Thursday, January 31, 2013

Day 4 Summary

Today will be a blissfully short entry, I promise.

RUN - 60 Min
I wasn't sure how much the cold would deter me this morning when I woke up. It was 7 degrees, btw (not figuring in windchill). But the thing with me is, once I'm out of bed and standing upright, I'm awake and not stopping. 

Usual routine, out the door by 4:45, got to the campus just as they were opening the doors. It's interesting to me that there are so many other people there at the same time (Really! I'm not the only one up that early exercising!). I was on the track at 5:05, did a warm up lap and got into it.

Remember the other day how I was wondering if it was music or time of day that may play a role in my pace? Well today I started out with some more up-tempo songs, and ended up doing an 8:25 on the first mile. Go figure. 

The next 5 miles were the same, within a few seconds of each other. Even though I was supposed to take it easy, I wanted to challenge myself and see how much I could kick it up for mile 7. Turned it in at 7:43. I was pleased. 

Totals: 58 min 42 sec, 7.01 miles (8:22 avg pace)

I admit, though - I was feeling a little twinge near the top of my quad the rest of the day. Maybe shouldn't have cranked it up at the end. Didn't hurt badly or anything - I got through Insanity workout just fine when I got home. Still, glad that the next two days revolve around bike and swim. No running again until Monday. Three days off should do some good.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Day 3 & Thoughts on Swimming

Before I get to the brief recap of today workout (and it IS brief), I want to share a few thoughts on swimming. It is easily my weakest discipline, and I'm still trying to figure out what my 'race pace' is. All I can go off of is what my times were last year in the two triathlons that kept accurate splits.

Copper Creek Tri (June 24th) 2:15/100 yd
Hy-Vee Triathlon (Sept 3rd) - 2:04/100 yd

So at least I saw some improvement. But still, that's nowhere near where I want to be if I ever want to finish on the podium, let alone the top 10 in my division (which is a goal). As a side note, in both of those events, I wore a wetsuit, but not a full-length one. A proper wet-suit should improve your times noticeably, but I'll delve into that more another time.

In reading support blogs on BeginnerTriathlete.com, one of the common responses to "How do I swim faster" is "Swim more". A bit snarky, but the point is well-taken. I took that to heart, and when I started swimming again at the beginning of the month, I figured I'd slowly increase my long swims. Started out doing 1500 yds, then 1750, then 2000, etc.

But then I started doing some more reading about swimming workouts, and the universal consensus is that is exactly the wrong thing to be doing. Instead, I should be doing 'drills' - swimming shorter lengths within a larger workout goal. For instance, 4 x 400s totaling 1600 yds, and trying to do each one incrementally faster. Or working on different breathing techniques. It's kind of like interval training, I guess.

So after reading that little nugget, I took a closer look at my swim schedule for this training program, and sure enough - on each day they have specific drills to work on. And today was one of those days.


Good thing today didn't require much time. Got hit with a little snow storm that slowed things down in the morning. Still, managed to roll out of bed at 4:35am and was at the campus right after 5am.

SWIM: 30 min (race pace)
As stated earlier, I'm not sure what my 'race pace' is supposed to be. I had to do 3x400s (not including warm-up and cool-down), each faster than the last. Well sure as shit, I was able to do it. Check out these splits:

400 #1 - 7:02 (1:45 pace)
400 #2 - 6:57 (1:44 pace)
400 #3 - 6:41 (1:40 pace)

Damn! I'm averaging :20 improvement and it's only January! Now that's what I like to see. Granted, those were intervals and I took about 30-40 seconds between each one. The true test will come in a few months when I'm able to get out in open water and swim that distance non-stop. But it's a great confidence booster this early in training.

Day 2 - Run & Bike

These first several weeks are going to suck regarding bike training since I don't have my triathlon bike yet, and if I did, I don't have a trainer for it. Hoping to get those two things resolved before the end of February since I likely won't be able to bike outside until late March (at best). But I digress... onto today's recap.

BIKE: 60 Min
Another thing that sucked is having to get into work early today. I had to cut the workout short by 10 minutes, despite being at the gym when they opened at 5am. In retrospect, I should have done my run in the morning and bike in the afternoon after work. I'll remember that for next time.

I'm going to be using the spinning machines instead of the traditional 'bike' machines. I think they'll simulate a riding experience more accurately and get my 'saddle sores' worn in. ;) Today went well. The plan calls for small chain work, so I kept the resistance fairly low. I warmed up with hardly any resistance for 5 minutes, then started increasing it every 10. Actual numbers:
51m 18sec. Max heart rate of 145

RUN: 30 Min
As noted, I didn't have time to this before work, so I did it on my way home. This is supposed to be an easy run, and I treated it as such, but here's something weird: I set out at what felt like the same relaxed pace as my Monday morning 40-minute run. But my splits were 20 to 30 seconds faster.

Two possible explanations for this: 1) The music I chose. I have a tendency to run in tandem with the tempo of certain songs. Maybe I got started at a slightly higher tempo and maintained it throughout? 2) It's equally possible that I had a bit more energy in the afternoon than in the early morning. I'll have to try this a few times and monitor it.

Totals were 33min 33sec, 4.1 miles, 8:10 avg. Max heart rate of 162

INSANITY: 40 Min
Recovery week workout again. Not bad considering I did it less than 30 minutes after finishing my run.

37min 42 sec. Max heart rate of 160

Really good day overall. Just challenging getting in two disciplines early the AM, but will likely split those on Tue-Wed-Thr when I need to be at work by 6:30.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Great Nutritional Information

I discovered Dr. Nancy Clark through her articles on BeginnerTriathlete.com. Now before you go off and automatically dismiss this post because you're thinking "I'm not a triathlete... there's nothing there I don't know about nutrition already"... I would practically beg you to reconsider.

I have learned SO much from Dr. Clark not just about sports nutrition, but overall nutrition. She does a fantastic job breaking things down in a way that's easily understandable (meaning no 'doc-talk'). She debunks myths and does side-by-side comparisons of products. She's objective also - no bias.

Below is a link to her blog. There is so much great information to be found, and she blogs a LOT. I'll bet anything that you'll find at least one article that relates to you.

http://community.active.com/blogs/NancyClarkRD

Monday, January 28, 2013

Day 1... of 132

This is going to be the diary portion of my training. It's 132 days until the Kansas 1/2 Ironman, and my official training starts today. I'm following a plan from BeginnerTriathlete.com, a website that has proven to be invaluable to me the past year, being a newcomer to the sport.

What I'll be posting isn't anything special, it will just be a recap of what I did, how long, how I felt, pretty mundane stuff. I doubt anyone will be too terribly interested, but it's more for my documentation so I can look back and see if there are certain patterns emerging, trace back the start of injuries, see what worked and what didn't.

So without any further ado, here's Day 1.

Day 1: Run 40 min, Swim 40 min

Got up at 4:45, but hit the snooze once. Didn't get out of bed until 4:50, and subsequently wasn't out of the house until 5:10. Got to the campus a little after 5:20, and was running on the elevated track at 5:25. Today's workout called for a pace of 3 (on a 10-scale) so I settled in around an 8:30/mile pace. Good relaxing run, didn't feel exhausted at all at the end and wasn't sweating too much either.

Headed straight for the pool. Previously when I swam, I just jumped in, maybe did a few freestyle warm-up laps, took a brief breather, then would just do more freestyle for however long I wanted to go. Read that this is not the proper way to train. So I did what the plan instructed:
Warm-up of 200 freestyle, 200 pull (which is using your arms only), 200 kick (using just the kickboard) and another 200 freestyle. Man, using just the kickboard is TOUGH! I could barely make it 100 yards! That will definitely be an area of focus in the months to come.
The regular portion of the workout was 1500 yards, alternating breathing on each side. I did 250 going back and forth every three strokes, but then did 500 all on the right, next 500 all on the left, and last 250 switching.
Cool-down was just 100 yard at a relaxed pace.

According to my Garmin, I averaged 1:53. I wasn't expecting it to be that low (it's better than what I expected). Hopefully when I start doing more speed work in the following weeks.

After dinner I did Insanity Core Cardio & Balance. It's a recovery week (good timing) and I don't think my heart rate ever got above 140bpm.

Overall a good day, except for the fridge at work freezing my yogurt, chocolate milk, and fruit over the weekend. Had a banana and oatmeal for breakfast. Quizno's flatbread chicken for lunch, and fish with green beans for dinner.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Getting Here From There

Over the past year, I've fielded some fair (and some odd) questions.

"What motivates a 40 year-old who's never done triathlons or marathons to all of a sudden start?"

"When did the King of Devouring Doritos start eating healthy?"

"Aren't you getting a little TOO skinny now?"

That's just a sample. It's difficult to answer one question without having a look at the big picture. It's easier for me to answer the question, "How did you go from being a semi-overweight, unhealthy, quasi-lazy Facebook junkie to a more slender, semi-obsessive healthy workout junkie?"

It's not an easy singular story to tell. It's actually three different stories that have each played a significant role in how I got from there to here.

PART 1: KICKING THE HABIT
I started smoking when I was 17. I had quit twice, only to start up again both times. I had almost quit a third time but couldn't quite kick the habit. I had tried various methods - hypnosis, the patch, gradually cutting back, but I had never tried cold turkey. What lead me to try it was probably the most illogical reason of all: spite.

Working at DirecTV there are a lot of smokers. Being in charge of training and safety meant I was spending most of my time at the office and not in the field in customer's homes. That actually lead to an increase in my daily nicotine intake, fed mostly by the frequent smoke breaks the rest of the field managers would take.

There were 4 other field managers, and all of them smoked. On January 2nd, 2011, we headed out back for our normal first morning smoke break. But there was something different: three of the four weren't lighting up. It turns out they had made a resolution to quit. Good for them - I congratulated them and wished them luck.

But then they pointed something out to me. "Since we're quitting, it'll just be you and Brad (name changed) out here smoking together."

Here's why that sucked: Brad was a notorious whiner and bellyacher. Non-stop complaining about how bad his job was, how overworked and underpaid he was... I'm sure you all have worked with someone like Brad. Now imagine being stuck with Brad about half a dozen times every day with no one else around. Yikes. And the guys were reminding me of that fact.

"Lucky you, Wamz - you get to come out here every day with Brad and listen to him."

Sure enough, after one week, I couldn't take it anymore. It was magnified by the fact that Brad was taking even more smoking breaks than before, and I honestly didn't like losing that much work time. The other supervisors were laughing it up at my expense, glad that they had finally scraped off the biggest complainer onto someone else so they didn't have to endure it anymore. Their prediction was spot-on, and it was driving me crazy.

But as luck would have it, they also provided the solution. One day when Brad wasn't in the office, I was cursing them for quitting and leaving me as the sounding board for Brad's relentless complaining. Being the funny group of guys they are, they offered the following:

"You know what you should do? You should quit just to spite him."

"Yeah," chimed in another. "Imagine how much more miserable he'll be if he doesn't have anyone to complain to when he goes out on his smoke breaks all by himself!"

They thought it was hilarious, but it was not only ingenious, but the right motivation I needed for that particular time. Here's what I know about myself: as stated in my previous post, I like routine. Habit, if you will. And that's all that smoking was to me. I had gone hours, sometimes even a full day without having a cigarette and never suffered the effects of crankiness, feeling lethargic, or other nicotine withdrawl symptoms. I knew it was just mind over matter. So that day, I bought my last pack of cigarettes, and when they were gone, they were gone for good.

Brad, as you might imagine, responded exactly how the rest of the guys predicted: he was pissed.

"Aw, not you too? Dammit! Now who's going to go outside with me? I don't wanna smoke all by myself!"

But he did. And with the lone exception of 2 celebratory cigars, I haven't had a cigarette since January 10th, 2011.

QUIT-SMOKING STATS AS OF JAN 27th, 2013

Been quit for 2 Years, 2 Weeks, 3 Days, 11 hours, 53 minutes and 21 seconds (748 days) 
Saved $1,777.66 by not smoking 7,484 cigarettes.
Saved 3 Weeks, 4 Days, 23 hours and 40 minutes of my life. 


Oh, and the other three guys? They all gradually went back to smoking within the next 3 months. So in an humorous turn of events, the last guy to quit is the only one who made it stick. And I only quit to piss someone else off. Now who's having the last laugh?

PART 2: LOSING THE BITCH-TITS
In mid 2010, Wendy had heard about a diet from her sister. She took these little drops, ate small meals, and lo and behold, lost 20 lbs. I was really proud of her!  And yes, she looked great.

Fast-forward to February of 2011. I had borrowed P90X from a neighbor and tried a few times to get going with it, but after a few workouts I decided it was too hard and gave up. What I did instead was did the Legs and Back workout two or three times a week in advance of our ski trip to get some leg strength built up. But I could still tell I was getting heavier from recently quitting smoking. That and the fact that I wasn't as active as I used to be. I wasn't playing softball anymore or doing anything physical, recreation or otherwise, save for skiing or golfing.

I wasn't a slave to the scale, but I knew that I usually weighed around 170lbs, give or take a few. I also wore 34-inch waist jeans comfortably. But slowly and surely, the 170 was taking more than giving. The 34-inch waist was less comfortable. Then one day I stepped on the scale. 188lbs. Yikes. I hadn't been that heavy since 1996 when I was 195. Back then my then-girlfiend and I did HerbaLife, and it worked. But I was younger back then. What would I do now?

Wendy suggested the homeopathic HCG drops since they worked so well for her. I was intrigued, but wanted to know more about it. She told me how I had to take some drops of the HCG under my tongue 30 minutes before eating, and when I did eat it had to be small amounts. If memory serves correctly, it was a very strict 1,000-calorie a day diet. I know, doesn't sound like much does it?

I was dubious. What where the drops for? Hell, anyone could lose weight on just 1,000 calories a day. Apparently the HCG also works to manage your hunger. It doesn't do anything else like manage your metabolism (like others incorrectly claim). Now I'm no scientist, but I know enough that good eating habits combined with exercise should yield results. But the HCG instructions (correctly) point out that you should not attempt strenuous cardio or other types of extended physical activity because of the lack of calories. You could start after the drops ran out after 3 weeks and you increased your caloric intake up to 1,500.

You know what? Fine. At this point I knew I had to do something. So I made up my mind that I would do the HCG drops with Wendy, but only if she promised to do all 3 months of P90X with me once the drops were gone. It was a deal.

I wanted to catalog this, thinking if the HCG didn't work, I could have an argument for a refund. To the right is what I recorded over 4 weeks, which is how long I made the drops last.

Not too shabby. 20 pounds dropped in 4 weeks. I was impressed. But it worked because I was disciplined. And there were times I HATED being disciplined! Who wants to eat on bread sticks as a snack? I want my Doritos! A salad for lunch? What about a bacon cheeseburger? COME ONNN.

But the good eating habits stuck. Quiznos salads became my new lunch of choice. Small, appropriate-sized meals for dinner instead of being the one eating all the leftovers. And you know what? It wasn't that bad at all.

Next up: P90X. Any fitness professional will tell you that any program will work as long as you make the commitment. Well, both Wendy and I made the commitment, and as you can see below, the results speak for themselves. To be accurate, I took the 'before' picture when I had topped out around 190lbs.

I'll admit - in my wildest dreams, I did not expect to see such results. And in just a little more than 3 months!

But it wasn't just P90X alone. As summer progressed, I wanted to start running again. I ran cross-country in high school, but really hadn't ran much since then. I started with the goal of getting back up to 3 miles. HAH! Just getting through one mile was rough at first! But I kept at it. By the end of the summer, I could successfully run 3 miles without falling at the end of complete exhaustion.

I was not only seeing but FEELING the results. The workouts weren't as hard, I wasn't winded from sprinting up a flight of stairs. My clothes wouldn't fit anymore. My 34-inch jeans now practically slid off my hps - I was fitting into 31s!

At this point, most people would probably stop. They'd see the results, congratulate themselves on the results of their hard work, and try to maintain what they had achieved. But this was just the beginning for me. And it all came to a head one late summer day.

PART 3: THE POSTER
How's this for irony: the most healthy endeavor of my adult life started with a bike ride to the ice cream shop.

Hey, it's an awesome ice-cream shop! Over The Top is the name, and they make some incredible flavors! It's just about 2 miles from our house, so we decided to give ourselves weekly 'rewards' by walking or biking on Sunday evenings for a treat. But that was the deal - we had to walk or bike: no driving.

It's early July. I'm in full-on P90X mode, had started running again, and was feeling really good about the changes I had made. I had more energy than I ever had. More confidence also. No longer would my neighbor beg me to put my shirt back on while I was mowing the lawn. I was feeling great, both physically and mentally.

We had just ordered our reward ice cream (Amaretto Cherry for me, and let me tell you, there is nothing better or more decadent on the face of this earth than that wonderfully sweet concoction). As we're on our way out, I see a poster on the door that catches my eye.

COPPER CREEK TRAITHLON. 750m SWIIM / 20k BIKE / 5k RUN

Hmm, a triathlon, huh? Right here in my own town? I might be interested in that. I've never swam competitively, but I know I can run 5k (3.1 miles) and I'm sure I could do a 12-mile bike ride with some practice. Sounds like a pretty good idea!

One problem. The poster should have been taken down two weeks prior. The event had been held the last week in June.

Bummer. I was momentarily excited at the thought of a triathlon. Heck, that would be pretty impressive, doing one at my age. Wendy saw me looking at the poster, and I told her what I had just been thinking.

"You can always do it next year," she offered.

(Those may be words she someday regrets, if she hasn't already)

Yeah, why not next year? That gives me not just the rest of this summer to finish P90X, but I could do it again in the winter and start training, give myself time to be prepared, do some homework.

That was the day that may have very well changed the course of my health for the rest of my life. I did in fact compete in that triathlon the next year (details to come in another post), and I absolutely loved it. I was hooked. So much so, I competed in another one a mere 3 weeks later. A month and a half after that, my first full-distance triathlon. And now here I am looking towards half and full-length Ironman competitions in the years to come.

Not only did the competition breathe new life into me, but in training I have learned (and in some cases, re-learned) so much about health, physiology, nutrition, you name it.

So there you have it. The 3 primary stories of how I got off the couch to where I am today, and ultimately this blog. Or more precisely, going from the guy on the left...











... to the guy you see below.

2013 - The Plan, The Schedule, The Goals

For those who don't know, I'm a planner. Yep, I'm one of those that likes (who am I kidding - NEEDS) a path to follow. I like structure, I like routine (might have been a good military man). So I'm planning out all of my activities and events for 2013, and building a training plan around them. I'll work backwards from the first one, and from that first event forward I'll be kind of winging it. You'll see why in a moment.

2013 PLANNED ACTIVITIES/EVENTS

April 20th - Glow Run (5k) 
June 1st - Dam to Dam Run (20k) 
June 9th - 1/2 Ironman Kansas 
June 23rd - Copper Creek Triathlon (Sprint) 
July 14th - Iowa Games Triathlon (Sprint) 
July 27th - Warrior Dash 
Aug 3rd - 1/2 Ironman Boulder 
Sept 1st - Hy-Vee Triathlon (Olympic) Oct 4th - Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler (tentative) 
Oct 20th - Des Moines Marathon

Events I did in 2012 are in italics. I did the Des Moines Half-Marathon in 2012, so technically running the full marathon distance this year will be new for me.

For those who don't know, the following is a breakdown of triathlon distances (in miles):

               SWIM    BIKE      RUN   
SPRINT       .47        12       3.1

OLYMPIC     .93        25       6.2

1/2 I.M.      1.2        56      13.1

IRONMAN    2.4       112     26.2


THE SCHEDULE
So, now that I've got events planned, I need to figure out how to best train. Two things that I'm doing this year are Insanity workouts for cardio/strength training, and a 1/2 Ironman Training Plan compliments of BeginnerTriathlete.com. 

As I write this, I am starting Week 5 of 9 in the Insanity series. Luckily it's a recovery week before it ramps up for the final 4. This coincides perfectly with my 'officially' starting the HIM (Half-IronMan) trainng, which is 19 weeks. I planned it backwards from the Kansas HIM, which is the first major event of the year for me (the Dam To Dam will serve as a final tune-up the week prior).

A potential problem: Insanity workouts are 6 days a week, with Sunday being a recovery day. Some training days on the HIM program require me to work on two disciplines in the same day. This may be a challenge. Up till now, I've been working on one discipline in the mornings, and doing Insanity once I get home prior to dinner. I may have to modify this by moving Insanity to the early morning, allowing me more time after work or in the evenings to get in anywhere from 1 to 2 hours of HIM training. Guess I'll have to wait and see what works best.

The larger question is: How do I incorporate all this into a family and a full-time job? Well, the first one is the important one: family. Luckily I have the support of an amazing wife and understanding daughter, both of whom I hope will be inspired to the point that they someday give a triathlon a go (another post for another time). As for working around my job, the best way is to get up early (like 4:30am kind of early) and get in at the gym before getting to work around 6:30am. Between driving to the gym and showering afterwards, plus the 20-minute drive to work, it really only leaves me about an hour. So I'll have to time my workouts accordingly, and save the longer ones for after work. As noted before, I'll have to figure out what works best with my schedule.



THE GOALS
I'm going to have different goals for each individual event, but my overall goals for the year are pretty simple, but will still require dedication, discipline, and commitment:

  1. Finish all events.
  2. Be as injury-free as possible.
  3. Inspire others.
  4. Have fun.

For events that are new to me this year, I hope to finish in the top 1/3 in my age group in most of them. On the events I participated in previously, my obvious goal is to improve year-to-year in all disciplines. 

The third goal is really the one I hope to achieve. Whether it be my daughter, wife, another family member, a friend or a complete stranger that I'll never know; if I can inspire one person to do ANYTHING to improve their health or fitness, that will be the best accomplishment of all. Better than winning an event, even. 

So there you have it: those are my lofty activities, plans, and goals for 2013. Are they all achievable? In short, yes - I believe they are. I'll keep you all posted along the way. Thanks for following!

-JW

Friday, January 25, 2013

What's the deal with this blog?

So... what's the deal with this blog? What exactly am I hoping to achieve? Fair and obvious questions, with some fair and not-so-obvious answers.

ACCOUNTABILITY 
 If you follow me on Facebook, you know you're subjected to a seemingly relentless stream of updates regarding what I'm doing from a physical standpoint (OK, and everything else I'm doing, everywhere else I'm going, etc). I don't post those to brag - I post them to keep myself honest. Some of my posts feed automatically from Endomondo, and some from Garmin. In order to relieve friends and family from the flood of such updates, I'll be moving said activity to this blog. It will still be a 'public record', so to speak, so anyone can still call me out if they think I'm slacking.

INFORMATIVE
Bit by bit, more friends and family are asking me about the changes I've made regarding both my training and my nutrition. This will be my platform to share what I learn - not just about nutrition, but I'll also share observations on how certain foods impact my energy levels, any weight gain/loss, or other physiological effects. I'll also post links to articles and videos related to health, fitness, and nutrition.

INSPIRATION
This is the real reason. I'm not saying anyone needs to do a triathlon or anything. But if just one person reads this and is inspired to make any change at all towards living a more healthy lifestyle, that would be both satisfying and humbling at the same time.

So that's it for my first entry. Bear with me as I try to figure this out more going forward. Hopefully it will be entertaining more often than not. I'll be 'keeping it real' and not hold anything back. If I'm hurtin, you'll know about it. If I'm feeling great, you'll know about it. Wish me luck, and thanks for coming along on the journey!