The Rest of the Birthday Week

This is really long...maybe 2 cups of coffee or 2 beers or whatever you like!


I took Friday off from work. For me, a rest day from training never feels like rest unless I am also not working. I wanted to be really rested for the weekend, and had a massage scheduled for 2PM. I did some organizing and cleaning around the house, including cleaning LGL prior to putting her on the trainer, since I figured that’s where I’d end up riding on the weekend. Turns out I didn’t need to change the rear tire (I put an older, worn out tire on the back for the winter), as the tires were already worn.

My house is only ever clean in the winter when the bikes, helmets and shoes are all put away. For the rest of the year, my kitchen table has one or more helmets, running hats, sunglasses, gels and other stuff on it. I put all that away!

I didn’t feel too bad from having already run 44 miles in 4 days, and thought about doing some core work. I didn’t really need to, but I felt a little restless only having put in about 7.5 hours so far for the week. I ended up doing a :45 session, which included some leg stuff (none of it was more than body weight), and it induced a bit of tiredness. I ate lunch—2 eggs over easy fried in butter and an English muffin toasted with butter. I had a craving for butter, which typically means I need some fat. I don’t eat butter very often—maybe once a month or less, including using it in cooking—so when I want it, I have it! Fried eggs are a comfort food that I’ve loved for years—they go down easy even when I’m sick.

After lunch I fixed my bottles (10) of Infinit, and it was nice that I had some left over from running that would get used. Then I had a massage, came home and showered, went to grocery store for basics, and then contemplated what to eat for dinner. I wasn’t really that hungry, but knew I needed some good calories in me for the weekend. I had wanted sushi, but wanted to save that for when I was more hungry. I had some leftover Hawaiian rice (I’d made a batch of this to eat during the week—brown rice, macadamia nuts, bell and jalapeno peppers, golden raisins, pineapple and garlic) and thought I should eat some more of it, but was sort of sick of it. Still, I couldn’t see wasting it so I had a flash that I should be able to make fried rice. So I located a recipe and made it. Using more eggs! I ate a big plateful of that for dinner and felt like I was set.

I woke up Saturday morning at 4:30 with the alarm and felt pretty good on 8 hours of sleep. I only ate a toasted English muffin with some sugar-free jam for breakfast, since I’d be in the pool soon enough and taking in calories there. Coffee goes without saying!

I’d wanted to be swimming at 5:45, since I needed to be finished by 8AM when Masters swim begins. I ended up starting my swim at 5:50, which made me smile since it has 55 in it! With about 200 yards to go, 2 of the Masters folks showed up and wanted to circle swim in my lane, which was fine. I picked up my pace a little so they didn’t have to swim around me. My total swim time, including rest and feedings, was 1:52. I never felt tired, but I was never sprinting, either. 5500 yards down!

I showered and did my usual post-swim stretches in the sauna, got dressed and headed home to bike and run. I felt bad that I wasn’t doing the Y’s Breast Cancer 5K, but I always feel I am out there setting a good example to others when I’m working out and smiling.

I’d finished the proper amount of Infinit while swimming (1.75 hours worth), and thought I should eat a banana, but didn’t feel particularly hungry. Still, I ate ½ of one, suited up for biking, and got on the trainer.

Well, well, well. I don’t know about anyone else, but swimming for nearly 2 hours tires me out somewhat, so I started out super easy on the bike, maybe going 16mph is all. Then it hit me that this wasn’t a race, that I was going to do the same thing tomorrow, so I figured I’d ride easy for 1.5 hours and then see what I felt like. So I stayed in the small chainring for 1.5 hours. My legs felt fine, but I suppose I was starting to feel the accumulated fatigue from the running I’d already done, and hey, I’m an old lady! I had absolutely no worry that I couldn’t complete the day, though. I have put myself through a lot worse in training. Still, I highly recommend doing really long swims (5500 isn’t really long but it’s long enough for some people) and then biking for at least 2 hours—it is just a different kind of “ugh” you feel.

I was on top of my Infinit consumption and managed to almost finish that banana along the way. After 1.5 hours, I switched to the big chainring and picked up the pace. I did ladders up and down the cassette for full miles, and then ½ and ¼ miles, just to pass the time. I caught some World Cup skiing on Universal Sports, but mostly I was just jamming to tunes. Lindsey Vonn won her first GS, which was cool.

I finished 55 miles in 3:05, which was good enough. I’d hoped to do it in 3 hours flat, but I haven’t really been on top of my bike fitness since August, so it didn’t concern me. While it was fairly nice outside, I opted to run on my treadmill, which would be easier on my legs, completely flat, and then I wouldn’t need to carry any liquids with me. The water fountains on my route have been shut down, and I would definitely need something for 5.5 miles.

I left my bike shorts on, since they provided some compression. Again, I decided there was no reason to push my pace, but after running super easy for about ½ hour, I decided it might feel better to run a bit faster. I ended up doing 5.55 miles in :53, for an easy 9:33 pace. I felt fine the entire time, and was glad to be running instead of biking! Which goes to show you that the more frequently you run, the better it feels. I had almost wanted to run on Friday, but stuck with the original plan of that being a rest day, aside from the core workout.

Stupidly, after I’d showered, I was in bare feet on tile floor and slipped, and my left knee (the one with no ACL) gave way. I didn’t fall down, but it’s never a good feeling to feel your knee twist and buckle like that. I had a slight concern this would impact biking and running on Sunday, but I wouldn’t know until then. It didn’t hurt to walk, though, but I decided to ice it.

I drank some Endurox and decided to stretch before eating, as I didn’t feel all that hungry. It is best for me to stretch right away after a workout, but it doesn’t always happen that way, especially on weekdays or even during the summer when I ride long away from home. But I know I should make time to stretch at least 5 minutes right away after a run, bike or swim, because that is when the muscles are already warmed up and receptive to it. The left knee seemed fine while stretching.

I ate a Lean Cuisine, as I was going out to dinner later and would chow down, yakked with a friend about training and racing for a bit, then went to get my monthly bikini wax. I was told there was a great Halloween display up the road—a giant Satan right across the street from a church! On my way home, I drove past it and laughed hysterically. I do need to get a photo of it, and also this great display I’d seen earlier in the week while running—it’s 2 life size skeletons playing tennis, with Frankenstein as the line referee, a really great looking giant spider on one tree and a raven perched on another dead tree limb. I have to get a picture of this one, too!

Next, I had dinner with my brother Mike, at Clara’s, which is a restaurant that makes all its pasta fresh. We shared a great antipasto, and then I had eggplant lasagna, or I should say half of it, and then spumoni for dessert. Before dinner, I’d calculated I needed another 2,000 more calories to break even for the day, and I think I got close, enjoying a couple of beers with dinner.

We ate dinner early, and I found myself feeling pretty worked over once I got home, so I watched maybe ½ hour of TV, and then headed to bed to read a bit and get to sleep early. I didn’t need to get up until 5:30 on Sunday, since the pool doesn't open until 7.

When the alarm went off, I think I hit the snooze 3 or 4 times, knowing that I had plenty of time to get in my swim with lap time on Sundays going until 11. Still, I didn’t want to dawdle too long, because fact is that I need to eat two meals after the workouts are completed.

I felt a little gnarly when I got out of bed, but not too bad. The left knee seemed fine, so after coffee, and this time, I had my usual hard-boiled egg with the English muffin, since I felt like I might be a bit behind on calories. I am pretty tuned in to my body and can distinguish hunger pangs related to time of day versus lacking calories from the prior day.

I began my swim at 7:21, so a bit late. I got in a lane with this woman that I don’t particularly like swimming next to—she has a wide arm swing on both sides (i.e., NOT high elbows). I keep wanting to tell her to get TYR paddles with a point on top—those will force you into high elbow or else you can’t swim with them. She uses rectangular paddles a lot, and I just don’t know what she’s getting out of them. Anyway, I knew I’d be there longer than her, so no worries. Swimming felt good, and I didn’t really feel tired. Of course, the prior week during my “taper,” I’d done back to back 4500 swims, so no big deal. Plus, while training for Ultraman, I’d typically swim up to 3500 on Thursday morning and then swim 2-3 hours on Friday morning. I know all of this swim talk is nonsense to lifelong swimmers, but I have only been swimming 11 years and do other stuff, too. My swim time for 5500 was 1:50, so a teensy bit faster than Saturday.

Once again, after I showered, I went into the sauna to do some upper body stretches and also just to warm myself back up. Even though the pool temperature both Saturday and Sunday was a bit on the high side for my liking, after I swim for 2+ hours, my core body temperature is lowered a bit, so a few minutes in the sauna is a good thing.

It was warmer outside on Sunday than Saturday, but I’d still need to bundle up quite a bit for outdoor riding, so I deferred again to the trainer. I wasn’t feeling calorie depleted, but had the desire for some actual food, so I opened a 200-calorie pack of cheese filled crackers to get some savory flavor going in my mouth while riding.

When I got on the bike, I noticed my left knee felt just fine, but that once again, I felt a bit whacked from the swim, and I suppose, from the day before! So I started out really easy. I don’t know what time it was, but once Universal Sports was active, I caught men’s World Cup skiing, and my country man Ivica Kostelic was in first place, and I watched Didier Cuche mess up his second run. I really like Cuche (or maybe I just like saying his name), and you know how the smallest stupid thing makes you laugh or smile during a long workout? Well, seeing that I tuned in just when he was coming out of the gates made me giddy. Dumb, I know, huh? Well then Ivica eventually got booted off the podium by Austria and France, and Ted Ligety was up. I like him, too, but he has been a real wild man the last few years. Still, he had been first after the first run, and I really paid attention to his second run. He nearly crashed out, but recovered from almost laying on the ground and went on to win the day! It made me laugh that it was October and I’m watching skiing already but then I thought there is always snow somewhere in the world! Just another one of those thoughts that enters my head while I’m doing long stuff.

Anyway, I stayed in the small chainring for 1:15 and then went into the big chainring. I was able to pick it up somewhat, urged on by the thought that the slower I went, the longer 55 miles would take me! I had hoped to go faster than on Saturday, and after maybe 25 miles I really, really wanted to just quit. It wasn’t that I was that tired, it was the usual why the fuck am I doing this, it doesn’t matter, it’s starting to suck. But I have found that it’s important to allow myself to have these thoughts and just really focus on them because I know that the switch will go off soon enough. And it did, and I kept going, if for no other reason than it was a commitment to myself.

Well, it took me 3:09 to go 55 miles. I almost stopped riding at 3:00 because I just wanted off the bike. Those mental demons trying to get to me again! It was pretty nice outside, and I could have run outside, but once again I didn’t want to carry anything with me so onto the treadmill I got. My left knee didn’t feel 100%, but neither did it feel like running was going to hurt it. I made myself go a bit faster than Saturday just because I wanted to be done with all of this. I ended up doing 5.56 miles (I wanted to end the week at 55.11 for some odd reason) in 51:30, or 9:16 pace. This run felt like ugh from the get go, and I think I must have been behind on calories, but even though I was, I didn’t want to put anything in my stomach, which is an odd feeling, but I’ve been there before. So, I just sipped a little Gatorade every 15 minutes, knowing I wasn’t running for very long and that I’d be able to eat when I finished.

I hopped off the treadmill and didn’t feel like eating right away just like the day before, so I rinsed out my bottles, drank Endurox, then finally showered and stretched a bit, and decided on eggs for lunch again. I suppose all the caffeine irritated my stomach a little bit, but I wanted butter, I wanted eggs! I laughed that I should have made Hollandaise sauce while I was at it! I should have, since I really love Eggs Benedict!

I ate lunch, briefly thought about mowing the lawn, but decided I didn’t need any more exercise, so instead I drove to Walgreens to get a Sunday newspaper and check out the Halloween stuff. I got some neat skulls on sticks that you can put into the ground, but I will put them out in the spring just because!

I put a chicken (stuffed with 2 heads of garlic cloves) into the oven to roast, and before it was done, I finished my eggplant lasagna from the day before. That was good, and then I had some chicken when it was finished but no dessert!

Today I am taking a rest day from training, and will see how I feel tomorrow—I’d like to hit the pool in the AM and then go for a short (1 hour) bike ride later in the day, maybe even outdoors!

Now I’m in the process of deciding whether to do Goofy Challenge again in January—my run fitness is pretty good, and I’d like to extend that streak and pretend I’m training for Ultraman for a bit. But then after Goofy Challenge, I would drop down to “regular” Ironman training to prepare for Ironman Canada.

It was a good 55th birthday week—I ran 55.11 miles, biked 110, swam 12,700 yards and did some core work for a total of 19.85 hours of training. Not bad for “not” training!