October 3, 2011

Welcome to Day 2 of the Kona Diaries, in which you're going to get a stark, honest and open look into the life of one of America's top fitness experts – and find out what I personally do to design my daily routine for optimum health, get my body into the best shape ever, and prepare my mind to enter the pain cave.

It's been quite some time since my “Healthy Traveler Series”, which I wrote three years ago when traveling to Poland for my brother's wedding.

So here is an update featuring a few of the small, simple travel companions that made my recent flight to Kona for Ironman Hawaii a bit more pleasant and healthy.

1. Envi Natural Wood stereo headset.

 This is an affordable airtube headset. It allows far lower levels of electromagnetic frequencies from electronic devices to hit your ears and brain compared to regular headphones (and has a speaker to work with your phone).

2. Harapad.

I wrote about the Harapad in a post about how to reduce heat and electromagnetic radiation body damage from computers, and I use it on the airplane under my laptop to keep, pardon the expression, my nuts from getting nuked.

3. iPhone White Noise app

 

When combined with the headphones above and the eyemask below, this app easily drowns out the noise of crying babies and airplane announcements. I use “Extreme Rain Pouring” on this White Noise app by TMSoft.

4. Eyemask

There is no denying that keeping your room or environment as dark as possible enhances the quality of your sleep, so like a spoiled beauty queen, I sleep with an eyemask I bought off Amazon, although I'm sure there are fancier ones out there.

5. Spry gum 

It's been proven that artificial sweeteners can give you appetite cravings, and may be mildly neurotoxic. So I chew this stuff, which is sweetened naturally and still tastes great. I order Spry gum bulk from Amazon.

6. Club Soda

Soda water, especially when combined with gum, can keep boredom eating and appetite cravings at bay, and doesn't pack the nutrient-void sugar load of Ginger Ale. Yes, it's in a can, and yes, I pour it over “germ-ridden airplane ice”, but I'm not dead yet (yet another good reason to use Oil of Oregano).

7. Cocochia Snack Mix 

A mix of coconut flakes and chia seeds that was a fitting travel food companion, considering my book of choice on the flight was “Born To Run”, in which the Tamahumara tribe munch on Chia seeds during their superhuman  ultra-running performances.

If you have questions about any of these items, or your own airplane healthy travel items to add, just leave them in the comments section below!

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One important question I received on the BenGreenfieldFitness Facebook page was what type of swimming, biking and running sessions I've been doing in the last few weeks leading up to this race.

So below, you will find my full schedule of Ironman training for the last 4 weeks. As you will see, my training is somewhat atypical, since the average athlete spends 20-25 hours per week preparing for this competition, and I spend 10-12, but here it is:

Week of Monday, September 5-Sunday, September 11

Monday:

Workout 1: 15 minute ElliptGo to gym, 30 minutes upper body weights workout, 15 minute Elliptigo home.

Workout 2: 90 minute tennis match

Tuesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 20 minute fast 25's and 50's in pool, 10x 1 minute sprints on treadmill, 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Wednesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute ElliptGo to gym, 20 minute drills in pool, 10x 1 minute sprints on treadmill , 30 minute sauna, 15 minute ElliptGo home.

Thursday:

Off.

Friday:

Workout 1: Easy swim

Workout 2: 20 minute easy bike ride

Saturday:

Workout 1: 20 minute easy bike with a few race pace efforts

Workout 2: 20 minute easy run with a few race pace efforts

Workout 3: 10 minute easy swim with drills

Sunday: Half-Ironman Race. Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Las Vegas.

Week of Monday, September 12-Sunday, September 18

Monday:

Workout 1: 60 minutes swim drills.

Tuesday:

Workout 1: 30 minutes upper body weights, 30 minutes easy bike.

Wednesday:

Workout 1: 30 minutes recovery swim, 30 minutes recovery run.

Thursday:

Off.

Friday:

Workout 1: 20 minute bike to massage, 20 minute bike home, half of a Sufferfest video.

Workout 2: 15 minute swim drills, 15 minutes run.

Saturday: Half-Ironman Race. Grand Columbian in Grand Coulee, Washington.

Sunday: 4000 meter steady swim at Ironman race pace.

Week of Monday, September 19-Sunday, September 25

Monday:

Workout 1: 30 minutes ElliptGo running errands, 30 minutes full body Fit10 Workout

Workout 2: 90 minute tennis match

Tuesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 20 minute fast 25's and 50's in pool, 10x 1 minute sprints on treadmill, 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Wednesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 20 minute drills in pool, 10x 1 minute hill sprints on gravel road , 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Thursday:

Workout 1: 15 minute ElliptGo to gym, 30 minute lower body weights workout, 15 minute ElliptGo home.

Workout 2: 90 minute tennis match

Friday:

Workout 1: 20 minute bike to massage, 20 minute bike home.

Workout 2: 5×4 mile loops at Ironman race pace

Saturday:

Off.

Sunday:

Workout 1: 3 hour indoor bike at Ironman pace

Workout 2: 4000 meter steady swim at Ironman race pace.

Week of Monday, September 26-Sunday, Oct 2nd

Monday:

Workout 1: 60 minutes upper body weightlifting circuit.

Workout 2: 90 minute tennis match

Tuesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 20 minute fast 25's and 50's in pool, 10x 1 minute sprints on treadmill, 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Wednesday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 20 minute drills in pool, 4×5 minute hill efforts on treadmill, 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Thursday:

Workout 1: 15 minute bike to gym, 30 minute lower body weights workout, 30 minute sauna, 15 minute bike home.

Workout 2: 60 minutes tennis drills with team

Friday:

Workout 1: 10 minute bike to pool, 8×400 meter swim at Ironman Race Pace, 30 minute sauna session, 10 minute bike home.

Saturday:

Workout 1: 20 minute bike ride to 90 minute tennis match, 20 minute bike ride home.

Workout 2: 60 minute steady state run at Ironman race pace.

Sunday:

Off.

And that's about it (BTW, if you like these type of posts about training and nutrition protocols, check out the post “How I Went From A 210 Pound 3% Body Fat Bodybuilder To A 175 Pound Ironman Triathlete – And How YOU Can Lose Weight For Triathlon Or Endurance Sports.“)

As you can see, the style of my Ironman training is short, fast, high quality, and included lots of cross-training, tennis, and weightlifting. This next week going into the race really doesn't involve much training at all, and will simply have a few very light workouts, some massage therapy, and a lot of time off my feet until the big race on Saturday, October 8.

If you have questions about any of this stuff, or certain topics you'd like to see covered in videos or posts over the next week, simply leave your comments below.

Coming tomorrow: “Kona Diaries” Day 3 – Answering Your Questions & A Look Around Kona during Ironman Race Week.