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Organized Ironman Training

Sunday, August 29th, 2010

One of the biggest influences that Ironman training has had on my life this year is that it has forced me to be super organized with how I spend all of my time. I can’t remember the last time I have set my alarm for after 5am and I plan my life around my workout plan days or weeks ahead of time. If I let my anal retentive organization plan slip, I started missing workouts immediately and had to get back on the horse.

It has even started to influence how I physically organize my apartment so I can spend less time getting ready for training and more time actually out there getting ready to race.

I’ve quarantined a bottle of special bottle of EFS and Liquid Shot to make sure I have enough nutrition goodies for race day and don’t go through it all before I roll into Sandusky.

I’ve made separate swim, bike and run boxes for the cabinet in my triathlon cave for all the random goodies and nick nacks. I also keep all the nutrition bars, GUs and other random stuff in a shoe box so I have everything all in one place.

Can’t find that pair of shoes I need? Nah. They are all hanging on the back of my closet door.

My road bike is neatly hanging on the wall out of the way.

The TT bike is always propped up on the bike trainer, ready for a century ride or 2 hour trainer session at the drop of a hat.

My random assortment of recovery stuff and supplements is all stacked together.

I have a whole shelf dedicated to water bottles.

I’ve been good (usually) about diligently recording every single one of my workouts in Training Peaks.

But no matter how organized everything else is, my drawer dedicated to workout clothes WILL NOT SHUT.

I don’t think that thing has closed in over 6 months. It just won’t happen… Nothing is folded or organized. Thankfully it is at least all clean, but I’m thinking I need to head over to Goodwill to donate gear to some needy triathletes.

Tags: ironman training, organized | Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Life, Nutrition, Running, Swimming, Training Log, Triathlon | 5 Comments »

Friday Confessional – New Speedfil

Friday, August 27th, 2010

My friend and upstairs neighbor was hanging out in my living room yesterday and I yelled out “Hey, want to check out my sweet new water bottle!”

Yeah. I’m a huge nerd.

Who the heck gets geeked out about a new hydration system?! I’ll tell you who.

The same guy who is sitting at work dreaming about how aero it looks, fitting neatly against the down tube and seat tube and how he can’t wait to drink out of it on my ride tomorrow.

A big freaking triathlon nerd.

Enter the Speedfil. 42 oz of hydration goodness straight into my face without leaving the aero position. I’ve seen a ton of people battle with aero bar-mounted bottles and was really hesitant to go that route. The Speedfil seemed like a perfect solution, especially after I did the math and realized that with my nutrition plan, 3 standard bottles just wasn’t going to cut it. ESPECIALLY if it is hot on the day of Rev3 Cedar Point. I got the new hook up from All3Sports.com and some new hydration goodness showed up at my door a few days later.

My stomach is going to be nice and happy all the way into T2.

Tags: hydration system, ironman nutrition plan, Triathlon, water bottle | Posted in Cycling, Ironman, Nutrition, Triathlon | 2 Comments »

Finish Lines Are Sexy

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

I have been thinking and writing a lot about body image lately so my Trakkers teammate Kelly invited me to contribute to her weekly blog series, Wonderful You Wednesday. Each week she has someone share their thoughts about body image and self esteem and I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts on her site yesterday.

Sure you can read this post here, but go at least go over to the original post over on Kelly’s blog. She has a whole bunch of other Tri Mommy readers and I love reading all their comments.

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Let’s be honest.

Triathletes are some of the best looking athletes out there and I’m not the only one who let that play at least some small part of my decision in what sport to devote hour after endless hour of my free time.

Have you seen a football player in their 40′s?

Have you seen a pro cyclist with his shirt off?

Have you seen the average body type of most pro golfers, well, ever?

My point is that if you want a fit body that even as you age, will probably still make you smile if you catch a view of yourself in your birthday suit in the mirror, that triathlon is a pretty good good choice to get there.

Hence one of my favorite movie quotes from American Beauty:

Jim Olmeyer: Are you just looking to lose weight, or do you want increased strength and flexibility as well?
Lester Burnham: I want to look good naked!

Sure, being fast is nice and age group medals are a nice ego boost but being happy within my own skin is a much bigger reward for me. That it what keeps me coming back to compete in this sport. But it isn’t at all about being self absorbed to the point of relentless narcissism. It is about building confidence in what my body is able to accomplish because of the way that it looks.

Despite how my quads, calfs, hamstrings and gluts feel after a +19 mile run or a +100 mile bike, I almost always find myself with a big goofy smile on my face as I come back through my front door. It is a fresh reminder of the huge distance that I was able to cover with nothing but my own two feet.

Since I started training for triathlons, it has done wonders for my self esteem. Not because of how it has made my body looks (either naked or clothed) but because of what I’m able to do with it. Sure, there are plenty of things I’d still love to change about my body, but so far there hasn’t been any physical challenge that I’ve thrown at it that I haven’t been able to overcome with the right training, so I couldn’t care less about those little things.

24 hour ultra-marathon relay? Hot

4 half ironman triathlons? Beautiful

Training for my first iron-distance triathlon? Sexy

Basically what I’m saying is that the finish line makes me feel pretty.

Tags: athlete, body image, naked athlete, self esteem, sexy athlete, Triathlon | Posted in Ironman, Life, Training Log, Triathlon | 2 Comments »

Your Body: A Product Of Its Environment

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Just as much as the saying “you are what you eat” is true, so it “you are what you do.”

This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t think that people examine their entire environment deeply enough when trying to change their body to loose weight or gain fitness. Ultimately, your body is the way that it is at this moment because of the decisions that you make on a daily basis.

You are fit because you have made frequent choices to stay physically active.

-or-

You are soft around the middle because you have made frequent choices to eat unhealthy food.

Over my adult life, I’ve had distinct different body types that directly correlated to the choices that I made every day and the environment that I created for my body. This ‘ol bag of bones has shown a crazy ability to adapt to whatever it is that I throw at it. I’m constantly amazed and I love seeing how my body reacts to new stimuli on a daily basis. My body is like my own science experiment that I carry around with me every day.

High School: By the end if HS I was about 130 pounds, running 6-7 days per week and was as fit as f*ck. Sure, I wasn’t the first person you’d call if you needed some help moving some furniture, but I was lean and fast. I ate like crap, but I exercised often enough and hard enough to more than burn it all off.

You could count all of my ribs. On my back.

College: I rocketed to 195 pounds and drank Keystone Light and ate pizza at 2am like it was going out of style. And my body looked like it. I spent zero time running and any athletic activity was spent in the gym pushing weights back and forth. It was the first time in my life where I actually had distinguishable pectoral muscles instead of just the etheopian-like skeleton look I was rocking in high school.

Post-College: I got hooked on triathlon, which led ultimately to where I am today. I am a soon-to-be iron distance triathlete. I’m not all that fast, but won’t bat an eye at a 7 or 8 hour training session any day. I’ve plateaued at 165 pounds, look at food more as fuel and nutrition than I do a solution to my hunger and I’m probably just as lean as I was in HS with the muscle to avoid looking like some sad cancer patient when I get out of the shower.

What I’m really getting at here is that I don’t think people think holistically about the type of environment that they create for their own bodies when setting up their fitness and weight loss goals. My body adapted to three completely different lives over the past 10 years as a direct result of the physical and nutritional environment that I created for myself. But it isn’t just what I eat and how often I excersize. It is how often I’m sitting in front of this computer every day, walking around outside, riding my bike to the grocery store and cooking my own meals vs. eating out. Whatever it was, my body adapted to it.

I ran as fast as I could and tried to carry as little weight as I could along the way for 3.1 miles. My body adapted.

I abused my body with booze and cheese. My body adapted.

I abused my new weapon – ironman training. My body adapted.

While mental focus and dedication is a huge part of overall wellbeing, you can’t simply wish yourself into the body that you want. Create an environment where no other version of your body can survive except for the one that you want and you’ll find your body adapting closer and closer to your ultimate fitness goal.