Wheels Haven't Come Off Yet!

Wednesday's workouts went well. Like this:

• 5:45AM 15 chinups, 60 pushups, 135 crunches and 6' of jump rope
• 6:20AM Swim 3100 yards
• 8:12 AM Run .6 miles (to/from neighbor's for compression stocking duty)
• 12:15PM Run 1:10 including strides, about 8 miles
• 5:30PM Lift for :20
• 6:45PM Run .6 miles to/from neighbor's again

Needless to say, I hadn't originally planned on getting in 9+ miles of running, or doing all the other things all in one day, but it had to be done, and so I did it. Was I tired after it was all done? Hell fucking yeah. The running wasn't particularly fast, but it was fun running up the hill from my house 3 times in one day (it's .3 miles up), wearing 3 different outfits!

While I slept deeply Wednesday night, when I awoke yesterday I felt, well, fucking tired. I'd had an inkling to do a 1500 yard swim in the morning, but opted to sleep in since I'd gone to sleep late. The combination of a big day at work, all the training and being on a pretty tight schedule meant I still needed my "me" time when it was all over, which is usually reading a book in bed. And I also needed more food!

I didn't swim yesterday morning, but I did get lucky in that I had a 9:30AM meeting during which I was able to finish up my lifting for the week! See now that is one of the advantages of working at home in the same room with your weights! I had to finish up legs and a few upper body things and abs, and it felt good to do it.

In retrospect, I should have probably had a protein shake after that short little workout since there's no way I'd restocked my glycogen stores over the 2 prior days. I got on the trainer (it's been raining for days now) at 12:15PM for a 1:30 ride, and since I was a little tired, I decided to drink a can of Coke while riding. Usually that would be more than enough calories for a standalone ride like that, and I didn't even think about it. The ride went well, despite my legs feeling like I'd done a ton of squats (funny, I had), and I kicked out good power.

It only took me maybe 3 minutes to throw on a singlet, hat and running shoes and head out the door. It had stopped raining, and I didn't have time to drive to the Y to run anyway, and it was fairly warm. I felt the humidity in my house while on the trainer, and as soon as I got outside, it was like I was in a sauna! The wind had picked up, but not so bad that it would impact my run speed much at all.

As I ran up the hill (I hadn't run up it earlier in the day since it was raining really hard so I walked to my neighbor's in the morning), I noted that my legs didn't feel all that bad, but what do I know maybe I am just used to sucking? I made it out one mile just under 9 minutes, and that told me that I was pretty tired, but that's OK, I've been putting the hurt to myself.

When I got out 20 minutes to turn around, guess what? It started raining. Not hard, but just misting enough to make me a little chilled, but too bad. I saw another person running in it, and we just smiled at one another. I only had about 2.5 miles to go.

I kept about a 9mpm pace, got home, tore off my disgusting clothes and started sucking down Endurox R4. As it turns out, I think I was bonking pretty much the entire time I was running. My legs didn't feel that bad--they just didn't have much oomph, and while 140 calories in 1.5 hours on the bike would be fine if that was all I did, running afterwards not so much! Still, the caffeine prevented me from totally bonking and besides, I'm pretty familiar with running while bonking, so I can push through it even it it means slowly. Not like I needed to run a marathon!

After I finished working, I made the .6 mile run one more time for the day, and that was after stretching and having a beer, and I was laughing the entire time because I'm wearing an outfit that is pretty stylish and "jogging!" I know everyone up and down the street knows who I am from seeing me running all the time, but usually it's not with "regular" clothes on.

I slept really well and long last night, and today is just a swim and a short (that I really don't need to do) run. So of course, I'll kick it off with some jump rope and other stuff.

The weekend looks like no rain, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to just swim, bike and run a little on Saturday, fix myself an awesome focaccia sandwich, and drive to Dodgeville, WI so I can start riding by 7:30AM on Sunday for 100 hilly miles. That will cap off my big week of biking with a bang! I am sure I will be well shelled by the time I am back home Sunday night, but I hope to sleep like a baby because next week is my big running week! Not like I haven't been doing a great deal of running anyway, but next week's goal is about 45 miles!

There is nothing else I'd rather be doing, and I'm enjoying the challenges I've been giving myself.

Life is FUCKING GOOD!

Into a Big Week

Monday was a much needed rest day. All I did was get a massage, and then it was early to bed.

Yesterday I awoke feeling still tired although I'd slept well. That is to be expected. Although I was going to technically just skip Monday's workouts, the little voice in my head said I could make it up throughout the week, so I thought I'd start the day with a short swim. The water was too warm for me, and I swam pretty damn slowly, but it still felt good, especially since I hadn't done any pushups or chinups right before!

The plan called for a 2-hour ride and :20 run, but I figured I'd run for :30 just to put a dent into the missed running from Monday. It wasn't even 60 when I started riding, so I used the helmet beanie, booties and wind gloves. I was a little chilled at first, but warmed up quickly. I rode straight into the east wind, and just kept going east in the big ring, standing on any hills. Somehow I managed to ride exactly 2 hours, and when I downloaded the data this morning, the entire ride was at 82.5% of FTP, which isn't bad considering I had a bit of a tailwind on the way back in and there was a lot of stop and go, as I was basically riding through residential neighborhoods. All good, though!

I made a quick change into running tights and headed back out into the wind. At first, I felt too warm and thought I should have left the long sleeved shirt at home, but once I went directly into the wind, I knew I was dressed just right. My hands never were warm. The run didn't suck too badly as I'd had caffeine on the bike, but I still felt it. I didn't run particularly fast, but my usual steady, and I was just glad to get it done.

Since I did such a long workout in the middle of the day, even though I had begun work pretty early, I still kept going until about 6:15, and I really wanted to make a dent in my strength training for the week, so I motivated and got about 1/2 hour of that done, then quickly walked to a friend's house down the street for my physical therapist duty.

This friend just had a hip replacement, and her husband is out of town, so she needs help putting on and taking off compression stockings on the affected leg, and I am happy to help out. Evening all I have to do is strip it off, and starting today in the morning, I will stop by and put it on for her. Her house is at the top of the hill from my house, and it's 1/4 mile there, so I figure I can get in a little extra running there and back, too!

After that, I came back home and stretched and finally ate dinner around 8PM, and I think I should have eaten more (but I did have my first Twinkie of the year!), but I was too tired to keep eating and wanted to read a little before going to sleep.

I woke up a little early today because I was hungry, but I should be able to do better on the whole scheduling thing as I should be done swimming by 7:30 and can start work then, and I only need to run for 1:15 in the middle of the day, so I can be finished working by 5:00, get my stretching done, go see my neighbor, eat at 7:15 or so, have time to read and get to sleep early. I may try and get some more strength training done today. Or not!

I am watching the weather (it continues to rain a lot here), and don't yet have firm weekend riding plans. I may drive to Galena to do a very hilly ride on Saturday, or if Sunday has better weather, then I'll head up to Dodgeville, WI and knock out maybe 100 miles which will be totally hilly. Funny thing is I'm not even sure I'm ready to ride 100 miles let alone 100 miles with 9,000 feet of climbing! But if I end up doing that, I will not do much on Saturday.

This is a hard week of training. I've done this before, but each time I do it, there is something different about it. I always wonder how I got it done before but then once I'm into it, I stop thinking. So all of this planning and scheduling and orchestrating and controlling is all designed to put me into a position where I can train and not think, and that is a most beautiful thing.

Weekly Workout Totals 04/20/2009-04/26/2009 and Finally Shelled!

I am, unless something changes significantly, taking an unscheduled rest day today. Who is the fucking bitch that wrote on my training plan today that I was supposed to do a 3500 yard swim and a :50 run? I swear I am going to fire my coach today!

Yesterday was another day that was supposed to be warm with a "chance" of rain. When you wake up and it's already raining, how does that translate to a chance? I was going to go do an organized ride that begins northwest of me, and I've done the ride many times before, but the radar didn't look to be improving, so I began thinking about Plan B.

I had wanted to ride for 4 hours, since Saturday was the shorter ride of only 3 (although originally my training plan had called for a 4-hour and 2-hour ride--see how I ignore my coach?). It looked like the rain should clear out by maybe 11AM, so I got to doing other things around the house, and kept checking on the radar. I was going to drive to Fermilab, and did not want to be on the trainer!

Well, it was drawing near to 11AM and still raining...what to do? I ended up putting LGL on the trainer and started into a warmup as if I were doing my shorter, harder Tuesday ride. I wanted to see what I had left in my legs after Saturday's rather hard riding. Apparently quite a bit! I checked the weather after 1/2 hour, and decided to keep going for another 1/2 hour, which turned into 1:15, at which point I loaded up the car and headed to Fermilab.

The roads were wet, but with the sun coming out and the temperature rising rapidly (I think it did make it to near 80), things would dry up in a hurry, but I still got some nice spray up my ass. The wind was out of the east when I started, and since I was heading generally west, it was great! But a little over halfway around my 16-mile loop, the wind switched to south, and it picked up in a big way. No worries, wind makes me work!

I approached my entrance to the Big Ring but was being stalked by security, so I rode past it, doubled back and got on, and was quickly spotted by 2 security cars, and I got booted off. Damn! I had really wanted to do 2 laps around it.

No worries, with the wind picking up I was getting plenty of high powered action riding right into it and figured I'd just need one more full loop to get to about 3.5 hours total (including the trainer time), which would be enough on the day. But I did struggle with my inner voice which kept saying, "Listen fuckhead you said you were going to do 4 hours and it's not like you don't have the time so why don't you keep riding?" Still, I rationalized that I was going to end up riding more than was on the training schedule, so it was all good.

When I finished, I wiped down LGL to get rid of worms, sand and road spray as best I could, wiped off my own face, and drove home. I unloaded the car, and now it was really nice out, so I decided to plant a few things that have been waiting to get into the ground for a few weeks--6 lilies (Casa Blanca--pure white orientals that are gorgeous assuming they still grow since I should have planted them weeks ago), 3 heliotropes and an Angel's Trumpet that I had forgotten I had ordered.

While I was at it and dirty and smelly, I figured I should start raking the back lawn again, which was necessary since my neighbors never raked their leaves last fall so I got the pleasure of their leaves blowing onto my lawn during the winter which was not really good for the grass, all the while they are out there grilling and listening to tunes and most likely boozing it up.

I raked for maybe 1/2 hour, and was feeling famished and needing a shower, so I finally went inside to clean up and grabbed a beer. I was just beginning to stretch when a friend dropped by and we had some eats and then went back outside to enjoy the weather and my neighbor's girlfriend came over to have a conversation with us. She was pretty well blitzed, and she began asking me to go work out with her. I'm like OK whatever just get up at 5AM and we'll get to it. Not likely...she needs to quit smoking, but says she used to run cross country. She asked us how to get her butt in shape to wear a bikini on an impending vacation and we are like DO HUNDREDS OF SQUATS! That was an entertaining conversation.

This morning I am tired, sore and needing some major rest, so after waking up late and skipping the swimming, I think I will follow suit and skip the run and just get a massage this afternoon. Four straight weeks of 18+ hours and I am pretty worked. This is my big biking week, so I'll kick it off tomorrow with a 2-hour ride and short brick run.

Here's what I got done last week:

Weekly Workout Totals	04/20/2009-04/26/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by WIND!
Swim:	9700 yards (5.51 miles) in 3.5 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1226 calories burned Canadian: 8869.68 meters
Bike:	Approx. 145.81 miles in 8.17 hours; 45% of weekly workout time; approx. 4778 calories burned; Total TSS=567 Canadian: 234.66 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 36.27 miles in 5.39 hours; 29% of weekly workout time; approx. 2434 calories burned Canadian: 58.37 kilometers
Strength:	1.22 hours; 7% of weekly workout time; approx. 305 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 187.59 miles in 18.28 hours; approx. 8743 calories burned Canadian: 301.9 kilometers
Sleep:	7.93 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.7 hours. Massage: 1 hours

Great Saturday

Start of yesterday's ride in Fermilab

It's 45 degrees here at 5:20AM as I write this, and the heat is on in my house, which means I am not going to be driving north to ride today. I will eat the breakfast I was thinking about at 3AM of scrambled eggs and toast around 8, read the Sunday paper, and then motivate back to Fermilab for 4 hours in warmer temperatures.

Yesterday's forecast originally called for 80's, but upon waking, even though it was already near 70, there was a much higher chance of rain than originally predicted, too. Since I was up early, and since my access roads are under heavy construction now, I loaded LGL into my car plus running gear and headed to Fermilab with the goal of riding 3 hours or 60 miles, whichever came first.

It was plenty humid but not actually raining when I started at 7:15AM. At least I didn't need arm warmers! But it was quite windy, and so I knew my speed would be depressed, but wind usually makes me work hard, so I'd be riding by time today. Below you can see the wind data for yesterday:

I think I got about halfway around one loop when it began raining. Since there are plenty of buildings in Fermilab, it's usually easy to duck in somewhere and wait out rain, which I did way

too many times last year. The way it's been raining so regularly this year, it may be a repeat of last spring! This time I was a ways from a building on my way to the West Gate, but there is a shortcut bike path to the Ledermann Science Center, so I hightailed it there and made it up the ramp after a near soaking. I think I waited less than 10 minutes for that shower to blow over. I know, I know--I am a wimp, but if I don't have to be soaked, why would I?

Back on and around to the Big Ring, and I just got on there and the sky opened up again. I ducked behind some building that had some sort of generator thing next to it and waited for the short downpour to stop. I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the lap, pushing hard, and even saw a group of 3 deer in there. I was also enjoying some tunes. Now that I finally have an MP3 player, I've taken to riding with it, but only when I'm in Fermilab. On residential streets it would just be too dangerous. So even though I'm just circling around, it's a little more enjoyable than it used to be.

I made it back to my car to grab another bottle of Infinit (my first bottle was leftover from a few weeks ago and was pure Money Shot, aka loaded with caffeine, but my other 2 bottles weren't as potent) and decided to strip off the bike jersey and go with a singlet--gotta work on the tan! Even as breezy as it was, I was quite comfortable, but now I began watching the gathering clouds, as the sun didn't want to come out.

I got sprinkled on some more but didn't need to stop for it and headed back to the Big Ring for another round. Once I got in there, and about halfway around, the sky started to look pretty ominous, so I began thinking whether I should go back out to the South Gate or not before heading back to my car. I decided against it, and of course, as soon as I got off the ring, it began raining again. At least this time, I thought "GOOD DECISION," but it wasn't stopping anytime soon, so I just pedaled really hard to get back to my car and load up.

I got in almost 2:30 of riding in Fermilab, and not very fast at all with the winds the way they were. But it was all good, and I figured I had time to drive home, ride another half hour (outside, weather permitting), get in my planned :40 run and then a short swim (on Saturdays the only lap swim is 12-1PM so it limits when I can sneak in after a long ride). I made it home pretty quickly, took LGL out of the car, put some stuff in the house, and headed back out. I decided I'd just big ring it hard for the remaining time.

I was pleasantly surprised at how the winds had either died down (it was about 10:30 now) or else just because I was no longer in the wide open spaces of Fermilab it wasn't as bad. At any rate, I enjoyed standing up as much as possible since I was just riding for 1/2 hour. When I got back home, I stripped off my disgusting cycling clothes and changed to go run.

As I headed up the 1/4 mile gentle hill right from my house, I thought, hmmm...I must have ridden fairly hard based on how my legs felt. But I was able to run OK, taking tiny steps as is mandated when beginning a brick run. I needed to decide which direction I would run, and being the masochist that I am, I decided to head south on Main Street to McCollum Park, which is basically 1.5 miles uphill, and with the south wind blowing, even better! Kind of like how the Triple T run takes you 2 miles straight up!

I was hot, disgusting, but I was running and went by a man who had been running, but as he turned to begin up the hill was walking. As I went by him, I told him to keep running! As I kept climbing, I thought to myself what the fuck am I doing, but of course I was doing exactly what I wanted to do and was even enjoying it.

When I got to the park, I ran a lap around it, which is about 1.25 miles, mostly flat, so that was a nice break from the hill climbing and the wind. When I finished the lap, I just stopped and thought now what? If I just turned around and went home, I wouldn't make :40, and that would be OK, but I'm a masochist, so I turned to head further south on Main Street which entailed climbing uphill some more, and I just set my sights on a particular street at which to finally turn around and head home.

Since the way back was mostly downhill and slightly wind assisted, it felt pretty good, and I do enjoy going down much more than I ever used to and do it confidently, so I was having a great time. When I got home, I was so disgusting that I couldn't sit down on any furniture, so I just stripped off my running clothes (throwing them downstairs onto the floor!) and put my swimsuit on and a pair of shorts over it and a dirty t-shirt. While this swim wouldn't be training per se but rather just cooling down, I didn't need to do it, but knew it would feel good at some level, so off to the Y I went.

I never know what I'm going to end up doing when I swim after a solid bike and run, but I knew I did not want to kick at all. So I just started in with the pull buoy, and ended up just swimming 1,000 yards straight. The water wasn't as cold as I would have liked--either that or I was just too heated up. I showered and wanted to stretch a little in the sauna, but when I went in there it was just too hot for me, which meant my core temperature had to be up, so I skipped it.

I got home and ate some lunch and crawled into bed for a little lay down and heard my phone chirp and figured it was my niece, so I got up and it was and shit, figured I should just get up and get going on to her place. She had organized a clothing swap with some of her girlfriends, and honestly I get a kick hanging out with her (she's 25). I was pretty tired when I got there, but had fun trying on all sorts of things. I ended up with some really neat stuff, some of which I am calling "skankwear," but hey, can't have too much of that, can you? At one point, I asked Michelle if she had anything made of sugar, as I could tell my blood sugar was crashing and I needed some calories. She gave me some Ho Ho's which was perfect considering the skankwear I was wearing. That fixed me right up!

When I got home, I fixed this really great salad of shrimp, grapes, pineapple, almonds, litchees, celery and water chestnuts, then got down and stretched, then ate, read a bit, and fell asleep early.

I had intended to drive somewhere to ride, but I'm not too keen about riding in the 40's, so another breakfast and reading the Sunday paper seems in order before I head back to Fermilab.

Oh yeah, when I downloaded the Ergomo data, turns out I did ride hard, at 85% of FTP! So no wonder my legs felt a little toasted while I was running, but since I got a good 8 hours of sleep last night, I don't feel too bad, plus I don't have to run today!

Happy Sunday!