<p>Bromfield:</p>
<p>You’ll probably bounce back strong after a week off. That’s not really long enough to lose strength or fitness, but it is long enough for a complete exercise battery recharge.</p>
<p>MKat, curious to know what a typical breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are for you. Care to share?</p>
<p>Roads are an icy mess so I will be on the treadmill for the foreseeable future :(. </p>
<p>3.2 miles, felt good. </p>
<p>Returned to our hilly park. Successfully completed 10.46 miles. Walked up a few of the hills but still able to stay at my target pace. Overdressed once again. </p>
<p>New health and fitness podcast from Mark Sisson, of Mark’s Daily Apple. Seven episodes so far. The most recent one is terrific… it’s all about how to include rest/recovery days, mix it up, and avoid the pitfalls of chronic overexercise (whether it’s high mileage or CrossFit). In a nutshell, his theory is that, whatever your goal for exercise, you want to figure out the minimum amount of training/workout that will achieve that goal.</p>
<p>Here’s the direct link to the podcast:</p>
<p><a href=“Episode #7: Primal Blueprint Fitness with Mark Sisson | Primal Blueprint Blog”>http://blog.primalblueprint.com/episode-7-primal-blueprint-fitness-with-mark-sisson/</a></p>
<p>And the podcasts are available in iTunes (in the top 10 Health podcasts). Episode 7 is the latest one:</p>
<p><a href=“The Primal Kitchen Podcast on Apple Podcasts”>https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-primal-blueprint-podcast/id789935889</a></p>
<p>Mark is not a doctor or researcher, but does a terrific job of synthesizing and communicating good fitness and nutrition concepts. He’s written one of the best-selling Paleo books.</p>
<p>Hi all from Beijing. Walked the Great Wall of China today. Not the whole thing 
</p>
<p>For whatever reason, I was envisioning a flat platform and I figured - oh I could walk for miles. Ha! I wanted to go to a section that was less touristy - it’s all steep steps! Had to stop and catch my breath, boy did I feel like a wimp. It’s cold here, about 32 degrees, I had long underwear underneath yoga pants and a heavy turtleneck and sweatshirt and a big heavy winter coat. I wound up giving my coat to the tour guide (who stopped and waited) and just walking on myself without the coat. Didn’t realize how much I’d overheat. </p>
<p>Eating has been ok on trip - it’s just really really hard when you do what I do, which is lead workshops. So I wind up eating fewer big meals than more frequent mini meals. But, there’s not much I can do. Back to lurking! </p>
<p>Awesome! From the photos of my daughter’s visit to the Great Wall, it looks like a serious workout!</p>
<p>I am learning the hard way to dress “cold” for winter exercise. If you are warm enough standing still, you’ll be drenched in sweat once you start moving.</p>
<p>PG how cool! </p>
<p>I can remember going cross country skiing and ditching my coat after one round. Tights, gloves, two tops, that was plenty. There was a pile of coats at the start of the trail.</p>
<p>Finished and didn’t hate it as much as last week’s race, so there’s progress! Here’s someone’s pretty good capture of the elevation, but it doesn’t capture how difficult it is. There are a few hills that were hard to WALK up, and most of us were walking! <a href=“Cummins Falls Half Marathon - A bike ride in Cookeville, Tennessee”>http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2123261</a></p>
<p>2:20, which is certainly a slow Half for me, but I’ll take it. Daughter ran pretty comfortably (except for the hills) in 2:12. I won my age group. H, in his first 10K in about 10 years, ran 58 plus on a course that involved climbing straight up a huge hill on the way back. He won 60 plus (he’s 69). It was a gorgeous day- 40-51 or so during the race with clear, sunny skies. I got pretty cold in the first 4 miles down in the river bottom in the shade, but not too bad. Warmed up after that. At the starting line the park ranger informed us that after our huge climb at 6 miles there was a house with 2 Dobermans and that they might scare us. He said they were in an electric fence and we should be OK. Great…</p>
<p>The other little surprise was that the race finished 3 miles away from the start, which had not been clearly communicated (to say the least). I actually stopped and looked back at about 12.8 because I thought I had gotten off course since I was nowhere near where I thought the finish line would be. It was not the same finish line as the marathon, 5K and 10K. This was not a good thing, but since the weather was good, we were OK waiting to be shuttled back (one van and 1 ranger in a SUV shuttling all the runners) in our wet clothes. Could have been a disaster. </p>
<p>Yeah- I’m tired!
Good to hear you walked The Wall, pizzagirl! That would be really cool. Deb- don’t fall on the ice!</p>
<p>Way to go, MOWC. Those hills up from the rivers will kill you every time… I left 90 pounds on the hills up both ways from the local river crossing. I hope you weren’t reduced to standing next to a tree by the side of the road, bent over, hands on knees, sweating buckets, and panting like a dog!</p>
<p>Another nice sunny day! We all took a walk in the park with a gorge trail and admired the waterfalls (all our snow melted at once.) S did the parcours stops, I sort of did. (Hey, I’m 40 years older than he is!)</p>
<p>busyparent, my meal plans are based on about 50%protein (at least 100 gms/day), about 35-40% carbs and 10-15 fats. The ratio of carbs/fats can vary depending on the type of working out I’m doing. My workout program has me lifting weights for an hour and a half 2-3x/week and riding 4 days a week. During the riding season, I can hit as much as 200 miles/week in response to which my carb percentage will be towards the upper end of my scale.</p>
<p>As to specific meal plans, I avoid all processed foods and try to eat lean meats, fish, chicken, veggies, fruits, low fat dairy and whole grains.I also eat as much organic food as possible. I generally eat foods that I like and use weight watchers points to control portions. My snacks consist of fruit, granola and sometimes nuts.I limit alcohol to literally 1 drink per week (usually wine) and rarely eat dessert. I limit pastas to no more than 1 cup every blue moon. </p>
<p>While some may feel my carb intake is high, the energy demands placed on my glycogen based energy systems is very high and there are days the carbs are very much needed and if I don’t eat enough carbs, I feel depleted.</p>
<p>Congrats, MOfWC! Awesome racing. </p>
<p>Kudos to MomWC (and DadWC by the sounds of it!)</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, awesome…am living vicariously through you…I’ve never been to the Great Wall…except maybe metaphorically!</p>
<p>A friend was over for lodge yesterday who was sporting one of those super light-weight Patagonia down jackets her h had bought her. Now I want one! </p>
<p>Thx Mkat. I am working on eating clean without being hungry all the time.</p>
<p>Thx again. I just re read page 2319 with your plan and discussion with Idad re: fat/carb ratios. Lots of good stuff.</p>
<p>Just looked at my food diary and 50% protein is probably high. The total grams is correct, about 100-125/day. Fats probably hit as high as 20% on some days. Percentage of carbs is probably higher than I estimated. In reality, I kind of back my way into the carbs. I make sure to eat my allotment of protein by grams, limit my fat, and then everything else is carbs until I exhaust my Weight Watchers points. But the carbs I eat are generally nutrient dense with no processed sugars. And keep in mind that during the riding season, my typical Saturday and Sunday rides each earn me back 30-36 weight watchers points so the volume of carbs I eat is well offset by my activity levels. My post on 2319 is a fair summary of what I typically eat. It’s important to remember that each person’s needs is going to differ based on metabolic rate, activity levels and types of activities and whether there are special dietary needs. I would never recommend that anyone simply follow a nutritional plan that someone else has used with success. There are too many variables. For example, the only reason my high carb diet in the riding season works for me is because I’m riding 150-200 miles a week mostly at tempo or vo2 max paces with some aerobic recovery/base riding thrown in. For someone who is doing shorter duration cardio or more resistance training, their needs will be different. Your best bet would be to speak with a nutritionist/dietician to put together an individualized plan that meets your particular needs.</p>
<p>The only things I would recommend generally is that 1) you maintain a daily food diary, 2) that you get weighed once a week on the same day, same time, same scale and that 3) every couple of months as you are losing weight, have body fat tested by an experienced practitioner using skin fold calipers so that you can make sure you are luau training lean muscle mass as you lose weight. </p>
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<p>Just keep in mind that most of that discussion was in the context of endurance athletes who are exercising continuously for 2, 3, 6, 8, or even 24 hours.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of us, who exercise maybe 60 minutes a day, even day after day, “replenishing glycogen” is not an issue. I’m not a professional football player doing a 2 hour workout in the morning, burning through my glycogen, and need to quickly refuel before the afternoon workout. It’ll be 24 hours minimum before I workout again, so just eating normal meals will work just fine. Most of my workouts are between 20 minutes and 75 minutes and don’t have a combination of intensity/length to burn through my glycogen stores – figure it would take burning at least 1000 calories in a workout to do that.</p>
<p>The only time I eat during exercise is on my long 3 to 6 hour hikes. I nosh on salted cashews or almonds and an apple every hour or two.</p>
<p>One of the real problems is that so much sport-specific research is presented as being relevant to the casual exerciser, when it’s really not. If carb loading works for Greg LeMond (along with all the banned drugs), then it must work for me, right? But, for an overweight middle-aged person trying to start exercising and lose some pounds, carb-loading is the LAST thing on earth to be doing from a nutrition standpoint. </p>
<p>I think I actually did my nutrition right yesterday for the race. I had a piece of sourdough bread with peanut butter (no additives) at 4:30am and half a Picky Bar about 45 minutes before the race. I had Gatorade at a few of the aid stations (a few swallows) and some water as I needed it. I used two HumaGels- one at about 5 1/2 miles and one at 9 or so. I forget exactly when I had the second one. I had them in the back pocket of my Nuu-Muu dress and they aren’t that easy to get to. It’s good I’m so slow or it would be a problem! </p>
<p>Yes, yes, yes! Nutrition plans must be tailored to the individual. For the general fitness/health exerciser, carb loading is irrelevant. A balance between protein, fats and carbs is more important. Healthy fats are good, not bad, nutrient dense carbs are good, not bad. Protein to rebuild muscle tissue is good. But too much of a good thing is bad! Controlling portion sizes and intake is important. </p>
<p>For breakfast today I had 1and 1/4 cups of Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal with a banana, blueberries and skim milk. For lunch, 4 oz of lean low salt ham and 11/2 oz of low fat Alpine Lace Swiss on 2 slices of Ezekial bread and an apple. Did 75 minutes of very intense TRX before lunch and I will be doing 2 hrs of tempo bike riding later today. I need my carbs. But what I am eating today would not necessarily be a good nutrition plan for someone whose activity level and training goals are different. And at the end of the day, I will still be balancing my caloric intake with my expenditures, something that everyone should do regardless of their training goals and levels.</p>