2017 - Week in Review - 06 March - 13 March

Getting ready for travels.

Weekly Reflections and Focus

What a roller coaster week. Monday was a long travel day from Cache Valley in the snow to NYC. When I got to NYC I got out and ran. I'm glad I did as that was the best run of the week. I didn't out run myself but kept it consistent and took the shorter 5 miler option as I was getting some high shoulder feeling and stomach cramping. I should have sensed that Wednesday was coming but I didn't.

So, on my flight to NYC, I caught up on some podcasts. I was listening to the following:

More good content and I appreciate the point of views discussed and explored. I don't necessarily agree with it all, but totally dig the way they approach it. Don't get me wrong I still like Tawny and Lucho over at Endurance Planet, but it’s great to have a couple different good and quality sources. I did zone out listening to the Fat Black one.

It was a pretty long week in a lot of ways there in NYC. On Tuesday I went out for another run and 2 miles in, the first two miles were OUTSTANDING. My times and pacing and HR was right where I wanted it, but while doing dynamic stretches past the 2-mile point, it went sideways. I could sense something was wrong, and after the next two miles, I walked the last two miles in and hoping I didn't have to sacrifice a sock or chuck my cookies on the side in the park. What a mess. Tuesday into Wednesday was a rough night. Montezuma gave me a great guide of the porcelain castle.

So I had to sit there and just sleep and recover. At about 2 pm I finally started feeling human and got a few emails and administrative things out. Then later I got out to grab food at Whole Foods, then I could just walk up to the LDS Temple across the street from the Lincoln Center. I felt that I needed the walk to clear my head, but the walk back was a blur and a bit woozy. Alas, I made it back and slept the last of it off.

Thursday night I went and got a good slow 5 miler in. It felt good to get back into my head and push through my body. To let folks go on by and not worry about it too much. I feel that I am becoming more headstrong in my mind as it pertains to my personal needs and goals vs. the need to bang something out hard when i see someone I know I can straight beat. It was cool to see a few other folks going through their needs. I felt bad as I was going back and forth with some gal and I sensed that she was beating herself up about it. I had a small smirk to myself thinking, and I am not going all out :)

The trip home was a bit rough as I didn't get good rest, a 3-hour nap and then Uber to the airport. I felt like Harry Potter in the Magic bus and just zoned out as the dude kept peppering and throttling his gas pedal. Then while in line I heard a few derogatory remarks by passer-bys about people going to Utah to convert to Mormonism. So, I popped off to one person, well we don't have to worry about converting your to being a 'jerk'. The fella next to me then asked if I was from, Utah. I was like nope, but we do call it home and it’s a great place to be. He decided to tell me how excited he was to go to a bachelor party and ski in Park City. Amongst a slew of pejoratives. I shared it’s a great time to go because our snow year has been monstrous and should be epic spring conditions. Hope his group has a good time. His buddy showed up and they engaged in a conversation that included a few words that were intelligible beyond 4 letter words.

Friday was a day that I tried to help Liz when I got home. Dennis and Juniper were excited to see daddy being home. It was good to get ready for a weekend home and the next week 'remote'. I couldn't sneak in a time to get a run in, or even over to swim, but I think its fine. I feel I am in a good place mostly. It's all cumulative anyway. It's warm in Cache Valley and the evening was quite kind. It is good to be home with family. Dennis has a new friend that recently moved in, and he is enjoying that new friendship. So, we just had a chill family evening and improving upon #familybalancetri. We had to get ready for tomorrow morning for Shamrock Shuffle, a local run in Smithfield Utah.

Anyway, Saturday morning came and it was a good but a bit rough morning. We got over finally and on time and got signed up. Liz got stuck managing her body and needing the restroom and we had to work our way to the starting point moments before the race. I got to run into an old friend 'Neil Legler'. It was good to see one of the 'super dudes' among mere mortals.

Anyway, the run was tough to jump from 0 elevation and then to 4600 ft. The first .5 miles is uphill, and then I settled into the rest of the run. Again, I was still feeling a bit off, but because of that, I decided to change the purpose of the run and turned it into intervals and did some dynamic stretching and being patient. I didn’t want to over run myself. I backed it off and just got to my cruise speed. I had to stop and walk a bit on purpose to do this, but it was helpful to just chase it back. This is important because I was going for a bike or swim later. It was good to be able to catch up with some of our local runner friends, to get hellos and folks knowing you by name. I even had a newer guy ‘Shane Larsen’ come up and say hello. It is cool to have these connections from time to time.

Anyway, the day was beautiful. I did have a pretzel on the way back from Sam’s Club and then I threw together a amino energy bottle and went out riding.

It was great to be back in the saddle. I was wearing a new kit by SL3S that I recently purchased. Overall I am quite pleased with the kit, and it handled me having my long sleeve thermal shirt underneath. I was taking it easy and getting volume initially in. I went out for a total of 43 miles or so. It was awesome to get some hills in. it was great to climb out of blacksmith fork canyon. When I got to Hyrum reservoir, I was surprised to see that Hyrum was still capped. I captured the following video:

After taking the video I got back to pedaling. I was going to take Meridian Road back but it had a 3-foot road break and was closed from recent late winter storms and associated flooding. As I kept on I was wondering if I should finally climb up Meridian to the end of the road just before the stables to go over to the Baxter Hollow monument. I saw a group climbing, so I decided to take a stab at it. It was a good Category 4 climb. I am glad I did. I stayed persistent and just road through it. I wasn’t trying to set any records, just climb. I spoke to the folks on the road and they weren’t sure if Highway 23 or Old Mendon road would be open. So, I broke away and headed back down. The cross winds were high and I kept feeling a bit loose and waffling on the front wheel, so I kept on the breaks and went no faster than about 22 – 25 mph…. Anyway, the ride up and over to the 89 and connector to Wellsville was good. I then road over to the elementary school and grabbed a few pix of the snow on the Wellsville mountains.

I then tooled over to Mendon, and pushed decently hard, I think I was riding 19 mph to 21 mph is a heavy cross wind. When I got to the stop sign to head down Old Mendon Road. Heart stopped. They had a road closure sign up at the tracks. I need to investigate and see what it truly means. I am not sure as I had not driven that way since before the storms. So, I called Liz and alerted her to my heading back home via Wellsville. The last notable thing was almost getting hit crossing the highway, in the cross walk. At least I got a nervous wave from the gal and her passenger.

So, I have been thinking a lot. What do I think about while riding? Most of the time I am actively present. i am looking around about 500 or so feet in front of me. Now this is a new experience as I have my modified and altered vision. I was able to not even think about that as I went yesterday. I clear my head and my mind. I try to wash away all the frustrations from work, especially the last two weeks. It has been particularly frustrating. I had to make a play that may have costed me a dear collegial friendship in the effort to make sure my local leadership will just get to concentrating on deliverables on our current client. That was a rough thing to do, albeit, I needed to do it just to make sure a needed asset gets the message and course corrects. And if the asset doesn't course correct, well, I did what I could. I try to manage my surroundings and adapt to the things I cannot change. The wind, I cannot change that but i can adapt my riding style, speed, length of time in aero. I am problem solving as I go. I didn't eat enough today, i have my salt tabs and plenty of water, i can compensate there. I can control my speed and use the wind to my advantage to accumulate and save effort for when the wind is not so generous. I think about what a wonderful life. I have a patient and beautiful wife. Who let's me go out and ride and run and swim despite her anxiety to let me do so. To have her trust and support means a lot, and during the tough times helps to pull me through when I can't see clearly either the next step or enough light in the tunnel to continually navigate until it becomes more clear. To have Dennis. He is growing so fast. He is adolescing even faster. I try to control my impatience and not take it out on him when I return home. I still feel that the 9 year gap between he and Juniper is a dramatic change for him. Sometimes a few observant folks ask what that means to him. In fairness, it affects him, but I like to believe overall he is doing ok. To have Juniper and her current steal the limelight moments. To have another one baking and soon to be en route. Liz has encountered a rough go with this one and I can only hope that in my absence while traveling for work, her needs are met.

Well folks, there it is. A bit longer review as i was able to get my first major ride in. 3 decent climbs, truly 2 with a few long rollers. I need to get swims and rides in next week and accumulate my runs. I am home remote next week and hope to get morning runs in with an evening activity too. I keep reminding myself that it is not 'epic' training days but the overall efforts of many solid efforts that will pay off in May at the 70.3 St George Ironman.

I was grateful to run into so many NERC's at the Shamrock Shuffle. to their kindness the previous Saturday for letting me run with them, or ahead of them or whatever. To run into old friends and to begin establishing new acquaintances and friendships along my journey. I look through my strava followers and connections and see a varied diversity and am grateful to those that like my efforts and others that have forged simple friendships with a stranger like me. Life is good. It's been a good week despite the challenges for sure.

#zentriathlete, #familybalancetri, #zenfamily

Activities - Strava Logs (Shane's Strava link)

(Look for rollover links if you are Strava stalking me :) )

Monday
Activity 1 - RUN
Tuesday
Activity 1 - Run Pt 1, Run Pt 2
Wednesday
Activity 1 - Walk - Sick All Day
Thursday
Activity 1 - RUN
Friday
Activity 1 - REST DAY post travel
Saturday
Activity 1 - Run Pt 1, Run Pt 2, Cycling

Targeted Activity and Focus Points

SWIM

Get in the pool if time allows

BIKE

Get the 1st season outdoor ride completed.

RUN

Run through sickness. Keep volume above 20 miles for the week.

Nutrition

To be honest I am really frustrated. I am doing what I need to do but still the weight just sticks. on Saturday for example, I forgot to eat. It was honest. I grabbed an english muffin and slapped Nutella on each piece before a 5K run. I then had half a banana and an apple, Amino energy and rode 43 miles. Wednesday I didn't eat until later in the evening as I was throwing up Tuesday into Wednesday and sick all day Wednesday. I am eating well and right. I am trying to eat before activities too. Grrr. Just Grrr. My target calories are 2200 daily and macros were dialed in for most of the trip away.