Nutrition, Fuelling and Long Runs
- Active Living Active Living
- Aug 18, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2024
It's a new week and we need to get it going. Grace plays such a big role in my day to day training and the fact that I am able to sit here and speak to you is all just grace.
BALANCING THE LOAD HELPING YOUR HEART.
I touched on how I balance my training load last week.
Again I had a few questions
A - Is this type of load healthy?
B - Is it needed?
Again I am saying - everyone is different BUT somethings are universal for us all,
Firstly we need resistance training or some form of strength training to help us preserve our muscle mass. It is a well know fact that if we don't use it we loose it, AND as we age we loose muscle mass. To Combat that we need to do the resistance training, lift heavy stuff, do exercises where our muscles need to work against resistance. Having Muscle mass also aids us to keep upright, strong and balanced as we age.
THEN - the other thing we need is cardio vascular fitness. This is the fitness of our heart, yes its a muscle and for muscles to grow and be strong it needs to be exercised.
The aim is to get our heart muscle strong enough so it doesn't have to pump so hard and too many times to get the blood to our extremities. The fitter we are cardio vascularly the easier the it is on our heart to help us live day by day.
We all have something called a RESTING HEART RATE - and that is the rate at which our heart has to pump at a state of rest to get the blood to our extremities. The lower the rate the stronger is our heart muscle.
My resting Heart rate has actually come down again and averages between 50 and 55 Beats per minute. When I have broken sleep or not enough it does tend to go up to about 58. The only time it goes above is if I am ill or if in my case I become deficient of some sort of nutrient. (More on that and why I do get deficient on a later blog)
Some athletes and cyclists I know has a resting heart rate as low as 38 Beats per minute. The average person normally has one around 65-70, so can you imagine if you actually do some cardiovascular exercises like brisk walking, jogging, HIIT, aerobics, cycling, where you actually get out of breath when you do that, get your resting Heart rate down, how much your heart will thank you .
This brings me to the whole DO I NEED TO DO THIS EVERY DAY?
Well....in my eyes...YES.
World Health says that exercising for 30 minutes 3 times a week is sufficient. The problem I have with that is most of us are doing jobs that we are sitting most of the day and our movement is minimal. This is where the 10k - 15k steps a day comes into play.
SO - Here is where World Health's theory is a bit confusing. They suggest we do 10k - 15k steps a day, but only exercise 30 minutes 3 times a week...THIS WHOLE THEORY IS MISUNDERSTOOD.
Ideally you want to maintain your 10k -15k steps a day - that takes care of the cardiovascular side and then do resistance training or some form of it for 30 minutes 3 times a week.
So there I just answered your question - is it needed to be done everyday?
YES - because we are all classed as sedentary if we do under 10k steps a day.
I realise Rome wasn't built in a day and many people aren't there, but building it slowly by adding 1000 steps a day every 2 weeks and slowly build it up to your 10-15k average a day for the week.
So the next time you put your activity level into that calorie calculator make sure you actually think about your true state of your movement and exercise.
You might just get to the correct caloric expenditure and then actually loose the weight you have been trying to. Of course there are many more things attached to this like food intake, portion control etc. Again we will chat about that at a later stage on one of my other blogs.
Nutrition and Supplementation
Then I said I will touch more on the supplementation I use and how I balance my nutrition on a daily and weekly basis to help my body cope with the load I am putting it under.
Firstly
My choice of nutrition Brand is HERBALIFE NUTRITION has been for many years and will always be. Because I am sensitive to Whey and lactose protein I do have to supplement with some other brands in South Africa because not all of the non whey and lactose products are available in South Africa. After a lot of research I settled on Phyto pro - they are brand with clean products and taste wise they are definite better than so many of the others. Will I drop them if the replacement product of Herbalife becomes available....ABSOLUTELY YES!
So here it is.
MEALS
I start my day with a Herbalife F1 Healthy Balanced Meal shake - EVERY DAY... Sometimes Twice a day depends on the program of the day. Gluten Free, 24 vitamins and minerals, high in protein.
My other meals are healthy balanced normal meals and snacks. I aim to hit around 100g of protein per day.
I supplement my Protein intake along with my shakes and normal meals with
Herbalife Protein Drink Mix and Phyto Pro Thrive Vegan Protein.
Herbalife does have a whey protein supplement if you prefer using whey.
I also use the Herbalife Protein Snack bar range which is low in calories, High in taste and protein.
For Training
During - Alternate depending on load and time of day
Herbalife CR7 - Low Sugar and low caloric Carbohydrate Electrolyte drink
Herbalife Hydrate - low caloric Electrolyte drink
Phyto Pro BCAA and Creatine
Pre Workout - I alternate depending on load and time of day
Herbalife Nite works with Nitric Oxide,
Herbalife 24 Sport Lift Off and
Phyto Pro Muscle Fuel with Nitric oxide
Post workout -
Normally at the moment a balanced meal OR
a Shake with at least 20-30g of protein,
If I could use lactose protein I would have used my Herbalife 24 Rebuild Shake - SOOO TASTY!! but unfortunately I cannot thus I use the normal F1 Shake with Protein Drink mix and then I add some Phyto Pro Vegan Active Recovery to it.
General Hydration
Herbalife Aloe Concentrate in at least 1 litre of my water a day
Herbalife Instant Herbal Tea - 1 - 2 cups a day.
The rest is Good old H20!
OTHER
The other things I use is a multivitamin, Omega 3's, Calcium and Magnesium, Herbalife Collagen drink mix, Herbalife Pro-core Immune supplement (Zinc, C), There are other things too.
BUT That in a nutshell is what I use, how when where really depends on what Training load I am on, what time of day and how my day program looks.
I apply flexible dieting or eating, the same as with my clients, thus I eat pretty much everything just in portions and amounts that I stay within the caloric goal I have at that stage of my training cycle.
You can Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to see how I use my breakfast and food. I do Post some of it there.
So What did I get up to this week
Run 3
Hike 1
Cycle 1
Swim 1
Strength 3
Mobility/Other 1
MONDAY - This Week started well with an early morning strength session and a nice incline interval/Effort session on the road this afternoon.
You will not see a lot of photos on interval sessions, as its hard work and normally the rest periods in between the efforts are too short for filming and hanging around.
I am happy with what I achieved on the hills and even more ecstatic that I could hold the aerobic HR going up the HILL. I always get a bit nervous if the instructions of incline efforts and aerobic is on one sentence.
What is the significance of this Graph? Here you can see how my interval pace was very stable, and how my HR went up and came down as per the intervals. Towards the end there was a bit of a blur due to me being tired and then your HR does not come down as it would in between the efforts. Ideally I want to work towards getting an even greater HR effect on these.
TUESDAY - Strength Set this afternoon, no cardio today due to time constraints but I plan on putting in an early tomorrow so we will get the needed cardio in. Today was a Dumbbell and Resistance band set, we had a good laugh along with it.
Weather has been a challenge again today so it was all in doors! I did manage to catch a beautiful sunrise the other morning when I was out and about.
WEDNESDAY - What a glorious training day this was. A Bit of prep for the triathlon, running off the bike this morning, AND PEOPLES...its hard.
Getting those muscles running after it when around in circles on pedals without impact
ANYHOO... I did it and it felt good getting into the groove after the cycle.
This type of training is an integral part of multi discipline events. Making sure your transitions between in the movements are as seamless as possible.
My Muscles did remind me I haven't done this a lot yet. But I am happy with how my body and brain reacted.
THURSDAY - A sunshine day it was here in Cape Town today! We really have had a tough and cold winter by our standards and July was the most rain they have ever had on our regions since they started recording rain. No wonder we were hiding indoors.
Training strategy has been adjusted a bit this week for the tri next week so today was a strength and lifting set only.
Keeping my protein up, adding my Achieve bar here after training.
FRIDAY - Active Recovery day!!
I honestly looked forward to my swim this morning.
Who knew when I implemented swimming into my routine I would EVER SAY THAT.
Those that know me, swim has never been my favourite activity, and I am not the strongest swimmer out there, but I can hold my own. I actually improved on my 100m times this week.
So when I added this as a mode of non impact recovery I never dreamed of saying I LOOK FORWARD TO IT.
Still not convinced about this whole open water thing but a pool is good place for now. LOL
SATURDAY - Today was the longest run I've done in nearly a year. 18km - HAPPY DANCE
In fact its just 3 weeks short of 1 year. Not due to not wanting to, just priorities that needed to be shifted around a-bit and then also I had to manage my training load while I was on the ship.
I felt like a complete novice last night trying to remember what I need to do before a run.
There was no heroic plans for today, just keep the average between 7:45 and 8:00mins per km. (Long run pace) Do the run with a fully loaded fuel vest like I would do my trail runs. Run Walk the Hills and don't focus on Heart rate too much and come out the other side functional for the day and able to carry on tomorrow.
Why with a fully loaded fuel vest? You need to train with that fuel vest. As it does change your centre of gravity depending on the load, and if you go into a race with a fully loaded pack like we do for trails. It can affect your balance, which in turn affects the way you go up and down hills, and give you sore shoulders and muscles you don’t need in a race.
I often get asked how to you do and fuel for your long runs do you handle them any special way?
I pretty much handle them the same as races, prep the night before with regards to kit etc.
Fuel like you would for race day, not so much to make the run but to be able to function like a normal person after your runs, not bomb out on the couch after and recover like a pro.
If you practice your fuelling and eating strategies on long runs, you know what works on race day and you don’t get ugly surprises on that all important race day.
Here is my Fuelling strategy for both long runs and races.
As a standard my daily nutrition is to fuel my body, so no funny business the days before, just wholesome food.
The morning of, I EAT BREAKFAST - yes you cannot run on empty - so I make sure I get in my standard 30g of protein along with some slow acting carbohydrates.
This morning I had my normal, Herbalife F1 shake with vegan protein, overnight Soaked Chia and Oats and a banana.
Hydration I make sure I start my day with at least 750ml of fluid. This morning it was my standard morning combo, Herbalife instant herbal tea, Procore and Mango Aloe concentrate.
Normally you would need to put in about 40 - 80g of carbs per hour of running(Athlete dependant) - my body cannot digest so much carbs every hour and it gives me digestion issues due to my lack of large intestine, thus I need to follow a strategy of putting in carbs that has a slow digestion and long term energy effects for breakfast and have less on the road.
For my run fuel, I had a mixture of Herbalife 24 CR7, (Electrolytes, Vitamins and Carbohydrates) Herbalife 24 liftoff (bit of caffeine with vitamins) with some BCAA’s mixed in one litre of water. I normally have at least 500ml per hour on the road and 750ml per hour on the trails. Strategy for this, Take a sip every 10-15mins. This keeps me hydrated and keeps my blood sugar stable for the run.
Post run - I had my Herbalife 24 achieve bar with 20g of protein, the last about 200ml of my hydration mix and I had a SOY Milk latte, so that also added a bit of protein.
I am now sitting here post run - clear head and a body happy to function for the day. Happy days and really happy with how this morning went.
SUNDAY - Trail day and a beautiful misty morning we had. How can misty be beautiful you ask. Well trust me when you in that cloud the silence in there is amazing, its like the cloud shuts out the world around you.
I found some friends along the way and we ended up doing a 2 hour hike and just catching up. For me it was the perfect recovery pace after a hard week and I enjoyed it Thoroughly.
Some of the spectacular views from the top.
Fuelling strategy for today was very close by the same as yesterday - just I had less calories on me as I knew it was going to be low intensity training.
That concludes this week's training and adventures. Thank you for reading this blog! It was an amazing week and blessings of health and ability I am thankful for.
Have a wonderful week everyone!
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