A Sure Sign of Serious Training

So I decided this morning to sign up for the Twin Lakes Triathlon in June. Even though registration isn't open until Monday (and it's just a form you download and mail in, so sadly, there will be no SUBMIT button), just thinking about signing up is exciting. You can draft on the bike in this race, so if you plan your swim accordingly with your biking buds, you can have a great time on the bike and do well on the run.

I'm getting ready to go swim, and I'm brushing my teeth and I barely get the toothbrush in my mouth and I'm gagging. Nice! Usually this doesn't start happening until about mid-May or something (not like I keep track of it in my training spreadsheet but maybe I will now ;) so it was making me laugh, and gagging and laughing at the same time is not a good thing. I know of only one other person who has admitted to having this "issue," and you know me--I have zero qualms about discussing bodily functions, but in this case it was kind of good to know I'm not alone in this.

My belief is that it's the sweetness in the toothpaste coupled with the increase in training which means I am taking in sugars fairly regularly, and well, my usual toothpaste (Crest) is quite sweet. Huh--maybe I should try an experiment with just baking soda? Like that wouldn't make me gag! Or maybe some unflavored toothpaste. I should have known yesterday when I went downstairs to my Gatorade tower to select enough 32-oz. bottles to get me through today through Sunday, and my arms were overflowing, that I am "in it" now. It feels good, and this is what I was preparing for, and while there are no races until Triple T, I've already put in some good intensity work and now it's time for the big volume jump.

So in a weird, perverted way, I *HEART* gagging. All part of going harder, faster and longer!

Fuckin' Bottles and Random Thoughts

I live in a fucking bottle factory. Between the Gatorade bottles used for running, swimming and random training, the bike bottles, the Endurox R4 bottles and the Ultrafuel bottles, my yellow line is going through the roof lately. And then there's the coffee (no bottles involved--just grinding beans once a week) and the beer bottles. Fucking bottles!

Did you ever notice when you're mixing concentrated Infinit and you stir it with, say a knife, that when it's dripping off the knife it looks like, well, jiz? Only difference is my mix contains no protein and boatloads of caffeine. In either case, I'm not sure I really want it, but I have to have it, so down it goes.

It's taken me EIGHT YEARS to figure out that Ultrafuel powder doesn't dissolve well in cold water, so, dumbass that I'd been, I finally started mixing it in warm or hot water the night before and chilling it. It still makes me gag; it still makes me go into an insulin coma when I drink it, which is all good.

I figured out that the gag reflex is something that visits me once I'm in fairly hard training. At that point (which started about 6 weeks ago), when I put something in my mouth that is sweet when I'm not intending to eat (toothpaste, for example), brain thinks I'm threatening to work out again, and it makes me gag. Sometimes I spontaneously start to gag for no good reason when I'm thinking about my next workout. It cracks me up! But at least see, I'm honest about this shit, right? Who else would talk like this? Oh yeah, Kim that potty mouth.

It's Friday, and I'm up to 11.5 hours of training, and I've got about 9.5 hours of biking to do, .75 of running, and I really should try and sneak in a :30 swim. Nothing like it being Friday with 2 days to go in the week and you're only HALF FUCKING DONE WITH YOUR TRAINING!!!

I'm not complainin'...I'm just sayin'.

The outdoor pool was almost hot this morning, but still better than swimming indoors any day. I'll write about today on Pool Stories sometime later.

I'm getting an impromptu massage tonight, after I go visit the booze sample lady, Lila. I'm in need of some major painkiller.

Looking on the bright side, I'm pretty tan. I know, I need to take some new pics, and I will do that soon. The Tiki Hut is in temporary remission, but I'm sure it will make an appearance any day now.

And finally,

GO HARDCORE AGGRO OR GO HOME!

and also

HARDEN THE FUCK UP.

Amen.