{"id":11862,"date":"2019-08-04T15:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T21:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=11862"},"modified":"2019-08-04T15:13:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T21:13:37","slug":"form-vs-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/04\/form-vs-function\/","title":{"rendered":"Form vs Function"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I posted about this on social media and it was like my least popular post ever, so let&#8217;s talk more about it, right?  The key to being beloved is to keep shouting about random bullhonkey on your mind?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"571\" height=\"568\" src=\"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11866\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1.jpg 571w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1-300x298.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1-50x50.jpg 50w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/aug04-1-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>No?  Well, let&#8217;s go with that anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now, I&#8217;ve got a disconnect going on between the lump o&#8217; crazy between my ears and some of the facts of actual real life.  First, let&#8217;s talk about function, specifically function as a triathlete.  I&#8217;m sure someday I won&#8217;t be able to pull these performances out of my behind, as nothing else will explain it, but I&#8217;m finding some pixie dust action going on in the first stages of 70.3 training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Things I have done in the last few weeks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Transitioned very smoothly and happily from almost no workouts, and being very cranky about training, to maintaining a reasonable schedule of ~6-7 hours a week of swim, bike, and run.<\/li><li>Extended my long run comfort zone from 3-8 miles.<\/li><li>Pulled off a sub-10 minute mile pace for said 8 mile long run in feels like 91 degrees.<\/li><li>Somehow increased my FTP PR from 181W to 190W.  My last hard ride was Pflugerville June 16th.  <\/li><li>The last time I rode more than 20 miles before this block was February 2nd.  I rode 39 two weekends ago and comfortably ran two miles sub-9:30 at 1pm after.  Yesterday, I extended this to 3 hours at race power (so probably about race distance) and three miles at the same pace&#8230; at 3:30pm.<\/li><li>Have heat acclimated pretty well and haven&#8217;t had an issue where I stop sweating in the heat or feel overly overheated.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"570\" height=\"565\" src=\"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11867\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2.jpg 570w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2-300x297.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2-50x50.jpg 50w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-2-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So, like, this ol&#8217; bod of mine is holding up really well, and honestly?  Most of the weird anxiety\/stress issues I had earlier this year seem to be dissipating.  I mean, it makes sense.  I&#8217;m spending a lot more hours a week outside than I was previously.  Bikes are the cure for everything and I&#8217;m doing a lot of that.  Outdoor pool swimming makes me happy.  I&#8217;m not even hating these hot runs, not even a little, and besides the fact that I wish I could be doing more training, I feel awesome.  I don&#8217;t even have a season training plan, I&#8217;m winging it every week, but I still have a high confidence that I&#8217;ll have a successful Kerrville this year.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Obviously I still have work to do because I need to be able to run thirteen miles off that bike instead of three, and not to mention putting them together with a 40 minute swim warmup, but I&#8217;ve got 8 weeks to go.  That&#8217;s plenty of time to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What&#8217;s causing me strife is the mirror.  Stupid, I know, but I&#8217;m not going to lie about how I feel on my little corner of the internet here.  I&#8217;m still checking in with the scale every few days, so I know I don&#8217;t have a ton to worry about, but the inflammation from ramping up my volume (and the eating to support it) is causing my stomach to feel like a subcutaneous water balloon has been inserted in my midsection.  My husband swears he can&#8217;t see it and he&#8217;s honest AF about that stuff, but I keep making slightly looser clothing choices and giving myself side-eye when I&#8217;m getting ready in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"449\" height=\"562\" src=\"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11868\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-3.jpg 449w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-3-240x300.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I may be cranky about the fact that I haven&#8217;t made any MORE progress towards 150-ish lbs as my ultimate goal, and I&#8217;m confusing that with actually gaining weight.  I&#8217;m frustrated that I was eating like crap before but had no appetite, so the scale was cooperating.  Now, I&#8217;m eating mostly healthy food but like, the other day, I remembered that I&#8217;d crime for a snack even though I just ate one 90 minutes previous.  And a normal sized lunch 2 hours before that.  And breakfast 2.5 hours before that.  And a protein bar an hour before that after my swim&#8230; #thestruggleisreal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I&#8217;ve got this balloon that&#8217;s one part training, one part fiber\/food bloat, and probably about three parts totally in my mind.  As long as the training keeps coming along as it has, I&#8217;ll wear some mumus and get over myself for the next two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of goals, I&#8217;ve been pretty good at the training stuff, the eating stuff, but I&#8217;ve balked at the tracking my food stuff.  If I want to lose weight, I need to get back to that eventually.  However, let&#8217;s list the successes here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>I&#8217;ve been following a schedule well.  I&#8217;ve rearranged some things, but I&#8217;m not regularly skipping scheduled sessions.  I wish I could schedule MORE sessions but I&#8217;m trying to be realistic and I feel good about what I&#8217;m able to accomplish!<\/li><li>One reason I&#8217;ve been able to do that is I&#8217;ve been training before work almost exclusively.  I prefer afternoons\/evenings in a perfect world but it makes sure it gets done.<\/li><li>I&#8217;ve swam three times in the last three weeks.  While I&#8217;d like to be 2x week, just getting there right now is a victory.  It&#8217;s also the sport that&#8217;s the least important (40 minutes vs 2-3 hours for each of the others), and I&#8217;m fine just making sure the ~2000m distance is comfortable at a comfortable pace.<\/li><li>Recovery &#8211; I&#8217;ve been sleeping well, I&#8217;ve been rolling\/stretching\/boot massages many more days each week that I have not doing these things.<\/li><li>Batch cooking &#8211; while we didn&#8217;t do much last weekend, it was because our fridge was full of leftovers and easy stuff to cook.  This is going well.  I feel fueled and happy and my body seems to agree considering how training is going.<\/li><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"568\" height=\"566\" src=\"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11869\" srcset=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4.jpg 568w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4-50x50.jpg 50w, http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Aug04-4-88x88.jpg 88w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 568px) 100vw, 568px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So, my brain is torn on what&#8217;s next.  I have one more 3-week block and a 2-week block with a rest week in between.  Do I try to ramp up the sessions?  I&#8217;m at one swim, three bikes, two runs each week.  I would give anything to have time to throw some weights around, and I know I should be doing two swims per week and man, three runs really would be cool too to get more base miles and endurance because that&#8217;s always the wildcard in these races.  I can usually peg my swim\/bike performance within a few minutes, but my run has varied over thirty minutes depending on the day I&#8217;m having even at the same level of fitness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, I don&#8217;t want to overdo it.  I found doing success by doing LESS but with more intensity earlier this year.  I&#8217;m going to try to keep within the spirit of that for the next few weeks.<br><\/p>\n<div data-counters='1' data-style='square' data-size='regular' data-url='http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/04\/form-vs-function\/' data-title='Form vs Function' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_3'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div data-position='' data-url='http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/04\/form-vs-function\/' data-title='Form vs Function' class='linksalpha_container linksalpha_app_7'><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='facebook' class='linksalpha_icon_facebook'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='twitter' class='linksalpha_icon_twitter'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='googleplus' class='linksalpha_icon_googleplus'><\/a><a href='\/\/www.linksalpha.com\/share?network='mail' class='linksalpha_icon_mail'><\/a><\/div><div class=\"fcbkbttn_buttons_block\" id=\"fcbkbttn_left\"><div class=\"fcbkbttn_like \"><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/04\/form-vs-function\/\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\" layout=\"standard\" show-faces='false' width=\"225px\" size=\"small\"><\/fb:like><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I posted about this on social media and it was like my least popular post ever, so let&#8217;s talk more about it, right? The key to being beloved is to keep shouting about random bullhonkey on your mind? No? Well, let&#8217;s go with that anyway. Right now, I&#8217;ve got a disconnect going on between the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUhDu-35k","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11873,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11862\/revisions\/11873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}