First real bicycle workout

The route:
To and from ocean, via Golden Gate Park.

The Music:
Tegan and Sara - So Jealous
Le Tigre - This Island

Heart Rate Monitor:
1:26:31
988 calories
144 bpm avg heart rate
167 bpm max heart rate

Bike Computer:
1:08:58
12.321 miles
10.7 mph avg speed
21 mph max speed

The bike computer only counts time that you are moving, so the extra 18 minutes were stop lights, stop signs, and water/map breaks. It goes without saying that I was hoping for a higher average speed. I think that speed is pretty fair, traffic and all, because I was butt-slow on the uphills in the park. There were even a few I had to walk up. Need to work on that lactic acid buffering. :/

I was paranoid about the weather forecast (rain, low 60's) so I had too many layers when the riding warmed me up. Taking off my arm warmers and helmet liner when I got to the ocean felt really good, and removing my gloves a few miles later felt like heaven. I left my rain pants and rain jacket on, though; partially because I didn't have anywhere to put them. Rain was limited to very light sprinkling.

There were lots of riders and joggers and dogs with humans out; that was cool. Traffic was pretty benign, though there were a few jerks.

I got home and shed my clothes: my t-shirt was SOAKED. I probably could have wrung sweat out of it. I was wearing a wicking shirt under that, so my skin had been nice and dry. Sweet.

Any minute now my appetite will come back and I'll have to eat a huge meal. That better happen soon, because this afternoon I'm going to a yoga class with a friend.

Consequences

Today I am skipping a workout specifically because I'm behind at work. :( This is what happens when I don't keep my eye on the ball and try to do too much.

In that vein, I'm also trying out the No-S Diet. I'm hoping it will allow me to maintain my weight with far less overhead than the Fitday food tracking. See aforementioned "try to do too much": I'm trying to reclaim my time and attention for more pressing matters, like work. Speaking of which, I should get back to that.

I'll keep ya posted.

Resources

Whatever it takes, right? I read or skim almost every fitness/exercise/diet/nutrition article and blog post I come across. 50% are garbage, but many have at least some value, and a few really stick with me. Maybe they just inspire me with one idea, or get me to change my philosophy a bit, or add one useful word to my fitness vocabulary. The Hacker's Diet was my first real inspiration, and though I don't agree with everything I have truly incorporated many of his suggestions into my daily life. Skinny Daily Post remains on my daily reading list, even though I find some of the articles repetitive. I check in on Stumptuous every month or so, even though she's far more hardcore than I'll ever be.

It's too early to tell if the ideas at Everyday Systems will make it into this esteemed company, but I think there is a decent chance. Reading only a third of the No S Diet page made me get up, go to the break room, and PUT BACK the Oreo cookies package I had on my desk. (I have been letting these treats become a daily, sometimes multiple times a day occurrence, and I get less and less joy from them with each passing day.) Shovelglove is a bit cheesy, but I agree that regular resistance exercise is ESSENTIAL to your health. I think pushups/situps/dips/etc. are just as valid, however, and aren't as likely to end with a smashed toe/floor/window. Urban Ranger re-inspired me to leave my car at work on the weekends and walk/bike places instead of driving and circling circling circling for parking.

Swimming Update

I felt pretty strong in the pool this morning, so after my first few laps I set a goal for myself: I wanted to swim as fast as my record pace (41 yd/min) but for the full 28 minutes (that record was set during a short workout, and this was a long workout).

I beat that by 11 seconds. 23 laps in 27 min 49 seconds. 41.342121 yd/min. Still rounds down to 41. :| But I felt really strong. :)

I was really hungry (and ate and ate and ate) all day long yesterday, and it wasn't until right before a dinner with a friend (doh!) that I lost my appetite. Luckily we went for sushi so I could get a small portion. I really think that all that food helped my performance this morning. Now I understand why people eat a lot of food the day before a race.

Triathlon Training Camp

My gym is offering a Triathlon Training Camp. Pretty good deal too, twelve 90 minute classes for $125. Two sessions a week for six weeks. Starts soon, but ends in the first week of April so I can still taper properly for my race. The trainer running it is the same guy I spoke with a few weeks ago, and seems very friendly and knowledgeable and encouraging. My speed and transition times would certainly improve dramatically. I've also never been coached on biking or running, and the last time I was coached in swimming was middle school. Sounds pretty darn perfect, eh?

6:30am to 8:00am.

I'm just not sure I'm that dedicated. I got out of bed at 6:22 this morning, and that was a bit of a struggle.

6:30am...

Lara Bar

I'm not going to think too hard about the interaction of my terrible eating on Saturday, writing about it on Sunday, and this morning's joy as I tried a Lara Bar for the first time. Because if I were more Cali than I already am I'd start saying things like "the world gives you what you need" and nobody wants that.

Sunday I bought and this morning I tried for the first time a Lara Bar. Without waxing too lyrical about it, it's my new favorite food: an energy bar that isn't full of chemicals, supplements, and nasty texture. A real whole food that simultaneously gives me a nice nutritional breakdown (210 cal/10g "good" fat/5g fiber/6g protein/no sodium). Three ingredients in the flavor I tried: Almonds, Dates, Unsweetened Bananas.

I had half of the bar on the way into work to get some sugar into my blood for my morning workout. This bar made me feel ALIVE and good and all those things you want your food to make you feel. From their website:

Our company name comes from an ancient belief that food falls into two categories:
Beckoning Foods, which beckon consumption again and again, sapping the body of energy without any real health benefits, Today they're called "junk foods."
Humm Foods, on the other hand, resonate with energy in a whole natural state. When consumed, they cause you to feel vibrant and alive.

LÄRABAR IS HUMM FOOD

Now, Saturday I wasn't eating full-on junk food, but it was halfway there. Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered pretzels: not chips ahoy, but not wheat toast either. Chinese pastries: not birthday cake, but not wheaties either.

So, it feels good to be back to real, good, happy-body food.

Even if this morning's workout was weak, slow, water-choky because my brain wouldn't focus, and did I mention slow? No matter, I did it.

Emotions

I guess I should count my blessings: I'm not an alcoholic. Alcoholism runs in my family, so I could easily be turning to booze instead of sugar for a quick chemical fix in times of emotional and mental stress.

I "watched" myself (a nice turn of phrase that let's one avoid responsibility for one's actions) finish a bag of Trader Joe's chocolate covered pretzels yesterday. I have had that bag for six months or longer, and have been having one to four at a time once in a while over that stretch. Nice sane portions. On Saturday, however, I watched myself bring the bag to the couch instead of just the portion I wanted, and I watched myself finish the bag. 16 pretzels. 600 calories. Needless to say, I felt terrible about half an hour later. But then later in the day, while wandering Chinatown between moments in the crowd at the parade, I stopped in not one but two Chinese bakeries, and had not two but five pastries. Needless to say, I felt even worse. Stomach ache, sugar crash, bloated, etc etc.

Why did I do that to myself? Because I'm feeling sad and sorry for myself for a variety of personal reasons. I'm feeling down, so I turn to the most immediate and reliable form of pleasure I know: food.

This isn't good, not good at all. It's not end-of-the-world bad, especially since I recognize the behavior right away. And it's not even something I think I can realistically stop altogether, because it's simply human nature to do things to make ourselves feel better. But I didn't work out this weekend either, partially because I had a full-ish schedule but partially because I didn't make the time for it.

I love vegetables, and whole grains, and yummy fresh tasty healthy food. I genuinely prefer those foods over refined sugars and other less nutritionally dense foods. 80% of the time. But that other 20%...

You know, some people really swear that the only way to stop themselves from having these small sugar binges is to just cut refined sugar out of their diets entirely. That it's an addiction, and that thinking you can moderate that addiction is fooling yourself. I don't want to believe that those things are true for me. I want to believe that I can have these foods in moderation, work out most of the time, eat well most of the time, and be happy with that.

Okay, I hate to admit it, but I WOULD be 100% happy right now, yesterday's binge and all, if it weren't for the fact that I have this belly. It's not a big belly, it's not, but I carry my weight at my stomach so to me these 5-10 "extra" pounds are really noticeable. I notice them when I sit down and I have to adjust my pants waistband, when I tuck down on my bike and my thighs hit my body on every upstroke, when I wear a thin shirt and I can see the outline of my belly button. Dumb, living-in-LA, looking at fitness model pictures too often sorts of things. Right? Maybe. It's not too crazy to want a better body at least for a while, just to see if I can do it.

But maybe I should hold off on wanting that body until I'm not so sad/stressed, eh?

Okay, time for bed.

New Muscles!

Check out my brand spankin' new swimming muscles! They sure took me by surprise. They are pretty different from my (now languishing) weightlifting muscles.

If noticing brand new and (relatively) well defined muscles is my reward for eating clean for a day, I'll eat clean every day!

Breakfast gauntlet of the day: doughnuts. Wheat toast once again triumphed.

Bad eating, Good swimming

I've been very lax with my eating lately, and I am tired of feeling somewhat icky all the time. So, in the spirit of small achievable goals, I've pledged that TODAY I'll "eat clean." Those scones in the breakfast buffet almost got me, but wheat toast with tomato slices won the day. Luckily the lunch entree holds little appeal, so sticking to my salad with roasted chicken won't be a problem.

I didn't make it out of bed in time to do both my "short swim" and "short bike" workouts this morning, so I did the swim and plan to do the bike this afternoon (oh, who am I kidding? evening) after work. Inspired by a talk with one of the trainers at the gym on Friday I had every intention of kicking this workout up a notch (BAM!) and doing some interval speed work, but I just wasn't feeling it at all. I was tired, had a lot on my mind, and kept inhaling water because I was thinking about life instead of about swimming. I "put in my time" and did 14 laps in 17 minutes. I did bust out a half-lap sprint a few times, but felt like I swam slow enough on the recoveries to more than defeat any pace gains.

As I was logging the workout and breakfast in fitday.com, I decided to calculate how fast that swim was, just for giggles. I was expecting a number around 30-35 yards per minute, because that's what it felt like: dog slow. So imagine my surprise when I get 41 yards per minute, another new record.

It all feels so backwards to me. Okay, so this training really is paying off. Fast is the new slow. That's fantastic. Yet I don't FEEL faster. And I certainly don't feel more toned or in shape. In fact, early Thursday morning I had to sprint from the bus to catch the Caltrain and I almost felt like I had asthma I was sucking wind so badly. I lamely blamed it on being tired and running up a very steep hill and, um, being tired, but I was very disappointed that all this working out I've been doing didn't translate directly into being able to just charge up that hill at a moment's notice.

Yet, in my heart of hearts I know what the problem is, that missing piece of the puzzle that's preventing me from feeling and performing as well as I could. It's my eating. It's the beer, the cookies, the massive amounts of coffee, the chocolate, etc etc etc. It's the too much fat and simple sugars and not enough protein. I eat enough vegetables and fruit every day. I drink enough water. But I need to cut down on my "cheating" if I want to reach the next level. And I do, I do want to reach the next level.

So today... today I'm eating clean.

Notes

1. The weekend bloat is almost gone. See? (weight graph at the bottom of the page) Up and down, like a rollercoaster. Wheee! I've done a small amount of stress eating this week, but it's been relatively manageable.

2. I noticed that I have been eating too much fat and not enough protein, so I decided to focus on the protein intake a bit. I re-evaluated my macronutrient targets and tweaked them a bit, to account for the massive amount of cardio I've been doing and will continue to do until the triathlon training is done. Details: 66-76 grams per day = 1.4-1.6 grams per kg body weight, scaled down to restrict my calorie intake. So, 1707-2051 cal/day instead of 2207-2651 I estimate I'm burning up these days, on average. I am wondering if restricting my calorie intake (in order to lose weight) is a good thing to do while training so intensely.

3. Today I decided to replace my long swim workout with a second long biking workout, so this morning for 67 minutes (not counting the 10 minute warmup and 15 minute cooldown) I rode on one of those spinning style stationary cycles they keep lined up against the side wall when they aren't being used for a class. Very long, boring ride. Even the podcast novel I was listening to didn't liven it up much. I need to do more outdoor riding. Oh, and my legs felt like they were made out of lead when I got off that bike. My god, T2 is going to be tough. Now I understand the term "bricks."

4. Here's a quote from a blog I've been reading lately:

I have finally learned to love and respect my body. I take excellent care of it: I exercise regularly, I don't smoke, I stay out of the sun. I eat enough antioxidants to resurrect whatever the hell may be left of Jesus and King Tut. And it pays off: at 52, I have the blood pressure and lipid profile of a healthy ten year old; the bone density and lean muscle mass of an athletic 20 year old. But I still have the body embarrassment of an awkward unpopular seventh grader. Looks like it may take a few more decades to outgrow that garbage.