Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Tuesday 13 miles

5 miles easy jogging warm-up... then laid the smack down on myself with a hill fartlek.
8 miles in 54:30 (6:49 pace) with 2000ft of climbing. Actually just 8ft shy of 2k but I walked up our stairs to change clothes afterward and got another 10 ft. I can count that right?




And I'm on day 4 of a 90% paleo diet for the holiday's. In 2003 I attended a seminar for Training Peaks (Joe Friel's site) on Paleo and I've done it in the off season with tremendous results. I've long argued however that Paleo is not a performance (high intensity) based diet. You can't commit 100% and still do the work required outside of a base period. The Africans aren't even close to being Paleo. I should say that "I" can't do it, on paper it might be possible but I can't buy 40# of fruit per week. Let alone eat it. I'm doing this for the holidays simple because I can't be half assed and eat junk in moderation. When I go home for Christmas there will be a table full of poison and I find it much easier to resist if I am 100% committed to not eating a single thing. Once I put one piece of fudge in my mouth it's a downward spiral from there and I know I'll end up on a couch feeling like crap. So it's all or none. I felt OK today once I got running, but felt tired before hand. Last night was a salad for dinner. Through out the day was apples, almonds, vegetable juice and tuna. I've never even tried to eat Paleo while training hard so this month will be an experiment. What I do know will happen from past experience is that I will lean out, which for me right now might be gross. The altitude is another factor that needs to be considered. Carbohydrate and altitude training are interconnected more so than at lower altitudes. I am about 90% Paleo like I said. After my run today I had a sports drink simply because I needed a lot of calories fairly quickly. Eating 6 apples or chugging a Nalgene of Ultrafuel? Easy choice.

11 comments:

Gangels said...

How does the Paleo diet feel about beer and wine? I don't think boozing came along until we gave up the hunting and gathering.

See you at Moab.

Lucho said...

The Paleo diet is quite strict all around. But I don't believe that all foods 'modern' are bad. Our bodies can process foods and even chemicals quite effectively when they are taken in moderation. I also don't think that we need to try to prevent evolution.
Drink up :) I was commenting to my wife last night that I was fairly certain the cavemen had eggnog and run.

Lucho said...

That should be eggnog and rum. But they did have 'run' too.

GZ said...

Very interesting post ...

... I have often decided to outright abstain from certain dietary options. My wife has asked why I can't just choose a path of moderation. "have one cookie." I tell her that is not so much an option for me - that I need to demonstrate the discipline to refrain, and that once I break that ... then any of the rules can be broken. She thinks this is a bit obsessive ... but it works better for me than "moderation."

kerrie said...

so in other words, the other 10% of the diet is Crown Royale?

when are you running down here below next?

Rick said...

I have to agree with you guys; take GZ's cookie example - 1 cookie does nothing for me, I'm not missing out on anything if I can't have one. It's the whole row of Oreo's that I want. I'd actually be showing more discipline eating just one than not eating any at all.

Lucho said...

I hear you GZ.
Rick- exactly! Good way to put it- "I'd actually be showing more discipline eating just one than not eating any at all."

Kerrie- Crown and Coke... yum.

GetBackJoJo said...

I've tried to go Paleo. It lasted a day. Life without bread? beer? pizza?
That said, I've been trying to recover from the holiday eating frenzy... Had a big salad for lunch, a big salad for dinner and a fruit shake/protein the next morning.
Nearly shit my pants when I went for my run.
There is something to be said for modern food in moderation...;)

Lucho said...

MIM- That's from low tolerance to fiber maybe? The more fiber you eat regularly the less it messes up your GI tract. V8 juice is (IMO) something that is nearly ideal for an athlete too.

Fred (aka ace) said...

So I made the leap to get even more fruits and veggies into my diet a couple of months ago. I had a couple of reasons for this. 1) More nutrients. 2) Eat more from a perspective of fueling and recovery. Then I decided to juice it because I couldn't eat that much and because I wanted to save myself trouble of digesting the solids. The results so far have been good but having the frame of mind to drink a couple of "meals" a day takes work. And I burned out one juicer. Good thing it was a gift. Plus I still have to buy the 40# of fruits and veggies...

Lucho said...

Fred- I juiced very regularly when I trained for Ironman and found spinach/ 3 cloves of garlic/ 1 sweet potato/ 1 apple and a large bunch of parsley to be almost like a drug. I felt buzzed after I drank it and performed very well with it. I got tired of cleaning out the juicer though! But ya, juicing is probably the ideal.