I get by with a little help from my friends...

Apologies to John, Paul, George and Ringo but I'm changing that to "I get by with a Lot of Help from my friends".

Back from Kona and have started to put the experience into perspective. Will write up a race report later but in short, the race was hot, humid and (at least for me) hard. Heat and humidity have never made for great race conditions and Saturday, they were present in abundance. I tried to stay on top of my salt tabs but by the time the bike was done, I was too. Almost. I made it through about mile eight on the run before I was experiencing full body cramps. I knew I was in big trouble when I tried to wipe the sweat out of my eyes and my bicep cramped. Chills followed and I was ready to call it a day. Fortunately, I saw my friend Scott and he walked with me for a couple of miles. I started to feel a bit better and even found a way to shuffle run. At my next low point, I once again had an angel land on my shoulder as Stephanie arrived on a bike and delivered tums and a dry shirt. That did it and I knew I'd finish.

As I mentioned, full race report later. But until then...thanks Friends!

Noggin Design

Just finished an 18 mile run that was more uncomfortable than I'd have liked. I ran in the afternoon, so the temperature was warmer than usual, probably around 75. Consequently, I perspired like the proverbial pig. Tried to stay on top of my fluids by hitting the water fountains on a regular basis but I couldn't help but wonder if the hair on my head (which is getting a bit long) was hindering my cooling a bit.

Now I'm pondering a buzz cut. A lot of the pros keep their mop short and it even looks pretty good on a few of them. No one can argue that Crowie is a good looking guy and he's just got a bunch of stubble on top. My mission for the next couple of days is to (1) find out if short hair provides any meaningful cooling benefit and (2) discern the shape of the noggin. If the head is fairly uniform and round...who know, we may have a hair cutting party.

Trying to get motivated for a swim now and will be up early to hit Palomar with Steph and Brit tomorrow.

Tick Tock

So, the clock keeps ticking toward Kona. Roughly three more potential big weeks of training to go. Funny how clear things get this close in to a race. No dips in motivation, no questioning why I need to watch what I eat, stretching and rolling find their way into my day. Just wish it was possible to bottle that kind of enthusiasm and take sips during the winter when working out takes a back seat to bread pudding!

Decent workouts over the long weekend with a six hour ride on Saturday and a 15 mile run on Sunday. Monday was recovery with just a quick weight room session.

Rode with Steph on Saturday for almost four and a half of the six hours. She's just a week off her 10 hr 40 minute finish in Louisville and seems to almost completely recovered. Kebby's coming along as well but I still catch a peek of her going down stairs sideways from time to time.

Thinking about trying to pull a group together for a ride in Borrego Springs at the end of the month. Conditions there should be very similar to Hawaii and Arizona for folks doing IMAZ. Will check out vrbo houses and see what I find.

Long time no post

A little slow on the posting recently. No real excuses. Training has been going well and I'm still relatively uninjured. Still marveling at the results that Kebby and Steph put up in Louisville. Both went under 11 hours and Kebby managed to grab a slot to Kona.

It goes to show you what a good couple of months can do for a person. At Oceanside, Kebby was coming off of knee surgery and Steph was doing her second half. Now just a couple of months later, they're both in a different league!

Plan tomorrow calls for five hours on the bike. I bought a red bull to help me get up and make it an early start!

Hot Hot Hot

Spent the weekend in Borrego Springs this weekend with Kebby. Great training location. Lots of empty roads with wide shoulders and heat a plenty. Got in four hours of riding Saturday with a core workout and light swim. Eight miles on the hot pavement sunday.

Recovery

Fairly light weekend planned. I'm feeling a little beat up with a sore left knee and left hip. I suspect I've been favoring my left side a bit even though I can't tell that I'm uneven. Probably makes sense to do some treadmill running in front of a mirror and stay aware of my balance.

Steph and Brit are off to Vineman this weekend. We're looking forward to following them on-line. I suspect we'll see them both post great times.

The Plan

So I made my payment to multisports and now have my plan. I had one for IMCDA too but probably only followed it half the time. The other half of the time I ad-libbed and did what I felt like or what felt right.

I'm going to try and be a little more disciplined this time. The one exception may be a few of my swim workouts. We've started swimming in the canal behind the house and I love the variety. It's open water and we can go for about 3/4 of a mile before we have to turn around. For some reason it is much easier mentally to swim for an hour in the canal than it is to do the same distance in the pool.

Workout plan for tomorrow calls for a turbo-trainer session which is nice since that's what we've been doing every Tuesday anyway. Kebby, Steph and I will be in the pain cave first thing in the morning. As an added bonus, we've brought in a couple of heaters and humidifiers to simulate race conditions.