Deoderant, Banana Bars, and Badassery

The first two weeks of the Rocket City Training plan in the bag!  I've made 100% of my planned workouts for 2 weeks straight.  The sore spot along my shin (which actually popped up during my swim block) is feeling much better.

This week ended with just under 8 hours of training; just under 22 miles ran, just under 40 miles ridden and just under 3k swam.

 It was a BADASS week.  I discovered the following:

1. I can gain a lot of speed in my flipturns
2. I can ride 18-19 mph average on 5 hours of sleep
3. I can now run in zone 1/2 at a sub-11 pace

Doesn't this look like
a BADASS!?! 
Just sayin'.

I have run 20-21 miles total the past two weeks, so if you average my pace for the 20-21 miles that's about 11:30/mile.  THE BEST PART IS, I FEEL AWESOME!  I don't have the bonks or the jimmies or the heebies during 6-8 mile runs like I did last year when I started into long runs.  That's an excellent indicator of progress that I am FEELING AWESOME and TRAINING around or under my goal pace. My goal pace for this race is 11:20/mile - ALTHOUGH the pie-in-the-sky goal with 4 more months of work and some Yassos is 4:30-4:48.

WHY 4:48, YOU ASK?

I'm glad you did.

6:48 was my very first marathon time, and I'd really like this to be the year I can say: I've taken two HOURS off my marathon time since 2007.

Still, I'll be SUPER HAPPY with a 5-hour marathon, especially considering 5:35 is my best so far.  5 hours would still be an hour and 48 minutes less than my first marathon.


HERE'S SOME STUFF that I am loving right now that makes all this badassery possible.

Cytomax Pom Berry.  None of the belly-upsetting over-sweeteness of Gatorade/Powerade, and a flavor that is not too strong and nothing like your standard lime/lemon/orange/blue drinks.

MetaSalts. Necessary in the Florida heat/humidity. The only thing I don't like here is you take 2 at a whack, unlike Salt Stick (a serving of Salt Stick is 1 pill).  I still ADORE CarboPro (this company's main product) for LONG LONG training (100 mile rides, Iron distance weeks), but I may switch back to Salt Stick so I have to carry less on marathon day.

Clandestino Banana Bars.  120 calories of dark-chocolate-coated-banana deliciousness.  Seriously, that's all that's in them - bananas and chocolate.  They pack a nice little potassium and sugar punch, they are WAY more delicious than GU or chews, and you can eat  half of one and jam the rest back inside the little foil wrapper for later.

Secret deoderant (really any of the invisible solids, but Flawless Renewal or 48-Hour Outlast in particular.)  Did you know you could use deoderant as Body Glide?  I am sure there are some sensitive-skinned out there who can't, but I sure can.  It's half the price, you can find it anywhere, and - BONUS - it makes you smell better too!

RunKeeper - www.runkeeper.com  I live in a mid-rise building with a concrete parking garage.  If I waited for my Timex Global Trainer to grab satellites every day, my runs would be an extra hour each.  I back it up using the RunKeeper app on my phone, which I have to have for safety purposes, and then I have more detailed data about heart rate on my Timex.

 This is how August looks so far:

Bike:	2h 08m - 39.29 Mi
Run:	2h 45m 25s - 14.24 Mi
Swim:	59m 26s - 2700 Yd
Strength:	40m

This is how I finished out July:

July's totals:
Bike:	7h 37m 41s - 133.5 Mi
Run:	7h 40m 53s - 40.57 Mi
Swim:	6h 31m 42s - 16950 Yd
Strength:	1h 35m
Massage:	1h 10m
Walking:	3h 00m 

BONUS PHOTO:



This isn't tri-related, but she got locked
out of the bathroom and pooped in a closet last month.
Totally the mommy's fault.