Swim, Run, Bike

I swam a hour at Lake Benbrook today. For some odd reason I didn't bring my wetsuit. OK, I didn't bring it because Louisville will not be wetsuit legal, but my next race is Buffalo Springs 70.3 and it will be so I need to keep wearing my suit for open water swims. The water was cold but felt good on my sore legs from yesterday's ride. It was windy but I felt strong going into the wind and really stretched out and glided coming back.

The wind really picked up on the run and the sun came out from behind the clouds and the humidity seemed to jump. I went out 30 min and the wind was brutal. I went ahead and went up Nice Hill though my 30 min was up and it was a mistake. While I made it up the hill fine I had no gas left in the tank to come back. That was disappointing because I had the wind with me. I didn't gel at the half way point either and I should have. I decided not to because it was only a hour run, but I'd just finished a hour swim. Lesson learned.

Ran to get a big Gatorade and on to Jimmy John's for sandwich. Hate it in the parking lot so it'd have time to digest while I drove back home for my 2 hour bike ride. The wind was really building and the skies were dark again. After being hailed on yesterday I pedaled a little faster then about half way point of first hour I kept hearing my phone signal text messages coming in. I finished climbing a long hill and pulled over. Glad I did because it was work issue that ended up taking my over 5 hours to resolve. I cut my ride short at 1 hour to deal with work and it was almost pitch black due to storms rolling in. It soon began to downpour - glad I cut it short. Got this weeks schedule and the coming week is going to be ball buster - can't wait

Hail, Rain and wind

The 1h swim went great! I felt really long and catching the water well.

The ride was the hardest 3 hour ride I've ever had. The ride was 1h TP, 40 min of hill repeats, 20 min TP, then another 1h TP. The first hour included a beautiful storm coming. The problem was it was coming fast. I wanted to stop and take a pic, but it was bearing down on me and it was going to be close that I could possibly just catch the edge of it. I thought I'd out ran it when the sustained 25 mph winds turned into 35mph gusts and I wouldn't be surprised there were some more than that. Then came the pea size hail and of course there was no place for me to hide so I just pedaled harder. Then came the cold rain and the rain drops were HUGE and I finally out ran the rain, but not the wind. The hill repeats were into that wind and it was 90% humidity. It was 20 min repeat with 10 min easy the 20 min hill repeat. I was supposed to be getting into race pace on the hills and I was so close to puking at the top of that hill, but when I coasted to the bottom my heart would be back down below TP. Just hope the quick recovery will happen on the run, too.

Hill repeats

Had a great run tonight - really feeling strong. There is no way I could have done this workout last year. Very excited about how well this run went even though it was very humid - bring on IML!

#2 ride on road bike & new coaching era

Both hamstrings were a little sore until about 20 min in, but it went away. I'm not stretching like I should after I run. Overall, pretty good 1 hr TP ride for as windy as it was.

Coach Roberto informed me today that he was leaving Playtri. I could either stay with him as he goes out on his own or he would help transition me to another Playtri Coach. Roberto has been great and I will be staying with him.

Night run

It's the first time I've ran at night in a long time and it was kind of nice. Didn't get dizzy which I thought I might. It was kind of humid, and the wind wasn't blowing but overall nice. The run went well. Felt strong.

Hills and 1 leg drills

Today's bike went well. It was a nice evening and everything is so green. 1 hour ride: with in the seat hills, out of the seat hills then one leg pedal each side. Feeling pretty strong. Had to use my road bike while the Tri's being worked on.

ENT, bike in shop

Off day today.

Met with the ENT today. He think dizziness is caused by too much pressure behind ear and wants be to continue allergy meds and to try and pop ears (hold nose and blow) 10-15x per day. He said there is a valve that should be opening that would relieve that pressure and in my case that valve is weak. Popping the ears will strengthen the valve. Return in 1 week for more tests.

Put the bike in the shop to get overall tune up, true up rear tire, replace R arm rest, replace front brake cable, replace rear tire and head tube is loose. Glad I've got the road bike as the shop is a little behind. No worries - Colonel's is the best and Aubrey will take care of her.

Stress Test

The Stress Test went very well today. This was done just to make sure everything OK from when had drop in blood pressure along with the dizziness/nausea I've been experiencing. I actually had to run to get my HR up where he wanted it (which they said was unusual). The doctor said, "you're healthier than 98% of the people we see". After hitting my max number (90% HR) the doctor was looking for I had to immediately lay on the table so tech could do ultrasound of my heart (they'd done one prior to test). While he was doing the ultrasound a nurse was taking my blood pressure. With in 15 seconds of hitting my max HR, my blood pressure had already recovered to 114/70. When the nurse called it out the tech exclaimed, "WHAT?!", she yelled back "I know! I did it twice - he's already recovered" The nurse said she'd never had anyone recover that fast and the tech said it'd been a LONG time since he'd seen it. All good news for me. Bring on the hills - BRING ON IRONMAN LOUISVILLE!!!!

Nutrition!!!!!

I've got to get better about my nutrition. I'm simply not getting enough good carbs in. My coaches' goal for this phase of training is 60% carb, 20% protein, 20% fat and my carbs have routinely been low 50. My wife became a vegetarian about 5 weeks ago and I'm going to make an effort of eating more of what she does. She has experienced more energy and her not having some of the GI issues she previously experienced on her long runs (she's training for Rock n Roll San Diego Marathon - her first). We'll see how it goes.

CT Scan

CT scan was normal, except for some long term build up in the right inner ear from allergy drainage. Trying to find out why the dizziness/nausea. Pressure in right ear still pretty intense.

Wimpy!

My first day back on the bike was awful! I was going to ride a hour on the trainer, but only managed 30 minutes. My hamstrings were screaming and felt dehydrated, again. Also, I wasn't able to catch my breath and I was at the minimum of my TP Zone. Back to the drawing board.

Little catch up on dizziness

Well I've had 3 episodes of the dizziness/nausea and last night was pretty bad. My HR dropped to 52 which is pretty low for me and I was quite miserable and just went to bed. Went to the Dr today and he thinks I've got 2 different things going on. I've got a lot of fluid behind the ear causing the dizzy/nausea. I've fought an ear ache for 2 years now so he wants a CT scan to find out why it's not draining. He did EKG and there are some mild abnormalities, but he thinks it's a false alarm caused being in good shape and having lower HR. The abnormal blips could be caused by low potassium, too. However, since I've got a Half next month and full in Aug he wants me to do a stress to make sure all is well. I've been put on easy workouts until we get the test results. Got a B12 shot and meds to try to dry the fluid up behind my ear.