Runger

Senior Moment August: Runfessions August 2017

~ Chocolaterunsjudy ~ 12 Comments

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It seems as though most of August’s Runfessions are brought to you by my senior moments. And lemme tell you, they’ve come fast and furious in August. Not to mention the fact that I had this post mostly written ahead of time and yet somehow failed to realize that it was time for it!

Join me, Marcia @ Marcia’s Healthy Slice and find out what all the bloggers are getting off their chests in August..

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All wrapped up . . . in August!
I runfess . . .
Oops! I did it again. One day at the beginning of the month I ran on a really humid day. I was completely soaked by the time I was done. I used a shower wipe, but even though I had brought a dress to change into (I needed to run errands afterwards), I just couldn’t bring myself to try to Houdini my way out of those sweaty clothes.

Which is exactly why I was shopping on a hot day in a long sleeved wrap. I did not stay in those clothes once I got home — couldn’t wait to get out of them, in fact!

I runfess . . .
I totally forgot to apply any anti chafing cream on a humid day but luckily managed to escape chafe free. Chafing is really random for me.

Case in point: on my 9 mile long run I got some mild chafing in an unmentionable area. Wearing the same skirt I’ve basically worn on most of my summer long runs. Random. And uncomfortable.

I runfess . . .
I have a tendency to zone out. To go on autopilot. It’s truly amazing that I haven’t caused accidents. For instance, there was the time I drove past my own neighborhood because I was lost in my thoughts.

The pool I swim at has three locker rooms: one for women, one for men, and one they call physiotherapy because it has the steam room and sauna. And one day I was walking down the hall, lost in my own thoughts again, and right into the men’s locker room.

There was a naked guy toweling off.

Thankfully, I don’t think he actually saw me.

I runfess . . .
Despite getting enough sleep most days, I still seem to be having a lot of senior moments. Although this latest incident happened after my a weekend filled with my 10 mile long run and our visit to my parents. It was a couple of days later, but still, it was a stressful, tiring weekend.

Darlene had the day off due to a funeral, unfortunately; but she had time enough to meet up for a run, so we made our plans. I had more miles to run then her, so the plan was for me to get there before her and get in my warmup miles.

Which is exactly what I did. I worried a bit about morning traffic and getting there on time, but I was done a few minutes before we were supposed to meet up. Only . . . she wasn’t there, which is very unusual. As I’m texting her, a text from her comes in . . . she is at the meeting place — I’d read her message and completely missed the fact that she wanted to meet at a different place than we used to meet up at.

So we ran towards each other. Then ran together for about 1 1/2 miles, where I turned around, because I was already at 4 miles & didn’t want to run more than my allotted six or walk forever. I just assumed that she’d catch up to me since she’s so much faster . . . but she never did.

We did meet up at the end to chat a bit.

I runfess . . .
My suitcase from UT is still sitting on the bedroom floor. It’s unpacked, but one of the Kodiak Muffin Cups exploded in the suitcase (note to self: don’t pack something that can explode all over your clothes in a checked bag). What a mess. I just haven’t gotten around to vacuuming it out yet.

Everybody’s luck runs out sometime . . .

Any amusing senior moments going on in your world?

Ever walked into the wrong locker room? Did you escape unnoticed?

What do you have to runfess from August? Come join us

Runfessions

I am also linking up with the  Friday Five 2.0  from Fairytales & Fitness and Rachel @ Running on Happy today.

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5 Things You Must Do . . .

~ Chocolaterunsjudy ~ 27 Comments

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. . . To Tame the Rungries

It’s so frustrating when you have the most awesome long run . . . and then you want to eat everything in sight for the rest of the day (unless, of course, you’re naturally thin — I most definitely am not).

I’m not into starving myself or exercising more if I’ve eaten more than I should, but it’s also hard to see my hard work at maintaining my weight go down the drain because of the rungries.

I am not a coach, any sort of medical official, or a nutritionist. But I have gone from gaining weight training for my first half to getting back down to my goal weight and more or less maintaining it, all while continuing to run and train for half marathons.

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Today I am joining up with the  Friday Five 2.0  from Fairytales & Fitness and Rachel @ Running on Happy and sharing five of the ways I’ve learned to tame the rungries.

Don’t wait to eat
I always have a snack with me for post long run. Even if I’m planning to go out for a bite with friends. Getting some calories in you quickly can make a world of difference in your hunger levels.

The rule of thumb is that you should eat something within 20-30 minutes after your run.

Running fuel and a smoothie for post run

Consider liquid calories
Smoothies or chocolate milk. A lot of runners simply can’t eat immediately after a run, but if you wait too long, chances are you’ll be hungry all day and overdo it on the refueling.

Even if you can’t eat, you probably will enjoy a smoothie or some chocolate milk. Everyone always raves about chocolate milk. They had some after Firecracker 4 (read about that here), so I figured let’s see what everyone’s talking about. Can’t say as it did it for me. I didn’t even finish it.

However, after my run-in with the rungries last weekend when my post run snack was a smoothie, I’m not sure I’ll do that again.

Or maybe I will, if I follow the next point.

Get in a mix of carbs and protein
They say the golden ratio is about 3 or 4 (carbs) to protein. So if your snack has 10 gm protein, for instance, you’re shooting for about 30 or 40 gm of carbs. And don’t go overboard on the protein, either. They say you can only absorb about 25 gm at a time.

Which brings me to my next point!

Healthy protein, carbs & fats — Check!

Refueling isn’t done once you’ve had your post run snack.
One snack does not a refueling strategy make. That snack just begins the refueling process.

You should try to follow up that snack with an actual meal within a couple of hours. Don’t toss all that hard work down the drain by overindulging. Of course it’s fine to treat yourself — but it’s so easy to go way overboard on the treats.

Indulge wisely after a long run

Craving a beer? A burger and fries? Some ice cream? Go ahead, make your day (sorry, couldn’t resist) — just don’t go for all of that. Unless you just ran 20 miles . . . then I’m pretty sure you can eat whatever you damn well please.

Even if you did run 20 miles, choose your next meal wisely. Get in some protein to soothe those hard worked muscles (eggs and salmon are great choices, but whatever sounds tempting to you should work). A side of carbs — brown rice, quinoa (which also has lots of protein), sweet potatoes — will all help you to restock your glycogen stores so that you can rock out the next run. A little healthy fat — avocado, nut butter, olive oil, coconut oil — they’ll all help you feel fuller and have many other benefits as well.

And don’t forget to keep hydrating, too!

Don’t forget to fuel on the run
If you’re doing a short easy run, you probably don’t need a snack afterwards at all. If you’re running for an hour or longer, you probably do need a snack.

At the beginning of a training cycle I will usually run up to about 8 miles with nothing more than Saltstick Fastchews and water. As I get closer to my race, however, I prefer not to deplete my glycogen stores so much so I will usually eat something on the run.

Rather than take a gel every 30-45 minutes, I like to get a little in every mile. I once attended a seminar and the speaker likened fueling that way to an IV drip. No matter how you decide to fuel, if you’re running more than an hour and you find that you’re starving the rest of the day — and you’ve followed all the previous points — try eating on the run.

So let me know in the comments:

What’s your go-to immediately post run snack?

What treat do you crave as the miles get longer?

What’s your go-to post long run meal?

Is running the golden ticket . . .

~ Chocolaterunsjudy ~ 33 Comments

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. . . to weight loss?

Yes. No. Maybe.

Some runners have won the genetic lottery: all they have to do is run (or start running) and the weight just melts off. It’s usually not quite that simple for the rest of us.

Abs are made in the kitchen
No doubt you’ve heard that abs are made in the kitchen. I am not a medical professional, a nutritionist, or a personal trainer, but through my own journey and my observations of others’ journeys, I believe it to be true.

You can’t out exercise a bad diet. Sooner or later, it will catch up with you. There’s no reason to punish yourself for eating “badly” by trying to exercise it off. It doesn’t work, anyway, and most likely will do far more damage than good in the long run.

Can you lose weight without exercising? It will probably come off slower, but if you eat healthy, most likely you will lose weight. Exercise has so many benefits, so far beyond losing weight — I’m not advocating not exercising. I’m just saying do it because it makes you feel good, not because you think you need it to erase too many indulgences.

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Not all calories are create equal
Forget about calories in, calories out
Many people believe that weight loss is a simple equation. Burn off more than you take in  and you’ll lose weight. Running happens to burn more calories than many types of exercise. Which is why so many people (myself included) turn to running when they think they need that little something extra.

If it were truly that simple, far fewer people would have weight problems. Not all calories are created equal. You can eat 200 calories of donuts or 200 calories of a nice sirloin. A steady diet of donuts is not going to help your waistline, no matter how carefully you calculate calories in vs calories out.

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Yup, I gained weight training for this half
#thestruggleisreal with runger
It is very easy to overestimate the amount of calories you “burned” and innocently overeat to “refuel”. Which is exactly how I ended up gaining weight training for my first half marathon.

How ironic is is that I started running to help bust through a weight loss plateau, only to end up gaining even more weight? It’s not an unusual story, either.

Yes, fueling properly for runs and refueling after long runs is very important. In fact, doing it properly can even (sometimes) knock out that runger (hunger from running). But . . . and you knew there would be a but, right? But it often takes a lot of experimenting to find out what will slay your runger but not pack on the pounds.

It may not be the golden tick to weight loss, but running can help
I personally believe that long distance running is not the secret to weight loss. Strength training, HIIT, Tabata — these are the sort of workouts that really torch fat. Basically, anything where you’re getting your heart rate up and increasing your muscle mass. Again, I am not a medical professional.

If you do decide to take up running and you’d like to lose some weight, here are my tips:

  • Don’t worry about “refueling” for short runs (anything under an hour). It’s not necessarily wrong, especially if you haven’t eaten in a few hours, but it’s also not necessary.
  • Don’t just run easy all the time. Your body adapts to exercise very easily, and then it can take more and more effort for the same results. Do some speedwork. Run some hills. Vary the distance.
  • Don’t forget the strength training. Not only will it make you a better runner (maybe even a faster runner), it can also help prevent injury. A side benefit is that it will make you look as if you’ve lost weight even if you haven’t. Check out my post “5 Reasons to Be a Killer B” here for where you can get some great workouts geared towards runners.
  • Don’t forget the protein. Protein will help you feel fuller longer and it helps you repair and rebuild those hard-worked muscles.
  • Don’t forget to visit on Friday when I’ll be sharing some tips on how to prevent those rungries from happening in the first place.
Here are a few more resources about running and weight loss:

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This week I am also joining up with Running on Happy, Suzlyfe, Crazy Running Girl, and Coach Debbie Runs each week for the Coaches’ Corner linkup

coachescornerTalk to me:

Was weight loss a factor for you in starting to run?

Did you continue to struggle with weight loss once you started to run?

Do you feel that you “have” to exercise when you’ve eaten something “naughty”?

 

Damn you, s’mores: Runfessions July 2017

~ Chocolaterunsjudy ~ 24 Comments

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July may have been quiet, but I still have a few runfessions to get off my chest. Or thighs, or buns . . . it seems like food is the theme in a lot of them this month!

Join me, Marcia @ Marcia’s Healthy Slice and other bloggers — reading other bloggers’ runfessions might just make you feel better..

I runfess . . .
I have a tendency to bit off more than I can chew — literally and figuratively. The literally being I tend to be a volume girl when eating (don’t give me teeny tiny portions!).

The figuratively being I get caught up in what I want to do vs what I should do vs what what’s realistic to do, and sometimes tire myself out needlessly. Take last Friday, for instance. I wanted to bake some stuff to bring to a party I was going to. And I just wanted to test out a lot of recipes I’d been eyeing for a while!

So I:

  • Walked the dogs
  • Made a smoothie to sip while exercising
  • Rode the stationary bike
  • Then did arms & abs
  • Baked brownie bites
  • Baked Banana oatmeal cookies simply because I had a couple of very ripe bananas
  • Made a dip for the party
  • Mixed up the batter for the s’mores cookies I planned to bake the next day
  • Washed towels
  • Mixed up the batter for my breakfast cookies the next day
  • Made a smoothie to drink post long run the next day
  • Cut up some lettuce and put it in mason jars for future salads
  • And of course fed the furkids and went outside with them multiple times throughout the day

Basically, I was pretty much on my feet from about 7 am until about 2 pm.

This was the day before my long run, naturally. So much for taking it easy.

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I runfess . . .
I definitely got carried away with the S’mores Cookies I talked about in last week’s Weekly Wrap (read it here). And maybe those Fig Bars, too. As in I ate more than I should have.

I’m usually pretty good, but I’m blaming the runger.

I runfess . . .
One day I ran in the morning on a super humid day, which means lots of sweat. I didn’t feel like struggling out of those sweaty clothes knowing I’d either have to wear some new workout clothes or get back into them later . . . so I stayed in them a few hours, until I’d finished my strength training and some yoga.

Good thing there was no one around me to be grossed out by it!

I runfess . . .
I wimped out and decided to run on the treadmill on a humid, rainy day that actually turned out to not be all that rainy. I can’t tell you the amount of times I went back and forth between I’ll run outside, I’ll run on the treadmill. It was quite the epic battle.

I runfess I probably would have run outside if I hadn’t misplaced my Garmin charger and my Garmin had very little charge. The charger is magnetic, which is great, except for the fact that it has a tendency to stick to metal objects. I know I’d charged it Friday before my long run, and dammit why didn’t I charge it back up after that run?

It was just an easy run, but how would I know when to run, when to walk? Or how far I’d gone? Not to mention I’d probably have to download an app so I could tell how far I’d run and I didn’t want to deal with that.

Mr. Judy had been complaining about the fact that I hadn’t yet tested out the treadmill after he fixed it again. So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I runfess . . .
I normally don’t struggle with my weight as much during the summer, but this summer is different. Maybe it was all the travel and halfs. So knowing I only had a little wiggle room on my first of the month Weight Watchers weigh in to stay free for the month, I actually weighed several different dresses before I got dressed.

In the end I went with my lucky weigh in dress. Yes, I have one — basically, it’s the lightest dress I own. I will be heartbroken when it’s no longer wearable! In the end I could have worn something heavier, but I don’t have a scale at home and I wasn’t sure.

Everybody’s luck runs out sometime . . .

Do you sometimes overbook yourself?

How long would you stay in sweaty workout clothes?

What is the weirdest thing you’ve done to get a good weigh-in?

Wouldn’t you like to get some runfessions off your mind? Come join us

Runfessions

I am also linking up with the  Friday Five 2.0  from Fairytales & Fitness and Rachel @ Running on Happy today.

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