Caloric Pontifications

It's sort of funny, but I've been meaning to post about food and issues associated with, when I saw a new post at a blog I read about the very same thing. I love this blog from a friend of Katie's, who is training for an Ironman--wow. Just wow. And it reminded me I haven't expounded upon my recent revelations about food yet.

When Tim and I are in the mountains, I often bonk. And I can bonk hard, too. It's something I've only been recently overtly aware of. I've bonked running before, but never during a race or run or workout--only after. Usually it only happens after a race as it's really hard for me to eat before competition. So that always made sense.

But the mountain thing was really perplexing. I can usually feel it coming and am sure to stop everyone so I can eat before we have a "situation," but it's still hard to recover from an especially severe bonk.

When we came back from Peru, I did a little investigating. I noticed that our first climbing day, we motored up the approach after some granola and sugary milk for breakfast. Within about 3 hours I was already bonking and needing frequent gel stops. The second day, when we actually succeeded, we took it entirely differently. We had the same breakfast, but we stopped often for food and water. After the summit, on the way down, we continued to eat--peanut butter and nutella sandwhiches and bars, blocks and gu. Way more food than I usually eat. But I felt like I needed even more. Right after eating a sandwhich, I still felt a little out of it.

Later, a simple calorie calculator told me that climbing with a pack on for 8 hours is about equivalent to 5,000 calories burned. WHAT? Factor in altitude and how hard I work to get back down, and we're looking at 7,000-8,000 calories burned in just 8 hours. Normal people my size who excercise are supposed to consume about 2,000 calories a day. This is about what I consume.

I don't know about you, but I gagged a little bit when I heard that Michael Phelps consumes 10,000 calories on competition days. The thought of eating that much makes me ill. I don't know how it's physically possible to consume enough to keep a high level of energy in the mountains. Eating often helped--I even got a summit, but I never felt good and the amount we were consuming was pushing it for me.

Just like any normal female, and maybe especially female athlete, I have always had a strained relationship with food. I am always thinking about food and my size and how I look compared to others. I mentally punish myself or congratulate myself according to what I've eatten that day. Lately, I don't avoid what I want, but I sure as hell feel guilty about it. Difficult relationships with food go hand-in-hand with middle distance running for females--it's actually not that hard to starve yourself and still do relatively well. But when you move into endurance sports, all bets are off. There's just no way to do what you want without the right amount of fuel.

Tim has a favorite story he loves to tell vegetarians about me. We were out one spring day, skinning up and skiing down a 14er in Colorado. I was doing it on half a bagel sandwhich and so was lightly bonking all day. At the time, I wasn't eating red-meat at all, and very little meat in general. By the time we got to the bottom, all I could think of was a huge, juicy cheeseburger. I didn't get one that night, but I did dream (and I mean obsessively) of them for a solid week before I finally had one and became a life-convert. This was my first big lesson in caloric consumption in the moutains.

And so, now, as I move into totally new running territory, I have to wonder, what is the right amount for me? What can I handle without flipping out? Can I physically consume enough that it won't be an issue? Will I consume too much and balloon? Can I allow myself to healthily get what I need to do I want? Stay tuned--we'll see. . .