Tomorrow is October 1

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new month.  I will be happy to see September go.  I hope that October will be better.  I have reason to believe that it will be.  I love fall, and the temperatures are finally starting to get a bit cooler.  Hopefully October will also have fewer days that I'm working until 9 or 10 pm. 

It is funny how something as small as the flip of a calendar page can be the catalyst for change.  It can motivate you to make changes in your life, or to buckle down and accomplish something you have been putting off.  I hope that I will be able to do both in October.


Jaime and I started doing crossfit a couple of weeks ago at Crossfit Vantage, which is about 1 mile from our house.  I really enjoy it and I know it will make me a better triathlete next year.  They are having a paleo challenge which starts tomorrow.  Jaime and I didn't formally enter it, but we are going to participate ourselves.  In fact, we are going to take it one step further.  We are going to try to achieve ketosis this week (google it for now; I will post about it next week).  The goal is to eat very low carbohydrates so that your body completely changes from glycogen (carb) burning to fat burning.  This means your body will burn more fat essentially.  I need this much more than Jaime at this point, but she is nice enough to join me in this challenge.  To achieve ketosis we need to be around 50 grams of carbs or under per day for a few days.  This is going to be very difficult.  We'll make sure to call our family members before and after so that they know we survived.  Seriously, it is just mentally difficult more than anything.  Yes, we will feel a bit tired, but we don't currently eat a high carbohydrate diet, so I think we'll make it.  How will we know when we've achieved ketosis?   We will pee on ketone sticks first thing in the morning.  When we see dark purple from the sticks, we will have done it.  Then we can go back to a bit higher carb diet (about 80 - 100 grams/day).  I will try to stay in that range as long as I can since I'm not doing extended cardio right now and should be able to complete any workouts I have on the low carb regimine.

 The other big change is that I finally started my training company.  I became a USAT licensed coach way back in July, and haven't set up my business until now.  I'm still getting some things set up, but I have named my company Through The Wall Training, LLC and I'm registered with the appropriate taxing authorities, etc.
THROUGH THE WALL TRAINING
(lots of creative work to do and not by me!)
It is a lot of fun getting this stuff set up and being a creator of what my company is.  It is refreshing to do "work" and enjoy it.  Maybe a sign?  One that was pretty clear to me for the longest time.  For the time being I will keep being the best financial analyst I can be, but perhaps someday this will be front and center.

Like I said, October could be a good month.  I'll go to bed tonight with that optimism. 

Happy birthday on Tuesday Mom.  I miss you!

NS

Philosophy of Life

When was the last time you truly found a breaking point in your life?  A chink in your armor so to speak; a weakness you didn’t think you had, or that you had hoped deep down didn’t exist?  It isn’t a happy place to be, but this was where I found myself last week.  We have had some significant changes at work in the past month (just google Dean Foods earnings release to learn more), which have manifested themselves into a much more stressful work environment than we had before.   This time of year always gets tough with next year budgets and end of year targets that need to be achieved, but this announcement has had a significantly larger impact than even I expected.  In short, it has created an amount of additional stress than I just didn’t have the bandwidth to deal with as I was trying to build and peak for Xterra Nationals.  The stress and workload from work by itself is manageable, but in conjunction with the expectations that I put on myself to perform well at nationals, in addition to some big bets that Jaime and I are making with our clinic and the stress that comes along with that, I found that I had overloaded the systems drastically.  This was not a gradual increase.  Honestly, it hit like a sledgehammer.  I had to adjust.  I sacrificed the one thing that could be sacrificed, which was my goals and experience at Xterra Nationals this year.  It is a decision that is sad, but one that I can’t really regret, as I didn’t and still don’t see another option.   

I am a person who can deal with a lot; A LOT.  I nearly double majored in college in finance and math.  I like it when people say things like “this is really hard” or “it can’t be done”.  I take it as a personal challenge that must be overcome.  I saw this situation as a challenge to overcome.  Sometimes though even the most experienced and respected mountaineers abandon their summit approach when it becomes clear that to continue to pursue the goal blindly will lead to unfortunate outcomes.   I came to that conclusion a little over a week ago.  I found out that I had a chink in my armor.  It is apparently not as strong as I thought it was.  It was a week ago Thursday that I finally decided to pull the plug on this season.  I had missed every workout after the previous Saturday.  I was working long hours, and finally on Thursday when I actually had time to get a workout in, I had no motivation to do anything.  I was mentally beaten down.  You see, these days at work are not only long, they are intense.  To create an analogy to training, these are LT workouts all day long at work.  They will leave you spent if done too many days in a row without a break.  This is where I find myself now. 

This place I’m in now, and where I will be in for the foreseeable future…  The real question is, does this type of life make sense for me?  Is this what I want in life?  Can I accept these types of interruptions in the life I want to live, whether they be 2 weeks or ½ a year long?  Can I weather these in the name of a “comfortable” living?  I think it may be more of a philosophical question than one of practicality.  Can I do it?  Yes, of course I can.  Will I be happy with myself if I keep sacrificing the things in my life that make me “me”?  What is the benefit of this type of living?  I can become a better “consumer” and buy more shit that I don’t need or want.  Sure, and the GDP will be thankful.  But will I become poorer because I have sold my soul for pennies on the dollar?  I will be asking myself these questions until I find balance in life again with myself and my job.  Honestly, I like what I do.  I couldn’t ask for a better company to work for, and even more so, I couldn’t ask for better people to work with.  Unfortunately, the nature of a job in Finance, at least in my experience, is that it will many times challenge your work life balance.  To be clear, my balance is really quite difference from most of the people I know.  I consider balance being able to train for an hour in the morning and the evening, working 8 hours a day, and spending the rest of my day taking care of the small things around the house, maybe doing some reading and having good conversation, preferable with my wife, family, friends, neighbors, Tucker, or maybe as a last resort the tree if that is the only thing that wants to converse with me at the time. Honestly, I know the answer, I just don’t really know the solution. 

I haven often described this situation as a trap (my mind immediately goes to that crappy kids game mouse trap where you set up the most elaborate trap that hardly makes any sense, but it actually does work).  When you have no financial commitments in life other than just making rent and buying groceries and paying a few bills, you have “one wall” of the trap built.  When you have debts of any kind, you have 2 walls built.  When you get married you have 3 walls built by the simple fact that you have someone else that matters in your life enough to consider them in the financial equation.  When you buy a house that is a dramatic change in your debt profile, so I count that as wall number 4.  When you have kids, you get the top put on your trap.  That means you really are trapped.  You’ve got to keep slaving away at whatever you are doing in order to provide for your family.  The only way out is the trap door at the bottom.  That is a philosophical discussion for another day.  It may be an overly simplistic way to think of things, but you tell me if you see it differently.

I hope I can find the answer to this dilemma.  Until then, I apologize, but this blog won’t have any posts about epic training sessions, ridiculous gains in fitness or even good paleo eating.  It will most likely be deeper in philosophy about life, and whatever I need to get off my mind and onto “paper”.  Ironically, I often write these posts down with good ‘ol pen and paper because I like to actually write.  I do hope to not become completely detrained and out of shape, but it most likely won’t be worth talking about.  Until the next post, good luck at nationals to everyone going.  Keep the rubber down and go until you blow!

 

 

 

 

 

Where exactly does this rabbit hole go??

Today's post is a total stray from the usual.  No training talk, no paleo recipes, no race reports, but...culture and introspection; specifically around music.

Music...it is a big part of my life, and always has been.  I'm the type of person who likes to have a soundtrack playing for just about anything I do.  I grew up playing the piano, and I really want to learn to play the guitar if I can find some time; hopefully this winter.  I can't think of a time when I'd rather have the TV on than have music playing in the background while I'm doing stuff like cleaning or cooking, or doing work.  When I'm at work I can't make it through the day without pandora, even if it is against company policy to stream internet radio.  When I am training alone I always bring music with me unless I'm on trails.  In the car, the music is cranked up.  My musical tastes span just about the entire spectrum with the exception of overplayed top 20 garbage and club/autotuned rap.

Lately I have been listening only to singer/songwriter, somewhat folk-type music (generally seems to fall in that category, but not a prerequisite).  This is a drastic change from what I would call my usual soundtracks, such as the Foo Fighters, Audioslave, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, any other hard rock, etc.  I don't know what my sudden draw to this type of music is stemming from, but the beat, the simplicity, and the lyrics just seem to strike a note with me (pun intended).  It started with Gregory Alan Isakov, who I've mentioned in this blog before.  As I have devoured all of his albums and started to find other artists, I have found myself continuing down this path of discovering music that is so un-mainstream, but ridiculously good. 

I discovered Gregory Alan Isakov by watching the Ride The Divide documentary about the Continental Divide mountain bike race from Banff, CA to the Mexico border.  His song called The Stable Song is in the movie.  Maybe it is the visual and emotional context that the song is presented in, or vice versa, but I find that the connection between the song and the wide open spaces along with the personal reflection and inner challenges that are such common themes in the movie have created a really powerful connection in my mind.  They have awakened a previously dormant need for this peaceful place in my mind that I seem to now always be longing to get to.  I find that this type of music and the feeling of being in the outdoors, living simply and for the day, go hand in hand in my mind.  They aren't necessarily what happens in my day to day life, but it is what I work so hard for at least 5 days a week with the hopes that I can achieve it for the other 2.

So who are these artists that I've been following down the rabbit hole?  Well, other than Isakov, I've been listening to Iron and Wine, Ray LaMontagne, Alexi Murdoch, the Lumineers, Ryan Adams (thanks to a good reco), Joe Purdy, Brandi Carlisle, Ingrid Michaelson and too many others that Pandora or Spotify play.  Do you know any others?  I'd love to hear about them!

Here's to discovery in whatever form it takes for you

NS

Getting ready for Xterra USA Championship

Sorry for the long time between posts.  Things are still busy at work and honestly updating this just took a lower rung on the priority ladder.

So, quick recap, the asian slaw was delicious (check the twitter feed for the recipe), I took a bit of a beating at Beaver Creek (vs. what I had hoped), had an easy week off to recover, and have now buckled down big time for the Xterra USA Championships (more on that in a bit) which is on Sept 22. 

I love the Xterra Nationals race.  The whole week leading up to it is a great time for me and the course is super fun.  We will leave on Wednesday, drive the 8ish hours to Ogden, UT and set up camp right on Pineview reservoir.  I think there is just something about camping and racing that is more fun.  I guess it is the total unplug from regular society, the computers and tv and blackberry and responsibilities and all of those other things that get in the way of just beign outside and enjoying life. 

We'll run the course Wed night, ride the course on Thurs, do a prep workout on Friday and go balls to the wall on Saturday.  Then those of us who didn't make it to Worlds can celebrate another fun year with the Xterra crew after the race.  Nothing like beers, a campfire, stories from the battle, and some of the most fun, laid back people I know.

Last year I put in some big weeks in the month between the Beaver Creek race and Nationals.  It seemed to work well, so I figured lets do it again.  So, I've put a couple of 17-18 hour weeks in with one more big one to go.  My body is absorbing the training well, and I'm having a good time really testing myself.  I guess that is why I love this sport so much.  It isn't where I place in a race, or how fast I go that really matters to me, but it is how much and how hard I can push myself and resetting where my limits are.  If I go faster or place better, well, that's cool too.  I'll try to put some stuff up about these big workouts when I can, and if I can remember to stop and take a picture of some of the great places these long rides and runs take me then even better.

Keep breaking down your barriers....and keep on living the good life.

NS   

2 great weekend getaways! (This isn't a travel ad)

Well, we have been away for a couple of weekends for weddings, so I've fallen behind again updating this little hobby.  A week and a day ago, we were at our friends Jason and Alexis's wedding in Crested Butte.  The wedding was beautiful and everyone had a good time.  Jaime cut a rug and I had fun watching.  Every time we go to Crested Butte it reaffirms just how much it is my favorite place that I have been.  I somehow need to figure out how to move us there permanantly.  It wasn't all wedding activities that weekend though.  A few of the guests, including the groom, raced in the Fat Tire 40.  Talk about a fun race!  Probably my favorite race that I have done.  Also the toughest.  40 miles of sweet Crested Butte trails, and tons of climbing and technical descending (5,000 ft by my garmin, or 7500 according to the website).  I've never done a mtn bike race that long so I paid for it.  I had some really bad cramping at mile 32 and suffered up the last long climb before finishing on the downhill course, which was just rad.  I ended up 19th in the Wildcat class with a time of 4:27:39  I can't wait to get back there for a training camp to ride some more trails.

Deer Creek Trail - part of the Fat Tire 40 course:  Courtesy of www.singltracks.com, user bonkedagain

This weekend we were at our friends Maija and Adam's wedding.  Another beautiful wedding outside with the splendor of the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop.  We had a great time meeting their family and other friends.  On Sunday we drove over to Beaver Creek to get a pre ride and run in on the Xterra course.  More climbing climbing climbing.  The legs didn't feel great today, which always makes you question if there will be there on race day.  Things will lighten up with some race specific workouts to keep sharp in the next couple of weeks, so I'm not too worried about being ready.  This week should be a quiet week at the office with lots of people taking advantage of the mid-week holiday and taking the rest of the week off.  Hopefully I can get caught up a little be there and maybe get ahead of a few things so the week leading up to Beaver Creek is less stressful.  As it looks now, that week could be a rough one. 

Last year my times at Beaver Creek were:
Swim:  22:51
T1:  1:21
Bike:  1:34:43
T2:  :40
Run:  46:48
Total:  2:46:31

This year my goals are
Swim:  22:30
T1:  1:20
Bike:  1:30:00
T2:  40
Run:  45:30
Total:  2:40:00

On a non-training note, I found a good recipe for an asian coleslaw that looks to be paleo friendly that I can't wait to try with some salmon tomorrow night.  I'll be sure to put the recipes for both up if it turns out good.  That's all for now.

Train smart

Should I be concerned?

So far so good this week.  Nailed the speed swim Monday morning, had a good functional strength session Monday night, had a decent swim Tuesday morning and a nice aerobic run in some serious heat Tuesday night.  Getting lots of stuff done at the office and have been super paleo on my eating the past 4 days.  That's another side effect of the higher work stress....hitting the snack bowls full of junk at the office.  You can really feel a difference when you are very strict and then slip up.

So I got an interesting email today from training peaks.  The subject read:  Threshold notification for Nick Swanson.  The body read:

"After analyzing the data you uploaded into your TrainingPeaks account, we believe your threshold(s) have changed. Below are the threshold(s) we believe to be correct according to our analysis of your data:

Suggested Pace Threshold: 8:25 min/mile
Current Pace Threshold: 6:26 min/mile"

Now, I admit, my threshold pace is not a 6:26 mile, or at least I haven't done anything to prove that it is this year.  However, it surely isn't 8:25/mile either.  Just thought that this was funny.  It would be one thing if a training partner shot me a jab telling me that I was getting slower, but for my training log to tell me that, well, I can't even fire back. 

I guess I've got some work to do!

Happy training

NS

Catching up

It has been awhile since my last post.  Things have been really busy with training and working both in my day job and the side gig, working in the yard, chores, etc.  Race season has quickly come and is actually almost 1/3 over!  To quickly summarize:

Las Vegas:  Great race up until the run.  Unlucky timing on #2 #2 of the day.

Voodoo Fire Mtn Bike race:  flatted out.  Fun trails - just not to race on.

Summer open sprint tri:  Raced hard.  Ridiculously crappy day to be outside.  Seriously 3 ft swells on Union reservoir.  Bike wasn't so much fun either with the wind.  I wore a jacket because it was cold, so it was like having a parachute attached.  Not a great result.

Xterra 4 corners:  Had a really good race.  2nd in age group, somewhere around top 10 overall.  The race course got vandalized so the run course was kinda hosed up, but most of us ran roughly the same 4.2ish miles.

Winter Park Hill Climb:  Ouch.  First race in expert class.  Finished exactly in the middle of my age group, or 4th out of 7.  Had 2 and 3 held to 20 seconds for first 3 miles, but couldn't hang on.  Ended up needing about 2 mins better, but was happy with 42:49 as my time.

Next up:  Clif Bar Fat Tire 40.  40 miles, 7500 ft of climbing.  Followed by friends Jason and Alexis's wedding all in the mtn bike capital of Crested Butte.  CAN'T WAIT!

Training in general has been very hit or miss with consistency being hard to accomplish.  My boss left our company, so I've had to step up my workload considerably.  Some weeks things go smoothly, other weeks I miss key workouts, such as last week when I missed a key LT bike/run combo then a key swim session on back to back days.  Even when I can make the workouts from a time standpoint it is increasingly difficult to get in the right state of mind mentally.  By the end of the day my brain is fried.  Hopefully some help is coming but in the near term I am trying not to dwell too much on missed workouts and just make the workouts that I get in really count.

The Xterra Mountain Championships are the next key race.  Lots of climbing training sessions on the bike and run are the formula right now.  That race would have the swim go uphill if it could!  I am very much looking forward to it though.  After the race Jaime and I are going to see Brandi Carlisle at Red Rocks with Gregory Alan Isakov opening for her.  I have become a huge fan of Isakov's and I enjoy Brandi's music as well, so it should be an all around fun weekend.

Time for some rest.  Another big week starts tomorrow morning with a speed swim.  Gotta get the arms moving faster!

NS