Adjusted Reality

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

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2017 Goals, Habits, Practices, and To Dos.

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On January 3, 2017

In Uncategorized

In triathlon class, we learned the law of facilitation for motor learning –  when an impulse passes through a given set of neurons to the exclusion of others, it will tend to do so again, with less and less resistance every time.

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Hopefully less resistance in the neurons to more resistance in the training…

On a larger scale, that means to become the person you want to be, you need to create the habits you want to form by working towards it relentlessly.  I’m ready to kick off this year with determination, focus, and relentless pursuit of my goals.

However, another thing we were reminded of in class is that overtraining is bad.  So this relentlessness will be tempered with patience.   I need to remember that muscles are built in recovery, and metered constant progress is better than a big push and then fizzle boom burnout with a long period of just trying to figure out how to give a fuck again.  Stress is stress is stress and I thrive with a certain amount and cave with too much of it.

Rather than seasons like 2016, I feel like this year has two parts, before IM Texas and after.  Pre-April 22, it will be mostly diet, training, and rest/recovery goals.  Beyond that, it will be a little bit of #projectspringencore, with more weight loss, personal projects, and personal growth goals.

So, let’s start with the big goal of the year…

2017 A Race – IM Texas

leahbike

I will be doing this for a long long long long long long time.

This week, I start official training for IM Texas.  Not that I’ve been sitting on my ass eating bon bons (ok, not ALL the time at least), but this marks the return to a schedule and plan.  I’ll definitely detail this more in the coming months, but the general goals for the lead up are:

  • Lots of bike volume with some effort.  I need to get comfortable spending the majority of a workday on my bike and I also need to do enough weekly miles to support that.  Spin classes, commuting, trainer, or outdoor – I need to be riding my bike most every day.  And that’s what I plan to do for January – bike streaking, at least 30 minutes per day.
  • Maintain two swims per week like I always plan to do, however, one of them now needs to be my LONG swim, which will start creeping up from the normal 30 to ~90 minutes by peak.
  • Weights twice a week.  I’d love to say these will both be heavy sessions in the gym but I know with time constraints, I’ll be happy with two bodyweight/resistance sessions with heavy lifting when I can.
  • Running… this is the tricky part.  I need to train to be able to cover 26.2 miles on ~3 running days a week, and working up to a long run of marathon distance the same week I’m also biking long.  I plan to build the bike volume first but I want to do at least two 20 milers at the same goal pace and run/walk intervals I will do at the race.
  • Recovery as a priority.  Stretch, roll, massage boots – at least one of these every evening.  Don’t be stupid about sleep.  Have enough recovery weeks to keep myself in one piece and sane.  Sit my butt down once in a while and not try to do all the things all the time.
  • Put enough (and not too many) good things in my mouth to appropriately fuel my workouts.  Appropriate protein (20-30g per meal and some more with snacks) spaced throughout the day.  Quality carbs before, and simple carbs during (if appropriately long/hard), and after workouts.  Transition more fats to plant based food (nuts/olives/avocado) from animal fats.  And… track everything from TODAY until race day.  Yep.  I want a full cycle on the books, even if some days aren’t pretty or I have to track 3 days later.

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…hopefully I can look this happy (and be this upright) at the finish on April 22.

My goals for the race itself?  To finish under 17 hours.  That’s it, that’s all.  Oh, and to have fun.  I’m sure I’ll have some pace goals closer to the race and a more reasonable prediction when I’ll finish, but I will be 100% happy with my day as long as I cross the finish line at 16:59:59 or before that.  If I decide to do another one of these, I can worry about times and stuff.

In the lead up, I will be racing a half marathon (3M), and are considering some early season events like a 6 hour bike race, a 10 mile run, some longer charity rides, and hopefully a tuneup tri somewhere so the first race in six months isn’t 140.6 miles long.

As for the rest of the year, I don’t know exactly what it will hold.  We’ll probably race Lake Pflugerville Sprint (on zero/minimal training) because we do every year.  There will probably be other Sprints later in the season and maybe Austin 70.3 but maybe not, or maybe do a bunch of charity rides or race cycling TTs or open water swims or something, and absolutely none of these decisions will be made before May.

I have ZERO PR goals this year.  If I happen to do that, awesome.  If not, NBD.

Habits and Practices to Start NOW…

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2016’s habit was to bike everywhere.  And now we bike everywhere!  Look at those beautiful neurons connecting….

This next section are things I’d like to work on year round.  They’re not to dos, they’re not goals, they’re things I’d like to incorporate into my life.

  • Since vacation, I’ve stayed mostly logged out of facebook and twitter.  It has been UNBELIEVABLE for my stress levels and productivity and enjoyment of the moment.  I don’t believe that I’ll completely stay a social media hermit, but I want to limit the hours per day I used to spend catching up on social media and put that towards other things.  I do think I’ll keep my phone logged out and pay more attention to the GROUPS I’m in than my general timeline.
  • I want to make it a habit to stop rushing things.  I tend to convince myself I don’t have enough time to do something and end up fumbling with it, sometimes taking me longer, and always stressing me out.
  • One random thing I’d like to take the time to do right is to wash my fruits and veggies.  I am notoriously bad about doing this, and it makes no sense to prioritize eating organic and healthy food when I’m ingesting all the other crap that’s made it’s way on my food from picking to the store.  I’m saving somewhere between 5 seconds to a few minutes by not doing this and it’s stupid.
  • I will be returning to calorie counts, weighing, and watching my ratios.  It’s time.  Obviously I will have a decent calorie bank because I will be in training, but it won’t be the free for all it’s been lately.  I don’t have a specific weight loss goal for this year, but I’d like to weigh less than I do right now.
  • I have an insane alcohol tolerance – my genes, being an endurance athlete, and the fact that I have a lot of practice contribute to this.  That means I can drink and carouse the night before and still show up to work, my workout, and life.  My body recovers like a MOFO.  However, it’s a lot of calories, it can’t be that great for me even if I feel fine, and it tends to keep me up late which DOES impact my recovery.  I’m not going crazy, but my goal for January is no wine, no booze, no champagne.  That leaves beer.  I don’t love beer a lot.  I can generally drink a few before I’m over it.  That means I’ll either learn to love beer or I’ll calm my shit with the drinking.  I’m hoping for the latter, but we’ll see!  February 1 and beyond?  TBD.

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This one works for both beer and recovery.  And it was a great Halloween!

What’s Next?

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While I don’t feel like my next career step is as imminent as last May when the big work shakeup happened, I also realize now HOW FAR AWAY I am from ready to launch a business and how much I need to learn if I want to do it some day.  This year is a year of learning, certification, set up, and baby steps.  I have no idea if this will be my livelihood in six months or six years or never, but I feel like I need to get ready to fly because you never know when life is going to push you off the cliff.

Learning/Certification:

  • Finish my triathlon coaching class and pass the exam
  • After IM Texas, start researching some sort of part time or volunteer opportunity that will help me get some sort of experience.
  • Continue to work on my social media plan for this blog as practice.
  • Read some business books and other triathlon training books instead of JUST my pulpy sci fi.

Set Up

  • Write a business plan and figure out who I really want to reach and the services I want to provide.
  • Create a website with all the bells and whistles it needs.
  • Start writing some book notes

(Big) Baby Steps.  By the end of the year I want to:

  • Have a website ready to go that can take people’s money and provide a service.
  • At the very least, start providing a small service via fiverr or something similar to test the waters.
  • Have a published book (even if it’s just self published).

These are SUPER ambitious goals and may be more of a two year plan, but if you shoot for the moon, you’ll at least end up among the stars, right?

Other Stuff

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I don’t really have a great and exciting picture that encompasses TO DO LIST, so here’s a pretty picture of Austin at night that I took…

Below is essentially the beginnings To Do List for the year.  I’m sure I’ll add to this as the year goes on, but it’s a start!

Let’s start with the fun stuff:

  • Continue to game bi-weekly with friends.  Maybe even host some low key game nights on weekends with other friends to play card/board games.
  • Be able to list at least 20 games I played on multiple occasions (or finished in one sitting) by the end of 2017.
  • Vacations!  Besides going out of town for Ironman, we plan to do the same cruise in May with my parents, probably a trip to Reno/Tahoe for my 20th reunion (???) in August/Sept, and considering a liveaboard dive trip in the winter (failing that… Roatan? Bonaire again?).

Little stuff:

  • Hem/fix a few pairs of pants.
  • Clean out both cars
  • Take my existing extra hoka soles and cut them and put them in my less comfortable shoes.
  • Appointments
    • Find a new doctor and get an exam
    • Financial planner
    • Bike fit
    • Eye doctor appt and exam (my frames are SOOOOO scratched)

Bigger Stuff:

  • Clean out and renovate the office.  We were hoping to get to it over holiday break, but it didn’t happen.
  • Figuring out a place to store (or a new home for) this other gaming table we have that is currently threatening to impale anyone that sleeps on the left side of our guest room.
  • Make the workout room a proper pain cave with a TV, computers and monitors for Zwifting
  • Figure out a more permanent solution than boxes and a blanket in a closet for the leezard (though she seems ok with it).
  • As long as our financial situation seems stable, picking a renovation project (kitchen, patio, etc) and do it.
  • #projectspringencore – weight loss, playing outside, oh my.  But I’ll get to these goals once we’re on the other side of the IM Texas finish line.

I feel like there’s other stuff I’m missing, but that’s what the rest of the year is for!  Let’s do this 2017 thing!

 

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2016: #projectspring, #goplayoutside, and #ridingbikes

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On December 31, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s interesting to see how over the course of a year, you can set goals and then life has other plans.  It’s not to say that I didn’t accomplish anything I set out to – just the opposite, I actually made some great strides towards things I wanted to do, but the massive SHIFT in what my little heart desired.

But, let’s wrap up, shall we?

Winter Season:

Jan27-1

Probably the last time this season I would smile when I was getting ready to run.

My race season got shot to hell when I recovered from burnout just in time to get injured.  My goal to run streak January actually went too long, when I pushed through hip issues for a week to race 3M.  I raced hard and came ~3 minutes from a PR and then for 6 weeks, I could barely run without limping.  I finished The Woodlands Marathon with a significant personal worst (6 hours+) and said FUCK YOU to my season and I don’t think I have ever been so happy to not be in training.

As for food – I did do the snap/my fit foods for a few weeks (while we waited for a dishwasher delivery) but it didn’t do me any good in terms of weight loss.

Feb17-5

It may or may not have been because there was a lot of this too…

One fun bright spot was our little Valentine’s Day Staycation, but most everything else… meh.  I was actually getting pretty depressed at this point and I’m not sure I was able to accomplish anything.  I couldn’t lose weight because I was half assed training for a marathon.  I couldn’t train right for a marathon because I was injured.  It was not a fun time.  Winter sucked, to be honest, more than usual.

Spring Season:

May23-3

Normally people cut their hair short when their life changes.  I cut mine a week and a half before.  I like to innovate.

This season was my jam and when the year started getting good… and terrible and scary at the same time.  Clear as mud? I’ll explain…

Training was just for funsies and very little.   3-5 hours a week, and mostly just being active.  I raced twice, Austin 10/20 which was a long slow slog and was more to earn the beer after while listening to the band.  I raced Lake Pflugerville and actually earned my second best finish yet on no training.  It was exactly what I wanted and needed, an extended break where being a human was priority over being a triathlete.

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I don’t always get a new bike, but when I do, I get it a week before I race.

I wanted to lose 25-40 lbs.  I lost 15.  I actually tried pretty hard but my body did not really cooperate.  While I still dream about getting to the 150-160 range, I was actually feeling pretty fit at the 178-182 mark with the muscle I build with weight training.  Baby steps.

Work had layoffs.  I wasn’t affected personally, but I didn’t agree (to put it in a PC way) with some changes that were made.  I felt betrayed and hurt and like everything was crashing down.  It made me really question what was next and whether I wanted to stick with my current job.  My work resolutions kind of went a different direction – I was much more focused on a contingency plan rather than success where I was currently.

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Docking at Roatan, post scuba glow.

Even though it got disrupted with the work stuff – we had a pretty nice vacation otherwise on our annual family cruise, diving in a new place (Roatan) and visited Playa Maya again in Cozumel for some crazy amazing snorkeling.

I did rock at #projectspring though.

Jul5-2

#ridingbikes.  That is all.

  • I bike commuted for the first time and got hooked and finally got my new tri bike.
  • We cleaned out my vanity, the guest room closet, and the shed/workshop area.
  • We sort of cleaned out the workout room… it’s better but still not a useable training room.
  • I revamped the blog!  I can’t believe that less than a year ago my blog still looked like poopocaca.
  • I started my personal training class.
  • I went camping twice and remembered how it disconnected and centered me.
  • And most importantly, I got my mojo back.  I really and truly needed some time to evolve a little and I got it.  I plan on doing a little bit of #projectspring-ing again next year after IM Texas.

Mar30-1

A weekend in the forest for Ren Faire cures a lot of mojo ills.

I did flake out on a few things that will go onto next year’s list:

  • We got a kitchen estimate and then balked at doing it with the work shake ups.  I feel a little more solid about the idea of dropping a few grand on something like that now that things feel more stable, but it’s always scary to hand over a big amount of money that you might need for things like food if things go sideways.
  • We didn’t clean out the office or finish the workout room.  Soon, my pretties.
  • The other stuff, like go do things and do creative things at home were sort of a cry for me to do something with myself besides train and work and TV and facebook.  I did some of that but I think I may have a perspective on how to do more next year now.

Summer Season

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Finally, some real triathlon-ing up in here.

Training ramped up over the summer.  It was awesome to start so fresh, but it was also weird to really race my first tri (not play at it) in August.  I kept judging where I was at vs a normal year and feeling super behind until I hit some great training and racing:

  • PR at Jack’s Generic and a top 25% finish in my age group (4th on the bike).
  • A SOLID run at Kerrville Olympic in tough conditions and a top 1/3 finish in my age group.
  • A ton of race pace bricks in the feels like a billion degrees where I didn’t die and stayed strong.
  • A ton of bike miles.  My longest ride in 2015 was 50 miles.  This year I knocked out two rides on the exact race course, one 65, one 75, and several that approached the 40-50 mile mark.
  • I completed the Distance Swim Challenge, topping out at 4500m in the lake.  Furthest OWS yet!
  • I maintained a solid weight training regime and got through the season without any nagging injuries.
  • My bike love totally blossomed.  I commuted a lot, and we did a bunch of group rides with the BSS crew.

Jul11-5

Riding bikes with these folks was a highlight of the summer.

Other stuff took a back seat as things ramped up in the triathlon department but I didn’t completely go in a training hole:

Aug30-15

Climbing a literal mountain on bikes requires a lot of selfies.

  • We took a trip to Colorado!  Sure, it wasn’t Roatan like we had planned, but we made the conscious choice to go adventure in the altitude instead of underwater.  We climbed mountains and learned how to do sweet jumps over rocks on our rented steeds, swam in new lakes, ran in pretty places, and had a damn fine time visiting family and friends.
  • I got my Sports Nutrition Specialization.
  • We did the normal summer things.  Waterpark and lake as much as possible.  Gaming with our gaming friends every other week.  Hal Sparks at the comedy club.  Birthday celebrations with a friend even though it was downtown and we had just crushed a long workout.  Newsies at the theatre.

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But yeah, training ramping up meant a lot of this type of recovery…

I struggled a little with work, but it became apparent that I wasn’t going to have to make any rash decisions about what I wanted to be when I grow up yet.

Fall Season:

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Seeing sounds and hearing colors after the race…

I raced Austin 70.3 as my A race for the second half of the year and I’m feeling pretty content with my finish there in the opposite of ideal conditions and the utter lack of a perfect race day.  I found ways to rally that I didn’t know I had in me, and I’m excited to stick that all in my pocket to bank on for IM Texas next year.

While I can fret about some minor deficiencies in my training (need to ride TT bike moar, swim speed came together JUST in time because I neglected it, I always want to have more run volume), in the rearview, I think it was a pretty darn great training cycle and lead up.  I can only hope my IM cycle goes similarly.

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All the rainbows in the world won’t protect against my stomach revolting.

I also raced Turkey Trot and found out what happens when your body just completely and totally revolts on you.  I’m looking at that as a positive experience simply because of the amount of rally I was able to harness – in a matter of 15 minutes I went from LITERALLY wanting to die to running at a decent clip.  I’ll also put that into my pocket for next April.

Work got crazy and I lost a lot of my give-a-shit to get other things done.  I figured I’d take the week after Austin 70.3 and get onto doing all the things like counting calories and tri coach class and being productive, but it just didn’t happen that way.  However, I’ve made a huge push at it over break so far and:

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All the 25 miles of errands I did one day over break.

  • I’ve expanded my comfort zone for commuter riding, clocking almost 25 miles doing errands on my cruiser one day.  I haven’t driven a car (ok, we went to the fam’s for Christmas in the car, but Zliten drove) since well before December 7th and have been out doing stuff almost every day.
  • Cleaned out my closet and drawers.  I have tons of hangers and space now.  Time to get new stuff! 🙂
  • I’m officially over halfway through my Triathlon Coach Certification.
  • I’m totally caught up processing and editing vacation photos.

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Can we go back now?  I miss it already…

And most importantly, I had the most AMAZING relaxing vacation in Key Largo.  8 days, no plans, 5 books read, all the diving and snorkeling I cared to do (and I cared to do a LOT).  It was everything I needed.

I’ve been trying to categorize the last few years in three words.  So, here’s 2016 in my most used #hashtags:

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#projectspring (EVOLVE)

The universe whispers, then speaks, then shouts when you need to learn something.  This year, it was shouting “YOU ARE STAGNATING” and made it abundantly clear that just doing the “same ol’ same ol'” wasn’t cutting it anymore.  Injuries.  Work shakeups.  Many other things that made it clear that  it was time to mother. flippin’. evolve.

Aug30-12

#goplayoutside (FREEDOM)

I have never really considered myself really outdoorsy.  However, this year, I found such peace and freedom and happiness when I would #goplayoutside.  Every workday was better when I would commute and when things got rough, I’d take three walks a day.  I never felt better than coming home after riding bikes all day or taking a run on a beautiful day or swimming in the lake or camping all weekend or playing in the water for hours.  It hurts my soul a lot when I have to spend pretty days (and sometimes even the not-so-pretty days) indoors.   As cheesy at it sounds, I feel that call to the… not necessarily WILD, but definitely to go play outside.

#ridingbikes (OVERCOME)

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At the beginning of the year, I was terrified of riding my bike outside not in a triathlon setting.  Even as late as April and May, I still felt like I would never truly enjoy cycling and thought I’d never get to the point where I can use cycling for transportation.  Through solving some equipment problems, a little help and prodding from my friends, and just toughing it out sometimes, I’ve grown leaps and bounds as a cyclist and will plot and scheme how I can incorporate my cruiser bike into my daily transport and goings on.

If we branch out to the OVERCOME aspect of this, I’ve had to overcome some obstacles at work to finish out the year successfully, some of them in my own head.  I also had to overcome the idea that I was too busy for personal growth with triathlon and work – taking a few hours a week to learn new things and work on personal projects is not a deal breaker (at least some of the year), and I can absolutely work towards future plans as long as I don’t try to do all the things all at once.

And with that… I’ll wish you a very happy New Years Eve, and I’ll be back in early January with my 2017 plotting and scheming.

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Bikes = smiles

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On December 5, 2016

In Uncategorized

I have always longed for an urban existence.  While other people dreamed of houses with white picket fences in the suburbs or lots of land out in the country, my perfect life envisioned was a sweet penthouse on the top floor downtown with an amazing balcony view.  I would be able to use my own power to get anywhere I needed (walk, bike, good public transport), and there would be no sitting in a car on the freeway every day.

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I’m going to have to get a proper cold weather cycle jacket eventually, but my 20$ Colorado hoodie seems to be doing just fine so far…

Where I live right now is a compromise, mostly because our JOBS don’t reside in the urban area, so we’d just be living downtown and commuting away from it, which is silly.  I live in a house with a yard.  Public transport here sucks.  However, everything I really need, in general, is just a walk or a short cycle away.  Unless you’re lazy.  Or scared of traffic.  Or let any little anomaly in the weather make you sigh and decide to just use the car this one last time and really, you’ll get on lessening your vehicle dependence soon.  Promise.

That was me for the last few years.  I loved the idea of using foot and pedal power, and I wanted to get there, but when it came to putting it into practice, it was just too hard.  Too scary.  Too inconvenient.  It was one of those resolution-y things I wanted to change this year.

I can’t say that I’m completely on my own power.  We still drive to group rides we could bike to sometimes.  I don’t commute every day, heck, some weeks during season I wouldn’t at all because I had to get to the gym at lunch most days and I just can’t quite reconcile that one with work timing.

Jul11-5

Riding with these peeps have really helped me this year!

However, the things I’ve gotten good at lately:

  • All weekend errands that I can feasibly run with the bike or my own two feet I do.  Picking up stuff from the bike shop?  Hitting the grocery store?  Grabbing lunch somewhere close?  Need a random thing from Big Lots?  Unless it’s pouring I’ll do it on two feet or wheels.
  • Work commutes even if we have other stuff to do before or after.  For example, I had a dentist appointment last week, but it’s close to the house, so I just biked there and then to work instead of taking the car.
  • Tooling around the neighborhood on my bike or just walking when it’s beautiful and I want to get outside.
  • HTFU on the weather.  I found that bikes are indeed still possible in the 40s and 50s with the right layers.  You don’t have to just put them away until spring.

I have to completely credit this to resurrecting my cruiser bike from the shed for a lot of this.  It’s so comfortable to just be able to head out in regular clothes (not bike shorts) and without clips and go do whatever.

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But when I DO kit up,  I have cool bike socks now. #sockdoping

I looked at my total bike miles for the year, and they’re not that far under past years, even with 6 months of not being a triathlete, and more of them being outside miles (than inflated inside trainer miles like previous years).  This really was the year of becoming a cyclist, and I’m super happy about it.

While I’m not seeing the huge payoff in races yet, I am seeing other benefits.

  • My mood is just so improved when I can ride my bike somewhere.  I can face the workday or an errand with the knowledge that at least I got to bike there and I get to bike home!
  • I’m just so much more comfortable on bikes as a whole.  My first group ride this year: “eeek, I have to ride bikes around people I’m scared”.  My last group ride?  “Yay bikes!”

And, most of all, I have this great sense of accomplishment.  You may not have noticed, but around here, I tend to undermine my achievements where I didn’t hit my exact goal.  For example, I rode 100 miles this weekend, but since it was just indoors on the trainer, I’m like, meh.  I could do better.    However, every time I get on my bike and go ride outside, it makes me happy and proud of myself.

I’m conquering demons I had even 6 months ago, where I would have maybe just ridden the trainer or took my car or did the thing that wasn’t biking outside (or even if I did, limiting myself to overly safe spaces like the Veloway).  I set a goal this year to become a better cyclist, and I’m happy to have changed from this girl to at least someone who’s on their way.

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Bikes = smiles

Was this an excuse to just post a bunch of bike selfies again?  Possibly.  But I’m really happy that the bike love I found in the spring wasn’t just a fling.  This is the first winter where my butt will be BFFs with my saddle and I’m actually really excited about it.

Ironman dreamin…

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On December 1, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s December 1st.  It’s more than a month since my race.  I’ve been enjoying a mid-season break, and I’m not shifting 100% to *IN TRAINING* yet, but I’m finally allowing myself to start to plan out the next few months.  I’ve been excited to do this since about, oh, Wednesday after the race, but I’ve been trying to keep my mind elsewhere for a while.

nov4-1

“Ok, that was fun, now can we do it again but double the distance” was not exactly what I was thinking right then, but pretty soon after…

I’m really excited about this one.  I love doing new distances.  I mean, it’s a little daunting to be prepping for 14+ hours of racing.  A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon are all accomplishments in their own right, but doing them together on the same day?  It’s going to be epic.

The best thing about new distances?  It’s an auto PR.  This one is all about the completion.  For this race, I’m impressing about ZERO expectations on my time as long as I make the cutoffs.  I’m not a fast athlete competing for the podium or anything, but I’m not worried about running out of time unless something REALLY goes sideways.

One thing that worked out well for me last season was outlining the different periods of training and picking my focus for each.  It was a bit of a leap of faith – it made me nervous as hell to to ignore my running to ramp up biking over the summer – but it worked out well (and I didn’t have to do long runs in the worst of the heat, score!).

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Feeling pretty excited that this December’s trip to Florida doesn’t require running 26.2 miles, though I’m sure I’ll swim and bike and dive enough to make up for it…

December: pre-season.

This is all about dipping my toe back into training without being super serious about it yet.  While we still have nicer weather, I’m going to prioritize longer outdoor cycling as the basket I’m putting my endurance eggs in.  While I’m sure I’ll get some decent run mileage in this month (I’m a big fan of procrastinating all day and running down the sunset on holiday break), I want to concentrate on extending the edge of my fitness on the bike.  I’m ready to tick that century ride off the list, and I feel like pushing the cycling will help me build back my endurance more gently than trying to pound out long runs first.

I also need to get back to lifting heavy things again.  I tried to get back to it pretty quickly after the 70.3 and my body and mind were both, like, NOPE.  I’ve done one gym session, one Oiselle dozen, and maybe 15 push ups (because I decided this week whenever I felt guilty about not going to the gym I was going to do 5 pushups instead).  I don’t have a HUGE ramp up period like I did during spring offseason, so I probably won’t go PRing my bench press or anything, but I want to get back to at least maintaining muscle and not losing it.  Two sessions per week (starting next week).  Doesn’t matter what they are, bodyweight, bands, at home, or the gym, but I need to get in the habit of doing *something*.

Swimming can take a back seat.  I swam this week for the first time in over a month and it was awesome and it makes me feel good, but as weird as it sounds, I’d rather concentrate on it when the weather is really crappy.  It sucks just about as bad to jump in the pool when it’s 60 and windy as when it’s 30 and windy.   However, 60 and windy is awesome for running and biking, so I’d rather do that.  I’m hoping to swim once a week this month, but I won’t beat myself up if I lace up my shoes instead.

Feb2-2

Iguana donna and I will be seeing a lot of this view in January, I assume, unless someone goes ahead and sets fire to the cedar trees now (please? I’ll pay you 25 bucks and some reeses peanut butter cups?).

January: battling the deathly air.

This is the month where I’ll start following a schedule.  January is always pretty much terrible, so I’m trying to plan around the month instead of conquer it.  Even if the weather cooperates, the allergens in the air try to kill us.  Instead of fighting it, I’ll roll with it.

I’d like to get out on my bike whenever I can, but I realize I’m going to be on the trainer a lot.  This will give me the opportunity to get some QT on the death star (read: acclimating myself to riding the vast majority of a workday in aero).  I’ll definitely be taking the opportunity to become a regular at spin classes as well.

Again, my goal is to get out and run as much as I can (especially lunch runs, because they’re the best), but I realize I’ll be rocking the treadmill a lot.  I do better working speed than long slow slogs indoors, so I’ll concentrate my efforts there.  I also have a half marathon race that will benefit from speedwork, so this plan works out well. 🙂

Here’s where I’ll bring swimming back in the mix.  I’d like work my way up to do a long swim (90 mins – approximately race distance) and a shorter lunch swim (30-ish mins) each week.  I don’t think I’ll be able to throw any more effort at this sport this cycle, but I think that will suffice.

I need to keep on weights 2x per week.  This is non-negotiable.  The last thing I want to do is break down like I did last year.  This is my broccoli.  I have to eat it if I want dessert (triathlon).

Two benchmarks I’d like to hit are a) a 100 mile ride/1 hour run brick and b) a 10k swim by the end of this month.  We’ll see how my fitness cooperates!

I usually run streak January.  Obviously I won’t be doing that this year, but instead, I’ll probably tri-streak – at least 15 mins of running, biking, or swimming every day.

oct24-1

I imagine if you want to spend some non-triathlon QT with me in Feb/March, I’ll be wearing spandex and probably smelling bad.  Approved activities include: shoveling food in my mouth, giving me massages, movie marathons where I get the comfortable seat, and drinking a little whiskey with me before I fall asleep sitting up.

February and March: eat sleep work run bike swim

This is the most speculative part of training.  It’s going to depend on a) how I’m feeling and b) how my training has gone thus far.

I know how much I can tolerate normally – I can rock about 10-12 hours a week (for a few weeks at a time with a rest week on the horizon) without bending my life around.  I’m pretty sure that’s not quite enough to succeed and feel prepared for an Ironman.  I know I’ll need to be doing 4-6 hour rides every week and at this point, start adding some 3-4 hour runs and that’s almost my weekly average in those two workouts.  For these two months, my life will have to bend around my sport.  Eat sleep work train.

Hopefully by this time, my body has absorbed the biking mileage and six hours on a bike is just what you do on a weekend day.  The long run/ride combo is a conundrum though.  For 70.3 training, I’ll typically do my long run Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  That works out well up to about 2-2.5 hours which is conveniently how long I need to run.  I’ve done a 3 hour run after work and it’s not bad, but Zliten hates it.  I do not relish the idea of getting up at 4am to run for 4 hours before work, especially in the cold.  That leaves the typical Saturday long run/Sunday long ride, which sucks too because you get to relax for all of a few hours on Sunday before getting up to do it all again.

I think the goal will be to alternate these things.  Sacrifice one weekend for the longest run and shortest ride on the schedule.  Do one weekday evening long run (which will be decent IM training anyway since the run is late in the day).  Do one weekday morning long run (this will be good HTFU training for me).  And then, one week, do the “long Saturday” workout (2.4 mile swim, break, 100 mile bike, break, 1 hour run) and then rest and repeat again in March.

I will aim to do two 20 mile runs in this cycle, and let’s be honest – there’s very little chance I’m going to run a marathon non-stop after 8+ hours of activity beforehand.  So, my plan is to do these with the run/walk action which I plan to do the race.  I’m thinking I’ll walk .1 and run the rest of the mile to simulate walking through aid stations and a little after.  I don’t think I’ll be PRing my marathon here, but I do think I can hold a respectable clip if I’m smart about it.

kerrville

Already imagining that finish line… the things we do for a medal and all the crappy pizza you can eat, right?

April will be taper and I plan to do it just like Austin 70.3, start with a rest week, then 50% max volume, and then short stuff to stay sharp the week of and then holy crap, I’ll be racing an Ironman. 142 days to go!

I’m sure I’ll look back on this in four months and laugh at something I said here, because plans always change.  However, I think these shifting focus through the cycle will help me eat the proverbial elephant of Ironman training one bite at a time instead of being like how the eff am I going to run twenty miles and also ride for many, many hours both in the same week?  For now, let’s go ride bikes, shall we?

sept15-1

That’s the answer to most of life’s problems, after all…

Hurling turkeys, bike adventures, and all the holiday things.

By

On November 29, 2016

In Uncategorized

Right now, I’m in the proverbial second half of the 70.3 run, or the last 10k of the marathon – survival mode.  I decided to pool my vacation days for almost a month off in December, which will be AWESOME once it gets here, but very stressful getting everything ready to go enjoy that.  Light.  Tunnel.  Getting there.  But, since I have a spare moment, I wanted to write about a few things I’ve been up to.

nov29-3

Hurling turkeys isn’t as bad as it seems…

Since we weren’t running a marathon like normal, we signed up to do the Thundercloud Turkey Trot downtown Austin.  25k people registered = 25k people in traffic going to exactly one spot, so we finally made good about our idea to cycle down and back.  It took approximately 75 minutes to do that and I’m pretty sure it would have taken longer to drive, sit in traffic, park, and do the reverse once the race was over.  And… bikes!!!

The ride was a little chilly on the way down, but with gloves, three layers on top, and leg warmers on the bottom, I survived, which is good recon for longer rides in the winter.  This is new territory, folks!  It was a nice, chill, mostly-downhill 8-ish miles there as a warmup, we got the benefit of bike valet which meant a bag check (when the race wasn’t offering it), and we had plenty of time to tinker around before lining up.

My goal was to race this as hard as I could, because, why not?  I lined up, was feeling my music, and crossed the start ready to play parkour with a billion other people.  I did that up the first (pretty much mile long) hill, and hit low 9-something once my garmin beeped the first split.  I felt kind of terrible but in that “I just ran really fast up a hill” way, and had faith that when the course flattened out, I could catch my breath a sec and rock it out.

Once the course flattened out, instead, I got hit by the worst cramp I’ve ever had.  I’m still not 100% sure if it was girlie time fun or something bad I ate fun, or just a twisted amalgamation of both fusing together to cause me agony, but it was ROUGH.  I convinced myself that “fuck it, I had less than 4 miles left, race through it”, but soon after I started feeling dizzy and dizzy is not something we ignore.  I pretty much stopped in the sea of people (sorry, I hate when people do that), and started shuffling.

Thankfully Zliten had caught up and found me just as I was pulling over to the side.  I sat for a bit, searing pain and dizziness not letting up.  I convinced myself I needed to get up and walk to the aid station, so we started… and then I had to pull over on the side of the road and be sick.  This is not only the first time this has happened to me during a race… but I’ve never hurled during a workout either.  But here I was, mostly collapsed on the side of the road, heaving into the grass.  I pretty much thought I was going to die.

Zliten and the nice officer right there (sorry guy!) kept asking me if I wanted medical.  I couldn’t envision going anywhere but that little patch of dewy grass right then, I said no and kept allowing more my breakfast to rejoin the earth.  Oddly enough, after whatever needed to work itself out of my system was gone, I sat up and everything felt, like, magically better.  We tried walking and it was fine.  Once we were up the hill and to an aid station for some liquid, I said we should try running again.

I certainly didn’t break any records with the rest of the race, but we clipped along at a 10-something minute mile chatty pace.  I felt like my brain was packed with a little cotton by the end, but I really think I just needed some calories since I was really and truly empty.  One hour, four minutes, some seconds official race time – for 1 great mile, 1 terrible and terribly long mile with about a 10 minute break and some walking, and 3 joggy miles.

After the race, we hung out with our friends for a while, and then we rode bikes home (uphill) and had a wonderful turkey day with family eating all the things and playing cards.  It was a total blip on the radar, about 15 minutes of sheer agony, but totally not a day-ender.

In retrospect, it’s great Ironman training.  I’m sure that at some point, something will be wrong with my digestive system during that 14-17 hours.  I’ve never had my stomach go THAT rogue on me before, but it’s a situation I’ll be prepared for if it happens.  In general terms of discomfort, everything in that moment was terrible.  I not only didn’t want to finish the race, but I wanted someone to come pick me up and carry me to a car and drive me home at that point.  Then, less than 10 minutes later I was walking, and then, less than 20 minutes later, I was running comfortably.  It’s about managing the dark spots to get back to the bright ones, no matter how dark they feel in the moment.

nov29-2

Granger Lake bike adventures…

It’s been a month since I rode anything of distance or consequence, and we got an invite to ride bikes around the Granger Lake area, so it was time to get reacquainted with evilbike and friends.  Zliten, Matt, and I took off from his in-law’s house before 9am and rode into the wind which was somehow coming from every direction (as it tends to do in the Texas country).  We took turns pulling and chatting and got a little lost (extra miles!) and enjoyed a morning of bikes.

It was a super pleasant ride.  Once we got used to the blustery day and got a little warmed up, the layers I had on were perfect (jacket, sleeves, short sleeved jersey, bibs with leg warmers).  We stopped a few times to get pictures of things and eat snacks and stash layers and stuff.  We flew down the nice flat dam road at 20+ mph for fun, but that was really, by and large, the only EFFORT (captial E) we made that day.

It’s nice that 60 miles is not the edge of my fitness right now.  The edge of my comfortable fitness, sure.  My quads had a bit of that long ride sting.  My hands were shot from chipseal.  But honestly, I was more concerned for Matt being late to his Thanksgiving meal (which ended up delayed until SEVEN THIRTY, so no worries about rolling in just before 2pm) than dying to get off my bike.

I did the stupid shit I do the last quarter of small group rides where I speed up and think I’m pulling everyone but end up dropping them and having to wait because slowing down at the end of a bike ride LITERALLY MAKES ME DIE INSIDE for some reason.  Joel and I raced down a 30 mph street trying to beat the speed limit around 50 miles in.  I intentionally fell off the nutrition at the end so I would fade a little but with proper fueling I think I would have been up for more.  I think I’m mentally and physically ready to start pushing the kind of bike mileage needed to train for the Ironman and that makes me happy.

nov29-1

We need a little Christmas, like right this very minute…

Normally, I’m a big fan of keeping the holidays kind of low key until real close to the day of.  No Christmas shit until after Thanksgiving, and frankly, since we normally head to Florida the day after turkey day, it’s a while until we’re fully ensconced in the holidays.

This year is different.  I feel like we really need it.  Like *I* really need it.  So, we bought wrapping paper 9 days ago and I didn’t even flinch at the massive set up at Big Lots.  We set up the star showers the night before Thanksgiving.  I’ve got most of my shopping done already and a lot of it wrapped.  We have our lights and tree up, and it’s halfway decorated (and the iguana has already broken ornaments).  We’re watching the shows we normally watch during the season.  It all feels so right.

The great thing about it being the holiday season and in the 70s?  Holiday light rides.  We spent an hour winding down every street in the neighborhood looking at lights.  We may or may not have gotten in the spirit ourselves as well (see above for the setup).  I’m aware we’re ridiculous and make zero apologies and give zero fucks.

And… such is life.  Back to the push of the last few miles productive days of the race year.  I know I’m going to finish survive, I just need to keep my head in the game and get there.

 

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About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

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