The devil is in the details

How many times a day do you find yourself thinking, "I wish I was as skinny as that person" or maybe "I wish I was as fast or as strong." The risks of comparing yourself without the full details is that you don't know how often that person trains to be that fast, how many years it took them of 5am work outs, you don't know if that skinny person feels terribly about themselves or if they struggle to put on weight. 

A few weeks ago I did metabolic testing to give myself some valuable knowledge as I forge ahead with Ironman training. I wanted to find out my exact heart rate zones so I could heart rate train properly as well as find out my body fat percentage and my metabolic rate just for extra information. I wasn't very shocked to learn my body fat percentage but when I shared the information with some friends they seemed very surprised to learn the number and the response was always "but you are so skinny."  

Let's start with what is your body fat percentage? Your body fat percentage is your total mass of fat divided by your total mass. There is a certain level of essential fat in your body that is necessary for life functions and that percentage is different in men and women.  For men they must have 3-5% for life functions, women must have 8-12% for normal life functions. Please note I am not a doctor, I did not stay at a holiday inn express last night and nothing I am talking about is intended to be medical advice!

My number is....drumroll...27.5%.  This puts me in the average range for women and I would ideally like to be in the fitness range and I believe I can make the necessary changes to get there before Chattanooga. This is not my BMI, personally I don't think BMI is every really accurate because it only uses your height and weight not actual information about your body fat. Let's explore a little bit about why my body fat percentage is 27.5% and what it means.  Where your body fat is stored is more important than the number of how much you have. Of course we have all heard "a moment on the lips forever on the hips" some people carry their body fat on the thighs, hips and butt, some carry it around the middle and some have visceral fat which is stored around the organs.  Unfortunately for me I have the later so I'm what you might call skinny fat and now I need to make some changes. 

Every day your body burns calories just to exist and that is your metabolism at work, I learned that my metabolism is 12% faster than the average person my age, height and weight.  Essentially I burn 12% more calories just to exist and then add in all my work outs and I need to ensure I am taking in enough calories to sustain life. That my friends is how someone gets skinny fat, they don't eat enough calories so their body thinks it is in a famine and begins to store fat for when the food runs out. My focus in the coming weeks will be on ensuring I get to at least 2100 good calories per day, proper fueling before work outs and proper refueling with protein after work outs.  

My avoidance of nutrition has gone on long enough and I need to take it seriously to make sure I get the results that I want from Chattanooga.  Nutrition can make or break race day, the devil will be in those details and I want to make sure I set myself up for success. 

January Totals:
Swim: 9,801 meters
Bike: 43.46 miles
Run (AlterG): 7.16 miles
Total Miles: 56.71 (if my math is correct)

February Totals

Swim :18,756 yards

Bike: 123.5 miles

Run (Alter G) 13.5 Miles
Total Miles: 147.6 (now I just need to do most of that distance in one day :-P)

Peace out 2014, a year of major accomplishments and major setbacks!

2014 started as most New Years do, with promise and lofty goals.  The year ended with many of those goals accomplished and some important lessons and learning as most do.

This time last year, if I am truly honest with myself and go back to my blog I was recovering from foot surgery and I was ITCHING to do something, I hadn't really learned to swim yet, hadn't been on the new bike I had bought and frankly wasn't so confident about my running post surgery.  I had a long way to go before my first half iron in June but I was feeling excited mixed with the anxious feeling of needing to get off the couch.

Swimming proved to be an arch nemesis and I switched exclusively to swimming a 50 meter pool that was much further from my house in order to push myself.  That worked wonders until I had a complete and utter meltdown at my very first ever open water swim in May, ok well maybe not complete because I didn't cry but let's face it I contemplated giving up MANY times. People always say to me, "Oh I wish I could do what you do but...(insert reason here, I'm scared, I can't swim, I freak out, I want to quit, I don't have time)."  Well I have news for you and if you read my blog you know this, but I want to quit many days, I have meltdowns where I cry on the floor over something stupid because I have been training for weeks and I'm sleepy and sore and I've reached my limit, I get overwhelmed with my dreams and goals, BUT I don't give up, I don't quit, I stay the course.  That is the important lesson to learn and that I hope I have conveyed in the last year. I was never a natural athlete, this does not come easily for me and this journey has taxed me more mentally than physically.

Looking back on 2014 I'm disappointed in myself for getting hurt and therefore not meeting the very high goals I had set for myself at the start of the year.  I'm frustrated and tired of the injections, the physical therapy, the constant doctors appointment, and most importantly the lack of a training schedule presenting me with solid base and improvements as I head into an even bigger 2015. The injury has taught me valuable lessons and I need to focus on those lessons in my periods of frustration and self doubt.  I know that if push comes to shove mentally I can make my body work through pain, not of course broken bone pain again but in the instance of a grueling race I can have mental toughness.  I will never forget the words said to me by someone who has known me from the awkward first days of college, "You are way stronger than anyone has ever given you credit for".  Those words have stuck with me since they were uttered in June and they have powered me through.

When I think to all the physical pain I have endured I remember Packy and the fact he suffered far worse and he never gave up and he never complained. I'm sure he had internal complaints and some hidden meltdowns but to the outer world he portrayed his strength and that is important.  As far as me, I am going to endeavor this year to be more honest via the blog as far as feelings of doubt, being scared, etc so that you can see that I'm not Teflon, this process is hard and anyone going through it or thinking about it should have a real picture not puppies and kittens. I want people to say, "I decided to try it because after reading you try it I think I can do it."

Triathlons are hard, learning new sports is hard and sometimes demoralizing, long course events require extreme commitment and sacrifice.  The benefits to me far out way the sacrifices, amazing friends, inspiring and teaching others, the feeling of crossing the finish line and let's face it looking pretty good in skinny jeans is a plus :-)

So 2014, I must say you were pretty positive. I'm so lucky to have the best parents/cheering squad in the business who followed me even to another country to support an endeavor that I am not sure they always understand.  I have not had one major race without them and that means the world to me. I set a new half marathon PR and I set a new 5K PR during a sprint tri relay that my team won.  I accomplished my goal of a half ironman race, I didn't get the time I wanted but I learned so much about race nutrition and myself, especially when I learned I did it with a stress fracture. I had my first DNF, I struggled with my feelings of being pulled for not making the bike cut off but realizing that everything in life holds a lesson and that was an important lesson for me. The understanding that you can only push yourself so far before you need to listen to your body and understand that rest is necessary. The understanding that a DNF is not a failure, it is not a negative but a positive message of a new goal and what I needed to work on.  I accomplished the goal of learning how to take care of myself, rest according to orders and heal.

2015 is the year of the Ironman...more on that tomorrow.

Hello 2014!

Welcome to 2014 the year of Ironman 70.3 training, learning to swim, learning to bike, improving my running times and eating better!

This post is a little late due to my fabulous trip to the Dominican Republic to kick off the New Year with my friend Shawna.  We had a rough 2013 and decided months ago that we wanted to start off 2014 in a big, happy, WARM way so we booked a few days at an all inclusive in Punta Cana.  It was amazing aside from the bugs and the whole having to leave part!

2014 is going to be a pretty big year for me, I can feel it and no that isn't just the spinning and weight lifting I did today.  My schedule is daunting, in fact so daunting that I am FREAKING out man!  I'm excited to accomplish not one but two Ironman 70.3 distance races this year but the level of training is going to be much more than I had for the marathon, mostly because biking and swimming are not strong sports for me even in the slightest.   J had always wanted to do a 70.3 and it took her a LONG time to convince me to do one, in fact she had given up and said I just had to come watch and cheer for her.

While pondering traveling and sitting on the sidelines for a race I started to recap 2013 in my head.  2013 was a pretty big year for me physically but more so personally.  I got divorced, I don't really talk about that much on social media and in fact I'm pretty sure while I have alluded to it I have never written out the word on Facebook or any other website.  Divorce is not a very easy topic to talk about and I feel it is super personal but I thought it important to mention in reference to why I've made some of the decisions I've made.   Running and working out at the gym gave me strength and became my own personal therapy to discover what I could accomplish and how much I could push myself beyond my limits.   Working out centered me while I sold my house, got an apartment in the city, moved and took my name back.  Getting divorced is never easy and everyone has to cope in their own way and just because working out was therapy for me does not mean that would work for everyone.

Phew, ok now we can move on, which is coincidentally is the theme of this year I guess!  I sat there and thought to myself, you NEVER thought you would get divorced or be able to handle it but look at you, you did.  To be clear, I have never been a swimmer, I clearly have never drown but I have never swam laps or really any distance.  The last time I rode a bike I crashed and had a HUGE bruise on my chin.  Knowing all those facts I decided to believe in myself and my dedication to learning and growing as a person and athlete and sign up for not one but TWO 70.3 Distances.

Now that you know how we got to this point can't wait to bring you along for the journey.

Total Distance: 0
Swim: 0
Bike: 0
Run: 0

*spin class is not counting toward bike totals
**Running will likely stay 0 until after my post surgical follow up Friday and it stresses me out but that is another post for another time