Slump

I've had, I think, kind of a combo-slump.  The post-triathlon, post-birthday, post-mother's day, post all the traveling... there was just a lot going on, and I think I over-compensated when it was all over by just holing up in my bed.

I recognized what was going on, though, which is at least half the battle.  And then I implemented a staged comeback plan.  So, last Monday, I started counting calories again.  My eating had gotten pretty rough there.  The general aim is to net 1400 per day, and I've hit it MOST days.  I can pick one day a week not to track.  I was actually up to 152.8 after all the festivities, and I'm holding steady at 150 for the past few days, so heading in the right direction there.  The second and sort of corresponding goal is more/regular exercise.  I did a few times last week but I also gave myself a few passes.  This week we are 4 days in and I'm 4 days exercised.  This is the goal.  (That also realllllly helps with the diet because I can eat more if I work out.  Chocolate is so worth working out for.)

The week after the CB&I I was trying to do some speedwork and I did, but I ended up with some tweaking in my right knee.  So coming back in I'm going again for slow and steady.

And have I mentioned that humid summer has arrived?  I'm not going to break any land-speed records anyways.  Summer is something to be survived that makes you stronger.

Oh!  I found some new running shorts at Old Navy the other day.  I bought them kind of on a whim.  They are like my capris only shorter, but quite long - ending just above my knee.  I. LOVE. THEM.  They totally prevent chub rub like the capris.  I should have done this years ago.  I got online after testing them twice and ordered five more pair.  Because love is love and it may be a loooooong time before I find more to love.  They are a little crazy in their print, which makes me feel happy.

Oh and speaking of happy, my pics from the CB&I include the BEST. RUNNING.  PIC.  EVAR!!!  I need to buy it and post it because I LURVE it.  I'm 1.  Airborne.  Always essential for a good running pic.  2.  Smiling.  I KNOW!  And 3.  I had put my hair in a ponytail after the swim/bike braid and that both cleaned up my perpetual fly-aways, AND also allowed something which has NEVER happened before and that is ponytail swing in a pic.  Oh yeah.  Lurve.

Ok, that's all for today.

The Reality of the Thing

I suffer from post-major-event slumps.  Pretty much always.

I have various ways to combat this, usually involving signing up for something else shortly after the major event in hopes that I won't slump out of sheer panic.

Well.  There is panic.  I'll tell you that.

I finished the MS150 on Sunday massively dehydrated.  I weighed 2.5 pounds less than Sunday morning on Monday morning, and that was after I had done quite a bit of re-hydrating.  And I felt ROUGH.  So Monday was, and was always planned to be, a recovery day.  But I didn't anticipate how bad off I'd be.  I went to the grocery store on Monday and then needed a nap because it exhausted me.  It was that severe.

Couple that with my other body issue which began on Tuesday, and Tuesday's planned recovery swim didn't happen.  Which led to a Wednesday lie-in.  And then Thursday... it really wasn't until Thursday night that I finally felt back to almost normal.

So this morning I finally, FINALLY, dragged myself out of bed for Yoga.  Yoga is NOT a triathlon.  And now I'm freaking out because I have to travel again for work this coming week and as always when I travel I can expect to struggle with exercising.

Ok, so the mop-up panic (but also trying to be realistic) plan is this:
Saturday: open water swim
Sunday: run or bike or bike/run
Monday: P90X in hotel room
Tuesday: skip
Wednesday: skip, but if I could do something when I get back home if I get back early enough, a run would be great
Thursday: bike morning, swim afternoon
Friday: off
Saturday: tri (TRY!)

I think this is doable and will ease my panic.  I will not have lost all my fitness in the past 2 weeks.  I need to remember that.  I just need to reassure myself that I can get through this thing.  I can definitely do the swim.  No problem.  The bike is so much way shorter than the MS.  I can definitely do the bike.  The run is the scary bit, and come on, I can totally walk if I need to.  I can do this.  It may be rough, but I can do it.

After the tri, the goal is back into a steady training plan (no more work trips til July!), and, AND back to calorie counting because the super long weekend hunger-making workouts should be over.