Goal 1 of Ultraman "Test" Training Complete

Since Ride 'n Tie on 11/20, I've been building up some serious training in order to prepare for some big training events.  Looking back, I have no idea when or why I decided to string all of these together, except that I did 2 out of 3 2 years ago since I was formally preparing for Ultraman Canada.

#1 is complete.  Yesterday I did an 8300 yard swim in 2:49 followed by 100 miles on the trainer in 5:02.  2 years ago I did a similar workout only I swam 9100 and biked 90.  Per my previous post, I was feeling pretty fit.  Aside from some hard bike workouts not sucking so much, I could visibly see that I was losing some fat around my midsection (more to go--still haven't weighed myself in a few months, but clothes fit just fine).  Another indicator of high fitness that I didn't mention was that I was sleeping less.  For about the last 2 weeks, I've been waking up at 3:30-4:00AM.  While that left me a bit tired a few times, it came in handy yesterday when I had to get up at 3:45.

I slept really well and woke up with the alarm going off.  I felt well-rested, and needing to do something like a race.  I had a hard-boiled egg and one of my homemade muffins, and at about 4:15 I downed 400 calories of Ultrafuel.  Yum--the taste of a big workout!  I'd fixed 8 bottles of Infinit, packed 3 into my swim bag, and got to the Y just before 5AM when it opens.  Of course they don't open the doors until 5, so I can't actually begin swimming right at 5, and I'd need to be done by 8AM when Masters takes over.

I was on deck and with all my crap ready to go and began swimming at 5:08.  Already I knew this would mean I probably wouldn't get in 9,000 yards.  But that was OK.  The water was warm.  Maybe 85.  That combined with there only being 1 hour from when I ate breakfast and maybe :45 since I'd drunk the Ultrafuel conspired to force me out for a potty break after 1,000 yards.  If this were an actual race, I would have woken up before 3AM and had all the calories in before 3:30.  Oh well.  It does suck getting out of the pool and using the bathroom all wet!

Got back into the pool and was swimming just relaxed and easy--no need to be a hero today.  With about 2000 more I had time to do, a guy that I've swum next to before got in at the shallow end.  What goes through my head when people enter the pool in the shallow end is what the hell, why would you do that?  The blocks are on the deep end, of course, and you can just jump in and avoid the whole get used to the water a little at a time thing.  Anyway, I strapped on my Tyr paddles and started in and about 500 in, this guy clips me on the left hand.  Well really he got a nice crack from the paddle.  It wasn't my fault--I was totally hugging the lane rope, but after that all I could think was that he needs to practice taking up less room.  I did watch him a bit, and he doesn't rotate enough and that conspires to have his strokes go wide.  I really wanted to stop and point this out to him, but that would cost me additional yards, so I let go of it.  And still the guy hogged the lane!  At the walls, even though he wasn't doing flip turns, he would somehow gravitate toward the cross.  To punish him for his poor technique and hoggishness, I swam faster so he could enjoy being chicked.

When they started moving a lane rope for the stupid aqua aerobics, I still had my lane if I wanted, and could have swam another 700 to get up to 9,000, but it just didn't seem necessary, and I wanted to get on the bike and finish this workout at a reasonable hour.

Because I'd dumped in about 700 calories right before I swam, I only drank 2 bottles of Infinit, but that was just fine.  I showered and did my post-swim stretches in the sauna.  Even though the pool was warm, I was plenty chilled and wanted to try and raise my body temperature a tiny bit before heading out into the cold.

I got home, lubed up the bike shorts with Chamois Buttr, suited up, grabbed a fresh bottle of Infinit from the fridge and headed downstairs to get on the bike.  I decided to watch some old Ironman videos.  I started with 1991, and still get a kick out of the styles of clothing they were wearing then.  1991 was my warmup.  I rode in the small chainring for an hour, spinning madly at about 100rpm, and got in just shy of 18 miles for that first hour.  I noticed that my upper body didn't feel too bad, even though I'd swum 3500 yards with paddles on!

After the first hour, I switched into the big chainring, and instead of watching my speed (or the videos for that matter--I find it hard to pay attention to TV while on the bike), I just looked at my speed average, wanting to bump it up and up.  1991 was over in 1:15, so next I watched 1992.  Again, funky fashions and haircuts.  They made some of the interviewed pros look like they were gearing up for a porn shoot with their dreamy eyes and soft lighting.  Hilarious!

1992 ended with me being 2:45 into my ride.  By that time I think my average speed was just over 19.  My legs were hurting with the effort since the week before I'd only gone 3:30 on the bike, and I've been doing a lot of running to gear up for something in 2 weeks.  But since I knew I didn't have to run off the bike or do anything the day after, I just kept pushing.

The next year of Ironman I watched was 2004, the year I did the race.  As soon as they showed Nina Kraft, I immediately thought "cheater."  I flashed back to my own race and how ungodly windy it was that year (I understand it has not been that windy since for the race), and tried to focus on knowing where the racers were on the course, since 2004 is the last time I was in Kona.  Average speed continued to rise.

After 2004 ended, I put on 2005, and promptly declared this the year everything turned PINK!  At least on the women.  I like the color pink myself, but I am glad I never got a pink bike.  I still remember when I got fitted for Skull Kingdom that many people thought I'd get a pink bike.  Glad I didn't go there!

Once my average speed got to 19.8mph, I figured that was "good enough," and I began trying to do math as to when I'd hit 90 miles.  Originally that had been my goal--90 miles or 5 hours, whichever comes first--but since I was clipping along quite nicely, I decided to go for 100 miles, since someone I know had done a 100-mile trainer ride the day before.  It always entertains me when I decide to take up math during a workout--I can become confused between time arithmetic (e.g., adding up 1:30 and 2:45 expressed as hours:minutes) and regular decimal arithmetic.  Throw in mph and you get some real math fun!

Anyway, being at 19.8 meant I'd hit 100 miles in just over 5 hours, so I just made an effort to not drop below that.  When I was 3:30 in, my stomach couldn't handle any more Infinit, so I took a :30 minute break from taking in anything, then I switched to Gatorade.  Besides, this would taper me off the caffeine so maybe I could sleep later on!  The Gatorade tasted good, and that last hour seemed to go by in slow motion.  Now I was watching my total mileage and deciding how long to stay in a particular gear--would I go by time or my mileage?  I was all over the place, and didn't get excited until I had only 10 miles to go.  At that point, I completely ignored the TV, someone on it was probably running, and I thought about pros who used to race Ironman who are now completely out of the picture.

When the computer turned over to 100, then I looked at the elapsed time and 5:02, so all good!  While this effort is not that big in relation to the many ultra-athletes I know who have done much crazier stuff, I felt pretty good getting this done on basically a 3-day crash taper.

I had to wait a few minutes for my stomach to settle down, and although I had a 1+ lb. slice of my homemade pizza ready to heat up, I decided I'd eat that later and instead just have my normal lunch of a Lean Cuisine and some Endurox R4.  In the shower, as I washed down, I could feel the sensitivity in my arms and legs, and knew I'd need to load up on clear water as well.  What I really wanted was beer to begin killing some of the pain and soreness, but waited until after I'd eaten a normal lunch, then I did a good stretching session while sipping a beer.

Today I will do no workouts, and formally begin a run taper for my 60-mile week which starts 1/2.  In between, though, event #2 is a really long swim.  A year ago I did 13,500, and want to bump that up to 15,000 this time.  I really haven't swum enough long swims for 15k, but still I think I can do it.  Or at least I'll try!  My Y will have lap swim pretty much all day on NY eve, so I will just bring along plenty of calories and try and get it done.

On a good note, today I slept until 6:15!  I am predictably tired and hungry, as I know I didn't make up all my calories yesterday, but I planned ahead and am treating myself later on to my version of nachos.  If I get motivated, I plan on going to a movie.  If not, I expect I'll be laying around doing some reading.  I finished 1Q84 on Thursday, and I have to say it's the best fiction I've read in a long, long time. 

It's a snowless Christmas here, but the sun is shining so maybe I'll take a short walk and contemplate all the blessings I have in my life!