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Monday, July 20, 2009

MEGA POST!!!

Wow, I know it's been a long time since my last post and I offer you my apologies for fading off the blog radar a bit. Unfortunately blogging is low enough on my totem pole of priorities that when time is scarce, very little trickles down that far. But I will make up for it with this MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!!

Yep, it's been crazy here lately. Work has been really intense getting my projects ready for 4th quarter, our most busy time of year. The projects I've been working on are going to have a significant impact on the company's bottom line this year so I am dotting my i's and crossing my t's to make sure everything is in order. Being the único proveedor for mi familia, I have make sure that I capitalize on the opportunities presented me to bring home more tocino entreverado (yes, that was a strange tipping of the hat to Contador for his awesomeness yesterday). And since I have a very weak stomach for the ways of the corporate world, I rely on tangible results to further the old careerski.

But even moreso than work, THE TRAINING has been grinding me down to a limp blob of bone, muscle, soft tissue and brain matter bubbling on the hot Carolina asphalt like the urushiol on Toby's arm. Last week finished off a big 4 week block of training that, coupled with work and family, brought me to the edge of my capacity to keep moving forward. At the beginning of last week I could feel the grump trying to come out. Once I got over that, every workout was a internal argument with the whining little wimp that kept trying to talk me into cutting my workouts short, going easier than prescribed, or skipping sessions all together. But the better side of me held the course and finished strong. At end I had some questions for Jonathan that I thought I would share ...

Q: As you know I don't ride with power and haven't used heart rate monitoring in a long time. As a matter of fact, my Garmin is dead and I haven't wanted to spend the money to ship it off for a new battery, so I'm very low tech at the moment. Without numbers of any kind, everything has been totally on perceived exertion and time. I'm not too worried about just going on rpe for the half, but I'm a little nervous about relying solely on this for the ironman distance. Do you have any thoughts on that?

A: No hr no powermeter not problem! I will give you some hard set on the bike with hard time trial in the last hour of a 5h ride...and the goal is to kick ass at those... If you dont kick ass, you rode too hard in the first 4h... you will learn quick... Ironman is all about holding back on the swim and first 4h of the bike and get into it at the 5-6h mark.... so i will train you to be scare of riding hard! to be smart and hold back.... trainign will do this for you....

"I will train you the be scared of riding hard" hmmmm ... sounds, well, scary!! What's interesting is that, although I used a HR monitor last year for the ironman, this is the same strategy I employed. I capped my HR at 148 for the first 90 miles, the upped it to 151-152 for the last 22 miles. Doing that was enough to drop the pack a 4 guys that rode with me for the first 90 and put several minutes into them by T2. Of course with the IT band injury they made it up really quickly on the run ... but it was fun while it lasted!

Q: Also, I'm comfortable with the CHO strategy on the bike, but what about nutrition on the run since I will just have what's on the course (Hammer Heed, water, coke, gel etc.)? What do you use on the run? Do you get enough calories in on the bike to just hydrate on the run?

A: Nutrition: simple, you need calories but you dont know how your body will fell in the marathon. You might get sick of gels...or gatorade (hammer) or anything else so you will have to take what your body wants at that time... And we will make simple guide line... it s all calorie...you just need to get some.. Coke for sure... on of the best thing at ironman...1 or 2 cup at each aid station If you need more, you take a gel with water.... every 30-45min.... we can work simple strategy like this but in your case... i think coke and gels every 30-45min with water only will be the way.... if you like hammer..you can drink it but coke is more dense in calorie and low volume so you dont get bloated out of it...

Last year I used gel and water mostly on the run and it worked fairly well. This year I will be running at a higher intensity so we will see.

Q: Also curious about where you think I am in terms of my goals, if you are satisfied with our progress, and what's ahead in the training and build up the rest of the year.

A: for goals and your developpement. I cant ask much more. You add a bit of a injury and deal VERY well with it. You PR at most races in times or placing... you are improving and i cant ask for more. I m happy to see you progress and if you enjoy the process, that is the most important. For the ironman, it s going to be a great challenge and something new... the build up will be about 6-7 big week of training with a 3 weeks taper. The taper isnt a holiday... it s still some good work but you will be rested and fresh on race day. so..that is why we arent doing the build up right now.... if we do it too long...you will burn out and i dont want that. You are getting fitter right now with some solid aerobic work and i could get you to do a ironman almost now with a few more rides and long runs.... but we will build properlky...keep it not too long and have a go at it. We will evalute after that we goal you want to set. The ironman will show you were you are at in longer distance but the training will give us a good idea of your final time...you will know before the race ... After the race...we should go into a transition phase... unstructure...more rest...for 3 week...we can talk about that later but that is what i look like. How are you feeling right now? tired? ready for a bit of rest!!!

A: LOL ... you guess it, ready for rest.

So apparently we are not even in the build-up yet. On the flipside, I'm pretty close to being race-ready now. I can't wait to see how it feels to be truly fit to race this year.

On the home front things are well. Yesterday was National Ice Cream day (thanks President Reagan!!) so we celebrated by making our own waffle cones, which we filled with ice cream, and enjoyed with some neighbors and friends.

My little brother was recently married!!! We made the trip back home to Savannah Gee A to celebrate this most momentous occasion. I haven't seen the wedding photos yet, but I'll be sure and post them as soon as I can so y'all can check out my tux. In the meantime take a look at their engagement re-enactment photos - beware, it gets a little steamy at the end ;-) He and Allison make a great couple and have an awesome story as they have been dating on and off since high school!

Jennifer and kids are doing great and enjoying the summer. It took Caleb a few weeks to decompress from 9 months in school, but he's now back to himself. We really wonder if home school isn't the best approach!

They are growing so fast! Soon I will have two fashion chicks and a MMA bada$$ on my hands ..

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2 comments:

Carolina John said...

nice. glad your kids are enjoying the summer. mine are loving it too.

sounds like you are swamped, i know i've got code coming out of my ears right now and i'm stretching the miles out to get ready for the b2b. good luck!

cmmurns said...

I must admit, there is a story as to how I cam across your blog...through your brother's wedding pictures, which is yet another story!
If you could send me your email address I would love to tell you about it! Once you get over the shock of realizing that this is Carey McCaslin :)
My email is cmmurns@comcast.net...would love to hear from you soon!