You signed up for WHAT?

You know what its like when something is stuck in your head. A thought that simply floats around like the Good Year blimp over and over again.  Well, thats whats going on in my head.

Let me take you back a bit first...

About three years ago I ran some Ultramarathons. 

What is that you ask?  

An Ultramarathon is any distance longer than the marathon (the 26.2 mile marathon...which is the only distance for the marathon...so no, when you train for a 10K its NOT a marathon).  The most popular ultra marathon distances are 50 kilometers, 100 kilometers, 50 mile, 100 mile and numerous 6, 12 and 24 hour races.

Back to the story.  I was training for a 24 hour race and I lined up some trial races leading up to my main event (The Hinson lake 24 hour Ultra).  One of those races was the "Boogie" 50 mile Ultramarathon.  It was perfect, several months before my main race so I could do a real run through and see how it was going to work. It also left me with enough time to recover afterwards.  The race was in June.  I felt really excited for the Boogie race.  

Unfortunately I made several mistakes leading up to this race that my race experience was anything but ideal.  About four weeks before the Boogie race, I ran a 12 hour ultra for "practice".  Well, during that race, the weather was right and all the stars seamed to align.  I felt great.  I was focused.  I pushed myself beyond the 30 miles I was going to complete and went on to reach 66 miles. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't do a thing different if I were to do it all over again, but I should have changed my expectations of my next race to adjust for recovery.  I didn't.

Fast forward 4 weeks.  The Boogie race is held not only in June, but in the afternoon.  The race starts in the evening before Sun-down so runners face heat, humidity, sometimes thunder showers, impending darkness...and snakes.

The day was nice.  It was a little crazy getting there as I had no clue where I was going and drove there alone.  I got lost, expended too much energy yelling profanity at the GPS on my phone, and finally made it in one piece about half hour before the race was to start. 

Did I mention I hadn't eaten very much that day?  Well, now I did.

 

So the race started.  It was nice with very attentive race directors and runners all very cheery.  Unfortunately I was still in a dark cloud from my not so fun drive.  I couldn't focus.  Then before mile five, hip pain set in (think old running injury aka torn groin that is better but hasn't ever been the same).  

That's kind of early for pain to set in when you still have 45 miles of running left on a hot day.  I tried to push past it. Still, my normal positivity was no where to be found.  To make a long story short, I've never been in a race with that poor of an attitude.  

I decided to drop out.  It was a terribly long walk back to my car, with many of the runners I had passed in the beginning passing me.  The worst part not only was telling the race director I was dropping out after only 10 miles, but was having to get into my car and pack up my aid station then drive part of the course to leave the race.  I drove past many who I had just stood next to at the starting line.  

Now, three years later, I know I made the right decision that night.  Cut my losses.  Less recovery time, less chance of injury.  But I won't ever forget it.  I'm not usually one to throw in the towel.  That race always is in the back of my mind. 

This week I decided I'm ready to take my revenge on the race course, to complete it with a smile on my face and become an Ultra runner once again.  

So, this past week (after deciding some other important stuff that I might write on later) I filled out the application and sent it in.  It's done.  No backing out now.  I am SO Excited!

Back to the grind...

Well, its definitely been too long. In my defense, I have been busy, but alas, there's no excuse and I will not wait as long to post again. So...let's move on.

Study Study Study

What have I been up to?

Well, I finally began working on my masters degree, which is something that I was terrified have been looking forward to doing over the past several years.  My first course was "The Science of Sports Nutrition" which was challenging, but in one word...AWESOME! Getting back into the science of nutrition was intimidating as its been a while since I looked at metabolism, but it was definitely worth it.

I learned so many things about athletes. Hydration needs, Macro nutrient needs (think protein, carbs and fat), Vitamin and Mineral needs, as well as information on Supplements. Some of the really cool stuff I learned had to do with caffeine and exercise.  One of our assignments had to do with supplements and sports. More specifically supplements as ergogenic aids.  What is that?  Ergo-what?

Supplements that are ergogenic aids assist an athletes performance.  There are many of these that are effective, but many are controversial and some are illegal or banned from use (thinking of a certain cyclist yet?)

Anyway, I chose the supplement caffeine for my research and dove into the science.  It turns out there's a bunch of scientific studies out there just waiting to be read.

Our Coffee Bar

(Disclaimer Here: This is research I performed for a school project and I can provide references if requested.  This is in no way written as a recommendation for anyone reading this to begin taking caffeine supplementation.  Caffeine while considered socially acceptable is still a drug and can have detrimental consequences when too much is ingested.  Use your own judgement and ask your physician if you have any questions....oh yeah, I am a little biased because I love coffee and use caffeine daily, incase you wanted to know)


After doing the research, I concluded that for trained athletes caffeine is an effective ergogenic aid (i.e. will help you perform better) Sorry non athletes, while the studies did support some improvement in your performance, it was not enough to make conclusions yet.  Most of the studies had athletes ingest the caffeine about an hour to an hour and a half before their events.  They figured that way it would be already circulating in the blood and the body could use it right away.

Caffeine won't solve all your problems though and some caution should be had.  Some of the studies showed that athletes who were not used to caffeine got jittery, nauseated, and even cried when they took higher doses of it...so be careful and know your limits.  It works by speeding up your body's fight or flight system and can increase your blood pressure.

Oh, and just a word to the wise, don't test anything like caffeine out ON race day! If you try it or anything else new, do it before hand and do a run through as you don't want any surprises the day of a race.

So that's kind of the short and sweet of that class. I may include more information on athletes in later posts and I really loved the entire course.

I think It's time for some coffee!

I am currently in my second course as the first wrapped up last week.  My second course is "Biostatistics" (I might need some coffee to get through this one).

I have some fun food stuff to post, but have to run out.  I won't take so long between posts next time.

Have a good day!

Erin