Brave Flexibility as applied to 2016

If it were easy for me to be brave or flexible, I probably wouldn't have started this year with those as my focus words. Attempting to use these words in my life is a work in progress, and sometimes a non-work in non-progress when I just give up on it all together and cautiously choose a prescribed plan that has worked before.

The idea of having a focus word for the year came from a meeting with the dietitian I've worked with. We started with flexible, since I had few goals for the year at that point except trying to get to yoga more often. I can't recall what motivated me to add brave to the list, but it's been with me for a few months now and I like the challenge the two present.

Brave

Things that have been brave

• Attempting, repeatedly, crow pose in yoga, especially after having my first crow flop where it all fell apart. While I magically recovered to end up on all 4s after that, it was still pretty scary, and going back to crow after that flop was even harder than trying it the first time
• Attempting headstand in yoga. This is requiring a lot of trust in myself when I do it without help, and trust in the instructor when she helps me get into it. It feels brave to challenge my body to support me in such a strange way.
• Signing up for Mountains of Misery! This wasn't a purely brave choice; I had some FOMO and peer pressure to help it happen, but in the training already, I am trying to tackle climbs with an open heart instead of with unbridled fear, and at least it's decreasing the pre-worry, even if it isn't making my legs stronger :)
• Trying something new at work. This wasn't exactly my choice, but starting a new position last November has put me in a much less confident state at work. I am trying to bravely ask for help when I need it and confidently ask for clarification

Flexible

Things that have been flexible

• Showing up with an open mind to workouts, and then if something different happens, I am trying to go with it. This is hard!!
• Working on physical flexibility with a lot of yoga classes. 
• Going on new bike rides! Until starting to try some new routes, I hadn't realized how comforting it had gotten over the last few years that I have ridden enough that my "regular" routes are  known to me. 

Wburg Half Build 2

Spring with all of it's transient beauty and temperamental nature has been in full force this build cycle, with a cold blustery weekend morning that was rough enough that the bike ride was postponed, and then snow during a run the next weekend.

Back in the day (2 weeks earlier), we rode in anything, including snow flurries. That was both a wonderful and terrible ride -- wonderful because it revisited a route I'd done in December, and I felt much stronger, and terrible because it snowed a bit towards the end and I was in shorts since I'd been solidly denying the winter-y forecast for the day.

But it hasn't been all terrible weather surprises. There have been a number of clear days and bright, post-DST evenings that are designed for evening playtime. I found some great tulips on my runs, and also found an epic hill near work that will be with me long after the daffodils and tulips have gone for the year :)

Mini-goal assessment

• Do work - Increase swim practice participation - Success! I made it to 5 swim practices which is a lot more than I had been doing.
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with 60 mile bike ride on Easter - Success! I was planning to do this on my own, but was surprised to find friends out riding the same loop, so I got some great company and got the work done
• Celebrate spring - Get out to kite festival, rugby game or stay up to see fireworks - Success (barely!) I tried to sabotague getting to the kite festival by locking myself out of the house and having to wait for a locksmith. 

Review of last three weeks

• 9 Yoga
• 2 Strength
• Swam
• 5 practices
• Ran
• 3 Run Lead
• 3 midweek easy runs
• 10 mi long run
• 10 mi long run
• Biked
• 5 outdoor bike rides
• 60 mi long ride
• 50 mi long ride
• 10 assorted commute miles

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Build strength - Get to all scheduled bootcamps, and two SolidCore classes
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with optional Culpeper ride
• Celebrate spring - Get out to Cherry Blossom Parade or National Arboretum to see azaleas.

2016 Goals

Like years past, I have quantifiable goals for 2016. Early in the year, someone asked me to pick some focus words for the year, and I started with "flexible" and have since added "brave"

With this as a focus, and with some new opportunities available to me since switching work locations last November, I have made yoga my biggest "stretch" (haha) goal for the year. Besides that I'm sticking with my regular goals of getting work done

• Run - 150 hours
• Bike - 200 hours
• Swim - 200 miles
• Strength - 36 times
• Yoga - 100 times

I felt like some of the mileage goals that I had used historically for running and biking were making me run harder than I should on easy days, so changed those to hours this year. Swimming is less variable, so I left that as a distance measure.

Last year's yoga goal was to attend 30 classes, but I only had 2 opportunities every three weeks. Now, with 3-4 opportunities per week, and a year of brave flexibility, I am really increasing that.

So far, I'm on track with the yoga and strength goals, ahead in running, and catching up on biking. I had a bit of a hissy fit at swimming after Ironman, and haven't been putting in the time I should, so am already feeling that goal will be un-achievable, but am looking forward to the summer when the outdoor 50m pool opens to try to get some easy distance in the sunshine.

Like last year, I'm reviving my mini-goals which give some focus to the build cycle.

My outcomes I hope to achieve with the work represented by these goals are to be competitive in my age group at races. In the marathon last year, I was in the top third of my age group, and in Ironman I was in the 40th percentile. I believe that some stronger biking and solid running will get me a top third outcome, and am eager to see how it can play out.

Springtime!!

My springing back into the swing of exercise-things coincided remarkably well with spring-forward and spring itself. As a non-morning person, I am loving the light evenings (when I can appreciate the sun vs chilly winter mornings when I'd rather stay in bed) and as a devoted daffodil-ophile, I am loving the return of these transient perennials, as well as other spring flowers.

There were a lot of flowers out near my work on a midday run, which almost made the giant hill I slogged up worth it.
I had a great run the other night reprising the Right-Hand-Run rules. I ended up having to go up a big hill I wouldn't've otherwise, but that meant I got to fly back down it, and I saw a nice daffodil + mini combo on the way

And, of course, for spring time flowers, there are always the cherry blossoms. My favorite cherry blossom viewing is just before peak bloom, when they are still pink tinted, but I missed that this year and instead got to view the fluffy clouds of white, and some downed blossoms drifting across the road, which is much nicer than the winter white drifts of eddying snow.

Next up on my annual flower watch is the tulips near the Merchant Marine Memorial and the tulip library on the National Mall.

Shamrock Shenanigans

I had a fun night the other day planning a non-run for my regular running group. Many people had finished a winter "A" running race and/or were just starting to think forward to the summer tri season, so it was a good time for a break, plus it was almost St Patricks Day!

With some searching of elementary school PE blogs (did you know there was such a thing?), I put together some games that would get us moving, without being like picked last for a sport team or being pelted with a dodgeball. Perhaps I am revealing some of my own middle-school-PE-anxieties here

1. Shamrock Scramble
1. Prep: Printed out shamrocks, some with three leaves, some with 4. For the three leaf ones, I had an exercise like run, skip, backwards run. For the four leaf ones, I had exercises for two or more people, like group-circle-run, which meant everyone had to run together holding hands, or partner-skip, which was skipping holding hands. I set out a cord part way down the field to be our turn-around point, since this wasn't supposed to be a series of 200m sprints
2. Execution: I split the group into two teams. Each team had a stack of shamrocks in front of them. The person at the front of the team turned one over and then someone would do the activity.
3. Review: It was awesome! The bunny hops and bear crawls were hard, so I should change those to be hop or crawl one way, then run back. The "Monkees walk" was hilariously fun. We did not stay lined up, or take strict turns, but I think everyone got to do a few things and no one felt pressured to do something too hard or that they were letting the teams down.
2. Follow the leader
   1. Plan: We would make one long line and then the person at the front would do something for a while and we would imitate it. Then they would peel off to the back, and a new leader would take over. The twist was that it was "slow motion" so no running, but pretty much everything else was ok
   2. Execution: Lining up was too hard, so we did it in sort of an amorphous circle. I also had the "velvet revolution bell" which I rang after I felt like we'd done something long enough, otherwise, especially in a circle, how do  you know when you are no longer leading?
   3. Review: It was pretty good. I'd do it again, but maybe with split groups. It turned into a neat kind of informal bootcamp with squats and balance, and somersaults, and planks. I think this game also achieved the goal of not making people feel too pressured because no one was really paying attention to how someone else was doing the exercise.
3. Leprechaun Treasure Hunt
   1. Plan: We would split into 4 groups. 1 group would have the treasure (a small gold thing I had in my car) and the other groups would be leprechauns looking for the treasure. 
   2. Execution: We split up to different sides of the field, and the treasure team had some moments to huddle and decide who would hold the treasure. Then on "go" we all ran around and tried to tag someone. If you were tagged you had to show your hands to say whether you had it or not.
   3. Review: I think this went really well. I kept the game to half the field, and with a 4:1 ratio of taggers to runners, even really fast runners couldn't get away too far and make it tedious.
4. Clock Relay
   1. I need a better name for this game
   2. Plan: Split into groups of 3, 4 or 6. Lay out 12 marks on the ground, like the lines used for suicides (but relatively close together). The team had to get to line 1 using 1 limb (ie. hopping), to line 2 using 2 limbs (ie. running or two people hopping), etc. Small groups would mean to get to line 12, all 3 people would have to bear crawl together.
   3. Execution: It worked out that there were 15 people, which was one of the few awkward numbers, so we split into groups of 5 and I only laid out 10 lines.
   4. Review: This went ok. Team hopping is way easier than solo hopping. I think it would be better if the teams made some bear crawls mandatory, just to mix it up, but that would also make it a lot harder.

Generally, I was super happy with my games day, and all the feedback I got was positive as well. I'm going to try to remember to do this again next year after the time change and after winter "A" races!

Wburg Half Build 1

Whew, back at it! I've signed up for "A" races for the year, and am ready to work on improving some stuff! According to my calculations, there will be 6 build cycles to get me from my post-IM/post-Disney "fully recovered" state back to trying to compete in a Half-Iron, and also build up my biking to be ready for Mountains of Misery (Mountains and Misery? in the same event? and I paid for that??)

I've been starting to get ready for MoM with more bike rides and am super pleased with how much better the 50 miler felt than the 40 miler after a winter of very little biking, and also pleased with how much stronger the 50 felt than when I'd last ridden the same route in December. I have to keep the momentum going, but at least I have some now!

This year, my annual goals include a big stretch goal of stretching, with a goal to attend 100 yoga classes. I have lots of chances to do yoga, and so far am on track for the goal, so I really want to keep that going as well, even when the rest of the workouts ramp  up.

Review of last three weeks

• 9 Yoga
• 3 Strength
• Swam
• 3 practices
• Ran
• 1 Run Lead
• 1 Shamrock Shenanigans Games Day
• 0 track practices
• 8 mi long run
• 8 mi long run
• Biked
• 3 trainer workouts
• 2 outdoor bike rides
• 40 mi long ride
• 50 mi long ride
• 40 assorted commute miles
• 20 mi cheering for RNR racers

Mini-goals for next build cycle

• Do work - Increase swim practice participation
• Respect the event - Prep for Mountains with 60 mile bike ride on Easter
• Celebrate spring - Get out to kite festival, rugby game or stay up to see fireworks

2016 Disney Half Race Report

As should be painfully obvious from the training logs leading up to this race, I was barely trained at all. My left hip had been aching and I'd barely started PT for it, so a big goal for the weekend was to get through the race (and the parks!!) and still be comfortable walking around.

My training runs leading up to this were mostly in November and December and maxed out at 11 miles, mostly around 11:30 min/mile pace, which was my Ironman pace, so I was hoping that I could slip back into that default for the race day, even though I'd been giving up a lot of fitness since Ironman (see figure below)

All red dots on the bottom are days where I did nothing. The blue line is a measure of fitness

So, without PR goals, I guess I'd just run this thing "for fun"? It was a strange concept for me after years of trying to consciously improve in so many different things. I think I'd decided that it was a non-PR race almost as soon as I'd signed up, and that was probably a lot of the background reason for all the skipped workouts. No regrets or recriminations -- I think I needed the break, but it's hard to see the slide out of fitness knowing that I'll have to build it back up again to realistically expect to improve over past years performances in my A races later this year.

Leading up to the race, I spent A LOT of time at the parks. Landing on Thursday morning, I headed straight to the Magic Kingdom and through the scheduling magic of FastPass covered most of FrontierLand and AdventureLand, and stayed out late for the Electric Parade and fireworks. Friday morning, I was up early to cheer for teammates doing the 10K, and then immediately after the race, off to Epcot. At Epcot, I managed to see almost everything I wanted to, but am embarrassed to admit that the late night and early morning caught up to me in a long slow ride, and I actually dozed off while Ellen DeGeneres was telling me stuff about science. After the nap, I was good through dinner and through the Epcot fireworks, then back to the hotel to lay out my race outfit and get out the door.

Race morning, I planned to catch the shuttle a bit earlier than I had for the 10K, but unfortunately, that put me in the security line with the peak of other racers and cheerers, so I missed meeting up with teammates before the start :(

I headed up to my very fast corral (earned with a super fast half marathon last spring), and enjoyed cheering for the thousands of people who passed me throughout the race. I felt a little bad about using a pace I wasn't aiming for for the corral assignment, but I was running reasonably, and on my own, so hopefully dodging around me didn't delay anyone too much.

Overall, I ran the half marathon in 2:30:16. I got excited towards the end that I might be able to break 2:30, and did speed up consciously in the last mile or so, but didn't worry about it too much.

Some previous best half marathons were

1. 2014 Shamrock - 2:35
2. 2014 Watermans Half-iron - 2:17
3. 2015 First half RNR marathon - 2:13
4. 2015 Second half RNR marathon - 2:11
5. 2015 Rumspringa - 2:03

So this won't rank with them, but I am pleased that my "average" run has gotten so strong.

Also, I did have some other successes during the race

1. I made a plan for a walk break every mile to help my undertrained legs survive the day
2. I negative split the run
3. I really enjoyed getting to run around the parks, and loved seeing the Magic Kingdom castle lit up in the pre-dawn darkness. 

The rest of the day was a success as well as I was able to cavort around Animal Kingdom until it got too rainy and cold, and I was able to follow it up with a full day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios on Sunday, staying up to see the Fantasmic show. I'm not sure I could have packed any more activity into the 4 days I was there, and to be able to mix in a half marathon with a good performance in there is amazing.

Post race, I spent January and February doing more than I had been, rebuilding some fitness, continuing PT, and looking forward to some great progress before A races this summer

Positive slope on the fitness line is a positive sign!