Are you going to eat that?

I became to be involved in this sport innocently enough, it was one part of the pursuit of a healthy and balanced lifestyle, eating right, with a balanced exercise regime, primarily to stave off the stresses of my job. The idea of working toward a goal was much more appealing to me than spending hours in a gym, working up a sweat without direction (the opinion expressed is that of the participant). Races became milestones, participation the rush, and results became reward. The science behind nutrition was a bit of a mystery though, carbohydrate requirements, proteins, and limit caffeine and alcohol? Well, I beg your pardon, I belong to a tri club with a long standing relationship with a great local coffee shop, and many of our races have a great pub right on the bike course. And what about now? Well, the times, they are a changin'.

I have to tell you, with three weeks behind me, I find myself hungry, like, ALL THE TIME. That may be a stretch, it is not truly a 24/7 thing, but I find myself panicky in the morning if I haven't got enough time to pull together a reasonable lunch, usually a medium/large size salad, protein of the day (read: can of tuna/chicken breast/sliced turkey breast ), and some healthy snacks. Without planning, I tend to be a little bit lost, foraging for food in downtown Ottawa, usually faced with some sort of pre-made sandwich/soup or sandwich/salad combo - with the ever present danger of some kind of over-sweetened caffeine powered mochasugar cup as a chaser. We all know that those sandwiches and salads rarely measure up to the healthy options we can pack from home. And without pre-planned snacks, all bets are off. Hello ginger molasses cookie, how I've missed you.

So I supposed the more appropriate description is that I'm not hungry all the time, rather I tend to be pre-occupied with meal planning alot of time, particularly in the morning when I'm negotiating with myself for those extra few minutes of sleep, using all my power to convince myself that I can pull together some decent food ideas for the day in no time flat. So I will finally admit that the coaches are right, the key is really in the planning. None of this willy nilly stuff anymore!

Fortunately for me, I married someone who loves to plan, and relishes the opportunity to help me stay organized, and thus focussed, on every detail. Given the task at hand, I couldn't ask for better.

And as far as the plan goes, all is well, another solid weekend of training - Saturday brick and strength training and by far the most successful long run I've had in a while, despite the absolutely frigid temperature on Sunday morning. According to the schedule, I'm on a recovery week, but I'm not exactly feeling like it's less.... in fact my running intervals this morning and my strength training all added up to more! But, I'm committed to the process, so on we go.