Two for Two (Everything is Awesome!)

Yesterday was the second (out of 3--I missed the first one due to Tour of Sufferlandria) indoor triathlon, part of MITCS (Midwest Indoor Triathlon Series). I'd done OK 2 weeks ago and handily won my AG, but hoped to do better this time. I knew one thing that impacted my race 2 weeks ago was that I trained 4.5 hours the day before. Now, I know most sane people wouldn't do that and expect to win their AG in a sprint, but I'm not sane.

Since I believe in full disclosure, I should note that in the women's triathlon age groups, there is a steep drop off in participation in the 55-59 group, at least that's my observation. Why is this? I can speculate--grandchildren, menopause, loss of competitive desires, health issues--I just don't know. But the other thing I've observed is that if you weren't good at this until that age, it is incredibly difficult to get good at it around this time of life. I've witnessed, and I'm a good case study, women who take up aerobic sports in their 40's and become really good at it. I can also attest that menopause does a number on female physiology. Sometimes I feel like I'm just hanging in there, but for the most part, I feel outstanding, and I could not be doing what I'm doing now if I didn't make a concerted effort to retain my underlying strength and just, well, work my ass off. I feel pretty confident that as long as I don't completely annihilate myself, that I will continue to be at the top of my game for at least a few more years. But I don't want to just be at the top of my game--I want to be at the top of the game in many age groups and also among men! Perhaps that sounds asshole-y, but I put in the work with a strong desire to win.

I know I can't win every race I do at every distance--it depends on who shows up, whether or not I tapered, weather, gremlins, etc., but I will always go in knowing I trained to the absolute best of my abilities and gave it my all. I am no good at Olympic distance, for example--I just haven't done enough of them and it's that distance between sprint and 1/2 plus. But I'm racing a few of them this year and we will see how it goes. For another thing, I still don't consider myself a good runner--in a pure footrace, I more or less suck compared to pure runners, and I'm not the fastest swimmer, either. But I can bike like a demon, and I know how to race. Every time I toe the line I am happy to share some little tip (or five) with newer racers that they tell me made a huge difference in their day. That's the other thing--I really love giving back to others in the sport through coaching, mentoring and general spouting off of my mouth. I do have a little experience at this!

The art and skill of racing is developed by careful attention to detail both in training and in the lead up to a race--taper (if you do it!), nutrition, mental preparation, gear selection. Yikes I have all these little things that I do that work for me that make a huge difference in my mental state come race day, and despite the contribution that training makes to one's performance, the mental aspect is huge. For me, I tend to experience an appropriate amount of nervousness. If you lived with me, you'd experience it as me telling you to shut the fuck up, don't whistle, and stay out of my way. Then come race day, I can be pretty talkative with other racers and volunteers. Sometimes I can tell that other racers have that "deer in the headlights" thing going, and I try and help calm them down just a little. It's good to be nervous, but not too nervous. I am a non-stop laugh machine, as really, this is all just one big hoot to me, although the ability to laugh about it, I think, stems from all the hard work I've put in.

I like to sport temporary tattoos (still don't have any real ones!) for races. I have a huge envelope full of them. Some are funny, some are mean looking, some are gifts. For yesterday's race (I forgot to put any on 2 weeks ago), I picked 3: I had one more Iron Man left that I put on my left inner forearm:

Since I was feeling in a fun mood, I picked a dollar sign for my right calf

And BOOM! for my right arm (a bunch of these were given to me)

Just some little things to introduce some levity into the day! I wore my custom HTFU swimsuit

I need to back up to what I did in training this past week in the lead up to the race. I didn't think doing a 3:30 ride/:30 brick run the day before was a good idea (although in retrospect maybe it was!), I only wanted to have to run for an hour after the race (that's about all I can tolerate--trust me, it's hard to get out and run after one of these), and I planned on doing a better warmup on race day. To accomplish these objectives, I ended up riding 2:05 on both Tuesday and Thursday, and then only 2:00 on Saturday. I added short runs on Tuesday and Thursday (not bricks) of :20 and :15, and then I planned for a :20 run/:20 bike warmup at home and a :05 run/:10 bike warmup onsite yesterday.

It was challenging doing those longer midweek rides on top of everything else, including that I'd decided I was ready to move my strength training from 2x10 to 3x8! Doesn't sound like a huge change, but trust me, it is! That alone added :15 to my strength training time, a little DOMS here and there, and some nice added fatigue.

Then on Friday, I did a stupid thing (that I will keep doing LOL!)--an ultrarunner friend of mine posted an article on Facebook about doing steep incline walking/running (IF you are able to even run) as part of training for hills and such. I don't usually run with an incline on the treadmill, but figured I could get all over walking--that was something I did to prepare for my first 50-miler. I'm also a big fan of using the Cybex Arc Trainer during the winter to prepare for stair climb races and general cross training, so I wasn't worried about my ability to go balls out walking on my treadmill at a steep incline. But I don't do anything the easy way, do I?

I had a :40 run scheduled for Friday, so I decided to do :35 of steep incline walking, and then :05 strides. I cranked my treadmill up to the maximum incline, 15%, and got to work. I was able to vary my speed from 3.6-4.1MPH walking. I was warned that my calves would take a huge beating, but I figured that my calves were used to having the crap beaten out of them in my bike workouts, and I was right! I got a massage Friday afternoon, and felt "appropriately" tired.

Saturday morning when I woke up, my calves were just fine, but my quads were a bit pissed off at me. I laughed, thinking, well this is what happens when you cram about 12.5 hours of training into your 5-day work week! It made my 2-hour ride interesting, but I was happy I'd moved things around so I could get a bunch of other stuff done on Saturday, since Sunday would be devoted to racing and recovering. I dropped off a package to send to a friend, went grocery shopping, bought some goodies at a specialty market, stretched, did some sewing, and made my final plans for race day.

When I woke up yesterday, I felt pretty good because I'd managed to get 8 hours of sleep. My legs were worked over, but too bad, that's how it goes when you're training for an Ironman to be strong enough to train for an Ultraman. Still, I figured I could do OK at the race, but if I didn't, I was happy knowing I was training well and meeting the higher objective. I'd slacked and hadn't actually picked my tattoos until yesterday morning, but then I had fun in choosing them and putting them on. I know it seems like I'm a bit silly for a 58 year old woman, but I really don't give a fuck what anyone thinks. All I know is that my silliness wears off on other people when I see them smiling, hear them laughing, and lightening the mood, because life can be a downer much of the time.

I picked out my warmup and race clothes, and began my warmup at home at 5:30. My start time was 8:00, and the race venue is only a 10-minute drive from home, and the club opened at 7AM, so all good. I ran for :20 on the treadmill, took a 5-minute break, then got on Skull Kingdom for :22. Things felt good, and I was hydrating and sweating normally. I had a bit of time to kill before I left, and I cracked a Coke at 6:30--I want to be done with the caffeine about an hour before race time. I left my house at 6:50 and finished my Coke on the way there.

I went to registration and asked if they were giving medals to the AG winners. They no longer give medals, which is fine by me--I had so many of those that I tossed over 20 of them from prior years a few years back! I went to the locker room and put my crap in there, then headed to the upstairs track and ran 1/2 mile rather easy, and I remembered to check where the buckets were in case I had to puke when I finished.

I went back downstairs and hopped on a bike for just over 10 minutes. There were a bunch of people warming up on the bikes, and I'd timed things so basically I hopped off, changed into my swimsuit and headed to the pool.

A girl numbered me up and I asked her to put a big "X" on my left calf as a joke (that I won't explain here). She was puzzled why I would want an X, but she did it, and then I told her to make it a "smiley X," and she did.

I was all set! But I only had time to swim 100 as a warmup. The water was hot--I'm guessing 85 or 86--which is unusual for this venue. I was sharing a lane with the oldest person racing--Kirby Anderson--and so I let him choose which side of the lane he wanted, which put me in the gutter. Also, this pool is a U-shape, so my lane was half walled off, then half opened up to the next part of the pool on the other side of a partial wall. This didn't bode well for my swim, but whatever.

Before I got in, I chatted with 3 young volunteers and found my guy, Pranav. I asked them if they knew what HTFU means, and they didn't, so I explained it to them. This resulted in a boisterous laugh from everyone. I told Pranav that I wanted him to yell that at me while racing (although he could just use the letters) and also GO FATTY. This made all the kids laugh, too, as while I feel I could stand to lose 3-5 lbs., I'm not really "fat" fat. I explained that this comes from years ago when a group of friends decided we would yell this at one another during races--none of us are fat--but it sure grabs your attention when you hear someone yelling it! Maybe some people think it's mean, but it's really just funny to us.

My swim was predictably slow for me, as I was getting pushed towards the wall and had to look out for my lane mate who ended up smacking me pretty hard on the right hand (not my fault--I have a nice, narrow stroke and body profile--he got a little rambunctious), but I was OK. I got out and headed to the locker room to quickly shower off and change.

I'd told Pranav what height to set my bike seat at, and he'd done it, so when I got there, I reminded him of HTFU and GO FATTY, and we got started. Turns out in my wave (the first of the day) there were a few other AG leaders, so it was cool to have some good competition on the bike! I just looked down and rode as hard as I could for 20 minutes, and I hit the same mileage as I did 2 weeks ago, only on more training this time, so all good! Pranav fanned me with the paddle number (they put the bike numbers on a big stick so your volunteer can raise it and the people monitoring the leader board can move your little bike over another mile).

At this point, you are probably wondering why all the fuss about such a tiny indoor race? Because many competitive people show up--that's why! And it's just such fun, and in many cases, the volunteers are having just as much fun as we are. You will see volunteers jumping up and down, waving on their athlete and others, fanning us on the bike, hooting and hollering, and it's all such an intimate thing, which is why I keep coming back. It is just such a great feeling to be taken care of while doing something inherently silly, and even though I put on my game face, inside I'm smiling and having a great time.

At first, Pranav was trying to have a conversation with me on the bike, but I quickly pointed out that if I could talk, I wasn't working hard enough, so it was time for me to STFU, but I said he could talk at me! Which he did. He would ask me how I felt, and at least once I flipped him double birds, which made him laugh, and he did fan me which was great, and he was really attentive to being ready to hold up my number (I was bike number 8) when I hit another mile.

When I finished, I'd given it all I had and laid down on the floor for a few seconds, then got up and was like, oh fuck, my legs are toast, but hey--that's what happens in these things, right? All I could think was just make it through the run. As we lined up on the track, some people told me to go to the front that I was fast, and I was like, "I don't think so!" Still, there were 3 much younger and faster people on the track that lapped me a few times, then I was the next fastest, lapping everyone else. I was wearing a visor, but after maybe 1/2 mile, it was making my head too hot, so I tossed it into the volunteer area. It was a rather dramatic move, I think!

All in all, I swam a tad slower than 2 weeks ago, but did the same on the bike and run as 2 weeks ago, so I can't complain. I'd hoped to be faster across the board, but a hot pool and stupid Friday training trick conspired to hold me back from that objective.

I knew because of how hard I went on the bike that I was probably going to feel like puking when I was done, and I did, but I was about 1/8 lap from a bucket and I didn't want to backtrack. I thought maybe I could hold it back, so I walked back to where the volunteers were, and asked Pranav if there was a bucket there, and he said NO but pointed to some trash cans, so I bent over, grabbed onto the sides and hurled (just water). It felt so good to do that, I wiped off my mouth, stood up, and there were just so many smiles all around! I felt like I'd put a good effort out for the day, and people were snapping pics, but I didn't have my phone with me, so I asked Pranav to take one of me and his friends to get us together:

The first one is me just after I finished puking and collected myself, then I perked up for the one with Pranav. I asked him about his life, and he's graduating high school this year and then going onto law school at BYU. I am always happy to hear from young people pursuing big goals, and so grateful for people who turn out to volunteer at races! I said goodbye to Pranav and his friends, then went downstairs to get a massage before I ran some more.

The massage was great, and the young man who worked on me was a joy to talk to. We talked about music, math, massage, art--my favorite things! I grabbed some more water, went to the locker room and changed into compression shorts and a fresh bra top, grabbed my bottle of Powerade, and headed to a treadmill. I always get odd stares being on a treadmill all numbered up, because it's obvious I already raced, and why would I be running more? Because I need to keep up my long run, that's why! But despite how much it sucks to run after one of these races (I'd already worked out about 1:45 including my warmups and the race itself), it's not so hard when there is so much energy in the gym while other people are still racing. I toughed it out for :55, then in between waves, ran my last 5 minutes on the track. I was well and thoroughly thagomized. The origin of that term is from this cartoon:

Now I could get another massage and then EAT! The second massage felt great, and my legs reflected the additional running. Earlier, they had sandwiches, but now there was PIZZA! I practically inhaled my first slice, then they brought some hot, fresh ones and I had another one. I chatted with some people I know and some strangers while I ate and talked off the racing energy. I laughed that when I finally got to the locker room that my face was still very rosy!

I took the BEST SHOWER EVER, fixed my crazy hair, packed up and went home. I'd won my AG again and won the series, but more importantly, I'd had an outstanding training week, somehow putting 17.4 hours in against a plan of 17, so all good!

This week, I have an "easy" week, since today is a rest day, Friday is sort of a rest day (just a short swim), and then on Saturday/Sunday, I am doing an Olympic NothingMan both days to prepare for Clermont Challenge, where I will do the 1/2 IM on Saturday and the Olympic on Sunday. Nothing here I haven't done before--I've trained like this for Triple T, Ironman and Ultraman. I'm looking forward to the weekend already, as to me it's as much fun to do a NothingMan (well almost) as an actual race, and now I can start dreaming about my first big race in 4 weeks!

I did just a little happy dance yesterday afternoon, most of which was spent laying around and eating. I knew I'd fall asleep during the Academy Awards, and actually I was asleep before they started, but I was so happy that I woke up to see the Everything is Awesome (from The Lego Movie, which I must see) performance which was like capping off a great day!

All Recovered--Full Steam Ahead

It's now 2 weeks since Tour of Sufferlandria ended, and I feel 100% recovered from that as well as from my little race a week ago. I could tell yesterday while biking and hitting the target wattages, and then I had a great 13.1 mile run this morning. Of course, it helped that I haven't needed to shovel any snow for 2 weeks! That makes a huge difference, as I don't cut back regular training except for strength due to snow.

I was shocked to check my training spreadsheet and see that my average training hours since 1/1/2015 are over 17. WTF??? I guess shoveling and a little extra swimming make a big difference. My biking hours are right on target.

I've needed to adjust my strength training for recovery purposes, after realizing I was overly optimistic about increasing my sets and reps the last few weeks. On the plus side, though, I'm staying at a higher weight across the board, and it feels like I'm well adapted to it. So I think that after my 1/2 Ironman in March, I still have some play in the strength training to up the sets and reps. Especially since my Ironman isn't until October, which is still a long ways off. I typically go into maintenance mode 4 months out from an IM, which means I have until June to continue building strength! That will be perfect, because June is when all hell breaks loose in my training.

It's been awhile since I've done an IM at the back end of summer (except for Cozumel which was an aberration), meaning I have all of glorious summer to bike long and enjoy the fucking hell out of training outdoors.

Meanwhile, it's fucking cold in Chicago, but I am going to Florida in March and Colorado/Vegas in April, so those trips will get me some sunshine in anticipation of summer, which I love where I live most of the time. I don't like it too hot, but I don't care if summer is cool, even though it drives couch potatoes nuts--they complain that it's not hot enough. I challenge them to go ride for 5-6 hours when it's 85+ out. Not my idea of a good time!

I got a very nice non-verbal compliment from a meathead after I finished my long run on the treadmill at my Y today. He'd gone up and down the ramp between the machines and the free weights several times--laced with tattoos all over his arms and chest. I just kept running. When I finished, I wiped down the treadmill, gathered up my bottles and headed for the door (to go upstairs to swim). He nodded as I left, indicating he'd been "observing" me. It's pretty obvious, I think, that I lift, as I'm not skinny and you can pretty much see the cuts in my upper body, including abs, and pretty developed quads, glutes and calves. I.e., I have a big ass ;) But it's a working ass, much like this one:

I am going to jimmy my training this coming week so I can do better in my race next Sunday. I should be able to be in the top 10 females overall. I wasn't a week ago because I trained so much the day before, but I can fix that, and also I need to do a better warmup. I'm looking forward to going 120% and puking my guts out at the end. There are some other subtle changes I will make, but they are a secret ;)


I'm still waiting for the higher dose of Synthroid to kick in, but meanwhile, I'm being a little more attentive to my diet (QUIT EATING FUCKING JELLY BEANS EVERY DAY), and some fat is coming off my midsection. I know this because of the stares I receive when I am running at my Y. I am thinking that I actually have increased the muscle mass in my legs and ass in the last 3 years, as I've been doing a shit ton more squats and lunges than I ever used to do. All good, since guess what? RUNNING AND BIKING BENEFIT FROM A STRONG ASS AND LEGS. I need to build and keep muscle mass if I'm going to do another fucking Ultraman anyway. Even though I'm training like a maniac already this year, it is only going to get worse, and there will come a point when it becomes difficult for me to stuff down enough calories to maintain where I'm at right now.

So, in summary, it's FULL FUCKING STEAM AHEAD for 2015. I intend to crush this year and anything that gets in my way. I realize that sounds somewhat arrogant, but I work my ass off. I do this because I love it, because I love how my body and mind feel (hence the title of the blog) while I do it, and I enjoy being a shining example of what someone my age can do. It's just my thang.

Finishing 2015 Tour of Sufferlandria plus 5th Biggest Snowstorm = Much Awesome!

There it is. Everything I did this week! It was pretty epic to end the TofS with a snowstorm (the 5th biggest recorded in the Chicago area--officially 19.1" in my town!), and I even managed to shovel yesterday (before and after riding). I keep track of shoveling as strength, because that's what it is. It doesn't include time using the snow blower--just shoveling by hand. The calories burned are approximations, but probably not too far off from reality.

I felt so much better prepared for this year's TofS than last year. Last year, I tried to do Sufferfest videos on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the lead up, which I now realize wasn't enough recovery in between those rides, considering everything else I was doing. This year, I did a Sufferfest video on Tuesday and Saturday as part of my regularly scheduled workouts, and I typically added on a long warmup.

This year, I also have been in strength building mode for the last 6 weeks, and I think that made a huge difference in my ability to complete this. Even though there are no studies to show that strength training has a lick of impact on swim/bike/run, my N=1 experiment has always shown otherwise. I mean, what is the difference between a really hard bike ride and a bazillion squats? My legs can't tell.

I think it also helped to have some close friends doing this, too. Peer pressure never hurt anyone! Plus I had something to prove--I've done all sorts of crazy shit, and it was time for me to do something I'd never done before. Fuck--9 straight days on a bike, all on a trainer!

Finally, I can attribute my success at finishing, in part, due to drinking Infinit during every ride. The rides were all pretty intense, and Gatorade just wouldn't have cut it. Plus, all my Infinit mixes (I have 3 or 4 different custom formulas) have caffeine in them. I simply could not have done all this training without caffeine!

What I am really proud of here is that there were FOUR DAYS this week where I swam, biked and ran! Should I count them as NothingMans? LOL. I think it actually helped with the way I scheduled things to swim (and I did the main sets on Monday and Wednesday with paddles and those were the only scheduled swims!). But I knew that all the running had to be super easy. In fact, all the running was technically optional, but I found that holding the intensity to Zone 1 (actually low Zone 1) was perfect, and on 2 of the 4 S/B/R days I ran right before I biked, so my legs were nice and warmed up.

I did not do the Tour of Sufferlandria using Trainer Road, so I am not eligible for any prizes. That's OK, because I bought myself my own prize:

Actually, I ordered 2 of them ;) I do have a bar that requires glassware from time to time! I already had the official Sufferfest shirt:

So how do I feel today? Rightfully shagged. But not from the biking--it's from the 4+ hours I spent moving snow yesterday. And there is more to go! I was supposed to swim this morning, but I just don't feel like going out in the blowing snow to move it, and I am sure my street is a mess still. I could walk, but my snow boots make my right foot hurt, so that's out of the question. I may or may not swim later today. I have a :30 easy run scheduled, and I'm pretty sure I can do that. Or take a nap! Or both!

Life is good!

Tour of Sufferlandria 2015

Last year, I attempted to do the Tour of Sufferlandria for the first time. I failed at completing it, miserably. In retrospect, I failed to recover properly from Ironman Cozumel.

This year, no Ironman to recover from, and I've been doing 1 or 2 of the Sufferfest videos for the prior 7 weeks. And I sort of tapered this week--while I did some tempo running on Wednesday, I cut back my long run from 2 hours to 1:30, and ran it super easy on Friday.

In scheduling training for next week, where the Tour is in full swing, I've noted that all running and swimming is optional. I will swim tomorrow morning, and I have one more swim planned, but if I'm dying by Wednesday, I will skip it. Any running will be super easy, Zone 1 stuff.

Yesterday, the Tour kicked off with an easy video, Elements of Style, followed by The Long Scream. The Long Scream is a :30 Time Trial! Well, I'm still a triathlete and not just a cyclist, so I ran :25 before I hopped on the bike. The run was to be easy, and I went outside and had actually a pretty damn good run for going easy! I averaged 8:58/mile, in part because I saw the girls' cross country team running towards me for about 1/2 mile so I had to look good for them! But I also know that because I ran so easy Friday that I was able to go faster than I needed to.

Elements of Style was fun, and it made me realize I need to focus more on engaging my left calf muscles. I'm right-handed, and very right-body dominant, and my left knee is the one missing the ACL. My right calf is always more gnarly than the left one after biking, so maybe I can work on that. Then The Long Scream. Fuck. I forgot it was a TT. Now, many of the people doing the Tour are just biking or haven't been training a lot, unlike me. So I am doing the Tour rides as "best effort." I'm still putting forth a really strong effort, but typically I'm riding one zone lower than they are asking for some of the time. Still, I knew I'd ridden hard when I got off the bike and my legs felt like jello, and I disconnected my laptop from the TV and then yelled FUCK OFF at the TV as if that would turn it off!

But I didn't feel too badly, because I'd drunk a Coke before I ran, and I drank Infinit (with CAFFEINE!) on the bike. I'd planned a :30 swim after. I've been doing a :30 or so swim on Sundays after my long run, and I did one Friday after it, and wanted to do one to recover from the biking. I started drinking the Endurox R4 after I got off the bike just to keep some calories going in, and also a big glass of water.

I got to the pool, put on my flippers, took a big gulp of Endurox R4, and swam 1500 straight! I don't know what possessed me, but I felt good and didn't feel bored by swimming straight (and fairly easy). The power of caffeine! I finished up with 200 kick and got out and showered, and then went into the sauna to stretch a bit. As soon as I laid down in there I was like FUCK I'M HUNGRY, but I managed about 5 minutes of stretching. I don't expect to be too hungry after just 2:15 of working out (the total for yesterday), but I was. When I got home, I had another 1/2 chicken breast fricassee leftover, and on Friday I'd made about 8 cups of brown rice in my rice cooker, so I scooped out about 1 1/4 cups of rice into the bowl, microwaved it and ate it standing up in the kitchen because I was so damn hungry. And I cracked a beer, since I'd already drunk my recovery beverage!

And then I realized I was pretty tired. I was going to immediately go to the grocery store, but my body said LAY THE FUCK DOWN. So I did. I needed some more calories so I grabbed a small handful of jelly beans and ate them in bed watching whatever was on TV. After about 45 minutes, I motivated and went grocery shopping, and luckily I hadn't planned anything for the day, because the rest of it basically consisted of laying around doing nothing. Which I need from time to time.

I had the filet part of a huge porterhouse steak and a giant salad for dinner and another beer, then I had a generous shot of this stuff and passed out pretty early.

As I sit here writing this my legs don't feel too bad, but today's Tour stage is Blender. 1:40 of you want to kill someone. But that's all that's on my schedule today aside from maybe a little snow shoveling.

Next week, the Tour includes about 9 1/2 hours of riding. While I do that much many times during the summer preparing for an Ironman, um...the Tour intensity is just over the top. Still, my objective is to finish the damn thing this time, even if I have to tone down the intensity. Last year, I was toast on Friday. I'm sure I will be hurting badly by then, but I hope not enough to quit! I am going to mix up 11 bottles of Infinit for the biking and my alleged long run. There is no way I can get through all this without caffeine!

Huge props to anyone who does this and finishes it. It is not your average week of biking! If you think you train hard and have never done one of these videos, then you are delusional. These videos are the real deal and aren't intended for daily use! That's why this is such a fun thing to do in January!

Good luck to all Tour contenders, this is going to be epic!

Seven Weeks In

It's 7 weeks since I officially began training--training like I do over the winter in preparation for an Ironman. I've got meds now that seem to be helping my lungs with whatever is going on there. I'm not wheezing when I wake up in the morning, and I'm starting to feel like I can breathe a lot better while working out. I'll know I'm 100% on the lung front when I can sing while running in Zone 3!

It's been tough going from arbitrary run and bike workouts to full out gonzo training. Here are last week's workouts:

I skipped the Tuesday ride because I crashed after having been on Prednisone for 5 days, but I did go for a walk and lifted that day. I extended the Thursday and Saturday rides by :30, so I almost made up for the miss.

During Wednesday's track workout, I told myself it would be OK if I toned it down a little, but I ended up going faster than all the prior weeks. Instead of coughing up a lung after the intervals, I just breathed more deeply! That is progress!

I seem to be nailing all my swims now. I am still not fast, but coach said I look like "I'm just swimming and not trying" now. All the things I've done to correct my stroke have worked! I haven't gotten too much faster, but we'll see what happens over the next 12 weeks or so. If nothing else, I should be more efficient.

I had some good running results last fall, but my running has suffered as I picked up the hard, focused bike workouts, although all my track workouts have been awesome. I felt pretty rough on Friday, but ran easy (as I was supposed to!), and enjoyed running outside.

Saturday I did a bunch of chores and didn't start biking until 10:30. Since I'd still be rolling through a normal lunch hour, I chowed down some leftover pasta about 1/2 hour before I started. This had the bonus effect of keeping my effort easy for the first hour. I was a bit concerned I would have shit for watts the entire time, but once I started ISLAGIATT, I'd burned off the pasta, felt great, and had good power. But I didn't expect to be able to run for shit off a ride like that. It was decent out, so I took a little over 5 minutes to towel off and change and headed outdoors. I ran by feel, so super easy, but right off the bat I was running maybe 9:45/mile, which would be just perfect (actually too fast) for an IM marathon. My legs actually didn't feel too bad, and I picked it up on the way back and ended up averaging 9:32/mile. Not too shabby!

A friend came over for dinner Saturday night and we got takeout Caribbean. YUM! Fried plantains, rice with pigeon peas, slow roasted pork and beef. I made a taco out of some of it, and felt I really carbed up well, but had no clue how I'd feel Sunday.

My legs were predictably a bit sore Sunday morning, but I loaded up 1/2 bottle of Infinit, a Coke, and some Gatorade and headed to the Y to run there on the treadmill (I don't like doing my long runs in my house) and then swim after. Happily, my legs felt just fine running, and I got in about 12.2 miles in 2 hours, which was just fine, and the best I've felt during a long run since November. I swam 1350 after (it made me nuts to end on not a multiple of 100!) super easy. After 500, some lady was sitting with her feet on the ledge in my lane! She was talking to someone in the adjacent lane, and I was like I don't want your gnarly feet in my face! I told her to, "Get your feet out of my lane, PLEASE!" She acted perturbed, but WTF, right?

I stretched some in the sauna and then finished up at home while cooking (for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT) and then some more after I finally ate dinner. All told, I put in just over 17 hours last week, and a bit more the week prior. I have increased my weights and reps over the last 5 weeks, and that has had an impact on everything, but it appears I am adapting to all this and feel rather great now.

This week is a bit of a step down (only 14.5 hours of training) in preparation for beginning Tour of Sufferlandria on Saturday, although I am doing the 2014 route since I didn't buy all the new videos. Then the Tour continues the week after with very light running (I learned my lesson from 2014 that you can't run much during this!), featuring 9 hours of biking! The week after I have my first race of 2015--an indoor supersprint!

Yikes! Good thing I'm adapting to this otherwise I would be a complete mess! But it's totally fun. I'm used to the cycle of fatigue/soreness/invincibility. That is how it goes when you keep up aggressive strength training at the same time you are doing a lot of intensity work.

Today I have the day off from work, and I've got a swim threshold test and an easy :45 run is all! I will get all the dishes done from my cooking festival, work on the dress I'm making for my friend's wedding, and that will be that for today!

Oh, and I just discovered that I need to get a TUE (Therapeutic User Exception) by WADA because I take raloxifene HCL for osteoporosis treatment. The odds of me being drug tested are probably small--still, I want to be 100% legitimate!

Have an awesome week!

Getting Stronger!

You all know how it happens. It's by doing this, right?
"Harder, longer, faster, tougher, repeat."
--Crackhead

There really is no other way. I've been on my plan now since December 1, 2014. 5 weeks in, and I'm lifting heavier again while increasing my FTP, my VDOT and my swim T-pace (all of which were in the toilet for well over a year). I would consider this week a marker of just how well I'm doing, because on Tuesday this week I:

• Shoveled snow for an hour (used the snowblower, too, but I like a really clean driveway), then
• Warmed up for :30 followed by a 1-hour Sufferfest video, The Downward Spiral, on the bike. While I wouldn't say it felt "easy," and I may regret saying this in 2 weeks, I enjoyed it. The video is basically a descending ladder of FTP efforts, starting at 2:00 (same rest as the interval) down to 15" by 15" decrease each one. And you do it twice.
• Lifted for :43. Mostly core and upper body
• Had my first MAT session, which did require me to move around a bit and do a bunch of isometric contractions. Received a compliment from the practitioner that I am quite limber in my hips for someone my age. NO SHIT!

Now, I should have been completely waxed after all that, but I ate well, and got up yesterday and did this:

• Swam 2500 (I'm doing shorter swims but am building them up again) with some fast intervals in there (for me) that I didn't feel like I was dying.The last 600 was pulling with paddles.
• Did my 2x10 press outs in the pool before leaving. Got a compliment from a guy who has previously scorned me for how much training I do--he called me Iron Girl and said he hoped some of my strength would rub off on him. He said maybe he could be Plastic Man! I smiled and tried not to laugh too much at that, as I was thinking of my Barbie dolls when he said it:

 

• Headed to the indoor track for my track workout. On my last 400, I went faster than I've gone in years. Maybe it is faster than I've ever gone doing intervals.  But on the LAST ONE! I pumped my fist in the air then stopped my watch. There was a young couple there that I'd seen on the track the last couple weeks. The guy (who looks like your typical sprinter--what a physique on him!) said I must have hit a PR. I told him I did, and he told me what great shape I'm in! I mean the dude knows nothing about me, he runs like a bullet (he ran track in college and also for Nike for a time), and he's telling ME I'm in great shape? I think I was blushing, and he said it a few more times as we continued to talk. I'd been feeling out of shape and a bit on the plump side. Maybe I've been hallucinating.
• Later in the day, I did another :30 of strength training, this time attacking my upper body but also getting some of my leg work in there. This week is week 2 of 2 sets of 8 reps at higher weight than I was at 4 weeks ago.

Today I just need to lift for maybe :30 and do a 1:30 bike workout, and I feel G-R-E-A-T. Sure I have some soreness here and there (I stretch :15-:25/day), but I could be a whole lot more fatigued. Last week, I was pretty rough, but knew I would adapt to the load. It's tough when I'm going through an increase in weight/sets/reps strength-wise, but I expect it and love when I can feel the results of everything coming together. Sure we all have our on and off days, but you don't put together what I've been doing randomly or without planning and purpose.

Today I might have shit for watts on the bike, but the overall trend is UP. And that is a great feeling. Only 3 weeks until my first "real" race (a supersprint), and only 10 weeks until a 1/2 Ironman, so this is all good. I am so happy to be back in the swing of "normal" winter training! It's been 3 years since I've been at this level at this time of year, and it is just an awesome feeling. Now is when I get faster and stronger, and then beginning in April I add the "far" so I am faster at farther. I wish everyone could feel this great. It's a shit ton of hard work, but I am happy to do it!

Bikes are "Done"

 Skull Kingdom in all her glory. She is my Oly+ bike. New this year: SRM, Hed Jet 90's.

My trusty Bitch. She's 14 years old and has done 15 Ironmans. She is now my sprint bike. New this year: she inherited the Zipp 404's from Skull Kingdom (including Power Tap) plus brand new wheel stickers, she inherited the crankset from Skull Kingdom, and went to black bar tape.

Well bikes are never completely done, but they are for now. Except that I will be switching out the bar tape on Skull Kingdom for hot pink in the spring. The above modifications have been in progress for almost 3 months.  It started with finding a really good deal on an SRM. I had an SRM from 2004-2007, then I switched to Ergomo, those died and I got a Powertap when I had Skull Kingdom built in 2010. I've never really liked the Powertap--its readings are jumpy, and I didn't want to get that big Joule head unit. So when I saw I could get a new SRM (and I'll be able to switch out the PC7 for the PC8 in another month or so) for a great price, I acted quickly.

Then I thought, well, if I'm putting an SRM on Skull Kingdom, I can move the Zipp wheels over to Bitch. But then I'd want new wheels for Skull Kingdom. So I decided on the Hed Jet 90's, since I wanted deeper rims.

But then I'd been meaning to get rid of the Elite stickers on the Zipps and get some custom ones made. So I removed the Elite stickers and found a guy on Slowtwitch who makes custom stickers (not just for wheels--he can do helmets, too).  Then I figured that as long as I was going to doctor the Zipps that I may as well get custom ones for the Heds.

So when I ordered the wheels from Hed (over the phone--they are awesome people!), I asked if they could leave off the decals, and they said sure!

Let me backtrack a bit. This all began with me making appointments to get Bitch and Skull Kingdom tuned up, since it had been awhile. That started in October, which is when all this other stuff began falling in line!

So I found myself needing to design wheel stickers while waiting for my Heds to be built. I don't remember when it came to me to just get Crackhead on the Zipps, but it was brilliant! The guy who made the stickers asked me why I wanted that, in the Coke font. His guess was that I just really like Coke! But I explained that Crackhead is my nickname and I gave him a link to this blog. It made sense!  When he delivered me the first mockup (he uses CAD), he showed me the wheels with 3 and 4 Crackheads per side, but he said we could go as high as 6. Well...6 it is! More Crackhead for me! After the guy at my bike shop put them on, he commented on how precise the curvature matched the rims. Well, yeah, that's required for this sort of thing!

Then I had to think about what I wanted on the Heds. I had known for some time that I wanted skulls and flames, to coordinate with the frame. And then I decided I'd like a touch of pink, as pink coordinates well with red, and then I can wear pink kits, too! It's not a requirement that my clothes match the bike at all times, but sometimes it's just better!

The initial mockup from Nick (sticker guy who just does this on the side) was pretty cool, but the skull's teeth were too pointy for my liking. So we fixed that, Nick did round 2, and voila! These stickers would have been ready sooner, but the place where he orders the vinyl sent the wrong pink. But it was OK because my Heds weren't done.

Hed came through on schedule (4 weeks). I figured the wheels were done when I saw the charge pop up on my credit card, but they didn't send me a shipping tracking number. So I called, and they arrived the next day. I was so excited when I took them out of the box! But they were missing the Ti skewers, rim tape and valve extenders. I called right away and emailed to let them know those items weren't in the box, and they shipped them right out and I had them 2 days later.

All the timing of these things was working out well. I kept telling everyone that I was not having a wheel emergency at any point in this process, so minor glitches that came up were no big deal. But I was trying to keep my trips to the bike shop to a minimum. The day I picked up Bitch, I dropped off the Heds for stickering, then last week I took Skull Kingdom with me (and my old Cane Creek wheels which I'm selling), picked up the Heds, and before I left the shop, I had a discussion about tubes, valves and valve extenders. I need to decide how I'm going to manage spares for both bikes so I'm prepared while training and racing.  I'll get all that finalized over the next month or so. Right now, I have motley tubes/extenders, and since I'm a little OCD, I won't be able to live with that for very long.

Oh and La Gazza Ladra (LGL) was also tuned in the process and she got recabled. She's still such a beauty:

 La Gazza Ladra, aka LGL. She's my go to for easy rides and super long hilly rides, so she'll get plenty of use during Ultraman training!

I needed to have the red Nokon cables removed at the recommendation of my LBSG, as they were adversely impacting the shifting. So now she has pretty silver cables! I still love her so much and will ride her in the spring from April through May and when I have easy rides scheduled.

All this was part of my master plan for attacking Ultraman Hawaii in 2016. For that race, I will ride Skull Kingdom with the Hed on the rear and Zipp on the front due to the Hawaiian winds. Won't that look bitchin'?

I can't believe I just wrote an entire post about my bikes. But, as you know, I FUCKING LOVE RIDING MY BIKES!!!

Fashion Update

I know there are people reading my blog for the first time this year, so I should probably explain what a "fashion update" is. Years ago, while working for PeopleSoft (which no longer exists as it was bought by Oracle where I now work), there was a group of us who were good friends. This was back in the late 90's, and it was then acceptable to have a fridge stocked with beer for employees to raid whenever they felt appropriate. We only did it on Friday, beginning around 3PM. Anyway, anyone who works in an office (which I no longer do) knows there is always a lot of gossip and grapevine stuff going on. So whenever one of our group had "news" to share, we would use the code "fashion update" to signal to one another that we had important information to be shared--at the time, it may have been during a smoke break (yes, I smoked from 1995-1999 after getting divorced SO FUCKING KILL ME).

I have remained friends with many of those people, and my best friend, Susan, was in that crowd. We adopted the fashion update term for whenever we would just want to share news about our lives, since we now live far apart (she's in Nevada). I will be the Maid of Honor for Susan's wedding next April.

So this post is a Fashion Update. Say that phrase aloud about 10 times and it will start to sound weird.

This is week 2 of my ATP. I started hating my coach (me!) this past weekend, as the assigned workouts are NOT easy except for the Monday and Friday runs. Everything else has some (and by "some" I mean "a lot") hard efforts included, so recovering from the shit is super important. But the hard shit is fun, you know? It sucks, it sucks, it sucks while you do it, but when you're finished and you executed the intervals properly, it's a fucking awesome feeling!

Saturday was a 2:30 ride including some suck-ass intervals followed by a :30 brick run. I was hating the bike ride only because the goddamn SRM keeps telling me just how much I suck, so I try and overcome it by going as hard as I should and maybe then some. The brick run actually felt GOOD! I hadn't done any brick runs since early September when I did a duathlon, and oh well I guess I forgot about TDD 2 weeks ago. I constantly tell triathletes that you don't need to do bricks all the time--running well off the bike is about, well, running well and frequently. When you are used to running frequently, then you just...um...RUN.

Sunday was a progressive long run, where you start out easy and build. So far, only building to Z3, but the Z4 (aka tempo) will come soon enough. Those runs are fun! Even when I do them on the treadmill! After the run (only 1:40, as I've stepped back a little on the running), I went and swam :30 just to relax and recover.

Monday is now a swim and easy run. I do the swim AM and the run mid-day. I thought I had a pretty good swim, and I felt like my form was good. As you know, I've been getting coaching from Magic Mike and while it's only been 4 weeks, my stroke has changed dramatically, and it's really cool to feel the difference as well as see some increased speed!

Tuesday is a hard bike ride. Right now on Tuesdays, I'm doing my typical warmup and then a Sufferfest video. Those things are fucking hard. If you aren't hanging your tongue out and just looking down at your power meter and hoping to die when you are :20 in, then you're doing them wrong! When I finished on Tuesday, I began choking/dry heaving, which is always a good sign that I worked hard enough. I also did some strength training on Tuesday. I'm finding I need to NOT do any on Mondays, as I'm usually trying to recover from the weekend.

Today was a swim and track workout. I do them both in the morning, because it's winter and I like running on the indoor track at my Y. I had a late start for a variety of reasons, but was in the water at 5:55 with coach Mike. The way it goes is he stalks me underwater whenever he feels like it, when we are both at the wall I ask stupid questions and try and get a reading for how I'm doing, and he stays until about 6:30 and then I keep swimming.

Well today, he'd watched me for awhile, and we were at the wall and he said, "You look good." I'm like WTF and all giggly inside like I'm 12.  I subsequently swam a fast 100 (for me) and I was like WTF is happening? That was when he told me I looked good. So I said, "So now what?" And all he says is "Keep doing that." I must have had the hugest stupidest grin on my face. I'm not there yet, but what the hell, I KNOW that my stroke is much changed from what it was! I am so fucking happy! I asked Mike how long before it feels "normal," and I know it will be awhile.

Meanwhile, I got my Bitch all doctored up:

The wheels are, well, how can I say this best? FUCKING AWESOME!!!

Now I am waiting for my new Hed wheels to be artistically doctored--they will go on Skull Kingdom:

But I digress. After today's swim, I did the track workout, and I hit the same paces as last week, which are paces I have not seen in about 5 years! I was wondering today whether I would be able to have a repeat performance, and apparently so!

I think I really played out the last 5 months by holding back on specific intensity workouts, so that I was well-prepared for the SUCK. I sit here writing this with sore pecs and wasted legs, and I couldn't feel better!  Tomorrow I get to do a "regular" bike interval workout (no fucking Sufferfest), and I'm now looking forward to it!

The thing is (that was a favorite saying of my Mom) that when the shit is working, you need to WORK THE SHIT.  I have finally learned that when shit is going well, to just keep going. Believe that it will keep going well and keep pushing on.

On the sleep front, apparently I am still good on 6-7 hours. I don't know whether it's because I am just so happy (for numerous reasons which I will go into in another post), or because I'm finally training hard again, or because I feel like I've locked into a rational training program for the next 2 years, or because I finally gave into who I am and that ultra-endurance is my thing, or because I am gathering only those people who support me around me. But it's working, and I am loving life right now. What a great feeling! I wish it on everyone reading this!

2014 Triple Dog Dare Race Report

What's a Triple Dog Dare (TDD), you say?

This is something I'd done before in 2008:

I did it to prepare for American Triple T. Back then, I was one of the first people to "invent" this thing to train for that race. I talked about it on Slowtwitch forum, and since that time, it's commonplace for people to do some variant of this to get ready for the race. I've also done a sprint/Oly/Oly, which is less stressful than TDD.

In March, 2015, I'll be doing Clermont Challenge, and I'm doing both races--the 1/2 Ironman on Saturday, and the Olympic on Sunday. I will race the 1/2 and just suffer through the Olympic, so doing a TDD now is good prep for a double 4 months out. I will also do an Oly/Oly weekend 3 weeks prior to that race.

The other reason I scheduled a TDD for now is that I wanted to see where my fitness is at, since I begin formal training for 2015 tomorrow. In swim training, I calculate a T-pace (threshold pace), and then most workouts are expressed in relation to that pace. In bike training, I need to approximate my FTP (Functional Threshold Power), and then bike workouts are expressed in relation to that wattage. In run training, I need to determine my VDOT (from Daniels' Running Formula you can find a calculator here), and then my training paces are calculated from that.

The plan was to go hard for the sprint (as if in actual racing conditions), semi-hard (approximately 1/2 Ironman pace) for the Olympic, and steady (approximately Ironman pace) for the 1/2. I've only raced 5 sprints (3 triathlons and 2 duathlons) and one Olympic (that I was in absolutely piss poor shape for) this year and 4 open running races, and have only been training consistently for 5 months. In that time, I only had volume goals, and wasn't following any specific workouts except for swimming. I've been getting one on one swim coaching for all of 3 weeks!

I wasn't at all concerned about my ability to complete TDD, as I have an extremely deep base, and knew I'd been hitting sufficient volume to power me through. I've been swimming 9-10k/week for 15 weeks, running 25+ miles per week for 18 weeks, but only biking around 6 hours per week for last 18 weeks. That is not a whole lot of time to be ready for nearly an Ironman, especially since that's really a pathetic amount of biking, but the whole point of this TDD was to see where I'm at and go from there.

There are pics from TDD 2014 on Facebook here. If you aren't friends with me on Facebook, you loser, you should be! That's where I tend to put up pics now instead of Flickr. Anyway, the purpose of TDD was not only to calibrate training paces, but for me to have a shitload of FUN! I love racing, whether or not I collect a medal and T-shirt in the process, and I'm able to push myself just as hard on my own as I can in a race.

I fixed 9 bottles of Infinit (for days 2 and 3 figuring I'd be around 3 hours for the Oly and 6 for the 1/2), 2 bottles of Ultrafuel (for days 2 and 3--don't need it for a sprint), and already had bottles of Endurox R4 for days 1 and 2 (1/2 strength) in my fridge, but mixed up a full strength bottle for day 3.

I planned to do the entire sprint at my Y to avoid excessive transition times, and then I could run on the indoor track instead of a treadmill. For the Oly and 1/2, the plan was to swim at the Y and then head home and ride on the trainer and run on my treadmill.

I continue to be on a weirdo sleep schedule where I pass out around 7:30 and am up at 2-2:30. What do I do from 2:30 until the time I begin working? Well sometimes I do some work, and I get a lot of personal things done, like cleaning, cooking, sewing, organizing my training data, and general life planning. On M/W/F, I am at the pool 6AM, so there's really not that much time from when I wake up until I swim. I am sure this schedule will eventually adjust, but it happens to work great for when I'm racing! I like to have all my pre-race calories in me 2.5-3 hours before I start.

Wednesday I had to work, so I needed to get my sprint on before work. 2008 TDD Sprint was actually a supersprint, same as Triple T--500 swim/5 mile bike/1 mile run. This year's model I decided to do a "full" sprint of 500 swim/13 mile bike (about 20k)/5k run. This would be a better measure of my short course speed.

Here is what I posted to Facebook for my Day 1 Summary:
Turns out I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought 500 yd. swim in 9:00 flat (OK I'm still a slow swimmer but that's faster than I've swum in at least 2 years--the coaching is WORKING!), 13 mile bike in 44:35 (on a Cybex which is geared for crap, so I'm ok with that), and a 3.269 mile run (because of indoor track with 12 laps to the mile, so ran 3 plus 2 laps) in 26:45. Run pace I'm only off by 1 VDOT number from where I was in 2009, and I haven't done a lick of speed work (except for a few races) this year, so FUCK YEAH 2015 is waiting for me! 

Needless to say, I was pleased as fuck! I forgot to mention that I did not taper for this shit AT ALL. Last weekend, I did a 2:05 run and a 2:45 trainer ride. I'd wanted to ride 3 hours, but I had company over and felt that 2:45 was enough. Although I did skip my 1:30 Thursday ride because I worked 13 hours that day. The weekend before that I did a 25k "race" that I didn't race because it was fairly technical trails and it was cold and slippery and I crashed at one point (but was fine) and it was the hilliest run I'd done since Northface Endurance Challenge in 2009. So on no taper, no speedwork (except for those few races where I sucked), here was a decent swim and 5k run! The indoor bike just doesn't really translate to anything, plus I didn't expect much from my biking based on my pathetic bike training.

One thing I've learned after doing numerous multiple day training events and races is that you need to be on top of your nutrition ALL THE TIME during it--pre-race loading, during race calories, post-race calorie replacement and loading for the next day. I didn't write down everything I took in on Wednesday, but I know I drank 6 oz. of flat Coke right before I raced, then went through about 32 oz. of Gatorade during. I drank 1/2 strength Endurox R4 right away after I finished, and for dinner that night I ate about 1/2 lb. of spaghetti with homemade pesto and about 6 oz. of grilled salmon. And I believe I had 1 maybe 2 beers.

When I woke up on Thursday morning (not working that day), I felt pretty good. Actually great! I did, however, feel like I'd raced the prior day. Which means I went sufficiently hard in the sprint, which was perfect. I started at 6:10, as I wanted to be done well before lunch, as I was heading to my brother Mike's for Thanksgiving dinner, and needed to make some side dishes to take with me. I'd already made almond biscotti on Monday, and I could have eaten all of them they were SO GOOD, but I digress.

Day 2 Facebook Summary Post:
Triple Dog Dare Day 2 Olympic Summary: FUCKIN A! I performed way better than expected! 1500 yd. swim 28:21 = 1:53 (not thrilled with that, but I'll take it); 25 mile bike (on MY bike with POWER!) in 1:14:51 = 20mph (rode first :30 at about 18mph then picked it up ha ha); 10k run in 59:31 (9:36/mile). All this day after running my best 5K in...5 years? Tomorrow might suck, but that's OK, all I have to do is Ironman pace. 

So...if I peg Day 2 as me going at 1/2 Ironman pace, um...that's pretty fucking outstanding for me! And I'm not even trained up yet! And I typically run faster outdoors than on a treadmill! To say I was feeling pretty good about all this would be the understatement of the century!  Also that day, I received an email from USA Triathlon telling me I'd qualified for AG Nationals! What the fuck, right? I qualified at Naperville Sprint, where I only managed 2nd in my AG on no training. I'm going to do the Olympic at AG Nats, as it's an honor, and 2015 is the year where I race my fucking head off.

So what a day I had on TDD Day 2. I did keep track of everything I ate and drank that day: 

Breakfast and pre-race loading:

·        Carrot/raisin homemade muffin and hardboiled egg

·        200 calories Ultrafuel

During race:

·        2.5 bottles Infinit

Lunch/Recovery:

·        200 calories Endurox R4

·        Lean Cuisine Tortilla crusted fish

·        2 beers (1 Beck’s and 1 Harp Lager)

Thanksgiving Dinner with my Brother and his Family:

·        ½ bottle of Ste. Michelle Riesling  (shared with Mike)

·        3 dinner rolls

·        6 oz. turkey breast

·        ¼ stick butter (went on rolls and carrots)

·        Carrots sautéed in Marsala (I made these after my race)

·        Cranberry sauce

·        Salad (cucumber, radishes, orange, mint, lemon juice/olive oil dressing) that I made after my race

·        3 of my almond/lemon biscotti

·        2 thick slices sweet potato

Dinner #2 (I was still hungry!) about 7PM:

·        Entire package Uncle Ben’s amazing rice jasmine with romano cheese and crème of balsamic

·        1 carton Fage 0% yogurt

·        1 fun size package Twizzlers

 
I didn't add up all the calories above, and who the fuck cares, anyway? I needed them. I really enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with my brother and his wife and son. After we ate, Mike let me choose what to watch on TV (since I don't have cable), and guess what was on? Iron Man 2! I've seen it a couple of times, but will watch it whenever I can. What a great day! 


I felt expectedly tired Thursday night, slept well, but was rarin' to go on Friday for my 1/2 Ironman. I managed to start at 6:05. Here's my Day 3 Facebook Summary Post:
Triple Dog Dare Day 3: I'M DONE! It went well today, and as predicted, I felt like I was in an Ironman (but not until I got on the bike). Swim 2100 yds. in 36:47 (with fins I was lazy, but still went easy) = 1:45/100, Bike 56 miles in 3:00.50 (18.56mph yeah it felt like IM pace for sure), Run 13.1 miles on treadmill in 2:16.58 = 10:27/mile. Lots of mental toughness today, for sure. I've never done a TDD all indoors (I've done 1/2 IM indoors many times), so yay for that this is a first! Did not want to kill myself until about 7 miles into the run, but once I'm halfway, I know I'm good.

So if that was representative of my potential Ironman pace, I'm doing great! But, the course was completely flat, there was no wind, and no untoward weather to contend with! But still, I felt really good about my performance. 

Once again, I kept track of everything that went into my mouth that day:

Breakfast and pre-race loading:

·        Carrot/raisin homemade muffin and hardboiled egg

·        300 calories Ultrafuel

During race:

·        5.5 bottles Infinit

·        1 piece cheddar string cheese on bike

·        1 Gu on bike (Peanut Butter)

Post-race recovery and lunch

·        270 calories Endurox R4

·        3 beers (well 1 right away other 2 were probably between lunch and dinner)

·        6 oz. grilled salmon

·        Tartar sauce: about 4 tbsp. light mayo plus 1.5 tbsp. pickle relish

·        About ¾ cup leftover carrots sautéed in Marsala, but with 1 tsp. butter on top

Dinner:

·        1 roasted chicken leg

·        The chicken liver from whole roasted chicken plus the neck meat (yeah I love that stuff)

·        1.5 cups of broccoli Stufati (broccoli, cured black olives, anchovies, onions, romano cheese cooked in red wine)

·        1 carrot/raisin pumpkin muffin (needed something sweet)

Evening snack (this was around 11PM when I woke up hungry):

·        1 fun size Twizzlers

·        ½ turkey sandwich: whole wheat bread, buttered, with about 2 oz. turkey leftover from Thursday.

 
I will leave you with 3 pics from my "event" that capture how happy I was doing this:

Now, I know that many people would hate doing all this indoors and think, "why would someone do this when there is no medal or t-shirt or spectators?" Because I can. Because I believe I've been given a gift to be able to be this fit and need to express my passion for it by doing things like this in addition to "normal" races, and to show others how much joy I get from it, and then I write about it here on my blog so people see that it's possible and also a valid way to train. 

Do what you can with passion so you can spread the joy of possibility!