Training Log 01102014.23:30

Training Log, Stardate 01102014.23:30
  
Once again, I did not get enough sleep. Got to sleep about 11:00 pm, woke at 2:am, but only lay awake for about 30 minutes. Woke at 5:30am. Drank a pint of water, then poured a cup of black coffee with 1/4 tsp organic evaporated cane juice.

Cycling morning (indoors, with bike up on trainer, the weather is nasty) 70 minutes at high cadence, moderate resistance. 5 minutes stretching. Consumed a banana immediately after to help restore glycogen.
Breakfast: 2 egg breakfast burrito. Forgot to take my supplements. Drank a liter of water on my drive to work.
2nd breakfast: Clif Bar and banana. Snacks: 1/2 cup raw almonds and filberts, 2 black bean brownies.
My eating got off a bit today, I worked until 2:30 (my normal lunch time) then clocked out and headed home. Ate another Clif Bar and banana.
Had to shop for supplies, I was out of bananas, spinach, avocados, hemp protein, and eggs. Hit the Goodwill and got a brand new Speedo, size 10, for $5 (score!), and a hard softball (seems contradictory) for some myofascial release work.
Ate a bowl of granola, 2 black bean brownies, and a cup of black coffee for a pre-workout snack, did some chores then started my workout late.
Evening workout: 30 minutes cycling to warm up. 60 minutes of leg/glute work: 3 sets each 18" Step-ups, hip dips, single leg calf raises, single leg dead lift, single leg squat, split squat, wide leg squat, dead lift, clamshell, leg sweep, donkey kick. Finished with 20 minutes of stretching and 20 minutes of myofascial release with ball and massage roller (homemade, by me with pvc pipe and couplers for about $3).
Late Dinner: Smoothie with spinach, black cherry and cranberry juices, brown rice and hemp protein powders, 1 egg, banana, dash of agave nectar. Also a handful of corn/wholegrain/sweet potato chips, and an orange. Supplements: 1000mg Ester-C, 2000mg MSM.

My morning cycling felt great, once my legs woke up. I can maintain a high cadence without strain. I would like to get a heart rate monitor so I can better track my level of exertion, those "in the know" say it is an excellent way to know just how hard to push yourself during training and is more reliable than going by perceived level of exertion. Training alone does have the disadvantage that I may not push myself quite as hard when I train alone as I might if I was training with a group. On the other hand, this way I am not overextending myself by trying to compete with other athletes (and comparing myself to them) when I need to be focusing on my own level of training, fitness, and proper technique. The thing I love about what I am doing is that it is an individual sport, and it is all up to me.

Accountability

    I have decided to start an actual training log so I can keep decent records of my progress (or lack thereof). Since a "blog" is actually a "web log" I figure this is as good a place as any to keep myself on track and accountable. I don't do this to boast, or elevate myself in the eyes of others, I actually do write these postings as a way of documenting my own trials and travails. I enjoy going back and reading posts from a year ago. I think my favorite is my blog about my first swim. 18 months ago, and I barely managed to swim 20 laps, with frequent rests, and left the water trembling with exhaustion. Now I can swim over 100 laps without stopping and leave the water mildly tired across the shoulders, but otherwise feeling great. I only wish I could make such great strides with my running.
    As usual, I digress. I am going to start logging my daily workouts, how I felt, how they made me feel, what I am eating, how well I am recovering, and even how I am sleeping. Yes, I know I write about this stuff all the time, but between the anecdotal narratives and inner musings of a latecomer to the endurance world, I am going to actually Log my training. So, here goes (and I am not sure just how well I will be able to stay away from anecdotal narratives even while trying to just get in the facts):

Training Log Stardate 01082014.21:50

Fell asleep last night after 11:00pm, woke at 1:00pm for about 30 minutes, remainder of sleep was broken up by night sweats.
Woke at 5:15, drank 1 pint of water while getting into workout gear.
Cycled 15 minutes to warm up.
Treadmill: Ran 3 miles at a slow 5.2 mph, with 3 short walking breaks during mile 3 as my asthma was starting to flare up. (*note to self* start taking asthma medication again). My legs felt good, but I am having a few issues with asthma when I run, but I am hopeful it will settle down as I get more proficient with my running. I need to increase my speed, but at this point my asthma won't allow it. I am intentionally starting slow and easy this season, since I am all to capable of crippling myself with zeal. I know I can run further and faster, but my knees are tender, and my asthma lurks just over my shoulder.
Cycled 15 minutes to cool down.
Stretched 5 minutes.
Breakfast: Black coffee with 1/4 tsp evaporated cane juice, 2 egg breakfast burrito
Supplements: 1000mg Vitamin C (Ester-C with bioflavinoids), 2000mg MSM, 500mg Niacin
Drank 1 liter of water on drive to work
Food "Bucket" (the mass amount of food I take to work and divide into several meals, starting with 2nd breakfast at 9:30): 1 pint roasted autumn vegetables, 2 hardboiled eggs, 3 bananas, 1 orange, 1 Clif Bar, 1 black bean brownie, 1/2 cup raw almonds, almond crackers, 1 slice pumpkin bread.
5:45  Swim. I did not count laps tonight, I got distracted by leaky goggles and lost count, instead I just swam steady, no breaks for 70 minutes. Tonight I swam predominantly Crawl, alternating hand paddles or not, doing a length of backstroke about every 5 to 10 laps. My strokes felt long and strong, my endurance felt excellent. I am hoping to add a 2 to 3 hour swim once a week to the regimen to really boost my endurance. Ate my last banana immediately after leaving the swim center.
Dinner: Smoothie made with black cherry and cranberry juices, spinach, banana, and brown rice protein powder. 2 vegan tacos with spinach, guacamole, sunflower seeds.
Supplements: 1000mg Ester-C, 2000mg MSM
Bedtime snack: Herbal tea with honey, and a black bean brownie.

The first of many entries.

The Beauty Of It All

    I have been letting my mind race ahead to my racing and training schedules. I admit, I feel as if I'm not training hard enough right now, that I should be devoting more time and energy to base building. Then I remind myself that although it is important to train enough, it is also important to not burn myself out early in the game. I have been following the Number One Rule in Ironman Training: Train Every Day. Yes, I do take mellow days, and although I cycle almost every day, in all other aspects of my training I am careful to alternate days with my workouts. I am running three times a week, swimming three times a week, weight training upper body twice a week, leg strength training twice a week, core twice a week. Damn, that is a lot of workouts crammed into a week. Maybe I am training plenty right now. You may ask yourself just how I manage to do so many workouts. I use cycling as my warm up for strength training and core, usually cycling 60-75 minutes. I also cycle as a warm up for running. On swim days I usually cycle in the morning, since I swim in the evening. As I move into spring I plan on asking if I can get off work an hour early on fridays so I can swim 2 to 3  miles in The Cove, and follow the swim with bike or run, so that every friday will be a decent brick workout. Soon, I imagine I will be devoting at least half of my weekend hours doing intensive, long rides or runs, or both. I know I am insane, but I get giddy thinking about my pending training schedule. That is the beauty of it all, I love to train. As excited as I am to toe the line at my first ultra-endurance event, I am even more excited to train. For me it truly is not the destination, but the journey. That is the beauty of it all.

Train To Live, Live To Train

    Recent events, and events over the last year or so have made me think that I am not suited to having a social life. Not with my current, action packed schedule anyway. I just don't have much time to spare outside of work, home, and training. At various times, the highs and lows of life, I have wondered if I have chosen my training path to guard myself from having to have a social life, a real, grown-up relationship, a partner in crime? Have I diverted so much time and energy into training to avoid feeling like I should be out in the world? Then I come back to the same realization: I am doing exactly what I want to do, and what I have wanted to do for over a decade. Long have I wanted to be able to devote the time and energy necessary to be able to accomplish amazing feats of endurance. Oh, I haven't reached that level yet, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I am working towards it, feeling the possibilities, reaching for dreams I had thought beyond my grasp, making up for lost time.
    Fifteen years ago, there was a yearly event called "The Eco Challenge." Mixed gender teams of four raced across a country, through the wilds, over hill and dale, mountain and river, forest and ravine. They traveled mostly on foot, but there would be several specific challenges such as traveling via horseback, swimming, rappelling. It took the teams over a week to travel the distance. We watched the race several times, as a family, and I remember telling my sons, "When you are grown, wouldn't it be epic to do something like that?" I still think it would be epic to do something like that. Over the years, I have watched the Ironman championship on Kona, and yearned to compete in something as grueling. But I have always put these dreams on hold for other aspects of life. Some aspects, like raising a family, were worth putting my own pipe dreams on the back burner. But other things, years of trying to adjust my life to the lives of others, with no real gain for me, were not my best use of years I will never regain. But that is the past, this is the now.
    Now I want to train. I want to train to live my life the way I have dreamed. I want to live to train as hard as I can, to achieve what seemed only pipe dreams. I have the dedication, and just enough of an obsessive compulsive nature to narrow my focus to the point of near neurosis. I think that it just may be my willingness to channel my energies on such a focused goal that makes me less than an ideal mate in the eyes of most rational, normal guys. I have realized though, that it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. These are not dreams for the faint of heart, I already question my sanity. But if I am going to dream, I want to dream big. I won't allow myself to disregard my own desires again, I am reaching for the the stars. I want to truly live my life, live it in such a way that dreams are not dreams, but my own reality. I will train to Live that Life. I will train to live, and live to train, and in the end, it will be epic.

The Hunger

    I have been increasing my workouts incrementally. Adding intensity and duration, and doing double workouts at least 4 days a week, one before work, one in the evening. One side effect of this it The Hunger. That is how I think of it. It is an insatiable appetite. I am hungry all the time. All. The. Time. I eat huge amounts of food, and am hungry an hour later. This is one reason I only keep healthy food in my house, this way I know that when I go rummaging through the cupboard, cramming anything into my mouth that comes into my hand, at least it has nutritious benefits. I eat at least 5 times a day, and not little snacks. On work days I eat two breakfasts, the first is usually a 2 egg breakfast burrito, the second is a Clif Bar and banana. Then I have a pre-lunch snack of raw almonds and a banana, or maybe my homemade pumpkin bread with peanut butter. Lunch is a pint jar full of my wild grains/quinoa blend, and another pint jar of roasted winter vegetables, plus a banana, and maybe a slice of pumpkin bread, or another Clif Bar, depending on what workout I have planned for later in the day. When I get home from work I usually have a handful of almonds and maybe another banana before my workout. Dinner, post-workout, is usually a smoothie made with spinach, banana, juice, rice protein, hemp protein, and maybe a raw egg, alongside a more normal dinner item like vegan, spinach tacos, or eggs over roasted potatoes. Bedtime snack is rosemary tea, and a handful of dark chocolate chips. So you see, I do not shirk when it comes to stuffing my face. The problem is, that is my "normal" daily intake of food, but lately, as I ramp up my workouts, that is not enough food. I have been having mega carb cravings, and satisfying them with massive amounts of food. Today was potato day. I have been craving taters, so my lunch was a heaping plate of rosemary roasted Yukon Golds topped with two over easy eggs, followed by 1/4 pan of black bean brownies (which are delicious, by the way... high protein, low sugar, low fat, and gluten free). I was hungry less than an hour later. Post-workout dinner was a bowl full of potato salad made with leftover roasted potatoes (I cooked 6 medium potatoes, and ate all of them in two meals), and 1/4 pan of brownies. I keep thinking my appetite will taper off, but it doesn't seem to be. Oddly, my weight has stayed a consistent 158-ish since late summer. So I guess I am okay eating mass quantities of healthy food, as long as I am working out enough to compensate for my lumberjack appetite. I guess I have the fear that I will step on the scale and will suddenly see it jump up 20 pounds or so. But honestly, I eat rocket fuel, I don't put crap in my body, I don't eat empty calories. So, I know that as I steadily increase my workouts, and winter slips into spring, even if I were to put on a few off-season pounds, they won't stick around. But it is frustrating, this hunger, as if I am an empty void, a black hole, a bottomless pit. As long as I am training, I can assuage The Hunger.

You Know You're A Swimmer When...

You know you're a swimmer when:

You have water in your ear, all the time.

You think everything smells like chlorine, and then you realize the smell is coming from your own nasal passages, from being douched with pool water.

You have goggle marks around your eyes that last for 24 hours.

You never have to shower at home.

Your shoulders click when you put on your jacket.

You have tendrils of blonde hair from where it chronically slips out from the swim cap.

The words Good Stroke, Grab, Pull, and Breast have absolutely no sexual connotations.

You're hungry all the time. All. The. Time.

When you need two suits because one is always drying on the shower rod.

You lie awake in bed, thinking of the perfect reach, grab, and pull.

You spend a ridiculous amount of time on YouTube watching swim videos.

You would rather spend New Year's Eve at the pool.

I know I'm a swimmer because I would rather be at the pool or in The Cove than almost anywhere else. If I ever reach a point where I can't do triathlon, or maybe don't want to anymore, I may aim to become a distance swimmer. I know there is a swim club in Portland that does regular 6 mile swims on the Willamette, but the Willamette... ewww. I know I'm a swimmer because I have become obsessed with the perfect stroke, and silent swimming. I would rather swim smooth and silent than fast. I have come to love swimming more than I would have ever imagined.

Time To Bump It Up

    The time has come for me to bump up the intensity of my training. I have added running back into the regime, starting slow and easy so I can avoid any problems like the strained piriformis I suffered nearly a year ago. The plan is to slowly add distance and speed to properly build a solid running base. Today I ran an easy 2-1/2 miles sandwiched between a 20 minute warm up on the bike, and then a 70 minute harder ride. By next week I should be running an easy 3 miles. By the end of summer a half marathon should be a stroll in the park.

    To really up the ante though, I am going to start pushing my swim and cycling. I have a good, strong base in both, so it is time to add intensity and duration. Last night, to test myself, I decided that a good way to ring out the old year was to see if I was capable of a 5K swim, the distance of the swim I will be doing in September. It probably was not wise to have swam the night before, and put myself through sets of my Individual Medley drill (laps alternating crawl, breast, and back strokes), and kicking drills as well. I haven;t been sleeping well, so I was tired when I arrived at the pool at 4pm, and the first dozen or so laps proved my muscles were not at their sharpest either. To top it off, the niggling pains in my left shoulder and right elbow that had bothered me during my last swim were all too present, and giving me grief. But I decided to take it easy, focus on form, take long, full strokes, and find my pace. It worked. Granted, I was a full mile into the swim before my muscles and joints settled down and let me swim in peace. Then it was just a matter of keeping my head down and my arms moving. I did start feeling the burn across my shoulders and down my triceps, but it wasn't unmanageable, or even uncomfortable, it was just my muscles letting me know they were working well for me. The last 20 laps I made sure to keep my strokes smooth and quiet, my reach long, and the stroke strong all the way through until my thumbs grazed my thighs. I powered through the last 10 laps, letting myself push a little harder, to prove to myself that I could. I thought about swimming longer, just to see how far I could go, but decided to stop at 107 laps. In retrospect, I wish I would have gone another 3 laps, since I fell short of a 5K by 100 yards. Oh well, I swam a solid 3 miles, and that is good enough for the moment. I was pleased that when I got out of the pool and walked to the locker room I felt good; tired across the shoulders, but my energy was good, and I felt great from the hips down. That is key; being able to pull off a long swim and get out of the water with ample energy for the duration of the event. As with all things, I have done plenty of research on swim training. Because of this, I have added the Individual Medley drill, to work all the muscles in my upper body, as well as to lessen the chance of repetitive stress injuries from doing countless miles of just the crawl. I figured out that it takes me about 1000 strokes to swim a mile, that is 1000 rotations of each shoulder per mile. I usually swim 1-1/2 miles on an easy night, so 1500 strokes at least twice a week. That is a lot of repetitive stress, and it ain't going to get any less. One key that my research has verified, to no surprise, is that to swim long and easy, you have to swim long, frequently. To this end I am going to try to add 2 long swims per month, aiming for 3 or more miles each time. That should get me to September in great form, if my shoulders hold out. 

    I have also begun to increase my cycling. Not a lot yet, but aiming for 80 to 90 minute sessions instead of my standard 60 minutes. I am also increasing the intensity with harder gear loads and higher cadence. It is kinda funny, I used to have a tough time pedaling at an 85 rpm cadence, now my standard is about 98 rpms. That is huge. I need to increase average mph as well, if I want to be able to finish the Epic 250K in under 13 hours. 250K. Two Hundred and Fifty Kilometers. I am beginning to think that there is something seriously wrong with me. Maybe so, But none the less, it is time to bump up the training.