So I have a rule. I only eat donuts on race days. I LOVE donuts. I could eat them with coffee everyday. Sign me up for cop school! BUT because I love them so much, I have had a rule that I only eat them on race days. It was my reward for racing, preferably racing well. So yesterday I broke that rule. My friend Leah brought homemade donuts to our CrossFit tailgate (sinful right? Donuts at a CROSSFIT tailgate???). They were fresh and hot and covered in cinnamon and sugar. Screw the rule! Give me a damn donut! Dayna and I split one and it was DELICIOUS.
Good thing I had a race today!
5K race this afternoon – 23:21
That’s a 42 second PR for me, so I’m psyched. Felt good and felt like I was going pretty easy for the first two miles, then kicked it up in the last mile. Sadly though I tried so hard to catch my buddy who’s a hard-core sponsored marathoner/ironman triathlete, and even running easy since he did the Savannah Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon yesterday and re-tore a tendon at mile 22…. he still beat me by a good 20 seconds. Drat!
So I got my donut as a reward. But it made me think about a bigger issue – the idea of food as a reward. After competitions, CrossFitters eat this glorious cheat meal of whatever they’ve not let touch their lips throughout training. I saw Brandon Phillips (3rd place at SouthEast Regionals, 2 times Games competitor) eat this steak cake w/sugar candied bacon. It was literally a chocolate chocolate cake in the shape of a porterhouse steak bigger than my head, smothered in frosting, and candy bacon. Drew and SB down Mellow Mushroom and Cracker Barrel after Regionals every year. Drew – an entire pizza and blueberry pancakes galore, SB – the Cracker Barrel Carbo feast of biscuits, pancakes, hashbrowns, and French toast.
I was amazed at South Georgia Throwdown that Key was drinking beer at dinner every night. It wasn’t a cheat. Part of why he has so much fun at all these competitions is because he doesn’t take it too seriously. He’s still a hardcore athlete and does awesome. He was still eating steak, chicken, sweet potatoes, and let’s face it drinking Kill Cliff like it was water (maybe that’s his secret – drink all the beer you want, Kill Cliff counters anything “bad” you put in your body). But it didn't seem like food was a reward or a punishment. It was food. It was fuel - he's eating pretty clean because it helps him perform as a CrossFitter. But it was also something to enjoy, and not just as a reward for when he was eating for time.
Right now I’m trying to learn a balance – between eating better, focusing on food as fuel and knowing that I’ll perform better when I put quality fuel into my body and at the same time not depriving the foodie in me. Eating for time...AND reward.
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