Cramps and the Weather

Saturday morning I went out for a run. That lasted about a mile and a half. Then the small maybe knot in my calf I had been feeling became a full-blown giant ball bearing ruining my ability to run at all. I stopped and stretched and walked and stretched and nothing worked. I had to walk all the way back home, cutting my run distance as short as I could. I was out for just over forty minutes so that's something. But still.
To recap-

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And yesterday The Grey, Diesel, and I planned a ride that Mother Nature ruined. Crazy high winds made the thought of being out there scary. Basically, if you went out on a bike you were asking to become a kite. We even had Forrest Gump's sideways rain. Same thing this morning.
**EDIT** I made it our for a 22 mile ride this afternoon! Yay! Baby boy was having a good day, Super Awesome Wife was up, and the weather was clear. Woohoo! It was brutal windy, not dangerous but not fun. There were a few points on the way up where a gust would kick up and I barely moved an inch for a moment. It was slow, it wasn't great, but it was a ride. That's important.
Was not a good workout weekend for the Dirtbag. I did get a swim in Thursday morning that was pretty good, and a ride Wednesday that wasn't awful.
Looking ahead to my race schedule, I am not confident in my training. These are going to be slow ass races. Warrior Dash is Saturday, and that should be fun. The boys and I are relaying the Haleiwa Tri and even out of shape I can nail down a decent 500m open water swim. And I want to register for Lanikai Sprint as a tune up for the Honolulu Olympic, since I haven't put together an entire tri since the Honu. Trying hard not to be too frustrated about my workout attitude and my ability to get out there. I'm getting better.

ALSO- Ultrarunner, friend, and former active.com editor Vanessa Runs just wrote a book called The Summit Seeker. It's on amazon right now as a Kindle download and will soon be out as a physical book. You should pick it up. I'll write a review as soon as I get a hardcopy since Kindle I do not have. Support runners who write!

That's What She Said

Ride
time- 1:21
distance- 18.1

Today before I left the house to meet the Grey and Diesel for the weekend's ride I looked outside. This is what it looked like:

Oh..so we are going to get rained on then. Right. Weather reports said watch for flash floods but that wasn't supposed to start until later in the day. Bloody weather. We decided to not ride down to the North Shore and back because getting caught that far from home in a storm would be the suck. Instead it was laps around Wheeler Air Field and Schofield Army Base. It rained, drizzled, and poured pretty much the whole time. It was still fun. Mostly because none of the three of us are grown-ups. Conversations went very simply.

Regarding the weather- "It's really wet, it's getting my back all dirty."

Regarding construction on the road ahead- "Lotta pipe being laid here."

Regarding the loop we rode- "It's not long, but you can have some fun with it."

That Wasn't So Bad

Ride
time- 1:55
distance- 25.8mi

I haven't been out on the bike since Dirtbag Fetus became Dirtbag Baby. It feels like a much bigger time commitment than going for a run or a swim and I haven't wanted to be away for that long. But The Grey knows I'm turning into a lazy couch-dweller and sent me a text Sunday night telling me he was kidnapping me for a bike ride Monday, it being a day off and all. I asked Dirtbag Baby what he thought and he agreed that I was getting depressing. I warned the Grey that I was out of shape and lame and he promised a short ride. It helped that he'd paced someone for a 20 mile loop on the HURT 100 the day before. Well, helped me.
We got out and went down Pineapple and back. Since I moved that added a couple of miles to that particular route and it was great to get out. It was freaking cold (for Hawaii) that early in the morning and I thought I was totally over the head cold I'd been dealing with since Wednesday. Turns out not so much as there was a ton of stuff in my forehead that felt like it was freezing as the wind whistled by while we shot down the hill. Yeah, I know the temperature was probably more like 65* and anyone who reads this who doesn't live in Hawaii thinks I'm being a big giant wussy wuss in my tight pants and arm sleeves and to those people I say...nyah nyah nyahnyah nyaaaaah I think it's cold when it's 65*, you have to ride when it's 10*! (By the way, my stats claim I have three readers in Ukraine, and five in Malaysia. And 91 in Russia! So hello to all the computers that for some reason bounce their signal off my blog for probably some illicit reason or possible legit readers in other countries! Seriously, if you aren't in the US and you're reading this drop a comment in the box. That would be cool.)
I figured Pineapple would suck seeing as I have no bike fitness right now, but it really wasn't that bad. I wasn't racing up the hill, I was probably riding just as fast as I could have up the hill, but it didn't suck as bad as I thought. Having ridden Pineapple so many times at this point probably helps. I know the hill and where I am on it and mentally that is a huge booster. The Grey being there pushing and talking helps too.
I'm slowly getting back into a semi-regular fitness routine and that's good. I need it. Baby needs to be around it. I will figure this fit dad thing out.

Baby push-ups. Come on, buddy, ten more, let's go!

The Grey's Law (OR Join The Parade!) And MORE!

Ride
time- 2:56
distance- 40mi

Another ride and some swimming and running also

It has once again been forever since I've written anything. It has not been forever since I've worked
out, I just have fallen off the blog train pretty hard of late.
Like I've been saying for a while I'm struggling with motivation and injury prevention. Some runs still end in knee pain, some swims end when energy flat lines, and rides happen mostly when friends drag my lazy ass out the door. It comes, I think, from the proximity of Dirtbag Fetus making his/her entry to the world and no events on the near horizon. A dip was expected after the Honu, but this is ridiculous. I need to be better.
The last rides have been pretty good. On Labor Day the Grey and I hit the road for 40 miles, during which he shared what is now Grey's Law.

The Grey of Grey's Law

 Grey's Law states that Whenever the Road is Narrowest, This is When Vehicles Will Absolutely Have to Pass You Right Now. This is especially true on the short bridges which speckle the landscape here in Hawaii. If it will take me on a bike fifteen seconds to get across it odds are the car behind me will need to get across in ten seconds. Which means he'll pull into more of the center of the lane and jam on the gas, blowing by me. And nothing is more fun than the draft of a car and the wizz of a rear view mirror.
Also, when you ride with the Grey he will quote his Law at you every time it happens. On a bike this is done by shouting at you over the wind.
We got to the bottom and Kaena Point, rested, then turned around. This was basically the same route the Grey, Diesel, and I did this weekend.

What was unusual about our Labor Day ride was what happened on the way home. We have to ride through Wahiawa to get home. Apparently, Wahiawa holds a Labor Day parade. Who knew? And said parade was crossing the road right when we got there, stopping traffic. You may think to yourself, "But you are on bicycles. Surely you can easily cut through the parade without disruption." That's what we thought too. However, let me present Officious Guy in Orange Vest:

You have met him. You know him. He has An Orange Vest. This makes him Important. And he decided we could not possibly cross the road. We needed to wait. You know, in case we ran over a marcher or something. Which is completely true. Look at how close each group is to the next. There is no way we could possibly make it.

There's NO SPACE AT ALL

So we walked our bikes five feet away from Man In Orange Vest, then sprinted across the street. Suck it, Man In Orange Vest. Which led to some of the best riding ever. The road was completely empty. We may or may not have ridden right in the middle of both lanes, exulting in the openess. It might have been awesome.
As for this weekend's ride, the biggest note I have was that Pineapple Hill was the hottest it has ever been. Seems crazy to say in November, but we set out late so the sun was higher, there was absolutely no wind, and it just was beating down. I was melting. I don't know that I've ever been hotter during a training ride. It was pretty brutal.
Having the guys does do so much for getting me out on the bike. I struggle to find motivation to get in the pool. I feel good to start, then the wheels come off more often than not. And I can run for a while but eventually my knee beings to hurt, even with the rehab I've been doing. It's a process, and I'm trying not to get frustrated. Well, too frustrated. Sometimes positive is hard to come by. It's a weird time right now.
The biggest workout coming up isn't mine, it's Super Awesome Wife's. It's been on my mind quite a bit. I get to be active support, which will be fine. My struggle is not having a start time. We don't want to induce, we want to be natural. But that means I need to learn patience. Not good with that. I like to know the race starts at 6am on this day. Ready go. This whole it starts when it starts and even when it starts it might start and stop and hurry up and wait is messing with me pretty good.
...anyway, that's probably a post for another time.

Thanks Bob OR Hillbilly Hills

Ride
time-1:42
distance- 21.26mi

Today was Bob's fault. MovieBob, to be specific. He's an entertaining and interesting movie reviewer for The Escapist as well as hosting his on video game show called the Game OverThinker. Needless to say, I follow his stuff. Don't always agree with him, but that is kind of the point of following critics. Seeing different viewpoints.
Anyway, Bob recently did a thing for his Big Picture web series about the Beverly Hillbillies. It is posted below.

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Silly Billy

You'll notice during the segment he played the theme song. That theme, for those of you who have not yet realized it, is insidious. Right now, as you read this it is worming it's way into your brain. Soon you will be a slave to it. You will catch yourself humming it all day. Or, as in my case, for your Entire. Freaking. Ride. And when that happens there is only one thing to do. Only one way to get it out of your head. You have to submit.

First- yes mom, the road was clear. I purposefully went to the most backroad back road. 'Tis safe. You can see at the start how empty is it.
As for the ride, aside from the song it was pretty good. Felt stronger on portions of That Climb than I have yet. But there is a lot of it that still sucks. Some spots the grade is so intense I don't know if it'll ever not totally suck. Which is kind of part of doing the climb. I like looking up at it and having part of my brain still think, "What? No. Dumbass." That lets me know it's challenging me.


Do you feel the Hillbilly? You do, don't you.

Wave at the Sign Wavers

Ride

time- 1:45ish
distance- 20-something*
*watch battery died right at the end and it is charging right now. You get estimates and you'll like it.

Campaigning in Hawaii consists of two things:
1) Take a position on rail, the thing we already voted yes on four years ago.
2) Get a ton of people to stand on the side of the road waving signs at people in traffic.

Traffic sucks, vote for me!

There are always people on the roadsides this time of year. And I pass, I think, every single one of them when I'm riding. Going uphill.
You see, Makiki Dr (I'm almost positive I spelled that wrong) is steep and that means it's slow. So I go by a ton of people with signs. It's like an aid station during a race, except without water or snacks and with empty promises. You know what's strange? Not all of them talk to me. A few shout encouragement, which is nice. But some don't say anything, they just watch. I'm going by so slowly a candidate could knock out a stump speech before I'm out of earshot and you're just staring at me? Say hi. Tell me I'm looking good. Make a joke. You're holding a sign with someone's name on it and you aren't trying to connect? Fail.
On the positive side of the coin, by the time I went by again Tulsi Gabbard was actually standing with her sign wavers. While I want to be clear this doesn't influence my vote, she is damn pretty. So that was nice.

See? Politician pretty.

I also want to note- some jackass standing on the side of the road has never made me want to vote for anyone. I think they should knock it off.
The rest of the ride went well. Down to Target, down some road that looked nice and clear, and then home. Damn windy on the way back, which wasn't great after the climb but is good for me. During my climb I was really hurting, way sore low back, and the thought that I was getting stronger helped me keep pushing hard. Same through the wind.

Dirtbag Offroad

Ride

time- 2:04
distance- 6.5mi

Yeah, I rode for two hours and only went six miles. How?
Mountain biking.
Dirtbag went mountain biking and lived to blog the tale.
Yesterday I got a text from Diesel asking if I wanted to go mountain biking. I have been interested, it seems like good cross training. And I'm borrowing the Grey's old mountain bike so I have what I need. Figured why not? I asked if they would go easy on me and he assured me they would. Not so much because they are nice for me, but because Diesel was bringing another friend who isn't a cyclist at all. So I switched the pedals out on the mountain bike for my clips, tightened some loose cables so it shifts better, and readied myself. I only had one question: "What does one wear mountain biking?"
Diesel, as usual, was very helpful. "A pink tutu."
I didn't want to muss my tutu so I wore some old riding gear, which was a good choice.

Mighty Steed!

I changed a component all by myself, like a growed-up!

 I got to the trailhead at 7:30am and joined the rest of the group. Diesel and his friend Fore, the Grey, and Crazy UltraMarathon Runner Guy (still working on a better name) and his friend, a 19 year old from the mainland on island visiting whom I yclept Boy Wonder. All experienced off road riders save for Fore and myself.
And the first thing that happens is as soon as Crazy UltraMarathon Runner Guy sees my bike, which is the Grey's old bike, he starts laughing. Apparently my ride, not so great. And I kind of knew that. They all have fancy mountain bikes with nice shocks and frame suspension and knobby tires and gears that shift when you ask them to. My biggest concern was the hybrid tires I had. Any loose dirt and I was going to be fighting a downhill battle (get it?).

Look at all the grip!

Of course, the first thing I did once we started was skid out and fall down. Because that's what you do. Get it out of the way first. Should have walked down the hill. Forgot that brakes will lock and locked brakes will skid and skidding is bad. So crash boom. Get up, dust off, get laughed at, get on with it.
I never went fast and never felt completely comfortable, but I did relax and enjoy myself after a while. The bike isn't really built for technical trails and we kept to the baby trails, mostly in deference to Fore. They would have been more than happy to drag me up and down the mountain, I'm sure. Yay for not being the slowest for once. Not that I'm making fun of Fore, it takes some guts to come out and do this when your normal exercise is golf and sitting around. Good on him. But it did mean there was a lot of ride, hear a curse and crunch behind us, wait, repeat. He kept getting up though. He quickly learned that "easy day" means something very different for us than for normal people. Easy is a fluid concept.
At one point CUMRG, Boy Wonder, the Grey, and myself went one way and Diesel took Fore on a less technical trail to the same place. Then I got dropped. Getting dropped on unfamiliar trails is very different than getting dropped on the road. Trails branch and turn and up in the mountains after a few hundred yards your voice or bell doesn't carry anymore. So I spent some time pretty sure I was riding in the right direction. Practiced my tracking skills I learned from the TV and the Hollywood. "Hmmm, these needles look to have been disturbed recently. And that appears to be fresh bike tread marks. Urine...still warm. They went this way."
I did eventually find them and we ended up at a bunker overlooking the North Shore, which is an amazing view. I've been there before on trail runs but it never fails to impress. After a short break we split up again, CUMRG and Boy Wonder going one way and the rest of us another. CUMRG said his way "wasn't too hard or technical," which to me means, "you'll probably crash and die." See the above fluidity of "easy day".
Yesterday I fixed the gearing on my Mighty Steed so that it would shift into the littlest ring, that way I could spin up steep parts. Of course today my fix was unfixed. It was a faux fix. So I spent a lot of time trying to knock the chain down and failing and struggling/walking up hill. I also crashed a few more times. The Mighty Steed only has about an inch of play in the front shock, which really isn't great for roots of any size. The guys who clear these trails do a great job replanting trees along the sides, and I helped them by crashing into a few. I also suddenly forgot how to clip in without looking. There was many a time where I would be riding along fighting with my right pedal to just get in there damnit! Finally started supporting myself on a tree, clipping both feet in, then pushing off. I also manually pushed my chain down onto the small ring. Fifteen minutes before we were down. Which still helped, because the last little bit was a heck of a climb. Or, as the others put it, "a short little bounce up an easy hill." Right then.
You know what made that little bounce even easier? Diesel coming up from behind me and grabbing my shirt, pulling himself past while I struggled to not go backwards down the hill onto my ass. At least he did it to the Grey too, and the Grey actually got knocked off the trail a little and had to stop. I count that as a win.
It was a lot of fun and it'll get easier. I was given an old pair of knobby tires so I'll switch those out sometime before the next time we go out. That should help some. And we stopped at Storto's in Haleiwa afterwards for some of the best sandwiches on the island. Score.
Also, ran yesterday. 2.3 miles, still taking it easy and hoping I'm healed. Foam roller today. Please don't have familiar pains tomorrow.
Also also, found my ANT+! Yay! Now I can upload all the workouts! So here is today's ride. In fact, I'm so happy I'm going to put it below too.

Earning Dinner

Ride
time- approx. 1:16*
distance- approx. 16.5mi*

*everything approximate because, though I have my Garmin, the ANT+ unit which transfers all the information from the watch to the computer has been misplaced in the second move. I'm hoping to find it eventually. I'm trying not to tear random boxes apart searching for it.

I enjoy eating. But I really enjoy eating when I feel like I've earned it. That righteous hungry that I feel after a good workout is one of my favorite things. That yes, a second helping might be ok because I kicked ass this afternoon.
This doesn't mean that I eat everything I can see. I'm conscious of the amount of calories I shove in my face. Still, I eat more than I maybe should much of the time, but it's ok because I'm putting in 10, 12, 15+ hours of workouts this week.
Except I haven't been recently. These past few weeks workouts have been few and not terribly intense. But my eating habits haven't changed all that much.
At least I earned dinner yesterday. Still living in Ewa Beach, land of the flat roads, I ventured out to Kapolei (Cap-O-Lay), because I'd noticed a big hill over the freeway past the new Walmart. Yes, If I paid attention to street names I would be telling you the street, but anyone who lives here and has been over there knows what I'm talking about. The rest of you picture a road going uphill into a residential area.
I like to climb on the bike. Well, I like how I feel after climbing. Climbing makes Dirtbag legs strong. Climbing can make you a better sprinter, better at racing into the wind, better at getting a powerful start, better at surging past another cyclist (this last is a supposition, since this rarely happens to me). So up I go as often as possible.
This road in Kapolei is more up than I anticipated. It's not as long as my favorite climb, Pineapple, but I believe sections of it, most of it, is nearly as steep as my friend, Pupukea. If I could find my ANT+ I'd know for sure. I see this road being part of my regular rides while I'm in Ewa. It's not far from the house Super Awesome Wife and I are staying at, the roads there are as safe as you can get on Oahu (mostly), and it's the best chance at up I have without throwing the bike in the truck and driving to somewhere better. 
On some race notes, I skipped the third North Shore Swim last weekend because I didn't feel like dropping $50 on a race I didn't feel prepared for. I'm probably going to skip the final one too, though I can be talked into doing it. I am on a relay team for this Sunday's Tinman Triathlon. I hadn't planned on doing it but Tri Cook sent me an email a few days ago saying his relay team's swimmer had to drop out due to a work conflict and would I mind terribly sweeping in a saving the day? Of course I wouldn't mind, so I'll be at Queen's Beach this Sunday at Oh-Dark Hundred shaking it out for a 750yd sprint. I assume we are going to win it all. How could we not, with two fitness bloggers on one team? Their (our) team name- Counterfeit Pajama Insurgents. I don't know what it means but I love it.
I also still owe you a very out-of-date race report about my last open water swim. Maybe this weekend.
On the moving front, I didn't get the last job I interviewed for, so I assumed we are staying and school starts Monday. But yesterday I got a call for another interview on Tuesday. So once again my feet are off the ground and I don't know what is happening. Not my favorite way to work. To butcher Joe Strummer- Will we stay or will we go?

Friends Make Things Better

There has been some working out going on here, Dirtbag friends. But for reasons known only to me (hint- summer break makes me lazy) I haven't been updating my blog on a regular basis. I know this upsets my regular reader, so I'm trying to play catch up now. This weekend was also the Dirtbag Swimtacular Weekend of Swimmingness, which means there is a double race report in our near future.
Last week I ran to the gym for a swim and ran home. The total run distance is just over three miles. But I'm positive I messed up my right hamstring/calf area during the Honu 70.3 because running freaking hurts. And not in a good way. In a Ok, I Need To Stop And Walk way. I don't know what my problem is when it comes to running. I'll improve for a while, feel good, feel confident, and then something will get injured. And I think I'm being careful. You couldn't rest your leg more than I've been doing on a regular basis the last two weeks. So there has been lots of stretching and massaging and talking nicely to the muscles. It feels like a bad strain and contracting hurts. Hope it gets better soon. I bet that my foam roller would help, but it got packed in storage and that might as well be packed like this for as easy as it would be to find the roller.

Exaggeration for comedic effect...but only just

While running hurts almost too much to run, riding hurts, but not enough to not. At least, as long as I don't go far. So I met up with the Grey for an easy ride last week, just 30 miles down Pineapple and back. When you're away from riding for any amount of time getting back to it hurts. Climbing is never fun. We stopped once or twice so I could stretch it out and I stretched more when I got home. It wasn't as bad the next day as it was after the runs, where I was limping around the whole day, but it wasn't great. Feels better as I sit here, so maybe a little activity is what the muscles needed. Yeah, let's go with that.
I had a big fun swim last week too. A friend from 100 years ago, now called Smashlete by her local tri club and so here as well, that I swam with on my club team when I was just a little Dirtbag, and then swam against in high school when I was an Ego Dirtbag (more so than now), visited the island. It was awesome to see her. We've been keeping up on Facebook, yay interwebs, but hadn't actually seen each other for ten years at least. So it was great to get back together. Super Awesome Wife and I met with Smashlete and her husband a bunch of times while they were here. She recently got into the tri scene as well, doing local sprint tris in the Northern New York state area. She's also kept up on her swimming and every few weeks I'd get an email from her. "We can go for an open water swim while I'm there, right?" Yes, yes we can. Few weeks later, "You're still going to take me somewhere for a nice open water swim?" Yes. As bad luck would have it, she landed the day after the Flat Island swim and left two days before the start of the North Shore Swim Series and the Aloha Salads Summer Sprint. So instead we went to Waimea and I took her around the bay, swimmer-style. It isn't the prettiest swim on the island, I know. But it is one of the easier ones to get to, to keep track of, and to control. We could have swum down the coast somewhere, but we left Super Awesome Wife, her husband, and a friend on the beach. Still, you can't complain about swimming in Waimea. It was good fun, and not a bad workout. I hope I get to see her again before another ten years has gone by.

Dirtbag and Smashlete (I forgot to tell her we were being tough)

The Flat Wasn't Mine! (and THE AVENGERS!!!)

Bike
time- 3:00
distance- 34mi

First of all- This

What Awesome looks like

The Avengers came out Thursday at midnight. So, ok, it came out Friday. And I am a GIGANTIC nerd. As such, I jumped at the news that a local theater would be showing all the Marvel movies, save the Incredible Hulk, back-to-back as a run up to the midnight showing of The Avengers. For $35 I could not pass this up. So I left work at lunch (it was a meeting day for my grade level, I didn't bail on my kids) and hit the theater. Iron Man started at 2:15pm. Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain American happened. For my money, Cap is the best story of the series so far. And then the Movie You've Been Waiting For Since 2006- The Avengers! Amazing. So good, so much fun, everyone should go see it. It is everything wrong with Micheal Bay movies done right by the only man in Hollywood who could pull it off- Joss Whedon. I don't want to go on and on about it, but it kicks all the ass I hoped it would and then some. When you go, as you should, stay all the way until the credits completely finish. The final thing isn't a tease for a new movie, its just good fun. Trust Dirtbag.
Avengers got out at 2:45am.
So I started sitting in a theater at 2:15pm, and left at 2:45am. This is not the best way to train for anything except life-long virginity. I was freaking wiped. But I'm hardcore and I taught the next day on three hours sleep. Then spent Friday and Saturday catching up. It seems I am getting too mature (not old) to do a giant movie marathon like that and then be fine the next day. So Nick Fury ruined my Saturday run. And he kind of messed up my Sunday ride.
I didn't run on Saturday. I thought about it. I felt guilty that I didn't. I nearly pulled my shoes on once or twice. But then I would collapse back onto the couch and fall asleep again. I suck at running last week.
I did ride. Diesel wanted an early start, 6:30, and while that sounded like boiled suck I went along. Better to ride in a group, makes the miles go by faster and it helps push. Normally.
We got the base of Pupukea with me in the lead, which is always strange. Diesel was talking about how strongly I was riding right off the bat. Taking three days to rest probably played into that. But there was also another issue impacting his speed. His back tire was slowly flattening out. Right after the first big haripin he noticed the softness in his rear (tire).* So he stopped to deal with it and I went on. He'd change it and catch me before I reached the top anyway.
Somewhere along the way my energy level went from decent to basement and by the end of the climb I wanted nothing more than to go home. I felt awful, kind of sick, weird, off. I waited at the top for a minute or two and when Diesel didn't show I headed back down the hill, planning on passing him and letting him know I was going home. Never passed him. He was still at the bottom cursing at himself. Turns out he overinflated his spare tube when changing the tire, a rookie mistake he spent the next fifteen minutes kicking himself over. Personally, I was just glad it wasn't me with the flat for once. But because of the rims on his bike my spare tube was useless and he was SOL. We managed to get his tire reinflated enough to get us to Waimea Bay, where we parked and called the Grey, who had decided to sleep in, for a pick up. It was nice to chill at the beach and hang out for the thirty or so minutes it took the Grey to get to us. I could have bailed and finished my ride but I decided to hang because that sucks to just leave someone behind like that. This ain't Top Gear.
After the pick up I decided to short my ride and head home rather than get the extra mileage. I don't know why I was so out of it but I was, so I only did a little over 30 miles. Not good, especially with no run, but you know what? The Marvel Movie Marathon with geeky friends was completely worth it. No doubt.
And now for a bunch of pictures I took while at the theater. Yes, I dressed up like Batman. Why? Because Batman is a DC superhero and DC is the biggest competitor of Marvel and I wanted to try and pick a nerd-fight. Because it is fun to troll nerds.

Batman Vs Iron Man

Batman vs Cap

Batman lectures the God of Thunder

Batman helps Hulk with a smasher

Batman and Ethnically Diverse BatGirl

*Ok, that joke made me laugh in my head like this, "He he he he he."

Sermon While Mounted

Run (Tuesday)
time- 1:11
distance- 7.09mi

Swim (Wednesday)
1 x 200- Warm-up
2 x 500- odd 50s-easy/even 50s-hard
5 x 100- 5, 7, 9
5 x 200- 15 seconds rest
1 x 100- Cool down

Ride (Wednesday)
time- approx. 1:54*
distance- approx. 27mi*
*internet is down at home so no Garmin data upload

I'm running better and better. But I'm not going to say that out loud. Last time I even thought it my Achilles tendon decided to pull a Val Kilmer and get all swollen and painful. Every recent run has felt better than the previous run and I'm still happy about how the 10 miler on Sunday felt. Still, there is a little worry about the AT going badly so I'm seriously thinking about cutting my runs to twice a week. I'd rather be a little undertrained but in no pain going into Honu and Honolulu than limping by the end of the race. Mileage needs to get higher if I'm going to do that.
The swim, again, wasn't fast fast fast like my ego wants it to be. But it was pretty consistent and there were a couple of laps in there where the stroke was on rails like it should be. What I mean by that is when swimming is really happening my stroke gets locked in and I'm climbing through the water. The hand does not move past the body. The hand is anchored in the water and the body is pulled over it. That is when I can tell my stroke is working. My core felt strong and tight for the most part, but there was occasional droopage. For some laps, especially in the 5, 7, 9 set, I was grabbing a big amount of water on the catch. Things are improving.
And my ride was two laps of Pineapple, the current go-to Wednesday ride. I pumped on the flats, tried to spin the climbs, and felt strong at the end. That means that I either didn't work hard enough or my fitness is getting better and better. Wind was an issue on lap one but it died by lap two. Well, natural wind. I got caught up in some kind of I'm Famous And Giving An Interview fantasy and may have talked to myself, out loud, for most of lap two. Yes, this happens when I let my mind drift rather than focusing on the task at hand. I'm sure it says all kind of things about my ego that in my fantasies I'm giving lectures, speeches, and generally pontificating. Let's put it down to a job hazard and leave it at that, shall we?

"My guest tonight, and my favorite blogger, Doug Robertson!"

A Weekend of Waiting and Mud

Ride (Saturday)
time- approx. four hours
distance- approx. 60mi*
*all numbers approximate because the Garmin only works if you turn it on when you leave the house

Run (Sunday)
time- 1:48
distance- 10mi

Something was up with gravity Saturday. I'm not really sure what it was, but I do know that it impacted all of us. Well, it impacted the Grey and I and Diesel claims he was riding slower too, but I think he's just trying to make us feel better. Which would be really out of character, so maybe not.
Pupukea just felt like a slog. It hurt and there was no go fast going on. I don't normally fly up the hill, but I have been able to set a decent enough pace. Saturday was not a decent pace day. Saturday was an I just want to get to the top and be done with this day. The guys waited for me for the second time that ride at the top. The first time they waited for me was when I said I'd meet them at 7am, texted I might be five minutes late, and ended up more like ten or fifteen *cue Diesel preparing his comment about exactly how late I was*.
However, at the end of Dillingham it was not I who was being waited for! No, Diesel and I waited for the Grey instead. Normally, the tailwind going down Mokulea makes us light and quick and Diesel decides he's going to time trial it and takes off. We struggle to keep up and eventually wave as he disappears. Yesterday, though, he never did that. And I was feeling strong. Not at first. The road conditions for the first quarter of that leg are awful. The road goes crack pothole crack divot gravel potholecrackpotholecrack catch your tire and pull you into the depths. Not much fast there. But when it finally cleans up, thanks to the state fixing the road because Lost was being filmed down there, it is kick ass. And Diesel was cruising it. But not crushing it, like normal. As I just said, I was feeling strong and I didn't know why he wasn't going for it, so I decided to make the jump to lightspeed. I never never pass Diesel but here I went. Honestly, the thing I was thinking for the minute or so he let me get away was, "Gotta pump gotta pump, I'm in the lead, gotta hold on." Of course he caught me and retook the lead, but I didn't let him get away. OR he didn't take me to task, and its probably some of both. Either way, I cooked it and felt great. I managed to ignore my legs saying, "Ok, but you're going to pay for this later." We both dusted the Grey, who had found some kind of headwind to ride into.
But the Dillingham road giveth, and the Dillingham road taketh away. The lighter out feels, the more brutal in will be. Except in this case. Yes, it was windy. Yes, it sucked. But it didn't suck that bad. I spent a lot of time on Diesel's wheel, getting my draft on, but near the end I again decided to try and make a pass and again it worked. I assume Diesel jumped on to my wheel for a little drafting of his own, which he never gets to do because he's so much stronger than we are...and because we never normally try to get in front.
Pineapple was, well Pineapple. Somehow I got way out in front of the Grey, who was bonking pretty badly at that point, so I had a good lead on him hitting the climb. I spent the whole thing looking over my shoulder for him. Stupid physics means that since we both put out probably about the same amount of power, but he is so much lighter than I am, he climbs better. So he caught me, despite my best efforts to the contrary. Skinny jerk.
Two short climbs closed out my ride and home I went, worn out but feeling good about my training for the day.
Today's run was a big one for me. Ten miles is the furthest I've ever run in a non-race setting, and only the second time I've ever run into the double digits. You can look at the data and it is obvious cruising was priority number one, I was in no hurry, but I'm still happy. An average pace of 10:52 isn't bad. I think I could have gone a little faster too. I spent some of the out running along the pineapple fields but it was wet/rainy and had been, so the dirt was mud. Mud builds and cakes onto the Vibrams until I'm not running so much as I'm lifting weights with my feet. Once I abandoned the fields for the road and scraped a bunch of the sticky stuff off I felt much better. Best part for me was that I only walked twice. Once at my five mile turn around, grabbing a couple of Gummy Bears for a sugar bump, and once up a hill two miles or so from home. My feet were hurting and I felt like I'd earned the few minutes of walking. It improved the end of the run.
It was wet the whole time, which probably helped. Like we know, the heat sucks the life out of a runner. Cool, overcast, slightly rainy conditions are pretty perfect for long runs. But I don't care, I need to be stacking miles like that and it was good for me to get some.
Tomorrow might hurt.

Compromised/Pineapple Fields Forever

Ride (Saturday)
time- 1:37
distance- 17.49

Run (Sunday)
time- 1:37
distance- 9.02

I bought the worst Gatorskin tires ever made. Seriously, I have had more flats since I put on my flat-resistant tires than I ever had before. And yesterday was the epitome of that.
I noticed the softness right after I passed Haleiwa, only a few miles in to my ride and really before too much riding had been done. The whole start of my ride is about four and a half miles of flatish, then down Pineapple we go. So no, I hadn't done much yet. With softness suspected I did a light bounce test and yep, that's the rim donking on the ground. Really? Brand new tube? Expletive.
Pulled over, did the full check of the tube and rim and tire looking for the culprit. Picked some glass slivers out. (Rant- Throwing your empties out the window is a bullshit thing to do. I know the regressive, neanderthal lump of WalMart leftovers that you call a brain gets tickled by the crashy smashy noise, but it really fucking sucks for those of us who also use the road. Knock. It. Off. End Rant.) Threw a new tube in there when I was as sure as I could be that nothing detrimental to my inflation levels remained.
Back tire went flat again right before the top of Pupukea. My spare tube was already in the back tire. My only spare. Expletiveexpletiveexpletive.
Lucky for me Diesel and his wife had just finished a hike nearby and were able to pick me up, saving my bacon. I even somehow got a cookie out of the deal.
I've decided there must be a problem with the tube itself, because its always the back tire and it happens way too often. A sliver too small to see, a design flaw poking holes but not sharp enough for the finger sweep test to find. So today I got to go buy a new tire. Yay! Luckily, I'm a teacher in Hawaii, a state which respects the teaching profession to such a degree that we get paid, when adjusted for cost of living, at the top of national teaching scale. (Correction:Wait, I just reread that last sentence and there is a small error- It should have read, "when adjusted for cost of living, at the bottom, dead last, 50 out of 50 of the national teaching scale". Sorry for the mistake.)
I also added a hydration system to the bike which will help guarantee I'm not drying out during the Honu. Yes, I realize the irony of talking about a new thing I just bought after complaining about my lack of funds due to the disrespectful pay scale of Hawaii teachers, but I didn't really buy my new Profile Design Aquacell, my wonderful sponsor did. I again would like to thank Background Profiles for all their help, there is so much I'm able to have and do that wouldn't be possible without you.

Aero-ish!

Yes, I did cut the straws before I left. Otherwise they would still be in my nose.

Who needs a special bracket? I got rubber bands!

My run was smooth and solid. I was concerned leaving the house that my AT issues were going to flare up again but a controlled pace seemed to manage it. I'm still not 100% healed, the left AT will act up but the pain level stays around a 2, so its no reason to stop.
Normally, I run along the side of the road. I've always noticed a dirt track running just over a hump right in the pineapple fields (what? You though Pineapple Hill was just a clever name?). So today after passing Dole (The pineapple company) I hopped over the hump and did the next mile and a half in the fields. Such a nice change of scenery by simply moving a few feet to the left. On one side, fields of little pineapple, and on the other, a bump then the road. No more running where the asphalt meets the grass for Dirtbag. I'm using this new course all the time.
I took a short photo break to get an artsy picture of little baby pineapples, turned around at the 4.5mi point, and headed back. The last time I ran nine miles I walked two or three times I think. Today I only walked once, up the steepest part of the run which isn't really all that steep but I was kind of tired so leave me alone. No physical issues until the final quarter mile when suddenly my feet really started to hurt. Like, oh yeah, these are minimalist shoes and I'm on pavement hurt. But it went away as soon as I stopped. Left calf threatened to cramp up a few times too and as I sit here I can still feel it being too tight. Foam roller in five.

Ohhh, artsy!

I should also mention that today was the North Short marathon and the Grey took third in his age group with just under a 3:40 finish. Go Team Dirtbag!

BUBBLES!

Swim
1 x 200- Warm-up
Ladder
200- 3:00
300- 4:30
400- 6:00
500- 7:30
400- 6:00
300- 4:30
200- 3:00
1 x 100- Cool down
total- 2600yds

Bike
time-
day-


Reason #71 You Should Learn To Flip Turn- If you have gas during your workout, flip turns will help ease your pain.

BUBBLES!!!

This ladder went about as well as I could have expected considering my lack of swim time. I made it through the front end of the ladder just fine, but missed the 500 by about ten seconds. Then I missed the 400 by almost a minute, which makes me think I fell asleep during it and did at least 50 yards too many. But the final 300 and 200 were ok. Like I always go on and on (and on and on and on) about, the most important part of long swims is keeping technique consistent from beginning to end. And my stroke went wonky in the second 400, which I've noticed happens nearly every time I do this set, but I got it together at the end.
Normally, Thursday's are run days. But Wednesday as I was preparing for my ride I noticed the back tire was flat. Living room flats are the worst! Stoopid slow leaks. But I knew that I had a spare tube in my bag so I pulled it out. Something was wrong. This tube is, like the blonde in the story says, much too big. I look at the white paint on the side. "700x28-32c" Holy crap. My tires are 23s. I, somehow, bought the wrong size tube. D'oh! Makes me feel like a speshul snophlake. So the ride was ditched in favor of hitting the Bike Shop and Costco. Bummer.
The ride plan was two scoops of Pineapple, with the option of bailing after one of the weather got bad. It was one of those days where the big dark clouds did hover, and it was hard to tell if they were coming or going. I'm ok getting rained on from Dole to my house, that's easy. But I did not want to get caught on the hill in a downpour. Luckily, it dried out while I was rubber side down.
My focus for these laps was cruise the climbs, power the flats. Diesel preach preach preaches this every time we are out now and it's good climbing advice. So I'm down in the saddle, light gear, spinning uphill, then as soon as the road levels out I pop the gearing up heavier, get out of the saddle for some stomp action, and try to get going until the road rises back up. This ride was the first time I really felt like I was making a difference on the flats, and I felt it on both laps. In fact, I felt pretty fresh even on the second lap. I could have gone for a third, but light would have become an issue. Take a look at my Garmin information, you can see the spikes on the blue graph. Good stuff.

A Surprisingly Amount About Hips

Swim (Thursday)
1 x 200- warm-up
2 x 500
1 x ?- Stroke check

Ride (Sunday)
time- 3:38
distance- 53.05

First, don't ask me where Thursday's run went. I don't know either. Somewhere between school and the couch it completely disappeared. And there is a Saturday run. 
Thursday was a test swim. I found an article is this month's Inside Triathlon about a coach who slows his athletes down in the water and focuses nearly exclusively on stroke technique for huge amounts of training time. And these athletes, as you would expect if you've been following along here, get faster anyway. Swimming IS NOT ABOUT VOLUME. It's about smoothness and proper technique. To steal from The Fit Life, "more is not better. Better is better." And one of the drills this coach uses on his swimmers to isolate their hips is a kickboard drill. But not in the way you think. He has them tuck the board between their legs so half sticks up out of the water like a fin and half down into the water like a rudder. Then they swim and the submerged part of the board give immediate feedback and resistance straight into the hip/core area. Brilliant! I must steal use this.
And so I did. I first tried it on the Grey, but that didn't work well because I hadn't done it myself first. So he threw the board away and Thursday's ? set was my experimenting. I have no idea how many laps I did. I would do a 25 with one board one way. Stop, readjust, do another 25, and so on. There are two different types of boards at my pool and after I settled on the right one I needed to figure out seating. But once I figured it out it is really great. Swimming with the board like a rudder, not too deep but not so you've got a big waving tail, communicates directly into your core exactly what your stroke is doing. Its a workout, because there is oblique torsion happening, and its also a drill because you can feel how much of your stroke is being driven through your hips. Good stuff.
Today's ride was good, pretty much the same course Diesel and I normally ride. Felt a little slow up Pupukea, got rained on headed down Pupukea and all the way back to Haleiwa, but both directions of Dillingham felt strong and Pineapple went well. Saturday's trail run was pretty tough and my hips today, especially on the left, are sore. Doesn't impact the riding too much, until I swing my leg over the bike. Then it's all kinds of joy joy.

Like They're Going Flat

Ride (Saturday)
time-3:41
distance- 53.24mi

Run (Sunday)
time- 1:11
distance- approx. 7mi

Swim (Monday)
1 x 200- warm-up
2 x 500- stroke check

Ride (Monday)
time- 1:46
distance- 29.77mi


Dirtbag fanatics, how have you been? Me? I'm pretty good. Training hard, yada yada yada. The pervious workouts were all decent to good, with the exception of Monday's swim, which was kind of lame but important. I took last week off because of some strange twinging in the right elbow and of all the disciplines, swimming is the one I can back off of without worry. So Monday was about checking my stroke for strange. Verdict? Feels good, seems to be better. I did get so involved in the self diagnostic that I got lost in the swim, so I'm pretty sure I did two 500s, but the second one might have been a 400 or 450. No biggie.
Saturday I cranked out an early but good ride with Diesel, the Grey is preparing to win his age group at the North Shore marathon so he is training differently for the next few weeks. It was the same ride as last weekend, but harder, I think. Less rest time, and I feel like we pushed more. Windier too, which is good for training but suuuuucks for climbing. Dirtbag get strong. Diesel and I spent a good 40% of the ride chatting too, which is something we rarely do because its hard on the bikes. After the ride the workout continued as I was the muscle in a friend's move. You never really know who your friends are until they get up at 6am to ride 50+ miles and then help you move.
Sunday was exciting because Super Awesome Wife completed her second half marathon, the Run Like a Diva Wahine Half. I'm so proud of her for going out and doing these events. She walks them, but who cares? She does them. Thirteen miles is a long way either way. And it was hot Sunday, with a shadeless course. She kicked ass in her Batman cape and underroos.

Pink boa, tiara, and a medal the size of a manhole cover. Women's races are awesome.

 While she was out on the course I ran around Ala Moana park. Never run down there except for the Honolulu Tri and it is nice. My plan was to run until it hurt or I was done and, to my surprise, there was very little Achilles pain during my hour ten. This is good and it might mean I can get back on the stick now.
Yesterday's ride was ok, I cooked a lot of it. I came up with the idea that I should ride like my tires are going flat. What that means is, sometimes flats happen. And sometimes when flats happen it ruins the ride and you need a pick up. So if you spend the ride pumping and you do have a catastrophic flat, you still feel like you got a workout in. It's a theory in progress.
*Note- See, if I was more interested in building a big audience I would have led with the Going Flat theory and left the post at that. It would be instructive and bite-sized and still interesting. But I need to use the blog as an attitude check for myself. Reflective training is the Big Point. I like being able to look back and see how I felt during ride x when I repeat it to see growth or issues. So I fill the posts with thoughts and feelings about the workout details. Numbers are nice, I like having the data and love my Garmin, but I also do a lot of training by feel. Which means that you, lovely and patient reader, sometimes get to slog through a paragraph about my run in the park to get to the point. Which I do appreciate.
The only other thing I want to say about the ride is that everyone should ride safe out there. I had a close, but safe, call. Not trying to worry anyone. But be safe out there, keep your head on a swivel, and remember the lights on the back of a car don't turn on when the car is turning, even though they should, and you're a vampire in their mirrors. Ride safe and keep the rubber side down.

The Fortress Gets Another Brick

Bike
time- 2:15
distance- 35.91mi

Transition- 4:26

Run
time- 20:51
distance- 2.01mi

Regular, long-time readers are familiar with my Fortress of Fitness. Those of you who aren't should follow the link if you're really really interested (which I'm sure you are!). 
I missed my workout Wednesday due to a sick Super Awesome Wife needing to go to the doctor and I used that as an excuse to crank out a simple brick yesterday. I haven't bike/ran in a long time and it will be a good idea to start throwing those into my workouts every once in a while. Not so much for fitness, but to prepare to run off the bike. The legs do feel a little bit funny going from cycling to running, and keeping the heart rate controlled in transition is important too. Speaking of transition, brick workouts are a great place to practice those, though yesterday's was slow. Not sweating that, I'm training for a half Ironman. Transition speed is waaaaaay down on the list of concerns at this point. It's Mr. Larmstrong who should be practicing. If there is a place he might might get ahead of me that is where it is. If I'm feeling generous.
This was also a great opportunity to test out the multisport setting on my fancy-shmancy Garmin Forerunner 310xt. It's kick ass. You set it to multisport (duh), and define what sports you're talking about and whether or not it should include transition, then you just hit START. The watch tracks your first sport, you hit LAP, it switches to transition and times that, you hit LAP again, it switches to the second sport. Very very cool. It's going to come in handy during races.
My bike today was going to be an easier bike so that the brick was more more run-centric. But then I started thinking about how weaksauce it would be to just go to the bottom of Pineapple and come back up. So I ended up all the way out at Dillingham. Wind out there felt brutal and I struggled to keep a strong pace coming back. Gotta stay low on those aerobars, keep the gearing light, and spin.
The new plan for Pineapple is stay steady on the uphills, then drop into a heavier gear on the flat sections and try to make up the minutes. This is both easier and harder. It's easier because I spend more time thinking about the flats than about the climbs, but harder because I used to use the flats as rest periods between struggles upwards. The most important factor is that it's quicker. So I'll keep on keeping on.
The sun was setting as I pulled into my driveway. I knew I would be behind the light, I was at school later than I wanted to be dealing with crap that drove me to want to workout for two and a half hours when I got home (Note: Not student issues. I love students, even the ones with problems. I can't stand adults. Students have a chance to change.) I don't normally run under lit street lamps so when I pulled in I took a quick nature break, then switched my bike jersey for a bright yellow tech shirt, making me a Sneetch without stars upon thars. I wore my toe socks for the ride, something I plan on doing for the Honu, so transition from cycling shoes to Bikilas was quick and easy.
Like I said, the original plan was a longer run/shorter bike. But it was getting late and dark and I was getting tired and hungry so I scrapped that plan in favor of a easy transition run of twenty minutes. I don't feel lame about this because in his excellent book I'm Here to Win, Chris McCormack writes about easy runs after hard rides. So there.
And it was an easy run. I'm trying to figure out what an ideal heart rate goal would be, and I think it's probably somewhere in the 150s. As you'll see from my data, I was way above that last night. If I can get fit enough and smart enough to run in the 150s that will help control how many buckets of fluid I sweat, which will help hydration and cramping issues. We are talking for the Honu here. The Honolulu Olympic tri will probably result in a much higher average heart rate, but its a much shorter race. (I'm kinda blown away I thinking about an Oly as "much shorter". Please see any post from a year ago for evidence.) Both Achilles protested quietly for the entire two miles. Never enough to make me stop, just enough to remind me to ibprophen, ice, and roll when I got home. Guess I ain't healed yet.
I like brick workouts, and I like running off the bike. For some reason it is easier to think about than just getting up for a run. Maybe I use the ride to make excuses for why I'm not running as fast. Speed is not the point, I know that, but it's still hard to internalize sometimes.
Preparations are moving along. To steal from the fantasy world, Honu is Coming.

Getting To Teach

Ride
time- 2:00
distance- 18.81mi

Today was a very cool workout for me. A friend who does not have a Dirtbag nickname yet, I'm thinking, has decided she wants to be a triathlete. I know her through Super Awesome Wife's knitting group, and of course she asked me for help. After all, I am the guy who is going to take down Lance Armstrong. Who better to ask, right? She is registered for the Lanikai sprint next month and I am helping her to prepare. How? By taking her up Kolekole and seeing if her legs come off! Duh.
The Lanikai bike course is almost completely flat save Radar Hill, a steep but short climb on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. She hadn't been doing the kinds of climbs that would prepare her for it. To fix that we rode from the house onto Schofield and up Kolekole.
I've never ridden with someone slower than I am before. I wanted to help her as much as I could to get up the hill without hating life too much. I wanted to help like Diesel helped me Sunday. So I was either right in front of her (on the narrow parts) or right next to her, talking to her, checking how she was feeling, and trying to keep talking to keep her mind off her legs burning like fire.
We did stop once, for a minute or two, right before the hill really got cracking. Kolekole starts with a long grinding climb. Its a barely perceptible grade and if you aren't paying attention it just makes you think you've suddenly replace the water in your bottle with weaksauce. The grind, coupled with her knowing a more serious climb was coming but not actually knowing what that would entail, make her choose to take the break. No problem, sometimes you need a break. If it was that or turn around, then take the break. I had let her know how I felt my first time up, how much it hurt (wow, that was an old post!) so she wouldn't be taken by surprise when the pain came. It isn't a bad climb, not now, but the first time for a new rider isn't fun at all.
After our short break we pressed on. She thanked me for helping her out at the bottom, "just in case I kinda hate you at the top." But she toughed it out and only cursed at me once I think. I tried to keep a running commentary going, telling jokes and making one-way small talk. Strange to be on that side of the conversation, rather than the one gasping out one word responses. She even managed a small "Woohoo!" when we reached the top.
Here is where she really impressed me though- We turned around to head back down and when we got to where she'd taken the break she asked to turn around and go back up again. Hell yeah, that's what I like to hear! So we flipped a U-y (U-ey? U-ee?) and back up we went. We were probably only a mile or so away from the top, but that is still kick ass for a new rider. I know the first time I went up I really didn't want to do it again, not even halfway.
We rode home, watched The Full Monty (great movie, find it, watch it) and hung out and it was a good time. Until she went to leave and realized some coward jackass stole her bike out of the back of her truck. Not to end such a positive post on a sour note, but I'm glad I didn't catch the guy when I went driving around the neighborhood to see if he was dumb enough to still be around. The cop who came when she reported it stolen said not to engage the criminal if we do see him, and I know that. But it would have been really tough not to run him off the road and beat the crap out of him. I'm not prone to tough talk like that but...fuck. Anyway, a police report is filed and craigslist will be scanned. Hopefully he is dumb enough to try to fence the bike there. I feel bad for letting her leave the bike in the back of her truck. Should have insisted she bring it inside.
Still, she had a great ride, she says she has another bike at home she can ride, and hopefully the cops find the guy or at least the bike.

A Quick Double Workout Post

Swim (Thursday)
1 x 200- warm-up
1 x 500
Swim Fail

Run (Thursday)
time- 49:52
distance- 7.72mi

Ride (Sunday)
time- 4:01
distance- 56.61

My interwebs have been doing the fritz all weekend, so this is making up for that. I know both of you out there in the tubes watching this point of light were wondering where I had gone.
Swim fail Thursday. I want to say the water was too cold again, and it was really cold, but there were others still in there while I was warming back up in the spa. I don't think I have a really good reason for why my swim Thursday was so bad. I was tired because I got to bed a lot later than I meant to. Either way, fail.
The run that day wasn't great either, but I'm still testing the tendons. They feel better, but still not great. Super Awesome Wife taped only the left leg since the right was doing ok, but I think Tuesday I'm going to tape both legs again. Foam rolling is helping, though there is sometimes tightness that wasn't there earlier. Whatever, it'll heal. Must be patient.
Sunday's ride with the boys was strong though. Diesel and I met up in the morning, the Grey was running behind because he was up all night Saturday polishing the trophy he got for winning his age group at the Warrior Dash Saturday* (*race report and pictures pending). So Diesel and I took off, heading to Pupukea for some climbing action. I feel like I had a good climb, it helps when Diesel decides to hang back and talk me up. Sure, it can be frustrating to be sweating, huffing, and puffing and the guy next to you is breezing and chatting, but it helps. My ego won't let me ease up. Damn ego.
On the way back down the Grey caught us up so we, brilliantly, turned around and went back up. You know, so that the Grey got his whole climb in. Wouldn't want to leave him out. My first double hop of Pupukea. Well, one and a half. It counts!
Then we cruised out Dillingham and back for time trials and headwind fighting, then up Pineapple. Diesel again "encouraged" me up, and bothered the Grey. Meaning he would ride some with me, notice that the Grey was getting away, shift and speed up** (**"speed up" should be read "disappear in a cloud of smoke"), bother the Grey by pulling on his jersey, turn around, and come back and meet me to ask why I hadn't caught them on that last flat part. It really did keep me moving and motivated, I kept the gas on way longer and harder than I might otherwise have...even though you kind of hate your friends while they are doing it.

Gimme Two Scoops of the Pineapple

Ride
time- 2:19
distance- 32.43
elevation gain- 2,483ft

Crashing after teaching today. Didn't feel like working out. One of those, "Oh, might those be storm clouds a-comin'?" sort of days. But only a little, because since my trip to Big Island I'm feeling motivated as all hell to put in good regular workouts. I don't know if my Achilles is going to let me get the runs in I want, but I sure as hell can be riding like I want. Like I mentioned yesterday, I didn't have much pain after my short run, but today my left calf/heel was feeling awfully tight. Lots of stretching and foam rolling happening. Tomorrow after school I'll be throwing some more Rock Tape on there for my run, and hopefully it'll last the weekend. Course, the Warrior Dash is Saturday, so that hope is probably in vain.
Anyway, getting a good look at some of the bounces Hawi takes on the climb to the turn-around point of the ride portion of Ironman Honu 70.3 really woke me up. I don't feel ready, but I do feel ready to suffer some more. I'm motivated in that, "Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap," kind of way. It's a good thing.
Good climb number one today. Cranked pretty hard, feel like I was holding a good cadence. Lost some time on the second one, and spent a lot of it thinking about how hungry I was. Good thing I ate a banana before I left the house or I would have been really hurting. Need to get this climbs strong.
Also, I was contacted by Mr. David Haas from the Mesothelioma Cancer Alliance about spreading the word about fitness and how beneficial that can be for cancer patients. He has an excellent post about it here, and I think he's going to write something special that I can put up in this space. Looking forward to it, Dirtbag Fitness is glad to spread the positive word and help cancer patients in any way we can. With that in mind, don't forget to occasionally click over to the Dirtbag Supports page and give a little. Even five bucks makes a difference. Cheers.