Training: Cookies & Pushups

Regardless of the sport or athletic endeavor that I have been involved with over the years, nutrition has played such a critical role that it amazes me what I am still learning. As I mentioned in a recent post, I spent a bunch of time talking with folks about the issues that I had during BR100 and potential solutions for getting the nutrition plan in place, at least during the events.

A couple years ago I met with Lee Ann DiBiasi, a nutritionist in with Summa Wellness Hudson OH who did a complete nutritional analysis for me based on my weight, target weight, activity levels, and specific caloric plans for long runs. I learned a lot from it and I am pretty certain she told me everything that I needed to know, what to do, literally almost how to do it, and more information beyond that….but here we are 3 years later and I am struggling with it. This is not to say that I struggle with normal training, eating, and so forth. I struggle with taking the time to plan out my nutritional needs for longer events. As a father of 3 young children, working full time, and husband I am lucky that I even have enough time to train for ultra marathons. I know that I am not alone in this (or very similar) situation. I struggle with the fact that despite I know that 6-8 cookies per night do not do good things for me, I reach for them anyways…. As I reach for the cookie, I even say in my head “DON’T DO IT”…..but then will power dies and the cookie wins.

So, what to do? I think like any other thing that you want to accomplish that you are having a hard time with you’ve got to start chipping away at it one bit (or cookie) at a time. I can’t go cold turkey for a long time, so I have just started to have less and less every day.

Nutrition on the trails

Here is where I have had some success in the past month or so. I have become quite the fan of the Hammer Perpeteum multi-hour bottle and a Nathan HPL#020 hydration pack filled with 60-70oz with nuun. Every 10-15mins I take a decent sip from the multi-hour bottle and in between, I keep the nuun/water flowing. I have not been able to go longer than 3.5 hours at a time in the past month, but so far everything has been excellent. No digestive issues, no bonking, no cramps, not tired of the flavor. Interesting that last summer I tried it and never liked it. I always make my food the night before my long runs, races….well, as I understand it with Perpeteum and their Sustained Energy products, there are no artificial preservatives, so they sort of….spoil overnight and especially in warm weather. I always noticed this and had 3 bottles of it in the Summer Buckeye 50k last year which must have spoiled…..well, I fell out of love of it and that was that.

Pushups

Former NFL player and current MMA fighter, Herschel Walker’s weight plan was all body weight activities with only three main exercises: Sit-ups, Push-ups, & Chin-ups. Google the guy, you’ll see articles and interviews from him, extremely determined person, positive, and driven to continually progress positively in life. The other key to his physical success was his nutrition plan. According to the articles I was reading, he ate very little, and only one meal a day….~1,200 Kcals per meal. I think I would faint on that level of food, but it worked for him and continues to work. Anyhow, he is well known for his rigorous body weight training. Here is the excerpt from the article above:

Every Day:

750-1,500 Pushups

2,000-3,500 Situps.

That’s it.

So, about a week ago I downloaded an app on the droid called ‘100pushups’ with the intent that by the end I can complete 100 pushups straight. 7 days in and I’m up to 150 a night at this point (in 5 sets) and the reps just keep growing each day. I read about Walker and thought that if I can do a couple hundred a day, it would benefit my upper body, core, etc…. Ultra runners aren’t known for looking like MMA fighters, so I am just looking for core strength, muscle lean-ness, and a little body fat loss.

It’s all such an interesting journey.