Sept. 30 – Oct. 6

This week ended up being a bit of a surprise rest week. In that, *surprise*, I swapped the 4-5 easy days planned for next week to this week.

It was actually probably a good choice, since I can still get in another 9-10 days of work from here and then call it. And all indicators are that I needed the slight rest from Monday-Thursday or so. But it also always feels harder to break after you’ve just been head down, banging it out — like when you slow down in a race and suddenly it all falls apart; it would have been easier to just keep going hard. In some ways.

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Sept. 23-29

I’ve decided to start “blogging” again, but I also decided I’m not going to spend too much time on it. Sorry/not sorry. I already write the weekly newsletter and record the podcast if you really want triathlon news, and I post on Instagram fairly regularly. (I’m not as much on the other socials right now, because it started to feel like I should get paid for the amount of time and energy people were demanding. And I’m really not into working for free at the moment.)

But, for a number of reasons, it still seemed worth it to log my own personal training and life more on the regular. So I have a record. So it exists. So that’s all this is going to be. At least for now. At least until some other things get sorted out. Mini-recaps of my weeks, just about me, not about any bigger societal issues. And you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to. My blog, my life. That’s it.

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Week in the Life: Sunday

Well, this was an interesting experiment. Hope you got to see what a week looks like for me more or less, at least an easy(ish) week — though the workouts got tough again at the end. Already, this upcoming week is busier: in the office one day, filling-in part-time on social three days, three stories due, plus some other things in the works, and the podcast and newsletter. And then it’s off to camp the week after and we get into full-in triathlon season. So maybe I’ll come back in June when we’re in a really nutty time, though of course when things are busy you don’t have 30-45’/day to do this.

See: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

9:22 a.m. Get up. Tired. Eat a chocolate mint Clif bar and drink some Gatorade. Browse my phone to see if there’s anything that needs responding. Not really responding to stuff this weekend. Feed boys and empty their litter box. We empty dishwasher. Watch some TV. Take my time getting ready to run. Not excited.

10:54 a.m. Finally out the door running. Workout: jog down to high school track, 21 x 800 at 3:15/200 jog. Except for an emergency bathroom break and a gel, it is continuous. More or less. The 200 jog recoveries turn into shuffling by the end and I fall off pace the last five. But I finish and not *that* far off pace. Jog most of the way home so slowly, and then decide to walk the last three-quarters of a mile.

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Week in the Life: Saturday

At this point, I feel like it should be noted that while I can tell you on any given day what workout Hillary has given me, there is no secret workout. The secret is in putting the workouts together in a way that makes sense for me and building an overall program that gets me to my goals prepared. And if you want that specific Hillary magic, then you’ll probably have to hire her.

People always want to know what the secret is, what specific workout they should do, but everyone’s really doing the same workouts (more or less). So I don’t think one specific workout matters as much as you think it does. Not any one day. It’s all the days together that matter.

8:30 a.m. Wake up to Snoop pulling all the toilet paper down to cover his litter box. He has decided that since we use toilet paper when we go to the bathroom, he should too. Decide not to do anything about this. Stay in bed.

8:58 a.m. Get up. Eat Chobani yogurt-oatmeal-mixed nuts, look at my phone to see if there’s anything that needs responding, feed the boys and play with them, watch a little TV, get ready to ride.

9:57 a.m. Head out door to meet a friend to ride. Make it 100y down the road and realize the stupid computer isn’t recognizing the Powertap wheel again. Go back in, switch wheels.

10:06 a.m. Finally rolling. Meet friend a few minutes later and regroup.

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Week in the Life: Friday

You can also see Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

8:07 a.m. Alarm goes off. Get up slowly. Emails and look at phone, respond to a thing or two and press publish. Cats. Set up bike in trainer and get trainer food/drink ready, so it’s all set to go when I get back from the pool. Eat my morning chocolate mint Clif bar.

9:12 a.m. Drive to JCC, definitely later than I intended to leave.

9:30 a.m. Start swimming. 3,600 yards. Many many 50s. Lots at a steady tempo, which sucks. Honestly, I find it harder to swim 50s on :45 than to swim 100s on 1:25, which makes no sense. Some sprint 50s at the end.

10:32 a.m. Out of the pool and throw on bike clothes and rush home.

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A Week in the Life: Thursday

It has come to my attention that I should clarify when I say I’m spending time on the computer answering emails and setting up interviews and reading stuff it sounds like I’m just dicking around, and sometimes I am, but mostly that’s all some variation of My Job. Brainstorming ideas, emailing pitches, responding to follow-up questions, reading some report online for background, reading some other random thing to see if there are any good stories out of it. Plus some screwing around. Basically the same stuff I’d do in an office.

You can see what Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday looked like too.

8:07 a.m. Alarm goes off, throw on workout clothes.

8:19 a.m. Drive, eat morning chocolate mint Clif bar.

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A Week in the Life: Wednesday

Wednesday was actually a relatively normal day for me, moderately normal for my mid-week triathlon day. Though usually my mid-week triathlon day (there’s always one) actually has quite a bit more training in it. But what are ya gonna do.

Also I feel like somehow this was one of those days were time disappears in cleaning up after cats and picking up stuff, etc, etc, etc.

You can see what my Monday and Tuesday looked like too.

2:00 a.m. Still awake.

8:00 a.m. After dozing on and off, alarm goes off. Get up, get ready to ride, scan emails.

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A Week in the Life: Tuesday

This week is turning into a full-on Spring Break. It happens sometimes. It’s a lull in the cycle of work and a recovery(ish) week. I have a lot of pitches and ideas and things out there, hoping at least one will stick. But not Tuesday. Tuesday was a full rest day + a nowhere I had to be day + a Steve was in Sacramento day = I might have gone all day without speaking to any real people and mostly just breaking up cat fights.

I am going to have to do this again during some other week when things are at totally insane peak, just so you don’t all think I’m a bum. But in the meantime, I’m trying to view this as the calm, a rest period, to prepare for whatever comes later.

See Monday here.

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A Week in the Life: Monday

Last week, we talked a bunch in the newsletter and then on the podcast about the new athlete Youtubes and what would you actually watch from a pro athlete. And I kept saying that the things I do really read when people write them are the detailed ‘here’s what I did all day’ posts. Because it’s weirdly fascinating to see what people actually do, eat, workouts, etc. And that’s one of the things that people ask me allllll the time: What do I do all day?

So I thought I’d do an actual detailed log this week for each day, not really commentary like the running logs I’ve done before, just the nitty-gritty of my day. Read it, don’t, maybe it’ll be interesting to some people.

CAVEAT: My weeks vary drastically and this is a *super* light week for me. I have minimal workouts in the first half because I’m still recovering from the insane Spartan Race this past weekend and I have minimal work because it’s just one of those weeks between deadlines. This might not do me a lot of favors then with the people who think I do nothing, but what are ya gonna do. Maybe I’ll do another week in the life in June when I’m at peak training and already have a number of assignments on the calendar.

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What If I Forget How to Win?

Here is a list of some things that have happened since the end of the last triathlon season:

  • I had that EP Study and procedure done to figure out what’s wrong with my heart
  • I then had a bad reaction to it and started having atrial flutter episodes, like, all the time, which (in case you were wondering) suck
  • I spent December depressed and contemplating if I was going to have to quit everything
  • Once I started training again, I got insanely bad food poisoning and threw up for 12 hours
  • Also, I passed out from the throwing up and gave myself a concussion
  • I got it together and then a couple days before the 50K Snoop Lion scratched me and I needed two stitches
  • The heavy antibiotics they put me on also messed up all my bacteria and I went on some more meds
  • Oh, and now it turns out I’ve had a cracked tooth since the beginning of January, ever since I got a filling done that went badly

And somewhere in there Tupac got sick twice and had to go to the emergency vet, and the car broke down on my way to work. And, honestly, it all starts to feel like a lot, you know?

At the end of last year, I said I wanted to have more fun and do some more random stuff this winter. And even with everything, I kind of have. I bought one of those class packs for the Crossfit “box” here (and everyone needs to stop violently hating on Crossfit — like, whatever, don’t be stupid about it and it’s perfectly fun in the off-season and can even be useful). I finished the 50K. I raced a half-marathon without really being in any way prepared for it. And then this past weekend I did a cross-country ski race because Steve was doing the longer more competitive race and he convinced me to do the one-lap 15K.

It was not amazing. Turns out I don’t really know how to skate ski that well, since I’ve only ever taken one lesson. I can sort of muscle my way through, but I don’t actually know what I’m doing. And after a bit over an hour I lost even the minor ski ability that I have. I started falling and then I was essentially hiking. With skis on.

The thing is though, with everything that’s gone wrong and with all these random “races,” it’s really easy to sort of give yourself an out. You can still be trying really really hard, but honestly what’s the point in going that extra bit to completely kill yourself for the difference between last and second-to-last in something you don’t even care about. And now I’ve entertained so many random whims I’m starting to worry I’ve dulled any killer edge I once had.

What if I forget how to win?

I know this sounds like one of those pseudo-intellectual wisdom nuggets people are always dropping on Twitter, but it’s a real thing. You have to remember how to tap the well, dig deep, whatever your phrase of choice is. And, for me, remembering not to give up can be hard.

So, anyway. I’m concerned. It’s all been a lot. And I’ve been dragging ass emotionally. But I also know there’s nothing to really do about it but the work and if you do the work then you’ll be ready and eventually it’ll come around. And I always do the work, whatever Hillary puts on the schedule. And the swimming and biking have started to come back around. So we’ll see. First triathlon is Escape Surf City at the end of April to get ready for…WILDFLOWER!

Oh, and I’m racing a Spartan Race this weekend. Naturally. But I promise to try my hardest, or at least the hardest I can try without the risk of breaking a leg being too high.

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