Have training, will travel.

Training doesn't stop for life. And life most certainly will not stop for training. So what can you do when you are on the road, on a plane, or basically just very far away from home?


well you can always just get up and run.


Or, you can search around, find a workout that's out of the norm and really shake things out.


I spent 4 days traveling via plane and automobile (no train, sorry John Candy fans) and didn't stay for than 2 nights in the same hotel/area. So what does a 4 day training plan look like?


Day 1
Taking the redeye out from San Diego to Washington DC is kind of my norm for when I head to the east coast. But that doesn't mean my body is used to it. Plane travel regardless of time means you are cramped in a tight metal tube breathing in recycled air for hours. What can you do to combat this?


yoga.


For endurance athletes and the general public alike, yoga has countless benefits. 90 minutes of bikram yoga after a long ass day of airports really helped out for flexibility, controlling your breathing and core strength (something that can always get worked) There are enough yoga studios in major cities that offer drop in classes so you can be picky. And if that's not your thing, anyone with internet access or a strong data plan can get instructional videos for free off the google or that there youtube.


Day 2
When space, time and equipment are all factors you need to rely on what nature gave you. Everywhere I go I have 150 lbs of gym equipment. My body. I also don't need much space to get in workouts that only require me to be in a pushup position or jump a few inches off the ground. Circuit workouts are your best friend when on the road


20 mins:
8 jump squats
20 mt climbers
20 knees to chest
20 sit throughs
20 pushups


jump rope tabata x2


I will admit finding space to do the jump rope was tricky (since it was a balmy 8 degrees outside when I was trying to do this) but I was able to find a spot in a stairwell. I've come to accept looking like a crazy person when it comes to my training. such is life.


Day 3
This was the day I finally got on a treadmill. Again, it was about 8 degrees outside and windy. I'm a strong believer in that all running should be done in nature and the elements but even I have my limits. But rather than plod through a few miles while watching Seinfeld re-runs I mixed it up.


10 mins (moderate pace)
10 mins, increase speed by 1 every 2 mins
5 mins (moderate pace)
10 mins maintain pace, increase incline by 1 every 2 mins
5 mins (moderate pace)


With the increasing the speed, the last 2 mins should essentially be a sprint or damn close to it. This is kind of a go-to for me when I need to be on a treadmill. If you keep the core concept the same you can really mix up the speed/incline intervals to what suits you or your training plan.


Day 4
With my final day I was hoping back on a plane to head home to sunny San Diego. There are several reasons I left the east coast, and single digit temperatures is one of them. With this being my last day, time was tight and didn't leave any room for a solid workout ontop of everything I needed to do. This would count as a recovery day, leading right into the training the following day.


So I enjoyed another cup of tea, sat fireside and relaxed. knowing the hell I would put myself through the following day.


Whether you travel for work or for leisure, you can still get in solid training if you plan accordingly and make the time for it. Being sure to take time to enjoy where you are, and recover so you can keep training hard the next day.


What's ahead?
With no long travel coming up, and my first race of the year only alittle over a month away, it is time to really hunker down and get some miles in on the bike, the road and the pool. I also have some ideas for what I can test on myself during that wonderful time


This last week, I really started to pour over self data. Buying one of those sweet ass GPS watches (that has essentially replaced my brain) I can track a lot more

Teach a man to meal prep...

Last week I went all in, and prepped breakfast, lunch and dinner for the (almost) entire week. Lunch was packaged into its own individual containers and breakfast/dinner were kept in bulk and scooped out when the time came (spinach and avocado added after).


The whole reasoning behind meal prep is to ensure each day you're getting exactly what you need and to cut down on the time it takes to make these meals on the day of, saving you precious time that can be devoted to training. which is something we all can get behind am I right?


I apologize for my basic measurements and the use of the word "about". I was more concerned with just getting the food in and not necessarily the exact measurement.


What went in:
Starting with the first meal of the day, breakfast was an egg salad concoction of eggs (no shit) siracha, and greek yogurt. each morning it was scooped out and slapped on a tortilla with spinach, avocado and bacon. I boiled up 10 eggs so I got about 2 per day (I usually have 2 eggs for breakfast)


Lunch was chicken and sweet potato. I had 3 large chicken breasts which I fileted and grilled up (attempting to season each one differently) and once they were done each was diced up (for ease of portioning and eating). I used 3 large sweet potatoes which were diced and roasted. Once the portions were figured out (about a cup of each) they were separated and packaged up.


Dinner I went basic. I cooked up about 1 lb of ground beef and 1 cup (uncooked) of quinoa which gave me a little over 2 cups cooked. Each night it was a half a cup of the quinoa, about 1 cup of ground beef in a bowl mixed up with some avocado and hotsauce (shredded cheese when I was feeling hungry) and a big bowl of spinach/baby kale topped with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.


The breakdown:
I had breakfast/lunch Monday-Friday and dinner Monday-Thursday mostly because I had a social event Friday and didn't want to be "that guy" who shows up to it with his dinner in a Tupperware container...not again atleast. It made it very easy at nights, my lunch was already set and dinner prep took 10 minutes tops. Mixing up the variety on the chicken was good, and I can eat roasted sweet potatoes forever.


I will say though, dinner got old quick. although I enjoyed the ease of prep, the variety of things you can do with quinoa and ground beef is limited. And at the end of the day, I found myself going back for a second or third bowl of spinach and kale because the hunger is real.


The benefits definitely were ease during the day and night. But the lack of variety got to me by Thursday and I was happy when Friday rolled around and I could go out and eat something that wasn't prepared almost 6 days earlier (or maybe it was, I don't know). With dinner being the set meal, also made it difficult on those tougher days when I would come home hungrier and it was tough to satiate the cravings I had.


Overall, meal prep is a solid idea. I don't see myself doing this every week, but when I know I have a busy week ahead and need to focus on training vs cooking I will be doing this again (with some added snacks in there for late night)


I do need to apologize to anyone I interacted with in the mornings. Egg salad and siracha for 5 days straight does have some side effects.


What's ahead:
Training doesn't stop, not even for travel. I'll be flying and driving around the eastern seaboard for about 4 days this week and I cant take those days off. So, this week I'll be testing out the best workouts and ways to keep training even while on the road.


I hope TSA doesn't confiscate my jump rope.

One man wolfpack

Ever since I truly entered the athlete world I gravitated more towards individual type sports. In elementary school I enjoyed gymnastics, had a lengthy career in wrestling, girevoy sport (competitive kettlebell weightlifting) and finally ending up in triathlons. And yes, while wrestling and lifting I was a part of a 'team' your record and results rest firmly upon your shoulders as well as the majority of your training.


I would be training with a team but my training was my own. Now especially, even though I apart of a multisport club/running group the vast majority of my time training is Hans style (Solo..get it?).


Of course I know plenty of people who cant seem to work up the motivation to get the time on the spin bike in unless they're apart of a class and the only time they put serious road miles in is during the Saturday group ride that ends with a venti double frap. I'm just not that guy. So last week, I decided the majority of my training was going to be done in a group setting (minimum 3 people). Monday-Friday my lunchtime training session had some company. These weren't people who are training for the same races as I am but people I work with looking to get into the gym. (that right there might have been the first flaw in this otherwise air tight plan) but like a wise man once said "there is no such thing as bad ideas, only good ideas that go horribly wrong"


What's the plan?
The members of the group all participated in my daily training (they modified to their fitness level as needed) and followed my workout plans each day. My training plan has Monday/Friday as a light day, Tuesday/Thursday as a medium day and Wednesday as my hard day, saving myself up for long Saturday rides and Sunday runs. One of the biggest problems a lot of athletes run into is going too hard on lighter days and not hard enough on those hard days. I'm guilty of it plenty but have been really conscious of it the last 2-3 months.


What were the benefits?
In a group setting you have people to bounce energy and motivation off of. To keep those RPM's and Watts up on the bike or keeping good form during core workouts. It is also a good way to stay honest. In the pool I don't want to skip that 300 cool down if people are with me. Since I was leading these workouts I also didn't want to seem to be slacking. Everyday I had to be on top of my game otherwise shit, it just looks bad.


What were the setbacks?
Not every training session can be a balls to the wall type of workout, and that is lost sometimes when people aren't training to a specific event or plan. Working out in a group you can fall victim to that "I'll use a little more weight. Maybe I'll do an extra couple of sets too" mentality. Which if it is not on the right day can throw you off the rest of the week. You can also fall victim to the herd mentality where if two people are tired and don't want to do it, everyone is going to be less likely to want to do it too. And if this happens on a hard day (like Wednesday because the days prior were both treated like hard days) you're thrown off. And if people are still tired the following day, they wont push as hard as need be (resulting in a sub par Thursday) and then when its almost the weekend, everyone wants to make up for those last two days (pushing too hard on a Friday)


The findings
In solo endeavors like triathlons or weight lifting, your training plan is your training plan. And unless someone is on the same one (or one similar) it can really throw you off yours and detract from training toward your goal. Granted, you can do your own thing and let the group do theirs, but then it just becomes a bunch of people working out adjacent to each other vs together. It has its merits (I do enjoy my running group) and its drawbacks.


After one week, it was good to be back to training by myself and really focusing in on the goal I set. I can foresee the vast majority of my workouts being solo, but the occasional group swim/ride/run will work its way into the mix maybe once or twice a week. Especially once the weather is nice enough for open water swims.


This week (since I'll be in a course for work wed-fri) I am testing out meal prepping. I generally do a meal plan, but at the beginning of the week I busted out the Tupperware and packaged a weeks worth of dinner and lunches to cut down on time. Look for the in-depth write up next week! I can't see how I can get bored of grilled chicken and sweet potato!

The bitter truth

The title of this post could have been "when life gives you lemons" but that felt too damn easy. Last week, I added warm lemon water to my morning routine.


If you have been on the internet at all in the last few months this trend has made a serious resurgence on lifestyle, health, and even beauty sites. The trend claims everything from improved cognitive function, aids in digestion, to the cure for the common cold (and on some crazy holistic hippie websites the ability to prevent cancer and every disease known to man). Where as I don't know about the latter, some of the former seemed to be legit. All the articles I've read seemed to have the same key aspects though:


Aids in digestion
Helps weight loss
Boosts metabolism


I need to start by making it very clear, I am not a freakin doctor, this is all my opinion and how I felt after adding a cup of warm lemon water to my morning routine for a week. Now that we have that out of the way, lets dive in shall we?

I can already feel healthier!

How I did it:
To prep, I cut up one large lemon and squeezed the juice into a Nalgene bottle, tossed the chunks in and added warm water. I removed the seeds but left the peels on because I am lazy because apparently there are essential oils in the peels. This gave me about 2 cups of water, and I cleaned the bottle/ switched out the lemon every two days for good measure. In the mornings I simply poured the water into a mug, an microwaved it for a minute to make it alittle warmer. If you want to argue that microwaving the water changed its molecular compounds and negated the health benefits (blah blah blah) you and I can take it out back and 'talk it out' later. Once the water was warm, it was bottoms up.


And shit. It tastes just like you'd imagine. Strong lemon flavor and bitter. I longed for country time powdered lemonade, but made do with this.


I adjusted nothing else to my meal plan, my training/recovery plan or anything else. The only thing I did differently last week, was that I drank a cup of this magic elixir every morning.


How it affected me:
If you are a coffee drinker and can't seem to start your day without that caffeine jolt, you clearly have not tried this. Maybe it was the taste, or the intense sour flavor, but I was awake and alert shortly after the mug was empty. Unforeseen bonus right there.


Digestion
They go into depth about the benefits of the acidity being similar to our own stomach acids, producing more bile and breaking food down more slowly. I didn't get bloated once last week (and with a high protein/fiber diet that tends to happen) and lemons are also packed pectin fiber so (without getting into details) I was kept regular and clean. Thankfully all my meetings are in the afternoon
Weight Loss
I maintain a solid weight of 150-155 lbs. During serious race training I'm taking in excess of 3000 calories and burning even more (my last ride I torched 2,172 cals alone). So I eat. A ton. I weighed myself everyday in the mornings to try and get an accurate reading but never dipped below 150 pounds. Maybe over time it would come down, but weightloss isn't a concern of mine.
Metabolism Booster
Packed with vitamin C, potassium and antioxidants it seems like the perfect fruit for your metabolism and immune system. If only it wasn't so damn sour. Needless to say, during a time of year when it seems like everyone at work is reaching for the cold meds, I spent the last week alert, healthy and energized (even more so than usual)


The conclusion:
It definitely was a way to jolt awake in the wee hours of a chilly morning and kickstarted my day (more so than coffee). It curbed bloating and kept me regular almost down to the minutes every day (that last bit is an extreme exaggeration). Seeing how I lack weight to lose or the desire to do so, the jury is still out on that one. And for the week I did this test (and after) I felt alert and healthy everyday.


It might not be the super cure you are looking for or the holy grail to super athlete status, but hell, it can't hurt to add it to your daily routine. I kept this up and still feel its benefits and I plan on turning this trend into a part of my meal plan.


It was pointed out that since I store my lemon water in a plastic bottle, the acid may break it down and I could be ingesting it...I guess whatever cancer fighting properties it had just got negated

Starting Over

In the past I've done this before. Back in college for competitive weight lifting I tracked my sessions like this, on the road to my first Ironman it was the same way and I even did it for fundraising purposes. I think the last one annoyed people the most. None of it seemed to go anywhere.

Why? Because it didn't offer anything.

 I don't have any expert advice to offer, or air tight training plans, shit I don't have endless inspirational pictures with quotes over them. I'm like you. I work 40-60 hours a week at a demanding job. I do my best to balance a personal life on top of that. In my limited spare time during the week I cram in the training. Because I don't just race, I do my best to excel at it. Like you, I pour over articles, studies, and lists like "10 superfoods for every athlete". But it is easy for these trainers/pros who spend their 40-60 hours a week meticulously training and prepping while the rest of us go for a run at lunch and read these articles on the toilet our break. And we wonder "does that shit really work?". That's when I realized

That's what I have to offer.

I love to be my own human guinea pig. Trial and error to see what works for people like us. From ice baths every night, to bone broth and compression socks. What I can offer is an unbiased no bull opinion on fads or trends, diet, gear and all things that go along with training. Every week I'll be putting myself into a new trend or testing out new gear to see how it affects training and results. No sponsored content, no pro athlete experience, just an athlete like you. 

So if you want to see what works, what's a bunch of trainer/pro propaganda and what is done right nonsense. 

I look forward to the road ahead. And what kind of crazy shit I'll try

Let's do it for science.