Adjusted Reality

Posting is late due to extreme family time week, but here we go!

1. Make it through this month with my sanity intact.  Just sayin’.  Gonna be one of those months…

Oooooh yeah.  I just about had a nervous breakdown a few times this month, but I made it.   July seems to have slowed down a little so far, so there’s that.

2.  If 176.0 is May’s low – and I continue to eat and train the same way, survey says I should hit about 172-173.

Lowest this month was 174.8.  June was a challenge with 3 races, 2 of which were long enough to do the carb loading thing, so it been mostly a month of maintenance (June trended a wee bit lower than May, but not much).

3.  Calories, 1600-ish 5/7 days,  2000-ish 2/7 days, average about 1700-1800.  This seems to be about my comfort weight loss zone for the training load I’m doing right now, and totally fine as long as I  am eating good quality food.  To that end, keep average diet quality score above 20 each week.  To all these ends, continue tracking calories and DQ score, allowing for more calories/less quality the day before and of each race (refined carbs = good then).

I did not nail this all month, but the week I nailed it, I saw a loss (that was the week I got my low for the month, 174.8… hmmm… coincidence?  I think not…).

4. PR Pfluger Sprint.  At the very least, PR the swim, bike, and transitions if my knee is a limiter on the run still.

Missed my time by 30 seconds, but feel pretty good about my performance.  Essentially replicated my swim (though I swear the timing mat was WAY further than last year), exactly replicated my transitions to the second, and huge PR on the bike.  Before the run, I was ahead of my time last year by about 2 mins, the knee was indeed a limiter on the run.

5. BSLT 70.3 – finish before the cutoff.  I’m sure I’ll have more goals as I get through training this month but right now, it’s all about survival.

Finished well before the cutoff and survived.  The swim was awesome, the bike was hilly and challenging but fun, but I was ill prepared for the distance and thus made the run, which I was also ill prepared for, mostly miserable minus a few miles I was able to tough out a decent pace.  A fantastic long training day full of mental tough-making stuff though!

6. Clean out stuff and get rid of it with a yard sale.  Donate the rest to charity.  Take earnings from garage sale and use it to buy a cabinet to stash stuff in the workout room (thus addressing one room this month).

All done, minus the purchasing of the cabinet.  The room is in usable condition though, so there is that, and it shouldn’t take very long once we do purchase it.

7. Again, minimize spending.  Try to consider whether you ACTUALLY need the thing you’re buying or whether it just sounds fun.

Besides the massive amount we’re spending this week doing family stuff, we did pretty good on this.  Minus Zliten deciding to have a tooth that needed a not-all-the-way-covered-by-insurance root canal, so guess what goal is going to stick with us for another month or two? 🙂

8. Finish the book you’re reading.  Start the next one.

Check, and check.  Over 50% through.  Hoping for more today.

9. Balance training enough with not training too much.  Stay present and check in with the knee often.  Stiff for a day or two isn’t an emergency.  Lingering pain that doesn’t go away with a stretch and walk is bad and needs a step back.

I think I did pretty well with this.  Body was doing pretty good through Pfluger, then I pushed a little too hard, so I just immediately started to taper instead of squeezing in a few more distance workouts.  I held up through BSLT without being much worse for wear, so I’ll say success on this front this month.

10. Shift the schedule to the morning.  Wakeups this month and beyond need to start happening by sunrise many mornings to get training in – that means getting into bed just as it gets dark.  Embrace it.

Check.  The heat is a huge motivator here.  This week we’ve been sleeping in, but we were getting up in the 6 and 7 am hours without too much of a problem last month to train when needed.  One more week this week of slacking here, and then it’s back to getting up with the sun and logging lots of miles.

11. Do some social stuff.  Don’t go into a 70.3 hole.

We had a game night, we did dinner with friends and we hung out with friends one night, so we weren’t hermits, but not great.  However, I definitely need some social friend time soon.  I had a dream that we were in Vegas and I fell asleep at the bar before I could order my drink.  I think that’s my subconscious telling me to not be so lame.  July is already looking up, I’m counting family time as being incredibly social for a week, and we’re scheduling an outing with friends, we have a birthday dinner for other friends, and a game night, so it should be good.

12.  Actually go get the massages the chiropractor prescribed me – one this week and one the week after Pflugerville.  No excuses when the place right next to her office does 1 hr for 30$…

I got the first one, and it hurt so much I didn’t want to do the second so close to BSLT.  I may need to actually seek out a licensed sports massage type person to explain my various sports and ouchies to instead of just pointing to a menu.

13.   Remember to keep track of my calories.  Pre track if at all possible, but certainly keep on top of the totals before going too crazy at the end of the day.

Besides over the two out of town race days, I at least tracked, I even pre-tracked some when I had time.

June was rough, but I have high, high hopes for July!

1. Let’s try again to get to the low 170s.  Right now, 176-178 is the norm.  I’m hoping that it’s more like 172-174 at the end of the month.  I will do this by pre-tracking and logging DQ score all this month.  1500 on lighter training days, 2000 on heavier days, about 1700-1800 average.

2. I’ve made a training program through Kerrville.  Give it a second look for sanity to make sure it’s not too ambitious and incorporates in enough recovery, and vet it through the triathlete’s training bible and make sure it has the right dose of speed and force workouts later in the game.  Then, pen it in, strap in, and get ready for some weeks of swim/bike/run/weights (yes, these come back this month!).

3. Couples, the goal is to #1 keep my head positive and in the game the entire time #2 get up Carnage without clipping out and walking (should be no problem after last weekend) and #3 run the whole 5k, even that dumb long hill on the back end.  This will probably result in an auto PR, but that is not the primary goal this time, mostly to redeem a really mentally bad race from last year.

4. Be social!  I am intentionally easing up on July’s training a bit so we can do that.  We’re planning on going out, to like, a bar, with friends, twice.  One game night (at least, maybe two).  However, don’t be so social that it gets stressful and we want everyone to go away.  Strike the balance.

5. Minimize spending as much as possible.  I’m finally able to start putting money into savings again, let’s continue that trend.

6. Buy cabinet and finish workout room.  This month, it’s gotta be the kitchen.  Clean out the pantry, the fridge, and go through the drawers and do one more pass to see what should go away (we did some for the garage sale, but it was very quick).

7. I have been eating a lot more desert than I should, I think it’s part of what held back my weight loss this month.  So, starting July 8th, I will be doing ONE, 100-200-ish serving of sweets PER WEEK outside of these things: running/bike fuel, arctic zero, frozen greek yogurt + fruit in food processor, muscle milk + fruit.  Also, perhaps try one of those sunbutter+protein powder cookie recipes floating around the internet.  The idea is to not cut out desert, but move it to healthy, contributing to my DQ score things that taste good too.

8.  Back to batch cooking (easy stuff for July 8th week since I’ll be getting a late start, then July 15th on).  Out 3 times a week, max (and 1-2 is preferred).

9.  Having a sewing project evening/day.  On the docket: mend the stuff that has holes (also iron on the patches for my poor holey pants), make one size small guys shirt into a girl shirt (shorten the waist and the sleeves), make one of the dresses I bought into a skirt, and start the second set of pillowcases.  Not all of this needs to get done, but I need to at least do *something*.

10. Back to body maintenance, since I’ve been really bad about it this week.  At least 3 times a week: foam roll, shockies, stretch my whole body, stretches for my knee.  At least 2x day – ice my knee/butt (until my butt pain goes away).  Heat on knee before morning workouts if needed.

11.  Yet again, finish book.  Start next one.

12. Change up my shoes at least a few times a week.  The sandals I’ve been wearing constantly for the last two months are starting to have an odor.

13. Quarterly beauty maintenance – pluck brows, do nails, do toenails a different color than turquoise.

This is the first month in a while where I’ve actually had to cut myself off at 13 instead of stretch for more (not making the cut: figure out vacation plans for Nov, figure out race schedule through April next year, productivity at work, etc), so I think this week of rest has done me good, both mentally and physically.

Question: What’s your July goal?

I really don’t have all that much to say, but going to do this for completionist’s sake to have a weekly report (EDIT: ok, fine, more to say than I thought).

Food:

I stopped tracking around Thursday at lunch because, honestly, carbing up for a longer endurance race is something you need to do, but doesn’t look pretty on the diet quality score and the calories.  In retrospect it was silly not to track since it’s just a number, a metric, but the last thing I wanted to do was restrict calories too much the days before and be underfueled.  It was a good thing too, as I felt like my tank was topped off, I had zero stomach issues, and I even forgot my nutrition on the run and did just fine with a few sips of powerade at every other aide station.

My weight ranged between 176.8 and 180.0.  It was the week where I typically don’t make any weight progress (thx u hormones), so that was expected.

What might be more interesting is to note what I ate the last few days before the race because it was NOT normal:

Thursday:

• Normal fage, berries, alpen granola, and pb breakfast
• Went to a work lunch and ended up (not intentionally) with a teeny tiny greek chicken salad.  Oops.  And a few fried pickles.  Double oops.
• Outdoor training + no electrolyes with (oops) meant I needed salt badly on the way home so I ate half a bag of smartfood popcorn.
• Normal type dinner.  I don’t remember exactly what it was.  I was pretty satiated from the popcorn but OMG I had to have something right then or I was going to get dizzy on the ride home.

Friday:

• Normal breakfast
• Went Vietnamese for lunch.  Normally I avoid since it’s not whole grains, but I indulged in a big chicken vermicelli bowl with lots of fish sauce and hot sauce.  Day before, I eat nothing spicy.  Day before the day before, I enjoy. 🙂
• No snacks because, huge lunch.
• Another normal-ish dinner.  Again, don’t remember what (this is why I track) but something normal like fish rice/quinoa and veggies.

Saturday:

• Bean and cheese breakfast taco with normal flour tortilla
• Cookie stop at Colin Street bakery – had 2 small cookies
• Lunch: turkey club sandwich, salad.  Asked for it without mayo, it came with extra mayo, was too hungry to care and ate it.
• Snacked on pretzels all day whenever I got hungry (probably about 2-3 servings)
• Dinner:  Room service… grilled cheese sandwich and mashed potatoes, a few of Zliten’s fries

Race Day:

• Pre race: oatmega bar, chai tea (meant to have another cookie but forgot), half a honeystinger gel 15-30 mins before, ~225 calories
• During the race: 1 powerbar chomp, 2 cliff shot chomps, half a pack pink lemonade honeystinger chomps.  Probably about ~200 calories.   On run, meant to take down more chomps, but forgot them so just some powerade sips… probably about ~100 calories max.
• Lunch: In n out cheeseburger and fries
• Dinner: Champagne, beer, and random snacks I found around the house (half a bag of carrots and hummus, etc etc).

I was pretty hungry the next day (in a perfect world, I would have skipped the champers and beer and refueled with chicken breast and veggies but… well… y’know), and ate a few hundred more calories than normal but all was right with the world Tuesday.

I felt much better with the heavy carb/less fat meal the day before, and doing a little extra white carbage the few days before I think helped my tank feel full without a whole bunch of fuel the day of either before or during.  I mean, it was only a 3 hour race so it’s not really indicative of what will work for a 70.3, but it’s the best data I have before BSLT so you better believe I’ll be finding a place to get a damn club sandwich on sourdough bread. 🙂 Going to go back to the normal steak/taters/veggies next week though and see if there’s a difference.

The next few weeks I’m trying to be on the straight and narrow – I would really like to roll into June 30th as light as I can (within reason of course).

Training:

This was a week of just trying to prepare to race a distance I, in all rights, was not ready to race being cleared from injury just 12 days before.

Weights: I’ve just stopped weights work, minus my chiro sanctioned PT, and I’ll pick it back up in July after the race.  Joe Friel says that during the thick of tri-season, you may or may not find weights helpful, and while I am definitely someone who usually finds weights helpful, I need to make sure that I pick my knee stress wisely and I really need to use all available time making my comeback.  One odd tidbit – my chiro said that women should never ever do squats without a smith machine with significant weight.  Apparently we have too much boobs and butt to actually be able to balance the bar correctly.  So I shouldn’t feel too much like a wuss that I’ve only squatted a) with like less than 40 lbs in Group power class or b) on the machine.  It was science!  Or anatomy, or whatever.

Swimming:

I’m cutting down pool swimming time this month as a) I’m in really great shape here b) I focused on this in May and c) more time for biking and swimming.  I am going to try to make it to the Lake to swim at least 3 times this month and hit up the pool 1-2 times a week as well (after this week – the pool and I are on a break).  However, last week, for which this recap is being written – I actually swam a lot – 4 times (3 times during the week and at the race).  I’m pretty happy with where I’m at pool-wise.  This month, my gains need to be in open water, and sacrificing pool time for long bike/run sessions.

Bike:

I didn’t do a lot here, although I did get a very hot outdoor ride in which actually did bad things for my confidence.  I did a trainer ride on Wed that had some race effort miles in the middle which felt great, and the ride outside in the 90 degree heat at PF.  I felt really weak and wiped after 13 miles at about 0.1 miles per hour (ok fine, 15.5, but still!).  I couldn’t figure out how to dismount off my higher seat and had to circle back once and then at the parking lot almost fell.

My biggest fear at the race, after coming back from the injury and having a lot of other shit to worry about, was that I would biff it on the way into T2.  Someone did that on my second lap.  Instead of wrecking, my brain finally wrapped around the flying dismount – slowest ever, but it gives me hope in like 20 years I might actually look like a veteran triathlete coming in and out of transitions.

Run:

I missed the 3 mile run the Saturday before the race, but I had to get on with some longer runs to ramp up, so I did 4 on Tues and 5 on Thurs.  I can’t lie, they were both kinda rough.  It’s been a long time since that distance was a challenge, but after a month off and weak quads, I was done at the end of each run, no flowery “I wish I could have done more” poetry at all.  However, finishing 5 slow ass miles made me realize I was fine for the race.

The suckiest thing was the combination of starting heat training and starting running again after a month off.  I ignored my heart rate and ran what felt easy, but *foreshadowing* my heart rate is back up through the roof with an effort that was previously perceived as a super easy jog.  I knew I would have to address that soon, but this week, running 4 and 5 miles nonstop was more important to me for race prep/confidence than adhering to a HR plan.

At the race, as I suspected, the limiter was my knee.  I ambled along at about 10:30s which is actually better than I’ve ever done at an Olympic, but any time I tried to push much faster my knee protested, even though I knew the rest of my body could go faster.  So, I raced that line as close as I could, and Zliten noted that I wasn’t limping through most of it, but I definitely had a weird gate at the end, so success – pushed myself as far as I could.  I was hot and a little tired at the end but I definitely wasn’t spent, so here’s hoping that with extra healing, I’ll have a little more to give in race 2 and 3 this month.  My only solace with BSLT’s brutally hilly course is that my knee actually tends to be happy with uphills.  So there is that.

By the days:

Monday: off (volunteered for Cap Tex Tri for 5.5 hours and was WIPED and knee sore after so no training)
Tuesday: Run: Neighborhood Loop + Some 4 mi 00:47, Swim: Estimated Laps 1290 m 00:30
Wednesday: Bike: Trainer w/Pickups – XxX and V… 11.47 mi 00:30, Swim: Race Effort 150s 1350 m 00:30
Thursday: Run: Neighborhood Loop + North Sch… 5 mi 00:58, Bike: Pfluger Loop 13 mi 00:50, Swim: Lake Pf 550 m 00:15:00
Friday: off
Saturday: off (meant to swim but oops)
Sunday: Race!  Swim: Play Tri Olympic Swim 1500 m 00:32, Bike: Play Tri Olympic Bike 22 mi 01:14, Run: Play Tri Olympic Run (short) 5.5 mi 00:58

Thoughts and Other Stuff:

For the next 2-3 weeks, I’m focused on longer sessions.  I’ve been lucky to be able to pull out huge PRs at my 10 miler and my Olympic tri on very minimal miles, just a straight head on my shoulders and very strategic sessions, and race karma for volunteering.  I don’t feel like my luck will continue with BSLT unless I do some work.  I have proved to myself I have the speed I need to hit the paces I want there, I just need to make sure I don’t die endurance-wise.  I think I’ve ended every dailymile post with this.  I now think I will coin a twitter hashtag of #dontdieBSLT2013, or something.

And now, off to do what I do best, go to sleep right around sunset, so I can wake up early and train.

This month was a challenge – the fit hit the shan at work multiple times, and recovery was really draining.  However, I was able to tackle some of these… read on…

1. Keep this weight loss thing going on.  Seems to be holding steady at 3-4 lbs per month.  If I keep that trend going, I’ll be at last years race weight by the end of this month.  Come on 175!

176.0 is the best I had – which is fine – the absolute LOW last month was 178.4 (once), and 179s were rare.  I’m regularly now 176-178, and hit 180 twice.  So, the trend is DOWN, about 3 lbs.  This is good.

2.  I’ll accomplish this by continuing to eat about 1500 (while injured and pretty lightly active) to 1700 (once things pick up) on weekdays, and a little more on weekends when activity dictates as such (activity estimate minus 1000 = minimum).  I don’t want to shock my system, but transition back to the bulk of my food being whole grains, veggies, beans, fruit, greek yogurt, fish, and smaller doses of nuts, meat, other dairy, and such.  Being able to lose on vacation while I was not eating this way really strikes home that portions are king, but damned if I don’t feel much better eating better food.

Working on it.  I’m not sure why it takes like a MONTH or more to really get back on the train but I definitely am not eating as clean as I was before vacation.  I would say I’m about 75% there, with the 25% being more sweets than I’d like, and some meals with refined grains/fried food.  I mean, not everyday certainly, but more than I should.

3. Do not follow any sort of training program until May 13.  Each day I will wake up, assess my knee, and decide what I have in me for the day.  If the prognosis is rest, I’ll do it without guilt or worry.  If I feel good, I’ll swim, do upper body weights, or if I have full range of motion back, I’ll hop on the trainer with very little resistance or go on a short run, stopping if I feel even a twinge of pain or anything off.

I did well at this even though it was frustrating.  The knee dictated my plans until I was released from restricting.

4. Take stock that weekend (May 11-12), figure out how I feel, and what I can do to best ready me for June 30 (IM 70.3 BSLT) and write out a plan of how to get there.  Still, at any point, if anything gets creaky, back off.

It’s been a month of balancing what I need to get ready for my races, and not stressing the knee out too much.  I cut a run short because I felt a twinge even though I wanted to check the box saying it was done.  I held back in my race because of it.  I have a plan, and as long as my body holds up, I think I’ll survive BSLT and maybe even make it before the cutoff. 😛

5. No racing this month.  No hopping into a supported ride.  No “I missed Rookie so I’m going to sign up for…”.  No trying to keep up with anyone this month.  Your pace is your pace.

I almost considered doing a short supported ride but didn’t.  I survived without a race this month, and it didn’t kill me.

6. No tears about missing Rookie.  You’re only missing one race.  It could be way worse.  Enjoy the day cheering for everyone and being paparazzi/sherpa/athletic supporter.

No tears at all.  It was a miserable day and I was happy not to have to endure the cold/wind and was fun being paparazzi

7. Volunteer (if they let me at Rookie) and the next weekend at 5k9.  Good volunteer karma = race PRs, I’m convinced.

Rookie was full up, but we volunteered at the 5k9 and had a wonderful day.  We also volunteered at the Cap Tex Tri and while there were awesome parts, especially being able to cheer on and point Hunter Kemper, as well as a crew of badass elite paratriathletes to the run course, it was a long, tiring, and frustrating day.  And hey – I got a huge PR at Playtri so I’m a believer! (It does take a lot out of you to volunteer, so we probably will not volunteer for a while, but I’m all about hitting some more races in the offseason.

8. Since you have some free time – how about some sewing progress?  Let’s rip that bandaid off – find the “make a boy shirt a girl shirt” pattern, grab a boy shirt you don’t give a flying fuck about, and try it out.

Nope.  Didn’t touch the machine.  However, the MIL will be here first week of July and we have plans to do a sewing project (aka, her teach me, I try not to swear at it because you don’t swear at mother in laws).

9.  Try to minimize spending.  Thank the dear fluffy lord I don’t need a 300$ MRI or a 2k$ surgery, but we are still kinda broke.  I don’t need clothes, we don’t really need to go out, we don’t need to shop, we don’t need diving stuff, we don’t need toys, I just want to relax at home with the stuff I already have and eat good, homecooked food and my own booze.

We did pretty well.  Zliten only bought a few toys, and they were all replacements for things that broke that he sorta wantneeded (his swimp3 player died, so it was either listen to him bitch about not swimming more than 2 minutes all month or order a new one so we did, etc).

10.  Getting back on the organizational train.  Pick a room and do it.  Something that we don’t anticipate having to buy a lot of shit to accomplish.  Kitchen, breakfast nook, common areas, and garage stick out as pure “get the crap out and go through it and organize” areas.

Nope, nope, nope.  I will be redeeming myself this month though.

11.  Read a book.  Probably the one I started right as vacation ended.

I read it, but didn’t finish it.  Sounds like a June goal!

12. If you’re too creaky to run, get out and walk.  Go swim outdoors if that’s possible.  Do upper body weights in the yard.  Make sure to get your normal dose of vitamin D even while injured so you don’t get depressed.

I didn’t do this, and I indeed got depressed and whiny at some points. Past self can tell slightly-less-past self I told you so here.

13. Unless it’s training related, only one sugar-y treat per week, MAX.  Having desert every day on vacation was great and all, but not reasonable for real life.

Errr, I don’t think I did that well at this.  There were days where I just wanted a sweet because I was hungry for real food, depressed, stressed, etc.  It happened a few times more than I’d like.  Nothing in huge quanitites, but if I’m indulging, it should be something I really want, and something I intend, not grabbing stupid crap I don’t really want out of a candy dish.

Aight, onto June.  Gonna be a hell of a month – some work deadlines mid-month, BSLT in less than a month!!! and two out of town race trips.

1. Make it through this month with my sanity intact.  Just sayin’.  Gonna be one of those months

2.  If 176.0 is May’s low – and I continue to eat and train the same way, survey says I should hit about 172-173.

3.  Calories, 1600-ish 5/7 days,  2000-ish 2/7 days, average about 1700-1800.  This seems to be about my comfort weight loss zone for the training load I’m doing right now, and totally fine as long as I  am eating good quality food.  To that end, keep average diet quality score above 20 each week.  To all these ends, continue tracking calories and DQ score, allowing for more calories/less quality the day before and of each race (refined carbs = good then).

4. PR Pfluger Sprint.  At the very least, PR the swim, bike, and transitions if my knee is a limiter on the run still.

5. BSLT 70.3 – finish before the cutoff.  I’m sure I’ll have more goals as I get through training this month but right now, it’s all about survival.

6. Clean out stuff and get rid of it with a yard sale.  Donate the rest to charity.  Take earnings from garage sale and use it to buy a cabinet to stash stuff in the workout room (thus addressing one room this month).

7. Again, minimize spending.  Try to consider whether you ACTUALLY need the thing you’re buying or whether it just sounds fun.

8. Finish the book you’re reading.  Start the next one.

9. Balance training enough with not training too much.  Stay present and check in with the knee often.  Stiff for a day or two isn’t an emergency.  Lingering pain that doesn’t go away with a stretch and walk is bad and needs a step back.

10. Shift the schedule to the morning.  Wakeups this month and beyond need to start happening by sunrise many mornings to get training in – that means getting into bed just as it gets dark.  Embrace it.

11. Do some social stuff.  Don’t go into a 70.3 hole.

12.  Actually go get the massages the chiropractor prescribed me – one this week and one the week after Pflugerville.  No excuses when the place right next to her office does 1 hr for 30$…

13.   Remember to keep track of my calories.  Pre track if at all possible, but certainly keep on top of the totals before going too crazy at the end of the day.

And that’s all she wrote for June.  What’s your June goal?