I live a pretty blessed life as far as the big picture is concerned. I 90% of the time stay in good health (even when I lived on junk) which also helps my training because I stay big injury free and miss very few workouts
I am able to most days motivate myself mentally enough to push myself on what I consider to be a pretty large workout load and I live in a nice house and have family and friends who put up with the craziness of Ironman training, I would like to say people consider me lucky because it seems I more often then not end up in the right place at the right time but last week my luck ran out...
Sunday my wife left for Alabama for the week. I did get in a 25 mile bike ride and a very short walk jog in. Then my 1 and a half year old got sick (stomach flu) and I spent a couple of days taking care of him and only managed a couple of short runs. Then as he got better my 3 and a half caught it which led to another day of taking care of sick kids... The issue with my 3 and a half year old is he is a mini me and if he gets sick then usually he is one of the only people that can get me sick and he did so 2 days away from race day I couldn't keep anything down I was missing sleep due to taking care of the boys and some pre 1st race ever nerves. I spent Friday getting sick and playing a very strange game of trying to put in more fluid then my body would kick out (I lost). I did something late Friday that I would never suggest but I was at a crossroads
A. keep playing this losing game and maybe end up dehydrated
B. Put nothing in and hope I'm better the next day
C. Pull the in case of emergency lever and force my body to follow my rules
Of course I picked option 3. (Once again what I did was an extreme and I don't in any way suggest this) After working all day I went to My pre Primal favorite restaurant Los Corrals and ordered My usual with extra liquid cheese dip and ate everything I could find and then drank 4 glasses of water then waited to see what happens... I went and picked up my sons from school and took them home we had a normal night (at which time I was taking in as much liquid as I could find) and then picked up my wife from the airport around 9:40 pm. I still felt horrible but I was holding on to some hydration and I was at least not losing anything I might need come race time. Wow you might be saying to yourself how did you know that one of the worst meals you could ever eat 2 days before a race would fix you. Well before I became Paleo/Primal I would eat anything I thought I wanted and then try to work out and twice in my training I ate this meal and twice I almost didn't make it through a run because my body didn't/couldn't digest this weird mixture of carbs, processed wheat etc so I used that knowledge to benefit me for once. Crazy I know but that;s just the way my brain works. Saturday I woke up and felt like I ate junk the night before so I started with liquids again and most of it was staying with me. I slept in and then got a haircut and drank some homemade juice (Broccoli, tomato, peppers, apples) and everything was looking up. I went to the race packet pick up and got all my goodies and then attended a wedding for my wife's cousin and the wedding was fine but when we got to the reception. As soon as we got in the room I started sweating (my body was on high alert still fighting what ever was left of the stomach flu) I looked around and everyone was acting like it was warm so I knew I was in trouble. I started drinking as much water as the waiter would bring me and the party went on as normal. My pre race meal was a Grilled fish fillet, a small slice of Prime Rib and a salad. by the time we left I had lost any spare fluid I had built up for the race. I went home and packed my car for the Tri and went to sleep about 11pm at 3:30am I got up double checked all my gear and left for the race. I got to the race set up my transition area and was getting ready to take pics for my post race blog when a bunch of the guys said rain is coming cover your stuff. I jogged back to my car got a couple of trash bags and covered all my gear (I hate running in wet shoes) It started raining and then I walked around in the rain for an hour. I then put on my wetsuit and started my pre race fuel process. I went down to the beach to get a feel for the lake water and warm up. As soon as I hit the beach they called everyone out of the water and asked everyone to wait so they could make a decision on if the race was going to happen. It was cancelled and I was crushed. I packed up my bike and sit in my car and watched everyone pack up their stuff and I drove home in silence.
I took a nap and after talking to my wife and moping around for a couple of hours I decided to do the Tri on my own so I went to the gym and jumped in the pool. then drove to the downtown airport and rode my bike 25 miles then hopped off and ran a 10k... At mile 12 I flipped my bike and sled through the shoulder and into the grass of course there were 2 real cyclist following me and passed without even talking to me. I then got up took my bike back to the car thought about quitting but instead fixed my bike and started the ride again. By the time I was running I was out of energy I didn't stop and get more fuel so I did the whole Tri on 48 oz of liquid and 1 gel and so i had to stumble through the last 2 miles but at least I finished. It was a rough week and it beat me but no time to worry about it now I have 19 days til Ironman Kansas so it's time to up my workouts and hope I can handle it....
A. keep playing this losing game and maybe end up dehydrated
B. Put nothing in and hope I'm better the next day
C. Pull the in case of emergency lever and force my body to follow my rules
Of course I picked option 3. (Once again what I did was an extreme and I don't in any way suggest this) After working all day I went to My pre Primal favorite restaurant Los Corrals and ordered My usual with extra liquid cheese dip and ate everything I could find and then drank 4 glasses of water then waited to see what happens... I went and picked up my sons from school and took them home we had a normal night (at which time I was taking in as much liquid as I could find) and then picked up my wife from the airport around 9:40 pm. I still felt horrible but I was holding on to some hydration and I was at least not losing anything I might need come race time. Wow you might be saying to yourself how did you know that one of the worst meals you could ever eat 2 days before a race would fix you. Well before I became Paleo/Primal I would eat anything I thought I wanted and then try to work out and twice in my training I ate this meal and twice I almost didn't make it through a run because my body didn't/couldn't digest this weird mixture of carbs, processed wheat etc so I used that knowledge to benefit me for once. Crazy I know but that;s just the way my brain works. Saturday I woke up and felt like I ate junk the night before so I started with liquids again and most of it was staying with me. I slept in and then got a haircut and drank some homemade juice (Broccoli, tomato, peppers, apples) and everything was looking up. I went to the race packet pick up and got all my goodies and then attended a wedding for my wife's cousin and the wedding was fine but when we got to the reception. As soon as we got in the room I started sweating (my body was on high alert still fighting what ever was left of the stomach flu) I looked around and everyone was acting like it was warm so I knew I was in trouble. I started drinking as much water as the waiter would bring me and the party went on as normal. My pre race meal was a Grilled fish fillet, a small slice of Prime Rib and a salad. by the time we left I had lost any spare fluid I had built up for the race. I went home and packed my car for the Tri and went to sleep about 11pm at 3:30am I got up double checked all my gear and left for the race. I got to the race set up my transition area and was getting ready to take pics for my post race blog when a bunch of the guys said rain is coming cover your stuff. I jogged back to my car got a couple of trash bags and covered all my gear (I hate running in wet shoes) It started raining and then I walked around in the rain for an hour. I then put on my wetsuit and started my pre race fuel process. I went down to the beach to get a feel for the lake water and warm up. As soon as I hit the beach they called everyone out of the water and asked everyone to wait so they could make a decision on if the race was going to happen. It was cancelled and I was crushed. I packed up my bike and sit in my car and watched everyone pack up their stuff and I drove home in silence.
I took a nap and after talking to my wife and moping around for a couple of hours I decided to do the Tri on my own so I went to the gym and jumped in the pool. then drove to the downtown airport and rode my bike 25 miles then hopped off and ran a 10k... At mile 12 I flipped my bike and sled through the shoulder and into the grass of course there were 2 real cyclist following me and passed without even talking to me. I then got up took my bike back to the car thought about quitting but instead fixed my bike and started the ride again. By the time I was running I was out of energy I didn't stop and get more fuel so I did the whole Tri on 48 oz of liquid and 1 gel and so i had to stumble through the last 2 miles but at least I finished. It was a rough week and it beat me but no time to worry about it now I have 19 days til Ironman Kansas so it's time to up my workouts and hope I can handle it....
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