Wind is supposed to blow, but it actually sucks

What a great week it was. A very heavy week of training but it was just amazing to see all the progress people are making. This week, besides the usual training, there was our first 100 mile ride and 20 mile run to be dealt with. The angst leading up to the weekend was heavy on the T3 discussion board. People were concerned with nutrition, ride routes and the weather. The weather became the big contributor. T3ers were scattered all over Central Texas. Some rode in charity rides North of Austin in Salado, some rode the Rosedale ride on East Austin, some rode down South towards San Marcos, several rode indoors while others opted to run on Saturday and ride on Sunday when it was supposed to be a better day.

I rode on Saturday up in Salado. When I left Austin, the temps were in the high 30's and the wind was gusting like crazy. All the way out to Salado, I figured we would get there and everyone would decide to skip the ride and just head back to Austin for a run. No luck, everyone showed up and was ready to ride. The wind was crazy. Strong gusts, I mean really strong. Liz and I rode together the whole way. It was very discouraging to work my ass off training, feeling good about having a usual average speed of 18 MPH, and then not being able to go much faster than 16 MPH due to headwinds, side winds, headwinds up hills and even downhill's. It was like gravity was being nullified by wind. At one point, we were riding across the dam on Still house Lake when we got hit with a side wind from the right. I saw Liz get pushed about two feet into traffic and then before I knew it, I was right there in the car lane with her, my right foot pulled from the cleat. Everything ached; we were riding hard the whole time. I wish there was some way to convey the physical demands and the mental games you have to play in order to get through a day like this. It was the toughest ride that I have ever encountered. It was a total of about 7 hours in the saddle at an average speed of 15.4 MPH. Now that it is over and I am sitting at my computer eating marshmallow peeps (Pink Bunnies), I can say that I am happy that I did it. It was a mental boost knowing that I can face those tough conditions and come through intact.

There were very few people riding the 100 mile route at Salado. We did not know that until later but at the time, we saw very few people once we got out on the longer routes. Liz and I got out to the furthest point on the route. We picked up Clarence along the way and the three of us were pushing hard to put the miles behind us and get this thing over with. When we got to the most extreme rest stop, there were a bunch of Boy Scouts manning the stop. We saw them ahead of us. They were playing around by the cars and when the saw us, they went running to man the tables. One grabbed some cups, another grabbed food, we watched them prepare to take care of us. I think we were their first customers of the day. Part of the training for today, was to have limited stops on the bike. We had to carry all our own nutrition and water. We felt bad when we just kept pedaling and passed them by. They looked so dejected.

The next day, (Sunday) was a 20 mile run. It was a great run, except for the last three miles. I was seriously hurting. Not injury hurting, just leg tired. My legs were worn out. I finished but it was painful. We ran negative splits between the first 10 and the second 10.

Everything is going well with training. Biggest problem I have right now is a saddle sore on my butt cheek. Let me just say that you have no friends willing to help when you have a sore on your ass. Not that I have asked anyone, I am just saying.

Breakthroughs and Breakdowns

This past week was the first of two really tough weekends. Saturday we were scheduled for an 80 mile bike ride followed by a 50 minute run. The idea with this workout was to put some miles on our legs and then follow it up with a run. Hoping off the bike, you sort of do a goofy run until your legs get used to changing motion. This workout gets you used to race day conditions. So that was Saturday's workout, Sunday was a 17 mile run. All in all, it was two days of tough work. Nutrition would be a key element in everyone's success. Along with the training, you throw in some food poisoning that many people encountered, and you got some good old fashioned drama.

Many of us participated in a charity ride which included a post-ride fajita buffet. Since we rode 88 miles (23 miles further than any of the normal routes) and we did a 50 minute run, we were fortunate enough to be amongst the last diners. Hence, you got yourself some food poisoning. I woke up in the wee hours with all the effects of food poisoning. I won't go into details, and you are welcome. I thought it was just me until I showed up for the run on Sunday and found out that there were probably a dozen of us were ill. The 17 mile run quickly collapsed into short runs from bathrooms to bathrooms. Some people did not make it out of bed; some made it 5 miles and then called it quits. I made it 14 and then ended up walking the last three. It was a miserable day.

Saturday, after the ride, before the food poisoning, I was on a high. The ride was great; I had good energy, my nutrition worked great. I was able to get off the bike and run a good 5 miles at a 9:17 pace. I was really feeling good about things, mentally and physically. Then having the run fall apart on me brought me back to Earth. The run experience really took the wind out of my sails.

The whole training program is a drama in real life. The highs and lows were evident everywhere. Reading and listening about other people's experiences was amazing. Throughout the course of a day riding 88 miles, the terrain changes, the weather changes, calories are consumed, muscles get fatigued. People go from the excitement of starting the day out and then reality hits them in the face with wind, hills, heat and lack of nutrition. Some have the ride of their lives, everything works just fine. The wind does not bother them, they climb hills with ease. The same goes with running these distances. They last over 3 or 4 hours and a lot can happen.

Next weekend, we have 100 miles to ride on Saturday and then a 20 mile run on Sunday. The drama continues.

 

This could be dangerous

MS Office 2007 was just installed on my system at work and one of the things that I noticed was that it has a template and direct integration to BLOGGER. So this is my first test / use of that.

Over the weekend we went to Dallas for two days or art and culture. We went to a musical at the Majestic Theatre which is Dallas's version of the Paramount Theatre here in Austin. It has some very interesting décor. It has lots of gaudy, golden pillars and decorations. Then we went to the Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. It was also very interesting, wait a minute; it too had lots of gaudy golden decorations. I used to say that the only thing good that ever came out of Dallas was Interstate 35. I can no longer say that because I-35 is one of the worst roads I have ever seen. It is crowded and in disrepair. It is amazing to see the amount of traffic that is on this highway. There really is not much to see along the way. One of the more amusing "attractions" was a place called "Big Rig Adult Video and Novelty". It was really a "big rig" It was a semi-tractor trailer where someone has set up a porn shop. They have literally turned the trailer into a store. It is out in the middle of nowhere. I mean nowhere. There is nothing but farmland out there. There are no cities within 15-20 miles that I could see. Farmer Bob is out on his tractor, tilling up 800 acres and suddenly thinks, Gee I wish we had a porn shop nearby, wait "Big Rig Adult Video" is just 10 miles away! One other site to be seen on I-35 is Bugtussle Road. Not that there is actually anything to see. Just having a road named Bugtussle is what is special.

I got back into Austin around 4:30, by 5:00 I was down at Town Lake running. I needed to do a 15 mile run. It has been awhile since I ran a long distance by myself, so I was a bit apprehensive. I was not worried about finishing due to physical problems but was concerned that mentally I would not be prepared to push myself. Worry no more. I was fine. It was a great run. Two hours and 17 minutes average pace around 9:15 per mile. Everything went well. I got home and took an ice bath which in itself is so wrong. Certain parts of the anatomy are not meant to be surrounded by ice cubes.

On the run yesterday, I went by the baseball fields where there were about 4 games going on. One of the boys, who was about 8 or 9, was wandering around with two baseballs stuck under his jersey making it look like he had breasts. A man, I am assuming to be his Dad or Coach, came up behind him and slapped the back of his head. All he managed to do was dislodge one of the breasts and make it drop down about 5 inches lower than the other. The kid, rather than be upset that he got slapped, saw what happened to his "breasts" and started giggling so hard that everyone around him was laughing. With that, he started sporting around, shoving his chest out, showing off his lopsided boobs.

I saw a few T3ers out on the run, which always is motivating.

And now for something completely different

I just came to the realization that I have not really been writing much about training or the Ironman.  I guess I had better start doing that since that is what this is all about.  Otherwise,, I probably will run out of subject matter in about another week. 

 

So, here is where I stand.   We are nine weeks into training.   We have just completed what is called Base Period #1.  IM training is a lot of ups and downs. Seriously, it is a cycle of increasing hours and intensity that peaks after about 4 weeks and then it goes down and starts over again.  To date, our longest ride was 80 miles and the longest run was 18 miles.  In the next phase we take that to 100 miles for our longest ride and 20 miles for our longest run. 

 

Personally, I am doing very well.  I am injury free and I am actually improving my performance. Being injury free is the best thing I can say.  Once we start piling on the hours and miles, any imbalances, weaknesses in muscles and joints start showing up as injuries or aches and pains.  Right now, all is well.    I keep track of my training.  Thanks to my brother, John, I am able to graph it all out and see how I am doing.  It almost gets to be an obsession with keeping track of what  you do and when you do it.   It is all about the numbers.  Not sure why, it is almost like I have to see the numbers and see the graphs so I really know that I am training.   

 

So, here are the numbers for 9 weeks in:

118 hours of training

21.4 Swimming

43.8 Biking

32.8 Running

20 core

 

Total miles biking :  420

Total miles running : 114

 

On average, each week, I do about 12-16 hours of training. 

 

I enjoy training (it actually makes me very happy) but I am looking forward to the time when I can sit on the couch, watch re-runs of everything I am missing on TV and eat Cheeto’s, if you know what I mean.

 

 

 

Good Morning, Karma?

BLOGS are good and bad.  They are good because we can vent and express feelings that we would not do face to face with someone. They are bad because the people you want to vent at may not read your BLOG.  Today I want to vent about someone who won’t read this.  He probably won’t read this because it would involve interpreting words and being able to understand them.   This is targeted at the guy  who came out of Rudy’s (my post workout breakfast taco haven) while I was coming in.  I know his name is Ernie, because it was on a shirt patch.  Ernie was coming out of the store while I was climbing the stairs to enter.  Despite the stairs being four foot wide, Ernie decided that he would not move to one side or the other.  He was entitled to the whole stairway.  He was Little John, daring me to stand in his way.   Moving left or right is not a big deal to me. I am pretty agile.   I moved to the right and let him take up the stairs.    Minor problem in the big scheme of things but I felt that if he could not be polite on a stairway, what is this guy like out on the road, at work and at home.  I hope he was just having a bad day.

 

If he had been nice I would have been the first person to tell him that he had the better part of a breakfast taco stuck to the front of his shirt.  Just below the Ernie patch was a  two inch wad  of egg glued to his shirt with a small stream of hot sauce hanging from it.   It could not have been more obvious unless it had a spotlight shining on it.

 

Now that I am through eating and did not get anything on me, my conciliation is knowing that Ernie was styling around town with egg on his shirt. 

 

I wonder if that is Karma at work? 

 

 

 

Bermuda Triangle

Today we did a 50 mile bike ride. I am not sure about this but, I think we have discovered another Bermuda Triangle. It is the actually the Austin Triskaidecagon. The oddity in this area is that there was always a headwind, or very near headwind. Riding into the wind, we would come to a corner, turn left, and be faced with another headwind. Several miles later, turning right, headwind. On and on we went, with each turn came another wind hitting us. I am not sure how this is possible but it happened. No reports of tornadoes, so that is ruled out.
There is one possibility, we were going so fast that what we were experiencing was actually the wind resistance caused by sheer speed and power. Yes, that's the ticket,, speed and power.

Dirt Magnet

Almost every wedding reception that I have been to has included the one boy who is running all over the place, all jacked up on cake and punch. He is climbing under tables, running around. His pants are all dirty, his shirt is untucked and he is covered with red punch stains. In general, he is totally messed up. That was me last night.

I was unloading my bike from my car when I noticed an empty Gu wrapper. I picked it up and suddenly realized that it was a partially empty Gu wrapper. By the time I picked it up, it really was empty because the remaining contents had oozed out onto my hand. I tossed the wrapper into the recycle bin and went to get a rag for my sticky hand. The rag was next to a pile of recycle newspapers and I ended up with paper stuck on my hand. I ripped that off, except for one tiny little piece that was stuck to my fingers. Before unloading my bike, I changed out my trainer wheel to the road wheel, which meant wrestling with the chain. So, now I am sticky, dirty, and greasy. Taking my bike off the car and hanging it onto the ceiling bike hooks , I soon discovered that I left about a half a bottle of Carbo-Pro / Nuun mixture in a my aero-bottle. Current status – sticky, dirty, greasy, wet, and really sticky.

Onward and upward, I managed to get my bike rack off the car without too much problem. I did however find one more empty Gu wrapper. This one was older than the other so it did not have anything in it. I picked it up and tried to toss it out but due to my sticky fingers, it remained stuck to my hand. I shook my hand really hard, back and forth, and it finally came off.

Without further incident, I made it into the bathroom to get cleaned up. What I saw in the nirror was the adult version of the kid you see at the wedding reception. What I did not anticpate was the Gu wrapper that was stuck to the side of my head.