Triathlon Training: 3 Mile Run + Nutrition Review

Started the morning off with my usual 2 scoops of Whey protein with ice, a banana, and fat free organic milk in the blender for a tasty vanilla shake. I also had a whole wheat bagel with 2 teaspoons of organic peanut butter. Around 10:30am I had a chocolate chip cookie dough flavored Balance Bar for a snack. For lunch I changed it up a little and had an Almond Mocha High Protein Shake from the Smoothie King. The thing has like 50G's of Protein so it really feels me up. I had a banana and some almonds for a midday snack and for dinner I had whole wheat pasta with 8oz of scallops using extra virgin olive oil as the sauce! I probably had 15-18 cups of water so far today.

I haven't talked much about nutrition since I finished P90X, but this is pretty close to what I do daily. Except I usually have a turkey or chicken sandwich for lunch. I usually take in between 150-200 G's of Protein and at least that much in complex carbs. If I add up the calories each day I am always between 2400-3000. So, basically I am doing phase 2 and sometimes phase 3 of the P90X diet.

The reason I bring this up today is because it has been awhile since I weighed myself in the morning and my weight is 152 lbs. When I began P90X I was 181 lbs and 6 months before I began P90X I was over 195 lbs. Since I began training for the triathlon my weight has dropped about 4 lbs. The real kicker is that I feel absolutely wonderful.

If you are reading this post and are considering doing P90X or have already started but you haven't really committed to the nutrition plan you might as well just stop right now. Sure the P90X workouts are hard, but you will not see results like you do on the infomercial or even on my blog if you ignore the nutrition plan. If you are going to half-ass it then why even do it? Commit fully or not at all!

I am living proof that the P90X nutrition plan doesn't have to end after 90 days. My intention was not to get on my soapbox here, but I get so sick of hearing people make excuses about nutrition. (Yes, I had this conversation with someone today!) None of us are perfect when it comes to clean eating. I have made poor choices at times, Tony Horton probably has too. The key is to make a hell of lot more good choices than poor and you will succeed at this. But it is up to you and you alone. Do not blame the restaurant, the party, the friend, the family member, the co-worker, the busy schedule .. blah, blah, blah. If it was easy everyone would do it. So suck it up, quit crying about it, and just make some sacrifices.

Alright, I am done. Ended up hitting the treadmill today again instead of running outside. We had much welcomed rain showers, some violent, popping up all over the place! This was my 3rd day of running in the last four and I must admit the legs felt a little rubbery today. I ended up running 3 miles in 26 minutes. A couple of minutes slower than I'd like but overall not too bad. I used the heart rate monitor on my Garmin today just to see how it was going. The Garmins GPS function is rendered useless indoors so I can only use the timer and heart rate functions. I stayed around 165 bpm and ran at a 7.o mph pace.

Tomorrow I am going to swim 1500 yards and on Saturday a bike-run brick is in the plans!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 15: 3.5 Mile Run

My new Garmin 305 Forerunner absolutely rocks! I took it on my jog today and the instant feedback it provides is so critical to training. This HRM is so much more accurate than the crappy Reebok one I had been using and I love having instant distance feedback while running.

I did something very different today and that was hide my timer feature on the Garmin. I want to train by keeping my HR in the Aerobic zone for the majority of my runs. Lately, I have found myself pushing a little too hard to get a better time and the downside of this is that my HR would jump into the Anaerobic zone as I'd sprint to hit the 1st mile marker or close out the last half mile. I also ran a different route so I wouldn't have any landmarks for distances. The results were that my average HR was 154 BPM and I did the 3.5 miles in 30:49. Not my fastest time but definitely my most efficient!

It was freaking hot today too! The temperature was only 82 degrees but the humidity was excessive. By the time I got back to the house I was drenched. Once we start hitting the brutal temperatures of the SouthEast Texas summers my training is going to have to start during pre-daylight hours! I am not looking forward to this but it is going to be necessary - and my Triathlon starts at 8am so it will be good to get my body used to the early start.

Oh, I officially registered for the Triathlon this weekend. And I signed up for a years membership the the United States Triathlon Association (USTA). So no turning back now!!

Tomorrow is going to be a Total Immersion Swim Day again. I am going to continue to practice my drills and get in as many laps as physically possible!

Also, I am now 6 days away from starting my BSN Supplements again. Really, I cannot wait. I can honestly say I have not done any research to see of Nitrix and NOXplode are used for Triathletes but I can see a big difference in the intensity of my training since I have stopped using them! It will be interesting to see if I notice a difference.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Training Day 14: Cycling - 9 miles

Saturdays are always tough to find time to get in your workouts. I got up early and drove to Katy, TX to help a doctor with a dental implant case. It went extremely well so this outcome made me feel good about working on a Saturday morning. I got home around 1pm and went to pistol range with my neighbor. He got a new glock and wanted some pointers on how to use it so we did that for a couple of hours. The range was more crowded than I have ever seen - Texans are a little fearful/defensive about the current state of affairs in the nations capital! After that I got home and set-up my new Garmin 305 Forerunner!

Man, this thing is NICE! The GPS is surprisingly accurate and the speed and distance calculations are spot on. I programmed it for my bike and then went out and got a 9 mile ride in! Once again it was very windy so I had another difficult time. I am hopeful that on race day there will be no wind and I will be able to fly because I am so used to getting my butt kicked by the wind! I wanted to do another 5 miles but Annie and I had to go downtown for a friends birthday party so I had to call it a day. But according to my Garmin I burned 485 calories!

Computer software comes with the Garmin that tracks routes, distances, pace, pace/mi, avg speeds, elevation changes, HR, Avg HR, ...etc. Pretty much every thing you could ever want for training and tons of more stuff that is just gravy! I just downloaded it all to the computer and it is pretty awesome. I can't wait to get a few more workouts in because this will really help me determine if I am getting stronger and if not what I need to do better. Statistics do not lie when used correctly!

Annie and I were going to get up early today and get a run in but we didn't get to sleep until after 3am last night. We went to a friends Bday dinner and ended up at some Country Bar. We wanted to leave but Annie's friend wanted to stay out so we were stuck. We aren't used to staying out that late anymore - at least we didn't drink so I still feel okay today. We are going to go try and get a run in soon because all that crap weather that hit Dallas yesterday is coming for us this afternoon.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff