Did it!

Well, I did it - jumped on the stationary bike at work and jumped on the treadmill.  Did 12 miles on the bike and then 20 minutes on the run (1.5 miles).  I felt good and smooth on the run and was able to keep a nice pace.  I felt like I could have kept going for a while.  It was a good feeling to have.

We've actually got a pretty nice setup at work, but this is the first time I've used it - time to start using the resources that are available to me.  Since the weather and time will be changing eventually, I figured the setup at work would be a great way to get my workouts in - no excuses!

And check out the epic sweat ring I had when I finished - yeah, I was working it!

A fantastic dinner with some bacon to replace my salt and I'm ready to get to bed so I can get up tomorrow and start another day (and get my workouts done)

Low Carb'n it

As I said in a previous post I read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" and totally clicked with it.  I put it into effect immediately.

It's been over a week and I still feel GREAT.  I've been testing my keytons via a urine test strip every day, but the book recommends using a blood tester, so I bought one - it came on Monday.  I tested my blood on Tuesday morning and today, and what was interesting was that it wasn't necessary for me to take my carbs down as low as I've been doing in order to keep my levels good (above .2).  Having those extra carbs to play with makes things a lot easier, not that keeping them that low was that hard either.  But having room for a bit of dark chocolate or a banana now and then makes me happy.  Funny, now that I know that I can have them, the craving isn't really there.  In fact I haven't been craving much of anything.  Ok I was craving my home made chicken curry, but I cured that Tuesday night by making and eating it.  Sooooo - needless to say I'm feeling grand.

And as far as results.  Well I'm seeing those too.

Starting weight:  225.1
Weight End of Week 1:  222

Loss:  3.1

Even better -- As of today I'm 219.6 - yeah, I BLASTED through the 220 barrier after hanging around it for over a month... HOORAY!!

Anywho - some stats from the first week...

The goal this week is to bring exercise and carbs up while still keeping my ketones above .2.  I got the first in my training done last night when I did a 3 mile run at work on the treadmill.  As soon as I finish typing this I'm going to go do a workout on the bike (followed by a run).  

Let's do this!

P.S. I forgot to mention that I was poking around on LoseIt and figured out I have been using it for about three years - here's my weight graph for those three years.

Yeah - that's not pretty, but I will turn this around!  You'll note that it's turning around right now (and has been looking much better since Feb this year.

Half-Iron? Nope

Well, it came.  The day when I was supposed to do a Half-Iron Tri.  Had I trained enough?  No?  Had I lost the weight I had planned?  No?  Was I scared out of my mind?  Well... Not anymore.  I came into the day feeling really calm.  I figured I would do what I needed to do and what happened happened.

The day started ok.  Got up, dressed, ate, drove 2 hours... the usual.  Then things got a little weird.  Unlike most triathlons instead of doing waves, they decided to have everyone start at once.  This was most likely because there were less then 100 people there, including those who were signed up for the Aqua-bike.  Normally, I in wave 5 or 6, and with 5 minutes between waves, that means I have 20 to 25 minutes after the actual start time before I have to be ready.  I didn't realize just how important those minutes were before.  Now I know.  On top of having to rush my pre-race, just as I was finishing laying out all my stuff, a volunteer came through and told me I was racked in the wrong spot and needed to move!  Geeze, you couldn't have told me that 30 minutes ago?

So, I moved all my stuff, started putting on sunscreen and then realized I had less then ten minutes to the start and I hadn't even taped my knees!

I did manage to make it to the start in time, but I hadn't really warmed up, and as I realized later, I hadn't finished putting on sunscreen (missed my face and part of my back).  Still, the swim is the easy part for me so  I was calm.

The race started, we were off and something was immediately, off.  I don't know what it was - maybe it's a 'first wave' thing but the water was SO CHOPPY.  There was no way that I could turn my head and not get splashed when breathing.  And it wasn't that I was surrounded by people slashing - it was just choppiness from people passing.  It's never been like that before and I've started with groups just as big in the past--- strange.  About 100 yards out I lifted my head to site, breath and a little wave came up and hit me right in the kisser.  I inhaled the water and immediately started choking.  Not the mild, cough, cough, but the cough - GASP - cough - GASP that makes you feel like  you've never going to be able to breath again.  My trachea felt like it had completely collapsed.  I didn't panic, but I didn't really know what to do either.  My brain was going, SWIM SWIM, but my body was going, BREATH, we must BREATH!  I finally flipped onto my back and did the breast stroke until I could take a deep breath without coughing, but by the time I was able to focus on forward motion again, I had lost about 30 seconds.  30 seconds that I never regained on the front runners.

By 1/4 of the way through I passed the slow people, by 1/2 way I had caught up with some of the back of the pack, but I never made it back to my normal place behind the front runners.  But that didn't bother me, I knew there was a lot of race in front of me still.

I climbed out of the water feeling great.  Even after a 1.2 mile swim I ran easily to T1, something I couldn't have done a few years ago.  I quickly changed, grabbed my bike, and headed out.  I hit the mount line started to mount and issue two became apparent.  Somehow, somewhere my chain had gotten knocked off the front gear.  Again, the compressed time pre-race had caused me to miss my normal checks and I had to climb off my bike, fix my chain and jump back on.  Luckily that didn't take me long and I was OFF!  Then issue three...

As I started on the bike I was feeling good.  I was easily holding a 15MPR pace (faster then goal) and I decided I should take the first of my bike nutrition... only... there was none!  I remembered that I had just started unload all my nutrition for bike and run when the girl had told me I had to move and I had never gotten back to it!  CRAP!  Unfortunately, that turned out to be the least of my worries.  Although legs, lungs and heart felt good, about mile 10 I started to have some serious issue with my stomach.  Rolling waves of nausea started assailing me.   I would roll for a while feeling fine and then the next second be sure I was going to need to pull over.  I pushed on hoping it would pass - as I said, I felt great otherwise.  It didn't pass.  At mile 20 I hit the first nutrition stop.  I stopped to refill my water bottle and was shocked to find that I couldn't stand up straight due to cramps in my stomach (above the navel).  I was also a little disappointed to find that the only nutrition they had at the stop was shot-blocks.  I was hoping that I could get a little 'real' food (like a banana) in me to calm my stomach down - it wasn't to be.

I continued anyway.  At mile 28 I had to stop - water wasn't staying down anymore.  SAG eventually came and picked me up and my day was done.

So, what have I learned?
1 - don't change my diet a week before a big race :)  I don't know if that had anything to do with my complete meltdown, but it is a question.
2 - That 20 'extra' minutes I get before my wave starts is time well spent.  I need to plan better if my wave is starting first.
3 - A DNF really isn't the end of the world.  Not even close
4 - It's ok to listen to my body.  It doesn't always lie to me to try to get out of doing something.  Sometimes I really do need to stop.
5 - I'm going to have to do a Half-Iron next year after all! :)

The week before the 1/2

The training plan for this week is:

Tonight, a 4 mile run after work.
Wednesday, 10 mile bike ride on the trainer at lunch
Thursday, 1000 y swim before work, 2 mile run after work

Then it's resting until Saturday

easy peasy

N=1 experiment continues

and my N=1 experiment continues

I know - it's probably a strange time to be changing things around in my diet/lifestyle; after all I'm doing a 1/2 Iron man 70.3 miles on Saturday.  BUT I'm so tired of putting things on hold and waiting on the right time.  I need to do what I need to do NOW.

That being said on Thursday  last week I finished the book "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance".  The whole time I was reading it I was thinking... "Yep, yes, uh huh!"  I just couldn't wait to get started.  So, on Friday I put my new low carb diet plan in action.  I realize that may mean reduced performance on Saturday because I'm not 100% Keto-adapted but honestly, it's not like I was going to win any awards anyway.

That being said, my keto sticks are turning pink (haven't gotten the ketone blood tester that's recommended yet) and I'm feeling really good.  Not much hunger, not too tired and generally feeling - good.  I did a triathlon on Saturday on restricted carbs - didn't eat during the race, didn't bonk and came in at least 1 minute faster then the same race 2 months ago.  So, I think there's not really a downside to this.  If putting around in ketosis for a while will let me do races while dropping some of the fat that's holding me back from REALLY improving performance then - yeah, I'm ready willing and able.

I also have been reading through William Davis' book "Wheat Belly".  I love this book.  The pure nurdiness of it appeals to me.  I was already aware the wheat wasn't good form my by my dabbles into Paleo eating, but the amount of data here somehow 'got to me' in a way the other books I read haven't.  So, Friday I gave up grains too (again).

As I said earlier there hasn't been an appearance of the low carb flue.  That could be because I've bounced back and forth between SAD eating and low carb so often that my body is pretty adept at making the switch.  Or maybe there's going to be a delayed reaction. We'll see.

That being said - 1/2 iron man on Saturday - O...M...G!!!

When I got home last night I faced a serious challenge...

I was tired, hungry, had a headache and dinner was no where near being ready.  It was day three of being on my eating plan and I was dealing with that day three 'crash'.  That day when your body says... "HEY, you're not eating like you normally do.  This is the third day of this and we need to remind you of who's in charge here...*poof* you will now feel like crap"

Since dinner plans weren't working out and wouldn't for the night I told the family, "Dinner is on your own tonight" and went out for my 4 mile run.

When I returned, not only was I tired, hungry and had a headache but I was starting to CRAVE.  The kids and hubby were happily diving into their self made meals; egg burritos, leftover chicken, leftover meatballs etc.  I could smell all the food cooking and the feast beast was shaking the bars of his cage and muttering, "you want an egg burrito too, and toast, egg burrito with tortilla and cheese and a side of toast with loads of butter"

I wanted to whip out a fry pan and start cooking.  I wanted to eat NOW!

But, just because the food I had on my plan wasn't going to happen tonight, I wasn't about to give in to that muttering in my brain.  I knew I had to put the feast beast in it's place NOW.  So, I drug out out computer, logged into my program, deleted the meal I had planned for the day and proceeded to plan a new one based on what was in the house and was quick.  It didn't take long and in the end, the food ended up tasting FANTASTIC.  And this morning I woke up another 2.2 (that's right 2.2) lbs down for a total of four pounds since Saturday. Take THAT feast beast.

On the other side of the fence I've been in an absolute PANIC about the fact that I only have 6 weeks until my 1/2 Iron Man.  The Fear Fiend has been hard at work sowing seeds of doubt, and irrational fear.  I only realized how irrational last night.  As I was on my run I again started to get those feelings.  "Only six weeks, only six WEEKS!" the fear fiend was chanting.  "Think how hard that 1/2 marathon was in June, or worse how hard that simple sprint triathlon was this weekend," he continued.  "You won't be ready!"

Finally it came to me.  "So, what!?"

What's the worse that could happen?  I might not finish.  So, is that such a terrible thing?  I'm still miles ahead of everyone at home sitting on their couch watching football.  It'll be hard.  So?!  Many things are hard.  Getting out of bed and going to work is hard some days, but you do it.  Even if it's hard do you really think you'll regret doing it in the end?  Will you regret failing as much as not even trying?

Holy crap!  That shut the Fear Fiend up.

Then, as I was looking over my training plan today it hit me.  It's not "only 6 weeks".  I have a WHOLE SIX WEEKS to prepare!  My bike ride planned for tonight suddenly got a lot more meaningful.

Sunday I ran a half marathon.  And it was hard, and it was scary and I started to doubt weather I can do this whole half iron man thing.  I know I need to rid myself of those kinds of thoughts... But I also need to take a second, pull them out, look at them, acknowledge them and THEN toss them away.

Half way through my training, things started to go bad for me.  I can't really pin point why.  I think the main reason was doing too much too fast in a body that wasn't ready for it.  When our mid-week runs went up to 6 miles, my body started to break down and I never really recovered from it.  On top of that I did something weird to my knee and it started hurting - big time.  I didn't know what to do because I didn't want to stop running - I needed to finish this half marathon.  My psyche couldn't take another DNS.  I couldn't give up on myself once again.  

So, I started reducing or skipping my mid-week runs and just doing the weekend runs as written.  I also stopped dieting thinking that the low calories were contributing to the 'non-knee' related side of my breakdown.  And it worked for the most part.  I made it through my 12 mile run, the peek of my training plan, and then didn't run for thirteen days leading up to my race.  I don't know if that was the right thing to do, but it worked.  I was able to run relatively pain free (in my knee) for the entire race.  

Race day was beautiful.  It wasn't going to be too hot, or too cold (starting in the high 50's and warming into the low 60's) there was a breeze but not the strong winds we had be having for days.  Getting to the race was easy because the starting line was about 1/2 a mile from my house.  I simply walked out my front door and did a brisk walk to the starting line and I was there!  I wandered around, waiting for the start and visiting with a few friends.  Then it was a short walk to the street to line up and, we were off.

I don't do many foot races, and the majority of those are 5K's so I wasn't really prepared for what the start of a 1/2 marathon is like.  I'm used to having this HUGE mass of people go shooting off without me, while I start my plodding pace, that's the same speed I'll go the entire race.  This time I found that while there was a speedy bunch that zoomed off, there weren't many of them and there seemed to be just as many that were like me, in it for the long haul.  The number of walkers, run/walkers and just plain ol' slow people was a nice surprise.

The first few miles clicked off fairly easily, and before I knew it I was to the foot bridge that was almost at the three mile mark and I was still feeling good.  Four miles still felt ok.  My knee was good, my lungs felt great and I was in a happy place (as happy as I get when running).  Five miles was still ok - I was making sure to drink plenty of water and was walking through ever water stop in order to top off the water bottle I was carrying.  Six miles I was starting really dig in mentally.  I knew this was going to be a long race and keeping focus was going to be one of the struggles - my focus was slipping a little but not terrible.  I hit the 1/2 way point and got a  little happy.  I felt pretty good, but I was tired - bored of running - tired of fighting and the thought occurred to me that if I was doing a 10K I would already be done.  At that moment I promised myself that I would never do a run longer then 10K again...

The last 1/2 of the run was an exercise in pain management.  While my knee was behaving beautifully, my lower back had started to tighten and my hips (probably from the slow shuffling run I was doing) were killing me.  I stopped and stretched several times and basically talked myself through each 1/2 mile.  Looking back on it now though - I was never... exhausted.  I was in pain, but not terribly tired and that, at least, makes me happy and gives me hope.  The last half mile I decided to gut it up and just keep running.  And I did... a little before the finish I saw my family waiting and cheering for me - it gave me a burst of energy I didn't know I had and I started to speed up - I kept running faster with each step until I crossed the finish line.

I finished!

Two days later I'm still worried about how hard it was.  However, thinking back on it now, yes there was some pain that I had to work through, but the biggest issue was mental.  Figuring out how to not get (frankly) bored...  Physically I know I can do this - but I would like to do it and not have it be a 'punishment'  If I can figure that part out, I'll do alright.