Adjusted Reality

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

Tag: running Page 30 of 50

#projectspring update

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On June 2, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s been just about exactly 2.5 months since I started this thing, so it’s time to check in.  Spoiler alert: I’ve not slacked.  I’ve actually made some pretty good progress.

Getting my mojo back:

happy

Happy face.  I was just in the water.  This is not a coincidence…

Wow, it’s incredible to think how mentally (and physically, but mostly mentally) exhausted I was.  And how amazing it is to be a generally happy, positive person that likes being around people and doesn’t just want to sit on the couch and hide all day and sleep forever.  I need to remember if I get that way again… I need a break.  I may not leaaaaap out of bed every morning, but I’m not dragging myself by the nose through my days anymore.  Check and check.

Project race weight:

I’ve discussed this in depth elsewhere.  It’s going slower than I’d like, but I am making progress.  Since it is going slower, I’m hoping to roll slowly from -1000 to 0 deficit over the first few months of season (knowing it may slightly negatively impact my race times) to get a little residual loss during the summer.  I’m realistically going to settle somewhere in the 170s or maybe the high 160s, and that is OK with me.  Will I probably do #projectraceweight2017 after IM recovery?  Yeah.  But I’m just happy to be on the way back down (and hopefully past) last year’s low.

House Projects:

May2-1

This makes me so happy every day that crap isn’t all over the place…

We’ve had a few priority shifts here (probably don’t want to spend ALL THE MONEYS considering), but we’ve made some progress.  Of the more time but less money intensive list, we’ve done 2/4 things:

  • Vanity area in the bathroom (DONE!)
  • Workout room (DONE!)

Still on the list are:

  • Guest room closet
  • Office

The guest closet will probably just take a few weekend hours.  The office is kind of where we’ve been dumping everything that doesn’t belong elsewhere.  For many reasons, we need to get it set up, but it will either take a VALIANT weekend effort or picking at it over a few weekends.

On the money intensive list:

Kitchen remodel: we’ve got an estimate and it seems reasonable (also, looks like the work can be done in less than a week).  We’ll look to get a few more and then pull the trigger and figure out the logistics.  At first, I was mandating that we get it done before season, but I can see dealing with it in EARLY season if it takes that long.

Back patio remodel is on hold.  It’s the one thing on the list that’s the least immediately necessary.  I’d rather spend the time and money on the kitchen and getting more outdoor gear storage than messing with this right now.

Setting up the workout room as a pain cave is in process – we’re procuring a free computer and just need to snag a cheapish flat screen and mount before we can really get this done.  This also goes hand in hand with getting a (locking) shed where we can store most of our camping/outdoor gear, our cruiser bikes, and anything else that we don’t use *that* often to make room.

Biker Chick:

May23-1

I’ve been (ridin’) everywhere, man…

I wouldn’t say the transition is complete, but the love is there.  I don’t plan on stopping this process.  I haven’t yet ridden with the group (logistics and SO MUCH RAIN lately), but we’ve been riding everywhere and it’s been awesome.

I haven’t pulled the trigger on a tri bike, but we’re going to rent one for the Pflugerville Triathlon and see how it feels.  Hopefully the feeling of racing on an actual tri bike will influence us to drop the cash and get our own.

Website revamp:

Check and check.  I love it.  I’m sure there’s more I can do with it, but I’m very happy for now that I was able to put together a list of what I wanted the site to be and get 90% of it done with only Zliten’s help (or figuring it out myself).

Diving Pictures:

Well, I finished up my Bonaire pictures, but now I need to process my Roatan and Cozumel pics.  It’s a terrible wonderful cycle.

Camping:

Apr15-1

Home away from home for a weekend.

I got the camping bug hard and went twice, and then we had a bunch of weekends where we were busy or on vacation.  Then, two things happened.  First, it got buggy and muggy, second, the waterpark opened.  So, unless we decide to go later this month, I think camping season may be over.   I am HIGHLY looking forward to making some plans for September and into the fall.

Doing Things:

may2-2

Steady now…

While I always want to do more (until I actually have to go do it), here’s some of the cool things we’ve done lately.

  • Emo Phillips at the comedy club
  • Went fishing.  Twice.
  • Played frisbee golf
  • Played giant jenga at the bar
  • SUP paddleboard yoga
  • Dance class and dancing
  • Water volleyball
  • Beer Pong

I’d say with everything else going on in life, we’re doing great.

Being Crafty:

It’s last on this list because it was kind of an afterthought.  We really and truly have done a lot of shit this #offseason, and besides one night where I sat down (drunkenly) and tried to make sense of the piano, I haven’t done any of this.

However, I did pick up the personal trainer class, am taking my CPR certification this week, and plan to do some other classes as these finish.  I’d say this sort of takes the place of something to do at home that’s not dork on social media and watch TV.

Things I’d really like to accomplish in the next month:

Apr25-4

I don’t have a great picture that sums up a month of accomplishments, so here’s an iguana on a bike.

  • Continue to focus on #projectraceweight – I think I’m doing about the best I can without losing my mind, so I’ll keep at it.
  • Get at least two more projects in the house list done.
  • Continue with the bike love, hit at least ONE group ride, and try out at least TWO triathlon bikes.
  • Add at least THREE things to the “doing things” list above.
  • Be about 3/4 of the way through the personal training class and have our CPR cert.
  • Finish and post my diving/snorkeling pics

June is going to be a great month, starting with NATIONAL RUNNING DAY yesterday (where my run fitness decided to remind me it’s not 100% completely in the toilet, just mostly), so I’m excited to see what it holds.  It has to be less dramatic than May… please?

The Long Slow Climb Back

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On May 31, 2016

In Uncategorized

Finally feeling a little bit of peace (so far) this week.

May31-7

Clearing your head with an hour walk when it looks like this?  Peaceful…

First of all, I feel like I can pretty much claim I’m back where I started a year ago with the adventures in nutrition.   I kinda forgot that new scale weighs heavier than old scale, so my weight right now being 183-187 means on the old scale, I’m about 181-185 (confirmed by stepping on the old scale a few times).  Average of 183.  That’s where I raced at for the beginning of tri season 2015, my average weight at the beginning of June was 182.6.  Taking stock of how I feel in my own skin… yep.  About there.  Finally!

The next step will be tackling the 5 lbs I lost last summer, between June and August, before I started training for Kerrville.  I will breathe easier once that’s behind me, I’ll have undone all the damage that crazy nutrition plan did and as my weight lowers, I’ll look at as actual progress, not just fixing a stupid mistake.  I know it might be healthier to look at ALL of this as progress, but I just can’t.  Gaining so much weight so quickly put me in a mental tailspin, and I just want it gone so I can move on.

May31-2

Achievement unlocked: having the bike handling skills to actually take a picture while riding.  Still quite don’t have the on-the-bike selfies down though…

At this point, I am definitely ready mentally, physically, and logistically to start the long slow climb back to being a triathlete.

Mentally, I think I’m unbroken.  Triathlon videos make me giddy.  I’m resisting the urge (but it’s tough) to start laying out a plan yet because I want to give myself the freedom not to stress about hitting specific workouts for another month at least.  I’m excited to bike, do weights, swim, and run (and that’s about the order of what I’m loving right now).

Physically, I feel weak and strong at the same time.  Let’s be honest, even if my mental game wasn’t in the crapper after the marathon, I needed at least 6-8 weeks of chilling the fuck out to heal that hip issue.  It’s nice not to limp anymore.  My cycling muscles are definitely not at peak or anything, but I feel capable.  I definitely feel more solid and stable overall with the weights sessions.  The swim feels a little slow and crappy but I *KNOW* that comes back quick with regular training.

The run, though.  I can’t remember feeling this out of run shape in a long time.  Yeah, it was feels like somewhere between 90-100 degrees.  Yeah, it was after the longest bike ride I’ve done in a while with some actual hard work intervals.  However, I’ve never ridden such a struggle bus to complete 2 measly running miles at 10:15/mile pace.  This will be a fun and interesting long, hard, slow climb back.

Logistically – I’m finding that logging zero official training hours leads to a greater than zero number of adult beverages being consumed most nights.   Last week, I logged 52 miles/6.5 hours of legitimate run, bike (mostly), swim, or weights time (including commuting on the cruiser bike).  This is more than I intended to do, but it all felt fun, and my body feels like it’s holding together, so we’ll roll with it.  Last week, I also had zero days of being dumb and getting 4 hours of sleep because ONE MORE DRINK.  Coincidence?  I think not.

This week, actually, this month, the goal is the same.  Log some triathlete hours with a very loose plan.  Two weights sessions.  Riding evilbike at least once, and lots of bike miles.  A few runs between 1-3 miles (once this feels easier, I’ll start increasing the distance but I am in NO HURRY since the next race I’ll need to run more than 3 miles is the end of September :P).

May31-1

Bikes = smiles.

Speaking of bikes, one big component to #projectspring was to become a biker chick.  Reading over that post, I just had ZERO clue how hard the bike bug was going to hit me and I love it.

Tuesday, we did our first commute to work and HOLY CRAP, cycling outside in the morning puts me in such a better mood than driving a car.  It’s about 20-25 mins on the bike vs about 10 in the car, so it’s rarely going to be a huge issue to take an extra 10-ish minutes each way.  I get to spend time outside both in the morning, after work, and even at lunch if we decide to do so.

I’ve really realized that there is very little of my life that cannot be on two wheels now, and it’s the best.

Tuesday, we commuted to work and back and it made me so happy all day.  Thursday, we rode to dinner.  I think it took less time to ride there than drive because of the traffic.  Blew my mind… why have I been driving across the street to get food?

Friday, we almost called off the commute because we had a swim planned after work and errands to run at lunch, but after some logistical considerations, we figured out how to make it work.  It wasn’t the most comfortable, but I had my little backpack stuffed to the gills, and Zliten wore his giant one to haul our gear.  We rode to work, to the bike shop and Whole Paycheck at lunch and made it back to work in an hour, to the gym after work to swim and run, and then home.  We racked up over 17 miles that day just bopping around town.

May31-3

Check out that sweet drink holder!

This weekend, Zliten got his bike set up with some saddlebags (thank you REI sale!), and after some fails and shenanigans to get the equipment work on such and old bike, he made it work.  Today’s commute went pretty solidly, and we’ll be hitting the gym again for some weights after work and testing out the saddlebag capacity by hitting the grocery store after work.  I’m looking forward to being able to commute a few days a week and being able to run most errands on two wheels!

In other productive areas, the Personal Training certification course is going rather well!  We’ve been dedicating about 2 hours every few days to reading, watching the videos, and taking the quizzes, and we’re on schedule to complete it in 2 months total (we have 3).  The first section as all about anatomy and physiology, and it’s been a mix of high school biology and stuff I’ve studied online regarding endurance sports training, so for the most part, it’s gone pretty quickly and easily for me.

That’s not to say that I’m not learning anything new (I am), and some things are just clicking into place.  Studying the way the systems that cause muscles to move makes a whole lot of sense why I feel the way I do in the first few minutes of starting a cardio session.  And why I actually have to sit on my ass for 2 whole minutes in between heavy, heavy weight sets – there are actual physiological reasons for that beyond just annoying me that I can’t finish my workout faster.

It’s also fun to dream about practical applications, about what we might do with all these knowledge nuggets in real life.  It’s really convenient doing the studying with Zliten, and we make time to do it like we were playing a game, or watching TV, and we’ll often spend time discussing it after.  I was worried that it would be a huge imposition into my free time to take a class, but it’s actually not that bad… rather enjoyable, honestly!  I’m already thinking about what I’d like to do next…

Other tidbits:

May31-4

Look at my new sunglasses!

I went to the dentist.  He called my teeth boring.  I’m perfectly happy to have boring teeth.  Also, my resting pulse went up from 42 last time to 47 this time.  Probably time to start training again! 🙂

May31-5

I missed this place….

Hawaiian Falls, the waterpark (henceforth known as wah-pah), opened Saturday.  We were too busy playing bikes and (not playing because play hurts less) running to get there at opening, but we hit all 6 of the slides (minus the ball buster one) and took a trip in the lazy river.

May31-6

Voluntelfie?

We volunteered for the Cap Tex Tri on Sunday morning.  The day started at packet pickup, but they were really low on bike check in people so we headed down there instead.  It was honestly way more fun, I’ll probably sign up for that in the future unless it’s expected to be 1000000 degrees.  Sadly, it was all for naught because the weather yesterday morning turned the race into a 5k/10k run only.  It’s had weather issues the last few years.  It’s haunted.

Then, we went to a friends’ Memorial Day party and played volleyball in the pool… with a real volleyball.  As per normal, I jammed a finger diving for the ball… I’ll live, though.  Then later, we played beer pong with the neighbors and Zliten and I ALMOST won.  I also realized that I’m 37 going on 22 and that’s just fine with me.

I got up on Monday (late) morning and it was too pretty to stay inside (see picture above with the pretty wispy clouds).  I took the long way (about 2 miles total) and walked to the Chinese takeout place near my house and brought it home.  Just like bike commuting, I have NO IDEA why I’ve never done that before.  While I shouldn’t be greedy that I have ANYTHING within walking distance, I sometimes wish there was more around without crossing the main street, but I can make it work.

So, because goals are fun, what’s on tap for this week?

  • Keep doing all the things.
    • 1000 calories, water, vitamins, vegetables and fruits…
    • Staying on top of the class schedule
    • Maintaining a schedule in which I have some triathlete hours
    • Maintaining a schedule in which I get decent (7) to great (8+) sleep every night and I don’t have beer, wine, or liquor more days than I do.
  • Day to day stuff.
    • Bike commute today
    • Go to our first BRICK workout with the BSS team (and hope not to get too, too dropped by all the people who are fit for tri season) weather pending tomorrow.
    • Gaming Thursday.
    • Moar bike commuting Friday (weather pending, looks clear right now).
    • Swim challenge Saturday – I know I can do it, but right now, 2250m sounds like a LONG swim.  We plan to bike there and back or load up the bikes and ride somewhere pretty after.
    • Wah pah this weekend at some point.
    • Profit.

Time to get on with my Tues-monday.  Hey, at least it’s a short week, and if the weather cooperates, I won’t even have to wait until the weekend to #goplayoutside.

750m, 10 miles, and #hammocklife

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On April 4, 2016

In Uncategorized

After a full month off training and racing, I decided to do the latter twice (sorta) this weekend, while not resuming any of the former.  It was actually a lot of fun!  I approached it like a real life normal person.  Instead of being so focused on time, performance, bettering myself, etc, I decided to frame it like this – hey, I’m going to go be active with a bunch of people – old and new friends – this morning and it’s going to be awesome no matter what the time on the clock says.

Nothing about “don’t take this shit so seriously” really clicked until this weekend.  It took a month of perspective but I think the part of me that was burnt out with the multisport thing is healing.  I can now separate races and my self worth and there’s an option between give 110% and give everything to the course and not bother – it is possible just to go meet up with friends and run and swim (we’ll get to that bike thing again soon…) just because it’s fun.

Apr4-2

Saturday was the start of the swim challenge.  Got to the docks, stuff stuff yank yank tug tug… whew.  Thankfully the wetsuit still zipped, even if I felt like a dark rubber sausage.  I jumped in the chilly-but-not-too chilly water (high 60s? 70?) and got my first wetsuit swim of the year out of the way with 25 other friends.  It always goes like this…

0-100m Holy fuck cold cold cold warm up warm up pleaaaaase (while going about 1:00/100m, aka, way too fast)

100-200m Wheeze, pant, wheeze, I am so out of shape omg why body whyyyyy

200m+ Oh, right, now I remember how to swim in a wetsuit… this is fine.

I knocked off the 1 lap (750m) in a little over 15 minutes.  Certainly not my best, but not my worst, and a good first day of the distance challenge.  A bunch of people got in and did lap 2 (or more) but I was like, nope, done.  Could I have swam another?  Probably.  But I didn’t really want to and since offseason is about only doing activity (beyond my 10k steps) when I actually feel like it, I just hung out on the shore and ate the best breakfast half chicken salad wrap I’ve ever had (swim-gries are real, yo).

Apr4-1

Sunday was the 10 mile Austin 10/20.  Our initial plan was to go easy, then we got a little race excitement going and toyed around with trying to go a little faster.  We agreed to see what the day brought and roll with it.

Turns out in my heavy Hoka Kailuas, on a 750-1000 calorie deficit per day, without actually training in the last month – easy is the only pace there really is.  The pain cave well was incredibly shallow and that’s JUST FINE with me.  We ran the first half easy with Brian around 11’s, and then he took off for the second half, and we puttered up the (very small but totally significant at this point of my fitness) hills for a 1:52, or about 11:13/mile finish.

I may have been grunting a lot at the end, though after the race I could definitely tell that it was more the shock of “wtf, I haven’t done anything like this in a while” rather than me actually being close to death.  No deep tireds, just me being a little bit wimpy.  But that’s perfect.  I’m happy to keep it light and easy for a while.

We actually even stayed for awards and a beer and part of the concert, it was so weird.  Normally we limp home right away after races and die on the couch.  Instead, it was like… this is a thing I did this morning before getting on with my day rather than being completely wayyyyysted from racing hard.  Again, I love giving it all out on a course, but it was really nice not to have it take up ALL weekend preparing and recovering.

The one nice thing about running 10 miles right now was having more calories to play with.  To be at a 1k deficit, I could have about 2000 calories.  Such luxury!  I was able to have 3 reasonable meals AND also drinks.  The only thing is – I can definitely tell my appetite wanted about 5 meals and drinks. 😛  Distance running makes you so crazy hungry, it’s definitely not the best way to take off weight.

However, being smart about making my calories satisfying when is definitely helping this #projectraceweight cause.

Apr4-5

This was Friday night’s dinner – a flatout tortilla with tomato sauce, feta, turkey pepperoni, olives, onions, and green peppers.  I added a chicken patty on the side (not pictured) with buffalo sauce and yogurt blue cheese for a little more protein.  It was pretty filling!

Apr4-6

This was Saturday night’s dinner – grilled chicken on the bbq, half in a bun as a sandwich (extra carb attempt for the race which really was too little too late, it’s clear I will not be race-racing until I quit it with the calorie debt :D), a small potato in 1/2 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and parmesan for oven fries, and broccoli.  Yum!

Apr4-7

We were craving fish and chips, so we compromised and did the baked version at home instead.  Good ol’ Gordons and Red Robin oven fries right there on the plate.  It definitely scratched the itch for me, not quite sure about Zliten, but it was a nice filling lunch after racing that didn’t completely break the calorie bank.

I’m looking forward to training again to be able to have the real stuff every once in a while, but for now, the substitutions will work.  Enough real pizza or fried fish and chips to fill me up would be a full days calories.  I’m fully aware the fake stuff probably has chemicals and other crap that isn’t great for long term consumption (the flat-out has a BUTTLOAD of ingredients rather than flour, salt, and water like good tortillas), but less than half the calories is huge right now.

As for actual weight loss progress… not much yet.  Partying Camping last weekend really jacked it up early in the week, but I did finally see a 180-something weight (twice so far), so as slow as it’s going right now, it’s going.  Zliten offered, unsolicited, that he thought my face and shoulders looked different (and he’s a straight shooter, so I don’t think he was just paying me lip service).  This is that magic fourth week where I should hopefully see some progress if I keep it on the straight and narrow so keep my hopefully shrinking ass in your thoughts and send me lots of good mojo if you have some to spare, yeah?

Besides the racing parts of the weekend, we had a pretty normal and mellow one.  We puttered around and did a few errands.  Zliten decided to bike to a few pawn shops to look for some disc golf discs to take to his parents’ house (they have an AMAZING disc golf course 5 minutes away and we want to PLAYYYY).

Apr4-4

I also now am the proud owner of a new portable hammock, care of a bunch of birthday gift cards.  It’s probably one of my favorite things right now in life.  I haven’t had a comfortable way to sit outside and enjoy our backyard for a while, since our chair cushions got wrecked (and even then….eh… they were only comfortable when drinking because… drinking).  It was super easy to set up, and I’m pretty sure I spent close to 6 hours in that thing over the weekend just reading and napping.

It did put a damper on my goals to work on my blog this weekend, but I’m pretty sure it was the best option for happiness points.  Oddly enough, the week was a balance of really active without trying to force it (2 swims, 2 runs, 10k steps every day) and still relaxing and soul replenishing.  Perfect.

What’s up this week?

  • Sticking to my plan. 1200 calories per day Monday – Thursday, and doing my best over the weekend. 10k steps per day minimum.  Per ush.
  • The race this weekend reinforced some of the weaknesses I have in my body right now.  Spend some time stretching and GENTLY start some bodyweight training.  Like the kind where you do a few reps during commercials watching TV.
  • I’ve gotten 5 of my 7 days of my Bonaire scuba pics edited.  I want to get the rest of them done.  It should take two casual nights working on it, or just call it my project and really focus one evening.
  • I’d like to get ONE thing on my website to-dos list checked off this week (no, that was NOT an April Fool’s joke).  I’m looking into a mobile friendly theme this week so if I *do* get it done, it will be apparent because we’ll no longer be the default theme! (EDIT: trying this one out for a while.  Images need to be recentered but I’m really liking it so far!)
  • Paddleboardng on Wednesday after work.  Water time!
  • Checking out a new salad place near work for their soft opening for FREE.  Free healthy food is the best!
  • Camping!  We’re going to a place where there’s a beautiful lake for kayaking (and mayyyybe swimming, depending on how warm it is), a super nice place to bike, and some great trails to run and/or hike.  I’m looking forward to another weekend outdoors!

And if I don’t get every single thing on this list done it’s ok, because that’s how we roll here with #projectspring. 3 weeks down, 13 to go!

 

 

The Woodlands Marathon

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On March 7, 2016

In Uncategorized

It was an interesting weekend, I’ll say that.  I’m still exhausted. 🙂  Instead of a chronological account of everything, I feel like I need to do this in categories, because it was the best and worst of times… at times.

Mar7-1

Pre Race Nutrition: A+

I think I’ve figured out the optimal day before and morning of nutrition.

  • Day before breakfast: something hearty that makes the stomach happy.  More like 500 calories rather than my normal 200-300.  I had leftover “light take” chicken parm and it was spectacular.  Pretty sure a bagel with turkey sausage and cream cheese would be a good go to as well, since I probably won’t luck out and have leftover chicken parm again.
  • Lunch: I wasn’t feeling that hungry after the big breakfast, so I went for a 6 inch turkey no mayo no cheese with baked chips and a powerade.
  • Snacks: Random pretzels and baked cheetos and some jerky while driving there and navigating to packet pick up.
  • Dinner: My tried and true – salad, chicken, and mashed potatoes (above).  We went to Omega Grill and it was one of the best pieces of chicken I have ever had.
  • Race day breakfast: two belvita breakfast cookies with a slather of chocolate almond butter and two caffinated powerbar chews.

I felt topped off but not sick.  A little caffeinated, but not jittery.  I was able to use the bathroom before the race and didn’t have to stop during.  If nothing else went right this race, it’s really nice to have a pre-race routine that rocked, because that’s been hit or miss lately.

Race Nutrition: B

I took all the gels I had, and expected to potentially pick one up at the gel stop around 20 or grab an extra somewhere if I needed it.  Well, they were out of gels, and the only food offered to me was a tub of PB.  Hmmm, no thanks, I’ve never had that while running.  I made sure to get extra gatorades and I think I did fine, but I did feel a TOUCH lightheaded for a sec around mile 21-ish.  Next time, bring the extra gel just in case.

Post Race Nutrition: B

It always goes water, gatorade, then beer, and this was no exception.  The food tent was a little sparse by the time I got there, but they had garlic toast left, and I think I crammed them two pieces in my mouth before I chewed anything.  On the walk home we picked up some Taco Bell, which I usually think is the nastiest thing in the world, but that Quesalupa was LIFE.

Since then I’ve just kind of made sure to eat something every few hours.  I haven’t gotten to the point of getting so hungry I’m shaking, and I also haven’t felt like I’ve eaten like an asshole, though I have had 4 different fried things already today and it’s lunch, so maybe that isn’t entirely true.  The QUANTITY hasn’t been assholish, but the quality kinda has been.

We had a few adult bevvies with dinner post marathon, but actually saved the CELEBRATION for the next day, which I actually think worked out better for recovery.

Gear minus my shoes: A

I know I can buy contact lenses easily for the race, but I wore new sunglasses instead (I know, I know, nothing new the day of the race…), and they worked out great, thankfully.  I wore the same tried and true kit I wore at SpaceCoast, down to the same socks (but probably not underwear).  I lubed up enough so I got almost ZERO chafing, and that’s pretty damn impressive for a warm marathon.  I missed a few spots with the sunscreen, but I got most of the surface area and it stayed put.  I’m sold on the race belt for my number thing now.  It looks a little doofy but it’s SO nice to have space for gels.

Mar7-3

Shoes: D-

I barely passed them because they got me to the end of the race, but I think it might have been IN SPITE of that, and I might have been better off barefoot.  My entire left arch and left toe have become blisters, not those cute ones you just notice after you finish a run, but the kind that show up at mile 10 and go, hey lady, you have to run 16 more miles, fuck you.  I got a blood blister on my right foot as well.  Sorry Clifton 2s, you’re shit and I’m donating you and never running in you again (though I’ll probably still go for another pair of Hokas, just not THOSE).

Lesson learned: when your shoes just don’t work out, it’s not worth toughing out a season in them hoping they get better.  Live, learn, use them for short runs and buy more shoes.  In hindsight, I’m pretty sure this was part of my hip problem, and I’m hoping that staying out of them for the next 2 weeks/rest of my life will prove that.

My actual race performance: D

Here’s that bit where I usually focus on and it really is a small part of Saturday’s story.  I held sub-5 hour pace through mile 11, where it became abundantly clear to me that my body was not going to continue with that much longer.  The hammies and glutes cramping started at mile 5 and never got better, even though I shoved 303s (herbal muscle relaxers), caffiene, and the super electrolyte gel.

I was able to keep it under control at first by backing off the pace by a little up hills, but once the blisters kicked in, my gait adjusted, and other things started to hurt too.  I went from a goal of 4:59:59 to hoping I would be able to finish before I was swept off the course because there was very little running left in my legs even before I hit the halfway mark.

My attitude: A

I won’t give myself a plus here, because there were a few miles in which I really did contemplate DNFing, but it was more along the lines of adhering to my c goal, which was do no lasting harm to my body.

I started with a true open mind, ready to take whatever cards the day gave me and make the best of it.  If my body said running the whole thing was possible, I was ready to go all in.  Until it became obvious that it was time to fold. (ok, I’ve finished with the poker metaphors here, moving on)

I was a little salty with myself at first, but it became crystal clear very quickly that my mind was not giving up.  It was my body.  This was not my day.  And that became OK.  I decided I wanted my finisher shirt so I was going to continue until either I could not go forward without risking further injury or I was pulled from the course.

Then, I realized, I had no idea what to do with myself for the amount of time I realized I was going to be on course.  I only had a ~2 hour music playlist I planned on bringing out at mile 13, and it was weird hearing all these super pump up songs while I was intentionally walking, not out of failure, but preservation.  I had no concept of intentionally taking 6 hours-ish to complete a marathon and being ok with it.

And then I ended up walking next to and met… Aubrey?  I think?  Marathon brain.  And we talked for a few miles about other marathons and training and all sorts of random stuff.  I started to feel better and told her I was going to run a bit and I hope she’d catch up with me later.  Sadly, I didn’t see her again, but I hope she had a great day!

Between the blisters and the other pains, it was more painful to START running than anything, so once I got going, I tried to keep it up as long as I could, because the walk breaks had to be long too with the blisters and the cramping.

After 30k, I made a turn and there was a spectator that I thought was being super nice, talking and encouraging me and offering me food.  Then I realized that she was talking to the gal behind me.  Embarrassing!  However, I made friends with both of them (Sadie!  I remembered a name of someone I met that late in the marathon!) and we walked and ran a bit together through early 20s, until I decided that we were probably holding each other back enjoying our walk and talk, so I decided to run ahead and we ping ponged back and forth until the end.

I figured a little more running couldn’t hurt, so I ran the last mile and a half and made it to the end.  I found Zliten and said something like “I finished! I made friends!  I can has offseason now!”, to which I’m sure he was super happy not to have to deal with a super pissed off emotional mess, which I was absolutely not.  I came in with hope for a great day but I was absolutely prepared for many situations, and finishing in about 6 hours was absolutely not the worst of them.

Mar7-2

Proof I was hoping for the best!

Body Condition After: D

Let me tell you, walking most of the second half of a marathon was no easier on me than running the full race last year, probably WORSE.  I won’t say this is the sorest I’ve ever been in my life, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I can remember ever being more creaky 2 days removed from any race yet.  I went from baby giraffe on day 1 of life, to baby giraffe on day 2, and today, I feel as if I can upgrade my condition to old man with a walker.

There is no ANNOYINGLY FINE going on here.  I am physically and mentally spent.

Quickies:

Course: B-.  The elevation profile makes it look deceptively flat, which is in the sense that there are no big hills, but you are always going up or down.  Not my favorite.  However, you get to run through the woods.  It’s gorgeous.  I can train differently to make the hill problem go away so it’s not a dealbreaker.

Course Support: B.  They never ran out of water/gatorade, which was solid, but being out of gels at mile 20 sucked.  They extended the cutoff because it was warm, which was nice of them, and even finishing at 6 hours, I felt like they were still supporting the back of the packers well.

Spectator Support: A.  The course is one loop, but it seemed like it was fairly easy to get around, because I saw many people cheering multiple times.  The town really comes out to cheer people on!  It’s awesome!

Hotel: A.  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn.  It was about half a mile from the race start – perfect warmup walk, and painful cooldown but probably actually probably great for me in the long run hobble back from the race.  The restaurant had great food in a pinch when we were too… marathoned to go anywhere else for dinner.  It was extremely QUIET and the room was comfortable, and I got decent pre-race sleep and AWESOME post race sleep, and both of those are hit or miss.

All’s well that ends well.  It’s done.  I’m FREE.  It’s offseason.  Cheers to that.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever been less sad not to be training for something.

Mar7-4

While I gave marathons up about 20 billion times on the course, I can’t 100% be done with them forever.  Zliten had a great day and beat my PR by like 40 seconds.  I will qualify that it was on a slightly short course though – I registered 26.08, he registered 26.0 – so the jury is out whether it ACTUALLY counts as a house PR.  We’ll leave it at that and say we both have the pleasure/pain of running 5 hour + a few seconds marathon times.

And, sure, there’s a voice in my head that wishes I could have been dealt some different cards, but that is just not how the day played out.  And I am TOTALLY ok with it.  Frankly, I’m just ready for this blog post to be over, because I’m so super excited about moving on and what’s next.

It’s time to heal, it’s time to rest, it’s time to grow (and shrink) in other areas, it’s time to fix things, and it’s time to do something completely different.  I’m SO pumped about this. #projectspring, GO!

Birthday Boxes

By

On March 3, 2016

In Uncategorized

It’s my birthday today.  It’s not a big one, I’m not moving age groups, my (haha) BQ time isn’t getting longer, but it is always time to pause and reflect on things.

March17-1

52 weeks and 5 days ago.

First of all, I’m running a marathon in two days.  At first I was kind of bummed with the timing (you can’t really celebrate a birthday properly when you have to avoid booze and spicy food and anything too overly fatty or rich).  However, I think I’m actually happy about it because of the idea of mental boxes.

One way for me to look at this race is to look at this race is as the culmination of the last 7 months.  Normally, I’m all bubbly and talking about the race as a celebration of your training and popping champagne all over the course.  Unfortunately, this last cycle has been more about overcoming obstacles than happily checking boxes, so I’m more than ready to put it away.

The last 7 months has seen an experiment with nutrition gone completely awry, causing me to swiftly gain about 12 lbs.  It delivered me feeling great and confident to my first race (70.3), and gifted me with that specific 12 hours per month where all I want to do is curl up and die, and then a bike crash, causing me to finish OVER AN HOUR slower than my goal.

After that, my head and heart quit on me for a while, causing me to be completely unenthused with training, and hit a pretty low point with a personal worst at the 26.2 distance at the end of November.  After some time, I found some new enthusiasm skewing my training towards chasing a PR at the half marathon distance.  I didn’t quite hit it, but I felt like I ran well and showed I wasn’t too far off my game.

Jan27-1

Thumbs up indeed.

Then, with my head and my heart pretty well in it, I spent the prettiest (for running) 3 weeks of the year on the treadmill, and then my body quit on me – specifically my hip.  I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about it, but it’s really frustrating to have to cut a marathon training plan down from running 6-7 days a week to 3 planned runs, where one usually ended up getting cut short or cut altogether to attempt to heal the stupid him of doom.

These are all things that happened in the last half of my 36th year.  The good news?  Today I start my 37th.  I can officially package up age 36 and put it in a box with a bow and put it in the closet.  Will the choices I made last year affect me?  Absolutely.  However, I can choose to leave the baggage that doesn’t matter, the mental bullshit, the doubts, the fears, and the negativity in that box and start with a fresh attitude.

I embark on a romp through the woods, not as a culmination of these things, but 2 days after the start of a fresh year.  I like that better.

There are a few things I’d like to put in this new box to bring with me on Saturday.

The body does not forget.  I feel like I am incredibly undertrained because I like checking all the boxes and proving that I’m a workhorse and I can go all the miles because miles are actually pretty awesome.  In the last five weeks, I’ve gone a lot less miles, which feels less than awesome.  But over the last 7 months, I’ve ran double digits NINETEEN TIMES.  This weekend will make 20.  That doesn’t suck.  The body does not forget how even if it feels like there is NO WAY I’ll remember how to run long right now.

This race is about working with my body and mind, not fighting them.  I’m ready for a few arguments near the end, around mile 20-something, when they SHOULD pop up, but I’m hoping to spend most of it just focused on my stride, my breathing, and the course.  I want to quiet my mind and just run with no expectations or judgements.

I gave 7 months of focus on these races instead of focusing on fat loss or time off or learning how to line dance or anything else.  My goal is to at least honor that focus, even if it all didn’t go as planned, and run the best I can with the cards I’m dealt that day and end the day satisfied.

marathon06

This day’s cards were a REALLY hot day and a sock that wanted some sort of revenge…

I have a general plan.  My goal is to run without looking at my watch for the first 5 miles. I warm up reaaaaaaaal slow nowadays, and I’m forcing myself to not care if some of those miles tick by in the 12s.

From then until halfway, I’d like to judge where I’m at, and work on cutting my average pace to 11:15/mile if it seems reasonable to do so.  It may not be any increase whatsoever, or it may be a little bit of a challenge.  I’m typically strongest at this point of the race, so I’d like to set myself up for success.

13.1 through about mile 20 is where things get sticky for me.  My goal is to simply not slow down if at all possible.

Usually, somewhere in the 20s I get a second wind.  If that comes, I’ll harness that and speed up as much as I can or at least try to keep it together.

My A goal is 4:xx:xx.  My B goal is to finish before the cutoff.  I’m striving for the former, but I definitely will back off if anything feels acutely injured.  I’ll do this distance again (though maybe not for a while…) and I’d rather miss it this time and live to fight again if that’s what it takes.  Franky, my C goal is “do no lasting harm to my body”.  My mind is not allowed to quit, but if my body does, after the last 6 weeks of hobbling through some parts of runs, I have to respect that.

No matter what happens, I have to have a little perspective, which is also something I want to make sure comes with me into my new box.  A disappointing time or walking a lot or even if the dreaded DNF happens to preserve myself from injury will suck.  No doubt.  However, I read on the internet (so you know it’s true) that only something like a fifth of a percent of people have finished even ONE marathon and I’m toeing the line of my sixth in 3 years and 4 months.  That doesn’t suck.  Not one bit.

It will be an opportunity to go out and test myself and see where 37 starts.  Where 37’s head is at.  Where 37’s heart is at.  It is not a measurement of self worth.  I am not Saturday’s race time.  For my birthday, I paid someone to close off the roads for me and give me gatorade and a t-shirt and a medal, and I could have an awesome run or a shitty run, but I’m going to go play on the roads for 5 hours, give or take, because I CAN.

 

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About Me

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

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