january: a lesson in taunting the universe

January was a vicious cycle of me saying, "Neener neener boo boo" to the universe and the universe whapping me across the face.  Well then.

January Goals

Go easy on yourself at the beginning of this training cycle.  Remember to breathe. I think I can actually call this a success.  In that, I have not injured myself.

Only make lasagna once. Okay, twice. Just once!
Swim at least once a week. I was doing great until I pulled my intercostal.
Pool run at least once a week. I actually did it twice a week until last week's snow/sick out.
Try & cook the spaghetti squash. Dang it, I totally forgot about this one.
Break 100 running miles for the month. One missed workout + two missed pool runs from being sick left me just a bit short.  And I am okay with that.

So on paper, January, not so much a success.  However, I feel like I had a solid month.  True, I added another injury onto the pile, but I was in PT within the day for it, and it's healing.  And almost all of my training sessions have been solid and steady and executed just as planned, so I can't really ask for more.

I miss swimming, and I never thought I would say that.  I miss the peace of the water, and the zone I get into when I'm doing long, slow distance sets.  I miss the way I can feel my legs loosening and unwinding as I kick through the warm-up.  I miss stretching in the hot tub afterwards, feeling like I just did my body a good sweet job.  But I'm thrilled to pieces to be running again.  I had a lot of confidence-building workouts this month: my first 8-miler of the training cycle, a tempo that felt comfortably hard but great, and my first 9-miler of the training cycle.  My body is starting to finally adapt to my running schedule.  My knees are calming down - my recovery after the 9M was much less awful than the 8M two weeks before.  My IT bands are calming down, my piriformis is loosening and is much less painful both during and after running, and I feel like I'm finally starting to get in a groove.  I'm trying desperately to not be frustrated by pace, and also to make sure that my long runs are in the target window for where I'm at right now.  I started piling the cycling miles back on after taking the entire month of December off, as well.  I've missed it desperately, and I can't wait until the weather starts behaving so I can spend more time outside and less time sweating in my basement.  

As far as food goes, I spent most of the month eating like I was in a training cycle - high protein, healthy carbs & fats, and only the occasional 3-cupcakes-in-one-day disaster.  Definitely not a diet, but after spending the month of December celebrating many, many special events, it's nice to be eating "my" foods again: 3 breakfasts, protein ooge, pb&j for lunch, and a mug of ice cream before bed.  I'm also back to experimenting with meat-replacement proteins, and was happily surprised to discover that those weird protein veggie crumbles are actually pretty delicious in spaghetti sauce.

I also spent January telling the wonderful story of our surprise marriage over and over again, and a month later I can say without a doubt that it was exactly the right time and place for us.  I have a lot of hope that five decades from now I'll be telling the exact same story and saying the exact same thing.

January

Miles run: 98, 29.5 of those in the pool.

Miles cycled: 132

Rest days: 6

Puppy-related sleepless nights: 4

Loaves of beer bread baked & consumed: 5 

New jeans purchased: 2 

New jeans returned due to new bike sick puppy expenses: 2 

Bottles of leftover wine, beer & champagne consumed: at least 7  

February Goals 

Cycle outside.  Find a way. 

Get back in the pool.

Buy one of those darn spaghetti squashes and try to cook it.

Suck it up and just go to Costco already.  Take a Valium first?

PR the stupid 5K so I can stop running them for a while.

What are your goals for February?