Posts Tagged ‘tampa

10
May
12

Do you know how to hurt?

By Feerlessfood 16 Comments
Categories: fitness, Motivation, Personal Bests and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was mentally reviewing past seasons of triathlons and racing, and while I’ve gotten much better, I noticed that many of my times have been consistently good, but that’s it.  Just good.  I’m not happy with good.  Not only do I want to be great, I want to see improvement from “good”.  Good is fine if it’s continually improving.  For example, if your run a 1:30 half marathon and year over year decrease that to 1:29, 1:28, 1:27, etc, that’s awesome because you are getting faster!  But if you stay 1:30, 1:30, 1:30, year after year, you’re not making any progress in your training.

That’s when it hit me—I workout hard and I know what it’s like to hurt… but I know how to hurt jusssst enough. I’ve said it before—you’ve got be comfortable with being uncomfortable.  If I want to get better, I’ve got to realize that there are going to be some workouts where I collapse at the end of my run or hang onto the side of pool gasping and panting thinking it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever breathed in Oxygen.

And the same goes for racing—at the end of that half Ironman, I need to be able to kick into black-out mode for that last 5k of the run—and not have been holding back for that leading up to it.  I always try to currently, but when I try to go fast, it’s maybe 1 or 2 seconds faster per mile.  Insignificant.

So what’s the point here?  If you want to get faster, you’ve got to embrace the hurt (and also the recovery!)  I’ve been adhering to my coaches plan and we have been swimming as a group a couple times a week

Swim squad! Me on the far right

It’s amazing what having your coach watching you and having competition will do to your effort levels.  I’ve set PRs each practice… and also almost drown.  Using paddles while having my ankles bound together with an old bike tube?  Not fun.  I enjoy breathing, actually.  Or 50m kickboard races against someone who is faster than you and seeing black as you try to catch them.

I love it.

Rest and repeat.  If you want to get better, hurt a lot, occasionally, go easy a bit, recover correctly, and know exactly what you are looking to achieve!

I’ve got a race next weekend so I’m stoked to see how it’s going to go!

  1. Do you agree with me?
  2. What do you want to get better in?
02
May
12

Running in Place

By Feerlessfood 6 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Well due to the heat of the Boston Marathon, maybe it’s a good think I couldn’t run it this year… although I still would have liked to!  But being smart and respecting that my knee is injured, not running was a good decision.  That being said, I went to the orthopedist last week and he looked at it and took X-Rays. Basically, what he said was that its more of a chronic thing from a physiological standpoint—that my hips rotate inward slightly putting more pressure on my knee joint.  Therefore, in his example, I could go run like 3 marathons and be fine, and then decided to do an easy 10k and have had this happen.  There’s no real predictor for it.

Got my MRI results back this morning and here is what the doctor told me: I have a slightly torn Meniscus and light arthritis in my left knee.  That gave me 2 options, surgery or cortisone shot and Physical Therapy.  The surgery was just a bad idea altogether because it would just be removing the Meniscus and making the arthritis more susceptible to worsening.

The Cortisone shot will take the pain and inflammation away and get me back to training,  Overall what this means is that someday my running had a stop sign.  Whether that’s 10 years or 50 years, we can’t say, but by doing the PT and the cortisone shot, I can preserve it as long as possible.

So that being said, I can pretty much go back to training tomorrow,  taking it easy the first day, but then pretty much good to go.  So I guess its not good news, but since there’s nothing I can really do about it, it’s not that big of a deal! And I figure hell, in 20 years we’ll have the technology to fix this anyway so I’ll be good for life!
So he gave me orthotic inserts for my shoes and I am using those when I run.  Also got all my new gear in from K-Swiss and the Wattie Ink Team and I’ve heard these Kwicky Blade Lights run really well.  Also, with the knee, I don’t think I am going to do Florida 70.3  This would be a half Ironman on May 20th, but instead I think I am going to do an Olympic Triathlon in North Florida.  Honestly, it’s not really any easier, as my instructions from my coach are “to cross the finish line and fall over and die”.  Like, we’re talking ball out.  I also don’t know that I would be in quite the shape I want to be in for an Ironman race, plus they are expensive.

This was the first week I was finally able to pick training back up a bit.  I got to run some this weekend and it felt good, although I kept the pace moderate and didn’t do any kind of intervals, etc.  Also spent a fair amount of time on the bike…well, on the bike in my apartment—thank God the Capitals and NHL Playoffs are on!  Even though the Caps lost their first game!! (My playoff beard is coming along nicely as well, although I did get to trim since the Caps won their first series—and so I wouldn’t get fired lol).  However, they won Monday and are in OT right now but I can’t bare to watch

I really focused on my recovery this weekend as these sessions were a little more taxing and I bring back in quality work efforts.  I made awesome recovery shakes which I drank even though I knew dinner would be soon after.  The first was a mix of a chocolate CorePower drink, chocolate protein powder, and some MCT oil (medium-chain triglycerides—I’ll talk more about this in an upcoming post).  The second was whole coconut milk with protein and a banana.  There’s nothing better than flopping on the floor with an ice cold shake and just zoning out for a bit after a workout!

I also decided to try out a couple new “recipes” this weekend.  Well, that’s a lie, but I grilled a couple new things.  The first was some delicious grass-fed filet mignon steak!  I seared them in a skillet then finished them in the oven.

The second was some grilled chicken breast wrapped in bacon!  I finally went down to the pool and cranked up the grill—it was awesome!

 

Yup, I had bacon

Lastly, I roasted half a Kabocha squash in the oven covered in a mix of coconut butter and coconut oil–awesome!  Plenty of cinnamon of course too.

Pre-coconut

Great flavor

 

That’s all for now–I have a lot more updates, but those will come later this week!

  1. Have you ever had a Cortisone shot?
  2. Best new recipe or idea you want to share?
12
Apr
12

Headwinds

By Feerlessfood 9 Comments
Categories: Eating disorders/ recovery, fitness, Motivation, Nutrition and Races
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This Monday is the Boston Marathon, for which I qualified, registered, and had planned to race. Until last Monday. I’ve done something to my knee and running on it doesn’t feel good at all. Admittedly, it’s getting better and feels ok today, but do I risk a month (or years or lifetime?) of recovering if I decide to do the race and create some irreparable damage?

Two weeks ago I had my half Ironman. Felt good after the race, recovered well, and didn’t do any running until Friday, focusing fully on biking and swimming. Oddly, though, I woke up Friday with some weird pain in my knee. Strange I thought, but after a good trainer ride that evening, I had a great run off the bike. The next day, I had a long ride scheduled, so a friend and I headed out on the Suncoast Trail for 51 miles. The course was straight out and straight back basically. We had a moderate tailwind on the way out, but as we turned around, we could see a storm rolling in. The winds picked up and it was a hard ride into a headwind the whole way back! We got 50 miles rain free… and 1 were we got drenched. So much for my brick run outside. I got home and did the run on the treadmill instead and everything was good. Although, I could still notice my knee.

New Fresh Wattie Ink speedo suit!

Sunday came, I got up to do my long run, and realized it was already 10AM, so being that it’s pretty hot in Tampa, I put it off till the afternoon and set out that afternoon for the run instead. Guess what—it’s even freaking hotter at 4:00 than at 10:00. The heat didn’t bug me too much, but I knew the run would be hard from the get go. I was physically tired from the previous 2 days and felt that as I headed out. As I got onto Bayshore, a straight road than runs along the water, I found myself plowing into a headwind in the blazing sun. Every bit of me was just like, “dude, turn around and head back now”, but I was getting my 18 miles damnit. I finally hit the turnaround, but my pace was all over the place for the run. Haha, when my coach saw the pace chart he was just like wtf did you do??

Recovery shake- coconut milk, goat milk, banana, avocado protein powder! Sooo good

I made it back though and felt great about myself—longest run I’ve done since November. But back to my knee—when I woke up on Monday, it wasn’t feeling too hot and pretty swollen. 2 weeks before the Boston Marathon. Wonderful. 30+ miles in 3 days didn’t help probably.

So since Sunday, I haven’t run at all. Just bike, swimming, and water running. I got a new bike trainer which is awesome so it’s making riding a lot more bearable, but this knee needs to heal… and quick! I don’t want to go run Boston and F myself up for the rest of the year… or more. It’s Monday… ask me again on Friday! I’ve been trying to get my rest, icing, nutrition, and supplementation spot on and I’m sure it’s helping. But it’s one of those, “Really? Now?” kind of moments. I just damn sure want to run this!

But the more I’ve talked about with a lot of people—coach, family, friends, I don’t think it’s the best option for me right now. I’d rather be a damn good (and healthy) triathlete than a decent (and possible injured) marathoner. Plus, I can be a good marathoner by being a great triathlete. So who wants to run a marathon with me after triathlon season? I’m thinking about the Richmond marathon in November (where I BQ’d in 2010) and planning to smash my time there!

I hope everyone had a good Easter—mine was spent on my trainer lol, but I did go see the Hunger Games, made some BBQ Turkey in my slow cooker, and had a Cadbury Crème Egg!

So. Good.

Solid enough right? Plus, the day before was the Final game of the NCAA Frozen Four here in Tampa—the championship for men’s college hockey. I was able to snag a lower level ticket which was awesome, for a great deal! The key is just to show up a little after the game starts when the scalpers won’t be able to sell the tickets anyway!
So please, say a prayer for me and hope that these winds change and blow in my direction for being able to run healthy for a long long time.

Boston College vs. Ferris State

  1. What would you do? Would you run the race? Or are you already?
  2. Favorite Easter Candy or tradition?
  3. Chocolate bunnies: ears first or no?
22
Feb
12

Flipturns

By Feerlessfood 4 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have a new outlook.  It came from my coach this week.  We were on our way to a ride in Ocala (more on this later…) after swimming and I was beginning to think I might bail on the ride.  I was planning to go to a hockey game that night and didn’t want to be late, and, of course, by going home, I could make sure I had comfortable foods to eat and just ride where I knew I would get a good workout.

Felipe was in the car in front of me and I called him to discuss this and he really let me have it- brutal honesty in the most beneficial way it can come.  And it plays to so many factors in my life.  He basically said “I’m trying to help you, but you keep finding ways out of it and being sketch.” This was true.  He brought up the example of doing flipturns in the pool.  Right now, I don’t (didn’t) do them because while I can do it, I’m not great at it and don’t like it and stick with my comfortable “quick-touch and go” method.  But, he has told me many times to do exclusively flipturns.  If I don’t start, how will I ever learn to do them or really break my fear of them?  I never will.

Then he said something that sort of blew my mind—“it’s better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing wrong.”

How true!  This is so relevant to anything in my life—unless you buy in and bite off that piece of success, how do you expect to get better?  Instead of knowing there is a problem and then looking for excuses of how to get out of it, why not proactively face them and discuss them with someone who can help?  Instead of hiding my fear of flipturns, Felipe told me tell him!  Say, “Felipe, I’m not good at flipturns and they scare me—how can we work together to overcome this problem?”

Face your problems head on—don’t run from them—get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  That’s how you get better, in love, life, sport, or anything—it plays true everywhere.

And well, speaking of Ocala and our ride there… let’s say it was quite and adventure ; ) …

Ocala is the HITS half Ironman course that we will be racing in March.  The goal was to ride the course and do a time trial on the back end.  I ended up going ahead of the friends I was with and just thought, duh, I’ll right turns at every dead end and then make all the left turns coming home.  Problem with this logic is that you have to remember where those left turns are, since they aren’t dead ends on the way back!  So after 23 miles, knowing I had to be back for the hockey game, I turned around and began heading back to the car.  It’s funny how one wrong turn can ruin a ride…

Another 25 miles later and I was totally lost.  Turns out I had looped back and was almost back (unknowingly) to the place where I had turned around.  Since no one wanted to stop and help me on the road, I wound up at a gun range with a bunch of “country folk”… after some bargaining and figuring out where the F my car was (about 18 miles in the other direction) I finally convinced a “feller” there to drive me back for $15.

When I got back to the car I found Jess and Felipe waiting, very worried, and also learned that the police helicopter that had been circling the park was actually looking for me…  Ha, we then called the sheriff and let him know to call off the search and then he came and made sure I was in fact alright.  Well, my adventure wasn’t yet over as I had to go back to the gun range and get my bike. Then just head south and drive straight back to Tampa right? Wrong- try being on the long split of the highway and heading halfway to Orlando… LONGEST DAY EVER!

When I wasn’t being lost the ride felt great—I felt strong and fast and even though I haven’t been riding a ton, this was really promising!  My speed was good and my heart rate seemed like it was a solid spot. Just got to up the mileage a little bit now.

So take those lessons this week—it’s better to do the right thing wrong, than to do the wrong thing wrong. And then, what Felipe thought may possibly be my last words to him—“real men eat the banana peel.”

So do flipturns and eat the peel.  Words to live by.

  1. How was your weekend?
  2. Send any sports/training/nutrition questions you have–we are recording the next podcast this weekend with hopefully a pro triathlete!
  3. Anything fun going on this week?
25
Jan
12

Are you at 110%?

By Feerlessfood 10 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life has many components—the main ones being family, friends, health, career, God, and your passions.  To me, the goal of life to be actively giving all of these the attention and time they need.  If you do that, then you are living your life to the fullest, at 100% percent of your potential.

I’ll be honest, I’m not.  I’d give myself 80%, at best. Whose fault is that?  Mine.  This post is not meant to be negative be any means, but rather a kick in the butt to me and anyone else who needs a little inspiration to get out and do more—to feel more alive!  Here’s where I’m struggling: Balance. Here was last week in numbers:

Swim: 10,050 yards

Bike: 8+ hours

Run: About 33 miles (missed one run)

Fun with friends: 0

Church: 0

Work: Plenty

Sleep: Not nearly enough!

Here’s an example of my lame weekend—go to bed way too late, wake up, train, eat, go back to bed for a nap, train, eat, go to bed way too late.  Repeat on Sunday.  Let’s see, were friends mentioned in there? Was going out and doing something fun mentioned?  (And no, my trip to Whole Foods doesn’t count).

Granted, I’ve had a hard time making a lot of new friends here in Tampa and that has been frustrating (if you live here, get at me!), but in the same vein, my attempts at making friends haven’t been overly abundant.  This is probably because I prioritize working out on my weekends, which is FINE to do, but only if I don’t go back to bed after!  As for family, I had a great time when they visited last week, but I definitely bailed out of a lunch my mom had planned so that I could go eat food I was comfortable with and then take a nap before I worked out in the afternoon.

This grinch was seriously a punk ass, no lie

Sob story right?  Na, this is my pledge, my vow to get my life to 110%!  Why not 100%?  Because that’s where I could be, but I want to reach above that, go beyond that—I want to find a way to not only improve my life, but improve the environment I am in.  To make other people happier, more successful, and help them reach their goals.  The best part about this is the reward it brings me and motivation to stay committed to my goals.  This also means volunteering and going to church—I spend a lot of time praying, but that’s not the same as taking the time to give God the time he deserves.

 

So what’s my plan to make this happen?

Action plan for 1/23 – 1/30:

  • Go to bed earlier.  Seriously, by 1 every night for this week
  • No wasting time drawing dinner out
  • Workout in the morning both days this weekend
    • Thus, due to going to bed earlier and working out in the morning…
  • Do at least 1 fun thing this weekend during the afternoon or night
    • There is a huge Gaspirilla Festival this weekend… which has something to with pirates—apparently it’s a big deal
  • Dominate my workouts
    • This includes eating right and including recovery after the workouts.

 

So Keep me honest!  We’ll review next week!

Last thing is that I’m going to be starting a podcast with a friend of mine, Max.  This is going to legit—we will be discussing health, nutrition, training, and interviewing some really cool (and famous) people.  We’ll also be answering any questions you have, so if you start to develop some, let me know and we’ll answer them each week!  Look for the first show to come out later this week where Max and I introduce ourselves a bit and discuss the purpose of the show!

Oh, and check out these awesome meatloaves I made- let me know if you want the recipe.

Peppers, onions, grass-fed beef and more!

And check out this article! Does the guy in the picture look familiar?

  1. What is one thing you will change for a better this week?
  2. How much do you sleep every night?
« Previous Entries

FoodBuzz


Categories

Feerless Food

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 377 other followers