![\"Aug3-1\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Aug3-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDo 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.\u00a0 Race the marathon Feb 28th only if training is going well.\u00a0 Make appropriate goals as such.\u00a0 No arbitrary January 1st goals on what you\u2019re supposed to PR or tackle next year, just the promise that each race will be for a reason.<\/em><\/p>\n Well, sort of.\u00a0 I raced a lot less this year than I have in the past, with<\/a> doing<\/a> only<\/a> five<\/a> triathlons<\/a> and<\/a> four<\/a> running<\/a> races<\/a>, and that was by design.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So, I actually focused more on the training than amassing a bunch of t-shirts and medals.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n I had some really awesome races.\u00a0 The Woodlands Marathon may have been slower than I’d hoped, but I ran the whole thing and felt really strong that day.\u00a0 I PR’d race after race after race after race after race in the spring and summer.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n I crashed and burned at the end of the year.\u00a0 One time, it was due to circumstances outside of my immediate control.\u00a0 One time, I just lost steam and my brain and body gave up on me.\u00a0 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:<\/p>\n Training:<\/p>\n Polarized and periodized training seems to work.\u00a0 Continue with this.\u00a0 Easy days easy.\u00a0 Hard days on point.\u00a0 Base periods without electronics or focus and embracing the joy of movement with really loose volume suggestions instead of nailing a certain mileage\/pace.\u00a0 Months out of your A race \u2013 85% easy 15% hard.\u00a0 Closer \u2013 more goal pace work.<\/em><\/p>\n I think I did the best at this than I ever have, though I have room for improvement.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But, I did much less throwing a lot of easy volume at things and trained much more specifically.<\/p>\n 1k run miles, 3k bike miles (less on the trainer), 100 swim miles.<\/em><\/p>\n Run check (1,022).\u00a0 Bike, so not check (1893).\u00a0 Swim, also not check (45 miles).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n However, I can tell you that it was the most INTENSE year for swimming and cycling.\u00a0 I did a lot more focused workouts with sets and paces and watts and goals, and I got faster at both.\u00a0 Funny how that works.<\/p>\n Work strength and stretching in as I can.<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n DDR is a great plyometric workout.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n And my mat broke and the workout room is full of junk.\u00a0 Moving on.<\/p>\n Run streak January.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Nailed it!\u00a0 Doing it again this year, I’m already on day 6 and loving it!<\/p>\n Figure out a time for offseason.\u00a0 True offseason, same as July for you this year.\u00a0 At least 1 month.<\/em><\/p>\n Nailed it as well.\u00a0 Had a great 5 weeks focused on water park and lake time above all else.<\/p>\n Food\/Scale:<\/p>\n No booze January<\/em><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n A bunch of other stuff…<\/em><\/p>\n I tried to continue to do the lower-grain thing and found it wasn’t the weight loss panacea I had hoped.\u00a0 In fact, I gained some lbs and was kind of cranky about it.\u00a0 I worked with a nutritionist in July and found out<\/p>\n a) I know how to lose weight, I just forgot how.\u00a0 Counting calories, hitting macros, actually sticking to it.<\/p>\n b) It’s counterproductive to try to lose weight during season.\u00a0 Workouts are hard, racing suffers, and I get hangry.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 So, eating a damn sandwich is not off limits.\u00a0 That was nice after a year of bread being the devil.<\/p>\n Work:<\/p>\n The promotion that was up in the air happened.\u00a0 Sadly, reorganization also happened which made doing my new job a whole lot more stressful.<\/p>\n The good:<\/p>\n The bad:<\/p>\n Life:<\/p>\n\n
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