I DID IT!!!

I faxed in my application for Ultraman Canada just about :45 ago, and I emailed a head shot (above--from transition the morning of IMLP) that they require as well. I didn't feel the same sense of "what the hell did I just do?" that can accompany pressing the SUBMIT button online for an Ironman race, but then again, I haven't had any problems doing that for many years now. Besides, this is just an application--I am sure that if I am accepted to race, then when I receive that news is when it will hit home with me.

Yesterday I had a good, short run, and my legs felt fine, but not super-peppy, which is fine--not like I'm expecting to bust out 5K pace or better yet. This morning I had the pleasure to run with a friend of mine, Peter, who is in town with his wife Salome, to visit Peter's parents (Peter grew up near me but now lives in Miami). We met up at Waterfall Glen, and it was an absolutely gorgeous morning--only about 60 and sunny. The place was jam-packed with runners training for the Chicago marathon and who knows what else. Peter and I ran about 9.75 miles and got to catch up on one another during that time. It felt good to run and talk, so we kept our pace pretty easy--around 9:25/mile. Below are some pics of us in various combinations after running (Salome went for a nice long walk while Peter and I ran):



We will be getting together later today for some cocktails!

When I got home, as a preventive measure, I iced the upper part of my hamstrings--really my glutes--since they have been a little on the, um, overused side, drank some Endurox while icing, then went and got my pre-ROTPM Brazilian wax (I still laugh everytime how Caryn thinks it hurts, and I am always like NOT!), then went and faxed my UMC application, came home and ate some lunch, and now I'm just deciding what I should be doing next.

I forget--last night I did my final (I hope) grocery shopping before ROTPM, and I decided I needed some treats, since it is going to be a calorie festival, right?

I also bought some lobster tails, wild sockeye salmon, scallops and crab cakes. The lady at the seafood counter said I must really like seafood, and I'm thinking, DUH, yeah. I plan on loading up on some Omega-3's next week before and during ROTPM. Depending on how tired/motivated I am at the end of each day, I might just go out for dinner, who knows? I may want pizza every night, or I may want sushi especially after the HIM.

I've got my finisher shirt designed, but I can't show it here since I won't finish assembling it until after I'm done! But it will be a daily work in progress, so I promise to put up pics as I march through each day and also distance and time totals.

It feels a little strange sitting here the weekend before I'll be doing something (double Ironman distance) I thought about maybe taking a full 7 days to do next year, but that somewhere along the way this year I came to the realization I could do it this year and in only 4 days, and one thing led to another and I've submitted an application for Ultraman Canada. Sometimes I marvel at how these things come together and other times I see these things as my destiny, but that I had to be ready and believe I could do them. I'm not yet convinced I can finish Ultraman Canada, but for right now I'll just be on pins and needles waiting to see if they let me in. If and when that happens, then I will be hell bent on doing every possible thing I can do to ensure I can cover that distance and make those cutoffs, and of course, I'll be looking for my support crew, because I already know that Ultraman is not a solo effort--sure, it will be me wrestling with the demons in my own head, but I do not want and could not stand for anyone along with me for the ride to tell me I look good or that I should give in. No--I want people by my side telling me that I am there to do what I said I'd do.

But next week--that is going to be about me battling my own demons on my own. And that will be the sort of party that I will happily attend! Tomorrow will be my last bike and run before ROTPM, and then it's 2 full days of rest and in I go! Or should I say down?

Fashion Update

Apparently my little brick session on Tuesday did a number on me. Or more likely, it was that on top of last week.

I rode to the outdoor pool on Wednesday morning, and cut my swim short by about 1,000 meters (I only did 2300 m) not because I was tired or anything--I was cold! The water was just chilling me to the bone, and my fingertips were very cold, and I wished I was wearing a wetsuit. It didn't really matter how much I swam anyway, since technically I should be cutting back.

Around mid-day I got ready to go for a run, and even before I headed out, I could feel the overwhelming tiredness in my body. I really dialed it down and started slowly at about 9mpm pace. Something didn't feel right about my gait, and after 4 miles I decided to walk for about 1/2 mile. I just didn't want to risk any sort of overuse crap. When I finished, I felt pretty much trashed, made sure I ate well and got to sleep early, and decided for sure I'd sleep in and not go for a swim yesterday.

I got 10.5 hours of sleep and felt like I could have slept even more. It was raining when I got up, and that made me feel good about having already decided to not swim. I could feel there was something up with my lower back since my hamstrings, particularly my left ones were feeling extra tight. It also seemed like something was just out of alignment. So I decided to skip my planned bike/run session--I'd already done enough biking for the taper week anyway, and the run could just be skipped altogether or I'd see about doing it on Friday.

I know it sounds odd, but sometimes lifting can help me diagnose or get over what I was feeling, only because it helps me to pinpoint whether I have actually strained a muscle or whether maybe it's just trigger points in the muscle or somewhere in its kinetic chain. When I did some hamstring curls, I knew my hammie muscles were actually OK, so good to know there's no real muscle damage. Nothing else felt particularly weak, so I got that done, and thank God, because I would have gone nuts not doing anything physical yesterday!

Sometime during the evening, I could feel something deep in my upper left back not so much hurting, but just not feeling right. I thought hmmm....maybe I've been swimming too much...so I did what I normally do when I feel something like that which was to do a few slow, perfectly formed lat pulldowns. They felt fine, so again, no muscular damage. But during the night, I awoke with that same thing feeling much worse. I was somewhat concerned, but just got up and took some NSAID's, which I probably should have been taking for a few days anyway.

When I got up this morning, I did some upper back stretches and movements and rolled around on my foam roller, and sure enough, I knew that something was out of alignment, and while I didn't get to 100%, I figured I could try and swim. So I drove to the outdoor pool, since today is the last day of morning lap swim there, which basically means it's my last day there this year (yes, I am very sad about that).

I had written in my training plan to do another 5,000 meter swim, but truthfully there was no need for me to swim that much. Still, I got in, the water felt great (air was pretty cool), and swam 1,000 to start off. Then I kicked for 500 and noticed that my head was cold in the air, but I kept going and the back felt just fine, and ended up doing 4,000 meters total. I felt it was prudent to stop at that point in the name of tapering and getting my upper back back to normal. I was shaking when I got out, shaking while I showered and shaved, and my teeth were chattering on the drive home (and I turned on the heat in the car!).

But on a good note, the "thing" in my back is a whole lot better, which means I can work it out either today or certainly tomorrow. So next I am going to try a short run and see how my legs are doing, and I promise to just stop and walk if anything doesn't feel right, since I'm going to try and run for a little over an hour tomorrow morning with a friend who is coming into town that I haven't seen in a year, and I don't want to disappoint!

So yeah, my body is telling me I've been pushing the envelope a bit. And so I am being cautious, yet continuing to test out the system to ensure things are good to go for next week. And I'm pretty sure they are!

aaaaaaaaaaaaand....I'm Tapering Again

It officially started yesterday. I heard the alarm, saw flashes of light, got up without turning on a light to check it out, and it was lightning. At first, I thought, great! I will just go back to sleep for a bit and swim at the Y since the outdoor pool would be closed because of the lightning. But then I remembered my Y is closed now for 3 weeks for cleaning and repairs. Still, I hit the snooze like 3 times, got an extra 1/2 hour of sleep, and ended up driving to the Good Samaritan Wellness Center to swim. That's where I'll have to swim for ROTPM, unless they extend the morning lap swim at the outdoor pool.

On the way to Good Sam, I remembered that they have an awesome hot tub, and thought I'd still have time for that after my swim. At the front desk, I pre-paid for 7 swims (at least they aren't overcharging us Y refugees), and got things set up so that when I return, it won't take me but a moment to check in. I felt pretty good during my 3400 yard swim, got in about 5' of hot tub stretching, and got home and started work by 8:30.

Even though the swim felt good and was a good recovery thing, I felt pretty damn shelled from last week's festivities, and as much as I mentally wanted to start in on my strength training, I decided to just rest for the remainder of the day. I ate like a champion, though, as I must have been down on my replacement calories from all the biking I did over the weekend. I stretched well, and got to sleep early, although I wasn't as sleepy tired as I thought I would be. A little over an hour of working out just doesn't do it for me some days!

This morning I got right up with the alarm, fixed breakfast, noodled around a little on the Interwebs, and then got ready to bike to the outdoor pool. I managed to leave at 6:05AM, and I could have used a flashing light on my backpack since it was still not fully light because of some cloud cover. But I was careful, and enjoyed the ride. I am savoring every last ride there because it is going to come to an end soon!

I didn't need to swim at all today, but I just want to enjoy the outdoor swimming as much as possible before it ends. The water was a glorious temperature, and I just made something up, thinking I wanted to do about 2000 meters is all. I got some things going on in my head besides just tapering right now that I won't go into, but I really needed to flush those things out, as even though next week isn't an "official" race, it is to me because of the overall effort required, not just to do it, but there is a bit of planning to do to be ready for it. So there's that, and then some other things that are weighing on me right now. I really just wanted the water to wash all of that away! It took a few hundred meters before I became totally relaxed and just enjoyed the feel of the cool water and the cool air on my skin, and if someone had videotaped me underwater, I am sure they would have seen me smiling! So mission accomplished on just enjoying the swim!

I had a 1:10 ride/:30 brick run scheduled for today. It seems like every day now I am looking at my training history for the past and trying to decide if I should do more during this taper because of what I am doing next week, and I am just playing it by ear. I intended to ride only for an hour since I'd already put in 11 miles to/from the pool, but it was so nice out, and I got on LGL, and I just wanted to ride! I'd intended to hit my usual interval loop, but there was some issue on the railroad tracks creating a traffic mess and nobody could cross the tracks, so I went into my industrial park interval area.

There was a strong wind from the west, and I was heading west, and I just love that when I'm trying to ride hard. Plus, when I got through the industrial park and into this residential area that has some nice little hills, I noticed they'd finished repaving all my favorite roads! I was like a kid in a candy shop--I want to climb this, and this and this. And so I did, and on the last climb, which is about a mile, I was so excited to be able to bomb down on fresh asphalt. A woman in a car on a cross street seemed to be able to tell I was hammering, and there were 2 small crests I had to make before the big downhill, and I was standing up and loving it, and finally, near the bottom, she drove by me and gave me a thumbs up! I know I was just smiling from ear to ear, it was so fun! I ended up riding 1:12, funny how I came right up to the scheduled time, huh?

I got rid of the bike shorts and put running shorts on and my visor and shoes and headed out. I think my transition time was like 2 minutes. This is the first time I have run off the bike since IMLP, and I knew I had ridden pretty hard based on how my legs felt, even though I hadn't run since Friday. Well, tiny steps, quick cadence, just do it. I made myself run up the hill from my house 4 times in the process of getting in 3.5 miles, not very fast, but steady and solid.

I get to do these same workouts on Thursday, so hopefully the run will go better, but I'm really not that worried. If it's nice out, I will swim on Thursday morning outside, too, just because. So I guess this is not a conventional taper, but next week is not conventional either!

Thankfully, I'm off to get a massage shortly that is much needed, and then I plan on some R&R tonight after I run one more errand.

It's T-7 days to ROTPM. Fuh-UCK! What was I thinking when I said I'd do that?

Feeling Fucking Awesome!

But first, here is my theme song:



I am such a creature of habit! And I do like discipline...except for being on my 4th beer...but I digress.

What I did this past week wasn't that unusual for me (volume-wise), except for it was the first time I swam almost 3.5 miles in one workout, followed by an 80-mile ride the next day and then 107 miles today. Which makes it like something a person might do to prepare for an Ultraman...but I digress.

What was great about this past week was that it was just 3 weeks after an Ironman, and despite being a little rough climbing hills on the bike (but not so much running), I felt pretty damn good. Ask me tomorrow morning how good I feel and you might get a different answer, but I feel strong and solid.

Yesterday I rode 81 miles in Fermilab all by my lonesome, and it was sunny and hot. I was basically riding in circles and enjoying the heck out of it! The security guard who had given me a free pass to ride on the Big Ring came up to me and asked me about my race, and we chatted for awhile. A woman working in the Ledermann Science Center, where I stopped with about 20 miles to go for cold water (and she let me fill my water bottle from the ice cold water cooler), looked me up and down and said, "You are really skinny." When I went to the bathroom to pee and wash up a little bit, I looked in the mirror and almost believed her. I typically lean out a little right before and for a few weeks after an Ironman, and this year is no exception. But then I thought, hey, I am not losing any power on the bike, so who cares?

I did not go to McDonald's after yesterday's ride, but it was so hot and sunny, that after returning home and then running errands for about 2 hours, I was beat, and just laid around until it was time to sleep.

This morning when I got up, the radar showed bad juju way west of here, but I thought, hey, I'm starting to ride early, maybe I can get most of it in before getting rained on. I had the pleasure to ride about 25 miles with someone I'd never met before, but who reads my blog and is in my age group and who could probably smoke me at any sprint triathlon--Karen. She's a really strong rider, and I enjoyed talking to her and trying to keep up with her! But she didn't need to ride as much as me (well, neither did I, I guess), and so I kept on. Luckily, though it was in the mid-80's and quite humid, we had cloud cover most of the time, so I wasn't burning up like I was yesterday. Whenever the sun would peek through the clouds, I would just sneer at it.

I also ran into a couple of guys I hadn't seen in years, and that was cool. I also outbiked several women way younger than me who at various points took off like rabbits ahead of me and I just reeled them in and then went for the big pass at the crest of a hill into a headwind. That is my type of fun!

They started the big bike race in my town an hour late, as when I arrived back home, it started pouring like crazy, and I waited that out and then walked downtown to watch and take a bunch of pics (which I'll post tomorrow sometime).

I tell ya, if you've never done an Ironman and then picked back up your training afterwards, you don't know how great it can be to capitalize on that fitness! I guess I'm just that sort of person who can't do just 1 anymore--seems like a waste to me--especially when I've got more summertime to go! Now I just hope it rains like hell this week so that I have good weather for Revenge of the PirateMan!

Oh yeah--about 15 miles from finishing today's ride, I saw someone had hoisted a Jolly Roger flag in their yard, and I was just smiling from ear to ear thinking it was some sort of sign. I should have ordered one of those so I could hoist it while I'm doing my thing, but between training and trying to organize myself before it, I've got plenty to do.

Here's how last week broke down:

Weekly Workout Totals	08/10/2009-08/16/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by PIRATES!!! Argggggghhhhh
Swim:	12600 yards (7.15 miles) in 4.22 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 1477 calories burned Canadian: 11521.44 meters
Bike:	Approx. 227.12 miles in 12.57 hours; 55% of weekly workout time; approx. 6218 calories burned; Total TSS=810 Canadian: 365.51 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 33.11 miles in 4.99 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 2244 calories burned Canadian: 53.29 kilometers
Strength:	1.05 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 263 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 267.38 miles in 22.83 hours; approx. 10202 calories burned Canadian: 22.83 kilometers
Sleep:	8.57 hours avg./night
Stretching:	2.95 hours. Massage: 1 hours