Before and After

Gawds it has been forever and so much has happened and I can't even hope to catch up. Getting nutrition nailed down - will do a 2-hr run after ride tomorrow to see if I want to contemplate NOT doing run/walk (my head keeps telling me to go for it - i.e. no walk - so I need to show it how wrong it is) and I think I will do another 6-hour ride next weekend too. Most plans start the taper (3 weeks) after this week but I would like another long ride under my belt (in my head - I really have become to dread them but since I learn something new each and every ride I know they are good for me). So now the 90km Tulum ride is no longer that big of a deal but every time I go for a short (40km) ride I worry about nutrition (so NOT necessary).

I've been chasing cramping issues and it happens mostly at night or in the water. I had one DISASTEROUS swim around the hurricane where my hands were so frozen that they stayed numb for hours afterwards. I was dreading the next swim So MUCH that I stayed away from the pool for almost a week (well, there were other pressing reasons to miss the pool also like a HURRICANE) and day before yesterday had a good swim (except for the damn cramping). I have GOT to get my mule list together as I think the answer just might be electrolytes. We'll see tomorrow.

We're going to help a profession triathlete come to Cozumel - we'll put him (and his fiance) up here Thursday night and then we'll all head over to the island on Friday. Yikes! The event is creeping up on me. I'm starting to envision parts of it (visualization used to be big when I was a swimmer) but I still have so little hope. I figure 1:30 for the swim (hoping for 1:15 but I've been out of the water so long it isn't funny), 7-7.5 hours for the bike and the "run" is going to be a HUGE question mark. Doubling my HIM run I should be able to do 5 hours but I highly doubt that. HOWEVER, my runs off the bike are getting faster. Weather is changing and midday runs/bikes are not even a second thought. It is still nice (warm) but no longer too hot to go out.

There was a thread at BT about weight loss and since I've lost weight over such a long period of time that I've never really had the opportunity to see the change. I've been around 70 all week and today hit 69.8. I still have some to go but nothing like before. The pictures really kinda shocked me - I had no idea my back end had lost so much. Kinda scary to put the photographic evidence out there...