Everything is not awful!

I feel like the mojo is flowing a bit.  I can’t really put my finger on it exactly what changed from “OMG EVERYTHING IS AWFUL” a few weeks ago, but I’ll take it.

Bike commuting is serious business.  Oh wait, no it’s not.

Training feels back to normal-ish.  No, I’m not hitting every session I want to, but it’s about prioritizing right now, and the important stuff is the bike.  I’m training to survive 100 miles on it two times in the next three months, and also, it’s the longest leg of the triathlon so therefore the most important.  I’ve spent about 6.5 hours cycling per week in the last month.  I’m having the most fun with it, so we’ll call this my cycling year.

That leaves 3.5 hours or less to try and cram in weights, running, and swimming, because I’m trying to not dip into double digit training hours too often.  Especially this month where I’m also putting in extra hours at work.  Don’t want to send myself to the looney bin for no reason, but DANG it’s hard to do all the things.

I’ve been riding long about every other weekend.  This keeps things fun because riding bikes all over is super awesome, while also preventing being stressed about having to spend all day EVERY Saturday dedicated to bikes like during IM training.  I’m hoping that a year of longer rides under my belt will make it easier to ramp up for the next 70.3+ race, and I can definitely say this is the first year that the idea of riding 60-100 miles every 2-3 weekends for the next few months doesn’t sound extremely daunting.

I’ve gotten to the point where running a few miles doesn’t quite feel like death anymore.  Instead of doing the normal thing I do at that point, which is pile on the miles, I’m stepping back and doing the opposite.  I want to do quick half miles and miles off the bike.  I want to do intervals where I bust ass on the treadmill and recover on the bike so I don’t have the opportunity to run with bad form.  I want to run at paces that encourage efficency and good mechanics, not force me back into the marathon shuffle.  I want to sub in Dance Dance Revolution for some run time to build back the muscles that do hops and jumps and make my feet move quickly.  It’s a weird leap of faith but my running is SO back at square one I almost have nothing to lose.

Swimming, we’ll be BFFs eventually.  With work moving, it’s no longer a viable strategy to go at lunch and with extra work hours, it’s really hard to drag myself to the pool at 7:30pm or 7:30am.  I’m trying to make it once a week, and from now on, make some of it count with a little speedwork even if it’s just aqua-fartleks in the lake (that sounds even dirtier than running fartleks).

Last week’s totals:

• 2 bike commutes – 3h45 for about 50 miles
• 1 open water swim – 16 min/800 yd
• 1 30 min dozen + some weights session
• 1 quickie brick (10 min bike/1 mile run/5 min bike/.5 mile run)
• Jack’s Generic Tri.

6.5 hours total.  Story of my life: wanted to do one more swim and run, but either lost motivation, energy, or willpower.  It’s all good.  We’ll call it a mini taper.

This week’s plan:

• 2 bike commutes (ONE DONE) + a ~80 mile long ride Saturday
• 1 quickie brick (DONE)
• 1 pool swim with some toys and speed sets
• 2 strength sets (ONE DONE)
• Try to run a little mileage anytime I get a chance.  Even if it’s half a mile.  Just to practice my stride.

The bike miles are going to take up most of my training time this week and that’s totally alright.  Next week will be more balanced.

Last week has been brought to you by the letter B – bourbon, bowl of veggies, and bikes.  Much more of the bikes and bowls than the bourbon…

This is the first week I can really say that I feel like I’m hitting my stride here as well.  Since it’s still the part of the process where I’m establishing habits, I’m just going to repeat my August goals here:

• Eat a giant rainbow salad every day (even weekends) to get my four servings of vegetables easily.
• Eat fruit and nuts as snacks instead of crap (and on weekends, BEFORE I reach for anything that’s crap).
• Aim to get my diet score over 20 every day (even on the weekends).
• Measure out my drinks BEFORE I drink them at home.
• PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I PUT IN MY MOUTH ON THE WEEKENDS.

I was not perfect, but I was much, much better than I have been in years.  Let’s roll with the numbers and see how I did.

• Weight: 187.2 (-1.5) lbs
• Avg cal per day: 1865 (-226) calories
• Avg deficit per day: -988 (-26) calories
• Macros: 58 (-20)g fat, 194 (-8)g carbs, 107 (+1)g protein, 27 (-5)g fiber

There was a little guestimation on my part here.  My fitbit decided to die Sunday and also I got a little lazy about tracking food over the weekend, and the length of time is inversely proportional to the amount of little bites of food here or there that I remember to track.  Also, interestingly enough, garmin runs my calorie burn for the day about 400 lower than fitbit, consistently.  So, I’m thinking that being just a little over 1k deficit on fitbit is probably no big deal and I bet with the way I actually lose weight, the garmin numbers are more accurate.

So, that’s quantity.  How was quality?

DQ score: Monday: 30.  Tuesday: 25.  Wednesday: 24. Thursday: 26.  Friday: 24. Saturday: 19.  Sunday: 13.  Average comes out to approximately 23 (out of 32).

I’m super excited about all this.  When you focus on eating good food all day it’s pretty easy to get these up numbers up there.  I’d like to thank giant mixing bowl sized salads for keeping my veggie count up, popcorn for being an awesome whole grain snack, and alcohol for understanding we need our boundaries.  We can still be friends, I just need a little space.

This week’s goals are try to do as good or better than this week.  So far, it’s looking solidly in that zone.

Look at this beautiful usable room!!!

I just want to give myself (and my husband) a huge freaking fistbump about our accomplishments this week:

• Second coat of paint and trim on the shed. (DONE)
• Put all the things in the shed that need to go in the shed. (DONE)
• Clean up the workout room now that the only thing left in there is workout things.  (DONE)
• If I have not heard back from the doctor by Friday call and get my internet chart thing set up. (DONE)
• Spend at least 5 hours focused on my book this week.  (DONE)
• We also squeezed in some fun stuff – gaming with friends and we saw TWO movies (Wonder Woman and Valerian) before they left theaters.  They both rock.  I recommend!

I didn’t touch the shed myself but I did other chores to free up Zliten to be able to work on that, so it works and I’ll count it.  There are probably other things we can find to go in it, but all the things that were in the way are now in there away.  We took about an hour on Saturday to finish the Pain Cave and it’s now awesome and useable (did our first workout in there yesterday and I’m loving it).  Now, it’s time to focus on the office.

I got my e-chart set up and realized I really don’t have time with work and training this month to make it into the doctor’s office during business hours without it being a huge drag.  So, I’ll set up an appointment for sometime next month when I’m working less.  Still, I put my big girl panties on and called and now never have to talk to anyone ever again!  Wheee!

Most importantly, I finished the rough draft of one full chapter of my book.  I’m actually probably the most excited about this.  If I can keep up the momentum, I’ll have a full rough draft done in 3 months.  That wouldn’t suck at all.  Obviously, I’ll still need to edit it and then figure out what the heck to do with it, but we’ll let winter me figure that one out.

So, let’s roll.  What’s on tap this week?  Because I have an entirely jam-packed Saturday planned (80 mile ride, social bike party, comedy show), I know I need to keep this reasonable.

Body maintenance – I need to pluck the caterpillars, and redo my toes.

How to Start Up – I started this book and I am SUPER excited to read it but it’s not something I can fall alseep to.  I need to carve out some time that’s not 30 minutes before I need to be zonked.

Remodel research – I keep saying I want “Ikea Style” cabinet organization.  I should look into exactly what that means and costs.  I should probably consider the rest of the plans as well.  October will be getting here sooner than we think, and it’s pretty much our window to get this done this year.

Chapter 2 – I’m hoping to have the same progress – another chapter’s rough draft – done this week.  The ball is rolling and I’d like to keep it moving along!

Office – we’re going to hit it hard next weekend, because it’s either then or over Labor Day and I want to reserve September for FUN STUFF because it’s been a summer of chores, feels like.  However, bonus points to any work we can get done this week.  If I can manage to keep Sunday’s other to dos to a minimum, we can get a little done here.

And now, time to stop writing about doing things and go do things.  Novel concept, eh?  What is YOUR absolutely most pressing thing on your TO DO list?

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