Adjusted Reality

So, I had a fantastic amazing Christmas Eve and day.  I was all….

But then on Boxing Day, the day we had planned to wake up and do 100 miles on the trainer, I was all…

Nothing crazy epic, just went to sleep fine and woke up FUCKED.  My back decided to go out and in a bad bad way it hasn’t since 2011.  I’ve been going through 2.5  days of excruciating pain and not being able to get out of bed, shower, dress myself, make food, be awesome, etc.  For someone like me who is all traintraintrain and if not training then partyparty and not really conditioned to restrestrest especially when I’ve been doing that lately and also REALLY not a fan of just staying in bed all day… misery and torture.  Today though, I have finally, after 2 chiropractor visits, lots of ibu and 303 muscle relaxers, finally turned a corner and can sit up for more than 3 minutes at a time without agony.  I expected my Christmas break would be full of epic shit, but instead it’s full of a lot of not doing much.  Bleh.  At least I’m at the point now where drinking and video games are a viable option (hello 2004, missed you maybe?), that last two days was a NIGHTMARE.

Even if I feel better, I’m not cleared to do anything more exciting than casual swimming until at least Wednesday, so it’s another forced week of rest.  Boo.  Training starts Jan 7th, so I don’t see a stupid long trainer in the cards, and, well, that’s ok.  I’ll be doing lots of trainer miles soon enough and I’ll apply this fire to that.  Running I’m most ok with since I have kept up on it a lot late this year (yay marathon), but there have been so many pretty running days in the last 2 weeks I’ve had to stay inside that it makes me sad.  At least I can play with my swimp3 if I feel better and the gym is open.  So wheeee for that!

So, I have two more wrapup posts of our 2012 races started.  Also, the annual 2012 resolution recap, and the 2013 resolution extravaganza started too.  Now that I’m able to sit in front of a computer for a bit, they’re coming, just not as quickly as I would like.  I’m sure no one cares but I, but still, I was excited to get these words down and out there!  Sigh…

Forgive the attitude, but I haven’t ran since Dec 15 (the start of my heel being a jerk), haven’t biked or swam since Christmas Eve, and barely being able to move has me in a little bit of a dark place.  It’s a good thing I was too hobbled to attack all the Christmas sweets too hard.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a new day.  A day where my back isn’t angry as fuck at me.  And I can get on with my life.

Apparently offseason hates me.  Next year, I need to take up epic underwater basket weaving to give my mind a break but keep my body going, because apparently not serious training = injury after injury.  Fuck you, body.  I guess the only consolation is that I’m not ruining any real training – but from the last race until the first day of training, apparently I’m going to be impared.  Is it my body’s way of trying to keep me from doing anything, or finally the permission to break down, or just Murphy’s Law?

Either way, I will listen, even if I’m dragged kicking and screaming, if only to tip the odds to having a fabulous, injury free 2013 season.

Question of the day: what was your worst injury in 2012?

Holy crap. After almost a week, I’ve gotten over the funk I was in and I’m ready to bask in the accomplishment of actually getting to the start (and finish) line of 24 races this year in one piece.  Things I’ve learned overall:

How to get to the start line

• What works for me to eat the day before and when (meat, taters, veggies or giant sammiches, around 2-4pm is optimal and then a snack before bed).
• How to warm up for each distance (triathlon, a lot of walking around, then a half mile run with pickups, then as long of a swim as I can get – 100m at least)
• What to pack for each type of race
• What to eat for breakfast (oatmega or PR bar, chai tea, and organic lactose free milk or a honeymilk/muscle milk if it’s a distance race) and when (as early as I can)
• How to calm the race nerves, and know that you’re too burnt and racing too much when you have absolutely zero butterflies.

How to keep my head in the race

• What to think about before the race (visualizing the whole race going smoothly and going through the entire race plan several times)
• Being strict about not going out all “happy puppy” (thanks to Libby – I love that expression) and building intensity through the race.  I’m not great at negative splitting races, but I’m getting closer than I ever have and definitely not fizzle-booming like I used to.
• When your head starts going to the bad place, eat.  Shove something in your mouth.  That’s what that means.
• Z- EAT MOAR!
• Even if something goes horribly wrong (lady cramps at mile 16 of a marathon, dizziness and lightheadedness at mile 6 of a 70.3), or it’s just not your day, don’t just give up.  Push as long as you can, slow down, take stock, assess the situation, make steps towards fixing it, and get going again when you can.  Reassess your time goal and make another one.  Even if you have to do this 20 times, I guarantee you’ll get to the finish line faster than if you just say “fuck it, I’m not PRing, I may as well walk it in” and you’ll still have a race to be proud of.
• Sometimes a victory is finishing a race happy and strong even if your race time isn’t what you expected.

After the race

• Get some calories in right away even if you’re not hungry and don’t feel like it.  Even with the great stomach debauchle of the half ironman, I ate til I felt sick, let it pass, and continued that cycle to get at least a few hundred calories of food down and as much as I could drink.
• Every race deserves champagne, from a slow 5k to a triathlon PR to a first marathon.
• Z- Have some bubbly every race! it is important to celebrate your effort. Before the results come out!
• Wear your race medal all day, and you’ll probably need to take a picture of yourself biting it.  It’s just tradition!
• A race day is considered a holiday in my book, and thus I am allowed to eat whatever I want that day.
• Sunday races suck – but most triathlons are on Sundays, so just get to bed early enough the hangover isn’t TOO heinous the next day.  Nuun while drinking also helps with that.

So, without further ado, here’s a quick play by play:

January 21 – Austin Gorilla Run (5k)

Time: 31 and change

Coolest thing about this race: Running around Austin in a gorilla suit and after training up Zliten all winter, he PR’d his 5k in a gorilla suit at a fun run.  As the kids say, BEAST.

Lessons learned from this race: 5ks in the January cold are much better in a thick gorilla suit.

Zliten notes from the race: 2 years in a row at the gorilla run, and this year it wasn’t in the 20’s. It was still cold, but much better then before. Somehow I ran it faster than any other 5k before, but then again I was in training for a half marathon at that point.

January 29 – 3M Half Marathon

Time: 2:27 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: full on downhill course in our bike stomping grounds so we knew it well, and it was Zliten’s first half!

Lessons learned from this race: Not every race is about my PR attempts – it was a blast just pacing Zliten and dancing around to my music and being silly at the spectators.

Zliten notes from the race: WooHoo all downhill and 13 miles done. The only thing stinky was the school busses they  used to get us back to the start. They had an odor of smelly runner. I really enjoyed the start of this race, getting to run on roads I drive on all the time was neat.

February 20 – Austin Half Marathon

Time: 2:29 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: my fave race shirt and silicone pint glass schwag came from this race.  Also, Zliten almost crushed his PR set a month earlier on a much harder course.

Lessons learned from this race: if you’re not sad when the marathoners split off and you were supposed to be running the marathon, you are totally not ready to run a marathon.

Zliten notes from this race: This course was way harder than the 3m, but it was awesome since I got to run it with Quix and a few co workers. We all stayed together until about mile 6 where I just took off! It was a rough finish but also very fulfilling.

February 26: Lifetime Fitness Indoor Tri (10 mins swim, 30 mins spin bike, 20 mins treadmill run time trial)

Distances: Quix swam 450m in 10 mins, biked 15.5 miles in 30 mins (not accurate distance), ran 2.38 miles in 20 mins – 2nd place under 40 out of 11! (Indoor Tri PR – can I call it that?) Race Report / Zliten swam 325m in 10 mins, biked 22.2 miles in 30 mins (not accurate distance), ran 2.13 miles in 20 mins

Coolest thing about this race: first race in 3 months I was able to just open up and race, loved the format, first place under 40 on the bike!!

Lessons learned from this race: I got really down on myself when I didn’t hit my bike goal and I came in first by a long shot (though I had no idea at the time).  I took out some frustration on the treadmill but a better attitude would have been “hey, I may have not done quite what I wanted on the bike but I did my best, so let’s try to kick some major ass on the run” instead of feeling like I had to make magic on that run or I was worthless.

Zliten notes from the race: Well I had the best distance on the bike by quite a bit on this one. But my swimming was poor and my run was disappointing. That is ok. It was a fun morning and great to see a bunch of people do their first multi-sport event. The crowd was very different from what you see out at a regular triathlon, and there was almost no spandex here. I think Ill wear my tri suit at the next one.

March 11 – Blue Norther Duathlon (5k run, 14 mile bike, 5k run)

Time: Quix 1:58 (Duathlon PR – my first :D) Race Report / Zliten 2:06

Coolest thing about this race: first real sanctioned duathlon, held some really nice 5k paces both times, did not melt or wreck and die riding in the rain for the first time ever ever.

Lessons learned from this race: I needed clipless pedals badly (which I had but hadn’t put on yet), and needed to get on the bike more and ride more hills

Zliten notes from the race: Cold and rainy to start, humid and hot to end. But the bike was all magical unicorns if unicorns were muddy cold rain beasts. I had a few bike malfunctions but was able to stay on it, then the second run and I had some talks about slippery mud but again I stayed upright. We didn’t know how we did placement wise so we stayed until the awards were given out. And of course we didn’t place, but we finished and that is the most important part.

March 24 – Rosedale Ride (62 mile bike)

Time: 5:15 Race Report

Coolest thing about this race: first metric century OMG!  …and we didn’t even go into the race meaning to do the distance.  Crazy/stupid/impulsive/fun.

Lessons learned from this race: holy crapballs, use your new pedals for more than a week before doing a 60+ mile ride with lots of stops (hello 3 crashes), also, more time in the saddle was SO needed because this was the most sore and tired I had ever been in my life after a race, and I was to be doing a 1.2 mile swim before and a half marathon after.  Also, I didn’t die so I’m sticking with the 60 mile turnoff was a good decision.

Zliten notes from this race: Should we turn here? Yeah its the 40 to 60 mile turn we can make the 60 mile choice later. Should we turn, why not we are feeling great! What its only 38 miles in, why am I feeling like I want to die and never ride again? Food, yes oh thank you boy scout troop what ever you were at the next rest stop. I think I had 8 cookies! We finished, I made it a few yards past the finish line and laid down in some grass. I didn’t even care about the ants biting me for a few moments.  The drive home was more difficult than I expected, my legs really didn’t want to work all that well.

April 15 – Austin 10/20 (10 mile run)

Time: Quix – 1:41:51 (auto PR – 1st 10 miler) Race Report / Zliten 1:49:52

Coolest thing about this race: first 10 miler, closest I’ve ever come to negatively splitting a race, kept a great pacing strategy, started in my work parking lot so it was 5 mins away from the house.

Lessons learned from the race: fast and flat doesn’t mean pancake – conserve a little more for second half slight incline of pretty much 5 miles.  A little more speedwork/specific training would have helped me get a little closer to my 1:35 goal.

Zliten notes from the race: First race where I had to take a stop and find a porta potty. Also my glasses fogged up real bad in said porta potty and were useless the rest of the race. The organizers did a great job with this one. A band every .5 miles and plenty of water stops, there was even an ice cold towel stop at mile 8ish. Just great!

April 25 – Georgetown Red Poppy Ride (66 mile bike)

Time: 5:05 (Metric century PR) Race Report

Coolest thing about this race:  the second time wasn’t nearly as hard (I felt like maybe I could have ran a few slow miles off the bike instead of just dropping to the ground in exhaustion), and no crashes on the pedals!

Lessons learned from the race: EAT EAT EAT a lot on the bike.  Feeling like a little piggy in the first half = energy in the second half.  Also, no matter how well you plan, you’ll want whatever isn’t in your bento box.  Also, as before OMG more long bike rides needed.  Also, also – WIND SUCKS.

Zliten notes from the race: Wind wind wind and a little bit of a mental breakdown at one point. I did not eat nearly enough. I had to stop 3 times and just sit down until I felt better. I learned from it though and did better on every long ride after. I would love to do this ride again but with a little less wind. It was beautiful to be out riding in farmland.

When our bike shoes touched down at that finish line, it became officially tri season!  Look for the next post for our summer of triathlet-ing!

We’ll get to the massive amount of end of year recapping that happens around this here blog soon – but I had to share this one as it’s in my brain.

I’m finally at that point where I am really, really ready to get down and dirty and do something about this extra flubber.

My intention was to give myself a week after the marathon and then really hop on the train.  However, that didn’t work once I realized I had all this pent up partying and stress relief and just letting loose a bit, I needed to do and it wouldn’t be healthy for me to clamp down immediately and become a food nazi.  My diet has been at least in the “fair to okay” range (I’m not eating burgers and mexican combo plates and pizza every day or anything), but I’m finding that I am popping out for takeout more than I’d like because I’ll have shit to do, and then by the time I get home, I’m starving and don’t want to take the 30 mins+ to cook something.  Also, with all the celebratory stuff going on around the holidays, I want in like a kid outside a candy store because I have spent a lot of the year watching celebrations and social events go by that I didn’t have the time or energy for, and now I do.

So I’ve given myself some latitude the last few weeks.  Somehow latitude + celebration + offseason short basic fitness workouts = nothing fits right anymore.  I had a small breakdown on Saturday when I couldn’t find anything to run my second 5k in that didn’t make me feel like a major before picture and jokingly threatened that I was going to stay home and not take race pictures.  That’s when the tipping point happened.  This is no longer a “lalala I’d like to improve my body comp” type thing.  It’s now an action item.

I have two big motivations:

1. I believe the single thing I could do to improve my times in tris next year is safely and healthily shed some weight and turn more flubber into muscle.  For someone who loves to attack a training schedule, I fall flat on my face lately when trying to do this simple thing of “put just a little bit less than my body wants of good things in my mouth”.  When I decide to screw the pooch and make bad food and drink choices, I need to remember that this is akin to skipping or cheesing out on a training session.  Sometimes it’s necessary.  Most often, it’s not, and I need to imagine that delicious looking cake adding seconds to my race times.

2. Zliten got a GoPro camera for xmas (don’t worry, he’s already unwrapped it so I’m not ruining the surprise).  Now he’s dreaming about all sorts of videos to make, and filmed both of our races yesterday.  Let’s just say I’m not happy with what’s on camera, and if I’m going to be the star of the show, I refuse to look the way I do now.  I’m actually incredibly thankful for this motivation.  Clothes don’t motivate me as much – I can always buy new ones.  I still take a pretty keen picture from the right angles.  However, video is way less forgiving and just as I refused to get married until I was sure I’d treasure those wedding photos and not just hide them under the bed, I don’t want to be pasting my ass all over the internet the way it looks right now.  And since I don’t get to set the time line on that one, I better get on it.  ASAP.

This is a lot of talk from someone who has been here quite a few times in the last few years.  All you can do is fall down seven times, get back up eight, right?

So, here is my plan for success and timeline.  I am nothing if not a planner.

Now – Dec 31:

1. Now that the holiday parties and work treats and such are over, stop eating that crap.  The only exception is the requisite tin of holiday popcorn which I will portion out like a snack and not sit and stuff my face at and pretend like it doesn’t have calories because I’m having a handful here and there.  Other things, if I want it, buy it and save it for bike fuel next year.

2. Actually track my food and try to keep the calorie count and quality reasonable (for my activity level right now, I will not keel over and die if consume about 1500 calories).

3. The exceptions to this rule: Christmas eve (try to keep the food in check, but definitely drink all the absinthes as is per household tradition), Christmas day (no drinking, and be reasonable, but enjoy the family’s traditional lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and desserts), the day of our epic 100 mile trainer ride/movie marathon because I’ll be burning more than that, and New Years Eve (good healthy food, but in enough quantity that when the champers starts flowing, I don’t make a fool of myself  at the party we’re hosting).

4. My food weaknesses are getting too hungry to make rational food choices and eating everything that Zliten eats (not accepting that as a female, I burn ~500 calories less than he does – how rude).  My food strengths are that I really like a lot of healthy foods and it’s not challenging for me to find a whole plethora of things that are both good for me and delicious), and that I’m lazy.  If what I’m craving is separated from me by a car, and I have something that sounds halfway decent in the fridge ready to heat up, I’m 99% of the time going for what’s in front of me.  I think this is the second part of the equation of why I lost weight during peak training season (besides training volume) – Zliten was crunching at work and I had to fend for myself for most meals, and I ended up eating a lot of “what’s around” instead of being motivated to get food from a eatery place.

Identifying that, I think I have the answer, and it’s something I resisted for a long time: batch cooking.  After purchasing enough My Fit Foods and liking them well enough but they always needed a little something, I’m going to make My Own Fit Foods – I even saved the containers.  So the plan is – Friday is grocery day.  Then, every weekend, we’re going to cook 3 meals that each has 6 servings (3 for me, 3 for Zliten) and store them away for lunches and dinners (I’m aware that 9 != 14, but that leaves me 5 meals to either whip something else up or go out).  I plan to do one soup/stew, and have Zliten pick one meal and I’ll pick one meal.  For example, next week, we’ll make pork noodle soup + stir fry, shepard’s pie, and chicken taco/burrito/salad filling.  We’ll probably go out a few times and make fish for the rest of them.  The awesome part of all this is I will know exactly how many calories I will be eating because I already have the food made and portioned out and I can then figure out what I have left for snacks.

These are the first steps.  Then, January I’ll kick it up a notch.

Jan 2-4: fruit and veggie cleanse.

I’m doing this not so much as a way to actually lose weight, but as a way to sort of reset my body and set it up for success.  Also, if I spend 3 days eating just fruits and veg, then I’ll be really happy adding good, healthy carbs, organic dairy, and organic lean meats back.  Also, this would be good repentance for the sins I have put my body through in offseason.

After that:

Continue with batch cooking, and keeping calories between 1500-1800 (prep month in training means only 6.5 hours per week of not crazy intense stuff, so this should be fine to just underfuel me a little bit)

No sweets.  I haven’t done a month of that for a while and I can tell, something sweet has crept into my diet every day, sometimes every meal.  I’ll allow fruit, greek yogurt with stevia + fruit, smoothies, and arctic zero treats if I need a little something something.  No candy, cookies, ice cream, cake, pie, etc.  The only exception is 1 jelly bean on the bike per mile.

Limit snacks.  I just do better eating a solid meal every few hours rather than grazing – that’s what makes me freak out on the fridge immediately upon arrival home from work and/or declare that we need to go out instead of cook.  Breakfast around 10, lunch around 1, second lunch around 4, dinner around 8.  Lunch is the biggest, dinner second biggest, breakfast and second lunch are a bit smaller.

At the end of January I’ll assess where I’m at and see what tweaks I need to make to get to my goals.

Questions of the day: What was your last tipping point to get you back on the wagon?  What’s your best flubber shedding tip you can share?

As I said before, we were seeking the epic end to an epic year, but in a “I’m not training anymore” way.  No PRs, no marathons, no centuries… what to do?  Well, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing two races in one day before, but have never done it.  So, when the Trail of Lights 5k and Vern’s 5k were on the same day 10 hours apart, it seemed like the best thing to do!

Also let me call out here that it was right around mid to upper 60s for both races.  That’s pretty awesome for December 15th.  I was sure I was going to have to dig out the long sleeve and jacket and running tights type apparel but the weather looked kindly on us.

The day started early (again, triathlete summer me is laughing but, DAMN it was hard to get out of bed at 6:10 after really adjusting to a midnight+ bedtime this offseason).  We got going a little late, but I had a small 100 calorie breakfast bar and some chai tea and water and we got up there.  On the way, I was having a bit of a bathroom emergency, and then Zliten took the wrong road and got turned around, so I made him stop at a gas station for me.  I felt like a different person after that, and apologized for being snippy, and we got there in just enough time to register, take a quick warmup (maybe 1/2 mile), realize that race pace was going to be challenging, line up, and get going.

I held a sub-9 minute mile pace as planned, but instead of feeling like I was just getting going, it was torture right out of the gate.  I knew at half a mile in I was just going to have to do what I could do that day.  The first mile was 9:13 after slowing a bit.  I just kept chugging away – not letting off the gas and staying at least at the edge of the pain place, but I could tell I’m out of shape (physically and mentally).  The second mile was about 9:40-ish, and I was able to rally for the 3rd and knock out about 9:20.  I finished 3.13 miles in 29:46 – 9:30s exactly average – and if not my personal worst racing a 5k, pretty close, and just shy of 2 minutes slower than the same course in May.  However, it’s offseason, so I was fine with this.  I wanted to see what my legs and lungs had in them and it was this and that’s ok.

We then changed, and headed to my parents for salad bar and cards that afternoon.  The food did not sit well with Zliten, and for some reason my heel started hurting.  By the time we got home and changed, I was freaking out due to my heel and nothing looked right on my fleshy pile of offseason bloat, and we went into race #24 grumpy.

Then, we showed up to one of the most disorganized races I’ve seen in a while, which totally improved my mood (/sarcasm).  I guess I’m spoiled – triathlons typically go off without a hitch, everything is organized, the races HAVE to go off on time to the second (unless there is an intentional delay).  This race had 5000 people and didn’t have any corrals or any guidance to where to be if you’re a walker, or in a stroller, so of course those people started up front and caused a clusterfuck for those of us who wanted to, y’know, actually run a 5k.  There were parts of the run that were not well lit, and I walked to make sure I wasn’t going to twist my ankle in a pothole.  Plus, the race started 20 mins late.  This made me extra cranky, especially because my heel was hurting and standing was horrible and I had already been there for 2 hours because parking closed super early and let’s just say, I had some choice words for the human race about then.

However, it all disappeared once a) I started running and got warmed up, instant mood elevator and then b) we got to the actual Trail of Lights.  That one mile stretch was the happiest part of a 5k I’ve ever had.  Movie below is very long and a little rough, but if you’re interested in what it was like, you can skip around.

We then ran the 1 mile back and I just really wanted to do more loops around the pretty lights, but away we went.  We crossed the line unceremoniously at about 40 mins (we stopped to pee, then walked in the dark spots, then walked when we got stalled by people walking or stopping in front of us, etc, but I think we were chugging along at 10-11 min miles when we could run), walked to the lighted tree to take a spin for the camera, looked at the long ass refreshment line, and headed out to the car.

We got cleaned up, toasted with some champagne at a friends’ housewarming party, then toasted with more champagne at home, and then passed out and slept a lot!

It’s pretty amazing to have been able to have kept ourselves fit, healthy, relatively injury free, and racing for a whole year, and even tackle some new distances and PRs along the way.  I’m definitely glad to be at the finish line, and very incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished this year.  And, since I can’t leave well enough alone, look forward to me belaboring the point over the next two weeks (I’m off work on vacation, as such, more blog posts, wheeee!)

Question of the day: what was your biggest accomplishment in 2012?

I don’t even really know what to talk about here when I’m not doing epic shit anymore, but I promised myself I’d continue to check in once a week so here we go…

Things I did this week:

Tuesday: our company gave us the afternoon off to go as a group and volunteer at the food bank.  Considering it’s off season, and all I care about is getting activity in 5 times a week, I decided this would be it and picked the job of loading cans into boxes from big boxes and delivering them to the sorters.  So, I spent over two hours picking up cans, squatting boxes, and working up a sweat running them over.  Made me happy that when my hand shot up  for that, they picked me and a few other buff boys and weren’t just like, urrr you’re a girl you can’t.  When a box got too low for me to get shit out with my little t-rex arms, I decided fuck it, and hopped in and stood in the box.  People made fun of me until they realized how efficient I was being, and then other people got in the box.  We beat the crap out of Monday’s work team by a whole ton (like, 2000 lbs!).  Moral of the story is: sometimes you just have to climb in the fucking box to get shit done.

Tuesday night: drank on the patio and worked through our training and racing schedule for 2013.  Made some choices and while I have yet to actually start filling out the weekly schedules for each phase, I now have a pretty solid A and B race list and – bonus – our first 70.3 is exactly a full cycle of base, build, and peak they recommend.  So I’ll have two (three?) chances at a really solid half IM next year.

Feb 24: Indoor Tri
Apr 14: 10/20 (10 mile run – signed up last year)
May 5: Rookie Tri (super sprint)
Jun 1: Play Tri Olympic
Jun 16: Pflugerville Tri (sprint)
Jun 31: Lubbock/Buffalo Springs 70.3
Jul 14: Couples Tri (sprint)
Aug 4: Jack’s Generic (olympic)
Sep 2: Tri Rock (Olympic)
Sep 29: Kerrville 70.3
Oct 27: Austin 70.3??? (this is a big maybe)

If you’ll note that there is a big emphasis on triathlon, that was on purpose.  Now, I am leaving the end of the year up for grabs.  I may bank on my endurance again and do a late fall marathon (especially if the last 70.3 is a no go).  I may also just take my offseason early and train up for a spring marathon.  I also might join the circus.  I’m not willing to plan my life out that far, we’ll see.  I just know that I would really love to run another marathon soon, but soon may be fall 2014.

Also, I have inked in to volunteer at the TX IM in May.  We will do this.  I want to be part of that shit this year even if we can’t race it.  I want to cheer people in at midnight and help people have an awesome 140.6 day.

I also planned out our yearly hours.  They say that minimum half ironman yearly training hours should be 500, but also not to increase your hours more than 15% per year.  Well, I added up the last 12 months on dailymile… and it was 325.  So, I’m going to peg next year at 375.  And planning that out… my peak week is 11.  We were rolling with 12s all summer.  So, this year will be about consistency (Zliten’s big focus), planning, and going into each training session with a purpose.  No going out to do random miles because I’m terrified I need to do more.  We know we can do a 70.3.  Now it’s time to do specific and purposeful training to get faster and more solid.

This also doesn’t include, what I imagine will be jumping in a bunch of supported rides early in the year to get some bike milez.

Thursday, we hosted a game night and played board games with a bunch of folks from work and I definitely got an ab workout laughing my ass off.  These guys are funny stuff.  I was even a good girl and ate a mahi burger while they ate beef burgers and passed on the beer (I KNOW…) so I could eat lots of junk food snax.  It worked out.

Friday was a stressful day at work (all’s well that ends well though) + packing my office (I get a shiny new one tomorrow), and then off early for the ugly sweater holiday party.  This was my epic creation – a very Mario Christmas.  Puffy paint creations for the win.

The work party was a lot of fun, I behaved myself well, performed some strategerie to get the white elephant gift I wanted, and we had an impromptu after party at the house where we played Apples to Apples and hung out and cheersed a 30th birthday boy, and then people left and Zliten and I stayed up really late drinking and talking and watching triathlon videos and, as I often do, I fell asleep around sunrise watching Kona 2010 on you tube.  Great night!

Saturday, we did nada and watched cartoons in PJs and it was awesome.  I napped on and off all day and slept 10 hours that night and kinda smiled at each other once in a while and said “yay offseason!”

Today, we decided it was time to take our steeds out for their inaugural post-Kerrville outdoor ride and we remembered today that Zliten had just gotten his clips in September and this was only his first neighborhood outdoor ride (we did one at Pfluger which has no stoplights and minimal traffic and then one at the veloway which is a closed cyclist/rollerblader course).  He toppled twice getting out of the driveway, and we both had some false starts in our clips going through stoplights (sorry Austin traffic), and then he toppled again and crunched his leg a bit in the gears.  Awww.  Slowest ride ever at 56 mins for 10 miles (with stoplights) but it was nice to get outside.  We need to do a few more of these before getting with a group – I don’t want to be the dumbass who can’t get their clips on.  I also hadn’t done this ride much this year and I remembered why – it’s fucking annoying to deal with traffic when you’re trying to hold a pace and do your thing.  While I’m in offseason and joyriding, however, it’s good practice and I’ll do some more of this.

Then, we did our errands and had salad bar lunch, did some laundry, and then went to Event #1 of this week – a yelp.com party – Yelp Helps.  They had nummy foods and lots of alcohol sponsors, but also a bunch of non-profits out telling us what we could do to get out and volunteer.  We got on some of the lists of the outdoorsy places (volunteering at the park we bike by sometimes, camping, river rafting, etc), and hopefully that will help us knock out two birds with one stone – being more outdoorsy, and being a little more selfless in 2013.

Now I’m drinking manhattans on the patio, awaiting my chili to congeal for dinner, and enjoying the last warm day we’ll have for a little while.

Headcheck: I’m really becoming more ok with offseason.  4 weeks left.  I may have had a lot of *twitchtwitchtwitch* earlier, but I’ve really enjoyed being a normal human being.  I will pull from this time during peak where I am not having social fun and just eat, train, sleep, and remember I can have my fun again.  I may have some twinges when I hear race reports from today’s Decker half marathon and hear about people training up for 3m, Rogue 30k in January (OMG an 18 mile race I WANT IN!!!), and the Austin Marathon, but mentally and physically I know it’s good juju.  In 3 weeks I have become weak and lacking in endurance and it’s ok.  A few miles of running is enough.  Short slow bike rides are fine.  They feel like nothing, but I know it’s enough to keep me in good enough shape that Jan 7th won’t be too horrible.  I’m sure if someone held a gun to my head I could do a half marathon but it wouldn’t be pretty.

Details, details:

Monday: 30 mins DDR, 30 mins full body weights
Tuesday: 2 hours volunteering
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 3 mile run – 10:30-ish pace
Friday: 40 min trainer.  No garmin – maybe 19 mph pace?
Saturday: off
Sunday: 56 min ride outside (10.3 miles)

Yeah, no yoga.  I suck.  I did nail 2 weights workouts (counting volunteering, and I would say squatting boxes for 2 hours counts like woah) and got in enough cardio not to be a complete couch potato.  I’m going to go ahead and skip the food and calories and weight because: a) I sucked it up b) it’s that time of the month and c) it just makes me sad. Lets just say it was 180+ and leave it at that.  I can’t be too mad at myself.  All this is not going to come back at once and all I can do is resolve each day to be the best I can be without making myself crazy.  Soon I will really kick it into overdrive but I’ve realized these weeks are not the time.  Going from rigid training schedule to rigid calorie schedule is going to do nothing for decompressing.  I’ll do my best not to be an asshole and chose good things most of the time, and in January, really step it up.  I’m looking into a bunch of batch cooking and ways to make healthy eating easier and will capitalize on my plan SOON (TM).

This week is epic in the social situation department.  Today was a Yelp party, Tuesday is a coworker birthday happy hour, Wednesday is an ex-coworker going away party + comedy late show, Thursday is Game Dev Beer Night, and Saturday is two races + parents hanging out in the middle and then a friend’s house warming party at night.  The lesson this week is a primer in moderation.  I have designs to do this workout schedule:

Monday: DDR or trainer + weights
Tuesday: lunch run  (happy hour)
Wednesday: trainer + weights (goodbye party + late night comedy show)
Thursday: lunch run + yoga (beer night)
Friday: off
Saturday: 2 5k races
Sunday: off

I have designs about racing Saturday 5k #1 hard.  I mean, why not? I’m not saving my legs/lungs/body/mind for anything, and if I throw up/pass out at the finish line, who cares?  But, I also know I’m not setting myself up for success.  It will be in spite of everything.  And I’m fine with those odds.  I expect to see God/Santa/Krampus/baby Jesus/etc and the (Christmas) lights and just feel like it might be fun to see what I can do trying to shut my brain and my limiters off.  If it’s a PW, whatevs.  No tears here.

And, this is my week in review.  5 more days and I’m on the other side of working days for 2012 and 6 more days and no more races for 2 months.  True true offseason will really begin.  I’m sorry Austin, this lady will really and truly be letting lose.