Tyranena Beer Run ½ Marathon Race Report

Cool fucking shirt, eh?

So while I’ve been “training,” I haven’t been following specific workouts for biking and running since February, and I’ve only been following swim workouts since August. Beginning in August, I just set frequency and volume targets for biking and running, and have been winging it as far as races I’ve done in that period of time, which included 2 sprint triathlons (2^nd AG at both), 2 sprint duathlons (1 2^nd AG, sucked on 2^nd), 2 8-mile races (sucked first one; 2^nd AG second one).

In August, I raced 4 weekends in a row, and now I am on my 3^rd of 4 weekends in a row of running races. Normally, I race like clockwork—knowing what to eat, wear, how to pace, etc., but I was a little rusty. So I’ve not gone into any of these races expecting much, but have been pleasantly surprised and never TOO disappointed in how I’ve done.

So back to Tyranena—my time was 2:10:45, 6^th in AG. Nothing stellar, and really about what I expected. I think the last formal ½ marathon I did was in 2012, the Cary ½, in 2:13:52. Here is Tyranena course and here is Cary.  Huh. So I guess I actually did OK yesterday, better than I thought. Still, I’ve not been doing tempo runs or progressive long runs or hill work, so yay there might be hope for me to get faster again! Plus, I didn’t really fully taper for Tyranena, because why would I have? I’m just out there having fun!

I drove up there yesterday morning. It is about 2 ½ hours to Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Lake Mills is where 24 Hours of Triathlon is held, and is a race that’s on my bucket list. I’d never been to Lake Mills before. It was a bit cool (upper 30’s/low 40’s), but I erred on dressing a bit too warm for the race conditions since it was windy. 

There were volunteers directing us where to park, and I was maybe a 1 block walk from the race start.

When I get to the brewery (the race is hosted by Tyranena Brewing) about 10:30, I see a line of people waiting to buy beer! In the race email, it had said we could buy the beer at a reduced price, but I figured it wouldn’t be until after the race! I laughed, because the beer line was longer than the porta-potty line! And then I thought it made sense to get the beer before the race, because I could put it in my car and it would chill nicely!

But first I went inside the large tent to pick up my packet. They were already serving beer in there, and I’m guessing there were a number of racers who intentionally were going to race with their beer already on! I got my packet, and I saw someone drinking out of a sampler cup, and I asked for one, and it was great!

Then I went to buy my beer. You could get a mixed 12-pack for $15, so I bought 2. Carrying them together back to my car was a little workout in itself, but hey, I’m tough! I’d failed to stop at the porta-potty and really had to pee when I got back to my car, but luckily I was parked amongst a bunch of semi-trailers, so I availed myself of a discrete spot between a few of them.

Now for the trip from the car for packet pickup and beer acquisition, I wore a regular down jacket over my race gear, because it was nippy! But then I had to decide if I was going to add more clothes to race in, and I decided I’d be fine with what I had on. I pinned my bib to my jacket, loaded the Fuel Belt (complete with streamers, because I felt like it), and put on my gaiters, since part of the run would be on crushed limestone and gravel, and bonus, they keep my feet warm. I’d worn my most thermal tights, a thermal Nike top and a brand new thermal neon Nike jacket that I got on sale a few weeks ago. I went with my fleece hat and gloves, which turned out to be too much, but they weigh nothing, and I could always carry them if I needed to.

I went back to the race start and met someone who’s been reading my blog for awhile and is primarily a runner, Emily. She probably thinks I’m a major kook now, but that’s OK, I’m OK with it! We chatted about how we thought we’d do (we were both right on with our finish times), lined up, and got going.

We were immediately into the wind, which at some points was so strong that it flung one of my feet into the other! I remember I think around Mile 5 that happening when we were way out in the open. You know this is called a “beer run” for several reasons—one, because of the term, “I need to make a beer run,” and two, because, well, we were running for beer! I was really hoping there’d be an aid station with beer, and I got my wish just after Mile 4! It was funny that the table had a sign on it saying “Unofficial Beer Aid Station,” but I’m pretty sure it was official! Whatever I had was tasty, tasty, and I figured it wasn’t going to hurt me one iota, and I was here in the first place because of the beer!

The first about 5.5 miles were in the open, then we hit the Glacial Drumlin Trail, which was awesome, as it was dirt and/or crushed limestone, which I love running on. I just kind of kept motoring on, not really pushing myself too hard, but just trying to keep a steady pace. It helped that there were 2 girls which I’m certain were Garmin-ized at exactly 10mpm pace, because I was near them the entire time.

It was beautiful scenery when we were running around Lake Mills, and gosh, I’d like to just go hang out there—it’s not far from Madison where I usually go riding, and very quiet and peaceful. Except for the locals who were pissed off that we were on THEIR roads and a few drivers nearly hit some of us! Oh well, there are always those who hate us and those who give us the right of way.

The last 3 miles of the run were into the wind again, and kind of tough. I slowed a bit here, but I was still around my Garmin Girls, so I was good. I drank most of the Coke in my Fuel Belt and one bottle of Gatorade, had a few cups of water, and 1 small beer. I never did eat a gel, and I’m wondering if maybe I should have. Oh well.

So when you finish, you go back into the big tent, and we each got 2 beer tickets and 1 for lunch. I wanted the beer first, so I found Emily (who is not into the beer), and I got 2 beers, began shivering a lot, drank those, then Emily left, and she gave me her beer tickets. Here are Emily and me in the beer tent:

I walked back to my car so I could doff the sweaty jacket, hat and gloves and running shoes, and put on a hoodie, regular shoes, my down jacket, a running hat and light gloves.

I went back to the tent and finally ate some lasagna. It was great! They did have vegetarian, and when I was in line for mine, I joked with some people that meat was meant to be eaten!

I wanted one more beer, and then I gave the other 2 tickets (someone else gave me a spare) to other people, listened while they called out awards (NOT MY NAME! AG winners got cool mugs), then headed back to my car to drive to my hotel. I knew better than to drive all the way home after 3 beers.

I stayed at Johnson Creek Comfort Suites in Johnson Creek. What a nice place! My room only cost $85, and could have easily slept 4 (maybe 6 I think the couch was a pullout). Here I am with a bunch of other runners at checkin:

I immediately donned a swimsuit and headed to the hot tub with another beer in hand. At this point, I was feeling kinda tipsy, but not drunk. The hot tub was huge, including a little waterfall, but it could have been hotter. At any rate, it helped to warm me back up (my natural temperature is 97, and I become hypothermic rather easily) so I wouldn’t be shivering the rest of the day.

When I got back to my room, I showered and put on clean clothes, talked to a few friends, and then at some point decided I needed to get dinner. I got to see a beautiful sunset right from my room, although I should have snapped the pic a bit earlier:

I was feeling really grateful that I have the means to travel to races like this and that I am able to run at all! I seem to have more and more moments like that lately. I have had piles of shit in my life, but now I feel SO happy being healthy (oh yeah—my right foot barely hurt during the race!), and I love racing and training, and I’m not sucking as badly as I thought I might in getting back to it.

I stopped at the front desk for a recommendation and directions, but truth be told, I wasn’t going to remember a whole lot as the combination of beer and racing left me rather not giving much of a fuck about anything. Still, I headed out in the general direction, but instead of some supper club, found a Mexican restaurant that looked like just what I needed. I tucked in and had chicken mole, one of my favorite dishes, and a decent margarita. YUM! 

Yes the margarita was sideways as was I

Well now, when I began driving back to the hotel, I realized I was indeed, intoxicated, but hey, I’m driving in Wisconsin, so all good! I actually enjoyed driving and getting what I thought was lost, but somehow I ended back up at my hotel. I had leftovers, but within an hour or so, I was back at them.

I have no idea when I fell asleep or how much sleep I got, but in my usual fashion as of late, I was wide awake at 3:30AM. So I decided to get out of bed at 4, pack up and drive home WITHOUT DRINKING COFFEE. This was an endurance event all on its own. I dislike driving in the dark, I dislike not having coffee first thing in the morning, but I was ready to go so I did. I made it home just after 7, after stopping to refuel and get a Sausage McMuffin with Egg at McDonald’s. It had to be done.

I expected a wicked hangover today, and I’ve got that going for me, but boy oh boy did I have fun! I will go back to this event again! I was supposed to go and stay with a friend, but I still had a ton of fun by myself. Next Saturday I’m doing a 25k trail race not far from home as just a training thing, but you get a cool t-shirt with a dinosaur skeleton on it. Hopefully, my friend Lori and I will tuck in for some nice foods afterwards! After that, I don’t race again (formally; although I’m doing a NothingMan Triple Dog Dare over Thanksgiving weekend—over 3 days a sprint, Oly and ½ Ironman) until February, and it will be nice to step back on the run volume for a few months and begin actual training for an Ironman in earnest!

I have a new Pro SRM on order (this drivetrain and this head unit, although I get to exchange the head unit for the PC8 in January!!!), and it should arrive in another week. I will move the drivetrain and Powertap wheels (Zipp 404’s) from Skull Kingdom to Bitch, and I’ve ordered Hed Jet 90’s for Skull Kingdom. I’m working with a guy to make custom stickers for both wheelsets, and they are going to be the most bitchin’ fucking things ever! I am so glad to be getting an SRM again—I had one from 2004-2009, then went with an Ergomo for a few years, then a Powertap (which I hate), so I’m back on the best power meter ever. Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to me!

I really haven’t done my usual quality biking in a few years, so I’m really looking forward to lifting my FTP again (well it sucks to do but somebody has to do it) and riding lots of hills!  I’ve got several hilly races on the calendar for next year, too, and I’m confident I can get my biking prowess back. I will still hit 5,000 miles for 2013, but it didn’t include any quality work whatsoever—just enough to maintain some semblance of fitness. 2014 I should get close to 6,000 miles in and they will be quality miles.

Life is fucking awesome and I am so happy to be in it! I’m good with my race performance yesterday, and honestly, my legs aren’t a bit sore or stiff or anything, so I know I’ve got some speed potential there. I do feel REALLY solid, muscle-wise, and very prepared to enter into Ironman-level training again.

Oh and I started coached swims this past week! Magic Mike is da bomb, and I am excited to think about where I might be able to take my swimming! So everything is moving in the right direction, or will be soon enough!

All I need to do now is survive the fucking Polar Vortex that’s headed to Chicago soon. Ugh…I spent some coin on my house again this year that we will see how much of a difference it makes in my heating bills. So far, so good!

Life is short--have at it!!!

Another Challenge Met and Nearly Conquered and Crackhead Nutrition 101

So, I've been puzzled by some weight gain since August--about 4 lbs.  There is no way I could be gaining weight at the level I'm training at, while being hungry most of the time and nearly bonking during many workouts.  I asked the nurse at my doctor's office last week, and she said maybe it's muscle.  Um...NO.  I told her we need to figure this out or else I am going on a crash diet, and she shouldn't want me to do that because I will starve myself and disappear!

Still, I figured this was an opportunity to clean up my diet a little bit, so last week I started watching what I was eating--eliminating any candy, less beer, less pasta.  Weight was not budging, and it should have at least .5 lb.

On Saturday morning, I put on a pair of bike shorts that just a few weeks ago fit fine and they were TIGHT!  I was like WTF is this?  So I got on the scale, and THREE MORE POUNDS ARE THERE!!!  Clearly this is not regular weight gain, and on Friday I'd realized that I'd been drinking my sodium-laden (although not excessive for intense exercise on a hot day) Infinit a lot more than I ever have at this time of the year, and I typically get all salt cravy (cravy is a new word I just invented--you're welcome), so I thought I might be OD'ing slightly on sodium, but still...

I ordered a reduced sodium custom Infinit mix on Friday, but it hasn't arrived.  It has 32% less sodium than my "hot weather" mixture.  I am going to make one more custom formula with even less in it that I can use during winter months.

I talked with my nurse friend, Lori, about this while I was on the bike Saturday, and she suggested I just drink clear water during my ride.  But I was riding 5 hours, no way I could survive that without calories--I know my body pretty well.  So I looked at what I could switch to, and I ended up eating a Clif bar and one gel.  For the 5 hour ride I took in only 600 calories, but I had 750 in before I started so I was OK and didn't bonk, and I even did hard intervals.  But, I have so much HTFU, don't I?

I tried to eat well right after the ride, and then I had sushi for dinner with my brother Mike, and fuck, I really wanted the soy sauce, but I only let myself have a tiny bit.

Yesterday morning, I weighed myself, and those 3 additional lbs. were still there, and I rode Death Machine for 3.25 hours on 366 calories of Infinit, so I had some sodium going there AND CAFFEINE!  For lunch, I had some mostly plain pasta with barely any homemade salmon sauce, which still probably contained a good hit of sodium, but not too terribly much.

I baked some banana wheat germ muffins to begin eating for breakfast, as it turns out my beloved English muffin has too much sodium for my own good.  I even left out the pinch or so of salt in my muffin recipe because as it turns out FUCKING NO SUGAR ADDED ALMOND MILK HAS A BUNCH OF SODIUM IN IT!   Not enough to be lethal to me, but enough that it warranted not adding additional salt to my recipe.  You see what's going on here--you try and eat/drink something you THINK is healthy, but it really isn't.  Ugh...  I started using almond milk in my muffins 2 years ago as a way to reduce the fat in them, but guess what?  EXCESS SODIUM!  Fuckers...

For dinner, I had a salad with no added sodium and some sirloin steak with no salt, and then I had a Fage yogurt, which FUCKING YAY, barely has any sodium in it.  Not sure if I got enough calories, but today I only have to swim so I should be OK.

I was feeling puffy still, though, so I talked to my friend's wife, Nancy, since I know she is all over various sorts of things with her body and figured she might have some advice for me.  She did, and suggested some natural diuretic pills, which I immediately went out and bought and took one with dinner.  THANK YOU NANCY!!!

I don't know if it was the pill by itself, or the pill plus my reduced sodium yesterday, but I weighed myself and 3 lbs. is gone.  FUCK YEAH!  Now I need to see 4 more go.  It will be interesting to see what my "real" weight is--I'm guessing maybe 111--but we shall see.

So I'm now watching my sodium intake like a hawk--I still want some during training, and cut my Infinit by half so I still get some plus some calories, and Coke is OK since it isn't sodium laden (THANK GOD OTHERWISE I WOULD KILL MYSELF), and I can even do Gatorade.  I just need to keep my non-training sodium intake to a minimum.

At the moment, I don't know if this sodium episode is a direct result of the hypothyroidism, or whether it's just that since this is the first time I've trained for a winter Ironman and used so much Infinit during training that I just kinda OD'ed on sodium.  Whatever.  I will report this to my doctor today (including that I'll be taking a mild diuretic for a few days), and see how I do with less sodium during training the next few weeks.  I have a feeling I will be OK using the full-strength Infinit on race day in Cozumel since it will be hot.  I don't care if I"m puffy for a few days after that race--I just need to be sure my body can handle it, so this will require a decent discussion with my doctor.

I thought I'd reprise some of my general nutrition wisdom in this post as well. I try as best as I can to follow the guidelines for carb intake based on training hours from an older version of one of Monique Ryan's sports nutrition books.  Here's the table for low to high training hours:

And here's the table for excessive amounts of training, i.e., a Crackhead:

In order to achieve this easily (i.e., without keeping track of precise calorie intake daily) at different levels of training throughout a season, I've made some rules for myself:

• If I'm training < 12 hours per week, no rice or pasta at dinner.  Just salads loaded with veggies.
• If I'm training 12+ to 14 hours per week, I can have rice at dinner.  Gives me a boost in carbs.
• If I'm training 14-16 hours per week, I can have pasta 1 or 2 times per week at dinner in addition to rice the other days.
• If I'm training 16+ hours per week, I can have pasta as often as I like.
• If I'm training 18+ hours per week (as I have almost every week for the last 17 weeks), then I can even have things like candy, Cheetos and Twinkies.  Again, not excessive amounts, but just as "treat" foods, because at this point, it actually becomes difficult to EAT ENOUGH calories, especially on days when I train > 4 hours.

Now, you must realize that as training hours increase, the amount of carbs you are taking in DURING TRAINING SESSIONS naturally goes up, and you have to consider your total carb intake including all regular food PLUS all the training nutrition.  This is really important, and why some people (I even did this once) PUT ON WEIGHT while training for an Ironman--they think they can eat with abandon, and you really CAN NOT.  Especially a small person like me.  

Now some other things I do include:

• I drink Endurox R4 as a recovery drink on days where I train 1.5 hours or more, which is pretty much every day until I rest a few weeks after IMCOZ.  But I only use 1.25-1.5 scoops, as I am small, and the serving size of 2 scoops is calibrated for a larger person.  I have used Endurox for years.  It's expensive, but I feel better for using it, plus it has a good dose of vitamins in it.
• I use Ultrafuel before training sessions of 4+ hours.  If I'm doing 4 hours, I will use 3 scoops (300 calories), and if I'm doing 5+ hours I will use 4 scoops (400 calories).  This stuff also has some vitamins and minerals in it.  It's basically sugar with some flavor and vitamins, and is relatively inexpensive.  It was recommended to me by my very first triathlon coach, and I swear by it for preloading on heavy training/racing days.  I know so many people who begin an Ironman with maybe 300 calories in their bodies and that is just FUCKING STUPID, and they wonder why their performance suffered.  When you do this, you basically dug yourself a hole that you cannot get out of that entire day!  You burn through 300 calories maybe halfway through your swim meaning you are starting the bike depleted already.  So before a 1/2 or full IM, I will have about 800 calories in the tank before I start--400 calories of Ultrafuel, plus about 400 calories of actual breakfast plus sips of Gatorade.
• I have had my BMR measured so that I know that I am dialing in my calorie intake appropriately.  I want to get it done again, but not until we have my thryoid meds dialed in.  No sense doing it until that happens, because I will get a false reading.  The last time I was measured, my BMR was 1950, meaning when I do nothing for a day I need that many calories, and then I expend on average 500 calories/hour doing any form of exercise, so you can see that when I'm training 2-2.5 hours on weekdays, I need to take in over 3,000 calories!  If you don't know your BMR, though, your nutrition can be a crap shoot, which is why I suggest you go with the tables above FIRST, and then see how you do.  If you get it right, it becomes stupid easy to lose weight--you just drop say 200 calories per day, and in 2.5 weeks you should lose 1 pound.
• I always fuel during workouts, even if they are 30 minutes, just so my brain is happy.  The biggest user of sugar in our bodies is our brain, and it's the reason we bonk, too.  Unless you are training like 5 hours a day or something like that, you have plenty of fat reserves to power you for a long time, but your body won't switch over to full fat metabolism any time soon.  Your brain will shut down your muscles, though, in an effort to save itself when it thinks you are low on sugar.  Now, I would not recommend this to someone training only 10 hours per week.  In that case, none of your sessions are very long, and so you can go plain water much of the time.  But I would say that 12+ hours per week, you might want to always be taking in some sugar, but don't forget this counts towards your daily carb total.
• If I'm swimming 1.5 hours or more, I will switch from Gatorade to Infinit, because the longer the session, the more your body needs the calories especially if you are going to do another workout the same day.  I learned this while training for Ultraman, when I was swimming 2+ hours on most Fridays.  I also had to eat another breakfast right when I was done with those swims, because even though 2 hours of swimming doesn't burn the same calories as 2 hours of running, the fatigue on your body is nearly the same, and so you EAT.
• The calories per hour I shoot for while biking are about 35% of what I'm burning, which I can know from using a power meter.  All other ways of measuring are WRONG--so unless you ride with a power meter, you probably have no clue how many calories you are burning because CALORIES = WORK and the only way to calculate WORK is by POWER EXPENDED.  Some people can go higher than 35%, but in an Ironman I would never go higher than that, as it can be a recipe for GI distress.  Remember that the faster you go, the less calories your body can process, so slower people can generally take in a higher % of calories burned than the faster folks, and liquids are always better than solids because your body can process them easier.
• The calories per hour I shoot for while running are maybe only 25% of what I'm burning, because jostling makes it tougher for your system to digest, and during a triathlon, if you've nailed your bike nutrition, that's sufficient calories to get you through the run.  You never see pros eating fucking sandwiches on the marathon, do you?  You also don't see them chewing bars and shit--too hard to digest.  Plus they are going so fast that it's hard to digest much of anything.  So again, all liquid, unless you really want something else, and don't forget to give yourself SOME sodium on the run if your race is warm, since you WILL need it.  This is why they serve chicken broth at Ironman races.  Because some of us idiots will revert to all Coke, which doesn't have enough sodium to support the electrolytes we are sweating out.

I have guidelines for the day before and morning of a race as well--if you want that, I have a .PDF of a nutrition presentation I've given several times to athletes with all that in it, just message me on Facebook and I'll send it along.

If you are training for Ironman or I would even say half Ironman, and you think you can just wing it on your nutrition, I would tell you that you are DEAD WRONG.   This training places heavy demands on your body, and to treat it any less than the beautiful, complex, awesome machine that it is is to fuck with your karma!  Do you put crap into your car?  Do you feed your pets crap? Just as I believe that daily stretching and frequent massage fall into the category of "cost of doing business," so does good nutrition.

Even me, who thinks I'm doing everything right, can always improve my nutrition.  And so I am.  I'm going to be extra careful about sodium now, and that means the Cheetos and Pringles are off the table.  I can look forward to that McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg after IMCOZ!

57th Birthday Celebration and Ongoing Science Experiment

You know I've been waiting to be able to use a picture of that, right?  Well not exactly waiting, but knowing I would use it one day.

Shelley arrived at my house Saturday morning when I was about 3.5 hours into a 5:30 trainer ride.  Yes, TRAINER.  It was dark and really cold when I started, and I wanted to be around for when Shelley arrived, so trainer it was.  My legs didn't feel exactly peppy, most likely due to all the running I did the week before.  But I didn't feel rotten, either.  About 2 hours in, predictably, I wanted to quit.  I started thinking about how long I was going to be on there, that I would have company, and there were a bunch of other things I'd rather be doing.  But that thought passed quickly, and I pressed on.  I watched Dr. No and From Russia with Love before Shelley arrived.

When she got here, we had huge hugs to start.  We hadn't seen one another since 2009 at IMLP, and had become disconnected later that year.  So it was great to see one another, and as much as I just wanted to continue talking and hugging, I had business to do, so I took her bike into my house, and we unloaded stuff from her car.

Shelley claimed to not be as much of a James Bond fan as I am, but she'd seen Skyfall, and so I recommended we watch Casino Royale, as it's the first one with Daniel Craig, so we put that on.  This must have been the 5th or 6th time I've watched it, and it's good every time.  Non-stop action, beautiful cinematography (as most of the Bond movies have), lush scenery, and in this case, decent character development.  Having this on made me HTFU and work harder on the bike, although Shelley had to leave to go see her son, Ian, who was in town to go to a Blackhawks game.  Shelley is Canadian but now resides in Indianapolis with her husband, Steve, and Ian still lives in Canada, but is a huge Hawks fan.

I was fine putting Casino Royale on hold until later, and I switched to music for my last hour of riding.  I ended up at 122 miles in 5:30.  Now, lest you think I had no resistance on the trainer, I did, and I checked the power curve for it:

Power (watts) = slope x speed (km/h) + intercept

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Slope	3.73	5.33	6.87	8.27	10.07	11.4	13.13	14.4	15.93	17.73
Intercept	-28.67	-36.67	-43.33	-47.33	-66.33	-67.00	-83.67	-82.00	-89.67	-114.67

I was at resistance level 4, so according to this I averaged over 200 watts.  Well, um, no, but still I was kicking out watts, and my legs were appropriately wasted when I finished.

I thought I might run some errands when I was done, but I was too tired to do much more than eat lunch and lay down in bed for an hour or so.  I stretched, and then got ready for dinner, Shelley arrived back from her foray into downtown Chicago, and we went to meet Lori for sushi.

We went to Kyoto in Downers Grove.  I'd been there once before and knew it was good.  Lori and Shelley had wine and I had a giant Sapporo.  We had nigiri and some really great rolls, and I saw someone get this:

so we had to have it.  It was awesome, and the light in the glass changed color, so we had a little show!  I ordered way too many rolls for us to finish, so after dessert of mochi balls, we all made our to go boxes.  Even after all that, the bill wasn't too outrageous, as I'd had a $25 gift certificate that we were able to use.  Shelley and I said goodbye to Lori and went back to my house.

Shelley and I watched the rest of Casino Royale wearing our jammies. Here I am working on my birthday puzzle.  I bought it for myself because I like unicorns ;)

Shelley named my downstairs room the "Iron Kingdom."  I like that name!  It is all about bikes, running and beer down there.  Not sure beer goes with Iron Kingdom, but what the hell, right?

I think once my head hit the pillow that I fell asleep in 2 seconds.  But since I'd stayed up past my bedtime (I've been falling asleep around 7:30 exhausted), I hoped to sleep in a little, but that just doesn't happen lately, and I woke up at my customary 3AM and only got 6 hours of sleep.  I tried to be quiet, and I was until I started bouncing this light up ball on my living room floor, and I guess Shelley heard it as she later reported to me accompanied by a big FUCK OFF.  Oh well.

By the time Shelley got out of bed, I'd already eaten breakfast and drank Ultrafuel and was rarin' to go on my 3:30 ride/:40 run.  She was not.  However, I'd made her coffee and we had some time to chat before I got started, and she got to see how pretty my bar is in the dark

We got ready to get on the trainers again.  I didn't feel too bad considering the day before, and Shelley saw that I had Full Metal Jacked, so we watched that. It made me HTFU and work hard on the bike.  Here I am being a complete dork with my aero helmet on:

Shelley's hip was bothering her, so she got off the trainer after about an hour, and she wanted to go see Ian again anyway, so she got ready and left while I kept going with music on.

This time I did 88 miles in 3:30, so I was able to work harder than on Saturday, which is good, since I was riding for less time.  I did all my interval shit, and I was pretty happy with my effort.  It was nice outside for running, so I stripped off my bike clothes and suited up for outside.

Oh my did I feel tired and also bonky!  I figured there was no way I'd replaced all the calories I'd burned the day before, so I was already way behind starting the run, and even having fueled properly on the bike, I would need to seriously HTFU to get the run done.  It was nice and sunny out, though, so I couldn't help but smile as I was having such a wonderful weekend, and despite feeling bonky, I felt just GREAT!

I was pretty proud of myself when I finished, and so was #OutsideFish:

Of course, after this I had the BEST SHOWER EVER, then I inhaled some food and cracked a beer and stretched, and as much as I wanted to lay down, I needed to get cracking on dinner, since I was cooking for Shelley and Lori.  First I washed dishes (well mostly fucking bottles), then I got the asparagus dish ready to go, got the chicken ready to roast, and waited for Shelley to arrive back.

When she got back, I had one thing on my mind: CHAMPAGNE!  We were going to have it with dinner, but we didn't want to crack open the bottle until Lori arrived.  Within about a minute of her arriving at my house, with all the food almost ready to eat, we had a nice toast and then we were eating, talking, and eating and talking!  We had such a great time, culminating with what I thought was one of the best desserts I've ever had: my homemade Elvis Presley pound cake with one scoop of Hazelnut gelato and another of Coconut gelato.  Lori laughed at how I practically put my face into the bowl, but I was so hungry and it was so tasty!  After I finished mine, I apologized that I needed to eat more, so I had more gelato.

I made Lori take some leftover pasta sauce home with her, and then Shelley and I changed into our jammies and watched Quantum of Solace.  It's not as good as Casino Royale, and also not as long.  I passed out several times, but I'd warned Shelley that I would.  I got up for the end, and then we went to sleep, and I promised Shelley that I wouldn't wake her up in the morning.  Since I was effectively up past my bedtime again, I ended up only getting 6 hours of sleep, but I think Shelley got at least 8.

Monday morning, Shelley and I went to my Y for an easy swim.  We were laughing our asses off a lot, with the highlight being I'm swimming and she is swimming underneath me and I'm like WTF, and she surfaces and says she is Underwater Fish.  That made me keep laughing until I was finished.  I had Shelley check my stroke, and it turns out that I am still crossing over with my left arm if I am breathing on my right, but if I breathe on my left, I'm perfect.  So I will breathe on my left even more than I was until my stupid brain/body gets it!

When we finished, we showered and were about to hit the sauna, when this woman who I gave some swim lessons to and rewarded me with a Bible (yes, ME) began talking to me about how she'd gone vegan and quit eating added sugar and how much better she felt.  I was happy for her, until she started telling me how evil sugar is and that I should stop eating it.  I tried to be nice and explain that being an athlete and all that I NEED sugar while training, but of course, she wouldn't understand.  Still, she went on a bit longer than I thought I could tolerate, and I'm pretty sure Shelley was standing there thinking, "I wonder when Sheila is going to blow her stack at this person?"  Well I didn't even though I wanted to, and I wondered yet again why people have this thing about trying to "fix" me.  Thank you, I'm really not that broken.  However, not too long after that, I made up a prayer that goes like this: FUCK OFF.  AMEN.  If that woman gets on my case again, I will share it with her.

I was hungry WHILE we were swimming, and we decided we'd go to McDonald's for breakfast (my second; Shelley's first).  I had a Steak McMuffin, which was pretty good, but in retrospect, I should have skipped the hash browns.  Those things are disgustingly greasy, but they do taste good.  We both later wished we hadn't gone there at all, but oh well, it was tasty!

We had a few hours to kill, and they'd put up this speed check thing practically right outside my house, and I'd been dying to take a silly picture in front of it.  I decided I'd make a 140.6 sign to put over the flashing speed limit, and so we did it:

The 140.6 is still on there as I write this!  Nobody took it off the sign, and even my neighbors who know I do Ironman probably wouldn't know what it means and suspect me in the shenanigans!

FYI, our splits for the 1-hour Ironman were:

• Swim 5 minutes.  But I think Shelley came in at :04.15.  So that's 7 seconds/100 yds.  Not bad!
• Bike 30 minutes, for 225mph.  Also not bad.
• Run 25 minutes, for a pace of 57 seconds/mile.

After this, I went with Shelley to an ortho appointment about her hip labrum tear.  The surgeon didn't sugar coat anything, and I will not go into details, as that's Shelley's business.

After all that, Shelley had to leave to return home, and I was sad to see her go.  It was like old times, and we'd laughed and caught up and shared our good and bad.  It was a perfect weekend!

Since then, I've been in touch with my doctor again about what's going on with me.  I think the extra 3-4 lbs. on me is possibly water retention, which can be a side effect of either hypothyroidism, levothyroxine, or both.  At any rate, there is no way I could have put on this weight with all the training I've been doing in the last 8 weeks.  So I had a discussion, and the nurse tells me maybe I put on muscle.  WHAT?  Yeah right, EVERYONE puts on muscle in the last 12 weeks of Ironman training.  I asked her if they'd run a bodyfat measurement on me to check and she was puzzled.  At any rate, we decided (with consultation of my doctor) to up my levothyroxine a little more, as it seems that *I* am the one who keeps the best track of monitoring how much and when and what the result was.  And then I can't get my next blood test done until after IMCOZ, and that should be entertaining.  At least I will get to see what that does to my body, eh?  I think the treatment objective for me is to get me as close to hyperthyroid as possible without going over the edge, like I appeared to do in early August.

What was funny is that the nurse said my weight was "stable," and I politely corrected her and said I kept track of it at the same time of the day, and that what they saw in the office every few months was not representative.  I think they are getting the idea that I keep a pretty good eye on myself, you think?

So I will suffer with yet another slight bump in meds and see how it works.  I will know in about a week, even though the nurse claims it takes much longer.  I tried to explain to her that I am trying to separate how I feel due to the training from the effect of the meds, and that it's hard for me to know which end is up.  But if we continue to test me every 6 weeks, I think we will get some idea of how my body behaves on its own, which is what I want to know, because I have a feeling I will need to moderate my levothyroxine dose on my own to match my training objectives.  OH JOY!  But it's just another "thing" to add to my to do list.

On that note, have a great day, I am feeling wonderful!