Adjusted Reality

As I said before, we were seeking the epic end to an epic year, but in a “I’m not training anymore” way.  No PRs, no marathons, no centuries… what to do?  Well, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing two races in one day before, but have never done it.  So, when the Trail of Lights 5k and Vern’s 5k were on the same day 10 hours apart, it seemed like the best thing to do!

Also let me call out here that it was right around mid to upper 60s for both races.  That’s pretty awesome for December 15th.  I was sure I was going to have to dig out the long sleeve and jacket and running tights type apparel but the weather looked kindly on us.

The day started early (again, triathlete summer me is laughing but, DAMN it was hard to get out of bed at 6:10 after really adjusting to a midnight+ bedtime this offseason).  We got going a little late, but I had a small 100 calorie breakfast bar and some chai tea and water and we got up there.  On the way, I was having a bit of a bathroom emergency, and then Zliten took the wrong road and got turned around, so I made him stop at a gas station for me.  I felt like a different person after that, and apologized for being snippy, and we got there in just enough time to register, take a quick warmup (maybe 1/2 mile), realize that race pace was going to be challenging, line up, and get going.

I held a sub-9 minute mile pace as planned, but instead of feeling like I was just getting going, it was torture right out of the gate.  I knew at half a mile in I was just going to have to do what I could do that day.  The first mile was 9:13 after slowing a bit.  I just kept chugging away – not letting off the gas and staying at least at the edge of the pain place, but I could tell I’m out of shape (physically and mentally).  The second mile was about 9:40-ish, and I was able to rally for the 3rd and knock out about 9:20.  I finished 3.13 miles in 29:46 – 9:30s exactly average – and if not my personal worst racing a 5k, pretty close, and just shy of 2 minutes slower than the same course in May.  However, it’s offseason, so I was fine with this.  I wanted to see what my legs and lungs had in them and it was this and that’s ok.

We then changed, and headed to my parents for salad bar and cards that afternoon.  The food did not sit well with Zliten, and for some reason my heel started hurting.  By the time we got home and changed, I was freaking out due to my heel and nothing looked right on my fleshy pile of offseason bloat, and we went into race #24 grumpy.

Then, we showed up to one of the most disorganized races I’ve seen in a while, which totally improved my mood (/sarcasm).  I guess I’m spoiled – triathlons typically go off without a hitch, everything is organized, the races HAVE to go off on time to the second (unless there is an intentional delay).  This race had 5000 people and didn’t have any corrals or any guidance to where to be if you’re a walker, or in a stroller, so of course those people started up front and caused a clusterfuck for those of us who wanted to, y’know, actually run a 5k.  There were parts of the run that were not well lit, and I walked to make sure I wasn’t going to twist my ankle in a pothole.  Plus, the race started 20 mins late.  This made me extra cranky, especially because my heel was hurting and standing was horrible and I had already been there for 2 hours because parking closed super early and let’s just say, I had some choice words for the human race about then.

However, it all disappeared once a) I started running and got warmed up, instant mood elevator and then b) we got to the actual Trail of Lights.  That one mile stretch was the happiest part of a 5k I’ve ever had.  Movie below is very long and a little rough, but if you’re interested in what it was like, you can skip around.

We then ran the 1 mile back and I just really wanted to do more loops around the pretty lights, but away we went.  We crossed the line unceremoniously at about 40 mins (we stopped to pee, then walked in the dark spots, then walked when we got stalled by people walking or stopping in front of us, etc, but I think we were chugging along at 10-11 min miles when we could run), walked to the lighted tree to take a spin for the camera, looked at the long ass refreshment line, and headed out to the car.

We got cleaned up, toasted with some champagne at a friends’ housewarming party, then toasted with more champagne at home, and then passed out and slept a lot!

It’s pretty amazing to have been able to have kept ourselves fit, healthy, relatively injury free, and racing for a whole year, and even tackle some new distances and PRs along the way.  I’m definitely glad to be at the finish line, and very incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished this year.  And, since I can’t leave well enough alone, look forward to me belaboring the point over the next two weeks (I’m off work on vacation, as such, more blog posts, wheeee!)

Question of the day: what was your biggest accomplishment in 2012?

I don’t even really know what to talk about here when I’m not doing epic shit anymore, but I promised myself I’d continue to check in once a week so here we go…

Things I did this week:

Tuesday: our company gave us the afternoon off to go as a group and volunteer at the food bank.  Considering it’s off season, and all I care about is getting activity in 5 times a week, I decided this would be it and picked the job of loading cans into boxes from big boxes and delivering them to the sorters.  So, I spent over two hours picking up cans, squatting boxes, and working up a sweat running them over.  Made me happy that when my hand shot up  for that, they picked me and a few other buff boys and weren’t just like, urrr you’re a girl you can’t.  When a box got too low for me to get shit out with my little t-rex arms, I decided fuck it, and hopped in and stood in the box.  People made fun of me until they realized how efficient I was being, and then other people got in the box.  We beat the crap out of Monday’s work team by a whole ton (like, 2000 lbs!).  Moral of the story is: sometimes you just have to climb in the fucking box to get shit done.

Tuesday night: drank on the patio and worked through our training and racing schedule for 2013.  Made some choices and while I have yet to actually start filling out the weekly schedules for each phase, I now have a pretty solid A and B race list and – bonus – our first 70.3 is exactly a full cycle of base, build, and peak they recommend.  So I’ll have two (three?) chances at a really solid half IM next year.

Feb 24: Indoor Tri
Apr 14: 10/20 (10 mile run – signed up last year)
May 5: Rookie Tri (super sprint)
Jun 1: Play Tri Olympic
Jun 16: Pflugerville Tri (sprint)
Jun 31: Lubbock/Buffalo Springs 70.3
Jul 14: Couples Tri (sprint)
Aug 4: Jack’s Generic (olympic)
Sep 2: Tri Rock (Olympic)
Sep 29: Kerrville 70.3
Oct 27: Austin 70.3??? (this is a big maybe)

If you’ll note that there is a big emphasis on triathlon, that was on purpose.  Now, I am leaving the end of the year up for grabs.  I may bank on my endurance again and do a late fall marathon (especially if the last 70.3 is a no go).  I may also just take my offseason early and train up for a spring marathon.  I also might join the circus.  I’m not willing to plan my life out that far, we’ll see.  I just know that I would really love to run another marathon soon, but soon may be fall 2014.

Also, I have inked in to volunteer at the TX IM in May.  We will do this.  I want to be part of that shit this year even if we can’t race it.  I want to cheer people in at midnight and help people have an awesome 140.6 day.

I also planned out our yearly hours.  They say that minimum half ironman yearly training hours should be 500, but also not to increase your hours more than 15% per year.  Well, I added up the last 12 months on dailymile… and it was 325.  So, I’m going to peg next year at 375.  And planning that out… my peak week is 11.  We were rolling with 12s all summer.  So, this year will be about consistency (Zliten’s big focus), planning, and going into each training session with a purpose.  No going out to do random miles because I’m terrified I need to do more.  We know we can do a 70.3.  Now it’s time to do specific and purposeful training to get faster and more solid.

This also doesn’t include, what I imagine will be jumping in a bunch of supported rides early in the year to get some bike milez.

Thursday, we hosted a game night and played board games with a bunch of folks from work and I definitely got an ab workout laughing my ass off.  These guys are funny stuff.  I was even a good girl and ate a mahi burger while they ate beef burgers and passed on the beer (I KNOW…) so I could eat lots of junk food snax.  It worked out.

Friday was a stressful day at work (all’s well that ends well though) + packing my office (I get a shiny new one tomorrow), and then off early for the ugly sweater holiday party.  This was my epic creation – a very Mario Christmas.  Puffy paint creations for the win.

The work party was a lot of fun, I behaved myself well, performed some strategerie to get the white elephant gift I wanted, and we had an impromptu after party at the house where we played Apples to Apples and hung out and cheersed a 30th birthday boy, and then people left and Zliten and I stayed up really late drinking and talking and watching triathlon videos and, as I often do, I fell asleep around sunrise watching Kona 2010 on you tube.  Great night!

Saturday, we did nada and watched cartoons in PJs and it was awesome.  I napped on and off all day and slept 10 hours that night and kinda smiled at each other once in a while and said “yay offseason!”

Today, we decided it was time to take our steeds out for their inaugural post-Kerrville outdoor ride and we remembered today that Zliten had just gotten his clips in September and this was only his first neighborhood outdoor ride (we did one at Pfluger which has no stoplights and minimal traffic and then one at the veloway which is a closed cyclist/rollerblader course).  He toppled twice getting out of the driveway, and we both had some false starts in our clips going through stoplights (sorry Austin traffic), and then he toppled again and crunched his leg a bit in the gears.  Awww.  Slowest ride ever at 56 mins for 10 miles (with stoplights) but it was nice to get outside.  We need to do a few more of these before getting with a group – I don’t want to be the dumbass who can’t get their clips on.  I also hadn’t done this ride much this year and I remembered why – it’s fucking annoying to deal with traffic when you’re trying to hold a pace and do your thing.  While I’m in offseason and joyriding, however, it’s good practice and I’ll do some more of this.

Then, we did our errands and had salad bar lunch, did some laundry, and then went to Event #1 of this week – a yelp.com party – Yelp Helps.  They had nummy foods and lots of alcohol sponsors, but also a bunch of non-profits out telling us what we could do to get out and volunteer.  We got on some of the lists of the outdoorsy places (volunteering at the park we bike by sometimes, camping, river rafting, etc), and hopefully that will help us knock out two birds with one stone – being more outdoorsy, and being a little more selfless in 2013.

Now I’m drinking manhattans on the patio, awaiting my chili to congeal for dinner, and enjoying the last warm day we’ll have for a little while.

Headcheck: I’m really becoming more ok with offseason.  4 weeks left.  I may have had a lot of *twitchtwitchtwitch* earlier, but I’ve really enjoyed being a normal human being.  I will pull from this time during peak where I am not having social fun and just eat, train, sleep, and remember I can have my fun again.  I may have some twinges when I hear race reports from today’s Decker half marathon and hear about people training up for 3m, Rogue 30k in January (OMG an 18 mile race I WANT IN!!!), and the Austin Marathon, but mentally and physically I know it’s good juju.  In 3 weeks I have become weak and lacking in endurance and it’s ok.  A few miles of running is enough.  Short slow bike rides are fine.  They feel like nothing, but I know it’s enough to keep me in good enough shape that Jan 7th won’t be too horrible.  I’m sure if someone held a gun to my head I could do a half marathon but it wouldn’t be pretty.

Details, details:

Monday: 30 mins DDR, 30 mins full body weights
Tuesday: 2 hours volunteering
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 3 mile run – 10:30-ish pace
Friday: 40 min trainer.  No garmin – maybe 19 mph pace?
Saturday: off
Sunday: 56 min ride outside (10.3 miles)

Yeah, no yoga.  I suck.  I did nail 2 weights workouts (counting volunteering, and I would say squatting boxes for 2 hours counts like woah) and got in enough cardio not to be a complete couch potato.  I’m going to go ahead and skip the food and calories and weight because: a) I sucked it up b) it’s that time of the month and c) it just makes me sad. Lets just say it was 180+ and leave it at that.  I can’t be too mad at myself.  All this is not going to come back at once and all I can do is resolve each day to be the best I can be without making myself crazy.  Soon I will really kick it into overdrive but I’ve realized these weeks are not the time.  Going from rigid training schedule to rigid calorie schedule is going to do nothing for decompressing.  I’ll do my best not to be an asshole and chose good things most of the time, and in January, really step it up.  I’m looking into a bunch of batch cooking and ways to make healthy eating easier and will capitalize on my plan SOON (TM).

This week is epic in the social situation department.  Today was a Yelp party, Tuesday is a coworker birthday happy hour, Wednesday is an ex-coworker going away party + comedy late show, Thursday is Game Dev Beer Night, and Saturday is two races + parents hanging out in the middle and then a friend’s house warming party at night.  The lesson this week is a primer in moderation.  I have designs to do this workout schedule:

Monday: DDR or trainer + weights
Tuesday: lunch run  (happy hour)
Wednesday: trainer + weights (goodbye party + late night comedy show)
Thursday: lunch run + yoga (beer night)
Friday: off
Saturday: 2 5k races
Sunday: off

I have designs about racing Saturday 5k #1 hard.  I mean, why not? I’m not saving my legs/lungs/body/mind for anything, and if I throw up/pass out at the finish line, who cares?  But, I also know I’m not setting myself up for success.  It will be in spite of everything.  And I’m fine with those odds.  I expect to see God/Santa/Krampus/baby Jesus/etc and the (Christmas) lights and just feel like it might be fun to see what I can do trying to shut my brain and my limiters off.  If it’s a PW, whatevs.  No tears here.

And, this is my week in review.  5 more days and I’m on the other side of working days for 2012 and 6 more days and no more races for 2 months.  True true offseason will really begin.  I’m sorry Austin, this lady will really and truly be letting lose.

Promise I haven’t completely fallen off the edge of the world.  Here’s a quickie (that’s what he said?) update:

Doing a lot of this:

Now that things are calming down a lot, I’m trying to get back into cooking healthy foods.  Here’s my crockpot chili:

1 lb organic ground beef
1 can organic corn (drained)
3 assorted cans of beans (2 organic one not) (drained)
1 can organic tomato sauce
1 chopped onion (I actually used less because I had less, but a full onion is good stuffs in here)
1 chopped bell pepper
garlic to taste (I used a big ass spoonful from my costco jar)
2 squares of chocolate (I used 3 and it was too much)
1 full jalapeno, chopped up, seeds and all (of course, modify if you like it less spicy)
pepper, paprika, cayenne, and chili powder to taste

I also added a can of rotel chilis/tomatoes, which I liked but Zliten didn’t, so I probably won’t do that again.

Directions:

Cook beef first.  Put everything in crockpot, turn on all night, wake up to amazing smelling food, and resolve to get back from run quickly so I can eat it.  In all seriousness – 8 hours on low will do this right (or if you’re short on time, you can make this on the stove, give it about 30 mins to cook on medium heat and congeal and get yummy).  You can top with anything from sour cream to ranch to shredded cheese, to green onions, to tomatoes, to cilantro… I went with a dab of ranch, onions, and cilantro.

Doing a lot of this:

(Don’t actually click to look inside, you’ll be incredibly disappointed) I’ve spent a lot of the last week rereading this book, and actually going through it and doing the self evaluations and starting the process of making a 2013 plan. I made some strides in finding a focus for next year, and I’ve decided I want to be good at triathlon.  I know that sounds obvious, but it’s not – I’ve freed myself up not to pursue a half marathon, 5k, 10k, 5 mile, marathon, century ride, or splash and dash PR this year.  I’ve gone from a runner, to a runner who dabbled in triathlons, and this year, I move squarely into calling myself a triathlete with no asterisks.

Which means, I probably won’t enter a lot of races unless they correspond to training days and I’d rather head out with hundreds/thousands of my best friends to go train, and it’ll be no pressure, I’ll just use my specific goals for that day to dictate my time and pace.  I expect instead of running races, I’ll do a lot of supported and shop rides for bike training, and splash and dashes for speedwork.

I’ve got a few things to figure out though…

How many 70.3s and when?
There’s obviously Kerrville, but there’s also two more in TX, one in Racine, and one in Boise that look interesting.  I know I want to at least do 2, but maybe I could do 3.  I want to make sure the timing is right – I figure one early in the year just to gut check my endurance with the goal just to finish (as a long training day), and 1-2 that I want to PR the crap out of later in the year once I’m fully trained up.

How many Olympics and when?
I’ve got 2 on the schedule already with the TX Tri Series, but they are both when it is hot as balls (Aug and Sept).  I sort of want to race one early in the season when I can really get a sense of my Oly-distance fitness sans oppressive heat, and smash that 3:25 PR.  There is the Cap Tex Tri (but it’s on Memorial Day and I hate Monday holiday races since you have to be good all weekend), and there are a few more Apr – Jun I’m considering.

I want to do a marathon and I shouldn’t
After a great experience with RnRSA I really want to do another one.  I was considering just doing it as a C race and not really trying to improve my time and just running it, but it did take weeks of specific training to go from 70.3 to 26.2 to even run/walk to the finish the last 10 miles.  I’ll have to decide on the fly considering a few factors: a) how is my run training going?  Am I just about M-training anyway during tri season? b) when is my last 70.3?  Is it Oct 28 (Austin 70.3)?  In that case, it’s probably best to end the season after that.  Is it Kerrville?  Then RnRSA or something in early Dec might be cool. c) Where is my head?  Am I ready to be done with the season or do I want one more hurrah?

Through my self evaluations, I’ve figured out I want to work to improve these limiters next year:

• Swim Speed (at any distance)
• Confidence and focus (better at the end of the year, but 2013 is all about head = in game 100%)
• Body composition/Nutrition (when I think about eating that cookie, I’m remembering this is on my “to fix” list and is considered multisport training… cookie skipping should have a race bib and medals and I’d be all up in that)
• Run endurance on long runs (holding a pace the whole way and not fizzle-boom-ing)
• Run speed on short runs (I miss speedwork and miles in the 8s and the track and feeling zippy)

I’ll certainly be training a lot on the bike, but I really think this was both my most solid of the 3 sports (if you would have told me that in 2010 I would have laughed) and the one I made the most gains in last year, so I’m just working to improve there, not to fix a specific weakness.

Jan 7 starts my first official training week.  I’m excited, but after I get the prep work and scheduling done, I think I’ll really be able to relax and enjoy this month.

Doing a lot of this:

We have an ugly sweater party for work on Friday, and we’ve been searching around thrift stores and for fucks sake, the hipsters must have them all, because there were NADA.  We recruited some friends and got together on Saturday for some cocktails and ugly sweat(shirt)er decorating.  I’ll include some pics next week once they’ve been exposed to the world but suffice to say, they are phenomenal and it was a jolly good time having our friends over to decorate!

And, not so much:

It was a pretty sad week for activity but let’s just call it offseason.

Monday: 30 mins DDR (30), arm work (15)
Wednesday: 12 miles on the bike trainer (31), ab work (20)
Thursday: 3 mile run (30)
Saturday: 5.3 mile run (60), .75 mile walk (15), yoga (15)

This week I want to do some more lifting heavy things.  I’ve just been feeling fragile and want to make sure I’m recovered before I start really moving from my 10 lb weights at home and body weight exercises to real big girl weights and 60 min group power classes.  I’ll say that this week – same amount of cardio (2.5 hours low/moderate intensity), and I want to work each body group (arm/ab/legs) twice.  Yoga 1-2 times.  I really shouldn’t have such an aversion to 15-20 mins of stretching. 😛

Eating/Weight wise:

Last week: low weight 179.2/high weight 182.6

Calories per day:

Monday: 2116
Tuesday: 1577
Wednesday: 1670
Thursday: 1668
Friday: 1806
Saturday: 2397
Sunday: 1659

Avg = about 1850 per day

This is probably about maintenance mode for the amount of activity I’m doing now (considering room for error).  My goal for this week is to bring it down 100 overall (1750 avg).  I do have to say though – it is nice to see myself eating a good amount of good quality food, and showing a maintain on the scale and not being like “I’m showing a 500 cal deficit per day, why the fuck am I gaining?”  Also, this is not 1850 per day of twinkies.  While my diet certainly isn’t perfect, it’s 80% fage and fish and lean protein and whole grains and veggies and fruits.  I’ve been attempting to get back on the “vegetarian before dinner” kick, but it’s not actually what my body wants most days now that I’m not training as much.  It wants meat.  I’m listening, because I’m pretty sure there’s still some recovery going on there and extra protein probably will do me aight.

The one real allowance I’ve been making is booze – so many months of squishing my fun for the week in Saturday afternoon/evening means I’m allowing myself to sit on the patio with some vodka on a Monday if I so choose.  I’m attempting to normalize that with less calories/good choices that day, but we’ll work on really shoring that up when season really starts.  I’m still working on cutting down sweets, but I’ve made some progress.  There will be a hard stop there as well once we’re into Jan, and those no sugar months have always been good for me, plus with volume increasing, I’ll get my sweets, they’ll just be on the run/bike.

So, that’s what’s going down in Quixytown.  What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

The turkey trots, that is. 🙂

So, if you haven’t been paying attention, 11 days before this race, I ran a marathon.

Up until 3 days before this race, my training has involved margarita to mouth reps and couch ass plants and as much time in pajamas and not in spandex as possible.

I was more than prepared for a personal worst.  I expected it.  I was going to run this slow.

Then, I had a really blissful 3 miler on Tuesday where nothing hurt, my turnover felt better than it has for months, I felt… light, airy, and FAST.  I thought maybe, just maybe, I had some speed hiding somewhere in there.  I figured why not give it a try – not as if I’m saving these legs for anything.

After a crappy night of sleep, we were up and going at about 6:30am.  I laughed that triathlon Quix who had to be up at 4 to get to transition by 5:30 would be saying “Poor baby…” but been-on-vacation-all-week Quix was like “WAH, it’s EARLY!!!!”  I figured it was just 5 miles, so I cut a nice slice of crusty sourdough and had that for breakfast instead of my norm and some tea (nothing I’ve done race morning but I’ve definitely had the same quality of food before morning runs).  We parked in a different spot than last year, and walked 1.5 miles there as a warmup (which was MUCH better than sitting in a car in traffic for 1 hour+ to park), and dithered around and port a pottied and got water and ran about .25 of a mile and then lined up.  Normally Zliten likes to sandbag his pace and start further back, but after the dodging and weaving drama at RnRSA, he decided to start with me in the 9-10 minute mile corral.

My plan was to start out around 9:30s and see what happened from there.  If I was having a good day, I could cruise into the 8s the latter half and rock this race.  If I wasn’t, I could maintain or slow a little without completely blowing up.  Zliten looked at me like I was a little cuckoo inn the cocoa puffs and said his goal was 11s.  The race started, we smooched, and took off side by side but running our own races.

I remembered there were hills but forgot the first mile was ALL UP HILL.  I was feeling decent so I pushed it -garmin said about 9:45.  I crested the hill and saw ZLITEN.  So 11s were more like keep-up-with-Quixs.  OOOoook.  The next mile was steep ass rollers, so it was 7 min mile pace, then 11, then 7 then 12.  I cruised as hard as I could through these, and actually followed Zliten up the last one.  After we crested the last bad one, I took a few seconds to recover, and then kicked back to 9:20s.  I was about 9:50 avg – so way behind my norm but I still had time to get it.

Pushing kept getting harder and harder, even on the flats and finally around 3.3 I noticed that a) I would need unheard of speeds to not make this my personal worst and b) I just had no gas.  I had been fighting my lungs and legs the first 5k and then around then my head left the party too.  And I was ok with it.  I made a new goal to finish under a 10 min/mile pace (which under normal circumstances should have been cruise pace for a 5 mile race) and kept on keeping on.

I’ve run this route many times and coming over the bridge at 3.3 is where I usually start to kick and accelerate.  I had nothing today.  All the gas was gone.  This was a slog to the finish.  I’m thankful I made an impromptu secondary goal, because it was the only thing keeping me pushing and not walking it in.  I took my first water stop around 4 and that pepped me up a bit and I did anything I could to keep my average pace below 10 (it was hovering between 9:58 and 10:01).  I hit the end bridge which I usually cruise down in the 7s or 8s and could barely keep it in the 9s but I just stayed with it and pushed and finally found some kick the last stretch.  I ran to the finish and crossed at 50:05 for 5.03.

My previous times were 45:50 (different course), 42-something for a 4.54 mile oops it’s short course, and last year 46:30-something  for the same course.  Year 1 I trained specifically for this.  Year 3, it was in the middle of specific training to 10:15 pace a marathon.  This year, it was definitely a post-script to the season, but a 3 minute PW was a little sad even if it was totally expected and made sense.

What made me incredibly happy though… I caught up with Zliten at the finish and he showed me his garmin – 50:11.  Holy fuck – this boy PRed this race by 10 minutes from last year.  He had a great day, and though I lost him on mile 3, he had the juice I was missing and pushed hard and accelerated and finished strong.  He felt like he was going to puke for a while after the race.  I had been stressing that’s how you need to feel at the end of a short race to know you gave it your all (and not feel like you had a few more miles in you) and he did it!  Although, I’m thankful I was still able to beat him by 9 seconds. I don’t like him beating me. 🙂

Instead of being all emo, I’m taking this as a good yardstick of where I’m at.  I may feel like I’m omg lets go train hard again, but this is a huge validation that it is a GOOD THING I’m taking time to do step class with the blue hairs and yoga and pedal my bike slow and take happy garmin-less runs and sleep in and just de-intensify.  Because I’m not.  If I can barely push myself through a 10 min/mile 5 miler racing, I am nowhere near healed and need some time.  Just because I feel fine doesn’t mean I am fine.  And being not-fine is actually fine after the year I’ve had.

This was race #22 of the year I showed up at, healthy, and ready to do battle.  That blows my mind.  Once we made this 24 races in 12 months goal (with new longer distances), I figured, I’d have to show up sick, injured, onthefloortired, or whatnot and just get through, or worse, DNF/S.  Not so.  I’ve not won every fight, but I’ve certainly done what I could each day with an in-tact Quix.  They’re not all winners, but I’ve learned something at each and every one.  Some rewarded me with outcomes I never thought possible (hi 2 u Pflugerville Tri, Tri Rock, and RnRSA marathon), some showed me weakness and what I needed to improve,and there may have been many high and lows, elation and tears, but I don’t look back on any of them and think “why the fuck did I race this?”.  They all had a purpose.  Whether it was perfecting race day strategy, trying something new, building to an A race, completing a series, or just helping pace my Zliten, every race day has been worthy of the champagne I’ve celebrated with after.

Look for more specifics after race 23 and 24.  After the year we’ve had, we want to go out with a bang.  The mind is willing, but the body is beaten.  So, no century rides,ultras, polar bear club swims, or that sort of epic.  We searched and searched and finally came up with it.

Dec 15th – 8am – 5k race. 6:30pm – another 5k race.  It’s they day after my last day of work for the year.  In another 3 weeks, I should be rested enough to try to best my time (on the same course from May).  The evening one is a tour though the city’s best light show, and I plan to run it with “hydration” (nog and brandy, etc) and enjoy the pretty lights and the end of my epic year.  Or maybe see what I can do there too.  Who knows.

Since I missed posting this last weekend, here’s my racing/tri/sporty thankfuls:

-We have family that love and supports (even if they think we’re crazy) what we do.  Even if my mom is sometimes like, “Are you going to win the race?” hehe.  Yeah.
-I have a husband that is not only supportive, but has fully drank the triathlete koolaide and loves it just as much if not more than me.
-I have not yet had to really choose between my hobby and my jobby.  It may be a huge juggling act sometimes, but I’ve always made it work.
-I may feel like I’ve gotten SLOWER, but I don’t for long lose sight that my base has gotten huge and I feel like I could tackle distances that baffled me even months ago.
-I went from eating like crap, to eating as little as possible (and probably kind of killing my metabolism) to eating like an endurance athlete to fuel my races.  I may still have body issues and sometime cringe at race pictures, but beneath some of the flubber I wish to lose, I have a strong amazing capable body that lets me do things I never imagined at 265 lbs, or even 125 lbs.  Marathoner, half ironman triathlete, what?  Much better than supermodel skinny.
-I have a gaggle of bloggy people that amaze and inspire me on a weekly basis.  You all inspire me to do more and be better.  I always feel like a stalker when I totally athlete-crush on bloggers I’ve never met, but I’m a card carrying member of the fan club of the folks below…
Katie, awesome Ironman and triathlete
Sonja, Katie’s coach
Sarah OUAL, Oiselle runner extraordinare
Nicole, Ironmanx2
Ty, fast ass Boston Marathoner and triathlete
Monica, crazy fast socal runner gal and eater of delicious foods
Sweaty Emily, fellow lover of race day champagne, winner of ultras, and all around badass
Pinkypie, an endurance lady from across the pond
The Happy Runner, who makes me realize that possibly having babies someday just means more PRs with additional cheering squads 🙂
Tricia, who inspired me to consider the marathon, who is a huge inspiration to many, and who has the most adorable son
The Oiselle Ladies, who actually make me think living in Seattle might be fun (and inspire the crap out of me in both fast running and business)
Libby, badass ultrarunner, who also inspired me to think about marathoning, and runs a marathon or ultra every few weeks.  And is a badass race director.  Y’know.  No big deal.
Charlotte – as they say, my sister from another mister.  I read her blogs and so often go “OMG ME TOO!!!”
Josie, who is an amazingly strong, buff, hilarious woman who inspires me to be buffer
Tonja, who I online-met in the weight loss days, who turned her love of fitness into a business and trains people to be superheros!
Annabelle, who is also a sister from another mister in that “omg me too” way.  While I’m not quite in the vegan camp like she is, inspires me to be more ethical with the foods I eat and to love my bod for what it is.
Carla – I love this lady.  She inspires me daily to be both stronger and a better person.  I loathe that she’s leaving Austin and we have yet to meet (but it’s probably for the best as I’m more interesting online :D).

…and these are just the ones I remembered while I’m drinking whiskey on the patio at midnight.  Y’all are awesome and inspirational.  Consider yourself “I love you, man’d *hic*”  Hopefully the restraining orders don’t start piling in, but seriously, while pro athletes are awesome, YOU really inspire me because, like me, this is your hobby, not your job.  If I missed you, please comment!  Thanks to Ty for the linky love idea.

So, this week’s goals:

-Ease back into quality food in smaller quantities.  It was a shock to the system and I got through 3 days and then kinda went crazy over the holiday.  Track and aim for the 1000s (aka under 2000).

Last week: 1800. 1800, 1500, and then radio silence… 🙂

-Starting weight – 182.6 as of today.  Both UGH and not as bad as I was scared of.  I’d like to lose at least 1 lb this week, but secretly, I think some of this is water weight and I’d love to see sub 180 next week.

Last week: probably higher than that. *shudder*

-Movement – 30 mins cardio activity 5 times this week.  2 weights sessions. 1 yoga.  Cardio is anything.  Today and yesterday it was playing Dance Dance Revolution.  I forgot how much I love it and I may just play that for 6 weeks instead of swim bike run.

Last week’s movement: Monday: swim+ circuit training, Tuesday: 3 mile run + core and arm weights, Wednesday: 10 mile trainer ride+yoga, Thursday: 5 mile turkey trot run + 4 mile walk, Sunday: 30 mins DDR.  About 5 hours of activity.  That’s about right.

This week’s questions: what’s your favorite fitness activity? Hit me up so I can try it in the next 6 weeks!

Let me leave you with a bonus picture of our outdoor cat Nachocat being derpy!  Bonus internet cat pic ftw!

In the middle of peak training, when I get frustrated that all I do is swim/bike/run/eat/sleep/work/do laundry/repeat, I sometimes longed for the days when my hardest workouts were playing Dance Dance Revolution for 30 mins.  Or when I was not doing anything active.  How nice would that be for just a week and see how the other half lives again?

Well, I spent the week doing a lot of this…

and none of this…

…and I lived to tell the tale.  Barely.

Here is a day by day of how last week went…

Monday:

Mental – Wheeee!  I just ran a marathon and life is great and I’m so happy and I’m kinda tired in that “I ran a marathon yesterday” way which feels awesome.

Physical – Let’s just say I was “ambling slowly”.  Toilet sore (phrase shamelessly stolen from Charlotte – meaning it hurts to sit down and stand up from the toilet – aka OUCHY QUADS).  Still incredibly rungry.

Drink of the day – Margarita at dinner out with Zliten.  Very happy to be able to go out to eat and enjoy my Monday night instead of being in the gym swimming and doing weights or on the trainer.

Tuesday:

Mental: Still a bunch of yay happy lala rainbows and unicorns.

Physical: Ambling quicker.  Threw my back out a bit but it only lasted a few hours.

Drink of the day – A lot of vodka.  Out of Austin Half Marathon pint glasses.  Wearing my freaking marathon medal.  It was almost like training, with 100% more drunk tweeting than my normal Tuesday run (don’t have me on twitter? I’m @quixotique).

Wednesday:

Mental: Eh.  I’ve hit the “ok, time to be doing something” day and I am not.  Just kinda looking forward to getting through the week now.

Physical: Not sore anymore, but body feels kinda sluggish.  I could run now, but I really don’t feel like it.

Drink of the day: One cactus lime beer.  Halfheartedly.  I didn’t really want it, but I committed to one full week of being a lush, so who am I to break my streak?

Thursday:

Mental: Blaaaaargh.  All I want is my bed.  And I slept 10 hours last night.

Physical: Hhhhhuuurrrruuuunmmmmmpppphhhh.  Basically, I have no real appetite, I feel kinda run down and achey (like I have during major peak training weeks but since I’ve done jack and shit this week, it feel more like bed sores) and sort of yucky from indian buffet at lunch (which I ate much less than normal because the rungries are subsiding).

My conversation with Zliten about how I feel today:
(6:46:18 PM) Quix: i dont have much of an appetite but carrots are helping
(6:46:24 PM) Zliten: well good
(6:46:29 PM) Zliten: thats better than worse
(6:46:51 PM) Quix: i do feel kinda run down and achey, but no more than i have after some brutal training weeks
(6:47:05 PM) Quix: i think my body is just not quite sure what to do with running so hard on Sunday and then nothing
(6:47:07 PM) Zliten: oh see thats how I felt a few days ago
(6:47:23 PM) Quix: see before today I felt like I could go back out and run another marathon
(6:47:48 PM) Quix: today i think the “ok it’s time to actually recover” is kicking in and all i want is my bed
(6:47:56 PM) Zliten: ahh yeah
(6:47:56 PM) Zliten: ok
(6:48:01 PM) Quix: i’ve come down off the drugs as to say
(6:48:10 PM) Quix: gone through the withdrawals
(6:48:14 PM) Quix: and now just sort of exhausted
(6:48:18 PM) Zliten: that makes sense
(6:48:37 PM) Quix: a lot of things in me are saying “YOU COULD CURE THIS WITH A RUN!!!!”
(6:48:46 PM) Quix: but that’s not the point
(6:48:54 PM) Quix: the point is to heal and rest and recover
(6:50:09 PM) Quix: until today i was convinced i was ready to just hop back on everything next week, i was INVINCIBLE!
(6:50:17 PM) Quix: but today, I realize that I’m a looney. 🙂

Drink of the day: beer.  Lots of beer at beer night (which I haven’t gotten to go to for 5 months because I was training or tapering – YAY!).  I actually didn’t eat dinner (minus sharing some fries) because I was so full from the BEER.  This was also the only day I got any miles – a mile walk to, and a mile walk back from the bar, which actually felt pretty good and probably contributed to my better mood on Friday.

Friday:

Mental: A little more centered.  Because I knew I just had the weekend to go, and sort of making peace with my slothiness.

Physical: Legs feeling like coiled springs.  I can’t remember the last time I got out of bed and nothing hurts.  However, body is a little stiff from all that dang SITTING.

Drink of the day: Sonic diet cherry limeade margaritas.  Story behind this: intended to go out to a new bar near my house that just opened.  We got there and it was SO crowded, we weren’t into it.  Instead, since I was craving margaritas, I grabbed a big diet cherry limeade from Sonic and we mixed that with some tequila and orange liquor and a little extra lime juice, and it made 3 pitchers of pretty fantastic skinny margs.  They may have also been from my Austin Half Marathon pint and wearing my medal :).

Saturday:

Mental: Enjoyed the “stay in my PJs and read” part of skipping morning training, but then I got dragged out into the real world and, let me tell ya, I’ll take 4-5 hours at Lake Pf ANY DAY over doing bullshit like spending 2.5 hours at the car wash.  Or shopping for a kitchen organizer.  Or hitting costco.  I asked Joel “Is this what normal people do with their weekends” and he said “Yep, I think so”, to which I said “Well, I don’t really care for this” and he agreed.

Physical: I’m just starting to feel run down from not doing anything.  Usually, I get a bit of it after 2-3 days of nothing, and here I was at 6 being slothy.  Oh yeah, and the drinking.  I am definitely not in college any more.  The “just a beer” days really didn’t affect me, but getting buzzed 3 nights already in a week and it was only Saturday is not something I should make into a habit.

Drink of the day: Lotsa wine and champagne at our friends’ pre-Thanksgiving party.  Lotsa rum and diet cokes when we got home.  Pretty sure the end of the night got sucked into a black hole as I remember vaguely seeing 4am and then waking up at 11:30am.

Sunday:

Mental/Physical: I sat on the couch and played video games for 9 hours and pretty much ignored the world.  I realized that since I had drank Sunday after the marathon, so I thankfully didn’t have to have anything to drink today. =)

Summing it up: it was harder, and less enjoyable than I thought.  Last week, I won an contest for a shirt (thanks Tricia!), and after the trials of the week, I picked this one (It’s all good.  I ran today.)  Torture is when you know a run would solve your mental and physical issues, and you physically have nothing to stop you from running, but you’re not doing it for your own good.  I thought this week would be much easier.  I mean, I RAN A FREAKING MARATHON for godsakes, you think I’d be ready to hang up the shooz for a bit.  Silly Quix.  I’m excited for some more balanced weeks though.  Just a quick hit of the endorphins for the next few weeks more days than not.  Still getting to spend some more time with friends and family.  And definitely, less of the “getting drunk 3 days in a row” thing.

And, now, it’s Monday.  I’m back at it, at least half-assedly (on purpose).  I expected to bound out of bed and go want to run like 20 miles, but I actually had to drag myself out – I decided to do a circuit training class with the blue hairs over lunch and it was definitely something different and I haven’t done strength in weeks.  I was going to also run and swim today, but I’m trying to reign myself in, so I’ll do one or the other, and very slowly.  The goal this week is very general: do something.  5 days.  No more than 1 hour per unless it’s super low intensity.  No setting any PRs no matter HOW rested you feel.  The exception to this is my 5 mile turkey trot on Thursday.  I am fully accepting that it MAY be my worst turkey trot pace ever, but I’m ok to give the legs one last speedy hoorah if they have it in them to cruise.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about what’s next, but I’ve also made myself not do any concrete planning, signing up for races, training schedules, etc.  I’m now allowing myself in the coming weeks to re-read the Triathlete’s Training Bible, and start setting out a 2013 plan for us.

Also, it’s that time.  Today I’ve started tracking my food and working on eating like a normal, healthy human not an endurance athlete burning through calories like a furnace in Alaska.  The pants are definitely tighter from vacation, then 2 tapers, then a week off.  It’s time to work on shedding that plus some over this winter (I have not yet gotten on the scale – I feel like I want to give myself a week of being good FIRST so I don’t see a sad scary number and freak).  FASTER in 2013 part 1 is shedding some weight, in a healthy way, and maintaining my muscle.  I’m sort of not sure what a reasonable calorie goal (while pushing quality food, of course) is for me, so this week, the goal is to track, and end each day with a 1 in the front (under 2000).  Next week, we’ll see from there.

With that, I’m going to take my week off and try to get some stuff accomplished I’ve been putting off (but not so much stuff that I can’t enjoy some more slacker time).  We finally got our windows replaced last week – going from original 1960s single pane windows with cracked and degrading seals to new, energy efficient double pane pretty windows is amazing – plus we now have screens!  So I’m going to open up the house (something I’ve never been able to do), put on some groovy music, make healthy lunch, and rip my credit card a new one doing some online shopping buying some Christmas pressies.

Question of the day: what would you do with a week off and nowhere to go?