Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thanks for the advice!

A couple days ago I was struggling with extreme exhaustion. I was very tired and dealing with nutrition issues. After making a post of it, complaining a bit, and reading all your wonderful comments and nutrition/training tips, I am starting to feel a heck of a lot better!

Here are a list of things that I need to keep in mind. Some things I already knew but forgot to remember when I started upping my training, some things I learned from you all, and some things I did a bit of research on:
  • Get enough sleep. I don't care what research says, I think everyone knows how much sleep there body needs and I know that I perform best on 8-8.5 hours of sleep each night, especially when I am building my training. I can function on less, but it isn't pretty.
  • Use the 4-week training cycle. Build 10% each week for 3 weeks, and then drop 25% the 4th week. Starting the 5th week back at where you were at on the 3rd week.
  • More protein. I eat some protein, but I know it's not enough.
  • More whole grains. I need to get back to my oatmeal kick. I lurve it and it's uber-filling!
  • Water water water. They say you should drink half your weight in ounces. So, if you weight 150lbs, you should drink 75oz. of water a day, and more if you are working out, drink soda, or alcoholic beverages! I usually am really good about this, averaging about 90-100oz of water a day!
  • Eat more ... and more often. Actually, I am pretty good about eating often throughout the day, but I don't think I have been eating enough for how much I have been working out... or enough of the right stuff. I usually eat a mid-morning snack and an afternoon snack (usually a Clif ZBar in the afternoon), but I think my lunches have been lacking, as I feel ravenous when I get home around 4.
  • Recovery food/drink. Duh. Looking back at all my hard workouts (more than 60 minutes) this month, I can honestly tell you that I haven't bee refueling properly afterwards. This needs to change! I guess I forgot what training was like. I used to down a glass of chocolate milk or a small fruit smoothy, after a long workout.
  • Daily vitamins. Once again, I used to be consistent about taking my daily Women's Vitamin and Fish Oil. Time to get back on the saddle with that one!
  • Green Monster. I am bound and determined to get on this band-wagon! They look and sounds so yummy!
  • Listen to the body. I need to remember to thrown in a good solid REST day after a few days of hard workouts. My body will thank me!

I appreciate everyone's comments and have taken them all to heart! I am already starting to feel better and look forward to how these adjustments can help with my training and overall well-being! Thank you!

Tomorrow I am taking a half day of personal leave and heading home to the Bis with my sister in the afternoon. From there we plan on heading up north to see my Dad's side of the family. We haven't been up there since the wedding in August and I look forward to seeing them! Have a great Memorial Day weekend, y'all!

22 comments:

Tony said...

Sounds like a ton of sound advice. Enjoy your weekend!

SavvyFitChica said...

OMG- I'm a terrible blog friend. Your last post has been up since the 19th, how in the H-E-dbl hockey sticks did I miss it? I have no idea... I'm so sorry but I'm glad to see you got 24 awesome comments with advice to help.

Sleep is important and listening to your body is crucial. You have to find a balance between listening to all of the "experts" out there and listening to what is best for your body. Not everything "they" say will apply to you, you'll have to pick and choose what works.

I think it sounds like you have a great plan in place. You're one smart chica, that's all I know!!!

IronGambit said...

rest is good ;) just don't pig out on those days!

Jess said...

I've fallen off the vitamin bandwagon too. I used to say it was because I never remember where I packed my vitamins when I moved....yeaaa that was like 7 months ago...officially a bad excuse! LOL!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the weekend! I think you have everything figured out.

J said...

glad you are feeling better! Sounds like some good ideas you have there! Have a good weekend!

Jess said...

Maybe you're just a little iron deficient. In which case, a multi-vitamin with iron would be good, and yeah, extra spinach with a green monster may help too.

Viv said...

It is so crucial girl to take care of the body. I take the true exhaustion/over training very seriously. I was alomst in the hospital for adrenal fatuigue. We think oh we are tired but then we counter with it with am I being lazy? It is a very fine line. I demanded tons of my body to build from sprint to 1/2 and my body let me know very quickly which I ignored think oh stop being lazy or what ever the reason to counter it. Take care of yourself sweetie!
Have a fantastic weekend!!

Marlene said...

Those are some great tips, some of which I should be oaying more attention to! Thanks for the great summary, and glad to hear you're feeling better.

Have a great long weekend!

Wes said...

Coach tells me on my recovery weeks that not only is volume cut back, but I can skip/cut anything short I want!

You are going to look back on this one day and laugh, cause this will all be second nature to you. You are becoming quite the endurance athlete!

Tri-Angle said...

I had to read that Water, water, water, bullet like 3 times.

I thought it said.....
"If you are working out more, drink more soda and alcoholic beverages"

Was that just widhful thinking?
Or did you find some new hydration plan?

A.

Lily on the Road said...

Sounds great!!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Being Robinson said...

Isn't it amazing how nutrition changes everything? I never concnetrated on my protein intake or any of that until I started training for the marathon. Then I realized what an amazing difference it makes. So YAYA for you. And I still can't get on the green monster thing, I am still in the lowly regular old smoothing with protein powder club!

Anonymous said...

Glad things are improving! Enjoy your holiday weekend! Get some extra rest in there. :)

Carolina John said...

get that recovery nutrition down. i use Recoverite after anything over 90 minutes, a shake that i drink with a target brand protein bar.

I Run for Fun said...

You got it covered. Just following the rules can make us better runners.

Have a great holiday!

Michelle said...

Have a great weekend TW!!

Holly said...

Have a wonderful weekend!

RunToTheFinish said...

you've learned a lot...now like the rest of us if you can just remember to do it!

have a great time this weekend!

Aka Alice said...

Such a good list of reminders! I've neglected too many to mention...but now that school's almost oooouuuuutttt I can re-focus. (hooray!)

Sunshine said...

What a great list!

Even though sunshine should supply enough vitamin D, it may be helpful to take additional D3.

Also it might be good to Google "naturopathic hypothyroid nutrition"

Sure looks like you are on the right path. Good luck.

Natalie D said...

sounds like alot of good tips! now just put them into action!