My Triathlon Journey

I signed up for a triathlon not knowing how to swim. Like most major events in my life, I knew all I had to do was to pursue that dream, one day at a time, and put in the work that is required of me.
I took my first swim class in June of this year and gained a false sense of confidence. I thought I knew how to swim but really I did not because the first thing in learning how to swim is to breath. And I was holding my breath...LOL. Whatt?!

 

As luck would have it, I kept running into Carla, a high school friend who is an accomplished runner, triathlete, and someone people love to be around. She introduced me to an ebullient, driven, and active bunch of ladies that did things I liked to do: train for races, marathons, and triathlons.

Celebrating our Ironwoman FitChick sister Carla!!

My first few times of swimming in the open water was a panic fest. I quickly found out how different it is from lap swimming. I went in the deep end a couple times but clung to the roped buoys for dear life. I was a panicky hot mess who could not wrap my mind around not being able to "touch the ground." I believe I had a mild case of aquaphobia.

Then one day I decided, F/THIS!!! How the hell am I going to complete a triathlon if I am freaking the hell out in a lake's deep end? The swim portion of the triathlon is in the ocean?!?!
 
I did a lot of mental work to persuade my mind that I would not drown if I went in the deep end. I wrote and said positive affirmations daily. I learned that what was key for me was to stay calm and NOT TO OVER-THINK.  Just LET GO.

Millie, Jocelyn, Yvtte, Auntie Melinda, Cathy, Nicole

The turning point for me was when my friend Cathy coached me through going into the deep end. She has this soothing, authoritative, funny, and positive aura about her that put me at ease. And then I did it. I treaded water in the deep end, swam a few kilometers, and just like that my life long fear began to crumble. I was a new woman and I seriously felt reborn. Nothing could hold me back. The following week I swam 600 meters in the ocean and the rest is history :)

Ecstatic I completed my first ocean swim!!!

Kiscelle & I

To my FitChick sisters

I am deeply indebted to you for showing me the light with your hard work, patience, love, and support. I would not be the re-energized woman I am today. A heartfelt THANK YOU to you all!!!

Here are some words of advice I clung to while learning how to conquer my fear of the open water:

Carla: "Just keep coming out to the lake, you'll get there."
Liz: "Get your head in the water, bob up and down and practice your breathing."
Lisa: "Give it all you've got and get out of your comfort zone."
Cathy: "Just do it doggy-style." HAHAHA. "I meant do the doggy-paddle."
Jocelyn: "You need to increase your frequency of coming to the lake to get out of your comfort zone."
Kiscelle: "Breathing comes first, you got this Millie!"
Beverly: "Your swimming has improved a lot!"

It is both comforting and fun to be among like minded people who enjoy the rigor and challenge of training (despite busy careers, homes, and families- we're all MOMS!) We know that training not only gives us stronger lungs and muscles. More importantly our hearts are enlarged, allowing a greater capacity to be fuller, happier, and more compassionate human beings. This zest for life spills over into our families, work places, and homes.

At the end of the day, we make our communities better one sweaty mile at a time.

In other words, DO WHAT YOU LOVE!! :) !!

Happy Friday Friends!

Nutritional Plan: Clean eating

Informative, insightful, and effective

What exactly does it mean to "eat clean"?

Eating clean is basically eating 5- 6 small portions of unprocessed foods composing of the correct amount of lean protein, complex slow burning carbohydrates, and fat.

Good sources of meat should be high in protein and low in fat like egg whites, skinless, boneless chicken breast, tilapia, ground turkey and lean cuts of beef like london broil

Good sources of carbohydrates are oats, brown rice, asparagus, broccoli, berries, spinach, and most greens.

Also, while eating clean, sodium should be cut out (like table salt) and all types of cooking oil.

Since I tested as an Ecto-Endomorph body type from *Michael Thurmond's book 6-day Body Makeover. I am following the book's template for Body Type E.

With my body type, if I eat too many of the wrong carbs, or eat carbs alone without protein, any of these combinations can essentially bring my metabolism to a stop. My goal in eating clean is to eat specific slow burning carbs combined with the correct amount of lean protein equally spaced out during the day to fuel me nutritionally and metabolically to lose a healthy amount of fat.

"The goal of your eating plan is to keep your metabolism moving fast enough to burn fat, while causing it to add and maintain the lean muscle that will give you a shapely, well-defined body so that you can burn even more fat. With a Body Type E, your physique may resemble a tube, with a skinny, bony frame underneath areas of body fat."

Breakfast

3 oz lean beef and 2 to 3 scrambled egg whites

Midmorning snack

3 oz lean beef (or chicken breast) and 1 to 2 cups mixed greens (any type)

Lunch

2 - 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup brown rice, and 1 to 2 cups mixed vegetables

Midafternoon snack

3 oz lean beef and 1 grapefruit (or 1 cup mixed berries)

Dinner

2 to 3 oz chicken breast 1/2 cup brown rice, and 1 to 2 cups mixed vegetables

I adjust this template accordingly to whether my activity level for the day is low, medium, or high and have added 1- 2 low calorie, high protein, fruit smoothies (which I LOVE by the way.) 

Another rule-of-thumb-type template I am following is from consulting with my brother **Erle Dizon who is well versed in clean eating and body building:
 

Total calories per day between 1200 - 1300  
Carbs between 60 to a maximum of 100 grams depending of exercise/physical activity
Protein 150 - 160 grams
Fat 45 grams 




Let's talk results for the past 3 weeks:

From my baseline of exercising alone and not watching what I ate I lost 1 pound, from the Sambazon 3 Day Cleanse I lost 2 pounds, from eating clean a net 3 pounds (-4 pounds +1 pound from 1 cheat meal) So overall, in three weeks I am down 6 pounds. 

Most of all I am invigorated and my running is strong.

*Michael Thurmond is a renowned fitness and nutrition expert who has appeared on Extreme Makeover.

**Erle Dizon has over 10 years of experience eating clean, lifting mean, and the physique to prove it.

Happy (clean) eating and here's to a great week ahead for us all! :)

Nutritional Plan: Sambazon 3 Day Purifying Cleanse

Healthy on the go nutrition is a must for busy bees!

I think most of us have a pretty good idea of what we need to do to reach optimal health. And for a lot of us this means losing fat through good nutrition and exercise.

My husband (Gerald) and I have never done a dietary cleanse in our lives. We tried one that is touted by Dr.Oz and the cleansing juices were sold at Costco.

Many cleanses out there call for a strictly "liquid diet." F that, I say! I find it hard to believe that a mostly-liquid-diet-anything will give me the nutrition I need to run strong. So, in my mind, I never considered these options.

Then Gerald sent me an email about this Sambazon 3 day cleanse. It called for a combination of their cleansing juices + clean-burning, wholesome, vegetarian meals. I was surprised that he was willing to give up meat for 3 days so I agreed to try it. A 3 day supply of the cleansing juices for an individual was $15.

Since my husband is a stickler to details, he wanted to follow the suggested meals as exactly outlined in the pamphlet (that accompanied the juices). As I prepared most of our meals I felt like I took a crash course in wholesome and tasty vegetarian eating. No caffeine, alcohol, soda, sugar etc. We could only have water and herbal tea to drink. All the measuring, sauteeing, pureeing, baking, chopping, packing, then cleaning, drying, putting away tools/supplies, etc. Phew! This cleanse was A LOT OF WORK!

That being said, we genuinely enjoyed everything we made :) Gerald did not feel as if he was getting in enough calories to fuel high intensity workouts. I, on the other hand, felt energized enough to complete a couple short/high intensity runs. Maybe the portions for men should be tweaked a bit, I don't know, but this was our experience.

Okay, getting to the best part here. Personally speaking, I felt super "cleansed." I felt light, de-flated, and energized! On day two, which is supposed to be the most difficult of the days, I went for a short/high intensity run. I think 2-3 hilly miles. 

I felt an energized lightness I had never felt before (not caffeine and pre-workout-induced at that.) DAYMMM! I LIKE THIS!..A LOTTTTTT! I think it was in that moment that it finally clicked that eating good/clean burning sources of food will not only fuel me, but improve my running. HELLO? I was SOLD!

P.S. I felt energized until about half an hour until I needed to have my next meal. The plan called for 6 meals spaced out between 3 hour intervals but I could not last. I ate my meals closer to 2.5 hours apart. Mr. Stickler, stuck to the suggested 3 hour interval between meals...Maybe that's why he felt "weak" LOL.

In conclusion, we successfully completed the cleanse, had our cheat day, and adopted a longer-term-clean-eating-plan (with meat!) that I discuss here http://www.1runwithheart.com/2013/03/nutritional-plan-clean-eating.html :)

TGIF & Happy Eating!

Useful links:

http://sambazon.com/purifyingcleanse/

http://sambazon.com/purifyingcleanse/img/Sambazon_Cleanse.pdf

Strength Training for Runners

Warrior Dash, October 2011

Quick post today on an excellent strength training plan for runners.

I most recently used this last year during the Spring/Summer training season to build the strength necessary for more powerful running.

My personal philosophy on strength training is to always remember that I am a runner and that I am completing this activity to enhance my fitness and not to lift heavily, most especially with legs! I learned this lesson from injuring myself from lifting too much at one point and I've vowed never to make that mistake again. If you want to bulk up, this is probably not the plan for you. If you want a good, overall body circuit, I highly recommend this.

Additionally, I play close attention to my training intensity with weights. More specifically, the effort level of my lifting (from a scale of 1 -10) is a 7-8. In contrast, my runs range from an effort level of 7 to difficult 8.5 - 9. (Warms ups and cool downs are at about a 5-6) I save the all out effort for race day.

Here is a pdf file of the plan I'm referring to from Warrior Dash's website. I personally like the variety of exercises and the gradual build up from Week 1 to Week 12. That, and many running plans also span a 12 week period.

Happy running (& strength training!)

http://www.warriordash.com/documents/training/WD_StrengthTraining_Ultimate.pdf

Fit Plan

Ready. Set. Go!

Sunday began this year's first training cycle of the year. I've been conditioning and base-building since mid December and now I am ready to begin the aggressive training plan I've been preparing for.

The plan I am following is from the November/December 2012's Women's Running Magazine for a 10k I plan on racing in twelve weeks in San Francisco, California (Bay To Breakers.)

Everyone has a different definition of what it means to "train." For me, this means that I am following a specific fitness and nutritional plan composed of running, strength training, and eating small, healthy, and unprocessed meals.

The first time I trained hard for a race was last summer. I followed a summer 5k training plan from Runner's World, strength trained, and ate nutritiously. I was gunning for a sub 30 minute 5k which translates to no less than a 9 minute 38 second per mile pace for 3.11 miles.

I blew my goal out the water and PR'd at 26 minutes 36 seconds (a 8 minute 33 second per mile pace.)

The plan called for a two mile tempo run. For any newbie reading this a "tempo run" is defined as a run that is "done at a steady effort level, usually just a little slower than your 10k race pace. Tempo runs help you develop your anaerobic or lactate threshold, which is critical for running faster.


I was just telling my husband about my run last night and told him how difficult it was running at a 8 minute 35 second pace per mile was for ONE MILE. 

That's the awesome thing about training. If you have the correct plan, are consistent, and a little lucky..you should be pleased with your results.

It takes a tremendous amount of focus, commitment, and determination to train hard. With the correct plan, you push yourself hard enough where it hurts but not to the point of injury. 

You curse the world and yourself during the tough sessions. But the gratification of completing each session is extremely personally-inspiring, rewarding, and addicting (the good kind).

Building strength and speed takes time, patience, and consistency.


Happy Running ! :) !









Sources:
(1) About.com- http://running.about.com/od/runnersglossary/g/whatisatemporun.htm