Adjusted Reality

Page 103 of 219

T Minus 5

On January 14, 2014

3M approaches, quicker than I’d like, actually, as I forgot how much work it takes to run fast. It’s easy to equate longer distances and more hours as work, but ~20 hours a week of runs, less than 3.5 hours of actual running work, sounds like playtime to my ears. Something fun to occupy my time during that weird time between the marathon and actual tri training starting, when I’m not ready to succumb to the offseason, I thought this endeavor would be.

But I haven’t done the “every mile COUNTS” type plan in years, and I remember now that those ~20 miles, they are enough. I’m fortunate to absolutely <3 speedwork in the form of 3×1600, 8×400, etc at some crazy fast pace. This is fun to me. I have no idea why I stopped doing these workouts, but never ever again.

I do remember why I gave up weekly tempo and faster long runs. They hurt, without much relief. When you’re in pain on mile 3 of 10 trying to run a pace you haven’t hit in 3 years, there’s not much light at the end of the tunnel. When you’re pretty much weekly attempting to PR your 5 mile run time, it’s a far cry from those lovely jaunts outside just to get some miles in. However, as they say, and I paraphrase, what’s hard is what will make you better in the long run, so I will suffer through them today so maybe when I toe the line Sunday, I’ll have a few extra ounces of toughness I can draw upon.

I am definitely in the Goldilocks situation though here with running. The “no-speedwork and no specific goal besides miles” plan earlier this year was too cold. The “every mile is calculated out to an exact specific goal pace” is too hot. I need something that’s just right – a mix between specific goal paces/tough workouts, and sessions that are “just go run 10 happy fun miles easy”.

This year will be about figuring out the balance. I know the ratio is supposed to be 80 easy/20 hard, but you also need to have enough volume to make that work, which right now, we don’t, so I think there is something to rotating between sports, setting one at maintenance levels (right now, swimming), one working towards distance (right now, bike, sort of), and one working towards speed (right now, run). It seems to be working thus far, as I am a WAY better runner than I was 4 months ago, and I know I’ve lost just a little in the pool and on the bike, things that seem (and I hope very much) will come back quickly, slower than the nice winter base of running (and running fast) fades.

But, bringing it around to what happens this weekend, my first race of 2014 is a half marathon. A downhill half marathon, in what looks like to be just about stupid perfect temperatures (45 degrees, cloudy but no rain, not much wind). If I was hitting my workouts perfectly, training for a sub-2, this would be the half marathon in which to do it.

However, my training has not been perfect. I missed or had to downgrade quite a few runs because I was sick and/or holiday stuff. I’ve only done two 10 mile runs, and neither of them were at the 9:40 min/miles that is supposed to be my long run pace for a sub-2. I’ve missed a few runs. However, the silver lining is I’ve been able to attack a 5 mile tempo each week @ 8:55 pace or below. I’ve hit every speedwork session on the money. It’s just when I have to move the belt myself, aka, outside and not on the treadmill, is when I choke. I can’t quite remember the pace without my mechanical friend.

And I’m out of time. What I was hoping would be 1-2 tempos on the treadmill and my legs would remember the paces outside just didn’t pan out, because magic doesn’t always happen in a short training cycle in which you catch the plague and get distracted by the holidays. What I cannot sneeze at is that I have seen some major improvements, and if you would have told tri-season ’13 me that I’d be running around 10 min/mile pace regularly outside and not dying, I would have giggled with glee. But I’m somewhere between that “most improved kid, fall 2013” and “ready to run my sub-2”.

The man with the hammer seems to have missed me on the treadmill, but has caught me about mile 3-4 on most of my outdoor runs.

So with that in mind, what’s the plan?

The good news is my body has been telling me pretty early how it feels on runs, and 13 miles isn’t terribly long to me right now – it’s the paces that are killing me right now, not the miles, my legs are absorbing those just fine. Even accounting for some race day happy puppy, I don’t think I’ll start out too quick, and most runs, the last few miles have been the best. Also, my body’s felt pretty rough the last 2-3 weeks due to holiday sludge, which is not a silver lining in and of itself, but it won’t be a shock if the whole run sucks, like it was at the marathon.

The plan is to start out at 9:30 pace, and hold that for the first 3 miles, no matter how awful or easy it is. From there, I’ll figure it out. If I can hold that 9:30, I can come in around 2:05, which is a nice 3+ minute PR (which was 3.5 years ago and about 15 lbs less, so you’ll have that). I need to maintain at least a 9:40 average overall (that fateful 9:40 pace I have not been able yet to conquer) to PR with some time to spare. I’ll need to pick it up to about 9:05s to sub-2.

I intended to go completely balls out into this race, but I’m not sure my training and body condition supports that. However, I don’t want to risk having the day of my life and sandbagging it, so I think this plan strikes a good middle balance.

I’m also having trouble with the wardrobe choices – mostly the shoes. I ran one week with the hokas, and one week with the Asics. The Hokas feel like wonderful little trampolines, and my feet feel cuddled, protected, and I’m not feeling like I am being held back by them (I ran speedwork, a tempo, and two outdoor 6ers). The Asics do feel sexy, light, and extremely comfortable, but my heel was aching a bit by mile 9 of the outdoor run. Hokas, I know I’ll be comfortable the entire time, but I don’t have enough experience in either of them to know what I’ll feel like at the end, or if racing in the Hokas will leave some speed on the table. I’m still not sure yet.

The other factors in what sort of a day I might have is allergies (I was knocked out Saturday, and better this week, but still experiencing symptoms). I’m planning not to spend much time outside this week, but cedar is supposed to be killer and not letting up for a while. Also, nutrition. I’m still working my way through detoxing all the holiday junk out of my body, and I’m hoping 2 weeks of being a good little girl is enough to feel like myself on race day.

I haven’t had the stars align to have a better-than-expected race in quite a while, so I’ll totally take it if it comes my way, but I’m also ready to fight for just squeaking by with a PR and suffering the entire time. T minus 5 until I toe the line and face that evil, nasty man with the hammer.

How It Is, And How It Has Been, Winter Blahs Edition

By Quix

On January 8, 2014

In Uncategorized

In 2013, I set monthly goals. In retrospect, I really liked the idea of having monthly goals and checking in with myself on them monthly, for many reasons.

I’m a procrastinator. Even if I pushed things like, “go make an eye appointment” to the end of the month, at least it got done. Previously, I’d just let those hang out for months/years.

If I saw something appear over and over undone, it made me look at the undone thing and decide what was happening. Was it just not enough of a priority (in which case, I should forget about it)? Was something standing in my way I needed to resolve first? Was it just not worth the time and effort investment (in which case, I should forget about it)? Previously, I’d just get annoyed and go into a minor shame spiral about NOT BEING ABLE TO GET SHIT DONE.

I also have the memory of a goldfish. If something is on a list, I’ll remember to at least consider doing it.

However, I didn’t love some things about it. It was yet another list, which I have too many of on my blog. I don’t need another. Also, I tried the gimmick of 13 each month (in ’13) and found myself making stupid goals just to fill out the list. Finally, it feels like I didn’t focus on all of my yearly goals each month, or at least consider how they fit into the plan.

So, this year, I’m going to try to do a monthly dialogue here. A conversation over (decaf tea or) coffee as if I was catching up with an old friend on how my month had gone, and how I wanted my next one to go.

December:

Ah, December. I love the month because it means time off, Christmas and holidays, with the cheer, presents, twinkly lights, family, food, and fun. I hate this month (ok, my waistline, training, and sleep schedule hate this month) because of deviation from routine, fun food, celebrations, letting go, and hiding in my hidey hole because it’s vacation. Also, it goes from HAPPY FUN HOLIDAY straight into worst depressing awful yucky time of year so there’s that. Post holiday blues, going from happy twinky lights to blah, bad allergies, cold weather, grey days, and all that nonsense.

I ran the marathon, I felt rebounded real quick (like, after about a week), and then I started training for 3M Half Marathon. I was actually doing really, really well, hitting some really great paces for me, but then I got sick. Not sick enough to really fuck shit up, but enough to disrupt my awesome weekend I had planned and then wreck my mojo for about a week after. However, I still got in just about everything.

Then holiday break hit. I did my best, but this last week was just a mess. Too much to do, body finally hitting the breaking point with all the crap that’s being put in it food and booze-wise, and I have a lot of red (not complete) or yellow boxes (not completed as planned) on my schedule, and that’s not good for 1 week out of a 4 week + taper cycle.

It’s not all terrible – I did get one solid 10 miler in, plenty of 6 milers, and wrecked the crap out of some speedwork and tempos on the treadmill. I dipped my toe into weights, but that’s about it, to wake up my abs and my arms and tell them they won’t be putty forever. I also did another 110 mile trainer ride, just to remind my quads what would be to come this season.

The good news is that the scale doesn’t think I’m that terrible of a person. On NYE, after not weighing regularly for a while and fearing for the worst, I weighed in at 176. Now, I’ve seen a few numbers AFTER that day that don’t make me very happy, but I’m pretty sure that a week of drinking water (not wine), batch cooked healthy meals, and counting calories, and I’ll have this under control.

The other good news is I really, really enjoyed my happy fun break of hanging out with friends, playing games (video, board, and tabletop), reading, eating amazing food, cuddling my husband, and relaxing. There was a point where I had no idea what day it was, and had no to do list. That was refreshing, to just be and exist and not worry. I miss it already.

A few things I didn’t get done that I wanted to: go use my iFly cert, finish (I started, but have a long way to go) my Savage Worlds story, and figure out a way to make the break longer.

January:

A new year, a new start. 2013 was generally awesome but had some sucktastic moments. I love the new year, the calendar pages blank and ready to be scribbled upon, like new fallen snow… if I liked snow. So far, it’s been a little rough transitioning from vacation to real life. I don’t mind the routine, I actually like it, I just… am not quite ready for things to wratchet up to 11. January has not been terribly kind thus far, but I’m hoping I’m through the worst of it, and we can call a do-over with a slower crescendo.

In terms of the sporty spice side of life, this month will have peaks and valleys. In 1.5 weeks, I’m running 3M, my first race of the year, and the first half marathon I’ve race-raced since 2010, which happens to be my PR of 2:08:08. Then, I plan on taking a week or two a little lax (honestly, my goal is to swim a shit ton since I have my new swimp3 player and it could use the kick start since I’ve swam TWICE since Kerrville), and then starting to ramp up for tri season.

I’m going to stay run-focused the first part of the year, but I’ll have to sacrifice some of that lovely hoka time for lovely bike (maybe some OUTSIDE) or lovely pool time. It is really nice to be a triathlete right now that loves all 3 sports. None of them are on my shit list, or in the doghouse. I have a feeling it won’t take until February, and my guess is that either biking or swimming (or both) will reside there for a while while I shake off the maintenance cobwebs into real work, but it’s all part of the fun.

I have the first part of my season narrowed down to a sane racing schedule, now it’s time to just make sure it’s sane in terms of travel and money. The plan is to do 2-3 half marathons early in the year to keep the legs sharp. I want major run motivation, and I also really want a good shot to PR my half before summer hits. I’ve got a few bike rides as well. Neither of them are full centuries, but they’ll get me some nice outdoor miles. Then, an April triathlon, one in May, and two in June. I’m still debating distances, but it looks like one sprint, two x-50s (1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, and 9 mile run), and one either olympic or 70.3 (which is my season opener – otherwise the 70.3 would be a no-brainer). I hope to get the registrations done this month, before a lot of them go up in price.

In terms of healthy eating, I’m enjoying the January cliche. I fell off the wagon a bit, and now it’s time to jump back on. I’m the most ready for this. I miss good healthy food. I batch cooked this weekend and now I have meals that are delicious and just a microwave oven away. This month has to be strict for me. Logging every calorie and diet quality score. No sugar except on the bike. I need an ass kicking to get myself back to… myself.

My weight is hanging out right now about 179. So, I’m not going to make a numerical goal because I’ve seen that’s pointless, but if I follow everything above, it should equate to LESS. I’m hoping significantly less.

In domestic affairs, my biggest goal is to get the house back in order. Getting Christmas and NYE decorations down and stored (they’re down but not stored), cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer (again) to make my healthy food accessible and get rid of the junk, and keep the house (relatively) neat in between cleanings. I’ve gotten a little better at this over 2013, but I could be better.

Thing of the month for January is replacing the front door. New cracks appear in it every month as we slam it closed three times before it actually takes. It’s time. I’ll have to deal with having an ugly white door until we decide what to do with the exterior, but functionality is more important now. A bonus goal? Cleaning out my car. I kept it SO clean for the first five years of it’s life but now it’s my junk bucket. It will take 15 minutes to do, I just need to make it happen.

In social matters, January should be a nicely balanced month. I have parent plans, friend plans, and game night or two on the horizon. I definitely am going to need to take care to not get overextended though – my training volume isn’t high enough that I’m physically exhausted all the time, so I need to artificially engineer days of relaxation to keep the mental fatigue in check.

In social media – I need to be good about blackout days. For example, Sunday at home. This was harder than I expected. I loaded it up, checked everything, closed it down…. and later in the day I had the itch… and caved. It was much better than having it open all day though. This is the big focus this month… not bending to the time-waster will. On Sunday, I got a LOT of shit done that I might not have if I was tied to my laptop all day, so it was at least a partial win.

In general, my goal will be to get back into routine, and have it be just that by the end of the month. Eating good food, following a training plan, getting back into old, good habits, and minus a few goals, saving the revolutionary stuff for another month. Keeping a to do list (both at work and at home) so that when I have small chunks of free time, I don’t flail as much at being productive. Y’know, that kind of goodness.

Thanks for indulging me, now it’s your turn! Tell me… how was your December? What do you hope to accomplish in January?

New Years 2014 Roadmap

By Quix

On January 3, 2014

In Uncategorized

Instead of posting on Dec 31 or Jan 1 like I usually do, I had to take some extra time on this. I had this great ordered list written out, but it looked and felt to me like a schedule or an outline, impersonal and to-do-list-y. I wanted to take some time and really reset and explore the thoughts behind each thing, and I really wanted to give myself a roadmap for the year rather than a list of shit I won’t care about in a month.

1. Training, racing, being generally a triathlete.

I have mixed feelings about 2013. I shouldn’t, because I made some pretty good swim and bike progress, and running got happy late in the year and I’m kinda back to where I was 3 years ago (finallllly), but I don’t feel like I really nailed a lot of my races and running was really miserable for so long.

First of all, I’ve found that my focus this year needs to be the run, then the bike, then the swim, at least the first half of the year. I’ve been making amazing run gains simply by running more, and then with my big base, running faster. I want to maintain a good base, and pull some nice big weeks during peak training. I’m finding the run is the first to go and the last to come back, so it needs the most attention. I’m not losing that much on the bike (if anything) just keeping one long trainer ride per week, and I pretty much quit swimming for 3 months and I picked up almost where I left off once I got back in the water (I’m a little slower, but a week or two of multiple swims a week should fix that).

Goal #1: maintain a 20 mile/week run base, pull some 40+ weeks during peak training.

Each workout needs a specific goal. I’m not seeing much improvement with workouts like “run 10 miles” or “bike on the trainer for 2 hours”. I saw some amazing run improvement when I incorporated specific speedwork (aka – 8×400 @ 7:50 pace), and started tempos again (either as part of a longer run or the whole run itself). I’m hoping to transfer that work over to the bike and the swim as I start focusing there.

I want to really focus on nailing training. I missed my goal time for the marathon by 22 minutes. I just was not having a super day, my legs forgot to show up. Rather than it being a disaster, I just thought back on the AMAZING training I had done, and was extremely happy.

Goal #2: have a specific workout planned for each session with pace goals (unless it’s truly a recovery day, then EASY will suffice). Do not neglect speedwork on any of the three disciplines. Show up and conquer each training session.

I’m still planning out my race schedule, but this year, I’m not locked into racing anything because it’s part of a series, and I didn’t jump on any presales. 2014 truly is my oyster at this point. I want to race enough to keep me motivated and interested, but also remember that I LOVED the 2 month training block and not to let my race FOMO get the best of me. Racing during the hot summer doesn’t make me happy, so I’m not going to do it, I’m going to focus around a spring season and fall season taking the summer as a break from serious training.

Specifically, I want to PR my half marathon, do a full century outdoors (either standalone or as a full IM aquabike), and complete a 70.3 where I feel as if I raced it (which should assuredly result in a PR, but a PR in and of itself is not exactly what I’m chasing), but I’m sure other goals will come up as the year progresses.

Goal #3: plan out a reasonable season with adequate training time and enough offseason to keep me from being crispy. Figure out what the A, B, and C races are and set appropriate goals.

2. Eating/the scale/diet quality

2013 was the first year I saw some actual downward progress since 2009, when I finished losing all the weights. I lost 10 lbs in the spring, and I’ve kept it off. I’d like to do the same this year (I’m not picky about which season, I’d be ok if this happened in Jan and Feb ;D). So, a lot of this will be more of the same (as that period of time), which is helpful.

The real key here is accountability and data. I can lose weight when I track both the quantity and the quality of what is going in my mouth, and set appropriate goals by my current training level. I need some flexibility, as I get really crazy if I try to be perfect, but I do best with numerical goals here and sometimes just having to own up to logging the calorie damage and/or negative diet quality points will stop me from making crappy decisions.

Goal #1: track calories and diet quality all year, minus vacations and/or periods where I am on break.

Batch cooking was a major success. Having something that I wanted to eat on hand to throw in the microwave was a huge proponent in me eating good food in proper portions. Let me tell you what I don’t want to do after an early morning run, a full day at work, and then a night session? Cook. However, my laziness usually works to my advantage here, because nuking something that I may not be 100% thrilled with will usually win over going to purchase something else or making something else from scratch.

I have a great repository of batch recipes now, but I’d like to start working on incorporating and trying to like some foods that are super healthy, but I’m not so keen on, or actually like, but rarely eat. I conquered avocados and kale last year, I’d like to see if I can incorporate sweet potatoes and see if I can do anything with eggs that mask their taste and texture to be a meaningful addition to a recipe. In the latter category, I’d like to eat brussel sprouts more – I love them, but I always forget about them.

Goal #2: batch cook the majority of 2014, and make use of my fit/snap kitchen when I’m too busy to do so. Try some new recipes, and try to incorporate foods that I don’t 100% love but want to love, to see if I can make myself love them. Keep variety in my fruits and veggies – man cannot live on spinach, mixed veggies, apples, and berries alone.

3. Organization/House/Renovations

I bit off more than I could chew last year. Guess what a busy triathlete wants to do on precious free time during the season? I can tell you for certain that it’s NOT spend the weekend cleaning shit. This year, I want to renew the theme of trying to do something per month, but scope it to the amount of time I reasonably have to dedicate to it. If that’s reordering a room, great. If it’s just cleaning out the junk drawer in the kitchen, that’s fine too.

Goal #1: set one goal per month to clean/organize/redo something. It can be as small or large as I choose.

Last year was the money suck of everything breaking (our house, electronics, random things, us…) and I’m not sure how much we’ll have to really spend on a bunch of remodel this year. However, it would be nice to scope out and start planning some of the larger projects we want to do and keep an eye out for deals.

Goal #2: We must fix the shingle in the roof and replace the front door. Scope out redoing the slab on the patio and covering it, repainting/brick work the exterior, kitchen counters and if we want to redo anything else there (gold stars for completing).

4. Social/Social Media Habits

Pic shamelessly stolen from my friend, A. Also, sad that I had to go back to 2012 for a friends picture, I have been really bad about taking group pics this last year.

2013 was the year I figured out responsible drinking, quit smoking, and really found a balance between going into a training hole and being so social I wasn’t rested and wanted everyone to go the fuck away. This is a lot of same-as-it-was with a few additions, mostly on online habits. I don’t have that much in the way of long thoughts here, so I’ll just number these.

Goal #1: continue to host game nights with our Savage Worlds crew. Actually finish my story and GM for the first time with our SW campaign. Do an occasional game night with other board games.

Goal #2: we only had ONE large party at our house this year. That made me sad. This year, I’d like to host at least 3 – one for our birthday (March), one to celebrate the first part of the season being over (July), and NYE (December).

Goal #3: no matter how busy I am, I need to hang out with people who are not my family at least twice a month.

Goal #4: social media blackout days. I waste WAY too much time on twitter and facebook when I have them open all the time. I’m declaring Wednesday and Sunday blackout days. I can open them once in the morning to scan/to make sure I’m not missing messages or somethin’, and then they stay closed all day.

Goal #5: start following more triathlete/runner people and actually interacting with them. Purge my twitter feed of shit I don’t care about. Comment on a larger variety of blogs so maybe more than 2 people might read this stuff.

Goal #6: write shit that’s not just race/training recaps and ordered lists. Yeah, that stuff is important because it helps me analyze data and reflect and grow and maybe share some of my successes and fails with other people, but it gets duuuuuulll. I’d like to err on the side of doing these less often, quarantining them to maybe a once a month data dump, and that frees me up for more posts about the random thing that I was thinking about during my run and delicious recipes and my newfound love for Hokas. I’d like to find my writing voice again, and report-posts take me away from that.

Goal #7 upload the photos I use HERE instead of linking from facebook, because apparently they go away after a while (looking through my archives, anything over 2 years old seems to have no photos, which I assure you – they had).

5. Bric-a-brac/One Liners

Goal #1: Get through my coaching class. Look into both being mentored by other, more experienced coaches, and working with some athletes besides my husband and my friend M. Start at least working through what it might be to make this a business if/when the opportunity presents itself.

Goal #2: Go somewhere epic. Right now, the current thought is Australia for the 70.3 there, but if that doesn’t work out – something similar. Marathon in Europe perhaps?

Goal #3: Make something on the sewing machine that can be worn out of the house, from scratch. Make at least a few new necklaces. Figure out a better way to store my necklaces, or at least organize them in a way which makes sense.

Goal #4: Start an outline and working doc for a personal game project that we came up with last year and got really excited about, but have not committed to paper yet.

Goal #5: Scuba dive at least once over the summer to keep our skills sharp (and of course, on vacation in March and in December). Maybe get nitrox certified so we can dive longer/lower.

Goal #6: Complete the TX Tri Series. Considering I’m only signing up to race 2 of them, that means volunteering for 4 of them. Volunteer as the opportunity presents itself otherwise.

Goal #7: Take care of myself to avoid mental crispiness. One day a month needs to be off. Like, completely. No chores, no shopping, no training, no major cooking, just pure relaxation. Take mental health days as necessary from work, or at least clue my boss and assistant in on days I feel really really mentally thin so they can help me.

Goal #8: Play games, read, go to movies… don’t get stuck in a “watch endless seasons of things” rut. Try to do other stuff too that’s relaxing.

Goal #9: Do something really, super, over the top nice for someone that they don’t expect that doesn’t benefit me at all.

Hopefully, this map gets me to the place where I go, “Damn, I ROCKED 2014!”.

Question: Where does your 2014 roadmap take you?

2013 Resolution Recap

By Quix

On January 1, 2014

In Uncategorized

Meant to post this yesterday, but I was too busy creating 1995 in our house for a 90s throwback party, so I’ll start the new year looking back for a bit. Here’s my 2013, in a nutshell, in terms of goals…

1. Be a serious, focused, well and specifically trained triathlete following the Triathlete’s Training Bible plan. Make a plan and stick to it. I want a shiny new PR for each tri distance at least, which shouldn’t be difficult. The goal is to just to do better in each repeated race than I did the year before. This will be discussed in detail on this blog because this is what I do – so for now we can leave it at that.

Mostly, yes. I rocked the shit out of every swim and bike split. Running was a challenge this year because of injuries, but I even pulled out some PRs there when things went well (10/20, marathon, Kerrville, Playtri, etc). My plan got a little muddled later in the year, but I really think I learned a lot about what works for ME and will put that into practice in 2014.

2. Probably the single most thing I can do to improve my times is improve body composition. I’ve had a few false starts at this, but 2013 is my year, I think, partly because I’m finally really getting it in my head that it’s not about looking good in jeans, it’s about PRs…

And, I realize that my strength is making goals and plans. Here are the things I am going to do to get there (cut for brevity)…

What I am most proud of here is that through a full race season and two long vacations, I didn’t gain my loss of 10 lbs this year back. So something is working. I just need to kick start it again to make more progress. I’m not at my “goal weight”, but I’m ending 2013 weighing less than I did to ring it in. So that is a HUGE win!

3. Keep taking steps towards making my house not look like a slobby college student is renting it. Our goals this year are:

Get a new stove, couch, front door, and coffee table
Get granite counters instead of this white formica crap
Spend the year focusing on getting more organized. Each month, we will pick one room or “zone” (because some rooms need to be divided and some need to be groups) and pull everything out, see what we can get rid of, and buying or utilizing a better way to store and organize it.

Got all the new things but the front door, and that’s on the list absolutely next. This was the year of everything breaking, so we spent more money than expected so the counters will have to wait a year or two.

I spent the first quarter of the year trying to keep up with this and found that it was WAY too ambitious and stressing me out. Guess what you don’t want to do during peak training season? Spend a weekend cleaning out and organizing a room. I’ve got to narrow my scope here if I want to not throw up my hands and give up like I did this year.

4 Social Habits:

a) Get better at being social without drinking like a fish. Don’t go into a training hole where our friends don’t see us for months unless they drop by.

I think we were a little better. We kept a recurring game night at least once a month or so with friends, and we attempted not to be flakes too much (except if we were racing on that specific weekend). I can’t think of a two week period where we didn’t see friends, even during peak training. I will call this a win.

b) Completely cut out cigs by April 1.

0 cigs since Jan 1st. The smell grosses me out now and I can’t imagine ever smoking again. The best things have happened this year – I have no catch in my breath anymore when doing sprints, my fingers don’t smell gross and look yellow for a day after the weekend, and I don’t have to go outside when it’s hot or cold.

Best of all, hangovers are typically a thing of the past. I had NO idea most of what was wrecking me was the smokes, not the alcohol. I can make myself sick with booze if I try real hard, but usually it’s only when I’m around smokers and get the secondhand.

I am still using the e-cigs, but I’m going through the equivalent of about 3-5 ultra light cigs worth of nicotine when drinking (on an all day bender, maaaaaaybe 10). I can easily drink a few beers without one, and not even think about it, it’s just when I get to #3 or #4 I start looking for the puffer.

So, major progress this year. Still a little nicotine but no other chemicals and I can do without sometimes. I’m very satisfied with that.

5. Do something with the blog. Zliten and I are working on collaboration between his new GoPro and video making skills and my writing.

Yeah… not really. We tried starting a new blog, but as Zliten found out, video editing is hard work and he got burnt out on it real quick, and I got a little stressed out posting two different places. I’ve been lazily cross posting my race recaps there, and Zliten stopped that over the summer.

I would really like to do something with this little space here, but, like priorities. There’s running and biking and swimming to do. And work. And games. And books. And beer.

6. One liners:

Learn to sew. I got a sweet sewing machine and table for Christmas. I’d like, by next year, to have produced one article of clothing from scratch that I can wear out of the house.

No, but I did make a sweet remote holder for the bedroom, and the last time I sat down to sew I felt much more comfortable. Next year, perhaps!

Take a nice, week long vacation somewhere in November or December once season is over (i.e. not cram both vacations this year into 3 weeks during peak training). Hawaii? Costa Rica?

Yep! Cocoa Beach + Key Largo fit the bill nicely.

Learn to scuba dive before our cruise in April.

Open water and Advanced Open water certified, and 15 dives later, I think I can say this is a check!

Take mental health days when I need them, and make sure that I monitor my crispiness during training to make sure I’m not too fried

I probably did better at this only because my vacation time was a little more spaced out this yer. I also did better about warning my boss when I was really mentally thin, if it wasn’t a good day to bail, and he covered my ass a little on those days and was more understanding. I was a much better employee this year because of it.

Play more games. Since the office is set up, I can actually play things on my computer and I will continue to work through telltales’ library on the PS3. Get caught up to level cap in my own game. Continue to derive inspiration from my industry.

Sigh… the office was set up for about a month and then I realized I hated sitting at a desk all day after work. Then, we went back to the couch and while I have played SOME games this year, I can’t say I played MORE than last year, at least in terms of video games.

Host a game night once a month.

Yeah!!! While I didn’t play a lot more video games, I played a TON of board games and table top with friends. I loved this and hope to continue.

Continue to read more. At least 20 books this year.

I don’t know that I made 20, but I did make an effort to read more often than previous years, and I made it through a whole series and I’m onto a new one.

Volunteer more. At races, at the park, etc.

I volunteered at 3 races. I feel pretty good about that and plan to do it again next year.

As for 2014 goals, I’m still working on them, I need more time to think. Since it’s a silly short weird week anyway, I’m going to take some more time and consider the possibilities! A whole new year of calendar pages to mark up and explore! How exciting!

Question: what was your biggest 2013 resolution, and how did you do?

2013 Season Recap: Highs and Lows (and 2014 Musings…)

By Quix

On December 28, 2013

In Uncategorized

I’ve done all the race reports, so I won’t bore you with a blow by blow, but here’s the highs and the lows for the year.

High: Not racing for over 2 months (12/15 to 2/26)

I really needed a break after last year. I enjoyed 7 weeks of just being slothy, and then the slow, gradual build from a lump of putty to an athlete. During that period, I would not call that a high point, because it was frustrating, but in hindsight, it’s nice to know that it’s possible to go from sloth to athlete again in a few months.

It also helped us to be able to cheer and volunteer for other races since we weren’t racing ourselves. I got to hand a bottle to the women’s winner of the Austin Marathon because I wasn’t racing it. That was cool!

We also got to do cool stuff like learn to scuba dive because we weren’t training so hard. And we, as triathletes, absolutely needed another really expensive hobby!

High: Winning for overall women at Lifetime Indoor Tri (Feb)

It feels cheesy to say it, because it was so small, but there were 11 women. And I beat the rest of them. Being solidly in the middle of the pack, give or take depending on the event, I’ll take what I can get.

High: PRing at Austin 10/20 (April)

My body was NOT in shape to do this, but my mind wanted it enough that I took 2 minutes off my time from 2012. My pace was just a little bit shy of my half marathon PR and I finally saw a ray of light that my running might not be in the crapper as much as it felt like.

Low: Knee injury, my first two DNSs at Red Poppy Ride and Rookie Tri (April/May)

While I’m happy it wasn’t anything needing surgery or something super serious or season ending, it was INFURIATING being that hobbled for that long. How could an angry tendon cause THAT much chaos?

While it sucked to have to DNS two races, the silver linings were plentiful. The red poppy ride shirt was the exact same as last year, but in green, so I felt ok wearing it. I was able to get a partial refund for Rookie, and the weather was SO INCREDIBLY TERRIBLE that the day of, I was perfectly happy on the sidelines.

Also, it inspired me to volunteer more again – for the 5k9, where my job was to dance at the finish for all sorts of cute puppies (and their owners) so they looked at the camera, and later for the Cap Tex Tri (that one was less of a joy, but still cool because I got to cheer on Hunter Kemper, and some majorly badass elite paratriathletes).

However, the WORST about this was missing all the great running weather and letting my nice running base dwindle to nil. That sucked hardcore and would hamper most of my season.

High: Losing 10 lbs (March, April, May)

The major, major silver lining around this time is I took off 10 lbs, which I have kept off. I haven’t made much progress since, but this has stuck with me through tri season, marathon season, and two vacations, so I’m calling it a win.

High: Play Tri – the comeback

I was worried about this one – I had gotten clearance to run 1.5 miles only 12 days before this race, and could only bike normally a week before that. I went out and rocked an Olympic triathlon, solidly PRing all 3 legs of the race. And I got to eat In N Out after, which is always a win.

Mixed Bag: Pflugerville Tri and BSLT

Plugerville was both a high and low. I really rocked the bike leg, and did alright on the swim, but the run suffered because of my knee. I missed beating last year’s time by 1.5 minutes even though I should have had no problem with that if I was healthy. However, this was the race I was most proud of last year, and I came close to it coming back from an injury. Can’t be too upset.

BSLT was mixed too. I was only 6 weeks back from zero on the run, and 7 weeks back from zero on the bike, so I am really, really happy I finished comfortably under the cutoff. However, that race was so hard, and I wanted to cry so many times during it. I was so incredibly unprepared to race any 70.3 at that point, let alone a hot, hilly, windy mess. I was just happy to finish out part 1 of the season, take a week or two to reset, and then move on to preparing for actually doing Kerrville justice.

High: Couples

This was the first race I felt like my knee and lack of training didn’t affect me. I PR’d by about 1.5 minutes, and I conquered the crazy hill on the run I walked last year, and I beat Zliten. I still don’t really like this race and don’t need to do it next year, but I remember thinking, after this one, “I’m really back”.

Low: Jack’s Generic and Tri Rock

The heat really started to get me at the end of the summer. I was kicking some serious ass on the swim, and rocking out the bike, but when I’d get to the run, I’d hit this huge wall halfway through and just fall apart, and my run paces went past meh to disappointing to embarrassing (for me).

Jack’s was all mental. I just lost it when I crossed by the finish and had another lap in the 10000 degree sun. Tri Rock was about the same (also 2 lap), but I was sick all that week with a stomach bug that seemed to be a little bit heat related, so some of that was playing it safe.

You would think that solid performances on two out of the three legs would at least be a mixed bag, but the suck overcame that for both of these. For example, I was 9 minutes ahead of my time from last year at tri rock when I crossed the T2 timing mat, but then it took me TWELVE minutes longer on the run, so I missed my time by 3 minutes. It’s not as if I was flying last year at 11 minute miles, but I just bonked SO HARD this year it was even worse.

High: First 112 mile ride (August) and 2.4 mile swim (July)

Yeah, the bike was on the trainer, but we did it. It was a fun day we endeavor to replicate again soon. Seriously, I <3 the trainer when it comes with a bike buffet, great movies, and my husband.

The 2.4 mile swim was in a lake and everything. I loved it! I even nailed it about 20 mins under IM swim cutoff without any 1.2 mile+ training, so I figure it’s all up from there!

High: Kerrville 70.3

This is my happy race. I went in convinced I wasn’t going to do it next year and I just don’t think it’s possible to avoid this Smokin’ Good Tri. 29 minute PR. Solid PR on each leg. Happy and smiling the entire time, and finally, for the first time since July, I felt like I didn’t give up during the race. Sure, I walked a few times on the run, but not all that often, and I held it mentally together. I still don’t feel as if I’ve RACED a 70.3 yet, but I’m hoping to change that next year, and this effort was incredibly close.

High: Watching Manu beat her goal at Uptown Classic 10k

She asked me if I thought she could extend her endurance from 5k to 10k in a few months, and instead of a simple yes, I sent her a training plan. She foolishly followed it (muahahaha) and ended up beating her goal of breaking 1 hour by over 2 minutes! Roar! I bet those speed workouts helped, even if they weren’t that fun…

High: Marathon training cycle and Space Coast Marathon

After a week or two of rest, I turned in my goggles, told my bike we needed to see other people for a while, and set out on my run heavy plan. I wasn’t excited about it at all because I had hated running all tri season, and now that’s all I got to do all week? Bleh.

I changed my tune quickly, as the first two weeks saw my paces drop, the temps go from insane to gorgeous, and my run love returned crazy hard. I started rethinking my strategy for the marathon from “just finish” to have a fairly ambitious (to me) time goal.

I could have easily picked out both 20 mile runs as specific high points, and the whole training period went so well. I went from dreading runs to actually planning to continue run training pretty quick after the marathon.

Sure, it didn’t quite work out on M-day, but I’m really proud of my effort there, and look forward to conquering another one soon(ish).

And now, here I am (ok, not HERE, I wish, but it’s the last sporty pic I had for the year). I’ve decided a few things for 2014, though I really don’t have much of a solid race plan besides a happy puppy wishlist that would have me racing like, every weekend.

1. I’m going to race 3M and PR the crap out of it. Considering doing another half marathon in the winter/early spring as well, but not sure which one.

2. As much as I want to do ALL THE RACES, I did really, really well with a long training cycle that didn’t have to accommodate races as training. My husband does not love this (he’d be at a start line every weekend) so we’ll have to balance that.

3. I don’t love racing and doing a ton of long training in the heat. I also get resentful because summer is my fave time and I don’t have the time or energy to do stuff like tubing, scuba, snorkel, kayak, sit on a patio with drinks somewhere overlooking the water, etc after training for 5 hours in the sun. I’m going to play to my strengths and not do the full TX Tri series next year (volunteer, yeah, but not race), and take some offseason time while it’s hot and do some other fun stuff.

4. I don’t feel like I need a long offseason after this year – I took 2 weeks off after each major race, which in each case was enough to let my body and mind bounce back, and the time I was injured made me not want to slug up intentionally, so I’ll continue that the planned time off this summer.

5. I felt the best gains when I focused on one specific sport at a time. When I tried to train equally at all 3, I felt like I stagnated at all 3. So, I plan to do focused weeks of swimming, biking, and running (for example, 4-5 runs, 2 bikes, 1 swim) to see if I can get that effect of high mileage without, y’know, all that high mileage. We’ll see how that works out.

6. I will not ignore speedwork for another year. It was magic how quickly my legs remembered how to run faster after… running fast. I can only imagine the bike and swim will follow suit. I did a little on the bike and some earlier in the year on the swim, but I think that specifically planning this out will help.

7. I will not be afraid of the treadmill. Just like laps in the pool and the bike trainer are not the same as doing it outdoors, the treadmill is not the same as running outside, sure. However, when it’s hot as fuck, one run outside per week to stay heat acclimated will do just fine, and you can actually do some work without heat stroke. I had huge gains this year on my bike and swim, and guess what? I do a TON of work in the pool and on the trainer. My run sucked this year. I slogged through all of it outside. Coincidence? Probably not.

8. Found a new type of triathlon up in Dallas called the x-50. 1 mile swim, 40 mile bike, 9 mile run. This sounds like the PERFECT distance for me, so I’m probably going to do both that are offered in May and then June (which will be my season pt 1 end)

9. I want to do a full Ironman aquabike (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile ride). I’m not ready for the whole 140.6, but after doing both of these this year, I’m ready to put those two together. I’m thinking about doing that at Redman, but it’s the weekend before Kerrville. There aren’t too many options in my area that I’ve seen. How thrashed will I be after a swim and a ride? How important is kicking as much ass as possible at Kerrville? I’ll have to make these calls.

10. I’m looking at 70.3 Canberra (yes, in Australia) as part of vacation in December, but we’re figuring out if this would be logistically and financially reasonable.

11. I want to run another marathon, but I’m not sure where that fits in the schedule. It would either be travel to somewhere cooler over the summer, or sometime in fall while training for Canberra. Or possibly that waits til early 2015. Or we do Space Coast again and Australia is just a vacation. Decisions decisions.

12. I want to focus on the training and how that improves me, just like the marathon cycle. Missing my goals there disappointed me a lot less because I had such a strong and successful training period – I had already proven to myself that I was a stronger and more capable runner. While it’s always nice to have things click and perform really well at a race, I think the key is focusing on performing consistently in training and hitting specific goals.

And, with that, I’m off to the gym to do a 5 mile tempo and a swim…. 2014 is almost here, y’all, and I’m excited about meeting it a lot more fit than 2013 NY!

Adjusted Reality

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

Page 103 of 219

T Minus 5

How It Is, And How It Has Been, Winter Blahs Edition

New Years 2014 Roadmap

2013 Resolution Recap

2013 Season Recap: Highs and Lows (and 2014 Musings…)

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