October 12, 2005

My first track session at Kesar Stadium, which was awash with hundreds of runners participating in a variety of training programs, including at least 3 TNT teams. After a 15 minute warm up, we ran for 30 minutes at a moderately hard pace to see how many laps we could run. Again, this was to set a baseline to judge our progress. I managed 15 laps (6000m), averaging 2 minutes per lap. It was the first time that I trained with the larger group and it felt quite good, especially as I lapped quite a few people!

I have also started to research the benefits of food supplements. This seems to be a bit of a wishy washy area. However, there seems to be some research that has been well conducted. So currently, I am looking at upping my omega-3 and antioxidant intake (lots of fruit!). Hopefully, I can do this through my diet rather than having to take supplements. I am also trying to get to grips with high and low glycaemic carbohydrates. High index carbs are bad because they are rapidly absorbed cause spikes in blood sugar which results in the body producing lots of insulin. This can reduce blood sugar levels rapidly and result in you being hungry again, so you eat more high index carbs and so the cycle goes on. Low index carbs are good because they are absorbed more slowly release energy over a longer period of time and avoids spikes in insulin secretion. I think that is it but let me know if I have got it wrong. The thing that suprised me is that many foods that I think of as being healthy, are high index carbs. Some things that I will have to cut back on are pasta, potatoes and white rice. Interestingly, to me anyway, many fruits and veggies are low index e.g. apples, oranges, and kiwi fruits. One huge suprise is that chocolate is a low glycemic food!! Praise the lard!