Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Month: January 2015

Bite Size January Goals

So, last year, I drove myself positively bananas trying to ACCOMPLISH ALL THE THINGS and pretty much after May, if it wasn’t work or training related, I shied away from anything productive or goal-tracking-oriented.  I’m not proud of it, but it’s what I needed.

After some hibernation – I mean literally, I did not leave the house, except for on foot, for 4 days at one point, it was glorious – I’m ready to embark again with some accountability and goal setting.  However, I want to make sure I do this in a manner that is productive and not exhausting.  Also, I intend to list WHY each thing is important to me so when I want to procrastinate, I know what each thing means to me.

No racing goals this month.  If I do jump into a race at the last minute, which I’m considering on two accounts, because supported long runs are nice, it will be assessing progress for the marathon.

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Training goals:

1. At least 4 runs longer than a half marathon.  I’ve built up a nice base over December, but my longest run was just over 12 miles so it’s time to go long and strong.  This is important for being ready for my marathon Feb 28th for obvious reasons.  I’ll have a stepback here at some point but I want to keep the long run at least 14-15 miles minimum.

2. Run at least a mile a day as per the run streak.  Maintain decent (40+ miles) the weeks of 1/5, 1/12, and 1/26, with a stepback week on 1/19 (30-ish miles).  Reintroduce the garmin gently on speed days and maybe long runs.  I think streaking will help me maintain a higher mileage base without breaking down, and will be an invaluable asset during triathlon season to help me maintain a decent amount of run miles without dedicating a lot of time to it.  One mile per day is 7 per week, which was half my run miles on some tri training weeks.

3. At least one swim per week.  I feel so much less broken by lots of running if I can also get in the water, even if it’s for only 10 mins.  I love long swims, but I’m finding a lot of merit in the 15-20 minute 750-1100m swim during times where I’m not focused specifically on triathlon training.  Also, I can fit those in on a lunch break or right after another session at the gym easily.

4. Stretching/strength.  Fit this in.  If not actual sessions at the gym, pick a night and do the dozen split up between a few episodes.  Get up 10 mins earlier and do yoga if nothing else.  Twice per week.  Even though I feel ok now, I am going to break down eventually if I do not prioritize this and since I can do it in my living room I have no fucking excuse besides the fact that I want to be injured.

5. Cycling as I can, but not at the cost of anything above. For example, Monday, I hopped off the bike early to eat dinner, stretch, and do the dozen.  I believe this was time well spent for me.

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Food/Eating/Scale:

1. The return of tracking.  I plan on tracking my food intake this month to get a baseline.  Tracking the weight at least a few times a week.  No judgies on either account.  I am where I am, and I’m finally back to the point where this doesn’t seem like torture, so whatever slacking it took to get me here is fine.  I also don’t plan on trying to stick to x calories (yet), if I’m hungry, I’ll eat more healthy food.  However, it’s time to get a status report this month.

2. No booze January.  I can’t think of a time since I’ve been 17 21 that I haven’t had some drinks at least once every week or two.  It seems like a skill a responsible adult should have in her arsenal.  Zliten is on board.  Instead of drinks, we’re going to do something else fun and eat something that may not be strictly on the plan.  First up – Saturday night gaming session, taco feast for dinner, and homemade key lime ice cream for dessert.

3. Besides that 1-2 times a week, stick to meat, veggies, fruit, nuts, cheese, olives, butter coffee, with a sprinkling of corn and potatoes and beans (1-2 times per day). Aka – normal (since August) eating.

Work:

1. Things are still up in the air, so let’s just go with “roll with the punches and not punch things”.  Keeping my sanity is most important of all.  We make video games, not launch rockets or perform open heart surgery.  Sometimes that’s hard to keep in perspective but it’s important.

2. Get some levels!  It’s embarrassing too me to not be current on what I’m working on.  No excuses.

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Life stuff:

1. Focus on establishing good habits with my purging efforts.  This month I want to focus my attention on:

a. the kitchen.  I’d love to have less things on the counters and everything fit in a cupboard.

b. my car.  That shit is embarrassing, I look like I live in it.

c. my closet/drawers. I have more clothes than hangers and that violates my rule of not doing that.  I need to donate some things, cycle some things into storage, and consider the use of my empty guest room closet for special occasion items (that I validly use, but not often) that are cluttering up my main closet.

2. Play a game or read at least once a week for a few hours at home per week.  Establish a habit of not always retreating just to the internet and episodes.  Finish the book you’re reading.  Make progress in the games I’ve started over break.  It may seem stupid to have to set this as a goal, but I have a bad bad bad habit of zoning out and refreshing my social media feeds and then not feeling relaxed or escaped from reality because I’ve been firmly ensconced in it.  As I put it to Zliten often when I catch myself mindlessly surfing social media in bed when I should be preparing to sleep – “putting my phone down – the little people on my screen are not that interesting”.

3. Spend as little money as possible.  We had a really expensive home repair on Jan 2, so the goal is to relax at home as much as we can.

This is my first go at it in a while, so this may be overwhelming, but I’ll give it a try!  January is usually a great month to establish habits for me, though not a huge “progress” one, so it’s mostly about setting myself on the right track and maybe getting my wheels turning a little.  We’ll save the whistle and the full steam ahead for February, ok?

Question of the week: What’s on tap for you for this first month of 2015?

 

2015 Resolutions

I’ve had this written for a while, but it’s taken me a while to crawl back out of holiday slack mode to refine and make sure my intent is straight on all of these.

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Racing:

Do some soul searching and figure out what is important to YOU for 2015 race-wise, since you may be on a different schedule than Zliten for at least half if not more of the year.  Race the marathon Feb 28th only if training is going well.  Make appropriate goals as such.  No arbitrary January 1st goals on what you’re supposed to PR or tackle next year, just the promise that each race will be for a reason.

So far on the schedule is:

Woodlands Full (/half if training goes poorly) – Feb 28

Austin 10/20 – Mar 29

That’s it.  The year is what I want to make of it otherwise.  As of right now, I have the typical conflicting thoughts of wanting to do it all – maintain a major running base and trying to knock over some of my older PRs (5k, 10k, half) while dipping my toe into swim racing and getting faster at the shorter triathlons and maybe doing a full cycling century and maybe even doing a 50k ultra.

What’s absent right now is the drive to do a bunch of 70.3s.  I’ll probably do one, Kerrville, but I don’t feel the need to dedicate my year to it.  I’m also questioning Kerrville + Spacecoast marathon.  Unless I truly approach it as a training run to build to a second marathon later, or I can maintain a really good run base, it’s never going to be my best shot at a great experience.  I’m thinking about trying the half next year.  We’ll see.

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Training:

Polarized and periodized training seems to work.  Continue with this.  Easy days easy.  Hard days on point.  Base periods without electronics or focus and embracing the joy of movement with really loose volume suggestions instead of nailing a certain mileage/pace.  Months out of your A race – 85% easy 15% hard.  Closer – more goal pace work.

Upping the volume just a bit.  Hopefully by spending a little more time at each thing and also by getting faster.

  • 1k run miles.  Let’s make this one happen.  935 is really close, I could probably have done this with a few more weeks of higher volume.
  • 100 swim miles. That’s more swimming.  Like 25% more.  I’d really like to figure out ways to tack more short swims onto the end of workouts and maybe not have any months where my swimming is less than 1 mile a week (which was actually 1/3 of my 2014)
  • 3k bike miles (~2800 last year).  A higher % of my ~3k bike miles outside or at spin class (aka, not easy trainer miles).

Work strength and stretching in as I can.  Do more when I can fit it in.  Little stuff during commercials, lazy strength sessions while I’m dicking around at home, 10 mins of yoga in the morning when I don’t have time for anything else, this stuff all adds up.  Every week I should think “hey, I fit in a little bit” at least.

DDR is a great plyometric workout.  Try to incorporate this into training or maybe look into some of the classes at the new gym. Keep up with the drills during running.  Keep some explosivity in the legs.

For January, I’m going to try streaking. 1 run mile per day, minimum.  I’m finding that at least in winter, the biggest obstacle for me is getting out the door.  Even if nothing else, this will net me another 2-3 miles per week running an easy mile on days I would normally take off.

Figure out a time for offseason.  True offseason, same as July for you this year.  At least 1 month.

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Food/eating/scale:

If nothing else, eating higher fat and less grains has helped me fuel better during training and races.  Continue this, but in the way it was in August/September when the weight was starting to come off.  Unless it stops working.  Then be reasonable.

Continue to batch cook.  Experiment with new recipes.  Enjoy healthy food.

Track food again, for a bit, starting Jan 5th.  To get a baseline of what is working.

No booze January.  This will be a bit of an experiment.  I anticipate losing some lbs because of it but I’m not banking on it.

Don’t indulge like a jerk on the cruise in March.  You get 2-3 days of marathon metabolism eating and then you need to eat like a normal human.

The scale comes with on all trips.  That helps not to spend two months whittling away a few hard fought lbs to gain them back in a weekend.

Weigh less in December 2015 than I do in January 2015.

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Work stuff:

Approach my new position with confidence, wisdom, humility, and listen to the folks who have experience at the new stuff im taking on

Realize i cant be superwoman.  Do my best and walk away from it at the end of the day.  No second guessing or judgements.

Get at least 2 more chapters through any games under my purview.

Continue to play a variety of games (online, table top, board, card, etc) as research and experience.

Above all else – nothing is set in stone yet, so don’t completely freak out if things don’t go according to the plan in your head.

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Other stuff:

Get rid of at least ONE (non-perishible) net thing every day in 2015.  If I do extra, great.  But every day, one thing will leave this house via donation, treasure table, giving it to someone, or the trash.  If we bring in new non perishable things, we have to donate/trash an equal amount of things (amount, not type).  Hopefully this will encourage me to do MORE than one thing per day but I’ll call this a victory at 365 extra things gone.

Continue not going into a training hole and be social – hang out with people and don’t turn down too many invitations out.

Less facebook/twitter, more short posts on here (vs epic long recaps after not posting for a week or 2).

Complete the TX Tri Series with a mix of volunteering and racing.  Volunteer elsewhere when I can.

Do something that’s a hobby, not dying in front of the tv, once a week for more than a few minutes.  This can include reading, video gaming, sewing, piano playing, writing that’s not for this blog, etc.

Actually go scuba diving in lake travis this summer (or somewhere) so I don’t noob it up in the winter.

Spend as much time in the water I can.

End the year with 3 words to describe 2015 that are as positive as “grateful, fun, and focused”.

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What’s your 2015 resolution?

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