Step 1: Loose weight.

So with my eyes on a triathlon prize next year (hehe...I made a rhyme), I need to think about how I'm going to split up the next year.  On a first pass, I think its going to look something like this:

September-December: Pre-training mode: lose weight, maintain cardio fitness baseline
January-September: Build up endurance + train super hard.

Okay, so maybe January on is flexible.  I will get better guidance on how to train in those 9 months a little later.  Right now I'm much more focused on what is in front of me. I have an Olympic distance race tomorrow, a half marathon the week after, and a trail run or two sprinkled in October.  Technically I'm still working on the tail end of my season, although my upcoming races are more out of obligation and fun than a chance to prove myself.

The Olympic distance tomorrow may be a disaster because I didn't properly train, and I was up most of the night feeling very sick last night. In fact, I don't know how it can't be a disaster.  I've already paid though, so I'm driving up today to drop off my bike, and I'll drive up tomorrow for the race (the race is an hour north of here, and they have a mandatory bike check in the day before...boo!).

Despite my lofty physical limitations tomorrow,  I always can use more open water swimming practice, so I plan on sticking with the race for the swim and bike, and peacing out before the run.   I can handle the first two hours, the 1500 m swim and 40k bike, but I don't want to think about running a 10 k two hours into a race.  I really hate to quit part of the way through, but I don't think my body can handle the stress, and I want to try to enjoy myself a little.  Plus, DNF (did not finish) is better than DNS (did not start).

Which brings me to step 1 of my plan: Time to loose weight.

 I'm a lifetime Weight Watchers member, and although I'm still a little bit over my goal thanks to a summer of wedding festivities and celebration, I'm not too far off being at a healthy weight for my height.

I love food.  No, I REALLY REALLY REALLY love food (cake especially), and back in college, at my heaviest, I was 245 pounds. More than 75 pounds above my WW goal.  Through years of healthy changes, tracking what I eat, embracing moderation (albeit kicking and screaming) and exercise, I've been able to shed a significant amount of weight and learn how "I'm supposed to eat". My weight loss journey has been a very personal experience, yet one of the hardest and best things I've ever done, and I don't mind talking about what helped to bring me to where I am today.

However, standing at 5'10", my WW goal weight of 169 pounds lets me indulge on great food,  wear a size medium, and look awesome, but it isn't quite where I need to be for triathlon season next year.  You see, the lighter you are, the easier it is to power yourself up those hills on the bike course and the faster your run will be.  Every 10 pounds you loose roughly translates to  7-10% gain in hill climbing and about 20 seconds/mile off.  That is huge!

Elite female triathletes have a weight (in pounds) to height (in inches) ratio of 1.8 to 2.0 (you lucky men have up to 2.3).  That means at my height (70 inches), I should clock in at 126 to 140 pounds.  That is not happening.  I love dessert, food, and going out way to much to ever dip down that low.  Plus, despite what my Mom may think, I am not now, nor will I ever be an an elite triathlete.

That being said, I want to run and climb faster (anything to make those 140.6 miles fly by), so a fair amount of weight loss is in order.  I think 155 pounds would be a maintainable number for me, but that also means I have to spend the next few months trying to loose around 20 pounds in the next 20 weeks.  Not impossible at all.  Not fun dripped in chocolate coated in sprinkles (mmm....chocolate), but not impossible.

"But Liz...can't you just eat what you want now and when you amp up the training the weight will fly off? I mean, you're going to be working out like 15 hours a week soon."

I wish.  Sadly, when I'm training, I need to be focusing on replenishing the calories I'm eating and building muscle mass, not trying to diet and constantly be at in calorie deficit.  By taking in enough food when I'm training, my body will be able to push itself, make awesome fitness gains, and not leaving me a tired, hankry mess (thats a bad combination of hungry + cranky).

In fact, the harder I train, the easier it is to maintain my weight, but the harder loosing weight is. When I ran my first marathon a few years back, I remember being floored that I gained weight during the training process.  I thought you could run a lot and eat whatever you wanted (which is why I was a good 40+ pounds heavier).  Turns out that working out and training isn't a free pass to doughnut-land.  It does give you a ticket to awesome legs, but sadly, you cannot sustain those legs on rainbow chip frosting alone.

Running as fast as you can to stay in the same place

Do you remember the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland?  There is a section in the story where Alice is running in place and doesn’t get anywhere.  The queen notices Alice’s frustration, as Alice whines that normally when you run, you go somewhere. The queen replies that Alice isn’t  in just any regular place, but she’s in Wonderland.  Here you have to run at least twice as fast to go anywhere.  Otherwise you’re running as hard as you can just to stay in the same place. 

The aptly named Red Queen Hypothesis has been co-opted into evolutionary biology principle that  I’m rather fond of.  It says that species are undergoing a perpetual arms race, competing to be the best fir to their environment.  Creatures must be continuously evolving or risk being out competed by other species who are continuously changing.  In that sense, just by existing, we’re running, but we don’t get anywhere unless we really kick it up a notch.

I find this directly applicable to my life: I need a challenge emerging on the horizon to keep me focused and feeling like I’m not stagnating, being out competed by my surrounding species.  After all, we each only have one life, so we’re insane not to get out there every day and chase down our dreams.

I recently got married. Less than 6 weeks ago. It was a spectacular and small celebration and honestly the best day of my life.  Also in 2012, I competed with my University’s Triathlon team at Collegiate Nationals, made it to the national finals in a huge science communication competition, visited Hawaii, Alaska, Georgia, Minnesota, Illinois, Alabama, worked as a spin instructor with my university’s Tri team, set PRs in the 10k and 5 miler, and oh yeah, did I mention got married? 

2012 had been an amazing spectacular year, probably my best one yet. I’ve been so fortunate to do so much and grow as a person so much, yet part of me fears that I’m not going to be able to follow it up.

Then a tickling idea crawled into my head.  It started like that small rustling sensation you get when a mosquito land on your arm, but pretty soon, this idea had fully permeated into my consciousness.  The only way to keep moving forward in 2013 is by doing o something that will challenge me mentally, physically, and present a pretty huge roo for failure. Something that will shake me, change me, and leave me wondering how badly I want it:

I’m going to complete an Ironman.

Okay, we’ll I’m not sure I’m going to complete it just yet.  I’ve mentioned it in passing to a few random friends and family members to vet the craziness of the idea.  I’m almost sad to say that I’ve been met with wholly optimistic responses.  Apparently my friends and family members are way more awesome than I could have imagined.

So for the time being, I have another month before Ironman 2013 registration opens for a race in September 2013, so I’ll continue to mull it over and think it through…

But you know, once a mosquito lands on your arm and takes a bite, you can’t just blow it away. You either have to grin and bear the loss of blood or kill it with a loud gnarly smack.