Ridgelake's Group - Filled up with Fantastic Folks! (Page 2)

Each level has certain benefits to it.  Here's a link that describes this:  http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=58

I personally have gone Bronze to access all the articles as well as some additional log features.  There's a LOT of good information in the article archives.

I know Silver is popular for the increased training plans.  (I personally havent used a training plan because of scheduling issues and the need to be flexible due to injury). 

Gold is a very, very attractive option if you're looking for some coaching.  I've thought about that to use as a sounding board for some training ideas.  Much more economical than hiring an actual coach.  (I have worked some with a coach and find it beneficial.)

Some thoughts about diet.

From a big picture perspective:  What have we, as a species, been eating as we evolved very successfully?  Fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meats, fish, grains?  French fries, donuts, M&Ms, and snicker bars (my past personal favorite list)? 

Humans have developed surviving and flourishing on items from the first list.  There is a darn good bet that our systems are designed for these foods. 

In contrast, how long have items from the second list been around?  Are our systems capable of handling these foods?  Yes.  Are our systems functioning optimally on these?  No.

So, from a big picture perspective, I believe that people should eat the things that we've been eating while evolving.  We're designed to thrive with those foods.   Over time, I've transitioned to a diet made up of almost entirely the first list.  And I feel a whole lot better now than I did before.   Previously, I would eat a Wendy's Chicken sandwich for lunch with french fries.  And sure enough, mid-afternoon, I would crash, being dead tired.  Once I started eating whole grains, lean meats, fruits and nuts for lunch, I don't have afternoon crashes.

So this is my first general thought on diet.  I'll add some more thoughts later about my personal experience with transitioning from my past diet to one that is a lot cleaner.

Ok, now we have a better idea of what we all want to get out of triathlons.  Next question:

What do you hope to get out of being part of this group?

Some more thoughts about diet.

Changing diet is TOUGH.  You're used to doing things a certain way.  You like the way some things taste.  You're in your routine. 

I found that I could make gradual changes over time and be successful.  Take my morning coffee as a good example.  Instand of 4 sugars, I cut back to 2.  I did that for a couple of weeks to a couple of months.  Then I switched to Splenda.  After I got used to that, I cut back to 1 Splenda.  Thats what I do now.  ! Splenda.  Much fewer calories than 4 sugars.

Another big change was my afternoon snack.  I used to hit the candy jar for a little "pick-me up".  Now, I'll either eat some fruit, or munch on some home-made trail mix of various nuts and dried fruits.  The fruits really helped with my sugar cravings.   

There are so many little changes that can be made over time.  Each one is barely material.   But the cumulative effect of these changes, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, make a BIG difference.  100 calories per day difference equates to 10 pounds for a year.  Who can't cut 100 calories a day? 

IN addition to the above thoughts, another by Joe Friel, a well-renown triathlon coach reallly hit the mark with me.  Paraphrasing, but it was basically, "Your muscles replace all of the tissue every 6 months.  Do you want your muscles made of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish and nuts or potato chips and soda pop?"

These are the thoughts that helped me transform my diet.  My typical diet today is something like this.  Breakfast - a bowl of whole grain cereal and 1% milk.  Mid-morning snack - banana and trail mix.  Lunch - chicken breast sandwich on whole wheat bread.  Afternoon snack - apple and trail mix.  Dinner - fish, vegetable medley cooked in olive oil, and a baked potato.  A couple of beers.

I found that, over time, my sweets cravings went away.  I actually have a hard time eating sweets now.  They are too rich for comfort. 

The keys were being patient.  Not making dramatic changes that are tough to implement.  Gradual changes over time are much more likely to stick around. 

But if you think about it.  How many years do we have left here on earth?  All of us hopefully will have 40 or more.  We have time to be patient.  It will pay off in the long run.

Ok, I've been a little lazy...

Answers to the questions:

What do I desire to get out of triathlons? From the time I graduated college in 1995 until the beginning of 2006 I did not set/accomplish many personal goals. Though during that time I had some desire to try a triathlon. Upon completing my first half last month the triathlon desire was reborn and now I have a wonderful wife to encourage me. So, my foremost goal is to continue to roll of accomplishing personal goals. Secondly, to use triathlons as a second base to lose weight. The new friendships are the biggest PLUS!

What do  I hope to get out of being a part of this group? There is some timidness in me about competing in my first triathlon and alot of questions. I look forward to bouncing questions off experienced peers to help with the timidness and to help build my mental base for completing a triathlon.

A few answers/thoughts:

Brad, regarding your energy during workouts and eating about an hour before workouts.  I'm going to wait to give you a more full answer because there's a lot of aspects about the timing of eating.  Lots of good articles on the subject. 

I will say that I've shared your exact strategy and feelings.  I'm hungry and/or flagging during my workouts so I'll eat an hour before.  The research I've read actually says thats detrimental to performance.  It takes 2-3 hours for food to digest and enter the muscles to be available for fuel to muscles.  After only an hour, the food is still in digestion, thereby drawing blood for digestion and away from working muscles.   Perhaps try working out without eating so soon before.  See what happens.

Scott, regarding your hesitancy regarding triathlons.  We've all been through it.  Its a challenge.  If it weren't everyone would do them. 

You mention that you've got lots of questions.  Ask them.  I suspect you're not the only one with those questions.  Thats part of what this group is for.

Brad, regarding bike trainers, I've got a "fluid" trainer.  These seem to more closely mimic the resistance to the road than the magnetic trainers.  The fluid trainers will get harder and harder as you go faster and faster.  Much like wind resistance outside.  Mag trainers, in contrast, are constant resistance. 

Thats not to say that there isnt value in a Mag trainer.  There is.  You're using specific muscles in specific combinations that are very close to what you'll use in a race. 

Joann, regarding chocolate and diet.  Chocolate and sweets are not evil in and of themselves.  There's actually some research that says chocolate has a number of healthy compounds in it, particularly dark chocolate.  We also need to live and enjoy life.  Many of these foods taste really good and are part of family celebrations. 

The question becomes though, how frequently are these foods being consumed and why are they being consumed?  If these are everyday foods, then the part about the cumulative effect of something really adding up comes into play.  The 100 calories per day for 10 pounds a year deal.   There's nothing wrong with eating these foods on an occasional basis.  We all need to live.  The potential problem is in their frequency.

Lots of good questions, Teresa.  Touching on subjects such as post-exercise nutrition and also heart rate training.

I'll post some thoughts on these subjects soon, perhaps tonight when I have more time.

One of the things that I'm finding as a mentor for the first time, is that I've read about a lot of these subjects and have formed some opinions on them.  But, were I in your shoes, I'd want to see underlying links and research behind them.  I can tell that providing that backup is going to be a challenge.  We'll see how it goes.

Quickly though.  In regards to post-exercise nutrition, this is a fairly important eating time.  The 30 to 60 minutes after exercise, the body is VERY receptive to absorbing muscle glycogen and proteins.  Generally, consuming a ratio of 4 carbs to 1 protein is the best recovery macro formula.  Interestingly, chocolate milk has almost this exact ratio.

But as far as being hungry, your body is telling you it wants food.  Give it what it needs.  The key is trying to make good food choices.  I personally don't like being hungry.  I eat probably every 3 hours.  I just make sure its quality foods.  I can eat a lot that way.

HR training and effort level is both very simple and very complex.  Generally speaking, most of our training should be done at less than maximum effort.  It should be done at a level where we can still carry on a conversation. 

The general reasons for this are:

1) At that effort level, the body primarily uses fat as energy not muscle glycogen (Carbs).  The body has a large store of fat energy, but only about 2000 calories worth of glycogen stores.   Training at harder levels where breathing becomes heavy such that talking is hard to do puts the body in a state where it primarily uses glycogen as fuel.  Again, we are limited in our glycogen stores.

2) We are at much lower injury risk when we train at easier paces.  Similarly, training hard puts us in a position where the body must recover.  It takes a couple of days, at least, to recover from hard workouts. 

3) We gain substantial cardio and neurologic benefits of training at least 60% of max effort.   At lower exercision levels, the body is better able to work on efficiency issues.  At higher levels, we're just trying to survive, placing big stress on the body.  Again, this substantially increases injury risk as well as recovery times.

4) Workouts at easier levels allow us to come back the next day and do them again.  Consistency is a much, much, much bigger driver of success in either triathlons or weightloss than a single big workout on an occasional basis.  If one has to take a bunch of time off because of injury, fatigue and/or burnout, a lot of fitness is lost.

I'll freely admit this has been one of the toughest lessons for me to learn.  I know exactly what you're feeling.  I went through the same thing.  You're so eager to get out there and do stuff,  you just want to go and go and go and go.  Faster and longer!  I'm gonna do it!  Its a drug.  I've had to learn the hard way (injury) that going hard all the time is not the way to go.  But it turns out that the science is behind easier workouts as well.  I'll try to find links to prove this point.  Its a critical one for success in weightloss and triathlons.

The 60% is a rough minimum at which point the heart fills itself up with each stroke.  So this level will provide cardiovascular benefits.

IF you're doing a training plan, it will specify longer distances over time.  Training plans are good from the standpoint that they will systematically put you through increased stresses and recovery phases.  You'll get the distances you need through the training plan.  Thats what its designed for.

You become faster for several reasons.  1) your cardio vascular system improves over time.  2) your neurological system improves over time.  You become more efficient.  3) your muscles develop more mitochondria, the power generators within the cells.  All of these benefits accrue over time.  This is where the consistency part comes in. 

Exercising at a pace where you can carry on a conversation allows all of these positive physiologic changes to occur but keeps the injury risk at a lower level than going hard.

Here is an excellent article on heart rate training.

http://endurancefactor.com/Articles/article-heartintro.htm

Another article by the same author adds more information.

http://endurancefactor.com/Articles/Lacatethreshold.htm

I'll see what more articles I can dig up.  There's a lot of good info on the subject.