Scoop from the inside...and I don't mean ice cream.

Yo vanilla's,

How is the training regimen going for you girls? Getting long/hard yet? The weekdays are fine (although it's still hard getting up early) but the weekends...uff da! My bike on Saturday was a 40 miler and let me tell you, my butt hurt. That's not even close to half-way! And then I had to go for a 30 min. run after that sucker. Yowsers.
Anyway, when I finished with that nonesense I met up with that girl, Val, who did the Louisville ironman this past summer. She is such a sweetheart and she fielded my flying questions for over an hour with a huge smile on her face, assuring me that when she did her first ironman she had someone she asked all of these same questions to and she was happy to give me anything she's picked up along the way. I should have taken copious notes, but I'll give you the rundown of the highlights still fresh in my mind:
1 - if you aren't going to drive, she recommended a Tri Bike ship that brings your bike right to the bike zone and makes sure you are all set.
2 - Throw some "margarita and tires" parties...basically you drink margaritas and practice changing a flat tire on your bike many many many many times. She said that is one thing you are expected to know how to do and if you aren't worried about it, it won't cause you any more stress...just pull over, change it, and keep going. The back wheel is apparently a little trickier because of the gears. She said she always brings 2 extra tires and pumps incase you get 2 flats.
3 - Run/walk ratio during the marathon. She said she did 4 minute run, 1 min walk. Others run for the mile inbetween each stop for fuel...but she said she needed more breaks.
4 - DON'T GO CRAZY ON THE BIKE. She has a triathlon coach and she said he drills it into them that "the race is all during the run." If you make up a half-hour on the bike...chances are you will lose an hour on the run. She said it's usually around mile 90 when people either lose their race or get it in gear.
5 - Train a lot on the bike in the summer....lots of long rides to get your body used to the position...not just your legs. She did 100 mile rides a couple times a month leading up to her race.
6 -Nutrition. The scaries party. She said 200-250 calories/hour. Your body can't absorb more than that and you need at least that to keep on chugging. Mix it up with liquid and some solids and don't forget salt tablets. she does 2 each hour. She also sets her watch to beep every 10 minutes telling her to drink/eat something...force-feeding is good for you becacuse otherwise you won't feel like eating/drinking and that's when you run into trouble.
7 - Chicken broth. Drink the chicken broth during the run.
8 - She did get sick at one point during her training. She tried to go through it and ended up with bronchitis. Stop if you're sick...even if it's a whole week and let your body recover. She said most training plans overtrain you about 10% on purpose because...it's life...things come up and we'll be ready.
9 - The volunteers ROCK. She said they make your day totally worth it and they know what to do and do it so well. In the transition areas, they'll help you change and hand you the clothes in the order you want them (also note about this - she wore a tri suit for the whole thing, but she said some people change after the bike because you want to be as comfortable as possible throughout the run), and they'll help you put on sunscreen, make sure you can open your gu's and cliff shots, etc. One of her friends got sick on the run and a volunteer came and sat with him for 20 minutes until he got back up and started running again.
10 - Overplan what you may need. We get color-coordinated bags for each part of the race and she puts as much as she can in each one because she'd rather be safe than sorry. Food/drink in all of them, long t-shirt before the run incase it's cold, extra sunglasses, chapstick, extra socks in case it rains, etc. etc.

I know i'm missing a whole lot more -but that's the top 10 I can think of at the moment. I left feeling...well scared...mostly about nutrition.

I just ate a bag of gummies...why would I be worried about nutrition?? :)

Miss you girls!
word to your mother