New Dietitian - New Outlook

Last week I had my first meeting with my new dietitian and she is amazing. She is certified with the International Olympic Committee Diploma in Sports Nutrition and she is also a marathon runner so I thought that she would be perfect for me and after sitting down at our first meeting I realized that she was more than perfect for me she is exactly what I am looking for in a dietitian.

It is no secret of mine that I have suffered from Eating Disorders in the past. Not just anorexia but also binge eating disorders. That is one thing that my dietitian picked up on right away. Sometimes that it is something that dietitians miss about me because I don't look withered away.

Along with wanting to create better eating habits for myself I also want to be able to fuel properly for my long runs. I tend to crash about 8 miles into my run and my runs get harder and harder after that point. I am training to qualify for Boston and this crashing that occurs to me is hindering my runs.

One thing that she explained to me in detail was the need for carbs in our bodies!! I have an irrational fear of carbs I think they make me fat! However, yes they can make you fat but anything that is overeaten can make you fat.

Our brain – just our brains – require 130g of glucose a day to function when we don’t get enough of this our bodies go into what is called control fatigue. This hinders our decision making – reaching for the cookie instead of the apple – our concentration and our moods.

Glucose from carbs just doesn't go to our brains it also goes to our muscles creating muscle glycogen. If we are low in muscle glycogen it will have a negative effect on the quality of the workout – ever wonder why one day you can pump out 20 reps of push-ups and one day only do 6? Yeah you are lacking muscle glycogen – it also has a negative effect on our running. I know I have had days where my legs feel heavy, like lead heavy well this is because the body is going into principal fatigue from not having enough glycogen.

You often hear people talking about their breakfast helping them through their run. I always thought that if I had a decent supper and a good breakfast it would get me through my run, but I was wrong! It takes your body 20 – 24 hours to make muscle glycogen, so what you are eating 20 – 24 hours before your run is what will get your body through those long distances. Don't get me wrong, you still need a carb fueled breakfast but you also need a good lunch and supper the day before.

I decided to take what my dietitian is saying to heart. I mean I am paying her enough I should listen. I had a nice carb, protein, nutrient dense lunch and supper and the next day I didn't head out for a run until 11am. It had been 22 hours since I had my lunch and well I had my BEST run EVER!!

I ran a 1:34:43 half marathon, my best half yet. Was my body hurting through my run, obviously I was running an average 7’17”/mile, did I feel awesome, not really I was hurting on my run but was it my fastest, that it was!! It was the fastest long run I had run EVER.

Now I am learning to eat a proper amount of carbs and I am learning to eat a proper amount of food. I have been eating around 1,500 – 1,700 calories and my dietitian said that isn't enough for me because that is 1,500 – 1,700 not including what I burn off exercising and we determined this weekend that at rest I burn 2,300 calories so eating 1,500 – 1,700 isn't even enough to fuel me at rest. Now I am focusing on getting my calories to the 2,300 point with healthy food and making sure I have enough carbs to fuel me through my workouts. 

She gave me a chart of what carbs, nutrient dense food, and protein I should be eating with each of my meals and my goal is to follow this from now until my Marathon, she said if I follow this I should see weight come off, muscle gained and I should see my runs get faster. Two of my mail goals are to run a sub 6 marathon by next year and have abs before the summer, and she feels that both of these goals are do-able.

I believe that any serious athlete should hire a dietitian even if it is just for a few session, athletic needs are different from the average person and what works for me isn't necessarily going to work for you.

Ignite~Perspire~Inspire

Yoga and Running go Hand in Hand

I am your typical runner. I love to lace up my shoes and head out the door and rack up those miles and ever since Nike Running introduced the new app feature of being able to see your leader board I am even more obsessed with racking up the miles.

However, when I started training for my first marathon the wonderful Marie Purvis added yoga to my run schedule and I thought to myself “how is yoga going to help me run 26.2 miles?” yoga help more than you think and I am just realizing this now.

On my first a marathon training I did Bikram yoga; I stretched out but I didn’t really put my heart into it I did it because it was on my schedule and that was what my training was telling me to do that day. Now I have a different mentality towards yoga.

I have had two minor injuries this last year and both have scared me into stretching out more and giving my muscles the love it deserves. I thought yoga was just that stretching out but yoga so much more!! 

I don’t always have the time or money to go to a yoga studio but the amazing ladies at Nike Women have yoga on their Nike Training Club app and the beautiful and talented Leah Kim walks you through the workouts. I love doing this at the end of my day because she has a very soothing voice that calms me down and also the yoga helps me sleep better and gets my body ready to relax and start repairing itself. 

Leah has two yoga workouts on the NTC app a 45 minute one for those days you a have a little bit more time and a 15 minute one for the days you feel a 

bit rushed. Some of the poses can be very difficult at first but what I have learned is not to give up but to keep trying them because each time you will see your body go into the pose more and more and even though you might not be 100% into the pose you are still gaining benefits from it.

This isn’t a plug for Leah or anything! Even though I do respect and adore her.

I found a HUGE benefit in yoga with my running. It has allowed me to open up my hips and stretch out my body, it has allowed me to stretch those joints  and smaller muscles that you forget about and that can cause great injury but one thing that it has really helped me do is perfect my running form. 

Yoga has perfected my posture and in perfecting my posture it has also perfected my running form and when you have a better form your body can perform at its peak and this has greatly helped me increase my speed. As a marathon runner trying to qualify for Boston speed is important but also preventing injury is just as important. Everyone knows when you increase speed your risk for injury goes up and yoga has helped me stay injury free, have better form that in turn has increased my overall training.

I am finding a new love for yoga and I am realizing that yoga and running go hand in hand like a good Almond butter and banana sandwich. 

I challenge you to try yoga out maybe 3 times this week, if you don't have the Nike Training Club app maybe find a youtube video but I promise you that you will see the benefits of yoga in your running.

Ignite~Perspire~Inspire

Speed Work Makes Me Fast

Lately I have been getting people asking me the question “Tiara, how do you run so fast? or Tiara teach me to run fast like you” and I like to tell them I put one foot in front of the other.

I have not always been a fast runner. Remember my marathon that took me 4:35:27 to complete, I wasn’t a fast run, however it was my first marathon.

I remember when I was in elementary and I lived in this little town and everyone was super athletic oriented, we were learning track and field in elementary. I did the 400m sprint and came in well ahead of everyone it was a shining moment for me and I remember people telling my parents that I was a rabbit.

I have always been an endurance athlete, even when I swam my favorite distance was the 1,500 meter but I loved anything over 400 meters and I did well at them.

I decided to blog about this since I get asked this question more than anything else. I do a lot of speed work – this includes intervals, track workouts and tempo runs.

When I do intervals I use the Nike Boom app it is seriously amazing. You set how long you want your run to be and how long you want your interval to be. When I started getting wanting to get faster I would set it at 30 seconds. At first I did intervals on the treadmill and I would set the treadmill to a comfortable run pace for me - that is now 8.5 and I would run at this for 1:30 than for 30 seconds I will go up to 11 on the treadmill. That is what I did to start. Now when I try working on my speed I do it by song. I turn on my headphones and I get on the treadmill for 1 song run comfortable and for a song I run 11 this has really helped me get out of my comfort zone and start running at those faster paces.

Track workouts are also great for increasing speed. I have found a track and to start I would do 400 meter sprint and a 400 meter recovery, so two times around the track, than I would do 800 meter sprints and 400 meter recovery, now I am working on doing a mile sprints and 600 meter recovery. You should be running these uncomfortable for your sprint. When I am done my sprint I am huffing and puffing and want to fall over my abs hurt and sometimes I want to vomit. I grab my water take a few sips do a recovery and I go again. These are amazing and will really help you increase your speed if you do them right.

When I was training for Nike Women’s Marathon tempo runs were my enemy I hated them!! Now they are more like a frenemie. I know how good they are for me but they still make me work. I usually like to run tempos on 4 miles and above run. Always start with a mile warm up and a mile cool down, so if you are planning on doing 4 mile tempo than you are really running 6 miles. Tempos should be ran uncomfortable. A good test to tell if you are running them hard enough is to try and sing the song you are listening to. If you can only get a few words in each sentence out than you are running the tempo correctly, but if you can sing the whole song no problem than you need to push yourself harder. You don’t want to run these at a sprint but you want to run them at an uncomfortable pace. These will really help your body feel what it is like to run faster and eventually they will get easier, when they do you need to push harder.

These are what I do to help myself get faster. I have a goal to run the Nike Women’s marathon at a sub 6 mile. We will see if that happens but that is what my goal is.

I also believe the key to running faster is to listen to your body and know when to slow down and when to go faster. The problem with running faster is that you have the potential to get injured. I have a great physio and massage therapist that I relay on to keep me injury free. My massage therapist massages out all the knots in my muscles using a fascia technique and the physio uses his magic such as laser therapy, ultra sound and electronic therapy to keep my leg muscles in tip top shape and out of injury. For me the first sign of something wrong I call my physio and get right into his office because if my body is signaling it is not right than I do not want to push it and risk injury.

My physio has also said to me that my speed could also be genetic, this is true but I think my next marathon will tell the truth of this. 

Genetics or not if you don’t put in the work you will not get faster. The desire to prepare always beats out talent when talent refuses to prepare.

Ignite~Perspire~Inspire

Non-scale Victory - Mountain Climbers

I get easily discouraged when I don't see the scale moving in a downward direction, it actually can make me very sad. However, I have to remind myself of the non-scale victories that our out there. 

When I first started doing Nike Kinect it called for 20 seconds of Mountain Climbers and I dreaded these, BIG time! I actually hated them. They hurt my shoulders and my arms and abs. I said it is 20 seconds anyone can do anything for 20 seconds. Than they were pushed to 30 seconds and I would get down on the floor and do them for 15 seconds get on my knees for 5 seconds and do another 10 seconds of them and this would be painful. 

Now I am up to 60 seconds of mountain climbers and don't get me wrong they are still a struggle at 60 seconds but Monday in my get strong workout of Nike Kinect training I had to do 30 seconds of them and I was so happy with myself because I held perfect form and did them for the complete 30 seconds! 

We all have non scale victories and sometimes we need to remember these more than the scale victories because they are what truly count in the end.

Day 26 - Do you like running with a buddy, in groups, or solo? Why?

Do you like running with a buddy, in groups, or solo? Why?

Running for me is my time and I don’t often like it interrupted unless I am on a long run than I always welcome the company of another person.

I love my solo runs for the simple fact that I can run my pace and I don’t have to worry about having to slow down for someone else or slowing someone down when I run with Meho I slow him down. I usually do solo running on my lunch hour because that is my time to work on speed. I actually have a route that I take and when I first started running this route it would take me 35 minutes to run but now it takes me around 27 minutes to run the route if I run it with a friend about 29 minutes. It has been great for my confidence to see my pace get faster on this route. It has actually come to the point now I have chosen a mile route to run because I can get it done within my lunch hour.

Buddy running is ok when I am going the 10 Miles up distance. It is nice to have someone to talk to and to keep me going. I prefer in the person is around my pace because I am training to qualify for Boston having to slow up is not helping me get that BQ. Having someone to run with on those longer distance are nice because it is someone to help you keep going and someone to push you to keep going. During lunch hour I will run with Jamie, she and I started running together when I first started at Trican and we can go pace for pace with one another so she is my exception for shorter distances. 

I am not a group runner at all. You have too many people and some people think they are faster than they are and others are really slow and you are always stopping and going waiting for someone to catch up.

Whatever your running style make sure you lace up your sneakers and get out there. 

Ignite~Perspire~Inspire 

Day 25 - Headphones in or out? If in, what music gets you the most pumped up for running

Headphones in or out? If in, what music gets you the most pumped up for running?

I only like to listen to music when I am doing a shorter runs, track workouts, or hill runs if I am doing a long run I prefer not to listen to music.

I need music on shorter runs because usually I am running those at a tempo or faster than race pace and need something to pump me up and keep me going. It is the same thing for hills and track workouts. I need to be listening to music to keep my pace up and get me through those faster runs.

When I do run with music I prefer to have both headphones in unless I am running with 

someone else. For some reason when I run with only one headphone I can get a little off balance, it is kind of funny but it happens and I don't know why. 

When I long run I like to listen to my body. I find that listening to my body helps me push through those moments where I feel weak and like quitting. Music can be a bit distracting and sometimes you need to listen to your body and listen to the way your feet are hitting the pavement. I have learned that if you are slamming your feet on the pavement than you are running to fast and or fatiguing and need to get your energy up with shotblocks and you need H20 stat. A fatiguing body is not going to make it through a race or get the time you want.

As for the type of music I listen to. I love everything from David Guetta to Rhianna while I run. I like something up beat to keep me moving faster. 

Day 24 - 30 Day Run Challenge: While running do you use any watches or apps? What technology do you utilize?

While running do you use any watches or apps? What technology do you utilize?

When I run I love using the Nike Running app available on the iPhone and Android or the Nike+ running watch.

I prefer the Nike Running app for shorter runs and when I am not going to be near a computer for an extended period of time. The app automatically updates my runs to Nike+ and twitter right away, allowing my followers to see my runs and see how I did that day. You can also connect your Nike Running app to Path and Facebook and get cheers from your friends as you run, I love this feature you get these cheering clapping sounds as you are running and it really warms my heart knowing my friends are cheering me on from afar.

I am super competitive and this app comes with a feature where you can see your standing with your Nike+ friends. You can see this in a monthly view or a weekly view, this really helps me know when I need to push harder or if I can take a bit of a lighter day. I am really competitive and this fuels me. It also gives you a listing of your runs by month and by year so you can see how you are stacking up against yourself allowing you to have a better month, week, year.

I love the Nike+ watch simply for the convenience. I tend to chafe when I wear an arm band for an extended period of time so the Nike+ watch allows me to track my run without the chafing. The only downfall to the Nike+ watch is you cannot upload your run until you are back at a computer, but that is the only downfall, so I say it is pretty good investment. The Nike+ watch is handy because all the information from your run comes up on your watch so you can see your pace, distance ran and calories burned right on the screen. However, I am a little clumsy and once ran right into a tree while trying to look at my screen haha.

Another favorite feature of the Nike+ watch is the lap function. I love this for track workouts and hill runs. It allows me to see my time on each of my laps and I can push myself harder on the next training run knowing how I did on the last one.

I generally go back and forth between using the two. Now that my runs are getting longer I will be using the watch more frequently since my phone tends to die around the 15 mile mark and if you don’t track it did the run really happen? LOL.

Whatever you decide to use make sure you sign up on Nikeplus so you can compete with your friends in the Nikeplus community. I am always looking for more competition. 

Ignite-Perspire-Inspire