June Numbers

Well, here I am, almost exactly 2 months into my new diet and one month into “official” IM training. Also during this time, I’ve put about 134 miles on my Brook’s shoes (they are completely awesome by the way!), I am seeing a whole new perspective on training, and am currently assisting in the creation of a masters team for ONE Multisport (where I will be the assistant coach!)


Let’s talk about the diet/nutrition component of my training thus far. Here is the basic outline of what I’m supposed to be eating:

BREAKFAST (APPROX 7:00 AM)

• 1 T Omega -3 Flax Oil
• ¼ C Blueberries
• ½ C Plain Oatmeal
• 2 Large Eggs
• 4 Servings (12 T) Egg Whites

AM SNACK (APPROX 10:00 AM)

• 24 Almonds
• 2 T Peanut Butter
• 8oz Almond Milk (Original/Unsweetened)
• 1 Scoop 100% Whey Protein Powder

LUNCH (APPROX 1:00 PM)

• 6oz Skinless Chicken Breast
• 1 C Chopped Broccoli
• ¼ C Bell Pepper
• 1 C Brown Rice

PM SNACK (APPROX 4:00 PM)

• 2 T Peanut Butter
• 8oz Almond Milk (Original/Unsweetened)
• 1 Scoop 100% Whey Protein Powder

DINNER (APPROX 7:00 PM)

• 6oz Skinless Chicken Breast
• ¾ C Asparagus
• ½ C Whole Wheat Spaghetti (Cooked)
• ½ C Romaine Lettuce (Shredded)
• ½ C Sliced Cucumber
• ¼ C Cherry Tomatoes
• 3 T Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 T Omega -3 Oil

OPTIONAL SNACK OR PRE-MORNING WORKOUT SNACK

• 1 Small Banana
• 1 Scoop 100% Whey Protein Powder

The only supplement I’m taking right now is a downright nasty brown powder called “Colon Pure” and it does exactly what you think it does. It’s 100% pure psyllium seed husk that does not dissolve well in water. The theory behind taking this that it clears out the colon so that the nutrients I’m ingesting can be better absorbed into the body. In other words, I’m taking in approximately 240g of protein a day and in order for my body to absorb most of it effectively, I need to clear some things out that could hamper the process. Got that? At any rate, I mix this stuff up, in a silver cocktail shaker, with about 8oz of the coldest water I can get, and then slam it as fast as I can while holding my breath. Nasty, nasty, nasty, stuff.

For the first 3 weeks, I stuck to this meal plan EXCLUSIVELY and didn’t deviate from it once. Eventually, I asked Eric for a nutritional guide that shows the switches I can make to keep everything as close as possible. For example, if I’d rather have some steak, in lieu of chicken, I would consult the guide and see that I could only have 4oz. After a few more weeks, I stopped measuring and didn’t worry about having various items included on the menu. If I was out of bell pepper, I’d just double up on a different veggie. I’m at the point now where I can’t even finish my dinner sometimes and rarely consume the optional snack at all. While this nutrition plan wasn’t enacted for me to lose weight, I have lost about 5-8 lbs depending on when I weigh myself. I started the plan, and official training, around 167lbs and just this week, our bathroom scale showed 159 lbs.

Weight chart starting approximately the same time I started my new diet and official IM training:

The new perspective that I’m seeing is best describes as “Training with a purpose, not just training.” The best way I can describe it is like this: In 2010 (prior to hiring Frank), James and I would both agree on a mileage based ride and then go do it. Every Saturday was a hundred miles and we’d get out and ride. There weren’t any intervals, spinning at different RPMs, or hill work. My rides have 2x10s (2 sets of 10min @ a prescribed effort), or 8x1s, or 20 min “IM effort”, or small chain ring spinning, or even prescribed RPM training. In fact, some of my workouts are so detailed, that I have to actually tape them to my bike:

This time last year, I was also consuming gel after gel and oz. after oz. during our weekend rides. So far, I’ve been instructed to eat nothing while riding and only drink water (no EFS or other electrolyte drink). Keep in mind, my longest rides have been between 2:45 and 3 hours. During my first few rides with no fuel on board, I found myself really wanting something about ¾ of the way through. Now, however, I’ve completely adjusted to the water only theory. The same can be said for my previous run training too. In 2010, I would settle on a distance and get it done and then up it by a few miles the next week. Again, no intervals, no real attention to HR, and no drills or hills. This time around, I have all of that. The most interesting aspect of my run training is that my workouts are prescribed in terms of hours, not miles. Instead of going for a 6 mile run, I go for a 60 min run and whatever distance I travel in that time is not that important. What seems to be more important is staying under a certain HR or incorporating strides, efforts, or hills. If I need to walk to bring HR down, then that’s what I do. My Brooks running shoes have performed flawlessly thus far. I haven’t had any pain, discomfort, or even a hint that something was wrong from last November. They are super comfortable and feel great while running.

JUNE 2010 TOTALS:

SWIM = 26750 yards
BIKE = 672 miles (583 tri & 89 road)
RUN = 81.63 miles
GYM/STRENGTH = 0

JUNE 2012 TOTAL:

SWIM = 14712.4 yards (-12037.6 yards)
BIKE = 392.22 (-279.78)(328.03 tri & 64.19 road)
RUN = 81.23 (-0.4 miles)
GYM/STRENGTH = 3 times

OVERALL 2010 SEASON (Dec 2009 – June 2010)

SWIM = 144100 yards
BIKE = 3371.75 miles (2243 tri & 1128.75 road)
RUN = 356.23 miles
GYM/STRENGTH = 14 times

OVERALL 2012 SEASON (Dec 2011 – June 2012)

SWIM = 137003 yards (-7097 yards)
BIKE = 2062.54 miles (-1309.21 miles)(1564.72 tri & 497.82 road)
RUN = 179.41 miles (-176.82 miles)
GYM/STRENGTH = 20 times

Mt. Lemmon

The morning started when my alarm went off at 3:00AM and the smell of French vanilla flavored coffee permeated the house from downstairs. George was showing up in 45 minutes and we were meeting Tyler at 4:30AM to head down to Tucson to ride Mt. Lemmon. I had already packed everything the night before, froze water bottles, fully charged my Garmin, and set out the necessary miscellaneous items I would need for the trip, but I was still feeling rushed….Probably the result of being excited about the day’s events. My breakfast was going to consist of:

• ½ C oatmeal, ¼ C blueberries, 1t honey
• 4 servings of egg whites with a dash of salt
• 1T flaxseed oil
• 16oz water
• Coffee as needed

After the oatmeal and a cup of coffee, I really didn’t want anything else. Maybe it was because it was so early and I was still full from the night before, but I passed on the egg whites and flaxseed oil. I also planned on consuming a handful of raw almonds, raisins, and more water on the way to Tucson too. George arrived promptly at 3:45 and we started loading his stuff and then racked his bike. We took off to meet Tyler at Desert Ridge about 10min ahead of schedule. While waiting for Tyler in the parking lot of a Starbucks (which, by the way was still closed, but had people waiting outside!) George and I made small talk about everything related to racing, training, and triathlons. One of the topics was heart rates. As it turns out, George and I have similar “higher zones.” He was laughing at me when I told him the story of visiting the cardiologist and my 13 days off 3 months out from IMAZ 2010. After Tyler showed up, we headed out. A few quick texts to James (who was riding down in Ben’s SUV) revealed that we would have to meet up with them at the start of the ride instead of caravanning down together. We hadn’t planned on making any stops, but once in Tucson, Tyler indicated that he wouldn’t mind stopping for a coffee and bathroom break. We ended up at Einstein’s Bagels and, originally, I wasn’t interested in buying anything to eat. It wasn’t until I realized that my oatmeal breakfast was about 3 ½ hours ago that I decided to load up on an egg white, cheddar, and bacon sandwich on a whole wheat bagel. In retrospect, this little move probably saved me from really hurting on the ride up. On a side note, I was very pleased with the crispy bacon on the sandwich as most places typically use soft/chewy bacon. We eventually made our way to a shopping center parking lot on the corner of Tanque Verde and Catalina Highway, that was to serve as our rendezvous point, and started unloading. I found it extremely amusing when George showed me his heart rate was 100 after simply unracking his bike and setting against a wall. “Must’ve been the coffee”, he said. About 5-8 minutes later, Ben and James rolled up and started getting things ready in their camp when Ben noticed that his rear wheel had a fairly large worn spot on it (not quite as bad as the one I had back on July 17th, 2010 (http://dansimaz.blogspot.com/2010/07/07112010-07172010.html). Luckily, George had a small piece of a tube that he keeps in his bike bag for this specific reason. Just like I used a Power Gel packet back in this post from November 6th, 2010 (http://dansimaz.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html), he used the portion of tube to reinforce the tire….not the optimal plan of action, but a very viable solution in a pinch. We just reminded Ben to be extremely careful on the descents. After Chris rolled up, we all started our Garmin’s and headed towards the base of Mt. Lemmon. There is about a 5 mile stretch of flat highway that takes us to the base that allows us to spin at an easy pace while getting the legs warmed up and stretched out. As we got closer and closer, you start to see some of the switchbacks and their 8+% grades that greet you right from the beginning. The main focus of the ride was to “enjoy it” and keep the group together as much as possible. If that meant stopping a bit longer at a pull out or slowing down for somebody, that’s what we did. The ride started out hot (maybe 90 degrees) with a touch of humidity (there was a 30% chance of t-storms & rain). About halfway up, at Windy Point, the overcast skies cleared up and the heat rose. At this point, some of the guys were searching for water, but since there wasn’t any for about 6 more miles, some “survival” tactics were used. The first was by Tyler. He spied a gallon jug of water sitting on a wall next to the restrooms and proceeded to pour some into his water bottle. I didn’t see this take place, but when James told him that there were cigarette butts in it, he quickly dumped it out. Next, it was James’ turn. He took the route of finding safe drinking water and bought some chilled bottles from a family that stopped to take in the scenery. After everybody was filled up and rested, we were off again.

Me at Windy Point:

The road gets steeper from this point and hits 11% in spots. We stopped at the only place with free running water before getting to the top and filled up again. Once you leave this rest area, there is a nice, fast, 3 mile descent before climbing back up to Summer Haven and Ski Valley. George and Tyler were ahead of me and Ben, and we were ahead of Chris and James. As Ben and I were approaching the turn off to Ski Valley, Ben kept going straight into Summer Haven (a nice downhill) while I was yelling at him to turn. For some reason, instead of following him down to let him know, I made the turn and headed up to Ski Valley. I guess I figured that he’d see I wasn’t there, turn around, and I’d see him coming up behind me at any moment. Well, that never happened and I made it to the ski lift and waited. I fired off a few texts telling him that I’d meet him down at the Cookie Cabin in Summer Haven and headed down. About a mile into the descent, I see the crew heading up. Well, looks like I was climbing back to Ski Valley again, so I turned around and got in line. Once at the top, Tyler decided that he wanted to take a dead end road another 2 miles further up while we decided to snap some pics, enjoy the scenery and then head back down to “The Cookie.”

At the top:

The crew (sans Tyler) at the top:

Once there, we decided on two sampler cookies and a large pizza. Since the cookie plates were ready right away, I started gnawing at those the second we sat down outside. The weather at the top was 70 degrees and overcast with darker rain clouds moving in. Just after the pizza arrived, I got a phone call from Tyler. He told me that he was going to have to find a ride back down to the truck because he had a “catastrophic wheel failure” that made his rear wheel lock up. At first, I thought he was kidding and was looking for him to come rolling up any second. It wasn’t until after he sent me a pic of the damage that I believed him. Since there was absolutely nothing we could do to help, we finished our lunch and headed back down.

The cookie samplers:

The pie:

The descent was fast and furious. I’m well known for not liking descending and always taking it easier, but when there are 20+ miles of a -6% average gradient ahead of you, it’s hard NOT to go fast. Later, I would see that my top speed was over 47mph. At one point, we heard rolling thunder and felt some light sprinkles too. Towards the bottom, at Molina Basin, I was rounding a hairpin turn and saw Tyler trying to flag us down from the side of the road. I gently squeezed the brakes and went from 40+ mph to 0 in about 100 yards. I turned around and went back to meet him. Turned out that he found some guys that were out mountain biking that agreed to take him back after this quick stop in Molina Basin. He indicated that he’d meet us back at the truck and I took off again to solo back. After packing up, racking the bikes, and exchanging a few stories about the ride, we hit the road for the trip back to Phoenix. Overall, this is one of my favorite rides of all time. It can be as challenging as you want to make it or it can be as fun/scenic too.

A pic of Tyler's rear wheel damage:

And the link to the ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192686517

Run Test

Today, I met Carlos and Sue at the Horizon High School track to conduct my run test. The concept is to run 10 minutes at about an 80% effort, recover for 5 minutes, and repeat 3 times. Before we got started, they showed me some new footwork drills that I need to incorporate into my routine. Various different hops, skips, high steps, and twists suddenly found their way into my training. After doing these together, Sue and I took off for about a 7 minute 9:30 pace warm-up. On the last two straight-aways, Sue wanted me to “build up my strides” to come to pretty much a full on sprint. Once the warm-up was over, Carlos indicated that my form actually looks real good, but that I needed to “loosen up” my upper body. I was too tight and stiff. Of all the things that thought he would say about my form, this wasn’t even on the radar. It actually felt pretty good to hear that. Anyway, after some more conversation about form and what this test was supposed to show them, I took off for my first 10 minutes. Every time I passed Carlos and Sue on the track, he would yell out the elapsed time. I was able to figure out that I was holding a pretty steady pace and wasn’t slowing down at all. I hit the 10 minute interval at the opposite side of the track, so Carlos had to whistle for me to stop. I hit the lap button on my Garmin and walked across the grassy area back to them. They didn’t say anything about what my pace was or how I was doing. They just told me to keep up the good work and talked a bit about my HR. I gave them the quick version of my seemingly elevated HR while running and then talked about my encounters with the cardiologists in 2010. After a 5 minute recovery, and an appropriate drop in HR, I was after the second 10. Again, Carlos was calling out my lap times and I was right on pace. I don’t remember if it was the first 10, or the second, but at some point, Sue started running with me and asking questions. What was my HR, what was my RPE (on a scale from 1-10), what was my pace, etc. I think she wanted me to see where I was in terms of fatigue. If I couldn’t answer any questions, or had difficulty, then I was going too hard. Easy answers with light breathing, and I was going too slow. Fortunately, my answers were quick responses between moderate breathing which correlated to about a 7 RPE. She peeled off and let me finish. Again, I was on the other side of the track when my 10 minutes were up. When I got back to Carlos and Sue, Carlos said that they were counting the strides for one foot for 15 seconds. I was coming in around 18 or 19, but they wanted me around 22. The optimal cadence for running is right around 180 total steps per minute. I was somewhere around 152. With that in mind, I set off for my last 10 minute interval and it went off without any problems. I tried to keep my cadence around 180, but not sure if I did. Every time I thought I was slowing down, I’d just pick it up. At this point, I really didn’t want to concentrate on counting footsteps while timing them, and then doing the math. I just wanted to be done. Once the test was over, Carlos reiterated that my form is actually pretty good. What I need to work on (surprise, surprise!) is my endurance. He said that he’s going to prescribe longer/slower runs that need to stay under a certain HR. If my HR goes above his prescription, I was to start walking until it came down. He asked if I was OK with that. Let me say that again, he said that I will be running SLOWER and should WALK. Um, YEAH, of course I’m OK with that! Before parting ways, he also indicated that I will be running 5 days a week pretty soon and will be transitioning into 6. Here we go!!!!!

Here are my 10 min interval results:

Interval #1 = 10:02 min / 1.41 miles / 7:07 pace
Interval #2 = 10:03 min / 1.34 miles / 7:30 pace
Interval #3 = 9:42 min / 1.26 miles / 7:42 pace