112 Days and Counting....

-Breakfast: Honey Wheat Bagel with peanut butter and two cups of coffee.

-Lunch: Big bowl of granola with 2% milk, 2 sticks of cheese, and a handful of wheat thins, 12oz of gatorade.

-Dinner: Haven't eaten it yet, but gunning for pitchers of PBR and hot wings at the Wing Dome! (reward for another good week of training).

-Training: 90 minute run, with the GPS watch instead of the HRM today, to figure out my distance and pace. I was really happy, as I ended up at 10 miles, in 88:21.

I also recognize that some of you may be wondering what the heck the picture above is for... A cute story actually, of when I met my wife. She knew I was training for an Ironman, but had some pre-conceived notions of what we sometimes wear. She had a fear of what she calls, "The Man Panties" and didn't want me to be a speedo wearing freak. She actually sent me an email once and asked if I thought a little speedo brief was appropriate beach wear!

Needless to say, I am NOT a brief wearing athlete (I prefer jammer- think waist to knee shorts), and I was somehwat confused by her paranoia. But, take a look at the guy below...

Yeah, he is wearing "The Man Panties" and a sports bra. Weird? Yes.

Weirder? That guy is Faris al Sultan, 2005 IronMan World Champion.

I still won't wear them baby, so don't worry... Eye Luh Ewe.

113 Days and Counting...

-Breakfast: Honey wheat bagel with peanut butter, 2 cups of coffee.

-Lunch: Cup of Ramen, piece of fruit leather, bottle of vitamin water.

-Dinner: Can of vegetable beef soup, goldfish crackers.

-Snacks: 2 pieces of fruit leather, bag of fruit snacks, 2 peanut butter granola bars, rice krispy treat, handful of almonds, handful of fritos, bottle of vitamin water, bottle of propel, 24 oz cran-raspberry juice.

-Training: Swim, 32 minutes straight, focused on form, RPE 4. Tried to keep my pace down today, and just focus on efficiency, and nice, smooth, form. My effort felt very low, but some of the speed work must be paying off, as my last 100 was at 1:36.

Bike, 60 minutes on the trainer. 15 minutes easy warm up small ring RPE 3, 30 minutes big ring RPE 7, 15 minute cool down RPE 3. Just punching the clock on the bike today, nothing special.

The focus on efficiency brought back an article that I read the first go-round, and had a big impact on my approach to training. The point that the article made, was that an average marathoner will take about 28,000 steps during the course of the race. A minor flaw in your form that costs 1 calorie every 10 steps adds up to an additional 2800 calories spent during the run... A bit of a stretch, yes, but you get the point. Economy of movement enables you to race longer, more comfortably. Which is important if it's going to take 15 hours. :-)

114 Days and Counting...

-Breakfast: Packet of oatmeal, 2 cups of coffee, piece of fruit leather, handful of fruit snacks.

-Lunch: Cup of ramen, peanut butter granola bar.

-Dinner: Cheese tortellini, 12oz of cran-raspberry juice.

-Snacks: Package of fruit snacks, 1 piece of fruit leather, Chex turtle bar (these are great!), bottle of vitamin water, bottle of propel water.

-Training: NONE. Rest day....

Today was a lesson in how sometimes life just smacks you in the face and shows you who's boss! Nothing bad happened, but I was scheduled for a 90 minute long run, and I planned to do it after work on the treadmill (it snowed again in Seattle, so I wasn't doing it outside!). I was eating and drinking all day to make sure I was fueled, and plugging along happily at work. It was an average day, by all accounts, until about 4pm. I started an interview (over the phone), and though I'd gotten about 5 phone calls all day, my phone went BERZERK. I got 11 phone calls during my 4-515pm interview!! Most of them required some level of immediate follow up, so around 630, I found myself starving (hadn't had dinner, or a chance to eat anything since 3pm), frazzled, and with my stunning wife walking in the front door from work.... I sometimes feel bad banishing her to bad TV while I hit the bike/treadmill. Put all of that together, and I just decided I didn't have it in me today. I just needed to eat, and relax (and give the pregnant lady a backrub!).

I had initially planned on Saturday to be my day off this week, but took today instead... It may even work out better, because if it is sunny on Saturday I can run outside!

The flexibility lesson is one I learned my first go-round with IM CDA; if you're not careful, and you let the training run your life, it takes the fun out of it and can burn you out fast. On the other hand, you get much more benefit from the process if you build in time to enjoy the routine of training, and to just let training go by the wayside when it make sense.

Concentrate on your process, control the variables you can, surrender to the ones you cannot, and the outcome usually takes care of itself.

Confucious say, "Listen to Fluffy."

115 Days and Counting....

-Breakfast: Honey Wheat Bagel, with peanut butter, 2 cups of coffee.

-Lunch: One packet of oatmeal, bottle of vitamin water, peanut butter granola bar, package of fruit snacks.

-Dinner: Breakfast burrito, with scrambled eggs and bacon, and colby jack cheese.

-Snacks: package of fruit snacks, peanut butter granola bar, piece of fruit leather, handful of almonds.

-Training: 30 minutes swimming, continuous, RPE 5. Felt nice to JUST swim for a spell... A bit of a recovery, and a chance to gear up for some longer days to come before the end of the week.

I am inluding a link for everyone tonight, and one I hope you will take a few minutes to look at... A couple of GREAT friends, Kim Urbom and Jared Franz, started a blog as well. I know how much a few of you like blogs (no love lost), but you need to check this out.

http://urbomfranz.blogspot.com/

I've known Kim since our sophomore year of High School, and I've known Jared since 7th grade (historical sidenote, we won a 3 on 3 soccer tournament in 9th grade; dude, we should have gone pro). They are currently in South Africa, working for a couple years with the Peace Corps. I got an email recently from Kim, that really put a lot of things into perspective.

I realize that writing down my food intake, and reciting how many laps I swam/biked/ran isn't that sexy. Frankly, it sometimes even bores me. But Kim's email indicated that some of the stuff we all take for granted (goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, breakfast burritos, honey wheat bagels), is pretty hard to come by. NOT that they aren't eating well, but some of the bounty that is so easily acquired stateside is much harder to come by in other, more rural parts of the world.

So, I would simply ask that you take a look at their blog, consider following it, and keep the good people who go out into the world to make it better, in your thoughts.

If that doesn't get you to look at the blog, they have pictures of rhino's and elephants... (Everybody has a price....)

116 Days and Counting...

Super fast post tonight, I have get upstairs and read a story to my baby girl... She was kicking like Chuck Norris on Meth last night because I didn't talk to her! :-)

I ate the same thing I ate yesterday... Boring, I know.

-Training: 60 minute bike, RPE5.

Immediate transition to run, 45 minutes, 6mph, 4.5 miles.

Off to daddy practice!

117 Days and Counting....

-Breakfast: Honey wheat bagel with peanut butter, 2 cups coffee.

-Lunch: Large bowl of granola with almonds and raisins, 2% milk.

-Dinner: 2 packets of maple brown sugarl oatmeal.

-Snacks: 2 chex turtle bars, 1 packet of fruit snacks, 24oz of cran-raspberry juice.

-Training: Swimming, 25 minutes continuous, RPE 7.

Running, 45 minutes, 6mph, for 4.5 miles.

The pool today was FREEZING cold. Like I should have had a wetsuit, my toes were numb, and I almost got hypothermic freezing. Something must have been wrong... I was supposed to swim longer but my toes really did go numb. I wasn't intending on swimming at RPE 7, but I couldn't slow down or I would have been even colder!! So, we got the swim in hard and fast.

The run felt good today too. No issues with my legs, or fatigue. Nice easy pace, and done in a flash!

118 Days and Counting....

-Breakfast: peanut butter granola bar, 12oz. cran-raspberry juice.
-Lunch: Can of vegetable beef soup, grilled cheese sandwich.
-Dinner: Cheese tortellini with tomato sauce, bottle of propel fitness water.
-Snacks: Chex turtle bar (awesome new find), honey wheat bagel with peanut butter.

-Training: Swim first thing in the morning. 13 minutes straight at RPE 7. 11 minutes of 25 sprint (RPE9) then 25 recover (RPE 2).

In the evening, 60 minute recovery bike session, all at RPE 2, very low gear. My legs were VERY tired from yesterday. Not feeling pain, or anything wrong, I can just tell I did a long run yesterday... The bike helped loosen them up a bit, so we should be good going into next week.

Next week will be a repeat of the first week of this plan, scaling back a bit as a series of shorter, less intense training sessions. It will serve as a bit of a recovery, but I am really pleased with how I feel so far. The long sessions have not been to tough, and my legs have felt very fresh up until today. I still feel strongest about my swimming, but am happy that I have not manufactured reasons to skip out on my cycling sessions.... It is my least favorite, but I feel like I'm making good progress there.

We tried putting together our 3rd and last piece of baby furniture this afternoon, an armoire. (crib: done. Changing table/dresser: Done.) I have to tell you, if there is anything that can make you feel like you ate a bowl of crazy flakes for breakfast, it is putting together a piece of furniture that comes dis-assembled in a box. Weird pieces, hundreds of screws, all packaged in a box that looks like Fed-Ex threw it in front of a train before they delivered it to you. And as we found out today, the train usually wins in the chicken match... We had a bunch of broken pieces, and couldn't put it together. I guess instead of the joys of furniture assembly, we'll have to put up with warm fuzzies dispensed from the curmudgeony customer service people from www.simplybabyfurniture.com.

As I conclude this post, I must confess that my adorable wife just brought me a bowl of Girl Scout Samoa Cookie Ice Cream... Just livin' the dream people!