adjustedreality.com

I used to work for a company owned by a movie studio, and every holiday, we got to go to a big company meeting where we showed off all our stuff (sadly, MY stuff was too small potatoes to make the dog and pony show so I never got to present), and the parent company showed all their new trailers and early clips.  It was fun all around (plus, that night was always the company holiday party in which there was open bar and we all got way too drunk and embarrassed ourselves, I remember one year crying on my boss’s boss’s boss’s shoulder because I was scared I wouldn’t get hired on full time and have to get a real job… well, hey, it worked…and that’s pretty tame in the way of stories… but I digress…), but I vividly remember one year someone asked the president of the parent company why they gave away all the good scenes in the trailers.

He said simply (this is paraphrased), “everyone does it, and if we didn’t, no one would come to see the movie”.

Well, this blog post, I’m going to spoil all the good news in the intro, and then get to the mundane stuff, so if you have a short attention span, this is the post for you!

Milestone #1: After 3 weeks, 5 days, and 12 hours of not-so patiently waiting, I was able to put full weight, fully extend my knee, and engage my quad with just a little stiffness.  It’s not 100% and still gets stiff and hurty when I don’t move it for a while, but this is major progress folks.  After stretching and getting my tendons worked on for a few seconds, it’s barely injured.  I was cleared Monday for biking outside, and so my bag of tricks this week included upper body weights (I took this as down to my glutes), swimming as long/fast/far as I want, and the ability to lower my bike seat a bit and trainer or ride outside as hard as I want, barring one 6-ish mile ride outside testing the knee before I went and did a century.

Also she said she thinks she’ll clear me for running and release me from care Monday (squeeeeee).  She said by no means will I be 100% for a while (it might be months), but she thinks I’ll be past the point where I can do anything to make it worse.  If you follow me on social media expect a lot of celebration and party rocking.

Milestone #2: Friday, I weighed in at 176.4.  I don’t have great data from early in the year, but 10 weeks ago, I weighed in at 186.4 as my low weight for the week.  I have lost exactly 10 lbs in the last 10 weeks.  This is fairly remarkable, because the last time I lost 10 lbs in the last ANY weeks was 2009.  Also, because I’m still doing great, have a plan that’s working, have momentum, drive, and I’m not at all burned out on the process and it feels sustainable even with heavy training.  I’m not near a period where things are going to change (vacation, end of season, all you can eat shrimp season at Red Lobster season, or whatever), I just have to keep rolling.  I do well with that.  I can CONTINUE doing something very well.  Establishing the process, especially when shit isn’t working, is what makes me want to tear my hair out and just buy a mumu and put a feedback on my face and say fuck it.

So, 10 lbs down.  In my happiest fantasies, I race Kerrville this year weighing 160.  I would be happy racing it in the 160s.  Considering I’m just 6 lbs away from the 160s makes me giddy.  Plants, beans, grains, nuts/seeds, a dash of dairy and meat, and balancing my calorie count like it’s my checkbook.  I’m a believer!

Milestone #2: After 3 weeks, 5 days, and 12 hours of not-so patiently waiting, I was able to put full weight, fully hyperextend my knee, and engage my quad with just a little stiffness.  It’s not 100% and still gets stiff and hurty when I don’t move it for a while, but major progress folks.  After stretching and getting my tendons worked on for a few seconds, it’s barely injured.  I was cleared Monday for biking outside, and so my bag of tricks this week included upper body weights (I took this as down to my glutes), swimming as long/fast/far as I want, and the ability to lower my bike seat a bit and trainer or ride outside as hard as I want, barring one 6-ish mile ride outside testing the knee before I went and did a century.

Also she said she thinks she’ll clear me for running and release me from care Monday (squeeeeee).  She said by no means will I be 100% for a while (it might be months), but she thinks I’ll be past the point where I can do anything to make it worse.  If you follow me on social media expect a lot of celebration and party rocking.

Milestone #3: This would normally be jazzy enough to make me celebrate in and of itself, but it’s definitely down to #3 on the list because of the other awesome.  So, since I couldn’t bike much and couldn’t run at all, I’ve been swimming A LOT.  Like 4 times a week.  Oddly enough, if you swim more, you get better, who knew?  I generally operate on the “how much can I do in 30 mins” workout as my gym limits our lane reservations to 30 mins and my Zliten also rarely wants to swim longer than that even if there is no one in the lane after us.  In January, my norm was about 1050 meters (70 lengths in our little 15m pool).  I’ve gotten better and better, but I really wanted to hit that 1500m mark.

We got the opportunity to swim in my parents’ community pool which is 25m (ahhhh, I love the bigger pools) and I was thinking about a swim test but decided against it.  I took the first 400m easy with some drills, and spent the next 300m doing breath work, and then 200m easy to moderate, and then started doing 300m of some sprints (25 out easy, 25 back hard).  I got to 1200m and realized I was only at about 24-25 mins, and I had a chance to break 30 on my 1500m.  I did a solid, tempo 300m and came in at 30 mins (don’t have seconds, but started at 3:48 and ended at 4:18).  Totally excited!  Thinking of gunning for a sub-35 at the Olympic in 2 weeks.

Milestone #4: It was another hellweek at work, but I think we’ve wrapped up an extremely ambitious chasing-unicorns milestones only about 2 days late, which is an impressive feat.  Trust me.  Also, I didn’t physically hurt anyone or set fire to the building in the process, and neither did my staff – even though they brought in a balance board that on which I was convinced someone would break their neck (but ya know, when working that much overtime, I’m not going to take ANYONES toys away).

And now onto the SCARY STUFF!!!!

June is go time.  Like, 2 weeks from now.  Coming back from injury lala land, I race THREE TIMES in June.

First up for my season opener in 2 weeks- no, not the little super-sprint I usually start with, but an OLYMPIC.  Back when I signed up, my thoughts here were 1) It’s not hot as balls yet, so perhaps I can seriously smoke my 3:25 PR and 2) around this time last year, I was pissed that all we had to race was sprints because we were already training Olympic distances and 3) In n Out is only about 3 miles away from the race finish.

Well, #3 is still absolutely valid and I’m super duper craving it.  However, #1 and #2 are in question.  I’d like the comfort of trying out my knee on a sprint first.  I haven’t run in a month.  I haven’t biked more than 15 miles in over a month.  I certainly haven’t done a brick.  Also, the 64k$ question of how my knee is going to hold up once I start training on it.  And what’s feasible to build up to?  Can I get in a 20 mile ride/5 mile run brick?  Will I even be able to run 5 miles before race day?  How bad will running hurt?  How bad will it hurt after running?

I know in my heart I can easily PR if I can roll into race day feeling good.  I can shave off ~5 mins on my swim, probably 5-10 mins on my bike, and about 5 mins on my run no sweat.  If this race had been 1 month ago, I’d be wondering how close to 3 hours I’d be coming in.  However, it’s all a big question mark right now.  I’m going to roll with the punches and I’m fairly sure I can at the worst kick ass on the swim, get through the bike, and run/walk the rest, but I really hope that I can do more than that.  Training a lot gives me the confidence, and I’m not going to have that.  I’m going to have to come equipped with courage to find the paces I know I can hit, and common sense not to hit them if it’s not my day.  There’s a lot more to my season than this race.

Then, two weeks after that, I race Pfluger.  This was the race last year I chased my unicorns and won.  Last year, it was home turf because we trained there every weekend and knew every hill and elevation change and twist of the course.  This year, we’ve cheated on Pfluger with Pace Bend and Veloway and Shoal Creek and lunch runs and only been out a few times so, while it will be familiar, it’s not the familiarity I had last year.  Also, the knee.  Who knows where it will be in a month?  This one has big meaning to me as it is the sprint I consistently rock each year solidly.  I 1:32′d it last year.  Can I sub 1:30?  What can I do?   I know my head is right this year in a way it hasn’t been before, but a month off serious business training… what has it done to my speed?

Then, skip ahead two weeks and OMG Buffalo Springs 70.3.  The beast.  The heat, the wind, the hills, and the distance that in January for which I had a perfectly laid out training plan.  Then, I took a dive boat to the knee.  I have done TWO 50-60 mile rides and at best, I can hope to get one more.  I have done TWO 10 mile runs, and at best, I can hope to get 1-2 more.  Brick?  My Olympic tri will be the longest brick I’ll do (maybe maybe maybe a short trainer ride and a long run IF I think I can tolerate it).  I know in my heart and my muscle memory and my endurance that I can do it.  I’ll have 6 weeks to get back from zero run + injury + not much training to fit for a half ironman.  I’m looking forward to conquering it but I’m defintiely afraid.

I had a nightmare that I got out of transition and the initial climb was switchbacks up a mountain for miles and miles and I just gave up and walked it.  I know the elevation isn’t that bad, but it is a decent hill up right out of transition and it’s not exactly flat, so I’m just hoping my brain is stronger than that race day.

Really, I’m looking at this as PHASE 1 of this year.  This is survival mode.  I know I can do the distances, I know I can do the paces I want.  It just involves on pulling from my guts, my confidence, my bravado, the fire in my belly, and not relying on specific things I’ve done in training.  I tried that last year.  It didn’t do me all that well.  In June, I have me, my brain, my body, my goals, my muscle memory, and the knowledge that I can indeed outlast the hurt if I so choose.

Phase 2 has another sprint, 2 Olympics, and 1-2 more 70.3s.  I don’t want to use the lack of training or injury as any excuse, but I do want to use common sense as my season isn’t over June 30th.  I have another whole “season” to roll with.  No matter whether I bonk, drop out, or totally underperform, I have another chance to do it again later in the season.  Again, I don’t want to use it as an excuse but I don’t want to end my season by being dumb.

Enough whining, let’s just put some numbers here for posterity and get tomorrow’s run clearance and start the building process.

Training…

Monday: Weights: Upper body + Stretch 00:45, Swim: 3x300s Tempo 1410 m 00:31
Tuesday: Bike: First Real Trainer Ride 15 mi 00:49, Bike: Lunch Ride 6.4 mi 00:20, Swim: Laps 1350 m 00:31
Wednesday: Weights: Same Ol + Stretch 00:45,Swim:  Just More Than Worth It 1170 m 00:25
Thursday: off
Friday: Bike: Trainer + Arrested Development 15 mi 00:46
Saturday: Bike: First ride outside in a while 6.46 mi 00:30, Swim: Woohoo! G town swim 1500 m 00:30, Bike: Parents Stationary Bike 4 mi 00:21
Sunday: Kayak: Pflugerville Kayak 2 mi 01:00

Total time: 7.2 hours

Nutrition…

Monday: 25 DQ, 1286 calories
Tuesday: 21 DQ, 1584 calories
Wednesday: 25 DQ, 1410 calories
Thursday: 13 DQs, 1577 calories
Friday: 26 DQ, 1521 calories
Saturday: 12 DQ, 2093 calories
Sunday: 19 DQ, 1628 calories

Average DQ: 20

Average Calories: 1585

Weight: low 176.4, high 180.8.

Until next time campers… have a great week.  Wish me luck!

Question: What are YOU waiting for?

I have discovered that I am now incapable of dealing with stress without running.

I used to drink a fair bit more.  Crazy day/week at work, pop the bourbon, get angry/contemplative/sad/creative drunk, play games/write/design/art something, release some stress, wake up, do it again.

However, in those days, a hangover didn’t feel all that much worse than normal life, being a billion lbs overweight and unhealthy and all.   Not really an option nowadays to shuffle through life feeling about 50%.  The occasional day, fine.  But in my old age, I’ve learned that it’s generally not worth it the next day very often.  Also, triathlete training doesn’t leave me much time to feel like that without missing or having subpar training days, and some days, that’s the ONLY thing stopping me from a few stiff drinks or 12 due to stress (and yeah, that’s typically a good thing)

As things got different, I found a healthier outlet for a stressful day – a good run.  I am a triathlete, and have equal love for the swim and bike on good days, but there is nothing like a good run to destress in a way that biking and swimming don’t do it.  Swimming is great for thinking, processing, having conversations with yourself, and just letting go.  Biking sort of keeps me in the moment outdoors (cars, traffic lights, curbs, potholes, hills, nature, etc), and indoors I usually use a movie to distract me.  But, a good run… nothin’ like a good run.  Some days, a super easy run in the sunshine is what I need.  Some days, you just need to take it out on the road and run hard until you’re too tired to be angry or sad and just feel at peace.

But as we know for me, no running this week.  None at all.  And this was the week from hell.  I got through it, but just barely.  Let me just recap it quick, and let’s move on.  Next week has to has to has to be better.

Knee/Training:

Chiro-cracker says the knee is getting better with each visit (I’m seeing her twice a week), but this is the point where I’m feeling better-ish and I’m not completely healed where I could do a lot of damage.  So, no running as above, and no real biking.  I am able to swim easy as much as my knee tolerates, and for 20-30 mins per day, I can get on the trainer with the seat set uber-high so my leg is forced to fully extend, and continue with weights that don’t stress out my knee.  Each visit, she’s adjusting me, stretching my knee and massaging it, and doing ultrasound.  The ultrasound feels great, but as lovely as a stretch and massage sounds like – it’s not.  Pain.  Good pain, but PAIN.

It feels at it’s worst after the abuse (the stretching and massaging on Thursday left me soooooore) and after it’s been stationary for a long time (when I wake up, meetings/long days at work, etc).  It feels freakin’ awesome after the trainer sessions and being active.  I wish the option was to just continue moving all the time but that’s just not possible, so I’ll just continue to move as much as the chiro lets me (30 mins daily on the trainer, doing about 4 days a week swimming, 1-2 days a week of weights) until I can do more.  She’s thinking I may get to ride for real this week, and she predicted next week for running but it all depends on how the healing goes.  So send happy vibes my way please!

By the day:

Monday: off (recovering from Rookie celebrating)
Tuesday: Swim: Easy Laps with a few pickups 1500 m 00:34
Wednesday: Weights: Upper Body Weights 00:45, Swim: Moar Laps 1200 m 00:27, Bike: Leg Extension 3.75 mi 00:15:00
Thursday: Swim: Rude Morning Pool People 975 m 00:25, Bike: More leg stretching 4 mi 00:15
Friday: off (day from hell at work)
Saturday: Dancing and cheering my ass off for 1.5 hours at the finish line, Bike: Leg Stretch 6.31 mi 00:30, Swim: Slow and Strong 1000 m 00:20
Sunday: Bike: Leg Stretch 8 mi 00:31

So, 4 hours is not exactly a super training week, but it’s what I can do right now, so there it is.  Hopefully I can get more in next week.  I’m three weeks from Playtri, and hoping I’ll remember what it feels like to run 6 miles, since it’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve ran a step.

Food/Scale:

I’m just taking the week off really going into this.  I’ve eaten relatively healthy and lower calories  (estimate – 1550 per day) with a few not-completely-angelic things, but let’s call it definitely in the 80/20 realm.  I had a low weight of 177.2 Monday, but the rest of the week it was 179.0-180.8.  I have been pretty stressed all week.  Perhaps these things are correlated?

With the not-running, knee stuff, work stress, and weight not cooperating, I just got a little blah about the whole thing and didn’t track this weekend or pre-track this week.  Giving myself a pass this week and I’ve got a food plan and will pre-track tonight and be back into it tomorrow.  This is not to say I’ve been tossing back pizza and burgers or anything, but it feels like unless I’m very, very careful, the weight does not go anywhere.  I’m not ready to give up, I just needed a weekend reprieve of counting.

Other Stuff:

While I’ve had a very meh week, I had a pretty amazing Saturday.  It started out rocky – I left work after 11pm, and we had a 6am wakeup to volunteer, but once we got up and out, it was a great morning.  Let me tell ya – there is a cure to the blahs, and that cure is dancing and cheering and making a fool of yourself at the finish line welcoming hundreds of puppies and runners to the end of their 5k and trying to make them look happy for pictures.  Above is me doing my best “wavy arm man” impression.  It was a beautiful morning and definitely made me a billion degrees happier.  Never pass up the opportunity to volunteer when it involves puppies and racing at the same time.  However, when the national anthem played, my first thought was, “the next time I hear this I better have a fucking timing chip on my ankle”.

We had TWO game nights this week.  The first, we played a Savage Worlds campagn (role playing game nerdery) in which we fought werechickens.  It was a lot of fun.  The second, we played a boardgame called Lords of Waterdeep – I won the first game and didn’t do so well at the second, but that’s ok.  Then, around midnight, we started playing Life and holy crap, that game takes forever, and had a ton of pieces I don’t remember using as a kid.  We were all happy to retire so we could retire to bed.  I really have enjoyed the more games this year!

And, that’s it for last week.  Question: have you volunteered at a race? (if you haven’t, you totally should – it’s a great experience and great race karma!)

So, this post should have been about how I kicked some ass at the second century ride of the year, and then turned around and PR’d the shit out of Rookie Tri.

But we all know that’s not how the story goes.  Let me now educate you on the Saga of the Knee TM.

Last Week:

The initial injury is shrouded in mystery.  I had a fair bit to drink so the end of the fateful evening is in question, but I have no recollection of falling down.  This isn’t my first cocktail party so I have some familiarity with drinking too much and falling down, frankly, it used to be a birthday tradition.  However – a good smack to the knee/butt/whatever is usually enough to break through the booze haze into memory territory.  So, I was very CONFUSED in the morning when I felt like someone had replaced my knee with a ball of white hot pain whenever I thought about it wrong and had no recollection of doing anything to damage it.

It hurt like hell initially, but I’m used to acute injuries hurting.  It sucked, but every day it was getting a little better and I had hope that it was going to be magically better by the time I got home.  Well, that didn’t happen, I was still definitely limpy and couldn’t straighten it.  That plus being at the peak of a cold, I DNS’d my first race (Georgetown Red Poppy Ride) and hoped that smart decision would help me toe the start line of Rookie.  I tried to back off on the activity, so I did total that week:

• One upper body weights session (45 mins)
• One easy spin (25 mins)
• Two handcycle workouts (40 mins)
• Snorkeling (2 hours)
• Lots of walking.  Less than I could have healthy, but it’s just hard to get around that on vacation when you are unwilling to waste it sitting in the cabin.

So, basically nothing for me, but probably more than I *should* have done on a freshly injured appendage.  I was attached to my icepack pretty much at all times so there’s that.

Monday:

I had a chiro-cracker appointment already just for maintenace, so she looked at my knee and gave it a 50/50 chance it was just tweaked or I actually had a tear.  She was particularly interested in a knot I had on the inside of my knee and thought I might have a knee mouse (a free floating piece of cartilage inside my knee).  None of this sounded great, and she advised me to 100% do not race Rookie (even taking it easy) and said to come back if the doc couldn’t find anything really wrong and she could do some stuff to speed up the process.  She said swimming and upper body weights ONLY.  Not even the trainer.

Let me tell you, I was in a GREAT mood after that.  Thinking about worst case scenario, I started googling masters swim classes and found some 10 mile swim and 5-day stage multi-mile goal races.  If all I was going to be able to do this year was swim, then I was going to learn how to swim LONG and get FASTER.  Having a plan made me feel better, on a scale of 1 -10 it was more like a 2 instead of a -5.

Tuesday:

I had the appointment at 11:15.  Well, I get there at 11:10 and realize that my insurance card is at home still in my vacation stuff, and they have a rule where you have to show your insurance card once a year or the doc won’t see you.  The receptionist almost cancelled my appointment until I begged her to let me grab it.  I raced home and got back in time (thank goodness the appointment was across the street from my house).  They took my blood pressure and it was 140/80 and pulse was in the high 70s!!! (my norm is about 110/65 and my resting relaxed pulse is ~45)

The doc finally saw me and poked and prodded and stretched and played with my knee for about 15 minutes and told me it could not be a tear with what hurt and what didn’t, and there was no need for an orthro referral or MRI.  I was just to stay off it for about 2 weeks, do contrast therapy at night (ice/heat/ice), and take lots of muscle relaxers and anti inflammatory stuff.  She thinks it was just overuse from two days of rocky dive boats and a rocky ship (lots of stabilizing, sometimes with 60-80 more lbs on me than normal, and in different ways than triathlon which is pretty much a go forward and not side to side sport).

The good news: my season wasn’t over.  I’ll be fine soon.  The bad news: definitely, definitely no Rookie if I wanted it to heal properly.  I emailed later that day about options (deferment, any refund), and the Jack and Adams folks were amazing and gave me a 50% refund even though the deadline had passed.  I asked about volunteering and… um… they said they were full.  Crazy!  To get my TX Tri Series credit, I’m helping out this coming weekend at a 5k.

Later that week:

Went to the chiro again, she did ultrasound therapy on my knee and good news – it’s a GIRL! (hehe, that’s my new favorite joke)  The ultrasound actually helps break up scar tissue and swelling.  It felt so good after, I asked if I could just strap it to my knee for the next few days and then found out it can possibly melt bone if you leave it on too long, so I’ll let them administer it.  If it were up to me, my knee would be a pile of goo.

I did one 30 minute swim and weights, and had planned to hit it hard in the pool every day, but then the knee felt tighter in the AM, so I rested.  I did get another 30 minute open water swim in and another weight session, we took our new kayak out for 30 mins on the lake, and I played paparazzi to 3 different triathletes in 3 different waves Sunday, so that was definitely a workout as well.

I’m not going to do any sort of formal training plan until I am cleared to go wild, so expect another week like that of doing what I can, when I can.  As much as the instinct is there to swim every moment of the day I can, I’m just trying to use this as mental rest as well so I can really hit it hard when I’m better.

Yesterday (I know it’s not technically week 17… but relevant):

Chiro again, she was very very please with how I was walking and healing, and that I almost had full range of motion back.  She seemed a little skeptical last week of my primary doc’s diagnosis, but was now on board with it too – which made me feel way, way better.

I’m doing ultrasound twice a week for this week and maybe next, I am to keep up with the contrast therapy, and ice/heat/ice/heat/ice if possible (there goes my evening social life, oh wait, I don’t really have one, heheh), keep massaging and stretching it.

I asked the 64 thousand dollar question about getting back to running and biking and the answer is “not until Thursday, at least”.  I got the “let’s make this a 2-3 week injury, not a 2-3 month injury” talk, and while I’m antsy, I’d rather roll into the next few races a little undertrained than either hurting or worse, more DNSs.

I am still cleared to swim as much as the leg tolerates, weights that are not stressful on the knee, and she asked me to do the trainer but there’s a catch – I have to set the seat up super high so I’m really reaching to push the pedals and that should help stretch things out.  She expects I may be able to tolerate 15 minutes of that before I want to throw my bike out the window, so we’ll see how that goes.

Food and the Scale:

Once the injury hit on vacation, I knew I had two options.  First, I could drown my sorrows in ice cream and vodka and pizza and french fries gain all that weight I lost back because I was pity partying.  I really did want to do that, and on vacation, it wasn’t even a matter of purchasing them, just walking up to a counter and taking them.  The second option was really dialing back my portions – when I can’t train, I can definitely go a little lower with the calories without consequence – and stuffing myself with every veggie I could find instead of said junk food.

I went with #2.  I ate either breakfast or lunch most days after I got injured (and lunch was really a plate of veggies with a few other things to taste), I didn’t snack a lot, but I did eat whatever the hell I wanted for dinner with the only caveat being when I was really full, to stop shoving shit in my mouth.  I still ate reprehensible things, but I didn’t eat a LOT of each reprehensible thing.

That paid off with a net LOSS in weight over two weeks of potential food orgies.  Seriously, I looked at my last cruise notes and NO WONDER I gained so much weight, we ate like 5 times a day and not a small amount each time!  This time, I ate typically twice a day, with a *small* snack in the middle of the day which typically was a bite of someone else’s stuff.

Now that we are back, I’ve ticked off another lb (low weight week 16 – 179.0  Low weight week 17 – 178.0), and I already have a new low weight this week in the 177s.  I’ve also been sticking in the 1400-1500 range most days – and my appetite hasn’t really argued and I haven’t felt weak or tired, so I’m sticking with it until I’m off and running (literally) again.

Sadly, it seems that the quality of food has little to no bearing on my ability to lose weight.  It has every influence on how I feel and perform in training, and I’m certainly happier eating fruit and veggies and whole grains because I can eat more volume, but I think I could probably just eat 4 snickers bars a day and lose weight, no problem.  I’m finding it challenging to transition back to more vegetarian stuff, and it’s not really what my body is wanting while I’m not training hard, so I’m cutting myself some slack there.

By Day:

Monday: 25 DQs, 1460 calories
Tuesday: 29 DQ, 1590 calories
Wednesday: 27 DQs, 1490 calories
Thursday: 23 DQ, 1419 calories
Friday: 19 DQ, 1342 calories
Saturday: 14 DQ, 1281 calories
Sunday: -2 DQ, 2121 calories

Average DQ: 19.2 (not great but not too bad considering less calories and horrible diet choices on cinqo de drinko)

Average Calories: 1529 (assume 2000 calories burned per day since I’m not really doing anything…so… about 500 cal deficit per day or 1 lb lost)

Weight: low, 178.0 – high 181.8 (TOM bloaty day)

Overall, I’m super pleased and just hope to continue with this.  It seems to be working.  I may not be hitting my super aggressive goals, but we live in a world now where I can envision racing Kerrville in the 160-somethings.  And I like that world.

Rookie:

I thought race spectating would be kinda boring but it was SO MUCH FUN to play paparazzi.  I even brought a book because I figured I’d have downtime, but it was all run here, run there to get people in and out of each transition.  I’d definitely do it again if I wasn’t racing.

I was initially a little sad and kinda got bummed on Saturday when all the pre-race prep was going on but the day of it was cold and windy, and I was kinda happy not to have to strip down to my spandex and get in the freezing cold water.  Also, that let me get some great pictures of Zliten and friends kicking ass that day.  Not that I’ll be trading my timing chip for my camera too often, but I realized it wasn’t the most horrible thing in the world, especially that day, and especially if I wasn’t going to be able to race hard anyway.  Just limping through it probably would have been worse for my psyche and certainly my knee, and I don’t think that it would have done anything for me training-wise, so I’m content with my decision to skip it.

My only regret is I will not have a full set of TX Tri series times to judge against last year, but I’ll still get credit for completing the series since I’m volunteering.  So, as persnickety as I got about it, in hindsight, it was a great decision.

Question of the week: what’s the best decision you made last week?

When last we left off, I’d hurt my knee and was nursing a pretty bad hangover.  With one week left, would that kill my vacation mojo?  Read on…

Monday: Dominica (182.0)

When I woke up, I was pleased that my knee was a little better, but still hurt and I couldn’t walk properly.  So that was .  I spent the morning pouting and reading in the cabin, and finally dragged myself up to the buffet for lunch, more of the same – plate of veggies including salad, spinach, soup, and a few bites of fish and pasta.  My appetite definitely got the hint that my knee was keeping me from epic doings and it was probably HALF of what it was days before.

Instead of getting off the boat and possibly injuring my knee, we just looked at Dominica from the boat (it was pretty – I definitely want to go back and do some snorkeling there) and swam and read and enjoyed the sun on deck. So it wasn’t a horrible afternoon, just not the epic adventure I was hoping for here.  I consoled myself with a small vanilla soft serve cone for a snack and a bite of Zliten’s pizza (mainly, I wanted to see if it was crappy or I was off the day before – well, either I was off or just got a bad slice, because it was yummy).

After getting our fill of sun, we retired back to the room for more reading and showers and got changed for dinner.  It was Italian night – so I went with minestrone soup, bacon + greens salad, spicy pasta (this was definitely memorable, good stuff), and stuffed zucchini and white beans (I only ate half of this because I was stuffed), and just some limoncello sorbet for dessert.  I do miss my world where I had delicious, homemade ice cream in amazing flavors each night, let me tell you!

After dinner, we played a game of dominos (train – got about half way through) with the ‘rents and had some peppermint tea and headed to bed for more reading and then drifting off.

Tuesday: St. Thomas (183.0)

Woke up around 8:30, read and iced my knee until about 10.  It had a better range of motion, but still hurt.  I was bound and determined to get off and check out St. Thomas and to not be a slug.  I had been hurt and pouty for 2 days and it was time to get over it.  We hit the gym and I did about 45 mins of arms/abs/back and then 20 mins on the handcycle (this, folks, is WAY harder than it looks – mad respect to the handcycle racers out there).

We had lunch from the buffet, the normal salad/veggies/soup, and bites of fish, shrimp pasta, fettuccine, bread, fruit, and half a cookie made it down my piehole and then we headed off the boat with my parents.  We had thought about going to Blackbeard’s Castle, which I had THOUGHT would be a quick walk from the ship, but apparently we docked on the other side and it was a 3 mile walk up mad hills.  Considering that was not happening with my knee, and no one seemed excited about paying 20 bucks to get a cab there, we just walked around the shops by the port.

Then, I got kind of fed up.  My knee was hurting standing and I was tired of looking at the same crap in the shops I’d seen three other places so I said we were doing something because we were on an island and I didn’t want to hurt and be bored.  So, instead, we found a gondola and took a ride up to Paradise Point and soaked in the gorgeous views and got a family photo care of the go pro.  I was much happier.  All in all, we walked about 3 miles that day, not bad for a gimp!

On the way back I picked up a diet sprite from a pharmacy.  I hadn’t had anything with bubbles in over a week and I was craving it.  Totally delicious.  We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and swimming (this week, if I didn’t make record of what I was doing, it was probably either me with my kindle and a deck chair, or me in the pool ) and then got showered and changed for dinner.

I had lots of food.  We started with bread and a goat cheese tart (so rich – so amazing, especially with the bread dipped in it), bib lettuce with vinegrette, a few bites of tomato gnocci, strawberry lemon basil sorbet as a palate cleanser, orange roughy and some chicken skewers as the main course, and then a small chocolate haystack and chocolate pb ice cream that was to die for… let’s just say I was quite full.

After dinner – hey, we read more in the cabin.  Surprise, surprise.  Then, we went to a damn funny ventriloquist, but Zliten started feeling yucky and the lighting at the show really made me start yawning, so we headed to bed early.

Wednesday: At Sea (going North away from the pretty islands) (181.0)

I had no idea how I ate THAT dinner and lost 2 lbs, but we’ll call it vacation magic!  Knee status: still hurts, can almost straighten sitting down, bending better.  Zliten felt like crap (he was coming down with a cold), so we stayed in bed and read in the morning until about 11.  We hit the buffet right as lunch was being served and had my usual plate of veggies, thai salad, gumbo, some other stuff (nothing remarkable).  There was a big sale in the cruise shops, but I didn’t find anything worthwhile to spend money on, so we left, got bathing-suited up, and split a delicious watermelon guava cocktail and read, sunned, and then some crazy animal show from the BBC came on (I wish I could remember what it was) and it was HILARIOUS!  Soon after, they played Ferris Bueler’s Day Off, and I watched most of it from the pool.  Yep, my afternoon sucked.

We headed to the gym late afternoon and I did a 20 minute handcycle hill workout (ow.) and I did a light spin on the stationary bike for 25 mins – and it didn’t feel too bad.  I was hoping this would bode well for the ride Saturday (and we all know that didn’t pan out, but, whatevs).

We then got ready, got fancy, and took more pictures since my mom didn’t like the one from the last formal night because she didn’t have enough lipstick on.  It actually turned out quite a bit better and we ended up getting that one.

Dinner was great – I got thai rolls with satay sauce, tomato basil soup, greens with vinaigrette, and it was lobster night, so of course, I got lobster and shrimp with butter.  So, so good.  I rarely find it worthwhile to pay for lobster (I’d much rather have crab) when I’m eating out, but on a cruise, I’ll take it any day.  For desert, more ice cream!  Pralines and cream and mandarin sorbet was today’s flavors, and the mandarin was a total winner.

Zliten’s cold caught up with him, so I left him in the room and went with my parents to see the show – a tribute to pop music with the singers and dancers.  I could tell that “cruise bitchiness” had officially and totally set in because my mother was complaining that one of the singers wasn’t very good.  If that’s your complaint of the day, then you have, indeed, as Princess says, “escaped completely”.  After, guess what… I read and then zonked out.

Thursday: Princess Cays (181.2)

I was really excited for this day.  Most places, it’s definitely a *thing* to get to the beach from the boat – an excursion, a taxi, or navigating it yourself means you need to have done your homework (and involve a lot of walking or bus).  This island is owned by the cruise line, so you tender to shore in a little boat, get off, and immediately walk onto a gorgeous white sandy beach.

I’m getting ahead of myself.  We woke up, read a bit, and got breakfast today instead of lunch since we wanted to get off the boat early – I had some corned beef hash (cruise guilty pleasure), an english muffin with cream cheese, some bacon, fruit, and half a small waffle.  We headed off the boat around 11, got my parents situated in some beach chairs in the shade, and headed into the water with my mom to snorkel.  She spent about 10 mins in and then got out, but Zliten and I explored for about an hour.  It was AMAZING.  The water was super clear, and just right near the shore in less than 10 feet deep water were SO MANY FISHIES!!!  I took what felt like a billion pictures.  Zliten dragged me out asking for a quick break.

They had buffet lunch set up, but I was still full from breakfast (I know, who am I?), but Zliten procured a coconut fruity drink for us to share, and then we found a cute little leezard that Zliten made friends with, and then I dragged him back into the water for another hour of exploring – I found a super awesome shell that I brought home (and sadly, I figured out there was actually something in it, I thought it was empty, I feel pretty bad about that and also it’s stinky), we saw remains of a lobster, a crab, an invisible fish, and so much more.  This was EASILY the highlight of week 2.

I was dragged yet again from the water so we could dry off and make the last ferry back around 2:30pm (believe me, I didn’t want to go – if it were up to me I’d still be on that beach).

Once we got back, we spent some time packing up our cabin which was a mad-stuff-splosion, and then we decided to take the afternoon to ourselves – we had some drinks on deck, watched the ship pull away from the island, and enjoyed our last afternoon of sun.  After a few drinks though, we quickly realized we forgot lunch, and had a quick snack of curry chicken salad and french fries to sober a little bit, and then we finished packing and headed to our last feast.

Dinner was the classic shrimp cocktail and ceasar salad, some curried pumpkin soup, meatloaf, and the traditional baked Alaska.  We then wandered to the casino and cashed out, yep, still 3 bucks up for the trip.  Niiiice.  We wandered to the photo gallery and bought photos.  Actually finally finished packing and set our bags out.  Something was a little off, and my nose was runny, and I hoped it was allergies (spoiler: it wasn’t… stupid cold).  We played our last game of hand and foot and the men won (so… ladies 3, men 3), and then unspectacularly ended our last night with icing the knee, reading, and love boat reruns.

Friday:  Bye bye Emerald Princess!

To keep it short – we had breakfast, getting off the ship was a breeze, we killed time in the airport, the travel was uneventful, and got home and worshipped our comfy couch and bed and hugged our leezards and kitty.  We spent the weekend recovering from colds and just relaxing and getting our tummies slowly ready for good healthy food again – no epic adventures or training.

And now, it’s back to life, reality, and dealing with recooping from a stupid injury, which I will talk more about next post.  However, I will report that I weighed in the day after we got home and I was 179 and have been maintaining a weight in the high 170s this week, so my fears of gaining a billion lbs on vacation?  No big deal.  Just needed a plan, and to follow it and eat like a normal human being not gone loco.

Besides the whole knee incident (and catching a cold at the end, but whatevs), and a little bit of parental stress – it was a perfect vacation.  I’m already dreaming about visiting some of those islands again!

Question: What is your favorite place to vacation?

While it seemed like half of April disappeared because of vacation, I didn’t do too badly…

April Goal Recap:

1.  While not on vacation, eat like an ANGEL.  Keep with the  Quixitarian diet (mostly vegan, with greek yogurt, fish, and muscle milk, with some meat whenever I’m supercraving it).  At the end of the month, I want to weight less than 182.2.  I would love to break 180 before I go on vacation.  Continue tracking daily weight and stats in Training Peaks, oddly enough, I have had WAY less freakouts about weight when it’s a number I measure and record daily.  Continue to pre-track weekly, that shit helps!

Check.  I need to reduce the meat again a little next week, but baby steps.  Today’s weight is 179.6 (low this month was 178.4), and this is during that time of the month where I usually gain a few lbs, so I’ll be happy to see where I end up in May.

2.  While on vacation, I will be trying to enjoy in moderation.  Lots of strategies in my head, some include taking a travel scale (that’s a good check if I’m really being obnoxious with my consumption), having a one-desert-per-day maximum, trying to make a one-plate-per-meal maximum, tracking diet quality, and/or trying to figure out some way to not gain 10 lbs right before my next two months of big races (like I did last vacay).  Let me assure you – I would not take these steps if it was an offseason trip, but I was very much in shape a month before last year’s A race, and I ruined it with a 10 day vacation of pigging out.  I don’t want to do that again.  This vacation is about spending time with family and scuba and hitting every beach for as many hours as I can.  I’m going to try to make it not about stuffing my face.

Check!  My strategy was to take the scale and use it to make sure I didn’t let things get out of hand, and to indulge smartly.  I ate whatever I wanted for dinner, no questions asked.  However, for lunch most days I just ate a giant plate of veggies and salad with a few other bits to taste.  I didn’t eat a lot of breakfast as there weren’t very many healthy things I liked, so that was either a pre-scuba thing or I made sure my lunch was smaller because of it.  I didn’t snack much, and if I did, it was just a bite or two, not another meal.  Also, besides a few fruity drinks, I stuck to vodka/soda so that’s like 100 calories, not 500 per drink.  All in all, I ended up losing weight and feeling totally undeprived on vacation so it worked out great!

3.  April’s plan is made – I need to focus on getting in the hours.  A few workouts got cut short or skipped in March due to various reasons, and while it’s not to the level that I think my overall race prep suffered, we are doing the last build month.  On vacation, I’ll be flexible with the composition and type of workouts, but I want to match the hours.  Also, run in a different country!

Sorta check – I got in the hours… until I hurt my knee.  Then I just did some stuff that didn’t hurt.  And thus… I did not run in a different country, but I was able to check off running in a new state! (Florida)

4. For sewing, I just want to mend everything that has holes in it on the pile of things that I want to bring on vacation.  Amazingly enough, staying about the same size for 2-3 years means clothing gets holes in it before I can ship it back to the thrift store.

Didn’t get to it.  Boo.  (Saved me from packing a few unneccesary things though!)

5. Read some books on vacation.  Not textbooks.  Not triathlon books.  Relax-y sci fi space fun books.

Check!  I got through a 5 book series and am 1 book into the next one!

6. Catching up: cut my hair, do my brows, and refresh mani/pedi before vacation.  Put the “organize the house” initiative on pause, but any steps that can be taken to finish the bedroom would rock.  I’m going to drop the no cigs, HR train, batch cook, have a game night, etc, because they are just happening now.

Check.  Why did I wait so long to cut my hair?

7. Relax on vacation.  Don’t come home feeling like it was 10 days of crazy gogogogo and now you’re back to life which is the same.  Conversely, try to relax enough before vacation that you don’t feel like you just want to shut down and not do the cool things you have planned.

Check – I would have probably done a little more week 2, we missed out on two potential snorkeling trips since I was gimpy, as well as running, but it did force me to relaaaaaax more and I certainly don’t feel like I wasted my vacation doing nothing, I did a lot!

8. Bathe the ‘guana every day possible (at least every other) and get her a humidifier.  She’s doing great, but she is a little dehydrated because she’s not very smart and forgets she has water.

Check – been pretty good about every other day.

9. Use these two races this month – the 10 mile running race and the second century as good (head and body) training.  For the 10/20, I want to dig deep.  I want to find that place where it hurts, but my heart rate says I’m handling it physically, and just claw my way through the end and not relent.  Also, I’d really like to sub-10 min/mile it.  Because I have a really stupid dumb secret goal this year that is probably unobtainable, but still fun to entertain, and this would be good progress to check how that’s going.  Also, there is no reason that I should finish century ride #2 slower than #1 unless the weather sucks, but either way, its 60+ miles of outdoor riding, and motivation not to make an ass of myself on vacation (since it’s the day after I get back).

Half check – 10/20 rocked.  I DNS’d Red Poppy Ride because the double dose of suck which was a cold and my knee hurting.

10. Buy some fun t-shirts from the ports.  Since I love wearing my Alaska cycle shirt, I need at least one with a diver.  Bring back some souvenirs for my leads and something that makes noise for my sound guys.

Sorta check – I got one Aruba shirt but damned if most of the girl ones weren’t pink or sparkly or stupid.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for girly fit diver shirts, I’m sure they’re out there.

11.  Keep a journal of vacation – even though it can be a pain to write every day, I love rereading these and it helps me remember all the fun timez had.

Check – I actually reread my last one from September and damned if I don’t know why I gained so much wait on it, I was constantly eating!!!

12.  Not buy a whole mess of random things for vacation because we might need it (I guarantee I have everything I need right now to go, and whatever I don’t have I probably don’t need).  Exception is I’m out of travel deodorant (which will immediately go into my gym bag after) and I want a damn necklace charm to go with these gorgeous earrings I got that don’t match a fucking thing I own.

Check – I grabbed a few things not on that list, but I didn’t go crazy and it was all things I needed eventually (new lipstick, etc).  Except I did spent about 25 bucks in the bead store, but… ya know.  Beads!!!

13.  Not spend a billion dollars on vacation.  I’m sure there will be a day or two we have some drinks, but try to limit it to just a few because we can get drunk at home (way cheaper), and getting drunk with access to free food equals getting faaaaaaat quick.  Don’t buy 20 billion pictures because the ones from the last two cruises have never been scanned and are just sitting somewhere in the office.  Spend on experiences (scuba, transport around areas, entry fees, etc) and not on stupid stuff that doesn’t matter.

Check – I think we did really well here.  We had two days where we drank, and a few other days we had a drink or two.  We bought two photos.  I bought a few things but nothing that I regret, and most of the vacay money was spent on the scuba trips.  Success!

10.5 out of 13 – pretty good if you ask me!

Moving onto May….

1. Keep this weight loss thing going on.  Seems to be holding steady at 3-4 lbs per month.  If I keep that trend going, I’ll be at last years race weight by the end of this month.  Come on 175!

2.  I’ll accomplish this by continuing to eat about 1500 (while injured and pretty lightly active) to 1700 (once things pick up) on weekdays, and a little more on weekends when activity dictates as such (activity estimate minus 1000 = minimum).  I don’t want to shock my system, but transition back to the bulk of my food being whole grains, veggies, beans, fruit, greek yogurt, fish, and smaller doses of nuts, meat, other dairy, and such.  Being able to lose on vacation while I was not eating this way really strikes home that portions are king, but damned if I don’t feel much better eating better food.

3. Do not follow any sort of training program until May 13.  Each day I will wake up, assess my knee, and decide what I have in me for the day.  If the prognosis is rest, I’ll do it without guilt or worry.  If I feel good, I’ll swim, do upper body weights, or if I have full range of motion back, I’ll hop on the trainer with very little resistance or go on a short run, stopping if I feel even a twinge of pain or anything off.

4. Take stock that weekend (May 11-12), figure out how I feel, and what I can do to best ready me for June 30 (IM 70.3 BSLT) and write out a plan of how to get there.  Still, at any point, if anything gets creaky, back off.

5. No racing this month.  No hopping into a supported ride.  No “I missed Rookie so I’m going to sign up for…”.  No trying to keep up with anyone this month.  Your pace is your pace.

6. No tears about missing Rookie.  You’re only missing one race.  It could be way worse.  Enjoy the day cheering for everyone and being paparazzi/sherpa/athletic supporter.

7. Volunteer (if they let me at Rookie) and the next weekend at 5k9.  Good volunteer karma = race PRs, I’m convinced.

8. Since you have some free time – how about some sewing progress?  Let’s rip that bandaid off – find the “make a boy shirt a girl shirt” pattern, grab a boy shirt you don’t give a flying fuck about, and try it out.

9.  Try to minimize spending.  Thank the dear fluffy lord I don’t need a 300$ MRI or a 2k$ surgery, but we are still kinda broke.  I don’t need clothes, we don’t really need to go out, we don’t need to shop, we don’t need diving stuff, we don’t need toys, I just want to relax at home with the stuff I already have and eat good, homecooked food and my own booze.

10.  Getting back on the organizational train.  Pick a room and do it.  Something that we don’t anticipate having to buy a lot of shit to accomplish.  Kitchen, breakfast nook, common areas, and garage stick out as pure “get the crap out and go through it and organize” areas.

11.  Read a book.  Probably the one I started right as vacation ended.

12. If you’re too creaky to run, get out and walk.  Go swim outdoors if that’s possible.  Do upper body weights in the yard.  Make sure to get your normal dose of vitamin D even while injured so you don’t get depressed.

13. Unless it’s training related, only one sugar-y treat per week, MAX.  Having desert every day on vacation was great and all, but not reasonable for real life.

There we go – goals to do May by.

Question: What’s your biggest May goal?

It’s long, but I’ll just split this into two weeks like normal blogs.  Each day has the weight because I logged it, and I figured it may be interesting – not because I was neurotic about it.  I actually highly suggest a travel scale IF AND ONLY IF you can treat it like it should be treated – a reminder not too go too overboard, but really and truly just a metric.  It did not make me crazy at all and I actually got a kick out of seeing the numbers and helped me actually lose 3 lbs on a two week vacation without feeling at all deprived.  So, here’s week 1 of how I spent my vacay.

Monday: flight and Ft. Lauderdale (182.0)

After riding high on an awesome race, 2.5 hour bike, and pretty fast brick mile at the end, we drink copious amounts of champagne and didn’t do a goddman thing towards packing.  So, we both were up pretty early (and felt amazingly decent) getting the last minute things together.  We finished packing, picked up some Rudy’s breakfast tacos (1 chopped beef, 1 bean and cheese for me), and then we were off to the airport in our cab!

At the airport, our metabolisms were screaming for more food, so I picked up a beef taco salad (beef, guac, sour cream, salsa, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ditched the shell) and nom nom nommmed it real hard, plus a few of Zliten’s fries.  My parents were looking at us like “omg why didn’t you eat before” and we had to explain that we DID eat before, but you just don’t understand a day-after-long-long-long-workout metabolism until you experience it, so oh well.  Also, note to self – ALWAYS start vacations off with a 4.5 hour kick ass workout the day before – your metabolism will be chewing through all that vacation food efficiently for DAYZZZ.

The flight was uneventful, and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale, got a shuttle to the hotel, met my Aunt and we had planned to go to Sweet Tomatoes, which was close, but they got really lost getting to (and since there were 6 of us and it was pouring, they had to shuttle us in two trips).  I had a fabulous salad bar salad with all the veggies, whole grain bread, turkey chili, and tasted some veggie soup and leek soup.  We stayed and chatted for a while, and then since the rain cleared up, Zliten and I walked the mile back to stretch out our legs and scope out part of the morning’s run route.  After we got home, we dorked on the internet and watched some TV and then zonked, still tired from the day before.

Tuesday: We’re all on a boat (and quickly)! (183.0)

We woke up around 7am and got out to run around 8am.  Joel got us some snackies from the breakfast buffet – I had half an english muffin and cream cheese and the little airplane packet of peanuts.  I had mapped out our running route ahead of time to get in about 4-5 miles that morning, and though we got a little lost trying to find the first turn, it was a nice morning run.  Florida is freaking flat.  It may be hot and humid, but it’s also very flat, so there’s that.  We ran through an area that looked pretty nice, but we were DEFINITELY the only ones with our skin coloring.  But it wasn’t uncomfortable, lots of kids and families out and people playing cards on the porch and they were quite friendly.  We finished up 4.5 miles in about 52 mins – nice slow recovery run, our legs were SORE!  Notably, no other fitness enthusiasts (not counting kids obviously on the way to school).  I don’t think that’s POSSIBLE in Austin, I always see at least someone out running/biking/walking/etc.

Came back, grabbed some stuff we forgot at the vitamin shoppe across the street (yeah, we felt like THOSE people in our workout gear hitting the vitamin store as they opened….), and refueled with a quarter waffle and some yogurt.  Then, it was time to hit the pool!  It was super nice and I spent time with the fam in the pool, ducking out to do laps every so often, I got in about 1000m, so no complaints about workout times that morning!

F0r any of you that have cruised – we got on the shuttle at the hotel at 11-ish, got to the port at noon, and then was on the ship by 12:45!!!  Usually its a lot of waiting in line for hours, but either we got really lucky or Princess really has it down.  I was STAAAAAARVED (hi there overactive metabolism still alive and kicking) and got lunch – consisting of as many veggies I could find and a giant salad, a curry, some turkey, mashed potatoes, a bite of tiramasu, and 2 welcome-to-the-ship beers.

Then, we went and attempted to reserve our diving trips and BOOOOO, the two we wanted to do were full (Aruba and Dominica).  We signed up for one that was still open (Bonaire) and got on the wait list for Aruba and Dominica if Aruba didn’t come up.  Then, we got unpacked and organized, did the boat drill, and found the pools were open (another ship first, usually they are closed until you’re at sea).  We wriggled into swimsuits right away and sailed away from shore in the pool, soaking up sun.  Total bliss!  Best getting on the cruise ever, especially compared to THIS first day.

When the sun got lower, I got dragged out of the pool and we got ready for dinner at the sit down dining room.  I feasted on shrimp cocktail, tortellini soup, filet of beef medallion, and honeydew sorbet (and a few bites of everyone else’s deserts to try).  After dinner, we wandered, bought cards to play, went to the variety show, ate a little post-dinner-snack (I had more shrimp, and some veggies and broth so it wasn’t crazy).  The girls SMOKED the guys on the first card game of the cruise, and then we retired to bed where I watched a weird Christopher Walken movie called Undertaking Betty and fell asleep, wouldn’t you know it, to some duathlon coverage I found on one of the ship’s channels.  Awesomely surreal first day on board!

Wednesday: Still on a Boat (178.4!!! Hello new low weight for 2013)

Slept until we felt like getting up, did weights and an easy 45 min spin on the bikes in the gym (ugh, how did I EVER use a seat like that, felt like a pillow between my legs…).  Then we checked out the uber ship sale, and nothing was super cool so we passed by.  We showered and then were supposed to meet my parents for lunch, but they took a while so we had a pre-lunch margarita (there really, really should be more opportunities to have pre-lunch margaritas ;D).  I pretty much had a plate of veggies and salad for lunch again (look for this to be a theme for lunch), with some veggie bean soup, fried shrimp, mashed potatoes, a few bites of chips and guac, and a few bites of beef stew and chocolate mousse.

We then tried playing Mah-jong which I find to be the most frustrating game in the world.  If you’ve ever learned it… it feels like fucking Calvin- ball.  So many arbitrary rules and they feel like they’re being made up all the time and just there to be a pain in the ass.  Anyway, Zliten won one game and we had two wall games (no one won).  That drove me to eat more, just some fruit and a bite of cheese though. Then, we retired back to the cabin and took a long naaaaaaap (I love vacation naps).  While naps are great, so is the pool, so we took a late dip and chatted with some folks we met in the hot tub about crazy Texans and California liberals and rednecks.

We got ready for dinner and then headed there and then OMG DINNER DRAMA.  We took the “anytime” dining option, which my dad took to mean he would get sat for dinner “anytime”.  However, at 6:30, when everyone else wanted to eat, there was a 30 minute wait.  He got all huffy and puffy and I felt bad for the poor staff and after that, we made sure to get a reservation later so we wouldn’t have to wait again.  They were getting all stressed out so I got myself a glass of wine (hey, vacation).  Dinner was great – lychee and watermelon for an appetizer, black bean soup, greens with balsamic, giant prawns with fried rice and veggies, and butter pecan ice cream (having bites of some toffee cake and pineapple sorbet around the table).

The show was a comedy/music show with Steve Moris of the beach boys, which was actually kind of hilarious, and then played a round of cards (boys won) and then we bid my parents adieu and decided to seek out the disco.  We ended up making friends with the bartender who was also named… err.. Zliten (names changed to protect the innocent), and a young dude from Colorado also here with his family also escaping   (love my parents and all, but we do best with a little space in between every moment together).  We closed out the bar with some absolute citron, soda, and lemon, and a few crazy shots, and then hit the casino – I ended up a few bucks up, but Zliten lost quite a bit more than I gained, so boo.  We went for some drunk munchies at around 3:30am, and I just got a greek salad and then we hit the bed and sleeeeeeept.

Thursday: Almost There (181.6)

Woke up around 10:30, was a little hungover (bar drinks do not = the kind of drinks I pour at home, forgot about that).  Had a very small breakfast of some melon and two mouthfuls of cereal, and then hit up the shops again and bought two pashminas for 9 bucks!  Woo!

The day was mostly spent by the pool – we grabbed lunch (another tray of veggies and salad + albonigos soup) and then sunned, read, swam, lost sunglasses, found sunglasses, played water volleyball and lost terribly (to be fair, I’m short and couldn’t touch bottom and we were playing with a real VOLLEYBALL, not a beach ball).  I had a half-a-slice-of-pizza snack and four of Zliten’s fries, and then got motivated to run even though I didn’t wanna at all – but got through 3.7 miles in 43 mins of a nice easy ship-swaying run and walked a bit more to round out 50 mins.

Then, we got fancy for formal night, watched the champagne fountain flow – got our glass, and headed to dinner.  It was my Dad’s birthday, but he asked that we not make a big fuss (the whole cruise was to celebrate), so we just enjoyed crab and cheese quiche (I actually didn’t hate it, even though I am anti-egg – the fact that it was CRAB helped I’m sure), cream of asparagus soup,  salad with italian, shrimp with broccoli in garlic sauce, and some amazing chocolate pb oreo pie.  OMG, I’m dreaming of it now.

However, let me assure you that SPANX are not really good for eating occasions.  I swear, I almost popped a rib trying to hold that dinner in and I went without it for the rest of the night and said screw it.  We regrouped for the disco show and then Zliten and I hit the bed, as there was an early wake up call to go DIVING in ARUBA!!!!

Friday: Aruuuuuuba (184.4)

Let’s just say this – 6 lbs gained in 2 days was not making me happy – but there was an easy explanation – I hadn’t had any “moving experiences” pretty much since I got on board.  However, I didn’t want to take anything for it because #1 – I’ve never had this problem this bad before and I didn’t know how it would affect me since I had never taken anything, and #2 – I had two days of scuba to come, so I figured it would be a bad idea.  So we picked up some happy chocolates and I saved them until after the next day’s dive.  Honestly, I usually have the opposite problem on cruises, so it was super weird, but ummm, yeah.

Since we were having a morning of diving we got up and actually ate breakfast – an english muffin with cream cheese and bacon, melon, papaya, a turkey sausage, and a hashbrown.  I even had a few sips of coffee!  Decadent!

Diving was so fun – we got picked up right by the ship dock, the boat had all the tanks and gear ready for us, and it sped us around the island on a gorgeous tour before we got suited up and in the water.  We dove the Antilles wreck first (50-60 feet down) and then the Perdinalis (15-20 feet down – basically the longest safety stop ever as you’re supposed to stop to decompress at 15 feet ).  I just don’t know how to put words to this besides AWESOME.  So much visibility, so many fishes, was cool to see the wrecks and know that they had crews and were functioning ships.  Also, fish really like wrecks to there was a lot to see – we saw a morey eel, what we called a “straw” fish but ended up being a trumpet fish, watched a fish poo (and was kinda jealous considering my problem above), and wow – I just LOVE diving.  I had no issues and didn’t feel like a n00b at all!

We got back on board and had lunch.  Wouldn’t you know it, ANOTHER PLATE OF VEGGIES AND SALAD + veggie soup, seafood balls, few bites of chicken, and some sausage, cheese, and pickle salad (sound GROSS but it was really stupid good), a little pasta, and some sugar free key lime mousse (diving makes me need SUGAR in a weird way).  We went back out shopping and I found the pashmina (a red one) I was actually looking for, an Aruba shirt for both of us, poo chocolates, and an Aruba patch for Zliten (he wants to put them on our dive bags).

For dinner – we went to the buffet since it was curry night and I love me some curry.  My plate was full of various curries, tandori chicken, dal, garlic soup, stir fry veggies, sourdough roll, and some caramel walnut cheesecake.  We played a round of cards and the ladies won again!  Woo!

We pumpkined early since the wakeup call for Bonaire was in the 6am-hour and read and watched TV and drifted off thinking about another awesome day of diving to come…

Saturday: Bonaire Friendly Diving (185.8)

Still no pooing and I felt WAY gross, but not so gross that it wasn’t time to go DIVING!!!! Wooohoo!

We were up early enough to watch the boat dock.  We got another big breakfast to fuel the diving – half an english muffin, cream cheese, bacon, corned beef hash (my cruise splurge, I love it), baked beans, fruit.  We were some of the first people off the boat, and they took us on a ferry over to the dive shop, and then geared us up, and we got on the actual dive boat (the first one, I was curious where all the stuff was) and got out to the first dive site.

On one hand, I had a major N00B moment and it took me forever to get my ears equalized and it was frustrating.  On the other hand, the descent of the first dive will be forever etched in my memory – we descended through gorgeous dark blue clear water down to a cliff wall of coral and living things and so, so, so, so many types of fish and it was just breathtaking.  This first one was my favorite, and I was giddy the whole time.  THIS is what we’d been certified for – it was just amazing.  I owe you a video once Zliten finishes them but… omgosh.

We barely had time to get back, and Zliten got a shirt from the dive shop and I got a hat, and we had a local beer and then walked back.  I wanted to go look for a girl shirt there in the shops because it was the “diver’s paradise” but we didn’t really have time.  We got on board and found that my parents had found the PERFECT shirt for Zliten – it had an iguana with a mask, fins, regulator, tank, and it said “Iguana Dive Bonaire”.  Best. Shirt. Ever.

Lunch, after we got back, was, you guessed it – a plate of veggies, some fried fish, and a few bites of orange cake and half a cream puff (diving + sugar = like peas and carrots), and then we hung out on the deck watching the boat sail away.  Then, we were exhauuuuuusted so we napped most of the afternoon.  Before dinner, I woke up, put on clothes, and we grabbed a glass of wine (or 2…) and read.  Then, we had wine with dinner with my parents, while also enjoying lamb and barley soup, half a roll, salad with blue cheese, pesto pasta, and some cafe au lait ice cream.

Then, we bid adieu to the fam and hit the casino and had a few more drinks.  I kept playing with the same money and was up a dollar when we left, Zliten, not so lucky.  After Zliten convinced me it was NOT his lucky day, we went back to the nightclub, and closed it out again – hangin’ with our Colorado friend and the bartender with Zliten’s name.  More drinks, more shots, more fun (we showed off all our awesome diving footage).  Then, we hung out with the DJ and some older guy that I think was celebrating his birthday if I remember correctly.

Then, things get a little hazy – somehow we convinced him to give us his shirt (so we have a souvenir polo shirt LOL), and things get MORE hazy and the night ends sometime.

Sunday: Grenada Out My Window (182.0)

The good news, I POOOOOED and digestively, I feel a million times better.

The terrible news is I can’t move my knee and I have NO RECOLLECTION of falling or doing anything evil to it.  I figured I must have been so drunk I didn’t remember smacking my knee.  I spent most of the morning and afternoon in bed icing it, on painkillers, and reading my book.  Zliten brought me breakfast (some random bites from the buffet, I wasn’t that hungry), he ordered us room service (I got a club sandwich on wheat and some fries – totally yummy) and was feeling better.  He decided to get off the boat and check out Grenada with my parents and I stayed in the room.  He came back, said it was pretty lame and sketchy, and brought me pizza.  I had one bite and it didn’t set well, so I ignored it and just kept reading and hoping my knee would feel better.

Finally, I willed myself to get up and put on some clothes and limped up to the deck so we could play some games.  The girls won one and the guys won one, and then we got ready for dinner (we sat in the smelling range of the pizza place and it went from completely nauseating to actually smelling decent, so I was hungry again! ).  Dinner was something called Cock o Leekie Soup (chicken broth and leeks and rice), salad w/ranch, surf and turf – prawns and a filet, and red currant sorbet.  Though I was in pain and not very happy, dinner definitely made me feel better, it was yummy.  After dinner I begged off to go back to the room and just read and played mario and watched TV and iced ice baby on the knee.

Needless to say, I was bummed and was kind of upset that a stupid injury was messing up my vacation.

What does the next week hold?  Stay tuned!

Back from sunny Florida, Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada (sort of), Dominica (sort of), St Thomas, and Princess Cays, with a tan, great memories, and souvenirs in tow.

I’m still recovering, and not yet really ready to dive into the vacation recap, but let me share a few highlights (and lowlights):

Scuba in Aruba and Bonaire was amazing!

Just hangin’ out with the fam by the pool lounging, reading books, taking dips, and watching movies on the big screen was just what my tired soul needed.

Snorkeling in Princess Cays was mind-blowing.

Dressing up all swanky always makes me happy.

Also, I not only didn’t get super fat on vacation, I lost 3 lbs (scale says 179 as of today, and I weighed in at 182 the first day).  It’s not the most flattering picture, but take my word for it, this dress did not fit a month ago, and this is sans spanx on the second to last night of the cruise…

However, I did come home with one unintended souvenir – halfway through the cruise, I fell and smacked my knee, and a week later, I still cannot straighten it all the way, and I’m heading to the doctor next week to get it checked out.   My mind is racing with the worst, where this is a season ender and I’m going to need to just take up swimming and I’ve wasted over a grand on race entries this year, but I’m trying to stay positive until all is said and done.

Also, I caught a cold the last day of the cruise.  Certainly not the end of the world, but I am a ball of snot today.

More soon!  For now, just trying to RICESS (rest, ice, compression, elevation, shockies, stretching) my knee as much as possible to see if the reason it’s still sore is that I had to just overuse it doing vacation stuff and do laundry and I’ll get to the deets later!

Austin 10/20 (10 miler):

I had no business PRing this or even trying, if you looked at my training runs.  Last year, I was just off half marathon season and a lot of speedwork and loving the lightness of my racing flats.  10 miles was like, not a thing to me.  A 10 min/mile pace wasn’t a cake walk but totally doable.  Long story short, I let my head get me on the back half of the course, and missed my goal time of under 1:40 by less than 2 minutes.  Not that a 10:05 or whatever pace is bad, but still, I was a little bummed.

This year, I’m a different animal.  I spent last year running really slow to get endurance for the 70.3 and marathon.  Then, I lost all that endurance in offseason and just recently did ONE double digit run a month ago, but it was barely sub-12 minute miles.  I haven’t clocked a run sub-11 minute miles except my run tests, which have been all out efforts on the oval (read: no elevation changes), and they’ve been BARELY sub 10, and only 3 miles. Also, I’m wearing these big clunky Sauconys because my stupid feet can’t run right after last year.

However, I had this burning DESIRE to PR.  I wanted to show myself that I was a better runner than I thought.  That this training is working.  That my brain is stronger than it ever has been.  Validation,  I wanted it.  I could taste it.

Yesterday, I was worried – I felt really really creaky, things hurt, I spent a lot of time on my feet, and I was just nervous I didn’t have any speed in me.  I woke up feeling a little less creaky, but my head really was not ready to hurt myself.  Boo.  I had some breakfast and pooped and got going and we got in the car and the radio sucked and I connected my zune and OMG it was dead.  We went back and grabbed the car charger and headed to the race.  I made us stay in the car just as long as humanly possible and then we headed to the race (the charge did enough, it made it through the race).  The race site was conveniently RIGHT next to my office, so we headed into work to bathroom in the nice office potties instead of the porta-ones, and then headed back to the corrals.

Corrals were elite, and then 1-10.  We were in 3.  I figured there had to be a mistake, as I’m not corral 3 material, but I wasn’t going to say anything.  Normally, I get in my corral and I’m dodging people because people seriously underestimate their finish times, so I figured this was karmic payback.  I got kinda emotional at the beginning.  I was really scared of disappointing myself.  Coming in at like 1:50 would really, really bum me out, but I really thought that might be a reality considering my training.  However, the national anthem centered me, and then we were off, so there was no time to think anything but game on.

The first 3 miles went…. easy.  I was keeping about 9:45 without much effort, and it was a little scary.  I wondered what was to come on the way back, but I just tried to keep an easy stride and not worry to much.  I hit the 2.5 mile tuckaway into the side street and only just saw the elites come out at mile 4 so I figured I was doing ok.  I tried to run heart rate, and my goal was to stick between 165-170, but I found I was jumping between 160 and 180, and neither really felt like it was much harder than the other, so I just switched back to pace on my garmin and ran by feel, checking HR every so often.  I realized this was baseline for the year, I haven’t yet done a race with enough HR data to judge, and since my goal was to PR, I’d keep myself on that track and if I fizzled at the end, so be it.

The up and downs between 3 and 4 weren’t so bad, but when I hit the long, slightly uphill stretch, I took a cue from Runthisamazingday, and pushed my visor down and just looked at feet and got into my music.  I found some rainbow leg warmers I tried to stay with but they were too fast, and I thought about the fact that perseverance was following through on the goals I made when I was no longer in the same mood as when I made them, and I got up that hill only having lost about 2 seconds per mile and still felt pretty good as I hit mile 5.  Half way done.  And if I held sub-10s on the first 5, I could certainly do it on the last 5 because I was a badass.

Well, as last year, the last 5 was not as easy as the first half.  Through 6, I kept pretty good pace.  I hit 10k at just about 1 hour exactly, and I noted that it’s been a long time since I ran a 1 hour 10k.  Nice.  But, then we turned up to another uphill, and I threw my visor down again and chugged, and I swear it took 3 miles to get up that silly small hill, but I got through it, and then I got to my home turf.  My lunch run I always run.  And I got a “go Quix” and with my visor down, I didn’t know who it was, but either it was someone I knew or someone who read my bib, so I gave them the horns and kept going.  It flattened out soon and I got back to sub 10 and got up the mall hill I run through often fairly quick and then got out onto the freeway onramp for the last stretch.

I found recognizable feet, one of my triathlon friends R, and stayed on him.  He was coming off an injury from last year, but in his prime, he is a WAYYYY faster runner than me normally so I figured if I could stay with him, I was doing alright.  I caught him on the other side, the uphill, and he was all, “hey, where’s the fire?” to which I had no brain to reply anything but “huh”?  and then “words are hard” and ran ahead.  8 to 9 was HARD and while not a mountain, definitely uphill and I watched my average tick from 9:50 to 9:54, and then I made the call around mile 9 it was time to spend all the cash and try to get that average to go the other way.

I paid fuck all attention to HR, and just did what I could without puking or passing out.  R passed me, and I couldn’t quite catch him, but I kept him in my sights.  I stopped looking at pace and just RAN.  Once we hit the home stretch I just gave it everything and willed my cramping calf muscles to hold out just a little longer and willed my garmin not to hit 1:40 before I hit the finish line and then it was there and I was going as fast as I could and then I crossed it and celebrated and then I hit stop and it just clicked over to 1:40.

10.13 miles, 1:39:57.  9:52 average. 28% of my gender beat me, 30% of my AG beat me, and 36% of the whole field beat me.  I’m pretty happy with essentially a top 1/3 finish.  Also, if I would have held pace (probably doable with similar terrain and some more fuel/water), I would have been within 1 minute of my half marathon PR.  Like, from 2.5 years and 20 lbs ago.  Also, I believe that was about all out pace in January.  And I held it for 10 miles.

I waited for Zliten to cross and he did: 1:44!  He got a 5 minute PR too!  Fucking awesome day!

Then, we got sammiches, came home, biked 2h30 min on the trainer, and then ran 1 mile in 10:17 to fully brick the legs, and now, champagne.  I will definitely pull on this day in 2.5 months when we do Buffalo Springs 70.3.  While takeout sammiches and half a large pizza is not normally good nutrition, I think today is a 5k calorie burn and I’ve earned it.  Even with the champagne.

Training:

This week it was just all about getting in the hours.  After last week’s crazy 2.5 hours of hills, and the ensuing soreness, and the knowledge that it was a fully loaded week, and a race I actually cared a bit about this weekend, I cut everything down to easy miles and skipped weights in favor of extra stick and stretching time.

It was a challenge with all the other commitments – had to be up at 5am for transportation and came back home at 7:30 and then biked for 1.5 hours and then had to leave again, ran at lunch that day, and then hopped on the trainer as soon as I got home to finish up some more time.  I had a dentist appt Thursday early, so I had to squeeze that day too.  I ended up going a little light on swimming and running in favor of extra bike time, but I got in my time (for the most part).

We now are all signed up all the tris (minus Austin 70.3, which we are still deciding on):

Rookie Super Sprint Tri: 5/5
Playtri Olypmic Tri: 6/2
Pflugerville Sprint Tri: 6/16
Buffalo Springs 70.3 Tr: 6/30
Couples Sprint Tri: 7/14
Jacks Generic Olympic: 8/4
Tri Rock Olympic: 9/2
Kerrville 70.3 Tri: 9/29

We will be throwing in some supported ~50-60 mile rides about once a month (Armadillo, HotterNHell Hundred, etc), and hitting up splash and dashes as often as it makes sense with training.

Besides the race commentary, don’t have all that much else to say.  See below:

Monday: Swim: EZ Laps 1500 m 00:36
Tuesday: Bike: Trainer + Josie and the Pussycats. 29.01 mi 01:26, Run: Neighborhood Lunch Loops 2.72 mi 00:30, Bike: Trainer + Rest of Josie 12.01 mi 00:35
Wednesday: Swim: Laps 1800 m 00:45
Thursday: Run: EZ Lunch Run 3.1 mi 00:34, Bike: Trainer + Fringe 14 mi 00:40
Friday: Outside Bike: Neighborhood Loopz 5.3 mi 00:22, Bike: Trainer + Bobs Burgers Butts … 7 mi 00:21
Saturday: off
Sunday: Run: Austin 10/20 Race 10.13 mi 01:40 Bike: Trainer + Les Mis 51.4 mi 02:31 Run: Bricky Brick 1 mi 10:17

Food:

Things seem to be working folks.  I’ve been in the low 181-183 range all week and finding it easier to eat a little less – my tummy is finally adjusting, so yay.

I’ve eaten a few less than 100% healthy things (smart ones micro meal, a little bit of brownie, etc), so I need to watch that, as when I’m lowering my calories, I need like 95% of it to be good awesome fueling my training calories or I’ll bonk, but my little swedish meatball splurge yesterday, and the pieces of not-horkin-fiber bread today, were kinda yummy.

Just need to hold the mentality for vacation that I don’t need a billion calories, and since I’ll be away for a while, I’ll have plenty of time to taste all of the things, I don’t need to eat so much all at once.

I’m finally at the point where I’ve lost enough that different pants are fitting, and I look different in clothes I normally wear, so hopefully that is motivation not to just gain it all back.

I won’t belabor it.  By the numbers this week:

Monday: 27 DQ, 1547 calories
Tuesday: 30 DQ, 1856 calories
Wednesday: 26 DQ, 1576 calories
Thursday: 23 DQ, 1501 calories
Friday: 21 DQs, 1554 calories
Saturday: 23 DQ, 1674 calories
Sunday: this day will throw everything off – consumed about 3500 and burned about 5k calories – so I’m going to not count it in the averages here.

Average DQ: 25

Average calories in: 1618

Average calories out: (estimated) 2200 (so I would expect a little over 1lb loss this week)

Weight: low was 181.0, high was 183.0.  Most days, in the 181s.  So that’s pretty happy.  Not the 170s yet, but I can see getting there soon.

Other Stuff:

I got my hairs cut.  It’s back to my shoulders.  I forgot how poofy shoulder hair is, especially after just being cut.  Looking forward to it settling a bit, the fro is fun and all, but… ya know.  I’m not entirely sure how I don’t have a picture of it that’s not in pigtails for the race, but trust me, you’ll see more of it soon.

Left my glasses at home one day after lunch this week and instead of going home to get them, I just rocked my sunglasses in the office all day.  I am so blind that it was the better option than just not wearing them.  Luckily I had no meetings but I got some funny looks when I had to go talk to people.  I had to explain myself a lot.  I should have just said, “I’m just cooler than you”, but, I’m not.

I got to record an interview for my game.  I love doing stuff like that.  Oddly enough, I like to yammer on and on.  Who knew?

I went to PF Changs for lunch one day.  I remember their food being better.  I think I’ll stick with my neighborhood places.

My badass brag – I got my second cavity filled this week with no novicain.  Because I am TOUGH (and I hate needles and novicain and will happily take a little pain instead).

And now, the tale of my week is done.  Tell me the story of your week in the comments.

Let’s dive in.

Training:

I’m sort of in that “middle of the season, digging in and keeping at it” place, so I’ll try not to repeat everything I’ve been saying the last few weeks

Weights – I’ve moved on to the point where I do strength maintenance 1-2x per week, and not on race weeks.  This week is a race week that I’ve decided is at least a B, so I’m going to skip it and resume next week.  I do the same sets (leg press or squats, rows, incline sit ups with twist, calf raises or hammie curls, and pulldowns) at 60/60/80% of my 1 rep max that I established last month.  For the rest of the year, this is about maintaining the pretty huge gains I made the first 3 months of the year, and the strength work will move into sport specific stuff (hill work, speedwork, force work, drag sets in the pool, etc).

Swim – I’m still kicking my ass in the pool on Wednesdays with speedwork, and feeling strong, but I’ve been finding that it’s hard to get there on the weekend after the increased hours on the bike/run and it’s just a little too early for lake swimming.  Again, I’m thrilled with the gains I’ve made in the first 3 months of this year, and I can take a little stalled progress here if needed.  And right now, it’s just that Sauron’s eye has turned a little more to the other two sports.  Once the lakes are in the 70s and it’s a billion degrees outside I’ll be back at it full force.

Bike – My trainer speeds are off the HOOK (I’m at 3/5 resistance and pulled a 30.5 mph avg at a lower HR than I did 28.9 miles at 2/5 resistance earlier this year).  My outdoor speeds suck.  But my outdoor rides this year have been a) after a 10 mile run w/2 mile tempo b) a metric century (61 miles) c) in traffic d) hilly as balls or e) first ride of the year, trying to remember how to not fall down.   My legs feel pretty strong this year, and my stupid hilly ride this weekend at the roller coaster called Pace Bend was not so, so bad (15.1 mph over 19 miles).  I just need to ride outside more, so we’re planning on doing one supported metric century per month as training.  The love is coming back to me with cycling this week, and that makes me happy.

Run – I feel like I’m just getting off training wheels here.  I spent 3 months running super slow.  I have done my requisite speed work and ran some hills and did some tempo work in the last few weeks, but I am racing 10 miles on Sunday, and I’m gunning for a PR (last year was 1:41-something).  I feel like I have it in me to sub-10 min/mile pace it, but I don’t have much experience at that pace since all my work minus the run tests have been in a lower zone than I plan to run.  I want to put the hurt on this race.  It’s my home turf, I know the elevations and what’s cool and what sucks about it.  It’s about convincing my mind that my body has more when it wants to quit.  That is most of what I want to do.  I want to hurt for about an hour and 40 minutes, give or take.

I hurt pretty bad running the mad hills at Pace Bend last weekend.  I stopped having fun at mile 4 but I finished out the 6 miles complain-y but strong.  I’m going to take the rest of my runs easy this week, and see what my legs have in them.

I’d say I’m loving all 3 sports right now, probably giving running or biking the edge depending on what day it is and what type of workout is planned – and I’m tired of weights but still doing them.

By the days:

Monday: Weights: SM Day 1 of the rest of the year 00:45, Swim: Easy Laps + Drills 1200 m 00:27
Tuesday: Run: Ruuuuuninng in the rain 4.15 mi 00:48, Bike: Trainer + End of Star Trek En… 19.07 mi 00:45
Wednesday: Weights: SM Day 2 00:45, Swim: 3x300m with some farteleks? 1800 m 00:45
Thursday: Bike: Cycling Test 17.78 mi 00:35, Run: Easy After Work Run 3.1 mi 00:37
Friday: rest, relaxing, setting up camp
Saturday: Run: Pace Bend Hill Run 6.03 mi 01:07 Bike: Pace Bend Hill Ride 18.66 mi 01:14 Run: Brick 1 mi 00:10:45
Sunday: rest, taking down camp, 20 mountains of laundry.

Food/Eating:

I’m even less motivated to talk about this, and it’s not because it’s going badly.  Actually, the opposite.  I’ve sustained a weight in the low 180s and my weight has been much more consistant, fluctuating more like 2-3 lbs than the 5-6 it has been.  I sustained TOM week with fairly minimal balloon belly, and if I keep on the straight and narrow, this week could be a decent loss week for me.

Now that I have found something that seems to work – having a few less calories than I think I should/deserve/etc, and not pigging out on weekends, and yes, sometimes having vodka for dinner, but more lately, drinking a little less vodka.  Not none, but less.

It’s just going to be a challenge to not kill all the progress I’ve made in the last 3.5 months while I’m gallivanting on vacation.  I’ll be extremely active, but we all know I can eat that back in the blink of an eye.  This week is a little odd because I didn’t get my batch cook on and am eating leftovers and old frozen meals and some my fit foods/snap kitchens, but it all should be rather healthy and I’ve pre-tracked my food so there’s that.

Here’s the deets, and lets move on:

Monday: 29 DQ, 1702 calories
Tuesday: 26 DQ, 1623 calories
Wednesday: 25 DQs, 1572 calories
Thursday: 23 DQ, 1782 calories
Friday: 26 DQ, 2112 calories
Saturday: 9 DQ, 2471 calories
Sunday: 19 DQ, 1539 calories

Average Diet Quality Score (not Dairy Queen Score – Yum Yucky ): 22.4

Average Calories: In – 1828, Out (estimated) – 2400.  Deficit – ~600 (loss of just a little over 1 lb)

Weight Fluctuations: low 183.0-high 187.0 (TOM, so there was a reason and it went away super quick which made me happah).

Thoughts and stuff:

-My thought process is way different right now and I like it.  I saw some, shall we say, highly unflattering pictures from the weekend.  At some points in my life, that might send me into a tizzy and bad thought spiral, but it really just gave me a firm reminder to keep at it, because I’m not there yet.  Yeah, I may be feeling a bit more fly because my HR monitor is falling off and my sexy tri legs are coming back, but there is no way to not keep trying to work on the diet quality/food tracking/etc when someone could possibly see me from any angle looking like *THAT* in what I was wearing.  Fuel for the fire of accomplishing shit, not of self destruction and negative self talk.  Hard to be too negative when I pulled that same offending carcass up so many hills on the bike and run that morning, and totally motivating about how much FASTER I’ll be pulling that meatflesh up them thar hills if I keep at it and chip away at this extra poundage.

-We have had our Xterra for 3 weekends, and for all 3 weekends, we have made great use of it (bike transport to Rosedale Ride, hauling around scuba gear, and hauling camping gear this weekend).  Also, Pace Bend was a great place to train hills away from traffic, and since we own all the required equipment, we’ll consider coming out, camping overnight, and then training on those hills at least once or twice again this summer.

-I got to bring the Iguana to work last week, after her vet appointment.  She was only a little bit of a brat that afternoon – she didn’t like being shut in my office for an hour long meeting and pooped once, and she really, really wanted to go explore the rest of the offices, but I’m pretty sure letting a 5 foot long leezard out would have freaked some people out.  Also, she is doing just fine!  Yay!

-I don’t usually partake in April Fools, but we happened to have a company meeting that day, one of the ones where I get to talk on the microphone in front of the whole office, and let’s just say, I surprised some people with the “new direction” our latest update was taking, though I could only get a few sentences into it before I had to break the “April Fools”.   Fun stuff.

I think that about does it.  This week is going to be pretty crazy, so I’m gonna go dig in instead of more yakkity yak.

Question of the week: What is the best April Fool’s Prank you ever pulled?

Hooooly crap guys, life is up to 11 lately.  I’d say I’m looking forward to vacation (because I AM SO MUCH), but I think it’s just going to be a lot of EPIC DOINGS there too.  Ahhhhhhh, I love it.  I may have had a major freakout on Friday and hid in bed for a few hours (and in the process missed a lovely day for a bike ride), but I realized a bit later it was just a product of some misunderstood PMS and got over it quickly, and then had a pretty damn cool weekend.

Scuba Certification:

Back for more.  We were sun-happy, washing out our equipment in the driveway, excited to be newly certified, and our neighbor, a seasoned scuba diver, came to talk to us.  He said our noob certification would probably make the divemasters not let us pair up together since we were so inexperienced, and really, what’s fun about not getting to do this new fun thing you spent a lot of money and time training for with your hubbs (it’s like when they made us dance with other people, I came to learn to dance with HIM, not people )?  So, we decided to knock out the advanced class before vacation.  This meant another 500$ in fees, and more schoolwork.  At least we got a month to do this instead of 4 days.

This class was so much fun.  There was no classroom – we went over the book work on the boat.  Related, we got to spend the majority of the weekend on a boat, which made my fishie self super happy.

After the book work, we did 5 dives – the first one worked on being better at buoyancy – which I actually kind of sucked at because I wasn’t weighted properly.  And I had a LOT of weight.  Let me tell you, I think I finally succeeded in taking a little bit of poundage off in March after feeling what extra weight felt like.  Sadly though, it wasn’t enough and once my tank got lighter from air use, I just keep bubbling up to the surface.  The instructor thought I wasn’t using my BCD (buoyancy control device) properly, but on the next dive, I was validated because I put in more weight, and I was just fine the rest of the time.

The second one, which I was the most scared of, was the underwater navigator dive.  Me + compass = not friends.  Folks, north is the way I’m facing unless I really really think hard about it.  However, I ROCKED the out and back part, and made a perfect square.  My navigationally inclined Zliten?  Missed it.  He forgot to count and ended up lopsided.  Probably the only time ever I’ll beat him in something involved with a map, but hey, I’ll take it.  I was also taught the “nestea plunge” entry, and if at all possible, it is the only way I’ll get in the water because it’s just so freaking fun.

The last dive Saturday was a boat dive.  Technically, they were all boat dives, but on this one, they let us go out on our own.  We hugged the wall and checked out the little grottos and saw a sleeping (I say sleeping, Zliten said dead – but it was perfectly preserved).  We got down to 60 feet at one point!

Sunday, the storm was rolling in, so we got an early start and got to business.  First up was our deep dive, he took us to 80+ feet at the bottom of the lake, and around 60, light started to get really dim so we switched on our dive lights, and also around there, I started to sink like a rock so I had to put a bunch of air in my BCD (the further you go down, the easier it is to sink, the further up you come, the easier it is to float).  We finally touched bottom and got reoriented – it was super dark.  I thought I might freak out but I just got… calm.  I really enjoyed the peaceful feeling down there.  Life was good.

Our last dive was a wreck dive.  There was a sunken houseboat and a pecan tree that we checked out, and then the instructor left to prep the boat and left us to enjoy the rest of our air tanks/time/etc.  We swam around and checked out each crevice and nook and happened on a bunch of fish and I kinda connected with one (we bonded).  After my air dropped under 900, we went up, boarded our vessel, and got back to shore just as the weather started to turn sour.

So, so, so much fun.  I can’t wait to dive in gorgeous blue ocean this month.

Training:

Hi, my name is Quix, and I am a huge slacker.

Since I rarely am, I decided I was fine with it.   I did Monday and Tuesday’s easy work as planned, but then Wednesday showed up and I was so unmotivated to hit the gym/pool we skipped it.  Then, I had a freakout about life in general and hid in bed and didn’t get out to ride on Friday.  So – I swam once, did weights once, and ran for an hour (and hauled a bunch of scuba shit 3 days and, well, scuba’d).

I was worried when I was still totally unenthused on Monday, but as soon as I hit the gym and got a dose of swim endorphins, I was happy girl again.  So, I’m good. Ready for build month #3.  Pile it on!

Food:

I did pretty great this week – no crazy high days, appetite in check.  Scuba makes me want SALT and SUGAR.  And usually, I want sugar and fruit does it, and for salt, I’m good with nuts/veggies/etc – but nope, I was craving junk food.  Totally weird.

However, I can’t complain.  I hit a low of 182.2 this week, which is nice, and my normal 2 week spiral of weight gain for TOM and weekend bloat didn’t happen because, well, something is clicking.  It’s sloooooow going, but at least it’s going in the right direction.  While I’d like to be more at about a lb a week, if I can take 2 lbs off per month, I’ll take it.

While I am still eating good food with a pretty high diet quality (in the book, they were saying the 20s is like, great eating and on an average day, that’s where I’m at) – I’ve definitely decided that calories are king.  For some people, they can eat their fill of good, healthy food, and it will automatically adjust their weight to where it naturally should be.  I just need to accept that I am not one of those people.

If you put a bag of carrots in front of me, I might eat the whole thing.  I’ll probably be much more careful if you put junk food there and abide by the servings.  The carrots, to me, are a license to eat as much as I want.  If you put me in a room with only healthy food I liked, and said eat your fill, I would probably still overeat.  The good news is that I love healthy food.  The bad news is that I love healthy food so much, I can’t just improve my diet quality.

So it comes back full circle.  To lose weight, I must count calories.  So now really, to lose weight in a healthy way which doesn’t impact my training, I need to make sure and keep that DQ score high and those calories low.

I’ve also made a decision that while I am loving my trend towards vegan, it’s too much for me to deal with 24/7.  I’m getting sick of beans, and I refuse to make chick’n or soy or tempeh a staple of my diet.  While I will maintain that I believe that I operate best on lotsa fruits and veggies, some grains/starches, and a little meat and dairy and nuts, I think that my body likes some animal/fish protein once a day or so.

Oddly enough, there were some days I was getting more protein as a non-meat eater than when I ate meat.  It’s definitely possible to get adequate protein without meat.  I just don’t think a 100% veggie or vegan life is for me.

This weekend, I’m going to try to keep it under control while camping (though I have planned for some vodka and one key lime smore), and be crazy active (run, bike, swim, hike, kayak, etc) and then eat like an angel in prep for the vacay.

Monday: 28 DQs, 1501 calories
Tuesday: 26 DQs, 1742 calories
Wednesday: 23 DQs, 1627 calories
Thursday: 19 DQs, 2017 calories
Friday: 23 DQs, 1724 calories
Saturday: 14 DQs, 1608 calories
Sunday: 7 DQs, 2023 calories

Average DQs: 20

Average Calories: 1748 calories in, estimating 2142 calories burnt per day, ~400 deficit per day, so about 3/4 lb.

Weight range last week: 182.4 to 186.6 (trending down)

Random things:

-I got a filling done, and have to go back in 2 weeks to get a permanent crown and one more filling.  Boo, teeth.

-Since Zliten was working overtime, he was getting up early to go to work, which got me up early.  Since there was really no point in me getting to work early, and I had to wait for him to be available to train, I ended up having some nice early productive mornings, but felt all weird and out of sorts.  I’m not used to doing anything but getting up and rushing somewhere.

-I like running after work.  Sunset runs are nice.  They are also very rare because it’s either too dark or too hot, you get a month or two in spring and then a month MAYBE in fall.  One last week, one this week.   Love.

-Chocolate muscle milk + frozen cherries/strawberries/raspberries + blender = best healthy desert ever.

-Got to have a game night with an offshoot group of our normal table top roll playing group (dorky stuff here).  We created our characters and sat around and discussed the story to come.  Kinda scary, we’re going to take turns telling the story and I’ve never done that before.

And on that note, now that I’ve recapped, I’ll get on with my week… which has about an hour and a half left until the weekend.  Oops!

Question of the week: What’s the one thing in your diet you’d be most reluctant to give up completely?  Meat? Carbs? Veggies? Sweets? Chocolate?