is the Husband of a bona fide running world celebrity I will make my own claim to this fame as the training partner of the spouse of a bona fide running world celebrity.  Also it is always very impressive to be on the front end of  a trend.  Then when everyone else discovers it you can say, oh that, we’ve been eating that for years, in that pitying sort of manner reserved for people who jump on the bandwagon late.

Title: The Tragically Hip – Wheat Kings.  1992.

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Posted in Running Tids & Bits

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When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie

Posted on March 14, 2010 | 2 Comments

Pi Day.  Tonight I am running precisely 3.14159265 miles to honour my inner geek.  I celebrate Pi Day on March 14 even though I prefer the day/month/year date notation over month/day/year.  Days are smaller units than months which are smaller than years.  I prefer the logical flow.  I’m equally as pleased with year/month/day, but that doesn’t work very well for a Pi Day.  Microsoft disagrees with my notation system, constantly rearranging my date formatting in Excel even when I reset the defaults, to my great frustration and confusion.   But I digress as I shake my fist at BG.   There is no 14th month, so one day a year I compromise.  For pie.  I mean pi. 

Title Reference:  Dean Martin – That’s Amore. 1953.

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Posted in Running Tids & Bits

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What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Posted on January 27, 2010 | 11 Comments

Things I ate while watching The Biggest Loser Tuesday night:

  • 1/2 large pizza
  • 1/2 red pepper, 1/2 tomato, 1/4 zucchini
  • 1 bowl of cherries
  • 20 stone wheat crackers
  • 2 pieces of licorice
  • one dark chocolate bar
  • 4 cookies

Calories I burned while watching The Biggest Loser Tuesday night:

  • 110.  Mostly in trips to the kitchen. 

Calories I gained while watching The Biggest Loser Tuesday night:

  • I don’t know.  Do not add up the list and tell me.  Ignorance is bliss.  Bliss may not be at racing weight by spring.

Things I wondered while watching The Biggest Loser Tuesday night:

  • Why the” names” of “family members” on the other end of the calls home were captioned in quotes.  Is it so humiliating to have a relative on national TV trying to win a weight loss competition the kin need to go into the witness protection program?
  • How many pieces of Extra Healthy Extra Chewing Gum will fit in an Extra Healthy Ziploc Baggie.
  • If Bob is secretly evil. 
  • Why watching hungry people sweat makes me so damn ravenous.

 

Title Reference:  Heather Small – Proud, a.k.a. The Biggest Loser Theme Song.

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Posted in Running Tids & Bits

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Running Is Its Own Reward

Posted on March 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

Time and time again it comes to my attention that a sizeable segment of the population are under the impression that people run for one reason and one reason only: to lose weight.  As a slender gal, I’m often asked why I run when I don’t “need” to run.  Why would I exert the effort if not for reasons of appearance?  It’s madness.  Based on the “skinny = why bother to run” theory, health is irrelevant.  Afterall, it’s all about the number on the scale.   Perhaps I should just enjoy my genetic blessings, flop myself on the sofa, eat bonbons, and watch TV.  Ok, I do that too.  There are many reasons why I run and weight control does not make my top ten list.  And given the amount I eat during training, it would be a doomed endeavour anyway.

I find this personal experience interesting in light of recent research conducted by Havenar and Lochbaum.  They studied individuals training for their first marathon to assess differences in motivation between the successful rookies (those who ran the marathon) and the dropouts.  Perhaps not surprisingly, 70% of the original participants quit during training and did not run the marathon.  Using the Motivations of Marathoners Scale (MOMS) the authors found three measures that differentiated the finishers and dropouts: weight concerns and social motives (social recognition and affiliation).  In all cases the dropouts rated those motivators, especially weight concerns, more highly than did the finishers.  The results “suggest that weight concern and recognition motives among first time marathoners are possible predictors of premature disseveration from the training program”.  That is, they dropout.  It seems that the will to get skinny isn’t enough to get you across that finish line.

Ref: Havenar, J. & Lochbaum, M. (2007).  Differences in participation motives of first-time marathon finishers and pre-race dropouts.  Journal of Sport Behavior, 30, 270-279.

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Posted in The Science of Running

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Gels and Beans and Sharkies! Oh my!

Posted on March 5, 2009 | Leave a comment

I’m not one for eating on the run.  I can eat a massive amount of food right before running, but once the legs start moving my stomach rejects all input.  However, as I seldom (happily) go more than two hours without eating I definitely need to eat on an endurance run.  Last year I experimented (on myself, N=1) to try and find the perfect on the go food.  Perfect for me that is.  During each long run I test-ran a different food/laboratory-created food substitute – everything from dried fruit to chocolate to pretzels to so-called sport food.  If someone presented it to me as a possibility, within palatable reason, I tried it. 

Eventually I settled on Sport Beans – lemon-lime, to match my Gatorade.  Small and easy to digest, I liked eating just a few at a time (rather than trying to guzzle an entire gel package).  Best of all I stay blessedly free of anything resembling gastrointestinal distress (yes, it sounds as awful as it feels).  Relieved to find something that works, I stayed loyal to my lemon-lime sport beans.  Hundreds (thousands?) of sport beans later I need a change.  Even writing about beans is making me queasy.  My aversion to sport beans has generalized to thoughts about the beans, never mind my reluctance to actually eating one.  Last weekend I almost cracked a tooth on a frozen sport bean (not the bean’s fault, but I took it as a sign).  I have overdosed on sport beans.  So, I’m going to do it.  This weekend during my 32K run I’m going to …… wait for it ….. eat something other than sport beans.  I’m bring TP, just in case.

Title Reference: Adapted from the movie The Wizard of Oz (Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh My!). 1939.

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Posted in On the Road Again, Running Tids & Bits, The Gear Junkie

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