I’m Overworked

QUICK POINTS:

1. Too much training 
2. Long run #whatever
3. Food

1.  Too much training

As someone who is a health nut. HA. Anyway, I think that I may be approaching the border of overtraining. In addition to doing my training runs, I have doing a bit of weight training. I find that I rarely lose weight while marathon or half-marathon training, so I wanted to incorporate more weight training and HIIT workouts this time around. But, I think that it is becoming too much. One: I have been so exhausted lately. I even fell asleep while taking the bus to gym last friday at 5pm. This leads to me being waaaay too tired to wake up early for my training runs. I think that I am going to stop attending my friday “kangaroo” class. 

The class is a great aerobic class where I burn about 800 calories in an hour. By the time, I shower,  get home, and eat, its already 1030/11 on a night before a long run, which typically do on Saturdays. 

2. Long Run

Because I was so tired, I almost did not do this run on Saturday. I probably would not have did the run if the Montreal Marathon organizers did not send me an email with a video from last year’s marathon. Viewing this video inspired me to get dressed and hit the road at 10:30am (instead of 7am, as I had planned). I was too tired to do this run as well asI would   have liked. 

My run took me through brooklyn, over tHe East river via the Williamsburg Bridge,  up the east side and over the east river (again) via  the 59th street bridge. 

My old lab at NYU

My old apartment building at NYU

A smoothie and stretch session at the gym

At mile 3, I was so tired that I felt like I already had run 6 miles. I had  realized that this was going to be a tough run, which really upset me because last week’s long run was a struggle. Actually, I guess that it was not THAT bad.  Although this recent run was a hot mess, it was like running down memory lane because I spent the majority of my 14 years in NYC on the east side. Also, I wanted to challenge myself on this run by running up a hill at the end of the run. My mile split for the portion of the run showed that it was a challenge. 

3. Food 

I am trying to incorporate eating during my long training runs. I have been the type of runner who never ate during half and full marathons and I remember how crappy I felt towards the end and after those races. I used to consume Gu but I don’t like how sticky it is. Also, I am one of those people who need something solid in his belly (I know that means longer digest time).  

I tried Belvita bars, because I ate a couple before my last half-marathon and I felt great the whole race. 

The makers claim that these bars will provide 2-4 hours of sustained energy. I see why because it takes you about 2-4 hours to get all of the food that is stuck on your gums. I will say that trying to get all of the food off of my gums did distract me from the idea that I still had 6 more miles to run. 

Maybe I will try Fig Newtons for my upcoming run. 

Song of the run

Questions:

1. What food do you consume during your long runs?
2. What motivates you for a long run when you are dead tired?
3. How often do you cross train when training for a half or full marathon.