Taper Taper Taper

I may have had some ups and downs in the last month, but last week, I can without a doubt say I busted my ass, and am proud of the week I had.  Except perhaps the weekend, but I’ll still call it a win.

Let’s go day by day, shall we?  Sometimes I like to do that…

Monday: got to work early, had everything ready to go to do the Pflugerville Lake swim/bike brick with people, …and it was postponed a day due to basketball (watching, not playing).  D’oh!  So we instead took the opportunity to go to the gym after work, and I ran 3.5 miles worth of alternating hills and sprints (.25 mile fast 8 min/mi pace, .25 mile steady 10 min/mi pace, .25 mile 3% incline @ same pace, .25 mile steady, rinse and repeat, though I did change it up for a while and did .1 mile intervals too) and got to crunch time.

As for the eats, I had my normal greek yogurt/oats/fruit/honey breakfast, rotisserie chicken in pitas w/tzatziki sauce and veggies for lunch, and garlic and tamarind chicken with peas, carrots, rice, and a grilled flour tortilla (fake naan), snackies were carrots and hummus, a little dark chocolate, a popsicle (yep, real sugar kind – so good), and 2 corn cakes.  (1800 calories)

The good: pretty much everything, it was a relaxed Monday at work (which never happens) and I was SUPER productive and happy, a full day of good, healthy eats, low sodium, and a good workout.

The bad: high fructose corn syrup in the popsicle, Pflugerville brick being postponed, tweaked my back a little at crunch time.

Man…I wish I could sleep this soundly.  And on an elephant with a tutu…

Tuesday: got to work early again, was hoping the brick would be on and it was!  Hooray!  Today, Zliten became unhappy with a number on the scale so he decided to start tracking his food again for a bit, and I decided I would commiserate with him and do the same.  We got out to the lake and it was hooooot, but the swim felt good.  I did 2 laps of the 500m course I’ll be swimming this weekend (took it kinda easy so I didn’t retweak what I tweaked the day before but any open water swim, specially on the course, is great!).  Then, we got ready and did a group (well, 3 of us) 15 mile ride.  On the way there I was feeling badass and keeping pace just fine (we were only riding about 15 mph, but it was about 100 degrees), on the way back, it definitely was more of a hard pace than a cruise with the hills. We did an hour exactly for 15 miles, I was pretty happy with that.

I was feeling kinda shaky on the way home so we grabbed some vitamin water and a small bag of chips – that did the trick.  I’d feel bad about it, but y’know, after expending about 1000 calories, I needed something THEN.  Other eats for the day – sprouted grain cereal, berries, almond milk, and honey for breakfast, brown rice, stir fry veggies, and sesame oil for lunch, and we picked up chipotle barbacoa tacos for dinner.  For snacks I had a smaller version of my normal yogurt breakfast, and enjoyed ONE glass of wine after dinner. (2028 – ate more because I expended more, makes sense to me) (2028 calories)

The good: work being just as good as Monday, outside swim and bike, bike paced pretty well, making me feel confident that I might get my 16+ MPH on the tri, eating more because I expended more, stopping to fuel myself instead of waiting and feeling like crap, another mellow day at work, tracking food again and attempting not to let it rule my life, just using it as a gauge.

The bad: stopping for chips, a little more salt than I should (though I think my body was ok with it after so much outside time, my skin was practically crusty like a salted baked potato…), and tracking again – it has the potential to drive me crazy.

Wednesday: had to be into work by 9am for a release, and potential of working late, so I had no idea what was in store.  Things went a little crazy, but wrapped it up in enough time to make it to the gym so I caught up on weights, I did a killer arms and legs session.  Not actually all that much to say about the day.

Eats: normal yogurt breakfast, salad bar for lunch, and lemon pepper mahi mahi w/rice and veggies for dinner.  Not many snackies, snow peas and tzatziki sauce, half a donut, and a small piece of jerky. (1682 calories)

The good: boss brought in donuts, and brought my FAVE (boston cream).  I was able to have half of it throughout the day and I actually ended up throwing the other half out because I forgot about it.  Mostly good clean healthy eats.  Great weights session.  And oh, yeah… ZLITEN WAS CLEARED FOR TRI ACTIVITIES AGAIN! WHOO HOOO!!!!

The bad: salad bar was WAY more calories than I thought, so I’ll have to modify what I put on it in the future.  That salad was NOT worth 800 calories.  Work was crazy.  I suppose you could call the donut bad but I won’t because of the way I handled it.

Thursday: had to be to work again early to clean up after a release, grabbed a sandwich at lunch instead of eating what I packed (but ate it for dinner), did abs and had a (1400 yd in 25 mins) swim, came home, relaxed, and kinda wanted to eat everything in the house.

For eats, I had a normal yogurt breakfast, a Which Wich buffalo chicken sandwich, sour patch kids, carrots and hummus, turkey sausage, cream cheese, and sprouted grain English muffin sandwich, a black bean burger patty on top of a big ol salad, and a Popsicle. (1746 calories)

The good: held to my workouts.  I was kinda exhausted by the swim and just wanted to rest but that’s what this week is for.  Feeling still hungry after dinner and making a black bean burger patty and a salad (which actually filled me up) and not just mindlessly snacking all night for probably more calories.

The bad: HUNGERS after a decent sized dinner sucked.  Tiredness.  Sour patch kids that somehow lept into my mouth.  The popsicle.  The sandwich that while is low in calories, was over my whole day in sodium.

Friday: Got up and ran in the morning before work, felt GREAT!  Had pho for lunch, went to the pool and coached Zliten on his stroke while I floated, got some hot tub time, made homemade manwiches (96/4 ground beef, salt free tomato sauce, onions, garlic, spices, bellpeppers on a bun with cheese – the beef and sauce is happy diet approved, the bun and cheese is a splurge), and relaxed.

Eats besides above included the a slightly less than normal yogurt concoction, half a bean and cheese breakfast taco, carrots, and a big salad with dinner.  Oh, and a glass of wine. (1634 calories)

The good: my run, homemade manwiches, and getting through another week.  Having 1 glass of wine and not a billion.  Relaxing.

The bad: lots of salt at lunch and the bun and cheese at dinner.

Weekend: I’ll just cut to the chase…it was both a spectacularly awesome soul soothing but also horrifically calorific weekend (2041 and 2483).  There were way too many margaritas, two days of bbq, not many veggies, and a lot of hangin’ in our new ghetto fabulous pool watching movies (see above) or splish splashing with friends.  There was also a bunch of shopping and buying stuff which I had wanted to do for a while.  There was also walking around the mall/stores/etc for a long time Saturday and Sunday (to the point where my feet actually hurt) and a nice 10 mile ride on Saturday morning.  So it’s not as if the extra calories didn’t go to SOMETHING, but they didn’t go to losing weight.

I didn’t weigh every day, but I fluctuated from about 171.2 to 168.4.  So right around where I have been.

I averaged about 1916 calories per day (1647 the low, 2483 the high).

I averaged about 400 calories burned per day (both spark and daily mile agree upon about 2800 for the week, and both I think over estimate the cardio but don’t count the weights, which should even out).

On average, I’m running on about 1516 net calories per day, and my maintenance range is supposedly around 1800.  It makes sense that I will probably not see a dramatic change on the scale this week, but that’s ok.

This week is TAPER TIME!  Race is on Sunday.  Plans include:

Monday: off (practice transitions)
Tuesday: bike 6 miles/run 2 @ outside in the morning
Wednesday: open water laps (@ company boat trip)
Thursday: morning 6 mile ride outside, 500m swim/hot tub @ gym in evening and practice transitions
Friday: morning 2-3 mile run outside, potential hot tub @ gym in evening and practice transitions
Saturday: off
Sunday: RACE!

So ZERO strength, short speedy workouts, lots of rest, and WORKING ON MY TRANSITIONS!!!!

Two planned splurges this week: company boat trip (there will be some wine and catered lunch) and IMMEDIATELY after we have a yelp event (with more free booze and bites), and after the tri, we are getting a motha flippin savage pizza (deep dish, the works) and having champagne.  Both days will have PLENTY of activity to balance it out (Wed – 4 hours of swimming, Sun – duh, the tri).  So I’ll make sure that those two days are balance with 5 other amazingly great days (so far, so good!).

How is your week going?