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<\/p>\nAh, February.\u00a0 A very transitional month.<\/p>\n
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Am ready to retire this hat and scarf for the season, kthx.<\/em><\/p>\n You are not January, with it’s complete suckiness, but you still have some crappy parts.\u00a0 You have Valentine’s Day, but you also have allergies.\u00a0 You have some first peeks at spring, but you also have freezing cold and windy reminders that it’s not there yet.<\/p>\n But, it isn’t all bad, because it leads to March, one of my favorite months, where it really feels like the year gets going.<\/p>\n Sporty Stuff:<\/strong><\/p>\n Lift all the things.\u00a0 And apparently, wear all the red.<\/em><\/p>\n I have really really really enjoyed lifting weights.\u00a0 I’ve talked about it a bit this month already<\/a> so I won’t belabor the point too much, but I feel like I’m making good habits, building some good strength (especially in my posterior chain which is a notoriously weak spot in my body), and hopefully setting the stage to translate what I’m doing this month into speed and power in triathlon.<\/p>\n February has been basic hypertrophy.\u00a0 I’ve been doing 3 sets of like 6-8 reps of your standard compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, overhead presses, and the like, with other isolated exercises to support those efforts.\u00a0 It’s been fun to work the weights up and I’m now deadlifting and squatting over 100# and the bench press is getting close (but my arms are just not quite as strong as my legs).<\/p>\n February has also been the month of the bike.\u00a0 Not because I’ve done a TON of biking, but it’s ALL I’ve done.\u00a0 It’s just hard to get to the pool without a race looming.\u00a0 I’ve intentionally laid off the running (though I finally ran a little off the bike this weekend and it was… okay…).\u00a0 But I have been doing cycling, and towards the end of last month, I’ve actually have been doing intentional workouts that I planned ahead of time with power targets.\u00a0 I really miss tooling around for hours outside but this is the kind of stuff that’s going to make me a better sprint distance cyclist.<\/p>\n I think I have my season figured out. (Bold font means I’ve already plunked down the monies)<\/p>\n However, the plan after Lake Pflugerville is to take a few weeks of R&R and then start really hitting it hard for Cozumel 70.3<\/strong> and mayyyyybe Waco 70.3.<\/p>\n So, what does that mean for March?<\/p>\n I will continue to lift, and lift heavier until the week of March 26th.\u00a0 While it’s not exactly the most perfect preparations for the first race, I think it will pay dividends for the rest of the year.\u00a0 For the next three weeks, my goal will be to lift at the weight where I can do 2-4 reps max.\u00a0 If I get to 4, it’s too easy and I need to increase the weight next round.<\/p>\n After that, my goal is to continue to lift at the 8-12 rep range 1-2 times a week through the rest of the season with weight increases, like, every few weeks.\u00a0 Or every month.\u00a0 This is enough to maintain my strength gains and maybe eek out a little more without impeding my swim\/bike\/run workouts.<\/p>\n I will continue with the same sort of bike workouts I’m doing now.\u00a0 While I really miss riding with the team and I also miss riding outside, I think doing these 30-60 minute rides with hard intervals and specific power targets will help me figure out how I should ride these sprint races (though I’m sure I’ll have to do SOME outside riding…).\u00a0 I’m pretty sure that I will be able to blow my Kerrville Sprint effort out of the water by the time season rolls around.<\/p>\n I will slowly reintroduce swimming and running.\u00a0 Just enough to be comfortable to swim 300m hard in the pool and run a fast 5k on bike-tired legs.\u00a0 I do not plan to do much volume here – probably 1-2 swims a week max (10-20 mins max) and a 30-45 minute run and a shorter run off the bike each week.<\/p>\n It will be interesting to see how a March triathlon works – it’s quite early in the season to actually be competing – but I’m interested to see how things go.\u00a0 Maybe somehow I’ll qualify for Nationals and then I’ll race the rest of the season pressure off!<\/p>\n Nutrition:<\/strong><\/p>\n I love tacos.\u00a0 I especially love mostly organic, pretty healthy, positive diet quality homemade comfort food tacos.<\/em><\/p>\n I think I’ve gotten these down:<\/p>\n I actually feel pretty excellent right now in terms of (lack of) fatigue and mental faculties and give a shit and actually wanting to be a productive and interactive member of society, so I think I’m going in a good direction.\u00a0 I could nitpick that sometimes I forget to eat fruit and nuts for my snacks and eat other stuff instead, and occasionally I’ll go out to eat places that don’t offer whole grains and so I indulge in *shocker* rice noodles or flour tortillas, but it’s definitely the exception and not the rule.\u00a0 Whiskey is now a condiment, not a food group.\u00a0 Establishing.\u00a0 good. habits. is. happening.<\/p>\n What I haven’t gotten the hang of:<\/p>\n And this is the one that matters to see the scale go down.\u00a0 The last week (pre-birthday celebrations) I’ve actually done better (1778 calories average over the last 7 days), but it takes either being IMPECCABLY nitpicky with what goes in my mouth OR going to bed kind of hungry (and sometimes both).<\/p>\n A little too much food, but mostly good stuff.\u00a0 I am going to surmise that my weight is probably down a little from January (since I don’t have the greatest data) but not enough to feel like YAY I LOST WEIGHT yet.<\/p>\n Luckily, this month, I will pick up my activity – just a little bit – for two reasons.\u00a0 One, it won’t be so farking cold and air won’t be trying to kill me, so I have no excuses not to get my 10k steps per day.\u00a0 Two, I will be upping my cardio a little bit with some added swims and runs, so if I can keep my eating the same, maybe I’ll see some changes in the scale.<\/p>\n I will aim for the exact same goals because I think they’re doing good things for me:<\/p>\n That’s it, that’s all!<\/p>\n Life:<\/strong><\/p>\n February felt suuuuper short.\u00a0 We got some things done but it felt like we were at maximum capacity without getting stressed out about doing shit.<\/p>\n We did put up the last piece of trim in the kitchen, but we totally spaced getting help hanging the cabinets when we had friends over this weeknd.\u00a0 Hopefully we can grab another pair of hands to hang the cabinet soon.\u00a0 It’s the only thing blocking the garage being cleaned out, and then we can cease remembering the stress of remodeling and move on with our lives with our gorgeous and oh-so-worth-it kitchen!<\/p>\n I guess the pantry is on March’s list.\u00a0 Oops.\u00a0 Like I said, February was too short!<\/p>\n I finished Chapter 9 in my book.\u00a0 I only have 10 and 15 left.\u00a0 I’m so excited!\u00a0 Everything is coming together… at least for the first draft.\u00a0 Then I have to read it and face how incoherent a book written out of order will be and how much editing work I have ahead of me.\u00a0 However, I will definitely let myself celebrate Draft 1 complete when it happens, because that’s better than I’ve ever done before!<\/p>\n I read the Startup of You<\/a> and it got me all thinky<\/a>.\u00a0 I definitely have some new things to think about in terms of my 2018 resolution of not being a self-centered asshole, or to look at it a more positive way, strengthen my network by being a helpful, nurturing, and approachable individual.\u00a0 Then I read Runner’s World – Train Smart, Run Forever<\/a>, and pretty much nodded along with it, because it’s how I’ve been leaning towards for this year’s training.\u00a0 It’s a great resource for someone interested in a low mileage but still productive and cohesive training plan.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Mar5-2.jpg\")
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