Monthly Summary – October 2014
October was… not really what I expected.
I think it’s best to start with looking at my “Goals for October” as I set them in my September Monthly Summary blog post. The red is my evaluation of how I did:
- Eat better. I managed this pretty well. If I exclude the Halloween candy I ate last night and today, I was good about clean eating, mostly focused on whole foods like fruits, veggies, nuts and grains and cutting out a fair amount of the processed crap I’d been eating.
- Focus on getting better sleep. I slept better this month, but my sleeping still hasn’t been great. I’m sleeping more hours than I was while I was training for Badwater, but I regularly wake up in the middle of the night and when morning comes around, it’s harder for me to get out of bed and get moving. I think a big part of that is the fact that I don’t have somewhere I have to be. When I’m training I meet a group at 5:30 or 6 for a run. If I’m just going to the gym or just generally need to start my day, it’s easier to move more slowly.
- Continue swimming, yoga and strength training on a regular basis. I nailed this one. I swam 26,200 meters, my biggest month of swimming in at least 4 years and one of my biggest ever. I swam three times every week and felt good doing it. I also did a fair amount of strength training (for me) – one or two times every week, including my weekly ass-kicking by Ryan. I noticed that I’ve already gotten considerable stronger and it’s showing in my upper body. I only made it to yoga twice this month – both times in the last week. I’ll work on getting to yoga more in November.
- Run easy. Maybe hit the trails for some easy training. While my running got off to a good start and I ran every other day for the first half of the month, including a great run at Los Liones with Chamoun. After that, though, my body started rejecting the running with all sorts of different aches and pains in my core, so I shut down the running. I need to figure out what is actually going on before I start running again.
- Be positive. For the most part, I managed this one. There were definitely times when this was hard, but I think I’ve maintained a pretty damn good attitude given the issues I’m having getting back into running.
I like these goals and, except for the running, which might not happen, it makes sense to keep them for November. The other thing I’m going to add for November is:
- Read at least one book, hopefully two. I’ve been getting back into reading over the last couple of months. I’m currently about half-way through a pretty fun non-fiction WWII story called Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. It’s a great story about intrigue and spy games and trickery and out-smarting your enemy. I’d never even heard about it until recently, but it was pretty key to the Allies winning the war. I’ll write a little more about it once I finish the book. If you’re interested, click here to read a good article about the event from the New Yorker.
The other cool thing that happened this month was that Rich Roll released the podcast I recorded with him after racing Badwater.
If you haven’t already listened to it, you can find it at richroll.com or on iTunes or via his rad iTunes app or by clicking on the photo above or the “play” symbol below:
As I’ve mentioned here before, Rich is someone that I’m honored and privileged to call a friend. He’s an inspiration on so many levels – fitness, health, wellness, nutrition, accomplishing great things and all-around “life”. I had a great time recording the podcast and it was fun to listen to (and relive my Badwater experience this week – even if it was bittersweet at times to think about running and how my accomplishment I felt after finishing the race. Rich consistently has fantastic guests on his podcast and the interviews are always inspiring and interesting. If you don’t already listen to the podcast, check it out and subscribe on iTunes!
In addition to all that, the podcast has received great feedback all across social media. This one was my favorite so far (thanks Sam of the Foothills!):
Here’s October:
Swim: 26,200 meters
Cycling (outdoors): 0 miles
Run: 53 miles
Total Run Elevation Gain: 5,026 feet
Strength Training/Yoga: 8 sessions
Approximate monthly total training time: 31.5 hours
Weight: 165
(I removed indoor cycling from my monthly summary count. I can’t remember the last time I got on the trainer and don’t have any plans to do it any time soon.)