March 17 track practice started with the usual warm up and drills. Drills are best done in groups, it makes the silliness factor manageable when you're doing high knee kicks, butt kicks, grapevines, and backwards running. Then we were charged with running three 1 mile repeats, with a generous 3 minutes rest between. One at warm up pace, one at a hard pace, and one at race pace. After the hard mile, I was sure I was going to toss that cookie from 3pm. I backed off my pace a bit for the last mile, but was still nauseous when I finished. I mentioned it to the coach who said "great! that's exactly where you should be!" Ugh. I run alot, but never have I experienced that level of exertion. The consequences of both not eating enough, and eating something with lots of sugar, which I'm not accustomed to. I'm learning to make better food choices before my workouts.
March 24 track practice was warm up and drills, then 10 x 400 with 1 minute rest between. Those 3 minutes seem much more generous today. After the third 400, however, the hummus sandwich I ate before practice seemed like less and less of a good idea.
This past summer, I gave up almost all sugar. I allowed for things sweetened with fruit juice, evaporated cane juice, and honey. I also made exceptions for special occasions and birthdays. Since starting training, I've been more lax about eating sugar, mostly because I'm burning so many calories, but I'm still pretty sensitive to sugar. If I eat too much, my tongue feels like it got burnt, and I notice when food is overly or unnaturally sweet. For example, I had a can of tomato soup that I thought would be good with the bit of fresh basil and half & half I needed to use up. In the past, it was the high sodium I always noticed when I ate canned soups. But with the first spoonful, all I tasted was sweetness. Not what I was expecting. I checked the back of the can and the second ingredient was high fructose corn syrup. Bleah. I had to throw out the rest. Another time, I got a sugar cookie at Whole Foods. Its crispy, chewy texture was just the way I like it, but something was a bit off. I tried adding a sprinkle of salt and voilà, the perfect cookie. Just not to be eaten before running!
This picture gives a general idea of how training is going so far. That is, if I'm not swimming, biking, or running, this is how I feel:
Ready for a nap. At these times, I remember that I'm not doing this just for me, but to help others win the fight against cancer. To lend your support and help find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, just follow the donate link in the sidebar.
