Podcast - Top Long-Run Nutrition Tips
===
[00:00:00] Today, I'm going to share with you my five top long run. Nutrition tips.~ Four years ago, I had never ran more than six miles. ~
~For just ~four years ago, I had never ran more than six miles or 10 kilometers.
And if I knew, then what I know today about nutrition and long runs, I would have gotten. To running a hundred kilometers or 62 miles plus much faster,
what I've learned is that we unintentionally. As humans. Put ourselves at a disadvantage with what we ingest into our bodies., this includes food and other substances, like alcohol that we put into our systems.
I don't know about you, but I was, I'm a much better athlete before college then during college and a big reason for that is during college. ~Okay. First first ~I wasn't eating as healthily growing up. My [00:01:00] mom was always into healthy eating and she actually became a nutritionist when I was at a young age. So I was used to getting lots of nutrients, even if I didn't realize it growing up. So once I got to college, even though my parents did their best to tell me how to eat healthily ~and. And I didn't start drinking until junior year. ~And I didn't start drinking alcohol until junior year.
I found that I just wasn't in as good of shape as I was in high school. And for the longest time, I just assume that the older you get the worst shape you get in.
Welcome to the athlete with asthma show. I'm your host, Johnny Havy, an ultra runner, endurance athlete. And yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer, nor run a marathon, let alone 100k ultra. I proved them all wrong. This show is where I [00:02:00] share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get started.
Well, I hate to break a tube, but getting older is just an excuse for your shape for your cardiovascular, for your strength decreasing, because. At 34 years old. I am in better shape than I ever have been in my entire life. And one of the biggest reasons, why is the first long run nutrition tip I have for you today? Minimizing unhealthy foods and substances like alcohol. Now when I graduated college, I was still drinking and not eating as healthily. I was eating out a lot, and I wasn't getting [00:03:00] as many nutrients and vitamins and minerals in my diet as I needed. But I was consistently working out. ~There was a time when I was doing set, ~there was a time when I was working out seven days a week and even doing two workouts a day between yoga, sculpt classes, spinning classes, taking bike rides and hiking. I was combining all of this and I felt pretty good.
I even told myself that maybe I was getting in better shape than I was in high school, and I always had this voice in the back of my head telling me. ~How good would you be? How good would you feel and how.~ How good would you feel and how high could you perform as an athlete? If you completely turned your nutrition around, that means ~cutting out alcohol and. That means, that means first and foremost, ~cutting out alcohol. And changing my diet to something even stricter. Than what I grew up with with my mom as a nutritionist.
The first time I had this realization was [00:04:00] at ~a 10:00 AM. The first time I had this. I first had this realization back in 2014 or 2015 during ~a 10:00 AM hot yoga class after a night of heavier drinking than I probably should've done and eating super unhealthy ~because of the heavy drink and that I was doing that evening, ~but I was still at yoga class and I was still performing really well.
And I thought to myself, wow, this is what I can do with all of ~these toxins and all this crap in my system. I can't say crap. All these toxins. With all these top with all these toxins and unhealthy substance. With all these toxins in my system. With all ~these toxins in my system. I wonder what I could do if I turn this around. ~And I have a specific. ~
~ ~Fast forward to today and leading up to any race that I have.
I have a strict routine that has transformed me from just being a hardcore workout machine
into a serious award-winning ultra runner with asthma. This past year, I not only ran my first a hundred K race. I won it. And a big part of that is because three to four months before any race, I cut out alcohol completely. And I focus my diet on low inflammation foods. That means eating [00:05:00] lots of plants. And if I am eating animal products, I make sure to eat high quality animal products. So I highly recommend that at the very least you minimize your alcohol intake and your unhealthy food intake, ~three to four months. ~Three to four months leading up to a race. Cutting alcohol out of your diet and your life alone has incredible benefits.
First of all, it's important to recognize that when alcohol enters your body or when any form of toxin enters your body. So that could be alcohol. That could be unhealthy food. That could be any sort of other substance that enters your body. That could be environmental factors when it enters your body. Your body is very protective of itself. So when alcohol enters your
body, your body's number one goal is to get it out of your body. So what does this mean? This means that other normal processes that your body. Does every second, every minute, every hour, [00:06:00] every day go to the back burner.
Well, it focuses on expelling this toxin from your body. Well, what this means for your training is that you're not going to recover as well. This is why by extracting that toxin from your diet, alcohol, unhealthy foods, et cetera. You are empowering your body to do what it does best. This includes improved recovery, alcohol dehydrates your body and slows muscle repair. ~So if you. ~So during your training, if you find that you are increasing your miles, but you don't feel like you're feeling any better when you run that 10, 15 or 20 mile long run. It might be because after that long run, you're putting either unhealthy foods or even alcohol into your body.
~I ~I've experienced this firsthand as a long distance cyclist. I remember after doing a 40 or 50 mile day, I would love to just sit down and have some beer. And I [00:07:00] didn't think that this was a problem because I burned all these calories. I knew I had the calories to at least drink some beer ~haves ~and have an unhealthy meal.
But what I didn't realize is that I was hurting my body for next time.
I was basically taking that 40 or 50 mile bike ride and telling my body, Hey, ~I know you just put out all this effort and. ~I know you just put out all this effort and you want to recover right now, but here is a bunch of unhealthy food. Here's some alcohol in the system. ~So instead of the nutrients. ~So instead of giving my body the nutrients that I needed to grow and to get to the next level, I was polluting it. Alcohol and unhealthy food also really messes with your hydration. ~If you were eating really, if you were eating highly processed food. ~If you were eating highly processed food, deep fried food, you're drinking beer, drinking alcohol. While you're training your body isn't going to get the hydration it needs. Even if you're drinking a lot of water, your body isn't actually going to be able to retain the water alcohol and other unhealthy foods and substances act as a [00:08:00] diarrhetic, meaning that the hydration, your muscles and your body needs to recover that your body and your muscles needs to improve your performance. When you're out there running on these 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 mile long runs, or your 50 mile races, your a hundred K races, your a hundred mile races, your body doesn't have the hydration.
It needs.
Now when you cut alcohol out of your diet and when you eat healthier foods, you're also going to improve your sleep quality. Alcohol specifically has been shown to inhibit deep sleep. Well, when you deeply sleep, ~you're not only, you're not only. ~You're not only healing your brain, you're healing your body.
The list goes on and on and on by cutting alcohol out, you're going to increase your endurance.
Your cardiovascular system is just going to run more efficiently because. Your body. Isn't worried about getting rid of these toxins all the time.
You're going to reduce your risk of injury because alcohol can weaken your bones. It can also weaken your reaction times. It's also going to help you optimize your weight. [00:09:00] Now back in 2022, ~I ran my first. I ran my second official marathon ~I ran my second official marathon, my third marathon overall, in Honolulu, Hawaii. And I weighed just under 200 pounds. I didn't even know that I weighed this much at that time, ~but I was, but I was still drinking. I wasn't drinking successfully, ~but I was still drinking. I wasn't eating as healthy. I was eating these massive quantities and my weight, those extra 40 pounds
equated to at least. 30 minutes to an hour of added time to my marathon race.
This also equated to 40 more pounds of added pressure on my joints. On my muscles. I knew that if I was going to take it to the next level and run a 50 mile race and beyond ~that, ~I needed to not only lose 30 to 40 pounds, but keep the weight off. And since I've done that my times have increased significantly and my injuries have decreased.
[00:10:00] Hey friend, I wanted to take a moment to ask you a quick question. Are you struggling to lose weight due to your asthma? If so, I get it. I used to run marathons and still kept gaining weight. It wasn't until I learned about the three pillars of healthy living that everything changed.
So I put together a healthy living guide that you can access absolutely anywhere. free by clicking the link in the description. This guide shares these amazing three pillars of healthy living that you can easily integrate into your life to start losing weight and live healthier [00:11:00] today. Click the link in the description or go to Athlete with asthma dot com forward slash healthy dash living dash guide to grab your free copy.
Now, let's get back to the rest of the show.
You're also going to have improved energy levels and you're going to enhance your VO two. Max, what is your VO? Two max. This is the max amount of energy amount of power. That you can release in your body. In a cardiovascular activity. When you're doing cardio, you have a robotic and anaerobic energy production. Okay. When you're in a robotic, that means that your body is producing energy and aerobic state using oxygen.
When you were in an anaerobic state, that means that your body isn't getting enough oxygen anymore to [00:12:00] create energy. So alcohol basically decreases the amount of oxygen you're able to take into your body. ~So by, ~so by cutting alcohol out, you are improving your energy output. And, you know, When you cut alcohol out and you cut out these unhealthy foods and other substances, you're going to improve your immune system.
I don't know about you, but the less I get sick in a training period. The better my training goes. And if I do get sick in a training period, ~I am not. ~I get over whatever I'm fighting much faster. This past training sequence leading up to my a hundred K race, about eight weeks out. I caught COVID and since I wasn't drinking and I was eating really healthily, I was still running with COVID.
I think I only took one day off when I had COVID and it was my typical rest day. And then I was still running because even though I was sick, I didn't feel that bad. And I was giving my body the nutrients, [00:13:00] the minerals, and just. The love that it needed to get through that.
I could go on and on and on the health benefits of cutting alcohol out of your system and changing your diet to focus ~on whole foods. And cutting out pro. That focuses ~on whole foods, getting rid of those processed foods, minimizing high inflammation foods, ~and just really. ~And just really eating a diet that your body likes but the proof is in the results this past year I won my first a hundred K ultra that I'd ever ran because I was prepared. I was healthy. My training went extremely well. And I was fueled properly. My body feels better than it ever has, and I'm ready for more. My whole reason of launching athlete with asthma was to create a brand that I could represent as a professional athlete with asthma to inspire others with any perceived limitations in their life. Get to new Heights ~and achieve. And achieve. ~And achieve what they may have once looked at as impossible dreams.
So, what about fueling for your actual long runs or any runs that [00:14:00] you take? ~Well, Well, my second top long run nutrition tip is. Well, my second top run. Well, my second top long run nutrition. ~Well, my second top long run nutrition tip. Is to eat anywhere between 200 and 500 calories per hour during your long runs. And when you're ready to get even more technical with this. You should be getting at least 60 grams of carbs. And somewhere around five grams of protein in that hour. Now. When I ran my first 50 mile race, a couple of years back, I was focused solely. On the two to 500 calorie mark specifically, I was shooting for three or 400 calories per hour and I was getting it. The thing is at that point, I was doing a lot of experimenting with tracking my calories. ~I was doing. I was putting a lot of focus and ~I was putting a lot of focus on protein in my life because when I'm not running, I'm usually either. Taking high intensity interval training classes or hit classes or I'm taking yoga ~school ~classes or I'm teaching. Yoga. Therefore [00:15:00] protein is really important for my body and it is important for all of our bodies for muscle recovery. The thing is as a runner and during a run, ~having an excess, ~having an excess amount of protein can really mess with your body.
Now all of our bodies are different to one degree or another. So you need to experiment based on your body. Well, in my 50 mile race, a couple of years back. I decided that Hey. I'm going to have. My amazing, significant other Tatyana helped me prepare
different foods like
like homemade bread and sweet potato cookies. I also made sure to have a bunch of kombucha with me, cause I love kombucha. It is not only really good for your gut and your microbiome. It also has tons of electrolytes and nutrients that you need to revitalize and energize your body. So I had those with me and then I also brought. A ton of, or gain chocolate [00:16:00] protein shakes with me. I did this because every morning when I get up, the first thing I eat. Is a protein shake.
I've been doing this for years and it really helps me get the nutrients I need for the day. All in an easy drink. Now I usually make these myself and I put different fruits in it. I add greens of some sort. I also add either broccoli, cauliflower or brussel sprouts. I add hemp protein. I add collagen and I add a little bit of bone broth protein. And then I top it off with chia seeds and sometimes even some yogurt. So I knew that this would go down. Okay. And I had been told, I had never ran 50 miles before I'd ran 50 K and I had ran multiple long runs in a row back to back Saturday, Sunday but I never ran 50 miles before and I was told then at some point I wouldn't want to eat anymore. So I was like, great. What I'm going to do is I'm going to have a bunch of these Oregon protein shakes and I'm just going to drink them. And that's what I did.
Each protein shake had somewhere [00:17:00] around, I think, 160, maybe 180 calories. And they also had 20 grams of protein. So I told myself, well, biologically, what this is gonna do is there's going to be some carbs, some sugar in the protein shake. And the protein that I get is going to help my body recover itself.
It's going to help my muscles rebuild.
The theory was right on, but I was eating a lot more than five grams of protein per hour. And I was not getting even close to 60 grams of carbs. I was probably getting more like 40 grams of protein per hour. And five or 10 grams of carbs at best. No, this was better than nothing for me in this race. But I definitely fell as I got deeper into the race that I really needed. Sugar to keep me going. So what I did. As I actually did have gummies. And my favorite gummies are these scraps lab energy chews.
I have them linked in the show [00:18:00] notes. If you're listening to this as a podcast or their LinkedIn, the YouTube description. If you're watching this on YouTube. ~I love. ~I love these ~gummies and ~gummies that really got me through some really hard parts of races when my body told myself that, Hey, We need sugar. We need it now. Otherwise you're going to completely run out of energy. Well, this happened during this race. And I walked a lot of this race, my 50 mile race. I did not give myself enough carbs and at some point, my stomach. Really did not appreciate the amount of protein I was giving it. Thank God.
I was intaking the protein with chocolate because chocolate ~was the only reason why, the fact that these were chocolate protein shakes ~was the only reason why my body was still taking in the calories.
Well, I knew that if I was ever going to do this again, I needed to fuel differently. Ultimately in my 50 mile race, I got 29 out of about 45 or 50 finishers.
And I did finish the race in 13 hours and I didn't use my inhaler, the [00:19:00] entire race, but at the end of the race, I was completely wrecked. ~I was. I even told myself, then I'm not going to ever run. ~I even told myself I don't ~even ~want to run again. I have zero desire to run marathons, zero desire to run ultra marathons, zero desire to run any sort of long run ever.
Maybe I'll run a three to five mile run after this. Well, I'll tell you this. A big reason why I felt that way is because I did so bad with my feeling.
The good thing is since I did give myself so much protein, ~I was. ~I was pretty close to back to normal within 48 or 72 hours ~because my muscles had. ~Because my muscles did have a lot of protein to rebuild themselves, but I immediately felt terrible. And my pace wasn't great for that race. Fast forward a year later. My a hundred K ultra that I won. I fueled ~myself. I feel it ~myself a lot differently. I not only aimed for the higher end of the calorie range. So instead of going for two to 300 calories per hour, I was shooting for about four or 500 calories per hour. I also focused on carbs.
Starting three days before my race Tatyana [00:20:00] started cooking my favorite high carb meals. This included pizza. We did it without cheese because I didn't want to have that added inflammation in my system. During the race, this included homemade bread.
We even made some homemade sun butter and some hummus to make these sun butter and hummus sandwiches. I haven't made a butter sandwich.
And she also made me my favorite muffins. So I prepared all this really healthy high carb, high nutrient foods for my race,
and leading up to the race. I did increase my carbon tech. Now retrospectively I should have even eaten more carbs leading up to the race, but Hey, I still got an even better result than I was aiming for. ~I thought ~my goal was to finish the race in 12 hours.
And if that meant that I was going to top three than I was. I'm going to be really happy with that. And I ended up getting first overall mail. Second overall. Because of how I prepared now, this brings me to my third top long [00:21:00] run nutrition tip ~is ~you need. To bring your own fuel.
I don't know about you, but I've completed dozens of endurance fitness events at this point. And well, there are aid stations. In these longer endurance events. I remember when I was an endurance cyclist and I was doing 80 mile and a hundred mile rides. There'll be a aid station every 15 to 20 miles. Well, the problem with aid stations, and I've seen this across every single endurance event I've ever done, long rides, long runs, marathon short runs, whatever. Any sort of fitness event that has aid stations. The problem is even though they have food at the aid stations, None of it is healthy. And if you don't bring your own food, you have to eat it because you need to get your calories and you need to get that 200 to 500 calories in per hour. Well refueling with [00:22:00] electrolytes. At aid stations. My favorite electrolytes are the liquid Ivy electrolytes. I usually put two to three packs in my Camelbaks while I'm doing long runs. And then I always add two to three more of these. Into my running pack into my running bladder. Whenever I refuel.
But you don't always have to bring this with you, unless there's a specific brand that you want to make sure you have because the aid stations will typically have electrolytes.
They will also typically have some sort of gummies. And they may even have gels. If you're interested in getting some liquid, I V I have it linked in the show notes. If you're listening to this as a podcast, or if you're watching this on YouTube, it is linked in the description below this video. You'll also most likely find shoes and gels, and you may even find salt. At aid stations, but you're also gonna find a bunch of candy and unhealthy foods
now the good thing is that if you do [00:23:00] ingest these unhealthy foods, your body's going to burn them right away, but it still puts you at a disadvantage because a lot of this stuff is highly processed. There's a lot of sugar in it, which may be good from an energy perspective, but it's not great for your body. Well, I told myself that if I was going to continue being a serious endurance athlete and ultimately a professional ultra runner, that the only way I was going to continue doing this was if I didn't have to poison myself at all these aid stations with all of this. Highly processed, highly unhealthy food, which is why going into every race. I am so grateful for. Tatyana's help creating such amazing, healthy food, high carb food ~for me to take on. ~For me to take with me. So I not only eat healthy food for months leading up to the race, I eat healthy food throughout the race as well.
Now, depending on how long your long run is, maybe [00:24:00] you are just doing a 10 or 15 mile run.
Maybe you're doing a 20 mile run. Maybe you're running a marathon. Maybe you're running a 50 K maybe you are gearing up to run a 50 mile, a hundred K or a hundred mile race. Well, you are going to have to check in with your body to see how long your body is. Okay. Eating and processing solid foods, because at some point it's not going to like it very much for me.
I can get away with running a marathon with solid foods. I can get away with a 50 cave, a solid foods, but once we get to the 35, 40 plus mile mark, there's no way I'm eating solid foods anymore for a number of reasons. Along with the fact that my stomach just starts rejecting any type of solid foods and I can't even swallow solid foods anymore. After about 35 miles. My mouth gets tired of chewing and when you're out there for 8, 10, 12 plus hour days, or you get to the 24 hour days, do [00:25:00] you really think that you're going to want to be chewing? 200 to 500 calories per hour. So you're not only racing.
Now you are in an eating competition and a lot of people call ultra running and eating competition because it is, but the reality is what you need to do. And this is my fourth top long run nutrition tip is you need to have a strategy of how do you get these 200 to 500 calories in your system? Without having to chew without having to eat.
Well, I told you that on my first 50 mile race that I did, I had never experienced my jogging so tired. I couldn't chew anymore. I had not experienced my stomach rejecting solid food yet. But I was advised that this was a thing. ~So I brought. So, what I did is I, ~so what I did is I brought these chocolate or gain protein shakes with me that I got from Costco.
~I think they all had 20 or 30. ~I think they might've actually had 30 grams of protein per shake. And this is what I drank and really what I found out is later on in the race, all I could really do is drink those shakes. I could put one [00:26:00] of these gummies in my mouth. I couldn't even chew it. And then I would have my electrolytes in my water and I would literally take the gummy and swallow it whole by washing it down with water because I couldn't show it.
I couldn't really swallow. I kind of tricked my body into ingesting it by taking it down with water. And then I would drink these protein shakes. That is how I was getting my calories. I couldn't eat pretzels anymore. I brought pretzel couldn't any bread anymore. I couldn't eat these cookies anymore.
I think I got half a cookie in at mile 42 and that's it. Well, I knew that I needed a better strategy for my ~a ~hundred K this year.
I knew it was 12 more miles than my 50. So at some point, I was not going to be able to chew and think about it. If you're chewing all day, in addition to running all day, you're actually burning more calories.
~You're putting more, ~you're putting more strain on your body. So if you can figure out how to get 200 to 500 calories per hour into your system, without shoeing, without using your energy to chew, you're actually going to have more energy to do other things. You're going to have more energy to run. So, what did I do? [00:27:00]
I was introduced to the super high carb scratch powder. Now. This powder. Gives me 400 calories per serving. So what I did. Is in every Camelback bladder that I had for my race. ~As ~we put 400 calories of this in it.
And 90 calories of liquid in it. So I have 500 calories. In my pack. I also had two or three of these in every pack and I ate them every lap. ~So each lap was 12. Each ~each lap was 12 and a half miles or around 20 kilometers. It took me about two, two and a half hours to finish each lap. ~So I was automatically getting 250, so ~I was automatically getting 200 to 250 calories into my system every hour, just by drinking. Okay. And then I was eating two or three of these. Well, this is [00:28:00] 160 calories per pack. So three of these is 480 calories. There is your four to 500 calories per hour. And that doesn't include any of the pizza muffins, homemade bread, or all the fruit that we brought with us. So I gave myself a major advantage and every single lap I got a new pack. With 400 calories of this in it.
90 calories of this. And two to three more of these. I felt amazing the entire race, and I felt amazing after the race ~I eat. And even, ~and even though I was limping around, I was not crawling around. I felt great. After my hunter cave race and I won it.
Now I've experimented with a lot of different ways to get my calories in, in liquid form. And this is by far my favorite, which is why I'm linking to the super high carb scratched powder
in the show notes below. And in the description below this video, if you're watching it on YouTube, now my fifth [00:29:00] and final top long run nutrition tip comes back to running as a lifestyle or movement as a lifestyle exercise as a lifestyle. Well, M D Peter a T his research has revealed that if there was one silver bullet in health and wellness, it would be movement. It would be consistent movement or consistent exercise. Because research shows that it decreases all cause mortality rates by 35%.
Just because you start exercising consistently running consistently, maybe even doing long runs consistently. Doesn't mean that you can eat anything you want. I've already talked through today. How even if you're running and you're earning the calories. Maybe making a choice other than a two to 300 calorie IPA. And a unhealthy fast food meal. To refuel yourself ~just might be a better idea. This ~might be a better idea and much healthier on your body in the long-term. The reality is when you [00:30:00] start working out consistently ~running consistently long ~running consistently, you're going to have people tell you, Hey, you're running. You can eat whatever you want. This isn't true. Which is why my fifth and final top long running nutrition tip. Is to track your weight on a weekly basis to see if you're over or under fueling yourself.
This is how we check to see how much you're actually eating and how much you're actually burning. As I shared, I gained 40 pounds leading up to my Honolulu marathon race in 2022. And I did that because I was not tracking my calories. And even if I was tracking my calories, I was not weighing myself because the reality is, if you don't want to take the time to track your calories, great, weigh yourself weekly.
That's going to tell you if you're eating too much or not. And then if you're gaining weight, then you're probably eating too much and you just need to eat less. The reality is just because you're working out doesn't mean that you can just eat whatever you want. ~And that's why I created my, ~and that's why I created my [00:31:00] healthy living guide with my three pillars of healthy living.
~Yes. ~Pillar number one is movement, ~but pillar number two. And pillar and ~pillar number two is tracking and pillar. Number three is accountability. When you take these three pillars and ~you ~put them together, you are empowering yourself to live a healthier life. ~And as a runner ~and as a runner tackling long runs, tackling ultras training for ultra is using long runs.
You are going to start performing even better than you are now. Now I've packaged these three pillars of healthy living and my healthy living guide that I have linked in the show notes. And in the video description, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can also go to www.athletewithasthma.com forward slash healthy dash living dash guide to grab your free copy today ~now. What I teach in this free. ~Now, what I share with you on this guide is only going to take you three minutes or less to read and start integrating into your life. And it is the exact three pillars of healthy living that allowed me to lose 40 pounds and become a competitive [00:32:00] professional ultra runner with asthma. So I highly recommend you grab that free guide. And at the very least start tracking your weight on a weekly basis to see if you're over or even under eating. For my hunter K ultra this year, I weighed myself after my peak week of training. When ~I hit a hundred miles in six days. Where ~I ran a hundred miles in six days. Cause I take every Monday off during training. And I ran 75 miles in three days. And I did this in the mountains around 9,000 elevation. Well, what I found is going into this week, I weighed somewhere around 157 pounds. And at the end of the week, ~even though I thought I was eating. Uh, ~even though I thought I was eating enough, I actually lost five pounds in about seven or eight days. N well, technically running along runner and ultra race at a lower weight. Is going to make you faster ~losing five pounds in a week. ~Losing five pounds in a little over a week due to training ~means that your body probably isn't getting all the nutrients. Probably ~means that your body probably isn't getting the nutrients, it needs to recover. So ~when I saw the weight, ~when I saw the scale, I'm like, ~I need to up my, ~I need [00:33:00] to up my caloric intake significantly with healthy foods.
So when you track your weight, you're not only tracking to make sure that you're not going to gain a ton of weight. You're making sure that you're not losing too much weight, ~especially. I went, especially, ~especially as you get closer to your race, ~one of your goals might be to lose 30 or 40 pounds. ~
~Like I did. ~One of your goals might be to lose 30 or 40 pounds. Like I did leading up to a race. What, what I did in order to do that, Is, I knew my race was about nine or 10 months out when I went to my weight loss journey. So for the first three to four months, my sole goal was to drop the 30 to 40 pounds.
And that's what I did. But I did that before I started my actual training for my race. So I dropped the weight. And then when I got to my hundred and 55 to 160 way, then I started my training program for my 50 mile race. So really important when you're looking at this stuff, it can be really hard on your body to lose weight and train for a race because you're trying to increase your [00:34:00] performance and lose weight by cutting your calories and having a caloric deficit at the same time.
So I highly recommend that you lose the weight first and then go into your strict training for the race. And if you want help with this, remember to grab your free, healthy living guide and I'll see you in the next one.
Thanks for tuning in to the athlete with asthma show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. It's about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals. And if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's [00:35:00] possible.
