Adjusted Reality

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

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Tales from last week

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On September 28, 2016

In Uncategorized

Rather than a normal summary, I have a lot of stories.  Let’s just go day by day, shall we?

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Before my almost untimely death.

Monday:

  • 30 min office bands/bodyweight workout + stretch
  • 26 mile Taco Deli Ride with the faster people + commute to and from (1h45).

Today’s story is about asshole drivers.  I was having a fairly nice ride, and about 2 miles from the end, I came to a t-shaped intersection.  Stop signs on all sides, but there was nowhere for a car to turn the way I was going.  I’ve seen these at lights as well where signage tells cyclists to roll on through because nothing intersects your bike lane. My group rolled through, and so did I.

However, up ahead was a convenience store, and this jerk of a truck was really in a hurry to get there.  He pulled out in front of me into the bike lane, and stopped right in front of me, and I had to swerve around him.  I said something like “FUCKING HELL, MAN” and he happened to have his windows open and retorted “THERE’S FUCKING STOP SIGN” to which I retorted “NOT FOR BIKES” and we traded more insults like “FAT BITCH” and “ATTEMPTED CYCLIST MURDERER” and then we both rode on.

Things like this make me laugh when Austin is lauded as a great cycling city.  Sure, there’s a lot of us.  Sure, the infrastructure is getting better.  But until it’s not an accepted thing to almost cause accidents because something a cyclist did randomly pissed you off?  Fucking Texas, man.

It took me a bit to shake it off, but I eventually accepted that I earned a cycling achievement of “Get into an altercation with a bitchy driver” and ate pizza and rode bikes home.

Tuesday:

I’ll just refer you to the recap.  I don’t have much else to say besides we came home, drank some whiskey, and stayed up too late.  Oopsies.  At least it happened early in the week and not right before the race.

Wednesday:

I was too tired from being dumb the night before to ride bikes, but I did get in a strength set.

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Costco ravoili lasagna, you deserve a special sort of fatty pants.

This day was also the day my appetite officially caught up with me.  I’ve been getting away with the -1000 calories-ish per day, and I wondered when that was going to end.  The answer?  September 21.  I have been eating closer to -500 to flush every day since and I’m ok with this.  My weight is still holding steady, and I’m simply thankful my body has tolerated a deficit for as long as it has.  Time to feed the beast.

Thursday:

  • Hour easy run (5.11 miles)
  • Commute + some – 12 miles (1:07)

After our morning run, we hopped on our cruiser bikes and commuted to work (4 miles).  So thankful for showers at work, I think they’ll be getting more use with our upcoming workout schedules.  At quitting time, we took the long way home (8 miles) and made it home juuuuust as it was getting dark.

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You don’t smile like this on a car commute.  Just sayin’.

I think I’ve figured out a creative way to get 3 bike rides (on two different bikes) and two runs in in 3 days and cut out all car commuting on those days, but my office is definitely going to look like I live in it to accomplish that.  I’m sure they’ll deal with it.

Friday:

  • Off.

I ended up going to work and getting out earlier than Zliten.  I came home, and the house was at 87 degrees, but the AC was blowing (or so I thought).  I figured that the thermostat just glitched and it was cooling it down.  I packed up some of my stuff, and then went for a walk.  When I got home, it was still 87 degrees.  No bueno.  We blew out the hose with an air compressor, and thought it was fixed.

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A perfect place to procrastinate.  And catch pokemans.

To let the house cool down, we went to dinner and randomly decided on Red Lobster.  I ate WAYYYY too much, though it was the night before the night before a long-ish race, so it was the proper day to feast.  I got a shit ton of shrimp, rice, salad, and ate almost THREE cheddar bay biscuits.  That’s more than a whole day’s worth of calories when I was dieting.

And then we came home… and it was still 87 degrees.  FUCK.  After considering just setting up the tent in the yard, we called an AC repair shop and ate the after hours 120$ fee.  Thankfully, it was fixed in no time, and not something we could have done on our own, but it definitely led to a much more stressful evening than you want on the night before the night before a race.

Saturday:

  • Shorty swim in the lake: 750m in ~15 mins

Lots of stories today!  Because of said AC issue, I decided I wasn’t setting an alarm and whatever time we woke up was fine.  We slept until about 9:30, and then finished getting our stuff together and headed out.  First stop was Quarry Lake to do a little shake out swim in our wetsuits.  It was still iffy whether it would be wetsuit legal.  It wasn’t, but I didn’t want to have my first wetsuit swim in months be the race.

After the swim, we hit up a sandwich shop.  So good.  A little small though, and we figured we’d just need some snacks soon.

We made the two hour drive to Kerrville, indeed stopping for snacks – watermelon, potato chips, and pretzels – at about 1.5 hours in.  We picked up our packets, dropped off the bikes for a night under the stars, dropped off our run bags, and headed to dinner (yes, more food).  I thought I wouldn’t be super hungry, but I tucked into a big plate of chips and salsa, rolls, salad, rice, and a giant chicken breast smothered in bacon and cheddar.  I ate every bite and I just felt satiated.  I was a little horrified to where I was putting all of this, but I trusted my appetite.

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Finish line, pool, foods, more foods, goggles and earplugs, and getting bags packed.  My Kerrville Saturday.

We headed back to the hotel to get the rest of our bags together.  Part of the way through the process I realized I was missing things… all the things I used for my swim that morning back in Austin.  After tearing apart the car and the room, I called the gym and sure enough, my little red bag was there.  I could stop looking, but I was without goggles and earplugs and the expo was closed.  These things are kind of necessary for me to triathlon, so the hunt began.

Our first stop was a sporting goods shop.  They ONLY had one pair of goggles, and they were the kind that people that short distance pool swimmers wear.  I bought them just in case I couldn’t find anything else.  We then tried another “sporting goods” shop, but this place was something out of a horror movie.  The lights in there flickered ominously and barely worked.  They had everything from food to toys to (A SHIT TON) of hunting gear to greeting cards in no real discernible order.  We looked through the whole store and sadly, all the summer stuff had been put away.  No goggles.

At this point, I had half the equation, kind of.  We tried CVS, and while they had no goggles, they did have a decent ear plug section.  I grabbed two different waterproof kinds just in case (one regular, one kids size).  We tried one more store but it was the same deal – all the summer stuff had been taken off the shelves already.  Zliten asked if I wanted to drive the hour to San Antonio to get something better.  For this short of a swim, I said I’d make do, so we returned to the hotel.

The goggles came in parts – two eye cups, a band, a piece of string, and a plastic tube.  Zliten and I watched a you tube video on how to build the goggles because at this point, we had no backup, and wanted to get it right.  Once they were good to go, we went down to the pool to test them out.  The earplugs held up like champs, in fact, I like them better than the ones I’m using now.  The goggles… I was SURE on the first lap they were just going to flood, but after a few passes back and forth, and shaking my head vigorously under water, I was sold.  I mean, they were weird and very tight and if I had to do an IM swim with them I might have two black eyes by the end.  But they’d work for 20 minutes.

As we were soaking in the hot tub, we chatted up some ladies that were also doing the race.  After talking over the course, one of them mentioned that she wrecked on the big hill last year after colliding with someone.  I mean, a lot of people do stupid shit on that hill, but I may have run into the gal that took me down last year.  Zliten and I just glanced at each other and just continued the conversation.

Sunday:

I went into much detail above.  The rest of the day involved driving home in a torrential downpour where you could barely see the lights in front of you, getting takeout burgers, watching funny horror-ish movies, eating chicken pasta with extra veggies out of a bag, and vodka.  The end.

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As for this week, it’s a pretty simple one.

  • Complete all training:
    • 2 strength sessions
    • 2 swims (1 done, 1 to go)
    • 2 rides: ~20 miles intervals on the TT bike, 79 mile hilly ride (Rip Roarin’ Ride)
    • 2 runs:  4 mile run (DONE!), 12 mile long run
  • Sleeeeeeeep.  There will be times to stay up late like a dumbass.  The next two weeks are NOT those times.  8. hours. or. more.
  • Eat.  If I’m hungry, put something in my face.  At least 5 fruits/veggies per day, more as I can tolerate the fiber.  100g protein.  25g fiber. Less than 60g fat.  Lots of carbs.  Track calories for data, but don’t obsess over the numbers.
  • Continue to weigh as data points.  If it starts trending up, then I’ll probably compromise a little on the point above but for now? It’s just information.
  • Say “fuck it” to all the little things that don’t actually matter and can wait until November.  Or at least later.  Peak week is procrastination week by design.

And with that, I’m off to procrastinate all the things!  Wheee!

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Kerrville Olympic-ish Triathlon – Dollars and Change

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On September 26, 2016

In Uncategorized

I have a whole lot of thoughts on and around this one, but I’ll stick to the race details here.  Kerrville Quarter Distance Triathlon race report GO!

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Sunday morning:

After a few issues including LEAVING MY GOGGLES AND EARPLUGS at the gym in Austin and not noticing until after the expo closed (more of this later), we awoke to rain overnight, and lightning arcing through the sky.  I fully expected the race to get cancelled and was already debating the contingency plans (really long trainer ride? just go home and drink mimosas?), but the lightning part went away so the race went on.

I felt like I had been eating non stop since earlier in the week (more on this later also), which meant I was fueled pretty well.  I also hadn’t, erm, emptied for a bit, so at one point in the porta potty line I told Zliten I was about to poop my pants or puke, I felt so full.  Not the greatest way to come to race morning, but after a few visits to my friend (Porta) John, it was all sorted.  Morning nutrition: cliff peanut butter filled bar, parts of a gatorade and nuun that didn’t fit in other bottles, a caff gel, and two electrolyte pills about 30 mins before the start.

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Random foods, schwag, the pool, the swedish goggles and CVS earplugs, and the Texas pool.

Swim:

Kerrville is a time trial start, which means you’re in a line like cattle, and then all of a sudden you hear your own personal GO.  Which, in this case, means you’re diving into the water and hoping to all that’s good and fishy that your new Swedish style goggles hold tight.  You’re trying not to think about the fact that Zliten just built them last night after an online tutorial, you only tested with about 50m of laps in the hotel pool, and you’re really hoping they do not fall apart or leak or fully burrow into you’re eye sockets or fill your head holes with lake.  This is not the case with every swim, probably never again, but this is the start of your Kerrville swim.

Oddly enough, after the initial 100m, I didn’t think about them much.  Though, I can still feel the bones around my eyes a little sore in some places today.  This lovely, glamorous sport we do, right?

I started out with the pass pass pass pass and then we joined with the half ironman swimmers, which was annoying, but I found some space and mostly avoided trading blows with people.  The very dark goggles + a super grey day + the murky lake = couldn’t see my Garmin for anything.  So it was swim by feel.

My goal was to pace this like the Splash and Dash, but I think I got caught up in the fact that I usually do a half ironman here, and paced it more accordingly.  I also have to remember it was not wetsuit legal, in fact, it was 82 degrees, so that also slows the swim times down.  The quarter (what they called it, half of the half distance race) let the ladies go first, which was nice, until I got beat up by the first two dudes from the guys wave after me about 100m from the shore.  Seriously?  Swim around me.  There’s plenty of space.  Sigh.  Dudes.

That may have harshed my mellow a little, but I got out, saw that I swam ~22 minutes and filed that away under “that could have been a lot worse”.  Whatever the race clock says, my garmin clocked me at 2:00/100m moving time, so I’ll take it.

Swim: 22:40 (2:16/100m), 8/18 AG. 

Transition 1:

T1 has this really steep hill.  Some years, I’ve walked it.  This year, I actually came out of the water feeling great, so I jogged up it and actually passed some people.  Yeah!  I did all the normal things, plus decided on bike gloves for comfort, shoved my shit in the T1 bag and ran off.  I know this is my fastest time, I think by a LOT, though no wetsuit to deal with helped, I was also racked in the back of T1, so I had to deal with my bike for a lot longer.  Hooray for avoiding transition gravity!

T1: 3 minutes flat, tied for 7/18 AG

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Dropping off death star for a an overnight sleepaway camp for bikes.

Bike:

Warning: gross triathlete stuff ahead.  I had to pee the entire swim, but couldn’t.  I figured, no time like the present.  No one was around, and I went ahead and let it go.  Baby’s first pee off the bike.  Major (long distance) triathlete milestone!  I had a brief thought about the shoe stench and then all of a sudden the sky opened up and started pouring, and I was like, “that takes care of that”.

However triumphant I was with peeing, and however thankful I was for the bath, it really wrecked my bike mojo.  I’d never ridden the death star in the rain, so I had no idea how it handled.  I still probably don’t, because I took all the turns at 5 mph and rode so incredibly cautiously I was probably making little old grannies look reckless.  I felt very uncomfortable in aero, so I’d say I spent MAYBE 25% of the race there (and that may be generous).

The course is a generally a gradual downhill on one half, followed by a generally gradual uphill.  The bad is that I took the downhill super conservatively, and I probably rode it slower than I ever have, and lost a LOT of free speed.  The good is that the uphill parts felt a lot less uphill than ever.  Since I’d never taken them before on the Death Star, I got prepared, plopped down into little ring and prepared for the worst… and then all of a sudden I was up them, no muss, no fuss.  My 5 mile splits ranged from 16.5 at the worst and 19.2 at the best, so if nothing else, I was totally consistent.

It wasn’t raining the entire time, but wet roads are slippery, and some parts of the course were not blocked off, and you had to ride a small shoulder.  Fucked if I’m going to be swerving out into traffic in the wetness in aero to pass people.  I did it a few times (not in aero), but I definitely got stuck behind people more often than I should have.  Also, I realized that my aero helmet wasn’t tightened down around mile 20, which made it slip all over so I couldn’t see well.  I thought it was just a tragic hair choice with a higher than normal ponytail I could never figure out how to fix.  Sigh.  I will be reviewing that move in transition practice at least 10 times before the next race.

I was happy on the out and back section I didn’t see Zliten.  I know that sounds mean, but he is just unbeatable this year and I always win Kerrville.  Looking at the times, later we were actually surprised and then did a Strava flyby… I was maybe 100 feet up the road when he got there.  Heh.

I suppose, subconsciously, I was a little fearful of that hill I wrecked on last year, even though I didn’t want to admit it.  But, again, I was prepared for the worst, and then up it like I climb that kind of shit every week (oh wait, I do…).  I rode the last 6 miles so thankful I has stayed rubber side down and had a functioning bike, unlike last year.  I probably spent more time in aero at the end than any other section and then all of a sudden there was the sharp turn into the park and lots of coasting and there I was at T2.

Am I a little disappointed in my bike split?  Sure.  However, I would have been more disappointed with myself if I crashed and spent the night in a hospital or wrecked my new bike or even had a minor injury plaguing me this week due to a low speed crash.  Safety first, kiddos!

Bike: 1:39:25 for 29 miles (17.5 mph).  7/18 AG.

Transition 2:

I ran my bike in and racked and dumped my bag.  I made the conscious decision to use my hokas with regular laces and take a few extra seconds to actually tie them, and with how WET my feet were, I was actually super happy I did.  No blisters!  Since it was cooler, I left my handheld bottle, but I grabbed the gels in it and headed out.

T2: 2:25.  7/18 AG

Run:

This is usually the bane of my triathlon existence, but today I felt weirdly set up for success.  It was cooler, I was not coming off the bike overheated like normal.  I was feeling… rather great, actually.  I got out on the course and let my legs dig in to the pace, and all of a sudden the first mile ticked in at 9:46… and I was like, ok, let’s keep this up!

I also realized that while I had fueled appropriately for the weather, I was only one gatorade and one gel into the day at 2 hours and change.  I felt fine then, but I knew I wouldn’t by the end.  I let the universe decide my fate – caff gel in one pocket, non caff in the other, and I got the non-caff.  Probably for the best because I actually fell asleep before 3am, though the caff gel probably would have helped me finish a little faster.  Tradeoffs.  I also made sure to take in a gatorade and a water at each aide station because cool and wet doesn’t mean I’m impervious to dehydration.

Just before mile 3, I did the calculations.  If I didn’t see Zliten until mile 3.5, I was beating him.  Then I looked up and immediately saw Zliten, running strong.  I felt happy for him but also checked in with myself to see what I had left and see if I could at least give good chase.  Survey says: I was not really to spend all my cash.  I wanted to keep some of the change.  In my head was the training I still have left to do for my A race.  Six days until a long hilly 80 mile ride.  Thirteen out from my long brick on the Austin 70.3 route.  That is the race where I throw all the dollars at the course and say “keep the change”.  Not this one.  Patience.

Also, I was already having a pretty phenomenal run split for me.  I debatably did better at Cap Tex last year (slightly better official time, but this course was long and that one was a little short), but I was in much better run shape then.  This was a pretty great victory.  I kept plugging away, fading to low 10 minute miles in the last half, but still very pleased with what my garmin was telling me.

We had some friends and BSS teammates on the course, and closing in on mile 5, I kept hearing Zliten behind me giving them encouragement as they passed (I give hi 5s, less talking/breathing).  I knew it was only a moment of time until I saw him and then… yep… decisive pass.  I did pick it up a little and kept him in my sights for the rest of the race, but there was no way I wanted to do what needed to be done to my legs right then to go with him.

I know there was some rain at points, but I don’t remember it.  I love rain when running.  I just kept plugging away and telling myself “10 more minutes of running, “5 more minutes of running” “3 more minutes of running” and then there was the finish and I ran across and it was 0 more minutes of running.

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Ganked from teammate Larry’s facebook.  Hopefully he doesn’t mind…  Before the rain and the sweat!

Run: 1:07:26 for 6.4 miles (registered 6.64).  10:32 official pace. 10/18 AG.

Without really meaning to, I kind of paced this race like my ideal half ironman.  I definitely had another loop of the bike course at that speed.  If it was the race where I spent all my dollars (and also, had maybe done more than one 10 miler :P), I think I could have done another loop of the run approaching that pace.  It was just getting cooler and cooler as it started raining harder, but as I said, I love running in the rain so I don’t think it would have bothered me.

I post race fooded pretty well, got a taco and some chips and some fruit, and a beer.  We sat around for a while and chatted, but got really cold and it started to pour.  The first time it let up a bit, we got our stuff, and got the heck out of dodge.  We had planned to stay and cheer and enjoy a few more beers and float in the lake.  Sorry half finishers!

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Only slightly resembling a drowned rat.

Total time: 3:14:57. 6/18th AG.  You’ll notice that I never placed above 7th in any individual discipline, but I ended up top 1/3rd anyway.  Consistency is key!

Immediately after the race, I wasn’t sure whether to be happy or disappointed with it.  There were high points and low points.  I had no mystical “third place” to chase down on the run (5th was wayyyy ahead of me).  I was motivated by Zliten chasing me, but not enough to not get caught.  However, I had a really solid day altogether, pretty good age group placement,  and one of my best longer distance runs off a bike yet.  After 24 hours, I think I’m ready to mark this one down in the WIN column.

What’s next? Two more recovery days, and then we jump back into peak training for a while.  In the next two weeks, I have a lot of running and riding to do, and I’m ready for the final push to Austin 70.3.

Turning the Corner

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On September 19, 2016

In Uncategorized

First, I have a big announcement… I am now not just a Certified Personal Trainer, I am also a Certified Sports Nutrition Specialist!  Wheeee!   I’m doubly certifiable.  I finished this one a lot quicker than I expected, turns out, I knew most of it already and it took me approximately 8 hours to read the 65 pages of material, watch the 12 videos, and take the test.  I passed with an 91% (70 was passing).

What does this mean?  Well, not much.  I learned a few new tidbits like even my protein consumption out throughout the day and take a concentrated fish oil supplement because I don’t like salmon, but most of it was not a surprise.  But… should I open a business someday that deals with healthy living, I have a little more credibility than “I read about this stuff all the time because it’s interesting to me”.  If I had all the time and money in the world, I’d love to go back to school to do an Registered Dietician program, but for right now, this is good enough.

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Excuse me, sir, do you have a moment to talk about riding bikes?

As I’ve belabored over and over here, the previous 9 weeks have been kinda hard on me.  Coming back from a much-needed but also long offseason means I was more out of form by the end of spring than I had been in quite a while.  I also like an idiot chose to do this ramp up over the summer, where everything is harder already even when you ARE in shape.  My only measuring sticks were totally unfair ones: previous years (where I’m 5 weeks behind) and my husband, who comes alive as an athlete after 4 months off in the feels-like-the-center-of-the-sun weather.

Then, last week happened.  I turned a corner.  I had some great weekday training days.  Monday, I rode far behind with faster people and it felt good to push the pace.  Tuesday, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel after that, but I crushed a endurance cycle class + 2 mile brick run (and a swim earlier in the day).  Wednesday was recovery riding, and then Thursday, I finally got out and got that double digit mile run and oddly, it was no big deal. I even sped up the last two miles from high 11s to do race pace – around 10:30s.

Saturday, we took our TT bikes out for some interval work.  We warmed up for about 6 miles, and then did 10 reps of a 3.5 mile loop – we took the backside (about 1.35 miles, very slight uphill grade) fast, and did the rest easy.  I hit 19.6-21.2 mph, with 179-202W normalized power.  I peaked on my 6th interval, but my last half of them were stronger than my first (and it was getting HOT).

After a stop for liquid and a cooldown 6 miles, we headed out for a brick run.  At noon.  In the “feels like 108”.  It took all the mental toughness, but I got through it, and negative split it to boot (10:40, 10:20, 9:55).

I missed one weights session and one swim this week, but still logged over 10 hours and a lot of it was pretty solid, confidence building training.  This week, I have a bit of a stepback week so I can race on Sunday, but still planning 6 training hours + 3 racing.  I’m super excited to toe the line of one of my favorite courses, and only have to do half what I normally do (since the weather isn’t expected to be much better this weekend… SO glad I’m not racing 70.3 miles).

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Last week:

  • Monday: conference room weights with bands/bodyweight, 19 mile hilly faster ride in 1:17
  • Tuesday: 1500m swim (1000m steady, some fast 50s/100s after), endurance cycle (70 mins, 2×3 mins under threshold, 5 mins at, 5 mins over, 2 mins recovery, then an all out 10 minute TT), 2 mile brick run (11:00, 9:40 splits).
  • Wednesday: 17 mile recovery ride in 1:19
  • Thursday: 10 mile run in 1:56
  • Friday: off
  • Saturday: 45 mile TT ride in 2:48, 3 mile brick run, 30:45
  • Sunday: off

This week:

 

  • Monday: conference room weights w/bands + bodyweight, same hill ride
  • Tuesday: splash and dash race (750m + 2 mile run – hoping to take it about 90% and use it as speedwork)
  • Wednesday: weights, recovery ride
  • Thursday: 5 mile run, some race pace miles if I feel springy
  • Friday: off
  • Saturday: 1500m open water swim
  • Sunday: RACE! 1000m swim, 29 mile bike, 6.4 mile run.

For the race… my goal is to run down third, just like Jack’s Generic.  Whether it’s actually third or tenth, I want to not be a weenie on the run and chase people down.  I run really well off the bike in practice.  I need to put that in play in the race and not let my head get to me and run like I stole it and all those other things that mean JUST FUCKING RUN WOMAN.

As for the other disciplines, I want to swim medium-hard, and not come out of the water completely shelled.  I’m REALLY looking forward to riding my bike there, because other than the chip seal (crack your fillings) roads, I think this is the IDEAL course for me right now.  The first half is mostly a steady, gradual downhill which I love to push.  The second is, minus a few steepies, a nice steady gradual uphill/false flat situation.  Last year I was on pace the first 45 miles to break 18 mph and then *crash*.

Also, this year Zliten will be chasing ME (I start at 8:24, he starts at 8:32) so I will not only be running down 3rd but also running away from my husband (I’ll imagine him as a super scary monster) for those particular 3 hours.

No matter what, my eyes will be on the prize.  6 more weeks total and I race Austin 70.3.

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My only food pictures were this and pepperoni pizza this week.  So, as you can tell, I ate absolutely 100% healthy, homecooked food this week.

Let’s just not talk about food and the scale and stuff.  I think it’s probably about time to give obsessing about this a pause, at least until the work changes.  I’m regularly tracking the weekdays, and then just eyeballing it on the weekend (and then, if I remember, tracking on Monday and probably forgetting some stuff).  I KNOW it would be more useful for me to track over the weekend, but I just haven’t.

The progress has pretty much stopped.  And that’s probably ok.  As discussed above, I’m doing more hours and harder stuff, so I need to not be starving myself.  If my body wants more food, it wants more food right now.  I’m not really having trouble with this on hard workout days.  However, during off/light days when all I do is walk 10k steps or maybe do a short swim or something and fitbit says “you have 1300 calories” my body is like “the FUCK we do”.  That was Friday.  And Sunday.

I refuse to go to bed starving when I have to wake up and do 2-3 hours of workouts the next day.  I knew there would be a tipping point.  So, here we are.

This week’s goals:

  • Track all weekday food (weekends bonus)
  • Attempt to stay -1000 calories but not at the cost of major hunger.
  • Spread out my protein and calories better through the day.  I’m getting better at this but still occasionally I end up having to eat two meals worth of food after 8pm.
  • Fruits and veggies.  Crushing it so far today with blueberries in my yogurt and a giant veggie-filled salad!

As for the scale, I’ve been consistently weighing 182.  One day, I hit 181.  One day, I hit 183.  But as above, here we are.  I think this is my fall race weight and I can revisit this again come November when I go back to the long and slow stuff in cooler temperatures.  The best thing for me to do is push QUALITY food and pay attention to how things hit my stomach.  For example, I ate a bunch of raw snow peas for snacks a few days last week and noticed I was bloated every evening.  I need to be eating lower fiber or cooked veggies because I’m taking in so many other quality calories.

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And because you’ve made it this far, here’s a picture of me practicing being a rich eccentric famous person at Costco.  Ok, fine.  The real reason?  I left my glasses at work and all I had was my sunglasses to see things.  I tried on a coat (as you can see from the picture, it’s not that flattering, so I left it there).  Zliten zoomed off with my phone and the cart, so I spent 10 minutes wandering around the store like this.

At first I was upset because I’m sure I looked like a fucking weirdo.  And then I realized.  Hehe, I look like a fucking weirdo.  Who cares.  I’m sure if anyone did actually notice, they had a fun story to tell when they got home.  So…. yep.  Practicing being eccentric.

Happy Monday, everyone!

 

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I need a little specificity…

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On September 15, 2016

In Uncategorized

Probably for no one’s interest but my own sanity, it’s time for me to check in a bit more specifically on how the first half of 70.3 training has gone, since, holy crap, we’re more than halfway there!

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My outdoor riding game is almost as on fleek as my selfie game as the kids probably no longer say.

First of all, as I’ve mentioned before, the comparison game is SO HARD to avoid.  Each year with a 70.3 has been unique but has always centered on the Kerrville Half being my A race.

  • In 2012, I trained so hard to make sure I could do the distance, and arrived at the end of the summer in burnout (though I finished, and learned a lot along the way).
  • 2013, I overcame injury earlier in the year to conquer the first on minimal training and on the second, PR (and probably indirectly saved myself from some burnout by being benched for 6 weeks).
  • 2014, I took a mid-summer offseason, and banking on previous endurance, did a short and steep 8 week climb to the race, which resulted in another awesome PR.
  • Since that worked out so well, in 2015, I did the same thing, and ended up having the universe and my uterus conspire against me and barely salvaged not-a-personal-worst on a mildly broken bike and body.

After the spectacular 2015 fail, I didn’t want revenge.  I wanted this year to be different.

  • First of all, I have given myself about double the runway (16 weeks instead of 8).  This has allowed me to ramp up more gradually.  Frankly, I spent about half this cycle with the plan of “doin’ stuff for about 7-10 hours a week”, but that fluidity built me a good endurance base without all the burnout that is associated with having to run 6 miles at 7am on a Tuesday at x pace because the plan said so.  I’m now at the half of the cycle where I need to train specifically for about two months and I’m ready for it.
  • Also, I’ve chosen a different race, Austin IM 70.3, 5 weeks later.  The record high is 90, and the record low is 30, so it’s a grab bag of what we’ll actually get, but it’s MUCH more likely to be cooler.
  • Speaking of different race… different course!  I can hope for a PR/to hit certain numbers/etc, but a different course means it’s not a direct measuring stick of I MUST PR EVERY LEG OR I’M A FAILURE.  The bike is a little harder with ~500 more feet of elevation gain, more steep hills vs gradual hills.  The run should be a little easier with 100-ish feet TOTAL elevation change, a 3 loop course that gives you a dose of AC each time, and it’s also highly likely to be a cooler day, which give me a bonus of as much as a minute per mile with similar effort than feels like 90-100.
  • The other huge plus is the race starts 15 mins away from my house, so I get to sleep in my own bed, can do a warmup swim in my own pool/lake the day before, and eat familiar food.  The drawback is the day before, I have to establish STRICT boundaries about no chores, no other humans around, just relaxing, because a whole day off on the weekend?  That never happens, and it will be so tempting to do all the things.

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And I get to ride bikes here! Total perk!

So, we’re 7 weeks (ok, 6 weeks, 5 days, but whatevs).  How am I doing?

Overall headspace: turning a corner just this week.  I had some freakouts last week that I’m not training enough, I’m going to be woefully unprepared, etc.  Then I started looking at what I’ve done and how much time I have left, and I started to feel wayyyy better.  I need some specificity in my life, as I said above, but the foundation and basic structures of this house are pretty well built, actually.  The next four weeks about filling out the major features, and then the last three are about painting the walls, putting up light fixtures, etc.

Strengths right now:

  • Strength.  I’m pretty solid right now in terms of core and body strength (thx u weights).  I don’t feel like I’m pushing the boundaries of what my body is capable of and enduring tons of minor aches and pains.
  • Swim endurance.  Thanks to the swim challenge, I’ve done at least the half iron distance (1.4 to 2.8 miles) 4 times in open water this summer, and haven’t felt too much worse for wear after them.  My regular swims of 1500m just feel like happy fun water time with very little fatigue after.
  • Bike endurance.  I still can improve here, but I’ve done two outdoor rides already (63, 53) that are longer than my longest last cycle (50). I have done four 3+ hour rides, and I have a few more planned before shutting it down.
  • Bike handling.  Obviously a work in progress as well, but I was able to ride with a group of non-n00bs yesterday and not feel completely like a square peg in a round hole.  I ride my bike outside at least 3 times a week now and I don’t suck at it nearly as much.
  • Accidental run endurance.  I had this as a weakness two days ago when I started writing this post, but then I went out and ran 10 miles (almost double my previous long run) with 2 race pace miles at the end like it was no big deal.  Endurance is endurance is endurance, I guess.  I’ll take it.
  • Weather acclimation.  I may bitch about it, but I’m handling the summer temps like a champ.  I was super excited about today’s run which wasn’t even in the 90s!

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I’m sure this me doesn’t completely agree on the acclimation part.  I don’t have to like the heat, I just have to get through (and I did).

Weaknesses right now:

  • Overall speed.  I found a glimmer of hope in my relay race, but then figured out I was 13 sec/mile slower than last year (8:48 vs 9:09 pace), so there’s that.  I have been sacrificing any real speedwork to log enough hours to build endurance.
  • Brick work.  I usually do a lot of these, but tallying up my training, I’ve done only done 10 bricks in the last 4 months (counting races), and nothing longer than 4 miles (and mostly 1-2).  I used to push about 2 per week, and that might be overkill, because I tend to run really well off the bike in practice, but maybe that’s because I practiced it so often, hmmm?  Either way, I should be doing more than one every other week.
  • Ease on the TT bike.  I’ve solidly PR’d my last 2 bike legs, so something is going at least sorta right, but it’s hard for me to stay in aero.  On the trainer, it’s a comfort issue.  My crotch is simply not used to being smashed that way for that long yet in tri shorts, and I have to wiggle around to find the upper body position that’s correct and doesn’t make my arms and shoulders sore.  On the road, I’m just not confident in the position with traffic on the road.   Every car that passes, every turn, everytime something makes me jump… I am up out of aero.  Luckily, during races I’m less of a weenie.

So, how am I going to bridge the gap in the coming weeks?

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This is the goal.  This is always the goal.

Last half September focuses:

  • Eeking out more bike endurance.  I’d like a 50 mile ride to be NBD by October 1.  It’s totally doable right now but still kind of a BD.
  • A long ride approaching race distance on the TT bikes outside.  Planned for this weekend.
  • Ramping up the run miles.  I don’t plan on doing ANYTHING with intensity, save racing the Kerrville Olympic on Sept 25, but I need to be running: a) double digits every other week and b) running more often/more miles.
  • Weights are now in maintenance mode.  I will not be increasing reps or weights at this point. 1x week at the gym lifting, 1x week with bodyweights and bands at the most.
  • Swim, continue with the status quo. Twice a week, about a mile per session, open water when I can.

First half of October:

  • Longer run bricks.  I need to run some 10ks off the bike to feel better about running a half on race day.  I’m planning on a long simulation day, where I ride the actual 70.3 course and follow it up with a 10k run, as the last workout before taper time.
  • Bike intensity.  After I’m clear of the 3+ hour rides (which will start to ramp down at this point) and the fatigue fades, I want to at least CONTINUE with harder rides, if not up the ante to prepare my legs for those hills.
  • Continue with the run mile increase.  I plan to top out around a modest 25 mile peak week a few weeks out (and most should be about 15-20), so my legs should be in decent shape just in time.
  • This is where weights can start falling off if they need to.  I won’t be happy about skipping them entirely, but a quick 15-20 min band/core session 1-2x week will do.
  • Swimming as above.

Second half of October:

  • Bike and run endurance is in the bank by this time.  I need to use my best judgement to shed fatigue and keep form.  The best things I can do for myself are workouts that keep my sharp and that increase my confidence, which is usually shorter speed workouts (but not *too* many – I’ve done that and spent all my cash before race day).
  • Swim – since I’ll be backing off on the bike and the run, I’ll push this a little.  More open water race pace swims.
  • Weights – cut out entirely 2 weeks before the race.
  • Taper –
    • 25% reduction 3 weeks out (about 9 hours). Pretty much a normal week with a shorter long ride and long run.
    • 50% or more week 2 (6 hours).  This will really be my rest week.  If I’m feeling fatigue or burnout here, things will be cut to be shorter, less intense, or eliminated entirely.  There are two key workouts on the plan totaling 3 hours.  If that’s all I do, that’s fine.
    • Race week – something every day (save 2 days out) to keep myself sharp.  I generally don’t perform great IMMEDIATELY after a rest week, I need the training to pick up a little first.  I should have energy, enthusiasm, and feel like each session is way too short.  If not, the scissors come out again, because rest is priority.

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Attacking specific training for the next month and a half like…

Going through all this has helped me lay out a specific plan for the next 7 weeks.  Some of the stuff coming up in the next few weeks is a little intimidating, but exciting.  I’m genuinely excited to see what happens when I toe the line October 30th, and I haven’t been able to REALLY say that with enthusiasm in quite a while.  And that makes me more excited!

Perception vs Reality

By

On September 12, 2016

In Uncategorized

sept12-1

I’m well aware that this concept exists, and that the way I see the world is not necessarily the whole truth.  However, the universe has definitely been trying to hit me with the clue bat the last few days to drive that adage home.

Cases in point:

Study #1 – Work

I worked myself into an absolute TIZZY about my job last week, to the point where it was keeping me up at night, and I think it actually contributed to a minor 24 stomach bug issue (no appetite, upset stomach, chills, etc) mid-week.  Then, I had a frank discussion with my boss, who asked me straight out: is this a problem right now or fear for the future?

And it stopped me in my tracks.  I had to take a second and really consider it, but future unknowns were about 80% of the problem.  Yes, things are stressful right now, but it’s not abhorrently chaotic.  It’s next year I’m absolutely freaking out about.  With assurances that I wouldn’t have the same issue in the future, I was able to calm down fairly quickly.

Perception is that everything is completely out of control.  Reality is it’s loosely under control now and if everything goes as planned, it shouldn’t get worse.  Next year is next year.  There is no use losing sleep over it now.  I realized just hearing “yeah, of course you’re stressed and need help and we all know it and the plan is to fix it” was enough to take the uneasiness down to the normal dull roar it’s at during this time of the year.

sept12-2

The session BEFORE my stomach bug really hit.  Pro tip: if you’re feeling sick, don’t sit in really cold air conditioning in a soaked-through sleeveless jersey for 15 minutes.

Study #2 – Training

Because I had said stomach bug, I missed my 8 mile long run Thursday morning and a weights session.  Skipping this key session, and not being able to make it up, left a window open and the doubt demons flew in.  How am I going to race a half ironman with a long run of 6 miles?  How am I letting myself be so unprepared for this race?  What is wrong with me?

Part of the issue is this year is SO different I have nothing to compare it to.  And when I consider what I AM doing, I’m ahead of the 8 ball in so many ways and things still have plenty of time to come together.

I think I rode my bike outside four times to get ready for my half in 2015, the rest were endurance class and trainer miles.  This year I ride outside 2-3 times a week and I’ve already had 2 long rides that were longer than my longest last year.  Last year I think I swam the 1.2 mile distance once in open water before the race.  This year, I’ve done it four times already (from 1.2 miles to 2.8 miles), albeit slow as molasses, but that’s the first step.

Perception is that I should be way further along than I am.  Reality is that the timeline has shifted five weeks, and I’m actually doing GREAT.  Being that I have pretty decent bike and swim endurance, and I’m halfway there on the run, I’m not doing too badly 7 weeks out.  I think reassessing my plans and laying in some key sessions to hit over the next few weeks will help.

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#junkinmytrunk #thegoodkind

Study #3 – The Scale

While the progress is still inching the correct way, it’s definitely sloooooooow.  And it’s no surprise when I went on vacation and didn’t track, and spent half the week last week not tracking because the sky was falling, apparently.

I’m also getting to the point where the weight loss has slowed for enough time, that my body shape is not this new exciting thing.  So the mirror has gone back from “yay” to “eh… alright”.  Every time I step on the scale, I’m like UGH, I must have gained weight.  And I haven’t.  Body dysmorphia is very very weird.  I mean, there are days I think I look alright in my glasses, I’ll change to my contacts, and feel fatter.  I *know* it’s bullshit, but it’s what my eyes see.

Flashback to yesterday, when I met some friends I hadn’t seen in a little while.  They were gushing over how tan, glowing, healthy, and muscular I was looking.  Another one said I looked 20 years old in a picture.  For someone like me, who has so long had my eyes so closely on the details and minutiae of losing fat, maintaining a healthy physique, and absolutely not regressing to my obese, can’t-walk-across-the-street-without-getting-winded self from 10 years agp… sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.

Perception in the mirror right now is that I still have a long road ahead, especially with how slow I’m losing weight, and the fact that I’ll probably need to pause for at least a season to prepare for and race Ironman.  Reality is that I’m comfortably wearing a shirt that I would have busted out of a few months ago, and with patience and persistence, I’ll get there eventually, wherever there ends up being.

Let’s do that details thing.

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Training last week:

  • Monday: 53 mile ride on the Austin 70.3 course.
  • Tuesday: 30 minute cruiser ride to the store and back.
  • Wednesday: 2 mile easy run, 1000m easy swim, 17 mile recovery ride
  • Thursday: impromptu day off
  • Friday: ~1 mile warmup run, 2.5 mile relay race in 23 mins (about 9:07 pace).
  • Saturday: 4500m swim in 1:45.
  • Sunday: 70 min cruiser ride to dinner and back

Again with the perception and reality – my instinct was to be like “well, guess it’s an impromptu rest week”, and then I go look at my logs in dailymile, and I did 9.5 hours.  While I can take issue with the *quality* of training in there (maybe a little less cruiser and do my weights actually and more running), the hours themselves are solid.

This week, the goal is to do things a little more intentionally.

  • Monday: quickie band weights at lunch, Taco Deli group ride (~20-ish miles)
  • Tuesday: 2 mile easy run AM (or failing that, as a brick after class), 30 min pool swim lunch, pain cave cycle class PM
  • Wednesday: gym weights lunch, PM BSS recovery ride
  • Thursday:  10 mile long run (yeah, its a stretch… it’ll be slow… but I’m ready for those double digits), 30 min swim lunch
  • Friday: off or makeup day (if I miss something above)
  • Saturday: 40-45 miles of speedwork on TT bikes, 3 mile brick run (at least last mile fast, all of it tempo pace if I can make that happen)
  • Sunday: off.

This is looking like a solid 12 hour week, which would be my peak so far this season.  It’s a lot.  I feel like I’m ready to conquer it, especially knowing that I’ll be shutting it down a bit next week to get ready to race the Olympic at Kerrville.

Food/Scale:

Weight loss last week: down 0.5 lbs to 181.8 average.  Again, slow as molasses, but the right direction.  I’m regularly in the high 170s on the not-as-evil black scale.

Let’s just move forward on the rest of it.  I don’t think I did *that* badly on food (hence the loss), but without data from tracking, I can’t measure all that much.  This week’s goals are:

  • Track every day.  Even the weekend.  My goal at the very least is to put in my food for the day before I go to bed, quicker is more useful.
  • Aim for -1000 calories down on fitbit UNLESS it’s unbearable.  Never sacrifice fruits/veggies/training food to keep calories down.
  • I’ve been DECENT at this lately, but we’ll continue to mention those 5 fruits and veggies per day.
  • Weigh every day.  Not just the days I feel skinny in the morning. 😛

I just did a crash course in Sports Nutrition this weekend – all the course work and the videos.  I just need to study and pass the open book, online test, hopefully this week.  While it was 90% stuff I already knew, there were a few things I picked up that I might work into my life.  However, if I’m struggling to meet the above goals, I shouldn’t add MORE new stuff.  I’ll make notes and work it in eventually.

That being said, the videos convinced me to add a fish oil cap to my daily vitamin regime.  Anyone have suggestions about ones that don’t taste fishy?

sept12-5

The lake is the best place for me to calm my shit.  I went twice this weekend. I had a lot of shit to calm.

Life Stuff:

With it being my peak week, I’m just basically trying to stay sane, get sleep, and get through the week.

  • 8+ hours of sleep per night.  Non-negotiable.  At the very least, my 2 day average should be 8 or greater.
  • Take and pass my Sports Nutrition Specialist test.  I had expected the class to take longer, but since I rocked through it over the weekend so quickly, I want to make sure I don’t lose that knowledge before the test.  Attempting to do it Wednesday. Saturday night or Sunday will be my backup, but I’d like to get it done this week for sure.
  • Fun stuff: gaming with friends Thursday.  Family over for birthday celebrations Saturday.  Last wah-pah trip Sunday.

And I believe that will do it for this particular Monday.

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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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