Adjusted Reality

I try to get here once a week to document what’s going on in my life, and honestly, I’ve got a little bit of writer’s block.

Actually, that’s not accurate.  I have writer’s diarrhea, as gross as that sounds.  I have a very rambly, couple thousand words of thoughts but no coherence.  So, instead, I think I’ll just post up one of those “cop out week in the life” posts.

Saturday:

Did a practice olympic triathlon out at the lake.  Didn’t get going until almost 1.  These days are numbered, but I’m loving the lack of early alarms.  The swim kind of sucked (I was way underfueled), but after eating stuff, the bike was glorious (outdoor bikes and I usually do not get along that well, so I will take it) and the run started with a whimper and ended…well, maybe not with a bang, but pretty well though it was getting steamy.  I was happy with the effort on all 3.

Finishing around 4:30 meant that we were supah starving and sat out on Baby A’s patio and shared fajitas and had a beer as my first real meal for the day which was not a bar or a gel.  The weather dropped about 10-15 degrees during that time to which I oscillated between thanking the weather for helping me with heat training and cursing the weather for helping me with heat training.

Came home, changed into PJs and loaded up netflix… just as the neighbors sent a “want to go bowling?” text.  We rallied and ended up having to wait through a HAIL storm (which actually left hailstone on the ground all over, crazy considering it was in the 80s earlier), bowling two games, drinking beers, and then staying up hanging out until almost 4am, my late night consciousness care of a caffeinated gel put down on the run around 4pm. 😛

Sunday:

We had a lazy, late Sunday morning wakeup.  I cooked my protein powder waffles, sausage, and broccoli pancakes and we watched netflix for a bit.  Zliten went to sonic and got tater tots and when they asked if he wanted family size, he said, “yeah, whatever”.  Let me tell you, folks.  Family size tots are no joke – too much for even two people.  Not the healthiest lunch, but whatevs.

Mid-afternoon, Zliten went out to do some yardwork, so I got into my closet and drawers and spent two hours cleaning them out.  I’ve got just a little bit left to do this weekend and I can call that one space DONE!  I already have 3 giant garbage bags to sell/donate.  Win!  Then we ran errands, to REI for gels/nutrition, to the grocery store, and to Target for sunglasses and draino (and… all we walked out with is sunglasses and draino… we should get a medal).

Then, since I had groceries, I guess I had to cook. I made ranch dill potato salad (which sadly went bad because of some icky onions before I got to eat more of it), cauliflower steaks, roasted brussels, cauli-taters, and my homemade version of sirloin burger soup.  My husband kindly fired up the grill and cooked a billion chicken breasts, polish sausage, fish, and hamburgers and we were set for the week with soups, chicken salads, chicken/sausage w/caulitaters and veggies, and some veggie snax.

We ate amazingly well, and were set up for the week, but dang, it was kind of exhausting to be so adult and productive for so many hours on a Sunday.

Monday:

We intentionally made this day pretty low key, especially when it was just busy busy busy at work.  We rode the trainer for an hour, sharing a bag of popcorn as ride fuel (chased it with an angelic chicken salad after though, balance in all things).  We kept it easy peasy, and Zliten actually hopped off early.  Recovery day is for recovery.  I followed it up with some core/arms and stretching.  It was one of those “work, ride, eat, sleep” days.  I was not up for much more.

Tuesday:

This was work launch day!  Finally, the update that we’ve been working on for the last, oh, 6 months went out for release!  Oh happy day!

However, let’s not get ahead of things.  I woke up and kinda stumbled around a bit but found myself on the bike and I actually had some legs, so I went through my speed workout (almost – cut it a little short) as planned.  10 mins high cadence fast bike, 1 mile fast run x2.  The bikes set a PR for me.  The runs weren’t the fastest ever, but pretty solid at 8:32 and 8:20 off fast bikes.

After a quick cooldown, shower, and trip to work, I spent the day on the edge of my chair, waiting to see how everyone reacted to the update.  I’m pleased to say that there were no fires, and nothing was bad enough that we had to go through the fire drill of putting together an emergency patch.  That’s pretty rare and awesome, considering both our really high quality standards and how large this one was.

It was also incredibly convenient, because we were able to actually get out of work and make use of the free Yelp Elite tickets to see Annie.  First, we stopped at Naanful, since I’ve had a wicked Indian food craving.  I got my usual – Zliten and I split an appetizer of gobi manchurian (cauliflower dusted in rice flower, fried, and coated with this amazing sauce), and an appetizer of chicken tikka just for me.

Annie was spectacular!  The 12th row seats for free did not suck, the cast was just ON, the sets were awesome, and I just felt like a kid again.  Sometimes during shows, I’ll glance at my watch.  Not because I’m not enjoying, but me sitting in a (kind of uncomfortable) seat for 2.5 hours without moving… not normal to me.  For this one, it was like… “what, it’s over already”?

Though… getting home at 11pm on a “school night” definitely is not normal for me and I think I was snoring within 30 mins of the car pulling in the garage.

Wednesday:

This was a weird week for me.  I’m usually WAY more than 2 hours into training by this point.  Sometimes I’m closer to 4-5 hours of training by the time I get to work on Wednesday.  Since it was a planned recovery week, I wasn’t stressing about it, but it seemed like a good day to put in some work.

I continued to be busy and stressed at work, and almost didn’t get out the door to swim, but Zliten dragged me.  I swam 5x300s.  It may not be a coincidence that I’m racing a triathlon next weekend (!!) with a 300m swim (so short and adorable/painful).

I took the first as a warmup, but I always swim warmup fast in the cold pool (5:31), the second and third focusing on form (arm turnover and long and lean strokes, (5:36, 5:35), the fourth at a little slower than race effort but pushing it a little more (5:25) and the last as cooldown (5:43).  I took a very short break in between each (15 secs or so). Keeping track of times is kind of new for me and fun.

Better yet, the swim in the outdoor pool in the 70s and sunshine cured most of my ills.  I felt so, so much better after that swim.  The afternoon continued to be busy and I felt a little meh about my planned evening run, but I just went with it and shoveled myself out the door and actually had an incredibly pleasant run chasing the sunset.

First half was with Zliten a little slower, then the last half was ~1 min per mile faster (top of my easy pace instead of the bottom) and I cruised into the house at 6.4 miles in 1:11, as it had gotten too dark at exactly 8:17pm to see through my prescription sunglasses (and I’m blind without them).  I love love love sunset runs.  I’ll be so sad when it gets too hot to do this, and I have a feeling I’ll probably push it into slightly hotter temps than I’m really comfortable with to continue.

I stretched and coconut water’d on our patio.  I decided Amy’s black bean and veggie enchiladas sounded like the perfect dinner, I didn’t feel like meat after my run.  Sleeping in the next morning and the new bottle of Texas whiskey sounded better than a run in the morning, so I spent the evening having a few sips and playing Clash of Clans outside until rain sprinkles drove us inside.

Thursday:

Slept in until 9am and it was glorious.  Work had actually calmed down, but I was feeling kind of antsy.  I didn’t really move much from my office.  Weird day.

However, once it ended, we got Freebirds and headed to game night!  I stayed good on my entree with chicken salad with guacamole and black beans… but we got chips and queso to share with everyone and I had a lot of those.  It’s a tradition now that we all bring cheese to share, and wow… I overate.  I mean, in the grand scheme of things my calories for the day weren’t off the charts, but my stomach hurt because of it.  I think next time, I’m going to bring veggies and hopefully I won’t get kicked out of nerd nite for it.

Being overcheesed didn’t get me down though, we laughed really hard all night.  We are all full of zingers and puns and it was the best.  I play a very weird caster hybrid who can do some particularly wicked damage with a crossbow and I may have stolen the show in terms of damage.  Usually my dice roll terribly, but I was ON!

Today:

I fell asleep with a quickness (it’s another “out until 11 on a schoolnight” day – rare I have two in a week), but woke up at 2am with stomach bleh.  I took something for it and grabbed an ice pack, and thankfully found sleep quickly again.

Today has been a pretty mellow day and I’m about to head out the door to make up for that run I decided to skip yesterday, hit up costco, have some dinner, and then pack up our Xterra so we can get out and ride and run tomorrow morning!

…maybe something more deep next week on race week.  Happy weekending, everyone!

Now that all the recapping and vacation and race report posts are done, here’s just a random update on things and stuff as tri season is beginning.  Since it’s been a super busy week, hallo, this is a brain dump.

Swimming:

The water is a magical place for me right now.  I’m not sure WHAT happened over this winter (and it certainly wasn’t heavy amounts of meters), but my pace has just… dropped.  Paces that would have scared the shit out of me last year are easy.  I would comment that why the hell can’t this just happen with my running, but I won’t look a gifthorse in the mouth, so I WON’T say that, but try to figure out why (so I can apply it to the rest of my training or something).

I’m just going to drop some theories as to why because it’s quite honestly puzzling.

• I never completely ditched swimming (though I only swam once in October, and twice in November) like I do every year after tri season is over.
• I’m keepin’ it real.  All my swims are at a mile or under, not trying to break any distance records for zero reason.  That lets me play with some speed and still use it as recovery for other sports.
• Maybe something in my form clicked.  I haven’t specifically been working on drills much, but I definitely have been trying to pay attention to form and not swim sloppy.
• All the run endurance might be paying dividends in the pool, and harder swims just feel easier because I’m fitter overall?
• The 10 extra lbs I’m carrying are working like a floatation device?

I *do* know that I’m much more comfortable pushing myself both in the pool and the lake.  I’m much less likely to just space out and swim.  My easiest efforts are really what I’d consider *steady* (feel like I had a workout, but on the level of a recovery run), and I have no problems picking it up when that’s happens.

I am also much more comfortable, somehow, with speeding up more quickly.  The last few years, it would take me most of a sprint swim to get warmed up.  Now, since I regularly swim ~1000 meters, I don’t have the luxury to spend half of that getting up to speed – especially in a chilly pool. 🙂

Anyway, I’m pleasantly happy with my swimming progress and paces and feel like I’m uniquely ready to tackle the swim leg of the triathlon this year for some rippin’ PRs.

Biking:

Here’s the sport I ignored all winter.  Something had to give with marathon training, and it was cycling.  I used it mainly on days when I couldn’t run but still wanted to do *something*, and to warm up/cool down after long runs.  So, I didn’t expect to be in a good place with it.

However, we’re not at odds with each other as much as I expected.  If I was ramping up for an early season 70.3 I would be in trouble, but since the most I’ll be racing is ~25 miles until September, the run fitness seems to be carrying over to predict decent short course bike splits.

I’m back at Endurance Cycling (or, as they call it, the Pure Pain Cave) once a week again getting my ass handed to me with great bike workouts.  I believe, if nothing else, this is the key to being a better cyclist.

We rode outside at Lake Pflugerville and I felt a lot stronger than I expected.  Zliten lead on the way out and decided to do hill sprints without telling anyone, so that was a few miles of “what the fuck” pace on the hills and “what in the actual fuck are you doing” pace on the flats.  When we got near the half point, we stopped a few times for a mechanical and to check out the goats, and then for something else if I remember correctly, and then I decided I was leading on the way back and we rode steady efforts.

Outdoor efforts that are not races are really never the ones I push the hardest, because of the traffic and roads and distractions and people in the way and not dropping or getting dropped by people that you ride with and maybe that’s the reason that my bike rank is typically on the lower side.  But it’s the reality I live in right now.  The WORK predominantly needs to happen indoors.  Or on a deck, this week. <3 outdoor spin.

However, when I *do* get to get out on the roads, I should probably not waste those 2-4 times per month fucking around and easy riding.

As per typical in early season triathlons, my bike is the biggest question mark.  I definitely have a lalalala lot less bike miles under me this year, but I’m doing lots more quality.  I think I just have to be open to digging a little deeper into the hurt than I did last year (I’m much more familiar with “throw up pace” than I was last year) and I may be able to pull out some good performances.  Having less miles on my legs might be a *good* thing.  We’ll see.

Running:

Whereas I’m training really specifically for the other two sports, I’m trying to continue to maintain a good run base in preparation for the fall/winter.  So, where on all the other sports I’m doing just enough to prepare for the event, I’m piling on the run miles.  My average is about 28.5 miles per week so far this year which is PHENOMENAL for me.  If I can keep up even 25 miles per week average, I can hit 1300 this year which is like a 40% increase from last year, which was a mileage PR already.

My running stick is definitely not completely sharpened yet after the marathon, but I’ve been seeing some pointy bits sticking out.

I ran a 9:36 pace 10 mile race, which is the fastest pace thus far I’ve run 10+ miles EVER.

I did a 8:50-pace 5k (split into two for double bricks).  Nothing compared to last year’s 7:40-something mile, but my legs have finally come around again from the ramp up and I think I have a lot more speed in me, I just need to strike the right balance with training (enough miles, but not too much, enough speed to practice going faster than a jog, not enough to burn out/injure myself).

I’ve been doing these fast finish long runs, and they are going REALLY well.

• After running 6 miles easy, I was able to run 4 miles at around 10:20s.  I had no idea what pace it was since my garmin was dead, I just ran whatever felt on the edge of comfortable (high zone 2).
• After running 9 miles easy, I was able to pick it up and run the last 4.25 miles at 9:40 pace.  Which, actually, happens to 6 seconds faster than my half marathon PR pace.  And this was some random Saturday with no caffeine and not a lot of fuel (1 gel, 1 gatorade).

While I’d like to be rocking more speedwork, I think these are probably some of the best ways to get my legs ready to rock off the bike while still maintaining my long run.

Overall:

I had a lot of “now, who’s legs do I use to do this workout?” moments in early April, but I feel like I’ve absorbed the ramp up and I’m feeling pretty fresh at this balance and I’ll try to roll this way (with a taper week before each tri) through mid-June.

Looking at the massive amount of burnout I was facing last year at this time, I’m glad that life conspired to make me take March a little easy.  I definitely am happy I’m not going into another full build cycle right now, but I’m totally stoked to play at sprint and olympics for the spring.

This is pretty much the plan, minus a rest week here and there…

25 run miles

• 1 long run at least every 2 weeks
• 1 run with some ~10k to 13.1 pace miles in it (can be long run)
• 1 dose of FAST speedwork (track, double/triple bricks, 5k time trial, etc)
• Everything else easy

3 bikes

• 1 Endurance Cycle class OR similarly ass kicking 90 mins at home if I have to miss it.
• 1 easy hour
• 1 outdoor ride or video.  Outdoor at least a few times a month.

2 swims per week

• 1 pool swim.  Sets of stuff.
• 1 OWS.  Keep the gas on.
• One of these needs to be at least ~1500m.

Other stuff

• Stretching, rolling, easy spins before and after long runs.  Body preservation type of stuff.
• Strength stuff like core work, weights, kayak, s’up, yoga, etc.
• Try to get 1-2 hours of this stuff per week.  10-20 mins at a time is fine.

About that 10 lbs…

I had my first week of tracking 100% of the food I eat.  And do you know what?  I really think just the act of staying on top of that helped me make *some* better choices.  I flat out made terrible choices on Saturday after my 13 mile long run and I can say it’s because we were at a party and that’s what was there, but I need to remember it’s MY responsibility to not eat like a jerk and remember vegetables are better than potato chips even if I did run for 2.5 hours that day.

I am stuck around 181-183 since post marathon/vacation/birthdays.  This is not my happy weight.  All my clothes fit like ass right now.  I feel like I look a little pregnant (which I am not, thxuverymuch).  This isn’t manifesting itself that much in my workouts, though I can only imagine it would be super nice to drag less of me up hills on bikes and what my run paces could be if I was back to my 173 Kerrville race weight.

This is about week #3 of really giving it an effort, so this should be the week I start seeing some results if I’m doing it right.  It’s always really fucking disheartening to not see a damn change for 2 weeks, but it is what it is and I know to expect it.

If I don’t feel like I’m making enough progress I start investigating dieticians again in May (probably starting with the ones at my gym since that’s convenient).

Last week I ate approximately 2000 calories per day (average worked out to 2033 with some light days being around 1600, and Saturday being over 3000).  I did 9 hours of training.  Let’s call that approximately 4500 calories, at 500 calories an hour (on the range of probably burning about 300 biking easy to about 700 running fast).  This should show a fairly decent deficit.  So, body, let’s start seeing it, please!

I’m ready to work on this one.  I have no idea why, sometimes, I just don’t give a shit about this stuff, and if I held back just a little, I might not have to lose the same damn 10 lbs over and over.  Sigh.

And, there’s a little slice of my life.  Heading back into the fray!