They're at it Again

Hello, my name is Occupier, New Occupier. At least that's what Airtricity, my electric company, and their lawyers think.

Remember a couple of months ago, when those cretins turned the power to my apartment off? Well, they're at it again. Today I got a letter from Buchanan, Clark, and Wells telling me that they'd rather not commence Legal Proceedings (in bold face), but it was time for me to pay the 147.24 Euros they think I owe them.
My account with them, which carries my real name, has a zero balance. It is setup for them to automatically withdraw from my bank account how much ever they think I owe them. They have happily made use of that feature over the last couple of months.
Their letter is addressed to New Occupier at my address. Maybe they noticed that I was taking pictures in the dark and are unhappy with the lack of power consumption? I guess it is time to sit down and write some strongly worded letters. If you don't hear from me in a while, I'm sitting in the dark again.

Saturday Night in Mulhuddart

Jelly beans at night

The deadline for the paper I'm working on got extended. Back into procrastination mode until the deadline re-approaches. I'm in tapper for the Ironman, so training load this weekend is low: 3.5 hour bike on Saturday and an hour run today.
I'm not much of a disco dancer, so going out on Saturday night is not all that appealing to me. But I do like photography. I had read an article that describes Painting with Light and decided to try it. You need a camera where you can select shutter speed, a tripod, and a flashlight. Turn off all the lights, open the camera shutter, and use the flashlight to "paint" over your subject.
It took me a bunch of attempts to figure out which subjects would work, how to focus in the dark, and what shutter speed/aperture size combination works best.

I like my coffee

I took these pictures over the course of three evenings (I wasn't just avoiding the Saturday night crowd ;-) It doesn't really get dark here until well after ten at night and last night, with nothing better to do, I started early. It was really not dark enough yet to achieve th effect described in the article above, but the technique produced some interesting pictures nontheless:

Low rider choo-choo

I lit up the bottom of the train with an LED light through the glass table it was sitting on. Then I used the incandescent flashlight to add some light from the side. When I clean glass, it never really works. There are always streaks. Last night I got reminded that getting rid of dust seems to be an equally difficult problem for me. Click on the image above to enlarge it and you'll see what I mean.
I also played around with a green laser pointer, but even a couple of seconds with that thing produces too many photons for most of these pictures. Although I like the swirly candy-striped pattern in this one:

Using a laser pointer and a flashlight

I found out that light-colored jelly beans, when briefly illuminated with a laser, give off an incredible glow.

You can view the entire collection, free of charge, on my Picasa page.

My Sinks

I spy three things wrong with my sink!

No complaining about my Ironman training this week. I'm still fretting it and I know I'll be back in panic mode soon enough, but I thought I'll change the topic for a couple of posts. Although, I did find a cool quote yesterday when I was trying to calculate my optimal bike pace in the hills of Switzerland:

"If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise." P. Z. Pearce, M.D.

Anyway, Can you identify the three things wrong with my bathroom sink? Yes, the Stöpsel and chain is missing (I mean plug ;-), but what is it with this two-faucets-four-inches-apart thing? I know it's the British' fault, but why have the Irish kept this design? We're approaching a hundred years since the British left. The apartment is less than two years old!
How are you supposed to wash your hands exactly? When shaving, I alternate between splashing cold and hot water on my face. Just another thing I don't understand.
It's not like they don't know how to do it right. It takes me ten steps (yes, I counted real quick) to go from weird to normal:

Normal

They know what makes sense. Why would they chose weird?
Granted, even in the kitchen when you turn on both faucets, the single stream of water coming out is distinctly hotter on the left side than on the right. I have no idea how you would accomplish that. The Irish do, though.
Oh, and the third thing wrong with my bathroom sink? Blue on the right is hot and red on the left is cold. In the kitchen red is hot.

Today's Ride

The cockpit of my bike: Pump, heart rate monitor, phone with mapping software, and areobars.

Today I repeated the ride to Glendalough I did a couple of weeks ago. This was my last long bike ride before the race, and now tapering starts. I watched my heart rate carefully and pushed as hard as I could without jeopardizing the later part of today's ride. If I can keep that pace during the race, I should be able to make the cut-off time I'm worried about. Barely.
Going through Dublin into the Wicklow mountains involves a lot of red lights and stops. I stopped my watch during those interruptions and also when I had to eat, with the justification that I wont have them during the race. But, of course, it skews the results. I'm a little bit more confident than two weeks ago that I will make the cutoff, but not by much.
At the race I will have better roads, volunteers to guide me and stop other traffic, a faster bike with faster tires --- and a marathon to run afterwards. My legs were pretty much toast after today's ride...
I am happy that I found a route that mimics the elevation profile I will encounter in Zürich.

Elevation profile for today's ride

The two-loop elevation profile for Ironman Zürich

As you can see the total amount of climbing is about the same. The distances in the figures are wrong: I did 90 miles today, and the Ironman will be 112 miles. So, today's ride should be representative for what to expect in three weeks.
I mentioned before that I am not doing this to beat someone's record. The goal for me is to finish. I'm doing this, and the shorter races I have done before, to motivate me to exercise. In some sense, when I step to the starting line in three weeks, I have already won. I put in all the work and burned thousands of calories, improved my cardiovascular health, lowered my resting heart rate to around 40 beats per minute, lost some weight, and improved my cholesterol ratio. All that before 7 O'clock Sunday morning, July 10th!
To celebrate and replenish my sodium levels (and because it's a cool brand), I had those yesterday:

With a brand name like that, what could possibly go wrong ;-)

(In the US, Honky Dory means everything is alright.)

Other Blogs

There is a spot somewhere on here where I could list the blogs I follow. I don't really follow any particular blogs, but I do browse around and look at things.
Once in a while I click at the Next Blog link at the top of this page. It seems to go to a random location each time you reload the page. Usually it's some religious nut telling you the end of the world is near and that the time to repent is now, or some exercise freak who is either trying to lose weight or who is trying to beat somebody in some sport. (My blog is different; I have no illusion about beating anybody ;-)
But once in a while you come across something really creative. I'm not quite sure how I found this one. I think it was in some list of favored or much frequented blogs. Go there and look at the pictures. It takes a moment to figure out what is going on, but then you start asking how are they doing that?
Well, there is a YouTube video showing you some of the secrets:

Last Long Run

On Wednesday I did my last long run before the race. It was the same route I took on May 26th. I wanted to see if I had improved. Then, I jogged it in three hours and 26 minutes, which was 40 seconds longer per mile than my training plan dictated.
I sometimes say "run", but jogging or brisk walk more accurately describes my locomotion when I do my exercises. Nevertheless, I'm happy to report that I did the most recent 20-miler in three hours and nineteen minutes; corresponding to a sub-ten minute per mile pace. The training plan had me do it at a 10:05 pace. That last rest week must have helped.
That's it for long runs. Next week is a twelve-miler, then an eight, and then it is race week. Some tempo work and speed runs, but none of that hours-long grueling endurance stuff.
Part of being faster was that I sped it up a little over the last six miles or so, because my poor arithmetic skills get even worse when all my oxygen is concentrated in my thighs, and not much is going on in my brain other than "push, push, push, ...". I thought I was going much slower than my actual speed. While a 20-mile run is not easy for me, this one was not horrible. Not that I was jumping up and down for joy afterwards; my legs wouldn't take that, but I was not completely dead. A couple of ibuprofen took care of the problems I had.
I had occasional cramping in my left calf, and over the last two miles my right knee started acting up again. Most of March and April I couldn't do the runs I was supposed to do, because my knees were killing me. I need to be careful to make sure that doesn't come back just before the race!
At mile 19 I was huffing and puffing through a park. A bunch of girls were sitting in the grass snickering at me. After a long run, I look like a Borg with the water tube of my camelback sticking out to the side and me all worn out.
One of the girls yelled out "Nice legs!" to me. I guess it's nice to be not completely invisible to the sub-twenty set. Even if it is just for them to taunt me. My legs sure didn't feel nice at that point.
It's better than what happened to me a few years back when I was running around Academy. A group of much younger kids passed me with their gym instructor. A boy, who barely reached my hips, turned around, gave me the thumbs up and said: "Good job!". Then I got passed by a slightly taller girl whose T-shirt read: "I bust mine, so I can kick yours."

You be the judge

Bad Weather

No bike ride today!

If I was hard core, I would have gone on the bike ride I was supposed to do today; it was only a light rain (by Irish standards). But I'm a wimp, so I didn't. I worked on code for work instead and made good progress. If the 20% chance of rain tomorrow morning does not materialize, I'll do the missed bike ride today morning.
When I first came here, I used weather web sites to plan my bike rides and training runs for the week, but that doesn't seem to work very well. The sites don't really agree with each other and they usually predict rain anyway (which is a save prediction). The reality is that, on any given day, you get rain, sun, wind, and no wind. Many days start out beautiful and you look forward to a pleasant evening ride, just to come out of work and find it pouring.
Today was an exception. It pretty much rained all day long. It stopped in the evening, but the sun never came out. The other exception was that the web sites I consult for weather pretty much agreed that today would be a crappy day. They also mostly agree that tomorrow should be better, but colder.

The Weathernetwork

The UK Metoffice

WeatherUnderground

BBS Weather

Weather Channel

Intellicast

And Ireland's own:

Irish Met

Note the 30 km/h winds predicted for tomorrow (about 20 miles/h). The text on the above site describes this as:

Monday will be a much brighter day with sunny spells developing and it will be dry apart from the risk of a few isolated light showers. A mild day, highs of 14 to 17 Celsius, with a moderate west to northwest breeze.

A moderate breeze? Whatever!
The Irish are stoic when it comes to weather, although they do like to talk about it. When I arrived here at the end of February it was bitter cold. I've been in colder weather, but I think the humidity made it feel much colder for me. But, there was an ice cream truck driving around selling to kids. (I guess to toughen them up; early on.)

Candy floss is cotton candy.

And he was out again today! I've been wanting a picture of him ever since I saw him the first time, and today I caught him. Look at the gray sky in the picture below. This was just after it had stopped raining. And he was selling! I heard him turn off his nefarious music several times while he was in my apartment complex. He does that when someone flags him down to make a purchase.

Look at that sky and the person in the heavy rain gear.

It's usually not as depressing as it was today. Often the sun comes out and all these clouds help creating conditions for marvelous sunsets. I photographed the indirect one below a few days ago.

I'm not Going to Make It

I have spent a lot of time over the last view weeks calculating average speeds, flat to hill ratios, heart rate optima, and I keep coming to the same conclusion: I'm too slow. Until now I was worried. Now, I have officially entered panic mode. There are only fours weeks left!

There is not much I can do at this point to gain strength or improve my speed. Anything but following my training plan could result in injury or leave me not as rested as I need to be on race day.

Gaelic for Go Slow

My problem is the bike cut-off time at the Ironman in Zürich in four weeks. I have to finish the whole race (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile marathon) in 16 hours. Those wimps at the world championship in Hawaii get 17 hours to do it.
I think I have enough endurance to do all three events in 16 hours. But, ten hours into the race, you have to be back from the bike ride, or they wont let you go onto the marathon. I should be out of the water in an hour and fifteen or so (you have to take it easy there, or you wont make it through the day). Going through transition 1 to strip the wetsuit, put a shirt, helmet, socks, and bike shoes on takes me between five and ten minutes. That leaves me about 8.5 hours to do the 112 mile ride. And it aint flat.
Last weekend I did a relatively short (70 miles) ride to Powerscourt Falls. I didn't go into the park to actually see the largest water fall in Ireland. It's a very scenic area and I will be back when I have more time to enjoy it.
I adhered strictly to my heart-rate zones for flats and hills and came back not completely dead as is usually the case for me on long rides (and runs). Which is to say, everything still hurts and I'd rather sit at the computer with a glass of wine and some good food, than even think of going out there and walk, let alone run, anywhere. But, compared to the long ride last weekend, this was a piece of cake.
Of course, in four weeks, I'll have to do that, and another 42 miles, and a marathon to finish the day. Plus, I'll have to do it faster! The heart-rate dictated pace I had last Saturday would not do.

I'll have to rush. Just don't know how exactly.

The running training plan I'm following is designed to get you done with a marathon in just under four hours. Of course, they don't take into account the whole taking-a-bath-and-sitting-on-your-bike-for-nine-hours part before that. The plan makes me do my longer runs at around ten minutes per mile, and tempo runs at around 8:40 per mile and speed work close to eight minutes per mile. This is supposed to get you ready for a 9 minute/mile marathon on race day.
That wont happen (for me) after a 112-mile bike ride. I'll be happy with anything below five hours. But it does give an indication about how these things are supposed to work. You keep killing your body week after week. Let it partially recover once in a while, and then go back at it with longer distances and higher speeds. At the end you get to tapper for three weeks and your body rewards you on race day with the best performance of your life. (At least in theory ;-)

That is now a very nice road to ride on; with the dressing and all ;-)

This week is rest week and then one more grueling week leading into taper. We'll see whether this will work out. I have my doubts as you can tell. The 9-mile easy run earlier this week was almost fun (for a run). When I was training for half Ironmen, a 9-miler was pretty daunting (and four years ago I could not have done it at all). Now it is something to look forward to, since it is so much easier than what I had to do last week, or what's coming next week.

Wouldn't it be nice? Eat all day, get spray-painted once in a while, but no work, no grocery shopping, and no training for an Ironman.

My easy bike during this rest week was a mere forty miles. Again, something that a couple of years ago would have been a major effort. I did it on Wednesday evening after work. (Of course, its light here past ten O-clock every night already, so it's not quite as impressive as it sounds.)
I rode up a steep hill where I took the "Don't worry the sheep, or I'll shoot your dog" picture last month. That hill was a lot easier this time. Maybe this whole training thing will work and I will be able to finish my race...

A Long Bike Ride to Glendalough

The round tower at Glendalough

Last Sunday my long bike ride for the week too me to the valley of the two lakes (Gleann Da Locha). It's a monastery site from the 6th century founded by St. Kevin. The English destroyed it in the 14th century, but it remained an important site, not least because of a comment by a pope proclaiming that seven visits to Glendalough are  equivalent to one to Rome. I have been to each once so far ;-)
As usual on these rides, I did not really have time to visit and sightsee. But this is one of the main attractions in Ireland and I intend to come back with a real camera and without being all sweaty and limping.

The route there was very pretty, but it was a very hard ride for me: 95.5 miles total. I knew it would be hard and tried to take it easy going up, but the distance and the strong winds wore me out. The route I took wasn't exactly the one I had planed. Google maps lied to me. South of Tallaght (a suburb in the South of Dublin) on my way to Ballinascorney I ended up going up a very, very steep hill for about half a mile, just to be greeted by a gate and a road that kind of just turned into a meadow. My body doesn't take this kind of nonsense very lightly!

My route last Sunday, including a steep dead end.

 I have six weeks left until my race. The terrain will be similar, but there will also be a time limit. No sightseeing and picture taking on that day! That, and the excitement of the race will help. The roads will also be better. Nevertheless, at this time I'm worried about not making the time cut-off for the bike.

Pretty roads, but not very nice for a road bike.

I'll have ten hours for the 2.4-mile swim and the 56-mile bike ride. I should be out of the water and through the first transition in under 1:20, but that leaves me with about eight and a half hours for the 112-mile bike. At this time I'm very worried about that. And, of course I can't go all out and give it everything I have, because there is a marathon to jog/walk/limp after that.

Unfortunately, that's how I run and bike.

I'm doing OK with my run training, although I am a little slower than what my training plan says I should do. At the same time, especially the long runs, take quite a bit out of me. I think that is part of what slows down my bike rides. But moving between continents and starting a new job and getting sick and injured and traveling hasn't helped either. I'm catching up, but I have done much less than originally planed when I signed up for this last Summer.
And I have only six weeks to go. The good News is that next week is a recovery week. Then another 20-mile run and a 100-mile bike, and then start my taper.
My weekly training schedule right now looks like this:

Monday		60-minute spin, long swim
Tuesday		Bike
Wednesday		Long run
Thursday		60-minute spin, sprint swim
Friday		Easy run
Saturday		Long bike
Sunday		Tempo run

I have not been able to follow this completly, and sometimes I have to switch things around a little, like last weekend when I did my long bike on Sunday because the weather was pretty bad on Saturday.
The distance and time of these sessions follow a four-week cycle, building up a little bit each week until the fourth week where your body (supposedly) recovers and builds muscles. Then it starts over beginning where you left of the week before the rest. Last week I did a 20-mile run and this week I had to do only 16 miles for my long run (because I am getting closer to the race). Next week is recovery with the total distance for the week only 26 miles spread over three runs. Then back up to another 20 miler and a total of 34 miles for the week and then build down towards the race. I got this plan from a running site and patterned the bike rides accordingly.

Let's hope I can finish the race!

Tonight it's an "easy" 9-mile run, and tomorrow a 70-mile bike. I plan to go to Powerscourt waterfall, at 400 feet the largest fall in Ireland. Last weekend on my way to Glendalough, I came across this one, which I think is the Glenmacnass waterfall just before Laragh.

It falls into this beautiful valley that opens up to Laragh where it meets the Glendalough valley (in the back to the right in the picture below).

The good thing about all this is that I can sit here, eat pizza and drink some wine without worrying that I gain weight. I burned three times that on this ride alone!
Here are a few more pictures from that ride. I probably wont take any tomorrow, so I can concentrate fully on training, but I am looking forward to when this is over and things become more normal again.

The Glendalough valley

The weather wasn't great, but the sun did come out a few times and it got warm on those uphills. Then back to cold and windy.

Near Sally Gap

I guess gap means pass. I went over Sally gap and the Wicklow gap on this ride.

Cute cars at Glendalough.

On the way up toward Wicklow gap, not far from Glendalough I came across this ruin.

From Wicklow gap it was supposed to be mostly downhill. But there was a strong, cold  wind in my face now, and along the Pollaphuca reservoir on the way back were some rollers that nearly killed my legs. By the time I had climbed the last hill before Ballinascorney I was exhausted. It was downhill from there into Dublin, but then another hour on a nice, flat bike path. Usually something to enjoy, but I was too beat.

After my shower I was drying my foot and saw my big toe sticking out between the towel folds. It seemed odd and on the wrong side of my foot. It took my a while to realize that I was looking at my left foot instead of my right.
After your body has been pumping blood into all of your muscles, but not your brain, all day long, thinking becomes a major chore.