Practically (IM)Perfect in Every Way

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.  Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world.  You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something. -- Neil Gaiman

Accept what people offer.  Drink their milkshakes.  Take their love. -- Wally Lamb

January.  The magic month of good intentions.  "I'm going to follow my training plan to a tee.  And eat clean every single day.  And not drink ever.  And be practically perfect in every way."  At least that's what most New Years' resolutions sound like in my head.

I'll admit, I have quite a big problem with all-or-nothing thinking.  If I can't do it perfectly, then why do it at all?  I know, logically, that isn't the right approach...but it's just the way I'm wired.  This all-or-nothing thing also makes me super-excited to do everything right at the beginning of the year, or the beginning of the month, or the beginning of the week.  Because then I can do it ALL right.  You understand this, don't you?  I know I'm not the only person who works this way.

So every January, I decide to change from the horrible eating and drinking habits I engaged in over the holidays.  Or for the month of December.  Or since Thanksgiving.  (Or heck, since "race season" ended in October...or maybe since last January 15...)  I'm going to eat clean.  And follow my training plan.  And not drink.  And be perfect.

And then it's January 4, which is a super special day in our house, because my favorite youth triathlete has a birthday.  This year she's 12.  And she's pretty awesome.

And she wants cake.  And ice cream.  Because she's 12 and it's her birthday.  I want nothing more than to celebrate with her and her awesome self.  So tonight I will have cake.  And ice cream.  Because I love her.

Then the Christmas stuff will come down and I'll get ready to start a new semester of teaching...and I'll want wine.  Because I'm old and I want nothing more than to celebrate the change of seasons in my life.  So I will have wine.  Because I love my life.

Pretty soon, it will be mid-January...and IronSherpa will have a birthday.  I won't tell you how old he is.  (I will tell you I'm jealous of both him and my daughter...they turn their USAT age before any races, so they don't have that weird mental thing of trying to remember how old they really are.)  Anyway, on his birthday, we will have cake.  And ice cream.  Because he's old and it's his birthday.  And he will want some wine.  So I will have cake and ice cream and wine.  Because I love him.

And then January will end, and I will think - crap, what happened to my resolutions...to train perfectly, to eat perfectly clean, to drink nothing fun?  

Rather than make crazy resolutions that I know I can't keep, I think it's a better resolution to lose my all-or-nothing thinking.  I will not train perfectly.  I will not eat perfectly.  I like wine too much to not drink it.  

But I can be practically imperfect in every way.  I will eat clean as much as practical...but cake and ice cream is more important.  I will not drink as much as I did during the holidays...but celebrating little events of every day life matters.  I will train as practically perfect as I can...but I know that if a day goes south and things go off the rails...there will be another workout for me tomorrow.  Because life and love matter.  And no one is perfect.

Happy New Year's 2017 - the year of FINISH

I'm racing against me.  As long as I come across the finish, I'll be okay. -- Ruben Studdard

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself. -- Isak Dinesen

A couple years ago, I was in a book club on Facebook with some old friends where we read & discussed One Word That Will Change Your Life.  Basically, rather than setting goals or making resolutions, you pick a word that is the driving force of your year.

I've been thinking about 2017...and how resolutions usually don't stick and I'm not so great at goal setting...and so I've decided to pick one word instead.  My word for 2017 is FINISH.

If you know anything about my race season last year (or even the last couple years), you're nodding your head.  This is the most obvious word ever for the most unlucky triathlete around.  2017 is clearly the year I will finish an Ironman.  And all the other races I set out to do.  Let this year be the year of no hypothermia, no head kicks, no hurricanes, nothing that will stand between me and the finish line of my races.

But if FINISH is the driving force of my year, it can't really be so simple...there is a lot more to it.  Another aspect of FINISHING means I need to really strive to finish my workouts, as written by my coach.  I'm not horrible at this (at least I don't think I am...but maybe my coach would tell you differently)...but I can always do better.  The finish line comes from the little bit of work put forth every day.  This year I will also work harder to finish my workouts.

But that still isn't the full answer.  I didn't pick FINISH just because of triathlon.  I was thinking about this yesterday.  I did my annual fundraising swim at 100x100s...pretty much you swim as much as you can in 3 hours.  Back and forth, back and forth, in a 25 yard pool for three hours gives you plenty of time to get lost in your head.  So I was thinking about my word - at least for part of the time.

In real life, I am a chronically bad finisher.  At home, I have unfinished projects.  At work, I have unfinished projects.  I suffer from some sort of "ooh, look - a shiny squirrel" syndrome.  I am all excited to start a project.  I work on it for a while.  Then something else looks more interesting.  This isn't to say I never finish projects - there are a lot of things I get done because the end is easy to see or because I know the "reward" of the end is worth getting over the hump.  But projects that have a more nebulous finish line or that have uncertainty (or worse, more work) at the finish line are harder for me to finish.

Now races, those are easier, right?  Because the finish line is pretty well marked (at least usually) and after you finish a race, you get a medal.  You eat fun food and maybe drink a few beers.  You take a few days or so off, depending on the race.  Plus, at least in my experience, you're only participating in one race at a time.

And think about the end of a race.  I am usually so jazzed to see the finish line that I can put aside the hurts and the "don't wannas" and everything that has bogged me down in the last however many miles and run.  HARD.  Because the finish.  Maybe my life projects need to be more like racing?

This year I will strive to finish my races and my projects.  Instead of getting weary as the finish line approaches (or doesn't), I will kick it into gear.  When I finish a race, I will accept my medal proudly.  When I finish a project, I will give myself a small reward.  Whether I finish a race or a project, I will kick back with some fun food and a few beers...and I will not think about the next project or race for a few days.

2017 will be the year of FINISH.  I can't wait!

2017 Races - Here I Come!

When you put yourself on the line in a race and expose yourself to the unknown, you learn things about yourself that are very exciting. -- Doris Brown Heritage

Why race?  The need to be tested, perhaps; the need to take risks; and the chance to be number one. -- Dr. George Sheehan

Now is the time of year when the race schedule for next year gets set...and I think we've got 2017 nailed down!  I'm so excited.

January 1 - First Day 5K (registered)

January 22 - Frostbite 15K (registered)

February 26 - Sentara Colonial Half Marathon (planned)

March 19 - Tobacco Road Marathon (registered)

May 13 - Kinetic Oly Triathlon (planned)

June 10 - Jamestown Oly Triathlon (planned)

July 9 - Rev3 Williamsburg 70.3 (registered)

August 13 - Steelhead 70.3 (planned)

September 24 - IM Chattanooga (registered)

There may be a couple other running races here and there for training runs...and who knows what I'm going to want to do next fall - maybe lay on the couch for a month?  (Oh, wait - I've done that in other October/November time frames and it really isn't as much fun as it sounds.)

Anyway - the plan looks good - now I just gotta finish getting registered for everything and then TRAIN!

The Twelve Observations of Christmas...

There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge...observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation.  Observation collects facts; reflection combines them; experimentation verifies the result of that combination.  -- Denis Diderot

So I'm too late for the Twelve Days of Christmas, but I'm taking the number anyway.  Besides, I couldn't really do Twelve Days better than Straight No Chaser...my favorite Xmas music band.  No seriously - check them out.  You will love them, too.

OK, so here's my Twelve Observations of Christmas...

1. My coach has me pool running to put some easy peasy miles on my legs.  (Apparently the theme of this winter is super easy, super hard.  Not sure how I feel about that yet.)  Pool running is weird.
2. When you're pool running, you get to watch people.  People are weird too.  The weirdest thing I've seen so far was a man swimming laps with a snorkel.  (I mean that's weird, because who willingly swims with a snorkel?  I have a snorkel - it's homicidal.)  Anyway, not only was he swimming with a snorkel, but every time he stroked with his right hand, he turned his head - as if to breathe.  And the end of his snorkel went underwater.  Um.  Missing the point?
3. I am not a lotion girl, but I do like body butters.  Since I'm spending so much time in the pool - between Masters and pool running, I was getting a bit scaly.  (Perhaps turning amphibious, but I assume it's dry skin.)  Anyway, body butter is magic.
4. Whoever's bright idea it was to track sleep and food for December was an idiot.  Oh, wait.  That was me.  Yeah...no.  I mean, I'm tracking my sleep - but it's horrible because I'm totally off schedule.  And eating, well - no, that's horrible too.
5. Hill running sucks, but it works.  My coach has me running hill repeats when I'm not pool running.  They suck.  My neighbors think I'm a creeper when I pass their house for the 4th, 5th, ...7th, time in a half hour.  They're hard.  They hurt.  I hate them.  And they're making me stronger.
6. I ran my best 5K in a long, long time in December.  Not a PR by any stretch, but I've been slow for so long now, it feels like a PR.  Yeah me!  (Must be that hill running!)
7. There is a reason I don't bake.  It's because home baked sweets are from the Devil.  In general, my sweet tooth is very manageable.  Unless there are homemade cookies in my house.  Then I'm like Cookie Monster on drugs.  NOMNOMNOMNOM.  Get in my belly!
8. My kids are old enough to bake on their own.  This is even worse because I get the sweets without the work.  Crap.
9. Christmas shopping is a great way to get in lots of extra steps.  Too bad I prefer to shop online.  But the day I went with the girls, dang - I walked for miles!
10. That first cold snap of winter, even though it's not really cold, feels like Hell has frozen over.  And it's hard to deal with mentally, because you know that later on, in January or February, it's going to be even colder...but right at that moment, you think you're going to die.
11. Red toe nail polish never dies.  Neither do poinsettias...although I'm getting pretty close to killing our plant this year.  I painted my toe nails red for a holiday party in early December and am still rocking the look...and they don't look bad at all.  Red finger nail polish, on the other hand...dies too quickly.  Too bad I'm too lazy to take it off right now.
12. I love Christmas - but it's a season of sloth.  I also love New Year's, which thankfully follows with a season of renewed energy.  Kind of nice how that all works out, right?

Here's another Straight No Chaser song for you...

Tell me you don't feel more festive now.  :)

December is for Data Gathering...

Life is made up of a series of judgments on insufficient data, and if we waited to run down all our doubts, it would flow past us. -- Learned Hand

Data is the kind of ubiquitous resource that we can shape to provide new innovations and new insights, and it's all around us, and it can be mined very easily. -- David McCandless

So.  I've been working on Athlete 2.0...as you know.  And it's, well, it's coming along.  I'm working on better fueling, better living, better training, etc.  But it's kind of like - what's better?  I'm trying to lose weight.  I'm trying to get faster.  Those are measurable, but what sort of "better" am I creating in every day life?  Because I'm not going to be faster every day (or even any day - good Lord am I slow right now).  And I'm not going to be thinner every day...although I can tell you that I lived through Thanksgiving feasting and gained about 1 pound.  Booyah!

Anyway, I decided that maybe I need to know where I am, on a daily basis, to better see how to improve.  I've been logging my food...but so what?  What's the value of that information (other than it occasionally keeps a cookie out of my mouth because I don't want to log it).  There has to be a better use for all of this information.

Also, IronSherpa got me a fancy new 920xt...so I have sleep data.  And steps data.  And even data about which foot I favor while I run, although I haven't actually seen much value to that tidbit yet.  So if I have all this data at my fingertips...like literally - on my phone and computer, pretty much all. the. time.  If I have all this data, shouldn't I be able to figure out some insights about how to be better every single day?

But I also know December is hard.  I mean there's holiday parties, and lots of wine, and Christmas cookies, and raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.  All of my favorite things!  And so I've decided...December is for data gathering.  How much sleep am I getting at night?  Is it good sleep?  How well am I eating?  Am I in the right calorie range?  How close am I getting to enough protein?  Enough carbs that aren't wine?  :)  What's my general activity level on various days - training and not training?

With mittfuls of this data, I think it will be easier (and more realistic than my earlier protein goal) to make some positive changes.  After all, if I know where I am, I should be able to figure out what direction is forward...or perhaps even the
direction to perfection...

Another head aches, another heart breaks

I am so much older than I can take

And my affection, well it comes and goes

I need a direction to perfection, no no no

Yeah, I kind of love The Killers.  What can I say?

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The good and bad things are what form us as people...change makes us grow.  -- Kate Winslet

Terms like 'good' and 'bad' are extremely simplistic in what is a far more complex situation. -- David Icke

So.  It turns out making changes is hard.  Even little changes, small shifts.  For a while over the last few weeks, I felt like I was doing good.  But then towards the end of last week, I did pretty bad.  But this isn't exactly right - it's a lot more complex than that.  Even when I thought I was making progress, things still were not good...and even though I'm not super proud of my choices over the last few days, some good came from that too.  Good and bad - it forms us, it makes us grow.  But a binary classification as good or bad - that just doesn't really explain everything, does it?

I'm trying to make Athlete 2.0 - the better, healthier, fitter, and faster me.  I know I can't change overnight or go from 0-60...so I'm working on small changes.  The first small changes (logging and liquid) were going pretty well - although I did "break" my rule about liquids this weekend...beer!...and I have slacked a little bit on logging.  But I think having a few beers here and there is fine and being a little slack here and there on logging is OK - as long as it doesn't continue.  So even though I haven't been the best with either of these, I feel like the slips are just tiny dips - and I'm back on track.  Back to logging regularly.  Back to drinking wine, water, and coffee (or tea).  I know I'll drink a beer here or there - and I know that there'll be times when I don't log my food, but I also know that the habit is formed and I will get right back on plan.

The other shifts I was trying to make were more protein, more veg.  These shifts have not stuck quite as successfully.  Protein, particularly the amount that the Roar book suggests I eat, is actually pretty hard to do.  I've definitely increased my protein intake (thank you, logging, for showing me this much progress)...but the amount is still too low.  And eating veg at every meal...well, it turns out I don't actually like veg at breakfast - at least not yet.  :)

I'm going to spend another week or two with these goals - perhaps if I can't get to the level I'm hoping to reach, at least I'll understand where I'm at and be able to use that as a floor to improve from.  These two shifts may have been either too big or too nebulous - I'm going to still keep my eye on improving my protein and veg, but I'm really going to focus on data gathering.  And speaking of data gathering, I have some more of that going on too.  I got a Garmin 920xt and have been tracking my sleep and steps too.  More on this later.  I'm going to build Athlete 2.0 one data point at a time.

So - that's the "bad" - now for the "good."  This weekend's long run, done at the same basic intensity level, was about 15-20 seconds faster/mile than last week's long run.  Yeah me - this training thing is starting to show some benefits again...which is awesome.

Destination No Longer Unknown...

All you need is the plan, the road map, and the courage to press on to your destination. -- Earl Nightengale

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. -- Henry Miller

For the past few weeks, I've felt a little at sea - Destination Unknown...kind of like this perfectly trippy 80s new wave song, no?  Where would my next chance to become an Ironman be?  We were holding out for Ironman North Carolina - logistically the best option...but yesterday we learned that IMNC has been "discontinued."  And even though I knew deep down that was the likely outcome, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that that dream was no longer an option.

Even though I'm sad about IMNC (and actually a little sad for triathlon in general, more later), I need to change my way of looking at things.  After all, part of the blahs I've felt for the last few weeks were related to having a plan but no end result in sight, no destination to shoot for.  It's hard to get jazzed up about another year of training without knowing where it will lead.

(OK, stop laughing...I imagine there are people out there who would find it hard to get jazzed up about a year of training even if there were unicorns and leprechauns and millions of dollars and unlimited sushi at the end...but I do get excited looking ahead to my A races.  I also get excited about unicorns and sushi.  Leprechauns creep me out a little bit.  If I had unicorns and sushi, I probably wouldn't need millions of dollars, but that would be OK too.)

Anyway, it now seems that we have a destination.  2017 will be the year of Chattanooga.  IMCHOO will be where I finally become an Ironman.  And it better happen this year...because as far as I can see, WTC (the company that owns Ironman) is trying to kill triathlons - this is why I'm sad in general.

See...here's the thing.  WTC is buying up all sorts of triathlons that used to be run by smaller, local companies or organizations.  And of course there's plenty of reasons why the local companies are selling the races - races are hard to put on, expensive, possibly money-losers, etc. and more.  But the problem is that WTC is buying these races and then making changes...up to and including cancelling them.  Just like IMNC.  IMNC used to be Beach2Battleship and was known as one of the best non-WTC long course races out there.  Doing it had been on our bucket list - not the least of which because they gave out flannel pajama bottoms to finishers.  If WTC keeps buying up these races, they're going to end up with an unhealthy (and possibly unlawful, but hey, I'm not an antitrust expert) monopoly.  And then they will cancel a ton and jack the prices on others and do all sorts of non-triathlete-friendly things.  And then maybe I won't be a triathlete anymore.  I hope I am wrong, but this turn of events (buying IMNC and killing it within one year) really bothers me.

OK.  Off the soap box.  On to training.  The destination is known.  The plan is in place.  I have a roadmap to get there.  Now I just have to change my way of looking at this and enjoy the journey.