Adjusted Reality

While stepback week was packed with stuff not-related-to-triathlon, it also gave me over 100 hours off formal training which was very needed and I am ready to get back to it this week.  Especially because this week starts Build 2 – in which I get cleared to go faster than Zone 2 for more than 20 seconds at a time!  This is a major WOOOHOOO!

Training:

I really don’t have much to say about training this week.  I did 2 easy runs in or close to zone 1, 2 easy trainers with no resistance, 1 easy swim, and 2 easy weights sessions.

Run: My easy run pace is where my Zone 2 run pace was a month ago.  I’d like to see that improvement every month, thanks body and universe!  I was hoping that so much time off would totally heal my heel, but then I walked around with a 60 lb scuba set up all weekend on a rocky cliff with non-cushy scuba boots.  So, it’s FINE but it still talks to me every once in a while.

Bike: 1/5 resistance is really just like watching a movie on a slightly uncomfortable seat.  My average HR didn’t even reach 100 (it was 97) on Thursday’s 45 min ride.

Swim: The first swim was uneventful, and we even cheesed out on the second one because I threw a little tantrum about it and decided that a 30 min easy swim was not worth the mental fortitude is was going to take to get through it.  It was also the fifth day in a row without a day off and two of those were 3.5 hour training day and the race (so long and hard, and yes, that’s what she said), so I needed it.  Instead we soaked in the hot tub for 20 mins and chatted with another lady.  That’s pretty close to the level of effort I was going to put in to my workout, so it was fine.

Weights: Decreasing weight by 1/3 makes things seem very light, though two months ago these weights felt pretty freaking hulk for me to hoist up.  I never knew that there could be such thing as a “recovery weights” session, but if there is, this was it.

By the days:

Monday: Weights: 2×12… 200 lb leg press, 80 lb rows, 70 lb pulldowns. 2×20… incline situps w/a twist w/5 lb plate, 50 lb hammie machine. Swim: 1050m in 28 min
Tuesday: Bike: 16.67 mi in 45 mins, resistance 1/5, HR avg: 100, max: 111, Run: 3.1 miles in 36:20 HR avg: 148, max: 167
Wednesday: Weights: exact same as Monday, except 105 lb squats instead of leg presses
Thursday: Bike: 15.88 mi  in 45 mins, resistance 1/5, HR avg: 97, max: 112, Run: 3.1 in 37:20, HR avg: 145, max: 157
Friday: off
Saturday: Scuba (one hour of actual in water, probably another hour of hauling around the tanks and equipment)
Sunday: Scuba (same)

Food:

I really just don’t get it.  I mean, yes, I have food that is not on the good list every ONCE IN A WHILE (and yes I went crazy-pants on my birthday with an epic meal, but it was ONE MEAL), but by and large, I eat cleaner than just about everyone I know.  This week is an anomaly with how small the calorie burn is (since I’m at about half of the hours I train, plus at a way easier intensity), which made the deficit per day smaller, but it still shows I should be making progress.  Perhaps I need to track the amount of weight I *SHOULD* be losing per my tracking, and see how that adds up.  I’m not sure if that would be crazy-making, or whether it would be good for me to know that I am doing what I should.

Maybe I just need to make peace with being hungry for a while.  It’s not something I’ve been accustomed to lately, as when you’re trying to fuel workouts as completely as possible, actual HUNGER is bad, an emergency even.  If I’m sitting at my desk hungry – how am I going to feel about it in a few hours when I’m out on a run burning more?  If I go to bed hungry, how am I going to feel about it when I wake up and have to bike for an hour?  When I was just a gym rat, being a little hungry and underfueled wasn’t an issue.

I was just hoping by cleaning up my diet and getting back on a training regiment would help, but so far, I’ve not made significant progress.

At this point I just want someone to feed me a pill that has the perfect amount of calories and nutrients in it every day, and I want to just train and work and hide away from social situations for a few months and emerge – fixed and at race weight.  Being that this is an impossibility, I have to find a way to fix me using real food, in the real world, with all the imperfections that go along with it.

In March, I’m sticking with this ~1700 calories + some on really heavily active days.  If I’m not at least pushing 180 by the end of the month, I’ll try something else.  Its looking like it starts with veg- and ends with -arian, and it’s one of the only things that’s actually taken weight off in the last few years (coupled with heavy training loads).

I had a revelation while I was working out last week – if I feel like crying and puking and fainting and want to quit and other various dramatics while racing or working on tough intervals, that’s probably where I need to be.  I need to get comfortable being uncomfortable to push my paces faster.  I probably need to do that with my diet as well.  It’s easier to recognize that in the heat of a sprint that ends, rather than in the kitchen, which doesn’t go away.

I better get comfortable with it.  I need to fix me.  I can’t keep gaining 5 lbs a year.  I have not gained 30 lbs of muscle, so some/most is fat gain.  Carrying around a 60 lb scuba tank really set reality in – it was hard to walk with that on.  I’ve gained HALF that since 2009.  I’m set to be carrying around a full scuba tank at this rate if I don’t fix this shit by 2017 at this rate.

But how do you fix something when you can’t find, as they say, in our industry, steps to reproduce?  I have had these periods of success with weight loss since I hit my low of 150 in April 2009:

• For my wedding in 2009, I started at about 159 and hit about 152 by going on a really calorie reduced diet (~1300 per day).  I think I gained about 5 lbs back by the time I actually got married since I was in Vegas for 3 days before that (so it was kind of a good thing I did it otherwise my dress may not have fit!), and never saw that low again.
• -Last summer , I took off about 5 lbs in August by eating vegetarian (mostly vegan) before dinner.  Minus my greek yogurt in the AM.

One is unsustainable with my level of training (and obviously didn’t work long term), and the other is my next step.  I’ve tried everything from calorie cycling to cleanses to getting professional dietician help, and nothing else has taken off any weight.

Other than that it’s been 4 long years of just trying to find something, anything that will help my body synchronize itself at a healthy weight, of which 150 lbs seems to be in my head.  I’m all for the journey, and the knowledge that comes with solving a problem, but 4 years is pretty fucking long to bang your head against something, resulting in utter failure.  I want it solved already.  It’s not the willpower.  Just tell me what to fucking do and I’ll do it – as long as a) you can guarantee results and b) it doesn’t negatively affect my training and is a healthy method of weight loss for athletes.

Ok – rant off.  Let’s get on with this.

By the numbers:

Monday: 21 DQS, 1766 calories (2311 burned)
Tuesday: 26 DQ, 1744 cal (2625 burned)
Wednesday: DQ 28, 1626 cal (1952 burned)
Thursday: DQ 24, 2256 (2622 burned)
Friday: DQ 25, 1638 calories (1965 burned)
Saturday: 23 DQ, 1678 calories (2296 burned)
Sunday: This was my birthday.  I’m thinking about ZERO (or at least single digits) diet score and about 3000 calories (2000 of which were dinner and drinks). I probably ate about 700 calories more than I burned.

Avg calories per day: 1958 eaten/2295 burned = 337 deficit per day

Avg diet score: 21

Weight range: 184.0 – 186.4

Scuba:

ZOMG this was awesome!  I am now open water diver certified!

I need to talk about this in more length than what I feel like discussing in this post (and we’re already pushing 2000 words), so I’ll just say that it is a magical world underwater and if you’ve ever wanted to learn, just do it.  Take the class, you’ll learn the basics in a classroom, and then safely in a pool before you have to do open water, and it wasn’t even nearly as scary as I thought.  We spent a lot of time on a safe platform about 20 feet down doing skills and drills, but we got down to 40 ft (ok 39, but whatever) swimming around with the instructor and it felt awesome just to glide through the water.

It was pretty murky and there wasn’t that much to see, but that will NOT be the case when we go diving in the Caribbean!

…and we may have been so enamoured with it that we signed up for the advanced class at the end of this month.  Restful stepback weeks be damned!

Other stuff:

Here’s what’s on tap for the next two months:

• Belated Birthday Lunch
• Another Birthday Lunch
• Band Party Bar Event Thing
• Fun Day Ren Faire Trip
• Birthday Bar Celebration
• Metric Century Ride
• A Friend’s Wedding
• Indoor Skydiving
• Advanced Scuba Class
• Birthday Camping
• Vacation

I put together this big long rant that can probably be covered with the fact that I have a lot of (both cool shit as above and responsibilities) things going on in the near future, the whole weight not budging thing as ranted on above, and the fact that I was PMSing.  I really really did want to punch people in the face but it passed with the weekend.  Laying in bed watching bad TV for a while helped.

Last weekend, I got older.  It’s weird.  34 just feels old in a way that 33 didn’t, it’s next stop 35.  At 34, you should probably be a grown up and stop staying up drinking until sunrise and laughing at the phrase “bottom time” in Scuba class and you should probably consider settling down and doing the kids thing and stop thinking about me me me but I really don’t want to do anything like that.

I mean, I’m trying to come into work with a crushing hangover less and keeping my house picked up so it doesn’t look like a frat house and we even got real furniture and my living room looks like a laywer lives there, trying to keep the “that’s what she said!” comments in work meetings to myself, or at least under my breath, but that’s about all I can muster right now.

The triathlon, the scuba, the drinking, partying, vacations, carousing, doing epic shit, hell, having a moment to lay in bed and do nothing every once in a while – this is where I want to be right now.  33 felt right.  34 feels like the party is wrapping up somehow and life as I know it is ending in preparation for 35 and I HATE THAT.  Maybe it’s the character flaw that I’m always wondering and anticipating what’s around that next corner and not just enjoying the now.  I know it’s my choice what I want to do with my life and when, but I suppose it’s that whole societal pressure thing.

Anyhoo – I’ll put a pin in this one.  Last week was a mixed bag full of moody and also awesome, but I’m feeling a lot better this week.  Until next time…

Question of the day: what is your FAVORITE workout or training?  Are you a sucker for pool speedwork, or love the easy, long run?

I should get a gold star for accomplishing so damn much in February and it being a short month.  Holy schniekies!  Let’s just get on with it.

1. Maximize diet score, minimize calories when possible.  Get there by pre-planning your day of eating.  It looks as if a 30+ score (top is around 33) is achievable with around 1800-1900 cal when all the food is good food.  That should maintain a bit of a deficit (and grow a little this month with some extra hours).  I’ll try to stick there.  Weigh less than 183.2 (yesterday’s weight) by the end of February.

Huge ups on the DQ score.  My diet is way cleaner than it’s ever been thanks to the double check if it’s plus or minus points on the scale.  Huge boos to the weight.  184.0 has been my lowest.  Apparently eating the shit out of healthy food still doesn’t work.  Noted.

2. Volunteer at Austin Marathon (t-shirt exchange) Feb 16, cheer Feb 17.

Check!  Even got to cheer my friend Mariko to an overall win!  Wheee!

3. Have two days in Feb where I just veg most or all of the day.  Quix-y needs some downtime!

Sorta-check.  Got one lay-in-bed-all-day day in early Feb, and had President’s Day off and relaxed most of the day, but got some stuff done that I wanted.  I really have an issue just not doing shit lately.

4. Get scuba licensed!

We do our open water dives this weekend and then we are open water diver certified and can go diving on the cruise!  (I am about 25% nervous and 75% excited for this weekend)

5. Mend something on the sewing machine or make something simple.

Check.  I thought I was going to have to write this one off, as I spent an evening this week swearing like a sailor at my stupid goddamn fucking sewing machine and my own stupid ineptitude and the regression of me not even being able to make it make a stitch, but then Zliten helped me and we got it figured out and my Rookie shirt no longer has an armpit hole and it doesn’t even look that bad.

6. Finish the sewing book, start a fiction book.

Not check.  Instead, I finished the Diving textbook that I didn’t expect to have to read, and have been working through the Sewing book slowly.

7. Get living room set up with new furniture, organize DVDs and area around the TV, and the mantle (Feb’s “zone”).  Determine whether painting and/or rugs are necessary.

Hmmmm.  Living room is set up.  Determined that I’m ok without paint for now.  Also determined that I want red lampshades, a funky set of lamps, a red throw, and some pillows with primary colors to make the room a little more fun.  However, I’m trying to hold off on spending that much right now, and while I’ve shopped online to get some inspiration, I’d rather buy something local.  So, that’s on hold.  The DVDs are on the list for this weekend.  So… sorta!

8. Keep up the things I did in Jan that I want to maintain, have a game night, no sweet treats (minus once a week), no cigs, HR train, batch cook.  They are habits now, just dedicating this goal to keeping them up.

All sorts of check check check here.  Had 3 game nights.  Have had very few sweet treats – I had two the first weekend to celebrate February (yogurtland and a rum truffle I got for Christmas), and one for v-day (split a piece of key lime pie).  58 days no cigs.  HR training for life.  Batch cooking when we could, buying my fit foods or snap kitchen when we couldn’t. 

9. Make a training plan for Feb and nail each workout.  Incorporate running and biking drills in this month.  Incorporate a little gentle speed work in this month.  Enjoy the hell out of my recovery week in 4 weeks.

Check – minus the running drills.  I did running speedwork only late this month because of my heel, but I’m getting down with it.  Currently loving only having 5 hours of training on the schedule this week.

10. Race the Indoor Tri 2/24 and DO NOT GET DEPRESSED ABOUT THE RESULTS.  I’m talking to you – self!  Last year, you were trained up for a half marathon+ and never lost fitness from the tri season.  This year, you are just coming off two months of pure base building after a wonderful offseason.  DO NOT GET PISSED BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T BEAT EACH DISCIPLINE FROM LAST YEAR.  Compare the results to last month’s threshold tests rather than 2012.  And if you beat last year’s times, then fuck yeah!  Either way, no tears and enjoy the first bottle of race champagne this year.

Check.  Not pissed at all about an overall win.  The run speed will come.  My better swim and bike speeds will only improve from here.  I hurt myself and I liked it.  Happy Quix is happy.

11. Sign up for half of all the triathlons.  Rookie, Pfluger, PlayTri, Couples, and Jack’s.  Next month we can drop a few more benjamins on the rest.

We signed up for the whole TX Tri series.  I need to hit up PlayTri and Buffalo Springs next month.  Austin 70.3 I’m still not sure about so that will be later.

12. Keep doing that confidence and forthcoming about what I want thing at work.  Don’t get devastated if it doesn’t result in unicorns and rainbows right away.

Done my best.  It’s sort of in a holding pattern right now.  Can’t really quantify this with a check or no check.

13. Walk up and down the stairs every day with Zliten at break.  It’s good for me to get away from my desk.

Not check.  I tried to do this often, but when it was yucky outside or I got busy I wouldn’t do it.

Ok, onto March, one of my favorite months!

It’s birthday time, we get daylight savings, and it marks the mental end of the cold dark times of Quix’s year.  Let’s figure out the 13 things:

1.  Stick with my current strategy: approximately 1700 calories (shift up on days that my workout volume reaches the sky).  DQ score: over 20 every day average.  See if this results in any sort of loss.  Low weight of the month: 184.  Let’s get lower.  Accept (and relish) that there will be 3 birthday splurges this month, and just try to mitigate them with good food the rest of the day/week.

2.  Get the leezard to the vet for a checkup.  She’s overdue.  We’re bad leezard parents.

3. Bike outside once a week.  Even if you have to do some rides outside after work in the ‘hood with stoplights.  Ride Rosedale on March 23.  Do it in way less than the 5+ hours it took last year.

4.  Fix up a March training plan.  Nail it.  Start working in zone 3 more, doing cruise intervals.  Start doing some short all out force efforts.  Get to recovery week uninjured and happy.

5.  Make pillows for the couch.  This involves: going to the store, picking out fabric, sewing, and stuffing them.  Complete at least one.  Complete four for the gold star.

6. Finish organizing the DVDs and complete the next zone in the house, the rest of the bedroom/master bath/vanity area.  We’ve already half completed it with the new bedroom furniture, but this involves cleaning out and organizing the vanity area, linen closet area, and stuff in the master bath.  Extra credit: replacing the bunk fixures and faucet.

7. Finish the sewing book, start a fiction book, for reals.

8. This one is for the habits again.  No cigs, no sweets (minus planned splurges, no more than once a week), HR train, batch cook, have a game night.

9.  Find my zen in this month in small chunks.  I do not have a weekend that I know of from now until vacation that’s not booked up with at least one event, most have several.  Find some time to relax and veg out.  Carve out a weekday night where all we do after work is go home and relax and say fuck responsibility instead of doing stuff.  At least do what I did on Wednesday and say “though I have things to do, I am sitting on the couch and watching TV for an hour”.

10. Take care of my appearance a bit.  Self manicure, pedicure, and eyebrow unfluff.  Get a haircut (or schedule a time before the cruise).  I want about 4-6 inches cut off soon – short hair deals with being soggy from training much better than long hair.  Penalty for not completing: I am required to book this  (mani/pedi/brows) at a salon which actually terrifies me.

11.  Play some damn vidjya games.  I have Monkey Island on the PS3, I keep meaning to log in and play Everquest, I need Zliten to educate me in the ways of Bloodbowl (orcs + football) so I can decide whether I want to join the league at work, I have a tablet builder game I’ve been working through…

12.  Figure out this mojo thing.  I am operating my the numbers and schedules and performing, but my spirit is lacking.  My heart just isn’t in it lately.  Analyze the issue and take steps to fix it.

13.  Drink more water.  I’d like to get down 3 bottles before I leave work each day, and one more at home.

That’s quite enough – off to go start tackling it.  Question of the day: what’s your biggest goal for March?

Here are the other things besides kicking ass at the Indoor Tri…

Food:

So, out with the face stuffing of good food, in with calorie restriction.  And there was much rejoicing.  NOT.

My goal each day is to eat around 1700 calories (and increase that if I’m burning way way more than normal).  Some days, that worked.  Some days, it didn’t.  Sunday was the only crappy day, I ate a breakfast taco and a half, snacks, ordered Jimmy Johns (on wheat, but still), and drank way too much champagne.  Finally, by 5pm, I realized I just had no calories for dinner and pissed and whined and bitched but I just ate a very small snack and was fine.

The rest of the week, though, was pretty good.  I had a few drinks on Thursday, but kept it reasonable.  I spent most of Saturday either training or getting to places to go train, so I couldn’t eat as much real food as I would have liked, so a lot of those extra calories were ergogenic aids like gels/bars/gatorade because I didn’t have enough time to let food settle before moving to the next session.  I more than earned my ~2500 calories that day though.

Monday:  24 DQS, 1695 calories (2077 burned)
Tuesday:  29 DQS, 1760 calories (2953 burned)
Wednesday:  29 DQS, 1679 calories (2241 burned)
Thursday: 24 DQS, 1980 calories (3144 burned)
Friday: 24 DQS, 1864 calories (2108 burned)
Saturday:  26 DQS, 2445 calories (3110 burned)
Sunday: 9 DQS, 2778 calories (2705 burned)

Total avgs: 23.5 DQS, 2028 calories (2619 burned)

Weight: lowest 184.0, highest 186.2

This should be doing things.  My deficit is around 500-600 which is just what I want (just not terribly consistent per day).  I definitely feel HUNGRY now in a way I didn’t before, and according to the internet, that’s probably normal and ok even though I will continue to bitch about it on twitter until I start seeing some damn progress.  I feel like I’ve been hungry for a week and I will never be full ever again in my life.  But I’m going to give this 3 weeks, like I gave stuffing my face with DQ-happy food, and see where I’m at and what I need to tweak.

For this week coming up, I pre-tracked so I have a good idea of what I will be eating and when.  Figure I’ll give that a try and see if that does good things.

Training:

Running:  Getting better by the week.  It’s nice to be running in the 11s, running longer than 10k, and getting in a little speedwork finally.  Oddly enough, my HR drops a little even with the same effort after a sprint, it’s like “hey, this isn’t nearly as hard as I was working before”.  Feet are holding up alright, they were a little tender after the pounding that was Sat and Sun, but nothing that lingered.  I can actually wear shoes again besides my running shoes and my black tennies, which is making my work wear a little more varied. I’ll be excited when it goes away completely, but it’s definitely better.  Also, all this perfect running weather (60s and sunny) isn’t hurting my run mojo.

Bike: Feel sort of stalled here until I get to get out and ride more.  I’m varying up my resistances and doing drills, but I don’t feel like I really am going to make that much more progress until I start doing more outdoor rides.  March will be my month!

Swim: Ahhh, I just love the pool lately.  Drills are starting to be things that just help me count laps, as my form is getting better (and with that, my times are).  I am looking forward to getting some lake swims in, because it does take a bit to adjust from the nice pool to the murky, nature-having, no side to push off like, but I think I’m setting myself up for a good season.  Also, taking my fins to the lake and cruising around the buoys sounds like a blast!

Weights: Yep, super heavy weights are fun, and work in a completely different way.  I lift, and I’m like “ok, that’s it?”.  Then, after the session, it’s like BLAM.  I feel it.  Oddly enough I’m crushing the upper body goals, but I’ve got a bit to go (+50 lbs to my squat, +150 lbs to my leg press?) to hit leg goals, but it’s fun to pile on the weight and I get thumbs ups from the trainers at the gym so there’s that.

By the days:

Monday:  Swim: 1200 m in 25mins (wore fins for some drills)(actually did this on Sunday, but counting for this week)
Tuesday:  Bike: 20.64 mi in 60 mins – first 40 mins lighter resistance (2 of 5) with 3×1 min one leg drills, last 20 mins higher resistance (4 of 5) Run: 3.91 in 45 mins. 153-154 HR average 167 max. Weights: 3×4… 290 lb leg press, 120 lb rows, 100 lb pulldowns. 3×20…. incline sit ups w/10 lb plate w/twist, 110 lb calf presses.
Wednesday: Swim: 1500m in 37 mins.
Thursday: Bike: 20.46 in 60 mins – First 25 mins at 2/5, 3x1min one leg drills. Next 20 at 3/5, worked on concentrating on the push then the pull (not set intervals). Finished with 15 mins at 4/5, just trying to keep up the pace as best I could. Avg HR: 127, Max 191? (probably a spike) Run: 4.12 miles – 47:51, 6×20 sec sprints. Weights: 3×4… 185 lb squats, 120 lb rows, 105 lb pulldowns. 3×20… incline situps w/10 lb plate w/twist, 65 lb hamstring curls.
Friday: off
Saturday: Bike: 30 mins, 10 miles.  Avg HR 111, Max HR 132. Run: 7.4 mi in 1h 30. HR avg 151, max 171. Swim: 1050m in 25 mins.  Spin class: 45 mins of pain, torture, and awesomeness.
Sunday: Indoor Tri! Swim: 487m in 10 mins. Bike: 30 mins of quick spin. Run: 2.13 in 20 mins.

10 hours total, goal was 10 hours.  So yay!

Definitely definitely ready for this next stepback week.   I feel a little fried.

Other Stuff:

Not much.  This week was really just train and eat and work, boring and lovely.  Peak weeks are just going to be like that, I suppose and I have no complaints.

Having Monday off was nice though – we were able to relax a bit, while also transferring our clothes into our new bedroom furniture, batch cooking, doing laundry, and a few other things.  I could really use a 3 day weekend more often!

Question of the week: how do you control your appetite when you’re hungry and know you shouldn’t eat more?

Heart rate training is kinda the bomb.  As much as I’ve really, really wanted to tear up my HR strap and stomp on it’s itty bitty little pieces in January, it provides someone like me (read: someone who tends to have unreasonably high expectations of myself) a tool to actually predict that I am actually performing where I should be with my CURRENT fitness, not my unicorns and rainbows wishlist fitness that I think I should be able to perform at with the drop of a hat, even with last week being our first peak build week, culminating in an epic 3.5 hour session yesterday ending with the spin class from hell (you’re in the desert, in 4 feet of sand, it’s 117 degrees… yep) and very little speedwork and a small dose of heel fuckery and new achillies fuckery on the other side (grrrr… at least it’s gone now).

So, my expectations:

• Killing it on the swim.  Fast efficient fish.  I have been kicking swim ass this year.  Goal: 20 lengths in 10 mins (500m in 10 mins).
• Killing it on the bike.  Last year I did 15.5, so more than that.  Significantly.
• Doing what I could on the run.  Recovering from the stupid heel and the fact that I’m just this week starting to do any sort of speedwork and I’ve spent a zillion months just running at m-pace or below, my only goal was to make myself hurt.  I knew there was about a 1% chance I could beat my time from last year but I wanted to see those heart rate numbers climb to the 170s and stay there.

And, like I said, the fact that this was build 1 week #3, which is first peak week (10.5 hours), I definitely didn’t go into this tapered.  And by not tapered, I mean by A LOT.  Yesterday I did my longest run for the last 3 months (1.5 hours), trainered for 30 mins, swam for 25, and then, as I said, the spin class from hell for 45 mins.  Highest volume day thus far.  I went to bed sore, hurting, hoping my legs and feet and body would hold out and perform.  I think I actually slept crappy because I was scared of waking up just broken.

Woke up, I was a little sluggish but in one piece.  We did our normal morning race day thing, I paid hommage to the feet-no-hurty dieties, and got our hotnesses on up to Lifetime 30 mins early (yay)!

I “laid out my transition” in the locker, and got all the stuff in a bag to go upstairs for the cycle/run (bike shoes, run shoes, chomps, waterbottle, zune, garmin, etc).  We were able to get in and do a bunch of warmup laps which was awesome, I got to go through the process of waking up my swim stroke like I normally do, and then once the wave before us was done and we jumped in – holy SHIT it was cold (but I guess that’s good for swimming fast).  I had new earplugs I was trying out and they worked well enough (and you can actually HEAR WELL with these in, which is super nice) and I got warm and rested for a few minutes and then the whistle blew and it was go time.

I was ready to hurt in the pool, but hurt smart.  The two other gals in our wave just FLEW out of the gate and I wanted to try and swim them down, but I was like “WAIT”.  I knew they went out too fast, and by lap 4, I overtook them just swimming consistently.  I was trying to stay at 100m/2 mins.  I made the first one no problemo, then just barely made the next, and slowed a bit.  I knew by 2 mins to go that a) I had won my heat by a lot and b) I would have to bust some ass to get 20 full lengths.  I increased my pace a bit and aimed for 19.5, and when the whistle blew, I got it.  I’ll break that 2min/100m soon, but not today.  I was just happy to execute on being a fast, efficient fish, and feel like I hurt a little in the pool (by the end, I was hitting the wall, gasping, and immediately turned around to swim more, it was awesome).

Transitions suck for girls.  Getting on a wet sports bra is HELL.  Next time, I will just say fuck it, and wear it under my swim suit and drip all over the floor.  I had to ask another girl (who was not part of the fun and games) to help me get it over my back and she looked crazy mortified (oh well).

I got up to the cycle studio with my bag o crap with 2 mins to spare.  They helped me adjust the bike and get my clips in, but I was still doing that 30 secs into the ride.  So yay, not a fair start but whatevs.  Finally, I got my music going, I had both clips in, things were good (minus the fact that my seat could have been a LITTLE lower but I wasn’t about to stop and fix it), and was HOLY CRAP GOING 50mph with not that much effort.  Then I realized it was on KM so that was 30 (aka, a little slower than last year).

I got into a rhythm but the calculator was all over the place (40, 50, 60,70, 80, 0).  I noticed when I fucked with the resistance it gamed the system a little bit increasing the numbers so I did that a lot.  I hurt a little less on the bike than anywhere else, but I rode steady at 155-170 BPM and rocked out 18.2 miles (calibrated to a spin bike so it means nothing in RL).  I tried getting all zen and closing my eyes but when I opened them I found my pace was LOWER, so I just focused on those numbers and tried to maximize them.  When we hopped off, I was probably about avg 165 HR and 29.3 km, which equated to 18.2 miles.  Almost 3 more than last year, YEAH!

Got to the treadmill, put my shoes on, and commented to Zliten that I hoped I could run.  On the bike, the last 15 mins kinda hurt my achilies on my right, to add to the questionable nature of my left heel after my longest run in months yesterday.   I was not about to end the season on a 20 minute treadmill run, so if it didn’t get better, I was planning on walking out the tri and being fine with that.  They said 3,2,1 go…. and it’s been so long since I’ve ran on a treadmill I forgot how to start it.   10 second penalty.  I started at 6.0 (10 min/miles) and figured I’d hold there if I couldn’t do anything else, but then my pain eased and I bumped it up 0.1 each 2 mins.   I got up to the pain cave at about 10 mins in and my feet were feeling ok, so I just did what I could to stay there.

Zliten was pacing me, and he was about .01 to .02 ahead of me the whole time, so at 15 mins I turned on the next level of pain and, surprise surprise, he matched me every step of the way.  I finally got equal at 1 min to go, busting ass at 8.0 to 8.5 and we both finished at 2.13.  About 9:20s.  After reflection, sort of disappointing for both of us, but it’s what we had in us that day.

We busted ass to tie, and tied another gal (for the run) in our heat, and beat the other gal.

Total:

Quix: 19.5 swim lengths (487m) in 10 min, 18.2 miles in 30 mins, 2.13m in 20 mins.

Zliten: 14 swim lengths (350m) in 10 mins, 21.1 miles in 30 mins, 2.13 in 20 mins.

For me, that was actually good enough to take home the overall win for the ladies (out of 10 participants)!!!!  I was #1 on the swim, tied for #1 on the run, and #7 on the bike.  Oddly enough, I placed #1 on the bike last year and #5 and #6 on the swim and the run.  I really can only say that’s indicative of who decided to show up that day, and not my abilities.  I should have been beaten on the run.

I say I love HR training because I did exactly as I expected.  I knew that my run was not anywhere up to snuff, so I expected between 9-10 min/mi.  I swam my last swim test right around 100m/2 min, so I knew I’d be close.  My biking is much better than last year.  My runs have been not as good as last year.  So I did what I could, hurt as long as I could, and feel like it was a good Feb effort.  I have many things I want to do:

• Break 2min/100m on the swim.  I know I can do it.  When I started breaking down on form I didn’t start thrashing more, I just took a deep breath and thought “long, fast efficient fish” and got back to it.
• I know I need to get better at the hills on the bike.  Biking on a trainer/spin bike is awesome and all, but I need to get my quads about 2x my size now to bust up that shit.  SQUATS SQUATS SQUATS SQUATS (like shots shots shots shots, but different).  This means more outdoor rides!
• Run speedwork + losing the fluff.  I know it will impact the rest of the disciplines (losing the fluff), but I don’t have the PRs I did to chase like I did on the other ones like when I was running and ~30 lbs down, so it goes here.
• Lift heavy and don’t look back.  The IM inspiration videos I see don’t see people hefting 2lb weights.  They are squatting their bodyweight.  And I did that (+a little) last week. I intend to get these damn quads and hammies and calves and deltoids and abs and everything as big and strong as possible.

For now though, I’ll enjoy the win, and this deserved recovery week, and get ready for the Build 2 period in March.

Scuba ate my life last week.  I crashed and burned into Friday at 6pm with just about nothing left, but after a 3 day weekend (even though it was pretty busy), I feel pretty a-ok.

Squeezing in ~9 training hours, a full time job, and approximately 10 hours of class, 6 of them being in the pool – it didn’t leave us much time to do anything but sleep, except on Thursday, where we drank 4 bottles of champagne and then didn’t sleep enough.  Hence the crashing and burning on Friday.  That was our dumb fault but it was a needed stress release (though, an excessive one).

Food Stuffs:

I just tracked DQ score, not calories.

I gained some weight this week and there should be no reason why.

I won’t be doing that again.

Monday: 30
Tuesday: 32
Wednesday: 28
Thursday: 17 (drinks)
Friday: 23
Saturday: 26
Sunday: 11 (drinks, fancy v-day dinner)

Average: 24

It’s just becoming clear that my body isn’t working well with the ~2000 calories I’m taking in and the amount of training I do.  Even if it’s mostly all high quality food.  The scale should be doing something good, and it did something ELSE this week – lowest was 185, but my official weigh in day was 189.6!!!  Not cool.  Not cool at all.  I’m close to two months in, and instead of being 10-15 lbs down like I was hoping, I’m 5 lbs up.  All my numbers went the wrong way this week.  Nothing is changing for the good.  I gotta get this figured out because I’m definitely in unacceptable territory with the scale, and how I look, and I’m sure my feet issues can’t be getting BETTER as I gain.

So, there has to be a compromise here.  My goal this week is a DQ score of 20 or above, and calorie count each day of 1700.  What that means?  I’ve felt like a lot of days I’m spending the afternoon or the end of the day shoving shit (healthy shit, yes, but still calories) into my mouth to game the score even though I’m not that hungry.  I’m going to stop doing that.  If I have 3 veggies, 3 fruits, 2 meats, 2 grains, 1 dairy, and 1 nut, that’s 24.  Monday, I was able to come in with a 24 at 1695 cal.  That’s what I’m going to try to do all week.  Days I have a few drinks I’ll need to really focus on low calorie good quality food to do it, but I’ll get it handled.

This week, we’re also compromising on the batch cooking.  We just needed some downtime, so we got a few Snap Kitchen meals, and made 2 batch meals: chicken, veggie, and whole wheat spaghetti w/tomato sauce and beef stew this week.  We also have a few leftover meals frozen from other weeks (and of course, fish).   Should be delicious.  At some point I’ll feel mentally caught up enough to spend hours in the kitchen but until then, I’ll let them help a little.

Training Stuffs:

I may have needed talking off a ledge due to what’s happening on the scale, but the magic is happening here.

Unfortunately I can’t curl up into a little ball and sleep every time I don’t like the world like Kitty face.  So unfair.  Though there is no cat division for triathlon, so I guess it evens out.

Run:  Magic is happening.  My average pace is now consistently in the 11s below 155 HR.  That’s nice.  I rarely have to slow down and walk to get under 160, even on hills.  I feel like my running is finally at a point where I can incorporate some short strides this next week on one of my workouts without either spiking my HR or reinjuring my heel (that’s pretty much all better too, thanks Sauc0-ponies!) so that’s a bunch of yay.

I also did my 30 min run test Sunday.  It almost wasn’t a fair test because a) I put in over two hours of training the day before instead of resting and b) I spent 5 hours that day before on my feet volunteering and almost 2 hours cheering that morning for the marathon.  My leggies were toast during that test, and I had a bit of an allergy flare up (snot snot snot lungs blech), but I got on with it the best I could and maintained a 9:35 average pace for 3.13 miles in 30 mins, with a 170 avg HR.  That’s right – 21 seconds faster per mile at 5 BPM lower.  I just could not shove my heart rate up any higher.  I’ll take it.  Hoping I can get a really solid test in next month and see that number improve even more.

Bike: Just lots more solid work on the trainer.  The one leg drills are helping me feel more fluid.  I’m going to try and start changing up my resistances like yesterday, where I did the first 40 at 2/5 resistance and the last 20 at 4/5.  I also need to be getting outside more – there’s just no good places to ride that don’t involve lots of stoplights and riding in 2 mile circles near us so we wait until the weekend so we can get to Pflug or Veloway – and then life gets in the way and driving 30 mins away doesn’t sound so good so we trainer.

However, last year, we didn’t have trainers and we did our first outdoor ride in March, and were huffing through rides longer than 10 miles, and I clocked my first 30+ mile ride this weekend and regularly hit 20, so there’s that.  I’ve got a pretty decent base riding flatlands, I just need to get some force in my leggies for them thar hills.  Because my first 70.3 has a LOT of them.

Swim: Loving the swim lately.  Did my swim test Saturday morning, and I took 2 mins 15 seconds off my time (went from 23 mins to 20 mins 45 sec for 1050m).  Enjoying swimming with the fins for warmups and/or intervals during easy days.  I’m futzing with the MP3 player a lot less.  I’m spending a lot less time waking up my stroke and having things just fall into place.  Going a little faster doesn’t make my form fall apart.

Being here so far from the beginning of the season makes me happy.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to blow all my swimming times from last year out of the water if all continues on current course and speed.  Also, I wish that Lake Pflugerville would hurry up and get warmer so I can swim in it.

Weights: Another good MT (transition to maximum weights) week.  I leg pressed 270, squatted 155, rowed 100, and upped my pulldown to 85.  For the lighter stuff, I’m doing situps on the incline now with a 10 lb weight and not completely dying.  Calf presses are at 90, and hamstrings I’ve inched up to 60 (need to work on these).

Now that my swim/bike/run is going better, I sorta look forward to these days less than when everything else was awkward and wrong and this was my only happy, but it’s definitely making me stronger, less jiggly, and more badass and allowing me to have better days at the other 3 disciplines, so I’ll keep on with my 2xweek lifting heavy things.

I have my first “race” this weekend – the Indoor Tri.  I predict I will kick my swim and bike’s ass from last year, but not quite be able to hold the 8:35-ish pace I did last year for 20 mins on the run.  But who knows.  It’s been a while since I knocked out anything but an EZ run on a treadmill and noticed my HR was about 20 BPM below what I would expect outside.  20 BMP up these days translates to about 2 mins/mile faster (11:40s to 9:40s), so by that magic I should be able to hold about 7:40s at 175, which I’m sure is not the case.  But hey, it will be interesting to see.  I placed 2nd in the under 40s last year, but that really depends on who shows up – it’s not like you know how anyone is doing until you see the results, you can’t really run anyone down.

I’ll be done and drinking my first mimosa around 9am Sunday, so I’ll definitely report in and let you know how it goes.

By the days:

Monday: Bike: 9.35 miles in 30, 117 HR avg/136 max  Weights: 3×12… 270 lb leg press, 95 lb rows, 75 lb pulldowns. 3×20… situps with 5 lb plate on incline, calf raises w/100 lbs.
Tuesday:  Swim: 1110m in 28 mins.  Run: 3.1 in 36:04, 150 HR avg/171 max
Wednesday: Swim: 900m in 22 mins. Weights: 3×12…. 155 lb squats, 100 lb rows, 80 lb pulldowns. 3×20… situps on incline w/10 lb plate w/twist, 60 lb hamstring curls.
Thursday: Run: 3.4 miles in 39:45, avg 155, max 186? (garmin was being weird at the beginning so I don’t think this is accurate. Bike: 15.25 miles in 45 mins, 139 HR avg/199 max (I KNOW this isn’t right)
Friday: off
Saturday: Swim: 1050m in 20:45, Run: 3.86 in 45 mins, HR avg 152/max 170 Bike: 33.5 miles in 1h30.
Sunday: Run test: 3.13 miles in 30 mins (avg HR 170).  +1.25 mile warmup and cooldown. (did a swim also but that counts for next week)

Total: about 8.5 hours.  I was short 30 mins this week of the 9 hour training goal, but I did scuba for 6 hours so I’m calling it a wash.

Other Stuff:

New glasses last week.  These look almost just like my old glasses but thicker.  I likey.

I got so cranky last Saturday that I had to put myself down for a nap like a 3-year old.  It was bad.  The world was ending I was so tired and when I woke up everything was just fine.  Hate when I get that way!

Scuba was just fucking COOOOOL.  I got to spend 6 hours in the pool breathing underwater and doing drills and figuring out how to use this stuff and it was a BLAST!  I did kinda freak out the first day because I couldn’t equalize the pressure in my ears well, but once I remembered to swallow and plug my nose and blow air out my ears it was AWESOME.  By the end of pool day 2 I was floating neutrally buoyant and hanging out in the deep end of the pool like a badass.  We still need to do our lake dives in two weeks to get certified, but I’m only about 25% nervous and 75% excited for that!

Our friend Mariko (I work with his husband and have hung out with/ran with them on a few occasions) WON the Austin Marathon.  How cool is that?  I’m all inspired and feel like since I handed her her nutrition at mile 18, I’m pretty much the reason she won (not at all – she’s just a crazy awesome talented runner).

I think I have forgotten how to relax.  On my day to do nothing, I cleaned the house, transferred clothes from the old to new dressers in the bedroom, put away laundry, typed up a blog post, and batch cooked.  We did get some time to become one with and nap on the new couch, and didn’t leave the house.  So I feel pretty recharged, but still, I miss my talent of laying on the couch and not getting up to do anything but pee and make food.

We had late Valentine’s Day dinner at Bartlets.  Amazing amazing best filet in town, caesar salad (a splurge for me since the dressing is sooooo calorific), delicious wilted spinach, and we shared a phenomenal piece of key lime pie.  With a side dish, the filet lasted me two meals.  I love that place.

I think I may have our vacation time at the ports and the workouts we need to accomplish pretty much planned out.  Now, life needs to not hand me a weird and foil my plans.  I have WAY too much running across islands, snorkeling, scuba, ocean swimming, SUPing, and checking out rainforests, museums, and shopping to do.

So that’s Quix in a nutshell.  Question of the week: (think of a question)