I Would Like To Have One

Another week of training has wrapped up, but not before we saw a huge display of bear poop on our trail run yesterday. My friend, Joie, must be a poop connoisseur because she could recognize the types of berries in the poop and conclude that, indeed, it was a bear who laid this huge dump. She also knew ‘twas not fresh.

I am glad it was not fresh because it would suck to be attacked by a bear and not be able to do my Ironman. I guess I should say it would suck to be attacked by a bear and not be able to raise my children before I said anything about Ironman, but what can I say? (Btw, I always get it mixed up – i.e., what you are supposed to do when approached by a bear vs. a mountain lion. I know with one of them you are supposed to look really big like you are a monster and one of them you are supposed to play dead).

The run was long (13.7 miles), hot and lovely. I don’t usually run with a Camelback (just camel toe), but there is not exactly a 7-11 on this remote trail so I suck on this bag instead (mmmm…Slurpees).

In other news of the week – I finally got fitted for a triathlon bike. Tri bikes aren’t like other bikes. Just to make it confusing, every bike will you fit you differently, so it’s not like you can say you’re 5’ 5” and pick a bike. The fit is hugely important.

You can see below in the first picture I’m set up like my road bike (the one against the wall). The second picture I am set up how I will be on a tri bike. Seat is higher and closer to aero bars. Crank is smaller. Aero bars are lower. And, a bunch of other crap I can’t remember. So, at least now I know based on my fitting, which bikes and sizes will work for me. The pain in the ass thing now is just finding a bike I can steal afford. My back has been killing me after I get off the bike and I am blaming it on my current poor fitting.

You’ve been waiting for it. Here’s how this week wrapped up with training:

I’m not sure what the “other” category is. Probably time in the bathroom reading People Magazine.

Bike – 97  miles
Run – 32.7 miles
Swim – 4.4 miles (~7,800 yards)

Totals: 134.1 miles. 15 hours, 5 minutes.

I think I’m holding up pretty damn well with the training except for Saturday. That day I had to bike 2.5 hours, run 20 minutes and swim for 75 minutes. I did all of those workouts consecutively and I thought I fueled pretty well. However in the last few laps in the pool (hour #4 of the workout) I got dizzy and drunk feeling. I stopped the swim a couple of minutes early. When I walked in the house Ken took one look at me and said, “I’m no doctor, but I think you need to eat something.” I have decided for sure that the reason the swim is at the beginning of a race is because if it was last everyone would drown.

This has nothing to do with anything (except that writing about the bear in the beginning reminded me of it), but did you see this last week on CNN?

Is this a joke? If not, I would like to have one.

What kind of hydration pack, belt, bottle do you use while you run? On short runs when it’s really hot I carry a handheld. For runs longer than 1.5 hours I use a Nathan fuel belt with 2-10 oz bottles and stop for water. I use the Camelback sometimes on long, hot trail runs.

Have you ever seriously bonked in a race or workout? I don’t know if I’ve ever had a true bonk where I just can’t keep going. But, I’ve for sure had times when I felt depleted and sick.

SUAR