Weekly Workout Totals 01/05-2009-01/11/2009 and Miscellaneous Stuff

As you can see, one of my dirty whore Barbies is enjoying herself while a Kachina doll watches...

I had a great training week. I'd call it a breakthrough week because I had everything fired up--harder and longer swim workouts, harder bike workouts, harder run workouts, and harder strength workouts. Add in a bunch of time moving snow around and a 1-hour (OK I was slow and spastic) cross country ski, and I don't think there is any muscle in my body that wasn't used! I got a great massage from the master, Mike, and was diligent about working on the muscles in my back (erector spinae, quadratus lumborum and iliopsoas) that are still a bit truculent. I had lunch with my friend, Marty, on Friday, and made dinner plans with another friend for next week.

Yesterday was one of those best days ever, which is interesting since it's the middle of winter! It started out well. I cleared the last of the snow from my driveway, took a little walk and took some pics (see previous post) of the snow. It was a beautiful, clear morning, and it was so quiet, as everyone was sleeping in and the roads were still snowy. I had planned on a 1:40 run followed by a :30 swim, but when I got back in the house, I felt a little dizzy or at least that I needed to lay down for awhile. In retrospect, I think my body was telling me that I wasn't fully recovered from Saturday's 3:00 workout plus who knows how much snow shoveling! I'm constantly learning what different bodily sensations mean, and the way this one felt was that I was a bit sinus-y and like my muscles were all out of fuel, despite the care I took on Saturday to refuel (or so I thought). Well, I am learning to listen to my body, so I started drinking Gatorade and got back in bed. I didn't fall back asleep, but it sure felt good to lay down. Also, I felt hot, so I took my temperature just for fun, and it was up--my normal temperature is about 96, and I was at 98.8! So that's almost a little fever to me. But after about an hour or so in bed, I got up, and suddenly I felt pretty much OK.

I suited up to run and headed to the Y. I got on a treadmill, and some guy who's been eyeballing me (he mostly just lifts, I think) asked me how much I was going to run today--9 or 10 miles? It was funny because that's about what I had planned, but I still wasn't sure I could execute on it or not, so I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and said I wasn't sure whether I'd make it that far, but I was going to start on it. He then proceeded to ask me whether I run marathons, and I just told him I do Ironman. I guess there's a part of me that doesn't want to be labeled as just a runner (especially since I don't consider myself one!), because I don't think I look like one. Anyway, I wasn't in the mood to chat, so I fired up the machine, and as achey and sluggish as I had felt just an hour earlier, it felt great to run! I was pleased, but cautiously optimistic, thinking that whatever I got done would be fine.

It was one of those days where I would have been OK with taking a full rest day, but then since I was on the treadmill, I began going over various scenarios--since I knew I might ski later, I could run less, or I could do the last 15 minutes on the elliptical. A 1:30 run would have been plenty. But as I got into it, I felt really good and did 1:30 on the treadmill and then headed to the indoor track.

I decided to just run a mile and see how long it took. My pink Timex watch had finally died (I knew the battery was going because the LED display was fading in and out), and so I had to wait for the second hand of a wall clock to come up on 12 so I could time myself. I wasn't trying to push it or anything, but isn't it funny sometimes how if you don't actually have a watch on you run faster? Seriously, I didn't think I was running faster than maybe 8:45, but it turned out I was running at my 5K pace! I was like what the fuck where did that come from? I ended up running 11 miles. And I was pretty happy to go for a recovery swim.

The pool was stinking hot, but it still felt good, and I knocked out a leisurely 1500 yards followed by about 5 minutes in the sauna (I would have stayed in there longer except there was a woman in there who seemed to be gay for me by the way she was looking at my naked body), then headed home.

I ate a Lean Cuisine and drank a bottle of Endurox R4, and knew I needed a lay down, after sorting through the Sunday newspaper for the sections that I read (I toss Sports, Business, Classifieds and all the ads) so I could take it into bed with me. Side note: I love my bed, and I had just changed the sheets in the morning, so how nice to finish up working out, showering and sauna and come home to that!

I had a message from a friend to meet for skiing at 6PM, so I figured I should try and get my nap on! After about 5 minutes in bed, I figured a beer would be tasty and probably knock me out, so I went and got one, got back into bed, read a little of a book, drank the beer, turned off the light, and I was out cold. I woke up an hour later feeling pretty awesome except for the right side of my back was a little stiff. I got up and had a snack and began drinking more Gatorade, since I was going to be doing another workout, got some laundry done and got things ready to fix dinner once we were back from skiing.

Skiing was great, except that I suck, while my friend is awesome at it. I need to learn to skate ski, as that's the kind of skis I got. I was a little stiff, ginger, wary of the whole thing since in a way I was a little afraid of doing something else to my back. But I managed, even though I sucked. It was beautiful out in the dark and so quiet, and I was mostly just happy to be doing something in the snow! There was one decent downhill, and I thought I had it, but then in a flash I did a huge face plant, and laughed my ass off while getting up. It's fun to fall in the snow when you won't hurt yourself.

I'm not sure of the distance of the course we were on, but it was at least a few miles. This place has lessons, so I think I'm going to do that next weekend and let that replace my run.

After skiing, we cracked open some wine, showered up and I fixed a simple but tasty dinner--Porterhouse steaks, pasta with the red pepper, bacon and Gorgonzola sauce I'd made on New Year's Day, and steamed asparagus. And a good bottle of Zinfandel. I had looked forward to that meal since I was finished running!

After all that, I slept like a baby and this morning I am just doing a :30 swim and think maybe I'll run outside in the snow later on. This week's training is going to be killer, here let me show you:

We are supposed to get more snow (blizzard warning tonight!) today through Wednesday, which is fine by me except it's going to be really super cold, too. But I'll get a little extra strength training done moving the snow.

Hope everyone had a great week and is starting out another good one! I did not include the skiing or the excessive snow removal in the numbers below--it was a solid training week anyway!

Weekly Workout Totals	01/05/2009-01/11/2009 This week's totals are sponsored by snow!!! There is no shortage of it here!
Swim:	8400 yards (4.77 miles) in 2.88 hours; 22% of weekly workout time; approx. 1009 calories burned Canadian: 7680.96 meters
Bike:	Approx. 78.82 miles in 4.33 hours; 32% of weekly workout time; approx. 2384 calories burned; Total TSS=276 Canadian: 126.85 kilometers
Run:	Approx. 23.41 miles in 3.72 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 1691 calories burned Canadian: 37.67 kilometers
Strength:	2.45 hours; 18% of weekly workout time; approx. 613 calories burned
All Sports:	Approx. 107 miles in 13.38 hours; approx. 5697 calories burned Canadian: 1 kilometers
Sleep:	7.04 hours avg./night
Stretching:	3.22 hours. Massage: 1 hours

Beginning of ZebraMan Weekend

But first a little food porn:
I was invited to my friend Matt's for dinner yesterday, as his wife was out of town with family, and Matt and I haven't seen one another since the infamous spring ride where he was taking pics of me peeing. Matt had cooked for his family who had been by earlier in the day, and he always makes tons of excellent food, so there was plenty leftover for me. That's one of his dogs, Micky, on the chair. I couldn't get her to look at me--she was too interested in Matt! I started with bruschetta, some olives and then the pasta was with a shrimp and cream sauce. Of course, TONS O' GARLIC!!! The food was great, and we had some Chianti that was awesome, too. We went downstairs into Matt's newly finished basement (it's like an Italian den of iniquity--travertine floor, beautiful woodwork) and continued talking non-stop, and then Matt showed me pictures from his most recent trip to Italy (Tuscany, to be specific). I swear I am half Italian! Anyway, the food and company was awesome, but I made it an early evening since I was pretty tired from lifting for an hour, skiing for about 1/2 hour, and then I tried to bike but gave up.

This morning I'm going to do a sprint ZebraMan, just because, why well not? Here are my race clothes (plus one additional item that I will wear when finished):


I did my toes up special for this weekend, too:

And finally, this evening, I will sleep in my brand new pirate sheets:

Did you know that pirates go with most any decor? ;) I do need to make a new duvet cover, and I'm thinking pirates on one side and zebra on the other...I am such a cliche!

Don't worry--there will be pics of me racing...check back later for sprint results, and have a great Friday!

A Day in the Life, Part II

Continuation of yesterday:

5:40AM Drive to the Y to run. Towel Nazi is not at the front desk, so I'm able to score 2 towels so I can actually dry off after I shower.
5:50AM I'm on the treadmill. I brought a can of Coke with me and a bottle of Gatorade. My stomach isn't right from the coffee, and I'm thinking it's going to be mostly Coke. Suprisingly, my legs do not feel too bad, although the Zone 1 shit feels waaaaay too slow. There are an awful lot of smiley, morning workout people at the Y. 25% of them recognize me.
6:20AM Time to start Zone 2. It still feels slow, but not that bad. I'm able to take sips of Gatorade now, although periodically I want to gag and puke anyway.
6:50AM 1 hour down, I get to--you guessed it--take yet another shit. Ah, the pleasures of running, training hard, and a high metabolism. I use the opportunity to change the CD in my CD player (still no iPod, don't start on me) while I am in the can.
6:55AM Back on the treadmill, and a friend, Jamie, comes in. One of the first entrants into the Hottie Brigade. I love talking to him, it's like we both get motor mouth when we see one another. One of these days I hope I get to ride with him again.
7:55AM I'm done! It was a good idea to run on the treadmill today. My legs had been pretty beat up from last week, and they finally feel "normal" again. Well, as normal as you feel after running 2 hours.
8:15AM I'm back home, ass in chair, working, sucking down Endurox R4. Ready to face the leftover crises from yesterday, but I am easing into things, and after prioritizing, think it won't be such a hectic day after all.
10:15 One long call, and now I'm getting hungry. Colleague wants to chat post-team call, which is good, but I am fucking starving, so I'm on the speaker phone making myself breakfast or whatever it is. 4 eggs, 3 pieces of Canadian bacon chopped, scrambled and cooked in butter, English muffin also buttered. Man, I love eggs. I wolf this down and start to feel better.
12:00PM I'm fucking tired. I want a nap, but there's no time for that. Must keep working.
12:30PM Guy arrives to go over with me what yard work I'd like him to do. First time I'm paying someone to do some of it for me--I have just run out of time for some reason this year, and I want it finished before June rolls around! Stuff like trim all the shrubs, weeding, etc.
1:00PM Back into work crisis mode, but I seem to have a handle on things. Start wondering how I am going to make it through the day without a nap. Eat some bananas, which helps temporarily.
4:00PM Work is under control; maybe I can finish up my lifting from yesterday, so I do (16 minutes is all), but my muscles are screaming at me while I do it (bis, tris, chest), and yet I do a little posing in a mirror and am happy about how I look.
5:15PM I call it a day, workwise, and get ready to go to The Bike Shop. Load Bitch into car first, blanket on top, and LGL on top of her. My bikes are having sex back there. I'm concerned that the metals (magnesium and boron carbide) will commingle and birth some mutant bike back there.
5:40PM I'm at The Bike Shop. So what am I having done? Well...Bitch is getting BLUE (or as they call it, blau) Nokon cables! Also, I'm ditching the X-LAB and getting a carbon behind-the-seat-bottle holder. I needed to observe LGL being lubricated one more time so I know how to do it--she has special lubrication needs due to the way her Nokon's had to be installed. I also had them switch the cassette on the back (I can do it myself, but what the hell) since I'm riding in Wisconsin on Saturday. I also picked up my new Louis Garneau Rocket Helmet (I got the blue and white one, of course):


It's fucking gorgeous, and looks good with Bitchie. I also had shims put into the left shoe of both LGL's and Bitch's shoes, since my left foot is different than my right and my left leg has a functional shortness compared to my right. I also picked out new carbon cages (curiously enough, Profile Karbon Kages) for Bitchie once she has carbon on her butt and on the seat tube. She is going to look awesome once they are done with her! I also looked at (first time you are hearing about it) fixies online, and have decided on this one:


I'm going to put cowhorn bars on it with sweet bar tape, Cane Creek brake levers,

and no, I don't have a name for it (I think it's a HIM) yet.
8:30PM I get home (yes, my bike shop trips are legendary lately), throw pasta into the microwave, load the coffee pot, crack a beer, start making a list of crap I need to do on Friday, wolf down the food, decide I better eat more, think about TV, scrap that idea, grab a package of crackers and read yesterday's newspaper in bed for about 15 minutes, decide I better pass out since I have to be done swimming by 7:45AM (and I'm doing the 4,000 yard workout again).

Phew. Now it's Friday...
2:45AM I wake up. At first I'm not sure whether it's stress, I'm hungry, or I have to pee. Lay there for awhile, and guess what? I have to take a shit AND I'M HUNGRY. Take care of the first item, then make a sandwich, eat it while reading a little bit more of the newspaper, and then try and go back to sleep. No such luck, really, but laying down is still a good thing.
3:55AM I look at the clock and decide, close enough. I'm awake. Turn on the coffee pot, put on a record (I'm loving the new turntable, and I still LOVE Ska--like I need to listen to really fast, crazy music, you know). Grab a Power Bar and get rolling. Think about what I have to do today--swim 4,000 yards, work on major crisis at work, maybe run a little bit, go grocery shopping later (and booze sampling), stretch, fix bottles for Saturday's festival (Patti and I are riding the ENTIRE IMWI course and then running--I wonder if I can pull it off), begin packing for Saturday, set the coffee pot, OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

And yet, despite all this craziness, I am loving life!

The Hardcore Training Continues

Last night's dinner: Porterhouse steak and pasta (orrechiette) with salmon sauce















3 days' worth of coffee cups and bottles. I'm drowning in them!



Today's hangover...er...workouts were sponsored by this bottle of wine last night.

After last week's festivities, let's just say I was pretty wiped out yesterday afternoon. But I managed to mow my lawn, sweep the driveway afterwards, organize some boxes and water some plants that I will need to plant any day now.

You'd think I'd be really fucked up this morning, right? Sort of...thing is, I slept like a baby, and even missed the coffee pot going off! I was shocked at waking up and it was LIGHT OUTSIDE. So I knew I needed to hustle, as I'm doing some long swim workouts this week.

I woke up at 6AM and was in the water swimming at 6:52AM. Not bad. While swimming, I was very conscious of how fatigued I was, not that I was sort of hungover. Thing is, I can perform whenever whatever. Maybe not fast, but that was OK today. I did my entire swim workout, all 3,150 yards. Tomorrow is only 2,800 yards, but Wednesday and Thursday are each 3,600 yards, so being used to being up early will pay off.

When I got home, I drank my glass of egg protein and finished off the bottle of Gatorade that I had taken to the pool. About 11:15, I chugged about 1/2 can of Coke and then set off to run. I ran for a little over an hour, and didn't set any intensity goals, but damn, I wasn't running too poorly at all. And it was warm and sunny, and my legs ached while I ran. Too bad!

I really should be lifting right now, but I'm going to put it off until tomorrow once that wine has run its course :) My turntable died, and I must go and purchase a new one!

Happy Feet and Not Enough Calories

I was feeling a little introspective and it got me a little down yesterday, but once I started making my toes all sparkly it fixed everything. It's tough to be unhappy with happy feet! I couldn't decide which color I liked more which is why I ended up doing each foot a different color. I have gone with 10 different colors at once. I thought I wanted the blood red, but once I put it on I didn't like it so much, but that got fixed up when I added the sparkle coating. Yes, I'm like a little girl sometimes with my love of pink stuff and sparkly stuff. But I have my limits. You will not catch me in a matched set of sweats with rhinestone lettering on them. Sandals with rhinestones? Sure. Diamonds? Hell yeah.

I woke up early again today feeling very hungry. I thought I had been eating non-stop in the evening, so after eating something right away, I added up what I had eaten on Tuesday. I can pretty much remember whatever I've taken in, harkening back to when I've needed to watch my intake more closely. I added up conservatively and it was about 2500 calories. I biked 1:25 and the Ergomo said I burned 830 calories in that time! I wasn't even going hard! And then I lifted weights for :45 which I figure is only another couple hundred calories, so I probably did undereat by about 500 calories or so. I'm not really sure. Which is why I'm trying to find somewhere I can get my RMR/BMR measured again so I know what I should be doing.

I used to be obsessive about wearing the HRM and noting the calories on the power meter and using those numbers to guide my food intake, but I no longer use an HRM and I haven't been looking at the bike numbers, either. I've sort of just been guesstimating what I think I'm burning, but if that bike number from yesterday is right, I am way underestimating. Yet I hate to just eat like a total pig until I gain weight--that seems stupid to me.

So today, so far I've swum for 1:05 (fairly hard) and I ran for an hour, slightly slower than tempo pace, and through lunch and recovery stuff, I've had about 1,300 calories. I think I need to eat a lot more today yet...I should probably get in about 1,800 more. I think I may need to start drinking a carb supplement . Or get back on pasta more often.

I think part of my problem is the nervous energy I'm burning up with my Dad's stuff. There is still some stress going on, I can't deny that, and one thing I don't need more of is stress or additional calorie-burning activities!

But I won't know until I find out some real numbers, so stay tuned...I really don't like it when someone says to me, "Nice problem to have." No it isn't. I need to time my calorie intake based on when I'm going to train (typically once before work and once in mid-day), and at some point I just can't put any more in. But I just thought of some other snack foods I need to start buying again--string cheese for one--and really it comes down to a couple hundred calories here and there, and that should do the trick!

Oh and there was some excellent scenery at the pool this AM. Swam this workout:

WU: 200 swim, 200 pull, 200 kick, 4 x 50 (10") Swim Golf
MS: 10 x 150 (15") as 100 Hard, 50 Easy.
100 easy swim.
2 x 200 (15") pull, Steady with excellent stroke.
8 x 25 (15") as 25 Hard, 25 Easy
CD: 100 easy swim

I was pretty fried after the 150's, but the rest was easy so no big deal.