Recovery Seems to be Going Well

I got in 11,500 yards of swimming and 180 miles of biking (I went over 5,000 miles for the season) this past week. No running. Sadly, no strength, although that's OK.

Today I did an 84-mile ride at a decent pace considering the wind and all, and it felt pretty good. I sort of wanted to get to 200 miles for the week, but there was really no need for it, so I didn't extend the ride.

I feel ready to start running again. I will ease back in, though, so I don't do any damage.

While out riding today, I decided I had better modify my taper for Revenge of the PirateMan, and the training for the next several weeks, because it is going to be bigger and badder than just an Ironman, and so although I will still taper for 2 weeks, it will be less than I typically would do for an Ironman taper.

By the way, if anyone wants my training program (built by moi) for the last year, shoot me an email and I'll be happy to send it to you. While riding today, I was thinking about the things that contributed to a pretty good Ironman race this time around:

• I cut my TV watching way back, eventually to nothing, resulting in sleeping more.
• I quit wearing underwear in May. Good luck? I don't know, but it must be relevant!
• I did all that extra stuff February through April--pushups, pullups, crunches and jump rope. It seems as if it gave me more overall stamina than ever before. I plan to start that back up after ROTPM, because I will need boatloads of stamina for all the crap that I am planning to do!
• I got my weight (and probably bodyfat) as far down as I think I can go, slowly, without losing power on the bike or speed on the run. Yes, it probably affected my swimming somewhat (I sink like a rock, literally), but oh well, I can deal with that. I think it also made me even more aerodynamic on Bitch. I swear I can cut through wind even better now just because I present so little for it to mess with.
• I started riding hills earlier in the season. Early May, to be specific.
• The power meter quit working on Bitch. So I had to go old school and just push myself on speed and cadence only. I can pretty much tell how much power I am putting out, as it worked out pretty well at IMLP.
• I had 2 unplanned "rest" periods--last November after I fucked up my back during remodeling, and end of May when I was sick for 2 weeks with sinus infection, virus, you name it.
• The worst 3 years of my life were over finally--Mom died, Dad died, and I got most of the Estate crap finished.
• I ended up running "a little extra" whenever I felt like I could. More is more!
• I swam a lot of yards with the paddles on. Which strengthens the traps and romulins (as I like to call the rhomboids), which helps with aero position and maintaining good form while running.
• I spent a lot of time biking with an iPod given to me last year for a birthday present by my friend, Susan. I am very much into "keeping up with the music," and since I tend to listen to fairly fast dance/house music, this helped me just always pedal faster.
• Once I was in the 12-week Ironman build period, I was sleeping like a champion and also eating properly, including lots of green salads and veggies, which are supposed to provide all sorts of antioxidants, and while I don't take vitamins (I rely on the huge does in Endurox R4 that I use for recovery drink), I think the natural foods are key.
• I kept up my stretching, trigger point work and weekly massage.

I went to a craft store yesterday and I think I cleaned them out of pirates!

I am starting to plan my training from ROTPM through Ultraman Canada (and even CheaterMan 2010!!!), and boy oh boy is this going to be a trip. Just writing down that I need to swim 8,000 meters all at once is kind of daunting. Double long runs and double long rides (at least I've been doing the double long rides for years). How am I going to fit this all in? I have no idea except that I will be up very early on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for a very long time.

I am looking forward to ROTPM and then my first 50-mile run ever and then Goofy Challenge. Alas, it's not like I am going to have any off season this fall/winter to speak of. I am moving from one thing to the next. Oh well, this is all going to be a helluva ride, right?

Obligatory Race Number Post

Some of my lucky things I bring to Ironman races: happy shoes (they flash when I move), lucky panties (from Shelley), lucky lobsters (*NEW* for 2008 since Triple T) and lucky tiara













Testing out the run gear...new Fuel Belt with streamers attached, new race belt (to be worn on bike as well). Not sure whether I'll wear the hologram swimsuit, though :)












Back view (you KNOW you wanted to see it)












Back view without all the race crap. Yeah, yeah, my ass is white and HUGE!












Front view without all the race crap. I feel fat :(

I am dangerous now. I got a tripod. I suppose I could have managed with just duct tape like Blink, but I like a certain amount of gadgetry.

Anyhoo, guess what? I'm TAPERING. Lots of time to play with a new tripod and start to get the race gear organized. The most important thing was to work out the setup of the new Fuel Belt and race belt. So I've got that covered. I won't know exactly what I'll be wearing on race day until maybe the day before, because the weather in Lake Plastered is pretty changeable. But it never hurts to pack a hologram thong swimsuit, right?

After my little meltdown yesterday (which was totally necessary, by the way), I got a good night's sleep only to waken to thunderstorms. In looking at the radar, I decided it probably didn't make sense to drive 55 miles to go swim in a lake if there was going to be lightning, not to mention the E. coli counts have been high up there lately, and a lot of rain doesn't help that. So I felt good and actually happy about just going to the Y to swim my 2-mile TT in a wetsuit. I wanted to try out my Desoto T1, and I haven't worn it in over a year. I soaked it in the laundry tub yesterday:









although it was difficult to keep the thing down in the water, which is good, no?

I started my swim at 6:40AM (one hour before the race would have started, so I'm ahead of schedule). I swam 3500 yards comfortably in 1:05 on the nose. Not bad considering that has brought me to almost 17,000 yards for the week (about 500 to go tomorrow!). The wetsuit felt great, and since someone else will be ripping it off of me, I don't need to worry about how long it takes to get off! Wait...read that last sentence back out loud. Oh well, too late, I typed it.

Happy with my swim, I thought it might be good to go hang on some bars to stretch out my back, and I spotted Tony, one of the trainers, in the personal training area. I had seen him yesterday when I was one mile into my run--he was in his car, and I asked how he recognized me, and a big smile came over his face, and I knew, and said, "My ass, right?" He shook his head in agreement. Anyway, we chatted and he was training a woman who wanted to know about what I'm up to and she seemed pretty impressed, but the first words out of her mouth (I was wearing a T-shirt and baggy shorts) were, "You don't look very muscular." Well, you know what I had to do--I rolled up my T-shirt sleeve and flexed a biceps for her, and then I showed her my thighs! I mean they are HUGE right about now (21" as compared to my waist which is 23.5"). That was pretty funny. Tony was kind enough to gift me another stretch cord that I will now use to do some rhomboid isolation exercises.

I came home and putzed around a bit and decided to do my strength workout which I just hadn't gotten around to earlier in the week. This might fuck me up for my sprint tomorrow, but I don't care. The sprint is for fun, and I'll go as fast as I can, laughing at all the people who are all "tapering" for it. I mean, yeah I'm tapering for an Ironman, but I'll still hit 14 hours of training on the week! The weights and core stuff felt good, and then I thought it was time to try out the tripod, and well, you see what happened!

I'm about to go ride CF to the bank to deposit a check and that will be the essence of my working out for the day. Even though I've done a lot this week already, not having a long ride looming over my head is HUGE! Those basically blow your entire day, so I feel like a slacker now, but I'm enjoying it.

Oh yeah, my race number is

2538

in case you didn't already stalk the participant list and notice that my occupation is

CRACKHEAD