Me = Idiot

I am an idiot.  That seems to be the trend for me over the past seven days or so.  I am just not making good choices with my nutrition and time.  I have heard it many times from many people who have done Ironmans, that your life inevitably will revolve around training right up until race day and then....you do the race.  Many wanna-be Ironmen/women put their social life on hold, they put off big home projects until after the race, they eat smart and get plenty of rest.  Yeah, I am pretty much doing everything that I shouldn't be doing.  I have been staying up too late (yes, 10:00PM is too late when you have to get up at 4:15AM), doing too much work around the house (painting projects), staying up late with friends (damn you FIFA 2010), and cap it off just flat out eating very stupidly (near fasting one day, gorging on fast food the next).

The race is only about 66 days away and I really need to focus from now until race day.  I need to:

• Minimize the amount of social events that could lead to late nights
• Get 7 - 8 hours of sleep at a minimum
• Put home projects put on hold until after Thanksgiving
• Stop eating fast food with the girls

OK, now that I have said what I had to say, here is my recap:

Thursday - Afternoon & Evening
I had the intention of heading out at lunch for a long-ish bike ride, 1.5 hours or ~28 miles.  The first eight miles of it is very uphill, upwards of 10% grade for a mile stretch at one point.  It was a good challenge and I really worked hard during it.  Around mile 10 as I was flying down a hill at around 40 MPH I hit a rock with both my front and rear wheel and immediately dropped a couple "F" bombs.  Within seconds I could feel my rear wheel start to bounce a bit and then came the "thwap" sound that signalled I had flatted.  In hindsight I was fortunate not to crash out getting a flat at a pretty high speed.  It has been about a year since I last flatted and it seemed to take me that long to change it (actually it took ~10 min).  I then realized that I didn't have the time to complete the route I wanted and had to head back to the office.  Total ride:  1:07:00, 21 miles (18MPH...skewed because of flat and major climbs early in the ride).

After work it was a bit of Daddy-duty as my oldest had a Brownie meeting (Girls Scouts), my wife was stuck in traffic and the girls had to eat.  Basically from 4:45PM until 6:45 I was running round crazy trying to keep everything running smoothly.  Phew, it all worked out.  While my wife was at my oldest daughters Brownie meeting, I did get to spend an hour or so with my youngest daughter.  After her bath, we played "Guess Who" for about 20 minutes and had a great time, just  laughing and carrying on.  I had a phenomenal time with her.

I finished up the night by playing some FIFA 2010 on my PS3 with my friend in Florida (yes, I am a 13 year old boy in the body of a 39 year old man).  I swore I would quit at 10:30PM at the absolute latest....translation, 11:15 I bailed and didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM.

This Morning
What a horrible night of sleep.  My youngest came into our room around 2:00AM.  I woke up at 3:30AM thinking it was time to get up.  My alarm went off at 4:25AM (I pushed it back 10 min) and I was really not looking forward to my swim.  BUT....I did get up and get to the pool!  The result?  A woefully slow straight 3,500m outing in the fish bowl (1:13:00).  Everything was sore, every lap was different, everything was out of whack.  That will teach me to stay up late again....at least I hope it does.

This Afternoon
I have no clue what the heck is going on with my runs lately.  I headed out at lunchtime today with my friend Bill, the first mile was OK, right around 8:15 pace, mile two was slower, but OK 8:40 pace.  Then Bill had to head back while I finished my run. About 1/2 mile later I had to stop for a minute and gather myself.  I was feeling really tired and a bit dizzy.  Could it be from lack of sleep?  Maybe.  Anyway, I kept going and slowly my pace quickened, my ill feelings subsided and everything went back to normal.  I ran for an hour with an average of around 8:12/mile pace (negative splits for the most part), then did 10 minutes in Z4 (~6:58/mile pace) with a 6 minute cool down.  By the time I was finished I felt great, not sure what the deal was for the first 20 minutes.  Total run stats:  1:16:30, 9.35 miles, 8:10/mile pace (might have gone a touch longer than 9.35).

Oh, I am expecting a new pair of running shoes to arrive today....I am so EXCITED!!!  NOTE:  Just saw that they were delivered!!!!

Adios!