Tons o' Biking Part 3--Tigerman NothingMan

I mostly laid around (and watched The Dark Knight Rises finally) after yesterday's NothingMan.  I felt pretty wiped, and basically laid around eating until I fell asleep.  Then I woke up at 1AM and had a Twinkie because I was hungry.

I did some organizing activities until it was time to go swim.  I should have been in the pool at 5AM, but apparently there were other things that needed doing that got done.  I suited up with a brand new suit.

Wearing my nerd glasses--I hadn't yet put in my contact lenses

Look at my big legs!  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is biking (and lots of squats, too).  I've had tiger print swimsuits before, but this is the coolest one yet.  It got me thinking that I should wear tiger stripes to bike and run in, too.

My swim workout was a long warmup and then a 1500 straight with a little cooldown.  I don't often swim long and straight (about 4 weeks out from IMCOZ I will do that), but it was a good opportunity to test the endurance.  Keeping Magic Mike's directives in mind, I managed to swim the 1500 faster than I think I have ever swam (still checking)!  I am still not a fast swimmer, but to see this after just one coaching session is really encouraging!  I drank a bottle of Infinit while I swam, too, and no doubt the caffeine and calories were helpful in this effort.  Since I swam kinda hard, I was concerned I might not be able to hit my bike wattages. 

Here I am ready go to ride

Sporting my Trashy Cat Tiger kit

I did the same bike workout as yesterday:
WU: 15' Easy, 30' Steady
MS: 1 x 20' at FT
20' Steady,
1 x 20' at Half IM watts
CD: 15' easy

I have to say, that is one FUN, KILLER bike workout for a 2-hour ride.  You start out easy, you increase the pace, you KILL IT, then you drop down a bit, then you KILL IT AGAIN.  I'd thought I wouldn't be as strong today as yesterday, especially after a good, long swim, but nope, I had all the watts and then some.

The weather is gorgeous here today, and lots of people were out running and biking while I was out there.  I ran into a guy I have worked with (Barry), and we chatted and had some laughs.  He recognized me because of Skull Kingdom, and I heard someone shout, "HEY SHEILA."  I hit the brakes and said, "WHAT THE FUCK?" and there he was.  I met his wife, Nancy, and we shared some funny stories.

I always get looks when riding Skull Kingdom, and yesterday in the pirate kit, I got a TON.  Today, I think the tiger kit actually attracted more attention.  I got a lot of smiles and just a few scowls. 

Finally, I needed to run for :20, so I decided to run up to this nearby park, loop twice, and run home.  It felt like I was in a race!  I purposely did the loop the "hard" way which meant I was going uphill right away, and I even said aloud to myself, "I hate myself."  Pretty typical thing for me to say when I am making myself do this stuff. But the weather was so glorious, how could I not enjoy it?

I made it home and here I am with my victory smile:

I felt like I did pretty well today, what the hell!

And then I felt like doing a muscle pose for the hell of it:

Feeling pretty damn fit at this point

I'd taken in plenty of nutrition for the entire time (about 3:40 rolling time), so once I was inside, I got some laundry started, and then began making a spaghetti sauce that consists of chicken livers, anchovies, sliced mushrooms, parsley, tomato sauce, oregano, salt, pepper and good red wine.  Finally, about 1 hour later, I chowed down on some spaghetti with that sauce and grated Parmesan on top.  YUM!!! 

I'm heading over to my brother's for dinner soon (visiting first).  He's grilling strip steaks!  I already told him I am likely to eat all his food!  But he knows that I am in training and eating like a champion, so he won't be surprised to see how much food I will eat. 

I feel really great about today's NothingMan.  It wasn't so much planned as a NothingMan as it was that today was a holiday where I had the day off, meaning a good day to get in a good amount of biking, and then I swim on Mondays so there was that, and now it's time in the training cycle to be adding in little brick workouts.  Considering I've just done back-to-back decent sized NothingMans and didn't lose any speed on Day 2, I feel great about where I'm at.

Tomorrow I don't bike :(  It will feel weird, I think, but all good, because I get to bike Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!