Rejuvenated, not exhausted

Feeling a little draggy after a pretty amazing weekend, which included bikes in the sunshine, sportsball, an amazing Indian food feast with friends, video and card games.  Oh, and a few miles of running.  I’m glad that the next few days are fairly mellow and plans-less.  Even though I feel rejuvenated from the fun, not exhausted, I’m still going to need chill time and lots of extra sleep (hello 10+ hours last night).

Training:

Got ‘er done, even though it took a shit ton of negotiation during the last 5 or so miles.

Cutting my running down to 3x week and following this plan was absolutely the right thing to do.  My hip is not 100% completely happy, but it’s not bad, and it’s not getting worse, and I need to get a FEW weeks of training in before I taper, so I’m dealing with it.

I had a pretty spectacular tempo session Thursday at lunch on fresh legs.  That was fun.  I really enjoyed the perfect temps and sunshine and that my legs and lungs were just a-ok flying at 9-something pace for quite a while, even dealing with the hills.

My long run wasn’t quite as spectacular, but I put in the work and did pretty much exactly what I set out to do (first 10 easy, last 8 descending the pace to at least 11:30/mile total average), even if it took a lot of focusing on THIS IS WHAT IM DOING RIGHT NOW.

Last week, I took one extra day off – 5 days on instead of 6, and did one day easy instead of speedwork (I hadn’t yet started following the new plan yet), and I forgot about weights. Other than that, everything pretty much went according to plan… at least the new plan.

• Run 3-4 times this week.  Try to alternate days or give plenty of time in between runs and run as long as possible each time.
• Try to make one of those 18-20 miles if my hip agrees (or if not, as long as possible).
• 15 mins of bike/swim/stretch each day (at least on average).
  
• One bodyweight session.

This week’s schedule is actually less loosey goosey than normal, so the goals are pretty easy to lay out.  One speed session today, one tempo run Thursday, and finally putting up a 20 miler this weekend, plus 3 bikes or swims (30-60 mins at a time).  I’m going to keep that weights thing up there as wishful thinking, but it may be worth admitting defeat until next cycle.

• Monday: 55 min spin after work at home (check)
• Tuesday: 1 mile warm up, 3×1 miles @9-9:30/mile, .25 miles between each recovery, 1 mile cooldown before work or at lunch
• Wednesday: 30 min swim at lunch
• Thursday: 1 mile warmup, 5 miles tempo pace (9:30-10 min/miles), short cooldown at lunch
• Friday: 30 min swim at lunch
• Saturday: 20 mile run, no slower than 11:30 min/mile by the end
• Sunday: off (will be active that day hiking, but nothing formal)

Food/Scale

Oops, that was supposed to be grilled, not fried.  But it was yummy.

The end of the week went to restaurant land, and I slacked on even tracking over the weekend, which involved a lot of things that you would not put in the category of healthy.

• Continue tracking food and trying to hit the -500 calorie mark and keeping an eye on macros.
• Weigh a few times a week
• Happy hour after work Wed or Thurs (not AND), and Saturday evening drinks.  Das all.
• I have plenty of food at home.  Let’s try for THREE or less meals out this week.
• Moar snack veggies.  I’ve been good at keeping my calories under control but I could use an infusion of the good stuff in my life.  I bet I’d feel better.

I fell off tracking on Thursday night and was so busy all weekend I just never got back to it.  I can track from my phone though, so I don’t have a great excuse.  Just… I guess after being diligent for 5 weeks and seeing very little results made me throw a subconscious pity party.  Ah well.  Back to tracking because the alternative is just gaining more weight. 😛

There were more days of booze than there should be for an athlete.  However, I’m actually pretty happy because I didn’t completely overdo it any one day, so I guess that’s baby steps?  I think being a little less restrictive on the amount of days means I’m less likely to want to “get it all out in one night” and go crazy.

Went out 5 times.  That’s more than 3.  To be fair, 2 of those were Saturday after an 18 mile long run, and were plans with people, but I could have probably been a little more responsible during the week.

I’m going to keep it simple this week, especially because we’re doing this Stay-cation thing over the long weekend:

• Track all my food and stick to my macros/calorie range (-500 w/activity)
• Weigh a few times this week
• I’m not going to specify an amount for booze but it needs to not compromise my a) calorie count b) sleep schedule c) workouts

A few weeks from now I’ll be hitting this section hard, but for now, I just need to make sure I don’t gain the “marathon 5” I tend to.

Life:

Go Broncos!  We may not be that into football but we wore the right colors at least. 🙂

While I had a few holes in the training and food parts, I actually had a pretty fabulous week.

The first part of the week was relaxing, and then we were super social and I didn’t hate it at all!  I hung out with 4 different groups of friends and family peeps.  I got to check out THREE new restaurants.  I’m in such a better mental place than I was a few months ago, because this was all FUN to me, not an experience to endure until I could get to my couch.

I also got to play some video games, ride my bike in the sunshine without any attention to anything but happiness watts, and color a bit more.

We started a little bit of the ground work on the kitchen remodel.  I have a bit of an idea on colors, scope, and we’ve talked to the handy side of the family and asked if they’d help with oversight or babysitting contractors.  I don’t think we’re getting much further until we’re willing to go price things and we’re not there yet.

• 8 hours of sleep most every nights 
• Relax as much as possible.
• Maybe start scoping out things for our potential remodel project?

Worst was 6.5 hours one night, made up with 10 hours the next night.  Overall, I’m sitting pretty with no sleep debt.

This week, this is just kind of a list of the fun things we’re going to do as part of a staycation:

• Happy hour at Copper Lounge Thursday
• Eat pho with friends, walk to a movie matinee and dinner out Saturday
• Go to Enchanted Rock and grill up a great dinner Sunday
• Do something touristy downtown on Monday
• Do absolutely NO chores starting Saturday morning until Tuesday.
• Get 8 hours of sleep every night

The theme this week is work hard, play hard, sleep hard.  Heck yes.  Bring it on.