Day One

Well, day one is just about in the books.  Other than a complete lack of sleep, it was pretty uneventful.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was up at 3am. I wound up doing my planned 45 minute run around 6:30am.  Lots of people out on Alii Drive.  The run went okay.  I felt decent, all things considered.  I just did an out and back. On my way back I rolled up on a guy running in full Scott gear.  Not sure if he was a pro or not, but he wasn't happy w/me passing him.  He hung on my shoulder after my pass....which was towards the end of my run.  I did one up tempo effort of about 60 seconds and that was all she wrote.  I was completely dead after that.  I'll attribute that to my lack of sleep....hopefully:)  All in all, around 7:00-7:10 pace for approx. 7 miles.  Jenn and I headed down to "Dig Me" beach so I could get in a quick swim.  A swim wasn't on my plan, but I wanted to jump in for a very, very short swim, just to loosen up...not to mention, it's awesome to swim in the harbor (a virtual aquarium).  On our way down we got passed by Heather Fuhr and Chris Legh doing a cooldown run.  We also saw a bunch of pros down by the swim venue.  I also ran into Psycho team member, Roger Little.  We always seem to run into him at races.  He invited us to go marlin fishing on Thursday...but I had to pass.  Thursday is a little too close to the race for me.  God forbid I get motion sickness.  He may try to go on Wednesday instead.  If he does, I'm IN!  After the quick swim, we made our way back to the condo, w/a ritual stop at Lava Java.  The place was buzzing, as usual.  Much like last year, Scott Bikes must have a deal w/Lava Java to set up a showroom in and around the place.  It's pretty damn cool.  I spent the rest of the day watching football and trying to relax.  I'm picking up Tim Tapply from the airport in an hour or so.  He and his wife are staying with us (although his wife doesn't get in until Wednesday).  We didn't get too many pictures today.  But, we did get a good one of the sun setting last night (after a few hours of rain):

I'll leave you with a shot from our lanai:

Until tomorrow.

-P

We've Arrived!

Up at 3:00am on Saturday....2 six hour flights...and we finally landed in Kona around 2pm "kona" time. All of our luggage (and bike) made it...thank you!!! We did our first round of grocery shopping...$230 bill!....ouch!....yes, it's more expensive here. And, as much as I tried not to, I was asleep just before 7pm. It's now 4am and I've been up since 3am. I'll have to try to get back on schedule tonight so I'm no waking up this early every day. Our condo is okay...nothing great...except the view. We're actually next door to our condo from last year. Know what that means? Crappy Internet! Fortunately, Jenn has a wireless card this year, so I should be able to post regularly. This post, however, is being done from the iPad...so I'm keeping it short. I'll post more later, once we really settle in ( we haven't even been into town yet). Just to make everyone jealous...I'm listening to the waves crash on the rocks in the dark outside our condo:-)

-P

This was a bright idea...

In retrospect, I should have booked a Sunday flight, and given myself one full day to get ready to fly out to Kona.  But....WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING....booking a 6am flight on Saturday morning.  I was just informed our car service to the airport arrives at 3:45am.  WTF.  Next post from the Big Island...

I want to get outta Dodge!

As I expected, this week is going to be tough.  It's always tough to get ready to go on vacation, no matter what you do.  But, my stress levels are throught the roof already.  I guess it's a good thing I'm in my taper, because I think I'd have a hard time coming home to do any serious workouts....I'm just fried.  In the midst of all my work-related issues, I also need to find time to prepare to leave.  We fly out on Saturday morning, so there's no "off" day to get ready.  I've already begun to lay my things out.  I figure I'll probably pack everything tomorrow night, then do my final adjustments on Friday.  And, as per usual, when I say "I'll pack", I really mean Jenn.  One nice thing happened today...we got bumped to first class on the first leg of our trip.  I've never flown first class, so I'm looking forward to it!  As for the rest of the week.....I'm just keeping this thought in my head......

Whew! Please get me through this next week!

Okay, one more week of work...and it's really worrying me.  Work has just been consuming me lately.  If I'm not working, I'm stressing about it.  It has really been affecting my workouts (or causing me to miss them).  Fortunately the taper started...so all the hard work is already done.  Now, I just need to get through the next week of work and hope nothing blows up at the office while I'm gone.  I do, however, need to start thinking about the race and my trip, which begins next Saturday.  I'm no where near ready to go or mentally prepared to race.  People sometimes wonder why athletes leave for IM races so early before the race....it's to get away from the normal distractions so we can concentrate on the task ahead.  Some may say, well its only a race....but I say, yes it's ONLY a race, but it's THE race I've trained for since last November!!!!
This weekend is all about the final workouts, and getting mentally and physically ready to leave.

Mystery Solved...and hello Taper!

For the past few weeks I've had a tough time getting dialed into my bike....just not feeling comfortable...and lacking power.  Now I know why!  Apparently, somehow, my seat post dropped down.  I have no idea how.  Since the bolts were tight, it never dawned on me that this could happen.  And, I didn't really want to mess with it.  I'm notorious for not feeling "good" and adjusting my position on the bike...which can make matters worse.  Anyway, on Saturday, I just had it.  So, about an hour into my ride I pulled the post up and noticed the electrical tape exposed below (which was at some point marking my position).  I estimate my post had dropped by approximately a 1/2 inch.  I felt much better immediately.  Although I still need to go back and accurately re-measure everything.  The only downside is that now that I've been riding with the wrong position, re-adjusting everything throws mechanics out of whack.  I was struggling with knees and back during the end of my ride.  I guess I have a couple of weeks to get this fully resolved!

Oh...back to the ride.  It was a good one.  I meet the QT2 contingent of Tim Tapply, Jesse Kropelnicki, and Tim and Cait Snow out in Concord and we proceeded to ride out to Wachusett Mountain.  It was a solid ride...and some fun.  Fun to the extent that it's fun to ride with different people....or anyone at all!  I've done the majority of my long rides by myself this year.  However, these guys were doing 7 hours, starting from West Roxbury....and before I knew it, I was out so far that my 5 hour ride turned into 6 hours.  But, other than my physical issues from changing bike positioning, I felt good.  But those physical issues reared their ugly head during my transition run.  I reduced my run from 40 to 30, since I rode an extra hour (I figured that was a fair tradeoff).  But, my knees were bugging me the whole time.  Oh well....like I said, time to get things right!

Yesterday was my last long run of the year.  I decided to head out to Elm Bank (park) in Wellesley to do my run.  Elm Bank has a 2.35 mile loop (mix of soft surface and pavement....with a decent little hill on it), so I can hit my car every loop for nutrition.  It also has porto-potties....if the mood should strike!  Jenn and Billie came with me and did the reverse loop walking.  It was good to see them....kept me motivated.  All in all this was my best long run of the year.  Although I ran a faster pace during my last long run for LP, we had specific goals for this run:  (1) keep the HR in Zone 1 and 2 for the run, except for the last 30 minutes where it goes to Zone 3; and (2) run 2:15 straight.  I accomplished both.  There were two oddities during this run though.  My first mile was noticeably slow....and I'm not sure why.  I don't think I ran an 8:50 first mile.  Also, about 12 miles in, after the mood struck me to use the bathroom, my HR spike for the better part of two miles.  I know my body well, and I can tell you that it didn't rise to over 200 beats per minute!  Anyway, I ended up with a 7:15 avg for 19 miles.  If you take out the first mile, the avg is 7:09.  Not bad considering I kept my HR at or below 140 for the first 14 miles.  My last 5 miles were 7:00, 6:41, 6:43, 6:47 and 7:00 (which included a 1/4 mile cooldown).

The big workouts are now DONE!  Things start to dial back from here.  Next weekend is short...only a 3 hour bike and an 80-90 minute run.

-P

Feeling "IT"!

I'm definitely feeling "IT" these days.  Last weekend completely crushed me....and I've been doing my best to get through the week from a physical and mental standpoint.  My split run on Sunday (1:15/:60) took a toll on my right knee.  I had to bail on my Tuesday run, but was able to get my Thursday run in (in the pouring rain, I might add).  Mentally, I'm just ready to get into the taper and a better mindset to race.  Right now I just want to get this friggin' thing over with.  However, I think I have another good race in me this season, if I can get in the right mindset, taper well, and get back to feeling "dialed in" on the bike.  Today is the last big ride (next week is 3 hours)....5 hours and a 40 minute transition run.  I'm really hoping to get that "feel" back on the bike today....stay tuned!