Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy, Happy!

Sometimes I wake up and pinch myself because there are so many good things in my life. Today is one of those days.

Ostensibly, I should feel like crap. Today is Day 6 of the Tour of Sufferlandria. From Monday-Wednesday this week, I've already put in 8 hours of training. What I've needed to do is eat like a champion to keep up with this. My legs are alternating between feeling like concrete and "not too bad." Daily stretching and trigger point work helps with that. Swimming seems to help, too. I don't have a swim scheduled for today, but may go anyway just for an easy 1500. It seems that running super easy is helping, too. Finally, caffeine. Yesterday morning I felt like I feel during a 20+ hour Ironman training week (which isn't that far off--13 weeks!) at some point where I would rather not work out but know that I can get through it. I debated whether to skip the swim, and decided what the hell, let's swim, but let's drink Coke. So I drank a Coke (in a water bottle) while I swam, and swam like a champ. The workout had a really long warmup and then 15 50's alternating speed with easy. A short and sweet workout. I nailed the 50's--and I even used paddles. Then I ran :15 on the treadmill super easy, then headed to the track and did a bunch of running drills alternating with fast laps. It was fun to zip around the track, since I'd been doing solid track workouts for 8 weeks. Despite having drunk Coke, after a few hours of work I went down for a short nap. It seems my pattern of working out some early, working super early a few hours, then a nap is good for me, although I don't know how much longer I can keep it up. I have never napped so much in my life! I am fortunate to work at home and be able to manipulate my schedule.

I ate 4 meals yesterday. First up was my usual banana/wheat germ muffin and hardboiled egg for breakfast. Then I swam and drank Coke during that and a few sips of Gatorade while I ran. Then I drank Endurox R4 and had a toasted, buttered English muffin with lox on top. Then I had a Lean Cuisine before I got on the bike, and for dinner I had a big salad with about 3/4 lb. of broiled sockeye salmon! Initially, I ate 1/2 the salmon filet, thinking I'd wrap the rest for today, but it was so good and I still felt hungry, so I ate some more and then wrapped the rest. About 2 hours later I polished it off! I think I also ate a banana, some prunes, some almonds, some jelly beans and string cheese. I have no idea how many calories in all that, but this morning I feel ready to eat again, so I must be fueling myself well.

So the first thing I'm so happy about is that I don't feel like complete and total crap despite the training load I'm carrying, so soon in this training cycle.

Another thing is that the dress I am sewing for my friend's wedding is nearly finished, and it's absolutely beautiful! It occurred to me that I have a warped perception of my body size--I wouldn't say I'm completely dysmorphic, but I think what's happened is that since I don't wear dresses very often I forget just how small I am. I look at this dress I'm making and think, "how the fuck am I going to fit in that?" But then I put the pieces on, and it's fine. I actually bought a dress recently, too, and when I took it out of the package, I wondered how the hell I would fit in it, but I put it on and voila! I'm a size 0-2 depending on manufacturer, I guess. I am still used to how sizes used to run years ago, when I was a perfect 3 and sometimes even a 5. So in my head, I'm a size 3, so 0 and 2 don't make sense to me! Back to sewing--the dress is an Oscar de la Renta design. The pattern is from 1989! I had the pattern and the fabric that long and never sewed it. It's simple yet elegant. I will post a picture of the dress when it's done. I'm making it out of raw silk, which is very delicate and will snag at the slightest wrong touch, so I am being very careful to have clean hands and filed nails as I work on it.

Another source of happiness is that a friend I am coaching is doing quite well in her training. She's only raced once so far, but I have very high expectations for her and will just have to see how it goes, but so far so good. I really care more about how well she does than me. Although good thing she's not in my age group! Another friend that I gave a training plan to is working through an injury (not caused by my training plan!) in a way that I think will leave her in a much better place. I think this will finally be the impetus for her to get on a regular strength routine, which I've advocated to her for years. But other than not being able to run temporarily, I think she's doing well, all things considered.

Another really great thing is that a friend of mine is moving to Cincinnati from Dallas area, so we will be close enough to drive and train with one another! I coached him in 2013, and he's less than half my age, but we have a great time together always. I've been at a few of his Ironman races, and we've done a few together. He even offered to help me out with my Ultraman training! Even if we get to spend 2 or 3 times a year together, that will be just great. He is one of those rare athletes who is not afraid of anything, training or racing-wise. Sometimes when we talk, we make up stupid shit that we want to do. Brad came up with this:

Well, he came up with the format--I came up with the name and T-shirt logo. I may end up doing this as part of my Ultraman training. Doesn't it look stupid? We even thought how funny it would be to do the last day, a sprint, in an actual race. We'd be dying and going so slow, maybe even DFL, even though we'd look like these fast racer types. I've done sprint/Oly/half IM a number of times, and I've done sprint/Oly/half/full IM once in 2009 to prepare for Ultraman Canada. Working back down the pyramid would be the tough part! But doing these things is all about pacing and letting go of your ego. But there is a tremendous training benefit to these NothingMan events. They just toughen you up and give you this incredible confidence in yourself that you can do ANYTHING. Brad is that rare young man (a talented triathlete!) who understands that you can't go out and hammer every workout all the time. I think that's from his background as a bike racer, among other things.

Anyway, how much fun would it be to do Tri Like an Egyptian? If I can swing it next year, I'm doing it, but at least 4 months out from Ultraman. If I don't do that, then I'm hoping Brad will team up with me for 24 Hours of Triathlon. That's something we've been meaning to do together so maybe next year will be the right time. Luckily, he has an amazing wife that I am also friends with who would help crew for us. Morgan is an awesome woman! I got to witness the marriage proposal back in 2010!

I think it's hilarious that a guy less than half my age wants to train and race with me, considering I have other men friends that feel like they are competing with me (and I am faster than some of them) whose egos get bruised easily. Poor babies!

While I haven't yet raced in 2015, that's coming up in about a week! Shit! Then I will truly know how I'm doing. I actually didn't race too badly in 2014 considering my late start, so it will be interesting to see how I do.

In 7 weeks I'm going to Florida with a friend to race a 1/2 IM, and then I'll also be doing an Oly the next day. Because I'm stupid. But I will get to see some friends down there that I haven't seen in awhile. So the racing part is just an excuse to go down there!

I've been moved up a notch in Synthroid dose, and soon I will have enough data to present to my doctor to show that I will probably need to cycle dosage and be monitored closely while I am in these big training cycles. I went to see a pulmonologist, and have a full lung function test next week. It will be good to have that data, again, so I can check that regularly and know what constitutes 100% for me. At the appointment, they said my blood O2 was good and my lungs sounded clear. The test will verify whether what I'm experiencing is asthma or COPD. It could be either, but treatment is effectively the same. I got an air cleaner, and that is already helping, so for sure I know that my allergies have been acting up. It's possible I also have GERD--I'll get that tested, too, and while I hate taking meds, I have reconciled myself to doing what I need to do.

I feel pretty optimistic I will finish the Tour this time, although I have a healthy fear of Saturday--there are 3 videos strung together, starting with one of the hardest of the bunch! But, I am discovering that not everyone can do every workout exactly as specified. I feel pretty strong, but I'm evaluating whether to try and actually do a long run tomorrow. At least I have a massage scheduled! Every time I do these crazy things, I learn more about what my body can handle and what constitutes a reasonable training load. I am still pleased with how much I am able to do at my age, all things considered.

So today I am going to just be happy for all the wonderful things in my life and be optimistic that in general, things will continue to go well, that I can keep training like I am, and that I have some decent race results this year. I'm trying not to look too far ahead, but 8 weeks out is reasonable, I think.

Life is great!

Smells like a Breakthrough Workout to Me

I woke up this morning a little earlier than I would have liked, but still got 7.5 hours of sleep, which is about enough for me lately. Muscularly, I felt great, which is awesome considering I put in about 11 hours Monday-Friday, and 10 is the threshold where I start to feel generally tired. But I had a slight headache, and it didn't look like it would get warm enough for me to ride outside until later than I wanted to go (and need to wear a lot of clothes), so I decided to get on the trainer.

I just wasn't looking forward to 3 hours on the trainer, but knew I'd probably get it done anyway. All winter long, I've been watching Ironman races while on the trainer, but today I pulled out an old TDF. I hope that my memory would be correct in that it's better to watch people biking the entire time than the other color crap that is on most of the Ironman coverage.

My original workout called for a 1 hour warmup and then 1:30 of some intervals, which meant I'd need another 1/2 hour of something, and while doing the first hour, I thought about where I wanted to put that extra 1/2 hour. I decided up front, so I'd end the ride on the hard stuff.

Pretty much as soon as I started riding, Mr. Headache left me, and my legs felt pretty darn good. But of course, you can't judge how you feel when you are riding easy. I took a short break at 40' in to do 50 pushups, 50 crunches and 15 pullups so I wouldn't forget to do them later. I decided my extra 1/2 hour would be at 80-85% most of the time. Well, that felt pretty good, too, so then I got to thinking how the original main set would feel and could I do it? Turns out, oh yeah! Here's the full workout I did:

WU: 60' @ 65-70%, 2x(12'@80-85%,3' Easy)
MS: 3 x (18' @ 85-90%, 6' @ FT, 1' @ 105%, 5' Easy)

I ended up with a TSS of 187, which ain't bad considering the first hour was fucking easy.

Next, it was time to run. Last week, I was Ms. Bonk on the run, but it was my own fault. Today I made sure to take in sufficient calories while on the bike that I should be OK. I ran outside, and as soon as I took off (after about a 5' transition), I was like fuck, my legs feel awesome! I was running uphill into a headwind and feeling great! So of course I wondered how long that would last.

I kept running into the wind so I'd have it at my back on the way home, and I never did experience what I like to call "brick suck." You know what I mean--that point in a brick run where you just feel like shit. I thought it would happen today especially since I had ended the ride going pretty hard, but no! I also noticed that I felt very light on my feet which tells me I'm just about at perfect race weight (maybe 111 now which is just fine). I negative split the run by a good amount (which was what I was supposed to do).

I'm sitting here thinking that today showed me several things:

1. I have absorbed a lot of the intense stuff I was doing over the 8-week period where I was doing those 4 sprint races
2. I have ramped up my volume (I'll hit almost 16 hours this week) safely
3. It was a good idea to drop a few pounds
4. I must be taking good care of myself to feel this good

I feel really ready to bust out a solid 60+ mile ride as soon as it's warm enough, hopefully next weekend. And that is when the real fun begins--next week I will also move my long run to Thursday morning (before work--so I'm a little zombie-ish for a few hours afterwards) so that I can get in 2 long rides on the weekend. I should hit almost 17 hours next week, which means, guess what? I'm in an Ironman build, only this one is for Triple T.

I'm optimistic that I will have a good long run tomorrow, too, and since I have no schedule constraints tomorrow, I might just wait until it's warm enough for me so I can avoid the treadmill.

I am always grateful for a workout like today, because much of the time I feel like I suck, and then something like this happens and I think maybe not.

And now I must try and nap before an appointment in a few hours. Happy Saturday!

Weekly Workout Totals 12/15/2008-12/21/2008

I had a most excellent week, save for the fact that my back is pissed off at all the biking (surprise!) that I'm doing. Oh, and I'm fucking freezing, as is a lot of the U.S.!

On Friday, I was pretty tired to start the day, partly from training a lot, and partly from enjoying myself Thursday evening (I thought of it as Friday, though), but I still got my 2 workouts done--a swim, which I executed pretty well, and an easy run, which while I did, my legs hurt like mofos the entire time.

Yesterday, I did a 3.5 hour shopping odyssey that included some Christmas shopping as well as (mostly) final buying of stuff for the house as a result of the remodeling. I decided to shop first and then train later, as the forecast called for more snow. I didn't start my workouts until 1:30, since I had to eat lunch and put away a bunch of groceries and assorted other crap, and well, I just didn't get to it until then. But I did this workout on the bike:

WU: 45' @ 65-70%
MS: 2 x (20' @ 80-85%, 10' Easy), then
3 x 6' (5') @ FT; cd 7';
10x30/30, cd remainder

Looks easy on paper, right? Fuck no. But these workouts will get easier. The great thing was that I enjoyed working hard, even though my legs were sore as well as my back. When I finished, I hustled my ass over to the Y to run for :30, and even though my legs hurt, I just made myself run at a decent pace. All good! So I finished up that workout around 5PM, came home, drank some Endurox, ate some food, and felt pretty well cashed. I went upstairs and got in bed around 7:45PM and must have passed out reading something, woke up to a phonecall, ate some Cheetos and went back to sleep.

I got up around 4AM this morning and got to various things, and was ready to head to the Y to run around 7:45, when I went outside and realized it had snowed again, and I needed to clear my driveway (I like a clean driveway). It was so cold and windy, though, that I decided to not use the snowblower, as I would just get snow blasted and frostbite probably. I had to change coats into my ultra low temperature parka and thicker gloves to get the job done.

I ran for 2 hours on the treadmill, and I even managed tempo pace for about :40 total! I was so happy that I felt so good running, especially since I'd ended my Saturday workouts so late in the day. I did need to stop briefly about every 10 minutes to stretch my iliopsoas, which made it look like I was doing the Time Warp dance with my hips thrust out. I saw a guy I haven't seen since last winter who had really toned up and I thought, geez the guy is a hottie now! I ran my last 10' on the indoor track, and ended up telling this guy (Mike) that he is a hottie, and he said I am too, but I wasn't fishing for a compliment. I just get so excited when I see someone transform from overweight and out of shape to total fucking hottie! Mike wasn't particularly fat--he was just a bit overweight, but man, he looks great, and I think people need to hear it even if they are married or whatever! He and his friend, Bill, are doing Goofy Challenge, and they look totally ready.

After the run and chatting with Bill and Mike, I headed to the pool just to swim 1,000 yards easy pull, which felt good, and then I hustled back home because I was starving. But I was also fucking tired, and after eating some crab claws, I got in bed just to stretch the legs out and passed out for about an hour. I am really happy that I am once again able to nap every now and then--in fact, I took THREE NAPS this week! That is like a world record for me.

I did some sewing and cooking and now I am just relaxing before an early turn in since I am still pretty tired. I feel really good as exhausted as I am, and know that I'm totally ready for ZebraMan on Saturday, and am really looking forward to it! I may even do a little sprint the day before just because, why the fuck not? There will be no taper involved.

GO FUCKING HARDCORE AGGRO OR GO HOME!!!

I hope everyone is keeping warm and toasty and is looking forward to Christmas!

Weekly Workout Totals	12/15/2008-12/21/2008 This week's totals are sponsored by fucking Arctic conditions in Chicago!
Swim:	9450 yards (5.36 miles) in 3.45 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1208 calories burned Canadian: 8641.08 meters
Bike:	Approx. 100.63 miles in 5.75 hours; 36% of weekly workout time; approx. 3027 calories burned; Total TSS=328 Canadian: 161.95 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 34.37 miles in 5.33 hours; 33% of weekly workout time; approx. 2427 calories burned Canadian: 55.31 kilometers
Strength:	1.4 hours; 9% of weekly workout time; approx. 350 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 140.36 miles in 15.93 hours; approx. 7012 calories burned Canadian: 1.5 kilometers
Sleep:	7.04 hours avg./night
Stretching:	3.22 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours