Day 132: Professional Help

Sports nutritionist Jaime Windrow to the rescue! We met today for an initial consultation and, let's just say, I have a feeling my days of nausea and swollen fingers while running are soon to be over... The bad news is, from what I learned in our hour long session, the ad hoc advice I've picked up from well-meaning friends and store clerks along the way has been better than nothing, but not great. The good news is, as I suspected, there IS a very precise, optimal way to eat to maximize running performance and I'm about to learn how.

Jaime's got a very passionate, hands-on approach. She seemed genuinely excited to help me and, with a twinkle in her eye, called me "clay to mold!" Yes! Mold me! Let's put my amateur days behind me! I'm dying to learn and thrilled to find a coach who is not only an expert in nutrition, but also a professional athlete herself. Jaime retired recently from a career as a dancer (she was a Rockette) and now competes in triathlons and coaches teams in training. She's book smart and street smart, honest, personable, and super awesome.

I got a glimpse at the kind of program I'll be given. It will tell me how many calories to consume a day, what kind, and when. Jaime already shattered my currently fueling strategy for long runs. She called my Sport Beans "candy!" Damn her... But you know I know she's right. (See Day 92: 9 Miles Thanks to Candy with Benefits.)

Anyway, apparently I need to actually be consuming about 500 calories during a long run, and Jaime was surprised I was able to go 12 without more than the good old Beans, er, I mean candy. She also said a lot of those miles were "empty" miles since I wasn't fueled properly. I was afraid of that...

I'm not going to get bogged down in mistakes of the past. On to the "now." I have lots of paperwork to fill out before we can properly begin so I won't be drastically changing anything about the way I eat just yet. I do think I will try some gel packs again though when I run on Sunday - just making sure this time that they aren't the kind with caffeine!