food

"Feed a cold and starve a fever" they say.

Strange that even though I thought the lack of exercise and feeling generally blah would kill my appetite, the reverse has happened. I've been scoffing solidly for two days and, miraculously, am starting to feel better.

So much so that I revisited the scene of my crimes last week -- yes at last I got back to the track. Took a VERY easy two-mile warm-up jog/run up and down the slopes round the lake. For some reason my left Achilles has been screaming at me all day, but as I warmed up, so did it, and I was fine.

Bobby Bostic, who recently ran the North Pole Marathon as a fundraiser for CFA, invited me to sit at the table he sponsored at the Challenged Athletes Foundation Celebration of Heroes, Heart and Hope benefit. I accepted not only for the opportunity to attend this amazing event, but also to meet him in person, finally, after exchanging comments and messages on-line here.

With all of this Powerbar contest hype, I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about food; more specifically - what on earth is going to keep me going for the five days between the time I leave my house on April 2nd and the time the gun goes off (assuming there is a gun) at the start of the North Pole Marathon on April 7th?

Both my wife and I are vegetarians (well, no meat except for fish) and are generally fairly picky about what we eat (me more so than my wife who has nicknamed me "eating disorder Bobby" for my fondness of everything that is not fattening). When I inquired about meal options at the North Pole, I got a rather discouraging e-mail from the race director letting me know (and I quote):

A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine shows that eating any source of protein and sugar immediately after finishing a workout helps athletes grow larger and stronger muscles (November 2006).
Athletes train by taking a very hard workout that damages muscles. They can tell that their muscles are damaged by the delayed [...]