"Eat to train. Don't train to eat."

As part of my USAT coaching training, I was fortunate to hear Coach Bob Seebohar speak on nutrition. In addition to being a USAT Level III Elite Coach, he is a Registered Dietitian. As I'm from St. Louis, his biggest claim to fame for me is being the coach of Olympic triathlete, Sarah Haskins (originally from St. Louis). Anyway, I took many things away from Coach Bob's nutrition talk, but one of the simplest things was this quote: "Eat to train. Don't train to eat." Sounds easy enough, but let's face it. It's hard to do.

One of my clients emailed me yesterday stating that she was having some trouble with eating to train and not training to eat and wanted to know if I had any helpful hints on how to eat to train. My first piece of advice is let's develop an eating plan. You have a training plan, so shouldn't you also have an eating plan? In my opinion, no endurance athlete should ever go on a "diet." In fact, I'd take it so far to say that a diet is a bad idea for anyone. I think a lifestyle change is a much healthier and longer lasting alternative. An eating plan will help guide you to better nutrition, while a training plan guides you to better fitness.

So what should be in this eating plan? Let's start with the basics. In order for your eating plan to be successful, you need to have healthy nutritious foods available to eat. In order to have these foods, you need to go to the grocery store. This may sound extreme, but many people should actually consider scheduling a regular weekly trip to the grocery store into their busy schedule. We all know what happens when the pantry gets bare, and we're hungry. We eat whatever we have . . . chips, cookies, crackers, candy, soda, Powerbars, etc. These things are okay in moderation, but too much is not a good thing. So start your eating plan out by scheduling that weekly grocery store trip.

What do we buy at the grocery store? Buy healthy nutritious foods that you like. Please notice the word "NUTRITIOUS." Please don't run out the door and stock up on rice cakes. If you're an athlete you need foods with substance. Here are some ideas, fresh or frozen fruits and vegatables; coldcuts; whole grain breads, cereals, and pastas; milk; yougurt; eggs; chicken breasts; and ground beef, turkey, and chicken. Avoid buying those less nutritious foods like cookies, chips, and other "snack" foods. Afterall, if you don't have them you can't eat them. So some of you may be thinking: "Okay, but I have kids or a spouse at home. What are they going to eat?" Simple answer, the same healthy nutritious foods you will be eating. Get the whole family involved. Your family is a great support network, so get them involved too.

I'll continue blogging about "The Eating Plan" tomorrow, but before I'm done for today, I want to pass on another bit of advice from Coach Bob. I would encourage anyone who wants to improve their eating habits to try the following: keep an eating log for one week. In this log, write down everything that you eat and WHY you ate it. For example, you might eat a bowl of Cheerios with milk and a glass of orange juice, because it's breakfast time and you're hungry. Later on that morning, you might eat a Krispy Cream donut at work, because someone brought them in and you like them. See where I'm going with this??? Tune in tomorrow to learn more.

Today's workout for me was running speedwork: a Ladder - 1600 (10K pace), 1200 (5K pace), 800 (2 mile pace), 400 (mile pace)