Adjusted Reality

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

Workout, eat, work, sleep.

Workout, eat, work, sleep.

This has been my week.

The good news is that I love what I do, I love training, I love work, and I’ve been sleeping well, so life ain’t so bad.

The bad news is that leaves very few waking hours for anything else (read: blog posts) so here is my life in the last few days:

I got older on Saturday March 3.  It was an awesome day, which included a great 2.51 mile run (25 mins), 10 mile bike (42 mins), 2,51 mile run (24) – goal was to negative split and get some time outside in my saddle.  Mission highly accomplished!  Also, it included a fancy crab dinner at Truluks and happy fun times with friends at the bar after.  We literally took over their whole patio, a billion people came out.  It was good times, I felt the luv.

Blue Norther Duathlon:

I obsessively checked the weather for a while on this one. It looked disasterous.  I am not afraid of running in the rain anymore (besides, ya know, lightning and downpours) but this is a du.  Never have evilbike and I been bffs outside with water.

Frankly, evilbike and I have not been bffs outside since Kerrville in Oct. As in, the 10 mile ride outside is the first time we’ve hung out since then.  I mean, I’ve done hills at the gym all winter once a month and we’ve been getting reacquainted via trainer…

…but last weekend was the first time we rode outside in 5 months.

And then the forecast was rain.

I have never ridden in the rain.

I was most definitely terrified.  I got up at 4:30 am with the pitter patter and secretly hoped it would get converted into a 10k.  I could do that.  However, the email from the race director said it was ON so on we went.

You all know the addage – nothing new for race day.  Well, when you race 2 weekends a month, you don’t always have that luxury.  When I heard about the weather, we picked up some new tights.  North Face.  Because I have a lot of adventures (honestly, the best ones I tried on)…

Plus, I picked up a waterproof cycling jacket.  It zipped the sleeves off which was neat, but it wasn’t my fave color (neon green and white) so it was a maybe.  I had to be coerced to bring it but glad I did.

Full gear list: underarmor lucky sports bra, tx tri short sleeve tech tee, asics sleeves, north face tights, nike dri fit socks, brooks t-5 racers, cep compression leg sleeves, pearl izumi cycling jacket.

We did a warmup run after setting up transition, and then bathroomed and got to race start.   I decided to zip off my sleeves and run with the izumi vest, asics sleeves, and tech tee.  And… we were off!

Zliten started with me until I looked at him and said “9:15s? Really?” and then he dropped back (his plan was 11s).  Not that I didn’t want to run with him… I just didn’t want him to fizzle boom on the first run that I was ready for.  This run, as anything USAT sanctioned, is no headphones allowed.  I was bummed, but honestly, didn’t miss it.

My goal for the first 5k was a progression run.  I wanted to start out around 10s and get better from there. I actually blew that shit out of the water…  9:32 the first mile, 9:24 the second, and 9:13 the third.  I think the course was actually long, so the last .2-.3 was faster (but garmin data was inconclusive becuase dummy forgot to hit splits). Overall, passed about a dozen or so groups on the run, Est. avg. 9:20 min/mi.

Then, I picked up evilbike.  I ditched my sunglasses as they were so rainsoaked I could barely see and got going.  I was SO FREAKING NERVOUS about this part.  Never rode in the rain (and why not learn in a race, right?).  I noticed about half a mile in that I didn’t do anything on my garmin and it was about 33 mins. Oooook.

Started out really conservatively and cursed myself for leaving the sunglasses as my face was getting pounded with rain.  I booked when I could and took the turns super slow.  I always fancy myself a sucky cyclist but I “on your left”‘d a few dozen peeps and only got passed by 3.  I had mile splits everywhere from 14.2 (ugh) to 18.7 (yay) for an avg of 16.3 mph.  As much as at first I cursed my lack of hill skillz this year, I have to remember that a 16.3 this early in the season before I’ve done any outside training is actually AH-MAY-ZING.  Also, very un-winded at transition.

Sadly, unwinded did not mean a good run start.  With the coldness and the wetness, my feet actually hurt BAD.  Like, my lungs and legs wanted to go faster but the unhappy little stumps I was landing on were screaming.  I sucked it up and did what I could and within .5 of a mile of sad, sad times I was back under 10s.

I talked recently about my 5k pacing problems, specifically the despair I feel at 1.5 miles and while I didn’t the first time running it as a progression run, I did this time.  I made it a goal not to hit 10 min/mi and just did what I could.  Right around then I also had another issue – my ankle went all wonky.  I slowed down and limp-ran a bit until I stopped and stretched it out a bit, and continued to limp-run until, magically, it went away.  No problem since then.  I think I may have just stepped funny on a curb but it had me worried.

After getting past mile 2, the eyes were on the prize.  I passed a few more people and then finally had my eye on a girl up ahead.  She had passed me on the bike and chatted with me a bit, and all I could think about on the bike was “the people I pass on the bike will probably smoke me on the run”.  So this was a goal, to do the opposite.  I kept her in my sights going a fairly comfortable 9 min/mi and when I saw the finish, I made my move, passing her and sprinting as fast as I could, topping out at about 8:13s.

I finished in 1:58:00 garmin time, and went out to cheer Zliten in.  I had monitored his progress – he got into transition to get the bike before I ran, and had put his bike away before I finished, so  I knew he was ok.  Then, before I knew it, he was running it in strong and finished.  Apparently he    had me in his sights on a long stretch of the bike but couldn’t catch up (no quarter mother effer!!!!).  He ran a huge PR at about 30:30 for his first 5k, abut 1-1.5 mph behind me on the bike, and a totally respectable 35 for the last 5k.

So, I went from thinking I might DFL this race (last years results were ridic – 9 min/mi was the bottom of the barrel), to thinking I might have placed.

…well results say I’m 8/9 but honestly, there are a bunch of errors.  We’ll see.  Either way, I’m happy with what I did so onward and upward!!!!

First of all, let’s dive in the scary depths of Quix’s kitchen.  I promise it’s clean.

This is what approximately 200$ buys you in Austin, shopping at hippie dippie grocery stores.  I spend between 100-200$ per week on food, plus we usually spend another 200-ish every month or two at costco to pick up organic chicken, fish, jerky, and organic veggies.  I get my beef at the grocery store, I don’t really like Costco’s organic.  Specifically, that is….

Sunflower seeds, beanitos, quinoa noodles, organic re-fried beans x2, organic garbanzos, 4xzevia soda 6-packs, Amy’s soupsx4, sun butter, gravy mix, organic baked beans, organic dark chocolate bar, wasabi and soy almonds, organic black beans, dill relish, organic grape jelly, albacore tuna, organic oranges, organic romaine, green onions, organic dandelion greens, bell pepper, snap peas, serranos, cucumber, organic collard greens, bok choy, tomatoes, red onions, organic salad greens, 2 bottles of champagne, organic low fat sour cream, organic corn, Amy’s stir fry micro meal, organic sprouted corn tortillas, fage 0% (big tub), organic fat free lactose free milk, organic whipped butter, organic lowfat shredded cheese, arctic zero ice cream x2, organic stir fry veggies, organic frozen mango, organic grass fed ground beef x3 lbs, and pre-cooked shredded natural chicken.

What does that equate to in the kitchen?  My meal plan for the week (+reality for the days that have passed):

Monday:
chicken fajita pita and side salad (yes, I had fast food – not proud of it but it settled my tummy and was at least not totally unhealthy)
tuna sammich on sprouted grain bread (w/fage, hummus, cilantro and onions), split an Amy’s soup w/Zliten
homemade slow cooker chili (organic everything but the last two: beans, beef, corn, chocolate, tomato sauce, peppers, and onions, topped with green onions, cilantro, frank’s red hot, dab of blue cheese dressing, and shredded cheese.  Bowl and a half)
Workout: 30 mins crunchtime circuit class + bike 9 miles

Tuesday:
fage 0%, pb, apple, stevia
pre cooked shredded chicken added to an Amy’s Mexican Casserole + dab of light organic sour cream + pinch of extra shredded cheese + added organic salsa
Lemon pepper mahi mahi, stir fry veggies, 1/2 cup quinoa noodles in teriyaki sauce
Workout: AM 5 mile run in 53

Wednesday:
organic string cheese, toast w/sun butter, 12 almonds
manwiches (homemade: organic ground beef, tomato sauce, onions, peppers, worstichire sauce, ketchup, mustard, seasonings), one la tortilla lo carb (small), one whitewheat bun
leftover chili as above
Workout: cycling for 40 mins on trainers before work, 30 mins weights after work

Thursday:
fage 0%, pb, apple, stevia
fish tacos – Tilapia cooked with garlic, onions, hot sauce, and spices.  2 organic sprouted corn tortillas and 1 la tortilla flour – topped with light sour cream, cilantro, onion, salsa, hot sauce, organic shredded cheese, and olives. Organic refried canned beans on the side.
Chicken taco salad from Freebirds – Lettuce, tomato, onions, jalapenos, corn salsa, black beans, chicken, 1/2 of the ancho dressing, 1/2 side of sour cream (plan was actually chicken taco salad at home, but had to stay late at work)
Workout: 3 mile run before work in 29 mins

Friday:
small fage and apple, half a breakfast taco
leftover manwich (there’s no enough left for 2 meals – we’ll probably scrounge and do leftover shuffle)
turkey meatballs, and my homemade pasta “gloop” – an assload of spinach, garlic, some olive oil, green olives, org. tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese)
Workout: weights AM

Saturday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!!!
gigantic salad + soup
trulucks!!!
Workout: 2.5 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2.5 mile run

Sunday:
No idea…
Workout: assplants on couch

Note that we’re attempting to go home more for lunches.  We noticed this week that we can make fairly easy-but-real meals in the hour allotted to us (since we only live 5 mins away), so stuff that was normally dinners like fish tacos and manwiches are now in for lunch!  Woohoo!

I’ve been trying to eat more at meals and snack less – when I get that FULL feeling I find I feel much better than just grazing and always feeling a little hungry.  However, at night I usually do get a little Arctic Zero action going on.  I always have my skim milk before/after workouts unless I’m eating right away.  I eat almonds when I need a stay-full snack but since I’ve been putting the sunbutter back in my fage, I’ve needed it less.  Another go to is *randomveggie* and hummus or tzatziki.  And always, an orange or apple or other fruit is good for sweets.

I’m not a saint though.  I would say about every other day I’ll have about 50-100 or so calories of chocolate.  After the birthdays I think I’m going to go back to no added sugar again for a month, but it’s nice to indulge every once in a while.

Anyhoo, my averages for the last week are:

2495 calories burned per day
1739 calories consumed per day
756 average deficit

My calories on average come from:
24% protein
36% carbs
31% fat
9% alcohol

105g protein
153g carbs
57g fat
192 mg cholesterol
3287 mg sodium
28g fiber
18g saturated fat
992 mg calcium

Hopefully everyone isn’t asleep, I just thought it might be fun to document a week in the life of Quix eats.  Or at keast useful.  Hopefully not just self-masturbatory… oh well, moving on…

RACEY RACE RACE!

My race planz for the next few months:

Blue Norther Du: 5k run, 14 mile ride, 5k run, March 11, Seguin, TX – reg’d.

Rosedale Ride: 40 mile bike ride, March 24, Austin, TX – not yet reg’d

Austin 10/20: 10 mile run, April 15, Austin, TX – reg’d.

Red Poppy Ride: 62 mile bike ride, April 24, Georgetown, TX – reg’d (sorta – bought the groupon so we’re committed)

Rookie Tri: 300m swim, 11 mile ride, 2 mile run, May 6, Austin, TX – reg’d.

Lake Plugerville Tri: 500m swim, 12 mile ride, 5k run, June 17, Austin, TX – reg’d.

Couples Tri: 800m swim, 11.2 mile ride, 5k run, July 15, Austin, TX – reg’d.

Jack’s Generic Tri: 500m swim, 13.8 mile ride, 5k run, August 5, New Braunfels, TX – reg’d.

America’s Finest City Half Marathon: August 19, San Diego, CA – not yet reg’d (but planning a vacation around it)

Tri Rock Austin: 1500m swim, 26 mile ride, 10k run, Sept 3, Austin, TX – not yet reg’d

Kerrville Triathlon: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile ride, 13.1 mile run, Sept 30, Kerrville, TX – not yet reg’d.

In Oct, there will likely be See Jane Half since we have a cheap entry this year due to rain last year, and Zliten really wanted to run the Dash for Dads 5k again.  In Nov, I have my eyes (potentially, depending on how I feel after Kerrville) on RnRSA full marathon (if not, I’ll probably do Azle since I have a free entry, and if I decide I want nothing to do with running anything serious, there’s Warrior Dash that weekend too) and of course the Turkey Trot is a given every year.

In December, who knows?  By that time, I have a feeling that I’ll be ready for some silly little Holiday 5ks dressed up like elves and chugging spiked eggnog as race fuel, but there is always Spicewood again which was beautiful, Vegas (although I’m still not sure I could NOT make it to that race drunk and with pockets full of casino chips), or spending NYE in Palm Springs (or if we can’t get that far, I’d love to run this, but only NYE.  New Years day is still made for hangovers, although it might be fun to start the tradition of doing the two back to back races and then getting SMASHED on NYD when everyone ELSE is hungover…).

So, besides an extra race in May, June, July, and planning out December, my dance race card is full.  So weird to have your life planned out so far in advance…

I GET OLDER NOW

Speaking of a full dance card, I am full up on March things.  And it’s March 1st.  I have my weekends completely booked full of either race goodness, birthday celebrations for me, birthday celebrations for other folks, camping, renassaince fair-ing, or weddings.  Plus I have a major deadline at work mid-month.  Hold on folks, March is going to be cuh-ray-zee.

This weekend will be fun though – my birthday is on Saturday, and I have epic plans.  Run/bike/run training in the morning, a relaxing afternoon, major amounts of CRABBY goodness at Trulucks, and then happy fun bar party time!  I toyed with the idea of no training at all over my birthday weekend but I came to two conclusions – #1 – I have a race next weekend I am ill prepared for and need to connect my ass with evilbike + street, plus the last time I did a for real brick was probably… the tri in October. #2 – I like training!  Spending 2 hours outside in the beautiful sunshiney day before I start my celebrations sounds absolutely wonderful.  Maybe I’ll see if they have some birthday cake flavored GU.

Funny, I usually get all introspective about my birthday, but this year… I dunno.  I have my major goals (24 races, half ironman, lose 30 lbs, other stuff), and I’m plugging away at getting it done.  It’s gonna be an epic 33!

Two posts in one week… please don’t get used to it.  I’ll be back with birthday pictures and stories next week.  Ciao, lovely people!

Lifetime Fitness Indoor Tri:

Just goes to show you how big/prestigious a race is has nothing on my excitement level.  3M and Austin halfs, huge, well supported races with stars and amazing runners?  Sounds like a lovely training run with a few thousand of my bestest buddies.  49 people sign up to do a triathlon inside at a gym?  OMFG I AM SO EXCITED LET ME AT IT ROAR!!!! *bouncy bouncy bounce*

So, I suppose it’s less than fair.  I haven’t had an opportunity to really open up and RACE anything since November, when ye olde body was starting to fall apart.  I have loved training and racing with Zliten this winter, but while running someone else’s pace and Dance Party USA to amuse/annoy/torture them and providing motivational support was a very worthwhile endeavor for both of us, I felt like a puppy that just got let off the leash for the first time in months.  I felt all…

I haven’t trained a lot of speed.  In any of the 3 disciplines.  For running, I pretty much stopped speedwork once I decided to not do the marathon, and it had been a half-hearted attempt up until then.  I am a killer hill cyclist, but when I get to a certain cadence, my feet just get confused.  I’ve trained hills at least once a week all winter so evilbike doesn’t laugh at me next week when I start riding again, but I am no spin cycle speed demon.  Swimming is probably the worst – again, I’ve trained about once a week so I don’t lose my base of ~1 mile, but it’s certainly not at any pace that I’m really pushing myself.  So I was really going into this one, 7 days from ending my half marathon season, just seeing what I could do, and seeing if just mebbe I could place.

The week before I did very great race prep.  I did heavy weights twice and barre class, ran a few miles outside, swam once for about 25 mins, and spun for about 25 mins total.  The first attempt was, um, not so good.  My ladybits did not so much like the spin bike seats without padding.  I tried again Saturday with my nice sugoi padded bike shorts and was much more successful.  That day I also did a 10 min shakeout run with my new shoes.  My legs and lungs really just wanted to open up and I had to keep convincing myself today is not the day.

The day of we woke up around 7:30am.  We signed up for the latest wave possible (9:20), and it was NICE not to have to set the alarm for 4am.  We had a leisurely getting ready, and pulled up to this crazy mega gym about 30 mins early.  This was about the size of a MALL.  My gym would fit in it’s lobby.  It had a restaurant and a waterslide.  I am not even kidding.

So, we got our locker keys and I set up my “transition” and headed to the pool.  Zliten and I were sharing a swim lane, so I got my swim cap and got in and took a few practice laps to warm up.  It was really nice to be able to start a tri by watching the seconds count down, give each other a good luck kiss, and then take off swimming.

Let me interject with how this one worked, because it wasn’t a normal tri at all.  Besides the fact that it was indoor, it was scored differently.  You had 10 minutes to complete your swim, and they recorded your distance.  You then had 10 minutes to change and get to the cycle studio.  You had 30 minutes on a spin bike with a computer attached to track your distance.  Then, you had 5 minutes to get to the treadmills, and 20 minutes to go as far as you possibly could on the ‘mill.  Boom done!  Then, they take the distances and rank them.  There were 49 people participating, so the person that got the furthest swimming got a 49, and the person that went the least distance got a 1.  Same with the bike and the swim.  You add up those three number and you get a score and a ranking.  AGs were not the norm, just M/F and under/over 40.

My goal for the swim was 20 laps.  To do that, I would have to swim 100m every 2 minutes.  I made the first one, I fell a little behind on the second 2 minutes, and I realized while I wanted to give it a good hard effort, I didn’t want to kill myself in the water (even though on this tri, it actually counted as 1/3 of the score).  I also lost my swim cap which slowed me down a little during the process (while I was trying to keep it on, I pushed off less on the walls).  When the 10 minute whistle went off I had just touched for lap 18, so that would have to do it.  450m in 10 mins.

EDIT: Zliten thinks that it was an olympic sized swimming pool, which is 50m each way.  In which case I swam 900m in 10 mins.  I’m not sure if that’s even humanly possible.  I guess we’ll never know.

T1 was actually challenging – since you usually just rock a tri completely dripping and air dry, it was weird to have to wriggle wet body into dry clothes.  I got to the studio with about 90 seconds to spare and adjusted the bike and got my music ready and took off when they said GO!

The bike was my least favorite part.  I may have had a little swim cap snafu, but it was nothing on that stupid effing spin bike.  First of all, I realized I forgot my water.  They were nice enough to bring me one, but a screw cap water on the bike going as fast as possible didn’t work (but I was glad for it after).  Then, they counted down and told everyone to stop and me going as fast as possible, I wasn’t paying attention to the fact that the only people stopping were the folks in the PREVIOUS wave (duh).  That cost me at least 30 seconds, I had stopped and unstrapped my feet, d’oh!

So for the ride, I was trying to stay at 32 MPH.  That sounds impressive, but because the computer was calibrated for a normal bike, and the spin bike wheels are WAY smaller, it certainly wasn’t that far.  Partway through, I had a great song going and decided to try and push a little harder and build.  Sadly, when I hit 37 MPH my feet flew out and I almost broke my ankle!  I had started trying for 18 miles total.  Then 16.  I only got to 15.5 and was frankly a little pissed about it.  I thought I could do better.

Then, to add insult to the fact I wasn’t happy, I looked over at Zliten’s and it read TWENTY TWO POINT FREAKING TWO.  I have no idea how he pulled that off, but he’s certainly going to have to teach me…

I was sure I BOMBED the bike compared to my AG so I wanted to make it up on the run.  I figured perhaps being pissed off at the bike might help me stomp the treaddy a little harder.  My goal was at least 2.3, but I was thinking maybe I could tackle 2.5 if I really had it in me.  I started at 6.0 (10s), then went to 6.5 (about 9:15s), and then 7.0, and kept it steady around there (about 8:35s).  I tried to push it up closer to 7.5 and that was just more than I had in me that day, so I completed the first mile right around 9 minutes, and took it down to 6.0 to get my heart rate down a little, then ramped it back up to low 7s.  I can do just about anything for 5 minutes, so at 15 mins elapsed I started really going for it.  I ended at 8.5 (wicked fast) and with 2.33 miles complete (about an 8:35 overall pace).

I thought I might have had more in me, but I definitely felt the awesome/terrible 5k-wanna-hurl feeling so I used up most of my juice.

The funny thing is, I felt like I did pretty great in the run, I did fairly well in the swim, and sucked up the bike.  Results came in yesterday.  I placed FIRST by far in the bike in my AG, tied for 5th in the swim, and placed 6th on the run.  The points were overall, so I got 34/49 points for the swim, 34/49 points for the bike, and 32/49 for the run, for 100 total points, and SECOND in my Age Group out of 14 people!  Solidly second, the 1st place under 40 femme got 14 points more than me, and 3rd was 9 points under me.  For my gender I placed 4th out of 23 people, and overall I got 15/49.

I’m pretty excited for these results, and feel sort of sheepish about how grumpy I was about my bike (GAH I PLACED FIRST I SUCK WAH WAH).  It shows that even if I feel like I suck on the bike, I’m really a fairly balanced triathlete.  It shows that I will give Zliten NO QUARTER on the bike this year.  No slowing down on our long rides.  Do you hear this?  Significantly trouncing me has it’s consequences during future trainings… you think it’s all thumbs up now…

It also shows that if I can get through almost 2.5 miles at about an 8:30 pace after a hard swim and bike, I can suck it up and figure out how to run better 5ks this year.  Maybe I need to learn how to break it up better mentally in my head, but there is just a despair point during 5ks, right around mile 1.5-2 when it’s too far from the finish to push into pukeworthy territory, and far enough in to feel really fatigued.  If anyone has 5k pacing advice, I’d love to hear it.  What do you do with that sucky middle mile to keep yourself going?

Anyhoo, this was an awesome event!!  We would do them all the time if they were monthly, especially during tri off season!   We’re trying to talk our gym into hosting one!  BRING ON TRI SEASON!!!

You Never Know…

So, I can’t lie, I was feeling a little down late last week.

I may be making progress, but that stupid number on the scale being stupid is just… STUPID.

Also, I went through what I can only equate to somewhat similar to Charlotte’s metabolic reactions.  I WANTED TO EAT EVERYTHING all week.  I was craving healthy food too so it was definitely hunger and my body craving nutrients, but I could not get full and I ate a meal that would normally fill me up and was like, seconds please!  And I mean that as in I could have eaten a whole ‘nother serving.

Also, the TIREDS.  I slept 10.5 hours on Thursday night and Friday night (and I have been getting my normal 8, so it’s nothing I’m making up for).  I wanted to do nothing but eat nutritious food and sleep.  So much sleep and laying down my back is stiff for no good reason.  I got over it in time to feel much better Saturday and awesome Sunday but still – so weird.  I did so little cardio last week it felt super weird to be so fucking HANGRY.  I guess it’s fairly normal after reading up on weight training/hunger on the interwebz so all I can do is make sure if I get all crazy like that again I just stuff my face with milk and broccoli and fish and stuff and get lots of sleep.

However, I’m glad my nutritionist inadvertently has helped my husband lose weight.  Seriously.  He’s down about ~7 lbs depending on the day from the first of the year and kinda lookin’ even hotter than normal, which is challenging because, I’m mean, look at this sexah beast.

It makes it all the more frustrating though that my body is not responding as well.

However, I just need to remember that:

a.  This is going to be a long, twisted, and frustrating process, and consistent weight training is producing SOME sort of results, which is better than, oh, anything I’ve tried in 8 months at least.

b. Even though I feel like I deserve it by putting in all this work that’s really not done anything, I’m not going to get to my goal weight/size/fitness level tomorrow.

c. No matter what, I need to earn my right to run with weight training.  I owe back taxes for really slacking on it for so many years.

Of course, I did NOT measure myself this week (I swear it’s on my to-do list), but I should really do that.  So I can see some progress.  At least for the last 3 days, I saw myself back in the 177’s again finally.  The clothes I’m wearing today, a month ago, I would have been a little wary about belly/back bulge but they look pretty darn good.

It’s the little things.  I need to get the measuring tape out so I have something tangible to see.  Advice on 5k pacing or keeping the hangries at bay welcome below!

Austin Half Marathon:

I really should write these up sooner but I’ll give you the deets of what I remember.

For Zliten, this was an A race – meaning he tapered, rested, and did all the things a good boy should.

For me, this was like a C- race – basically playing support, coach, and having an awesome training run with my 20,000 best friends.  I went so far as to do a 1 hour weight workout the morning before the race, and did not taper in the slightest.

Zliten was pretty nervous.  I do have to admit, I had played up the hills A LOT.  It’s not an easy course.  It’s basically the opposite of 3M.

Because at 3M, the porta potties were right by the parking garage, which I assume was right by bag check, which was right by the start.  At Austin, we parked where we did 2 years ago, not realizing the start line was different.  Then, we walked a mile to find some porta potties.  Then, we walked a mile back because bag check was by the FINISH, not the start.  Then, we were hurrying to the start, and had another porta potty need, and there were NO POTTIES to be found at the start.  Luckily, we were able to sneak in a building and get our pee on before the cops kicked us out.   We arrived at the start line and found our corral (the very back) about 6 minutes before the gun went off.  Oddly enough, out of 20000 people, we met up with a coworker!

My gear had started with my normal addidas headband, a Nike Drifit shirt, a wicking tank under, Asics sleeves, cheapo gloves, compression shorts, cheapo BCG running pants, my CEP compression leg sleeves, my new Wigwam IM socks, and my new Asics Cumulus shoes.  It got warm real quick walking around, and ditched the undershirt and the gloves (hello Austin, check out my sports bra).

The gun went off and it took us 20 minutes to get cross the start.  I surmised that I’d have the sleeves down by mile 1 and at .95 it happened.  I don’t remember all that much about the early miles, it was a gorgeous morning and I was feeling pretty great.  Miles 1/2 were mixed, but 3-6 were straight uphill.  Even so, I actually remember hitting around mile 5 and thinking “Already?  I’m so not ready to be this close to done yet!” These were done, honestly, pace was all over the place, but splits were showing about 11 minute miles.

Around mile 6, from all that walking and standing, my back started getting a little stiff.  Thankfully, what goes up must come down, and we pounded out some really quick miles (in the 10s) to try to gain some ground before the killer hills to come.  The only complaint was my feet are still getting used to these shoes, and here it started to take it’s toll.  They are one step down in cushioning, so they’re lighter, they actually hold my feet snugger (which I like), but they seem to be stimulating me to use my arches in a different way so those muscles get sore on long runs.

I have to admit here, between the back/glute action, and the sore feets, I went from Party in the USA to just sort of getting it done.  I also decided to try a new race fueling strategy – no camelback, no gels, just gatorade.  I don’t know if I’d use it for an A race (I’m used to more caffeine on a race course), but it kept me going.  Gels and I are having a bit of a falling out, especially once I broke up with marathon training.  The big G was actually MUCH milder on my tummy than most gels, so it’s a strategerie in progress.  Next time, maybe I’ll try gatorade with some supplemental caffeine chompers (chocolate covered expresso beans? who knows…).

At mile 10.8, the marathoners split off.  I had spent a while wondering how I’d feel at that point, but with my glutes and my arches, I was nothing but happy.  I don’t doubt I will tackle a marathon someday, maybe even this year, but this was not that day and this is not that course.

Also around that mile, I realized we were in it for a significant PR for Zliten.  Over 3M.  I tried to keep us moving and knew that we had that hill at mile 12 that was a walker.  Of course, what’s the last couple miles of a half marathon course without a few wrenches thrown in – Zliten’s calf decided to cramp up.  We walked it out, ran when we could, and then the last 3/4 mile I tried to drag him as fast as I could to the finish.   When I ran with him, he’d slow down, but when I ran ahead a little, he kept up.  I totally understand, when I’m feeling rough in a race, I lock my eyes on someone ahead of me and try to “magnet” my way up there.  It wasn’t the delicious all out sprint of a finish I love, but we crossed strong at 2:28:57.  Less than 2 minutes more than #1, which was a completely downhill course.  I am so proud!

Half marathon #2 for Zliten and #7 for me in the books.  Now, it’s time to shift training focus.  I’m giving Zliten a month off organized training to do what he wants.  I’m also not following any sort of race training plan for the next month, but I do have other plans….

A Ray of Light?:

Perhaps all has NOT been for naught.  Perhaps I hadn’t quite tried all the keys for the lock yet.

The scale is still not cooperating at 178-ish.  However, I really and truly am seeing some progress in the last few weeks with my face:

New fave race tee btw. a) It is perfectly sized for me. b) It is not white or uggy grey. c) It looks like a flaccid penis.  I mean, what else do you want out of a shirt commemorating your marathon or half marathon?

Anyhoo, I snapped THIS one after the race:

It’s a little bit “myspace angle” but still, not the chipmunk cheeks I’ve been cursing.  While I don’t have any snappy pictures of it, my pants are also fitting better and there is much less pooch.

I really should have taken some measurements, and I should probably do that this week if that’s how my body is going to roll.  The body fat sensor thingee is also down but it seems so unreliable (like, whether I’ve chugged water or not is a much bigger factor, I doubt I’m changing 5% body fat in a matter of days).

So *something* is working.  And while I don’t think it’s really feasible for me to stay my weight and look and feel and operate on the race course the way I want to long term, it’s at least something.  Progress is progress.

So focus for next week is:

-Lifting and pushing and pulling lots of heavy things.  So far, 30 mins of weights, and 50 mins center barre class – I’d like to hit it one or two more times this week.
-Cardio, for a while, is second priority.  My race this weekend is an indoor super sprint tri which I can complete in my sleep, and I’ll go at it as hard as I can, but there is really no specific training I can do this week (besides reaquainting myself with the spin bikes and remembering they hurt my ladybits a lot without padding) to improve my performance.
-Maintaining a decent calorie deficit (500-1000) while eating good things.  Emphasizing protein as that’s what my body is craving (makes sense while upping the strength).
-Introducing a little more grain back into my life.  Considering 6 months without it didn’t do squat, I’m trying re-introducing sprouted grain bread for healthy sammiches.  This is pretty much the only diet modification that I feel like was a bust, to be honest, every other grain I used to eat, I’ve found a work around to keep it in my life in small amounts or don’t miss.

Two Other Things:

We tried the bacon shake from Jack In The Box…

I mean, if you can’t indulge after running a half marathon, when can you?  It was actually delish – tasted like breakfast in a shake (maple syrup, smoky flavor, mmmmm).  Full disclosure, we split one and some of it is still in our freezer.  It’s just a lot of sweets and while delish, it’s too much for us.

Usually, expos are a bunch of “meh”, get in, get out, get on with life.  However, most “expos” are just a room with numbers and a few booths.  I remembered the Austin one being huge two years ago, but to save on parking, Zliten dropped me off and circled the block a few times.  This time, we came by our favorite running store’s booth – TX Running Company – and they had a huge sale.

I have been playing around with the idea of getting some lightweight speed shoes, and for 50 bucks, I got Brooks Racers.  Zliten also picked up a pair of Brooks as well.  We got 5 dollar running socks, and he picked up some other gear.  We also picked up some lemon tea nuun and got a free bottle.  Score!

Have you tried the bacon shake (I’ve heard it’s actually vegetarian!)?  Hit up any awesome expos lately?  Pumped some iron?  Do tell…