rest day today - what am I still doing up?   Estranged spouse has asked me to drive up to Ruidoso today to be with my son on Monday when he has a day off of school. 

List for today:

Work, change oil, change flat tire, pack, laundry, hotel/condo reservations for IMFL.  Oh, and recover from today. .... Um yesterday

This week begins three weeks of taper, except this week has ungodly swim distances in it.  Oh well I can swim.  And since I'm going to Ruidoso again anyway I get another OWS at bottomless - Tuesday!

Ok, I'm finally up - got the laundry going dishes done, stretching done.  Man I am sore and muscle tired, especially my back.  I'm guessing it's the bike position and the wind, but it could have been the swim.  Glutes and upper hamstrings very tired/sore.

Think I'll go look up stuff on how to recover.  Have a great Sunday.

Definitely Taper time, although there's some big swimming this week.  I just cannot believe that I've made it through the toughest training for Iron Man.  One of the inspirational videos says something about exploring limits.  I think I've done some exploring of mine - as have we all on this road.

When I was going into the grocery store yesterday evening after my work out it occured to me that probably no one in the store had done a workout anything like mine.  Probably no one in the city, and actually very few even in the US.  Probably just the 2000 or so preparing for Florida.  Even though there are a bunch of us this Iron Man group is actually rather select. 

I just wanted to log this epic workout before I went to bed, and it's way, way too late for me to be up.  I got up at 4:00 this morning, and out the door at 5:00.  I did not get back to the house for good till 4 in the afternoon.  Unbelievable.   went a couple of blocks then came back to lower my seat just a little.  Headed out again into the dark.  Because this is a long ride and only the second ride on my new bike, I decided to get off the bike for a minute or two each hour.  I also decided to just take it easy and stop to adjust things on the bike as needed.  Still what an awesome bike,  I'm way faster on this than the old one.  It is truely amazing.  And it's so easy to ride.  I did almost rub raw in one spot.    I stopped for ~30 minutes after 63 miles to refill water bottles and chat with the usual crowd of bicyclists at the Town and Country.  Headed out after that back into the 25 mph head wind and toughed it out for another 30 minutes till the road turned to cross wind.  It was tough, but I was riding 10 to 12 mph, where as on the old bike it would have been eight or less.  I hit a rock and had a pinch flat at about 15 miles from home.  I wasn't sure how good my spare tube was as it has been in my pouch probably since last year.  I fixed the flat, and started out again.  I was just passing the 100 mile mark and calculated I had about 10 miles left to get home and was thinking how cool it would be to get a 110 miles in when the spare tube blue out.  Bummer, so I had to call my daughter to come get me.  I walked for 15 minutes while she drove out.  Counted that in the run total.  (it was a brick after all :)  )

I saw both eagles today, and lots and lots of caterpillars.  You know it's windy when the wind rolls a caterpillar over.  There were so many at one point it was tricky going around all of them :)

The run was tough and very slow, and lower legs hurt, but after about 20 minutes I started feeling a little better.  Still tired though.  the wind was really tough on the bike.

Pool was good.  I stopped after the 2nd 1000 to get a gel and that helped, but I really ran out of 'want to', and felt like after 10 hours of exercising there were some other things I needed to attend to.  Fix dinner, shop for a car for my son, and grocery shopping.  Stopped at Academy sports and found some running shorts too.  I do not think I'm going to run the IM in my tri shorts.  After today I'm not sure I even like them for the bike.  It's getting kind of late for these kind of decisions, but better now that riding in shorts that chafe.

I thought my nutrition was pretty good.  Two eggs, 1/2 an orange and a bowl of cereal before.  Perpetuem 1.5 scoops per hour, and one gel on the 1/2 hour.  felt strong.  The aero water bottle obvously makes it much easier to stay hydrated, I had to pee five times on this ride, Usually I only stop once, or maybe twice.  I ate a plum when I headed out to run, and did two gels in the first hour of the run - one during the swim.  I did run out of energy at the end in the pool.  Was I really out of energy, or just board?  Thinking back, I stopped taking in nutrients when I started swimming.  something that will be covered in IM by breakfast. - and a Cliff bar on the beach.

Well it's almost midnight and way past time for bed.  Good night.

Things do not happen in this world - they are brought about. - Will H. Hayes

True, true.  You do not accidentally become an Iron Man.  There are many things which can stop you, but there are no things that make it happen but yourself.

In 19 days I travel to Panama City Beach Florida to complete becoming an Iron Man.  Wow.
Need to find a room.

This morning's ride was supposed to be on the new bike.  As soon as my butt hit the saddle I knew that wasn't going to work.  I continued for ~1/2 mile hoping that the soreness would numb out.  Not to be.  I went back to the house and traded for the old road bike, and what a difference a saddle can make.  I'm changing out the tri bke saddle for one just like on my road bike.  Too brused today to ride on the hard one - and why would I want to.  Besides getting sore just before my longest ride does not make any sense.  My plan in the beginning was to use the same saddle I've been training on, but the sales guy suggested a tri saddle would be much better.  I'll know more after I try the old saddle on the new bike but I'm thinking my original plan was a good one, especially with the short amount of time I have to get used to the new bike.  Worried about that today.

Brrr.  The thermometer said 55 degrees, so I grabbed the wind vest in addition to my jersey.  It was kind of cool but ok for a while.  Arms were really cold, and with the wind I just got chilled.  By the time I got back my arms were almost numb and I was just frozen.  I'm wondering if I was out of energy or something because I just couldn't get warm, even after a hot shower.  Perhaps not enough sleep?  Skipped the scheduled swim due to time constraints.

Getting up at 4:30 sucks, and is beginning to get old.   I sure like being out early though.  If I could only go to bed at 8:00 in the evening. :)

NEW BIKE !  Yahoo!

The surest way to bring on a negative mood is to deny the present, whether by dwelling on the past or by fantasizing about the future.   ...Everything that we value, our dreams, plans, and hopes, dwindle to insignificance before the moment.  How we act right now is how we are right now. - Casey and Vanceburg

I had the most incredible OWS last night.  It was about 5:00pm when I got to the lake.    There was a little wind from the south and my first view of the lake from the caprock above showed a beautiful cobalt blue lake covered with ripples and no one there at all.  When I got to the park self-check-in and was filling out the paper work the park host happened to drive by.  We've talked before and she's a swimmer, so I asked her if she was going to come swim with me.  Unfortunately no, but we chatted for a while, and she said she'd look out for me.

I changed into my wetsuit and waded out into the water.  Although the air was about 70 degrees and the setting sun was warm, Brrr, the water was quite cool, even with the wetsuit.  I cannot do justice to how pretty it was.  This little lake (400 yards across) is a deep clear water spring.  The water was so dark blue, and the sky was.... sky blue and ever so clear.  Surrounding the lake on two sides are steep cliffs with red and white rock.  As I swam out the sun was on my left and the cliffs in front and to the right.  When I turned my head to the left to breath I saw the beautiful colorful sunset, and when I turned it to the right the cliffs.  As the sun lowered in the sky the sun was more in my face on one side, but the cliffs turned orange, then watermellon red - then got darker and darker.  I was tempted to do another lap, but the sun had just set.  Swimming through sunset was an awesome experience.  Just the vividness of the colors and the changing colors - it was so beautiful.  Blue lake, light blue sky, red and white rocks, setting sun -- unbelievable.  I think yesterday that was the most beautiful place in the world. 

oh, and I got 4100 yards of OWS in the wetsuit.  Everything worked well.  Forgot my BT top though.  I wanted to try that under the wetsuit.

Group bike tonight.  It will be my second ride on the new bike.  Can hardly wait.

Measured seat height - it was indeed low so I raised it a couple cm.

Today feels like a rest day.  The plan calls for a 45 min run and 1 hr swim.  I had planned to substitute bike for run to day and do it when I got home.  However given the number of cabinet doors I have yet to install - I don't know when I'll get back to Midland.  I do plan to stop at Bottomless lakes and do an OWS today.  Looking forward to that, although it's quite a bit cooler than the last time.    I've substituted run for bike the last two days and last night my lower legs were complaining, although nothing really hurts and they just feel a bit tired today.    The last two days were shortish runs and I pushed the pace, especially on the downhills.  felt good and nothing hurts - wonderful, maybe this training stuff works. :)

The problem with the cabinet doors is: nothing is straight, nothing is square, the parts that match - don't.  Matching doors are not the same size, either inside or outside.  I've had to remount several doors, one as many as four times to get it as straight-looking as possible.  I'm no perfectionist, but this is rediculous.

Wish I had time to post pictures - It's beautiful up here, and I've got cat and bike pics as well, but I've got cabinet doors to finish and Iron Man training to do as well as a 5.5 hr drive.

Nice and cool this morning and the sun in the pines and through the yellow leaves was beautiful.  Short easy run. 

Got to go for a short hike this afternoon with the #1 son and drove up to the ski area.  Snow on the mountain this morning!  First of the season, although it's way too early for it to stick till more comes.  It sure is nice to see though.  It is so beautiful up here. 

I've been hanging kitchen cabinet doors and putting in repainted drawers all day - except for two breaks to have coffee with different friends.  And the hike of course.  What an awesome wonderful day.

I love it up here, but at the same time I'm itching to get back to Midland and ride the bike some more.  I've got to get some saddle time before IM.