Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: calorie counting Page 1 of 7

Losing the blues.

I’m done with the Ironman blues.  Hello from the other side!

Finally this week I came out of the fog.  I remember what it was like to be doing all that training, but it doesn’t feel wrong to *not* do it.  I still get to ride my bike.  We hit the pool once and that made me a happy fishie.  I laced up my hokas this morning for their intended purpose, and it wasn’t far and it wasn’t fast and it was kinda hot but it felt good.  I’m going to try to keep it to 5 hours a week, give or take, but I think both my body and brain are ready to be a super casual recreational triathlete.

It’s a good thing too, because I signed up for a race!

We do this one every year.  Last year I was about 3 months into offseason, I just bought my new bike that week, and I was just a minute and a half off my PR and my second best showing ever.  This year… I’m going to go in again with no expectations and see what I can do.  Go play triathlon hard that morning.  Maybe not even with a watch. All hippie-like without data (but I like looking at it later so maybe not).

So, this week I start with the swim/bike/run – yes all 3 of them in one week.  Here’s the plan.  It’s super detailed.

  • Monday – ran 2.68 miles
  • Tuesday – ride TT bikes at the Circuit of the Americas track for ~2 hours
  • Wednesday – ride bikes with the BSS crew
  • Thursday – probably be dead from all the exertion plus I have gaming so *priorities*
  • Friday – swimming, maybe in the lake
  • Saturday – short brick at Lake Pflugerville (probably 10-15 miles on the TT bike + once around the lake)
  • Sunday – go die somewhere because obviously I’ll be worn the eff out

After these two weeks I may just hang my TT bike and hokas back up for a while again, or I may continue to play triathlon at this low level for the summer.  I haven’t decided yet.  I should probably lift some heavy things soon (like at least my own bodyweight) so we’ll see how I want to prioritize everything.

Last week I was about 2 for 3.  I actually did 4 things (3 bikes, 1 swim).  I got 10k steps on my fitbit every day (technically minus Saturday, because it counted steps for a 2 hour bike ride, and I only really *walked* 7k but details…).  I did not wake up and do stuff because a) my back really wasn’t ready and b) I realized waking up in the morning and going cold to do some stretching without a warmup was probably not the finest idea ever.


I assure you that the second panel did not turn into the third, although I have threatened before.

My adventures in nutrition can be summarized thusly – I did really well all week.  Then I went and rode bikes for 2 hours kinda hard on Saturday and hosted a party with lots of food so I ate and drank a lot.  Then I resumed normality on Sunday and here we are.

This week’s tally:

  • Weight: 187.4 (-1.6) lbs
  • Avg cal per day: 1732 (+17) calories
  • Avg deficit per day: -838 (+35) calories
  • Macros: 56 (+2)g fat, 164 (-12)g carbs, 93 (+3)g protein, 23 (+1)g fiber

So, besides a little extra fat (still within the acceptable range), everything is going the right way regardless.

Last week’s goals:

Continue with Week one goals.  Track and maintain a deficit.  Water.  Try to keep the alcohol consumption to reasonable levels. – Check.  Saturday was a little out of hand but in the grand scheme of the week it all normalized.

Fruits and veggies. – Check.  I went back and could count at least 5 fruits and veggies every day.  Thursday was pushing it a *little* bit including celery from the wings we split but if you’re counting 5 average per day over the whole week?  Nailed it.

Protein.  – Better, but not quite 100g.  I went up to 93g from 90.  When I eat more, this is effortless.  With smaller calorie counts, this takes some planning and perhaps a snack with protein because I’m just not making it some days.

This week’s goals:

Continue with previous goals.  Track and maintain a deficit.  Water.  Try to keep the alcohol consumption to reasonable levels.  Five fruits and veggies per day.  This is a reminder to not regress.

Protein.  I need to watch this carefully.  On nights where I’m having some adult beverages I should skew towards things that are carb-light, and have quality protein and fiber instead to make my macros.

The tally.  Now that my appetite is back to mortal levels and I’m used to not having a food orgy every day, it’s time to START working on my diet quality (the word of this season is baby steps).  Not doing anything this week, except trying to make good choices.  Next Monday, I’ll add up my DQ score and see where it’s at in comparison to where I was a few years ago.


I did some things besides swim/bike/run/eat!  #offseason is glorious.

It’s so weird.  During periods of heavy training, I’m like, what the heck do I fill my life with on the weekends if it’s not either riding bikes for 6 hours or running 20 miles and then laying exhausted on the couch watching Netflix?  Just laying on the couch watching Netflix sounds rather dull without the bikes to tire me out first.

Then, I remember how awesome it is to have some spare mental and physical energy on the weekends.  It’s the worst when you’re recovering because you feel tired without the fun and endorphins, but then once that breaks… HALLELUJAH!

Here are the things I did this weekend:

  • Had two glasses of wine on Friday because I had calories left and I could.
  • Rode my bike with friends for 2 hours.
  • Went out to lunch.
  • Actually died on the couch for a while watching all the 2017 IMTexas videos to try to catch ourselves in them.
  • Picked up the house and prepped for the party.
  • Hosted 11 people and had a fantastic time.
  • Read a few chapters in the Big Yellow Book and finish section 1/3 (and some in my fiction book as well).
  • Did laundry and actually put it away the same day.
  • Cooked a BUNCH of batch meals – curry turkey with brown basamati rice and veggies, shepard’s pie, chili.
  • Went for a walk.
  • Watched a movie.
  • Painted some minis.

…and I was still in bed early enough Sunday night to wake up and run this morning and I feel refreshed and happy instead of overwhelmed.  Glorious!

My goals were:

Find a non-fiction book. – Check.  However, I had just started the new Argonauts book and I’m into it so I’m waiting until I finish it (certainly this week) to start reading How to Win Friends and Influence People (in the Digital Age) – figured I’d start with a(n updated version of a) classic.

Find office chairs.  Check.  600 bucks later, we both have seats we’re happy with that we can sit in for a while.  They’re worth it.  I sat in it to paint for about 2 hours and I didn’t want to die like I do in any other non-couch chair in the house.

Host people without stressing out. Check.  We spent maybe 2 hours cleaning and prepping simply because we effed up with the timing and didn’t schedule this on a cleaning service week, so next time should be even simpler.  There was plenty of food and drink without me going overboard.  We all had a blast playing games.  This will happen again soon.

Life goals, super check.  This week has a few more extra curricular activities, so I am picking one thing that will be a time commitment (Sunday), and the rest should be low hanging fruit.

Find a doctor and schedule a check up.  I have no idea why I’m putting this off.  Actually, yes I do.  This is definitely the year to get my blood drawn and I probably need to recover my account info for the login and the UHC website is confusing and blah blah blah.  Get over yourself and DO EITTT, woman.

Dance dance.  While the next two weeks I’ll probably err on the side of spending my energy doing triathlon stuff, I purchased a DDR pad a few weeks ago and I’d like to get it set up and working BEFORE I really want to use it (and get frustrated that I’m spending my play time getting it set up).

The Office, round 2.  Zliten thinks we can get at least through Step 3 this coming weekend in a few hours.  I’m cautiously optimistic.

And on that note, off to do all the things I can do with a brand new week!

 

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The Middle

This is the middle.  The newness of “wheee, I’m actually training for this Ironman race” has worn off, and I still have 10 and a half weeks until the race (thankfully), so the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t quite there.  Zliten and I are a little snippy at each other.  I have given my scale a STERN talking to on several occasions like it was a real person.  The training sessions JUST DON’T STOP COMING because dang, it’s hard to fit in another part time job when you already have a full time one, and want to do fun things every once in a while, and also have family and friends that actually want to be in your life and stuff.

Sometimes looking at the light is dangerous.  Just ask my iguana.

I’ve figured out a few things:

a) this is NOT the time to be cooking anything fancy.  I don’t have the oomph right now to spend half of Sunday in the kitchen.  Easy meals that multiply out well, crock pot food, this is what needs to be happening.  I DEFINITELY, even if I convince myself otherwise because food is better fresh, don’t have the oomph to cook food at night when I get home.  We tried that last night and there was yelling and rude words and one of us just had to leave the kitchen because dinner took 20-30 minute to cook after we got home at 8:15pm.  “I’m sorry for the things I said when I was hungry” is a phrase that is on repeat around here lately.

b) this is also not the time for a shit ton of commitments.  I have to use the word NO liberally.  In May, I get to use the word YES more often.  In February, I have very few slots on my dance card.  If we hang out between now and April 22nd, you probably either a) also swim/bike/run or b) you are very special to me.

c) midnight is absolute bedtime on weekdays and 2am is pushing it on Saturdays.  Once I pass that 10 hours/week training mark, I either sleep or my body just shuts the hell down.

Want to make your Monday awesome? Bike to work, eat amazing food, run home, and then eat more amazing food!

It’s not all bad though, in fact, mostly great.  Last week was pretty stellar.  I hit every workout I planned (besides the wishy-washy “maybe a recovery ride or run if I feel like it” plan Sunday when I haven’t had a full day off in 36 days… I mean DUH, I’M NOT GOING TO FEEL LIKE IT).  I only shortened one bike.   Almost 13 hours of quality training in the bank.  Rock on.

  • 2 swims – 3150m in 59 min and 1350m in 25 min
  • 2 hours easy riding and a 6 hour long hard ride (87 miles/5k climbing)
  • 15 miles running – 10 mile long run in 2:03 on super tired legs, 5 mile in 57 mins on fresher ones.
  • 2 weights – one dozen set, one bodyweights/bands session
  • Stretching/rolling every day

Nothing particularly fast or impressive here, just a bunch of solid work at a steady pace.  It’s not sexy at all.  And that’s exactly where I need to be at this point.

This week, I’m ditching the long ride in favor of a long run.  Now, my longest run so far is 13 miles (14 if you count as far back as October) so going straight to aiming for up to 20 may be crazy, but the cool thing about endurance is it DOES indeed transfer between sports, so we’ll see how it goes.  I have one more crack at the 20 later in the month so this first one is just to see where my comfort zone ends on legs that aren’t *completely* wasted.

  • 25-30 miles of running with 15-20 long run.
  • 5-6 hours of cycling broken up into 3 rides – one hard ride, one interval ride on the TT, and one recovery ride (plus maybe some errand/commute riding)
  • 2 swims – one shorter 1200-1500 and one longer 3k-4k.  Hoping for at least race distance, but we’ll hit that next week if I don’t.
  • 2 weights workouts.  Gym once, either dozen or something else once.

The balance hangs somewhere between the swim and the salad and the burger and fries.

Life stuff:

I did Chapter 14.  This week, it’s Chapter 15 (and actually already done).  Next week is my last week of class, and then it’s time to study…

I didn’t social media much.  I’m kind of stuck and bored with it TBH.  I think this might need to take a back seat until I can really attack it.

I tracked my calories for 2367 average each day with -673 deficit.  I’m actually surprised this was as good as it was, considering I overate even my total burned calories on Sunday.  My ratios were 89g protein, 76g fat, 29g fiber, and 276g carbs per day.  Wrong way again on fat, I upped my fiber and carbs (yay), but my protein wayyyy down.  Honestly, I just ate like shit all weekend and that threw my ratios off.  Same deal as every week it seems.  More carbs, less fat, and now keep my protein on track (which has been MORE than fine since Monday *shrug*).

My average weight was 189.1, which stayed the same from last week. Still 9lbs to go back to 70.3 race weight.  Inflammation from these long weekend sessions (and then the calories I’m eating back) is real, yo.  I swung from 192.8 on Monday to 186.7 this morning.  My body fat reading is up too.  It’s going to be a hard fight while training, but I’ll keep chipping away at it, because that’s the only alternative.

I drank quite a few drinks last week – 8 over 2 days during the week, a bunch after the race and I didn’t keep count, honestly.  Whiskey on the rocks was divine but a few of them and I was tipsy and also falling alseep.  I figured I would have a little bit of a crazy week with the beer only embargo finally lifted and some social events, but I don’t want this to become the norm.  This week, I’ll aim to go back to where I was in January.

Rest and recovery and sleep are going well.  I’m averaging over 3.5 hours of deep sleep per night, with almost 9 hours average total.  Even with the extra drinkies, I ended up with lots of sleep.  This is a good compromise.

This week, I have some errands to run so I’m not going to set a bunch of other goals:

  1. Pick up new glasses (DONE!)
  2. Exchange Christmas present shirt (all the way across town and only available select days from noon to 5. :P)
  3. Pick up Valentine’s Day dinner food and have a super awesome grilled steak and lobster love fest.

And, that will wrap it up.  One foot in front of each other.  One workout, one mile at a time.  Keepin’ on keepin’ on.  Nevertheless, I shall persist (thanks Elizabeth Warren).  Rest week is imminent.

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I flail without a plan.

So, I had this brilliant idea to make this past week very fluid, planning 3 specific workouts and then saying I’d just go with the flow for the rest.

The flow and I don’t really go together.

Jul18-1

We hit workout #1 – the 1000m swim test.  Then, we ended up pushing the brick a day to Thursday (and obviously ended up doing it at home instead of with the group).  By Friday my body was still so sore from pushing it on the brick and playing with kettlebells (I did hit my 2 weights sessions) I could not imagine doing a track workout so we called it and decided we’d just do whatever.

Unfortunately, whatever ended up being just a 23 minute easy trainer ride because we kept changing our plans and our minds and it was frustrating the hell out of me.  We even got dressed and out of the house to go do a swim in the lake, and by the time we left, we realized that doing it would make us SO late to a friend’s get together, so we went home and changed again and figured we’d do it later.  When later came, we were both just so over it we decided to call it and just take Saturday as a rest day… which became a whole rest weekend.

On paper, 5 hours for a rest week isn’t too bad, but considering 1.5 hours is weight training and 1.5 hours was bike commuting… there wasn’t a whole lot of serious swim, bike, or run action going on.  It’s ok.  It happens.

I just know for next time that I need to plan out my rest weeks, just like I plan my regular weeks.  I flail without a plan.

Last week’s training:

  • Monday: 1000m swim test lunch (1300m total), weights PM
  • Tuesday: 45 min bike commute
  • Thursday: weights, brick workout (40 minute TOUGH tri bike trainer ride, 2 mile fast run with 9:27/mile avg in the feels like 95)
  • Friday: 45 min bike commute
  • Saturday: 15 mins rolling, 23 mins easy tri bike trainer ride

Jul18-2

I may not look like it here because I’m high on endorphins, but I’m struggling with a few things.

First, it’s tough balancing building strength with weights and not being too fried for swim/bike/run.  I feel so much benefit doing the weights, I’m going to stick with it, but it’s rough when I overdo it a little and then end up bagging or modifying other workouts.  Hopefully, I can push that line where I’m building strength but not limping around after and continue on for a while with this.  However, I’ve slacked enough years that I really need to stay committed and earn my right to do the other stuff by continuing to strengthen my body.

Second, my planning brain wants to train so much.  I’ll start piling on workouts to the point where I am happy with the mix and I’m getting enough in.  Then, I start sanity checking and realizing I’m at about a million hours and working out 3 times a day some days and I have to sacrifice something every week to keep it in check.  The struggle is real.

I have to remember: I’m at the start of a long build.  I don’t have to be superwoman right away.  My first A race is in 15 weeks.  That’s plenty of time to build up, even though it feels like I’m building from nothing in terms of endurance.  I spent some time doing strategerie over the weekend and I think the goal will be to ramp up the bike endurance more quickly first, while it’s hot, and then the run endurance in September/October when it’s cooler.

I planned out this week before I shifted focus, and I like the schedule so I’m keeping it, but NEXT week will definitely be more bike heavy.

  • Monday: weights, 3 mile easy run
  • Tuesday: pool swim with some pickups, endurance cycle class
  • Wednesday: weights, BSS recovery ride
  • Friday: 5 mile AM run, BSS lake swim
  • Saturday: 25-30 mile ride, 3 mile run at Lake Pflug

I’ve got two workouts each day but only 5 days planned.  I’d like to bike commute on Thursday if I can.  This looks like about 8.5 hours as is, more with commuting and/or squeezing some small TT bike trainer rides in for form practice if I can do it.

Food planning might need to go to the next level too.

Jul18-3

This spicy chicken ramen from Jin Ya kept the vampires away for a few days.  So garlic.  So good.

I have my meals planned out, but every week I keep having this goal of 5 fruits and veggies.  I do ok at the start of the week, but usually by the weekend, I realize I’m barely getting in two on Saturday and Sunday.  My meals are TYPICALLY pretty good and have 1-2 servings of fruit or veggies, but I’ve gotten out of the habit of eating veggie or fruit snacks.  Now that I am back into training and eating a little more, those need to come back.  So, until they become a habit, I need to probably portion them out for daily consumption.

I realized I was eating pretzels more often than veggies.  I also realized that in my new office, my fridge is further away than my snack pantry.  Now that I’m concious of this, I think I’ll realize that I’m being lazy and do better… or I’ll have to move things around.  Crazy how the little things are a bigger influence than you think!

So, kind of a fail last week.

  • 5 fruits and veggies per day.  Part of this is actually eating vegetables for a snack instead of pretzels (at least first).  <- Nope, typically getting between 2-4 per day.  Not great.
  • Track all days of food, staying as close to -1000 calories as possible. <- Tracked up until Friday night and then not all weekend.  Oops.
  • Hit my 100g protein, 25g fiber, and 40-50g fat macros.  With extra food calories from workouts, it should NOT BE HARD and I didn’t really hit them last week.  How do I do this?  More freggies, less junk. <- Eh.  About half the days I did ok, but the other half I was low on protein or fiber.  At least I got the fat right!

The good news is that I ended up seeing my lowest weight yet – 180 (178 on the black scale).  While it’s definitely swingy, it means I’m starting to make some progress into that 5 lbs I’ve been staring at for a while.

This week, I’m going to do better with this stuff and try to figure out ways to fix the issues I’m having actually following through.

 

  • 5 fruits and veggies per day.  I’ll be packing myself little snack bento boxes with the appropriate amount of fresh produce.
  • Track all days of food, staying as close to -1000 calories as possible and hit my macros.  My strategy for this is that I can’t eat dinner before I track everything before dinner.  It actually just made me go track food right now so hopefully that works!

…and I’ll leave it with that.  Let’s succeed at this before piling too much on top of it, hmmm?

Jul18-4

For now, I’m going to go enjoy my new pool that I had installed this weekend.  Check out my luxurious life!  Happy Monday everyone, we’ll get through it together, right?

 

Numbers Don’t Lie

Eating foods:

June23-2

Spinach and chicken enchiladas after a long hot bike ride…

I was getting a little down on myself this week because I’ve stopped making progress with #projectraceweight.  I’m so glad I’m tracking against calories burnt on fitbit.  Previously, I would have just been like “WTF is wrong with my body, I’m defective, it’s not fair, yadda yadda”.  Now, I look at fitbit, and I’ve been over my (-1000) calories most of the last 7 days.  That’s data that makes sense.   I can roll with that.

It’s going to be interesting transitioning back to training a little bit.  In theory, I just need to continue to watch the numbers, but there will be some point where I’m just too hungry to keep it up and I’ll have to eat more.  That’s fine.  I’ll figure it out as I go along.  All I know is that whether I’m using -1000 or much less of a deficit per day, I won’t be arbitrarily aiming for some calorie count no matter what my activity level is like I did last year.  That way lies fatness.

In terms of diet modifications, to maximize my performance at the lowest calorie intake is to be smart about my macronutrients, most of all carbs.  But not in the way I bet you’re thinking.

I suck at pure carbs.  I want my sugar to have fat in it too.  Chocolate.  PB+J.  Pretzels and cheese.  I know fat is also essential, but it’s very easy for me to hit my range and pretty easy for me to go over when I’m eating more.  On 1200-1500 calories, I’m good (typically) at hitting my protein and fat macros, so with more activity, I need to increase pure carbs.

One of the best ways for me to do this is to fuel my workouts well.  I have a mental block against this for some reason.  Gels and sports drink are only for long, hard efforts.  Fruit is something to be limited.  Jellybeans rationed.  The odd thing is that when I actually do properly fuel my workouts I feel great, and actually end up eating less overall throughout the day.  But my stupid brain goes: “hey, this isn’t a race, just underfuel a bit now and we’ll binge on some french fries after instead because that’s way more fun than stupid GUs”.

While it kills me a little inside to suck down 2.50$ packets of stuff that doesn’t taste very good on just your average Wednesday workout, I can be better about bringing stuff like dried mango, jelly beans, etc, things that hit that magical 25g per ~100 calories.  And the pros keep pushing the lowfat chocolate milk recovery thing, so maybe there is something to that.   I may give that a try on workouts I have access to a fridge directly after.

Looking back on days where I’ve done a good job, in 1200 calories, I can get all my protein, all my fat, and ~100g carbs.  Every 100g carbs is an extra 400 calories.  So, that means, on days when I have 1600 calories to eat, I can consume about 200g carbs.  When I have 2400 calories to eat, I can consume about 400g.  This is generally the LOWEST recommendation of carbs for an endurance athlete.  So, starting next week, meal and snack planning will be more crucial than ever, and I’ll be working to earn those carbs!

Riding Bikes:

June23-1

Evilbike lost her horns (her clip on aero bars)!  She’s now a true road bike again!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to formally announce that I’ve done my first group ride since February… and it was SUPER FUN and not really scary at all.  It was the beginner ride, so people were a little more courteous, and also we were only 7 (and then 6 after a rider dropped to go home), so it was less crazy than trying to keep 15-20 people together.

The pace was relaxed.  Not agonizingly slow (though I heard we went a little faster than normal since we all weren’t actually beginners), just a nice cruising pace winding through lots of neighborhoods on the north side of Austin I never knew existed.  Definitely recovery ride territory, it was easy peasy minus the 95 degree heat and a few steep hills.  I’m still terrible at clipping in, it takes me at least a few tries and typically looking down to fumble with the pedals to do it, but the most important thing is I feel confident unclipping.  That makes everything else okay.  It’s something that will come with practice and I’m alright practicing when I’m not terrified of going down on a busy road in front of a car.

We had so much fun playing bikes we decided even though it wouldn’t be the most convenient thing, we bike commuted today, and there will definitely be a destination bike ride or two this weekend.  Bikes are habit forming substances!  I’ve come so far since THIS GIRL a few months ago, wanting badly to spend more time outside on two wheels but having no idea how to accomplish that because bikes were scary.  It took practice and doing stupid stuff like riding around my block 20 times stopping at every stop sign to practice unclipping, and going from 2 bikes to 6, but I’m going to say… mission accomplished.

I still have so much room to grow.  I need to start riding over 20 miles at a time again.  I need to become a little more fearless during descents.  I need to really nail down the position in my TT bike.  I need to get stronger on the bike so my watts are higher than my heart rate again.  I need to figure out what to do with the readings I get on my garmin from my nice, expensive vector power pedals that for the last year, I’ve looked at, and went, “ooh, neato” and summarily moved on.

However, these are all things that will come more into focus when I start specifically training, which is next week.

The Plan, Man:

June23-3

I don’t have any appropriate pictures to go here, so have one of Zliten and Donna watching TV instead.

After one more weekend of sleeping in, playing on the cruiser bikes and in the water, I plan to get myself moving in the direction of actual, intentional sessions this week.  It’s a small jump from what I’ve been doing – looking to do about 7 hours a week (BUT I’m not counting commuting/cruiser bike miles just like I don’t count walks in my training hours now).

I’m building the first month of training on these assumptions per week:

  • 2 sessions of weights per week are non-negotiable.  At least one needs to be at the gym with heavy weights.
  • 2 swims that are at least 20 mins long.  At least one must have an element of speedwork in it.
  • At least 10 miles of running per week, hopefully increasing this every week.  Once a week off the bike.
  • As much cycling as possible.
    • Alternate weeks of Tuesday pain cave/Wed recovery ride week 1, Wednesday brick ride week 2, rinse and repeat.  I’m hoping to be able to attend both after I’m more in shape, but two hard rides in a row sound bad to me right now.
    • At least 1 ride per week on the TT bike, either outside or on the trainer.
    • I’d like to have done a 30+ mile ride by the end of this block.
    • Bike commutes as often as possible with everything else going on.
  • Either a pretty significant (50%) recovery week on week 4, or a decent recovery week (60-70% of normal training) on week 3, depending on how I feel.

And, as a refresher from the nutrition section:

  • Sticking with the current calorie deficit unless it proves problematic.
  • Attempting to curb my appetite the rest of the day by fueling my workouts well.  This will also help me maximize my carb intake at the right times.
  • Watch my calorie qualities after longer or harder days.  Food splurges and alcohol splurges on different days (pizza OR beer, not pizza AND beer), not the same.

…but, like I said, a few more days of play.  Off to play bikes and hit the lake right now!

#projectspring update

It’s been just about exactly 2.5 months since I started this thing, so it’s time to check in.  Spoiler alert: I’ve not slacked.  I’ve actually made some pretty good progress.

Getting my mojo back:

happy

Happy face.  I was just in the water.  This is not a coincidence…

Wow, it’s incredible to think how mentally (and physically, but mostly mentally) exhausted I was.  And how amazing it is to be a generally happy, positive person that likes being around people and doesn’t just want to sit on the couch and hide all day and sleep forever.  I need to remember if I get that way again… I need a break.  I may not leaaaaap out of bed every morning, but I’m not dragging myself by the nose through my days anymore.  Check and check.

Project race weight:

I’ve discussed this in depth elsewhere.  It’s going slower than I’d like, but I am making progress.  Since it is going slower, I’m hoping to roll slowly from -1000 to 0 deficit over the first few months of season (knowing it may slightly negatively impact my race times) to get a little residual loss during the summer.  I’m realistically going to settle somewhere in the 170s or maybe the high 160s, and that is OK with me.  Will I probably do #projectraceweight2017 after IM recovery?  Yeah.  But I’m just happy to be on the way back down (and hopefully past) last year’s low.

House Projects:

May2-1

This makes me so happy every day that crap isn’t all over the place…

We’ve had a few priority shifts here (probably don’t want to spend ALL THE MONEYS considering), but we’ve made some progress.  Of the more time but less money intensive list, we’ve done 2/4 things:

  • Vanity area in the bathroom (DONE!)
  • Workout room (DONE!)

Still on the list are:

  • Guest room closet
  • Office

The guest closet will probably just take a few weekend hours.  The office is kind of where we’ve been dumping everything that doesn’t belong elsewhere.  For many reasons, we need to get it set up, but it will either take a VALIANT weekend effort or picking at it over a few weekends.

On the money intensive list:

Kitchen remodel: we’ve got an estimate and it seems reasonable (also, looks like the work can be done in less than a week).  We’ll look to get a few more and then pull the trigger and figure out the logistics.  At first, I was mandating that we get it done before season, but I can see dealing with it in EARLY season if it takes that long.

Back patio remodel is on hold.  It’s the one thing on the list that’s the least immediately necessary.  I’d rather spend the time and money on the kitchen and getting more outdoor gear storage than messing with this right now.

Setting up the workout room as a pain cave is in process – we’re procuring a free computer and just need to snag a cheapish flat screen and mount before we can really get this done.  This also goes hand in hand with getting a (locking) shed where we can store most of our camping/outdoor gear, our cruiser bikes, and anything else that we don’t use *that* often to make room.

Biker Chick:

May23-1

I’ve been (ridin’) everywhere, man…

I wouldn’t say the transition is complete, but the love is there.  I don’t plan on stopping this process.  I haven’t yet ridden with the group (logistics and SO MUCH RAIN lately), but we’ve been riding everywhere and it’s been awesome.

I haven’t pulled the trigger on a tri bike, but we’re going to rent one for the Pflugerville Triathlon and see how it feels.  Hopefully the feeling of racing on an actual tri bike will influence us to drop the cash and get our own.

Website revamp:

Check and check.  I love it.  I’m sure there’s more I can do with it, but I’m very happy for now that I was able to put together a list of what I wanted the site to be and get 90% of it done with only Zliten’s help (or figuring it out myself).

Diving Pictures:

Well, I finished up my Bonaire pictures, but now I need to process my Roatan and Cozumel pics.  It’s a terrible wonderful cycle.

Camping:

Apr15-1

Home away from home for a weekend.

I got the camping bug hard and went twice, and then we had a bunch of weekends where we were busy or on vacation.  Then, two things happened.  First, it got buggy and muggy, second, the waterpark opened.  So, unless we decide to go later this month, I think camping season may be over.   I am HIGHLY looking forward to making some plans for September and into the fall.

Doing Things:

may2-2

Steady now…

While I always want to do more (until I actually have to go do it), here’s some of the cool things we’ve done lately.

  • Emo Phillips at the comedy club
  • Went fishing.  Twice.
  • Played frisbee golf
  • Played giant jenga at the bar
  • SUP paddleboard yoga
  • Dance class and dancing
  • Water volleyball
  • Beer Pong

I’d say with everything else going on in life, we’re doing great.

Being Crafty:

It’s last on this list because it was kind of an afterthought.  We really and truly have done a lot of shit this #offseason, and besides one night where I sat down (drunkenly) and tried to make sense of the piano, I haven’t done any of this.

However, I did pick up the personal trainer class, am taking my CPR certification this week, and plan to do some other classes as these finish.  I’d say this sort of takes the place of something to do at home that’s not dork on social media and watch TV.

Things I’d really like to accomplish in the next month:

Apr25-4

I don’t have a great picture that sums up a month of accomplishments, so here’s an iguana on a bike.

  • Continue to focus on #projectraceweight – I think I’m doing about the best I can without losing my mind, so I’ll keep at it.
  • Get at least two more projects in the house list done.
  • Continue with the bike love, hit at least ONE group ride, and try out at least TWO triathlon bikes.
  • Add at least THREE things to the “doing things” list above.
  • Be about 3/4 of the way through the personal training class and have our CPR cert.
  • Finish and post my diving/snorkeling pics

June is going to be a great month, starting with NATIONAL RUNNING DAY yesterday (where my run fitness decided to remind me it’s not 100% completely in the toilet, just mostly), so I’m excited to see what it holds.  It has to be less dramatic than May… please?

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