Kick the tires and start the pfires

Pflugerville is my 8th race this year.  I’ve had a lot of fun this spring, and I feel like I’ve gotten decent at the whole sprint triathlon process by repetition, but I’m ready for a little break.

One more outing for this kit and then it gets a rest.

However, let’s kick the tires and light the fires one more time, because Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY, we race our 8th Lake Pflugerville Tri.  At this point, my legs pretty much have what they have, so this week has been more about doing stuff I feel like doing when I feel like doing it.  I am the most meticulous coach ever but it’s officially my last week of season Pt 1, and I’m ready for it.

Last week

• 15 min bike, 30 min bike, 32 min bike (race)
• 1 weights session (race week, that’s fine)
• 2 mile run, 2 mile run (race)
• 1050yd swim, 200m swim (race)

So yeah, not much.  3.25 hours.  There will be plenty of time to smash myself, right now is not one of them.

This week has been/will be:

• Monday: Shoal Roll!  Bikes with friends.  This also counts as my heat training for the week.
• Tuesday: weights at the gym (early enough in the week so I won’t be affected race day)
• Thursday: AM 3 mile run with striders (working on the feeling I need during the race)
• Friday: random outdoor 45 min bike ride
• Saturday: swim (probably open water)
• Sunday: RACE!

Looking at last year’s results, with what I know I can do on an average day this year, I’ll be in the mix for a podium slot.   I should be through the swim and out of transition in about 13-14 minutes.  I’m hoping to bike about 19 mph, which would have me through transition two in a little under an hour.  If I can do that, which is well within my capabilities, it’s all about the run I can produce.  I’m probably going to have to set a run PR here to do it, but honestly, it’s not going to be that hard because I’m in better shape than I have been in years.  So, it’s all up to how bad I want it, chasing down people on the stupid kitty litter trail.

On one hand, it would be nice to cap the season pt 1 with a podium, and prove to myself I can do that in Austin races, and not just out of town.  On the other hand, I’ve had such a great spring I won’t be heartbroken if I don’t.  All I can do is go out there and race my ass off, which I plan to do!

Hopefully with much less heel striking…

I’m actually mimicing a body shape and preparation from 2014, when I was weighing in the low to mid-170s and specifically trained for short course triathlon, where I did really really well.  So, I have high hopes.

I didn’t have the most stellar week in nutrition land last week.  I did just fine on the weekdays, but our grill going out/being so hangry I needed a salad and an appetizer made Friday night’s meal WAYYYY more calories than normal.  Then, after the race Saturday, vegetables were positively repulsive to me but I was super hungry, so that went to the tune of about an 800 calorie surplus over what I burned.  Sunday, I let myself indulge a little bit and ate some pizza I was craving and went slightly over the calories I burned as well.  So, my numbers are going to look like crap, but here they are:

• Average Calorie Burn: 2190
• Average Calories Eaten: 1924 (-266 deficit)
• Average Diet Quality: 19
• Weight trend change: -0.4 (176.9 to 176.5)

All I can do is own it.  I should have packed up half my dinner on Friday, but I ate it to the point of being uncomfortably stuffed, probably influenced by the fact that I was peeved about the situation.  I tried to eat immediately post race on Saturday, but a spicy kielbasa wrap did not sit well at 8:30am, so I made it through barely half and didn’t eat again til 1pm when I was utterly starving and remained in that state pretty much all day.  I have just recently found these protein chips and I think I will be packing a bag of them for after every race from now on, just in case the food is unappealing.  Maybe that will help?  And then, my husband is the opposite – not much appetite the day of, but the day after he’s a hunger monster, which leads me to overeat that day too sometimes (this being one of them).

In the grand scheme of things, it’s one weekend.  But I have a few of these “just one weekends” coming up and unless I want to call the weight loss progress right here right now (and I don’t), I need to step it up.

It’s still going down, but flattening out a bit.  I’m going to endeavor to work a little harder the rest of the month to increase the angle downward a bit.

Besides just the normal, I know I need to do these things on Sunday:

• Eat a thing as quickly as possible after the race.  They always have pizza, half a slice of that should actually be wonderful post race filling fuel and I can usually stomach that post race.
• When I get home, have food ready that’s at my fingertips that is both filling and voluminous and also low calorie.  My goal will be to plow through as many positive diet quality points as possible (fruit, veggies, whole grains, lean protein) as possible quickly in as few calories as possible.
• Stop at 1 post race beer (so many calories!) until I can get home and have much lower calorie beverages (or bring light beers to put in the team cooler).

This next week is that wonderful week where I make no progress because my body is angry about the lack of my procreation, so I’ll probably get back to this reporting (not logging, I do that daily still) in two weeks when the curve starts to slope down again.

I finally culled, edited, and posted my vacation photos from my camera.  I was hoping to get maybe half a dozen to a dozen shots I wanted to submit to various photo sites and I came up with 28.  Most sites want something like 10-15 for the application process, so at least I have something to work with.  Submitting photos that are rejected doesn’t preclude me from trying again after the next vacation with a new set, so worst case I get some feedback on what I’m doing wrong and become a better photographer.  Best case, they like my photos and I can make a little money doing something I love anyway.

Also, that means I’ll post about my vacation next week.  Honestly, I’ve written about cruises so much, it will be a photo dump with some words. 😉

Randomly, I can check two of my adulting things off my 2018 list.  Zliten found us a “do your own will” site, and in less than 30 minutes I had that done.  My situation is pretty simple so it was easy to do.  Also, they had a optional pain management section, to which I succinctly said, “I’m an Ironman, I can take it”, so I took it SUPER seriously, but the important parts are filled out and official.

Sadly, I haven’t seen our feral cat, Wookie, since we came back from vacation (and he was around at least every other day before).  I’m hoping someone took him in and gave him a forever home, but I’m not that optimistic about that.  This one wasn’t really “our” cat, and was definitely feral and not friendly, but he visited enough I wanted to make sure he got fixed.

So, potentially sad circumstances aside – 2/5ths done.  Financial planner, organization, and a small construction/cleaning projected to go.  If I was motivated I could probably knock all this out in a weekend but I’m… not.

And, that’s not a bad way to leave a Friday.  See you on the other side!