Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: #projectraceweight Page 15 of 20

Chronicles of Summer

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On July 5, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s a little harder to love the outdoors when the heat index is trying to kill you on the daily, but I’m still doing my best.

Bikes:

Jul5-2

Friday morning bikey bike commute time!

It’s hot as balls outside (right now, it’s feels like 111!!!), but on the bike, it feels… ok.  Until you stop.  Then the heat comes crashing down on you like a flaming mack truck… but the actual biking parts feel great!

I’m pretty sure in 2015, I cycled outside mayyybe 15 times?  I’d have to look it up, but it’s a decent approximation because during tri season I’d make sure to ride outside at least every other week on Saturdays and otherwise I wouldn’t.  Well, I’ve done at least that many outdoor rides in the last month.  Yay bikes!  Yay playing outside!

Jul5-1

Tire, you’re doing it wrong…

In fact – this happened to us on Thursday, and we’re just getting it repaired now.  We definitely keep a low mileage profile lately.  Shame the insurance doesn’t really give discounts for not driving a car much.  I think their lowest rate was for 10-12k per year.  We don’t usually get half that, in fact, our 3.5 year old Xterra just hit 11k miles.

Holiday, Celebrate:

My fourth of July weekend was pretty badass.  It started with an almost 2 mile swim and 4 mile run under the noontime ball of death.  After recovering from the feels like 102-105 temps on that run sucking down liquids under the AC, we meandered our way into the Texas countryside to a friend’s holiday bash.  That is, after a false start in which we forgot our food at home and had to turn around when we were halfway there.  Oopsie.

Jul5-4

Oh no.  Had to look at these views for longer.  Aw, shucks.

After the mishap was rectified and we got our tent set up, we spent the evening grilling, drinking punch, catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a while, and tons of time in the pool.  Since we were the most sober ones (???), we got recruited to run “front of the house” (aka, the smaller fireworks like fountains and roman candles) while the other guys put on the big booms further away.  I’ve never done fireworks before, just watched.  It was fun!  We only had a few close calls, and everyone made it out with all eyes and appendages intact.  Success!

Jul5-5

Since I was helping put on the actual show and not snapping pics, here’s some kids (big and small) playing with sparklers before.

We spent the rest of the night playing beer pong, chupacabra dice, and more pool time.  And then holy crap it was way, way too late, so we crashed for a few hours in the tent before taking it all down again, and cooling off in the pool again before we headed home because the weather already wanted to kill us at 9:30am.  Yay Summer?

Sunday and Monday were pretty mellow.  We stayed around the house, slept, relaxed, caught up on class and chores, and other boring, responsible, but necessary things.  However, for the first time ever, we made it out to our neighborhood’s parade and joined in with our bikes.

Jul5-3

T-rex appreciated that we made it to play papparazi.

Training Week One:

Last week was a pretty decent embarkation into an actual schedule.  We aren’t popping out of bed at sunrise or anything, but it’s getting easier to set the alarm with something starting with 7.  Doing the noontime or evening runs are killer, but 1-2 of those shorties a week need to stay on the schedule until I conquer the feels-like-hot-as-balls heat index shit.

Jul5-7

This is what happens when you’ve stopped sweating and start getting goosebumps on a run, but aren’t willing to see 11 min/mile average pace.  😛

Week one of training summary:

  • Monday: lunch swim (~1200m in 22 mins, a few fast 50s in there), PM weights (45 mins)
  • Tuesday: morning run (3 miles in about 35 mins), bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Wednesday: PM brick with the BSS team (~13 miles in 44 mins rode, 1.7 miles in 18 mins ran)
  • Thursday: Heavy arms/abs, light leg weights (45 mins)
  • Friday: Bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Saturday: Swim challenge (3000m open water swim), hot noontime run (4 miles in 43:55)
  • Sunday: NADA.  Couch.

Summary: a little less than I had anticipated, I’m missing one 45 min trainer ride on the tri bike, but I commuted twice instead of the once I had planned.  I’m a-ok with 7 hours of outdoor heat acclimation summer goodness.

Week two’s plan:

  • Monday: weights at home (30 mins)
  • Tuesday: 2 mile morning run, 20 min pool swim, return to endurance cycle class
  • Wednesday: 2 mile run AM, weights at lunch, recovery ride with BSS
  • Thursday: 5-6 mile run AM
  • Friday: 20-30 min swim (AM, lunch, PM, wherever it fits)
  • Saturday: 20+ mile tri bike ride, 1-2 mile brick after
  • Sunday: Probably NADA.  Couch again.

I’ll probably bike commute one or two of these days as well (maybe Thursday and/or Friday), and with that, it’s looking like about 9 hours of goodness.  It’s a little jump from last week’s schedule, so if something falls off, it probably won’t be the end of the world.

Food stuff, scale stuff:

Jul5-6

Pork + udon noodle soup + onions and cilantro = love.  Stir fry accompanies this for extra veggie love.

Holiday weekends are always rough to be super healthy awesomesauce, but I didn’t do too badly.

I made a big batch of pasta veggie salad to bring to the party, as well as a lower calorie drink option (vodka, diet sprite, diet juice punch).  I ended up eating a SHIT TON of queso and chips too, but I looked at my calorie burn that day and my -1000 number to hit was about 2500 calories.  Thank you, return to training.  So… I think it worked out okay.

I had some stomach issues on Sunday, and couldn’t keep food down, so while it’s not the healthiest way to maintain your waistline, it did keep me from overeating. Or, errr, eating more than maybe 500 calories of the simplest digestible foods, I’m ok with that not happening again for a long time.

Monday, I ate pretty well, and batch cooked some food for the week and oatmeal fruit bars.  I switched out the fruit for just peaches and used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, but… they rock paired with some greek yogurt for protein.  It’s nice to have something different for breakfast for a change!

I didn’t actually track my calories (back to it today), but my weight is about where I would expect it to be with that time of the month it is.  If all continues to go well, I predict July to be the month of 170-something, even on the mean white scale.

Speaking of mean while scales, we got some body fat calipers to play with, and while the scale measures me at something stupid like 41% body fat, the calipers have me more like ~25%, which puts me somewhere around the healthy range for females in their 30s.  Which sounds more reasonable.  While I am not a size 0 or anything, I am pretty fit and carry a lot of muscle, and don’t think I’m almost 50% body fat.

This week, I don’t have a whole lot of crazy going out planned, and a lot of good food ready made at home, so I expect it to be a pretty successful week on the “noms” front.

Jul5-8

On that note, I’ll leave y’all with our “trash panda” making off with Nacho Cat’s food, and bid you a lovely (short) week!

 

Lake Pflugerville Triathlon

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On June 22, 2016

In Uncategorized

The last few years, I’ve ended offseason with a race.  While I’m not *quite* there yet, this was definitely what you would call a “rust buster” as in I haven’t raced a triathlon in about 9 months, since my disastrous Kerrville Tri cramps-n-crash-n-burn.  It’s always exciting to toe the line (or the beach in this case) with more questions than answers.  How is my base fitness (aka – what’s left after slacking for 3 months)?  How is my mental game?  Am I healed or is there still residual ick in there?  Can I handle my new bike well?  Do I remember how to pee anywhere else besides a porta potty?

June22-3

Spoiler alert: I peed in the lake.

Saturday was an epic family cookout.  Normally, I’d be worried about being on my feet so much, but I am used to the 10k++ steps per day and don’t have a lot of residual fatigue, so it was fine.  I slept well this week, but I slept terribly before the triathlon.  Not for any real reason, I just kept waking up because Zliten was fidgeting (usually I sleep through any of that like a rock) and my book was interesting and I’m not used to an 8:30pm bedtime.

Race morning alarms are what they are, so at 5am, I was up and at ’em.  I had a belvita with some almond butter and grabbed some caff chews for later.  We puttered around all morning, I didn’t get a warmup run but I did get a warmup swim, and I porta pottied like a champ and peed in the lake.  I went from wheee, we’re doing a race… to WHEEEEEEEEEE! RACE!!! over the course of consuming my caff chews, so all was well with the enthusiasm.  I sent Zliten and Matt off to race, cheered them into T1, and then five thousand minutes later, I tucked into my wave and got going.

Jun22-1

I call this one Sunrise over Expensive Bicycles.

Swim:

I sized up my wave and thought… ok… I can take most of these ladies on the swim and bike at least.  I lined up close to the front and found a lane and swam.  I intentionally kept it about 3 gears below redline.  I’m not swim trained right now, and I had no idea how taxing a the full race would be on my endurance at this point in time, and the last thing I wanted to do was blow up.  I concentrated on smooth long strokes, avoiding ALL THE FUCKING PRICKLY PLANTLIFE (and failing), and staying at the decent-effort-but-not-gasping pace.

I’d say I did well.  I ended up getting out of the water 5th in my age group, and besides a slight rookie mistake of not swimming in far enough, I’m happy.  It’s an average time for me for this race, about 15 seconds off my best, and that’s all I can ask for at this moment in time.

Swim: 11:28/500m (it was long – I came out with 600 yards). 5/21 AG

T1:

I navigated the barefoot rocky run with reasonable fearlessness.  My new aero bottle FELL off my bike when I unracked, I fumbled with one of my socks for too long, and my bike was not in the best position in transition (longer run in cleats than normal), but all in all it didn’t suck too, too badly.  I’ve had way worse first transitions of the year.

T1: 2:53

Bike:

leahbike

Coming in smiling on the Death Star, so you know it can’t have gone THAT badly… thank you Pat McCord for photographing us all!

I got out and had some n00b moments with my clips (my new cleats just aren’t playing nice with my pedals, or I’m just bad at clips, or both), and then got going and ahhhhhhh.  When you don’t have to stop or dodge traffic or anything, this bike is like BUTTER.  Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass.  Since I swam well, I only got one or maybe two people in my age group here, but being in one of the last waves means (glass half empty) dodging around EVERYONE and (glass half full) getting the rush of passing so many people.

Everything went well except for a few things.  One – this girl and I were going about the same pace, and I could tell she was a newbie (a very fit newbie but a newbie).  I would try to pass her, get a little ahead, but she would stay on my wheel and not fall back.  Typically, you leapfrog with someone your same pace, they pass you, you recover a bit, pass them back, then later they pass you, etc.  It’s nice.  This was not.

Second – new bike had me all kerfuffled.  I totally forgot how to eat even though I have this sexy aero bento box full of gels.  I meant to take one around halfway and I didn’t.  I thought I drank my full bottle of Scratch because I couldn’t get a sip and I drank less than half.  No matter how I adjust, the aero position hurts my arms (all over this time, not just the delts like when I rode on the trainer) after 10 or so minutes and that was even with playing with all sorts of position changes.

Lastly, the traffic closures were a joke.  There was a good few miles in the middle where the cars were ducking into our lane and forcing the cyclist either on the very edge of a rough country road with lots of potholes and bumps or crusing slowly behind them.  It was a huge buzzkill when all I wanted to do was FLY on the Death Star.  If I was smart, I would have used that time to take a gel but… hindsight is 20/20 and it’s hard to remember to be smart when you’re angry.

I hammered the last few miles in and when I looked at my garmin for the first time, I was actually rocking some really great speed.  I stayed in aero A LOT more than I did on the other bike, and I played with all my shifters, and while my quads and my arms ached, the rest of my legs felt way fresher than normal.

Best bike split on this course ever.  This year of bikes is starting off well and going to be the best!  Fourth in my age group and I was REALLY close to catching third.

Bike: 45:25 (garmin said moving time was 44:48 for 18.8 mph) for 14 miles 4/21 AG

T2:

Everything went according to plan except the jerkhole next to me had racked his bike right on top of my shit (and he had plennnnnnty of room) and my stuff was all in disarray.  Not my best T2 ever because of that, but this is pretty decent considering what I was working with.

T2: 1:42

Run:

Here is where it shows I have not been training.  With the swim and the bike, I don’t lose fitness really quickly and can almost pick up my training right where I leave off.  With the run, if I take more than a week or two off, my running paces significantly fall off and take a while to come back.  I haven’t run much in 3 months.  I knew this, and while I was hoping for magic race day miracles, I was planning for reality.

When I got going, I saw my pace was about 30-60 sec off what I would expect if I was trained.  No big deal.  I ignored it and kept trying to reel people in and keep my head positive.  After a mile, I checked in and yep, pace still the same, effort still feels about what I’d expect racing a sprint tri in the deathly heat (feels like upper 90s at that point), so I switched over to heart rate to monitor that instead.

It was a little on the low side (171), so I worked on shoving it up to where I know I can maintain without redlining (175) and then put on my cruise control.  It was maybe one quarter of a gear harder than I was going previously.  I didn’t have much else to give.  My pain cave is shallow right now.

The run was kind of a blur.  I remember dumping all the water over my head to stay cool and catching Raul about half a mile in and chatting for a sec, and kind of zoning out in the middle watching the little number on my watch, and then switching over to total time near the end and seeing if I could will myself to catch my PR of 1:30:30.  I sped up a little, I passed a few people, and then last year’s time ticked by, and I threw my bottle at Zliten when I saw him because I was done with it and then there was the finish.

Run time: 30:32 for 3 miles (garmin showed it a little short with a 10:29 pace) 9/21 AG

Overall time: 1:32:01, for 5/21 (top quarter) in my age group.  Top 30% of all females.  Solid top half overall because dudes are stupid fast.

June22-4

All done!  Time to go drink beer!

Do I wish I could have pulled out a PR?  Always.   But I had no business expecting it and I’m not disappointed finishing with my second best time in six years completely untrained.  I love the bike PR and how I felt out there.  I’ll take the swim.  I know I have to work for the run and I haven’t been doing that.  I’ve ran 36 miles total since the marathon.  Yes.  My mental game’s on point – I kept my head on my shoulders and didn’t blow up mentally or physically.  I made mistakes in transition (or had them made for me) but I remembered how to do all the things.  All in all, I am THRILLED with the day I had.

What’s next?  One last week of doing whatever, and then we start some actual intentional sessions with some work spiced in.  Nothing drastic, but it starts looking like a training plan instead of a social calendar. My next race is on this course in August, and I’d love to annihilate all my paces here.

Footnote: there’s a reason I’ve been avoiding these hard efforts for months.  Y’all, I was SO HUNGRY. I could not stop eating for 2 days.  If I’m going to try to continue to pursue this #projectraceweight thing a little further, I need to be REALLY smart about what I eat on days when I have long or hard efforts.  

#projectspring update

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On June 2, 2016

In Uncategorized

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

Getting my mojo back:

happy

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

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

Project race weight:

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

House Projects:

May2-1

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

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

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

Still on the list are:

  • Guest room closet
  • Office

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

On the money intensive list:

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

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

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

Biker Chick:

May23-1

I’ve been (ridin’) everywhere, man…

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

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

Website revamp:

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

Diving Pictures:

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

Camping:

Apr15-1

Home away from home for a weekend.

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

Doing Things:

may2-2

Steady now…

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

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

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

Being Crafty:

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

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

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

Apr25-4

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

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

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

The Long Slow Climb Back

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On May 31, 2016

In Uncategorized

Finally feeling a little bit of peace (so far) this week.

May31-7

Clearing your head with an hour walk when it looks like this?  Peaceful…

First of all, I feel like I can pretty much claim I’m back where I started a year ago with the adventures in nutrition.   I kinda forgot that new scale weighs heavier than old scale, so my weight right now being 183-187 means on the old scale, I’m about 181-185 (confirmed by stepping on the old scale a few times).  Average of 183.  That’s where I raced at for the beginning of tri season 2015, my average weight at the beginning of June was 182.6.  Taking stock of how I feel in my own skin… yep.  About there.  Finally!

The next step will be tackling the 5 lbs I lost last summer, between June and August, before I started training for Kerrville.  I will breathe easier once that’s behind me, I’ll have undone all the damage that crazy nutrition plan did and as my weight lowers, I’ll look at as actual progress, not just fixing a stupid mistake.  I know it might be healthier to look at ALL of this as progress, but I just can’t.  Gaining so much weight so quickly put me in a mental tailspin, and I just want it gone so I can move on.

May31-2

Achievement unlocked: having the bike handling skills to actually take a picture while riding.  Still quite don’t have the on-the-bike selfies down though…

At this point, I am definitely ready mentally, physically, and logistically to start the long slow climb back to being a triathlete.

Mentally, I think I’m unbroken.  Triathlon videos make me giddy.  I’m resisting the urge (but it’s tough) to start laying out a plan yet because I want to give myself the freedom not to stress about hitting specific workouts for another month at least.  I’m excited to bike, do weights, swim, and run (and that’s about the order of what I’m loving right now).

Physically, I feel weak and strong at the same time.  Let’s be honest, even if my mental game wasn’t in the crapper after the marathon, I needed at least 6-8 weeks of chilling the fuck out to heal that hip issue.  It’s nice not to limp anymore.  My cycling muscles are definitely not at peak or anything, but I feel capable.  I definitely feel more solid and stable overall with the weights sessions.  The swim feels a little slow and crappy but I *KNOW* that comes back quick with regular training.

The run, though.  I can’t remember feeling this out of run shape in a long time.  Yeah, it was feels like somewhere between 90-100 degrees.  Yeah, it was after the longest bike ride I’ve done in a while with some actual hard work intervals.  However, I’ve never ridden such a struggle bus to complete 2 measly running miles at 10:15/mile pace.  This will be a fun and interesting long, hard, slow climb back.

Logistically – I’m finding that logging zero official training hours leads to a greater than zero number of adult beverages being consumed most nights.   Last week, I logged 52 miles/6.5 hours of legitimate run, bike (mostly), swim, or weights time (including commuting on the cruiser bike).  This is more than I intended to do, but it all felt fun, and my body feels like it’s holding together, so we’ll roll with it.  Last week, I also had zero days of being dumb and getting 4 hours of sleep because ONE MORE DRINK.  Coincidence?  I think not.

This week, actually, this month, the goal is the same.  Log some triathlete hours with a very loose plan.  Two weights sessions.  Riding evilbike at least once, and lots of bike miles.  A few runs between 1-3 miles (once this feels easier, I’ll start increasing the distance but I am in NO HURRY since the next race I’ll need to run more than 3 miles is the end of September :P).

May31-1

Bikes = smiles.

Speaking of bikes, one big component to #projectspring was to become a biker chick.  Reading over that post, I just had ZERO clue how hard the bike bug was going to hit me and I love it.

Tuesday, we did our first commute to work and HOLY CRAP, cycling outside in the morning puts me in such a better mood than driving a car.  It’s about 20-25 mins on the bike vs about 10 in the car, so it’s rarely going to be a huge issue to take an extra 10-ish minutes each way.  I get to spend time outside both in the morning, after work, and even at lunch if we decide to do so.

I’ve really realized that there is very little of my life that cannot be on two wheels now, and it’s the best.

Tuesday, we commuted to work and back and it made me so happy all day.  Thursday, we rode to dinner.  I think it took less time to ride there than drive because of the traffic.  Blew my mind… why have I been driving across the street to get food?

Friday, we almost called off the commute because we had a swim planned after work and errands to run at lunch, but after some logistical considerations, we figured out how to make it work.  It wasn’t the most comfortable, but I had my little backpack stuffed to the gills, and Zliten wore his giant one to haul our gear.  We rode to work, to the bike shop and Whole Paycheck at lunch and made it back to work in an hour, to the gym after work to swim and run, and then home.  We racked up over 17 miles that day just bopping around town.

May31-3

Check out that sweet drink holder!

This weekend, Zliten got his bike set up with some saddlebags (thank you REI sale!), and after some fails and shenanigans to get the equipment work on such and old bike, he made it work.  Today’s commute went pretty solidly, and we’ll be hitting the gym again for some weights after work and testing out the saddlebag capacity by hitting the grocery store after work.  I’m looking forward to being able to commute a few days a week and being able to run most errands on two wheels!

In other productive areas, the Personal Training certification course is going rather well!  We’ve been dedicating about 2 hours every few days to reading, watching the videos, and taking the quizzes, and we’re on schedule to complete it in 2 months total (we have 3).  The first section as all about anatomy and physiology, and it’s been a mix of high school biology and stuff I’ve studied online regarding endurance sports training, so for the most part, it’s gone pretty quickly and easily for me.

That’s not to say that I’m not learning anything new (I am), and some things are just clicking into place.  Studying the way the systems that cause muscles to move makes a whole lot of sense why I feel the way I do in the first few minutes of starting a cardio session.  And why I actually have to sit on my ass for 2 whole minutes in between heavy, heavy weight sets – there are actual physiological reasons for that beyond just annoying me that I can’t finish my workout faster.

It’s also fun to dream about practical applications, about what we might do with all these knowledge nuggets in real life.  It’s really convenient doing the studying with Zliten, and we make time to do it like we were playing a game, or watching TV, and we’ll often spend time discussing it after.  I was worried that it would be a huge imposition into my free time to take a class, but it’s actually not that bad… rather enjoyable, honestly!  I’m already thinking about what I’d like to do next…

Other tidbits:

May31-4

Look at my new sunglasses!

I went to the dentist.  He called my teeth boring.  I’m perfectly happy to have boring teeth.  Also, my resting pulse went up from 42 last time to 47 this time.  Probably time to start training again! 🙂

May31-5

I missed this place….

Hawaiian Falls, the waterpark (henceforth known as wah-pah), opened Saturday.  We were too busy playing bikes and (not playing because play hurts less) running to get there at opening, but we hit all 6 of the slides (minus the ball buster one) and took a trip in the lazy river.

May31-6

Voluntelfie?

We volunteered for the Cap Tex Tri on Sunday morning.  The day started at packet pickup, but they were really low on bike check in people so we headed down there instead.  It was honestly way more fun, I’ll probably sign up for that in the future unless it’s expected to be 1000000 degrees.  Sadly, it was all for naught because the weather yesterday morning turned the race into a 5k/10k run only.  It’s had weather issues the last few years.  It’s haunted.

Then, we went to a friends’ Memorial Day party and played volleyball in the pool… with a real volleyball.  As per normal, I jammed a finger diving for the ball… I’ll live, though.  Then later, we played beer pong with the neighbors and Zliten and I ALMOST won.  I also realized that I’m 37 going on 22 and that’s just fine with me.

I got up on Monday (late) morning and it was too pretty to stay inside (see picture above with the pretty wispy clouds).  I took the long way (about 2 miles total) and walked to the Chinese takeout place near my house and brought it home.  Just like bike commuting, I have NO IDEA why I’ve never done that before.  While I shouldn’t be greedy that I have ANYTHING within walking distance, I sometimes wish there was more around without crossing the main street, but I can make it work.

So, because goals are fun, what’s on tap for this week?

  • Keep doing all the things.
    • 1000 calories, water, vitamins, vegetables and fruits…
    • Staying on top of the class schedule
    • Maintaining a schedule in which I have some triathlete hours
    • Maintaining a schedule in which I get decent (7) to great (8+) sleep every night and I don’t have beer, wine, or liquor more days than I do.
  • Day to day stuff.
    • Bike commute today
    • Go to our first BRICK workout with the BSS team (and hope not to get too, too dropped by all the people who are fit for tri season) weather pending tomorrow.
    • Gaming Thursday.
    • Moar bike commuting Friday (weather pending, looks clear right now).
    • Swim challenge Saturday – I know I can do it, but right now, 2250m sounds like a LONG swim.  We plan to bike there and back or load up the bikes and ride somewhere pretty after.
    • Wah pah this weekend at some point.
    • Profit.

Time to get on with my Tues-monday.  Hey, at least it’s a short week, and if the weather cooperates, I won’t even have to wait until the weekend to #goplayoutside.

The show must go on…

By

On May 23, 2016

In Uncategorized

This is my motto this year week.  I’ve given myself time to throw a pity party about everything, and now it’s time to put on my big girl panties and move on.  Drinking more days than not over the last two weeks finally made me crash HARD yesterday (woke up at 10:30, took a nap from 1-3, took another from 5-6:30, and was asleep by 11).  I still felt tired this morning.  It’s time to start doing good shit for myself.

May23-2

The last couple weeks have been kinda like this – the awesome healthy veggie/hummus/turkey sandwich, but also the fries.  And the not-pictured beers later.

#projectraceweight took a back seat the last two weeks.  I don’t think I’ve gained anything, but losses have been minimal if any, and I haven’t been tracking my calories.  I didn’t hit the gym for about a week.  While my consumption post-cruise has not been reprehensibly bad, I’ve been forgetting things like water, vitamins, veggies, and some things have been fried or slathered in BBQ sauce or covered in cheese.

However, there’s no day like today to start again.  This week, I’m hoping to remember what it was like to be at least a recreational triathlete.  I’m ready to turn it up a notch, though that notch is from 2 to 3, not to 11 or anything.  I need to start tracking my intake again, it’s the only way I make progress.  I’m also ready to go to bed at a reasonable hour and stop pretending I’m in college again.

So, here’s where I’d like to reset with next week’s goals.

  • Go back to doing the things that were working.  Water, vitamins, veggies/fruits, tracking calories, 10k steps.
  • Gently start a schedule again.  I’d like to hit somewhere between 3-5 hours of things a triathlete would actually do (run, bike, swim, weights) on top of otherwise being active.
  • I also want to start getting up and doing some of it in the morning.  My schedule has definitely shifted to bedtime at midnight or later most nights.  I’d like to start thinking of 7:30-ish as a reasonable time to get up, not the middle of the night, so I can do a little cardio or weights before work and still get there at a decent hour.
  • Bike commute once.  This is the week it happens.  I practiced over the weekend and I really enjoyed using my bike as transportation.
  • Go play outside as much as possible.  It’s been really nice outside but I’ve been staying up too late and been too bleh to really enjoy it this week.  Next week, it’s on.  Also – WAH PAHHHH!  I’ll be at the waterpark when it opens at 10am on Saturday.
  • Volunteer for Packet Pickup for Cap Tex the day before (Sunday).  Not doing the 5am wakeup call this time. Maybe even ride bikes there if we’re feeling saucy, perhaps?
  • Stay on the 60 day schedule completion for my Personal Training class.  I have 90 days to do it but I’d like to be done in 60.

So far, I got up early enough to get a quick run in before work, and I plan to hit the gym for weights after work before we stock up on groceries, so it’s off to a good start!

Here’s a few other things that have happened in my life the last two weeks besides vacation, work crap, and vodka…

Short Hair Kinda Care

May23-3

Recursive me is recursive.

It freaked me the fuck out the day I got it cut.  It’s the shortest it’s been in my adult life.  I think it may have been the way it was styled or just the huge difference in length, there may have been a bottle or wine that night instead of the gym to cope.  But a few weeks later?  I love it and wish someone would have tied me down to a stylist’s chair earlier.  The jury is out on whether it’s going to be great for training because it just sort of almost doesn’t go back (if I really need it out of my face it takes a clip and multiple Rey ponytails).  However, I love that I can wash my hair in the morning before work, and it is mostly air dried before I can finish my coffee.

SUP Paddleboard Yoga

2016-04-20 18.46.39

It’s hard enough to just do this… right?

I like to paddleboard.  I like to yoga.  I’m not particularly good at either, but I figured, why not try both at the same time?  I suppose it’s the same logic as triathlon (why not suck at 3 sports at the same time?).  At first it felt super awkward, but then I realized something – while some of the things I lack (strength, flexibility, balance, etc) kept me from succeeding at every pose, I tried it all.  I found that I could get up into a backbend on a paddleboard.  I got up into a headstand for about .2 seconds.  I also fell in the lake three times and slipped on my board a bit as well.

One of the girls gave me huge props when she found out it was my first class.  She said that she was scared of falling off.  I told her I figured that I had been in the lake all morning, so that didn’t bother me.  I guess sometimes it’s just about not letting the fear of failing falling keep you from trying something fun.

Bike Adventures

May23-1

Not all bike rides need spandex and garmins.

I’ve come to love my bike more lately, but one thing I really wanted to get into this Spring is using my bike as transportation.  This weekend, we finally did that.  We took a 5 mile ride on the cruisers down to a new lunch spot (and then back a little more slowly with full bellies).  Then, we got a call that some friends were hanging out at a brewery 3 miles away, and we biked there and back as well (about 16 miles in total).  It felt very Austin.

I will start riding my bike more.  I really enjoy it.  I didn’t even mind traffic *that* much, especially on the no-clips cruiser.  We’ll see how rush hour traffic makes me feel but I’m ready to give it a try!

And with that, I’m off to make the most of my week, the show must go on, y’know.

 

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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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