Not a diet

Day 27 of Whole30 and trying not to get annoyed with people. Why do people feel the need to judge because I’m trying to eat healthy and make healthy decisions? Just because I’m making an effort to make positive changes doesn’t mean you need to look down me like I’m crazy or you feel sorry for me because my life must not be fulfilling without unhealthy food in it. I’m sick of people saying “oh that’s right you’re on a diet” because I don’t want the doughnuts during staff meeting. AHHH it’s not a diet! Typically diets are unpleasant experiences aimed purely at weight loss and you can’t wait until it’s over. This is not that in any way.

  

I’ve actually been enjoying the food I’ve been eating. I haven’t been forcing gross food down my throat. I only eat what I want to eat. I’ve really enjoyed branching out on what I eat and trying new things (like paleo eggplant lasagna…actually good and the hubby even agreed!). I’ve discovered a lot of healthy foods I think are really tasty. I’m not thinking “I can’t wait until Monday when I can eat this or that again!” My thoughts have been more like hm I wonder what foods I’ll actually want to reintroduce.

I also haven’t been starving myself. The sheer volume of food I eat continues to kind of gross people out. In fact I’m probably eating a larger volume because veggies have so little calories that I can get away with eating a ton. The only time I’m hungry is when I don’t have food with me (a triathlete sin) or I haven’t finished cooking in which case I start snacking. Someone asked how many calories I was eating right now guessing around 1000. That’s funny because I’m pretty sure I’d pass out since I burn around that much in training.

So please, don’t think I’m miserable or grumpy or feeling tired from lack of calories or sitting around moping about all the things I can’t eat because that is not remotely the case. I’m feeling fine, actually feeling great, and I’m happy about this choice. Perhaps instead look at this as inspiration or something. When was the last time you decided to take on a challenge to make a change for the better and realized it really isn’t that difficult? That’s what this was to me.

One of those mornings

You know those mornings where it’s cold and dark when you’re alarm goes off but you don’t want to get out of your warm, comfortable bed? Yea, like that. But cold, dark, raining and windy and I didn’t want to get out of my car to do a track workout. Alas, work must be done, rain or shine so after some groaning (yes out loud), I dragged myself out of the car. How much do we want to bet it will be raining when I run again after work?

That's all I've got. Sometimes it's nice to just pop in to say "Hi". Or complain. Truth be told, it wasn't that bad. So HI! Have a happy Tuesday.

Setting myself up

As always training goes in waves of good and bad. Recently it’s been bad mostly from being sick. I’m finally about 95% better. Today was a very good day for training. I hate to be one of those people who sits there says “look at me and my amazing life” but I’m not ashamed of talking about my bad days as well.

Today was a long run with some harder mile repeats. My last attempt at a similar run during training camp went pretty poorly. I was a little afraid of how today went. Today I did everything I could do to set myself up to be successful. I got a lot of sleep. I woke up plenty early before the run so I wouldn’t be rushed. I made myself a full breakfast and had plenty of time to digest it. I spent 10 minutes foam rolling and digging into spots I learned about in camp. I drank plenty of fluids. During the run I had to practice race fueling and hydrating so I carried OSMO and ate Chomps on schedule.

I had the pleasure of running with two friends whom I haven’t run with since… oh maybe summer? It was really nice having company during the first easy 45 minutes. Man do easy miles go by faster when you aren’t really thinking about running. At the same time I was totally ok running by myself after that because I like to focus when it’s time to put some harder work in. I think for the first time ever while running with other people I kept my heartrate in check.

All of these things added up to a really good run. Those things and perfect running weather and an awesome terrain which was mostly downhill during the mile repeats. Those things of course help. I was really happy with how the run went and it was far better than I expected. It also happened to be the furthest I’ve ever run and after I was done I felt like I could have easily kept running. And better yet, I apparently set a new open half marathon PR during the workout.

I also tried some Amino Energy in my OSMO for the first time and holy shit between the sugar and caffeine while doing Whole30 was I bouncing off the walls when I got home. My husband kept looking at me like I was insane because I wouldn’t shut up or stop moving. Alas, I shut that energy down to do the next important part of training… recovery. It’s a nice excuse to spend some of the weekend eating a lot, sitting on the coach and doing an easy swim.

Whole Day 30

I am currently on day 20 of Whole Day 30. For those who don’t know anything about it, it’s very similar to Paleo but a bit more strict and for 30 days. In a nutshell no dairy (except eggs), grains, alcohol, added sugar, legumes, soy and …. no peanut butter. Really only that last one was very upsetting to me. Before I started this I was already trying to reduce a lot of those things anyway so it seemed like a good idea to go the whole way. I have an easier time sticking to something when it’s very clear yes and no’s for a set timeframe vs me trying to stop eating peanut butter and granola for a few days at a time.

Before I started this I talked to Katie who has done Whole30 before and she has helped me out a decent amount. We agreed I should take a few exceptions to the plan for training purposes. So yes I’m not doing it 100%. I KNOW! Full disclosure… I’m not following the rules 100% so therefore it’s not “technically” Whole30. It’s Whole30 with important exceptions. I’m not willing to sacrifice my training for this so the exceptions include drinking OSMO during certain longer training, drinking a recovery drink after certain training and eating bars/chews only on long rides or runs so 2-3 times a week.

Before this I had several sessions of eating mass quantities of my homemade granola straight out of the container with a spoon. This was mostly because I made a big batch the weekend before and wanted to lower my supply. I also ate whatever other perishable foods that would be off limits because I hate throwing perfectly good food out. However, I didn’t do the whole “eat everything I won’t be able to!” panic binge going into it. In fact I hadn’t had chocolate or peanut butter or any sweets since the weekend before I started. I don’t see the Whole30 as a “diet”. It’s about hitting the restart button on my body and what I eat and my relationship to food. Do I hope to drop a few pounds during it? Sure. But that’s not the main reason I’m doing it. I decided now was the best time to do it for two reasons: It’s the lowest training volume I’ll probably have all year and I am still in the middle of the weight loss  bet against my husband. So yes, I was hoping for the extra benefit of a little weight loss.

At this point I’m not sure a whole lot will change between now and day 30 but I could be wrong. Doing this wasn’t a drastic change for me. I had to completely change my breakfast as it included Greek yogurt and my homemade granola. Lunch I had to change the salad dressing. Dinner was changes like no BBQ sauce on the chicken. Snacking included no more spoonfuls of peanut butter. Because my diet wasn’t a complete overhaul, my body didn’t freak out when I started this. I had some cravings the first week. Everyone says the first week is the worst before you start feeling really good. I honestly couldn’t tell if I felt like crap from going through the initial changes because I got sick a few days in.

Overall, I’ve felt really good from this whole experience. Physically and mentally. I don’t have many cravings anymore. I’m learning that I often want to eat just for the sake of eating, not because I’m hungry (although I’m still giving into this with snacking). I’m learning to cook more, plan meals ahead of time, prepare food on weekends for the week and experiment with foods. I eat SO MANY VEGGIES! I’ll have a fully stocked fridge and a few days later it looks empty. I pretty much only open the pantry for spices, oils and nuts. I can see some changes I’ve had to make that I hope I will continue after this.

They are right… this really isn’t THAT hard. It does involve planning. Since I train a lot I have to be careful about getting the right macronutrients. I’ve spent time looking at the amount of carbs, fats and protein in various meats, veggies, fruits and nuts and played around with what I need to eat to make sure I’m getting enough carbs in my diet. That might sound tedious to some people but I actually enjoy it because I’m weird. It’s like a math problem I get to play with using spreadsheets (I’m such a nerd I know). I’ve always had a concern I wasn’t getting enough protein especially when I was a vegetarian and now it’s weird to worry about eating enough carbs. This whole thing sure has been an interesting experiment. Less than two weeks left and then we’ll see what happens from there.

TAD Running Camp

This past weekend I went to Team Amazing Day running camp! I was finally able to meet my coach, Katie, for the first time in person. Camp was in Boulder which is the almighty go-to place for triathlon training. As in I was sad I couldn’t ride while there a well. WAS being the key word because it was cold. And I had a cold.

My husband was sick for about a week before I finally caught it despite my best efforts. I hoped it would go away before the trip but of course it didn’t and I know I’m partially to blame because I’m stubborn as hell and continue to train while sick. The only way I’m ok not training is when Katie yells at me and pulls training from my schedule which is exactly what she did. However, I still showed up to camp on Thursday sick. Because of that I was forced to walk during the first run that evening. Next day I was allowed to train despite being sick because it would really suck to go to training camp and not be allowed to train.

Camp was challenging for me. It wasn’t so much that the training was super tough. It was mostly because of the situation. I couldn’t breathe because I was congested and I kept coughing. On top of that the altitude difference was very noticeable to the point where my easy run pace was over a minute slower than it is at home and I still couldn’t keep my HR in check. It was also cold. During our long run it was in the single digits. Brrrrr. That involved more layering than I’ve ever had to before and still having numb hands, butt and legs. It was also a challenge drinking because my bottle was starting to freeze in my hand. Being sick, high altitude and the cold made everything very hard on my lungs. I was pretty much wheezing, coughing and dripping snot from my nose whenever I was training and then some more rest of the day. I was even surprised how difficult swimming became.

I think a lot of that got in my head during the long run. I was assigned with the fastest/furthest distance group which from the start I thought was a mistake. And when I heard the workout I immediately thought “I can’t do that”. I doubted myself before I even gave myself a chance. Katie was doing SAG during the run and I told her I wasn’t hitting the numbers and I had the others go ahead. She asked if it was because I was sick or because of my head. I admitted both. She told me how I was faster than those guys (not the kick ass girls who split off to run an extra few faster miles) and that I shouldn’t feel intimidated, to stick with them. After that I still didn’t hit the 2x2 mile pace but I stuck with them much better and I finished the run despite it being longer that I excepted. Not to mention it was the second furthest I’ve ever run and over 4 more miles than I’ve done in a long run over the last few months.

Besides the running and swimming, camp involved several seminars with guest speakers. They were awesome. Katie did a great job putting the camp together and lined up some fantastic people. I was very impressed with Charlie Merrill (whom I actually had an appointment with as well) and Erin Carson. I learned a ton from both them and the other speakers. I’ve been slowly adding to my notes of things I learned from camp. I’ve already started incorporating things I’ve learned for strength training, running, mobility and such from them. I’ve also started noticing things Katie told me to do while running and swimming and have been working on those. The hands on time with everyone was sooo valuable.

I went to camp looking not just to learn but for the challenge. Was it enjoyable? Not at times. At times it really sucked. But that’s good. I want to put myself in bad situations, in challenging situations. On race day you never know what’s going to happen and it’s good to have experienced a range of shitty situations so you can approach the day feeling you can handle whatever is thrown at you. That’s what makes you tougher and more prepared. Someone asked if I wish I hadn’t gone before I was sick the whole time. Hell no! I’m SO happy I went. It was a great, very valuable experience and I would very happily repeat it.

Unfortunately I am still sick. I think all of that made my cold into something worse. Went to the doctor, got some medicine and am feeling 90% better but I can’t shake off the wheezing cough. I was told to get a chest x-ray which I decided not to do but if I’m still coughing come Monday, I think it’s best I do. Being sick for two weeks is too long.

New sexy beast

The time finally came for me to buy another bike. The joke with triathletes is the number of bikes you need is n+1 where n is the current number of bikes you own. However, this wasn’t me simply wanting a new shiny bike. Although who doesn’t want a new shiny bike? My current bike is a road bike and I wanted needed a tri bike.

After my mom passed away, my dad gave each of us daughters some money. I decided right away that I was going to use that to buy the bike. I loved the idea that it would go towards something that I would use all the time, spend so much time with (sooooo many hours!) and that I’d have with me on race days.

After testing out a few tri bikes I was surprised that the one I liked the most was Trek. Not to mention Chris who helped me there was awesome. So I went with the Trek Speed Concept! I had a new cassette and gearing put on because my thunder thighs produce low power and I can’t go up a hill without my power going way out of my given range. Chris did a great job fitting me to the bike and home I went with my sexy new beast!

That was Friday night and Saturday after my 5K I was already taking it out for a spin in the awesome weather. This was part two of my amazing day (awesome 5K being part 1). I was so excited to test it out and it met my expectations. I was nervous about the different style of shifting but it’s so much better than road bike shifting. My backs still iffy about the more aggressive aero position but that will take some getting used to. The seat however I hate. I can’t decide if that needs time to adjust as well or if it’s a seat that was designed with men in mind because the bike is gender neutral. Either way my crotch needs to get on board fast or I’m not going to last on long rides.

After looking at my two bikes next to each other… inside my house because of course bikes belong inside right?... I thought they kind of look like they go together with the red, black and white. Like twins. A pretty-fun-female and a down-to-business-male. So I thought…Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver. I know, go ahead and laugh. I’m sure several of you don’t even know the reference. I thought it would be fun to name them. It’s kind of a joke to name one Quicksilver since I’m not a fast cyclist at all. But hey, I’m not one to take myself too seriously. I mean really, who names their bikes? Here’s to happy riding on Quicksilver!