A lot of interesting things happened this week. So many it's hard to remember them all!
First, we are officially signed up for our PR 70.3 relay! I absolutely cannot wait. I've never been to PR, and I'm excited to go with David and to meet his family there and to take a vacation in such a talked-about location! I haven't been out of the contiguous United States since July 2013 - way too long - and I've technically never been to the Caribbean (although Belize kinda counts...).
This means I officially HAVE to start getting to the pool at least twice a week between now and mid-March.
Second, since so many friends and teammates are doing big races this year, there's a lot of buzz over Facebook, text, and email which has been incredibly helpful in the motivation department. Thanks to Diane, Lisa, Nicole, David and Theresa for fueling my effort this week. More than once I was ready to bag the workout when I received a message from one of them discussing some training-related topic that spurred my self-driven guilt for even considering bailing on my training commitments. That left me with two runs, a big swim, and two strength sessions under my belt. Now we’re talkin’!
Third, last weekend I read out loud two of my favorite blog posts with family, and reading aloud made me pause to think about what the topic really means in my own life. You see, David and I are polar opposites in how we approach training. We both start by doing our research, but I tend to fret over every last detail - in a nearly debilitating way - whereas he just goes and does whatever new thing he is trying. We even chatted about this before I had to fly home from the holidays. This is a common theme among the athletes or role models in my memory bank, so my new mantras for this season will be the Nike cliché: "Just do it." and "Act like an Ironman today!". For some reason the second one seems to be a powerful reminder of the challenge ahead and the impact of the possible choices in a day, and the Nike cliché shuts down the voice of doubt in my mind.
Thank you my love for helping me see the crippling effect of this particular personality trait!!!
Finally, and most interestingly, the nutrition experiment yielded surprising results this week. Near the end of last week my energy levels started sky-rocketing, an effect I noticed when I started paleo last January. My energy continued to soar this week at work. It’s fantastic and I want it in my life. The other effect wasn’t quite so positive. By Thursday I couldn’t kick an extreme craving for salt and carbs despite doing so well the rest of the week – I buckled and hoovered two Belvita breakfast bars (after my clean din of sweet potato/kale salad with steak). It was a bit disappointing after the discipline of the last 11 days. I found the anser the MyFitnessPal nutrition log. The paleo diet’s key principle is to minimize consumption of acid-producing foods, in particular grains, dairy, sugar, and legumes – our standard carbohydrate sources. I’ve been eating SO cleanly that my carb levels have hit an all-time low regardless of the 3 – 4 servings of vegetables across my meals. Meanwhile my proteins & fats are on target by weight, but completely out of proportion with the carbs being so low. Sodium and potassium are also only half what they should be. OK, now we’re getting somewhere! The question is – how to fix it?
This coming week brings more focus to: getting to the pool at least twice. Getting on the bike at least twice, ideally three times. And adding another veg or fruit per day.
First, we are officially signed up for our PR 70.3 relay! I absolutely cannot wait. I've never been to PR, and I'm excited to go with David and to meet his family there and to take a vacation in such a talked-about location! I haven't been out of the contiguous United States since July 2013 - way too long - and I've technically never been to the Caribbean (although Belize kinda counts...).
This means I officially HAVE to start getting to the pool at least twice a week between now and mid-March.
Second, since so many friends and teammates are doing big races this year, there's a lot of buzz over Facebook, text, and email which has been incredibly helpful in the motivation department. Thanks to Diane, Lisa, Nicole, David and Theresa for fueling my effort this week. More than once I was ready to bag the workout when I received a message from one of them discussing some training-related topic that spurred my self-driven guilt for even considering bailing on my training commitments. That left me with two runs, a big swim, and two strength sessions under my belt. Now we’re talkin’!
Third, last weekend I read out loud two of my favorite blog posts with family, and reading aloud made me pause to think about what the topic really means in my own life. You see, David and I are polar opposites in how we approach training. We both start by doing our research, but I tend to fret over every last detail - in a nearly debilitating way - whereas he just goes and does whatever new thing he is trying. We even chatted about this before I had to fly home from the holidays. This is a common theme among the athletes or role models in my memory bank, so my new mantras for this season will be the Nike cliché: "Just do it." and "Act like an Ironman today!". For some reason the second one seems to be a powerful reminder of the challenge ahead and the impact of the possible choices in a day, and the Nike cliché shuts down the voice of doubt in my mind.
Thank you my love for helping me see the crippling effect of this particular personality trait!!!
Finally, and most interestingly, the nutrition experiment yielded surprising results this week. Near the end of last week my energy levels started sky-rocketing, an effect I noticed when I started paleo last January. My energy continued to soar this week at work. It’s fantastic and I want it in my life. The other effect wasn’t quite so positive. By Thursday I couldn’t kick an extreme craving for salt and carbs despite doing so well the rest of the week – I buckled and hoovered two Belvita breakfast bars (after my clean din of sweet potato/kale salad with steak). It was a bit disappointing after the discipline of the last 11 days. I found the anser the MyFitnessPal nutrition log. The paleo diet’s key principle is to minimize consumption of acid-producing foods, in particular grains, dairy, sugar, and legumes – our standard carbohydrate sources. I’ve been eating SO cleanly that my carb levels have hit an all-time low regardless of the 3 – 4 servings of vegetables across my meals. Meanwhile my proteins & fats are on target by weight, but completely out of proportion with the carbs being so low. Sodium and potassium are also only half what they should be. OK, now we’re getting somewhere! The question is – how to fix it?
This coming week brings more focus to: getting to the pool at least twice. Getting on the bike at least twice, ideally three times. And adding another veg or fruit per day.
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