Carbo-loading Before a Half Marathon or Marathon

Do you need to go on a precise carboloading diet the week before a marathon or half marathon walk to perfectly load your muscles with the right fuel? Or should you just eat a balanced diet?

The latest thinking is to eat a balanced diet the week before the event, not overeating and not eating too little.? It should have 60-70% carbohydrates.? Those who have been on a weight loss diet should bump up their calories to match their basal metabolic rate the week before the event. You want your muscles to have plenty of stored fuel, but you don't want to eat so much that your digestive system has more than it can handle.

Use extreme caution in what you eat the day before the race, simply to prevent stomach and intestinal symptoms and dehydration.? If you need to go to a pasta party with your teammates, try to schedule it two days before and use the day before to eat bland food (and not too much) and no alcohol or excessive caffeine. If you are sensitive to lactose, avoid milk products the day before your race.? Drink lots of water to be well-hydrated the day before.

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Are You Ready to Face a Disaster?

Keeping your body in good working order is one of the best ways to prepare for a manmade or natural disaster or need for personal defense.? We usually can't prevent the evil that people do or keep nature from unleashing a lethal event.? But I have six ways a walker can be prepared and react to a disaster.

Besides this being the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I am also editing photos of a walk and hike at Mount St. Helens, our local active volcano that killed 57 people? in its 1980 eruption.? In each case, some people were saved because they could evacuate on foot, others dropped behind and perished. Meanwhile, we've been watching Surviving the Cut, Man vs. Wild, and other survival tips shows.? Humans are pretty darn sturdy and live in extreme conditions around the world.

You aren't made of sugar.? You won't melt in the rain. Even an untrained person who is normally healthy can walk six miles. But until you do it, you don't know.? Once you do it regularly you will have confidence that you can survive whatever fate or nature wants to throw at you.? Nine years after 9/11,? five years after Katrina, could you walk home from work if all transportation was stopped?

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Where are the Best Fall Foliage Walks?

Where are the best fall foliage walks in your area?? While New England is touted as the best place to go to see the autumn trees, I enjoyed a fantastic colorful walk through Sherwood, Oregon this weekend. Where do you go to see the trees? Or do you just view them online because you live in a place that doesn't have four seasons?

Photo ? Wendy Bumgardner

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Walking Helps Aging Brains

If you want to keep your brain active as you age, walking may be the right prescription. A study of older, sedentary adults found that making them walk for 40 minutes, twice a week boosted the connectivity of their brain networks. This should help stem cognitive impairment.? This study was interesting in that it took inactive subjects aged 59-80 and started them on a walking exercise program for four months.

The study compared the walking subjects with those who did stretching and toning only, but the stretch/tone group did not show the same improvement in their brain networks.? It would be interesting to know whether it was the increased blood flow that aerobic exercise provides that made the difference, or whether the coordination needed for walking helped keep the brain better organized.

This adds to evidence that moderate intensity exercise such as walking can help prevent mental as well as physical decline as we age.

Source: Jonathan H. Burdette, et.al. "Using Network Science to Evaluate Exercise-Associated Brain Changes in Older Adults." Front Aging Neurosci. 2010; 2: 23.

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10 Walking-Themed Halloween Costumes

Time to start planning your Halloween costume. In the spirit of the season, I've polled my Facebook and Twitter friends to help come up with a list of 10 walking-themed Halloween costumes. The top one was easy -- this is the season of the Walking Dead. Zombies are everywhere -- and you can even join in a local Zombie Walk if you want to practice, or watch one of our top 30 zombie movies.? The best thing about zombies is that you really only need make-up, you can just be yourself in your regular clothes, dead and zombie-fied.

However, there are risks at Zombie Walks.? Our First Aid Guide Rod has first aid for zombie bites.

Did you hear about the vegan zombie? She shuffles along moaning, "Grains...Grains!"

Do you have a great walking-themed Halloween costume that didn't make the list? Tell us about it.

Photo ? Brendon Thorne / Getty Images

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8 Tips for Racing in the Rain

We had over one inch of rain during the Portland Marathon and Inaugural Half Marathon yesterday on 10-10-10. Although I walk in the rainy Northwest, the same gear you might wear for a workout in the rain is different from what you want on a half marathon, marathon, or even a fast 10K. We gave our race day gear a real soggy shakedown yesterday and I have 8 tips for racing in the rain.

Using free hotel shower caps as shoe covers is a true revelation. My buddy Rachel used this at the similarly-soggy (but also sleety and snowy) Seattle Half Marathon. I've created a step-by-step with photos on how best to use these miracle items.? With all that rain and a road full of puddles, my socks were damp but my shoes were never squishy-wet. The shower caps saved my half marathon.

At a race, you don't worry about whether you look silly (or like a homeless person), because everyone else is also scrambling to find a solution. But it is best to test these out in your training walks beforehand, boldly braving any comments from passersby.

Photo © Wendy Bumgardner 2010

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Go Walk a Volcano

September is a great month to visit Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington State, USA. I hiked the trail from the Johnston Ridge Observatory with photographer Nona Litch, 30 years after the massive eruption of 1980.
Photos of Hiking from Johnston Ridge to Spirit Lake

While I had previously walked at the Coldwater Lake Visitor's Center, I hadn't visited this closest trail to the mountain. Where forests once stood, even 30 years later only wildflowers and low shrubs have returned. Mount St. Helens didn't erupt with fiery lava, but with the most massive landslide ever recorded and a lateral blast that destroyed every living thing for miles.

From Johnston Ridge, there is an easy paved trail and an opportunity for a 4 mile-round trip easy hike.? For those who want to go further to the best views of Spirit Lake, it is a bit more difficult and a 7.8 mile round trip.

Photos of Hiking from Johnston Ridge to Spirit Lake

Photo © Nona Litch

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Zombie Shoes - Dead Shoes Walking

A couple of weeks ago I went out for a long walk for my half marathon training and it seemed every part of my legs wanted to ache and I just felt tired.?? I had felt great over the same course in the same weather the week before.

So, I opened up a box of a new pair of the same model of shoes I had been training with the past three months.? I wore them around my day job for a week and on some shorter walks.? Last weekend, I switched into them for the final two miles of my 11-mile training walk.

This weekend, I walked a full 11 miles in them.? My calves didn't hurt, my knees didn't hurt, and I felt energetic throughout the walk.? I had been walking in zombie shoes - dead shoes walking.? My older training shoes still looked fine.? They didn't have a lot of wear in the heel or sole.? But they were, in fact, dead shoes.? They had lost their cushioning and support in my months of mileage training.

When to Replace Your Walking Shoes

While you may want to save money and wear your shoes until they fall apart, you are risking injury and hurting your fitness walking program.? It is a worthwhile investment in your health to replace your walking shoes every 300 to 600 miles.

When I find a shoe that works for me, I buy two more pairs to have on hand in the closet.? That way I can kill the zombie shoes before they kill my walking training.

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