Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: resolutions Page 2 of 5

This month, this week, right now.

There’s really no getting around it, January is a great time to reset your goals and figure out who you want to be.  It’s not that other times of the year are BAD, but look at it this way:

jan9-1

This is January kind of summed up in one picture.

  • We’ve come off a few days/weeks/months of debauchery.  We have had our proverbial mardi gras, and we’re actually physically and mentally ready for lent.
  • Everyone is doing it.  It’s fun to be surrounded with a bunch of positive people who are actually motivated and working towards bettering themselves – even if it’s just for the 2-3 weeks that the average resolution lasts.
  • It’s no secret that I think January is the worst month, but come on, you have to agree.  There are no super fun holidays, the outdoors are out to kill us in one way or another (cold or allergies), it’s dark all the time, and it’s just lame.  You have to bring your OWN positivity to January if you want to be happy.

Even though I don’t think it’s the only time for a fresh start, it’s a perfect time for one.  So, here’s my month, my week, and my right nows.  Let’s start broad and work our way down.

This month:

jan9-5

A new word that’s in my vocabulary this month: swim pajamas (ie, clothes to change into after swimming at night so I don’t have to put real ones on)

  • Make progress in my triathlon coaching class.  I’d like to finish this and pass the test by my birthday (or at least my birthday month), so get through enough class to adhere to that timeline.
  • Create a training plan for this month and follow it.  Whatever, whenever sessions time is over, it’s time to be more specific and more precise.
  • No wine, champagne, or alcohol.  Beer is allowed in reasonable quantities that fit within my calorie range.  Even though I’m mostly on the 0 level of nicotine e-cig – so it’s mostly hand-to-mouth habit and a little flavor at this point – don’t do that as stress relief or appetite relief at night.
  • 30 minutes of cycling per day.  Instead of run streaking, I’m bike streaking this year.  The benefits I can see so far are: more bike volume, more time on my TT bike even if it’s just in 30 minute increments, 30 mins is doable in the AM without a crazy alarm but also establishes a habit, and it’s easy to do inside because the air is trying to kill me.
  • Eat good food, mostly, and track it.  I haven’t gone off the deep end this year and threw out all the sweets and chips or said 0 sugar for the month or anything.  I just want to go back to what I know works for me and feels good.
    • Track all the food.  Weigh every day starting January 9th (giving myself one week of eating like a human before I have to face the scale).  I WANT METRICS.
    • 5 servings MINIMUM of fruits and veggies per day.
    • Aim for -500 to -1000 calories according to fitbit as hunger dictates (some days, I had zero problems with -1000, some days,  -500 was a stretch).
    • 20-30g protein per meal, smaller amounts in snacks to equal about 100g per day.  40-60g fat, incorporating plant sources like nuts.  25g fiber.  Carbs vary per activity level.
  • Racing  – apparently we have the itch to go do all the things, because we’re committed to three in the next month or so.  All of it is totally great and kosher to compliment IM training, so I’m all for it!

This week:

jan8-4

This week I reminded myself that you get beans and rice and chicken and tortillas after 11 miles on the treadmill.

Enough of that.  A little overwhelming, right?  Let’s break it up into just the weeklies…

Last week I hit about 90% of the training I planned:

  • 30 mins of cycling per day – 100% done!
  • 1 longer swim (40+ mins) – 100% done! (2050m in 41:30)
  • 1 longer run (10+ miles) – 100% done (11 miles in 1:59:40)
  • cycle class and a long trainer ride (3-4 hours) 100% done!  3:45 for 80 miles on the trainer
  • Lifetime Indoor Triathlon (10 min swim, 30 min bike, 20 min run) – 100% done! (still waiting on results)
  • 2 weights sessions – 50% – missed one day because my body was worn out
  • Stretching, rolling, or massage legs every night – 85% – missed one day

This week, I plan to do (this should look fairly similar):

  • 30 mins of cycling per day
  • 1 lunch swim and 1 longer swim (50 mins)
  • 1 gentle speedwork session 3-6 miles and  1 longer run (12+ miles)
  • cycle class and a long TT trainer
  • 2 weights sessions
  • stretching, rolling, or massage legs every night

Last week I did Chapter 10 for my triathlon class.  This week I will do Chapter 11.

Last week I tracked my calories for 2200 average each day with -750 deficit.  My ratios were 115g protein, 55g fat, 32g fiber, and 278g carbs per day.  This week I will continue to do the same thing.  While I’d *like* to adhere to that -1000 more strictly, it’s training suicide to not eat when I’m hungry.

Last week I did not weigh myself.  This week, I started the week at 189.4, and I need to lose 9 lbs to get to where I was last season (the good news is EVERYTHING is working against me today, so that number should come down organically this week).  This is goal post #1 for weight loss, I’ll reset again once I get there.

Last week I drank 11 beers.  This week I’ll aim to do the same or less.

Last week, I got decent sleep, but my schedule is still off from vacation so it was later than I’d like and not a full 8 hours every night.  The goal this week is to be asleep by 11pm every weeknight and get 8 hours every night (baby steps).

Last week’s to do was get an appointment for the eye doctor and take down outside lights.  We did both and the appointments are on 1/27.  This week’s to do is to clean out the cars and take down our tree (I know, I know, I just *couldn’t* this weekend, it was entirely too sad).

Right now:

jan9-3

I’ll treasure any of these #goplayoutside days I get in January and be happy instead of pissed off so many of them are inside.

Still a little too big picture?  Well, this is what I’m doing right now to accomplish those goals:

  • Stay the #^$@ off facebook.  I made the conscious choice to log on and dork for a bit at home while watching TV last week, and I found myself unrelaxed, unproductive, and not having moved from the couch an hour and a half later.  Bad juju.
  • #goplayinside – Rather than being depressed about it, I’m accepting that pretty much all workouts will be indoors for January and any sessions I get outdoors are a total bonus. This is where I’m suffering right now, and this is ok.  I’ll appreciate playing outside more once I can.
  • I’m going to count down the days until recovery week just like I count down the seconds on a difficult bike interval.  Since I’m pushing the volume on the weeks leading up to it, I’m making sure they are pretty dang mellow.  I am currently 14 days from recovery week.  Tomorrow I’ll be 13.  And once that’s done, I’ll have block #1 of 3.5 under my belt.
  • Focus on consistency.  Aristotle is so right – we are what we repeatedly do.  Patience, persistence, and good habits.

And with that, I’m off to kick Monday’s ass!  Have a great week everyone!

2017 Goals, Habits, Practices, and To Dos.

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

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

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

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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:

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:

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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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2016 Seasonal Goals

They say that doing the same things and expecting different results is madness.  So, I’ve spent a few years with some solid goals, and done well the first part of the year, and then, got frustrated and said “fuck it” at some point because it was too regimented.

This year, I have a lot of different things I’d like to accomplish, but I also have unique focuses during each season.  This also gives me three months to accomplish things instead of one, which will help me stress about things less, a reset point four times this year, and also might save y’all from monthly wrap up posts (maybe…)

Winter (Jan-March)

Jan4-2

Racing:

  • Get your racing confidence back.
  • Try latch onto B at 3M half marathon and see if a PR is in the cards.
  • Race happy at Woodlands and also open yourself to the possibility of a 4:xx:xx marathon.

Training:

  • Run a lot.  Streak January (7 days in!).
  • 6 long runs 15+ before March 5, please.
  • Don’t neglect speedwork, one speed session and one run with some faster than M-pace miles per week until March.
  • Foam roll and stretch (put on some music and use this as meditation time).
  • Get back into the habit of at least throwing my bodyweight around once or twice a week if not more (weight or time).
  • Try to remember what it’s like to swim and ride bikes whenever possible.

Food/Scale:

  • Eat good, solid, quality food.
  • Get a good start by doing 2-3 weeks of meals at My Fit Foods and Snap Kitchen, and graduate to solid, healthy, batch cooking after.
  • Count calories, and try to figure out where the sweet spot is for training.
  • Transition to a lower calorie count after the marathon by end of March.

Work:

  • Set myself and my team up for success by establishing a good and solid plan for the year.
  • Get back in the habit of to weekly to do lists.
  • Find a better way to handle the stress than I have been.  Leave it at the office more often.  When it comes home with me, find ways to calm it down that are less self destructive than late boozy nights.  Coloring books have been awesome.  Going out and doing something might be a better answer than sulking on my couch.  Just going to bed and starting over the next day sometimes helps.
  • Play games – my games and other games.

Life:

  • A weekly to-do list seems to work well for me at work.  I want to start doing this at home as well.  Not to stress myself out, and not to pack my day full of tasks, but so I have a few things to focus on instead of wasting my free time solely on social media and netflix.
  • Decrease consumption of my e-cig. Because there are so many less health and performance consequences of using it, I’m finding I’m using it more often.  But it’s still not the greatest thing in the world to feel addicted to nicotine (even if it’s a very small dose).
  • Set some better limits on the LENGTH of drinking sessions.  Having a few drinks a few days a week is fine.  Drinking for 8 hours on a weekday is not.
  • Go out more.  If nothing else than for the purpose of putting on a dress, doing my hair and makeup.  I’ve realized while it doesn’t bother me that much because I’m just not focused on it, I have not looked in the mirror in a while and said to myself “hey, you look awesome/put together/etc”.
  • Color!  Since I’ll be training for a marathon, I’m not going to put a whole bunch of to-do life goals here, but I’d like to fill up a bunch of pages in my coloring book.  It’s relaxing and fun!
  • Bike/run commuting.  I don’t think I’m going to really hit my stride before the marathon here, but it would be nice to get out the door on my bike a few times before spring.
  • Get the leezard situated.  We had to tear down her cage since she hurt herself on it, but find a more permanent structure for her to have as a home instead of some boxes and bags piled in a closet.

Spring (April-June)

Jan4-1

These lists will get shorter, because in some cases, these are just additional to the goals earlier in the year.  This season will be focused on weight loss, and being kind of a normal person!  For someone who really loves triathlon and racing, I’m oddly excited for it…

Racing:

Any races are just for fun.  No pressure.  Probably 10/20 and Lake Pflugerville because, tradition, but nothing here is about gunning for PRs.  Maybe race without a garmin just for funsies.

Training:

  • Use that time March – June doing things like taking walks in interesting places, doing casual “coffee” (decaf?) rides not worrying about paces, getting better at yoga, camping, and just remembering what normal people like to do in spring besides run bike and swim until they pass out.
  • I don’t plan to 100% abandon training but be selective on what I spend the few hours a week I let myself do.  The absolute best thing you can do to maintain fitness over minimal time is short, high intensity interval training stuff.  So, I plan to do one HIIT session per week of each discipline, and having some form of strength training.  Basically, the stuff I used to do before when I was actually losing weight.

Food/Scale:

  • The whole goal after the marathon is to lose weight as quickly as possible while not a) doing a bunch of unhealthy things that will sabotage my goals later in the year and b) not driving everyone around me completely insane.
  • However, this is totally timeboxed so I will essentially be at the weight I want to be at for the next 9-12 months when I stop.  So, my goal is to make that as low as possible.
  • This is the typical attempt to maintain a 500-1000 calorie per day deficit depending on my hunger, sanity, level of activity, and… life.  If the numbers worked out properly, I should lose between 20-40 lbs.  I’ll take anything in that range.

Work:

Things will start to get busy with two milestones in the spring.  Continue to manage stress, use a weekly to do list, plan well, and play games.

Life:

  • Have 4 usable bedrooms (aka – clean out the workout room and office).  Clean off the vanity and all the bedroom surfaces.  I feel like if I can deal with those things, I’m in good shape for the year and most of the rest of the organization I want to do are little projects.
  • Kitchen or back patio renovation.  We really need to start one of these two things unless some SEVERE financial hardships come our way.  This season, we should at least pick which one and start the process of planning and estimates.
  • Do something with the blog (design-wise) intentionally and commit to shorter content more often.
  • Get back into my piano, jewelry making, and/or sewing.
  • Bike commuting – the weather should be nice, the light should be good, I’m not fatigued from training, there’s no excuses.  Spring is where this becomes a habit.

Summer (July-September)

Jan4-5

Summer will see a gradual ramp up and return back to training, though a lot less steep than normal to get to Kerrville in 2 months.  Since I’ve had Spring as my offseason, I’ll need to balance the need for workouts with the need for water recreation. 🙂

Racing:

First big block of training, so probably not much racing here.  Maybe Jack’s Generic Sprint as a measuring block.

Training:

  • Start training and decide on the rest of the season from there.  Speed comes back faster than distance.  Shorter races are NOT less worthy.  It’s not giving up not to race a 70.3 or a marathon late in the year if it’s the right call.
  • Either way, the summer will be focused on speed, not a whole lot of distance.  I mean, more than my spring offseason, but I’m not ramping up to 10+ hours of training a week.  That will come later.

Food/Scale:

Transition from weight loss to eating to fuel training.  Not nearly as much as I will later in the year when I add bigger volume, but hopefully I’m happy with where I’m at since it’s likely I’ll be there for the majority of the year.

Work:

This will be the busy season with a few back to back milestones.  Continue with the stress management tactics I’ve established.

Life:

I’ll probably have more to talk about here as the year goes on, but either in the summer or fall, I want to go on vacation here (Roatan).

Fall (October-December)

Jan4-4

Fall will be a ramp up to bigger volume, and hopefully less chaos at work that normal, since I’ve planned to have the bigger stuff done in the summer.  Instead of a big 4 month ramp up to get to 70.3 and a marathon, I’ll be training more conservatively with a 3-4 month ramp up for a 70.3 and only a half this year.

Racing:

  • Kerrville for sure, but maybe just the Olympic.  Depends on how we feel a month or two out.
  • Probably actually doing our hometown 70.3 in Austin.
  • Spacecoast HALF this year, not full.

This sounds very light compared to last year.  Y’know what?  It is.  Because the big goal is…

IM Texas, April 2017.  Yeah, buddy.  It’s time.

Training:

Time for volume!  Build for a 70.3 and a half marathon, and then a short break to get rested up for the big push to IM.

Food/Scale:

Ramp back up to eating like an athlete.  Hopefully maintaining whatever weight I’m at, not gaining like I did fall 2015 :P.

Work:

Continue with everything as all year.  This is the prime time for feature creep with the last big milestone in the last year.  Try to protect against it.

Life:

This will definitely be overflow from earlier seasons, and since I’ll be ramping up training, probably have less time to do life stuff (for the most part).  But, we’ll see!

And, because Texas weather is weird, all the selfies are from the last two weeks, not 4 different seasons. 😛

Cheers to an amazing 2016!  I do have some specific things I’m doing in January, so I’ll probably dedicate some blog space to that, but for now, it’s all out there, and hopefully I can make 2016 just as positive as: Confidence, Commitment, and Fluidity.

2015 Goal Wrap Up

2015 is done and dusted, and it’s time to tally the results.  It was a really mixed bag, but as they say, you either win some or learn some, and there was a lot of both things in the last 12 months.

Racing:

Aug3-1

Do some soul searching and figure out what is important to YOU for 2015 race-wise, since you may be on a different schedule than Zliten for at least half if not more of the year.  Race the marathon Feb 28th only if training is going well.  Make appropriate goals as such.  No arbitrary January 1st goals on what you’re supposed to PR or tackle next year, just the promise that each race will be for a reason.

Well, sort of.  I raced a lot less this year than I have in the past, with doing only five triathlons and four running races, and that was by design.  I’ve learned that I don’t love jumping into a bunch of races if my intention isn’t to either a) PR or b) use that race for a specific purpose.  So, I actually focused more on the training than amassing a bunch of t-shirts and medals.

Luckily, after winding down after the Woodlands Marathon (and vacation, and recovering, and getting sick before I could actually train again), Zliten bounced back rather quickly and we found ourselves mostly on the same schedule, so I had my training partner back much more quickly than I expected.  While I’m a bit more of a higher mileage pony overall and ducked out for some extra sessions/add on miles/split off to do our own thing the last part of runs or bikes during periods of 2015, we mostly attacked the same training.

I had some really awesome races.  The Woodlands Marathon may have been slower than I’d hoped, but I ran the whole thing and felt really strong that day.  I PR’d race after race after race after race after race in the spring and summer.  Rookie and Cap Tex netted me some insane PRs and I showed I was a better athlete this year by improving at Pfluger and Jacks by about 1.5 minutes each time.

I crashed and burned at the end of the year.  One time, it was due to circumstances outside of my immediate control.  One time, I just lost steam and my brain and body gave up on me.  I’m still trying to put together exactly what happened and restore my shaken confidence, after 4 months of training resulted in 2 SPECTACULAR blow ups, but I definitely learned a few things from both the good and the bad:

  1. I’m able to put enough training to be decent (and maybe soon starting to be AG competitive) at the shorter races.  My head holds together pretty well and executes well up to the 2-3 hour mark.  I’m able to dial in a goal and most times hit the targets (or at least come close).
  2. There’s something about the longer stuff I just can’t seem to fully grasp.  I had decent luck at running a full marathon without stopping, but I had spectacular crash and burns at 70.3 and another 26.2.
  3. Still, I find enjoyment in training and dreaming and racing the longer stuff.  Or I’d just stop doing it.
  4. Racing a hot marathon on 6 weeks of training banking on post 70.3 fitness is always doable, but never going to be your best shot at a great experience.
  5. Even if I’m having a fantabulously shitty day and want to give up and DNF, that’s not what I do.  And that’s something to be proud of, if nothing else.

Training:

Aug10-1

Polarized and periodized training seems to work.  Continue with this.  Easy days easy.  Hard days on point.  Base periods without electronics or focus and embracing the joy of movement with really loose volume suggestions instead of nailing a certain mileage/pace.  Months out of your A race – 85% easy 15% hard.  Closer – more goal pace work.

I think I did the best at this than I ever have, though I have room for improvement.  I did push the intensity a bit too much leading up to Lake Pflugerville (almost all quality sessions), which I would dial back because I was missing a little give a shit on race day from too many hard workouts in a row.  But, I did much less throwing a lot of easy volume at things and trained much more specifically.

1k run miles, 3k bike miles (less on the trainer), 100 swim miles.

Run check (1,022).  Bike, so not check (1893).  Swim, also not check (45 miles).  I definitely had a different focus than I did years before – but when you have 5 months out of the year focused on marathons, 1 month of offseason, and only 1 long triathlon to train for – the volume goes by the wayside.

However, I can tell you that it was the most INTENSE year for swimming and cycling.  I did a lot more focused workouts with sets and paces and watts and goals, and I got faster at both.  Funny how that works.

Work strength and stretching in as I can.

I’ll have to go back and count this up later because dailymile is being cranky but the gist of it was I sucked at it the first half of the year and was pretty excellent at it the second half, minus December.

DDR is a great plyometric workout. 

And my mat broke and the workout room is full of junk.  Moving on.

Run streak January. 

Nailed it!  Doing it again this year, I’m already on day 6 and loving it!

Figure out a time for offseason.  True offseason, same as July for you this year.  At least 1 month.

Nailed it as well.  Had a great 5 weeks focused on water park and lake time above all else.

Food/Scale:

Bonaire1-02

No booze January

In which I held out for 11 days, reset my tolerance for a bit, but with a new promotion and job stress and trying to also clean up my eating and not spend any money, I spent the most miserable and boring 2 weekends of my life and decided that moderation is the key instead of abstinance.

A bunch of other stuff…

I tried to continue to do the lower-grain thing and found it wasn’t the weight loss panacea I had hoped.  In fact, I gained some lbs and was kind of cranky about it.  I worked with a nutritionist in July and found out

a) I know how to lose weight, I just forgot how.  Counting calories, hitting macros, actually sticking to it.

b) It’s counterproductive to try to lose weight during season.  Workouts are hard, racing suffers, and I get hangry.

c) I’m still looking for the way to fuel my workouts and sustain me during season without gaining a shit ton of weight, because his plan piled on 12 lbs in one month that I still can’t seem to shake.

I did feel a lot freer being able to eat things in bread and out of flour tortillas and rice and pasta, and I was able to lose weight during offseason (5 lbs in a month) doing that.  So, eating a damn sandwich is not off limits.  That was nice after a year of bread being the devil.

Work:

jan23-2

The promotion that was up in the air happened.  Sadly, reorganization also happened which made doing my new job a whole lot more stressful.

The good:

  • While I felt like a damn duck, looking calm and composed on the surface, but paddling like hell underneath a lot of the time, my team and I rocked this year.
  • I feel like this position is probably one of the best fits I’ve ever had in terms of taking my experience and letting me fly.  I kind of feel like this is something that my entire professional career has been leading up to, if that makes any sense.
  • I played a lot of my games.  I’m not as caught up with everything as I’d like, but I’m getting closer.

The bad:

  • Holy hell, let’s talk about that paddling like mad thing.  I feel like I blacked out some really stressful periods of 2010, which was my first year of being producer.  I’m pretty sure I’ll look back on this year the same way.  I think I held it together pretty well on the surface, but I don’t think I’ve needed a 20 day vacation more than I ever did this December.
  • I got bad at leaving the stress at work.  I’ll be honest, I’m not a stress eater, but work definitely drove me to drink at some points.

Life:

July15-1

I didn’t give away 1 thing every day like I wanted, but I did have a giant garage sale and donate a bunch of bags after it to charity.

Don’t go into a training hole…

I think I balanced the social calendar pretty well.  I had to pull back a bit in March for marathon recovery/getting sick, and again in August-September due to family visits/work stress/mental recovery, but I don’t feel like I missed out on too much.

Less facebook/twitter, more short posts here, less weekly recaps.

Well, um, let’s move on, shall we?

Complete the TX tri series with a combination of volunteering and racing.

Yep!

Do something that’s a hobby, not dying in front of the tv, once a week for more than a few minutes. 

I actually got really into reading this year.  Some periods of time, I did well with gaming.  My sewing machine, necklaces, and piano are untouched. 🙁

Actually go scuba diving in lake travis this summer (or somewhere) so I don’t noob it up in the winter.

Yep.  It was totally awful.  I hope to not have to do that again for a while.

Spend as much time in the water I can.

Ahhhhhhh…. yep!

End the year with 3 words to describe 2015 that are as positive as “grateful, fun, and focused”.

This took me a little while, and while I considered “stressful” as one of them, I tried to look beyond that.

Confident.

Minus the last two unfortunate races of 2015, I really feel like I came into my own this year in a few regards.  I have ZERO imposter syndrome anymore at work, I rock at what I do and I know it.  I REALLY nailed some races this year.  I’m a lot more confident on the bike though I know I have a long way to go.  Of course I still have those worries if I’m doing the right thing at times, but I have confidence in the things I chose being the best decision I could make at the time.

Committed.

Again, in so many regards, I spent the year saying, “rock and roll, let’s do this” and then having to follow through (and doing it).  The major stuff – I didn’t quit.  Even when it was hard.  Even when I wanted to.  Sometimes this caused a bunch of stress, but, I feel much better about following through with the hard stuff and learning the lessons.  True, it tested my strength and pushed me to the limits of my capacity and sanity at times, but here we are, and I’m ready for more.

Fluid.

This is kind of a two parter.  I found so much joy, so much healing, so much… love in the water this year.  Paddling, swimming, racing, kayaking, snorkeling, scuba diving, waterpark-ing, and sometimes just existing and kicking back.  I am not me when you remove my water… I am a pisces through and through.

Also, I found fluidity in life to be my savior this year.  The January streak and the whole Woodlands training block made me realize that “run – a lot – whenever and whatever” is actually a decent way to train for a marathon.  Work threw me curveballs and waking up in the morning sometimes was hard, but I learned how to run with a headlamp or at lunch or just sucking it up and training in the heat like a dang animal.  When work projects started to go sideways, we always got things back on track by having a little fluidity in the plan and being able to attack a problem from many angles.

june19-1

So there you have it.  2015 had it’s ups and downs, but at the end of it all – confident, committed, and fluid are not terrible ways to sum up 365 days of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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