Adjusted Reality

Author: Quix Page 102 of 218

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway…

On February 5, 2014

It’s not often that I have a disney movie song on repeat in my head, so I’ll just roll with it. And also, would it NOT BE SO COOL to be able to create ice castles with a flick of your wrist? Come on, that’s magical.

Anyway, if you’re new around here, please note that I am not a huge fan of winter. This is pretty much as excited as I get for cold and grey and all that January/February jazz. When it drops below 50, I’d prefer just to wait it out inside (or preferably, on a nice tropical island somewhere), with a small exception on the run – that rule ranges down to about 40 (as long as it’s not windy or rainy). The cold makes me pout. Between the weather and the horrible allergy season, I’d be perfectly fine with going to sleep on New Years Eve and waking up around…oh… March.

While I’ve not been immune to whining, it’s been less this year than normal (at least about the cold – the allergies have been wicked). I think that this is because of a few things:

1. The actual weather. It’s been up and down in temperatures and conditions. For example, we had ice-mageddon to the point where the city pretty much cancelled life two weeks ago Friday, by that Sunday it was in the 70s and sunny, and by that next Tuesday, it was ice-pocolypse round two with lows in the teens. It sounds weird to love that, but I do. It’s novel to have things cold and crazy and yucky for a day or two, but after that, I’m over it and need that perfect weather day.

2. Not being 100% out of shape. Winter running, even just maintaining a modest 20 miles a week base, and a medium/long trainer ride a week has actually helped me stave off all but a little bit of the great holiday slothening. It’s even more depressing dealing with the blahs of January and February when I feel like I’m running, biking, and swimming through molasses.

3. Actually having a race with a semi ambitious goal last month. I didn’t quite make it, but the act of working toward that helped keep me focused on doing good things, instead of totally slacking.

4. I’ve actually done a lot of cool things so far this winter. I’ve taken advantage of the fact that training for a half marathon doesn’t take all that much time and I’ve done a lot of fun stuff. I’ve said YES in moderation because soon, with tri training ramping up hardcore, there won’t be a whole lot of yes time for a while.

New Years Eve was a blast. We had a 90s party, and while I had a bunch of different options, every costume was missing just one or two things and I didn’t feel like shopping. So, I went with what was already in my closet and went all candy raver. Like… what’s going on, man? This boa is soooooo soft. I am soooooo loving the vibe here right now. (I tried to stay in character as much as possible).

We had crazy cool lights all over the house, plus a disco ball in the living room (instant gym school dance-like scene), 90s trivia, 90s karaoke, flippy cup, and specialty drinks like Spiced Girls, Macaroon Five, and Tripping Daisy. It was a great start to the year – and I actually remembered the whole party for the first time in, like, ever.

I celebrated a friend’s 40th birthday at a skate park (he’s a pro skater with, like, sponsors and everything). Yep, you read that right, a skate park. It was WAY fun to watch the older dudes tear it up, and it was especially fun to watch the guy on modified roller skates. Totally fun Sunday afternoon!

We went to American Idiot care of Yelp. We had pretty swanky (back) Orchestra seats and while it seemed kinda derivative of Rent, and the dance scene with the tourniquet was tres bizarre, it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening. Before the show, we tried out this great little greek/italian restaurant and it was amazing. Dinner and a show on a Tuesday night is a luxury I don’t get often.

We got to play another installment of our Savage Worlds campagn. In this one, we’re fighting Nazis in a black and white Casablanca-type world, where Germany was never defeated. This time we were captured and put on board an airship, and we’re in the middle of mounting our escape – joined by a giant… chicken. I had to keep him calm. I spent the evening soothing the savage chicken.

We got a snow day from work. It seems silly when it’s only a dusting of snow, but the ice was killer and caused over 100 accidents within 24 hours in Austin. We just stayed home, enjoyed the fireplace, and I batch cooked up a storm!

We celebrated another friend’s 40th birthday with a roaring 20s party. I dug back into my crazy magical closet and came up with this. I learned how to do the elusive smokey eye, and wore full makeup, did my hair with a straighter AND a curling iron. It was a lot of fun, and cool to see everyone dressed up. I stayed up way too late (I fell asleep on my couch with a full beer at 5am), but it was kind of a nice last hurrah before training season starts and I have to be a little more boring.

Last weekend was a friend-a-rama. Three days of plans in a row! We played munchkin with a group and socialized on Friday, we grilled amazing jerk chicken and pork with awesome cauliflower and caprese salad sides and sang karaoke Saturday, and watched the Superbowl with some die hard Broncos fans (so they were not thrilled by the end, to say the least).

So, we’re over one month down on the sucktastic part of the year without it sucking too terribly bad. February so far has involved a lot of bike miles, extra long and structured swims, enough easy run miles so I don’t forget how, and expecting to do some other fun stuff when I don’t have my crotch attached to evilbike, including preparing for another half marathon race and vacation!

Also, I’m now on instagram (yes, I’m the last person on earth to join but whatevs). Add me if you’re there too, I’m Adjusted_Reality. I’m trying to take more pictures, so I’m doing at least a picture/picture collage a day.

Also, also, big thanks to my fabulous coworker M, who rescued my blogs from wordpress demons. I owe her a cake. Or wine. Or wine cake.

Roads

By Quix

On January 27, 2014

In Uncategorized

One of my fave blogs to read is this. She just has a way with words, and makes me think the thinky things. Usually, with blogs, I do a lot of scanning since I’m busy and read a lot of things. I usually end up reading her posts at least twice with my full attention. This is a high compliment from multitasking me.

She posted recently about a dose of perspective – to which I feel like it’s time to treat myself as well. It’s about that time. Whenever I start to get nitpicky about the current few extra lbs I’m hauling around that just.don’t.wanna.leave, or the inability to hit a certain time or pace at a race, I just have to remember a few things.

This was me seven years ago.

I’m not sure that one is unflattering enough. Here’s another….

At 265 lbs, I had trouble walking up a flight of stairs without wheezing, or across the parking lot at work to get to another building. I spent 100 hour weeks building a career, working my ass off (literally, obviously not figuratively) to climb the ladder and my only outlets were drinking, smoking, eating, and playing video games. I would occasionally play dance dance revolution, or get on a kick where I’d get on the elliptical, or take a walk, but never regularly, and it’s not as easy to get moving when you weigh approximately one extra person.

I didn’t cook much, and either got takeout, went out, or made something out of a can/box/bag. Very occasionally I’d get domestic, and make beer cheese soup (with a block of cheese) in a breadbowl, or “healthy” salad with fried chicken strips, bacon, cheese, and ranch on it. No one where I worked had ever talked about eating healthy, we got pizza delivered for overtime food, had junk food potluck all the time, and we had donuts and bagels delivered every Friday. No one I knew did anything active.

I enjoyed a lot of aspects of my life, so I can’t say that I was truly unhappy, but something was MISSING. I had convinced myself that it was just inevitable to get fat and inactive, because that’s what getting old means (said the girl who was in her early/mid 20s). I never wanted to go out much, it was such a hassle, and it was much easier to get drunk at home and not have to try to find something to wear, and write or play or watch TV. As such, we didn’t have many close friends.

I remembered being an athlete before, but that’s just something kids did, right? You either were good enough to be a pro or you just faded into obscurity, there was no in-between in my mind. If you didn’t succeed at making it, you didn’t deserve to continue, I thought.

But, as they say in these stories, there’s a turning point. Now, I wish I could say that I saw a triathlon and was inspired, or something positive like that, but it was simply that I tried on pants, couldn’t comprehend how I was size 24, and the switch flipped and it was on. My goal was not to be healthy, strong, active, whatever – I could have given a flying fuck how the weight came off, but my first goal was to be less fat.

I set about doing that. I lot about 25 lbs, and then got stalled out for a few months because we made the decision to uproot and move states and jobs and I hung onto the wagon (I didn’t gain anything back) by my fingernails (I didn’t lose anything for 4 months).

My second jump start in summer that year, I have to credit to the stomach flu. My first week of work, I came down with some major major stomach bug where all I could ingest was gatorade and crackers. I took off 10 lbs and noticed that I could fit in a bunch more clothes I had been saving. I put them back on quickly because, well, eating again, but I figured new city, new start, new me, and researched how to do it the right way. Because while 30 lbs down was great, this was not going to be my after picture.

Time passed, and things happened. We got a house (the one you see me painting above) and did a lot of work on it and moved in). I joined sparkpeople, and decided to do what spark said for a month. I lost 9 lbs that month. This was the first time I had reliably lost weight with any sort of program, I had just been winging it with “go to the gym until you can’t stand it anymore and try not to eat so much you horrible pig” until I settled back into old routine.

Soon, old routine became new routine. I thought that the 20 mins cardio and 15 mins weights 3xweek were a HUGE commitment, but there was something to checking that off the list for the week and getting my spark points, and then I started upping the cardio a little more once I felt a little stronger. Over the holidays, I was terrified of everyone telling me that gaining weight was inevitable, so I upped the cardio to 45×4 days a week, and mostly stuck with the plan, so I ended up losing 15 lbs instead between Thanksgiving and New Years.

I counted my calories and balanced my eating like a checkbook. While I ate a lot of crap and I wouldn’t suggest that this is a way to spend the rest of your life, it helped me transition to the seven years ago’s 1000 calorie+ light lunches to the way I eat now, which may look like garbage in seven more years, but seems pretty healthy and balanced right now. There were hundred calorie packs and light bread and so much diet sodas and things I wouldn’t even go near now, but as they say, baby steps. The scale continued it’s progress, and I was happy.

I hit “onederland” as people tend to call it a few days before my 29th birthday and it was the best birthday present I’d ever had. I had so much more energy and felt like a completely different person. I was eating like a reasonable person, losing weight, and exercising regularly. I even got a hair up my ass and decided to try to run a mile at the track. I did it in about 12 minutes, and subsequently died. Well, almost. I got better. I tried it again in a few months and went better, and then all of a sudden I found the treadmill at work and eventually, I was able to run a 5k.

I was lucky to have stumbled upon running this way, as 1.5 years of regular strength training really helped me earn my right to run, and I ramped up very slowly and carefully. I had seen these races people talked about and it made me nervous but also excited, and I figured that I needed to just do one so I could experience it, so I signed up for a little local 5k right before my 30th birthday. I figured I’d be absolutely last and the oldest person there and embarrassed but whatever. I was doing it.

Well, come race day, I figured out a few things. One, I was NOT the last person, or the oldest, though a dude with grey hair totally whooped my ass. Second, I not only beat my goal time of 30 minutes, I beat it by over 2 minutes and got my first taste of the finish line high. Third, I kinda really wanted to do another one. I also ended up with a stray Runner’s World mag that linked a 12 week program to a half marathon. At first I thought it was crazy, but then I decided to jump in and go for it.

I raced that first half marathon on a hot, sticky late June day, and while at first it made me quit running for a while, it also got me hooked long term because I did another, with shorter races in between. Then, I stood at the fork of the “what’s next” path, and chose the road that lead away from a full marathon, and got on my bike and pedaled toward triathlon. They would converge later again, but I would have to take two dead ends before I actually got to marathon-land.

My husband was joining me at the smaller races but didn’t really love the idea of running anything over a 5k, until he decided he wanted to do a triathlon, and then pretty much right after the finish line, he decided he wanted to do that Ironman thing, so he started training with me, and the rest is history. Getting him on board was awesome, and key to this being a lifestyle. We now want to grow old and active together so we can potentially qualify for Kona someday (I’m thinking maybe when I’m in my 50s or 60s, heh).

Through the years, weight has become less of a focus than how this triathlon thing is going. The two are connected, obviously, but there are (hard for me) ways to productively shed lbs, and there are (much easier) ways to do it that destroy performance. This has meant my weight has fluctuated from 150 to the high 180s and back down a bit, in this period of discovering a higher purpose of physical movement than how I happen to look in a pair of jeans.

I have felt different things about my body at different weights, sometimes even different things on the same day. However, no matter how shitty I feel sometimes when I know it would be easier to haul my ass up the hill if I could not eat the fries and eat the kale instead, or if my tri shorts are tight and a little muffin-toppy after the holidays, these are the problems you have when you have built a pretty cool life. A life that seven years ago seemed beyond unicorns and rainbows. The fact that I missed my PR last weekend by less than 2 minutes is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, when your life is such that you get to go out to fancy parties looking like this.

I was asked recently how to not give up. I said that I’ve seen that road. The path into gaining weight – it’s a huge downhill, and the incline increases as you go along. It’s the return trip that’s the bitch. Uphill. Incredibly steep. Even if I take off one lb per YEAR, even if I continue to maintain my current weight of 175 (give or take a few) for a long time, I’ve traveled far from that girl, the one who didn’t want to walk a mile to work because “I’d get sweaty” and “there was a hill”.

And in all this, I am still me. I still really fucking hate hills. However, my instinct now isn’t to run from them, it’s to run up them over and over until I conquer them.

3M – The Middle

By Quix

On January 22, 2014

In Uncategorized

There are some race reports where I’m excited to tell you how I just flew and exceeded all expectations. There are some where I am ashamed to come and tell you that I totally crashed and burned, or lost it. And the latter includes all the bets I lost after having carried out a pointsbet sign up.

This is not either of those reports.

Sunday was a good solid effort, that pretty typically represented my current fitness and how my training had gone. And really, that’s all you can really ask for. You can hope for some race day magic, but that’s what it is – magic. Magic does not come when called. Magic is elusive and wily and shows up when least expected.

Magic did not show up that day, but my brain did, so you’ll have that. Below, as they say, is the rest of the story.

Day before/pre race:

I got all my errands done last week, so we pretty much got to relax all day Saturday. It was nice! I spent most of the day off my feet, we went to see Frozen (which was suuuuuper cute btw), and I climbed into bed early and fell asleep quickly.

Then, I woke up about an hour later with MAD allergy issues. My nose was whistling, my eyes itched, and sleeping was not happening. It was too late to really take anything without jeopardizing dragging ass at the race, so I stayed up and read my book for a while, and finally fell asleep a little before 1 in the guest room (so I wouldn’t wake Zliten).

The alarm came bright and early at 4:45, but I didn’t feel so bad. The hours I got were pretty solid. I did the normal half a starbucks and half a cliff bar. I poo’d and tinkered and we got to the race with plenty of time to park, potty, go back and huddle in the car for a while, potty again, and then line up about 10 mins to race start.

I had some major wardrobe indecision, but I ended up:

a) wearing the Hokas – which was an incredible decision

b) wearing my thin windbreaker jacket and a tank top – which was not the best decision, more below on both…

I tucked in around the 2:05 pace group, and suddenly, we were off!

Mile 1-5 (9:34, 9:28, 9:35, 9:30, 9:33)

As soon as we started running, I had random heel pain on my left foot. Uh, WTF? This is not anything I’ve had to deal with lately. I’m so over my body feeling different on race day than it does normally, that’s something I need to figure out.

I kept with the pace group, and noted that it was constant, but not debilitating, and my choices were to keep pace or drop out of the race, because going slower wasn’t making any difference, it’s the same amount of steps to the finish line.

Really, in this section, I was just enjoying the run. Besides what could potentially be a ticking time bomb in my left shoe, I felt pretty good, so I just rolled with the pace group at that fast comfortable place where you feel like you’re working but not working hard.

Mile 6-8 (9:44, 9:44, 9:51)

I lost the pace group around here, they were running a little faster than 9:30s, and I started running a little slower. The heel pain was starting to affect my stride and we (left this from the first revision, because obviously my mind and body started to separate around here…) worked through a lot of other weird niggles because of it. Right knee, check. Ankle, check. Left knee, check. All present and acc-owww-nted for.

Somewhere in here are usually my low miles in a half distance race or run, but looking back, I didn’t get too down. I never gave up. At one point my head started going south, and Bad Habit (Offspring) came on and I’m glad I loaded it in there, because it picked me up and I ate some chews and didn’t have too many other head issues. I knew around mile 7 that I would have to fight even for just a PR, and I was prepared to keep my head in the game, and continue on in that proverbial boxing ring. Marathon training really helped/warped me, as I kept ticking away surprisingly low amounts of time til I was done running (holy crap, only an hour left at 7 miles, etc).

As freezing as I was at the race start in what I was wearing, I had to peel my jacket off and run in just a tank top. My jacket didn’t want to stay situated around my waist in the back, and I got sick of adjusting it so I just ran with it in front like a skirt. It was not optimal. In retrospect, a tee, sleeves, and a garbage bag or throw away clothes would have been a better option, though the jacket has been perfect for a sunny day in the high 40s – low 50s previously. I guess running a little faster makes you hotter? I haven’t run a cold race in a while so I’m out of practice here, I’m used to managing heatstroke, not windchill.

Mile 9-13.1 (10:08, 10:39, 10:18, 9:58, 9:46, 1:42 – last .24 at 9:50 PACE)

Mile 9-10 is where things start to go up a bit (pace and elevation). Nothing crazy, mind you, but after the majority of the race being a nice gradual decline in elevation, it feels like a mountain. I was no longer having fun. My foot hurt. My legs felt weird and stompy because my gait was so off. I would blame my legs feeling so heavy on my hokas, but there is ZERO possibility I could have gotten through this race in another shoe with the heel pain, so I was thanking my lucky stars I went with them.

I lost my PR battle in miles 9, 10, and 11, where I retreated to 10+ minute miles. I know this now, but it was close enough that I kept fighting. Mile 12 I picked it back up to sub-10, and same with mile 13. I’m pretty sure race directors cackle and smile evilly when planning courses, because so dang many of them finish UPHILL, and this was no exception.

I had no kick. There was nothing left, and that’s not normal for me. As you can see, my last mile was about 9:46 and my .24 (not a stellar running-the-tangents race) was 9:50 average. My C goal was to give this race my all, and that proves I did. I came through at 2:10:02.

Post race:

I shuffled along, picked up items to replenish my calories (gatorade, two clementines, bag of chips) and then waited for the rest of the gang. And waited. And waited.

Finally around 2:30, I started to walk over to the med tent to see if something happened. On the way, they all found me. Apparently they finished just a minute or two after me and I must have missed them in the shuffle. We got a ride back to our car, got home, had some champagne, and enjoyed our sore muscle Sunday.

Thoughts:

I figure there are two ways I could look at this race….

a) I failed because I didn’t get a PR or beat 2:05 or sub 2 or even take 3 frakking seconds off and come in at 2:09:xx

b) I did good because I ran a similar level of effort (let’s face it, less than 2 minutes isn’t all that much in 13.1 miles, its roughly 8 seconds per mile) than the best I’ve ever done.

I’m going with option B. Doesn’t mean I’m not hungry to improve and/or really nail a race, but it means that I’m on a path that’s got me within spitting distance. The ultimate goal is to NOT choke on the half marathons that come after a long bike ride, and being able to 2:10 in a standalone half this early in the year means great things for that.

I’m really happy with how my head handled things through the race. I kept fighting. I never gave up. I kept the effort as high as I could go without redlining. I never took my foot off the gas (it may have eased up just a bit a few times, but not for long).

I am disappointed with my body. I mean, seriously, I did NOTHING to my heel and it just started hurting at mile 1, and it’s fine now (pretty much, it was fine as soon as I stopped running). The marathon happened just like that too (but with my ankle, a different annoying body part). As I said before, I’m tired of my body seeming to fall apart on race day at the beginning. I might have to look at my taper and do some experiments with doing MORE that week. It’s no use feeling rested if random bad juju is going to explode all over me anyway. I’m typically able to get through this distance with either gatorade OR one dose of sugar, so both is a treat.

I felt like my nutrition was fine. I had ~200 calories before the race, 120 calories of gatorade during in my handheld, and 100 calories of chews (half at mile 6, half at mile 9). I got a little boost from the chews, and perhaps next time I’ll experiment with a few more chews, but I always pay a small price with solid food = upset stomach (the chews are the mildest and tolerable, but still). I usually take in a little more gatorade but the aid stations were SUPER crowded so I figured the momentum was worth more than the fuel.

Overall, I had a pretty rocky training block. I got sick, the holidays happened, and if I’m being honest with myself, I think I lost a little motivation near the end. I could not regularly hit my paces outside, and since I didn’t race on a treadmill, I did not hit them in the race.

It wasn’t all for naught. I ran a sub-10 min mile pace in a double digit race, which I’ve only done two other times. Of the 11 times I’ve run a half marathon in a race, this is the second fastest, and I’m doing it a month and a half out from a marathon and after a totally disastrous 2013 season of running. I rekindled my love for speedwork in a major way (and learned to not totally hate and fear tempos), and I’m faster than I was a month ago, even if most of that speed really came from my head, rather than fitness improvements.

This week I’m taking a rest (my body is surprisingly wrecked from that short of a race), and not doing much structured training (easy swim/bike/run only as motivation dictates), and next week I’ll dive into the first block of my triathlon training – which is bike focused. I’m ready for the shift.

I am planning on two more half marathons this spring. I’m not specifically training for them, but it will be a fun experiment how adding swimming and biking (and really maintaining the same amount of run miles) will affect my half times.

T Minus 5

By Quix

On January 14, 2014

In Uncategorized

3M approaches, quicker than I’d like, actually, as I forgot how much work it takes to run fast. It’s easy to equate longer distances and more hours as work, but ~20 hours a week of runs, less than 3.5 hours of actual running work, sounds like playtime to my ears. Something fun to occupy my time during that weird time between the marathon and actual tri training starting, when I’m not ready to succumb to the offseason, I thought this endeavor would be.

But I haven’t done the “every mile COUNTS” type plan in years, and I remember now that those ~20 miles, they are enough. I’m fortunate to absolutely <3 speedwork in the form of 3×1600, 8×400, etc at some crazy fast pace. This is fun to me. I have no idea why I stopped doing these workouts, but never ever again.

I do remember why I gave up weekly tempo and faster long runs. They hurt, without much relief. When you’re in pain on mile 3 of 10 trying to run a pace you haven’t hit in 3 years, there’s not much light at the end of the tunnel. When you’re pretty much weekly attempting to PR your 5 mile run time, it’s a far cry from those lovely jaunts outside just to get some miles in. However, as they say, and I paraphrase, what’s hard is what will make you better in the long run, so I will suffer through them today so maybe when I toe the line Sunday, I’ll have a few extra ounces of toughness I can draw upon.

I am definitely in the Goldilocks situation though here with running. The “no-speedwork and no specific goal besides miles” plan earlier this year was too cold. The “every mile is calculated out to an exact specific goal pace” is too hot. I need something that’s just right – a mix between specific goal paces/tough workouts, and sessions that are “just go run 10 happy fun miles easy”.

This year will be about figuring out the balance. I know the ratio is supposed to be 80 easy/20 hard, but you also need to have enough volume to make that work, which right now, we don’t, so I think there is something to rotating between sports, setting one at maintenance levels (right now, swimming), one working towards distance (right now, bike, sort of), and one working towards speed (right now, run). It seems to be working thus far, as I am a WAY better runner than I was 4 months ago, and I know I’ve lost just a little in the pool and on the bike, things that seem (and I hope very much) will come back quickly, slower than the nice winter base of running (and running fast) fades.

But, bringing it around to what happens this weekend, my first race of 2014 is a half marathon. A downhill half marathon, in what looks like to be just about stupid perfect temperatures (45 degrees, cloudy but no rain, not much wind). If I was hitting my workouts perfectly, training for a sub-2, this would be the half marathon in which to do it.

However, my training has not been perfect. I missed or had to downgrade quite a few runs because I was sick and/or holiday stuff. I’ve only done two 10 mile runs, and neither of them were at the 9:40 min/miles that is supposed to be my long run pace for a sub-2. I’ve missed a few runs. However, the silver lining is I’ve been able to attack a 5 mile tempo each week @ 8:55 pace or below. I’ve hit every speedwork session on the money. It’s just when I have to move the belt myself, aka, outside and not on the treadmill, is when I choke. I can’t quite remember the pace without my mechanical friend.

And I’m out of time. What I was hoping would be 1-2 tempos on the treadmill and my legs would remember the paces outside just didn’t pan out, because magic doesn’t always happen in a short training cycle in which you catch the plague and get distracted by the holidays. What I cannot sneeze at is that I have seen some major improvements, and if you would have told tri-season ’13 me that I’d be running around 10 min/mile pace regularly outside and not dying, I would have giggled with glee. But I’m somewhere between that “most improved kid, fall 2013” and “ready to run my sub-2”.

The man with the hammer seems to have missed me on the treadmill, but has caught me about mile 3-4 on most of my outdoor runs.

So with that in mind, what’s the plan?

The good news is my body has been telling me pretty early how it feels on runs, and 13 miles isn’t terribly long to me right now – it’s the paces that are killing me right now, not the miles, my legs are absorbing those just fine. Even accounting for some race day happy puppy, I don’t think I’ll start out too quick, and most runs, the last few miles have been the best. Also, my body’s felt pretty rough the last 2-3 weeks due to holiday sludge, which is not a silver lining in and of itself, but it won’t be a shock if the whole run sucks, like it was at the marathon.

The plan is to start out at 9:30 pace, and hold that for the first 3 miles, no matter how awful or easy it is. From there, I’ll figure it out. If I can hold that 9:30, I can come in around 2:05, which is a nice 3+ minute PR (which was 3.5 years ago and about 15 lbs less, so you’ll have that). I need to maintain at least a 9:40 average overall (that fateful 9:40 pace I have not been able yet to conquer) to PR with some time to spare. I’ll need to pick it up to about 9:05s to sub-2.

I intended to go completely balls out into this race, but I’m not sure my training and body condition supports that. However, I don’t want to risk having the day of my life and sandbagging it, so I think this plan strikes a good middle balance.

I’m also having trouble with the wardrobe choices – mostly the shoes. I ran one week with the hokas, and one week with the Asics. The Hokas feel like wonderful little trampolines, and my feet feel cuddled, protected, and I’m not feeling like I am being held back by them (I ran speedwork, a tempo, and two outdoor 6ers). The Asics do feel sexy, light, and extremely comfortable, but my heel was aching a bit by mile 9 of the outdoor run. Hokas, I know I’ll be comfortable the entire time, but I don’t have enough experience in either of them to know what I’ll feel like at the end, or if racing in the Hokas will leave some speed on the table. I’m still not sure yet.

The other factors in what sort of a day I might have is allergies (I was knocked out Saturday, and better this week, but still experiencing symptoms). I’m planning not to spend much time outside this week, but cedar is supposed to be killer and not letting up for a while. Also, nutrition. I’m still working my way through detoxing all the holiday junk out of my body, and I’m hoping 2 weeks of being a good little girl is enough to feel like myself on race day.

I haven’t had the stars align to have a better-than-expected race in quite a while, so I’ll totally take it if it comes my way, but I’m also ready to fight for just squeaking by with a PR and suffering the entire time. T minus 5 until I toe the line and face that evil, nasty man with the hammer.

How It Is, And How It Has Been, Winter Blahs Edition

By Quix

On January 8, 2014

In Uncategorized

In 2013, I set monthly goals. In retrospect, I really liked the idea of having monthly goals and checking in with myself on them monthly, for many reasons.

I’m a procrastinator. Even if I pushed things like, “go make an eye appointment” to the end of the month, at least it got done. Previously, I’d just let those hang out for months/years.

If I saw something appear over and over undone, it made me look at the undone thing and decide what was happening. Was it just not enough of a priority (in which case, I should forget about it)? Was something standing in my way I needed to resolve first? Was it just not worth the time and effort investment (in which case, I should forget about it)? Previously, I’d just get annoyed and go into a minor shame spiral about NOT BEING ABLE TO GET SHIT DONE.

I also have the memory of a goldfish. If something is on a list, I’ll remember to at least consider doing it.

However, I didn’t love some things about it. It was yet another list, which I have too many of on my blog. I don’t need another. Also, I tried the gimmick of 13 each month (in ’13) and found myself making stupid goals just to fill out the list. Finally, it feels like I didn’t focus on all of my yearly goals each month, or at least consider how they fit into the plan.

So, this year, I’m going to try to do a monthly dialogue here. A conversation over (decaf tea or) coffee as if I was catching up with an old friend on how my month had gone, and how I wanted my next one to go.

December:

Ah, December. I love the month because it means time off, Christmas and holidays, with the cheer, presents, twinkly lights, family, food, and fun. I hate this month (ok, my waistline, training, and sleep schedule hate this month) because of deviation from routine, fun food, celebrations, letting go, and hiding in my hidey hole because it’s vacation. Also, it goes from HAPPY FUN HOLIDAY straight into worst depressing awful yucky time of year so there’s that. Post holiday blues, going from happy twinky lights to blah, bad allergies, cold weather, grey days, and all that nonsense.

I ran the marathon, I felt rebounded real quick (like, after about a week), and then I started training for 3M Half Marathon. I was actually doing really, really well, hitting some really great paces for me, but then I got sick. Not sick enough to really fuck shit up, but enough to disrupt my awesome weekend I had planned and then wreck my mojo for about a week after. However, I still got in just about everything.

Then holiday break hit. I did my best, but this last week was just a mess. Too much to do, body finally hitting the breaking point with all the crap that’s being put in it food and booze-wise, and I have a lot of red (not complete) or yellow boxes (not completed as planned) on my schedule, and that’s not good for 1 week out of a 4 week + taper cycle.

It’s not all terrible – I did get one solid 10 miler in, plenty of 6 milers, and wrecked the crap out of some speedwork and tempos on the treadmill. I dipped my toe into weights, but that’s about it, to wake up my abs and my arms and tell them they won’t be putty forever. I also did another 110 mile trainer ride, just to remind my quads what would be to come this season.

The good news is that the scale doesn’t think I’m that terrible of a person. On NYE, after not weighing regularly for a while and fearing for the worst, I weighed in at 176. Now, I’ve seen a few numbers AFTER that day that don’t make me very happy, but I’m pretty sure that a week of drinking water (not wine), batch cooked healthy meals, and counting calories, and I’ll have this under control.

The other good news is I really, really enjoyed my happy fun break of hanging out with friends, playing games (video, board, and tabletop), reading, eating amazing food, cuddling my husband, and relaxing. There was a point where I had no idea what day it was, and had no to do list. That was refreshing, to just be and exist and not worry. I miss it already.

A few things I didn’t get done that I wanted to: go use my iFly cert, finish (I started, but have a long way to go) my Savage Worlds story, and figure out a way to make the break longer.

January:

A new year, a new start. 2013 was generally awesome but had some sucktastic moments. I love the new year, the calendar pages blank and ready to be scribbled upon, like new fallen snow… if I liked snow. So far, it’s been a little rough transitioning from vacation to real life. I don’t mind the routine, I actually like it, I just… am not quite ready for things to wratchet up to 11. January has not been terribly kind thus far, but I’m hoping I’m through the worst of it, and we can call a do-over with a slower crescendo.

In terms of the sporty spice side of life, this month will have peaks and valleys. In 1.5 weeks, I’m running 3M, my first race of the year, and the first half marathon I’ve race-raced since 2010, which happens to be my PR of 2:08:08. Then, I plan on taking a week or two a little lax (honestly, my goal is to swim a shit ton since I have my new swimp3 player and it could use the kick start since I’ve swam TWICE since Kerrville), and then starting to ramp up for tri season.

I’m going to stay run-focused the first part of the year, but I’ll have to sacrifice some of that lovely hoka time for lovely bike (maybe some OUTSIDE) or lovely pool time. It is really nice to be a triathlete right now that loves all 3 sports. None of them are on my shit list, or in the doghouse. I have a feeling it won’t take until February, and my guess is that either biking or swimming (or both) will reside there for a while while I shake off the maintenance cobwebs into real work, but it’s all part of the fun.

I have the first part of my season narrowed down to a sane racing schedule, now it’s time to just make sure it’s sane in terms of travel and money. The plan is to do 2-3 half marathons early in the year to keep the legs sharp. I want major run motivation, and I also really want a good shot to PR my half before summer hits. I’ve got a few bike rides as well. Neither of them are full centuries, but they’ll get me some nice outdoor miles. Then, an April triathlon, one in May, and two in June. I’m still debating distances, but it looks like one sprint, two x-50s (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, and 9 mile run), and one either olympic or 70.3 (which is my season opener – otherwise the 70.3 would be a no-brainer). I hope to get the registrations done this month, before a lot of them go up in price.

In terms of healthy eating, I’m enjoying the January cliche. I fell off the wagon a bit, and now it’s time to jump back on. I’m the most ready for this. I miss good healthy food. I batch cooked this weekend and now I have meals that are delicious and just a microwave oven away. This month has to be strict for me. Logging every calorie and diet quality score. No sugar except on the bike. I need an ass kicking to get myself back to… myself.

My weight is hanging out right now about 179. So, I’m not going to make a numerical goal because I’ve seen that’s pointless, but if I follow everything above, it should equate to LESS. I’m hoping significantly less.

In domestic affairs, my biggest goal is to get the house back in order. Getting Christmas and NYE decorations down and stored (they’re down but not stored), cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer (again) to make my healthy food accessible and get rid of the junk, and keep the house (relatively) neat in between cleanings. I’ve gotten a little better at this over 2013, but I could be better.

Thing of the month for January is replacing the front door. New cracks appear in it every month as we slam it closed three times before it actually takes. It’s time. I’ll have to deal with having an ugly white door until we decide what to do with the exterior, but functionality is more important now. A bonus goal? Cleaning out my car. I kept it SO clean for the first five years of it’s life but now it’s my junk bucket. It will take 15 minutes to do, I just need to make it happen.

In social matters, January should be a nicely balanced month. I have parent plans, friend plans, and game night or two on the horizon. I definitely am going to need to take care to not get overextended though – my training volume isn’t high enough that I’m physically exhausted all the time, so I need to artificially engineer days of relaxation to keep the mental fatigue in check.

In social media – I need to be good about blackout days. For example, Sunday at home. This was harder than I expected. I loaded it up, checked everything, closed it down…. and later in the day I had the itch… and caved. It was much better than having it open all day though. This is the big focus this month… not bending to the time-waster will. On Sunday, I got a LOT of shit done that I might not have if I was tied to my laptop all day, so it was at least a partial win.

In general, my goal will be to get back into routine, and have it be just that by the end of the month. Eating good food, following a training plan, getting back into old, good habits, and minus a few goals, saving the revolutionary stuff for another month. Keeping a to do list (both at work and at home) so that when I have small chunks of free time, I don’t flail as much at being productive. Y’know, that kind of goodness.

Thanks for indulging me, now it’s your turn! Tell me… how was your December? What do you hope to accomplish in January?

Adjusted Reality

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

Author: Quix Page 102 of 218

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway…

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