I'm linking up with the Weekly Run Down, please head over to Kim and Deborah to check it out.
🚨🚨🚨Breaking News🚨🚨🚨
For years, my weekday go to has been rolling out of bed and hitting the gym on nothing more than a glass of water. As I wrote before, it's not because I believe in fasted cardio, it's because I'm pragmatic and want to get my butt moving and the workout done. My workout time is limited so why cut into it by doing silly things like eating. (P.S. I always have coffee and a fairly hearty breakfast before my weekend long run).
But...I've had a few draggy weekday workouts lately and for grins I decided to change it up and get some fuel in whether I thought I needed to or not. Tuesday and Thursday were my hard workouts this week, so I slurped down a glass of UCAN while I did my warmups, and for my lighter efforts on Weds and Fri, I chowed a banana. You know how sometimes you make a change and you can't really tell whether it made a difference or not? This isn't one of those situations, it's a case of "I was blind and now I see". I had so much more power to put into my workouts and although I may come back with a different story next week, for now I'm saying that my fasted cardio days are over. Stay tuned as this breaking story develops.
This Week's Sweats
Monday: no running, since I did last week's long run on Sunday. Weights at lunch.
Tuesday: 5 treadmill miles, 1 mile warm up, 6 x 5 minutes fast/2 minutes recover
Wednesday: 3 treadmill miles easy
Thursday: 5 treadmill miles, 1 mile warm up, ladder of 1-2-3-2-1 minutes fast/2 minutes recover, repeated enough times to fill up the 5 miles.
Friday: weights + 4 mile treadmill hill run.
Saturday: long run day! I've been pushing the speed on my long runs, but I wanted to respect the extra workload that I put in this week and decided not to monitor my pace. Since I did my long run a day later than usual last week, I was looking at 37 miles in the past 7 days, which is 10 miles over my usual, and I was on a 5 day running streak where normally I'm only on a 3 day streak when I go into my long run.
I set off and could feel how slow I was going. I gave myself a talking to and covered the points that there's nothing wrong with a slow day and progress isn't linear, and in the big picture the only thing that's important is to get the running in. And then I started thinking about everything that runners think about when they run and before I knew it 10 miles were done and I pressed the stop button on my Garmin.
The results are in on the time difference between pushing my pace last week vs just running this week: 1:55:27 last week and 1:55:31 this week. Yep, a whopping 4 seconds slower. Of course there are differences in the runs, last week was my first 10 miler in a while and after the 8 mile mark, my body very much put me on notice that it was in new territory. This week although I felt draggier, my body was like "NBD, running 10 miles on Saturday is what I do". Last week because of the snow I was penned in to my relatively flat neighborhood, this week with clear roads I was free to roam my town and got more elevation. But I am quite happy with this run.
Sunday: off!
What's Next
If the forecast is to be believed, my long run next weekend will be on the treadmill. Six weeks to half marathon #4.
I tried fasted runs a few years back and nope not for me! Glad you found something new that works for you. Nice job on that 10m miler! Have a great week ahead and thanks for linking up today
ReplyDeleteNot for me any more either! I'm sure there's some science behind it, but honestly no one (that I know of) is doing fasted racing so now that I think about it, it totally doesn't make sense to do fasted training.
DeleteAwesome week for you! I'm with ya, no time in the morning for eating but I could definitely benefit from it! I need to try UCAN...
ReplyDeleteUCAN is great and they have sample packs on their site if you just want to try a few out without buying a whole can. I really feel a difference when I use it.
DeleteAs I always tell the teenagers who skip breakfast before school, it's like trying to start your car without gasoline. I'll skip breakfast for a shorter run--I always have--not because of fasted cardio (who even heard of that?) but like you, it's just practical. I do drink coffee with half and half and I suspect that the caffeine is what gets me moving. For long runs and CrossFit, I always eat before I go.
ReplyDeleteAmen. When I started out I was just running 2-3 miles so not eating before wasn't as big a deal as it is now.
DeleteExcellent on that long run! I'm always amazed at how two runs can feel so different (physically and mentally) and yet have similar finish times. I've always said my pace perception is jacked, and I will hold to that LOL Nothing wrong with fueling before a workout; if it works for you, it's a keeper ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed by the pro runners who can "feel" their pace, I guess if you're running 100 miles a week you get a better sense of that than us average folk.
DeleteI'm the same, when I head out for my weekday runs (when I'm not injured) I'm outside running by 4:45 to 5:30 AM at the latest and I need at least 30-45 minutes after I drink my water for "things to get moving" so I can then go run. I could down a banana before heading out the door, but most likely that would mean a pit stop during my run. LOL
ReplyDeleteGreat job on Saturday's ten-miler!
Thanks Deb! The injuries won't last, you'll be back out there soon.
DeleteI'm glad that eating before your morning workouts is paying off! I usually do fasted cardio but now you have me rethinking that.
ReplyDeleteYes, honestly I never felt hungry, it was more of a hmm...workouts seem to be getting harder, let's try eating to see if it helps.
DeleteThat's interesting that you felt better after eating before a work out! I've been doing my weekday runs before breakfast just so I can get moving and to work on time but maybe I need to change things up. Fingers crossed the forecast changes and you don't have to do your long run on the treadmill :)
ReplyDeleteAck, the forecast has changed but in the wrong direction and now they're saying 10 inches of snow! Oh well, hopefully the kids get a snow day out of it.
DeleteSince i used to literally roll out of bed and go out the door, it was easier to not eat anything before a run. If I had to travel somewhere, I would have something more substantial. I have to grab a quick spoon of PB or something before PT, because otherwise, I would be a mess.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, everyone tolerates different things! Glad you now know what works for you!
That's the thing about this fitness journey, I feel like I learn new things everyday. This is my current "now", we'll see what tomorrow's "now" is.
DeleteI can do some workouts without any fuel, but for runs I usually like to have something, even if its just a few bites of a banana. I'm glad it made such a difference for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm excited to see what I can do with the extra fuel.
DeleteI also went a long time before I tried eating before morning runs. It doesn't matter for me one way or the other if it's just an easy run, but wow does eating make a difference for speedwork!
ReplyDeleteTRUTH!
DeleteI think fasted cardio is overrated — or something to do once in a while. That said, I often don’t eat before a workout because of time constraints and lack of appetite but I do try to eat something before my studio classes so I can get my money’s worth out of my workouts!
ReplyDeleteExactly! I'm getting my money's worth out of my training by fueling first.
DeleteI can do fasted cardio (if I can actually get OUT of the bed) being a spinning session at home or a 30 min easy run, but for the most part I need my fuel. The amount of people trying to convince me to do intermittent fasting to deal with my menopause weight is mind-boggling... and it's still a giant NO from me on that! Glad having a bit of fuel helped you!
ReplyDeleteI really can't tell my pace at all! I have had those "slow" runs too, only to find out it was exactly the same as the week before :D haha! what are we like?! :D
I wonder if the theory behind intermittent fasting is it will make you feel so bad that menopause symptoms will seem easier by comparison.
DeleteI do a lot of fasted runs for the same reason, just wanting to get it done. Plus I already wake up mega early to get most of my runs done, the last thing I really want is to have to wake up even earlier to eat! I have noticed a difference when I eat a banana before workouts, especially in the summer. I'm super prone to side stitches and last summer bananas really helped me not get them during summer runs!
ReplyDeleteExactly, it really does just take a minute to eat a banana, we're no talking about a 10 course meal here.
DeleteI never eat before I run. I will eat however before a "long" run and before a race. I do drink coffee though. I just don't eat because I want to get out as soon as I can. Nice job on your 10 miles. Yeah, weird how they can both feel different. I also like UCAN. I usually make a gel with water and use it on long runs or races.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried UCAN as a gel yet, I haven't gotten around to figuring out what I would put the gel in to carry it with me. I really wish they sold gels instead of DIY.
Delete