Now I am Training

Yesterday marked the beginning of my full-on training plan for 2015. I had (still do) some residual fatigue from Triple Dog Dare, but felt good doing some easy workouts--a 1-hour drill session in the pool, :35 of strength work and a :30 easy-peasy run including strides. I'm fortunate to have all the weights in my home office and can sneak in parts of my strength work between/during conference calls or as "smoke breaks."

I did have to nap in the middle of the day, as I worked from 3-5AM, and the swim and weights tired me out! I don't usually go down for 2 hours, but yesterday I did, and it felt absolutely glorious! Running felt just fine, and I stretched out well before having dinner.

I still have about 5 lbs. of leftover water weight (at least I hope it's that!) from TDD. After thinking about this for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that this is because I haven't been regularly exposing myself to 5+ hour workouts including sodium supplementation. I believe that once my body is once again used to regular 4+ hour workouts ("regular" meaning at least once a week then more like twice a week), that I will no longer puff up after them. This is what happened to me the first time I did an Ironman, the first time I rode my bike for over 8 hours, and a few other events like Triple T.

Nevertheless, I need to get my body comp straightened out, and in contrast to what a lot of people do, I'm getting it done between now and 1/1. I just need to watch the snack and beer intake, and go a bit lower on the starchy carbs at dinner.

I like to establish goals for myself, both short- and long-term. I haven't yet done enough measurement to predict race paces for the coming year (except that I want to win my AG at as many of them as I can), but I know that correct body comp is critical to that. I need to do my easy workouts easy so I can do my hard workouts hard. I need to keep my laser focus on the bigger goal, which is Ultraman Hawaii in 2016.

I have a large mirror in my bedroom that used to be mounted on the wall at the foot of my bed, but when I got a new flat screen TV last year, I had it moved to over the head board, just because I like mirrors, and it's a high quality mirror that was in my upstairs bathroom before I had it remodeled in 2008. When the mirror was on the wall where the TV is now, I used to write things on it to motivate me, so this morning I decided it was time to do that again:

So now every time I look up there I will see this. #1 is important, #2 is because I think I should be sleeping more, but that may be self-adjusting as I add in high intensity workouts. #3 is because, well, it is very important, and #4 is a reminder to perform well at everything I do.

Time to see how it goes!

Fashion Update

I've been monitoring how I feel for months now, to understand if whether how I feel is tied to the synthetic thyroid hormone (I will just abbreviate it as STH from here on out), the high amount of training I'm doing or what have you.  I noticed when I began sleeping less, but I have years of data on how much I sleep alongside how much training I'm doing, and I decided that my doctor prescribed too much STH.

2 days ago, I left a message at my Dr. that I think they stepped me up too high, and could we change the amount because I have been feeling a bit edgy, sleeping less, and occasionally my heart gets jumpy (but not during exercise).  I had requested that my TSH level be medicated to 1-2, but it came back at .676 last test, which is technically not hyperthyroid, but I can tell that for me, I'm just a little bit too wired.  Anyone who follows me on Facebook no doubt has seen the dramatic change of me going from background or completely absent to highly active.  My friend Susan has been the victim of me talking close to the speed of light, and while I get close to that warp speed while in heavy training normally, this has become a bit much.

I didn't hear from my Dr. yesterday so I called and left another message.  This time, I was a little agitated when I left it, stating that while this is not a medical emergency and I do not need to go to the emergency room, nonetheless I need this to be fixed right away.  The pills I was taking are 75mcg, and my prior dosage was 50mcg, so trying to cut the 75mcg's to make something halfway between just wasn't going to cut it.  LOL I made a pun there, did you catch it?

So I did get a callback yesterday mid-morning, and I asked why Dr. had stepped me up such a big increase from 50mcg to 75mcg?  Previously, I'd started at 25mcg, then 37.5 mcg, then 50mcg, and then 75mcg.  So you see the other jumps were gradual.  Do you know what the fucking nurse said?  "We moved you to 75mcg because there are no pills made between 50 and 75."  DA FUCK.  Lucky for her, I was not inclined to jump down her throat (I actually commended myself for this).  I had to initially make a case for getting my TSH down to 1-2, and then they pull this shit on me and turn me nearly dangerously hyperthyroid? Cool.  Well it was fun while it lasted!  Before any of you become outraged at my attitude toward the nurse, know that I know she didn't do it, and I truly didn't react to her.  I thanked her profusely for calling me and answering a bunch of questions I had, and I am guessing the entire time she was like FUCK THIS WOMAN NEEDS TO CHILL GOOD THING SHE ASKED FOR LESS STH!

I now have a bottle of 25mcg pills, and I am to take 2.5 (which is 62.5mcg) per day.  They told me to buy a pill cutter, but assholes, these are tiny pills and besides they are scored, so I can just break them in half for the .5 piece.  I bought the pill cutter anyway, in case I need it down the road for something else, since I'm an old lady and who knows what the hell else will be wrong with me?

You may be able to tell from my writing that this little science experiment had gone a tad too far!  Also I noticed that all I want to listen to is NIN, but that usually occurs about this time in an Ironman training cycle, so it's tough to say whether that's from the training or the drugs.

At any rate, I need to be able to sleep more than 5 hours at a time.  I truly don't believe the STH has had any impact on my workouts...it has just accelerated my leaning out, MAYBE.  I say this because I noticed some fat coming off in early July which coincided with me going over 18 hours of training per week, and at that level, well, it just is impossible for me to NOT lose fat.

That is what makes this science experiment difficult to analyze objectively--the fact that some changes that normally occur with me at certain training levels are coinciding with the increased STH dosage.  Certainly my Dr. would have no way of knowing all the variables that are in play here in as much detail as I do.  So once again, I am glad that I keep track of not only my training hours, but how much I am sleeping, because without that, I wouldn't have been able to look back historically to see whether what I've been experiencing is normal or not.

Jesus fucking Christ am I typing fast!  I'm a pretty fast typist anyway (north of 100wpm), but it's like I can't get the words out of my head and into the machine fast enough.

It shouldn't take much more than a week for my body to settle with the new dosage of STH, and thank God because I know I need more sleep. 

On the plus side, I am just about at my fighting weight/body comp.  Thing is, I am not dropping weight, which means my fat/muscle ratio is shifting.  I can see it in my face, my abs and my legs.  Cool thing is that I am about 2 lbs. heavier than what I used to consider my fighting weight, and I don't think it's from more fat, hey!  So I guess I really DID manage to pack on some more muscle last year while I was allegedly noodling around doing nothing.  But I do plan on getting tested, that plus my BMR so I can see just how my body is performing, but I will wait for at least 3 weeks until the new STH level has taken effect.  I have a master "to do" list, and one of the items is QUIT BEING FAT.  I struck it out just now!

Here's a recent picture of me

I've been looking at older pics to see how I compare to other times when I've been pretty lean, and I think I'm there.  My legs are a bit fuller now, but that's OK.  Everything else it right in line with where it should be.  Another way I can tell is that when I'm running, men are nearly crashing their cars to get a look at the Crackhead.  I feel confident in rolling my run shorts down now, there's nothing disgusting there to see on my abs anymore.

Speaking of running, yesterday I did a tempo run and was about 1.1 miles from home when I saw this man on a bike (upright touring style) that I see frequently on my usual running route. We waved at one another (I started waving at him this spring, and actually I've been waving at any runner or cyclist pretty much all the time, which is fun because it makes me smile, and I hope that my smile is infectious), then he did a U-turn and I knew he wanted to meet me.  Turns out he's 57 and was a serious runner in college.  The first thing he said to me is that he'd always wanted to tell me how great my running form is!  I told him that was the best thing I'd heard in awhile.  Lots of people who see me running think that all I do is run, so his first question was how much do I run per day?  And well, then I had to tell him about the other stuff I do and I could see his brain working overtime to process what I was telling him. I rattled off what I did last week (35 miles running, 180 miles biking and about 10,000 yards swimming) and he was a bit incredulous, which is fine by me!  I told him that I'd only been doing endurance since the age of 42, he asked me my current age was a bit taken aback.  He also commented on my abs, and yes, I know this is why people stare--there aren't many women PERIOD who have definition.  Mostly I was just happy to finally meet this guy (his name is JR, which I will remember from the old TV series Dallas--now I guess this is another strange coincidence wow life is really throwing them at me lately), and so now when we pass one another we can shout our names out!  The poor guy probably thought I was a bit wigged out, because like I've said, my speed of talking has gone supersonic lately, and I really hope it chills out in another week.

So, to summarize, the way I know I'm at race weight/body comp is:

1. Men nearly crash their cars trying to gape at me when I'm running.
2. I want to listen to NIN and nothing but NIN.
3. I feel confident rolling my running shorts down (zero muffin top!).
4. I feel light as a feather running up hills.  Yes, this is happening now, too!
5. I have no problem taking and posting nearly naked pics of myself (the above is the fault of one Jeff H. who posted a pic of a little girl doing pushups next to her row of Barbie dolls, and of course I had to replicate it).  But I will avoid this mostly--everyone has seen enough pics of me nearly naked!

I am still pinching myself (despite the over medication) at how wonderful I feel.  Knowing that I really HAD trained a fair amount last year and seeing that I am able to pick up speed NOW is such a great feeling, and looking forward to being up at Ironman Wisconsin to cheer and then it will be only 3 months until Ironman Cozumel!

Life is good, but should be even better in another week or so!