The Anti Inflammatory Diet

Last week I touched on the fact that I have been working with a Naturopathic Doctor on my diet. Basically what I am following now is what she calls an anti inflammatory diet. I'm not supposed to eat dairy or any other animal milk products...believe me, I asked about goat cheese. I'm also not supposed to eat red meat or gluten products. This makes my diet very limited but I'm adjusting. I can't say I've made it through an entire week without cheating but I feel if 90% of my meals follow this plan I'm doing ok.

Fish, chicken, chickpeas and quinoa have been my main staples, and I am trying to learn some more interesting options.

I've also been filling up on a few supplements: B6, glutamine, magnesium and 3000mg of fish oils.

Overall, I have been feeling a lot better, I don't have nearly as much pain as I thought with the training regime. At the same time, I'm not having the GI issues I normally get with training.

Training regime this week included:
~ 3 hours of running - missed another 5km of running because of hockey
~ 4 hours of biking
~ 2 hours of swimming - missed one swim this week

I have been working with a coach to help me build around hockey and it has worked fairly well so far, but I still miss a couple, as we are getting closer to the finals. In just under 3 weeks provincials will be over, and my training regime will change. Biking will be the biggest build afterwards, a little bit more running and a bit more swimming, hopefully this anti inflammatory diet will continue to work with the increase in training.

Alright, enough rambling, I will end with one of my favorite triathlon quotes:
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" Dory, Finding Nemo.

Race Line Up

Ok so I planned on writing in this while I was on holidays over Christmas and have been awful with keeping up. I am going to try to improve but this is what has been up over the past couple of months:

1. Rocking it out in the pool every Tuesday with Nepean Masters and am seeing some improvements, also getting in a swim on Thursdays and Sundays during lane swim time.
2. Loving the OTC cast iron program with the bikes, strength and run training. Now that we are up to long runs and long rides we are no longer doing the strength component as part of our session. 
3. I am seeing a naturopathic doctor to help with dietary issues but also to help with energy for training and it is going really well. I have now lost some weight (still a bit to go) but I no longer fall under the Athena category for races...yeah :) I also have a lot more energy for training, and the recovery time after hard runs/rides is minimal.
4. After posting on the OTC wall about half ironman training I had one of the OTC coaches contact me personally and has been working with me to set up a realistic training plan that revolves around hockey. Since time for training is a bit of an issue I am not looking for an outstanding race at Tremblant, especially with my new understanding of some of the hills, however I want to have as strong a race as possible. 
5. What is the race calendar looking like so far: a) "Day before Mother's Day" Long Duathlon May 12th. b) Half marathon at the Ottawa Race Weekend c) Ottawa River Tri (sprint distance) June 9th d) Tremblant 70.3 June 24th. Afterwards we (Ian and I) are seriously considering the Canadian 113 in Ottawa Sept 1st and the Army half marathon Sept 23rd. In between we may sign up for some shorter distances last minute depending on schedule.

Ok I think that sums up what has been happening overall. I will try to improve my consistency in these posting.

Cheers.

Let the race specific training begin

I know it has been awhile since I posted, still trying to get the hang of this thing. 

Holidays are over tomorrow and the new year has begun. Many have New Year's resolutions and I guess I do in a way, I want to complete my first Ironman 70.3 this year. However, that to me is more of a goal that is unrelated to the new year. 

Over the past 4 or 5 months Ian and I have been trying to build up a base in swimming, biking and running in order to be able to handle the training for a half ironman. We've done fairly well but over December we got a little slack, it is time to get back on track as the real training begins now. 

I have been searching and searching for an Ironman 70.3 program that fits my schedule and abilities, everything I found was either too intense or too basic. I spoke with my godmother about this, as she is a triathlete who has competed at the world championships as an age grouper in the olympic distance...throwing that in there because I'm proud :) She recommended that I look at a book called "The Triathlon Bible" by Joe Friel. He has a lot of tips on how to build your own program. I spent a lot of time over the holiday studying this book and finally came up with a program that I think will be challenging enough but still manageable enough, that we can be consistent. 

Also, starting this week and next are two group sessions I've signed up for. The first starts tomorrow and it is with the Nepean Masters Swim Club. I have no problem swimming 1.9km if I mostly do breaststroke but I want to do this race with a little speed, so I figured training with a group, will force me to push myself harder. The second group session starts January 14th and is with the Ottawa Triathlon Club, the Cast Iron program. From what I understand, the program includes biking (spinning in winter), strength and flexibility, and then running. The first week the whole thing is about 2 hours and we work our way up to 4 hours. I'm really looking forward to this as I think I'll learn a lot from both the instructors and the other members. 

I'm really excited to take on this new adventure. :)

Pool's closed :(

Tonight I was meeting Ian at the Nepean Sportsplex as he was just getting off work. Just as I was about to head out I get a call..."did you know the pool is closed for a swim meet?" well boo.

These days training together has become a difficult task. Ian's is working shift work and I work regular 8-4 M to F. Tonight we had it planned that I would get home, make dinner (Tikka Masala) and Ian would meet me at the pool, he'd eat when we got back since he was working 11-7:30pm. Well so much for that...but I digress.

Last week we were able to get in a run, a swim and a ride but with a hockey tourney this past weekend that was it. At hockey we played 3 games in 2 days with just under 2 lines by the end, playing against 4 line CEGEP schools, so needless to say I definitely got a workout...just not triathlon training, can I call it cross training? I sure hope so.

I know from reading triathlon material and looking at training programs that to fit it all in, requires a lot of planning, and double checking the pool schedule :) This is the challenge that Ian and I will have, and for the rest of this week we will get in our bike rides, our run and our swim. This weekend I will plan food for the week so that it will be easier to be able to just come home, and either go to a work out, or cook, then work out. Without stopping by the grocery store, we shouldn't be running out of hours in the day to work out. This is the goal. I feel if I state it publicly I will be more inclined to follow through.

Wish us luck :)

And so it begins

I read an article a little while ago from Lava Magazine called "The Self Coaching Conundrum". In the article it talks about what motivates you as an athlete and asks the question "Do I need others to be aware of what I’m doing to in order to do my best?" If you answered yes to this question, it recommended you either join a training group or share your experiences through a blog....so here I am. 

I have run 2 full marathons, countless half marathons and a couple of 10ks. I run, but I wanted to try something new. I did my first try-a-tri without really training in July 2009 and really enjoyed it, but never trained properly afterwards to do any longer races. My husband told me when he turned 30 he has a 30s bucket list that includes a marathon and an Ironman, so we knew in the next 10 years this had to happen, but after learning that Tremblant was hosting a 70.3 event, we decided to take the plunge together.

Many might question why we would skip from try-a-tri to such a long distance and here’s the thing, both Ian (my husband) and I are a bit lazy when it comes to training, if we know we can do an event without training, we don’t really get our butts out the door. The concept of “training will help you do well” doesn’t really get us moving off the couch at the end of a workday. We need that fear of failure to motivate us, and just like running a full marathon, completing an Ironman 70.3 triathlon takes hard work just to survive.

I plan for this blog to be a spot where I discuss how our training is going, our quests to find a nutrition plan that works for us and generally how we fit our training in with our everyday lives. Running is easy, you can do it anywhere anytime but going to the pool and biking both require some pre planning so let’s see how that goes.