Wow, It's March

Happy March

I can't believe it's March already.  Crazy.  I have my first triathlon of the season this coming weekend - the Desert Triathlon Olympic distance in La Quinta, California.  La Quinta is out in the Coachella Valley about 20 miles east of Palm Springs.  Weather.com says that it's going to be in the 80's out there this weekend.  That's fine with me as I bet that puts race time temps in the mid 60's.  Perfect.  Well almost perfect.  Because I'll also bet the water is going to be freezing.  From last year's race report:

"There was no way that the water was 65 degrees as advertised. No chance at all. Maybe 60, probably 59."

Well at least this year I am going out there with a full sleeved wetsuit.  Worst case, I'll just have to deal with face freeze.

February was a weird month for training.  Sure, it's a short month.  But more importantly, I didn't ride 3 of 4 Saturdays - one due to the Surf City Marathon and two due to rain.  So my bike volume is way down.

Yet despite a relatively light month volume wise, I finish February really tired.  My legs especially are feeling it.  I'm not injured and thus not in any real pain, but I'm sore and overall I'm feeling a bit lethargic.

I'm guessing it has something to do with an increase in running.  Though January and February where up a manageable 20% against the previous two months in terms of running volume, I noticed that my running in the middle two weeks of February was up 35% over the previous two weeks.  This is mostly due to the fact that I needed something to do when I couldn't ride.  My overall run volume for the month would have been about 110+ miles had I not been so tired in the last week.  And this Sunday, when I did get a chance to do a longer ride, I suffered big time.

So my plan is to take it really easy this week, and use this Sunday's race as a launch for my final 12 week push to Hawaii.

Here's a couple of other "rules" I'm going to enforce going forward:

• Take a day off every week.  I've been known not to do this.
• If I'm tired, I'm tired.  I'm not going to force anything.  I'll either slow down, cut back, or get some more rest.  It will all work out in the end.
• Swim more.  I need to.

Speaking of recovery, I'm also experimenting with a few things.  The seed of this experimentation is due to my tummy.  Over the last 6 weeks, my stomach has been really pissed off during workouts.  Some days were OK, but some days were really awful.  In fact, I'm still surprised that I made it through the Surf City Half without a visit to the porta-potty, considering that every other long run I've done lately has required a detour.

One thing that I've noticed about my body as I've lost weight and got into much better shape is that (perhaps ironically), it is more sensitive to change.  So when I sat down and thought about what might be causing the GI issues, the one thing that stood out was the big canister of whey protein I got for Christmas.  It's the first protein supplement I've ever used and I was using it almost every day.  And it's the one big change I've made to my diet lately.

So it's time for some trial and error.  First off, I've switched to soy protein.  Google "soy protein vs. whey protein" - there's quite a battle going on as to which is better.  Both camps make impassioned arguments, but the one thing that consistently came up was that whey protein is absorbed faster by your body than soy protein.  Also, there are a few amino acids in whey that are not found in soy.  But I've been taking an amino supplement for awhile so I'm pretty sure I'm covered there (just need to double check).  Bottom line?  I'll take the slightly slower absorption if it means I can stop doing long runs with a roll of toilet paper looped through my fuel belt (yes, I did this).

Even though there was an unplanned bump in terms of run volume, it's not really an anomaly.  I need to step it up for June, so the soreness is something that needs to be dealt with.  More experimentation - I'm also trying a Glutamine based supplement.  Glutamine is key when it comes to protein synthesis as well as muscle and tissue repair.  In other words, Glutamine is pretty much a major key to recovery.

Essentially, I have invented my own recovery drink.  For the past couple days I've been mixing the soy protein and the Glutamine with 16 ounces of water and downing it right after my workout.  I have high hopes.  The problem is it tastes like crap - as it stands now it tastes like watered down vanilla mixed with something else I can't identify but I know I don't care for.

Maybe I'll experiment with flavorings this weekend.  And if I get it right, I'll call it Liquid Tough.