Clean(er) Eating

Above is one of my favorite pics of Dave taken on our honeymoon in Jamaica back in 1994. He went kneeboarding, swam a mile roundtrip to a nearby island and got resort certified to go diving while I, who could barely swim to save my life, spent most of my time on the beach sunbathing and fighting off babes eyeing him (note the 2 in back -- grrr).

In 2004, he was at his heaviest (270#) and full of self-loathing. He kept this second picture on his iPod to motivate himself to lose weight.

Getting back on his bike and riding with me the last few years has helped him get back down to 220-230#, but he's still NOT where he wants to be weight-wise or fitness-wise. This year he's decided to bite the bullet and tackle the last frontier: his diet. He got a book from a work-sponsored life balance class he attended last year:

Now I'm all for Dave eating better, but this book advocates a RADICAL diet change. No dairy products, no meat (only fish, which he hates and won't eat), no sugar, no added salt. Processed foods are to be avoided and only very limited amounts of whole grains are allowed. So pretty much everything Dave loves and used to eat regularly before is out. His diet will now largely consist of fresh veggies, fruit and legumes (uncanned). Man, it puts my so-called healthy eating habits to shame!

Some positives I see are:

- No food logging or calorie counting (Dave has a really hard time doing them)
- We're going to save a lot some not buying dairy products and meat.
- Our stove & microwave will stay much cleaner.
- There'll be lots of "junk" to donate to the next food drive.
- What we saved can be used to buy fruits and veggies from Costco, which only come in HUGE quantities.
- I'm burning extra calories washing and cutting up lots fruits & veggies.
- Dave was beaming when he told me he'd lost 8# last week.*
*According to the book, not unusual as it's mostly water weight from not eating so much salt.

But, unfortunately, he also felt like crap on the bike last week. Not sure whether it's the new diet, the 95+% humidity we had on Saturday, the 22mph winds (30mph gusts) on Sunday, or possibly all of the above.

Anyone have any advice or experiences with a clean eating diet like this? What do you eat/drink to be able to go long and perform well on your workouts? How does one get away from the notion of rewarding yourself with food? Is it possible to succeed with one spouse on the diet and not the other? Will he become so lean & sexy that I'll have to brush up on my martial arts to fend off ogling women?

OMG, I'm One of Them!

Three years ago when training for Ironman Florida 2006, I used to see amazing people swimming laps back and forth effortlessly in the pool. Occasionally Dave and I would see a brave woman riding solo out on the roads in the middle of nowhere. I saw a few crazies running in the worst heat of the day.

How the hell do these people do it?

I was quite new to tris back then.

Good swim technique? Eh, I just want to survive the 2.4 mi swim and go on to my better sports.

Riding confidence? Who are we kidding? I could ride long but barely in a straight line let alone fix a flat tire.

Heat tolerance? I think I wore out the belt on my treadmill that year.

What I was missing was love for the sport. Truthfully, I was really just a runner who was dabbling in tris then. I had the time and desire to train for an ironman but not really the heart or passion. (As some of you may recall, my main reason for signing up was to learn how to swim, as in freestyle, that cool stroke that real swimmers did. Seriously, I hated swimming so much that nothing less than an ironman would have gotten me to do it!)

But without a doubt, heart and passion are driving me now. And what a difference. When things don't go right, like two weekends ago, there are some tough times, oh yes, but there are no "Why the f*ck am I doing this?" moments. Trust me, there were a LOT of those in 2006. This time, the answer is clear: Because You Know You Love Tris.

Yep, I'm a sick puppy. Good or bad, I am happy and thankful to complete every workout. Each one, even a bad one, is much better than what I could do back in 2006. Even when plodding along painfully and slowly, I know I am getting stronger mentally and learning some new lessons that will help me later. At a minimum, I'm getting more heat training and respect for the iron distance, for Mother Nature and for myself. Each one is a deposit in my training bank, as many like to say, and a step closer to who I want to be and where I want to be in a few years.

The only part that is not really fun for me, however, is the nutrition side. Before this year, I've never really had to make major changes to my diet and routine. For 50+ marathons, I just drank water (or sports drink in a race) when I felt like I needed to and consumed gels every few miles, maybe an salt cap or two if it was a warm race and I remembered to bring them. So simple! But now things are serious, perhaps even a matter of life or death when training for much longer in severe heat and often alone (Dave can't ride with me for more than 50 miles in such heat and no one I know wants to run long in it. Can't blame them!). I've got to put aside fun and do what's necessary.

So every day I'm studying food labels closely, logging food, weighing myself before and after each workout, estimating sweat rates, salt losses and calorie expenditures. I need to make sure I don't overdo things earlier in the week (Coach said every workout does not need to be in the heat!) and that I get enough fuel & fluids into me before the long weekend workouts.

That said and done, I'm happy to say last weekend went great!

Fri - Swim 3100 yds w/ 15x100 yds. Not effortless per se, but swam four 1:45s (Fast for me!)
        and broke 100 miles in swimming this year (I'm Tropical :-) - w00t.
Sat - Run 17 mi, 90-97 deg HI, 9:56 avg pace, neg split, AHR 158 (Z2).
Sun - Bike 85.22 mi, 76-96 deg HI, flat, winds 4-14 mph, 17.5 mph, neg split, AHR 133 (Z1).
        Brick run 5.22 mi, 97 deg HI, 8:55 pace, neg split, AHR 157 (Z2)

So I feel ready to share what I'm doing nutrition-wise in case it may help anyone else. Note I'm usually 122-123# but can fluctuate +/- 2 to 3# day to day depending on my hydration level.

Daily calorie intake M-W 2000-2500 cals.
Daily calorie intake Th-Su 2500-3000 cals, plus extra fuel & fluids during long Sat-Sun workouts as follows:

Long runs (per hr) - 30-40 oz fluids*,
     100-200 cals (1-2 gels),
     550-750 mg sodium** (gels, Nuun, salt caps)
Long rides (per hr) - 30-40 oz fluids,
     300-400 cals (CarboPro, Gatorade, Clif Bars, Perpeteum***),
     650-750 mg sodium** (Gatorade, Clif Bars, Perpeteum, salt caps)

* Even drinking 140 oz fluids during and after Saturday's 17-miler, I was down 2# when I got home, meaning I lost like 11# during the run!! My sweat rate when running in 90+ degs and high humidity is actually 50-60 oz/hr(!) but my body can't absorb more than 30-40 oz/hr. So I've been working on gaining a couple extra pounds of water weight (i.e., carbo loading) before every long workout. Thus, even if I lose a few pounds, I'll be back to or close to where I usually am.
** Haven't had any low salt issues but plan to up my sodium intake to the recommended 1 gm/ hour. For the run, I'll add a sports drink, which will also add more calories (can probably handle up to 300). On the bike, either more salty foods or more salt caps. I already do eat extra salt in my diet before my long workouts.
*** Though I ran well after the long bike, I had some noticeable gas issues after consuming Perpeteum late in the ride when CarboPro and solid food were no longer appealing. Googling tells me I'm not the only one (I don't handle soy or whey protein well). I'll be trying some things next time to try to minimize that. Sorry Dave and anyone near me!

Final note, I've decided against using a one-product-does-it-all nutrition like Infinit. Mainly, I don't have the time to dial down a formula (or two) that will work in 80-90+ degs (Great Floridian Iron Tri) as well as 50-70 degs (Beach To Battleship Iron Tri) two weeks later so I'm starting with what I know works for me in the heat and will adjust accordingly for the cooler race. To do that, I need maximum flexibility that a pre-mixed formula won't allow.

Friday Randomness

1. My son-in-law got a job! OK, so it's just a temporary job with the U.S. Census Bureau, not what a recent graduate with Masters Degree in Civil Engineering would normally want, but times are tough. We're proud of you, Kevin. You never know whose door you might knock on and where it may lead.

2. After years of trying, our neighborhood finally has a Neighborhood Crime Watch program. Of course, I volunteered to be one of the Crime Watch Block Captains. Today I came home from a run around noon and saw a suspicious looking car idling in front of my neighbor's house. Late model sedan, dark blue, Buick Marquis, very dark tinted windows, can't see anyone inside. I decided to extend my cool-down so I could walk past it and note the license plate on the back. Then the driver's side car door opened. Crap! I reached for my pepper spray and prepared for the worst. Oh hi, Deputy P. It was our off-duty sheriff's deputy in an unmarked car.

3. Eeks, can I say I'm LOVING logging my food?! Yeah, I know I'm weird. But I've had some concerns the past couple weeks in training. Am I fueling myself enough for my workouts? Is hunger a good indicator of when I should eat? What the heck am I eating??? With Livestrong's Daily Plate (thanks Jeanne for mentioning it to me), I now know the answers: sometimes, not really, and mostly good but some bad stuff too. It's not rocket science but I think knowing more about my nutrition will help me go further and faster.

4. Cliff Bar rocks! Remember that peanut butter recall a few months back? Well, that caused us to have to throw away a couple boxes of bars we'd bought. But not before I filed for a refund on their website. In the mail recently we got coupons for new bars. But get this, each box contained 6 bars and they gave us 12 coupons per box claimed. Thank you, Cliff Bar. We will most certainly continue to buy your products.

5. Silly sign!! (clickable)


Have a great weekend, everyone, and good luck to all who are racing!!!

Calorie Counting Dilemma

OK, I admit I'm not one who usually worries much about counting calories. I've been happy as long as I have the energy to do what I want and my weight does not fluctuate too much either up or down. But my current training with Coach Bill is much more rigorous than what I've done on my own in the past and my goals are more performance-oriented. I've got some new friends (muscles) that are being put to the test in speed and strength workouts and being in base building mode, my workouts are getting longer. I'm getting tired of reporting back to my coach that I was tired before a workout even began!

I was thinking I'd start a food log but then realized it does no good if I don't know how many calories I'm supposed to be consuming in the first place. Here's my dilemma:

The Tanita Ironman Body Composition Monitor says I need to consume ~1300 cals/day to maintain my Basal Metabolic Rate (i.e., do nothing but rest and perhaps read blogs :-).

My new Timex heart rate monitor (HRM) is giving me calorie expenditures during my workouts that are considerably higher than various other online calculators based on my weight alone (i.e., 700 vs 420-450 for a 5-mile run, 1340 vs. 1000-1150 for a 33 mi bike ride @ 18mph avg). Doing 2-3 workouts a day, these differences add up quick!

If I google "HRM calories burned accuracy," I get various links to articles and forum posts about HRM numbers often being quite far off, esp. for females (because we have generally higher HRs?). A number of them mention that metabolic testing (resting metabolic rate and VO2) is the only way to accurately determine calorie expenditures and needs.

How do YOU decide how many calories you need to fuel your workouts?

Does your calorie intake vary by the day (say, depending on what workouts you're doing) or does it stay pretty constant throughout the week?

Has anyone undergone metabolic testing? If so, did you think it was worth doing? (I know it's not cheap)