And so it begins (again)... the road to Ironman Florida

So yes, it has been awhile since my last post.  This week -- the week of June 13 -- is the first week of my official training cycle for Ironman Florida.  I have pretty much slacked off in the 5 weeks since Gulf Coast.  I deliberately wanted to have a mini off-season to rest and let my body recover (especially considering the sprained ankle I suffered the week before Gulf Cost).  Of course, since you also know how I roll -- I ate some tasty food as well.  Gained a few pounds, sitting between 200-203.

I won't be doing daily/weekly updates as I did for Gulf Coast.  It was fun, but so time consuming and became a bit of a hassle to sit down and write so much.  So, I will continue to post but will not have as many specifics of my workouts, etc.  Just updates, thoughts, feelings, etc.

So the biggest change since Gulf Coast is that I finally stepped up and got a coach.  I have been going back and forth since last year, whether I should get a coach, and if so -- who?  One in Tally, one in another city, one over the internet, or just copy a generic training plan that other friends have used.  I fretted over this for months, back and forth.  Talked to various people who used different coaches/plans.  I knew my deadline for getting a coach was last week and I just about waited until the last second.  Probably imposed a lot of unnecessary stress on myself, but I really tend to analyze important issues from all angle before committing to something..  Ultimately, I decided to go with Revolutions: Triathlon Coaching.  They are here in town, have a bunch of experience, personable, coaching a lot of people for IMFL, I've known/used them for a while, reasonable rates, etc.  I have one main coach, but all four coaches are available and routinely work/chat with me.  So that is really cool.  This is my first week with them, and I am happy with the workouts/coaching so far.

Also -- Friday PM I was finally able to get my new bike frameset -- 2011 Felt B2 Pro with a Bayonett 2 fork.  Decked out in full ultegra.    Now I just have to come up with a name for her... Your Hotness, Decimator, Hateful Bitch?  Gotta think about that....  Taking her our in the am for a 2.5 hr ride. Will let you know how she does.

Ok, her name is Hateful Bitch.  Rides like a dream, smooth as silk, fast, very responsive, very stiff.  30% stiffer than my B12.  How stiff is that you ask?  Well, in going over a bump (which was no problem on the B12), that 30% caused my bar grips (which are normallly a little lose when wet) to completely twist around and cause my grip on the bar grips to disengage (i.e., I crashed).  Sacrificed my body to protect Hateful Bitch.  Now the stem is loose, and it being a Bayonett 2 front end, I had to take it back to the shop to be fixed.  I was going to have to tweak the fit anyway, but damnit-to-hell.

And that's not even showing my scraped up right knee (literally scraped up on all sides), and huge bruise on my left quad.  Oh well, I guess any crash you can walk away from (and in which case your frame is ok)....  move along here nothing to see...

I've been doing some calculations during my first week of training -- really focusing on weighing myself before and after exercise (and keeping track of how much I drink).  I have approximated the following ounces per hour that I sweat:  swim (32 oz), bike (30 oz), run (40oz).  Obviously it will depend on heat, humidity, effort, etc., but I've gotta say those numbers are higher than what I thought they would be.  I am going to have to keep this in mind and figure out what I need to do to stay hydrated and not go over 3% weight loss (otherwise performance suffers and bad things happen). 

Factoring that out over 11 hours at Ironman Florida is a shitload of sweat. (swim 1:15, bike 5:30, run 4:15 = 40 oz lost swimming, 166 oz lost biking, 170 oz lost running = total est sweat lost 376 oz (i.e., 23.4 pounds).  That is about 11% of my total body weight lost. 

At about 7%, one would normally collapse, at 10% one would go into a coma, and 11% -- die.  So I have to drink, but can't really go over 28-30 oz an hour (again, bad things would happen). 

So I drink 24 oz/hr (i.e., a bottle), over 11 hours puts me at 264 ounces.  Subtract not really drinkin on the swim, and probably not drinking 24 ounces/hr on the run, and I will guesstimate I will actually drink 225 oz (i.e., 14 pounds), which is 7% body weight loss -- which brings me to the verge of collapse.  Well now, this should be interesting....

Obviously I'm not a math major, and these numbers are very rough.  Nor am I factoring in solid/gels, or other bodily processes of eliminating... substances... but definately something I have to continuously ponder upon over the next few months.