<p>I find that my body actually craves protein and salt after my long runs. I ordered a turkey burger as my post-Boston lunch, peeled the buns off and ate the patty and the veggies. Could not even finish my beer! Sushi and sashimi are my “recovery foods” of choice.</p>
<p>So here are my post-marathon goals: do more core strengthening exercises and enter a shorter distance race. </p>
<p>A couple of podcasts with Meb from the last couple months on UCAN and his nutrition. Talks about reducing his calories from 4500 a day to 2500 a day as he’s gotten older. More protein. Less white carbs…</p>
<p><a href=“Marathon Legend Meb Keflezighi - Generation UCAN Podcast - YouTube”>Marathon Legend Meb Keflezighi - Generation UCAN Podcast - YouTube;
<p><a href=“[WEBINAR] Training and Nutrition Tips with 3x US Olympian Meb Keflezighi - YouTube”>[WEBINAR] Training and Nutrition Tips with 3x US Olympian Meb Keflezighi - YouTube;
<p>This video definitely made my day better:
[Boston</a> Marathon - Free Hugs](<a href=“http://elitedaily.com/sports/video-man-giving-free-hugs-boston-marathon-runners-will-brighten-day-video/]Boston”>http://elitedaily.com/sports/video-man-giving-free-hugs-boston-marathon-runners-will-brighten-day-video/)</p>
<p>Will watch the videos after work, thanks! </p>
<p>Laughing outloud - my lousy time is still apparently a BQ for the next year’s race. I doubt I will run it again - nothing can top this year’s experience.</p>
<p>Dreaded Airdyne intervals for me before dinner. Changed it up and did the dreaded 1/4 mile intervals instead of the dreaded 1 mile intervals. Haven’t done 1/4 miles in almost a year, so I took it a little easy to make sure I got through them. Legs were burning a bit at the end of each interval, but only saw 90% of my max heart rate.</p>
<p>These are more fun than 1 miles. The intervals are between 35 and 40 seconds, so you can go pretty hard, where the miles are all about a pace, clocking in around 3 minutes.</p>
<p>The “Rule of 7” can be applied across many sports. If you are a runner, you need your long distance road shoes, cross country shoes, trail shoes, track shoes, racing shoes, “barefoot” shoes, and cross training shoes. And you may need more than 1 pair of some. If you are a hiker, you need your below 30 degree jacket, 30-50 degree jacket, light weight windbreaker, waterproof rain jacket, down vest, light weight vest and convertible jacket/vest. The lists could go on forever. Seven is a magical number!</p>
<p>Did a kickin’ ride today. Arrived at my club’s departure location at 5:32 only to find the parking lot empty as all the rides had left at 5:30. Was resigned to riding on my own but somehow caught up to a small group of A level riders who proceeded to push my envelop hard for 28 miles with 2000 feet of climbing, a 17.5 avg and speeds of up to 29 mph on the flats. No way I would have ridden that hard on my own. Then it was home for bbq’d salmon for dinner. Hmm, hmm good :).</p>
<p>I just made it through Peter Attila’s slide show on SuperStarch:</p>
<p><a href=“http://vimeo.com/51891286”>http://vimeo.com/51891286</a></p>
<p>The best explanation of sports fitness energy needs I’ve ever seen.</p>
<p>This stuff is a super long chain corn starch that moves quickly through the stomach and breaks down slowly in the intestines – time-release glucose that doesn’t spike blood sugar, doesn’t cause much insulin spike, and therefore doesn’t result in a blood sugar crash an hour later, and doesn’t stop fat burning (no insulin spike).</p>
<hr>
<p>The stuff is intended as a sports drink/gel replacement. What is recommended is one packet 30 to 40 minutes before training (MEB takes one an hour before a marathon) and then another packet every 90 minutes (or longer depending on your needs, but 30 minutes before you run out of gas). Meb, running a marathon in 3 hours after the first packet doesn’t need another. Instead he just drinks water and electrolytes during the race. Then, he takes a packet immediately after the run for recovery, so that he can buy time to ice and stretch and whatever before eating.</p>
<p>The two products are identical. SuperStarch and electrolytes. The protein product has that plus whey protein. Meb says he uses the protein version as a recovery drink AND frequently as a meal/snack replacement when travelling (i.e. instead of airport food).</p>
<hr>
<p>I haven’t ordered any yet (although I think I will try it for hiking), so I don’t know if this works, but here’s a 20% discount code for the packets: competehard.</p>
<p>I haven’t figured out what I want to try. Probably for my purposes, the protein version makes sense. Put the shaker ball from one of my mixer bottles in a 500 ml Nalgene bottle.</p>
<p>NM, wow on the 7 lb party! I’m starting to wonder if you’re allergic to wheat though, as I know in my case, wheat will guarantee me a four-pound bump until I wear down the inflammation again!</p>
<p>For your 7 lb party in keeping with the shedding-for-the-wedding theme, I think I’ll just give you a whole neon wedding 
<a href=“http://www.pinterest.com/abbyposs/my-neon-wedding/”>http://www.pinterest.com/abbyposs/my-neon-wedding/</a></p>
<p>Speaking of four-pound-bumps…have one right now after a few days of down home funeral and comfort food. I also have a big Italian dinner coming up Sat night at a friends house. Somebody send the wagon, please, and haul my sorry self up on it :))</p>
<p>BECAUSE the pool guys opened the pool yesterday and I believe I said in an optimistic moment on this thread last year that I planned to terrify the wildlife this year with a midriff exposing swim suit 
There may be a lot of core in my future! I know there hasn’t been enough core in my past!</p>
<p>Thanks for the lovely gifts kmc! 
I have always struggled with water retention…no idea why. I do notice carbs really make my weight bounce around. I did get my written blood test results and they did alarm me! I have been watching every single thing that goes in my mouth and have been eating lots of veggies and protein. Several friends have noticed the puffiness is gone from my face and hands. Hope to continue the downward trend! :)</p>
<p>IDad- good info on the nutrition drink. I’ll have to try it.</p>
<p>KMC- I learned at the beach on Sanibel yesterday that people aren’t very concerned about how they look in swimsuits. I would give the gold star on that to the European men- very frightening and lots of exposed flesh. Lots. </p>
<p>5 miles - it’s pretty running down here. Palm trees and flowers. Good time of year.</p>
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</p>
<p>I ordered some of the protein version from Holabird Sports (free shipping) to try. The packets and the tub end up being the same price per ounce. It’s a little confusing because one packet has almost two of of the “servings” from the tub. On the protein, a tub “serving” is 30g. A protein packet has 56g.</p>
<p>Checked the site, idad, and found this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.holabirdsports.com/tomtom-runner-cardio-blackred.html”>http://www.holabirdsports.com/tomtom-runner-cardio-blackred.html</a></p>
<p>A strapless HR monitor?! how cool is that! Now I wish I had visited the Tomtom booth at the expo! </p>
<p>Here’s a review of the Tom-Tom optical heart rate watch:</p>
<p><a href=“TomTom Cardio Runner & Multisport with Optical Heart Rate In-Depth Review | DC Rainmaker”>http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/04/tomtom-cardio.html</a></p>
<p>And, a product that is probably more interesting: An ANT+/Bluetooth optical heart rate wrist band that links to your existing Garmin or smartphone app. It’s made by the company that supplies the optical sensor to Tom-Tom:</p>
<p><a href=“First look at new Mio Link ANT+/Bluetooth Smart optical heart rate wrist band | DC Rainmaker”>http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/01/mio-link-first-look.html</a></p>
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<p>I’m happy as a clam with my new Garmin watch. A four hour hike doesn’t even put a dent in the battery, which solves the biggest headache with the running watches for me. I always had to leave them off until the moment I hit the trail, which meant wearing a different watch and then changing at the start and end of the hike, to preserve every iota of battery life. It’s nice to be able to just put it on in the morning, use it as wrist watch, record my hike, and continue wearing it as a wrist watch the rest of the day. Neither of the running watches had enough battery life for that. In fact, I’d start getting low battery warnings before the end of many hikes.</p>
<p>Thanks, idad! The perfect solution for someone who hates rubber straps around her chest. 
I really need to look at Kickstarter more often.</p>
<p>Is the Mio available? I want it!</p>
<p>It sounds like it is! I want it, too! :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.mioglobal.com”>http://www.mioglobal.com</a></p>
<p>I’m so buying it. And it will make a great gift for the runner kiddo and even Mr B if mine performs to my expectations. </p>
<p>Once again you guys cost me money! Ordered from Amazon! I’ll have it when I get home from FL on Monday. </p>
<p>I love my Magellan strap (well, comparatively), but BB is right- the jog bra and the HR strap is a pain. And ai really trust DCRainmaker’s reviews. </p>
<p>I’m still loving my Vivofit, too. Did a lot of walking up and down the gorgeous beach yesterday and today.</p>
<p>Basement for me. Single leg deadlifts. TRX pushups. DB front squats. 3-pt row. Pretty good workout.</p>
<p>MOfWC, I pushed the buy button, too. I got the small, hoping that my wrists are small enough.
( Really, should have stopped at the Tomtom booth! )</p>
<p>I can’t wait to hear how the wrist sensor works. Should be pretty cool.</p>
<p>Knock on wood, I made it through the entire winter with no HRM strap problems. I switched to the latest Garmin strap they had sent me (the current one with three fabric patches) and used a little bit of electrode gel on the contacts. It made it through some very dry cold weather with no hiccups.</p>