Quick question, if you have time. What do you eat before a race? I am running a 5K on Sunday, and wondered if you chose protein or carbs.

Thanks!

Check out Bizs last blog post..Boring Breakfast

That crap pisses me off. Of course people have low self esteem.

Thank you for sharing. Off to send the link to all my girlfriends.

Grats on beating your running goal. I should set some exercise goals…but I don’t want too many goals at this point. My main focus is weight loss.

Check out Christys last blog post..Question of the week…

Check out madisons last blog post..thai indulgence

If you’re looking for a local half in the spring, check out the Annapolis Striders’ B&A Marathon and Half Marathon. It’s small, but run well. A good friend of mine is the race director, and another makes sure there is tons of food when you’re done. I usually work a water stop.

If you’re up for a destination race … I’ll be running the Disney Princesses Half Marathon in March!

It was great meeting you at BlogHerDC. I’ve now fixed my feedreader :)

Check out merrymishapss last blog post..non-contest winner!

I think you’re right that it’s possible to burn calories without having to eat what you’ve burned. In fact, I think it’s more than possible: it’s fairly common. Wrestlers and chronic ascetics, for example, who statistically speaking are highly motivated people, do just that. But notice that they’re always at constant effort, in a constant state of resistance, which will frequently — though not always — end at some time, maybe months, maybe years, in binge or collapse. And that’s all I really meant with the holding-the-breath metaphor.

Consider also that the overwhelming preponderance of calories that the human metabolism burns are burned while we’re in a sedentary state — through things such as tissue regeneration, growing hair, pumping blood, all the natural functions of the human body, which happen without our volition. Indeed, on average, the body human in a completely sedentary state burns around 1,200 calories per day. That’s a lot, as you well know (I visited your website; it’s very good). A thirty minute run, on the other hand, at a fast pace will on a good day burn 300 calories, much of which is water; a two hour run 1,200, but in general (they’re are of course exceptions), when you go for a two hour run at fast pace, your subsequent appestat will not respond proportionately to those 1,200 calories you’ve burned. Seriously speaking, I’ve seen professional runners — I’m talking folks who are running two or even three times a day, pounding out forty or fifty miles a day — who literally eat all day and all night, including when they’re running. I’m talking 20,000 calories a day, which is way more than they’re burning. And yet they’re indeed slim; but it’s not primarily the exercise that makes them so: it’s genetic predilection, which is probably why many of them are good runners in the first place, and which is ultimately the main (but not the only) determiner of weight. That’s really all I’m saying.

None of which is meant to imply that one shouldn’t therefore exercise. On the contrary, muscle is more efficient than fat at burning calories, and of course exercise has a hundred other benefits that have little or nothing to do with weight loss, not least of which is the justifiable sense of accomplishment and self-discipline it instills within us. Self-discipline is the basis of character, as Oscar Wilde once said.

I think only that it’s dangerous to regard exercise as the sine-qua-non of health and weight loss. It is not. And the relationship between exercise and weight loss is very complicated and still poorly understood by science.

Check out Shannans last blog post..Middle of Week 7 and My First Poll