3 out of 4 ain't bad

3 out of 4 ain’t bad

Plenty of time has gone by for me to recover from my last race, Ironman Texas. Not only is an Ironman (2.4mile Swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) taxing on the body but it is equally tough from a mental standpoint. I invested so much time into preparation for the day that afterwards I needed some time to bring myself back to natural to avoid a dreaded burnout.

As far as the race goes it wasn’t the day I was hoping for based on how my training went in the lead up to the race. I hoped for a better performance and I didn’t meet my main goal. However, that doesn’t mean that the race wasn’t a success. I realize that to have a perfect day a lot of things have to go the right way for you, and there is a good chance that everything isn’t going to line up on the day. That is why I set other goals that are big accomplishments in their own right.

Goal #1. Finish the damn thing, not too many people can say they have finished an Ironman

Goal #2. Enjoy the day, otherwise why put that much time into something if you don’t enjoy doing it

Goal #3. Don’t stop, no matter what keep moving.

Goal #4. Personal best time, came up a little short there, but 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.

So what’s the point to all of this? Goals are a big part of keeping our motivation levels up and can be our reward at the finish line. Maybe your ultimate goal is losing 30 pounds, and that’s great, but what happens if you don’t meet that one goal? Are you disappointed if you lose 25?

Setting other goals like fitting into a certain pair of jeans, lead a healthier lifestyle or run your first 5k, can help you stay on track and keep you working towards that ultimate goal. For me, it’s back to the pool, and more miles on the road because I have a couple other goals I have to meet this year and those goals are why I keep pushing.

 Oh, I almost forgot, one of my favorite clients, Eddie,  finished his first Ironman on the same day and one of his goals was to beat his training partner, mission accomplished. BAM!

Get Moving, Keep Moving,

Ian

One more sleep

It's the night before Gertrude's marathon and the training went really well. She is locked and loaded and ready to run strong tomorrow. She didn't have too many issues with her training and we were able to make minor adjustments as needed. With any plan, flexibilty and coach/athlete communication is crucial. If running just isn't on the cards because of work, family, health that is fine, allow for flexibility instead of forcing a session. Keep the key workouts as the main focus and any other training is a bonus.

We will be posting Gertrude's results after the race along with her true identity. Here is a peak at her highest volume week, 3 weeks out from race week.

Monday- off

Tuesday- 1hr farlek session, using 3minute, 2minute, and 1 minute intervals with decending pace

Wednesday- 45 min easy

Thursday- 1hr 15min steady and easy

Friday- off

Saturay- 2hr with race pace efforts

Sunday- 2hr 30min steady and strong.

Changes vs. Resolutions

Let me start off by saying I am anti New Year’s Resolutions. Not because it isn’t a great idea to make necessary and important changes in your life, but because often time resolutions aren’t kept. I am not talking about resolutions such as trying to be a better husband or making a better effort to improve communication with family members. I am referring to the resolutions I hear about in my workplace, the gym.


The busiest time of the year for me is January to April, because of two reasons. One, because people made a New Years resolution to lose a certain number of pounds and two, because my younger clients want an attractive beach body for their spring break trip. We will talk about the second reason later, it’s a whole post in its own.


Now, setting a goal like losing 10 pounds is perfectly acceptable, but what happens when your target is reached? Do you go back to the same old routine of little exercise and poor diet? What is the point of taking care of yourself for a couple of months?


I have a better idea. Make a strong effort to live a healthier lifestyle. Here is a list of 10 ideas for you to consider.

1.      Try to get more sleep

2.      Cut out some bad fats, added sugar and processed foods and replace with more fresh fruits and vegetables.

3.      Learn new healthy versions of your favorite recipes. See November 20^th and December 11^th, 20^th posts for ideas

4.      Get 30+ minutes a day of exercise.

5.      Try some new group fitness classes at the gym, like yoga, Zumba, or Spinning

6.      Drink more water, less sodas and juice

7.      Work with a personal trainer to incorporate strength training routines

8.      Find a workout partner, someone who needs you just as much as you need them

9.      Eat something that you know is healthy but have never tried before. Brussels sprouts maybe?

10.  Get a checkup from your doctor

Real quick lets focus on a couple of items on this list. First, #1, Get more sleep. This will be a huge help in your everyday life. Whenever I suggest this my clients will respond “I am too busy to get to bed early". Really? Do you need to watch re-runs of Sex in the City at 10:30? Do you really need to watch the 4th quarter of a blow out on Monday Night Football? Of course not, you're better than that.


 Next, #3, Learn healthy versions of your favorite recipes. For me, my kryptonite is baked goods, I eat some type of baked good at least 4 times a week. Cookies, muffins, pie, it doesn’t matter to me as long as I get my fix. To take out the guilt I learned how to make my favorite recipes with healthy substitutes like apple sauce instead of oil and Stevia instead of sugar. It makes a big difference in the total calories for each serving of some of my favorites.

Finally #4, Exercise at least 30 minutes a day. You may think this is the hardest on the list but it is much easier than you think. Some people believe that a workout takes place at a gym or health club. False. Moving for 30 minutes is a workout. You can go for a jog or walk around the neighborhood with your dog, or play with your kids at the park. Just get moving. If you miss a day, no problem, just keep some consistency and you will be fine.

So this year focus on making changes and adjustments to your lifestyle rather than setting a single target. If you still need some targets, try fitting into an old pair of jeans that have been too tight since the late 90’s or maybe run your first 5k. These targets can be part of your lifestyle changes and prove that your hard work is paying off. Stop saying “this is the year” and change it up, you’ll be happy you did.

Get Moving. Keep Moving.

Ian

Marathon Update Number 2

Marathon Update Number2

Sorry for the lack of updates on Gertrude, our favorite marathoner in training. She is starting to get into the tougher parts of her training program which of course means more running. We not only increased the durations of her runs but we are also adding frequency as well. So far she has been responding well to the workload but has experienced moments of frustration during some of your runs. Gertrude would feel great during a run one day but then without any explanation, she would feel lethargic, heavy in the legs and would struggle to hold a decent pace during her next run. I am guessing it is due to the increase in her training volume. So with her feedback we decided to pull back the volume and give her a nice easy week of running.

So far we are still working with timed runs without focusing on actual mileage but we have been steadily increasing the duration. Here is an example what her training has looked like so far. This sample is from her biggest volume week.

Monday- 50min

Tuesday- 1hr

Wednesday- 35min

Thursday- off

Friday- 50min

Saturday- 1hr30min

Sunday - off

 Next week we will start to introduce some race specific workouts to prepare her for race day. We will start out with some tempo work based of her pace at a recent 5k. This doesn’t mean that the workout has to be at her 5k race pace, we are only using the result as a baseline to determine a reasonable pace for her workouts. If we always went all out in our training we would be heading for burnout or worse, injury.  We need be able to train smart so that at on race day we are at our best and we can use the hard work to get us a well-deserved pr.

Get Moving . Keep Moving.

Ian

Dairy free,no added sugar pumpkin pie recipe

Don't let the title fool ya', this pumpkin pie is extremely tasty. I am by no means on a dairy free or sugar free diet, but I am all about trying healthy versions of my favorite desserts. While doing some recipe blog searches I found a few recipes that weren’t using condensed milk which is loaded with sugar, but still added up to 1 1/2 cups of added sugar. So instead, I went with 1/2 cup of Stevia (all natural sweetener made from plants, I used the Truvia brand) and almond milk (dairy free). I took the recipe one step further and went with a frozen spelt pie crust  because I like the texture a lot. It doesn’t seem to crumble as much as regular wheat crusts. So there you have it, a desert that satisfies two food allergies, zero added sugar, and somehow still tastes amazing.

Filling:

1 can pure pumpkin (1 pound size – the “one-pie” size)
4 large eggs (more eggs needed because no condensed milk)
½ cup Truvia
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½  teaspoons cinnamon
½  teaspoon ground ginger
½  teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼  teaspoon allspice
¼  teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ cups almond milk

Mix it all up and pour into your uncooked  9" spelt pie shell. Put it in a preheated oven at 425 for 12-15 min then turn it down to 350 degrees for another 30-40min. It may take a little longer depending on your oven. This guilt free delight has less than 200 kcal per serving if you can get 12 pieces out of your pie. Enjoy!

Get moving. Keep moving.

Ian

BlakeFit’s super wicked awesome fish tacos

I was recently on a trip in California and a good buddy of mine was kind enough to cook up some fish tacos. All of the ingredients were super fresh with veggies from the local farmer’s market, handmade tortillas and regional pacific cod. The food was amazing and not all that unhealthy, but as I was watching my man prepare the wonderful meal the wheels were spinning in my head. How can I cut out some of the unnecessary calories while maintaining the flavor? What can I add to make this a more balanced meal? Well, mission accomplished. Check out the recipe for my take on fish tacos with kale slaw and let me know what you think.

 

(photo courtesy of Tessa Blake Photography)

Ingredients

Little less than 1lb of fresh white fish (cod works great)

2 Limes juiced

1tsp salt

2tsp black pepper

½ tsp. chili powder

2tbsp olive oil

½ large onion diced

2 cloves fresh garlic (minced, diced)

4 cups diced kale (my favorite is dinosaur kale)

½ frozen corn (thawed)

3-4 tbsp. of fat free plain yogurt

2tbsp of white vinegar

Corn tortillas

Directions

While cooking everything pre-heat your oven to 350, you will only use the oven for steaming the tortillas later. Combine lime juice, garlic, onion, salt, 1tsp of black pepper and fish and store in a deep tray on the counter to marinate for 15 minutes. If you have time, leave out the lime juice and let the fish marinate for 1hr, and add lime juice during cooking. While the fish is marinating you can start on the kale slaw topping. To make the kale slaw dressing combine chili powder, yogurt, vinegar and 1tsp of black pepper in a small mixing bowl. In a larger mixing bowl combine corn and kale, then add the dressing and shake, toss, whatever it takes to cover the slaw and let stand so the kale can soak up the dressing. Next, heat a large pan on medium heat on the stove top with olive oil. Pour the fish and marinade into the pan, cover and cook for 10-12 minutes.  Just before you take the fish off of the stove, wrap the corn tortillas in damp hand towel and place in the oven for 3 minutes. This will give you warm and soft tortillas that won’t tear when you are eating them. Finally put some fish on those tortillas and throw some kale slaw on top and go to town. If you happen to have some cilantro make its way on the taco than you my friend are winning.

Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think.

Get moving. Keep moving.

Ian

Marathon training update

Here is a quick update as to what Gertrude has been up to workout wise. For the past two weeks we have focused on improving her general run fitness by running no more than four times a week and no longer than 45 minutes. Also, we haven’t run more than two days in a row and often have days of no running to allow time for Gertrude to go to her favorite yoga, indoor cycling and group fitness classes.

 The reason why I want her to train this way initially is to let the body adjust to running. Pounding pavement puts incredible amounts of stress on our joints, tendons and muscles so it is important to let our bodies get used to the stress of running.  Also, time is on our side. The Wrightsville Beach Marathon isn’t until March 18^th so we don’t need to hit the panic button just yet. However, it should be known that Gertrude was already in very good shape before we started working together and has played sports at the division one collegiate level and there isn’t a need to improve her general health. If Gertrude was in average health with no prior exercise experience I would suggest starting out with walking and strength training with a personal trainer. Below is what a typical training week had looked like for Gertrude.

Monday- 30 min easy run

Tuesday – Hot Yoga

Wednesday- 40min easy run

Thursday- 30min easy run on treadmill

Friday- off day

Saturday – Indoor Cycling Class

Sunday- 40 min easy run

 Training Tip

Notice there is an off day in there, it is important to let our bodies rest. Sure, you can run seven days a week and feel fine, but eventually you will need some rest. Make sure to give yourself a break and don’t sweat it. When you allow your body to rest you will be able to train at a much higher intensity and keep yourself injury free.

As always, pass along any questions or comments and be on the lookout for a super fantastical fish taco recipe. It is uber healthy and tastes amazing.

Get moving. Keep moving.

Ian