Well, I am supposed to be nearing the end of week 4 of P90x. Weeks 1-3 went by well and I mostly enjoyed the routines. I did the 'strength' days at the gym - push ups, pull ups, barbell work, etc - and 'cardio' days at home - plyometrics, kick boxing. And, honestly, I skipped the yoga. And this week - week 4 - has been 'recovery week' which is mostly yoga and ab work. And because of a heavy travel week, I have neglected to do all of the required workouts. And I feel it - I feel lethargic, lazy, and grumpy.
Considering how I feel now and the fact that I skipped some of the workouts, I am considering starting over on Monday with day 1 again. I really think I benefited from the workouts I did - but I didn't completely follow the program.
Now - the slow carb diet. As some may know, this is a diet found in the book, The Four Hour Body, which is similar to a "low" carb diet but with some key differences. With "low" carb, you can eat all of the butter, grease, fat, etc you want. And cannot eat high carb veggies like corn. With SLOW carb, you are pretty much limited to lean meats, ANY vegetable, and beans. Any kind of bean - black beans, white beans, navy beans, pinto beans, lentels, anything. No fruit, nothing white (including cheese). And eggs are okay. Fairly easy to do. And best of all, once per week you are allowed a "cheat" day where you can eat anything you want. The intent is to spike the calories and throw your metabolism a curve ball so it doesn't get into a rut and get used to what you are doing.
When I have maintained this diet for extended periods, I have had great success. But I have also been susceptible to 'cheating' while traveling for my job. It's easy to stay on course when I can set your routines at home and everything is predictable. But when I travel, things get off course and I find myself making excuses to 'have just 1 beer' or 'eat that 1 meal I shouldn't' or whatever. Then before I realize it, it is time for me to return to Birmingham and I have had several meals I shouldn't have had and I have blown the week.
All that being said, after 4 weeks of being on P90x and Slow Carb, I am going to have to punt and reset. I have lost some weight, but not nearly what I should have lost by now. And I know I have not put forth my best effort. The difference this time is that I am aware of this, am facing it head on, and dealing with it now rather than at the end of the year when I would realize I was nowhere close to acheving my end of year goals. In the past, I would have done just that - ignore for as long as possible and postpone any changes until it was too late. Not this time!!
I know that planning is essential to my success with the diet. When I have had the most success, I have planned my meals for the week on Sunday, had plenty of "ready to eat" soup on hand (thanks to my lovely and talented wife who generously will make whenever I ask), and have been diligent about making my breakfasts the night before. And I know I will just have to suck it up with the yoga for the exercise. I also am going to throw in some bike rides on weekends because - well - I like them and they are good for my sanity. I think by trying so hard to ONLY do P90x, I kept myself from doing the things I really loved - like riding my bike.
And with that - I shall close with the hope that my next post will be about results rather than punts.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Augusta 70.3
Wow! It's been a while since I posted anything here - this is harder to actually keep up with than I had imagined. But now that my "season" is over after finishing the Augusta Half Ironman (70.3), I thought it would be a good time to reflect on that race, the entire year and look forward to my next journey and year in 2012.
As for this past year, I have mixed feelings about how I did. I started the year with huge ambitions and goals in terms of events and desired weight loss. I started out fast and felt great through spring dropping over 50 pounds and completing two half marathons (Mercedes and Talledega). But then came new stresses, fatigue, and possible burn-out as I got near my 1st triathlon of the season (Buster Britton). While I was able to complete Buster Britton, I was not happy with my performance. My training had slacked off and my nutrition was off - thus I had regained some of weight I had lost. I didn't feel very good about that race, but was determined to improve as I moved towards Chattanooga. That race is detailed in my previous post, so I won't rehash it here.
Then came Mountain Lakes, another sprint triathlon of 600 yard swim, 16 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. Even though I felt rejuvenated after Chattanooga, that didn't last long and I was again unprepared for Mt. Lakes. I actually never rode my bike between Chattanooga and Mt Lakes - all prep. that I did was on an indoor spin bike - and my nutrition and other trainings weren't much better. I ended up finishing the race in an embarrassingly slow time (swim, bike, and run - all of them) and at this point, I had serious doubts about my ability to finish Augusta.
I debated whether to drop out of Augusta and even made the offer to my brother (who was competing there with me) to do so. Fortunately he didn't take me up on the offer and I decided that although I was going to be heavier than I originally wanted, I was at least going to do everything I possibly could to get ready. I figured the worst that could happen (other than collapsing in death) was that I would not finish.
Five weeks prior to the start of Augusta when I "got serious" and trained my ass off by following the last 5 weeks of a 70.3 Training Plan I had downloaded from the internet. That right - I said five weeks! The bulk of my training was during this 5 weeks. And during this time, I trained between 7-9 hours per week, rode almost exclusively outside in a 'real' bike, and burned between 6000 - 9500 calories per week. I also re-found (is that a word??) my love of triathlon and became very focused on my original goal from the beginning of the year of completing a Half Ironman.
Now - the race report from Augusta. My brother got to the hotel about an hour ahead of me on Saturday afternoon and got checked in. Once I arrived, we went to the event hotel, registered and picked up our race packets, then attended the optional racers debriefing. We then took our bikes to the transition area and set up our bikes. This was the 1st race I have done where the bikes were set up the night before and I was hopeful of great security of the areas as there were more than $1M work of bikes in there! After that, we went to Bonefish Grill for a nice dinner - then went back to our room and chilled until we turned in.
Race morning, we were up at 5am to get ready and were out the door by 5:45am. I had 2.5 servings of a Protein Shake for breakfast which seemed to sit pretty well on my stomach as I did not have any issues with it during the race. I also never felt hungry and had good energy for most of the race as well.
About an hour prior to the swim, I had 1 pack of Gu while we were in transition setting up our towels, shoes, water bottles, etc. We then walked the 1 mile from transitions to the swim start after getting tired of waiting on the bus to drive us there. The walk was nice, I suppose, and gave a good warm up. About 15 minutes before the swim start, my brother and I put on our wetsuits and I had 1 more Gu and got in line. This was a Wave start swim and my time was 8am. My brother went out at 8:28am (he's MUCH older than me - heh heh heh!). Anyway, the water was 74 degrees and felt cold when I got in. We started from in the water rather than from a beach or jumping in from a dock. When the cannon went off, I let the faster people go on ahead and then I started out. I felt very good during the swim and halfway enjoyed myself as I came in at a respectable 33 minutes for the 1.2 miles.
After the swim, there was about a quarter of a mile 'hike' to transitions to get our bikes. Once inside transition, there was a station with people to help take off the wetsuit which I appreciated - although I fell on my butt as they were helping me! But it came off, nonetheless!
I was somewhat slow during T1 because I took time to dry my feet and re-apply chamois cream since I knew the bike ride would be 3+ hours. Once the ride started, I felt absolutely great and was riding between 20-22 mph for much of the flats - topping out at 41 mph on a downhill. I managed the hills as I normally do - slow but steady. That is, until around mile 40 where my feet were getting numb and there was a very slight, but long, hill that never seemed to end. The hill was almost undetectable (maybe 1 or 2% grade) - but it dropped my speed to around 15 mph for what seemed like forever. My initial thought was that my legs were going out and that I was on the verge of hitting the wall (something I had done a few weeks earlier on a training ride with a fellow triathlete back home) and I started to worry that I wasn't going to finish. And then the hill leveled off and all was good in the world again. During the bike portion, I ate 1 Gu pack every 45 minutes and drank 1 full bottle of water every hour. This worked really well and other than the numb feet and undetectable hill, I felt great! I ended up with a time of 3:08 for the 56 miles and was (still am) pleased with that effort.
Then came the run - ugh! My legs basically DIED during the run. Starting off it was all I could do to just move forward - then, once that felt 'normal', I cramped up almost constantly for the rest of the way. This led to a rather slow jog/walk effort that lasted 3:24 for the 13.1 miles. I think this is where my lack of training through the summer months combined with the fact that I didn't lose as much weight as I had hoped finally caught up with me. Not much to say about the run portion other than I was slow, got a couple of blisters and bruises underneath my toenails. Plus I learned that when my running shoes get wet, I don't really like it!! But - I never stopped and did finish the entire race in 7:17, not quite reaching my goal of 7 hours. But well under the 8.5 hour time limit!
After the race was over and I got my finisher's medal, my brother found me (who, by the way, finished in 6:19 in his first triathlon EVER!) while I was in line for food. After eating a bit of the post race pizza, we walked back to our hotel, cleaned up, and then went to get our bikes from transition. After that, we went out for dinner at Five Guys and had big, juicy burgers - and topped that off with a pint of ice cream each!!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed racing Augusta and for now, plan on doing this race again next year. I am still debating on what next season will look like, including this race. But I do know that I will space out my races, do fewer of them, and split my training up so I do not burn out like I did this year.
Even though this season was a disappointment in terms of weight loss and finishing times for most of my races, I am happy that I ended up doing 2 half marathons and 4 triathlons - one of which was a half a frickin' Ironman! And I learned SO MUCH this year that will help immensly next year - from simple things like using a 5g paint bucket in transitions and how to tape Gu to a bike frame. To more complex things like how to swim in open water without freaking out to how to plan nutrition for a 3 hour bike ride. I also learned that I do still love this sport and cannot wait for next year to start again!
That being said - after taking one full week off from any exercise and eating whatever I wanted, I am back on my slow carb diet and started P90x today. My goal for the rest of the year is to drop as much weight (fat) as possible while building some good, lean muscle so that I can start next year in better shape and "more ready". And that's it - I will ride and run some on weekends, but just for fun - not for training. My training will be solely P90x until January.
As mentioned before, I am still deciding which races to do next year. I am leaning towards 1 race in late spring (April or May) and then another in late summer/early fall (September or October). And I am considering doing the full Mercedes Marathon in February as well. What I do know is that 2012 will not be the year I do a full Ironman. I know that I need a full year training and racing at peak physical condition under my belt before doing that and, well, I am hoping 2012 will be that year which would set me up for a full IM in 2013. Ahhh - so much to decide!
As I do decide on a plan, I will surely post something here. Have a great day!
As for this past year, I have mixed feelings about how I did. I started the year with huge ambitions and goals in terms of events and desired weight loss. I started out fast and felt great through spring dropping over 50 pounds and completing two half marathons (Mercedes and Talledega). But then came new stresses, fatigue, and possible burn-out as I got near my 1st triathlon of the season (Buster Britton). While I was able to complete Buster Britton, I was not happy with my performance. My training had slacked off and my nutrition was off - thus I had regained some of weight I had lost. I didn't feel very good about that race, but was determined to improve as I moved towards Chattanooga. That race is detailed in my previous post, so I won't rehash it here.
Then came Mountain Lakes, another sprint triathlon of 600 yard swim, 16 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. Even though I felt rejuvenated after Chattanooga, that didn't last long and I was again unprepared for Mt. Lakes. I actually never rode my bike between Chattanooga and Mt Lakes - all prep. that I did was on an indoor spin bike - and my nutrition and other trainings weren't much better. I ended up finishing the race in an embarrassingly slow time (swim, bike, and run - all of them) and at this point, I had serious doubts about my ability to finish Augusta.
I debated whether to drop out of Augusta and even made the offer to my brother (who was competing there with me) to do so. Fortunately he didn't take me up on the offer and I decided that although I was going to be heavier than I originally wanted, I was at least going to do everything I possibly could to get ready. I figured the worst that could happen (other than collapsing in death) was that I would not finish.
Five weeks prior to the start of Augusta when I "got serious" and trained my ass off by following the last 5 weeks of a 70.3 Training Plan I had downloaded from the internet. That right - I said five weeks! The bulk of my training was during this 5 weeks. And during this time, I trained between 7-9 hours per week, rode almost exclusively outside in a 'real' bike, and burned between 6000 - 9500 calories per week. I also re-found (is that a word??) my love of triathlon and became very focused on my original goal from the beginning of the year of completing a Half Ironman.
Now - the race report from Augusta. My brother got to the hotel about an hour ahead of me on Saturday afternoon and got checked in. Once I arrived, we went to the event hotel, registered and picked up our race packets, then attended the optional racers debriefing. We then took our bikes to the transition area and set up our bikes. This was the 1st race I have done where the bikes were set up the night before and I was hopeful of great security of the areas as there were more than $1M work of bikes in there! After that, we went to Bonefish Grill for a nice dinner - then went back to our room and chilled until we turned in.
Race morning, we were up at 5am to get ready and were out the door by 5:45am. I had 2.5 servings of a Protein Shake for breakfast which seemed to sit pretty well on my stomach as I did not have any issues with it during the race. I also never felt hungry and had good energy for most of the race as well.
About an hour prior to the swim, I had 1 pack of Gu while we were in transition setting up our towels, shoes, water bottles, etc. We then walked the 1 mile from transitions to the swim start after getting tired of waiting on the bus to drive us there. The walk was nice, I suppose, and gave a good warm up. About 15 minutes before the swim start, my brother and I put on our wetsuits and I had 1 more Gu and got in line. This was a Wave start swim and my time was 8am. My brother went out at 8:28am (he's MUCH older than me - heh heh heh!). Anyway, the water was 74 degrees and felt cold when I got in. We started from in the water rather than from a beach or jumping in from a dock. When the cannon went off, I let the faster people go on ahead and then I started out. I felt very good during the swim and halfway enjoyed myself as I came in at a respectable 33 minutes for the 1.2 miles.
After the swim, there was about a quarter of a mile 'hike' to transitions to get our bikes. Once inside transition, there was a station with people to help take off the wetsuit which I appreciated - although I fell on my butt as they were helping me! But it came off, nonetheless!
I was somewhat slow during T1 because I took time to dry my feet and re-apply chamois cream since I knew the bike ride would be 3+ hours. Once the ride started, I felt absolutely great and was riding between 20-22 mph for much of the flats - topping out at 41 mph on a downhill. I managed the hills as I normally do - slow but steady. That is, until around mile 40 where my feet were getting numb and there was a very slight, but long, hill that never seemed to end. The hill was almost undetectable (maybe 1 or 2% grade) - but it dropped my speed to around 15 mph for what seemed like forever. My initial thought was that my legs were going out and that I was on the verge of hitting the wall (something I had done a few weeks earlier on a training ride with a fellow triathlete back home) and I started to worry that I wasn't going to finish. And then the hill leveled off and all was good in the world again. During the bike portion, I ate 1 Gu pack every 45 minutes and drank 1 full bottle of water every hour. This worked really well and other than the numb feet and undetectable hill, I felt great! I ended up with a time of 3:08 for the 56 miles and was (still am) pleased with that effort.
Then came the run - ugh! My legs basically DIED during the run. Starting off it was all I could do to just move forward - then, once that felt 'normal', I cramped up almost constantly for the rest of the way. This led to a rather slow jog/walk effort that lasted 3:24 for the 13.1 miles. I think this is where my lack of training through the summer months combined with the fact that I didn't lose as much weight as I had hoped finally caught up with me. Not much to say about the run portion other than I was slow, got a couple of blisters and bruises underneath my toenails. Plus I learned that when my running shoes get wet, I don't really like it!! But - I never stopped and did finish the entire race in 7:17, not quite reaching my goal of 7 hours. But well under the 8.5 hour time limit!
After the race was over and I got my finisher's medal, my brother found me (who, by the way, finished in 6:19 in his first triathlon EVER!) while I was in line for food. After eating a bit of the post race pizza, we walked back to our hotel, cleaned up, and then went to get our bikes from transition. After that, we went out for dinner at Five Guys and had big, juicy burgers - and topped that off with a pint of ice cream each!!
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed racing Augusta and for now, plan on doing this race again next year. I am still debating on what next season will look like, including this race. But I do know that I will space out my races, do fewer of them, and split my training up so I do not burn out like I did this year.
Even though this season was a disappointment in terms of weight loss and finishing times for most of my races, I am happy that I ended up doing 2 half marathons and 4 triathlons - one of which was a half a frickin' Ironman! And I learned SO MUCH this year that will help immensly next year - from simple things like using a 5g paint bucket in transitions and how to tape Gu to a bike frame. To more complex things like how to swim in open water without freaking out to how to plan nutrition for a 3 hour bike ride. I also learned that I do still love this sport and cannot wait for next year to start again!
That being said - after taking one full week off from any exercise and eating whatever I wanted, I am back on my slow carb diet and started P90x today. My goal for the rest of the year is to drop as much weight (fat) as possible while building some good, lean muscle so that I can start next year in better shape and "more ready". And that's it - I will ride and run some on weekends, but just for fun - not for training. My training will be solely P90x until January.
As mentioned before, I am still deciding which races to do next year. I am leaning towards 1 race in late spring (April or May) and then another in late summer/early fall (September or October). And I am considering doing the full Mercedes Marathon in February as well. What I do know is that 2012 will not be the year I do a full Ironman. I know that I need a full year training and racing at peak physical condition under my belt before doing that and, well, I am hoping 2012 will be that year which would set me up for a full IM in 2013. Ahhh - so much to decide!
As I do decide on a plan, I will surely post something here. Have a great day!
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