Saturday, March 26, 2011

Yeah us!

Today's workout:
Swim-30 minutes
Bike-331 minutes (88.5 miles)
Run-59 minutes (5.5 miles)-time includes water stops and a food walk!

Wow, what a day! My alarm went off at 6:20. Smoothie and bagel. Then a walk with the pups. I decided to walk them before the swim this week to give the food a little longer to digest and that seemed to help. I could barely walk when I got up. The second day after a tough workout (Stratford) is always worse for me than the first day after for some reason. The walk with the pups helped to loosen them up a little. But the first few times I pushed off the wall during the swim...omg....so painful! I just swam nice and chilled, I didn't count how many laps. I just wanted to loosen up a little more since I knew we had a long day and I was starting out on sore and tired legs!

9:30-Kristi and Wayne and I got our gear and bikes ready for the 88 miler. I think this was our second longest ride ever. We sure did pack it in for the ride. Here are some pre-ride pics.




This is Kristi's Bento Box chock full o' goodies. She likes to open them up ahead of time so they're easier to get at while riding. Good idea!







This is Wayne checking his goodies. Everything seemed to be in order and properly glided. 








Except for the nips. Gotta glide the nips! Wayne made a pretty mean face here-but he wasn't mad that I took the photo. Even though he was having a slightly grumpy morning. There's no grumpy mood that a fun photo can't change!






Here's a photo of my back pockets chock full o' my goodies. Bulging at the seams.







And here're Wayne's pockets bulging at the seams.




And we were off. Mayling and Brad came along with us for the first 15 miles and then turned around. Photographer Brad was on the route today and he took this really cool photo. I think it's our first action shot ride ever to appear in the blog!



And thanks to Mother Nature, it was a beautiful day! Sometimes she can really get some good wind gusts going, but today the wind wasn't too bad at all. Nothing compared to the San Marcos ride a few weeks ago. We even had some cloud coverage towards the end of the day to cool things down a little.

Here's the route we did today. Wayne's phone conked out so I'm uploading this from my Map My Ride directly. It's two maps because I don't feel like putting it all together on one.









We had one crazy hill. It started at 1047 feet and went down to 858. The hill was one mile long. I was in my aeros and didn't have to pedal at all the entire way down! Then we had to do the same hill on the return route. It wasn't too bad at all. Wayne, how does that hill compare to the Ironman course? The entire course today went roughly from 600-1000 feet in elevation.



Here's a photo from the top of the crazy hill. 


It looks like it just drops off to nothing!!!  The high was forecast to be about 92 today. Kristi and Wayne's bike thermometers got up to 108! I took a pic of it, but it didn't come out good enough to put in the blog.



Kristi and I were loving the heat today, but it was too hot for Wayne's liking. He tried out a new training food today. They're called Duck Bill Chips. Here he is eating them at the Andice rest stop.





Hahahaha! Unfortunately he thinks the Pringles may have been the cause of some GI issues today. I felt good food-wise today. Here's what I had on the ride.

Goldfish-new ride item-really good idea. They sat well on my tummy and kept me full.
Three Accel-gels-these are only good for the longer rides. Not the most palatable, but they work well and have some protein in them.
Powerbar-Good old standby-Fruit smoothie flavor
Honey stinger-Another favorite stand-by
Recovery bar-I had one of these around mile 75. It was totally melted and difficult to eat. Not a good option for event day. I may have to try the cliff chocolate chip bars as a back up.

I think that's all I had on the ride. I may be forgetting something.

On the return trip from Andice it was a little windy. Our backs were really getting sore so we made a pain reliever stop. Advil for the McCullochs and Aleve for the Beer. Note to self---Be sure to pack Aleve on event day!

I was telling Kristi how happy I am with my new helmet. It's really super comfy. I had it on all day and didn't notice it. At our last water stop I did take it off though. Just to air out the old melon. Even though it's really comfy, it still left a pretty funny imprint in my forehead!








Wow, look at the size of that forehead. It's huge! I guess that part of the helmet usually sits at people's hairline, so the indentation isn't noticeable. It's a good thing they make a helmet large enough to accommodate my wide cranium.



We finished up the ride around 5pm. Then it was time to run five mile. This day just never seemed to end! It was 89 degrees when we were heading out for the run, so sadly the pups couldn't join us.



It was almost physically impossible for my brain to get my legs to start running. I had to resend the message from my brain to my legs a number of times. Finally the leg department got the order and started to move. I always make lots of grunts and groans when we start running. And keep in mind that I had started the day on tired and sore legs. And now, after 8 1/2 hours of exercise, I was asking them for one more favor. Kristi always thinks I'm playing around when I start to run. Nope, just trying to keep moving forward! Hahahaha! But by mile two or so they started working normally again. Just in time for a walk break for a powerbar. Then more running. We did get to an 8:30 pace or so, which is pretty impressive for this old bag o' bones! Hahahahaha!

Overall, today was a good workout. By no means was it easy, but again, I have to say that the training is really moving us right along. I feel like it was just challenging enough without pushing me over the edge. Next weekend may be another story though!


I can't wait for tomorrow when we get to get up and start all over again with a nice long run, a short bike ride, and weights. (not sure how to indicate sarcasm in a blog!) I can't believe that in exactly eight weeks from today, with a little luck, I'll be on the run portion of the Ironman! Wow! The end is in sight!!!!

Yeah us!!!!

M :)

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