Half Marathon Training Starts

Although my Disney Dopey race is about 6 months away, I need to race a half or full marathon before October 3rd in order to make sure I am not put in the last corral, which would mean well over an hour or two delay for race start, which is no fun at all. So, I took the plunge and am signed up for the Rock 'n Roll Philly Half Marathon.

Training
My training plan starts today. I am coming off a full week of consistent exercise and mostly consistent healthier eating. To top things off, I feel GREAT! I was concerned that putting this much stress on my body would cause some issues, but none of them have surfaced. Therefore, I am fairly confident in my 13.1 training plan.

The Plan
I will typically be running 5 days per week. I know in the past I have expressed that you can get away with 3 days a week and have great results. However, I really need to start improving my speed if I ever want to make Boston before I am 40.

I'll typically be doing 2 easy days, 1 speed day, 1 tempo / pace day, and 1 long day. This type of plan is similar to what I used to drop my pace many years ago by over 2 minutes per mile over a 16 week training plan. I don't expect those kind of results here, but I am hoping for at least a 30 second per mile pace improvement in the end.

In addition to the running, I will still be working on 2-3 strength sessions per week, as well as fitting in some swimming and cycling. I don't really expect any gains or intense swimming sessions; although I will be using my swims to help speed up recovery.

Cycling is a different animal. I still need to be riding, but running for now will have to take priority. So the plan is that when I have time AND feel good, I'll go on for rides. However I won't be doing a ride before a run on that same day.

Final Thoughts
Overall I feel really confident with my training plan and I can't wait to continue this momentum of consistency. Good luck to everyone on whatever training or races you have planned.

The Road to Recovery and Changing The Plan

I was recently hospitalized with viral meningitis and "almost" pneumonia (doctors couldn't agree if I did or did not have it). But to make sure I had viral meningitis and not a worse form, like bacterial, I had to get a spinal tap. Sadly, even though the procedure went well, I was a rare case of severe spinal leakage. In short, this put me in the hospital for over a week with debilitating pain and headaches. Finally, I got a blood patch and took almost another week to recover.

During this time I was able to reflect on my 2017 and 2018 fitness plans and goals. Historically, I have not handled injury or sickness well, and it has caused me to fall of the wagon and perform terrible health habits, such as excessive gorging of unhealthy foods I wouldn't usually eat. However, I have been pretty focused this year on not repeating past injuries and other bad habits. Granted I have struggled with lack of time for exercise from the things out of my control, but I at least have made sure I have been eating healthier and have made sure not to gain anymore weight.

So, I didn't let this hurdle trip me up. This did cause me to have to re-evaluate my goals and plans though for this year and next. For example, I want to do my first Ironman next year. I am removing this from my list for now, since selling my house and this recent illness have caused months of setbacks in my training plans. Disney Dopey is set in stone for 2018, as is a century ride for MS later this year. Aside from that though, I have pretty much removed all other races and plans from my schedule.

What is the new focus on? Quite simply, strength and flexibility. Although I had put a good amount of effort into rebuilding my strength, when I got back into running again, I noticed that I was not as fast as I had hoped I would be. From reviewing my runs, I was able to determine that I still was too weak to handle the speed and cadence I wanted. This same issue also bleeds into my cycling, and especially my swimming. Therefore, I need still need to build even more strength and flexibility.

This translates into about 12-14 weeks of building my strength. The general idea is to have 4 strength sessions a week; 2 x Full Body, 1 x Lower, 1 x Upper. In addition to this, I will not be stopping my running endurance progression, which means running 3 times per week as well. The real change here is that initially, swimming is off the list and cycling is going to be mostly optional.

My plan is to do this for hopefully no more than 4 weeks as my body gets re-acclimated to the stress and recovery from strength training. Once that happens, I will be moving towards building my schedule back to doubles in order to get swimming and cycling back into the mix.

For the most part, this puts me at doubles everyday except running intervals for Tuesdays. I won't jump immediately to this schedule, but each week I'll add another activity or two until I get to this schedule. The plan will be to do this until it's time for my Dopey training plan, which starts in September.

As I mentioned already, I won't be doing or planning any other races, except for the MS century ride, a half marathon so I can have a qualifier time for Dopey to prevent from being in the last corral, and then Dopey to start off 2018. Aside from this, I won't be planning on any other races or goals. I am confident this schedule will allow me to get back into racing and ensure I won't be getting injured and will be remain as healthy as possible. Good luck to everyone and their training and racing goals!

Cycling Plan: Week 3 - Complete

Another hectic week with house stuff, helping out at my parent's house, and mother's day cooking. I only got in my spin class, but was able to get all three of runs in, but as the title of this post notes, this is "CYCLING" training, not running training. I actually did plan on riding, but I am trying to learn about bike maintenance and messed up a couple things this weekend. For starters, I bought new wheels, cassette, new tires, and a trainer tire. Unfortunately, I did not buy extra tubes, and for my 1st tire installation, I punctured the tube, so I cannot use the wheel yet. Also, I am having trouble installing the cassette. Basically, my new back wheel is a nightmare right now. Going to pick up some tubes and give it another go tonight hopefully. I am also nervous about swapping wheels, since I haven't done that before, but I am sure I'll get through this.

Swimming
No time as usual.

Cycling
Only got my insane spin class in. It was literally 90% intense hill work, with 80% of that being seated with higher RPM. It was insane, but I felt awesome the next day. Plus it's good to see some of my endurance creeping back, although it would be a lot better if I were doing my actual cycling training.

Running
I got all three runs in this week. It really is so much easier to get my runs in when all I need to do is put on shoes and go. My speed work went well as usual. The tempo run however, did not go as well as I would have liked. The added hills were just too much for me to try and speed up my pace. My long run was alright. I was running a slower pace and cadence initially because the first half was running with someone else. I felt completely fine after the first loop we ran. Then I continued on to do a second loop. I guess I didn't realize how tough the hills on the route was, because I was not able to increase my speed or cadence much on the second lap. Oh well, this just shows I have a long way to go.

Strength
I only got in one legit strength session, and it was pretty tough because it was right after my spin class. I still managed to get the full workout done though and it felt really good.

Nutrition
As you can see, I did alright with logging and macros, but I slipped up Friday night through Sunday. I will be using this new view to help keep myself more accountable.

Final Thoughts
A pretty tough week but still managed to find some extra time to workout. Depending on feedback from realtor, we might be starting to wrap up the sale of our home soon, so I am hoping to have a couple weeks where I can focus on workouts before I get hit with an insane week of moving EVERYTHING to storage and a friend's house.

Racing 2017

I haven't really done a race post in a long time, since I have been dealing with a multitude of injuries over the last 2 years. But with me healed and rebuilding, it's time to get back in the game!

I am definitely going super light on races this year though, as the main goal is to get a qualifying time for Disney so I am not in the last corral, and then a triathlon to get myself back in the mindset. With that said, this will total 2-3 races planned for this year, with my fourth race technically being next year, although it's right away in January.



Running Races

First off, Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon. As always, this is a fairly flat and uneventful race, which is perfect for me getting back. I am familiar with the course and hope to do well; goal is to run 8:00 min per mile, or a 1:44:00. This won't be my best time, but it will be in the right direction.

I might toss in a 5k somewhere along the line, but I am not as motivated for shorter races, as my ultimate goal is to lead up to an Ironman in 2018, which means marathon for the 3rd leg.

Triathlons

Triathlon is one of those sports that you can't do well if you don't practice AND race. Sure, you can pull off amazing times by just practicing everything; but nothing compares to the stress of race day and especially transition. I really don't want to do short course, but I do really want to get back into the feel of triathlon. Therefore, I am considering Escape Philly Sprint. I am not sure I will be doing another one this year, although I have considered one after my century ride.

Cycling Races

This isn't technically a race, although I will be using this to gauge how prepared I will be for my Ironman next year. The plan is Bike MS: City to Shore Century (100 miles). I completed the 80 last year, but did very little training and struggled a lot at the end. This won't be the case this year. I have already started my cycling training and will be doing lots of training all year.

Final Race

Alright, I know this is technically 2018, but all of my training is leading up to the Disney Dopey Challenge in January 2018. This will be followed by an Ironman mid to late summer.

Final Thoughts

Overall I am pretty excited about the races. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous and even a bit scared, given my injury history. But that's the kicker this time; I am working my butt off to get consistent with exercise, especially strength training. I am looking forward to a great and injury-free race season.

Cycling Plan: Week 2 - Complete

Started off the week motivated and ready to workout. Had an incredibly busy Monday and Tuesday at work, so I didn't have time during the day to workout; at night I just had no motivation or energy. I finally got myself going mid-week and sadly my doubles sessions was too much on my muscles and I was hurting bad for the rest of the week. It was a good eye-opener on how my strength declines so quickly when I lose consistency.

Swimming
I didn't get any swim sessions in this week.

Cycling
I got in one trainer ride for cadence. Since I had to use a stationary, I changed up my goal to keep at a higher-than-usual RPM. This was due to the fact that resistance and effort are so different than when on a regular bike. Overall I felt good, but man are those the most uncomfortable seats ever!

Running
I was only able to get in my interval run this week. However, my interval runs have been quite different than expected. My overall speed is much lower than I want, but I have not been able to run on a track or flat grade at all. Therefore, my interval runs have been with decent hills. I am really liking this type of speed work a lot. I still plan on using a track in the near future, but for now this is really helping my leg muscles.

Strength
I was able to get in two strength sessions. My first session, leg day, was a bit more intense than I expected. I felt tired after, but the following day I could barely walk. This was of course exacerbated by the fact that I did my ride the same night. I'll be hunting for a better workout plan.

Nutrition
I did awful again with nutrition. I may have lost some weight, but I am sure I gained it all back from how poorly I ate all week. I finally went out and bought everything I need to get back in my healthy routine. Now I just need to stay focused and motivated, and then everything will fall into place.

Final Thoughts
Overall another rough week with poor consistency in workouts and nutrition. However, I'll keep adjusting so I can succeed and progress.

Cycling Plan: Week 1 - Complete

Not a good week at all. Work had me pulling overtime and my cat got really sick again. On top of that I was traveling over the weekend. Needless to say, my first week of cycling training was mostly a failure due to lack of time for almost anything.

Swimming
I had no time to get to the pool, which is a shame, because that would have really relaxed me.

Cycling
I was only able to get an insane spin course in for my technical day. My bike is still in storage and needs a lot of work done before I can ride it, so I am going to hit up the same spin class again for Week 2, and make sure I get my bike out of storage and overhauled asap.

Running
I was able to get an interval session and a long run in this week, which was great. Even though my focus in cycling, part of the plan has me slowly building my running endurance and distance. The interval session was really tough and not as fast as I planned. This was because the track was closed because of lacrosse practice and I therefore had to do my intervals on rolling hills. The long run was terrible! 77° and 87% humidity almost did me in. I was having trouble breathing and am still not sure how I completed that. I won't be that bad in the future, but this is my first hot and humid run outdoors in about 2 years.

Strength
Aside from cleaning and moving boxes, I had no strength sessions at all.

Nutrition
I had good intentions, but failed to both log everything I ate and stick with healthier food choices. As a result, I feel awful and will be looking forward to correcting that awful week.

Final Thoughts
Since I am almost settled at my new location, I think I should finally start having a schedule that is a bit more consistent. As long as there is a good amount of consistency, I should be fine sticking with my plan.

Choosing a Health and Fitness Ecosystem - Part 8 - The TomTom Ecosystem

The final ecosystem in the line-up is TomTom. Although they started off with the ability for users to easily export data to almost any service, TomTom got off to a real rocky start in regards to their app, computer software, device firmware updates and fixes and website. Fortunately, for the most part, their latest devices have been pretty solid, with the most recent line being really awesome. In addition, they have really overhauled their apps and site, making TomTom a great contender in the ecosystem arena.

Devices
One of the things that drew me to TomTom when they first entered the fitness arena was that they made a multi-sport watch that was extremely affordable. Now, they still don't offer a mode for triathlon, so I definitely don't recommend TomTom for triathletes who are competitive and/or need their metrics tracked in a steady manner for a race. That aside, when I was just getting into triathlon, it was amazing having a watch that tracked literally everything I needed for training. TomTom now has a diverse line of products, ranging from running watches, to multi-sport watches, daily fitness trackers to daily activity monitors.

Even though I already noted it, I think it's important to emphasize how affordable TomTom's product line is. They truly offer one of the easiest user interfaces on their devices, one of the best GPS I have ever used, and similar products are usually much more expensive; and by affordable I mean under $200. You might not get all of the fancy smart features of an Apple Watch or Polar M600, but you are going to get almost everything else you want and need.

Website
I was with TomTom in the beginning, and their website was very vanilla, especially compared to every other competitor's website. However, the always made sure they could send data to virtually any service out there, making TomTom's platform one of the most flexible. Today they have really beefed up their website to create a mostly one-stop-shop for your stat needs.

Main Tabs

You start off with "Latest". This will have various tiles, such as Distance, Average Resting (HR), Sleep, Goals, map and summary of latest GPS-based workout, and your latest workout. There can be multiple goals, but you can only have one cardio-specific goal, such as running, cycling or swimming. The other goals that will appear if you choose is Weight and Steps. You can then click on any of these items to see more detail. Overall, this is a wonderful and clean screen, giving most people exactly what they want and need to see.

Activities

Next you can see all of your activities that have been logged via your TomTom device. It's very similar to Strava's activities list, which makes it an easy-to-view screen with details of each activity a click away.

Planning

The Planning screen is a very neat tool. This screen allows you to take courses (Trails) people have posted via GPX format, and upload it to the My Sports site. You can then upload this course to your watch. There are also the pre-defined "Races" which you can customized and appear on your watch as well. This is really fun because it serves to track your best performance for a given Race distance. Synced races include Running, Cycling, Treadmill and Freestyle (indoor swim).


Progress

Finally the Progress screen is just a visual analytics page to let you see trends for all or specific activities, as well as specific stats for the activities. It's a wonderful and simple tool for analyzing your workouts and races.

Set a Goal

Goals are extremely simple and allow a user to quickly set a goal then go. This is very similar to FitBit and this feature is excellent! You can set an activity-specific goal, such as a specific number of running miles per week or total time cycling per week. You can also set a weight goal, as well as the standard 10k steps per day goal.

Sleep

I wanted to break this part out because I am very impressed with TomTom's sleep tracking. Of all competitors, I have found TomTom to be one of the best at accurately tracking sleep. As you can see from the picture below, it does an amazing job at identifying when you are actually sleeping or napping. It was almost 100% accurate with my times.

Apps

TomTom technically has 2 apps; TomTom MySports and TomTom Sports. Although you can still use MySports, it's technically the old application, and when you download Sports, TomTom's newest app, you can migrate your MySports data over and use Sports as your default.

The Sports app tabs mirror the website for Latest and Activities. However, instead of Progress, the app calls the tab Trends. Finally there is a Manage tab to all you full customization and account / profile management.

The Latest tab is what loads first. Like the site, it shows a clean summary that has most of the important stats you would want at-a-glance. Activities is identical to the web version, and Trends is very similar to the web version as well, so nothing new and important to note here.



Final Thoughts

Overall TomTom is probably one of my favorite companies for general activity and sports tracking. The wrist HR is very accurate, chest strap HR is right on point, and devices, sites and apps are insanely simple to use. However, TomTom is designed for people who cross train or just want daily activity tracking. Their devices don't really have any smart features and don't really give enough stats for the stat-hungry athlete. In addition, although devices like Spark 3 can track multiple sports, it does not cater to multi-sport such as triathlon. But their devices work well, sync well, and can send data to almost every major site and service out there, making TomTom compatible with virtually everything.

This concludes my Ecosystem write-up. If you have any questions or comments, let me know. Enjoy whichever ecosystem you choose, and remember, always have fun and if you need motivation, go with the ecosystem that most of your friends or motivational friends are using.