momentum

I speak with my coach about once a week and I love that. Jesse is a terrific teacher and I love to learn. The nutritional side of my training is going very well. Sometimes people will tell me that Jesse's core diet is a lot of work. That it's time consuming to plan out, etc etc.

Well..... so is training. You do all this work to swim bike and run. You download this, analyze that, you schedule races..... why not add int he nutrition component to seal the deal? In all honesty this is not a diet, it's not an invention, it's been around since the caveman. Jesse has really honed it to fit the athlete. It fits me great. I am leaner and more importantly I am healthier than I have been in years.

Now about the coffee..... with this plan we use coffee wisely. We use it for a purpose. So I didn't give it up.... I merely change the time of when I drink it to enhance my workouts.

The biggest difference I have noticed is the nutrition I use during training. I will admit, and I don't coach this but I tend to eat nothing during training. I'm cheap, I can be lazy, I want to burn calories.

Now.... I don't go over 40 minutes without taking in carbohydrates. We speak in terms of carbohydrates and not calories. The difference is that my workouts are more productive, I am recovering better, I am making gains.

I took off my Garmin a few weeks ago to force myself to relearn my heart rate again. I didn't want to look at pace. For a few years I trained strictly by pace and my E Pace was 9 minute miles. Loved it. Felt great and ran a lot.

In six weeks time, my E pace has dropped to..... well 8:13 on one run and 8:18 on the second run at a heart rate of zone I (which in the Friel world would be zone 2..... aerobic). Before I even write that down I should see how my workouts go tomorrow..... I am a bit superstitious.

I am excited. I am ready. I am feeling better than ever. I get to race in three weeks.

For a long time after I won that first Musselman in 2004 (4:48) I got very hung up in the concept that despite being under 5 hours for years...... since then I have not broken that barrier. It bothered me a great deal until last Sept when I made the decision to just let it go.

And I let it go.

That slate got wiped clean. We will be under 5 hours very soon. We've set a goal for the Musselman, and I will let you know what that is after I finish.

I am trying new things. New coach, new nutrition, new system, new everything and it feels so good.

Right now this is what I call fun. Tracking, measuring, caloric management. Call me sick but right now this is so much fun. I am chomping at the bit to get on that starting line and put all this to use. We have a race plan in more ways than one and I can't wait to take that exam.

My posts on sports bras and gi issues are coming! I promise!

Happy 4th of July!