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Second verse, different than the first…

On July 9, 2018

Today begins half ironman season, which will be very different than the first half of the year.

Time to remember how to race for 6 hours vs 60 minutes.

Instead of short, small races where I’m running for the podium and I can almost blink before they’re over, I have longer, bigger races to tackle. For these, my hope is that I can place in the top half of my age group, and the only thing I hope to qualify for is a post-race beer. I can’t just wing the distance on these with the endurance I have so I actually have to start doing stuff like running for more than half an hour and swimming more than 1000yds.

The cool thing is the rest of the year brings ALL new races, so I don’t have any course PRs or prior expectations. It’s about kicking my own ass and pushing myself for no other reason than just to be better than before. It’s kind of refreshing. Also, by signing up for Waco 70.3 four weeks after Cozumel, I actually get TWO chances in extremely different conditions to test my fitness on the same build and I’m really really really looking forward to that. Worst case, if it’s a really bad idea, I’ll get to suffer on the course with a bunch of my Bicycle Sport Shop team!

I’m attempting to continue the efforts that have been successful beyond my wildest expectations this season. Specificity and intensity versus excessive volume are what I’m about this summer, just like I was in spring. I’m trying to keep the same methodology but slightly longer workouts since they are slightly longer races.

The focus for the last month has been heat acclimation. We’ve done a lot of hot, mid-day walks, runs ending as late as possible before work (sleeping in has it’s privileges…), bikes in the hot afternoon sun, and just being outside as much as possible. One ride topped out around 100 degrees (feels like more) and I remember thinking it didn’t feel that bad (though I was happy not to be running in that yet, baby steps). I took a walk around the block at sunset and thought it was 10 degrees cooler than the temperature showed. I ran in feels like upper 80s and I didn’t even have curse words for it. I did have a hard time in the heat with our 30 mile ride on Friday (some idiot nutritional factors were at play), but I have confidence that I’m getting where I need to be.

Smiles after long rides vs a month ago I was seriously hunched over my bike trying not to pass out.

If I had zero things on the schedule between now and Cozumel, I’d probably just start riding my bike a million miles in July with some short brick runs every few sessions and then transition to more running in August and faster stuff in September (kind of like my Austin 70.3 training). However, I have to race an Olympic in five weeks and while Nationals isn’t a goal race, I don’t want to completely embarrass myself. I need to build my run concurrently as well, peaking for a 13 mile race distance run in about 2 months. That means I’ll need to rip off that “long run” bandaid off sooner than later. I have 6 miles planned for tomorrow which is exactly 1.5 miles longer than I’ve run in the last half a year.

Pre-Nationals (first 5 week block):

I’m a little rusty in the weightroom. First plan is to work my way back up with lighter weights for the first two weeks or so (2xweek), and then get back to the actual deadlifting/squatting/etc in the gym at least once a week (and the other session either the same or at home with kettles) within this time frame.
My bike comfort zone ends somewhere in the realm of 30-40 miles right now. I plan to get to 40 miles feeling like just another day, and ride my TT bike as much as possible (when it makes sense).
I plan to work my long run up to about 90 minutes, but my goal for these runs is to never slow to 100% easy pace. I’m running a 5k easy holding 10-something mile pace, I’m hoping not to slow too much from there. If it’s either or, I’d rather run less but faster.
Swimming, I’m the least worried about you. I plan to swim twice a week, and swim open water at least once a week/every other week at the absolute least. I need to work on my speed and form when I can’t see the black line. However, the jump from what I usually swim to 1.2 miles usually comes quickly as long as I actually DO IT.
I plan to hit our team brick most every Wednesday, or do a similar workout at home (exception – the FTP test I have scheduled this week in that same time slot ><). Every long bike has a run scheduled off it. I have a practice Olympic on the schedule 2 weeks out from the race to practice logistics and give myself confidence that I’m ready.
These five weeks consist of: #1 building volume, #2 more building volume, #3 stepback w/practice race, #4 one more building volume, #5 race week. It’s not a full taper but I should go into Nationals *sorta* fresh.

Haven’t spent much time here lately and that’s about to change. Soon.

Post Nationals to Peak (4 week block):

After racing two days back to back, I’ll take the next few weekdays fairly light and then have my first “long day” with a 30 min swim, 3 hour ride, 3 mile run that weekend. If I’m super fried from racing and travel, I may switch this to the next week and just do an easy long bike + run instead.
I have a second “long day” planned as my final long workout before the race/three weeks before the race – 1.2 mile OWS, 56 mile TT bike, 10k run. This will be where I test all my race prep.
On the flat, closed course Cozumel bike, I estimate I’ll ride somewhere around 3 hours with the race conditions. However, I don’t have a lot of places to practice like that. The options I have are: riding the same amount of TIME on my road bike in group rides/traffic (but that will probably net me between 10-15+ miles less with logistics). 3 hour trainer rides sound torturous but I have a feeling I’ll do at least one. I have a few places where I can get CLOSE to a closed course/continuous effort on my TT bike but none of them will let me open up as much as I will in the race. I think the best I can do is just get out and ride anywhere and everywhere I can to ensure that 56 flat miles/3 hours is well within my comfort zone. So, lotsa bikes.
On the run, I plan to alternate race pace long runs with shorter faster tempo work. I figure I’ll run the 13 miles once about a month out for a confidence builder but I’m not running a half marathon race, I’m surviving a half marathon on tired legs in the heat off the bike. The best thing I can do is be prepared to run FASTER and run OFF THE BIKE. So, I’ll continue to go forward with that methodology. Absolutely no junk miles here to stick to my minimalistic running program.
Weights and swim plan continues as before. I expect I’ll be swimming the full race distance once a week or every other week at least.

#mfw I run in the heat because I love it so much. But then I chose to do races like Cozumel. I am an enigma. 😛

Taper (3 weeks):

At this point, the hay is in the barn so I’ll be ditching long workouts for shorter, faster stuff to keep sharp. All the sports volumes will come down and I’ll be running faster than race pace more often.
I’ll continue my weights until race week, and *maybe* that Monday I’ll do a light weights workout if I feel up to it.
I’m figuring I’ll be extremely ready to cut the volume once I get here as usual, but if I have to remind myself, I’ll refer to my last post on how successful I was at sprints on minimal training (but the right training).

Post Cozumel to Waco (4 weeks):

The first week post race will involve diving, snorkeling, tacos, and margaritas.
October 13 is two weeks out of my second race. I have one more opportunity for a key workout. Whether anything I do 15 days out will improve my fitness is questionable, but I can definitely do something that will build confidence. That’s TBD.
If I feel like everything is copacetic, I’ll repeat my taper plan for Cozumel almost exactly.
Basically, my goal is to keep my fitness in tact and to not do stupid things and hurt myself or get burnt out or sit on my butt too much and get stale and unfit.

October 28th post race plans…

What’s after that? Staying active but some offseason-y goodness.

November = offseason. I hope to pick up my activity by Thanksgiving to stave off gaining any weight, but there will be absolutely no POINT to it. I’ll go run because it’s nice outside and ride bikes with friends on adventures and maybe swim once because it feels novel and maybe lift heavy things because it’s fun.

December = strength + run focus (but still kind of offseason). Because I have a little matter of a half marathon (that I don’t care about my performance but need to survive), I should do some running but probably mostly the kind where I duck outside in the afternoon and race the sunset for fun for about an hour, completely ignoring things my watch says. If I’m not back to lifting yet, I need to start. Bikes (probably) and swimming (haha) as they sound fun.

Some of this coming up. Not a ton, but some.

Then there’s the other part of the equation – weight loss. I’m hoping to eek out about FIVE MORE LBS this year, but it’s already starting to slow down to a crawl. A few months of calorie deficits and agonizing over every crumb I eat has gotten tiring and I missed Mexican restaurants and bike adventures with food stops and those may have crept back in my life in the last few weeks. Even though I’m still fighting, it’s not with that much enthusiasm.

At some point I’ll officially transition to more calories when the training ratchets up and then my appetite catches up (I’m guessing that will happen in early August). My only goal for the rest of the year will be not to gain weight (but really, I mean that – I don’t want to gain ANY weight over the holidays). Then, after New Years, I’ll start again in earnest to try to lose the next (and maybe last) 15.

My goal will still be to eat nutritious food and track my calories and really nail the hell out of my diet quality scores since I have more calories to play with. However, in my estimation, I’ll be burning about 2-3k more calories per week with increased training. That gives me some leverage to actually drink a few non-light beers or have some post ride pizza and maybe not freak out if someone wants to go out for dinner unexpectedly if I don’t change my normal daily habits. That sounds nice.

Let’s do this thing! 12 weeks to go, starting… NOW!

The Short Version

By Quix

On May 15, 2018

In Uncategorized

My brain is already on vacation. I didn’t race last weekend. I did some training. I ate food. Life is hectic. There’s my blog. Have a good week!

*smirk*

Ha, gotcha. Even though I don’t have huge big adventure stories, it won’t stop me from blathering about mundane life things. #sorrynotsorry Best advert for a blog post ever – I have nothing amazing to talk about but here’s 1600 words anyway!

I took a day off after Rookie, and then attempted to get right back on the horse. It kind of worked. I have to remember that even though I didn’t get a lot of training hours in the last few weeks, I did get two KILLER speed workouts racing at maximum capacity racing back to back weekend. I had to pull back my intentions a little and remember that QUALITY really trumps quantity for me unless I’m moving up to a new distance. And then it still probably does, but I need to push volume for the sake of my confidence.

My two key sessions last week were our team brick and a cycling FTP test. On the brick, I was happy with my bike (best paces and powers yet on the potato chip speed loops), but my run was a little MEH. I was not ready to push it 3 days after racing so I backed off and sat on that comfortably uncomfortable perch in the pain cave and coasted in at 9:30s. Saturday morning, I was super dreading the FTP test and put it off as long as I could… and it wasn’t that bad. That probably was part of the problem – I’m not sure I nailed the effort, since I had some juice at the end of the 20 minute all out segment, and came up with a slightly disappointing number: 172 (2.16 watts/kg). I thought I *had* to be at 180 at this point. Oh well, metrics are metrics and I’ll try this again monthly – it’s a great workout!

The color coordination is strong with this one. #sockdoping #wattagebrigade

Last week’s totals:

1 weights – oops. I need to ditch the excuses (cranky glute, busy, ran out of time, lazy, etc) and JUST DO THESE!!! Argh.
2 swims – about 2500yd/40 min (1 drills session) – see, now that it’s warm all I want to do is swim, this was no problem to get done
2 bikes – about 30 miles/1h50 min – brick bike + FTP test
2 runs – 6 miles/1h5 min – one miserable heat training lunch hilly run + alightly less miserable brick run

Total – a little under 5 hours. Less than planned. Oops. This week’s plans are:

3 weights – poooossssibly two of those kettle bell sessions vs actual lifting because I don’t want to poke my glutes too hard, and one core sesh.
2 runs – brick run and a run that will be an hour long/6 miles/until death (whichever of these seems like a good stopping point)
2 bikes – commute (yay fun bikes) and the brick ride (yay fast bikes)
2 swims – though one is planned to be in a hotel pool which may or may not be successful or long but it’s getting done, darn it!

Looks like about 6 hours give or take. At some point I’ll need to start ramping up a *little* for Cozumel but for now this volume seems to be working so I’m sticking with it!

Another thing that seems to be working is #projectraceweight. Trendweight and I are friends again.

And see, my (interim) goal weight (165) is back in the realm of summer 2018, instead of two years from now!

Now that I’m getting the hang of this, I think I’ve noticed the trend that two weeks of the month I’ll make awesome progress and two weeks (that super fun week where Aunt Flo moves into town and the week after) I make little to none. So, at the very least, I can be less frustrated because it’s a TREND. Even factoring in weeks where I’m stalled out, I seem to be back on track to maybe actually keep this party train going into 160s-town. That’s exciting! And then, since I actually know what I need to do to make it happen, I plan to hop on again next offseason and follow it down a bit more to 150s-ville, for the first time in almost a decade!

For now, I’ll celebrate that I officially have pretty much undone all the damage that crazy high-carb/calorie program the nutritionist suggested (finally, almost 3 years later). I’ll throw 10 parties for that!

Here’s the last two week’s numbers:

Apr 30-May 6

Average calories in: 1845
Average calories out: 2195
Average diet quality score: 21.2
Average deficit: -350
Average weight: 178.2 (-1.4)

May 7-13

Average calories in: 1699
Average calories out: 2300
Average diet quality score: 23
Average deficit: -601
Average weight: 176.1 (-2.1)

A few data caveats to fend off any “well, actually…” comments:

My average weight here is from my GARMIN scale. My TRENDWEIGHT above pulls from my FITBIT scale, which weighs on average about 1 lb higher (though it varies day to day, this morning it was 2 lbs higher, the other day it was lower. :P). And yes, I’m going to keep metrics from the lower one because it helps my self esteem, thankyouverymuch.
The calorie burn/deficit is from the GARMIN devices, not FITBIT. I think the Garmin devices are a little conservative vs the Fitbit WAYYYY overestimating (it makes sense why I couldn’t lose weight for so long, even when using the -1000 per day setting). For example, Monday May 7th, I did no formal exercise but got about 11k steps. Fitbit has me burning 3.2k calories that day. Garmin has me burning 2.1k. Garmin’s definitely closer but may be sandbagging me a little.

Now, I need to make sure and not fuck it up when I go on vacation. I keep saying it (mostly to drill it into my own head when I’m presented with all the food I can eat 24/7), but honestly, I think the big thing is to control my QUANTITY first and quality second. I’ll live for a week if I don’t get my macros correct but I could really make the scale angry by eating too much, even if it’s mostly healthy. For example – if I’m craving pizza, I’ll get a slice and a salad for lunch. That’s acceptable. What is not acceptable is eating a full breakfast, then lunch, then a slice as a snack (and then a salad because I’m feeling guilty and should eat something healthy too), then dinner.

My only goal is not to gain weight. Wish me luck!

So freaking close to thissssss….

Speaking of vacation, I swear, it takes forever to get ready for it, and then it’s over in the blink of an eye. But hey, at least I’m almost ready! Sunday was MY DAY to do all the things to get prepared and I did *most* of them including a self-pedicure, tweezing the face caterpillars over my eyes, grabbing some of my things out of storage that had gotten bigger and longer again (yay!).

I also spent a bunch of hours reading the manual and playing with my new camera. I was getting really stressed and snippy about it (sorry husband of mine) because I felt intimidated by it. It’s got so many professional type features and I’m typically a point and shoot type gal. However, after a few hours, I think I can work the basic operations and know generally what all the modes and settings mean and I’ll get better with it as I have more gorgeous things to put in front of it. And, if every shot is not the most perfect-est on my first outing, that’s ok, I’ll have more opportunities to get pretty pictures in the future.

So at this point, I still have a few To Dos but I’m feeling less crazy.

Yesterday, I got a massage. I think it was enough to calm the pain in the ass (literally) and the slight niggle moving around my heel/ankle still, but I’m on watch to see if I need to get into the chiropractor too (I have one real window on Thursday to do it).

I’m debating on a haircut. I actually am not minding it long in my normal human life. This actually didn’t take too terribly long to produce (though longer than I will spend on my looks about 355-ish days of the year which is approximately 30 seconds):

But I know I tend to say that until I get it cut and then wonder how I dealt so long. I also know on vacation my hair is constantly wet and that could get annoying. I may see if I can find a window of time to hit up the Bird’s to get a real snip snip or I may just have my husband give it a trim, ignoring the layers I usually get, or I may leave it. My mother reminded me that she travels with scissors (though I certainly don’t trust HER with them as she’ll give me a bowl cut or something like this), and my husband reminded me that they have a (rather pricey) salon on board. I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seat as to what I do so follow along on Instagram for the final verdict, hehe.

I’m sure I need to pick up a few odds and ends as I pack and find things like I don’t have any travel shaving cream, make sure I have enough books downloaded on my Kindle so I don’t run out of reading material, make sure things like my camera manual and video plan are loaded onto my travel laptop since there’s not going to be much internet around, but I think I’ve done the majority of the things.

So, of course, off to do all the OTHER things.

April showers bring May flowers…

By Quix

On May 4, 2018

In Uncategorized

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.

That’s not what I’m doing right now.

By Quix

On March 26, 2018

In Uncategorized

Spring has sprung. The flowers are blooming, the trees are getting gussied up for the year, and the sun is actually warm and happy and shining instead of a dirty liar or just GONE for days at a time.

Kettlebells in the sun are the best kettlebells!

Spring for triathletes means that allllll the social medias are a-twitters (or a-grams, or a-books) about their 60 mile rides with stops for donuts and pizza and beer at the end. Or maybe even the serious ones riding centuries or more (with or without the junk food stops) now that the weather is primed and ready for riding bikes all day.

And then, here I am, spending a majority of my scant 4-6 hours a week (like, less than the time of some of my long rides last year) training, with the vast majority of it indoors, lifting heavy things in the gym. Do we still say FOMO? Is that still a thing? Well, either way, I have some major lust to be doing all that stuff again. I really wanted to just take my bike and go for hours and hours. I wanted to go find a pretty place in the country and go run until my watch ticks over to double digits. I think the only reason I’m not compelled to swim lap after lap in the lake is that the temperature starts with a 6 and that’s cold for me but soon that will be a thing as well.

And, let’s be honest, I miss the other aspect of that – the refueling. Stopping mid-long-ride for a Rudy’s chopped beef taco and a Coke. Ending a multi-hour ride at Desanos for a pie and a pint. Opening up a new bag of Baked Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles and cracking whatever’s cold in the beer fridge after a run that’s taken me from the morning to the afternoon. Oh, how I miss Ironman training, if especially the “eat anything anything ANYTHING you want and not gain weight” aspect.

However, that’s not what I’m doing right now.

I spent the last 7 weeks in the gym lifting heavy as my major form of exercise. My biking, running, and swimming were minimal, and I called it cardio instead of training. It’s definitely not where I’m usually at this time of year, although, my spring training has varied so much over the last five years, I don’t know that there is a usual, but this is DEFINITELY not it.

While it also gave me a chance to let my cranky left leg heal up without pounding on it all the time, my body needed a reset. I could run or bike or swim for hours without any real issue. I just couldn’t do it very fast. The limiter on both how far and how fast I was going was muscular, not endurance based. I was having trouble getting my heart rate up and hitting paces because my LEGS didn’t want to cooperate. The cue to stop running and biking was not when I got tired, but when my legs and lower back hurt too much to continue. My form sucked on my run because I didn’t have the strength and flexibility to fully correct it.

Basically, staying out of the weightroom for a year and a half made me a fragile little flower that was only good at one thing – doing things slowly, for a moderately long time. Because we are what we repeatedly do.

To paraphrase another oft-used quote – to do the same thing over and over and expect different results is madness. While I really want to just go run pretty places at a comfortable speed and ride bikes with friends at a conversational pace from the morning until the late afternoon, THIS IS NOT WHAT I’M DOING RIGHT NOW. There’s a big disconnect between that sort of training and standing on sprint triathlon podiums. And while I want to just go play, my spring goals state that I should be doing a little more work than that.

And those goal are to have this kit see Cleveland Ohio for Nationals.

The good news is that my body is responding to the stimulus. I went out for my first team BSS brick workout of the year on Wednesday. While I’m not *quite* where I was at the end of the season last year, my ability to ride my TT bike around 18 mph in traffic and then hold a 9:30/min mile for 2 miles after (with a few gears left on each discipline, this was going moderately hard but not puke pace) shows promise. My endurance may suck right now, but I’m sharpening up for the shorter races quite nicely.

The most encouraging thing is not necessarily the paces, but the feeling. My body feels strong as hell right now. I was pushing 10 more watts last week than I was on that same ride last year. My speed just sucked because it got windy and I also got myself a little turned around and had to slow down and backtrack. Twice. Because I’m dumb. On the run, I was sucking wind, but my legs felt strong and capable, not like they were dragging to keep up, like they have the last year or two. As my endurance grows back again, I have a feeling my speed will coincide this time. And that’s exciting!

Also, just in the last week, my left knee/ankle/heel have started to cooperate. It took a massage and then an adjustment and some new ankle strengthening exercises, but I think it’s gotten the hint that it’s triathlon season and it’s no longer welcome to hinder me. Or, it’s that the chiropractor, stumped as to what the problem was, said “maybe it’s a little early arthritis?” to which my body said “hell no, we’re not that old” and fixed it’s malfunction. Either way, I was a much happier person last week because of it. I’ll joyfully go through a little bit of daily/monthly maintenance so I can play pain free.

My plan this week is recovery. It sounds weird to me with such minimal training, but I feel a little beat up from the heavy weights. I plan to mostly lay off the iron, with some short rides, runs, and swims to keep it fresh. Next week, when I’m recovered from the race, I’ll start resuming a normal spring training schedule with a balance of both.

If I haven’t mentioned a race plan, it’s because I don’t really have one besides going as close to that sweet sweet pukepace as possible the whole time to establish some metrics via heart rate and watts and actually how fast I move from point A to B to build upon for the rest of the season. This is a true “rust buster” race.

Actually completely pro #projectraceweight – almond crusted chicken, turnip mash, collard greens from Snap Kitchen. So, so good.

I have the number 56 on my whiteboard at work. It means 56 days until vacation, and I have 56 days left to be really strict with my diet. 7 down, 56 to go.

Last week was definitely an adjustment period. 1500 calories is challenging, but most days, it’s doable. Snap Kitchen for most meals really helped the initial break in period, and helped us “blame” something else for our smaller portion sizes. Don’t get me wrong, the food is actually pretty yummy and it was suuuuuper convenient not to have to do any cooking, but sometimes we’d just open up one of the meals and laugh at how small they were (before crying, because it’s our ENTIRE meal).

This was a pretty good representation of what I’ve been normally eating on a daily basis. The exceptions were Thursday, when I had some drinks after work. I had planned on it, so I just eliminated all my snacks that day, and ended up right at my 1500 calories anyway. On Saturday, we had birthday celebrations. I did my best to eat like a normal human being with what was offered, but I knew I was going to go over on calories unless I skipped dinner (and ending my day with cake at 4pm would set me up to feel flippin’ awful), so I sucked it up and called it a “maintenance calorie day” at 2300 (500 of that was dessert that if it wasn’t homemade by my family, I would have skipped, so I can pretty much see what I would normally eliminate to stay in my range). Sunday, I was right back to it, so we’ll call it a successful week.

For funsies, the numbers went like this:

Average calories: 1646
Average Diet Quality Score: 22
Average Calorie Burn (per Garmin): 2346
Average Deficit: -700
Average Weight: 185.7

This next week presents it’s own challenges. There are no family parties to navigate, but I am racing. It’s so not an A race, but I definitely don’t want to go too low in terms of calorie consumption both the day before and the day of the race (but I’d also like to not to sabotage my weight loss efforts either).

So, my goal will be to eat normally today through Thursday. Friday, I’ll eat my normal, pre-race routine of a normal breakfast, a turkey sandwich for lunch (somewhere on the way down to Katy, TX), and then grill up some chicken, potatoes, and a salad for dinner. Honestly, I will probably be able to get by on around 1500 calories, give or take a little for snacks if I’m feeling hungry.

Race day will probably be the biggest challenge. I’ll have my normal sunbutter jelly half sandwich in the morning with a coconut water and probably 1 gel and a little sports drink during (probably about 500 calories total). The race is sponsored by a brewery, so I’m imagining there will be beer after, and that will be happening. But I’ll try to limit it to ONE (~150 calories) even if they’re serving up all you can drink, because I can easily drink most of the calories I can eat in a day with good beer. With these races, the food is always questionable – if its something AMAZING I’ll indulge but if it’s crappy lukewarm pizza or something, I’ll come prepared with a protein bar or jerky and nuts or something to have something down the hatch to rebuild (200 calories).

Avoiding these. Because they are crack.

Once we get back to our campsite, I’m planning the attack two ways:

#1 – I plan to go for a little hike and hit the pool and I’m bringing some games and my painting supplies so I don’t just kick off the day with a beer at 9am when I finish and then continue doing that while just sitting in my camp chair. And, if I do end up sipping stuff all day, I’m making some very diluted punch and having a bunch of non-alcoholic fizzy water options so if I want to catch a buzz I’ll need to stay very very very very hydrated! Win win!

#2 – I plan to bring really healthy food as my only options. Veggies and fruit and nuts and jerky to snack on. Small steaks with potatoes and veggies for lunch (good high quality carbs and protein and nutrition for recovery). Fish tacos with coleslaw on the side for dinner or pre-made chicken salads if we can’t be arsed to cook again. I’m going to leave the chips and smores and all the other crap that’s just (delicious) extra calories without any nutritional value at home so I’m not even tempted.

And, if I end up going a little overboard anyway, it is just one day in the grand scheme of things and I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off, and get back to it again the next day.

Someday, the long days of training and the ability to make a few gluttonous food choices will return. But, that’s not what I’m doing right now. And I’ll be fine with it, if for only 56 more days.

Progress and Thankfulness

By Quix

On November 22, 2017

In Uncategorized

I’ve been looking at this kitchen remodel like a long race.

Somewhere between the proverbial start line and the first few hundred meters of the swim (picking up the cabinets).

I’d say right now, I’m mid bike. Not quite sure if I’m over half way yet, but close. I’m far enough in to feel a little fatigue, but there’s a lot left to go. The process is actually not been too bad, I honestly think that playing “helper” to people who know what they’re doing is the best possible scenario. If it was contractors, I think I would be impatient and antsy (well, MORE impatient and antsy). If we were doing it all ourselves, we would be SO overwhelmed. For example, we’re putting crown molding over the tops of the cabinets to cover up the fact that they’re a little uneven. I would have never thought of that, but I’m happy to help paint and hang it up!

So, it’s been about a week. Last we spoke, everything was torn down. I’m actually thrilled that went as quickly as it did because once that happened, there was no turning back. Apparently, according to the in laws, it was the easiest demo they’ve ever done and I think they had fun doing it. 🙂

Garages are not for cars this week. They are for painting cabinets.

The last week, in my world, was about two things: fighting off decision fatigue to make smart choices I won’t regret later, and painting all the things.

I was super excited to put together a kitchen exactly how I wanted it until I actually had to put the kitchen together! I had procrastinated picking out a lot of things because a lot of shops are only open when I’m at work and also I think I was a little intimidated. It was stressful (#fwp) because I was thinking about:

Resale value. I’m not saying I want to move any time soon, but I also don’t think I’m going to live in this house until I die. I never want to do this again so I’m making choices that are not so bold I’ll have to rip them out to list the house.
Personal style. Conversely, I’m not a tan and light wood finish kitchen person. I wanted to chose things that make me happy and excited.
Price. I went into this making sure I didn’t cheap out on the crap that mattered, but I also know that the 2800$ quartz counter we picked out (and actually fell in love with) is just as awesome as the 7300$ quartz counter that was our other choice. Similarly, I don’t need the 350$ faucet I loved when I found one for 199$ with a slightly different curvature but almost the same.
Smart DIY vs Stupid DIY. We can paint and hang cabinets and put on hardware and save money on the labor. However, I started to get greedy when I was able to purchase 4 granite slabs for about 400 bucks. After a day or two I thought better and returned them (except one I’m keeping for a bathroom redo next post-Ironman season, heh). Our quote is about as cheap as the granite + tools and supplies we’d need to do it, and they’ll get it done in one day and they guarantee their work for life.

But, I got through it and I think we made good choices. I fell in love with the clearance backsplash. We found an amazing deal on some quartz counters. When I asked the guy for what his cheapest quartz was to get a baseline quote, he said we had picked it out (and it was #1 on our list). Once I had both of those, we were able to finally pick out cabinet paint (the day we actually started painting…). I picked out a faucet, and then when they didn’t have it in stock, found one cheaper that I liked just as much. We found the microwave we wanted 40% off. Everything is going so well!

Anyone else love Moulin Rouge as much as I do? 🙂

I was still worried that losing our apple green accent wall would make me feel all sad and plan. I like black and white a LOT. I’m super excited about what’s going on there. But – I am a bright bold color person at heart. I can’t say that I didn’t think for a second about the gorgeous RED SPARKLY granite counter. However, the amazing and wonderful Zliten nudged us into getting a hue system as part of the remodel, and I am in love with my disco kitchen already and the cabinets don’t even have doors.

DISCO KITCHEN!

The only hiccup was the cabinet place left two of them off the order, but Zliten’s parents are local and were able to pick them up earlier this week. They were out of what we ordered, but we were actually get a better configuration than we had picked before. Definite lemonade out of lemons there!

So, at this moment in time, we’ve painted everything that can be painted right now. Today after work, we’ll hang the top cabinet doors. Then… we’re kind of at a stopping point until the family comes back on Friday to work, so we’ll have Thanksgiving completely off (I figured we’d come home and be finishing something up). Wheee!

I have a list of everything that’s left to go, and while it’s long enough to freak me out, most of the surprises should be over. Most of the decision making is over as well. We’re down to good old fashioned work and I’m ok with that.

In other news…

Yay running without my heel feeling like it’s going to fall off!!!

I’m RUNNING AGAIN!!! It’s not 100% pain free yet but I actually ran for an hour (5.4 miles) and then spent the entire day on my feet working on the kitchen and it didn’t set me back at all (felt fine the next day). I ran three times last week and will get in 2-3 times this week and then hopefully ramp up a little bit starting next week – still 3 times, but extend the weekday runs closer to 45-60 mins and the weekend run a bit past an hour (75-90 depending on how I feel).

I’ve been neglecting my bike and the pool. I’ve been doing some lazy weights workouts sporadically. It’s ok. I’m certain I’ll get back to it soon. I’ve got 8 weeks ’til 3M and while that kind of freaks me out, I’ve gone from offseason to a 70.3 PR in that amount of time, so I’m sure it will be NBD.

My body has actually been thanking me for taking an effing break. While it’s slow going, my weight trend line is going down. While I’m not training regularly or tracking my food. During the holiday season. I’m not sure what’s up but I won’t question the magic. I would say I’m about 2 lbs away from where I raced Austin 70.3 last year, which was incremental goal #1. If I could set a goal right now, it would be to see 170-something on the scale before December 31st.

While I have not been tracking my food (or even the negative diet quality score foods like I said I would), I have also been attempting to keep it all reasonable. I am super thankful that I cooked up a storm to have healthy food available, and it’s been a lifesaver. However, there were some days that I couldn’t bear finding a place to plug my microwave in or digging out the scrub brush to wash out a dish and we got takeout. When we had the family here all weekend we got bbq and pizza and sandwiches to keep everyone fueled. I would give myself about a C, but apparently that’s a passing grade right now, so I’ll go with it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m thankful for my life, even if it’s a little hectic right now, it’s also full of so much awesome. I’m thankful for Zliten, family, friends, triathlon, scuba diving, that my kitchen will someday soon be in fully finished disco mode, and that I have a job that lets me afford to do all this. And probably so much more, but for now, I’m thankful that I have a long weekend and I need to see about starting that right about…

Adjusted Reality

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

Search results: "diet quality score" Page 1 of 8

Second verse, different than the first…

The Short Version

April showers bring May flowers…

That’s not what I’m doing right now.

Progress and Thankfulness

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