Adjusted Reality

Sometimes your subconscious knows what’s better for you than your actual plans.  Week 2 was supposed to be a return to routine, but life got in the way of about half of it.  It’s ok.  I probably wasn’t fully ready to do it anyway.  Here’s how life is going.

Pushup Challenge:

This is part 1 of #projectsunsoutgunsout – I may be able to PR the crap out of swim bike run, but I’m at probably personal worsts in terms of strength training progress (since I got fit again – let’s not discuss the no mans land before 2008).  While I feel like a complete wuss because I was only able to string together 9 pushups for my test, I figure you have to start somewhere.

I got a slow start to this, but ended up doing the test on Tuesday, Day 1 Week 1 on Thursday, and Day 2 on Saturday.  I’ll try to see if I can catch up eventually, but even if I’m off and start the weeks on Thursday, it’s better than not doing them, right?

Day 1 was 6, 6, 4, 4, and then max (more than 5 – I did 8).  Looking at that, it seems like so few, but adding it up, it’s 28 pushups.  Day 2 added up to 34.  Considering I was only eeking out 5-10 while I was doing strength before giving up, it’s progress.

Also, I’ve got my officemate and some other folks around the company doing it.  If it’s something I can do on a 5-10 minute break at work, I’m more likely to stick with it.

The Dozen:

This is part 2 of #projectsunsoutgunsout – more overall strength in my core/arms to reinforce the pushups.  I also got a late start on this, but I did manage to do it twice – Thursday and Sunday.  I was going to skip the push up parts, but since I’m trying to train myself to do pushups with my hands parallel to my toes (I currently do them at with my hands angled), I did half the amount of them on my knees.

This is definitely something I can do when I’m at home after work watching TV, as long as I get off my ass and just do it.  Doing that + pushups on the same day made my abs so so so sore, hopefully once I get used to it I can group them on the same day without an issue.

Classes/Other Activity:

I dragged Zliten to a hot yoga class and it made him angry.  I didn’t hate it, but it definitely made my knee weirdly sore.  I may have us work up to it by doing shorter sessions at home or taking a not-hot easier class.

We skipped cycle class due to mental health day reasons and made pretty red white and blue drinks and sat on the patio instead because #offseason.

We slept in and then went to a movie with friends on Wednesday, and the waterpark on Thursday, so… yeah… it was one more week of chillaxin.  I’m ok with that.  Week 2 was about testing the waters on activity, no pressure.

I was able to get 40 mins of cycling and a 3 mile run in my new hokas (I don’t love them yet, but I’ll give them a few more chances), an hour walk, and some stand up paddleboarding, so there is that.

Probably a liiiiittle more this week, but still #offseason.

Food Stuff:

I met with a nutritionist Sunday and it was quite interesting.  His first instinct when I was talking him through everything was “why do you need me here” because I’m pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, but I think he helped me establish some direction and a plan for both offseason and season.

I am going to write up a whole post on this stuff – but the very quick version is:

• Reduced calories while I’m not training hard, purposed for weight loss – aiming for 1500 per day.
• Goal is 100g protein, 45g fats, 25g fiber, and variable carbs depending on my activity level.
• During offseason, this will be ~150g carbs (about normal for me)
• Once I ramp up training, I’m going to be eating a lalalalalot more carbs but I’ll get to that later.

It’s kind of refreshing to feel like I can eat whatever I want as long as I hit my macros.  To be fair, I need to eat mostly healthy to hit them at 1500 calories, but I was able to enjoy a small scoop of ice cream last night guilt free!

Last week was not a huge success in this department.  There was a lot of partying for the holiday (and even before), and while I was active, I wasn’t THAT active.  I think I was also doing the “I’m seeing a nutritionist on Sunday and he’s probably going to tell me to give up everything fun” (which didn’t happen, but whatevs) so I was splurging a little.

• Average calories per day: 1925
• Average weight for the week: 180.7 (+0.8 from last week)
• Fitbit says I had a surplus of about 1500 calories for my activity (though I did spend a lot of time in the water without the fitbit).

So, onward and upward.  It’s a new week and I’m hoping to make some progress with my new plan.

Life Stuff:

I played quarter day hookey and left work early to get a few hours at the water park on Thursday.  Priorities.  It made for a pretty awesome start to the holiday and somehow almost made it feel like a 4 day weekend.  We went back on Saturday for a while too.  Yay wapah!

I got out to paddle and snorkel the lake once on Sunday.  So much water time makes my heart happy!

Hung out with friends three times this week!  We did a dinner and a movie on Wednesday to see Inside Out, and then had a taco cookout on Friday as a pre-4th of July party, and visited some friends and crashed a block party for fireworks.  So fun!

I woke up once at 7:59am.  I stayed up ’til 4am twice.  Eh… there’s always this week.  I actually have reasons to be up earlier most of this week anyway, so hopefully this is the week of the shift.

And that’s a great transition into Week 3 goals:

Activity:

• 1 bike, 1 run
• Dozen x2
• Pushup challenge x3 (week 1 day 3, week 2 day 1 and 2)
• Other things as gravy

Food:

• Hitting my calories and macro goals above.
• Trying to limit alcohol consumption to a reasonable amount, so I can hit my calories and macros.

Life:

• Above all else, get rested.  I’m currently fighting *something*, feeling tired, a little achy, not quite myself.  Don’t push through this to workout if it lingers.
• Earlier bedtimes and lots of sleep this week.
• Relax Sunday after volunteering.  It’s going to be a busy weekend and there is no need to stress out about chores.  Sunday is a chore free day.

Fun stuff:

• Friday night slides!
• Tubing at the comal river with friends
• Parents visit
• Volunteering at Couples Tri

What’s your goal for this week?

Ahhhh, offseason.  This week felt WEIRD but good.  I’m somewhere between not-so-sure I need these next 5 weeks off but know I REALLY need them off to hit this fall and winter HARD.  So, this training block’s goal is REST and FUN and a little dash of building habits.

Also, had to share a Pfluger picture (no way I’m paying 20$ for that, sorry), and they kind of cemented the fact that I was doing all I could on the run.  That. pain. face.

Day 0:

I’m going to go on the record, I liked finishing the last race on a Saturday last year much better, since I had a full weekend to relax.  Sunday just meant I came home, drank beer, ate sandwiches, and didn’t do much since I had to work the next day.  But, don’t get me wrong, it was still glorious.

Day 1:

8 hours of sleep, I probably could have used more.  Still kind of in a head fog.  Nothing feels weird yet since I sometimes take the day off after a race.  Work was busy but then I indulged in:

• Going to the grocery store without a 100% set plan in mind because it wouldn’t be tragic to forget something and have to go back later in the week
• Eating foods that probably wouldn’t have been good for training the next day, like tacos with the spicy ass green sauce and a curry naanwhich.
• Playing video games for 3-4 hours
• Letting the laundry stay piled up in the garage (it stayed there until Saturday).  I could probably do it every other week if it wasn’t for workout clothes.

Day 2:

Slept like the dead and wanted to keep sleeping after 8.5 hours.  Head feels a little clearer, but two days of eating bread and crap is definitely making my stomach feel… bleh.  Back to better food today. My body had gone back and forth from feeling like it’s dragging a big weight, and sometimes sort of… fine.

I’m really busy today, so I’m not yet MISSING a workout, and it feels like a relief not to have to fit one in.  Though the idea of being in a body of water to swim sounds nice, soon.

Today’s fun involves:

• Jurassic World!  Wow, it’s neat to be able to go to movies during the week.  Normally I’m either a) having to train during the movie time or b) getting out of the movie is too late because I have to get up to train.  A movie after work during offseason is TOTALLY doable and it was SO FUN!
• Got our new security system installed.  It was a hassle, but it wasn’t NEARLY the hassle it would have been trying to work an install around a 8 hour work day AND 2+ hours of training that is normal on a Tuesday.
• Not being able to poop but feeling super gassy care of something I ate.  I know, I’m a doll.  You’re welcome.
• A little bit too much wine. 🙂

Day 3:

Today it really feels weird not to be training.  Oddly enough, my first thought about it is I miss chlorine, and I have wistful memories of running (but winter running, not in this humid hot soupy shit).  Work is pretty stressful, so it’s definitely a great week not to have any sort of training stress.

Awesome things about today:

• Pho for lunch!  I haven’t had it in forever, it is hit or miss whether its fine or wrecks me for 2 days.  So, its definitely something I only eat when I’m sure I won’t be training soon.  I also think I found a new favorite place for it, because besides a little bit of sloshy belly (from many cups of spicy broth), I don’t feel awful!
• Yelp Event!  Private party to check out a place I probably wouldn’t ever go myself called Pacific Rim.  Everything was adequate in terms of food and house wine, but they definitely did well in the face of a hungry crowd and we’ll definitely come back and give them a chance.  Good to catch up with old and new Yelp Elite friends as well!
• A bit too much wine and rum, again.  Oops.
• Getting a random level on my EverQuest character while being a little too tipsy to probably have done that.  I logged in a few days later and found that drunk me had not only gotten a level and managed to not die, but I also went all the way to town, obtained a bunch of spells, and made it back to camp.  Go drunk me!

Day 4:

When I was in my 20s, we used to hit up Vegas a lot for vacations.  What do you do in Vegas? Stay up all night, and drink, and gamble, and other debauchery, day after day.  At least that’s what I did.  Somewhere in my early 30s, we shifted away from those types of holidays and elected to spend our time at the beach instead.  Days like today remind me why – staying up and having a little too much booze two days in a row just about SLAYED me.  There’s a reason I don’t do that anymore.  My head was so foggy I walked into the wrong office and started to have a convo with the wrong person at work.

However, it wasn’t all bad.

• It was my 8-a-versary day at work, and a coworker got me balloons.  Things are going well with our new release.  Life is pretty good.
• The evening was game day.  We faced some pretty heavy foes and Zliten’s character got CRUSHED by a statue, and our warlock also met the pointy end of the demise stick.  They were both a little bummed, but then got to creating new characters.  Can’t wait to see who we “meet” next time.
• Our garmin vector 2s came.  I’m pretty excited to start playing with (real) power.
• I had some REALLY good chicken and veggie tikka masala.  Probably a little too much food/carbs/calories, which I AM kind of trying to watch, but it was so tasty.

Day 5:

So happy for Friday.  This week was so busy, I was so ready to enjoy a weekend of just whatever the hell I wanted.  It ended up being very lazy, which was totally fine.

I really missed the water. I spent a whole 5 days since I submerged myself in something deeper than my bathtub, so we headed to the lake after work with my big diving camera rig to go explore.  The visibility was complete shit, but I was able to get some decent pictures because nice camera + BRIIIIIGHT light.  And I swear, time speeds up when I’m in the water, because I SWEAR it had only been 15 mins as we climbed out, and it was an hour later.

We had planned to go on a fun, no drop group ride Saturday morning to test out the Vector 2s, but Zliten’s right pedal was stuck, so we needed bike shop help, so we decided to skip it this week (it didn’t take too much arm twisting), and stay up and play video games and have a few vodkas.

Day 6:

Today was about sleeping in and getting greek food for lunch and going shopping (spent WAYYY too much at the bike shop but hey, it was all on sale, right?) and then finally testing out our pedals on the trainer.  I think mine is overestimating power a bit (I wasn’t working very hard to hit my threshold pace but mayyyybe that’s a week of rest for ya?) and seems to not completely be picking up the right pedal (it clocks me at 60/40% balance when I was doing single leg drills that should register 0/100%).  But… I did get some PRs on Zwift and maintained the gal’s polka dot jersey most of the time.

Zliten grilled us some AMAZING fish and some slightly hockey pucked (but still delicious chicken) for dinner.  I gave myself the weekend to continue being unreasonable with the booze and I made it through all of two beers (ok, 4 Miller 64s, but that actually calories and booze content = 2 real beers so henceforth, so it shall be) and decided that I was ready for reading in bed instead.  I have definitely tired out my “get all the drunk” urges this week.  That was kind of a goal.  I’m ready to do stuff besides wanting to sit on my couch and drink beer all day.

Day 7:

Slept in until 10:30 (which never happens unless I stay up super late or am sick, which I did neither), and we grabbed some soup and salad bar from Jason’s Deli before we did a massive grocery and Costco trip.  Our plan was to unload and then get thees to the waterpark, but we both were kind of weirdly exhausted from errands.

I know this part of the cycle.  Part of unloading fatigue is actually FEELING it and trying not to push through, so we succumbed to the couch instead.  It was sad because I have not seen my waterpark in 2 weeks, but there were perfectly good and err… hormonal reasons I was tired, and Zliten’s knee was creaky, so it was for the good.

As was the theme of the weekend, we grilled some more (steak for Zliten, chicken for me and for the week ahead) and played EverQuest and I got down 1.5 beers before I threw in the towel and read in bed again.

….and fin.

Average calories for the week: 1840 per day

Fitbit says deficit is: 445 calories for the week (lol)

Average weight was: 179.9, which is +0.1 lb from last week.  With that data, race inflamation and that darn TOM starting, it seems about accurate.

And, now we’re here at week 2.  It’s time to bring some more regular FUN activity into my life, but still prioritize personhood over any sort of specific training (e.g. was going to go to a rock climbing class Wednesday but a movie invite with friends came up, so definitely doing THAT instead).  I also need to keep myself from trying to do ALL THE THINGS because I can.  I expect my energy to rebound this week and I’m trying to BANK some each week, not spend it all.

It’s also time to make baby steps at establishing some new habits and reaffirming existing ones.

Nutrition Goals:

• Continue to track calories and weight.
• Eat mostly healthy food – just because it’s in my calorie range does not necessarily mean I should eat it.
• Reduce alcohol consumption to a normal amount for me (a few drinks twice a week max, rather than DRINK ALL THE BOOZE).
• Contact nutritionist to set up an appointment (eeps!)

Workout Goals:

• Hit a couple classes at the gym this week to try something new!
• Run once, 30mins to an hour.  No electronics.
• Get back to some light strength.  Do week 1 of the pushup challenge and go back to the dozen (minus the pushups) 2xweek.  I don’t care so much about getting to 100 pushups.  Last time I got to about 50.  It just seems like the kind of thing I could carve out a few minutes before or after work and do without it having to be a THING like going to the gym to lift.

Life Goals:

• Get my ass to the waterpark once or twice.
• Get my ass to the lake once or twice.
• Hang out with friends.
• Sleep 8 hours a night.  It’s so hard for me to sleep when I’m not training but make it happen.
• Get up in the hour that starts with 7 a few times this week.

Question: what are you up to this week?

As I’m settling into the fourth week of no training schedule and long runs mean I added .15 to my 3 miles I ran Tuesday, I figured I should share what not-training means in my life.

Day 0:

Got 3rd place medal and grinned the whole rest of the day.  Copious amounts of booze and tacos ensued.  Fell asleep for like 12 hours.

Day 1:

The day started with leftover tacos, a massage (I rarely do them during season because it’s iffy how long I feel like poopoo kaka after, but it was GREAT to kick off a month of rest), and lunch (burger and fries) and a movie with friends.  For dinner, we had pizza and salad and a little wine.  Feeling fat, relaxed, and happy.

Week 1:

It feel AMAZING to not be training a bunch.  Monday’s “workout” was walking the aisles at Costco (which ended up to be 2 miles by fitbit standards).  We got in 2 3 mile runs outside at easy pace (11-11:30s per Zliten’s garmin – I haven’t worn one of those things since the race) and 2 weights sessions as my offseason promise to myself.  We also finally quit our gym.  It was oddly sad after 4 years, but I just cannot abide by them constantly cutting their hours.

I knew I needed to get a handle on my eating STAT without all my normal activity, so we kicked off chicken, rice, veggies week.  It went well – I learned that it’s really my perfect food and rice products definitely make me feel less… heavy.

We also got our season passes to the new water park that’s 15 minute away.  Spent Friday night there and lost the key to the car, and had someone break into the prius for the first time to rescue us.  Fun (and expensive).  We went back again on Sunday for a longer session and it’s definitely filling the swimming void in my life.

And… I got to be social!  I fiiiiiiinally got to run my Savage Worlds story I’ve been working on for months.  It was crazy, scary, and a lot of fun to stretch my brain in those type of ways that I haven’t in a while.  I got to do ladies charity brunch (and finally had an excuse to wear my floppy hat), and we went to another movie and dinner with friends after spending the afternoon with my parents.  The things you can do when you’re not exhausted by a 70 mile bike ride or a brick workout!

I also celebrated my seventh anniversary at work.  Crazy!  I had a five year plan to be in Austin, buy some real estate, make some money, and then get back to San Diego with money for a down payment on something bigger than a shoebox.  Instead, I love living where I live, I have ZERO desire to move back to San Diego any time soon (though something a little more coastal would be awesome), and I’m pretty content with my job and the game I started on seven years ago at a no name company is a pretty wild success.  Funny how things work out.

Week 2:

It was time to get a little more active.  I pulled out my Dance Dance Revolution games and dance pad and holy WOW, it’s still a great workout.  It took me a while to figure out what about it was so gooood, and I realized it’s a plyometric leg strength workout set to music that’s actually fun (aka – the opposite of box jumps).  I’m going to try to keep a 30 min session on the plan once a week.  That sluggish feeling I’m having in the legs on my tri runs?  I think this will help.

We also hit up adult skate night.  Its always a lot of fun, great cardio, and definitely works some different muscles than anything run/bike/swim/weights.

This week included fourth of July celebrations, including staying up WAYYYYY too late the night before, a crab boil at a friend’s house with a bunch of gamers – so we played games (munchkin and quarkle, I won both because that’s how I roll) and drank some beer.  We had intended on watching the fireworks at the water park from the lazy river, but you couldn’t actually see them there and it got cold (??? – I remember a 4th a few years ago where it was 106, at fireworks time it was 75 degrees…) so we watched dry in the parking lot.  On the drive home, it was fun to watch the various displays in neighborhoods.

We spent the weekend building an outdoor cage for our iguana (it’s SO CLOSE to done, but we measured the doors wrong) and getting into a new (for me) game called Clash of Clans.  I’m kinda hooked.  I got eaten alive by mosquites, but it was nice to have some outdoor patio time.  This month has been pretty amazingly temperate for July in the ATX.  I went down the scary scary waterslide on Sunday and felt pretty proud of myself.

I ate like a decent human being, but there certainly was a lot of booze.

Week 3:

Took runs into the treadmill this week because my sleep schedule has adjusted itself to the point where it’s hard to get up before 8:30am.  Legs actually feel pretty speedy in the AC.  Still keeping up with the weights as well and lots of DDR on other days to try and stave off the blerch.

I’ve given up on tracking food.  I decided I didn’t want that headache.  However, I have stayed really low on the sugar and wheat type carbs so I’m happy about that.  Not a whole lot of junk food, just trying to let myself continue to adjust to not eating crap, and allowing the booze cruise to continue as I feel like it since that will be not nearly as frequent once we’re training 10+ hours a week.  Also, it’s been the exception and not the rule, but we’ve checked out some new restaurants (new bbq place was tha bomb, though this was Zliten’s plate, not mine).

My pants feel a little tight some days, and the scale hasn’t been super nice, but it’s the kind of weight that just needs a serious week or two of being good to shed.  I’m not worried.

More weekend busybodying ensued.  We did the water park Friday night, packet pickup Saturday afternoon, a casino party Saturday night (I stayed away from the paid games but I WON BEER PONG!  I feel so early 20s again), water park again on Sunday afternoon, and fancy dinner and a jazz concert at night.

Also, Orange is the New Black was discovered and my sleep schedule got even more fucked up.  I can’t think of the last time a show made me stay up until 4am on a school night MULTIPLE TIMES.

Week 4:

This week has been getting ready.  Getting ready for a release at work.  Getting ready for an adventure.  I got to run in the rain.  I worked up a sweat playing a video game.  I have felt a little hermity on social media as well as social life I think simply because I have been so social.  I never have considered myself an introvert, but I do definitely miss the time practicing endurance sport because I am so within myself.  Rummaging around in my own brain, seeing what’s there.

I’m on the edge of being mentally ready and excited to jump into the next 4 months or so of building up for a 70.3 and a marathon and I think one more week will only push me over the cliff.  My legs definitely want to run more, and next week, I’m going to let them (no plan, no specific pace but exploring pavement and trails and beach).  I kind of want to see my bike again and I think pedaling a cruiser up the coast will only remind me of evilbike love.  I’m ready to go play in the lake and go back to bodies of water with lap lanes along with the water slides.  I think I’ve split the difference and have taken a long enough break to be ready to rock, while also not completely let myself go (we’ll see).

Reminding myself there is a place in my life for moments to go out with friends all weekend and stay up late engrossed in a TV show and spend the weekend building a project is good.  It helps me put it in perspective – I like indulging in other aspects of my life, but I do miss the training when it’s gone (even if it takes a few weeks)! I make the choice to train this hard because I love it, even if sometimes I dread a specific workout or think longingly about my friends who’s idea of a long workout is an hour spin class three times a week, I make the decision to prioritize that in my life.  Except for the periods of the year when I don’t.

One more offseason update coming whenever I feel like it (because that’s part of offseason), and then I’ll start talking about late season ’14 goals and plans.