Man am I full after that long ride...

I gained two lbs of water from last night. There must have been lots of salt in the 3894 calories I ate. I justified eating so much as part of my Carbo-loading for today's long ride and brick run. Plus, it was my one day a week I don't care about calorie counts.

In a sick twisted way, I kinda look forward to these long bike trainer sessions. I just want to prove to myself that I can do them. I try to assume that my Saturday long bike ride is no different than another Fathers Saturday, except he uses the time to work around the house. I do over 100 miles of biking and he builds a tool shed or something else that he can be proud of for years to come.

Today's ride was mentally tough. My workout strategy was gear down in order to keep my cadence higher at 93 rpm's. I didn't want to push a harder gear and jeopardise the healing of my hamstring. Although I must say, keeping it at 93 rpm's was not as easy as I thought it would be. I got off the bike every hour and had some water and food. Most of the breaks were under 10 minutes, except my lunch break, which was 20 minutes.

I ate a lot of food during the ride. Just to give you an idea, including breakfast, I had the following: Bagel, butter, 2 rye toast, chicken noodle soup, yogurt, Protein Smoothie, banana, Power Bar, Turkey Sandwich with cheddar cheese, bowl of raisin bran, 1.5 cups of water, and a whey protein drink. It was a total of 2165 calories. Needless to say, I didn't bonk due to lack of food. Heck, I may have even gained weight on today's ride.

It took everything I had not to cut the ride short. My butt was killing me. Also, my thighs seemed to be rubbing on the wide nose of the seat. I stopped a couple of times to adjust the seat height and the seat angle. I can't say enough how mentally tough and uncomfortable today's ride was. I could hardly wait to get off that bike and do my brick run.

I had all the clothes laid out. Winter brick workouts require a much longer transition that Summer brick workouts. Summer transitions are 4 minutes or less. Today's transition was just over 8 minutes. The reason it's longer is that I need to strip down completely and towel myself dry. Then I have to put on all my Winter running gear and that takes time.

As sick as this sounds, I love brick workouts. I used to hate them. They used to hurt. I remember my first few years of triathlons and the transitions always hurt. Your legs feel like spaghetti and many people start running like a duck off the bike. It's dis-comfortable. My daughter did one triathlon and hated that transition feeling so much, she won't do another. Me on the other hand, I love that feeling. My body responds well to pain.

I actually run relatively fast off the bike. I think it's from the higher cadence on the bike that carries over to the run. For the first kilometer of today's run, I was at a 4:50 pace and under a 140 bpm heart rate. After 5 hours on the bike with a sore butt, it was nice to run and give my butt a break. As weird as it sounds, during the Ironman, near the end of the bike, I look forward to the marathon so I can get off my bike seat.

I decided not to listen to any podcasts on today's run. It was all music and it was an awesome run!!! It was a nice crisp -14 C and I was able to get back home just before Sundown. At one point "The Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy" started playing. I remembered listening to that song 20 years ago during my training.

It brought me back to that moment in time and I was thinking that 20 years ago I would never have predicted this moment. That I'd be in Ironman shape and living in a beautiful neighbourhood in Ontario. Or that they would have this devise called an iPod and I wouldn't be listening to my Sony Walkman Cassette Player. Truth be told, I still refer to my iPod as a Walkman. When I can't find it, I'll go around the house asking "has anyone seen my Walkman" and the kids give me that German Sheppard look, "what's a Walkman?".

My legs felt good after the run. The only pain I have is from chaffing in the groin area from the bike seat. I put some glide on it, which should help. If my body doesn't adjust to the seat in the next couple of rides, I'm going to take it back and try a position adjustment or another seat. Tonight it's R & R. Alice and I are going to go out for a casual dinner with John and Heather Barclay. Should be fun and cheaper since I'm on the wagon. Oh, one other highlight, I surpassed 1100 km on my trainer so far this year.

Long Bike Ride - 5:15:13 / 168.40 km / 32.05 kph / 136 avg hr

Brick Run - 30:30 / 6.04 km / 5.02 pace / 142 avg hr

185.8 lbs 22.4 BMI