Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the 2014 Annual Training Plan (ATP)

First, let me say I love robots.

Second, the whole sodium thing was just me OD'ing on sodium when I didn't need it.  My weight is down to 113, which while I would prefer it to be about 2 lbs. less, is still going to be just fine for racing.  After 2 days on the mild diuretic and then just watching my other sodium intake, order has been restored!  I'm really not a fatty!  Even my massage therapist, Mike, said he could tell the difference between this week and last week.  I don't feel completely bloated anymore, and my skinsuit felt GOOD when I wore it for another 5K swim yesterday.

Third, I decided early this week that I was getting tired and frustrated with the management of my thyroid, and so I called to schedule an appointment with my doctor.  Only she's out for 2 weeks, so I decided (with help from a friend) that it couldn't hurt to speak with a different doctor at the same practice.  Of course, in preparation, I summarized a bunch of data and wrote up all the questions and concerns I had.

I had seen this doctor before, but he didn't remember much about me, so I led off with, "I am pushing the metabolic boundaries of my body."  He looked at me all puzzled, and I explained that I do marathons, Ironmans, the occasional Ultraman and sometimes ultramarathons.  I could tell by the look on his face that he understood what I was saying.  You don't say all those things in one sentence and not be taken for a serious athlete (or complete lunatic).

We reviewed my up and down thyroid tests, I explained that I was frustrated that we'd been at this for nearly a year and I am still not stabilized, and that I still didn't feel "right."  Now, don't get me wrong--in some ways, I feel fucking fantastic--but I can also tell things just aren't right.  I am hypersensitive to my heart performance, body composition, sleep, bowel movements, all that.  This doctor listened to me, and then he grilled me as to whether I was taking the meds properly (YES) and whether I was messing with the dosing on my own (FUCK NO I WOULD NOT MESS WITH THAT, although I did not actually say FUCK NO, although I thought it).

He paused for a moment and then said that we need to get me off the generic.  THE GENERIC???  I didn't know I was ON a generic and that there was NOT A GENERIC.  He said some people just don't do well on the generic, and the fact that I was forced to be cutting pills meant I wasn't getting a precision dose.  So here's what we are going to do: I started on the non-generic today at 75mcg, and we will see at my next test whether we are achieving the desired result.  He also gave me a referral to an endocrinologist, which I will utilize if I don't start to feel "right" in the next 3 weeks or so, i.e., right before IMCOZ.  Now, I recognize it will be hard for me to tell, because as you know, I have so much HTFU and I get so excited about all this shit and I will be tapering so how could I not feel great?  But I think I will know when all my bodily systems are synchronizing properly again.

The best part of my office visit was at the end, when the doctor looked me in the eye and said, "You look AMAZING for someone your age, and the fact that the only meds you are on is Synthroid speaks volumes about you."  He also said that anyone going through my metabolic ups and downs would be driven mad, let alone someone like me training for an Ironman!  You cannot imagine how great that made me feel.  Because I thought I was pretty damn healthy and that I was (despite the extreme endurance exercise) taking pretty good care of myself.  And that this science experiment has been a clusterfuck.

Oh and the other great part of the visit was that my blood pressure, despite the fact that I felt all jacked up when I walked in, was a beautiful 117/72.

So I am optimistic that perhaps we may have cracked the Crackhead thyroid nut, and if not, well then off to the endo I will go. 

Switching gears, I've been working on my ATP and came up with Version 1 earlier this week.  I know from having done this exercise several times that I always come up with something that's psycho initially.  I've learned more about myself including respecting the fact that I'm older and how much I can tolerate.  I've also learned just how incredibly fit I am despite thinking I did almost nothing earlier this year and most of last year.  I may not be fast, but hey, I can go all day and then some!

So I sat on the first psycho version of my 2014 ATP for a couple of days, then revisited it, because you really have to look at the numbers multiple ways in order to know you've got it right.  So I updated workouts and such yesterday, and this morning I checked my work and found out I'd made a few mistakes (this all comes from my actuarial side--it's called "reasonableness checking") and a few other things still weren't quite right.  Now I'm happy with what I've got, and it it still subject to change as I go along in the plan.  I'm tapering more on the front and back end of races, and there is still some wiggle room in there that I am sure I will need to take advantage of here and there.  But it's still a fucking awesome plan, and it's below.

My A race for 2014 is 24 Hours of Triathlon, or as Brad and I call it, 24 Hours of Crack!  Brad is in charge of creating the strategy for us to break the record based on our individual strengths.  Right now, Brad is the ace cyclist.  I might have him on overall swim and run endurance, though, but in terms of pacing, early on Brad will have me beat.  But he knows that the longer the event, the less I slow down compared to other people, so this should be interesting.

Red Rock Canyon marathon should be fun.  I should even have a chance at qualifying for Boston there, but if I don't, I won't cry.  I won't be doing straight-up marathon training for it, and will continue to bike and swim moderately throughout that cycle.  But if I rest appropriately after IMCOZ and can nail all the quality runs in training, I should do well.  I did go 4:20 at Goofy Challenge in 2010, and that was the day after a 1/2 marathon, so a 4:05 is a definite possibility, which is all I need to BQ.

Triple T in May will be a "train through" race, but I need to be in Ironman shape for it.  I love that race, and can't wait to see who else I know that I can con into going and sharing the Crackhouse (cabin) with me.  So far, it's just Lori, but I know there will be others.  It's nice to have a cabin full of people you know and love there!

Leadman 250 will be like my 3rd Ironman distance race of the year.  It's 5K/223K/22K, but one needs to build better than Ironman bike fitness (which I have and love maintaining), a bit better than Ironman swim fitness (which I have but it's currently dormant), and you might think you don't need to do Ironman-level run training, but yes you do!  Unless your Ironman marathon is under 3 hours ;)  So doing Triple T and 24CRACK in the leadup will be perfect preparation, and then just a bit more than my normal amount of bike training for part of the time.  Actually, I should close out 2013 with about 334 hours of biking, and the 2014 ATP plus estimate of the remainder through year end will put me at about the same amount.  So actually, in aggregate, I won't be biking more next year than this year--it will just be concentrated into less time, since I will go really light initially.

Oh yeah, there's that Chicago ITU Oly in there in June, but that's a "just for fun" race.  I will do however I do.

All in all, 2014 looks to be a great year if I can execute it.  So now I can just finish up the last few weeks of heavy training for IMCOZ knowing that I have other great things on the horizon no matter how that race goes.  I am grateful for being able to nurture such incredible fitness despite:

• Being on a thyroid rollercoaster for well over a year, including a scary hyperthyroid incident
• Landing in the ER for we still don't know what
• Overcoming a virus that took me completely down for 3 days and that lingered for 4 weeks
• Crashing while running and being beat up a little from that for about 2 weeks
• Self-diagnosing and overcoming a sodium overdose
• Experiencing on and off issues (and experiments) with my right foot and lower back in general

All in all, I will have only formally trained for IMCOZ for 15 weeks.  All of the above happened in that space of time.  Fuck!  That's a lot of shit for 15 weeks, isn't it?  But all of us go through bunches of shit--I am so grateful for the family and friends that stick by me through all of this.  Really, most days I have to pinch myself for all the goodness that is in my life, including right now.

Enjoy the Crackitude below!

Another Challenge Met and Nearly Conquered and Crackhead Nutrition 101

So, I've been puzzled by some weight gain since August--about 4 lbs.  There is no way I could be gaining weight at the level I'm training at, while being hungry most of the time and nearly bonking during many workouts.  I asked the nurse at my doctor's office last week, and she said maybe it's muscle.  Um...NO.  I told her we need to figure this out or else I am going on a crash diet, and she shouldn't want me to do that because I will starve myself and disappear!

Still, I figured this was an opportunity to clean up my diet a little bit, so last week I started watching what I was eating--eliminating any candy, less beer, less pasta.  Weight was not budging, and it should have at least .5 lb.

On Saturday morning, I put on a pair of bike shorts that just a few weeks ago fit fine and they were TIGHT!  I was like WTF is this?  So I got on the scale, and THREE MORE POUNDS ARE THERE!!!  Clearly this is not regular weight gain, and on Friday I'd realized that I'd been drinking my sodium-laden (although not excessive for intense exercise on a hot day) Infinit a lot more than I ever have at this time of the year, and I typically get all salt cravy (cravy is a new word I just invented--you're welcome), so I thought I might be OD'ing slightly on sodium, but still...

I ordered a reduced sodium custom Infinit mix on Friday, but it hasn't arrived.  It has 32% less sodium than my "hot weather" mixture.  I am going to make one more custom formula with even less in it that I can use during winter months.

I talked with my nurse friend, Lori, about this while I was on the bike Saturday, and she suggested I just drink clear water during my ride.  But I was riding 5 hours, no way I could survive that without calories--I know my body pretty well.  So I looked at what I could switch to, and I ended up eating a Clif bar and one gel.  For the 5 hour ride I took in only 600 calories, but I had 750 in before I started so I was OK and didn't bonk, and I even did hard intervals.  But, I have so much HTFU, don't I?

I tried to eat well right after the ride, and then I had sushi for dinner with my brother Mike, and fuck, I really wanted the soy sauce, but I only let myself have a tiny bit.

Yesterday morning, I weighed myself, and those 3 additional lbs. were still there, and I rode Death Machine for 3.25 hours on 366 calories of Infinit, so I had some sodium going there AND CAFFEINE!  For lunch, I had some mostly plain pasta with barely any homemade salmon sauce, which still probably contained a good hit of sodium, but not too terribly much.

I baked some banana wheat germ muffins to begin eating for breakfast, as it turns out my beloved English muffin has too much sodium for my own good.  I even left out the pinch or so of salt in my muffin recipe because as it turns out FUCKING NO SUGAR ADDED ALMOND MILK HAS A BUNCH OF SODIUM IN IT!   Not enough to be lethal to me, but enough that it warranted not adding additional salt to my recipe.  You see what's going on here--you try and eat/drink something you THINK is healthy, but it really isn't.  Ugh...  I started using almond milk in my muffins 2 years ago as a way to reduce the fat in them, but guess what?  EXCESS SODIUM!  Fuckers...

For dinner, I had a salad with no added sodium and some sirloin steak with no salt, and then I had a Fage yogurt, which FUCKING YAY, barely has any sodium in it.  Not sure if I got enough calories, but today I only have to swim so I should be OK.

I was feeling puffy still, though, so I talked to my friend's wife, Nancy, since I know she is all over various sorts of things with her body and figured she might have some advice for me.  She did, and suggested some natural diuretic pills, which I immediately went out and bought and took one with dinner.  THANK YOU NANCY!!!

I don't know if it was the pill by itself, or the pill plus my reduced sodium yesterday, but I weighed myself and 3 lbs. is gone.  FUCK YEAH!  Now I need to see 4 more go.  It will be interesting to see what my "real" weight is--I'm guessing maybe 111--but we shall see.

So I'm now watching my sodium intake like a hawk--I still want some during training, and cut my Infinit by half so I still get some plus some calories, and Coke is OK since it isn't sodium laden (THANK GOD OTHERWISE I WOULD KILL MYSELF), and I can even do Gatorade.  I just need to keep my non-training sodium intake to a minimum.

At the moment, I don't know if this sodium episode is a direct result of the hypothyroidism, or whether it's just that since this is the first time I've trained for a winter Ironman and used so much Infinit during training that I just kinda OD'ed on sodium.  Whatever.  I will report this to my doctor today (including that I'll be taking a mild diuretic for a few days), and see how I do with less sodium during training the next few weeks.  I have a feeling I will be OK using the full-strength Infinit on race day in Cozumel since it will be hot.  I don't care if I"m puffy for a few days after that race--I just need to be sure my body can handle it, so this will require a decent discussion with my doctor.

I thought I'd reprise some of my general nutrition wisdom in this post as well. I try as best as I can to follow the guidelines for carb intake based on training hours from an older version of one of Monique Ryan's sports nutrition books.  Here's the table for low to high training hours:

And here's the table for excessive amounts of training, i.e., a Crackhead:

In order to achieve this easily (i.e., without keeping track of precise calorie intake daily) at different levels of training throughout a season, I've made some rules for myself:

• If I'm training < 12 hours per week, no rice or pasta at dinner.  Just salads loaded with veggies.
• If I'm training 12+ to 14 hours per week, I can have rice at dinner.  Gives me a boost in carbs.
• If I'm training 14-16 hours per week, I can have pasta 1 or 2 times per week at dinner in addition to rice the other days.
• If I'm training 16+ hours per week, I can have pasta as often as I like.
• If I'm training 18+ hours per week (as I have almost every week for the last 17 weeks), then I can even have things like candy, Cheetos and Twinkies.  Again, not excessive amounts, but just as "treat" foods, because at this point, it actually becomes difficult to EAT ENOUGH calories, especially on days when I train > 4 hours.

Now, you must realize that as training hours increase, the amount of carbs you are taking in DURING TRAINING SESSIONS naturally goes up, and you have to consider your total carb intake including all regular food PLUS all the training nutrition.  This is really important, and why some people (I even did this once) PUT ON WEIGHT while training for an Ironman--they think they can eat with abandon, and you really CAN NOT.  Especially a small person like me.  

Now some other things I do include:

• I drink Endurox R4 as a recovery drink on days where I train 1.5 hours or more, which is pretty much every day until I rest a few weeks after IMCOZ.  But I only use 1.25-1.5 scoops, as I am small, and the serving size of 2 scoops is calibrated for a larger person.  I have used Endurox for years.  It's expensive, but I feel better for using it, plus it has a good dose of vitamins in it.
• I use Ultrafuel before training sessions of 4+ hours.  If I'm doing 4 hours, I will use 3 scoops (300 calories), and if I'm doing 5+ hours I will use 4 scoops (400 calories).  This stuff also has some vitamins and minerals in it.  It's basically sugar with some flavor and vitamins, and is relatively inexpensive.  It was recommended to me by my very first triathlon coach, and I swear by it for preloading on heavy training/racing days.  I know so many people who begin an Ironman with maybe 300 calories in their bodies and that is just FUCKING STUPID, and they wonder why their performance suffered.  When you do this, you basically dug yourself a hole that you cannot get out of that entire day!  You burn through 300 calories maybe halfway through your swim meaning you are starting the bike depleted already.  So before a 1/2 or full IM, I will have about 800 calories in the tank before I start--400 calories of Ultrafuel, plus about 400 calories of actual breakfast plus sips of Gatorade.
• I have had my BMR measured so that I know that I am dialing in my calorie intake appropriately.  I want to get it done again, but not until we have my thryoid meds dialed in.  No sense doing it until that happens, because I will get a false reading.  The last time I was measured, my BMR was 1950, meaning when I do nothing for a day I need that many calories, and then I expend on average 500 calories/hour doing any form of exercise, so you can see that when I'm training 2-2.5 hours on weekdays, I need to take in over 3,000 calories!  If you don't know your BMR, though, your nutrition can be a crap shoot, which is why I suggest you go with the tables above FIRST, and then see how you do.  If you get it right, it becomes stupid easy to lose weight--you just drop say 200 calories per day, and in 2.5 weeks you should lose 1 pound.
• I always fuel during workouts, even if they are 30 minutes, just so my brain is happy.  The biggest user of sugar in our bodies is our brain, and it's the reason we bonk, too.  Unless you are training like 5 hours a day or something like that, you have plenty of fat reserves to power you for a long time, but your body won't switch over to full fat metabolism any time soon.  Your brain will shut down your muscles, though, in an effort to save itself when it thinks you are low on sugar.  Now, I would not recommend this to someone training only 10 hours per week.  In that case, none of your sessions are very long, and so you can go plain water much of the time.  But I would say that 12+ hours per week, you might want to always be taking in some sugar, but don't forget this counts towards your daily carb total.
• If I'm swimming 1.5 hours or more, I will switch from Gatorade to Infinit, because the longer the session, the more your body needs the calories especially if you are going to do another workout the same day.  I learned this while training for Ultraman, when I was swimming 2+ hours on most Fridays.  I also had to eat another breakfast right when I was done with those swims, because even though 2 hours of swimming doesn't burn the same calories as 2 hours of running, the fatigue on your body is nearly the same, and so you EAT.
• The calories per hour I shoot for while biking are about 35% of what I'm burning, which I can know from using a power meter.  All other ways of measuring are WRONG--so unless you ride with a power meter, you probably have no clue how many calories you are burning because CALORIES = WORK and the only way to calculate WORK is by POWER EXPENDED.  Some people can go higher than 35%, but in an Ironman I would never go higher than that, as it can be a recipe for GI distress.  Remember that the faster you go, the less calories your body can process, so slower people can generally take in a higher % of calories burned than the faster folks, and liquids are always better than solids because your body can process them easier.
• The calories per hour I shoot for while running are maybe only 25% of what I'm burning, because jostling makes it tougher for your system to digest, and during a triathlon, if you've nailed your bike nutrition, that's sufficient calories to get you through the run.  You never see pros eating fucking sandwiches on the marathon, do you?  You also don't see them chewing bars and shit--too hard to digest.  Plus they are going so fast that it's hard to digest much of anything.  So again, all liquid, unless you really want something else, and don't forget to give yourself SOME sodium on the run if your race is warm, since you WILL need it.  This is why they serve chicken broth at Ironman races.  Because some of us idiots will revert to all Coke, which doesn't have enough sodium to support the electrolytes we are sweating out.

I have guidelines for the day before and morning of a race as well--if you want that, I have a .PDF of a nutrition presentation I've given several times to athletes with all that in it, just message me on Facebook and I'll send it along.

If you are training for Ironman or I would even say half Ironman, and you think you can just wing it on your nutrition, I would tell you that you are DEAD WRONG.   This training places heavy demands on your body, and to treat it any less than the beautiful, complex, awesome machine that it is is to fuck with your karma!  Do you put crap into your car?  Do you feed your pets crap? Just as I believe that daily stretching and frequent massage fall into the category of "cost of doing business," so does good nutrition.

Even me, who thinks I'm doing everything right, can always improve my nutrition.  And so I am.  I'm going to be extra careful about sodium now, and that means the Cheetos and Pringles are off the table.  I can look forward to that McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg after IMCOZ!