Week 25 + 26 – Time Warp

Holy crap, it feels like it’s been FOREVER since BSLT, but a week and 3 days ago I was laying in bed with a beer and mac and cheese, celebrating finishing the toughest day of triathlon yet.  The pain (both the muscle soreness and the mental pain of that sloggy run) has faded and now I’m ready to kick off the second half of the season!  And, oh yeah, I have a race this weekend that I keep forgetting about.

However, let’s recap the last two weeks first, shall we? (I’ll just leave this one right here from Independence day.  I’m totally festive, but what is with that pose and OMG THE TRI TAN).

Training:

This one will be pretty easy – besides the race, which I’ve covered in about 5 billion words here, was a lot of jack and shit.

Monday before the race, I swam about a mile in a little over 30 mins.

Tuesday and Thursday before the race, I did a quick 10 mile trainer in 30 mins in the morning, and at lunch, I ran 5k outdoors in ~95 degree temps in approximately 35 mins each time.

That’s it, that’s all, unless you count shopping as cardio (which I totally do when it’s 4 hours in the thrift store, Macklemore would be proud…).  I felt as prepared as possible for the race, the extra little bit of rest that week (skipped a swim) didn’t do me badly, and while I would have loved to not have been starting from zero run fitness and zero point five percent bike fitness 6 weeks out of my first big race of the year, I could have accomplished nothing by jam packing that six weeks any fuller than I did.  Also, the week off hasn’t taken away all my creakies, but I’m in much better condition than I was, and I think a gradual reintroduction to miles will help shake some of that rust off.

I’ve got a good idea of what needs to change the second half of this season.  Goal #1 is to get 100% absolutely comfortable in the saddle knocking out 50-60 mile bike rides (both trainer and outdoor).  Running 10-13 miles is not a thing to me, generally (right now my run fitness is more on the 10 miles is the edge of my comfort zone, but that should resolve itself soon).  Riding 50 miles is something I have done not that many times.  Once I get better at that long bike ride, I’ll get off the bike less wasted.  I’m good at running on tired legs, but it’s been an incredible shock to my system how long 56 miles on race day really is for me.

Food:

I have eaten a lot of not-so-normal things over the last few weeks.  Some have been intentional, some haven’t.  I’ll divide this into 3 categories:

6/24-6/27 – ate like a normal, healthy Quix.

6/28-7/1 – ate more refined carbs, less fruits/veggies/etc to prepare for the race, or refeed after the race

7/2 – 7/7 – did what I could to eat healthy, but we had family staying with us and the biggest compromise we could do to satisfy all eaters was to go out every meal.  Calorie counts were totally fine.  Diet quality was not so great, but it is what it is.

By the numbers…

6/24 – 6/30

Monday: 26 DQ, 1351 calories
Tuesday: 25 DQ, 1705 calories
Wednesday: 26 DQ, 1590 calories
Thursday: 29 DQ, 1606 calories
Friday: 16 DQ, 1750 calories
Saturday: did not track (mac and cheese and club sandwiches, oh my)
Sunday: did not track (about ~1000 calories of cliff blox and bars, and then whatever I felt like shoving in my face including a sonic burger and tots and more mac and cheese)

7/1 – 7/7

Monday: did not track (bbq and beer and random foods)
Tuesday:  1219 calories, 18 DQ
Wednesday: 1526 calories, 22 DQ
Thursday: 1795 calories, 9 DQ
Friday: 1560 calories, 21 DQ
Saturday: 1896 calories, 18 DQ
Sunday: 1515 calories, 11 DQ

I’m not certain it’s really worth it to do an average on week 1, but for week 2:

1585 calories average (this looks awesome, but keep in mind I had zerrrrooooo training… my appetite was just about nil all week)

16.5 DQ average

Weight range week 1:  176.0 (low) – 179.0 (high) (riding that crazy crimson rollercoaster or this might be lower)

Weight range week 2: 176.4 (low) – 183.4 (high) (hey look at all that water weight I put on racing and lost real quick but haven’t made any progress because of all those chips and ice cream and stuff)

Three races in 30 days wreaked havoc on any sort of progress in June (two of them travel trips and carb loading), and I’m very excited that all I have to contend with in July is one measly little sprint tri this weekend which just means not cutting calories the day before, and only an hour and a half of racing to eat and beer back after.  Right now, I am, as they say, full of shit.  Literally.  My body got used to the crappy food last week.  Healthy food goes in, nothing comes out this week.  I’m hoping it resolves itself soon or I’ll have to take little chocolate steps to do it myself.

After the crazy-fest which was racing every 5 seconds, traveling, and family events, I’m ready to just go to work on eating good food and just enough of it to sustain training.  I’m done with deserts and fried food and crappy bread.  I have a few social occasions planned this month but outside of those 2-3 specific meals, I’m all over getting back to my Quix-itarian diet, y’know, the one that seemed to be working at taking off the coveted “elle bees” this spring.

Couples Tri:

This one is cool because you get to start in the same wave as your partner (hi Zliten!).  Last year, we stuck together.  It was AWFUL.  We train well together, but we drag each other down in races.  We will start together, and if we end up together, awesome, but we’re not waiting for each other at any point during the race.

I’m at such a different point in the season than I was last year.  In 2012, I had just begun to really load myself up with training volume and was at the beginning of being really burnt out.  This year, I’m coming off a week of rest, just starting the second half of this cycle, so I’m totally rarin’ to go, if not just a little rusty.  I’ll take head on straight and rested any day of the year though…

My goals for Couples:

• Swim in the same zone where I felt at Pfluger.  It’s my last sprint swim, let’s go hard!
• Bike fast, and with the confidence I felt at BSLT.  Carnage is not a thing compared to that switchback at mile 35, but just to state the obvious, not getting off the bike and walking up that stupid hill.
• Run smart.  Keep as fast a pace as possible while keeping my knee happy.  Run up that dumb ass hill instead of getting all pissy and walking up it like last year.
• Keep my head in the game at all moments.
• Beat Zliten – if I can.  We will be racing head to head this time…
• A Couples PR would be nice, but if I put together all the other goals and it doesn’t result in a PR, that’s ok too.
• Stick around for awards.  Hey, you never know!
• We’re planning on hitting a brunch buffet after.  Last goal is to not completely pig the hell out…

(This is how we do the 4th of July in Texas, y’all)

Other Stuff:

We helped catch a shoplifter coming out of Nordstrom’s Rack as we were coming out of Whole Food.  This girl screamed at someone to “Leave her the fuck alone” and ran away, so we told the police officer in WF that something was going on.  By the time we got to the car, we saw her hiding in a car and the guy that she ran away from had a badge.  We pulled out and actually blocked her in so they caught her.  Brings new meaning to “It’s getting real in the Whole Foods parking lot“.

We had a work event at a place called Top Golf, and I’m dying to go back.  It’s essentially set up like bowling lanes.  You get up to the tee, a ball comes out, you hit it out onto the grass, which is set up with a bunch of targets, and each ball has a chip in it, so it tallies up your score.  We only got to do it once (because we’re nerds and also played a board game), but I totally TROUNCED Zliten 70 points to 29 (just in case I don’t win this weekend, I can throw this one in his face :D).

Lots of family time last week.  We got to be real people!  We played cards many, many times.  We saw Monsters University.  We walked around Georgetown’s cute little downtown area.  We went thrift shopping and I got a billion new things!  They asked, and I contemplated, if it felt weird not training.  It sorta did, but in that way where it sorta feels weird to be on vacation on a work day.  Knowing that it was an intentional choice (not forced because of an injury) and that I’d be back to it next week made it incredibly pleasant, and I’m totally ready to attack the summer of training because of it.

If you see Halo Top Creamery’s ice cream (70 calories a serving), it’s actually just frickin amazing.  Whereas Arctic Zero is good for something completely healthy to kill that “i want something frozen” itch for almost no calories, it is not super sweet and it is not creamy.  This stuff just tastes like ice cream, and has milk and sugar, but it’s all organic and quite a few less calories than even the light ice creams you see (120 calories for Slow Churned, etc).  The lemon cake flavor is to die for, and the chocolate is nothing to sneeze at either!

That’s about it for the 2 week wrap up.  I’ll be back to recap Couples soon!  Like, in 3.5 days when I race it.  Still hasn’t set in that I race this weekend, but off to see if I remember how to swim (likely) and lift weights (unlikely).

Question of the week: what did you do for 4th of July OR what was the most exciting thing that happened to you last week?