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