40 steps to 40: Nine months update

The last update I did on my personal list of goals for this year (called "40 steps to 40") was at three months because I forgot to write one at one month, and also at 2 months. You'd think that I'd remember to write one at 6 months at least? Well, nope. It's been now 9 months!! But better late than never...

1. Finish Ironman Mt. Tremblant.
10 days!!! Enough said. Fingers, toes, eyes and hairs crossed.

2. Clean up my diet
I'm doing my best. I am still eating grains and carbs and sugar, but in lesser quantities. I no longer try to limit these to the morning like I attempted for a month. I eat everything in moderation, and I still stay away from fast food and everything that is deemed unhealthy because of the usual crap that it contains (chemicals, colors, additives, HFCS etc). My carbs to vegetable ratio is still very bad (veggies every other day if I'm lucky), and I know that this is the reason that I have not been losing weight.

Baskin & Robbins "Rainbow Sherbet" kiddie scoop. One of the few treats that I can still eat.

I also found that I'm allergic to cow milk and derived dairy, but only the North American kind. I can eat French and Swiss cheese all day! (looks like everything makes me feel like death, regardless of the country of origin). It is not lactose intolerance in the sense that I cannot digest it, but 90% of my asthma seems to come from this type of dairy, that I was eating/drinking with every meal as butter, cream, milk in my coffee, yoghurt, cheese, iced cappucinos, whey protein in my energy bars and salty balls, pizza, bakery goods made with butter etc. I realized that I was triggering my asthma and thus making it worse constantly. I since eliminated most sources of dairy and my asthma has completely disappeared (when in absence of other triggers like perfume, cold AC air or exercise). I used to need my puffer twice a day, but in the last month I've only had to use it once, and it was at the end of a race.

I consider this to be a bigger win than "cleaning" my diet overall. What does that mean anyway? It's not like I am eating garbage. I think I may be ready to striking this one as done. I made significant changes that led to an improved health and less need for medication. Big Yay!

3. Lose weight to reach 125lb
What a joke. Why on Earth am I so attached to this number? I don't know...It's a nice number. I love this number. Is it realistic for me? Maybe not while I train for an Ironman. I wrongly assumed that I would shed all this weight due to the amount of training that I would put in, but not only my training hours did not pile up like I feared (my biggest week was 16h), but it seems that I may have replaced some fat with muscle as well. I wear the exact same clothes as last year when I was 8 pounds lighter and they still fit the same. I feel healthy. Yes, I do have chubby arms and some fat spilling out of my spandex tights and tri kit, but I can look at myself in pictures and not hate what I see. Do I want to be stronger and more toned? To have a 6 pack? Muscle definition on my legs and back? Sure I do, but I'm soon to be 40 and I've only been doing this sport for 3 years. I may get there eventually, or not... it all depends on my level of commitment to strength training (which I hate with a vengeance). But given all my injuries this year, I think that something MUST be done to strengthen some parts of my body (glutes, hamstrings, core) that are obviously not cooperating.

We'll see what happens after the Ironman. Until then, I leave you with my weight and fat mass as measured over the past year. Numbers at the top left are from today. I don't understand Withings' "normal" range by the way.

4. Run a 5k race under 25min - DONE! (as part of the 10K race. It counts because I make the rules!)
5. Run a 10k race under 52min - DONE!

6. Run a half marathon race - DONE!

7. Complete a duathlon - DONE!

8. Complete a 70.3 triathlon - DONE!

10. Swim 4x50m medley non stop - I feel that I'm going to do this after the Ironman when all I'll be able to do is swim. Ha!
11. Swim with fins in open water for fun - DONE! It was NOT fun.

13. Bike to Niagara Falls and back - DONE! (from the other B-town, Burlington) It was A LOT of fun!

14. Bike to Blue Mountain and back - hubby has this one planned for after the Ironman. I'm thinking birthday ride, maybe?

15. Bike the Caledon Trailway - I wanted to do this with my boys... They need new bikes first. Hmm. That's a pickle.

16. Climb a mountain - Mt Tremblant, here I come!!!
17. Volunteer at a race - DONE! I volunteered with the office folks at the Race for the Kids and I will also volunteer at Muskoka 70.3 in September.

19. Read 5 books - still stuck reading Cmdr. Chris Hadfield's book. I will bring books on vacation, I hope to finish at least this one!

21. Find 100 new geocaches - I plan to find a good number of them on vacation. It's my only hope. I miss geocaching so much!!

30. Try paddle boarding - I've scoped out 2 locations, I just need to set aside the time. This will happen!

32. Express gratitude for at least 40 days - *sigh* that is all. I am so grateful.... ALL THE TIME. Writing it down though...  I think I'm still at 10 or so.

Everything else is either not on my radar yet, has been postponed or has been completed. Will do a complete tally after my birthday I guess... Let's see how many I can strike until then. I am not holding my breath on completing them all though. But it's fun to have something to look forward to!!

The countdown has begun

Today is January 18 and in exactly 30 weeks (and a sleepless night) I will be shivering with anxiety at the swim start of Ironman Mont Tremblant. It is time to start the countdown. 30 weeks of training and a life altering experience to complete it. This week I continued the re-building of my fitness and even though my coach and I agreed that I won't get the official IM training plan until I'm able to train 10h/week again, I am slowly but surely ramping up and adding minutes, miles and strokes to each of my workouts.

I also added more flip turns (to my swims, that is)! Which led to this.

On Monday, I decided to run. My first run this year, so I took advantage of my gym membership at work and I hit the treadmill. I also had a physio session in the evening where I had to do countless butt squeezes, bridges and clam shells, and by 9pm I was craving an ice bath. But not that cold because I'm a wimp these days.

When hubbs told me that the pool was colder than usual that day I knew that I had to go. If I kept moving, I was most certainly not going to feel it in my bones. And so I went. I did 2x100m to warm up, then put on the pull buoy and continued bouncing between the walls. I was doing every length with a flip turn and after a while all that tumbling made me forget completely where I was in my set. I had planned to do 500m, but I was feeling "in the zone" and told myself that I should try and see how long I can keep doing the flip turns. My watch counts the laps and eventually, while I was coming out for air after one of the flips, I looked at it. I had swum 800m non stop and I said, why not go for 1000m and strike one more goal off my "40 steps to 40" list? After all, I never mentioned NOT using a pull buoy. When I don't kick when I swim in a wetsuit, it's still called swimming. Everyone does it. So there, this IS legit swimming, dammit. Plus, I go faster without a kick, so most likely I'll be doing the same "in the field".

Here is the data geekery (the last 100m are buggy because Garmin lost me. Time is correct, but not the length). You can clearly see the 1000m block, the warmup and the cooldown. You'll just have to trust me that I did every single length of this workout with a flip turn. Because I did and I am stupid proud of it!! I promise to provide video evidence of my flipping prowess before the judges change their mind.

Since Monday I also did 2 bike workouts and I even threw in some intervals, more and more intense to remind myself that I can sweat. I managed to get to 1h on the bike with 2 blocks of 20 min spinfest at 95rpm. These felt like the kind of workouts I was doing last year, so not all fitness is lost, phew. 

And today I ran again. Two in a week, wheee! I went to the indoor track for the first time ever since I promised Meg Menzies that I'd run for her. She's no longer among us, but all the #megsmiles logged today will remain in many people's memory, including her family's. We just can't help it, we are family too. She was one of us. What else can we do?

I ran with abandon. I got lost in my thoughts, I did not feel pain, but my heart was aching in more than one way. That I gave it all is an understatement. I did not go to the track to race, but somehow I ran faster than I imagined. I didn't feel tired, so I have no idea where this energy came from. Sometimes there are things that you cannot explain. 

About half way I could still not understand if the numbers I was seeing were real. I started hitting the lap button because I wanted to make sense of what was happening, if not during the run, but maybe after. Now that I know the distance of each lap, exactly 120m, I counted that I must have run 49 laps in 30 minutes. Here are the last 28 of them.

What will happen tomorrow, next week... we'll see. I hope my coach won't read this blog post or he'll lock me in my Pain Cave until I can control my enthusiasm. Until then, I'm enjoying the free benefits of my drug of choice: beautiful, blissful endorphins. Oh how I missed you!!

Anyway, Week 30 starts tomorrow!! Oh wait... do I count up or down? What would you do to keep track of this madness?

Because I like making lists: 40 steps to 40

Did you know that in less than a year I'll be turning 40?

Yep, no matter what, 40 is happening. But how I get there, it's a different matter altogether. I want to turn 40 with a bang!! (I'll make sure to put that on the list by the way). Yes, I know that I've signed up for an Ironman, but I need some backup plans because shit can happen and then what?
Besides, if you dedicate your whole year to the Ironman and put on hold everyone and everything else, most likely you (that's me) will get alienated by the monotony of workouts and the constant focus on fitness. I think it is important for your psyche to keep a somewhat normal life around Ironman training because you never know when you're going to need to look back and say "this was not a complete waste of time". I've learned some lessons along the way...

I'm a big kid now

So I've made a list of 40 challenges, goals, stepping stones, whatever you want to call them, which should be enough to keep me busy in all situations. Half of them are fitness related because it just made it easier to fill up the list. The rest I got with help from friends, Pinterest and my bored mind. I want my 40s to be the best decade yet. Here we go. Deadline is September 18, 2014.

1. Finish Ironman Mt. Tremblant
2. Clean up my diet. I have a plan for that.
3. Lose weight to reach 125lb
4. Run a 5k race under 25min
5. Run a 10k race under 52min
6. Run a half marathon race
7. Complete a duathlon
8. Complete a 70.3 triathlon
9. Swim 1000m with flip turns
10. Swim 4x50m medley non stop
11. Swim with fins in open water for fun
12. Go skinny dipping
13. Bike to Niagara Falls and back
14. Bike to Blue Mountain and back
15. Bike the Caledon Trailway
16. Climb a mountain
17. Volunteer at a race
18. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
19. Read 5 books
20. Dye my hair at home
21. Find 100 new geocaches
22. Make a jar of something
23. Make 12 new dishes
24. Spend a whole day at the movies
25. Do something fun on New Year's Eve
26. Go on a date night x 4
27. Make something with my cork collection
28. Make a dreamcatcher
29. Use my 10 classes Yoga pass
30. Try paddle boarding
31. Learn how to roll sushi
32. Express gratitude for at least 40 days
33. Host a party/BBQ with friends at home
34. Ride the Leviathan rollercoaster
35. Ride the Behemoth with my younger son
36. Go fishing with my boys
37. Try a new food
38. Go to the reflexologist
39. Get a mani/pedi or a spa treatment
40. Turn 40 with a Bang!

This is a method to my madness. (I also put the list on the side so I can keep track more easily).
Everyone say hip hip hooray!