Living with some-one training for Ultra-Man

For nearly 5 years Kate has been telling me she would like to do an Ultraman. "Yeah, great babe!" Never really thinking it would actually happen. Until the bomb was dropped....she signed up for Ultra520k Canada!

Lets just say I am glad it was only a short 7 week build for her. I don't know if I could have survived not being number one in the relationship any longer!

I've been musing over the past few weeks and decided to put these thoughts into a few sentences so you can learn where I did not....

How to live with someone training for an Ultraman! ... Don't..... move to hotel or pitch a tent in the yard and live there!! Move in with that crazy cat lady, or the man down the street who always talks to himself at a shout. Any of these options are better options. (In-fact they are good options)

I've put together a list of important rules to follow when living with some-one training for Ultra-man. They are your Ultra-man survival kit so to speak!!

1) Sleep:Don't wake them up: Even if it's an accident, it's your fault, if you need the bathroom in the night, best you take your pillow and sleep in the bath-tub

2) The Silence: What was once a comfortable silence now means "you've done something wrong" You need to run at this point.

3)Eye contact means: Your in trouble "Again you run"

4) Food: If you eat something  from the fridge that was specifically bought for training or that emergency can of coke, the hidden chocalate bar at the back of the cupboard. Even if you didn't know what it was for. Well, Lets just say don't do that... DON'T DO IT.....Move to another state or go into the wittness protection program.

5)You will be forced to train with them at some point: But you won't talk. we spent 7 hours riding together. 7 hours single file riding in the rain. (Fun?.... NOOOOOO) I don't even have an ass she can look at!

6)You will be wrong when your right,

7)You breathe to loud

8)You chew to loud

9)you walk to loud

10)you blink to loud

11)your voice is like listening to some-one scratching a chalk board. 

12)The Commando Crawl is the best way to get around (very quiet too, do this at all hours and do it slowly to avoid detection)

I have found that light cotton clothing is a great choice as it makes very little noise!!! (below you can see a picture of me practicing)

Kate now whispers at 4000 Dessa-bells in my ear!! 

Always have coke and redwine available. ALWAYS!! If they don't need it, you will.

If you get asked to go for an easy run: check what she's wearing, if she's wearing a Camel Bak, "you say NO"...Learn from my experience. 3 hours into an easy run when you start licking concrete because it's cooler and wetter than your tongue you realize you've "made bad choices"

Don't get me wrong.....I love to swim....but when you walk into the local YMCA 25 yard pool and she has gels/museli bars and bottles of GU with her.....be prepared to grow old and wrinkly over the next few hours.

On a personal note: I'm also a born again virgin.

Ok on a serious note: It's not all bad, ........................Ok it's all bad.......... good-luck!!

See my before and after photo's.

Before Ultra-man training

After Ultra-man training

Cheers

Guy

http://www.guycrawford.us
Coaching: http://www.gkendurance.com/
Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/blue70guy

Mental few weeks!

Yes the title of this blog sums it up nicely!
What a mental few weeks it’s been and in usual fashion I’ll keep this blog to the point and hopefully entertaining!!! Please forgive my pigeon English.

It starts as we leave for Ironman Lanzarote from Boise Idaho.

Flights consisting of: Boise-Seattle-Iceland-England-Madrid-Canary Islands.

We arrive to the beautiful Lanzarote, I love the white buildings, the water and the people!
What I don’t love : The Wind.
Race day shows up and so does the wind. YAY
The swim: I stayed in the front group and only took the lead once during the 3.8k. I knew the bike was going to be hard, so I was in energy saving mode early on.

Bike: HOLY NEW LEVEL OF PAIN!! I was riding within 30sec of the lead until about 90km, That’s when I climbed inside the hurt locker. “It was pretty dark in there” At one point I was riding 9kph uphill pushing over 400watts into a head wind. After shedding a few tears, I got back in the grove and kept pushing on. At 4:40mins I had my second really rough patch (this is when I'm usually getting off the bike and I still had 40min to ride) That 40min was an emotional roller coaster. (I think all IM’s are)

Below are some bike pic's from the race.

Anyways I came off the bike and started to run. I was surprised that I felt ok. After 30km I was pretty gone and was doing the classic "Ironman Shuffle" I ended up with a 3:30 marathon.

The positives: I now know I can blow up twice on the bike and still run a 3:30 marathon. Not suggesting that I’m content with a 3:30 marathon, but I have to find the positives in every race and that’s this one.

We spent a few days post race having a look around Lanzarote before heading to Venice for a few days. (I spent most of my time in the clear waters of Lanzarote hanging out with the stunning sea life) Flashback: During the race I saw the biggest Manta Ray ever,  wanted to stop, it was HUGE…. I’m 192cm tall and it was MUCH bigger than me!! Crazy.

Venice = see pictures. I’d never seen Venice before and it was on our bucket list of places to visit. it’s a crazy maze of alley ways and canals and I loved getting lost there!

Then it was off the the UK for a night before heading back to Perth to set our lives in order before returning back to the US.

The second set of flights (with a stay over here and there)
Lanzarote-Grand Canaria-Madrid-Venice-Madrid-Heathrow-Abu Dhabi-Perth.

From when we left Australia 3.5weeks earlier we had 20+ individual flights and have flown a full loop of the globe!! For some-one that doesn’t enjoy flying this was less than ideal, but pretty cool all the same!!

Upon getting home to Perth, I was struck down with man flu (much worse than a regular flu) and spent a week feeling sorry for myself.

It was great to have a little taste of a Perth winter before heading getting back on a plane and shipping out for the USA. This time we are Boise bound until late October/early November.

3rd set of flights: Perth-Auckland-Los Angeles-Portland-Boise.. arggghhhhhh

Kate made me do a 25KM trail race two weeks ago. It went straight up and straight down. My legs have never hurt so much. They were on par with my first ever Ironman. Lucky all my toe nails have fallen off or are already black.

Then Last weekend we went and watched Mick Hall race at Ironman Coeur d Alene. Sadly it didn't end the way he wanted. Unless of course he wanted a hospital visit?. (Pretty sure he didn't) Still it happens to us all. Ironman is a hard thing to get right every-time and we all know Mick was the fittest he's ever been. Next time Mick!!

Ok that should bring every one up to date!!