Adjusted Reality

Author: Quix Page 59 of 217

Shall we do some of that retrospection and reflection now that January is done and dusted?

A little scruffy but STILL SPARKLING DANGIT! January did not defeat me!

Let’s start with the general stuff. January life goals were a big HELL YES. Besides completely procrastinating the great car cleanout of 2017, I did a great job at sticking to the things I wanted to get done. I made ZERO progress on my weight, but I am tracking and weighing daily, and I know last time it took me SIX WEEKS to see any change. If I have to choose between losing weight and fueling workouts properly I’ll take the latter, but I’m hoping to accomplish a little of both. I started pretty strong with batch/healthy cooking but I’ve fizzled the last week or two.

I finally broke the cycle of doing moronic things like staying up super late and drinking like a frat boy a little too often (oddly enough, it just took 11+ hours of training per week, duly noted). To do this Ironman training thing, I found I either had to a) prioritize rest and recovery or b) break the eff down. I’m choosing a) for the next few months and I can do idiot things in May if I want.

Obviously, training-wise, the focus in January was cycling-centric and I capped that off with my first 100 mile outdoor ride. I was able to get in 3 runs in the double digit range, but not a whole lot of mid-week volume to back it up. I struggled to build my swim as planned because of allergies, lack of motivation to swim outside in the cold, and the fact that my ass was attached to a bike seat every day, but I got some work done there and reached the 3k/1 hour mark. I did a pretty good job sticking to strength and recovery work, simply because I’ve figured out the most lazy ways to do it so I don’t have excuses.

Ways to make sure you do double digit runs/actually run faster than a slow slog during bike month – sign up for races with friends!

January stats:

53 miles of running (10h)
601 miles of cycling (35h)
9541m swimming (3h)
8 strength sessions (out of 9 planned)

Bests:

Run: 3M half marathon in 2:13
Bike: 100 miles in 7:16
Swim: 3000m after a long run in 58 minutes

Body Stats:

Average daily intake: 2161 calories, 112g protein, 64g fat, 30g fiber, 256g carbs
Average daily deficit: -806 calories
Average January weight: 188.7
Average weekly beer consumption: 12 beers (1.7 beers per day)

Going into February, I feel a little behind on the bike (I was hoping 100 miles would be more in my comfort zone instead of doing it once and it being REALLY FUCKING HARD), but I’m less worried about it then I was this time last week. I’m ready to shift from all-crotch-smashy-against-my-bike-saddle-all-the-time January to training a little more evenly in February, making my foray into the longer-than-half-marathon runs so I can test the waters in that sport.

I’m planning on this block (and maybe more in the future) of 2 weeks on/1 week off. I think if I have a shorter time to rest week, I can push myself a little harder. Also – last week was rest week and kinda not that restful, so I can definitely see the value having a stepback week sooner than later where we don’t have errands evvvvry day after work and I don’t do a 7+ hour ride.

What, your rest weeks don’t involve riding 100 miles? Pffft. 🙂

Week 1 of block 2 (this week):

Long run of 2 hours/10 miles. Already done. I hoped to maybe extend it closer to 3/15 miles, but I did it so close to my long ride that 10 miles was super hard enough. Another hour run easy on the plan tomorrow and that’s it for runs.
6 hour bike race. I want to get as close to 100 miles as I can. Even if I fall short, I’ll get to spend 6 hours of QT on a closed course with Death Star and notch another solid outdoor long ride. Backing this up with mostly easy, short bikes the rest of the week.
3k+ long swim and a lunchtime shorter speedier swim.
A more balanced week. My bike streak is done, and while I believe it did me lots good, I will be MORE than happy to not hop on my trainer every 12-36 hours and spend some of that time running and swimming.

Week 2 of block 2 (next week):

Long run of 3-4 hours. At least 15, up to 20 if I’m feeling good. I’m actually blocking my long workout of the week off for this instead of a bike. And, this will be the last big workout before a rest week, so if I feel awesome and go for the 20, I can immediately transition to rest week, I don’t have to *save* anything. I’ll back this up with a *little* more mid-week volume (probably 2×1 hour runs, one slightly faster than slog pace).
Backing off on the cycling volume for one week. No long ride, but 3-4 hours of quality riding and 1-2 hours recovery happy fun riding throughout the week.
3-4k long swim. Race distance would be great, if not, at least an hour session plus a shorter lunch speed session.

Rest week:

I haven’t planned this one out yet, but I’m hoping to spend some good QT in the pool. Swimming is recovery to me. Even a long swim makes me feel awesome the next day. As for the rest of the week, I could approach it with little mid-week volume and a long effort on the weekend, or just a consistent 1-2 hours max daily. It might be nice to just roll through some comfortable sessions and give my mental toughness a week off. I’ll have to see how I feel.

Next block (Feb 20th and beyond):

I’m still struggling with what’s next and to be honest, I think I’ll have to evaluate how this block went and what I need to work on. Do I need more cycling or running work? When should I do my two “big days“? Do I feel like I need more volume or can I back off a little and work more speed? How absolutely BEAT am I? Should I do 2 or 3 weeks on before a rest week? What life stuff do I need to work around?

Only time will tell. But, I definitely have goals. Let’s list them, shall we?

20 mile run once, 15+ run at least once
4k swim at least twice
Two outdoor long rides approaching 100 miles. Now that I’ve hit the mark once and have two “long days” planned a bit later in the cycle, I’m not as hyper-focused on triple digits, but the effort should be there.
2-3 sessions per week that are harder than an easy slog (cycle class or videos, pool speedwork, some intervals that are faster than 11-12 min/mile run, etc)
Weights twice a week. Get into the gym at least a couple times to lift the slightly heavier stuff. One non-dozen set each week since it’s kind of getting easy now.
Continue with the boots, rolling, and/or stretching everyday game. It’s really helping.

And, to round out February, I have some non-triathlon related goals. The big focus of the month is IRONMAN TRAINING. Everything else that needs to fall off to hit that hard? It’s fine. I’ll worry about my to do list and how my house looks in May. But, I would like to accomplish some things, so it’s worth putting them out there.

It was a month of balancing a LOT of the sporty sporty with a little of the beers. February will be much the same.

Healthy Living Stuff:

Even if the beer-only embargo is lifted, don’t be an ass about drinks.
- Beer on weekdays, other stuff on weekends/special occasions.
- Don’t average more drinks than January. Training hours will be going up. Beer counts should not.
Continue to track my food and weigh every day and aim for the proper ratios. It will be GREAT to have this data.
Water. it’s always harder for me in the winter. Most days I’m getting my ~64 oz but I should be drinking more if I’m training. I should be getting that PLUS some during workouts.
Realize that cooking during the week is probably not going to happen and my limit for batch cooking on the weekends is lower than normal. Put together SUPER easy meals and plan for healthy take out options in between.
Priorities go in this order: eating good food to fuel my workouts THEN trying to maintain a deficit. Both are good, but the former is more important than the latter.

Life Goals Stuff:

I feel torn up about what’s going on in the world right now, but for my own good I need to largely ignore it. I don’t have time to give, but I have money I can donate to causes that are fighting all the bullshit and that’s something I can actually do. This month, I need to investigate where to put it and set up some sort of donations.
Actually clean out the cars. For reals. It’s almost hilarious how long we’ve been procrastinating this.
Speaking of cars, after cleaning it out, mine is very overdue for it’s 60k mile service. It’s just dropping it off and spending the money.
Wash and lube the entire bike stable. Evilbike is a dirty girl right now and Death Star is kind of sticky.
Finish the last 3 triathlon coach chapters this month and start studying for the test.
Keep making small efforts to pursue my big scary end of the year side hustle goals. Play with my book outline I’ve started. Continue to play with growing followers and social media stuff. Avoid personal facebook because it is a hive of scum and villany.
Once we get our bonuses, consider what we’d like to apply them to in terms of a housing project (and start researching).

Life goals – to have all Mondays looking and tasting this awesome!

All in all, it feels GREAT to have survived January and actually kicked it’s butt! February is looking promising and then it becomes one of the best times of year… spring!

And I would ride 100 miles… but maybe not 100 more…

By Quix

On January 30, 2017

In Uncategorized

Saturday, I hit one of the major milestones for the Ironman. I rode my bike for 100 (.3!) miles outdoors.

All the things that saved my life on Saturday and one that didn’t help.

It was windy as shit all day. It was cold. There we mishaps and tantrums and we didn’t exactly pick the path of least resistance and it took pretty much from sun up to sun down (7h16m of actual cycling), but we did it.

We started out just before 8am, and spent a few hours doing Shoal Creek loop intervals on the TT bikes (12-13 if I remember correctly). It was low 40s and windy, so I had a base layer, a short sleeve jersey and sleeves, a long sleeve jersey, and a jacket on, not to mention two pairs of socks, two pairs of gloves, and my fleece lined long bibs and I was still definitely not warm. No layers were shed in the 2h45m/42 miles we rode. However, the win here was that I rode this long on my TT bike outside, spent a lot of time in aero, and felt more comfortable on Death Star than I ever have. If we were smart, we would have just kept going for 58 more miles there, but as you will see, we are not intelligent individuals.

We quickly stopped at home, I lost the long sleeve jersey but that still left THREE layers, and I spent the entire time we were home in my big sweatshirt over everything, pretty sure I would never feel warm again. Cycling in the winter is weird. In the same weather as I would be in short sleeves within a mile or two running, I couldn’t put on enough jerseys. Freaky.

The next leg involved a commute north to meet up with a group ride. This particular journey takes about 30 minutes on my cruiser bike, and we left ~35 mins before the ride, so we figured we’d be just fine. Well, not when you’re biking directly into the wind. We approached the meetup spot, and saw the group take off the other way. We tried to catch up… and then I got a flat. Like a serious one where a piece of glass made a pretty decent gash in my tire. I was about to sit down on the side of the road and throw a tantrum but I found my big girl pants just in time. I helped Zliten patch and change it (one of these days I’ll do it myself but we didn’t want to wait 30 minutes on me bumbling through it) and we rolled on.

The group ride was a ~36 mile ride on Jollyville to 360 to Bee Cave to the BSS store and back. While this probably means nothing to most of you, this route is a) actually riding on a busy freaking highway for about 8 miles and b) while it’s not the absolutely hilliest 36 mile route you can take in Austin, it’s not far removed from it. Oh, and c) 10 of these miles were primarily uphill and directly into the wind, when we were at about ~60 miles already into the day. I couldn’t get myself to eat during that period (struggling with fatigue and the wind, I was swerving just trying to get at my bottle for hydration), and I was bonking a bit. Thoughts on this stretch:

I can just drop to the other 70.3 in Texas in April and then I never have to ride this long ever again.
I should take up knitting instead.
That ditch looks nice, I think I want to go lie down there.
That’s a pretty lake, I kind of want to drive my bike into it.

Flashback to the first day I ever tried to ride 100 miles. I made it to 70. I felt like this. Can’t say I felt much different at certain points on Saturday…

So, that’s how *I* was doing. Cheerful Mr. Zliten was like “pretend it’s a false flat!” to which I grumbled about all the other pretending he could do. We saw our group leave the store just about when we got there, but I needed to replace my busted tube and spent C02 canister, plus lay on the ground for a bit and eat Reeses Mix and revive myself from the dead, so we committed to the trip back solo as well instead of immediately turning around and rolling back with them.

Between the calories and the break and the wind at our backs and the elevation generally going downward in a roundabout way (still up and down but longer downs and shorter ups), I perked up on the way back. It was still rough, but I had a better attitude about it, even if sometimes I’d be riding up a hill and I’d think “I ran a whole half marathon 6 days ago at a faster pace than I’m climbing this hill”, but the closer we got back to civilization, the better I felt.

Zliten tried to say “hey, let’s stop really quick and say hi to the group and then just finish things up” to which I said “PIZZA” with a pouty face. So, at mile 86, we stopped for about 30 mins and had a quick sit and chatted with the group and inhaled a small cheese pizza and then got back on the road.

The food saved my life (can I get a cheese pizza delivered hot to Ironman Texas bike special needs?) but was not setting well in Zliten’s stomach, so I pulled a lot of the of the last 14 miles (it was totally my turn anyway). We got in some extra miles by doing one more Shoal Creek lap on the way home. We both marveled that we had been on our bikes in the same spot about 9 hours ago starting the day and it seemed totally fitting to end there. We pulled into our driveway at 100.3 miles and crashed HARD. I had 8-ish hours of sleep that night and over 5 of those were deep sleep, and then I still took a 2 hour nap the next day after the arduous task of eating lunch.

Reflecting on this ride both makes me feel proud, accomplished, and closer to the goal of Ironman, and also terrified. This was hard. I mean, there were mitigating factors as to why this ride was probably harder than the ride on race day will be, but it was still REALLY FUCKING HARD. We talked about running a mile off the bike because we’re idiot triathletes and when we got home we were both like…. NOPE. The siren song of a warm shower and the couch and beer was too strong. In 12 weeks I’ll have to still run a marathon after riding this plus 12 miles. It also took over 7 hours. I’m really hoping that my whole ride will take less than 7 hours total and I have to add 12 more miles.

However, I have to remember that my first metric century, it took me 5 hours and 15 minutes I collapsed in a heap on the curb for a bit before I could actually function again. Two years later I did it in 3 hours and 45 minutes and then ran a few miles after. I could barely walk for days after my first 20 mile run and now I’ve done probably more of them than I can count on my fingers and toes and I’m generally able to function, if not run easy, the next day if need be. I still have 12 weeks to make 100 miles closer to the comfort zone.

This will be the last week of the trainer like evvvvryday. So, perhaps, my Instagram pictures will get a little more interesting. Maybe.

This week was sort of a 6 days of rest week, 1 day of OMG, which pushed my totals to 11.75 hours of training. Kind of not a rest week in terms of hours, but every other day besides Saturday was short and easy, so I feel like I’m ready to get back to some intensity. We’ll see if that holds true through the week, but for right now, I’m just trying to feed the beast and let it rock.

Jan 23-29 training:

One 20 minute 1200m swim
2 Oiselle Dozen sessions
About 10 hours of bikes, bikes, and more bikes
I’m getting pretty good at this, but worth mentioning – stretched, rolled, or used the legs daily. Usually rolling. I’ve got a good routine down.

This week we’ll be a little more balanced. I’m trying to frontload the week with the efforts so I can rest up because I have a 6 hour looped bike race/ride/thing on Saturday and I’d like to put as close to 100 miles into the day as possible.

One long run (2 hours/10 miles or more if we can) and one hour run, maybe another short run somewhere in here if there’s time
6 hour ride, one endurance rides video, and some commutes/easy spinning.
One long swim (1 hour/3000m or more), one lunchtime swim
2 Oiselle dozen sessions, or the gym if we can make that happen one day
Stretch, roll, legs – pick at least one every day.

My bike streak ends tomorrow. I can’t begin to express how much I think it’s helped me, but I also think that my ass really could use a break from being smashed against a bike seat once every 12-36 hours, and I’d like to drop a little bit of the weekday bike volume and replace it with some running and swimming. I haven’t had a full day off since December and I don’t *really* feel like I need one yet, but it’s nice to have the option.

I’ll talk more about February goals and my next block’s intentions later, but I’m going to call January’s bike focus a success.

What, don’t you all wear your bike kits with boots? (Tuesday in the life…)

And in the normal goal/progress/stuff… last week:

I did Chapter 13. This week, it’s Chapter 14. This week is a little longer and more involved so the goal is to finish but I may need to split this one into two weeks. After this, there’s only two more sections and then I can prepare for my test!

I did some social media stuff but I was busy and it was not as much as I would have liked. This week, I’m prioritizing the triathlon chapter, but if I can finish that, I’ll carve out some time also search out more peeps to follow and like and interact with.

I tracked my calories for 2211 average each day with -784 deficit. My ratios were 119g protein, 69g fat, 23g fiber, and 261g carbs per day. Again, I need to eat a little less fat, a little more carbs, which is always a challenge for me. Also – oddly enough, I was low on fiber. That never happens! I’ll have to watch that this week.

My average weight was 189.1, which is a gain of .1 lb. It was looking good for a little while (I was down to 187 and falling), and then I’ve gone up 4 lbs after the ride with rehydration and inflammation and all that jazz. However, this last week, my body fat measurements have dropped about 2-3% from the weeks previous, so that’s something! Still 9lbs to go back to 70.3 race weight. It’s going to be a hard fight while training, but I’ll keep chipping away at it.

I drank 12 beers. Tomorrow ends my beer only embargo but I think I’ll still count my drinks through IM training season just to stay accountable. I can’t wait to have some nice whiskey on the rocks or some french red wine though…

Rest and recovery and sleep are going well. Oddly enough, when you don’t drink like a fish and stay up late and prioritize recovery and eat (mostly) good food, you actually feel good. Who knew?

We followed through on the eye appointments and bike fits last week. I’d like to say we cleaned out the cars, but we didn’t. We had post work appointments every day after work except for Thursday, and over the weekend, the bike ride wiped us out more than expected and we were lucky to get through the normal chores yesterday, let alone anything on top of that. I’ll be honest, I don’t see it happening this week. I think I may need this week just to get through normal life without an extra to do.

And that I shall. Off to get through the rest of my Monday!

We have arrived at the first stop.

By Quix

On January 25, 2017

In Uncategorized

Ahhhhh, rest week.

Well, not quite…. because…

This is the week in which I have scheduled EVVVVVRYTHING else in my life that I’ve had to ignore for the last few weeks. Oops. Seriously, it’s crazy. Bike fit for me after work Monday, bike fit for Zliten after work yesterday, ride leader class today, eye doctor appointments Friday, and somewhere in there I need to get across town at lunch to exchange a holiday present.

It’s a good thing I feel pretty good. I really thought that I would be a little stubby bloody pulp of a human by now with how I was feeling halfway into this block, but I ran a pretty successful half marathon on day #21 and did a lot of good work on days #1-20. I’ve had zero days off, the lightest day has been JUST a 30 minute trainer and I’ve only had 4 of those so far.

Doesn’t everyone wear makeup when they meet their bike trainer for the first time? No?

First block stats (Jan 2-22):

Bike:

Longest bike: 4.5 hour trainer (1/14).
Long bikes: 2.75 hour trainer, 3.75 hour trainer, 4.5 hour trainer
Total bike time: 23.25 hours (451 miles, though that doesn’t mean a ton because… trainer)
Biggest bike accomplishment: getting more comfortable on my TT bike (making it 4.5 hours without having to change bikes).
Biggest IM fear: I have not yet ridden 100 miles outside or the equivalent on the trainer (6+ hours). Not even close. I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next few weeks because I feel like I’m behind the 8 ball here.

Running:

Longest run: 13.1 miles (3M half, 1/22)
Long runs: 11 on the treadmill, 6.3 on the treadmill (had to cut it short), 13.1 outside
Total run miles: 43 (8 hours)
Biggest running accomplishment: running a pretty solid 2:13 half marathon on super tired legs, and still feeling like I could have gone further.
Biggest running fear: how the eff am I going to do a 20 mile run in the same week that I’m also doing long bike rides? (eh, I have a little while to figure that one out…)

Swim:

Longest swim: 3000m (1/11)
Long swims: 3000m, 2100m, 1500m
Total meters: 8575m (8370m adjusting for our funky 24.4m pool) – 2.75 hours swimming
Biggest swim accomplishment: 3000m in under an hour directly after a 75 minute run.
Biggest swim fear: this is the sport I’m the least concerned about, but I’m concerned that I will make it TOO background. I don’t care if it’s not that fast, but I need 3850m to feel EASY and to do that I need to make sure I’m swimming 3k+ per week even if it’s grey and cold out or I don’t want to.

Weights:

5 sessions/6 planned
1 session heavy weights in the gym
4 sessions Oiselle Dozen

Totals:

Week 1: 11.25 hours
Week 2: 12 hours
Week 3: 12.5 hours

All in all, I’m happy with what I accomplished with block #1. I promised myself I would stop and take stock of where I was at each rest week before I finalized the next segment, and here I am, doing that.

First of all, rest week #1. I’m still riding 30 minutes daily. I also am planning to get a really long ride with a short brick run Saturday as my only actual workout. And then I have a 30 mile social ride I wanted to do on Sunday. I want to swim once to make sure I remember how and run once because biking every day has made me love running more. I also need to stay good on my strength training twice a week.

…and then somehow I’m at 12 hours again. Well, crap. Back to the drawing board. I’ll let you know how it goes. 😛

Eat and lift and eat and run and this is life…

Last week:

I feel decent about running last week. I ran 23 miles total (5.25, 3, 1.75, 13.1) and I actually feel pretty great. I actually *added* some miles I hadn’t planned to do (3 easy) instead of a swim. I made the comment on Monday that I don’t hate running, I just hate running inside all the time. Since the air is only trying to kill me a little lately, I’ll suffer some allergy symptoms so I can not hit the ‘mill for every run.

Friday, I switched to a new bike trainer and instead of crazy high mileage, it’s crazy low. So instead of spinning easy at 20 mph, I’m spinning easy at 8mph. I mean, bike trainer miles mean nothing anyway, and it’s stupid, but it’s an ego hit and disheartening watching the miles accumulate sooooooo slowly at a much higher power reading. I know it will make me stronger but blehhhh.

Scheduling commitments and exhaustion meant I cut my long ride to 2h45 hours Friday night, went directly to bed for 8 hours, and then woke up immediately and rode 45 minutes + 20 minute brick run. I had hoped to do 5 hours total, not 3.5. Missing this ride really hurt, but I had ZERO way to make this up and I just had to make the best of it. 70% is better than nothing if those are the two options.

Swimming last week was a fail. I swam once at lunch, but just couldn’t drag myself to the pool for my long session later in the week. If nothing else, I need to long swim earlier in the week so I don’t skip it. Swimming in the winter is the worst, at least motivation-wise (once I’m at the pool, it’s great, but getting there is hard), but it needs to be done.

I went to the gym on Monday all excited about doing heavy weights and actually approaching things sanely with lighter heavy weights… and I still was sore for days. Oddly enough, you lose specific strength if you only push around your bodyweight. I still got my 2 sessions in (one more dozen later in the week), but I’ll be sticking to the lighter heavy stuff until I’m not limping two days later.

Why am I not losing weight… what could the answer be? BUSTED.

Other stuff:

Last week I did Chapter 12 of my triathlon class. This week is Chapter 13. Only 3 more to go after this!!!

I spent some more time connecting to people on social medias – my twitter feed is 10x more awesome now, my instagram remains awesome, I’m still ignoring personal facebook for the most part, except I posted that I had a new page… and I got 5 likes. LOL. Apparently no one I know IRL cares about triathlon stuff. Oh well, no worries. 🙂 This week, I’ll do more stuff like this and try to learn more stuff.

Last week I tracked my calories for 2100 average each day with -990 deficit. My ratios were 102g protein, 67g fat, 34g fiber, and 241g carbs per day. While I’d like to bring those carbs up and fat down, I’m pretty impressed with my deficit (and doing it while still feeling fueled and not hungry).

Last week, my average weight was 189.0, which is a gain of 1 lb. I’m totally bumming about this, but I know it’s because a) that TOM, b) 3 weeks of training inflammation c) the allergies and the occasional bad sleep isn’t helping. Ah well. All I can do is keep at it (and SPOILER: I’m already down a bit from here so it’s not all a crap sandwich). I know changes take a few weeks to hit my body and hitting my deficit like that above will make some changes eventually. 9lbs to go back to 70.3 race weight!

Last week I also drank 13 beers. I appreciate what beer only has done for me, but I’m DEFINITELY ready to go back to wine/liquor now that my imbibing habits are back to normal person from holiday/frat boy status. Beer has so many caaaaaaaaaaaalories. Even IM training doesn’t make up for it. One more week from today.

My sleep was much better last week. I mean, I would love to be getting 10 hours a night with all this training, but I’m pretty sure I clocked at least 8 on average and I wasn’t waking up in the middle of the night, which is helpful. I’m hoping if I make good on this whole “rest week” thing, I can really bank some sleep for the next block.

Last week’s to do was clean out the cars. We didn’t do that. BUT, we did donate all the bags of clothes from our closet clean out to Goodwill. So that’s something. This week, we’ll aim for the car cleanout thing yet again and follow through with our bike fits (done!) and our eye appointments (Friday). I have no idea why we’re procrastinating the car thing. It will take like 30 minutes. Sigh.

I’m hoping this week is all it’s cracked up to be, and I don’t do stupid shit like train for 12 hours, because I’m tired, y’all! Someone be my conscience and tell me to rest even though I’m super nervous about this race in approximately 88 days or 2112 hours or 126,720 minutes. Yipes!

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3M Half Marathon – hold onto your hat! #upwindtodowntown

By Quix

On January 23, 2017

In Uncategorized

Right after running 3M in 2016, I signed up again. It’s seriously one of the best chances I’ll ever get for a PR – it’s in January, so it’s 99% likely to be gorgeous weather for running, and it’s net downhill which makes it fast (they call it #downhilltodowntown). Every year I sign up, I’m like “this is when I’m going to take a crack at that 2:07:xx”.

Pre-race, the ever important porta potty stop and huddling for warmth with a few thousand of your closest runner friends.

Then, every year, I realize that January is not really my month. I’m either deeeeep into marathon training and fatigued or this year, very undertrained and also deeeeeep into fatigue having finished a 3 week block of the highest volume I’ve ever done. I’ll probably early sign up for it again, and say the same thing. I actually think next fall/winter I might just concentrate on halfs and see if I can get faster but something will inevitably come up. But it’s still a fun race that everyone does so I don’t mind showing up and seeing what happens so much.

Let’s talk about how untrained I am to run a solid half marathon. If this was a cycling race, I’d be golden. Swimming? Probably a little better off. However, in the last 3 months since my 70.3 I have run a 10 miler and two 11 milers, but ZERO of the miles in any run have been speedwork, and my total mileage is about 100. Yeah. My normal weekly mileage this time of year is more than my currently monthly mileage. Yeah, I’m riding all the bikes, but still.

The point of this big long depreciating diatribe? I lined up with only two goals yesterday morning: 1) work hard but still be able to get up and train today and 2) if at all possible, try not to get a personal worst at this race, which meant I needed to beat 2:27. Any of the outdoor runs I’ve done lately have been paced slower than that so that was actually a consideration.

It was a SUPER pretty day for running… except for the 25+ mph wind gusts… #upwindtodowntown

We started with the 2:15 pacer since that seemed like a reasonably hard goal right now, and ran with friends until they decided to take off and go a little faster. I took in a caff gel right away over the first two miles, and stopped at an aid station to wash it down. It was so windy, my hat blew off and I had to chase it, and then I had lost them. I figured that was the last I would see of anyone and it wasn’t even mile 3.

Let’s also talk about how Zliten and I respond to rest. He takes months off running, he runs amazingly (even better than during training). He is the epitome of a low volume runner. I take more than a week off running regularly and my legs forget how to run. It will be MONTHS until I feel like I’m a competent runner since I took a fall break.

I ran harder trying to catch up, and finally I saw Zliten running alone. He was wearing a red shirt, which was the same color as this year’s race shirt which EVERYONE was wearing, so it was hard to pick him out. I was looking for Matt, the shirtless guy in the kilt, who was slightly more unique. I asked him what happened and he said he wanted to race with me instead. Awwww. I’m not sure if he was fatigued or just being nice, but I decided I would take it!

We clipped along at 10:30-ish pace – he stopped to use the porta potty and I kept running but slower, so he could catch up (and he did within half a mile). I found that the 10:30-ish pace was just a hare past comfortable, so I kept letting Zliten get a little bit ahead and then put on the gas to catch up. Around mile 6 that was getting tougher so another gel went down the hatch.

Spoiler. We all finished.

By mile 7, we took a turn (more) downhill and that gel started doing it’s thing and I started feeling good, so we sped up. We passed the 2:15 pacer and started talking finish times and we figured we’d put as much time as we could into the 2:10 pacer and see how close we could get to catching them. Actually doing it was kind of an impossibility without me running my 5k pace for 5 miles at the end of a half marathon (which would take all the pixie dust and magic in the world), but I said I’d be ok holding the sub-10 pace we were but it was business time, no talking.

I shoved my headphones in and we went fishing. I actually felt really good until about mile 10, which is where the hills start going the other way. Zliten loves the hills and runs faster on them, so I spent that period fishing for him, I’d let him get a little ahead on the way up and catch him on the flat. At that time, I started moving from actual words to grunts, except I told him I hated his face and legs for going too fast, so I’m pretty sure I was the best running companion ever.

However, I stuck with it. Every time he ran ahead, I asked myself if I had that gear and was I willing to shift into it, and the answer was always yes. This is a good thing. I’m not exactly sure how much slower I would have finished if Zliten wasn’t towing me, but I am certain it wouldn’t have been faster.

Rainbow legs followed Zliten’s stupid (lovely) face and legs. Thanks Zliten for your face and legs!

We found the last uphill right to the finish and crossed the line together at 2:13:40 (just slightly above top half in my age group). It’s my 5th best half (out of the 14 I’ve ran) and I expected to be much slower, so I’ll take it! Hooray for aerobic capacity crossing over between sports, because I *know* this is not because of my run training. The best feeling is that even though this is my fastest and longest run in months, I feel like I had more distance in me (though more speed? not really). One of these days I actually will spend a cycle trying to crack open that PR, but for now, I’ll get on with rest week and keep building that cycling for Ironman Texas.

The rest of the day was for mexican food, some beers, using the puffy massage legs, napping, and watching movies. I’m loving the post-race nap tradition and I feel pretty decent today to get on with my training, so I can check off both my goals for this race. Win!

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10 years and 5 top tips for healthy new years resolutions

By Quix

On January 18, 2017

In Uncategorized

Ten years is a really long time. I keep saying “it’s about a third of my life” because I still THINK I’m about 30, but I’m getting closer to it being a fourth. Still a long time, regardless.

2007-1

I don’t enjoy dredging this picture up every January but it proves a point.

Anyhoo, about ten years ago, I barely fit into size 24 jeans. Walking around my apartment complex or across my tiny work campus was a WORKOUT. I drove the mile to work because “I would get sweaty” or “there’s a hill”. A marathon was something you did watching a lot of a TV show. A triathlon was eating pizza, drinking whiskey, and working or playing games at the same time.

While I was proud of my work accomplishments, I had given up on the rest of my life. I figured that I wasn’t young anymore, so I had missed my opportunity to do something fun for fitness like I did as a kid. Hello, I was in my MID TWENTIES. Who thinks that? I thought if I wanted to lose weight I needed to do the elliptical (ho hum) and lift weights (bleh) and eat low carb (HATE). I would stick to this stuff for a little bit, then I’d get bored and have no overlying goal besides wanting to hate myself a little less, and get frustrated and quit.

However, a decade ago my New Years resolution was to lose weight, and it actually stuck! I’m down a small human from where I was ten years ago and I’m fit, active, and competitive (sometimes) in triathlons. However, there are days, weeks, and months where I’ve felt like an utter failure at it. I’ve gained weight back. I’ve let myself get so far off the strength training wagon I’ve become weak, imbalanced, and injured. To be a little nerdy and quote Alfred from Batman, “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” I’ve learned that the key is lifting yourself up over and over and over.

Change is uncomfortable, and you’ll occasionally revert back to comfort and then feel frustrated about it. You’ll have a bad day at work and scarf down a burger and a beer and feel a bunch of guilt about how weak you are. You’ll get sick or busy and get out of the workout habit and berate yourself for not sticking to it. The scale will, for NO GOOD REASON, go up one week and you’ll want to cry and say FUCK IT, my best isn’t good enough, I guess I deserve to be fat now. I have done ALL THIS AND MORE and yet, still, here I am.

Odds are, you have a health or fitness related goal for 2017. Since it’s coming up to that pivotal time where you’re either going to quit when the going gets tough or persevere, here’s my 5 top tips for actually succeeding with a health/fitness related New Years resolution.

jan9-2

Instead of being too busy to work out because you have all the errands, don’t drive there – get a cheapo commuter bike and some storage (my bike was 200$, my storage cost less than 100$, bike adventures instead of sitting in traffic – priceless).

1. Work the goals around your life, not your life around the goals. Are you not a morning person? I’m not either. Setting a goal to wake up at 5am to work out every day is PROBABLY not the best first step. Try finding 30 minutes a few times a week that makes sense for you. Use your lunch break. Take 30 minutes out of your social media or TV time. Stop at the gym on the way home from work. If you have trouble getting out of the house, find workouts you can do inside (treadmill, trainer, videos, active video games). Maybe it IS the mornings, but if it’s not, don’t force it. Find the time you are MOST likely to work out and do that.

2. Have lofty goals but take realistic steps. Want to lose 100 lbs? Awesome. Set that really scary number aside and concentrate on losing 5 lbs this month. Or better yet, use process goals, like tracking your food and steps and eating 500 calories less than you burn daily as measured by fitbit. You can’t lose weight just by wanting it really hard, you have to go through a process to do it. I know – I tried for MANY YEARS to just want to lose weight as if it was magic. It may be a little mystifying, but I guarantee you, the more you quantify your actions, the more success you’ll have.

3. Have an ultimate (quantifiable) goal. Wanting to be skinny or get fitter is admirable, but hard to quantify. What’s your motivation for wanting it? Do you want to fit into a pair of jeans? Do you want to be able to play soccer with your kids? Do you want to run your first 5k? Once you identify this, figure out those incremental steps to get there and make a plan and set a date. As they say, a goal without a deadline is just a dream. For the 5k example, you may say you’re going to follow the Couch25k program (giving yourself a few extra weeks just in case) and sign yourself up for a 5k in 3 months. This means you can’t just say “someday”… someday is in 12 weeks – get to it!

4. Be gentle with yourself if you falter. Progress is not linear. We are human. The aforementioned bad day burger and beer, missing workouts, and scale being a fuckwit WILL happen. Let me shout this one. IT IS NOT INDICATIVE OF YOU BEING A WORTHLESS HUMAN BEING. However, why do we fall (because we all fall)? To learn how to pick ourselves up again. After the burger and beer day, wake up in the morning and eat a healthy breakfast and go sweat a little. After missing a week of working out, get back to it. If the scale is not cooperating, keep trying, because the other option is giving up and I guarantee you, this is not a good alternative. Sometimes we vacation off the wagon, and that’s fine, but we should live ON it.

5. Celebrate when you succeed. Did you lose 15 lbs and your jeans are loose? Fuck yeah! Go buy yourself a new pair that fits and looks good. Even if you’re not at your goal weight. Even if you have to go to the thrift store to do it. Just because you are not at your vision of perfect yet doesn’t mean you shouldn’t celebrate the little steps along the way. Progress should be should be met with a hearty fist bump, not a sigh about how far you have left to go.

In ten years, some things have not changed.

sept19-1

Yep, this is still a thing…

Sometimes I’ll eat like an ass just like before. I love me some french fries. I still have pizza and whiskey nights in my life.

I still hate the elliptical. And I constantly fall off and restart on the weights bandwagon.

Right now I’m cranky about barely fitting into some of my jeans.

However, when I eat like an ass, 99% of the time it’s because I’ve just finished a super long workout and I can justify the calories. I may hate the elliptical, but I love to swim, bike, and run. And the jeans I’m cranky about? They’re half the size (or less) than in 2007.

So, there are some things that HAVE changed. And while 2007 me and 2017 me are very different people, it was through very gradual evolution every step of the way. 2007 me would have balked at my current workout schedule and many other things that are just part of my normal life now. But 2007 me DID find it acceptable to do 20-30 mins cardio and 15 minutes of light weights three times a week, and track my calories. And then it evolved from there.

If 2007 me could do it, 2017 you TOTALLY can.

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Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Author: Quix Page 59 of 217

A little looking back, a little more looking forward.

And I would ride 100 miles… but maybe not 100 more…

We have arrived at the first stop.

3M Half Marathon – hold onto your hat! #upwindtodowntown

10 years and 5 top tips for healthy new years resolutions

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