Wow – I keep promising to update the blog but have been so insane the last few weeks it just keeps getting pushed aside…So much to catch up on.
I only have a few minutes now but I have committed to posting to the blog daily in the weeks leading up to Ultraman. I’m safely in Kona now staying with my fellow UM buddy little brother Jason Lester so nothing to do but train, work, eat, sleep and lose myself in the morass of social networking, blogging and uploading the many videos Jason and I are taking daily and will continue to take through the race.
RACE SIMULATION WEEKEND
First, I just wanted to recap the past couple weeks. 2 weeks ago I completed my last “Race Simulation” weekend, which was not only my biggest training week (32 hrs) but also culminated in doing 95% of the Ultraman distance and intensity over a 3 day weekend. Here’s how it went down:
FRIDAY SWIM: Began with 11,000 yards in the pool. Although mind-numbing in the short course, it went great — fluid and strong. Swimming has been a bit of a blind-spot for me as I missed many key swim workouts due to my 2 crashes and have had some difficulty getting back into my comfortable rhythm. But I felt good and finished strong. It started with a 1K warmup followed by a series of 20-25 minute straight swims with 60 second fluid intake breaks in between — this is the interval at which I will take in nutrition on the swim — until I had been in the pool for 2 hours 30 minutes. Solid and Strong!
FRIDAY RIDE: Out of the pool and right onto the bike for 75 miles of hard climbing — over 8,000 ft of ascending. Plus it was darn hot. But all went well and was able to really push the last 2 hours.
FRIDAY NIGHT: Right into my Zoot CompressoRx compression gear, some icing and solid plant nutrition – brown rice, lentils and a veggie Vita-Mix with Vega, lots of oils, and Sunwarrior Rice Protein. Followed by some great recovery nutrtion products care of Compton at Ascended Health. Straight to bed.
SATURDAY RIDE: 8 hours with 12,000 ft of climbing. 132 miles. Wanted to get in 140, but didn’t realize I did 12K of ascending so happy with the result. Took a major loop that involved many of the Santa Monica Mountain climbs and some flats on PCH where I briefly hooked up with my coach Chris Hauth (who was in town for the weekend) and some of my training buds. Solid all day, nutrition all good and no bonking or dumpster diving like last year:) Backended the last couple hours with some of the most difficult ascents – Mulholland and Piuma. Very happy as I went hard on the heels of Friday and held up very well. That’s not to say I wasn’t tired, just not wiped. Post-ride nutrition was pretty much a repeat of Friday night.
SUNDAY RUN: 45 miles on PCH. Hauth had me doing things a bit different this year for this run. Rather than just hold a pace and try to hang on till the end, we set it up on the run/walk method, the idea being to increase the run intensity and build to a strong swift finish rather than limp across the final mile. Here’s how it went down – 9 mile run / 1 mile walk; then 8/1, 7/1, 6/1, 5/1, 4/1. I started at Big Rock in south Malibu and ran almost to the Ventura county line, then back, staged such that a gas station was never too far away if I ran into hydration problems. I filled my camelback with CarboPro 1200 and headed out. Honestly, the hardest part of the run BY FAR was the first 9 miles. It just takes me an incredibly long time to get warmed up, especially on tired legs. But I took this leg easy and remained patient. God provided some providence as it seemed that every time I hit the walk phase there was a gas station where I could pop in very quickly and rehydrate. Not to get too technical, I was able to increase my pace and intensity with each successive interval such that I negative split each interval and negative split the course as a whole — that was the goal — running the last 4 miles at well below 8 min pace and dipping under 7 min pace a few times. Nicely done, helped by a nice boost when one of my training buddies Dave Meyer drove by and pulled over to give me a high five on the final stretch – had to pick it up and bring it home hard for my boy! It felt great to feel good all the way to the end and have something in the tank to really push those last 2 intervals. Cool weather helped.
Sunday night I was pretty wrecked, but hardly the invalid I was last year. I assumed that I would be hobbling around on Monday but I actually felt pretty good.
By Tues night I was CERTAIN that I was getting out of shape…Ahh the noise of the addict mind…
RECOVERY WEEK?
In all, a great success rewarded with a recovery week that turned out to be more challenging than the race sim weekend as I had a ton of work to catch up on, alot of stuff to gather in readiness for my Kona departure, Halloween with the kids, and Mathis’ 6th birthday the night before my flight to Hawaii.
GRATITUDE CHECK
In truth, my incredible wife Julie handled 99.99% of everything — I don’t know how she did it but she did. She amazes me daily. I was so grateful to be completely present and sober for these 2 events with my little girls at such a precious age. During trick or treating I got completely emotional — filled with gratitude in reminiscence of what my life was like as a hopeless alcoholic just 11 years ago. If someone had told me I would have the life I have now, there is no way I would have believed it.
Julie took me to the airport early Monday morning. As we hugged on the curb at LAX, both of us completely broke down. Not out of sadness, but out of pure joy — for the life we have built together; for our ability and mutual support in pursuing what we love; for our children that amaze us daily; for the opportunities that await; for the journey that has only just begun; for the support of the many loved ones that surround us; and most importantly, simply for each moment — the now. We are surrendering to “What Is” on a daily basis and continually amazed at the countless ways in which the Universe is truly taking care of us. We know our job here is simple – do what you love; love those you care about; and give of yourself in service to others. Embracing this has been a relief and a gift that has changed our lives.
So here I am in Kona, shacking up with Jason and loving it. Train, eat, work, train, eat, work, sleep. Repeat.
Tons of stuff to share coming soon.
Plant Strong!
Rich
