Adjusted Reality

Is it weird that if I see this and think about running, I sigh exasperatedly, but if I think about biking them, I get all wiggly with excitement.  Maybe I need to run hills once a week in the off season next year like I did with biking.

FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

I usually blather about diet and exercise and races first, but as was pointed out to me by my lovely husband, “there’s nothing more boring than someone else’s diet or workout” (although, that’s why you all come here, right? RIGHT?) so perhaps I’ll lead with something else for a change.

Vacations, I has planned them.  Usually, we have lots of little random weekends out of town here or there for races or other reasons, but this year, we just *don’t*.  So, since I’m NOT OK with my first vacay of the year being in August, we decided to do a few mini trips:

First up next month – spa weekend here.  Looking forward to fancy hotel, dinner, spa, dance lessons?, and just chillaxing over a long weekend.

Then in June – camping.  We finally bought a tent, so we’re out to camp at least 2-3 times this year (and this would make it twice).  This place is so close to home, but feels like a nice escape away into the wilderness.

True story – I haven’t been camping except for one nighters which were basically just excuses for going out into the wilderness and getting drunk.  So I had to ask Zliten what the second day was for.  He went into hiking/running trails, swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, and just relaxing with a kindle and this view.  After that, I was on board, and yet again, wiggly with excitement!

That should tide me over until August and September vacays – which are San Diego and Alaskan Cruise times, respectively.  Don’t even get me started on how excited I am about running my first out of state half marathon in SD, biking and running amongst the glaciers training on the cruise, and going snorkeling in Alaska!

Aight, so now onto real life stuff… training, and food, and races, oh my.

PRACTICE RUN

Last weekend, our “long workout” was a practice swim bike run at Lake Pflugerville.  We did 13 miles on the bike in about 50 minutes on what could be described as rolling hills, nothing severe but definitely some up and down.  I gained a bit more confidence with my new shoes, and figured out a strategy – for the love of all that holy, if I’m riding on a busy street and anticipate turning soon or have any other reason I might need to stop, rock out with one pedal out until I’m onto a straight stretch.  We kept up about 15 mph pace, and it felt EZ peasy most of the time. We ran a 5k around the lake, which Zliten PR’d and I took it easy (30:19 and 30:49, respectively), and swam 500m in about 12-15 mins.  I wanted to get in open water before the tri next weekend just in case I freaked out, and I’m happy to report that nature’s got nothin’ on me. Last weekend was the first time in a long time I haven’t been exhausted by the intensity or duration of my weekend long workouts (and I did over 1.5 hours).  Next stop, half ironman!

BICYCLE, BICYCLE

This weekend is the second supported bike ride on our calendar, the Georgetown Red Poppy Ride.  This one could potentially get us into trouble, as it not only has a metric century (63 miles, which is the plan), it also has an 80 and 100 mile course.  Considering the longest we’ve ridden since the last one is 13 miles outdoors and we have a tri the next weekend, I think we’ll be able to control ourselves and just do the 63 we have planned.  But we both have that inkling that 80 isn’t that much more than 63….

The real goal is to do the 63, and to get closer to 4 hours than the 5 it took us to do the ride in March.  So that would be riding faster, and taking more expedient stops.  We’re also loaded up with goodies like pb pretzels, cookies, nuts, candied mango, and the like, so we’ll have better eatin’ without the rest stops.

TRI AND STOP ME

After my feet touch down on the finish line of this bike ride on Saturday, I’m officially calling it TRI SEASON.  I’m so full of wiggly excitement about this, I don’t even know what to say.  I’m sure that will change soon enough.  First up will be rookie – 300m swim, 11 mile bike, 2 mile run.  To combat my “that’s all” thoughts since I’m all but primed for about an Olympic distance tri right now, I’m fixing to race this one HARD since it’s the exact course from last year and I plan to PR the SHIT out of this.  Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah!

SMOOTHIE OPERATOR

In my ongoing quest to find a nutrition plan that works for me, I’ve been trying some smoothie lunches.  I’ve accompanied these with a small, savory item (like a greek salad, a cup of soup, etc), and I’ve been saving half of said smoothie for a snack around 4-5pm.  Some of my creations have been:

Strawberry Love: Strawberry 110 cal protein shake, chocolate pb2 powder, banana, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, frozen strawberries

Spiced Late: 1/2 cup pumpkin, scoop vanilla protein powder, vanilla extract, apple, skim milk, cinnamon, all spice, nutmeg

If You Like Pina Coladas: Tropical protein powder, banana, orange, pineapple, mango, lite coconut milk, coconut oil

Not-In-The-Box Oreo Shake: Skim milk, oreo cookie protein powder. (200 calories of friggin yum, almost just as good as a jack in the box shake)

Creamy Raspberry Lemonade: Vanilla protein powder, frozen raspberries, banana, coconut oil, lemon juice

Really, the ideas are limitless.  It really just needs: 1) some sort of protein powder+milk or protein shake 2) some sort of fat – pb or coconut oil 3) a thickener – banana or pumpkin seem to work, without it, it’s ok, it just tastes really ice 4) frozen or fresh fruit.  I haven’t gotten brave enough to put veggies in yet.  I also put some stevia extract in each one because I like it sweet.  Each one (besides the simple oreo one) is about 300-400 calories and is really filling.  I plan to continue to do this a few times a week.  It’s just so simple and yummy, curbs my snackings in the afternoon, and really kills my need for any sort of desert.

HARDER BETTER FASTER STRONGER

Since they cancelled our weekly Monday crunchtime class, I’ve found a new love: group kick (kickboxing).  I’ve always wanted to try kickboxing, and it’s both a great cardio and strength workout.  It works muscles I didn’t know I had in my ankles and shins.  It’s pretty hard to get my abs to be sore these days, but they were definitely worked over.  Also, since I took the introductory class, I have these fun boxing wraps that do nothing, but they make me feel all badass.  I think I’ll stick with this one for a while.

I’m going to reiterate this to myself over and over, so just a warning you’ll get sick of hearing this mantra. a) The best way for me to change my body composition is to strength train.  A lot. b) The best way for me to improve both my race times and my general happiness is to change my body comp in a positive and healthy way. c) Therefore, I should NEVER want to skip a strength sesh for a cardio.

Enter this week.  Two things.

One, I got major cramps on my run Tuesday AM (which is a damn shame because otherwise it was a FANTASTIC morning, and I was feeling GREAT and SPEEDY) so I cut it at 2 miles instead of 5-6.  This is making me REALLYREALLYREALLYREALLY want to skip my weights class tomorrow morning so I can make up the run.  Because in my sillybrain, apparently I will die if I don’t get at least one 10k run in each week (even though I’m going to be almost triple digis in bike miles, hello…).  WEIGHTS ARE NON NEGOTIABLE, silly brain.  /sigh

Two, all of a sudden I got freaked out, realizing I hadn’t mashed up any bike hills on the stationary at the gym in quite a while.  I figured my hill skillz HAD to be deteriorating with all this ez trainer and outside riding.  I hopped on the stationary, and lo and behold, it even felt EASIER than normal.  Gotta give weight training credit for that.

So, long story short – the hills, the weights – DO THEM.  I need this tattooed on my forehead.  Although, it might get me funny looks in mixed company as it might be taken as a suggestion, perhaps?

Questions of the week: what gets you “wiggly with excitement” lately?  What do you need to just DO?

Austin 10/20

My motto for the day was: I have thunder thighs, these thighs are gonna bring the THUNDER today.

I have always wanted to race a 10 miler.  Quite frankly, the last 3.1 miles of the half marathon are, in my opinions, the worst.  Story of my life is a great first 10, and then I just can’t hang on through the last 5k.  While I’m working on addressing what goes into that (with more strength training, planning for more distance, and a better pacing strategy), sometimes it’s nice to try something you think just fits your natural strengths and that you’ll be pretty good at.

And so, months ago, I signed up for a 10 mile race and was REALLY looking forward to it and wanting to train for it.

Months passed, and between lots of slower base running and getting up to speed for tris, the only thing even close to speedwork I’ve done is progression runs.  I had envisioned a finish time of something between 1:30 (A goal) and 1:40 (C goal).  However, since I’ve not been working up to 9 minute miles, I changed my goal and strategy.

A time goal: 1:35.  I figured if I was having a stellar day, I could potentially pull 9:30s.  They’ve been fairly comfortable on select days when I’m in the zone. B time goal was 1:40.  10s have gotten easier and easier as I get stronger and the year goes on.

A pace goal: negative split.  Since I’ve been practicing progression runs, I figured what a better way to try out my new skillz.  I pretty much have one race strategy: go out fast and try to hold on.  I’ve been finding more and more how much this DOESN’T work for me.  B pace goal: negative split in terms of effort.  Even if the pace didn’t work out, I wanted to feel like I was easing into the first half, and then really pushing it the last half.

Morning food routine: glutino bar, but I tried something new: a caffeinated tea late.  Worked like a charm.  This will definitely be my new pre-race drink.

Temps for the day: 75, overcast and 90% humid.  While other runners hate this weather, I love it.  I feel warm and loose right away and it’s not so warm that I’m overheating.  It’s a lot easier to start out EZ when you’re not trying to save yourself from hypothermia.

Gear list: cheapo black sweatband and wristband, north face blue tech tank, regular underarmor lucky sportsbra, one honeystinger gel in my small shoe wallet (which I actually clipped to my pants), old and busted grey capris I’ve had forever, wigwam thick socks, and my Brooks Racers.

Gear notes: get yourself a damn wicking visor already, headbands are so 1980.  Didn’t use gel (didn’t expect to but figured better safe than sorry).  Don’t wear old and busted pants in humid weather.  They will disintegrate around your thighs and chafe like a mofo.  The racers were a sort of risky decision that paid off – I had never run more than 7 in them, but all my runs with my other shoes have been crap slow (they were fine until about 9.5, which was NBD). Also I went sans compression sox, because I am vain and they didn’t go with my ensemble.  Zliten isn’t.

We got moving a little late, and were very thankful that a) the race was only 3 miles from the house and b) it’s essentially right where we work so we knew the secret back entrance.  We porta pottied and I got a warmup, and then we piled into our seperate corrals.  I was in 4, Zliten was in 8 (he should have been further up, but he put worst case pace, not what he expected, which is fine, he likes starting in the back).  No one was respecting the damn corrals (huge race pet peeve).

Soon, we were off.  During the warmup, my legs were sluggish, but as soon as we took off, 10 minute miles felt like a jog.  I obsessively garmin checked when I wasn’t fighting off the hoards of people who got in too-fast corrals, and ended mile 1 exactly at 10 mins.  Mile 2, I set my sights at 9:50.  Garmin ticked 2 miles at exactly 19:50.  Mile 3, I tried for 9:45 and there were more downhills than I expected so I came in at 9:35.  Mile 4 and 5 were right around there as well.

Mile 5 saw exactly 49 minutes.  I was feeling great, and figured it was time to start turning on the heat… just as the course started turning on the hills.  They advertised fast and flat, and that was true… except for the last 5 miles. 😛  To be fair, I’ve run on much worse, but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting.  Mile 6 and 7 were around 10:15s.

I was a little upset I was losing ground but the friggin hills were just steep enough to register, and relentless.  I just sort of ignored garmin time and moved to perceived effort, I just tried to go as fast as I could while also not feeling like I would die.  The end was also a little frustrating – you get ALMOST up to the finish line and then have to detour for another mile.  I didn’t think I had anything left in me but once I saw the finish I sprinted it in.

10.15 miles, 1:41:50.  10:02 avg pace overall, 9:48 first 5, 10:05 pace for last 5.15.  My ranking was higher in the second half than the first half, so I slowed down LESS than the average bear.  195/727 (26% beat me – almost in the top quarter) Age Group, 1075/3944 (27% beat me – again, almost in the top quarter) in Gender, Overall 2175/6009 (36% beat me).  And, since it’s my first 10, auto PR!

I finished, got my water and 3 juicebox thingees (the water stops were a little crowded, so I only took in 2 half cups of water and 2 half cups of gatorade so I was DEHYDRATED) and waited for Zliten.  He rolled in only 8 mins after me, his official time in the 1:49s.  While the big draw of the race was a post-race party, neither of us were into it after walking back to the car, so we headed home.

This was a huge win for me.  I am never good about pacing myself in the first half of a race, and if I really would have went out fast, I know I couldn’t have held on with the hills.  I’m pretty sure it would have been more like 9:20s and then 11s instead of an almost even split.

Speaking of Thunder Thighs, the strength thing seems to be working… I liked all my race pics from this race, and in general, I think my clothes are fitting better.  I need to weigh in this week and do my dang measurements, but I’m generally happier about how things fit and how I look.  Probably not coincidentally, I managed last week not to eat like an asshole, and maintain about a 800 calorie deficit on average.  So, we’ll see.  I’m trying to do that again this week.  Maybe, just maybe, the scale and tape measure will be kind.

Either way, I’m seeing marked improvements with my running keeping up the weight training sched 3x each week.  I need you all to hold me accountable through half IM training that a strength workout is worth sacrificing more time in the pool, in the saddle, and on the road.  It’s a gamble, but I really think getting stronger is the key.

Also speaking of being vain – I may want to take a great race pic, but this is how I rock it after in the backyard. Note: biofreeze is cold.

Next up: another metric century bike ride in 2 weekends, and then ROOKIE TRI in 3.  I’m so flipping excited for TRI SEASON I can’t stand it!!!!

Two roads diverged in the Austin ‘side
And sorry we could not cycle both ways
And being one pair of cyclists, pondered deep and wide
And thought about a 40+ mile day
That it would still be an grand foray

But we took the 60 miler, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it beconed to us wanting wear
(And said you’re a badass for going there)
And our asses ride would never be the same

And that morning we didn’t follow where safety lay
Road open, no “on your left”, no need for care
Oh, we risked our asses (literally) that day
Yet knowing regret is in what’s not done, they say,
I doubted the demon would follow us there

And though this morning I sigh
With back and legs sore, a petty grievance
Two roads diverged into Austin, and Zliten and I,
We cycled the one less traveled by,
And that made all the difference.

Nod/tipothehat/apologies to Robert Frost.

Yes, we did a metric century ride yesterday.

Yes, we are dumb.  We did the equivalent of training badly for a half marathon and just deciding race day to do the full (longest ride last year = 35 miles, longest ride this year = 14 miles).  Don’t be us.

Yes, we are very, very sore today.  More later!

March madness.  That’s my excuse.  Not the basketball thing, but the crazy busy month.

Here’s been my life since last post.

Video Game Salt Mines

Work, while it has settled down hours-wise, have been very full 8 hour days.  Occasionally I’ll be able to take brain breaks and collect my thoughts for a few, but not right now (the way I work bestis generally OMG MANIACAL PRODUCTIVITY for 2 hours and then “whew, catch my breath” for 15 mins, rinse and repeat, it’s just all OMG for 8 hours lately).  I’m actually trying to do that less and/or look at more work-related but maybe not company specific stuff, but that means other internetting is falling behind.  Good times, good things, and I’ll take being busy over the alternative, but still… I’m waiting for the little bit of “ebb” in ebb and flow and I don’t see it coming.

My Crazy Life

So far this month: 3/3 practice du (2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run) + birthday crab dinner + birthday bar fun + birthday after party at the house (this was the most mellow weekend because we had a full day of recovery on 3/4); 3/10-11 birthday lunch with the ‘rents + packet pickup + gear shopping + Blue Norther Du in Seguin TX in the rain;3/14 birthday celebrations for Zliten (lunch, presents, drinks, staying up way too late on a schoolnight) 3/17-18 midnight spin party on the trainer + 10 mile run + renaissance festival + birthday camping/drinking/fire show + birthday crawfish party (yes, 2 different birthdays).

All this, and I’ve been sticking to 3 weights and about 4-5 cardio seshes (so in general, 6 days per week, with 2 of them being short 30 min days).  And it doesn’t stop.

I Am Dumb!

I need your good thoughts for this weekend.  I don’t care about finishing first this weekend or AG placing or frankly even finishing last.  I would just like to finish with my body intact.  See, we’re doing the Rosedale Ride – aiming for the 43 miles, but if we’re feeling great, we want to try to complete the full 63 (i.e. over a metric century which would tick off one of those major new years resolutions).  However, my riding experience lately (read: since October 1, 2011) on evilbike = 10 mile outdoor ride, 14 mile outdoor ride, approximately 4 hours of trainer time.  My longest ride to date is 35 miles. What could go wrong?

Also, last weekend, Zliten installed my birthday present – clipless pedals.  Experience with clipless pedals – approximately 50 mins on the trainer, 0 mins outside (where it counts).  Everywhere I read said “expect to wreck a few times figuring them out”.  (LATE EDIT: Only almost fell and freaked out once, thankfully getting unclipped is easy – getting clipped in while moving is the harder part…) DO NOT BE ME, PEOPLE!!!

We’re heading out into the beautiful evening tonight to ride and practice tonight and will probably get another chance Thursday morning (either outside or on trainer), but really?  This is not my smartest hour in race prep.  It really snuck up on me.  At least I’m going in eyes wide open, knowing that I have an out at 20 miles (the shortest distance which I have zero doubt I can do) and we’re going to take it really slow.

Then, we have some chill/relax/cleaning/errand time Saturday afternoon/Sun morning, and have a wedding to go to Sunday.

The weekend of March 30/April 1?  We’re blocking off as a total chillville weekend – the plan being no plans (and obvs no races, the next one on the calendar is Apr 15).  I’m even scheming ways to load up even my long run and all workouts during the week so relaxing can start Friday night.  May not happen, but we’ll see.  I can’t think of the last weekend I’ve not done either a long run/ride or both so it does seem intriguing and kind of exciting.

Fooding

I succumbed to March madness and ate like shit for the better part of last week (read: three birthday celebrations in 5 days + leftover junk food from other birthday celebrations in the house).  At least I have the quick notification from my body that it doesn’t like that very much, in fact, it doesn’t appreciate it at all.  I feel bloated, yucky, growly guts, and um… let’s just say we could use a marriage saver blanket this week.  I felt it on my run Saturday.  I had nothing in my legs, lungs, or brain – worst run in a LONG TIME but I got through all miserable 10 miles at what was a ridiculously hard effort for 11:30 min/mile pace.  I’m usually dancing and singing around Zliten, I even let him go ahead of me a few times because I couldn’t keep up.

As of yesterday, it’s back to it.  No sweet treats (no refined sugar/flour stuff like cake/cookies/ice cream/etc) until Rookie Tri May 6, excepting said wedding this weekend and Easter (sorry pal above, you may be on my diet, but you’re no cream egg…).  Trying to really limit processed/simple carbs like delicious french bread and noodles except in close proximity to workouts.  In turn, I’m going to attempt to change my macro nutrient ratio a bit.  I’m pretty close to 40 carbs/30 fat/30 protein now, and I’m reading more and more that endurance athletes should be closer to 60/20/20.  So I’m going to let more sprouted grain bread, whole wheat tortillas, quinoa pasta, and the like, into my life, while trying to also ratchet up the fruits and veggies, and take down my protein and fat consumption a little.  I’d like to be comfortable with it by the time I really start half-iron training, because I have a feeling I’m going to be a human furnace with the crazy amount of workouts I need to do…

I found it a little easier to keep a lower calorie count when I had more carbs to sop up that protein and fat.  I don’t know how to describe it besides that, but there you go.  It is really, really weird for it being a stretch to eat MORE carbs but it’s something to try.  We’ll see if it’s good for me or just makes me feel awful…

Other stuff

-As for my weight?  Don’t ask.  I haven’t.  I’ll get on that tomorrow but I know today is just bad food bloat weight still so I’m holding off as long as possible.

-I got Zliten a bowling ball for his birthday, totally unintentionally!  I got him this:

He had been saying he wanted to just be able to space out and just hit a button to count laps, so this would do just that.  Two days before, he realized his watch did the same thing and was waterproof.  D’oh!  I gave it to him anyway, and then we decided I would just use that (because unlike him, I am LOATHE to get my garmin near water).

-One of my biggest focuses is recovering quicker.  I’m going to need to do some mad volume to rock the Half IM, and I want to keep up the 3 weights sessions per week as long into IM training as possible.  So that means I need to be able to recover quicker.  I’ve been doing that by intentionally loading two weights workouts in a row  (7:30pm crunchtime then 8am Group Power today), or a spin and then a run 9 hours apart (and of course, monitoring my body, making sure I’m ok, and then adjusting if needed).

The next step I think is to start doing some crash weeks.  Maybe.  Still considering what effect it would have on my every-other-week race sched.  Crash week = intentionally stupid high volume week, especially in one sport, essentially, training like you’re a pro at that sport.  It needs to be followed by a recovery week.  I’m interested to see over 6 weeks what progress I could make doing say, one crash week of swimming (4-5 swimming workouts, and maybe 1 short run and bike for muscle memory…).  Then again, crash week has the title because you absolutely can crash and burn.

-We have an outdoor cat.  The poor thing looked super malnourished and definitely looked kitten sized, so we have given it food and water for the last week.  It’s definitely not feral, it looks as if it wants to curl up on our lap (but Zliten is super allergic so we can’t let it inside).  We’re advertising all over the neighborhood to see if we can find the owner, but we are also trying to train it to go in the crate so we can take it in to be spayed/neutered.  We are not allowed to name it, but have been calling it Nacho (nach yo kitty… hehe).  Hopefully we find the owner soon.

That’s about it from my corner of the world!  I’ll be back with bike results (did I poop out at 20, make it to 43, or rode my sore ass to 63?).  Any