Training Tri's and Life

ok that isn’t really true all the work has been paying off for a while - but today when i was doing my speed work out on the treadmill - yes i do them on the treadmill, i find when i go to a track i start out too fast and then die super fast.  so on a treadmill i can find and keep a good pace for the distance i am aiming for.  today i ran the fastest i have EVER run on a treadmill.

the workout

easy 800 warm-up @ 10min mile

400 @ 8min mile

400 @ 7:50min mile

800 @ 9:30 min mile

400 @ 7:50min mile

400 @ 7:30min mile

800 cool down @ 10:15min mile

i have NEVER run that fast on a treadmill - yeah sure it was only for 400, but i did it and it felt good - it felt great and i didn’t fall off the treadmill at all or collapse on it or have jelly legs - i am getting so much stronger and so much faster.  the whole lifting heavy weights thing has really done some wonders not only in how my body looks, but in how it is reacting to the heavy training load i am putting on it so i can crush my olympic tri time from last year!

so for the past week or so i have been making a concerted effort to eat more per T’s prodding…apparently i wasn’t eating enough or he thought i wasn’t - i don’t know really which it was, but i have been eating like a champ for the last two weeks!  

the rough breakdown goes something like this

meal 1 - 3 eggs and spinach

meal 2 - paleo protein pancakes with almond butter and honey - yum

meal 3 - quinoa, bison and spinach yellow coconut curry

meal 4 - 2 hard boiled eggs (apparently today was egg day - usually i only have 3 a day) and a nectarine 

meal 5 - veggies and hummus

meal 6 - turkey burger, kale and beets

i was kinda balking at the eating more thing cause really i ate pretty close to all that when T was saying that i wasn’t eating enough (really i added in one meal and some more protein) - i’ve been really working on getting more protein in and i think i am starting to feel a difference in my recovery time between workouts and my energy.  anywho, i was noticing today that my pants are yet again bigger - really i noticed it in my belt.  i would normally have to pull to get to the notch that i am on and it slips easily into it these days and i really think i should put it on the last notch, but i’m mentally not there yet (yes i know i’m weird).  

i guess it just goes to show that a) you have to eat to lose weight and more importantly put on the muscles and b) apparently my trainer is a smart guy :)

i’ve been thinking about swimming a lot recently and how it is the one thing that i truly feel comfortable doing - i feel comfortable in the water - it feels like home.  T and i were once talking about training and i was saying how swimming is the one and only thing i can do where i don’t think and can completely shut my mind off and just swim.  i hardly think about my stroke anymore these days - i do some drills to work out some of the kinks, but i find i don’t think about it that much, unless doing the drills…i love being in the water, i think i was a fish in another life - oh or maybe i was a dolphin or a whale (that’d be better than a fish i think).  i simply love slipping through the water, i love being able to feel my body glide along almost effortlessly - like it was supposed to be there all along - really if i could have gills i would be totally cool with that and would spend my life in the water if it was possible….

now when it comes to biking i think about my pedal stroke, are my shoulders down, is my back flat, am i dropping my heals, am i in the right gear, my seat hurts, was that a bug, ah crap…unclip, unclip, un..crap i fell.  my mind is always going thinking about what i am doing, what i could do better, what am i doing wrong…it takes me until about mile 30-35 of a ride to stop thinking so much and just bike and then start thinking about how hungry i am.

running on the other hand i think about everything in the world - the first 2-3 miles of a run is the why am i doing this part of the run and my mind is constantly thinking about my form and whatever else is going on in my world and it is also trying to get me to stop and turn around, then around mile 4 i’m like oh ok, this is easier then i settle into a good pace and start to think about the world around me, looking at other runners, wondering what they are thinking, how far are they running, is that a rock in my shoe, am i duck butting, shit bowl of milk - don’t spill the milk (a TNT coach wanted us to think of having a bowl of milk on our pelvis so we would make sure not to duck butt), really the rock got bigger, are we done yet - ugh that’s a hill, is my garmin right…

i guess what i am getting at here is that i wish i could bike and run like i swim with little effort and much ease.  i know that the more i do it the better it will get, but i don’t think i will ever be able to just shut off and stop thinking while biking or running like i do with swimming - swimming is just feels natural to me.

I am getting so much better at this whole food prep thing.  i promised T that i would set aside one day for rest and food prep.  since i was at a festival on my rest day and then yesterday i was just lazy for most of the day - i used today my normal rest/prep day as my food prep for the week day.  I have made lunch for the next four days, have an easy dinner sitting waiting for me, cooked up some veggies for breakfast/lunch/dinner and made some paleo protein pancakes - i wanted to make muffins, but i ran out of almond flour so the protein pancakes were the fall back plan.  having food prepped and ready for the week helps so much these days.  it is a lot of cooking for one day and a lot of dishwashing (i think i washed the same pan 4 times) for one day, but it makes the week so much easier.  since i have been doing two a days a fair amount, being able to not have to think about what i am going to eat takes a ton of stress away.

now i just need to make myself presentable and go to a friends birthday party tonight and then 5:30am tomorrow, we do it all again - gym, work, eat, eat, eat, sleep, gym, work, eat, eat…..