Blerg

I suppose this should technically be a race report, so here's what happened at the Shenandoah Speedway Points Race:

Got a poor start and spent the first five laps making up for it. Positioned poorly going into first sprint, came across line out of the points. Flatted before the next sprint. Didn't bring spare wheels. The end.

I probably could have found a spare front wheel, but I didn't really want to. I didn't want to do the race at all, actually. I paid $30 and drove 2 hours each way to do 8 laps on a race track. At least there was beer.

This post is really about me being burned out. In previous years, I would either get sick or hurt when I overtrained. I guess cycling affects me differently, because I feel cranky and unmotivated instead of sick.

Point is that I've pushed my body (and mind) too far, and now I need a break. Emily has orders not to let me sign up for any races for at least 2 weeks. I'll see how I feel after that. It may be that I lay off until cyclocross season starts. In the meantime, I plan to do a little running, do a little swimming, watch a lot of rugby, and ignore cycling.

See you in a couple weeks.

Week 4 update

My body felt very tired after three weeks of exercise. After this first meso-cycle, all the others will be three weeks instead of four, so I hope that this is as tired as I'll be this year. I missed most of my running the third week because the weather was so gross. I know that sounds pretty lame to my readers who are buried under three feet of snow, but I didn't have access to a treadmill, and there were no safely cleared paths on which to run. So I didn't run. I also skipped a bike ride.

Week 4 provided some much-needed recovery. I skipped two of three swimming workouts, because I've had pain in my shoulders. After two years of minimal swimming, I think I've shocked my body with this sudden onset of swim training. So I gave my shoulders a break and skipped a couple of swims. My legs felt tired during my bikes and runs, too, but I got them done!

I hit my 1000m swim test, though; I did 1000m in 17:55! I know it's not a world-record time or anything, but it's one of my faster times. Not bad, considering I just started swimming again a month ago!

I also joined the YMCA in Kansas City last week. I wanted to join the community center where I've been swimming up until now, but their hours are more limited, and I've got two jobs now. The Gregg/Klice pool is open from 10:45 to 5:30, and I'm sure there will be days when I can't get there during those times.

It's nice to be making money again, and to have a job where I work certain hours and get paid for them. Self-employment exhausted me, as much as I enjoyed setting my own schedule and self-directing. It's refreshing to have someone else tell me what to do, at least for a while. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to combine two retail jobs, though, not to mention half ironman training. I may be overly ambitious.

My Variation on Recovery

A couple weeks ago, I posted about how it makes sense that individuals (being individuals) need variations on how much recovery they need, relative to how much working out they do. One-size-fits-all training plans don't. Fit all, that is.

Through trial and error, I've found that they don't fit me. Three weeks on, one week off training plans are so nice and neat and tidy . . . they segment your days and weeks and months so well! But that doesn't work for me. This time around, I at least didn't develop an overuse injury. Instead, I lost all motivation to run. I still did yoga, and I started indoor cycling again, but I had absolutely no interest in running. So I didn't run. And I haven't run for three weeks, now. And this is why I need to remember that dividing my days and weeks and months into tidy, four-week blocks doesn't work for me!

With that in mind, I've revised my half marathon training plan to recover every third week. Small change, really. And I'm pushing the bounds of safe progression, here, especially since I haven't been keeping up with the plan for the last three weeks. I'm relying on my youth to keep me healthy through the extra miles.


Half Marathon training 2013

Ex: Week 1 includes a 3 mile fartlek, 2 mile tempo run, 5 mile long run, 10 miles weekly total

11. 4 2 10 (16)
12. 4 2 11 (17)
13. 3 2 6 (11)

14. 4 2 12 (18)
15. 4 2 13 (19)
16. 0 4 8 (12)

17. 4 3 13 (20)
18. 4 3 15 (22)
19. 6 3 15 (24)

20. 3 2 10 (15)
21. 2 2 13.1 (17.1)

Variants on Recovery

I recover better with company.

It seems like I figure this out every year or so.

Most endurance plans orient training by month, in four-week chunks. They give three weeks of hard work for every one week of recovery. Seems like every time I write a new training plan for myself, I start with this schedule. And every time, two or three months into training, I get overloaded and end up taking my recovery a week early. Sometimes, like with this training cycle, I lose my motivation and get caught in two or three weeks of recovery.

It makes sense that there would be natural variations among members of our species on how much work we can do, relative to how much rest we need. And there's nothing special about a seven-day week, either, or a four-week month. It's not like our species evolved with modern weeks or months. There's no real reason to maintain this dominant ratio. Except that it's what everyone else does.

I plan to start marching to the beat of my own drum in this regard, however; it's a waste of time to re-do my training plan because I overestimated my own training capacity.

Recipe File: Jamie's Pasta al Diablo

Pasta in the style of the devil. Yum!

Here's how I do cooking:

At store: "Hmm, whole-wheat pasta sounds good. Also mushrooms. Ooh, look! Mini Naked juices! Cheap mini Naked juices! Score!"

At home: "Okay, water on to boil . . . I'm craving some garlic. Five cloves should about do it. Lots of olive oil, low heat . . . Now what else will go with garlic? Might as well use those mushrooms. Rough chop . . . And that would be really good with some tomatoes, too . . . Let's see what's in the fridge. Leftover chipotle peppers? Perfect! It'll be a spicy one . . . Fine chop on those . . . Ooh, sweet yellow bell peppers! That'll be great! Now all those into the mix . . . Hmm, maybe sun-dried tomatoes instead of fresh . . . Whoa, too spicy! What about some tomato paste . . . Yes, that's better; a little sweeter. And oregano! Oregano will go great with these flavors!"

And that's how I come up with new recipes.

Be aware that this one takes a little while. Figure about 30 minutes on prep time.

2 oz whole-wheat pasta (I used thin spaghetti)

Boiling water (reserve some of the water the pasta cooked in for the sauce)

Extra virgin olive oil

Fresh garlic (I used 6 cloves)

Fresh mushrooms (must be fresh, and I used 3 large ones)

Fresh sweet bell pepper (yellow, orange, or red, as green won't be sweat enough. I'm sure roasted red peppers would be good, too. I used about a quarter of a pepper.)

2 small chipotle peppers (reserve some of the sauce from

Sun-dried tomatoes (I used a handful of grape tomatoes that I dehydrated myself)

Tomato paste

Oregano

Kleenex (trust me)

Start by boiling water with a generous amount of olive oil and salt over high heat. After it comes to a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for 6-8 minutes. While the water is boiling and the pasta is cooking, prep your veggies and other stuff. Roughly chop the garlic, mushrooms, and sweet pepper. Finely chop the sun-dried tomatoes and chipotle peppers. Start a saute pan over low heat with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil (if you say E.V.O.O. I'm gonna punch you in the face) and the roughly chopped garlic. Keep the heat low, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes (until the garlic starts to soften; this makes the garlic soft and mild and delicious and also flavors the oil). By this time, the pasta should be done. Reserve 1-2 cups of the water from the pasta, then strain the pasta and run cool water over it to make sure the cooking process stops. Set the pasta aside.

When the garlic is soft and starting to turn translucent, add all the chopped elements (mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, anything else you like). Let the mushrooms and peppers soften, and the flavors come together a little bit. Next, add the liquid from the chipotle peppers, about a tablespoon of it (you can do more, depending on how spicy you like it). Let that cook together for a minute or two. Then add the tomato paste. Start with a tablespoon or so, and add more to taste. You want the sweetness of the tomato to balance out the intense heat of the peppers, so be as generous with the tomato paste as you need to. As you add the tomato paste, add enough of the pasta water to start making a thick sauce. Thinner than gravy, but thicker than water. This is a matter of personal preference, but I go for the consistency of beef stew. I used about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and maybe 3/4 cup of pasta water to achieve what I wanted. Finally, add oregano to taste. It should sort of take the edge off of the peppers a little more. You can also throw in some salt and pepper at this point, although I didn't add any.

Once you're satisfied with the flavor and texture of your sauce, take your cooked pasta and toss it in with the sauce, re-heating it a little bit. You can serve with chicken or shrimp, maybe some tofu. I'm not sure how well it would compliment beef or fish. Chorizo would be excellent with this, provided it's fairly mild. I didn't put any protein with mine, though. Some creme fresh or sour cream would probably be good, and help take the edge off.

And I'm serious about the tissue. I went through two of them.

This was more than enough food for me after a 10-mile run, so if you're cooking for more than one, adjust the amounts accordingly.

The Countdown

T minus 5 days.

Bad bad bad.

Short of broken bones, amputation, or major surgery, the worst possible thing has happened.

I got the flu.

Last night I went to the cadaver lab with a group of massage therapists to learn about muscles. I did fine with seeing dead bodies all cut open, but had a little trouble with the smell. After two hours in the lab, I was feeling a little queasy. On the way home, I rolled the windows down and breathed in some fresh air, but it didn't help much. I was afraid I was going to have to pull over on the highway and throw up.

Got home and just wished that I could bring up whatever was making me feel so sick. Around 10:30, I finally did. Then again, every couple hours or so, the whole night long. I couldn't lay on my sides without feeling sick. I got terrible muscle spasms in my back. I was painfully dehydrated. I started thinking about going to the hospital; I even thought, "What if I'm dying." Needless to say, I was not at my most rational.

I've been done with the vomiting since early this morning, but my muscles are still sore and tender to the touch. I'm running a slight fever. I feel about 50%, right now. I don't know if it was the field trip to the anatomy lab that made me sick, or if it was food poisoning. I went swimming on Sunday at Lake Afton and got a few mouthfuls of water; maybe it was that. My dad just thinks I got the flu.


Whatever the cause, this is terrible timing. I'm weak and dehydrated at a time when I should be building my reserves of strength. I just hope I have time to re-hydrate and rebuild all the energy I've lost before Sunday's race.

Feeling Good About Recovery

Today, while lifeguarding at the pool (because when no one else can guard, guess what the Aquatics Director gets to do), I was working on a forthcoming blog post about overtraining/under-recovering. I was reading a journal article that reviewed the current research on the topic of recovery, which prompted me to think about the unique situation of triathletes when it comes to recovery. Then one of the other lifeguards (my pacer from Friday night, actually) was generous enough to relieve me early (at 5:00 instead of 8:00), so I headed home for a 6-mile tempo run.

Which sucked.

I didn't want to do it. My legs were sore. I was thirsty and hungry. And all I really wanted was a nap.

Ironically enough, about 3/4 of the way through the first mile, I was listening to a podcast detailing the dangers of overtraining for triathletes.

And I took it as a sign. Instead of running 6 miles at tempo pace, I ran 2 miles easy. I figure that since I'm getting into the last main push of my training, and since I'm in the first week of a 3-week build phase, and since I ran my fastest-ever mile split on Friday, it might do me good to push a difficult workout back by one day.

Normally, I feel terrible about this kind of decision. Stupid and weak, insufficient, unable to complete the most basic and mundane training tasks. But today, with this decision, I feel really good; I feel like I made the right choice.

And now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's tempo run.

Getting Over the Hump: Overcoming March Malaise

What a crappy time to feel lack of motivation in training. The weather's starting to warm up; the equinox has come; we have more daylight, more warmth, less wind . . . and here we are reading blogs, putting off the inevitable swim, bike, run, weights, core, technique, drills, tempo, flexibility . . . It's all so overwhelming, and we don't want to do it anymore.

It seems to be a common problem, this time of year: I know I'm feeling it; several of the athletes I coach have mentioned it; I have a friend in Germany who just e-mailed me about the same thing--March Malaise; March Melancholy; March Mediocrity; March Don't-Make-Me.

Why is that? Like I said, it's the perfect time of year for training. We should all be chomping at our respective bits, rather than dreading the next workout!

I think it's because we've been training for several months, all in base training. We've worked our asses off since January, but have seen precious little result. Plus, the long steady work is starting to take its toll; after all, there are only so many times you can listen to your Long Run Ultra-Hardcore Superstar Like-Macca Playlist before you go a little nutty (and know exactly which song comes next).

If you're starting to feel a little lackluster in your training week, here are my ideas for putting some spark back into your schedule:

• Throw in some intensity. Do some fartlek work in your long workouts. Fartlek means speed play. So play! Have fun with it! Include some short intervals in your tempo workouts. Add a big kick to the end of your workouts. If you've already worked through months of base work, some high-intensity training is not going to jeopardize your path to peak fitness.
  
• Cross train. I know, I know; that's kind of our whole sport. I mean try something new. Find a climbing wall (or, if you are so fortunate to live in an area that has those funny things called mountains, get out and climb); take yoga or pilates; play basketball or soccer with your kids. Shake things up a little.
• Get outside! Bonus points for going with friends.
• Buy gear. You know that as soon as you pick up new equipment, you can't wait to try it out. It can be something small and simple (and cheap!) like new goggles, a running cap, or . . . okay, I can't think of anything small, simple, and cheap that you would need on your bike. What can I say? It's an expensive sport.
• Reflect on your goals. This is the one that has by far been the most helpful for me. Take some time to think about what you want from this season and what it will take to get it. If you can remind yourself why you're working so hard and keep those things in front of you all the time, your motivation will strengthen. I recently finished a book that suggested writing down your goals and using a colored dot (or gold star, or anything similar) next to each goal. Let's say I place a red dot next to each goal on my goal sheet (I actually use a pocket-sized notebook for this). Then I put red dots on my toothpaste, my phone, my watch, my computer screen . . . Everywhere I look, I'm constantly reminded of my goals. Pretty soon, I think of my goals when I see a stop sign, or a red light. Even thinking about the technique gets me excited!
  
• Rest. This is a big one. Don't skimp on recovery. Lack of motivation and general ennui are some of the symptoms of overtraining. Remember that it's better to be 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained, come race day. If you've been pushing hard and your body starts to say, "Hey! I don't wanna do this!" then listen! One thing I've done in my recovery weeks is replace scheduled workouts with goal sessions; two birds with one stone (I know you triathletes love that multi-tasking stuff)!

My final recommendation would be to find a race, a local 10k or a casual weekend time trial, to get your competitive motor running and remind you why you love this sport. Because I'm pretty confident that if you didn't genuinely love this sport, you wouldn't have read this far.

Sh-sh-sh-sugar high!

Oh. My. Goodness.

I need to get my consumption of sweets under control.

Which is sort of a strange thing to say, because I don't eat a ton of sweets. I might indulge in a cup (not a bowl, mind you--a cup) of ice cream with my family every now and then . . . I might even add some hot fudge and melted peanut butter (I know, I'm going to triathlete hell). But in general, dessert for me is frosted shredded wheat with 1% milk, whole grain bread with 2 tbsp (exactly) of peanut butter, or an apple.

But for some reason, the past two days I have not been able to keep my hands off the sugar! Well, to be fair, today it wasn't just the sugar. I wanted to eat everything in sight. But this past weekend, I consumed all kinds of junk with nary a thought for my energy needs, high-quality fuel, my health!

And tonight, I think I paid the price.

Now I'm not sure if this is psychosomatic or a legitimate problem, but my heart felt . . . erm, flighty tonight. Agitated. Like it was beating too many times, fluttering away in my chest, trying to escape (probably from the bad food I've been pouring into it). Which is a strange feeling. What exactly does a heart murmur feel like? Could this be a result of too much sugar? Because even though I've had more than usual today, it's still not that much (relative to the general population).

At any rate, it's settled down now, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Am I craving those simple carbs because my body's not getting enough fuel? Along with the 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls and the high-volume base training (not to mention the daily Group Ride classes), is eating less than 2,000 calories a day simply asking too much of my body's recovery capacity? Should I up the intake a little bit, keep the deficit to 500-1000 calories a day? Or am I just lazy/hormonal/stressed to the point that I have to stay out of the kitchen to prevent (bad) food from constantly entering my mouth?

It's a real dilemma; is it better for my health to eat more, or am I just using the high volume as an excuse to eat?

Checking In

Notes on the day:

Today is my first day back on training after a week of full recovery. I didn't intend to be so sedentary this past week. A combination of rain, wind, and no gym access has prevented my general training. Unfortunately, this week of recovery hasn't felt as good as I would like. I've been unexpectedly sore and achy, stiff and unenergetic. And then today I went for a 6-mile run and had an absolutely horrible time! I was running as slow as I reasonably could--12:00 min/mile--and my heartrate was still creeping up to 165, 170 bpm. And with my LSD runs, I would like to keep my heartrate under 150. But there was no in between; either I was walking until my heart rate came back down to 135 or I was running at 172. I couldn't run slowly enough to keep my heart rate down.

Normally, when my heartrate creeps up unreasonably like that, it's a symptom that I've been overtraining. But I just came off a week of recovery. The problem might be a lack of fitness, but I would be very surprised if I lost that much fitness so quickly, after just one week. So here's my theory: "‘That time of the month’ (or even the few days preceding it) is not the time when women run their worst. The hardest time for women to run fast is about a week before menstruation begins (a week after ovulation). That’s when levels of the key hormone progesterone peak, inducing a much-higher-than-normal breathing rate during exercise. The excess ventilation tends to make running feel more difficult." (link) I'm guessing that my decreased performance is related in some way to my menstrual cycle. At least, I hope it's that and not detraining.

I have two weeks of training left before I taper for Shawnee Mission. I'm starting to get nervous and excited. I really, really want to make the most out of these next two weeks, so that I'm at my absolute peak and can give my absolute best.

www.triathlon.org broadcasts live from its world cup ITU races. So I am watching the Round 7 race at Des Moines. Isn't great that we have the technology to be able to watch triathlons, track and field, swimming, and other sports ESPN thinks its too good for?

Dreams

This afternoon I took a nap, and while sleeping, I dreamed that I went for a jog around USC's campus. And after a few minutes' running, I decided that if I was running, I might as well run really, really fast. I leaned over and let my stride stretch out behind me, and flew over the ground so fast that my eyes could barely register the terrain beneath me. I ran around students and over benches and up stairs, all with the grass blurring under my feet. The feeling of the wind rushing past me and the sheer exultation of moving so quickly left me feeling fresh and energized, if winded. And I had never gone so fast!

Not a bad way to start off a recovery week.

Discipline

It's funny . . . It took me a good three or four months of training before I could really discipline myself to train every day. It took at least eight months to learn discipline with my nutrition. It took a year before I learned that I can discipline myself to keep going through the pain.

And now I'm learning to discipline myself by not training.

In the past few weeks, I've been phasing into group fitness instructing at Genesis Health Clubs in Wichita (I should be teaching spinning classes within the next two weeks). As part of this process, I've been trying to absorb the atmosphere of the group fitness classes as much as possible, since eventually I'll have the opportunity to instruct other groups as well (i.e. step aerobics, hip hop dance, yoga). Which has meant one or two hour-long classes a day, plus whatever I have in my training schedule. At the same time, I've been phasing my strenth training back in, now that I have a well-equipped gym available to me again.

For a triathlete, three workouts a day shouldn't seem like a big deal; neither should 3 and a half solid hours of training be so intimidating within the sport that produces Ironmen. But the fact is that my body has not been having the time it needs to recover after each workout. I know it's trouble after I sleep 10 hours one night and then fall into bed, exhausted, at 9:45 the next evening. I know I'm overdoing it when everything feels sore, and it never seems to go away. I know I'm pushing myself too hard when every workout is accompanied by a phlegmy feeling in the back of my throat.

I just know.

So now my primary issue is stepping back from my schedule and realizing that not only will I not get faster and stronger by continuing to push myself, I might actually do some damage. Overtraining can lead to injury, and the work you put into your body when you've been going too hard for too long doesn't translate to improvement. I've had to discipline myself to say, "No, you are not going to follow your schedule tomorrow; you are going to take a day to recover. Tomorrow is not a day you could be getting faster; tomorrow is a day you could be resting so you can go strong again next week."

A lot of traaining is learning discipline, and sometimes that means knowing when to chill out, watch TV, and eat animal crackers.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Food
Breakfast: Banana (90)
Morning: Accelerade (100)
Lunch: Enchiladas (430)
Afternoon: Apple with peanut butter (365)
Dinner: Hamburger with all-wheat bun, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, ketchup and mustard; a couple handfuls of chips, ice cream, and chocolate cake (I'm guessing around 1000)
Evening: Grapes (100)
Total: 2085

Training
1 hour spinning class
Total: 2420

Summary
I'm cutting back on my training this week. It's a mixed blessing. I'm always afraid that if I cut back, I won't want to get back into it. I miss the chance to relax and enjoy a workout. I don't burn as many calories, which makes me a little paranoid. But I am using the extra free time to work on my senior thesis, and this will all be over in two weeks, so I guess I can hold myself back from training like a crazy person for that long.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Food
Breakfast: banana (92 calories)
Morning: no snackies (0)
Lunch: 2 wraps (see below, 360)
Afternoon: 1 cup of grapes, 1 slice of bread with 1 tbsp of peanut butter, 1 Clif Nectar bar (397)
Dinner: Enchiladas! (647)
Evening: 1 cup of cereal with 1/2 cup soy milk (255)
Total: 1749 calories consumed

Training
Rest & recovery

Summary
Monday was very chill for me. Normally I would do Masters Swim, but I decided to skip it yesterday, since I was a little tired from the race. Knowing that I wasn't going to be working out at all, I was more deliberate about my food choices. I didn't have much of an appetite, although I'm not sure why. I suppose my lack of appetite might be linked to stress and anxiety. I'm coming to crunch time for my senior thesis (well, crunch time for everything, really), which means my training will have to take a backseat for a few weeks. But after graduation, I'm looking to hit it hard again, like I have since Cal Poly.

Thursday, April 12 - Friday, April 13

Food
Lost track

Training
Swimming class
Two-mile tempo run on Thursday

Summary
I don't know if I would say that I fell off the wagon, towards the end of the week. I've been keeping track of my eating and training really diligently. I felt like I should have the freedom to have a day off if I wanted it. Additionally, Thursday I started tapering for my the UCSB race. So I was focusing on a brief recovery phase and allowing myself to eat, well, not whatever I want, but more food and different kinds of food than what I would normally allow myself to eat. Like chips and trail mix. And booze. Empty calories. I haven't really permitted myself a lot of empty calories lately, but I went a little bit crazy. Made a run to Ralph's for cinnamon rolls. Yummy!