Friday, April 28, 2006

Mental Race Preparation

Laura was actually at that clinic I tried to go to. She has a nice write-up of the lessons she learned, so I'm linking to it for my own reference. Great write-up, Laura.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Wetsuit, Bike, Taper, Food, Blah balh balh balaljlajf

Yesterday I tried on and swam in my rented wetsuit for the first time. It had an ENORMOUS positive effect. I have a problem that apparently many people have; my hips ride low in the water, especially when I'm taking a breath, and this causes me to have to drag my body through the water using a lot more effort than if my hips were high and floating. The wetsuit causes me to float much higher in the water overall, including my hips, and I shaved 10 seconds off my previous best lap time. 10 seconds.

I will be commuting home via bike/Caltrain/bike today, so as to get some more practice with the aerobars Joe is lending me. They are going to make my race SO MUCH more pleasant. I haven't been riding my bike much at all lately, and I'm sure it will be my weakest event in the race.

I tried to go to a "Mental Race Preparation" seminar last night, but the time of the event had been changed without announcement and I only caught the last few minutes. I still learned a few good things, I think. First is that I'm going to spend some time between now and the race just sitting quietly and visualizing the race: how I'll feel, what the wind will smell like, etc. Next is to make a list of things to do on race morning, so that when I'm done with that list and just waiting to start the race I won't be tempted to stress out about what I may have forgotten to do and will instead just relax and get myself into a good mental place to race. Lastly, I learned some techniques to keep yourself alert and focused and not bored during the long stretches of straight road and no finish line in sight. I'm sure that by mile 8 on the bike or mile 3 on the run I'll be VERY ready for the whole thing to just be DONE.

My training taper has officially begun. Sleep and hydration and nutrition are my top priorities. I've been cutting out sugar and caffeine. I have a 10pm bedtime. Food is my nemesis, as always, but I'm doing as well as I can and trying not to stress about it. I've been gaining weight this week and was mildly freaking out about it until I remembered that my period is coming up SOON and it's probably just water retention. But now I'm mildly freaking out about the possibility that I'll be having my period during the race.

Nothing I can do about it. Nothing I can do to get in better shape or lose weight at this point, either. The only things I can do are eat right, drink water, plan, and sleep. And not freak out.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Results

"I hate discipline but I love results."

That pretty much holds true for most aspects of life. Mine, at least. :)

Oh, and the other day a coworker and I were talking about possibly going to the See Jan Run Sports Nutrition Clinic, I mentioned that if she ever wanted to hear my thoughts on nutrition I had plenty of them. In the ensuing conversation I mentioned that I used to weigh 200 pounds, and her jaw dropped (I love that reaction). Then she said something about me being "so skinny" (which I'll also never get tired of hearing, even if it's not really true). Then the best part: she said something like "you lost 80 pounds!?" and I said "no, no. I weigh 150 pounds" and she was very surprised. I said "I'm dense, I guess. Lots of weightlifting."

So, there ya go. I still think of myself as fat, but I'm not. Nobody else thinks I am. Someday I won't either.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Self Talk

Triathlon notes of the day: T-minus 19 days. Goals for the next 19 days: get 8 hours of sleep a night. Ride bike outside with SPD shoes/pedals and aero bars at least three times on long rides. Practice swimming with and getting in and out of wetsuit at least three times. Choose an energy source or three for race day. Oh, and the triathlon newsletter verified a suspicion I had: "Northern California has experienced exceptional amounts of rain and unseasonably cool weather well into spring this year. If we get warmer weather and less rain in the remaining weeks leading up to raceday, we can reasonably hope that the lake will warm to the low- to mid-60s. This is still far below the normal low-70s that we have come to expect at Lake Berryessa this time of year." Brrr! End of triathlon notes.

Monday morning I woke up at the boyfriend's house, and too late to get to work in time for the free breakfast there. So without my kitchen handy I stopped at a coffee shop and ordered a (soy) cafe au lait, wheat bagel with hummus, and blueberry bran muffin. I knew this was a lot of food, but I wasn't being very conscious with my decision making. I kind of watched myself order all that food, driven by the "eat eat eat" impulse from a very emotional weekend, and explained away with: 1) I didn't want to bonk during my triathlon training class later that day, and 2) bran, wheat, hummus; these are healthy right?

As I was waiting for my bagel a beautiful thin very fit woman about my age walked in and ordered an americano and one of those hockey-puck sized vegan seed cake things. (You know the ones, they are super-dense and look like a birdfood millet cake. I don't doubt they are tasty, they just don't hold a candle to a muffin in the food-as-drug department.)

That was a really clear example to me that if I want to lose 10 (or 20) more pounds I'm going to have to do another round of re-wiring of the appetite. The amount of food I now eat once seemed like impossibly little; so too does the amount that I seem to be aiming for. I also need to reign in the emotional eating, and be more conscious every day and every meal with how much food I'm putting into my body.

The last time I re-wired my appetite I put very rigid rules (calories allowed, basically) in place for myself and followed them to the letter. I'm not really feeling up to that kind of focused effort right now; I'd rather focus on work and athletic training and friends and stuff. Maybe some kind of symbol or token that made me think about what I was doing every time I started to eat. A bracelet or ring maybe, things I don't usually wear. To remind me of this goal when all I can think about is how good that bran muffin feels on my tongue.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Triathlon Gear

SWIMMING:
Tri Shorts: Zoot Sports Tri Sport Shorts

Bra: Maia by Moving Comfort, which I had to get in a band size too small and a cup size too big because they don't make them for B-cups, but is still the best sports bra I've ever owned.

Wetsuit: Rental, Xterra sleeveless.

Swimming cap and goggles, of course.

Watch: Watch half of my Polar F11 heart rate monitor. I have honestly not decided if I want to wear the heart rate strap and track my heart rate or not. On the one hand it would keep me entertained and could give me some useful feedback. On the other hand, I don't want to just be messing with it the whole time. Need to decide.

BIKING: (wetsuit, swimming cap, goggles come off, all else stays on)
Biking Shoes: Shimano SH-MA80

Biking Pedals: Shimano SPDs of some variety. $50, entry level.

Socks: Thorlo crew socks. These are FANTASTIC. I may change socks between the bike and running, not sure.

Singlet: "See Jane Tri" branded Moving Comfort triathlon top, which was on mega-sale (~$30).

Bike: Fuji Absolute 4.0. A friend is going to loan me his aero bars too, score!

Eye Glasses Strap: $5, priceless.

Shorts: Maybe I'll wear a pair of shorts over my tri shorts, maybe not. It would be to keep me warm.

Arm Warmers: I have these great arm warmers that I'll probably keep handy in case it's cold that morning. I'll be losing a lot of heat as the water evaporates off of me from the swim.

RUNNING: (bike shoes come off, all else stays on)
Running Shoes: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6, with Superfeet orthotics. These recently replaced my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 4s that I loved but were getting pretty long in the tooth. The orthotics are a new addition, though.

Practice Triathlon

Yesterday, because the triathlon class instructor was on vacation, my coworker and I did a practice triathlon on our own. We took spinning bikes and set them up right next to the pool with all our transition clothes (bike shoes, running shoes, socks, singlet, water bottles, towels). I wore my triathlon shorts and athletic bra (I don't have the wetsuit I'm renting yet) for all three stages, and also wore the singlet for biking and running.

  • 500 yards of swimming took me just over 10 minutes. I can't honestly recall the exact time when I got out of the pool. :( Still, it was roughly a minute per 50 yard lap, so I was happy with that pace.

  • 20 minutes on the spinning bikes. We should have ridden longer, but we were time constrained by LUNCH. :) I could have pushed myself harder during this stage. :/ This was also the first time I ever used my new biking shoes.

  • 2.9 mile run = two laps around the complex. After half an hour of physical effort already, and with personal stress tying my stomach in tight nauseating knots, I maintained a 9:18 minute mile pace for the first half and was somewhat slower in the second half for an average pace of 9:39 minutes per mile. I even sprinted the last quarter mile.

    I'm very pleased with these results. I feel much more confident that I'll finish the race strong. That's all I want: to finish strong.

    Today: Resisted doughnuts three times at breakfast. I was looking at them, trying to justify eating half or a quarter of one, and eventually resisted. Also, did the noon-time spinning class at the gym, which was GREAT and I sweated buckets and all, but maybe wasn't a great move for my "off day." :) The screws holding the cleat to one of my bike shoes worked themselves off at the end of the class and I had to spend ten minutes with a gym employee getting it out of the pedal. :/ I pushed myself hard during that class, though, which is great for building my stamina in general, and my biking stamina specifically.
  • Friday, April 07, 2006

    Fast is still the new slow

    Two months ago I discovered that my swimming pace had improved so much that even though I felt slow I was actually swimming faster than ever before. That's what almost happened to me today when I was running. I felt dog slow, my heart rate monitor was telling me to slow down, I felt like I couldn't breath well, yet I still ran a 10 minute mile pace for 3 miles. I could have kept running, too, but LUNCH beckoned. This gives me hope that I can run that fast at the end of my triathlon.

    I was running with my co-worker again. She's great; she's taking the triathlon class with me and we've run on Fridays together three times now. She's fast and encouraging and pushes me a bit but doesn't make me feel like I'm holding her back. I think she's like me and many of us: just wants to share the experience with others. We actually came across another co-worker running in the opposite direction on the path so we turned around and ran with him for a while. Come to think of it, he slowed us down a bit so I must have been running better than a 10 minute mile before that. Nice.

    Oh, AND (I'm almost done) I received my triathlon shorts from Sierra Trading Post about 10 minutes before I left for the gym, so I ran in them and they were really great. I'll bike with them this weekend, and try to swim with them next week, but I foresee no problems. They are so comfortable that I don't even think about them. Too bad I didn't have my triathlon jersey with me to try out as well.

    I'm really doing a triathlon? What was I THINKING?

    Wednesday, April 05, 2006

    Ah, sleep

    Last night I got 8.5 hours of sleep. Oh, what luxury.

    Today's run. I didn't time it, but it took somewhere around 30 minutes ~= 10 minute mile pace. Awesome: exactly what I was looking for. The weather was really great, too, with a nice breeze coming off the water.

    Then we swam 900 yards but in a mixture of drills and sprints. I've gotten much faster with my swimming, but I'm still very much limited by how fast I can take in air. Shorter sprints (25, 50, 100 yards) I held a nice steady pace, but the longer one (200 yards) I totally lost it. Then again, I wasn't exactly fresh by then.

    The other day I looked up the swim, bike, and run course maps. You'll notice that the run is downhill for the final 1.5 miles. Sweet! But, it's uphill for the first 1.5 so I better put more hill work into my workouts.

    Oh! And as for my "workout before major meals" theory: today at lunch I really loaded up my plate (healthy stuff all) but was full after eating only a third of it, and so I stopped eating. Now, an hour later, I'm still totally full. Fantastic.

    Monday, April 03, 2006

    Get out and Move

    No coffee and no alcohol Monday through Friday last week: check. Well, half check; I had three beers at a show on Friday night. :/

    I didn't workout over the weekend as I had wanted to. Not remembering daylight savings caused me to not attend a yoga class on Sunday morning, and I just plain ol' didn't go biking or running either day for no good reason. I did BUY exercise gear, though: new running shoes with inserts, clippless pedals and shoes for bike, triathlon specific top and bottom that were on mega sales, fantastic athletic bras that weren't on sale at all, more wicking shirts and running shorts and socks, and biking gloves and a bottle holder. Didn't use a single piece of that gear, though. :/

    Drank three or more drinks Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Ate a bit too much, but not completely overboard. Did a decent amount of walking.

    On Friday I just couldn't stop eating... I wasn't exactly hungry, wasn't exactly not hungry. I just kept snacking and snacking and couldn't figure out why. I had a small thought that I seemed to eat more food on days that I exercised less than on days when I exercised more. So I tested that out and graphed calories in vs. exercise calories (Jan-March, thank you, fitday.com) and lookie here:


    "Calories of Eaten": good one...

    Amazing. Amazingly clear. The more I exercise the less varied my calorie intake is. You can see that on the left side of the graph, where I exercise little or none, my calorie intake is all over the map (1200 to 3100 calories). But on days when I exercise off 300 calories or more that calorie intake range shrinks down to 1600-2600. You'll also notice that there are no points at all in the upper right section of the graph: if I get a reasonable workout in I don't binge eat, I actually eat less than if I hadn't exercised at all. I did an analysis to be sure that I wasn't simply eating more the day AFTER a workout, and while that did happen a few times it wasn't the general pattern.

    So, one more reason why exercise is an essential piece of the weight maintenance puzzle: it really does control my appetite.

    ETA: Something I hadn't thought of earlier, but seems really clear after a day of overeating then exercising after work: the power of appetite suppression is probably best wielded BEFORE the day's major meals. Two years ago when I was at my most fit I worked out in the mornings, but now my schedule is totally different and I often hit the gym after work. I'm not sure I can rearrange my schedule back to AM workouts though. Have to investigate that.