Building Plan: Week 12 Complete

What a week! I started off pretty well, and ended with a minor injury. I started off the week perfectly. I was a bit more exhausted than usual from my Wednesday run, so I had taken Thursday off. For my Friday run, I forgot my usual running shoes so I used a pair I have used in the past, but they did not have my orthotics. This was not an issue since I was running more forefoot and midfoot. However, this caused more muscle impact than I had realized. So when I did my Saturday, lower and thigh intense strength session, I hurt myself. I was feeling too lazy to drive 30 minutes to the gym to swim, so I had done a trainer ride and stretched. However, this only made everything worse and Monday I couldn't do anything. I am still hobbling. So Week 13 is going to be focused on flexibility, blood flow, and being loose.

Swim

I should have swam Thursday to help recovery from my tough Wednesday run. I should have swam Sunday after my legs, back and right foot were doing bad from my Saturday strength session. I did no swimming, and am suffering for it.

Bike

I got 2/3 sessions in. Despite how my legs felt, my 2nd session felt really good and I was able to maintain my cadence with no problem at my current resistance level.

Run

My Wednesday run was rough. The gym was way too hot and I couldn't hydrate quick enough. Overall, it was a decent run though. My Friday run went extremely well, considering I was in different running shoes than I usually wear. Plus I didn't have my orthotics. Overall though, this wasn't a problem since I was fore and midfoot striking. The shoes I was wearing were considerably lighter than my main pair, and I had no issues with turnover, allowing me to easily hit my 180 cadence and have my pace considerably faster than usual. However, I was not able to do my Sunday run due to my injury on Saturday.

Strength

I was able to get 2/3 sessions completed. My second session was focused on lower strength, with targeting of inner thighs and quads. The workout seemed to go well, although extremely tough. However, this workout injured me because I was not aware of how weak my muscles were from my run the prior day.

Nutrition

I did terrible with my nutrition this week. I had a little more stress than usual and therefore at horribly. To make it worse, I did not log most of the junk I ate. I will be working to dramatically improve this issue.

Final Thoughts

Despite the injury and nutrition, it was a very insightful week where I learned a lot about my body, my training, and impacts from workouts and variations in form. Week 13 is going to be treated as a recovery week, and then Week 14 I will get back to running. If I am feeling better later in Week 13, I might try to do a run, but I will be overly conservative on any decision.

Choosing a Health and Fitness Ecosystem - Part 6 - The Garmin Ecosystem

When you think fitness and sports tracking, one of the top names people respond with is Garmin. Garmin is one of the leaders in fitness and GPS technology. They were slow to the ecosystem game originally, but Garmin has really done an amazing job at building connections with third parties and making a diverse line-up of devices.

Garmin Fitness and Lifestyle Devices

The first thing to note is that Garmin makes many devices. But what matters here are its lineup of fitness and lifestyle devices. Whether you are looking for an all-day activity tracker (Vivosmart HR), a stylish activity tracker for work (Vivomove), a GPS fitness tracker (Vivoactive and Forerunner series) or a multi-sport and rugged GPS tracker (Forerunner and Fenix), they have you covered. One thing I want to note here is they also have a tracker for kids, vivofit Jr. I note this because nobody has really done this very well, and Garmin definitely has done a great job with this device. There are other devices as well for cycling, swimming, and more. They all integrate onto the same platform, making a great ecosystem for the devices.

Garmin Connect App

The Garmin Connect App has really come a long way since its inception. I will be covering the iOS app. With a simple dashboard, found in Snapshots, you get an immediate visual of your steps progress and sleep. Right below you can see your active calories, number of activities for the day, remaining calories you can consume, and how many calories you can consume. The calories remaining and consumed come from connecting to MyFitnesPal. I really like the lack of clutter on this first screen. Even though FitBit is one of my favorite connected apps, it can still be a little daunting to some to see so much information as you see right away with their dashboard. So, Garmin has additional screens, or Snapshots, you can swipe to. You can customize these as well. Basically, they go into more details from the dashboard and will cover specific activities, such as running or swimming.

In addition to Snapshots, you can see leader boards for challenges you have joined and with your connections (friends list). Your calendar gives you a glimpse of your scheduled training and events, as well as your completed activities. It takes a little bit to get used to what each color stands for, but once you learn that, the calendar is a really awesome tool. The News Feed will show activities or steps for your connections. Finally you get access to a massive amount of other features under More.

Overall, this is a wonderful app, especially for people who are very fitness and activity focused. However, unlike many of the other apps from competitors, there is a learning curve to this app, which may not be for the timid tech user.

Garmin Connect Website

The Garmin Connect Website is one of the most powerful sites I have ever used. It's also one of the most complicated to use and has a rather steep learning curve. The site is mostly easy to navigate. The real power to this site is that you can heavily customize tabs to show whatever information you want. For example, my loading tab is called "Training" and shows an overview of things I find important, as you can see below. I also have tabs for swimming, biking, running, and activity tracking. Each tab is customized how I want to see my information.

Some of my favorite features include being able to create training plans, running or cycling routes, and creating workouts. Garmin provides some free training plans which are pretty decent. You can sync them to your Garmin device, assuming that device supports it. The calendar is where I spend most of my time. I plan out my weeks by adding workouts I have created. I can then sync my calendar to my watch, and load the specific training activity on my watch for that day and begin that workout. Polar does this as well, and it's an awesome feature.

Similar to MapMyRun, Garmin has the ability to create routes. It is not as advanced as MapMyRun, but it's good enough that you don't need to rely on MapMyRun to map out your routes. There are tons of other features on the site, which would take a long time to cover.

Final Thoughts

The Garmin ecosystem is what most athletes and active individuals dream of using. It's important to note that Garmin is also, slowly but surely, getting with the times and allowing for multiple Garmin devices to sync with their app like FitBit and others have, working more with allowing third party integrations, finally starting to move to Bluetooth smart, and making the overall experience more streamlined. I am not convinced Garmin is for everyone, even if their devices, since there are some learning curves to the devices, app, and website. However, Garmin is one of my favorite ecosystems...then again, I am biased since I am a triathlete. Up next, Apple!

Building Plan: Week 11 Complete

So this was a rough week. Monday was an incredibly challenging strength routine. I thought I was doing well on Tuesday, so instead of cycling I ran. Well, I hurt myself a little. Nothing major, but I couldn't do anything for the following two days. I adjusted my schedule though, recovered, and finished out the week on a good note.

Swimming
My shake-out swim was rough. I was spent after my run, but I still managed to get in 800 yards. Had to pound 2 nuun tabs after though to keep me from passing out. Although my swims are designed to just help with my recovery and push myself a little extra, I am happy with how my swims are going. My form has been much better, especially my arm rotation along with my pull and push. It will be exciting later in the year when I start my actual swim training to see what I can do on a fresh swim.

Cycling
I got in a cadence ride this week and it was awesome! I was shocked I could hold my cadence for 45 minutes, which is 15 minutes longer than my previous rides. In addition, I had been having trouble keeping that cadence. I am going to hopefully have another successful cycling week and then I am going to bump up the resistance.

Running
As I noted, my first run was really bad. I started my new cadence training week, 7/8. So aside from it being a lot tougher from that, my legs and body were not remotely recovered from my Monday strength session. Therefore, I was having terrible heart rate spikes and pains all over. My foot is still bugging me slightly. So, I took off 2 days and I waited until Sunday to do another run. My Sunday run was awesome though! I completed it and overall my cadence wasn't too bad. However, it wasn't as good as it could have been because my foot still was slightly bothering me from Tuesday. The gym was also so hot and humid that I was having trouble cooling myself and staying hydrated enough. Looking forward to smarter running and more of Week 7/8.

Strength
Even though I hurt myself, I still got in two of my three strength sessions. They were great as always and I keep seeing more improvement every week!

Nutrition
I am getting better with logging my food. Still not 100% there yet. I have not been too good at quality of food in some cases, but I'll get there.

Final Thoughts
Overall a tough week for me, especially since I don't handle being injured very well. However, I fought through my mental hurdle, recovered, and finished out the week strong. I am so proud of myself for accomplishing that. I look to keep the momentum going into next week!

Building Plan: Week 10 Complete

And another one bites the dust! I completed Week 10 and feel awesome. I took 2 rest days, but I am really excited that the second rest day didn't really feel necessary, and in hindsight, I should have at least tried doing some stretching or yoga. I had an amazing running week, and I continue to make strides in my strength training.

Swimming

I was able to get a longer swim in after my Sunday run. As usual, I felt amazing afterwards. To my surprise, my shoulders and legs were not as fatigued as they usually are after my run. I was therefore able to double my normal swim distance. Granted, it was only 800 yards, but I am a fan of improvement. Although my arms felt better, my rotation was much slower than usual, which made my pace a bit slow. It's always interesting how perceived progress and how one feels can be very different than the truth. This is one reason I really like technology. It helps keep me in check.

Cycling

Not much to say here. I got in no rides this week. My rest days fell on the cycling days. I am hoping to get at least one of my cycling sessions in this upcoming week.

Running

I not only got all three of my runs in, but I have dramatically lowered my overall effort during the runs. I felt good during and after each run, and recovery was amazingly fast. I definitely attribute my stretching and strength training to this, in addition to my new running form. If you don't remember what I am referring to, you can see my Running Recovery Plan - Cadence. I will be moving onto Week 7/8 of the plan. I am going to try the optional plan to see if I can handle it or not. If I can't, I'll revert to the normal Week 7/8 plan. My cadence has dropped slightly from 180 to upper 170's, so this is something I will need to focus on this upcoming week.

Strength

Again I got two of my three sessions in. My third session fell on a rest day, although I probably could have done this workout. This is actually exciting, since most weeks I need that second rest day. This is the first week I have not. As a note, my strength training is still focused mainly on functional strength. Once my recovery plan is completed, I will be starting to focus on muscle strength.

Nutrition

I missed some meal logging over the weekend, but for the most part I got everything logged. I did have a pretty bad binge weekend though due to some severe stress. I know stress eating is not an excuse, but until I can fully alter that habit, it's what I am stuck with. Sadly, it's usually an unconscious thing that I only realize after I have already started or done it.

Final Thoughts

I am looking forward to an awesome week. With any luck, my recovery plan has 4 weeks or less left. I am so excited to be back running and I can't wait to get back into triathlon training. Hope everyone is doing well with their goals!

How Net Carbs Work

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/11/misconceptions-surrounding-carbohydrates/

I recently made a comment on a MFP forum about how extra carbs your body doesn't need gets turned into fat. There were some people arguing against it and others supporting it. Therefore, I wanted to write up some basic information for clarification.



What is a Net Carb?

Net carbs, or net effective carbs, is a term that came about because of the low-carb craze. Basically, net carbs are the amount of carbohydrates you have after taking total carbohydrates from a product, and then subtracting fiber, glycerin and sugar alcohol. Total carbs is a required item that appears on nutrition labels, and is found by taking the total weight of a food product in grams, and subtracting the protein, fat, moisture, and ash from that product.

I want to stress that the FDA does not have an official definition or rule for net carbs. It is a food industry term that is unregulated. Therefore, it can appear differently.

What is Actually Important to Know About Carbs?

All carbohydrates are not created equally. Fiber is a carbohydrate that the body cannot digest. It also has low impact on a person's blood sugar levels. Therefore, fiber is typically looked upon as a good carb. Sugar alcohol is also a carb, that chemically has characteristics of both sugars and alcohols. Like fiber, it does not have much impact to blood sugar levels either. Or does it? Currently, there is not enough scientific proof to support this claim. Some sugar alcohols have been known to spike blood sugar level in select individuals. However, not enough research has been done, thus making this a gray area. The important thing is that if you are diabetic, be very cautious with sugar alcohol in products. Finally, there are starches, which are made up of glucose linked together.

Sugar itself is a carbohydrate. It is both good and bad. If you are getting sugars through processed foods or foods with excess added sugar, which is the case in many foods, especially items touted as being healthier, then depending on how much you consume, this can be add up very quickly and be bad. Technically there are other chemicals in these products that make them bad, but those aren't necessarily tied directly to the added sugars. In the long run, any natural sugars, such as those from fruits for example, are good.

Your body does need carbohydrates to keep up energy and glycogen. When you consume, a limited amount is being used to fill up the glucose. If there is leftover glucose that the liver cannot store, the body turns that glucose into fat for long term storage. When your body is running very low on carbs, it will use the fat stores for energy.

Final Thoughts

What's important is that too many carbs is a bad thing, period. Too much of almost anything is bad, period. Therefore, it's important to take in carbs based on your activity level and any limiting genetic factors, such as diabetes. I am not a register dietician, so if you want help getting the right amount, be sure to consult your doctor first, get the proper tests done, and then see a dietician specializing in whatever the results you get and per the recommendation of your doctor.

References:

• Katherine Neer "Lo-carbing Basics" 9 October 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. 7 January 2017
• http://www.fda.gov/food/foodscienceresearch/consumerbehaviorresearch/ucm168989.htm
• http://www.webmd.com/women/features/net-carb-debate#2
• http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2010/aug/what-are-net-carbs.html
• https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/InteractiveNutritionFactsLabel/factsheets/Total_Carbohydrate.pdf

Building Plan: Week 9 Complete

Another solid week of workouts. I had some extra muscle soreness during the week, so I had to take 2 rest days, but aside from that, I did really well with my workouts. I also did much better with nutrition and logging my meals. I am really pleased with my continued progress.

Swimming

I still have not been able to find time yet to get more swims into my schedule. As my body gets used to my actual planned training schedule demands and my cat gets healthier, I will be able to schedule more time to swim. I was able to get in one swim in this week, although it was short and intended to both push myself after already being exhausted from my run, as well as act as a shake-out to aid in recovery. And it served its purpose perfectly! As I am writing this, I feel amazing. And that was just after a tiny 4 x 100 yd swim. Although, that swim felt like a nightmare though. I was struggling to rotate my arms and kick my legs. I had wanted to get in at least 800-1200 yds, but I had to stop because I felt like I was going to pass out.

Cycling

I got in no cycling this week. It fell on the 2 days I needed to take as rest days. This is fine, however, as my reason for cycling right now is to just cycle and lightly work on cadence.

Running

I got in all three runs! I am so pumped about this. I am also psyched that I did fairly well. I was a bit disappointed that my cadence was so much lower than I really wanted it to be, but that is why my plan is designed to extend an extra week or so if needed. I am expecting my cadence to get closer to my range during Week 10. One thing I am noticing though is that the increased speed and duration are starting to see some strain on my knees. However, it only occurs when I drag my leg back in my kick-back for my stride. This shows a breakdown in my form and thankfully is easy to immediately correct. Once my cadence training is over, I will be starting to adjust the treadmill to incline of 0.5, and then to 1 to more closely mimic the resistance of self-propelling myself forward when running outside on a flat course or track. This might actually be a good article to explain in more detail later.

Strength

I got in 2 out of 3 sessions in this week. I had to skip my 3rd because I had used that as a rest day. My first session of the week was highly focused on legs. And man did that wreck me. I literally could not do a single thing on Tuesday, as my legs were shot. Not going to lie, it was a glorious feeling. I am so excited my legs are slowly getting stronger and I love pushing myself to the max. My second session was mostly hip and back stretches mixed with core strength. I also did a fitness test for my program. It was supposed to take 5 minutes, and it took me 15 and I was having trouble breathing. These fit tests are brutal. I was supposed to end with another leg focus routine, but I was too exhausted from my Friday run. I am going to repeat this program, as it is working really well. I am hoping one more 4 week session of this body weight program and I will be able to start moving to weighted routines.

Nutrition

I logged my meals every day! I didn't really meet my goals much, but I didn't really care about this. I am a stress eater and with the constant trips to the vet hospital every day, I am not going to remove my outlet right now. Once my cat is well, I will be working on changing my stress outlet to something more productive and beneficial.

Sleep

I am adding this section because it's so important. However, my sleep is awful. I have pretty much been passing out from mental exhaustion and my sleep quality is horrible. I don't expect this to change until my cat is better.

Final Thoughts

I going to be shooting for 3/3 for both strength and running for Week 10. Also going to be making sure to keep up with my food logging. Hope everyone is doing well with their goals!

My Running Recovery Plan - Cadence

As a little background, I had a stress fracture in my right foot and have been struggling with various knee injuries over the years. My stress fracture was a couple years ago, and I pretty much hadn't run since. I had been on crutches for over 6 months and the slightest activity would still cause my foot to swell up. However, I was able to start slowly building some strength back, but then my knees started to have lots of issues. Therefore, I had no choice but to head to a physical therapist. From my road to recovery in PT, spawned a running training plan.

Photo from runnersconnect.net

Going back in time, I used to be a sprinter and short distance runner. I was mostly a forefoot runner, with me being a little more mid foot during the "longer" distances. After college, I was in a severe car accident, followed by another bad car accident a couple years later. When I finally was able to run again, my pace was more than twice as slow as the past and I had lost all of my muscle and gained a substantial amount of weight. Ever since this, I have been a heel striker. To make matters worse, even though I did not over-stride, my foot never rolled all the way through, causing all of the impact to go to my knees. Therefore, all of the core strength I had worked on was worthless.

Why Cadence Training?

Cadence is how many steps per minutes, SPM, you take. The gold standard is 180 SPM. If you want more detail, I had a blog post about Running Cadence. When I was given the green light to start running again in mid 2016, the first thing I did was get my running form analyzed. Although my stride length was good and my upper body form was great, my foot strike was terrible. There are many ways to correct how you land or your foot strike, but the one I went with was cadence, as I only became a heel striker after being injured. For me, mid foot striking is more ideal. Keep in mind this is different for everyone. Meb, for example, is a heel striker and is a world-class runner. However, I have terrible joints from all of my prior injuries. Therefore, I need the impact from running to go onto my muscles, not my joints. Therefore, forefoot or mid foot is what I needed.

Cadence training is a great method to use for this, as typically the faster a person runs while keeping the same stride, the more your body will naturally go from a heel strike to a more mid or forefoot strike. This isn't the case 100% of the time, but is usually the case. As a note, cadence training is much easier to start out training on a treadmill, because the moving belt helps with kickback. But it's best to move outside when you can be more consistent.

My Cadence

My cadence was measured around 150. Therefore, going by the golden 180 SPM rule was the plan. As I have progressed in my initial training, I was able to get up to almost 10 minutes straight at just under 180 SPM while on a treadmill. Therefore, it was time for my plan!

My Plan

The plan is technically an 8-week plan. However, it's designed to with the idea that typically it will take 1-2 weeks of each progression. Therefore, the plan is designed to range from 8 weeks to 16 weeks.

Legend: WU = Warm-up | CD = Cooldown

Week 1/2

• WU walk 2 min
• (Run 5 min, walk 1 min) - 3 Sets
• CD walk 2 min

Week 2/3

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 10 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 3/4

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 10 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 4/5

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 15 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 5/6

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 15 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 6/7

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 20 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 7/8

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 20 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min, walk 1-2 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 25 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Week 8/9

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 25 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

If you feel this will be too easy or not challenging enough, then you can do:

• WU walk 2 min
• Run 30 min, walk 1 min
• Run 5 min
• CD walk 2 min

Again, this plan was to just fix my foot strike. However, the concept of this plan can be used to help run faster, longer. Good luck with your training!

Building Plan: Week 8 Complete

Another week down. I am happy to say this was one of my best weeks! I decided to stop trying to get doubles in and just focus on getting my designated workout in. For the most part, I hit almost all of my workouts.

Strength

I am starting off with strength training this time because this is supposed to be the most important thing for my training right now. However, I only made 2/3 workouts this week. My second workout was heavily focused on legs, and I sadly overworked my legs a little too much. So, this caused me to miss a run, my other strength session, and a ride. I am not too upset though as this is proof I have not been putting the proper training time in. I expect this week to be much better.

Running

I was able to get 2/3 running sessions completed this week. I felt really good for both Week 5/6 sessions and I think I am going to move onto Week 6/7. Overall, my cadence improved significantly for my outside run. I also felt much better. However, the temperature really fluctuated a lot during the short run and that made me feel a bit sick later. All better now though. I am not sure how many more outside runs I will get in, but I will keep trying to get my weekend run to be outside, weather-permitting.

Cycling

I got in only 1 cadence ride. It felt much better than last time though and I plan on slightly increasing resistance this week, as my heart rate stayed in zone 1 almost the entire time. I am hoping to get at least 2 rides in this week.

Swimming

I was not able to get in my swim. I went a bit too late to do my run and when I was done, I had family things to take care of. I will make sure I am not so lazy this week with my schedule.

Final Thoughts

I am still seeing good improvement with my strength and running. Everything is slow, but that is fine because they are not what I am focused on right now. Going forward, I think I am going to structure my weekly workout post to mimic triathlon; Swimming, Cycling, Running, Strength, and Nutrition. I think with a couple weeks of consistency improvement, I am going to tack on nutrition for this week. My main goal for this is to just log everything and try my best to avoid mindless snacking. Hope everyone is doing well with their training.