Big Ol' Update

Protein Power

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I will look into Chris Charmichael's book, "Food for Fitness" (Thanks Jess), also special thanks to Commodore for his insight into this, and a for taking the time to correspond further on the issue.

Here's where we're at then on this thing: I may be getting more than enough protein already in my daily diet. My daily diet may/may not be high enough in carbs, and may/may not be high enough in calories. The only way to be sure, is to measure everything that goes in.

I'm going to commit to a 3 day log of food consumption, and try to take note of what goes in. That, combined with some baseline data: Body weight, % Body fat, BMR, Average daily exercise - coupled with my goals and some nutri-geek formulas, will help be better understand where I'm at.

Someone else provided me a link that discussed when calories, carbs and proteins are best taken throughout the day. I hope to learn more about that too.

Thursday's totals, were approximately 2000 Cals, 55.3g Fat, 347.3g Carbs, 71.1g Protein (without taking a Protein shake). Friday and the weekend, were a washout as far as tracking goes, but I'm back on the ball today.

ACL Update

It's been 2 weeks since my wife went under the knife. Frankly, I'm amazed at her progress. There was a little concern at first because she was experiencing cramping in her calf - this is often the first sign of a blood clot. However, it turned out not to be a clot, but rather, the knee immobilizer brace was cutting into her calf. Physio started last Friday, and is going well. Guylaine is a fighter, and wants to get back to 100% as soon as possible. Her therapist, says that she likes working with ACL patients the most, because, usually they're young, athletic people, and are totally motivated to get healed. The therapist explained that it's rewarding for her, because she can push her patients, and know that they will respond.

Make that 6 months not 3

The doctor first reported that Guylaine could be back to running in 3 months. Well, the physio therapist had to break the bad news that it would more likely be six months! But, she'll be starting on the bike this week. (Slowly of course).

Oh, and say goodbye to the Medial Miniscus too

When she had gone back to see the surgeon, they showed her the pictures of her knee. It turns out that not only was there no sign of an ACL, but also the medial miniscus (the spongy stuff that prevents bone-on-bone contact), was all but gone too. Unfortunately, short of a complete knee replacement, there's no cure for that. The main draw back is a higher chance of arthritis - when it will set in - no one knows, could be in 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 years time. Maybe there'll be a magic pill for that by then.

Last of the Masters (For a while)

I had my last Thursday night masters swim session for a while. A scheduling conflict for the new year, has me at home on Thursday evenings. Not to worry, this gives me a chance to "Get back in the ring". A couple of years ago, I took up boxing and absolutely fell in love with it. I had to give it up to make room in my schedule for swimming. I'll be boxing on Wednesday nights now, and can't wait to get back at it. This is the most physically demanding workout I have ever had. Frankly, it was boxing that gave me the confidence to try triathlon. ...and no, this ain't your mamma's boxercise class!

The swim workout was a good one to end the season with. After first glance, I said, "Hey where's the sprints?". Don't worry, you'll find out.

400 Easy
Pull Buoy: 2 x (100 Free, 100 IM, 100 Free)
Kick: 2 x (100 Easy/Med/Med/Easy, 50 Hard, 100 Choice)
Drill: 50 Bk, 50 Br, 50 Free
150 Easy
3 x (200 Long arm strokes, 200 IM, 200 Build up)
25 scull, 50 kick, 25 scull
400 Build
6 x 100 on 2:00 (subtract 5 seconds per set) ***
6 x 50 1,4 Bk/Fr; 2,5 Br/Fr; 3,6 Fly/Fr
300 Cool Down.
------------------------------
4,100 Yds Total (3,750 meters)
==============================

*** This 6x100 series was in lieu of sprints. It was posted as, "on 2:15 or 2:00, subtract 5 seconds per set", in other words if you took the 2:15 option, your 2nd 100 would be on 2:10, next on 2:05, 2:00, 1:55 etc...

I said, "Well, I've never been one to take the easy route, so lets go for 2:00".

Hélène took my splits:
1 - 2:00 - 1:33 (went way too fast, had 27 seconds to rest before next one)
2 - 1:55 - 1:30 (again, too fast, but it felt good)
3 - 1:50 - 1:32
4 - 1:45 - 1:36
5 - 1:40 - 1:40 (oops, no time to rest, get out there again! Hello, meet Mr. Lactic Acid)
6 - 1:35 - 1:37

And Finally, The Sunday Run in -10C

We were in Cornwall again over the weekend, that meant, my Sunday run would be on the Jelly Bean Road. This road is a 1.75K out and back, and runs East to West. Thankfully, it was plowed, and ice-free. It was fairly windy on Sunday, the wind was blowing in my face on the way out, giving a brutal wind-chill effect. But, the run "back in" was wind-free. I had originally only planned on doing 3 loops (5.25K), but ended up doing 5 (8.75K). I was running slowly (5:57/km avg ~ 9:34/mi), but I felt like I could run forever. I had to force myself to stop because I knew they'd be waiting for me back at the house to start lunch.

The way the wind was blowing made for an interesting setup, because I'd challenge myself to add another loop, knowing that the "out" part would be hard, but once the "out" was done, the "back" part would be easy (and would be warmer too!).