I "can" Can-Can!

Yeah, yeah... MIA again.  It's been a busy month.

We had family down for a week, spent some time at Disney and have been putting in peak week training volume.  The Blog, Facebook, Twitter and all of the other evil social networking sites and community forums have taken a backseat to life.  I'd like to pull myself out of this blogging slump, but with another insanely busy month ahead, I'm not sure it will be possible.  I will try my best.

DISNEY
We recently joined our NJ family in Disney for a few days.  It was a whirlwind of a getaway and was scheduled during a recovery week.  I'm not sure we did much recovering at all with walking miles and miles around the parks.  By the way, since when has walking become more difficult than running?  It's amazing how the body adapts to repeated stress.  At this point, my body appears to be more efficient at running long distances than it is at walking long distances.  Too funny.

I was bad... and yes, I'm wearing a fanny pack

Aside from spending time with my awesome NJ family, the highlight of our Disney whirlwind had to be the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue... because I was selected to be a "guest" cast member.  If you have never seen it, the HDD revue is phenomenal.  One of the best at Disney.  Anyway, like other dinner shows, a few members of the audience are selected to be participants.  So, while I'm digging into some strawberry shortcake, one of the lead cast members comes up behind me, pulls the fork out of my hand and whisks me away.  I was selected to be a Can-Can Dancer.

Getting pulled up the stage.  I'm smiling, but I was ridiculously nervous!  There were at least 500 people in the audience!

Scott captured a little video of my performance.  Please keep in mind that prior to my 15 seconds of fame, I only had a vague idea of 'how' to Can-Can dance.  Of course, that idea didn't apply to a version of the dance called, "impromptu and done in sneakers."  In addition, asking someone with hamstrings that are so tight that they could be mistaken for a cheese slicer to Can-Can "kick" is well, a very bad idea. Oh, but I love the stage and had so much fun!  For the record, that dress was very heavy and it was too big-- much like wearing a leaded vest for a dental X-Ray.  Try dancing in that!

TRAINING
Yesterday was our final pre-B2B pacing brick.  We were lucky to wake up to temps in the low-60s.  The weather was a much needed psychological boost and the rest of our mojo came from simply knowing that this was pretty much IT!

The brick was a 50/4 done at race pace.  I belong to the "Overbikers Anonymous" support group.  After two half-irons and a few short course races where it has been clear that my cycling effort has had a disastrous affect on my run, my goal for this pacing brick was to get my brain and my muscles to remember what an 'easy' RPE felt like and to be able to run what I know I am capable of running for the t-run.  Both my cycling & running have come a long way since Augusta 70.3 & Florida 70.3.  However, I am anticipating a slightly more conservative bike split than what I did at Florida 70.3.  This should allow me to finally have a solid half marathon.

Despite a heavy training load earlier in the week, I felt great on the bike.  My crotch continues to be an issue, but I can nearly ignore it now.  I felt steady and strong, but also relaxed... like it was just another ride on any other weekend.  At mile 30 I had a high-speed collision with a very angry bee.  He left his stinger (and venom sack) imbedded in my upper left arm as a present.  I pulled it out with my fingernails and then spent the next 10 minutes freaking out about whether or not I was going to have some sort of allergic reaction in the middle of a wildlife preserve.

Around mile 40 I began to notice that my stomach felt very sloshy.  I don't normally have gastric issues, but with the slightly cooler temps, I'm not sure if I over-hydrated (I did pee twice on the bike and once right before I started the run) or if I took in too many calories.  This cool weather stuff is unfamiliar territory.  I don't know how to eat for it and I don't know how to dress for it.  Yes, this is a big concern for B2B.

At mile 50, I hopped off the bike, loaded it into the Element, strapped on my shoes, grabbed my hand-held water bottle, hit the porta-let and took off.  The heat index was closing in on 80F by now, so it was definitely warm, but doable!  My goal for mile 1 was to run conservatively.  I wanted that first mile to be 'recovery run' slow.  Well, I didn't hit "recovery run" but I did hold the slower end of my typical easy-pace range for the first mile and felt really great.  I negative split the next 3 miles and finished feeling like I could continue on for the long haul.  Success!

I am very pleased with where I'm at right now.  I tackled this year without a coach and while I miss being able to pick the brain of an expert in the field, I also feel very proud of what I've been able to achieve on my own.  Barring any unforeseen circumstances (bad weather, flats, illness, bee stings) and the urge to overbike, I think Scott and I are both going to have solid races.