Adjusted Reality

Tag: #projectraceweight Page 13 of 20

Invisible Things

On May 8, 2017

If something exists that bothers me, but I don’t really want to prioritize doing anything about it, I can usually make it disappear. This works on objects, like the dirty half spilled cat litter box in the garage that had been sitting there since when it was cold enough to put the cat inside at night.

Lumpy space princess is not a good look for me.

This also works on mental things as well – for example, during heavy training cycles, I can almost completely ignore the emotional attachment to what’s going on with the scale. Once you remove the “so there’s a few lumps but we’re going to go bike 100 miles today so who cares?” aspect about life, it’s really hard to not look in the mirror and be really negative and nasty to myself about it. I’m trying to be patient, I’m trying to be kind, but everything just feels so far away from where I want to be right now.

And oh, the patience part of it is SO HARD. At least when you’re doing a super tough multi-hour run, you have the direct power to progress it forward. You’re doing something. Right now, my body feels and looks like such a mess in so many ways it’s just not cool and the BEST thing I can do isn’t something, but NOT do something. I can NOT eat a bunch of crap and fill it with too much alcohol. I can NOT just jump back into multi-hour efforts and keep my workouts short.

That’s ok, I thought, I’ll just convert all that volume over to speed. Short and NOT so sweet. Then, I tried to do a splash and dash at the gym expo thingee and I was busting ass to keep my run speed in the 11s for 1 kilometer. ONE. I’ve ran marathons that felt less difficult at about the same pace. In fairness, this was after a little man kicked my ass in 45 minutes with some drumsticks in a class, I did a 750m all out row (3m13sec, not bad!), and then tried halfheartedly to do some standup paddleboard yoga on shaky and tired legs, but STILL. I honestly thought my garmin was broken.

Scenes from #pureaustinexpo17 – I want that bowl for breakfast EVERY DAY.

So, I really did spend all my cash on race day and now I’m living paycheck to paycheck and I need to calm my shit if I ever want to have a savings account again. This is SO different than last year’s offseason where I didn’t want to touch a bike for 2 months, I am just so mentally fired up to DO STUFF that it’s excruciating that my body is taking so long to get with the program. I’m unfairly comparing myself to where I was last year this time – after two months of offseason. I’ve now just passed two weeks.

One of the coaches at our gym also did IM Texas and looked at us crazy when we told her even the little we’ve been doing. She said she’s on pizza and beer for AT LEAST another two weeks. So, fine. I’m done with the pizza part of the equation, I need to watch what I’m eating because I refuse to gain any MORE weight, a reasonable, healthy human amount of light-moderate activity sounds like where I’m at right now. Walking for an hour. Riding bikes to work or on our recovery ride. Swimming a lap or two around the lake. Paddleboards and kayaks. Lighter strength workouts. Longer and harder efforts and I need to take some time apart, for our own good.

And I need to have faith that my body will let me know when it’s ready for more. It’s killing me to have my season end just as tri season is ramping up and watching my teammates and friends crush races just stokes the fire to get RECOVERED already and back up and out there. However, Saturday taught me it will not end well unless I give myself the time and space to do this the right way. It’s just hard and I feel like such a weenie.

At least I’m an Ironweenie.

So, last week I did these things:

One rowing/weights/stretching session (45m)
One 18 mile BSS ride (1h30m)
One mile swim in the lake (30m)
All the crap at the expo (2h30m)

I also walked at least 10k steps each day (an average of about 14.6k actually).

This is definitely the maximum effort I want to be at right now and I’ll probably be dialing it back a little bit this week. I’m not going to put up a plan because I’m not there yet, but I’m sure I’ll ride bikes a bit, I probably won’t be able to resist the lake being perfect right now at least once this week, I’ll continue to completely ignore running (we’re definitely not on speaking terms after Saturday), and if I feel good later in the week, some light strength work.

Let’s also talk about the realization about how that silly little sticks class kicked my ass. Of course I’m probably not going to do stuff like that regularly during season, but it opened my eyes a bit. Ironman training makes you super strong in so many ways, but it makes you so WEAK in others. If I want to be a more well rounded human and overly stronger, more stable, and functional athlete, I need to do things besides all the miles of run/bike/swim. To that end, I’m hoping to incorporate some of those types of activities that move my body in different ways over the next few months.

With the nutrition side of things, I’m feeling kind of the same way.

At least I’m cooking up some real foods now that have plants in them, so that’s a step in the right direction.

My mind is ready to cut calories down because oh my stars, I’m ready to start trying to shed some of this unfortunate weight, but I have to make sure I’m allowing myself to actually recover as well and trying to completely underfeed myself would not help me accomplish this end. I started tracking my food last week, and it went… okay. I managed to keep approximately a 5000 calorie deficit per fitbit with minimal pain and suffering and my weight stabilized at 189.5. My appetite is beginning to behave itself, with moments of rebellion.

I’m trying to stay away from a barrage of junk food, drinking plenty of water, and actually quite trying to slowly replace all the carbs all the time with more fruit and veggies, starting with snacks. I’m back to desert being described as something you have a small amount once or twice a week vs multiple times per day. I’ve had the same bag of pretzels for two weeks now and there are no other salty snacks around. My meals are similar, but I’m only eating three of them per day and I’m trying to gravitate towards the more filling ones for the calories because other than plant type snacks, that’s it for the day.

The last thing on the list is our friend alcohol. I was actually able to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo with tacos and margaritas (homemade for both so they were lower calorie) for the first time in years because I didn’t have some sort of crazy training reason I had to be up super early. It’s been nice to have a glass of wine here, a beer there, and not worry about how I was going to utterly fuck up tomorrow’s training. If I actually want to make weight loss progress, I’m going to have to ration this eventually, but we’re still in the “hang loose” phase of this particular adventure for another few weeks. Track and healthify the food, but enjoy some drinkies.

Sunday was a full on triathlon with volunteering, cleaning up, and a movie. T1 was chillin’ on the couch with a beer and T2 was dinner and some wine.

My mood and energy level definitely perked up a bit this week. There was gaming with friends. We went to go see a movie (Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – which I HIGHLY recommend and think might be my favorite Marvel movie so far). We volunteered at Rookie Tri. We had an early Mothers Day celebration with the in laws after busting our butts at the expo. The week before, I think I left the house ONCE on Saturday for a few hours but that was it for plans besides a recurring date with my couch and netflix. It was exactly what I needed, but it’s too pretty outside to make a habit of that!

We also reached the advanced beginner level of adulting! I didn’t get that haircut, but I was able to finally CLEAN THE EFFING CAR and we got it washed and I’m dropping it off tonight to be serviced. We finally made a Costco trip, and bought and installed outdoor lighting we’ve been talking about forever. Additionally, we did a pretty good job picking up of the house, and cleaned out and blew the leaves out of the garage. We cooked garlic shrimp pasta with asparagus and spinach, cilantro cajun turkey with rice and veggies, and chicken tacos.

Next week is all about moi. I can’t do much about my body feeling lumpy, inflamed, and bloated, but I can make myself the best version of me I can.

Haircut! …and after I get it done, consider using hairdye for the first time in about 15 years. Part of the BLEH I look terrible is my hair and the cut will probably take care of it, but part of me isn’t sure about the Frankenstein’s bride thing I have going on in the front with the grey streak.
Pluck my eye caterpillars.
Redo my toes and maybe even my nails.
Pick up after sun care stuff, because my beloved Clinique is almost out after 4 years of using it…

Maybe more if I get antsy but I’m definitely not ready to graduate to Intermediate level adulting just yet.

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The Aftermath

By Quix

On May 3, 2017

In Uncategorized

The week after the Ironman was not quite what I expected.

Always expect margaritas though…

I expected to be more tired and sore. Not to say that I wasn’t, but it was maybe like third-or-fourth-worst-sore-marathon level and not get-me-a-wheelchair level. Steps were hard for about 2 days, but that was it. I was more mentally out of it… the day after, I spent 4 hours sitting by the pool kind of staring off into space, not reading, talking much, or anything, just sort of existing. The extreme tireds caught up pretty quick once the caffiene in the coca cola, the race excitement, and the booze benders wore off. I have spent quite a few 12 hour+ nights in bed with reading and sleeping combined.

I expected to spend the week sort of in a happy, post-IM bubble. The day we got back, we had to say goodbye to our little old man schneider skink Lump. It wasn’t a surprise because he’s not been doing so well, but he went way downhill while we were gone and it was time. That, plus a bunch of other shitty shit happened last week and I felt like I needed a do-over. However, the weekend combined leisurely lunches out, getting a few things done that were nagging at me (but not too many things so it didn’t feel like a hassle), and a whole lot of vegging on the couch binge watching Netflix. We finally drank our post-race champagne on Sunday and I wore my damn medal and screamed YOU ARE AN IRONMAN a lot. I felt redeemed.

I expected to be a LOT hungrier. I definitely didn’t limit my portions and may have wanted a full ‘nother meal after my reasonably sized lunch two days after, but I felt less compelled to eat like an asshole because Ironman training actually let me kinda eat that way already. I actually had vegetables and fruits last week in decent quantities. By three days out, I split a burger between two meals because it was too much food. I know when I nail my nutrition in training I’m way less hungry afterward, so this is perhaps confirmation I did just that at the race.

Plenty of foods but I wore my wetsuit and my bike helmet as well.

I expected to want weeks away from my goggles, my bike, and my running shoes. We rode bikes with the group on Wednesday and it felt good, but 18 miles was PLENTY. We swam with the tri team in the lake on Friday, but once around the quarry (750m) was enough. 25 minutes on the cruiser to lunch and groceries on Saturday in the heat and the wind tuckered me out. The will is there, but the body is definitely saying that short bouts a couple times a week are the way to go.

I expected my knee to hurt more. It’s not been completely pain free, but since the day after, it’s hurt less than any point 2 weeks before the race. I have no idea what brought it on, like AT ALL, and I have no idea why doing an Ironman made it feel BETTER, but I’m still giving it enough space (read: no running or heavy lifting until after vacation) to repair itself.

I expected some weird body stuff, but not quite what I’ve experienced. I still feel like a bag of water, literally almost sloshy, STILL a week and a half later. The inflammation is real with this one, and this week I’m going to take steps to actually try and FIX it instead of probably aggravating it more with junk food and drinking beer and whiskey like water (and forgetting to actually drink water). I’m hoping its working it’s way out because I have to pee like ALLLLL the time and it’s getting old. Also – doing an Ironman makes you hair grow. Literally. I had an INSANE amount of stubble on my legs the day after, like a week’s worth, and it had been 2.5 days. Weirdest thing ever.

I might have bought all the merch like I’d never be back but… hurrrr…. I *really* want to do another one after I get ~~all~~ some of my life shit together…

I expected to be more one-and-done, or at least not wanting to do another one of these for a long time, but then again, I haven’t at any other race distance so I’m not sure why. I really do feel a draw to do this one again. That finish line is addictive. Not next year because I have other priorities, but maybe 2019? 2020? Definite possibilities.

I expected to have a little more oomph to get stuff done last week, but I always expect that and it never happens. I was lucky to just do a basic level of adulting. I might be an advanced beginner adult this week. I’m adjusting my expectations here and I’ll work on getting to the intermediate/advanced level (read: the big to do list with appointments and house stuff and other projects, oh my) once I’m back from vacation.

So, it’s been about a week and a half. I am definitely feeling a little of the post Ironman blues because I had absolutely zero things scheduled starting April 23rd. This was totally intentional for a lot of reasons, but I expected to welcome the break a little more than I actually am right now. It is completely unreasonable, but I kind of wish I was ready to jump on the swim/bike/run train. The Ironman marketing team are evil geniuses because today I got an email telling me to NOT let my training die and sign up for IM Boulder this summer. Argh, yes, that sounds great!!!

But no. I need to face some other things. As weird as it sounds, it sounds WAYYY more comfortable right now to jump right back into 12-15 hour weeks and ignoring the rest of my life. Hopefully, that will pass soon as I remember what it’s like to have my identity not tied to Ironman for a while. As I get over the hump of “I’ve eaten healthy and counted calories for 24 hours, why have I not lost 15 lbs yet?”. As I remember that it’s actually pretty awesome to just be a person who is active for the fun of it (and maybe sometimes to earn a little extra food) and not just because it’s on the training plan.

So, week one was really just surviving + a small amount of activity. How about week two?

Definitely bikes. Because always bikes.

I’m back to tracking food and weighing myself. No specific calorie goal this week, just get back in the habit and try to keep it reasonable for my activity level. To be honest, I logged my weight the last three mornings without my glasses on so I couldn’t see it, but I ended up checking it out today and it’s not *quite* as bad as it could be (189.8 which is about 3lbs up but also 5% more bodyfat/bloat than a month ago). It’s time to shift my eating to mostly fruit and veggies and lean proteins and some grains and eschew the things that have fake orange coloring and come in a plastic tub or crinkly bag.

Water, water, water. I know this will help with feeling like a water weenie, it’s just haaaaaaard when I don’t really focus on it. My goal is to have four 24-oz Polar bottles independent of anything I drink while/directly after exercise. So far this week I’ve done pretty well.

Still on the “whatever, whenever” plan but I’d like to do some of these things:

Ride bikes with friends.
Get to the lake to Sup or kayak or even maybe swim.
Foam roll and stretch a few times.
Spend 15-20 mins doing some bodyweight exercises 1-2 times this week
Attend the Pure Austin Expo and play.
But most importantly, 10k steps per day. I slacked on it this week. I need to be taking my 2-3 walks per day at work and maybe one in the evenings if I don’t have enough steps.

In terms of goals and to dos, I’d like to do a little bit more than surviving I did last week:

Get a haircut. It’s time. I waited until after the race so I didn’t have to worry about an awkward cut that wouldn’t ponytail, but I am definitely in need of my annual shearing.
Clean out the Prius and get it washed (or wash it ourselves). It’s been on my list since January, and we did the Xterra last weekend. It would be nice to tick this one off the list so we can…
Schedule an appointment next week to take it in for it’s 60k service. It’s only 2k overdue. 😛
Gaming on Monday, early mother’s day on Saturday, volunteering for Rookie Tri on Sunday.

Since I’m still operating at the advanced beginner level of adulting, however, I’ll cut myself some slack if I don’t get to everything.

2017 Goals, Habits, Practices, and To Dos.

By Quix

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.

jacks5

…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…

sept28-3

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?

Jul28-1

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

June14-4

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

By Quix

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.

leahbike

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

kerrville

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.

oct4-7

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:

nov4-1

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.

nov29-3

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:

dec29-1

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.

15493449_10154818521334450_3813824915920513684_o

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:

sept28-1

#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)

sept19-2

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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The magical growing shirts from last August

By Quix

On August 18, 2016

In Uncategorized

Last August, I went thrift store shopping and bought a bunch of shirts. Like, a metric boatload. It’s REALLY fun to do that when they all cost, like, 3 bucks. I was super excited to be able to refresh my closet. Some of the shirts went beyond the typical ironic or triathlon related t-shirts I typically wear, and made me look a little more (just a little bit) like a grown up. Not that I need that on a daily basis, but it’s kind of nice to be able to wake up and decide if I want to look 12 or more than 12.

Aug18-1

One of said new-not-new shirts.

Sadly, due to the great nutrition experiment failure of 2015, most of those shirts had shrank so much that I couldn’t comfortably wear them by mid-September. It was pretty crazy depressing to have gained that much in a month. So, for almost a whole year, I have been staring at a bunch of shirts that didn’t quite fit that I’ve never worn.

Zliten, who has also lost a bunch of weight, decided to start wearing his size Large shirts after I continued to tease him about how his XL shirts were looking like tents. Or mumus. Or mumu printed tents. Now, he is at the point where he’s just a few lbs away from his goal. I am… somewhere in the middle of this process. I’ve got a long way to go to get to the same point. However, I figured I owed it to myself to try the same.

Oddly enough, those shirts have sat there long enough that they have grown again to their previous size. Who knew that 5 months of working on weight loss would have that effect?

I still am cranky that it has taken me 5 months to undo this. I still am cranky that the numbers say I should be losing about 8 lbs a month and I’m losing 2-3. However, seeing the pictures I don’t hate, seeing myself in the mirror with a smile and not a grimace, seeing the progress even if it’s slow? It’s worth it.

Mar7-3

Feeling a lot different than this girl from March even if it’s only ~15 lbs or so difference.

I’ve accepted a lot of things in this process.

For some reason, I’m always going to need to stick to the -1000 calories to make any sort of progress. My body just seems to process calories differently than the fitbit thinks, the nutritionist thinks, that logic dictates. I’ve read some studies about losing a bunch of weight, and how your body actually burns less calories overall. While my nutritionist told me that was bull honkey, I think that math seems to back it up in my case.

I’ve accepted that I will probably be at this for a long time, and I should just stay the course because it takes so long to get rolling once I stop. While I’d love to have been able to diet for 4 months of offseason and have gotten to race weight, it’s just not how it goes for me. I have to track my food. I have to maintain a deficit that is small enough to still train but large enough to make a difference. I have to be patient, persistent, and relentless.

I’m going to probably not be able to come up to 100% form this year. Last year, I felt a big change between maintaining a deficit and eating enough, or more calories than I needed. I don’t feel very different right now, but that’s because I’ve been doing this for months. I *know* that once I’m done with the weight loss, and I bring my calories up, my performance will increase a bit automatically. I have to be kind to myself when I fail to hit run paces I think should be easy, because they will come easier when it’s time.

I need to remember that the time to skimp on food is NOT before, during, or after a workout. Yeah, it’s more fun to eat pizza than it is to eat cyborg boob milk gels, but unless I can either eat the pizza as pre- or mid-ride fuel, or consume that pizza within an hour of my workouts, it’s not doing me much good. My workout sucks, and instead of being able to use that fuel to power a workout, it powers it’s way to my adipose.

Aug2-3

This would have gone straight to the thighs… except it was at hour 2 of a 5 hour bike ride. So it actually went straight to the quads (in a good way).

I also need to realize that I’m in the danger zone right about now. This is what always happens. I make some progress, I’m feeling good about myself. I want to lose more weight, but I no longer hate the mirror, some of my clothes fit… and I loosen up on tracking. I can see it starting already. I haven’t tracked since yesterday afternoon. I’ve totally been busy, but obviously not so busy as I’m writing this blog. This is the way that progress ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper.

On that note, off to track, off to be persistent, patient, and relentless, and maybe I’ll be able to find that the next size down shirts have also magically grown again.

Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: #projectraceweight Page 13 of 20

Invisible Things

The Aftermath

2017 Goals, Habits, Practices, and To Dos.

2016: #projectspring, #goplayoutside, and #ridingbikes

The magical growing shirts from last August

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