Week 13 - setbacks gallore

Hmmph.

I'm a bit disheartened. Went back up to 314 over the course of the last two weeks. It's not surprising; there have been various stresses to deal with, but it is disheartening. I've disappointed myself, to a certain extent, and that never tastes very sweet.

So, how to move onward and upward? Adapt, improvise, and overcome.

Adapt. I have been struggling to get all three work-out days in during the week. Sundays always work out, because I've been doing them with Ana... whenever you have a partner in crime, you are more willing to continue a routine, since you don't want to let your partner down. Fridays generally work out, because that's my day off, and I can usually at least get some kind of cross-training completed (this week, I went Nordic skiing). But Wednesdays are killing me... and without that extra day, I'm taking too many days off in a row. It's hurting my performance and my weight. So, to adapt to this reality, I will do something at work on Wednesdays from now on. We have a small gym with exercise bikes, and we have a lightly traveled road. I will either take a brisk walk, weather permitting, or use one of the bikes in the gym.

Improvise. Winter affords me lots of improvisational potential... I've gone out skiing on the walk/run course, and today I used snowshoes to get down the back trail to the running road. But, is there something more I could do to take things up a notch? Perhaps I need to put a creative spin on some activity I do to make it more exercise friendly? Ah ha! When I go snowshoeing, I will do a super high step, trying to touch my knee to my chest (I can't physically do that, but the image is the important thing). That will burn a few extra calories, and will help with core strength.

Overcome. When I get stressed, I eat. Hell, when I get happy, I eat, too... But mostly when I get stressed. And over these last two weeks, I haven't been as strict with my "no sugar" regimen... I will renew my efforts in this regard to overcome this plateau.

Okay, the strategy and tactics are in place. It's up to me to execute them to the best of my ability. It gets hard, because when I have these setbacks, I feel the weight of letting myself down, of letting my family down, and of letting my Marine Corps down. Although carrying that weight has made me stronger, when I stumble it does make it difficult to recover quickly. Then again, I'm announcing all this publicly, so there's less of a chance I'll find excuses to not carry through. Since I like imagining that I, my family, and my Corps are happy when I do well, I'm just going to have to accept the disappointment when I don't do well. The trick will be to head toward those moments of success, despite the setbacks... which will, I suppose, make future moments of success all the more tasty.

I should tell this story... there was one benefit of my running late, so to speak. As I was returning up the back trail, I heard a cracking in the woods to the south-east. That's the direction of a larger trail that Ana usually heads back on with her horse and dog, so I expected to see Able (the dog) come bounding through the underbrush... instead, two does were prancing through the snow. The first, when it arrived at the trail crossing, took a graceful leap to clear the trail, and continued bounding through pine and spruce on the opposite side. The second, following the first, stumbled a bit and ended up standing on the trail, perhaps 100 yards away from me, to the south. She looked up for a moment and spotted me watching her. She stamped her front feet twice to warn me off. I rotated to stand square toward her. And there we stood, like the north-seeking Zax and the south-seeking Zax! We both remained relatively motionless for about three or four minutes. Then, she took a tentative step forward, which I mimicked... and at that, she followed her partner's scent off into the trees.

I've decided to upgrade my iPod, which I carry with me to do split times on my runs, to the new model that has a camera built in to it... because I see some really cool stuff out in my little corner of the wilderness, and I feel like a heel when I can't share those images here!

Lap Times
Phase 1 (snowshoe) : 10:12.1 (trail)
Phase 2 (jog) : 6:38.0 (up to farm)
Phase 3 (jog) : 6:48.3 (down to trail)  <-- actually ran the full mile!
Phase 4 (snowshoe) : 12:36.4 (trail)

Total distance: 3 km, Total time: 36:14.8, Best mile: 13:26.3
Weekly weigh-in: 314  <-- Damn!
Average power: 526 Watts  <-- I think this is too low... but I don't have data for snowshoeing.
Heart rate following final run: 165
Heart rate five minutes after cool-down walk: 102