<p>That happened to me at the running shoe store. I told the guy to start with a 9.5. He brought out the 8.5’s. Couldn’t get them on my feet. Brought out the 9s. Couldn’t get them on my feet. Brought out the 9.5s. Still too tight. Ended up with 10s (EEE width). I have big feet, short toes, so their little measuring thingie just doesn’t work for me.</p>
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<p>Non-bouncy medicine balls seem to be the preferred style. I have to be careful because the bouncy one will come back and smack you in the face if you aren’t careful! For example, on an overhead slam, the ball is now bouncing back up above my head. </p>
<p>Snow shoveling was my contribution today, and I’m feeling it a bit tonight – nothing terrible, but definitely used. It was a particularly annoying snow in that it was very “sticky” and would not drop off of the snow shovel. Weird. </p>
<p>Made one of the worst fish dishes I’ve ever tried tonight – and surprised, because it was a Mark Bittman recipe, and I usually really like his Minimalist dishes. But, poaching fish in a half cup of soy sauce which you then reduce was not a win, even with scallions.</p>
<p>No. That would be way too heavy! Poaching in sake, with just a dash of soy would be pretty good, though. I had chilean sea bass that seemed to be cooked that way at Morimotos. To. Die. For. That’s where I go the inspiration to start poaching haddock in some cheap chardonnay and using that as a sauce, enrichened with a little butter.</p>
<p>I also do a quickie salmon sauce that is mostly lemon juice, mirin, and a little soy that is very good.</p>
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<p>My worst recipe ever was a Ming Tsai fusion fried chicken thing I saw him “cook” on TV. I should have known that he had never fried chicken and that his recipe had to fail. Panko coated chicken breasts and thighs in a deep fryer. Of course, the panko has to burn to a charred mess long before the chicken is anywhere near cooked. Panko works for shrimp that only cooks for a minute or two. But, big pieces of chicken take a long time to cook.</p>
<p>The only way to possibly cook the dish is deep fry it for a couple of minutes and then finish it in the oven. What a disaster. I think we ended up throwing it out and going to KFC.</p>
<p>“I had chilean sea bass that seemed to be cooked that way at Morimotos. To. Die. For.”</p>
<p>That’s the Morimoto’s in Napa, right? It’s my H’s second favorite restaurant! Their sashimi is amazing. His all time favorite is the tiny Japanese restaurant at the Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island (if you ever end up there, try their deep fried mushroom appetizer). Speaking of mushrooms, I made mushroom caps stuffed with artichoke-parmesan dip. Not a low cal dish by any means, but I supplemented the tiny servings with a huge green salad.</p>
<p>My Zappos trolling paid off. The shoes I was eyeing at Nordy’s were 20% off at Zappos. I normally would not go to a store to try something on only to order it online, but the Steve Madden pusher SA really deserved to lose his commission.</p>
<p>I just got out of a meeting with my manager and walked by a kitchen and noticed that there was a plate with a cornbread on the counter. I stuck my nose in and found a box of cornbread and muffins shaped like little breads and a box of donuts. I was very, very hungry when I woke up and I do need 120 grams of carbs for my run which I brought with me (2 cups rice, 1 clif white chocolate macadamia bar). It looks like the clif bar will go into my storage bin and the rice will wait until tomorrow.</p>
<p>Actually I put them in LiveStrong - donuts don’t have as much carbs as I thought. I’ll have to have some of that rice.</p>
<p>You didn’t say how much you ate of them- the whole box? :)</p>
<p>My run this morning was awful. The weather forecast was doom and gloom (a possible snow flurry, and since we live in the south, this is monumental…) and I thought it would be cold and awful. I overdressed and within a block had to take my hat off. My legs were dead from the run yesterday and the moving. It was darker than I expected at 6am and I had not taken my headlamp. I think my new neighborhood is darker. I wondered if I had gotten up an hour too early! So- my first mile was a crawl since I was afraid I would fall. I only did 3 miles, but it felt like 10. I may do a couple indoors after work, unless there are some pretty snow flurries and I want to be outside! I also realized I had not had ANYTHING to drink last night. I felt a little dehydrated. We got busy with unpacking some stuff and I only ate a bowl of cereal and a Clementine (which, darn, I forgot to bring one of to work today) for dinner and never wound up pouring water or drinking a Fresca.</p>
<p>I actually can’t eat that much at a sitting anymore.</p>
<p>It was one chocolate frosted and one custard filled.</p>
<p>What’s interesting is that donuts have significant fat and protein - I’m less hungry after a donut than after a cup of rice which has more carbs than two donuts.</p>
<p>I may try the double run today too if I can’t crank out 6.25 this afternoon.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link to the study, BB. Interesting stuff. I found the abstract – this study kept both calories and carbohydrates fixed for all groups. They simply compared quickly digested refined carbs to slowly digested complex carbs.</p>
<p>The reason that it likely produced different results for the normal and obese groups is that the obese groups were more likely to be insulin resistant. Therefore, a diet (even a high carb diet) that produces smaller insulin spikes will be beneficial.</p>
<p>Here’s a Boston study that compared a high glycemic load diet (55% carb/20% fat) to a low glycemic load diet (40% carb/35% fat) in obese children.</p>
<p>Overall, there wasn’t much difference in fat loss between the two diets. But, when they looked only at the insulin resistant kids, a different picture emerged. The insulin resistant kids lost an average of 12.8 pounds on the low glycemic load/lower carb diet versus 2.6 pounds on the higher glycemic load/lower fat diet – a pretty dramatic difference.</p>
<p>I suspect the same thing is happening in this new study. The fat people are much more likely to be insulin resistant than the normal weight people.</p>
<p>Of course, it begs the question: why won’t they compare a diet that is actually lower in carbohydrate? But, at least this whole issue of glycemic load and complex versus simple carbs may be an avenue for the nutrtion world to slowly back themselves out of the high carb/low fat street they’ve gone down for the last thirty years. At least they are again looking at the effect of insulin levels on fat storage and the various health markers of metabolic syndrome (Type 2 diabetes, etc.) Those mechanisms were figured out by researchers in the 1960s, but then that research stopped dead with the emphasis on low fat (and therefore necessarily high carb) nutrition with the McGovern Report and USDA food guidelines in the 1970s. Cranking up that avenue of research again, such as this new study of glycemic load, could prove to be very important stuff.</p>
<p>And, it seems to be very good advice. It is better to focus your carb intake (at whatever level) on complex slowly digested carbs rather than refined simple carbs that spike insulin fast and hard. The catch is that “made from whole grains” on the package doesn’t mean that the food inside is actually slowly digested complex carbs! You can start with whole grains and still process every last shred of fiber out of the product!</p>
<p>Wow, MOfWC, you area is getting snow? Yikes. The big S word was all over the news last night here, too. We might get some this Sunday, and I’m not looking forward to it. I’d rather do my “long” run on the trail than on the treadmill, but if it gets really nasty, my options might be limited.</p>
<p>The little stretches are evil! They work the same groups of muscles I’ve been working on before, but in a different kind of way, so I feel sore all over my lower body.</p>
<p>Ya’ll are gonna have to go some to convince me that there is any redeeming nutritional value in a donut. Even for a runner. No matter how you slice and dice it, it is still a deep fried blob of the most highly refined white flour and sugar with basically nothing that is nutritionally good for you. I think that anyone who has ever struggled to maintain their weight is playing with fire eating donuts.</p>
<p>There’s something that seems astray with the logic of using a fitness endeavor (running) as a rationalization to eat donuts! :)</p>
<p>But, idad, a donut for a runner is just like a GU gel -quick fuel, in and out quickly without any ill effects. GU gels have NO nutritional values either; their purpose is to fuel the longish runs.</p>
<p>In my tennis health forums people look for high-glycemic stuff to take on the court.</p>
<p>I have tried the high-fiber approach to carbs in the morning and have found that lower-fiber works better. Rolled oats work better than steel-cut oats. All of that super-high-fiber cereal doesn’t work as well as white rice or whole wheat bread (which generally only has 2-3 grams of fiber per slice).</p>
<p>There are no redeeming nutritional values to donuts, but they REALLY taste good! Fortunately, there are none within reach, so I ate a half of a peppermint Clif Bar.</p>
<p>BB- Snow as in “flurries”. Maybe more up on the Cumberland plateau. Weather can vary a great deal around here depending on which part of middle TN you are in. I don’t think it is going to be cold enough to stick. Last year we had several pretty good snows (5 inches or so) that tied up the place for days.</p>
<p>We have freezing rain this evening - I have to reevaluate running at the Y tonight.</p>
<p>We have some bone-chilling weather coming in this weekend.</p>
<p>We have a little snow on the ground and it’s raining but the air temp is above freezing so I don’t expect problems until it starts getting colder.</p>
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<p>My donuts had 3.5 grams of fiber.</p>
<p>I don’t recall eating a donut for several months.</p>
<p>I dunno maybe the donut is the secret to success – my IronMan running coach (multiple Kona finisher) used to fuel many a ride or run with a Sbux donut… Or maybe, she was doing all those IronMan races to allow her to eat the donuts in the first place?</p>
<p>There is something to be said for the OCCASIONAL pure, refined, sugar product to fuel a run, sometimes, believe it or not, that sits better in the stomach than anything else, including the gels. My race day breakfast of choice was the esteemed PopTart. Talk about no redeeming nutritional value…</p>
<p>Here’s what I don’t understand. You only need immediate carbohydrate fuel when you have fully depleted your glycogen reserves. That is not going to happen before the one hour mark, even with intense exercise. Different story for running an actual marathon or an all-day bike ride.</p>
<p>So, is the issue really one of insufficient recovery time between between workouts? For example, trying to do runs on back to back to back days so that you are never fully replenishing glycogen stores? If that’s the case, are donuts really the solution, or is it better addressed through training schedule?</p>
<p>I usually run two miles and they feel good. On the third mile, it feels like my body is shifting food sources. If the nutrition isn’t right, I get incredibly hungry and the rest of the run typically suffers somewhat. Basically those days are where I run 9:15 and slower.</p>
<p>Decent days are where I can feel the shift on the third mile but I don’t have to slow down for it. I know it’s there but I don’t feel ravenous or much hunger. Typically the body has shifted to a different fuel source and I just cruise the rest of the way. These are the 9:00 to 9:15 pace days.</p>
<p>My best days are where I barely feel the shift or don’t feel it at all. I increase my speed slowly through the rest of the run and these are the days where the pace is under 9:00. My schedule and stress levels are definitely up this week which means that my runs won’t make it into the “best days” category much.</p>
<p>Doing low-carb is incompatible with distance running unless you shift your carbs to before your run - not doing it this way is dangerous. I have tried all sorts of things before runs - Gatorade sticks, sugar, complex carbs, simple carbs, fat, protein, etc. and have found that the complex carbs work but the simple carbs work better.</p>
<p>BTW, my recovery drink today was Nuun. I’m finding that I generally enjoy one of these in the evening after a tough workout. On tennis days I’ll take three or four of them.</p>
<p>My empirical evidence is that training schedule isn’t the issue.</p>
<p>Donuts actually don’t have as high a concentration of carbs as I
would have expected but they certainly worked for me today. Rice
seems to work fine. I assume spaghetti would work fine too but
there’s a higher preparation cost for that.</p>
<p>Ran in my new Adidas sleeveless today. It’s one of those textured
materials and it felt softer than anything else that I have. All of
my other sleeveless shirts have a flat material. The L shirts that
I bought for tennis are textured but they are not as soft as this
one. I’m tempted to pick up the other one - assuming that it’s still
in the store.</p>
I normally would not go to a store to try something on only to order it online, but the Steve Madden pusher SA really deserved to lose his commission.</p>
GU gels have NO nutritional values either; their purpose is to fuel the longish runs.</p>