An Ultra Quest - Awkward Active and her 2nd 50k

[Anamal]

Heyo! I'm back from my vacation climbing mountains in Colorado and I'm ready to crack down on my running, dropping some pounds as my race approaches, and generally getting into my best shape.

 

My first 50k was somewhat derailed by sickness which resulted in a very slow finish time (but I did finish!) and being very under-trained going into the race. This time around I want to see if I can run under 7hrs (1.5hrs faster than my first 50k). I want to spend the next four months really challenging and pushing myself both physically and professionally as I move closer to my 2nd ultra marathon. I want to finish 2015 in a much different place than I started it.

 

With that, the goals! I'm going to be rolling these out until the end of the year, but they'll be broken down into: 1) Base Building (weeks 1-4), 2) Specific Race Prep (weeks 5-17), and 3) Post race recovery and maintenance (week 18-end of year). Then each phase will be broken down into diet, training, and life. But for now we'll just start with the first one.

 

THE BASE BUILDING PHASE

DIET:

- Intermittent Fasting - Complete two 20-24hr fasts each week

- Eat a veggie at every meal (potatoes, corn, beans, do not count)

 

TRAINING:

- Strength train 2x a week

- Run 25 miles per week (soccer practice counts for what is recorded on watch, typically 3.5-4miles as does time spent on the stair master 1hr = 2 miles).

 

LIFE:

- Do one thing for my career every day (can be as simple as doing a tutorial or attending my night class, but I want to get in the habit of actively working towards my career with the intent of moving from my current department in the next 9 months).

 

Alright! Let's get this party started.

 

[Anamal]

Week 1 - Day 1

 

Today was both a travel day and as a result of that a rest day. But that doesn't mean I can't work on other aspects of this challenge!

 

1 fasting session - check (est time 21hrs)

Veggies with every meal - kinda check (veggies on gf pizza - not idea, but birthday)

1 Thing for my career - kinda check (scheduled a meeting for tomorrow with a co-worker to try and get our agency to send us to SXSW and email classmate about missing homework from last week.

 

This week is off to a bit of a slow start what with traveling and being pretty sleep deprived. But I'm still meal prepping in the slow cooker right now, and getting ready to hit it hard in the gym tomorrow!

[Anamal]

Week 1 - Day 2

 

One thing I've really improved on in the last few years is moving past holidays/birthdays/vacations/whenever I choose to eat off plan, and getting right back on the wagon this morning. Sure, yesterday I had some pizza, cake, and ice cream for my birthday, but today I got up, packed my lunch and headed off to the gym. No more do I spend the rest of the week eating like crap just because I "messed up" on Monday. It's a small thing, but like many small things it seems to make all the difference.

 

Today was Weights session A, and the stair master. Despite spending 6 out of 10 days during my vacation hiking, and going on a short run 2 of the remaining 4 days I seem to have lost strength on all my lifts. Not a massive amount and some even stayed the same but it does go to show that gaining strength during the racing season is something I can't really do very quickly. That's something I really want to focus on during the off season, but for the time being I'll have to be content with maintaining my strength or at best a slow improvement.

 

For todays workout I did:

Stepups 4x10/leg

Bent Over rows 4x10

Over Head Press 4x10

Goblet Squat 4x10

Ab pull downs

Lat pull backs

Clam shells and leg lifts

Russian twists

 

Stairmaster 40mins (I was running late to a meeting).

 

For weights I've learned to super-set everything in order to save time.

 

I also ate a veggie at every meal! Check!

 

And for my career work I'm at home right now doing homework. Normally I'd go to soccer practice on Tuesdays, but I'm behind on homework after traveling and when it comes down to it, I'm not a professional athlete. So I opted to not go to soccer and instead get my work done.

 

Tomorrow I'm up early and on set all day, so it will end up being a defacto rest day.

[Anamal]

Week 1- Day 3

 

(actually I'm writing this on day 4)

 

Veggie with every meal - check!

Work on career - Nope

Training - Nope

 

This week has in many ways been totally insane, I've been sleep deprived since Monday and I've really just been focusing on work. I'm really not apologetic for that. Some weeks are more suited for training and life goals, and some are more suited for keeping your head above water. Add onto that the fact that I'm in the process of roommate hunting and I really feel that I'm operating at maximum capacity. Short of ditching my boyfriend for date night or getting very little sleep I'm just going to have to postpone some things until this weekend. That's life, it happens.

[Anamal]

Week 1 - Day 4

 

Veggie with every meal - Check 

Work on Career - Check (night class after work today)

Training - Nope

 

I'm really ready for this weekend to be here. I'm pretty dead tired and dreading going to my class tonight because I just want to go home and climb in bed. I just found out that a woman who was interested in taking my roommate spot decided on another apartment and now I'm going to be spending all day Saturday showing other people the space. I just need one yes but it's still so crazy stressful and I absolutely hate it. I swear if another roommate bails on me after only a few months I'm going to just give up and live in my car. I hate dealing with this roommate roulette situation every few months. I'm secretly terrified that nobody will want to take the room and I'll be sh*t outta luck and stuck with this damn place, unable to afford the rent on the entire 2 bedroom.

 

Today seems to be dragging by and I so desperately wanted a mellow weekend to myself. After two weekends of traveling and months of weekend training hikes before our trip to Colorado, now that I'm back home I just want a simple break. I just need a weekend time out to breath and collect my thoughts. I haven't even had time to unpack from my trip yet! Maybe I'll tell the bf that I cannot hang out Sunday and just use that as a me day as well as a chance to start learning some of the new software that I'd need to master before applying for the job swap I want. Just gotta make it through the week.

 

Doesn't help that shark week is next week which means I'm hungry all the time and tired this week.

[Anamal]

Week 1 - Day 6 - Saturday

 

On Friday I officially registered for my 2nd 50k ultra! Putting down cold hard cash (erm... credit card) definitely makes me more motivated to get my sh*t in gear and train!

 

I'm going to consider this/last week a zero week and look at it as an on ramp for being awesome in the upcoming weeks. PMS and general fatigue kinda killed me this week, but I'm resolving to do better next week.

 

I also think I'm going to revise my goal of "Do Something Career Oriented Daily" into "Do something career Oriented 5 days a week" It's more reasonable and I'm more likely to spend a few valuable hours actually learning a skill instead of half arsing one part of a tutorial.

 

On to today. 

 

I did my first "long run" of 7 whole miles. And while I'm still very very slow, at least I'm now slowly running up the gentle inclines instead of walking up them in order to keep my heart rate in check. Tomorrow I'll do an easy (probably on the beach path) 5 miles. I'm trying to mimic the training plan I'll be doing for the race in this build phase. That means running both days on the weekend, one long Saturday run, and a shorter more relaxed Sunday run followed by a rest day on Monday.

 

Still eating a veggie with every meal and trying not to beat myself up for the 3lbs I gained on vacation. When I lose weight I really want to think "ok, this is the last time I'll be seeing these numbers" but when you gain vacation weight it makes it seem really frustrating. At least now I can say that I have a plan to move forward that I know has worked in the past. Previously my weight loss goals have been sort of directionless and as a result my weight was stagnant. Now that I've actually implemented a solid intermittent fasting plan and seen that it works for me I feel more empowered knowing that at least I have a plan moving forward. I'm still frustrated that I let myself back slide, but at least this time around I know what I need to do to make progress.

[Anamal]

Week 2 - Day 1 - Monday

 

Ok, this weekend was pretty bad when it comes to food choices. Actually that's not exactly true. This weekend was stellar when it came to MOST food choices, but the heat, PMS, and some weird pitty party I was throwing myself resulted in consuming cookies, ice cream, and alcohol on not just one but BOTH weekend days. Not good. I know these sort of blow ups really keep me from reaching my goals. I was in a really good groove before vacation, and since then have fallen off track. But I'm taking a stand and saying no more! Last night I meal prepped and packed food for the entire week and although eating was not ideal I did get both my runs in 7 miles Saturday and 5 miles Sunday.

 

On to today!

 

Not much terribly exciting to report. My period started today so I generally feel like less than stellar, combine that with some sleep deprivation because of how hot it was last night and I'm definitely running at 60% capacity. However, today is both a rest day and my first IF day of the week so food choices are minimal (I'll be having Thai with the boy later) and training is zero. Fun times!

 

The next three weeks will prioritize weight loss over all else while still fueling my weekend long runs properly. I know as mileage increases and my ultra training plan progresses I might have to decrease the number of weekly fasts I'm doing. But in the meantime I can afford to work off a plan that I know is not sustainable in the long term. But for three weeks the sacrifices will be more valuable than having to carry around extra weight come my November race.