Inside the Monastery

I have recently started telling people that I am living like a monk. Well, not exactly a real monk, but I am forgoing many things in the name of this Ultraman campaign. Why? Even though several ultra-friends keep telling me that the training is "not much more than for an Ironman," the impact of "not much more" on me is huge.

I am not a lifelong swimmer, and the specter of swimming 10K and then biking (and biking more the next day and running a lot the next) has me wanting to be prepared. Just like it's advisable to go into an Ironman having trained well enough to know that the 2.4-mile swim won't trash you (although there are plenty of people who still do Ironman that are crappier swimmers than me, and I am just MOP, OK?), or at least for me it is, I want to go into Ultraman knowing I won't be lying on the beach moaning for 15 minutes after I get out of the water.

So I am swimming a lot, and I'm not that fast, so the yardage takes me longer than it would for a faster swimmer. But I am OK with that. Funny thing is, acclimating to the swimming I'm doing now is a trick considering I am also keeping up the same or more amount of biking and running than I would be doing this time of year. I am playing with nutrition, since I am just not used to thinking of swimming as a big calorie burner for me, and finding I need to fuel while swimming (the long swims) just like I would if I were biking or running. And hydrate! Even more! I was already used to swimming 1 to 1.5 hours before work 3 times a week, but Fridays are 2.5+ hours, and it's just a completely different animal. I just want to be prepared.

And then there was all that running I did from September through the beginning of January. And then I am doing extra "core" stuff (planks mostly) and pushups and pullups that I presume are helping to support the additional swimming at least, but also running and biking (the core stuff, silly!).

Then there's the job, which has become a little more intense in the last year. Now take all that training, add in :30 of stretching 6 days of the week, 1.5 hours the 7th day for a massage, and consider that I am trying to do, on average, 2 hours more of training a week than I did the prior season.

That 2 hours (even it were just one it's significant because I was already training a lot) is translating into a need for more sleep and more precise nutrition. I am lowering my caffeine intake (except for during training), increasing my fluid intake, increasing my calorie intake, and rarely eating anything remotely resembling junk food. I am cutting down my beer consumption now (it needed to be done anyway), too. I am to the point where I can wake up and be training within an hour, which includes driving to the Y. Once I am running outdoors more, the driving will be eliminated, but then I will be running more anyway! If there's anything I can do to sleep more at this point, I will do it!

So those 2 extra hours of training are giving rise to lots of other changes that require additional time on my part, to think about what I need to do, plan for it, execute it, take notes on it (in case it doesn't work), and most of all, RECOVER FROM IT!

I won't sacrifice sleep (9 hours a night, sometimes more, baby!) for something that is optional. I know this will all be over in 6 months anyway, so that isn't too long of a time to live like a monk, is it? Actually I don't care what anyone thinks. I suppose it's possible that I look back on this someday and think of it as a waste of time, but I doubt it. I'm doing something that for me, right now, is very hard. It is a ton of work and requires much vigilance. But I do get to experience good doses of joy in the process, too.

Really, I'd rather work out than work any day. I know that if I had the means (or lack of concern, anyway) to quit my job and just train, I would be doing even more. There are some people who say I should do less because I will burn out or the stress will get to me. I do have my moments, and I keep learning along the way what I can and cannot tolerate, but I will keep going. For example, I took a rest day on Monday. Wise move on my part! I am also, for the first time in years, going to do a deliberate cycle of 3 weeks build 1 week step back. I have a feeling my body would force me to do it anyway, but I am going to take the chance that I will, in fact, be stronger for it.

Someone asked me today whether I had anything "fun" planned for this weekend. My response was, "besides what I normally do? No." For now, I have some free time on the weekends to, um, relax, and fit in necessary errands and stuff that came up during the week but didn't attend to. So I don't plan for much more besides grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, reading, taking my sweet time doing whatever else needs doing, and then maybe getting an extra hour of sleep. Exciting, huh? On the plus side, I am starting to think about "what happens after Ultraman?" There will definitely be a vacation that does not have a race attached to it. As to triathlon, I can't say just yet. I'm sure I'll find out for sure in 6 months, though!