One of the biggest challenges when training for a long distance endurance event is eating.
On the one hand there is this myth that you can eat whatever you want. That the world is your oyster. That the entire gamut of edible things are your buffet.
Except – it’s a lie. A damn lie. Why?
Well let’s see,.. Your body is craving calories. And I don’t mean a few calories, but awe-inspiring amounts of calories. For example, my body requires about 4000 calories a day. That’s equivalent to 6 big macs
or
1 loaf of bread and 1 gallon of whole milk and one big mac…
So on the one hand your body is like GIVE ME FOOD NOW! With such a huge calorie deficit the temptation is to go for the cheap calories… To get the big mac or the cookie dough or the ice-cream. And when you do your body is like:
YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS
Except when you go train when you’re body is like WTF? Or you get on the scale and realize that you are putting on weight or ..
And so you swear to not over eat the next day, But now you’re on a frigging yo-yo of a sugar high followed by a sugar crash. And your body KNOWS how good it felt when you gave it the simple sugars and there is no way it’s going to suffer through the salad and the nuts and the chicken, no way.
And this can go on for weeks. And it takes this superhuman effort of will to get back on the balanced plan.
And so you have a super bowl party with your friends and you gorge on the cheese and the bread and the sweets, and you’re like: This feels good. And you can’t stop eating these simple processed carbohydrates. Until finally your wife hands you a healthy meal and you realize that this feels so much better.
It’s like going on a drinking binge and then going sober.
Every hour of every day you’re in this constant war with your body that just wants to eat high calorie foods to make the hunger go away while you have to teach your body patience and the virtue of eating a lot of the good stuff because the high calorie stuff is just a quick fix that goes bad fast.
So no, eating while training for an endurance event is not fun. It’s this never-ending war with a body that just wants the hunger to go away.