SwimBikeRun

Whew! It's been a while since I posted on my progress. I've been so busy at work (my boss is on vacation so a lot more responsibility devolves upon me) and busy training (first race of the season in 5 weeks) that I felt it was more important to focus on doing those things than write about them. Here's where things stand: Goal 1 (5k under 20min) - I've been doing my regular long runs and strength runs, as well as my weight training, to get ready to kick ass on this goal. I've decided not to do any "practice runs." When I'm ready, I'll go for it and that will be that. Goal 2 (7 days of 3,200 calories, strict Paleo) - Paleo diet is awesome. Buying sweet potatoes by the case is a pain when I can't find a parking space near my apartment, but that's the worst of it. As for the goal itself, the calorie thing has been scrapped. I'm now on an intermittent fasting/Leangains-style diet, Paleo of course, and I'm loving it. My goal for the challenge will still be 7 days of no cheating at all on the Paleo front (I've been giving myself slight allowances on the weekends) while following my IF/Leangains diet. Goal 3 (Learn squats, deadlifts, push-press) - Weightlifting is awesome! My trainer is a beast and the gains in strength are really starting to show. I've had four sessions so far. This week we did one day of max effort deadlifts and one day of max effort bench press. Both of my max weights far exceeded my expectations (not that I really had any basis for those expectations). For reference, I weigh 150lb. Max deadlift was 295lb (almost made 315lb, but couldn't finish the movement). Max bench press was 205lb, but I couldn't even move 215lb. Goal 4 (Get rid of 100 items from my apartment) - So far I'm tracking an F on this goal. Tomorrow I'll get started in earnest.

I think that would really depend on what type of distance you're interested in measuring. If I wanted to look at my consistency over a long ride and I typically do a long ride of, say, 30 miles, I might want to look at my 10 mile splits. If I were training for an Ironman, I might be more concerned with 30 or 40 mile splits. I guess my rule of thumb for a long ride would be splits of 1/3 or 1/4 of the total distance. I also track splits when I'm doing hill repeats, so obviously my split would be each repeat. In NYC, the big loop of Central Park is 6 miles and lots of people do workouts consisting of several loops of the park, so I know my expected splits depending on the number of loops I'm doing. The point is, there's no "good distance" to calculate splits, since splits are relative to the distance you are covering. You plan out the distance of your ride, then figure out what meaningful splits would be for that distance. The goal of measuring splits is to help you maintain consistency throughout your effort, and ideally you'd love to see negative splits (i.e. each split faster than the previous).

Oh, Andy, there's really no reason to make fun of yourself. We're 100% behind you. (Never mind that you could definitely kick my ass and you're probably a better cyclist too. I fear you not and reject your ridicule!)

Awesome, this works out perfectly with the bike ride I did this morning. Three descending, steady-state 6-mile loops of serene and beautiful Central Park, NYC at 5:30am (just beat the rain!): 23:00, 22:05, 20:53.

Thanks for all the kudos, but please, nobody be intimidated. My trainer has assured me that I am still weak as an 8-year old girl. Max weight bench press on Friday should be a real treat.

I started lifting with a trainer two weeks ago. I've been working out in commercial gyms for a long time, but as a primarily endurance athlete, my time at the gym was mostly spent doing cardio, machines, and dumbbells. I was petrified of the barbell (not knowing technique, worrying about injury, etc.). But I've reached the point in my endurance training where added strength is a necessary component to overcoming my current plateau. So, I buckled down, put my money where my mouth was, and started working with a trainer at an elite facility. Last week, I learned to squat, deadlift, and bench press, doing mainly speed sets (8 sets of 2 reps each) at lighter weights, plus lots of assistance exercises to strengthen my somewhat pathetic ab, glute, and hamstring strength. Today was my third session: max weight deadlift day. I was scared shitless as I saw the weights just keep piling on. I was sweating right through the chalk on my hands. The woot: max deadlift - 295lb! (I weigh 150lb.) I gave a try at 315lb but that was a miss. Just couldn't follow through with my hips. My form is definitely still not perfect, so I'm confident that just with better technique I'll see improvement, not to mention how the accumulated strength will affect things. Anyway, the point is I deadlifted nearly twice my body weight and I thought that was pretty cool!

Sounds good! I've never raced Cooperstown but I hear it's a fun race. I've got three Olympics (Philadelphia, MossMan in CT, and Mighty Hamptons) scheduled so far, and I'd like to add a fourth race in July if I can. If you need any NYC triathlon resources (places to train, shop, etc.), please don't hesitate to ask.

If you enjoy open water swimming, there's a group that goes out every Saturday and Sunday morning at 10am from Memorial Day to Labor Day at the Brighton 4th St. lifeguard chair. See here: http://www.cibbows.org/index.html

For me, no question, it's "November Rain" by Guns N Roses.

Hey engineman312! I'm far from an elite competitor, but I am a pretty experienced triathlete, so feel free to bounce any questions off me if you like.

I would recommend forgetting about an app and just getting a basic running watch with heart rate monitor and foot pod. I have a Garmin FR60 and it's as simple and reliable as you can get. If I really want GPS data for a particular run, I use the MapMyRun app to supplement my Garmin. It will also track your distance, elevation, etc. and even announce your distance and pace at preset intervals if you turn on those settings.

I've got a whole collection of racing flats and spikes from my high school days as a track sprinter. I've got nothing against them, and I really do like those ST5s in particular, but I've found myself enjoying a more cushioned shoe as I've got older, especially now that almost all of my running is on asphalt. Just a personal preference.

I would highly suggest eating a lot of green veggies to aid with digestion of all that protein!

There are about a million different raw salads you can make with baby kale, but my personal favorite creation and super simple: saute the baby kale in a little bit of olive oil with garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, and some crushed red pepper flakes. Separately roast some sweet potato. Toss the kale and sweet potato together, squeeze in some fresh lemon juice to give it an acidic pop, and enjoy! If you want to be adventurous, bake a ripe plantain with your sweet potato in the oven, then chop it up and add it to the mixture.

Hmm, one of my overall challenge goals is to run a sub-20 minute 5K. Not sure if I want to treat this mini-challenge as an opportunity to go for it, a chance to do a trial run and see where I'm at, or just hold off so I don't get any psychological baggage built up if I end up disappointing myself. Decisions, decisions...

I alternate between pairs of Brooks Ghost 3 and Brooks Glycerin 8. At the risk of sounding old-fashioned and getting virtual tomatoes thrown at me, I haven't jumped on the minimalist/barefoot bandwagon and don't have any plans to do so, certainly not until more extensive research is done on long-term injury trends among barefoot runners.

Whew, I've had very little time to update things over the past few days, but here's what's gone on. Goal 1 (5k under 20min) - I did my usual Thursday night hill run last week to keep preparing for my attempt at a sub-20 5K. My ITBS acted up a bit, so unfortunately, I had to cut the workout short. I'm hoping that my new weightlifting routine will help strengthen the areas that need work to get rid of the ITBS completely so I don't have to worry about it. Goal 2 (7 days of 3,200 calories, strict Paleo) - OK, this is the one that I've spent the most time thinking about, and I've decided that the goal needs to be modified. The Paleo part hasn't really been a problem, although I was sort of forced to cheat a tiny bit over the weekend so as not to offend someone who had cooked an incredible meal for me but wasn't aware of my restrictions. In any case, the diet now is 99% Paleo and I can definitely go 7 days without any cheating at all. The calories part is going out the window though. First of all, it was based on some bad BMR calculations. Second, I can't consume that much food. Third, in conjunction with my trainer, we've come up with a plan that doesn't compromise my desire to eat Paleo, bases itself on much sounder calculations of my caloric needs, and incorporates elements of Intermittent Fasting/Leangains philosophy. I'll post a more extensive overview of the diet plan in my workout/diet log thread, but the goal for the challenge will be to do the 7 days Paleo with no cheating and follow the diet plan I've come up with in consultation with my trainer. I feel a lot more confident about this plan knowing that it's based on sounder calculations and designed for my overall strength goals. Goal 3 (Learn squats, deadlifts, push-press) - The soreness from lifting on Friday persisted through the weekend and caused a lot of trouble on my weekly long bike ride yesterday. The first 20 miles or so were fine, but the last 16 miles were excruciating on my lower back. Granted, the ride included some serious climbing and my posture/positioning on the bike is still an area I'm working on, but the soreness definitely exacerbated the pain and made it difficult to keep my cadence up. I'm ok with this, though. I know I'm in good enough conditioning to go into race season and post the kind of bike times I'd like, so I'm willing to sacrifice some endurance training in order to achieve my strength goals. In the long run, more strength will help my endurance work as well, plus the soreness factor should decrease as I get used to lifting. Goal 4 (Get rid of 100 items from my apartment) - Guh. I guess I've made a little progress in that I have a list of items in my head that I want to get rid of. But I haven't actually got rid of any of them yet. And I haven't created the tracking spreadsheet that I need. So, we're still stuck on one pair of socks with holes in the trash.

I believe I logged in a running time as well. EDIT: Oops, I think I just put it on the leaderboard but didn't submit the mini-challenge form. My bad.

OK, one added thought about my new lifting routine: 6. Everything hurts. A lot. The price of getting shredded (haha), I guess.

Damn! Now that's a swimmer. Jealous.

Great goals! I love that the triathletes are multiplying around here. Mwahahahaha.

I've still got to post yesterday's recap and answer some comments, but first some breaking news: Goal 2: Dedicate at least 8 hours to learning how to lift. Well, I just finished my first session with my trainer (45 minutes done!) and here are my thoughts: 1. We did box squats, deadlifts, some ab and back assistance stuff, and some stretching. 2. I didn't pay too much attention to the weights as I was focusing on form, but I think my top sets in the box squats and deadlifts were 135lb and 95lb respectively. I weigh 150lb. Does that make sense? 3. My trainer is awesome! Totally intense, no BS, no socializing. He also doesn't feel the need to be a cheerleader. He's just dialed in on my form. A perfect fit for my personality and goals. 4. I'm very good at following directions. 5. I'm weak as sh*t. I'm so stoked about this!

I'm more of a proponent of varying your swim workouts and even including some drills before doing a main set to get your form in order before you really start swimming. Any repetitive aerobic activity without variation will quickly start failing to bring you out of your comfort zone at all. I don't know of any C25K equivalent for swimming, but I have a whole slew of written swim workouts that I'd be happy to share with you. Just PM me if you're interested. I would suggest varying your workouts but adjusting rest intervals and taking breaks as needed if you can't complete the workout. I think you'll find yourself getting a better workout if you are mentally striving to complete specific sets (even if you can't do them 100%) than just swimming laps. For example, if your workout calls for a straight 500m and you start to feel real tired after 400m, you can probably push yourself to finish that last 100m and then take a nice rest. But if you're just swimming laps and you start to feel tired after 400m, you're more likely to just take a rest at that point instead of push yourself. Just my 2 cents.

I did the run tonight and will log it in soon. I did it with no warm-up and the mile included Cat Hill, a quarter-mile long incline and the second steepest hill in Central Park. I'd like to get in a flat run on Sunday and hopefully post a better time, but I'm still happy with it. Here it is: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/174498839

Day 3 Recap: Goal 1 (5k under 20min) - no running today; it was a swim day. Goal 2 (7 days of 3,200 calories, strict Paleo) - I'm finding the Paleo thing pretty easy, as I don't mind eating the same foods consistently and I don't find myself craving grain or dairy as much as I expected. The calorie part is much harder. Today came in at 2,469 calories, a drop of 136 from yesterday. I'm reevaluating this goal pretty seriously, not so much because I'm finding it very hard to consume 3,200 calories (I am!), but I've been doing a lot of research and starting to think that maybe I've overstated my caloric needs. I'm also finding myself very intrigued by Leangains, although I'm not sure how well it will work with a full endurance routine surrounding my new lifting routine. I hesitate to change a goal once I've set it, but I think new knowledge is a valid reason to adjust things, so I'll report back on that soon. For now, it seems as if I'm consistently hovering around 2,500 calories and really enjoying the Paleo diet. Goal 3 (Learn squats, deadlifts, push-press) - As I posted earlier, I've got my first training session on Friday afternoon. I'm hoping the trainer understands my very specific goals and is ready and willing to get me there rather than design his own plan for me. I've purchased the sessions but I'm not locked into a specific trainer, so if he's not the one for me, I'll find someone else. Goal 4 (Get rid of 100 items from my apartment) - Nothing new doing here. Alas.