Dream Big JP: Week 11 Training Summary

Week 11 was a great one. I met all of the weekly goals I set out to achieve this week. I biked 182 miles, ran 50 miles, and swam 5,700 yards. This was my 3rd week swimming and progress is being made. Training has been much more consistent over the past 4 weeks and I'm starting to feel that consistency pay off. This was my 3rd week in a row running 50 or more miles. The goal this week is 60 miles. My body weight is slowly coming down. I was 166 lbs. this week after 169 last week and 170 the week prior. I finally got my body fat % tested at Kaminski Pain and Performance Care today and it was exactly what I guessed...15.7%. I've been tested 7 different times over the past few seasons so I tend to have a pretty good idea before I go in there. I was guessing 15%. My body weight is higher than it has been at that % in the past but I could tell I'm carrying more muscle on my legs right now and the higher weight of muscle was confirmed. My body cell mass is 78.1 lbs. which is the highest it has been in the seven times I've tested. Most of body cell mass is made of muscle...about 60% of body cell mass is made of muscle tissue. The lowest body fat % I've had in the seven tests is 9.3% and that was when I weighed 151 lbs. At that time my body cell mass weighed 71.6 lbs. I've got some work to do. Before my first big race in Ohio in late July I'd like to have my body fat % down under 10. Last fall for Beach 2 Battleship I weighed 154 and my body fat % was 10.7%.

I've been eating the same thing for breakfast every day. I eat 1.5 servings of 100% plain oatmeal with 2-3 tablespoons of 100% natural peanut butter, 1.5 tablespoons of honey, and a handful of Granola added to it. It makes for a very filling breakfast. I wish I could be just as consistent with my other meals through the day. I typically pack 2 apples for school and I have steamed rice or protein shakes at my disposal for when I'm hungry but the food that gets brought to our school and left in the break room often trumps my plans and is what I need to pass on.

My best workout of the week was a repeat of last week but it went even better. I did 3x10 minutes hard on the bike at 272, 283, and 292 watts respectively and after each I ran a fast mile in 5:36, 5:30, and 5:24. I do very little brick running but when I do I try to make the bike at a race effort and then run at least 1/2 mile at race effort. I don't believe too much in just riding easy and then running easy for race preparation unless it is for Ironman in which case the run pace is much slower. I'm trying to get myself ready for early season races which all happen to be short ones until July. My hope is to build speed early to drive up my threshold pace so when I move up in distances to the 1/2 in July 5:50 pace off the bike feels easy. I've been steadily increasing my long runs and rides. Over the past month I've biked 50, 60, 60, and 66 miles at one time and I've run 13 miles for my long one the past 3 weeks. This week will bump to 14. I won't start getting up to 4 hour rides until mid-June and 5 hours won't be until mid-July and mostly August.

I was thrilled this week to receive iHope business sponsorships from General Constructors, Inc., Happy Joes, and Lindquist Ford. My goal this year for the foundation is to get support from 15 businesses. We still have a ways to go but I'm continuing to visit local business in hopes they see the benefit of the foundation and willingness to contribute. General Constructors, Inc. becomes the first "Gold" level sponsor of 2014 and will be on my race jersey come June. Speaking of races, I'm planning to make my 2014 debut in less than 2 weeks in a duathlon. I will then race 4 times in 16 days through the middle of June. All of those are sprint distance races with 3 triathlons and 1 duathlon. In July I will do an Olympic Distance triathlon followed by my first big race of the year in New Albany, Ohio (1/2 Ironman distance). August will be one small race but mostly my big Ironman training block before finishing the season with Ironman Chattanooga on September 27th.

If you'd like to make a contribution to the iHope Foundation you can click either link on the right side of this page. The top link contributes to the iPad portion of the foundation from which we provide low-income students displaying outstanding character and work traits with an iPad. The scholarship link is below it and the money goes to the scholarship fund of iHope. Every student that receives and iPad also receives a $1,000.00 scholarship provided they meet academic, attendance, and character standards through high school. BIG thanks to Kevin and Kelly Pennekamp for making a very nice contribution in honor of our administrative assistants at PV Junior High this week! Thanks so much for reading. DREAM BIG!!