I remember when I ran my first half marathon in 2004 and it took me about 2 weeks to fully recover to where I was ready to start working out again. That, of course, was long before I knew proper pre-hab and recovery type exercises and before I dove head first into the mobility world. This time, I ran (mostly) a full marathon and was ready to hit the gym again within about 6 days. Did I want to? No. My mind still is on vacation but I know that I have to get back to it. My body feels great, I'm still not quite ready to run a long distance again, but I feel I am ready to do some light cardio and hit the weights again. Met-con workouts here I come!
Today I hit the gym with some motivation, intensity, and a proper mindset. I knew that I hadn't worked a hard metcon in a while so I gave myself something about a 6 on a scale of 10. Intense but nothing too sadistic. So I did 10 x 75 sumo deadlift hi-pulls, 15 x 75 push press, 100 jump rope for 5 rounds. I went at it hard but again, not too crazy. I basically just wanted to wake myself up again and get back into the groove. That was one of the critical mistakes I made during my marathon training was going away from my metcon training. I simply didn't have time to get both my runs and weights in everyday. That whole family commitment thing got in the way. I know, priorities, right?
Not only did I take a week off of my workouts for rest, but I also took a week off from exercising discipline with my diet. I ate a whole lot of gluten last week and a whole lot of sugar. I know it too because I have been a little gassy, a little bloated, and a little tired. It's time to get back at that also.
Speaking of nutrition, I had a cousin (in law) ask me a couple of questions today regarding her nutrition and timing of eating. Her first question dealt with eating before her runs. She says she gets up at 4 in the morning for her runs and doesn't have time to eat anything prior. This is fine. Ideally, yes, you would like to grab a piece of fruit or something along those lines before you run but if you can't, you'll be fine...if you are eating properly during the day and night prior your training. If you are getting a good amount of fats, protein and carbs (no sugar) every day, running first thing in the morning on an "empty" stomach will be fine. Personally I would still grab maybe half a banana and a few almonds to get me started in the morning and hit my run. As long as you don't have an easily upset stomach, you will be fine. She also asked about the difference between yams and sweet potatoes. The biggest thing I know between them is that yams contain more sugar so if that is something you are looking for, there you go. As far as other differences such as chemical makeup and how they digest in the body, I would check out www.robbwolf.com or www.balancedbites.com. Both of these sites have a ton of nutrition information for this stuff and I would recommend them to anyone looking for nutrition advice.
I'm still trying to find that next event to train for. If you have any ideas, let me know. So far the best I can come up with is a Tough Mudder, but I have travel quite a bit for that.
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