Carb day!!

The older I get, the more I am surprised by the things that get me excited.  I don't get excited about much anymore.  I have any number of personality flaws.  Lack of enthusiasm may well be just one of the many.  I have found, though that I do get excited about Carb Day.  As I  mentioned earlier, I do not do everything right.  Maybe it is true that very few of the things that I do, do I do right.   (Lot of do do in that sentence).  There is so much information floating around out there, it truly is difficult to weed through the swamp of data and decipher any of it to make sense of it for your situation.  I am sure you understand what I mean as I am sure you have heard things like, fat is bad, fat is good, butter is bad, butter is good, no carbs, all carbs, green vegetables only.  Milk does the body good, right?  It is good for teeth and bones and hair, right?  Or was that a clever marketing strategy?  Dr. Atkins died of injuries related to a head injury, but was known to have a history of heart disease.  So, what is right?  Is one thing right for everyone? Or could one protocol be good for some and bad for others?  Such murky water and cloudy science.  How does one make a decision about what to do?  I certainly don't know.  You may notice that I raise more questions here than I answer.

The Carb intake and the hydration piece are two things that I do believe have some benefit.  I am not deluded to believe that doing these things will make me run faster, but I do think that these techniques could help me to avoid "hitting the wall."  My routine, right, wrong, or indifferent, is to hydrate heavily (for me) 48 hours prior to race day, and hydrate moderately (for me) the day before the race.  I do not like water.  I hardly ever drink water.  I KNOW it is good for me, but I don't like it.  I am told that a colonoscopy is good for me too.  Most days, I don't drink much of anything.  A glass or two of juice will work just fine.  I have a glass of milk once or twice a week.  I used to love milk, but it is loosing it's appeal... particularly since I was drinking non-fat milk which is much like white colored water.  Valerie and I started drinking one glass of red wine per day for the tannins and the heart health.   Other than that, I don't drink much of anything.  After a workout, I will drink water.  I almost never drink while I am running.  I cannot force myself to carry a bottle of water.  You may recall that I have too many gadgets to carry around as it is.

During race week though, my routine is different.  48 hours prior to the race, I drink 8-10 glasses of water.  24 hours prior I drink 4-8 glasses of water.  My carb intake is normally fairly low.... well, since August anyway.  But during race week, I eat more carbs.  48 hours prior, I try to eat 50% carbs and 24 hours prior I try to eat 70% carbs.  By the way, my race day diet, so far has consisted of 2 fried eggs and a glass of water.  I am working on changing that to something else, but I have not decided what yet.

As an aside, I mentioned that my carb intake has been pretty low since August.  We went to Nicaragua in August on a mission trip.  We have been before and knew what to expect, and we got exactly what we expected.  The meals consisted mainly of rice and beans and vegetables and fruit.  That is what I ate for a week.  I was very careful with my eating, because I am aware of how easy it is to get sick while you are in a third world country.  Valerie got very sick one year and had to sit out for the day with an IV fluid drip as her only companion.  What I did not plan on was Chikungunya.  A mosquito spread virus that causes nausea, fever, GI distress.  I got all of those.  So for another  two weeks, I was not able to eat much and what I did eat escaped quickly.  After I got over that, I just was not as hungry as I used to be and began to cut my portion size to around half and cut many carbs that were very filling.  I would simply get full quickly.  So, as a side benefit of the Chikingunya and the running, I have now lost 26 pounds.  We do not even own a scale (except the Wii Fit), so I almost never weigh myself, but today I weighed 189 lbs which would be 27 lbs loss since August.  I am not really counting that though, because I was not feeling well yesterday and ate very little and I was a bit dehydrated.  Either way, I have lost a bunch of weight -- and yes, my Mii character is smaller, but the silly machine insists on displaying that I am OVERWEIGHT -- no longer obese, but overweight is displayed prominently.

And today is carb day.  At least 50% carb day anyway.  I forgot to eat breakfast, but when I came home for lunch I was VERY excited for carb day.  I had a half a sub sandwich that my wife bought for me.  I ate the turkey AND the bun.  It was so good.  I thought it would be a good idea to have some more carbs, so I indulged with a giant marshmallow that I stuffed with Nutella and peanut butter.  You have NO IDEA how good that is.  Oh my.  That was about three hours ago and I am still stuffed... but it was worth it.  Now, I recognize that is probably not the right way to get my carbs, but to heck with the right way... my way was way more fun.  mmmmm..... delish!!!

I am looking forward to 70% carb day tomorrow as I get to the airport and off to Tulsa.

Another aside.  I found out today that I am scheduled to be in corral D... the last corral.  They organize the start of these larger races to put the faster racers in the front, let them go, wait 5 min and then let the next group go.  Corral D will be at least 20 minutes behind the first group.  I got put in corral D based on when I registered for the race.  All participants who registered after Oct. 9 automatically get put in corral D.  I am not pleased about this.  I won't get there in time to change my corral assignment either.  Oh well.  I guess I will just have to pass all of those slower runners over the 13 mile stretch.  Wish me luck.  Here I come Route 66.