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160. How to Avoid Common Fueling and Recovery Mistakes Training for a Half Marathon · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

0:00
Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
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today's episode. The information shared on this
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podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
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and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
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This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
0:13
apply to your situation. If you are looking for
0:15
personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our period recovery
0:18
nutrition coaching program. Our four month period recovery
0:20
program is designed to help you sustainably get your period back
0:23
and keep it. You can apply now to get started
0:25
in our program and we'll leave the link for the program below.
0:27
This is the Eat more Carbs podcast.
0:34
Hello and welcome back. This is the More Carbs podcast.
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We are a team of dietitians and we talk every Thursday about
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sports nutrition for the girlies.
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My name is Jenna and I host this podcast.
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And my name is Riley. You'll also see me on this
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podcast. I am the owner and founder of
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Steady State Performance Nutrition.
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We specialize in helping female athletes recover from low energy
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availability and together along with Lily Rhymer, we are team
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steady state. Before we get into today's
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episode, we are going to share a high and low.
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So sharing just just a little bit about our week, the good and
1:01
the parts we wish we got just a little bit differently.
1:03
As always. Riley, can you kick us off?
1:05
Hello everybody. My low for this week and the
1:09
next couple of weeks is the pollen.
1:12
If you are not from North Carolina, you do not understand
1:15
the weather is yellow. Like that's what they should say
1:18
on the weather app. It should not be sunny or cloudy
1:22
or whatever. It should be yellow because it
1:24
is yellow everywhere outside right now.
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I remember you talking about this last year and you showing
1:31
me outside and like everything looked like it had snowed but it
1:34
was just like a blanket of yellow.
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Do you get bad allergies or reactions from it?
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Or are you lucky and that it doesn't really affect you too
1:41
much? It depends.
1:42
I thought the other day that I was getting sick and then I was
1:46
like freaking out. I was like, I can't get sick
1:47
right now. And then I took an allergy pill
1:49
and I was fine. And so maybe I'm getting weak
1:52
with my old age. I fear you may have some
1:54
seasonal allergies. It's.
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Fine, it's fine. Fine.
1:58
It's fine. What's so hard about this?
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And this is just a first word problem.
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I can get over it. The weather is the best and then
2:05
it's yellow outside. Like the temperature outside
2:08
during this time of the year is it's beautiful outside, but then
2:12
you're like. And like you're coated.
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I was sitting outside because we have like picnics for our meals
2:18
with Charlie. I would wipe off my watch like
2:20
every two minutes and there would be a yellow film on it.
2:22
That's disgusting. It's fine.
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It's good for the environment, it's good for everything to get
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pollinated. It's the first one problem.
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I just, we talked about this with like highs like some of
2:32
those like day-to-day things, like they just.
2:35
Really, Irk. Yeah.
2:36
Oh yeah. What about your high?
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I don't know if this is a high, I don't know if this is a low,
2:39
depending on how you feel about this, But we have to talk about,
2:42
as two fellow book girlies, how do we feel about the new Harry
2:46
Potter? OK, I'm so glad you asked me
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about this. I love Harry Potter, I love the
2:52
books. I've read them all multiple
2:54
times. My husband's big joke is that
2:56
like I read 8 books a year and seven of them are Harry Potter.
2:59
And I will always forever love and cherish the movies too.
3:01
And I'm actually really excited about the new series because I
3:05
saw the commercial and I think that they like casted it or it
3:09
appears that they casted it really well and they almost made
3:12
it feel from the preview that it was a lot more what I envisioned
3:16
when I first read the book. And so it made me feel like
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there was a lot more are true to the story of the actual book.
3:22
And I'm excited to watch it. Like nothing will ever replace
3:25
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter for me, but I'm still really
3:28
excited. I thought they did a really good
3:29
job casting the kids too. Like I feel like the kids are so
3:34
like, so good. And like even Malfoy, like he's
3:37
a little F boy. I'm like, this is it.
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I think what's so crazy as I grew up reading the books.
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You grew up reading the books. Our first introduction to Harry
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Potter was the books. But Charlie, her first
3:50
introduction, is probably going to be this new series because
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she's not going to be old enough to read the books or comprehend
3:56
them. And then she'll probably see
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them on TV. And like, that is what's going
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to shape her Harry Potter experience.
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I love that that's how Charlie gets to experience Harry Potter
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too. It's like a new and fun,
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exciting way to view it. But still that same and exciting
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story about like friendship, all of that good stuff that we grew
4:12
up with. So I'm so excited.
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For her, yeah. Crazy.
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I love that. OK.
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I think that's a huge tie. I think that I definitely have
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mixed feelings about it, though, because I love Harry Potter too.
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Like I used to read Harry Potter at every spring break.
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Like that was my thing. I was like, my parents were
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like, we're going to the beach. I'm like, OK, we can go alone.
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Like I'm on the sand with a book.
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But I don't think I was like, I need more Harry Potter.
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Like I don't know if I was at that cycle yet where I was like,
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I need more of it, but I'm excited for it.
4:38
Yeah, me too. What about you?
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What's your high and your low? I think I'm going to share my
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high first. I can't.
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Well, I kind of have to because it's the same story.
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My brother came to visit us over the past weekend, which was
4:47
super fun. So glad that he came down here
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for a quick short trip. One of the things that we love
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to do when my brother is in town is we love to go try Thai food
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because my brother is a huge Thai food fan.
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We really like Thai food and there's a few really good Thai
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restaurants in Phoenix. We usually go to the same ones
5:02
or we end up a lot of times at the same ones because there's
5:04
some of like the best restaurants here I think and
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some of my brother's like favorites.
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My husband had the idea. This whole story is like full of
5:11
highs and lows, truthfully, so I don't even know if I should
5:13
start with a low or high, but my husband had the idea of going to
5:16
try a new one and I was like, OK, sure, we can go try some
5:20
someplace new. That's a great idea.
5:22
And he's like, there's no reservations, but we'll show up
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right when the place opens and hopefully we'll get a spot like
5:27
fairly quickly. And I was like, sure, I'm good
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with that. We go at 5:00.
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We're some of the first people there and they told us it's
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already going to be an hour and a half wait.
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I didn't have any snacks with me for this hour and a half wait.
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So that was definitely a low and I was so hangry by the time that
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we actually got seated to have our meal.
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We sit down and I share that like I'm allergic to shellfish
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and they hand me like the shellfish safe menu and it's
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like over 75% of it has been blocked out.
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Like I can't have it because they use so much shrimp in all
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of their Curry dishes. I look at my husband and I'm so
6:00
hungry and I'm like, I think I'm going to cry because I'm so
6:04
hungry. And he's like, you are so
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dramatic. It's going to be fine.
6:07
We had one of the best waiters and he was so great about like
6:10
helping me walk through the menu and making sure that we kind of
6:12
got a little bit of everything to try because it's very family
6:15
style. And Riley, I'm not kidding.
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This might be like top five meals I've ever had in my life.
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It was so good. What did y'all get?
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So they got 2 Curry dishes that like I couldn't eat, but there
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was a vegan Curry dish that I could eat that didn't have any
6:28
shrimp in it. We got a whole bunch of
6:30
different dishes that like played off of bamboo and then we
6:34
got some chicken. We had a mango salad that was
6:37
incredible. And I think one of like my
6:39
favorite things, which usually isn't my favorite, was like they
6:42
had this like pork and noodle dish.
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And like usually that wouldn't be something that I would have
6:46
picked off the menu, but the guy was like, it's so good, you need
6:48
to try it. And it was phenomenal.
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I like spice and like this was spicy.
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We ordered way too much of it for the three of us.
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Like we wanted to try a little bit of everything.
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So we took a lot of leftovers home.
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And this is definitely my low despite the fact that it was one
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of the best meals that I've ever had.
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My husband and I, after my brother left, had it for
7:04
leftovers the next night on Monday.
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You know how spicy food just gets spicier as it just kind of
7:09
like. Marinades.
7:10
Both of us were like sitting there at the table like dying
7:13
and I was like I do not remember it being this spicy and like I
7:16
had to have my yogurt immediately after the meals
7:20
because it was so spicy. I felt like you.
7:23
Do so good with spice. Though I like spice so I was
7:27
like Oh my God I mean so good but like it was way too spicy
7:31
for me at that point. It's like the worst you like
7:33
can't get it out of your. Mouth.
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Yeah, so that's my high and my low.
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If anybody needs Thai food recommendations and you're in
7:39
Phoenix, please retouch. OK, well when I come back or
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when we come back, Lily and I, we have to go a. 100% but I'm
7:45
making sure we have a reservation because your girl
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ain't waiting that long again. I would have not done it.
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I would have not waited 90 minutes like I would have missed
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out. On today's episode, we do have
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Lily on. Lily is one of our other
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performance dietitians here at Steady State Performance
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Nutrition to help talk through a topic and highlight a little bit
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more about something Lily did just recently.
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And I'm actually so excited for today's episode because today we
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are talking about Lily's most recent race, first half
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marathon, that she recently ran. Yes, I'm so excited to give the
8:13
recap. So Lily, First off, like how did
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you decide? Because like we have talked
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openly about how we didn't force you into running or anything
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like that. Nothing along those lines.
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Riley and I obviously talk a lot about our running, but what made
8:26
you decide to run a half marathon and what made you
8:29
decide to pick the one that you did?
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OK, so I was a youth athlete. I played volleyball all growing
8:36
up. And then of course I didn't
8:38
continue on into college, so I stopped after high school.
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In college, my workout kind of just looks like whatever I could
8:45
fit in and running was a free activity that I didn't have to
8:49
pay for. So I was like, great, let's run
8:51
to my roommates were things like that.
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So I kind of was always around runners and I actually ran the
8:58
cow town half marathon, which is in Fort Worth, TX and I went to
9:02
Texas Christian University, which is also in Fort Worth.
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So I've kind of been around the cow town half marathon marathon
9:09
for all of my schooling. So that's kind of where I ended
9:13
up doing the cow town. But I really decided that I
9:16
wanted to challenge myself with something hard physically
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because the most I had ever run was a 10K.
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So I was like, you know, it's it's like it's time to do
9:23
something hard. Let's do a half my thought.
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That's how I ended up deciding I wanted to do it.
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Alright, you heard it here folks.
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We did not force Lily into running this race.
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She decided she wanted to do this.
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Yes, for sure. They are definitely inspirations
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to me though, and that seeing especially Riley was running the
9:41
New York City Marathon and also just Jenna with being consistent
9:45
in her running and all those things.
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It definitely felt like I knew that I could do it too because
9:51
they were doing it and staying so active and doing all kinds of
9:54
cool things. So you guys were definitely
9:56
inspirations, but not forcefully making me do it.
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Well, that you didn't feel forced into doing that for sure,
10:02
because 1/2 marathon is not. It's not a short.
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Race, Yeah, it definitely is not.
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And I it feels like not that big of a deal anymore, which I don't
10:11
know how others feel about it, but I know especially in my age
10:15
group, like the post grad, everyone's running a half
10:18
marathon. So when I first signed up for
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it, it didn't feel like that big of a deal.
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Then I started training and I was like, Oh yeah, this is a big
10:26
deal. I think we've really like, we
10:28
don't appreciate races anymore and like the distances, like we
10:32
don't appreciate the marathon. We don't appreciate appreciate
10:34
the half because a lot of people are doing them.
10:37
And then with social media, we're getting fed the running
10:40
influencers and running is their job.
10:42
And so you know, they will run a 111 half marathon.
10:46
And that's what we're seeing. They just, they make it look so
10:49
easy. They make it look so simple and
10:51
it's not. Actually had a conversation
10:52
about this with a client the other day about how how many
10:55
marathons should you actually be trying to run in a year?
10:58
Because with so many of those running influencers, they're
11:00
running upwards of like 10 marathons, multiple half
11:03
marathons in a year. And again, like that's their
11:06
job, but maybe not the rest of us.
11:08
That's a realistic goal because we've talked about this so many
11:10
times. Like Lily, I'm sure you felt
11:11
this, but like it took up a lot of your time for training.
11:14
Speaking of your training and all of the running that you then
11:17
incorporated knowing that like you'd run in the past and that
11:20
wasn't an unfamiliar thing. But like, how did training
11:23
change your fueling? Like what steps did you take to
11:25
make sure that you were adequately fueled for those
11:27
increases in mileage and maybe changes with what you were doing
11:31
from an exercise and movement standpoint to then incorporating
11:33
like training more specific training plan for running 1/2
11:36
marathon? Yeah.
11:37
So I had kind of in my graduate year, I honestly took a break
11:42
from running. Like I did not run at all when I
11:44
was in grad school. I just was really busy.
11:46
It wasn't a priority of movement for me.
11:48
And I just kind of took a break. So I kind of started as a
11:51
beginner, like I hadn't run like more than a couple of miles for
11:56
like months, probably close to a year.
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So I really started off at 0 being completely honest in my
12:03
first month, I was not intentional with my feeling at
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all. And I think that that was a big
12:10
lesson for me. And it might sound shocking
12:12
coming from a performance dietitian to say that, but I do
12:16
feel like I fell into the mindset that maybe a lot of our
12:19
athletes or people listening can relate to of that.
12:22
I felt like because I was at the beginning, I wasn't doing that
12:26
much. I wasn't running that much
12:28
because realistically my Mudge wasn't that high.
12:30
But I went from running zero days a week doing other movement
12:34
to to running three to four times a week.
12:36
So my initial fueling strategy was of course, eating carbs all
12:41
the time, but I wasn't being intentional with it at all.
12:44
And so I followed the basic guidelines of having carbs at
12:48
all of your meals, snacks, of course, and then feeling around
12:51
training. But my portion sizes weren't
12:53
there. And so throughout my first month
12:56
of training, I had a wake up moment because as my mileage was
13:00
going up, I was not recovering as I should have been.
13:02
That's when I had to have kind of a stop and look at what I was
13:07
doing and the realization moment that just because I'm not like
13:11
these running influencers and running 1,000,000 miles a week,
13:14
I'm still running and I'm still doing enough movement that I
13:18
need to fuel accordingly. So I had to check myself pretty
13:22
hard, honestly in my first month and really be intentional with
13:25
my carb intake. And that's when training just
13:28
turned around for me and it became so much more enjoyable
13:32
and my recovery was so much better and I was able to do so
13:35
much more. So I know we talk about it all
13:37
the time, but eat more carbs. It does work.
13:40
Also think too like as you go through the training process,
13:43
the standard changes for training and as you increase
13:47
mileage, right, you start to say things like, oh, I'm just
13:50
running 6 miles because your long one last week was 8 miles,
13:54
right? And it's not that length of
13:56
distance, but you're, I guess you're normal or your standard
13:59
changes. And I think sometimes that's
14:01
really eye opening too for athletes as they start a running
14:05
journey or even if they start in a different sport because like
14:09
Gurley's, like 6 miles is a lot like, it's not just six miles.
14:12
Like, that's still a big kind of training.
14:15
Yes. And I think the transition like
14:17
you said from like trying a new sport essentially of I've always
14:21
been active, I've always done different things, but running's
14:24
just completely different from what I was doing.
14:26
And So what I thought was good enough or what I was doing
14:30
previously, which was more of like a strength training group
14:32
class type setting was not enough for me.
14:36
Half marathon training. I think that comparison can be
14:39
such a dangerous game when it comes to starting essentially a
14:43
new sport because you are comparing what you're doing now
14:45
to what you did previously. But then as you start to build,
14:48
just like Riley mentioned, all of a sudden you're like, oh,
14:50
it's only 6 miles in comparison to the 8 that you ran, or it's
14:53
only 8IN comparison to the fact that the running influencer that
14:56
you follow ran 100 miles this week.
14:58
And so because of that, we almost convince ourselves that
15:01
like we don't need the fuel or that's a reason why we don't
15:04
don't need fuel because we're comparing it to something else.
15:07
And in reality, especially when you're starting something that's
15:10
going to require a tremendous amount of energy, which running
15:12
does, We have to be so intentional about those things.
15:15
One of those things we have to be really intentional about is
15:16
intra run fueling. Knowing that that probably
15:18
wasn't part of your practice prior to starting half marathon
15:22
training, how did that go for you as far as like working that
15:25
in trialing that on those runs where you felt like intra run
15:28
was an important component to keep you going?
15:30
Yeah, honestly, inter run fueling like changed the game
15:34
for me. Also of course, we say like if
15:36
we're over 90 minutes or around the 60 to 90 minute threshold,
15:41
that's when we start incorporating into runs.
15:43
So a good portion of my training prior to that, I was not at that
15:47
threshold because I was starting from zero.
15:48
So like month one and month two, I rarely ran more than like a
15:53
10K or stuff like that. And then once I hit that
15:56
threshold where I was getting into higher mileage in my week
15:58
as a total and then also just my long runs, I loved incorporating
16:04
to run fuel. Like I noticed such an immediate
16:07
difference of what previously if I had not done intra run fuel,
16:11
the thought of running 8 miles seems impossible.
16:14
Like I was like, there's no way I could run 8 miles or above.
16:18
But once I started practicing with intrafuel, I was like, I
16:21
can totally do this. Like this is great.
16:23
And so I really utilized a lot of like sports drinks and then
16:28
tried out the nerd gummy clusters.
16:30
I'm not a big fan of chewing a lot and you have to have a lot
16:34
of the gummy clusters when you are using that as interfuel
16:38
because it's like 13 pieces for one serving of carbs.
16:41
And so that was something I trialled with and then I landed
16:44
on doing gels with a sports drink.
16:47
Besides inter run fueling, you talked about increasing
16:50
carbohydrates. Did you do anything else besides
16:54
just inter run fueling with carbohydrates?
16:56
So my meals were honestly a really big place that I worked
17:00
on and that was just being intentional BC you can build a
17:04
plate and be like, that's enough.
17:06
But I was someone who fully had to pull out the measuring cups
17:09
because I was not being intentional with it and being
17:12
like, OK, I need, I can't just eyeball how much rice is on my
17:17
plate. Like I need to relearn how much
17:19
rice is enough on my plate And doing that.
17:22
And I wasn't really intentional with you measuring cups and
17:26
things like that for about a week to a week and 1/2 until I
17:29
tried a variety of different foods and really got a good
17:32
handle of what that looked like on a plate.
17:34
So it wasn't like I was intensely tracking or anything,
17:37
but revisiting portion sizes was a really big thing for me in
17:40
training. I'm really glad you brought that
17:42
up because I think a lot of times people are surprised by
17:45
the portion that they actually have on their plate.
17:47
We talk about carbs so often with the athletes that we work
17:49
with. And I'll say like, OK, we're
17:51
going to add a serving of pasta. That's about a cup of pasta or
17:53
whatever it is that we're working on to your plate.
17:55
And then they're like, OK, I did it.
17:57
And then when we're looking at their food log, when we're
17:59
looking at the journal photo that they've uploaded, I'm like,
18:01
that's definitely not a cup of pasta.
18:04
And some, sometimes using those measuring tools can be
18:06
incredibly helpful. Not that we wanted to just like
18:08
you didn't use them for forever, but sometimes it can be really
18:11
eye opening to use that and be like, oh wow, I am drastically
18:14
undershooting how much carbohydrate I'm actually
18:17
getting in. And it can be really eye opening
18:19
for a lot of. People, yeah.
18:20
And honestly, I think for me, it wasn't a situation of of course
18:24
I was having carbs at every meal, but little things do add
18:28
up. So if I was half a serving or a
18:30
serving short of carbs at each meal, that's 3 servings of carbs
18:35
a day that I'm missing out on that I need.
18:38
And so just because I wasn't that far off, I saw the impact
18:42
in my performance because of it. What are some of your favorite
18:44
carbohydrates that you added or utilized?
18:47
I'm a big mix and matcher, so when I was focusing on
18:51
increasing my carbohydrates, I did a lot of like bowls where I
18:55
would have like sweet potato and rice or things like that.
18:58
I am a big pasta girl. I love pasta, so that was
19:02
another big one that I have regularly.
19:04
I love bagels. Bagel is part of my breakfast
19:07
every single morning, but I ended up having to like add
19:09
stuff to the side. So liquid energy was a big thing
19:13
for me at breakfast time and then also just throughout the
19:15
day. Like I really utilized liquid
19:18
energy sources like chocolate milk, sports drinks, especially
19:21
initially when my appetite might have not been used to the
19:25
carbohydrate amount that I was doing.
19:26
Somebody's listening to this and is resonating with your story,
19:30
but they're scared to add carbohydrates in.
19:33
What would you tell that individual?
19:35
I would say that I totally saw the proof in the pudding.
19:38
There was an immediate change that I noticed in my recovery.
19:43
And I am a performance dietitian.
19:45
I talk about this all day. I talk about feeling and
19:48
training and all these things and doing it for myself was so
19:51
eye opening of how challenging it can be when we're not being
19:55
intentional. But intentional did turn into
19:58
intuitive for me and that feeling of having to track or
20:01
having to have that aspect of control.
20:04
When we're increasing, our fueling can be intimidating, but
20:08
like for me, it took a week to a week and a half of just trying
20:11
different carb sources to make sure I knew how much needed to
20:14
be on my plate to then be able to do that in an intuitive
20:18
fashion. With that becoming something
20:20
that was a little bit more intuitive, did you have a
20:22
specific plan for race day fueling that maybe was a little
20:26
bit less intuitive, maybe a little bit more planned and
20:29
intentional? Yes.
20:30
So I did do a full day carb load before I decided to do for
20:34
myself and I practiced that I did before my last my longest
20:40
run, which was 10 miles. I did that a day and a half
20:43
before of a carb load just to see what that really looks like
20:47
in regards to how many carbs I need to have what that looks
20:50
like. And a nice thing about our
20:53
clients and people who work with us is we get to do that math for
20:56
them and really layout what their day looks like.
20:58
But for me it was me doing it for myself.
21:00
So I did actually like end up tracking and figuring out how
21:05
that looked for my day carb wise.
21:07
So that way when it came to the day before race day, I didn't
21:10
have that pressure of being like, oh, I need to go figure
21:13
out how many carbs are in each of my meals.
21:15
I knew what was going to work. I knew what I needed to have on
21:19
standby and things like. That I think that is such a
21:22
valuable like exercise. That is something that I did
21:25
when I was also like training for the New York City because
21:29
it's so easy to sometimes I just like think that we're eating
21:32
enough and measuring things out. And I actually before my carb
21:35
load, I tracked how much I was doing.
21:37
I tracked how many carbs I was consuming because like you,
21:40
right, intentional kind of becomes intuitive.
21:42
But then when you need to be really intentional for something
21:45
like a carb load, understanding at least where your baseline is
21:48
and then what you have to hit can be really helpful.
21:50
Because again, I think it's really easy to think like we're
21:53
doing enough, but we have to be intentional about that.
21:55
Yeah, for sure. And I did see, of course, when I
21:58
first tried it, I had to make sure that I was prioritizing
22:03
those carbs. And I feel like sometimes it
22:05
feels not necessarily backwards because we know that there's a
22:08
purpose for it. But having to almost like not
22:13
focus at all on other macro nutrients for the day and be
22:17
like, I need the carbs. I need to get as much as I
22:20
possibly can. And like, we're having Gatorade
22:23
all day, We're having orange juice.
22:24
Like that's what we're doing was a game changer for me.
22:28
And I mean I was able to complete my race, so it worked.
22:32
Did your fueling strategy work out for you like leading up to
22:35
and on race day? Before race day, Car blow did
22:38
workout. I ended up having to do a late
22:42
night gas station stop the night before to get a bedtime snack
22:46
because I did in fact forget to bring one.
22:48
But I was a girl who was bringing a toaster into my hotel
22:51
room so that way I could do a bagel in the morning and things
22:54
like that. But my race day fueling strategy
22:58
did not go completely to plan. And that is because when this is
23:03
probably just a rookie mistake. It was my first race guys, but
23:06
they said that they were going to have Gatorade and water at
23:09
all the aid stations. There was no Gatorade.
23:12
So whenever I went to any of the aid stations, they were like, we
23:15
don't have any more. And so I had accounted for that
23:20
and like my hourly carb rate that I was going to do.
23:22
Like I was like, OK, if they have these little cups, like I
23:25
need to do 2 at each one and I'll be good.
23:27
Like my goal rate that I kind of had practiced with.
23:30
And so I packed a gel for every 3 miles, which is around every
23:34
30 minutes and then at every 1.5 I was going to do Gatorade.
23:38
So kind of alternating there. That quickly went S when there
23:42
was no Gatorade and I was like, Oh no, what am I going to do
23:45
with my wonderful fiance met me at mile six with a Gatorade and
23:49
we filled up my little water bottle.
23:51
And so that way I could alternate.
23:53
But I did go 6 miles without having that Gatorade aspect.
23:58
And so we always stressed with our clients to have a plan.
24:00
BI did not listen to my own advice with that and I did not
24:04
like have extra gels just in case.
24:06
I really put faith into the race that they would have Gatorade.
24:09
So that was the one thing that didn't go as well as I wanted.
24:13
But other than that, it went to plan.
24:15
Shout out to Noah though, for bringing a Gatorade halfway
24:18
through. Yes, he was great.
24:19
He chased me all around. He met me at mile 32 to take my
24:23
quarter zip because I started the race with a quarter zip on.
24:27
He took that and brought me like an allergy pill cause the pollen
24:30
was really high and like so he was a trooper.
24:33
He met me three times throughout the race and we made a little
24:37
race day bag for him to chase me around with.
24:39
I had like extra hair ties and everything for me to get
24:42
whenever I needed it so he was great.
24:44
Other than maybe the feeling, is there anything that you would
24:46
have changed about race day other than the Gatorade?
24:49
Honestly no, I think that otherwise it went really well
24:53
for my first one. Here's $1,000,000 question.
24:56
Are you going to do another one? Right now there is not an exact
25:00
plan for another one, but I definitely could see myself
25:04
doing another one in the future. Honestly, I feel like High Rocks
25:07
might be the next move for me. That might be something that I
25:12
start thinking about training for.
25:14
I get married at the end of this year and so right now my
25:18
training is kind of just being happy and training with what I
25:21
like. I don't necessarily want to add
25:23
the stress of training for a race on top of having a wedding.
25:27
So it'll be a after wedding type thing that I explore.
25:31
But usually there's a High Rocks in Dallas at the end of November
25:34
and I could maybe make that work.
25:36
So that's kind of what's on the radar.
25:38
What was your favorite experience as far as the whole
25:42
time with training the actual race?
25:44
Like what was the best part in your opinion?
25:46
100% race day. I mean, it was just my first
25:48
time ever experiencing something like that.
25:51
Like I've never done a 5K or like an organized race like
25:54
that. And so that was great.
25:57
Another thing, I talked about it on my stories too, but I used
26:01
the Rally app and I literally want to be spawned by this app
26:05
because it is so amazing. But it's where people can submit
26:10
voice notes for you every mile. And it was so fun because it
26:14
doesn't tell you who submits the voice notes.
26:17
And so it was like a surprise in my ear every mile.
26:19
So and I also just got to hear from someone that I loved like
26:22
every 10 minutes essentially and that was just so amazing.
26:26
Like the first 3 miles I was so like wrapped up in the
26:30
atmosphere and I only did like 1 headphones that way I could hear
26:33
the voice. No I'm literally like crying
26:36
listening to these voice notes while I'm running along to this
26:40
great race. Like the atmosphere was great at
26:42
the beginning. So I absolutely loved both of
26:45
those, like just the atmosphere and then also the app definitely
26:49
kept me going and made it feel so much faster.
26:52
I had to hold myself back from not submitting multiple of them
26:56
because when I went on to record, there were a couple
26:58
times or miles open still and I was like, well, I could do more
27:01
than one, but I was like, she has plenty of people that are
27:04
going to things. I thought that was such a fun
27:06
way to like, I don't know, cheer you on because like, I feel like
27:09
there's so many times when I've had people that are running
27:11
races that I'm tracking and like, I wish I could like, yell
27:14
at them when I'm not, you know, far away or in a different state
27:16
to like, keep going or, you know, they say something nice.
27:19
So I thought that was a really cool thing that you did and had
27:22
a friends and family be a part of.
27:23
Yeah, Jenna, yours was so like motivational, like you started
27:27
out with a bag and I was like OK Jenna, like let's keep going
27:31
because you did it right after halfway and you're opener was
27:34
like how good does it feel to be halfway done?
27:37
And I was like, you're right Jenna, I am halfway done, like
27:41
let's go. So yours was great and Riley's
27:44
was great too. I saw that mile 7 was open and I
27:47
was like, oh heck yeah. I was like, that's my mile.
27:49
Yeah. I didn't even look at the other
27:51
ones, so I just knew I wanted that one.
27:53
Is there anything that you would give as a piece of advice to
27:56
another first time half marathon runner that like would be your
27:59
biggest take away from this? Experience.
28:01
Be intentional with feeling from the beginning.
28:03
I know it probably sounds cheesy coming from a person who talks
28:06
about food all the time, but I'm one who went through it not
28:10
necessarily in like a purposeful wrong way, but just a lack of
28:15
lack of intentionality with it. And I think that I didn't have
28:18
the best time that first month of training, being completely
28:21
honest, because I didn't know if it was a mix of me not feeling
28:25
properly or me just adapting to running, which I'm sure that
28:28
also played a role in. But I think it would have gone,
28:31
I would have enjoyed that part of training a lot more at the
28:34
beginning if I just had started out more intentional with it.
28:38
Heard it here. Intentionality with fueling the
28:40
entire time that you are running.
28:42
Can you show us your metal? Oh yeah.
28:44
So the metal, it rings. So I'm going to try and be
28:47
silent with it, but it's a little cowboy hat and it has a
28:52
little like cowbell type situation thing like an ornament
28:56
on a tree. Yep, that's my medal.
28:58
That may be without a doubt one of the coolest medals from a
29:00
race I have. Ever seen?
29:01
Yeah. I was so excited to see this
29:04
because of course they change every year and last year's was
29:07
not as cool so this one's really cool.
29:09
I was going to say next company offsite, can we go run that
29:11
marathon so that way I can get that medal because I want it?
29:14
Yeah, for real. I love it.
29:15
Lily, if people have questions for you, what is the best way
29:18
for them to ask those questions about your experience,
29:20
Experience with this half marathon specifically?
29:22
You can find me on Instagram, just DM me.
29:24
I'm an open book when it comes to it, specifically about the
29:27
cow town or just in general and my Instagram's Lily dot rymer
29:31
dot nutrition. It'll also be in the show notes.
29:34
If you do have additional questions about this specific
29:36
episode or have suggestions for future episodes, the things you
29:39
want to hear on the More Carbs podcast, please leave those in
29:41
the comments section of this podcast.
29:43
Just like Lily mentioned, if you do have additional questions for
29:46
any of us individually, you can find us online.
29:48
You can find Lily at Lily dot rymer dot nutrition, you can
29:51
find Riley at Riley dot Beatty dot nutrition, and you can find
29:54
me at Jenna dot Fisher dot nutrition.
29:56
Thank you so much, Lily, for sharing about your experience
29:58
running the Cowtown Half Marathon.
30:00
And thank you all so much for listening to this episode.
30:02
Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
30:04
And as always, remember to eat more carbs.