Introducing The OVCX Heckler's Guide to Literal Nutritional Off-Roading

(At least in the elite race people give you stuff when it all goes to hell.) - me

So for two weeks in a row things have gone "all to hell" for me vs. the "meets expectations" I was at least achieving at the beginning of the season.  This is due partially to a crisis of motivation/ confidence, in that I'm getting averse to the pain involved in meeting my admittedly low expectations, but that I'm lacking the confidence to set them higher.  This is the point at which, in past seasons, I would walk away thinking the only solution was a season break and more training, but damnit, I've been waiting months for this, and I can't give up now.  The other part is all of the fun distractions the past two weekends have provided, which have kind of lured me into participation mode rather than racing mode.  Case in point:  my race yesterday was terrible, but my costume was awesome.

Last year I was waaay too serious to dress up for the Halloween race, in fear that a wardrobe malfunction would tank my chances at the series championship. This year, I have no chances, so I figured I should have fun at least.  That I did, but I definitely didn't arrive at the starting line with an ass-kicking mentality.  At least I got a little real racing in Saturday since there were collegiate categories in the ICX race, and I got mix it up with Marion's B squad a bit.

Unlike the St. Mary's race where grabbing a dollar hand-up was a hard decision, Sunday found me actually scanning the sidelines for hand-ups of any sort by halfway through the race.  In the end, I got a dollar, a mini Hershey bar (that I still haven't eaten), and a swig of cheap beer.  It was especially disappointing that I had to get the dollar from the Don Walker camp while all my friends in the Shamrock area only offered chants of "cast a spell" and "use your evil powers".  I guess it's just as well that no one enabled me in my downward spiral.  I'm really just disappointed that I missed the Jello shots.

With all of the distractions lately, it's a bit hard for me to reconcile the ass-kicking, Paleo-eating girl I want to be, and the back-of-the-pack party participant that's shown up the last couple of weeks.  Okay, so I loved the party part even when I was doing well (we'll call it the "sun and socialization" part of my health equation), but it was way better than when it was celebration instead of consolation.

Anyway, ever since I first saw the Whole9's Guide to Nutritonal Off-Roading, I've been trying figure out how it applied to the healthy weekdays and hand-upy weekends lifestyle that I live from September through December.  Since "It Starts With Food" was published, the Whole 30 plan seems to be catching on in the endurance mountain biking world, as least as opposed to two years ago with I was just a weirdo trying to tweak my fat metabolism.  However, I haven't heard many rumblings among the CX crowd, so until then, I present you with "The OVCX Heckler's Guide to Literal Nutritional Off-Roading" to get you through all of your tough weekend decisions.