Food, Glorious Food!

Food.   A necessity for everyone, and sometimes a source of stress for athletes.  We need to adequately fuel our bodies for what we want to accomplish, but at the same time we have to reach and maintain our ideal racing weight. 

Weight has always been an issue for me.  For a long time I’ve been about 8-10 pounds over my ideal racing weight.  Hold on you may be saying.  How do you know what your ideal racing weight is?  I was lucky enough to go through a slew of tests at the athletic department at Furman University when I was down training with Ian a while back.  And what we determined from all the awesome science things we did is that my ideal racing weight is around 130-132.

For much of my life I’ve been around 140 pounds.  Maybe 138 if things are going well, and up to 145 or so when they aren’t.  There was a time in 2012 that I was around 135 for a decent period of time and that was when I did my 50K pb.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but probably not.

“They” say that for every pound over race weight you are you lose a second per mile.  I put parenthesis around “they” because I don’t have the data to quote from.  It may be one of those things that’s been learned from trial and error.  I’m honestly not sure if there’s been a study done on it or not.  But I do know that when I’m lighter and getting closer to my ideal racing weight I feel better, move better and have more confidence in myself.

Since the 50K for women is gaining momentum and I’ve learned so much more about training - what I can handle and how to push myself even more - I’ve been again focusing on reaching my ideal racing weight.   Last time I checked the scale I was about 136, the lowest I’ve been for longer than a day (temporarily losing weight due to dehydration doesn’t count) in probably a year or two.  Since I’ve been floating around this weight for the last few months I’ve done two of my three fastest 30Ks, my third fastest 3,000 race and my fifth fastest 5K (which was a fartlek workout). 

Some of you have expressed curiosity as to what I do with my eating, especially since I’m basically a gluten-free athlete.  Let me state though, right from the get go, that I am not Celiac and I do not have a diagnosed allergy to wheat/gluten.  I can eat gluten, I just find I feel so much better when I don’t and weight stays off easier.  I’ve found, through trial and error, that there are some forms of gluten I can handle better than others, there are periods of time I can handle gluten better than others, and the gluten in different countries affects me differently.  I am not a dietitian, I have no degree in anything having to do with nutrition.  All I can offer are things I’ve noticed myself, conversations I’ve had with other athletes, and knowledge I’ve gained from reading lots and lots (and lots) of books and articles.

I thought I’d write a series of posts talking about some of my struggles (some continuing) with reaching my ideal racing weight, what it’s like eating when you’re in a foreign country, fueling an athlete on a gluten-free diet, as well as anything else you might like to know.  Please, if you have any questions or are curious about something let me know and I’ll write about it!  And post pictures of yummy food that I eat :)  

And to start that off, here is one of my favorite breakfasts!  Egg scramble!  I start with sauteing veggies.  I like onion, mushroom and pepper.  I added a bit too much water to this one, but I just drained a little and all was fine.  I like to add lots of veggies, it helps keep me full and is a good source of carbs.

Then I add some of the eggs from our chickens.  I added five, but this was for Dave and I after a hard workout.  And I had some mozzarella so I added that, because everything is better with cheese ;)

And here's what it looks like cooked.

Since I had some smoked salmon I added that on top.  It was very yummy!