My rededication to my training has had a successful first day. Hopefully, it’ll continue and it isn’t just because I came off a recovery week. I swam about 3,300 LCM at masters today and biked 36 miles this evening. I threw some big gear work in on my ride to see if I can build up some strength before I have to face the rolling hills at IM Moo. All in all, I had two good, solid workouts and my week is off to a good start.

I ate somewhat well yesterday (everything except for the large slice of DQ ice cream cake - hey… someone had to finish it off ;) ) and have eaten well all day today. It’s amazing what a better mood I’m in when I can eat well. I need to learn not to put myself in an environment where I might be tempted to eat something not so good for my diet. Gordo stated it nicely once - something about not putting himself around people and situations that aren’t in tune with his lifestyle goals. He did it more eloquently than that, though. :P

So all in all, I’m a pretty happy camper. Well, except for this trip that I have shceduled for this weekend. It’s a wedding for my girlfriend’s friend. I had actually planned to go watch the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon this coming weekend (for those that aren’t into the sport, it’s basically this big triathlon where all the pros come out to try and win the $250,000 purse - the biggest purse in our sport). Big name folks come to our little town and NBC Sports captures it all and broadcasts it nationwide. That and if you go, you get to see it all with a front row view for free! So it’s kind of a big deal for me anyway. And I had planned on this before I even knew my girlfriend so I’m a little annoyed at myself for agreeing to go the wedding since the triathlon was on my calendar before her friend’s wedding was. But alas, I’m a sucker for trying to make her happy at the expense of my own happiness. And now I’m just bitter about the whole thing which means I probably won’t enjoy the wedding anyway… oh, which happens to be in Chicago and to get my training in means that I’ll be flying out on Friday (sacrificing a few hundred dollars and a vacation day) and coming back Saturday morning to try and salvage the week and get the rest of my hours in. I really, really shouldn’t have agreed to go. I’m pretty stupid sometimes. :(

I really need to get full force back on my program. The last two weeks have been pretty pathetic, even with one of those weeks being a recovery (two weeks ago, my weekly volume was around 12 hours and this week [recovery] will only be around 7 hours). With Ironman Wisconsin just two months away, I don’t have any more time to be messing around. Six more weeks left to break my body down. I need to get my volume back up. I need to get my nutrition in order. I’ve been farting around for too long now. It’s time to get serious.

I kept putting this off because I wanted to do a write up with pictures and all, but I’ve been too lazy to make thumbnails and stuff and hence have been putting off this post. So I’ll just do it sans-pictures before I forget everything that’s happened. If you really want to see pictures, you can check them out here.

Last weekend was spent in Daytona Beach for a bachelor party for a good friend of mine. I was only able to make it down there really for one full day - I left on Friday and came back on Sunday, leaving just Saturday as my only full day there. The trip down was pretty uneventful. I got to the airport late enough to be worried that I might miss my flight. The rental car line in Orlando was really long - the longest I’ve ever seen before at a rental car place. The drive from Orlando to Daytona Beach was longer than I thought, but not too bad.

There were six of us there for the whole shin dig. We had rented a condo right on the beach which was pretty nice. I think I prefer the gulf coast side rather than the Atlantic side. The water on the gulf coast side just seemed to be much clearer. It was HOT while we were there. I’m guessing at least in the mid 90s. I ran 5 miles on the beach on Saturday and it was pretty miserable without any water or anything to rehydrate me. It’s a little hard to believe that I did a 1/2 IM in that kind of weather. GCT didn’t seem that hot?

The big event of the weekend was the NASCAR Pepsi 400. I’ve never been to a Nascar event before and really don’t follow the “sport” at all, but a few of the folks down there were pretty into it. They were doing “Nascar Math” all weekend, which involves doing math problems with drivers and sponsors instead of numbers. Yes, I have some weird friends. :) Anyway, they all said that the races were much better live than in person. The event started around 2 pm for us. We spent most of the afternoon tailgating except for an hour or so where we got hit with a thunderstorm. It stormed pretty hard but somehow our little $7 grill covered with only tinfoil managed to survive the downpour without going out. Due to the rain, the race started almost two hours later than scheduled. It wasn’t until almost 9:30 that things got underway. As for Nascar live, I must admit that seeing the actual cars live going close to 200 MPH and hearing how loud those cars actually is pretty impressive. Ultimately though, it’s still cars going around in a circle. I really think people are there to drink and relish in their redneckness more than anything else. I don’t recall seeing anyone else besides myself that wasn’t white.

I was gone early the next morning to catch my flight back to Minnesota. Orlando Travel Tip: If you rent a car, prepay for a tank of gas. I couldn’t find a gas station anywhere near the Orlando airport and just decided to return it with 1/4 tank left. I ended up paying $5 a gallon for them to fill it up. Ouch. :( All in all, it was a great weekend. I got to see some friends of mine that I hadn’t seen in several years. I think we’ve all agreed to try and get together more often. The groom-to-be has been on a pretty hard regimine of working out and eating well (well, I think he’s starving himself more than he needs to, but it’s hard to stop what has proven itself to be successful). From his heaviest weight back in college, he’s dropped 80 pounds. He’s about the same height as I am and I think he weighs less than I do. And I’m training for an Ironman?! Sick, but good for him!

And Armstrong dons the “maillot jaune” once again! Go Lance!!

It should already be well into the summer and this is the kind of weather that we’re having? A whopping high of 60 today. I really need to move back to California. :sad:

I haven’t posted in a few days. I was out of town for the long weekend. I’ll do a weekend recap for you all. I’m just waiting for some pictures to come in so I can give you all the full out photo tour.

Ok… That’s pretty secksay. I should get whomever designed his bike to pimp my ride too.

I had a nice night off last night. I’m glad that I decided to do nothing yesterday afternoon. I think I needed a break not only physically, but mentally as well. Today the legs are feeling much better. I’ll be able to manage my long run today if I decide to do it. I might end up riding and running tonight though, since I won’t be able to ride this weekend. We’ll see.

I feel like I’ve eaten a ton this week. A few weeks back, I had some pretty heavy numbers on the scale so decided to get more serious about my diet. Then last week, I felt for some reason that I was too close to my race weight so I’ve started indulging a little more. Much like with training, I’m trying not to hit my “peak” weight too early. I figure I need the energy that I can get for my workouts and I probably should save my limited willpower for those peak weeks where my volume will be going down. I don’t need to be pigging out during that time and should probably save my self-control for then.

I’m looking forward to the long weekend which starts tomorrow! And that’ll wrap up a week of on-call at work for me too. Woot!