Guys, it’s been a pretty good month around here in Adjusted Reality land.

Two for two on podiums so far!

First, let’s talk triathlon and training.  Something is clicking around here and it’s really incredible after a few years of, let’s face it, funk, I’m seeing some improvements!  I’m going to give credit to a few things:

Weight training.  I’ve taken steps to actually do things to strengthen my weak spots instead of just ignoring them and wishing they would be better.  While I already feel my motivation to lift waning these days, I need to stay on it.  There can’t really be another explanation as to why all of a sudden my stride has returned, and as long as I don’t do dumb shit like lift too heavy and strain things, it does wonders for keeping me stable and healthy.

Flexibility/Recovery.  In previous cycles, I knew I should stretch and roll and do all that shit regularly, but I never put it together how it would directly really help things like my triathlon finishing times.  Increased flexibility in my hips and my shoulders gives me a more efficient running stride and a more comfortable and stable aero position on the bike.  Actually bucking up and rolling my ITB and calves instead of thinking about it and then not doing it because that shit hurts when it’s tight has helped ease some of my little niggles and be able to train better.  It’s a war with myself daily to do these things but I’m starting to win it more often than not lately.

Specific training. On one hand, it’s been a relief.  Doing like 5-6 hours a week of training actually makes it easier to be a human person.  Having my longest workouts be in the realm of 1.5 hours means I have much more time to relax and pursue other hobbies instead of just dying on the couch in my non-triathlon recreational hours.  On the other hand, it feels weird that I’m getting better at running, biking, and swimming by not doing much running, biking, or swimming, but I’ll take it.  The hours I am putting in are quality over quantity and at least for the sprint distance, it’s working well.

My monthly numbers are fairly pathetic:

  • 24 miles run
  • 188 miles biked
  • 7000m swam
  • 6 weights sessions
  • About 24 hours total

However, I stood on top of the podium March 31st and on the third step last weekend, with significant bike and run PR paces/watts/efforts.  I think it’s proven that what I’m doing right now is working, so I’ll keep at it.  I race this weekend again, so the last two weeks have been light, even for my reduced schedule.  I’ll take a day or two to recover after Sunday and then it’s back to it!

I haven’t followed the three per week weights schedule I set out to do last month, but I did hit 2xweek on non racing weeks and 1xweek on race weeks.  I really just need to find the motivation to add the extra core session in and not call it something I’ll do when I have time (which is never).  After Sunday, I don’t race for a month, so I plan to redouble my efforts for May and stick to the 3xweek plan.

See, proof I have been swimming!  Googgly eyes and everything.

Showing up to the pool has improved since the weather has gotten warmer, but I haven’t been doing anything but just swimming.  This month, I will plan at least 1 swim per week with some sort of focus besides going back and forth until my watch reads an acceptable number.  I also need to get in the open water at least once every other week, more if I can.  The water temperature is no longer an excuse!

After a nice month of my ankle being cooperative, last week, it randomly started talking to me again.  It held just fine for the race, but something is not right.  I was being lax about wearing my insoles and real shoes (*grumble grumble*), so I’ve started doing that again as well as rededicating myself to my ankle rehab exercises (they take like, one minute to do but it’s easy to forget).  That being said, I’m keeping my running to short, fast jaunts until it’s been pain free for a while, but I would like to reach an hour/6 mile run by the end of the month, since I need to start considering building some endurance for September and my run takes the longest to do that.

My heart wants to go play bikes with the team on all the lovely group rides and fun outings they’ve had lately and commuting and going on adventures.  My head is keeping me focused on specific workouts that are shorter, include pain face, and more often than not have a run follow up.  I’ve got about a month and a half until my last sprint race this season, and until then, I’m endeavoring to try to get my head to win the battle at least 75% of the time (but playing bikes is a necessity for life, so that will happen sometimes).

Pizza has happened once since the start of #projectraceweight, if I went out with the team it would happen more often. 😛

Speaking of being a bit of a hermit (sorry Team BSS, it’s not you, it’s totally me), the other half of the equation here is that I’m actually making some gosh darn freaking progress on this whole #projectraceweight thing.  However, I know myself.  I’m really bad at temptation and quite honestly, for the temporary period of time that I’m doing this shit, it’s better for me to pretend that pizza and beer don’t exist anymore.  Sure, I could do the rides and then just go home (and when my training starts to include some workouts that say “ride bikes for more than 30 minutes”, I will).  Sure, I could go hang out and drink water.  But I know myself.  It’s better right now to take myself out of the equation entirely.

So, here’s where I’m at.  I am on temporary notice.  I have put myself in the corner on timeout.  Because I have been an asshole with food for a few years, I have to not be an asshole with food for a few months, even though it is fun and social and happy and I work out so I deserve it and all that stuff people say (including me) but the scale does not lie that I do not deserve as much as I have partaken.

See, I can sabotage myself just fine without anyone’s help, thanks.  Over the last two weeks, trendweight has gone from “hey, you’re doing great and will be at your goal weight in June” to “hey, you’re kind of sucking at this and you’ll be at your goal weight in November 2020”.  I royally fucked up my calorie intake while out camping.  Like, consumed more than DOUBLE the amount of calories than my normal daily goal without even trying because I ate a bunch of snacks instead of a real meal.  Lesson learned.  Eat the food right away even if you don’t want it or it’s not exactly what you want or it’s not super healthy or you’ll eat a million times more later.

For the next few weeks, I am trying to be EXTRA good before vacation.  I don’t really have a goal, but I’d like to see what two weeks of being angelic can do for me.  I need to be careful right about now.  My clothes fit.  I’m looking better in race pictures – my first thought about these was that I looked really buff instead of the usual *BARF*.  This is right about the time where I get complacent and subconsciously say, “good enough”.  I want to not do that this time.

The good news is that my weight is starting to trend down again, and even with the TERRIBLE eating on Sunday, being good the rest of the week saved me.  Sort of.

  • Average diet quality: 21.5
  • Average calories in: 1926 calories (this is where 3700 calories on Sunday really tanked me)
  • Average calories out: 2310
  • Average deficit: -384
  • Average weight: 179.6 (back exactly where I was two weeks ago)

However, the nice thing is that over the month, I maintained at least a 21 or more Diet Quality score on average, and I have lost approximately 2.2 lbs, which does not suck.

It helps me to list out the challenges I foresee each month, so here’s May’s:

Vacation.  The plan is simply not to GAIN weight, and being reasonable with my portions.  I’m not tracking anything. I know how to do this, I just haven’t come off 9 weeks of dieting before so I need to keep my hair at least not COMPLETELY let down.

  • Eat a reasonable QUANTITY of food.  I need to continue to eat to the level in which I am either just not hungry or satiated.  Not overly full or uncomfortable.
  • Breakfast OR lunch as a full meal, with a snack size for the other meal.
  • One plate and one soup bowl at the buffet that includes a good amount of vegetables/fruit.
  • At night, the hair will be slightly more down, but I plan on one appetizer not three, ordering whatever I want for my main dish, and either skipping it or a few bites of desert is plenty unless it’s amazing.
  • As for alcohol, I’ll probably indulge in like one fruity drink and then stick to my normal whiskey on the rocks, vodka soda, or the occasional glass of wine or light beer.
  • And, while I’m sure there will be a slip up or two in there, no surfing the buffet or late night food when I shouldn’t be. 🙂

But, it’s vacation, so this is absolutely going to happen and I won’t stress about it.

Navigating a reasonable calorie intake after the Rookie Tri on Sunday.  I plan to eat whatever food is there as recovery (since they usually have delicious tacos) and have pre-made salads and easy, reasonable calorie-count food for the rest of the day I just need to pop in the microwave.

Game day.  This hasn’t been too difficult lately.  I’ve been eating a snap kitchen meal ahead of time, which actually works out because the food has time to settle before I start shoving snacks in and then get a stomach ache from being too full.  I’ll just bring my own pistachios to much on and share and mostly ignore everyone else’s contributions.

Movie/Lunch day with work.  Trying to decide which one item on this list would either be the most healthy (I mean, hummus and veggies are obvious but that’s not a MEAL) or whether I just want to splurge and make sure it’s most of my calories for that particular day.

My goals when not on vacation:

No dessert besides my nightly square of chocolate.  People be making it hard around here lately but I’m staying strong.  Just saying NO is getting easier as I’m making progress.

As close to 1500 calories average as possible.  Sometimes this means I should eat slightly less than 1500 to compensate for days when I eat more.  This is starting to actually become a possibility, my stomach is getting trained that this is plenty of food to thrive on if I eat all healthy things.

Diet quality as an important but secondary goal.  If I want to eat something slightly reprehensible, I just need to make sure I work it into my daily goal of 1500 calories.

I need dis.

Man, this is getting long already.  In terms of life stuff, I kind of halfway failed at everything but made some progress.

  • I started a painting but didn’t finish it.
  • I read Operation Ironman and about 60% of The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published and the book thing started stressing me out a little so I kind of put it on hold until after the last race, thus preserving my give-a-shit.
  • I finished my first draft of my book!  And then, I have completely ignored it ever since.  And will continue to do so until I get back from vacation.
  • I made two new videos on healthy breakfast ideas!  I wanted to make 3 but at least I did something.
  • Our garage is now clear and we’ve been parking in it since April 14th.  Feels good man!

I’m definitely hanging on by a thread right now, I really need me some vacation, so I’m going to make my May list a little fluffier:

  • Get myself ready for vacation.  That means a haircut, tweezing the brows, and a self-pedicure.
  • Go through my too-small clothes the week before the cruise and see if it’s time to dig some old favorites out!
  • Finish my publishing book and read another athlete memoir (maybe more since I’ll be on vacation but I also should escape into fiction as well).
  • Get lots of footage on vacation in beautiful places that I can put together as video.  I want to actually have a PLAN for this before I go otherwise I won’t do it.
  • Read the manual and learn all the settings for my new camera.
  • And most importantly… RELAX and enjoy some time chilling the eff out.  If I can fit it in my busy schedule.

I’ll go back to the adulting next month.  Maybe.