Shelley arrived at my house Saturday morning when I was about 3.5 hours into a 5:30 trainer ride. Yes, TRAINER. It was dark and really cold when I started, and I wanted to be around for when Shelley arrived, so trainer it was. My legs didn't feel exactly peppy, most likely due to all the running I did the week before. But I didn't feel rotten, either. About 2 hours in, predictably, I wanted to quit. I started thinking about how long I was going to be on there, that I would have company, and there were a bunch of other things I'd rather be doing. But that thought passed quickly, and I pressed on. I watched Dr. No and From Russia with Love before Shelley arrived.
When she got here, we had huge hugs to start. We hadn't seen one another since 2009 at IMLP, and had become disconnected later that year. So it was great to see one another, and as much as I just wanted to continue talking and hugging, I had business to do, so I took her bike into my house, and we unloaded stuff from her car.
Shelley claimed to not be as much of a James Bond fan as I am, but she'd seen Skyfall, and so I recommended we watch Casino Royale, as it's the first one with Daniel Craig, so we put that on. This must have been the 5th or 6th time I've watched it, and it's good every time. Non-stop action, beautiful cinematography (as most of the Bond movies have), lush scenery, and in this case, decent character development. Having this on made me HTFU and work harder on the bike, although Shelley had to leave to go see her son, Ian, who was in town to go to a Blackhawks game. Shelley is Canadian but now resides in Indianapolis with her husband, Steve, and Ian still lives in Canada, but is a huge Hawks fan.
I was fine putting Casino Royale on hold until later, and I switched to music for my last hour of riding. I ended up at 122 miles in 5:30. Now, lest you think I had no resistance on the trainer, I did, and I checked the power curve for it:
Power (watts) = slope x speed (km/h) + intercept
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Slope | 3.73 | 5.33 | 6.87 | 8.27 | 10.07 | 11.4 | 13.13 | 14.4 | 15.93 | 17.73 |
| Intercept | -28.67 | -36.67 | -43.33 | -47.33 | -66.33 | -67.00 | -83.67 | -82.00 | -89.67 | -114.67 |
I thought I might run some errands when I was done, but I was too tired to do much more than eat lunch and lay down in bed for an hour or so. I stretched, and then got ready for dinner, Shelley arrived back from her foray into downtown Chicago, and we went to meet Lori for sushi.
We went to Kyoto in Downers Grove. I'd been there once before and knew it was good. Lori and Shelley had wine and I had a giant Sapporo. We had nigiri and some really great rolls, and I saw someone get this:
Shelley and I watched the rest of Casino Royale wearing our jammies. Here I am working on my birthday puzzle. I bought it for myself because I like unicorns ;)
I think once my head hit the pillow that I fell asleep in 2 seconds. But since I'd stayed up past my bedtime (I've been falling asleep around 7:30 exhausted), I hoped to sleep in a little, but that just doesn't happen lately, and I woke up at my customary 3AM and only got 6 hours of sleep. I tried to be quiet, and I was until I started bouncing this light up ball on my living room floor, and I guess Shelley heard it as she later reported to me accompanied by a big FUCK OFF. Oh well.
By the time Shelley got out of bed, I'd already eaten breakfast and drank Ultrafuel and was rarin' to go on my 3:30 ride/:40 run. She was not. However, I'd made her coffee and we had some time to chat before I got started, and she got to see how pretty my bar is in the dark
Shelley's hip was bothering her, so she got off the trainer after about an hour, and she wanted to go see Ian again anyway, so she got ready and left while I kept going with music on.
This time I did 88 miles in 3:30, so I was able to work harder than on Saturday, which is good, since I was riding for less time. I did all my interval shit, and I was pretty happy with my effort. It was nice outside for running, so I stripped off my bike clothes and suited up for outside.
Oh my did I feel tired and also bonky! I figured there was no way I'd replaced all the calories I'd burned the day before, so I was already way behind starting the run, and even having fueled properly on the bike, I would need to seriously HTFU to get the run done. It was nice and sunny out, though, so I couldn't help but smile as I was having such a wonderful weekend, and despite feeling bonky, I felt just GREAT!
I was pretty proud of myself when I finished, and so was #OutsideFish:
When she got back, I had one thing on my mind: CHAMPAGNE! We were going to have it with dinner, but we didn't want to crack open the bottle until Lori arrived. Within about a minute of her arriving at my house, with all the food almost ready to eat, we had a nice toast and then we were eating, talking, and eating and talking! We had such a great time, culminating with what I thought was one of the best desserts I've ever had: my homemade Elvis Presley pound cake with one scoop of Hazelnut gelato and another of Coconut gelato. Lori laughed at how I practically put my face into the bowl, but I was so hungry and it was so tasty! After I finished mine, I apologized that I needed to eat more, so I had more gelato.
I made Lori take some leftover pasta sauce home with her, and then Shelley and I changed into our jammies and watched Quantum of Solace. It's not as good as Casino Royale, and also not as long. I passed out several times, but I'd warned Shelley that I would. I got up for the end, and then we went to sleep, and I promised Shelley that I wouldn't wake her up in the morning. Since I was effectively up past my bedtime again, I ended up only getting 6 hours of sleep, but I think Shelley got at least 8.
Monday morning, Shelley and I went to my Y for an easy swim. We were laughing our asses off a lot, with the highlight being I'm swimming and she is swimming underneath me and I'm like WTF, and she surfaces and says she is Underwater Fish. That made me keep laughing until I was finished. I had Shelley check my stroke, and it turns out that I am still crossing over with my left arm if I am breathing on my right, but if I breathe on my left, I'm perfect. So I will breathe on my left even more than I was until my stupid brain/body gets it!
When we finished, we showered and were about to hit the sauna, when this woman who I gave some swim lessons to and rewarded me with a Bible (yes, ME) began talking to me about how she'd gone vegan and quit eating added sugar and how much better she felt. I was happy for her, until she started telling me how evil sugar is and that I should stop eating it. I tried to be nice and explain that being an athlete and all that I NEED sugar while training, but of course, she wouldn't understand. Still, she went on a bit longer than I thought I could tolerate, and I'm pretty sure Shelley was standing there thinking, "I wonder when Sheila is going to blow her stack at this person?" Well I didn't even though I wanted to, and I wondered yet again why people have this thing about trying to "fix" me. Thank you, I'm really not that broken. However, not too long after that, I made up a prayer that goes like this: FUCK OFF. AMEN. If that woman gets on my case again, I will share it with her.
I was hungry WHILE we were swimming, and we decided we'd go to McDonald's for breakfast (my second; Shelley's first). I had a Steak McMuffin, which was pretty good, but in retrospect, I should have skipped the hash browns. Those things are disgustingly greasy, but they do taste good. We both later wished we hadn't gone there at all, but oh well, it was tasty!
We had a few hours to kill, and they'd put up this speed check thing practically right outside my house, and I'd been dying to take a silly picture in front of it. I decided I'd make a 140.6 sign to put over the flashing speed limit, and so we did it:
FYI, our splits for the 1-hour Ironman were:
- Swim 5 minutes. But I think Shelley came in at :04.15. So that's 7 seconds/100 yds. Not bad!
- Bike 30 minutes, for 225mph. Also not bad.
- Run 25 minutes, for a pace of 57 seconds/mile.
After all that, Shelley had to leave to return home, and I was sad to see her go. It was like old times, and we'd laughed and caught up and shared our good and bad. It was a perfect weekend!
Since then, I've been in touch with my doctor again about what's going on with me. I think the extra 3-4 lbs. on me is possibly water retention, which can be a side effect of either hypothyroidism, levothyroxine, or both. At any rate, there is no way I could have put on this weight with all the training I've been doing in the last 8 weeks. So I had a discussion, and the nurse tells me maybe I put on muscle. WHAT? Yeah right, EVERYONE puts on muscle in the last 12 weeks of Ironman training. I asked her if they'd run a bodyfat measurement on me to check and she was puzzled. At any rate, we decided (with consultation of my doctor) to up my levothyroxine a little more, as it seems that *I* am the one who keeps the best track of monitoring how much and when and what the result was. And then I can't get my next blood test done until after IMCOZ, and that should be entertaining. At least I will get to see what that does to my body, eh? I think the treatment objective for me is to get me as close to hyperthyroid as possible without going over the edge, like I appeared to do in early August.
What was funny is that the nurse said my weight was "stable," and I politely corrected her and said I kept track of it at the same time of the day, and that what they saw in the office every few months was not representative. I think they are getting the idea that I keep a pretty good eye on myself, you think?
So I will suffer with yet another slight bump in meds and see how it works. I will know in about a week, even though the nurse claims it takes much longer. I tried to explain to her that I am trying to separate how I feel due to the training from the effect of the meds, and that it's hard for me to know which end is up. But if we continue to test me every 6 weeks, I think we will get some idea of how my body behaves on its own, which is what I want to know, because I have a feeling I will need to moderate my levothyroxine dose on my own to match my training objectives. OH JOY! But it's just another "thing" to add to my to do list.
On that note, have a great day, I am feeling wonderful!
