Friday Reflections

Hey guys! Happy Friday!

Today I am going to continue my ‘Meb for Mortals’ summary with the next installment, which is “Eat like Meb” and also continue my weekly NYC training update. Let’s face it, I’ll probably throw some random thoughts at you as well, because that seems to be what I do.

Meb for Mortals (Part 4): Fueling

To be quite honest, I have been avoiding posting on this chapter of ‘Meb for Mortals’ for a little while because I feel like it can be a very sensitive topic, but after re-reading it, I feel like there are some good points that are worth sharing. The moral of the story here is that being a healthy person is much more important than being a faster runner and that is a wonderful takeaway (and something that I needed to be reminded of).

• He writes that a good running diet should: 1) fuel your training without interfering with it, 2) keep you healthy, 3) help you maintain a good running weight and 4) have variety and quality. He stresses that you need balance and variety in your diet, in the same way that your training should include long and shorter runs, as well as fast and slower runs.
• He recommends having some sort of protein with every meal, as recovery after hard training is aided by adding high-quality protein to the carbs that you are eating. He recommends having red meat with dinner the evening of a long run or hard workout, because the extra iron will help to speed recovery. That was something I have never specifically thought about, but is a great tip!
• He includes a small amount of healthy fat with most meals and eats vegetables with two meals a day and aims for five servings of fruit a day.
• He only drinks coffee on the morning of hard workouts. One cup 45 minutes to an hour before long runs, tempo runs and speed work. He says that he doesn’t want to “become someone who thinks I need coffee to get through the day or to feel normal running.” While I can definitely appreciate his discipline there, we are just going have to agree to disagree on that one Meb 🙂
• He used an analogy that I thought was pretty interesting. He compared fueling your body with tending a fireplace. You never want the fire to die, and so you are constantly deciding whether or not it needs another log. Similarly, you don’t want to eat so little or infrequently that you crash, but you need to constantly fuel yourself throughout the day to keep the fire lit at all times.
• He talks a decent amount about weight control and his “race weight”, but I found that part of the chapter to be somewhat triggering (and quite frankly, disordered) and not helpful for us “mortals.” That is just my opinion though. I can respect that he has to be super disciplined in order to perform at the elite level and he also likely has a team of experts that he works with to make sure he is healthy at all times. He did briefly touch on the issue of how lean is too lean, saying that at one point in his career he succumbed to the thinking that “the leaner I am, the better I’ll run.” He noted that he felt great for a short time and had some great buildup races at shorter distances, but ended up with a bad stress fracture. The bottom line is don’t try to sustain a weight that your body tells you isn’t natural.

Training Update

We are just over 12 weeks away from NYC! Training seems to be going really well so far, and I am getting super excited about the race. Here’s what the week has looked like so far:

• Monday: I’m still keeping it short and easy on Mondays, so I got in an easy 5 miles before work, but I missed yoga. Major bummer.
• Tuesday: I ran the Crime Prevention 5K Tuesday evening. You can read my recap (here). I ended up with about 6 miles total for the day.
• Wednesday: Daniel and I did 8 miles before work, and I headed over to Rebecca’s for an evening run (since I missed my double on Tuesday this week).
• Thursday: Lizzie and I did 8 miles before work, and Daniel and I did 5 miles late that evening.
• Friday: I tricked convinced Rebecca to join me on my weekly #runallthehills route. We started earlier than I have been going out on this route, and boy was it humid. It’s amazing how much the humidity decreases once the sun starts to come up. We had to dodge a ton of trash cans (all but one were dodged successfully) and kept a respectable 8:09 average pace for the run.

Random Thoughts

To say that this week has been trying would be quite an understatement (I shall not go into detail at this point over the interwebs in an effort to avoid saying something that I might regret). However, I know that God is using a difficult situation to teach me something, so I will take joy in that.

My friend Molly sent me a wonderful snippet from her devotional this morning that was exactly what I needed to hear, so I am going to share it with you guys as well in case someone else is needing it too. It said, “Understanding will never bring you peace. That’s why I have instructed you to trust in Me, not in your understanding. Human beings have a voracious appetite for trying to figure things out in order to gain a sense of mastery over their lives. But the world presents you with an endless set of problems. As soon as you master one set, another pops up to challenge you. The relief you have anticipated is short-lived. Soon your mind is gearing up again: searching for understanding (mastery) instead of seeking Me (your Master).”

The verse that accompanies this excerpt is Proverbs 3:5-6, which says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

I don’t know about you, but that was an incredible reminder for me! Wow. I am a very analytical (and sometimes often impatient) person, and I find myself constantly trying to understand the reason things happen or asking God to show me the reason (and to make it really clear in case I am having an obtuse moment). As I was typing this, I was reminded of something that we learned during Week 4 of our study on Ephesians this summer. Pastor Chris taught us that when you go through trials (which we all will), we need to ask, “where is this coming from” and “what does God want to do with it,” instead of asking “why is this happening.” So, instead of over-analyzing things, my goal and prayer for this weekend is that I can be patient and persevere, trusting in The Lord’s plan and path for my life.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I’m sure I will be talking to you soon 🙂