Adjusted Reality

I’m really glad I got my Sunday do-nothing day last week as this week launched into a new level of crazy.

Something blew up at work and I was there from 9am – 3am and then back in at 10am for a short day (left at 4pm).  I ducked out Monday evening to get in my weights, but I didn’t feel like I could be gone long enough to swim too, so I missed a swim Monday night and a trainer session Tuesday morning because, well, precious sleep.

I was on about 5 hours of sleep Tuesday, and thought of a billion different reasons why I shouldn’t go on my lunch run (tired, stressed, grumpy) and realized those were all reasons I NEEDED to go, and after some time in the warm sunshine, I felt amazing.  I was even able to make up my trainer ride that evening before I took a long long nap and slept 8 hours shortly after that.  I just had to bag the swim, which sucked but I think I’ve made peace with it.

The rest of the week went as planned, but was still very busy for various reasons.  We’re kinda hooked on Downton Abbey now, and we sat and watched a whole episode because we needed a damn moment to relax, but then we stayed up too late getting things done.  Relaxing for a 40 minute show was too much. 😛  That’s how life has been lately.

Later in the week, after Zliten was cleared for Scuba by his doc (because of his history with athsma, he needed a note), we signed up for classes this week.  Some couples do candy and flowers and fancy dinners, we learn how to dive…. romantical scuba!  I love it.  However, when they said there was a little homework to do before the class, we didn’t realize that meant a 300 page textbook, 5 quizzes, and 3 hours of DVDs.

Saturday was a slammed day as well – 8am wakeup to get a run in at Lake Pflugerville, bagged the bike since it was too windy and cold and gross, met my parents for lunch, played cards, swam laps in their pool, left, stuffed a veggie sandwich in my face, came home and trainered for not nearly as long as we wanted to and jumped off and changed straight away to try to not be too late to our friends’ house for games.  12 hours of gogogogogogo.

While Sunday was packed with studying, it’s sort of a relief to sit and focus on one thing (although there were short breaks to clean… and laundry… and internet… and nap…. ) and not leave the house.

Next week will be hectic too, but we do have a 3 day weekend at least to pack all the weekend stuff in, so we might actually get to relax a little.  Please? Maybe?

Workouts:

I may possibly have gone off the deep end with all the other crap going on if things weren’t going well in this area, but this week in training has actually been… pretty awesome!

Running: The magic is starting to happen with the zone 1/2 running.  It’s getting easier to stay in my zone and actually run instead of just sort of prancing and limping along.  I clocked two runs this week under 12 min/mile pace averages while staying around 150.  One of them even was a 10k run, which is the longest I’ve ran by far since the marathon, and it just felt fucking fantastic and I wanted to keep going.  Also, the shoes are working their magic.  My heel is not 100% better, but it’s been improving, and running doesn’t seem to really aggravate it, so I’m calling it a win.

I feel like I can actually show my runner card without feeling like a chump this week, finally.  I may not be anywhere close to where I was before, but the improving is certainly making me feel like I might actually be able to do something decent by the time I have to rock out with my tri suit on.  Running is making me happy again, which is comforting.

Biking: I’ve upped my resistances and my speeds are settling back down to what looks reasonable for me.  I’m going to continue doing my monthly test on the easy resistance just to gauge progress, but I need some more quad busting in my life.  Also, one leg drills are evil and hard, which means they are going to make me awesome come tri season.  Bummed we didn’t get a chance to ride outside this week, but hoping for next week.

Swimming: The fact that I missed one swim sucks, but Saturday’s swim made up for it.  Wednesday I swam ok – my (now) normal 1200m in 30, but I did spend some time helping Zliten with his stroke, so if I would have been focused I could have done some more, but it was totally worth it.  Saturday, we swam in a real 25m pool at my parents’ gym.  I started  with 250m (10 lengths) of fin drills and HOLY CRAP those really help you feel out the position you should be kicking in.  I took those off and did 52 more lengths (1300m) feeling faster and more efficent than I ever have.  I was digging my new music too.  I finished 1550m in 32 minutes, which is essentially magic gobbledy gook for me.  I’m going to be incorporating more fin drills because, well, damn.  I suppose I can give a little credit to the fact that I had a cup of decaf coffee and I was bouncy but… yeah… magic swim.

Weights: Lifting less reps heavier is just plain FUN!  For someone who really likes seeing numbers and progress, it was sure fun to pile 155 lbs on the squat bar, and 250 lbs on the leg press, 70 lbs on the pulldowns, and 90 on the row.  On the machines, I’m about halfway into the stacks, which is nice rather than being close to the top.  This week and next week transitions to the real heavy lifting, and I’m a little scared of some of the loads they want me to work towards, but I’ll give it a go to get there, but at least I have one more week before I think about that.

Overall, I feel finally like my body is getting back into shape and feel a little more like an athlete than someone who badly plays one on TV.

Next week will be a challenge to get in our training and do the dive classes and volunteer and cheer at the Austin Marathon, but we’ll get it done.

By the day:

Monday: Weights: 3×12… 250 lb leg press, 90 lb row, 120 lb calf raises, 70 lb pulldown. 3×25 situps w/twist w/10 lb plate. Swim: bagged due to a 17 hour workday.
Tuesday: Run: 3.1 miles, 37:45, HR not recorded (around 150 avg).  Bike: 15.53 in 45 mins (harder resistance setting). 3 miles w/u, 3×1 min one leg drills each side (lighter resistance) with a 1 mile rest interval concentrating on either pushing the downstroke, or pulling the upstroke, 2 miles, 5 mins heavy resistance, 5 mins cooldown.
Wednesday: Weights: 3×12… 155 lb squats (on smith machine), 90 lb rows, 70 lb pulldowns. 3×25… situps w/twist w/10 lb plate, hamstring curls w/55 lbs.  Swim: 1200m in 30 mins.  Helped Zliten with some drills and form.
Thursday: Bike: 9.5 miles in 30 mins…resistance up + 3×1 min 1 leg drills on each side + busted quads from squatting 155 lbs yesterday = slower (no HR data, but it was around 120 avg, 145 max).  Run: 3.1 miles in 36:15.  Never thought I’d be so happy to be running sub-12 minute miles. 152 AVG HR, 169 max
Friday: off!
Saturday: Run: 6.26 in 1:15, Avg HR 153, max 173.  Crazy good feeling.  Wanted to run forever. Swim: 1550m in 32 mins.  Magic swim was magic.  Bike: 15.04 in 45 mins, 136 HR avg/161 max.
Sunday: off

Food:

Planning and diet quality score really salvaged this week, because it could have gone to a bad, bad place.

I certainly could have justified some mad bad food after the work issues and probably been on a junk food spiral for a day or 2.  And then I could have forgotten to eat better, and then it would have been the weekend and I would have just started again on Monday.  However, having to keep accountable to that little count every bite of food really helped me.  Saturday involved cake and booze and poor planning and almost every moment not at home, but at least it wasn’t negative.

Monday: 30
Tuesday: 31
Wednesday: 30
Thursday: 18
Friday: 25
Saturday: 8
Sunday: 29

Average Diet Score: 24.4 – not as good as last week’s 27.4, but 24 is still a pretty awesome score.

The scale may not love me right now at a low weight of 185.0 and a high weight of 187.2 (it was also that time of the month), but my body fat went down another .7% and my muscle % went up too.  I am starting to see less wiggle too, so that’s good stuff.  I suppose slow and steady is the only way she goes.

No average calories.  I fell off this at the end of the week and am finding that a 28-31 day is generally about 1800-1900 calories, and I tend to eat the same things over and over, so it’s only really enlightening (read: depressing) when I have a day that’s abnormal due to social situations or whatnot.  I would imagine I’d be similar to last week.  This week, being mad crazypants, I’m going to just stick with the diet quality.  I’ll return to tracking calories soon (hold me to it), but diet score should stop me from tripping and falling onto pizza and cake.

Other Stuff:

This week was super game-y!  We played a board game with friends from work (I was TWO points off winning – curses!!!) on Thursday.  Then Saturday, we played cards with my parents as per usual, and then got some friends together later in the evening and we played Munchkin!  So incredibly fun.  Our game night resolution is working out well, it’s nice to gather for a reason other than just getting inebriated (booze was had, but it’s nice that it was not the focus).

Besides the crazy amount of studying before we didn’t expect, it was a lot of fun to learn.  Tomorrow, we do our first confined (pool) water dive.  I get about FOUR hours (30 min swim AM, 3h30m dive training) in the water tomorrow so I am a happy happy girl-fish.

It’s getting close-ish (within a few months) to the cruise, so I’m starting my planning for the ports.  Last time I made very rigid plans (run here, bike here, etc), this time, I’m trying to come up with a running route, bike rental shop, and how to get to the best beach for snorkeling in the cheapest and most efficient way, and noting anything else we should make sure to see or do for each port.  Then, try to play it by ear depending on what we feel like doing that day.  It’s not quite time to make a packing list, but I do love planning – it makes me more excited to go do!  Anyone have a “don’t miss” sight or activity for: Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominca, or St. Thomas?

Birthday season is coming up.  I’m not really sure what we’re going to do for Zliten’s and mine beyond eat lots of crab as per tradition, but for my good buddy D’s birthday we’re going camping!  Very much looking forward to it, the last trip was AWESOME!

That’s about it!  Question of the week: have you Scuba’d?  Would you want to?  What’s something you want to learn about?

I’m feeling a little mentally thin, y’all.

I’m sure I’ve got nothing on half the people in this world, and it’s a lot of GOOD THINGStm, but there’s been a lot to this January 2013.

• My stupid fucking cranky heel.  I think (hopehopehope) I’ve resolved this by getting new shoes (NOT Asics, after running in Asics just fine for 5 years) because apparently I pronate now (after not pronating for 5 years).  However, I cranked up the treaddy pretty fast to test them out on Friday, and running in a bunch of different shoes + that + some time in regular shoes (that were just fine 2 months ago :P) on Thursday = ouchy heel again.  I got out Saturday morning to test them out and they felt AWESOME, but I cut it at 1 mile walking and 1.5 miles running and my heel felt fine during, but obnoxious after.  FFS, I ran a marathon in November.  Now, I’m pegged at a mile and a half run at 12 minute miles.  Way to make me feel like a wuss, body.
• Work stuff.  Don’t really want to go into it, but it’s a factor.  I think part of it is now the way of signed, sealed, and delivered, but there is still a lot of uncertainty.  Stretching.  Being confident in the face of trying to be something more.  And realizing that it may not work out in any way shape or form.  This stuff is exciting, wonderful, stressful, and horrible for me.
• Goals.  Things beyond racing, staying healthy to race, and training.  Being well rounded is WAY more work than it’s cut out to be, when you are not, in fact, good at being well rounded.  When you are good at being mega-manical at what your passion is, it’s tough to focus elsewhere and realize it’s for good and not just a distraction and frivolity.
• Heart rate training.  Awesome for biking because it pushes me on the trainer, but holy crap, making me feel like a noob runner again.
• 3 bikes, 3 runs, 3 swims, 2 weights.  They may be short, but it does feel like a LOT of training.  My workout hamper is way fuller at the end of the week than my regular one, and it’s only prep month!
• Getting accustomed to another way of thinking of fueling.  Again, GOOD STUFF, but it’s taking a lot of pre-planning and different.  Different is stressful.  Also, different in a way that is not taking weight off quickly which I was hoping for in a very bad way.
• Between stress and allergies, I’m not sleeping well.  For someone who regularly passes out cold and wakes up 8-9 hours later, I’m not coping well with this.
• I would really really really really really really like the scale to cooperate a little more than it is even if I am making progress elsewhere. 185 is NOT AN OK SET POINT BODY.  I’m back to eating good things and training again, you can go ahead and start shedding the lbs now, thanks.

It’s not to say I haven’t been here before.  I could barely run 5 miles June of ’11, when I made my push to take back the summer.  I’ve taken weeks off running to heal an injury.  In August, I was forced to take a day off due to an emergency, and the thought of “OMG is so and so ok” was just barely above “OMG thank the dear fluffy lord I have an excuse to take a day off”.  I’ve changed up my diet before.  I’ve gone through work stress.

But fucked if this has not all quite happened at exactly the same fucking time.  While I’m also trying to achieve some balance in my life which is more stressful than one might think.

So, in creeps the doubt.  Is this it?  Can I top my accomplishments last year?  Can the dominos fall my way yet again?  Will I die of exhaustion?  Will my body fail me?

Each time, I find my way.  The endurance comes back.  My body relearns what it was to be awesome.  My mind wraps itself around the task at hand and goes forth to conquer.

But each time, before that, I feel so far away I just can’t fathom being back there.

Peaks and valleys.  Late summer and fall, I was standing on top of a big fucking mountain.  I couldn’t imagine lacking the endurance to bust out a 50 mile bike or a 15 mile run or a 4 hour brick.  I completed a half ironman and was back training in 2 days.  I ran a marathon and just wanted to run more.  That was just life.  I was fucking unstoppable.

Now, I’m fragile. I started feeling that way ever since I met my bicycle accident lawyer for the accident I was involved in, a couple of years back. No injuries last year, high (for me) volume.  Now, I have a failing heel and my running sucks and the only thing I can post PRs at is in the weight room (and believe me, that is one thing that is making me sane and sticking with it – lifting super heavy low reps is sorta fun) and the weight won’t come off and there is very little about right now that makes me feel like a bad ass.  At no point last year did I not feel like I could bust out a half marathon and today I would be lucky to run a 10k, and it certainly would be below marathon pace right now.

It makes me regret taking an offseason, but I think the promise of an offseason got me through the crazy of Aug-Nov.  I figured I’d be coming back stronger.  This sure doesn’t feel stronger.

I know it’s just about investing in the plan and plugging away.  There is no way eating good food and training consistently will not get me back there.   I was just hoping I’d feel a little less “herp derp I promise I am actually a runner for reals, and there are muscles under this, and I swear I don’t just eat cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes” sooner.  And I don’t.   And it sucks.

So, getting that rant out of the way, here’s the deets…

 Food:

Everyone, my diet quality scores were OFF THE HOOK this week.

Monday: 30
Tuesday: 31
Wednesday: 28
Thursday: 26
Friday: 28
Saturday: 21
Sunday: 28

This is the one of the worst things I ate last week, simply because it’s not “whole grain” but I do love me a kebap full of veggies, chicken, and yogurt sauce!

Average? 27.4.  Huge!  When I decide I’m going to eat all the right things and plan it out, I can do it.  And honestly, when you eat all the right things, there’s just not much drive or desire to eat many wrong things.  I splurged on a sweet on Friday and Sunday, and had a few drinks on Thursday and Saturday (and I may have had 1/3 of a cinnamon roll that I called an “ergogenic aid” since it was right before a bike ride, but still…).  I STILL didn’t have a day under 20.

This is exactly the way I need to keep eating to give this diet quality hotness a good test.

Average calories: 2035 (~75 less than last week).  It would have been more like 1900 except Saturday was a whole lot of calories (eating a few of the wrong things + the right things + lots of training fuel = ~2700)

Weight: lowest 183.2, highest 186.4

This week’s weight will be blown all to hell because of it being that happy special sucky time of the month, but I’m keeping up with the planning and diet quality maxing, and hoping for greatness.

Workouts:

Monday: Weights: 3×22… 200 lb* leg press, 50 lb pulldown, 115 lb squats, 20 lb dumbbell chest press, 65 lb* rows, 90 lb calf raises, and 3×25 situps w/10 lb plate w/twist.  Swim: 1200m in 30 mins.
Tuesday: Trainer: 11.78 miles in 30 mins.  Run: 3.1 miles in 37:45.
Wednesday: Weights: same as above but 3×25 of everything.  Swim: 1200m in 30 mins.
Thursday: Trainer: 11.05 miles in 30 mins (did some 1 leg drills that slowed me down a bit). Run: .8 miles of heel fail, then elliptical for 20 mins.
Friday: off
Saturday: Run: 1 mile walk, 1.5 mile run in 37 mins.  Swim: 990m in 22 mins. Outdoor bike: 12.17 miles in 46:45.
Sunday: off

Weights are fun guys!  Can’t you see the happy look on my face?

As you can see, all that speed on the trainer?  Translates almost nothing to outside.  Yet.  I think I’ve forgotten what it is to not just ride consistent speed/effort, so it will take a bit to bring up that number (though – when I was actually working on being fast, those loops were about 17 mph, so that’s something for the first ride of the year, especially when my bike has somehow gained about 10 lbs since tri season).  It’s now time to start working the resistance and speed and pushing some zone 3 HR on the trainer so I can remember what it feels like to hurt on the bike again.  Considering our first 70.3 is supposed to be super hilly and hard, it’s time to get back to the pain.

Let’s just not talk about running this week.  It just makes me sad.  At least I got those new shoes and my heel is feeling better and I think I may be able to run on it tomorrow.

Swimming has actually been my favorite lately.  Things keep clicking.  “Oh, fingers together and pushing the water!  Holy crap!” “Really extending my shoulders!  Shut up, that feels GREAT!”  And after I get my upper body in line and start thinking about my legs, they actually start doing the right thing as well.  I’m working on some breath work now (5 strokes to breathe, then 7) and that’s feeling awesome too.  Maybe I’ll just quit triathlon and work on becoming an awesome swimmer… kidding…

Weights have also been cool.  Accomplishments!  Wheee!  I am actually sad to see this phase end because I felt like I was making great strides with it, but now it’s time to transition to REALLY lift heavy.  Exciting stuff.

Next week we up the intensity just a little with some efforts allowed into zone 3, some gentle speedwork (very short sprints or strides), and some drill work on the trainer and with the runs.  Looking forward to it.  We add just a little time overall.  Prep time is over.  Time to begin the climb of the build.

Other Stuff I Have Done:

Not much actually.  I finally got some downtime and spent all day in bed just relaxing and it was everything I wanted out of a Sunday after hours of Run! Swim! Appointment!  Lunch! Bike! Cook!  Party! on Saturday.  I feel about halfway recharged.  Today’s 15 hour work day isn’t going to help things, but I really think of the bad state I could be in if I didn’t just lounge yesterday, and am happy I did it.

So yeah.  A little bit of the messy middle right here on display.  I’m sure I’ll look back and think how silly I was in a few months, but right now?  Yeah, right down in it.

Question of the week: What is NOT going right for you right now? Misery loves company.  What are you doing about it?

Holy crap, January is over.  We’re 1/12th done with 2013, can you believe it?  Last year this time I had already raced twice, now I’m looking at 4 weeks until my first little race – call it mostly a second monthly threshold test – and I’m just getting my feet under me training again.  What a difference a year makes.

I still feel very confident in the direction this year is taking.  Daily preparedness.  Weekly accomplishments.  Monthly goals.  These things are helping.  Consistency.  Focus.  Determination.  This is how I’ll get there.  Long term results are what I’m seeking, for I have patience.

January Goal Progress:

1. Eat mostly fruits and vegetables….Do things to get to the goal of 175 by the end of the month. ~1500 calories of good quality food should do the trick.

I happened upon Racing Weight and decided to follow that instead rather than a calorie restrictive diet.  Life changing.  The weight loss is going slower, but it is WORKING in a way which is absolutely sustainable all season/life.

2. Batch cook each weekend to have most of my meals for the week ready.

Check!  It was awesome, except when we tried to cook too much and it took 5 hours and was frustrating.  3 meals per week, so we get a few times we can go out and a few times we can make fish/something non batch cook-y.  This is going to be our ace in the hole for the year.

3. One day of drinking per week max.  Attempt for that to not be a marathon 8 hour session to cram all the fun in.

Not check.  It’s been a weird month, and while some of you may come to enlightenment through meditation or whatnot, I get to clarity at the bottom of a bottle of wine.  However, I can report that I did not drink so MUCH at each instance, and I did not forget to eat dinner and get myself into trouble.  Baby steps.

4. Schedule at least one game night at the house with friends.  Do at least one “out of the house” activity that doesn’t involve drinking.

Check! Game night was so much fun!  We want to do this once per month or so.  We also did dinner and a movie with friends as well which was nice.

5. ZERO cigarettes.  Use my little happy puffer thing.  Try to stick to the 0 nicotine one as much as possible.

Check!  OMG!  I am so thrilled about this.  I have not been one month cig free since I was in my teens.  I’m to the point where I cannot ever ever imagine having another smoke.  I’m still getting some nicotine, but that’s it.  I’ve read some articles that nicotine and caffeine aren’t that dissimilar (when delivered without all the extra chemicals) and that in small doses, it’s not so horrible for you.  I still would love to completely leave it be someday, but this is the next step.  I can DEFINITELY feel it in the pool, I used to have a PULL in my lungs when I got going, now I don’t.

6. ZERO sweet treats this month.  If I want desert, it can be fruit, yogurt, or arctic zero.  Das it.  I need one of these type of months to get off the “white pony” and back to the point where I can consume it responsibly.

Check!  I think I’m going to stick with this.  It’s negative points anyway and since I do get some sugar immediately before/during/after some workouts, I don’t miss sweets that much (though you can’t really chow down a piece of key lime pie on the bike).  I may allow ONE treat each week if I can justify it with my diet score, or super duper special occasions.

7. Train with my heart rate monitor every time.  I need to get in this habit.

Check!  It’s been somewhere between useful and frustrating to have this data staring me in the face, but I am waiting for the dark magic to happen and it’s not going to unless I keep at it.

8. Consistency.  My brain is REALLY raring to get back to those 3-5 hour training days, which is a great sign that offseason did exactly what it was supposed to do, but my body is NOT.  Do the workouts on my schedule as prescribed, and don’t add because it’s scary to only be training 6.5 hours (including 1.5 hours of weights) this month as prep.

Check!  After we got going, the hours were enough.  Killing myself in the weight room also helped.There may have been some sessions we wanted to extend (especially bikes) but overall I feel like I’m training just fine for 3 months outside tri season with the first up being a super sprint.  Next month changes a bit so that will be fun!

9. Get my sewing machine set up and at least put some stitches into something

Check!  Just barely though… I am now at least intrigued though still intimidated, but I can touch it without feeling like I’m unworthy of it… 🙂

10. Clean out our closet and get a bunch of stuff donated.

Check! We cleaned out the closet, and it’s all organized!  Wheee! We have things bagged up at my ‘rents house for my mom to go through before we visit the Will of Good.  I’m counting it though!

11. Investigate Scuba Certification and set a time to get it done.

Check!  Targeting Feb 11-14 for the course and then Feb 23+24 to do the dive cert parts.  Zliten just needs a doctors note since he has mild allergy induced athsma and that comes next week.

12. Get my damn eye exam.  It’s been way too long.  Had it scheduled for over the break, but my back being fucked made me have to cancel.

Check (scheduled)!  I go tomorrow.  Good adult me.  I just realized this week, my glasses are scratched so it’s really time for me to get off my ass and do this.

13. Cheer for runners at 3M on 1/13.

Check!  We went and cowbelled the fuck out of our corner, however, the “feels like 30” temps made us pack up and go home before the whole crowd passed us.  But, we tried!

13 seems like a good number, so let’s do this again for February!

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.

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

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

4. Get scuba licensed!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

That should do it!  I’m really tired today because I’ve had crappy sleep for the last few days, so I’ll get on all these tomorrow, kthx. Just kidding – I’ve got my food planned out for the day and my training plan done, so there’s that.

Question of the day:  What’s your February goal?

Since I started this round of training, I haven’t had a day to just relax.  It’s been either train, work, batch cook, work on January goals, socialize, etc.  It’s been an awesome month, but my soul is starting to feel a little thin.  I wanted today to be that day, and it was cool to sleep in and watch a movie this morning, but since then it’s been DO DO DO DO SHIT.  I really really need a day off and some major vegging soon.  Maybe next Sunday?  Please please please?  I’ll muscle it away from ya…

Week four is the last one where the training schedule is the same.  The eating goals are the same.  I’m in a little bit of that third week motivation slump – like the third lap of a four lap course.  It’s no longer new and exciting, and it’s not yet “the last one”.  So, without much ado, let me talk you through my week.

Workouts:

My heel has gotten less creaky, I got to run outside 3 times and I’m not limping and feels better than it has for a while.  That’s a happy for sure!

I did a 1050m test (70 laps) and hit 23 mins.  That’s a ~35 minute mile.  Faster times than I’ve posted for a while/ever (for a while I had the pool measurements wrong so I thought I was faster than I was)?  It felt great to push myself in the pool and I am HUNGRY for some hard pool workouts that are going to come starting March.

Cycling has just been more of the same good.  I’m craving some outdoor riding, but I want to push myself to see what I have outside at a closed road course (Veloway).  I may have to break my zone 1/2 rule just once soon.  For now, loving the trainer movie rides.

Running – meh.  My HR finally came down a bit this week for the lunch runs, but Saturday’s run was just shit.  Allergies, lack of motivation, no music because I’m a dummy and didn’t charge my mp3 player, and just plain tireds made my heart rate go sky high after about mile 1.5 and I was either trotting or walking so I bagged it a little early (with the warmup and cooldown I got my intended 45 mins in, because I ran so frigging slow, but it’s not what I set out to do).  I’ll keep at it, but right now, runs are, pun intended, my Achilles heel.

Weights are good.  Raised everything to 22 reps, and I even upped some weights.  I’m getting stronger.  Let me tell you a story… I went about my normal weights workout on Wednesday…and Zliten and I were staggered so he was on the exercise before me. I get to the squat bar, put my weight on, and go at it. The first set went OK, but the second set was just WAY hard. I started thinking about how the day really drained me. Finishing his last set of the previous exercise, Zliten comes over and points to my bar and gives me a thumbs up. I’m like, what? I then realized I had put two 35s and two 10s on each side instead of 25s and two 10s. Holy crap, I squatted 125 lbs which is 20 more lbs than I was struggling with last week! I almost took the weight off, but figured if I could do two sets I could do three. It did make my hips (of all places) REALLY tender for about 12 hours after but I survived.  I’ll scale back a bit next week (115 maybe?) but that was awesome!

One more week of this schedule and then we start Base 1.  I’ll talk about that more next week when I have a training plan done.

Day by day (this should look familiar!):

Monday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb* leg press, 40 lb pulldowns, 105 lb squats, 20 lb* dumbell chest press, 60 lb row, 80 lb* calf raises, 10 lb plate situps with twist. Swim: 1290m in 30 mins.
Tuesday: Bike: 11.37 miles in 30 mins.  Run: 3 miles in 36:30.
Wednesday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb leg press, 50 lb* pulldowns, 125 lb* squats, 20 lb dumbells chest press, 60 lb rows, 55 lb* hammie curls, situps w/twist w/10 lb plate.  Swim: 1350m in 32 mins.
Thursday: Bike: 10 miles in 32 mins (hurty hip).  Run: 3.1 miles in 38 mins.
Friday: off
Saturday: Swim: 1050m test (in 23 mins).  Bike: 20 miles in 52:28.  Run: 3.1 in 40:30.
Sunday: off

Foods Stuffs:

Batch cooking is really awesome, but we found our limit last week.  We decided to cook 4 meals (so we’d have every meal spoken for) and while most were quick and easy, I decided to undertake making two indian dishes with homemade sauces.  If that was all we were cooking, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but after putting together 3 other things, it made the day DRAG and we were just grumpy by the end.

It also resulted in me not putting in the recipes in spark since I was so behind with everything, so I just guesstimated calories, so I was less motivated to track right away, so my food intake was more.  It also gave us some food fatigue – yes, it’s nice having food ready, but I missed my fish.  And Zliten pretty much needs a hamburger every week.  So it was just a little too much.

So, this weekend, we’re already done – it took us about 1/3 the time since we picked easy stuff and as such had time yesterday to squeeze it in.  I already have the recipies in and can now plan out my days ahead of time to maximize my scores!  Lesson learned, just like everything else, if some is good, more isn’t always better.

I’m actually seeming to do well with the no sweet treats.  It may be worth keeping up for February, minus one exception for the damn rum ball I have saved all month in my fridge, and I’ll allow one desert for v-day.  All other sweets need to be consumed right before or during workouts.

Only having one splurge meal per week is working out too.  This week I did really damn well, my “splurge” was a whole wheat thin crust all organic mini-pizza, and the same day but at a different meal, one olive garden breadstick and some croutons.  I did drink 3 times (weird week), so there is that.

Diet Quality Check:

Monday: 26
Tuesday: 18 (had a few drinks)
Wednesday: 20
Thursday: 15 (also had a few drinks)
Friday: 14 (oops :P)
Saturday: 1 (double oops – drinks and snacks at party)
Sunday: 14

Average DQ Score: 15.48 (down about 2 from last week)

Average Cal/Day: 2109 (almost 200 UP from last week)

High Weight 187.2, Low Weight 184.4

So, as you can see, I start out the week well and then all goes to hell.  I had a better diet quality on weekday nights where I had to subtract quite a few points for drinking than Friday and Sunday when I just didn’t eat the right food.

Piss poor planning prevents proper procedure.  This week was piss poorly planned.  Not making that mistake again next week.

Next week, my goals are to:

• Keep the food calories lower, but diet quality the same or higher.
• Plan out what I’m eating before I’m forced to just grab shit and hope it’s not too many calories/the right things.
• Eat my damn rum ball on Feb 2 after training.
• Try to make sure I eat my max fruits and veggies – nuts I’ll add once I have more workout hours, but 4 of each freggies per day shouldn’t raise my calories too much. Remember that avocado is a fruit.

The good news is that I’m back to what I was weighing before this weird spike last week for no reason, and down another 0.2% (4% overall) body fat and up 0.1% (2.4% overall) muscle in one week.  I’ll take it.  Diet score and calories be damned.

Other Stuff:

Things this week have been interesting at work.  A little bit weird, but also a little bit of possibilities opening up for me.  Totally specific I know.  If any of you follow me on twitter, please do excuse the vague messages.  Sometimes I just need to say things.  And since I can’t really say things, I just need to say vague things.  The thing that I am most impressed with is the fact that this time around, I’ve realized that one does not get where they want to be by not stating one’s intentions and hoping for the best.  If you want to get somewhere, the first step is making sure anyone that can help you knows what you want.  Even if it doesn’t work out, I can be proud I’ve done that.

I put a stitch in something!!! OMG.  The sewing machine was super intimidating, but I realized that today had to be the day, and Zliten was super nice and helped me get it set up and once I figured it out the first time, it really wasn’t so bad.  Now I’m kinda inspired to actually do something with it, but since my previous experience ended so horribly (with my first and only C grade in a class… the terror!!!), I’m going to take it slow.  Next month, I’ll mend something.  If I do more, cool.  If not, baby steps.

We had friends over for a game night and it was a total blast!  We played Mario Yahtzee, Apples to Apples, and Drunk Jenga.  Then, we had deep and meaningful conversations until 4 am and I had 3 overnight guests. 🙂  It was way fun and much less stressful than hosting a big party.  I think we’re going to try to do one a month (maybe let other people host if they want but I’m happy only having to navigate from the living room to the bedroom once we’re done).

Zliten has been uber-complaining about the couch lately, and when I mentioned I really, really need a lay-on-the-couch day soon (was hoping for today but… it ’twasn’t to be) and he pretty much refused until we got a new couch.  To be fair, his side is REALLY saggy and uncomfortable and hurts his back so I don’t begrudge him, but then all of a sudden, it went from a “nice to have” to a MUST BUY NOW (I love me some ass to couch time).  The store down the street was doing a sale on room groups + two flat screen tvs for free, so we went, we purchased, and when we found out it was 36 months no interest, and we had already maxed out the shipping cost, we went ahead and got some bedroom furniture we’ve been wanting as well.  So, coming in the next few days will be a reclining sofa, a loveseat, a coffee table, two end tables, three dressers, and we took home two nightstands and have them set up.

There was a rug that I was eyeing that will “tie the room together” (the couch is sort of a red/chocolate brown and we have a black entertainment center, grey walls, and navy blue trim 😛 so the couch DOESN’T GO AT ALL).  We’ll need to eventually (or sooner, dependng on how much I hate the brown/grey combo) have to repaint our living room a warmer cream/beige/something color.  But, we finally have adult furniture and can ditch the coffee table with one broken section spraypainted red and blue.

I got a fitbit, so now I’m part of the fitbit gang of our friends.  I swear, Zliten and M will both be constantly walking around the block by the end of this feud… let the competition begin!

…And last but not least, I finally did the last step to clean out the closet by getting enough storage to get all my “not-right-now” clothes stored away on the shelf.  January organization zone done!

And with that, I’m out party people.  Question of the week: how are your goals going for January?  Conquer something intimidating?

…and hey, if you like all this, come check out our family blog at adventuresintriathlon.com!

Training Happies:

First of all, my exciting news!  I got to do a bike test and run test this week.  Why so exciting?  Well, this is the first time I’ve really pushed myself on the bike since Kerrville (Sept) and on the run since Vern’s (Dec 15).  It felt WONDERFUL.  Most importantly though it gave me a great yardstick to set up my zones and see where I’m at.

The test is such – warm up if needed (I didn’t on the bike, but we did on the run).  Then, 30 minutes as high intensity you can keep up for all 30 mins.  The average heart rate for the last 20 mins of the test is your lactate threshold and you can take that and calculate your zones.

Bike: I totally rocked this.  I kept a 28.9 mph average on the trainer for 30 mins and found my average to be about 165 HR.  I felt like I was pushing and a little out of breath, but not close to dying.  I was pretty amazed that I had that in me.  I never ride like that unless I’m racing.  I may be deluding myself that my work on the trainer will translate that much into outdoor ride speed, but I can hope.

Bike Zones

Zone 1 Less than 81% of LTHR        <133
Zone 2 81% to 89% of LTHR      134 – 146
Zone 3 90% to 93% of LTHR      147 – 153
Zone 4 94% to 99% of LTHR      154 – 164
Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR        165 – 168
Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR        169 – 174
Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR       >175

The run was a little less “omg I’m fast and awesome” – I have been not doing a lot of runs due to heel crankiness (which I seem to be over the hump with – I ran yesterday and I can walk today, so there’s that).  The extra fluff shows itself in spades in my run pace, but it is what it is.  It’s hard to tell because I didn’t break apart the warmup, but I think I would be barely under a 30 min 5k at this point.  Bleh.  It is what it is and it’s a starting point for the year.

The wonderful part of this run is I didn’t even need to take an average.  My lactate threshold is CLEARLY 175.  Anything below that, I’m ready to speed up.  Anything above that, my body starts shutting that shit down and if I want to maintain pace, I need to venture DEEP within the pain cave.  The numbers supported it too.  It’s awesome that I will know that if I want to do the best that my body has in it that day, I need to maintain about 175 until the finishing kick.  Another lovely thing is my stride felt great (once I warmed up and got the junk out of my legs – SO sore to start with).  I felt like my turnover was effortless and I was almost gliding around the track instead of pounding it.  I’m sure I still looked like the special kid but I FELT great.

Run Zones:

Zone 1 Less than 85% of LTHR        < 148
Zone 2 85% to 89% of LTHR      149 – 155
Zone 3 90% to 94% of LTHR      156 – 164
Zone 4 95% to 99% of LTHR      165 – 174
Zone 5a 100% to 102% of LTHR        175 – 178
Zone 5b 103% to 106% of LTHR        179 – 185
Zone 5c More than 106% of LTHR       >186

The good news is that I can extend my zone 1/2 runs to 155.  Which is a little better than 150.

If you’re curious about the method, Joe Friel on calculating zones.

Other than that, it was easy breezy beautiful.  I upped my weights on a lot of things this week.  I am going to up some reps next week to 22-25.  The swims are getting a little less awkward as long as I am mindful of my form – so that means a little faster.  I think I’ve finally conquered the swimp3 player getting water in my ears, so less dithering around with that helps too.  The trainer bikes are amazing.  I want to take this out to some roads soon for a reality check, but for now, I’m enjoying the fast numbers.  I didn’t really enjoy the elliptical instead of lunch runs this week, but it seems to have helped my heel so there is that.

By the day (should look VERY similar to last week, and next week, and the week after…)

Monday: 50 mins weights and stretching, 30 mins swim (1050m)
Tuesday: 30 min HR test on bike trainer (14.45 miles), 30 min elliptical (1.5 miles – kept HR around 140-150)
Wednesday: 45 min weights and stretching, 30 mins swim (1200m)
Thursday: 30 min bike trainer (12.02 miles), 30 min elliptical (1.45 miles – same HR)
Friday: rest day
Saturday: 30 min HR test on the track (3.85 mile in 39:51 with warmup), 25 min swim (1050m), 50 min trainer ride (20.5 miles)
Sunday: rest day

Nutrition and Other Things That Go Bump In the Night

I’m spending a lot of time being really frustrated with the scale this week and I didn’t even eat that cone!  THIS IS WHY I HATE THIS SHIT.  I want to just train hard and track HR and pace times and have fun with it.  Now, my nice hard “crush it” days are really few and far between, and it’s all easy peasy, PLUS the scale isn’t budging.  Like, check it.  I’m up a lb.  I was hoping to be in the 170s by now and my low weight this week is up to 185.6 and my high is 187.2 :P.

And I’m doing just about everything right.  I finally got a batch cook week with zero refined grains or other badness.  My diet score has been in the 20s every day this week (that I haven’t drank… which is 5 out of 7).  I’ ve eaten out only 3 times this week, and 2 of them were healthy (one was the splurge burger and fries I was craving).  The only way I could improve those days is to eat MORE calories (I am not eating to my max of nuts and fruits).  My protein is spot on or even a little high (but not ridic-high, maybe 20g over max) because I’m eating 2 servings of meat again instead of just one, and my fiber is off the HOOK.  Besides the fact that I used a sauce that contained MSG in one dish (oops), this is a picture of clean eating per the diet quotient.  I’ve even tried to use more whole foods to carb up for my afternoon workouts instead of easy carbs like gels or bars.

Apparently that nets me a gain.

But I’m trying to take it in stride and with patience.  My jawline is starting to emerge from fluff.  I lost 4% bodyfat THIS WEEK and gained 2.5% muscle.  My measurements either got better or stayed the same.  My pants are starting to not fit quite so ridiculously.  For the first time in months, I actually feel like I look cute in things at times and not like an overstuffed version of myself.  My muscles are waking back up.  I’m squatting 105 lbs.  My swims last week felt less like flailing and about the same speed as last year.  My bike trainer work is in outer space right now (seriously, if I can translate that even partway to road speeds I’ll have some fatty PRs this year).  I’ve got the time to let my heel heal from whatever it’s doing rather than just trying to smash it into submission on the roads and Saturday’s run didn’t kill it (and thus, I may graduate to the treadmill or track instead of the elliptical for run days this week).

I just need to make the call that I’m all in.  And I am.  If I have to gain weight to lose weight later, so be it.  There is a grand plan and it takes until the end of June.  And that’s killing it in Buffalo Springs at the leanest possible body composition I can without a) doing it the wrong way and b) going frakking nuts.

My only modification is that on easy days, I’m not going to try to cram 100g carbs in my face before a 30 min easy ride.  That “snack-meal” in between lunch and workouts before evening swim and weights is making my workouts amazing, but unless I’m going to go out and kill some speedwork or a super long workout in the morning, a bar or gel will suffice.  I’m not going to go back to an empty stomach because that is toughhh now that I see how nice a fueled workout is, but I don’t need to cram a gel, half a bar, and dried mango in my face to pedal to a movie for 30.  I am going to continue to eat an awesome breakfast in between morning and lunch workouts because that also makes for awesomeness.  The calories were more this week.  But to lower the calories I also need to lower my diet quality.   So I don’t see that happening.

This will look like:

Monday/Wednesday (night weights/swim): eat normally, but eat 500 calorie “snack-meal” high in carbs between about 3-6pm.

Tuesday/Thursday (morning trainer/lunch run): *something* in the morning (gel, bar, etc), normal breakfast with a little extra museli in it, and an extra carby snack with lunch/within 2 hours of workouts.

Saturday: Fuel before (bar/gel), eat lunch after bike/run, eat dinner or “snack-meal” after swim and then eat normally.

Days off: Eat normally.  No extra carbage.

This will probably change as my morning workouts get harder/longer  (that’s what she said?) but for now, it’s working.

There is really nothing wrong I can do with my body by continuing to eat super high quality foods with just a few splurges per week.  The weight seemed to come off naturally last year when I did that combined with a good training volume, so we’ll see what happens.  I’m going to make it a goal to have 52 weeks of tracking this year (perhaps MINUS the week after each A race to allow myself to unwind a little bit and vacations), along with 52 sets of measurements and 52 progress pics.  I get in trouble when I don’t track, so my goal is to not give myself that long of a rope to hang myself with.

I just need to have a little faith.  Change does not happen overnight.  Years ago, I was not as happy with my job as I am now, and I thought about quitting.  However, I hung on because I had faith that this was just growing pains and something had to give and I believed in our product, and now I am THRILLED with where I’m at.  I may not be seeing quick progress, but I have faith that THIS is something that will get me to the next level.  I just have to give it a chance for it to do it’s magic.  I’m just a little scared of sticking with something that won’t work, but it just makes so much SENSE…

This Week in Food:

Monday: 22
Tuesday: 25
Wednesday: 25
Thursday: 9 (drinking night)
Friday: 19
Saturday: -2 (out to lunch burger splurge, drinking night)
Sunday: 23

Average DQ score this week: 17.25 (11.57 last week)

Average calories per day: 1927 (1795 last week)

The goal next week is to:

1. Try to make drinking nights not coincide with food splurges.  That should help the peaks and valleys.  Also, finding that doing something (playing a game, etc etc) while drinking helped me drink less while still enjoying myself immensely so more of THAT.

2. Try to maximize food score while trying to bring calories down a bit.  Though I had very few bad calories this week perhaps I could do better.

3. Try to incorporate nuts in my diet a bit more.  One serving per day this week.  Baby steps.

Questions of the week: What do you think is king, calorie count or diet quality?  Which should I focus on?  Trying to eat the best diet I can under x amount of calories, or try to eat the lowest calories I can while trying to maximize my food quality score?