[violetgorman]

Hey guys,
I love coolrunning.com. I've been all over that board for over a year now (also as Effie, in case you see me there!). In the past few months, I haven't been posting much, since I hadn't been running much. Now I think I'm back in the groove. I did a 5 mile race yesterday, and finished well under my goal time. I wanted to beat 1 hour, and I finished in 52:47 -- a 10:34 pace. My first 3 miles were right on an 11:10/mile pace. Then, at about mile 3, I decided that I wanted to beat a pack of runners up ahead of me. I picked up the pace and did mile 3 in 10 minutes. Then at mile 4, I saw my cousin's boyfriend (his first race ever), and I knew that I HAD to beat him too. I ran the last mile in about 9 minutes! I was dying, but I managed to beat him by a hair. We were really battling it out for the win for the whole last 1/2 mile. What a great feeling! It's definitely more efficient to run a 9 minute mile than an 11 minute mile, but I never feel like I had the strength/energy/motivation to run that fast. It's amazing what a little competition can do!

And now I should make this post relevant to Patty's question The day before the race, I had popcorn at the movies then pizza for supper. I also had a huge oatmeal raisin cookie. The morning of the run, I had one slice of lower carb toast (6g carbs) with peanut butter. I definitely did not have a problem with energy. The last 5 mile race I did was the first weekend after I started Atkins. My time was 58:16, an 11:39 pace (more than a minute slower). I felt like crap the whole time and puked an hour after the race was done. I'm sure this was due to Induction, and now my body is more adjusted to what I'm eating. However, I definitely think that adding carbs the day before a run helps, though I'm not saying that runners should eat pizza and cookies either