what I've been up to

It sure has been awhile since my last post. I guess that means that I'm keeping pretty busy with training and different events. My original plan was to get those reports out one by one, but time is slipping away, so I'm going to have to give an abbreviated version of the past few months.

June:
Tour de Cure in Brighton Michigan - It was a 100 mile ride, but I was racing it, not "touring" it. That was my first chance to check my bike fitness in reality. I did make stops at some of the rest stops, but they were brief and then I was back on the road pushing. It was a great test, because the hills there were very similar to what I'm going to face at IM Wisconsin in September. I teamed up with another cyclist and we were matched perfectly because I wanted to pull to have the full headwind effect and he said he wasn't strong enough to give me a break - it worked perfectly for both of us and we kept each other company. One very important lesson I learned is that while riding I don't burn enough calories, so if I drink Gatorade, the BG levels start to creep up past 180. At the same time a 5+ hour bike ride and I was starting to get hungry, so since then, I stick to water and power bars on long rides. My BG levels were good throughout that day (between 100-180) and I was able to average 33km/h (20.5 miles/h) which is my Ironman goal.

Johan's Trifest - Wow.... there are a lot of strong swimmers in Michigan. My time for 1.5km was 30minutes and I was in the last 20% of them out of the water. This event had a strong field of triathletes. Luckily the bike was a good confidence booster and I came in with the 14th fastest time on the bike. I was very happy with the run as well - it was my best 10k time in a triathlon at 48 minutes. I was anxious to find out in a real race situation was my BG levels for the swim would be like. Before the swim I was at 8 (144) and I had a gel before it started. After the swim finish I was 5.2 (93) at which point I started drinking Gatorade at the beginning of the bike and stayed with that throughout the bike portion. I finished the bike at 10 (180) and then switched to water for the first half of the run and then got some Gatorade from volunteers in the second half and finished the race with 7 (126). For a tough, hilly course on a windy day, I was happy with my 2:28:51 finish.

July:
MS Bike Tour -I have to write something about last weekend. My wife and I were part of a team that took part in this charity ride for Mulitple Sclerosis. Saturday we rode 85km from Grand Bend to London, Ontario - stayed overnight at the University and then rode 75km on Sunday back to Grand Bend. There were 1,550 riders and the event raised over $900,000. It was a very well organized event and part that made it even more special was that my wife rode the entire route as well. Since I was diagnosed last year, she committed to trying a tri-a-tri this August and when the opportunity came up to ride this 180km event, she signed right up. It was a pretty amazing accomplishment for her, before May 5th of this year she hadn't ridden a bike in over 10 years. She got into a great training schedule and even though the farthest she had ridden at a time was 30k, she rode hard every time she went out. Saturday was a bit of a tough ride for her, most of it was into a 20k headwind and we had some cold rain for about 40k, but she persevered and I'm very proud of her. Now she is really looking forward to the triathlon next week and I'm crossing my fingers that she's going to get hooked. As for me... this was the first time that I had bolused on a ride because the ride was long and I was riding at a much slower pace. I was testing more often and sooner after the lunch breaks and I found that I had to increase my snacking to keep the numbers around the 6.6 (120) mark.

Ironman Training - Oh, and of course, I'm trying to squeeze as much IM training in as I can. According to my countdown clock it's just 45 days away. I've been averaging 12 hours a week and it's starting to be a struggle to get all those workouts in. I've had the most consistent and best luck with BGs during my runs. I make my own Gatorade mix and I stay only with that throughout the run, no water. On my long runs (2 hours and up), I average 80g carbs/hr. Anytime I check, my sugar is between 6.4 (115) and 8.2 (147). 80 grams might be a little more than the recommended 60 but if that's what I need to keep my BGs in the safety zone, I have no problem with that. My runs have been feeling really good. I'm following a 6 week program which breaks down into 1 long, 1 mid and sprints every week. There are lots of hard, fast finishes incorporated in the long runs and the program is based on a theoretical 3.5hr marathon runner and so far I've been able to match all the times. That's not to say I can run on in 3.5, but the training is going well.
Swimming is where I'm lagging behind. The action plan for the IM swim is that I will definitely need 3 gels to get me through. I've done a 2km swim and had only one gel and walked out with 4.2 (75). I've just got to work more open water swims in over the next weeks.
For a change this year biking isn't as mentally draining because I've hooked up with some great local cycling groups. They're flexible enough to allow tri bikes in the pack as long as you restrict going aero if you're not pulling up front. These rides average 80-100k with some good sprints. All in all BGs have been good on the bike.

For some strange reason, all my BGs during training have been reasonable, but lately I've been chasing lows at work. That's weird, because technically it should be a more controlled environment. On average I've had one or two lows per week and sometimes up to three times a day. Nothing really low - nothing lower than 3.5 (63), but for me that's low.

Whew... okay now I've got to keep this updated more regularly... typing is more tiring than training.