I’m drowning my sorrows and preparing for tomorrow’s race with pizza.
And red wine…and strawberry ice cream. Okay, I’m totally kidding when I say that I’m carb loading for a 5K. The truth is that I’ve just been craving pizza all week and something about Friday night pizza feels like complete perfection.
Running nutrition lesson…despite the fact that I would never “carb load” for a 5K (that should be saved for events longer in duration than 90 minutes like longer distance tris and bike races, half marathons, marathons, etc.), did you know that carb loading is really MOST beneficial if you do it for lunch the day before a big race instead of dinner? It takes your body about 18 hours to convert carbs to glycogen so it’s best if you start carb loading about three days out and then eat a normal dinner the night before the race. This also ensures that you won’t be bloated and feel gross by eating such a heavy meal the night before.
Random tangent. Learned this tidbit of information in my CrossFit Endurance training. We also talked about Coke as fuel in a marathon but that’s another story for another day!
Dinner tonight was a veggie pizza with mushrooms, artichokes, broccoli, olives and sundried tomatoes on whole wheat crust and an arugula salad on the side.
Let’s talk about why I’m drowning my sorrows in pizza, wine and ice cream. Remember how I promised you a mobility post yesterday? Well, my world kinda blew up so you got a review post instead. I called a plumber to come and fix my stopped up sink. (Draino and the plunger were no match for me blow drying my hair over the sink. Gross.) Well, he also discovered that I had a broken pipe in the wall that was leaking into my wall and crawlspace that could burst and flood my house at anytime. He immediately shut off my water and then told me he couldn’t fix it until the next day. That was fine but I had to evacuate my house and pony up a lot of money. It just feels like one thing after another after another after another. But what can you really do? I’m lucky that he caught it before the pipe actually burst.
On a totally unrelated topic, I was invited to experience Les Mills newest format for small group training today – the GRIT Series. Y’all know that I am a Les Mills evangelist and that BodyPump has changed my body and my life. I was super excited to try this new innovation that focuses on a more one-on-one experience with a coach and a 30-minute high intensity interval training workout. It’s designed to be one trainer/coach with 5-10 people. I was even more excited to arrive and find that our presenter/trainer was one of my BodyPump trainers five years ago when I got certified! It was so much fun to reconnect with him.
GRIT has three workouts – strength, plyo and cardio. We did the strength workout today. 30 minutes have never flown by so fast. It was full of great music (think lots of Dubstep-esque beats…LOVE), burpees, squat jumps, clean and press, squat cleans, pushups and so much more. The workout was AWESOME. Although I don’t think I can bring GRIT to Metro right now, it is an amazing new program and I applaud Les Mills for constantly staying on top of fitness trends and keeping it fun and fresh.
It remains my life dream to become a Les Mills trainer.
And now it’s time to make a kick ass 5K playlist, eat strawberry ice cream and read in bed.
I have been wanting to try grit! It looks amazing 🙂 your review has only made me want to try it even more 🙂 good luck tomorrow!
Oh my gosh, I took a grit class (plyo) at my gym in Atlanta this summer! They still don’t offer it on a regular basis but it was seriously challenging! I love everything Les Mills!
Ugh. Sorry to hear about your plumbing issues. Hopefully it’s a relatively quick and painless fix!
I was just reading in my nutrition textbook today about carbohydrate loading/glycogen loading in preparation for my final exam next week. I’ve always thought of it as kind of a “day before” type of thing, but the example carb loading schedule the book provided started 6 DAYS in advance of the race/event and included a combination of progressively decreasing exercise duration and progressively increasing carbohydrate consumption. Crazy! Like you said, the book mentioned that carb loading mostly benefits marathoners, ultra-marathoners, etc., but that doesn’t mean a little pre-5K pizza + ice cream isn’t in order. 😉
My mom is a Les Mills Body Pump, RPM, and CXWorx instructor and has recently gotten to try GRIT. She loved it as well!
I’m sorry to hear about your pipes, that really sucks. Good luck tomorrow on your 5k, ice cream is my favorite fuel for all races or for just a night on the couch!
I LOVE Body Pump. You inspired me to try a class and I’ve been hooked ever since! The GRIT program sounds awesome. I hope I get a chance to try it soon!
I am hoping you mean the soda, Coke to fuel a race. ;). Although I’ve seen a few marathon club dancers fueled on the other kind!
During marathon training I’d always eat a big pancake breakfast the day before my long run or the actual race itself…because I read the same thing, it takes 18-24 hours (according to whatever Runner’s World article it was) for your body to get the most out of it! I always felt like it worked 🙂
This GRIT workout sounds awesome! I hope to get to try it somewhere soon. In the meantime, I’m off to my Saturday morning Body Pump class! 🙂
GRIT sounds amazing! I’ve been a body pump fiend for a few years (contemplating becoming an instructor). Have you done CX30? My gym has had it for about a year and it’s great!
Went to Body Pump this morning…Cynthia and Andre taught. Loved it!! Going to try and make your class on Thursday night. What a great workout…my triceps were shaking! GRIT sounds great! Will it be coming to Charlotte?
I hope that the 5K went well! I haven’t had pizza in a while and that is quite unfortunate, because pizza is one of my favorites. Endless combos of delicious toppings! Have a fabulous weekend and hope the strawberry ice cream was DELISH! 🙂
My dad’s training partener still swears by pepsi as his fuel.
Hi! What kind of pizza crust was that? Homemade? It looks amazing!
I AM FROM SAN FRANCISCO AND I LOVE ALL LESMILLS CLASSES HOWEVER WE HAVE VERY FEW IN ATLANTA. WILL GRIT EVER COME TO ATLANTA, AT LEAST IN THE MIDTOWN AREA?