Adjusted Reality

I kept hearing that this was the best endurance athlete nutrition guide, and many many many sites and articles and reports reference it.  So, since Santa didn’t bring it, I went ahead and ordered it.  It came last night, and I devoured it all today cover to cover, and then took these notes so I don’t just forget what I read.  And perhaps it may be interesting or useful for someone out there.

Verdict: I really think it’s a pretty great read – what he says jives with my thoughts on the subject, while obviously giving me things to work on that I have not been doing. It’s a lot of common sense stuff and seems reasonable.  He’s not preaching this as the one and only way you will ever ever be a fit human, he continually says that he is simply observing how the pros operate and trying to translate it into what the everyday age group athlete can do.

So without further ado, here are my thoughts and notes from Racing Weight, by Matt Fitzgerald.  And since it’s long, I’ve broken it up with a bunch of unrelated funny pics.

First of all, while I can say I’m a pretty kick ass 175-180 lb athlete, there is no question that I’d be a better racer and kick MORE ASS if I improved my body composition.  However, the key is to do it the right way – not with significant deficits and drinking only water through 3 hour runs and eating only celery.  He stresses that not everyone out there can benefit from losing weight, but almost everyone could benefit from improving their diet quality and nutrient timing.

How to find your racing weight (goal):

1. Measure your body fat %.  I’m using some hugely outdated numbers, but mine is around 34% (not terribly great).  My lean mass is 118 lb, my fat mass is 62 lbs.

2. Use his little handy dandy chart (of which I cannot find a picture of and I am too lazy to scan).  I’ll simplify – I have a pretty high body fat % for an endurance athlete, so I’m trying to improve up the chart a little bit to 26% body fat this season.  If I was already around 26% or less, my goal would be 18%.  If I was already at 18%, my goal would be 15-16%.  If I’m at 15-16%, he suggests I’m probably just fine where I’m at thank you very much (for my age and gender).

3.  The goal is to not lose lean mass, while lowering body fat.  So my ideal racing weight (for this year) is: 118+ 26% or 148.  That feels incredibly ambitious for me, but there it is.  I’ll repeat this each season until I’m where I want to be.

THERE ARE SIX STEPS TO PEAK PERFORMANCE:

1. Improving your diet quality.  Simply put, that is making sure you eat fruit, veggies, whole grains, dairy, lean meat (he separates out plant proteins here instead for veggies and vegans), and legumes in reasonable portions in moderate quantities, and avoid sweets, fried food, refined grains, and fatty proteins.

You are to score your daily choices thusly…

The Good:

Fruit: First 3 servings get you 2 points each.  Fourth gets you 1 point.  After that, you get 0 points (they do not subtract from your score but don’t add to it to suggest that eating a shit ton of veggies and fruits is going to somehow cancel out eating a whole chocolate cake)

Veggies: First 3 servings get you 2 points each.  Fourth gets you 1 point.  After that, 0 points (ditto)

Lean Meats/Fish: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (Once you hit that ~18-20 oz of meat per day, it’s probably time to shove something else down your piehole)

Nuts and Seeds: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (Nut butters and pistachios good.  Cleaning out a whole jar of PB with your finger bad.)

Whole Grains: First 2 get you 2 points each.  Third gets you 1 point.  Fourth and fifth get you 0.  Sixth and on, subtract 1 from your score. (For the love of Jeebus FINALLY someone not telling me that grains are bad… I feel so, so, so, so much better when I eat a decent amount of carbage – I cannot get full on protein and veggies alone, I just feel all weird and heavy and yukko)

Dairy: First 3 get you 1 point each.  Fourth gets you 0.  Fifth gets you -1, and sixth and on gets you -2.  (Some dairy good.  Lots of dairy very bad.)  He says this is both full fat and low fat.

The Bad:

Refined grains: First 2, you subtract 1 point each.  After that, -2.

Fried Foods: Just go ahead and subtract -2 for each of these.

Sweets: If the first or second ingredient is sugar in any form, it goes here and nets you a -2 each.

Fatty Proteins: He considers anything over 10% fat (give or take a little, 10.5% fat on your steak doesn’t automatically take it from +2 to -2, but it’s there for a reference) in this category.  Subtract 1 point for the first 2 servings, and subtract 2 for each additional serving

The Else:

Your first alcoholic drink per day counts as 0.  Each after that is -2.

Anything consumed immediately before, during, and after training doesn’t count against you (gels, gatorade, bike fuel, recovery drinks, etc etc)

A serving of anything bad counts as at least 1 serving (no half points for half portions).  THIS IS HUGE FOR ME.  I’m a notorious “oh just one bite” “oh just one more” so this will either make me commit to eating a full serving of what I want and be satisfied and enjoy it, rather than just nibble and not feel like I had the calories or enjoyed my treat like I did.

Servings are common sense size servings.  A medium or a cup of fruit/veg.  A glass of milk.  A slice of cheese.  Two pieces of bread.  A fist size of meat.  A palmful of nuts.

Significant amounts of low quality condiments (he’s sort of iffy here on what that means) like mayo or bbq sauce should get a -1.  Something like guac or tziki or hummus should be classified under it’s category since they have nutritional value.

Coffee and tea, lightly or not sweetened at all, doesn’t count towards your score.  A starbucks carmel frapp is definitely under the sweets category.

Energy bars – first one that is of good quality (read: sugar is not the first or second ingredient) is +1.  Anything after that is -1 for the second, -2 for the 3rd.  If they have lots of sugar, they go under sweets.

There is no “GOAL” score, but each day if you eat all your goods and no bads, you achieve 32 (29 if you’re vegan and cut out dairy).  The goal is to get as close to 32 as possible without losing your mind.

***He definitely pushes good quality foods like organics and food in season and grass fed beef and wild caught fish, and also the importance in eating a variety of foods for nutrients, but I’m just essentially detailing out his scoring system here.

2. Managing Your Appetite.  This is in place of counting calories, which most people find tedious (yep, though I do it).

He goes into a lot of physiological stuff here, but I’m going to skip that and let you read the book if you want.  What I took out of this is that we need to do is determine when we are belly hungry (tummy rumbles, etc) telling us to eat because we need food, and head hungry, when we just want food because it looks good, we usually eat around this time of day, we’re emotional, or it’s right there in front of us.

Insert obvious stuff about cheeseburger calories not filling us up as much as fish calories.  But we know that.  Lower calorie density food is good for gnawing on to fill up.

One great exercise is to spend two days eating ONLY when you’re hungry (belly hungry).  Once your tummy does the “I need food” thing, you are to eat within an hour.  Then, you are not to eat again until it says “hey, lady, gimme some grub”.  This helps teach the difference.

He goes into more helpful tips most of us have heard before – clean the crap out of your kitchen (out of sight, out of mind), spoil your appetite at meals with a big glass of water and/or brothy soup or salad starter, plan for contingencies (the “I know that Martha will have her famous deep fried cheesecake dipped in ranch and want me to try some.  I’ll say I’m stuffed and take some home and then bring it to the office”), etc.  The one new and interesting tidbit was avoid variety.  If you eat a soup, salad, and sandwich, you’ll generally want to consume more than if you just have a salad and sandwich offered to you, and more than if you just had a big ass bowl of soup, even if the portions for the multiples are smaller (boo – I’m a HUGE FAN of the soup/salad/sandwich combo, I like eating lots of different things in combo).  Eating something like a stir fry or bowl of pasta w/veggies is great because it’s one THING, so you may find you consume less.

3. Balancing Your Energy Sources

Carbs: If you are an endurance athletes you MUST EAT CARBS.  They are not your enemy.  He says frankly, a lot of endurance athletes do not get enough (good and/or properly timed) carbs.  I am definitely in that camp.  So many people have done the carbs are the devil thing at me, I think I’ve just subconsciously tried to limit them more than I should.  I certainly need to be taking in more once my training starts.

Here is how much you should be taking in (DISCLAIMER – as an endurance athlete, he says as a sedentary or just lightly recreational exerciser that less carbs is good):

4 hours per week (here I am right now): 2-2.75g carbs per pound of weight.  So for me, right now, 360-495g carbs.  As someone who usually tops out at ~200 when I track, this blows my mind.  And it get better from there…

5-6 hours – 495-585g carbs (2.75-3.25).  I will be in this range through all of January.

7-10 hours – 585-675g carbs (3.25-3.75).  I will get here in February and remain here through most of the year.

11-14 hours – 675-720g carbs (3.75-4).  I will dip into this a few times early this year.

I have no idea how my body is going to feel on this.  It feels like candyland and a ticket to 300lb town, but I’ve seen these numbers quite a few times, so it may be worth trying to stay close to the low end here and see how I feel.  Experiment!

Fats: eat fish at least twice a week.  Other than that, he only really poo poos really high fat diets for althletes (40%) and says that by maximizing your numbers above, you’ll be fine.

Protein: he recommends 1.2g protein per kg (or 2.2 lbs).  For me, that’s around 100g protein.  I’m usually close to that with my normal healthy diet so let’s move on.

4. Monitoring Yourself

He recommends daily to weekly weighing if you can do it without making yourself crazy.  Just take the number as a metric and move on.  Those who measure more often can correct issues quicker.  Measure body fat at least once a month.  He likes the body fat scales and notes while they’re not always correct in measurement, they are at least consistently off so you can track progress. (So I should stop avoiding the scale that clocks me in at 40% body fat and just remember that 40% = 34%)

He also recommends doing time trials at some stages when you record weights to see if your progress is improving.  If you’re slower at 145 than you were at 155, you went astray and probably restricted food too much or you’re just too low for your body.

5. Nutrient Timing Self in 6 months – I think you’ll be pleased with your results if you can get this one down…

Nutrients taken while exercising or within the magic 2 hour window before and after are MUCH more likely to get used immediately or stored in muscles and not in adipose (fat).

What follows are the timing rules for athletes…

Rule 1: Eat early.  Energy drink before workouts if you don’t have time for real food.  Eat a significant breakfast.  Snacks in the AM if you’re hungry.

Rule 2: Carb heavy in the morning, protein heavy at night.  For an endurance athlete, he’s not recommending like chicken and veggies only at night, but no more than 50% of your evening meal/snack should be carbs.  In the morning, it should be more like 80-85% and it should get less and less through the day.

Rule 3: Eat on a consistent schedule (at least 3 meals).  Figure out what works for you and do it.  (This is something I need to be better about – I tend to skip breakfast on the weekends so I can splurge with a big brunch I couldn’t otherwise justify)

Rule 4: Eat before exercise.  A big meal 4 hours out (2pm lunch for a 6pm workout).  A medium meal 2 hours out (5pm meal for 7pm workout).  Aim to consume at least 100g carbs in the 4 hours before a workout if possible.

Rule 5: Eat during exercise: Using sports drink/gels during workouts means that you take advantage of getting the calories in when they’re most useful and you’ll be less hungry later, instead of being me and trying to get by with the least amount possible so I can pig out later. 😛

Rule 6: Eat after exercise: As close as you can, but up to two hours out you should consume about 1.2g carbs per body weight (so for me about 215g, as in, more than I usually have in a day) + 20g protein.

Rule 7: Minimize eating late: to attain racing weight, it’s not horrible to go to bed “mildly hungry”.  If you can’t do it, have a late night snack of protein to help with building muscles.

6. Training For Racing Weight.  Pretty much follow a reasonable training plan.

This section says lots of common sense stuff like 80% training below lactate threshold, 10% at lactate threshold, 10% above lactate threshold, do strength training with heavy weights and power drills, etc.  Just like the Triathlete’s Training Bible has a token chapter on nutrition, this has a token training chapter.  It’s all good theory, just stuff I’ve already covered and know and studied with the other book.

QUICK START:

For those of us QUITE A BIT above our racing weight, we can take our first 4-8 weeks (depending on how close you are) of your season and attempt to lose weight faster.

He suggests:

-Maintain a 300-500 calorie deficit only.  More than this and training will suck.

-Commit to weights during this time.  Building muscle is most important now.

-Increased protein intake, up to 30% (sacrificing carbs for protein in the ratios)

-Perform at least one fasting bike workout per week – one moderate intensity, somewhat long bike workout without consuming calories before or during. (Since I have no bike rides planned more than 45 mins, I’ll probably just skip fueling in the morning before my brick day and on the bike, and then eat something during the run – which also gets me to practice eating on the run :P).

-Do very short power intervals at max intensity – like 20 x 20 sec sprints.

There’s more in there, but this is really what’s relevant to me, so I’ll stop here.

A few parting thoughts:

-The scoring system appeals to the video gamer in me – I want to get a high score so maybe I’ll skip the sweets or drink a little less if my score is in danger of sucking that day.  They gave 3 examples – a poor diet was like -2 (eating a typical American junk food diet), a decent diet (what looks like a reasonably healthy diet for the general population) was about a 13, and a super great healthy diet was 23.  I’ll be interested to see where I fall.  I kinda want to spend some time scoring myself before I set a goal, as he said, there is no specific “you need to be 20 or above” or something, it’s just figure out where you’re at, and if you are not at your race weight, improve.

-Holy crapballs, that’s a lot of carbs.  I’m open to it, and interested whether it will be this unicorn rainbow glitter explosion and I will magically perform way better, or it will be this spectacular fail and I’ll realize that it’s not my thing.

-However, I think the nutrient timing thing will be KEY.  All these magical carbs I’m supposed to be getting in are right before, during, and after…. I’m really not doing that.  Like, at all.  It’s a little scary to give myself access to all the sugar they want in my body during that time, but I guess it’s worth trying.

I think the ~1500 calorie eating and the suggestions here are going to be mutually exclusive, so I’ll have to decide which one I think is going to benefit me most.  I think the goal will be to gradually increase carbs before/during/after workouts and try to keep the rest of the day as normal/healthy.  However, the scoring system will definitely be fun to play with!

Question of the day: would a scoring system of your diet motivate you to try and make it better, or discourage you/make you crazy?

NOTE: Since I’ve written this post (and had it in draft) I’ve done one evening workout (killer weights + easy swim) where I had a 500 calorie 100g carb snack before (sprouted english muffin w/cream cheese and jelly, huge apple, clementines, celery, and tzatziki sauce), and today I had 50g carbs (a mini cliff bar and a gel) in the AM before my AM easy bike, a 50g carbs breakfast (1 cup Kashi cereal w/1 cup fage 0% yogurt) in between AM and lunch, and at lunch I had a 3 mile easy run, and ate lunch right after.  Let me tell you HOLEEEEEEY COW it feels awesome to start a workout super fueled like that.  I have landed both days around 1750 calories, but considering I’ve done 60+ mins of run/bike/swim/lift, I think that’s probably an ok level to create a calorie deficit. 1500 is a little too low for an hour of (what I call easy but is really probably moderate in real people terms) activity – though probably fine for a rest day.

Part 1 here (Jan – Apr).  This is the uber awesome sprint triathlon + some section of the year.  Let me tell you – after a triathlon a month, these things become routine (at least, the prep part).  There were some triumphs and some disappointments, but each race definitely helped me refine my craft of racing.  I also had some major mental gains here – I finally sub-10 min mile’d a run leg of a tri, and I went from some major bad ‘tude after a race that didn’t go my way to being able to shake off a bad race with no issues.  And I even had a magical happy fun sparkly catching unicorns race too!

May 6 – Rookie Triathlon (300m swim, 11.2 mile bike, 2 mile run)

Time: 1:14:12 (course PR by 3 mins)/Zliten: 1:17:42 (huge, like 20 minute course PR for him) Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: first tri of the season, Zliten absolutely crushing his time last year, course PR for me by 3 mins in worse conditions.

Lessons learned from this race: transitions can help you PR – I took 3 mins off this race just by being better, carnage hill isn’t so bad if you’re ready for it (I was not and had to clip out and walk), racing flats are not so good on mud and sticks, and that tears are never allowed after a PR (especially in bad conditions), even if you’re feeling down on yourself.  Get over whatever it is and move on.  Also, OMG, you should have gotten yourself a visor years ago instead of lameing it up with crappy headbands.

Zliten notes from the race: This race got me all excited to be back in TRI season. It’s short enough to make me just want to do more, but long enough to know that its the first one of the season and I really have to keep working on my transitions. Although I did get a faster t2 than Quix. The atmosphere here is always amazing and I wish I could have every one I know come out to it. The Rookie is for everyone!

May 19 – Vern’s No Frills 5k

Time: 27:58/ Zliten 29:02 (PR) Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: best 5k I’ve run in a while, went sub-9 min miles, kept my head in it and a consistent pacing/effort strategy, and watched Zliten massively PR his 5k!

Lessons learned from this race: Catching my PR is going to take a significant amount of speedwork, of which I did next to none this year.  Find a mantra that will keep you going in the middle (from about 1.75-2.5).  Also, sadly, I didn’t document what I ate the night before, but DON’T EAT THAT (had some digestive issues that AM).

Zlitens thoughts from the race: Run faster, don’t puke, run faster, Breathe BREATHE BREATHE!!!! Don’t let Quix out of your sights, Run FASTER, no slowing down. Not until you cross the finish. Try to only look at your pace on the garmin, not your total time, Keep the pace in the 9’s!!!!

June 17 – Pflugerville Sprint Triathlon (500m swim, 14 mile bike, 5k run)

Time: 1:32:12 (course PR by 8 mins, pace PR for each leg)/Zliten: 1:33:28 (huge, like 30 min course PR for him) Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: Putting together a just about perfectly executed race on “home turf” (we train here almost every weekend) and solidly PRing each leg.  Keeping my head in it the whole time and sticking with it.  Oh yeah, and freezy pops at the end.  Every race in summer should give you freezy pops.  I chased the unicorn and caught it!

Lessons learned at this race: Don’t listen to the announcer.  Hearing your husband finish as you are just hitting T2 and the sun is coming out and it’s getting HOT is demoralizing (though I suppose a bit motivating).  Also, that you will catch your unicorns if you chase them long and hard enough.  Also, do whatever you did the evening before and for warmup and junk because it obviously worked well!

Zlitens thoughts on this race: Pf is the “best” place to TRI if only because its where we train the most. I wish I could train out at this little lake every single run/bike/swim. It just feels like home. So much so I keep looking at houses near it. Not that we would leave North Austin, but sometimes I wonder… But back to the race. Had a great swim, a fast bike and my best 5k on a multisport ever. Once I finished I had about 30 minutes to wait for Quix, and made a friend named Brian. From then on out we ended up racing and training with Brian at least once or twice a month for the rest of the season. That made Pf even better. I can’t wait to do it again! I can’t wait to go out there and train there again! I can’t wait to just go out to the lake and paddle around or fish or anything. HEY QUIX lets go out to the lake please.

June 19 – Splash and Dash (750m swim, 3k run)

(pic not from this race but just go with it…)

Time: 38:12/Zliten: 39:23 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: racing HARD after racing hard two days before was a challenge, but fun.  Pushed myself pretty well on the swim – ~17 mins for a 750m.  Figured out what it really meant to try to hop on feet.  Also, pushed and pretty much replicated my Pf pace/intensity on the run.

Lessons learned at this race:  Biking really helps to catch your breath, going directly from swimming to running and transitioning on a steep rocky hill is challenging.  Running right by a fancy restaurant 3 times, with yummy smells coming from their patio, after work before eating dinner was not nice, but motivating.

Zlitens thoughts on this race: Well just a few days before was Pf and we rocked that. While setting up here we ran into Brian again and started talking, then into the water and out for a nice little………. swim. At this point I had not swam that distance much at all, so this was a bit challenging for me, that and its a mass open water start unlike most tri’s we have done where its has an age group water start. I got kicked, swam over, pushed down, knocked aside as the mens wave started, then just settled in the back and swam away. Then about half way in, I got kicked, swam over, pushed down, knocked aside as the women’s wave caught up and passed me. Then there was a little 3 loop run. Ugg as usual, Don’t puke don’t puke was the words in my head when we would pass the restaurant. I also learned here that I never want a all white tri singlet. Some poor lady in front of me I am sure was wearing hers as a back up suit, because it looked like a gel had exploded in the pocket in the back a few races before and stained it a nice yellow brown color.

Beer and hot dogs at the end were just kinda bleh, mostly because when I run I try to not puke. When I stop I still feel kinda gross when I really push it like I did at this race. The best part of the whole event though was as I was swimming the last dozen yards or so there were fish swimming right along under me and the sun was at just the right angle to make the water look crystal clear and shimmer off the fish.

July 15 – Couples Triathlon (800m swim, 11.2 mile bike, 5k run)

Time: 1:43:19 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: I got to start and finish this race with my Zliten!

Lessons learned at this race:  It is REALLY REALLY FREAKING HARD to race a full triathlon with someone else side by side.  Also, no walking on a 5k run, no matter how many creative curse words come out of your mouth, how many twigs get in your shoe, and how awful the hill at the end is.

Zliten notes about this race:  The swim wasn’t bad at all, we both just swam it. Apparently I swam it just a little harder than Quix thought I would since I exited the water about 3 seconds after she did. The venue for this swim is the same as the Rookie but compared to Pf, its just not as nice of a swim.

The Bike was ok, we both got out of T1 at about the same time and were going. Quix fell back a little due to clip issues (I am sure I will too this year) but we were back together before carnage! This is where she took off and as I got up out of the saddle, my foot slipped and I dropped on the bike. NO PROBLEM, without missing a beat I was back up on the bike and going up the hill before anyone noticed the fall. (Well some people did but not Quix or Brian so thats ok.)

I pulled into T2 a few seconds behind Quix and we dropped off the bikes, grabbed the run gear. I was starting to feel gross like usual at the beginning of the run, so I took it slower than Quix wanted, but I knew from looking at the map we had lots of gross trail to run on and some big hills. I wanted to pace myself better. It was getting very sunny and hot and about 1.5 miles in I slowed down a little bit again and Quix took off. I caught back up with her at the big downhill on the backside of the course, and passed on the uphill following. Then slowed down so we could finish it up together.

It was so much fun to get to race side by side, but if we ever do it again like that we need better signals for speeding up or slowing down together. Also we found that the results weren’t about finishing together just both finishing fast. I think next time we will probably have our own races, just start together.

July 17 – Splash and Dash (750m swim, 3k run)

(again, pic not from this race but please imagine it was since it was 2 days previous)

Time: 38:30/Zliten: 40:31 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: Tired, crampy, bloating, hurting, had a bad day, miserable, in pain, and I only came in ~20 seconds slower than the month before (faster swim, slower run)

Lessons learned from this race: Sometimes you’re the windshield, and sometimes you’re the bug.  All races end, you just have to get there.

Zliten notes from this race: I really didn’t do so great on this one. I had some bad leg cramps on the run and just finished. Nothing special here. Just glad it was over. I did get to work at like 5 or 6 am for this since we were working mandatory long hours at work that day. I had to get them in early..

August 5 – Jack’s Generic Triathlon (500m swim, 13 mile bike, 5k run)

Time: 1:43:19/Zliten: 1:38:17 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: I didn’t die?  Lunch and champagne after?  The cooling soak after I got through the finish line?  Pretty much nothing about the race at all… ok, the bike course was kinda fun, compared to the yucky water and the stupid hot no shade hilly run course.

Lessons learned from this race:  DO NOT DO YOUR PEAK WEEK OF MILEAGE BEFORE A RACE.  No matter how “B-” you think it is.  Take a recovery week, then use the race to kick that peak week shizz off without going through a race with a bad attitude and feeling like a zombie.

Zliten notes from this race: We did too much the week before this. I was dead on my feet the day before the race and the morning of because of Over Training and a lack of sleep, I had to keep waking Quix up on the drive out there. Not good when your also tired and have to be on the road at 4:30am The race itself went really well for me. I felt for a bit like I was just going through the motions, but I guess that’s what happens when you train a good amount. I didn’t have to think about everything I just did it.

In the last quarter mile of the race Brian ran up behind me and said kick it up. So I did and sprinted as hard and fast as I could to the finish. I ran right through the finish line into the medical tent where I took an icepack and laid down. People rushed into the tent, and I assumed that they were one of those medical practitioners, who take up the course and get certified from places like https://www.vocationaltraininghq.com/.

So hot, so heart poundy. So good! I did great at this race. Once Quix crossed the line we went and waded in the lake for a bit to cool off. It was stupid hot… Then got all the gear packed up, Quix took a little nap in the car as I went and got us some ice cream, then we came home. This was also the night where I ended up fracturing my skull and getting my face all tore up from the ground.. No happy here but… hey I lived and am better now! *Quix note: Never beat me again… because you see what happens? Face to the curb…. *Additional Quix note: I promise I did not curb stomp Zliten.  He did it to himself. 🙂

August 19 – America’s Finest Half Marathon

Time: 2:32 and change/Zliten: 2:39:45 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: Running in my old stomping grounds!  Started on the top of a mountain and ended up at the park by our old apartment!

Lessons learned in this race: For the love of jeebus – all summer distance races = camelback, unless you are CONFIDENT in the race organizers to have water stops in the right places (aka, Jack and Adams Tris, etc).  Also, ’tis much better to bonk and walk than ruin your vacation finishing in the med tent.  Still don’t regret that decision, even if I was on pace to be close to my half marathon PR for the first half of the race until I got dehydrated…

Zliten notes from this race:  WooHoo San Diego!!! Got to spend time with my folks, you can see them in that picture up there. We got to run in places that I love. I did take my camel back and learned how to fill it fast at a water stop. There was some amazing support staff out there. Its a big busy city and I never felt in danger of getting run over on the major roads. I did have to stop at a trolly crossing near the end, and you know that’s ok, my legs wanted a break by then anyways.

What a summer!  Lots of fun in the sun and becoming BFFs with Lake Pflugerville and ramping up the training hours – but things were about to get epic.  Coming up, in the 3rd and final installment, we had Zliten’s first Olympic Tri, our first Half Ironman, and my first marathon.  Stay tuned!

Trying to do some more “bite sized” posts, rather than just once a week novels.  So, here we go!

Last year, I was living race to race.  It was all about getting myself to a start line happy and healthy.  There were rarely any valleys, just a lot of peaks.  This year, I don’t have a race on the docket until APRIL 14 (possibly the indoor tri in Feb though I certainly won’t be doing any specific training for it), there is a lot of no-mans-land where I can get lost.  I’ve seen a lot of bloggy folk being accountable monthly, and I actually used to do that myself back in the olden days, so time to get back on it!

Without further guilding the lily, it’s time for my January goals!

-Eat mostly fruits and vegetables.  Eat a few servings of good quality beans and grains and corn and starch per day.  Eat some lean protein with every meal.  One meal of whatever I want one day per week (the sign that I indulged just right over break – I can’t even figure out what that is this week…). Do things to get to the goal of 175 by the end of the month. ~1500 calories of good quality food should do the trick.

-Batch cook each weekend to have most of my meals for the week ready.

-One day of drinking per week max.  Attempt for that to not be a marathon 8 hour session to cram all the fun in.

-Schedule at least one game night at the house with friends.  Do at least one “out of the house” activity that doesn’t involve drinking.

-ZERO cigarettes.  Use my little happy puffer thing.  Try to stick to the 0 nicotine one as much as possible.

-ZERO sweet treats this month.  If I want desert, it can be fruit, yogurt, or arctic zero.  Das it.  I need one of these type of months to get off the “white pony” and back to the point where I can consume it responsibly.

-Train with my heart rate monitor every time.  I need to get in this habit.

-Consistency.  My brain is REALLY raring to get back to those 3-5 hour training days, which is a great sign that offseason did exactly what it was supposed to do, but my body is NOT.  Do the workouts on my schedule as prescribed, and don’t add because it’s scary to only be training 6.5 hours (including 1.5 hours of weights) this month as prep.

-Get my sewing machine set up and at least put some stitches into something

-Clean out our closet and get a bunch of stuff donated.

-Investigate Scuba Certification and set a time to get it done.

-Get my damn eye exam.  It’s been way too long.  Had it scheduled for over the break, but my back being fucked made me have to cancel.

-Cheer for runners at 3M on 1/13.

13 things for the first month of 2013.  Hooray!

Going to print these out and put them on my fridge as well.  It’s a lot, but I’m ready to put in the work this month.  I want to look back at January 2013 and think that I worked hard.  I’m ready.  Let’s do this!

Question of the Day: What’s your biggest goal for January 2013?

It’s my favorite time of the year!  Ok, not quite better than my birthday.  Or triathlon season.  Or patio weather.  Ok, fine, it’s a time in the winter that I hate less than others, let’s all get excited!  IT’S RESOLUTION RECAP TIME!

Last Years Resolutions:

1. Take care of the weight problem.

–Totally unspecific and total FAIL.  I’m the same weight as I was last year.  July and August were nice on the scale but September, November, and December put it all back on.  Boo.

2. Play more games, read more, make a pitch doc

–Games – check-ish, at least later in the year when I decided to start working my way through Telltale Games library of adventure games on the PS3 and especially now that we have the office set up this last week or so.  Read more, big check.  I’ve read more this year than I have since I was in college.  At least ~20 books.  Pitch doc – total FAIL.  My brain is just not there yet.  However, I have big plans with the office being set up!

3. Race goals:

Finish a marathon, a century ride, and a half ironman.
—Check, check, and check!  (I may have INTENDED a imperial century but I did 2 metrics so I’m totally counting it…)

Note that with this goal, I’m NOT making the next goal to PR everything.
—CHECK. Glad I said this.  My running this year was DISMAL compared to when I just focused on it, but I pulled some other PRs out this year.

Really concentrate on my bike times.
—CHECK. My short game improved a little, but I got MUCH faster at longer distances.  My first 50+ ride was under 12 mph, my half ironman pace 6 months later was about 16 mph.

Complete all TX Tri Series races (6 tris in 5 months).  PR at least 1.
—CHECK!… and PR’d the two I did last year, 40 min Olympic PR, and since I did my first 70.3, that counts as a PR too!

Take at least 3 months of the year not in training (off season) to mentally and physically rest.
—Well, 7 weeks between my marathon and the start of prep is not quite 3 months, but it’s definitely ENOUGH.  Calling it CHECK.

Stretch after every workout.
—Ha!  Ha!  Hahahahahah!!!! Ha- oh wait, I was serious.  Dang it, I REALLY need to be better about this.

Strength train 2x week (catch another crunchtime class at lunch?)
—Up until September, total check.  Usually 3x.  Fell off after vacation though… glad to start back up next week once my back is fixed.

Let’s try this again.  Run a race somewhere outside Texas.  I’ll have some opportunities next year, very likely San Diego.
—CHECK!  America’s Finest Half Marathon, check.

Volunteer at more races.  I was able to volunteer once this year and while I think it’s what got me sick for vacation, it was a great experience.
—Ooops.  Racing 24 times really made it hard to volunteer (excuses excuses).  Next year, I already have at least 2 races that since I’m not racing, I want to volunteer at.

4. Start one major house renovation this year.

—Windows (new through the whole house), check!  Started AND finished.  Chigidy check!

5.  One liners (these seem strangely familiar)

Get the office set up as an office/craft room
—Check-ish.  Office is finally set up, there’s more work to be done, but it’s finally in a usable state.  Hooray!

Decide what to do with the savings now that we have some
—Errrr.  We’ve done a little but we could do more.

Do more batch cooking so having healthy lunches and dinners available is easier.
—Big fat fail except one experiment in December which rocked my socks off.  This is a huge goal next year though.

Learn to sew.
—Kinda hard to do without a sewing machine, but now that I have one… yeah.  2013 on this one, bitches!  

-Learn the party rock anthem dance.
—Yeah…no.  But I’ve definitely gotten drunk and PRETENDED that I knew it a lot in 2012 so I’m calling it CHECK! 🙂

So, I hit some pretty big goals last year, but some things definitely fell to the wayside pursuing all those races (note that it actually wasn’t in my resolutions for 2012, because Zliten decided on that one…).  Next year I’d like to be a bit more centered, focused, and balanced.

Without further ado… 2013 Resolutions!!!

1.  Be a serious, focused, well and specifically trained triathlete following the Triathlete’s Training Bible plan.  Make a plan and stick to it. I want a shiny new PR for each tri distance at least, which shouldn’t be difficult.  The goal is to just to do better in each repeated race than I did the year before.  This will be discussed in detail on this blog because this is what I do – so for now we can leave it at that.

2. Probably the single most thing I can do to improve my times is improve body composition.  I’ve had a few false starts at this, but 2013 is my year, I think, partly because I’m finally really getting it in my head that it’s not about looking good in jeans, it’s about PRs – which actually matter a lot to me.  Instead of vague goals, here is what I would like to do:

• Back to 2012 race weight by Feb 1 (175)
• Lose 5 more by March 1 (170)
• Maintain through March (birthday month) and April (cruise)
• Lose 5 more in May and June (160)
• Maintain 160 through end of season
• Don’t go above 165 in offseason

And, I realize that my strength is making goals and plans.  Here are the things I am going to do to get there:

• Fruit and veggie cleanse first week in January before training starts to get this party started, then no sweet treats in January
• Batch cooking – having my food mapped out and ready for me ahead of time so the week is just all about execute
• Allowing just one meal off plan, and one day of drinks that slightly elevate calories per week (not on the same days, and try not to have them be off workout days)
• Realizing that what goes in Zliten’s mouth does not need to always go in mine and to lose weight I need to eat what makes Zliten lose weight minus 500 calories
• Careful planning and tracking of calories to make sure I’m getting the right amount, monitoring the food quality to make sure I’m at least 80/20 organic, whole, and healthy food.
• And, if I inevitably fuck up, get right back on track the next meal

3. Keep taking steps towards making my house not look like a slobby college student is renting it.  Our goals this year are:

• Get a new stove, couch, front door, and coffee table
• Get granite counters instead of this white formica crap
• Spend the year focusing on getting more organized.  Each month, we will pick one room or “zone” (because some rooms need to be divided and some need to be groups) and pull everything out, see what we can get rid of, and buying or utilizing a better way to store and organize it.  The zones are: 1. garage 2. kitchen 3. breakfast nook/bar area 4. living room 5. guest room 6. workout room 7. living room 8. office 9. bedroom 10. bedroom closet 11.patio and mud room 12. all other common areas/bathrooms

4 Social Habits:

a) Get better at being social without drinking like a fish.  With work and training, I can get into a rut where I either want to just get drunk, or just sit on my couch with Zliten and not talk to anyone else because I’m both physically and mentally fatigued.  It got real bad this year to the point where we didn’t see friends for months during peak training unless they came over during our few hours of approved party time.  This year, I would like to get better at two things:

• Doing at least one non-alcohol related activity with friends per month.  Movie, bowling, pool, dinner, game night, etc etc.
• Being able to go out, have a few drinks, and then not come home and get sloshed on my patio.  Figure out where I go from happy buzz to catching a second wind and stop just short of that most nights.

That being said – I love my drinking habit!  2013 will definitely involve some patio + vodka time because it makes the soul happy.

b) Completely cut out cigs by April 1.  I know, shocker – I’m an athlete and I still indulge in a few smokes when hitting the bottle.  My goal in 2009 was to run a marathon and still smoke (I know, stupid now), and inadvertently I did it, not really meaning to since I haven’t quite managed to completely cut the cord.  While it really isn’t enough to truly do much damage, and I’ve been smoke-when-I-drink-ing for 3 years so there’s little risk in it coming back as a full blown habit, I’d just like to be done with it (plus, I bet I see some improved times).  Last week, we got e-cigs (a low dose of nicotine, but no other tar/chemicals), and while they are not quite the same and an adjustment, I’ve smoked about 1/4 or less of what I would on comparable nights (and after NYE, I’m going to be a bit more stringent – no “analogs” unless I’m really and truly going to go fucking nuts and hurt someone).  We have one cartridge of the lowest nicotine level, and one of 0 and plan on seeing if it’s the nic we really miss or just the habit and taste.  I love to smoke, but I also like living, so time to deal with this.

5. Do something with the blog.  This space was just really a place for me to learn web design and host my resume and art and crap back in my other life where I was going to be a web designer/artist.  In 2008 after being idle for years I just slapped a blog on it so I could have a little soapbox to the world and be done with LiveJournal.  Zliten and I are working on collaboration between his new GoPro and video making skills and my writing, and I expect to see some changes to my little space here instead of being a dilapidated little shack of a blog that barely still stands and allows me to journal what I’m doing once a week.  Still trying to think up a name though.  All the cool ones are taken.

6. One liners:

Learn to sew.  I got a sweet sewing machine and table for Christmas.  I’d like, by next year, to have produced one article of clothing from scratch that I can wear out of the house.

Take a nice, week long vacation somewhere in November or December once season is over (i.e. not crap both vacations this year into 3 weeks during peak training).  Hawaii? Costa Rica?

Learn to scuba dive before our cruise in April.

Take mental health days when I need them, and make sure that I monitor my crispiness during training to make sure I’m not too fried

Play more games.  Since the office is set up, I can actually play things on my computer and I will continue to work through telltales’ library on the PS3.  Get caught up to level cap in my own game.  Continue to derive inspiration from my industry.

Host a game night once a month.

Continue to read more.  At least 20 books this year.

Volunteer more.  At races, at the park, etc.

…and that’s all!  Time to get the house ready for our awesome apocalypse-end-of-times New Years party!  Question of the day:  what is your biggest 2013 New Years Resolution?

So, I had a fantastic amazing Christmas Eve and day.  I was all….

But then on Boxing Day, the day we had planned to wake up and do 100 miles on the trainer, I was all…

Nothing crazy epic, just went to sleep fine and woke up FUCKED.  My back decided to go out and in a bad bad way it hasn’t since 2011.  I’ve been going through 2.5  days of excruciating pain and not being able to get out of bed, shower, dress myself, make food, be awesome, etc.  For someone like me who is all traintraintrain and if not training then partyparty and not really conditioned to restrestrest especially when I’ve been doing that lately and also REALLY not a fan of just staying in bed all day… misery and torture.  Today though, I have finally, after 2 chiropractor visits, lots of ibu and 303 muscle relaxers, finally turned a corner and can sit up for more than 3 minutes at a time without agony.  I expected my Christmas break would be full of epic shit, but instead it’s full of a lot of not doing much.  Bleh.  At least I’m at the point now where drinking and video games are a viable option (hello 2004, missed you maybe?), that last two days was a NIGHTMARE.

Even if I feel better, I’m not cleared to do anything more exciting than casual swimming until at least Wednesday, so it’s another forced week of rest.  Boo.  Training starts Jan 7th, so I don’t see a stupid long trainer in the cards, and, well, that’s ok.  I’ll be doing lots of trainer miles soon enough and I’ll apply this fire to that.  Running I’m most ok with since I have kept up on it a lot late this year (yay marathon), but there have been so many pretty running days in the last 2 weeks I’ve had to stay inside that it makes me sad.  At least I can play with my swimp3 if I feel better and the gym is open.  So wheeee for that!

So, I have two more wrapup posts of our 2012 races started.  Also, the annual 2012 resolution recap, and the 2013 resolution extravaganza started too.  Now that I’m able to sit in front of a computer for a bit, they’re coming, just not as quickly as I would like.  I’m sure no one cares but I, but still, I was excited to get these words down and out there!  Sigh…

Forgive the attitude, but I haven’t ran since Dec 15 (the start of my heel being a jerk), haven’t biked or swam since Christmas Eve, and barely being able to move has me in a little bit of a dark place.  It’s a good thing I was too hobbled to attack all the Christmas sweets too hard.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a new day.  A day where my back isn’t angry as fuck at me.  And I can get on with my life.

Apparently offseason hates me.  Next year, I need to take up epic underwater basket weaving to give my mind a break but keep my body going, because apparently not serious training = injury after injury.  Fuck you, body.  I guess the only consolation is that I’m not ruining any real training – but from the last race until the first day of training, apparently I’m going to be impared.  Is it my body’s way of trying to keep me from doing anything, or finally the permission to break down, or just Murphy’s Law?

Either way, I will listen, even if I’m dragged kicking and screaming, if only to tip the odds to having a fabulous, injury free 2013 season.

Question of the day: what was your worst injury in 2012?