Crazy Like a Zeba! (IMWI Race Day Report)

I say "zeba" due to my knowledge of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephen Pastis.  My friend, Susan, sent me a book of his comics a few years ago, and many of them feature one or more crocodiles trying to outsmart zebras.  Take a look:

I am now only ELEVEN weeks out from IMCOZ, which means I am in BEAST MODE. Even though I am pretty organized, it is becoming difficult to do things besides work, train, eat, sleep and the basics of a life.  But I'm trying.

Last Sunday was Ironman Wisconsin.  I ran my 2:10 on the course while my peeps were biking.  As I came back into Madison near the finish line, the first pro was heading out on the run!  I was so shocked, as the race clock was only at 5:30!  WTF!!!  And then Tom Ziebart admonished me to get the fuck off the course (my words, not his).

I'd gotten a text from Dark Knight's wife about when she expected him out on the run.  I am sure I misinterpreted it, but at any rate, I did not have much time to get back to the hotel, shower, stuff my face with as much food as I could, do a costume change, and head back out onto the course to be prepared to intercept DK.  I had saved like 3 pieces of bacon and 2 mini pastries from breakfast, and when I got to my room, I literally stuffed them into my mouth, got a bottle of Endurox R4 out of the fridge and began drinking that.  Then I stripped off my running clothes, which were soaked from the humidity, and tried to finish chewing the food, and I started packing my Kona 2004 sling bag with what I would need out on the course--camera, snacks, phone, etc.

I donned my outfit that I'd been excited to get on for WEEKS!

The guy working the hotel front desk was super smiley when taking my pic, and he thought it was cool what I was about to do.  I got out there just beyond the first turn off State Street and waited.  Meanwhile, I was getting some interesting looks from bystanders, and when some of the fast people were coming through and they saw me, many of them had a huge smile on their face.  Some spectators would ask me to take my pic, and others just did it in stealth mode.

I saw DK come by and he didn't even notice me!  I began yelling at him and running madly after him!  He was running faster than he should have, so it was hard for me to keep up, especially since I'd already run 13.5 miles (I know he was doing an Ironman, STFU).  But I caught him and we talked about pace and he had a huge smile on his face when he saw me.  I mean, why not?  He didn't mention whether he'd intercepted the Batman action figure that I had slipped into his T2 bag.  So I just tried to keep up, but was mainly behind him because I didn't want to cause race interference or a DQ, and boy did I get some cheering going!  I went out to Mile 2 and then left DK to his race and headed back downtown.

I hung out and waited for people to come through, all of course while everyone was checking me out.  I even went up to my former coach, Rich Strauss, in full dress mode, and he didn't even bat an eye when he turned around and saw me.  Sigh.  I guess he just expects this behavior from me!

I intercepted Lori to check on her and she didn't want/need me to run with her, and next I found AJ, and asked him if he'd like me to run with him a bit, he was cool with it, so I did, and once again, the college students were digging on the Bat Girl.  I was having a blast doing this and keeping AJ on pace (I don't know if I was running too fast for him or not but he had a good race), and again went out to near Mile 2 and back.  So I was up to maybe 21 miles of running already.

I did a few more here and there, in between jogging back to the hotel where they would hand me another giant cookie to fuel my madness!  It was all good!  Then I settled in on hanging out with a most excellent bunch of professional spectators like myself who were right outside my hotel, which is right on the run course.  We were being totally silly, and there were 2 girls with amazing bodies that were giving the racers something nice to look at, along with one girl's husband, who was in a Speedo holding up funny signs.

That's as far as I want to go with the report, since I would let the racers themselves tell their own stories.  Suffice it to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I was pretty damn tired by the end of the night!

This week began my binge running week, and since I kind of overdid it at IMWI, I took a rest day on Monday.  Well, fuck, I ran a marathon, so on Tuesday guess what?  Sore legs.  Oh well, the show must go on!  And to help me run, it was over 90 out, and I thought it was because of the heat that I couldn't manage faster than 9:45 miles, but hey, it was because of Sunday!  Wednesday was the same thing, only it wasn't quite as hot ("only" 86), but I knew I was just tired.  I have been hitting it hard, so yesterday instead of running, I used the Cybex elliptical, which claimed I was burning 700 calories/hour, which may be correct, because I was going to town on it!  This was a good thing for me to do because I'm on the edge of running injury, and I can stave it off now by doing stuff like this.

This morning I'm running 2 hours, and I think it will go well.  If anything hurts, I will back off and head back to the Y for elliptical.

This weekend I decided just for shits and grins to do 2 century rides--Ride Like an Egyptian on Saturday because I want the T-shirt, and Tri-Smart 101 on Sunday because I get a hoodie.  I am such a sucker for swag!  I hope the weather cooperates, which is why I will for sure get at least one century in!

Meanwhile, the training is super intense right now and I have 2 more BIG HUGE FUCKING WEEKS and then I get a rest week (17 hours, LOL!!!) that is mainly a reduction in run volume.  I can't wait for it!

I will try and blog at least once a week, but if I don't, GO BIG OR GO FUCKING HOME!!!

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!

Crackhead V56.0

I got Dark Knight yesterday.  Isn't he awesome?

I got my thyroid test back yesterday.  My TSH is .676, which is considered within range, so no more being stabbed for SIX MONTHS!!!

I feel so good, so great, in fact I feel as good as I felt in my early 20's.  It's a little scary, since I had thought that I felt pretty good during some of my training cycles say for IMC and IMHI 2004, IMLP 2007 and 2009.  Perhaps then my thyroid was spiking to deliver normal amounts of hormone--who knows?  At any rate, now feels even better than any of that, and I feel like a Maserati or Ferrari is under my hood.  I am sleeping well when I'm asleep, but it seems I might need less sleep than I used to.  But I think I am still just so excited at feeling good right now that I am trying to get all these things done, and when I do that, I tend to wake up early really excited to get at it.

While I was in the dregs of depression and hypothyroidism and recovering from catastrophic house breakdown (all that is in order now fingers crossed!), I was afraid to commit to any races, and I was paranoid about spending money.  Well, clearly all that has changed.  I bought several new Splish swimsuits (I didn't really need them but they do motivate me to swim harder), I just got new tires put on my car (and it needed them and they feel GREAT), I treated myself to a bunch of new Zoot clothing (some of which I actually needed like new recovery compression tights), bought a couple of new superheros (Dark Knight and Tiny Spock--still can't decide on which Superman to get), ordered 6 pairs of running shoes (since I tend to go through them quickly), am getting a brand new MTB tomorrow, and last night I had my annual eye exam, and I was about to check out when I spotted a pair of glasses that I decided I just HAD to have!  They are by Prodesign Denmark and really cool, and I tried to find the pic on the website but it would take too long.  When I get them, I'll show you!  I actually put enough in my FSA to cover the cost of them.

I'm caught up on all my annual stuff--eye exam, breast exam, dentist (I go twice a year), have the HVAC annual maintenance scheduled (my units are all new since last year as part of my catastrophic house breakdown), Skull Kingdom is all tuned up (and my mechanic gave me a brand spanking new SRAM front derailleur which is DA BOMB--I asked how much I owed for it, and he said it was just an exchange I LOVE HIM), my PowerTap is working, I ordered a new laptop for work (it should be here next week YAY).

As soon as I registered for IMCOZ, I made a training plan, sent in my passport renewal, booked my air tickets to Cozumel, got an estimate (which I will spring for) for cleaning my yard up at the end of fall (cut down/discard all perennial stems and do final raking/bagging/disposal of leaves) since I won't have time, and one more secret thing that I can't say anything about until tomorrow (it's good, though!).

I still have a few home maintenance things to get done--get my oven fixed (I've been doing without since March no worries), clean some windows, other crap, but I know it will get done.

I finally feel like all the cylinders are firing, that I can manage day to day stuff, do my training, coach and mentor some people, spend time with friends and family, and continue to kick ass at my job.  How much better could things be?  Yes, there is that romance thing, and honestly, I had lost pretty much all desire for a few years there, but I think that is coming back, which doesn't mean I am going to become a raging sex addict, but hopefully I will demonstrate openness to the right person when they appear in my life.

I have registered for a marathon next March (unsure whether it would qualify me in time for Pike's Peak Marathon--those losers won't accept an IM marathon as a qualifier WTF I'm fast enough in IM to meet their standards), and I'm tentatively planning on racing Triple T, 24 Hours of Triathlon (with Brad) and Leadman (with Maz).  And I DO plan to rest appropriately (1-2 weeks completely on my ass or back) after IMCOZ.  I have learned FINALLY that I CAN rest, and I CAN get my fitness back in a hurry.  So there's that.

This is all pretty fucking good for the age of 56, I think (57 in 2 months mark your calendars!).  I was born in 1956, and now I am 56 years old, so there is something omen-ish about this.  I feel like all my triathlon knowledge has gelled to the point where I can and SHOULD be coaching people and right now is the trial period so perhaps I'll be ready to cut loose from "regular life" next year.  Or not.  I still really love my job.  My mortgage will be paid off next February, too, so no roots holding me anywhere, although I DO love my new bar!  And of course, I LOVE my flower gardens, so for now I'm quite happy continuing to live in Illinois, despite the fact that we have winter, because if it weren't for winter, I'd be training like a fucking Crackhead year round.

Not only is life good, but for right now it's FUCKING OUTSTANDING!!!