Not Sure What This is About

First, some food porn.
This is today's lunch, phase 1: lettuce, cherries, portabella mushroom, truffle oil, walnut/pear balsamic glaze and salt








This is after I added some wild sockeye salmon and Illinois tomatoes. Also more salt. I like salt after a good, hard run.







It was tasty. For dinner tonight, I'll be eating bucatini with a sausage and onion sauce, and I think a glass or 2 of wine. I have a big run tomorrow!

And now some nothing:

A NothingCan








A NothingFan











A NothingLan











A NothingPan









You might wonder how my week has been going after Sunday's little festival. Well, I'm here to tell you that my evil plan is working...after pushing myself to the edge the last 3 weeks, I think I've busted through to some really solid fitness. Turns out Sunday was a breakthrough workout. So what I ended up a little hyperthermic--so did other people that day that I talked to, and they didn't go as long or hard as I did.

Monday morning I did an easy swim workout, and yes I was tired, but I didn't feel that bad at all considering. Although the pool felt cold to me, so I knew my thermoregulatory system was a bit off. I was supposed to run, too, but my legs told me to hold off on that noise until Tuesday. But late in the day, I felt like even though my aerobic system was pretty taxed that I could still manage to lift. So I did. For an hour. And I felt fucking strong doing it! I got an awesome (free!) massage Monday night, and had a new student working on me and she was pretty amazed at how much pressure I can take. When she was finished, I asked her if anything besides what I pointed out to her (rhomboids, levator scapulae, subscapularis) seemed particularly bad, and she said no. While she was working on my legs, I knew I was doing well because my quads didn't feel worked over at all.

I slept like a champ Monday night, and woke up Tuesday feeling really, really great. I wondered how I'd be able to ride and then run off the bike. Well, apparently fucking great. I was craving hills, and rather than do any formal interval crap, I did 3 hill repeats at one hill, and then just busted my ass on any other hill I could find. I managed to "find" 1300 feet of climbing in about 1:45 of riding. Not bad! And my watts were awesome--almost to the point where I might think my FT has risen, but I'll hold off on that judgment until next week. And then I ran, and I ran pretty well considering I rode near 40K pace.

Since I'm taking things day by day, the brick got me to wondering to how I'd feel today. I got up (using an alarm clock now, damn--it's not light at 5AM anymore), and felt pretty good, and headed to the pool. Legs felt just fine on the ride over, and I knocked out 3400 meters feeling pretty damn good. It was such a gorgeous morning, and the water was just the perfect temperature, and after about 30 minutes, I had almost the entire pool to myself and man, I just wanted to stay in there, but alas, I had to get home to work.

I decided to load up some calories after swimming--a banana, Endurox, 2 Fig Newtons with another cup of coffee, half of a grilled chicken thigh (I've been craving protein lately), and then right before I suited up to run, a can of Coke. All good. I headed out to run, and the weather was still beautiful--warmer, now--maybe 80 (as opposed to maybe 70 while I was swimming this morning), with an east wind. It felt great to put on the wet swimsuit, which I am sure helped keep me cool for at least a couple of miles. I ended up running 8 miles, and it all felt pretty good, and I managed a decent pace, especially into the headwind. When I got home, I fixed and ate that luscious salad, and I'm already hungry again, which is good.

My legs don't feel too "worked," but the proof will be tomorrow, where I hope to knock out 15 miles in the early morning. If that run goes well, well, then I know for sure I'm really on track, at least as on track as I can be 4 weeks post-Ironman. I'm doing another 3-mile swim on Friday and some riding and maybe a short run, and then I'll ride easy, play in the pool and run a little on Saturday, and cap off the week with a 200K ride on Sunday.

I don't want to jinx myself, but as I said, my evil plan of pushing myself pretty hard seems to be yielding results. Honestly, I feel fucking excellent. There are other physical and mental indicators that tell me I'm feeling awesome that I won't mention here (I don't say everything despite how it may seem). And oh, I added 1/2" to my thighs, you think I've been biking a lot lately??? Again, all good.

No pain--no Nothing