head down january
I made goals for January?
January Goals
Keep wearing the Christmas tree swimsuit until it wears out. Still wearing it, although it's starting to turn into a droopy transparent parachute.
Don't strangle any fat people at the gym (I know this should be, "be encouraging and patient with new exercisers," but, come on, have you met me?). I managed to mostly avoid this mess, mostly because I went during off-hours.
Eat spinach more often. It worked for Popeye and appears to be one of the possibly-missings in my diet. This month brought a lot more greens into my diet!
Clean out the iTunes library. No one needs this much Genesis. Cleaned out and moved to an external HD. My computer is so fast now!
Learn to cook eggplant in a way that does not involve pizza. Well, that's a big fail. Do I get credit for cooking the cauliflower?
Keep rotating shoes despite a love bordering on obsession for the new pink ones. Shoes have been rotated with military-like precision.
I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I'm sitting here in a bone-deep exhausted haze, which I think says a lot about how January went. I survived my first peak week in base training, I enjoyed the crap out of rest week, I did not get injured and I weigh exactly the same as I did on January first. Can I just end the post here?
I'm finding a lot of sweet peace in the water right now. My swim volume has dropped a bit since I'm no longer preparing for a 10K swim, and it's settled into a routine that I'm actually quite happy with. I still don't feel like I'm getting faster, but I do feel like I'm staying strong and consistent. My bike situation is still a hot mess. Swapping out my rear cassette and crank was a big step in the right direction, however, as I discovered on my ride yesterday, it totally screwed my fit. So I'm going to be back in the bike shop sooner rather than later to get that straightened out. I couldn't tell from that one ride if the new components made a huge difference, but I'm planning on a good solid long ride this weekend, hills included. And running is what it always is for me - a battle against my body's inclination to explode into dust upon contact with the road. I ran four days in a row last week - and more importantly, 30 miles in those four days - and have lived to walk another day. Even more notably, I ran over 100 miles this month for the first time in almost a year. I've got little cranky niggles up one side and down the other, but nothing game-ending. That's the best I can ask for at this point.
Nutrition got another major kick in the ass this month as I continued to experiment with veggies I had scorned since childhood. Brussels sprouts and lots of spinach and squash are all here to stay, but I'm not sure I'll repeat the cauliflower experiment. I've been trying hard to find ways to drop some of the processed foods out and replace them with real food - a good example is trying to swap out my Clif/Luna/protein bar addiction for Larabars. I think I'm starting to notice actual effects of a better diet on my training - and what happens when I veer into 5 billion grams of sugar in one day - and that's enough of a reason to keep me trying to clean things up. There's still beer and ice cream and there always will be, but there was a whole lot less of it this month and honestly, the harder I train, the less I want it. My life is starting to veer back into a place where all I do is wake up, eat, train, eat, work, dive immediately into my sweatpants, climb under the pile of puppy and go back to sleep as soon as I possibly can. And I love every moment.
January
Miles run: 111
Debilitating injuries: 0 (major improvement over this time last year)
PT appointments: 0
Races: 0
New pairs of running shoes: 0
New pairs of cycling shoes: 1
Puppy-poop-floor incidents: 1
Extra-cranky blog posts: 2
February Goals
Schedule a bike fit.
Don't buy any more beer (fridge is full, folks, I'm not losing my mind).
Keep doing the buy-a-mystery-veggie-and-cook-it thing.
Buy another pair of dress pants.
Do a long run without music (maybe).
Take pictures and post the crank for sale (anyone want it?) on ST.
Do a few more clean-out-the-pantry weeks.
What are your goals for February? It's a short month, don't make too many.
January Goals
Keep wearing the Christmas tree swimsuit until it wears out. Still wearing it, although it's starting to turn into a droopy transparent parachute.
Don't strangle any fat people at the gym (I know this should be, "be encouraging and patient with new exercisers," but, come on, have you met me?). I managed to mostly avoid this mess, mostly because I went during off-hours.
Eat spinach more often. It worked for Popeye and appears to be one of the possibly-missings in my diet. This month brought a lot more greens into my diet!
Clean out the iTunes library. No one needs this much Genesis. Cleaned out and moved to an external HD. My computer is so fast now!
Learn to cook eggplant in a way that does not involve pizza. Well, that's a big fail. Do I get credit for cooking the cauliflower?
Keep rotating shoes despite a love bordering on obsession for the new pink ones. Shoes have been rotated with military-like precision.
I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I'm sitting here in a bone-deep exhausted haze, which I think says a lot about how January went. I survived my first peak week in base training, I enjoyed the crap out of rest week, I did not get injured and I weigh exactly the same as I did on January first. Can I just end the post here?
I'm finding a lot of sweet peace in the water right now. My swim volume has dropped a bit since I'm no longer preparing for a 10K swim, and it's settled into a routine that I'm actually quite happy with. I still don't feel like I'm getting faster, but I do feel like I'm staying strong and consistent. My bike situation is still a hot mess. Swapping out my rear cassette and crank was a big step in the right direction, however, as I discovered on my ride yesterday, it totally screwed my fit. So I'm going to be back in the bike shop sooner rather than later to get that straightened out. I couldn't tell from that one ride if the new components made a huge difference, but I'm planning on a good solid long ride this weekend, hills included. And running is what it always is for me - a battle against my body's inclination to explode into dust upon contact with the road. I ran four days in a row last week - and more importantly, 30 miles in those four days - and have lived to walk another day. Even more notably, I ran over 100 miles this month for the first time in almost a year. I've got little cranky niggles up one side and down the other, but nothing game-ending. That's the best I can ask for at this point.
Nutrition got another major kick in the ass this month as I continued to experiment with veggies I had scorned since childhood. Brussels sprouts and lots of spinach and squash are all here to stay, but I'm not sure I'll repeat the cauliflower experiment. I've been trying hard to find ways to drop some of the processed foods out and replace them with real food - a good example is trying to swap out my Clif/Luna/protein bar addiction for Larabars. I think I'm starting to notice actual effects of a better diet on my training - and what happens when I veer into 5 billion grams of sugar in one day - and that's enough of a reason to keep me trying to clean things up. There's still beer and ice cream and there always will be, but there was a whole lot less of it this month and honestly, the harder I train, the less I want it. My life is starting to veer back into a place where all I do is wake up, eat, train, eat, work, dive immediately into my sweatpants, climb under the pile of puppy and go back to sleep as soon as I possibly can. And I love every moment.
January
Miles run: 111
Debilitating injuries: 0 (major improvement over this time last year)
PT appointments: 0
Races: 0
New pairs of running shoes: 0
New pairs of cycling shoes: 1
Puppy-poop-floor incidents: 1
Extra-cranky blog posts: 2
February Goals
Schedule a bike fit.
Don't buy any more beer (fridge is full, folks, I'm not losing my mind).
Keep doing the buy-a-mystery-veggie-and-cook-it thing.
Buy another pair of dress pants.
Do a long run without music (maybe).
Take pictures and post the crank for sale (anyone want it?) on ST.
Do a few more clean-out-the-pantry weeks.
What are your goals for February? It's a short month, don't make too many.