Running With Jack

The Diet

My diet is going pretty well. As I mentioned a week or two ago I was up to 77 kg/170 lbs. the days following my 50K on October 21st. I’ve managed to bring my weight back down to 73.5 kg/163.5 lbs. as of this morning. Another pound and I will be back down to my lowest weight of the year.

Here is an example of what I’ve been eating (from Sunday):

Breakfast: A half-cup of granola with lowfat milk, 1 slice of whole grain bread with peanut butter and honey, 1 glass of tomato juice and two cups of coffee.

Snack: 1 apple

Lunch: 1 cup of spaghetti with a broccoli sauce and 1 cup of broccoli.

Snack: 1 cup of broccoli soup with some cooked broccoli and 1 raw carrot.

Dinner: More broccoli soup, 1 slice of bread with a fried egg (cooked in virgin olive oil), 1 slice of bread with lowfat cream cheese (with chives and dill pickles).

Snack: 1 8 oz. glass of tomato juice and a raw carrot.

I had two cups of unsweetened tea during my 20K run and probably three liters of water during the day.

I eat meat every 2-3 days, but use peanut butter and eggs as an alternate protein source. I don't know if I would get a gold star on the nutrition side, but it's working for me so far.

Running

I generally have been keeping the distance of my long runs down the last two weeks, partly because I am still recovering from my 50K and partly to make my dieting easier. I have also been running slower for the same reasons. I still ended up with almost 62K/38.5M last week, about 20% more than I planned. But I don’t think it affected my recovery too much as I kept the pace down. Tonight I’m going for an easy recovery run.

Next Long Distance Race

At this point it appears that my next long distance race will be the Bienwald Marathon in the Rhineland-Pfaltz (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany on March 11th. This is a flat, mostly asphalt-covered route.

I am also leaving the door open on the Rodgau 50K near Frankfurt, Germany at the end of January. This is an asphalt loop course, 10 x 5K. It will probably be a last minute decision as it is a 2 ½ hour drive in the dead of winter. There are other races later on in the year that would be more important to me, so I am not making it a priority. I expect that the training that I do in the next couple months suffice to come over the finish line under the 6-hour time limit if I decide to do it.