Bike

If I lived somewhere warm, or somewhere where it didn't freakin rain every day, I could train for the bike like a normal person. I could ride my bike and train and feel good about it. That would be great. I dream about it, even though it isn't ever ever going to happen. I live in the cold and wet. I live where they send prisoners who were especially rude during the sentancing part of their trial. I live where the sun don't shine. Vitamin D is a big seller here. So, in order to get some bike time, I train on a spin bike. It blows big time.

Tonight Duane and I went to Pons to spin. Pons is a room where they have some spin bikes and a great instructor. Mr Pons is the man, you get a great workout at Pons. 25 minute warm up, 1 hour of intervals, 5 minute cool down. His intervals are killer.

Everything he works for is positive. Mr. Pons is a great guy. He never gives negative comments or tells you that you aren't doing this or aren't doing that. Mr. Pons is always giving positive comments and support, so you always push a little harder than you wanted to when you showed up. Now that I think about it, I want to go as hard as I want to, not as hard as Mr. Pons wants me to go. Who does he think he is?

Per my usual routine, there was a puddle of sweat under my bike. Huge puddle. I encroach upon my neighbors lesser sweat with my superior invasive smelling sweat. I rock the sweat puddle bigtime. If there was a market for sweat, I would bottle it. I would make a lot of money. But there isn't a market for my sweat, so it is just a big smelly mess that I have to clean up. Gag.

Anyway, a good workout, I am now ready for the first 90 minutes of the bike in my upcoming ironman as long as they let me use a stationary bike. So that is good. Still some work to be done.

Swim

Swam at the smelly pool at 24 hour fitless this morning. It doesn't smell that bad, unless you swim right after the water aerobics ladies. The pool always smells like Acme 'bucket-o-perfume' right after they swim. Maybe it is just me.
We did ladders, then 100 yard repeats. I ended up a little bit worn after an hour of that.
My swimming form sucks, so I am working on that. Odd how bad form equals slow swim. Who knew?
Everybody says 'Don't try to fix everything, work on one thing at a time'. Great, that leaves like seven things unaccounted for.
Question: How do you swim and not swallow a gallon of water? I think I gain weight in the pool. I add a gallon of chlorinated pool water to my system every time I swim. Some of it just squirts back out my nose, most of it I swallow. I am no expert but I think that is sub-optimal.
The good thing about swimming is that it is low impact, so I don't need to ice after a swim. I save a fortune on ice on swim day. If I could ice my shoulders, I would give it a try, but the icepack doesn't seem to stay put when I put it on top, and my arm goes numb when I ice the armpit.
Lift tonight for 30 maybe. I guess it depends on what time wine is served. If the wine service is at 5:00, I might miss the lift. If I can get management to delay wine service until 6:00, then I can lift.

Long Run

I ran 9 miles on the Lake Youngs trail today. It was raining buckets, the trail was really wet, standing water an inch deep for the entire 9 miles with mud and stuff. And due to the recent storm, there were some logs and sticks on the trail to jump over. Water squished out the sides of my shoes the whole way. Did I say it was wet? It was.
And who put all those freakin hills on that trail? That really hurt. Somebody needs to get a D9 in there and flatten that dog out. It doesn't suit my running style. I am more of a flat trail runner. Hills blow. The first half of the run, I went up the hills slow, the second half of the run, I found that walking up the hills was an opportunity to work on my walking form. It is an often overlooked aspect of training for long event.
1 hour 44 minutes for the 9 mile run. I know that is slow, but considering it was hilly and wet and muddy, I think I am freakin superman. Freakin superman. I said it.
I was packing an extra 4 pounds of water soaked clothes on the run that normally wouldn't be with me. So I attribute my unimpressive run time to that 4 pounds. The extra 20 pounds of muffin top that I carry had nothing to do with it.
Duane finished 13 minutes ahead of me, Jim 6 minutes ahead. Nobody was behind me. I was the sweeper.
I have ice on both knees and a coffee cup in hand, so that is a plus. I put my muddy wet clothes in the laundry room to await the laundry elves that show up to do my wash. I have good support at home. Laundry elves.
Oh, and I bought a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline size 13 EE. My old Brooks were D wide. Too narrow. EE is the way to go, happy feet, no cramps, just raisin toes from the swamp run.
146 days to go.

Today was the first day of my training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene and I am already behind schedule. I planned on starting training on January 1, but I was indisposed with some very important work that required my full attention, in Maui on a beach, so I missed out on 16 days of training and I am now feeling guilty for missing training. To be completely honest, which I try to do from time to time, I am not overwrought with guilt, so let's just drop the whole guilt topic now.

I have a training calendar that I plan on following. It has the next six months of my life listed out like a grocery list. A ripe avocado, Cheerios, run an hour, two cans of soup. Today's calendar called for 1.25 hours of strength training, so I rode a spin bike for 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill. A good start. Not great.

According to my countdown clock, I have 159 days, 9 hours 32 minutes before the big event. So that is kind of a finite thing. That countdown clock offers too much definition for my taste. I am not comfortable with deadlines. I do think I would enjoy this process much more fully if I were working on a less strict timetable, something like the engagement of an unwilling bridegroom. I would feel less stressed if it was just 'someday soon' or 'when I am ready'. So that sucks.

Enough blog for today, more blog tomorrow.