The Thing Is Done - I’m Halfway

I had a great and memorable day and I was exhausted after. I’m halfway to a hundred. I plan to keep up the pace for as long as I can. Use it or lose it is the saying.

Here’s the Challenge breakdown. For those wanting a blow by blow account that will follow. As you can see some tasks were accomplished, some not:

Half Ironman Triathlon Check
Pickle Juice 1 out of 5 (no excuse)
Rendezvous with friends at NXNW Check
Beer drinking 2 pints and 1 can (of target 5, no excuse)
Cars washed Zero (flat out refused to do it)
Gardening Too dark
Pizza slices eaten Five – check
Bags of crisps eaten 1 pkt of 5 (forgot to buy them)
Cup cakes made 50 (cheated - Norma and Phoebe did it)
Cup cakes eaten 2 of 5
Violin playing At least 5 minutes – check
Talking about my work At least 5 minutes - check
Reading of bedtime story Check (although much less than 50 mins)
Taekwondo forms Clean forgot – chalk that up to senility
Reading of Shakespeare None – no excuse
Push ups and sit ups Too tired
Knitting None – brain too addled to follow pattern
Bird species seen and positively identified 8 (of target 25)

Looking at it another way I:

Got up at 3.30 am, ate breakfast, rode in the van with Andrew to Travis County Expo Center, got bodymarked and organized gear in 2 transition areas, sat around freezing, swam 1.2 miles, biked 56 miles, ran 13.1 miles, picked up gear ate a bag of crisps, drank a pickle juice, rode in the van to NXNW doing birdwatching (got 8 species), drank 2 pints Hefeweissen, hung out with friends, rode home in van, picked up pizzas, hung out with friends at party #2, ate 5 slices of pizza, drank a can of Fat Tire, played several tunes on the violin, admired the fantastic job Norma and Phoebe did with the cupcakes, enjoyed my Happy Birthday song with candles, ate 2 cupcakes, did a Powerpoint show about me being a geologist, told people there was no way I’d wash their cars, read a bedtime story to everyone, said good bye to guests, put Phoebe to bed………and ran out of steam.

Thanks to all who came to the parties to help celebrate and to those who sent well wishes before and after. And most of all to my family, who helped, encouraged and supported this piece of self-indulgence. And well done to Andrew who did a great time – a PR by a lot - and who did all the driving and picked up my bike at the end.

If in doubt give it a go

So I did 20 miles on the bike and a 3 mile run this am. Felt a bit rusty but the back didn't seem to affect it. In fact it feels a bit better. So now mentally I feel much better and will go with what I've got. Will send out party invitations later.

Things not good

I am very worried about the event. I had to deal with our big research meeting at work and got sick (stress I'm sure) and then had a trip to England for a conference. In the week between I put my back out. I then had to go to England. Two transatlantic flights didn't help it at all. So with the cough and the back and work I haven't been able to train for three whole weeks. I wanted to do a long bike tomorrow but I'm not sure I can do anything. I will go to the chiropractor again on Monday. This sucks :(

The Halfway Birthday Challenge schedule

Longhorn Half Ironman (official race out at Travis Co Expo). Cheering squads welcome!
Swim 1.2 miles
Bike 56 miles
Run 13.1 miles

I think it’ll take me between 7-8 hours. Race starts in waves so I’m not sure of exact start time but if we say 7.30am I should be done around 3 pm

Pick bike up and start Pickle Juice drinking challenge (5 x 500 ml bottles) and drive to Austin for a short stop at a bar to meet up with Austin–based buddies (so they don’t have to trek out to Lago Vista on a Sunday evening). Venue NXNW. I will start the other part of the drinking challenge (a modest 5 bottles/pints of beer). Mixed with pickle juice though……..(in my stomach I mean, not in the glass!). So I’d schedule this bar rendezvous for 5 -7 pm.

Drive home (we will have a party at the house) and launch straight into the next part of the challenge:

50 repeats of Taekwondo forms (I do half the total form)
50 minutes of bedtime story reading to Phoebe (I need to get a book that would take me nearly 2 hours to read so she just gets half the story!)

Then Andrew came up with the following party activities just to make sure I am totally done for.

5 car washes (lucky lottery system or first come first served (no Hummers or Vans (Mrs Schwartz!))
5 slices of pizza
5 bags of crisps
5 mins of violin playing (ear plugs will be provided for guests)
5 mins of knitting
5 mins of reading Shakespeare aloud
5 mins of talking and computer photos about what I do (promise to make it funny)
5 mins of gardening
5 mins of sit ups
5 mins of push ups

25 species of birds see and name though the day.

make 50 cupcakes and eat 5 of them

Finish drinking challenge. Collapse into bed.

That's it - done - halfway to 100!

Long bike

I rode the course today, all 56 miles of it. It is fair to say that I was tired afterwards. One mean dog tried it on but luckily I was going too fast. Bit of a shock though to have it run out snarling and showing teeth. I'm thinking I might complete the physical part of the challenge with 50 repeats of Taekwondo forms. The tri will take 7-8 hours and then we have to get the bike back etc so I'll run out of time if I'm not careful.

Six weeks out

I am ready for this thing to be here. Even though final plans are not set yet, I want to get it done. I am hovering on the edge of injuryland. But I feel ready. A few more long efforts and I will be there. Not sure about the original time goal, but I will give it as good a shot as I can.

Pickle Juice

Training is going OK - need to get the miles up on the bike and run. I'm pretty much there with the swim.

Been thinking about the other parts of the challenge and have come up with part of the drinking challenge.......which will be 5 x 500 ml bottles of pickle juice. I hate the stuff, but it's good for you! After the tri I should be able to get 2 of them down without too much difficulty. They have to be very cold though. The other 3 will be the challenge and will be spread through the rest of the day.