Adjusted Reality

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

Page 70 of 219

I love weekends.

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On July 11, 2016

In Uncategorized

It must be summer.  At work, lately, I feel like a kid waiting for the last school bell to ring so I can go play.  I make video games, and we’re in a period where everything is going rather smoothly (crosses fingers), so it’s not as if I’m being asked to mine salt or anything.  There’s just something about OUTSIDE lately, even now that it’s hot as balls, that keeps calling me to go frolick.  At least for a little while.  Until I skate the line of heat exhaustion and need to go die back in some glorious air conditioning, rinse and repeat.

Jul11-5

Riding in 100 degree heat for an hour and a half with the crew definitely resulted in a large dose of AC after.

Friday was a day of water.  While there was that whole work-y thing wrapped around it, I spent my lunch doing gloriously stretchy thinky laps in the outdoor pool under the sunshine.  There are not many finer ways to spend a lunch break.  After work, we hit the water park, and floated the lazy river for an hour and a half, talking through stuff, solving problems, figuring stuff out.  And… it was punctuated with a fantastic fireworks show on our last lap!  I <3 the wah pah.

Saturday, I think I learned a neat trick with salt.  See, we got out much later than expected- it was almost 10am and hot hot hot hot hot.  I popped a salt pill as we rolled out on the ride.  I’ve been meaning to try it to see if it fixes my issues in the heat but for some reason, it’s just felt SO WRONG to take a big capsule full of salt when I eat so much of it already.  The ride was scorching, my soul still died a bit rolling up and down the hills of Ronald Reagan in the hot sun, no shade, and brutal wind.

Jul11-4

Still smiling at mile 20 of the bike.  Only a little bit of my soul is gone.  This is good.

However, when we started our run, something weird happened – I was not nearly as bonky as normal in the heat.  We did have some cloud cover, but I seemed to actually start improving instead of fading as I went along and I finished the 2 miles feeling strong, not half an inch away from death as per usual.  I’ll have to do more experiments (like our evening brick workouts), but this may be a small part of the key to not dying on the run leg of triathlons, perhaps.

We’ve downloaded this silly (awesome) game called Pokemon Go.  It’s essentially a geocaching game if you’re familiar with that, but with a popular video game theme.  You walk around your neighborhood (or work or wherever), and it becomes your game world.  You can visit a store (which will actually correspond to a landmark in the real world – like a park, a school, or even a store), go out looking for pokemon to catch, and when you find eggs and you have to walk to hatch them (my current one is a rare 10k distance egg, I’m half way there and hoping to hatch it today).

Jul11-6

We walk a lot already, but I noticed that we stepped it up yesterday both in distance and in pace since we had a purpose (hello 21k step “rest” day).  The cool thing I noticed this week, tons of people I know who would NEVER go on a random walk are out pounding the pavement.  We even have a neighborhood group for it, intended for sharing where we found rare pokemon and scheduling meet ups. There are tons of articles about how people might actually get into shape because of this game (kinda like DDR for me so many years ago).  It warms my heart to see people getting active and also just getting out of the house!

This week is bulk trash week, and we had an old BBQ grill to get to the curb.  While we were prepping to do that, we realized we also had 8 years of junk in our outside workshop area that we’ve never cleaned out.  Usually, we have all the excuses on bulk trash day – it’s too hot, it’s rest day, we’re tired from training, we’ll get it out for the next one, yadda yadda.  Yesterday, it just came together and we spent an hour cleaning out SO MUCH junk.  The level of rat feces on my person by the end was definitely a non-zero amount.  It may be psychological, but I am still itchy from SOMETHING this weekend.  Itchy, but accomplished at least!

Jul11-2

We are the trashy neighbors.  Not pictured: a giant rusty double barrel grill on the other side of the driveway.  Thank goodness it was all gone this morning.

Sunday was a very productive, active rest day.  The kind you almost need another rest day from… oops!  Good thing it’s recovery week, which means  I should be alright.

This week’s training was spot on, while it was a little crazy logistics-wise at times, I hit every session I set out to do, after rearranging due to Monday’s gym closure.  I got in 8.5 hours of training, which is just fine for the first peak week of many.  As I said Friday, I feel like I don’t *need need* a rest week, but I’m totally okay with having it.

  • Monday: Home weights
  • Tuesday: 2 mile run AM, 1200m lunch swim with a few 50-100m pickups in there, and endurance cycle class after work (ended up being a short one at 60 mins).  It happened to be a max endurance power test – I got 320 watts, which was one of the better results in the class.  Yay for not losing too much cycle prowess!
  • Wednesday: 2 mile run AM (I may not be a morning person but I can’t find an excuse not to run 2 damn miles ), lunch weights at the gym, and a 90 min 18 mile beginner (recovery) ride after work
  • Thursday: hot 3 mile run after work.  I was going to go to the gym and do this inside, but I was running short of time and convenience outweighed being comfortable.
  • Friday: 1500m swim, mostly just steady, but with a few spicy 25m pickups at the end
  • Saturday: 22 mile hot hilly ride on the tri bike in about 1:18, 2 mile run after.
  • Sunday: 10 miles of cruiser bike riding

This week is about a few key sessions and a lot of freedom.

  • Monday: 1000m swim test lunch (1300m total), weights PM
  • Wedensday: brick workout PM with the crew (~14 mile ride, 2 mile run fast)
  • Thursday: weights
  • Saturday: 5-6 mile track workout.  Warmup, then ladders (200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m, 800m, 400m, 200m w/appropriate rest in between), then cooldown to round out the mileage.

That’s it.  I’m hoping to swim at least once more if I can and ride bikes some more miles but I’m going to leave it up to whimsy when I go.

Jul11-3

Ode to a beautiful morning.

The best feeling is when you’re totally in sync with your other half.  I started really craving food from a place called Taco Flats, which we’ve only been to once (in February).  I asked Zliten if we could bike there for lunch on Sunday and he said he was actually going to suggest the very same thing.  Our psychic links have been on and off lately, so it was nice to have a perfect connection. 🙂

We rode bikes the 5 miles to get there, and I chose a picadillo beef and a mahi taco, both were amazing.  One MUST have a Pacifico when it’s on draft, it’s just science.  The specific formula is Tacos + Pacifico = AWESOME.  After our bellies were full, we coasted up the street to get groceries and I think we may have found our limit.  I’ll have to look and see how many items we bought, but I’m pretty sure it was over 30 and barely fit in the bike bags and basket.  We took the same way back, which was longer than our normal route, but ended up being much more pleasant with our large haul.

Jul11-1

Hello, lover.  Get in my belly.

Last but not least, I made these amazing savory oatmeal breakfast muffins from my brain.  Ok, I did my normal thing and took inspiration from a few recipes on the interwebs, but they are SO GOOD, y’all!  The muffins have transcended oatmeal and taste kind of like a dense cheddar bay biscuit from Red Lobster.  But as a filling, healthy breakfast muffin with bacon and onion and peppers and scallions.  I’ve already dreamed up about 7 variants to try in the coming weeks.  Recipe here.

As for last week’s progress in #projectraceweight… ehhh?

The good:

  • Breakfast muffins.  Seriously, I get so excited when I find something new I can incorporate into my breakfast routine.
  • I was only 97 calories over TOTAL for the week to stay at -1000 according to fitbit.  Fitbit also said I’m -2.3 down for the week last week (though some of that is water weight lost from TOM).
  • I actually tracked my weekend food.

The bad:

  • I’m still staring at that 5 lbs that I lost last summer.  I’m evening out a bit (all my weights are generally 183-185 instead of wildly swingy), and less fluctuation usually means I’m about to drop some lb-age.  Maybe this is my month to see the 170s if I don’t screw up!
  • I kind of forgot vegetables a lot of last week.  And there was a lot of sweets, probably more than I would have eaten in a month before.  More activity gives me a little leeway, but I’m hanging myself with that rope, unfortunately.
  • I may have tracked my weekend food, but I did it today. 😛  I’m just lucky it ended up working out well.

This week’s goals:

  • 5 fruits and veggies per day.  Part of this is actually eating vegetables for a snack instead of pretzels (at least first).
  • Track all days of food, staying as close to -1000 calories as possible.
  • Hit my 100g protein, 25g fiber, and 40-50g fat macros.  With extra food calories from workouts, it should NOT BE HARD and I didn’t really hit them last week.  How do I do this?  More freggies, less junk.

And on that note… I’m off to play with some kettlebells and learn about injury prevention.  Just another day at the races around here!

The Definition of Insanity

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On July 8, 2016

In Uncategorized

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. -Albert Einstein

We can debate whether Einstein actually said this or not, but it’s still relevant.

Bonaire1-06

I may not have the smarts, but I’m working on the hair, ok?

Y’all, the world is getting me DOWN this week.  Can we all stop shooting each other and yelling at each other?  I even started writing up a post about all of it and then I actually got myself conflicted debating OWN self about gun control, so let’s put a pin in that.

Zliten’s theory, which actually seems like the only possible explanation, is time travel.  If you accept that time travel will ever exist, then you have to accept that it always has existed (because of the ability to travel backwards).  It is the simplest explanation that 2016 is the culmination of a bunch of future asshole bros that got ahold of Daddy’s time machine.  Everything else just makes me sad.

Either way, I think we all need more bikes.  Bikes make happiness, happy people don’t shoot each other, so bikes for everyone!  With a side of swimming in clean pools and beautiful lakes, and also running in TEMPERATE weather.  Running in this feels like 100+ shit might incite MORE violence.  Weights… if your arms are really sore, it would be hard to do gun things, right?

I digress.  Highly.

So, instead of thinking about depressing things that seem out of the reach of our control, let’s talk about things completely under my control, how I’m approaching this next training block.  How’s that for the worst segue ever?

Gunz

A different type of “gun show” perhaps.

Almost two weeks in, and it just feels different than it did the last few years.  And I’m loving it.  I think a long break really helped reset everything, and a different race schedule is helping me not have any sort of expectations on where I’m at compared to previous years.  Instead of doing these super quick builds from offseason banking on previous fitness (8 weeks to 70.3), I’m settling in for the long haul and preparing to enjoy the ride (18 weeks to 70.3).  And there’s no quick build to marathon (or marathons) after, just (just!!) another long build to 140.6(!!!).

One awesome thing about having more than two times the ramp?  I can try new things with my rest weeks.  First of all, I’m taking them a little more often.  I’m structuring them a little differently.  Lastly, they’re not going to always be Monday – Sunday when it doesn’t make sense to do it that way.

I plan to take the first half of this build as 2 weeks on, 1 week off.  I usually do 3 weeks on, but that last week is always a toss up whether I’m going to have breakthroughs or breakdowns.  Currently, I’m one workout away (Saturday’s brick) from my first rest week next week, and I don’t necessarily feel like I need it yet, but I’m kinda looking forward to it.  That’s probably a good place to be.

Jun17-2

Signs you need a rest week…

Rest weeks are also going to center around some shorter, faster, key workouts, and a whole lot of optional freedom to do whatever the rest of the time.  I used to keep the same essential schedule but make things less intense/shorter, but I found that didn’t really help the MENTAL aspect of feeling like I was doing the same things over and over,  My brain didn’t really process that 4 miles is shorter than 6, because I still had to pack my gym bag, drive to the gym, get dressed, warm up, do the workout, cool down, stretch, shower, drive back, etc.  That extra 20 minutes of my life doesn’t matter that much.

When I’m doing a lot of volume, it’s really difficult to throw super hard workouts in there too often, even though stuff like 1000m swim tests and track work are really beneficial.  If I make those the only running, biking, and swimming I HAVE to do that week, it should be both beneficial and a breath of fresh air.  I can’t imagine that I won’t go paddle around the lake or pool, or ride my bike (notice the absence of running in the heat or inside on the treadmill on this list…), but I don’t want to REQUIRE specific times or sessions.  Seasoned to taste.

On non race week rest weeks, I’ll probably keep the Monday – Sunday schedule, but for race weeks, I’m going to move that from Wednesday – Tuesday.  I have the best of intentions of saying, “I’m going rest for this race and then use it to kick off a bad ass mother effing training block”.  I either barely hang on that week or it spectacularly blows up in my face with terrible or missed workouts.  So, I’ll stick with Einstein’s theory up there and try something different.

I also plan to keep doing things that I feel like have made me a sturdier human.

Previously, I was a completely lazy ass during my non-training hours.  Going back and looking at some of my days off, I’d have something like 2-3k steps.  No WONDER I was gaining weight when I was still eating 2500 calories those days, and also, that’s a LOT of time on ass.  Rest is good, but we’re meant to move!  It totally makes sense why I felt sludgy after complete rest days.

May2-3

Walking is especially terrible in the spring when you have to traverse terrible scenery like this.

I started walking 10k steps a day to try to keep myself from completely becoming one with the couch over offseason.  It ended up becoming a great habit I don’t want to break.  On workdays, I actually take my two 15 minute breaks and walk over lunch if I don’t have anything else I have to do.  Zliten and I will often take walks after dinner if we notice our steps are lacking, and we’ll walk (or bike) places that are close enough.

Walking has gone from something done only when absolutely necessary to something I enjoy and do multiple times a day on purpose!  The activity was great, but it’s so much more than that.  It helps flush the junk out of my legs when they’re sore.  It helps me clear my head and problem solve on days I need to think or talk things over with Zliten.  It helps me not be so sad I’m trapped inside at a desk all day, at least I get to have walks!  Also, walking 5-10 miles a day means I’ll probably be less useless when the zombie apocalypse hits.

13240677_10154174203964450_7321979887376013358_n

Lifting heavy things also makes me less eligible for “most useless human in the zombie apocalypse ever” contest as well.

I always go through cycles with weights.  I start doing them because *dang I feel like a weakling*, and at the beginning, I hate them.  Then I sort of like them.  After a few rounds of raising the weights I can handle and improving, I love how it makes me feel and OMG why did I stop doing weights!!!11!!  Weights FOREVAR.  Then, training schedules start getting hectic and weights drop off because, well, the run/bike/swim are the important parts, right?  After a few weeks, I’ll have a moment and do a session, things are harder.  Subconsciously, I avoid them by prioritizing other workouts, and then all of a sudden it’s offseason and I’m making another resolution to do weights regularly FOR REALS THIS TIME.

This time, I’m making the two weights sessions non-negotiable.  They are key sessions, not fluff.  They are 90 minutes of my training plan that I will plan everything else around if necessary.  I never want to go through another training cycle with a weak core that injures other parts of my body in compensation.  I want to be able to run a long run without my hamstrings and glutes seizing up.  I want to have the core strength to be able to easily control my Death Star bike when I point out debris on the road with one hand off the aero bars and not almost careen into the street.  These are important items on my agenda and they require lifting heavy things.

Pfluger15

As for the actual run bike and swim?  That will develop over time.  Stay tuned for the ride.

 

 

Chronicles of Summer

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On July 5, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s a little harder to love the outdoors when the heat index is trying to kill you on the daily, but I’m still doing my best.

Bikes:

Jul5-2

Friday morning bikey bike commute time!

It’s hot as balls outside (right now, it’s feels like 111!!!), but on the bike, it feels… ok.  Until you stop.  Then the heat comes crashing down on you like a flaming mack truck… but the actual biking parts feel great!

I’m pretty sure in 2015, I cycled outside mayyybe 15 times?  I’d have to look it up, but it’s a decent approximation because during tri season I’d make sure to ride outside at least every other week on Saturdays and otherwise I wouldn’t.  Well, I’ve done at least that many outdoor rides in the last month.  Yay bikes!  Yay playing outside!

Jul5-1

Tire, you’re doing it wrong…

In fact – this happened to us on Thursday, and we’re just getting it repaired now.  We definitely keep a low mileage profile lately.  Shame the insurance doesn’t really give discounts for not driving a car much.  I think their lowest rate was for 10-12k per year.  We don’t usually get half that, in fact, our 3.5 year old Xterra just hit 11k miles.

Holiday, Celebrate:

My fourth of July weekend was pretty badass.  It started with an almost 2 mile swim and 4 mile run under the noontime ball of death.  After recovering from the feels like 102-105 temps on that run sucking down liquids under the AC, we meandered our way into the Texas countryside to a friend’s holiday bash.  That is, after a false start in which we forgot our food at home and had to turn around when we were halfway there.  Oopsie.

Jul5-4

Oh no.  Had to look at these views for longer.  Aw, shucks.

After the mishap was rectified and we got our tent set up, we spent the evening grilling, drinking punch, catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a while, and tons of time in the pool.  Since we were the most sober ones (???), we got recruited to run “front of the house” (aka, the smaller fireworks like fountains and roman candles) while the other guys put on the big booms further away.  I’ve never done fireworks before, just watched.  It was fun!  We only had a few close calls, and everyone made it out with all eyes and appendages intact.  Success!

Jul5-5

Since I was helping put on the actual show and not snapping pics, here’s some kids (big and small) playing with sparklers before.

We spent the rest of the night playing beer pong, chupacabra dice, and more pool time.  And then holy crap it was way, way too late, so we crashed for a few hours in the tent before taking it all down again, and cooling off in the pool again before we headed home because the weather already wanted to kill us at 9:30am.  Yay Summer?

Sunday and Monday were pretty mellow.  We stayed around the house, slept, relaxed, caught up on class and chores, and other boring, responsible, but necessary things.  However, for the first time ever, we made it out to our neighborhood’s parade and joined in with our bikes.

Jul5-3

T-rex appreciated that we made it to play papparazi.

Training Week One:

Last week was a pretty decent embarkation into an actual schedule.  We aren’t popping out of bed at sunrise or anything, but it’s getting easier to set the alarm with something starting with 7.  Doing the noontime or evening runs are killer, but 1-2 of those shorties a week need to stay on the schedule until I conquer the feels-like-hot-as-balls heat index shit.

Jul5-7

This is what happens when you’ve stopped sweating and start getting goosebumps on a run, but aren’t willing to see 11 min/mile average pace.  😛

Week one of training summary:

  • Monday: lunch swim (~1200m in 22 mins, a few fast 50s in there), PM weights (45 mins)
  • Tuesday: morning run (3 miles in about 35 mins), bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Wednesday: PM brick with the BSS team (~13 miles in 44 mins rode, 1.7 miles in 18 mins ran)
  • Thursday: Heavy arms/abs, light leg weights (45 mins)
  • Friday: Bike commute (~10 miles in about 45 mins)
  • Saturday: Swim challenge (3000m open water swim), hot noontime run (4 miles in 43:55)
  • Sunday: NADA.  Couch.

Summary: a little less than I had anticipated, I’m missing one 45 min trainer ride on the tri bike, but I commuted twice instead of the once I had planned.  I’m a-ok with 7 hours of outdoor heat acclimation summer goodness.

Week two’s plan:

  • Monday: weights at home (30 mins)
  • Tuesday: 2 mile morning run, 20 min pool swim, return to endurance cycle class
  • Wednesday: 2 mile run AM, weights at lunch, recovery ride with BSS
  • Thursday: 5-6 mile run AM
  • Friday: 20-30 min swim (AM, lunch, PM, wherever it fits)
  • Saturday: 20+ mile tri bike ride, 1-2 mile brick after
  • Sunday: Probably NADA.  Couch again.

I’ll probably bike commute one or two of these days as well (maybe Thursday and/or Friday), and with that, it’s looking like about 9 hours of goodness.  It’s a little jump from last week’s schedule, so if something falls off, it probably won’t be the end of the world.

Food stuff, scale stuff:

Jul5-6

Pork + udon noodle soup + onions and cilantro = love.  Stir fry accompanies this for extra veggie love.

Holiday weekends are always rough to be super healthy awesomesauce, but I didn’t do too badly.

I made a big batch of pasta veggie salad to bring to the party, as well as a lower calorie drink option (vodka, diet sprite, diet juice punch).  I ended up eating a SHIT TON of queso and chips too, but I looked at my calorie burn that day and my -1000 number to hit was about 2500 calories.  Thank you, return to training.  So… I think it worked out okay.

I had some stomach issues on Sunday, and couldn’t keep food down, so while it’s not the healthiest way to maintain your waistline, it did keep me from overeating. Or, errr, eating more than maybe 500 calories of the simplest digestible foods, I’m ok with that not happening again for a long time.

Monday, I ate pretty well, and batch cooked some food for the week and oatmeal fruit bars.  I switched out the fruit for just peaches and used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate, but… they rock paired with some greek yogurt for protein.  It’s nice to have something different for breakfast for a change!

I didn’t actually track my calories (back to it today), but my weight is about where I would expect it to be with that time of the month it is.  If all continues to go well, I predict July to be the month of 170-something, even on the mean white scale.

Speaking of mean while scales, we got some body fat calipers to play with, and while the scale measures me at something stupid like 41% body fat, the calipers have me more like ~25%, which puts me somewhere around the healthy range for females in their 30s.  Which sounds more reasonable.  While I am not a size 0 or anything, I am pretty fit and carry a lot of muscle, and don’t think I’m almost 50% body fat.

This week, I don’t have a whole lot of crazy going out planned, and a lot of good food ready made at home, so I expect it to be a pretty successful week on the “noms” front.

Jul5-8

On that note, I’ll leave y’all with our “trash panda” making off with Nacho Cat’s food, and bid you a lovely (short) week!

 

Podium Dreamin’ and Fixing My Running Form

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On June 29, 2016

In Uncategorized

If you take a look at me, especially in wet spandex, in high resolution, at some particularly unflattering angles, I’m not exactly the person you would size up and think about being on the podium.  That’s for skinny, fit people with 8% bodyfat wearing extra small tri kits, right?

Pfluger05

Which, let’s face it, I am not.

Well, I’ve proved that theory wrong a few times with some podium action, but it’s the exception and definitely not the rule.  And because I keep improving just a little bit at the short, local stuff each year, it’s starting to be in my grasp to be fighting for the top few spots in my AG if things go really well.  It’s another avenue for motivation during a race besides just hitting HR/pace/power numbers, which is fun.

Pfluger03

I didn’t know it then, but 15 of the other 21 pink caps were behind me.

Size is barely a limiter at all in the swim.  Frankly, most triathletes that enter the local sprint tri not great swimmers.  Because I have pretty good form and practice swimming (both open water and speedwork in the pool) a few times a week, I usually come out pretty close to the front of the pack for my age group.

Cycling, I’ve clawed my way up the power to watt ratio with lots of specific work on how to hurt myself and like it over 1, 2, 5, 20+ minutes.  It’s changed from my worst sport to generally the one I place the highest, even with my old, entry level road bike.  This year, once I get the hang of my new Death Star, I have a feeling that I’ll be hanging on with the top ladies in my age group for said reasonably local-ish, smaller (and flatter) races.

Pfluger07

Thumbs up for doing all the passing and not much of the falling back.

My transitions could use a little work sometimes, but I rarely get hit by gravity anymore.  As the season goes on, I get more efficient, and I believe I’ve pared down to only things I really need.  I could do the shoes on the bike trick and go without socks, but I’m not quite there yet.

The run is where it all falls apart.  I’m generally hanging on in a good spot after the bike, if things went well.  I was fourth last race.  If I had a good run, I could have tried to hunt down third place and voila! Podium!  However, the ladies that are swimming and biking like me run 1-2 minutes faster per mile than I do.  What happened instead – I was in fourth, I got passed once putting me in fifth, and I’m actually really surprised that I finished in fifth because my run was only ninth best.  I just beat sixth, seventh, and eighth by enough on the swim, bike, and transitions, they ran out of room to catch me.

Pfluger15

Horns up because I earned my freezy pop!

There are two paths to get my 5 seconds of fame at an awards ceremony.

  1. Get so good at the swim and the bike that I’m coming off in first place, and hope I don’t get caught by more than 2 people in my age group on the run.
  2. Try to improve my run so I could possibly, potentially, maybe actually run someone down off the bike instead of getting passed passed passed passed passed all the time.

While the first would be really cool in and of itself, I think that I need to find the missing link for the second and it’s not the obvious things.  I’ve thrown volume at it, I’ve trained fast miles off the bike consistently, I’ve trained in the heat, there’s just something that’s not clicking on with my run in races.  So it’s time to do some things that I haven’t done before in pursuit of a better run leg.

First…nail down a nutrition plan AND FOLLOW IT.  I am NOTORIOUSLY horrible at this.  I went into the run at Pflugerville on ~40 calories in the hatch (from the half bottle of Scratch I sucked down on the bike).  I forgot how to eat on the bike and I am SO lucky I put an emergency gel in my handheld (who needs a gel on the run for 3 miles?  …that would be me).  The ONLY reason I did so well before that is I had remembered to eat some highly caffeinated chews about 1 hour before the race, and they were OBVIOUSLY wearing off the first half mile of the run.

Here are things I’m going to do:

  • Carby snacks.  I’m already working towards making sure I don’t overdo the protein and fat (while still hitting my daily recommendations) so I can dedciate every other calorie possible to CARBS (more carbs while taking care of the other stuff = better fueled workouts).
  • Fueling more workouts in better ways.  This is pretty much sports nutrition 101, but in practice, I think I’m a special snowflake who doesn’t need the calories to perform.  Yes, this takes away some of my french fry calories.  Suck it up, buttercup.  This will make me a better runner and probably more likely able to hunt someone down…. 😛
    • AM workout (less than an hour) – gatorade, coconut water, or other carby snack before I leave for work unless I’m eating breakfast right away.
    • AM workout (more than an hour) – one gel or equivalent every 45 mins, carby snack either before the workout, before I leave for work, or split between both (ideal).
    • Lunch workout – carby snack if I’m not immediately eating lunch (which is rare, but happens).
    • PM workout (less than an hour) – carby snack before (I should not be super hungry starting a PM workout), carby snack after or dinner within 30 minutes.
    • PM workout (more than an hour) – carby snack before, one gel or equivalent for every 45 minutes, and a carby snack or dinner within 30 minutes.
    • Any workout that goes beyond 2 hours – must have carbs before, every 45 mins, and immediately after.

Second…work on my running FORM.  Now that I’ve studied up on biomechanics and optimal running form, it’s pretty clear to me I’m doing it wayyyy wrong.  Apparently, I’ve been JOGGING and not RUNNING (running means both feet off the ground at the same time and according to race pics – I don’t do that).  We need to fix that, because my pride says that I am NOT a jogger.

Here’s some pictures from the race to illustrate my point.  Learn with me while I analyze my race photos.  This is what running is supposed to look like:

Posefallpull

My running “pose” position sucks.  I should look more like this guy above.  Instead this is what I look like:

Pfluger11

With my leg so low, I’m not getting any momentum as it swings through, so my stride length is super short and shuffly.  I am bent at the hips, I should be leaning with my whole body and my ankle should be dorsiflexed instead of straight up and down.

Pfluger14

With my pose lacking, it means the rest doesn’t go very well.  My leg doesn’t swing out very far because it has very little momentum, and I don’t have far to fall, so I’m not getting that good lean going on.  And that’s not good because that means my stride is short and lacking power.  Look – I’m jogging.  My feet are not both off the ground at the same time.  I’m a jogger.  Ugh.

Pfluger12

Because I’m not leaning (or falling) enough, I’m heel striking.  If I could get my body over my leg a little more I’d be hitting the ground on my midfoot, touching just a little heel (and also a little toe).  But I’m not.

This essentially puts the brakes on.  I’m giving up energy I worked really hard to create!  That sucks!  Why would I want to do that unless I was running down a steep hill?  If I can move my strike more forward, I can keep more momentum going, which means less energy needs to be created by ME per stride.

So, how do I do this?

Concentrate on my form every run.  I need to work on improving my pose, I need to learn how to fall correctly, and I need to strike in the correct spot on my feet.  Like riding a bike (or at least, riding a bike in traffic with clips), I need to concentrate on this all the time until it’s totally natural… and then probably some more.

Photographic proof of progress.  I need to have Zliten and I play paparazzi with each other more often to snag pictures and video of our running form to see how it’s developing.  Either set up a camera outside the house and do loops of our block or go to the track or something.

Drills.  I always say “yep, I should be doing drills” and what do I never do?  Drills.  I found a pretty comprehensive list of things to do here and I’m doing to make sure I do them at the very least once a week during an easy run.

Monitor my cadence.  Oddly enough, when I trend towards a 90+ cadence, I feel better, expend less energy, and I bet I’d be running instead of jogging.  This means smaller strides, but much quicker ones if I’m doing it right, which is not a bad thing.

Strength Training.  I’m already doing this, but I need to pay attention once I am running with good (better) form to see if it reveals any weaknesses.  Who knows, maybe this will solve the glute/hammie cramping thing I get during long runs?  That would be rad!

And, hey – if nothing else – it will be nice to do something on the run this summer instead of think about how hot it is!

 

Numbers Don’t Lie

By

On June 23, 2016

In Uncategorized

Eating foods:

June23-2

Spinach and chicken enchiladas after a long hot bike ride…

I was getting a little down on myself this week because I’ve stopped making progress with #projectraceweight.  I’m so glad I’m tracking against calories burnt on fitbit.  Previously, I would have just been like “WTF is wrong with my body, I’m defective, it’s not fair, yadda yadda”.  Now, I look at fitbit, and I’ve been over my (-1000) calories most of the last 7 days.  That’s data that makes sense.   I can roll with that.

It’s going to be interesting transitioning back to training a little bit.  In theory, I just need to continue to watch the numbers, but there will be some point where I’m just too hungry to keep it up and I’ll have to eat more.  That’s fine.  I’ll figure it out as I go along.  All I know is that whether I’m using -1000 or much less of a deficit per day, I won’t be arbitrarily aiming for some calorie count no matter what my activity level is like I did last year.  That way lies fatness.

In terms of diet modifications, to maximize my performance at the lowest calorie intake is to be smart about my macronutrients, most of all carbs.  But not in the way I bet you’re thinking.

I suck at pure carbs.  I want my sugar to have fat in it too.  Chocolate.  PB+J.  Pretzels and cheese.  I know fat is also essential, but it’s very easy for me to hit my range and pretty easy for me to go over when I’m eating more.  On 1200-1500 calories, I’m good (typically) at hitting my protein and fat macros, so with more activity, I need to increase pure carbs.

One of the best ways for me to do this is to fuel my workouts well.  I have a mental block against this for some reason.  Gels and sports drink are only for long, hard efforts.  Fruit is something to be limited.  Jellybeans rationed.  The odd thing is that when I actually do properly fuel my workouts I feel great, and actually end up eating less overall throughout the day.  But my stupid brain goes: “hey, this isn’t a race, just underfuel a bit now and we’ll binge on some french fries after instead because that’s way more fun than stupid GUs”.

While it kills me a little inside to suck down 2.50$ packets of stuff that doesn’t taste very good on just your average Wednesday workout, I can be better about bringing stuff like dried mango, jelly beans, etc, things that hit that magical 25g per ~100 calories.  And the pros keep pushing the lowfat chocolate milk recovery thing, so maybe there is something to that.   I may give that a try on workouts I have access to a fridge directly after.

Looking back on days where I’ve done a good job, in 1200 calories, I can get all my protein, all my fat, and ~100g carbs.  Every 100g carbs is an extra 400 calories.  So, that means, on days when I have 1600 calories to eat, I can consume about 200g carbs.  When I have 2400 calories to eat, I can consume about 400g.  This is generally the LOWEST recommendation of carbs for an endurance athlete.  So, starting next week, meal and snack planning will be more crucial than ever, and I’ll be working to earn those carbs!

Riding Bikes:

June23-1

Evilbike lost her horns (her clip on aero bars)!  She’s now a true road bike again!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to formally announce that I’ve done my first group ride since February… and it was SUPER FUN and not really scary at all.  It was the beginner ride, so people were a little more courteous, and also we were only 7 (and then 6 after a rider dropped to go home), so it was less crazy than trying to keep 15-20 people together.

The pace was relaxed.  Not agonizingly slow (though I heard we went a little faster than normal since we all weren’t actually beginners), just a nice cruising pace winding through lots of neighborhoods on the north side of Austin I never knew existed.  Definitely recovery ride territory, it was easy peasy minus the 95 degree heat and a few steep hills.  I’m still terrible at clipping in, it takes me at least a few tries and typically looking down to fumble with the pedals to do it, but the most important thing is I feel confident unclipping.  That makes everything else okay.  It’s something that will come with practice and I’m alright practicing when I’m not terrified of going down on a busy road in front of a car.

We had so much fun playing bikes we decided even though it wouldn’t be the most convenient thing, we bike commuted today, and there will definitely be a destination bike ride or two this weekend.  Bikes are habit forming substances!  I’ve come so far since THIS GIRL a few months ago, wanting badly to spend more time outside on two wheels but having no idea how to accomplish that because bikes were scary.  It took practice and doing stupid stuff like riding around my block 20 times stopping at every stop sign to practice unclipping, and going from 2 bikes to 6, but I’m going to say… mission accomplished.

I still have so much room to grow.  I need to start riding over 20 miles at a time again.  I need to become a little more fearless during descents.  I need to really nail down the position in my TT bike.  I need to get stronger on the bike so my watts are higher than my heart rate again.  I need to figure out what to do with the readings I get on my garmin from my nice, expensive vector power pedals that for the last year, I’ve looked at, and went, “ooh, neato” and summarily moved on.

However, these are all things that will come more into focus when I start specifically training, which is next week.

The Plan, Man:

June23-3

I don’t have any appropriate pictures to go here, so have one of Zliten and Donna watching TV instead.

After one more weekend of sleeping in, playing on the cruiser bikes and in the water, I plan to get myself moving in the direction of actual, intentional sessions this week.  It’s a small jump from what I’ve been doing – looking to do about 7 hours a week (BUT I’m not counting commuting/cruiser bike miles just like I don’t count walks in my training hours now).

I’m building the first month of training on these assumptions per week:

  • 2 sessions of weights per week are non-negotiable.  At least one needs to be at the gym with heavy weights.
  • 2 swims that are at least 20 mins long.  At least one must have an element of speedwork in it.
  • At least 10 miles of running per week, hopefully increasing this every week.  Once a week off the bike.
  • As much cycling as possible.
    • Alternate weeks of Tuesday pain cave/Wed recovery ride week 1, Wednesday brick ride week 2, rinse and repeat.  I’m hoping to be able to attend both after I’m more in shape, but two hard rides in a row sound bad to me right now.
    • At least 1 ride per week on the TT bike, either outside or on the trainer.
    • I’d like to have done a 30+ mile ride by the end of this block.
    • Bike commutes as often as possible with everything else going on.
  • Either a pretty significant (50%) recovery week on week 4, or a decent recovery week (60-70% of normal training) on week 3, depending on how I feel.

And, as a refresher from the nutrition section:

  • Sticking with the current calorie deficit unless it proves problematic.
  • Attempting to curb my appetite the rest of the day by fueling my workouts well.  This will also help me maximize my carb intake at the right times.
  • Watch my calorie qualities after longer or harder days.  Food splurges and alcohol splurges on different days (pizza OR beer, not pizza AND beer), not the same.

…but, like I said, a few more days of play.  Off to play bikes and hit the lake right now!

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About Me

I'm a video game producer and a lover of anything game related by trade.  I'm a triathlete by hobby.  I live for being on or in the water as much as I can - scuba diving, snorkeling, paddleboarding, water slides... you name it.  The dichotomy between my outdoor and indoor realities are interesting, but they're all mine!  Longer version here...

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