After work I dressed for the evening run, but Amie had to work late. So I ditched the 8 mile idea and ran just 1 mile when I got home. 5 for the day, and that was my original goal.
Saturday was a non-traditional workout in two senses. Jenn was out of town and I was planning to run in the AM with Amie. But because of working late, Amie decided to take the morning off. I went on an exploratory 5 miler around new parts of my neighborhood. Seeing as Sunday’s 15 miles was going to be hilly, rough on the quads, I took it easy in on this run. I sort of used it to “house shop” around the area. Nothing like multi-million dollar homes in Toluca Lake to make you feel like you need to start saving your money.
Sunday turned out to be a great run and bike day, and definitely one of the harder workout days I have had in a while. The 14.5 miles done down in Palos Verde were a nice change of scenery, but it was hilly enough to warrant going a little slower. No point in getting injured trying to conquer mountains. We finished in about 2.5 hours, which is a great amount of time to run and feel like you really got a workout.
Rancho Palos Verde:
I went home and hopped on the bike. I aimed for an easy 20 miles, but I was so energized by the run, it turned into a moderate to hard 24.5 miles, including a couple of Griffith Park’s steeper hills.
When I got home, I came upon an Active.com article that discussed Bonking, or rather, how not to bonk while you are training. It’s not the most technical term, but bonking basically refers to hitting a wall while in training. I usually think of it in the more long-term sense. For instance, when you are racing and you hit a wall, that is just the wall, but when you are training and you over train for weeks on end, you risk depleting all of your energy for longer periods of time. Your training suffers. And that suffering is called “bonking”.
If you recall, I referenced the “Lean, Mean, Racing Machine” from Active back when I was researching calorie count for high activity. So I looked at my weekend regime, and using the formulas from the article, I figured I’d need about 5100 calories for Sunday. 2.5 hours of running and 1.5 hours of biking seems to add up quickly. That is a calories, and although it is possible to eat that back during the day, by chowing down on these meals (which make me appreciate my vegetarian style). Alas, I can only consume so many pears, apples and eggs before my tummy explodes. Sure, a hard day of work provides me a little license to, say, have dessert. But I’m more conscious about eating what is going to make me perform at my best (and also, what tastes good … and I like fruit and vegetables a lot)
So anyway, back to Bonking. The biking article recommends that you no exceed a calorie depletion of more than 500 cal each week. Anything more than that is particularly unhealthy. Sure, NBC’s Biggest Loser show might be an exception, but those people are constantly monitored.
So yesterday I estimate I consumed 2400 calories, leaving me about 2500 more to eat back this week. Factoring in the exercise I will be doing over the next couple of days, I am going to be really conscious about getting in those extra bits of energy. Not by way of chocolate cake and candy, but maybe and extra bowl of cereal or helping of salad here and there.
I’m tired today, and I biked into work easy. Eggs, cantaloupe, cottage cheese and cereal for breakfast. Now a quick bite of lunch (salad and soup, fruit and maybe a little froyo). Plenty of rest tonight and a longer run tomorrow. I’ll let you know how the 16 miler on Saturday works out. I’m crossing my fingers I’ll eat enough so I don’t bonk by the end of next week!
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