Yesterday's run was my hardest run in a long time. I was completely drained from the start. While I could have blamed it on the heat and humidity, that I was running later in the morning than usual, that my legs were tired from doing T25 every day or that I had run a hilly eight miles the day before, I knew the real reason.
I was hungry. I was hungry the night before when I went to bed. I was hungry when I woke up in the morning. And I was still hungry after I ate my pre-run banana.
Now for the reason I was unusually hungry. Last week I added T25 to my training. Cross training has really helped with my injury prevention, and I felt like T25 could do both that and help me focus on my core strength more, which is important as a runner. I decided to give the T25 5-Day Fast Track meal plan a try this week. I knew the 1100 calorie plan would be hard to follow with my running mileage, so I added a few extras on the first day - a frozen juice pop, half of a slice of zucchini bread and a banana - which brought me closer to 1500 calories for the day.
Well that clearly is still not enough to fuel my body.
Before the true misery that was my run began, I ran about 1/4 mile with my little family. Then I took off on my own.
I usually don't know how strong my run will be until about a mile in, but I knew by the 1/2 mile mark that it was going to be rough. I just kept waiting for my some energy, but it never came. I texted this to the hubs a few miles in:
With 1.5 of my eight miles left to go, my little fam showed up with a fresh, warm, white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie. It was the most amazing cookie EVER.
THIS is how happy the cookie made me!!!
The rest of that day, I focused on eating healthy but with the idea of making sure I was adequately fueling my body.
I want to get to my race weight goal, but I'm not willing to compromise my running or my health to get there. I am still loosely following the T25 meal plan, but I am supplementing it with healthy additions.
One of my favorite things about running is the lessons it teaches me, even if sometimes it means learning them the hard way.