The Correct Questions and Ramblings

Below are the answers with the correct questions from my previous post for all 2 people who still read my blog:

1. About 20 years (How long has it taken me to develop my current physique?)
   
2. Swimming (What do you think about when you swim for such a long time?)
   
3. Nothing. (What is your athletic background?)
   
4. When I am no longer able or I need a different challenge. (When are you going to stop doing all these long distance races?)
   
5. Because it has sugar, like Gatorade, but also caffeine. (Why are you drinking Coke while you run? I thought it was bad for you.)
   
6. More than that. (How much do you weigh? Like 90 pounds?)
   
7. No, my brothers and sisters are all quite overweight. (You must have really good genetics to look that way?)
   
8. No, I can’t. (You can eat whatever you want, right?)
   
9. 2 or more hours per day, on average. (How much do you work out?)
   
10. 4-6 times per week. (Do you run every day?)

A friend notified me about another event that I am going to do called 24 Hours of Triathlon. I already have a team mate, and I am pumped about doing this. I guess I will need to alter my training schedule a little for this to allow for a taper, huh? It's perfect timing for me, though--by that time I'll be more than ready for another Ironman-ish training day, and bonus, doing it as a team will just be fucking fun!

In other news, I "only" swam 6100 yards this morning. Boy does it feel nice to not be feeling whacked on a Friday! Although my bike and run training is picking up again, so I'm already at a pretty hefty weekly volume. I am getting some run speed back, and my biking legs seem to be coming back, too. Putting together my typical winter Ultraman training week and executing every workout to the letter is quite challenging. It goes like this:

Monday: AM :15 upper body and core strength then swim up to 3000 yards (intervals); mid-day easy-ish run up to :50.
Tuesday: AM lift 1-1.5 hours; mid-day bike 1:30 including 1:00 of hard shit.
Wednesday: AM :15 upper body and core strength then swim up to 3500 yards (intervals); mid-day tempo run up to 1:05 and whenever I can fit it in try and finish up my lifting.
Thursday: AM easy-ish run up to :50; mid-day bike 1:30 including 1:00 of hard shit.
Friday: AM swim 5,000-9,500 yards in sets of 1000, 1500, 2000 or whatever I feel like that morning.
Saturday: Bike 2:00-3:00 including 1:30-2:15 of hard shit; :30-:40 brick run
Sunday: Long run 1:40-2:15 ascending pace including :30+ z4, 1,000-1,500 easy swimming/drills.

It usually takes me 6-8 weeks to get to the point where I can nail all the fast running, hard biking and hard swimming while I am also trying to lift heavy! But it's all worth it--when it starts to come together, I feel awesome and then ready to go longer on the bike come springtime. At that point, my weekly pattern changes and all hell breaks loose as I try and get in 8+ hours of riding a week.

On another positive note, I am about at my race weight. All I did was cut out candy and some snacks. I'm trying to eat more fruits and veggies and less processed food and am doing well on that front, but I also know that when the composition of my training changes to go heavier on the biking that I will once again need to introduce snacks and candy. I can't wait!!! I had breakfast with a friend on Tuesday and he asked whether Twinkies were banned from my diet. NO WAY! I never ate that many of them anyway. I miss gummi bears, Pringles and Cheetos. They will all make their appearance in a few months! Salt and sugar, baby!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I plan on it!