Wednesday, September 28th 2011

Bike:  7 hours  (I did not get off the bike once during the 7 hours, didnt even piss)
Run: 1:45 

Comments:
I arrived back to Dubai on Tuesday morning, and had a day off from training on Tuesday.

But this week, I have 45 hours of training on my schedule (including Monday’s session) 

Where I like to train in Dubai is a 20-30 minute drive from my office as well as where I live. 

In order to fit in my 7 hour bike followed by 2 hour run into my work schedule and parent teacher conferences at night, I decided to do the bike on my turbo outside on the roof of my office – directly under the sun.  When I started the temperature was 40+ degree Celsius (105 F) 

Imagine sitting on a stationary bike on top of an office in Dubai, directly under the sun …. For 7 hours.

It was extremely hot, but its manageable.  

I purposefully drank more water than I probably needed because I was worried I would be too dehydrated for the 2 hour run after.
It was the first time I had trained in such hot conditions. 

During the first few hours, I debated with myself If I had under estimated the heat … but as I rode, I realized it wasn’t too bad – its all mental. 

I had someone bring me water every 20-40 minutes.

Over the 7 hours, I drank 8 bottles of 1.5 liters of Evian which = 12 liters of water in 7 hours and I never had to stop to urinate.

I covered myself in sun cream throughout the ride, but still got burned. 

I seemed to be more hungry than usual on this ride – I wonder if its because of the heat?

My legs felt great and I kept my cadence above 80 for a majority of the ride.

Around 4pm, the temperature drops considerably, to the point where it seemed cool.

By the time I finished the 7 hours, it wasn’t too hot … its hot, but nothing like during the day. 

I rushed to do my run … transition 5 minutes, and I had to take my phone on the run.
For the first 20 minutes of the run, I had several work related calls, but I easily ran and had the calls.
Mario did an amazing  job getting me into shape.  My legs felt great, and I had a smooth, almost easy run.

I easily ran the 1:45, I should have run 2 hours, but …. I had to cut it short to be able to make it to parent – teacher conferences for my youngest daughter.

Around the 4 hour mark of my bike ride, Nic came up and told me Etihad Airlines confirmed as one of the key sponsors of my challenge.
I am proud to have the national airline of the UAE as one of my sponsors for this challenge.

I was able to work well this morning, and then did my long training.  The entire office of Dubai knew I was on the roof, under the sun in the heat training on my turbo …

We made a video blog that I will post once Rency is back. 

Today was another great example of how mental everything is – its hot, but when I focused on just getting on with it … the heat and pain were manageable.

Today I have a 4,000 meter swim, 3 hour run and 2 hours of core strength workout.

Several people ask about what music i listen to on these long rides and runs … but I do not listen to an ipod because its illegal in an ironman.  Also, its great mental training doing long runs and rides with nothing …. it gives me a lot of time to reflect and think about things.

Probably the question i get asked the most is “how much weight have I lost?”  … I have lost around 11 kilo (around 25 lbs)
Mario wants me to gain some weight before the challenge because he expects me to lose 5-10 kilo during the 7 days.