Training Smart(er) for 70.3 — I Love it When a Plan Comes Together

I am so freaking excited for this year. Two of my favorite things in the world are 1) creating plans and work schedules and 2) training like the dickens. Over the next six months I get to not only train my heart out for my first-ever 70.3, but I will also be constantly creating and adapting my training, work, and personal development plans to fit in a metric ton of workouts, projects, and travel adventures. I am thankful and pumped that this year my race calendar will include several other adventures, including a climb up Mount Saint Helen’s, a week-long bike ride across Iowa, a half-marathon in New York, and a half-marathon in my new hometown.

With a diverse set of physical challenges on the calendar, I have to be even more focused on injury-prevention, nutrition, and overall strength. I have learned a ton about endurance since my last Ironman (word to the wise — a CrossFit membership does not alone make for a significant tri training program). Therefore this time around I’ve put a lot more effort into coordinating my diet, mind-body connection, coordination and balance, and strength training into a comprehensive training plan. Here’s a bit of what I have going on:

Nutrition — I’m doing a Whole 30 cleanse (30 days without dairy, sugar, grains, alcohol, and legumes) to start 2017 and then a modified Paleo diet to continue throughout the rest of the year. I also bought a fancy food scale so that I can try matching my macronutrients to the Zone Diet. While it’s hard to stick with the Zone 100% of the time while training for endurance events (let’s face it, you need way more carbs than protein during and after long training rides), I’m excited to see if this makes a difference in my overall strength development.

Mental resilience, learning, and spiritual health — I am keeping my daily meditation practice and free-form journal-writing habit, doing each for about 10–20 minutes in the morning and briefly before bed. However, this year I am investing in a library of athletic psychology books and resources, which I am excited to share more about in later posts.

In addition to this arsenal, I have the incredible good fortune to have a team of supporters. With Lauren as a training partner and my beau and friend as morning workout crew, I have the accountability and emotional support necessary to stay on track and self-aware.

Recovery — This is an area that I LOVE to spend time (and money) on. When I was training for my first triathlon I had no idea of the importance of sleep and body work. I could barely afford my rent but I had to make exceptions in my budget for regular massages to recover effectively and avoid injury. This time around I have a massage subscription so that I can go every 2–3 weeks. Now that my beau is my early-morning training buddy (more on this in my next post), we are both better at going to bed earlier and getting enough shut-eye. Also, now that I’ve stopped hating yoga, I maintain bi-weekly yoga sessions to stay limber and mobile.

Training — The Training Peaks plan that Lauren and I are following is the baseline for my overall fitness plan. However, I have a few additions and tweaks that I am sprinkling in to keep working on other balance, skill, and and strength training. Fifteen minutes of daily original strength exercises improve my balance and brain-body connection. On TP’s strength days, I also swap in some Olympic lifting drills and exercises so that I can maintain my lifting form even though I’m not going for big muscle development at this at this point. Instead of maxing out weight each week. I focus on super-slow-motion movement and excellent form to get stronger. I am incredibly fortunate to have a brother-in-law who is an extremely talented weightlifting coach and former triathlete to help design this supplemental program.

Planning and time management — I am a recent convert to the Bullet Journal, but I am and will always be a spreadsheet nerd. I love creating calendars and work plans in spreadsheets so I can track my progress. I am keeping a spreadsheet of my modified TP plan along with a calendar of my personal development plans so that I can manage my time and energy throughout the months without going overboard (a habit I am trying to break).

To recap, I have the following elements in my training plan:

• Nutrition — Paleo diet and Zone guidelines
• Recovery — Massage subscription, early and consistent bedtimes, and biweekly yoga
• Mental Game — Daily meditation and journaling, additional study on athlete psychology and an emotional support group
• Training Work — Training Peaks + Olympic Lifting training plans and Original Strength supplemental exercises
• Time Management — Bullet journal, pomodoro timer, and google sheets to keep track of everything

In my experience, these are the five major buckets in which it’s necessary to have some sort of game plan, and to strike some balance, in order to achieve a larger goal. For example, when I first started training for an Ironman my ideas about nutrition and recovery were naive. A a 25-year-old I thought my college habits of 5 hours of sleep per night and a whimsical diet of bagels, scavenged leftovers from office luncheons, and spinach salads would get me through training. I learned hard, and fast, that these two elements are the foundation to a strong training program, and neglecting them can mean unnecessary injury and fatigue.

As a more mature and seasoned athlete, I can now take the time to fully think through reasonable plans for diet, workouts, and self-care. And even better, I can go to the next level now to focus on my mental and emotional well-being, while using more sophisticated time management and planning tools to keep everything in synch.

The A-Team said it best, of course but damn, I love it when a plan comes together.