Tri Mark's Madness Group-Closed (Page 9)

For about a year it's the same for me, but recently switched up a little bit.  I do a banana every morning (90 calories) and an Element Bar.  If you're not familiar with Element Bars, you can go on line and make your own bar.  YOu pick the base, you pick the flavors, basically, it's a custom designed bar and you know 100% of the ingredients.  My lower calorie ones are about 240 and the high calorie ones are 304.  I'm now mixing in oatmeal with some dried blueberries my wife has been buying.  1 cup of oatmeal, Saigon cinnamon, 1/8 to 1/4 cup blueberries.  Oatmeal is a resistant carb and does not break down easily.  It leaves you full for a long period of time, and it is great for your cholesterol too.  I eat far less on days I eat Oatmeal.

I just recently discovered Greek yogurt - Chobani... awesome stuff.  Zero fat, zero cholesterol, 14g of protein and 140 calories. 

I eat that, a granola bar or bagel, and a piece of fruit for breakfast... pretty good, but I really miss the days of eggs and bacon

I actually do similar run type workouts - one long, easy - one 5kish, focusing on increasing speed in intervals, and one where I focus on adding incline in intervals. I'm going to work this week on pushing harder this week though, because I haven't felt close to puking yet, lol!

I definitely need to work on adding speed intervals to my swims though, so that is on the agenda for my next swim later this week.

Thanks!!

I'm working hard on eating breakfast regularly and smoothies are definitely one of my faves! I don't have too many cals in mine, I guess a lot depends on what you put in. I have two basics that I work with:

Low cal vanilla yogurt, 1 tsp cocoa, 1/2 banana, 1 oz strong coffee, skim milk and ice - mocha banana smoothie or low cal vanilla yogurt, bunch of mixed frozen fruit (mango/melon/strawberries mostly), skim milk and ice.

What do you use that ups the cals of your smoothie?

Whole grain English muffin with PB and a banana after I swim. For the sake of convenience, I use the Justin's single serve PB packets.  That's 120 for the English muffin, 190 for the PB and 90 for the banana for 400 total.

On non gym days when I bike/run after work, cereal (1/2 cup fiber one and 1/2 cup kashi go lean), skim milk, banana (or strawberries now that they are more in season).  That's 130 for the cereal, another 100 or so for the milk and 90 for the fruit for a total of about 320. 

I love love love Greek yogurt!  I just had my Chobani 0 for lunch (with a salad, 2 oz chicken, 1 T dressing, and a whole grapefruit).  I have Greek yogurt with my lunch about four days a week!  I love it!

100 for the yogurt, 60 for the chicken, I'll say 30 for the veg (2.5 cups mixed greens, 1/2 cup carrot+bell pepper+celery), 20 for the tablespoon of dressing, and 100 for a large grapefruit for 310 total.

Just did my lunch run and cam back to find your post re: running and swimming. I got my moderate run in for the week. I happened to some intervals in my run.

I am of the “slow and steady” mind frame when it comes to swimming. I’m going to try to apply your suggestions. The only thing is my form totally breaks down if I try to go fast. Not that I’m going to have good form by race time.

Thanks for the post.

Mark- thanks for the great post earlier about incorporating higher-intensity workouts.  I work right next to a track and had been thinking that it might be good for a workout every once in a while.  Now I think I'll aim to use it at least once a week!

Just as a report- tried high cadence biking on a 1hr ride yesterday.  It was great!  Made my legs really tired by the end, though, and I certainly need retrain my gear shifting so that higher cadence is more automatic. Ratcheted up the intensity in my swim this morning, with 4x25 all-out sprints plus 3x200 interval repeats to get me started.  Heading out on a run this afternoon.  Today is a good day!

I might get into this more with another post later, but I'm becoming concerned that my nutrition isn't what it needs to be- too much carb & fat (esp. dairy), not enough protein.  I know I need to just plan further ahead- specifically, take a few hours every Sunday to prep food for the week, since it is the lack of time during the week that is making things difficult.  However I'd love a few ideas for quick and easy high-protein dinners, if people don't mind adding onto the (really useful!) ongoing breakfast conversation.

   -Tel

Henry - that's fantastic.  Congratulations.  Isn't it fun when things go better than expected.  Now you just have to get rid of that cold.

Denise

Awesome information.  Thank you, Mark!  I would definitely be interested in a swimming conference call if you have the time to organize that.  Headed to the pool right now!

Jacqui

I almost always have oatmeal with chia seeds and almond butter for breakfast -- sometimes with eggs.  I used to have a smaller breakfast and then a snack before lunch (like "clean eating" principles) but now try to eat bigger meals without the snacking.  Once I get started I find it hard to stop eating, lol.

My pre-race or pre-long run breakfast is always a half bowl of oats and a half banana.  I think of it as my "lucky meal."

Jacqui

"What do you use that ups the cals of your smoothie?"

I usually just eyeball it, but today I measured things out so I could get a count on cal's..

3/4 c frozen cherries 110 cal

1 c frozen berries (raspberry, blueberry, Marionberry) 70 cal

1 c chobani greek yogurt (I don't usually add this much, probably about a 1/2 c normally) 170 cals

1 c soy vanilla milk 100 cals

1/2 c oats 150 cals

Many times I throw in a dash of flaxseed, but didn't today.. It's a pretty loaded smoothie, leaves me full for quite a while.

I can probably throw out the soy milk, and add water..I've got protein in the yogurt... I was just surprised at how it added up...

I liked the tropical blend of frozen fruit that I used to buy... But I tried a piece thawed out one time, and it didn't taste so spiffy that way.. Made me wonder about the quality, so I switched to a better brand, and went with berries for the nutrition part of it...

And yes, I have to agree the Chobani is one of the better Greek yogurts I've tasted.

Thanks for all the input guys.

Day 1 of Mark's run workout - sure makes for a purty graph (including weird off-the-chart heart rate spikes).  Kind of fun discovering I have more than one gear.

(Day1.jpg)

The HRM said 233 - it sure didn't feel like that, so I checked my pulse and it was actually about 160.  I've read a few threads where people have seen weird spikes with Garmin 305 - usually attributed to not having enough moisture, early in the workout, for it to work properly.  My max HR is about 190 (although I need to recheck that soon) - I remember what that felt like and I was no where near it.

My planned workout was 4.3 miles in 40 min. and I decided to incorporate Mark's Day 1 interval workout of: moderate warm-up for first third, do 2.5 minute intervals @ 1 minute less than normal pace for the middle third, and then recover at regular pace for last third.

I was a little sluggish early in the workout.  My normal pace would have been about 9:15/mile but I was struggling to hit 10:00.  I started thinking "when I accelerate for 2.5 minutes I better shoot for 9:00 pace instead of the 8:00 Mark suggested."

After the first fifteen minutes I accelerated and after a few seconds I looked at my pace and it was 7:15!  I felt good and even had to slow a bit to get closer to 8:00.  After the interval, I just returned to around a 10:00 pace for active recovery. 

I did it three more times and was actually surprised that it was kind of refreshing to pick up the speed and a 90 second recovery was adequate.  My HR hit zone 4 during the intervals and I was surprised to see that each time my recovery HR was lower and lower - starting out in zone 3 and then to zone 2 and even dropping to zone 1 towards the end.

Mark/or anyone else that has advice,

I've done several sprints the last 2 seasons but I've never learned to eat/drink on the bike.  With longer distances, I'll need to. I just got aerobars, mainly so I could use that water bottle that goes between the bars, but it doesn't hold all that much.  Today, I was able to take a GU out of the little box/bag on my bike, rip the top off with my teeth, suck it down, put the empty back in the bag - but I was very wobbly. (Actually, the hardest part was putting it back - I don't want to litter, but it sure would be easier to just ditch it)

Do I just keep practicing? I've got 3 months. Is that enough time?

Any tricks you guys have to make it easier to eat/drink?

Denise