Race Rehearsal in Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8737154@N04/sets/72157600573824079/

My ride was slower than expected, but my run was faster than expected, and I refused to swim afterwards. But I did accumulate and will write copious notes about the course and how to ride it. And I think I looked good out there.

I think I've been training A LOT. Here's the last 11 weeks, and keep in mind I plan to swim :30 tomorrow:

17.91
19.13
19.45
20.08
18.31
20.78
16.54
21.08
20.84
22.23
20.62

Am I ready for a taper or WHAT??? Right now, I'm the world's cheapest date.

Hope you enjoy the photos--I had fun taking them or asking others to take them!

Live from VERONA, WISCONSIN....IT'S SATURDAY...er...FRIDAY NIGHT!!!

I'm here in Verona, after a nice dinner at Avanti for pizza (I decided to start with the lucky topping mix from Horribly Hilly and add a few more) and Bell's Oberon. The head waitress recognized me from 2 weeks ago. After that, I headed to World of Variety and scored some fire power and some other things that will make an appearance at IMLP, went to Walgreen's to complete my juggler's set of light-up rainbow ball things, and back to the hotel, where I convinced the front desk girl to take some pics. I warned her ahead of time!

Sorry the "I HEART Endurance Sports" thong pic didn't show as much as I had hoped, but maybe there will be a retake tomorrow after all the riding, running and swimming. I'm thinking about doing a "pantie ride," where I'll wear a swimsuit bottom, because I am SICK AND TIRED of the fucking bike shorts tan lines (I browned up my thighs a bit when I swam 4800 yards in an outdoor pool last week and to a lesser extent at Triple T). After all, I have a reputation to uphold. And I always say, that when I look bad dressed that way, please let me know and I will CEASE AND DESIST. I'm more than happy to call "fashion police" on others, so I expect no lesser treatment of myself. Too bad all you Anonymous bloggers can't bitch and moan about how narcisisstic I am and blah, blah, blah. Are you doing 8 hours of workout tomorrow? No? LOSER.

Now I have some "homework" to do in order to get my head on straight for tomorrow. And I need to apply the customary temporary tattoos (I hope to find more in Madison tomorrow--you can basically get anything there). Other than that, I'm all shaved up and fed with no place in particular to go until I head out the door about 7:30AM tomorrow. The Incredible Hulk beckons!

Inspiration!!!!

Even a CRACKHEAD needs inspiration at times! This pic was sent to me by my friend, William, who lives in Tejas.

I also got some mojo and advice workin' from Rich. Sometimes I need to remind him that while I am very self-motivated, I appreciate encouragement every now and then. The one word? Git 'er done!

And with that, I'm off to Cheeseland.

Time to Wind it Up!

First, I made it through 10 consecutive days where I either biked or ran or both, including 5 days in a row of cycling (last Friday through Tuesday), 3 brick workouts, 2 long runs (2:15 and 2:00) and boatloads (20,400 yards--HOLY CRAP!) of swimming. My 2:00 run yesterday went quite well, even though my quads were pissed off at me from the get-go. Too fucking bad, I told them, we need to run.

I ran in Waterfall Glen, and started at 6:00AM. We had storms roll through the day before that finally dropped the temperatures, but the humidity remained in the early hours. I had "governors" of sorts while there, because there were a few cross country teams (half-naked young men, thank you very much, and a few girls) doing intervals on the trail, and I also saw this pair of runners that I believe must be ultrarunners because of how skinny and chiseled they are. So you know the rule--you can't slow down or look bad or walk a hill when there are other runners within eyeshot, and this got me to charge a few hills that I would have otherwise taken easy. My average pace was 8:58/mile, which is a teensy bit more than my alleged open 1/2 marathon pace. Considering that only :40 of the run was supposed to be at 1/2 marathon pace and the course has some serious hills, I feel like I ran pretty well. Cool weather helped!

Today begins the official Race Rehearsal weekend. I take these things pretty seriously. This morning, I'm swimming a 2.4-mile TT (the total workout will be about 3 miles), and then I head up to Wisconsin where I'll ride the full Ironman course tomorrow followed by a 6-mile run. I'm doing the swim in an outdoor 50-meter pool, which will be nice, because it's only 55 degrees right now, and the pool should be COLD and I'll wear my wetsuit. Bonus--less laps to count!

I set up Bitchie, as you can see above, with her race wheels, so she's a bit lighter than usual. I mixed my bottles of Infinit, Ultrafuel (aka "gag juice"), Endurox R4, and I have a can of Ultra Violence defizzing that will be used for the run. I'll be staying in Verona rather than Madison, just because I like the hotel that I stay at in Verona, and it's right on the bike loop. I will begin my ride from there, and do the out-and-back part (to and from Madison) first, and then I'll ride the loop twice. I'll stop back at the hotel to pick up my second bottle of calories at some point.

When I finish riding, I'll run right from the hotel on the Military Ridge trail, which is pretty sweet. Technically, this doesn't mimic race conditions since it's crushed limestone, but that's OK.

This will be my first time riding the Wisconsin course this year. Some summers, I'll ride the thing maybe 4 or 5 times. This year, I'm riding it tomorrow, part of it again next week at my coach's training camp (you can still sign up for it!), a little bit the day before Ironman Wisconsin (where I'll be officiating on the back of a motorcycle driven by Rich again), and then if I decide I'm still in, the following weekend will be a full-course ride as part of an unsupported Ironman "race." Horribly Hilly included parts of Garfoot Road in the reverse direction from the Ironman, and that ride is MUCH harder than the full Ironman course. Triple T was also much harder riding that the Wisconsin course. And I believe the Wisconsin course is tougher than Lake Placid.

So we'll just have to see how well I ride. My FTP is a bit down from its high last year, but yet I seem to be riding faster than last year. I know my CdA is probably pretty low, which always helps, and I no longer use the aerobottle, as I think it's kinda gay. I also believe that my CdA is less without it, although someone pointed me at some alleged study that said they improved it. All I know is that when I ride without it, I seem to go faster. Go figure!

Cindy was going to join me for the weekend but can't make it due to family commitments. That's OK, since I need to ride my own ride anyway, but I'll miss her post-ride. No worries--I know the Madison area pretty well, and I will just enjoy a weekend away from home, and no doubt I'll spot friends and they will spot me while I'm up there. I could come home tomorrow night, but I'm going to stay and chill, and then drive back early Sunday when traffic will be light.

Enjoy your weekend and I'll update you when I'm back about how it all went!

Training Will Continue Until Fitness Improves

I got through 3 workouts today: a 3400 yard swim, a 1:10 run and :27 strength. That brings me up to 8.5 hours in 3 days!

The swim was a no-op; the water was way too warm for me to swim effectively, so I just made the best of it by swimming with good form.

The run was in 90-degree (96 with heat index) temp with about a bazillion percent humidity. I was supposed to do HIM and 10K intervals, but as soon as I began, I could sense my HR was way up (I don't wear an HRM but I can tell) and that this was going to be tough going. I held myself back as I was supposed to do for 20', and at that point I made a decision to just not slow down. The sun was beating down, but I could tell that when clouds blew over that I felt better. I had brought Gatorade with me, but I made a point to stop and drink copious amounts of water at the two water fountains en route, and also doused my face, arms and back with water, which cooled me off for a few minutes.

To add insult to injury, my legs were a bit fatigued from, well, training like a fucking maniac, and so I had that going for me. But I did my best to not give in to the walking demons. My only trouble came about 6 miles into 8.5 miles, when I had to run "the hill." It's a 1-mile hill, with stair steps taking you progressively steeper. I just dialed things back a bit to prevent myself from needing to walk. Once I finished that, there was a gentle downhill for about 1/2 mile and picked up the pace again.

At the last mile, I decided to try and pick it up since clouds were rolling in, and I was able to reel off a 10K pace mile. All in all, I negative split the run by a little bit, which is good considering the way back was harder, with the 1-mile hill and running into a slight headwind. So I have nothing to feel bad about, really!

I did do a short lay-down around 3:30, and was dozing off when the phone rang--someone from work calling--but this is someone I love working with and I shook off my cobwebs and we did some stuff and I came around, and then a bit later I managed to finish up my strength routine.

I had been thinking about making a trip to Target tonight for some miscellaneous stuff, but at this point, I'm not much good for anything, so I'm going to chill, read the newspaper, watch some TV and call it a night. Hopefully I'll sleep 8 hours again tonight which would be fantastic.

Storms have rolled on through, dropping the temps by 20 degrees, so it's supposed to be nice and cool and low humidity for a few days, which will be really nice. My gardens are appreciating the rain, and I love how it's been raining AFTER I've finished up my workouts! I couldn't ask for more perfect days.

Tomorrow I "only" have to work out for 2.5 hours!!!! Yee-haw! And then Friday is just 1:45, and a little trip up to Wisconsin, where hopefully things will come together for a great 112-mile ride and 6-mile run. If not, well there's that race thing to try it out...

Namaste!

End of 5 Days Straight Riding

Which wouldn't be a big deal if that was all I was doing...

The festival ended yesterday with this workout:
Bike 1:45: WU: 20' Easy MS: 3 x 15' (3') @ FT, 5' Easy, 6 x 1' (2') @ 120% CD: 5' Easy
Run :40: Z2 out, Z3 back

It was about 92 degrees or so (it was 90 in the shade at home) and very humid. I didn't get much sleep at all (5 hours?) the night before because, well, it's hard to sleep well right now.

I drank the better part of a can of Coke before I started, and had a 300-calorie bottle of my personal Infinit (also loaded with caffeine) to ride with. I felt a little creeped out since the day before there were 3 attempts on my life by drivers while out riding. What I learned from those experiences is this: cars have no idea how fast I (we) are going on our bikes. They think they can outrun you from a dead stop. Nope!

As I was doing the warmup, I could feel the hot sun on me. Because of the Coke or in spite of it, I didn't feel mentally tired, but I could tell my legs were not really recovered from the last 4 days of riding, but oh well. The objective is always to do the best you can given the conditions and your physical state.

As I drew near to my interval loop, I had a slight sense of dread, which is normal when I'm doing these types of rides. How will it feel? Can I do it? I know how it should feel--pretty fucking hard. Can I do it? Probably.

With the heat and the humidity and the effort level required, I found that I was mouth breathing like a fish! It's simply an extreme desire for as much oxygen as I can pump into the system. Last week when I was doing an interval ride, a guy rode up on me and asked if I was racing in August. There's a criterium close to home every year, and I guess he figured me for someone who races!

I ride my interval loop pretty much every Tuesday, and as a result, I have acquired a number of "fans." I go past a few small factories right around noon, and some of the workers are outside on the lawn smoking cigarettes or eating a sack lunch. As hard as I'm working, and as much as I'm mouth breathing and going pretty fast, I manage to smile quite a bit, and I happily wave to them as I ride by them numerous times. I think, "They are working, but so am I."

Tuesday is also garbage day for the homes within my loop, so I see the same guy driving the truck every week, and he waves and smiles at me when I pass as well. He also gives me berth when he sees me coming up to pass him. A few of the mail carriers recognize me, too, and they give me a thumbs up or a wave, but always with a smile, and I'm happy to smile back.

What my fans don't know is that what appears to be a smile on my face is a combination smile and teeth gritting when I'm in the midst of an interval. To the casual observer, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. And sometimes I'm not sure myself, but I do know that photos captured of me racing on my bike that show a smile on my face are that precise look.

So I banged out the first :15 interval, and all I could think is that 3 minutes of rest is not going to be enough. But that's how it goes--I pedalled easy until I got to the one stop sign that I typically must obey and started the second interval from there. Which added maybe 9 seconds of rest. I don't obsess about that stuff.

As I began the second :15 interval, I thought, what the fuck, my legs are pretty tired. Oh well, keep going, keep doing the best you can, that's the point of all of this, I guess, to see what I've got after doing intervals Saturday and Sunday, and oh, wasn't it nice I made it more difficult by not sleeping? I still managed a pretty good effort, and during my next 3' rest, all I could think was, "Only one more to go!" That's always a good feeling.

During Number 3, I began thinking about the shit that followed after some more rest. I thought, "Now those will be fun." Number 3 came and went, I was happy for 5' rest, and I was happy for the next set of intervals. 120% of FTP basically means go balls out as hard as you can go you can hardly stand it. I've done that for 30 seconds, but it's a little more difficult to hold that for a minute. But I did, knowing that I had a luxurious 2 minutes of rest afterwards! When I finished these, my next thought was oh, fuck, I have to run. I wonder how that is going to feel?

When I got home, I drank an entire 16-oz. bottle of ice cold water (my engine coolant, as it were), changed into running shorts, grabbed a 12-oz. bottle of Gatorade, tuneage, visor, donned running shoes, and I'm off.

How can I describe how my legs feel running off a bike ride like that? Like I'm doing a fucking race, that's how. Only maybe worse. No taper, no rest the day before, 2 bricks on the weekend, no sleep. Perfect! I never feel like I'm moving much when I start to run in a workout like this, but I am. It's really, fucking hot now, and at least while I was on the bike I generated some breeze in addition to the hot wind, but not so much while running. And when I take off from home, it's a .25 mile climb up a hill. GREAT!

Now I need to decide which direction I'm going to go. I decide to go into the wind so that maybe I can catch a break on the way home. It's so fucking hot that I decide I'm running on the sidewalk (ah, whiteness reflecting the sun and shade at times), and I decided to run the same route as if I was riding to my interval loop, which would be a nice change of pace. Not hilly--I didn't really need to run hills right now.

OMG the sweat is just streaming off me right now, and I know I must be glistening like an oiled pig. But thank God for my visor with the dark underside and really dark sunglasses (I wore my Catlike's) to keep all that sun out of my face. I actually ran a pretty decent pace, and I enjoyed actually looking at the landscaping I was passing. Of course, my brain kept playing games like, "Hey, we can cut this run short it won't matter one bit." But I know the games my mind likes to play and my answer was, "Not today."

Not too long after I turned around to head home, a cicada landed on one of my legs, and I picked him or her up to toss into the air while screaming, "I'm not a tree!" A guy doing some shrub trimming looked up at my outburst and I figured he didn't get it, so I explained that a cicada had landed on me. I smiled, laughed, and continued on.

When I got to the one stoplight on this particular route, and it was red, I tried my best to stand in the shade of the stoplight! That's how hot it was. The last mile was mostly downhill (yeah, I know I said no hills, but I forget they are everywhere), which was really nice, and before I started this one, I polished off the Gatorade and put the bottle in my shorts in my butt. Well, not IN my butt, but you know what I mean--between my shorts and my butt. I do get tired of holding onto the bottle, so it's a nice break to stash it and not have to worry about it. I'm sure it looks rather, ahem, interesting in that particular spot, but I gotta say it stays put there.

When I finished, I was so sweaty that I couldn't even shower right away because I would just keep sweating, so I stripped down and began drinking Endurox R4, and I stuck my head into the open freezer for a minute because I was so flushed. Then I went upstairs and stood in front of a fan while checking my work email. I think I waited about 10 minutes before I got into the shower, and of course, it was the BEST SHOWER EVER.

I felt like I had put out a good effort, and I didn't feel too badly, considering. But let me tell you that an hour later I felt like I needed to LAY DOWN NOW. But I couldn't, because I had work to do, and I got it done, and my body told me it needed steak for dinner, so I had some of that with asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with fontina cheese, and later on a humongous toasted bagel with butter and jam. And 2 beers.

I passed out at 8:30 and slept until 4:30 this morning. That was the best sleep I've had in a few days, and now I'm ready to go for today--a 3400 yard swim and then a 1:10 tempo run later on, and I'll finish up my strength workout. This weekend is a race rehearsal weekend--a 2.4 mile time trial swim on Friday and on Saturday ride the entire Ironman Wisconsin course and run 6 miles off the bike.

I should be in a freaking McDonald's commercial--I'm LOVIN' IT!!!

My Latest Amulet

For the last 2 years, I have been wearing a lone ruby stud earring on a regular basis, even though I have double-pierced ears and rarely wear jewelry anymore. I began wearing it as a sort of amulet, or what I like to call my "sanity saver." I have objects that I keep for no other reason than they remind me to stay calm and peaceful in times of turmoil.

The ruby stud earring helped me through a difficult depression in late 2005 (which is when I first began writing this blog--can you believe it's almost been 2 years?), it stayed with me through my Mom's terminal illness and death, and it saw me through Ironman Brazil and a summer of intense training last year. It was still going strong this past winter as I completed a 1/2 Ironman, repeated Goofy Challenge, the indoor triathlon series, Triple T and Horribly Hilly.

On a whim last week, while talking to a neighbor of mine, Vicky, who is single and lives across the street from me (she house sits for me when I'm away), I decided to go down to the local festival on Friday night. Vicky said she was walking down and I said I'd join her, what the heck. It was more just an excuse to take a walk, and I thought perhaps get to know her better, and maybe a stop in the beer tent.

We got down there around 5PM, and I was surprised that the craft show was still open! Before I began all this endurance nonsense, I would make a point to go to this craft show and look for jewelry, if nothing else. I have an insane collection of jewelry--most of the precious stones (the four basic food groups being diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire) and tons of the semi-precious. I also like artsy-fartsy jewelry, and am always looking for original items, especially those that aren't mass-produced. All of the beautiful suits and dresses that I sewed back when I needed to dress that way for work have matching jewelry. It's crazy, since I rarely wear the stuff anymore, but somehow I know it will come in handy in the future, and some lucky young lady is going to inherit all my stuff!

Anyway, we get to the craft fair and I see a stand with all this crystal stuff, and that's where I got the necklace. The stone is a Swarovski crystal that is actually an extra chandelier piece. The woman who makes this jewelry gets "overruns" from Swarovski and makes them into various pieces. Of course, my eyes were drawn to all the pink ones, and I had to decide between a true hot pink and the fuchsia one. As you can see, I chose fuchsia, and I'm glad I did.

For reference sake, the size of the stone is about 1 3/4". I have now been wearing this thing during the day as my new amulet. It's tough to miss! Yesterday I was out in the front yard when 3 teen girls were walking by, and I could see they were looking at it, so I showed it to them and told them what it was (they didn't know anything about Swarovski crystal so I told them), and they said it was very pretty.

I know it may appear superstitious, but wearing this is helping me to keep my wits about me during this last stretch of monstrous training. It's tough to be angry, sad or self-critical when I've got it around my neck. I am not wearing it during workouts, though!

Can you imagine the chandelier this was made for? Man, someday...

Things continue to bloom in my yard, and I've created a new Flickr album, which will be updated throughout the week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8737154@N04/sets/72157600496071836/

Weekly Workout Totals 06/18/2007-06/24/2007and Nuclear Hangover Ride!

Today I went riding with Marty, who was brave and smart enough to take me up on an offer to meet him in Fermilab to do some intervals. The drawing above is from the cover of a magazine. Check it out if you're a geek! The next 2 pics are of Marty and I before we began riding; the next 2 are when we are about 2/3 done and the swans were on my way home.

Last night, I went down to my local summer festival, called Heritage Fest, with Harold, who is a guy I met on a ride about a month ago. We both have challenging schedules, and we would be riding together more except that he crashed on his MTB and messed up a finger (just like Cindy--what is it with friends messing up their pinkie fingers?), so he was available for a mellow evening and I somehow managed to stay awake after my 4 hour trainer ride followed by a :40 run and then a :30 swim. The upshot was that I was very much enjoying his company, and I drank a bit more than I should have considering what I needed to do today. But you know how some people are worth a hangover? Harold is one of those people. After he went home, I stayed up until (GASP!) 11:30, so I could do a little dancing with the stereo cranked (hey it's something I do a few times a year, what can I say?), and I set my alarm clock for 6:00AM in case I didn't feel like waking up so I could be ready to ride by 7:15.

I woke up at one point during the night and popped some Tylenol, which was a good move. I woke up at 5:39 before the alarm clock and felt like what the hell, this is going to be an interesting day! I know from past experience (and not too many times, for the record) that I can still ride pretty well with a hangover, but you never know. Luckily, I had mixed all my bottles and had Bitchie all set up to go except for pumping the tires, so all I really needed to do once I woke up was fucking wake up and pound down some calories. Before yesterday's workout festival, I downed 700 calories before I mounted LGL (I ended up on the trainer for 4 full hours!), but today, I only downed about 600. Of course, 300 of that was Ultrafuel, which didn't make me gag right away, but a few minutes after it was down the hatch it made me gag, and then I brushed my teeth and gagged a few minutes and then my stomach kept being mad at me to the point where I really would have liked to vomit, but then I'd need to brush my teeth again which would make me gag, so I did my best not to puke.

It was supposed to be a sunny, mild (high 80) day, but there were remnant clouds left over from yesterday's constant rain. It was about 65 when I started riding, and it felt nice and cool, but I wasn't chilled or anything. As I headed west, I saw lots of cyclists with all long sleeves and shit and thought what wusses. 65 or higher and I am in sleeveless tank, because that's what I'd wear in an Ironman race so I should be used to it, right?

About 5 miles from home who did I see going the opposite direction? Larry, the guy who is going to borrow my bike box this fall. I recognized him, and when he realized it was me, he also let out a big yell. He has never seen me on any of my bikes, and I was all hunkered down aero getting things done. It was nice to see him.

About 2 miles later, I came upon signs indicating there was a 5K that was going on, which I figured would start at 8AM. I almost wished I had running shoes with me and didn't have to meet Marty at a set time, because I would have run the race and then gotten back on my Bitch! I saw some volunteer girls with these really neat hats (sparkly AND pink!), and I told them I thought they were cool.

About 1.5 miles later, who rides up on me but Lauren Jensen and her husband, Todd. Lauren lives in southern Wisconsin, but she comes down my way for various races, and she goes to the same bike shop as me, and I don't remember just when I met her, but we always say hi to one another. So now I'm allegedly warming up and now I'm with a pro triathlete, so you know what happens--we pick it up, and I figure I had better hang with her and Todd lest I look like a poser, you know? Lauren was supposed to be doing Ironman Switzerland today, but she's got a running injury (so sad), but she was still in a great mood. I asked what she was doing down here and there was some ride she was doing and she invited me and man, that would have been awesome to ride with her all day (assuming I could hang on), but I had a ride date with Marty, so no go. Lauren and Todd turned off my road after about 2 miles, and I was secretly glad that I rode harder for that short time even though I could supposedly relax now.

But no. Another 2 miles later, there's a group of 4 women coming from the north to an intersection, and I could have just latched onto them except that I got a red light. Of course, I was like, "Crap," but you know what had to be done. When my light changed, I gauged how fast they were going and figured I could catch up. So I did, said hello, and proceeded to pass them all and pull in front, and then I had a nice train behind me for about 2.5 miles. I was hauling ass going 26MPH and periodically I'd glance behind to see if they were able to stick with me. Not all the time, but after that nice pull, I dropped back to chat with them and we began climbing the ONE hill on this route and I commented to one of them that I couldn't climb for shit today. What she heard was, "I can't climb for shit," and she said she was the same way, and so I corrected her and said, "No, I just can't climb TODAY--I'm a good climber, and I did a 200K with 10,000 feet of climbing last Saturday." So then she says, "Oh, so this is a recovery ride, right?" And I said, "No, I'm recovered and this is my 4th ride of the week." At this point, I think the ladies figure out I'm pretty serious (duh) and we discuss what we are doing today. I would have been happy to ride with them some more (they were pretty good), but they had their own agenda and I had mine. So we parted ways at Eola Road, which is where I turn and head north to enter Fermilab.

I had agreed to meet Marty at the East gate, so the distance from my house there was about 19 miles, and I'd gone pretty fast, so I arrived ahead of schedule (8:30 was our agreed upon meeting time). Marty arrived, and I felt sorry for him because I don't think he had a warmup, as we just started the intervals--:25 of HIM watts, :10 at FTP, and then some rest. I told him to just hang with me and he could draft or whatever. I was putting out good power today, which kinda surprised me what with the hangover (which I dutifully used in my deliberate sandbagging before we started riding), but I think I am just peaking and it's all good. I warned him when we needed to crank it up a notch, and I did pull away from him, which I expected, but dang, that boy has some serious potential!

After we finished the first interval, we had some time to chat, and I was only supposed to ride easy for :05, but I wasn't concerned, so we extended that a bit because I didn't think it would be nice to just ride. Marty's a fucking smart geek! And I mean that as a compliment! It was awesome hearing about his graduate studies and we found it really easy to talk to one another. You can't beat the combination of someone who will ride with you that's fucking smart and interesting!

We began the second interval, only we went a bit easier than HIM watts, which was fine, because I was riding more than Marty and knew I could "make it up" later after he left. But when it came time for the second FTP interval, I just poured it on. We went into a slight headwind, which I like, because it makes me push harder, and I think I was going about 24MPH into it and just loving every second. We finished that up right next to my favorite tanks of Helium and Nitrogen, and that's where we shot the photos you see above in front of the tanks. At first I was going to go with the Helium, but then I made a split-second decision to go with Nitrogen. Marty made some comment about the element that I don't remember, but I know it was clever and funny (for a pair of geeks, anyway!).

Then we rode easy to get Marty back to his car so he could take off. He was going with his girlfriend to the Gay Pride parade in downtown Chicago. I asked him if they planned to act gay or not, and I told him that sometimes when I travel with girlfriends on training junkets that we play it up as if we are lovers and laugh hysterically.

Marty's doing a sprint triathlon next weekend in Decatur and then an Olympic in Mattoon, and we have no idea if and when we will see one another again, but I think I convinced him to sign up for Miami Man if he can swing the timing with his graduate studies. He wasn't planning on stepping up to that distance that year, but you know I'm an incessant pusher, and I know he could do it.

So Marty takes off and I turn for home, and I'm riding well and still enjoying the day. About 7 miles from home is when I saw the swan cygnets, and it took me a few seconds before I realized I had my camera with me and could capture them. The cygnets are so cute!

When I'm about .75 miles from home, I almost got killed by some interloper from another suburb who's madly turning left in front of me to get to a parking spot for the festival presumably so he and his family can stuff their maws full of Elephant ears, corn on the cob, pizza and other assorted junk food (OK so I ate pizza last night, but what the fuck I needed like 5,000 calories yesterday). Oh my, did I let out a string of expletives, that I don't really care whether the asshole heard me or not, but I needed to get it out of my system because I got such an adrenalin rush. I think the term I used was "What the hell you fucking bastard," and I screamed it at the top of my lungs. I had to swerve and lay on the brakes, but I didn't go down or anything and it gave me a bit of a scare. But I knew that it was due to the damn festival, so I'm glad it's over today and I won't have to face it again TOMORROW when I have to RIDE AGAIN!

Yes, you heard it right, that will be 4 days straight of cycling, and I am also riding Tuesday so that will be 5 days in a row. I have this love-hate relationship with my coach. I love him when the training makes me strong (and once again, he's right on schedule with my beginning to peak for IMLP), and I hate and curse him when I'm in agony, like I was once I started to run after the ride today. Before Rich wrote up my training block that goes through the next 2 weeks, I had made one myself. Usually I can put the screws to myself pretty damn well, but when I got his version, I was like, what the hell, can I even do this shit? But he's been my coach for 3 years now, and he knows what I'm capable of and so I just do it.

Oh, lordie, I can bike like a mofo with a hangover, but running fucking SUCKS! But I did it, and actually ran decently, considering I did a brick yesterday, too. And now I am starting on a little painkiller and laying in bed and watching "The Barber of Seville" opera (my favorite, by Rossini) and periodically checking the IMCDA results, but there's plenty of time for that later, maybe a nappie poo, and I still have to go get groceries and do laundry. I live in a fucking bike shop/bottle factory right now and it just makes me laugh!

P.S. Harold--I DID kiss my Bitch before I rode her hard today.

P.P. S. Doesn't my new Catlike helmet (and matching shades) make me look like a bad-ass?

P.P.P.S. Is the signage above my head on the nitrogen tank talking about the element or me?

And now for the workout totals. The funny thing is all that I had scheduled for Monday was a :30 swim, to which I added :30 strength, and look where I ended up! I wrote my own swim workouts for the week. I've got two more big weeks (about 20 hours each) and then I start to taper down. I think I needed all that beer last night!

Weekly Totals 06/18/2007-06/24/2007
Swim: 13850 yards (7.86 miles) in 4.93 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1727 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 199.21 miles in 11.35 hours; 51% of weekly workout time; approx. 5016 calories burned
Run: Approx. 32.16 miles in 4.85 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 2199 calories burned
Strength: 1.1 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 275 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 239.23 miles in 22.23 hours; approx. 9217 calories burned
Sleep: 7.25 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.97 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours

Good Luck Ironman CDA Participants!

The longer I do this, the more people I know. Now, I literally read the entire entry list to scan for those I know, and here are the ones--send them some good vibes, but especially Brett, because he's been under the weather for a few days. I spoke with him yesterday and gave him all the advice I could (I was very ill during Ironman Brazil last year). Something tells me he'll be OK, but as I told him, we all love him no matter what.

Kurt and wife Shelley: 1409 and 2196
Dave Kuhnau: 153
Andrey Parvanov: 760
Tony Lyons: 740
Trevor Oseen: 671
Brett Cornwright: 878
Momo: 2290
Michelle Boyer: 2293
Mark Seale: 605

I am sure there are others. GOOD LUCK all of you and HAVE A DAY! I'll be thinking about you while I'm doing my tiny 4:30 workout today!