I start my day with a large bowl of granola mixed with light yogurt. I hit the gym with 2-3 bottles of 1/2 gatorade 1/2 water. This is for hydration along with about 75 calories a bottle. I used to buy 24 oz. bottles of Gatorade, but that was getting expensive since I drink 1 for every hour of training, so I dilute it with water. I am also recycling the bottles, so I buy the bigger bottles of Gatorade and water and mix them up in the smaller bottles. It costs half as much and I am saving a ton of plastic. Some times I feel like this mass consuming machine, but more on that later. After I train, I will eat a protein bar to fuel me for the next 3 hours until lunch.
Lunch is my biggest meal of the day. I am a creature of habit and I tend to find a place that I like to eat and will eat there for a few months, very regularly, until I get burned out on it and then I will move on to the next place. Right now that place is The Corner Bakery. I have actually been going there longer than normal because at first I was going for breakfast, now, I usually eat at home so it has switched to lunch. Anyway, I get either the Uptown Turkey sandwich or the Chicken Pomodori with carrots and an oatmeal cookie. I really love the Corner Bakery because they have great service, food and free WiFi. So, I might extend my usual stay for a few months.
I try to eat every 3 hours, so around 3:30 I’ll have another protein bar or something in the 250- 300 calorie range. For dinner, I usually eat at home and lately it has been peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I am not sure if all of this equals 3,900 calories, but I am staying at my current weight of 152- 154 so it must be about right. Now on the weekends it gets a little more interesting. I have been doing LONG rides of 4 to over 5 hours. On these rides I have to consume around 400 calories an hour. Part of training is experimenting with different sources of calories to find out what your stomach can tolerate and keep down. I have a pretty strong stomach so pretty much anything works for me. I drink 1 Gatorade/water bottle an hour, along with a Sweet and Salty Peanut bar on the hour and an Accelorade gel on the half. You should see the guy at the registers face when I walk up to the counter with 5 bars, 2 large bottles of Gatorade and a huge bottle of water.
Which, I guess brings me to my real point. It gets expensive to train for an Ironman. But even more interesting is the concept of fuel. When I buy all of this food, what I am doing is buying fuel to power my body for forward motion. It is exactly like a car. So I started thinking what is cheaper? Fueling my body or fueling my car?? I live in Long Beach and my studio is about 24 miles away, in Irvine. My gym is in Huntington Beach, about halfway between the two. During the week, I drive to the gym, sit on a stationary bike, sometimes up to 2 hours or run on the treadmill for over an hour, then get back in my car and drive to my studio. I have a real problem with this for a couple of reasons. Why don’t I just get on my bike and ride to work and save the gas? Instead, I pay for gas to get to the gym, then waste electricity (that the bike uses) plus all of the fuel that I am putting in my body to go nowhere. It really is silly. Not to mention all of the electricity for all of those TV’s on the wall. What’s stopping me from cycling to work? I’m not sure. I think part of it is safety. The other is convenience. I sweat like crazy and there isn’t any showers at work, so that presents a problem. Also I have to take my laptop, so I would have to use some sort of backpack. Also, since I am a triathlete, I cross train. So, the gym is very convenient. I feel like a real hypocrite. I know what I need to do, I just haven’t committed to doing it yet. I will say that if we could ever make our roads more bike friendly and more people cycled to work, we could kill two birds with one stone. Healthier people and less dependence on oil. I get pissed every time I fill up. But, until I do something about it, I can only blame myself.
One good thing though, I have sworn off the gym on the weekends and am doing my long training OUTDOORS! I have discovered Trail running! More on that next time. But I will say that I have found my next goal after the IronMan. I plan on doing a 50 mile ultra marathon in August, then hopefully a 100 miler next year. I guess then I’ll just run to work. Till next time.
Paul
