50 in 50 is D-O-N-E

It's over. Done. Finished. No more.

So my 50 in 50 challenge is finally done with. And not a moment too soon. There were highs, there were lows. And there were plenty of aches and pains. In the end, I nailed 50 runs in 50 days. The breakdown looked something like this:

Total miles: 186.6
Average miles per day: 3.7
November breakdown: 65.3 (19 days)
December breakdown: 121.3 (31 days)
Number of non-running days: 3
Number of two-runs in a day: 3
Average pace: 8:20 per mile

Number of runs under 3 miles: 24
Number of runs between 3-5 miles: 19
Number of runs between 5.1-7 miles: 3
Number of runs greater than 7 miles: 4

Easiest run: Probably the first. Most of the runs were easy. There were very few runs I didn't look forward to.
Hardest run: Hands down the last. I thought this would be my favorite run. I just finished a hard 2 hour ride and I was wiped. I came back to the house bonking and still knew I needed to run at least two miles. It was miserable. I only recall one other hard run where my legs were in so much pain that I really questioned going back to bed.

I have yet to decide if I am going to continue with the program and attempt to stretch it to 100 days. I really like the idea but I fear it will impact tri training too much. Plus I would really like to take a few days off without the pressure of feeling that I need to play catch up. More to come later.

I am Tiger Woods...the Gatorade Experiment

Prime, Perform, Recovery

(cue the music)

I don't generally believe that I am a sucker for advertisement. I see through most marketing gimmicks and tend to go against the grain most often. However, Gatorade's newest product line intrigued me a bit.

I am not really a fan of gatorade. I don't use it in training unless I need to stop by the store. I will occasionally purchase one when I want a non-caffeinated drink in place of water. I think it has too much sugar and up until recently contained high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The new formula moves to a sucrose-dextrose blend, which is a step in the right direction.

The new line moves gatorade from just a sports drink to a line of drinks for the pre-workout, workout and post workout. Essentially it falls in line with how many endurance athletes train. While at my neighborhood Kroger, they had a huge display with each of the products so I made the purchases. I thought it would be fun to workout this weekend with gatorade fueling me.

Gatorade 01--This is the 'prime' or pre-workout supplement. It came in a 4 oz package that resembled an oversized gel packet. I was expecting a more gelatin substances so the liquid shocked me a bit. Of the three, I found the taste the sweetest. I was having flashbacks to eating an icee during the summer. Nutritional content: 100 calories, B vitamins, 110 mg of sodium, 35 mg of potassium, 25g of carbs, 23g of sugar, 0g of protein.

Gatorade 02--This is the revision of their traditional formula. I put 20 oz in a water bottle and rolled. The taste was slightly more bland than the traditional formula. I assume this is the absence of the HFCS. Nutritional content (20 oz): 150 calories, 280 mg of sodium, 75 mg of potassium, 35g of carbs, 35g of sugar, 0g of protein.

Gatorade 03--This is the recovery product. It comes in a 16oz bottle. I think I was probably the most excited about this one. Aside from chocolate milk, there aren't many recovery products on the market that I can grab on the go. This often leads to improper recovery. Of the three products, the taste was the mildest. Nutritional content: 130 calories, 250 mg of sodium, 95 mg of potassium, 14g of carbs, 12g of sugar, 16g of protein.

Thoughts? Well I didn't turn into a superstar on the ride. I didn't suddenly surpass my FTP. I didn't grow super muscles and stop cars in my way. So to that end, I guess the experiment was a fail.

I rode for 2 hours or 41 miles. Temperature was steadily climbing into the 80s and probably the warmest ride this year. Overall I was pleased with the products. I didn't have any issues. My stomach didn't cramp. I felt hydrated.

I do have a few concerns. First, it is still a lot of sugar. 380 calories and 70g of sugar seems a bit high to me. I do like that the recovery drink was lower on sugar. Clearly the focus is on potassium and sodium, the electrolytes. Typically I am a zombie after a ride. I wasn't groggy at all when I got home. My assumption is that I got more electrolytes than normal.

In my opinion, gatorade still fails in the calorie department. Essentially, the company is in a catch-22. So many people supplement their everyday fluids with sports drinks as a 'healthy' alternative. Therefore, gatorade has to keep the calories low otherwise people would gain weight. But as a triathlete, that doesn't work. For a ride like that, my body needs close to 600 calories. That is a lot of calories that gatorade can't provide

Overall, I do think gatorade is onto something and will likely have a successful product. I do think the 01 = formula could be at risk. I just don't know how many people really 'prime' before workouts. The 02 formula is basically their staple so that isn't going anywhere. I think the 03 formula has tons of potential. I think it is marketed right for athletes...those who fall prey to advertising.

If you are a fan of gatorade, I would encourage you to check it out. If you aren't a fan, the products aren't convincing enough to make the switch.

21,000 Calorie Challenge

Today marks the end of the 21,000 calorie a week challenge. Four weeks. Trying to average 3000 calories a day. It was tough. I more or less made my target for 3 of the 4 weeks. My caloric intake went 21,200, 19,470, 20,850 and 21,810.

As mentioned in previous posts, it was much harder than I anticipated. Over the past three weeks, I only ate out once. So that meant a lot of cooking and planning ahead. I feel like there were three areas where I struggled the most.

• Eating calorie rich dinners. I enjoy chicken and seafood. The problem is that a 6 oz piece of tuna doesn't have many calories. It is a great source of protein and fats. Shrimp is the same way. I can eat 2 dozen shrimp but not stock up on calories.
  
• I need to eat larger portions for dinner. The problem is that I feel like I eat enough. I may have a piece of grilled chicken, potatoes, spinach and bread. I feel full. It met my immediate needs. But my dinner needs to be more than 800 calories for me to achieve 3000.
  
• Snacks. More to come on this later. I focused on cheese, nuts, milk and occasionally ice cream. The nuts didn't workout and left me with a 2-300 calorie void.
  

There were a number of positive benefits that came from the challenge as well.

• Protein intake went WAY up. I average approximately 145 grams per day which is where I should be for my body weight.
  
• Smoothies and whey protein helped in a big way.
  
• I know I ate much better than normal. Oddly, I cut out a bunch of crap from the diet. I snacked less around the office.
  
• No eating out. That was amazing. I hope I can continue this trend though it is extremely difficult on the weekend after training.
• Afternoon energy was up a bit more.
  

This was a very enjoyable challenge. I do feel like my diet still needs some more changes as it is not exactly where I want it to be. However, I hope to continue on with a number of these changes.

The most interesting aspect was watching my weight and body fat. The weight slowly came down (163), popped back up (167), bottomed out again (162) and then settled into about where it was before (165). Last week, I had three consecutive days around 162. I do anticipate that after a weekend of traveling, the weight will settle back down to 163. This seems to be the case when I go out of town for an extended period.

The more interesting aspect was my body fat. It started plummeting. And quickly. After four weeks of this challenge, I am down nearly 1.5%. This morning, I weighed in at 7.2%. That was a weight increase but body fat decrease from last week. I suspect this will climb back into the mid to upper 7s by the end of the week.

What do I think of all this? Not really sure just yet. The reason I set out on this was because I thought my body was literally eating itself. I believed it had become inefficient. When I trained, I theorized that my body looked to muscle instead of fat/glycogen storages because of the calorie deficiency. I still maintain that theory. I would go one step further in that I think that is why my body fat is dropping....my body is learning to attack the fat instead of the muscle.

21,000 Calorie FAIL

The past seven days were a colossal failure in my 21,000 calorie challenge. The week, however, does epitomize the struggle I have with my diet. I found myself on the go a bit more than usual. This included traveling to and from Nashville. The failure was further complicated by the fact that Jessica and I have a no eating out contest going on right now. Typically each of my trips would include a stop somewhere to eat. I am sure that would have put me closer to 21,000.

So in my second week of trying, I only hit 19,470 calories. That is a solid 1500 short of where I need to be. Looking at my food log is is very easy to see what went wrong. First, I fell behind in the beginning of the week. Life was busy and I found myself incapable of preparing a solid meal for dinner. Second, traveling really killed me. I all but skipped dinner on Thursday night and ate very little of Friday. Third, when I did eat it wasn't calorie dense food. We cooked ceviche on Saturday night. While great on the protein end, raw fish just doesn't have the calories needed.

The worst part is that my diet was complete crap last week. Too much snacking. With Easter, I think a half of my calories came in the form of ice cream, jelly beans and other candy. That might explain why the weight was slightly up Tuesday morning.

I did much better on the protein front and averaged 138g per day. That is pretty close. And given the limitations of last week, I consider it a moderate success. Overall, I am not noticing any changes. I do find myself a bit hungrier than normal so I take that as a sign that my body is not starving itself for calories any more. I am growing fond of mixed nuts and cheese.

I am determined this week to hit the 21,000 calories. I forced myself to spend $150 at the grocery store the past two days. Last night, in honor of my challenge, I bought some red meat and went to town on some burgers. Protein and calories UP. I also bought some ice cream which should help top me off each night. I will be even more interested to see what happens to my weight over the next week!

21,000 Calories Later

Week one of the 3,000 calories a day challenge is in the books. Wow, that was much harder than I thought. I typically log my calories the next morning but in an effort to reach 3,000, I had to be a bit more proactive at night. For the week, I ate a total 21,200 calories or just over 3,000 per day. My weight was down exactly one pound with my body fat holding steady.

For the first week, I tried to not alter my diet too much. Obviously I was forced to add things to the list but overall I don't think I went out of my way to eat more. I tried to rely on items that would occur naturally in my diet. I ate out about as much as I normal would. I ate the typical portion sizes. Here is what I learned:

• This was harder than I thought it would be. Trying to be proactive on the calorie count, I was consistently hitting about 2600 calories for the day.
• Even harder was getting 150g of protein a day. I tried and I only hit 117 for the week.
  
• Milk, nuts and cheese are my friends. This means planning more snacks during the day. My afternoon snack is cube cheese, almonds, macadamia nuts and cashews. Voila, another solid 3-400 calories.
• Smoothies are a staple. I don't see a way around it. A smoothie for mid-morning snack gives me about 500 calories. Plus, it fills me up!
• Milk before bed. I drink whole milk and a large glass provides me an additional 200 calories before bed. Add chocolate syrup and make it 300 calories. :)
  
• My dinners are still on the light side. Chicken, fish and sushi might be a great source of protein but the calories don't add up. I need more options.
  

What I found most interesting is that I was content at night. This seemed to be about the right about of food...comfortable but not stuffed. Of course, I suppose the real lesson here is that I need to train my body to take in the extra calories. Adding a 500 calories a day to my diet certainly shouldn't leave me hungry but riding 3 hours should.

For the first week, I can't say that I felt any difference in working out. But then again, given that it was post ING and a big week, I probably can assume that the lack of calories would have left me even more sluggish. My body certainly needed all the food to aid in recovery. And I think my body is enjoying all the food.

Moving forward, I am going to make a few subtle adjustments. First, I need to eat bigger dinners. I need more dense food to accompany my meal. I probably need to eat more for breakfast, even if it is just a glass of juice. My focus this week will be not eating out. I would rather devote those expenses to my grocery bill. Finally,

Weight, Body Fat and New Challenge

Too much to blog about and not enough time. I meant to post this blog last week as I ended the magnesium challenge but time once again alluded me. I am still tracking my weight and body fat each and every week. I was reminded to blog about this when I stepped on the scale this morning and saw my weight down significantly (though it is not reflected in the weekly totals).

Yesterday marks the beginning of a new challenge. The timing couldn't be any better for this one as I moved from the base to the build and eventually the peak periods of my training. Training is going up therefore my caloric need is going up. As I mentioned in the past, I frequently track my calories. I am on a good roll right now with nearly 2 months worth of data.

Aside: Tracking your calories is really not that difficult. Most people shy away from it for two reasons. First, they think it is time consuming. The reality is that most of us eat the same foods over and over again. That makes logging it very easy. It takes me approximately 5 minutes each morning to log the previous days food. Second, it forces people to face the reality that their diet is crap. Very true.

One thing that I frequently ponder is if I am fueling my body properly. I never really question if my diet is 'good.' I think I have a moderately healthy diet and don't splurge on snacks. Junk food is very sparse. You won't find it in my home, minus a few remaining girl scout cookies. If anything, my diet isn't diverse enough.

More importantly, I often wonder if I eat enough. Given that I have a very consistent diet, my caloric intake is relatively stable. I wonder if it is too LOW. So this month, I am revisiting the challenge from last summer...to eat more. My goal is to consume close to 3000 calories a day. Gulp. That should put me nearly 21,000 calories for the week. In the past seven weeks, I have only achieved 21,000 calories a week....once. And that was a week of major eating out. That means I need to eat about 2000 calories MORE a week than I typically do.

My hypothesis is that by keeping my caloric intake low, 2000-2300 cal/day, I am starving my body. This prevents it from recovering after a long workout. It also prevents it from preparing for the next workout. If my glycogen stores are not topped off, then my body goes through the fat and carbs as fuel sources too quickly. It then turns to the muscle for fuel...not good. My hope is that by not 'starving' my body, I will actually lose a bit more weight because the body isn't trying to hoard the calories. Counter intuitive? Maybe, but I don't suspect that will be the case.

I actually think this will be a real challenge for me because I like to eat healthy. Most dinners consist of chicken or fish...both great sources of protein but low calorie options. I also don't want the calories to be empty. They need to be natural foods that I would select in ideal situations. That means not splurging on wings and beer. I suspect there will be five staples in this challenge: nuts, cheese, milk, ice cream and peanut butter. I also don't want to cheat by eating out more often.

As a subset of this goal will be my attempt to ingest 140 grams of protein a day. I seriously slack off in this area and often only get about 110 g/day. The adjustments to the diet should aid the protein goal. They will also raise my fat intake which should help will the weight loss challenge.

The timing, as mentioned, is perfect. I will try this for four weeks and see how I feel. That puts me right into my taper for Rev3...an ideal time to cut back the diet. So can someone pass me a smoothie and protein bar?