Adjusted Reality

Week 2: Hump Week

Hot running is my favorite.  Just look what a smile it puts on my face!

The second week of a three week block is always a toss up.  Sometimes it’s just AWFUL, you’re fatigued but a rest week isn’t yet really in sight.  Sometimes, it’s great because you’re handling the work well.

Happily, last week was more the latter than the former.  Here’s how that went…

Moar carbs (/overall calories).  My gut is still adjusting and I’m still terrified to get on a scale, and my pants are definitely tight, but it’s really amazing to feel the way I do during and after workouts.  I probably should devote more blog space to this, but I’m definitely still transitioning so I’ll give it a couple weeks.  Suffice to say, I feel like I’m eating like a 10-year-old version of me most of the time and it’s kind of weird and kind of wonderful even if it’s a *little* temporary (again, more on that later).

Becoming a morning person.  This is REALLY hard for me, but I’ve been able to get up before work on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and up early on Saturdays to get runs (or Saturday bricks) in.  When I have a little more freedom to train after work every day, I will probably revert to my old ways but for now, I’m doing ok with it (especially because I’ve convinced myself this is temporary).

Continuing the Dozen.  I think it was instrumental to work on making this EASIER to do during offseason and then just continue, rather than introducing something challenging to do week 1.  I feel stronger overall.

Quality cycling.  More on that below.

Run volume.  Kind of the opposite of above, and also more like that below.

Swimming at lunch.  I had to cut out the post-work training most days this month due to schedules, and mornings have been about running, so I’ve been swimming at lunch.  I don’t have enough time to get to the lake, so I’ve been doing pool sets.  It’s all about the most efficient use of my time right now, and that’s it.  I’ll return to the lake more next month!

Made it to the wah pah for 1 hour Thursday for the lazy river and the lake for an hour snorkeling.  Maybe not training related (though flippering around the entire half mile+ lake definitely loosened up the legs), but happy soul related.

Week 2 Summary: 10 hours of training (9 if you don’t count the snorkeling)

• Swimming: 3000m, ~1 hour
• Biking: 75 miles, ~3.5 hours
• Running: 20 miles, ~ 3.75 hours
• Other: 2 dozen + stretching sessions, 1 snorkel, ~1.75 hours

This week was pretty much about working, training, spending as much time as we could with family visiting, and making sure to get enough sleep.  This next week will be even more so – probably the highest volume we’ll do at 11ish planned hours of training.  The key workouts will be a mid-week 13.1 (easy pace) and my longest bike brick: 50 bike/4 run (I’ll do another long brick but it will be more run heavy).  Beyond training – sleep, carbs, and a little bit of finding hidden time to unwind will be key to making this happen.

Kerrville Overall Process and Training:

I want to make sure to go on the record with some plans and goals.  To be quite honest, I felt so ready and improved so much last year (to the tune of a 23 minute PR), this is mostly “more of the same as this time last year”, including things like…

1. 2×3 week training blocks with 1 week stepback then taper.  This sounds like OMG NOT ENOUGH TIME (even doing it the second time it’s freaking me out), but it’s just enough to do a volume build the first 3 weeks, rest a bit, and dial up the intensity the second three weeks and then BANG BOOM RACE TIME before you get time to be burnt out or really question what the hell is going on.

At least that’s how it went last time.  I wouldn’t suggest doing this with a new distance, but I’m pretty comfortable (err, well, as comfortable as is reasonable not having raced one this year) with the 70.3 miles of a half iron, so this really is just molding the clay back into the shape of this race.

2. More on focus on quality than quantity – training for a reason vs ALL THA MILEZ.

I’ve found that it is very easy for me to swim forever.  Before this year, it’s been very hard for me to find any intensity in the water.  In the water, it is more important to practice speed than jumping into the pool or lake for an hour to swim slowly (especially when I think I’ll finish the swim part of my race in 35-40 mins).

Likewise, I can jump onto my trainer and ride for 4 hours without an issue (well, besides my ass hurting).  Before this year, I had a hard time finding the hurt and staying with it.  Tuesday cycle classes and hard effort Saturday rides w/a small brick run are my cycle staples and I’ve really dialed down the easy trainer miles (so far, non-existent in this build).

Running is the only place where I find the value in mostly easy, a little hard, which is good because if I’m going hard on most swims and bikes I’ll need some recovery sessions and it’s the best way for me to gradually build endurance overall. 🙂

I also have a few things to add to the mix I’d like to keep in the brain this cycle.

1. Be present in the moment.

I’ve read some great articles lately about mental training (sadly, I didn’t save the links, so you’ll just have to take my word).  While it’s not easy, I’m trying to go beyond griping in my head about the suffering, to staying in each moment and giving it what it deserves without judgment of where I was, where I’m going, how it felt five minutes ago, and how it will feel in an hour.  At Jack’s Generic, by just staying RIGHT THERE in that zone… the cone of NOW (not shame), I was able to get to another level on the run (according to my HR data).  I know I have a MUCH better half marathon off the bike than I’ve ever been able to harness and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when I toe the line with that attitude.

2. Long run Thursday mornings, long rides Saturday mornings.

Last year I alternated long ride/run weekends, and while it worked out OK for Kerrville, I never got any longer-than-half marathon runs which I think hurt my marathon training for SpaceCoast.  I’m going to sacrifice a little sleep on Wednesday nights (or hopefully, get used to going to be really early) so I can get out for a 2-3 hour run before work once a week.

3. Caaaaaaarbs.

I’ve belabored the point a lot lately, but I’m aiming for 400g daily.  Bring on the pretzels and cereal!

Race Goals for Kerrville

Guys, it’s super scary to put this out there, but I’ve done some calculations and if I have the perfect day, it’s within my power to possibly, maybe, sub-6.  Doing some math using the Rookie CoefficientTM, I’m REALLY close – as in 6:02 and some change.  2013 – I PR’d by 6.6% (pretty cool weather).  Last year – I PR’d by 5.6% (really HOT weather).  If I split the average there, it’s approximately a 6:08.

I really think the biggest factor that could affect this outcome is the weather.  If we could manage to get a decently cool day, I’ll really have a shot.  I’ll take a crack at it regardless, but if it’s in the feels like 90s and full sun like last year, it will be a uphill challenge.

I know I’m a faster swimmer.  I know I’m a faster cyclist.  I think I’m a MENTALLY stronger runner if nothing else, and the run course has changed (I *think* for the better, hoping to do some recon soon).  So, it’s possible.

I’m only 2 weeks into training so I’ll re-evalute closer to the race, but it’s exciting thinking that a time starting with 5 is worth at least talking about this year.  If all things keep improving, 2016 may be the year I talk about potentially racing for placement in my AG (at these local races).  That’s REALLY exciting.

Alrighty campers, time to get my Monday on.  Week 3, and GO!

Week 1 down, 7 to go.

Training – Waking up the Muscles

I’ve got two different feelings this week and they contradict each other, but that’s where I’m at.

Feeling #1 – behind the curve: I felt this way last year since a 2 month intensive 70.3 “camp” was an unknown.  It ended up working out well, so I shouldn’t be feeling this way, right?

Well, I was only able to eek out 7.5 hours last week instead of the 10.5 I was this week last year.  It was all good quality stuff, but not enough volume, in my opinion.  I really need to be on top of QUANTITY for the next 2 weeks because this is really *it* for the volume building portion of this exercise.  And considering I haven’t raced anything longer than ~2 hours since the marathon, I really NEED some time in water/butt on bike/shoes on pavement.

Feeling #2 – confidence: I know this is a totally weird thing to say after disclosing the fact that I’m freaking out a little… I woke up to my brain saying “aaaargh, not enough time, omg”, this morning, but the work I *am* putting in is showing some promise.

I only swam once last week, but still I’m comfortably able to cover a good portion of the swim distance significantly below my race pace last year.

I biked 35 miles on the same terrain I did last year to train, which is much harder than the bike course.  Even though this was my first ride this year over 2 hours, I was over 1.5 mph faster than this time last year and I was not completely spent.

I ran most of last week stupid easy, but I was able to pull out 2 very hot 10:20-pace miles after the bike when my intent was to go faster than easy (fingers crossed, this would be race pace).

I still haven’t done a 2k swim, a 50 mile ride, or a double digit run, but I’m feeling pretty confident that it won’t take me too long to have those things in my comfort zone again.  It just takes (see #1) putting in the work.

Week 1 Training Stats:

• 1 swim: 1300m in 25 mins (skipped swim #2 for the week)
• 2 bikes: ~32 miles in the pain cave in 1:20, and a long outdoor ride of 35 miles in 2:09.  Quality here, but not quantity.
• 3 runs: 5 miles and 7 miles easy (planned for 8, but I stepped off a curb funny and went home to nurse my foot, which feels fine now – better safe than sorry), 2 mile race pace brick.
• 2 dozen (not 24 :D) strength sets and 1.5 stretch sessions

Total time: 7.5 hours.

This week I’m hoping to hit 10 hours divided up into 20 miles of running, 100 miles of biking, 3000m swimming, and 2 strength and stretch sets.  Cross your fingers for me!

Life – Literally Waking Up Early

The reason it’s been hard to get in the hours is that we have family in town and we’re trying to see them as much as we can.  I thought I had it all sorted when I decided we were going to become morning people and wake up really early to train.

Some problems with that:

1. It’s not in my nature.  I would MUCH rather train other times besides dawn.  It takes some adjustment, and I’m still adjusting.  I’ve been doing BETTER at not throwing the alarm clock across the room and saying fuck it, but really, it just comes from the motivation that I *can’t* reschedule this training and have to salvage something or I’m failing for the day.  Once I have a little more schedule flexibility, I’m sure I’ll be back to my norm of only up super early if I absolutely have to.

2. That time has to come from somewhere.  Waking up early to train is great and all, but then we go to work a full day (and sometimes have another session at lunch), and then by the time we’re home it’s really time for dinner then bed.  It’s hard to communicate the “ok, it’s 8-9pm, I know we’ve only seen you for an hour or two, but we have to kick you out because we need to sleeeeep” message without sounding like we’re rude and full of shit because normal humans don’t go to sleep that early.

3. I was so exhauuuuusted from the week of early alarms I slept in yesterday until 9, and then took a 3 hour nap after lunch.  And still went to bed early enough to get up and run in the morning (but not early enough to get my WHOLE session).  That’s all well and nice that my body got rest, but it really fucked up my plans for the day and made me miss a training session!

However… as frustrating as it is, it’s reality this month.  So I better just get with the program.

Food: Waking up the Appetite

Noodles are cool again!

Last week was my first attempt at fueling like a real, bonafide endurance athlete.  I kind of failed horribly.

The first half of the week, I couldn’t stuff enough calories in my mouth.  I have never walked around so constantly full in my life, and I wasn’t even close to the top range of what I was supposed to be eating.  By the end of the week, I was doing better calorie-wise, but my macros were all off because I didn’t have the right types of foods around.

Here’s my problem: I’ve gotten used to eating very nutritionally dense meals.  My goal right now to hit 100g protein, 25g fiber, 40-60g fat… I’m hitting these in ~1400 calories.  When I try to increase my calories, I’m SIGNIFICANTLY overdoing the fat because I’ve gotten used to jacking up my calories with fat when I need stuff in the tank.

So, basically – if I don’t want to change the way I eat meals, I need to be pushing a TON of snackage that is:

• High calorie
• High carb
• Low fiber
• Low protein

So, yesterday, I did some research, and basically went to all the “lose weight now” sites and made notes of what they said to NOT eat and added about half of them to my grocery list.  Basically instead of carrots and hummus and apples and jerky and cheese which I used to snack on, I’ve got pretzels and cereal and low-fiber fruit this week.

It’s just weird to have to eat LESS (of what society has deemed in 2015 to be) healthy to meet my nutritional needs.  But I always gotta be a special snowflake…

It’s really still too early to tell, but I am feeling ready for all my training sessions, and like I have plenty enough in the tank.  We’ll see how I feel this week when I actually hit normal volume.  It is REALLY novel not to ever feel hungry when I’ve spent the majority of the last… seven? years being hungry.  A lot.

I am ignoring the scale until further notice.  I feel a little bloaty (which my nutritionist said would be normal) but my clothes still fit so that’s that.

Question: what is your favorite snack?