Wow, I keep learning things all the time in this adventure.
Once again, I felt trashed after my swim on Friday. I felt just fine doing it, swam pretty well, in fact, but the rest of the day I just wanted to lay down and die. Now, part of this is that it's not customary for me to be doing 2.5 hour workouts before I start my work day...although I work up to long runs that long in the spring and summer that I do before work on Thursdays (but who knows what will happen this spring?). But it is only just about February, so guess I'm not quite ready for that yet.
Now that I review my training, I'm seeing that this phenomenon applies to swims of over 2 hours done on a Friday. When I did the 9,000 or whatever it was and the 11,000, I had a day of rest the day before and didn't work the day of.
Then I read in my handy book on long-distance swimming that I should be drinking 8 oz. of fluid every 15 minutes! So I need to up my fluid intake in these long swims, especially since my pool is usually too hot (85-ish).
So I think what's happening is I'm getting dehydrated and not really taking in enough calories during and right after these big swims. In my head, I'm thinking, "It's just swimming," and that I'm not burning so many calories, but in reality I am.
I felt great Monday-Thursday of this week and during the 7500 swim on Friday, so I think in general I am doing OK on my calorie intake, but need to be extra careful on Fridays, especially since I am also training long on Saturdays and Sundays. Funny thing is when I do the 5+ hour workouts, I am like clockwork in terms of my day before, pre- and during- workout nutrition. It needs to be a daily thing now.
I have to find a way to shove more calories in before my morning workouts, but yet still be able to take them in just an hour before liftoff, because I can't sacrifice sleep.
I think maybe I will set an alarm so that I eat at least 200 calories every 2 hours during my workdays. I just have to stuff in the food! I bought some more fruit at the grocery store today--dates and figs--that pack lots of calories in low volume, so that will help me boost things up. And then I need to get on a rigid schedule of when I do my mid-day workout, because this game is really about eating to train.
So it's wake up, eat breakfast, train, eat a snack, train, eat lunch, eat a snack, stretch, eat dinner, eat another snack and pass out. And that's on Monday-Friday!
I have an indoor triathlon tomorrow and now that I'm feeling a bit better, I'm looking forward to it. But it will just be part of another big training day--I will warm up thoroughly for the 1 hour race, do the race, then run for about 1:20 after. This should be interesting, now that I'm doing the big swims on Fridays.
I always get a kick out of my massage therapist, Mike, telling me about what he notices in my body in terms of my musculature. Most of the time I think he's just being nice to me and giving me these compliments because, hey, that's a nice thing to do. This past Wednesday he said he noticed how "full" my upper back muscles are, and as usual, I thought he was just being nice to me. But today, when I got to the Y to run and I looked in the mirror, well, hell, I could tell that I no longer have the just skinny/cut upper back, but there is some meat back there now. Since I haven't put on any weight, that muscle has to come from somewhere so I guess I am leaner someplace else! Maybe my face!
I am reading "Once a Runner" and getting into it. Even though I don't consider myself a runner, I can relate! Why am I doing this? When I'm in a race, I think, "What the fuck am I doing here?" But it's all good, and on that note, I am going to get some food in me and chill out before tomorrow's big day.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Need to get More Regular Here
If you read my last post, you probably figured out that I'm on a pretty tight schedule during the weekdays. And then on the weekends, even though I'm not doing really long workouts yet, my "spare" time gets filled with errands and stuff that some people manage to get done on weekdays, but not me.
I came across the blog of a woman who did Ultraman Canada in 2009. I think I have read it cover to cover, and it both validated some of the thoughts and experiences I've had to date, and it also scared the shit out of me! It sounds like she trained a whole ton, and I have decided that all I can do is do as much as I can while recovering and staying employed and not having my life fall apart!
Well let me step back. I am doing enough swimming, although I would like to do more, but I have to allocate my time and as long as I'm getting more than 10,000 yards per week, I think that's the best I can do.
Ideally, I'd be running 40-50 miles per week every week, but that means for me 6+ hours of running a week, which I can do, but then I also have to bike (see where I'm going with this?).
My experience with Ironman training is that I can manage the 5-hour run weeks with about 12 hours of biking and 4-5 hours swimming for only 6-8 weeks at a time. So I have to play with the mix.
I did decide one thing today, which is that I will start to add some fast walking/hiking weekly, and it's just going to be whenever I can, and of course, as it warms up I will do more. This helped me a ton training for North Face, so I figure it can't hurt, as long as I don't consider it as a replacement for any planned training--it will just be "extra," much like my Monday and Wednesday pre-swim core festivals are "extra."
I saw someone jumping rope at the Y the other day and I wished I had time to do some of that, too. Thing is, if I didn't have a job, I'd be happy as a clam training like 4+ hours a day (with a nap in there). Swim some, bike some, run some, do some weights, skip, jump rope, whatever. When I'm at the Y and I see all the different types of equipment, I want to try it all out!
I laughed the other day because while I was running, my bra top was just digging into my rib cage, so when I got home, I pulled out a tape measure and measured my chest, and sure enough, it's an inch bigger than my biggest over the last 5 years. So then I thought, what the hell, put on a bra (I wear them VERY infrequently--no boobs--why would I?), and it was hysterical because while, of course, my actual boobs haven't gotten any bigger, I could tell the underlying pecs did. Yippee for lots of pushups and yards of swimming! I think also my traps have become bigger, which is why my newer swimsuits don't fit right anymore--oh well!
Sometimes I think maybe I have become too lean for my own good, but it's not like I'm trying to be so lean--it just happens. I only have so much time for eating, and I'm so used to eating just a little at each meal that maybe I should try harder. I don't think I've lost any muscle mass and I might just go and get a DEXA scan to see where I am for the hell of it.
This Sunday I get to do an indoor sprint triathlon, and that should be fun. I might suck because I am not lessening my training any to do it, but that's OK by me. It will be a nice little speed session, and I get food and a massage afterwards!
Also, Sunday marks exactly 6 months to race day. Fucking Yikes!!! On the bright side, only 6 more months of living like a freaking monk, and that is something I can stomach. Kind of like studying for a big test. Only the test is 3 days long. And I don't have a full crew.
Even though it seems that every other day I am experiencing some inner turmoil about what I am doing, I have made smiling around others a priority. People who know what's up and care to ask me how I'm doing are great, and I'm talking mostly about people at my Y, since I'm there every day sometimes twice. Apparently I'm a hot topic, as someone I hadn't seen in months knew what I was up to through the grapevine. It made me wonder how many people that belong to YMCA's in the US have done an Ultraman...my guess is not very many! And in one conversation I realized why I get some of the reactions I do. I mean how many people do YOU personally know who are doing or who have done Ultraman or beyond? It's not very common. Kind of like saying you are going to climb Mt. Everest or K2. Speaking of which, last week in a work meeting (over the phone), we played "two truths and a lie." My truths were that I have a collection of Barbie dolls and that I have 4 bikes with one on the way. My lie was that I was planning to climb Everest in 2 years. I stumped most of my colleagues! Most of them thought the Barbie collection was the lie! And just so you know, I have no intention of climbing mountains, although I have read several books by climbers (I need to refresh my stock) and understand why they do it. I could see myself moving to the mountains somewhere--Colorado or Kona--because they are very spiritual to me.
Normally this time of year I would be lusting over catalogs of flowers and other things I would like to plant come spring, but I am going to have to let that go this year because I just won't have time for additional planting. Actually I slacked last spring, too, I guess because I ended up training a little more than I had in the past. I will probably cave on some annuals, though, while doing my grocery shopping. I think I can manage a couple of hanging baskets and some planters on the patio.
I no longer subscribe to any triathlon magazines, although if I run across them at a store, I might pick one up. Not like you are going to find "tips on training for Ultraman" in there, anyway! I have almost finished the stack of books I got back in October, so it will be time to hit amazon.com, only different subject matter. Instead of escape, I will be looking for books about people completing physical challenges--maybe some mountain climbing, that sort of thing.
Well I spent too long on this post already because I need to get back to work and get in one more workout (finish my strength training for the week) before I can go and crack a beer, stretch, organize dinner, fix bottles for my big swim tomorrow, load the coffeepot, pack my swimbag, set the alarm, eat dinner, relax a little and then lights out!
I came across the blog of a woman who did Ultraman Canada in 2009. I think I have read it cover to cover, and it both validated some of the thoughts and experiences I've had to date, and it also scared the shit out of me! It sounds like she trained a whole ton, and I have decided that all I can do is do as much as I can while recovering and staying employed and not having my life fall apart!
Well let me step back. I am doing enough swimming, although I would like to do more, but I have to allocate my time and as long as I'm getting more than 10,000 yards per week, I think that's the best I can do.
Ideally, I'd be running 40-50 miles per week every week, but that means for me 6+ hours of running a week, which I can do, but then I also have to bike (see where I'm going with this?).
My experience with Ironman training is that I can manage the 5-hour run weeks with about 12 hours of biking and 4-5 hours swimming for only 6-8 weeks at a time. So I have to play with the mix.
I did decide one thing today, which is that I will start to add some fast walking/hiking weekly, and it's just going to be whenever I can, and of course, as it warms up I will do more. This helped me a ton training for North Face, so I figure it can't hurt, as long as I don't consider it as a replacement for any planned training--it will just be "extra," much like my Monday and Wednesday pre-swim core festivals are "extra."
I saw someone jumping rope at the Y the other day and I wished I had time to do some of that, too. Thing is, if I didn't have a job, I'd be happy as a clam training like 4+ hours a day (with a nap in there). Swim some, bike some, run some, do some weights, skip, jump rope, whatever. When I'm at the Y and I see all the different types of equipment, I want to try it all out!
I laughed the other day because while I was running, my bra top was just digging into my rib cage, so when I got home, I pulled out a tape measure and measured my chest, and sure enough, it's an inch bigger than my biggest over the last 5 years. So then I thought, what the hell, put on a bra (I wear them VERY infrequently--no boobs--why would I?), and it was hysterical because while, of course, my actual boobs haven't gotten any bigger, I could tell the underlying pecs did. Yippee for lots of pushups and yards of swimming! I think also my traps have become bigger, which is why my newer swimsuits don't fit right anymore--oh well!
Sometimes I think maybe I have become too lean for my own good, but it's not like I'm trying to be so lean--it just happens. I only have so much time for eating, and I'm so used to eating just a little at each meal that maybe I should try harder. I don't think I've lost any muscle mass and I might just go and get a DEXA scan to see where I am for the hell of it.
This Sunday I get to do an indoor sprint triathlon, and that should be fun. I might suck because I am not lessening my training any to do it, but that's OK by me. It will be a nice little speed session, and I get food and a massage afterwards!
Also, Sunday marks exactly 6 months to race day. Fucking Yikes!!! On the bright side, only 6 more months of living like a freaking monk, and that is something I can stomach. Kind of like studying for a big test. Only the test is 3 days long. And I don't have a full crew.
Even though it seems that every other day I am experiencing some inner turmoil about what I am doing, I have made smiling around others a priority. People who know what's up and care to ask me how I'm doing are great, and I'm talking mostly about people at my Y, since I'm there every day sometimes twice. Apparently I'm a hot topic, as someone I hadn't seen in months knew what I was up to through the grapevine. It made me wonder how many people that belong to YMCA's in the US have done an Ultraman...my guess is not very many! And in one conversation I realized why I get some of the reactions I do. I mean how many people do YOU personally know who are doing or who have done Ultraman or beyond? It's not very common. Kind of like saying you are going to climb Mt. Everest or K2. Speaking of which, last week in a work meeting (over the phone), we played "two truths and a lie." My truths were that I have a collection of Barbie dolls and that I have 4 bikes with one on the way. My lie was that I was planning to climb Everest in 2 years. I stumped most of my colleagues! Most of them thought the Barbie collection was the lie! And just so you know, I have no intention of climbing mountains, although I have read several books by climbers (I need to refresh my stock) and understand why they do it. I could see myself moving to the mountains somewhere--Colorado or Kona--because they are very spiritual to me.
Normally this time of year I would be lusting over catalogs of flowers and other things I would like to plant come spring, but I am going to have to let that go this year because I just won't have time for additional planting. Actually I slacked last spring, too, I guess because I ended up training a little more than I had in the past. I will probably cave on some annuals, though, while doing my grocery shopping. I think I can manage a couple of hanging baskets and some planters on the patio.
I no longer subscribe to any triathlon magazines, although if I run across them at a store, I might pick one up. Not like you are going to find "tips on training for Ultraman" in there, anyway! I have almost finished the stack of books I got back in October, so it will be time to hit amazon.com, only different subject matter. Instead of escape, I will be looking for books about people completing physical challenges--maybe some mountain climbing, that sort of thing.
Well I spent too long on this post already because I need to get back to work and get in one more workout (finish my strength training for the week) before I can go and crack a beer, stretch, organize dinner, fix bottles for my big swim tomorrow, load the coffeepot, pack my swimbag, set the alarm, eat dinner, relax a little and then lights out!
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