The cost of fuel

Yes, we all know that gas prices are OUT OF CONTROL! But, I am actually going to talk about how much it costs to fuel your body while training for an Ironman. It is amazing how many calories it takes to keep your body moving when you’re training this many hours a week. This week is the longest training week of all 36 weeks of my training. It consists of 3 hours swimming, 10 hours cycling and 6 hours running for a total of 19 hours. I burn an average of 700 calories an hour while training. Multiply that by 19 and you get 13,300. Divided by 7 = 1,900 + the 2,000 or so calories I would normally eat a day to maintain a healthy weight for my metabolism and you get a whopping 3,900 calories a day. So, how do I go about getting these calories in?

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

IronMan and the Special Olympics

Dear Friends and Family

As many of you know, I have been training for the last 5 months for the IronMan in Arizona. The race is April 13th and consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run that must be completed in 17 hours or less. It has been a huge commitment of time and energy that has demanded a large portion of my life. It has been the most satisfying and challenging endeavor of my life. At the same time, it borders on being a somewhat selfish sport in that it takes away from other commitments and obligations such as family, friends and work. I am thankful that the people in my life have been understanding of this and have been VERY supportive. So it is with some trepidation that I ask for any more from you. One of the great things about endurance sports is their affiliations with various charities. Many of you recently donated to my Daughter, Brittany's charity of choice "Run For Mobility" during her recent first full marathon. She completed her marathon and raised over $600, supplying 12 people in 3rd world countries with wheelchairs. These are people that were unable to get from one place to another on their own power. Now they are able to be mobile, literally changing their lives. Thank you for your generosity!

IronMan athletes are given the opportunity to use the visibility of their event to raise money for their charity of choice. All of the money goes directly to the charity. I have chosen the Special Olympics of Southern California. I have learned so much from my participation in this sport of Triathlon. It has shown me that anything is possible through hard work and dedication and that we are all running our own race, no matter where we are in the pack or what our abilities are. One day Brittany and I were doing a long (14 mile) run in Mile Square Park and we saw the athletes from the Special Olympics competing in a bike race. It was then that I decided that that would be my charity. It was inspiring to see challenged athletes competing at their peak ability. No matter what their individual abilities were, they can train and challenge themselves to be the best they can be, and that is a huge win.

A common misconception is that the Special Olympics is held once a year, or every four years like the regular Olympics. That is not the case. It is a year around program with several events throughout the year and training throughout the year as well. There are several sports such as Bowling, Golf, Swimming and of course, my favorite, Track and Field. The money donated goes towards training these athletes and sponsorship of the events.

I appreciate you reading this and your support of me (and my ramblings of all things triathlon:). If you are so inclined, you can donate to the Special Olympics of Southern California through my page at the Janus Charity Challenge website.

IronMan athletes don't get anything from this other than bringing awareness and donations to our charities. We've all been so blessed, and to share those blessings is the ultimate gift. And of course it is tax deductible.

Paul

http://januscharitychallenge.kintera.org/az08/paulboth
http://www.sosc.org/orangecounty.html

Bonking sucks!

Last Sunday I did a 1/2 IronMan simulation at the gym. I had planned on finishing it in 6 1/2 hours. I came close. I did it in 6 3/4 hours. I wasn’t “racing” by any means. You never want to race when you train. Rather, I had a goal pace in mind that I felt would be reasonable in relation to my goal finishing time in April. So what went right and what did I learn? I felt very good through the swim. I did the 1.2 miles in about 42 minutes. I wanted to finish in 45, so right on track. I wanted to maintain a 16 mph pace on the bike which for 56 miles would have me finishing in 3 1/2 hours. I was able to finish at exactly 3 1/2 hours, cool! On to the run. I usually have very good running legs after cycling. My legs felt great for the first hour or so. I maintained around a 10:00 min/ mile pace, which was my goal. So what happened about 6 miles in??? Simple, NUTRITION, or lack thereof. Bonk!!!! My legs felt ok, I just didn’t have any energy left. I brought 2- 64 oz bottles of Gatorade, 1 Power Bar and 2 of those Sweet and Salty peanut butter bars. It was not enough. The interesting thing is that the following day, I was not sore AT ALL. One of the purposes of training is to learn from your mistakes. I learned that nutrition will make or break my day in Arizona. Yes, I already know this, but sometimes I still need to be reminded just HOW important it is. You can have all the fitness down, but if there is no gas in the talk, you ain’t going nowhere.

I will do another 1/2 simulation in 2 weeks and apply what I learned. Friday, I swam, for the first time, the full iron distance swim. Well, actually 200 meters farther. I swam 4000, meters which is 80 laps in the pool or roughly 2.5 miles. What a relief! The swim has always been the intimidating part for me, so I am very relieved to at least know that I can complete it. Now, I will try to do some long distance workouts that are 4 or 500 meters farther to gain a mental advantage. It is crazy to remember 9 months ago, standing at the end of the pool after finishing 1/2 a lap, gasping for air wondering “how in the world am I EVER going to be able to do that 160 times” and “what did I get myself into”. That is why I am training and doing an Ironman. To remind myself everyday that NOTHING is impossible if you are specific about your goals, make a plan, work hard and most of all believe, you can achieve almost anything. I hate to get so corny, but it is true.

Sunday, Brittany and I will be running in the Surf City Marathon. It will be Brittany’s first full marathon. I am running the half. It should be a lot of fun!

Paul

Half Ironman simulation

Which culture is it that takes a nap midday at work? I think it is the Japanese. I need to adopt that schedule. Training an average of 2 1/2 hours in the morning then going to work has really started to take its toll. By about 3:00 I am fried. I get an average of 8 hours of sleep at night, but I thing an hour nap midday might be beneficial for me. We’ll see if I can sneak it in somehow.

Brittany and I did the “OC Half Marathon” on January 6th. It was an AMAZING day for a race. It was overcast, cool, with a light drizzle. You couldn’t have asked for a better day. I was very pleased with my time of 1:57:22. It was a fairly hilly course so I figure that 1:22 over my PR was a good time. This was Brittany’s half marathon run, one month before her first marathon on February 3rd. In addition to running her first marathon, she is raising money for “Run for Mobility”. It is a charity that makes wheelchairs for people who cannot walk. Pretty amazing to give the gift of mobility to those who can’t get around on their own.

This weekend I am doing a half Ironman simulation in preparation for IMAZ. I will swim 1.2 miles, ride 56 miles and run 13.1 miles. I am going to do this at the gym for convenience sake. It may get a little boring on the bike but I will load up my iPhone with some movies and try to pass the time that way. I figure that if I can complete the distance in around 6-6 1/2 hours I should be in pretty good shape. It will be my longest run off the bike, but I seem to run better off the bike for some reason. Maybe because I am very warmed up :).

I have decided on my charity for the Janus Charity Challenge. I will be raising money for the Special Olympics Southern California Orange County chapter. You can donate here. Triathlon can feel like a selfish thing to do, since you spend SO much time training in the pursuit of bettering yourself. So it is a great feeling to use it to help other people. The Janus Charity Challenge enables athletes to do that. Pretty cool!

Well, I’m off to bed and who knows, maybe tomorrow I can get in a nap.


Paul

Busy, busy busy.....

Things have been crazy in my world lately. Work has been extremely busy and I haven’t had a chance to do much besides work, train and sleep. This week will be my longest week of training so far. 16 hours which will be comprised of 8:30 bike, 5:00 run and 2:30 swim. IronMan Arizona is less than 4 months away and I really feel myself getting stronger and faster. It is amazing how the body adapts to bigger stress loads. I lost my heart rate monitor strap for my Garmin about a month ago. I was really lost without it at first, but I think it was a blessing in disguise. I have been training more on perceived effort and I think that it has made me faster in both cycling and running. Good stuff!
It has been raining in Southern California. It’s nice for a change. I have been doing my best to get into the Christmas spirit despite the chaos in my studio. Right now I am trying to make sure that I finish everything by this Friday so I can enjoy a 4 day weekend. Of course 2 of those days will be heavy training. But I really enjoy the training on the weekends, especially if I don’t have to work! I will be on the bike for about 3 1/2 hours on Saturday so I think I can find time to blog then. I think I’ll talk about Christmas and what a great time of year it is, and has always been in my family.

Until then......

More work, training and sleep.....

Paul

Dana Point Turkey Trot

What better way to start off Thanksgiving day, then with a race? This was my second year running at the Dana Point Turkey Trot . Brittany ran the race with me and although she has ran 2 half marathons, this was her first 10K distance race. She wanted to come in under an hour and was a little nervous about achieving her goal. She said that it was more fun doing races before she started setting goals for herself, and I understand. But, I guess that it is inevitable that as we progress, we gauge our progress with benchmarks. So, I said “it is the effort and the training that matters” and not to worry too much about the time. With all that said she came in at 59:31 and she was elated! She looked great and said that she felt fantastic.

Last year my time was 56:56, so I was definitely looking to beat that time. At this time last year, I was knee deep n marathon training and my weekly mileage was averaging over 40 miles a week. Right now I am doing between 20 and 25 miles a week since I am training in 3 different sports. So, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would finish at. I was very pleased with my time of 52:51. I felt really good the whole race. In fact, I felt much better than I remember feeling last year. I guess all of the cross training for Triathlon and the increased fitness does spill over to the other sports disciplines.

There were over 3,000 people at the race. It is a beautiful course along the coast and the race is run very well. My buddy Rich O’Neill was there and he finished in 51:21. What a great day! We plan on making this a Thanksgiving holiday tradition.
After the race, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house with a TON of food and great times with the family. I wish I had some pictures of everyone that was there (around 20) but I did get a shot of the food or what was left of it. Thanks Mom for another great Thanksgiving. Holidays are always special at my parents house.
My training is going very well. This week breaks down as follows:
2:30 Swim
5:55 Bike
4:05 Run
For a total of 12:30

My biggest challenge has been swimming. I never skate on a scheduled cycling or running workout . But, I have to confess that the same has not been true when it comes to the swim. I would try to figure out why. I would get in the pool and just stand there, trying to get motivated to swim for 45 minutes to an hour. It’s not that I am really bad at it. I have only been swimming for about 6 months and I do okay. I learned fairly quickly and it’s not that dreadful, but still I haven’t found myself looking forward to it like I do the other two sports. After giving it a lot of thought, I figured out that the difference has been the lack of a good way to monitor my progress and stats from my swim sessions. So, I bought an Timex Ironman stopwatch that keeps track of my laps and (due to a recent update to my logging software) I am able to manually enter my swim workouts and keep track of my 100 meter splits and pace. This has made all the difference in the world. I love stats and visually seeing numbers. It’s working and I have kept up with my scheduled swims for the last two weeks and I am actually starting to look forward to my swim sessions. Good thing because the Ironman is less than 20 weeks away and I was starting to get a little worried whether or not I was going to be ready. The plan is to get good enough to survive the swim and finish in about 90 minutes or so, saving plenty of energy for the bike and the run. My 100 meter splits are in line with that goal so I am feeling much better about it.

Next weeks training... 14:30. Man this is getting fun. I have never been happier in my life. Triathlon is the greatest sport.

Paul
http://www.paulboth.net/
http://www.myspace.com/paulboth

Blogging with the iPhone

I love technology. I am on the trainer for a 2 hour ride. Being on the
trainer for that long can get a little boring. So it is really cool
that I can multitask and write this blog entry on my iPhone, email it
to my blog and have it publish almost immediately. Amazing! It Is mind
boggling how far technology has come in such a relatively short period
of time.

This weekend is a pretty hard training weekend as far as miles and time. I
an doing 2 hours on the bike, then an hour swim ( I have to make up a
little time for a couple swim sessions that were cut short this week).
Tomorrow, I will be doing an 18 mile run with Brittany. I am hoping
that it is not too uncomfortable of a run, since I have only done a 14
miler in the last couple of months. I am sure that Brit will do fine
as she has been building her miles and this is 2 miles longer then the
16 miles she did 2 weeks ago. She is right on target.

Man, this multitasking is hard. I am going to sign off for now and
concentrate on one thing, my cycling.

Paul Both
http://web.mac.com/paulboth/
http://www.myspace.com/paulboth