Author: davecriswell

With temps in the 70′ I was able to get a longish ride in with Brett from GSTC. We got about 30 miles in and it was still light out when we got back! Overall it was a decent pace with periods of chatting and others at a tempo pace.

Coming back towards Durham on Durham Point Road, the ride was beautiful along Great Bay. There was hardly any traffic and the roads are smooth for the most part.

We hadn’t seen any cars for probably ten minutes and Brett and I were riding side by side. There was a Saab coming our direction which is where my focus was when a deer came bolting out if front of us from our side of the road. It scooted also in front of the Saab and my eyes were following it into the woods when I heard Brett’s voice from behind me. When I turned my focus back to the road there was a 2nd deer following into the road. I slammed on my brakes but was able to stay upright. The deer just about lost its back leg footing on the road surface but eventually regained control and slipped into the woods.

Whew!

Up to that point and after that point the ride was pretty uneventful. I fortunately have not had too many close calls like that. But when they happen, it certain makes you stop and take pause.

And it wasn’t enough to keep me off the bike, temps are forecast for the 70’s again!

Run Faster: Six Keys

I felt strong today during my workouts. This week has double workouts every day and is the last full week before a recovery week.

This morning was a 5 mile run. I felt good through the run but when I got to work I started to drag and felt like that through most of the day. I ate well throughout the day – apple, banana, salad, brown rice, trail mix and two Luna bars. As the day went on my energy level picked up and by the time I got to my 2nd work out of the day, Masters swim, I was feeling good.

Masters practice was great. I did 3,100 yards and completed the full workout which is not the norm. Typically, I can’t fit the workout into one hour which can get frustrating. While I was swimming tonight everything was clicking. I was taking nice long smooth strokes and really felt like I was gliding along on top of the water.

It is supposed to be in the high 70’s tomorrow! Thankfully I have a bike and run on the schedule so I’ll be riding with some buds from GSTC.

I’m exhausted…

But I wanted to make sure I got an update on the weekend. It was probably the toughest but best weekends of the year so far.

Friday started out on Friday night after work when I got about 7 miles in on a run. I was on a field trip all day Thursday with my son and stayed up too late on Thursday night. I just couldn’t get out of bed early enough to get out and still get to work on time. I’m glad I waited because I think I figured out some distinctions of my nutrition strategy.

Normally when I train in the afternoon I make sure I eat my last meal/snack around 3 to give my system three hours to fully digest before starting the workout. However, if you’ve read any of this blog you know that I usually have gastrointestinal problems when training in the afternoon. This time I had my last meal around 12:30 (I even resisted temptation when there were chocolate chip cookies floating around the office around 3!) and when I left for my run around 6, I felt really good and was able to maintain a solid pace for the hour run.

Saturday morning I was up early to bring my son to Lacrosse for 7 am. After that I was able to get to the pool by about 10 for a 2,700 yard swim. The best part of the day was the bike ride in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, mid 60’s, sunny and I ended up doing about 45 miles in about 2 1/2 hours. I felt good afterwards and had enough energy to go out and do grocery shopping and get new shoes for my son!

Today started out with a 90 minute run with a few old running buddies. We finished up around 8:40 and I had a 20 minute drive to the pool where I was joining the GSTC for a swim. Unfortunately I forgot to bring any nutrition with me to have between workouts and I all had for breakfast was a couple of scoops of Sustained Energy. I did a few laps and actually felt a little dizzy on my flip turns. Thankfully my coach had a gel which helped me get through the workout which was about 2,500 yards. Hard yards.

I was done with workouts but the day continued with my son’s first lacrosse game (which he scored a goal in!) followed by a cookout at a friend’s house. To top it all off, after getting my son to bed I sat down in front of Tivo and Paris-Roubaix had taped.

I can’t ask for too much more in a weekend. Thankfully, tomorrow is a day off for training!

A great proud Dad moment this week. For better or for worse, due to the pretty strict diet that my son sees my wife and I follow, my son is starting to worry about his diet, and he is only 10 years old. As a reference, he has a pretty limited diet right now without a lot of vegetables. Our saving grace is he loves fruit smoothies for breakfast. We put all kinds of “good for you” stuff in there like Omega 3/6/9 oil, vegetable juice and whey protein powder.

We are always trying to figure out how to teach him good eating habits while trying to balance the importance we believe diet has on every part of our lives while not making him completely over-sensitive to it. At this point he is definitely at the over-sensitive side of the pendulum.

He told me a few weeks ago while we were doing our regular bedtime chat that he worries that the limited foods he eats now will never change, and he was pretty upset at this prospect. At the time I felt like I was way too strict! We chatted about it and I tried to relate the same limited diet I had at his age and that today my attitude has shifted to food as fuel.

This talk seemed to have helped. He has been more adventurous at trying different foods. He hasn’t gotten two adventurous yet. He was very excited, as we were as well, that he tried Pesto pizza at a friend’s house this past weekend. Up to that point he only had ever eaten plain cheese. Baby steps!

Earlier this week I offered a bite of my veggie burger because he asked me to let him know next time I had one. He asked a ton of questions about what it tasted like and what he had eaten before that might taste like it. So, the piece sat on a plate in front of him, and sat, and sat. He was getting visibly upset that he wasn’t able to take a bite.

What have I done! What I told him at that point was that I had no worries about his future diet, because, even in the few short weeks since we first discussed this, he has gotten more bold at even wanting to try new things and that he was looking for opportunities to try different foods.

This made him feel better. But the kicker for me as a Dad was the next morning. He thanked me for telling him what I did about his improvement and he felt better because he trusted me. My heart melted when he said this. I think I knew that he did, but it was a big deal for him to verbalize it.

I’m still not comfortable that my wife and I have found the perfect balance on teaching him about nutrition, but I do think that we are doing something right.