My mileage is slowly creeping up over 50 miles a week. It feels like a huge accomplishment. I can only marvel at the brave running souls that put in consistent 80 miles and 100 mile weeks. How do they do it!?
Besides increasing weekly mileage, I’ve also made big strides in cleaning up my eating habits. I recently picked up a two books on running and diet changes: The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Diet for Athletes. Maybe you’ve heard of them?
Is it extreme? Yeah, maybe.
Am I following it strictly? Yes and No. I’ve got some vices that I’ll continue to enjoy – something I like to call the Sacred Trinity Plus One: Soy Lattes, Dark Chocolate, Red Wine and Black Licorice. I also try not to let it interfere with my life to the extreme. I enjoyed a donut at work today. It was Donut Friday after all.
What are my results so far: Quicker recovery times, faster paces, fewer stomach aches and improved muscle tone.
What is eating Paleo anyway?
Say yes to pretty much all veggies and fruits and meat – some nuts and dried fruit are ok too. Use honey instead of refined sugar. Make sure all your meals have an important source of protein. Get most of your carbs, essential for running, from lots and lots of veggies.
Say no to proceesd foods – no grains, no breads or pastas, potatoes, no cheese and no high fructose corn syrup or other fake sugars.
While I don’t totally agree with the hypotheses put forth by the authors and I don’t think that these eating practices would work well for everyone, they certainly seem to be working great for me.
No cheese and bread?!?! Nooooo!!!
(At least, you are still having wine).
I am glad you started blogging again, ma tablette!
Eh. It’s not like the bread is all that great here… If I were in France there is no way I’d give up the bread and the cheese. It’s much easier to pass up cheese in the states. Why is that?
I tried the Paleo diet for a while (6 months) – I am also a long-distance runner with many marathons under the belt. It did not work for me AT ALL: in fact towards the end of my training program I was completely over-trained, partially due to poor nutrition, inadequate carb intake. The paleo diet also caused my cholesterol to shoot up past 200. So watch out, it is not all it is touted to be… FWIW I have been a vegan since April last year, running my best times EVER (and I am in my 50’s), has lost 20 lbs, cholesterol 125, and I am in the best shape of my life.