My TrainingPeaks diary (affiliate link) is looking pretty full this week -- even though I skipped one planned swim, I got more than 8 hours of training in during the past week.  In the premium version, a workout completed as planned is green, one that was too long or too short is yellow, and one that was missed completely is orange. I'm finding that it works best for me to plan slightly more activity than my goal (which this week was 7:30) because it's easier to drop a planned workout from the schedule than to add an extra one in. I was a little long last week, but since I was sick the week before, I decided it was okay to be a little over.

My triathlon coach holds three weekly rides in the "Pain Cave," a.k.a. her basement. My bike is there, all set up on a trainer, and those rides are the skeleton of my training plan each week, along with the weekly Sylvania Masters Swim practice on Sunday.  Then I add in runs and other workouts to fill in the needed hours.

I found a great new class at the JCC called Group Power, which is a strength training class similar to Body Pump.  They are just running some test sessions for now, but I plan to hit that class twice a week to finally do the strength work I know I need. I'll also shoot for a yoga or Pilates class every week to add more strength and flexibility work.

It has been tough to get that second swim in with holiday schedule disruptions (my own and the gyms'), but once everyone is back to work and school, I can fit in a morning swim once a week.

I am feeling great, tired but strong.  19 hours of training down, 439 to go.

Pre-order now at UpandRunning.org

When asked by the lovely Shauna if I would like a free advance copy of Up and Running: Your 8-week Plan to go from 0-5K and Beyond and Discover the Life-Changing Power of Running to review, of course I said, "yes please!"

I'm a latecomer to the Frozen bandwagon, but I finally downloaded it to my iPad and watched it the whole way through after seeing my nephews watch snippets of it. Then, of course, I downloaded the whole soundtrack to my iPhone. So if you see me rocking out in my car to "Let it Go," please don't judge.

The song speaks to me because it's about refusing to keep playing small to make other people safe.  This is the song where Elsa finally stops trying to suppress her power and decides to see what is possible for her.  (Yes, she also locks herself away in a castle made of ice, but don't ruin my metaphor here.)

It's so easy to for me to fall into a rut of playing it safe. It means things are a little easier. I don't have to challenge myself or risk failing.  In 2015 I want to take more risks and shoot for bigger goals.

My training for the Half Aquabike is going really well. Using TrainingPeaks Premium (affiliate link) to plot out and track my training has helped a lot, and now that I'm finally over the bug I had last week, I am feeling strong and confident.  I needed the big goal to help shake everything else into place. If I don't train adequately, I am going to have a very bad day in September, and that thought gets me out the door to do my workouts.

I've also read more of Racing Weight (review coming soon) and it has some really sensible advice on how to improve diet quality. It also warns endurance athletes about setting weight loss goals that are too ambitious -- a 500-calorie a day deficit, which is what is typically recommended for dieters, is likely to interfere with training and cause a loss of power.  A deficit of 500 calories is needed to lose a pound a week, so I have decided to set a half-pound a week average weight loss goal instead, which would mean I could be 20 pounds lighter for my race. I am learning that would be even a bigger help than I thought.

Finally, I have a review copy of another book I'm excited to read, Up and Running.  It just arrived the other day and it looks beautiful, with lots of gorgeous full-color pictures. Expect a review of that early next week. I can definitely use some advice on my run, which is by far the weakest leg of my triathlon.

I'm ready to test my limits in the coming year.

This week was mostly a good one, but really busy. I logged my food about 1 out of every 2 days. I had my birthday and did a lot more eating out at restaurants than usual. It was the last week of classes and we had graduation this weekend, plus I had required edits on an accepted conference proposal.  This week, I need to get my grades turned in and work on 2 syllabi.

I squeezed in a Weight Watchers meeting so I could hear about all these "big changes," and... yawn. Not that big. I do like the emphasis on the Power Foods and the new realistic tone, but most of the changes seem to be a change of style and emphasis rather than a big change of program. The biggest change is that you can pay extra for one-on-one virtual coaching.  If I'm paying for coaching, it's going to be triathlon coaching.

I was supposed to train 7 hours and 30 minutes this week but only got in 5 hours and 40 minutes. "Only" seems like a weird word in that sentence, but I have a big race to train for.  I have next week's training plotted out and I think I'll actually get more than the 7 hours and 30 minutes planned, because I'll add in some strength work.

I read the first chapter of Racing Weight in a spare moment and found it a bit of a revelation. The author, Matt Fitzgerald, describes just how much impact excess weight has on racing performance:

Excess body fat is the enemy of performance in every endurance sport. For example, a runner weighing 160 pounds has to muster about 6.5 percent more energy to run the same pace as a runner weighing 150 pounds. 

He goes on to describe running on a treadmill that simulates a lighter body. He felt much fitter at 90 percent of his body weight and found it made him feel fitter and made running feel "like normal running, only so much better."

If a relatively thin and fit athlete like him feels that, I can't imagine what would happen if I could suddenly be at my Weight Watchers goal weight, which is about 85% of my current weight.  I found the idea motivating.  But then I tried his racing weight estimator, which suggests that at 44, I should weigh what I did when I was in my peak condition in college, and yet have an even lower body-fat percentage. So we will just pretend that didn't happen.

I feel light and graceful and powerful in the water, and even on my bike, I feel like I can really crank the pedals.  As a runner, I feel like a lumbering, sweaty mess, almost as if some kind of aquatic animal was forced up on land. Oddly, I still enjoy running if I can ignore that feeling.  But what if I could feel light and graceful and powerful when I ran?  I'm not sure it's possible, but it sounds worth making an effort for.

I don't look a day over 22, do I?

When I was a kid, I hated that my birthday is in December, but I've grown to like it. I have a Christmas tree in my house this morning, I'm enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, and my classes are almost over. It's sort of nice starting that end-of-year reflection early -- it gives me a little jumpstart.

I had a bit of a hard year this year with my dad's illness and passing. But there were lots of bright spots too. I think this year I learned to appreciate the good things in each passing moment in a way that I hadn't always been able to before.

I have big hopes for the year ahead. Signing up for that big race is what I needed to change my perspective on training -- I had just been slogging away at it, hoping to take off the excess pounds without any other real focus. The races I was doing were too easy to make me feel really motivated for the training itself, so it was all about calories. I feel like the training has taken on a new meaning now -- I can see what I'm building.

I have started to work on some other goals too. It may take a while for those to snap into focus. There are some changes I'd like to make, but mostly, I love my life.  I'm feeling very blessed this morning.

Thanks for reading!

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I have heard rumors about the changes coming to Weight Watchers and even saw a blog post that was published prematurely (and taken down) that outlined some of the changes coming.  The biggest change, as far as I can tell, is stylistic:



This commercial captures so much about the complicated, emotionally-charged relationship most of us have with food. And it's not as simple as knowing that you are doing it -- most people who are emotional eaters are somewhat aware of it, but the food-mood connection is culturally embedded. Even a book I was listening to about changing unhealthy behavior patterns suggested walking away from an emotionally-charged encounter with a relative at a family party to "have some of Mom's deviled eggs." The fact that the authors of a "Recovery Lite" book suggested food as a way to avoid a scene, even though they talk about unhealthy eating behaviors in other places in the book, tells you everything you need to know about how difficult this behavior is to root out.

I like my Weight Watchers leader because she acknowledges that it isn't always easy to follow the program. She jokes about weighing in in her nightgown, and I'm pretty sure she's serious.  My beef with Weight Watchers was always that there was no acknowledgement of the struggle. It was as if someone thought that we just needed to learn that carrots were healthier than carrot cake and that the whole bag is not usually the portion size, and we'd magically drop all our unwanted pounds, chanting poems about "Ten Little Weight Watchers" as we cheerily exit the meeting room, picking up two or three boxes of Snack Bars on our way out:

We want a down-to-earth leader that knows that no matter how many times you chant, "It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle change," you still have to eat less food to lose weight, and that it sucks sometimes. We need a leader who can agree with us that it sucks, but gently and firmly tell us we still are going to have to do it anyway. It would be a bonus if she could give us some realistic advice on how to do that.

I'm glad to see things moving more in that direction. I wonder what they are going to do with the chirpy ones.  Maybe there will be a sort of re-education program?