Dear Marty’s Body,

You can’t do a 2 hour tandem ride followed by a 2 hour hard tri bike ride on a bowl of cereal and a PBJ sandwich.  It doesn’t work.  Especially when the heat index is above 90 by 9am and you’re losing 900mg of salt per hour in sweat.

If you try this, you *will* bonk and waste your workout.

Of course, I probably should have told you this BEFORE you went and did that this morning.  So my bad on that one.  But nevertheless, you should have known better.

Sincerely,
Marty’s Brain.

P.S. Aside from bonking today, I had a good workout week.  About 14 hours, mostly on the bike with some running and swimming sprinkled in.  The taper is progressing well.

My first night driving a pedicab.

Highlights of the evening:

• Toppling the rickshaw AND doing a “clipless topple” (falling over at 0mph still clipped into the pedals) within 5 minutes of starting my rickshaw training.
• Bring told to “mush” on my very first ride, which was FREE for this lady because we were still doing training.  That’s a nice way to treat someone giving you a FREE ride.  (She also kept yelling about how she was “on a boat,” which was untrue–she was on a rickshaw.)
• Giving a 400 pound guy + two of his friends a ride to their car. Fortunately, Gainesville is flat.  I would not have made it up any sort of incline with that particular set of passengers.
• Two drunk and entirely non-fat ladies asking if they were too fat to ride in the rickshaw.  Perhaps I should have said yes just to get a rise out of them. They did complement me on my calves though.
• One hideously ugly old lady asking if she could pay me in blowjobs. I insisted that no, you cannot and that the ride was free anyway since I was still in training. She said I had a nice ass and gave me a tip in pocket change.
• Losing 5 pounds of body weight in sweat. It was 80 degrees and humid all night and I didn’t drink enough water.
• Finally getting one paying customer at the end of the night, and then promptly flatting one of the rickshaw tires half a mile from his frat house. I had to ride with the flat to his house and then back to the garage where the rickshaws are kept, which of course was 5 miles away.  Uphill.

Other thoughts:

• The hours are not ideal.  The best money is made from 1-2am, when drunk folks are heading home from the bars.
• Asking literally everyone if they want a ride is exhausting.  Most everyone says no, even after several pushy follow-ups from me.  I feel a bit slimy doing it.
• “No thanks, I literally don’t have any money” is a lie.  You’re at a bar.   Your daddy just gave you a credit card a week ago when he dropped you off at college.  The ATM is over there.
• I get free food at the Pita Pit while I’m working.  Nice!
• The rickshaw is relatively easy to pilot, though it looks a lot harder than it actually is.  This is good for tips.
• When I get my own bike that is actually comfortable for me, I think things will go a bit more smoothly.  The bike I rode last night was too big for me, and the wheels/tires were less than optimal.
• All in all, this seems like a pretty cool job.  I get to ride and get paid for it, and the money is good (though last night was slow due to it being Wednesday).  Football games will be lucrative, and the rickshaw company also does out-of-town events that have a good draw.

Last big training week before MOO – complete.

I’m exhausted.

4,000 yards swimming, 230 miles biking, 43 miles running. 21 training hours. (3 flat tires. WTF? I bought new tires this weekend.)

Biggest training week to date.

Key workouts were: 112 mile ride Tuesday, 11 mile run w/threshold intervals Wednesday, 18 mile steady run Friday, 65 mile hard group ride Sunday.

This week, I have two more key workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday (60 miles tempo Tuesday, 12 miles steady Wednesday, then it’s recovery/taper time. Workouts will be shorter. More rest days. More recovery days. More sleep.

Two weeks of recovery/taper, then it’s time for race week. Ironman. 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running. All in one day. With luck, will finish in between 11.5 and 12 hours.

After Ironman, life returns to “normal” again. I’m gonna miss the epic training days and sweet tan lines. But I won’t miss the 5am wakeup calls.

Another nice training week!

19 hours on the nose this week, with 4k swimming, 220 miles of cycling and 36 miles of running.

Still kinda bored with swimming. My technique is fine and I have plenty of endurance. With Ironman Wisconsin being a wetsuit swim, it’s hard for me to get motivated to do anything other than maintain my current fitness level in the water. Still planning on swimming around 1:15 at the race.

Bike is feeling really strong. I kept up with the group ride today, did a really strong tempo ride on my tri bike midweek, and threw in a few other good rides as well. As long as I can keep it rubber-side down in the next few weeks, I should be looking at a comfortable 6:00 bike split at Ironman with plenty left for the run. Planning on doing a 112 mile solo tri bike ride on Tuesday of this week to test my fitness, as well.

Run is feeling strong as well. I’m building mileage, but not speed, which is what I need for the race. I’m not particularly fast (most of my runs have been in the 9:30 pace range), but I’m getting strong, which is what’s required for the running portion of the Ironman. Going to try and hit 40+ miles next week, including my longest pre-race run, which will be in the 17 mile range.

This coming week will be my last full-volume/high intensity training week. I’ll try to hit 20 hours (probably about 4k swim, 230M bike, 42M run). After that is a half-week of high volume/high intensity, with about 3-4 days of recovery after that. That leaves two weeks to taper and peak for the race, which is on Sunday, September 13.

Pretty freaking solid training week this week.

I am definitely liking training in Gainesville so far. The heat/humidity is definitely manageable–as long as I get my run workouts done before 8am and my bike workouts done before noon, the heat is not a problem at all.

In total, this week I swam 6000 yards, bikes 204 miles and ran 31 miles in just over 18 hours.

I did a variety of rides, including a three-hour hard tempo ride, a threshold interval ride, a group ride and two recovery rides. It’s so much easier to put in big miles on my tri bike here compared to Bloomington–the hills in Bloomington made it difficult to get in a lot of steady-state training.

My runs were pretty solid–a bit on the slow side, but I’m really nervous about combining speed and intensity on my runs with my injury history. I found a nice park to run in that has a distance-marked crushed gravel trail, two water fountains along the way and lots of pretty scenery to look at.

Swimming was alright, but swimming feels kinda boring for me these days. Unfortunately I have no excuse for low swimming volume, what with the pool being 50 yards from my front door and freely available at any time.

Body composition is going well, also. I’m hovering at 143-145 pounds, which is a really good weight for me. At a lighter weight, I’m more vulnerable to sickness and can’t put out the same power on the bike. I’d still like to drop a little bit of body fat before the race, though. If I can replace any fat lost with lean muscle mass, that would be the best scenario.

All in all, I’m looking at 2.5 more weeks of this type of training, and then it’s time to recover and taper for Ironman Wisconsin, which is 5 weeks from today (September 13). As long as I can stay injury free for the next few weeks, I’ll be as fit as I’ve ever been when I get to the starting line!

In other news, Lana is super excited about starting school. She’s over in her new office in the Physics building all the time. I bet the other Physics graduate students will be excited to be in a class with a real life attractive female!

Triathlete does fast group ride, hilarity ensues.

This morning, I did my first group ride here in Gainesville.  Though most of my riding is done solo in preparation for triathlons, I’m going to make a good effort to do more group riding while in Gainesville, for two reasons.  One is to increase awareness of my coaching business (I have a sweet jersey with my business name and logo printed on it).  Two is that group rides are awesome training that is very difficult to replicate on one’s own.

Keep in mind–I’m a triathlete.  So I’m not used to riding around people very often.  I was slightly apprehensive of my ability to ride safely, and my ability to keep up with the changes in pace.

We met at about 8am on the SW side of town.  There were about 30 of us that would eventually split into two riding groups.  I decided I’d try to stick with the faster group.

The first hour or so of the ride was quite easy–we were cruising in a double paceline at around 20-22mph.  I had planned to sit on the back, just to get a feel for things, but I was feeling good and decided to work carefully into the rotation.  I took a few pulls and got to know some folks.  I was staying safe and predictable.  I even bridged a gap when one of the faster riders decided to put in a mini-surge!  I was kicking ass and feeling way too good about myself.

After about 1:15 of riding, the faster group split from the slower group.  I followed the faster group.  They set a slightly faster tempo (22-23mph), but this was still easily manageable.    The paceline was tight and everyone was riding well.  I took a pull, and though it was tough, I fell back into the group just fine.  Again, I’m the best at cycling ever.

Then, instantly, BAM a surge.  OH SHIT.  My speedo read 28mph and I was falling off the back quickly.  I was riding harder than I ever thought possible in an attempt to stay with the group.  I tried to hold last wheel but at 31mph (on the flats) I got dropped.

Fortunately I had one other guy with me who knew the route, and we continued on to the planned rest stop.

At the rest stop, I reminded the other riders that I was simply going easy on them, and informed them that they would have difficulty keeping up with me once we got going.  They laughed.  No doubt I had intimidated them with my big talk.

Well unfortunately my big talk was not backed up by any actual substance.  I got dropped again shortly after the rest stop.  This time they were averaging about 28mph up and down some little rollers.  No chance to get back on.

Me and the other guy from before decided to set a medium tempo back to Gainesville, which by this time was like 20 miles away (DANGIT).  He and I got to chatting.  Evidently a bunch of the guys who were surging are very strong riders (Cat 1, the fastest amateur category), and that today’s ride was especially hard, so I didn’t feel too bad for getting dropped.  I did feel bad that, on two occasions, they waited for us at a turn for a few minutes.

Group riding is something that is relatively new to me.  Mostly I was just happy that I was able to stay safe and not screw up anyone else’s ride.  I also learned a few things about my cycling ability:

1. My ability to put out a “steady-state” power is good.  Riding at a constant pace up to about 23-24mph or so, I’m just fine.  I’m small, relatively aero in a road position, and can put out a decent amount of power for my size in a tempo setting.
2. I have ZERO ability to put out huge power over a short period of time.  NONE.  I simply couldn’t respond to the surges.  Whether I needed to bust a nut for 30 seconds or 2 minutes, I just couldn’t do it.  I thank my triathlon training for this.  I rarely train for the sort of riding that’s required in a group situation.
3. My group riding skills are just fine.  I was a bit worried about this, having not done a lot of group riding before.  I found that if I just stayed alert, on the wheel in front of me, remained predictable and called out road obstacles, other riders didn’t have any issues.

I’m definitely gonna ride with these guys in the future.  Perhaps I’ll ride with the slower group, which I’m told remains at that 20-22mph pace for the majority of the ride.  Then again, maybe I’ll catch the faster group on an off day and I’ll have a chance to stay on.

Regardless, I definitely have a new training goal–get good enough at road riding so I can keep up with the faster group!

Some thoughts now that I’m settling in Gainesville.

It’s been two full days since Lana and I moved into our apartment in Gainesville.  We’ve actually been in Gainesville for four days, but due to complications with the landlord and previous tenant, we had to kill time while the previous tenant vacated and the landlord cleaned up his mess.  Fortunately, we’re now moved in and mostly unpacked.

Our apartment is pretty nice.  It’s in a neighborhood full of other similar apartment complexes.  It’s a 2 bdrm/2 bath first floor unit, very spacious, slightly old and has ceramic tile flooring everywhere except the bedrooms which are carpeted.  The carpeting in the bedroom sucks, we’re going to try and get the landlord to replace them (ideally with more tile).

Our AC works well.  Our apartment doesn’t retain the cool air as well as our old apartment.  This may be due to its large size and the slightly crappy windows in here.

We bought a second bed for the second bedroom.  That way, you (yes, you) can come visit and you’ll have a place to sleep!

We have to drive over 9 speed bumps to get to our apartment.  That’s a giant sack of crap.  So we park in a lot that is slightly farther away from our apartment, walk the remaining distance, and only drive over two speed bumps.  (WTF you ask?  The apartment complex is laid out in a J shape, and our apartment is at the –>J end.  We park in the middle (J<–) and cut across on foot).

Our apartment turns out to be strategically located.  Most importantly, it’s close to the Physics building (an easy bike ride of 1.8 miles for Lana).  It also happens that it’s super easy (and safe) to get out of town on a bike from our apartment!  The former was a major factor in choosing this place, the latter was a nice surprise.

It’s hot here.  Temps in the upper 90s, high humidity, heat indexes well over 110.  We’re already getting into the habit of doing our outside stuff before 10am.

It rains a lot here.  It’s rained every day we’ve been here so far, but rarely for longer than 30 minutes at a time.  It’s really off-and-on.  Weird.

Gainesville is a huge, sprawling town.  Driving across town takes forever, both in terms of time and miles.  I didn’t realize Gainesville was so big!

Buildings in Gainesville generally look ghetto, but that’s probably because (a) it rains a lot here and (b) buildings don’t need to be as weather-proof as they do in, say, suburban Chicago.

Streets in Gainesville are really nicely laid out.  Gainesville is split into four quadrants (NW, SW, SE, NE).  With a few exceptions for major roads, streets are numbered outward from the “origin,” with E-W streets having the suffix of either Avenue, Place, Road or Lane (just remember APRiL) and N-S streets using all other suffixes (Street, Blvd, etc).  The origin is Main Street (N-S) and University Avenue (E-W).

So, for example, I don’t need a map to tell you where “802 NW 13th St” is–I just travel to 13 blocks west (to get me to NW 13th st) of Main Street and 8 blocks north (to get me to the 800 block of NW 13th st) of University Ave!  I visited 8 different places this afternoon in my car, and navigated successfully to all of them without a map or GPS.  Why can’t other cities do this???

Cycling in Gainesville seems to be generally good!  The major roads in town have intelligently-designed bike paths.  The roads out of town are safe and well-paved, with minimal traffic on the county roads.  The only negatives seem to be the heat and the lack of hills.  I rode 56 miles this morning and averaged a full 3mph faster than I would have over the same distance of typical Bloomington terrain!  I was ready to quit at the end, though–it was just too hot.  I imagine that during the wintertime Gainesville will be a great place to ride.

My apartment complex has a pool that I could, in theory, swim laps in.  It’s about 25 yards long, with no lane lines but very little use.  I will see if this works, as this could be a nice way to save on a gym membership!

Pointy Helmet stuff is going well.  I’m going to concentrate on getting the stuff ready for the free triathlon clinics I’m doing starting in September.  I’m also going to flyer the campus very soon, and network with people on group rides and Masters swims.  Hopefully I can spread the word about my coaching service!

I’m also applying for some part-time jobs just to have some additional income though.  Gotta hedge my bets on this one.