23 Day Detox

I recently did a 23 day detox of alcohol.  I know, crazy, right?  Well, I don't want to go into the details of why I did it but let's just say that they were good reasons.  After the 23 day detox, I went out and had a couple of glasses of wine for 2 nights in a row.  The point of this is to document how I felt during the detox and after the detox.

During the detox, I felt that my head had cleared up.  I could focus a bit more and I actually got motivation back regarding working out.  I also lost about 4 pounds during the 23 days.  My mood was better, I was sleeping better, and I had better focus.  However, I avoided social situations that involved alcohol.  And in social situations that involved alcohol, I wasn't comfortable in them.  I have a bit of social anxiety and having a drink or two helps getting over that.  All that I can say was that I was uncomfortable in these situations which is consistent with other detoxes I've done in the past.

After those 2 nights of drinks earlier this week, I definitely wasn't as rested the next morning when I woke up.  My motivation towards working out was more or less gone and motivation at work dropped off a bit.  I felt better socially though.  My weight fluctuates a lot more, too.

These weren't huge differences but they are things that I have noticed.  I think it was good to recalibrate this and going forward I'll try to keep it to one or two nights a week and that's it.  I like wine though but it isn't worth it every night.

Oh, my knee is still fucked up and I'm seeing an ortho doc on Thursday for it.  I haven't run in almost a month and it is getting a bit frustrating.  It just isn't getting healthy as quickly as I would like and I'm actually in considerable amount of pain at times.  We will see how that goes next week.

Tri Season & Yoga

I ended my tri season on July 31st or so.  My knee got fucked up about a week and a half before that.  I went out for a run with Texas Iron on a Tuesday night run.  About half a mile in, my right knee started hurting.  By the time I was in a mile and a half, I couldn't run at all.  Walking was fine, but my knee hurt so much that I was limping.  Fuck!  I took it easy and basically anything that I did hurt it.  Even swimming hurt it.  I'm seeing a PT now but I decided to hang up my tri shoes for the season.  I had a race in 4 days and I couldn't do it.  Doing PT would delay running and I couldn't put full effort into the TriRock in September.  My heart hasn't been into this season so I decided to call it quits.  I may be done with triathlons but I hope I not and that I can find something to get my motivation back.

I did get back into yoga last week.  It is one thing that I can do without my knee hurting too much.  I haven't gone in a year and it was amazing to be back.  I was having a shitty time lately and I did it for the mental clarity as much as the workout.  The mental clarity was what I really needed and I'm going back at least once a week to keep it up.

My plan for the month of August is to do whatever I feel like.  Some cardio, some weights, some yoga.  Just whatever I feel like doing that day.  This will also allow my knee to heal.  After that, I'm hitting up my personal trainer again and will get back into running as soon as possible.

And that is what is going on with me right now.

4 Weeks Ago: 13 miles
3 Weeks Ago: 4.5 miles
2 Weeks Ago: 0 miles
Last Week: 0 miles
Asics run mileage: 238 miles

Frustrated

I raced Couples Triathlon last Sunday and it sucked.  My swim was decent, my bike was OK, but I just had nothing on the run.  I was averaging about 9min/mile.  I don't think I've ever ran that slow in a triathlon except for my Ironman.  I'm frustrated because although I'm training, I seem to be getting slower.  Ok, I take that back.  I really didn't train for a few weeks because I was sick, but still, 9min/mile in a sprint is fucking HORRIBLE for me!  What the hell?  I need to put on my big girl panties and suck it up.  Since this year's season isn't going as well as I expected, and it's my own fault, I'm just going to concentrate on sprints for the rest of the year.  I have Jack's Generic in August and then the TriRock sprint in September and call it a season.  I know what's wrong though.  I've lost the drive, the fire, the desire to really push myself to make myself faster.  I need to get that feeling back somehow.

5 Weeks Ago: 10 miles
4 Weeks Ago: 11 miles (6 were in Portland!)
3 Weeks Ago: 0 miles (sick)
2 Weeks Ago: 9 miles
Last Week: 4 miles
Asics Run Mileage: 220.5