CrossFit Endurance Experiment

After quite a long hiatus, I'm coming back to "eat, drink and go fast" to document a very new and different experiment: Running a marathon and rowing a 5k race season using Crossfit Endurance.  

I had a wonderful 30th year on one hand: I fell in love, got married, became a tenured professor and helped a lot of clients through health counseling, rowing coaching and teaching.  But on the other hand, I totally destroyed my body by shedding 10 lbs to "get faster", training through a lot of pain and fatigue, and racing a pretty miserable marathon that left me feeling destroyed, both mentally and physically. After 4 months of sulking, I needed a serious reboot.

On the recommendation of friends and family, I tried Crossfit at Pioneer Valley Crossfit in May and have totally fallen in love with it.  I went from feeling stale, injured, burnt out, and self conscious that I don't "look like a runner" to feeling energized, comfortable in my own skin, hungry for competition,  and respectful of my muscular build. Thank you for making my life better, PVCF!

However, I'm not ready to abandon my rowing and running teams, so I need to figure out how to train smart, stay healthy, and keep my passion for my sports.  Crossfit Endurance seems like a good fit.  

While travelling to washington for a conference,  I read a book called "Power, Speed, Endurance" by Brian Mackenzie, founder of Crossfit Endurance. The  program involves 4-5 crossfit workouts (including a variety of strength and conditioning exercises) , plus 2-3 sport specific workouts per week per sport (in my case, running and rowing).  The program is very attractive to me because it allows me to continue with crossfit, rowing, and running, and gives me permission to rest and recover.

 I have always had a problem overtraining (running over 70 miles, plus logging a few hours of cross training while working over 60 hours per week and never taking a day off---which I do fully understand is a little over the top) so this will be a huge change in mindset for me.  And I'm feeling ready for that change!

I hope that documenting my journey will result in the following:

1. Keep me accountable...mostly keep me from exercising on my day off and/or throwing in the towel before I give this thing a chance :-) I want to take these next 4 months to give this new training a fighting chance, and not go back to my former self-destructive patterns.

2. Document what's working and what's not: seeing things in writing always helps me coach myself a little better. 

3. Help others who have had an athletic year similar to my last one: I'm sure there are others out there who have experienced similar training cycles as my 2012 Philly marathon disaster, and hopefully this blog will help them consider this "outside the box" training method.

My goals are not necessarily "PR"
 focused, although that would be an added bonus. Instead my focus
is threefold:

1. As my Western mass distance project running club motto says, "Respect the Process". I am going to commit to these next 13 weeks 100 percent and learn some things on the way

2. Learn to listen to my body better and avoid injury: no matter what the time, I want to cross the finish line of that marathon on november 3rd happy and healthy.

3.  Prove to myself and others that I can train and compete at a high level while "having a life"---spending quality time with my loved ones and committing to the nutrition and fitness work I am so passionate about. In the past, my work and social life have suffered during training cycles due to my obsession and exhaustion!

So here it goes! I'll ease in the next couple weeks with conference and honeymoon workouts in Seattle, Portland and LA...then,  July 28 to November 3rd 2013 will be my full force Crossfit Endurance experiment!

Scale Diet

Some of my clients have an unhealthy relationship with their scales. They weigh themselves each day, and their mood, self esteem, and confidence are dependent on a single number. This takes away the whole point of my program, as my goal is to help people improve their relationship with food, become mindful about their food and physical activity decisions, and empowered to navigate their lives in a healthy way.

I have become my own worst client. I have struggled the past couple of weeks with the scale, frustrated that it hasn't budged, and totally lost perspective of WHY I made a weight loss goal in the first place: to improve running performance! My performance in workouts and my energy on long runs has improved immensely, so why am I so caught up with the fact that the number on the scale is still a few pounds higher than the magic number I chose for myself?

Times like these call for the ultimate intervention: the scale diet. The scale diet entails the following:

1. Avoid the scale for 1 month straight.
2. Focus on nourishment, not restriction
3. If measures need to be taken for progress, a tape measure on the waist, hip, and thigh may be used.

I will go on the scale diet for the remainder of my training cycle (April 14th is the end, so that is a 2 month scale diet). Numbers I will focus on are improvements in times, ability to function at my job and at home with my increased training volume, and hip/waist/thigh measures if necessary.

No one should be a slave to the scale. If you recognize that this nice little progress tool is taking over your life, try putting yourself on the scale diet to free yourself!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

I had a pretty big training week this week and have wanted to eat everything in sight. Restrained (to an extent) and successfully completed my 90/10 plan for the week. I'll finish it off tonight with a little cider treat!

As far as weight loss goes, the lbs melted off the first 4 weeks, but now I am hitting the dreaded "plateau". It happens more often than not: We see a nice quick weight loss cycle for a bit and then BAM, the scale won't budge. This is the pivotal time to examine what is really going on and make a few changes. When clients hit a plateau, I ask three questions:

1. Is your weight goal realistic?

It seems that every one of my clients has "the last 10 lbs" to lose. Sometimes this is realistic, sometimes it is not. Usually, there are a few questionsI look at when I make that decision: what was the last time you were at that goal weight, is your body composition different now than it was then, and are there hormone changes/lifestyle changes/medication changes that might influence weigh losst?

For me, the one question I am not sure about is body composition--my body fat percentage now is about 6% less (15% vs 21%) than it was last time I lost weight, and this may affect my progress.

2. Are you eating ENOUGH?

Often clients do not eat enough, leading to decreased metabolism and body fat retention.

For me, this is not an issue. I am putting myself in only 500 kilocalories of deficit per day (consuming 1800-1900 when my needs are 2400), and I am constantly hungry with no overtraining symptoms, signaling that my mtabolism is working just fine!

3. Are you self-sabatoging?

Many times, clients get too lax after they see some results....an extra piece of cake here and an extra glass of wine there do not get added in to the food log. Sometimes this is mindless, and other times it happens when clients become scared of success.

I do overindulge a bit compared to my "plan", but because I factor in my 10% diet failure, I am pretty much sticking to my plan.

So, I will continue on with my plan of action, and see where the weight loss ends up. It could be a fluke that I hit a plateau this week, and I will not hinder my efforts due to one weigh in on the scale. Weight fluctuations happen due to water retention, hormone levels, and stress, and the fact that I weigh myself one time per week means that my single weigh in may not tell the whole story! However, if this becomes a trend the next few weeks, I may need to reexamine my goal.

Plan for the week:

Monday
am workout: 8 miles
Breakfast: Shake with almond milk, scoop protein powder, scoop greens, 1 cup frozen berries
Lunch: Chicken salad with 2 cup raw veggies
snack: gluten free muffin (low sugar)
pm workout: Spinning and lift
Dinner: turkey breast with sauteed veggies and roasted potatoes

Tuesday
Breakfast: Shake with scoop protein, scoop peanut butter, 1 cup almond milk, 1 banana
am workout: 12-13 miles
Lunch: Turkey sandwich on whole grain roll with 1 cup veggies
snack: kale chips (1 cup)
Dinner: burgers with local meat (no bun), slice lowfat cheese, sweet potato fries

Wednesday
am workout: track 8-10 miles
Breakfast: gluten free muffin, hard boiled egg, big coffee
Lunch: chicken salad with 2 cups raw veggies
Snack: protein shake mixed with water
Dinner: tacos with leftover meat, black beans, guacamole, peppers, salsa

Thursday:
am workout: 10 miles
Breakfast: mesa sunrise cereal with banana and soy milk
Lunch: chicken salad with 2 cups raw veggies
Snack: small energy bar
pm workout: spin and lift
Dinner: Homemade veggie pizza

Friday:
Breakfast: smoothie with 1 scoop powder, frozen pineapple, coconut milk, water
lunch: small pbj sandwich before hard workout
pm workout: 14 miles with 10 miles at marathon pace
snack: treat (latte) on my drive to Falmouth
Dinner: homemade stir fry for Dad and sister with chicken, rice and mixed veggies

Saturday and Sunday: Christa's birthday! Will fit in as many fruits, veggies and lean protein as possible, with some birthday cake and pancake (gf) indulgences!

Workouts to fit in: 16 miler and easy 6-8 miler at some point.