30 min easy run

Finally, got my lazy butt out of bed and got a workout in before work. I had easy 30 min run so decided to go down to Split Rail and run the golf course and it was beautiful! The temp was about 59 and wind free. As the sun began to wake up the dew on the grass and shimmer on the ponds was absolutely peaceful. Running the front 9 was right at 3 miles - perfect. Lauren had her 3rd softball practice and she is progressing rapidly. Today was the first day the kids were put in positions and Lauren was at short stop. Steven has one his first challenge match on JV and his coach has told him he can challenge to move up to Varsity as he is the top male on JV. Pretty awesome for a freshman.

1 day!

We woke up and I was feeling pretty good. We went down for the organized practice swim and with the music thumping and all of the people the excitement was in the air! The practice swim started at the finish and swam up river. We had been hearing all week about how bad the water was, but my first thought was it was not bad. Not bad at all. Much better than Lake Benbrook. I could actually see the end of my fingers where at Benbrook I couldn't even see my shoulder. Going up river wasn't bad either. I couldn't feel that I was going against the current and my left shoulder wasn't bothering too bad either. I went ahead and went as far as they would allow us and made the turn to come back. Before I knew it I was back and noticed that the current was actually pushing me past the exit so I made a note that I need to plan for that tomorrow. When we got out Jeff went to go get us some IM Perform sports drink which was to be served on the course tomorrow. The bottles he was given were screw top and not sports top and he was told that was going to be served on the course - what?! I was planning to use them on the bike. How am I going to use a screw top on the bike?! Beth and the kids landed and I picked them at the airport. After I got them checked in we headed to our hotel. We finished packing our bike and run bags loaded the bikes and headed back to drop the bikes. This was very cool. At the bike entrance each athlete was met by one volunteer and that volunteer took me across the entire transition area. They walked us from the swim exit to the bike bag to the tent to the bike to the bike exit. Then showed us the path from the bike to the tent to the run. The was fabulous. So far the volunteers have been absolutely incredible. After dropping the bikes off, we went for the last dinner before race day. We had Thai with Kristine, Trevor, Christina, Howard, Jeff, Beth, Steven and Lauren. The pad thai was very good. We took Beth and the kids back to their hotel close to the race site and Jeff and I headed back to our hotel. Another double check of the special needs and morning bags and it was to lights out around 9p.

2 days left!

We had heard some folks got a practice swim in yesterday and our schedule called for a swim today if we could, however they had signs up everywhere saying no Triathletes and no swimming. Oh well, we can get it in tomorrow. Howard came by the hotel to pickup his bike and so we took him out to drive some of the bike course. Man it seems like it keeps getting more hilly. Though Howard's GPS took us to a resident for pizza we were able to find a place that had pretty good spaghetti and meat balls and we split a cheese pizza.

More Kentucky hospitality

We slept in again, but made breakfast at the hotel. We went to packet pickup and met my Twitter friends Kristine and Trevor. Trevor was competing in IML, as well, and being introduced by David Crowder we'd carried on many conversations about the up coming event. Packet pickup definitely got the blood flowing - this thing was really going to happen! Kristine, Trevor, Jeff and I went for lunch and had some really good Japanese food. It was neat to visit and have the entire restaurant to ourselves. We were to ride a loop but it was longer than the 1.5 hour ride we had scheduled and traffic seemed to be pretty busy. That loop doesn't have shoulders on the roads so we decided to ride the out/back again and would head towards LaGrange. I REALLY like the out/back. Much of the ride is in the shade with the trees growing over the road and there aren't many houses there, though there is more traffic that I'd expect on that road. I flew down the slopes and went at a snail's pace up the inclines trying to keep my HR in check. One of the reasons I like riding up the ravine is because I can feel the strength in my legs. These are hills I would not have been able to ride a year ago. I knew this was going to be an exciting part of the course on race day as again there are no shoulders on the road and if we are bunched up going down those slopes it's going to be wicked. I hit 40+ not even pedaling and sitting up like a parachute trying to catch wind to slow down a little. On the way back out of the ravine (the 1 mile incline) I heard a car behind me. As I was in no hurry, I waved the car to pass me. I was as close to the edge as I could possibly be, yet the car didn't pass. I waved them on again, but this time I was a little startled to hear heavy breathing/grunting as a cyclist was passing me. The car I heard was following him and she soon passed as well. Still climbing, billy bob-over weight-wanna be cowboy pulled up next to me, rolled down his window, and proceed to scream at me, "Don't you know you're a hazard!". Excuse me?! I had on a neon bright yellow shirt, I had my flashing light on, I was on the edge of the road. I was a hazard to no one. I started to comment back, but he rolled his window up and gunned it. I gave him all the sign language I knew with a smile. I was hoping he had made a turn into one of the driveways ahead, but I never saw him again. Making it back to the main road I began to ride to LaGrange, but now I was a hazard and I was nervous. As you enter Oldham County they had huge signs directed at cyclists. It gave a list of items for cyclists to follow as to not upset the drivers. Are you kidding me?! This sign simply amazed me. There were lots of cars and again no shoulders. I found a driveway to turn in and rode back to the out/back. Unfortunately, a few miles from my truck I began to hear the unwanted sound of a tire problem. Sure enough, I had a tire falling apart. Extra tube I had, extra tire I did not. Luckily, I was able to make it back to the truck by riding very slowly. Dinner was sushi! I've really fallen for sushi this year. About the only thing I've not tried is eel and roe. However, this places rolls were pretty thin and left me yearning for a little more. Mike and Kristen were down at the Spaghetti Factory carbing up so Jeff and I walked down there and met up with them. It was good to see familiar faces and share our experiences in Louisville so far. Kristen and Mike ordered and so did I! Yep, dinner number 2. I had spaghetti with a mushroom marinara so pretty tame by my standards and Jeff ate my salad :)

Day 1 in Louisville

Jeff and I slept in, but awoke hungry. We'd missed the hotel breakfast so we headed towards downtown only about 4 miles away. We spotted a diner, but it was closed. Fortunately, there was a meter maid writing some poor sap a ticket and Jeff asked her for a recommendation. She gave us directions to "Toast". To my amazement she actually led us there and it was a genuine act of kindness - WELCOME TO LOUISVILLE! "Toast" was fabulous and highly recommended. After breakfast we were close to the IML run so we drove the course. It was going to be a beautiful course. Started out going over a bridge over the Ohio River and then back through downtown and then out into the surrounding neighborhoods, University of Louisville, and further out to more neighborhoods. Two things we noticed right away was it was pretty flat and it was mostly in the shade. In downtown, the tall buildings would provide the shade and in the neighborhoods trees grew over the streets. It had a very homey feel. We went back and got the bikes and drove the bike course. Um, there are a LOT of hills. I was prepared for the out/back section that has a huge ravine in the middle of it, but the back side of the loop is pretty much up hill with constant rollers with an overall net gain. There wasn't any shade on the back either. That was going to be tough. We found a spot to park and rode the out and back. This is Kentucky horse country and it was very quiet. I loved it. Down the ravine we went and I went 40+ riding my breaks, but what goes down must go up in the bike world! I didn't get much speed up and so I put it in granny gear and just went slow. This was going to be the plan for race day. Coming back you go down and back up the ravine, but this part of the back up is right at a mile long - straight climb. I must remember to take this easy as this is probably at about 40 mile mark. On the way back to the hotel we decided to eat and I had my first Tappas ever. Food was delicious, but not real high on the carbs. Have to better tomorrow.

Leaving for Louisville!

As usual, I was running a little late, but pulled up at Jeff's about 6:30a and loaded his and Howard's bike. We soon hit traffic in between Arlington and Dallas. All and all a pretty good day - we weren't in too big of a hurry. What we thought was a 14 hour drive turned into a 16.5 hour drive. Jeff went into the fabulous Ramada to check us in and what seemed to take forever I went in to tell the guy at the desk I'd be expecting a package. They had originally booked us on the top floor, but Jeff is a thinking man and asked for a bottom floor because of the bikes. I found the reason it was taking so long is the portly man checking us in was given Jeff pointers on how to do Ironman Louisville, but I was tired and pressed for us to go. I handed the man my card and asked him to make note that I was expecting a package and since we were registered under Jeff's name to please not send the package back. He responded, "that's a good idea because the people working here aren't very smart". After he finished his wisdom on the finer points of how to conquer Ironman Louisville we drove around to the back of the hotel for our room. With arms full of luggage and bike equipment Jeff stuck the card key in the door. The light turned green. Jeff opened door only to find it was chained from the inside. Yes, we had been given someone else's room!

Buffalo Springs 70.3

6/26/11 Buffalo Springs 70.3 Total 7:55:10 Swim 00:38:56 2:02/100m Bike: 3:51:23 avg 14.42 mph Run: 3:16:29 14:59/mi 108 temp, 20 mph wind w/40 mph gusts or times would have been much better

1 Week to BSLT

Mother Nature seems to be pissed. Last night we had 4 trees snapped in half from ferocious winds. Temps were 103 and winds howling again today. This mornings 1.5h run went pretty well. I ran a hour and then back to truck to get another bottle of cold water. After yesterday's over heat in 106 weather I didn't want it to happen again. By the time I finished the run the wind was absolutely howling I was in no mood to do a BTP ride in that wind so I went home after the run. Steven and I quickly cleaned the kitchen and ran off to Sushi Axiom for lunch. It was devine! Upon returning home I got a quick nap and then set up the trainer for a planned 2 hour ride. I'm not sure why, but the trainer absolutely kills me. I don't know why I can go for a 4 hour ride, but 1 hour on trainer and I'm done! I was able to stretch another 40 minutes out before I lost all strength. My HR was barely over 120 not even in TP zone (130 is my low #) and I was fried.

One week to 70.3 Buffalo Springs and a busy week ahead. Lots of training still to come for IML.

It was supposed to be 4hr ride and 30 min run...

But, it ended up being 3:30 ride and no run. Ride was to be BTP and it was for the first 2 hours, but when I got to the far end I had nothing, but headwind with gusts of 35mph blowing the lovely 106 temp on me. I felt really good until the trip back. I only went 10 miles during the 3rd hour and I was crushed. I went through 3 water bottles of water as planned, but even the first insulated bottle was hot. I lost 8.4 lbs on that ride and I did the usual water every 15 min, gel every 30 min, and 2 salt tabs every hour. I should have done more salt tabs. I noticed that I don't think I like the caffienated gels. I fill a little queazy after taking it at the top of every hour.

I was very close to heat stroke and didn't do the scheduled 30 min run. It was so hot that my sweat was drying before it could soak my clothes. Since my hr was still low doing the BTP ride and not profusely sweating I thought I was OK. I was shocked when I weighed out and it explained my awful feeling.

Starting back

Trying to get back in the swing of writing in this thing. If I don't get the tab open I forget about it. I've got an easy 4h ride today, and still fighting a cold. My head feel like someone used a sledge hammer on it. Trying to rehydrate and get a little breakfast in before heading out in the heat. One thing over the last couple of weeks is that the heat hasn't bothered me a bit and that will be huge in Louisville. It's been 95-102 and long rides and runs have gone well.