Big Week!

I am just back home from spending the weekend in Verona, Wisconsin to do a race rehearsal on the IMWI course and some other stuff. Please note I am drinking a glass of Grumpy Troll Amnesia Baltic Porter as I write this, so I may pass out or need to stop for awhile and go take a nap. OMG it is SO good!

I am going to back up to Thursday. My training schedule called for a 2:00 run, but fuck that, it's 3 weeks out from IMLP and I did a little over 16 last week, so I decided to go for 17. Since for once I didn't have any meetings in the morning, I let myself sleep in until 5:30, finished a Power Bar Triple Threat and a couple of cups of coffee, loaded a small cooler with (3) 12-oz. bottles of defizzed Coke, and headed for Waterfall Glen, where I was on the trail running at 6:45AM. Even though I arrived there what I would consider late for a weekday morning, I got the very first parking spot closest to the trailhead:

I thought I'd take a picture of the trailhead, too, since I have spent many, many hours here!



I wasn't absolutely positive that I would do 17 miles, since allegedly I didn't need to, so armed with 1 bottle of Coke, I started out. Since it hadn't been too long since I'd had breakfast, I didn't think I'd need any Coke for awhile. Whenever I do these long runs, I usually split them into 2 out and backs, but how much I do for the first leg is always unknown, and I just play it by ear, thinking how long I can go on whatever I'm carrying. I didn't want to run down into the hole (to Mile 5 and a little beyond) because I'd have to run out, but I didn't drink anything before Mile 4, so I figured why the hell not, and I ran down in there, meaning I'd need to run uphill out, but so what! On Tuesday, I'd done a brick run on a street near home that I'd never run, and it was a good one because it includes a 1-mile fairly steep hill that I just charged up, so I wasn't having too much trouble with the Waterfall Glen hills today, although I typically walk the first 2 in the first 2 miles just because it's warmup time, right?

Still, I was pleased that I was running fairly well, even with running out of the hole, and got the first 11 miles done feeling pretty great. I had run about 8 1/4 miles the day before pretty much all at tempo pace, and this was the day after the hilly brick run, so I was like what the fuck, I guess I'm running well!

As I was out there on the first leg, I kept forgetting how to do basic math to figure out how many miles I'd need to run on the second leg, but after I finished 11 and stopped briefly at my car to get some more Coke, my brain kicked back in and realized I only needed to do 6 more.

Those last 6 miles I slowed down about 20 sec. per mile, but that was fine, I shouldn't have been running that fast in the first place! Still, overall, I ran a little faster than I think I can run an open marathon to qualify for Boston for the full 17, so I have to chalk it up as a good run.

Hmmm...3 solid hard fast runs in 3 days...what's next? I hadn't fit in my strength training, so sometime in the afternoon I decided to get on it even though my legs were pretty shot. Still, I got in :55, and I thought that was pretty good after a 17-mile run.

Friday called for a 3800m TT in the pool, and with some warmup and cooldown, it would make for a nice 3 mile swim. I wanted to swim outdoors, but got lazy again and slept in until 5:30AM, so I ended up driving to the Y to swim. I forgot how many yards an IM swim is so I just settled on 4400 yards, and I split it into 4x1100, alternating pull, and pull with paddles, so a real strength building swim, huh? I swam about even paced the full effort, even though my swimming sucks, but at least I felt like I have the necessary endurance to pull off a decent (1:15) IM swim, if you consider drafting. Still, the IMLP swim has way too many athletes, and I've seen my swim time go up the more people get added. I hate getting beat up. But who knows what will happen this year? Sometimes I think I'd just rather swim alone, because I know what I can do. Whatever, I digress. I did complete 3 miles of swimming.

I thought about running a little bit, but my legs were on the verge of not liking it, so I didn't. I packed for Wisconsin, and got on the road around 1:30, experienced some holiday traffic, but got there around 4PM, unloaded the car, chilled a little bit and then headed to The Grumpy Troll for dinner and to refill my 2 growlers that I had back from April when Jostein and I went up there to ride a few hours. I was going to fill one of them with Imperial Stout, but when my waitress told me it was $40 for it, I decided to get the other stout that I've had before, Spetsnaz Stout, and the second growler is the Amnesia Porter that I am still nursing. I had some spicy chicken/andouille sausage pasta thing and their usual good salad, and returned to home base, the Super 8 in Verona. Of course I didn't finish the entire dinner, and so brought a box back to the hotel, where I later basically ate the rest of the chicken, and had one more beer while watching highlights from past Tour de France's. Below is a pic of the two growlers I bought being iced, since we wouldn't want this good beer to spoil before I get home, now would we?


Alarm got set for 4:15AM as I was to meet a new friend, Ken, at Fireman's Park so we could ride the stick (the out and back section of the IMWI course) before meeting up with Ali to ride 2 loops. I slept rather fitfully, but still got in about 8 hours since I'd retired early, even though I awoke several times to fireworks booms.

I got to Fireman's Park with a few minutes to spare, and Ken was a few minutes late, but we headed out at about 6:15am. We rode to the Sheraton on John Nolen Drive, which is close enough to the beginning of the actual course, then turned around back for Fireman's Park. It was a cool, overcast day with 30-60% chance of rain depending on which source you consulted, so I'd worn a bike jersey and shorts and carried a rain jacket with me. We were fine for this part, and when we got back to the park, I called Ali, and he was 10-15 minutes out, so Ken and I decided to roll for a few more miles just to make sure we got in a full 112 on the day! So we rode out backwards on the loop for a few and back, Ali was just arriving with Deanna, whom I'd met a few times before but didn't recognize until she took off her sunglasses.

We all headed out on the loop, and we all knew Ali would take off ahead of us, which was fine. Deanna and Ken sandbagged that they were slow, but it turned out they and I were about the same pace, but we somehow managed not to draft one another much at all for the first 40-mile loop. I got ahead of them for a bit, but stopped at the Kwik Trip in Mount Horeb to pee, they both went by me, and then I caught Ken peeing by the side of the road at the intersection of J (or is it S?) and Witte Road. Ken got ahead of me for a bit, and then he launched some bottles on railroad tracks, and I went ahead, and then all 3 of us were pretty close the entire time.

We reloaded our bottles and headed out for loop 2. I had made (2) 3.5 hour bottles of Infinit, but we were 4 hours in and I hadn't finished the first bottle. That was OK since it was so cool out. I felt pretty good as on the first climb off of Paoli Road my legs didn't feel too bad at all, and this is always a marker for this course.

Somewhere before we got to Mount Horeb, I was ahead of Ken and Deanna and I didn't stop to pee at all, so I just kept going. As I was riding, I kept thinking, "hey this kinda sucks but not nearly as much as Horribly Hilly" and that kept me going. I was ignoring the power meter (which won't display speed right now, but who cares?) and just riding based on my breathing, so all was good. I never did take off my arm warmers, but unzipped the jersey a little as it did warm up a little bit.

When I got back to Fireman's Park, Ali was already running, and I had left my run stuff back at the hotel, so I needed to go back there. Deanna had cut a tire and so hadn't gotten very far into the second loop at all, and my car was packed up when Ken arrived back, and I told him I had to go back to the hotel, and thanks for the ride and all that.

I had only drunk 2.5 bottles of water and 1.5 bottles of Infinit for the entire ride, which seemed a little low to me, but oh well! My legs didn't feel all that bad, so I hurried up and got the bike back in the hotel and suited up to run. I knew it was actually warm out as I was pretty sweaty, and as soon as I headed out, I realized how humid it was, but still not too hot. I ran back to Fireman's Park in hopes of catching Ken, which I did, and he'd run 3 miles, but was headed home, and I continued on. I was supposed to run 6 miles, but I just decided on running about an hour whatever that would bring. On my way back to the hotel, I caught up with the Military Ridge Trail to run on which is nice crushed limestone.

I didn't know how fast or slow I was running until I got to a mile marker and then timed myself, and I was extremely please with how I was running! Plus, this was the best I can ever remember feeling running off of a 112-mile bike ride except maybe for a few IM races over the years. Still, this is not race day, so let's just get it done.

And I did. Here are a few pics from after I finished up the run:





I guess I'm a skinny little thing now, aren't I? When I was finished, I was famished, but I had to shower first and start in on my Endurox R4, which I did, and then since I was conveniently next to McDonald's, I just walked over there and got one of the new sandwiches I'd read about--the 1/3 lb. Angus Burger with mushrooms and swiss cheese, and small fries:

The burger was actually tasty from what I can remember since I think I inhaled it in like 2 minutes! I actually ate a bunch of fries on the walk back to the hotel and polished them off before I started in on the burger. And then I got to laying down to watch a replay of Stage 1 of the TDF wearing compression tights and laying down and generally moaning. My legs felt pretty well trashed, but I've felt worse, and I was pleased with the time it took me to cover the IMWI course and my brick run.

Finally, I motivated to stretch, and then I got in the hot tub:

for a little bit while watching some comedy on TV (I still haven't hooked up the converter box to my TV at home and hadn't watched any TV since June 12 or whatever that date was). The hot tub was blissful, and I polished off the last of 3 beers while in there before getting (or trying to get) to sleep early, as I was pretty tired.

I was pretty pleased with the 3 past days of training, having covered nearly full Ironman distance (OK so I was off on the running part by by 2.2 miles, fuck me, OK?) in 3 days (actually went over on the swim), and thought that can't be a bad thing, seeing as how I want to do double IM distance over 4 days. This made me think maybe I can do it, although I'll be doing it all brickie-brick style, which will be harder ;)

I slept fitfully, as there were more fireworks, my legs were throwing off all sorts of heat, and I'd had plenty of caffeine on the bike. Still, I think I managed about 8 hours of sleep, finally waking up around 6:30. I had thought about doing some more biking this morning, but knew I didn't need to, but I've had some significant training weekends this year where I've been able to do something the day after something where I'd normally take a day off, and it was a gorgeous day, so I thought, what the hell, what else am I doing, I'm here--may as well ride, right?

I went to the hotel lobby and fixed myself a waffle, which was just the thing I needed plus 2 cups of coffee, and before I could think too much about it, I had most everything in my car and was on my bike by about 8:10AM. I was going to wear bike shorts, but since it was so sunny, I decided on panties, and as soon as I started, realized what a good choice it was. It was so beautiful--I should have taken my camera with me the sky was so perfect, and all the crops so green--this is what I live for--to bike in an area like this with this kind of weather! I rode pretty well considering, and I think it was the right thing to do.

Here's my trusty Bitchie after this morning's ride. She did me proud this weekend, and I decided I still love her, even though I wouldn't mind another tri bike in my stable!


And here's me with Bitchie.


I wanted to keep riding, it was such a nice day, but alas, I need to start thinking about actually tapering for IMLP, so I'm going to review my past records to see what exactly I will do. I am in my run taper for sure, but I think I can knock out one more solid week of biking before I drop off.

I feel so great now, which means I am definitely peaking. I just want to keep training. Training is what I love. Training well is what I love. Training well in the company of other good athletes is what I love. It's all good. But I guess I'm signed up for this damn race, so I had better get my head in that game, right?

Hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did!

What Happened in Wisconsin

I didn't have high expectations coming up here. Last year, I did a big block of training and then my race rehearsal sucked. This year, I did an even bigger block of training right before this and...my race rehearsal sucked! Only it sucked differently...

I didn't ride the normal course. I did the out and back first from Verona, knowing the winds were supposed to pick up, and that went really well. Absolutely gorgeous day! I started out with the arm warmers, but didn't really need them as it was quite humid to start off and the sun was high in the sky already (I started riding at 6:30AM). When I got to the bike path along Lake Monona (the one you swim in for IMWI), I could tell the lake was really high from all the rain, and I wondered if it had gone over the banks. When I got just past Monona Terrace, I could see that the lake had, indeed, spilled the banks a bit.

I turned around at the bike shop along the lake, and was just clipping in when 2 guys began yelling at me, so I stopped. They asked about some open water swim that was supposed to be happening. I laughed devilishly at them and said, "Do I look like I would know about that?" And they both smiled and said, yeah, I look like I work out a little bit. I asked them which group it was and they said EVOtri. I told them I wasn't part of that and was sorry that maybe their swim was cancelled. I wouldn't have gone swimming in there--my guess is that the bacteria levels are pretty high, but who knows?

Not even a minute later, a guy I met some years ago says hi to me. He thought I didn't remember him, but I remembered his name--Brad. We caught up--he's going on Ironman #3 and I sort of sheepishly told him I was going on #11. I get the impression some people hear that and figure I have absolutely no life (in some respects they are right), but then many athletes only know my "Ironman" persona, so of course, they would think that. Anyway, Brad was riding by himself, and wished me a good ride and I told him I was already 18 miles in because I rode from Verona. I ended up seeing him later in Mt. Horeb.

When I rode back to Verona, the winds had picked up, but I was still riding well and feeling great. My objective for the ride was to be as cheesy as possible, because I know from experience how easy it is to put out watts on this course due to all the hills. I wasn't staring at the Ergomo; I was just telling myself that if I could ride easier I should.

All was well when I got back to Verona, and I had gone sufficiently easy for the first leg. Instead of stopping at Fireman's Park for water, I went to the gas station across the street where I had stopped last year, and the nice lady gave me ice cold water! I showed her my gimp hand, which actually was much better (as I type this it's about 98%).

Now I was going to start the 40-mile loop. As soon as I got into it, I decided I didn't want to ride all the crap, and that I would just do an out and back to Mt. Horeb and maybe a little further. There was pretty much a head wind all the way to Mt. Horeb, and while discouraging, I pressed on. I was pretty proud of myself because I was in the aerobars all the time, and I mean all. I did the climb up into Mt. Horeb in the bars, and this helped to keep my watts down. I had plenty of gears, and I was checking my legs, and starting to feel the fatigue.

I stopped at the Kwik Trip in Mt. Horeb where lots of bikers stop to refuel and ran into Brad and a few other people I know. As I headed out in the reverse direction I had just come, I saw a lone roadie ahead of me. I came up on him and we began chatting. He was a really nice guy, and he asked me if it was OK if I drafted on a ride. I told him I can't in the race, but there were no worries in training, because so what if you can ride faster then? We had sort of a tailwind and worked well together. He had driven in from Lake Mills to ride about 30 miles. He made some smart remark about being an old man and so I asked him how old he was--maybe 30? It's hard to tell as long as person is fit, you know, with the helmet and sunglasses and all. He told me he's 40, and I told him I've got him beat and he couldn't believe it when I told him my age. I told him that yeah, I just try and take care of myself and all.

As Don and I continued riding back to Verona (where he left his car), we saw many, many riders heading into Verona--mostly triathletes. Don asked me if a lot of the women he was seeing were competing, and I figured out what he meant, because, well, frankly, there were a lot of very large women riding. I shared my sentiment on that which is that one should drop weight before doing Ironman because it won't beat up your body as much and besides, biking is all about power to weight ratio. Just the other day, Jamie was telling me (during one of our non-stop jabber sessions) that he wants to know what my CdA is and that we should measure it. Basically, CdA is a measure of how aerodynamic/efficient your position is. The smaller and lower you are on your bars, the better the number you have, and the faster you can go with less watts. I must be pretty good, because I can ride pretty well considering I'm a tiny little Yard Gnome!

I ended up losing Don about 3 miles from Verona as I powered through some rollers. I hope he enjoyed his ride! I went past Fireman's Park and now it was time to decide how I wanted to finish out my ride. I started to backtrack a little bit when I saw 2 guys circling an intersection. I joked that that was a helluva way to get in 100 miles! I turned around and they were still there, and then they asked if I was part of the WIBA group. I told them that I have zero affiliations, but that I knew they were up here riding.

I had just started to notice my stomach not feeling so good. I was using my new Infinit mix, Money Shot, for the first time. When I took the very first sip of it, I could taste the caffeine. How do I know that's what I was tasting? Way back when in college I used to take Vivarin every now and then, and tastes are hard to forget. But the effect felt great, until I about now, and then I realized my stomach and nervous system were not too good with the amount of caffeine. I didn't exactly have the jitters--my stomach was just off, and that combined with the fact that no matter how you cut it, I was operating on a boatload of fatigue, combined to make me feel like complete and total shit. I wanted to cut my ride way short, to the tune of maybe 70 miles. But I knew this was a training ride, and so I could go without nutrition for 30-60 minutes and be fine. I had plenty of water, and I had brought gels with me and a small Payday. So I ate a gel and the PayDay and continued on.

I decided to go back to Mt. Horeb and back and that would be enough for today--giving me about 95 miles. The winds had picked up even more, and I had purposely decided to ride right into them while I felt like shit. I started feeling really sorry for myself and wanting to chuck it right then and there. But I knew this was part of the game, and that laying off the caffeine for awhile would probably fix me right up.

Well, I made it back to Mt. Horeb, and ran into some of the WIBA folks at the Kwik Trip. Some chic made a smart remark about my fake tattoos, and I just didn't have the energy to explain them or myself or anything.

I had hoped the way back to Verona would be as tasty as the first time, but the winds were swirling, as they often do in that area, and I had slowed down a bit. But I made my way back, continuing to stay in the aerobars pretty much the entire time, and when I was just about back to my hotel, it began raining. I had seen some thunderclouds building, and patted myself on the back (virtually) for starting so early.

I felt pretty overheated and thought I'd bag my run, but stupid me I asked if there was a treadmill and they said yes, so I hopped on, but only put in 30 minutes because I felt pretty awful. Note: when I say "awful," I was not suffering--this is all self-imposed, after all, and it could end whenever I said stop, and hey, I wasn't dying or anything! I watched The Weather Channel while on the crappy treadmill, and watched all the warnings and such and also the wind and rain out the window.

I like staying at the Super 8 because there's a McDonald's right next door! I do not eat at McDonald's except for special occasions, like oh, I have been training 20+ hours a week or after an Ironman. I needed food and quick, so after a shower, I walked on over and got 2 cheeseburgers and small fries, and it was good.

I laid around and thought about what had happened, and was glad that I had tried the ultra caffeine now rather than waiting for the race, but when I analyzed everything, I realized it wasn't just that, it was that I was so incredibly worked from all the training I've been doing and I should give myself a break. When I downloaded the power data, I was spot on for how I should have been riding, so I'm just going to chalk it up to being tired.

About 5:00PM I motivated to head to Heiney's in Black Earth for dinner. What a pretty drive! I just love this area, which is why I have no trouble driving 2.5 hours to get here to ride for a day, and I hadn't been to Heiney's in 2 years. I ordered my favorite, Steak Wisconsin (steak with bleu cheese on top), had a couple of Lake Louie Cream Ales, and got some Wundumous Wings (the world's best chicken wings) to go. I couldn't finish my meal there, but I took the leftovers and ate them about an hour later AND the wings!

My car is just about packed, and I'm going to get a breakfast bomb at McDonald's and head home. Weather is gorgeous, and I know once I get home, I'm going to unpack and get back into bed! I need the rest, as I've got one more big week. A day off of everything should do me a world of good!

I'm in Verona, Wisconsin

I'm settled into my SMOKING room (damn), but it's not that bad and I scored some Febreze to spritz the furniture.

It was an uneventful drive here except for some construction on I90 through Rockford.

Earlier today, my gimp hand was really swelled up and my wrist started to puff up, too. So I thought it prudent to call my Doctor and ask if I might be in trouble. I spoke with the nurse who said that if I was having a bad reaction it would have happened yesterday, and that I should ice and elevate. DOH!!! I had iced it, but not the elevation. I didn't tell her I swam 5,000 yards this morning! I guess that's what got the swelling going bigtime. So I iced and elevated before I left for Wisconsin, and things came down, and then once I stopped packing and started driving, I tried to keep it up as much as possible, and I can see it's getting better. I'm starting to see my veins again!

I'm about to head to dinner at Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb for dinner. A couple of fine microbrews and a good meal, and I should be all set for tomorrow's race rehearsal.

Weather calls for low to mid-70's, and no rain until late in the day! There will be wind (of course), but I'm not worried about that. I may need to, in a sort of tradition I've established for myself, ride with swimsuit bottoms so I can get my leg tan fixed up. It will depend on how cool it is in the morning. If it's upper 50's at least, on come the panties!

Of course, there will be a bunch of pics...so watch here for updates.

I don't really have expectations for tomorrow's 112-mile ride followed by 1 hour of running. Why? Because I just came off of a fucking hard-ass week of training! Although it's nice that my legs got a big rest today, so you never know. I've learned that it's better to have the crappy workouts in training, eh? Last year, my race rehearsal was for shit, but I had a great race! So to those of you getting ready for IMLP, know that good workouts will come and go--at this point, you have your fitness, the money is in the proverbial bank, and now you are just maintaining it!

I'll check back in either later tonight or tomorrow after about 119 miles!!!