Barilla Plus Pasta with Tomato Sauce at dinner

I read an interesting article at the Runners World website recently.  The major takeaway from the article (for me) was the timing of my carb intake.  I need to maximize the benefits of eating carbs (the energy it produces) by eating them prior to my run (as opposed to at lunch time when I'm sitting around riding a desk).

On the weekday evenings that I need to run I've started eating a large serving of pasta with tomato sauce.  I eat the pasta at around 6pm.  My run/workout is around 7:30pm.  I may eat a banana around 7pm as well.

I'm eating what I believe to be a healthier pasta.  It's "enhanced."  It's called PLUS pasta from Barilla.

I like the penne pasta

It has more fiber, protein and Omega-3s than regular pasta.  Frankly, I can't tell the difference between this pasta and the non-enhanced kind.  That's good.  I don't feel like I'm missing anything by eating the "PLUS" version.  The sauce is a basic Target brand tomato sauce.  I don't use an olive oil or other fats so the only fat I get from this meal is whatever's in the pasta and the sauce.

I added this "PLUS" pasta to introduce a change of pace from the quinoa.  I ate the quinoa almost daily for about 6 weeks and I needed a break.  I'm going to mix up the carb meals with both of these options and I may also add some high fiber wheat bread too.

The pasta hasn't performed miracles thus far.  That is to say, I don't feel like it's giving me any noticeable increase in energy before my run.  But I'm eating it because I know that it's better than a protein shake or a piece of lean chicken breast in terms of providing me with the energy to run.

I'm counting on this conventional wisdom in lieu of what my body is saying because I realize that my tiredness isn't so much the result of my food intake as it is the result of a long day at work.  You see, by 7:30pm I've been up for about 13 hours, I've commuted 3 hours round trip to downtown Chicago and put in a solid 8 hours at my desk, in my chair and behind a computer screen.  While none of that is strenuous in an exercise context, it does wear me down.  Plus, I only sleep about 5.5 to 6 hours a day.

In the past several months I didn't worry about the quality of my runs because I was doing them largely to burn calories.  Now that I'm trying to run a half marathon I'm becoming concerned with the quality of my runs.  Frankly, I don't want get on the course in November and hurt myself or even pass out in the middle of a forest preserve!

To ensure that this doesn't happen, I'm taking my running training a bit more seriously.  That means taking care to make each training run a meaningful one that builds my strength and stamina.