Ready for my Big Day

I am ready to go for the North Face 50-miler. All I need to do is get some more sleep tonight, then tomorrow morning a short 20 minute run, pack and drive up to Wisconsin.

I am feeling really rested for this, much like I did before IMLP. My body feels great, well except for my upper body which is getting used to all the hard swimming I've been doing.

Speaking of swimming, in just 6 weeks of focused work, I am getting faster! Now, I am just approaching what I was able to do in 2004-2005, but that is encouraging since it means I should be able to gain even more speed. Next week I begin doing pace test swims, and testing is what keeps me honest, so I'm looking forward to it. So far so good on those long swims, although I am only back up to 5,000 yards, but that will grow quickly in a few weeks. As much as I would like to swim more than 3x per week (frequency being a component of improvement), it is just not going to fit into my schedule most of the time, although between now and Goofy Challenge I should have time on Sundays to get in a nice 30-min. cool down swim after my long run. Mostly I need to build muscular endurance, and my 3 swims per week all work towards that, and my aim is to not slow down as I continue to add distance to my Friday swims.

This week I only did 2 swims and no riding at all, so my entire body gets to rest up for Saturday, and I haven't rested this hard since the last time I did Goofy Challenge in January, 2007. Well, I have rested AFTER big events, but I'm talking about tapering.

In looking at what I've accomplished since Revenge of the PirateMan, it's encouraging to me. Last year, for the first 6 weeks of my season, I got in about 58 hours of training. This year, for the 6 weeks after ROTPM, I've put in 85 hours, and if you add in the 11 hours of walking I also did, it comes to 96 hours of training. That is a lot for this early in the season, but based on how I feel, I must be doing the little things right in order to do that much.

My weight has hung out right at the 108 lb. mark, but I think I've leaned out just a little bit more, at least according to my massage therapist. If that's true, it means I've added a little muscle, and based on the curvature of my butt, I would have to agree. That's what running lots and lots of hills will do. But I have also been doing extra chinups and pushups twice a week before I swim, and I think my upper back and chest reflect that. It's amazing how little things add up, isn't it? I laugh at people on Facebook who tell me I should try P90X or some supplement stuff. I've been doing this stuff for a long time and have honed my body so much that I think I'm a pretty good judge of what it needs. In a few weeks, I will change up my strength routine a bit, incorporating some movements that were suggested to me during my bike fitting session. I didn't want to start on them before North Face because I wanted to not change too many things all at once. Even though I know my body pretty well, I know that change is an important part of the training stimulus. If I did the same thing every year, well, I wouldn't be improving too much.

So here I am at the end of my first training block for Ultraman. No matter how I do on Saturday, I will consider this block very successful. I have mentally and physically become reaccustomed to hard swim workouts, I have shown that my body can withstand some decent run mileage, and I have not become injured, all after having done an Ironman 13 weeks ago, and double Ironman only 8 weeks ago! If I pull off this 50-miler, it means I've done 3 marathons (4 if you want to count the 50-miler as two) in the space of 13 weeks, holy shit! That is something I never would have considered either fun or even possible just a few years ago.

Huh, well, all that's left now is to finish 50 miles on Saturday. I know I will have fun doing it, maybe not 100% of the time that I am out there, but if I didn't enjoy doing this stuff, I wouldn't do it. I received a book as a gift called "The Runner's Rule Book," and I love it because the first 2 rules are 1.1 Have Fun and 1.2 Expand Your Definition of Fun. While this book is only about running, in my case it applies to swimming and biking as well, and I don't know--I think I am just one of those people who really enjoys this stuff. I see too many people out training that aren't smiling and it makes me wonder why. Sure, there are times when I'm pushing hard and that ear-to-ear grin may be absent from my face, but most of the time I'm just happy that I can do this, and I thank my body, mind and soul for the experience, and it shows on my face.

Well, I won't be checking back in before Sunday, and hopefully I will be able to say I've run 50 miles all in a day!