Carb Crazy!

After my race at Quassy I reviewed my training leading up to the race.  One common thread that I noticed was that in a lot of the comments about my workouts I kept noting that I felt tired.  At the time I had just assumed it was because of the overall workload.  However, even on weeks that were easier, I was still writing that I felt fatigued.  After noticing this, I remembered that some of my best races have come after times of not doing much training at all, like last year at Over the Mountain (OTM), and this year at Knoxville.  Last year prior to OTM, I spent 2 weeks getting ready for the wedding, getting married, not training much, and eating a lot.  Similarly, leading into Knoxville this year I went to Cancun where I hardly trained.  All of the above finally lit a spark in my brain....maybe I wasn't getting enough overall calories or carbohydrates to support the periods of intense training.  Perhaps prior to those races in which I did well, my body had a chance to fully recover and replenish those glycogen stores.  Taking a closer look at this I decided to reopen some of my sports nutrition books and old lecture materials.  Based on my height, weight, body fat percentage, and workout load, I estimated my calorie, carbohydrate, and protein needs at about:  3000 kcal/day, 455 g carbs/day, & 85 g protein/day.  Then I decided to plan a few days worth of menus to see what this would actually look like.  To my surprise it is a LOT more food than I have been consuming!  This shouldn't be so surprising to me because it is not uncommon for athletes who eat a very high-fiber diet (like I do), consuming tons of fruits, veggies, legumes, whole grains, seeds, & nuts, to feel full before caloric and/or carbohydrate needs are met.  I consulted with one of my mentors, Dr. Sharon McDowell, who is an exercise physiologist and dietitian who has worked with Olympic athletes at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.  She has been a vegetarian her entire life and a vegan for about 30 years or so.  She concurred with my thoughts and offered her own insight, which i will paraphrase:
"Consider that the most people eat 3-5 lbs of food per day (regardless of activity level).  Most people eating the typical US diet eat calorie dense, low nutrient dense foods, so naturally when they eat 3-5 lbs of food, they eat too many calories.  The World Cancer Research Fund recommends that the average calorie density should be around 500-600 cal/lb of food in order to be at a good weight.  I think for the athlete, it needs to be 600-900 cal/lb food, depending on the athlete (3,000 cal would be 5 lbs of 600 cal/lb food).  So given that vegetables are 75-200 cal/lb, fruit 250-300 cal/lb, potatoes 500 cal/lb, legumes 550 cal/lb, pasta 550-650 cal per pound, rice 500-600 and so on, if that is the bulk of what you eat, it stands to reason that you would not be getting enough cal or carbs."

So then I went about planning how I would get more carbohydrates into my diet.  However, this proved to be somewhat difficult because I like the foods that I eat and I enjoy eating healthy. The thought of adding in more carbohydrate-dense foods such as bagels, pretzels, granola bars, graham crackers, pita chips, bread, pasta & English muffins, at the expense of nutrient-dense foods was not very pleasing.  Obviously, refined sugars are a large source of calories and carbs, but everyone knows that consuming high quantities of refined sugar is not healthy!  So the question is how to concentrate the calories and carbs while at the same time retaining nutrient-dense foods?  Well in thinking about what gives food bulk, there is water plus fiber.  For example whole wheat bread is around 1200 cal/lb (it has fiber but no water) while white bread is closer to 1600 cal/lb (no fiber or water).  Pure carbs are 1800 cal/lb, pure fat 4,000 cal/lb.  Soda, is 1800 cal/lb, because even though it contains water the water doesn’t really count towards satiety because it just goes right on through.   But of course drinking a liter of soda a day would not be the smartest option for long-term health!  One great suggestion (from Sharon) is juicing.  Juicing strips away the fiber, but retains, calories, carbs, micronutrients, and antioxidants.  Dried fruit is another idea - it still contains fiber, but the water has been removed.  Going back prior to the days of the cornucopia of bars and gels available to athletes, dried fruit was the go-to fuel for many an endurance freak. 

So, after a lot of thought and discussion I have re-vamped my diet, putting a greater emphasis on carbs.  I'm still vegan of course, but now am planning meals around carbohydrate sources instead of around what vegetables I have in the refrigerator.  Every meal starts off with deciding which grain I am going to cook - quinoa, rice, barley, cous cous, bulger, potato, etc.  I am using what I have learned from teaching people with diabetes how to estimate carbohydrate intake of their meals and am applying it to reach my daily estimated carb totals.  And I've gotten the juicer out of retirement.  It's actually pretty hard b/c I have been eating so much more food than normal and I hate feeling super full after meals.  However, I think I am noticing a difference in energy levels.  I have certainly had more energy in between workouts and don't feel as smashed in the evenings.  I have also noticed faster recovery.  What I haven't noticed yet is a whole lot of difference during the workouts, but I hope that it is coming soon.  One thing I know for sure is, either I will have a lot more energy or I will start gaining a bunch of weight...hopefully it will be the former! 
Here is a delicious recipe for vegan pesto, pictured above on top of whole wheat pasta:
*2 cups packed fresh basil
*3/4 cups nutritional yeast
*1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts
*2 large cloves garlic
*2/3 cup olive oil
*pepper to taste
Directions:  Blend all ingredients in commercial blender or food processor until smooth.  Yum!!!