Food Poisoning....Bad For Running!!!

After a great run last Saturday, contributing my 8 miles to the family multi-state relay, I decided on pizza for dinner. That proved to be the worst decision I made in my entire time in Tampa while at the Women's Final Four. Sunday morning I woke up around 5am with diarrhea and was unable to keep food in my stomach, losing my dinner out the other end as well. To attempt keeping this clean and not disgusting, I spent the entire day on Sunday this way. I was unable to keep anything in my body. I could not even sip and keep down water--it was bad. Monday morning, needing to get some nutrition, I consumed a Gu Gel pack (Just Plain) and chased it with some water. Afterward I was finally able to attempt resumption of consumption and was able to keep it down. That was at least a good step in the right direction on the road to recovery. My food intake was not great, but it was something. To wrap this up, it was Wednesday evening when I was finally back on track eating somewhat normal and it was Thursday before the diarrhea ceased. Now, you ask why you had to read through all that. The reasoning was that thanks to me getting a case of food poisoning I did not do any running for FIVE days. Unable to provide my body with any necessary nutrition I did not have the energy to sustain any kind of fitness. I was really frustrated with this because I wanted to run again in Tampa. I thoroughly enjoyed the run along the bay. It was very disappointing that I could not do so.

Upon my return home from Tampa I weighed myself. I looked at the scale and was half surprised to see it read 234. Now, I have not seen 234 with me standing on the scale since November 2002. The reason I was only half surprised at this weigh-in is because not having eaten much of anything in three days my body had turned to the stored fat to get me through when I could not eat. This weigh-in meant that I had lost 7 pounds in the 9 days I was on the road traveling. I figured that I would regain some of that weight as soon as I began eating normal again. Here I am two days later and this morning I weighed in at 235 lbs. I am happy with that and that is what I am calling my current weight.

Having food poisoning that prevents me from meeting my running objectives for the week by keeping me off the road for five consecutive days really stinks to say the least. With a full day of eating normal yesterday I finally had the energy to get out there and run today. Reworking my run plan for the week I managed to get in 7.3 miles today in a time of 1:37:09. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 14:37
Mile 2: 12:18
Mile 3: 14:31
Mile 4: 12:32
Mile 5: 12:37
Mile 6: 13:28
Mile 7: 12:39
Mile .3: 4:23 (14:43 pace)

My overall pace for the 7.3 miles was a 13:18. The breakdown here is I walked Mile 1 for warm up. Aside for having to stop for traffic lights and crosswalks I ran the whole Mile 2--that might be why it is my fastest mile to date. Mile 3 I returned to walking. Starting at Mile 4 I ran until I was at about Mile 5.75 when I returned to walking. Wanting to finish strong I went ahead and ran the majority of Mile 7. It is great for me to see these times at what they are, consistency and improvements. For much of my training I was focused more on getting my endurance up for the distances to be covered, not speed. Therefore I was primarily walking, albeit at a fast rate. Now I am trying to transition into actual running and seeing how long I may maintain the steady speed over distance. Ultimately, this will increase the weight loss, thus allowing me to go faster, which in turn allows for more weight loss and then I cycle through it all over again.

With 7.3 miles in the can today, I plan to contribute another 3.3 miles tomorrow during my family's multi-state fitness day and then another 10 miles on Sunday. Last week the family multi-state fitness relay incorporated 15 members totalling more than 46 miles. We now have accumulated more than 20 family members into the mix. Whether we are walking or running, skating (ice hockey) or swimming (water polo), or whatever tickles our fancy, we are all getting out on Saturday to do something that will help get us and keep us fit. The family outpouring for this now weekly event has been tremendous.

Sunday will mark 2 weeks to my first race, The Oklahoma City Memorial Half Marathon. I am getting excited to finally have a race under my belt, and furthermore, an official time.