The Easy Part

Two weekends ago I took the Evil Genius camping, then we went up to Camp Kanata for the Fall Outing Sunday afternoon. This weekend I took Bigun camping with her Indian Princess tribe Saturday night, and since EG and I didn't get to do any of the real camp-y stuff, I took both of them up to Kanata again for all of the camp fun.

I never thought Ironman would be the least exhausting of these three weekends.

This is week 38 of the 39 week Ironman training plan.  Only race week is left. This is quite a relief. The second week of taper is supposed to be easy. Nice and slow workouts, about an hour each. Still do something long on Saturday.  Total time was about 7 hours. I got plenty of rest. It was pretty glorious.  This is also the kind of week where every little nagging pain starts to flare up and finally maybe heal. This is supposed to be the easy part.

After I did the long workout it was a much more relaxed approach to getting ready for the camping trip. I still had all the gear pulled out from the previous trip, and we had plenty of time to get all the veggies cut and ready. I had to pick up Bigun from a friend's birthday party and we got right out to Jordan Lake to get the tent setup and started camping.

We really did have a blast. I was starting out completely exhausted and hungry. Then it started raining as soon as I got the potatoes on the campfire.  She lost two hot dogs just by walking around looking for a dry place to eat, poor thing. But then the rains cleared and we had some huge s'mores and everything ended up ok.  Bigun was the last kid standing, she hung out with me and the other dads around the campfire until about 11:30, which was really fun. I think that's her favorite part.

About 4 am I woke up and really had to pee. Found a headlight and stumbled into the woods behind the tent. I thought it was morning already, there was a full moon that was as bright as the sun out there. All of the clouds had moved on and there was more stars than I've ever seen over the Raleigh sky.  It was about 40*, so cold and beautiful. I don't know why I enjoy peeing outside so much but it really is better than peeing inside. I also took a moment to soak in the night sky before crashing out again.

After breakfast Bigun went with her friends into the mud and water for a bit on Sunday morning. We needed to get out of there without dallying. Instead, I went down there to get her, grabbed a few pics and then we got lost in the woods trying to get back to the car. I don't know how you get lost on one trail that goes for 300 yards, but I did it.  The important part was that I convinced her that we weren't lost, we just needed to turn around and go back.

Our Giant S'mores

Sunday morning in the tent

Yes she went in the water in pajamas

After we got home I laid down on the bed and told Kelley I thought I had lyme disease.  Even got her to check my head for ticks. She thought it was just a hangover. She might have been right, but unimaginative. I had to pull it together for another round at Camp Kanata.

Last sunday EG and I got up to Kanata around 4 pm, just in time to meet up for the hike, dinner, and ceremony. She was really upset that we didn't get to do any of the other camp activities, and Bigun was pretty upset that 3rd years don't really have a fall outing where her tribe went up to the camp. So I piled them both in the car and we went up there just to crash this weekend's first and second year fall outing. We got to do all of the fun camp stuff.  Archery, the climbing wall, a ropes course, play some tetherball and cornhole, it was a blast. They were worn out.  Bigun really wanted to get in the canoe, but EG wouldn't do it so we had to pass. That was the only strife.  It was pretty perfect, and we were out of there around 4 pm.

On the climbing wall

Daddy got inverted!

Ropes course! Balancing on a wire

EG on a wire

I got one pic like this of just Bigun during her first year fall outing

The archer and the ham

Bigun is ready!

teaching EG to shoot!

Me and my little Archers of Loaf!

It was a blast. We had a really good time up there. it was a great way to end the week. Yes I was tired and again didn't get to see any of my beloved fall college football, but the way Clemson played against FSU was disturbing anyway. These are the kind of things we just do for our kids. This is how we fit it all in and make those memories. Great week!

The Forest, The Fire, and the EG

What happens when you put an Evil Genius in the woods at night?  Fun times. Fun times indeed!

Outside of that, there was this

Taper is fantastic. I did get in three 10 mile runs, and not much else. Couple of rides, a swim, a brick. Beach 2 Battleship is 8 days away. I should be rested, and I'm certainly ready to get to that starting line.

After the brick Saturday, it was time to get ready and packed up to take the EG camping. It ended up being a mad scramble to get it all done. There was veggies to cut, get all the camping "stuff" ready, get lunch done with Bigun, and only had a few hours to pull it all together. Plus EG had a birthday party to go to, in which she wrote on the boy's card "I love you literally" and apparently that was a hit. He totally picked her for a lunch thing today at school.

Eventually we found the campsite and started setting up, only half an hour later than expected. This trip was with her Indian Princess tribe and the hope was that all 11 girls would get along well with each other and the weather would be sunny and 70* the whole time.  At least all the kids got along.

She crawled right into her sleeping bag as soon as I got the tent setup

Veggies cooking on the campfire. Yum!  They turned out incredible. EG in the background.

Roasting marshmallows, and this is about as close as she got to the fire. Bigun can't keep her hands out of it when she's camping.

S'Mores made with the largest marshmallow's ever created

Apparently, I pitched the tent on a part of the campsite that was slightly slanted.  It wasn't obvious to look at, but when I woke up this morning EG had slid over to  me and wasn't awake yet. This may be the sweetest picture I ever get with her. Freaking incredible.

She's so sweet when she's asleep.

Playing in the woods sunday morning in pj's and a chicken hat

Ol' Turkey Head strikes again. Somebody slept great in the tent with Daddy!

The Unicornicopia's go camping

 

As if that wasn't enough trouble for one weekend, Sunday afternoon was also the Indian Princess Fall Outing at Camp Kanata. We had to get out of the campsite, rush home where I finished stitching up my vest, showered, ate something, and got back on the road up to Wake Forest. Camp Kanata is a really fun place, they have canoes and archery and all that fun camp stuff. 

We didn't get there in time for any of that.  EG and I got parked and checked in just in time to make the hike out to the big tree. After that was dinner and then the evening ceremony, which is really the most important part of the entire fall outing.

No patches on that vest yet... slackin

The Big Tree is 200 to 250 years old

We snagged a group picture at the Big Tree, and they get a special feather for the hike.

We really have a great tribe going here. So much fun!

At the end, I'd say it was "mission accomplished" for the day.

I was stopped at a red light

When we left Kanata, she was asleep like that in less than 3 miles of driving time.  Totally worn out. She loved it. The entire time was great for her; and that never happens. ever. I really enjoyed getting that much time alone with my special little girl. It's going to be a fun year.

5 Things Friday

1. This:

Evil Genius got me with some kind of moth wing head costume thing. Her imagination is boundless.

2. and this:

Only in South Carolina? Maybe only in Myrtle Beach? The license plate says "elected official".

Now when I cast a vote, in my head the person I'm electing might drive a Cadillac, or maybe some kind of sensible sedan, if not a luxury car. The Mustang GT above is all redneck'd out with a spoiler and all.  gimme a break.

3. Meanwhile in Myrtle Beach:

Mr Fish is our favorite restaurant in Myrtle Beach. Turns out they moved to a new larger location on the same road and added sushi to the menu. We didn't order the sushi, but it just didn't seem as good as it normally does. Still the best seafood place in MB, but not the same.

4. Meanwhile back in Raleigh:

Evil Genius is now an Indian Princess! I really like the other dads in her tribe, and she seems to get along with all of the girls. I couldn't believe how well behaved she was at the first tribe meeting Monday night. She didn't cry, or fight over the markers, or anything! And she kept telling me how much fun she was having. It was pretty awesome.

5.  This weekend I'm taking EG camping with her tribe. Expect tons of pics next week, it's going to be adorable. Of course, she might also ruin camping for me. She has to eat the right stuff, and not be too scared to be out in the woods, and not fight or try to run away in the middle of the night, etc. So many chances to have it go horribly wrong. and I have so much prep work to do, and so much training still to do, and I need about 4 days worth of weekend in only 2 days time to get everything done. 15 days to Ironman!

Wordless Wednesday

Me and Kelley at Myrtle Beach from a couple of weekends ago

My mom made the Halloween costumes for the kids this year and she loved it. So did they.

they also both got new purses with perfume samples from Aunt Martha... and somebody totally freaked out over it all.

In Recovery

Technically it's not really a taper yet, but this is a recovery week after the peak stuff. Luckily I got in tons of running, a swim, and as little time on the bike as possible. I actually had much more time on the run than on the bike, 55 miles riding in 2:45, and 33 miles of running in 4:37. Add in that swim and I had about 8.5 hours working out last week. Not bad for recovery. I took it easy the whole time, nothing fast or hard in there.

Friday was my first glorious rest day in a while.  It was glorious. and all that running was just fantastic. All in all, that was a great week!

For the weekend, we headed down to Greenville to go back to the Shit house since the realtor was finished with it and we were ready to sign the listing agreement. The house turned out great!

The stairwell looked great! Gene and I built that wall years ago.

This used to be a screened in porch that I built, but now all of the screen is gone

Kitchen and dining area

It is listed for sale and is in great shape now! And you should seriously think about buying it. Of course it was great to see the family too. Mom made the Halloween costumes for the kids, and they loved it. We got to hang out with my brother Morgan a lot as well, and eat way too much pizza and had tons of fun. The drive back to Raleigh Sunday took way too long, but I still got in that 10 mile run after we got back.

Finally, my 20 year high school reunion was Saturday night. We chose not to go, but it still makes me feel my age. old!! Did you go to a big reunion like that? I kind of wanted to go just to show off the ironman body, tattoos, and marathon stories since of course all of my former classmates are going to show up looking fat, poor, and old. Ultimately I just didn't feel like it.

Why Vegan (revisited)

I wanted to revisit the Why Vegan topic that I wrote about when we did go totally vegan at the first part of the year. It was really fantastic, and I really did enjoy it. But we couldn't make it into a habit, even after 2 solid months. I had a couple of expectations going into it that were all met, and a few that were disappointing.

Lately I've had vegan/vegetarianism on the brain again. Once you get into a plan like that for a couple of weeks, how it makes you feel, how you look, it's all very appealing. But those are the side affects of the lifestyle and it's not easy to maintain.

The biggest side effect that I was hoping for was faster recovery from the workouts, and I certainly got that. Only a few hours after a hard run and I'd be feeling great. Run in the morning and I'd be totally recovered for the swim that night.  Get some good sleep and I'm ready to hit the bike the next morning. That's the rhythm of Ironman training, you can keep up or get injured or get left behind.

The other thing that really worked for me was "looking my age". Meat and other animal products contain carcinogens and other elements that come naturally or are created through most cooking methods that prematurely age people. So what we normally think a 37 year old man should look like is what people used to think a 50 year old man looked like. When I had been vegan for a month, most people guessed my age at 25, but I got a few 23's in there and even started getting carded at bars again.  Once after showing a bartender my driver's license he actually said "holy shit man, good for you" because I looked so "young". I could challenge that concept by arguing that most others looked older than their actual age so the concept was skewed, but I really had no problems accepting that I looked over 10 years younger than I actually was.  it was pretty awesome.

What disappointed me was the weight loss. Weight loss is a side effect of a vegan diet, not an intended consequence. The body "right sizes" itself by getting rid of unneeded body fat. I knew from the way I was working out that I needed to get down to a certain weight (175 lbs, under 20% body fat) and I thought that being vegan would get me there. It did not.

The other thing that didn't work was the portion sizes. Supposedly you can eat just massive quantities of plants and fruit without gaining weight. Since I like eating massive quantities of food, that's what I did. The weight did not come off, there was no "right sizing", I stayed over 180 lbs and over 20% body fat the entire time. Now that is a totally normal weight for my height, and nobody would call me overweight or obese with those numbers. completely normal. But I wanted to get lean. The way I work out has to be fueled with a lot of energy. So I think the portion sizes I used were still out of control.

There are still plenty of bad vegan foods you can eat. French fries, potato chips, breads, pasta ( no egg noodles), and I really did stay away from most of those. We did mostly whole foods. It was really some incredibly tasty stuff. And no animal products at all. So when the weight didn't come off it just didn't seem worth it to me. The biggest problem is that I have a bowl of cereal every night before bed, and have since I was a teenager. Vegan milk, while fantastic in my oatmeal, sucks on cereal. And cereal is all processed carbs that have no place in a whole food based diet.

So you can imagine how I felt when the tendonitis put me on the sidelines for a few weeks. Fast recovery from the workouts is paramount to preventing injury, and that's one of the benefits of being vegan. I started back on the cereal wagon in March, and then added more dairy and eggs back in. Then by the summer we were cooking meat. The workouts get longer the farther you get into the training plan, and when I'm burning 2500 calories a day just during the workouts, and it can be really tough to get in 2500 calories a day total in a vegan diet, much less adequately fuel the body for the rest of the day after those work outs.

Yes we're not plant based anymore and haven't been for several months now. We just couldn't make it a habit once the workouts started getting harder and the weight wasn't coming off. I still read lots of books about diet and believe the science behind things like the Paradigm Diet and Vegucated. But my lifestyle takes milk and eggs. I'm still also frustrated with the amount of belly fat I'm carrying even though now my weight is down to 174 lbs and 18.6% body fat. I'll find the right way to get lean eventually, but this didn't turn out to be it. Close with some very nice benefits, but either it didn't work or I didn't do it right.

It's Taper Time!

Hello taper my old friend
It's good to talk to you again
As the miles get gradually shorter,
my sanity starts to return

This was the last Peak Week

Doesn't look too bad huh? Well Wednesday that bike ride was in the morning and the Thursday run was in the PM. in the middle, there was a nasty sinus problem. This was not the week when I was setup to handle a nasty sinus problem. At least I got in all of the long stuff.  Saturday I threw the bike on the trainer for 6 hours so I wouldn't miss any football (great ass training), followed by a 7 mile run up Hillsborough street. Sunday held the final long effort, a 1 hour bike and 14 mile run brick workout.

Totals for the week ended up being 205 miles on the bike, 37 miles of running, and 2 miles of swimming adding up to 17.5 hours total. The plan had 22 hours, so what I missed was a run Wednesday night and a swim Thursday night. Also Monday's AM bike was supposed to be 90 minutes, not an hour, and Monday's PM run was supposed to be an hour instead of only 33 minutes.  it's all good.

September 2013

Swim: 22,050 meters, 8 swims, 1 race
Bike: 621 miles, 19 rides, 1 race
Run: 141 miles, 18 runs, 1 race
Strength: 0
Yoga: 0

Wholly guacamole Batman! That's all swim bike run all the time. 2 peak weeks, 2 recovery weeks, and a half ironman. That's what you get in the build & peak phase. Now it's time to taper.

Actually this week is a recovery week, so it's a little smaller than the taper weeks. Even better. Recover up to get ready for the taper. Nothing to do but eat and rest right?

Cast Iron Club

As of 10/1/13's workouts (20 mile ride & 2800 m swim), I'm sitting on 49.51 Iron swims, 32 Iron bikes, and 23.61 Iron Runs. With only 167.8 miles of running left to meet the 30 ironman criteria, I like where this is going. Granted 141 miles running in September is really extreme, and might be a new PDR, but I think I've been setup nicely to complete this thing.

October is always my favorite month of the year. The days are getting cooler, football is in the air, the MLB playoffs are starting and NHL and NBA seasons are starting. The only way this could get any better is if I was doing an Ironman in only 25 days.....