Adjusted Reality

Training Happies:

First of all, my exciting news!  I got to do a bike test and run test this week.  Why so exciting?  Well, this is the first time I’ve really pushed myself on the bike since Kerrville (Sept) and on the run since Vern’s (Dec 15).  It felt WONDERFUL.  Most importantly though it gave me a great yardstick to set up my zones and see where I’m at.

The test is such – warm up if needed (I didn’t on the bike, but we did on the run).  Then, 30 minutes as high intensity you can keep up for all 30 mins.  The average heart rate for the last 20 mins of the test is your lactate threshold and you can take that and calculate your zones.

Bike: I totally rocked this.  I kept a 28.9 mph average on the trainer for 30 mins and found my average to be about 165 HR.  I felt like I was pushing and a little out of breath, but not close to dying.  I was pretty amazed that I had that in me.  I never ride like that unless I’m racing.  I may be deluding myself that my work on the trainer will translate that much into outdoor ride speed, but I can hope.

Bike Zones

Zone 1 Less than 81% of LTHR        <133
Zone 2 81% to 89% of LTHR      134 – 146
Zone 3 90% to 93% of LTHR      147 – 153
Zone 4 94% to 99% of LTHR      154 – 164
Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR        165 – 168
Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR        169 – 174
Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR       >175

The run was a little less “omg I’m fast and awesome” – I have been not doing a lot of runs due to heel crankiness (which I seem to be over the hump with – I ran yesterday and I can walk today, so there’s that).  The extra fluff shows itself in spades in my run pace, but it is what it is.  It’s hard to tell because I didn’t break apart the warmup, but I think I would be barely under a 30 min 5k at this point.  Bleh.  It is what it is and it’s a starting point for the year.

The wonderful part of this run is I didn’t even need to take an average.  My lactate threshold is CLEARLY 175.  Anything below that, I’m ready to speed up.  Anything above that, my body starts shutting that shit down and if I want to maintain pace, I need to venture DEEP within the pain cave.  The numbers supported it too.  It’s awesome that I will know that if I want to do the best that my body has in it that day, I need to maintain about 175 until the finishing kick.  Another lovely thing is my stride felt great (once I warmed up and got the junk out of my legs – SO sore to start with).  I felt like my turnover was effortless and I was almost gliding around the track instead of pounding it.  I’m sure I still looked like the special kid but I FELT great.

Run Zones:

Zone 1 Less than 85% of LTHR        < 148
Zone 2 85% to 89% of LTHR      149 – 155
Zone 3 90% to 94% of LTHR      156 – 164
Zone 4 95% to 99% of LTHR      165 – 174
Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR        175 – 178
Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR        179 – 185
Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR       >186

The good news is that I can extend my zone 1/2 runs to 155.  Which is a little better than 150.

If you’re curious about the method, Joe Friel on calculating zones.

Other than that, it was easy breezy beautiful.  I upped my weights on a lot of things this week.  I am going to up some reps next week to 22-25.  The swims are getting a little less awkward as long as I am mindful of my form – so that means a little faster.  I think I’ve finally conquered the swimp3 player getting water in my ears, so less dithering around with that helps too.  The trainer bikes are amazing.  I want to take this out to some roads soon for a reality check, but for now, I’m enjoying the fast numbers.  I didn’t really enjoy the elliptical instead of lunch runs this week, but it seems to have helped my heel so there is that.

By the day (should look VERY similar to last week, and next week, and the week after…)

Monday: 50 mins weights and stretching, 30 mins swim (1050m)
Tuesday: 30 min HR test on bike trainer (14.45 miles), 30 min elliptical (1.5 miles – kept HR around 140-150)
Wednesday: 45 min weights and stretching, 30 mins swim (1200m)
Thursday: 30 min bike trainer (12.02 miles), 30 min elliptical (1.45 miles – same HR)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 30 min HR test on the track (3.85 mile in 39:51 with warmup), 25 min swim (1050m), 50 min trainer ride (20.5 miles)
Sunday: rest day

Nutrition and Other Things That Go Bump In the Night

I’m spending a lot of time being really frustrated with the scale this week and I didn’t even eat that cone!  THIS IS WHY I HATE THIS SHIT.  I want to just train hard and track HR and pace times and have fun with it.  Now, my nice hard “crush it” days are really few and far between, and it’s all easy peasy, PLUS the scale isn’t budging.  Like, check it.  I’m up a lb.  I was hoping to be in the 170s by now and my low weight this week is up to 185.6 and my high is 187.2 :P.

And I’m doing just about everything right.  I finally got a batch cook week with zero refined grains or other badness.  My diet score has been in the 20s every day this week (that I haven’t drank… which is 5 out of 7).  I’ ve eaten out only 3 times this week, and 2 of them were healthy (one was the splurge burger and fries I was craving).  The only way I could improve those days is to eat MORE calories (I am not eating to my max of nuts and fruits).  My protein is spot on or even a little high (but not ridic-high, maybe 20g over max) because I’m eating 2 servings of meat again instead of just one, and my fiber is off the HOOK.  Besides the fact that I used a sauce that contained MSG in one dish (oops), this is a picture of clean eating per the diet quotient.  I’ve even tried to use more whole foods to carb up for my afternoon workouts instead of easy carbs like gels or bars.

Apparently that nets me a gain.

But I’m trying to take it in stride and with patience.  My jawline is starting to emerge from fluff.  I lost 4% bodyfat THIS WEEK and gained 2.5% muscle.  My measurements either got better or stayed the same.  My pants are starting to not fit quite so ridiculously.  For the first time in months, I actually feel like I look cute in things at times and not like an overstuffed version of myself.  My muscles are waking back up.  I’m squatting 105 lbs.  My swims last week felt less like flailing and about the same speed as last year.  My bike trainer work is in outer space right now (seriously, if I can translate that even partway to road speeds I’ll have some fatty PRs this year).  I’ve got the time to let my heel heal from whatever it’s doing rather than just trying to smash it into submission on the roads and Saturday’s run didn’t kill it (and thus, I may graduate to the treadmill or track instead of the elliptical for run days this week).

I just need to make the call that I’m all in.  And I am.  If I have to gain weight to lose weight later, so be it.  There is a grand plan and it takes until the end of June.  And that’s killing it in Buffalo Springs at the leanest possible body composition I can without a) doing it the wrong way and b) going frakking nuts.

My only modification is that on easy days, I’m not going to try to cram 100g carbs in my face before a 30 min easy ride.  That “snack-meal” in between lunch and workouts before evening swim and weights is making my workouts amazing, but unless I’m going to go out and kill some speedwork or a super long workout in the morning, a bar or gel will suffice.  I’m not going to go back to an empty stomach because that is toughhh now that I see how nice a fueled workout is, but I don’t need to cram a gel, half a bar, and dried mango in my face to pedal to a movie for 30.  I am going to continue to eat an awesome breakfast in between morning and lunch workouts because that also makes for awesomeness.  The calories were more this week.  But to lower the calories I also need to lower my diet quality.   So I don’t see that happening.

This will look like:

Monday/Wednesday (night weights/swim): eat normally, but eat 500 calorie “snack-meal” high in carbs between about 3-6pm.

Tuesday/Thursday (morning trainer/lunch run): *something* in the morning (gel, bar, etc), normal breakfast with a little extra museli in it, and an extra carby snack with lunch/within 2 hours of workouts.

Saturday: Fuel before (bar/gel), eat lunch after bike/run, eat dinner or “snack-meal” after swim and then eat normally.

Days off: Eat normally.  No extra carbage.

This will probably change as my morning workouts get harder/longer  (that’s what she said?) but for now, it’s working.

There is really nothing wrong I can do with my body by continuing to eat super high quality foods with just a few splurges per week.  The weight seemed to come off naturally last year when I did that combined with a good training volume, so we’ll see what happens.  I’m going to make it a goal to have 52 weeks of tracking this year (perhaps MINUS the week after each A race to allow myself to unwind a little bit and vacations), along with 52 sets of measurements and 52 progress pics.  I get in trouble when I don’t track, so my goal is to not give myself that long of a rope to hang myself with.

I just need to have a little faith.  Change does not happen overnight.  Years ago, I was not as happy with my job as I am now, and I thought about quitting.  However, I hung on because I had faith that this was just growing pains and something had to give and I believed in our product, and now I am THRILLED with where I’m at.  I may not be seeing quick progress, but I have faith that THIS is something that will get me to the next level.  I just have to give it a chance for it to do it’s magic.  I’m just a little scared of sticking with something that won’t work, but it just makes so much SENSE…

This Week in Food:

Monday: 22
Tuesday: 25
Wednesday: 25
Thursday: 9 (drinking night)
Friday: 19
Saturday: -2 (out to lunch burger splurge, drinking night)
Sunday: 23

Average DQ score this week: 17.25 (11.57 last week)

Average calories per day: 1927 (1795 last week)

The goal next week is to:

1. Try to make drinking nights not coincide with food splurges.  That should help the peaks and valleys.  Also, finding that doing something (playing a game, etc etc) while drinking helped me drink less while still enjoying myself immensely so more of THAT.

2. Try to maximize food score while trying to bring calories down a bit.  Though I had very few bad calories this week perhaps I could do better.

3. Try to incorporate nuts in my diet a bit more.  One serving per day this week.  Baby steps.

Questions of the week: What do you think is king, calorie count or diet quality?  Which should I focus on?  Trying to eat the best diet I can under x amount of calories, or try to eat the lowest calories I can while trying to maximize my food quality score?

I kept hearing that this was the best endurance athlete nutrition guide, and many many many sites and articles and reports reference it.  So, since Santa didn’t bring it, I went ahead and ordered it.  It came last night, and I devoured it all today cover to cover, and then took these notes so I don’t just forget what I read.  And perhaps it may be interesting or useful for someone out there.

Verdict: I really think it’s a pretty great read – what he says jives with my thoughts on the subject, while obviously giving me things to work on that I have not been doing. It’s a lot of common sense stuff and seems reasonable.  He’s not preaching this as the one and only way you will ever ever be a fit human, he continually says that he is simply observing how the pros operate and trying to translate it into what the everyday age group athlete can do.

So without further ado, here are my thoughts and notes from Racing Weight, by Matt Fitzgerald.  And since it’s long, I’ve broken it up with a bunch of unrelated funny pics.

First of all, while I can say I’m a pretty kick ass 175-180 lb athlete, there is no question that I’d be a better racer and kick MORE ASS if I improved my body composition.  However, the key is to do it the right way – not with significant deficits and drinking only water through 3 hour runs and eating only celery.  He stresses that not everyone out there can benefit from losing weight, but almost everyone could benefit from improving their diet quality and nutrient timing.

How to find your racing weight (goal):

1. Measure your body fat %.  I’m using some hugely outdated numbers, but mine is around 34% (not terribly great).  My lean mass is 118 lb, my fat mass is 62 lbs.

2. Use his little handy dandy chart (of which I cannot find a picture of and I am too lazy to scan).  I’ll simplify – I have a pretty high body fat % for an endurance athlete, so I’m trying to improve up the chart a little bit to 26% body fat this season.  If I was already around 26% or less, my goal would be 18%.  If I was already at 18%, my goal would be 15-16%.  If I’m at 15-16%, he suggests I’m probably just fine where I’m at thank you very much (for my age and gender).

3.  The goal is to not lose lean mass, while lowering body fat.  So my ideal racing weight (for this year) is: 118+ 26% or 148.  That feels incredibly ambitious for me, but there it is.  I’ll repeat this each season until I’m where I want to be.

THERE ARE SIX STEPS TO PEAK PERFORMANCE:

1. Improving your diet quality.  Simply put, that is making sure you eat fruit, veggies, whole grains, dairy, lean meat (he separates out plant proteins here instead for veggies and vegans), and legumes in reasonable portions in moderate quantities, and avoid sweets, fried food, refined grains, and fatty proteins.

You are to score your daily choices thusly…

The Good:

Fruit: First 3 servings get you 2 points each.  Fourth gets you 1 point.  After that, you get 0 points (they do not subtract from your score but don’t add to it to suggest that eating a shit ton of veggies and fruits is going to somehow cancel out eating a whole chocolate cake)

Veggies: First 3 servings get you 2 points each.  Fourth gets you 1 point.  After that, 0 points (ditto)

Lean Meats/Fish: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (Once you hit that ~18-20 oz of meat per day, it’s probably time to shove something else down your piehole)

Nuts and Seeds: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (Nut butters and pistachios good.  Cleaning out a whole jar of PB with your finger bad.)

Whole Grains: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (For the love of Jeebus FINALLY someone not telling me that grains are bad… I feel so, so, so, so much better when I eat a decent amount of carbage – I cannot get full on protein and veggies alone, I just feel all weird and heavy and yukko)

Dairy: First 3 get you 1 point each.  Fourth gets you 0.  Fifth gets you -1, and sixth and on gets you -2.  (Some dairy good.  Lots of dairy very bad.)  He says this is both full fat and low fat.

The Bad:

Refined grains: First 2, you subtract 1 point each.  After that, -2.

Fried Foods: Just go ahead and subtract -2 for each of these.

Sweets: If the first or second ingredient is sugar in any form, it goes here and nets you a -2 each.

Fatty Proteins: He considers anything over 10% fat (give or take a little, 10.5% fat on your steak doesn’t automatically take it from +2 to -2, but it’s there for a reference) in this category.  Subtract 1 point for the first 2 servings, and subtract 2 for each additional serving

The Else:

Your first alcoholic drink per day counts as 0.  Each after that is -2.

Anything consumed immediately before, during, and after training doesn’t count against you (gels, gatorade, bike fuel, recovery drinks, etc etc)

A serving of anything bad counts as at least 1 serving (no half points for half portions).  THIS IS HUGE FOR ME.  I’m a notorious “oh just one bite” “oh just one more” so this will either make me commit to eating a full serving of what I want and be satisfied and enjoy it, rather than just nibble and not feel like I had the calories or enjoyed my treat like I did.

Servings are common sense size servings.  A medium or a cup of fruit/veg.  A glass of milk.  A slice of cheese.  Two pieces of bread.  A fist size of meat.  A palmful of nuts.

Significant amounts of low quality condiments (he’s sort of iffy here on what that means) like mayo or bbq sauce should get a -1.  Something like guac or tziki or hummus should be classified under it’s category since they have nutritional value.

Coffee and tea, lightly or not sweetened at all, doesn’t count towards your score.  A starbucks carmel frapp is definitely under the sweets category.

Energy bars – first one that is of good quality (read: sugar is not the first or second ingredient) is +1.  Anything after that is -1 for the second, -2 for the 3rd.  If they have lots of sugar, they go under sweets.

There is no “GOAL” score, but each day if you eat all your goods and no bads, you achieve 32 (29 if you’re vegan and cut out dairy).  The goal is to get as close to 32 as possible without losing your mind.

***He definitely pushes good quality foods like organics and food in season and grass fed beef and wild caught fish, and also the importance in eating a variety of foods for nutrients, but I’m just essentially detailing out his scoring system here.

2. Managing Your Appetite.  This is in place of counting calories, which most people find tedious (yep, though I do it).

He goes into a lot of physiological stuff here, but I’m going to skip that and let you read the book if you want.  What I took out of this is that we need to do is determine when we are belly hungry (tummy rumbles, etc) telling us to eat because we need food, and head hungry, when we just want food because it looks good, we usually eat around this time of day, we’re emotional, or it’s right there in front of us.

Insert obvious stuff about cheeseburger calories not filling us up as much as fish calories.  But we know that.  Lower calorie density food is good for gnawing on to fill up.

One great exercise is to spend two days eating ONLY when you’re hungry (belly hungry).  Once your tummy does the “I need food” thing, you are to eat within an hour.  Then, you are not to eat again until it says “hey, lady, gimme some grub”.  This helps teach the difference.

He goes into more helpful tips most of us have heard before – clean the crap out of your kitchen (out of sight, out of mind), spoil your appetite at meals with a big glass of water and/or brothy soup or salad starter, plan for contingencies (the “I know that Martha will have her famous deep fried cheesecake dipped in ranch and want me to try some.  I’ll say I’m stuffed and take some home and then bring it to the office”), etc.  The one new and interesting tidbit was avoid variety.  If you eat a soup, salad, and sandwich, you’ll generally want to consume more than if you just have a salad and sandwich offered to you, and more than if you just had a big ass bowl of soup, even if the portions for the multiples are smaller (boo – I’m a HUGE FAN of the soup/salad/sandwich combo, I like eating lots of different things in combo).  Eating something like a stir fry or bowl of pasta w/veggies is great because it’s one THING, so you may find you consume less.

3. Balancing Your Energy Sources

Carbs: If you are an endurance athletes you MUST EAT CARBS.  They are not your enemy.  He says frankly, a lot of endurance athletes do not get enough (good and/or properly timed) carbs.  I am definitely in that camp.  So many people have done the carbs are the devil thing at me, I think I’ve just subconsciously tried to limit them more than I should.  I certainly need to be taking in more once my training starts.

Here is how much you should be taking in (DISCLAIMER – as an endurance athlete, he says as a sedentary or just lightly recreational exerciser that less carbs is good):

4 hours per week (here I am right now): 2-2.75g carbs per pound of weight.  So for me, right now, 360-495g carbs.  As someone who usually tops out at ~200 when I track, this blows my mind.  And it get better from there…

5-6 hours – 495-585g carbs (2.75-3.25).  I will be in this range through all of January.

7-10 hours – 585-675g carbs (3.25-3.75).  I will get here in February and remain here through most of the year.

11-14 hours – 675-720g carbs (3.75-4).  I will dip into this a few times early this year.

I have no idea how my body is going to feel on this.  It feels like candyland and a ticket to 300lb town, but I’ve seen these numbers quite a few times, so it may be worth trying to stay close to the low end here and see how I feel.  Experiment!

Fats: eat fish at least twice a week.  Other than that, he only really poo poos really high fat diets for althletes (40%) and says that by maximizing your numbers above, you’ll be fine.

Protein: he recommends 1.2g protein per kg (or 2.2 lbs).  For me, that’s around 100g protein.  I’m usually close to that with my normal healthy diet so let’s move on.

4. Monitoring Yourself

He recommends daily to weekly weighing if you can do it without making yourself crazy.  Just take the number as a metric and move on.  Those who measure more often can correct issues quicker.  Measure body fat at least once a month.  He likes the body fat scales and notes while they’re not always correct in measurement, they are at least consistently off so you can track progress. (So I should stop avoiding the scale that clocks me in at 40% body fat and just remember that 40% = 34%)

He also recommends doing time trials at some stages when you record weights to see if your progress is improving.  If you’re slower at 145 than you were at 155, you went astray and probably restricted food too much or you’re just too low for your body.

5. Nutrient Timing Self in 6 months – I think you’ll be pleased with your results if you can get this one down…

Nutrients taken while exercising or within the magic 2 hour window before and after are MUCH more likely to get used immediately or stored in muscles and not in adipose (fat).

What follows are the timing rules for athletes…

Rule 1: Eat early.  Energy drink before workouts if you don’t have time for real food.  Eat a significant breakfast.  Snacks in the AM if you’re hungry.

Rule 2: Carb heavy in the morning, protein heavy at night.  For an endurance athlete, he’s not recommending like chicken and veggies only at night, but no more than 50% of your evening meal/snack should be carbs.  In the morning, it should be more like 80-85% and it should get less and less through the day.

Rule 3: Eat on a consistent schedule (at least 3 meals).  Figure out what works for you and do it.  (This is something I need to be better about – I tend to skip breakfast on the weekends so I can splurge with a big brunch I couldn’t otherwise justify)

Rule 4: Eat before exercise.  A big meal 4 hours out (2pm lunch for a 6pm workout).  A medium meal 2 hours out (5pm meal for 7pm workout).  Aim to consume at least 100g carbs in the 4 hours before a workout if possible.

Rule 5: Eat during exercise: Using sports drink/gels during workouts means that you take advantage of getting the calories in when they’re most useful and you’ll be less hungry later, instead of being me and trying to get by with the least amount possible so I can pig out later. 😛

Rule 6: Eat after exercise: As close as you can, but up to two hours out you should consume about 1.2g carbs per body weight (so for me about 215g, as in, more than I usually have in a day) + 20g protein.

Rule 7: Minimize eating late: to attain racing weight, it’s not horrible to go to bed “mildly hungry”.  If you can’t do it, have a late night snack of protein to help with building muscles.

6. Training For Racing Weight.  Pretty much follow a reasonable training plan.

This section says lots of common sense stuff like 80% training below lactate threshold, 10% at lactate threshold, 10% above lactate threshold, do strength training with heavy weights and power drills, etc.  Just like the Triathlete’s Training Bible has a token chapter on nutrition, this has a token training chapter.  It’s all good theory, just stuff I’ve already covered and know and studied with the other book.

QUICK START:

For those of us QUITE A BIT above our racing weight, we can take our first 4-8 weeks (depending on how close you are) of your season and attempt to lose weight faster.

He suggests:

-Maintain a 300-500 calorie deficit only.  More than this and training will suck.

-Commit to weights during this time.  Building muscle is most important now.

-Increased protein intake, up to 30% (sacrificing carbs for protein in the ratios)

-Perform at least one fasting bike workout per week – one moderate intensity, somewhat long bike workout without consuming calories before or during. (Since I have no bike rides planned more than 45 mins, I’ll probably just skip fueling in the morning before my brick day and on the bike, and then eat something during the run – which also gets me to practice eating on the run :P).

-Do very short power intervals at max intensity – like 20 x 20 sec sprints.

There’s more in there, but this is really what’s relevant to me, so I’ll stop here.

A few parting thoughts:

-The scoring system appeals to the video gamer in me – I want to get a high score so maybe I’ll skip the sweets or drink a little less if my score is in danger of sucking that day.  They gave 3 examples – a poor diet was like -2 (eating a typical American junk food diet), a decent diet (what looks like a reasonably healthy diet for the general population) was about a 13, and a super great healthy diet was 23.  I’ll be interested to see where I fall.  I kinda want to spend some time scoring myself before I set a goal, as he said, there is no specific “you need to be 20 or above” or something, it’s just figure out where you’re at, and if you are not at your race weight, improve.

-Holy crapballs, that’s a lot of carbs.  I’m open to it, and interested whether it will be this unicorn rainbow glitter explosion and I will magically perform way better, or it will be this spectacular fail and I’ll realize that it’s not my thing.

-However, I think the nutrient timing thing will be KEY.  All these magical carbs I’m supposed to be getting in are right before, during, and after…. I’m really not doing that.  Like, at all.  It’s a little scary to give myself access to all the sugar they want in my body during that time, but I guess it’s worth trying.

I think the ~1500 calorie eating and the suggestions here are going to be mutually exclusive, so I’ll have to decide which one I think is going to benefit me most.  I think the goal will be to gradually increase carbs before/during/after workouts and try to keep the rest of the day as normal/healthy.  However, the scoring system will definitely be fun to play with!

Question of the day: would a scoring system of your diet motivate you to try and make it better, or discourage you/make you crazy?

NOTE: Since I’ve written this post (and had it in draft) I’ve done one evening workout (killer weights + easy swim) where I had a 500 calorie 100g carb snack before (sprouted english muffin w/cream cheese and jelly, huge apple, clementines, celery, and tzatziki sauce), and today I had 50g carbs (a mini cliff bar and a gel) in the AM before my AM easy bike, a 50g carbs breakfast (1 cup Kashi cereal w/1 cup fage 0% yogurt) in between AM and lunch, and at lunch I had a 3 mile easy run, and ate lunch right after.  Let me tell you HOLEEEEEEY COW it feels awesome to start a workout super fueled like that.  I have landed both days around 1750 calories, but considering I’ve done 60+ mins of run/bike/swim/lift, I think that’s probably an ok level to create a calorie deficit. 1500 is a little too low for an hour of (what I call easy but is really probably moderate in real people terms) activity – though probably fine for a rest day.