It’s June, I’ve been training for my 1st half ironman race since November and the race is just over a month away. Despite six months of training I haven’t been getting faster. I’m sluggish on the run, dull on the bike, and not looking forward to swimming (though I rarely look forward to swimming). Actually, I’m not really looking forward to working out at all.

I check my training logs and notice some other irregularities, like training MORE despite sleeping LESS. Not exactly a recipe for training success.

There’s a saying I’ve heard before that goes something like, “If you think you’re overtraining you probably are.”

Well, that wasn’t good enough for me. Plus I’m just an amateur athlete, overtraining syndrome is only for professional athletes…right?

I go online and search overtraining, then overtraining and triathlon. I read about 20 different articles. I’m obsessive. I need to know why I’m struggling so much.

Two articles in particular were most helpful.

The first was Phil Maffetone’s article The Overtraining Syndrome. I use Maffetone’s fitness test in to gauge my aerobic fitness. The MAF test is an objective fitness test to assess your aerobic development. If you’re improving there should be a decrease in the amount of time it takes to complete a specicfic distance at a specific heart rate (using a heart rate monitor).

For example, warm up and run three miles (at a running track for the most accurate results) at a heart rate of 150bpm and record each mile time. Then after three to four weeks of training do the same workout and record the mile times again. If you’re improving your times per mile will be faster than times from the previous workout, at the same heart rate. (I’m oversimplifying this, if you want to learn more about how this works check out Phil’s article’s here and here.)

My times during this workout stayed the same from April to May and got worse from May to June. Maffetone suggests that this is a key sign of overtraining.

I’m overtraining though? Not likely. I’m Invincible!

Maffetone also suggests that you can actually perform well in a race despite overtraining, which also happened to me. I had a nice performance at the Bassman Triathlon on May 1st, my first race in almost two years. That race took a lot out of me, and looking at my training logs I didn’t really take the time to recover, running seven miles the next day, biking 35 the next and running 10 miles two days later.

Overtraining? Me? I’m still not convinced.

The other helpful article was this one from USA Triathlon. It provides the largest list of symptoms I found related to overtraining.

Of the twenty symptoms they listed I have fifteen of them…

Persistent Increase and muscle soreness even with sandard/easy to moderate workouts
Slower than normal recovery of Heart Rate after a hard effort
Lingering muscle and joint pain
GI problems — Specifically diarrhea or constipation
Minor abrasions heal slowly
“heaviness” or “sluggish feeling” that lasts for more than 24 hours after standard workouts
A decrease in physical performance, particularly during standard workouts
Loss of joy for competiton
Desire to quit
Loss of general enthusiasm
Easily irritable or heightened impatience or annoyed by otherwise normal interactions with others
Loss of ability to concentrate for long periods of time
Loss of appetite
Loss of Libido
Changes in sleep habits or inability to get quality sleep or unable to sleep.

Upon realizing the amount of symptoms of overtraining my body was harboring I decided finally…that I needed another opinion.

I ask my girlfriend to read one of the articles to see if it sounds like me. I wait patiently while she reads it.
She finishes reading and says nothing. “Thoughts?” I ask.
“Yea, especially the sleep thing…and you’ve been really moody lately too.”
“I have?”
“Yea, complaining a lot more and stuff.”

She’s right. Damn.

What You MIGHT Learn about Overtraining From Me

I wrote the story above because I wanted you to see my thought process. I want you to see how despite my body doing almost everything it can to get me to rest, my mind still needed to read 20 articles and ask someone else to be convinced.

Sometimes we don’t realize things that are extremely obvious. Focus by definition can blind you from seeing other things. My focus on training for this race, took my focus away from the fact that my overall health was declining.

Although, at some level I did sense this coming and I tried to scale back because I knew I was on a slippery slope, but with a race coming up it’s not easy. You want to be prepared for the race, and you’re not going to be prepared if you don’t put in the miles. You rationalize to yourself that you’re better off doing the miles even though you’re not feeling great.

Dropping out of a race you’ve been training months for is hard decision to make. It’s hard to imagine the pressure a sponsored pro athlete like Ryan Hall would feel when deciding whether or not they’re ready to race. Hall decided not to run in the 2010 Chicago marathon after he was feeling a little flat a month or so before the event.

I’m not anywhere close to that competitive level, and unlike him, my livelihood doesn’t rest on racing. Still it was difficult for me to admit that I’m not going to be able to race. I have a new level of respect for athletes that make a decision not to race when they’re not ready.

I wrote what you “MIGHT” learn in the heading, because when it happens to you, you’ll likely shrug off my experience with overtraining and rationalize that it doesn’t apply to you, just like I did with everything I read.

It is possible to overtrain if you’re an amateur athlete. It’s probably even more likely for an amateur than a professional. Pro athletes live the sport, amateur athletes do sport as a hobby and work jobs, have kids to watch, and other variables a lot of top pro’s don’t have to worry about.

After all, overtraining really is just under recovering, and if you’re squeezing training between dozens of other obligations then you have way less time than the pro level racer to rest and recover.

If you’re training for any competition and think you might be experiencing overtraining syndrome Ask yourself what you would do if you didn’t have this competition/race/performance coming up.

I didn’t get a high level of clarity on what to do until I asked this question of myself. For me the answer came fast. “Rest.”

If you’re not doing what’s best for you now because of some future event, re-evaluate.

Where did I go wrong?

I think back to October, around the time I first committed to doing the Providence race. I did a fifty mile bike ride on a cold morning. My friend and I got to the ride late, and we didn’t start until about 20-25 minutes after everyone else. We joked about how cold it was and how maybe we’d just ride home, but there was a certain lightness to our attitudes that day. We ended up passing every other person riding that day and when we got back to the bike shop we waited about 10 minutes until the next person finished up. We really crushed the ride that day and for me it was almost effortless.

At the time I was only training cycling 3 days/week about 6-7 hours a week and I showed a lot of improvement. Once I committed to the Half Ironman, all of a sudden I threw 25 miles a week of running and a couple swims on top of that to be “ready” for the race.

Now I’ll be “getting ready” to watch it as a spectator.

Now I know (obviously) you need to build up to a heavier workload instead of just throwing several hours of training on top of what you’re already doing.

I “knew” that before, but you don’t truly know something until you practice it.

My Training and Racing Plans

The plan now is to take a week off from training. The only exercise I’ll be doing for the next week will be some light walking . After that I’ll re-evaluate and make a decision about what I’m going to do next.

My two big races I wanted to do coming into this year were the Providence Half-Ironman, and the Hartford Marathon. I’m dropping out of Providence. It’s possible I can be ready for Hartford, but I’ll have to re-evaluate as it comes closer.

Thanks for Reading

If that’s still a little vague consider the following list from Doug Graham’s book The 80/10/10 Diet

The Fundamental Elements of Health

Clean, Fresh Air
Pure Water
Foods for which we are biologically designed
Sufficient Sleep
Rest and relaxation
Vigorous activity
Emotional poise and stability
Sunshine and natural light
Comfortable temperature
Peace, harmony, serenity, and tranquility
Human touch
Thought, cogitation, and meditation
Friendships and companionship
Gregariousness (social relationships, community)
Love and appreciation
Play and recreation
Pleasant environment
Amusement and entertainment
Sense of humor, mirth and merriment
Security of life and its means
Inspiration, motivation, purpose, and commitment
Creative, useful work (pursuit of interests)
Self-control and self-mastery
Individual sovereignty
Expression of reproductive instincts
Satisfaction of the aesthetic senses
Self-confidence
Positive self-image and sense of self-worth
Internal and external cleanliness
Smiles
Music and all other arts
Biophillia (love of nature)

This list, although not necessarily all-inclusive, does a pretty fair job of outlining many of the topics I wish to cover in this blog. You can see as you look at this list health is not simply the absence of disease, the presence of high level fitness, or maintaining a healthy weight. It’s all those things and much, much more. The thing I love about this list is that it includes many things not typically associated with health creation, but which are undoubtedly essential parts such as creativity, self-mastery, and smiles

On this blog I intend to share information about topics like those listed as well as information about my own pursuit of comprehensive health. I hope you’ll enjoy learning and growing along with me.

-Tom

Let’s do a short exercise to see what I mean. On a piece of paper, number from 1-5 and rank your current top five priorities. Don’t spend more than two minutes on this. You can write down things like family, friends, relationships, work, health, projects, goals or anything else you feel is a priority in your life.

When you’re done look at your list and ask yourself, is this really what my priorities are?

For some reason it’s very easy to lie to yourself about where your priorities stand. You tend to actually write down what you want your priorities to be instead of what they actually are.

How do you know if you’re lying to yourself? I like to take a look at time in two different ways when it comes to priorities, quantity and quality.

Quantity of Time

If you were to rank your five main priorities 1-5 and match them with the amount of time you invest on each would your results be congruent? Are you investing the most time in your #1 priority?

If not think about the things you do spend the most time on. It’s likely that the things you do spend the most time on ARE your top priorities and not the things that you wrote down.

As an example when I did this exercise I realized that I spend way too much time reading articles online and fiddling with my fantasy football team. Those were actually my top priorities, not growing my business like I want it to be.

If you say your top priority is your family but you work a nine hour day with a two hour commute each way, is your family really your top priority? It’s more likely that your top priority is going to work everyday. You could argue that you do this to support your family, but if your family was really your top priority you’d find a new job right?

You can say that one of your top five priorities is your health but if you haven’t exercised in a month and ate fast food twice this week you’re kidding yourself.

The areas where you invest your time are your real priorities, not what you wrote down on your list. Think about what you spend the most time on and write a new 1-5 list ranking the things you spend the most time on. Compare this with your first list and notice the difference.

Quality of Time

Another thing to be honest about is the quality of your time investments.

If you spend eight hours a day working, are you getting eight hours of quality work done everyday? Or do you spend most of your time doing tasks that aren’t really that important?

If one of your top priorities is your health and fitness and you spend an hour and a half each day reading about health and fitness instead of exercising, are you really focusing on your health and fitness? Wouldn’t your time be better spent if you were actually using that time to exercise?

If one of your top priorities is your family, are you investing quality time with them or are you just sitting around watching tv together? Is watching a few hours of tv equivalent to quality time?

Don’t trick yourself into thinking that your priorities are accurate just because you throw time at them. That might not be enough. Throwing Quality Time at your priorities is way more important.

How did you do on this exercise? If your results are congruent great, but if they’re not it means you’re not actually focusing on the things that are most important to you. Long term this will lead to stress and unhappiness, which I’m sure you know is unhealthy.

I wrote this article because I want to make sure everyone is investing their time in the best way for them. I’ve heard people say that their health is very important to them yet their actions aren’t in line with that belief. It’s been written that time is our most precious resource as humans. It’s one thing to believe at an intellectual level time is our most precious resource. It’s another thing entirely to be living your life as if time were your most precious resource. Use what you’ve learned reading this article and doing this exercise to help bring your time usage in line with your true desires.

Did you do the exercise? If not go back and do it, I think you’ll be surprised at your results, because I was. Once you’re done with the exercise, leave a comment at and tell me how the exercise affected you.

Your eating habits and your relationship with food is something that develops over your entire life. Every time you’ve ever put something in your mouth you’re reinforcing your eating habits. It takes time to change it. A long time.

How many years have you been alive? However long it is, that’s how long you’ve been developing your eating habits and your relationship to food.

Is it reasonable to expect yourself to break that pattern overnight? No Way! So Take Your Time!

A big problem is that people want to be 100% raw right away, never eat cooked food again or never even want to ever think about eat cooked food again. Our culture is all about instantaneousness. I’m not saying it can’t be done “cold turkey” but for a lot of people it has to be a process.

And when I say take your time I don’t mean give it a week. Years. Many Years. Really.

Here are examples of some of my favorite raw fooders and how long it took them to get to the longterm 100% Mark.

Dr. Doug Graham

Dr. Graham is the author of my favorite book on raw foods the 80/10/10 Diet. Doug was constantly trying to find a diet that worked for him even as a teen. Even when he began raw he failed on it for EIGHT YEARS before successfully becoming 100% Raw 80/10/10. Note: I wanted to source this with a link but can’t remember where I heard/read this.

Doug was developing his dietary habits for most of his life until he started doing what he’s since coined as 80/10/10.

Harley Johnstone

Harley Johnstone aka DurianRider - Was a vegan eating high raw for FOUR YEARS before going 100% Raw. Source He says it at about 0:50 into the video.

Notice that Harley’s diet evolved over a period of many years. If you watch the full video you’ll even see where he says that he hasn’t drank coffee in 10 or 11 years either. Again proving that it’s a process that takes a lot of time. So if you count from the time he gave up coffee to the time he started being 100% raw you’ll get a period of about six or seven years.

Steve Pavlina

Steve gave Raw a shot in 1997 and only lasted 3 Days! He gave it another shot five years later in 2002 and lasted 30 days. In 2008 he blogged publicly about his raw food trial and was eating 100% raw for most of the year. Steve Still doesn’t eat all raw and occasionally will still eat cooked food. Source.

Notice again that his diet evolved over a period of many years. Steve became vegetarian in 1994. Over 15 years of dietary evolution, and even now he still not at 100% raw.

I’m a Wannabe Raw Fooder

I’ve posted before about my diet, but for a quick recap I eat mostly raw and I have eaten all raw in the past for one 5 month period and one 4 month period, both in 2008.

I wrote this post because I too am a wannabe raw fooder. Sometimes I get upset or frustrated I’m not 100% raw not because I’m a freak or insecure or anything like that but because I know when I am 100% raw I feel amazing pysically. Better than my body ever feels.

But I too have to realize that this is a long process that takes a lot of time. I’ve been upgrading my diet since December 2006, and there’s still improvements I’d like to make.

I’m so happy for all the improvements I’ve made so far even though I know I’m not where I’d ultimately like to end up. That’s one of the great things about life, there’s always room for improvement if you want it.

That’s the real takeaway here. All growth, personal or social is a process, and it might take longer than you want but you have to be willing to accept that as part of the ride.

Are you a raw fooder? Or someone who’s been trying to improve an area of your life for a long time? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

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The best part of this trick? You don’t have to do anything but wait.

Wait till it’s Spotted

I see so many people chomping down on these perfect looking golden yellow bananas. Those bananas might look perfect but they could taste waaay better. Why? Because that banana’s not ripe.Ripe bananas taste better.

The reason ripe bananas taste better is because during the ripening process the starch to sugar ratio changes. When the banana ripens the amount of sugars increase while the amount of starch decreases. Sugar tastes good. Starches are bland and boring.
(Photo: Unripe Bananas)

Seriously. Just wait.

How You Know They’re Ripe

The bananas aren’t ripe until they’re spotted. I know, it’s hard to wait until they get spotted, but it’s worth it for superior taste.

It almost seems a little counter intuitive, but that’s the way nature made em. Those spots on the peel signal that they are ready to eat.

Many people won’t even eat a spotted banana because they think it’s bad, spoiled, gross, or yucky. I was one of those people when I was a kid too. Time to grow up people!

(Photo: Ripe Bananas)

Taste Test

Don’t believe me? Do the banana taste test.

I’ve done this test with a few people and they all preferred my ripened banana over their unripened banana.

Get a ripe banana (yellow w/ spots) and an unripe banana (yellow w/ no spots). Take a bite out of the unripe banana. Chew. Swallow. Notice the taste. Next, take your ripened spotted banana and do the same. Viola! Behold the superior sweetness and flavor of the ripe banana!

Excuses

People eating unripe bananas give me the excuse that bananas are too sweet when they’re spotted. Lame.

Too Sweet? Really? I’ll see this person gorging themselves on ice cream or cookies sometime later. Maybe they’re just comfortable deluding themselves. A ripe banana is definitely not sweeter than a big bowl of chocolate ice cream. Lots healthier too.

Wait till they’re ripe for a tasty delight!

Did you like this article? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!
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For those not familiar I ate completely 100% raw for two periods. The first began in November 2007 and lasted until April 2008. The second began in July 2008 and lasted until October 2008. My diet has been forever changed, because even in the periods after and in between I still eat a very high percentage raw.

Not 100% Raw

Some days I still eat 100% raw but most days I’ll have raw fruits all day and have cooked meal at night. Like yesterday I had a Banana, Spinach smoothie in the morning, about two pounds of grapes in the afternoon, and at night had potatoes, a very small bowl of soup, a vegan chocolate chip cookie, and a piece of vegan coconut cake.

I don’t really speculate nor care at the moment about what percentage raw I am, but if I had to guess I’d say about 50% raw by calorie. Could be more or less but I really don’t know because I’m not really keeping track of what I’m eating. It always felt to me like people in the raw food world focused too much on percentages than progress in general, so I don’t really like to go by that. (I read over this post and it’s basically all about percentages so I guess I do that too…oops)

The staple of my diet is still bananas! When they’re ripe and abundant I can eat upwards of 30 a day.

100% Vegan

I started being vegan in November 2007 and I’m still vegan today. I won’t say I never “cheated” during that time, but I have been 100% vegan since at least April of this year. I’ve eaten meat about two times in the last eighteen months and both times were in the same week in November. (I fell off the wagon HARD that week!)

When I do eat cooked food I always make sure it’s vegan. When I first became vegan I was interested in being vegan for the health reasons. Today I’m into it for the environmental reasons as well as health reasons. Veganism is a pretty important part of my life now so I stay vegan.

I also tend to eat vegan foods that are very low in fat. These are considered bland tasting to the average person, but they’re good to me. Eating all raw for a long time really changed by taste buds. I can eat a plain slice of whole wheat bread with no topping and be perfectly fine with it. Same goes for a baked potato with no toppings or oils. I like the way the foods taste on their own. Plus it’s unhealthy to add oils to your food because oil is 100% FAT.

Health

My physical health has slid since not being 100% raw anymore. When I was 100% raw I never had any physical illnesses. Nothing more than a headache and even that was a rarity. Since then I’ve had two colds. One in December 2008 and one about two weeks ago. They both were very short, lasting only a few days. When I notice myself getting sick I make it a point to eat a higher percentage raw, to rest more, and to eat less to help myself get better quicker.

Prior to my dietary makeover in November 2007 I would get sick numerous times per year. I wasn’t the guy with the runny nose always sneezing all the time, but I would usually get sick hard two or three times per year. Strep throat, pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis all have multiple occurrences in my medical history report. I considered that normal at the time because I didn’t know any better. I would usually have a fever accompanied with some type of nasty cough and the only thing I could do would be to lay in bed for four days to get better.

About a month before I tried all raw for the first time, I had tonsilitis really bad. I was sick for 5 or 6 sick straight days. I was living in an apartment in South Orange, NJ at the time and actually called my mom to pick me up and take care of me. Wuss!!

Since drastically changing my diet I’m much healthier. I wouldn’t attribute all of my health gains to diet though. I get a lot more sleep these days than I used to. I usually get about eight to nine hours of sleep per night. Sometimes more or less depending on my activity level. If I ran 12 miles that day I tend to sleep more than if I ran only 5 or 6. If I don’t get enough sleep I feel the effects of it pretty quickly.

I’m also a lot more fit today than I was in 2007. I can go out and run 10 miles no problem just about any day. A claim I couldn’t have dreamed of before.

Why I’m not 100% Raw

So why am I not 100% raw despite all the benefits I gained from it? It’s hard!! Being 100% raw is difficult to do to begin with. It’s even more difficult when you’re in an environment that doesn’t feel supportive to it. I’m enjoying being a cooked food vegan who eats a high percentage raw though. I may over indulge sometimes with cooked food, but that’s okay with me right now.

My girlfriend is becoming an excellent vegan chef and it’s fun to try the new things that she makes too. She made the coconut cake and chocolate chip cookies referred to earlier. It’s also fun to go to the vegan restaurants where I live. There’s two very tasty vegan restaurants a short drive from where I live (New Britain, CT)

I’m not 100% happy that I’m not 100% raw anymore. A part of me wishes I was still following the low fat, raw vegan, 80/10/10 lifestyle, but I do my best not to beat myself up for it. I’ve come a long way in terms of my health and I can appreciate where I’m at right now in contrast to where I was. I also know that some day I will be 100% raw again. I’m just waiting for the right time to do it. I’m not trying to rush it. I think it will be easier for me once I move.

Moving to Miami

In less than a month I’ll be moving to the Miami area in South Florida. Part of that decision was health related. I’m not a huge fan of winter either. It’s stressful to me. In this part of the country I feel like it’s tough during the winter to get high quality produce. It’s much easier to eat unhealthy in that environment because even when you’re well stocked up on produce it doesn’t always taste so good. Makes you not wanna eat it. No one wants to eat food that doesn’t taste good. In Miami I’ll definitely find better weather during the winter and hoping better quality food too.

I’m thinking that I’ll begin moving up to a higher percentage raw once I live there. I lived in Hawaii from June 2008-August 2008 and it was so easy to eat raw there. The produce is fresh, cheap and abundant. I”m hoping the Miami area will be similar.

Health like all facets of conscious growth takes time to develop. What does your diet and health situation look like??
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