4 Days off, lots to do

So I thought that I'd start this blog off with a music video. If this works like I hope it will, then every so often I will post a music video of something that I have been listening to that helps keep me going, or something that I'm just really loving at the moment. So here's the first installment. It's from a band called Volbeat with the song A Warrior's Call. Enjoy

                 Pretty rad huh? Yeah, I think so to. Today saw me do something that I will probably have to do more of when I'm at home, and that is doing my endurance workout and my S&C back to back instead of a couple of hours apart. While I'm at home, it's hard to get out to the garage, or outside in general to get my workout in. So right now, I figure that I'm all dressed up and ready to go, might as well just hit both and get them over with. I think I will start with the endurance portion and then move onto the S&C, but it will ultimately depend on what the 2 workouts are.

                My 4 days off started today, and I think that this 4 day is going to be a long one. We will be attempting to get the daughter to sleep through the night. Which means, there will be a lot of lost sleep while going into her room and getting her to lay back down and used to not having mommy come in to help her get back to sleep. This is critical for us because our trip to Seattle for the Fire Fighter stair climb is next month, and Shawna and I do not want to have to take her with us. We'd like a nice weekend without the kids, but feel terrible about leaving her to wake in the night when grandma is watching  her. So it's make or break time. We've done this with the boys too when we felt that it was time for them to get through the night. The first 2 nights are horrible, for everyone, but night 3 is usually way better, and by night 4 we have a solid sleeper. That's the goal again for us. I'm thinking that the rest of the training this week is going to suffer because of the sleep programming (I guess you can call it that?) but we'll see how it goes. 5hour energy might be a great friend the next few days.

              On the triathlon front, I started talking to a swim coach that I see a lot over at the Rec Center. Usually he's coaching kids and swim teams and doing his thing. The other morning I said Morning Coach as I was waiting for my next round to start. He said good morning and went about his business waiting for his student to arrive. Later he asked what I was training for so we talked for a min or two and that was it. Hopefully I will be able to hit him up for some pointers down the line on technique. I am continuing to try and breath from my left as it helps my left arm entrance and pull phase of my stroke. Today on the run, I was really working hard at keeping a consistent pace. I did 8 rounds of 200m sprints with a rest in between. CFE wants you to use this as a speed drill, but also as a time to learn how to pace yourself; so they want you to keep your times within 3-5 sec usually. Which is actually more difficult than it sounds. Trying to keep a fast sprint within 3-5 for 8 rounds. It's a tightrope walk of running fast enough to stress yourself, but not soo fast as to not be able to replicate what you just did over and over. They don't want to see you crush yourself on the first 2 or 3, and then have crap times for the 5-6 other rounds. But this time, I was able to keep my times within  2-2.5 seconds, with the slowest rounds being the first 2.

         I've been starting the research on the nutrition front, and it's mind boggling at times. So far, I have the nutritional info and prices for both the Pacific Health labs (Accelerade) and Gu products. I also got a call back from the people at CarboPro who have graciously given me the opportunity to get dealer pricing on their products for myself and all the guys at work. So far, I gotta say that I'm leaning more toward the Gu product line right now. CarboPro's downside is the fact that they don't do any gels for the run portion. Accelerade has the 4:1 carb:protein ratio that I've read in multiple places and being very beneficial for endurance performance, especially over just the drinks that have carbs. But, as I was talking with my buddy Todd who uses Accelerade, he told me that it gets really foamy, and doesn't mix well. Which is not going to work for me as I have no patience for that crap. Then we talked about possibly using CarboPro with a non-flavored whey protein powder and essentially making our own Accelerade and hoping that it doesn't have the foam or mixing issues. I am also needing to research the reasoning for the benefits of the protein. If it's the amino acids in the protein that is the reason behind the increase in endurance, then the Gu Roctane drink might be the ticket. It's got amino acids in the mix, and in the gels as well. I like the Gu products because of the amino acids, the use of both fructose and maltodextrine (short and long chain carbs)Gu's recovery drink is a little short on the protein side, but CarboPro has an interesting protein shake that I might try, and the Pacific Health Labs has a recovery drink that they call EnduroxR4 that I might have to check out as well.
So much research to continue on, and eventually, I will pick something and just go for it. Details to follow, but for now good night. The little one will be waking soon I'm sure.