Sleep it off

Hey Everyone,

Its amazing what some extra sleep can do for the mind and body. after bailing on my 2 workouts and getting a solid 7 straight hrs of sleep last night I feel great today!

After feeling terrible, sick, or run down its always a good idea to ease back into your workouts slowly. The faster and harder you come back the better the chance you are going to get injured or sick.

Keep in mind that fitness is a lifetime journey for a lot of us. Its not about how quick you can get there then fall off the wagon again. Take you time follow the plan and you will be there in no time... After being sedentary for 3, 5, 10, or 20 years is 2 years of hard work all that bad? Yes and no. Sometimes you feel like you are getting nowhere (thats when its time to change it up) or ask yourself if you are really doing all that you can do the meet your goals.

I hear people saying all the time that they have tried everything to get fit but it must be their body that just cant lose the weight... NOT TRUE!

1. Are you making a 100% honest effort to your goal/goals? Look in the mirror and ask yourself that. See what the answer is. Some times it changes when you look at yourself rather than just asking yourself.

2. Are you getting in your workouts? 2 a week isnt going to cut it... 3 a week is not going to cut it. If you want to get FIT you need to put in the work. That for most people is 6 days a week with one rest day.

3. Are you eating too much? How about enough? I always tell people "you can work out 7 days a week for 3hrs a day and not lose weight if you are still eating too much. Remember you need to create that defecit to drop the pounds. Sometimes you just need to tweak your eating habits other times you need a complete overhaul. Either way this is boing to be a big part of your success rate. You cant just start exercising and continue to eat crap. If you do you may still make some positive gains but just think about how much faster you can progress when you make the changes you need to now instead of 6 months after you start exercising. Sit down with a nutritionist or dietician and see what you need.

On the other hand if you are not taking in enough calories to support yourself (exercising or not) your body can go into starvation mode and keep what it has (fat/mass) or start to break down precious muscle tissue to supply itself with energy. You dont want to go this route.

With my Ironman training I am eating 8-9 times a day and am maintaining 165lbs @ 6'0" and a body fat percentage of 5% My eating habits stay close to the same all year around as I keep active all year around. The amount of food changes when my training volume decreases. You cant do less and still eat more and stay the same!

Yes you do tend to eat more when you are training more but you cant restrict yourself from taking in some extra calories to support yourself. If you deny yourself thos extra calories you are not fueling your body for the recovery it needs to take after your workout and before the next one.

4. Are you getting enough rest? Sleep is just as important as training. If you dont let yourself recover you are just letting yourself break down. The more you do that the more you are prone to injury and burn out. Rest can be sleeping, just laying down, sitting reading a book or relaxing in the hot tub. You need time to relax and recover.

Personally when I am done a long or tough training session (2.5hr Run, 5+hr Bike, Longer brick workout) I will take in some recovery food (mix of carbs and protein to start the rebuilding and regenerating process), take a shower, and the best part lay down for a nap 30-60min Once I get up from that maybe a light stretch and I feel like a million bucks.

Everyone recovers differently so find what works for you and plan it in to your day.

Keep Training

Paul

Check out this video 48hrs in the life of Tim Don a top level Triathlete. This guy is insane. Who ever said it would be great to train as an athlete full time?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BaDYnpTA2Y

Alive.... Just barely

Well its been a long time since I have posted anything. I am 25 days out from Ironman Wisconsin (Sept 11th 2011) . This has been a busy time for me as I have had a lot on my plate and blogging has obviously not been one of them.

Training has been going well but has its ups and downs just like everything. I have had a lot of other things going on like looking at buildings for a training studio, pricing out equipment for the building, making a business plan, working on a proposal for the building I like, working more than full time hours and training for Ironman.

I must admit that I thought training was going to go differently for this event. Sometimes we always see things clearly in our minds but they dont aslway come out like that when you live it out loud.

I have already been thinkking about goals for next year and weeknesses that I need to focus on. There are always things here and there that can be changed but I need to make them a priority!

I have already told Lorrie that next year will not have any full distance IM's because the training takes up so much time and energy. Now I should be swimming but felt run down all day and had trouble keeping my eyes open. Even on yesterday's group ride with the Wellness crew I closed my eyes a few time while pedaling down a straight away. You know when you come to a red light and just close your eues for a few seconds... Yes well I was doing that on a bike @ 30+ km/hr. NOT GOOD. This is my body trying to tell me something. When you body says "stop you are running me into the ground". You had better listen, especially when you are 3 weeks out form a big race.

I dont think I will make the time I had originally thought and will have to seriously re think doing another IM event in the future. I know there will be more but when? I will not be happy just doing them. I know I can finish it. I know I can qualify. All I need to do is give it my all. I have not been doing that to date.

Sometimes to get better at something you need to take a step back and analize what you are doing and where you are. As we age our training needs to change too. We have to be smarter with our workouts and training schedules, volume, and intensity.

Treat yourself well!

Paul

P.S. This is not me giving up. I am still goin to get out there and give it everything I have just like I have at any other event :-)