Let your Body get in shape, don’t make it get in shape!
It’s been an incredible month of training firsts. I know my last entry was long ago (Day 305); but I’ll recap the highlights, and there are many. Since then, I’ve had 10 bike sessions, and surprisingly, 12 run sessions. I’m still in bike phase, but I can no longer ignore the run gains so I’ll give running the attention it deserves starting with this post.
Not posting for an entire month really impressed upon me how quickly the body can respond with the proper training geared to what it can handle. The operative phrase here is ‘what it can handle‘. Since Day 1, this has always been my focus (and of course being injury-free). When I’m tempted to go warp speed on the bike, or smoke it on the run because I feel so invincible in the moment, I always have a flash back. The flash back says: Let your body get in shape, don’t make it get in shape.
Starting with this post, as I now see I’ll be doing double and triple training sessions per day, I’ll provide a link to myGarmin that will lead you to all my training. You can follow it all there by scrolling forward through daily sessions . Use the ‘next’ button to go forward through the week’s training as some report difficulty with the ‘previous’ button. I’ll always include the 1st day of the week link so you can scroll forward, along with a special Day when there is one.
Cycling
Day 309 was a fun Mountain Bike. No flats this time around, and the 2486 feet of climbing kicked my butt. Day 319 was an absolute confidence builder as much as it was a statement of what my Body has achieved since week 1 of Biking. It was 47.21 Miles of hills, flats, and rolling terrain. The 3:03 hours and 2595 feet of elevation yielded me a most sizable calorie torch of 2899 calories. More than ever, I can see the 5000 calorie workout coming up!
On Day 328, I just had a hunch that to keep a faster average speed on hills, I had to train for faster speeds on that terrain with intervals. After all, that’s how I got faster on the track team in HS, and also in the 80s when I ran a 17:12 5k. So I did intervals over Santa Suzanna pass. Be sure to follow the link there; I’ll just say here that I was sucking air and my legs just blew up!
Day 331 yielded a 20.3mph 3Mile loop, finally breaking through the 20mph ceiling. Averaging 20mph+ over multiple miles is what will be necessary to be competitive in Ironman Triathlons and not be out there all day. Highly significant also, is that I did this on the small crank in only an 85.5inch gear; meaning I can spin! I also ran that night, just to make sure I would sleep. We’re getting Triathlon specific here!
Running
It took me entirely by surprise! As you know, the month of May consisted only of the One Milers I ran on the days I didn’t bike. This I did through May without ‘Naggarts’ of any kind. ‘Naggarts’ are nagging irritations, as in precursors to injuries. After my dismal record of injuries with my 1st attempt at running last year, May was a complete success!
In view of this, I had planned to run 2Miles through June, followed by increasing the distance only One Mile each month until I reached 5Miles in the month of September. I had planned this cautious progression to absolutely eliminate the possibility of injury. I planned to reevaluate my running progression at that time. An unlikely event prompted me to reevaluate much sooner.
If you’ve been reading my training comments, you know I’ve been having issues falling asleep and staying that way. It’s so FRUSTRATING, I want to shoot me asleep. It’s the worst to wake 2 hours after it took 1 hour to fall asleep, knowing it will take another hour to fall back asleep; or maybe not! That’s what happened on Friday night, June 5th.
I went to bed at 10:30pm, at 11:30 I was still cursing my watch, and I think I must have fallen asleep sometime around midnight. At 1:45 I just woke up totally wide awake, dreading the coming hours. Of course, my mind is racing with stinkin’ thinkin’, and wishing I were dead tired like after a good exhausting 10Mile run in the Santa Monica mountains. So finally, after agonizing and obsessing for 30minutes, that’s exactly what I did (minus the mountains and 10 miles).
I went running at 2:13AM. It was grand, so relaxing, I went totally Zen! You can read my comments on Day 325 here, but what surprised the heck out of me was the distance and the pace, 4.47Miles at a 10minute pace! I purposely started slow and comfortable, expecting to hold whatever felt easy. I figured I might be good for 3 or 3.5 Miles at the most; but I felt so wonderful I couldn’t resist! It was an epiphanous run to be sure.
Four days later, I ran 4 Miles of this loop (it’s my bike ride 3 Mile loops) at an 8.51pc. OK, time to quench it, back to running 2 Miles.
Weight loss and maintenance
I started concerted efforts to lose fat on Saturday April 25. Much of what prompted me to do so, is the importance weight has to cycling. The more I have to haul, the more energy I expend to do so. Shaving pounds off the total weight of the bike (which includes ME), the more energy I can assign to distance, speed, and endurance.
Bikers spend 1000s of dollars to buy frames, pedals, wheels and shoes made of exotic materials like tungsten and graphite to shave 2-3 pounds off their steeds, sometimes only ounces. It’s much easier (and cost effective), to trash 10 pounds of fat. It’s also way better for your health! My baseline weight the week prior to starting my effort was 177.9 pounds.
I decided to make a diligent effort over the next 4 weeks to lose some fat. My only criteria of course was not to deprive myself, eating whatever I wanted. The current literature suggests that it is attainable to lose about 1-1.5% of your weight each week.
At the end of 4 weeks, I was down to 172.8 for a 5.1 pound loss, not bad for eating anything and everything! Sure I employed some tricks, but I was never hungry. I had chocolate, muffins, hamburgers, steaks, fries, heavy sauces, pizza, spaghetti, ice cream, beer, and lots of Margaritas; but that wasn’t the bulk of my daily intake. Losing these 5.1 pounds of fat was relatively easy; but the real test comes in maintenance. Can I hold this loss over time, can my body deal with this new normal?
Maintenance phase, that’s where I am today as I write this. Actually, at the end of the 5th week, I was 171.2 pounds. In the range of 171 is where I want to stay for the next month or more before I decide to lose another 5 pounds. Heaven knows I have fat to lose, I can see it. However, I’m laying down lots of muscle in my legs, I can see that too. It complicates things a little.
Anyways, in the 3 weeks of maintenance so far, I’ve hovered in the 171 range with no effort. I think I’ll stay in maintenance for another month or so before I make another concerted effort, or maybe not. I might just let the increasing caloric burn and consequent EPOC work their miracle, just like in the 80s. After all, in the last 3 weeks of maintenance, I did burn 9,478 calories biking and 3,215 calories running, for a total torch of 12,693 calories. That’s got to account for something!
I’m happy with how it all is moving forward. The Bike, the Run, and the Weight. Be sure to go to myGarmin to follow how my Journey is unfolding. Click the ‘Details’ link in any of the Garmin maps, and it will whisk you away to the daily training sessions. Again, I hope this insight into my training and consequent Journey may help you in designing yours.
Thanks for reading this somewhat lengthy 1361 word post, and keep on rocking,
Claude