<p>I am a lifelong NON runner. I am planning to run in a 5K the first week in June. I’ve never entered a race before, so I found a training plan online that I will do in preparation for the run.</p>
<p>This morning I did my third session of 8 min.run/2 minutes walk, repeat for a total of 3 cycles. I felt like crap almost the entire time and wanted to quit only about 2 minutes into it. Midway through the last cycle, I got a side stitch. I did the workout as prescribed, but only through sheer will. Thursday I am supposed to graduate to 10 mins. run/2 mins. walk and I am dreading it just a tad.</p>
<p>My mistakes for today’s session:</p>
<p>1)Went out with friends last night and had pizza and a few glasses of wine. Won’t do that again before a training session.
2)Went running with only a glass of orange juice in my system.</p>
<p>So, question:</p>
<p>I’ve always been focused on fat burning in my workouts. Now I need to aim for performance enhancement. What should I eat before a training session? How far in advance of the run should I eat? Should I drink a post workout recovery shake afterward? What about the night before the race and the morning of the actual race?</p>
<p>Any sports nutrition advice from the experts?</p>
<p>Nrdsb4 - Disclaimer. I no longer run, but I racewalk and do so at a pace that would be as taxing as running.</p>
<p>I like to eat about 30 - 40 minutes before I walk. I have a soy shake every morning, but a bowl of cereal or something similar would work as well. When I am finished, I often have some egg whites, but often I just have some water and an apple or something like that. Something light. </p>
<p>If you felt that bad so early in the run, your pace was just too fast. By slowing down just a little you would have felt much better. You are not racing for those 8 or ten minutes, you are running. </p>
<p>I would really, really advise buying a heart monitor. Something as simple as the Polar monitor keeps you honest and prevents you from going faster than what you should.</p>
<p>I didn’t like to eat a lot before a run. I’d usually just have an apple on the way to the trail, and I was doing 10 miles regularly. Some people would say an apple beforehand was bad, but you’ve just got to decide what works best for you.</p>
<p>I agree w/wnp that you may have gone out too fast. Truthfully, it wa probably the wine and and pizza sitting on your stomach as well as just not feeling it this morning. Just pushing through it is what you have to do. Glad you stuck with it!</p>
<p>I had an overuse injury that ended my running career, and it makes me very sad. The endorphins from running are like nothing else.</p>
<p>Those intervals are too intense for somebody just starting to run. You want to start with a 1 to 4 ratio of work to recovery: 1 minute jog, 4 minutes walk. That might be too easy for you. You play it by ear and find the stage that will tax you, but not be impossible.</p>
<p>So then move to 2 miutes jog/4 minutes walk or a 1 to 2 ratio. Then, to 4 minutes jog/4 minutes walk – a 1 to 1 ratio. And so on and so forth. There’s little point in tryng to do a training plan that is beyond your capability at the start. Your heart can only beat so fast and you only have the ability to take in so much oxygen. The whole point of training is to increase the capability. It’s all about building up as you go.</p>
<p>You might very well move through these steps in a matter of days if your fitness level is good. That’s fine. But, move through them as your body and training allows. You can tell how much a stage is hammering you. When I’m bent over panting like a dog, I pretty much know that that level is beyond my ability to sustain! It’s OK to put yourself in that spot for brief periods, but nobody recommends sustained training at hear rates above 90% and that level of panting.</p>
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<p>On these heart monitors, the two cheapest Timex “analog” monitors on Amazon work great. They are fully Polar compatible, so your heart rate will be picked up by gym equipment. They have user-replaceable batteries so you don’t have to buy a new chest strap when the battery dies. The cheapest one just shows heartrate. The next one up (it’s about $45 at Amazon), storest he most recent workout – time, time in zone, average heart rate, peak heart rate, and calories burned (based on weight and heartrate).</p>
<p>I have a polar monitor, but the battery needs to be changed. I’d kind of forgotten about it, but that’s a great suggestion.</p>
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<p>I think you are probably right. Alcohol is a diuretic, so I probably started off dehydrated and sluggish. I’m glad I muddled through as well. I would have been sorely disappointed in myself had I not finished the workout.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I cannot imagine ever running 10 miles. I started this program after flying to NC to cheer my daughter on in the Tarheel 10 Miler race. It was so inspiring to see her finish in Kenan Stadium to the cheering crowd and the thrill of having her name announced as she entered the stadium. This morning as I finished my last minute, I was thinking, “If I were her, I’d still have almost an hour more to run. No way.”</p>
<p>Well, I picked this plan because I’ve been doing a 3 min. run/2 min. walk times 6 (30 mins. not counting warmup/cooldown) for a couple of years, so I thought I should be able to handle it. </p>
<p>I will say that all my previous training has been on the treadmill, and these past 2 sessions I’ve done in the neighborhood. I thought I should get off the treadmill because the race will be in Austin the first week of June. I need to acclimate gradually to the heat. I bought a new pair of running shoes to help with shock absorption. But when you’re out in nature and not on the treadmill, it’s impossible to know how fast you’re going. It sure seemed I was running slowly, but who knows?</p>
<p>I’ll avoid the heavy food and alcohol next time and see if that, slowing down a bit, and eating a light snack beforehand does the trick. If not, I’ll have to consider changing the run/walk ratio.</p>
<p>3 - 2 intervals are a lot less demanding than 8 - 2 intervals. For all intents and purposes, 8 - 2 is the same as running non-stop. Plus, I suspect that outdoor running is very different from treadmill running. I know that I can’t touch the pace the treadmill walkers talk about on my hilly outdoor walking route, and I’ve generally been a pretty fast walker.</p>
<p>I also know from my heart monitor that slowing down just 5% on a 40 minute hard walk lowers my peak heart rate considerably. There’s definitely some pacing involved in all this. If I slow down on the hills so I’m not gobsmacked at the top, I recover faster and my pace picks up sooner. I think you should err on the side of starting out too slowly, because you can always kick it at the end if you are strong. If you go out too fast, then you are hammered for the rest of the time.</p>
<p>Running outside is much more difficult than treadmill running. First of all the treadmill propels you which obviously helps and secondly most people set the treadmill elevation at zero. Outdoor running usually has some grade. I would recommend setting the treadmill at 2% elevation when running indoors.</p>
<p>I bicycle. Jogging in/outdoors or treadmill gives me motion sickness. </p>
<p>I’ve been experimenting with my own pseudo-electolyte drink. Wyler’s single mix for waterbottles. A 1/4 teaspoon salt, pinch of Morton’s potassium salt, 1/4 tablet crushed senior vitamins, 2 teaspns sugar.</p>
<p>I recommend avoiding fruit juices before or soon after a hard workout. Instead drink gatorade or another sport drink. They usually contain simple glucose which requires no enzymatic breakdown to achieve their useful form that can be absorbed from the gut to the bloodstream. During a hard work out yur body needs lots of water so it rushes water from the stomach to the large intestine where it can be absorbed, and more complex sugars present in fruit juices can sometimes get dragged along with the water into the large intestine before they are broken down into simple 6-carbon sugar form. This can cause various digestive upsets when the gut bacteria get hold of those undigested sugars.</p>
<p>Also if you want somethng more substantial than just some gatorade, I recommend eating a Powerbar with a glass of water 1 hour before your workout.</p>
<p>I’m tend to run or bike or play tennis after just having a non-fat latte for breakfast, so I’m not sure you need more food. Admittedly, the partying the night before might have made you a little dehydrated. You might try a route that will run you by a drinking fountain. Perhaps running to a nearby school or park. That way you can get a drink while running, just like you’ll be doing in the real run. To keep a slower pace make a playlist for your iPod of songs with a slow beat. That helps keep you from racing a bit too much.</p>
<p>For exercise under an hour you really don’t need any food. You just want to remain hydrated. Moving from treadmill to road probably led to the increase in difficulty for you. Also, you are most likely going too fast. Slow down to a pace where you can hold a conversation. You aren’t trying to win this 5K. Make it enjoyable for yourself.</p>
<p>Running on a treadmill is easier because you do not experience the air resistance (as well as hills, turns, barking dogs, etc.). Set the treadmill at a slight incline to compensate for lack of air resistance.</p>
<p>Coureur is absolutely correct - you do not want any undigested food in your upper GI tract prior to exercise (fatty foods are actually the worst). Since acohol dehydrates the body, drinlking the night before running is undesirable as well. Run for pleasure, not for Olympic gold ;)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great advice. I knew I could count on the expertise available here from all you smart, accomplished, experienced people!</p>
<p>Good point about treadmill vs. real terrain. I always set my treadmill to 0% incline. Not only does my neighborhood have inclines, but even on the flat stretches, the streets are not totally flat from left to right. That would have an impact on body mechanics (my legs and hips were a tad sore today).</p>
<p>Good point about the orange juice and digestive issues.</p>
<p>I probably did run too fast, even though it seemed as though I was at a turtle’s pace. I guess “too fast” is a relative term.</p>
<p>Today was a little warmer than normal. Combine that with a couple of drinks and some cheesy carbs from the night before, and it’s no wonder I “wasn’t feeling it” today.</p>
<p>I need to enjoy the experience for its own sake. Some of you who have a love for running would be aghast at some of the thoughts that were going through my head. Like constantly thinking how much I wanted to be done with it. I pretty much missed all the beautiful flowers, the fresh scents of spring plantings, the breeze, the sounds of the morning. They were kind of drowned out by negative thinking.</p>
<p>Okay, I’m armed with some great advice. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I’ll just take a nice walk with the dogs, eat well, stay hydrated, get some sleep and wake up ready to enjoy the run on Thursday. Good advice about running to a park; there is one nearby with a water fountain.</p>
<p>Of course, now it makes sense. Treadmill running is running in place. It’s using the energy to move the legs and body, but you aren’t actually expending the energy to move a hundred or two hundred pounds forward. That energy is being supplied by the treadmill motor.</p>
<p>I wondered. I can walk as fast as I can outside on level ground – arms swinging, fast cadence, a pace that would leave the family in my rearview mirror – and I can’t come close to the MPH people talk about here. I thinkin’, wow, these people must be really hoofin’ it!</p>
<p>I actually find the treadmill harder than running outside. Experienced runners differ on the harder/easier debate. Also, current thinking is that you do NOT need to set the incline at 1% to create the equivalent of the outdoor wind resistance unless you run at sub-6 minute pace or so.</p>
<p>When you start watching your heart rate, you develop a very strong appreciation for hills! I can be walking along on level ground at fast clip and be a 65%, maybe 70% of maximum heart rate. Then, I hit a quarter mile uphill grade with a steep section and my heart rate is 85% to 90% if I try to keep the same tempo.</p>
<p>I’ve seen advice here to try to keep the pace up, but shorten your stride. That works, but I’ve had better success consciously slowing down my pace on the uphill stretches. That comes closer to keeping the overall energy expenditure the same.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, downhill stretches also send the heart rate up if the hill is steep enough that you have to use energy to break your speed.</p>
<p>I hate treadmill running. I feel like a hamster on a wheel.</p>
<p>And I find it a lot harder because I have to concentrate every second on where I’m putting my feet to make sure I don’t step too close to the non-moving edge of the device and crash. I prefer to run outdoors and to actually move from point to point, to feel the wind on my face, and to look at things while I go. A treadmill gives me none of that. It feels like punishment.</p>
the night before might have made you a little dehydrated. You might try a route that will run you by a drinking fountain. Perhaps running to a nearby school or park. That way you can get a drink while running, just like you’ll be doing in the real run. To keep a slower pace make a playlist for your iPod of songs with a slow beat. That helps keep you from racing a bit too much.</p>