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