Tis officially the opening of my 2010 training season.  I started the year off back on my offical training plan after a month of relaxing and recovering from my first Ironman.  Not sure what I enjoyed most….the Ironman itself- or the excuse of not having to follow a training plan for one whole month!  (Hands down the Ironman itself wins!!!! )

I spent my down time relaxing, sleeping in, went to a movie, visited friends, training 30 mins to an hour a day, and losing some fat!  Yeap- I lost 3% body fat over the holidays!  How cool is that!  Some people thought it was kinda strange it “diet” during the holidays…but I am glad I did!  I don’t have to worry about those infamous 5lbs that can be gained from Thanksgiving to New Years….I actually have come through the holidays leaner and a bit lighter (I am going back to ditching the scale).

January is starting off with about 1 hour of exercise per day and will build to a 26 mile run from Littleton to Golden on January 23rd.  I am looking forward to a big run this month.  I love the feel of being in motion for that long….something I have missed in the last month. 

I am excited for what the new year may bring….snowshoe races, ultramarathons, another Ironman….and the company of many amazing friends and fellow athletes….

Well, I’m officially in my third week of  “weighting”!  I’ve made it for two weeks….Through Christmas and everything without getting off track!

BreakRoom Treats

All those delicious cookies and cakes sitting in our breakroom at work…Didn’t even tempt me!  How cool is that!  Although today I walked in there and thought I’d walked into a bakery/candy shop.  It was a virtual smorgesboard of delectable, mouth watering treats.  My gaze fondly caressed the Blondie Brownies and I had to say to myself  “Nope-Ain’t worth it”.  I got my butt out of there QUICK like!

Not the dreaded scale

I got on the scale yesterday morning and found I had lost only .8 lbs….I was kinda discouraged.  I called my Medifast Coachand we discussed the upcoming week.  I had been hungry all the time last week, and as she expected I had not been consuming enough calories…and therefore didn’t lose much weight this week.  We adjusted my meal plan for more calories and took into consideration the fact that I would begin increasing my training. 

Although I was a bit disappointed- I didn’t get too bummed out.  I have noticed in the past week that my body compositon has changed.  Places on my body (like the back of my arms and legs) have much less “fat’ on them!  I am close to two notches smaller on my belts….and my jeans are looser out of the wash!  I know I am making progess to getting leaner and that really is my main goal in all this….leaner and lighter!

So, dispite the dreaded scale not telling me I’d lost close to 3 lbs again…I’m ok with the fact that my body is changing and getting leaner.  I am going to continue to follow the meal plan outlined by Terry.  I trust that this will give me the results I want….if I do the work.  Hummmm…funny that theme seems to come up a lot in an Ironman’s life 

I hope to report more positive results next Monday when I weigh in again…..I’m feeling good physically and mentally.  I’m not missing all the holiday foods and am actually glad I decided to do this during this time.  One thing for sure is I’m not gaining the dreaded 5-10 lbs from the holidays….

I had heard and read about this thing that supposedly happens to triathletes after they finish an Ironman called Post IronMan Depression or PIMD.

There is suppose to be this big let down afterwards. I mean you’ve trained you’re butt off for close to one year, foregoing all relationships and forgetting about sleeping in until 7:00 on the weekends.

You’re constantly on the go either working or training. You’re life becomes defined by the last big workout you did and competing in an Ironman.

The let down can be huge, leading to depression. Next can come lethargy and the inability to motivate for any type of workout. And heck, while you’re at it, all those delicious foods you abstained from while training, you might as well start enjoying again.

And so the cycle begins…depression, no exercise, bad food choices…and then more depression.

PIMD - Say it ain't so!

So what’s a (newly) ordained Ironman to do?

I don’t know about anybody else but I can tell you what I’ve done to stave off  PIMD.  I gave myself some goals…..

1.  Sign up for next seasons Ironman.  About 3 months before Ironman Cozumel, I signed up for my second IM.  Not knowing if I would actually like this Ironman stuff, but pretty sure I was going to….

2.  Lose some FAT.  After training for a year, and never having the opportunity to restrict calories to reduce my weight in fat…Two weeks post IM I have begun a “diet” to drop fat during this down time.  After consulting with my sports nutritionist and coach, it was unannomous that this would be my only opportunity to do this.

3.  Embrace and Enjoy a month of no serious/planned training.  Since I had decided to restrict calories and now was the best time to relax on my training plan- I have opted to enjoy my friends, movies, sleeping in until 7:00 on the weekends, no 5:00 am Masters swims….you get the picture.  I just wake up and do a half to full hour of  WHATEVER I WANT!  How fun is that!  And the key here…is 6 days a week I do some type of exercise.

4.  Plan an early season Race. Get your first race of the season on the calendar.  I am kicking off 2010 with Rage Long Course Triathlon.  They will have two qualifiying spots per age group for the Worlds Long Course Team.  Now this is movitating me tremendously!  I am motivated to stay motivate!  I am motivated to lose fat!  I am motivated to kick butt when I get back to serious training in January…..You get the picture.

5. Try a New Sport- or get back to an Old Favorite.  I was an avid rock climber for 15 years, many years ago.  I say that climbing is my first love yet I haven’t taken time to climb in about 7 years.  So, in this down time I have dusted off my climbing harness and shoes and gotten out to the climbing gym.  It’s great cross training and I’m hoping to keep it in my training plan once January rolls around.

I have been able to stave off PIMD.  I’m over 3 weeks post Ironman and have not felt depressed nor unmotivate.  Actually, I am really looking forward to January 1st and getting back into serious training.  I have embraced this month off and looked for ways to use this time to my advantage…plus having the goal of qualifiying for Worlds is really, really motivating me!!!!

Don’t know if this will help anyone, but I hope it can….I know this game plan has kept me positive and hopefully lighter at the end of it all!

I made it through week one of weighting and it paid off….2.8 lbs lost in the first week!  Thank goodness for that….

Jumped on the scale this morning scared $hitle$$ that I when I looked down I would see the same numbers staring back at me.  The numbers never seemed to change over the past year, no matter how many miles I ran, biked, swam….But today I struck gold…..The numbers changed and they changed to smaller numbers! 

I’ve been following the Medifast Plan  and it seems to be working for me.  I have never found something so easy and healthy to do.  I don’t have to think about 5-6 meals and how many calories vs carbs vs protien….just grab the meals and go…..Plus I get one huge meal with 7oz protien and veggies. 

The first three days were tough, with the headaches and such, but by the fourth day I was feeling good again. 

One of the things about reducing calories is I have reduced my amount of training.  Ok, I shouldn’t call it training because I’m basically doing 30 minutes of whatever I want every day.  How cool is that?  I get to do what ever I feel like doing for exercise and I need to keep it to 30 minutes for the first two weeks. 

So far, I’m enjoying the food, enjoying the reduced exercize load and loving the results……….I’ll let you know how it goes next Monday!

I don’t know about the rest of you athletes….but I have this problem with self image.  I recently got my pictures from Ironman Cozumel and when I looked at them all I could see is where I was “fat”. 

Granted I also focus on the fact that my body has carried me through 100’s of miles swimming, biking and running.  For that I thank my body tremendously.  But I still end up feeling betrayed.  Why can’t I have one of those ripped, lean athletic type bodies? 

Basically for the 4 months leading up to Ironman I ditched my scale.  No matter how much I trained the scale always read 130 lbs.  “So, that’s not bad”,  you might say-but you see, I’m only 5′2″.  I would get depressed any time I stood on a scale and end up feeling like a fat cow.  Therefore I ditched my scale for many months.  This was helpful as I could feel my body composition change, but I knew I was not losing weight.

And then there was the taper to  Ironman….and then the recovery after Ironman.  Well, you read about watching your food intake during the taper- and I did that….But then you find yourself  lying on the beach in Mexico for a few days post Ironman, finally enjoying the local cuisine….and BLAMO….the weight starts creeping up on ya.  Plus- you’re taking it easy on training and enjoying a month of leisure and “down time”.   So what’s a girl (athlete) to do?????

Go on a one month weightloss program!  Yeap, that’s what I decided to do.  I am currently 2 days into the Medifast Program.   

I have been wanting to lose 5-8 lbs for one year now and never had any luck.  There is that whole thing of making sure you are giving your body what it needs to complete the next workout. So, after talking with my coach and a nutritionist who helped me with dialing in my Ironman nutrition- both of them gave me the green light to go ahead and take the next month to focus on losing some weight (fat).  And I couldn’t agree more!

After training for almost 2 years straight with out any real “down time” I am gamed for taking 1 month of some lighter training and focusing on cutting back on calories.  I have not been very successful at limiting my calories on my own…plus doing it in a way that I don’t lose muscle.  After hearing from a few friends who have done Medifast and how successful they were with it, I decided to give Terry  from Medifast  a call.  After a discussion of goals and how this program would work given my athletic endeavours we decided that Medifast would be a fit for me.  Especially because this program focuses on losing fat and keeping your muscle!

So far I’m liking the program….OK…kinda liking it.  I mean who really wants to limit their caloric intake and types of food  :)   Terry warned me the first 3 days would be tough and I may not feel great, but by the 4th day when my body switches to burning fat, I will feel good again!  As you can imagine day 2 was all about the headache….today- day 3 is better but not great yet.

I’m in this for the month.  No cheating, slacking or quiting.  I really want to go into next season lighter as I am hoping to place in some events for qualifying positions in 2010.  From what I’ve heard being 5 lbs lighter can make a big difference.  I’ve taken some before pictures and if all goes well I might actually post them with the after pictures…..

Weighting and Recovery…..that what’s my recovery period post Ironman is going to be…weighting!  Any one else gamed?