We Like Spring

We spent the Memorial Day weekend visiting my parents in Nevada, which was nice. It didn't do the training much good, but it was a pleasant weekend. It rained much of the time and was far colder than usual, so we didn't do a lot of the hiking in the Sierras that we had planned.

Basta did run for an hour in the rain, and that at high altitude (4500 feet / 1370 meters).

Now that we're back, the training program is going really well. Basta is not longer bitching like he used to about these workouts. Sometimes he grouses a little bit before he gets out and does it, but most of the time he just goes out and does it. He says he really looks forward to his swim workouts, for instance, because they feel so good.

That's a big change from how he was pre-Oceanside. If you remember from back then, he was not enjoying this. He was thinking about quitting the long distance stuff, in fact, and sticking to Olympic distance events or less. I know a lot of that was because it was winter. Short days, rain, wind, and chill are pretty miserable for workouts, and no doubt worse so for the novice triathlete.

But now? Now he's loving being a triathlete. He looks forward to a lot of his workouts.

Our focus in this training for the upcoming Vineman is to make big improvement on the bike. I am happy to report that is coming along nicely. He likes the bike now, which is the start of making all the difference. He looks forward to his Saturday group rides. He rode two loops last weekend for a total of 64 miles, so that makes two weekends in a row that he's ridden 60+ miles.
He's met up with two guys who do the second loop, too. Both are very good cyclists, better than Basta. But they have encouraged him to join them for the second loop every weekend, so he can't be that much slower. They start riding at 5:45am, ride the 2 hour loop, then join up with the club group that rides at 8, repeating the same loop.

The two who ride with him in the early morning leave him in the dust on the second loop. They both say that they feel stronger in the second half than they do in the first. Basta's goal is to get fit enough on the bike so that he feels the same. He wants to keep up with them the whole ride. That's a fine goal.

There is the option for some variation in these loops, and occasionally they turn up and ride a major grade that offers itself to cyclists who really want a tough ride. Basta says that hill is much harder than the dreaded 'Chalk Hill,' the big hill that comes near the end of the bike at Oceanside. He thinks that right now he'd have no problem with the Vineman ride.

He has another 6 weeks of training left, too. He could do very well at Vineman. His sub-6 goal is certainly possible.

He's really starting to look like a triathlete, too. I've mentioned before that he'd lost all hint of bodyfat and became very lean. Now, he's getting muscular. His body is growing, becoming more dense and even harder than I thought possible. It's amazing. It's nice. He's still an ectomorph, but he's a more muscular ecotomorph. All of the women in his office who told him a few months ago that he looked sickly because he'd lost weight so fast are now saying, 'ooh la la!'

Speaking of nice, as the one who sleeps next to him, let me tell you that he is like sleeping with a furnace. Always before his body temp has been rather cool. Or equal to mine, at least. Now, I get close to him and I feel heat. Lean muscle really does burn calories at rest and he's obviously burning a lot.

And speaking of that, he's not eating enough. Or rather, he's having trouble finding enough to eat during the day. He won't eat anything but quality nutrition and that rules out most of the junk that is available quickly in the country. He refuses to eat in a restaurant for lunch unless he is with clients, so he brings along food to eat during his day most of the time. He's realized he needs to almost double what he brings for food to get enough. Such a problem to have.