On my Period

Its supposed to be important to take a break from time to time - so I'm using a 3 week on, one week off cycle - periodization - to keep from burning out and to make sure I recover. Its hard not to just completely take the week off in this scenario - but so far so good. The planets are coming back into alignment - I think I know what caused me to tailspin last week. I was a bit miffed about gaining all that weight over the holidays. 258 - that's just ridiculous, gaining 14 lbs like that.

I've been on the "Stay Hungry" plan for 11 days now, and this morning I was right at 250. Still no sodas, and I'm taking Roman's dessert rule to heart and only allowing one dessert-type food a day down my gullet. And not every day, either. I'm working on snapping out of it.

My short, 1500 meter swim yesterday actually felt good, for a change. I did a 500x3 with about a minute between sets, on the short sides. Flip turns are becoming natural now, few mistakes and getting quicker through the turn. Because the pool didn't open until 10am, and I was there at 9am, I went on a little 3-miler before the swim. After the swim, I met Bacon for a snappy little 25 mile bike at around 18.7 mph pace - nice and aerobic. I remember when a tri like that would have left me spent all day - but now, its pretty refreshing at those shorter distances and slow paces. Neat stuff.

So we got an even 20 lbs to go, with only 12 weeks before my first race. 2 lbs a week is very doable, especially with the intensity on the steady rise from now until then. ONLY 12 WEEKS UNTIL THE SEASON STARTS AGAIN!!!!! I'm itching to get out of this "base phase" - I'm going to mix it up during the next cycle - do long rides and runs at base pace, and do the shorter stuff at a higher intensity.

On a somber note - Luke didn't get his prized new QR Seduza Tuesday as planned - it just was not in the cards (yet) - I think we all should give Luke a moment of silence.....thanks.