Stegosaurus

The list of great things that happen to you when training for Ironman is long and diverse. You get to see interesting things and meet interesting people and hemorrhage money at a staggering rate. One of the really nice things about training for Ironman is you get to see changes in yourself that you didn't really plan on. If everything goes right, you get to relive that day when you were thirteen where you found hair growing in new and unexpected places that wasn't there the day before.  I am not saying you get to go through puberty again.  It's just that your body changes.

For instance, three months into your training plan, your fat pants don't fit any more, which is handy because just last year, you donated your last three pairs of skinny pants to the Goodwill, convinced that they would never fit again. Then, the extra skin around your neck that looks like a support collar for accident victims shrinks down to just a saggy turkey-skin-necklace. Those two things, the pants and the turkey-neck collar happen to about 99% of the 'stocky' triathletes. Not me of course, but I have seen it in others. It's inspirational.

I do get to enjoy the 'stand-up dizzies'. Everybody gets that. Here's how it works: you work out for four hours, come home and lay on the couch, sleep for 20 minutes, your wife yells at you to take the garbage out, you stand up and 'wham' you get dizzy and almost fall. FYI, to fix it, you put your head between your knees for five seconds, then take the garbage out. Thats how I do it anyway.

Two Sundays ago, I set a PR in my run. I did ten miles in 1 hour 59 minutes. Don't laugh, for me, thats as good as it gets. Today I ran just short of 8 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes. I am rapidly approaching that magical 10 minute mile pace. For me, it's like the theoretical exercise where you move half way to the wall an infinite number of times, never reaching the wall. I can't run a 10 minute mile at any distance over three miles. It just cant be done.

You remember that game you played when you were younger where you sat in a group and told each other what you would be if you could? Some people said they would be Abraham Lincoln or a butterfly or a star, or some stupid tree on a hill. Well, if I could play that game now, I would be a Stegosaurus. Think about it. They were almost impervious from attack. They had these thick plates that other meat eater dino's couldn't crack, so that's a plus. They lived in social groups, so they always had friends. Another plus. Granted, they did have the smallest brain to weight ratio of all known dinosaurs, but does that have to be a negative? I am not so sure. Maybe brainpower is overrated.

I did a four hour indoor brick yesterday. One hour swim, two hour bike, one hour run, then dash off to the 'Original Pancake House' for brunch. That's a good day in anybody's book. I wanted to just do a five hour ride, but it was raining so hard you couldn't see the road so I was in the gym with all the other dinosaurs.

49 days to IM AZ.  I'm not ready.