July 22nd - July 28th 2007

Sunday 7/22
Day off

Monday 7/23
Lunch run, 43:10:38, 10'24", 154, 4.149

OK, it's official, signed up for IM France, Nice, June 22nd 2008. I am officially in training again. Got 11 months to get ready, it better be a good one.

Tuesday 7/24
Swim, about 40 minutes in pool, practicing TI drills
BW, 1:18:13, 18.3 mph, 23.96, HR 137
BH, 1:21:00, 17.5, 23.72, 142, windy

Wednesday 7/25
BW, 1:15:14, 19.0, 23.84, 147
BH, 1:29:54, 16.2, 24.35, 130, windy, got lost in Broomfield yet one more time

Thursday 7/26
Off

Friday 7/27
Off

Saturday 7/28
Iron ride - ventured into the mountains for the first time in my life (well, on the bike). Quite interesting. Did about 3 times the vertical elevation of what I can expect in Nice. Total climb of 9107 feet (2776 meters). Looking at the Nice profile, I estimate it at about 800 meters, perhaps it's more, I need to determine it exactly. Very demanding ride, learning to handle the bike at high downhill speeds, did it on 3 Clif bars and about 80+ ounces of water. Didn't take any gels, didn't take any sports drink either, just water. At about mile 95 I took a can of Red Bull, just for grins and giggles. I probably didn't need it and it didn't sit well with me after the ride. Skipp it next time.

Post ride: 2 table spoons (Ts) of hemp oil, 1 Ts coconut oil, 1 Ts hemp protein, 1 Ts hemp nuts, 1 banana, cup of blueberries, cup of kefir, 8 oz glass of Clif mango recovery. About two hours later I had 2 bowls of my menudo (pure protein with a load of collagen). Later that night I did have a glass of wine and some chocolate. Weight has been dropping, I am at about 185 now, the goal is to make it to 170 - 175 as soon as I can. I think that's my ideal race weight.

Body feels pretty good - I felt better after these hills then when I got off the bike in Brazil, I felt worse than in NZ. I got rained on quite a bit in the mountains, the temperatures were probably in the 60s or so. Overall quite demanding but nice. If I do this once in a while, I'll probably stick with my 53/39 11/25 gearing, although there was a moment when I reached for another gear and it just wasn't there anymore. White Lightning wax based chain lube washes off in heavy rain. That sucked, stopped at bikeshop in Lyons, nice guy, he let me use his lube. Got to buy that stuff (some kind of oil), the bike ran so well with it.

Ride stats:
7:01:47, 15.9 mph, 112.4 miles, HR 146 average

July 15th - July 21st 2007

Sunday 7/15
Legs still hurt, time off

Monday 7/16
Off, took the big bike

Tuesday 7/17
BW, 1:12:57, 19.5, 23.79, 157 - nice ride
BH, 1:21:41, 17.4, 23.69, 150 - battled my friend wind, not too bad

Wednesday 7/18
Day off

Thursday 7/19
Run with Dan, no HR
1:06:11, 10'29", 6.306, no HR

Friday 7/20
Day off, feel pretty good after yesterday's run. Had some bananas. Need to start running again, I have been slacking off in that department

Saturday 7/21
Went for my 56 mile bike loop. Very hot, 3 hours 22 minutes riding time, 3 20 oz bottles. Stopped at the bike shop for 1/2 hour or so.

I finally figured out the rear derailleur problem Thursday night. The Campy bar end shifter can be taken apart and can be put together 4 different ways. One of them is correct. That was the problem. The bike finally runs the way it was meant to run and it is so much pleasure to ride it. It's very quiet now and seems to be more responsive. Yey.


2008 IM Austria sold out in 19 hours. Bummer, I was thinking of signing up for it, I guess not. My friend Carl did it this year and enjoyed it. So, I got to start thinking seriously, what's next? Lanzarote is still open but do I really want to abuse myself that much? I could also do Western Australia in December, that would be 3 for 3 in Southern hemisphere and a nice break from the winter. Hmmm.

July 8th - July 14th 2007

Sunday 7/8
Still slacking off

Monday 7/9
BW, 1:11:55, 19.8, 23.79, 161
BH, 1:17:07, 18.3, 23.53, 166

Splendid day. I think this was the second fastest bike to work ever. Hmmm, rest pays off. Actually, this is probably the fastest round trip I have ever done. Not too bad.

Tuesday 7/10

Wednesday 7/11
BW, 1:19:29, 17.9, 23.80, 146
BH, 1:17:59, 18.2, 23.72, 143

Thursday 7/12
Time off

Friday 7/13
Went running with the boys, no HR, no GPS, we did about 4 miles in something like 45 minutes. Ran on my toes.

Saturday 7/14
My legs hurt like hell from yesterday's toe run. Need more bananas and hottub. And probably more running.

July 1st - July 7th 2007

Took the whole week off, no training whatsoever. It felt good to be a fat slob. Well, for a while, anyway, got a bit anxious towards the end.