Holy Hard Holiday Training

It is Tuesday morning and I am tired and I am sore.  It was a long weekend down at the Jersey Shore, with many activities going on and and many of them not conducive to Ironman training.  I suppose now is the time to start spilling the beans.

Saturday - The Long Bike, The Short Run, The Late Night
Instead of driving down to my 'rents house in Lavallette on Friday night, I suggested to my wife that I just ride my bike down and she could sleep in a bit and drive down a bit later, ideally coordinating our arrival for around the same time.  So I was up around 5:10AM and after my normal dilly-dallying around I finally hit the road at 5:50AM.  It was still dark out so I wore my headlamp for the first 30 minutes or so...I should have left a bit earlier to maximize the headlamp usage. 

I could go into all of the dynamics of my ride, but that would just be boring because there wasn't a whole lot going on.  It was a beautiful day, perfect weather, and no mechanical issues.  I would say up until around mile 70, everything was going according to plan.  Then, as I made my way over the Mantloking Bridge, my stomach started to get a bit queasy and I wasn't sure what I should do to make it go away.  My ride up to that point had been so solid, fast and smooth.  I kept drinking, but that didn't help.  I sucked it up and just toughed out the last 11 miles, grateful that I made it to my parents house without vomiting or succumbing to any other intestinal issues.  Ride stats:  82.15 miles, 4:02:00. 20.4MPH (had been up to 20.7MPH but slowed during the last 10 miles)

I had to hang around for about 30 minutes before I could head out for my run (my wife got down a bit later than planned) which had a negative impact on my performance.  I should have eaten something in the interim, Shot Bloks, bagel, something.  Instead I just sat around and waited.  When I finally headed out for my run I was toast.  The first mile was solid, then I ran out of gas.  I did a lot of walking and ended up only putting in 40 of my planned 45 minutes.  Live and learn I suppose, eh?

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and what a day it was.  My sister was there with her family (visiting from Utah), my cousin and their kids, and a bunch of others.  Me and my family had a really good time.  There was a bit of a drawback in that Hurricane Earl had kicked up the surf pretty good, so they weren't letting anyone in the water past their waist.  So what I had to do was wait until 6PM when the lifeguards left and head back up to get in some body boarding (it was too big for me to surf).  I was in the water for about an hour and had a blast, just getting barreled and worked all over the place.  Awesome way to end an epic day.

That night the party was on at my 'rents house and to quickly summarize the events:

• Played some games for a few hours (washers, etc.)
• I headed to bed at 1:15AM
• I was convinced to drive a bunch of inebriated individuals (5 total) to Seaside Heights to find "The Situation", Snooki, and the rest of the cast of Jersey Shore 
• Arrived at "Bamboo" at 1:45AM, lost my wife and other friend immediately, there was an incident, someone left with a black eye, we were on our way home by 2:45AM.
• Finally managed to get into bed at 3:15AM

Sunday - Long Run, Body Surfing, Sore Ride
Ugh, was I ever tired.  I dragged my sore and tired butt out of bed at 8:00AM.  I thought to myself that this is not the way one should be training for an Ironman, no, not at all.  I was recruited by all of the kids in the house to go on a donut run, so I took my youngest and my niece.  After the donut run I need to get in a my hour and a half run, so I rallied and made it happen.  All in all it didn't go all that badly, I started out easy and gradually increased my pace over the entire run.  Run stats:  10.88 miles, 1:31:30 (8:24/mile pace)

Another day spend at the beach and on this day we were able to get in and actually go body surfing!  I probably spent about two or three hours out in the water riding waves.  They were perfect, 3 - 5', hollow and breaking left to right (a lot of closeouts though).  Absolutely perfect day.

Later on that night I knew that I had to get in a ride, an easy one hour ride at 100+RPM.  I wasn't looking forward to it, especially when you consider everything I had done over the past 36 hours (long bike, short run, body boarding, late night, long run, body surfing, etc.).  Despite all of this I put my helmet and shoes on and got it done.  1:00:00, 17.0MPH.

Bedtime came early that night, I was asleep by 9:30PM

Monday - A Day of Rest

I did not thing on Labor Day, just slept in until 7:30AM, took my dog for a short walk, ate a good breakfast and then just chilled.  We did go out for a ride in my father's boat, heading down to the Barnegat Lighthouse.  Other than that we just chilled on the beach all day before eating dinner and then heading home at 8:00PM.  It was a really good weekend, I was able to spend some time my sister and her family (my nephew and two nieces), spend a lot of time at the beach (that last time until next year), and also spend some quality time with my wife and daughters. 

Not it is back to the normal routine, training every day, soccer Saturday's/Sunday's, dance Saturday's, and everything else that comes out way.  Cheers!