Get it While It's Free!!! Crackhead's IMLP Race Report Podcast!!!

HERE

Please note this podcast will disappear into a private area at some point in the future. So if you've ever wanted to listen to me babble (as interviewed by my coach, Rich), even you pervs, take a listen now. It's a little like phone sex, if you think about it. I will be featured on future podcasts at Endurance Nation, FYI.

Rich had to stop me after 45 minutes, as I can babble on ad infinitum about things in my knowledge areas.

In other news, I seem to be coming around. At least my body now wants to sleep more, which is a good thing. I was able to run for 1:50 on Thursday (on no sleep and a hangover, I might add, AND the first 1:10 was on a treadmill and the last :40 on an indoor track, AND the track time was at a good pace), and did a 4400-yd. swim yesterday (I just couldn't get up early enough to get in 5,000 yards before 7:45, when I had a work meeting to attend). Really bad storms rolled through Chicago on Thursday evening, and I got some water in my basement, but that's almost cleaned up. Today will be just a short ride (2 hours) and some running, and then tomorrow I am going to see if I can ride 200k (FLAT!) at a decent pace.

I got Bitchie back, and she's got the Ergomo on there now. I already miss the SRM...that damn Ergomo meter is a huge sonofabitch. Oh well, thank God I have abandoned the use of an aerobottle, since the fucking meter sits ON the aerobars now. I am so small, and my bike is so small that everything on it is pretty tight (he he so am I), so it wouldn't fit on the stem extension. Also, in installing the compact crankset, I ended up with a new Dura Ace front derailleur. My LBSG, Anthony, who put it on, asked me to guess how many derailleurs he had to go through before he found one that fit (he did try SRAM, which would have been cool). I guessed 6, and I was right! We high fived over that. I swear sometimes I'm psychic.

LGL is now in the shop getting sexed up to the max with her red Nokon cables. I will need to show up next week with some beer for Anthony, since the cables are installed piece by piece. I got after him again about my magpie decals, so we'll see if we finally get that going.

I know lots of peeps racing Ironman Louisville and Ironman Canada. I hope everyone has a great day.

Plans for IMWI spectating and Nothingman live coverage are in the works...

Weekly Workout Totals 8/13/2007-8/19/2007 (Lame) and Various Crap

Even though it was the right thing to do, I'm embarrassed about how little I did last week:

Weekly Workout Totals	08/13/2007-08/19/2007
Swim:	11700 yards (6.64 miles) in 4.05 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 1418 calories burned
Bike:	Approx. 76.71 miles in 4.38 hours; 30% of weekly workout time; approx. 2004 calories burned
Run:	Approx. 30.24 miles in 4.48 hours; 31% of weekly workout time; approx. 2017 calories burned
Strength:	1.5 hours; 10% of weekly workout time; approx. 375 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 113.59 miles in 14.41 hours; approx. 5814 calories burned
Sleep:	7.96 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.12 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours

On the plus side, I got in a good amount of swimming, running, sleep and stretching. I just hate it when I can't bike like I want to, though.

How's it going this week? I'm taking it one day at a time. It has been raining here every day so far (right now included), so even though I could still go to the outdoor pool (tomorrow is the last day it's open for morning lap swim contrary to what I had thought), not so much. I swam 3,000 (fucking yards--at least when you've become used to meters) on Monday and 3,400 yesterday. I biked about 1:30 on Tuesday, but I had to keep the intensity really low. I ran Monday and Wednesday, but tried to hold the intensity down. That was no problem yesterday because it was 90 with high humidity yesterday! No wonder I felt like crap. Today I'm going to see if I can get close to a 2-hour run in. We'll see...

In other news, I have connected up with the (and I use the term loosely) "organizer" of Nothingman. Turns out he lives not very far from me, and he was kind enough to invite me to dinner with his family last night. I enjoyed meeting his wife and 2 young sons, and we tried to not talk triathlon the entire time! As long as I can regain my ability to train decently for a few more weeks, I'm in. Jostein and I have some neat ideas for our special day, which we intend to be first, a lot of fun, and second, basically a long training day. Anyone who would like to "crew" for us, do parts of the "race" with us or just hang out is welcome. Jostein is going to scope out our swim and run course this weekend. Since we'll be mostly unsupported, and since both Jostein and I could care less if we swim in a pool and run around a 1-mile loop, we're going to keep it simple.

I'm making a deal with my LBSG for my SRM (which has, by now, been stripped off Bitchie), and am getting goods and services for its value. So far, I'm getting red Nokon cables for LGL, an Aquaman Metal Cell wetsuit, Thule bike rack for my car (so other peeps can whore around with me now), and whatever else I can think of. Believe it or not, there's this $100 rain jacket I might get. And then, I swear, I am done buying triathlon crap this year! I think I've overhauled just about every piece of gear. I think now it's time for me to do something different with my body. Hmmm...what might that be?

I hope it's not raining tomorrow morning so I can swim one last time outdoors; but the forecast doesn't look good.

Oh well--keep training everyone!

Crash 'n Burn

I managed to drag myself down to the 100K bike race yesterday, hoping that being in the presence of so many bikes (and I have to admit--assorted hotties) would lift me out of my mentally and physically tired state. If you're interested, there are more photos at my Flickr page.

Just walking 1/2 mile down to the race was enough exercise for the day. Unfortunately, it pissed rain all day, but at least it wasn't pouring for this race. Secretly, I figured I'd get to see at least one good crash.

Until I started biking seriously myself, I didn't even know this race was a short waltz from home, and now I try and attend it every year. Usually, though, I've come off of a good ride in the morning myself, but not yesterday.

I felt bad for the riders--I don't much like riding in the rain--but they were racing. The bikes sounded differently than in dry weather. It was still fun to watch, and even though there weren't as many spectators as in other (always dry) years, I still ran into a number of people I know. I didn't have it in me to yell at the riders, though. Too much energy!

I got to see the crash in the photo above. It was a smallish crash--earlier there was a 20-rider pileup. This course is a 1.2 mile loop, so there are tons of turns. When it's dry, the place where most crashes occur is the turn off of Washington Street onto Curtiss. But this time, with all the rain, every turn was an opportunity to crash. Velonews.com doesn't yet have a writeup of yesterday's race, but I'm sure crashing will be featured.

Speaking of crashing, I'm not sure what today will bring. I may go put my face into the water shortly to see what happens. It's still raining, the Y pool is closed, I can't swim at the outdoor pool, so if I want to swim, I'll need to go with Plan C, Good Samaritan. Maybe I'll just swim 1/2 hour and then hit the hot tub. Yeah--that sounds like a plan and a good way to start a Monday.

Pure Exhaustion

I was wondering when this would arrive. It's been 13 weeks since I've averaged 8 or more hours of sleep a night. I didn't have any of those "I want to sleep all day" days after IMLP. I didn't understand how I was maintaining on (for me) such little sleep.

The corner was turned yesterday. I headed out for a maybe 3-hour ride. It was cool and overcast--perfect for riding. I rode easy for about :45 and then I cranked up my power to about 85% of FTP. It felt good. I figured, hey let's just keep riding like this for as long as possible. I managed about :45, and then it hit.

First it was mental--I didn't really need to ride 3 hours today. And then I felt a bit underdressed and chilled. So I headed for home. And then my power dropped. At first, I thought it was because I was cold, so I just let it be--an easy ride wouldn't be a waste. But then it turned into this feeling of just needing to give up.

I got home and put on my running shoes and headed out. Even though I was holding a good pace, I didn't feel right. Was I bonking? No. Did I feel muscularly tired? No. It just felt wrong to keep going. I almost bagged it after about 1/2 mile, but I thought let's give it some more time. Things didn't feel any better. I polished off the small bottle of Gatorade, just in case it was a bonk. It didn't make me feel any differently. After a little over 1.5 miles, I turned around to call it a day.

I ran home slowly, thinking this must be it--what I've been waiting for for a few weeks. I ate a good lunch. I got in bed and turned on the TV and read a bit. I felt tired, so I turned off the TV. I fell asleep! I don't remember the last time I napped on a weekend. I woke up after about an hour and assessed the situation. I got back in bed and dozed off for another 1/2 hour.

I felt groggy upon awakening. I didn't attribute this to not sleeping enough, but rather waking up during the wrong brain wave cycle. Oh well--now I had time on my hands and wouldn't feel rushed with the rest of my day.

It ended up raining most of the rest of the day, and I hoped for less rain today, but that was not to be. I slept 8.5 hours last night, even though I had napped. Something is happening...this is good.

I got a bike set up on the trainer, thinking I'd do 3-4 hours. I got on, and that same weird tired feeling came on. After 5 minutes, I stopped.

I'm exhausted. Finally! I'm going to have another nap today, and when I wake up, we'll see if I feel like doing anything. Maybe it will dry up for the 3:00PM bike race and I'll amble down and watch it. That will have to qualify as my bike action for the day.