Personal Training

By the end of training for the Marine Corps Marathon, I was feeling very burnt out. I had spent most of the summer running four times a week, fitting in a spin class and potentially one TRX session at my gym each week. So once the MCM was over, I embarked on a "winter workout shakeup" to try to get over the burnout.

The first step of the shakeup was switching gyms. I love my old gym and the people there, but the morning classes weren't plentiful and a new reservation system made it so if you didn't call for a reservation at 5am the day before a spin class, you were out of luck and couldn't take the class. My coworker kept talking about her gym in tysons, with tons of classes and a pool. It is also five minutes from where I work. I realized that if I got up 10-20 minutes earlier in the morning, I could get to the gym by 6/6:30 and avoid rush hour traffic, and then work out til 8 and still make it to work by 8:30. I went for a free trial in November and officially made the switch.

The gym is known as the "fancy gym" in Tysons. It's expensive, but it has a ton of different equipment (including TRXs and kettlebells on the floor) and classes. By the time I paid extra at my gym for the TRX classes, I probably was saving money by going to the new gym. Part of being a fancy gym is a HUGE emphasis on personal training. There are probably about 40 trainers on staff and they are always busy. There is also one always on the floor for anyone to use for a spot, a stretch, or a tv channel change.

I'd been thinking about getting PT sessions but it's always been too expensive for me to take the plunge. Finally, in November I decided it was worth it and bought a 24 pack. With my focus on cardio the last two years, my strength training routine had become extremely stale, short, and uninventive. I needed help shaking things up. And unfortunately, unless I gained another 100 pounds, there was no chance I could qualify for the Biggest Loser to get beat up on by Bob or Dolvett for free (minus the lost wages).

For the last 12 weeks, I have met with my trainer, Paul twice a week. I have found that I am MUCH stronger than I thought I was. I never said no to any exercise (unless I had already tried it and found it to be ineffective/uncomfortable) and learned a ton of new moves. My trainer told me my sessions were among the hardest of his clients because I constantly wanted to be challenged. In fact, in the middle of our 24 pack I was getting annoyed with him because I didn't think he was challenging me enough. Luckily, he then began mixing things up a bit, adding in kettlebells and balancing, and by the end we were back on good terms. The biggest measure of my strength growth was assisted tricep dips (where you use weights to counter your body weight for doing dips). I went from needing to counter 100 pounds of my weight to 52 in the 12 weeks. Progress!

Thursday was my last PT session of the package I bought. We tested body fat percentage at the beginning and the end (along with push ups, weight, and flexibility). When I signed up, my trainer said he could help me lower my body fat percentage by 1% a month. While I have not lost the weight I wanted (I need to get my diet back on track), in three months my body fat percentage reduced 6%!!!! I went from being slightly above average to well within the average range by their charts, and less than 1% from "athlete" according to some other charts I found online! I am pretty pleased with that news and it put some extra pep in my step this week.

I am happy to have some more flexibility in when I do my strength training (I was starting to get nightmares about missing the standing appointment) so I am ready for the sessions to be over. However, I would definitely say the sessions were worth it and I would consider buying more sessions next winter (if I can watch my $$). I feel stronger and have a lot more exercises I can do now. I can't wait to continue training on my own and Paul is going to give me my program to keep following so I can keep getting stronger.

Important Life Lessons

Friday I took the day off of work, did a 14 mile run, and then headed up to Philadelphia. Sadly, we had two deaths in the family this past week, one expected and one completely unexpected. While I wasn't very close to either person, I went up to support the people in my family who were, including my grandma and my aunt. Unfortunately, I have been averaging about one piece of tragic news per week in 2012 involving people young and old which has reminded me of how important it is to live in the moment because tomorrow is never guaranteed. The person who was unexpected was only 62 (my 86 year old Grandma's cousin somehow), and is only 2 weeks older than my dad. They grew up together, even going on a double date to prom (her with her husband of 42 years). All of this bad news has got me thinking about two different things.

First, one of the main reasons I am so anal about working out and trying to stay in shape is because I am fighting against my gene pool. I would like to say that my grandma's cousin was the first person in my family taken from us too soon, but that is definitely not the case. While my mom's family tends to live into their 90's, my dad's family tends to have a shorter life span and a history of diabetes and heart trouble. While a lot of our problems have to do with diet (Philadelphia is not the best place in the world to eat healthy), I have inherited more of my dad's genes physically as well as his love of sweets and food in general. From the time I was in second grade, I have been battling weight issues. If I hadn't committed to going to the gym in the morning after my first year of work, I am positive I would be a perfect candidate for "The Biggest Loser." As much as I want to train with Bob, this weekend reminded me that it's incredibly important that I keep challenging myself physically and watch my diet to keep myself from having the same fate as a lot of my relatives. Luckily for me, my dad lost 90 pounds in high school and has let me keep signing him up for races (completing his first half marathon this year at 62!), so he has provided a good example for me to follow.

Second, it has reminded me of how important family and friends are and that I need to be careful to not let training take over my life. Even without training for a big event, I find myself just going through the motions of gym, work, sleep and all of a sudden will realize that I haven't seen some of my best friends or family in a several months. When I am training for a big event, this problem can get even worse as I will turn down social events or avoid going out of town due to long runs and bike rides. While I will have a lot on my plate training-wise this summer (an Ironman is no joke!) and it's important to put a lot of time into training, I need to be more flexible this summer and still make sure I make time for friends and family because nothing is more important to me than them. I have tons of friends who like to bike and rather than do a team Z ride one weekend, I can do my training ride with some of them. Also, every third weekend is a "recovery" weekend where the training schedule calls for a short run and bike ride (or race). I need to be aware of when these weekends are and can plan more events with friends or a trip to Philadelphia to see my family. With my grandma being 86, I want to make sure I get up there on a regular basis because who knows how many more visits I will have with her. I want to make sure we have as many conversations about the crazy Kardashian's as possible.

So please, remind me this summer to stop being a loser and to make sure I take time to come out of the Ironman bubble. Life is not worth much if you don't make time for family and friends.

Heart Rate Training

This week I did two VO2 max tests, one for the bike and one for the run. Basically, aVO2 max test figures out the heart rate "zones" that you should train with and tells you your VO2 max score, which is an indicator of your aerobic capacity and your endurance. There is a ton of science surrounding heart rate training and while I was resistant to it during my half-ironman training, I realized that I need to get with it if I plan to complete a full ironman.

The test basically consists of running/biking on a treadmill/trainer while hooked up to a mask which measures the chemistry of your breathes. Every minute the test gets harder, by increasing the speed/incline on the treadmill and the resistance on the bike. The tests typically last 15-20 minutes and you go to FAILURE, the point at which you can't go any further/harder for a full minute.

Typically when people take the test, they get zones which force them to slow down. There are five heart rate zones for exercise, Zones 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (a,b,c). Most of your training is done in zone 2 to build aerobic capacity, with intervals done at zone 4 (longer periods of intensity) and 5 (shorter periods of intensity which you can only hold for 30 seconds to a minute) to stress your body & create improvements in speed/strength. Most people train in Zone 3 if they've don't follow heart rate training because it's comfortable and you can go a decent amount of time at that heart rate. However, zone 3 requires a longer recovery without giving you much of a return over zone 2.

For Christmas, I got a heart rate monitor and I have slowed down significantly, trying to hit an arbitrary number in my head of where I think I "should" be. Fortunately, the test on Wednesday showed me that I had actually slowed down TOO much and was training at or below Zone 1 and I can actually speed up (which is thrilling news). My heart rate is just naturally high. This result is NOT what I expected given what I had heard from others.

I also found out that my VO2 max (aerobic capacity) is 45.3, 67% higher than what you would expect of a person my age, weight, and height and is considered "superior" for my age. This basically means I have natural ability which if I can get my form to be more efficient and get the hours in training, I can go significantly longer at a higher intensity than most people. Based on my past races/result, this makes sense to me because I have never been fast, but I can go far and the longer the race, the better my overall positioning is in the results.

All of this good news was caveated with a warning that my running form is "horrific" and I have a lot of work to do to avoid wasting energy and overtaxing my muscles. The coach/tester was awesome and gave me a ton of tips/advice on top of my test results in order to improve my form and overall performance. She was also super impressed with my bike test, saying "I don't have many people who come in here and do that. You're heart/lungs didn't give out and your legs could have kept going, you just hit your limit." I am still not sure what that meant but I like it!

Basically, what I learned this week is I have really great cardiovascular strength and a lot of potential. My body will give out before my heart is overstressed. If I spend the next 8 months working on bringing my body up to speed, I will not just finish the Ironman, but I will finish it well!

Oh, and I also found out I need to eat more while biking/running, but the thought of just eating gels is too much for me. Does anyone have any tips on food (non-clif bars) that is easy to prepare/eat on the bike that doesn't cost a ton of money or have too much fiber?