Ayerd{dot}com :: Triathlon

Dig it, the workout schedule said, "...take advantage of the holiday weekend to cram in more..." By more, I think the idea was more bike miles, and that I shouldn't "feel obligated to do it!" Well, I got the "more" part down, didn't do too bad on the biking part, and failed on the "don't feel obligated" part. 1.5 out of 3 isn't too bad.

Overall, it went well.

Me: ran, bike, blah-blah-blah. 90/30 brick Saturday, felt great! 5-hour/20 minute brick Sunday, felt okay. Running a marathon after biking 112 is going to be icky! At best. I say this after a 82.5 mile ride and a 2 mile run today and wow was that run a test of will. At least the upcoming week is a recovery week. I think I need the rest.

Rabobank: Big props to Team Rabobank, they had a great weekend. Saturday Peter Weening just eeked it out on the stage from Pforzheim to Gérardmer. Sunday Michael Rasmussen kicked buttocks all day for a big stage win before the rest. Whoa.

Oh yea, and Rabobank has the best jerseys on the Tour this year. Hands down!

This is a recovery week. You know, those much-looked-forward to weeks with only 12 hours of training instead of the grinding 22+ hours that normally makes you get up at unGodly hours to run, bike, swim, or some combination of the three. A recovery week. AHhhhhhhhhhh...

But, then there is the guilt. What do you mean, I just go home and... and go home? Sup wit dat? Feels weird to not be moving or planning the next run for tomorrow morning. I'd never thought I'd be saying it, hey, the weekly long run of 60 minutes isn't that long.

Feels like I'm cheating.

Then there are the races. A goodly number of folks I train with are off to the Musselman Half-Iron. Man, I wanted to do that race but it fell on a bad time for me in terms of getting ready for Florida. Instead I recover this week and think about Timberman.

There is a swim this weekend, and it should be a nice swim. One mile ocean swim down at Wildwood Crest. The bad part: 'down at Wildwood Crest'. I really don't want to sit in a car for three hours to sit around for 40 minutes before the swim, swim for 20-25 minutes, and then sit in the car for another three hours. What a waste of a day... especially when there is another ocean swim that morning only 45 minutes away.

Recovery week over. Much rest was taken and numerous stages of le Tour were watched. May the Gods smile on the engin-nerd who created the idea for TiVo. Alas, back to the weekly grind.

I did skip out on the Swim for the Dolphins & the Spring Lake swim over the weekend. The weather looked if-fy at the time we needed to head to the shore. The races were held, but we missed out. Perhaps next year. Next big open-water swim will probably be the September Splash — 2-mile open water swim. Only took 40 minutes last year, hoping to get under 40 this year.

The week has started off okay. Rest Monday morning, then a 5,000 yard after work swim. 1,500s are boring and the hardest part is not losing count. There were some breaks talking to Bruce who is getting ready for Lake Placid this weekend. He is going to rock that course, but I don't envy him for having to race with those hills up in Lake Placid. I'll take Florida, thank you very much. Also ran into Veronique who I've not seen in a while... and now I know why. Congrats to her and Joe.

On tap for today was a 140 minute run and another swim. With the weather settling in to the 3Hs of summer. (For those of you not familiar with the east coast in the summer time: Hazy, Hot, and Humid.) After the 90-minute run on Saturday what literally drained me of both energy and fluids I thought to myself, "self, run in the morning!" Yea, that was the tickets...

Okay, so getting up at 4:15 in the morning to run for 140 mintues sucks. It was still humid — weather man was claiming near 90% — but without the sun — which didn't show up until about 40 minutes into the run — it was cooler. Lots of deer out on hill side in the morning.

So, now that I've lived through the run all I need to do is make it untill 5:00 when I can drive to the pool and get in the 4,000 yard technique swim. Ummmmmm, drills. I think it is going to plenty hard to stay awake around 2:00PM.

Oh yes, Ill'in in January was bad, but this may be worse. I think I have a "stomach flu" type thing. No stuffiness, no cough, just... ummm, general unpleasantness.

It is messing up my training plan!

Friday I slept. A lot. Bailed out of work a little early and got in a solid 14 hours of rest between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. All that really did was rest the flu bugs.

Saturday instead of a 3 hour ride/1 hour run I sat in misery on the couch sweating to death and then just before dying, a vast chill would descend upon me and I'd start shivering. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Sunday was better. No body aches. Stomach was a still mostly on the fritz so I bailed out on the planed 100 mile ride. 6 hours in the saddle isn't the best way to spend a morning but it beats sitting around the house getting calls from friends asking just one more time, "are you sure you're not going to be riding?"

Today, Monday, I was confident. Up early, shower, work... bam! Started shivering and sweating and, yea, the nasty flu symptom all at work. Back home for more rest.

This inactivity is killing me. Hard to get in a solid workout when you cannot leave your porcelaine wubby for more than an hour at a time. /sigh.

Thanks for all the kind words when I was ill'in. Starting to feel a little better today. Yesterday I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:30 get my butt to a planned 2-hour hilly ride. Wasn't too bad but after 4 days off the last 15 minutes where a tad tougher then they needed to be.

Today it was off for a 150 minute run in the now, much cooler, canal path. Sweet run it was. Ribs are a bit sore from the lack of effort over the last few days but I think it will pass soon. Myabe I should have considered the weights in the bathroom....

One thing that did happen over my weekend of illness was the Lake Placid Ironman. Beacoupe props to Bruce and Sara who completed the race.

Bruce's race report had two gems that I gladly pass on to you:

...On land again I was flung to the ground by a middle-aged lady "stripper" who, in one motion, tore off my wetsuit with the alacrity of a mud wrestler (hypoxic fantasy #1?). [dhj: #1?! That implies others. Maybe they just go down hill from there?]

...My tip for newbie triatheletes (of which I still count myself one) is to beware of piles of water bottles at any distance from an aid station. While wondering at the isolatedness of one such pile, I thunked into a huge hole at high speed and found myself a water bottle short...

Priceless information, indeed!