Adjusted Reality

Tag: cycling Page 19 of 34

I do love cruises, but they have a history of doing bad things to me.

In 2011, my back went out and I got a nasty cold. In 2013, I injured my knee and I got a cold the last day. 2014 and 15 I did it to myself with a half marathon and marathon the day before the cruise. 2016 my body was totally healthy, but I discovered over spotty wifi in Belize that my company had done layoffs that day. While I look forward to these vacations, I also am always wondering what bad thing is going to happen. While it was annoying to have a cranky back through most of the vacation, it was definitely a MILD annoyance compared to some years…

Sunday’s drive was fairly uneventful minus a 45 minute stallout in traffic around Houston. We got to the pier, everything seemed chill, we got in a short line to get on board and… technical difficulties. Their internet was out so the security photos weren’t being sent up so things were taking a long time. We got put in a line and then sent back to sit down and then another line and then as we got up to the end we were told to sit down again. We’re on about hour 7 of not eating anything so we’re cranky and we decided we weren’t getting displaced in line again so we just stood there. And stood there. With heavy backpacks on… (foreshadowing…).

Finally we got on board and lunch (food was glorious) and went to the mandatory boat drill and since we were signed up for late dinner this time, we had a few hours to kill. I asked Zliten what he wanted to do and he really wanted to hit the gym, so we rode bikes for 30 mins and stretched.

Then, we watched the boat sail away from the hot tub with some frozen mojitos. This really started vacation.

We drank some wine and got dressed up for dinner. Since it’s the same boat, around the same time of year, it seemed like the menu for the week was pretty much the same. Last year, I had seafood spaghetti with oysters, scallops, and shrimp. Guess what I had this year?

We called it an early night and retired back to the room to read books and sleeeeep.

Monday was our first day at sea. We slept until we woke up without an alarm and still hit breakfast. I kept these small and had a little corn beef hash (my cruise treat), some fruit, and a few potatoes.

We met my parents for cards and played a few rounds. Then, we did another 35 mins on the bike and stretched before we got hungry for lunch.

The afternoon was for the pool, and a few drinks, and more lounging until we had to get gussied up for formal dinner. We clean up alright.

After dinner, we headed up to the disco and spent the evening talking to random people and drinking a lot of Crown Royal on the rocks before some late night snacks and bed.

Tuesday was sort of a repeat of Monday, except a little less sleep and a weee bit of hangover that went away rapidly and my back felt SUPER out of place. Fancy that, running around all evening in heels + lugging around a heavy backpack for hours + cruise chairs/beds not being super comfortable didn’t do me a world of good.

Anyhoo, we were up in time for a quickie breakfast of relatively the same thing. Cards with the ‘rents. Bike and stretch (and stretch and stretch and roll). Lunch. Pool. Pretty sure there was a nap in there somewhere. Dinner – one of my favorites from last year, crab cakes and cilantro cod. Sleep early because the next day we arrived at our first destination!

Wednesday is when vacation really, for real starts for me because it’s time to go hit the beach for a few days instead of just look at it, but also it’s half over. Boo.

Started out with a *slightly* larger breakfast since we were playing in the water all day. We rode past this sweet lighthouse on the way to Tabatya Beach and then all of a sudden we were there. This place was amazing, and I’m not even showing you the underwater photos yet.

We spent over four hours snorkeling the huge mass of reef (reefs?) around the beach. The last time we were in Hawaii, on one of those hawaii boat charters, we’d spent a whopping two full days in the water.

I’ll do a play by play of all the fish pictures once I’ve processed them, but for now, you get THIS happy fish after those four hours, what sounds like a totally mundane but actually super amazing lunch of bbq chicken, rice and beans, and coleslaw. And a mojito.

We hit a bar right at the port on the way back to have a few more drinks off the ship (read: WAYYYY less expensive) and enjoyed the view before we hurried back to play cards with the ‘rents.

This is my dinner face (and wearing one of my favorite necklaces to boot), but I didn’t stay up much after that. I’d say I’m old but I’m really just a fish – playing in the water is ALWAYS going to win out over just about anything else ever and I had two more days of that planned.

Thursday was a little nerve-wracking. This was the day that got ruined last year by work news. However, it was a different port and we had different plans, so I was excited to try something new. Speaking of something new, I found stir fried veggies at breakfast. It sounded like an odd thing to eat in the AM but they were actually really frikkin’ yummy so maybe I’ll start making breakfast stir fries… hmmm.

We taxi’d out to a beach called Yaya. Apparently you needed reservations, so a nice older gentleman escorted us to a different area called Carribean Life. There were no lockers and we were a little nervous about leaving our stuff there, but hey, stuff can be replaced and adventures can’t, so off we went into the water.

This was not the most ideal place to snorkel. We found some reef in the two miles-ish we swam, and saw some cool stuff like a giant pod of squid. However, we spent maybe 20 minutes snorkeling and the rest of the time swimming (transporting ourselves). Sometimes fighting some decent current. Sometimes hurrying through boat lanes to make sure we didn’t get squished. Adventure snorkeling!

After that, we were ready for refueling. Local beer (Corona, LOL). Pico. Guac. Chips. Chicken tacos. It was all really great and fresh. There were ladies offering 20$ massages on the beach and with my back all sore, I took advantage of this. She worked on me for an hour and twenty minutes. I was super relaxed by the end. And… I can say I got topless (very carefully without ACTUALLY exposing myself) on a beach in Costa Maya Mexico!

There was a swim up bar in a giant pool at the port, and I made Zliten get in with me for about 10 minutes. Because there was a pool and I was there. Next time, I’ll definitely take more advantage of it.

We played cards around 5:30 and then went kinda casual for dinner and after another sun baked, salt-crusted, fishy type day, we hit the hay pretty quick.

Friday was diving day! Wheee! We skipped breakfast so we could sleep in and still make our diving appointment.

We ended up the only two people signed up, so we had a private dive for cheaper than the ship prices. Score! And…we saw not one, but TWO turtles! And lots of other cool stuff. Day = made.

Our plan was to take advantage of Playa Maya, but we left the dive boat later than expected and the all-inclusive price wasn’t really worth the 2-3 hours we could spend there. So, we hit Senor Frogs and had our first meal of the day: we split nachos, chicken tacos, and had giant margs and maybe a few shots poured in our mouths.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on deck and marveled that this is probably the most sober we’ve ever left Cozumel (read: not falling down), so we had a *little* more to drink to make up for it.

We fancied up for the last formal dinner. Richard brought me two lobsters because he is awesome.

Then, we sort of flitted around the ship. We lost 30 bucks in the casino SUPER quickly so we left. We then hit the disco and actually danced this time! We lost our seats from dancing so we went to a different bar and found a completely abandoned comfy lounge. Then we found out bars were closing so we got munchies at the cafe and went to bed.

Saturday is always the saddest day at sea since you have to leave the next day. We skipped breakfast again to play cards with the fam, hit lunch, and then decided instead of all the crazy things we wanted to do (gym! waterslides! mini golf! rock climbing!) we instead promptly took a 1.5 hour nap and then went and swam and read by the pool until it was time to play cards again. I think I ended up with about a 7 and 5 record for wins and losses. We all did pretty well trading off with the wins.

I honestly didn’t write down the food I ate as well as I did last time, but I do remember this amazing appetizer (that I didn’t snap a picture of) – scallops with chorizo in a cauliflower puree. Sounds weird but it was amazeballs. I got a tandoori chicken salad with yogurt dressing that was amazing, and we split a bunch of desert around the table and the key lime pie and cheesecake were the best!

After dinner we did the packing we had put off, picked up our formal pictures (for the relatives), read books and fell asleep.

Sunday was fairly uneventful. We actually slept until the last possible minute to leave the room, splitting a protein bar instead of one last breakfast orgy. I was kind of sad but also after eating ship food for 7 days I was kind of ready for something different. We drove home, hitting a little rain but otherwise it was fine, picked up our leezard, grabbed some BBQ, and binge watched Kimmy Schmidt season 3 while sipping some high class tequila and orange soda dranks because VACATION WASN’T YET OVER DANGIT.

And then it was. D’awww. The end.

Once I process the other cameras pictures I’ll put up a fishy highlights post and add them here as well.

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8 reasons why being a prissy pants and a triathlete don’t mix

By Quix

On May 11, 2017

In Uncategorized

Triathlon is super fun and awesome, but it’s definitely not a world for someone who doesn’t like getting dirty. Here are eight things you’ll have to get over if you want to triathlon.

A lovely long row of porta potties is a triathlete’s best friend around 6am race day…

#1 – Porta potties. You’re going to have to use them at some point. They may not be QUITE as bad as the ones baking all day at an outdoor music festival but by the time the gun goes off, they’re usually pretty, erm, full and usually out of toilet paper. Also, there’s not generally a place to wash your hands after. That’s what the lake is for.

#2 – The gauntlet of urine, aka, the swim. Speaking of the lake, the open water swim is definitely not for the weak of heart. Besides the fact that you’re going to get hit, kicked, and shoved, you’ll also probably (accidentally) drink some of it. And people have been peeing in there all day. You might be swimming in a slipstream of pee at any point.

About to go swim in a lake with a non-zero amount of pee in it and I’m doing just fine, thanks!

#3 – Public indecency. You’ll have to stick your hand down your pants to apply something called Deez Nutz or Hoohah Glide or Butt Butt’r before you bike and depending on how long you’re riding bikes, during it. You’ll learn what a snot rocket is and how to properly do them without (regularly) getting boogers on yourself. In the Ironman, you’ll get buck nekkid to change in front of hundreds of people in the changing tent. If you have any modesty, go ahead and throw it out the window right now.

#4 – Anti-beauty queen. If you washed your hair every time you worked out, it would fall out. So, get ready to accept SWEAT as a valid hair product. Also, since you’re going to be showering at the gym (and at work) more than your house, you’ll need to keep your beauty routine short and to a minimum. People will probably recognize you better with wet hair than dry hair after a while.

Laying in a park eating a cold cheese sandwich about 50 miles into a bike ride. This is fine.

#5 -Jack’s utter lack of give-a-shit about appearances. You’ll get to the point where you just DO NOT CARE what you look like to anyone else. Goggle eyes and looking like a drowned rat coming out of the swim. Pain faces on the run. I’ve laid down on the side of the road and shoved food in my mouth a non-zero amount of times in the last year. You’ll walk into a restaurant sweaty in your clippy cloppy bike shoes, and full kit for a meal and a beer (though it helps to have your whole team with you there). You’ll learn to own your spandex proudly even in inappropriate places.

#6 – Body problems. You are going to have a lot of conversations about peeing, pooping, stomach aches, blisters, saddle sores, crotch pain, chafing, road rash, and probably other disgusting things that I haven’t even thought of. I happily use the bathroom behind the bushes if need be. Also, the likelihood is that sometime in your career, you’re going to poop your pants. It’s not happened to me yet, but I’ve had a LOT of close calls so it’s probably going to happen someday. I’ve made peace with this.

These will absolutely replace your Jimmy Choos. Or in my case, the Shoe Carnival sale specials.

#7 – Say goodbye to cute shoes. Heels will not be worth it anymore. I have so many cute shoes that I just look at and sigh while I choose to wear either running shoes, flat super padded sandals, or flat boots on the daily because I cannot be arsed to walk around on sore and tired legs in anything that doesn’t feel like a pillow giving my feet a hug.

#8 – “She gets too hungry for dinner at 8”. Yep, Frankie is right. It’s hard to coordinate meals with other people. I need to eat, I need to eat a lot, and I need to eat right now, and I’m not going to be polite about it. If you mess with any of these things, we’re probably going to need to have some words and you’ll see my nasty side. Also, I’m going to be probably be picky about how healthy it is. I want a giant side of vegetables, some whole grain options, and some protein that isn’t covered in a bunch of fat. Unless I want the opposite of those things. And that can flip at any moment depending on the weather, my training, or my whim.

The one thing I will never just “get over” though? The early morning wakeups. This priss needs her beauty sleep.

What have YOU given up for sport or fitness?

Invisible Things

By Quix

On May 8, 2017

In Uncategorized

If something exists that bothers me, but I don’t really want to prioritize doing anything about it, I can usually make it disappear. This works on objects, like the dirty half spilled cat litter box in the garage that had been sitting there since when it was cold enough to put the cat inside at night.

Lumpy space princess is not a good look for me.

This also works on mental things as well – for example, during heavy training cycles, I can almost completely ignore the emotional attachment to what’s going on with the scale. Once you remove the “so there’s a few lumps but we’re going to go bike 100 miles today so who cares?” aspect about life, it’s really hard to not look in the mirror and be really negative and nasty to myself about it. I’m trying to be patient, I’m trying to be kind, but everything just feels so far away from where I want to be right now.

And oh, the patience part of it is SO HARD. At least when you’re doing a super tough multi-hour run, you have the direct power to progress it forward. You’re doing something. Right now, my body feels and looks like such a mess in so many ways it’s just not cool and the BEST thing I can do isn’t something, but NOT do something. I can NOT eat a bunch of crap and fill it with too much alcohol. I can NOT just jump back into multi-hour efforts and keep my workouts short.

That’s ok, I thought, I’ll just convert all that volume over to speed. Short and NOT so sweet. Then, I tried to do a splash and dash at the gym expo thingee and I was busting ass to keep my run speed in the 11s for 1 kilometer. ONE. I’ve ran marathons that felt less difficult at about the same pace. In fairness, this was after a little man kicked my ass in 45 minutes with some drumsticks in a class, I did a 750m all out row (3m13sec, not bad!), and then tried halfheartedly to do some standup paddleboard yoga on shaky and tired legs, but STILL. I honestly thought my garmin was broken.

Scenes from #pureaustinexpo17 – I want that bowl for breakfast EVERY DAY.

So, I really did spend all my cash on race day and now I’m living paycheck to paycheck and I need to calm my shit if I ever want to have a savings account again. This is SO different than last year’s offseason where I didn’t want to touch a bike for 2 months, I am just so mentally fired up to DO STUFF that it’s excruciating that my body is taking so long to get with the program. I’m unfairly comparing myself to where I was last year this time – after two months of offseason. I’ve now just passed two weeks.

One of the coaches at our gym also did IM Texas and looked at us crazy when we told her even the little we’ve been doing. She said she’s on pizza and beer for AT LEAST another two weeks. So, fine. I’m done with the pizza part of the equation, I need to watch what I’m eating because I refuse to gain any MORE weight, a reasonable, healthy human amount of light-moderate activity sounds like where I’m at right now. Walking for an hour. Riding bikes to work or on our recovery ride. Swimming a lap or two around the lake. Paddleboards and kayaks. Lighter strength workouts. Longer and harder efforts and I need to take some time apart, for our own good.

And I need to have faith that my body will let me know when it’s ready for more. It’s killing me to have my season end just as tri season is ramping up and watching my teammates and friends crush races just stokes the fire to get RECOVERED already and back up and out there. However, Saturday taught me it will not end well unless I give myself the time and space to do this the right way. It’s just hard and I feel like such a weenie.

At least I’m an Ironweenie.

So, last week I did these things:

One rowing/weights/stretching session (45m)
One 18 mile BSS ride (1h30m)
One mile swim in the lake (30m)
All the crap at the expo (2h30m)

I also walked at least 10k steps each day (an average of about 14.6k actually).

This is definitely the maximum effort I want to be at right now and I’ll probably be dialing it back a little bit this week. I’m not going to put up a plan because I’m not there yet, but I’m sure I’ll ride bikes a bit, I probably won’t be able to resist the lake being perfect right now at least once this week, I’ll continue to completely ignore running (we’re definitely not on speaking terms after Saturday), and if I feel good later in the week, some light strength work.

Let’s also talk about the realization about how that silly little sticks class kicked my ass. Of course I’m probably not going to do stuff like that regularly during season, but it opened my eyes a bit. Ironman training makes you super strong in so many ways, but it makes you so WEAK in others. If I want to be a more well rounded human and overly stronger, more stable, and functional athlete, I need to do things besides all the miles of run/bike/swim. To that end, I’m hoping to incorporate some of those types of activities that move my body in different ways over the next few months.

With the nutrition side of things, I’m feeling kind of the same way.

At least I’m cooking up some real foods now that have plants in them, so that’s a step in the right direction.

My mind is ready to cut calories down because oh my stars, I’m ready to start trying to shed some of this unfortunate weight, but I have to make sure I’m allowing myself to actually recover as well and trying to completely underfeed myself would not help me accomplish this end. I started tracking my food last week, and it went… okay. I managed to keep approximately a 5000 calorie deficit per fitbit with minimal pain and suffering and my weight stabilized at 189.5. My appetite is beginning to behave itself, with moments of rebellion.

I’m trying to stay away from a barrage of junk food, drinking plenty of water, and actually quite trying to slowly replace all the carbs all the time with more fruit and veggies, starting with snacks. I’m back to desert being described as something you have a small amount once or twice a week vs multiple times per day. I’ve had the same bag of pretzels for two weeks now and there are no other salty snacks around. My meals are similar, but I’m only eating three of them per day and I’m trying to gravitate towards the more filling ones for the calories because other than plant type snacks, that’s it for the day.

The last thing on the list is our friend alcohol. I was actually able to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo with tacos and margaritas (homemade for both so they were lower calorie) for the first time in years because I didn’t have some sort of crazy training reason I had to be up super early. It’s been nice to have a glass of wine here, a beer there, and not worry about how I was going to utterly fuck up tomorrow’s training. If I actually want to make weight loss progress, I’m going to have to ration this eventually, but we’re still in the “hang loose” phase of this particular adventure for another few weeks. Track and healthify the food, but enjoy some drinkies.

Sunday was a full on triathlon with volunteering, cleaning up, and a movie. T1 was chillin’ on the couch with a beer and T2 was dinner and some wine.

My mood and energy level definitely perked up a bit this week. There was gaming with friends. We went to go see a movie (Guardians of the Galaxy 2 – which I HIGHLY recommend and think might be my favorite Marvel movie so far). We volunteered at Rookie Tri. We had an early Mothers Day celebration with the in laws after busting our butts at the expo. The week before, I think I left the house ONCE on Saturday for a few hours but that was it for plans besides a recurring date with my couch and netflix. It was exactly what I needed, but it’s too pretty outside to make a habit of that!

We also reached the advanced beginner level of adulting! I didn’t get that haircut, but I was able to finally CLEAN THE EFFING CAR and we got it washed and I’m dropping it off tonight to be serviced. We finally made a Costco trip, and bought and installed outdoor lighting we’ve been talking about forever. Additionally, we did a pretty good job picking up of the house, and cleaned out and blew the leaves out of the garage. We cooked garlic shrimp pasta with asparagus and spinach, cilantro cajun turkey with rice and veggies, and chicken tacos.

Next week is all about moi. I can’t do much about my body feeling lumpy, inflamed, and bloated, but I can make myself the best version of me I can.

Haircut! …and after I get it done, consider using hairdye for the first time in about 15 years. Part of the BLEH I look terrible is my hair and the cut will probably take care of it, but part of me isn’t sure about the Frankenstein’s bride thing I have going on in the front with the grey streak.
Pluck my eye caterpillars.
Redo my toes and maybe even my nails.
Pick up after sun care stuff, because my beloved Clinique is almost out after 4 years of using it…

Maybe more if I get antsy but I’m definitely not ready to graduate to Intermediate level adulting just yet.

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The Aftermath

By Quix

On May 3, 2017

In Uncategorized

The week after the Ironman was not quite what I expected.

Always expect margaritas though…

I expected to be more tired and sore. Not to say that I wasn’t, but it was maybe like third-or-fourth-worst-sore-marathon level and not get-me-a-wheelchair level. Steps were hard for about 2 days, but that was it. I was more mentally out of it… the day after, I spent 4 hours sitting by the pool kind of staring off into space, not reading, talking much, or anything, just sort of existing. The extreme tireds caught up pretty quick once the caffiene in the coca cola, the race excitement, and the booze benders wore off. I have spent quite a few 12 hour+ nights in bed with reading and sleeping combined.

I expected to spend the week sort of in a happy, post-IM bubble. The day we got back, we had to say goodbye to our little old man schneider skink Lump. It wasn’t a surprise because he’s not been doing so well, but he went way downhill while we were gone and it was time. That, plus a bunch of other shitty shit happened last week and I felt like I needed a do-over. However, the weekend combined leisurely lunches out, getting a few things done that were nagging at me (but not too many things so it didn’t feel like a hassle), and a whole lot of vegging on the couch binge watching Netflix. We finally drank our post-race champagne on Sunday and I wore my damn medal and screamed YOU ARE AN IRONMAN a lot. I felt redeemed.

I expected to be a LOT hungrier. I definitely didn’t limit my portions and may have wanted a full ‘nother meal after my reasonably sized lunch two days after, but I felt less compelled to eat like an asshole because Ironman training actually let me kinda eat that way already. I actually had vegetables and fruits last week in decent quantities. By three days out, I split a burger between two meals because it was too much food. I know when I nail my nutrition in training I’m way less hungry afterward, so this is perhaps confirmation I did just that at the race.

Plenty of foods but I wore my wetsuit and my bike helmet as well.

I expected to want weeks away from my goggles, my bike, and my running shoes. We rode bikes with the group on Wednesday and it felt good, but 18 miles was PLENTY. We swam with the tri team in the lake on Friday, but once around the quarry (750m) was enough. 25 minutes on the cruiser to lunch and groceries on Saturday in the heat and the wind tuckered me out. The will is there, but the body is definitely saying that short bouts a couple times a week are the way to go.

I expected my knee to hurt more. It’s not been completely pain free, but since the day after, it’s hurt less than any point 2 weeks before the race. I have no idea what brought it on, like AT ALL, and I have no idea why doing an Ironman made it feel BETTER, but I’m still giving it enough space (read: no running or heavy lifting until after vacation) to repair itself.

I expected some weird body stuff, but not quite what I’ve experienced. I still feel like a bag of water, literally almost sloshy, STILL a week and a half later. The inflammation is real with this one, and this week I’m going to take steps to actually try and FIX it instead of probably aggravating it more with junk food and drinking beer and whiskey like water (and forgetting to actually drink water). I’m hoping its working it’s way out because I have to pee like ALLLLL the time and it’s getting old. Also – doing an Ironman makes you hair grow. Literally. I had an INSANE amount of stubble on my legs the day after, like a week’s worth, and it had been 2.5 days. Weirdest thing ever.

I might have bought all the merch like I’d never be back but… hurrrr…. I *really* want to do another one after I get ~~all~~ some of my life shit together…

I expected to be more one-and-done, or at least not wanting to do another one of these for a long time, but then again, I haven’t at any other race distance so I’m not sure why. I really do feel a draw to do this one again. That finish line is addictive. Not next year because I have other priorities, but maybe 2019? 2020? Definite possibilities.

I expected to have a little more oomph to get stuff done last week, but I always expect that and it never happens. I was lucky to just do a basic level of adulting. I might be an advanced beginner adult this week. I’m adjusting my expectations here and I’ll work on getting to the intermediate/advanced level (read: the big to do list with appointments and house stuff and other projects, oh my) once I’m back from vacation.

So, it’s been about a week and a half. I am definitely feeling a little of the post Ironman blues because I had absolutely zero things scheduled starting April 23rd. This was totally intentional for a lot of reasons, but I expected to welcome the break a little more than I actually am right now. It is completely unreasonable, but I kind of wish I was ready to jump on the swim/bike/run train. The Ironman marketing team are evil geniuses because today I got an email telling me to NOT let my training die and sign up for IM Boulder this summer. Argh, yes, that sounds great!!!

But no. I need to face some other things. As weird as it sounds, it sounds WAYYY more comfortable right now to jump right back into 12-15 hour weeks and ignoring the rest of my life. Hopefully, that will pass soon as I remember what it’s like to have my identity not tied to Ironman for a while. As I get over the hump of “I’ve eaten healthy and counted calories for 24 hours, why have I not lost 15 lbs yet?”. As I remember that it’s actually pretty awesome to just be a person who is active for the fun of it (and maybe sometimes to earn a little extra food) and not just because it’s on the training plan.

So, week one was really just surviving + a small amount of activity. How about week two?

Definitely bikes. Because always bikes.

I’m back to tracking food and weighing myself. No specific calorie goal this week, just get back in the habit and try to keep it reasonable for my activity level. To be honest, I logged my weight the last three mornings without my glasses on so I couldn’t see it, but I ended up checking it out today and it’s not *quite* as bad as it could be (189.8 which is about 3lbs up but also 5% more bodyfat/bloat than a month ago). It’s time to shift my eating to mostly fruit and veggies and lean proteins and some grains and eschew the things that have fake orange coloring and come in a plastic tub or crinkly bag.

Water, water, water. I know this will help with feeling like a water weenie, it’s just haaaaaaard when I don’t really focus on it. My goal is to have four 24-oz Polar bottles independent of anything I drink while/directly after exercise. So far this week I’ve done pretty well.

Still on the “whatever, whenever” plan but I’d like to do some of these things:

Ride bikes with friends.
Get to the lake to Sup or kayak or even maybe swim.
Foam roll and stretch a few times.
Spend 15-20 mins doing some bodyweight exercises 1-2 times this week
Attend the Pure Austin Expo and play.
But most importantly, 10k steps per day. I slacked on it this week. I need to be taking my 2-3 walks per day at work and maybe one in the evenings if I don’t have enough steps.

In terms of goals and to dos, I’d like to do a little bit more than surviving I did last week:

Get a haircut. It’s time. I waited until after the race so I didn’t have to worry about an awkward cut that wouldn’t ponytail, but I am definitely in need of my annual shearing.
Clean out the Prius and get it washed (or wash it ourselves). It’s been on my list since January, and we did the Xterra last weekend. It would be nice to tick this one off the list so we can…
Schedule an appointment next week to take it in for it’s 60k service. It’s only 2k overdue. 😛
Gaming on Monday, early mother’s day on Saturday, volunteering for Rookie Tri on Sunday.

Since I’m still operating at the advanced beginner level of adulting, however, I’ll cut myself some slack if I don’t get to everything.

Ironman Texas – Bike (Highway from Hell)

By Quix

On April 28, 2017

In Uncategorized

Pre-race and swim HERE. T1 continues below:

After I exited the water, all I kept thinking was “I’m not in any hurry”. I didn’t want to trip and fall with a wonky knee. My biggest fear was rushing and doing something stupid and ending my day. My only goal was to make all the cutoffs, and on a normal day, that isn’t even a passing consideration on any of the three sports, so I tried to be super conservative and patient with everything knowing that it was my day if I didn’t fuck it up.

Bags bags bags bags and more bags.

I walked all the way to my bike clothes bag, and heard Zliten’s name being called out of the swim as I walked it into the tent (yay!), and took a second to breathe. A volunteer came up and asked if I needed anything, water maybe, and I said OMG YES, and swished out my nasty ass canal mouth (yes, I swim with my mouth open no matter how hard I try, so that was pleasant), and then got to changing.

It was a little different getting super de duper butt naked in front of a hundred of my closest friends during a race, but it felt just like changing in a locker room. A VERY FRANTIC locker room. I got all my gear on and packed everything I needed in jersey pockets, took one look at my bagel with cream cheese and said NOPE (next time, I’d take the extra effort and buy english muffins instead of making do with what’s in the hotel breakfast) and headed out. I walked through all sorts of mud in my bike shoes, grabbed my bike, and got to the start line.

T1: 12:56

Let’s talk about this. I intentionally took my time, and I have zero regrets doing so, but I’m already thinking about how I could do better next time I have this opportunity. First of all, I could totally practice this and probably cut down quite a few minutes having a purpose instead of going durrrrr the whole time. Second, I forgot to pre-load up a bunch of stuff in my jersey pockets. Third, THIS would be the race where it would make sense to keep my shoes on my bike. Walking through a super long transition field in cleats was super slow and annoying. But maybe it would be worse with mud on my socks instead of cleats? *shrug*. These are things to think about far, far in the future.

Bike:

Deathstar, when I dropped her off for sleepaway camp the night before.

I hit the line and pulled to the side and got on Deathstar and got going… and my left shoe wouldn’t clip in. I tried and tried and tried and finally I just jammed it up in there and took off. It was a magical unicorn day in terms of temperature (high of 70s in April in Texas), and it felt wonderful to be on the bike. I got a caff gel down the hatch right away and started looking for Zliten. He was behind me on the swim and for some reason, I couldn’t even fathom that he got out of the tent quicker than I did (but yep, he was two minutes faster there so I *just* missed him) and I kept looking backwards on the bike but he was just a teeny bit ahead. We watched the flybys on Strava and it’s HILARIOUS how we were almost riding together but only saw each other at turn arounds.

The first hour, you wind through neighborhoods and I noticed that a) everything was feeling remarkably good except b) my stomach was definitely a little off. I stuck to my nutrition plan with gels but I could see some trouble coming my way if it it continued. I kept calling what was in my bottle GURPLE (which makes no sense, it was orange and grape/purple gatorade) and it started to taste gross. Subconcious past me knew this was going to happen, and accidentally packed the cliff spearmint chews in my bike bag instead of my run vest and that turned me around. They are magic. I highly recommend.

When we turned onto the toll road, I was super excited to ride bikes on it. They blocked off a whole freeway for us! OMG! How cool is that? By the end of the first half of the first loop, I was excited that my speed was rockin’, but that was juxtaposed with how kind of BORING it was to be riding for 20 miles on one road with no scenery. And this is the girl who did 33 loops of Shoal Creek for long day training – at least there were interesting things to look at, even if they were the same interesting things over and over. This was just *highway*.

I saw Zliten at the turn around at mile 40 for the first time all race. How did he get ahead of me? (by having a purpose at T1, duh…) I made a note I was going to try and catch him after the U turn and then holy hell…. the wind. It sucked the life out of me to see my speed dropping, and dropping, and dropping. Flats felt like hills and I crawled up the few overpasses at like 6 mph since my knee was on the verge of complaining about life and I still had a long day ahead. I was in no hurry. Slow and steady becomes an Ironman. However, the pace was just demotivating.

At least I wasn’t riding THIS. #teamfattirebikeguy

After an IMPOSSIBLY long time to travel 20 miles, after being convinced the turnaround would never come, that we would just have to keep biking around the globe and somehow end up back on the other side, it finally happened. And it was relief, sweet relief, from the windy day and the growing-ever-more-frequent gusts.

Right after the turnaround was special needs, and I tried to unclip and…that wasn’t happening. My foot (the one I jammed in there earlier) was just stuck. I finally rolled up to a volunteer and said “please help me, my foot is stuck”, and she held my bike up just long enough so I could get my cleat out before I fell down (but it was close).

Luckily, Zliten was still there so we hung out a bit. I sat on the ground and rolled my back and butt and legs with my $1.50 PVC pipe roller. I downed the salt pills and my 303 muscle relaxers from my med kit and my sunbutter honey sandwich, which was life right then and almost took off right after Zliten… when I realized I still needed to deal with my cleats. A volunteer got me a plastic knife and I spent an extra few minutes digging the dirt out. Totally worth it not to fall on my face again.

Many times the race director had said “on race day, one of the only things you can control is your attitude”, so I made a point to enjoy the heck out of that tailwind on the second loop because I knew I’d have to pay for it on the way back. And yeah, I had a lot of fun screaming down the toll road at 25 mph, not in aero (it was hurting like hell by then, so I figured I’d save it for when it mattered), at like 50 watts. I saw Zliten again at the turn around (mayyyybe a mile ahead at this point) and he barked at me and I giggled and that was the last happy before the wind tunnel happened again.

And you get a bike selfie from the day before because 30$ is too much to pay for a picture of my stomach that was not feeling well hanging out on the bike….

I think the second loop up was better than the first, because I knew after this, I’d be done. However, I realized I was getting super sunburned, I got my arms and fronts of the legs well, somehow I forgot my FACE and the back of my legs, and I stopped at the mile 95 aid station for a sunscreen refresh. Pretty happy with only two stops on the bike for this long of a ride!

I would say mile 100+ was a low point for me. Looking at the flyby on Strava, this is really where Zliten gained on me. After we got off the highway, we still were heading into the wind and now there were turns and my brain couldn’t fathom how slowly the last few miles were passing. I ended up behind someone going really slow and I didn’t have the brain to pass and I think mile 103 took at least 4 miles somehow, but eventually we got there. And I didn’t even fall getting out of my clips!

Total time: 7:21:05. This is a lot slower than the sub-7 I wanted, and at first I was beating myself up a little bit for it because the course is so flat, and it was just a little wind… but then when I found out HOW windy it was and how many people who expected to have no trouble with the bike either DNF’d there or just barely made the cutoff, I am happy with my extra unplanned 20 minutes.

The course showed on my Garmin as two miles short but I didn’t mind at all. Not one bit.

T2:

I had a chapstick in my bento box I was never able to find (too many gels stuffed in there), so I asked a volunteer to hold my bike for a sec while I dug it out. Then, I sent Death Star away with him. I was surprised at how little I wanted to throw my bike in the trash, and happy that I had some really tough training rides this cycle. Today was really just a) long (but I think my first century in January took as long or longer) and b) windy (and I have practice with that), and didn’t have any other major problems.

I slowly walked the whole way through T2 in my bike shoes. I think next time it might be smarter to take them off and muddy up my socks instead, but I was still just thinking “I’m in no hurry, I have almost 8 hours to get through a marathon, don’t be stupid”. I got my bag, got into the changing tent, and started to go about the process from a bibs/jersey to a tri suit to run in. I made a friend named Shauna while changing (she was worried about how her hair looked, heh), and decided to put my run shoes on first because it was muddy. Then, I realized I couldn’t get my tri shorts over my giant hokas and had to take them off and start all over again before I hit the sunscreen station one more time and then headed out under the arch to start running a marathon at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

T2 time: 15:41

While it doesn’t surprise me at 9 hours into a race that I legitimately forgot how to put on my clothes correctly, it would definitely serve me to practice it in the future. I thought the full change from bike clothes to run clothes would be refreshing and maybe even life changing, but honestly, it just took time and brainpower. If I could find tri shorts that I could ride 112 miles in, I would wear them all day next time. I’m sure it’s a mix of HTFU and also trial and error with some different brands.

Either way, the 15 minutes actually served me pretty well. I dismounted my bike thinking “well, time to walk an entire marathon because I feel like straight dog doody” to taking off at a decent clip starting mile one.

Part three, coming soon!

Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: cycling Page 19 of 34

Bikes to nowhere, adventure snorkeling, and local beers – Liberty of the Seas

8 reasons why being a prissy pants and a triathlete don’t mix

Invisible Things

The Aftermath

Ironman Texas – Bike (Highway from Hell)

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