AKA What I ate Wednesday…
Last week, I ran 68.5 miles. I’m pretty sure that’s my highest mileage week EVER. Five half marathons + a 3 mile recovery run = a lot of running.
It also equaled a lot of eating. Like constant eating. Here’s how I came home weighing exactly what I did when I left LOL:
Breakfast:
Every morning started with either a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a peanut butter sandwich and a banana. (I never thought I could get tired of PB&J, but I am. I can’t stand to even think about one right now.)
During the race:
I relied mostly on nuun. Even though I could have eaten an oreo (or potato chips or a sandwich or a snickers or…) after each lap, I found that I really didn’t eat much. Other than the first race where I drank a ton of gatorade in the last two loops, I really didn’t take in many calories when I was running. I don’t eat when I do training runs, so my body really doesn’t expect much in the way of calories during a half marathon.
Immediately post race:
Photo courtesy of Kim, since Beer Geek didn’t take a food picture LOL.
As I finished each race, I would grab a few things off the table and get some gatorade. My favorites were the chocolate creme oreos and the bite sized snickers. Yes, I fully believe in chocolate at the end of a half marathon.
Post race “snack”
Most of the races involved a 30 minute or so drive back to the hotel afterwards. I found this was the perfect time to drink a Muscle Milk. I got a few boxes of this as part of my ZOOMA Annapolis ambassadorship. I don’t like the “light” version, but I found that the regular ones (both Vanilla and Chocolate) tasted great and were exactly what I needed. One bottle and I was good to go until lunch!
Lunch:
Since we were on the road, this varied a lot. I ate Subway (didn’t love it as much as I did in the Dust Bowl), fast food salads, and after the last day, Mexican food (so good!) There may have been donuts with my lunch one day…
Dinner:
I admit: I ate a huge dinner every night. Three of the nights we met up with other runners. (If you do one of these series, you MUST got out to eat with everyone. So fun!) Two of those nights were all you could eat. And I did. I’m pretty sure the Chinese buffet lost money the night we all ate there. You’ve not seen eating until you’ve seen what a bunch of marathoners can put away the night after their second marathon in two days!! One night Beer Geek and I shared a steak the size of a serving platter at Doe’s Eat Place!
The remainder of our trip was vacation. And we were in the south. I had hushpuppies and BBQ. I tried Elvis’ grilled famous peanut butter and banana sandwich.
And of course, there was beer! (Although most of what I drank was beer we brought as there weren’t a whole lot of craft beer options where we went…)
We are home now and my body is ready for some healthy eating (although you’d never know that from the sheer number of jelly beans I’ve eaten since Easter…). I bought a huge salad mix from Costco and I think it might last me a couple of days…
I also ordered the book that Kim has been using: Metabolic Effect. She looks amazing, and even more importantly in my opinion, she ran so fast and so strong this past week! If I want to get back to a sub-2 half, I need to get serious and it looks like this might be the answer.
Just went to go look the book up and ordered it! Looks like a good read.
I love how much running allows us to eat 🙂
Tiina recently posted…Monday Musing – Knowing When To Throw In The Towel
I know – I was shocked at the amount I ate and still was the same when I got home. I just started reading ME. I think it’ll be an interesting read.
Goodness, that’s a lotta’ miles!! Cheers to you!
Tiff @ Love Sweat & Beers recently posted…Fruity WIAW & Power Bowl
Yeah – the scary thing is that there are a lot of runners who run that many miles every week. Of course, most of them are faster than me, so it takes them a lot less time LOL.
I’m pretty sure that I continued to eat like I was training for a marathon several months after I had actually ran the race. That didn’t work out so well. 🙂 That book sounds interesting. I will have to check it out!
Michelle @Baby Blues to Running Shoes recently posted…What is your why?
I’m trying to get back to “normal” eating right away. No need to fluff up before summer…
I can’t believe Beer Geek missed out on a food spread photo! Haha, no geography there, just the best aid station/post race treats ever!
Thanks for the nice compliment at the end of your post. You, my friend, look quite good yourself. I hope you enjoy it and glean something useful for you out of it. Looking forward to hearing what you think.
PS- I only ran 3 halfs to your 5, don’t forget that!
I know – I was shocked when I went through the pictures and couldn’t find one of the food. I should have eaten more. ;o)
That books sounds interesting…off to check it out!
Michelle @ Running with Attitude recently posted…BAA 5K Recap
I kept waiting for the library to get it, but they haven’t yet, so I finally bought it. It’s interesting so far, but I’ve just started reading.
Sounds like a great trip!
Diana recently posted…Meb For President
All the food you have pictured here looks great. Also, great weekly mileage, way to go. I too love having a cold beer after I cool down from a long run. Some of my favorite beers on the commercial and more popular side are Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, Yuengling, and New Castle. But some of the more unknown beers that I like are Anchor Steam (San Francisco) and Moose Drool (Montana). Thanks for the great post, I enjoyed reading it!
Irving recently posted…RUSHFIT Work Out!
Wait, you guys brought good beer with you? We would get along so well! Although I’m not sure I’d brave a Chense buffet or Mexican before a race! I wouldn’t eat at Roy Rogers before the CUCB.
Coco recently posted…Quick And Easy Dinners From Trader Joe’s
I can eat just about anything the night before and it doesn’t bother me. Race morning is a different story entirely.
And we always make sure we have good beer LOL. Can’t race without it. ;o)