Adjusted Reality

Author: Quix Page 75 of 217

Howdy campers! It’s Zliten’s birthday and we’re celebrating the last day of birthday-mas with some homemade birthday bourbon bacon butter pecan ice cream and a nice seafood meal at McCormick and Schmick’s and maybe a little extra bourbon not in the ice cream. Who can guess?

OH. YEAH.

Tomorrow starts the phase of #projectspring called #projectraceweight. I don’t know why, but it feels more official with a hashtag so I’m going with it!

As I said before, the plan in terms of food intake is:

1200-1500 calories 5 days a week.
1500-2000 calories 2 days a week.
Getting my macros as close as possible to: 100g protein, 40-60g fat, 25g fiber.

Now, the last time I associated the number 1200 and calories together was probably something like “that post-race meal had 1200 calories in it” or “dang, I still have 1200 calories left to eat today and I’ve had breakfast, lunch, and snacks”. With training and racing, 1200 calories in a day = grouchy, lightheaded, and your performance suffers. You eventually end up in your kitchen eating almond butter out of the jar with your fingers because your body needs fuel NOW. Don’t ask me how I know this.

For the next few months, there won’t be training to fuel. I’m sure I’ll have days where I find myself having a higher activity level (heck, I have a 10 mile race and sprint triathlon between now and July that I’m going to show up at and see what I can do) and will adjust accordingly, but my typical day? 1200 calories + just a little more if I’m dying.

I’ve done this before, I can do it again, and I believe I’m up for the challenge. However, it doesn’t mean it will be easy and it won’t take some strategy. Here’s how I’m hoping to get through this.

Tacos will always remain on the menu, maybe just a little less cheese though…

My version of a healthy meal is largely unchanged.

I’m not planning on trying to really reduce portions (as in, eat a smaller sandwich, salad, etc), just remove calories where perhaps they might be luxuries. For example, right now, I might eat a turkey sandwich on a roll with a nice big side salad containing cheese and croutons as a meal. Next week, I’ll eat a turkey sandwich on sprouted grain bread with no cheese and just mustard and a nice big side salad with just veggies and lower calorie yogurt dressing, which is really just as filling, just slightly less enjoyable.

Because I’m not doing what’s on the garmin anymore, I’m not doing much of the rest of the picture either.

Eliminating snacks with more than ~50 calories.

When I’m not crushing 2-3 workouts a day, I’d much rather allocate my calories to a bigger lunch and dinner rather than pick at food all day and never feel full. Before running and triathlon, when I was eating to lose weight, I rarely ever snacked – maybe some carrots here or a piece of fruit there, but I saved my calories for meals and felt much better than picking at food and being hungry all day.

Typically, I am more brain hungry (want) than stomach hungry (need) between meals in offseason, because I’m used to eating more food every so often, and that’s a hard habit to break. Things I’ve used in the past to curb my appetite:

Try some water first to see if I’m just thirsty
Raw veggies
Small piece of fruit
Pickles
Chicken broth
Tea/decaf coffee
La Croix with a few drops of stevia in it (instant soda!)
Gum
If I’m desperate – a handful of pretzels

In general, if you give me some salt and/or something the chew on, I’ll get by.

Definitely one of my go to meals out. Chicken pho with veggies is super filling for the amount of calories.

Not being tied to my kitchen

Of course, the best way to eat healthy and lose weight is to cook most/all of your own food. However, sometimes a friend wants to meet you for lunch. Or you’re out and about and you’re starving. Or you are just plain sick of your own food. Or you just don’t fucking feel like cooking.

One great tool in your fat loss arsenal is to have a bunch of meals you know are reasonable out there in the wild. I lost 100 lbs eating a whole lot of takeout because my company was working long hours to ship a product and feeding us lunches and sometimes also dinners at work. I still got it done. Is it cheaper and healthier to make food at home? Sure, but I can assure you that it’s possible even if you don’t cook all the time.

I generally have the info in my head, but I’m also building up a personal database of places I can go and get a filling meal for under 500 calories, which I will stick to if at all possible. While it feels gimmicky sometimes, I appreciate a lot of restaurants doing a lighter menu so at least I know there’s something reasonable, and something I can somewhat predict the calorie count.

In July, hopefully I’ll be back to this size and able to put all this nonsense away for a while.

This is not forever

This is the big one for me. This is what I’m doing right now. Cake and pizza and all the gross food I can afford to splurge on occasionally during high volume training days will still exist in four months. I won’t have to suffer shunning the bread basket at restaurants and order whatever sounds least horrible on the light menu and grumble or eat like a fucking bird at parties so I can have a few drinks for too long.

I’ll have some stuff to navigate and my willpower will be tested. There will be a good handful of birthdays and other social get togethers between now and July. Game night every two weeks has snacks and sometimes beer. I’ll be on a freaking cruise in the middle of this (which I will do my best and splurge SPARINGLY). I just have to remember that:

I have an ultimate goal that is more important than whatever fun food is staring me down if I can’t find a way to make it work and…
I will not have to be lame forever. Just for now.

This will NOT be part of a normal day.

A normal day

In general, I’m going to try to stick to the same amount of calories for each typical meal every day so even if I am not tracking closely and am out and about, I can have a general grasp of what I can afford to eat.

Breakfast: 200-250 calories

I want to make sure this has a decent amount of protein. I’m less concerned about a huge volume of food for the calories, but it needs to keep me fueled from about 9am to 1pm (to sit at my desk and not do much). Typical breakfasts for me are:

Greek yogurt, touch of cereal for crunch, small piece of fruit
Smoothie with protein powder, frozen fruit, and a dash of milk or coconut water
Coffee and protein powder smoothie with a dash of milk
One piece of bread with turkey sausage and light cream cheese
Leftover soup

I’ll pair this with a cup of decaf coffee with a SPLASH of the regular stuff. I may be the only person trying to get back ON caffeine, but its a GREAT appetite suppressor, even in these small doses for me.

Lunch and dinner: 400-500 calories

I know how to eat a BIG HUGE GIGANTIC 400 calorie meal. I also know how to eat 400 calories in 4 spoonfuls. For the next few months, I need to lean towards the former and ditch anything that’s got a lot of calories per volume. Typical lunches or dinners may include:

Greek chicken wrap on 80 calorie wheat tortillas with light dressing, homemade side of soup
Chicken in the slowcooker in tomato and spicy sauce with some rice and veggies.
Lean ground beef on top of a taco salad with light sour cream and guac
The above mentioned turkey sandwich, no cheese no mayo, with a veggie filled side salad with light dressing

Frankly, most of my recipes are ~500 calories or under. I just need to make sure I pick the most filling ones because I won’t have snacks to fall back on!

It’s a little intimidating, because I haven’t done this for a while. What if I fail? If I was in a vacuum and didn’t have to navigate other humans with my food choices, it would be much simpler, but certainly not as fun. So, for the next few months, it’s about the food and not about the food all at the same time.

Question: what’s your go to healthy meal (either homemade or out)?

#projectspring

By Quix

On March 9, 2016

In Uncategorized

I’m super de duper excited to shift my focus away from serious endurance sports training and towards tackling some other stuff I want to accomplish in my life that don’t involve running, biking, and swimming really fast or far. I’m dubbing it – #projectspring. At first I was super bummed about missing my favorite time of the year to train and race, but realizing that I can do so many other awesome things outside (and inside) helped a lot!

Step one, be able to produce this level of excitement for ANYTHING.

My first order of business is to get my energy and enthusiasm back. This starts immediately. My goal is to get to the point where I’m waking up before my alarm or at the very least up and at ’em the minute it goes off most mornings. Monday night I fell asleep for over 10 hours, and I still snoozed for 40 mins before I dragged myself out of bed. I just feel kind of beat up. My goal in March is to sleep until I can’t sleep no mo’. I miss having energy.

Missing THESE days where my clothes fit.

After finishing birthdaymas celebrations, March 15th, I start #projectraceweight. Yes, it’s a Tuesday, Zliten’s birthday is on that Monday. No judgies.

This is the ultimate goal of these next 4 months and the reason I decided to take the spring completely off. I’m not trying to eliminate food groups or demonize junk food or eliminate gluten or white colored food or whatever from my diet. But I’m going to lose some fucking weight. There is no “try my best if I can” here, it’s time to DO IT. The specific goal is to make the number on the scale go down as quickly as possible/reasonable while not sabotaging my health (or fall season).

I know how to do this. I lost 5 lbs in July without losing my mind. Sadly, I put that and more back on with the failed fueling experiment, but it is proof that I know how to do this.

The plan is:

1200-1500 calories 5 days a week. 1200 is HARD but will get me results quicker. 1500 is much more doable but will take longer. I’m hoping to hit somewhere in this zone, as low as possible, without eating inanimate objects.
1500-2000 calories 2 days a week. I’m hoping to time this with slightly higher activity days, but either way, I know myself and I have to allow a few indulgences or I will go fucking crazy.
Attempting to hit my macros (100g protein, 40-60g fat, 25g fiber). On 1200 days it will be challenging but that will keep me eating mostly good food and not junk.
Detraining but not completely. I’ll introduce these things once I’m fully and completely healed from the marathon. I know that the best ways for me to not be 100% complete jello when I return to being an endurance athlete in July are:
- Short HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts a few times a week – I’m thinking 20 mins max. One minute sprint, one minute easy type things.
- Weights/conditioning – while I know it’s hard to lose weight while building muscle, I don’t want to lose what I’ve got. The goal is more maintenance than killing myself in the gym lifting heavy here.
- 10k steps per day goal – it’s actually pretty easy to hit this with just a few walks per day at work even on days off training. This is just a constant reminder to stay active.

The mindset:

When I was first on my way down weight-wise, I definitely had some negative type reinforcement with myself and mental issues to work through. Not to say that I don’t have separate shit to work through (hello, disappointment in my fall 2015 winter 2016 season), but I understand the process a little better and hopefully I can be a little more gentle on my psyche. Though the action still is the same, the message is different.

2007 me: You don’t deserve that piece of cake because you’re a worthless fat piece of shit. Eat celery forever and cry, fucker.

2016 me: You don’t deserve that piece of cake because you’re choosing to invest your time and effort into #projectspring. You deserve better than to sabotage your hard work. Cake will still exist in 4 months.

And this is the truth. If it’s hard – that’s fine. Because this is my project. I am training to not fall face down on a bag of chips or a pie or a bottle of vodka. This is the hard I am choosing to tackle right now and I can deal with it.

I suppose if I had to put a number on it, I’d like to weigh no more than 160-something (169.9 is acceptable) come July 1st. My wildest dreams would be seeing 150 lbs. Either way, I’ll feel so much better than I do now not carrying around a bunch of extra sacks of flour on my body.

This is a before shot of our workout room. Just enough space had been cleared to make the treadmill usable.

Let’s call this a progress picture from the same angle – after 2 hours of work, it’s not yet the pain cave we want it to be, but it is an organized and usable room! Wheee!

I want to make some progress on house projects. This involves two categories:

Cleaning and organizing (need only time)

Vanity area in the bathroom
Office
Workout room (DONE!)
Guest room closet

Bigger projects (need time and money):

Kitchen remodel – new cabinets, new counters, potentially a new floor, paint, and backsplash
Back patio remodel – repouring the concrete, maybe sprucing it up a little, possibly adding a cover to the patio and also a space for a future hot tub.
Replacing the shed we had torn down with one that closes and locks to store bikes (increasing the potential for more bikes down the road :D), camping equipment, kayak stuff, etc.
Workout room as a pain cave set up – we need one cheapo computer to be a Zwift machine, one TV on swiveling mount, some inspirational decorations, and probably a better ceiling fan (the organization is done, now we just need to buy all the stuff).

I talked about it in depth here but this spring is when I become a biker chick. I want to become less of a scaredy biker and bike with groups more. I really want to start using my cruiser bike (and feet) to commute and transport myself whenever possible. I rarely venture more than a few miles from where I live and it’s ridiculous to drive everywhere.

I want to get a for real triathlon bike, with the right tri bike geometry. I need to do all my research so I spend money on what matters and not just because it’s 2 grams lighter and 3 grand more.

I’d really like to do something with this site. After I decompress enough to get a little bored in the evenings, I want to make this site into something a little less… eclectic. Something more intentional than a hodgepodge of my attempt at a artsy web design job application in 2004 and a very haphazard theme and awkward set up with a blog jammed into the middle of it. It still works as a place to vomit my thoughts every once in a while, but I’d like to actually give this place a makeover. Y’know, make her fit into 2016… either under my own power or spend a little $$$ to get someone to do it for me if I give up.

It may have been cute to wait a little while to process my Bonaire pics because I didn’t want the vacation to end, but it’s been months. It’s time to dig through the 800 or so I have left and then count the days until I can go back.

I want to go camping once a month. It soothes my soul even if my body gets tired from roughing it. Potential targets include:
-March, Sherwood Forest
-April, enchanted rock
-May/June, Inks Lake? Pace Bend?

While I doubt I’ll keep this up during the heat of summer, I’d like to remember it’s an option even during training season, because it’s an AWESOME way to go run and ride in new and interesting places. We just get lazy about it.

I may not want to be IN the water just yet but it’s getting close to time to be ON the water, which means I’ll be sup’ing and kayaking as much as I can once the lake is closer to 70 degrees and not 60. And, of course, this will transition into waterpark and snorkeling in the lake as it becomes warmer.

I want to go do things! There are so many things in Austin to do. They all sound fun! The kite festival! The weiner dog races! Eeyore’s birthday! Some random band is playing somewhere! I mean, maybe not THOSE SPECIFIC THINGS, but THINGS! They sound much less desirable after beating the hell out of myself on the road all morning/afternoon/week. I’m looking forward to combining this with locomotion without cars (cruiser bikes + walking + train) and doing more fun things around town. I’m also looking forward to having the spontaneity, energy, and flexibility to go do random shit that comes up instead of choosing my couch.

I miss being crafty and creative in my spare time. Coloring has filled the void in a nicely mindless way right now, but I miss stuff like making jewelry. I would like to refresh my memory at the piano, it’s been years, and it’s sitting there staring at me, taunting me. I would like to make some progress with sewing, another inanimate object that mocks me constantly. I have a book idea that woke me up in the middle of the night last week and I’d like to make some progress with it. I am actually a creative person when I don’t beat all the enthusiasm out of myself.

I’m so excited to start on all these things right away, which is a good sign that #projectspring step 1 (get my mojo back) is already in the works.

Question: what’s your biggest goal this spring?

The Woodlands Marathon

By Quix

On March 7, 2016

In Uncategorized

It was an interesting weekend, I’ll say that. I’m still exhausted. 🙂 Instead of a chronological account of everything, I feel like I need to do this in categories, because it was the best and worst of times… at times.

Pre Race Nutrition: A+

I think I’ve figured out the optimal day before and morning of nutrition.

Day before breakfast: something hearty that makes the stomach happy. More like 500 calories rather than my normal 200-300. I had leftover “light take” chicken parm and it was spectacular. Pretty sure a bagel with turkey sausage and cream cheese would be a good go to as well, since I probably won’t luck out and have leftover chicken parm again.
Lunch: I wasn’t feeling that hungry after the big breakfast, so I went for a 6 inch turkey no mayo no cheese with baked chips and a powerade.
Snacks: Random pretzels and baked cheetos and some jerky while driving there and navigating to packet pick up.
Dinner: My tried and true – salad, chicken, and mashed potatoes (above). We went to Omega Grill and it was one of the best pieces of chicken I have ever had.
Race day breakfast: two belvita breakfast cookies with a slather of chocolate almond butter and two caffinated powerbar chews.

I felt topped off but not sick. A little caffeinated, but not jittery. I was able to use the bathroom before the race and didn’t have to stop during. If nothing else went right this race, it’s really nice to have a pre-race routine that rocked, because that’s been hit or miss lately.

Race Nutrition: B

I took all the gels I had, and expected to potentially pick one up at the gel stop around 20 or grab an extra somewhere if I needed it. Well, they were out of gels, and the only food offered to me was a tub of PB. Hmmm, no thanks, I’ve never had that while running. I made sure to get extra gatorades and I think I did fine, but I did feel a TOUCH lightheaded for a sec around mile 21-ish. Next time, bring the extra gel just in case.

Post Race Nutrition: B

It always goes water, gatorade, then beer, and this was no exception. The food tent was a little sparse by the time I got there, but they had garlic toast left, and I think I crammed them two pieces in my mouth before I chewed anything. On the walk home we picked up some Taco Bell, which I usually think is the nastiest thing in the world, but that Quesalupa was LIFE.

Since then I’ve just kind of made sure to eat something every few hours. I haven’t gotten to the point of getting so hungry I’m shaking, and I also haven’t felt like I’ve eaten like an asshole, though I have had 4 different fried things already today and it’s lunch, so maybe that isn’t entirely true. The QUANTITY hasn’t been assholish, but the quality kinda has been.

We had a few adult bevvies with dinner post marathon, but actually saved the CELEBRATION for the next day, which I actually think worked out better for recovery.

Gear minus my shoes: A

I know I can buy contact lenses easily for the race, but I wore new sunglasses instead (I know, I know, nothing new the day of the race…), and they worked out great, thankfully. I wore the same tried and true kit I wore at SpaceCoast, down to the same socks (but probably not underwear). I lubed up enough so I got almost ZERO chafing, and that’s pretty damn impressive for a warm marathon. I missed a few spots with the sunscreen, but I got most of the surface area and it stayed put. I’m sold on the race belt for my number thing now. It looks a little doofy but it’s SO nice to have space for gels.

Shoes: D-

I barely passed them because they got me to the end of the race, but I think it might have been IN SPITE of that, and I might have been better off barefoot. My entire left arch and left toe have become blisters, not those cute ones you just notice after you finish a run, but the kind that show up at mile 10 and go, hey lady, you have to run 16 more miles, fuck you. I got a blood blister on my right foot as well. Sorry Clifton 2s, you’re shit and I’m donating you and never running in you again (though I’ll probably still go for another pair of Hokas, just not THOSE).

Lesson learned: when your shoes just don’t work out, it’s not worth toughing out a season in them hoping they get better. Live, learn, use them for short runs and buy more shoes. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure this was part of my hip problem, and I’m hoping that staying out of them for the next 2 weeks/rest of my life will prove that.

My actual race performance: D

Here’s that bit where I usually focus on and it really is a small part of Saturday’s story. I held sub-5 hour pace through mile 11, where it became abundantly clear to me that my body was not going to continue with that much longer. The hammies and glutes cramping started at mile 5 and never got better, even though I shoved 303s (herbal muscle relaxers), caffiene, and the super electrolyte gel.

I was able to keep it under control at first by backing off the pace by a little up hills, but once the blisters kicked in, my gait adjusted, and other things started to hurt too. I went from a goal of 4:59:59 to hoping I would be able to finish before I was swept off the course because there was very little running left in my legs even before I hit the halfway mark.

My attitude: A

I won’t give myself a plus here, because there were a few miles in which I really did contemplate DNFing, but it was more along the lines of adhering to my c goal, which was do no lasting harm to my body.

I started with a true open mind, ready to take whatever cards the day gave me and make the best of it. If my body said running the whole thing was possible, I was ready to go all in. Until it became obvious that it was time to fold. (ok, I’ve finished with the poker metaphors here, moving on)

I was a little salty with myself at first, but it became crystal clear very quickly that my mind was not giving up. It was my body. This was not my day. And that became OK. I decided I wanted my finisher shirt so I was going to continue until either I could not go forward without risking further injury or I was pulled from the course.

Then, I realized, I had no idea what to do with myself for the amount of time I realized I was going to be on course. I only had a ~2 hour music playlist I planned on bringing out at mile 13, and it was weird hearing all these super pump up songs while I was intentionally walking, not out of failure, but preservation. I had no concept of intentionally taking 6 hours-ish to complete a marathon and being ok with it.

And then I ended up walking next to and met… Aubrey? I think? Marathon brain. And we talked for a few miles about other marathons and training and all sorts of random stuff. I started to feel better and told her I was going to run a bit and I hope she’d catch up with me later. Sadly, I didn’t see her again, but I hope she had a great day!

Between the blisters and the other pains, it was more painful to START running than anything, so once I got going, I tried to keep it up as long as I could, because the walk breaks had to be long too with the blisters and the cramping.

After 30k, I made a turn and there was a spectator that I thought was being super nice, talking and encouraging me and offering me food. Then I realized that she was talking to the gal behind me. Embarrassing! However, I made friends with both of them (Sadie! I remembered a name of someone I met that late in the marathon!) and we walked and ran a bit together through early 20s, until I decided that we were probably holding each other back enjoying our walk and talk, so I decided to run ahead and we ping ponged back and forth until the end.

I figured a little more running couldn’t hurt, so I ran the last mile and a half and made it to the end. I found Zliten and said something like “I finished! I made friends! I can has offseason now!”, to which I’m sure he was super happy not to have to deal with a super pissed off emotional mess, which I was absolutely not. I came in with hope for a great day but I was absolutely prepared for many situations, and finishing in about 6 hours was absolutely not the worst of them.

Proof I was hoping for the best!

Body Condition After: D

Let me tell you, walking most of the second half of a marathon was no easier on me than running the full race last year, probably WORSE. I won’t say this is the sorest I’ve ever been in my life, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I can remember ever being more creaky 2 days removed from any race yet. I went from baby giraffe on day 1 of life, to baby giraffe on day 2, and today, I feel as if I can upgrade my condition to old man with a walker.

There is no ANNOYINGLY FINE going on here. I am physically and mentally spent.

Quickies:

Course: B-. The elevation profile makes it look deceptively flat, which is in the sense that there are no big hills, but you are always going up or down. Not my favorite. However, you get to run through the woods. It’s gorgeous. I can train differently to make the hill problem go away so it’s not a dealbreaker.

Course Support: B. They never ran out of water/gatorade, which was solid, but being out of gels at mile 20 sucked. They extended the cutoff because it was warm, which was nice of them, and even finishing at 6 hours, I felt like they were still supporting the back of the packers well.

Spectator Support: A. The course is one loop, but it seemed like it was fairly easy to get around, because I saw many people cheering multiple times. The town really comes out to cheer people on! It’s awesome!

Hotel: A. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn. It was about half a mile from the race start – perfect warmup walk, and painful cooldown but probably actually probably great for me in the long run hobble back from the race. The restaurant had great food in a pinch when we were too… marathoned to go anywhere else for dinner. It was extremely QUIET and the room was comfortable, and I got decent pre-race sleep and AWESOME post race sleep, and both of those are hit or miss.

All’s well that ends well. It’s done. I’m FREE. It’s offseason. Cheers to that. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been less sad not to be training for something.

While I gave marathons up about 20 billion times on the course, I can’t 100% be done with them forever. Zliten had a great day and beat my PR by like 40 seconds. I will qualify that it was on a slightly short course though – I registered 26.08, he registered 26.0 – so the jury is out whether it ACTUALLY counts as a house PR. We’ll leave it at that and say we both have the pleasure/pain of running 5 hour + a few seconds marathon times.

And, sure, there’s a voice in my head that wishes I could have been dealt some different cards, but that is just not how the day played out. And I am TOTALLY ok with it. Frankly, I’m just ready for this blog post to be over, because I’m so super excited about moving on and what’s next.

It’s time to heal, it’s time to rest, it’s time to grow (and shrink) in other areas, it’s time to fix things, and it’s time to do something completely different. I’m SO pumped about this. #projectspring, GO!

Birthday Boxes

By Quix

On March 3, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s my birthday today. It’s not a big one, I’m not moving age groups, my (haha) BQ time isn’t getting longer, but it is always time to pause and reflect on things.

52 weeks and 5 days ago.

First of all, I’m running a marathon in two days. At first I was kind of bummed with the timing (you can’t really celebrate a birthday properly when you have to avoid booze and spicy food and anything too overly fatty or rich). However, I think I’m actually happy about it because of the idea of mental boxes.

One way for me to look at this race is to look at this race is as the culmination of the last 7 months. Normally, I’m all bubbly and talking about the race as a celebration of your training and popping champagne all over the course. Unfortunately, this last cycle has been more about overcoming obstacles than happily checking boxes, so I’m more than ready to put it away.

The last 7 months has seen an experiment with nutrition gone completely awry, causing me to swiftly gain about 12 lbs. It delivered me feeling great and confident to my first race (70.3), and gifted me with that specific 12 hours per month where all I want to do is curl up and die, and then a bike crash, causing me to finish OVER AN HOUR slower than my goal.

After that, my head and heart quit on me for a while, causing me to be completely unenthused with training, and hit a pretty low point with a personal worst at the 26.2 distance at the end of November. After some time, I found some new enthusiasm skewing my training towards chasing a PR at the half marathon distance. I didn’t quite hit it, but I felt like I ran well and showed I wasn’t too far off my game.

Thumbs up indeed.

Then, with my head and my heart pretty well in it, I spent the prettiest (for running) 3 weeks of the year on the treadmill, and then my body quit on me – specifically my hip. I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about it, but it’s really frustrating to have to cut a marathon training plan down from running 6-7 days a week to 3 planned runs, where one usually ended up getting cut short or cut altogether to attempt to heal the stupid him of doom.

These are all things that happened in the last half of my 36th year. The good news? Today I start my 37th. I can officially package up age 36 and put it in a box with a bow and put it in the closet. Will the choices I made last year affect me? Absolutely. However, I can choose to leave the baggage that doesn’t matter, the mental bullshit, the doubts, the fears, and the negativity in that box and start with a fresh attitude.

I embark on a romp through the woods, not as a culmination of these things, but 2 days after the start of a fresh year. I like that better.

There are a few things I’d like to put in this new box to bring with me on Saturday.

The body does not forget. I feel like I am incredibly undertrained because I like checking all the boxes and proving that I’m a workhorse and I can go all the miles because miles are actually pretty awesome. In the last five weeks, I’ve gone a lot less miles, which feels less than awesome. But over the last 7 months, I’ve ran double digits NINETEEN TIMES. This weekend will make 20. That doesn’t suck. The body does not forget how even if it feels like there is NO WAY I’ll remember how to run long right now.

This race is about working with my body and mind, not fighting them. I’m ready for a few arguments near the end, around mile 20-something, when they SHOULD pop up, but I’m hoping to spend most of it just focused on my stride, my breathing, and the course. I want to quiet my mind and just run with no expectations or judgements.

I gave 7 months of focus on these races instead of focusing on fat loss or time off or learning how to line dance or anything else. My goal is to at least honor that focus, even if it all didn’t go as planned, and run the best I can with the cards I’m dealt that day and end the day satisfied.

This day’s cards were a REALLY hot day and a sock that wanted some sort of revenge…

I have a general plan. My goal is to run without looking at my watch for the first 5 miles. I warm up reaaaaaaaal slow nowadays, and I’m forcing myself to not care if some of those miles tick by in the 12s.

From then until halfway, I’d like to judge where I’m at, and work on cutting my average pace to 11:15/mile if it seems reasonable to do so. It may not be any increase whatsoever, or it may be a little bit of a challenge. I’m typically strongest at this point of the race, so I’d like to set myself up for success.

13.1 through about mile 20 is where things get sticky for me. My goal is to simply not slow down if at all possible.

Usually, somewhere in the 20s I get a second wind. If that comes, I’ll harness that and speed up as much as I can or at least try to keep it together.

My A goal is 4:xx:xx. My B goal is to finish before the cutoff. I’m striving for the former, but I definitely will back off if anything feels acutely injured. I’ll do this distance again (though maybe not for a while…) and I’d rather miss it this time and live to fight again if that’s what it takes. Franky, my C goal is “do no lasting harm to my body”. My mind is not allowed to quit, but if my body does, after the last 6 weeks of hobbling through some parts of runs, I have to respect that.

No matter what happens, I have to have a little perspective, which is also something I want to make sure comes with me into my new box. A disappointing time or walking a lot or even if the dreaded DNF happens to preserve myself from injury will suck. No doubt. However, I read on the internet (so you know it’s true) that only something like a fifth of a percent of people have finished even ONE marathon and I’m toeing the line of my sixth in 3 years and 4 months. That doesn’t suck. Not one bit.

It will be an opportunity to go out and test myself and see where 37 starts. Where 37’s head is at. Where 37’s heart is at. It is not a measurement of self worth. I am not Saturday’s race time. For my birthday, I paid someone to close off the roads for me and give me gatorade and a t-shirt and a medal, and I could have an awesome run or a shitty run, but I’m going to go play on the roads for 5 hours, give or take, because I CAN.

Five Days

By Quix

On February 29, 2016

In Uncategorized

Aaaaaah, it’s marathon week. At this point, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. The hip issue is slowly becoming less of one. I’m a little worried about the lack of training but at this point, the hay is in the barn. Nothing I can do now but lace up my shoes and go run 26.2 miles (and probably a little more since I think the course is long).

Two cool things about it already:

I have one of the best bib numbers ever: 1111. Isn’t that lucky?

Also, Zliten and I joked that at least we’d have a shot at winning our own name divisions – and we’re the only ones with our first names. So, all we have to do is finish to win. I’ll tuck that away for around mile 22.

Just a few more very short workouts, lots of sleep, hopefully not much stress, and we hit the road Friday at noon. It’s all happening!

Training:

You know it was one of those weeks when the post-long-run beer selfie is the closest to a training picture you have…

This week was weird. Monday and Tuesday were the shittiest training days I’ve had in a while. Monday I explained in detail here, but Tuesday was the aftermath. Zliten convinced me that the treadmill would be better for us to tempo, and I decided to give it a try. For me, it was not.

My hip was still feeling gross and it just had no power. The constant speed of the treadmill was not working for me. I tried to get started running about 3 times and gave up within half a mile each time to go roll, stretch, and the last time, have a small hissy fit outside about it. The good news is that it was so cold and windy, that tantrum was short lived, and I decided that at least I was getting my fucking steps in for the day and walked at 2% incline at 3.5 for about 30 minutes.

Thursday’s run still had my hip feeling a little weak, but I was able to complete a 4 mile run with some speed segments in it, and things felt pretty great after. I also started to figure out the new normal with how my body is right now, and do some strategerie on how to pull the best run I can out of these legs.

The first thing is not to try to keep up with anyone or anything. Trying to keep pace with my husband is an exercise in frustration right now, so I’m not going to do it. I will let him go at any time I need to. If I’m having a good day, I might catch him later and get to motivate him through the last few miles, perhaps.

The second thing is that during this race, more than any other race I’ve ever done, I need to watch my form. I cannot slump or I will cramp SO EARLY. I need to stay easy up the hills or I will cramp SO EARLY. I need to keep my cadence high and strides shorter, especially if my hip is cranky.

The third thing is to let go of any expectations. The watch can say anything it wants, the time that passes can be anything it needs to be, I just want to let go and run through the woods for 5 hours, give or take.

Here’s the breakdown from last week…

Monday: ~~hour~~ 45 min easy group ride with BSS (weather permitting), core
Tuesday: ~~1 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo, .5-1 mile cooldown~~ a little running, a lot of walking, and a whole lot of tantrum throwing
Wednesday: swim at lunch, core PM
Thursday: ~~3×1600 (9-9:30 min/mile) with 400m recovery, 1 mile warmup and cooldown~~ 4 mile fartlek
Friday: off, ~~core~~
Saturday: 10 mile run, last 5 at race pace.
Sunday: riding bikes, ~~either~~ inside ~~or outside~~ for at least 20 30 mins + core + long sunset walk

And here’s the plan this week:

Monday: run to the track, 4×400 with 400 recovery in between, run home, core
Tuesday: 20-30 min trainer ride
Wednesday: 3 miles at marathon pace, core
Thursday: 15-20 minute swim
Friday: off, some walking to keep the legs loose
Saturday: 26.2 baby!
Sunday: offseason begins!

…and while I’m getting pretty excited to race in FIVE DAYS, I’m also pretty pumped for my offseason plans.

Food/Scale:

A delicious picture of noms in progress…

Let’s keep this short. I’m doing ok with my (fairly relaxed) goals, but the scale is definitely not going anywhere. I’m alright with this, because in a couple weeks, this section of my life will be in focus and I’ll start chipping away at those numbers on the scale.

You can only have so many hards at once, and once training takes a back burner, this will become my main project. Tracking 100% of the time (yeah, even on weekends), and much more stringent calorie goals.

Track as much as I can. 100% is great.
Booze cannot interfere with bedtimes, calorie counts, or workouts. I think this should just be the motto for the year.
Try not to eat like an asshole. Balance in all things.

For now, though, you get a story about my backyard.

We’ve owned a well loved grill and smoker for about 8.5 years. It’s actually so amazingly seasoned that even just grilling something would make it taste as if it’s been lightly smoked, which is AWESOME. We’ve been holding off getting a new one as long as we could, because it’s a lot of work to break it in, but the hole in the old grill got so bad it wouldn’t heat up… so we now have this lovely thing of beauty pictured above.

Zliten is attempting to put it through it’s paces, so we had a meat-a-ganza on Saturday. There was a giant piece of brisket, a rack of ribs, chicken breasts, and some habenero chicken sausage. The chicken and sausage were instant hits, and we learned some (delicious, delicious) lessons on how to make the ribs and the brisket better.

For the week, I have some great meals – chicken, chicken sausage and cauli-taters, shepard’s pie with brisket, ribs with (light) blue cheese and (not light) bacon potato salad, and I made zuppa toscana to go with salad. We’re set.

The theme of this week is: don’t do anything stupid, which includes eating and drinking.

Booze cannot interfere with bedtimes or calorie counts. Booze also goes away for the week around Tuesday or Wednesday (and obviously keeping the consumption responsible if I do choose to imbibe on race week).
Eat like a normal human until Thursday.
Have a nice big (non-spicy, carb heavy) meal on Thursday night (the night before the night before, which also happens to be my birthday!).
Come up with a plan for Friday (the day before) for optimal carbing up.
Whatever we want after the marathon for a few days (I may be making my list because it is indeed my last hurrah for a while). 🙂

Life:

My goal in life is to have this much attitude. Or, shall I say… catitude?

This week, it’s all about continuing the mellow. I mean, all I had for this last week was…

8 hours sleep most every night
Keep it mellow – do the relaxing thing instead of the crazy thing if faced with a decision.

And I pretty much nailed this. I think I may have slept 6.5 hours Thursday night, but I made up for it with a zero alarm weekend and solid 10 hour sleep nights both Friday and Saturday. We had a super relaxing but productive weekend. We stayed in, we grilled, I read an entire book on Saturday, we binge watched Fuller House Sunday, but I also got a bunch of chores done and have more than enough food for this week since it’s a short one.

Let’s keep it going:

8 hours sleep every night (no exceptions)
Dinner with family on Tuesday night.
Be boring all week, including my birthday. There will be plenty of time to play after the marathon.

And with that, it’s time to go back to making my way through the week. I’m kind of excited and ready for it to be race day, but I’m also excited about every extra day I have to get amazing rest, fuel, and hip healing mojo before I race. It will get here soon enough!

Adjusted Reality

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

Author: Quix Page 75 of 217

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