Back to training
Posted by Admin on December 11, 2008 in Training
It’s official; I’m back on the training circuit. Normally, I don’t begin training for the season until January 2nd of each year and while the 2009 race calendar doesn’t offer anything tremendous in scope like an Ironman, I really had no choice but to start the engines sooner.
I had nearly five months off between full-time professional gigs and spent much of the time doing consultant work, conducting a job search, traveling, and socializing. It was an unusual break for me and I took full advantage of it… except for maintaining a good training regimen. One would think that with all that extra time, I could have focused and attained a level of tremendous conditioning but surprisingly, I was much more focused on sports, e.g. basketball, football, tennis, etc. What little training I did leading into my final race in Malibu was all but eliminated this past fall. I wrote in an earlier posting that the ability to do reasonably well in Malibu was because of a self-coined “residual fitness”. I partied like crazy the day and night preceding the race but still put together a decent day (at least by my standards).
This fall was mostly a continuation of that fateful Malibu weekend, minus the triathlon part. I really enjoyed myself food-wise, had no guilt about mid-week drinking, and aside from my two football leagues, did nearly nothing aerobic. I may be pretty good at general math, but my mirror is always much better at adding all the various variables and spitting out the result with brutal honesty. I was fat, not by The Biggest Loser standards per se, but when I found that my normally loose jeans made me feel like I was European, and when I began strongly considering wearing a t-shirt at night in front my girlfriend because of how embarrassed I was of my physique, I simply felt like the self-image was being damaged in a serious way.
When I typically begin my training each January, I do so with incredible resolve. I’ve often referred to it as a self-imposed boot camp. In my opinion, the first two months or so are the most important in terms of getting your body up to speed and since one is creating “base fitness”, one has to be very serious in following their training regimen. It means no more late-night pizza, no more mid-week beers with buddies, getting up early, braving brutal outdoor weather, etc. For me, it’s always been easy to make these sacrifices as if I were just flipping a switch. I do so with the complete knowledge that one has to make an exception here and there, but my policy is that the exceptions should be for special occasions. It is with this policy that I can be serious about being in boot camp now and still enjoy the festive holiday/party season.
As of this writing, I’ve been training for a little over a week. The first workout was in the pool. About the pool itself; my new office is near Grand Central Station which is just 17 blocks from the campus of my grad school alma mater, Baruch College (my degree was actually from both Baruch and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine). I found that I could use their athletic facilities for a mere $350 if I became an active alumnus. Subtracting out my company’s contribution to employees who join health clubs and my monthly dues work out to something like $17!
Baruch’s pool isn’t fancy and comes nowhere close to the quality or size of my first pool; the Aquatic Center in Nassau County, Long Island. But, 25 yards is 25 yards regardless and I set out on my first day in the water to simply swim for 30 minutes including rests. The simple act of getting into the water itself was a major challenge, but once I overcame that, it felt like a piece of cake. I did 100 yards with no problem and decided that my next one would be 200 yards. I barely finished the first 100 yrds of that 200. I wish I could blame either my wind or my atrophied muscles, but both failed me over, and over, and over. I managed an embarrassing 1,000 yards but things got better during the next session. I did another 1,000 yards in far less time and every session since has resulted in more yardage and faster times. I know I’ll get better once the muscles get stronger following some weight-training. The wind is getting stronger thanks to the cycling and running workouts, so the anaerobic part is where I’ll have to apply extra focus to really improve the swim portions of races in the 2009 season.
The next workout was on the bike trainer in front of my TV in my living room. I remember how I used to set it up last year and it was no major challenge to duplicate that this year. With not having ridden my triathlon bike in so many months however, I had to make a few adjustments to make it comfortable given the loss of flexibility in the mid-section and back. Once I got going, I had a similar sensation from that of the pool, that it was easy, and just like before, it got harder as time wore on. I tried envisioning how I used to be able to ride, but I was quick to back off being too aggressive on day one. The goal is to build base fitness by doing sustained workouts with intermittent changes to intensity and body position. What I love is the sweat factor; despite having my ceiling fan on high, I become a drenched nightmare and with part of my mind focused on trimming down considerably, this has the effect of making me think that I’ll be skinny in no time.
Come January, I’ll begin incorporating a few outdoor rides on my road bike since it’s super comfortable, but I’ll likely only do those on weekends, weather permitting. I want to ensure that my form on the triathlon bike is dialed in, that my up-pedal strength is good, and that I can stand off the saddle for a long time. Ultimately, the biggest time gains on the bike leg for me will be on courses with hills; I want to again be that guy who whips past people going uphill knowing that I’ll recover quickly after cresting the top.
Since I was so gung ho about getting this training regimen going already, I decided to use my least-used pair of running sneakers and set out on my first run. I did order new sneaks which I’ll break in once they arrive. I previously mapped out a 4 mile course from my apartment, into Central Park, across the 102nd Street transverse, and back home, and used that as my day one course. At the one mile mark, I looked down at my heart rate monitor to see that despite not putting up a fast time, my heart rate was in the red zone; that is, I was beyond the lactate threshold (“LT”) which is the oft-referenced point at which the body produces more lactic acid than the muscles can re-absorb. The next miles weren’t any kinder and in the end, I managed an average pace of 9:07 with a ridiculously high average heart rate. I expected it but I wasn’t happy. I don’t like being a sloth.
On my second run, the metrics looked the same but the middle section of the run which is all about climbing and descending the famed Central Park northern hills, was much faster. The end result was an average pace of 8:40. The heart rate figures were nearly identical, which isn’t good, but the time was better so I was encouraged. On the next run, I averaged 8:31 with lower heart rate numbers, so it was a double improvement. Frankly, I felt good and could have easily run another 4 miles and to me, that was the most important factor.
That last run was this morning, in 40 degree weather and rain. I actually love running in terrible weather; it makes me feel tough, like Rocky training in Siberia. There’s clearly a pattern of improved performance here, but my biggest challenge appears to be getting off the mindset of wanting to work so hard this early. I should instead focus on getting the body used to the motions, the stresses, the recovery, etc. and not consider the numbers or results as indicators of anything. Ultimately, I consider myself kinda nerdy so it’s hard to not crunch numbers, especially with my maintenance of a training log with all kinds of data. God knows where I get this from; neither Mom nor Dad seem to be this nuts.
The first week of boot camp is always the hardest mentally; I have to remember that a diet coke and chocolate chip muffin isn’t a good breakfast; I have to turn down a few more requests to stay out late on weeknights since doing so will make it hard to swim the next morning; I have remember that I used to like getting up early in the mornings to work out. I’m past that first week now and I am fully engaged. I am past the brutal soreness of the first few days and I can work out most other issues with stretching. I feel like I have an enhanced acuity at work and at home with respect to my to-do list (all my X-mas shopping was completed last weekend). Point is, I am excited about this. I don’t see major results in the mirror, but they will come and when they do, the math will work in my favor. Along the way, I might actually get into good shape again!
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