Food for Thought

As Josh sits here, sewing my J heels that I broke at Chico, and I cook dinner for the first time ever, I contemplate the interesting gender roles that we have adopted...

But that might be a little too deep for here. We're getting We were all set for our next meet at Cal. Unfortunately we received notice on Tuesday that the meet was cancelled due to low turnout. Thus, to plan C we go! (I figure not doing a meet at all because of injury or something would have been a more likely Plan B.) Josh's high schoolers have a meet on Saturday which means he cannot do any meet this weekend. Luckily for me, SF State is having a meet and their entries were still open!!! I signed up for long jump, hurdles, and the 100. Hurdles and long jump are set to go at the exact same time (figures) so we'll see how that goes.

It surprised me how long it took us to recover after Chico. I was sore for a good week after that. Running didn't feel good until about a week and a half afterwards. My knees are still swollen for some unexplained reason and every workout seems like a chore almost. Usually we break our workouts into cycles of 3 weeks hard (including lifting any plyos) with 1 week easy. With the multi being on our easy week, it make the easy week not actually so easy. We then have to take almost the next whole week easy, which screws up our system. Having the multi this week would not have been ideal, but we planned for it so we were going to be ready to go. When the meet was cancelled though, Josh was left scratching his head about how to salvage this cycle so it wasn't just a waste of 3 weeks. He certainly managed to kick our butts today though so I know he still has some tricks up his sleeves.

Start of the food bag for the multi

Anywho, back to my original post plan. A lot of people (randoms mostly) keep asking me what I eat. (It's about 50/50 that they assume I'm vegetarian or stay away from gluten.) I get the impression that a lot of people assume that since I'm a female who is skinny, the secret must be what I'm eating. They have a really hard time accepting the fact that I generally eat anything and everything I can get my hands on because I am spending so much time in the sun and running. Most of the time, I don't bother explaining to them the amount of running and training we do because that usually opens up a conversation that they generally are not interested in. (The most common answer to "Josh and I do decathlon and heptathlon" is, "oh yeah, that's awesome. My sister/brother/uncle/friend does triathlons....")

While shopping for dinner on Monday night, I also stocked up on the foods we would need for the meet. As I lay my food out onto the conveyor belt, I felt a little ridiculous. On there was 4 large gatorades, wheat thins, about a dozen energy bars, plus all my other food. (I bet people thought I was this crazy gym-rat or protein-nut or something!) While all that though certainly wasn't going to be enough food for both of us, it was going to be a start at least. Usually when we go to multis, I have two bags: one with all my competition stuff in it and another with all our food in it. I've noticed athletes use a variety of calorie boosters during the meet, but one thing is certain: people are pretty much eating any chance they can get. Side note: Any thoughts on Pedialyte vs Gatorade? I noticed a lot of people drink Pedialyte. Seems odd to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

Pretty much sums up my life...

Here's pretty much the breakdown of what we pack in our bags, in general: PB&J sandwiches, orange, apple, banana, energy bars, Gatorade, water, Wheat Thins, and maybe some carrots or something similar. During Chico, we managed to eat everything in our food bag by the end of the meet. (Yay! Then we get to eat whatever we want for dinner!)

The Hanger is real.
Don't assume that's the reason though ;)

I tried to find somewhere that listed the number of calories expended while competing in a multi, but I couldn't fine anything. Josh contends that you don't expend that many calories per se, but It's being in the sun all day, having to stay warmed up, and expending bursts of energy that make you feel hungry and need simple sugars throughout the day. However, the trick is that there are good times to eat and bad times to eat. Eating right before the 800 is generally a terrible idea! But right after high jump, not so bad.

As many of you may know, I'm a Nervous Nelly when it comes to being out of food, keeping track of my food, making sure I have food accessible at all times... you get the picture. [One of my parent's favorite stories is recalling telling our babysitters that "Laura will have a snack after school. Don't worry, she will definitely eat all of her dinner later..."] During the multi, it's not really any different; I just try to be conscious as to the timing. On day 1, before and after high jump, I try to eat as much as I can, but then once shot put starts, I have to stop. Otherwise, I'll be hurting for my 200. During day 2, I'll eat some before long jump, a little before javelin, but then don't touch anything once javelin starts. This doesn't apply to Gatorade or water though. I try to drink consistently through the day. There's nothing worse than cramping during a meet from being dehydrated!