The Endurance Pig: Benadryl is Not a PED

The last time I wrote on here, my face was swollen as though I had been socked in the face by a bully. I was stung by some type of bee during my 100 mile bike ride this on August 10th. I made it home, but had to postpone my 16 mile run that I had intended on doing that evening. I pushed it back to my first day of my next cycle and couple it with a 25 mile bike. That evening I took Benadryl every couple hours with hopes of taming the insane swelling. I went to be early on Saturday night thinking the swelling would be gone or just about gone when I would wake up. Oh boy, how I was wrong. In fact, my face was worse than it was the night before. My lip was better, but the swelling had spread. My check, nose, and under my eye became swollen. It was annoying more than anything. I continued to take Benadryl like it was candy. I can only imagine what my face would have looked like had I not been taking Benadryl. With this training cycling being my biggest, most difficult training cycling ever, I was not exactly thrilled with the fact that I was taking an over-the-counter drug that is notorious for causing drowsiness. But, one way or another, I had to get out to train, regardless of what my face looked/felt like - and if Benadryl made the bee sting just a little more tolerable, damn it, I'll take the side effects for the benefit of being a tad more comfortable. The picture at the start of this post is me the morning after being stung, Sunday morning around 9am. I kind of lucked out, because it was raining in the morning hours of Sunday, so it was the exact excuse I needed/wanted to stay indoors and relax before heading out to train. In fact, I really did not want to train on Sunday.......at all. I was sore, tired, drugged up, and swollen; it was also cool and raining on top of my personal excuses. By about noon, it was still raining with no sign of stopping. At least it was a light drizzle and not a steady rain. I sucked it up and went out to bike and then run. I was tired and unmotivated. Needless to say, I can certainly say that Benadryl is not a performance enhancing drug....in fact, it's quite the opposite.

It was a rough start to my vacation week. My vacation officially started on Sunday, which was supposed to be my first night back to work. Sunday, was the day I described above. Monday was an off day. Unfortunately, it was cool and dreary that morning, so Sarah and I brought the girls into town to do a little shopping. By the time we got back to the cottage, the sun was out and it was warm. The remainder of the week was my chance to not only take advantage of the extra free time to train, but also to spend some quality time with Sarah, Maya, Delaney, and my parents. On Tuesday, Pat, Melissa, and their son, Lucas, came out to the cottage for the day. I was up early and did a short swim and run before they got there. It was windy and cool again on Tuesday. But the sun was out, so we loaded up the pontoon boat and took it up the Wolf River to Fremont for a little cruise. After getting back to the cottage we relaxed some more and a little while later, Sarah's parents came for dinner. I grilled hand-pattied hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats along with brussel sprouts for dinner. It was a great day spent with our good friends and family.

The next day was my mom's birthday. I did another short swim followed by a bike ride. After showering off, we took the pontoon into the Village of Winneconne and docked at a public dock and walked into town for an ice cream treat. Almost immediately after getting back to the cottage, my phone started ringing....it was a SWAT page out. I had to go to work.....on vacation. There was an officer involved shooting in the
City of Wautoma which is west of Oshkosh in Waushara County. They asked for mutual-aid assistance from surrounding agency SWAT teams. I won't dive into the details - if you are interested you can follow this link for the media's coverage of the incident. http://www.wbay.com/story/23139994/2013/08/14/update-6-wautoma-standoff-suspect-identified I didn't get home until close to 2:30am. It was a long night of wearing my gear. I was sore and tired. Luckily, I had a short workout scheduled for Thursday morning. Sarah and the girls let me sleep in a little extra on Thursday morning to make up for getting to bed late. I got my swim in and then we took the pontoon all the way into the City of Oshkosh to one of my favorite restaurants, Fratello's. Fratello's is part of The Fox River Brewery, my 2nd favorite local brewery - which is probably one of the main reasons Fratello's is one of my favorite restaurants. I broke down and had my first beer in since early July. It was so worth it. I figured only one beer won't hurt me. I think I'm probably safe.

Friday and Saturday were nearly booked solid with training. But on Friday night, Sarah and I packed up and headed home in order to hopefully keep time on our side with a busy weekend ahead of us. Saturday, Pat and his family hosted a benefit for his Brother-in-law at a local bar and grill. After spending a few hours there, we brought the girls to a drive-in movie theater. Oddly enough, my 2 and 3 year old daughters have already been to a drive-in theater...but for me, it was my first time...ever. It was actually pretty neat. We saw Disney's Planes. It was a great movie, even for adults. It wasn't quite ideal for my daughters, as they prefer a more girly. princess type movie. But, I enjoyed it. Sunday was pretty much the end of our vacation, as Sarah went back to work on Monday. Sarah and I are in a Fantasy Football league with some of our friends and family that we have done now for 5 seasons. It is a pretty serious league, with 12 teams and nearly all 12 have been in from the start. We do a live, in-person draft every year. Unfortunately, I am terrible at fantasy football...not just terrible, but absolutely pathetically, embarrassingly, horrendous. I am then only team of the 12 who has NEVER made the playoffs. Yup....I'm that bad. The draft is always the best part of the season. Like I said, we always get everyone together and it is always a big event. It's a lot of fun.

Brief Recap

As I mentioned above, this training cycle was by far my largest week of training in volume. I accumulated a total of 22.5 hours of training in 9 days of training (2.5 hours/day average). I covered record highs in biking and running mileage for a single training cycle, with 226.51 and 54.68 miles, respectively. My previous high for total training volume was just over 18 hours - so this training cycle was a HUGE step up for me. After it all said and done, I totaled a 20+ hour training week (7 day week) after covering 278+ miles.

To be honest, looking back at it all, it really didn't seem like it was that much training (relative to my training volume the previous few cycles). This is probably because I had the benefit of no work and the ability of sleeping at night for a change. I had a few key workouts this cycle, including my 16 mile long run, which I was supposed to do following my 100 mile bike ride on Saturday, but got pushed into this training cycle due to an evil bee sting, my 120 mile bike and 2 mile run, and my 50 mile bike and 20 mile run the very next day. I was looking forward to getting out and being in the saddle for 120 miles for a couple reasons. First and foremost, for the mental edge of being on my bike for that long. Secondly, for the opportunity to get out and train for a long duration without the physical stress of running. I followed up that workout with a short 2 mile run. I did this just to get the feeling of putting one foot in front of the other after sitting in the saddle for nearly 6.5 hours. Before starting my 2 biggest back-to-back workouts of my training plan, I had figured that the 120 mile bike/2 mile run brick workout would not only be the physically toughest workout, but also the mentally toughest workout. I was wrong, my 50 mile bike ride followed by a 20 mile long run was by far the most difficult thing I have attempted...ever. I was sore as all hell the next day following my 120/2 workout. I set out for my 50 mile bike and I can't even begin to describe what my ass felt like sitting on my bike seat the very next day after sitting in it the day before for 120 miles. There was a steady wind out of the South, which made the first half of my bike ride that much more difficult. I set out toward High Cliff State Park which is the hilliest area around my home. I finished the 50 mile ride rather slow, but considering how sore I was, along with the head winds, I was satisfied with my ride time. I took a short break after riding to dry off and use the restroom. After my brief break it was out to run. I planned on completing five, 4 mile loops. It was hot, with temps in the upper 80's. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and knew that would get me to the finish. Before I knew it, I was done, with an average pace just over 8 minute miles. I was extremely satisfied. I have learned to realize that my average speeds for biking and my average paces for running are just going to be slower in my training and hope that my paces are faster for my race. I am optimistic that they will considering all the fatigue I am carrying over into each individual training session. Below is a video I took during my 30 mile bike ride following a 1 mile swim on Wednesday, August 14th. You can still see how my lip is swollen on my right side.

Favorite Workout

Without a doubt my longest bike ride ever was my favorite workout. I loved just about every minute of it and it went about as well as I could have hoped it to. I started at around 7:20am and planned to ride a 25 mile loop four times and finish up with a 20 mile loop to total 120 miles. I started out with the strategy of taking my time early and just taking it easy with the focus on the time on the bike, not the speed of the ride. It worked great. I took a minimal break after every 25 miles to refuel and top off my water bottles. I felt myself getting stronger after every lap, which is a great feeling to have during such a long ride. I finished the ride in 6:21:28. After my ride, I laced up my shoes for a very short 2 mile jog. I was unsure how I would feel after riding for 120 miles, but surprisingly, it felt really good to run after biking. I went out comfortably and used the 2 miles as a sort of cool down. I finished the run in 15:41, just over a 7:30/mile pace...not too shabby! The total time spent on the workout was 6:37:09, plenty long for a single day workout. I was left feeling confident and excited for the Ironman after this workout. I am so glad I got out and rode 120 miles. Even if just for the mental edge of knowing that I can ride for at least 112 miles, no problem!

Moving Forward

Well, all my hard work is done. As of typing this post, I have 19 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes until Ironman Wisconsin. In other terms, I have just 2 more full cycles left. My final 2 cycles are tapers. A taper is a phase in a training plan where training volume is dramatically cut usually by 30-75% from previous training cycles. The training intensity remains high, but the decrease in training volume allows for proper recover to theoretically arrive on race day in prime condition to race at maximal effort and produce the best possible results. I scheduled a 3 week taper leading up to Ironman Wisconsin. I have a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that its less than 3 weeks away. I feel like I just registered for this race and now here I am with the bulk of my training done. I have no more long bike rides (nothing over 50 miles) and no more long runs (nothing longer than 13 miles). My swim volume remains constant through this cycle and then will get cut next cycle. This is due to lack of physical stress produced by swimming. My key workouts this cycle are my longest swim workout of my training plan on Tuesday morning. I am swimming a 5k. Swimming a 5k is a personal goal of mine more than a training goal, per se. I thought it would be neat to swim a distance which is a popular running race distance, so I scheduled in a 5k (3.1 mile) swim. Other than that, I have a 35 mile bike/13 mile run brick workout on my weekend. A day or two after that workout, I will be going down to Madison for a 50 mile bike ride on the bike course. This will be my final go around on the loop. My plan is to ride the course hard, faster than goal race pace. My training volume will drop from 22.5 hours to a measly 13.5 hours.

Below are many pictures from our week of vacation.

Thanks for reading, as always, and be fast, be strong, and carry on!