ONLY 38!!!

New prognostication for partially cloudy and high of THIRTY TWO (heat index 38C)! The race is ON baby!!

oooh, I'm getting antsy and scared

i keep watching the Veracruz weather and they seem to be running 5-10 degrees (Celcius) higher than we are (YIKES) except my thermometers are running about 5 degrees higher than WUnderground so who really knows. Well, I do know one thing - I'm pretty scared about the heat. I tried a last 3-hour ride on Thursday or Friday or something and just about died. I decided to try Real Food (pancakes) for nutrition and they SUCKED and it was 34C and apparently 43C with the heat factor or whatever they call it and I came home and totally bailed on the run. So today I had a 40km ride planned and very spontaneously decided to make it 60km and bricked a 1-hour run onto that. Except, I didn't actually PLAN any of this and it was 33C 65% (no clue on the heat index but Jamie's thermometer on his cycling computer (in Luddite) said 109-111 F so who knows.

So I bought about 400 mL of Gatorade and took in 1.4 L of fluid but still lost 2 kg of weight so that is a 3.7 L (or kg - isn't the metric system NEAT?) net loss over 2 hours (1.7 L/hr) which is pretty much not so good as I'm pretty sure I can only absorb about 500 mL/hr. And it wasn't really all that hot today (compared to other days) BUT I was feeling pretty fresh off the bike and quickly slammed down a GU (as I still had not eaten anything yet) and headed out for a run using an old bottle of something I found in the fridge. Really, very much a very bad idea with absolutely no planning. You know where this is headed, right? About 30 min into the run I started bonking. Headed home, got a can of coco water and another GU and headed back out. I stopped at about 1 hour 4 min (and about 9+km) and walked it in. Jumped immediately into the sea and cooled off but was still really dehydrated and even after 1200 mL of Electrolit, 500 mL of soy milk, much more water, coffee, etc., I've only peed once all day long. Still slamming the liquids even now at 9pm.

BUT, now I have a nutrition plan. I will be doing Cytomax and Electrolit on the bike with GU and Electrolit and GU on the run. And I will not fall to temptation of running off the bike (like I did today) at a good clip, but instead Gallowalk. That was another thing I wanted to figure out today - feeling good off the bike I hit the run at a good clip but after 30 min I was toast and started Gallowalking, so I now know I really need to Gallowalk from the start. I'm still not confident about the HIM but I do know I'll finish. I had plans to actually race (I was hoping to take my age group) but now I'm not sure. I think I'll just have to see.

We'll leave Thursday early and head for Frontera Tabasco and then hope to be staying in Veracruz Friday night. Package pickup is Saturday along with swim practice along the route. I have the hotel figured out and we're within walking distance to Costco and a block from the beach. If absolutely nothing else it will be a nice trip but I'm skeered enough that I kinda just want it to be over already. I'm really worried about their 46C heat index temps. I had hopes for a swim under 40 min (I've been hitting around 9 min for 1000 m in the pool), a bike around 3 hours (under would be perfect and about what I do here) and run of 2.5 hours or so. Not so confident about the run - it will be during the hottest part of the day. The only HIM I've done was likely 25 years or more in the past (can't honestly remember WHEN I did that HIM but it was likely 1984 or so) and all I can remember is that my time doubled would have been around a 14-hour IM so I did at least a 7-hour HIM. I'd really like to beat my 25-year-old self. :)

counting down

So I made another big leap and paid for Fuga (get bank account info from website, go down to bank, deposit entry fee in bank account of hopefully the right entity, come home and email pics of receipt and email personal info, get number, 498, and assume I'm IN!). I'd missed the first deadline for the $1350 price but I wasn't that worried as I was more concerned I'd be paying for an event I couldn't finish. So at the last minute I paid for entrance to Fuga ($1500) and now I'm committed. Or should be. :) I am pretty sure I'm going to have to Gallorun the run. I honestly have NO idea how long the swim is (I could check the site, I suppose) but I'm not worried about it. It should be pretty exciting - we're taken by lancha (or panga or something) to Isla de los Sacrificios...HEY, the swim is only 1900 meters? WOW! I thought it was much further having no idea how far 1.2 miles is...hmmm...maybe that means Ironman is less than 5km swim? That would be SWEET (talk about the ignorant, but I like it that way). Anyway, somehow we're taken to Isla and from there we swim to Veracruz and I've been wondering what to wear. Cause I REALLY want bibs for the ride (90km) and my running shorts for the run (21km). So 4 weeks out and I still dunno.

Um, make that THREE WEEKS out. YIKES! I ran 1:30 today, well, Galloran, just to get mentally prepared for the distance (I'm guessing it will take me 2:15 or more) since I've not yet run (or Gallorun) that far before. Today's run was Amazingly Great and I was so stoned afterwards it wasn't funny. Man, I hope my calves stay healthy.

I finally touched base with the PT and am hoping to get an appointment next week. I really do need to do that. I've been getting more swimming in, even with the hated cudda, and finally figured out to cut each lap short (to just 100m each lap) and that way I haven't seen the cudda lately. Course, I'm not really sure I'm actually getting in 100 m (it could be more or less) but so far it is working to get me in the water. For IM I'm going to need to do 8K/week at a minimum and if the cudda will just stay out by the reef this should help immensely. Pike is still out of the water due to the cudda and the water has been wicked rough. I'm almost hoping for rough seas at the HIM as that is all I'm used to. I'm not sure I'd know what to do with flat water.

I'm in the homestretch now and week before last was my longest in cycling. Next two weeks max out at 4 hours each week (not sure I'll know what to do with all that extra energy) and then around the 2nd or so we'll head out to Veracruz. I've been trying to find an economical hotel with a pool that takes doggies but so far only without a pool. We'll be there Thur or Fri, Sat and Sun nights and I know the kids will need swimming/cooling off or they'll just want to be inside. So we'll have to see. I'm also really glad we have the vehicle we do, which is not at all Cartel-attractive, so the drive should be relatively easy. Oh, I do need to renew my FM3 before we leave and hope to do that next week so it will be ready for state border crossing. You just never know who will want to see your paperwork.

trying new things

So I've been focusing on riding the drops lately. We had a visit from my sisters and my BIL brought a bike mag (actually a SLEW of them! :)) for my husband and I saw pics of pros (well, ads and such) and they were riding the drops. DOH! What a concept! So I've started riding them more and more and getting more comfortable with them. I suspect that they are a savings in the wind but I find I can actually go faster riding the brake hoods (I think I use more of my quad). But I still think it is a good thing and I'm keeping at it.

I had a nice run of swimming until we got tropical storm-like seas and I'm hoping to salvage this week's planned 7000 m with a 4000m hit today. I took the kids to a cenote yesterday and hoped I could do something of a workout there but it is the end of Semana Santa and the cenote was PACKED. So today is my last hope for getting in the water this week. I made a radical change to my stroke from the "S" under the body we learned decades ago in AAU to high elbow something and I can feel a distinct power difference. Unfortunately my swim partner (Pike) is still land-bound due to the cudda that scarred him (not physically) and I'm hoping he'll be back in the water soon. He has a birthday coming up and was certain he'd be getting a Quinceañero this year. I had to be the breaker of bad news to let him know only girls got Quinceañeros. Poor boy.

I've been dodging a GI virus that has had us all down for multiple days at a time but still running sporadically enough to know the bike calf muscle thing is now fixed. For now. I do need to find that PT though and am Going To Call Her on Monday or die trying. It has been heating up; the humidity is finally back, but I'm still able to go out in the heat of the day and workout so that's good news.

I had 7 hours of biking on the schedule this week but was sick for 3 days of it so I did 2 monster days. I'm getting more used to the 90km ride (3 hours) and that went rather well. I was tired at the 70km point but my legs felt really pretty good throughout. Then the day before yesterday I did a 120km ride and rather than heading out the Coba road (from Tulum) to get in the distance, did 2 loops of our medium ride. I really thought the 2nd loop was suck but my water stop was David's store and I realized I could leave Cytomax powder (and maybe Electrolit) there if I do this again AND the 2nd loop was not the mental drain and mess I thought it would be. So that was excellent news. I also managed to average 4:10 for both loops riding time (with an additional 8 min of water purchase and refills) and I found I really needed 4 liters for the ride. I'm also looking into electrolyte replacement as the Cytomax was useless there (at 1 scoop/750mL water). I was quite dehydrated and cramping afterwards. I bricked a 20 min run to the end of the ride but I was in such pain from the neuroma flare I didn't think I could run. Strangely I was more able to run than NOT to - the pain went away running. Dr. Google says I need to move my cleats back and so that's next on the list. So I made some findings with nutrition, found 2 loops aren't completely evil (IM Coz has 3-60km loops so this is perfect for me) and my legs held quite strong for the ride. They were heavy the day after and I'm not surprised as I did bonk on the run (but expected it, I didn't want to deplete my GU so I rode the last hour + run without). All in all a very good experience.

Lastly, the girls have finally decided they're okay with missing riding (horse) lessons so I can do the HIM in a month (ACK!) so that's back on the front burner. I still need to get a USB Telcel stick so I have internet on the road (and can work while we're traveling to Veracruz) but I am almost certain the HIM is back on the calendar. Now I just need to convince myself I can run the 21km at the end. I'm thinking of Gallorunning as I am only at 3 hours/week running with all the sickness and injury. Not sure what to do there. I experimented with a Gallorun my last long (hour) run and it didn't totally suck. I ended up with 8 min run 45 sec walk and that seemed okay. So that's what I'll be working on this month.

April totals:
Swim 14264 m
Bike 857 km, 29.25 hours
Run 10 hours.

Pics are of me on the 120km ride at the XpuHa Maya ruins (background) and the kids at the cenote.