![\"\"](\"http:\/\/macromeme.com\/cat\/what-are-you-doing-shark.jpg\")
<\/p>\nApologies for the combining of weeks here, but it’s been incredibly busy and I did a long race report, so there.<\/p>\n
It’s really sinking in that a less week from now, I’ll be in Lubbock.\u00a0 I’ve gotten less TERRIFIED of it.\u00a0 The hay is absolutely now all in the barn.\u00a0 I had hoped to squeeze in a little more early last week, but my body and the weather both said NOPE, so that was my sign from the universe that it’s all good.\u00a0 Shut down those compulsive urges to get JUST ONE MORE double digit run\/brick and work on sleep, recovery, and maintaining.\u00a0 I have not trained as much as I wanted, but I think I’ve trained as much as I NEED to get through this race.<\/p>\n
A metaphor that popped into my head this week (maybe I read it somewhere?) is triathlon is a long conversation with yourself.\u00a0 I expect BSLT will be a REALLY long conversation with myself, and I hope I am kind enough to be a good companion.\u00a0 To that end, for the first time in a race, I have zero time goals beyond finishing before the cut off.\u00a0 I may make some on the course, but as long as they give me a finisher medal and I come through the arch in one piece, it’s all good.\u00a0 And I mean really, for real.\u00a0 No time goals.\u00a0 Would it be nice to beat my Kerrville time on a stupid hard course?\u00a0 Totally.\u00a0 But I don’t expect it and it would be the cherry on top of my already super yummy and totally complete hot fudge sundae.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My goals are:<\/p>\n
Swim strong.\u00a0 Don’t hold back too much, but certainly don’t redline.\u00a0 Enjoy this part of your day without too much thought about the rest of it.<\/p>\n
Bike CONSERVATIVELY.\u00a0 Anytime I think I feel awesome on the bike, eat more.\u00a0 Bike strong on the flats, ride the uphills like a granny, try not to get too terrified on the downhills, and anytime you feel fatigued SLOW THE FUCK DOWN and recover a bit.<\/p>\n
Run smart.\u00a0 Take some time to get going and settle into a comfortable pace.\u00a0 Walk the big hill at mile 3.\u00a0 Remember you’ll be happier with a nice, slow 12 min\/mile jog the whole way than a 10 min\/mile the first 6 miles and then blowing up.\u00a0 Eat.\u00a0 Chompy blocks are your friends.\u00a0 Powerade is also your friend if chompy blocks don’t set well.\u00a0 If you feel awesome, pick it up at the ~mile 10 downhill.\u00a0 Do something awesome at the finish for a picture!<\/p>\n
Also, feel good enough after the race to enjoy some champagne and not feel sick for 2 days.<\/p>\n
After this race, I’m taking a full week off training (either completely or certainly MOSTLY), and resting up for the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/macromeme.com\/cat\/tearable-paper.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Training:<\/strong><\/p>\n Again, been a challenge to balance what I know I *should* be doing with what I can do.\u00a0 My body just needs so much more recovery time right now than it did pre-injury.\u00a0 I know I should just be happy that it’s allowing me to swim\/bike\/run, but I’ve only been doing 4 days of training per week when I know I should be doing AT LEAST 5.\u00a0\u00a0 The long sessions are taking a lot out of me, but I think I would be even more ill prepared if I wasn’t riding my bike 30, 40, 50 miles or running 7,8,10 instead of splitting up the hours more days per week.<\/p>\n I’m definitely ready for that week of recovery since I haven’t been following the 3 weeks on, 1 week recovery plan since the injury, and then to get back to normal training hours\/sessions\/life after that.<\/p>\n Week 23:<\/p>\n Monday: off About 7 hours\u00a0 total time.<\/p>\n Week 24:<\/p>\n Monday: off About 5.5 hours total time.<\/p>\n Food\/Scale:<\/strong><\/p>\n Progress again!\u00a0 Not as much as I was hoping, but forward momentum is good.\u00a0 This week saw a few days in the 176s, and even a 174.8 on Saturday!\u00a0 New low weight by 1 lb.\u00a0 I’m back to last year’s ‘race weight” (which I attained for approximately 1 week before going on vacation and fucking it all up) and I have a whole half the season to go.\u00a0 Patience, diligence, and careful attention is working, albiet sloooooowly.\u00a0 I’ll take it over the alternative.<\/p>\n I don’t have all that much to say about these weeks.\u00a0 It’s the proverbial 90% good, 10% whatever (refined grains, fried food, sweets, booze, etc).\u00a0 Solid, steady nutrition work.<\/p>\n Week 23:<\/p>\n Monday: 29 DQ, 1586 calories Avg calories per day: 1795<\/p>\n Avg DQ per day: 22.7<\/p>\n Weight range: low – 178.0, high 180.8<\/p>\n Week 24:<\/p>\n Monday: 23 DQ, 1512 calories Avg calories per day: 1708<\/p>\n Avg DQ per day: 21<\/p>\n Weight range: low – 174.8, high 179.2<\/p>\n Life:<\/strong><\/p>\n I’m having thoughts about life feeling stagnant.\u00a0 Not boring (actually the opposite), it’s not that I’m not enjoying what I do and my life, it’s just… feeling like something’s missing, some new challenge is out there.\u00a0 Totally abstract and probably just mid-season psychopathy as normal, and most likely either completely caused by or at least incredibly amplified by hormones, but I did have a bit of a meltdown on Friday.\u00a0 Work stress at 11 this week + BSLT nerves + more = Quix shrieking repeatedly at the top of my lungs on the way home from work to release stress (I’m not a crier).\u00a0 Sorry Austin.\u00a0 After work I spent about two hours playing Rockband facemeltingly loud and felt much, much better.\u00a0 I guess I just wanted to yell at somebody and it wasn’t really anyone’s fault.<\/p>\n I’ve had a nice relaxing weekend and think I may be able to get through this week without killing anyone but my associate is out so anything’s possible.\u00a0 The good news is my resting heart rate was doing ok Saturday morning, I figured it would be flipping out, but it was solid at around 52 while in the car, which explains the ~5 bpm higher than complete relaxation.\u00a0 This is probably one of the reasons I haven’t been piling on the training – quite a bit of the stress on my body right now is not coming from swim\/bike\/run.\u00a0 It’s a huge scary risk to be resting so much to me but I think it’s the right option right now.\u00a0 Ask me again in a week.<\/p>\n Fun stuff – We got to start our Savage Worlds campaign (nerdy, tabletop role playing game stuff).\u00a0 I joined the most interesting man in the world, a Russian scientist, and a extreme survivalist as a sexy, loudmouth, greedy thief in a strange tropical world where we saved a village and stopped at the point where we boarded boats to try to steal a big ship for transport.<\/p>\n I made some killer lasagna – a mix between the traditional beef\/italian sausage and veggie, and I went with whole wheat noodles and about half of what I was supposed to use, if not less.\u00a0 I don’t really miss them.\u00a0 Also, I have some pretty yummy beef and barley soup in the crockpot I’m looking forward to putting in my face.<\/p>\n And, that’s about all I have.\u00a0 Watching John Dies at the End, soaking up some couch time, trying to get as much recharge in my bones as possible before tackling this week, and then the trip to Lubbock, and the race itself.\u00a0 I’ll see y’all on the other side.\u00a0 Wish me luck!<\/p>\n
\nTuesday: Bike: Trainer + Star Wars Episode III<\/a> 10.75 mi 00:30 Run: 10 Mile Brick Run<\/a> 10 mi 02:01
\nWednesday: Swim: Lake Pflugerville Test 70.3 Swim<\/a> 2000 m 00:44
\nThursday: Bike: Trainer + Star Wars Episode III<\/a> 18.13 mi 01:00 Swim: Lake Pf Wave Pool!<\/a> 1600 m 00:40 Bike: Since I had to…<\/a> 6.25 mi 00:20
\nFriday: off
\nSaturday: off
\nSunday: Swim: Lake Pf Tri Swim<\/a> 500 m 00:11:45 Bike: Lake Pf Tri Bike<\/a> 14 mi 00:46 Run: Lake Pf Tri Run<\/a> 3 mi 00:30<\/p>\n
\nTuesday: Bike: Trainer + Star Wars Episode IV<\/a> 27 mi 01:30
\nWednesday: Swim: Pool<\/a> 900 m 00:19
\nThursday: Run: 2 Neighborhood Loops<\/a> 6.7 mi 01:20
\nFriday: off
\nSaturday: Veloway 10 Loops<\/a> 30.5 mi 01:51
\nSunday: off<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/macromeme.com\/cat\/mario-kart-irl-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nTuesday: 30 DQ, 1893 calories
\nWednesday: 27 DQ, 1494 calories
\nThursday: 31 DQ, 1835 calories
\nFriday: 24 DQ, 1480 calories
\nSaturday: 18 DQ, 1682 calories
\nSunday: 0 DQ, 2595 calories<\/p>\n
\nTuesday: 29 DQ, 1538 calories
\nWednesday: 27 DQ, 1607 calories
\nThursday: 25 DQ, 1879 calories
\nFriday: 19 DQ, 1674 calories
\nSaturday: DQ 3, 2154 calories
\nSunday: 21 DQ, 1593 calories<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/macromeme.com\/cat\/painting-fruit.jpg\")
<\/p>\n