Off to the Triple T Races!

My bags are packed, and in about :30 I will load my car and drive over to pick up Kevin, and then to Lori's house to load my stuff into her van, bikes on car, and off we go, including Marc.

I have a bunch of stuff for Cindy, her husband and son, just because they're my friends and also for our team spirit. I even brought a length of rope so we can tie ourselves together during the run on Sunday, which I heard is a good thing when *someone* doesn't want to climb yet another hill. We shall see which of us that is!

I have my nutrition all planned out, and hopefully it will work out. Coke, Ultra Violence, caffeine-laced Infinit, coffee, pretty much all forms of caffeine! And in case you were worried, I've been using it in training the last few weeks. Coke is good, but Ultra Violence is just plain MAGICAL! I think I have enough in my giant Fuel Belt for Sunday's run for both Cindy and me. We'll be needing all the help we can get!

Weather looks hot but dry; it's been hot here this week except today the temps have dropped somewhat, and I'm not sure I'm totally heat acclimated, which is one of the challenges of May races for me. May temps can go up and down. Oh well, nothing to do now but race!

My back lawn was CRAWLING with emerging cicadas last night. Something tells me this 17-year thing is going to bring me good luck at the races all season. So far so good--I've knocked out a pile of running including a marathon and half marathon, 4 sprint races, and here come 4 more this weekend!

Enjoy your weekend, especially if you have Monday off, and I'll see you on the other side of yet another adventure!

Cicada (Brood XIII) Update

Oh, boy are they here! This morning, the trunks of mature trees were pretty much covered with newly-emerged nymphs, and the lawns are crawling with more trying to reach tree trunks. They have not begun singing though; that will be any day now, even as more emerge.

Birds are going nuts with all the extra food. I witnessed a few bird "fights" today, but those will stop once they all realize just how much food there is. Most wild birds don't live long enough to witness this event more than once, so I can only imagine how excited they must be! Can you imagine when you normally have to go to some trouble to feed yourself and your young how you'd feel if food was literally crawling out of the ground faster than you could eat it? They are still singing non-stop (when not eating), and I've seen many frantically preparing new nests for their second set of offspring.

A lot of my perennials have cicadas on them, but that's cool; they won't hurt those plants a bit (although if I recall, there are other bugs attracted by the cicadas that will do some damage).

It's a warm day, and I'm starting to see the cicadas "flying." They don't really fly so much as move around a bit hoping to run into a mate or tree.

If you want to learn more, head to www.cicadamania.com. I'll get some more decent pictures once we're fully loaded up with bugs. Whereas the last time they were here, I was bothered by their presence; this time, I am amazed by what they are and how much of a good thing this is for the wildlife, and for my trees and garden. Once eggs are laid in trees' twigs, they will fall off, offering a free pruning service. The soil becomes enriched by the nutrients of the dead adults, the birds hopefully multiply to extreme, and maybe the damn rabbits will stop eating my plants!

In other triathlon news, I was completely shelled yesterday, and I wasn't too surprised. I had a scratchy throat that worried me, but it's gone today after I OD'ed on vitamins and carbs. I am still finding it difficult to sleep; I'm just so excited to start my day this time of year (and I still have many more perennial seedlings to yank), and I'm almost finished with a secret project that will be revealed this weekend (hint: it involves Cindy and there is an extreme amount of *PINKNESS* involved).

Stay tuned...more excitement coming from Mind of Iron, as I head into non-stop gonzo training and racing, bugs and flowers, whoring around with various buds and general enjoyment of life! I got the nicest compliment from a woman at the Y yesterday, although I took it mostly as an affirmation of my life--she knows that I am competitive at triathlon, and we got to talking gardening, and I'm generally pretty exuberant about a lot of things. She said to me that I "have the nicest life, with my competitions, gardening and positive attitude." At that very moment, I felt extremely grateful and blessed, and all I could do was smile back at her and said, "Thanks, and I feel that way myself!"

Weekly Workout Totals 05/14/2007-05/20/2007, Spectacular Bonk and They're Here!

First, they're here:

After spending about 1.25 hours early this morning yanking phlox out of my front flower bed, I noticed at the base of a nearby tree that there was a newly-emerged cicada on it. I walked up and down the sidewalk, checking other parkway trees. Yep, many, many more. The one at left is clinging to my garage. The numbers aren't yet spectacular; that will happen in a day or so. There aren't yet enough to make the big racket, either, but that's only days away, too.

As I rode my bike very locally today, I saw numerous children picking up the bugs, some just to put them into containers probably to take with them to school. I also saw dogs being walked that couldn't help but look at and sometimes eat the bugs.

This emergence is of Brood XIII. This site says there can be 1.5 million per acre, so that means my yard might play host to over 300,000! Yesterday morning, I was spreading sand over my Unilock patio, and one crawled out from between the stones. There are probably several hundred trapped under there, as I used to have a little leaf linden tree adjacent to the patio, which used to be flagstone. Whenever I see one of the bugs helplessly moving its legs while on its back, I can't help but say in a squeaky horror movie voice, "Heeeeeelp me."

The birds and squirrels are already devouring the insects. Great for the birds, since I know that robins and cardinals are fledging their first batch of young right now. The other day I saw a pair of cardinals that I'd seen hanging around my yard and caught a glimpse of one of their youngsters. It was so cute--about 5" long, grayish brown, and it already had the characteristic crest on top of its head! There's a robin's nest in a pine next to my driveway, and I saw Mom and Dad robin feeding the chicks, probably cicadas. We had a lot of rain this spring, so there are tons of earthworms and assorted bugs, and now you add cicadas, and it's a veritable feast for any animal that eats those sorts of things. I hope this improves the bird population even more, since it was decimated a few years' back by West Nile virus. Turns out that the worst hit birds are crows and jays--although I've been hearing a good number of blue jays, crows have been ubiquitously absent for a few years. I used to hate their constant cawing, but it turns out they are a form of rabbit population control (crows take baby rabbits, YEAH!), so now that I know that, I want some crows to return.

And now the story of a spectacular bonk. Well, not really spectacular, but it was quite entertaining. As you know, I've been training hard, preparing for Triple T and also IMLP. Last week I only did 1 brick workout, but the week before I did 4, so I am quite used to running off the bike. What I forget is that once I add serious yard work to my already heavy training load, that I need to add even more calories to my diet to ensure I am replacing my glycogen reserves. But hey, it's tough to chow down 4,000+ calories per day (about what I am needing lately) when I'm busy working out 2-6 hours, working, and doing 1-2 hours of yard work per day.

Yesterday I did a 4:30 ride followed by a :40 run. I thought I was eating continuously after all that, but I guess I forgot to shove a whole pound of pasta down my throat which is probably what I needed. I woke up hungry this morning, as expected, but nothing unusual. I dumped in 600 calories before heading out to bike, and then within the first hour of a 3 hour ride, I put in probably another 300 (I typically only need about 250 per hour on the bike), stopped back at home for more Gatorade, inhaled a banana and a couple more peanut butter and cheese crackers (I figure good for another 200 calories), went back out for 2 more hours, drinking another 150 calories of Gatorade, 150 of Coke and 2 gels for another 500 calories which should have been plenty. I changed into running shorts (it was rather cool today so I wore long tights, a long shirt and jacket to ride), grabbed a 12 oz. bottle of Gatorade and figured I was all set to run :40. I drank at 1 mile and 2.5 miles and then 1/2 mile later I noticed I was a bit dizzy and bonky, so I immediately drank the remainder of the Gatorade, but that didn't help much. I knew I needed more calories NOW.

Luckily, I was right near a park, and I saw that there were at least 3 picnic tables chock full of food. I was hoping that someone would take pity on me and give me something fast. I approached a table of food with a young woman and a baby sitting at it (watching a baseball game which is where most of the people were). I pleaded my case to her--I told her I was flat out of calories and had another 1.5 miles to run and asked her could I please have a handful of chips or something? She said go ahead, and that's when I spotted 2 containers of cookies. I inspected the first, chocolate chip, which are not my favorite, and then she pointed out the peanut butter ones. SALVATION!!! I grabbed two and just crammed them into my mouth. Boy were they tasty! I thanked the woman profusely, and jogged over to the water fountain to wash them down. The cookies took immediate effect, and while under normal circumstances I would not be able to eat cookies and keep up a decent run pace, today was the big exception! I returned to running well, feeling good (well as good as you can feel doing your third brick of the week), and knowing I could make it back home.

Surprisingly, when I got home, I wasn't all that hungry, but I had some store-bought sushi-type rolls, and immediately ate 6 pieces, drank 16 oz. of water, and then showered and settled in for Endurox R4. I still needed to mow the lawn (my last act of physical activity for the day), so I figured I had better get it done before falling into a pile of spent muscle. As I mowed, hunger occurred, and when I finished, I made a plate of nachos, which went down very well.

I figure I am still a couple thousand calories in the hole, but I am going to do my level best to get them in today. Thankfully, tomorrow all I have to do is swim (a measly 2,900 yards) and I will also lift. I made a promise to myself that there is no more yard work this week, as I need to rest and stock up on glycogen in preparation for Triple T.

I feel pretty good considering how much intensity I was able to kick out today even while I was in a depleted state, and all I could think while doing today's workouts was that if I "only" feel this bad next weekend, I'll be doing pretty darn well. Today was a valuable lesson, in that I will need to take in more calories per hour on the bike next weekend than I would normally like. My metabolism is already in a maximum revved state, and with virtually non-stop racing for 2.5 days, it's going to move into the stratosphere. Knowing how difficult it can be to replace burned calories, I will need to stuff as many in my face while biking as possible.

And here are my happy totals for the week:

Weekly Totals 05/14/2007-05/20/2007
Swim: 10300 yards (5.85 miles) in 3.57 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1249 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 153.71 miles in 8.78 hours; 48% of weekly workout time; approx. 4297 calories burned
Run: Approx. 33.39 miles in 5.08 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 2298 calories burned

Strength: 0.88 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 220 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 192.95 miles in 18.31 hours; approx. 8064 calories burned
Sleep: 8.11 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.73 hours. Massage: 0 hours