Yesterday on the group run at Eisenhower, Tony said he’d been listening to the podcasts on Ben Greenfield’s website.  He said the nutrition ones were pretty interesting and useful.  I decided they’d be good background noise for all the squats and core work I had scheduled today.  The first podcast that came up was actually an interview with Dr. Tim Noakes of Lore of Running fame among many other accomplishments in exercise and sports science.  The podcast is great — especially if you like South African accents.  Start 32:45 into it for the beginning of the interview with Noakes — unless you want to hear Mr. Greenfield answer questions about non-alcoholic beer and amenorrhea in an American accent.

I’d never heard of the Central Governor Model before.  (Darn you again history degree!)  Were you all familiar with this notion that your perceptions of fatigue while running are generated by the brain to ensure its supply of oxygenated blood — and not a reflection of muscle exhaustion?  Basically fatigue is not a physical phenomenon; It’s an emotion.  Thus, the focus of training is to make the brain believe that it can do more.  And intensity, rather than volume, is the key to achieving that.

Why didn’t you people tell me about all this?  What other information are you holding back?  Sheesh.

I’ve listened to the podcast four times now to make sure I have it straight — and because I like South African accents (any foreign accent really).   I also found a book called Brain Training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald that Noakes describes as “of seminal importance.”  Have you all read it already?  I’m itching to stay up late reading it.  But I’ve got to get a twenty-minute talk together for the Alamo Running Buddies.  They’ve kindly invited me to talk about my experiences running tomorrow night.  I’ve never done such a thing and I’m not sure the best way to approach it.  I’m thinking “try to elicit a lot of laughter” might be the right tack.  I’ll let you know.

Oh, and Greenfield’s nutrition podcasts are really interesting.

Sleep log: 6 hours (Boo!)

Run log: 8 miles, 1:20-ish hours

Food log: