Sleeping-in = Stress out

 COMMUTE 9.2 miles

SWIM (ETA) 900 yards kinda rushed

I actually put sleep in on my list of things to do, but when I write that down I don't mean sleep in until 8:30am, which is what happened. I think maybe until 7am. My other goal was a regular walk in addition to a dog walk, that regular walk never happened. But the dog walk did, and I felt much less stressed afterwards. I was a stress ball before it -- hurry scurry and worry. Hurry to fix brekkie, pack lunch, make LA brekkie, get this, get that. Ugh. I know it's happening but I still can't stop it. 

What was I saying yesterday, that I need to learn to see it happening as it's happening? Yeah, that. 

Today I biked in, felt better after that, then wasted (?) half an hour coping a swim plan into post-it notes. Super stress relieving, but it's a false relief. As soon as I'm done, it's back. I print a calendar, look at my training plan, feel the stress. 

I set goals, then don't meet them. Today I wanted to sit down and have a normal breakfast, instead of my rushed-out-the-door version. I don't know if I would have made it there, but LA grabbed his brekkie, threw gluten on my eggs (he didn't know, I didn't say), he sat down to eat and left me on clean-up. Why does that stress me? I just see a disaster of containers and crumbs. He got to enjoy breakfast, I ended up eating in another hurry standing at the counter top. Fail. Again.

So reset goal to dinner. Lately he wants to watch something on the phone, I just want a quiet dinner with him. We'll see what happens. I'm selfish and controlling, it seems. 

---

SWIM update -- I got home still stressed to find that LA had done for me a lot of the little household chores! Happy and Guilty, is how I felt. I super appreciate the help, it's like a clog is cleared. But guilty because he could have been studying, and this is sorta like enabling me. I showed up late for the swim and pushed to 900 yards, at which point the lifeguard asked me to finish up. Done! Good swims this week, but I gotta start doing more than just 1000 yards per session, as most any training plan I'd normally have isn't just 100 and 200 y sets, more like 300+ yard sets. But honestly, I'm not that far into this yet, I still need more practice so I stick this short training plan out until it's done. 

Did you benefit from reading JBP? Fast Thursday run and Fast 100 swims

 RUN 6.5 miles in 1:00:57

COMMUTE 9.2 miles

SWIM 1000 yards, with 2x 100y TT at 1:53 and 1:55 (really closer to 1:54 and 1:56!)

Totally great morning, might be one of the last of the t-shirt weather runs. Just me and BE today as EW on vacation, and I had some of my usual apprehension about running the loop. I've had this for years -- driving to the run and worrying about the pace and whether or not I would be able to keep up. Years of this! And again today -- without EW's more casual pace, how much would we speed up?

BE commented on the tank top weather, a spin on my t-shirt thoughts earlier. I shed the long sleeve around mile 1.5 on the Hill. We talked med students and studying, um....., his new drum corps DVD he'll watch later tonight, a few mins on last night's VP debates, um....., it was an hour we talked about more than that?

Around the skating rink I started getting thoughts of finishing this under an hour. My bad run math had me hung up a bit, this was 6.5 not 6.0 miles  and the pace in the first miles was 10+ but 9's thereafter, so, thinking, it would be close. I mentioned this to BE and we agreed that maybe a "Boston time finish" would pass as acceptable. We did it!! His watch said 1:00:42, less of a squeak under the goal time. The run felt great, yes it was hard but I've done harder. The same niggle in the right hip butt crease area, seems better these days? Denial?

Digits! I wore the chest HRM, it said ave 153bpm (compared to last weeks wrist 158, and 6 minutes slower). The HR climbed steadily throughout the run -- 137 in mile 1 and creeped up to 167 at the end. It was a smooth increase too, and not cadence lock this time. Cadence great at 170 spm. The Garmin reported three new records as we walked to the parking: fastest 10K at 58 minutes, fastest 5K at 28:20, and fastest mile at 8:50! Cool!

And compare this to my 10K check on Sept 6 in 1:01:23. Taking the 10K time above, that's a 3 min increase. 

---

Two chrysalides eclose today, one was in a slightly deformed chrysalis and didn't look good. LA is at the house and sent updates. I love having him here, I feel guilty to go to work or train though. But I feel so good.

---

SWIM ETA: I joined the 5pm wait list (this COVID bullshit has me signing up for lanes in 48 hour advance, but I also realize it's working for me as I treat it like a non-option session!) and at 330pm got the slot. Canceled my 6pm lane and left work early and happy! Today was the 100 yard TT effort, I did two and was surprised to see numbers sub-2! They aren't fast by any means, but they are good starting times as I get back into swimming. My form was a mess, I really need to focus on drilling and form and strength. And frequency!

---

One thing BE did talk about was an essay he wrote for philosophy class, and which the professor didn't care for his essay and wrote something to the effect of "you didn't benefit from reading Plato!" and for some reason that started some thoughts in me. In my case, it's about all the reading and planning and podcasting etc that I've done to learn why I have my habits and how to break them. A podcast yesterday had the therapist telling someone, if you want to break the habit you have to be ready, and until you're ready you won't be able to have a normal relationship. And without that habit you'll have to find out who you are, and it will be uncomfortable, and until you're ready it won't work. And you need to find the moment at which part of you "falls asleep" when the habit starts, and you have to learn to stay awake instead of falling asleep. 

Getting off topic here, but the last few days and weeks I've been ready. Off, on, off, on. Right now on. The therapist also said that at first, you'll only stay awake 1 out of 100 times, but as time goes on you'll find you're improving and gaining momentum. I feel the momentum!

It's time to let go and to sacrifice who you are for who you could become. JBP

Took 63 seconds off the TGP interval

 BIKE 20 miles in 1:18; 3 solo intervals: 17:33, 17:10, 16:30

SWIM I'm on the wait-list but don't expect to get a lane

No COMMUTE so I could run drive some errands 

Warm, sunny, wonderful morning! Temps are expected to be upper 70's, maybe 80 today. I started late, too late really, but whatever LA is here and it's worth it. Just me for 3 TGP loops, my initial plan was 3 steady intervals but when I got the last one I was feeling great and just pushed it. It's still 60-90 seconds off my fastest time with BE (15-some minutes) but that felt about as fast as I could go. 

Some interval numbers - 

Ave speed was 16.1, 16.4, 17.1

Max speed was 20.9, 22.1, 23.5! Fastest place was in the straightaway of 5th lap. 

Ave HR was 132, 138, 144. And it felt like 144 if not more. 

Did all 3 today, swim bike run

 COMMUTE 4.6 miles to track

RUN 4.75 to 5 miles on track

SWIM 1000 yards not on the track!

Wow what a day, I need more like this. Can't help but feel good and alive with it. BE and did a straightforward track run, again with some drills on the straightaway. The actual run was 4.75 miles with 1 lap walked, but then we did 4 strides on the grassy area, putting me somewhere between 4.75 and 5. Why not just say 5? 

Felt great, warmer than yesterday, and enjoying the strength that I usually feel in March or April. 

WTF with the temps!?

 BIKE 10 miles only in 43 mins

SWIM -missed it to help LA with discussions

I woke up briefly at 2am to pee and saw a text from BE, saying it was gonna be too cold for him and he wasn't going to ride. Cold? Huh?

I woke up later in the morning, slept in a little to benefit from the planned later start 630am, and checked the temps. 37F. WHAT?! When did that happen? Well since I was riding solo, I took more benefit and waited for the sun to come up and spend some time with LA. Him and Sugar like to sleep in, but I gotta ride!

I leave later than planned after finding some gloves, brrrrr, it's cold but not bad. My fingers burn a bit, but I don't seem to be getting progressively colder. So I decided to ride one interval at a time, and not decide on the next one until the current one was finished. But my head is distracted, and not by the cold. I kinda left LA after a back-n-forth of words and I was unsettled by it. With this I was able to make a 3-reason decision -- cold, distracted by the morning, and short on time because we had places to be. I turned around after one interval.

It was worth going - there was the beautiful fog in the park that changed every lap as the sun come up over the trees and it wisped away. There was one point in the southern lap, in which the orange sunny fog was contrasted against the blue shaded fog and the silvery green grass beneath it. Wow.

I wore the chest HR today, it's not a great comparison yet but so far -- today's average interval HR was 129 at a time of 18:35. Previous laps with the 245 wrist were: 124 in 17:43, 126 in 17:44.

Old Garmin wrist: 124 in 18:24, 127 in 18:12, 131 in 18:01, and 132 in 18:03 So here the garmin wrist seems to be doing OK. 

2nd 10-miler, very different run; Dragon!!

 Saturday RUN 10 miles in 1:44

Friday and Sunday, rested. Lots going on. 

Friday was a planned rest day. Sunday was a planned swim, but I switched it to Monday instead. Resting felt good, and got time with LA!

Let's compare the last 10-miler to this 10-miler. 

Last week was around the neighborhood, 1:51, wrist HR, 11:11m/m, 251 ft, 66F, 159bpm, 161spm. Walk about every 2 miles. Struggled that 2 miles. 

This week out-n-back Grants Trail, chest HR, 1:44, 10:24m/m, 156 ft, 54F, 145bpm, 167bpm. Walk every 2 miles, but felt even throughout the run. 

I wore the chest HR to monitor the potential for cadence lock, and/or confusion of the watch with my cadence. The wrist HR seemed to be counting cadence at the higher paces. Walk breaks showed appropriate decreases in HR, The chest HR showed super clear correlation between run and walk but the run HR was in the 140-150 range. The numbers show a clear *decrease* in chest-counted HR, but the correlation is good. So I think, for now, that the wrist heart rate is reading too high, but maybe isn't in cadence lock. I'll keep watching. 

NUMERICS 6 hours

SWIM 2100 yards

BIKE 25 miles

RUN 21 miles!

COMMUTE only 14 miles

Opt Out October...Opt Out Of ...?

RUN 6.5 miles in 1:06:31 

SWIM 600 yards, this time it included 6x25 fast and more kick sets    

FULL MOON run! When EW and BE and I started it was setting in the west, a large silver disk in a light haze. Beauty. BE said that a song called Moon Dance (they sang some of it, I recognized) played on his CD player as he drove to the park. Great run, perfect all around. EW left after the zoo, the sun came up behind the "asparagus building" (as BE calls the ugly new apartment building along Kingshwy) and we finished up 1 minute faster than last week. I'm feeling some sciatic type niggles in both legs, and tightness that I need to focus on. I'm also now doing PT type stuff, so I'm adding a lot here, and gotta just let myself rest. Tomorrow. 

The new garmin is wonderful, but I'm watching it for cadence lock. I'm suspicious. EW and BE got their giggles in about me and LA having matching Garmins. He drives to STL today, I just got tracking info as he's leaving AA! 

Then to further my morning wins, I made it to the pool and got my 600 yards in. It's kinda frustrating that I'm still swimming "only" 600-700 yards/swim this week, but let's review the past month, yardage per week starting on Sept 2nd: 920 yards (2) (includes race), 700 (1), 800 (1), 2800 (3), 2100 (3). Whoa!!! Really?! Let's add frequency in (). WHOA!!  Hey come'on, give yourself some credit here, and a HIVE-FIVE!! Keep it up, but don't get injured by building too fast.

Also, the garmin is nailing the swims. It doesn't detect my kick sets, I think there's a drill mode I should learn more about. During the swim, I think it's off a little bit but in the end it's correct as per my training plan notes. 

-----

I woke up with plans in place to make this October special, as I usually do for October. Opt Out is the usual -- in which I Opt Out of the internets like Dumb surfing, youtube, reddit, and next door. But as of now, I'm nextdoor and reddit free, dumb surfing is super minimum, and youtube is my only internet vice. And that's mostly at work. 

So what can I opt out of this month? Been thinking, I have a few ideas.

1. Opt out of Monster. Nuff said. I crashed hard with it this past weekend with Sunday/Monday feeling  like a free fall. Now Tuesday was 1 item, Wednesday was 0 item, and now today Thursday let's get this cleaned up. 

2. Focus on real meals. Been wanting this - real meals that I sit down to and enjoy. Not random grabs that aren't satisfying or are eaten too fast. 

3. Reasonable daily plan. No more over-planning rigid must-do days. Day by day, continue with the index card notes with 8 goals for the day. 

Overall, I think this means to Opt Out of STRESS. M stresses me. Hurrying through meals, and having all these rules to follow -- all stress. So let's make it an Opt Out of Stress Month.