Fitness Spotlight: Regular People - Volume 3

It's been a while since I have highlighted an everyday person that provides a great fitness example for the rest of us, but I met one recently in Philip Ciccarello. 

We "met" originally through Twitter, which is one more testament to the power of social media.  By day, Philip is the Director of Technology for the Charlotte Regional Partnership, an economic development organization. His real passion however, is running.

As you can tell by his photos - Philip is a very in-shape dude.  His blog highlights a wide variety of things, but among them you can find shoe reviews, and several informative running/training recaps.  He's also a fan of the post-long run ice bath (which I can attest is one of the true signs of both physical and mental toughness).

I'm always up for learning new things from people more experienced or knowledgable than me, and Philip has put me on to a couple good online training programs for my upcoming half-marathon, in addition to the littany of running information on his blog.

I hit him up recently for a look into his typical day's approach to nutrition around running workouts, and he was good enough to share:

"Most of my diet is very clean though. Try to eat a lot of vegetables, potatoes, rice, whole wheat breads, chicken, fish, and fruits. Basically I *try* to stay away from fried foods, high fructose corn syrup, pre-processed foods, red meats, desserts…it’s tough. Don’t get me wrong, it’s totally fine to cheat on your diet once a week, but that’s where it should stop."
 
My Monday – Friday diet looks something like this:
 
6:30 Workout – coffee or vitamin B
8:15 Breakfast – either bagel or oatmeal (the real kind) w. peanut butter or cereal if no workout
10:00 Snack – Fruit or some nuts
12:00 Lunch – Usually a turkey sandwich on wheat bread with cheese and chips (with multi-vitamins)
3:00 Snack – More fruit
5:30 Run – depending on the day either a light to moderate run or speed work
7:30 Dinner – Pasta, Chicken, Fish, Potatoes, Vegetables and once a week sushi

His long runs are typically Saturdays, preceeded by a pancake dinner Friday night for carb loading, and usually a bagel or toast an hour or so in the morning pre-run.  For anything longer than 13 miles, he'll bring a Gu gel for consumption 45 minutes into the run.  

Post-long run, he may use Gatorade to get simple carbs back into the system and feed the drained muscles.

You can also learn a little more from his interview with RunnerDude's blog back in July.

Philip is one more example that despite having a regular everyday job and busy schedule, you can make time to get out on the road or in the gym for exercise and still find balance to fit it all into your lifestyle.