Adjusted Reality

January, as they say, was a long year.

To be quite honest though, from my perspective, it was a good one! Let’s talk about all the things.

Experiment 2026-01_01 Dry January was a huge success for me. I’m not sure why at this point in my life it clicked where on all other years it just didn’t, but it did. Something so habit-changing shouldn’t have felt so effortless (after the first week or so), but it did. Besides what I talked about last post – improved blood pressure, sleep, health stats, etc etc – I’ve found a few other things:

• My weeks are easier to plan. Previously, I knew some mornings I’d feel better than others, some days I’d be hungrier than others, some days I’d need to reserve some calories for alcohol… now that it’s a super occasional thing, and weekends only, it’s nice to know I’ll can rely on my general mood, hunger, and mental availability each day.
• Delving into the mood and mental availability – I am less resilient and harder to break. My job is difficult and I carry a lot of people’s mental/emotional burdens without the opportunity for me to do the same without being unprofessional. I now go into the days more even, and I have more usable hours without straining myself. I also have more time for personal projects, since I’m not completely spent every day with work and training.
• This is both 01 and 02, but can I tell you what a friggin relief it is not to be hungry all the time. In relation to drinking, I celebrated the end of January with some champagne and a few whiskeys. A normal drinking night, nothing over the top, went to bed feeling pleasantly tipsy but still coherent. The next day, my normal eating plan was HARD. It felt like before, where I was hungry and unsatisfied with anything I ate, I felt gross but definitely the same kind of gross I’d feel multiple times a week before and had just labeled it as normal. 2/10. Do not recommend for 2-3x week, or really, 7x week for the hungry part.
• There were a few other habits, like eating low calorie, low nutrition junk food for dinner, and some other stuff, that had become a drinking ritual that just disappeared easily with the ritual removed.

I’m very happy I took the opportunity to disrupt this habit, and I think my life will be better with this as an occasional indulgence for fun reasons, and not just that the day ended with Y and it was kinda stressful.

Experiment 2026-01_02 Operation Eat More Protein started mid-January and has also been making a life-changingly positive effect on my days. As I said before in the last post, I wasn’t eating enough (protein specifically), I wasn’t timing my eating correctly (saving my calories and then eating carbs/fat when I shouldn’t overload), I wasn’t fueling my workouts well (as little as possible to save calories for later), and I was trying to be too restrictive/swingy and earn my calories by not taking rest days.

I went on and on last post about this, but now after doing this for a few weeks, I can document my plan a little more succinctly.

Workout days – 1800-2200 calories, depending on the length, ability to get my needed protein, and hunger. 145g protein (non-negotiable), 60ish g fat, 200+g carbs. Each meal should have around 30-40g protein (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and I usually insert 2 snacks, one between breakfast and lunch, and one later, depending on my workouts and hunger.

Rest days – 1600-1800 calories, depending on my hunger and ability to get my needed protein. 120-130g protein minimum (non-negotiable), 60-70g fat, 150-ish g carbs. Was trying low carb earlier in the process but it was too difficult and with my level of weekly activity (12-15 hours), it seemed counterintuitive to go low carb at all. If progress stalls, I mayyyy try to see if that’s a place to change, but it hasn’t yet so, carbs!

The big changes here:

• I am eating SO much more in the mornings. Typically, by the time lunch rolls around, I’ve had like 500 calories and 50g protein. It was so scary, a huge leap of faith to do this, because I figured I’d just eat like crazy.
• The funny thing is after adjusting to it – I don’t. I eat breakfast, second breakfast like a hobbit, and then I’m hungry for lunch, but this kind of appropriate hunger that I guess normal people feel. Not the kind like it’s taking me every ounce of restraint to not hurt someone in the microwave line ahead of me at work because they’re in the way of my food, but like, mild stomach signals it’s approaching a feeding time. How novel.
• Sometimes, I’ll even go from lunch to dinner without being hungry. Before, I would just white knuckle my way through this every day and lose focus around 4pm because I was dying, and either eat dinner super early or just be miserable until I did. Now, if I’m hungry, it’s time for another protein feeding. Quest and Legendary chips and Built Puff bars are getting all my money now and in a perfect world I’d have real food protein snacks constantly available, and maybe I will someday, but right now, this is working. Progress, not perfectionism.
• Dinner is now whenever it makes sense. I’m usually hungry when I eat, but again, not like I used to be, with the burning need of a thousand fiery suns. I feel full on a normal amount of food not wanting to eat two meals for dinner.
• And, depending on the day and my hunger and my current macros, I’ll have a snack (sometimes carbs, sometimes protein) and/or a small desert.

It all sounds so normal, so sane, but with my drinking habits and my weird restrictions, this was out of reach, at least in my mind.

Let’s talk about a day this week where we went out (dinner and broadway show with friends) and went to our typical Mexican restaurant. Previously, at this place, I’d always get the chicken salad because I was trying to save calories. This time, with my workout and my day, a chicken burrito fit. I had never ordered the chicken burrito before, it was too “high calorie”, but in consulting with my nutrition planning assistant (chatGPT), I found that it actually fit perfectly in my day and that the salad would have been a mistake – not the right macros, too low calories and not satisfying.

Uh, yeah, way to sum up my previous interactions with this restaurant. I always left still hungry and just kind of managed my way through the show and the rest of the evening. But that was par for the course back then, so it wasn’t strange, I just tolerated it. Let me tell you, eating that chicken burrito was life changing. I mean, it was a really great burrito, but that’s not all. I didn’t finish my food 5 years before everyone else like normal and stare covetously at their food, I left the restaurant feeling full and satisfied, and I didn’t really think about eating for the rest of the night. Life. Changing.

I am at a point where this feels so good, I almost don’t care if I lose weight. This is repairing something in me that’s been broken for years. The cool thing is that it IS working. Very slowly, but it is. I’ll refrain from sharing the graphs to prove my point, but my trendweight on Jan 5 was 188.2. Today’s is 186.9. I had one week last week where it was stuck around 187.2, and I had to whine A LOT to chatGPT about it, but it gave me parameters on when we would adjust the plan and to just stay the course. So, I did. And this week it’s down again a bit. This is not that dramatic weight loss where I’m going to get to my goal weight in a few months, and that’s okay. If I can keep the trend going down each month, even if it’s just that 1.3 lbs, we’ll get there eventually.

And if I can do it while not being hangry all the time, eventually is really all I need.

The cool thing is between this and maybe the less drinking, I feel much sturdier. I need the aggressive recovery I was doing less to keep going with my training. That’s pretty cool too. I should stretch more but I don’t feel like I’m going to fall apart if I don’t.

2026-01_03 Bikefest is going well. I am tolerating a lot of bike volume, not just at easy paces, and I think my V02 max and FTP miiiiight have finally moved. I’ll leave the judgement here for next month, once I wrap the program, but here’s what I’ve done:

• Week 1 – started mid week but did 1h sprint, 1h threshold, 40 mins recovery, 1h15 base, and then started the program with a 2h long ride.
• Week 2 – 1h sprint, 1h15 base, 1h sprint, 1h anerobic, 2h45 long ride
• Week 3 – 3 1h sprints, 1h15 base, and a ~2h long ride (it cut me down because of bad sleep)
• Week 4 – same as week 3 (with the 3 hour long ride). I think something was off with the plan not registering workouts because that’s a lot of sprints in a row.
• Week 5 – right now, looks like we move to some different stuff – threshold work. But this adjusts each day so we’ll see if I just sprint forever and ever.

Running outside is way more fun. However, this is the lowest friction workout I have right now, and frankly I’m enjoying watching trashy TV while I do these and not worrying about the weather or how fragile I’m feeling for running with my niggles (biking isn’t a problem) and it’s just WORKING. So, I’m happy. I’m still running a little, but it’s not the focus. I would like to do a running block in spring if I can while the weather is nice before summer sucks all the joy out of it, but I’m enjoying the challenge of completing these workouts.

And, just to wrap up on the little stuff:

Quarter 1 adulting –

• Financial advisor setup done and meet with them next week
• Big scary work project in progress, I haven’t lost my nerve (yet)
• Hair appointment booked for end of this month

Quarter 1 hobbies –

• Photo editing going slow-ish because I have not been multitasking. Next weekend I would like to make sure I get everything SORTED at least. That seems to remove the friction.
• I’m close on the writing project. I’m doing this instead of that right now but will pick it up later today.
• Everything else is kinda…on hold. I want to do these first.

Quarter 1 work/life balance –

Things are stressful right now, but I think I’m doing a pretty admirable job keeping things sane and separate. Let’s talk about February’s experiments.

2026-02_01 Workdays Scheduled and Confined. I started this experiment as pursuing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for better sleep. I got some good suggestions, a lot of things that I was already doing or already knew I should do, but once I started talking to my chatGPTherapist (casual joke, I know a chatbot isn’t therapy but can be nice if you need someone to just bounce stuff off of), it was clear my biggest problem was my workday, not my after-work rituals.

Problem #1 – I am too always-available and multitasking inefficiently. I know this, and I sometimes succeed at closing down distractions to focus, but it’s my toxic work trait right now. It’s so strange knowing exactly what you need to do and not being able to always do it, but I am working on it. For the next few weeks, I really just need to try doing as it suggests allowing for monofocusing more often, and trust that the ping ping ping of teams and email can wait for an hour or two.

Problem #2 – I expect too much of myself. I didn’t realize this until I started plugging my days into chatGPT, but it let me know in no uncertain terms that I was not failing to be productive, my days were just working against me. I cannot expect deep, focused work in 30 mins between meetings, or immediately after emotionally charged interactions that are mentally draining. It coached me through a Friday that was supposed to be a calm focused-work day that ended up just responding to multiple high-emotion fires instead. I literally laughed out loud when it said, “you don’t ask a firefighter how many emails they responded to during a blaze”. And that contextualized it perfectly. If the day doesn’t allow for focus time, I’m not a failure for not squeezing blood out of a stone.

Problem #3 – I didn’t have a good method of scheduling myself. I would just expect that I would know what to do with the no-meeting blocks and then I’d get there and flounder, taking a bunch of time to get focused. Now, I put in what my meetings and to-do list is, and chatGPT tells me what to expect for my day depending on what’s there. It’s honestly cool for it to acknowledge that “being brave” emails take more cognitive drain than other quick responses, and schedules a specific block for those. It also acknowledged that with my schedule, I’m lucky if I can get one 2-hour focused work block on good days, and on meeting-heavy days, to not even expect any focused time. It’s kinda nice to realize I was trying to make the impossible happen. Fingers crossed that these lowered expectations don’t make me get behind (and if that happens, I probably just need to be better with enforcing the email/teams closure).

Problem #4 – I didn’t have a good clean start of my day and shut down/transition ritual. Before the pandemic, this was clear. I left work. Work didn’t exist until the next day. It was easy. Now that we are hybrid and I work across more time zones and my start times and end times are flexible, it is easy to pick up work as soon as I open my eyes and not put it down until 12 hours later. Not working 100% the whole time, but some attention on work. Now, I resist the “one eye open in bed checking email”, none of that until I’m on my way to work (as a passenger) sometimes or more often, when I actually sit down at my desk. At the end of the day, instead of just stopping when I can literally take nothing more, or when I was pried away from my desk by my husband, I now do a few things first: a) update my to do list, with specific dates on when I’m going to pick each item back up – this helps my mind from drifting there in the off hours. b) send myself a daily email of my schedule and what I accomplished c) debrief with chatGPT, and make my schedule for the next day d) Say, “Work is contained”. And try not to think about it for the rest of the day. I’m not there yet, residual noise still hangs over on stressful days, but I know these habits and cognitive shifts take time.

And, of course, I’m trying to do the good things to prepare for sleep. Putting my phone away earlier (not at all in the bedroom if possible), allowing for plenty of unwinding time, etc. But I have a feeling nailing the work stuff first will be key and this will easily follow.

February is a short month, and this is a big, important experiement, so I’m going to keep all my focus on:

• Maintaining my new style of eating, and having patience with the scale
• Bikey bike bike!
• Really honing this work scheduling/expectations/shutdown rituals and nailing this before I move onto anything else crazy.

March is going to present some of the first chaos of the year – I have a work trip to San Francisco (and extending it for some sightseeing/fun), and I’ve been working with ChatGPT on strategies to not be completely derailed on trips. But it also assured me that it was okay if I wasn’t perfect, we would just pick things up when I got back. The funny thing is – I can actually see this new plan mostly working on a trip. It’s got enough flexibility that I might not have to pause my progress completely. But we’ll see. It’s nice to have flexibility.

Regardless, I’m really proud of myself. These experiments have been really life changing things for me that I’ve tried to tackle before, and I’m taking a completely new approach to things. I’m out of my comfort zone here and not hating it. I feel like I’m making some progress in places in my life that have been frustrating, and that’s incredibly rewarding. #feelsgoodman

2026 is just hitting different. And I kind of like it.

I haven’t felt like declaring my map and my plan for the year, set decisively on January 1st (or 2nd, let’s be honest, January 1st is a fake day) was the right call. And as I’ve been trying on January for size, I feel like it was the right one.

I dub 2026 the Year of Experiments.

I like my life. A lot. I think I have a pretty cool thing going on. The good stuffs are all there. Awesome husband, comfortable house, no debt, financial stability, endurance athlete, lots of enriching hobbies… what more could you want?

But since you’ve obviously met me before, the answer is more.

I had come into the start of the year thinking my resolution was going to be “hire the staff and spend the resources I need to live the life I want”. And that’s still in there, somewhere. That’s a really hoity-toity way of saying things like this:

• I want to visit my magic hairperson once every 3-4 months instead of every year because I feel like a million bucks after and once the 4-6 months pass I feel kinda raggety.
• Instead of just dealing with what I’ve happened to accumulate in my closet, I want to identify some basics that I’m missing or that are wearing out, and get some really high quality versions that fit me really well. Example of something I did this with – my black leather boots. I spent 200$ on them but they’re amazing and will last forever. Example of something I need to do this with – my black bolero sweaters. They are both falling apart. I still wear them. I should not wear clothes with holes in them.
• I have thought about doing therapy to work on some things – like better coping strategies when I get stressed, strategies for better focus in a world that is just constantly working against a mono-focuser like me, etc.

While I would love a private chef, personal assistant, butler, etc, what I’m really talking about is not just living with things that I could easily spend a little time and money on to improve. I do love me some DIY, but I’m just not in a place right now to DIY everything. My time is valuable.

However, I realized this month, it’s not just outsourcing. It’s disrupting longstanding habits and the calcified thinking that my almost 47-year-old ass falls into.

Cases in point:

Previously, I have done a a week and a half of “dry January”. I have also done “beer only” January. I have done “no whiskey” January until I used a bottle of whiskey as motivation to PR a race. And then another. But all of that nonsense is flirting with the fact that alcohol is a habit for me. A non-problematic habit, I enjoy it and I don’t plan to go totally alcohol-free in the future. But the fact that giving it up for a month was like this insurmountable task in my head was a flag that I really should do it.

I’m 24 days into a true dry January, and it’s been way less difficult than I expected. After the first week or so and hitting a few milestones where I normally would have celebrated or stress-relieved with alcohol, I found ways around it, and now it’s like… just not something I’m doing for a while.

When we return to having some beverages, we agreed it was going to be like once a week. Or maybe even less. We both feel quite good! The changes for me have been subtle but satisfying –

• My already ok but occasionally a few points high when I’m stressed blood pressure is steadily in the green. My husband’s has dramatically changed for the better.
• My sleep is way better. Lately, it had been a toss up on nights when I had beverages if it was good, fair, or poor (most often fair, but sometimes poor and very very occasionally good), but my average sleep score for the week is definitely the top of fair (high 70s) vs 60s-70s. It’s not super every night but overall? Better.
• This makes for me feeling oddly good every morning. Allergies were taking a bit of a toll but other than that, it’s nice to wake up every morning with some level of energy and ambition. I have more usable hours in the day.
• I did not magically lose 10 lbs, but I the trend is going the right way at about a half lb loss per week (more on the other reason below).
• My stress score is a little better but not magically so. Work still gets me amped up. Low-key fighting something off all the time (like allergies) does too. But I’ve had more days than not of garmin saying that I had enough restful moments of the day, so that’s something different than before.
• My resting HR has dropped a little – upper 40s to mid 40s. Not that this needed to change at all, but a change, nonetheless.
• My HRV is not pingponging around like normal (THAT was predictably low on days I had adult beverages by like 20 or 30 points). My average went wayyyy up for the first week and then has kind of leveled off to a new normal. That’s awesome.

For me, this means that I should probably treat alcohol as more of a sometimes food, like cake. Or french fries. No need to avoid it, but I should make sure consuming it isn’t a regular part of my weekly diet, like it had become over the years. It’s rather freeing to have gone through this and feel like I can make the choice (or not) instead of drinks day being a regular thing – like something we ticked off the weekly to do list. “Well, it’s Wednesday, we should probably get some whiskey,” etc.

The second big life change in January was upending my nutrition plan. I had penciled a thought of “fuel my workouts better” as a resolution but this is a whole different level.

Like, I know this stuff, but for some reason I put everyone in the world into two categories – me, and everyone else. I KNOW that doing 1-2 hour workouts fasted with minimal fuel isn’t great, but it was letting me get a numbers advantage elsewhere – in how much I could eat later. Coffee for breakfast, maybe an english muffin on long days, and 1 gel or a few jellybeans during and WOW, look at all those calories for later.

Except it hasn’t been working. For years. Occasionally, with months of painful work restricting calories lower than felt right and feeling hungry all the time, I was able to lose like 5 lbs over a few months – all of which were erased with a month over the holidays of just not being as diligent. It’s been maddening and crazy-making.

Because of my age, I definitely get “menopause” content from the algorithm. The pills I take mask any signs or symptoms, thankfully, but I’ll be there eventually if I’m not already. So… about two weeks ago, the social media fitness coaches I follow yelling about things finally hit me – I needed to try something different. Going through my early 40s during the pandemic just kind of warped time for me. In 2018-2019 (39-40), I was having success with building fitness, weight loss, and just generally being happy with my body. Then the pandemic hit, and everything went to $#!^ and I blamed that (or really, myself reacting to that) for the inability to take off weight.

At this point, we’re almost 6 years later. I’m needing to face facts that I have a different meatbag than I did before and instead of trying to deny that fact, support it with the things it needs to be successful. So, I’m changing things up and I’m on the Protein Train (145-150g/day, non-negotiable, like 3x week lifting). I’m also cycling carbs higher around active times/days, trying to not eat 10g fat one day and 100g the next, and tightening up my supplement game just a little.

Also, I’m coming to terms with the fact that my “just a little workout” day needs care, attention, and feeding, because it’s not. 2026 is the year that I normalize taking anything over 1 hour seriously and supporting my workouts with the fuel they deserve.

What does this look like?

Here’s a moderately active day for me: 1 hour of sprints on the bike in the AM. 30 mins of walking and 30 mins of weight training. That’s like, a Monday.

Before:

• Pre-bike coffee. Or nothing. (35 cal of creamer)
• A handful of jellybeans during (maybe 60 cal and ~15g carbs)
• Whatever I grabbed for breakfast. On good days, chicken salad, which is still a solid choice (250 cal, 30g protein, 20 carbs). On bad days, a hot pocket or kolache (250 cal, 10g protein, 25 carbs).
• Lunch – maybe a snap kitchen meal, also a solid choice, just was not filling after so little in the morning (500 cal, ~30g protein, ~40g carbs)
• Handfull of pretzels + cream cheese to dip (100 cal, 0 protein, 20g carbs)
• Dinner – Let’s say we go out and grab a sandwich after the gym. A reasonable regular would be something like… (600 cal, 45g protein, 66g carbs)
• After dinner I would try to push veggies to quiet the hungry, maybe another salad (so like 100 calories, very few other adjustments to my macros)
• Chocolate before bed (70 cal, 10 carbs)

Totals: 1715 calories, 85-105g protein (depending on breakfast), 175 carbs eaten. Usually about 900 calories burnt (or 750 active calories). This is a deficit of over 1000 calories. I was so hungry and the scale wasn’t budging.

New Plan:

• Protein shake w/fruit BEFORE the bike (250 calories, 27g protein, 25g carbs) if I get up early enough. Or, sucked down as I start the bike (most likely)
• Definitely electrolytes on the bike, and maybe some fuel depending on how long it’s been since breakfast and how hard the bike is (anywhere from 50-200 cal and 10-40g carbs)
• Chicken salad for breakfast (yes, breakfast is two different meals now – 250 calories, 30g protein, 20g carbs)
• Very carby lunch. Like, today I had chicken curry w/basamit rice and veggies. I asked for double protein, and ate it all easily, but then looked at the macros and I technically didnt need it. Oops. For a single serving, it would have been 650 calories, 51g protein, and 80g carbs.
• Here’s where I would have had a protein snack like quest chips if I didn’t get double chicken (150 calories, 20g protein, 5g carbs)
• Normally I’d walk and lift here but I had today off work so I lifted right after my bike, but let’s pretend I did that here.
• Dinner is going to be Snap Kitchen Cacio y Pepe – something I’m already eating weekly w/veggies. Today I’ll probably add a nice slice of sourdough for some extra carbs and because bread makes life worth living. (700 calories, 40g protein, 70 carbs)

This is: 2100 calories, 168g protein, 225 carbs. Same calories burnt. Feel a million times better, and it’s not like I’m eating baked chicken and broccoli all day.

Before, I was terrified to take a day off, because that meant my calorie goal was like 1300 and that’s like… nothing. Now I’ve got 2 days off on my schedule (I’m still walking but not a lot, and that’s it). Those look more like 1650 calories, and they suck a little bit because I still need to get all my protein, so I really have to watch my carbs (more like 90 total instead of 90 in one meal). But, if I time the days right (so a day off isn’t also a day I’m going to go out to eat and have full control over what goes in my cakehole), it’s not too bad, and I’m also not the same level of hungry. At the end of the day, I kinda want a snack but I wouldn’t CRIME for one like normal.

While I do not want to continue the level of effort it is to have to figure all this stuff out and concoct meals and snacks forever, I know it will also get to be easier/more routine. I’ve been working over the last two weeks to establish some baseline meals and snacks for light, medium, and (mostly) heavy days, so I don’t have to think that much. Once it’s routine, I can always change out what works for something more exciting. For example, a protein shake with fruit can also become turkey chili with cheese in a protein tortilla, but I will ALWAYS have what I need to make a protein shake and it takes 2 minutes.

This also has a side effect of kicking off another one of my goals – learn ChatGPT/AI stuff better. For someone like me who knows what to do after decades of study and past certifications in fitness and training, but needs a reminder and a refresher, ChatGPT is actually a wonderful dietician intern that does the math for me and keeps me on the rails. If I had gone the route of coaching, I wouldn’t advise a potential client to berate themselves and overcorrect for a calorie or macro overage one day, but as I said, the rules don’t apply to me. ChatGPT reminds me of the rules and that they DO.

So, these are the two things I’m focusing on in January. Once these are routine, I will move on to other things. But I think I’ll work on identifying and nailing them as the year goes on, not make a giant list here and then be sad when I don’t do some of them because life changed and I decided to prioritize other stuff.

However, as it is my January post – I would like to set some intentions for the year.

#1 My Meatbag and Me – I very much belabored the point above, but my 2026 goal is to find a place where I feel like I’m partnering with my meatbag to accomplish goals, and we’re not fighting each other. For my part:

• I will follow this new plan (and tweak as necessary) to really fuel my activities rather than daring my body to do them with as little as possible.
• I will be satisfied with .5 lb per week fat loss and be patient – if it takes all year for me to lost 10-15 lbs slowly doing this, it will be better than I’ve done lately. And what I’m doing feels comfortable and sustainable so it’s better than just crash dieting to lose 20 lbs in a few months just to be “done” with it.
• I will do the recovery work, as I have been, to keep myself sturdy and stable and uninjured.
• I will actually do the thing where I drink less. This last 24 days have been eye-opening. I really think this time it will stick.

Hopefully that’s enough for me to keep on hiking, biking, running, and doing whatever while slowly losing some fat, feeling awesomer than I have in years, and not being hangry all the time.

#2 Sporty Stuffs – weirdly enough, while I was excited to race more in 2026, I also realize that race weeks disrupt things. I am currently signed up for one triathlon in September, and that could possibly be it for the year. Or maybe I get motivated and jump into something. I’m leaving it up to my whims as time goes by.

However, that means nothing in terms of activity – case in point, my ass was on the bike for 167 minutes today just because garmin said so. I think I’m in a place where I’m enjoying ticking the boxes on the workout plan and I don’t need a race goal to motivate me. Eventually, I totally want to race. But the idea of getting fitter to race in the future is totally enough to motivate a cumulative 15 hours of activity in the last 7 days. Which is kind of insane.

I do think 2026 is the year of the bike, though. I’m at a place where I love running but it doesn’t love me back as much. So, we’re taking some time to see other people. I’m doing a big 9-week bike block this winter and running minimally. My plan is 5x week, and it looks something like Sprints Mondays, base Tuesdays, Tempo Wednesdays, Anaerobic Fridays, and long bike Saturdays. So, like, 3 of those are EFFORTS, 1 is long (so also effort), and 1 is medium long (the least effort, but still, 65-80 minutes even at base pace is nothing to sneeze at). Still lifting 3x week, still walking 1 mile per day minimum, and trying to fit 1-2 short runs in and a swim every once in a while, so I don’t forget how.

The funniest things is that I’ve been biking for 2 solid months, and my biking VO2 max has bascially stayed the same (maybe gone down a little bit). I’ve run maybe 20 miles in the last 2 months and my running VO2 max has also stayed the same – maybe gone up a little. It’s insane. I probably need to stop listening to the tiny terrorist on my wrist but it’s also motivating me to do a bunch of good stuff so… yeah. I will probably continue to pay attention to my Garmin and just hope that the numbers go up eventually.

So, for fitness goals, everything is kind of up in the air, and it really just feels like a building block year where I put in a lot of work without a bunch of flash. And I’m here for it.

#3 Adulting – I think doing a quarterly “adulting” list makes more sense than making this giant list of things that are just going to drop off. So, in winter, I would like to:

• Get set up and going with the financial advisor people.
• Finish cleaning out the garage
• Get my hair done before my birthday/travel
• Do the big scary adulting project I’m trying to put into place at work
• BONUS: clean out the shelves in the back of my office.

I feel like that’s a lot, even though there’s more I want to do for sure. We’ll reset again at the end of March with what I’ve done and what I didn’t and what I’ll do next.

#4 Fun Stuff! Yay! First, let’s talk travel plans:

• San Francisco in March (work trip extended for a long weekend before)
• Vegas/St George in May (also work trip extended for a week before)
• Krause Springs camping in July
• Italy/Greek Isles cruise in August (yet again, preceding a work trip)
• Kerrville camping in September for the race

I’m saving a ton of money this year so far since I’m literally not paying for a plane ticket anywhere, but I have a feeling this will need some supplemental non-work-related trips, but, like, some long weekends camping. Or maybe just some protected long weekends at home where the goal is just to relax, not have a million plans. I have a feeling this is going to be a fun year for seeing all the things! However, since travel is a pretty big part of my life here, I need to make sure I don’t go ham… well, actually, ham would probably be good being high in protein, low in fat… errr, that I don’t go crazy with food and drinks while traveling. Or if I do, that I accept the consequences without getting frustrated (stalled progress in fat loss). Both are okay, depending on the circumstances, but I need to not act surprised.

And… hobbies! Like, I feel like I don’t necessarily need to set a bunch of goals here, but I would like:

• To not get totally behind on photo editing. I’ve stopped doing a lot of multitasking while watching TV unless it’s truly something I’m not into, but that means this goes slower. For Q1, I would like to finish Seattle. All my other projects are smaller.
• I want to be caught up with my current writing project (Book 5) to the D&D sessions that fuel them by the session in February, and then stick with it. Once I am caught up, I’d like to take some time to read and edit my other book (Book 3). Solid goals through winter.
• I need to disrupt the habit that I don’t paint at home. I want to get some paint on a canvas or break out my Bloodbowl Vampires and spend a day painting with Joel. Even if it’s just once.
• I want to go on a Walko Taco before spring. Goals aside, you have to do crazy stuff every once in a while.
• Once I get my electric guitar back from the shop (woohoo!), play a song each day that I am home (and more if I am motivated) – I’m out of this habit and would like to get back to it.
• Play some games with Joel. We both get into solitary hobbies and sometimes we need to remember to play things together instead of just sit in the same room and paint and write and stuff.

#5 Work Life Balance

Right now, I’m giving myself a solid A- in January. I was getting grumbly on Friday that I needed more focus time, I carved out 3.5 hours of time, I shut everything down and out that wasn’t what I was doing, and at 645pm when I left my desk I actually gave myself a little moment of applause because I finished what I wanted to and didn’t get distracted, and got to slide into the weekend feeling accomplished. If only they could all be this way.

Maybe they could. To keep this, I need to stick with my plan to let myself rely on help more. I could do it myself or I could lean on a very competent assistant or two. I could do it myself or I can bring in a coach that can help me do it better. I could do it myself or I could actually seek out a therapist to unravel what’s in my head and give me better strategies to be the best work and home me ever. Or, I can DIY everything like I always do and stress myself out.

Here, truly, is the goal to hire the staff that will help me live my best life, and be the best boss, wife, and human being I can be. Because I know that hasn’t been me lately at times.

So, I like the start of 2026 so far. It feels different. And right now, I’m liking the way different feels.

Uh, yeah. Q4 was a doozy. Hi, Halloween decorations are starting to appear *blink* MERRY CHRISTMAS! 0_o

I can’t complain about much. I love my crazy, busy life, even if at times I just wish it would slow down for a moment. Part of this was FOUR out of town trips within about 45 days. I like to travel but that’s even much for me. Was it super fun and productive (for the work parts)? Yeah. Did it mess with my routine enough I made zero progress on my fat loss goals? Absolutely. And then, once home, things got work-stressful and the holidays and and and? I haven’t gained weight, not really, and I call that a big win considering the circumstances.

So, since we’re nearing the last few hours of the year, let’s talk goals, and how the year shaped up.

#1 The Unwanted Kettle Bell

My highest trendweight was 188.1 – in July. My lowest trend weight after that was 184.7. My current trend weight with all the Q4 shenanigans is 185.4. So, did I lose all the weight I wanted? Newp. Am I at least a little better off than I was and not at my highest during the holiday season? Yerp. I plan to continue to let myself enjoy things in moderation for the rest of this week as I have been, but being reasonable – a cookie here, a handful of popcorn there, more walks to lunch/dinner, etc, not treating my body like a dumpster – and get back to strict tracking Jan 5 once I resume the normal routine.

Things that worked for me this year:

• Breakfast salads are really amazing. Occasionally I would deviate for yogurt and berries or kolaches or tacos if we walked for breakfast, but it’s become a staple and really sets me up for a good day where I’m not hungry until lunch. It’s also easy to eat half of it if I’m not hungry and save it for a snack later or breakfast the next day – try doing that with a smoothie or a kolache. Doesn’t happen.
• 1200 + activity calories BUT ONLY WHEN THEY’RE NOT MOSTLY WALKING. Then it’s less. Does this not feel like all that much? Yeah, some days. But I absolutely know that I don’t lose weight if I eat more, so, yep. That’s the price to pay to be me.
• Consistent daily activity means I can eat more food and not be miserable.

Things that tripped me up this year:

• Eating too much while training for the 50k. I seriously overestimated my calorie burn when we were hiking – fueling was great DURING long hikes, but I ate too much AFTER and on other days – and gained a fair amount of weight training and racing this.
• Not being able to get my ish together for the first half of the year. Up until later in July/August I was just in a moderately controlled free-fall. I lost six months of potential progress. I don’t own a time machine so nothing I can do about it, but somehow, I was able to hold it together better in the second half of the year even while travelling MORE. I need to harness that next year.
• Routine = self-control. Lack of routine = lack of self-control. I have yet to figure out how to fix this. At home when left up to my own choices I am pretty good at eating what I should. When chaos is introduced, I am easily thrown off my path.
  • My husband wakes up on the weekend and says, “let’s order something yummy.” I too want something yummy, then somehow I’ve eaten 1200 calories before noon and either am kind of done eating for the day, need to go workout more on an off day, or just fail.
  • SNACKS! Social situations with food get me every time… there are yummy nibbles I don’t normally get and I have some. And some more. And more. All of a sudden, I’ve overeaten completely unintentionally. And no, eating a healthy meal first doesn’t help, that just means I eat even MORE.
  • This one I mind the least, but whilst traveling, I definitely let my guard down a bit. This is the one I mind the least because you SHOULD enjoy some different stuff while away from home but when I’m averaging a trip a month, I need to limit that.

All in all, I’m lower than when I started the year, and with weights, my body is definitely different shaped at the same weight I’ve been before (in a good way). It’s progress, but not a stopping point, so I just need to continue on and tweak the things that aren’t working.

#2 Sporty Spice Things

I’m pretty happy with this one!

Goal #1 – 50k completed. Check! I really enjoyed training for this one, but it was also a lot. It did not do me any favors trying to lose weight, and training for walking that much meant it was a lot of time. However, I enjoyed a lot of that time being able to spend lots of outdoor QT with Joel (except for some of the ends of the long ones, where I needed to run/walk to keep pace, and he was done running but could walk faster than I could). And it was really great to pick a big scary new goal and crush it. I mean, as much as coming in dead freaking last a few hours before the 50-miler cutoff is crushing it, but hey, I set the goals, I get to say I rocked it.

Weights – I did 136 sessions. A perfect score would have been 156. I’d call that consistency with a little room for flexibility. I didn’t lift the week I was diving (oh, I lifted hauling heavy gear, but not in a trackable way), I didn’t lift the week after Seattle when I came home just flattened exhausted, and there were a few other weeks where I cut sessions. But, in general, 3x week is non-negotiable and it will be for life, until I can’t no more.

Walks – At least 1 mile of walking is almost as ingrained in our routine as brushing our teeth. It’s not if, it’s when and where and how far. After the 50k we obviously pulled back on the miles, and this was the only place I did less than last year (by ~50 miles or so) but in 2025, we completed 832 miles walked/321 hours/499 walks. That doesn’t suck!

Running – maintain fitness so a 10k isn’t ever completely out of reach. Sorta – right now I’m rehabbing a leg that doesn’t remember how to leg right (muscles on the outside of the leg are firing extra hard for muscles on the inside of my leg that got lazy), so I’m back up to 2 miles, and that’s enough for the moment. Pretty much any other time, yeah, I was there. I ran 376 miles ran/70 hours/122 runs with absolutely no running goals besides do a sprint triathlon and try to get faster and enjoy running. This is also a bit more than last year (by about 50 miles). I was really close this year to figuring out how to run without injuring myself, but my confidence was shook after the great Thanksgiving calf crackles and I’m just getting back to it with a pain-free 5k today. Something to improve upon next year.

Biking was an on-again-off-again affair. I had a month with 0 (January) and others with just a few dozen miles. I also had months where I rode a lot (over the summer when it was hot, and December when I was off running for a while). It ended up being more a part of my workout life than the runs, though, which is weird because it didn’t feel that way. 1713 miles biked/109 hours/140 rides for the year (over 4x last year), and 399 miles/25 hours of that just this month.

Swimming, heh. Better than some years but… 14,250 yards/23 swims this year, at a total of 5 hours. On one hand, that’s almost a swim every other week. On the other, a lot of those were just 500 yards. It’s the first thing to go when I’m busy because it takes more time to prep than do the short workouts, and that’s okay.

In terms of racing – I didn’t do much. I raced the 50k, I DNSed a triathlon in Sept because of a dead truck battery, and then I won my age group in October at a sprint tri. I had high aspirations to race more this year, but life got in the way (see that average of one out of town trip a month) and I didn’t prioritize it. I think 2026 might be similar, so I need to pick a few goal races and be happy with like 2-3 vs more even if I have a lot of potentials on my list. 🙂

#3 Adulting

I’m sad we had to get rid of the Xterra, but Truck Truck has served us well this year on many camps and trips. No regrets on buying it… as long as I don’t have to drive it except in dire straits (which I don’t). It’s big and very very hard to park.

Garage clean out – big nope, but it is on the list for January after we put holiday decorations away (yeah, they never made it back to the attic, and there’s still a bunch of stuff that needs to be dealt with

Joel’s office set up – done! It surely has more to be fully organized and pretty looking, but it is functional as both an office and a craft room, and we can see the floor! Most importantly, the closets are cleaned out enough to store what’s needed. Calling it done for the year, and from here, it’s up to Joel to make it his own with shelves and stuff. I’ll help when needed.

My office – I do still need to clean out a few things in my office but we’re calling that a Q1 goal. I’m pretty full up on projects from the break. We cleaned out some drawers, finally bought a new fridge and beer fridge (both were dying), I framed and hung art, we cleaned out the workout room shelves and closet… it was a productive week but I want to make sure I don’t go back to work on Monday feeling like all I did was chores. During the year, I did some cleanouts, but as usual, they fell off once summer hit and then didn’t pick up until Holiday Break.

We did get a financial planner set up to start next year, and I did get to the dermatologist (no concerning spots, yay!), and I am caught up on scheduling all medical appointments.

After the holiday break, I will put together my 2026 list, which will include the things we didn’t get to deal with in 2025, but we made some nice progress.

#4 Hobbies

Vacations – not everything exactly as planned but… definitely got out of town and explored all the things!

• Houston in Jan for a wedding
• Houston in Feb for the 50k
• San Francisco in March for GDC (and a little sightseeing)
• Bonaire in May for diving
• Krause Springs in July for 4th camping
• New Braunfels in Aug for tubing and a birthday party
• Seattle in Sept for aggressive sight seeing
• New Braunfels in Oct for a race
• San Francisco (again) in Oct for a work convention (and a little sightseeing)
• Cruise to Cozumel in Nov with the fam
• Oklahoma in Nov for camping/hiking

Whew. Lots of short trips, which made for work/life balance a little tricky (see below), but I enjoyed getting to go to so many places.

This also means I have no shortage of photos to edit, which makes me happy. I am less than 6 months behind, but that’s quite a few projects. I’m working on Seattle now, but I still have Krause, New Braunfels, San Francisco, Cozumel, and Oklahoma to do. On one hand, it would be really cool to be caught up, but on the other hand, that would mean I haven’t travelled enough!

Next year we plan to do some longer trips – we have two bucket list items planned if we can make it happen. This probably means the rest of the trips are camping near the house and extensions to work trips, and that’s totally ok with me.

Writing – I said finishing book 3 was a softball goal. Ha! Unfortunately, I only finished book 3 first edit pass, and I can’t bring myself to put in the effort to do the read/edit pass, which is weird, because I was so excited about it in the other two books. Ah well. I am distracting myself by writing book FIVE (yeah, I know) while participating in the accompanying D&D campaign with my character, which I am VERY MUCH enjoying (which is the point of hobbies! so yay!). Before I get down on myself on progress, this is a hobby, and I now just kinda have the goal to have them written and release them right before/maybe as I retire. So, I got a few more years to go. 🙂

Guitar has come and gone throughout the year. Some weeks I’ve been great at playing consistently. Then, I haven’t touched the guitar in December. One of the holiday chores is to get the electric into the shop to get it fixed, and then hopefully I’ll be more motivated to play!

Play lots of Warhammer with Joel – not really. We never got motivated to really make this a habit, and we got into other games and hobbies. Maybe someday!

Paint – I did two paintings this year, both started (one started and finished) on camping trips. So, if nothing else, I just need to make sure I start paintings while in the camper!

Doing ridiculous stuff like Walko Taco happened (Walko Taco #2 was our Valentine’s day plan) and I spent a lot of time tromping around Austin and other cities. Doing silly stuff makes life worth living!

#5 Work Life Balance

While I have worked more hours in my life (lots more), I have also been better at unpacking work and not carrying it with me during off hours. I don’t do it as much as I used to, but when there’s something weighing on me at work, I have a hard time completely relaxing. That sucks. Honestly, relaxing and being refreshed is the best way I can deal with it but sometimes the rational brain gets overtaken by the emotional one.

I don’t really have a good solution for making this better besides help. And I am going to get a little help with this in 2 different ways next year.

• I am going to get more help at work and make better use of the help I have. This means I need to be more organized and delegate better. Big 2026 work goal for me – not being too busy to get help.
• I am going to try therapy. I’d like better strategies for disconnecting and being able to separate work from home. I’d like better coping mechanisms for when I’m stressed and overwhelmed. Could I DIY this? Maybe. But it’s just like hiring a trainer at the gym – I’d like to delegate.

Also, one thing I noticed was that I got overwhelmed at work because I ended up taking a lot of long weekend PTO trips vs full weeks. Mondays and Fridays are my work from home and focus days. When those get eaten up, I end up with short weeks full of meetings adding to my To Do list, and no time to clear it. So, my aim is if I’m taking a short vacation, I will take Monday or Friday, but not both (Thurs/Fri or Mon/Tues). If I have to cancel/reschedule/miss meetings, so be it.

All in all, not a bad year, maybe one of the better ones since the pandemic. I took down a big scary goal to complete an ultramarathon in February. I finally made triathlon training part of my routine, not an afterthought, and got to add a silly piece of (1st place) plastic to my shelf. I travelled to old favorite places and somewhere new and got to have my first solo sightseeing adventure in Seattle (during the days at least). We adulted enough to be at least junior adults. I hobbied. In a chaotic year, I tried to find my own little slice of normalcy and it sort of worked. Do I have three words for the year? Hmmm. I at least have one – Adventure. Even if I didn’t go to super exotic places all the time, I tromped around everywhere and made it my own adventure even if it was near or home. I tried to be a lady of action this year, not just on vacation, and I think it went well.

Next year? Well, I have some ideas, but let’s finish up 2025 first, shall we?

I truly love adventures and travel and new experiences and generally just “doin’ stuff”.

However, all of those things throw me off routine. And sometimes that’s great! But… routine is absolutely key for me to lose weight. So, yeah. I’ve traded life (and food) experiences for progress in the last month and a half. I don’t regret it, but it’s time to get back to it.

#1 The Unwanted Kettlebell

The good news is I haven’t really done much damage; I just haven’t really continued my momentum downward. I also have been absolute shite at weighing daily and inconsistent with tracking every morsel during travel (I even took a break from it whilst on the 4-day cruise). So, it absolutely makes sense.

My overage for the month of October was 1624 calories. I’m also sure with an out-of-town race and Halloween shenanigans and a week at a convention didn’t help me do the most accurate tracking in the world. But, at least by tracking the best I could and seeing the overage more days than not, especially later in the month, I wasn’t super surprised by no progress.

November is already better, trending downward (slightly – instead of the .16 lbs gained per week it’s .56 lbs lost, which is something). Even with a cruise. I have one more trip, but this one is camping, and I’m in full control of what I put in my cakehole and excited to cook (for the most part) yummy healthy food. So, getting back to legit balancing my calorie intake vs expenditure starts again now. My rest of the year goal is to not use the holidays as an excuse. Thanksgiving is one day. Christmas has a few “days” with parties and such, but totally manageable with increased activity. And now that it’s gorgeous outside, running is a pleasure, not a chore, so that helps too.

#2 Sporty Spice Things

No problems here. Even after the race, I didn’t feel like I needed a break from activity, but what it was got more optional.

Weights – perfect 3x week. It helps that my work convention hotel had a REALLY nice gym and I made it a priority in my head to get up early to work out before the panels started. Weirdly enough, it also helped that all the cardio machines had solitaire. Have you ever played solitaire while running? I highly recommend and found the 3 miles went by in the blink of an eye (or 3 wins in a row the last day!)

Speaking of running – I did a lot! I went on 16 runs at 54 miles total. I am loving running lately!

Biking – 11 bikes (not counting the double bike count on race day) at about 100 miles total. Not bad for someone who no longer “has to bike” because I’m not racing. None of these (besides race day) were outside, but the trainer is a really nice easy way to get some activity when I can’t be arsed to do anything else.

One swim. During the race. I’ll do that again… sometime.

Continued with a least 1 mile per day of walking, more (lots more) some days. 48 walks for 85 miles total. While those total activity hours on the calendar look impressive, I’d say about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time is walking, which is absolutely great. I just have to remind myself that while I have been logging 11-16 hours a week, which are some peak Ironman totals, I’m not overworking myself because a lot of it is really low impact fun stuff that gives me energy and boosts my mood.

And, uh, I raced a triathlon, finally, and won my age group. 🙂 That was fun.

November and December goals are really just to keep up the activity, continue to prioritize recovery, and lengthen my long run. I’m comfy at 10k right now, I’m trying to ramp up to 15k by the end of the month and would like to do a double digit run or two in December. I’ve got my eye on a half marathon in early 2026 for no other reason than it sounds like fun and will motivate some training. If it ends up not being a good idea, then I’ll just keep happily wearing a path around my neighborhood in whatever distances make me happy. Weights 3x week non-negotiable, but that’s like now until I’m 100 years old or I can’t no more. Cycling will happen, cycling outside MAY happen, and if I get in a pool and swim laps we will all be shocked and celebrate together.

#3 Adulting

Not a whole lot of time for adulting, but we did meet with and are going to work with some financial planner people who will take care of many of the things we SHOULD do but just don’t have the spoons to deal with right now. I did manage to get my hairs done and I need to do this once every six months minimum, not every year. I’m so much happier without the stupid grey streaks and it being 5 different colors. I returned the things I needed to return (minus one sports bra which I will either see if Under armor will help me out or I will just donate it somewhere). I still need to do the Dr appt, but I still have 2 months of pills left, so I will probably just schedule for late Dec/Jan when things (hopefully) will be calmer.

With what’s left of November, I don’t think I have time for adulting goals, so we’ll reset in December with my holiday break list. My plan is to try to spend 1, maybe 2 hours max most days doing projects (with some complete slack days so I don’t drive myself crazy) so we can get things done but also not feel overwhelmed. I’ll make my list, we’ll tackle whatever we can each day and then quit when the time is up. We don’t have anything major, just little things like cleaning out some drawers, closets, garaage, shelves, etc, so this should work well.

#4 Hobbies

I have continued to take a break from Book 3… by writing Book 5. Wait, wait, let me explain. Fork has come back for an appearance in a new D&D campaign, which will probably be a “dream” sequence after Book 4. I’ve always wished I could write these things while the material is fresher, so I’m going to take this opportunity, at least for the first draft. I still aim to continue to edit Book 3, but that will take back burner for now.

Been cruising on the photo editing – I got all the Spookywalk pics done by Halloween weekend and then resumed Bonaire pics. I’m exactly halfway through now, and I’m guessing I’ll finish these early December. Then I have to decide which of the other sets I want to start – Krause, New Braunfels, Seattle, San Francisco, the Cruise, or the upcoming Oklahoma camping trip (just a few short trips in the last 4 months!). I may start small and knock a few of those out before taking on something bigger.

The guitar picking continues, at least lazily. I have played it at least 1-2 times a week for a song or two. Better than nothing. For Christmas, we’re fixing the electric guitar which I assume will motivate me to play more!

Everything else… I’m looking forward to late December hobbymas. 🙂

#5 Work/Life Balance

I think it’s going ok. I kind of realized that some of this means drawing boundaries at home, since my husband is also my coworker. And, that he can complain about things at work without them being digs on me, even if I can take it that way if I was feeling vulnerable, because I’m responsible for everything. We now have the agreement that he knows I assume he is blowing off steam unless we specifically talk about the topic being something to solve. If I tried to solve every “problem” that came across my plate at work, I would need 5 clones running 24/7 to accomplish that. Instead, I need to be better at categorizing things as “talking about the nail in my head” (just being a rubber duck, listening), “strategizing how to pull the nail out of my head” (advice, but no action myself), or “helping pull the nail out of my head” (actually taking action myself to help solve or just solve the problem).

So, yeah. Keepin’ on keepin’ on and doing the best I can, either making what progress possible or just keeping myself from backsliding, until I can arrive at the promised land – holiday vacation – and get a nice long winter’s nap. Well, between the running and projects and hobbies. 🙂

I tend to post about these things on social media first, but I like having them here for posterity. Especially when I have a good day!

In September, I was supposed to race a triathlon. The truck died and we ended up DNSing. Thankfully we had another one already on the plan in October 12th. My mindset wasn’t great but, it was what it was.

From the day before:

Time to tri again at the triathlon thing tomorrow, Wurst Tri Ever edition.

My enthusiasm to race sort of fell off after the Cal Tri situation. Not that I’ve been training any less, but just going out there and smashing myself against a clock? Idk. Sounds like a next year thing for me after a whole lot of time to build more fitness and work on body composition.

Or, it may be the fact that I’m feeling a little intimidated about some of those crazy hills on the bike out there, one that I’m actually kind of worried I might need to walk? That’s entirely possible too.

However, no matter who shows up tomorrow – the me who is ready to eat this course for breakfast or fall over trying, or the me who just wants to go play triathlon – I’ve spent the last 6 months establishing great habits training regularly. And after the last 5 years, that’s a whole freaking victory in and of itself.

Food shoutouts today –

Granzin’s BBQ. That sandwich will be on my mind for a while.

Montana Mike’s- A chain, I know, but a super tasty version of my pre-race chicken, potates, and salad meal.

Weird to be in a hotel, not the camper, but much better for just one night. Time for tea, reading, massage boots, and early sleeps.

Heh. Famous last words. On the sleep, at least. And it was telling that I was almost more concerned with the food than the racing prep but damn, that BBQ was really good.

Wurst Tri Ever? Maybe not.

Really terrible sleep last night but that’s always hit or miss the night before a race. Hotel coffee. Half a bagel right as they opened breakfast at 6am which was later than we should have still been there. Was still in line when they were supposed to close transition so was a little rushed setting up (but so were a 100 other ppl so not reaaaally our fault).

In a true reckless maneuver, I wore a new kit that I haven’t even ran, biked, or swam in. This is an absolute normally but it just felt right, new race, new vibes, been a whole year since I raced one of these, etc so new kit. Why not? I liked it. At least as much as my old one.

Swim was a cluster $#^@ because it was a snake swim in a pool but for 300m no one is winning or losing there so I swam on some feet and didn’t raise my heart rate about it. (about 7 mins)

In T1, I had forgotten to put any nutrition on my bike, so I took a few extra seconds to do that then off I went (about 3:30)

In the first half mile, you reach an incredibly steep hill, the one I built up in my mind that I might have to walk, but I summoned all the effort and heavy breathing and even passed people and was done before I knew it. I mean, it burned a match or three on the legs and lungs, but I guess my bike fitness was better than I thought. That was not that last hill though. I’m not sure how they found so many on a 6 mile out and back course but hooo boy. Let’s just say I was thrilled with over 16mph and 46 mins and normally I’d be pissed about going that slow. On the way out, I was telling myself this was a “one and done” for this race. On the way back, I found myself wanting to see if I could do better next time.

Some things I want to work on for next year’s cycling:

More riding outside. I have been able to build good fitness indoors but my handling has gone to crap. This means I didn’t pass when I should, and I was too cautious on the downhill and corners. I means obviously some caution is wise but not this much. And… I need new sunglasses that don’t fog. They went down the shirt right away because I couldn’t see and never got used. Seeing is kind of important on the bike.

T2, I tried (with practice beforehand) quick laces with no socks on my running shoes. Worked great and saved me a ton of time. 10/10, will do again. (1:15ish)

On the run it took me a little bit to get my legs turning over but they did and I felt something I haven’t during a tri run in many years… Great! I was clipping along at under 10 minutes per mile and passing people. I walked 10 steps up a hill but otherwise kept a nice pace. I kind of forgot to kick it at the end, which I bet would have taken me in the 9-something mins/mile range, but I’m very happy to have been close. (10:07/mile for about 2.5 miles). Something to remember for extra time.. if you actually feel good at the end, go empty the tank. I’m usually in survival mode my the last half mile.

1:24:xx and what’d ya know-first in my age group! And there was even at least 3 people since 3 awards were given. I was joking earlier about wanting a piece of plastic to justify my triathlon worth and I earned myself this most glorious 3D printed (unusable) beer stein. First first in my 45-49 years and with more work, hopefully not my last.

So yeah, it was a good day. I’ll take it!

After some time reflecting on this day, I realized that what I can work on for next year:

• Body composition, obviously. Though I’m in pretty good shape in terms of strength and a good base, I really could shed some fluff to sharpen the stick. At 165, I was much more easily running 8-9 min miles as my race pace. I’m stuck at 10 now at 184. VO2 max work is… working slowly but I know dropping some weight will help.
• I need to ride outside more. All the fitness in the world doesn’t help when I get skittish on the bike and don’t pass people and start riding my brakes when I get above 20mph and have no confidence on hills. That takes doing. I just don’t like doing it. 🙂
• Speaking of confidence, it was such a mind*$&% to be running sub-10 pace and feeling great that I didn’t know what to do with myself. The correct answer is speed up until you feel like you’re pushing yourself, which takes some practice that I haven’t had that much of lately.

But, hey, I got to race a new race, I bombed up some hills and didn’t have to walk, and I came in 1/5 in my age group and top 1/3 in my gender. None of that sucks!