Week one in the record books...

I made it. I finished my first week of training for Ironman St. George.It wasn't easy, the first four days were the toughest. Especially day one.

Looking back, Monday feels like it was a lifetime ago. That first ride on Monday felt like I'd been starting back after months off, not two weeks.

Last night, a couple hours after my ride, my legs felt perfect. No soreness, no tiredness, no nothing. Overall, I was pleased with this weeks training, all things considered. I finally think I got rid of the "China bug".

This morning, I woke up not feeling up to par. I'm assuming it is still from the side effects of Friday night's treatments. I was disheartened that I didn't feel better. My standing heart rate was high, around 65 - 70 bpm, it should be in the 50's. To fight any residual dehydration I tried to drink as much water as I could before I started my long run.

The run was a success. I didn't have to stop once and was able to keep my heart rate in the zone without having to walk. It was also my first long run since China and I was pleasantly surprised I felt so strong . Near the end, I did feel my joints were getting a little sore, but that's to be expected.

I wore two heart rate monitors today, my Polar and my Garmin. The Garmin seems to be erratic and there's nothing more frustrating than improper readings. As luck would have it, the Garmin was perfect, up until the last 20 minutes.

The minute the Garmin started screwing up, I looked at the Polar and it was fine, then yelled at the Garmin, "f-you, you piece of s#@t, haha, I got the polar, you can't f-me up this time". I said that every time it screwed up. The first time I said it, the Garmin seemed to "jump back to normal right away, like it heard me".

Near the end of the run I was thirsty and getting chaffed on the inside of my arms. I wore the wrong type of shirt, a home-made muscle shirt. I ended up taking it off and finishing the last 40 minutes of the run "Tarzan" style.

I didn't take any water with me and by the 2 hour 10 mark, I needed some. I kept telling myself, "that is is good training, I'm making the conditions adverse". Maybe that's the secret to good racing, "train with adversity".

Perhaps I'm onto something that will eventually become a training craze. The key to my system is to eat poorly, stay up late, over-indulge in alcohol, train dehydrated, train with head aches, don't drink water during your training, smoke cigars, stay up till the wee hours of the morning, all while maintaining a high-mileage training program. You also get extra points for scheduling your training to take advantage of severe weather conditions, like rain, wind and mid-day heat.

And this is the key, you don't want to miss it..... Do it over and over again, day after day. Then a week or so before the race, begin your taper. Start treating your body like a temple. Feed it right, rest it right and generally take care of it. My assertion is that by race day, you'll feel like a million dollars and no race will seem anywhere near as tough as the training you endured. The race will probably feel like your body's on holidays.

It sure feels so good to finish my training and my blog post by 4 pm. I'm now officially caught up and can take it easy for the rest of the night. I'm also assuming it's Easter because all I see on TV is "The Ten Commandments" with Charleton Heston, oh, and I noticed the Easter bunny came last night.

Now it's time to relax. That run took a lot out of me. I dropped about 7 lbs of water and was beyond thirsty. I felt physically sick and a little sore when I got home. Post-run water and food helped only slightly. I'm hoping a little sofa time and the Easter roast Alice is making will help. The caveman in me is looking forward to chowing-down on that red meat.

Beer ya later.

Long Run - 2:36:14 / 30.39 km / 5:07 pace / 140 avg hr

178.2 lbs / 21.3% BMI

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