Decoding the Menu: What I did this past (sadistic) weekend

The other weekend up in Lake Placid was easy.

There, I said it!!!

Easy compared to this past weekend. I have never felt so defeated like this before, where my body wanted to go, but A) couldn't sit down on the saddle anymore and B) The legs were just laughing at me. I ran the slowest run of my life Sunday morning and bailed 15 mins short.

(really it is the combination of last weekend and this past weekend that has obliterated me....)

So in case you glazed over the descriptions to my Chateau le Pain (and I am not talking about french bread!) Menu Post, I tastefully (pun intended) described the slaughter (again, pun intended) that my coach served (sorry!) me. Here is the literal translation.

Saturday

The Beat Down

4 succulent tastings of OUCH, each getting tastier after the next. Takes one hour to consume each.

What actually happened: 80 miles and 4 hours, 9 mins later, I knocked off a progression ride where I had to up the ante every hour. (started off @ 72 degrees, ended in mid 80's and sunny). I stopped after 3 hours and just grabbed a cold bottle of water and sipped it. I don't think I have ever cherished cold water like that before! The heat was killing me!

The Sole Sucker

110 minutes to prepare, only five to kill. Cooked over a brick. You will be running for the hills!

What actually happened: I bricked it for 76 mins. 9 miles later in blistering (literally!) 85 degree heat I was cooked. Longest bike to run to date. I think this was more brutal than a Half Ironman. Considering my pace evened out at an 8:25 in those conditions, I am patting myself on the back for a job well done. (I suffer in the heat!).....and my arms were blistered from the Lake Placid weekend arm sunburns. OUCH!

I seem to have accumulated quite the bug collection during the day.

Sunday

The Leg Peeler

45 mins of slowly roasted leg of lamb

 What actually happened: I made it almost 33 minutes before I called it quits. I was averaging over a 10 min/mile pace. For me, that is so slow that there is no point in running. I thought my legs would loosen up but they felt worse and worse as the run went on. No point in this! I was doing more harm than good so I swallowed my pride, walked home almost 2 miles, ate a gigantic breakfast, had a good long stretch, and went back to sleep for 3 hours.

Beaten Beef

For this 2.5 hour eating experience, you will enjoy the fine qualites of tenderized filet of HEART. Served on a cheese wheel.

What actually happened: With my confidence totally shelled, and the temps at 4pm still in the mid 80's, lets just say I had little hope that this ride was going to be worth it. But I trudged on. My ass is so freaking chafed from riding so much, that I pulled out all of the guns for my poor butt on this ride. I tweeted:

I added some motivation to the bike by riding 10 miles to the Tri Ridgefield Sprint bike course (which is next weekend! Yikes! Where did that come from?!?!), did two loops of the course, then came back to total 44 miles. After 124 miles in two days, 650 miles for the month, my ass can't take it anymore!!!

For all of you future first time Ironman-ers. One piece of advice before you start the crazy miles on the bike, take care of your butt!!!!!

Monday

Nada. Nothing. Zilch! Total rest day! Tried to go to the pool, but it was closed. Went to a BBQ and socialized and felt human.

Tuesday

Creme Brutal Souffle

16-18 samplings of Souffle. Takes between 8 and 9 minutes to consume each.

Wine Pairing: Moscato D' Feet Hurt

What actually happened: I ran my farthest run ever: 17.09 miles in 2:30:00 flat. I started the run at 5AM and even then @ 68 degrees and 100% humidity, my body was revolting on me. I was struggling to get below a 9 min/mile pace and took almost an hour for my body to really get going. The final 90 mins were a LOT better than the first 60.

So wanna hear some totals from the past 7 days?
Swim: 10,000 yards
Bike: 183 miles
Run: 44 miles
Hours: 17.5
My Soul: Gone to the devil
My knees: The Mob whacked em with a friggin baseball bat. Capiche?

So to add one more food pun in here, I AM COOKED!!! Fortunately I guess I am getting a rest week this week. Yay! Rest is aaaaalllll relative, so this kind of rest on the grand scheme of things still might not be considered "rest." Well hopefully I will be sharp by Sunday's Sprint race up in Ridgefield, CT.

Happy Training!

My Take On Lance Armstrong

Jeff @ DangleTheCarrot emailed me yesterday wondering what I thought of Lance after the Tyler Hamilton 60 Minutes broadcast.

I responded first with, "I am VERY biased," which then proceeded into a loooooong rant finishing with, "I should probably blog this." Jeff agreed.

So here goes:

I went to a VERY small private high school tucked up into the middle of nowhere in New Hampshire. Tyler Hamilton went there as well, but graduated in 1990; I graduated in 2001, but the same cycling coaches were there for Tyler and for me. When I was on the cycling team during '99, '00, and '01, we would always joke and strive to be the next "Tyler" since at that time Tyler was riding FOR Lance @ the TDF. On rainy days we would watch old videos of Tyler racing for our team 10 years prior and lapping the field at a crit race on an old 1/3 mile track. We would be so inspired by him! We wanted to become him! So this is why I am biased.

Tyler also had the name of "Mr. Nice Guy" in the peleton. Everybody respected him and NOBODY talked bad about him. Everyone thought he was clean.

So I think that right there gives some merit to who he is, even though he has a dark side we are all finding out about now. He did swear on the life of his wife's life and the grave of his late dog that he never doped, so that kind of worries me. Why would he do that then and tell the truth now? Is he telling the truth now? What were his motivations for lying then? What are his motivations for telling the truth now?

But now I think it is George Hincapie's testimony that will really break the case wide open. He was with Lance for all 7 tours and has a squeaky clean reputation.

Lance has enough $$$ and connections to make anything go away. His urine from 1999 tested positive for EPO in 2005 when they retested it. His lawyer's squashed it for technical reasons. It was still his urine and it still tested positive for EPO! They didn't have a test for EPO in 1999.

I now know why the Livestrong foundation got so big. It is Lance's get out of jail free card. You can't bring down Lance because then you will bring down a super successful and highly respected foundation. The Morals of society can't let that happen!!! Can it?

I want to know what the "big picture" is for going after Lance. What is the Federal Gov't gonna get out of all this? The amount of $$$ they spent on the team was peanuts compared to what they are spending overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is this to teach a lesson to others? Who else is sponsored by a federal agency popping pills and shooting EPO? Or will the Gov't go after ANYONE who has ever defrauded them in the past. If so, there would be a backlog of fraud cases for five centuries!

Lance is a big deal, but I don't think he is that big of a deal for the Gov't to waste so many resources on this.

I saw Lance race in the Tour de France in person up on Alp D'Huez and on the Champs Elysees in Paris in 2003, and saw him @ the Tour De Georgia in 2004 and 2005. If he gets convicted of fraud and what not, I will still remember him more by the good shows he put on over the years and how he stared down Jan Ullrich with "The Look", rather than the doping fiascos over the years.

Lance, I want to hate you but I want to love you all at the same time. Thank you for entertaining and inspiring us for so many years.

Chateau Le Pain's Prix Fix Holiday Weekend Menu

Just got my latest training plan. I looked at the long weekend's activities and my jaw dropped. Makes last weekend @ Lake Placid look like a frosted cupcake. Speaking of food! I was on my 90 min recovery ride this morning and I was sorta hungry and thought of some fine French restaurant and then thought of the weekend again and combined the two into a fun way to describe just what I have to do.

Enjoy!
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Chateau Le Pain

Spring Prix Fix Menu

Appetizer

The Beat Down

4 succulent tastings of OUCH, each getting tastier after the next. Takes one hour to consume each.

Wine Pairing: Pino Ridiculous

Palate Cleanser

The Sole Sucker

110 minutes to prepare, only five to kill. Cooked over a brick. You will be running for the hills!

Wine Pairing: Chardonyouhavetobekiddingme

Prime Entree

The Leg Peeler

45 mins of slowly roasted leg of lamb

Wine Pairing: Cabernet Saveme

Second Entree

Beaten Beef

For this 2.5 hour eating experience, you will enjoy the fine qualites of tenderized filet of HEART. Served on a cheese wheel.

Wine Pairing: Barolo Rollmylegsout

Dessert

Creme Brutal Souffle

16-18 samplings of Souffle. Takes between 8 and 9 minutes to consume each.

Wine Pairing: Moscato D' Feet Hurt

Lake Placid Training Camp. I think I get it now.

And WHAT is it that I get? That Ironman training is F-ing HARD!!!!

And I gotta ride a LOT more!

And a Half Ironman is basically a totally different animal than an Ironman. Its actually closer to an Olympic distance in distance and intensity.

And that it is totally possible to mentally checkout on the bike. (Somehow my legs still turned over?)

And training with a cold and hacking up green stuff really sucks!

So I spent the weekend up in Lake Placid at a Fireman Ironman Training Camp. Great camp; lots of support and laughs and good company. Jill @ Simply Tri came up for the camp as well. So meeting another fellow blogger is always a delight as well as meeting other random people who happen to live far away and yet swim in the same pool as me. Small world!

It feels like it has been raining all spring. And it has been on the colder side. As soon as I pulled into Lake Placid it was pretty decent out, and then this....

It was forecast to rain all weekend. Great. Well, if I am training in rain, then at least I will get to experience it before I might need to race in it. Afterall, last year for Mooseman 70.3 I did the preview ride in 47 degrees and pouring rain (and got bit by a dog) and the race turned out to be 60 degrees and pouring rain. Both experiences sucked big time, but at least I was prepared for it (I did NOT get bit on race day).

So Saturday morning we are all huddled together at the Olympic Oval and it is super foggy and dark and cold out. I am wearing arm and knee warmers. I actually made a joke to a guy asking him if he had any sun screen I could borrow. Jill rode up and I knew it was her by her bike. She rides a pink camo Quintan Roo. Awesome looking ride!

So we ride. Within an hour it is pouring on us. I didn't want to ride with a group because why the heck should I draft off others when I am going to going alone anyways on race day? So I let the group go. I eventually passed them when they stopped and from there out I was alone for the rest of the ride. The rain totally sucked but at least it keeps you cool!

I went SO conservatively on the flats. Normally I am pushing 200-210 watts on the flats, if I am doing a HIM or training for a HIM. I was pushing 160 on the flats. That is how conservative I took it! And boy did I find out later that I made the right choice.

My Noble Steed

By the time I hit 2 hours, the sun was starting to pop out. WTF? It was just pouring on me not 30 mins ago! By the time I finished the first loop, the sun was totally out and I stripped the arm warmers.

UH OH!!!!!

I have no sun screen and the clouds are all gone and it is bright and sunny out.

UH OH!!!!

Yep, folks, I got burnt. Fortunately just on my arms!

Will I ever learn?!?!?!?

So at 56 miles I got my special needs bag and I put down an Ensure and put a little tiny packet of sun screen on my face and one two spots on the back of my arms. Totally not enough on the arms. The Ensure made me feel human again.

So at this point my brain is hardwired to run, since that is what my triathlon life for the past two seasons has been like: Bike 56, run Half Marathon, eat, sleep, train, stretch, ice bath, yadda yadda yadda. Me NOT going for a run and instead hopping back on the bike for another 56 miles was like switching from a life long addiction from Coke to Pepsi. The brain didn't know how to handle it!

So after some punching of the brain, I was off for loop #2. Wow did my body suddenly feel strange. The hills coming out of town suddenly felt a LOT steeper. When I made it onto the flats from Keene to Jay, staying in the aero position was a LOT harder. I was restless. My body hurt. My butt hurt. I was getting my nutrition down and drinking regularly and was full of energy, I was just starting to feel the fatigue in the legs and my brain was wandering.

At exactly 5 hours I hit the intersection of Jay to Wilmington, aka, the climbing of the last 17 miles was about to being.

I mentally checked out. My brain was no longer attached. Fortunately there was a camp aid station there and a guy who has done the race was manning it and he gave me a pep talk that really set me straight. It was enough to attach the brain back to the head so I could mentally comprehend what was ahead of me. I found climbing to be easier on the body than riding the flats since I no longer needed to stay in the aero position.

By the time I hit the last turn from Wilmington heading up the last 11 miles to Lake Placid, I reentered that fog again. I was struggling and just forced myself to turn the pedals. I was somewhere else and I honestly do remember most of it, but it felt like a dream. I also choked down Gu #11 at this point and practically gagged. Time to find an alternative fueling choice to mix it up. Gu is cool, but not 11 on one ride! Blech! Gonna try more Clif Bar Products.

Then the STRANGEST thing happened! I woke up! My body literally woke up when I saw the River Road intersection and I knew I had 15 mins to the top of Papa Bear (the peak of the climbing on the course). I started hammering it. I buzzed by some guy who said, "Take it easy!"......he said it as in, "Hey you young turd! Get off my lawn! You are going too hard!" Sorry man, because you are having a bad day doesn't mean you gotta piss on mine.

I finished the ride, strapped on the shoes and ran. Knocked off 3.88 miles @ an 8:16 pace after riding for 6 hours, 16 mins and 112.75 miles.

BAM! GET SOME!!!!

Remember how I said I was going so conservatively on the first loop of the bike? It paid off by allowing me to run that fast with such ease after riding that long. I have heard stories after stories of people saying, "GO EASY!!!! Like a notch easier than you what you think easy is."

And I positive split the 2nd loop by less than 2 mins. Pacing SUCCESS!!!

I immediately hopped into Mirror Lake up to my waist and iced my knees. OMG this cured my knees and legs. And it was absolutely beautiful by this point. Just look at these pictures!

 

Now for Sunday was the long run. My legs felt good, but I wouldn't know how they truly felt until I started running. I only needed to run 13.1, but Jill needed to run 2.5 hours. I said why not. I can go longer. I just did 2:15:00 last Tuesday, what's another 15 mins? We started running together, found that we are the same pace and just kept going. OMG that was not only my longest run ever physically, but it was one of the shortest runs mentally for me. Running with someone makes time go by SO fast! Thanks Jill! We are trying to formulate a plan to run the marathon together. Talk about PR city!

So the run started off HOT. Like magnifying glass on the ant type of hot and at 3 miles in we are sweating more than all of yesterday. Oh crap. So we stop at every aid station and chug 2-3 glasses of water/perform, etc. It helped. By the time we turned around on River Road, it was starting to cloud up and it continued to cloud up further and further throughout the run. This basically saved us and took the heat/sun element out of the equation. Now it was just a mental/physical thing. Mentally, it was a super easy run. Physically, not too bad either. What's another 10 miles? Haha!

I just finished icing the legs. Jill was about to hit the road. But look at our arms!

It was a VERY rewarding weekend. I learned that the mental hurdles are just as though as the physical. I learned that Gu is cool, but no more than 6 on the bike. Infinit freaking rocks! Going too easy on the first loop is not a bad thing. My compact crank was the best decision to have installed on the bike. Spinning with a 34x25 is so smooth and effortless. Burning off literally 3500 calories on the bike is crazy! Yes folks, I produced 3,500 KJ of work through my power meter. That equates to calories. Crazy!

This was also a HUGE mental confidence booster. Here I am, 8-9 weeks out from race day, and I already knocked off my first 112 miler and a 16 mile run the next day and the legs feel good. Either the ice baths are working miracles (I do think Mirror Lake has healing qualities) or all of the hard work I have been putting in so far this season is paying off.

Don't get me wrong,that bike yesterday was F-ing TOUGH! This is NO walk in the park! I feel good now, but I know I will be dreading the next 100+ miler.

I totally recommend burying yourself like this 8 weeks out from your first Ironman. You still have plenty of time to recover and this is the time to make every mistake you can possibly make. Because then you have 8 weeks to fix!

Hope you had a great weekend of racing and or training and HUGE congrats to Jeff Irvin @ Dangle the Carrot and Shannon @ Iron Texas Mommy. They are now Ironmen! They just completed the inaugural Ironman Texas on Saturday and both had incredible days. Rest up you two! You deserve it and eat as many Brownie Sundaes as you can!!!

Revisiting the Dreaded Ice Bath, and Recovery

My knees have been hurting. And getting worse. At first I was like, "Eh, its just a phase." Then I squatted down to lift a pot out of my bottom cupboard. I couldn't get back up without bracing myself with my arms.

Uh oh....

Walking down stairs hurts.

Uh oh....

After my 15+ mile run on Tuesday, I suddenly got a craving mid run to take an ice bath. Its like my body just KNEW it NEEDED an ice bath. Its kind of like the first time I tried an Olive and almost puked my guts up. Then two years later I suddenly NEEDED to eat an olive. Now Olives are one of my favorite foods.

Seems like Ice Baths are now my new favorite recovery tool?

So did this Ice Bath work? YEP! It didn't so much cure the sore muscles but rather soothed my achy knees. My knees have actually felt better after this ice bath than they have in about three weeks.

I wrote a post on Recovery over a year ago. It was all experimentation back then, but unfortunately I didn't have a "control" to compare my results to. Has anyone figured out how to clone oneself yet?

Here are my recovery steps from a hard workout.
#1 EAT
- it doesn't matter, just get food into you! Protein, carbs, fat. Make it taste good! But really, more carbs. Gotta replace those Glycogen stores! I usually make a chocolate whey protein shake with 40 grams of chocolate whey, 2 cups of milk, and a banana and blend! So yummy! This way I am getting sugars, proteins, and fats all in one.

#2 Stretch
- you know what to do!

#3 Foam Roll
- Gonna Quote Matty-O here: "There is no crying in foam rolling!"

#4 Ice Bath
- here are my tips.
- wear clothes - this helps sooooo much! Your legs will still be frozen by the end of the bath. You just won't get that deep chill. I wear a long sleave top with my under running wear.
- get into an empty tub - you are wearing your clothes, now hop in and THEN fill up the tub with cold water. NOW add the ice. This basically takes any sort of shock out of the equation. You don't throw a frog into a boiling pot of water, right?
- drink something warm! Thank you Lauren @ Train, Tri Tri Again for the recommendation! If the best way to cool your body is by ingesting cold liquids, heating your body is best by ingesting hot liquids.

For the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000th time. I did NOT pee in the tub! ;) Its the ice cube shadows! haha!

#5 Eat some more, or, get your legs warmed back up
- my legs are literally iced when done. So I let them warm up

#6 stretch again
- because my legs have gotten stiff from the ice bath, I restretch them out

#7 shower
- ok, now you can get unsmelly!

#8 get horizontal
- pretty simple. Rest those legs!

The above steps have basically saved my legs this week. I am doing another long run on Sunday, possibly a 19 miler (after 112 miles of the Lake Placid course on Saturday). May only do 13. Regardless, I am going to need another dose of cold on the knees! Fortunately Mirror Lake's water temp is still south of 50 degrees. Full body ice bath anyone?

Of course, I have found the Brownie Sunday Recovery Method to work just as well ;)

Totally Random Wednesday

I haven't done a Random Post in a loooooooooong time, and since Ironman training is starting to eat my brain, I figure I will verbally vomit out whatever comes to mind.

 - I ran 15.61 miles yesterday, making that my longest continuous run EVAR.
 - I did it in 2:15:00. The first 1:45:00 was easy. The last 30, my body switched to OUCH mode.
 - I seem to time my workouts perfectly around the rain. It was pouring out this morning! @ 11:30 it finally cleared up. It continued to pour only after I finished my run.
- It is supposed to rain forEVAR.
- I did my first Ice Bath in over a year. It was cooooooold. Thankfully I have awesome fellow bloggers who suggest good things. Laura @ Train, Tri, Tri, Again gave me a genius idea to drink something hot while freezing my butt off (literally)

No I did NOT pee in the tub!!! It is shadows from the ice, thank you very much!

- my poor knees. Yeah, I can run forever, but I can barely squat down and stand back up without needing arm support. Not good....I gotta get this looked at....
- I am going to Lake Placid this weekend for my first training camp. If I get a chance to swim the course, I will be swimming in an ice bath.
- I am a charter member of the League of Extraordinary Tri-Geeks. Basically I called Kevin @ IronmanByThirty Batman, and it blew up from there on Twitter. He wrote literally one of the FUNNIEST and most AWESOME posts EVAR. Read HERE
- My Movie, Rio, is about to break the $430,000,000 worldwide mark. Yes. That IS a lot of zeros!
- Twitter is literally eating my brain. Peace out Facebook! I am finding Twitter to be waaaaay better. You can follow me on Twitter HERE.
- In Triathlon Crime News: A Spanish doping ring involving amateur triathletes was broken up. THIS IS FOR REAL!!! This has nothing to do with my recent brushes with the Law such as THIS and THAT.

- Finally!, and this is VERY important, but our own Wonder Woman, aka, Mandy @ Caratunk Girl recently lost her beloved and super celebrity dog, Bailey. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE visit her blog or twitter and drop her some condolences. Bailey was THE MAN and we will all miss him!

We are all pulling for you Mandy!!!!

Chug-A-Lug-Chug-A-Lug-CHOO-CHOOOOOOOO!!!!

A LOT of you fellow bloggers were racing this past weekend. I mean, I think EVERONE raced. Don't believe me? Here is a run down:

Jill @ Simply Tri: American Zofinger (5 mile run, 84 mile bike, 15 mile run duathlon!)
Colleen @ IRONDIVA: Rev3 Half Ironman
Beal @ I'm the One They Call Beal: Cleveland Marathon
Matty-O @ Staying Strong and Positive: Cleveland Marathon
Emily @Sweat Once A Day: Kinetic Half Ironman
Aneta @ The Running Bucket: Mississauga Half Marathon
Kevin @ Ironman By Thirty: River Bank Run 25K (He is still a VIP)
(did I miss anyone? I'll add you....)

Nice job to you all! Some of you PR'ed. Some of you ran new distances. And some of you knocked out some super solid training.

As for me, this is a very non-racing season; I am just making up for it by doing the longest race of them all. :)

Which means that I am getting in a lot more solid training. Let's be honest. Racing is cool, but man oh man depending on the type of race it can really eat into the type of training that makes you fitter. This is why I am only doing 3 tri's this season.

I was able to knock out a 4.19/57.79/4.48 mile duathlon on Saturday then hit up another 2.5 hours on the bike on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, it was kind of a gross day. It didn't really rain on me, its just the roads were so wet that it knocked down all of the crap off of the trees, which then got on me and my shiny white bike.

Red, White, And Blue America Baby!

Fortunately a hose can clean the crap off

Wow! Look at the chin wrinkles!...and the retro cap....

Tomorrow could wind up being my longest run EVAR with 2:15:00 on the docket. Supposed to rain which is a good thing considering most of my best runs have been in the rain.

Then it is basically full on recovery mode for this weekend. What is this weekend you ask? LAKE PLACID!!!! No no no, not the race, but my first training camp. This could be a record breaking week! Wish me luck!

Aaaaaannnnnd, we are back!

Way to go Blogger! Thanks for eating it for the last 3 days. Do you know just how bored some of us got?

Do you how much going black made us realize just how much we need to get outside instead of staring at the computer screen all day long? Oh wait....we do go outside, A LOT. What?

Anyways, my coach gave me my latest installment and things on the training front are continuing to ramp up. What is on the docket?

Well last night was a 20 min all out Time Trial effort. I scored 261 watts over 20 mins, which gives me a new FTP of 235 watts. That gives me a 3.47 watt/kg ratio. Aka, I am stronger and lighter than this time last year on the bike. (as I should be!)

Saturday is a duathlon! A 35 min run, 3 hour bike, then another 35 min run.

Sundays is another 2.5 hours on the bike.

Monday is a "rest day" of just a swim.

Tuesday is a 2:15 run, which, depending on how I feel, could be the longest I ever run in my whole life.

This is actually less volume than last weekend, only the overall intensity will be higher. Remember, training load = time * intensity. Even though I am doing less time, with higher intensity will equal a larger load.

Quick post here. Nothing else going on too crazy other than this time next week I will be in Lake Placid BABY!!!!!...for my first training camp. Bring it!

Q: How Much Laundry Do You Do?

And I am not talking about separating out your lights and your darks. I am talking about washing your workout clothes!

Last year I upped my volume and number of workouts per week by, well, enough to notice that I was doing a LOT more laundry for workout clothes than usual.

Now let's look at the number of workouts I do currently to the number of (current season) workout clothes that I own to swim, bike, and run.

Swimming:
3 swims per week
2 Jammers
Unlimited number of towels

Biking:
4 rides a week
Two pairs of bib shorts
two cycling jerseys
lots of cycling socks, but mostly I ride barefoot
A one piece tri suit (which can be used most weekends when its warm)

Running:
5 runs a week
3 pairs thorlo running socks (I don't run in anything else!)
2 pairs under shorts
2 pairs running shorts
3 running jerseys

Now for certain workouts, such as brick workouts, there is a blend of running and cycling clothing, so there is some overlap.

Now what about the reuse factor? Do you reuse certain workout clothes? For me, I wash the towel and jammers after every use. If it is an easy 60 min ride and its not terribly warm out, then I will reuse the shorts and jersey. It doesn't matter what kind of run I do, as they are usually 45 mins or longer, EVERYTHING gets washed after one use. Weekend workout attire? No question, WASHED after one use, since its been used for HOURS.

There is something satisfying putting on clean workout clothes before every workout. Guess it gets you started on the right foot? (sorry, pun intended!)

Now let's talk detergent. Do you know how freaking expensive name brand laundry detergent is these days? EXPENSIVE! I finally gave up and bought the store brand generic stuff. I have noticed NO difference whatsoever. I believe that the active ingredients between generics and name brands have to be the same but the non-active ingredients can be different? Simple! Buy non scented generic detergent since they are going to become YOUR scent within 30 mins of a workout anyways.

I have noticed no issues with the generic brand eating my clothes. Heck, I have had some of the same workout clothes for almost three seasons that are CONSTANTLY (1-2x a week) washed and dried in a dryer and are still in good condition.

So all in all, I am guessing that I prolly do 1-2 big loads of workout clothes each week and will mix in stuff with my normal dark loads when I need a certain item for a certain workout.

I guess I could buy more workout clothes? But they would still need to be washed. Space is an issue for me, so I am sticking with my routine.

What about you?

Am I Dreaming? Did I just do all of THAT?!?!?!

This past weekend marked the break from Half Ironman training into Full Ironman training. And there was no transition! I just jumped RIGHT into it!

On Saturday I knocked off 79.71 miles in 4:06:50 for a 19.38 mph avg. Um, I learned a valuable lesson on this ride. DONT GO TOO HARD IN THE FIRST HALF!!!!! (*cough* Lake Placid *cough*)

I did a 40 mile loop twice. My Ego-O-Meter shot up to an 11 out of 10 and I hammered it too much thinking, "Oh, I'll be THE MAN on the second loop." WRONG!!!! I positive split the 2nd loop by exactly 3 mins (not good) and thought my legs were going to fall off by the end. I started to dread the 45 min brick run that I had to do next.

Oh the carnage! 8 Gu's and 450 calories of Infinit got me through the ride.

I need to back up for a few and mention that the weather today was gorgeous on the bike! 70 degrees, dry, little wind, and clear and sunny. Puuuuuuuurfect. I should have charged admission to a couple of roadies who attached themselves for a free ride at various points during the ride. Its cool, I don't mind.

Now onto the run. Remember how I mentioned that my legs were going to fall off and that amputation might be the only remedy? Well, I started running and my legs felt PHENOMENAL!!!! Like I have NEVER EVER felt my legs feel SO good before! Here I am having just knocked off my longest ride in about two years thinking that I wasn't going to finish the bike to now I feel like I could sprint a marathon? Crazy!

Oh! And it gets better! Let me show you a formula:

 +

+

=

Remember how I was saying the weather was perfect? Well it started to downpour on me very early into my run (yes, I timed out my ride perfectly!). Me + Running + Rain = A happy fast running me. My run turned into 5.75 miles in 45 mins flat for a 7:49 pace after an 80 mile ride.

BAM!!!! GET SOME!!!!

This was a big confidence boosting workout. Yes, I was dead by the end of the workout, but it really showed me that doing Lake Placid is a possibility. It also showed me that I better get used to UBER long bike rides and long days in general.

*Gonna nerd out here for a few regarding nutrition*
I downed 96 oz of liquids and 1,250 calories total for the ride and run. Breakfast was ~1000 calories. 2250 calories total taken in. I burned off 2,611 kj (calories) during the ride and between 518 and 575 calores on the run for a total burn of ~3140 calories, bringing me to about a ~900 calorie deficit. Good? Bad? I felt fine and in fact was not hungry for a full hour after the workout. But an hour later I was ravenous. I ate prolly 700+ during that meal. Then a few hours later I was ravenous again and had a fullfilling dinner of sushi, salad, and ice cream. I was good for the rest of the night after that.
*Done Nerding Out*

Sunday's workout was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay slower than Saturday's. The goal was to do an hour easy run followed by an easy 2 hour bike. Easy was not a choice, it was the ONLY thing my body was capable of doing! Ever felt like being stuck in 2nd gear? Yeah, that was me! My legs didn't hurt, they just had the energy sucked out of them.

In fact, after the 60 min run, the first 10 mins on the bike my body didn't feel right; my body just felt funny! haha! My butt hurt more sitting down than my legs I think. Wound up with 6.73 miles in 60 mins for an 8:54 pace followed by 33.56 miles in 120 mins for a 16.81 mph average. Yep! Waaaaaaaaay slower!

Overall for the weekend, I wound up with 113.27 miles on the bike, but only 12.48 miles run. No worries about the run. I have two hours of running on Tuesday! My coach has split up the long ride and run by a few days to allow proper recovery.

Good start for a first "Ironman" training weekend. I am sure I will look back at this weekend and say, "Oh how cute!"

Happy Training!

Only video can describe the fear in my voice: VIDEO BLOG POST!

My last post described how it was all beginning. IT HAS BEGUN!

And so it begins....(Hi Ironman training!) *cue daunting music

This week is a major milestone this season. It marks 12 weeks until Ironman Lake Placid. Wow! 12 weeks you ask? That is TONS of time!

Uuuuuuuuummmmmm, WRONG. 12 weeks is gonna go by quicker than we will all realize.

So this week marks the transition into unknown territory, aka Ironman specific training. Aka the separation from my former Half Ironman training life into FULL Ironman training life. This is where things get REAL. It is no longer a "do I feel like it" or "should I maybe" do a workout to its entirety. Its now a "HAVE TO" kinda thing. GET IT?!?!?!?

Take for today. I had to swim 3,000 yards in the pool. "Had to" has many meanings. Nobody is making me swim 3,000 yards today. I just know that I am going to hate myself if I don't swim the entire 3,000 yards. Showing up on race day as prepared as I can is a must!!!

So this past weekend, for example, was a good crash course into the beginnings of Ironman specific training. I went up to the mother land, aka, the Lakes Region and White Mountains of New Hampshire and visited some of my old and new stomping grounds.

I started with 65 miles on the bike on Saturday where I climbed a 2500 foot hill over 6 miles (good climb!). This hill is known as "Gonzo" pass. Long story as to why it is called that. But! Before I even got to it I had to fight a biketarded headwind for 22-ish miles going at times 14mph on dead flats. Frustration, anyone?

By the time I hit the climb I let the compact crank do the talking and I spun up the climb as much as I could. Great climb and it still hurt as much as when I climbed it in high school on the bike.

View from the top. The White Mountains of New Hampshire

After a painful downhill (the road was bombed out and my body is a terrible shock absorber) I now had a tailwind. Before I started the quick trek back, the downhill dumps you into the town of Warren, NH. They didn't want a band stand in the center of their town, so they installed a 60 foot ballistic missile replica instead.

Yeah.....

What took me 2 hours to get to the top of the climb, only took me 1:15 to get back to my starting point! I was basically pushing 25mph the entire way back. Felt AWESOME. Of course I made it back 15 mins sooner so I had to do a quick 15 min out and back to round it out to a 3.5 hour ride.

Then I ran for 40 mins on the trails at my old high school. It was a tad wet out there but it brought back MANY memories of cutting down trees, splitting wood, and spraining my ankle 10+ years ago. Not the fastest run due to the terrain but it felt AWESOME.

I guess I felt muddier than I looked?

Oh and the fun didn't stop there! Sunday AM was a two hour run. I knocked off 13.1 on the Timberman course before my innards had other ideas and was forced to call it a run. Regardless, running along Lake Winnipesaukee is always a treat.

The white snow capper back there is Mt. Washington. Clear day!

So other than hanging with my dog, Aachen, and showing off "Rio" to my family, it was a successful weekend and my legs feel surprisingly good! I should revel in this feeling, because I think things are only going to get harder from here :)

Das Aachen!