Becoming an Ironman - Day 70

I am now 70 days in on my journey, and with 65 days left until my first half-marathon, I just hit the halfway point to the first step of this plan. The following is a short breakdown on how everything has been going.

Running

I started this year by following a much more structured plan and learning a lot more about what makes a good runner (and good runs). My lovely fiancee offered me a Garmin for my birthday and, aside from it being one of the best gifts ever, it was also an incredible help in getting my workouts in order.

You see, Garmin has a feature called the Garmin Run Coach, a smart plan that gives you detailed workouts you can follow and that adjusts based on your performance and recovery. It has been instrumental for my training, and the results have been really awesome!

The day I wrote the first post on this topic I had just run my first 9k on this plan, but I didn’t know what I was doing. My stride was completely off, my heart rate was shooting all over the place, and my pace was way too fast for what is supposed to be a base building session.

Now it’s completely different. I learned the correct posture I should have (not that I can do it consistently, but that’s another story), I learned what the purpose of each session actually is, and I have seen marked improvements in both my breathing and my heart rate conditioning.

Also, I learned that going slow on easy and long runs meant going slowwww. Like, really slow, No, slower than that ideally. Yeah, it’s still something I struggle with a lot when I see a huge patch of open road and get the urge to just have at it.

I still haven’t massively increased my distance, with my longest run up to this point being of about 13k, but I feel a lot better doing them, and can see the benefits compounding in both my performance and my recovery, allowing me to go on even more races rather than staying at home injured, an event that was starting to become common in my earlier sessions.

Nutrition

My eating game as also suffered a small, but important transition. Up until very recently, me and my fiancee were doing meal prepping based on an online guide that had all the meals planned out for you, a shopping list, and everything you could imagine. The dream, right?

Not exactly… First of all, there was the common occurrence of us not really liking one of the dishes we made. Since we were trying out all this new things, it was becoming really overwhelming really fast. Second, it took us a huge amount of weekend time to make. Even though we became really fast with it, it still lasted about 4h per session with everything included.

Lastly, the concept of portions and proportions on the meals was dubious at times, with some of them barely having enough for 2 meals instead of the reported 4, and others causing us to store the extras because it was nearly double the dosage.

With all this becoming way too common, we decided to dial it down and simplify. We started making our own meal plans! The idea was that if we include less meals in the plan, set the proportions ourselves, and simplify each recipe, we can have the exact same benefits but with half the time spent. And so we did.

Each week now consists of 3 to 4 meals, with each one serving either 4 or 6 people. Each recipe boils down to the following: one protein source, one carb source, and veggies. Ideally plenty of them, and usually in the form of soup because we can have more variety that way.

We also took care to tune the macros to our exact needs. Both of us are trying to lose some weight, but we want to keep the muscle we have, so all our meals are high protein while remaining rather low in calories. This takes quite a bit of tuning when designing each meal, but so far it has been doable with a bit of time.

The results? Our meal prep time now lasts about 90 minutes on average, each meal is something we know both of us like, and allows us to reduce our fat percentage while keeping somewhat full. This is something that has been a game changer, and we will definitely keep building our recipe database for the future.

Everything Else

Previously, I talked about the 2 biggest changes I consciously implemented and that had the biggest impact. But how did everything else change as we progress in this journey? Not that much, to be honest.

My sleep was already pretty sound, and it has been going steady for a long time. Stress levels have their ups and downs, but its nothing that I’m not used to and can’t manage. Hydration fluctuates, but I never feel super thirsty, so I guess I’m doing a good job.

There are, however, 3 categories that I could give more attention to. My strength training, flexibility/mobility work, and my cheat meals. In regards to gym work, I have been basically neglecting it since I started running a bit more seriously, mostly because I don’t have the time (or body, yet) to do everything and recover in time. It has its downsides, but it’s not the end of the world.

The mobility training does affect me a lot more directly, and I attribute this neglect to pure laziness. In this second half of my training, it will definitely be something I will try to take more into account, because I can feel my joints begging me for it at times, and it does feel quite relaxing once you actually get into it.

Finally, my cheat meals. I have been having way too many of them, period. Once a week I can deal with, but an entire weekend? Yeah, it can kill all the progress you did over the week. It leaves me in a steady state sure, but it doesn’t lead me anywhere. So, in order to reach my next level, some sacrifices in this range will have to be made. I just need to find a way to properly manage this.

Signing Off

So yeah, this is what I have been up to. Much has been done in the way of progress, but the journey is still plenty long and with much to improve. I have the blueprint, now I just need to live it. Day by day. And eventually, I will be ringing that bell and hearing the awesome words shouting out that I have become, in fact, an Ironman. See you on the next one!

Sic Parvis Magna

— Motto of Sir Francis Drake