![\"feb19-2\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/feb19-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis was definitely the first full month of full-load, triathlon training.\u00a0 I averaged 10 hours per week, with one EPIC 15 hour week.\u00a0 How do I feel overall?\u00a0 Well, a little bit broken (in a good way), but a lot more confident I can put together a good triathlon here later this spring.<\/p>\n
The two highlights of February?\u00a0 Honestly, my two bike-run bricks.\u00a0 I’ve gotten a lot more confident in my running, but I was kinda afraid that biking before it would send me right back into the 11-12+ pace I was running last year.\u00a0 Spoiler: it didn’t.\u00a0 Even dealing with my heel issues, that actually felt *better* off the bike and after a little bit of wobbly legs, I was able to get into a slightly over 10 minute mile pace, and actually improve over the miles, not fizzle out and die like I had been.<\/p>\n
Run: 71.5 miles – 13 hours (avg ~10:55 pace)<\/p>\n
This month, the focus was just on maintaining an easy 20 mile per week base.\u00a0 If you count the half marathon on March 1, I did that.\u00a0 I missed out on a few runs earlier in the month due to my back AND heel acting up, but changing out shoes, and being conscious of the shoes I wear during my non-running times, seems to help.\u00a0 Honestly, after a full week off running it feels AWESOME, so hopefully it just needed time to *heal* (badup CHING!).\u00a0 We’ll see once I start running again this week, so far so good.<\/p>\n
My easy pace was all over this month depending on temperature, body condition, and training load – anywhere from just over 10 min miles to 11:30s.\u00a0 I’m not worried about it, especially when the best miles came after bikes, and the shitty ones seemed to have a good reason for them.<\/p>\n
At this point, I’m past the honeymoon stage – I think I’ve made the gains I’m going to make right now in running until I get through another high mileage month, recover, and play with speed.\u00a0 That’s the plan for March\/April.\u00a0 I’m going into it rested, and excited to see what happens with my running over the next few months.<\/p>\n
Bike: 423 miles – 18.5 hours (22.8 mph avg)<\/p>\n
Yep, it was bike focus month.\u00a0 I got a lot of saddle time, though most of it (all but a 43 mile ride) was indoors.\u00a0 This would worry me, because inside ride time =! outside ride time, but I have two things making me happy:<\/p>\n
1. I haven’t just been easy riding inside, I’ve been making use of the Sufferfest<\/a> (hurt so good) and also doing intervals on my own.\u00a0 While my indoor mileage is inflated because I go faster on my trainer, the fact is I did get 18.5 solid hours of saddle time this month and I’d say at least 50% of that was with some decent intensity.<\/p>\n 2. My first outdoor easy ride of the year was at 16 mph avg for 40+ miles.\u00a0 While the Veloway doesn’t have a whole lot of elevation overall, it does have a decent hill (either mild and long-ish or short and steep) each mile so it keeps it interesting.\u00a0 I cut it short from the 60 I had planned because I was pooped from the volume (this was the end of the 15 hour week) and wanted a quality run (which I got, so it was a good decision).<\/p>\n I am the best cyclist I’ve been in Februray any year thus far, and that’s happy.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to more outdoor riding here in the next few months, but I feel like I’ve got a good winter base under me now.<\/p>\n Swim: 19km – 7.5 hours<\/p>\n Swimming went on maintenance mode this month – I just didn’t have the time to devote a lot to it, although I definitely enjoyed getting in the pool and doing hour+ swims most days that I did go.<\/p>\n I’m not really getting faster, but I’m getting comfortable with 3000+m at a time, which is not really that helpful for the triathlons coming up first, but will pay dividends in the future.\u00a0 Getting closer to the race, I need to maintain some long sessions, but also work in some short sessions that really tax my endurance, that I don’t have to worry about “saving” anything.<\/p>\n Weights – 5 sessions – 3.5 hours<\/p>\n I did weights, yeah.\u00a0 Skipped one session due to back recovery, and didn’t do weights as normal the week before the race.\u00a0 Feeling pretty ok with this.\u00a0 I’m not going anywhere, really, with these, but I don’t expect to right now.<\/p>\n Total Sporty Spice Hours: 42.5 – a pretty nice increase from 26 hours last week.\u00a0 An average of 1.5 hours of training per day.\u00a0 A great first build month.<\/p>\n March won’t hold a candle to the amount of hours (1 week missing from vacation, though I’m TOTALLY counting scuba, snorkeling, and dance time in overall activity!), but here’s what I hope to do:<\/p>\n 1. Run mileage.\u00a0 I want to put in some frequent running – marathon training without the long long long runs on the weekend.\u00a0 I’d like to hit 30s and maybe even 40 in a week this month.\u00a0 I’d also like to work in some specifically planned tempo miles and a little speedwork too, but not at the cost of more miles.\u00a0 Let’s try for at least 100 miles in March.<\/p>\n 2. Bike speed and outdoor riding.\u00a0 I don’t plan on putting in the volume I did last month, but I want to make the riding I do quality.\u00a0 I should be doing one of three rides this month: a) outdoor riding, b) kicking my ass, dripping pools of sweat on the trainer, or c) easy, low resistance spins for run recovery purposes.<\/p>\n 3. 2 Strengths a week.\u00a0 Even if it’s weights at home.\u00a0 I can fit it in.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Swim at least once a week for an hour.\u00a0 It’s weaksauce to not fit in more, but if I can get at least one long session in, I’ll maintain some semblance of being a swimmer.\u00a0 I’ll do my best to get in two, but that second might be short.<\/p>\n 5. Figure out a training plan through at least the first X-50 (May 4).\u00a0 It’s less than two months away, and I’m pretty sure I know what I need to hit training-wise between now and then.<\/p>\n No races, so no rating there.\u00a0 It was nice to have a month to just TRAIN.<\/p>\n Body: 2\/5.\u00a0 Not happy with the heel stuff that happened, but I have to give the ol’ bod for some credit carrying me through a 15 hour week and two killer awesome bricks.\u00a0 Hopefully we’re on the up and up now, cross your fingers!<\/p>\n Mental game: 4\/5\u00a0 Handling training volume like a boss.\u00a0 No crazy mental breakdowns, though I didn’t show up at Woodlands ready to fight for a PR (but that wasn’t the goal).\u00a0 Looking to keep my head in it this month for the run-stravaganza!<\/p>\n Food\/Scale\/Kitchen Stuff:<\/strong><\/p>\n February was pretty good most of the time, but REALLY BAD sometimes.\u00a0 V-day celebrations ended up stretching across a full long weekend.\u00a0 Looking back on my food intake, I was like “yay, I did so good all week” then “Boo, what was I THINKING eating all that crap and drinking a lot the same day”.<\/p>\n What did save me was the 1 fried\/chip\/junk food and 1 dessert per week.\u00a0 No, I ate more than that, but it actually helped me to not be as bad as I could have been.\u00a0 I think that’s a reasonable rule to live with the majority of the time, so I’ll keep at it.\u00a0 However, I think I’ll introduce also the 1 refined grain per week rule.\u00a0 It snuck in there more than I’d like, so I’ll call it out and see if that helps.<\/p>\n I was great at tracking calories, but bad at DQ, I had to go back and do that for the full month, and honestly?\u00a0 It wasn’t pretty some days.\u00a0 It reinforced that if I want to party all day with the boozes, I really also need to eat super duper clean or my body gets in a tired little hole and revolts because it’s been stressed (long workout), stressed (booze all day), and then more stress (crappy or inadequate food).\u00a0 So that’s a goal for March – lets eat healthy on drinking days.<\/p>\n Calorie Counts:<\/p>\n Week 1:<\/span><\/p>\n Avg Calories\/DQ: 1891\/21.4<\/p>\n Scale High\/Low: 180.2\/176.6<\/p>\n Week 2:<\/span><\/p>\n Avg Calories\/DQ: 2180\/18.1<\/p>\n Scale High\/Low: 179.2\/175.6<\/p>\n Week 3:<\/span><\/p>\n Avg Calories\/DQ: 2004\/18<\/p>\n Scale High\/Low: 178.4\/175.2<\/p>\n Week 4:<\/span><\/p>\n Avg Calories\/DQ: 1983\/24<\/p>\n Scale High\/Low: 180.2\/177.6<\/p>\n Overall – High Weight: 180.2, Low Weight: 175.2 (it’s the right direction, so I’ll take it).<\/p>\n The funny thing was I was going to tell you I ate AWESOME in February, but it’s easy to have rose colored glasses.\u00a0 There’s still a lot of improvement to be made.\u00a0 Coming back from vacation, I’ve had my fill of butter, refined flour, and sugar, and I’m ready to eat more veggies, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, etc.\u00a0 We have a birthday celebration for Zliten this month, but the rest of the time, I’m aiming to stay on the straight and narrow.\u00a0 One junk food, one refined grain, one sweet per week, max.<\/p>\n Best new food I made: Chicken Broccoli Potato Soup<\/a><\/p>\n Other things I cooked:<\/p>\n Best thing that was cooked for me:<\/p>\n Grilled bacon wrapped filet, grilled lobster tail w\/garlic butter, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and asparagus (v-day dinner #2, pictured above)<\/p>\n We didn’t batch cook as much this month, but we had a TON of leftovers from January.\u00a0 We’re now down to not much left, so it’s time to build those stores back up with a few good ol’ fashioned cooking sprees this month<\/p>\n I’m going to go with a 3\/5 rating here.\u00a0 Same as January, some moments were great, some were terrible, and hopefully March will be awesomesauce!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n