Adjusted Reality

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Lifetime Indoor Tri

On January 30, 2018

Sunday, I found myself up at 3:30am.

While the reason for the ridiculous time was actually allergies, it wasn’t too far off from my 5am alarm for the Lifetime Indoor Tri. While it was fairly inconvenient timing – I really should have spent the weekend logging more saddle time and also getting prepped for camping next weekend – I love this stupid little race and I couldn’t say no when Zliten gave me the puppy dog eyes to sign up.

Funny thing – on the way into work Monday, he was like, “wow, I didn’t realize how much this would disrupt our week”, and then, thankfully, “I see what you were saying…” because, yeah, I did complain about it. However, even given the alternative, I’m still glad I did it. It’s a great opportunity to start chipping away at the bottom of the well of the pain cave to make it deeper for the races that actually matter later in the year.

I did more of the things right than I did last week. I ate a full sunbutter and honey sandwich, I had a few caffeinated beans and my earl grey tea (hot). I also woke up in enough time (barely) to use the restroom enough so my stomach was clear before the race (grumble grumble maybe I do need to set my alarm earlier grumble grumble). I went into the race feeling probably just the right amount of pressure – I wanted to do well and I knew I had a chance to podium, but it wasn’t like… the most important thing in the world.

Swim:

I slipped into the water and found a song that didn’t suck on my swimp3 player and was actually longer than the 10 minutes I was going to swim, and the countdown started… 3, 2, 1, and I pushed off the wall.

I am a steady pace swimmer, I’m not one to sprint out of the gate, and I saw my husband, who was sharing a lane with me, pull ahead. I knew we had different swim styles, and the last thing I wanted to do was race him head to head getting in each other’s way, so I actually dropped back a little and drafted off him for the first half. He started to slow, so I passed him and offered up my feet to draft on – I think he hung on for a while but by the end I was approximately half a lap ahead of him (though since he made it halfway we both got credit for our 19 lengths).

19 lengths (475m) in 10 mins (5/17 open women)

Exactly the same as last year. Considering how different this pace is from my normal swim at Pure’s pool (which is admittedly a little short), I think their pool is a little bit longer than 25m. Though, I’ll never know. Last year I was definitely in better swim shape at this point, so I will take it. Could I have pushed harder and maybe eeked out another half or full lap? Probably, but I always see my swim as my warmup, and honestly, anything I gain by pushing really really hard and redlining on this leg generally counts against either my transition or bike. So, I don’t.

That’s not to say that I don’t plan to work on my swim, or work on efforts in practice that would be considered finding my edge… but that’s not where I need to be in racing. In non-drafting triathlon, there’s not a huge advantage to coming out of the water in the first pack so I’ll continue to swim uncomfortably comfortable and save the puke-worthy efforts for later in the race.

Bike:

Having 10 minutes to transition always seems like such a luxury until you actually have to manage it. I finished at the far end of the pool so making my way back took probably a minute. Then, I put on my bibs and jersey and grabbed a bag I had put together with all the rest of the crap I needed (good job, past me, that was helpful), and got to the cycle studio quickly. However, I didn’t do a great job at making sure it was all packed efficiently (bad job, past me) and after fumbling with my stuff I was on the bike and pedaling just in time.

This level of effort always surprises me this early in the year. I’ve not prepared specifically for a sustained 30 minutes of pain – I’ve been either riding easy to recover during half marathon training or doing shorter (1-4 minute) intervals. I had a number I wanted to see (170-180 watts), though I had a coin flip in my head whether that was the right one, and I knew the effort would sort itself out eventually. Watts don’t lie when pitted against level of effort.

Ten minutes in, I wanted the watts to lie to me a little. I was holding in the low 160s, which was not *terrible* considering I don’t those bike’s sensors calibrations from a hole in the ground, and the effort felt like “kill me noawwww” but not “I’m dead”. I did take 15-20 seconds every few minutes near the end to get out of the saddle and jog, dropping my watts a little, but I had to do something to break up the seemingly never ending UNCOMFORT.

Just like tempo runs, FTP testing/long intervals are my least favorite bikes. Which means I need to do more of them. The best way for me to force myself to do more of them is to go to cycle class and schedule them in the program and also maybe do some TT bike racing if I can find such a thing that fits in with the sprint-triathalon-a-palooza I plan to do this spring.

10.1 miles in 30 minutes (20.2 mph) (3/17 open women)

Considering that I was all bike all the time at this point last year, and in the last few months my cycling has been sporadic and highly recreational, I’ll take the .2 mph in reduction from last year. Things are looking good for when I actually start digging into getting fit for a short and painful sprint triathlon bike split this spring.

Here’s the painful part, I crunched the numbers and if I would have pushed harder (10.4 like I did last year), I would have ended up 3rd overall. It’s a great confirmation that it’s. all. about. the. bike.

Run:

Again, five minutes to walk next door and find a treadmill sounds luxurious, but I decided to change out of my jersey (on the gym floor, I am the opposite of modest) and futz with my shoes a bit and music and then OMG all of a sudden it was 3, 2, 1… GO!

I was super excited to crush this 20 minute run because I had been training for this – all the intervals I’ve run in the last six weeks may not have necessarily paid off for the half marathon, but surely it would help me here, right? I had wide eyed dreams of holding some 8 minute mile pace because I actually have some experience at that this year.

However, I forgot about the whole “off the really hard bike” part of triathlon. It’s been a while. My goal was to start with low-9 minute miles and see how quickly I could get into the 8s. My legs had other plans and felt incredibly noodle-y off the bike and that was a hard NO out of the gate.

Luckily, 10 minutes/mile felt fairly relaxed, so I got my bearings there and quickly found the oomph to press the UP button on the treadmill speed a few times until it felt ROUGH around 6.3. I stuck with it. My heart rate wasn’t pegged yet (it was high 160s, low 170s, I know I have a little more before I hit my ceiling), but my legs just felt like lead and it was taking all my concentration to keep them turning over fast enough to stay on the treadmill.

I spent more time than I wanted to in those mid-9 minute miles because I barely felt like I was hanging on, but then I found something else with about 5 minutes to go and picked up the pace. I finished strong and improved on last year.

2.13 miles in 20 minutes (9:20/mile) (7/17 open women)

While this is confirmation that my run still needs work and is still my lowest ranking in the disciplines, it’s getting better.

I’m really happy with my speedwork allowing me to dig deep and not surrender here. A scant .05 more in 20 minutes seems like an incremental gain, but I will take it. I think what I’m more proud of is the process. I felt the uncomfortable part of the run where I wasn’t sure I could hang on AND I DID.

I need to do that and feel that feeling a million more times over the course of this year and realize that I’ve got more in there than I realize, I just have to get messy and tap into the uncomfortable place, and frankly, blow the hell up a few times to find the line. Not quit because my brain says it’s hard. Not quit because a stupid injury is nagging at me (though obvs. I need to take care of these things). No, I need to find the point of being crumpled up on the side of the road dry heaving and barely able to stand. Only then can I *really* know where the line is. For the last few years I’ve been working on finding the endurance line which is actually really effing far given a reasonable pace and proper training. Now I’ve got the need for speed.

2018 is going to be the year of HANGING THE F%#K ON. I’ve been whining about my speed for years, but I haven’t been willing to do anything about it. Why? Because that work isn’t sexy and it’s really brutal. It’s thrilling to go through the process of doing your first Ironman. Century bike rides! Twenty mile runs! You look accomplished as f#&k on the instagrams.

The kind of work I’ll be doing this year will look totally weak in comparison. Taking 20 seconds of a 5k PR, hell, finding my 5k PR again from many years ago, these things don’t smack of the heroic. But, they are the horses that I’m choosing to chase down this year in the pursuit of race podiums. The end result is sexy. But the work to get there totally isn’t. Gotta keep my eyes on the prize though!

Overall – I ended up 6/17 in the open women’s division. If I was 2 years older, I would have ended up 3rd in masters and if I would have pushed harder on the bike…. yeah. A little disappointed at the result but not at the process so I’ll move on and take it as fuel for the fire to train harder for the races that really matter in the spring.

Next up in the crazy winter race-a-palooza, the ill-advised six hour bike race. I can’t lie, I would love to see a podium here (but certainly don’t expect it) and depending on who and what (aka – my brain and legs) shows up, could either be a hilarious notion or a distinct possibility.

Winter Solstice Bike Adventure

By Quix

On January 11, 2018

In Uncategorized

On December 21st, 12 days into my 24 day winter break, I set my alarm for 7:30 am.

Normally, this would be sacrilege. The initial reason for it was my bi-annual dentist appointment at 8am and I had to be up and out and not underfoot for our cleaning service at 9am anyway. However, instead of looking at it as a drag, I figured it was a good opportunity to embark on a bike adventure.

The day started a little rough because I had a few too many beverages and stayed up too late the night before (it’s vacation!), and forgot my backpack (with my ID, credit card, etc) at home. Not a big deal for the dentist appointment, which went quickly, smoothly, and was over with before 9am and paid up by insurance. It was only kind of a big deal because I needed it for the rest of the day’s adventures and going back home meant I had to descend the half of Steck-o-slavakia I had already climbed and resummit it.

When I got home, I *almost* thought about just calling it. The last three days I had spent at home, doing chores, writing my book, working through my To Do list, and I wasn’t even close to complete. A whole extra day of progress, I thought, that would be incredibly valuable. Then I realized that was bullshit. This was my day. I had been looking forward to this adventure for months. The weather was AMAZING. I was just being lazy. So I grabbed my backpack and took off again.

I had an engagement after work in which I either had to meet Zliten at work at 6pm on my bike, or drive there in my car. We all know I’m anti-car. I’d rather bike the 11+ miles unless it was sleeting if I had the option. So, I had and endpoint and about eight hours to kill with a few destinations:

All great bike adventures start, end, or have an interlude with Rudy’s chopped beef breakfast tacos.
It was going to be 75 degrees that day. I would be passing within a mile of the gym. A swim HAD to happen.
Lunch’s destination was Jinya, at the Domain, which seemed like a great place to kill time as well.

Other than that, the town was my oyster. I had my biggest backpack, the basket on my cruiser bike, a sunny day, enough layers to keep me as warm or cool as needed. As I cruised down Jollyville with my stomach rumbling (I was approaching three hours awake, over 10 miles ridden, and zero food), I knew the first stop would be Rudy’s.

I pulled into the parking lot and practiced the ritual of the day. Helmet off, in the basket. Grab lock and wind it around my bike’s frame (not that anyone was looking to steal my 10 year old rusty Schwinn, my helmet with the headset is worth more than it is, but it would suck to be stuck about town without it). Make sure to secure key somewhere I wouldn’t lose it. Garmin off my bike and in my pocket or backpack. Unzip phone from carrying case. Switch out sunglasses for glasses. It felt awkward at first because it’s been a while since I played cruiser bikes, but it became routine after a few stops.

The spicy, meaty, carby taco went down within a minute or so. I splurged and sipped on a coke (I figured I could use the caffeine) while I tinkered with my phone, updating Zliten with my whereabouts, and surfing instagram. While I didn’t want to spend all day on this bench, it was a breath of fresh air that I could. After the conclusion of a very busy work year, a vacation that was FREAKING AMAZING but very active trying to cram in as much water time as possible, and three days of chores and productivity, it was refreshing to take fifteen minutes, just wasting my own time, with nothing, no one, and nowhere specific waiting on me.

My next planned stop was the gym, but I realized that I was also halfway to Cornucopia, one of our holiday traditions, so I set sail north instead of crossing under the freeway. On the way, I realized that we needed to pick up the gift we’d booked on https://awesomestuff365.com/gifts-for-lawyers/, and I figured I’d pop in and take care of that. An hour later, I emerged with a new pair of swimsuit bottoms, a black hoodie, some new shirts, yoga pants, and said gift card – after trying on a metric butt-load of coats I was hoping would look better than the one I had on (and none did, even if they were cute on the hanger… wah…).

On the way to Cornucopia, I noticed a new indian and BBQ restaurant. I made a note to check it out later (and that was interesting when we did, but that’s another story), but I had lunch plans already and was full speed ahead to the ‘corn. I intended on getting maybe 2-3 small bags of different flavors, but I went in hungry and tasted all of them about three times, ending up with six after narrowing it down. I ate a LOT of popcorn over Christmas break. Me: I want to try to maintain my weight loss over the holidays. Also me: *buys approximately 100 cups of popcorn*. Ah well.

At this point, my backpack is fully stuffed and part of my basket is taken as well. I have to be careful about acquiring anything else large for the rest of the day. My trunk, it has the junk.

I headed back down south and hit the gym right around 1pm, which was perfect, because all the lunch swimmers were out of the water and I had a lovely pool almost completely to myself. I’ll admit, on one taco and some popcorn, 90 minutes biking, five hours sleep, an a *wee* hangover from the night before, I was not 100% impressed with my performance, but considering the circumstances, 1k in a little over 19 minutes swim time was just fine. When I changed back into my clothes, I couldn’t bear to put my jeans back on and was thankful that I had purchased a new pair of yoga-ish capri pants from Academy.

Finally, it was lunch time. I finally had the opportunity to take the new pedestrian bridge from the quarry to the Domain, and I made it to the holy grail of ramen, Jinya. Again, I was very glad I was “behind schedule” (I figured I’d be there closer to 12:30-1) because they were still busy and I snagged a seat at the bar. I was waited on by the spitting image of one of my friends – she had the same look, personality, and even vocal tone. I had a nice, leisurely lunch, revisiting a favorite meal of mine. Honestly, if I had a top ten of all time, the spicy umami pork miso ramen would likely be somewhere on there.

I was amazed with how my day had shrank so quickly from “how am I going to fill eight whole hours” to “oh my gosh, I need to leave here in about TWO hours and I could easily amuse myself for another eight”. It was the ultimate day of freedom. I am generally a solitary person, and I would have loved my partner in crime if he wasn’t stuck at work (I was doing my best to take him along with me via texts and pictures), but I was having a great day just hanging out with myself. I was the opposite of lonely. I was out and about, enjoying someone’s company I don’t often get to spend a whole day with (the last time was Ironman Texas, in a sense).

I popped my head into Bird’s Barbershop, since I had a free haircut coupon, but they were paaaaacked, so I figured that long hair is just fine for colder weather and I’d deal with my mop later. I was on a mission to find some of the last gifts on my list, ones that I didn’t just want to order on Amazon. I happened into a new store called Limbo, and found some very beautiful, extremely appropriate, if a little pricey, earrings. I spent the next hour popping into a million different other stores and found nothing else that even came close, so I went back to Limbo (the first store I visited…) and had the pleasure of purchasing the earrings from the lady who made them and owned the store. It was definitely worth the extra $$ to avoid the cheap, mass produced crap and get the perfect gifts.

The Domain, that day, had began it’s transformation from work to play for me. While my old work building loomed in the distance, and I remembered some of the times I walked out of that building to take a walk on those same streets to clear my head, sometimes during the roughest periods not *entirely* sure I could make myself go back, six months of distance definitely helped (and things have been MUCH better since then for me). I don’t miss the traffic, the rude people, the middle-aged pillheads, and that finding lunch under 10$ a plate is laughable, but as an entertainment destination, it’s a lot of fun.

After I got the gifts worked out, I did a little looking for myself and actually had some restraint, and settled on some peppermint gelato as a snack and fuel for the next bike leg. I figured I was 7-8 miles away from new work, but I miscalculated and I was almost 11 – plus it was getting windy (and I was heading into it) and daylight was not on my side. Along with that, I had been on my feet or pedals pretty much all day, so I was not making great time. This was the first time all day since Steck-o-slavakia that felt like work and took me a little over an hour to roll into the parking lot, when I anticipated maybe 40-45 minutes. Since it was the shortest day of the year, I was pushing it for the last 15 minutes and it was flat out DARK for the last five. And, I left my lights at home. Oops.

I snuck in one more gift shopping stop in our area and met up with Zliten as he left work. Unfortunately, I forgot to stop my garmin so I don’t have an exact mileage or time, but I think it was about 28 miles in about 2 hours and 45 minutes, both of which are a PR on my cruiser bike.

So far, the last two years, I’ve had a bike adventure day on the winter solstice. I think it’s a fun tradition, bucking the motivation just to stay inside, curled up in bed with a blanket. For months, I’ve watched the sun dip lower in the sky earlier and earlier, and this is the day I’m out playing bikes celebrating the fact that IT JUST GETS BETTER FROM HERE!!!

I wonder where I’ll ride on December 21st, 2018?

What I did on my winter vacation + January goals

By Quix

On January 4, 2018

In Uncategorized

While this might contradict my 2018 resolution to post more interesting stuff, it’s time for a recap and my January plans!

So festive the last day before break. Can’t believe that was less than a month ago. So many adventures since then!

December was a welcome break from routine. The 8th was my last day of work for the year, and the next day, I hopped a plane to Bonaire for a week. Then, I had five days at home by myself, and since where I was on holiday was two hours ahead, I was naturally up at 7:30-8 most mornings without an alarm (it was nice for the week it lasted). I spent the days working on my book, getting the house back in order with the kitchen remodel explosion and the vacation luggage explosion, wrapping presents, editing vacation photos, and getting in my first week of actual 3M training.

I did take one day and go on a bike adventure (blog post forthcoming) from 8 am to 6 pm, but for the most part, I was actively productive with projects because I figured the next week wouldn’t lend itself to that sort of focused work (which it didn’t).

The holidays were fantastic – we celebrated with family on the 23rd and had a decadent meal of lasagna, brisket, so many side dishes, and way too many deserts. There were fun presents, card games, and fun times. Then, we had our Christmas Eve tradition with the neighbors, which involves a double digit run first to mitigate the indulgences of past and future, Din Ho family style food, a trip to the bar next door, and hanging out all evening watching random Christmas movies and having festive cocktails. With all this going on, we waited until the actual day to open most of our own presents, and holed up on the couch all day. It was a perfect three days.

The next week felt like errand and kitchen central – we spent a lot of the daytime hours either tracking down tile or running errands or working in the kitchen, though we did make time at night to see the new Star Wars movie (I loved it), and marathon some shows and movies on Netflix and play video games. Friday, I wrote a choose your own adventure story, and after some MOAR errands, we ended up at a random Indian/BBQ place that took forever and had a weird dance class going on at the same time… but the food was so amazing once we got it, I’ll give it another try once they have some time to settle in (the place is very new).

Zliten was getting a little despondent about his winter break being full of crap to do, so I declared Saturday HIS DAY and let him choose whatever we did (within reason, no hopping planes back to Bonaire and we had to run the next day). Sadly, the plumbing broke in the kitchen so the first thing on his day was fixing that, but that was done in a jiffy after YET ANOTHER trip for him to Lowes Then, we went on a bike adventure but it got cold quickly, so it ended up just being a ride to get Jinya ramen the long way. We holed up the rest of the day and played video games and watched TV and I said I owed him a day of his own when it was nicer.

Bike love while biking with my love!

And, on the last day of December, we put the finishing touches on our kitchen, and I spent spending 90 minutes scraping paint off the floor, and then called it officially done! I may have been procrastinating a 2 hour run in the feels-like-20s, but I saw enough people on social media doing their own runs in that or colder so I bucked up and went outside and it wasn’t bad at all! Since 2018 is about HTFU’ing, it was a nice way to ring in the new year. And so was our 80’s PJ party (which is why I wrote the choose your own adventure – it was our party game!)

Here were my specific December goals:

Build up my run miles and start incorporating a little speed 1-2 times a week. YEP. I’m on about 20 miles per week now, with one speedwork session, one easier run with a race pace mile in the middle, and one long run.

Resume strength training NOPE. I was so sore the first week of running I decided this needed to wait. I started this week.

Resume tracking negative diet quality – NOPE. Maybe I paid the price for this because the scale is fairly unkind this week, but I needed to let go a bit. This month is the time for tracking again.

Write four chapters in my book – MOSTLY YEP. I got to about 3.25. I lost steam and then never had a chance to spend focused hours on it while Zliten was home with me. I’m really happy with the progress I made, though!

Yes, I’ll keep posting this picture forever because OMG my kitchen is done and looks great!!!

Finish the kitchen – YEP! There is one little piece of trim left, but we’ll do that… later. Someday. I’m at the point where it’s now my kitchen, and I don’t have to work on it for a month or a year or a lifetime. Whew!

Write a personal mission statement. YEP! New years resolutions are great timing for that one.

Travel lightly. YEP! I was able to put all my clothes and scuba gear into one big bag that weighs just slightly less than 50 lbs. With my normal backpack, and one carry on split with Zliten with our camera equipment, scuba trips will be just fine with one checked bag each.

Take my annual FB/Twitter break. MOSTLY. This didn’t stress me out as much as the end of 2016 post election, but I made sure to keep myself logged out on my phone of social networks besides Instagram and that was all I really needed.

Play Games! YEP! More than any month so far, and it’s carrying into January nicely.

Catch up on my reading. YEP! Done with Carl Sagan (picked up at the end but the middle was a slog), 7 Habits (great read that influenced some of my NY resolutions), Bedtime Stories for Triathletes (motivational but a little disjointed), and Runner’s World – Your Best Stride (which has influenced my training, stretching, and actually made me start regularly doing drills – more next week).

Relax. I actually think I kind of sucked at this one. I only had two of my 24 days where I didn’t do anything productive. I’m happy with what I accomplished, but I feel like I need some downtime after my downtime! January is for rest and recovery and some days of just doing effing nothing above and beyond the normal.

It’s a new year so lets sparkle like unicorns, bleaches!

So, January. This is usually the month where I go mega-maniaic on goals and stuff. The motivation is there, but there’s also the nagging in my brain reminding me that I just finished a kitchen remodel and did A LOT OF SHIT in the last few months. So, I’m trying to temper my enthusiasm with kindness to myself and a dose of reality.

January Training:

Let me first tell you a story. Tuesday, I had some quarter mile repeats on the schedule after work. Outside, it was in the 20s and icy, and I’m not going to risk running on that. There were so many accidents that literally every road to my gym was at a standstill. At home, I have a treadmill that tries to buck me off when I go faster than 9 minute miles. This was a huge test of my resolution as an athlete to HTFU because I had roadblocks on every path.

However, there is HTFU’ing within reason. Running outside in icy weather when I don’t have the shoes for it is madness. Waiting in traffic for 1-2 hours to get a mile down the street is sheer lunacy. I opted to trade Thursday’s slightly easier (4 mile with 1 at race pace) run and brave Danger Treadmill (who only tried to kill me once during the race pace mile). While it’s not exactly EVERYTHING AS PLANNED WHEN ITS PLANNED, this wasn’t a lack of motivation. This wasn’t me being lazy. The universe put up enough road blocks that I had to change my plan.

Since I haven’t talked about it much, the last two weeks have been successful but a little rough getting back into being a runner. My first speed workout, I was barely able to pull 400s under 9 minute miles. Last week, I ran my fastest 400m repeat at 7:30 min/mile pace. I have to remember that it doesn’t take long for my leg turnover to come back, it does take pushing through being uncomfortable for a while to get there though.

Proof I HTFU’d in the below freezing and feels like 20s on NYE for 11 miles. Add night + icy and I’m out because I don’t want to FOMA (fall on my arse).

Week 1 (Dec 18):

18 miles running – 1 speed (5) , 1 easy w/race pace mile (3), 1 long (10)
56 miles cycling
1 swim (because it was 75 degrees out and I had to)
8 hours total

Week 2 (Dec 25):

19.5 mile running – 1 speed (5.5), 1 easy w/race pace mile (3), 1 long (11)
20.5 miles cycling
5.25 hours total

So, here’s the plan for Week 3 of 3M training (Jan 1):

22 miles running – 1 speed (6), 1 easy w/race pace mile (4), 1 long (12)
~20 miles cycling
2 light weights sessions (Oiselle dozen or similar)

Each run is also prefaced with a dynamic warmup and drills that I will talk about more in another post.

Week 4 will be similar, with a shorter, faster long run (8 with 5 at race effort). Week 5 will be some short speed workouts, and then I’ll see what I can do at the race. My plan right now is to line up with the 2:05 pacer and see if I can hang on for a PR.

The subsequent two weeks are ill-advised, but I’m doing them anyway. First, I’m going to do the Indoor Tri and see if maybe I can eek out another “podium” (I placed 3rd last year, I’ve won overall once). Then, I’ll ride bikes as long as I can stand, because the week after, I’m doing a 6 hour bike ride. My longest ride since Oct 22nd is a little shy of 3 hours on my cruiser bike. What could go wrong?

But how could I resist another “Official Badass” medal?

After Feb 3rd, I resume reasonable person status and start an intentional training plan that will guide me through a little offseason weight training and then into hopefully crushing the heck out of some spring sprints.

In January, I do a streak. In 2015 and 16, I did a run streak. Last year, I did a bike streak. Neither of those make sense in terms of my body condition and training, and swimming is right out. So, 2018 is the year of my stretching and rolling streak. Every day in January I will spend 5-10 minutes working on my flexibility and five days a week (at work), I will work on my foot strengthening exercises (more on those next week).

January Consumption:

I’m facing the fact that I need to track and quantify again. Not forever, not even for a long time, but after vacation and holidays, my level of what’s acceptable to eat is set at a lower bar than normal. I need to bring it back up to that diet quality average ~20 level.

To that end, this month, I’m going to track my food and log my diet quality, with the intent of dropping it again soon. It was a pain, but I think I need to reset my normal back to the healthy normal where cheetos and cake are very occasional sometimes foods. I’m not even too worried about my calories in vs calories out, but I’m more concerned about what those calories are.

Tuesday, I tracked and ate 1800-ish calories. I logged a 20 on the diet quality scale. Yesterday, 1700 and 24. So far, so good!

Still some of this. Especially the good stuff. But less.

As for booze, I’m trying to moderate my moderation. I’ve tried to do a dry January (made it 11 days before caving and definitely drank LESS but not NONE), I’ve done a reasonable-quantities-of-beer only January (made it but I was definitely over beer by the 31st), and they’ve had their merits, but neither felt like they enriched my life. The three reasons behind reducing booze consumption are a) the calories in alcohol b) my tolerance is huge and I’d like to scale back to being a cheaper drunk (see above, less calories) and c) it’s the one thing about my lifestyle my doctor complained about and I know having a lot of drinks per week doesn’t help me feel my best or recover quickly from workouts.

But, there’s a place in my life for whiskey. Even in January. So, what to do about making my doctor, my liver, and my inner ~~child~~ 21-year old happy? I’m doing a portion control January. Basically, I have the alcohol I plan to drink for the month already sitting in my cupboard – a nice bottle of whiskey for sipping, a bottle of vodka for mixing, and two bottles of post-race champagne to split with my husband on Jan 21 and 28. That’s approximately the maximum recommended amount of booze in a month. Once those run out… I need to wait for February. If I end up going out, I will subtract that portion from my home stash but I don’t have a whole lot of plans to do so, which actually works out well for me right now.

January Life:

I’ve had an epic couple of months of doing ALL THE THINGS. This month is definitely about less.

Resisting the urge for big plans or adventures this month. I need to do a bunch of this. Except inside. Because it’s fugsnickling cold.

I want to at least finish the one chapter I started in my book. If I could do 2 this month, that would put me back on schedule. My goal is to at least sit in that room and write for a few hours once this month unless the muse strikes me more.
Get Christmas stuff put away and get the garage full of tools and kitchen remodel remnants cleared out so we can actually park our cars inside again.
I’m doing exactly ZERO other productive adulting things this month. This even sounds too productive but they both kind of need to be done sooner than later. Everything else can wait.
I want to spend some of my free time playing games. I’ve started Hearthstone, Grand Turismo 5, I’m working on getting caught up in the games I work on, and if I can find some time where my legs aren’t too sore from training, I’d like to make some progress unlocking things in Dance Dance Revolution since I’ve started over again and crack open Just Dance.
I want to post a video 3 times per week, and to make it less stressful, they are ONLY going to Instagram stories this month so they’re totally throwaway.
If I get some additional free time where I’m not too dead to the world and don’t feel like gaming, I’d like to drag out my paints and/or beads and do something crafty.

January GO! What on tap for y’all this month?

New Years Resolutions – Focus, Intention, and Purpose

By Quix

On January 2, 2018

In Uncategorized

2017 was freakin’ epic. I finished an Ironman! I did my first official century ride! I went on amazing vacations and got a camper and spent a ton of time outside! We redid our kitchen! How the heck do you follow up something that crazy and grand?

By doing less. Oh yes, by one hundred percent absolutely positively for sure doing LESS. 2018 is about doing less with purpose, intention, and focus.

This will be my junior year with Team Bicycle Sport Shop. Looking forward to training and racing with them again!

Racing/training:

I want to strengthen the bond between coach and athlete here. Yes, I am that person in both aspects, so this will take myself being kind, patient, and firm with… myself.

As a coach, I will schedule myself like I was scheduling another athlete. I will not put crazy sessions that make no sense on my list just to see if I can do them. I will not fill my week too full without good reason. I will consider both what the sessions mean to the athlete in the context of goals for the season and also what’s going on in life right then. I’ve been coaching myself long enough to know how I operate. I don’t do well undertrained, but I also need to watch my tendencies to want to do way too much and then disappoint myself by either failing sessions or burning out right before races.

As an athlete, I will HTFU this year. If coach does her job and schedules things better, it is my job to actually complete the sessions AS INTENDED. If I have 6×400 with a one mile warmup and cooldown, starting with drills and ending with stretching and rolling on my schedule, that’s what I do. And, I’m going to do my best that if it’s scheduled for Tuesday morning, I do it Tuesday morning because I put the session there for a reason.

I feel like this will help grow my experience as a coach and also my confidence as an athlete. If I could sum up my athletic goals in triathlon in a mission statement, here’s a go at it:

I am a strong, fit triathlete who is rarely injured because I have good stability from weight training and flexibility/form work. I have the confidence because I complete my training sessions. In races, I take that confidence and head close to the front of the pack in most races where it’s appropriate to start the swim, and I’ve closed the gap between my decent pool swimming and subpar open water form. I continue to do well on the bike because I train and race with power goals. I leave the bike and can now chase down people on the run. As a coach, I will set reasonable goals for my athletes (me and Zliten), and include only the necessary training on their schedules to succeed.

Here’s this year’s plans so far:

Winter:

Jan 22: take the little bit of training I’ve been able to do and see what I can do at 3M. My new A+ goal is to PR. With the paces I’m running, sub-2 is not reasonable right now, but my legs are showing some promise, so, on a really good day, I may be able to come in under 2:08.
Feb 3: do an ill-advised-but-it-will-be-fine 6 hour cycling event. I’m here for the fun and to support the team and go camping. I may not hammer this one but I know I’ll survive it.
Take at least a month after this with minimal swim/bike/run and get into the gym and lift heavy in preparation for the rest of the year.

Spring: goal is to get fit and then race a LOT of sprints to try to qualify to nationals. I want to shift my mindset at the shorter distances to actually racing for the podium vs getting my heart rate up.

Summer: cut off the racing with enough time to give myself an offseason before getting back to it for Nationals (if I make it) in August and then Cozumel in September.

Fall:

Sept 30: Cozumel 70.3. I have some outcome goals here. First, sub-6:30 or better (PR). Second, I’d like to finish far enough up in the results I actually go to the rolldown for Worlds (as a super longshot, I’ve heard rumors of people being in 20-30th place and getting it). But honestly, I want to race this to force myself to figure out one of my biggest triathlon problems – I do not love hot weather but I’ve had my two best half runs in sweltering heat off of my two fastest bikes those two years (though I’ve also had some pretty critical explosions). I need to figure out how to succeed in the heat, be it training, gear, or just HTFU’ing.

After this, I’ll make some decisions. Ironman Waco 70.3 or Oilman last minute? A fall half marathon? Offseason? I’m not committing to anything after Sept 30th.

You will notice there are no marathons, no ironmans, no century rides, no 10k swims on this list. Will I haul off and randomly do a long bike ride because it sounds fun? Probably. But I’m keeping my focus (after Feb 3rd) on one thing: triathlon, and succeeding at the distance that my next race is at instead of random long base training for no reason. I’m running the longest right now that I need to run all year and that is super refreshing to me!

Less of this face in 2018, young lady!

Human Being-ness:

As a human, I want to be a more patient and kinder person. I feel like in relentless pursuit of goals sometimes I get a little snitty and self-centered. I get annoyed by the MOST ridiculous things that shouldn’t even register on my radar. I joke that I’ve gone from being a people person to an anti-people person – that grumpy 80s TV dad that just wants his underwear and his recliner and silence. However, in going from a state of fluctuating between mega-maniacal (DO ALL THE THINGS) to burnout, I’m definitely finding human connection challenging to enjoy more often than I’d like to admit.

I actually like people. I am actually probably more of an extrovert on the spectrum than an introvert. I love random conversations, and I’ll talk your ear off and listen to just about anything with a few beers in me (i.e. – when I’m finally relaxed and not thinking about the next thing on my TO DO list). Sure, I’m a little socially awkward at first with people, but I’m mostly comfortable in my skin as long as it’s not a “hi, will you be my friend” situation. It’s that my brain is so far up inside itself thinking about what’s next and goals and achievements that it’s hard to focus on anyone else.

Yep, my problem is that I’ve become a bit of a selfish asshole. The way I fix that? By committing to less and really and truly being IN when I do commit. If I can have more space in my life between TO DO, then I can actually enjoy these things instead of feeling obligated to do them.

Yes, I GET to have a great group of people in my life that want my time and attention. I’m not burdened by it. That is a very negative way to live and I’m going to leave that one behind in 2017 in the rear view mirror where it belongs.

If I had to pen a mission statement for this one:

I will do my best to be present in the situation I am in, instead of having my thoughts stray to the future. If I’ve committed to something, I will give it time and attention to the best of my ability. If I’m feeling overscheduled and overwhelemed, if I’m fumbling at life, I will take a good hard look at my goals and to do list, and I will prioritize until it feels reasonable. I will approach social interactions as a pleasure instead of a chore.

Food/Scale:

It’s nice to weigh a little less than I did last time this year. Obviously obsessively tracking my food and diet quality didn’t work. I seemed to only make progress when I actually let go a little and ate… dare I say… intuitively. I gave my body a break and trained INCREDIBLY minimally. Or maybe turmeric is actually the magic anti-inflammatory bullet, so obviously I’m going to continue to take that.

So, obviously I want to continue to take steps back towards my race weight, but I don’t honestly have much to say here that’s revolutionary. Just keepin’ on keepin’ on with what’s *slowly* working.

I want to continue (after a slight holiday feasting break) with my diet that’s at least half fruits and vegetables. I feel the best when I’m consuming a diet high in plants in their truly natural form.
This is accompanied by making sure I continue eat my my normal breakfasts and batch cook my meals to get enough lean protein, whole grain carbs, and snack on things like almonds and pistachios instead of chips.
I want to limit my indulgences to ones that I truly enjoy and that will will be a fun and relaxing diversion from my normal. For me, that means most of the sweets I get go into the freezer and I’ll dig them out once a month when I have a craving, but I’ll consume alcohol in moderation on Saturdays and there will be Desano’s Pizza or after long bike rides.
If not tracking, I will at least be conscious about what I put in my mouth is going to help me towards my goals or not. It doesn’t all have to be positive diet quality (just most of it), but if it’s not, it should be for a reason and not simply because it’s there in front of me.

Self-enrichment:

This is another place where my life needs focus. My eyes are now open to all the things I want to do and learn after a period of just being happy existing as a game developer and triathlete. But, in true form, I want to do and learn them all NOAW.

The last two years, I’ve had this giant, big, varied, scary to do list. I was trying to be a jack of all trades, master at none. I’m going to pull back and pick one focus this year:

2018 is the year I focus on becoming a published author of a non-fiction book.

I’m pretty sure that’s my mission statement right there. Here’s the steps I envision taking next year:

Finish my book. I have about 3.75 chapters left to go. My goal is to finish the first draft by my birthday (or at least birthday month).
Put it on the kindle and read it myself. No taking specific notes, no editing, just read it as if I was reading another author’s book it to see if it’s interesting.
Ask my husband for help with his dialogue. I’m a fairly prolific writer with a lot of strengths, but dialogue is not one of them. If you could, why not ask the character what he would say in those situations?
Edit chapter by chapter. I know I need more environmental description and cues. I can see and smell and taste and hear all the things that happened to me. The problem is, the reader can’t unless I describe them. I know I need to make things a little more cohesive because I wrote the chapters out of order (as in, don’t describe things five times, describe it once and go back and reference).
Get some beta readers. Some that are familiar with triathlon, some that are not, to see if it’s interesting to either/both groups.
Become knowledgeable about the industry. Read books and devour websites about publishing, editing, agents, and marketing your book. Stuff like this. While I want to know so much more about marketing in general, I’m going to take 2018 to focus on this slice of marketing.
Continue to read in the non-fiction genre. 1-2 books per month in between my pulpy sci-fi 25 book series that will likely never end…
If it gets this far… build a website for the book. Contact publishers about the book. Get an agent (or not). This stuff is so far away and I need to learn what half of this means, but my goal by the end of the year is to have a finished manuscript I’m proud of and at least know where to go with it next.

The Lists

Here’s where I break my mold of focus and intentions, because I am me, and I am not doing away with TO DO lists. However, I’m still trying to stick with the intention of planning LESS. I’m trying to keep the first list reasonable. I am also trying to leave off a bunch of fluff so I actually do the things I really need to do, like actually see a financial planner for eff’s sake. Focus. Intention.

The second list should be FUN! I will do these things as they sound pleasurable and enriching to me, not as TO DOs I need to check off. These need to be things I GET to do, not that I *have* to do. If my sewing machine stays hidden, that’s ok. If I post weekly recaps because I’m pouring my time and energy into my book, that’s totally acceptable. They are here simply to remind myself there are better ways to spend free time rather than Netflix and dorking on social media on my phone.

Now that this is done, we can do smaller, bite size projects. After a break, that is…

Adulting List:

Yep, a lot of this is carryover from this year that didn’t get done. Still want to do them. Will try again.

Wills
Financial planner
Fix our occasionally around kitty stray
Organize our entertainment center and pantry
Build leezard a lounging platform she can’t knock her plate off
Probably some other small organizational projects that emerge as I check these off.

Mostly take the year off adulting because HOLY HELL we adulted pretty hard last year with house projects. Actually taking January ENTIRELY off any sort of TO DOs minus the normal cooking, keeping the house to the point where the cleaning service can do their thing, and laundry. I need a friggin break.

Fun List:

Resume monthly-ish game night with friends in February.
Camping! ‘Nuff said. Especially in the spring when it’s nice out.
I love pictures but shy away from video. I had a blast playing with it underwater, and I want to do short videos about random stuff 3x per week, if nothing else, posted in my Instagram stories.
More video games. I’m serious about this. I got Grand Turismo 5 for Christmas and we are going to stream “Drunk Driving Saturdays” (i.e., having a few beers and playing GT in the comfort and safety of my own couch) for a while and I want to actually feel like at least a casual type gamer again.
Vacations: Cozumel for the half IM and then a week of diving, family cruise in May, family trip to Port A or Galveston, maybe a long weekend in Chicago, maybe somewhere snowy (with the camper?) in the winter to cross country ski or snowshoe?
Painting… I’ve been having a lot of fun with minis but I also would love to expand to canvas again, even if only on camping trips.
More bike adventures. I mean, the kind where it’s beautiful outside and we hop on the cruisers in the morning with backpacks and baskets and only have a vague plan for the day and coast back in at (or after) sunset. I’m open to the other kind with clips and kits and friends as well, but I want to do more where the bike is just the transportation, not the focus.
Posting more interesting things besides weekly recaps. It really helps me when I’m training towards a goal race, but other times it’s like… yep, rode my bike some miles, ran when I could be arsed to, ignored the pool and weight room, and ate, drank, and slept a lot. You don’t care. I’d rather write something else with focus instead of this being my glorified diary all the time.
Crafting. I recently found my beads and I really want to spend some time playing with them and making new pieces (I did one over break, and I love it. Moar!!!). I would really like to get my sewing machine out long enough to be comfortable getting it set up and stitching things.

2018. Let’s do this. But not too much of this. Because it’s the year of LESS.

2017 wrap up – an epic year of drive and exploration

By Quix

On December 31, 2017

In Uncategorized

I can’t let December 31st come and go without a nod to how the year went, so, without further ado, the tale of the year of freakin’ epicness which was 2017 shall commence.

One of the best moments of 2017.

A Race: Ironman Texas.

Done, and dusted. It’s kind of amazing to have such a warm glow around a race with so many trials and tribulations during it, and one that you can envision literally taking HOURS off your time with a better day, but you only have one first IM and I’ll always remember it fondly. Shit canal, Hardy toll road headwind, and wonky knees and all.

I envisioned it as the training being a means to a goal, and all the payoff being that day. I actually really enjoyed the process, the journey, and I might have been just as proud of some of those long training efforts as I was finishing the Ironman proper. But that red carpet moment was pretty effing awesome, don’t get me wrong.

Smiling because I did not at that point know exactly how close I had come to Nationals.

Also, getting your big goal race out of the way in April was kind of awesome. I committed to nothing for the rest of the year and found out a few things:

I wanted back on my bike rather quickly and I set goals to ride centuries because they sounded fun. So, 2017 organically became the year of the bike with over 3500 miles, very little of them indoors.
My run training went so well from Jan-Mar, and then everything went to hell, both with my body condition and also my motivation. It was a very small mileage year with about 450 miles and I’m okay with that.
Swimming… eh. Again, I did a lot to prepare for the IM and then all I wanted to do was ride my bike after. Even during the summer. All said, I swam 52 miles this year, so that’s not shabby.
Weights – I hit a routine for a while with bodyweight workouts over lunch but struggled to get to the gym to lift heavy most of the year.

I actually had two pretty decent sprint triathlon results at Jack’s Generic and Kerrville (let’s ignore the shitshow that was Lake Pflugerville 8 weeks out of an Ironman), which have ignited my goals to qualify for Nationals next year.

I also spent a lot of time really digging into coaching (got my cert) and psychology reading non-fiction triathlon books, and have started working on my mental game here (and will expand upon this in 2018).

Habits and Practices:

Full of washed veggies. And also cooked and eaten outside.

Facebook and twitter – I spent a lot of the year using them sparingly, and then I found some awesome triathlon groups on Facebook and found myself involved (but also wasting a lot of time on social media). I’ve logged back out in December, and I think I’ll just have to continue to be conscious about the mindless and not-super-relaxing scrolling while watching TV.
I made a goal to stop rushing and fumbling with things. I would not give myself a passing grade on this, and it’s kind of the core of my intentions for next year.
Washing my fruits and veggies – I would give myself a 98% on this one. It’s one of those stupid things not to do and an easy goal to conquer. It’s now habit.
I wanted to weigh less than I did Jan 1, 2017. Check. I’m about 5 lbs down, give or take, but that’s still something.
Beer January – check. The rest of the year watching my alcohol portions? Still something I struggle with – mostly because I have a large tolerance and it doesn’t affect me the way it affects most mortals. One large slice of cake makes me ill, but I can drink a mess of whiskey and feel fine (as well as the next day). I also enjoy whiskey way more than cake. But… neither of these things are great in large quantities. The battle continues to control my portions next year.

I made some way-too-ambitious goals for self-enrichment and I think I learned from that for 2018. If this was my full time focus, if I wasn’t also a triathlete and a wife and a daughter and a full time game producer and didn’t have friends, maybe I could have made more progress – but right now, all those things take priority over these. And that’s ok. It’s not my livelihood, its just something I’d like to pursue someday.

One of the best books I read this year…

Learning/Certification:

Finish my triathlon coaching class and pass the exam – CHECK
After IM Texas, start researching some sort of part time or volunteer opportunity that will help me get some sort of experience. – NOPE. Instead I rode my bike a lot. Oops.
Continue to work on my social media plan for this blog as practice. Eh… I use hashtags on Insta. I post occasionally on my AR facebook page. I haven’t really been trying as of late. It stopped being a focus and that’s ok.
Read some business books and other triathlon training books instead of JUST my pulpy sci fi. – CHECK. At least 1-2 per month starting in the back half of the year.

Set Up

Write a business plan and figure out who I really want to reach and the services I want to provide. NOPE. I’ve had some thoughts here but nothing concrete.
Create a website with all the bells and whistles it needs. NOPE.
Start writing some book notes CHECK. More than, actually.

(Big) Baby Steps. By the end of the year I want to:

Have a website ready to go that can take people’s money and provide a service. – NOPE.
At the very least, start providing a small service via fiverr or something similar to test the waters. – NOPE. I decided this wasn’t a great idea until I really decide what my business plan is.
Have a published book (even if it’s just self published). NOPE, but I’m getting close to draft 1 done, so that’s something!

Other Stuff:

Sunsets and stars outside were definitely highlights of 2017.

Game night – we had three and then our end of year booked up so fast we didn’t have a free weekend. I’m really looking forward to reviving this next year!

Video games – I was really bad at this in 2017. I wanted to list 20 that I played multiple times, and I can only do the games I work on, Clash of Clans, Dance Dance Revolution, Gran Turismo 5, Stardew Valley, Job Simulator, That’s You, and… errr… that’s it. Oops.

Vacations: I didn’t do my reunion in Reno/Tahoe, and we chose Bonaire over a liveaboard diving trip, but I was super excited to take all these trips:

Woodlands, TX for IM TX
Cruise to Roatan, Costa Maya, and Cozumel
Krausse Springs camping for Independence Day week
Other various camping trips in the summer and fall
A week in Bonaire.

And, all the other things. Did I mention I like goals?

Little stuff:

Hem/fix a few pairs of pants. NOPE. 2018?
Clean out both cars. CHECK (and then they got dirty again, funny how that happens…)
Take my existing extra hoka soles and cut them and put them in my less comfortable shoes. NOPE. So easy, and not done. Oops.
Appointments
- Find a new doctor and get an exam – CHECK
- Financial planner – NOPE (2018)
- Bike fit – CHECK!
- Eye doctor appt and exam (my frames are SOOOOO scratched) – CHECK!

Bigger Stuff:

I still have yet to do a full reveal but here are some fruits of our labor…

Clean out and renovate the office. We were hoping to get to it over holiday break, but it didn’t happen. CHECK!!! This is where I’m writing this right now.
Figuring out a place to store (or a new home for) this other gaming table we have that is currently threatening to impale anyone that sleeps on the left side of our guest room. CHECK! (It’s right next to me)
Make the workout room a proper pain cave with a TV, computers and monitors for Zwifting. CHECK – the trainers now live in the workout room and I found I actually enjoy music more than movies/screens so we’ve been rocking that (though I haven’t done more than an hour).
Figure out a more permanent solution than boxes and a blanket in a closet for the leezard (though she seems ok with it). NOPE – 2018. She’s fine with it but her plate of salad falls over and makes a mess.
As long as our financial situation seems stable, picking a renovation project (kitchen, patio, etc) and do it. CHECK. Kitchen has like two things left on the TO DO list (to do later today).
Get a shed. CHECK.
I want to train myself to be ambidextrous on the bike. NOPE. Need to work on this one on the cruiser without clips first.
iFly. NOPE. At least they never expire…
Comedy tickets. NOPE. We went to a few shows but not enough to use up the tickets. I gave them away as presents to people at work. Oh well.
#goplayoutside – CHECK. The camper and being a crazy cyclist really helped me spent a lot of time outdoors. The last two months (between cold weather and kitchen renovation obligations) have been driving me nuts, but I know playing outside season will come back again and I’ll be out there.

I usually do this thing where I try to distill the year into three words and I’ll do it again.

2017: the year of turtle home, for sure…

Epic. I mean, yeah, this word is overused, but my first Ironman, riding so many bikes, buying a camper and spending almost three weeks in it in the second half of the year. 25+ hours underwater back in my happy place in Bonaire. Tri coach certification, finishing a kitchen remodel and a lot of other fairly major house projects, and eeking out 3/4 of a draft of my first novel. SO MUCH THIS YEAR.

Explore. I feel like I got to know my town better, biking over what felt like every inch of it over and over. We camped SIX times in the span of four months in the camper. I hit the water in five different countries this year. I also explored the inside of my grey matter a bit pushing myself through Ironman training and racing, and then working on my head game in for Sprints.

Driven. I felt a pull this year like no other year to really expand my goals beyond being a triathlete. I’ve wanted to write a book for over half my life and I finally started it. We’ve been talking about redoing the kitchen since we moved in. We’ve been talking about Ironman since we started triathlon. While there are a lot of things on my list still to do from this year, I checked off, or at least started, some of the real big ones.

Hope you have a happy New Year’s Eve, and cheers to a fabulous 2018!

What’s your biggest 2017 accomplishment? Share in the comments, since goals make me unreasonably happy!

Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: cycling Page 12 of 34

Lifetime Indoor Tri

Winter Solstice Bike Adventure

What I did on my winter vacation + January goals

New Years Resolutions – Focus, Intention, and Purpose

2017 wrap up – an epic year of drive and exploration

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