I manage a country homestead and the lives of my 4 babies ages 10,8,5 and 3. I LOVE TO RUN and NEED to keep healthy and fit for my SANITY!! Seriously....All problems are solved when I am running.

Making MY health a priority allows me to be the mother and wife that I need to be for them.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

I  had another post all ready to go about how to recover from the most horrific running week.  I think I'll save it for another day. Running is complicated and involves so many factors.  I ran 26kms last week and spent the last 10 kms begging God to send a friendly face to offer me a ride. I'm not joking or exaggerating. I think I would have crawled if I wasn't on a busy road.

How did I recover??
I had to assess a few things. Instead of explaining the why's of all I'll just list them here to show you how many things can affect a run.  These things don't only apply to the day before and day of your run. They apply to the week prior as well.

Sleep
hydration going into the run
hydration during a run
Glycogen stores in my muscles
shoes
clothing
vitamin and mineral stores in my body
Protein consumption prior to and post exercise
Flexibility (stretching)
Fuel while running
Weather conditions
Pace of the run
Hormones
Mental Stress
rest prior to the big run
Alcohol and coffee consumption
Physical Stress (cortisol levels)
Salt intake
Time of day I ran.
Shoes

So these are a few things I have had to take a second look at.  Since my pee was pretty much brown the day after I ran I figured something had gone wrong.

I made a few changes and I had a MUCH better run this week.  As you can see there are MANY factors that can affect your run. I just evaluated all of them and made some changes here and there.
The biggest change was my diet. At this level what I eat everyday is becoming crucial. Not only that but when I eat it.  Training this much seriously stresses my body. I need to focus on packing in the nutrients and antioxidants to help my body recover.

I will admit that I was pretty bummed all week. I had only one good run, but went into today's run better prepared to take on the challenge.  The effort I put into all the above during the week paid off because I did it, and can now move on to 29.

So if you have a bad day or week try not to sweat it. Take a couple of days off and evaluate all the factors and make changes where they are needed.  If I can do this crazy running stuff so can you ;)

Happy Running,
Alyson

4 comments:

Mrs White said...

Hey Alyson,
Great job on the running. You are my hero!
Look forward to your continued success and updates.

Mrs White
http://bringingfurmanhome.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hey Alyson, I just wanted to let you know that you are a true inspiration to me and I thoroughly enjoy reading your blog. I was browsing through and I noticed that you have a child who is wheat/dairy free. We are a complete wheat free home and have been able to to find a wonderful bread that is gluten free (I am not sure if it is dairy free so this might not be of any use to you). It is Udi's bread, it comes in white, whole grain and cinnamon raisin (very tasty). It is expensive bread but it is definately worth the money since it is the best tasting stuff we have found. Take care of yourself and your family and I hope someday we can re-connect with one another.

Jenn Esser

Alyson said...

Thanks you Jenn. I appreciate that nice comments. I HAVE been thinking about you since learning all about gluten. The world has come a LONG way since Destin's diagnosis!!! Back then it felt like he was the only person on the planet searching for gluten free things. Now we are realizing just how nasty gluten is these days. I love the book 'Wheat Belly'. It is such an eye opener.

Rohit Singh Jain said...

I would call this fun..wish i could participate in such a marathon too.