so i think i have changed a bit swimming, when i started ( all of a year ago ) i kept my head above water way too much... i think it was always.
but now i try to keep my head in the water as much as possible. the big change is of course that i am spending i would guess 75% or so of the time looking under water rather than the spinning world as i turn my head sideways for air.
seems like now the real world is underwater and the odd place is the air. pretty nice change!
:-)
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
slower ;-)
hahahaha! thats what i get for mentioning how awesome i was on sunday.
didnt last long. i use the royal 'we' a lot in my posts because it is both me and the resa doing everything together. we like to run, swim and bike together. we are about the same speed in all events give or take some effort. but on any day it is beyond weird how totally equal we are. i can be faster or slower on all three events with the same amount of effort we are that close. once a few months ago we got separated at a half marathon and ran it about 70 secs apart as far as time goes.
so i usually write up a bit on how she is doing as we really are teamed up about 99.8% of the time.
so sunday i was feeling pretty darn great.
monday: found out my best client is going out of business and i probably have to find more software work. kinda a bummer. the resa's knee fell apart on her for no reason and totally unexpected and could hardly walk ( we skipped several workouts the rest of the week ) and lastly my brain scan came back and i have some tumors in my head - which is also a bit of a bummer.
so, the week started out a bit icky and stayed that way for most of it. on friday we finally got back to trying hard. we kinda dabbled in working out the other days - just didnt have the mojo.
friday went well, and then the weekend comes and to pick our spirits up we go shopping! i ended up with a new set of bike pants. ok - some background on this. about 12 years ago i met the resa. after a few hours we decided to get married in vegas by elvis and then she told me i would have to learn to ride a bike.
and i get on this old 1990 mountain bike. weighs about 45 pounds and i go riding on the green monster. our first ride was called Zoo-de-Mac. its a ride about 50 miles for partyiers and newbies. you ride 50 flat miles and get on a boat at the end and ride to this island called mackinaw in michigan. sounds like fine fun so i agree to go. she has done it a few times and is a biker. so we start off. i take the bike out of the truck, get on and ride! wooohooo!!! for about 4 miles. then i am gassed. totally blown out. i gasp out how much farther it is. she says something like 49 miles. and i stop. biking is not for me. well, we sit there the two of us and i am thinking its about 4 miles back to the truck. i can drive up and meet them. and she is looking at me and the bike.
"put any air in the tires?" she asks
"air?" i ponder
"well, there is plenty of air OUTSIDE the tires, did you put any in?"
"in the tires?"
they are both totally flat. she has a small bike pump on her bike. and since they didnt lose any air the rest of the day - i am sorta guessing they started out flat.
so we ride ride ride the brutal flat no wind 60 degree day to the island where my legs fall off.
but!!! my butt was not sore. at all. which now i think is pretty shocking. and remembering back to the green monster ( which later broke friends bones ) i remember the seat is about the size and shape of a barker lounger.
i think it even had the wood handle on the side that makes the feet thingy go up.
so i changed bikes 3-4 times in the last 12 years. but... i kept the seat. that monster seat just jumped bike to bike. it wore out a bit = looks really nasty now, and i got a LOT of comments on it through the years. so with the latest bike ( about a month ago ) i switched seats finally. swapped out the 1980s ginormous seat with a thin sleek thing.
this helped my legs move better - rather than feeling like i was riding a horse all the time my legs now go straight down to the pedals - which as i use the aero bars more now than ever is pretty huge. tried 2 different seats as the first was pretty painful. the second was not. was pretty nice. hurt after about 80 miles but so did the old one. so i would call it a draw on pain and a win on efficiency.
3 days ago i bought a my first bike shorts. ( i know insane ) but all along i didnt need them as i had the UberSeat. just figured even lance armstrong wears bike shorts, how faggy could it be? was great. really great. i think i am going to wear them every ride now. ( i know i am like 10 years behind the curve here )
so - anyway. the resa's knee is pretty focked up and we were planning on a 100 mile ride saturday. going out there we decided on a 40 mile slow ride. but as happens when you feel good... you go a little more. she felt great - if nervous. and we ended up with a 95 mile fairly fast ride.
learned a lot about eating on the ride. we as an experiment ate the whole time. goos, candies ( first ever snickers - thanks julie! ) sadly the snickers was a bit of an effort as it was 99 degrees out and it was a puddle of goop. but you can sqeeze it out like a goo packet. all sorts of other stuff to eat too.
and it was the best i have EVER felt for riding over 40 miles. after 95 miles i felt like it was a 20 mile ride. seriously - both of us were feeling great! wow - what a huge difference that made.
we felt so good we went home and jumped in bed and..... !! !! slept.
got up the next morning and went running - we ran 13. then swam 2.
but i was dehydrated from the day before and she was without dinner and pretty much breakfast too.
and some thoughts on "Tired":
after trying to get to tired we have come up with this set of thoughts:
A - dehydrated: not enough water ( me ) and you have a lot of energy, but every time you start running again you start breathing hard. your heart needs to pump a lot of less efficient sludge through your body. so if you feel strong and get a high heart rate - drink.
B - bonked: not enough food in your body ( resa ). you are not out of breath but have dead legs. - eat!
C - hurt: cramped/hurt/pain: well, this is pretty item specific, so not much to say here.
D - lame: mentally dont want to do it. need to watch some ironman videos before the workout!
SCORES:
mentally: 6 - had a pretty tough week outside of training. ahh well.
physically: 9 - no injuries, tired from weekend workouts. feel good.
workouts: 7 - skipped some with resa's knee, made up with great weekend!
didnt last long. i use the royal 'we' a lot in my posts because it is both me and the resa doing everything together. we like to run, swim and bike together. we are about the same speed in all events give or take some effort. but on any day it is beyond weird how totally equal we are. i can be faster or slower on all three events with the same amount of effort we are that close. once a few months ago we got separated at a half marathon and ran it about 70 secs apart as far as time goes.
so i usually write up a bit on how she is doing as we really are teamed up about 99.8% of the time.
so sunday i was feeling pretty darn great.
monday: found out my best client is going out of business and i probably have to find more software work. kinda a bummer. the resa's knee fell apart on her for no reason and totally unexpected and could hardly walk ( we skipped several workouts the rest of the week ) and lastly my brain scan came back and i have some tumors in my head - which is also a bit of a bummer.
so, the week started out a bit icky and stayed that way for most of it. on friday we finally got back to trying hard. we kinda dabbled in working out the other days - just didnt have the mojo.
friday went well, and then the weekend comes and to pick our spirits up we go shopping! i ended up with a new set of bike pants. ok - some background on this. about 12 years ago i met the resa. after a few hours we decided to get married in vegas by elvis and then she told me i would have to learn to ride a bike.
and i get on this old 1990 mountain bike. weighs about 45 pounds and i go riding on the green monster. our first ride was called Zoo-de-Mac. its a ride about 50 miles for partyiers and newbies. you ride 50 flat miles and get on a boat at the end and ride to this island called mackinaw in michigan. sounds like fine fun so i agree to go. she has done it a few times and is a biker. so we start off. i take the bike out of the truck, get on and ride! wooohooo!!! for about 4 miles. then i am gassed. totally blown out. i gasp out how much farther it is. she says something like 49 miles. and i stop. biking is not for me. well, we sit there the two of us and i am thinking its about 4 miles back to the truck. i can drive up and meet them. and she is looking at me and the bike.
"put any air in the tires?" she asks
"air?" i ponder
"well, there is plenty of air OUTSIDE the tires, did you put any in?"
"in the tires?"
they are both totally flat. she has a small bike pump on her bike. and since they didnt lose any air the rest of the day - i am sorta guessing they started out flat.
so we ride ride ride the brutal flat no wind 60 degree day to the island where my legs fall off.
but!!! my butt was not sore. at all. which now i think is pretty shocking. and remembering back to the green monster ( which later broke friends bones ) i remember the seat is about the size and shape of a barker lounger.
i think it even had the wood handle on the side that makes the feet thingy go up.
so i changed bikes 3-4 times in the last 12 years. but... i kept the seat. that monster seat just jumped bike to bike. it wore out a bit = looks really nasty now, and i got a LOT of comments on it through the years. so with the latest bike ( about a month ago ) i switched seats finally. swapped out the 1980s ginormous seat with a thin sleek thing.
this helped my legs move better - rather than feeling like i was riding a horse all the time my legs now go straight down to the pedals - which as i use the aero bars more now than ever is pretty huge. tried 2 different seats as the first was pretty painful. the second was not. was pretty nice. hurt after about 80 miles but so did the old one. so i would call it a draw on pain and a win on efficiency.
3 days ago i bought a my first bike shorts. ( i know insane ) but all along i didnt need them as i had the UberSeat. just figured even lance armstrong wears bike shorts, how faggy could it be? was great. really great. i think i am going to wear them every ride now. ( i know i am like 10 years behind the curve here )
so - anyway. the resa's knee is pretty focked up and we were planning on a 100 mile ride saturday. going out there we decided on a 40 mile slow ride. but as happens when you feel good... you go a little more. she felt great - if nervous. and we ended up with a 95 mile fairly fast ride.
learned a lot about eating on the ride. we as an experiment ate the whole time. goos, candies ( first ever snickers - thanks julie! ) sadly the snickers was a bit of an effort as it was 99 degrees out and it was a puddle of goop. but you can sqeeze it out like a goo packet. all sorts of other stuff to eat too.
and it was the best i have EVER felt for riding over 40 miles. after 95 miles i felt like it was a 20 mile ride. seriously - both of us were feeling great! wow - what a huge difference that made.
we felt so good we went home and jumped in bed and..... !! !! slept.
got up the next morning and went running - we ran 13. then swam 2.
but i was dehydrated from the day before and she was without dinner and pretty much breakfast too.
and some thoughts on "Tired":
after trying to get to tired we have come up with this set of thoughts:
A - dehydrated: not enough water ( me ) and you have a lot of energy, but every time you start running again you start breathing hard. your heart needs to pump a lot of less efficient sludge through your body. so if you feel strong and get a high heart rate - drink.
B - bonked: not enough food in your body ( resa ). you are not out of breath but have dead legs. - eat!
C - hurt: cramped/hurt/pain: well, this is pretty item specific, so not much to say here.
D - lame: mentally dont want to do it. need to watch some ironman videos before the workout!
SCORES:
mentally: 6 - had a pretty tough week outside of training. ahh well.
physically: 9 - no injuries, tired from weekend workouts. feel good.
workouts: 7 - skipped some with resa's knee, made up with great weekend!
Monday, June 21, 2010
faster
monday again. :-) weeks are flying by now. in the back of my head i sometimes wish we had another year of training before the event. but then when will we ever be ready?!
the resa finally got her new bike. its the same one i have just a bit smaller (56 rather than my 58) and as mine its 8 pounds lighter than she is used too. we took them out on our first ride a few days ago to shake out the twitchies. seems in pretty good condition - need to adjust some stuff of course to make it fit better, but otherwise ran smooth.
after a few adjustments we took them out yesterday for a 2 hour ride. all along i have told her how much she was going to like the bike - which is a bad move usually as she will find a way not to like something if i tell her she should like it. kinda stubborn i guess. :-) well, she was smiling pretty big as we road down the tow path. its a bit rutty here and there and mostly dirt or crushed fine limestone. so you are not doing your best times for sure - but there are very few stop signs and no cars and mostly flat. so a fun ride. i notice the mph creeping up as she takes her times in the front. soon we are riding about 3-5 mph faster than the old bikes and just chatting away. didnt even bother drafting, just rode side by side grinning at each other. we added an hour or more to the ride since it was so much fun.
we plan on riding this coming sunday in anger for the first time on the new guys. going to see what we can do a 100 miles in. shooting for under 5 hours including stops. will depend on the weather a bit, and the route is pretty hilly... but wow are these new bikes fun. we got the tank that fits between the aerobars set up and that makes drinking a ton easier too. now we can stuff our water bottles full of food! :-)
not much in other news. other than we swam our longest ever swim on sunday also. 3200 meters. so thats about 600 short of the event. we went very moderate. slow enough to never be remotely tired or out of breath - just had fun splashing around. did it in about 1:20ish. did some math on what we would have done in an ironman with a suit, no turning and maybe just a bit more effort and we think we could finish in 1:25ish. but our goal is to finish of course. no real reason now to think we wont. and that all along has been my biggest fear. also our cruising speed for running under a half marathon is now in the 9 minute per mile times. pretty big change from 12 minute miles about a year ago. :-)) and last of the bragging - as i will look back 4 weeks from now and hate the guy thats writing all this glowing love stuff. i weighed myself after a longer workout to see how much water dept i am in. 183. gads. about 35 down from my start weight a year and a half ago.
we are going to concentrate on getting our bike pace up for the next 8-9 weeks. thats going to be our strategy. to not go too hard on the swims and run and divert to the bike. we waffled quite a bit on that. whether to go with run heavy or bike heavy. the pros as we added them up came out to:
more running: probably be lighter for the event. better cardio shape. would probably help bike too by getting a better power to weight ratio.
more biking: less chance of injury ( other than of course a nasty wipeout ), good chance to see a ton of time on the last stage rather than busting to beat a bike cutoff.
in the end we figured we would rather get off the bike an hour earlier rather than be ready for a run which we might be both very stressed and very tired for.
plus we have new bikes!!! ( already resa is talking about a cervelo. *sigh* )
in other stuff - i have another question for all of you out there, what do you guys do for recovery? we currently soak our legs in cold water and try to eat a lot right after working out. other than that? ? ? ?
SCORES:
mentally: 10. wow. feel pretty darn great. even the food worries are starting to go away, we are both finding more things we can eat. so we will have quite the special needs and transition areas stocked up. feel faster in all three events from just a few months ago even. things are good.
physically: 10. no injuries, hard workouts are pretty easy on the new bikes and bodies. lol. feel great.
workouts: 10. was a harder than usual week, did all the workouts - did them if not in raging anger, at least briskly.
first ever clean sweep. never felt better.
:-)
the resa finally got her new bike. its the same one i have just a bit smaller (56 rather than my 58) and as mine its 8 pounds lighter than she is used too. we took them out on our first ride a few days ago to shake out the twitchies. seems in pretty good condition - need to adjust some stuff of course to make it fit better, but otherwise ran smooth.
after a few adjustments we took them out yesterday for a 2 hour ride. all along i have told her how much she was going to like the bike - which is a bad move usually as she will find a way not to like something if i tell her she should like it. kinda stubborn i guess. :-) well, she was smiling pretty big as we road down the tow path. its a bit rutty here and there and mostly dirt or crushed fine limestone. so you are not doing your best times for sure - but there are very few stop signs and no cars and mostly flat. so a fun ride. i notice the mph creeping up as she takes her times in the front. soon we are riding about 3-5 mph faster than the old bikes and just chatting away. didnt even bother drafting, just rode side by side grinning at each other. we added an hour or more to the ride since it was so much fun.
we plan on riding this coming sunday in anger for the first time on the new guys. going to see what we can do a 100 miles in. shooting for under 5 hours including stops. will depend on the weather a bit, and the route is pretty hilly... but wow are these new bikes fun. we got the tank that fits between the aerobars set up and that makes drinking a ton easier too. now we can stuff our water bottles full of food! :-)
not much in other news. other than we swam our longest ever swim on sunday also. 3200 meters. so thats about 600 short of the event. we went very moderate. slow enough to never be remotely tired or out of breath - just had fun splashing around. did it in about 1:20ish. did some math on what we would have done in an ironman with a suit, no turning and maybe just a bit more effort and we think we could finish in 1:25ish. but our goal is to finish of course. no real reason now to think we wont. and that all along has been my biggest fear. also our cruising speed for running under a half marathon is now in the 9 minute per mile times. pretty big change from 12 minute miles about a year ago. :-)) and last of the bragging - as i will look back 4 weeks from now and hate the guy thats writing all this glowing love stuff. i weighed myself after a longer workout to see how much water dept i am in. 183. gads. about 35 down from my start weight a year and a half ago.
we are going to concentrate on getting our bike pace up for the next 8-9 weeks. thats going to be our strategy. to not go too hard on the swims and run and divert to the bike. we waffled quite a bit on that. whether to go with run heavy or bike heavy. the pros as we added them up came out to:
more running: probably be lighter for the event. better cardio shape. would probably help bike too by getting a better power to weight ratio.
more biking: less chance of injury ( other than of course a nasty wipeout ), good chance to see a ton of time on the last stage rather than busting to beat a bike cutoff.
in the end we figured we would rather get off the bike an hour earlier rather than be ready for a run which we might be both very stressed and very tired for.
plus we have new bikes!!! ( already resa is talking about a cervelo. *sigh* )
in other stuff - i have another question for all of you out there, what do you guys do for recovery? we currently soak our legs in cold water and try to eat a lot right after working out. other than that? ? ? ?
SCORES:
mentally: 10. wow. feel pretty darn great. even the food worries are starting to go away, we are both finding more things we can eat. so we will have quite the special needs and transition areas stocked up. feel faster in all three events from just a few months ago even. things are good.
physically: 10. no injuries, hard workouts are pretty easy on the new bikes and bodies. lol. feel great.
workouts: 10. was a harder than usual week, did all the workouts - did them if not in raging anger, at least briskly.
first ever clean sweep. never felt better.
:-)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
1760
did a little quick math on how many hours we will have worked out since starting the ironman training.
started jan 1009. and at our current and expected pace we will have worked out roughly 20 hours a week for 87 weeks making 1740 hours. and we added a few extra long workouts so i am going to bump it up to 1760. which is the number of yards in a mile. just going to try to have that in my head for the last mile come august. :-)
http://www.ironman.ca/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imcan&vidname=RaceVid-2009-CAN-high&playtype=mov&w=480&h=400
started jan 1009. and at our current and expected pace we will have worked out roughly 20 hours a week for 87 weeks making 1740 hours. and we added a few extra long workouts so i am going to bump it up to 1760. which is the number of yards in a mile. just going to try to have that in my head for the last mile come august. :-)
http://www.ironman.ca/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imcan&vidname=RaceVid-2009-CAN-high&playtype=mov&w=480&h=400
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thank gawd its monday!
used to not like mondays! har... well. not no more.
cause monday is TAPER DAY. lol. the hardest parts of the schedule are over the next 8 weeks. and its a bit tricky. we ran a half iron over the weekend. so i think we will be doing that every weekend for the next 2 months.
the swim was in the pool, so we just got in and started running laps back and forth. i just cant keep track of what lap i am on. so i set my spare goggles out on the pool edge and move them one letter at a time on the sign that says "No Diving 4ft." every 4 or 6 times back to the edge. all i have to do is keep track of 1 through 4. i mean a 3 year old can do it. my focking Parrots can do that. but not me.
"ok. ok... ok... i am on lap one. ONE! i just started. just now. i am on lap one... ok... all is good. pretty soon i will be on lap TWO. wait. am i on two or one? i was just on one. going to two, no wait! no, no... i am going to three. three comes after two. but wasnt i on one? boobies!!! oh wait. i must have been on three. i was just thinking about three."
the resa on the other hand says "how many laps are we doing?" and i say "30 one hundred meter laps, hon." and she says "k" and starts counting. doesnt split them up or whatever. i can stop her 45 minutes later. what lap are we on? "23" and then start swimming again. *sigh* i heard, and am gong to check if there is a pool lap counter computer that you put at the end of the lane. ( no, not a watch - which is not a bad idea maybe... ) but a thingy that hangs over the edge. you press a button and it tells you lap time, count and total time. ( hmm... maybe a watch would be less dorky. )
the bike was pretty fun. if very hot. it was 90 degrees and sunny out. pretty warm. during the triple triathlon a month ago they handed out something called hammer gel. was a packet of gooey happiness. resa didnt like it much, but i did. so i bought about 300 of the things over the net the next week. ate 3 of them on the ride and felt great. didnt drink enough though. as some of you know, i sweat a ton. and went from 188 pounds pre ride to 183 after 4 hours of hot. i think we went something over a half ironman in distance, but our goal was 4 hours. mostly gentle hills, some pretty strong wind coming back. but not too bad. just breezy. the thing that bugs me the most about road riding around canton is that the people in cars are really new to the idea. we get told to get off of the road 3-4 times per ride. no kidding. mostly by women. the guys usually honk their horns for 4-6 seconds as they go by. sometimes we catch them at the next light and they are staring at us like we are retards or something. for riding a bike on the side of the road. usually i do the "WTF?" thing to them, nobody will roll down a window and chat though. they are not so tough when they are not moving at 40-50 mph. would love to have the cops have a guy ride a bike around, with a partner in a patrol car in the area. they could pull over a good 1 person per hour i think. just educate them. ah well. :-)
and then the run! woooo were we tired already. so as always we decide what kind of effort we are going to put in before we start. this usually works. we think medium and stay there, or fast or,... sometimes "disaster recovery" mode. which we were toying with, but went with medium instead. it was nice out, we had water staged every 2-3 miles and wanted to run the 1/2 marathon. ( which is my favorite run ) its not too out of breath, it doesn't go into huge hours and you are not really hurt afterwards. just a fun run distance. so we start out at medium pace. but... here is the great part. we start out at our "new" medium pace. which was pretty good compared to a year ago. we go the first 3 miles and stop for our water. was nice to see that on the side of the trail. we are ALWAYS a bit nervous if it will be there or not. i would say maybe 10 times in 12 months the stuff is gone. but there it is and we get a good drink and head out again. we are running on the ohio tow path, which follows a river and runs through pretty thick trees. its awesome. we are running uphill for the first half. then back down coming home. we staged water and gatorade at miles 2.5 and at mile 5 we also included a yummy cliff bar. so we trot along, see a big hawk with a mouse fly by. our pace is pretty level. it is still pretty hot out. probably about 80 degrees but the sun is behind the trees so we are not getting scorched. of course i am sweating a ton and at mile five of this long day i say to the resa "if the water is gone i am going home." and she says she would too. so we trot up to where the water and cliff bar should be. and... of COURSE! gone. ARRRRGGEHEHHEHHHAHHG FOCK ALL. i turn of the watch and stare at the ground. maybe we are in the wrong place? nope. watch says 5.01 miles, and i used the bike computer to put the waters out. one tree looks like another and we do it pretty accurately so we know how much further we have to run. so we look a bit and find the two drinks laying in the area. the gatorade is open but looks full. full of ants crawling around on it. the cliff bar is open and there is a huge human bite mark in the corner. the water was just tossed away and we got that back too. so i blew the ants off the gatorade and looked at it - seemed fine so we drank that and the unopened water. the bar i tossed back in the woods as it was anty too. kept the wrapper in my pocket of happy trash.
come work out in canton ohio if you want some bonus stuff to think about. ;-) but anyway we now hide the leftovers of the two drinks behind a tree. and start running again. this is the hilliest section and the next 1.6 miles out and back are the hardest and then the easiest of the run. as i was saying earlier i took along a bunch of hammer gel packets for the bike. i am hoping they are my main food source during the ironman now. so i was/will be testing eating a lot of those. probably one more more an hour. but i didnt want to push it too hard the first time at it. three earlier and i took along two in my shorts on the run. but i didnt think i would eat them. until i lost the cliff bar. they went down great - felt great. we kept our pace even. got back to mile 8 which was the hidden drinks. still there, so we finished them. ran down the trail as it grew dark to mile 10.5 for the second set of drinks... and!!! guess what!?!?!?!?!?! still there. weird.
ran it in home on the same pace as we left at. resa asked our time... after i told her she looked puzzled. "hey... " and i was pretty surprised. we havnt run a half in 5 months. longer and shorter but not a half on purpose. new personal best ever times for both of us. :-)
great ending. tired now! thank gawd its monday.
SCORES!
mentally: 9 - almost a ten. i feel pretty darn happy. :-)
physically: 8 - weekend beat me up. tired right now. but healthy. no ouchies, just a bit sore and ready for the day off.
workouts: 10 - did them all, did them well, went faster than we thought we could on the half marathon.
cause monday is TAPER DAY. lol. the hardest parts of the schedule are over the next 8 weeks. and its a bit tricky. we ran a half iron over the weekend. so i think we will be doing that every weekend for the next 2 months.
the swim was in the pool, so we just got in and started running laps back and forth. i just cant keep track of what lap i am on. so i set my spare goggles out on the pool edge and move them one letter at a time on the sign that says "No Diving 4ft." every 4 or 6 times back to the edge. all i have to do is keep track of 1 through 4. i mean a 3 year old can do it. my focking Parrots can do that. but not me.
"ok. ok... ok... i am on lap one. ONE! i just started. just now. i am on lap one... ok... all is good. pretty soon i will be on lap TWO. wait. am i on two or one? i was just on one. going to two, no wait! no, no... i am going to three. three comes after two. but wasnt i on one? boobies!!! oh wait. i must have been on three. i was just thinking about three."
the resa on the other hand says "how many laps are we doing?" and i say "30 one hundred meter laps, hon." and she says "k" and starts counting. doesnt split them up or whatever. i can stop her 45 minutes later. what lap are we on? "23" and then start swimming again. *sigh* i heard, and am gong to check if there is a pool lap counter computer that you put at the end of the lane. ( no, not a watch - which is not a bad idea maybe... ) but a thingy that hangs over the edge. you press a button and it tells you lap time, count and total time. ( hmm... maybe a watch would be less dorky. )
the bike was pretty fun. if very hot. it was 90 degrees and sunny out. pretty warm. during the triple triathlon a month ago they handed out something called hammer gel. was a packet of gooey happiness. resa didnt like it much, but i did. so i bought about 300 of the things over the net the next week. ate 3 of them on the ride and felt great. didnt drink enough though. as some of you know, i sweat a ton. and went from 188 pounds pre ride to 183 after 4 hours of hot. i think we went something over a half ironman in distance, but our goal was 4 hours. mostly gentle hills, some pretty strong wind coming back. but not too bad. just breezy. the thing that bugs me the most about road riding around canton is that the people in cars are really new to the idea. we get told to get off of the road 3-4 times per ride. no kidding. mostly by women. the guys usually honk their horns for 4-6 seconds as they go by. sometimes we catch them at the next light and they are staring at us like we are retards or something. for riding a bike on the side of the road. usually i do the "WTF?" thing to them, nobody will roll down a window and chat though. they are not so tough when they are not moving at 40-50 mph. would love to have the cops have a guy ride a bike around, with a partner in a patrol car in the area. they could pull over a good 1 person per hour i think. just educate them. ah well. :-)
and then the run! woooo were we tired already. so as always we decide what kind of effort we are going to put in before we start. this usually works. we think medium and stay there, or fast or,... sometimes "disaster recovery" mode. which we were toying with, but went with medium instead. it was nice out, we had water staged every 2-3 miles and wanted to run the 1/2 marathon. ( which is my favorite run ) its not too out of breath, it doesn't go into huge hours and you are not really hurt afterwards. just a fun run distance. so we start out at medium pace. but... here is the great part. we start out at our "new" medium pace. which was pretty good compared to a year ago. we go the first 3 miles and stop for our water. was nice to see that on the side of the trail. we are ALWAYS a bit nervous if it will be there or not. i would say maybe 10 times in 12 months the stuff is gone. but there it is and we get a good drink and head out again. we are running on the ohio tow path, which follows a river and runs through pretty thick trees. its awesome. we are running uphill for the first half. then back down coming home. we staged water and gatorade at miles 2.5 and at mile 5 we also included a yummy cliff bar. so we trot along, see a big hawk with a mouse fly by. our pace is pretty level. it is still pretty hot out. probably about 80 degrees but the sun is behind the trees so we are not getting scorched. of course i am sweating a ton and at mile five of this long day i say to the resa "if the water is gone i am going home." and she says she would too. so we trot up to where the water and cliff bar should be. and... of COURSE! gone. ARRRRGGEHEHHEHHHAHHG FOCK ALL. i turn of the watch and stare at the ground. maybe we are in the wrong place? nope. watch says 5.01 miles, and i used the bike computer to put the waters out. one tree looks like another and we do it pretty accurately so we know how much further we have to run. so we look a bit and find the two drinks laying in the area. the gatorade is open but looks full. full of ants crawling around on it. the cliff bar is open and there is a huge human bite mark in the corner. the water was just tossed away and we got that back too. so i blew the ants off the gatorade and looked at it - seemed fine so we drank that and the unopened water. the bar i tossed back in the woods as it was anty too. kept the wrapper in my pocket of happy trash.
come work out in canton ohio if you want some bonus stuff to think about. ;-) but anyway we now hide the leftovers of the two drinks behind a tree. and start running again. this is the hilliest section and the next 1.6 miles out and back are the hardest and then the easiest of the run. as i was saying earlier i took along a bunch of hammer gel packets for the bike. i am hoping they are my main food source during the ironman now. so i was/will be testing eating a lot of those. probably one more more an hour. but i didnt want to push it too hard the first time at it. three earlier and i took along two in my shorts on the run. but i didnt think i would eat them. until i lost the cliff bar. they went down great - felt great. we kept our pace even. got back to mile 8 which was the hidden drinks. still there, so we finished them. ran down the trail as it grew dark to mile 10.5 for the second set of drinks... and!!! guess what!?!?!?!?!?! still there. weird.
ran it in home on the same pace as we left at. resa asked our time... after i told her she looked puzzled. "hey... " and i was pretty surprised. we havnt run a half in 5 months. longer and shorter but not a half on purpose. new personal best ever times for both of us. :-)
great ending. tired now! thank gawd its monday.
SCORES!
mentally: 9 - almost a ten. i feel pretty darn happy. :-)
physically: 8 - weekend beat me up. tired right now. but healthy. no ouchies, just a bit sore and ready for the day off.
workouts: 10 - did them all, did them well, went faster than we thought we could on the half marathon.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
recharged
feel great right now. much better than in several months.
the last week was a recovery week... and it seemed to help out. the hardest weeks in the series are coming up but i don't mind. it is only about 80 days til the ironman!
every day is wash day it seems... some other things that have changed since starting this project about 17 months ago:
1 - friends ask what our "next big thing" is all the time - next race or whatever.
2 - monday weigh-ins are a lot more fun.
3 - we get a little embarrassed by the questions as we are certainly not athletic looking.
4 - in other sports i took a real interest in how to do them, like golf or hockey. but up until a year ago i didnt pay much attention on how to bike. lately i have been trying to get not faster but better at swimming and running.
5 - there are not enough hours in the day...
6 - i now have to wear a belt every day. i have new belts too.
and as a side note, on sunday we decided to see how fast we could run 10 miles. and some background here first. we are really slow. so shuffle ten miles is more accurate. our previous record was at goofy half marathon in january. after that we picked up the full training for the august event. so we haven't really been doing what we want too much, mostly we follow the book. which is a lot more than we would have done without it. so i am not complaining - but we dont just run what we want too much any more. so on sunday we biked a few miles and then decided to see what we could do in 10 miles. about 10 years ago me and a friend bet 4 events. we each took something we could do and added a bunch to it to see if we could improve. then we worked out for 5 months or so and then tested each other on weight lifting and running and other stuff. the running was to run 10 miles in under 100 minutes.
i know a lot of you cruise at faster paces. if you are a 4:00 or better marathoner you warm up at faster paces. but for us its fast. and 10 years ago i couldnt come close to it. neither could my friend. another friend managed to do it just to see if he could. but he said it was pretty hard. so in the back of my head i always wanted to break 10miles in 100 minutes.
at goofy we ran past the 10 mile point in 110 minutes. our fastest time ever for that distance. sunday we did it in 99:42. :-) felt pretty awesome.
after 7 miles i was sure we had it. the 8th mile was bad - but i thought we were ok and didnt look at the watch. then halfway through mile 9 i looked down.
Fock! fockfockfock! we were SLOW. it felt like we were running about 9:45ish but we were going about 10:30 - for a few miles. fock! should have been paying attention but i dont like to run with the watch in my face the whole time. now we had to move quick. i told resa we were in trouble and probably had to run a 9:25ish to get under 100. we ran the pace up for us to pretty tough going. ran out the mile in 9:20 something and managed to get the 99minutes and 42 second ten miles.
new personal best and a big milestone.
its not like we went from an 8 pace to a 7 pace, but for us going from about a 2:45 half marathon to now flirting with a 2:15 in about a year had us smiling.
in other news - resa's new bike should show up any minute.
SCORES!
mental: 9.5 - feel great about the new bike, the probability of surviving the swim and grinding out the run right now. naggy worry is our long distance eating - that's the last piece of the puzzle.
physical: 10 - rested, feel strong. the toughest weeks start today so good that i do feel ready for them. bring it on!
workouts: 7 - was a taper lame week, we did the lame workouts. and the fun run on sunday.
the last week was a recovery week... and it seemed to help out. the hardest weeks in the series are coming up but i don't mind. it is only about 80 days til the ironman!
every day is wash day it seems... some other things that have changed since starting this project about 17 months ago:
1 - friends ask what our "next big thing" is all the time - next race or whatever.
2 - monday weigh-ins are a lot more fun.
3 - we get a little embarrassed by the questions as we are certainly not athletic looking.
4 - in other sports i took a real interest in how to do them, like golf or hockey. but up until a year ago i didnt pay much attention on how to bike. lately i have been trying to get not faster but better at swimming and running.
5 - there are not enough hours in the day...
6 - i now have to wear a belt every day. i have new belts too.
and as a side note, on sunday we decided to see how fast we could run 10 miles. and some background here first. we are really slow. so shuffle ten miles is more accurate. our previous record was at goofy half marathon in january. after that we picked up the full training for the august event. so we haven't really been doing what we want too much, mostly we follow the book. which is a lot more than we would have done without it. so i am not complaining - but we dont just run what we want too much any more. so on sunday we biked a few miles and then decided to see what we could do in 10 miles. about 10 years ago me and a friend bet 4 events. we each took something we could do and added a bunch to it to see if we could improve. then we worked out for 5 months or so and then tested each other on weight lifting and running and other stuff. the running was to run 10 miles in under 100 minutes.
i know a lot of you cruise at faster paces. if you are a 4:00 or better marathoner you warm up at faster paces. but for us its fast. and 10 years ago i couldnt come close to it. neither could my friend. another friend managed to do it just to see if he could. but he said it was pretty hard. so in the back of my head i always wanted to break 10miles in 100 minutes.
at goofy we ran past the 10 mile point in 110 minutes. our fastest time ever for that distance. sunday we did it in 99:42. :-) felt pretty awesome.
after 7 miles i was sure we had it. the 8th mile was bad - but i thought we were ok and didnt look at the watch. then halfway through mile 9 i looked down.
Fock! fockfockfock! we were SLOW. it felt like we were running about 9:45ish but we were going about 10:30 - for a few miles. fock! should have been paying attention but i dont like to run with the watch in my face the whole time. now we had to move quick. i told resa we were in trouble and probably had to run a 9:25ish to get under 100. we ran the pace up for us to pretty tough going. ran out the mile in 9:20 something and managed to get the 99minutes and 42 second ten miles.
new personal best and a big milestone.
its not like we went from an 8 pace to a 7 pace, but for us going from about a 2:45 half marathon to now flirting with a 2:15 in about a year had us smiling.
in other news - resa's new bike should show up any minute.
SCORES!
mental: 9.5 - feel great about the new bike, the probability of surviving the swim and grinding out the run right now. naggy worry is our long distance eating - that's the last piece of the puzzle.
physical: 10 - rested, feel strong. the toughest weeks start today so good that i do feel ready for them. bring it on!
workouts: 7 - was a taper lame week, we did the lame workouts. and the fun run on sunday.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Heat is your friend. ( note to a friend )
Heat is your friend. Well,... maybe not. It turns a 3 mile run into a 5 mile feeling. That was the encouragement part.
Here are the tips:
Ok… what I know about heat: it takes 3 weeks for your body to understand heat. Not get a hot run in and then wait 3 weeks, but to run out in the heat every run for 3 weeks. If you run inside and then outside it will take a lot longer as your body doesn’t believe it. Also running outside is really good for your event in the fall, you get better at knowing when a car or someone is a problem, what it’s like to run on crappy and good ground. Hills ( both up and down ) and… heat – and haha - rain. ( running in the rain by the way is MUCH funner than it sounds )
Wear a hat. Oddly this sounds like the opposite thing to do, as more clothes make you warmer. And you also shed a lot of heat off of your head. But, if you have a hat on and you get sweaty, the hat acts like a wet towel on your head. Helps. Also you get most of the wind benefit from a hat being auto-cooled. And most importantly the sun hits your shoulder tops a little bit but the top of your head is the most struck area by direct sun and a hat will reflect off the heat. I wear hats when the sun is out and don’t when it is cloudy ( or dark ).
Give up: don’t run when it is hot. This sounds worse than it is. If you must run when it is hot then run inside. Otherwise run in the morning. if you get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and do a one hour run in the morning you might have to wear a hat for warmth. This morning we ran at 5:30 and I wore gloves. It is rarely over 70 degrees at that time of day – it is as cold as it gets then. And as you would guess, it is NEVER super sunny. Also the Detroit Marathon ( which you should do! Roll the word around… maaaaraaaathoooon… yummy! ) and the faggy Half Marathon are run in the morning in the middle of October. Last year 2 people died because it was a really hot day ( like 65? ). Most years it’s in the 40s or 50s so you don’t have to worry about running in heat at all for that.
Well, let’s assume you are going to run when it is hot out. The first part is mental. You have to not care. When I first started running I hated the feeling of getting sweaty. I didn’t mind being all sweaty, but that first mile I would run and think – I could just stop now and not have to take a shower. Then as the next miles went by I would be thinking that it sucked to be getting more and more sweaty. But then after 4-5 miles I was as wet as I was going to get ( pretty much ). And then I didn’t care anymore. So if you are bothered by this, the cure is just to keep running and after a while ( like now for me ) I don’t notice any more. I know I am going to do the whole run and I know the shortest run I do ( 1 hour ) is going to have me totally sweaty – so it’s not an issue any more. Also mentally you think – wow – its hot out – this is going to kill me. But! It’s not any harder really to run when it’s hot. You have to run a bit slower as you can’t dump heat as fast. Also you need to drink more as you sweat more. And! You are getting skinnier at a faster rate from the extra work. But other than that the heat gets to you a LONG way into a run. It takes about 2-3 hours to really feel the difference from the heat as far as a real physical crash. Some of our longer hot runs were over 4 hours, but you just keep drinking. Just know that you can do the full hour regardless of temperature. Go a bit slower and drink a ton before, during and especially after.
Gear: hat is huge. I have one that is synthetic hi-tech. Means you can wash it a lot – which I do. It keeps the sun off you and out of your eyes. Most people add sunglasses to cool down the world. If it doesn’t look super bright out you get more relaxed. And that helps. I can’t wear sunglasses as I steam them up too much to see out of. But I am pretty much on the extreme end of sweaty when I work out. Most of the people I know wear them running. I do biking. High tech running shirt and shorts help too. Cotton gets sweaty and heavy. After a while it’s the same as carrying a wet towel around. The moisture close to you heats up with your body and the reason for sweating ( to cool you ) no longer works because the heat doesn’t pass through your clothes. The high tech running stuff really works. For a long time I ran in cotton sweat pants and t-shirts in the summer even. Like the 1970s crappy movies. But in the last year especially with all of the time spent running I switched to thin stuff. It’s breathable – which sounds like a commercial but is very very very helpful. You feel all the breezes pass through the stuff and cool you off. It gets wet of course and that cools you off too. It’s thin and doesn’t keep much moisture around so it stays light.
Food: eat stuff with salt in it. J or put a bit of salt on something you like. When you sweat you loose salt. Which sounds like no big deal, but your body figures it out and doesn’t want you running because then you will loose salt. So eat some salt. Also drink the Gatorade stuff. Has a lot of potassium in it which you need too. Eat a banana afterwards – this turns your acid blood back to normal the fastest and starts your recovery. ( there is about 10 pages of recovery you can/should learn ).
Extra: And! For the mental game you could try riding a bike around for a half hour first. You get a lot of wind and you don’t get as hot as running and this eases you into running. Later bump the bike up to 5-7 hours of intense hill crashers to get your legs ready for the marathon run that afternoon. ( Swim before hand a few miles to warm up. ) uh, wait… no, wrong sport, sorry. ;-)
But all in all, like I said at the beginning, it takes 3 solid weeks to get used to heat. And then you don’t care too much anymore. You go from feeling like you are going to die in the heat to wondering if you put enough sunscreen on. And that’s a good switch.
Here are the tips:
Ok… what I know about heat: it takes 3 weeks for your body to understand heat. Not get a hot run in and then wait 3 weeks, but to run out in the heat every run for 3 weeks. If you run inside and then outside it will take a lot longer as your body doesn’t believe it. Also running outside is really good for your event in the fall, you get better at knowing when a car or someone is a problem, what it’s like to run on crappy and good ground. Hills ( both up and down ) and… heat – and haha - rain. ( running in the rain by the way is MUCH funner than it sounds )
Wear a hat. Oddly this sounds like the opposite thing to do, as more clothes make you warmer. And you also shed a lot of heat off of your head. But, if you have a hat on and you get sweaty, the hat acts like a wet towel on your head. Helps. Also you get most of the wind benefit from a hat being auto-cooled. And most importantly the sun hits your shoulder tops a little bit but the top of your head is the most struck area by direct sun and a hat will reflect off the heat. I wear hats when the sun is out and don’t when it is cloudy ( or dark ).
Give up: don’t run when it is hot. This sounds worse than it is. If you must run when it is hot then run inside. Otherwise run in the morning. if you get up at 5:30 or 6:00 and do a one hour run in the morning you might have to wear a hat for warmth. This morning we ran at 5:30 and I wore gloves. It is rarely over 70 degrees at that time of day – it is as cold as it gets then. And as you would guess, it is NEVER super sunny. Also the Detroit Marathon ( which you should do! Roll the word around… maaaaraaaathoooon… yummy! ) and the faggy Half Marathon are run in the morning in the middle of October. Last year 2 people died because it was a really hot day ( like 65? ). Most years it’s in the 40s or 50s so you don’t have to worry about running in heat at all for that.
Well, let’s assume you are going to run when it is hot out. The first part is mental. You have to not care. When I first started running I hated the feeling of getting sweaty. I didn’t mind being all sweaty, but that first mile I would run and think – I could just stop now and not have to take a shower. Then as the next miles went by I would be thinking that it sucked to be getting more and more sweaty. But then after 4-5 miles I was as wet as I was going to get ( pretty much ). And then I didn’t care anymore. So if you are bothered by this, the cure is just to keep running and after a while ( like now for me ) I don’t notice any more. I know I am going to do the whole run and I know the shortest run I do ( 1 hour ) is going to have me totally sweaty – so it’s not an issue any more. Also mentally you think – wow – its hot out – this is going to kill me. But! It’s not any harder really to run when it’s hot. You have to run a bit slower as you can’t dump heat as fast. Also you need to drink more as you sweat more. And! You are getting skinnier at a faster rate from the extra work. But other than that the heat gets to you a LONG way into a run. It takes about 2-3 hours to really feel the difference from the heat as far as a real physical crash. Some of our longer hot runs were over 4 hours, but you just keep drinking. Just know that you can do the full hour regardless of temperature. Go a bit slower and drink a ton before, during and especially after.
Gear: hat is huge. I have one that is synthetic hi-tech. Means you can wash it a lot – which I do. It keeps the sun off you and out of your eyes. Most people add sunglasses to cool down the world. If it doesn’t look super bright out you get more relaxed. And that helps. I can’t wear sunglasses as I steam them up too much to see out of. But I am pretty much on the extreme end of sweaty when I work out. Most of the people I know wear them running. I do biking. High tech running shirt and shorts help too. Cotton gets sweaty and heavy. After a while it’s the same as carrying a wet towel around. The moisture close to you heats up with your body and the reason for sweating ( to cool you ) no longer works because the heat doesn’t pass through your clothes. The high tech running stuff really works. For a long time I ran in cotton sweat pants and t-shirts in the summer even. Like the 1970s crappy movies. But in the last year especially with all of the time spent running I switched to thin stuff. It’s breathable – which sounds like a commercial but is very very very helpful. You feel all the breezes pass through the stuff and cool you off. It gets wet of course and that cools you off too. It’s thin and doesn’t keep much moisture around so it stays light.
Food: eat stuff with salt in it. J or put a bit of salt on something you like. When you sweat you loose salt. Which sounds like no big deal, but your body figures it out and doesn’t want you running because then you will loose salt. So eat some salt. Also drink the Gatorade stuff. Has a lot of potassium in it which you need too. Eat a banana afterwards – this turns your acid blood back to normal the fastest and starts your recovery. ( there is about 10 pages of recovery you can/should learn ).
Extra: And! For the mental game you could try riding a bike around for a half hour first. You get a lot of wind and you don’t get as hot as running and this eases you into running. Later bump the bike up to 5-7 hours of intense hill crashers to get your legs ready for the marathon run that afternoon. ( Swim before hand a few miles to warm up. ) uh, wait… no, wrong sport, sorry. ;-)
But all in all, like I said at the beginning, it takes 3 solid weeks to get used to heat. And then you don’t care too much anymore. You go from feeling like you are going to die in the heat to wondering if you put enough sunscreen on. And that’s a good switch.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Back from Toronto
i had to get to toronto. pronto!
i stood up in my good friend's wedding on sunday evening in toronto. it was my first ever jewish wedding with grabbing chairs with people in them and lifting them into the air.
i was raised strict atheist so i dont know much about religions ( any of them ) but have been to about 10 weddings ( including a few of my own ) in my life. and i would have to say this was the most fun i have ever had in a wedding. tons of dancing in a circle and yelling stuff in hebrew and my favorite the chair toss thingy.
the resa and i also brought our bikes along in case we wanted to do some running and biking. she ordered her new bike a few days ago and is waiting on that to show up too. the week after the "harder than an ironman" weekend had us going pretty light on wed-thur and friday. on saturday in toronto we ran about 8 miles in a park and rode about 30 and ran another 8 on sunday.
the sunday run was a bit of grinder for me. i had a lot on my mind over the last few months. but finally we are into a set of about 90 days that has us doing nothing but working out and just enjoying the summer (hopefully!)
but, the resa and i both feel we are probably ready for the event, but not by a lot. i would give us about an 80% chance of finishing right now. would like to get that bumped another 10%. obviously things like bike failures are always going to be there.
so, anyway we are about 4 miles into our run after riding about 20 miles. and i am pretty tired. just feeling like i an struggling a bit. the resa notices that i am not really into it and asks whats up... and i dont really have an answer for her. just kinda plodded on.
we run down the beach on the west side of toronto. over the white bridge and on towards the dinosaurs. not easy running as there are ( as everywhere ) fat people screaming at their children in the middle of the path with their strollers sideways to block as much traffic as they possibly can. well, we run in front of some outside diner and we are just plodding along in the 90 degree heat in the middle of the day. after the diner the path heads inland a bit and splits also to a sandy path heading to the beach.
we come up to the split and resa says, if the beach one looks like sand dunes then go left on the cement. so we run up there and she is on my right side towards the water. when we get to the junction it looks sandy to me but not too bad. so i go straight.
not the resa.
we slam into each other and stop. at first we are both WTF about it but after a few seconds we start heading back to the locked up bikes. she says lets increase the pace. and i am thinking well, its only a few miles back so i guess i can. ( and i realize now that has been my running thinking for a few months now. ) i am all ready to go biking, its my favorite - i look forward to the long weekend rides far more than anything else. and i have come to dread the runs. short runs, long runs... all runs have been a pain lately. just tiring mentally maybe.
so we turn back to the bikes and she says lets go faster. not that we were going fast, about a 6 on the 10 scale maybe. but my first thought was "why? why do we have to go faster? then i guess we can." and then my second thought was "why do i always dread being tired on the run?" and i think now it's because it's not biking. nothing wrong with running - i shouldn't dis-like it. so we start running back. and we ramp up the pace quite a lot. and... after the easy week it is fun! we are running along - not sure how fast my watch died the night before after not paying attention. but i would guess under 10. about 10:30 is as fast as we ever go.
running along the boardwalk dodging everything and moving quick. and a guy starts running as we go by. he runs right behind us. either using us as blockers or pacers. i sneak a look back to see if the guy is trying to pass us but he is just sitting there. so now three of us are running along pretty happily quick. and a mile or so goes by. then we start another and are almost to the bikes and i am feeling lighter on my feet than in 3 months.
now there is rasping gasping breathing behind us. and it gets worse and worse and then suddenly stops. i turn around to see what happened and the guy is holding his knees at the side of the road and staring at us.
obviously he wasnt a runner. or rather he was no longer running anyway.
ok. going back through 46 years of life. my first three friends were John, Jim and Tom. we did everything together. the four of us played all the sports we could. i guess we were at age 8 on our way to being in the jock crowd. but when we ran they were always faster than me. i would finish 4th of 4 every time. and i quickly realized that i was going to have to be a skill guy, not a speed guy. for many years we still played sports. they were fast, i was good. in the end i was the slow guy that hit the home runs. or threw the football. then i moved away for highschool and the 4 of us never got together again as a group.
john was the fastest of the 4, he turned into a pretty good baseball player. tom ran the 100meter dash for a college scholarship. jim ran cross country in a big ten school also for a scholarship.
i was slow, but now i think way above average. but i never won a race. 30 years go by and i play with younger people when i play sports and they are usually fast. i was still good with the skills but as always i didnt win any races.
well, i didnt win anything sunday, but it was the first time in my memory that i ran a short fast run and beat someone. lol.
also on saturday there was a criterion bike race held in the downtown. they closed a few miles of streets in a circle and had races all day long. we watched about an hour of it. guys sprinting and of course people getting dropped. if you are in danger of getting lapped they pull you out of the race and the last desperate riders are always getting picked off. on the last lap of one race there were about 10 guys in a big wreck. one walked his bike over to where we were and sat on the curb moping with a lot of blood coming off the road rash. med guys came and patched him up. but he leaned his high end bike next to us, the glue on wheels were flat, the high end rear de-railer was all mangled. spokes were bent and the chain was off.
"Dude, your bike is fucked up." suggested the resa.
"Fuckin guys need to learn to fuckin ride a bike." he hinted.
the bike was pretty messed up, i am guessing the wreck cost him $500.
we rode home to the hotel just in time for me to make the wedding. at a red light we stopped, a convertible pulled up next to us with the radio on loud: "Fly by night, good bye my dear, my ship is a coming and i just cant preeeeteend..."
The Resa smiled next to me. "Of course it's Rush, this is Toronto."
Scores!
Mentally: 9 - feeling like we are into the fun part, cant wait to get exhausted. :-) bump up just from the last 3 miles of the run sunday.
Physically: 10 - totally recovered. no injuries, not sick. got a new book Paleo Diet, feel rested and ready.
Workouts: 7 - lame stuff since the ironman. but we needed it i think.
i stood up in my good friend's wedding on sunday evening in toronto. it was my first ever jewish wedding with grabbing chairs with people in them and lifting them into the air.
i was raised strict atheist so i dont know much about religions ( any of them ) but have been to about 10 weddings ( including a few of my own ) in my life. and i would have to say this was the most fun i have ever had in a wedding. tons of dancing in a circle and yelling stuff in hebrew and my favorite the chair toss thingy.
the resa and i also brought our bikes along in case we wanted to do some running and biking. she ordered her new bike a few days ago and is waiting on that to show up too. the week after the "harder than an ironman" weekend had us going pretty light on wed-thur and friday. on saturday in toronto we ran about 8 miles in a park and rode about 30 and ran another 8 on sunday.
the sunday run was a bit of grinder for me. i had a lot on my mind over the last few months. but finally we are into a set of about 90 days that has us doing nothing but working out and just enjoying the summer (hopefully!)
but, the resa and i both feel we are probably ready for the event, but not by a lot. i would give us about an 80% chance of finishing right now. would like to get that bumped another 10%. obviously things like bike failures are always going to be there.
so, anyway we are about 4 miles into our run after riding about 20 miles. and i am pretty tired. just feeling like i an struggling a bit. the resa notices that i am not really into it and asks whats up... and i dont really have an answer for her. just kinda plodded on.
we run down the beach on the west side of toronto. over the white bridge and on towards the dinosaurs. not easy running as there are ( as everywhere ) fat people screaming at their children in the middle of the path with their strollers sideways to block as much traffic as they possibly can. well, we run in front of some outside diner and we are just plodding along in the 90 degree heat in the middle of the day. after the diner the path heads inland a bit and splits also to a sandy path heading to the beach.
we come up to the split and resa says, if the beach one looks like sand dunes then go left on the cement. so we run up there and she is on my right side towards the water. when we get to the junction it looks sandy to me but not too bad. so i go straight.
not the resa.
we slam into each other and stop. at first we are both WTF about it but after a few seconds we start heading back to the locked up bikes. she says lets increase the pace. and i am thinking well, its only a few miles back so i guess i can. ( and i realize now that has been my running thinking for a few months now. ) i am all ready to go biking, its my favorite - i look forward to the long weekend rides far more than anything else. and i have come to dread the runs. short runs, long runs... all runs have been a pain lately. just tiring mentally maybe.
so we turn back to the bikes and she says lets go faster. not that we were going fast, about a 6 on the 10 scale maybe. but my first thought was "why? why do we have to go faster? then i guess we can." and then my second thought was "why do i always dread being tired on the run?" and i think now it's because it's not biking. nothing wrong with running - i shouldn't dis-like it. so we start running back. and we ramp up the pace quite a lot. and... after the easy week it is fun! we are running along - not sure how fast my watch died the night before after not paying attention. but i would guess under 10. about 10:30 is as fast as we ever go.
running along the boardwalk dodging everything and moving quick. and a guy starts running as we go by. he runs right behind us. either using us as blockers or pacers. i sneak a look back to see if the guy is trying to pass us but he is just sitting there. so now three of us are running along pretty happily quick. and a mile or so goes by. then we start another and are almost to the bikes and i am feeling lighter on my feet than in 3 months.
now there is rasping gasping breathing behind us. and it gets worse and worse and then suddenly stops. i turn around to see what happened and the guy is holding his knees at the side of the road and staring at us.
obviously he wasnt a runner. or rather he was no longer running anyway.
ok. going back through 46 years of life. my first three friends were John, Jim and Tom. we did everything together. the four of us played all the sports we could. i guess we were at age 8 on our way to being in the jock crowd. but when we ran they were always faster than me. i would finish 4th of 4 every time. and i quickly realized that i was going to have to be a skill guy, not a speed guy. for many years we still played sports. they were fast, i was good. in the end i was the slow guy that hit the home runs. or threw the football. then i moved away for highschool and the 4 of us never got together again as a group.
john was the fastest of the 4, he turned into a pretty good baseball player. tom ran the 100meter dash for a college scholarship. jim ran cross country in a big ten school also for a scholarship.
i was slow, but now i think way above average. but i never won a race. 30 years go by and i play with younger people when i play sports and they are usually fast. i was still good with the skills but as always i didnt win any races.
well, i didnt win anything sunday, but it was the first time in my memory that i ran a short fast run and beat someone. lol.
also on saturday there was a criterion bike race held in the downtown. they closed a few miles of streets in a circle and had races all day long. we watched about an hour of it. guys sprinting and of course people getting dropped. if you are in danger of getting lapped they pull you out of the race and the last desperate riders are always getting picked off. on the last lap of one race there were about 10 guys in a big wreck. one walked his bike over to where we were and sat on the curb moping with a lot of blood coming off the road rash. med guys came and patched him up. but he leaned his high end bike next to us, the glue on wheels were flat, the high end rear de-railer was all mangled. spokes were bent and the chain was off.
"Dude, your bike is fucked up." suggested the resa.
"Fuckin guys need to learn to fuckin ride a bike." he hinted.
the bike was pretty messed up, i am guessing the wreck cost him $500.
we rode home to the hotel just in time for me to make the wedding. at a red light we stopped, a convertible pulled up next to us with the radio on loud: "Fly by night, good bye my dear, my ship is a coming and i just cant preeeeteend..."
The Resa smiled next to me. "Of course it's Rush, this is Toronto."
Scores!
Mentally: 9 - feeling like we are into the fun part, cant wait to get exhausted. :-) bump up just from the last 3 miles of the run sunday.
Physically: 10 - totally recovered. no injuries, not sick. got a new book Paleo Diet, feel rested and ready.
Workouts: 7 - lame stuff since the ironman. but we needed it i think.
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