Sold!

I meant to get this post up on Monday, post the weekend's training. Somehow, writing it 5 days later takes away much of the authenticity but I don't have much else in the way of creative blog posts right now. But what I wanted to write is that I'm definitely sold on four things after my training this past weekend.

1. WEIGHTS: I've been averaging less than 100 miles per week on the bike this season, and this past Saturday, I decided to do a week's worth of riding in one day. The weather was absolutely perfect here in SF, more specifically it was perfect weather to do the Marshall Ride (not too hot, not too cold, and most importantly not too windy). As I was hitting the 70 mile mark of the ride, I started to compose a blog entry in my head of how much better I feel on long rides this year versus last year when I was doing all of that ironman volume. The difference is the weight training. When I'm mashing on the pedals, it just feels like a weight session. But not long after I composed this entry about feeling stronger, I bonked on the last climb of the ride at mile 80. But I have to say, even my bonk feels better this season. Weights, I'm sold!

2. TIME TRIAL BIKE: The TT bike is much faster than the road bike...if you are racing against the clock. I've only ridden the TT bike twice in the past 3 months and the above pic are the results of those two rides: PR's for both rides. It is fast and my riding partner will attest to the change in speed when I'm on the TT bike. If you are a non-drafting triathlete, you should be racing on a TT bike.

3. INTENSITY/RECOVERY: Though I've done less volume, I've upped both the intensity and the recovery, and this precious balance seems to be yielding good results. In fact, this is the way I used to train from my late 20's to late 30's where I set most of my PR's. Somehow, I moved away from this mode of training and started training for training sake. I don't have regrets about training to do more training because when it came down to it, I had fun training to train. But who wouldn't when you're traveling to Kona and the Gold Coat of Australia to train.

4. PALEO DIET: I have no gluten allergies, but food, specifically carbs have always had a very strong effect on me. One summer when I was coaching a swim clinic at Stanford, I realized just how sensitive my body can be to carbs. I had a very big, carbohydrate-loaded lunch, and I had to coach immediately after. While standing on the pool deck, I was extremely lethargic and worst, I couldn't fight off this powerful sleep that made my eyes so heavy, I was struggling to keep them open. My head kept bobbing as I was fighting off sleep during the coaching session. Next thing I knew I was in the water. My blood sugar was so out of whack that it caused me to fall asleep and I passed out into the pool. I scared a lot of coaches and swimmers that day. Though my diet does not restrict carbohydrate consumption, all I know is that I feel so much more energetic, and less bloated when dinner consists of a salad and a steak. And the next day, my poop does not float, and I learned long ago while taking a wellness class during college, one of the indicators of a poor diet is consistent floating stool.

Make Every Day An Important Day

How about some bike porn to start this post. Those red tires on the Reynolds wheels, oooouiiii! I believe consistency is the best way to improve and get fast, and for the past three seasons, I've strived to make every day an important day. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of defining an important day as a day chock full of training. If you follow me, you know that my racing season was pretty much a bust last year, and I now think it was in part to this belief that an important day has to involve some type of training. The past couple of weeks of training has taught me otherwise, that in fact, an important day might include no training whatsoever, but instead a lot of relaxation and recovery.

Since coming back from my mystery ailments, I've been averaging about 6-8 hours of training per week, way down from the 16-24 hours of training I was doing this same time last year. Not only am I training way less hours, the number of days where I take completely off, meaning no physical activity, has been averaging 2-3 days per week. And if you recall from my last post, I'm hitting season PR's and my numbers are no worse than what they were this same time last year. I'm not stressed about missing workouts and going for days without training, and as a result, I'm more relaxed and rested for when I do hit the pavement. Last season, I think I was training to train, in other words, I was training to be able to do more training. This season, I'm training to race. Granted, if I had an ironman on the schedule, I would be doing a lot more hours, but maybe not as many hours as I used to think I needed. Because when it comes down to it, you can't do the same thing over and over and expect different results. Make every day an important day.

And somehow, this blog is becoming a foodie blog. First, I discovered blossoming baby bok choy which go great in your pasta, and how about some low glycemic potatoes? I can now enjoy roasted potatoes with my grilled veggies again. Finally, I leave you with a pic of my post-run, pre-swim meal: paleo tea service (herbal tea with duck, beets, carrots, and kale), squash dumplings, curry egg salad with fuji apples, and a quinoa waffle.

Quietly Doing My Homework

I realized that I haven't posted since last Monday, and this post is a bit contrived for the sake of posting. I'm just quietly doing my homework in preparation for IM CDA. I have both a plan and a philosophy for the remaining four weeks until the big day. I have a training skeleton that I will follow, but at the same time, will be flexible with proper recovery taking precedence. I am following Macca's tip to pick the one workout you need to nail for the day, and the rest of the workouts for the day are amenable depending on recovery. I am also working on rebuilding my confidence. Last summer, before racing the full Vineman, I had no doubt about my ability to go under 10 hours, I believed 100% that I could do it. My confidence is a bit shaky this time around. There is no way I'll break 10 hours if I don't BELIEVE I can do it. The first step in rebuilding my confidence is to start nailing my key workouts. The more key workouts I nail, the more I deposit into the confidence bank. I made some good deposits this past weekend, and this coming weekend will give me lots more opportunities to make deposits, about 20 hours of swim, bike, run deposits. When I think of all the work I have to do this weekend, I'm reminded of the the times that I've been able to sit quietly at the SFMOMA enjoying my favorite piece of artwork. The picture does not do this Rothko justice, put it on your bucket list to sit in front of this painting one day.

Recovery

For those of you looking for my recent blog post titled "Feedback", it's lost in blogland. I'm not sure what happened but Blogger was experiencing some technical difficulties the past two days, and since then, my post is MIA and I'm too lazy to repost it from memory. In a nutshell, I was asking for feedback about my training volume. But Beth and Michelle provided some insight rather quickly, and during my swim workout last night, I had my "A HA!" moment.

I am following the same training schedule that I used for Ironman OZ last year because I stepped off that course, alert, feeling fresh, eating ice cream, and drinking beers and cheering the night time finishers all the way until midnight. I was fit going into the race and that was apparent post race; I was not sore, no GI issues or in pain immediately after the race nor the days following. But following the plan this time around has been less successful. I feel more fatigued and my times are slower in all three disciplines. Thus I cried out for help. Both Beth and Michelle brought up the idea of recovery, and during my swim, I revisited the idea and thus came the "A HA!" moment.

Though my training is not any different, my recovery is definitely different. I was on sabbatical last year, thus I wasn't working 40+ hour weeks and doing the training. I got to take naps and all of my training was done by 6 PM. This time around, not only am I working, but my workouts are getting done as late as 9 PM, and I have to turn around and wake up at 4:30 AM for the next workout. I really think the culprit is lack of proper recovery. I can't do all of this training and work a 40+ hour job...duh! the answer is so obvious and I'm feeling pretty stupid that I did not account for this (very important) detail. Looks like I'll be making some changes.

*Too funny, just as I posted this and checked my blog, the missing "Feeback" post reappeared.