The one where they made me run with a parachute.

Last weekend I attended a Half Marathon training day clinic (Maximum Results Training) - it was awesome!

We got a binder full of info to take home and a t-shirt (best part of being a runner - free t-shirts EVERYWHERE)!

I learned a lot and my quads hurt for days after.  We started with just going through a lot of running terms, he taught us how some runners monitor their pace by their heart rate - so we reviewed different heart rates terms - it was like being in running school :)

At the beginning we all had to introduce ourselves, give a brief history of our running story and tell a goal for our next race - I was definitely with a group of elite runners; many of them having goals of 1 1/2 hr half marathons and one man was competing in an Iron Man the next weekend.  Still I held my head high as I said I have been running for 2 years and am training for me 3rd half marathon - finishing the previous two at the very fast past of 3 hrs :)

After class we went outside to do a beep test (worst test ever) - which is pretty much when you run between two points while two "beeps" are occurring and if you eventually don't make it to point B before the beep you are done. Needless to say, it almost killed me :) It helps determine your fitness level based on what "level" you get out on...I tried to youtube a beep test for those that have never been forced through that torture and this is what I found:

Than, we had to run with a parachute during an obstacle course; the day was really fun but also challenging and the parachute was fairly exhausting :)

I found the nutritional part after lunch the best! I clearly have been no where near as knowledgeable about my nutrition during training! The trainer at the clinic said long distance runners (I guess that is me lol) should be putting as much planning into their nutrition during training as they are putting into planning their runs!

He talked about how important what you eat AFTER a long run is, and that really hit home! I do my long runs on Sunday mornings a lot of the time before church, and would usually get home, shower, grab a powerade and yogurt and head to church - bad move I have learned.  Based on my weight I should be in taking 75 grams of carbs within 15 MINUTES of my long runs!! That is about 3 bananas or a bagel all within the first 15 minutes of finishing! I have definitely not been doing that! He also talked about how much I need to eat even after that and gave us charts at how much carbs, protein and fat we should be getting while training! It was very informative and I am excited to start trying to put it into play in my training!

I wonder how many carbs a chocolate cupcake has? ;)




PS - they did an "oxygen intake" assessment at the clinic - I scored "poor" - he told me I wasn't getting much oxygen in, I told him my spine is crooked and pushing on my lungs - he said, "Yup, that'll do it"   :)