from zero to swimming every day

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Dad

Well, I do tend to do things with passion…and bringing my swimming back up to speed will be one of them…like last night in the pool for the first time in 3 months…

Of course sitting here in the Dominican Republic with a forecast over the coming week of mid-80’s F, on a beautiful morning beside the pool…and yes, that’s an actual picture 🙂 …with a nice breeze, having a coffee before anyone else gets up…and contemplating a swim is a lot easier than the normal pool routine of…

  • checking the pool schedule for lap swimming times
  • trying to figure out when the best time might be to actually get a lane by myself
  • managing my day around the schedule
  • finding and getting my swim stuff ready
  • driving or biking over to the pool…10-25 minutes depending on whether it’s for a local swim, or lesson at another pool
  • changing
  • having a shower before swimming
  • swimming
  • repeat in reverse

…swimming just has a _lot_ ot time overhead, and one of the BIG reasons that the Endurance Nation folks recommend no swimming during the Out Season…devote the time to biking and running and ‘Spousal Approval Units’ to be cashed in later when the training time _really_ ramps up
https://irondaughterirondad.com/endurance-nation-says-outseason-key-3-stop-swimming/ 

…ah, but the ‘season’ is just around the corner for me now…race training focus beginning the week of April 11, as I ramp up for the Vancouver Half Iron

…that pool does look so inviting…maybe a quick morning swim before breakfast, and then down to the ocean later

now if only this were swimming reality every day…

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Swimming | Tagged | 1 Comment

live life out to the max every day

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Dad

dang…woke up to the news of a 8.9 earthquake in Japan, with associated Tsunami wave…brutal

…and for a few hours this morning listening to CNN as they were anticipating the wave ‘hit’ on Hawaii at 8:00 Eastern…like almost 4,000 miles away…faster than Superman…

…reminds me that we’re just specks on this planet…Mother Nature has no idea that we’re here…except for the odd environmental disaster that we create and pollution that we spew into the atmosphere…so she just goes along as she has for billions of years…creaking…adjusting…as she always has…no idea that there’s expensive beachfront property in Malibu…if she flexed one way or the other, and a couple of hundred miles of coastline slid into the ocean…and a trailer park 100 miles inland instantly becomes new oceanfront property…it would just be a normal day…if the oceans rise a few feet over a few years…whatever…just part of the course of history

…and since we’re just living on the very thin outer crust, that floats on an ebbing and flowing ‘Mantle’ that covers a vast molten furnace that starts at over 1,000 degrees F just below the paper-thin sliver of earth that we build our houses and roads and live on…and estimated at 10,000 F or higher at earths core…about the same or hotter than the surface of the sun…it’s no wonder that things creak a little here and there

…very sad day for the people of Japan

…sort of makes you wonder why the whole thing doesn’t blow into smithereens anyway…

…live life out to the max every day, I say…

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Training recovery after being sick

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Dad

So time to recap where I’m at in my training…to a large degree because I’m coming back from being sick…sounds weird…I’m _never_ sick…I guess I’m mortal after all…and wanted to recap it…and we’ll be leaving for vacation for a week next Tuesday, and I wanted to dial in the training that I wanted to do while away…my season-to-date follows…

…lot’s of links in this post as I was going back through the last few months and re-reading my ‘evolution’ over the past few months…

My original season plan I posted on Dec. 14, and summarized here:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/2011-season-outline/

So my Planned and Actual-life-happens schedule summarized:

So planning wise, I’m in pretty good shape still…says the optimist…considering I pulled a hamstring and was sick for a couple of weeks in the first 10 weeks of the year…geez…the convention weekend and vacation coming up next week I expected to be softer on training…and were, and will be 🙂

…for coming back after being sick, I decided that I liked the looks of my Week 6 original schedule…all intensity, all the time, so challenging…the peak week before a mini-taper…before the original bike and run re-test week…and decided that I’d ramp up to complete that week fully as planned before pressing forward…following my notes in an earlier post:

  • 3 weeks ago: soft transitional week getting back into training after 2 weeks of essentially none
  • 2 weeks ago, I started back with full training hours (8+ for the week) with lower intensity
  • last week: full training hours (8+ for the week), with bike almost back to full intensity, while increasing the run intensity
  • this week: full training hours and full intensity in both bike and run

If I remain intact this week…hopefully Fortuna will smile favorably on me… and don’t get sick/injured again…the net effect will be that I’ll be missing 2 weeks of the ultra-high intensity VO2 max training that I had planned, as a result of the side-tracks so far…life happens…turn the page

…and swimming…I haven’t been in a pool for months…can’t say that I’ve missed it, but not in line with my goals…with the side tracks I’ve ended up inadvertently following the no-swimming protocol of the Endurance Nation folks that I wrote about on Nov. 26…so I’ll be in the pool…there’s a swim up bar 🙂 …or ocean…every day on vacation…even if it’s only to cool off…alright…I’ll be doing drills…would have liked to be further along on the swimming…so to catch up, my goal is a 45 minute open water swim by the end of the vacation…I’ll soon see how much I’ve remembered…may be overly ambitious…stay tuned…first phone call back will be to coach Dinah for some pool work…if she’ll have me back

I’ve been particularly nervous about that hamstring…I think it was that it went out without warning…on any runs since then, I couldn’t help but think that it-was-really-going-to-irritate-me-if-it-broke again…so today’s run was really a benchmark on my ‘comeback’ to full speed…yeah!

One thing that I’ve adjusted is no fast intervals on any hills…all fast intervals on the local college track…it may be a while before I feel confident to run flat-out on a downhill…Ironman Florida is a flat run…Vancouver Half Iron is hilly, so may just be taking a stroll down the hills…good news for Iron Daughter…where is Iron Daughter by the way (BTW) 🙂

So today, was 3×1 mile (actually running in lane 7 which is 1.094 miles for a little extra) on the track with 4 minutes jog between….wasn’t full out, but pressing the pace by Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)…based on the 5 point scale..and turned out well…faster than I thought that it was…may have been the cold rain…pace was 8:08/8:04/8:04 per mile…compares favorably to my test the first week in January, 5K in a 8:14/mile pace (no rest between miles there)

…the most interesting thing about this workout is that with my 5K test at 8:14/mile (my 37 vDOT), the workout spec…what I should have done…was actually 95-100% of the 8:14 pace…so more properly should have been at a 8:30-8:14 pace…this ended up being more of a VO2 max workout, since it was higher than my test result

…so either my fitness has improved since the first week in January even with the lay-offs…let’s hope…or I’ve just blown myself up by exceeding the workout spec in a hard workout…I guess we’ll see 🙂

…my Heart Rate chart from the workout today for those interested in such things…you can see that I eased into the first one to test the legs..felt like Z3-4 RPE…than a steady push in the 2nd one…felt like Z4 RPE, and then about the same Z4 RPE with Heart Rate going up a bit from the last effort…actually a good graph summarizing what intensity-focused training looks like…warm-up, main set of high intensity intervals, with short rest between, and a cool-down…looks like fun doesn’t it…it does get the blood pumping:

Not ready to declare victory yet, but feel that I’m at least capable of pushing the training pace now in both the bike and run…nice

…would be good to get out of this week intact, throw in some added intensity over the next couple of weeks…some adjustment around the vacation…re-test the week of April 4th, and then switch to the Vancouver Half Iron ramp-up with whatever I’ve got in terms of speed at that point…turn fast into far

…I’ll be re-evaluating my race goals based on the April 4th week testing…originally a 12 hour Ironman…I _may_ re-test a week earlier after my vacation week, if I’m rested at that point…would be lovely to see a better test result than the first week in January…probably not what I originally would have liked, but _something_ for the effort would be pleasant

Final thoughts

As an athlete it’s _really_ tough being injured or being sick…my little bout with sore throat, cold, cough etc. is nothing compared to what many people come back from…broken things…cancerous things…and worse…

After my hamstring pulled, and then I had a followup hamstring spasm in a workout a couple of weeks later, I was starting to refresh my research on race-walking as a way to complete the Ironman…

…it is very tough to get past the I’m-never-going-to-get-back thought process…but I/we/many have and do…the body can/does heal itself if given the chance…a remarkably complex and wonderful and incredibly beyond-our-current understanding flesh and bone machine

…fascinating

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Exercising when sick, Recovery, Training | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Laughter as good as exercise

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Dad

No matter what else is going on in your life, studies say that laughter has the same benefits to the body as exercise…so if you don’t have time for a workout, just laugh your butt off 🙂

In fact, according to Dr. William Fry at Stanford University, “One minute of laughter is equal to 10-minutes on the rowing machine.”


Full Screen Mode for the full effect…click on the Full Screen rectangle in the lower right corner

…a dad ripping up a rejection letter…interviewed on the Today show a couple of days ago

other study links:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/04/23/study-finds-laughter-similar-effects-exercise/ 
http://www.livescience.com/5405-laughter-good-medicine.html 

 


Posted in Daughter's Blog Posts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

What would you feed your champion racehorse?

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Dad

My recent musings and reading and writing about diet reminds me of something that I read a long time ago

…I believe it was Norman Vincent Peale…it went something like this:

If you had a champion racehorse, would you just not care what it ate, and watch it get fat, and not exercise?

…and feed it fattening foods with low nutritional value, washed down with alcohol?

…and let it stay up late watching tv and smoking?

…then why would you do that to your own body?

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Vegan Virgin: My Conclusions on a Vegan Diet

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Dad

It’s now been 2 weeks from the beginning of my Vegan Diet experiment…one week on…one week off

Rather than write one _long_ post here, I’m planning to add in more details in separate posts over the next few days as I continue to organize my notes and thinking.

…here’s what I found about a Vegan Diet…and essentially summarized by my latest Food Pyramid:

PRO’s: A Vegan Diet:

  • makes you much more aware of what you eat
    • you read all labels closely
  • encourages a higher level of knowledge about diet and it’s components
  • encourages eating a diversity of foods outside of meat and fish
  • encourages a balanced meal, every time, to get enough and the right kinds of protein and other nutrients
  • is naturally very low in saturated fats
  • is naturally high in ‘good’ fats and carbohydrates
  • is naturally low in cholesterol…although there is some controversy about whether this is ‘really’ a good or bad thing…I’ll put it in the Pro column since that’s the more traditional view…more on this in the next few days
  • naturally eliminates the empty calories in desserts
  • is ‘animal friendly’…another topic unto itself

CON’s: A Vegan Diet:

  • takes a lot of deliberate work to make sure that nutrients and fats/carbs/protein are at optimal levels
    • protein is particularly difficult…both total amount and the correct balance of all essential amino acids
  • requires a constant quest for protein balance that leads to:
    • you need to deliberately plan every meal every day to make sure that you get enough protein
      • if you don’t you’re likely to be short on protein, or have the amino acids out of balance
    • soy based products like tofu, tempeh, edamame
      • I don’t like the bad things that I read about soy…at all
        • and I also don’t like that raw soybeans are toxic to humans and need to be fermented just to make it fit for human consumption…and particularly bad is processed soy…like in soy junk foods like soy ice cream and soy burgers
    • other heavily processed food like seitan
  • high in calories if you don’t really watch it…just too easy to eat foods that have a low nutritional value for the calorie count
    • just one example is rice or rice noodles…a common vegan staple…very high in calories (carbs), very low in protein and fats…a very imbalanced food
  • low on total fats if you don’t watch it
  • sodium can be high
  • eating in restaurants can be both limiting and easily lead to unhealthy choices from the limited options

MY GENERAL CONCLUSIONS & DIET ADJUSTMENTS

The first thing that the Vegan Diet week did is require me to meticulously, once again, track everything that I ate, and check both the macro and micro levels and balance of nutrition…always a worthwhile exercise.

In the week after the Vegan Diet, here’s what I found myself eating:

  • I’ve added in legumes like chickpeas and white beans that I never really ate before
    • this has been a good ‘natural’ addition for nutrients, and as a bonus also adds in some protein
      • this has replaced the low-fat ham that I would often add during the day
  • abandoned the soy based and wheat gluten (seitan) protein ‘substitutes’ for the ‘real thing’
    • back to fish and lean meats for my main protein source…egg whites and eggs also back in the mix
    • my reading did make me more aware of the benefits of more ‘natural’ meat and fish sources…and vegetables for that matter…so I’ll be adjusting where we buy many of these things
  • even though I ‘often’ had a spinach salad at dinner, I now ‘always’ have one…with chickpeas, nuts, mushrooms…in tracking my food it just jumped out as a very healthy addition to dinner with a big nutritional bang for the calorie level
  • almost no cheese…big jump in saturated fats with cheese…didn’t eat a lot of cheese before, but even less now…there are better nutritional choices for the calories
  • lot less bread (actually Ezekiel bread only) than on the vegan diet…there are better nutritional choices for the calories
  • desserts have just about dropped out of my diet…sort of a good habit continued…at least in meals at home

More to follow in the quest to fine tune what I’m putting into my body…a worthy exercise, since as my training levels rise, the demands that I’ll be putting on my ‘body works’ increases dramatically…want to make sure that I’m fueled for success.

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Urban Mountain Biking…cool!

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Dad

who needs a mountain to go mountain biking?…urban mountain biking…looks like fun for a little change of pace…and a perfect sport for Iron Jane 🙂


Full Screen Mode for the full effect…click on the Full Screen rectangle in the lower right corner

Vegan Diet Summary coming…

…it’s been 5 days since I’ve been officially ‘off’ my vegan diet experiment…so over the weekend I’ll be doing my summary of the diet experiment itself, we well as a look at what adjustments that I made this week as a result.

so stay tuned 🙂

Posted in Biking, Dad's Blog Posts | Tagged | 6 Comments

Should you workout when hungry…intentionally?

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Dad

In my daily routine:

  • I’m usually sitting at my desk by 6:30-7:00am
  • Have my morning smoothie, 500 calories, by 8:00am…sometimes stretching it out a bit
  • and in good shape for a workout by 10:00am ‘ish…if I get deeper into the day, it becomes progressively more difficult to get the workout in, particularly after the west coast wakes up at 9:00am, noon eastern.

But the morning sometimes doesn’t work out that way, and that 10:00 target, sometimes can stretch into 10:30, or 11:00, and I’m sometimes caught in a decision of whether I should have something else to eat before the workout.

Traditional views have promoted the idea of carbs before, during and after exercise to make sure you have enough energy for the workout, and recovery after.

Matt Fitzgerald wrote an interesting article (and other references in reading that I’ve done) entitled “Boost Your Fitness By Intentionally Under-Fueling”, that says in part:

Recent studies indicate that while consuming carbohydrate during exercise does enhance immediate performance, it can also inhibit some of the body’s beneficial adaptations to training. By contrast, exercising in a carbohydrate-depleted state, which makes workouts tougher for the body, stimulates a stronger fitness-boosting physiological response.

In a 2010 study, researchers from McMaster University showed that, compared to exercise in a state of normal carbohydrate fueling, exercise in a carbohydrate-depleted state might increase the capacity of the muscle cells to burn fuels aerobically by boosting the production of mitochondria. The mitochondria are tiny organelles within muscle cells where aerobic metabolism occurs. Increased mitochondrial density is one of the most important performance-enhancing effects of aerobic exercise.

Other research has shown that exercise in a carbohydrate-depleted state is beneficial in another way. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is an immune system agent and large amounts of it are released into the bloodstream by the muscles and the brain during exercise.  IL-6 is believed to facilitate many of the body’s post-workout fitness gains, ranging from increased fat burning capacity to greater resistance to muscle damage…The primary trigger for IL-6 release during exercise is glycogen (i.e. muscle carbohydrate) depletion.

Despite the findings of these studies, it would be overreaching to conclude that athletes should consistently avoid consuming carbohydrate during and immediately after workouts. While intentional under-fueling may have the benefit of boosting the body’s fitness response to workouts, there are other benefits that come from consuming carbohydrate during and after workouts—namely, better performance and faster recovery. So, until more research is performed to determine the optimal balance of normally fueled and carbohydrate-depleted workouts, it is probably best only to pick certain workouts to perform in a carbohydrate-depleted state, either by not taking in carbohydrate during them or by not taking in carbohydrate immediately afterward, or both.

Complete article is here:
http://running.competitor.com/2011/02/training/intentional-under-fueling_22097

On workouts under an hour, I’m typically just on water anyway…so that would fit the suggestion…and also thinking that if I’m a half hour later than I’d ideally like to be, that skipping anything extra to eat before the workout, particularly if it’s an under an hour workout…won’t hurt me, and in fact could be beneficial…that science experiment of one thing 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, Nutrition, Recovery | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

New study says 90% of studies are flawed

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Dad

Something that you’ve seen woven into my posts over the last few months are the conflicting conclusions from various studies, supposedly studying the same thing…and the often strong difference of opinion between experts on the same topic

…it’s a challenge trying to wade into results to check how valid they are…or more properly how the results, and the profile of the group being studied, apply to me

…a specific athlete…no two alike…a science experiment of one…a snowflake

…and one of the big reasons that I like logging every workout, and logging what I eat, is how valuable the information is when things go right…or wrong

The important thing that I’ve found is to not just read one article and launch off on a new idea without examining how logical and valid it is, for my situation and experience with my body

…a study of sedentary women beginning an exercise program, is not as valid as a study of age-group, male Masters endurance athletes…for me…if you’re a sedentary woman, the reverse would be true…of course, what I find is that the study may not exist as precisely as I’d like…so I…like the experts…and scientists…are left to extrapolate how a particular study result, may actually apply to me…so we should at least make sure that the base study is valid and not artificially skewed to begin with

Coach Gale Berhardt provides this summary of the study that says that studies are flawed:
http://community.active.com/blogs/GaleBernhardt/2010/11/01/are-researchers-just-a-bunch-of-manipulating-liars

Her advice in part:

Evaluating Research Claims

  • Was the study published in a reputable scientific journal?
  • Who were the researchers and did they have financial incentives to gain by the results of the experiment?
  • What are the limitations of the study? Were the studies done on animals and not humans? Were the studies done on populations which are significantly different than those being questioned by the hypothesis? For example, if we want to determine the effects of 60-second interval training on masters level female cyclists, we don’t want the study group to be 20-year-old sedentary males. At best, the experiment may lend suggested relationships between the question and the results from the study group.
  • Is the study “an amazing discovery?” Are there studies which directly contradict the amazing find? Or does the study, in some way, support research which is already known? This particular point will need to be reviewed, if there is a lack of past research on the subject.
  • What was the size of the study group? A study on hundreds of people will have more weight than a study of ten people.
  • What time period did the study cover? Many studies only cover a short time, a few weeks or months. How our bodies react to nutrients or a training stimulus are complex interactions of multiple factors. These reactions may take long periods of time.

And the article that Coach Gale refers to:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269/2/

…too funny when you think that someone did a study that found that studies are flawed 🙂

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Anniversary today!

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Dad

yes…today is the day that we celebrate 14 years of wedded bliss 🙂

It was a busy week last week…Iron blogging about my vegan diet, ramping up the exercise to over 8 hours of good sweat, and yes there’s that work thing that still shows up every day.

…and on my first non-vegan day back (Monday), on a recovery day, so only 30 minutes of yoga, found that I did go back to egg whites in the morning…and salmon for dinner…and did keep in a couple of vegan week discoveries: white beans and bread, and chickpeas in my spinach salad

…dinner with a glass of wine was an on-the-money 603 calories with 39.2 grams of protein (26%), on a day that ended up as 1,963 calories and 88.3 grams of protein (17%)…a number balance that I couldn’t get close to on my vegan diet.

So today is our Anniversary…planning to get in an early workout…60 minutes on the bike, and moving up the intensity…staying optimistic as I’m ‘coming back’…squeezed into a rather busy work day with a few conference calls and a training Webinar.

…then a little romantic afternoon and dinner with my sweet and beautiful wife of 14 years, and back at it tomorrow 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Recovery, Vegan | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Vegan Virgin: Day 7: Last day of a fun week

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Dad

This post is / was written throughout the day (Sunday, Feb. 27). 

So here we are…the last day of my Vegan Diet week…and it’s been a great experiment…so I thought that today, I’d just have a ‘normal’ vegan diet day, without so much manipulation to chase the numbers…sort of what normal folks might be expected to do…see how it turns out

Still staying focused until the finish line, I have a 40 minute run scheduled today, so depending on the speed, around 500 calories…so again, around a 2,500 calorie budget…I don’t push the carbs before, during and after exercise under an hour, so my day should be more balanced than yesterday.

Dinner tonight may be in or out…as yet undetermined…although Iron Wife is ‘going to the mall’…so that usually ends up with a late day call to catch dinner out on her way back, rather than cooking…so I’ll plan again for a bit of a protein head start by my 3-4pm checkpoint.

Good run today…almost like a real run…maintaining a light jog up and down the steep hills, and almost running in between…still concerend about the hamstring, but if it was getting ready to shred itself again today, it gave no indication…so I’m hopeful 🙂

Rounded up the run a bit to 50 minutes, and a 1/2 mile walk to cool down, for a total of 785 calories…always like to be closer to 1,000 calories burned in exercise each day, than 500…_much_ easier to work in diet options.

So with my first week back with regular exercise, I ended up with a total of 8:20:00 of exercise, 70 miles on the bike, 12.5 miles running, 3 miles walking, and 2×30 minutes of yoga…good.

With breakfast before the run, and the after run meal, at 1pm I’m sitting pretty at 1,156 calories, 35.6 grams of protein (11%)…so once again will need to chase up the protein before dinner…I’m thinking those tempeh strips were so good the other night, so next protein centric snack around 3-4pm.

…between 3:30-5:00pm, had a snack of tempeh…152 calories, 15.2 grams of protein (40%)…not the HUGE protein hit like the seitan that I’ve been having (69%), but still substantial…so added an apple for some balance…81 calories with less than 1 gram of protein…but I like apples 🙂 …1 slice of Ezekiel bread, a little jam and peanut butter, and the snack was 376 calories, 21.5 grams of protein (22%)

…so today by 5pm, and before dinner at 6:30pm:

  • 1,532 calories, 57.1 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 7
  • 1,845 calories, 67.5 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 6
  • 1,456 calories, 55.8 grams of protein (15%) Vegan Day 5
  • 1,412 calories, 58.3 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 4
  • 1,290 calories, 54.9 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 3
  • 1,168 calories, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 2
  • 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) Vegan Day 1

…was feeling comfortable so didn’t have anything more to eat…which means I’ll be a little light on the protein again today if we go out for dinner, but calories should be nicely in line…maybe an extra glass of wine to close the gap

…and so the call came from Iron Wife at 6pm…’exhausted’ from shopping…too funny…so now where to go to dinner…decided on one of our local bars…large food and beer choices, so figured that they could come up with something.

…and so we had a ‘normal’ vegan restaurant experience at a ‘normal’ restaurant…no vegan slant…no reservation…just the local pub…well…with 50 beers on tap, brick oven pizza, a dozen salads, pasta, and pages of choices…so probably a step or 2 above ‘normal’ 🙂

…ended up a bit over the top on calories…those 3 beers…couldn’t resist…so many choices…so little time…ended up with:

  • flatbread veggie pizza…came out first with cheese…they got it right the second time
  • spaghetti with veggies, and extra load of edamame…the only protein ‘hit’ vegan element on the menu
  • 3 beers

…so there it was for dinner…guessing and plugging some equivalents in the food diary:  1,283 calories, 30.2 grams of protein (9%)…so over the top on calories, quite light on protein…the 3rd beer didn’t help…but with the re-do on the pizza, filled the time gap…and great choices

The day ended up at 2,815 calories and 87.3 grams of protein (12%)…glad that I got in a few extra minutes of exercise today…and once again the rest of the nutrient numbers are excellent right across the board

The final word on the final day

An excellent experiment…my deeper conclusions I’ll add sometime this week

A vegan diet is a very challenging diet to keep in line…doing a ‘normal’ restaurant experience today, was a fitting finish, and highlights many of the things that I’ve discussed this week…part of the coming summary reflection

Two last things that jumped out at me today:

  • tracking everything that I eat for a week…even every once in a while…although time consuming, particularly used as a platform for deeper analysis like I’ve done this week…is an excellent thing to do as a check on bad diet habits that I may have fallen into
  • and my best daily cross-check is to only eat when ready to eat, and only eat until satified…not full…my post of a few months ago as valid today as it was then: https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/emotional-eating/

so tomorrow morning, coming off a strict vegan diet…and with the Vegan Police having packed their bags and gone home, I’ll be interested to see what adjustments that I end up making as a result 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition, Vegan, Veganism | Tagged | Leave a comment

Vegan Virgin: Day 6: Date Night / exercise ramping up

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Dad

This post is / was written throughout the day (Saturday, Feb. 26). 

Today is Saturday…Date Night…every Saturday…for well over a decade now…14th Anniversary coming up on March 1st…so longer than that…is it still searingly romantic?…not always…sometimes though…other times, it’s just time to catch up…although we ‘see’ each other every day, and have dinner together almost every night…somehow blocking out Saturday night for a Date Night still makes it special

…so what does Saturday Date Night mean?…it means that we literally, hardly ever go out with other folks on a Saturday night…ever…the odd special occasion dictates an adjustment, but that ends up only a few times a year…so like that 🙂

So we’ll be out to a nice, but ‘normal’, non-vegan restaurant…one of our local favorite Italian restaurants…and perhaps still have my once a week martini…be interesting to see how they do with my ‘vegan’ request in the reservation.

For those just looking for the final numbers, in a PDF format:
click here for the details of vegan day 6_110226

Exercise today continues to ramp up…about 90 minutes on the bike today, with a 75 minute main set with warmup and cool down, so I’ll have a few extra calories in the budget…about 2,900 total for today…the profile though will be a bit different today, with a carbohydrate emphasis before, during and after exercise to fuel it appropriately…with a target of 10% protein ideally…and then I’ll need to pick up the protein in a mid-afternoon snack before dinner out.

…this week total exercise time will be just over 8 hours, so not wimpy for the Out Season…although that would be a ‘recovery’ week in season…just not the intensity that I would be at if I didn’t get side-tracked with that lingering sore throat/cold/cough thing…I still don’t think I’m 100%, so staying conservative.

This week, as I’ve felt better, back on my original exercise schedule…following the guidelines that I’d noted in an earlier post…I’m doing the time, just not the intensity:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/what-happens-if-a-planned-workout-isnt-happening/

This past week, re-testing on the bike and run were on the schedule, so I skipped that…too intense for a come back week…bit of a bummer…my goal is to catch up to my original schedule over the next 4 weeks by doing the original time in each posted workout, and have the intensity back to where it should be by the last week in March…I’ll bring the bike intensity up more rapidly over the next 2 weeks..and then the run…and get in some swimming over the next few weeks…I have a week of vacation planned the 3rd week in March that will be run and swim centric.
https://irondaughterirondad.com/2011-season-outline/

So still on track for the season, although I haven’t gotten in the amount of speed work that I would have liked during the past 4 weeks, and definitely not the amount of exercise in the past 2 weeks since the convention, so probably won’t get to the gains that I would have liked in the Out Season…although pushing the bike a bit 2 days ago was very promising…my heart rate was close to where it was a month ago with 200+ watts (Zone 3) of power in the 2 x 15 minute intervals…promising…although the muscles need to be brought back without tweaking something…bike will be about 70 miles for the week, so not too bad.

My biggest unknown now is the hamstring issue…I’m _really_ hoping that it doesn’t act up again, so find myself really babying the run workouts…so I’ll need to bring the speed back online to see how things are…I’ll be at about 11 miles running plus a few miles walking for this week, so distance a bit light, but not bad.

Remaining intact, I’ll re-test the bike and run the week of April 4th, and then switch to my training focus for the Vancouver Half Iron on July 3rd…onward ho!

Turns out the bike ride was very good…indoor trainer on the tri bike…warmup, 3×3 minutes Zone 3, 2×12 minutes Zone 3, 1×6 minutes Zone 4…yeah!, 1×10 minutes Zone 3, 1×10 minutes Zone 2, cool down…good!…95 minutes total, 948 calories on the Powertap…numbers all looked good…inadvertent non-vegan element however due to dairy ingredient down the list: PowerBar brand bar…the brand supplied on the Ironman course…who knew…it appears that the PowerBar gel is vegan, although “made on equipment that also processes milk and soy”…so much for vegan perfection.

…with my after exercise meal, sitting at 1,435 calories and 39.5 grams of protein (10%) at 1pm…good…I’ll have an afternoon snack to kick up the protein before dinner…in very good shape on the calories now for the day.

…added the seitan snack with a couple of pieces of Ezekiel bread…a few nuts and dried fruit mix in there as well, for a snack total of 410 calorie and 28 grams of protein (28%)…the seitan is a BIG protein hit…110 calories, 19 grams of protein…could have skipped the mix thing…140 calories, 3 grams of protein.

so by 4pm, and the same heading out for dinner at 5:45pm:

  • 1,845 calories, 67.5 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 6
  • 1,456 calories, 55.8 grams of protein (15%) Vegan Day 5
  • 1,412 calories, 58.3 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 4
  • 1,290 calories, 54.9 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 3
  • 1,168 calories, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 2
  • 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) Vegan Day 1

…the protein percentage is likely to go down from here, so we’ll see how it shakes out…as I noted yesterday, unless the restaurant has seitan, tofu or tempeh…not likely…the _maximum_ that the ‘elements’ will have will be 15%…probably closer to 10%

Mainstream Restaurant Update…great dinner…here’s what they did for our vegan request:

  • white italian bread with white beans in olive oil
  • Appetizer: fried ravioli stuffed with seasonal vegetables
  • Salad: organic greens with roasted pears, walnuts…oriignally came out with crispy pancetta (Italian bacon)…but quickly adjusted when the server saw it…looked good though for that brief moment
  • Dinner: linguine with a tomato sauce
  • Vodka martini with olives, and a couple of glasses of wine

…felt good at the end, not stuffed…best estimate for dinner and drinks is 1,110 calories…328 from alcohol…always a diet killer…if I was on a ‘diet’ …and 28.5 grams of protein (10%)…so right where I thought that it would be.

Total for the day:

  • 2,955 calories and 96 grams of protein (13%)…good news that I got in 948 exercise calories
  • total fat for the day also ended up low at 15% overall…should be closer to 20%…should have more olive oil, but didn’t want to run over on calories

The one thing that has jumped out this week is the lack of dessert…we would ‘normally’ share a dessert…or more…but since ‘fun’ vegan desserts don’t exist in restaurants…other than a sorbet, or equivalent…we’ve saved a lot of calories there…and since I’ve been topped out in calories in the quest for protein each day, the Amy’s vegan chocolate cake that we’ve had in the fridge has gone untouched all week.

Thoughts for the day

By Day 6 now, I feel that I have a pretty good handle on a vegan diet, and what it takes to get to the nutritional numbers in line…and do see that it takes specific planning during the day, and anticipation…like the seitan protein hit that I worked in before going out for dinner, knowing that the protein for dinner was going to be on the low side.

I’ve looked at, but not posted yet on some of the more micro elements, of amino acids, and other ‘stuff’, but I’ll leave that more for summary…getting the broad picture of fat/carbs/protein in line first, then fine tuning the more detailed nutrient elements.

With more experience, some of the things that I’m thinking about every day, would presumably just become eating habits…although like all diets…nothing like logging ‘everything’ every day to take a hard look at your diet elements…whenever I do it, it’s always an eye-opener and reminder of where things have gone off track.

Aside from the vegan elements, just by tracking my diet this week, I’m reminded of a couple of things:

  • desserts should be eliminated on most dinners…particularly at home, and definitely on low exercise days
  • alcohol is empty calories…since I was logging it all this week, I was _really_ watching it…a few extra glasses of wine in there would have really kicked up the calories…note to self

and Saturday Night Dates…always a good idea 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Exercising when sick, Recovery | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Vegan Virgin: Day 5: Getting into a routine

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Dad

This post is / was written throughout the day (Friday, Feb. 25). 

…I’ve written a lot about protein this week…and continue today…of course, for some…like my friend in today’s picture…caring about protein, balance of nutrition and all that stuff truly isn’t important…other priorities clearly…however, if you’re an age group triathlete ramping up to 15-20 hours of training a week, it is…and I’d also say that to folks that are awake and walking around it’s actually still important…although I’d have to agree with my friend’s evaluation of my enthusiasm and ‘zeal’…by about any definition I am most likely a whacko 🙂

Getting into the routine nicely…today a bit of a challenge, with a very light recovery day from exercise scheduled…planning to get in yoga and a walk with Iron Wife to get our veggie juice at the local health food store…how romantic…they do a lost leader 12 ounce whatever-you-want for $3.99…can’t buy the stuff off the shelf to make it cheaper in our Breville Juice Fountain.

…so may _just_ get to my 500 calorie exercise mark, but will probably be below this week’s daily 2,500 calorie budget. 

For those just looking for the final numbers, in a PDF format:
click here for the details of vegan day 5 110225

So the plan will be to essentially end up where I’ve been by 3pm each day, and have a lighter dinner to stay under my calorie budget…which may put me behind on protein for the day, but keep the calories in check.

As planned through the day, almost a mirror of yesterday…starting to get into a pattern, which is good…less time, research and thinking involved…Iron Wife didn’t like the wind today, so some of the ‘romance’ leaked out of the walk in the face of my press-on-regardless mentality…we did get our juice though…I’m not really into the vegetable juice thing…tastes rather ugly I find…Iron Wife is a 2x a day juicer though…I may need a new recipe

…so my 3pm checkpoint…actually at 4pm today after yoga…and 393 exercise calorie burn for the day, so definitely light…finally ate that apple that I’ve looked at for 2 days… which I knew would hurt the protein equation…reckless I know, but how about living a little I say 🙂 …so a bit deeper into the day, anticipating a lighter dinner and no other snack…again looking good:

  • 1,456 calories, 55.8 grams of protein (15%) Vegan Day 5
  • 1,412 calories, 58.3 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 4
  • 1,290 calories, 54.9 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 3
  • 1,168 calories, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 2
  • 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) Vegan Day 1

Dinner turned out right on the money:

  • the last of the edamame
  • brown and wild rice combination
  • tempeh strips…first time for the tempeh…unusually delicious…sauteed 6 strips 1 minute a side in 1 tsp olive oil…beautiful
  • puree’d squash
  • nice glass of wine

could have added the spinach salad, but I felt comfortable, so stopped there…entered the numbers and ‘bingo’:

  • dinner was 717 calories, 35.1 grams of protein (20%)…that’s more like it
  • total for the day was 2,173 calories, 90.9 grams of protein (16%)…light on protein grams, but excellent on my calorie goal for today…sodium still on the high-end of the best range, fats on the low end…rest is excellent though…looking at it later, probably a hair more on calories with whatever olive oil was absorbed by the tempeh…maybe 20-30…no protein, but another couple of grams of ‘good’ fats…all this stuff _does_ add up

…could have kept eating to get in the protein, but was happy with the numbers where they were, and didn’t feel stuffed, so stopped

So after 5 days of a strict Vegan Diet:

Again, I don’t want to get ahead of my conclusions at the end of a week, one thing that I’m clearly seeing:

if you think that your protein percentage should be 15% or more of your calories, you’ll need to fight to get there every day on a vegan diet…and if you want to be closer to 20%, it would take a deliberate (and impractical) eating of vegan protein ‘hit’ food like seitan, tofu and tempeh in most meals to get there

  •  the math just doesn’t really allow it…virtually all easily available mainstream non meat and fish foods are 15% protein or less of calories…so eating anything less than the 15% number, means that you’re going to be below 15%…well below if you don’t really watch it…like fruit at almost zero will knock the bottom out of the average in a meal…or olive oil at zero…all good foods, but run up the calories
  • if you go to a restaurant that the protein ‘hit’ foods are not available, it doesn’t matter what else they serve you, you’re going to be closer to 10%…or less if you don’t really watch it…based on veggies and beans and grains and some leafy greens…throw in some wine, olive oil with white bread, rice, pasta, and it’s going to be lower
  • I can see how a vegan diet therefore settles in more naturally around 10-12% protein…which is the average I noted in an earlier post:
    https://irondaughterirondad.com/protein-amino-acids-my-vegan-plan/

So how much protein do you need?…wellll, the lowest number that anyone talks about that I’ve read is 10%…the lowest number…and it goes up from there…and the number of grams of protein is also important…based on ideal body weight and activity level…one of many posts on the topic:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/carbs-protein-fat/ 
…others if you enter ‘protein’ into the Search field at the top of the page

I guess what I find a bit irritating in my reading…and you may be able to tell that I’ve done a lot of it…is the defensive posture of the vegan diet proponents when it comes to protein…to say that getting enough protein in a vegan diet is not an issue, is just plain incorrect…and that’s without even discussing the tender balance of amino acids, and shortfalls of lysine and methionine that need to be deliberately ‘watched’ and added in a vegan diet to be healthy long-term.

The position would be a lot more tenable if the ‘argument’ focused on how much protein you actually need…if someone said to me this study and that study said that 10-12% protein satisfies the requirements of high-endurance age group athletes, then that’s something that I’d be interested in hearing…I haven’t seen that yet.

Lots of good stuff coming from my Vegan Diet week, and some adjustments to my daily eating routines as a result…we’ll be telling that tale next week…although not in as much detail as I’ve written this week in the my coming out as a Vegan Virgin

…only a Virgin once…so was deliberate in documenting all the details of the ‘first time’…yeah…I know…you noticed…okay okay…I’ll get back to some fun stuff…soon 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition, Vegan, Veganism | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Vegan Virgin: Day 4: Vegan Virgin Diet Guideline forming

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Dad

Be sure to check out Iron Daughter’s Paleo update if you didn’t see it yet 🙂
https://irondaughterirondad.com/hows-iron-daughter-doing-on-her-paleo-diet/

This post is / was written throughout the day (Thursday, Feb. 24). 

Today will be close to yesterday….largely because I took half my dinner home last night, so that’ll primarily be dinner tonight…so with a strong plan for dinner already in place, I can look to the rest of the day for some fine-tuning…an hour on the bike indoors, and with a 30 minute light jog, probably close to 900 calories, for a 2,900 calorie budget for the day…so nice, to be getting into a bit of a pattern, and have a little room in there with the exercise…makes things a bit easier.

For those just looking for the final numbers, in a PDF format:
click here for the details of vegan day 4 110224

Breakfast with half a vegan smoothie and a Clif bar…461 calories and 12 grams of protein (10%)…easy.

At 10:30am , added another Clif bar before a conference call, since I was feeling hungry and didn’t want to go into my upcoming workout depleted…I’ve found over the years that Clif bars are generally workout friendly for me…I can eat them before, and even during exercise…particularly long bike rides when I’m looking for something more solid…without any ‘issues’…and as it turns out more Vegan friendly than Paleo…and a soy base…who knew?…http://www.clifbar.com/food/products_clif_bar/

Vegans do read labels, that’s for sure 🙂

So bike ride for an hour on the trainer…pushed 2 x 15 minute Z2-3 intervals to get the heart rate up a bit without overdoing it…and then a ‘brick’ 30 minute jog / walk…eeeeasy pace.

So after exercise, raw vegetable juice on the way in from the run, other half of my fruit smoothie, 2 slices of Ezekiel bread (low sodium) and 3 oz of seitan with a romaine leaf: 541 calories, 30 grams of protein (22%)

…so my 3pm checkpoint after a snack of a few almonds and pistachios…again looking really good:

  • 1,412 calories, 58.3 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 4
  • 1,290 calories, 54.9 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 3
  • 1,168 calories, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 2
  • 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) Vegan Day 1

Going to see if I can come in under that 1,000 calories for dinner, and still get in the 42+ grams of protein to hit my 100 gram target.

For dinner, I’m going to cut at least half of the rice noodles in the leftovers from yesterday…the 190 calories and 1.6 grams of protein wasn’t worth it…also no vegetarian sushi roll, with 108 calories and 0 protein.  The Edamame at 200 calories and 16 grams of protein shows why the vegan diet likes soy…and the Soya (vegan Tofu) at 105 calories and 10.5 grams of protein…although I still don’t like the bad things that I read about soy.

Excellent dinner execution…in looking at it again, got rid of _all_ the noddles…just not worth the calories, so:

  • Edamame
  • white beans with bread…excellent appetizer
  • spinach salad with the Soya, and vegetables from the leftovers…teriyaki sauce built-in
  • 1 beer + short (3 oz) glass of wine for a taste

didn’t feel overly stuffed, entered the numbers and said “that’s what I’m talking about!’:

  • dinner was 954 calories, 52.3 grams of protein (22%)…still higher than I’d like…closer to 800 calories would be better
  • total for the day was 2,366 calories, 110.6 grams of protein….bam…yes!

Went to the local college basketball game in the evening…’fluffy’ wife still looks great 🙂 , brought our vegan kettle corn, so the day ended at:

  • 2,526 calories, 113.2 grams of protein (17%)…now that’s what I’m talking about!…all the ‘numbers’ once again are excellent…sodium leaning high is the only thing a bit out of kilter

My thinking so far on a Vegan Diet: My Vegan Virgin Diet Guideline

I don’t want to get ahead of myself on conclusions, but one thing that I have found is that in the quest for protein, it’s pretty difficult to run 15-20% of calories as protein on a vegan diet…not impossible, but pretty darn difficult. I’ve written a earlier posts about the correct balance of fat/carbs/protein…here’s one:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/carbs-protein-fat/ 

Here’s the long and the short of it so far:

  • on 2,500 calories and 100 grams of protein (16%)…there are 4 calories in a gram of protein (same for carbs, fat is 9 calories/gram), food needs to average 10 grams of protein for 250 calories, or 4 grams of protein per 100 calories, or 1 gram of protein per 25 calories…so this has become my Vegan Diet Guideline…anything less than that (16%), think hard about eating it…the calories may not be worth the nutrients
  • my main adjustment is that a cup of mixed fruits at 80 calories and 0 protein, certainly doesn’t do it…so I’ve cut back my fruit pretty substantially…I can build it back in on days that have a higher calorie budget…I’ve been looking at an apple on my desk for 2 days now

Things that you think should have enough protein, but don’t really…may have other nutrients, but protein isn’t strong…so think about the calories…there may be better choices:

  • stuff like Guacamole…100 calories, 1 gram of protein (4%)
  • white rice: 168 calories in 1 cup, and 3.5 grams of protein (8%)
  • brown long grain rice: 216 calories in 1 cup and 5 grams of protein (9%)

Foods that barely make the cut, or on the edge…so ‘protein’ friendly and still ‘valuable’ for nutrients:

  • quinoa: 190 calories, 6 grams of protein (13%)…a ‘heralded’ vegan super-food
  • a mixture of stir fry vegetables at 110 calories and 4-7 grams of protein runs on the edge or higher, depending on the vegetables (14-25%)
  • peanuts: 80 calories, 3.5 grams of protein…right at the edge (17%)
  • a slice of Ezekiel bread at 80 calories and 3 grams of protein just misses the mark (15%)
  • 12 almonds at 85 calories and 3 grams of protein, just misses the mark (14%)

the BIG protein hits:

  • 3 oz of boiled down gluten: Seitan at 100 calories and 19 grams of protein…BIG protein hit (76%)
  • and soy based 3 ounces of tofu at 120 calories and 10 grams of protein (33%)
  • and soy based 3 ounces of tempeh at 175 calorie and 16 grams of protein (37%)

So with my Vegan Virgin Diet Guideline, anything that doesn’t meet the 1 gram of protein per 25 calories…think about why you’re eating it…like the popcorn this evening…I’d hit my numbers, in fact with the 900+ calorie exercise burn, actually had room to spare…and it was a basketball game after all 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition, Vegan, Veganism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

How’s Iron Daughter doing on her Paleo Diet?

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Dad

Inquiring readers have wondered how Iron Daughter is doing on her Paleo Diet this week…I did talk with her a couple of days ago, and other than getting ‘dinged’ on the cholesterol numbers every day in her food diary, and trying to find Paleo snacks, she said everything was going well…something about that work thing consuming her time…

…although it sounded a little ‘fishy’ to me…

…so I sent out the same crew that found her in an early season exercise class as reported in my December 15, 2010 post: 

https://irondaughterirondad.com/secret-video-of-daughter-lisas-off-season-workout/

…to find out the ‘real’ story…the disguise did throw off my stealth video group but not for long…ah…glad to see her enjoying the new diet…I guess that’ll be me on Monday 🙂

[flowplayer src=’https://irondaughterirondad.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Iron_daughter_eating_paleo.mp4′ width=320 height=180 autoplay=true]

(full screen by clicking on the rectangle in the lower right side corner)

My Day 4 summary will auto-post at 3pm Eastern today, so that I don’t ‘step’ on this important news flash 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Nutrition | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment