First, allow me to get the preliminaries out of the way. My time in the 5k last Saturday was 30:49. It was a bit over my goal time, but it was a good learning experience. Unfortunately, the main takeaway is pretty 5k-specific. The best lesson I learned was how packed the field is for the first half mile. Starting out in the middle of the pack, there was very little way for me to run my desired pace for at least that long. Having this knowledge could well have made the difference between beating 30 minutes and falling short of it -- but what’s a minute difference in a marathon to me? On the other hand, having a 5k time under my belt does allow me to estimate my marathon time. I had been thinking that I’d be lucky to beat the maximum course time of 6 hours by too much, so 5:30 had been my out-of-thin-air goal time. With a 5k time of 30:49, using the formula T2 = T1 x (D2/D1)1.06, my marathon time is estimated to be 4:55. If I further assume that I lost time procedurally and that 30 minutes is actually a realistic 5k time, then my estimated time for a marathon would be 4:47. Since there will undoubtedly be some procedural time lost at marathon as well, however, it probably makes sense for me to stick with the 5 hour pace group based on my 5k performance.
What I really want to share with you today is some of what I’ve learned from my recent foray into sports nutrition.
Just as with my learning about the proper way to train to run, most everything that I’ve learned about nutrition over the last couple weeks has been counterintuitive. As long as I’ve been in the habit of exercising, I’ve been good about bringing water along with me and staying hydrated throughout a workout. “Sure, I understand that sports drinks replenish electrolytes that are lost during workouts. But, really, I have plenty of salt in my diet. Why should I add more through a drink? And even if there are other electrolytes that I might need to replenish after a particularly hard workout, there’s no reason to add all of the calories of a normal sugary Gatorade, right? That just kind of defeats one of the purposes of working out to begin with, which is to burn more calories than I’m consuming. And I’m totally not hungry after a run. I might as well use that to my advantage, too, and wait to eat until I actually feel like eating.” Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again.
Now that I’m learning about sports nutrition, I’m well aware that I had many things totally wrong. What I’ve learned is that I need sugar calories before a run, absolutely need more sugar calories after a run, and really should be downing sugar during the run as well. When all’s said and done, even on my light run days, I need to consume about 80 grams of high-glycemic-index carbs before my workout is complete. Yep, that’s 320 calories that, I now understand, are absolutely essential to add to my workout. And that’s for my easy runs -- the ones that I complain about being frustratingly slow. And, the more I read, the more I am assured that this isn’t fringe advice. This is well-accepted contemporary nutritional science. Obviously the folks over at Gatorade know this stuff all too well. If you’ve made a purchase of Gatorade lately, you’ll have noticed that there isn’t really just a good ol’ “Gatorade” product anymore. There is one product that is suitable to ingest before a workout, another one to drink while you’re working out, and another for the recovery period.
Granted, I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this newfound (or newfound-to-me) information. But as with a lot of my training, it’s been a matter of act first, understand second. I can snub my nose at the information, say, “well, that doesn’t sound right at all; I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing,” and get nowhere just as fast as I have been getting for the last ten years -- or I can change my habits. Indeed, the pre-workout Gatorade is really pretty gross, especially first thing in the morning. It’s like drinking syrup. No, not “like” -- it is drinking syrup. And I still don’t have any desire to eat right after running. Furthermore, it’s highly inconvenient. When I get home, I want to shower & get to work. But now, I’m taking a little extra time to have some sports drink, eat a banana, and drink some of Josiah’s chocolate milk. Yes, all three.
Such is a life of faith. Not everything makes sense. Not everything feels “natural.” But you decide to do it because you trust something or someone more than you trust your instincts. Some people are comfortable calling this a “leap of faith” a la Kierkegaard. Really, it is entirely rational. Why on earth would I think I know better than a nutritionist how I should be eating? I’ve been trusting myself for a long time & it’s gotten me. . . not very far. So how do you take it to the next level? It’s got to be through trust and faith.
I’m not obese or incredibly out of shape. But if I want to get in better shape, I have to trust a nutritionist. I wasn’t particularly unhappy or despairing before I became religious. But I guess I wanted to be more fulfilled. I wanted there to be something or someone greater than me. I wanted there to be a G-d. And you know what? He’s not hard to find. Countless smart, wise people have come before me & known him by name. Maybe I can trust one of them. Maybe I can humble myself long enough to believe that I’m not the smartest, wisest being that’s ever walked the face of the earth. Does that really take a leap? Does it even really take humility?
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