The Snake and the Mongoose

Brad is a friend of mine who is all of 26 years old that I met in 2009 when we were both training for IMLP.  Since that time, we both ran Goofy Challenge (some of it together), and I've gone to IMFL and IMWI to support Brad.  Brad and his wife, Morgan, had volunteered to crew for me last year in Ultraman Hawaii, but as we know, that race didn't happen for me.  Brad changed jobs a few months ago and now works for Hershey's (yes, CANDY!), and he told me about that change in February, along with inviting me to come along to IMCOZ.  In March, I said I'd get in touch, but I didn't, because I still wasn't feeling right.

Fast forward to July, and I go and check and see that IMCOZ is still open for registration, I get in touch with Brad about obtaining candy (how selfish of me) since I am starting to train again, but not really for anything in particular, decide we should catch up on the phone, and well, here I am training for IMCOZ and coaching Brad.  Brad will qualify for Kona in another year or so as long as he listens to me!

What does this have to do with a snake and a mongoose?  Well the mongoose thing goes back to when Brad and I were driving to IMLP in 2009 and he saw an animal on the side of the road and said he thought it was a mongoose.  Long story short, we have a running joke about mongooses, I bought a stuffed mongoose for Brad a few years ago, and that animal (recently named Chico) now goes to IM races.  Chico will definitely be going to IMCOZ.

The snake thing is in reference to one of the mongoose's favorite (?) foods--the cobra.  I assessed a penalty to Brad during his NothingMan last Saturday for using an elevator, and he presented me with an appeal: 

So I guess this means *I* am the cobra.

Brad and I text stuff about mongooses back and forth randomly, so today I went to Google News and searched for "mongoose" and I find this link to a review of a new movie called "The Snake and the Mongoose."  One of the lines from the review is: "Snake and Mongoose is a film about the intersection of commerce and passion, about the struggles of chasing a dream, and it's also about a friendship that spans decades."  WTF?  

• Commerce is the candy that seemed to be a trigger for us to get back in touch
• Passion is our mutual passion for IM training and racing
• Chasing a dream well that would be Brad trying to qualify for Kona
• Friendship that spans decades?  Yep!  26 to 56, I'd call that a few decades!
   

This seems like some sort of omen to me.  Or just an extremely happy coincidence!  I plan on going to see the movie when it's in my area.  Should be awesome!  Seems like the universe has some sort of plan here.

Truth in Advertising

So I was looking through old blog posts and ran across the one from 2009 Revenge of the Pirateman that had a link to pics.  I pulled them up and wondered how far off the physique I had then I am now, so I took some shots this morning so YOU can stare and compare.  Weight wise, I'm about 3 lbs. up from the 2009 shots, and I'm guessing a couple of points of bodyfat.  But what the hell is up with my legs???  I look like super fatty.  Well, I am feeling strong, and I DO have 14 weeks to get in better shape.  Oh yeah, I got my head shaved last night because I couldn't stand all the hair in the heat.  Don't worry, it will grow back this winter!

I have been doing boatloads of lunges and squats for the past year, so it's possible my legs are just more muscular now.  My legs usually slim down a bit once my biking volume picks up, and I'm just doing that now, so maybe there's hope for my fat legs and butt.  In terms of how my clothes fit, I'm fitting pretty well into my size 1/2 (REAL vintage size 1/2; not what passes for a size 2 now which drowns me) pants, even my thighs, but they could fit better.  Fat has come off my abs in the last 4 weeks, so maybe the fat loss is just working its way down.  Just 4 weeks ago I had this poochy thing going in my belly that is almost completely gone now. 

I don't do this for vanity reasons; but I do know that how my physique looks correlates to my triathlon performance.  I'm not aiming for 10% bodyfat or whatever I was in 2009--12% would be fine ;) And no I don't have an eating disorder--I am eating lots and lots of food, and even though I joke about Pringles and Twinkies and candy, they only get in my mouth after I've had all of my good calories for the day, and at most I'm adding 200 calories of that stuff per day. 

Now before you say how obsessed I am with how I look, consider that it's just a BYPRODUCT of the diet and exercise, and not the goal. If it were the goal, I'd revert to what I used to do before I took up endurance sports--bodybuilding. 

2009: Back of the Crack Suit. Weight 109 lbs.

2009: Front of the Crack Suit

2013: Back of the Crack Suit--Fatty! Weight: 112 lbs.

2013: Front of the Crack Suit

I Like to Watch

That's John on the left, a little Crackhead in the center and Maz on the right

On Sunday, I'd agreed to drive to my friend Mark's (aka Maz) house with Clipless Fuck (my MTB's name in case you are new to my blog) inside so we could ride together (such as it is since Maz has a BMC Time Machine) to the Naperville sprint tri.  Maz was competing (as was John, who I will appropriate as my friend now, too, since I've gone riding with him) despite a lingering foot injury that has knocked him out of running for quite some time. I am Maz's triathlon mentor, although he calls me his "tri Mom," even though I am NOT old enough to be his mother!  It's more like he's my younger brother, but I digress.

Maz tried to dissuade me from showing up for a few reasons:

1. I'd have done a 1/2 NothingMan the day before and might not want to wake up at 0 dark thirty to watch someone else race
2. He didn't want me to watch him suck on the run
3. He claims he won't talk to anyone on a race day (aka "game face"), so I'd be yakking to myself.

Well, I called him Sunday when I was 33 miles into my NothingMan ride and told him I'd show up with CF in tow and we would ride to the race together and I would hang out and do god knows what--Sunday was a scheduled rest day for me so what the fuck else would I be doing?  I was actually pretty excited Sunday morning, and it felt like I was getting ready for another race.  I packed my running shoes, because for some reason I thought I'd change into them and run around.  That would have been a bad idea.  I also brought a bottle of water and my camera.

I get to Maz's house and he is smiling! 

Now, Maz is generally not a surly human being, but with all the crap he's been through with his injury and rehab, he hasn't exactly been the most pleasant person to be around, and yet I've continued to pester him about this and that.  And believe it or not, it was ME who told him he should do this race in order to boost his spirits.  It was also ME who got after him when he was racing all the time and I told him he'd end up injured, but back then he was a medal whore and I couldn't get through to him.

We rode to the race together and I wish there were pics of me on CF next to Maz on the BMC.  Of course, I had to pedal like crazy to try and keep up with him barely spinning his pedals, but I did the best I could.

I am not sure who was talking the most on that short ride. Maz had told me it was about 1.5 miles, but it was actually 2.2, and I pointed this out to him since I really didn't need any exercise at that point. 

Maz went into transition, and then I didn't see him until he came out of the water, at which point I started the timer on my watch since I knew about how long it would take him to do the bike.  I had already snapped a bunch of pics (they are all on Facebook) of various people in transition and coming out of the swim, and of course I enjoyed myself yelling at them.  My favorite was a young man (I'm guessing 19) in a really cute Speedo and as he came out of the water I yelled, "GOOD JOB SEXY MAN!"  This, of course, got his attention and a big smile on his face.

Next I hung out at the bike in and got a bunch of pics and recognized a few people I know.  I kept getting asked why I wasn't racing, seeing as how I'd worn an IMLP windbreaker and had my Kona sling bag on.  I could have done the race, but I would be in a big, huge overtraining hole right about now.

Luckily, I got Maz coming back into transition, and then I was like shit I need to hustle to get him at the run out.  Which I did, and I don't know what he was thinking about what I would be doing at the race, but my intent was to follow him on the run as much as possible and deliver words of "encouragement."  By encouragement, I mean, for example, "You know the drill. Harden the Fuck Up!"  I picked on a few racers who were slacking and spotted some other people I know and snapped pics while riding the bike!  I was pretty pleased with myself at my ability to ride and shoot and not fall off the bike and not get hit by a car, because parts of the run course were cordoned off with traffic cones so cars could get by and I had to keep checking where the fuck I was supposed to ride, because I didn't want to interfere with the racers.

At one point, I heard Maz yell out to John, and I knew who it was, so I looped back to get some pics of him.  I believe John was both surprised and alarmed to see me.  We haven't known each other very long, but I'm pretty sure John knows I don't suffer slacking from people.  He told me after the race that he had wanted to walk at that point but couldn't because there I was during his final push.

The finish chute was such that I couldn't ride to the end of the run course, and I missed Maz coming into the finish.  Fuck.  Oh well, I snapped a few pics of others finishing and enjoyed yelling at people to pick it up for the final sprint.

I located Maz in transition and asked him what he wanted to do, and we decided to hang out in the finisher area for a bit.  I told Maz I was starving and could he get me something to eat?  There had been food for sale before the race began, but I was too busy taking pics and getting excited for everyone.  I did manage to make time to pee in a bush, however.  I also ended up peeing next to some trees about 1 mile into the run course and didn't care if anyone saw.

Maz brought me 4 fun-size Snickers bars.  I am sure my face lit up and my mouth probably opened up as big as the Grand Canyon to eat the first one.  Then the second.  I didn't honestly think I'd eat all 4, but yep, I did and was still hungry.  John came by and we got some more snaps, also Jason.

Jason, John and Maz

Maz and I rode back to his house, we chatted for a bit, and then I drove home to begin my REAL refueling from Saturday's NothingMan.  I was tired (I ended up biking 12 miles WTF I could have just done the stupid race), and relaxed and uploaded almost 80 pics and Facebook was all abuzz with people reporting in and many people I don't even know tagged themselves.  I didn't really see professional race photogs, so I guess I did my part in capturing people!  And yelling at them!

I enjoyed the day so much and now I am looking forward to Ironman Wisconsin.  I'll be going up and getting in some training, but also hanging out and doing my professional spectating role.  I know at least 10 people racing, and there are probably another 10 or 15 that I just haven't identified in the participant list.  Only 4 weeks to go!  Typically people spot me when I just hang out at a race--I guess the Crackhead is fairly recognizable.  But I will try and have some surprises in store on race day because that makes it more fun for me, other spectators AND the racers.  So when someone asks me if I am volunteering, I say, "Technically, no, but let's just say I'm a personal volunteer for special people."  I haven't been up to Wisconsin since 2011.  I'm getting my piece of crap car all tuned up and turns out I need new tires, but oh well, it has to be done.

So remember, if you can't race, GO WATCH!!!

MagnetMan 1/2 NothingMan Race Report

Pics are here.

My friend Brad, whom I met in 2009 and we traveled to Ironman Lake Placid together, is now my coachee.  He is the person who helped convince me to register for IMCOZ, and he asked me for my training plan (that I drew up myself).  There are very few people who I would just hand over a training plan to because 1) I wouldn't want responsibility for them killing themselves and 2) it takes some time for me to put one together and sometimes that effort should be paid for.  Brad has done me a number of good deeds, so I sent it to him with a "good luck" and "call if you want to discuss."  So we had a long chat I think on Wednesday night, and I know what Brad is capable of, so he basically signed on to do the same training as me through IMCOZ.  Actually the first words out of his mouth were something like, "So I'm supposed to do a 1/2 NothingMan on Saturday???"  Yes, that's right.  We need to gauge where our fitness is and get in a long workout. So Brad (who lives north of Dallas, TX) and I would be doing our NothingMan's at the same time. Somehow I thought this would increase our accountability to ourselves and make it more fun.

I had all my bottles fixed on Friday night, and ate a huge dinner of pasta and chicken that was leftover from when another friend was here and I made us dinner last Saturday.  It was good!  I set my alarm for what I thought was 5:00AM, but as it turns out I'd set it for 5:00PM, but no worries, I woke at 4AM on my own, and I had just had the best night's sleep I've had in 2 weeks.  I don't know if this is because of the thyroid meds or because I just really needed to race!

I took my thyroid pill and waited 1/2 hour to eat my usual breakfast of a toasted English muffin with some jam and a hardboiled egg, together with several cups of coffee.  About a 1/2 hour after that I drank down 300 calories of Ultrafuel, loaded Skull Kingdom into the car along with bike and run clothes, loaded cooler and headed to the Y to swim.

NothingMan (where the distances are arbitrary and your time doesn't matter) is not picky about exact distances, so I decided I'd swim 2500 yards because I couldn't remember what the hell a 1/2 Ironman swim is.  I took a can of Coke onto the swim deck, popped the top (I LOVE that sound), took a swig, and got in.  I hit my watch at 6:50AM and jumped in and got going.  It seemed that the swim was over in a flash.  It's been over a year since I swam that much continuously, but I knew it would be easy because, come on I've done a bunch of REALLY long swims. I tried not to think about anything but swimming, as I had the day's events pretty well covered.  When I finished, I hit my watch and didn't look at the split.  I got out of the pool and a man in the next lane asked if I was finished, and I said yes.  He asked if I did triathlons, I guess because I decided to wear a swim cap from Florida Half Ironman (inaugural!).  I said yes, and proceeded to the showers.  My swim time was :47 for 2500 yards.

I had decided earlier that I'd put on sunscreen AFTER I swam, which is allowable in a NothingMan.  So I took my time, and recruited another woman to get my upper back really well.

I had a text from Brad that he was done with his swim (he started before I did), and I just decided to call him.  We were rambling and the call dropped.  I redialed him and asked who dropped the call.  He said, "I was in an elevator."  I about lost it and said, "There are NO elevators in NothingMan!  5-minute penalty!"  We had a great laugh over this.

T1 was nearly an hour, since I had to drive to Fermilab, where I was going to do my ride. I finished a can of Coke on the way there, and had (2) 1.5 hour bottles of my custom Infinit plus 3 bottles of water (it was warm) for my ride.  I sort of wanted to do 60 miles, because who made up 56 as a distance?  I don't know.  So I headed out, and at my first time at the West Gate, I asked the guard if I could go see the Muon g-2 magnet.  She said it was "over there," and I took that to mean off A-1 road.  I was so excited to see the thing that had taken so long to get here. 

When I got to the magnet, it was awesome, but I had to pee, so I peed not 10 feet from it!  I figured the NSA had a camera on me but I didn't care, and I snapped a bunch of pics there.  I kept riding and was having a great time with my aerohelmet on.  On another pass of the West Gate, when I was nearly to Kirk Road I saw a group of 15-20 road cyclists coming in.  They were about 1/2 mile ahead of me, but I figured I could catch them.  I did, but then I wanted to get through them and yelled ON YOUR LEFT twice, ON YOUR RIGHT once, and then I just finally screamed LET ME THROUGH YOU ARE TAKING UP THE ENTIRE ROAD.  They were riding 4 abreast, and not very fast.  One chic got pissed and said SO GO ON.  And I did and was past them in a hurry.

On another pass of A-1 road, I saw 2 cyclists going toward the magnet, so I rode up on them and asked if they were going to see it.  They said yes, so I asked if they'd mind taking some pics of me with it (I am such a geek!).  They said sure, and I rode ahead and we chatted and got some good pics there.

I think my first "loop" was 33 miles and then I returned to my car, which was parked just outside the East Gate, because there was a blockade up when I first got there around 8:30.  Going back out, though, the blockade was gone, which was great.

When I got back to my car, I decided to call my friend Maz, since I had a bright idea about driving to his house for his sprint tri today, and asked if we could drive together from there.  See, he wasn't even going to do the race, then he didn't want me to go, but I decided what else would I be doing Sunday, so I offered my idea.  He said he was riding his bike to the race, so I said I'd load my MTB into my car and be at his house at 5:30, but if I didn't make it by then he should just go on.  I was glad we settled that!

I ate a piece of string cheese and drank more water, put a fun size Payday into my Bento box, loaded new bottles, and headed back into Fermilab for my second lap.  I ditched the camera, because I had the pics I needed, and I didn't want to spend any more time taking pics.

I ended up at 61.8 miles on the bike (in 3:20 riding time) which was perfect.  I loaded Skull Kingdom into the car, and changed into my run clothes and shoes right in front of someone's house!  Oh well, what are you going to do...

I drove home and on the way there I drank another bottle of water, ate a handful of Pringles, and some jelly candies.  I got home, dumped the bike and clothes bag and cooler, made a new cooler for my run, grabbed my iPod, took the cooler outside and began my run.

My run consisted of 12 laps around the "big block" from my house, and each lap is 1.15 miles, so a total of 13.8 miles.  After each lap, I would grab some fluids (and sometimes salt tablets) from my cooler and get back out.  I didn't time my fluid stops--just the pure running time, and it was 2:11.37, or 9:32/mile, which wasn't bad.  I "tried" to run 10mpm, but guess it didn't work out that way!  I really, REALLY wanted to quit after 8 laps, and that's a typical sensation in a NothingMan because there are no spectators, no other athletes, it's just you in your own head.  But I persevered, and on the last lap I was a tiny bit sad it was going to be over!  But I was glad to finish, and I really didn't feel bad at all.  On the run, I went through 2 cans of Coke, 2 bottles of water, 12 oz. of Gatorade and 4 salt tablets.  It was pretty warm (low 80's), but I didn't feel too scuzzy when I was done.

Of course once I'd showered and drank Endurox R4 and a beer, I uploaded all my pics, and got ready for dinner.  I went to Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket, as I'd been craving that for months! 

First I ordered a big Weiss beer.  Next they brought me biscuits and butter, and I headed to the salad bar and got a cup of the best chicken dumpling soup, and a plate of coleslaw, kidney bean salad, garbanzo bean salad, and covered it all with chopped hardboiled eggs and bacon bits!  I practically inhaled the soup, then laid into 2 biscuits with butter and honey, then polished off the salads, of course sprinkled liberally with salt.  Then the waitress (who remembered me from my past trips there) brought my chicken dinner, and I was like oh, those mashed potatoes!  So I drowned them in the gravy and inhaled them all, then I ate about 1/2 the green beans, and then started in on the chicken.  I ate maybe 2 oz. of chicken was all, and got a to go box.  I just now finished off the rest of the chicken and 2 biscuits.  Yum!  The spoils of racing!

I spoke with Brad today, and he had a great first NothingMan!  I didn't get his swim time, but he rode 53 or so miles in 2:40 and ran 13.1 in 2:14 (on a treadmill, since it's over 100 degrees where he is).  We shared notes about pacing, mental state and nutrition, and pumped each other up over our imminent training for IMCOZ.  It will be great for me to have someone else doing what I'm doing (Brad is 26, don't worry he can take it) so we can compare notes, plus I will monitor Brad's performance from training metrics.  So tons of fun!

Well now I am hungry again.  I went to the Naperville Sprint Triathlon to watch/harass my friend Maz, and only had my usual breakfast until he was done.  He brought me 4 mini Snickers bars which I polished off and then held off on lunch until about 11:30 when I got home, at which point I started in on the leftover chicken and biscuits, but that's gone now, so time to eat!

Hope everyone's weekend was great!