IWBMATTKY(M)T

IWBMATTKYT is the motto of The Sufferfest. It stands for I Will Beat My Ass Today To Kick Yours Tomorrow. While I am admittedly competitive, it is mostly a result of pushing myself harder so that I can...PUSH MYSELF HARDER.

It's been a few years (6) since I've trained for an early season long course triathlon. 6 years ago it was American Triple T in May. This time it's Clermont Challenge 1/2 IM and Olympic in just 3 weeks. Shit! While I don't have huge expectations for my upcoming race performance--for one thing, all my bike training will have been on the trainer--I still do not want to suck, so I've been hitting it hard since I officially began "training" on December 1:

Although if you remove the strength training hours, it's really not that much. Thank you Chicago winter for the opportunity to shovel snow! It would actually be reasonable training without all that. In these 13 weeks, I have:

• Finished the grueling Tour of Sufferlandria (week of 1/26).
• Won my AG at 2 supersprint triathlons (weeks of 2/2 and 2/16)
• Did back to back Olympic+ NothingMans (this past weekend).

Those 3 things above were crammed in the space of 5 weeks. It's been interesting riding the waves of fatigue followed by increased endurance/strength. I felt really good this weekend--much better than I thought I would--considering how much I've been doing. I usually do a 1/2 NothingMan around Thanksgiving, and when I am training for Triple T, I'll do several weekends of them. This past Thanksgiving, I did sprint/Oly/1/2 IM on consecutive days. Maybe I should have included that one more week above! That would make the training block even more impressive (to ME--I'm the only person I need to impress!).

NothingMans are opportunities to test out nutrition and pacing, which are really one and the same. Whenever someone says they had stomach issues in a race, well, it means they screwed up their pacing, too. You can't practice one without practicing the other. When I have a NothingMan (more than a sprint) on the menu, I am thinking about it and preparing for it several days in advance, the same as a "real" race, because I need to be in good nutritional (and sleep) status in order to perform well. I take my NothingMans seriously!

For this weekend, I used my old wetsuit for the swim, even though I swam in a pool. Once again, glad I did--I had a bit of mid-back soreness after wearing it Friday and Saturday, so I did some additional stretching Saturday night since I was wearing it again Sunday. It also let me get my arms used to swimming in the suit. I will wear it at least once a week up until race day.

The original plan for this weekend's NothingMans was to do Olympic distance (1500 swim, 25-mile bike, 10k run) both days, but on Friday I decided I wanted to swim 1/2 IM distance on Saturday, since I hadn't done that (straight swim--most of my swims are about 3,000 yards lately) in awhile. I also decided I would just bike 1:30 both days, because that would give me good bike volume for the week.

My pool was fucking hot both days. I was overheating wearing the suit, but it was still worth it to wear it. On Saturday, a woman in the locker room told me I should be a wetsuit model! How sweet of her to say that! I was actually worried I might not fit in the thing because I'm up a few pounds up (which I think is due to my thyryoid petering out more--will find out today), but it fit just fine. But I was a total spaz, and forgot to put on Bodyglide, so it was tough getting it on Saturday morning. I also forgot to bring a towel with me! I had just put my crap into a locker and realized I had no towel. I was like, fuck it, I'm not driving back home--I will just have to drip dry!

Once I got in and started swimming, I played games in my head--I didn't really need to swim 2100, so I just made myself a deal that if I didn't feel like I was slowing down too much by the time I hit 1500 that I'd just keep going. Well, I was fine, so I finished out the 2100. It was great to get the suit off. I changed into my biking clothes in the locker room and drove home to bike.

I was using a custom Infinit mix after the swim and for the bike and run. I'd queued up music to listen to (random older dance CDs) while I biked and ran, and had fun listening to stuff I hadn't heard in a few years. On the bike, I did my typical :30 warmup, then I did 4 intervals of mostly 1/2 IM watts plus. Getting off the bike, I did a relaxed but not lollygagging transition to get on the treadmill. After I ran for about :10 (I started out super easy), I started thinking that it would be good for me to get in 13.1 miles of running across the 2 NothingMans, so I made an executive decision to do 6.6 miles on Saturday and 6.5 on Sunday. What's a couple more tenths of a mile, anyway?

I felt pretty good running. I was actually surprised, since I'd beaten myself into submission a week ago between the warmup, actual race, and then running after that race. I kept in mind that I had to do this all over again on Sunday. I ate well at lunch and dinner, and aside from grocery shopping and cooking a nice meal (strip steaks Italian style in a tomato paste/Marsala/red wine/garlic reduction and sauteed Belgian endive/carrots), I laid around. Saturday night it was supposed to snow, and I was hoping we didn't get too much because I didn't want to have to shovel a lot just to go to the pool and swim 1500!

Here's my finishing sticker for Saturday, which was a 2100 swim, 32.5 mile bike and 6.6 mile run:

I actually slept until 5AM yesterday, which is odd for me, but hey, I'll take it! But I didn't want to start too late in the morning, either. Since I'd failed to take my Synthroid in the middle of the night, I had to take it right away and then wait 1/2 hour until I could eat or drink anything. I washed dishes, knowing I'd be creating 4 more bottles that day, and still had to wait a few minutes before I could have coffee and breakfast. Even though I could get away with eating maybe 1.5 hours before starting, I don't like doing that, especially since I wasn't particularly hungry when I woke up. But I got on my breakfast just after 5:30, and figured I'd start at 7:30. Well, we did get about 1/4" of snow, and I wanted to get that off the driveway anyway, and figured it would be a good little warmup. It only took me about :10 to do it, but I felt like I hadn't fully digested my breakfast in order to start by 7:30.

I ended up starting at 8:05, but even then, I felt queasy in the pool, because even though this was just a NothingMan, my body reacts the same as for an actual race, and it had only been 2.5 hours since I'd eaten, so that combined with a hot pool had me feeling like I would puke at any moment. Oh and I remembered a towel yesterday, and I also remembered Bodyglide, so my wetsuit went on quite easily. I kept wanting to slow down because I SO wanted to puke, but I didn't, and I finished and got the suit off, stretched a bit, suited up to bike and headed home.

It was snowing very lightly, which was nice to look at out the window while I was on the bike. My legs felt somewhat worked over from Saturday, but not too bad. My warmup pace was a little slower than on Saturday, but then I picked it up and ended up riding faster/harder on Sunday! But then I was wondering how I'd feel on the run. Same as for Saturday, I transitioned quickly (after throwing a load of laundry into the washer), and did my warmup same as on Saturday. I was surprised that my legs didn't feel so bad, so I figured I'd try and run just a bit faster than the day before. About :43 in, I accidentally stopped the treadmill instead of a pause (to get another bottle of Infinit out of the fridge), and was like now I have to do math to figure out how much more to go. I got my shit together, and since I wanted to end the run at a full minute, ended up running 6.52 miles. So Sunday's NothingMan was 1500 swim, 33.3 bike and 6.52 run, giving me this awesome sticker:

So across the 2 days I went well over 1/2 IM distance in total, felt like I had a decent pace throughout, practiced my nutrition, practiced swimming in the wetsuit and enjoyed myself! The spoils of this were 2 glasses of this:

I can no longer drink anything but French champagne, and this was the first French rose I'd had, and it is excellent! It's still dry, but just a hint of sweetness.

I have one more "big" week of training (although today is a much needed rest day) and then I actually sort of taper--well not really--I am considering this a "train through" set of races. I'm doing a 4-hour ride on Saturday and a 2-2:15 run on Sunday, so another 1/2 IM plus across 2 days, which is no big deal really, but that 4-hour ride will probably suck at some level.

So part of me wants to change the Sufferfest motto to IWBMATTKMT: I Will Beat My Ass Today To Kick Mine Tomorrow.

Mission accomplished!

57th Birthday Celebration and Ongoing Science Experiment

You know I've been waiting to be able to use a picture of that, right?  Well not exactly waiting, but knowing I would use it one day.

Shelley arrived at my house Saturday morning when I was about 3.5 hours into a 5:30 trainer ride.  Yes, TRAINER.  It was dark and really cold when I started, and I wanted to be around for when Shelley arrived, so trainer it was.  My legs didn't feel exactly peppy, most likely due to all the running I did the week before.  But I didn't feel rotten, either.  About 2 hours in, predictably, I wanted to quit.  I started thinking about how long I was going to be on there, that I would have company, and there were a bunch of other things I'd rather be doing.  But that thought passed quickly, and I pressed on.  I watched Dr. No and From Russia with Love before Shelley arrived.

When she got here, we had huge hugs to start.  We hadn't seen one another since 2009 at IMLP, and had become disconnected later that year.  So it was great to see one another, and as much as I just wanted to continue talking and hugging, I had business to do, so I took her bike into my house, and we unloaded stuff from her car.

Shelley claimed to not be as much of a James Bond fan as I am, but she'd seen Skyfall, and so I recommended we watch Casino Royale, as it's the first one with Daniel Craig, so we put that on.  This must have been the 5th or 6th time I've watched it, and it's good every time.  Non-stop action, beautiful cinematography (as most of the Bond movies have), lush scenery, and in this case, decent character development.  Having this on made me HTFU and work harder on the bike, although Shelley had to leave to go see her son, Ian, who was in town to go to a Blackhawks game.  Shelley is Canadian but now resides in Indianapolis with her husband, Steve, and Ian still lives in Canada, but is a huge Hawks fan.

I was fine putting Casino Royale on hold until later, and I switched to music for my last hour of riding.  I ended up at 122 miles in 5:30.  Now, lest you think I had no resistance on the trainer, I did, and I checked the power curve for it:

Power (watts) = slope x speed (km/h) + intercept

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Slope	3.73	5.33	6.87	8.27	10.07	11.4	13.13	14.4	15.93	17.73
Intercept	-28.67	-36.67	-43.33	-47.33	-66.33	-67.00	-83.67	-82.00	-89.67	-114.67

I was at resistance level 4, so according to this I averaged over 200 watts.  Well, um, no, but still I was kicking out watts, and my legs were appropriately wasted when I finished.

I thought I might run some errands when I was done, but I was too tired to do much more than eat lunch and lay down in bed for an hour or so.  I stretched, and then got ready for dinner, Shelley arrived back from her foray into downtown Chicago, and we went to meet Lori for sushi.

We went to Kyoto in Downers Grove.  I'd been there once before and knew it was good.  Lori and Shelley had wine and I had a giant Sapporo.  We had nigiri and some really great rolls, and I saw someone get this:

so we had to have it.  It was awesome, and the light in the glass changed color, so we had a little show!  I ordered way too many rolls for us to finish, so after dessert of mochi balls, we all made our to go boxes.  Even after all that, the bill wasn't too outrageous, as I'd had a $25 gift certificate that we were able to use.  Shelley and I said goodbye to Lori and went back to my house.

Shelley and I watched the rest of Casino Royale wearing our jammies. Here I am working on my birthday puzzle.  I bought it for myself because I like unicorns ;)

Shelley named my downstairs room the "Iron Kingdom."  I like that name!  It is all about bikes, running and beer down there.  Not sure beer goes with Iron Kingdom, but what the hell, right?

I think once my head hit the pillow that I fell asleep in 2 seconds.  But since I'd stayed up past my bedtime (I've been falling asleep around 7:30 exhausted), I hoped to sleep in a little, but that just doesn't happen lately, and I woke up at my customary 3AM and only got 6 hours of sleep.  I tried to be quiet, and I was until I started bouncing this light up ball on my living room floor, and I guess Shelley heard it as she later reported to me accompanied by a big FUCK OFF.  Oh well.

By the time Shelley got out of bed, I'd already eaten breakfast and drank Ultrafuel and was rarin' to go on my 3:30 ride/:40 run.  She was not.  However, I'd made her coffee and we had some time to chat before I got started, and she got to see how pretty my bar is in the dark

We got ready to get on the trainers again.  I didn't feel too bad considering the day before, and Shelley saw that I had Full Metal Jacked, so we watched that. It made me HTFU and work hard on the bike.  Here I am being a complete dork with my aero helmet on:

Shelley's hip was bothering her, so she got off the trainer after about an hour, and she wanted to go see Ian again anyway, so she got ready and left while I kept going with music on.

This time I did 88 miles in 3:30, so I was able to work harder than on Saturday, which is good, since I was riding for less time.  I did all my interval shit, and I was pretty happy with my effort.  It was nice outside for running, so I stripped off my bike clothes and suited up for outside.

Oh my did I feel tired and also bonky!  I figured there was no way I'd replaced all the calories I'd burned the day before, so I was already way behind starting the run, and even having fueled properly on the bike, I would need to seriously HTFU to get the run done.  It was nice and sunny out, though, so I couldn't help but smile as I was having such a wonderful weekend, and despite feeling bonky, I felt just GREAT!

I was pretty proud of myself when I finished, and so was #OutsideFish:

Of course, after this I had the BEST SHOWER EVER, then I inhaled some food and cracked a beer and stretched, and as much as I wanted to lay down, I needed to get cracking on dinner, since I was cooking for Shelley and Lori.  First I washed dishes (well mostly fucking bottles), then I got the asparagus dish ready to go, got the chicken ready to roast, and waited for Shelley to arrive back.

When she got back, I had one thing on my mind: CHAMPAGNE!  We were going to have it with dinner, but we didn't want to crack open the bottle until Lori arrived.  Within about a minute of her arriving at my house, with all the food almost ready to eat, we had a nice toast and then we were eating, talking, and eating and talking!  We had such a great time, culminating with what I thought was one of the best desserts I've ever had: my homemade Elvis Presley pound cake with one scoop of Hazelnut gelato and another of Coconut gelato.  Lori laughed at how I practically put my face into the bowl, but I was so hungry and it was so tasty!  After I finished mine, I apologized that I needed to eat more, so I had more gelato.

I made Lori take some leftover pasta sauce home with her, and then Shelley and I changed into our jammies and watched Quantum of Solace.  It's not as good as Casino Royale, and also not as long.  I passed out several times, but I'd warned Shelley that I would.  I got up for the end, and then we went to sleep, and I promised Shelley that I wouldn't wake her up in the morning.  Since I was effectively up past my bedtime again, I ended up only getting 6 hours of sleep, but I think Shelley got at least 8.

Monday morning, Shelley and I went to my Y for an easy swim.  We were laughing our asses off a lot, with the highlight being I'm swimming and she is swimming underneath me and I'm like WTF, and she surfaces and says she is Underwater Fish.  That made me keep laughing until I was finished.  I had Shelley check my stroke, and it turns out that I am still crossing over with my left arm if I am breathing on my right, but if I breathe on my left, I'm perfect.  So I will breathe on my left even more than I was until my stupid brain/body gets it!

When we finished, we showered and were about to hit the sauna, when this woman who I gave some swim lessons to and rewarded me with a Bible (yes, ME) began talking to me about how she'd gone vegan and quit eating added sugar and how much better she felt.  I was happy for her, until she started telling me how evil sugar is and that I should stop eating it.  I tried to be nice and explain that being an athlete and all that I NEED sugar while training, but of course, she wouldn't understand.  Still, she went on a bit longer than I thought I could tolerate, and I'm pretty sure Shelley was standing there thinking, "I wonder when Sheila is going to blow her stack at this person?"  Well I didn't even though I wanted to, and I wondered yet again why people have this thing about trying to "fix" me.  Thank you, I'm really not that broken.  However, not too long after that, I made up a prayer that goes like this: FUCK OFF.  AMEN.  If that woman gets on my case again, I will share it with her.

I was hungry WHILE we were swimming, and we decided we'd go to McDonald's for breakfast (my second; Shelley's first).  I had a Steak McMuffin, which was pretty good, but in retrospect, I should have skipped the hash browns.  Those things are disgustingly greasy, but they do taste good.  We both later wished we hadn't gone there at all, but oh well, it was tasty!

We had a few hours to kill, and they'd put up this speed check thing practically right outside my house, and I'd been dying to take a silly picture in front of it.  I decided I'd make a 140.6 sign to put over the flashing speed limit, and so we did it:

The 140.6 is still on there as I write this!  Nobody took it off the sign, and even my neighbors who know I do Ironman probably wouldn't know what it means and suspect me in the shenanigans!

FYI, our splits for the 1-hour Ironman were:

• Swim 5 minutes.  But I think Shelley came in at :04.15.  So that's 7 seconds/100 yds.  Not bad!
• Bike 30 minutes, for 225mph.  Also not bad.
• Run 25 minutes, for a pace of 57 seconds/mile.

After this, I went with Shelley to an ortho appointment about her hip labrum tear.  The surgeon didn't sugar coat anything, and I will not go into details, as that's Shelley's business.

After all that, Shelley had to leave to return home, and I was sad to see her go.  It was like old times, and we'd laughed and caught up and shared our good and bad.  It was a perfect weekend!

Since then, I've been in touch with my doctor again about what's going on with me.  I think the extra 3-4 lbs. on me is possibly water retention, which can be a side effect of either hypothyroidism, levothyroxine, or both.  At any rate, there is no way I could have put on this weight with all the training I've been doing in the last 8 weeks.  So I had a discussion, and the nurse tells me maybe I put on muscle.  WHAT?  Yeah right, EVERYONE puts on muscle in the last 12 weeks of Ironman training.  I asked her if they'd run a bodyfat measurement on me to check and she was puzzled.  At any rate, we decided (with consultation of my doctor) to up my levothyroxine a little more, as it seems that *I* am the one who keeps the best track of monitoring how much and when and what the result was.  And then I can't get my next blood test done until after IMCOZ, and that should be entertaining.  At least I will get to see what that does to my body, eh?  I think the treatment objective for me is to get me as close to hyperthyroid as possible without going over the edge, like I appeared to do in early August.

What was funny is that the nurse said my weight was "stable," and I politely corrected her and said I kept track of it at the same time of the day, and that what they saw in the office every few months was not representative.  I think they are getting the idea that I keep a pretty good eye on myself, you think?

So I will suffer with yet another slight bump in meds and see how it works.  I will know in about a week, even though the nurse claims it takes much longer.  I tried to explain to her that I am trying to separate how I feel due to the training from the effect of the meds, and that it's hard for me to know which end is up.  But if we continue to test me every 6 weeks, I think we will get some idea of how my body behaves on its own, which is what I want to know, because I have a feeling I will need to moderate my levothyroxine dose on my own to match my training objectives.  OH JOY!  But it's just another "thing" to add to my to do list.

On that note, have a great day, I am feeling wonderful!

Holy Crap, I'm IN!!!!!

You can see I'm listed here.

Wow, wow, WOW! At about 5:45PM last night, I check my email, and I had a message from the RD:

Hi Sheila,

Thanks for your application, we will be pleased to issue you an invitation. Those will be issued later on but in the meantime you can start your planning for your trip to Penticton.

When planning your trip please take into consideration the Schedule of Events from the Registration to the Awards Banquet.

I look forward to seeing you here and wish you luck with the rest of your season and your training for 2010.

All the best

Steve

I was speechless when I read it. I got the shivers. I shed a few tears of joy. I grabbed a bottle of champagne out of the fridge to take with me to visit with some friends. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and couldn't believe it--is this MY life is this happening to ME??? But I guess it is. I was expecting to wait several weeks to hear back, but all it took was maybe 5 hours.

While I lay awake for maybe 1/2 hour last night, I was already visualizing myself crossing the finish line on Day 3. Man, I know how hard it is going to be to prepare for this--mentally, physically, logistically and spiritually. It's almost as if I feel selfish to be able to do this--that I will need to have a crew with me that will be making a huge sacrifice for me, to get me across that finish line.

And, of course, it gives new meaning and joy to what I am about to do this coming week--Revenge of the PirateMan!!! I finished my schedule and nutritional layout this morning, and this afternoon I celebrated the high holy day, Festival of the Bottles:

This is my run nutrition, left to right, for Days 1-4: Blue Gatorade for Day 1, whatever is in that next bottle (I think it's Gatorade and Ultra Violence) for Day 2, 2 Cokes (which are now busy defizzing) for Day 3, and lots of Ultra Violence (which I will just chug before/after each out and back section that I do, so I can drink it fully fizzed) and Gatorade (Lemonade flavor) for Day 4, which is the marathon.

This is my pre- and post-race fortification. For Day 1, I'll drink 200 calories of Ultrafuel in addition to a PowerBar. For Day 2, I'll drink 300 calories of Ultrafuel; and for Days 3 and 4, I'll drink 400 calories of Ultrafuel. After I complete each day's event, I'll drink a bottle of water and a bottle of Endurox R4 (Endurox is behind the pink Ultrafuel bottles).


These are my bike bottles, which I will fill on Monday. On Days 1 and 2, I'll use Polar bottles that will be filled with Infinit. On Days 3 and 4, the bottles in the foreground will be loaded with concentrated Infinit, and I'll have a bottle of plain water along to dilute as needed. Day 4 will see the debut of my pirate bottles, that I ordered with the stuff I wore at IMLP. I have somehow refrained from using them up until this week!

Tomorrow I'll fully clean and lube both LGL and Bitch. I'll ride LGL on Days 1 and 2, and Bitch on Days 3 and 4. So far, the weather forecast is looking pretty good, but you never know around here this time of year! It could be blazing hot or chilly. This morning I did my last workout before ROTPM--I rode about 48 miles really easily in the morning, and it was pretty darn cool out. I hope it warms a bit this week, as my preferred racing temperature would be about 78 and sunny!

This is all going to be an out of body experience, I think. I can remember back 9 years ago when I'd signed up for my second Ironman before I'd even completed the first one! And now, I am officially entered in my second Ultraman (if I'm allowed to consider ROTPM an Ultra) before I've completed the first! Very odd, indeed. Kind of like this:

What it Takes to Do a NothingMan

Looks like we are going for Sunday, as Saturday will be rainy and cold.

Here is a selection of provisions:

Had to defizz some Ultra Violence and Coke for the run












Need some fizzy Coke for biking and lots of water













More water for the run













Things that are salty













Some blinky things :)













Some malty/hoppy things













Something with wings













Something bubbly













Something jizzy













In case it's cold on the run


















Sweetness













Morning caffeine













Oh yeah that pizza's in the freezer














Gatorade Tower


















Got some schwag, too, but that's a surprise!

Answers to a Few Burning Questions

Since I use software that tracks activity on my blog, and I enjoy reading the stats on how people got to my blog and what they were looking for, I get to see all the Google (and a few other search engines) searches people do leading them here.

Google is a beautiful thing! Not only does it full text index all the blog posts, but it picks up the tags that I assign (alas, Blogger doesn't allow me to use as many tags as I want on a given post). So an innocent search, for say, "bottles" might bring someone here.

Here are a few of my favorite queries that landed people here, and I hope they found what they are looking for!

1. "calories burned walking around sea world" I'm not sure, but I remember doing this the day after Goofy Challenge in 2007. I'm pretty sure I didn't burn as many calories as I did running the half marathon on Saturday and then the full marathon on Sunday.
2. "red wine and athletic performance" Well, when I drink red wine the day before a long ride, I typically ride really well. White wine is for sissies (except champagne).
3. "backyard overrun with rabbits" Well, yes, mine has been from time to time, but the resident pair of red-tailed hawks seems to be helping. Do you know my opinion of rabbits? They are born to be food.
4. "body fuck love" Don't know what you were looking for, but I think you're in the right place.
5. "crackhead fucking" You, too. Welcome aboard!
6. "very bad girls" Yes, I wrote a post with this title. It's very popular in Iran.
7. "fucking love riding my bike" One of my most popular posts is on that topic. In case you've never READ it, it's here. I'll have to repeat a photo like that very soon. I still LOVE riding my bikes. ALL OF THEM!!! Yesterday I rode my MTB for 2 hours and had an absolute BLAST!
8. "calories burned swim 2 miles" Why do you care? And how fast did you go? Inquiring minds want to know.
   

It's going to be another absolutely gorgeous spring day, and I'm going to fire it up with a little gardening, a swim, then a run later on and lift at some point. I took it super easy on Monday, and my ride yesterday was also super easy, and I feel pretty fucking awesome. I'm still basking in the endorphins from my weekend Crack-o-Rama. Cool--I just coined another term to add to my Crackology! I can't wait to see what happens since I'll be tagging this post with "Google."