Rachel Rodriguez • Body
Rachel Rodriguez • Body
Half Marathon: Training After Sickness
Sickness and injuries can be unexpected, especially when training for a half marathon. Shape your mindset to quickly recover and hit the ground running.
Training and Sickness
It can be hard to bounce back after a sickness or injury, that's why focusing on the training program can be beneficial in the long run.
By integrating setback days because unexpected sickness or injury can happen, however being flexible and hitting the ground running once your better, is priceless
Health and Sickness
First, my son was hit rather strongly with an unexpected virus. We went through 4 days of high fever and croup, if you have a toddler you probably know what this is. It sounds like a barking dog or seal, deep coughing that sounds horrible coming from a toddler.
As a result, we tried everything to break his fever and it wouldn’t give so medication was needed. By then, I caught the virus as well and it knocked me out hard. We’re both thankfully recovered and well! My lungs on the other hand were recovering and I needed another week of rest.
Anytime I’m sick I seem to have the same routine, sleep as much as possible. I watch my favorite shows on the couch and drink plenty of water.
This time I binge-watched Real Housewives of Salt Lake City because I was behind on the season, and OC just started. There's something about watching women argue over nothing, while you're sick that is the right combination of fun and peace of mind. I don't want to think and I don't have the energy to watch anything that involves thinking.
As I got better, I noticed that I naturally crave and eat very specific foods while being sick.
My go-to quick fixes are spicy foods, spicy seasoning, and red hot salsa! I will layer this on anything I eat or mix it in soups.
In addition, I add lemon juice and will savor each spoonful of the hot soup I warmed up. While eating it on the couch because I’m sick, and time doesn’t matter when you’re sick. All the while thinking I can’t wait to get better! I can’t wait to break a sweat and run in the sun!
Training After Sickness
I was excited to get back and log in some miles for the week. Unfortunately, that first mile after 2 weeks of no training is tough.
In fact, it's brutal! My lungs were feeling it, and my legs felt heavy. I was determined to push through and run at the very least one mile. I made it to the inclined hill that I’m using as part of my training.
My goal is to build my quads by incorporating more hills into my run. I already reviewed the course that’s provided on the OC Marathon’s website and it shows that there are some hills, slightly inclined and I want to make sure I’m prepared for race day.
The OC Marathon was by choice because it's in the beach cities, we're going to go there for a weekend trip over May 1st and make a full weekend of it for the family.
Originally, I already set up my training schedule for the half marathon. Following training after being sick, I've had to make a few adjustments.
This week I’ll need to make sure that I log in enough miles to gain back my strength and stretch! Tomorrow will be strictly yoga and deep stretching of my limbs.
In preparation, I’m probably going to do have to do 2 days of yoga this week to make sure I prevent injury. And whenever I do yoga my cats will join me, sometimes they jump on my back! I should try and get a picture of it because it makes me laugh every time.
Half Marathon: Running for beginners
Fueling for Recovery
After sickness or after a training session; recovery is key for optimal performance.
As a Registered Dietitian, I'm going to incorporate and build a nutrition training guide along with a fitness guide. For now though, the basic guidelines to nutrition and training to recover quickly. These include eating a carbohydrate + protein snack within 30 minutes of completing a workout.
Especially runs that last longer than 1 hour, eating a small snack is extremely important. Why? Because glycogen stores are being depleted. To put it simply, muscles are used during exercise, they are broken down and in order to get them back to your base level to take on your next workout session. Here are the R's to fuel your recovery:
- Restore- fluids and electrolytes that have been lost through movement and sweat
- Replace- fuel that was lost with carbohydrates
- Repair- muscles with protein to repair and grow them
I've created a FREE download to Shape Your Fitness- Fueling Recovery for you as well.
The purpose behind the 3 R’s
The purpose behind the 3 R’s is to quickly feed your muscles with quality food, proper nutrients so that your body can recover fast! A training mindset is different than an average workout session.
I lost 2 weeks of training because I had an unexpected sickness, that's a fact and I can't change it.
Yet, my mind is more focused now to put on my sneakers and hitting the ground running.
I have about 2 months of training left to reach my goal time. I’ve had to structure my training differently to gain muscle in my quads and increase my cardiac output. So far I’m back on track and getting stronger every day.
What to expect if you don’t fuel for recovery?
The process of recovery can vary from each person, so your recovery is going to be slightly different from my recovery. Typically you’ll see it as 24-48 hours to replenish your glycogen stores.
What to expect if you don’t fuel for recovery?
Expect to feel out of gas! You’ll often feel tired, fatigued, and drained. This might come on quickly or it could be delayed onset and you can crash within a few hours.
In addition, muscles can be sore, you become more prone to injuries and it’ll delay your next training session.
Yet, training should be a priority because the more you train the quicker you become and finish at a better time. That’s my goal anyway.
Since I’ve never run a half marathon before I inputted an estimated average time of 2 hours and 30 minutes, the average pace is about 11min/mile. I compete with myself and want to naturally beat that time.
Smash Your Grape
Integrating life into any workout program is probably one of the smartest things you can do. Life happens, sickness is unexpected, and work can get in the way.
For me, training and recovery is a priority because every week that goes by is less time to put into my training to be prepared for race day.
There was one day when I picked my son up from school, he apparently fell off one of the bikes and hit his head. I asked the teachers if he cried, which they responded with “you know, that’s the funny thing, no he didn’t cry at all!”
I asked my son if he was ok and he told me he was. We teach our son that when you fall you get back up and I relayed that to the teachers. You will fall, you will fail, but get back on that bike and keep going! That’s my focus too, get back up and keep going!
~Rachel
Have A Grapefull Day!