Sleep. Eat. Train. Eat. Work. Eat. Train. Eat. Sleep.

    Sleep. Eat. Train. Eat. Work. Eat. Train. Eat. Sleep. The current story of my life. If friends and family thought I had dropped off the face of the earth before, now they will likely think I have disappeared from the universe. I have reached the point where my life revolves around training. Each meal is either in preparation for training, or recovery from training. I am getting to work early so I can run the paths around Gladstone before work, to beat the heat but also because I have no good areas for running just outside my front door. I am aiming for five runs a week, with one run being a short transition run after cycling. My running is improving nicely, although my knees don't want me running more than five miles a day.
    I am swimming The Cove again, and aiming for two open water and one pool swim a week. I had forgotten how much more fatiguing open water can be. There is the emotional factor, that slight tinge of fear and excitement that adds to the exhaustion. There is also that little bit of resistance from the wetsuit to the forward part of my stroke, not a big deal if I only had to do it a few hundred times, but after 2000 or so strokes it starts to wear down my shoulders.
    Cycling is what is taking the most time. "Cycling is a blue collar sport, you have to put in the miles." No shit. Right now I am aiming for one long ride a week, five or more hours, about 70 plus miles, and then two or three indoor sessions of steady state spinning for two or three hours at a shot. It is time consuming. My ride yesterday was cut short when a 30 minute pre-ride bike fix took closer to 2-1/2 hours, so I got out the door late. Then a flat tire at the 40 mile mark, on my way back towards home on what would have been the first lap of a long ride, made me opt to cut the ride short since I had plans for sushi with a friend (and c'mon, sushi is a perfect recovery and carb-load meal). The real reason was that I don't like to be far from home with no spare tube. So today I will be going long, with two spare tubes, and a system jacked up on sushi.
    Life has a way of interfering with my training plans. Last weekend my long ride was preempted when I got paged out at 4:30 am to go out on a fire. Yes, it was epic to break open a door and crawl through the building hauling a hose, find the fire and get to "put the wet stuff on the red stuff." But five hours later, when I finally got home, I was starving, dehydrated, and tired. A big meal and a three hour nap restored me somewhat, but I was sure how my endurance would be out on the road. I didn't want to be 30 miles from home and totally gas out, so I opted for a solid three hours of strong spinning at home. My endurance ended up being fine, but damn, I lost four pounds that day.
    That is another factor; maintaining my weight. A day or so of not eating a lot of nutrient dense calories and my weight drops. I weighed in at 152 pounds monday morning, which is too light right now. I know [art of it was dehydration, but not all of it. I won't mind stepping up to the starting line at 152, but I don't want to be there now. I almost hate to admit that I had to add daily doses of peanut butter dipped in dark chocolate chips to get my weight back up to 156.
    And now, speaking of cycling being a blue collar sport, I need to get out the door to get miles in during the cool of the morning instead of cycling during the heat of the day. Okay, I will still be cycling in the heat of the day, but at least the first hour or two will be cooler.