Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 2)

Ok, a number of you are mindful of your nutrition for weight loss.

Some of you may know more than I do, feel free to correct me, disagree, add thoughts....

We all know that nutrition can be complicated.  But so can automotive design engineering.  Yet we don't need to know all of those details to drive a car.  I think the same is true for nutrition.  We often make it more complicated than it needs to be--at least to meet the modest goals we have.

The body is incredibly well designed to handle what the environment throws at us (this includes things like our training load and our food intake or lack thereof).  The ramifications of this are that we don't need to worry a whole lot about whether we ate or drank exactly right.  For the most part we can just eat and workout and the body can and will adapt.  For example...no carbs?  It won't be comfortable (for a week), but the body can adapt...even when doing endurance training.  How?  Your body can switch to a fat based metabolism. 

No protein?  No problem you have lots and lots of it stored in your muscles (think of muscles like fat cells that store protein).  But we don't usually want to lose muscle...

Carbs? very efficient fuel source.  You have enough stored in your body at any given time to handle more than 2 hours of exercise.  But 2 hours isn't an issue because you have days worth of energy stored in fat.

dehydration?  You can lose 2.5% of your bodyweight before athletic performance begins to decline and 5% before you are risking health problems.  Know those numbers and track your weight before and after workouts this summer.  10 mile run without water?  No problem as long as you know from experience that you lose less than say 3.5% of your body weight.

Food:

calories in = calories out --- weight stays the same

calories in < calories out --- lose weight

calories in > calories out --- gain weight

Wow that's simple!  If you are gaining weight, or not losing the weight you expected then the answer is simple...either you are eating more calories than you thought or you are burning less than you thought.

Tips for weight loss....

Unless you need to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain deadline, then don't 'diet'.  That term implies a temporary change to your eating patterns.  Absent any particular deadline, then find a new normal that's more inline with your calorie expenditure and get leaner as you live your life.

It can be simple to cut out calories hidden in drinks.  If you drink coffee, stop adding sugar perhaps.  If you drink soft drinks switch to diet.  Light beer perhaps.  If you have 2 cokes per day, that's almost 500 hidden calories.  That adds 1 pound of fat per week.

1lb of fat = 3500 excess calories

1lb of muscle = 700 excess calories

The reason people can lose weight fast is that when you diet very hard your body eats more muscle than fat.  In one day of not eating at all (2000 calories?) you would lose less than 1 lb of fat even if it were only fat being burned.  But if it were all muscle then it could be 3lbs.  So don't lose weight faster than 1lb per week because the 'slow burn' weight loss keeps the ratio of fat to muscle loss more favorable.

So if you can cut your calorie intake below the expenditure by 500 cals per day you are golden.  If you don't have hidden calories in drinks, then just try this: 2 times per day, don't eat something that you otherwise would have.  Not talking about skipping a meal...but don't grab that muffin to go with your eggs, or don't have seconds at dinner, or skip the ice cream before bed...

It's just about cutting out some small bit of your daily food, not denying yourself drastically.

The next step after that, if you need to, is to substitute low-calorie foods for your high-calorie foods.  Again, the goal is to avoid being/feeling denied.  So staples over pre-prepped food, vegetables over pastas, fruit over snacks...

Water:

Most of you have probably heard the recommendations to drink X amount of water each day.  There are a lot of urban legends and internet hoaxes going around about 'chronic dehydration' and it's effects.  That's all been traced back to 1 quack Dr. that believed dehydration was behind every single ill (cancer, and most other diseases).

The 'medical' community's recommendation came from some Dr.s that simply tried to figure out how much fluid a human lost in a day.  But they are a little perplexed about how their findings were turned in to a medical necessity.  They point out that 'water' really means 'fluid' (coffee counts!) and that you get about half of your necessary fluid each day just from the solid food you eat.

So drink when you're thirsty.

And it's not a bad idea to preemptively rehydrate after a workout because you know you just lost a lot of fluid.

If you stay dehydrated for more than 1-2 hours, thirst will remind you.

You can check out snopes.com and search for 'chronic dehydration' for more info.

Thanks for the cautionary note.  I plan to try a test run on the hotel treadmill tonight.  If it doesn't feel good, it could be as short as 30 seconds.  If it feels OK, then I will go for who knows how long and in the morning should find out conclusively how smart or dumb it was. 

No forefoot running for me, I will definitely be running with limp ankles today.

Hmm, so perhaps I am not dehydrated after all? That makes me feel much better! And I definitely "know" all of that basic caloric intake weightloss stuff, but willpower seems to be the difficult part for me. Just because I know it doesn't mean I do it. I get huge sugar cravings in the evening and it's easier and more fun to eat Oreos before bed than to deny myself. I need to find something to motivate me, something that I want more than satifying cravings, but I don't know what that is yet.

And as for how I combine work and training, I put it in the middle of my day. I'm the boss, so I don't have to make excuses or explain where I'm going, I just do it and come back. I work a lot of late nights and weekends, so I don't have any concerns about taking a couple hours in the afternoon to go to the gym, or bagging off after a meeting to run before I go home for the night. Good luck with your trip, Jeff! Maybe this hotel will surprise you with a great spin bike option.

•  how would you describe your swim proficiency? (Jeremy, you answered that pretty well)

       I'm a fairly natural swimmer, though I only learned to swim 2 years ago.  A good friend who was an accomplished D1 swimmer and is now a high school coach helped clean up my obvious stroke flaws early on.  I don't swim much until summer, and then I swim mainly OWS in a lake up here.  Given all the tris in NH/Maine are wetsuit, even though I LOVE swimming, I frankly don't see the bang for the buck doing a ton of swimming given that I'm sort of FOMOP on minimal swim training.  If I had a convenient pool I'd probably swim more just because I love swimming.

•  bike proficiency?

Biking is my best discipline of the three.  I love riding and always look forward to bike workouts.  We have hills to beat the band from my doorstep, so I think that helps.  I still have an old beater road bike, so at some point I'll need to upgrade but the finance committee isn't convinced yet!

•  run proficiency?

Next question.  Seriously, I struggle with running with any speed.  I'm gearing up for a HM in a few weeks so that will be a good marker for where I'm at.

•  What would you say is your most burning question re. triathlon?

How to train to run faster.  It does seem that the runners rule this sport, even though I understand that bike fitness prepares you for the run.  But the people who finish top 10-20% of my AG have run times in tris WAY better than even my open run only times.  So no matter how good my bike fitness gets, they will still smoke me on the run until I get my running up to snuff.

My turn to catch up on the questions from Jeff.

• how would you describe your swim proficiency?    I am pretty decent at the swim and seem to have done well in my races (only 2) for an avg. 100 yd time.  My last 500 TT was 7:20 but it was near the end of a pretty difficult workout that I had done some speed work 50's.
• bike proficiency?   I would guess this is my weakness.  I am able to hold decent speeds for moderate distances but haven't done  TT on the bike correctly EVER.  I have done a couple of 20 mile rides that I mashed the pedals with the last one being done at 19.8 mph for 21 miles.  Also,  I had a chance to get out for a ride once after the weather broke for a day on March 19.  I rode 40 miles in 2:04:17 for a avg. pf 19.3.  But I am sure I was pushing a little harder for this ride than I should have.
• run proficiency?  This is my best of the 3 disciplines.  I can run well and I am fresh from my first marathon back in Oct.  My run fitness from the mary training has done wonders for my easy run pace and hopefully my sped once the season gets up and running.  My stand alone 5k PR is 21:00 but that was 5 month before my marathon training was in full bore. 
• What would you say is your most burning question re. triathlon?  Can I complete and compete in a HIM next season (2013) with my current training times?  I am not sure I will be able to get any more training time in throughout the week and still maintain my other commitments.

My goal this season is simple...........GET FASTER!  I completed my first 2 triathlons last year and both of them being Oly's.  My first one was 2h 29m 41s and my second at 2h 24m 32s.  I am planning a sprint, oly and marathon.  But I am would like to get a couple of other unplanned races as well.

I also would like to learn more about the bike training needed to become faster.

I took a few minutes to gather this information.  Those who's name I don't have please fill it in so we can be a little more personal if you don't mind or don't if you are in the witness protection program or something.

Jonathon,  How have things been going?  How have you healed up?  And what about your bike and wheel from your HIM back a few months ago?

Jeff     - JeffY *
Bill      - wlister83
Jeremy - jeg2011
Jenna - trisprintolympic
           - perdiem
           - nitroxjunkie
Deb - colwin21
           - bdj6020
           - webertp
Ryan   - chopadog83
           - mambos
Greg    - qti123
Jonathon - jgerbodegrant
            - wbayek

Dirk      - DirkP

Thanks for putting this together Dirk.

Jeff     - JeffY *
Bill      - wlister83
Jeremy - jeg2011
Jenna - trisprintolympic
           - perdiem
           - nitroxjunkie
Deb - colwin21
           - bdj6020
           - webertp
Ryan   - chopadog83
           - mambos
Greg    - qti123
Jonathon - jgerbodegrant
Warren    - wbayek

Dirk      - DirkP

Tim - perdiem

That's an interesting point.  I never thought to add a couple really short runs in there.  Not exactly a bad idea.  I may throw that by the coach and add that in.  A couple easy runs probably would do me good.  My PF is basically in order now, so that's a good call.

Bike frame arrives Wednesday!  Came down with a sweet headcold/allergy attack yesterday so I'm laying low today.  Getting the home office organized and hopefully a swim later.

Hey Dirk!  Things have been pretty good.  My PF in both feet is finally under control and am only dealing with the upper back muscles that got all messed up from the crash.  The wheel was replaced by HED for $300, which is awesome...the bike was literally un-touched.  I can't find a scratch on it!  I really have no idea how.  I basically tumbled with the thing attached to me.

How have you been?  How's crazy family life with all the girls?  Still kicking a$$ on the runs?

Hey!  Great workout weekend. Swam and bike on  Sat. and Run on Sun.  I'm with Jonathon though, I'm very tough on myself and expect instant gratification.  It's hard sometimes to push through when I'm not running as fast I would like.  As I mentioned I'm not a runner and I've only been training with a trainer for 4 weeks now.  I've seen some improvement but not nearly at a 10 min mile which some of you are discouraged at.  So, I'm just focusing on my improvement since for me a 10 min mile will be great!!   My first Tri (Sprint)(I'm signed up for 2 others in Aug and Sept) is July 2nd and I'm running a 5K on May 15th!  I don't want to be last but not too concerned that I won't be first!!  I do want a respectable time!  In otherwords I feel like I'm training my #$@ off (unfortunately not literally) but not up to the speeds I would like. 

On that note, any thoughts on Muscle Milk?  For recovery or before workouts?  Also, what about compression leg sleeves?  What exactly are they for?  Thanks, Deb

You missed me.

Bryan (bdj6020)

So I'm riding on Saturday and I keep feeling this thud thud thud...really subtle, but annoying.  I take off my front wheel and the bearings are shot.  Pretty much just as bad in the rear.  How the heck do I get this sucker out!?

Hey Deb...great workout this weekend!  Don't worry about the running.  It takes MAJOR patience.

I have some experience with muscle milk.  First off, I would use it before a workout.  Milk is just not a great choice for before hand.  It won't sit that well.  Recovery is pretty good.  They make muscle milk to actually be close to a meal replacement though and the regular has a lot of calories that you may not need.  Not to mention it's expensive.  If you are looking for an every day recovery drink, chocolate milk works great for me.  Basically you want to replenish your muscle glycogen stores and repair damaged muscle fibers, which get depleted during workouts.  Not every workout really needs one.  If your workouts are shorter in duration and aerobic (not very high intensity) you need probably don't need one.  Just make sure you hydrate post workout like Jeff said.

Thanks Jonathon for the info on Muscle Milk.  Well..it's a good thing I love choc milk (skim)!   

How about the leg compression sleeves?  Thoughts anyone??   Thanks, Deb