Rest Day

Everyone keeps telling me that I need rest days, though I don't know why considering that I've run daily for the last couple of years. Maybe the increased mileage will take its toll. But anyway, today is my elected rest day.

I'm going to head over to Woodbridge Running on my lunch break to pick up my new running shoes.

I plan to take a lengthy run this weekend. I'm thinking in the 12-17 miles range.


The Diet:

People keep asking me about my diet, so I thought I'd expound.

Most of my calories come from fruit. I also eat a ton of vegetables. About 80 percent of my calories come from carbohydrates, 10 percent from fat, and 10 percent from protein. The amount of calories I take in on any given day goes up and down depending on how many I'm expending through exercise.

Today, for instance, with no running, I ate half of a large watermelon for breakfast.This works out to about 600 calories.

There is nothing I can imagine that would be better to eat after a long, sweaty, dehydrating run than a watermelon. Watermelons are over 95 percent water, meeting most of my water needs.They're also packed with simple sugars that my body can use with little digestion.

For lunch, I'll likely eat a banana and blueberry smoothie. Eight bananas, a few handfuls of blueberries, and some ice. This works out to about 850 odd calories.

I've got a bunch of ripe peaches, and I think I'll eat them for dinner. I'll follow this up with a large salad (1 head of lettuce, 6 tomatoes, several stalks of celery). The salad will come in at under 300 calories.

On a day with more exercise, I would eat considerably more.