After a month without chocolate and sweets I may have over indulged on Wednesday. I consumed an XL cookie, two XL Twixes, approximately five homemade cookies (at work), a Turkish delight cookie and two small pieces of chocolate. I know now that the two small pieces of chocolate tipped the balance on an otherwise healthy sugar consumption ;)
Despite gorging myself on sugary delightfulness I ran my tempo run yesterday morning and well and truly smashed it! I have been struggling with my tempo runs all month. I put this down to not eating enough carbs in the day and running late in the afternoon when blood sugar tends to drop off. I've felt like I had no fuel to push faster.
Normally I don't run in the morning as I am a lazy sloth that prefers the afternoon. The upsides to training first thing are numerous:
1) I get to run on fresh legs and with a fully rested body. If I'm doing construction work then the last thing I want to do is push my body to its limit at 4/5 in the afternoon.
2) I set my whole day up for accomplishment. Whether the run is amazing or it's a struggle I leave that session knowing that I've ticked off a big part of the day straightaway. It gives me motivation and momentum to get stuff done.
3) Post training I get to move about. Whether I'm at Apple or doing construction work I am moving around. I'm keeping my muscles working, pumping fresh blood into the areas that need it to recover from training. It keeps muscles loose and prevents cramps. If I train in the evening I'm going to be sitting, eating and watching TV after, leading to less blood circulating through the areas that need it.
4) It gives me energy and makes me happy. All that you hear about the runner's high is true. When you reach that point in a run you feel invincible and when you finish you are buzzing. I've woken up lately feeling crap for no reason, the grumpy old man arrives. I don't like being that person, so why not change it with a run in the morning?
The big realisation for me this week has been how much I need carbs. I'm not going to apologise to all those friends that don't have sugar or do paleo. For marathon running and for me personally I need carbs. It's true that we don't need it in the form of cookies and we could all make some changes to our diets. But I perform better when I eat carbs. That probably just means I need to eat more brown rice in the day (I already eat enough vegetables) and not rely on simple sugars. But there's something in our body that makes us feel good when we have carbs, they balance out our moods, our biochemistry. Like anything in life it is about moderation and having some self control. Once we find the balance that enables us to train, work and live a happy and fulfilled life then we should stick to that.
I'll update you on my progress next week. Tomorrow is a ten mile (16km) run and I'm carbing up today in a sensible way, so I'm looking forward to a good challenging run.
Happy training!
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
Thursday 29 May 2014
Friday 23 May 2014
I had a post....
I had written a post in the last week and I've lost it! I think it's in one of my writing books but I'm too lazy to find it now.
It was also a little bit sad and depressing, so rather than bring you down with that I'll cheer you with this news post instead.
I have finished my first week of training at Apple and it has been awesome! I have genuinely not been this pumped about a job since I was starting off as a fitness instructor back in '03.
I think the excitement of a new job is often greater than the reality you encounter when you start it. Possibly because you believe that you can have a big impact in life and then realise that you are constricted by the constraints of the business hierarchy or office politics.
It may sound like I'm still in that honeymoon phase of belief when I talk about Apple. But it's a fun place to be where I am genuinely helping people improve their lives everyday. Yes Andrew this may be at a price that most people can't afford, but there's added value above what other retailers offer. (Come see me in Bondi and we can talk it through ;))
My week has been busy and looking forward will continue in that vein for the foreseeable. Monday to Wednesday I will be demolishing bathrooms and kitchens and doing building rubbish pickups with Peter. Then I hope to get hours with Apple Thursday to Sunday to make a 7 day work week. This should help to save up some money for debt repayment, honeymoon and Apple gadgets (in that order of priority).
The weekend before last I helped my blind mate Cav to get to an organised day of track driving.
The day was organised by a family who's blind son had passed away. Through his life he had gone on track days organised for blind and visually impaired guys and girls. He had always loved the experience of driving and doing something normal that all of us take for granted. When he passed his sister wanted to bring a similar experience to Sydney as her brother had always had to go to Melbourne to take part. So by fundraising through family and friends and a little business sponsorship they raised the budget of $6,500 for the day.
The day was fantastic fun. Cav got to drive about 4 times on the track, 3 laps each time. With him was a qualified driving instructor with dual controls in case anything should happen. I chose to sit in the back and film so that I could share the experience with others and I have to say it wasn't scary at all! Ultimately it's just like guiding a runner, but everything happens quicker! After the driving experience there were passenger rides in hot rod cars and on the back of Harley Davidsons.
Whilst we were at the track one of the girls helping went and spoke to the company operating the skid pan. There they had drift cars pulling high speed slides around a course. When the boss heard what we were doing he told her to bring us over. So Cav and I went for it and had a great time being flung about the course. For Cav it brought back memories of his youth and the misbehaving he did whilst driving cars. In fact he was so relaxed he almost fell asleep! I on the other hand was like a small child on his first roller coaster, both thrilled and terrified at the same time!
The day was such a success that the family want to make it a permanent annual event. So I've chosen them as my next marathon fundraising recipient. When I go for sub 3:30 at Melbourne in October I'll be raising money for next year's track day. I'll keep you posted when the fundraising page goes live!
Catherine and I helped our friend Bill lat weekend to a new half marathon PB. Despite having issues with his hammies and knees from the halfway point, Bill stuck with it and finished 2 minutes quicker than earlier in the year. That was great going as he had to walk a great deal more than last time. We are always proud of the guys we guide and Bill in particular never fails to impress us. Great job mate!
Not much else to tell right now. But I'll be updating the runslothrun blog shortly as I've been a little slack on blogging.
Until next time,
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
It was also a little bit sad and depressing, so rather than bring you down with that I'll cheer you with this news post instead.
I have finished my first week of training at Apple and it has been awesome! I have genuinely not been this pumped about a job since I was starting off as a fitness instructor back in '03.
I think the excitement of a new job is often greater than the reality you encounter when you start it. Possibly because you believe that you can have a big impact in life and then realise that you are constricted by the constraints of the business hierarchy or office politics.
It may sound like I'm still in that honeymoon phase of belief when I talk about Apple. But it's a fun place to be where I am genuinely helping people improve their lives everyday. Yes Andrew this may be at a price that most people can't afford, but there's added value above what other retailers offer. (Come see me in Bondi and we can talk it through ;))
My week has been busy and looking forward will continue in that vein for the foreseeable. Monday to Wednesday I will be demolishing bathrooms and kitchens and doing building rubbish pickups with Peter. Then I hope to get hours with Apple Thursday to Sunday to make a 7 day work week. This should help to save up some money for debt repayment, honeymoon and Apple gadgets (in that order of priority).
The weekend before last I helped my blind mate Cav to get to an organised day of track driving.
The day was organised by a family who's blind son had passed away. Through his life he had gone on track days organised for blind and visually impaired guys and girls. He had always loved the experience of driving and doing something normal that all of us take for granted. When he passed his sister wanted to bring a similar experience to Sydney as her brother had always had to go to Melbourne to take part. So by fundraising through family and friends and a little business sponsorship they raised the budget of $6,500 for the day.
The day was fantastic fun. Cav got to drive about 4 times on the track, 3 laps each time. With him was a qualified driving instructor with dual controls in case anything should happen. I chose to sit in the back and film so that I could share the experience with others and I have to say it wasn't scary at all! Ultimately it's just like guiding a runner, but everything happens quicker! After the driving experience there were passenger rides in hot rod cars and on the back of Harley Davidsons.
Whilst we were at the track one of the girls helping went and spoke to the company operating the skid pan. There they had drift cars pulling high speed slides around a course. When the boss heard what we were doing he told her to bring us over. So Cav and I went for it and had a great time being flung about the course. For Cav it brought back memories of his youth and the misbehaving he did whilst driving cars. In fact he was so relaxed he almost fell asleep! I on the other hand was like a small child on his first roller coaster, both thrilled and terrified at the same time!
The day was such a success that the family want to make it a permanent annual event. So I've chosen them as my next marathon fundraising recipient. When I go for sub 3:30 at Melbourne in October I'll be raising money for next year's track day. I'll keep you posted when the fundraising page goes live!
Catherine and I helped our friend Bill lat weekend to a new half marathon PB. Despite having issues with his hammies and knees from the halfway point, Bill stuck with it and finished 2 minutes quicker than earlier in the year. That was great going as he had to walk a great deal more than last time. We are always proud of the guys we guide and Bill in particular never fails to impress us. Great job mate!
Not much else to tell right now. But I'll be updating the runslothrun blog shortly as I've been a little slack on blogging.
Until next time,
Tom :)
- Posted from the modern day type writer
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