Leaving soon...

Well, tomorrow we start packing for our 3:36 flight on Tuesday out of Tampa. Of course, we gots loads of laundry to do, 9 days clothing to plan, cold weather clothes to find and pack, plus the whole race layout....Monday's gonna be a big day!

Gotta Shave Rave for sure. That will entail some sheers to the legs - I've let them get pretty long again. I need a fresh flattop too. Get them ears lowered.

Need to make another trip to the bike shop. Dumb Bigun forgot to take off my cassette from my training wheel before I packed the tools to put it on my rental Zipp 808 (did I mention that I'll be riding 808's yet....yea, I thought so...) - so hopefully they will loosen the screw up for me post haste on Monday.

Some decisions were made. Red top from the Chicago Triathlon will be my run shirt. It's seen a marathon and worked well. Why mess with success? Blue Nike bike jersey and bibs for the bike. Long sleeve cool max shirt to combat the cold morning air - 47 degrees overnight lows - and I'll even start the bike with my cycling gloves. I'm 99.9% sure I'm going to adjust the screens on my Garmin to only show Heart Rate, Average Heart rate, and Miles - no speed. I'm thinking I'll be pleasantly surprised with the cool temps, riding with my aero helmet and race wheels (which I have yet to do on a long ride), and aid stations every 10 miles - plus the excitement of IRONMAN - no predictions of bike splits, I just think I'll be happy.

As will the run be a happy jaunt. Training in high heat and humidity adds significant stress in the form of raised heart rates for any particular pace. Mid 70's temps during the run is a 15 to 25 degree drop from my normal training temps, and a 55% humidity is going to feel awesome. The trick for the.bigun will be to arrive at the waters' edge without being sick, as significant temperature changes tend to bring on the sniffles. Lots of OJ.

It's also time to cash in the piggy bank. That's right - the CDA Fun Bank will be converted to green tomorrow at the credit union. We didn't fill up the jar as much as I'd hoped in a year, but whatever is in there will surely buy a few beers!

CdA Plans

I was chatting with my Dad a day or so ago, and he asked me what we were gonna do besides race up in Coeur d' Alene - good question! After thinking a moment, I responded that the thing we will do most of is socialize! Everything has been so hectic here at the year round outdoor training center - it will be most awesome just to get away from it all. The moving, the cutting, the training, all that...all behind us as the plane takes off on Tuesday.

I'm sure there are things to do and places to see once we get there. I and perhaps we (TrisherpaDi included) miss the mountains so much living here in the swamps and land of the giant rat, that just being amongst them and their majesty might be enough. The lake, the cool temps, different vegetation and building structures will all be so different to make it a great enough escape.

Truly, however, the infinite meets, hugs, hello's, conversations, and get togethers that will take place from this coming Wednesday and continuing on for nearly a week will make the trip. Physically getting out and doing what we love to do - swim, bike and run - with our virtual friends is an opportunity of a lifetime. Spending time with people that I know, possibly, better than friends I have locally but because they don't blog, our friendship is somewhat superficial in comparison.

I'm not saying all my non-blogger friendships are weak relationships and that just because a person blogs then they are my BFF. All I'm saying is that, well, when it comes to YOU ALL, I know things. I know fears. I know triumphs. I know family troubles. I know of trials and graduations and birthdays and new births. I was there, in my living room, watching you cross the finish line in Wisconsin, sharing, even that little bit, the glory of that moment with you. Thank you, BTW. I know things you probably don't talk about with your local friends and family - how do I know this? Because I don't talk about most of what I blog about with my local friends and family.

But then again, I'm a dude.

See many of you soon!

The Coolest Number!

Ok, so I'm biased. I have to say, however, that mine...not YOURS...is the coolest number ever for the race. Better than number 1 - well, not really. But close!


1234


Yes, that's right - the easiest 4 digit number to remember in the entire world - I'll bet even a few of you lazy folks even use it as your PIN on your debit card. You know who you are!

Now that bib numbers are issued...dang this thing is getting close. Did you see the lake temps plummet in the last 2 days? Crimeny! We'll be darn lucky to see 55 degrees come race day. And what's with the cold evening lows? 47 degrees - basically, the water will be warmer, if you can believe it, than the air temperature on race day. Now that's a comforting thought!

So assuming I make the swim time cutoff of 2 hrs and 20 minutes, we'll exit the water to a happy 50 degrees and jump, water-logged and frozen, on to our bikes for some 17 - 30 mph (remember, there are downhills too...) riding through cold air. What you say? Highs for the day could reach 81 or so? Nice...just in time for the run, we'll hit the day's high - which is still 15 degrees cooler than temps at the year-round-outdoor-training-center.

And NO, I'm not complaining about 81 degrees - luv that! The question is...how quickly, once the sun does down, does it cool off around there? I'm guessing it's pretty quick - and since I'm 99.9% sure that if all goes well and I make the bike cutoff - I'll be running in the dark, and the cold. TriSherpDi - bring a jacket!

1234

Too bad I don't have a 12:34 Ironman in me....

Triblogger CdA T-shirts!

These came out really, really cool.

The fabric is nice - it's called anvil dri-release. It's got a little bit of cotton in it to make it soft.

Of course there are some without the Sherpa on the back too.



Dang there are a lot of t-shirts in this box! We are gonna seriously represent in Idaho (who you calling a ho?) this year!

Maybe we should have had them done on sweatshirts?

(the.bigun apologizes for the lack of photographic quality in the representation of these fine, fine T-shirts. These pics were not taken with TrisherpaDi's high-speed camera, nor with her trained eyeballs. Sorry.)

Good things

Those sunglasses I got, the frameless Tufosi's - worked awesomely. Great optics, just enough shading, they look good, and the only piece of the glasses I can see is the nose piece. Thumbs up for sure from the.bigun.


The new aerobottle - great as well. no splashing with the new lid means that I can fill it up to the top now. It also means no face full's of Gatorade when I hit a bump! Refills easy with a standard waterbottle - really, no negatives and all positives.

I tried the new Roc Gu - contains extra amino acids and caffeine. Good stuff actually. Used 2 on my last 50m ride, on an empty stomach, and I really liked them. Maybe Gu will have some at CdA...

I also bought a pair of the cheepo booties that Spokane Al recommended on the CdA blogger site. $18 with shipping; it's hard to go wrong there.

My taper has been a bit less than textbook. I've been really, really taking it easy - aside from work, my workouts are lacking. Now that I'm shipping my bike out today, I'll be really avoiding any temptation (however slight) to get on the trail and ride. I have been getting in some heavy lifting - moving TrisherpaDi out of her studio, and then moving all the "stuff" into the house. Fun stuff.

I shipped my bike today to Spokane! $53 to ship it. For all you shippers out there....some tid bits:

• If you can get the box under 7" wide, you can save around $10 on Fedex ground. My box was 8" - I may have been able to take an inch off - but with the crank on, it makes the bike a bit wide.
• My box height was 28". I didn't change that dimension (or the width) - and with my seat removed, the top of my seat tube and the bottom of my crank took up the whole box. My bike is a 58 cm.
• The box length was 43" - even if it was smaller, that would not have effected the price much. I believe that under 50" is where you want to be. I shortened the box to match my bike's length. The whole orig. box by itself would have been over $80 - so by shortening the length, I saved a bunch. I was able to do this by not shipping my wheels. I'm renting Zipp 808's, so I figured that sending the extra weight and lengths were not necessary. The whole thing, with the tools to put it together, weighed 28lbs.
• I took off the rear derailleur and hanger - to protect it - and that helped the length . I had to loosen and bend in my aerobar grips, and take off the elbow pads, to make that whole contraption less than 8 inches wide...that was a pain in the neck. I just hope I used enough Styrofoam to pad it all. I guess we'll see in a week!

IM Shipments

Got some good stuff in today. I'll be testing these out on my last long-ish ride this weekend; they seem way better optically than these cheepo's I train in. I bought some more of the cheepos too - after all, they do work.

I got some new cleats for my shoes. Nothing like a nice set of cleats. I've taken out my liners on my bike shoes - the largest size of tri-cycling shoes is still just a bit too small for my feet, and taking out the liners went a long way to preventing hot foot. Yes, it was hard on the feet for those first few long rides, but I'm used to it now. Makes it nice in transition. Oh yea, my last long ride I noticed one spot on the bottom of my foot felt like a nail being driven through it. Well, actually, it was a screw. One of the screws to my cleats, on both shoes, goes in so far that I can feel it inside the shoe. So, I'll be using a washer or something to try to make sure that screw can't be felt inside the shoe anymore. I'm sure that with the liners in there'd be no problems, but that just won't work for me in a long ride.

I also got a new Profile Design aerobottle. Mine was (is) 3 years old, and kinda nasty looking. The new ones come with a top, of all things - so we'll put that to the test, refilling and whatnot, tomorrow as well.

Got my bike back from the shop. They did a tune up, replaced the shifter cables, trued the wheels, lubed it all up - definitely a whole new bike it seems. I had the bottom bracket bearings replaced - before you could pull on the pedals away from the bike and there was some play to them. Not good. Now there is absolutely no play at all. The mechanic said he had to take blow torch to it to get the bearings off the tube. Nice. He also said that it was the last set of bearings he would be able to replace on that Bottom Bracket. This set was the second replacement. Guess I should start shopping for a new BB.

Also got a box to ship my bike in from the LBS. This has to be done on Monday or Tuesday. That's gonna be a reality check. The big day is upon us! I'm really looking forward to strapping on those Zipp 808's (rented from http://www.racedaywheels.com/) and seeing what I'm made of on that course. Bring it!

Focus

Man, what a couple of weeks. Not sure I really want to get into the ongoing saga's of Team Bigun, or Team Big Bikes for that matter. Lets just say that if you go over to Di's blog, you can get an earful, or eyeful - anyway. Don't ya wish it could all be pigtails and butterflies this close to the big show? Alas...it wouldn't be Ironman if it were easy.

I'm sure things will work out. I'm sure they will get better. Months, even weeks ago, it was easy to put my head down and get out the door without much fanfare. Now there's a lot of "shaking off the cobwebs" before one foot goes in front of the other...and even then, there's not a lot of enthusiasm involved. Of course it being 97 today didn't help matters much.

I'm psyched - really, I am. I am so wanting to hit that beach and get this show on the road. I'm looking forward to meeting so many great people, and sharing this event - dare I say "life altering" event - with everyone there. Not to mention the parting. Did I mention the partying? It would be nice to have some things settled by then. But that, my friends, may be cutting it a bit close. If you see me, in 2 weeks and 4 days, not quite in a place I should be....PLEASE...feel free to snap me out if it. I'll welcome the help. Trust me, I'll be working on ME as well. I know all too well that I'll need to be above and beyond the black cloud that surrounds us at this moment in time.

And no, Nytro, that doesn't include a swift kick in the bells...and I don't mean cowbells either.

Tom

The past 7 or 8 days were nuts. Peak training week. Ungodly high temps. Serious business "developments". And to top it all off, a friend died.

I'm kind of mad about the friend dying thing. Being as young as I am, even with my military background, I haven't had that many people that I know, family or friends, die. My friend was only a year older than me. I say friend, yet I'm positive I did not know him well enough.

Tom and his wife Lisa started as customers of Diana - she did some design work for them, including a remodel of his restaurant where I first met Tom, "McHale's Chophouse". It was absolutely the best food I've ever eaten. Tom cared about every plate that was ever served, and came out to check on his customers often. Oh, the calamari, and prime rib...it was all just awesome! He grew tired of his time away from family (he had 3 young boys) and the headaches of owning a restaurant (and a bar, and another restaurant) and closed down my beloved McHale's! I was NOT the only one in Brandon who was angry that day for sure.

But that's not why I'm mad now.

We had dinner at Tom and Lisa's house once, maybe twice, and met them out as well - Di continued to have a business relationship with Tom and a friendship with Lisa, but for some reason I never really had time (or made time?) for Tom. Now he was a busy man too - it's not like he called me, ever, or I called him and tried to get together for a beer. It just never...happened.

We had some things in common, Tom and I - he went to Cornell the same time that I went to West Point. He was riding a bike a couple years ago... actually he stopped riding just as I was starting to. We both struggled with our weight and size, and talked of diet and exersize. We both loved food. Tom was a lineman - played for the Bucs, the Eagles and the Dolphins. He still weighed-in close to 300 on a good day, and I don't know....big guys just seem to get along. He had way about him - he was just great to be around.

I'm not sure when I learned, but Di told me one day that Tom was in rehab. He was in constant pain as a result of his injuries earned during his football days, and had succumbed to a habit he was working to break. When I heard, I thought, "Tom's a strong dude - he'll be ok soon enough", and I really didn't give it much more thought. I got updates from Diana through his wife Lisa, and it seemed like he was struggling more than I would have figured, but not so much that it caused me concern. Why wasn't I concerned? I don't know, really I don't. I guess I just thought so highly of Tom that I figured he'd fix it.

So I missed out. That's what I'm mad about. I had a chance over the last 5 or 6 years to get to know a really great man and I blew it. No, I don't think I could have influenced him in any way to change the circumstances causing his death. He had plenty of friends - good one's in fact - and his family was loving and there for him as well. Selfishly - I just wish I'd have known him better. I know he would have added to my life.

Tom will be missed. If it's possible, or makes sense, I wish I could be missing him more.

Ironweek 4

I think I trained all this time so that I'd be in shape enough for last week. Barely. Some highlights of the week:

203 miles of biking, Longest Ride: 102, Average Total Speed: 18.25, Avg HR: 134bpm.

Day after 103 mile ride, I did a sprint tri with a 15 mile bike, average speed: 22.64 mph. Nice....and the first time over 22 in a triathlon!

I'm happy with my biking. I'm taking my bike to the shop tomorrow to get a tuneup, and make this my last big bike week. The following week I have to ship the bike to Spokane, so this is the last chance I'll have to make sure everything works. I've noticed my bottom bracket not turning as round as I'd like - it seems to flair too much when I push with the right leg. So that's just one thing I'll be having them check (replace with new bearings...).

26.11 miles of running, averaging 10:46 pace and 144 bpm for the HR. I'm not as happy with my running, so this week, while my bike is in the shop, I'll spend some more time running, and getting at volume up over 30. I need a longer run too - but if it starts feeling squirley, I'll cease and desist.

The wheels totally fell off - my legs exploded after the bike on my sprint tri today. I actually WALKED some on a 5k - I.had.nothing.

I should have seen it coming. No breakfast. 5 hrs sleep the night before. No nutrition like Gatorade or Gel's before or on the course. I raced like a total newbie in that regard, and bonked - if that's what you want to call it - half a mile into the run.

8097 yards of swimming, with a long swim of 4k and, well, the pace is so slow as to just leave it all at that. I was very happy with my 4k swim, in that I lowered my 2.4 mile swim time to 1:41 - that's 11 min faster than my last 2.4 mile continuous swim.

Luke still whooped me in the water today on the sprint tri - good grief, I suck! Oh well....

So all that amounted to 18.78 hrs of training for the week. Phew. I'm beat. Done. Ready to call it a day! Three weeks left until the big show. One week of swimming and running. I'm very ready to be done with all this....

Of course we celebrated at the race (beer tent) and the Daiquiri Shack across the street after the race. $12 Margarita pitchers are just way too good a special to pass up.