Week 36: Bullets and Brainpan

This week was a nice surprise after being a little mopey and blah.  The heat, the training, getting sick, the tireds… all of it was getting to me.  But week 36 really turned things around.  Please proceed for a lot of bullet-ed lists and thoughts from my brainpan.

Awesome things this week that have made me happy:

• I am going to be in Cozumel on my birthday!!!  We had discussed going on a cruise with my parents early in 2014 and they ended up booking it over my birthday!  While it’s not really and truly any cooler than going any other time in reality, but I can guarantee you that scuba diving and laying on the beach would be on the very short list of things I would like to do on my birthday given all the options in the world.  Happy daaaaaance!
• I went through some of my old clothes.  A lot more things fit and fit well than they did earlier this year.  It is slow going, but it is nice to see some actual progress besides just numbers.  It feels good to retire things that are too BIG, not too SMALL.  Still holding steady in the 173-175 range and I think this is where I’ll finish out tri season barring some other weird circumstance (my jaw getting wired shut, my veins getting a cristco drip).
• I ran 4 times this week and they were all glorious.  Well, the 10 miler wasn’t 100% glorious, but I got ‘er done with minimal wear and tear to the body.  The shorter jaunts (3.5-4.5 miles) were practically divine – the weather was a little cooler since I ran them earlier and I took my buddies Pink Floyd with me to play me a concert
• I ate some really great (as in delicious, not great for me – I did eat a lot of that but it’s not really noteworthy, just the normal stuff) food this week.  Wednesday, it was my friend P’s birthday, and we were set to go to an Oyster bar.  This didn’t excite me greatly, but they had fried shrimp on the menu, and I’d been craving that for about a month, so I was looking forward to that.  Then, they couldn’t get reservations due to some drama so we ended up going to Trulucks.  The place I go every year on MY birthday because I love it so much!  While it was just about a full day of calories for the shrimp appetizer, big plate of king crab, mashed potatoes, and broccoli with a copious dash of wine, it was totally worth it ever calorie and dollar (it cost about a week and a half of grocery money).
• Then, for my mom’s birthday, she decided she wanted Papadeaux. More seafood!  This was immediately after a 4 hour bike ride, so I indulged in fried alligator, seafood fondue, salad, and fried shrimp and fries for my meal (for which I took half home and had that as dinner).  Apparently I would make a crappy food blogger because this was all in my stomach WAY too quickly for any pictures.  Pretend I ate this costco size bag of carrots and carry on…

As for food – I took this week off diet quality.  I did track calories, and can offer you the average calorie count of 2031 per day.  A little higher, but also, I trained my ass off, so this should not be tragic.  My weight has ranged from 173.2 (low) to 175.4 (high).  I’m pretty happy with that.

This next week, I’ll be tracking (as I have been) and also tracking food quality (because it’s taper week and I need to make sure that I’m shoving good quality noms in my mouth since it’s less of it).  Expect more details with the next recap.

As for training, I had a good, solid week.  I’m not sure when I’ll start remembering that my body (and brain) seems to operate well with frequent, shorter runs, rather than every run session needing to be 10k-10 miles+.  It was wearing on my body, but more importantly, I had lost the joy of the quick little jaunt while it’s not feels-like-death.  These 3-5 mile runs I did were just happy little trees, puffy little clouds, and wondrous amazing mornings.  While it did take getting up before I normally do (because I still had to fit in a few miles of swimming and 100 miles of biking), and my laundry basket was WAY fuller than normal, it was a nice, empowering, last training week before taper.

Let’s break it down, just for old times sake:

Monday: Run: North School “Tempo” 4.5 mi 00:49 10:57 pace, Swim: Laps 1500 m 00:32 34:19 pace
Tuesday: Run: Last Long Run 10 mi 02:00 12:00 pace, Bike: Trainer + Incredibles 20 mi 00:55 21.8mph pace
Wednesday: Run: Snail’s Pace Run with Pink Floyd 3.5 mi 00:43 12:17 pace, Bike: Trainer + Saved By The Bell 20 mi 00:48 24.9mph pace
Thursday: Swim: Barton Springs + Wetsuit 1350 m 00:30 35:45 pace
Friday: Run: Neighborhood 4 mi 00:50 12:27 pace
Saturday: Bike: Veloway 60.68 mi 03:53 15.6mph pace
Sunday: offffff

Totals: 2850m swim, 100.68 miles bike, 22 miles run, 0 weights (will resume after race + recovery) = 11 hours total

All in all, it was just a great week.  I still have a lot of random things knocking about in my brainpan, but it’s a little quieter and a LOT more positive than it was two weeks ago.  A few things I need to remember:

• Riding 56 miles is much easier for me than it used to be, but it’s very likely I’ll still get off the bike and feel crappy.  It’s been hit or miss on my long rides.  However, the consistent thing is that within 10-15 mins, it goes away and I feel fine (unless I have a stomach flu, but, ya know…).  I just need to be ready for it and get moving and work through the first mile of the run.  Also, 303s should help this along if needed.
• I’ve found my limit for race day nutrition yesterday (20 chomps – 10 gus, 10 honeystingers + full strength gatorade mix to drink).  I felt great on the bike but I did feel a little overstuffed once I got off (that’s what she said?).  I’ve had the most success with gatorade chomps on the run, so I’m going to bring with me an assortment of those + assorted cliff shot blocks in my handheld and have a frozen gatorade to start with unless it’s unseasonably cold, in which case I’ll have an unfrozen bottle ready to go too.
• There is going to be some point (or points) in the race where the wheels get loose and threaten to fall off.  I need to be ready for it, and have strategies of how to keep those suckers on and continue moving with purpose and expedience.
• In all the scenarios of math I’ve run, if I don’t completely bonk or have major issues, or conversely PR my half marathon or hit tailwind both ways on the bike somehow, I’ll be somewhere between 6:30 (amazing day) to 7 hours (ok day).  As long as I hang on and temper the ups and downs with sanity, I should be pretty happy with my result!

My two things that are a little uncertain:

• I got my wetsuit last Monday and I was all excited about it and figured it would make me super duper crazy fast fish in the water and I would never want to take it off.  Well, after spending 30 mins in it in Barton Springs (the only place with water under 80 degrees around here) it feels a bit weird and awkward and I feel like I need to relearn how to swim in it.  I think this was because #1 I didn’t quite put it on right, the shoulders felt a little star-fishy and #2 Barton Springs is so cold it sends me into shock a little bit, and we went while it was getting dark so I was cold, deaf (earplugs), and blind (fogged, tinted goggles), with lots of swim traffic to navigate.  Here’s hoping it goes better this week.
• I got my first official bike fit last week as well, and apparently that seat I raised and have loved this year?  Yeah, apparently is not doing anything good for me.  He lowered my seat about an inch and a half.  Other minor things got adjusted (aero bar tilt and position, cleats on shoes, seat tilt), and all feel great.  However, I’m now biking a LOT more with my quads than I have all season and after my 60 this weekend they were SOOOOORE.  This is great news as I run mainly with my hammies, which felt fresh like a daisy, so that’s probably an overall boon, but something I’ll need to expect late in the bike ride.

Overall, I’m feeling rosier overall about things than I have in quite a while, and I feel like I am really, solidly ready to do this  70.3 thing and be stoked about the result (which I’m sure will change 10 times in the next 2 weeks with taper crazies).  Third time can please be a charm? 🙂

Also, I’m already really kind of looking forward to marathon training (lots more running in the cooler weather), which bodes well for not being too burnt out or stressed!  I feel this deep tired in my body, but it’s that good kind where you just shouldered your last massive week of training well, and now it’s time to rest up, get sharp and fresh, and DIVE IN AND DO THIS THANG.

Oh wait, wrong sport to be excited about right now, but SCUBA DIVING IN COZUMEL FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!  Got lots of fun stuff to look forward to in the next 6 months!  That makes for less winter SADS when I have something awesome just beyond it to anticipate.

Question of the week: What are you anticipating?