Adjusted Reality

Comedy and Tragedy, coming at you!

While I am actively mourning summer coming to an end, because that means first there’s no waterpark (this was my sad face after the wah pah on Memorial Day before I found out I actually have TWO MORE WEEKENDS!!! YAY!), then soon there’s no lake paddling because it’s too cold, and then even the lovely outdoor pool becomes an exercise in “get in, get out, get on with your life”, but secretly I’m kind of looking forward to it, too.

We already have 2016 season passes to the park, the lake will still be there in March when it’s warm enough to duck into it in a wetsuit (and maybe this year I’ll be brave enough to sup in chilly water since I’m better at it).  That cycle will come back.

I have on occasion been a bit… apprehensive about certain seasons.  Summer and I have had a love/hate relationship in the last 5 years, which became much more love once we settled in and evolved to make it much more about playing in the water, rather than trying to force myself to train in the heat for months without a break.  Winter has always been a challenge for me, but discovering my love of cold weather running last year, I’m honestly even looking forward to it a little.

But, it’s not over yet.  September is still essentially summer here in the ATX, and I’ve got a 70.3 to contend with before it becomes all pumpkin spice and maybe digging out my tech tees instead of tanks for marathon training.

Week 5 70.3 Training:

It’s always weird to be like – week 5 – last peak week done, start the descent to taper… but that’s kind of how these short cycles go.  I’m halfway in the “bring it on” camp and halfway in the “omg I need more tiiiiiime” camp, but since time slows for no woman and I know doing cram sessions to feel ready does nothing but burn me out, I’ll just keep on with the program.

This week has been about finding confidence through adverse situations.  At first, I typed shitty workouts, but that’s totally not the case.  Don’t worry, I’ll explain.

Before Sunday’s workout.  DID NOT FUCKING WANT.

Monday was not the longest day, but it was the longest swim I’ve done in a while.  I did the normal, freaking out the first half of the first lap because it felt hard, then settling in and doing just fine for the second half, second lap, and pushing it a bit on the third.  I kept my laps pretty consistent (I had a variance of 20 seconds total between the 3).  And, just testing how much it gassed me – I ran 2 miles in the heat and was able to average race pace pretty easily.  Yas.

Tuesday had 4.5 pretty nice easy miles in the morning, but a last minute gametime call had us go home and Zwift on the trainer instead of pain cave class.  Sort of messed with my head a bit, but I think I tortured myself sufficiently.  Ran 1.5 miles off the bike at easy pace while the sun set.  Pretty good day, even if plans changed.

I’m not sure who the asshole was who planned a long run the next day, but I’m pretty sure I should punch them in the face (ow!).  I was pretty nervous for this – it was my longest run since the marathon in February and I’d already built up almost 4 hours of training in 2 days, but I REALLY wanted to see if I could conquer it.  Zliten was also having a SUPER rough day, so I knew the minute my head went negative and I stopped keeping his spirits up, he was done.

But, long story short – we ran all over my work route and detoured to the gym for a bathroom trip and ran home as the sun set and it got dark and then I finished up miles 11-15 headlamping it around my neighborhood zoning out into the dark abyss of Burell Street.  Like a switch, it went from pretty easy to difficult and draggy around 13 miles, but I didn’t stop running until I saw 15 miles in just under 3 hours.

My husband begged off Thursday’s workouts.  It was just a swim so I figured we’d make it up Friday.  Then, an unfortunately rough hangover cancelled Friday’s workouts (super oops).  All of a sudden I had a lot of shit to make up over what was supposed to be a nice relaxing holiday weekend.

Saturday, we ended up having to cancel our original outdoor ride plan, but I decided it was time to just do all the crap I hadn’t yet done last week.  I did the dozen (first time all week, oops).  I jumped on the trainer for 30 minutes.  Zliten and I then ducked outside for a nice 4.5 mile run.  Then, we discovered that he lost his fitbit and ended up taking an hour retracing the run path and then finding it less than a quarter of a mile from home, run over.

By the time we got to the gym for our swim, I felt stressed and rushed and grumpy.  It took all 1700m and the shower after to feel better, but I recovered some of my mood.  Then… we proceeded to spend all day out and didn’t get home until 10pm.  And still we had our bike/run to make up the next day.  Bah!

Sunday – I was so fucking not into it.  I woke up just wanting it to be over.  Unfortunately, I carried this attitude through most of my ride.  Didn’t help it was late, so there was a decent amount of traffic, and it was WINDY (all caps).  Zliten can attest to the fact that I was just swearing and grumbling and at one point he asked if I wanted to just call it and I said YES because I was just so cranky.

However, I learned something about myself.  If I’m cranky, take it out on the sport.  I got sick of soft pedaling behind Zliten the first few miles and just got out ahead and worked.  Then, I’d wait for him to catch up, follow him for a while, and then rinse repeat.  I just had no tolerance for easy pace.  I might have lost my shit yelling and swearing into the wind a few times, but that was much more productive for me THAT DAY than fuming at my husband’s (cute) ass.

I felt better and better as the ride continued and at the end, we decided not to NOT brick, but since it was very late and very hot and we had already done run bonus miles this week, 1 mile was fine.  Zliten got out ahead at first, but by the end, I reeled him in for a very hot ~9:45 min mile off a really really rough and grumpy bike.

Done, and done, with proof.  Happier mood after.

So, TL;DR?  While it’s good to have perfect happy lala fun time training, I actually think this may have been MORE confidence boosting.  I was really unsure how I’d handle 15 miles in the evening, the heat, and on tired legs and I did just fine.  Going into a workout cranky and negative is NOT normal for me, but I was able to use that energy just to WORK instead of waste it.

It is infinitely clear that I am ready for taper, just one more week this week of decent volume and then we start the sharpening of the stick.  I can use it.  I’m a ball of stress and fatigue and I’m ready to start shedding that, kthx.

Summary:

11 hours

• 28.5 miles run (5h30m)
• 74.1 miles biked (3h45m)
• 3910m swam (1h20m)
• 1 Dozen strength session (20m)

A little more running than expected, a little less biking than expected, but last peak week?  Done and dusted.

This week I aim to:

• Do a little more biking.  Pain Cave, last long outdoor ride, and a little bit of the easy trainer stuff.
• Another one of those long lake swims + some pool time.
• Cut the running down below 20 miles/week, but do some faster efforts.
• At least 2 dozen strength set workouts!
• Do a swim, bike, run brick.
• Hit about 10 hours.  Cut a few easy minutes if I am feeling overly overwhelmed.

Food/Scale:

I hit my macros pretty well! Again, I could use a wee bit more carb and a wee bit less fat, and day by day it wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to work out overall.

• 2714 cal (2700 goal)
• 356 carbs (400g goal)
• 72 fat (60g goal)
• 101 protein (100 goal)
• 31 fiber (25+ goal)

This week I’m trying to re-introduce fruit and veggies with every meal.  Just because I CAN hit my macros without fresh things from trees and plants doesn’t mean I SHOULD.  My stomach has now seemed to adjust to the extra fiber, so while I’ll continue to follow the carbs carbs and more carbs manifesto, I’ll make sure some of those carbs are fruit and veggies each meal, even if they are not the most efficient carbs.

15 miles of running on a Wednesday night = half a dominos medium pizza + parmesan garlic bites.  TBH – this actually helped me hit my ratio almost exactly that day.

I feel AWESOME during (most) workouts.  If there’s the gas tank I used to have, I now feel like I have a reserve tank, and probably an extra emergency reserve tank.  Not that I don’t have bad days (obviously, see above), but I rarely feel that tapped out feeling, and if I do, sometimes it just takes recentering and it goes away, so it’s more mental than physical.

Now, why is this wonderful gift keeping me up at night?

I started weighing again.  And I am legit up 5-7 lbs in a month on average.  My average weight over the last few days was 184.7.  My, that was quick, body, with the finding alllll the weight I lost, plus some.

For someone who has maintained a very narrow weight margin for the last 5-6 years, this is a HUGE and QUICK gain for me.  Usually my M.O. at this weight is REDUCE AT ALL COSTS!  My clothes don’t fit the same.  I don’t look like myself.  My face and my tummy are PUFFY.  I’m sure I’m my worst critic here, but I was watching myself run on the treadmill last night in the reflection of the window, and I instinctively was like “who is that chunky monkey? argh…”.

To be fair, I was probably running one of the fastest miles of my life off the bike at the time, but goddamn if it hasn’t been messing with my head.

I thought that giving myself permission to eat to fuel my training would be enough.  I didn’t realize how weird it was going to feel to intentionally gain weight.  I had no idea how odd it would be to add weight to my body to train better and go faster.  I’ve eaten like crap for a while before and felt sludgy and yucky during training.  This is completely different.  My pump is primed.

I think it’s probably pow-wow time with the nutritionist this week.  I think the body shock of gaining the weight so quickly is the worst of it.  If eating this way causes me to maintain this weight and feel this great and there are no other side effects, I’ll stick with it. This will be the new normal after a while, I’ll keep to the larger sizes in my closet for a bit, and I’ll PR the shit out of some races before I begin #projectraceweight for reals in Spring.

I just can’t see gaining 5-7 lbs again in September.  At that rate, I’ll be running my marathon over 200 lbs.  THAT is not happening.

Also – the higher calorie count means my alcohol tolerance, which is generally always near the ceiling (thanks Dad), is through the roof.  That’s been interesting to get used to… (read: previously discussed epic hangover above completely out of nowhere).

I’m definitely feeling a little moodier and stressed – but I’m not 100% convinced that has to do with what I’m eating.  Once life slows down a bit, we’ll see if that changes.  Though… life needs to slow down a bit.  Please?

That’s me in the blue coat, using my crossbow to fight evil and obtain shiny things.

Life’s feeling a lot like this Dungeons and Dragons campaign scene lately – still standing, still kicking ass, but there’s a lot of stuff going on around me and I’m probably in need of at least a short rest, if not a long one.

I’m just counting things down right now: 17 days to Kerrville.  That means about 4 more real *workouts*, so tunnel – meet light.  Not too much more than that until our 8 days in Bonaire.  After that, the simplicity of marathon training the rest of the year in beautiful “head out the door whenever you want during the day because it’s always pretty awesome” weather.

The cycles continue.  And there’s not too much more of this one left!

I didn’t realize how much I needed this week until this week.  Recovery came at the mental and physical edge of JUST IN TIME.

I see Crazy People.  Insane crazy, I tell you!

I had been prepared for one more family weekend, but when the in laws decided to leave early… I was ok with it (since we’ll be seeing them again soon anyway). I didn’t realize just HOW stressed I’d been with fitting in work and training and family stuff and just minor shit like having to keep the house clean all the time and errands and downtime and cooking and laundry and FUN all packed into Sundays and having to wake up so early to train mornings and not being on a normal food plan and not spending enough time in the water (two rushed lunch sessions in the pool isn’t enough to make my soul happy) until I found myself just incredibly exhausted and over everything.

I don’t think I could have even unless this was a recovery week.  I also ditched the early alarms as often as I could and just slept until I woke up both weekend days.  I still got in all my training (actually, almost an hour more than planned somehow), but took a lot of stress off myself.

My knees (specifically, my leg muscles around my knees, not the joints themselves) have been tight, and this week definitely helped fix that.  I made sure to stretch 5 out of the 7 days.  I spent a lot of time feet up on the couch.  I had a very pleasant hour recovery run Wednesday night (ahhhh, I missed night running) and an incredibly successful brick on Saturday on the back end of this week.

Besides the fact that I think I was so full up on sleep my body decided the last two nights were more appropriate to be 6 hour nights, not 8, I think I’ve just come out of this first block in a decent state to start the second half of Kerrville training.

I guess someone wanted a ride along?  She got bored once she figured out we were going nowhere fast…

Last week:

• 30 mins – 1500m swimming.  Missed one swim.  Life will go on.  Swimming is more of a priority this month.
• 4.5 hours – 115 miles biking (let’s call this about 80 if it was outside).  Two rides – one pain cave class, one 3 hour trainer ride doing two hard workout videos.  So, last week was really all about the biking.
• 1.75 hours – 10 miles running.  9 easy, 1 hard off the bike.  A little light on running but wanted to give my knee time to recover.
• 2 strength sessions
• 5 stretch and/or rolling sessions
• 20 minutes kayaking and probably almost an hour floating in the lake.

September is the reverse of August.  This week is essentially my last peak week and I’ll slowly decrease the hours over the month (and transfer from more running to more swimming) to prepare for Kerrville.

This week on tap:

• 15 mile/3 hour long run.  Trying to do it as a night run since the last one was pretty successful.  We’ll see how that works out…
• Moar brick work on Saturday.  Feeling very confident about how well I’m running off the bike but I’d like to keep reminding myself how awesome I am, yeah?
• My first 1.2+ mile swim open water this year.  About time!
• 25 miles running, 100 miles biking, 4000m-ish swimming, 2 strength sessions.  Looking at about 11.5 hours total.

On eating and things that are eating at me…

I’ve got a bit of a dilemma.  I’m going to need to get back to weighing once I’m over this TOM bloat, but I am 100% sure I’ve gained weight.  If it’s a few lbs and I’m just crazy sensitive to it, I’ll calm my shit down.  The way I feel though – I’m prepared to see up to 10 lbs up on the scale.  I fell puffy, y’all.

This is not the normal fare, and still a splurge, but only because of all the FAT, not processed CARBS.  BTW – Shake Shack… not worth it.  Get your burger fix elsewhere.

However, I’ve never run a 9 min mile/flat pace off a challenging 3 hour bike in 91 degree heat and felt… frankly, fucking awesome and like I had more in me.  I’m not cruising along at lightning paces every time I go out, but it’s like… the well is deeper.  When I ask my body to give a little more it’s like, yeah, I’ve got this.

It’s been an interesting experiment separating my physical appearance (how I look in my jeans) vs my athletic prowess (how fast those jeans can move).  I’ve always thought that the reason I’m better at things now is that the level of training I have is enough to wear away the attrition of how much slower my potential is at a higher weight.  Eventually I’m going to get to test that theory, but to do that, I’m going to have to step back from focused training and essentially lose some fitness first to do that.

I’ve raced all this year at a higher weight than I’ve seriously raced before, and it was PR after PR.  The worst I did was 5 lbs lighter, after a month trying to cut calories a bit (and it was still a PR, just less of a PR).  I look at my training and racing and I’m happy, but in the mirror I’m not.  I was asked to make a decision and I picked racing, but I didn’t really grasp how terrible I was going to feel in my clothes because of it.

There have been a lot more of these type of “flattering angle” selfies instead of actual full length pictures of me for a reason, kids.

There is definitely something to this style of eating, though.  I feel like I’m back on caffeine now that my carb intake is 3-4x what it used to be (without the caffeine jitters).  So much more energy!  There’s a reason a “balanced breakfast” for kids is OJ, toast, cereal, and some fruit in the mornings back in the day – that’s the kind of fuel appropriate to go play outside all day like we did!

This is the first week I think I really got close to my recommended intake.  Here’s the stats average per day:

• 2667 calories
• 69g fat (a little higher than I’d like but, baby steps)
• 344g carbs
• 102g protein
• 31g fiber

Guys, I still feel like I’m eating straight JUNK FOOD (partly because my brain is warped into thinking stuff like dried mango and flavored greek yogurt is junk), but I got pretty close to hitting my numbers.  I just have to remember that some offseason junk is not necessarily season junk.

This week, I’m going to see if I can get the carbs up and the fat down a bit (400g min and 60g max, respectively), and try to be a little bit more proactive on tracking when I eat things, not a day later when I can’t do anything to fix my ratios.

Now I’m off to eat all the carbs, train hard, get some work done, sleep my face off, and see about getting through the next 3 days until happy fun time holiday weekend starts!

9 work days until my 4.5 day weekend for Labor Day.  11 days total.  267 hours, to be exact.

August has not been a kind month on the stress front.  Work has been crazy.  I don’t remember it being so crazy last year this time, but then again, I’m dealing with more projects and less people.  Isn’t that always the funnest?

Gratuitous waffle picture because… waffle.

We’ve had family in town all month, which, while has been nice, has made it hard to find a rhythm.  I’m not much of a talker when I get off work.  I’ve been talking all day and deciding and interacting and it’s the last thing I want to do most days.  I’m a “recline on the couch and zone out” or in the summer “zone out somewhere in the water” relaxer.  I’ve gotten a whole lot less of that in August than normal and it’s starting to fray my nerves.

I also haven’t been able to really hit my stride with this new eating plan thing.  I’ve had a lot less time to plan, we end up shopping on Sundays instead of Friday after work which means the grocery store is uber busy and I have to get in and get out instead of wander and read labels and consider my options.

And then, there’s that whole ramping up the build thing I’ve been doing with the half ironman training.  I think in a bubble, I’ve been handling that actually pretty well, but stress is stress is stress.  Which means, hey, if I could have eliminated some of the other stress, I might have been able to load up, like 15 hours instead of 10-11.  Oh well.  I feel like I’ve at least hit the minimum training I need to be successful at the race and maybe that’s all I need.

Week 3 Training:

This week was my highest volume week yet.  The highest this year… the last week that was close was the first week in January!

Swimming: 3100m (1 hour)

I did two swims: one slow and steady 1500 (longer sets), one faster 1600 (mix short/long sets).

My swimming is kind of where it is right now.  I don’t have time to dedicate to it right now, heck, I haven’t been able to get an OWS in since the race three weeks ago.  I’m only a little worried about it.  My focus will go back there in September, once the schedule is a little more flexible.

Biking: ~100 miles (4.75 hours)

I was all excited about not spending any time on the trainer the last two weeks and I did THREE trainer rides this week.  Tuesday, we missed the window for class, so we did a RIDES video which was actually just about as intense, so that worked out.  Saturday, Zliten played the NEED SLEEP card when the alarm went off at 5:30am (I think he was a little under the weather and sleeping something off) so instead we did a weird brick thing which involved one hour hard with a run after, then one hour light with a run after.  Sunday, we spun easy as planned.

It wasn’t my finest cycling week ever, but even if I didn’t get outside, it’s more butt in saddle time than I’ve gotten lately so, I don’t feel too bad about it.  I’m guessing at outdoor intensity/paces, it would probably be more like 80 miles but whatevs.

Running: 25.5 miles (4.5 hours)

This week was a pretty darn decent one for running.  I got in a 3.2 and 5 easy Monday and Wednesday morning, ran an easy half marathon Thursday before work (and actually felt pretty awesome that day after), and then capped it off with 4.25 fast miles off the bike at a 9:30 pace in the heat on Saturday.

I hit my planned numbers and workouts here, plus was able to crank out some pretty fast miles when I asked my body to do it.  Running is my priority right now, and you can definitely tell.

Other Stuff

• Dozen x2.  Done and done.
• Did not stretch enough.  This is a project for this week.
• No paddle boarding, kayaking, waterparking, or anything.  That’s probably why I feel a little stressed today!  However, I did thrift shop for about 4 hours on Saturday.  That should count for something… standing is my kryptonite.

What’s Next

This week, week 4, is a stepback week.  Most of my body feels great.  My knees have been trading off being cranky (seriously, one day, it’s the left one, the next, it’s the right…) so I’m hoping a little less training and a little more stretching will help them both shut up.  Mostly, I need the schedule stress pressure release valve more than anything.  No 5am alarms this week (until Saturday).  That is important.

Priorities:

• Stretching and rolling at least 5 mins every day.  Nothing is wrong with my knees, really, my legs are just tight and that’s how it’s manifesting this cycle.  Hoping to fix that.
• Sleep.  I don’t want to take advantage of the later AM alarms by staying up later.  I want to get some sleep in the bank.
• 50 mile outdoor bike ride.  I’m sad I wasn’t able to do this one this weekend, so I’m devoting just a little under half my planned hours this week to this one ride and I’m ok with that.

Week 3 Food:

Honestly, this was an epic fail for many reasons.  This pizza was actually a pretty bright spot in my intake.  Homemade, with spinach and garlic and turkey pepperoni and feta and a shit ton of veggies = yay.

1. I didn’t track after Thursday afternoon.  Sometimes life just gets in the way and it really, really did last week.  I’m pretty sure I ate: not enough calories, too much fat, not enough carbs.  Let’s just call it what it is and move on.

2. I just have had no time to plan.  Even the little bit of planning gets tossed to the wayside with my unpredictable weeks, and I can’t really get the hang of this.  I really feel like if I could get some time to sit down and do some research on better ways to get the carb fuel in I need without feeling like I’m eating so much junk food (and then be able to actually stick to a plan).

3.  Fiber bombs.  On Tuesday, I ate 46 grams of fiber unintentionally!!!  It made Wednesday (and the run that morning) a little uncomfortable.  That’s almost double the recommended daily.  It is just SO hard to do this plan without completely overdoing either the fat or fiber.

4. We went to Indian Buffet yesterday.  They were closing.  I ate two plates of food in 15 minutes.  3 hours later when it was digesting, I have never felt so ill in that way in my life.  Bad decisions.  I still don’t feel right today.

Just trying to hang on this week (back to tracking, have one or two extra tricks up my sleeve) and doing my best to hit my goals.  Embrace the chaos.

I’m still terrified of the scale, but I don’t think it is any worse than it was a week ago.  The weird thing is I went shopping and the majority of the shirts I purchased were small and medium.  I think that’s more of a commentary on vanity sizes and maybe society as a whole getting larger but hey, I’ll take all the body confidence shots-in-the-arm I can get right now.

Week 3 Other Stuff:

Played D&D with the boys on Thursday.  I think I got all the kill shots with my crossbow.  We levitated this big baddie and just skewered him back to whence he came. 🙂

If you find this in the thift store in your size, you buy it.  I mean, come on… POWER SHIRT?  YEAH!  ROAR!

…and that’s about it for the first 3 week block.  Do I feel ready yet?  No.  But I’m happy that getting my endurance back has not been as great of a reach as I feared.

What is your power shirt?

Week 2: Hump Week

Hot running is my favorite.  Just look what a smile it puts on my face!

The second week of a three week block is always a toss up.  Sometimes it’s just AWFUL, you’re fatigued but a rest week isn’t yet really in sight.  Sometimes, it’s great because you’re handling the work well.

Happily, last week was more the latter than the former.  Here’s how that went…

Moar carbs (/overall calories).  My gut is still adjusting and I’m still terrified to get on a scale, and my pants are definitely tight, but it’s really amazing to feel the way I do during and after workouts.  I probably should devote more blog space to this, but I’m definitely still transitioning so I’ll give it a couple weeks.  Suffice to say, I feel like I’m eating like a 10-year-old version of me most of the time and it’s kind of weird and kind of wonderful even if it’s a *little* temporary (again, more on that later).

Becoming a morning person.  This is REALLY hard for me, but I’ve been able to get up before work on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and up early on Saturdays to get runs (or Saturday bricks) in.  When I have a little more freedom to train after work every day, I will probably revert to my old ways but for now, I’m doing ok with it (especially because I’ve convinced myself this is temporary).

Continuing the Dozen.  I think it was instrumental to work on making this EASIER to do during offseason and then just continue, rather than introducing something challenging to do week 1.  I feel stronger overall.

Quality cycling.  More on that below.

Run volume.  Kind of the opposite of above, and also more like that below.

Swimming at lunch.  I had to cut out the post-work training most days this month due to schedules, and mornings have been about running, so I’ve been swimming at lunch.  I don’t have enough time to get to the lake, so I’ve been doing pool sets.  It’s all about the most efficient use of my time right now, and that’s it.  I’ll return to the lake more next month!

Made it to the wah pah for 1 hour Thursday for the lazy river and the lake for an hour snorkeling.  Maybe not training related (though flippering around the entire half mile+ lake definitely loosened up the legs), but happy soul related.

Week 2 Summary: 10 hours of training (9 if you don’t count the snorkeling)

• Swimming: 3000m, ~1 hour
• Biking: 75 miles, ~3.5 hours
• Running: 20 miles, ~ 3.75 hours
• Other: 2 dozen + stretching sessions, 1 snorkel, ~1.75 hours

This week was pretty much about working, training, spending as much time as we could with family visiting, and making sure to get enough sleep.  This next week will be even more so – probably the highest volume we’ll do at 11ish planned hours of training.  The key workouts will be a mid-week 13.1 (easy pace) and my longest bike brick: 50 bike/4 run (I’ll do another long brick but it will be more run heavy).  Beyond training – sleep, carbs, and a little bit of finding hidden time to unwind will be key to making this happen.

Kerrville Overall Process and Training:

I want to make sure to go on the record with some plans and goals.  To be quite honest, I felt so ready and improved so much last year (to the tune of a 23 minute PR), this is mostly “more of the same as this time last year”, including things like…

1. 2×3 week training blocks with 1 week stepback then taper.  This sounds like OMG NOT ENOUGH TIME (even doing it the second time it’s freaking me out), but it’s just enough to do a volume build the first 3 weeks, rest a bit, and dial up the intensity the second three weeks and then BANG BOOM RACE TIME before you get time to be burnt out or really question what the hell is going on.

At least that’s how it went last time.  I wouldn’t suggest doing this with a new distance, but I’m pretty comfortable (err, well, as comfortable as is reasonable not having raced one this year) with the 70.3 miles of a half iron, so this really is just molding the clay back into the shape of this race.

2. More on focus on quality than quantity – training for a reason vs ALL THA MILEZ.

I’ve found that it is very easy for me to swim forever.  Before this year, it’s been very hard for me to find any intensity in the water.  In the water, it is more important to practice speed than jumping into the pool or lake for an hour to swim slowly (especially when I think I’ll finish the swim part of my race in 35-40 mins).

Likewise, I can jump onto my trainer and ride for 4 hours without an issue (well, besides my ass hurting).  Before this year, I had a hard time finding the hurt and staying with it.  Tuesday cycle classes and hard effort Saturday rides w/a small brick run are my cycle staples and I’ve really dialed down the easy trainer miles (so far, non-existent in this build).

Running is the only place where I find the value in mostly easy, a little hard, which is good because if I’m going hard on most swims and bikes I’ll need some recovery sessions and it’s the best way for me to gradually build endurance overall. 🙂

I also have a few things to add to the mix I’d like to keep in the brain this cycle.

1. Be present in the moment.

I’ve read some great articles lately about mental training (sadly, I didn’t save the links, so you’ll just have to take my word).  While it’s not easy, I’m trying to go beyond griping in my head about the suffering, to staying in each moment and giving it what it deserves without judgment of where I was, where I’m going, how it felt five minutes ago, and how it will feel in an hour.  At Jack’s Generic, by just staying RIGHT THERE in that zone… the cone of NOW (not shame), I was able to get to another level on the run (according to my HR data).  I know I have a MUCH better half marathon off the bike than I’ve ever been able to harness and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens when I toe the line with that attitude.

2. Long run Thursday mornings, long rides Saturday mornings.

Last year I alternated long ride/run weekends, and while it worked out OK for Kerrville, I never got any longer-than-half marathon runs which I think hurt my marathon training for SpaceCoast.  I’m going to sacrifice a little sleep on Wednesday nights (or hopefully, get used to going to be really early) so I can get out for a 2-3 hour run before work once a week.

3. Caaaaaaarbs.

I’ve belabored the point a lot lately, but I’m aiming for 400g daily.  Bring on the pretzels and cereal!

Race Goals for Kerrville

Guys, it’s super scary to put this out there, but I’ve done some calculations and if I have the perfect day, it’s within my power to possibly, maybe, sub-6.  Doing some math using the Rookie CoefficientTM, I’m REALLY close – as in 6:02 and some change.  2013 – I PR’d by 6.6% (pretty cool weather).  Last year – I PR’d by 5.6% (really HOT weather).  If I split the average there, it’s approximately a 6:08.

I really think the biggest factor that could affect this outcome is the weather.  If we could manage to get a decently cool day, I’ll really have a shot.  I’ll take a crack at it regardless, but if it’s in the feels like 90s and full sun like last year, it will be a uphill challenge.

I know I’m a faster swimmer.  I know I’m a faster cyclist.  I think I’m a MENTALLY stronger runner if nothing else, and the run course has changed (I *think* for the better, hoping to do some recon soon).  So, it’s possible.

I’m only 2 weeks into training so I’ll re-evalute closer to the race, but it’s exciting thinking that a time starting with 5 is worth at least talking about this year.  If all things keep improving, 2016 may be the year I talk about potentially racing for placement in my AG (at these local races).  That’s REALLY exciting.

Alrighty campers, time to get my Monday on.  Week 3, and GO!

Week 1 down, 7 to go.

Training – Waking up the Muscles

I’ve got two different feelings this week and they contradict each other, but that’s where I’m at.

Feeling #1 – behind the curve: I felt this way last year since a 2 month intensive 70.3 “camp” was an unknown.  It ended up working out well, so I shouldn’t be feeling this way, right?

Well, I was only able to eek out 7.5 hours last week instead of the 10.5 I was this week last year.  It was all good quality stuff, but not enough volume, in my opinion.  I really need to be on top of QUANTITY for the next 2 weeks because this is really *it* for the volume building portion of this exercise.  And considering I haven’t raced anything longer than ~2 hours since the marathon, I really NEED some time in water/butt on bike/shoes on pavement.

Feeling #2 – confidence: I know this is a totally weird thing to say after disclosing the fact that I’m freaking out a little… I woke up to my brain saying “aaaargh, not enough time, omg”, this morning, but the work I *am* putting in is showing some promise.

I only swam once last week, but still I’m comfortably able to cover a good portion of the swim distance significantly below my race pace last year.

I biked 35 miles on the same terrain I did last year to train, which is much harder than the bike course.  Even though this was my first ride this year over 2 hours, I was over 1.5 mph faster than this time last year and I was not completely spent.

I ran most of last week stupid easy, but I was able to pull out 2 very hot 10:20-pace miles after the bike when my intent was to go faster than easy (fingers crossed, this would be race pace).

I still haven’t done a 2k swim, a 50 mile ride, or a double digit run, but I’m feeling pretty confident that it won’t take me too long to have those things in my comfort zone again.  It just takes (see #1) putting in the work.

Week 1 Training Stats:

• 1 swim: 1300m in 25 mins (skipped swim #2 for the week)
• 2 bikes: ~32 miles in the pain cave in 1:20, and a long outdoor ride of 35 miles in 2:09.  Quality here, but not quantity.
• 3 runs: 5 miles and 7 miles easy (planned for 8, but I stepped off a curb funny and went home to nurse my foot, which feels fine now – better safe than sorry), 2 mile race pace brick.
• 2 dozen (not 24 :D) strength sets and 1.5 stretch sessions

Total time: 7.5 hours.

This week I’m hoping to hit 10 hours divided up into 20 miles of running, 100 miles of biking, 3000m swimming, and 2 strength and stretch sets.  Cross your fingers for me!

Life – Literally Waking Up Early

The reason it’s been hard to get in the hours is that we have family in town and we’re trying to see them as much as we can.  I thought I had it all sorted when I decided we were going to become morning people and wake up really early to train.

Some problems with that:

1. It’s not in my nature.  I would MUCH rather train other times besides dawn.  It takes some adjustment, and I’m still adjusting.  I’ve been doing BETTER at not throwing the alarm clock across the room and saying fuck it, but really, it just comes from the motivation that I *can’t* reschedule this training and have to salvage something or I’m failing for the day.  Once I have a little more schedule flexibility, I’m sure I’ll be back to my norm of only up super early if I absolutely have to.

2. That time has to come from somewhere.  Waking up early to train is great and all, but then we go to work a full day (and sometimes have another session at lunch), and then by the time we’re home it’s really time for dinner then bed.  It’s hard to communicate the “ok, it’s 8-9pm, I know we’ve only seen you for an hour or two, but we have to kick you out because we need to sleeeeep” message without sounding like we’re rude and full of shit because normal humans don’t go to sleep that early.

3. I was so exhauuuuusted from the week of early alarms I slept in yesterday until 9, and then took a 3 hour nap after lunch.  And still went to bed early enough to get up and run in the morning (but not early enough to get my WHOLE session).  That’s all well and nice that my body got rest, but it really fucked up my plans for the day and made me miss a training session!

However… as frustrating as it is, it’s reality this month.  So I better just get with the program.

Food: Waking up the Appetite

Noodles are cool again!

Last week was my first attempt at fueling like a real, bonafide endurance athlete.  I kind of failed horribly.

The first half of the week, I couldn’t stuff enough calories in my mouth.  I have never walked around so constantly full in my life, and I wasn’t even close to the top range of what I was supposed to be eating.  By the end of the week, I was doing better calorie-wise, but my macros were all off because I didn’t have the right types of foods around.

Here’s my problem: I’ve gotten used to eating very nutritionally dense meals.  My goal right now to hit 100g protein, 25g fiber, 40-60g fat… I’m hitting these in ~1400 calories.  When I try to increase my calories, I’m SIGNIFICANTLY overdoing the fat because I’ve gotten used to jacking up my calories with fat when I need stuff in the tank.

So, basically – if I don’t want to change the way I eat meals, I need to be pushing a TON of snackage that is:

• High calorie
• High carb
• Low fiber
• Low protein

So, yesterday, I did some research, and basically went to all the “lose weight now” sites and made notes of what they said to NOT eat and added about half of them to my grocery list.  Basically instead of carrots and hummus and apples and jerky and cheese which I used to snack on, I’ve got pretzels and cereal and low-fiber fruit this week.

It’s just weird to have to eat LESS (of what society has deemed in 2015 to be) healthy to meet my nutritional needs.  But I always gotta be a special snowflake…

It’s really still too early to tell, but I am feeling ready for all my training sessions, and like I have plenty enough in the tank.  We’ll see how I feel this week when I actually hit normal volume.  It is REALLY novel not to ever feel hungry when I’ve spent the majority of the last… seven? years being hungry.  A lot.

I am ignoring the scale until further notice.  I feel a little bloaty (which my nutritionist said would be normal) but my clothes still fit so that’s that.

Question: what is your favorite snack?