Fueling My Body To Keep Up This Pace

I posted last week about the fact that at the end of the week I was worn out and tired.  I put all the blame on the fact that I was not sleeping as much and I needed to adjust.  I really did not take a look at one major source of my energy: my diet.  

I eat fairly well or at least I thought that I was putting the proper food in my body.  I spent the last few months adjusting my diet to enhance my metabolism and burn all of my lovely fat.  During this time,  I pinged Ariane frequently with all types of food questions.   After four and a half months of doing this, I felt like I had this clean eating thing down.  I did not think I needed to worry about what I was eating.

After my bootcamp class last Thursday I mentioned to Ariane that I always was hungry but I also felt like I was dragging.  She asked me to send her my food diary of the foods I eat for the day.  We all know that this was easy for me since it is the same thing each day.  I was expecting her to come back with....yup you are eating well, its your sleep.  Come on, I have been doing this for four months and I am a quick learner.

Well.....I got the opposite or semi opposite.  First, my diet lacked protein.  Though I drank a protein shake after my morning workout, ate cheese for morning snack, 16oz of yogurt each afternoon and  ground turkey for lunch, I was missing a bunch of protein.  My favorite  breakfast of oatmeal, banana, peanut butter, and kefir contained too many carbs and little protein.  This was why I was hungry all the time.    Second, a lot of times I am on the go during dinner time so I eat a protein bar for dinner.  This did not go over too well, I needed some real food.  And the third which is the best, I ate two cups of air popped popcorn as a treat each day.  This is the worst thing in my diet.  All I got on this was 'get rid of the popcorn, there is nothing nutrious about it'

So this week I traded my oatmeal for eggs and spinach,made a fantastic kale and ground turkey lunch and cooked chicken breasts that I could eat for afternoon snack and dinner.   Tuesday I felt full all day but I dragged all day again.  I definently got enough sleep Monday night and started to doubt what I was doing.   So that night I shot another email to Ariane.

Now I think of myself as a fairly smart person.  I may not have the patience to take classes/training or study but I can hang with most people in conversation or work pace.  But diet.....I am beginning to think I am a freaking idiot!   

Her response, eggs/spinach were not enough breakfast and the changes I made removed the major fiber sources and carbs I needed. This is with me having 4cups of kale in my lunch!  Ugh.....here we go again. 

So Wednesday, back to the cutting board.  I added a half a cup of oatmeal and two cups of chopped veg to my egg spinach breakfast, two cups of veg with my yogurt, and you guessed it, another two cups veg with my afternoon snack.   The amazing thing, I had energy all day.  It was a first time in a week that I felt myself.  Same thing again Friday....same food same result.  I did not have my Friday 5:00pm meltdown and had the energy to complete my final early morning, late night workout, and still grab a drink(well water for me) with a friend.

So....the point of my long story, it is so important to maintain the energy level I need to feed my body properly.  I thought that working out all the time may allow me to not care as much since I would burn it off.  How wrong could I have been.  If I want to feel my best, I need to ensure what I put in my body will be giving me the energy I need. I even understand Ariane's popcorn comment, if I am going to eat, why waste it on non beneficial food. Adding one more area of focus to this challenge.

If you are interested, here is what I eat on a normal day.  See mom...... I am actually eating enough  :)  Also, dont worry since Alexandria who thinks she is older than me (first born rights) is constantly checking to see what I eat.  We had a 15 minutes conversation Sat. about my meals.  I added the brocolli slaw for her.

420 Wakeup:  Coffee and Almond Milk (I love this stuff)
After Workout: Kefir Protein Shake
Breakfast: 4 egg white with cup of spinach, half cup of oatmeal, plateful of free Bloomberg veggies (these vary each day)
Morning Snack:  16 oz Greek Yogurt with almonds/cashews and plate of veg
Lunch: My favorite meal that I make, I could each this morning, noon, and night:  4c Spicy Kale (look for an upcoming post with my obsession with this green), onions, tomato, and ground turkey. 
Afternoon Snack: piece of chicken breast cut up, plate of veggies, and cup of coffee
Dinner:  piece of chicken breast with broccoli slaw

Week 1 Coming To A Close

I have my first week of training under my belt.  This week was  supposed to allow you to get into a routine, identify where you are going to train, set some structure.

I did fairly well though I have not integrated biking yet.  That is going to be this weeks task; add a few spinning classes.  My excuse, my biking shoes are in my car and each morning I forget to get them.  I hate spinning in sneakers, so much harder. I also need to purchase a road bike, something I have been avoiding since it requires research.

My week consisted of a few early morning swims, evening runs and cross training with my bootcamp classes.   I take a running class in Central Park to help me train for the first phase of my challenge, More Half Marathon.  This week I was introduced to the wonders of 800s Tuesday and on Thursday the joy of running up Cat Hill where the objective is to run fast enough that you feel like you will puke at the top. When you get to the top, you turn around, run down and do it again.   Best part is I did this after a morning bootcamp that focused on non stop leg work for 30 minutes.   I kept thinking....you are only getting stronger. I did impress myself with not being too sore.

My biggest concern right now is my sleep or lack of it.  I am burning the candle at both ends. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a little more energy(some may call it hyperness) than most.  Growing up, my mom used to say that I never sat still and was always on the go.  It has finally come in handy, allowing me to make it through most of the week. I just dont know how long it will keep me going.   Hopefully soon I will get my act together to figure out a plan to move into the city.

Since January I have been getting up twice a week at 420 to catch the first bus into the city.  I thought adding three more days would not be that much of a change.  What I did not think of was that I needed to add my night work outs in with the fact that I have been leaving work around 630-700 on non running class days and coming back to work for an hour or so on class days.  That means that I am out the door at 435 in the morning and back between 930-1030 at night.   By Friday afternoon my energy wanes.  I realized this when I was having a conversation with a co worker, Head of Internal Communications of all people,  at 5:00pm and I realized half way through my sentence I forgot the purpose of the conversation.  I just looked at him and said I was pooped. 

This is the part where you may think I am a real ass.  After the paragraph above and if I told you i was taking a 8:00am class in Union Sq Saturday , I am sure you are assuming that I would head home after work.   In my true fashion, I proceeded to push myself a little more and go out for happy hour.  It is the part of me that is trying to maintain a normal life that gave me a push.   Sadly I lasted for one glass of wine and some pizza and then realized that if I did not leave them, I would be sleeping on the sidewalk.

I have quickly realized the actual training, pushing my body through the different ativities is the easy part. It is trying to juggle the rest of my life that is going to be hard.  I want to do it all and had the unrealistic expectation that I could do it all.  Slowly I am starting to look at what I need to pull back or change (like the city move) so that I do not wear myself into the ground.

Hopefully like everything else I do, I will fall into a routine.  Things will get simpler and I will figure this all out.  I have 19 more weeks to get it right.

Swimming, NYC Style

Ok, I am spoiled.  (no snickering here, we all know that I can be a brat)   I tend not to tell myself I am spoiled but  I like to think that I have been extremely fortunate with what my parents provided me in my life.   Much better way to look at it and this makes my parents smile and puts me in their good graces.  (sorry Sara, Sacha, and Lex - I create a high standard :)   )

I grew up swimming in my backyard, learned to swim competitively at one of best gyms in the country, West Point's Arvin Gym, and got to teach swimming lessons during college with the Cape Cod Bay as my back drop.   When I realized that swimming was my first training set, I was super excited to get back into the water.

What I did not put together is that swimming in NYC is different than anywhere else.  There are different fields of play and rules that you need to follow.   I slowly started to navigate this game and here is what I learned:

1. Though your gym website may list POOL as one of the facilities, pools are considered anything that can hold over a cup of water.   I went to the NYSC's 'largest' pool Saturday to do a dry run.  Shocked when I saw it was an 18yd, tight 4 lane pool.  18 yards......I dont get it.  When I asked if there were other pools the guy said this is the biggest we got.  Thats 96 lengths and 48 flip turns to get to a mile. 

2.  If sharing an outside lane, always get the side closest to the lane line.    I got suckered into the wall side of the lane on Saturday and I cannot tell you how many times I smacked my hand against the pool ladder to avoid the other swimmer. 

3.  If you see a lady jump into your lane with three noodles, you know it is time to leave.    There is no way the two of you can share a lane without you getting smacked in the face each time you pass each other.   96 smacks I think may cause a bruise.

4.  Bring a book or magazine with you into the pool area.  Yeah, this one is a stumper...books with water?   Only two people are allowed to swim in a lane at once.  This means that you have to stand on the pool deck watching swimmers go back and forth until a lane opens up.  From personal experience, this is not fun.

Here are some cool things I learned:

1.  If you call ahead you can reserve a 30 minute lane to yourself.  (only on weekends)

2.  If you go weekday mornings, you can call to reserve a lane to share so you do not have to wait in line.

3.  Early mornings are the best time to go.  Yesterday's swim, I got the lane to myself for the second half of my session.

In other news, day 1 training went very well.  Thankfully I am already adjusted to the ungodly early morning wake up calls and walking to the bus in dark.  Double workouts, that will take some time.   I was in bed with asleep by 955, super early for me.

119 days to go

Panic Starting to Set In

Most of you know I am very structured;  I like consistency, routine  - a plan that I can follow each day.  I pretty much eat the same thing each morning, lunch, and dinner.    I shop at the same stores (Whole Foods and Trader Joes!!), always on Sundays, for the meals for the week.  I sit in the same seat on the train, start my day off at work the same way - always writing a To Do list, use the same locker at the gym, and run on the same treadmill.   I think that you get the point.  If I have a plan of what I am to do, I am happy.

For the last two weeks since I made my decision, I have been walking around telling my family, friends, and co-workers of my goal.   All talk....and the more and more I said it, the more I got the 'Holy Shit' feeling.  There was nothing to back the talk that I was saying.  I had no plan, nothing to grasp on to to make me happy, to make me feel comfortable on what I was doing.

The reason for this:  Research!  There is so much information on the web and books you can read it was overwhelming.  I am not the type of person to still and actually read the info.  I lose patience after about 10 minutes in and move to the next thing.   I must have sat down or started about 15 times in the last two weeks, always ending in the same place....tomorrow I will do it!   I wanted the info to magically appear that I could use to plan out what I needed to do.  

Thankfully a little help did come my way.  Well...come may way may be a little stretching it.  More like me panicking and emailing for help.  My bootcamp instructor, Ariane (she's done a bunch of tris and is doing the Providence one) sent me a link to a site she used for her first tri.    She has gotten a few other panic emails (probably more than she would like) from me over the last few months and is great.  Never lets me give into the panic, always giving me some piece of information to guide me in the right direction.  Cut the crap - just do it.

Finally I had some focus on where to go.    I then forced myself to go to Barnes and Noble and go through each of the books they had on the shelf to find one that fit my needs.

With the training site and book in my hand, I did what I do on my work projects,  I mapped out the next several months in a calendar, put in time needed, added risks of where work will get busy, family functions etc.  Funny how when you do this things seem a lot simpler.  My 'Oh Shit what am I Doing' feeling has gone to a 'Oh Shit, that's a lot of work but I can do it' feeling.   My plan is started....I have a goal and a path to take to achieve it.  I am smiling now and ready to go.   If you are wondering what it will take, here is a sample of my plan.   Still a work in progress, but a good, happy start.

Training starts on Monday!!! 

So, how did I get here

I like to exercise, be active, be on the go, but how the heck did I go from light exercise to sitting at a restaurant with the words "yeah, I will do the half triathlon with you?" 

First step:  Last October, frustrated with how I felt about myself, the 5lbs I gained over the summer and the fact that some of my clothes did not fit, I joined a bootcamp in the city.  I did not know that this class would change my way of life.  The first month of the class I struggled but I started to see signs that I was getting stronger.  By month three, I dropped 26lbs of fat and gained 7lbs of muscle.  And you know what came with that......my fitness.  Each week I got stronger and stronger and challenged myself to see how far I could go.  I started in October running a slow slow 2 miles to being able to run a fast 6 miles at the end of December.  I was inspired by what was happening to me to keep pushing to see what else I could do.  Now I am hooked.

Step 2:  Now that I was feeling good, I wanted more of a challenge for myself.  I convinced 3 other girls at work that were looking to get into shape to sign up for the MOREWomens Half Marathon.  At this point I was up to 7 miles....so yeah I could do this. 

Step 3:  Bring in Alexandria.  You get paired up in bootcamp with a partner each session.  Alexandria was mine in January.   We spent the month talking after class and emails on how freaking starving we were during the day.    I was feeling pretty confident on my running  abilities, I was up to 8.5 miles at this point.    One night, celebrating the completion of our class, I mentioned to her that I wanted to do a Triathlon. I was thinking the Olympic since it was the next step after a Sprint which I have done.  She said 'yes, so do I but I want to do a half'.   I looked at her like she was crazy but she said 'you will be able to run 13.1 miles, you will be fine to to a half.  What is stopping you from doing it?   i sat back and thought for a little bit.  I had no answer other than.....you will never know how much you can push yourself until you try.   And with that I am Half Ironman Trainee.

What have I done?

I am back into the blogging business.  It has been about a three year hiatus since Living In The Uk came out and I felt the need to say my random thoughts online.  My train rides into the city are in need of excitement, so I thought this could occupy my time.

In all reality, I am embarking on a journey that is going to be extremely challenging, partially crazy, and so out of my element.   I am hoping that if I tell everyone my crazy idea and discuss my struggles and achievements, I will hold myself accountable for doing it and make it attainable.  Hopefully along the way you will be able to offer support and encouragement on the days I need it and I can inspire you to get out there and do something that is so crazy that you start to feel high just thinking about it.  Thats the adrenline high.

Now that I got your attention, I am sure you are all wondering what this silly little thing is.  I have decided after a long night out the night before and a glass a wine in my belly that I was going to join a friend of mine in completing a Half Ironman Triathlon.  Thats 1.5 mile swim, 56 miles bike and 13.1 mile run.   When: July 10th in Providence RI.