Over the hump

Sort of an odd title -- Over the Hump --- but fitting. It seems that with any training program, the toughest part is the beginning, when you feel clunky and heavy. If there is some past memory of being fit, your brain seems to enjoy reminding you about it. From the dark, pessimistic corners, a stream of thinking goes like this: "Remember when you were fit? Wow, those were the days. Now look at you. Look at how slow you're going! Look at how you plod along! Remember how nimble and light you were? Now you're older, your fat and your slow. It will take years to get a taste of that again."

Although I wouldn't call myself fast by any means, the clunkiness is gone, and I am back in the groove of training. It feels so good to be back in this state that, as I mentioned to coach Walton, I've become nervous on the days he has slotted as off days. There's a fear (no doubt issued from the same region of the brain) that a day without training will vault me back to where I was a couple of months ago.

This is the trick, of course. Once you get over this hump, training becomes more of an affirmation of possibilities than an affirmation of being out of shape. It's a profound difference. Before, you rely heavily on every trick in the book to ignore negative thoughts and commit to a workout. After, you have to hold yourself back.

This week is a 12-hour training week. This will be about twice the number of training hours Brian started me off with. My weight is down to 195. That's a seven pound drop from early January, and going back to October, I've now lost about 20 pounds. As Brian suggested, when the weight starts burning off, my back problems would fade. And that's exactly what's happened.

21 days since testing

It was a little more than three weeks ago I reported to Cadence for testing. Since then Coach Brian Walton has been sending me detailed workouts plans, and my nutritionist, Rebecca Marks Rudy, of Trismarter.com, has been watching over my diet.

As I've mentioned before, accountability works magic when a schedule becomes inflamed with responsibilities. Work has been crazy. But I've hit all my workouts and have been following Rebecca's recommendations quite religiously. Although I did have a few more beers yesterday than my allotted one, Rebecca said that on occasion, in conjunction with heavier training days, it was OK to do something like enjoy the Super Bowl.

It's amazing what can happen in three weeks time. Something clicked over about 10 days ago and I could feel that I'd lost weight. Yesterday, in fact, I weighed in at 197. I'm soon due for a bike test on the Computrainer using a CycleOps Power Tap, but I can tell you right now that I'm feeling more power and fluidity on the bike. On the run my pace at 145 beats per minute has noticeably dropped.

It's funny; I had been out of shape for about two years. There's a despair that sinks in. You start to believe you're ten thousand miles away from feeling like an athlete again. Yet in truth, it's really not that far away. Certainly I'm a long ways off from attaining a level like was, but the feeling alone of being cattle-prodded back into a good training discipline is enough of a buzz in itself. There are 10 weeks of training until I return to Cadence for my followup testing. It's marked on the calendar, believe me. Like Dave Scott often says, a key to good training is to make a game of it.

Another note about working with Rebecca. She understands how life can be, and in talking with her about how to redirect my diet, she didn't load me up with dozens of recipe books. She talked me through how I can set things up so if I get home after a long day of work, training, commuting and errands, I don't have to spend an hour trying to cook something. In other works, I have become a big fan of Lean Cuisine and other relatively healthy frozen dinners. That and a salad and I'm good to go.

That and one light beer. Except on Super Bowl Sunday.

Rebuilding an engine

Last week I posted a feature on Triathletemag.com describing my experience being tested at Cadence Cycling and Multisport in New York. http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/Features/2007_Features/Report_from_Boot_Camp.htm

I mention in the article I came home with a packet of detailed information. I also spent time last weekend talking with Rebecca Marks Rudy, a nutritionist with Trismarter.com. I presented Rebecca a multi-day food log. We talked for a while about sports nutrition in general, and she took an initial look at my food log. She asked detailed questions about exactly what foods I ate, when, and how much. I also had a fresh set of numbers from Cadence---in one of the tests, Chad Butts, the Cadence exercise physiologist, hooked me up to a device that ran an electric current through me and generated a report about what's going on with the 202.4 pounds I currently way. It was not easy information to swallow, but it's always good to know exactly where you stand when you start the new year and embark on a training mission. Rebecca took the numbers and my food log and spent time this week crunching detailed numbers.

The Cadence body composition report went like this:

Age: 44
Weight: 202.4
Height: 72 inches
Body fat %: 28.0 (!)
Weight actual fat: 56 pounds (!!!)

Boy, I knew I was in rough shape, but the image of hauling around 56 pounds of fat every step I run is--no pun intended--depressing. But the great thing about getting the picture of truth is that you have something to measure progress by. I recall years ago hearing about a study that showed how keeping a detailed log and charting objective, specific data clearly was an advantage as compared to those who didn't keep track of objective information. It seemed like the charted progress, incremental though it may have been, gave test subjects a feeling of satisfaction. And ultimately momentum.

I came back from New York last Sunday night. I've had a good week of training and am looking to do the same this weekend. Bring on the momentum

Cadence Boot Camp

You'll notice in the photos above two guys in lab coats appear to be wondering what the hell is wrong with me. Indeed, the current state of my swimming tends to raise some eyebrows. Fortunately for me, they know what they're doing, and it didn't take long for Cadence coaches Holden Comeau and Brian Walton to gain insight into the seeming anchor attached to my swim stroke.

It's early in the new year, and what better time to blow the cobwebs out than two days of high-end, exercise physiology testing. I'm reporting from the Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center in NYC. As you may have already heard, this is no ordinary bike shop. It's better described as a combination state-of-the-art in the following categories: exercise physiology testing on the bike, in the pool and on the run, a bike-fit lab and bike-fit protocol that probes all manner of depths and nuances. The place is decked out with various performance labs, an Endless Pool, a showroom where they sell equipment, and a cafe that I can't help but notice has become popular with even the non-athletic types living and working in Tribeca. As I type these words, it is in this cafe I sit, alongside a bottle of S. Pellegrino mineral water.

Yesterday, day one, Cadence coach Brian Walton and his staff set me up with a lactate threshold swimming test and LT test on the bike. Walton also took me outside on the bike (on a January day seeming more like early spring than deep winter. It was around 60 degrees).


Today, Chad Butts, a Cadence exercise physiologist and cycling coach, put me through a lacate threshold test on the treadmill, followed by a max VO2 test, also running. Talk about a one-two punch. After I recovered, Chad and Brian took me through one the bike fitting process used by Cadence, a two-hour plus program which unveiled areas worthy of focus I had never thought of before.

Soon the coaches will be talking me through my test results. I'll be posting a comprehensive article onto Triathletemag.com on Monday.