Turkey Trot 5 Mile Training- Week 7

Nutrition

Welcome back to the Westfield Turkey Trot training blog! Hope you had a good training week (and that your power has been restored!!!).

When talking about nutrition this week, one thing I won’t be worried about is that you might be undernourished for the Westfield Turkey Trot:-) Today we will talk about race day nutrition, but just let me get a little thing about nutrition in general out of the way. (The long version might lead to another blog later on.)

We have all heard that a healthy diet can reduce the risk of major chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and some cancers. Now, what is a healthy diet? A healthy diet consists of mostly fresh, unprocessed foods, all types of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, including nuts and seeds. (There, I said it, now let’s get going with race day nutrition.)

If you want to cook more food on Friday after Thanksgiving to follow the famous “carbo-loading” tradition previous to competition, please, be my guest, but you don’t have to do so, especially if your total time will be less than one hour and a half (which I’m sure it will be!!!).

Let’s talk race day breakfast:

1. Don’t skip it!
2. Keep it simple. Eat toast, oatmeal or a bagel. Stay clear of heavy fatty foods, they will hold you back!!
3. Stay well hydrated. On Friday drink lots of water during the day. On Saturday, if you are used to drink coffee in the morning, go ahead and drink a cup or two one to one hour and a half before the race, so you don’t have to “race” for the port-a-potties!
4. If your breakfast was at 7 AM, bring a snack with you to have 30-15 min before the race starts

During the race:

1. If you will be running for one hour or longer, you might want to bring a sports drink with you to the race and drink a gulp every 15 min.
2. If your race will last less than one hour, the water at the hydration stations will be enough, but don’t forget to take them!

After the race:

The race organizers have it covered!!

Chef Roscoe will be there to share his bounty! Here is a sample of some of the yummy foods: butternut squash soup with apples, fresh fruit skewers, and veggie wraps!

If you can't stay after the race, make sure to keep on drinking water or even better, sport drinks and have some snacks within 30-60 min of finishing the run. This will help you recover better and faster.

Next week I will have an itemized list of tips for race day. Stay tuned!!

As you can see, this week’s long run is quite short (45’), that is because on Sunday 11/18, you start “Taper Week.” Taper week is the week before a race, where training volume is reduced by about 50% keeping the same intensity. This kind of “reduction” of training will diminish fatigue and increase your performance during the race. I know we had a crazy couple of weeks and if you couldn’t fit in your long runs you might be tempted to do so next weekend. Do not! If you can fit that missed long run early this week, go ahead and do so, other than that, let it go. You will be better off going to the race a little bit under-trained than over-trained. I promise you!!

8 Week Training Schedule for the Westfield Turkey Trot 5m - 2012

  Week  

  M  

  T  

  W  

  Th  

  F  

  Sa  

  Su  

   7

45

off

50

x

30

35

45

The numbers are minutes of walk/jog, jog, or run at a pace that will allow you to have a conversation (see why I want you to have a buddy? ;-)

The X means that if you have been racing during the summer, you should do some kind of cross-training exercises, such as swimming, biking, elliptical machine, etc. If you are a complete beginner, you can take those (X) days off.

If you do strength training (ST) exercises and you just started running, do the ST exercises on non-running days.

For more info, check out my new book: “RUNNING For Girls Like US”

Happy training and see you next Sunday, Nov 18 :-)

Next week’s topic: Race Week Tips