With Ironman Wisconsin rapidly approaching, I suppose an update of where I’m at with my training is in order. I seem to have been posting about everything but lately…

So last week was a rather epic week of Ironman training. Well, epic for this season anyway. Despite having not one but two goose egg days, I still managed to get in 18 hours of training in last week. I normally give myself one day totally off from training, but my legs were just totally shelled midweek so I gave myself another full day before the weekend came so I’d be fresh for my long ride. Fresh, mind you, is a totally relative word at this stage of the game.

While Sara and Wil are off tapering, I am at summer school of sorts trying to make up for my miscalculation of how long I had left until the big day. So I still have a harder week this week - I’m going to do one last long run and one last long ride (or long brick) before I start decreasing the volume. And at anytime that I feel exceptionally tired, I’ll rest.

It’s a little strange that I’m four weeks out from the race and not really feeling stressed or nervous in the least. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I’ve had a busy summer so am not really expecting a PR at Wisconsin this year (although I do feel that I’m in decent shape?). Or maybe with this being my third go around at the distance, the idea of traveling 140.6 miles in a day doesn’t seem quite as daunting. Whatever the case, in 26 days I’ll be back in Madison. Back to swim out to the start line and tread water with a mass of 2200-some odd athletes all waiting to do this crazy thing called Ironman.

Sure it’s a race, but it’s also a celebration of sorts. Soon, it’ll be time to cash in all those hundreds of hours and thousands of miles that you travelled while training earlier in the summer. A time where you can look back and can really utilize those things that you learned during training and know that when the going gets tough, that you have the strength to keep pressing forward as you’ve done it many times before. It’s a time for camaraderie and realizing that although you may have struggled for the last few months balancing training with the “real world”, that you’re certainly not alone. It doesn’t take more than stopping for just a second and to look around you to see that you’re entirely surrounded by people who went through the many of the same things as you have - all the aches and pains and all the hours sacrificed training when “normal” people were out doing normal things.

The unity of athletes is one of the things that I think makes Ironman truly special. That simple fact that everyone making the 140.6 mile journey has experienced similar events, both good and bad, for the past several months. And for that one magical day, you have 2000+ of your brothers and sisters out there with you. It’s been a long, hard journey to just get there, but they all know first hand how truly difficult it has been as they’ve been beside you all this time. They haven’t walked just a mile in your shoes - they’ve walked thousands! Suddenly, you’re not flying solo anymore, but are instead travelling with a family of 2000+.

So, for everyone that I’ll hopefully see in 26 days, don’t forget to take time to “smell the roses.” Enjoy the atmosphere of the few days before the race and take a really good look at all the people around you because come September 10th, your family is going to get a whole lot bigger.

Today, the scale confirmed that I’ve lost ten pounds since I got back from my honeymoon. I’m ahead of schedule and a little surprised as it has only been four and a half weeks since we got back. But it sure feels like longer than that considering the increase in training volume and the decrease in food intake! It’s been a constant daily struggle, that’s for sure.

For those crying foul, saying I’m “lucky” for having good genetics, and the like… let me tell you that those pounds certainly don’t come easy. Perhaps quickly if you say it was only a month, but definitely not easily. There would be times when I’d get back from a five+ hour ride and “treat” myself to one cup of pineapple and a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. Or for example, on Monday after nearly four hours of working out I enjoyed a 1/2 bowl of Cookie Crisp cereal as my reward. I’d say on average for the past four weeks, I’ve eaten right around 2,000 calories a day and that’s including any nutrition that I take during exercise (although I only take fuel for workouts longer than 2 hours). That’s really not that much considering I’m doing IM type volume.

I think that we all tend to over-estimate how much our bodies really need for fuel, which is evident from how big we (Americans) are getting these days. Everything is bigger, fattier, and more processed. I’m sure many of us remember back when a McDonalds meal consisted of a regular hamburger or cheeseburger, a small fries (in the white paper container), and a large soda which was more like today’s medium. These days though, you have these monster sized burgers claiming to have in excess of 1,400 calories in the sandwich itself. And that’s not even including the “biggie” fries and the 32 oz. soda. No, it’s not our genes that are changing but our desires and thoughts that bigger and more are better.

I easily fall victim to that line of thought. After all, there is a reason that I’m 15 pounds heavier in the off-season than in-season. But I wholly believe that mental discipline is the only thing that prevents us from improving our body composition. It’s a matter of reaching for that apple instead of reaching for some snack crackers. Or knowing that just because you worked out for one, two, or three plus hours, that doesn’t entitle you to the all you can eat buffet or free reign on the dessert cart. And sometimes, sadly, there are social events that are just better avoided because you know that you’ll just get yourself into caloric trouble by attending them (sorry about the BBQ, Jon and Amy!).

Losing weight is hard work. If it were easy, everyone that wanted to be thin would be thin. It takes sacrifice to be out there and training and the double whammy sacrifice to neglect yourself from things that you want or feel that you deserve. Of course, everyone has their own individual goals and limits to what they’ll sacrifice to achieve them. But I’ve yet to see anyone that has walked a week in my shoes and have been unable to lose weight.

Another week or two and I should be back down to my IM race weight of the last two years. For now, Carol is enjoying seeing my obliques again. They haven’t made an appearance since sometime last summer.

(And no… those aren’t a picture of mine :) )

There’s really no other way to put this, so I’ll just outright say it. I’m an idiot. Somehow, back before I left for my honeymoon I counted up the weeks to Wisconsin and decided that once I got back, I’d have two, four week base blocks that I could fit in before my three week taper. Yeeeeaahhhhh - not so much. There wasn’t eleven weeks of training post honeymoon, only nine. NINE?! Ugh. That’s two full weeks that I miscounted! :(

Of course, I didn’t realize this until yesterday where I’m starting my needed recovery week. But after this week, I only have two more weeks to play with before I should start tapering. And with most plans saying there should be a recovery week between your last base block and your taper, that really only leaves one full week left. So as I was saying, I’m an idiot. I suppose that’s what I get for not writing my plan down on paper this year. I followed my self-written plan the first year to a T. Last year, I was a little more relaxed but still wrote everything down. This year, I just have kind of glanced at a calendar to figure out where I was and winged my hours and workouts week to week.

I’m not really worried about not being ready. (Barring unforeseen catastrophe on race day,) I know that I have the fitness to see me through the finish at Wisconsin. But it was more of a big surprise to me thinking that I had another month before I tapered, but really only having two weeks! In panic mode, I sought the advice of some people and have worked out what I’ll do from here on out. Probably my biggest loss will be that I don’t have that extra two weeks to continue my diet and lose potentially another four pounds. Oh well. I’ll continue to eat well and I’ll weigh in at whatever I weigh in at.

So, words to the wise: WRITE YOUR TRAINING PLANS DOWN and don’t pull a bone head move like me!

Man, where do I start. I did my third century (or what I set out to be a century) yesterday. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be my day when I starting having issues before I even pushed out the door. It started out with breakfast of cereal with just a teeny bit of milk because that’s all that was left - nothing like a bowl of pseudo dry cereal to start the morning! Then I couldn’t find my wallet. I searched all the usual places but just couldn’t find it anywhere. Carol had some cash (so I could stop for Gatorade on the ride), so it wasn’t a huge deal but I usually like to take my drivers license with me in case I end up in a ditch someplace unconscious.

Anyway, I pushed off around 7 AM and hit the park reserve that I normally ride through. It was quiet and steamy humid like it has been this whole summer. For the first hour and a half, I couldn’t even wear my sunglasses because they fog up too bad from all the humidity. But I stick them on my helmet and keep riding along on the trails and notice that one section of trail has been recently resurfaced. I’m thinking to myself, “How awesome!” I love riding on new, smooth blacktop. It was like buttah! Only one small stretch of road had been repaved though and I normally ride through this twice. Well, as it would happen, my second time through they were in the process of adding another layer of tar onto the road. It was still fresh and wet so what does that mean for me? THAT MY BIKE ENDS UP GOING THROUGH ALL THAT CRAP AND GETS COMPLETE TRASHED!?! I was sooooooo mad. I had just given it a thorough cleaning a couple days before and here it was getting a fresh coat of tar caked all over it.

I get off the path at my nearest exit and assess the damage. My bike and legs are now caked with tar. Not what I needed to start a long ride. Grrrrrrrr!!! I tried cleaning some of it with water, but it just wasn’t happening. So I angrily pedaled on… and on and on as the ride would go. I had issues with my HR monitor yesterday. For whatever reason, the whole stop and start your watch thing was too daunting for me yesterday, so I ended up cancelling out my ride data not just once, but three times. Setting out to do 100 miles and not having the full data of your ride in one complete graph is not good for the OCD. So I don’t have a pretty graph to show you all. I have three separate graphs which are missing some sixish miles because I forgot to start it a couple times. Oh well.

On my way back home, I rode back through that park (but not on the trails) that destroyed my bike and see that they’ve now put up signs saying that the trails are closed for resurfacing today. SOMETHING THAT COULD HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION BEFORE THEY STARTED THEIR WORK!! So I missed doing my final loop through the park. I tried to improvise to compensate for the loop I missed, but I’m horrible at making up new routes on the fly. My best attempt got me at my house at around 92 miles and I was too annoyed by then just to do loops around the neighborhood for eight more miles so I just called it a day.

I spent the next four hours of my day getting all that damn tar off my bike. It was everywhere! I basically had to strip down the entire drive train and sit there and meticulously clean each and every component, all the way down to disassembling the rear derailleur so I could clean off the pulleys. So, so, SO annoying. Definitely not what I really wanted to do after five+ hours in the saddle. I should have taken before and after pictures to show you all. Imagine a mountain bike after some wet off-road trails, but with tar instead of mud. Maybe it’s better I don’t have a visual memory of it. My blood pressure is rising sitting there thinking about it.

But it’s all over and done and I’ve given myself the option to do that 1/2 now this weekend. I’m not sure what to do as there is another heat advisory this weekend basically telling people to stay inside in the AC. We’ll see. I need to get a long run this weekend anyway. Why not do it after a 3:30 warm up? :)

(Oh, and I didn’t lose my wallet. *phew!*)

I got another century in the books for the season. The plan is to do three during this base block and another couple next block with maybe a full 112 (or more) next block as well. In the previous years, that seemed to be good enough to get me into T2 without feeling too trashed. But back to the ride… I had one of my best centuries today! It was more less a “no chain” day with no real discomfort until somewhere around 85-90 miles. And really, that was more saddle discomfort than aerobic or muscular discomfort and all you can really do for that is ride more. Low HRs and better than anticipated speeds made just for an awesome ride all around! I attribute the success to my two plates of spaghetti I had last night. It’s the most I’ve eaten in probably two weeks. Give a starving body some food and it’ll reward you, I suppose.

In other news, I’ve been debating what to do with myself next weekend. The options are (1) going to Vegas, (2) an IM camp (in Madison) hosted by local coaches, or (3) a 1/2 IM. I’m heavily leaning towards option #3 at this point since #1 will likely make my fitness move backwards in a rapid direction and #2, while fun, is a rather expensive trip and I’m not sure I really want to make the drive out to Madison for the weekend (#35 on 50 Things). Doing the 1/2 means that I need to take one day off work this week to get my other century in because I won’t sacrifice a 100 mile ride for a 1/2. But I have a day or so to spare as I get more vacation than Carol does and she’s completely tapped out already. I’m thinking I’ll wait until Tuesday to see what the extended forecast for the weekend looks like and make my decision then?

What else… oh! I totally caved and went out last night at 9:30 pm to buy a couple bags of Jalapeno chips. I couldn’t take the craving anymore - it was killing me! I was fairly good though. I’ve had two servings since then and I haven’t hit the bottom of the first bag yet which is impressive for me!

That’s about it I guess. Maybe another hour or so of working out tomorrow, but just some junk miles to get my volume a little higher for the week. Oh yeah! And it’s totally my friend’s birthday tomorrow. If you recall back to this post, I granted myself a free meal for this day - guilt free. Woohoo!! I get to eat something besides fruit or Subway! :)

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Well, we’re in the crux of things here during IM season and things are going pretty darn well. I had my first big volume week last week and my body is handling the load quite nicely. Almost too well? I would have expected to come off my honeymoon and really struggle through my first week, but I’m still here plodding along with no major aches or pains or major signs of fatigue. It actually has me feeling a little uneasy about this whole thing. I think once you lose respect of the distance, you’re setting yourself up for a harsh dose of reality. But I’m feeling relaxed and comfortable here and not stressed out at all. Either the past two years has prepared me quite well, or I’m in for a rude awakening come September 10th.

Really, the only thing that I’m struggling with is my diet and I’m actually doing well with that too. It’s a mental struggle more than anything else. I have soooooo been craving some Lay’s Kettle Cooked Jalapeno Chips for the past four days now. But I can’t buy a bag as they only come in single serving sizes of 1,260 calories per bag and once I crack open the bag, I won’t stop eating until I hit bottom. Better not to have it in the house, although it doesn’t stop me from asking Carol if she bought me any on her way home from work - I’m sure that’s driving her nuts by now!

I’m not seeing the pounds drop on the scale as quickly as I’d like, but my finger calipers tell me that I’m making progress so am starting to get some positive motivation with that. I don’t remember struggling as hard to get my weight down in previous years, but I never started this late either so I get what I get.

What else… I skipped out on Heart of the Lakes Triathlon this past weekend. I was going to slam the race publicly here, but whatever. I’ll just say that after hosting a race for 20 years, if you’re planning on making the race suddenly draft legal from non-draft legal in the previous 20 years, you should publicly advertise that fact. And I mean in big, bold letters on the front of your website; not have it mentioned hidden in the “What’s new in 2006″ link (who reads that for a 20 year old race anyway?). Oh yeah… and respond back to folks’ emails. My friend and I both wrote letters to them about the change and they didn’t have the courtesy to as much as respond to either of us. In any case, I won’t be going back to Annandale ever again to race or volunteer which is a shame because it was a fun race in 2005. But the whole thing left a foul taste in my mouth. OK… so I guess I did slam them here. But it’s my blog and I’ll whine if I want to? :)

I’ve been watching lots of the tour. I was really disappointed when all of the big contenders were cut out of the tour just a few days before the event. But it’s really shaping up to be a very exciting and interesting race. I loved watching Lance demolish the competition in previous years, but it’s turning out to be nice not knowing what it’s going to happen tomorrow. I can’t wait for the TT on Saturday!

Anyway, I’ve already gone and rambled on too much. It’s just about quittin’ time. Time to get home and get a few more hours in…

… and (next weekend) I will ride 100 more. I tried putting up one of those fancy video clips like I’ve seen on so many of you guys’ blogs but the video for “500 Miles” by The Proclaimers wasn’t working. Oh well.

So the ride yesterday was OK. I’ve had better, but I’ve had worse. I pushed off at an early 6 AM and managed to beat nearly all the heat. I carried a whopping four water bottles with me on my ride and boy could I tell - it was like trying to maneuver a tank! Two of the bottles were monster sized bottles and I can only guess what the weight of the four was all together? I was happy to get my hydration underway and to get some of the weight off my frame.

It did get a little warm towards the end, but really only the last 30 minutes felt like I was riding into a hair dryer. It was hot, but not as hot as I thought it was going to be. Just a couple of bad patches during the ride, but as always the patches get better a few miles down the road. Hope you all had a good weekend of training or R&R! Tomorrow starts another work week. :(

For those that don’t already know, we’re having a minor heat wave here in the Twin Cities. It’s been into the 90s the past couple of days and we’re supposed to have two straight days into the 100s (according to the radio) which hasn’t happened here since like 1988 or something like that. Couple that with the fact that I need to ride long this weekend and I’m not exactly looking forward to this weekend. But it will be a huge deposit into that Ironman bank account. I’m talking palettes of phat bills, y’all.

The national weather service was nice enough to put out a bulletin, too:

Excessive Heat Watch

/O.CON.KMPX.EH.A.0001.060715T1700Z- 060716T2300Z/ HENNEPIN-RAMSEY- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF… MINNEAPOLIS…ST. PAUL 303 AM CDT FRI JUL 14 2006

…EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON…

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

WITH POTENTIALLY LIFE THREATENING CONDITIONS FOR SHUT IN SENIORS OR ANYONE CURRENTLY IN POOR HEALTH WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING… PLANS SHOULD BE MADE NOW TO ENSURE THAT SAFE…COOL LOCATIONS CAN BE PROVIDED DURING THE UPCOMING WEEKEND.

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH MEANS THAT A PROLONGED PERIOD OF HOT TEMPERATURES IS EXPECTED. THE COMBINATION OF HOT TEMPERATURES AND HIGH HUMIDITY WILL COMBINE TO CREATE A DANGEROUS SITUATION IN WHICH HEAT ILLNESSES ARE POSSIBLE. DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS… STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM…STAY OUT OF THE SUN…AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND NEIGHBORS.

It just goes to show you that all my ranting about Europe and their lack of AC isn’t totally without merit. :)

As for training, I’m up to 10 hours and 35 minutes so far this week. I’d like to get another run in and hopefully somewhere between 5-6 hours tomorrow on the bike, so I should be up at 17 hours come Sunday. That’s a solid week, for me, and will be a big confidence booster for Moo (barring any unforeseen circumstances with my ride tomorrow).

I’ve still been eating fairly well. I’m going slower in all my workouts and I’m not sure if it’s due to the lack of training that I had while on vacation, the heat, or if it’s the lack of calories that I’m taking in? Or some combination of the three? I do know yesterday that about 1/3 of the way into my ride, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back home. I was really hungry and just felt totally depleted energy wise. I got back home and had almost a whole can of reduced fat Pringles, but still managed to be barely over 2k calories for the day so not all was lost. I’m thinking of giving myself a larger dinner tonight with more carbs and what not so I have adequate fuel for tomorrow’s ride. Feeling like I did yesterday but for 5+ hours instead of 1:30 would totally suck.

I’m planning on pushing off tomorrow at the crack of dawn to hopefully beat some of the heat. 90+ degree temperature with humidity and wind! I’m sure it’ll bring back fond memories of IM Wisconsin 2005. :P

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yesterdays’s ride was sponsored in part by:

	McDonalds! Ba bap bap ba baaaa! I’m lovin it! One sausage McMuffin with egg. Three hash browns. One medium diet coke. (870 calories)
	Taco Bell! Think outside the bun. One crunch wrap supreme. One chili cheese burrito. One hard shell taco. (1120 calories)
	Kellogg’s! (I have no idea what their catch phrase is) Frosted blueberry pop tarts. (410 calories)

Yeppers. 2400 calories before I even stepped out the door at noon. Oh well. At least I’d be well fueled, right? ;)

My ride went OK. The results are much better than how I felt. I felt really sluggish for my first 30ish miles. I swear, I contemplated calling Carol multiple times that first couple hours to come and get me because I felt like I was struggling so bad and just didn’t have it. But I stuck it out because the miles needed to get done and since I can’t really call Carol come race day. So, I just bore down and dealt with it. As usual, things eventually got better. I swear my legs don’t warm up until 50 miles into my ride. :P So… that’s two long rides in two weeks. So far so good! I don’t know if I’ll be able to get a third in before I leave for my honeymoon, but we’ll see.

As a side note, my legs are trashed. This week has included a 15 mile run, a 40 mile ride with the “hammer group” of the tri club, and a 80 mile ride. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m putting out negative watts on the bike if such a thing is possible. I get the feeling that my race tomorrow is going to go very badly. Bleh. Oh well. It’s not about the “D-” race. Keep your eyes on the prize!

Post race nutrition was sponsored by:

Just in case I thought about losing weight yesterday, well… dinner smashed that idea. An enormous appetizer sampler followed by a few slices of deep dish pizza. I don’t even want to guess as to how many calories all that was. Oh well. As Nancy said, “there’s always sumo wrestling… :)”

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

(PS. Carol wants me to let you all know that she did make a good, healthy dinner of vegetables, stir fried chicken, and some brown rice a couple days ago. Just so you all don’t think she’s an awful wife. I, of course, don’t blame her. She doesn’t force the food down my throat. :) )

I still haven’t made much progress with my weight loss over the past couple months. I can’t really say that I’ve tried all that hard, but I bet some folks wonder how one can workout so much and not lose weight. Well, here’s my workout and “nutrition” info from yesterday.

• Morning Workout:
  • Masters swimming - ~3k yards in just under an hour
• Breakfast:
  • Bruegger’s Classic Wrap (two eggs, two slices of cheese, and sausage wrapped in a tortilla shell)
• Lunch:
  • Chipotle carnitas burrito (no sour cream or cheese, but still…)
• Afternoon Snack:
  • 1/2 a can of Pringles Light
• Afternoon Workout:
  • Ride ~40 miles with the tri club
• Dinner:
  • Famous Dave’s where Carol and I “split” (meaning I eat about 2/3) a full slab of ribs, mashed potatoes, corn bread.
  • Also consumed a tall beer.
• “Dessert”:
  • I still wanted to eat when I got home, so had some ramen-like noodles before I went to bed.

So… three hours of working out where I burn say 1,500 calories. Yeah, I had eaten more than that before I was half way through my burrito at lunch. And the rest of the food that I consumed during the day I’m sure was more than my basal metabolic rate, so pretty much I gained weight yesterday. :P

I’m scared to think of what would happen if I stopped training for a couple of years. I’d be HUGE! :( Oh well… maybe I can give Kobayashi a run for his money one day.