Week 1: Operation IRONWOMAN fitness

WEEK 1: May 19-25, 2014

Monday 19 May

I woke up feeling great. Up early and off to work to cover a short morning load before my first lifting workout of this program.Breakfast was Vanilla VegaOne shake (half scoop) with a banana, 1/4 cup frozen peaches, 3 tablespoons fat free Greek yogurt, and of course a large homemade Zoegas Coffee with fresh made almond milk and coconut sugar.

Upper Body Focus (1 hour, weigh in at 126 pounds after breakfast and 17.7% body fat).
SET 1: 5 sets of 10 reps each: Incline DB press (25#), Push up Plank (BW), Deep Goblet squat with kettle bell (14kg).
Set 2: 3 sets of 15 reps each: Reverse fly machine (55#), Cable ab short range rotation (20#), Cable SA Chest Press (15#).

Tuesday 20 May
Felt extremely exhausted this morning, was quite hot overnight, and I just took in 2 four week old foster kittens. Up and at em, worked my regular 3 morning peeps, headed home to check on the babies then was supposed to get in a lower body workout but ran out of time. I figured I could get it in after my midday group of 2.5 hours of group class.  In the mean time I lightly worked out with my first hour group, and did just the core exercises with my next groups. The day ended up with me taking a 2 hour nap midday and not getting in my run in the evening. Dinner was early at 3pm and was organic pan fried steak (in coconut oil) with organic zucchini and carrots steamed with lemon pepper, and oregano.

Wednesday 21 May
Woke up today feeling much better, more rested and my head was rearing to go work and then workout.  Breakfast was VegaOne Chocolate shake with banana and tablespoon of peanut butter with 3 tablespoons of fat free Greek yogurt, and my regular coffee. After my morning client I immediately stayed and did another upper body workout.
This one was quite simple and consisted of:  6 sets of 10 reps each: Shoulder press (25#), Bent over row (30#), Dumbbell curls (15#) and a frog plank (BW). I also threw in 3 sets of 10 deep back squats with just the bar. I felt great after that and had to run back home to feed the fosters again, they need to be fed every couple hours still.

Today is also the regular Evolution ride, but I have a reschedule client in the time of the ride so I rode alone today.   Today's ride took me through Portola Valley, Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View for a total of 30 miles and 1700 feet of climbing. For a map and information on this ride check it out here....http://connect.garmin.com/activity/504325757.  I felt strong in my legs, but my heart rate is still feeling high, as it should for starting back into training.

Thursday 22 May
Woke up completely exhausted this morning and had a very tight painful neck.  I ended up having to cancel my morning sessions till the neck could loosen up enough to go have a massage/chiropractic adjustment. After that I was feeling much better but took it easy for the morning and stayed home taking care of kittens and laundry.  By the afternoon rolled around I was feeling up for a workout, so off I went to get a short run ( fast walk for .25 miles then fast jog for .75 miles with 4 repeats) followed by a long foam rolling and stretching session.

Friday 23 May
Today is a busy work day for with with only an hour break to exercise, and another hour for lunch.  However I had a cancellation and ended up with a nice big 2 hour break so I was able to get a good long strength workout in. The focus is still on moderate weight, high sets, and moderate reps.  The workout was 5 sets of 10 reps each of the following.....Single arm bent over row (30#), Seated shoulder press (20#), Lat pull downs (80#), Deep squats (65#), Cable tricep press downs (40#), dumbbell bicep curls (15#), Overhead Pump lunges (20#), Lateral band walks (blue band). Food for the day was my usual VegaOne vanilla shake, and coffee with fresh almond milk. Snack was an apple with peanut butter. Lunch was leftover veggies and hummus with a turkey patty and a slice of Dubliner cheese. And dinner was my cheat meal of the week and I went out with a friend to Chinese and had some greasy yet yummy food, after a leisurely 1 hour bike ride. In all another day I felt great and feel I am off to a good start.

Saturday 24 May
With nothing planned besides teaching one class in the morning I decided to use today as my official rest day and actually did nothing active except for walking and cleaning or laundry and then some foam rolling and general stretching. I still ate healthy but had slightly smaller meals, and a couple small snacks. No cheating just clean eating.

Sunday 25 May
Today was a long ride day. I joined up with some old riding friends and we were to do a 2 loop route that would get them about 58-60 miles.  I decided I was going to ride to the start and ended up getting an extra 6 miles each way.  The route was fun, into Stevens Canyon, up Mt. Eden, up Pierce, down Hwy9, out to Los Gatos and back to the start before repeating the loop.  It was a very hot day and even though I applied sunblock in the morning I forgot to reapply half way through the day and got a bit of a burn on my shoulders and calves. During the ride I drank 3 bottles of water, and 2 bottles of NUUN (electrolyte drink), and ate 900kcal of food mostly in the form of Luna bars. Upon returning home I had to take care of hungry hungry kittens, then i downloaded my ride information and finished the day with 70 miles, 4 hours 53 minutes moving time, average pace 14.4 mph, and 2077kcal. Dinner that night consisted of baked chicken thighs (marinated in yellow onion, lemon, lemon pepper,  fresh basil and coconut oil), pan seared zucchini and carrots with oregano, black pepper and coconut oil.

In total:

Sleep: 48 hours
Rides: 8 hours 30 minutes (100 miles)
Runs: 1 hour 10 minutes (7.55miles)
Strength: 3 hours
Stretching: 1 hour
Kcals Burned:  4400 approx
Work: 40 hours

Operation Regain Ironman Level of Fitness

It had been way to long since I've both written an entry and also been consistent on my own fitness training. If you remember back in 2012 I prepared for and finished my first Ironman Triathlon, I was in the best shape of my life and in addition to the Ironman also participated in many other triathlons of varying distances and podiumed in several even winning one. That was a very busy year training, eating properly and balancing my personal and work life. Today I still feel that was my best year health wise and since then have significantly declined.

There are many factors into why I fell off a consistent training regimen, over trained by the time the Ironman was over, hadn't prepared for the emotional stress and subsequent depression that happens with training for such an event and family issues which I had put on the back burner. To train for the Vineman Ironman took nearly 20 hours of exercise a week near the end. Yep 20 hours! At that point your personal life is nonexistent and you work, eat, workout, eat, sleep, eat, workout, sleep, work etc.

A typical week for me during the last phase of training looked something like this.


Monday: 1 hour swim, 1 hour kickboxing
Tuesday: RECOVERY, Stretching day, Easy 1.5 hour bike ride/or 3 mile easy jog
Wednesday: 1.5 hours Ladder lap Swim, 35 miles ride with intensity (Los Altos Hills day)
Thursday: Run 6-9 miles, 1 hour strength training
Friday: 1 hour long intervals Swim, stretching
Saturday: 200k bike ride day at 18mph pace.
Sunday: Brick day Swim 30-45 minutes, Run 15-20 miles (increasing each week up to 20)
**I never ran longer than 20 miles before the event even though the run is a full marathon.**

My body composition was the best it had ever been, my average before all the training was 125 pounds and 16% body fat.  I now weighed in at 116 pounds, and had 12% body fat (and yes ladies my thighs rubbed together even then). I was holding a steady 18mph pace for 100+ miles on the bike, and my runs up to 13 miles were averaging 7:30 pace. I felt invincible. I felt GREAT!  I loved all the energy I had, and didn't feel tired during the day.  When it was time to go to bed I was generally falling asleep by 8:30 pm 9:30 at the latest, and out all night. I always woke feeling refreshed and ready to hit the workout again.

After I finished my last event that I had planned that year I took 2 weeks off completely.  I needed it. I allowed myself to sleep in on the weekends (no more wake up calls at 5:00 am), I enjoyed more libations, and tried my best to catch up with friends that I hadn't been able to be in contact with much during that intense training period. That 2 weeks turned into a month, and by that time I was feeling depressed.  I couldn't figure out why. I had an amazing year and was looking forward to 2013 and more triathlons but no longer than a half Ironman, at least that what I was telling myself.

In January 2013 I began my training for another Ironman event that summer. I started off slow due to lack of motivation (still having post race depression issues) so my training would be 2-3 hours a week. Being I had finished such a long event only 5 months prior I should have been able to do more, but I just couldn't. I started having severe IT band issues, and had a pretty bad back blow out in February that derailed me for a month. After recovering from the back injury I was having lots of trouble swimming, and couldn't run for more than 2 miles without a flare up.  Because of this I was frustrated and often would skip my workouts and go sleep or over eat. Before I realized it I was feeling worse than ever.  One day in the pool I was getting tired of touching the side to turn around and decided to practice my flip turn in hopes to be more efficient in my swims and gain back my fire.  Well on my first try I didn't flip over enough and when my feet touched the wall they were way above my head and I pushed off only to have my feet slide up the side of the pool wall in slam into the under side of the pool wall lip.  Instantly I knew I hurt it bad.  But being stubborn and frustrated with my lack of training and motivation I shook it off and kept going for another couple laps.  I finally stopped when during kicking it felt like a toe was flopping instead of being under my control.  I stopped and checked it out.  Oh my!  Let's put it this way I was very lucky I didn't break the skin open on that break. My big toe took the initial hit and was bruised pretty badly but then my second toe was the one that got the bad break.  It was several shades of purple, swollen larger than my nose and the nail was pointing down instead of forward. OUCH!!!

I never went and had it reset as I was too frustrated and foolish to deal with it. Instead I used my broken toe (which I had to wear flip flops for a month because of its size) as my new excuse not to exercise. This went on through the end of 2013, I ate poorly, slept poorly and felt worse by the day.  At my highest I weighed in at 138 pounds and was at 22% body fat. Lets say I was so very disappointed in myself. Through all this, not only was I letting my body deteriorate, but my career was falling to shambles.  I was tired, or sick so much that i was home in bed more than I was at work, or at least that's what it felt like.  What would get me out of my slump? How can I get back to a reasonable feeling me? How can I eat better on a consistent basis, along with sleeping, exercising and the ever important getting myself to work? What would it take?

It took taking care of a very large skeleton in my closet, one that happened back in 2011 and I still hadn't dealt with fully.  The dealing with came in the form of therapy with a licensed professional and doing something to let go.  That letting go came in the form of going to Ireland. Why?  I lost my father in 2011 due to circumstances I still just do not understand. I hadn't let go. I hadn't accepted that he really was gone. I was in serious denial, and turns out that was in itself killing me inside. Over the course of the past 3 years has been a significant change in me, even was noticed in my clients.  During those 3 years I was on a few different cocktails of drugs to help deal with my pain.  What I didn't realize is that they were covering it up and my subconscious was fighting it those years. So needless to say the combination of talking to a therapist, and getting myself off the cocktail and actually feeling my emotions and dealing with them head on had been a huge step for me in being able to move forward in my letting go process. I know the pain will never fully go away but I am much more able to face that reality whereas 3 years ago that wasn't even possible.

So where does that leave me now?  Well I am on a mission to IRONWOMAN 2015. I haven't decided which one, though I would like to get a redo on Vineman 2012.  Not that I did bad for my first Ironman finishing in 12 hours and 46 minutes is a very respectable finish.  Besides its a huge accomplishment to finish those things in day light and I did just that with my amazing Aunt Lori and her best friend Missy waiting right there at the run turn around and then at the finish line cheering me on every lap.  The run down of that event looked something like this...

Swim:  2.4 miles in 1 hour 34 minutes
Transition 1(swim to bike): 8 minutes
Bike: 112 miles in 5 hours 58 minutes
Transition 2(bike to run): 10 minutes
Run: 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 56 minutes

I finished 230th out of a total field of 900 starters, and 9th place out of 29 finishers in my age group.
Looking back on that I feel I would like to go for a sub 12 hour event. It is possible by taking 56 minutes off my run if nothing else.  I have lots of time to take off my run because I walked half of it.  If I prepared myself properly this year and into next I can have a 4 hour marathon and achieve my sub 12 hour goal.  Its possible, and I am going to make it possible.  In order for me to stay on track I plan on posting all my eating, training and sleeping habits here for all to see and comment on.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for training updates. Cheers! 

A Bucket List...40 Before 40

Oh MY!!!  I didn't realize I hadn't posted this.  I only wrote it months and months ago. So here it is my 40 before 40 list with notes on what is already done. 

Bucket List – 40 Things To Do Before I Turn 40

ADVENTURE/EXPERIENCE

Complete an Ironman Triathlon in under 12 hours - goal of 2017

Run a Marathon in under 4 hours - to do in 2017

Skydiving - on my 40th birthday 2017

Become a better dancer (Country Two Step, West/East Coast Swing)

Experience the Aurora Borealis - when I go to Iceland, fingers crossed

Learn how to Hang Glide

Take a Flight in a Glider Plane

Swim with Sea Turtles - when I go to Australia and swim in the Great Barrier Reef

Go Zorbing - summer 2014???

Learn to drag my knee on my motorcycle

CAREER/EDUCATION

Make video blogs for my business

Complete my patent and start producing it…any investors out there???

Make fitness videos (sorry can’t tell what they are yet) and get them out for people to use.

COMMUNITY

Pay it forward (buy someones groceries, pay their bridge toll, ect.) - In December 2013, I left a $20 tip with a cashier at Whole Foods for the mom with a little baby in line behind me.

Leave encouraging notes in books for others to find

Provide work clothes for economically disadvantaged women through Dress for Success

Volunteer at a soup kitchen on 2 major family holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day

Perform random acts of kindness every week

Help Build a house for Habitat for Humanity

FAMILY

Become close with my sister and mother

Call my mother and sister on a weekly/biweekly basis

FINANCIAL

Pay off all debt except school loan, and mortgage

Break the 6 digit salary barrier

PERSONAL

Make deeper meaningful connections with people in my life

Make a child laugh uncontrollably

Never Stop Learning, Dreaming, hoping, and NEVER give up…

Become a better photographer, and sell some stuff

Inspire others through kindness, sharing and video/quote/book

GO an entire month without eating ANY chocolate

Learn to live more simplistically/minimally - June 2014 (almost there)

Spend time with people who inspire me, then share that with people I care about

Take my father to Ireland, spread his ashes both in Ireland and sailing with his best friends - April 2014 to Ireland

Dance in the rain every chance I get - so far so good

SELF IMPROVEMENT

Learn to forgive and make peace with BOTH myself and others - in process

Get Lost, get totally lost then find yourself - I try to do this on a weekly basis

Be able to Completely Love myself for WHO I am and WHAT I stand for - in process

Learn another Language and Speak it fluently - in process, Swedish

TRAVEL

Travel to Ireland  - April/May 2014 for 12 days with my amazing friend Jeremy T.
Travel to Iceland - September 2016 for 2 weeks!!!

Travel to Scandinavia - October 2013 for 2 weeks!
Scuba Dive the Great Barrier Reef