Paleo Fueling for Interval Training

Everyone knows that training hard burns through glycogen fast. You can do a lot of slow, easy miles while using primarily fat for fuel, but start to pump up the intensity and your body switches to glycogen. That means when a hard, fast, interval workout is done, you need to replace that glycogen in your body.  Plenty of people have told me that you just can't do that adequately on a paleo diet, but most of my training right now is intervals and intensity.

On my Endurance Nation Out-season plan (I'm on week 7), I'm doing a lot of long "FTP" (functional power threshold) intervals. These are 1/2 - 2 mile repeats on the run, and 10 - 20 minute intervals on the bike, all at just around the lactate threshold region. So they're not all-out sprints, but they are very intense for quite a long duration. In addition to that, I'm training at the karate dojo for five or six hours a week, and throwing in a couple of swims for good measure. So I'm asking a lot of my body, and there are times when I'm simply ravenous for carbs.

I've learned to keep a good supply of quick, easy carbs on hand for post-workout refueling. This includes fruit leather and Lara bars for on-the-road snacking, and bananas, yams, oranges, and frozen cherries and berries for at home. I now cook up 3 - 4 yams at a time, mash them and leave them in my fridge for immediate consumption. I also ran out of bananas one day and made my Banana-Coconut custard with yams instead. It was a little more bland, but I added some pumpkin pie spices which made it quite tasty and it fit the pre-workout fueling needs just fine.

Another variation on the custard recipe is to throw in some coconut flour and some blueberries. This makes it into a blueberry-muffin-like consistency and makes for an easy-to-travel snack.

Is any of this as easy as grabbing a bowl of cereal or a Powerbar? No, quite frankly, it's not. Paleo takes some prior planning, grocery shopping ahead of time, and ensuring that the fridge and cupboards are filled with quick and easy Paleo carbs to refuel after those tough workouts. But by putting forth just that little bit of effort, I'm ensuring that my recovery from these hard intervals is quick and complete. I can feel totally trashed after a hard effort, sure I won't be able to walk the next day, and yet when I wake up the next morning I feel just fine, ready to hit it hard again.

Two More Great Interval Workouts To Keep You Going!

Here's a couple more great interval blasts to kickstart your holiday month.

First, from the Fitness Explorer, a "deadmill" workout that will toast you in no seconds flat!


And if that wasn't enough, tonight when you watch Glee (or tomorrow when you watch it on Tivo or Hulu), try Ben Greenfield's awesome Official Glee Indoor Cycling Workout posted over on Trifuel.com.

Enjoy!

No Time to Exercise? No Excuses! Choose Intensity

This time of year, the daylight hours are short, schedules get crazy, holidays intervene with parties, visitors, and special events. Who has time to exercise? Sometimes I might only get twenty to thirty minutes here or there in a busy day. It's very easy to just throw in the towel for the day. After all, what's the point of just getting a fifteen minute workout?

Actually, there is a point. You can craft a workout that takes less than fifteen minutes that will give you the equivalent of a longer distance slog if you use intensity. Here's four easy (nah, I won't call them easy, in fact you'll feel like puking) high-intensity workouts that take less than twenty minutes:

1. Hill Repeats: Can be done running or on a bike. Pick your favorite local hill (or, if you live in Florida, a highway overpass). Warm up for at least 5 - 7 minutes. Run or bike as hard as you can uphill for three minutes. Turn and head back downhill. The downhill part will take less time, but too bad. Repeat 3 - 5 times for a killer workout that will help your strength and stamina on a hilly course.

2. Tabatas: The beauty of the Tabata Protocol is that you can do it with any exercise. I've done it with the rowing machine, done it running, done it with squats, pullups, pushups, or other bodyweight exercises. The main part of the exercise only lasts four minutes, but those four minutes hurt. Like really hurt. Don't do this if you're not already in excellent shape, because you should be flat-out going as hard as you can. Don't pop an artery trying this if you're not already in good cardiovascular health.

The Tabata protocol is simply put:

• 5 minutes of warm-up
• 8 intervals of 20 seconds all-out intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest
• 2 minutes cool-down

If you have extra time, spend it on the warmup, it's best to approach the Tabatas completely warmed up. By the end of four minutes, you should be completely spent.


3. The fat-burner 30:90. I got this workout from Dr. Mercola in this excellent article It's worth taking the time to read it all, because it explains how this workout pumps up your human growth hormone (HGH) levels, and how to keep them higher after the workout is over.

This workout consists of a few minutes of warm up, then eight intervals of 30 seconds ALL OUT (yes, that's ALL OUT in ALL CAPS because that's how this one rolls), with each followed by 90 seconds of rest. This one is a doozy, and like the tabata you can use it running, on a bike trainer, on a rowing machine, or in any number of variations (burpees would be good!)

4. The Ladder: This is a good limited-time technique, and I use ladders frequently while running or swimming. Simply put, you do intervals of intensity that get longer, then shorter. Here's one example of a ladder:

Warmup: 5 minutes
Ladder: 1 minute HI (High Intensity), 1 minute recover
2 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
3 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
4 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
3 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
2 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
1 minutes HI, 1 minute recover
Cool Down

You can make the ladder as long or as short as you want, and you can vary the intensity from very short intense bursts to longer near-threshold levels.

Mind-Body Workout of the Week: Extrospective Intervals

How many times do you hear it:

"My workout time is my "me" time."

"I use my long run to organize my thoughts"

"I just need some time to myself to think"

It's not a bad thing, but for many of us our workouts are a time of introspection, a time to draw inwards and have some time to ourselves. As busy people, we often need this time to recharge. As a mom, I know a lot of my day is spent doing something for someone else, so I feel that I need to take that time to just do something for myself.

Occasionally though, it's nice to break out of the introspective rut, and use our workout time to send our energy elsewhere. Enter this week's workout: Extrospective intervals. These intervals are guaranteed to blast your fast-twitch muscles, increase your post-workout levels of HGH (human growth hormone), and take your spirit to a new level as well. Best of all, you can do this workout anywhere and with anything. I've done it with a rowing machine, with bodyweight exercises (squats, pushups, pullups) and running but feel free to use your creativity and whatever you have at hand to do your intervals.

The Body Workout:

This part is simple: Warm up for at least 10 minutes (I prefer 15 if I'm going to sprint). Then do the following intervals:

30 seconds ALL OUT no holds barred going as hard as you can
90 seconds rest

Repeat eight times. Yes, I said eight times. The rest periods may feel long at first, but if you're really going as hard as you possibly can in the intervals, you will be completely tapped out at the end of this.

The Mind-Spirit Workout:

Here's what I challenged myself with for the Extrospective part of the workout. During each rest interval, I thought of a different person in my life and just appreciated them. For the first 30 seconds of the rest period. I thought of all the things they do that make me smile or make the world a better place. I didn't allow any negative thoughts to creep in. For the next 30 seconds I just pictured that person surrounded by glowing light. For the last 30 seconds I just tried to rest and prepare for the next interval (grab a sip of water, get in the right position, etc.)

I used my watch for this one, setting it on 30 second repeats made it easy to keep track of both the work and the rest intervals. At the end of it, perhaps I didn't get that feeling of "me time" where I just went through all of my innermost thoughts, but it made a huge difference in how I felt about the people in my life. Sometimes we're so entrenched in day-to-day living we don't always take the time to really just appreciate our family and friends like we should. This workout is a great way to get in the Thanksgiving spirit.

The Ironmom Extra Mile:   If you want to read more about how this workout increases your HGH levels and how to keep them higher afterward, check out the background on this workout from Dr. Mercola's website

ERG? URGH!!!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I did a workout intense enough to bring on an attack of the almost-pukies. In triathlon training, almost nothing comes close to approximating the intensity of an erg (rowing machine) workout. Probably the closest thing would be doing crazy sets of killer 200s in the pool. When you're biking or running, half of your body is more or less resting, and while the intervals can definitely be tough, they are not the all-encompassing pain of a total body interval that you get in the pool or on the erg. I've heard it said that competitive swimmers have to have a higher pain tolerance than the general public, and I'm willing to bet that competitive rowers are right up there with them.

With the arm out of commission, almost anything you can do in Crossfit that's puke-inducing (burpees, wallballs, thrusters, etc.) were out of the picture for me for a long while. Today's workout was 5 x 500m on the C2 Rowing machine, with a 3 minute rest interval. Crap that was hard! Well, first of all I wrote down the workout wrong, it was only supposed to be 4 x 500, so we did  a little extra. But I'm glad we did because mentally, you can do four of almost anything, but that fifth one is a killer. 

So two weeks ago, the arm wasn't to a place where I could row under 2:00 for a 500 meters. I had to take it slow and deliberate. While I still don't have my full range of motion and extension so my pull stroke is still pretty short and choppy, I was able to go 154.7, 152.7, 151.7, 153.3, 153.0 for my five intervals. That's a big improvement in just a couple of weeks, and I should see those times drop a bit more as I get my arm mobility back.