A New Kind of To-Do List

All throughout last week I was reveling in the bliss that is finishing 70.3 miles. You all showered me with all sorts of wonderful comments and kind words, and it was heart-warming.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so, so much for the support.

I now feel a little more confident in my swimming, biking, running, and overall endurance. While I’m still a beginner triathlete and am aware that I have a lot of learning left to do, I feel more…I don’t even know what the word is…secure?

But now I really need to get off cloud nine and get back to work. The problem is, I’ve been sick since last Monday.

Backing up – my race was last Sunday. As in last, last Sunday. All day on Monday I felt GREAT. A little soreness in my legs, but I could have easily swam, biked, or run if I wanted to. Being the smart girl I am, I figured my body probably needed a break before I got back into a full week of training. So I rested and wrote the world’s longest race recap while drinking a beer that I had been thinking about since Sunday morning.

As it turns out, the soreness suddenly arrived in an unexpected place. My throat. I woke up on Tuesday morning with my throat on FIRE. It hurt for a few days, and then suddenly turned into this annoying cough/stuffiness. It’s been a week now and while I definitely feel like this cold is on the down swing, I’m still not 100%. Even more so, I’ve missed almost a FULL WEEK of workouts. I rested Monday through Thursday, did some core work and rode 20 minutes on my bike on Friday night (at which point I just felt miserable and had to stop), and then thankfully on Saturday I was able to do my long run + a super super short swim.

Bright and early, my team and I went to Coney Island to swim in the ocean. After one 5 minute loop, my face was frozen (the water was 50-something degrees) and I started feeling dizzy. I could feel the ice cold water going into my ears and when I stood up on the beach, I couldn’t walk in a straight line for a minute. I figured my equilibrium was off because I was feeling under the weather all week, but a couple other people said they felt it too…so we stopped. Thank goodness for Quassy because if this was my first open water swim of the season, the little confidence I have would have gone right out the window.

On Sunday I was supposed to ride my bike for 4.5 hours and run for 40 minutes…but I ended up doing 70 minutes on the trainer and 20 minutes of running. That’s a BIG workout to cut so short. I’ve still only done about half the distance of each of the legs in Ironman Lake Placid…I need to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run a marathon in 8 WEEKS! I’m trying to push the guilt out and remind myself that I need to “listen to my body”, as cliche as that saying is. Obviously I needed the rest and if anything, now’s the time to do it.

What’s that? There’s a bright side? Yes, there always is.

I’m overly well rested going into these last, HARD, eight weeks of training. As my coach said, “say goodbye to your friends, the volume is picking up starting now“. 5 hour bike ride on Saturday, and I am pumped! (For now…I’m sure around hour 3 I’ll be bored.) Leslie, remember when I was concerned about 2 hours on the trainer and you said “just wait”? Well here we are!

To prepare myself for the next 8 weeks, here’s my permanent “to-do everyday or as much as possible” list:

1. Remember to take multi-vitamins daily. My immune system has been hating on me since I started training. This is the third time I’ve been sick since January…once was food poisoning, but still! The phenomenon is explained a little bit here  and also here, and I honestly think it’s because of my nutrition. The jury is still out on the benefits of vitamin C (some studies say it helps, others say the data is inconclusive) but I think taking a balanced multi-vitamin will do me good regardless. Although, I would also like to blame the trains and subways in NYC of course. Yuck.

2. Eat cleaner. Less processed foods. Snack on more green veggies. Eat protein within 45 minutes of my workouts to help with muscle repair. Plan my meals for the week on Sunday. Go grocery shopping so I’m not scrounging for snacks. (Seriously Kara…really need to do this. Get your act together!)

3. Continue getting a lot of sleep. Yay – I actually do something right! On average, I get at least 9 hours of sleep every night. I can thank Brendan for this. He keeps us on a very strict sleep schedule, my friends! We are rarely awake past 10PM. Yes I’m bragging about this.

3. Track my water intake. I feel like I drink a good amount of water, but I could be overestimating. I’m semi-embarrassed to admit this, but I have a spreadsheet for tracking my H2O intake that I print out and keep at work…complete with check boxes and everything. This spreadsheet also tracks the number of squats and calf raises I do throughout the day – for a while (not recently), every time I went to the bathroom, I did 25 squats or calf raises. I tried to aim for 100 per day, all while at work. It takes less than a minute each time! I AM SO COOL AND RESOURCEFUL. I KNOW.

4. Eat more pasta carbs. According to this article, carb intake also seems to play an important role when it comes to your immune system. “Studies show that athletes eating low-carbohydrate diets who engage in prolonged strenuous exercise show sharp increases in circulating levels of stress hormones. As stress hormone levels rise, the number and activity level of key cells involved in immune function decline. However, consuming carbs during exercise reduces the rise in stress hormones and helps to offset the suppressive effect on immune function. Will this translate to fewer colds? No one knows for sure, but given that carbs during exercise have been shown to extend endurance, the potential immune system boost is a bonus.”

Someone check back in with me next week to make sure I’m doing all of these things, okay? I can’t always hold myself accountable. I need help.

What’s on your “permanent to-do list”? What do you struggle with? How do you stay healthy?