Progress is the Opposite of Congress

That pun always makes me chuckle, and it seems even more timely right now… because I’ve finally discovered News Room and am devouring it.  And, also, election year, politics, yadda yadda.

But, unless congress, I can say I’ve made a little progress this week.  Though, there is definitely a long way to go to get where I want, that’s what the second week of January is all about – now that I’ve got just a little inertia, it’s time to keep building on it.

Training:

The aftermath of almost 3 hours on the treadmill…

Goals for last week are below…

• 40-45 miles, running every day.
• Long run of 15 with the last 3-5 portions of each mile after 3 closer to half marathon pace than easy run pace.
• One speedwork session
• One fartlek run
• At least 1 swim
• At least 1 weights session (2 preferably)
• Stretch and/or roll 5 mins a day after work

I feel like I did alright here.  I ended up being about 5 miles short of the minimum I wanted to do.  I don’t have a GREAT excuse here.  I ran every day, I just cut some runs shorter than planned – all my easy days during the week were 3, when I had planned for more like 5.  Getting back on a normal schedule is rough.  I definitely wasn’t getting up in the morning for this.  Lunches were full of stuff to do (or not enough time to leave the office between meetings).  So, I ran every day after work – either at the gym or with a headlamp outside.

The upside is that I had two pretty key sessions.  Tuesday was a great tempo run – holding half marathon pace for 4.5 miles and not feeling completely gassed after.  Saturday, the air was trying to kill me with cedar pollen, but I was able to get through a 15 mile treadmill run.  Three things made this bearable – two caff gels to kill the allergy haze, netflixing bad 90s movies on my phone, and a 1/3 mile-ish (one song) pickup to about 9:45-10 minute mile pace even mile after 3.

I did weights on Tuesday and broke my “no leg weights during marathon training rule” and regretted it.  I stretched and rolled a few times but I’m sure I didn’t get every day.  I FINALLY got back in the water after months on Friday and felt so great I got back in again after my long run Saturday.  Just 5-10 mins of swimming after a run brought my legs back to life.  Amazing how I forget this every year.

This week’s goals:

• 40-45 miles.  Running every day (let’s try this again).
• Long run of 17-18 with some form of speed/pickups/tempo/etc.
• One tempo run of 4-5 miles half marathon pace or under.
• At least 15 minutes of non-running workout or maintenance a day (swim, bike, stretch/roll, weights).
• At least 1 weights session (2 preferred).

This is the week where I declare cross training a thing in my life again.  I don’t think I’m going to be popping out of bed and springing out into the cold to run before work ever yet, but I can get up 15 minutes earlier and stretch, do my dozen, or ride the trainer, and maybe eventually build to running an easy 3 soon.

Food/Scale:

When this is one of your unplanned meals out, you’re probably doing ok.

• All lunches and dinners are MyFitFoods or Snap Kitchen for the week minus two four (planned meals out with family or friends).
• The majority of the rest of my intake should be fruits and vegetables, with a little bit of carb supplement around runs (cereal, pretzels and hummus, popcorn, etc).
• Track my food with the attempt to hit my normal macros (60g fat, 100g protein, 25g fiber), and examine where my calories and carbs are and adjust according to training levels on the daily.
• No scale yet.  Let’s get 1 week of healthy food down before I do that to myself.

I rocked this.  While I ate out two more times than expected, the food I got was well within the boundaries of my eating plan.

At this point, I figure the best way to go about this is pay attention to two things: a) my macros and b) the amount of calories fitbit says I should eat.  I’ve got my intake set to -500 calories a day, which, in theory, shouldn’t completely kill my training as long as I’m careful, and also take off a lb a week (though I’m not counting on the rate of loss, I’d just like to see a downward trend).

I also know it takes me 3-ish weeks for my body to stop being a stubborn asshole and resisting change, but if I can suffer through that, I should start seeing the progress I’m seeking.

Onward!

• All lunches and dinners are healthy take out minus 2 days (probably one weekday + Saturday).
• Continue tracking my food, attempting a -500 calorie deficit, and sticking to my macros.
• Push more calories to the 1-2 hours before my workout so I don’t get hangry and cut things short to go eat.
• Back to the harsh reality of daily weight tracking.

These should probably look similar because they are.  The only changes are subtle, like trying to have a more substantial snack before workouts.  I’m sure it will help with my actual performance, and I cut a few of those runs short because I was about to start gnawing my arm off.  I’ve realized the only way for me to really make progress is by measuring, and for me, that’s daily weighing.  It wasn’t pretty today, but you have to start somewhere.

Life:

Bundled up!

• Looking to be a pretty mellow week between the myriad of meetings.  Work on getting caught up on my game!
• Set up a weekly to do list.  Figure out a place it can be shared with Zliten so we can collaborate.
• No drinks until Saturday night, and be a reasonable human being about length of partying and consumption.
• Color, read, and/or play KingsQuest.  In other words, something besides the netflix and social media binge all the days.

Well, some of it.  I definitely got some game time in at work.  I set up a weekly to do list and it helped us remember some things I think we would have spaced otherwise.  I didn’t get any home gaming time in, but I made some progress on my book and we finished a page in the coloring book and picked out a new one.

We made conscious decision to indulge in some wine on Wednesday night instead of abstaining, and actually had a little more than I wanted (which is why that whole section is a fail for the week even though I drank responsibly on Saturday).  The upshot of calorie tracking is that I had to own it, and make it work – which meant counting half of it one day, and half the next.  Already being calories down for the day made me cranky and hungry for TWO days, so I don’t think I’ll be pulling that shit again for a while.

What else do I want to do?

• Gaming at work during downtime.  Color at home.
• Get up 15+ minutes earlier than last week (this is where I’m going to be fitting in the majority of that cross training).
• E-cig only every other day
• Go out and do something this weekend with friends
• Make the workout room usable
• Get my bike to the shop for a tune up
• Wash my hair every day immediately upon coming in the house every day and keep the laundry basket far away from the bedroom to mitigate allergies.

Most of these are self explanatory, but let’s talk about that one that probably make me lose some respect in the eyes of all the healthy peeps.  I don’t do caffeine, I don’t have a huge sweet tooth, but I do have a little nicotine (which, if you examine it alone, away from the other nasty stuff in cigarettes, it’s pretty similar).  The happy thing is that I got a new e-cig set up that is so clean, my lungs feel unaffected by using it.  The bad thing is that without the drawbacks, and while I’ve been trying to control my appetite to hit those diet goals, I’ve gotten used to puffing on the thing every day.

Honestly, I don’t love the idea of being addicted to anything, so it’s time to take baby steps back from it, just on principle.  This week, M/W/F/Su, I will not have any e-cig.  If I’m having diet intake issues, I’ll just have to tough it out with other coping mechanisms.

Overall, this week, I just want to continue the work of inertia, take baby steps towards the places I want to be (and away from the places I don’t), and continue to be enjoy the present.

Second week.  Harder than the first because the honeymoon is over and it’s still hard.  Are you on track with getting where you want to be?