March Wrap Up, April Goals

My next post is my vacation one.  Honest.  However, I’m actually properly motivated to do THIS post so let’s make it happen!

March is always both awesome and challenging.  Awesome, because we have all sorts of birthday celebrations, vacations, racing, the weather shifts to spring and it’s all, like TRI SEASON and junk.  Challenging because it’s usually sooooooo busy and impossible to get into a routine.

The first week was vacation.  For various reasons (it was kicked off with a marathon, somehow I felt like I didn’t get much R&R during it, we came back on a Sunday afternoon and then went to work the next day), I really spent the next week trying to continue to recover and feel anything like normal, and then it was Zliten birthday weekend.  Then, I immediately got hit with a stomach bug where I couldn’t eat healthy food for a week.  It was really only the last week of the month where I was able to get back to any sort of normalcy, and eat good food and train like a normal me.

Saying all that, I’m actually especially proud I was able to hit so many of my March goals.

Training:

Priority was recovery.  My numbers will definitely show you that I held up this end of the bargain.  I didn’t try to push through when I was sick, and I did what sounded fun and good for my body.

• Run: 51 miles, 9h30min (considering this was pretty much squeezed into 2 weeks, not too, too bad)
• Bike: 131 miles, 6h (even got outside once!)
• Swim: about 5500 meters, 2h (two open water swims!)
• Other: 6h30min (this includes stretching, strength, playing on or in the water but not lap swimming)

24 hours total, so not bad for an active recovery month with almost 2 weeks of down time.

I also wanted to get back into it with swimming and biking, which I have, though admittedly the ramp up was slower than I’d like.  I’m fully back into a tri schedule now as of this week, so I’ll take it.

The speedwork fell off the radar, prioritizing recovery, but it seems to have worked out for the best considering my race result.

Training: adhering to plan: C.  adapting for my body’s condition: A.  I think the last one is more important.

Racing:

Let’s just say I’m really happy with this one.  Being gentle with training last month helped me pull out a great race because I wasn’t beat up.

Racing: A

Food/Scale:

I had a bunch of false starts, I couldn’t get myself to track my food or stop eating fucking cake and french fries or drinking more days than I should, so I got a little stricter with myself.

I’m on this plan, and the only thing I’ve cheated on is a few more post-race alcoholic bevvies than I should have.  It’s been 2 weeks and I’ve seen no change, but I know this is just how I roll.  If I actually stick with it, I have faith I’ll be down a significant chunk by the end of this month.

Food/Scale: C- (which is probably generous)

Work:

Sometimes you do the exact bare minimum you plan for.  I got ONE game level, and I got it March 31st.  However, I did get a lot of planning done for what’s next and hope to kinda get to help my team play the hero by finding some loopholes/low hanging fruit that will help us get a lot more done for this summer than we expected.

Work: A

Life:

I ditched a camping trip I really wanted to do just because it would have made everything too crazy.  I’m sad I did because I didn’t get to see two friends get engaged (surprise!) but for my physical and mental well being, it was the right call.

I also (3 days before the deadline) cleared off the butcher block.  That’s it, that’s all.  The things on it went into storage under it, and the things that were under it went into the garage and kind of still need to be dealt with, but, baby steps.  There’s no longer a bunch of plastic tupperware right by my stove.

We did NOT do the office, but I didn’t expect to.

Life: A-

The choices I made have left me actually refreshed, excited, and motivated to KICK SOME ASS in April.  Here’s what’s shakin…

Training:

Tri season, mother effers! Time to swim in the lake, pull harder swim sets in the pool, go back to spin class and harder efforts on the bike, and ride my bike outside.

But… I do want to maintain a good run base even though my planned events for spring involve only a 2 mile, 3 mile, and 10k run.  I think this is going to be key to have a successful marathon in November and probably will help with Kerrville later in the year.

So, here we go:

Run: Maintain 25 miles per week average.  Never feel like a half marathon distance is out of reach.  Do speedwork at least once per week.

Bike: Bike at least 3-4 times a week, one at least 1.5 hours.  Cycle endurance class every week, or a similarly ass-kicking effort on the trainer.  One outdoor ride per week, whether its a serious one or just tooling around the neighborhood.

Swim: At least 2 swims per week, one being at least 1500m.  One OWS per week.  One set in the pool with harder efforts.

Other: Rack up at least 2 hours a week between these things: stretching, strength, yoga, stand up paddleboard, kayak/canoing.  What I can, when I can.

Racing:

I would *love* to jump into a 5k, 10k, or half marathon if I can find one middle of this month in town, but I’m not going to taper for it, or stress out if I can’t find one.

Food/Scale:

Stick to the plan.  That is all.  About 30 days until I have to run around in full tri-kit.

Work:

This is going to be a challenging month.  One game has an update that we’re taking live – it’s going well, but there’s always the last minute crazies and emergencies to deal with.  Now, we’re bringing the second game into the mix and finishing up a milestone here at the end of the month.  So, primarily, my work life will be dedicated to really splitting my time between two different projects well.

I’m going to aim a little higher and say I’ll get THREE levels for Game 2 to bring me to an even 20.  Though I did actually hit my goal, I could have done better with this last month.  Then, I’ll go back to Game 1 and work on leveling there but that might be for  May.

Life:

Going to try to keep things reasonably mellow in terms of social life, because I am smashing myself with the training a bit and want to accomplish a bit at home (below).  I’ve got 3 social commitments that I know of, and I’m going to try to keep it to that.

In terms of cleaning all the things, we’re going to do a little more in April.

Goal: Prepare for a garage sale.

We plan to vacate one of the vehicles in the garage, and set up space to move all the things we don’t want anymore.  In the past, we’ve failed at this because we didn’t have space to quarantine all the things we didn’t want, so this will help us.

The plan is to dedicate AT LEAST 1 hour per week (hopefully more) to grabbing things to sell, putting them aside as we can and storing them in the garage.

The things I can think of offhand which should be easy pickings:

• Old Red Couch
• Old TV
• Curtains
• Extra leezard cage
• Extra dressers/table stored in the guest room (that doesn’t really fit)
• Old luggage
• My rusty hybrid bike
• Extra games/peripherals/figurines/knick nacks we don’t need anymore (letting Zliten decide these)
• Doing a sweep of the closets and figuring out what clothes can go.  If it doesn’t fit and I don’t have a specific attachment to it, it’s gone.  If I lose more weight, I can go shopping.
• My vanity – getting rid of all the crap I have around that I don’t use in terms of unopened samples, hair and makeup stuff, etc
• My friend, who runs the Unclutterer blog, recommended getting rid of dishes/tupperware/kitchen appliances we don’t use

…and this is just what I’m coming up with now.  I’m sure there’s more.

Now, not included is organizing or cleaning anything.  This is simply purging.  Taking a bag or box, going into a room, and filling it up and putting it in the garage.

Train lots.  Social some, but not that much.  Not losing my mind at work.  Focusing on purging, not organizing.  Rock and roll.  Let’s go April!