Bumpy 6 weeks till race day

Training has gotten a lot harder since school started. It seems like thing after thing comes up to mess up my plan that had been going so well. I feel like my training is still progressing at a great rate, but it's harder to compare my current performance to my previous performance. Bumps and bruises aside, I feel nervous but I'm still pressing forward.

What happened this week?

Monday: 24 min row, 6 minute run, Roman chairs (back and each side: 3x20x25 lbs) then first TKD practice
Tuesday: 16 mile run (1:57:30 - 7:20min/mile) + 2 hours lifting
Wednesday: TKD Practice
Thursday: Core Craziness Type 2 x 6 sets (10/50)
Friday: 1:58 min run (16+ miles)
Saturday: UCSD Rumble (3 hours of fighting with 2x15 min breaks) + Core Craziness Type 2 without leg lifts (10/50) x 3 sets
Sunday: Biking (1:15) + Core Craziness Type 2 without leg lifts x (1:18) -- total time 2:33.


Weight: min 161.2, median 164.8

Why so much change?
The week started off just a little bit different and then changed a bunch more. On Monday, I did a small workout before practice because it was the first day of newcomers, so I had a lot of responsibilities that made it so I couldn't work out for as much time. I made up for that by working out beforehand. That turned out reasonably fine... or so I thought.

The next day, I was, if you remember from the last post, still trying to drop weight. I didn't eat all that much and I ran with 5mm neoprene socks during my 16 mile run before practice. In short, that run was rough. The net pace was quite good, but my body just felt like it was dead after around 11 miles. I had started at around 7:05 min/mile pace and by the end I was down to around 7:50. My legs basically were trying to give up, but I refused to give in. That mental battle was hard... then came lifting. My friends and coach made it easier to keep on going and pushing myself for the next 2 hours. As we got to the end of the workout, my body was entirely spent and felt like I was actually about to pass out, so I started with the ab workout that was on the ground and was able to make it through to the end.

That meant that the next day, I desperately needed to take it easy. Practice was normal, so I was able to handle it all. My legs hadn't quite recovered, so I decided to do some core and give my legs a little more rest. I had planned on doing my run on Thursday, but my legs wouldn't be having any of that. That plan worked out very well for my run on Friday. My legs felt a little tired in the beginning, but once I got going, I made a lot of mile markers in less than 7:10 min/mile pace.

Going into Saturday, I knew that I had 3 hours of potential fighting that could happen. I decided that I could fight as much as I could and then count it as a medium workout. I was thinking that I could then bike normally the following day... but after the rumble, I was quite banged up. I got kicked in the hip hard a few times, clashed with my right knee a few times and my toes weren't feeling good. I went out biking on Sunday feeling like each pedal was going to hurt a little, but my muscles would likely be fine. When I got out there, each of my leg muscles started complaining. I had fought hard on Saturday and my legs were feeling it. The bruises I had were masking the muscle fatigue. So, after around 45 minutes, I decided that after an hour or so, I would go inside and finish up the cardio with a long core workout. I proceeded to watch football and do core continually until I couldn't do core anymore.

At the end of the day, I feel like I still had a reasonable workout, even though I still haven't been able to break that 4 hour barrier to workouts. Obviously, to get to 24 hours, I'm going to need to figure out how to extend that time. I think that it might be related to how I don't consume any more than 50 Calories during these workouts. I need to start working my race-day nutrition into these workouts so that I know how to make it all work out. I think that my endurance is impressive, so I've still got time to make it all count.

Winning and Losing Part 2
You may also notice that, contrary to the mid week update's tone, I've still kept having trouble getting that weight down. It actually reflects mental challenges that I've been having to focus on training because of school and other responsibilities ramping up. It's more that it's difficult to maintain weight trends when so many transitions are going on. I just keep on getting hungry and/or keep on over-eating when I have the opportunity to. That's a very different mental challenge from being able to keep on going during a workout.

What I think might also be playing a part is those residual feelings that I'm not going to be the top competitor out there. As I discussed before, I'm not doing WTM to win it. I'm doing it for the experience of pushing myself harder than anyone thinks is sane. I'm doing it to say that I have the mental and physical toughness to just keep on going, despite everything. That's the type of person that I'd like to show myself that I am. However, I'm internally competitive so when I question if I'm capable of outperforming everyone, that's hard. Many a very smart coach has said before, "No matter how fast you are, there's always someone faster." I know that is very much true, but for some reason the prospect that it's going to be hard to win WTM is effecting my psyche for my workouts. I question my tactics and the decisions that I've made along the way and that makes me wonder if I need to drastically change things when we don't have much time at all till race day. The proper response to that type of doubt is to shake it off and keep on going with my plan. It's too late to switch anything at this point.

The key thing for me to remember is that I shouldn't even be concerned about comparing myself to others. I should just be looking at my performance and seeing if I can handle the cold and the huge athletic/mental effort that'll be required. If I think about that, I'm quite sure that I can take the athletic and mental challenge that I'll be facing on race day. Over time, I'm getting more and more worried about how my body is going to respond to the cold. Living in California, I won't be able to train all that much with it. I really need to take my parent's advice and run on the beach with periodic intimate encounters with the Pacific Ocean.

That brings me to another pledge that I'd like to make to myself that I've said before on this blog. It is not sufficient to keep on going for 24 hours without helping others. Part of being one of the toughest mudders is to embrace the mudder spirit. We are all in this together and we'll all make it through this together. Even as I'm pushing myself, I pledge to myself to look out for my fellow mudders that are hurting physically and/or mentally. If helping a mudder means that I'm no longer the leader, then so be it. It's more valuable to prove that I can push myself this hard and still show that I care about my fellow humans than to win the cash.

The magical 7

Now that school has started, the pace of my life is picking up and it's getting harder and harder to make the time for training. The body is still feeling good, but we'll see how my mind goes. I've been thinking about the mental game more because of my tactic of all training and no racing. I shall let you into my pondering in this post.

Okay, so what happened to me this week:

8 weeks left
Monday: 15 minute TKD demo + TKD Practice (1:45 total)
Tuesday: 15 mile run (7:08 pace - 1:46) + 1:30 lifting + ring pull-ups
Wednesday: TKD Practice (1:30)
Thursday: 1:56:08 at 7:20ish pace
Friday: lazy day (really: conference day)
7 weeks left
Saturday: Biking (4:07)
Sunday: Core Crazines Type 2 x12 (10/50)

Weight: Min 164.2, median 165

What Happened? That's a little bit different.
If you looked at my schedule and had that response, then you're paying attention. Congratulations. You have earned a gold star! For the less astute of you, this is what changed and... of course... drum roll please... why!

First of all, I increasd the mileage by 2 miles from a half marathon to 15 miles and a 1:38 long run to a 1:56 long run. As advertised last week, it's not really useful for WTM to be able to run at a pace less than 7 min/mile. I'm not reaching that pace in a wetsuit and if I try to run that pace, I'm just burning energy and being less efficient. That means that now that I can run a half marathon at less than 7 min/mile pace, I increased the distance by 2 miles and slowed the pace back down. That also gives me the opportunity to increase the distance more. If you could read through the lines before, I have been questioning my tactic of high intensity and less time/distance. At this point, I'm too deep to climb out so what's happening is happening.

You may have also noticed that it's been a while since I took a full day off. The day off was mostly (entirely) because I was at an all-day conference and was too tired when I got home to work out. I was going to do some core, but I just wanted to go to bed. The powers of alcohol also zapped my motivation.

You also see that I didn't do the full biking that I had been planning. After 4 hours, my legs were burning. I felt like I might be able to push out another 21-22 minute lap, but I wasn't sure how much benefit that would give my body. It was already taxed quite hard and my muscles were screaming. I pushed through it mentally, then gave in and said that pushing that much harder had more potential to cause injury and not let me recover for my next workout, so I allowed myself to give in.

I've also fallen behind on my weight loss. That's due to a few factors. Firstly, I've actually been doing really well... then I got a lot of free food this week from school starting, having that all day conference, then going to a concert with free (read: part of the ticket price) dessert buffet and then Korean thanksgiving (For the record, I'm an inverse twinkie: white on the outside and yellow on the inside). I don't consider that joke racist because my asian friends are the ones that tell me that. My significant other actually says that I'm more Korean than her sometimes, mostly because I eat food that she hates but is traditional Korean. But... I digress. All of those factors lead to some pretty huge weight spikes. But fear not! I come from the future (aka Tuesday) and can tell you that I'm almost back on track.

Those of you wondering what my plans for weight after WTM are. They were mostly determined today: I'm gaining some of the weight back. For TKD, I'm planning on staying a welter weight, which means that I need to fall in the 164-176 lbs (<80 kg) weight range. My plan for making that happen: Thanksgiving at my grandmother's house.

Training vs Racing
One of the major differences between Pak-man's training strategy, some of the other people training for WTM and my regimen is the lack of races that I'm doing. Let's ignore Taekwondo competitions because those are akin to sprinting instead of the long endurance that's needed for WTM. I've discussed why I am not racing at all a little before, but it's time for more depth.

Races are big things. They tax your body and require recovery, planning, money and also changing your training regimen so that you're ready for race day. What you get for that is a shiney new time for a distance and also the experience of pushing your body farther than it could go before, both mentally and physically. There's nothing like the mental push of a race that'll make you go just a little bit faster or run just a little bit longer. However, that all comes at a price.

Training is all about routine and slow building. Your body is great at dealing with small changes over time. It's great at adapting to the challenges that you give it, as long as you give it time to adapt. That means that you're most efficient in training your body if you make sure to give yourself enough rest, but also make sure that you're not killing yourself in every hard workout. There's got to be a progression and you should, mostly, stay within or close to your upper limit. You shouldn't really push yourself farther than you thought you could go more than once a week because... well... that's hard. Your body needs to respond and grow from that experience and the usual easy day that comes after it might not be sufficient.

So, that comes to my logic that I'm not running races to train for WTM. I'm just training. It allows me to build up my schedule according to what my body tells me and also doesn't expend energy in planning for accessory events or feeling the pressure to perform at them (then needing to recover for longer afterwards). Besides helping my pocketbook, I feel like by consistently building through training alone, my body will be as ready as it can be for the actual event. I'm doing a lot of stepping up that's all culminating in the actual event, so I almost feel like I won't be ready for the full blown 24 hours part until... well... race day.

There are many fallicies in this logic, some of which I recognize. One of them is that WTM is a physical challenge, sure, but the primary difficulty isn't the physical; it's all mental. With all of this training, I should be able to push myself for the entire 24 hours, if I can make the mental committment to do so. If I'm not racing, I'm not practicing that mental toughness as much as I could be. More recently, I've been taking advantage of stop lights and little breaks more than I feel like I should... is that bad or is that listening to my body? The only thing that'll truly be able to say if my technique works is if I actually perform well at WTM.

Until then, I'll just keep on truckin' and let WTM be my one shot and done. Depending on how it feels and lots of other surrounding factors, I may try something entirely different for WTM2013, if I do it at all.  I know that one of the first things I would do differently for WTM2013 would be to start hardcore training at least 6 months in advance... but hind-sight is always 20-20.