races | Team Run4PRs Coaching

Nutrition for Runners

When I started my running journey, I was a bit heavier than I am now. I weighed about 170 pounds back when I started. Today I weigh about 128. I am 5’7″. I feel that I am a pretty healthy weight now.

How I lost weight:

I was some-what strict about counting my calories and macros on the app myfitness pal. I learned a lot about my eating habits and the nutritional value of food through using this app every day for 3 years. I went from 170 down to 130 within the first year then I maintained my weight from there. I have not used this app for calorie tracking in over 2.5 years.

Things that helped me lose weight:

1- Eating an entire plate full of salad before dinner every night.

2- Learning healthy options at restaurants & avoiding eating out more than 1-2x a week

3- Sticking to the meals and snacks I had planned- I would log almost everything the day before and plan out my meals and snack. It will not help you to buy a bunch of fruits and veggies if you don’t prep and plan on eating them

4- Eating my “exercise calories” and NOT under-eating. Even when losing weight, I was eating close 2000 calories a day. Everyone is different, but I could never had survived mentally and physically (running) off eating less than 1700-1800 calories a day running my 30 miles a week back then

How to know how much you should eat?

Try an online calculator like this fill this out like your activity level before exercise

then add additional calories for your exercise. IE, if you run 30 miles a week that is close to an additional 3000 calories a week of 4ooish a day.

What Running 60+ miles a week @ 128 5’7″ looks like:

8:00am- post run breakfast

Bagel, Peanut butter, banana, protein/recovery drink

10am- morning snack

Protein Bar and pretzels/apple

noon- lunch

pasta, chicken, side salad

1:20pm- afternoon snack

trail mix

3:00pm- afternoon snack

beef jerky

5:30pm- dinner

grilled kabobs, dinner roll, side salad

7:30pm- bedtime snack

greek yogurt, berries, musli/granola

I eat roughly 2800 calories a day if I had to guess. If I am hungry, I eat. The hardest part about my eating now, is eating the most micro-nutrient dense foods.

Some of my favorites:

-chia seeds & anything (hummus, shakes, mama-chia)

-La croix sparkling water (if you like pop- this will help you kick the habit!)

– pretzel chips

– beef jerky

2011-2014 My journey into competitive running

Let me tell you about my journey…

January 2011– I was 19 years old. Weighed about 155. Smoked. I attempted to workout 3x a week for 20 min. I was sick and tired of feeling like crap all the time, but I felt “out of control” and didn’t know how to fix the problems in front of me.

September 2011: Over the summer/spring of 2011, I decided I needed to really commit to losing weight if I wanted to see results. I lost over 25 pounds, ran my first 5k, then I joined my college’s cross country team without EVER running on any team in my life.

I could NEVER have predicted this. I had people/friends LAUGH in my face when I told them that I was joining the cross country team.At this point in my life, I had built up enough confidence to realize that I would not fail at this. I was going to be the best runner/athlete I could be. At the time, I set of goal of running 7:30 pace for 3.1 miles.

PRs set in track & cross country:

October 2011- 22:20 5k April 2012- 5:12 1500

Spring/summer 2012: I continued to run and want to set goals as a runner. Without ever running over 13 miles, I signed up for a 30k (18.65 miles) and finished with an overall pace of 8:10 per mile. I got my mom to run her first ever 5k (31:30), and I finally broke 22 in a 5k with a time of 20:59!!!

Fall 2012: Went from the highest of highs, to a INJURY. I was knocked out of running for about 4 months due to plantar fac. I also started working full time while still in school full time. It was hard to stay focused on running/recovery during this time period because I thought I would never fully recover from my injury. I lost a LOT of fitness and gained almost all the weight I had previously lost BACK. It was a hard time for me.

Spring 2013: From the ashes we rise again. I was able to train and run my first marathon injury free finishing in a 4:09. I raced my first 5k in over a year in 21:20 (21 seconds off my PR). Things were looking up. I graduated college and got hired at my current job. Things in life were starting to slow down, and I was going to reap the benefits of my hard work in months to come.

Summer/Spring 2013: This period was essentially a whirlwind of racing. Because I was injured/poor for so long, I was finally able to sign up and run ALL the races I wanted to!

Ending 2013 with these PRs:

5k- 19:56, 10k- 43:20, 1/2- 1:41, full- 3:43

Afton Trail 25k

Grandma’s half 1:41 and Jason 1:14

University of Okoboji Marathon 3:47

Torchlight 5k 20:55

Rock n roll vegas marathon 3:43 & 3:03 for Jason

Spring 2014: I buckled down with speed work over the winter and did;t race for 4 months. I qualified for Boston 2x in 4 weeks with a 3:27 and a 3:31. I ran several sub 20 5ks. I ran a 1:35 and 1:33 half

Wicked Marathon Kansas 3:27

Brained run for the Lakes 3:31

Lola’s 5k 19:54

SUMMER/FALL 2014: I ran my first Ultra, won my first marathon with a 3:26 PR, Ran a sub 19 5k and a 40:50 10k. I got injured in July 2014 and recovered in October 2014

2015 has brought me a 3:19 marathon PR during the Goofy challenge at disney. I am currently training for the Boston Marathon 2015. I hope to set another PR there. If not, it is all apart of the journey.

Cheers to training