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<\/p>\nGuys, it’s been a pretty good month around here in Adjusted Reality land.<\/p>\n
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Two for two on podiums so far!<\/em><\/p>\n First, let’s talk triathlon and training.\u00a0 Something is clicking around here and it’s really incredible after a few years of, let’s face it, funk, I’m seeing some improvements!\u00a0 I’m going to give credit to a few things:<\/p>\n Weight training.\u00a0<\/strong> I’ve taken steps to actually do things to strengthen my weak spots instead of just ignoring them and wishing they would be better.\u00a0 While I already feel my motivation to lift waning these days, I need to stay on it.\u00a0 There can’t really be another explanation as to why all of a sudden my stride has returned, and as long as I don’t do dumb shit like lift too heavy and strain things, it does wonders for keeping me stable and healthy.<\/p>\n Flexibility\/Recovery.<\/strong>\u00a0 In previous cycles, I knew I should stretch and roll and do all that shit regularly, but I never put it together how it would directly really help things like my triathlon finishing times.\u00a0 Increased flexibility in my hips and my shoulders gives me a more efficient running stride and a more comfortable and stable aero position on the bike.\u00a0 Actually bucking up and rolling my ITB and calves instead of thinking about it and then not doing it because that shit hurts when it’s tight has helped ease some of my little niggles and be able to train better.\u00a0 It’s a war with myself daily to do these things but I’m starting to win it more often than not lately.<\/p>\n Specific training.<\/strong> On one hand, it’s been a relief.\u00a0 Doing like 5-6 hours a week of training actually makes it easier to be a human person.\u00a0 Having my longest workouts be in the realm of 1.5 hours means I have much more time to relax and pursue other hobbies instead of just dying on the couch in my non-triathlon recreational hours.\u00a0 On the other hand, it feels weird that I’m getting better at running, biking, and swimming by not doing much running, biking, or swimming, but I’ll take it.\u00a0 The hours I am putting in are quality over quantity and at least for the sprint distance, it’s working well.<\/p>\n My monthly numbers are fairly pathetic:<\/p>\n However, I stood on top of the podium March 31st<\/a> and on the third step last weekend<\/a>, with significant bike and run PR paces\/watts\/efforts.\u00a0 I think it’s proven that what I’m doing right now is working, so I’ll keep at it.\u00a0 I race this weekend again, so the last two weeks have been light, even for my reduced schedule.\u00a0 I’ll take a day or two to recover after Sunday and then it’s back to it!<\/p>\n I haven’t followed the three per week weights schedule I set out to do last month, but I did hit 2xweek on non racing weeks and 1xweek on race weeks.\u00a0 I really just need to find the motivation to add the extra core session in and not call it something I’ll do when I have time (which is never).\u00a0 After Sunday, I don’t race for a month, so I plan to redouble my efforts for May and stick to the 3xweek plan.<\/p>\n See, proof I have been swimming!\u00a0 Googgly eyes and everything.<\/em><\/p>\n Showing up to the pool has improved since the weather has gotten warmer, but I haven’t been doing anything but just swimming.\u00a0 This month, I will plan at least 1 swim per week with some sort of focus besides going back and forth until my watch reads an acceptable number.\u00a0 I also need to get in the open water at least once every other week, more if I can.\u00a0 The water temperature is no longer an excuse!<\/p>\n After a nice month of my ankle being cooperative, last week, it randomly started talking to me again.\u00a0 It held just fine for the race, but something is not right.\u00a0 I was being lax about wearing my insoles and real shoes (*grumble grumble*), so I’ve started doing that again as well as rededicating myself to my ankle rehab exercises (they take like, one minute to do but it’s easy to forget).\u00a0 That being said, I’m keeping my running to short, fast jaunts until it’s been pain free for a while, but I would like to reach an hour\/6 mile run by the end of the month, since I need to start considering building some endurance for September and my run takes the longest to do that.<\/p>\n My heart wants to go play bikes with the team on all the lovely group rides and fun outings they’ve had lately and commuting and going on adventures.\u00a0 My head is keeping me focused on specific workouts that are shorter, include pain face, and more often than not have a run follow up.\u00a0 I’ve got about a month and a half until my last sprint race this season, and until then, I’m endeavoring to try to get my head to win the battle at least 75% of the time (but playing bikes is a necessity for life, so that will happen sometimes).<\/p>\n Pizza has happened once since the start of #projectraceweight, if I went out with the team it would happen more often. \ud83d\ude1b<\/em><\/p>\n Speaking of being a bit of a hermit (sorry Team BSS, it’s not you, it’s totally me), the other half of the equation here is that I’m actually making some gosh darn freaking progress on this whole #projectraceweight thing.\u00a0 However, I know myself.\u00a0 I’m really bad at temptation and quite honestly, for the temporary period of time that I’m doing this shit, it’s better for me to pretend that pizza and beer don’t exist anymore.\u00a0 Sure, I could do the rides and then just go home (and when my training starts to include some workouts that say “ride bikes for more than 30 minutes”, I will).\u00a0 Sure, I could go hang out and drink water.\u00a0 But I know myself.\u00a0 It’s better right now to take myself out of the equation entirely.<\/p>\n So, here’s where I’m at.\u00a0 I am on temporary notice.\u00a0 I have put myself in the corner on timeout.\u00a0 Because I have been an asshole with food for a few years, I have to not be an asshole with food for a few months, even though it is fun and social and happy and I work out so I deserve it and all that stuff people say (including me) but the scale does not lie that I do not deserve as much as I have partaken.<\/p>\n See, I can sabotage myself just fine without anyone’s help, thanks.\u00a0 Over the last two weeks, trendweight has gone from “hey, you’re doing great and will be at your goal weight in June” to “hey, you’re kind of sucking at this and you’ll be at your goal weight in November 2020”.\u00a0 I royally fucked up my calorie intake while out camping.\u00a0 Like, consumed more than DOUBLE the amount of calories than my normal daily goal without even trying because I ate a bunch of snacks instead of a real meal.\u00a0 Lesson learned.\u00a0 Eat the food right away even if you don’t want it or it’s not exactly what you want or it’s not super healthy or you’ll eat a million times more later.<\/p>\n For the next few weeks, I am trying to be EXTRA good before vacation.\u00a0 I don’t really have a goal, but I’d like to see what two weeks of being angelic can do for me.\u00a0 I need to be careful right about now.\u00a0 My clothes fit.\u00a0 I’m looking better in race pictures – my first thought about these<\/a> was that I looked really buff instead of the usual *BARF*.\u00a0 This is right about the time where I get complacent and subconsciously say, “good enough”.\u00a0 I want to not do that this time.<\/p>\n The good news is that my weight is starting to trend down again, and even with the TERRIBLE eating on Sunday, being good the rest of the week saved me.\u00a0 Sort of.<\/p>\n However, the nice thing is that over the month, I maintained at least a 21 or more Diet Quality score on average, and I have lost approximately 2.2 lbs, which does not suck.<\/p>\n It helps me to list out the challenges I foresee each month, so here’s May’s:<\/p>\n Vacation.<\/strong>\u00a0 The plan is simply not to GAIN weight, and being reasonable with my portions.\u00a0 I’m not tracking anything. I know how to do this, I just haven’t come off 9 weeks of dieting before so I need to keep my hair at least not COMPLETELY let down.<\/p>\n But, it’s vacation, so this is absolutely going to happen and I won’t stress about it.<\/em><\/p>\n Navigating a reasonable calorie intake after the Rookie Tri on Sunday.\u00a0<\/strong> I plan to eat whatever food is there as recovery (since they usually have delicious tacos) and have pre-made salads and easy, reasonable calorie-count food for the rest of the day I just need to pop in the microwave.<\/p>\n Game day.\u00a0<\/strong> This hasn’t been too difficult lately.\u00a0 I’ve been eating a snap kitchen meal ahead of time, which actually works out because the food has time to settle before I start shoving snacks in and then get a stomach ache from being too full.\u00a0 I’ll just bring my own pistachios to much on and share and mostly ignore everyone else’s contributions.<\/p>\n Movie\/Lunch day with work.\u00a0<\/strong> Trying to decide which one item on this list<\/a> would either be the most healthy (I mean, hummus and veggies are obvious but that’s not a MEAL) or whether I just want to splurge and make sure it’s most of my calories for that particular day.<\/p>\n My goals when not on vacation:<\/p>\n No dessert besides my nightly square of chocolate.<\/strong>\u00a0 People be making it hard around here lately but I’m staying strong.\u00a0 Just saying NO is getting easier as I’m making progress.<\/p>\n As close to 1500 calories average as possible.<\/strong>\u00a0 Sometimes this means I should eat slightly less than 1500 to compensate for days when I eat more.\u00a0 This is starting to actually become a possibility, my stomach is getting trained that this is plenty of food to thrive on if I eat all healthy things.<\/p>\n Diet quality as an important but secondary goal.<\/strong>\u00a0 If I want to eat something slightly reprehensible, I just need to make sure I work it into my daily goal of 1500 calories.<\/p>\n I need dis.<\/em><\/p>\n Man, this is I’m definitely hanging on by a thread right now, I really need me some vacation, so I’m going to make my May list a little fluffier:<\/p>\n I’ll go back to the adulting next month.\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n\n
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<\/p>\ngetting<\/del> long already.\u00a0 In terms of life stuff, I kind of halfway failed at everything but made some progress.<\/p>\n\n
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