Adjusted Reality

It’s long, but I’ll just split this into two weeks like normal blogs.  Each day has the weight because I logged it, and I figured it may be interesting – not because I was neurotic about it.  I actually highly suggest a travel scale IF AND ONLY IF you can treat it like it should be treated – a reminder not too go too overboard, but really and truly just a metric.  It did not make me crazy at all and I actually got a kick out of seeing the numbers and helped me actually lose 3 lbs on a two week vacation without feeling at all deprived.  So, here’s week 1 of how I spent my vacay. 🙂

Monday: flight and Ft. Lauderdale (182.0)

After riding high on an awesome race, 2.5 hour bike, and pretty fast brick mile at the end, we drink copious amounts of champagne and didn’t do a goddman thing towards packing.  So, we both were up pretty early (and felt amazingly decent) getting the last minute things together.  We finished packing, picked up some Rudy’s breakfast tacos (1 chopped beef, 1 bean and cheese for me), and then we were off to the airport in our cab!

At the airport, our metabolisms were screaming for more food, so I picked up a beef taco salad (beef, guac, sour cream, salsa, cheese, lettuce, tomato, ditched the shell) and nom nom nommmed it real hard, plus a few of Zliten’s fries.  My parents were looking at us like “omg why didn’t you eat before” and we had to explain that we DID eat before, but you just don’t understand a day-after-long-long-long-workout metabolism until you experience it, so oh well.  Also, note to self – ALWAYS start vacations off with a 4.5 hour kick ass workout the day before – your metabolism will be chewing through all that vacation food efficiently for DAYZZZ.

The flight was uneventful, and we landed in Ft. Lauderdale, got a shuttle to the hotel, met my Aunt and we had planned to go to Sweet Tomatoes, which was close, but they got really lost getting to (and since there were 6 of us and it was pouring, they had to shuttle us in two trips).  I had a fabulous salad bar salad with all the veggies, whole grain bread, turkey chili, and tasted some veggie soup and leek soup.  We stayed and chatted for a while, and then since the rain cleared up, Zliten and I walked the mile back to stretch out our legs and scope out part of the morning’s run route.  After we got home, we dorked on the internet and watched some TV and then zonked, still tired from the day before.

Tuesday: We’re all on a boat (and quickly)! (183.0)

We woke up around 7am and got out to run around 8am.  Joel got us some snackies from the breakfast buffet – I had half an english muffin and cream cheese and the little airplane packet of peanuts.  I had mapped out our running route ahead of time to get in about 4-5 miles that morning, and though we got a little lost trying to find the first turn, it was a nice morning run.  Florida is freaking flat.  It may be hot and humid, but it’s also very flat, so there’s that.  We ran through an area that looked pretty nice, but we were DEFINITELY the only ones with our skin coloring.  But it wasn’t uncomfortable, lots of kids and families out and people playing cards on the porch and they were quite friendly.  We finished up 4.5 miles in about 52 mins – nice slow recovery run, our legs were SORE!  Notably, no other fitness enthusiasts (not counting kids obviously on the way to school).  I don’t think that’s POSSIBLE in Austin, I always see at least someone out running/biking/walking/etc.

Came back, grabbed some stuff we forgot at the vitamin shoppe across the street (yeah, we felt like THOSE people in our workout gear hitting the vitamin store as they opened….), and refueled with a quarter waffle and some yogurt.  Then, it was time to hit the pool!  It was super nice and I spent time with the fam in the pool, ducking out to do laps every so often, I got in about 1000m, so no complaints about workout times that morning!

F0r any of you that have cruised – we got on the shuttle at the hotel at 11-ish, got to the port at noon, and then was on the ship by 12:45!!!  Usually its a lot of waiting in line for hours, but either we got really lucky or Princess really has it down.  I was STAAAAAARVED (hi there overactive metabolism still alive and kicking) and got lunch – consisting of as many veggies I could find and a giant salad, a curry, some turkey, mashed potatoes, a bite of tiramasu, and 2 welcome-to-the-ship beers.

Then, we went and attempted to reserve our diving trips and BOOOOO, the two we wanted to do were full (Aruba and Dominica).  We signed up for one that was still open (Bonaire) and got on the wait list for Aruba and Dominica if Aruba didn’t come up.  Then, we got unpacked and organized, did the boat drill, and found the pools were open (another ship first, usually they are closed until you’re at sea).  We wriggled into swimsuits right away and sailed away from shore in the pool, soaking up sun.  Total bliss!  Best getting on the cruise ever, especially compared to THIS first day.

When the sun got lower, I got dragged out of the pool and we got ready for dinner at the sit down dining room.  I feasted on shrimp cocktail, tortellini soup, filet of beef medallion, and honeydew sorbet (and a few bites of everyone else’s deserts to try).  After dinner, we wandered, bought cards to play, went to the variety show, ate a little post-dinner-snack (I had more shrimp, and some veggies and broth so it wasn’t crazy).  The girls SMOKED the guys on the first card game of the cruise, and then we retired to bed where I watched a weird Christopher Walken movie called Undertaking Betty and fell asleep, wouldn’t you know it, to some duathlon coverage I found on one of the ship’s channels.  Awesomely surreal first day on board!

Wednesday: Still on a Boat (178.4!!! Hello new low weight for 2013)

Slept until we felt like getting up, did weights and an easy 45 min spin on the bikes in the gym (ugh, how did I EVER use a seat like that, felt like a pillow between my legs…).  Then we checked out the uber ship sale, and nothing was super cool so we passed by.  We showered and then were supposed to meet my parents for lunch, but they took a while so we had a pre-lunch margarita (there really, really should be more opportunities to have pre-lunch margaritas ;D).  I pretty much had a plate of veggies and salad for lunch again (look for this to be a theme for lunch), with some veggie bean soup, fried shrimp, mashed potatoes, a few bites of chips and guac, and a few bites of beef stew and chocolate mousse.

We then tried playing Mah-jong which I find to be the most frustrating game in the world.  If you’ve ever learned it… it feels like fucking Calvin- ball.  So many arbitrary rules and they feel like they’re being made up all the time and just there to be a pain in the ass.  Anyway, Zliten won one game and we had two wall games (no one won).  That drove me to eat more, just some fruit and a bite of cheese though. Then, we retired back to the cabin and took a long naaaaaaap (I love vacation naps).  While naps are great, so is the pool, so we took a late dip and chatted with some folks we met in the hot tub about crazy Texans and California liberals and rednecks.

We got ready for dinner and then headed there and then OMG DINNER DRAMA.  We took the “anytime” dining option, which my dad took to mean he would get sat for dinner “anytime”.  However, at 6:30, when everyone else wanted to eat, there was a 30 minute wait.  He got all huffy and puffy and I felt bad for the poor staff and after that, we made sure to get a reservation later so we wouldn’t have to wait again.  They were getting all stressed out so I got myself a glass of wine (hey, vacation).  Dinner was great – lychee and watermelon for an appetizer, black bean soup, greens with balsamic, giant prawns with fried rice and veggies, and butter pecan ice cream (having bites of some toffee cake and pineapple sorbet around the table).

The show was a comedy/music show with Steve Moris of the beach boys, which was actually kind of hilarious, and then played a round of cards (boys won) and then we bid my parents adieu and decided to seek out the disco.  We ended up making friends with the bartender who was also named… err.. Zliten (names changed to protect the innocent), and a young dude from Colorado also here with his family also escaping 😀  (love my parents and all, but we do best with a little space in between every moment together).  We closed out the bar with some absolute citron, soda, and lemon, and a few crazy shots, and then hit the casino – I ended up a few bucks up, but Zliten lost quite a bit more than I gained, so boo.  We went for some drunk munchies at around 3:30am, and I just got a greek salad and then we hit the bed and sleeeeeeept.

Thursday: Almost There (181.6)

Woke up around 10:30, was a little hungover (bar drinks do not = the kind of drinks I pour at home, forgot about that).  Had a very small breakfast of some melon and two mouthfuls of cereal, and then hit up the shops again and bought two pashminas for 9 bucks!  Woo!

The day was mostly spent by the pool – we grabbed lunch (another tray of veggies and salad + albonigos soup) and then sunned, read, swam, lost sunglasses, found sunglasses, played water volleyball and lost terribly (to be fair, I’m short and couldn’t touch bottom and we were playing with a real VOLLEYBALL, not a beach ball).  I had a half-a-slice-of-pizza snack and four of Zliten’s fries, and then got motivated to run even though I didn’t wanna at all – but got through 3.7 miles in 43 mins of a nice easy ship-swaying run and walked a bit more to round out 50 mins.

Then, we got fancy for formal night, watched the champagne fountain flow – got our glass, and headed to dinner.  It was my Dad’s birthday, but he asked that we not make a big fuss (the whole cruise was to celebrate), so we just enjoyed crab and cheese quiche (I actually didn’t hate it, even though I am anti-egg – the fact that it was CRAB helped I’m sure), cream of asparagus soup,  salad with italian, shrimp with broccoli in garlic sauce, and some amazing chocolate pb oreo pie.  OMG, I’m dreaming of it now.

However, let me assure you that SPANX are not really good for eating occasions.  I swear, I almost popped a rib trying to hold that dinner in and I went without it for the rest of the night and said screw it.  We regrouped for the disco show and then Zliten and I hit the bed, as there was an early wake up call to go DIVING in ARUBA!!!!

Friday: Aruuuuuuba (184.4)

Let’s just say this – 6 lbs gained in 2 days was not making me happy – but there was an easy explanation – I hadn’t had any “moving experiences” pretty much since I got on board.  However, I didn’t want to take anything for it because #1 – I’ve never had this problem this bad before and I didn’t know how it would affect me since I had never taken anything, and #2 – I had two days of scuba to come, so I figured it would be a bad idea.  So we picked up some happy chocolates and I saved them until after the next day’s dive.  Honestly, I usually have the opposite problem on cruises, so it was super weird, but ummm, yeah.

Since we were having a morning of diving we got up and actually ate breakfast – an english muffin with cream cheese and bacon, melon, papaya, a turkey sausage, and a hashbrown.  I even had a few sips of coffee!  Decadent!

Diving was so fun – we got picked up right by the ship dock, the boat had all the tanks and gear ready for us, and it sped us around the island on a gorgeous tour before we got suited up and in the water.  We dove the Antilles wreck first (50-60 feet down) and then the Perdinalis (15-20 feet down – basically the longest safety stop ever as you’re supposed to stop to decompress at 15 feet :D).  I just don’t know how to put words to this besides AWESOME.  So much visibility, so many fishes, was cool to see the wrecks and know that they had crews and were functioning ships.  Also, fish really like wrecks to there was a lot to see – we saw a morey eel, what we called a “straw” fish but ended up being a trumpet fish, watched a fish poo (and was kinda jealous considering my problem above), and wow – I just LOVE diving.  I had no issues and didn’t feel like a n00b at all!

We got back on board and had lunch.  Wouldn’t you know it, ANOTHER PLATE OF VEGGIES AND SALAD + veggie soup, seafood balls, few bites of chicken, and some sausage, cheese, and pickle salad (sound GROSS but it was really stupid good), a little pasta, and some sugar free key lime mousse (diving makes me need SUGAR in a weird way).  We went back out shopping and I found the pashmina (a red one) I was actually looking for, an Aruba shirt for both of us, poo chocolates, and an Aruba patch for Zliten (he wants to put them on our dive bags).

For dinner – we went to the buffet since it was curry night and I love me some curry.  My plate was full of various curries, tandori chicken, dal, garlic soup, stir fry veggies, sourdough roll, and some caramel walnut cheesecake.  We played a round of cards and the ladies won again!  Woo!

We pumpkined early since the wakeup call for Bonaire was in the 6am-hour and read and watched TV and drifted off thinking about another awesome day of diving to come…

Saturday: Bonaire Friendly Diving (185.8)

Still no pooing and I felt WAY gross, but not so gross that it wasn’t time to go DIVING!!!! Wooohoo!

We were up early enough to watch the boat dock.  We got another big breakfast to fuel the diving – half an english muffin, cream cheese, bacon, corned beef hash (my cruise splurge, I love it), baked beans, fruit.  We were some of the first people off the boat, and they took us on a ferry over to the dive shop, and then geared us up, and we got on the actual dive boat (the first one, I was curious where all the stuff was) and got out to the first dive site.

On one hand, I had a major N00B moment and it took me forever to get my ears equalized and it was frustrating.  On the other hand, the descent of the first dive will be forever etched in my memory – we descended through gorgeous dark blue clear water down to a cliff wall of coral and living things and so, so, so, so many types of fish and it was just breathtaking.  This first one was my favorite, and I was giddy the whole time.  THIS is what we’d been certified for – it was just amazing.  I owe you a video once Zliten finishes them but… omgosh.

We barely had time to get back, and Zliten got a shirt from the dive shop and I got a hat, and we had a local beer and then walked back.  I wanted to go look for a girl shirt there in the shops because it was the “diver’s paradise” but we didn’t really have time.  We got on board and found that my parents had found the PERFECT shirt for Zliten – it had an iguana with a mask, fins, regulator, tank, and it said “Iguana Dive Bonaire”.  Best. Shirt. Ever.

Lunch, after we got back, was, you guessed it – a plate of veggies, some fried fish, and a few bites of orange cake and half a cream puff (diving + sugar = like peas and carrots), and then we hung out on the deck watching the boat sail away.  Then, we were exhauuuuuusted so we napped most of the afternoon.  Before dinner, I woke up, put on clothes, and we grabbed a glass of wine (or 2…) and read.  Then, we had wine with dinner with my parents, while also enjoying lamb and barley soup, half a roll, salad with blue cheese, pesto pasta, and some cafe au lait ice cream.

Then, we bid adieu to the fam and hit the casino and had a few more drinks.  I kept playing with the same money and was up a dollar when we left, Zliten, not so lucky.  After Zliten convinced me it was NOT his lucky day, we went back to the nightclub, and closed it out again – hangin’ with our Colorado friend and the bartender with Zliten’s name.  More drinks, more shots, more fun (we showed off all our awesome diving footage).  Then, we hung out with the DJ and some older guy that I think was celebrating his birthday if I remember correctly.

Then, things get a little hazy – somehow we convinced him to give us his shirt (so we have a souvenir polo shirt LOL), and things get MORE hazy and the night ends sometime.

Sunday: Grenada Out My Window (182.0)

The good news, I POOOOOED and digestively, I feel a million times better.

The terrible news is I can’t move my knee and I have NO RECOLLECTION of falling or doing anything evil to it.  I figured I must have been so drunk I didn’t remember smacking my knee.  I spent most of the morning and afternoon in bed icing it, on painkillers, and reading my book.  Zliten brought me breakfast (some random bites from the buffet, I wasn’t that hungry), he ordered us room service (I got a club sandwich on wheat and some fries – totally yummy) and was feeling better.  He decided to get off the boat and check out Grenada with my parents and I stayed in the room.  He came back, said it was pretty lame and sketchy, and brought me pizza.  I had one bite and it didn’t set well, so I ignored it and just kept reading and hoping my knee would feel better.

Finally, I willed myself to get up and put on some clothes and limped up to the deck so we could play some games.  The girls won one and the guys won one, and then we got ready for dinner (we sat in the smelling range of the pizza place and it went from completely nauseating to actually smelling decent, so I was hungry again! :D).  Dinner was something called Cock o Leekie Soup (chicken broth and leeks and rice), salad w/ranch, surf and turf – prawns and a filet, and red currant sorbet.  Though I was in pain and not very happy, dinner definitely made me feel better, it was yummy.  After dinner I begged off to go back to the room and just read and played mario and watched TV and iced ice baby on the knee.

Needless to say, I was bummed and was kind of upset that a stupid injury was messing up my vacation.

What does the next week hold?  Stay tuned! 🙂

Back from sunny Florida, Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada (sort of), Dominica (sort of), St Thomas, and Princess Cays, with a tan, great memories, and souvenirs in tow.

I’m still recovering, and not yet really ready to dive into the vacation recap, but let me share a few highlights (and lowlights):

Scuba in Aruba and Bonaire was amazing!

Just hangin’ out with the fam by the pool lounging, reading books, taking dips, and watching movies on the big screen was just what my tired soul needed.

Snorkeling in Princess Cays was mind-blowing.

Dressing up all swanky always makes me happy.

Also, I not only didn’t get super fat on vacation, I lost 3 lbs (scale says 179 as of today, and I weighed in at 182 the first day).  It’s not the most flattering picture, but take my word for it, this dress did not fit a month ago, and this is sans spanx on the second to last night of the cruise…

However, I did come home with one unintended souvenir – halfway through the cruise, I fell and smacked my knee, and a week later, I still cannot straighten it all the way, and I’m heading to the doctor next week to get it checked out. 🙁  My mind is racing with the worst, where this is a season ender and I’m going to need to just take up swimming and I’ve wasted over a grand on race entries this year, but I’m trying to stay positive until all is said and done.

Also, I caught a cold the last day of the cruise.  Certainly not the end of the world, but I am a ball of snot today.

More soon!  For now, just trying to RICESS (rest, ice, compression, elevation, shockies, stretching) my knee as much as possible to see if the reason it’s still sore is that I had to just overuse it doing vacation stuff and do laundry and I’ll get to the deets later!

Austin 10/20 (10 miler):

I had no business PRing this or even trying, if you looked at my training runs.  Last year, I was just off half marathon season and a lot of speedwork and loving the lightness of my racing flats.  10 miles was like, not a thing to me.  A 10 min/mile pace wasn’t a cake walk but totally doable.  Long story short, I let my head get me on the back half of the course, and missed my goal time of under 1:40 by less than 2 minutes.  Not that a 10:05 or whatever pace is bad, but still, I was a little bummed.

This year, I’m a different animal.  I spent last year running really slow to get endurance for the 70.3 and marathon.  Then, I lost all that endurance in offseason and just recently did ONE double digit run a month ago, but it was barely sub-12 minute miles.  I haven’t clocked a run sub-11 minute miles except my run tests, which have been all out efforts on the oval (read: no elevation changes), and they’ve been BARELY sub 10, and only 3 miles. Also, I’m wearing these big clunky Sauconys because my stupid feet can’t run right after last year.

However, I had this burning DESIRE to PR.  I wanted to show myself that I was a better runner than I thought.  That this training is working.  That my brain is stronger than it ever has been.  Validation,  I wanted it.  I could taste it.

Yesterday, I was worried – I felt really really creaky, things hurt, I spent a lot of time on my feet, and I was just nervous I didn’t have any speed in me.  I woke up feeling a little less creaky, but my head really was not ready to hurt myself.  Boo.  I had some breakfast and pooped and got going and we got in the car and the radio sucked and I connected my zune and OMG it was dead.  We went back and grabbed the car charger and headed to the race.  I made us stay in the car just as long as humanly possible and then we headed to the race (the charge did enough, it made it through the race).  The race site was conveniently RIGHT next to my office, so we headed into work to bathroom in the nice office potties instead of the porta-ones, and then headed back to the corrals.

Corrals were elite, and then 1-10.  We were in 3.  I figured there had to be a mistake, as I’m not corral 3 material, but I wasn’t going to say anything.  Normally, I get in my corral and I’m dodging people because people seriously underestimate their finish times, so I figured this was karmic payback.  I got kinda emotional at the beginning.  I was really scared of disappointing myself.  Coming in at like 1:50 would really, really bum me out, but I really thought that might be a reality considering my training.  However, the national anthem centered me, and then we were off, so there was no time to think anything but game on.

The first 3 miles went…. easy.  I was keeping about 9:45 without much effort, and it was a little scary.  I wondered what was to come on the way back, but I just tried to keep an easy stride and not worry to much.  I hit the 2.5 mile tuckaway into the side street and only just saw the elites come out at mile 4 so I figured I was doing ok.  I tried to run heart rate, and my goal was to stick between 165-170, but I found I was jumping between 160 and 180, and neither really felt like it was much harder than the other, so I just switched back to pace on my garmin and ran by feel, checking HR every so often.  I realized this was baseline for the year, I haven’t yet done a race with enough HR data to judge, and since my goal was to PR, I’d keep myself on that track and if I fizzled at the end, so be it.

The up and downs between 3 and 4 weren’t so bad, but when I hit the long, slightly uphill stretch, I took a cue from Runthisamazingday, and pushed my visor down and just looked at feet and got into my music.  I found some rainbow leg warmers I tried to stay with but they were too fast, and I thought about the fact that perseverance was following through on the goals I made when I was no longer in the same mood as when I made them, and I got up that hill only having lost about 2 seconds per mile and still felt pretty good as I hit mile 5.  Half way done.  And if I held sub-10s on the first 5, I could certainly do it on the last 5 because I was a badass.

Well, as last year, the last 5 was not as easy as the first half.  Through 6, I kept pretty good pace.  I hit 10k at just about 1 hour exactly, and I noted that it’s been a long time since I ran a 1 hour 10k.  Nice.  But, then we turned up to another uphill, and I threw my visor down again and chugged, and I swear it took 3 miles to get up that silly small hill, but I got through it, and then I got to my home turf.  My lunch run I always run.  And I got a “go Quix” and with my visor down, I didn’t know who it was, but either it was someone I knew or someone who read my bib, so I gave them the horns and kept going.  It flattened out soon and I got back to sub 10 and got up the mall hill I run through often fairly quick and then got out onto the freeway onramp for the last stretch.

I found recognizable feet, one of my triathlon friends R, and stayed on him.  He was coming off an injury from last year, but in his prime, he is a WAYYYY faster runner than me normally so I figured if I could stay with him, I was doing alright.  I caught him on the other side, the uphill, and he was all, “hey, where’s the fire?” to which I had no brain to reply anything but “huh”?  and then “words are hard” and ran ahead.  8 to 9 was HARD and while not a mountain, definitely uphill and I watched my average tick from 9:50 to 9:54, and then I made the call around mile 9 it was time to spend all the cash and try to get that average to go the other way.

I paid fuck all attention to HR, and just did what I could without puking or passing out.  R passed me, and I couldn’t quite catch him, but I kept him in my sights.  I stopped looking at pace and just RAN.  Once we hit the home stretch I just gave it everything and willed my cramping calf muscles to hold out just a little longer and willed my garmin not to hit 1:40 before I hit the finish line and then it was there and I was going as fast as I could and then I crossed it and celebrated and then I hit stop and it just clicked over to 1:40.

10.13 miles, 1:39:57.  9:52 average. 28% of my gender beat me, 30% of my AG beat me, and 36% of the whole field beat me.  I’m pretty happy with essentially a top 1/3 finish.  Also, if I would have held pace (probably doable with similar terrain and some more fuel/water), I would have been within 1 minute of my half marathon PR.  Like, from 2.5 years and 20 lbs ago.  Also, I believe that was about all out pace in January.  And I held it for 10 miles.

I waited for Zliten to cross and he did: 1:44!  He got a 5 minute PR too!  Fucking awesome day!

Then, we got sammiches, came home, biked 2h30 min on the trainer, and then ran 1 mile in 10:17 to fully brick the legs, and now, champagne.  I will definitely pull on this day in 2.5 months when we do Buffalo Springs 70.3.  While takeout sammiches and half a large pizza is not normally good nutrition, I think today is a 5k calorie burn and I’ve earned it.  Even with the champagne.

Training:

This week it was just all about getting in the hours.  After last week’s crazy 2.5 hours of hills, and the ensuing soreness, and the knowledge that it was a fully loaded week, and a race I actually cared a bit about this weekend, I cut everything down to easy miles and skipped weights in favor of extra stick and stretching time.

It was a challenge with all the other commitments – had to be up at 5am for transportation and came back home at 7:30 and then biked for 1.5 hours and then had to leave again, ran at lunch that day, and then hopped on the trainer as soon as I got home to finish up some more time.  I had a dentist appt Thursday early, so I had to squeeze that day too.  I ended up going a little light on swimming and running in favor of extra bike time, but I got in my time (for the most part).

We now are all signed up all the tris (minus Austin 70.3, which we are still deciding on):

Rookie Super Sprint Tri: 5/5
Playtri Olypmic Tri: 6/2
Pflugerville Sprint Tri: 6/16
Buffalo Springs 70.3 Tr: 6/30
Couples Sprint Tri: 7/14
Jacks Generic Olympic: 8/4
Tri Rock Olympic: 9/2
Kerrville 70.3 Tri: 9/29

We will be throwing in some supported ~50-60 mile rides about once a month (Armadillo, HotterNHell Hundred, etc), and hitting up splash and dashes as often as it makes sense with training.

Besides the race commentary, don’t have all that much else to say.  See below:

Monday: Swim: EZ Laps 1500 m 00:36
Tuesday: Bike: Trainer + Josie and the Pussycats. 29.01 mi 01:26, Run: Neighborhood Lunch Loops 2.72 mi 00:30, Bike: Trainer + Rest of Josie 12.01 mi 00:35
Wednesday: Swim: Laps 1800 m 00:45
Thursday: Run: EZ Lunch Run 3.1 mi 00:34, Bike: Trainer + Fringe 14 mi 00:40
Friday: Outside Bike: Neighborhood Loopz 5.3 mi 00:22, Bike: Trainer + Bobs Burgers Butts … 7 mi 00:21
Saturday: off
Sunday: Run: Austin 10/20 Race 10.13 mi 01:40 Bike: Trainer + Les Mis 51.4 mi 02:31 Run: Bricky Brick 1 mi 10:17

Food:

Things seem to be working folks.  I’ve been in the low 181-183 range all week and finding it easier to eat a little less – my tummy is finally adjusting, so yay.

I’ve eaten a few less than 100% healthy things (smart ones micro meal, a little bit of brownie, etc), so I need to watch that, as when I’m lowering my calories, I need like 95% of it to be good awesome fueling my training calories or I’ll bonk, but my little swedish meatball splurge yesterday, and the pieces of not-horkin-fiber bread today, were kinda yummy.

Just need to hold the mentality for vacation that I don’t need a billion calories, and since I’ll be away for a while, I’ll have plenty of time to taste all of the things, I don’t need to eat so much all at once. 🙂

I’m finally at the point where I’ve lost enough that different pants are fitting, and I look different in clothes I normally wear, so hopefully that is motivation not to just gain it all back.

I won’t belabor it.  By the numbers this week:

Monday: 27 DQ, 1547 calories
Tuesday: 30 DQ, 1856 calories
Wednesday: 26 DQ, 1576 calories
Thursday: 23 DQ, 1501 calories
Friday: 21 DQs, 1554 calories
Saturday: 23 DQ, 1674 calories
Sunday: this day will throw everything off – consumed about 3500 and burned about 5k calories – so I’m going to not count it in the averages here.

Average DQ: 25

Average calories in: 1618

Average calories out: (estimated) 2200 (so I would expect a little over 1lb loss this week)

Weight: low was 181.0, high was 183.0.  Most days, in the 181s.  So that’s pretty happy.  Not the 170s yet, but I can see getting there soon.

Other Stuff:

I got my hairs cut.  It’s back to my shoulders.  I forgot how poofy shoulder hair is, especially after just being cut.  Looking forward to it settling a bit, the fro is fun and all, but… ya know.  I’m not entirely sure how I don’t have a picture of it that’s not in pigtails for the race, but trust me, you’ll see more of it soon.

Left my glasses at home one day after lunch this week and instead of going home to get them, I just rocked my sunglasses in the office all day.  I am so blind that it was the better option than just not wearing them.  Luckily I had no meetings but I got some funny looks when I had to go talk to people.  I had to explain myself a lot.  I should have just said, “I’m just cooler than you”, but, I’m not. 🙂

I got to record an interview for my game.  I love doing stuff like that.  Oddly enough, I like to yammer on and on.  Who knew?

I went to PF Changs for lunch one day.  I remember their food being better.  I think I’ll stick with my neighborhood places.

My badass brag – I got my second cavity filled this week with no novicain.  Because I am TOUGH (and I hate needles and novicain and will happily take a little pain instead).

And now, the tale of my week is done.  Tell me the story of your week in the comments.

Let’s dive in.

Training:

I’m sort of in that “middle of the season, digging in and keeping at it” place, so I’ll try not to repeat everything I’ve been saying the last few weeks

Weights – I’ve moved on to the point where I do strength maintenance 1-2x per week, and not on race weeks.  This week is a race week that I’ve decided is at least a B, so I’m going to skip it and resume next week.  I do the same sets (leg press or squats, rows, incline sit ups with twist, calf raises or hammie curls, and pulldowns) at 60/60/80% of my 1 rep max that I established last month.  For the rest of the year, this is about maintaining the pretty huge gains I made the first 3 months of the year, and the strength work will move into sport specific stuff (hill work, speedwork, force work, drag sets in the pool, etc).

Swim – I’m still kicking my ass in the pool on Wednesdays with speedwork, and feeling strong, but I’ve been finding that it’s hard to get there on the weekend after the increased hours on the bike/run and it’s just a little too early for lake swimming.  Again, I’m thrilled with the gains I’ve made in the first 3 months of this year, and I can take a little stalled progress here if needed.  And right now, it’s just that Sauron’s eye has turned a little more to the other two sports.  Once the lakes are in the 70s and it’s a billion degrees outside I’ll be back at it full force.

Bike – My trainer speeds are off the HOOK (I’m at 3/5 resistance and pulled a 30.5 mph avg at a lower HR than I did 28.9 miles at 2/5 resistance earlier this year).  My outdoor speeds suck.  But my outdoor rides this year have been a) after a 10 mile run w/2 mile tempo b) a metric century (61 miles) c) in traffic d) hilly as balls or e) first ride of the year, trying to remember how to not fall down.   My legs feel pretty strong this year, and my stupid hilly ride this weekend at the roller coaster called Pace Bend was not so, so bad (15.1 mph over 19 miles).  I just need to ride outside more, so we’re planning on doing one supported metric century per month as training.  The love is coming back to me with cycling this week, and that makes me happy.

Run – I feel like I’m just getting off training wheels here.  I spent 3 months running super slow.  I have done my requisite speed work and ran some hills and did some tempo work in the last few weeks, but I am racing 10 miles on Sunday, and I’m gunning for a PR (last year was 1:41-something).  I feel like I have it in me to sub-10 min/mile pace it, but I don’t have much experience at that pace since all my work minus the run tests have been in a lower zone than I plan to run.  I want to put the hurt on this race.  It’s my home turf, I know the elevations and what’s cool and what sucks about it.  It’s about convincing my mind that my body has more when it wants to quit.  That is most of what I want to do.  I want to hurt for about an hour and 40 minutes, give or take.

I hurt pretty bad running the mad hills at Pace Bend last weekend.  I stopped having fun at mile 4 but I finished out the 6 miles complain-y but strong.  I’m going to take the rest of my runs easy this week, and see what my legs have in them.

I’d say I’m loving all 3 sports right now, probably giving running or biking the edge depending on what day it is and what type of workout is planned – and I’m tired of weights but still doing them.

By the days:

Monday: Weights: SM Day 1 of the rest of the year 00:45, Swim: Easy Laps + Drills 1200 m 00:27
Tuesday: Run: Ruuuuuninng in the rain 4.15 mi 00:48, Bike: Trainer + End of Star Trek En… 19.07 mi 00:45
Wednesday: Weights: SM Day 2 00:45, Swim: 3x300m with some farteleks? 1800 m 00:45
Thursday: Bike: Cycling Test 17.78 mi 00:35, Run: Easy After Work Run 3.1 mi 00:37
Friday: rest, relaxing, setting up camp
Saturday: Run: Pace Bend Hill Run 6.03 mi 01:07 Bike: Pace Bend Hill Ride 18.66 mi 01:14 Run: Brick 1 mi 00:10:45
Sunday: rest, taking down camp, 20 mountains of laundry.

Food/Eating:

I’m even less motivated to talk about this, and it’s not because it’s going badly.  Actually, the opposite.  I’ve sustained a weight in the low 180s and my weight has been much more consistant, fluctuating more like 2-3 lbs than the 5-6 it has been.  I sustained TOM week with fairly minimal balloon belly, and if I keep on the straight and narrow, this week could be a decent loss week for me.

Now that I have found something that seems to work – having a few less calories than I think I should/deserve/etc, and not pigging out on weekends, and yes, sometimes having vodka for dinner, but more lately, drinking a little less vodka.  Not none, but less.

It’s just going to be a challenge to not kill all the progress I’ve made in the last 3.5 months while I’m gallivanting on vacation.  I’ll be extremely active, but we all know I can eat that back in the blink of an eye.  This week is a little odd because I didn’t get my batch cook on and am eating leftovers and old frozen meals and some my fit foods/snap kitchens, but it all should be rather healthy and I’ve pre-tracked my food so there’s that.

Here’s the deets, and lets move on:

Monday: 29 DQ, 1702 calories
Tuesday: 26 DQ, 1623 calories
Wednesday: 25 DQs, 1572 calories
Thursday: 23 DQ, 1782 calories
Friday: 26 DQ, 2112 calories
Saturday: 9 DQ, 2471 calories
Sunday: 19 DQ, 1539 calories

Average Diet Quality Score (not Dairy Queen Score – Yum Yucky :D): 22.4

Average Calories: In – 1828, Out (estimated) – 2400.  Deficit – ~600 (loss of just a little over 1 lb)

Weight Fluctuations: low 183.0-high 187.0 (TOM, so there was a reason and it went away super quick which made me happah).

Thoughts and stuff:

-My thought process is way different right now and I like it.  I saw some, shall we say, highly unflattering pictures from the weekend.  At some points in my life, that might send me into a tizzy and bad thought spiral, but it really just gave me a firm reminder to keep at it, because I’m not there yet.  Yeah, I may be feeling a bit more fly because my HR monitor is falling off and my sexy tri legs are coming back, but there is no way to not keep trying to work on the diet quality/food tracking/etc when someone could possibly see me from any angle looking like *THAT* in what I was wearing.  Fuel for the fire of accomplishing shit, not of self destruction and negative self talk.  Hard to be too negative when I pulled that same offending carcass up so many hills on the bike and run that morning, and totally motivating about how much FASTER I’ll be pulling that meatflesh up them thar hills if I keep at it and chip away at this extra poundage.

-We have had our Xterra for 3 weekends, and for all 3 weekends, we have made great use of it (bike transport to Rosedale Ride, hauling around scuba gear, and hauling camping gear this weekend).  Also, Pace Bend was a great place to train hills away from traffic, and since we own all the required equipment, we’ll consider coming out, camping overnight, and then training on those hills at least once or twice again this summer.

-I got to bring the Iguana to work last week, after her vet appointment.  She was only a little bit of a brat that afternoon – she didn’t like being shut in my office for an hour long meeting and pooped once, and she really, really wanted to go explore the rest of the offices, but I’m pretty sure letting a 5 foot long leezard out would have freaked some people out.  Also, she is doing just fine!  Yay!

-I don’t usually partake in April Fools, but we happened to have a company meeting that day, one of the ones where I get to talk on the microphone in front of the whole office, and let’s just say, I surprised some people with the “new direction” our latest update was taking, though I could only get a few sentences into it before I had to break the “April Fools”.   Fun stuff.

I think that about does it.  This week is going to be pretty crazy, so I’m gonna go dig in instead of more yakkity yak.

Question of the week: What is the best April Fool’s Prank you ever pulled?

Hooooly crap guys, life is up to 11 lately.  I’d say I’m looking forward to vacation (because I AM SO MUCH), but I think it’s just going to be a lot of EPIC DOINGS there too.  Ahhhhhhh, I love it.  I may have had a major freakout on Friday and hid in bed for a few hours (and in the process missed a lovely day for a bike ride), but I realized a bit later it was just a product of some misunderstood PMS and got over it quickly, and then had a pretty damn cool weekend.

Scuba Certification:

Back for more.  We were sun-happy, washing out our equipment in the driveway, excited to be newly certified, and our neighbor, a seasoned scuba diver, came to talk to us.  He said our noob certification would probably make the divemasters not let us pair up together since we were so inexperienced, and really, what’s fun about not getting to do this new fun thing you spent a lot of money and time training for with your hubbs (it’s like when they made us dance with other people, I came to learn to dance with HIM, not people :P)?  So, we decided to knock out the advanced class before vacation.  This meant another 500$ in fees, and more schoolwork.  At least we got a month to do this instead of 4 days.

This class was so much fun.  There was no classroom – we went over the book work on the boat.  Related, we got to spend the majority of the weekend on a boat, which made my fishie self super happy.

After the book work, we did 5 dives – the first one worked on being better at buoyancy – which I actually kind of sucked at because I wasn’t weighted properly.  And I had a LOT of weight.  Let me tell you, I think I finally succeeded in taking a little bit of poundage off in March after feeling what extra weight felt like.  Sadly though, it wasn’t enough and once my tank got lighter from air use, I just keep bubbling up to the surface.  The instructor thought I wasn’t using my BCD (buoyancy control device) properly, but on the next dive, I was validated because I put in more weight, and I was just fine the rest of the time.

The second one, which I was the most scared of, was the underwater navigator dive.  Me + compass = not friends.  Folks, north is the way I’m facing unless I really really think hard about it.  However, I ROCKED the out and back part, and made a perfect square.  My navigationally inclined Zliten?  Missed it.  He forgot to count and ended up lopsided.  Probably the only time ever I’ll beat him in something involved with a map, but hey, I’ll take it.  I was also taught the “nestea plunge” entry, and if at all possible, it is the only way I’ll get in the water because it’s just so freaking fun.

The last dive Saturday was a boat dive.  Technically, they were all boat dives, but on this one, they let us go out on our own.  We hugged the wall and checked out the little grottos and saw a sleeping (I say sleeping, Zliten said dead – but it was perfectly preserved).  We got down to 60 feet at one point!

Sunday, the storm was rolling in, so we got an early start and got to business.  First up was our deep dive, he took us to 80+ feet at the bottom of the lake, and around 60, light started to get really dim so we switched on our dive lights, and also around there, I started to sink like a rock so I had to put a bunch of air in my BCD (the further you go down, the easier it is to sink, the further up you come, the easier it is to float).  We finally touched bottom and got reoriented – it was super dark.  I thought I might freak out but I just got… calm.  I really enjoyed the peaceful feeling down there.  Life was good.

Our last dive was a wreck dive.  There was a sunken houseboat and a pecan tree that we checked out, and then the instructor left to prep the boat and left us to enjoy the rest of our air tanks/time/etc.  We swam around and checked out each crevice and nook and happened on a bunch of fish and I kinda connected with one (we bonded).  After my air dropped under 900, we went up, boarded our vessel, and got back to shore just as the weather started to turn sour.

So, so, so much fun.  I can’t wait to dive in gorgeous blue ocean this month.

Training:

Hi, my name is Quix, and I am a huge slacker.

Since I rarely am, I decided I was fine with it.   I did Monday and Tuesday’s easy work as planned, but then Wednesday showed up and I was so unmotivated to hit the gym/pool we skipped it.  Then, I had a freakout about life in general and hid in bed and didn’t get out to ride on Friday.  So – I swam once, did weights once, and ran for an hour (and hauled a bunch of scuba shit 3 days and, well, scuba’d).

I was worried when I was still totally unenthused on Monday, but as soon as I hit the gym and got a dose of swim endorphins, I was happy girl again.  So, I’m good. Ready for build month #3.  Pile it on!

Food:

I did pretty great this week – no crazy high days, appetite in check.  Scuba makes me want SALT and SUGAR.  And usually, I want sugar and fruit does it, and for salt, I’m good with nuts/veggies/etc – but nope, I was craving junk food.  Totally weird.

However, I can’t complain.  I hit a low of 182.2 this week, which is nice, and my normal 2 week spiral of weight gain for TOM and weekend bloat didn’t happen because, well, something is clicking.  It’s sloooooow going, but at least it’s going in the right direction.  While I’d like to be more at about a lb a week, if I can take 2 lbs off per month, I’ll take it.

While I am still eating good food with a pretty high diet quality (in the book, they were saying the 20s is like, great eating and on an average day, that’s where I’m at) – I’ve definitely decided that calories are king.  For some people, they can eat their fill of good, healthy food, and it will automatically adjust their weight to where it naturally should be.  I just need to accept that I am not one of those people.

If you put a bag of carrots in front of me, I might eat the whole thing.  I’ll probably be much more careful if you put junk food there and abide by the servings.  The carrots, to me, are a license to eat as much as I want.  If you put me in a room with only healthy food I liked, and said eat your fill, I would probably still overeat.  The good news is that I love healthy food.  The bad news is that I love healthy food so much, I can’t just improve my diet quality.

So it comes back full circle.  To lose weight, I must count calories.  So now really, to lose weight in a healthy way which doesn’t impact my training, I need to make sure and keep that DQ score high and those calories low.

I’ve also made a decision that while I am loving my trend towards vegan, it’s too much for me to deal with 24/7.  I’m getting sick of beans, and I refuse to make chick’n or soy or tempeh a staple of my diet.  While I will maintain that I believe that I operate best on lotsa fruits and veggies, some grains/starches, and a little meat and dairy and nuts, I think that my body likes some animal/fish protein once a day or so.

Oddly enough, there were some days I was getting more protein as a non-meat eater than when I ate meat.  It’s definitely possible to get adequate protein without meat.  I just don’t think a 100% veggie or vegan life is for me.

This weekend, I’m going to try to keep it under control while camping (though I have planned for some vodka and one key lime smore), and be crazy active (run, bike, swim, hike, kayak, etc) and then eat like an angel in prep for the vacay.

Monday: 28 DQs, 1501 calories
Tuesday: 26 DQs, 1742 calories
Wednesday: 23 DQs, 1627 calories
Thursday: 19 DQs, 2017 calories
Friday: 23 DQs, 1724 calories
Saturday: 14 DQs, 1608 calories
Sunday: 7 DQs, 2023 calories

Average DQs: 20

Average Calories: 1748 calories in, estimating 2142 calories burnt per day, ~400 deficit per day, so about 3/4 lb.

Weight range last week: 182.4 to 186.6 (trending down)

Random things:

-I got a filling done, and have to go back in 2 weeks to get a permanent crown and one more filling.  Boo, teeth.

-Since Zliten was working overtime, he was getting up early to go to work, which got me up early.  Since there was really no point in me getting to work early, and I had to wait for him to be available to train, I ended up having some nice early productive mornings, but felt all weird and out of sorts.  I’m not used to doing anything but getting up and rushing somewhere.

-I like running after work.  Sunset runs are nice.  They are also very rare because it’s either too dark or too hot, you get a month or two in spring and then a month MAYBE in fall.  One last week, one this week.   Love.

-Chocolate muscle milk + frozen cherries/strawberries/raspberries + blender = best healthy desert ever.

-Got to have a game night with an offshoot group of our normal table top roll playing group (dorky stuff here).  We created our characters and sat around and discussed the story to come.  Kinda scary, we’re going to take turns telling the story and I’ve never done that before.

And on that note, now that I’ve recapped, I’ll get on with my week… which has about an hour and a half left until the weekend.  Oops!

Question of the week: What’s the one thing in your diet you’d be most reluctant to give up completely?  Meat? Carbs? Veggies? Sweets? Chocolate?