Run, Swim, Run, Swim...

I am now completely reconciled to the fact that I'm not biking this week and I won't be swimming much next week. Instead of allowing myself to get too bent out of shape about it I'm trying to use the time each week to focus on the other two sports.

The interesting thing that I have observed is that I feel much stronger in both my swimming and my running this week. I've been able to keep up a faster pace and my swimming intervals have felt so good. Next week I'll be able to bike again and on a new bike, yeah I'm SOOOOOO excited. With all the pool closures I have decided to do an extra swim this weekend and then when the pools reopen the following weekend I'll fit in a swim then. So in the end I'll only be off swimming for 5 days. It's all good.

The only thing that has really started to worry me is that I've had this nagging pain/tightness in my left knee. It's not exactly my knee, it's on the inside towards the back sort of hamstring and in fact when I stretch my hamstring I can really feel it. I've been really focusing on regular stretching in the last week both after my work outs and in the evening while I'm sitting around watching tv. It's so easy for those stretching sessions to fall off the schedule. I know I sometimes get kind of lax about stretching when I get back from running or biking. I'm always good about stretching my upper body during and after my swim because if I don't my shoulder almost always acts up. I'm sure that this knee pain is related to tight muscles (probably hamstring) I've been so busy with the kids and the end of my semester I just haven't had any time to get in to physio. Although I'm sure that I'll get the third degree for not stretching properly. They are really awesome though, They deal with a lot of sports injuries because they are at the University and all the collegiate teams come to them. Hopefully next week or so I can get in. My kids will be back to school and my little monkey will be at daycare. (If they don't end up on a darn labour strike.)

The World is out to Thwart me

So my bike tire is still flat and I figured no problem I'll just leave it until my Dad comes on the weekend and teaches me how to change a flat in the meantime I'll go to a couple of spin class. But when I called to reserve my spot they've closed for the week for maintenance. Great. So I'm trying to figure out how to change my flat myself but so far I haven't even had a chance to look at it yet. I really don't want to go a whole week without riding, it's really annoying me especially when I feel like my body is totally primed for a hard training week.

Then I found out that most of the pools around the area. (Even the ones farther afield) are closed for you guessed it maintenance. AUGH! Although I swam in a pool that I haven't gone to for a long long time and they will only be close for a week while most of the others are closed for most of Sept. I forgot how much I loved this pool and on the plus side this will be where I will be joining a Masters Swim Club. The only draw back is that it's a bit dark, being an older pool it was never designed with windows. All the newer pools in the area are light and airy in design but this pool is way better set up for lap swimming. It is where alot of the local swim competitions are held. Anyhow I will swim this week but now I will have to take the following week off from swimming because I have nowhere to swim. Too bad I'm not all that set up for open water swims right now. Ah well next year. I plan to buy a wet suit in the spring.

Well at least I can keep up all my running they can't close off all the roads for maintenance. I had an excellent run yesterday. It was my long run and went out for an hour and 50 min. Today I was very pleased with my swimming keeping up some fast intervals for about 45 min, Did 80 lengths. As mentioned above had planned to do a spin class this evening but now that it's closed I might use the tie to fix my freakin' tire.

I guess I should be happy that the pools and community centers keep everything well maintained but do they all have to pick the same week, the same month. I swear they've conspired together to annoy people like me that go day in day out from week to week. I'm sure most people barely notice the closures. Maybe it's in the stars for me to take it slightly easier for the next week or two or at least focus on my runs.

NO Bike ride for you.

I've had no daycare for my youngest daughter for the last week and my two older kids have been away so scheduling training this week has been a bit tricky but nevertheless I still fit some time in. I had already planned this as a recovery week because I knew I would have less time available than usual. I had managed to secure a sitter for an a couple of hours every morning so I was extremely disappointed when I rolled out to the road and crack psssssst. Dang my first flat and I don't know how to change them properly yet. My Dad and I have planned to have him show me how to change tires next week when he brings me my new bike. Figures eh. At any rate I didn't have time to change the tire that morning so instead of the Brick workout I had planned, I did an extended run.

I am very good at planning my training and I generally stick to my plan. There are only a few things that derail my training, sometimes my kids, my schoolwork if I have a paper that I've fallen behind on, and illness or injury, and oh yeah really inclement weather like snow. In most of the cases other than illness or injury I am generally good at modifying my plan. Sometimes fitting in all the pieces of my training and balancing other life things reminds me of playing a game of Tetris. You have to fit all the pieces just so while all them are moving and sometimes it works perfectly falling all into a perfect line and at others it's a bit harry and other times you miss and it leaves a gap. (but you might get a chance to fill it later.) It's all pretty cool. Training for multi sport is the neatest experience and it has taught me to roll with things more. I also love that my determination level that has always been pretty good in other areas of my life is becoming more fully developed through the course of my training. There are days that I feel almost capable of anything.

what recovery week?

I had an AMAZING ride today. Okay granted it was supposed to be a rest/recovery week and I have up until today cut back my hours on Mon and Tues. I just felt so great and the weather was nice and I could smell the scent of flowers in the air. I didn't realize that I would travel quite as far as I had. I have to say Vancouver is a pretty good city to ride in, the streets are relatively bike friendly(cars are not as tolerant of cyclists but the streets are very nicely set up) I have started to explore different routes because I was getting very bored of circling around my neighbourhood and now that I can go out for 2 hours I can go lots of new places. As I was saying I ended up doing a 2 hour and 15 min ride. Although at 1 and 45 I knew I had probably overdone it a bit. My quads were burning and tired. Ooops.

In 12 days I get my new bike! Yipeee! My Dad is going to come over with it and we are going to set up the basement so that all three bikes can be hung up on the wall. I don't have tons of space so by hanging them it should work out quite well. It's pushed me into organize mode around here because I need to go through all my clutter down there (and all over the house really) and get ride of all the junk. I can't wait to get out on the road bike, I can imagine myself flying through my work out. Sometimes when I'm out on the Tank I feel pretty sl0w. I keep my cadence up but all too often I'm passed by some serious roadie on a tricked out lite speed bike. I console myself that it is not entirely my athletic ability to blame I am after all riding a pretty heavy mountain bike. Even my Brother who inherited a version of my Tank from my Dad is finding it difficult. In fact he has hardly gone out on his as he says not only is it heavy but the gearing isn't very smooth. So at least I have the perseverance to continue training even if I'm on a less than optimal bike.

In like a lion out like a lamb

Or is it more like out like a whimper...
Do you ever begin your week feeling like this:

Only to find the tail end of your week feeling like this:

Although the reason I had a week like this was removed from my training. I'm just finishing up the end of the semester. I'm trying to finish my undergrad Arts degree with a major in English Lit. I'm hoping to move on into the teaching program and eventually teach. Some days I think I'm just going crazy. Why am I doing this to myself. Oh yes it was a personal goal of mine to finish my University degree that I left when I was 19. I want a better life for myself and I want to set a good example to my kids. (To follow your dreams and to work hard towards something that you've chosen to do.) But I swear some days I just want to pack it in some days I just want to scream out "MY LIFE SUCKS" but instead I go out for a run or bike. (OR both) and it helps. So yes I Barely squeezed through this semester and quite honestly I'm not sure how I got the marks I did. As a mature student I see more and more (particularly in the arts and humanities courses) how subjective the marking system in this particular University is. I don't remember feeling that way when I was in first year at age 19 but at 37 with life experience you can see that everything (well practically everything) is negotiable and the Prof's they're on your side. I wish I had this kind of wisdom when I went to University the first time. Oh well. I'm just so glad this semester is over. I've been going to University non stop for 5 semesters and after this 6th semester it will have been a year and a half with only a two week break in between semesters. It's not easy going to school and raising 3 kids on your own. My two older kids see their Dad every other weekend and have gone away with him for several weeks this summer but my youngest doesn't have contact with her Dad (maybe I'll tell the story another time.) so I don't really get a break from her.) Next summer I plan to take a break which means I'll get a brain break but because I plan to NOT work I will have almost zippo in the money dept. The good thing is that I'm heading into my third year and after my break I'l be 4th yearish with only the PDP teaching semester left. I can do it, I can do it!

H2Ohno!

Everyone knows how important it is to drink enough water everyday. Heck you're bombarded with this information from as early as 10 years old. ( according to a very unscientific poll done on my kids and their friends. age range from 9-12) The magic number we're told is 8 cups a day. And of course you should have more if you're exercising. Some articles that I have read suggest the following formula to determine hos much water you should be drinking.

body weight in pounds /3 = number of ounces of water needed.

For me that works out to approximately 4 to 5 cups of water a day. Oh yeah but I still have to add in extra for my work outs so I'm back to at least 8 cups give or take. I think I read in a Triathlon magazine that if you weigh yourself before your work out and again after, and ensure that you don't eat or drink anything or go to the bathroom you could determine how many pounds of water you've lost through sweat. I don't know but that just seems like a bit too much work for me when I know that in the end it just means. REPLACE YOUR FLUIDS DAMN IT.

Then we get to the question of electrolyte replacement. I have been notoriously stubborn around some of these issues. You see I started out with Triathlon to loose weight, why would I add extra calories to my diet if I didn't need to. Water the ultimate low calorie bev. (okay sometimes I had to flavour it with crystal lite or something cus 8 glasses gets a bit tasteless.) When I started out this was a perfectly viable option. I was only working out once a day for maybe 20 to 30 min. Well that's just simply not the case anymore. Now any seasoned triathlete is probably scoffing at my folly by now. But hey it's only taken me a year to figure it out and really it's only been the last 2 to 3 months that I've been dragging my behind through the last half of my training session.

So I committed myself to try out a few energy drinks and see whether this made a difference or not. Big surprise. Of course it did, still a bit tired from a good work out but that weary achy bone deep tired lifted. Maybe it's not much of a revelation to anyone but truly it did make a difference to my work outs. I don't know why I get so stubborn about stuff like that. I'm always very sceptical about "performance enhancing products." Some things can be so gimmicky and way over marketed but truly I'm convinced.

I had to buy a hydration belt for my running to accommodate the energy drinking. I still find them overly sweet especially on a run and I admittedly diluted them a bit. The hydration belt was the hardest thing to get used to. I hate being bogged down with too much gear or too much clothing when I run but this was a necessary nuisance. The first while when the bottle was full and heavy I just got so frustrated with the rhythmic jigga jigga while my feet went slap slap. I must have been quite a sight to behold the first day, pulling and adjusting and moving the belt around. I think I found the best set up now but truly after the first 20 min I barely noticed it and after 30 I had forgotten about it all together and as the bottle emptied the jigga jigga seemed to coincide nicely with the slap slap of my feet hitting the sidewalk. It was great to have liquids along with me and as I said above the electrolyte replacement really affected my workouts in a positive way. I know for a fact that when I did my long run on Monday I ran faster and a lot farther than I normally do in 90 minutes.

Protein and the Endurance Athlete (Wading through the sea of info)

Although this has been a recovery week I have found myself exhausted, on my runs my legs feel dead and on a bike I feel like my quads are complaining and protesting the whole way. By Thursday I began to wonder why this seems to be a reoccurring problem for me. I am convinced that it might be something about my diet.

When I changed my eating over a year ago I did a complete overhaul on my diet. At first I was really strict with myself. I cut all alcohol, cheese (still love), ice cream and increased my intake of fruit and especially veggies. I have been a vegetarian for over 8 years so I kept that in place. At the time I modified my calorie intake. Although I vaguely review it from time to time. I was more concerned with sticking to the plan and really didn't check to see if my plan needed modification. With that in mind I did some research to see if I needed to make some changes.

That sounds pretty easy and straight forward but IT'S NOT!! There is so much confusing, conflicting and misleading information out there about nutrition for athletes. My first investigation was to check out the whole protein thang. For 8 years I've had people pestering me with the standard question "but how do you get enough protein in your diet?" I always believed that if you ate a variety of foods that most people even vegetarians would get enough protein. I cook lots of bean dishes and occasionally eat fish and I do drink milk,(sometimes soy) and somehow over the years I've come to love tofu. But still maybe with 2 workouts a day with most workouts averaging at least an hour (and inching upward) perhaps that was the culprit of this crappy feeling.

The difficulty with the protein question is that it's hard to get a straight answer to how much protein does an endurance athlete need? Here's what I've been able to determine.

RDA) says: .8 grams of protein for every 1 kilogram body weight. This number is more for sedentary adults but if you are an endurance athlete it increases so that you are looking at a range from .8-1.8. To calculate your daily needs take your weight in pounds divided by 2.2. Take that number and multiply it by .8 (or higher if you are active like me.)

So for myself I am 130 pounds or thereabouts.
130/2.2= 59.09
59.09 x 1.6= 94.54

Meaning that I need 94.5 grams of protein per day. At this point all my knowledge about vegetarian eating went out the window. Auck 94 grams, there's no way I'm gettin that much per day. I ran out and in this vulnerable state I'm sad to say that I allowed a salesperson to convince me that I absolutely needed to be taking a protein supplement in the form of a protein isolate powder. I came home and still didn't feel particularly convinced that I should be taking this supplement twice per day. (at 25g of protein and 110 cal per scoop)

Did some further checking on various medical/nutrition sites and vegetarian web sites. And of course rediscovered that yes as a vegetarian it can be tricky to get the right amount of protein especially form as a complete source but it is not impossible and here's why.

1. Meat and other alternatives like an egg, a 1/2 cup of beans or lentils, 1 oz of fish, have 7 grams.
2. Milk products including 1 oz cheese and 1 cup yogurt and 1 cup of milk have 8 g
3. Whole Wheat Grains like 1 slice of bread, 1/2 cup of pasta have 6-8grams

Don't forget that soy has 7g per cup and tofu has 13g per 1/4 of a block and nuts like sunflower seeds or almonds (I add them to my oatmeal in the morning) are 6 g per 1/4 cup.

While this is hardly an exhaustive list it was enough to convince me that while I may at times be low in protein, it would not take much to ensure adequate protein intake. Of course now I have this big tub of protein powder, which I guess I will add a scoop to my fruit smoothie but I doubt that I will fuss about using it 2 to 3 times a day like the salesperson suggested. I did discover Luna and Clif bars which I think might be another option to assist in meeting daily requirements.

I think the main thing is that I would never want to become a slave to any one product be it protein powder or even tofu. I like variety because after I work out so hard each day I want to be able to enjoy what I'm eating. Yes the focus is to fuel the body but it doesn't have to taste like cardboard. Honestly I don't think I could stick to a plan if it I wasn't enjoying eating it. I like eating healthy and I often experiment with different ethnic dishes.

So if protein wasn't the main problem what else could it be. Now that I think about it here's some things that I think I will review hydration: general and during and post exercise. I also noticed during my protein info search that I may be limiting or restricting my calorie intake too much. (maybe, although I did gain weight a few weeks back so what gives!) Stay tuned.