Captain’s Log: Stardate – Offseason

As I’m settling into the fourth week of no training schedule and long runs mean I added .15 to my 3 miles I ran Tuesday, I figured I should share what not-training means in my life.

Day 0:

Got 3rd place medal and grinned the whole rest of the day.  Copious amounts of booze and tacos ensued.  Fell asleep for like 12 hours.

Day 1:

The day started with leftover tacos, a massage (I rarely do them during season because it’s iffy how long I feel like poopoo kaka after, but it was GREAT to kick off a month of rest), and lunch (burger and fries) and a movie with friends.  For dinner, we had pizza and salad and a little wine.  Feeling fat, relaxed, and happy.

Week 1:

It feel AMAZING to not be training a bunch.  Monday’s “workout” was walking the aisles at Costco (which ended up to be 2 miles by fitbit standards).  We got in 2 3 mile runs outside at easy pace (11-11:30s per Zliten’s garmin – I haven’t worn one of those things since the race) and 2 weights sessions as my offseason promise to myself.  We also finally quit our gym.  It was oddly sad after 4 years, but I just cannot abide by them constantly cutting their hours.

I knew I needed to get a handle on my eating STAT without all my normal activity, so we kicked off chicken, rice, veggies week.  It went well – I learned that it’s really my perfect food and rice products definitely make me feel less… heavy.

We also got our season passes to the new water park that’s 15 minute away.  Spent Friday night there and lost the key to the car, and had someone break into the prius for the first time to rescue us.  Fun (and expensive).  We went back again on Sunday for a longer session and it’s definitely filling the swimming void in my life.

And… I got to be social!  I fiiiiiiinally got to run my Savage Worlds story I’ve been working on for months.  It was crazy, scary, and a lot of fun to stretch my brain in those type of ways that I haven’t in a while.  I got to do ladies charity brunch (and finally had an excuse to wear my floppy hat), and we went to another movie and dinner with friends after spending the afternoon with my parents.  The things you can do when you’re not exhausted by a 70 mile bike ride or a brick workout!

I also celebrated my seventh anniversary at work.  Crazy!  I had a five year plan to be in Austin, buy some real estate, make some money, and then get back to San Diego with money for a down payment on something bigger than a shoebox.  Instead, I love living where I live, I have ZERO desire to move back to San Diego any time soon (though something a little more coastal would be awesome), and I’m pretty content with my job and the game I started on seven years ago at a no name company is a pretty wild success.  Funny how things work out.

Week 2:

It was time to get a little more active.  I pulled out my Dance Dance Revolution games and dance pad and holy WOW, it’s still a great workout.  It took me a while to figure out what about it was so gooood, and I realized it’s a plyometric leg strength workout set to music that’s actually fun (aka – the opposite of box jumps).  I’m going to try to keep a 30 min session on the plan once a week.  That sluggish feeling I’m having in the legs on my tri runs?  I think this will help.

We also hit up adult skate night.  Its always a lot of fun, great cardio, and definitely works some different muscles than anything run/bike/swim/weights.

This week included fourth of July celebrations, including staying up WAYYYYY too late the night before, a crab boil at a friend’s house with a bunch of gamers – so we played games (munchkin and quarkle, I won both because that’s how I roll) and drank some beer.  We had intended on watching the fireworks at the water park from the lazy river, but you couldn’t actually see them there and it got cold (??? – I remember a 4th a few years ago where it was 106, at fireworks time it was 75 degrees…) so we watched dry in the parking lot.  On the drive home, it was fun to watch the various displays in neighborhoods.

We spent the weekend building an outdoor cage for our iguana (it’s SO CLOSE to done, but we measured the doors wrong) and getting into a new (for me) game called Clash of Clans.  I’m kinda hooked.  I got eaten alive by mosquites, but it was nice to have some outdoor patio time.  This month has been pretty amazingly temperate for July in the ATX.  I went down the scary scary waterslide on Sunday and felt pretty proud of myself.

I ate like a decent human being, but there certainly was a lot of booze.

Week 3:

Took runs into the treadmill this week because my sleep schedule has adjusted itself to the point where it’s hard to get up before 8:30am.  Legs actually feel pretty speedy in the AC.  Still keeping up with the weights as well and lots of DDR on other days to try and stave off the blerch.

I’ve given up on tracking food.  I decided I didn’t want that headache.  However, I have stayed really low on the sugar and wheat type carbs so I’m happy about that.  Not a whole lot of junk food, just trying to let myself continue to adjust to not eating crap, and allowing the booze cruise to continue as I feel like it since that will be not nearly as frequent once we’re training 10+ hours a week.  Also, it’s been the exception and not the rule, but we’ve checked out some new restaurants (new bbq place was tha bomb, though this was Zliten’s plate, not mine).

My pants feel a little tight some days, and the scale hasn’t been super nice, but it’s the kind of weight that just needs a serious week or two of being good to shed.  I’m not worried.

More weekend busybodying ensued.  We did the water park Friday night, packet pickup Saturday afternoon, a casino party Saturday night (I stayed away from the paid games but I WON BEER PONG!  I feel so early 20s again), water park again on Sunday afternoon, and fancy dinner and a jazz concert at night.

Also, Orange is the New Black was discovered and my sleep schedule got even more fucked up.  I can’t think of the last time a show made me stay up until 4am on a school night MULTIPLE TIMES.

Week 4:

This week has been getting ready.  Getting ready for a release at work.  Getting ready for an adventure.  I got to run in the rain.  I worked up a sweat playing a video game.  I have felt a little hermity on social media as well as social life I think simply because I have been so social.  I never have considered myself an introvert, but I do definitely miss the time practicing endurance sport because I am so within myself.  Rummaging around in my own brain, seeing what’s there.

I’m on the edge of being mentally ready and excited to jump into the next 4 months or so of building up for a 70.3 and a marathon and I think one more week will only push me over the cliff.  My legs definitely want to run more, and next week, I’m going to let them (no plan, no specific pace but exploring pavement and trails and beach).  I kind of want to see my bike again and I think pedaling a cruiser up the coast will only remind me of evilbike love.  I’m ready to go play in the lake and go back to bodies of water with lap lanes along with the water slides.  I think I’ve split the difference and have taken a long enough break to be ready to rock, while also not completely let myself go (we’ll see).

Reminding myself there is a place in my life for moments to go out with friends all weekend and stay up late engrossed in a TV show and spend the weekend building a project is good.  It helps me put it in perspective – I like indulging in other aspects of my life, but I do miss the training when it’s gone (even if it takes a few weeks)! I make the choice to train this hard because I love it, even if sometimes I dread a specific workout or think longingly about my friends who’s idea of a long workout is an hour spin class three times a week, I make the decision to prioritize that in my life.  Except for the periods of the year when I don’t.

One more offseason update coming whenever I feel like it (because that’s part of offseason), and then I’ll start talking about late season ’14 goals and plans.