Lightweight Eats

If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably noticed a lot of recovery-related tweets. As a rower, I've had difficulty balancing training load with recovery.

Unfortunately, coaches often avoid discussing this topic. For example, see the following conversation from a recent USRowing Twitter chat:


In my experience, coaches and athletes fall into two camps.

This article is a great representation of the first argument: push through fatigue to become a faster athlete.

On race day, these athletes have no doubt that they have put in the work. But did they do more work than they needed to for the results?

There are a lot of articles about overtraining, like this one and this one.



A scientist at heart, I fall firmly into the recovery camp, but I'm often left doubting my commitment to training programs. Fortunately, I have found some ways to help me find a better balance.

First, although you reduce the physical gains, I am beginning to understand the importance of the mental gains from workouts performed fatigued. Finding a training partner to help you get through these tough workouts is invaluable.

Training partners and coaches help gauge normal fatigue. Are you a over trained or just training hard? The eyes of a coach can help decide.

Second, if you don't want to do a workout, work on your motivation to do the recovery work. Certainly there are Saturday nights when I want to go out dancing and drinking, or Sunday mornings when I'd rather eat pancakes with syrup than fruits and veggies. Those times test your motivation more than your desire to do an extra 90-minute workout.

Finally, if you're exhausted, considering rescheduling a key workout instead of skipping it. If you have a tough workout every other day, this can be challenging. Still, it may be worth your while to make a swap to execute your key workouts better.


Although I'm getting better, I still have a lot to learn. So I'd like to ask the audience:
How do you find the balance? When do you skip a workout? Any advice or tools that I should be aware of? Articles to read?

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Ask a vegan what they eat for lunch and they'll probably answer 'leftovers'. It's easy, healthy and inexpensive—what's not to love?

But when you eat like a champion (by which I mean 3000+ calories/day), it's hard to cook enough for leftovers. We've finally figured out a system to make sure we make enough.

I eat about 3000 calories per day. Dan eats around 2000. Between the two of us, we need 5000 calories per day. I figure we eat about 2000 calories between breakfast and snacks, which means we need 3000 calories for a lunch and a dinner.

If we break that down into starch + protein + veggie + sauce, it's easier to get a sense of how much to cook. For us, that ends up being about 1000 calories of starch and protein, plus 3-500 of veggie and 5-700 of sauce.

For reference:
1000 calories is approximately 4# potatoes, 2/3 # pasta, 2/3 # dry rice, 20 corn tortillas, 1# of bread
1000 calories is approximately 2# tofu, 1# tempeh, 1 package Tofurky sausage, 3 cans beans
500 calories is approximately 3# broccoli, 1.5# peas, 2.5# butternut squash
500 calories is approximately 5T peanut butter, 2c teriyaki sauce, 2c ketchup, 6T tahini,

That's a lot of food! No wonder we didn't have enough leftovers before. That means a typical dinner, we're cooking 2/3# of rice, with two bricks of tofu, three pounds of broccoli and 2 cups of teriyaki sauce. Or making 20 tortillas, with three cans of beans, a large head of cabbage, two avocados, and two cups of salsa. Or four pounds of potatoes dipped in a cup of ketchup with a whole package of tofurky, and 2.5# of butternut squash slathered with 3T of tahini.

Of course, that's lunch and dinner for two people, but it certainly adds up quickly. We're also looking at needing 5 pounds of oatmeal a week, and countless pounds of fruits. Good thing there are only two of us to feed, or we'd need to buy bigger pots!

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Is your New Year's Resolution to lose weight? Or eat better? As a lightweight and athlete, both of those things are key to my success. Over the past year, I've gotten much better at eating the right amount of the right foods.

We arrived in Connecticut last week, and have been making ourselves at home. There's a lot to do, moving across the country: registering to vote, changing car registration, updating addresses, finding jobs and more. We've made a nice long list, and we're slowly checking things off.

The drive was, with the exception of a few mishaps along the way, an absolute blast. I got to run along the Grand Canyon, we biked the strip in Las Vegas, Dan went diving in Florida, and so much more. We also got a much better sense of what we're looking for in a home.

My teammates drove south to Oklahoma just before we arrived for a winter training trip. We're using the time to settle into an empty house. It's also a great opportunity to wake up my body after two weeks in the car! Although I did a fair amount of exercise on the road, it was nowhere near the volume I put in this December. Most of it was running and biking, so erging again was a shock. My numbers are slowly approaching their pre-trip levels.

Expect more regular updates soon, as we settle in, stock a pantry, get jobs and more!

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If you're reading this, we've hit the road! After spending over a month in Oregon, visiting family and enjoying some downtime, Dan and I are en route to I-40.

Over the last month, we drove to both Portland and Eugene, celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas, and spent countless hours at the gym and in front of the fireplace. After a long and stressful year, it was what we both needed. We're leaving the northwest ready for adventure.

I've done some great training here in Oregon. I'm finally starting to see improvements on my erg scores—seconds are dropping here and there which is super encouraging. I'd like to maintain those improvements on the road, which is helping shape our travel plans.

I could certainly use a week of primarily cross-training to help keep me fresh, so finding rowing machines will be a low priority. We are bringing our bikes and I will also have running shoes, so I'm looking forward to doing some training in the nation's many state and national parks.

My primary concern is weight lifting. In recent months, I've really found my lifting groove. The gym here in Oregon has fantastic equipment, and a great (if male-dominated) lifting culture. It's been a blast squatting alongside guys doing 500+ lb deadlifts—it makes me want to continue lifting. I would like to continue to build on the strength gains I've achieved here.

We're planning to drive for 5-6 hours a day, which will give me enough time to get in double training days most days. I'm hoping to stop in at some gyms at take advantage of their New Year's special—I know a lot of gyms offer free passes in January to try to get people hooked. It will be a great way to keep expenses low while traveling. The weight equipment might not be exactly what I want and need, but it's more about doing something. The goal is to lifting something heavy every other day.

Because I expect it will be difficult to follow a strict training plan on the road, I've planned a general outline instead. Every other day, I'm planning to do some sort of long, slow, steady work and a lifting session. The alternate days, I will do a harder workout with some additional cross-training if I have time. This is similar to what we've been doing the past month, but without a strict schedule to follow.

Have any tips for working out on a road trip? Know any places we should stop along I-40? Row someplace in the southern half of the U.S. and want to host us? Let me know in the comments.

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I love spending time outdoors. But when I'm training, that often requires too much energy. But training twice a day, I need something to pass the time between practices. These are ways I stay entertained without expending physical energy.

Although our lives seem intent on preventing tradition right now, both Dan and I grew up celebrating Christmas on its Eve. Therefore, it seems appropriate to wish you all a Merry Christmas today.

Some fun and interesting reads to keep you entertained this holiday season:
The Introvert's Christmas from Northwest Edible Life
16 Winter Running Surfaces Explained from {never} homemaker
Live Like a Clock: How Routine Aids Performance from Competitor
Tree by Paulo Coelho via Medium
10 Ways to Train Like a Legend from Men's Fitness

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