Odds & Ends

Last week was a mix of a week and it was also a week that seemed to last FOREVER!  A lot of time spent training but I also announced my new business.  Tri-Peaks Consulting on Thursday.

The totals for the week play out to be 36 miles of running and 115 miles of riding, and all of the riding was outdoors, no time was spent on the trainer. That makes a grand total of seventeen hours and thirteen minutes of training volume for the week.  Leadman training is going quite well.

It was a great weekend in other ways as well.  Melissa and I went to Joseph's for dinner on Friday night.  I wanted to surprise her since life was still chaotic and upside when our anniversary rolled around on the 8th.  As usual the food was amazing and we had fun chatting with Joseph and Rick and joking around.  I did cheat on Friday night and I actually had the creme brulee for desert.  It was worth it, completely worth it.

I am working on a nutritional presentation associated with the business.  One of the biggest problems that we face today I believe is not that we are stupid, or lazy, or just pigs... most of the dietary issues in the country are founded within the choices, or lack of, that we are so constantly and easily presented with.  Now don't take me wrong, I have eaten TONS of stuff out of vending machines for years, I mean that is why they are there... but it does beg the question, why isn't higher quality food made to be more readily available in this country? 

The standard workplace vending machine.  The only two things in here that are even remotely healthy would be the peanuts and the beef jerky.  And if you are only eating Paleo fare, not even the peanuts because they are legumes.  The beef jerky would even be suspect because I would bet money that the first ingredient after beef is HFCS. 

So just trying to get a foothold onto this week.  Enjoying my day off from training and trying to get data migrated to a single platform for the business.  I really hope to get out at sometime today and enjoy the weather.

Tuesday Tra... wait, no... Tuesday Ride!

Time for a change up and officially training on the bike so no more Tuesday track sessions.  Today's ride was supposed to be a 1:00:00 to 2:00:00 ride on the bike keeping my heart rate between 120 and 130.  That was a challenge.  First of all getting the pulse there and then recognizing it was the first part, then came the challenge of holding it there and not going too far above... or below if going down any sort of hill.

I basically rode up to the Air Force Academy and back in 1:55:00, 25 miles and I kept the average heart rate at 127.  Mission accomplished... I think.   Tomorrow is a 45 minute to 1:10 run and I need to keep my HR between 130 and 145.  This will be interesting.

I am learning about MAF and how all of that works.  Basically right now as I understand it we are keeping my heart rate low over long(ish) durations to build a really solid endurance base I guess.  By keeping the heart rate low consistently over a certain period, the body is forced to make specific adaptations which it can't if you are operating anaerobically or if your heart rate is constantly yo-yo-ing like mine is probably more apt to do.  

On the eating front I am liking Paleo over any low carb thing I have done in the past.  It really helps me to be able to eat all of the fruit and veggies that I want when I want.  My body feels like it is adjusting but it isn't suffering like if I were only having 20 or so grams of carbs per day.  This is actually comfortable.  Part of my research before starting this was trying to figure out what I can eat and where if I go out for lunch or something.  Thankfully I can still go to King's Chef and other places and be just fine just as long as I am careful about what I order.  I won't be doing any of that soon but in the future once things settle down and I get used to the routine.

Watched this video a few times today... this is probably the part of the pack that I will be in so I should get used to it.  At least back "there" it isn't  a crowded so that makes me feel a little better.  But today the reality set in a bit more that in a few months I will actually be racing the damned bike instead of just riding it... Who saw that one coming ever?

The Weekend in Short

I just don' t remember a December ever that began with weather as nice as we had this weekend, ever.  But I know that I took full advantage of it.

Saturday ended up being about 30 miles of mountain bike riding with Larry and we also tried to put tubeless tires on my bike which didn't work because the Bontrager wheels that came with the bike while are tubeless wheels are also jacked up.  I will deal with that later... but we had a great ride from Larry's place over by Ute Valley Park, through the park, over to Garden of the Gods, through there then around in Red Rock Canyon a bit then back.  After Larry and I worked on the bike some we went for another ride in UVP.

It was fun riding in Ute Vally Park though... I confided in Larry during the ride that it was my first time riding a mountain bike in UVP since my age had the number 2 in it.  And by that I  mean the first digit in my age... not the second!  But Saturday was fun.  I learned a lot about what I like to ride and what I don't like to ride now.  I also wrecked 3-4 times on Saturday, all were slow going up-hill, couldn't unclip and tipping over kind of wrecks but two of them were really bad.  One of them I bruised my right hand bad on landing (thank god I wore the full gloves) and the second one I landed on my right leg and tore up my thigh on the rocks.  It's gonna happen.  I needs to relube my cleats and my pedals as I think that is why I was not able to release as smoothly as I had been.

Saturday though, we rode about 30 miles and I burned according to my Garmin only about 1000 calories.  Now in theory if I had run those thirty miles I would have burned just a bit more than 3000 calories.  I have always said there is about a 3/1 ratio between energy expenditure between cycling and running and this sort of unofficially goes along with that.  Another thing about riding... it doesn't or at least doesn't seem to require me to eat so much on the go for the same reasons... drink a lot sure... the calorie intake is way lower... way.

Photo by Larry DeWitt.  Super mild weather on December 1, 2012.

But the ride and the wrecks definitely took a toll on me and I had to take my time Sunday morning getting out of the house for my Pikes Peak round trip for December.  In a nutshell... the first ten miles up went rather well.  The last three to the summit were a challenge due to temps, wind, ice and snow.  The wind on the summit was worse than anything I have ever seen.  I came down the magic short-cut route and was damned glad to be down in the trees and sheltered from the conditions above.  I will say that after a period of uncertainty, it is nice to finally hit a point where you realize that you aren't going to be dying anytime immediately that was exactly what  I felt after I was about two miles down from the summit. 

Today is a day off and I am definitely enjoying it.  One of the best parts of having a coach for me is the planned rest otherwise I'd be out trying to do something today.  No... today's mission is a touch more simple... today is also the first day of my Paleo experiment.

I have spent the past few weeks preparing for this, studying what I can have and can't.  I think I will be okay given how much I have grown to appreciate eating vegetables more than meat sometimes and also how I try to stay away from obviously bad foods.  I admit, I will cheat from time to time.  If we go to Joseph's or the Pepper Tree for instance I am not going adhere.. hell no!  But we go to those types of places rarely so it isn't that big of an issue.

Today, day one, I didn't have my typical morning granola bar or two that I usually have.  The funny thing is that granola bars really are not that healthy when you look at the ingredients and I have always known this... but saying that you had a granola bar for breakfast sounds a hell of lot better than pop-tarts, donuts, or a ton of other things.  Anyway, I made some adjustments and so far I am handling today rather well.  According to the scale today I was 157.4  pounds, 12.9% body fat and my BMI is 24.6.  It will be interesting to see how those numbers shift the next few weeks. 

Tuesday (No Track)

No track today.  That is as first since the Tuesday after Leadville.  I did the Red Mountain run last night and my lungs protested violently... all night... until I dosed up on NyQuil and then I slept like the DEAD.

No running today at all.  I am going to wait until I don't feel that whatever it is in my chest and I stop coughing.  I don't want a repeat of last spring where I had this crud for a month or so.  I was still productive this evening though.  I did ride the bike on the track stand and I did do a weight workout which required me to re-baseline all of my weight bars, etc.  It felt good to do something.

More Paleo research today and I have decided that I want to wait until Monday to start it.  This way I have the weekend to splurge and Monday is typically the start of a training week and will also be the start of my Leadman training officially so might as well kick it all off at once.

To be honest I am actually excited.  I am curious to see how my weight changes in December.  I always try to lose weight and gain fitness most years between Thanksgiving and New Year's so that will be part of my focus in December.  They say the average American gains like 5 lbs every holiday seaoson, year after year, that they really don't lose... I am always wanting to buck that trend.

Speaking of weight and Americans... I saw this video yesterday.  Hear that sound?  That is the sound of the bar lowering even more folks.   They state that Americans are actually more accepting now, blah, blah, blah... no I just think that we are more lazy and have just given up more.  Anyway you can see the story here on ABC News.

But then again, life is full of trade-offs!

Where you be at?

Just thought that I would check in just in case anyone was missing me or wondering where I was.  I'd hate to keep the four people who read my blog in suspense.

Went to MD last week for Thanksgiving and all I can say is that I was physically a wreck by the time we got  there.  Completely and thoroughly exhausted.   As if that wasn't bad enough I didn't get much sleep at all the first seventy two hours that we were there either.  The schedule just did not allow for it.  The upside is that I felt a hell of a lot better and rested by the end of the week.

So... the Turkey Trot... yeah that... well, I had a total blow up.  I got a new mile PR for the first mile but that was it.  Between being so damned tired and my "system" just not processing things correctly for a few days and allergy drainage, I started coughing about mile 1.4 and then started to purge a little.  Again, an upside... I recovered and fell in behind Melissa without her knowing I was there for the last half of the 5K and just followed (or stalked) her to the finish.  It really was cool to run behind her as SHE at least got a new PR.  I kept my mouth shut so she would not know that I was back there and figured if I had to say something I would.... nope... she ran it perfect and had a super strong finish.

We saw Skyfall when we were in MD and it was okay.  I think that Casino Royal is still my favorite Danial Craig, Bond movie... But this was good.  I do like the fact that they showed an aging and slightly more human and mortal Bond for a change.

We are fostering a new dog, Reggie.  He is a trip.  Completely underweight and he is at 70lbs.  He is 2.5 years old and just as mellow as he can be.  He and Roxy are hitting it off okay, Asia is being a pretentious brat though.  Reggie has glommed onto me though and will not let me out of his sight.  I wanted to rename him to Peter for Peter Pumpkinhead because his gourd is so damned huge.  This morning I awoke to him perching his head on the bed and just staring at me.  He needs some work... I don't  think he was abused at all but definitely neglected as there are some basic skills he needs work on.  But as far as potential is concerned if someone has a strong personality and the time to work with him and nurture him I bet he would be one super awesome sweet dog.  It will be interesting to see what he ends up weighing in a week after sleeping a lot, exercise and a lot of good food and treats.

This is Reggie.  If anyone is interested in him please let me know and or contact All Breed Rescue and Training.

Reggie and I did go to the IC run yesterday but we did something different.  I could see everyone trudging up hill one on UPT and I was damned glad that I was not in that group.  I really don't like that trail and that hill in particular, up or down.

Definitely planning on transitioning to a more Paleo based diet next week.  I have done a lot of research and except for the "processed" part... I think that the Paleo diet and Atkins maintenance phases are very similar.  My weight fucking skyrocketed when we were in MD and that was before the race even AND that was after really not eating a whole lot.  Actually I was good in MD but my weight balooned anyway... If I am to take this Leadman effort seriously I do feel that I need to give it all that I have and truly cleaning up my diet for good is warranted I think.

Speaking of Leadman... Tim and I meet (teleconference) on Thursday and I guess that we launch on the first... personally right now I feel as if I am completely detrained and out of shape so I am looking forward to working again.   I think that if I have proven or learned anything this fall it is that I am not one of those runners who can maintain fitness and strength with just a few short but intense workouts per week... I think I need that base of high mileage and that is what works best overall for both speed and endurance.  I could be wrong but that is how it feels. 

That kinda sums it all up.  Happy Monday!