Week 1: Back to Routine

Feels good, man.

Well, feels like home at least.  Except home got redecorated and things aren’t quite the same.

We cheered for 3M half marathon instead of running.  It was feels like 31, my heel was exceptionally cranky, and I had digestive issues which made me run back home (it was 3 mins away), but it was way fun to cowbell like a mother fucker for everyone.  Zliten’s squid hat was a winner to get cold and in-pain runners to smile, and we had fun.  It’s just a little weird not having run it.  I’ve not been so far from in half marathon shape in a long time and it’s just a little odd.  All part of a grand plan, yes.  But weird.

The bike has a new seat and a new fit, which I LOVE, but it’s taking my butt a while to HTFU and get used to more than 30-40 mins on my not princess seat.

I’m doing so many new drills in the pool I feel like an awkward, but working on becoming more efficient fish.  Plus I took the MOST time off swimming after the tri (in Oct/Nov/Dec I went maybe… 3 times?) so it’s the most awkward to me.

Weights, instead of my normal “pick random exercises that work each body part according to my whim” and do “as many until it gets hard”, I have a set 7 things to do.  With as heavy weights as I can do 3×20 (or more).  In a specific order.

Running is the worst.  All my runs are set to Zone 1/2 HR easy efforts with some optional strides (but not many).  I have yet to do my zones test (scheduled for next Saturday for running, biking Tuesday morning), so my goal has been to stay under 150.  Under 150 = 12-13 minute miles.  Up hills, it’s even worse.  I’ve read into it a LOT and this is supposed to help me but wow, this is a slice of misery when my brain is ready to kick some track ass.  On one hand, I do enjoy the conversational pace with Zliten, but on the other hand, I have an itch that it is NOT SCRATCHING.  Any reassurance in the comments that these super frustrating runs will indeed make me kick more ass is welcome.  I do have to remember though that just because my brain wants something, my body might not be ready for that.  The 30 min all out tests next week should be interesting.

I feel a little fatter, but also a little wiser and more rested.  I may not have any sort of speed, but my hunger is back.  My motivation is there.  I am looking down the barrel of months of solid work and saying “bring it on”.  No champagne race celebration orgies every other weekend.  Just four months of getting out there, doing what I’m supposed to, checking it off the list, and moving on.  No fan faire.  No race recap posts with pretty pictures.  I’m ready for it.  We’re back to a training blog instead of Adjusted Race Recaps-ity.

Monday: 30 min swim (1050m), 50 mins weights (3×20 of everything… 170 lb leg press, 40 lb pulldowns, ~35 lb weighted step ups, chest press w/17.5 lb dumbells, 50 lb rows, 50 lb quad press, and 10 lb plate sit ups with a twist)
Tuesday: 30 min spin (11.35 miles), 3 mile run (38:30)
Wednesday: 30 min spin (11.25), 45 mins weights (3×20… 90 lb squats, 40 lb pulldowns, 170 lbs leg press, 15 lb dumbbells chest press, 50 lb rows, 50 lb hamstring machine, 10 lb plate held w/situps with twist)
Thursday: 30 min spin (11.25), 2.65 mile run (33:33)
Friday: off (will be a weights day, but needed a rest day this week)
Saturday: 45 min spin (17.11), 4.2 mile run (54:55)
Sunday: 30 min swim (usually will be on Saturdays but that didn’t happen due to pool crowding)

Eating has been good.  Batch cooking is flippin’ phenomenal.  We went out Friday for lunch (and got kebaps, so it’s not like we went burger fries shake or anything) and will go out tonight (for Chinese food, so again, not complete splurgefests) on a double date (are you allowed to call it that in your mid-30s anymore?).  Otherwise we stuck to our plans and ate very much mostly good food.

We batch cooked:

Chicken tortilla soup

meatloaf, cauli-taters, and green beans

Parmesan encrusted chicken with rice pasta, light alfredo, peas, and broccoli (next time I’ll make sure I get either corn, quinoa, or whole wheat as rice means white rice which means refined carbs, oops)

The tortilla soup, which is usually my specialty, was off.  It was ALRIGHT, but I think it just had too much broth in it and not enough STUFF and it needed to be made on the stove, not the crock pot.  Everything else was phenomenal.  The chicken alfredo was about 350 calories and definitely killed my craving for it.  The meatloaf was a wonderful dinner.  The cauli-taters just tasted like mashed potatoes.  Those will definitely be staples.  We ate turkey wraps or sandwiches with the soups.

To fill in the holes, one day we had fish, quinoa/brown rice, and a salad, and one day we had a micro meal (chicken korma and basamati rice) and some other various munchies.  For breakfast, I had fage 0% w/granola and some fruit, or a sprouted grain english muffin and cream cheese w/morningstar veggie patties.  Snacks became really non-essential most workout days since I was way full with the fueling (snacks = pre/post workout fueling), but I dug into some carrots and tzatziki and/or fruit at times.  For Monday/Wednesday snacks (workout after work) I’m eating an english muffin w/jelly and some fruit and dried mango and finding 100g carbs not hard to get in, though my score seems to go up when I fuel with whole foods and fruits and veggies.  Hmmmm.

Scoring my days:

Monday: 19
Tuesday: 14
Wednesday: 18
Thursday: 4 (14 before many, many drinks)
Friday: 19
Saturday: 11
Sunday: -4 (not enough food, too many drinks)

Average score per day: 11.57

Average calories per day: 1795

The goal this week is to keep the calories either the same or lower, and improve the scores.

My low weight of the week was 184.4, my high was 185.8.  This does not make me happy, but one has to start somewhere, right?

Also noting: 0 cigarettes smoked on 3 drinking nights thus far.  I’ve used a bit of my puff puff thing, but I’m so enamoured with the waking up feeling so much less wrecked, hair and fingers smelling not like ass, and lungs (in the pool) feeling not like I inhaled shards of glass, I don’t think I can go back.  While it doesn’t quite feel like a drag of a smoke, the longer I go without, the less I remember what that felt like and this is just fine.  I do admit that the 0 nicotine just doesn’t do it like the one that’s the equivalent of an ultra light cig, so there is still work there, but I’m thrilled for now.  Also, not having to go outside in the butt ass freezing temps is motivation in and of itself.  As well as lungs feeling amazing – while I’ve not really noticed on the bike or run since the goal is easy breezy, I have definitely noticed it in the pool.  Another step to becoming an efficient fish.

We did all our measurements and pictures this morning, and I haven’t decided whether to share or not.  It is definitely good to have metrics, and perhaps I’ll use them eventually for comparison, but I don’t think you really care to know my calf circumference or my visceral fat.  The pictures… they’re pretty unflattering in mah speedoz.  I think I’d be more apt to share them once I have some better ones to compare it to?  Is that bad?  Hmmm…

Also, I’ll let y’all in on a sneak peak.  Zliten and I have started a new blog adventure together here at Adventures In Triathlon.  He tried guest posting over here and felt a little weird in my apartment with all the girly decorations and stuff, so while I’m going to maintain my own space over here (at least temporarily, maybe forever, we’ll see), we’re going to work on a building a space over there together.  The boxes aren’t all unpacked yet, and we have a lot of interior decorating to do, but check it out if you’d like and perhaps bookmark for later when we do our “Grand Opening”.

Question of the day: would you rather see me drop this site and move over there (though it will be a little more PG and a little less “share-y” and more facts and tutorials and useful stuff), or do you like my off color language and crazy rants and think I should maintain at least a once-a-week presence over here in my own pad?