Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

3M and Bodybuggin’

Been a while, and I really don’t have much time to chat but I wanted to check in between the hustle and bustle.

First of all, the bodybug is fascinating.  I love being able to look down at my watch and see how many calories I’ve burnt already, how many steps I’ve taken, and how much activity I’ve had.

For example, the watch currently says 2223 calories burnt.  It’s 6pm.  I’m overachieving.

However, I’m not sure how much I believe it.  It seems like it’s overestimating my calorie burn.  I’ll believe it when I see progress like I should with what I’m doing… I’m on track to be about ~7000 calories deficit by the end of the week (and that means I should be 2 lbs down).  This week is hard to judge because it’s all crampy/bloaty happy fun time, but math dictates that I should be soon.  Because instead of losing weight since last week, I’m up 3 lbs.

As much as everyone cautions against daily weighing, I think its the right thing to do for me.  I fluctuate so wildly, it’s hard for me to see a trend unless I’m on top of it.

This is my life in numbers…

Saturday:
2108 burned
1313 eaten
(795 deficit)
Sitting on my arse, running errands

Sunday:
4292 burned
3078 eaten/drank
(1214 deficit – this was HARD to accomplish – I was shoving food in my face to get even here…)
Half marathon day (2:27 running), errands, drinking and merriment

Monday:
2364 burned
1389 eaten/drank
(975 deficit)
Work, mellow eliptical (25 mins), crunch time (30 mins)

Tuesday:
2894
1403 (/shrug, just didn’t feel like eating more)
(1491 deficit)
5.4 mile run (55 mins), work

Yesterday:
2627
1777
(850 deficit)
50 mins pilates, work, 30 min bike

Today so far:
2040 burned
~950 eaten
(1090 deficit) (I’ll be closer to 500-750 by EOD, workout’s done and I haven’t had dinner)
4 mile run (43 mins), work

Notes:

Unless I’m really either trying to a) earn more calories to eat more/increase my deficit or b) specifically use it as a recovery workout, there is no point in mellow cardio like the eliptical.  If possible, I might as well save my time and skip it and lift weights.

I burn more calories at work in the average hour than I do at pilates.  Rethinking that 50 mins in the morning as well, at least every week (it does hit a lot of muscles differently than I would throwing around dumbells).  I think I could get more done lifting for 30 mins and doing 30 mins of sprints.

Busting my arse on the bike for 30 mins burns less than an EZ run for me.  Like WAY less.  Sucks I still need to do it.  A lot.

I’m pretty sure my swims will burn next to nothing.  It might be best for me to limit swimming to just maintaining my fitness (1-30-45 min per week) until I’m deeper into tri season.  I can already swim the distance I need to swim for the half iron without feeling taxed, and while I wouldn’t mind some specific training to get faster at it closer to race day, I’ve got all the base swim endurance I’m concerned with right now.

So, we’ll see.  To give myself the best chance of success even if it isn’t accurate, I’m trying to get closer to 750-1000 deficit per day, which is still non-harmful if it’s not overestimating.  My guess is that it’s *fairly* accurate for living/breathing/moderate activity and overestimates vigorous aactivity (aka – 700 calories for my 4 mile run or 2500 calories for my half marathon), so on highly vigorous days I’ll make sure that my deficit is high.

Continuing with the good, as organic/home cooked as possible foods (as to not fill my calories with junk), and I completed January about 99% no sweet treats.  I’ve lapsed the last two days (a milky way mini and 4 jelly beans yesterday, a mini brownie and mini cookie today), but it’s time of the month and I’m gonna put the smackdown back down.  I found some fabulous 150 calorie a PINT vegan “ice cream” with all natural ingredients that I am loving, plus dates as a sweet treat, plus I found that fage + a squish of a fruit punch mios (water flavoring enhancer with artificial sweetener but whatevs) = tastes like trix yogurt.  Yummmmm…

Second of all – 3M.

I just don’t have that much to say about it (well, compared to my two part epic Kerrville Sprint Tri recap – and that race was even shorter than this one…), but here goes.

I loved the mostly-downhill course.  I loved that it ran through hoods I knew and loved.  It was c-c-c-old to start but I’m lovin my arm warmers and new super warm but not-too-hot running tights.  It started in the upper 30s and ended in the 50s, and my gear set up was:

-adidas wool wicking headband
-Kerrville Tri tech tee (short sleeve)
-ARC race crew tech long sleeve on top
-adidas arm warmers
-crappy cheap compression shorts
-mountain wear tights
-compression calf sleeves
-nike dri fit ankle socks
-my old Asics.  (I regretted this halfway through.  They are more busted than I thought)

I considered a jacket too – and I could have used it before we started running, but didn’t need it on the run.  I pulled down my sleeves around mile 2-3, and pushed my sleeves up and down the whole race depending on how the wind was hitting us.  I wore the shorts more because the tights tend to be lower cut on my waist than for heat, but it worked.

This one was all about Zliten.  While I probably dragged him a little faster than he wanted to go at times, I was running with him to motivate him on his first half.  While he kept protesting that he had set his sights on a 12 min/mile half when he got himself into this mess, I reminded him that he is a much better runner than he expected (than both of us did, actually), and we maintained around 11 minute miles the whole time (pretty much hit the splits even the first 3rd, exceeded in the middle, and slowed a bit at the end).

I told him that I would run his pace, but I also made it clear that we were going to race this race.  If he could chat with me, he was going too slow.  The dear he is, he couldn’t really talk but he made sure he said a breathy “thank you” to all the volunteers and police that were helping out with the race.  I did the same but since I was running fun-run pace, I was giving the horns, slapping hands, smiling, dance party karaoke USA with my tunez, and just having an awesome fun run (I’m sure the spectators thought I was nuckin’ futz at times but whatevs).

It was good practice in my “every race is not an A race” quest.  I didn’t taper, I weight trained twice last week, I ran/biked/swam like normal, and it was no big d.  And it was still fun.  It’s making me excited for a full on goal race where I can really open up and see what I can do, but being a little hungry is a good thing.

We finished in 2:27 (11:05 min/mile pace for 13.25 miles), and then drank champagne!  It was a glorious day!  Zliten definitely raced it because he was super dead that day, and took Mon/Tues to recover as well.  Huzzah for him!  He has earned the 13.1 sticker on our car! Next stop, 70.3…

I felt good enough the next day to do a mellow elliptical (wasn’t ready for normal sprint Mondays) and crunchtime class, and I definitely felt a little tired, but was good and recovered by Tues morn’s run.

Last Week’s Workouts:
Monday: 3.6 mile run – slow with .1 mile fast strides (37 mins)
Tuesday: 40 min bike hills (12.4 miles)
Wednesday: Pilates AM
Thursday: 5k run AM (29:43), half IM swim PM (1.2 miles in 43 mins)
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: 13.1 3M Race!

This Week’s Plan:
Monday: 25 min eliptical/30 mins crunchtime
Tuesday: 5.4 mile run outside (55 mins)
Wednesday: 59 mins pilatespilates, 30 min bike hills (9.05)
Thursday: 4 mile run outside w/Zliten (43 mins)
Friday: lifting heavy weights/off cardio
Saturday: 10 mile long slow run w/friends at Town Lake
Sunday: off

Still determining the plan.  On one hand, I should really start getting used to 2-a-days and 6 day weeks with baby workouts spread out more (like this week) I know I’m going to need for half IM training, on the other hand, I feel like I should enjoy my time now and not stress so much about getting in enough bike/swim training and concentrate on fast short runs and weights.

It’s all a lot to ponder.  For now, I’ll just do what I can without my inner child whining and my outer child (Zliten) whining. 🙂

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5 Comments

  1. Miz

    with all this longgreatpost my fave snippet is I THINK IT’S THE RIGHT THING FOR ME (weighing).
    That, in my opinion, is what this journey is all about.
    finding that right thing FOR US.

  2. I have always wondered if the BodyBugg was totally accurate. You are so active that I’m not surprised it shows a huge calorie burn. I knew one lady who lost over 200 lbs. using it and working with a personal trainer!

  3. Zliten

    Hey I can whine with the best of them, and I know we have to up the training hours from 4 a week to 10 a week shortly.. Ugg I am going to have to get books on mp3 instead of reading at that point.

    And that is so few calories I don’t know how your not always angry.

  4. I’ve wondered about the accuracy of the body bugg too… all the formulas are estimates at best. And this: “I burn more calories at work in the average hour than I do at pilates.” is so interesting to me!! It makes sense though. And I’m glad you could slow up a bit and enjoy your race – sounds like you would be a blast to run with!

  5. ohhh ummm. your “baby workouts” remark spun me for a loop for a sec. I took it the wrong way. 😉

    Poor Zilten, you threw him under the bus when you revealed his whining. No wonder he showed up in the comments to defend himself. 😉

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