First Outdoor Ride on LGL in 2009!

Aw, man...68 degrees sunny and windy...I was in HEAVEN! Rode for almost 1:45, and wanted to just keep going, but work calls...

I didn't ride with a plan other than to go as hard as I could up any hill in my path. The wind helped me keep my effort up, too. As you can see from the pic above, my legs are in no danger of becoming skinny, but they will brown up one of these days.

It's supposed to cool off again tomorrow, so I won't get outside on the bike again until maybe Saturday, which may prove to be too cool anyway. That's OK, it's only March, and I am happy to be getting outdoors more, even if it's just to run.

But boy, I still love LGL. Her stiffness is especially appreciated when riding through all the potholes created by our snow-filled winter. Stiff is good!

Progress to Date

OK, I guess I figured I may as well take some pics of myself. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm so vain, blah, blah, blah.

I have to say that my back feels really, really solid. There is almost zero hitch in it anymore from any angle, twisting, nothing. So 4 months after injuring the hell out of it, I'm healed! I think the extra core stuff helps, so I need to thank a few people for inspiring me to change things up a bit: Brett for the jump rope and Louis (no I'm not yet training for a Murph!) for the pushups and pullups. The extra abs work was my own idea because I needed to change things up there.

I still have a little over a pound of weight to lose, and hopefully it will be fat, just as I'm pretty sure the other 2.5 have been. And then once I've achieved that, I will reassess and figure out what's next. I tell ya, it doesn't get any easier to stay in shape as each year passes, although the cardiovascular stuff isn't that hard, and I haven't slowed down there yet. But maintaining lean mass is a little more challenging, and gosh, I'm just so used to having some muscle and do not want to lose any.

Well, here I am:

Pics!!!

Shelley has been bugging me to post some, so here you go.

First, proof of my little fat trimming exercise:
And yes I have a bruised toenail on my left big toe from something stupid.


Yesterday I held a baking and cooking orgy--here are pics of the roll of one batch of cookies I made and then the finished product of both cookies. There is a secret ingredient in them, and they turned out really well!


No pics of moi until I feel like it. Since it's warming up and I'm getting outside and starting to brown up, I'll wait until I no longer feel like I'm pasty white.

Weekly Workout Totals 03/09/2009-03/15/2009 and Miscellaneous Stuff

I had a good week of training last week. In looking at the hours below, it doesn't include all my extra stuff, so in reality I put in about 16 hours, which is cool! I'm feeling strong--I am doing 50+ pushups a day now, and yesterday for the first time I did 7/6/5 chinups, so I may be closing in on the elusive 10 chinups straight, which will be a real marker for me.

On the weight loss front, I am at about 111.5 lbs. now, down from 114 just 2.5 weeks ago, so all is well there. In terms of where the weight is coming off of, it's a little around my belly and then it must be pretty equally everywhere else, because the only measurement on me that has gotten smaller is 2" below my waist and maybe 1/2" off my butt and hips. But that's exactly what I wanted. Another 1.5 lbs. and I'll be at my fighting weight of 110, and I don't feel skinny at all. I may even go splurge and get a precise bodyfat measurement done just so I know what's going on.

My diet is still far from clean...I like beer (1 a day most days) and some days I just have to reload all the calories I've burned off lest I feel like crap. Even though I've been eating below my needs at least 5 out of 7 days in the week, I don't usually feel especially hungry, but I am becoming aware of the need for more carbs as my training load is increasing steadily. The one thing I have done without for 2 weeks is any sort of candy (I have a special bag of jelly beans with my name on it for 2 weeks from now) and chips most of the time, although on Saturday after 3.5 hours of training, I had to have some Pringles, but just one serving, so not like I'm binging on them. I baked some cookies yesterday and had 2 of them, and the rest of them are being given away otherwise I'd eat them all!

As my training load increases, I am beginning to have cravings for things that I typically want during heavy training--rice pudding, massive amounts of sushi, Pringles, Cheetos, gummi bears, spaghetti carbonara (made with prosciutto) and big hunks of meat. In other words, I am about to make a 6 month guest appearance on the Food Channel!

But I am going to try and keep it fairly clean except for 1 or 2 days each week through next week, which was the promise I made to myself and want to keep. Once I am officially at 16+ hours per week (TWO WEEKS AWAY!!!!), though, all bets are off, and you'll hear me periodically chanting, "SUGAR, SUGAR, SUGAR" or "MEAT, MEAT, MEAT" or "FAT, FAT, FAT" depending on what my body is craving.

Did I say I love food? And exercise?

Spring is in the air now here. There are fat robins everywhere, birds singing early in the morning, I saw the migrating Sandhill cranes overhead yesterday, and the mallards are starting to get sexually aggressive. Tis the season!

Weekly Workout Totals	03/09/2009-03/15/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by the coming of spring!
Swim:	9800 yards (5.56 miles) in 3.43 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 1202 calories burned Canadian: 8961.12 meters
Bike:	Approx. 99.96 miles in 5.68 hours; 38% of weekly workout time; approx. 2870 calories burned; Total TSS=325 Canadian: 160.87 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 30.33 miles in 4.6 hours; 31% of weekly workout time; approx. 2085 calories burned Canadian: 48.81 kilometers
Strength:	1.33 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 333 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 135.85 miles in 15.04 hours; approx. 6490 calories burned Canadian: 8.07 kilometers
Sleep:	8.07 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.37 hours. Massage: 1 hours

A Sure Sign of Serious Training

So I decided this morning to sign up for the Twin Lakes Triathlon in June. Even though registration isn't open until Monday (and it's just a form you download and mail in, so sadly, there will be no SUBMIT button), just thinking about signing up is exciting. You can draft on the bike in this race, so if you plan your swim accordingly with your biking buds, you can have a great time on the bike and do well on the run.

I'm getting ready to go swim, and I'm brushing my teeth and I barely get the toothbrush in my mouth and I'm gagging. Nice! Usually this doesn't start happening until about mid-May or something (not like I keep track of it in my training spreadsheet but maybe I will now ;) so it was making me laugh, and gagging and laughing at the same time is not a good thing. I know of only one other person who has admitted to having this "issue," and you know me--I have zero qualms about discussing bodily functions, but in this case it was kind of good to know I'm not alone in this.

My belief is that it's the sweetness in the toothpaste coupled with the increase in training which means I am taking in sugars fairly regularly, and well, my usual toothpaste (Crest) is quite sweet. Huh--maybe I should try an experiment with just baking soda? Like that wouldn't make me gag! Or maybe some unflavored toothpaste. I should have known yesterday when I went downstairs to my Gatorade tower to select enough 32-oz. bottles to get me through today through Sunday, and my arms were overflowing, that I am "in it" now. It feels good, and this is what I was preparing for, and while there are no races until Triple T, I've already put in some good intensity work and now it's time for the big volume jump.

So in a weird, perverted way, I *HEART* gagging. All part of going harder, faster and longer!

Indulging my Inner Pirate (some links NSFW)

For some reason, since sometime last fall, I have been lusting after all things pirate. I made my girls, Shelley and Cindy, some pink shirts with pirates (Shelley needs to post pics of it!), made myself a black shirt with a pirate on it, made the duvet cover with pirates and zebras, got some unmentionables with pirates (and trust me--the supply of that stuff is limitless--I've located some additional sources here and here that spark my interest), and most recently, enhanced my swim gear to include some new pirate stuff.

I got this cap (which I wore to race in on Sunday):


these goggles (broke the first pair changing the nose bridge; got a replacement last night; will try them out tomorrow):

and I designed this suit at Splish.com, which should arrive in another week or so:
I receive a surprise in the mail last week, a gift from my friend, Susan, who had hinted that she had found something "with my name all over it." Yep, she was dead on, I mean pirates and zebra stripes? It's this purse/carry thingie:

How cool is that? Susan found it at some craft fair, and told me that when she spotted it, her first thought was that it was screaming my name! Thanks, Susan--I love it!

You'd think I'd be all over the Avia stuff, but sadly, no pirates on the shoes that I can see. I'm going to start tracking down some sort of pirate shoes, and no, it won't be knee-high "pirate" boots or these. Although, wouldn't it be funny to show up in transition wearing those? Who knows---maybe the Jolly Roger will be flying at TTT and IMLP!

Weekly Workout Totals 03/02/2009-03/08/2009 and Thinking About 2010

So it was a good week of training. REALLY good. Actually, from last Saturday through last Friday, I put in like 19 hours, and then I raced pretty well on Sunday, so this tells me I'm right where I need to be to get ready for the big volume coming up, and I'm excited about it!

Also, just serendipitously (see previous post), I was chatting with one of my BFF's, Shelley, and talked about Goofy Challenge, and then I thought, OMG what if it's already sold out for 2010, and I found out it wasn't, and we are IN IN IN and we're getting other friends to sign up, too!

Goofy Challenge (my 3rd time there) will be the start of the year of no more conventional Ironman races. So far, what I'm thinking about for 2010 is:

• Goofy Challenge in January
• Triple T in May
• Total Man (Day 1: swim as much as possible, Day 2: bike as much as possible, Day 3: run as much as possible) in June
• RAINSTORM in July (100+ miles of biking every day for 7 days)
• Something else pretty extreme in August; need to find something
• SOS (Survival of the Shawangunks) in September

That would be one helluva normal-Ironman-free year, wouldn't it? I'm excited about concocting a training plan for it, and the real mission behind it is to get ready to be invited to Ultraman Kona in 2011.

Shelley is asking me when I'm going to post pics of myself. I'm thinking at the end of this week when I'm officially 2 weeks into my little fat trimming/buffing out exercise. I can tell you my upper body is looking good from all the extra pushups and pullups, and my abs are starting to return to normal by changing things up. But I've still got a few more pounds of fat to shave off, I guess I'm just picky that way.

Anyway, here's what I did last week and this week promises to be even better!

Weekly Workout Totals	03/02/2009-03/08/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by torrential rain
Swim:	7800 yards (4.43 miles) in 2.7 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 946 calories burned Canadian: 7132.32 meters
Bike:	Approx. 109.79 miles in 6.23 hours; 43% of weekly workout time; approx. 3123 calories burned; Total TSS=365 Canadian: 176.69 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 27.17 miles in 4.14 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 1873 calories burned Canadian: 43.73 kilometers
Strength:	1.27 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 318 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 141.39 miles in 14.34 hours; approx. 6260 calories burned Canadian: 7.43 kilometers
Sleep:	7.43 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.22 hours. Massage: 1 hours

And the Planning for 2010 Begins....

Confirmation #:	197098-030909085711
Date & Time:	01/09/10 - 01/10/10
Location:	Walt Disney World?? Resort (Map)
Purchased at:	03/09/09
Category:	2010 Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge
:

Midwest Indoor Triathlon Series--Series Winner, and Won all 4 Races

Today was the last of the 4 indoor triathlons in the series. Every time I've done these, there is squirrelly weather--either torrential rains, ice storms or heavy snow. Today we are getting the torrential rains. My downstairs was dry until about 4:30AM this morning, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I got seepage. It's not as bad as it could be, but still I hate when that happens, but if it rains 4+" it's going to happen.

Even last night when I went to bed, my stomach did just not feel good. I think it's stress because I started up the tax process for my Dad's 2008 estate filing yesterday, and there are, as usual, glitches, and well, it's been awhile since I've had to process anything like this and it just brings up sad feelings, and couple that with an impending race and water in my house, and let's just say I had some moments of feeling really sorry for myself this morning.

My stomach continued to feel lousy when I woke up this morning, and so given I wasn't racing until 3:05PM, I didn't want to eat any "real" food, so I had a Powerbar for breakfast, a banana (which I thought would help but it didn't), then a can of Coke, some Endurox R4 and finally some Red Bomb (half Ultra Violence and half Gatorade ice) to race with.

I did absolutely nothing yesterday except for a few pushups, pullups and abs. I skipped the jump rope yesterday because I wanted a completely cardio-less day. On Friday, I worked out about 4:45 (1 hour swim, 2:20 bike, 1 hour run plus my extra crap including jump rope) so that I wouldn't need to do anything after today's race, and that meant I could do nothing yesterday. So I did!

This morning, I was on flood duty, did some dinner prep, and had planned on watching a friend race who was starting about an hour before me, and it finally dawned on me that if I wanted to get in a race warmup that I needed to be there earlier than I had planned. Thank God it turned to DST today, because I've been in that time zone for like 6 months now, which means I will wake up at a respectable 4:30-4:45AM instead of my usual 3:30AM! So I was all on schedule except for not doing the math to realize how early I needed to be at the club in order to warm up.

I got there with enough time to do 5' of jump rope and 5' of running, and I didn't get my bike warmup in until I was actually racing. I watched my friend kick ass in his wave, and then it was my turn. Considering how my stomach felt, I didn't have any high aspirations, and since I had already won the 3 previous races, I was guaranteed to win the series title (best 3 out of 4) no matter what, and I didn't think I was too motivated.

But when I got into the pool, it was pretty damn cold, and it felt great, and I just swam strong and easy and met my goal of 550 yards (yeah I'm slow but I can swim that pace FOREVER), and then it was onto the bike. It looked like there might be some contenders in my wave, but when I hit the first mile first, I knew it was game on! One of the volunteers kept asking who would be first to hit the next mile and every time she said that I said to my volunteer, "ME!" I had my second best bike of the 4 races, and when I got off there, I wasn't too thrilled about running (I easily won my wave on the bike).

It looked to me like there were a few women in my wave who would wax me on the run, but we took off and I was in the lead the entire time, how messed up is that? I mean, I am NOT a runner, and here I was lapping everyone and generally not pushing myself too hard because I had nobody to pace off of, and yet I kept thinking SOMEBODY must be a player, but it never happened. I just cruised until there was a minute to go, and then I tried to actually deploy a kick, which I don't usually have, but I must have had one today because I gunned it a little extra, and when it was over I puked in one of the Home Depot buckets! It's been awhile since I've puked after a race, and it made me laugh. The other cool thing is that after maybe 2 laps, I couldn't feel my legs at all! I mean I could tell my feet were making impact with the track, but other than that I had zero feeling in my quads and calves, and that was a really, really great feeling.

We went to check the final results, as I was in the last wave, and my friend won his age group, and when they posted my results, they miscalculated the distances for sure, and I got a little upset about it and went into the office where they were calculating and showed them the mistake. Cuz the next best woman to me in my age group was slower on all three legs, yet how could her total distance be more than mine??? I was like fuck, please fix this, although I didn't swear at the volunteers, but they could tell I was a little excited. So they fixed me up and then I put my results back up on the board and felt pretty good about the whole thing since I felt like crap.

I am now home and have a good deal of water downstairs, but I can take care of it--it's just rain water--and hopefully the rains have stopped, and hey, I didn't have to run for 1:30 after the race so I don't even feel beat up! And I should be able to knock out a regular swim tomorrow morning, and life is pretty fucking good!

I know these are just stinky little indoor triathlons, but the cool thing is I have not gotten any slower, and I obliterated everyone in my age group and maybe even one or two lower, so that's cool, and I'm almost at my fighting weight (I was at 112.4 this morning, fuckin' A!), and now I'm getting pumped about starting the big volume buildup for Triple T.

Since I barely had any calories so far, I am drinking several painkillers (beers) to make some of them up. It was a great day of racing, and maybe I don't actually suck as bad as I sometimes think I do. Hey, a win is a win, right?

113--The Plan is Working

I'm down about 1.5 lbs. in 6 days and pretty sure it was fat. I've been tracking my calorie intake and calculating daily and cumulative deficit in 2 ways (cuz I'm anal): first, based on what I was told about a year ago the last time I had my BMR/RMR measured, which was to just plug in 500 calories per hour for any type of exercise I do (swim, bike, run, lift) and second, based on what I have estimated my actual burn rates to be for different types of exercise taking average pace into consideration.

I'm pretty sure I don't generally burn 500 calories per hour swimming, although the last time I used an HRM in an Ironman, I think my swim came out to about 750, so under the stress and excitement of a race, that may be true. For biking, the Ergomo tells me exactly what I am burning based on my power output, and on an average basis, it comes out to about 550. For running, I definitely don't meet the 100 calories/mile estimate because I am so small, but if I remember from when I used an HRM, it was around 525-550/hour. Strength I have no clue!

So my 6-day deficit as measured with what I believe to be my burn rates is about 3800 calories, which should be a little over a pound. I've been adding about 10 minutes of extra stuff per day that is not included in my calories burned total, and if you figure on 500 calories per hour for that, it comes out to another 500 calories, so maybe 4300 (although I'm not including that extra stuff in my calories burned for purposes of dropping weight), and 4300/3500 is 1.3. Nice!

It is good to see that the old calories in/calories out equation is working the way it should. I frequently hear people bitching and moaning about how they can't lose weight even though they believe they are technically creating a significant calorie deficit. I always tell them that the only way to prove their statements is by having their RMR/BMR measured, their exercise burn rates approximated based on that (which requires a bodyfat % calculation, too), and then keep meticulous records of intake and output. But then one needs to recognize that as you drop weight, your RMR for sure is going to change, and unless you keep adding more exercise, your BMR would drop, too. So it is true that there's a delicate balance between how much you eat, how much exercise you do (on average), how lean you are and to an extent, age. Which is why I have had rules of thumb about what I will and won't eat based on the average number of training hours per week that I do, and I knew full well that I was not paying close attention to that this winter, and presto, extra fat. DUH.

Why should RMR/BMR be affected by age, all other things being equal? Technically, it may not be. That is, if you maintain the same bodyfat %, then as you age, all other things being equal, your RMR/BMR should stay pretty much level. Many RMR/BMR estimates will use your age but not your bodyfat %. So the assumption is that as you age that you get fatter, which is true for most sedentary to moderately active people. Is it more difficult to maintain lean mass as you age? I think that may be true to an extent, but is it biochemically based? I doubt it. I think that as we age we adjust our standards to be "OK" with a little more fat than we had when we were younger. I mean, face it, it's hard work to stay lean and muscular. Like I always say, if it were easy, then everyone would be ripped and gorgeous!

I can tell you from my pre-endurance days that I was able to maintain a weight of around 118 lbs. on very few calories--maybe 1800 per day. I think there is an individual daily quantity of food that makes you feel "not deprived." I remember when I was watching my intake like a hawk and that 1800 did not seem like a whole lot of food. Since I've been tracking things again for almost a week, it "feels" like around 2000-2200 is satiating to me. But if I wasn't doing all the CV stuff, that would be enough for me to get fat pretty fast.

A nice by product of the extra stuff that I'm doing is that I'm using/developing muscles that don't normally come with the "triathlon" package. It feels really good! Jumping rope is an excellent warmup for anything else and is awesome for your calves, core and arms, the pushups and pullups may be helping me in the water, and changing up/supplementing my abs work was something I needed to do anyway.

Where this will all lead, who knows. In case you're asking the question, am I vain? Of course. I'd like to stop/slow down the aging process as much as the next person, but I also want to feel strong in my daily activities aside from triathlon. It's nice, for example, to be able to shovel my driveway when I feel like it and not be sore, or to rake leaves for 4 hours or be bent over for a few hours gardening. And it was really nice to be able to weather a stupid back injury--I'm not saying I did it with aplomb, but it could have been much, much worse.

I'm sure some of you are wondering when I will post pics of my work. Give me another week and we'll see what I think after dropping another pound.

Writing for Another Blog

My friend, Brett, has asked me to begin contributing to his excellent blog, Triathlon Jones, which is geared towards beginners. So I wrote my first piece here. I was pretty amazed that I could write something so short yet true. I get asked or I hear people asking quite frequently how to become a better biker. It's not rocket science! Sure I have a power meter, but even without one, it boils down to a few simple concepts.

I enjoyed writing this article and hope to write more. If you are or know of beginner triathletes, please send them over Brett's way. He knows a few things and more importantly, is 100% into the mental aspects of training and racing, which is one of the things that led us to become friends.

Weekly Workout Totals 02/23/2009-03/01/2009 and Getting Into Gear

Overall, last week was great, training wise. I nailed my key workouts. I embarked on my 4-week disciplinary action, which was a good excuse to do some tweaking to my diet and some other things. On paper, everything was pretty solid, and I am feeling damn strong.

2 years ago when I did the 4 indoor tris and just added them on top of my usual serious training build, I wasn't able to keep up my run volume. Looking back, it may have been because I did a marathon in January, 2007 (actually Goofy Challenge), but it may have been that I wasn't strong enough at the time to do it.

This year, though, I haven't missed a beat (knock wood!) on my running except for one week when I was sick, and I cut back just a little there. Don't get me wrong--Mondays after a sprint plus 1:30-1:40 of running has still been a challenge to recover from, but I've been getting it done in the midst of recovering from a serious back injury, my strength buildup, weekly track workouts, and pretty solid bike workouts.

I guess 2009 is the year of the big changes. I am tweaking things here and there, and it feels good to do it and that means it was probably necessary. At the end of the day, I just want to feel strong and solid and be able to train (i.e., have fun) a lot! So doing a few odd group trainer workouts, swimming with paddles (yeah I know there are those who say that's good and those who say not--I don't care--my upper body is responding well to them so good for me), adding some new peripheral stuff (chinups, extra pushups and abs work and jump rope), and paying more (actually what is generally my normal) attention to my diet, all seems to be moving me in the right direction.

This coming on the heels of a stinky prior racing season and major renovation of my house, all feels pretty great. My beautiful upstairs bathroom is finally 100% functional (freezing pipes solved), and I know it sounds silly, but I am really looking forward to taking a bath in there! I don't take baths very often, as I'm usually showering twice a day as it is, but I am going to park myself in there this week sometime and enjoy the hell out of it.

This week my strengh routine moves to maintenance mode, which is going to feel like a piece of cake compared to the last 7 weeks. But as soon as my new, heavier medicine ball arrives, I will be putting the hurt to my abs, which have languished for the last few years at the same resistance level (12 lbs.; moving to 15), so that should be interesting, huh?

I've ordered seeds, a few plants and some lily bulbs to plant once it warms up, and I have already noticed certain bulbs poking out of the ground. We've had plenty of snow this winter, so spring should be outstanding, and while I have a lot of perennial stems to cut down and don't particularly look forward to mowing the lawn, every spring I am always so in awe of all the beautiful flowers I've planted through the years and the fact that with minimal care, they come back and just, well, make my yard a thing of beauty and a place for me to just walk around and be amazed by the colors, scents, insects and birds. Actually something is already blooming--my giant pussy willow is full of catkins (ha ha that's the technical term you pervs) that will soon explode and begin attracting bees, and crocuses are not far behind, and then daffodils, hyacinths, peonies--I have close to 100 different flowering plants in my yard. And yet each spring I am surprised at the procession of green and flowers, and it's so rejuvenating.

March is the month here when you get teased by the spectre of warm weather, and it's important to be prepared to take advantage whenever the opportunity presents. It's supposed to be in the 50's on Friday, so that may mean an outdoor ride. I'll begin transitioning to more and more outdoor running, but need to build that up gradually to get my legs used to the pounding of the pavement and also my nearby hills! Yes, hills! I miss them...and I look forward to cursing them.

Well, time to go run and swim. Happy Monday!

Weekly Workout Totals	02/23/2009-03/01/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by Discipline
Swim:	9500 yards (5.39 miles) in 3.3 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 1155 calories burned Canadian: 8686.8 meters
Bike:	Approx. 106.56 miles in 5.9 hours; 41% of weekly workout time; approx. 3187 calories burned; Total TSS=355 Canadian: 171.49 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 24.3 miles in 3.81 hours; 26% of weekly workout time; approx. 1729 calories burned Canadian: 39.11 kilometers
Strength:	1.55 hours; 11% of weekly workout time; approx. 388 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 136.25 miles in 14.56 hours; approx. 6459 calories burned Canadian: 7.71 kilometers
Sleep:	7.71 hours avg./night
Stretching:	3.3 hours. Massage: 0 hours

Mojo Coming Back

I wasn't sure how much of anything I would do today...some kinda long run (according to Dr. I was not supposed to run until tomorrow, ha ha--actually it started out as "no running for a week" to which I said "That will not be happening") and then swimming, depending. Warmed up with 5' of jump rope, 2x5 chinups, 20 pushups and about 5' of abs. Feeling good! Onto the treadmill, feeling good, nothing seems to be breaking, ended up going 1:55 for 12.3 miles, not blazing, but felt strong. Felt like I could have run a marathon today. Followed up with 2800 yds. (700 with paddles) swimming, which also felt great until maybe the last 400 when my body said FEED ME!!!

I have to mess with the training schedule for the coming week since I want to get in all the regularly scheduled S/B/R plus do well at the last of the 4 indoor tris on Sunday, plus I did no brick runs this week so I need to sneak in a couple or 3. Which means I need to move my long ride to Friday (including a brick run), and instead of a long run on Sunday after the race (my wave isn't until 3:05 PM so fuck that), I'll just spread out running throughout the week to get to my necessary total.

It feels like my mojo is coming back in a big way, as this is the best I've felt in months, really, just strong, solid and ready for much, much more. As it should be with Triple T in 12 weeks! I have to say, I had forgotten how good jumping rope feels and how it just revs you up for whatever follows! Considering that way back when before I began running I used to jump rope for an hour continuously, starting back with only 5' seems pretty lame, but I'm guessing I'll build back up to maybe 15' daily in addition to whatever training I have scheduled on weekdays. I highly doubt I will be up for the jumping on weekends when I'm riding 3+ hours.

I'm having fun cycling through all kinds of abs exercises that I haven't done in years, and it's a good thing because I can tell my abs had gotten used to my regular routine, so it's time to mix it up. And I finally bought (online) a 15-lb. medicine ball with double handles so I can increase the weight on any abs work I do with a medicine ball, and I should be able to add new stuff now that I'll have handles!

My 4-week clean up plan is going well, being on Day 3 now. Maybe it's just the little extra bit of exercise, maybe it's cutting out some crap I was eating, but I feel pretty good, and it should just get better from here, and I'm pretty confident I won't be a fat ass in 4 weeks!

Four Week "Cleansing" Plan

So you know how sometimes you feel unsettled and it's a signal that you need to make some changes? I think that's a regular occurrence for me especially around this time of year, when I am so sick of winter and also knowing that I'm getting dangerously close to the point where I really will be getting serious about my training.

I've been kind of a slacker this winter as far as my diet goes--too much alcohol (not that it wasn't fun!), too many treats, probably not drinking enough water and eating a little too richly for my needs. Also, I tend to get confused when I'm training a lot and get my carb balance all out of whack, and so nutritionally I'm probably not doing the best I can.

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, I feel fat. I've weighed myself, and you can only go so long in saying "maybe it's muscle." Maybe some of it is. Net net is I'm 114 lbs. and that ain't good for me. I should be 110-112, max. So this morning I decided it was time to bite the bullet and make myself a plan to obliterate those 2-4 lbs.

Step 1: Find out where the hell are those pounds. So I took all my measurements yesterday morning. Apparently, the excess is in my ass. Let's just say from about 2" below my navel to the top of my thighs, which is generally the belly/ass area. My chest measured about 1" larger than a year ago, but honestly I am not seeing any fat up there, so I'm going to say that's my lats building up from the regular chinups and more swimming with paddles, so that's good. But 1" there is not 1 lb. of muscle...damn it. For the sake of accountability, here are some comparisons:



Step 2: Fess up to nutritional changes I need to make to get myself back on track. Among those changes are less alcohol, no more candy or hard cheese in the house, eat more fruit and watch my fat intake. Fact is I know that if I just grab some fruit when I want a snack that it will pretty much take care of the rest. But I am also going to try and cut out some processed foods at breakfast and lunch (Power bars and Lean Cuisine) that aren't impacting my caloric intake, but it seems like a good idea to get back to more whole, clean foods there as well.

Step 3: While I'm at it, I may as well add some other things to my daily routine just to mix things up. So daily pushups, chinups, crunches and jump rope are being added. Why? Why not.

Step 4: Start tracking stuff. I haven't kept a detailed food log in years, and I'm not going to do that now, but I am writing down calories taken in. I'll weigh myself once a week and record that, too. Also check off whether I followed through on the other little things.

I officially started my 4 weeks yesterday. So far so good! I did some crunch variations this morning that I haven't done in a long, long time, and I really felt it in my abs, so that tells me it was time to mix things up. I know my body gets used to anything I'm doing, be it an amount of training, intensity of training, stretching routine, eating pattern--ANYTHING! It's maddening at times, but the fact is my (and maybe your) body requires me to constantly keep it on its toes.

I'm not going to change around my training plan--just adding some things here and there. In 4 weeks, my training volume is going to begin the big jump-up to get ready for Triple T (only 12 weeks away) and IMLP (21 weeks away). So it will be good to head into this build period feeling lean, mean and solid.

Next week I transition to strength maintenance, too, so all good in terms of ch-ch-ch-changes. I ordered some seeds and plants this morning, so psychologically, I am preparing myself for spring and all the changes that brings, increased training volume, mixing things up and hopefully a good season ahead for me. But at the end of the day, all this is about to me is looking and feeling good. The race results will be what they will be. As long as I have fun doing it, what more is there to do?

Oh, and I can always use a little...

I'm an "Endurance Specialist"

Last night I went to The Bike Shop to do a group trainer workout. The workout was pretty good, but not as intense as the one I did myself on Tuesday. That's OK, because I haven't given my legs a rest since Friday the 13th. Maybe I could have rode harder, but I paid attention to the % of FT that were being yelled at me, and so hey, 80% is 80% and not that hard.

Anyway, a group of us went out for dinner afterwards (me and a bunch of men--go figure), and there was a new guy present, and we were talking about riding (big surprise) and what we've done and stuff, and the shop owner, Rich, tagged me as "an endurance specialist." I've been called many things, but never that. I almost wish he had just said "Crackhead."

Thing is, sure I like endurance stuff. A LOT. But I still love my strength and other stuff, and pre-triathlon, I was into volleyball, softball, stair climbing and other assorted nonsense. I guess maybe being labeled made me think about what I'm doing, do I still like it, is it time to make changes, all that stuff. Yes and yes.

What's funny is that even as I write this, I want to do a really, really long training day. Why is that? I was telling someone about my 2008 birthday workout, and I really enjoyed that except for the fact that I was working that day, too (if I didn't work that day I would have done more). I really like hiking in the mountains, too. And then someone mentioned Italy. I really want to spend a few weeks there riding in the mountains (OK and drinking wine and eating great food).

All of this points to changing things around next year. For now, I'm sticking with my plan to try and knock out a few good triathlon performances. Yes, I have a fairly rigid training program, yes I should probably mix things up, and that's where I think dropping some races from the calendar may come in. Or not.

A lot of this is prompted by being absolutely sick of winter, long pants, long shirts, coats, hats, gloves, grey skies, indoor workouts. The idea of a 5-hour bike ride is intoxicating!

Weekly Workout Totals 02/16/2009-02/22/2009 and stinky race

First about yesterday's race...I had a bad day. I sucked. I should have had the volunteer write "loser" on me before I started. I did have a good swim, and felt really strong there, no doubt from using the paddles a lot, so that was the silver lining. When I got on the bike, the thing felt way harder than it had 2 weeks ago, so either the thing was miscalibrated...or...I just sucked. At any rate, I was demoralized and figured why bother trying to push it much on the run. I was in the elite women's wave, so I got passed plenty of times, but there was one woman who was slightly ahead of me for quite awhile, and at least I got psyched to finally pass her and lap her. When it was finished, I just about puked, so I'm going with the bike being off, because it sure felt like I had pushed some serious watts. Oh well...I still won my age group, but I'll call this an ugly win. In 2 weeks, I am going to do everything I can including taking a day off before the race to see what I can give. Some of this is just my body adapting to the sum total of training I've been throwing at myself, and I can't expect to be on every time, but still it was a pretty dramatic degree of suckage compared to 2 weeks ago.

Every time I've done this series, I have one off race, so this was it, but it was still a good day. I got to watch some other people I know race who did really well, and hey, a bad day racing is still better than a good day working, right? Plus, I couldn't do my long run right there at the club where the race was held, so I had to drive home and fire up a treadmill on my Y. My race was at 10:05, and I started running again at 1:25, had a short massage in between, but still man, did it feel NOT GOOD to run later! I could feel all the lactate (or whatever it is, depending on who you ask) in my legs, and it was just torture to keep going. I wanted to stop so badly, asking myself why the fuck am I doing this to myself? A normal person would just have gone home and taken a nap or at least put their feet up. But NOOOOOO....the voice in my head that knows that it's better to suffer like this now in training because it will toughen me up for the stuff to come, namely Triple T, Horribly Hilly, Rockman 1/2 Ironman and IMLP all in the space of 10 weeks. So I had better be plenty tough to not only withstand all that but also try and do well at each of them. At least once every 5 minutes I told myself that I had done enough, but then I would tell myself that I could make it through another 5 minutes, and so I kept going and got in 1:20 more of running, and I thought about stretching a little bit before I went home, but that went out the window as my body was screaming for calories. I went home and drank some Endurox and made some guacamole and did some dinner prep and washed the dishes and then I finally got around to some serious stretching around 5PM and my body was so thankful for that, and I knew I would feel like I'd been pretty well torched this morning.

I was pleasantly awakened today by a male cardinal singing right outside my bedroom, and I just laid in bed with my eyes closed listening to him sing, and thought what a nice way to be woken up (not that there aren't better ways--there are--but still) and how that bird's song is a surefire sign that spring is just around the corner (I saw a robin last week, too), and I kept laying there for a few minutes assessing how my muscles felt, and not too surprisingly, I felt like I "did something" the day before. I got out of bed, made some coffee, and thought about just taking a rest day, but again, the point of what I'm doing now is to get up and do it again, repeat weekly, and force the body to adapt. I only swam for 1/2 hour, and it felt absolutely wonderful to be in the water, and I could tell the swimming was helping to flush some crap out of my system.

The next item on my agenda for today was a :50 run, and of course, my legs were protesting violently to this possibility, but I told them to shut the fuck up and I was going to run. I decided to don my compression socks, because I knew that if I looked like a complete and total dork that I wouldn't cheese out on the run, I mean how lame would I look if I only ran for like 20 minutes? I can't say the compression socks made any difference whatsoever, but just knowing they were there acted like a whip to keep me going. I actually had a pretty decent easy-ish run, although when I was finished I immediately went home and jumped on a conference call and my body was screaming for more calories, and luckily I could throw something in the microwave while I was listening in on the call, and then I had 5 minutes in between calls, so I got my shower in, and I'm laughing at how this is what I choose to do.

This stuff is so conducive to flip flopping mental states. This morning I was chatting with a friend at the pool about how it feels really good (to him and me, at least) when we are just really fucking tired from a good day of training and whatever else life has thrown at us. I've figured out that for myself, when I am in that tired state, there is nothing else I can think about but how tired I am, and that frees my brain to let go and really relax. I mean like I know I was watching the Oscars last night, but I don't remember a whole lot about it because I was so wiped out and it felt so good and I didn't really care who was winning or what the award was for and even though my own race sucked, I HTFU'ed and ran afterwards. So in one day I started out optimistic, felt bad that I performed like a total loser slacker, but then kept going and got that end of the day bliss that makes all of this worth it.

I am really nobody in the big scheme of things, but this is what I choose right now for myself. At least a few times every year I run into someone I haven't seen for awhile, and get asked the question, "Are you still doing all that hardcore training and stuff?" And now I just smile at them because what I'm thinking is asking them about how great is their life is and how do they feel about their choices? It's almost as if people expect you to just fall down and give up, and what the hell, is that the norm? Oh yeah, that's right life is hard. It IS. I'm not in it to win an award, but I am in it to LIVE IT and I intend to keep doing that. Pushing myself makes me feel alive; being exhausted after pushing myself makes me feel alive. Sure I don't have to outrun bullets or survive horrid living conditions, and maybe that's why I choose this for myself because I DO have it easy relative to a lot of people. I just really, really like feeling alive. I love moving around, I love the sun shining on my face, tending to my little piece of land that produces so much incredible beauty for much of the year, tuning into the nature that is presented to me, enjoying good food and drink, putting in a good day's work, and maybe, just maybe putting a smile on someone else's face or getting them to think about what they could do to enhance their own life.

I'm rambling, but I get to that every now and then just so I remember what all is swirling about in my head. Life is good. No--life is great! I am once again back to feeling like problems are just small things, and that is the best part of all of this. I am really looking forward to riding my bikes outside soon enough, but also sinking my hands into the dirt in my yard and seeing what I can make grow and give me pleasure there. I guess I'm a hedonist of sorts--I love the beauty of nature, and I love colors (duh) and tastes and smells and sounds. I think we were given our senses and neuromuscular system to experience and enjoy everything around us and not taking advantage of that seems to me a grand waste of a life.

Anyway, here's what I did last week:

Weekly Workout Totals	02/16/2009-02/22/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by the coming of spring!
Swim:	7850 yards (4.46 miles) in 2.75 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 962 calories burned Canadian: 7178.04 meters
Bike:	Approx. 101.02 miles in 5.63 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 2812 calories burned; Total TSS=295 Canadian: 162.58 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 28.12 miles in 4.33 hours; 30% of weekly workout time; approx. 1956 calories burned Canadian: 45.25 kilometers
Strength:	1.87 hours; 13% of weekly workout time; approx. 468 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 133.6 miles in 14.58 hours; approx. 6198 calories burned Canadian: 1.25 kilometers
Sleep:	7.61 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.78 hours. Massage: 1.25 hours

Race Toes

For this Sunday...

Getting Used to It

Since my training has been focused on accomplishing a number of things, it's only normal to expect not everything to line up all at once. My strength training has been going well, and since I'm just this week almost to a maintenance (i.e., no increase in overall load), I know that it is impacting s/b/r in various ways. Throw in every 2 weeks races with a 1:30 run afterwards, mix things up with a few group bike workouts to throw off my training/recovery schedule, add in a virus, and it's been quite an experience. Nothing that I didn't expect, though! The whole point of what I'm doing is to make me very strong so that once I kick up the volume in mid-March, my body will be fully prepared for it.

So on that note, last week I had some pretty good bike workouts, although Saturday I wasn't on. Sunday I had a great 1:40 run. Monday I didn't get enough sleep, but still managed to run, which was the thing I needed to do. Yesterday my bike workout sucked--I just had dead legs--but I didn't obsess over it. Today I had a decent swim even though the pool was stinking hot, and then this afternoon I had a really great track workout.

I'm going to lift tonight because I normally start on it on Monday, but work has been in my way, so I'm starting tonight and will do some more tomorrow and perhaps Friday. I should have a good bike workout tomorrow, and then Friday and Saturday are all about a holding pattern before I race again on Sunday.

I am definitely feeling the intensity of everything I'm doing, and I'm only 2 weeks away from the last indoor sprint tri and then my lifting goes into maintenance mode! That's always something I look forward to because it just changes my physiology. My massage therapist commented to me yesterday that he could feel the changes in my muscles from the progressive work I've been doing, and I've also added 500+ yards of swimming with paddles to each workout now, so I'm intentionally putting the hurt to myself.

Periodically I ask myself whether it's worth it to put myself through all of this because right about this time of year, I am very up and down with workout success, but as long as I keep moving in the right direction, which I am, I'm OK with being tired or cranky or a little extra sore. This is the price I pay to have the strength and endurance to do all the crazy shit I like to do starting in May, and that is my definition of big fun!

I suppose that as long as I can race well again on Sunday, it doesn't matter whether I'm "on" for each and every workout, does it?

Hey, it's all good, even the crappy workouts. I won't even remember the crappy workouts. All I will remember is that come May I was out there kicking ass and taking names.

Weekly Workout Totals 02/09/2009-02/15/2009

Someone on Slowtwitch asked why so many triathletes blog. I responded in there, mostly to reaffirm what a big, giant dork I am since I post training totals and stuff. But this blog ain't all about training totals, is it? Things will get spiced up no doubt once winter is over and I'm out riding and causing general mayhem (or at least I hope to be) and wearing less clothes. Until then, I still don't care if anyone reads this, and I still don't care what anyone thinks who reads this, I don't mind the people who stop by only for the pics, and I'm going to keep on writing as long as something strikes my fancy.

I had a solid training week last week and felt pretty much back on my game after a race. It was interesting leading the bike workout on Wednesday night and then doing a track workout Thursday morning--not really enough recovery time in between 2 key workouts! But I only had to swim on Friday, so no worries. I just did not feel great on the bike on Saturday, which I'm owing to antibiotics that I'm taking for a minor thing, but the brick run was solid. Yesterday I ran 1:40 and ran strong and well, and did an easy :50 swim afterwards that felt great.

This week will be a "normal" training week; i.e., I am not moving workouts around like I did last week, and I've got another race on Sunday. This time, they put me in a wave with the top 10 women overall, so at some level I am going to get my ass handed to me! That's OK--it will be seriously motivating to be up against the talent. I may even beat 1 or 2 of them! Plus, at this race, the bikes are in the center of the 8-laps-to-the-mile running track, which makes it even more exciting. I'm going to get my lucky Brazilian wax the day before because thinking about that pain while racing makes it seem not so bad!

In other news, my back is feeling pretty darn great now. I am pronouncing myself healed! And I'm over the URI I had for about 1.5 weeks, and starting tomorrow, I'm off the antibiotics (which mess with my gut and also sometimes make me drowsy). So putting all that together with my (hopefully) third solid training week in a row, and the stars could be aligning for me to have a great race this Sunday. I'm already looking forward to the post-race festivities--food, massage, beers, a nap, more food, more beers. Or maybe champagne...depending on whether I can take my AG again and stay in the top 10 overall. And maybe hit 7 miles on the bike. Why do I keep raising my own celebratory stakes? Why not?

Here's what I did last week:

Weekly Workout Totals	02/09/2009-02/15/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by the awesome feeling of being 100% healthy!
Swim:	9200 yards (5.22 miles) in 3.25 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 1138 calories burned Canadian: 8412.48 meters
Bike:	Approx. 102.15 miles in 5.43 hours; 39% of weekly workout time; approx. 2774 calories burned; Total TSS=323 Canadian: 164.39 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 25.94 miles in 3.97 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 1797 calories burned Canadian: 41.75 kilometers
Strength:	1.4 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 350 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 133.31 miles in 14.05 hours; approx. 6059 calories burned Canadian: 2.13 kilometers
Sleep:	7.75 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.13 hours. Massage: 1 hours

For no particular reason...

This should really be titled "Ode to Facebook"