Weekly Training Wrap - 3/17 - 3/23

I guess I should start this off by saying that I've been struggling with training for the better part of March. My original plan was for a HUGE month with nearly 260 miles planned, but it has been derailed by a minor injury (hamstring tweak lifting weights) and decision to mess with my diet. And, I think that these last few weeks of Winter are sort of wearing on me too. I am ready to run in a t-shirt and shorts everyday! (And not have to plan runs around storms.) After nearly a month of enough "blah runs", I went back and reviewed my 2014 Goals and Resolutions. This is where blogging is kind of fun, it is like writing notes to myself! Right there in cyber-ink I wrote "be kinder to me" and "be more flexible". I get so darn rigid about things that I almost beat the enjoyment out of them. After all, trying to run 50 miles per week and live a life as a husband, father, and full-time employee is hard enough, so why add challenges? I've decided to make a few changes and try to get things heading upward again.

First, I am going to ease off on this new diet. I could write pages and pages about this, but this particular venture just wasn't working for me right now. My amended plan is to meet halfway and follow a plan more like Ben Greenfield where I "time" my carbohydrates around when I am running. Heavy running days I may eat 200g of carbs, including carbs on the run. Easy and non-running days, I may eat more like 50-100 grams. I know this won't put me into ketosis and may ruin some of the benefit of a high fat diet. But, I've decided this isn't something I can really do in the middle of a training cycle. I will likely experiment with it again more when I am not trying to train so hard. It is important to note that I fundamentally believe in eating Paleo and low-carb, but there are extremes to things and eating 20g of carbs a day on a 50 mile per week training plan takes some adjustment. If you look at some of my previous posts, you will note that even at 200g of carbs per day (800 Kcals), this is still very much a low carbohydrate diet as far as endurance athletes are concerned.

One things I will continue to do is eat as much fat as I can tolerate. In previous experiments with my diet, I have discovered that I cannot eat 3000 Kcals a day based mostly in carbs without feeling like crap and gaining weight. This isn't all that surprising because that is the entire argument to eating low carb -- too many carbs mess with your insulin and cause your body to store excess weight. Obviously, this rule is not true of everyone, but the masses for sure. However, the numbers say very clearly that I should be eating close to 3000 Kcals a day (maybe even 3500) to sustain a 190 lb lean frame on 50 miles per week. Eating fat is the answer. Fat is body's preferred energy source and I can "fudge" my numbers a bit more without causing weight gain. My guess is I will land somewhere close to 15% carbs, 20% protein, and 65% fat for my daily intake of food.

Second, I am also going to change some strength training. Again, I could write pages and pages of this, but the bottom line is that I have been pushing XT to the point where it is impacting my running -- several muscle pulls, constantly running on legs ridden with DOMS, etc... Weight training was a pivotal part of my plan to recover from knee surgery. And I believe it should be a key component of everyone's off season plans. But, I am going to shift my focus to more "functional" training: mobility, muscular endurance, body weight strength, flexibility, etc... My plan will be to do at least 2 days in the gym with a focus on those areas and then several shorter workouts each weak for core and maybe some Yoga.

That's all the changes for now. I am sure I'll find something to tinker with in the coming weeks. As for running, this week was OK. I got my volume back up to where I'd like it to be and wound up with a fairly large TRIMP score -- due mostly to my time on feet -- but there wasn't really any spectacular runs in there due to the reasons above. Saturday was stupid and really a dangerous trail run with ice three inches thick in spots. I think I will avoid the mountain trails for a few weeks until Spring really sets in.

Day	Miles	Notes
Monday	6	Rest
Tuesday	Off	PT and Body Weight Training
Wednesday	10	Easy/Aerobic
Thursday	8	5 x 3' @ Half Marathon Pace PT and Body Weight Training
Friday	Off	Rest
Saturday	13	Deer Creek (ice!)
Sunday	14	Easy
Total	50	About 5500 feet of vert