Eiyeiyei (is that how you spell that?)

What a year so far.  My big push for change in the beginning of the year seemed to blow up in my face.  I did manage to give up diet soda for a whole 30 days - but that seemed to trigger something and I started eating, and eating and eating...  I allowed diet soda back into my life, and I'm still eating.  Everything.In.Site

I want to stop, I really do  *sigh*

Anyway, I'm trying to get myself wound back up, find my motivation and will, bring my inner brat in line so that I can start doing what's good for me again.  And I'm going to try to do a better job of blogging and being accountable for my actions.

New Start?

Yesterday was the first day of a new start... sorta

2012 wasn't too bad a year for me.  I started working on weight loss in March and dropped about 25 lbs for the year.  I'm happy with that because most of the year I wasn't really focused, but I would drop a few pounds, keep them off, then drop a few more.  It gave me a lot of confidence to be able to maintain like that.

I also started back to the gym in September and I have managed to keep that up fairly consistently this last quarter of the year.  Two things I can attribute that focus to is an awesome website called Fitocracy It a website/app that allows you to track your workouts for points and gain achievements, complete quests.  On top of that, it's got an amazing user group and an active social network of like minded people.

In October I also started training with endurance nation.  This is a tough, focused bunch of people doing long distance triathlon training together (virtually).  The coaches are amazing and I love feeling like I've got solid advice behind my training.  The group there is also very active but I'm not as connected there 'socially' because I just don't have the same endurance 'obsession' as most folks there.  I feel very outclassed - lol.  But love the coaching so I stay.

So, why was yesterday a new start for me?  Well a few things.  1)  I started back with renewed focus on my diet.  I'm doing a three month hyper focused sprint with the goal of losing as much as I can before I get deep, deep, deep into the half iron training.  (Half is scheduled for May).

And, yesterday I quit diet pepsi.  Not quitting caffeine but still feeling the effects of the reduced intake.  Plus diet pepsi is a big crutch for me.  When I'm craving sweets - diet pepsi.  When I'm feeling stressed out - diet pepsi.  It's only been a little over 24 hours and I miss it desperately.  But, I know this is the next big step to a healthy lifestyle.  Getting rid of the constant stream of chemicals and artificial sugars is going to go a long way towards taking me towards my goals.

So, here's to new starts - and to one day completed successfully!

2 mile run? check!

No epic sweat ring today. But I am glistening quite severely after that run. I pushed it just a little but not too much because this is supposed to be an easy day. Still felt great to get my workout in and done!

P. S. This may be TMA but... is licking the sweat off my lips count as electrolyte replacement?

Sexy? No?

1500y swim, 300 warm-up, 300 kick drills, 300 pull drills, 300 cooldown. Got through it despite all the people swim/walking in the swim lanes.

Did it!

Well, I did it - jumped on the stationary bike at work and jumped on the treadmill.  Did 12 miles on the bike and then 20 minutes on the run (1.5 miles).  I felt good and smooth on the run and was able to keep a nice pace.  I felt like I could have kept going for a while.  It was a good feeling to have.

We've actually got a pretty nice setup at work, but this is the first time I've used it - time to start using the resources that are available to me.  Since the weather and time will be changing eventually, I figured the setup at work would be a great way to get my workouts in - no excuses!

And check out the epic sweat ring I had when I finished - yeah, I was working it!

A fantastic dinner with some bacon to replace my salt and I'm ready to get to bed so I can get up tomorrow and start another day (and get my workouts done)

Low Carb'n it

As I said in a previous post I read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" and totally clicked with it.  I put it into effect immediately.

It's been over a week and I still feel GREAT.  I've been testing my keytons via a urine test strip every day, but the book recommends using a blood tester, so I bought one - it came on Monday.  I tested my blood on Tuesday morning and today, and what was interesting was that it wasn't necessary for me to take my carbs down as low as I've been doing in order to keep my levels good (above .2).  Having those extra carbs to play with makes things a lot easier, not that keeping them that low was that hard either.  But having room for a bit of dark chocolate or a banana now and then makes me happy.  Funny, now that I know that I can have them, the craving isn't really there.  In fact I haven't been craving much of anything.  Ok I was craving my home made chicken curry, but I cured that Tuesday night by making and eating it.  Sooooo - needless to say I'm feeling grand.

And as far as results.  Well I'm seeing those too.

Starting weight:  225.1
Weight End of Week 1:  222

Loss:  3.1

Even better -- As of today I'm 219.6 - yeah, I BLASTED through the 220 barrier after hanging around it for over a month... HOORAY!!

Anywho - some stats from the first week...

The goal this week is to bring exercise and carbs up while still keeping my ketones above .2.  I got the first in my training done last night when I did a 3 mile run at work on the treadmill.  As soon as I finish typing this I'm going to go do a workout on the bike (followed by a run).  

Let's do this!

P.S. I forgot to mention that I was poking around on LoseIt and figured out I have been using it for about three years - here's my weight graph for those three years.

Yeah - that's not pretty, but I will turn this around!  You'll note that it's turning around right now (and has been looking much better since Feb this year.

Half-Iron? Nope

Well, it came.  The day when I was supposed to do a Half-Iron Tri.  Had I trained enough?  No?  Had I lost the weight I had planned?  No?  Was I scared out of my mind?  Well... Not anymore.  I came into the day feeling really calm.  I figured I would do what I needed to do and what happened happened.

The day started ok.  Got up, dressed, ate, drove 2 hours... the usual.  Then things got a little weird.  Unlike most triathlons instead of doing waves, they decided to have everyone start at once.  This was most likely because there were less then 100 people there, including those who were signed up for the Aqua-bike.  Normally, I in wave 5 or 6, and with 5 minutes between waves, that means I have 20 to 25 minutes after the actual start time before I have to be ready.  I didn't realize just how important those minutes were before.  Now I know.  On top of having to rush my pre-race, just as I was finishing laying out all my stuff, a volunteer came through and told me I was racked in the wrong spot and needed to move!  Geeze, you couldn't have told me that 30 minutes ago?

So, I moved all my stuff, started putting on sunscreen and then realized I had less then ten minutes to the start and I hadn't even taped my knees!

I did manage to make it to the start in time, but I hadn't really warmed up, and as I realized later, I hadn't finished putting on sunscreen (missed my face and part of my back).  Still, the swim is the easy part for me so  I was calm.

The race started, we were off and something was immediately, off.  I don't know what it was - maybe it's a 'first wave' thing but the water was SO CHOPPY.  There was no way that I could turn my head and not get splashed when breathing.  And it wasn't that I was surrounded by people slashing - it was just choppiness from people passing.  It's never been like that before and I've started with groups just as big in the past--- strange.  About 100 yards out I lifted my head to site, breath and a little wave came up and hit me right in the kisser.  I inhaled the water and immediately started choking.  Not the mild, cough, cough, but the cough - GASP - cough - GASP that makes you feel like  you've never going to be able to breath again.  My trachea felt like it had completely collapsed.  I didn't panic, but I didn't really know what to do either.  My brain was going, SWIM SWIM, but my body was going, BREATH, we must BREATH!  I finally flipped onto my back and did the breast stroke until I could take a deep breath without coughing, but by the time I was able to focus on forward motion again, I had lost about 30 seconds.  30 seconds that I never regained on the front runners.

By 1/4 of the way through I passed the slow people, by 1/2 way I had caught up with some of the back of the pack, but I never made it back to my normal place behind the front runners.  But that didn't bother me, I knew there was a lot of race in front of me still.

I climbed out of the water feeling great.  Even after a 1.2 mile swim I ran easily to T1, something I couldn't have done a few years ago.  I quickly changed, grabbed my bike, and headed out.  I hit the mount line started to mount and issue two became apparent.  Somehow, somewhere my chain had gotten knocked off the front gear.  Again, the compressed time pre-race had caused me to miss my normal checks and I had to climb off my bike, fix my chain and jump back on.  Luckily that didn't take me long and I was OFF!  Then issue three...

As I started on the bike I was feeling good.  I was easily holding a 15MPR pace (faster then goal) and I decided I should take the first of my bike nutrition... only... there was none!  I remembered that I had just started unload all my nutrition for bike and run when the girl had told me I had to move and I had never gotten back to it!  CRAP!  Unfortunately, that turned out to be the least of my worries.  Although legs, lungs and heart felt good, about mile 10 I started to have some serious issue with my stomach.  Rolling waves of nausea started assailing me.   I would roll for a while feeling fine and then the next second be sure I was going to need to pull over.  I pushed on hoping it would pass - as I said, I felt great otherwise.  It didn't pass.  At mile 20 I hit the first nutrition stop.  I stopped to refill my water bottle and was shocked to find that I couldn't stand up straight due to cramps in my stomach (above the navel).  I was also a little disappointed to find that the only nutrition they had at the stop was shot-blocks.  I was hoping that I could get a little 'real' food (like a banana) in me to calm my stomach down - it wasn't to be.

I continued anyway.  At mile 28 I had to stop - water wasn't staying down anymore.  SAG eventually came and picked me up and my day was done.

So, what have I learned?
1 - don't change my diet a week before a big race :)  I don't know if that had anything to do with my complete meltdown, but it is a question.
2 - That 20 'extra' minutes I get before my wave starts is time well spent.  I need to plan better if my wave is starting first.
3 - A DNF really isn't the end of the world.  Not even close
4 - It's ok to listen to my body.  It doesn't always lie to me to try to get out of doing something.  Sometimes I really do need to stop.
5 - I'm going to have to do a Half-Iron next year after all! :)