Wednesday 22 April 2015

Getting the Basics Right

There isn't enough food in the world to make you feel full after a long run.

Turns out nutrition is pretty important when you put your body through more than an hour of training. When you don't eat enough to fuel your swim/bike/run/other-crazy-adventure the enjoyment quickly switches to a new level of hell. The version of Sam that lives in this zone is affectionately known as "Hangry Sam" and is not someone I would wish anyone willingly meet. 
The up side of this sort of training though, is that I get to eat. Lots.




The trick is to eat the right stuff.

When you try to refuel your body with caffeine and bacon and egg pie 2 hours after a 14km run and an RPM class I can tell you that Hangry Sam will not tolerate your shit. 
The photo below shows my general mood for the remainder of that day. It was not OK.

Goal by my 29th birthday - run from my house in the city to my parents house in the burbs. 13.7km, several Wellington-typical hills and 300+ stairs. We did it. 
Cue the food plan. 
I promised I'd be open about my entire journey. Training and eating included. 
Below, is my 5 day food diary I sent to Cath. 

Yup it's true, I train hard and eat crap. As Cath said, it has got to stop.

After 5 days in Melbourne eating and drinking whatever was in front of me I figure it's time to start my real eating plan. This is in no way a diet. It is not designed to help me lose weight nor is it calorie restrictive. It is a guide to help me get enough of the right fuel for the training I am about to embark on and to eliminate processed crappy food from my lifestyle. It'll probably make me eat more veggies. 


Day 1 today and I stuck to the plan pretty well, apart from the birthday cake of which I had 2 not so small slices. It was carrot cake though so I'm gonna count that as a vegetable. 
The first thing I've picked up is that after a morning RPM class I'll need to go for the high protein breakfast. By opting for the muesli and peaches instead I think I ended up having Meal 1, Snack 2 and Meal 2 within the space of 90 minutes. 

I'm slightly disappointed that there is no mention of wine on this food plan. There's also no mention of grapes either so I can't even misconstrue them as wine. Well played Cath, well played. 


The last elimination of excuses

I got a new toy. Toys make things fun, even swimming. Now I can track everything from my calorie balance to how restless I am when I sleep. How fast I run/ride to how many strokes it takes me to swim 33m. I want to record EVERYTHING! 


And I will. Watch this space. Or Strava. 







Saturday 11 April 2015

Race Ready

Motivation isn't something that sticks with you 24/7

It comes in waves. When it hits your mind is instantly clear, your intentions are set and the impossible suddenly seems achievable. 
But what do you do when the wave has washed over you? How do you stay motivated for a goal that is 8 long months away? 

You create your own waves. More goals, more challenges, more steps towards the big one. Enter more races!


Race Prep

My training this week has been about finding my benchmarks and setting some new goals. On Monday, Emma got me to run a 5km time trial run to find a pace from which I can build a half marathon distance. I ran at an average pace of 5.22min/km and I learned two important things. 

  • If you set Strava to record your run as a bike ride, you wont get updates of your km splits and you'll think you're running faster than you actually are
  • Your legs will be tired and heavy after 2 consecutive days (finally) riding your bike enlightening you to the fact that this whole bike-to-run thing may not be smooth sailing



Yes I finally did it! And it was AWESOME!


Benchmark pace in hand I set my sights on the 10km Great Forest Run in Waiterere this weekend. Myself and two friends (Eszter and JT) drove for 2 hours to run 10km on a Saturday morning. THAT is the stuff motivation is made of! Stupidity aside, it gave us all the chance to feel race day adrenaline and really push ourselves in a medium distance race. I managed to increase my pace to an average of 5.14min/km and have a little play with race day nutrition (that's a whole other blog post next week).

10km mark was 52.40min - stoked as I had set 53.00min as my goal time
Pre-run selfie - finish line in sight
After run glory


With one race down I'm setting my sights on a few more trail runs to get my pace even faster before running the Wellington Half Marathon on 5th July. I've got 12 weeks to get a lot of running training done. The first 4 weeks will involve getting some kms under the belt, then Emma will be looking to introduce some specific running and pace training into my plan. 

My motivation plan:
10 May - XTERRA 12km off-road - Orongorongos
23 May - XTERRA Starlight 12km off-road - Wainui MTB Park
14 June - XTERRA 18km off-road - Makara Wind Farm
5 July - Wellington Half Marathon - Wellington CBD

BHAG - <1.50hr Half Marathon

Right now, if I could hold the pace I set today for another 11km I'd be looking to get 1.58. With 12 weeks to train I've been told it's not really possible to get down to <1.50. 


The only thing that can motivate you more than a dare is the hard word from your trainer. I stuck to my word and I completed my food diary (full diary and new plan next blog). Cath has spent a decent amount of time designing a nutrition plan for me and I've been given some pretty strict instructions around it. I was NOT eating pizza and drinking wine when I received this text. Definitely not. 

The text that put my tail between my legs

Emma's challenge set, Cath's hard word said. 
Scotty grab some dumbbells, Sunday Funday is about to get serious. 




Wednesday 1 April 2015

Looking after Number 1

I know, I know. It's been like a MONTH since I last wrote a post. Following on from a post about excuses isn't the best look either is it?

Well here's a few wins from the last month to show you what I've been up to...

I put the wheels on my bike

I also realised I needed to turn the bike up the right way to put both wheels on. Mission accomplished. 
 
I gained a running buddy and we coordinated outfits. We also smashed my previous effort on the hill run I did in my first week of training. I also got my first real run boner. 
I've been for two swimming lessons and no longer think I will panic or drown in the swim leg of the race.

Now for the serious stuff...

I haven't had the best month of training because I drove myself into the ground and ended up kinda sick. Of course, having the motivation to train for such a massive BHAG in the back of my mind, I tried to keep training through the sickness aaaaaand... got sick again. In all, I've probably had about a week and a half off training and taken a few backwards steps in strength and cardio fitness. 

Something else I discovered while going through this snotty ordeal was that I eat like crap which doesn't help with recovery either.
So I did what any sensible athlete would do, and approached one of my trainers for a food plan based on my training set out by my tri-coach. In order to get a food plan, you need to keep a food diary for a few days to give said trainer an idea of your current eating habits, likes, and dislikes. 
Here are a few reasons I have not yet completed this food diary:

  1. I ate McDonalds on more than 1 occasion
  2. I skipped dinner on more than 1 occasion (laziness)
  3. I forgot to keep track of one day so figured I should start again...and again...and again.
  4. I'm a little embarrassed of my eating habits and handing in this food diary feels like Judgement Day. 


This blog was originally meant to keep me accountable for my decisions regarding my training and nutrition so I have decided to post my food diary in my next blog post 1 week from now. It will be 100% honest and I'm hoping that making it public will help me nail this nutrition stuff.
My biggest focus will be eating before and after training sessions. 
Once I've got the food plan sussed, I'll post it along with my training programme so you can see what I'm in for in the month of April.