Last time I rode...

I don't remember if it was 2 weeks ago Thursday or Friday but Ken took a couple days off so we went out and rode.  That should tell you how totally unprepared I feel for the ride in 4 weeks.

Anyway we were just making our way out east with no particular destination in mind when I think we both realized at the same time that we were about to ride past Doug's house.  I don't know if we consiously set out to do it but we turned up a different road instead.

A while later we decided to head out toward McDowell Mountain Ranch and took Via Linda out that way.  Before we realized it we were riding in front of the police station where Doug killed himself.  We both got kind of quiet for a little while.  I think we both realized that it had been a while since we thought about him.  At least that's what I realized.  He's been gone almost six months and I hardly think of him anymore.  That makes me feel a little depressed.

Nothing - Bike - Run

Seriously, I have got to go swimming in the very near future.

This week is about to evaporate because I have to watch the kids tomorrow and Katie is going up North to hike the Grand Canyon on thursday.  Today was horrible weather, rain and hail so I didn't get to do anything today.

Let me take a moment to criticize LA Fitness yet again.  I am begging the guy behind the counter to take my $24.99 / month for two months and then I'll quit again after the race.  Instead he wants $99 to sign me up.  I realize that is probably his commission but why let me walk out when I clearly want to give them money?

But I digress.

I have been very with my other two disciplines.  I am in the last full month of training before the race.  I've timed it wrong this year.  For some reason I was a week off in my training plan or I took an extra week off.  I can't tell for sure.  Anyway, I've been running 18 plus miles regularly on Sundays for almost 2 months now.  I haven't really been doing the required long rides but I have a descent base and I have been very good about my strenght and threshold rides.  I got in 85 miles on Saturday after Katie got sick and couldn't hike.  I would have gotten 100 plus but I got a bit of a late start.

This weekend is out unless I can get help watching the kids.  I'll have to figure something out.  I don't think it's going to be as hot so maybe I can get my Brother to watch them for a while on Saturday or Sunday.  For my run I'll either do the same thing I did a couple weeks ago and get an hour in on the treadmill before heading outside for another couple hours or I'll just do 3 x 1 hour runs with some time between to feed the kids and try to keep myself sane.  Treadmill long distance running is not a ton of fun.

Weekend after that is Rocky Point.  Riding is out for that time but I'll be able to get some long runs in.

I really will.  I'm able to force myself out of bed and run long distances.

Why don't you believe me?  I did it in Cabo a year ago.  Although the heat and humidity almost killed me.

That's going to put me 30 days out from the race.  A rest week and I'm 3 weeks away.  One hard week and then a two plus some week taper.

Predictions.  Boy I don't want to screw up.  I should go sub 12:00.  I have delusions of going sub 11:00.  Not likely.  There would have to be no wind on the bike and I'd have to hold 9:00 min/miles on the run.  Unlikely.  We'll see.

Probiotics

Back in the early '90s I used to own a pool hall.  The constant interaction with the public made me an incubator for every germ that came into the room.  I was sick constantly.  Now, I probably wasn't the picture of healthy living at the time and even though I've never smoked, back then I second hand smoked more than anyone alive.

Flash forward a couple years and I don't think I got sick one time between 1996 and 2006.  I was an accountant and stuck in an office and generally took a little better care of myself. 

Now I have 2 kids and training and I'm back to catching everything that comes around.  When you punish your body as much as I do all your energy goes to healing your joints and muscles.  There's nothing to spare for your immune system.  Last year I went and got a bird flu vaccine on the premise of a compromised immune system.  I had to explain that I didn't have AIDS but that my body just doesn't have the energy to fight anything.

Right before the race in November I started getting sick and by the week after it I thought I was afraid that I was going to die.  I had caught a pretty bad cold/flu and with my body being in the shape that it was it really knocked me for a loop.  I read in an article by Chris Carmichael that the probiotics in yogurt help to fight off colds and flu.  I've had a yogurt almost every day since then and I haven't been sick once this year.

Knock on wood.

A real rest week

Rest weeks aren't really for resting.  A typical rest week should include 5 or 6 hours of riding, 3 hours of running, and an hour or so of swimming.

I did...nothing this week except for the swim on Wednesday.

I roasted coffee twice and made a batch of beer but I didn't do anything exercise-wise.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Decent Swim

I didn't say great. I said decent. I need to swim more over the next month. A lot more.

Water was about 80 degrees and calm. There were about 20 of us out there. I got out there with no wetsuit and did the first 1/2 mile or so pretty well. Then a little wind picked up and I had my usual panic attack in the water. This was the first time I've been open water since my little incident in Flagstaff.

Anyway, I made a beeline to shore and when I got there I realized I was in the wrong place so I had to swim out again and get over to the beach where all my stuff was located.

Probably got in a mile or so in 30 minutes. I felt good, no real fatigue to speak of. Just need to get more comfortable.

Some thoughts on the matter T-60 days

I'm in a rest week now about ready to start my last big full month of training and I thought I would jot down some observations and stuff about myself.

Swim - I haven't been in the pool much in the past few weeks.  The reasons are not worth noting.  I think starting in the very near future I need to get in.  Tomorrow I'm going to do an hour in the open water at Bartlett Lake with Tri Scottsdale.  I'm interested to see how I feel after an hour in that chop.

Bike - I am in fine shape.  I think a 100, 110, 120, and a couple 130 mile rides will finish out my Saturdays with some intervals during the week.  I have no real concerns here, it's just a matter of getting on it.

Run - OK, I'm going to say this out loud.  I am in the best running shape of my life.  I've done the distance, I've done the speed.  There should be absolutely no reason, given a reasonable bike ride of course that I don't run the entire marathon in a sub 9:30 pace. 

That said, Sunday did not go so well.  Katie is out of town at a funeral and my sister in law volunteered to watch the kids in the morning if I wanted to run.  I did an hour on the treadmill and then took Paige and Ken over to Keith and Vicki's house and headed out.

It was insanely hot for mid-September.  I didn't drink enough while I was on the treadmill and I felt like crap immediately.  I was planning a simple little 6 1/2 mile out and back but my pulse kept going through the roof.  The run out was uphill, completely in the sun and the temp was approaching 95 I think.  I ran out of water and nutrition at the turn around and this particular out-and-back didn't take me out, back, to, or past a convenience store or drinking fountain. 

I limped my way home and stopped 1/2 mile from my front door to stand in the lobby of the CVS and enjoy the A/C.

So, back to my observations - I actually am quite confident.  I'll see how I feel tomorrow after the swim.

Some days are better than others...

And today was one of those days.

With a view like this of the sunrise how could you expect any less?

The schedule called for a 16 mile run.  Don e-mailed Friday that there was a 10K down at the Reach 11 Park at 7:15 am.  He suggested going for a 5 or 6 mile run afterwards as well.  He's increasing his mileage gradually preparing for PF Chang's Marathon in January.  Needing a few miles in addition to that I got out on the trail at 5:45 for an early six miles.  I never really drifted out of HR level 1 and still managed an average pace of 9:14 min/mile.  Pretty fast for me.

I finished and found that I had parked in the wrong place so I had an additional 1/2 mile run over to the 10K start line.  I met up with Don and his brother Dave.  The race took off for a 2 loop trail that followed part of the run I had just completed.  I covered the  covered the first loop in 25:21 and the course in 51:54.  I spent the majority of the race in level 2.  I'd have to check but I am sure that's my best 10K time.

After a few glasses of water Don and I headed back out over part of the course for a 3 mile out-and-back.  At the 1 1/2 mile mark we were just running along at a conversational pace when I went to jump over a stick.  GEEZ!  As I got over the stick I saw that it was a snake!  I assumed this snake to be dead.

Don described my movements as screaming like a 7 year old girl looking like she was in a crazy jump rope competition.  He was about to ask what was wrong but as my left foot struck the ground and I started hopping forward the snake sprung to life, coiled, and struck at me in less than the blink of an eye.  By then I was about 20 feet from the critter.

 

We threw a few stones at it hoping to scare it into the brush so that any other runners behind us wouldn't get surprised but it just sat there tightly coiled and rattling up a storm.  Finally Don hit it with a reasonably sized piece of wood.  The wood just bounced off the snake and seemed to make it more angry.  We thought it best just to move on.

We completed the 6 miles in just over an hour at a 10:09 pace.  Don is a lot faster than that and could have left me behind. 

Total distance covered was 18.73 miles in 2:52:39 or a 9:13 pace.  I'll take that come November anytime.  Family went to church afterwards and had a pancake breakfast then I took Ken to a birthday party for a friend of his.

It was a really great Sunday.

Hiking the Lava Tubes

My brother Keith and his family came up to Flagstaff this weekend.  We went up to Flagstaff on Saturday and hiked the Lava River Cave.

It's a 1 mile cave that was carved out of the ground by lava which pushed out of the ground about 700,000 years ago. 

You park your car and descend into a hole in the ground.  It's 90 degrees outside the cave but as you get close you feel the 35 degree underground temperature.

You descend probably 50 feet.  It's like a rock climbing wall but not straight down.  Almost immediately it's pitch black.  The last time I did this hike was probably 10 years ago.  The second biggest change is that now everybody wears LED headlamps whereas we used to carry flashlights.  The biggest change since then is the kids.  Keith's 7 year old daughter Ella really got into it and enjoyed the hike in spite of the hardships.  Her sister Olivia turned back early and Keith and Vicki went with her and brought their son Jake out as well.  He's 3 and a little young for this trip.

Ken was doing great until he took a little spill and got a pretty bad cut on the side of his head.  He was able to keep going and had a good time.

We got to the end and took a picture before heading back out.

Pretty big day

I had some time to kill yesterday morning so I put some extra miles in at level 2 on the way to work. 

Afterwards I went over to the pool and did a 5 x 400 swim at threshold.

I rode straight home in the afternoon.  I had a nice wind at my back but I hardly noticed with the intervals I was doing.  I got about 8 miles from home and the wind turned on me and I was riding into a 20 mph headwind with 40 mph gusts.  The last interval was really hard and I was getting blown all over the place.

Afterwards I went to Shadow Mt. High School and met Don for a track run.  7 x 1000 meter runs at level 4.

Kind of tired today.

A bad case of the Mondays

Spare me the Office Space jokes, please. 

We drove down from Flagstaff this morning and I rode into work.  Slow and easy.  I've got some intervals to hit on the way home.

I was going to swim but I forgot my goggles and swim drills sheet.  Maybe tomorrow.

Nothing Sunday

I got up pretty early yesterday, ready for a 16 mile run in Flagstaff.  It took me a while to actually get out of the house and as soon as I was about 1/4 mile down the hill I realized that the arch in my left foot was giving me some problems.

Friday night I read an article in Runner's World about plantar fascititus so I was really paranoid so I just hobbled back home and stretched for a while.

Really spent the whole day doing nothing.  Not a terrific day.

Perseid Meteor Shower

We went up north on Friday.  It was kind of cool outstide.  We arrived about 10:00 pm and I pretty much got out of the car and looked up and saw two of the best meteors I've ever seen within 5 minutes.

I sat outside for another 15 minutes or so and saw a few more that weren't quite as nice.

On Saturday night we got back from Katie's parent's house kind of late.  Paige went right to bed but Ken stayed outside watching the sky for a while.  After 15 minutes or so I got pretty tired and went in.  All I was thinking was, "Please God, let the kid see a shooting star out there."  After 30 minutes or so he came running in to tell me all about it.  Katie saw it too so I know that he didn't imagine it.

Flagstaff and Snowbowl

I met up with Ken in Flagstaff on Saturday morning and we made our way up to the mountain.  We went up it together.  I did take it very easy making sure never to get out of HR level 2 the whole morning.

Did I mention that I found my Garmin in my glove compartment?  I can't figure out why I put it in there in the first place.

Ken's knee was giving him some problems so we decided not to go all the way to the top.  Instead we stopped at the lodge right before the final 1/4 mile climb.  I never have stopped there before but Ken said this is the main lodge during the ski season.  The bathrooms were locked and there were no drinking fountains but there was a Pepsi machine.  As I rode up to it I said to Ken that for some reason recently I have had a Midas Touch when it comes to soda machines.  I walk up and press a button and free drinks just fall out for me.

I went up to the machine and pressed 'Pepsi' and voila, a bottle dropped down.  I asked Ken if he wanted one.  I pressed it and sure enough another fell out.  Just then a couple on tri-bikes pulled up to the top.  They asked if there was a fountain nearby.  They didn't want to go to the top either so I pressed the button for water and a bottle dropped for the woman.  They were nice.  They said they were both doing IM Canada in two weeks so they were well into their taper.  A 4 1/2 hour ride up Snowbowl seems a bit extreme for that.  I'll have to check my training log for November.

They left and we waited a few minutes before hitting the road.  I got stuck behind a pickup truck for a mile or so until I was able to convince the driver to pull over.  After that I really had a great descent.  I passed the woman on the tri-bike with a little over a mile left and finished 20 or so seconds behind her friend.  I figure I made up almost 3 minutes on him which felt good even if he was on a tri-bike which doesn't handle as well on the descents.  I hit the line at 10:00 exactly.  I'd like to go back and check and see what my fasted time is.  I can't believe it's much faster than that.

I swear I exercised, even though there's no data to support it.

Remember how it used to be, years ago when you would just jump on your bike and go for a ride or throw on a pair of shoes, spend 10 seconds stretching your calves and then head out for a run?

I think it was 2000 or maybe even 2001 when I started keeping track of my rides.  Simple stuff like date, morning weight, description, distance, and average speed was all I was able to track with the bike speedometers of the day.  I don't even feel right calling them computers.

In '03 I probably got a wireless bike computer.  No longer were cables run up and down the frame of the bike.  The data was the same.  Maybe at this point a Vetta HR100 tracked heart rate data as well as allowed user input of different training zones.  I added Max, average, and recovery HR to the sheet.  There were no designated workouts but I could probably compare rides a little better.  I went up 9 mile hill with an average HR of 165 and went 2 minutes faster than last time.

Finally in '05 I got a Garmin 301.  I was one of the first people with one.  It was amazing!  GPS!  Now routes could be downloaded to the computer.  Spreadsheets were no longer needed.  All that was necessary was to plug the device into a computer and everything that I did that day was captured for all eternity.  Some websites even allowed uploads of the info for the world to see.  This was especially cool for my trip to the 2006 Tour de France.

One of the most useful features of the 301 is the ability to design a workout on a computer and then download it to the device.  The device was also multisport which was a big plus.  As my Ironman training began in the Fall of 2006 I can honestly say that I would not have been as successful if I would have been required to remember my run and bike workouts.  It was very easy though to program the device and after inputing a run workout like:

1.  15 minutes HR level 1
2.  100 yard HR level 3
3.  1 minute HR level 1
4.  Repeat steps 2 - 3 3 more times
5.  7 minutes HR 163 - 167 bpm
6.  3 minutes HR level 1
7.  Repeat steps 5 - 7 3 more times
8.  7 minutes HR level 1

As you can see, intensity could be programmed in terms of heart rate levels, beats per minute, or even pace or miles per hour.  Interval length could be time, distance, or even when a certain HR was reached.

In the next 3 years no one will use HR data on a bike.  It will all be about power meters and watts but for now that technology is still pretty expensive to all but the pros and wannabe pros.

So what is really funny about this, is Friday I lost my HR monitor in my car.  I think it fell under my seat but I need to clean the whole car out to find it.

My Saturday ride looked like this:  Rode for about 3 hours and went about 50 miles and had a good time.

Like a rest week

I'm kind of messed up on my weeks but I'm treating this like a rest week.  I did a couple short 1/2 hour runs and three 1,000 yard swims but no biking to speak of.  I'll try and get out for a short one tomorrow.

Next week I'll hit everything kind of hard and then back it down the week after that and rest up for a 1/2 Ironman in Flagstaff. 

Pretty cool this morning I weighed in at 151 pounds.  That's the lightest I've been since shortly after my first Ironman in April 2007.

First Sprint Triathlon

Don talked me into signing up for the Mountain Man Sprint Triathlon on Sunday.  My hubris seems to have gotten the best of me these days - my whole, "it's only a sprint" attitude almost did me in.

A little bit of organizational disappointment first.  They've been doing this race for over 25 years.  This year they say that they had to split the sprint distance from the Olympic and half and have it on another day because of the crowds.  Not sure about that explanation.  It sounds like an excuse to get another entry fee out of people.

Anyway, their permit was for 650 entrants.  Don and I signed up on race day and we were race numbers 220 & 221 and there were 364 starters at the race but they didn't have any race t-shirts!  I kid you not, one of the things I most look forward to is getting a new t-shirt from a race.  This strikes me a very unprofessional.  They discounted our race entry by $5 but I think that what they should have said was that they would send us a shirt after the race.  As I said, very unprofessional.  It would be like running out of finisher medals at the end.

Another thing that they did wrong, and quite a few race organizers do this as well; they didn't have enough racks and transition stations.  I don't know what they accomplish by making people squeeze their bikes together so close.  I saw one woman threaten to smack a guy who spoke very little English because he moved her transition bag 1 foot so his back tire wouldn't hit it.

I had some very unusual problems in the swim.  I just couldn't catch my breath.  I'm usually bad in the swim but in this short 750 meter swim I was afraid I was going to panic and if I started to panic I was thinking that I was going to die because nobody was watching for people in trouble 100 yards from the finish.  What happened was that I wasn't feeling great in the first 250 yards, but that isn't unusual.  The second 250 were better but I still couldn't find a rhythm.  I was doing everything right, at least I though I was.  I was concentrating on breathing out in the water, rotating, catching, pulling, etc.  It just worked out that I couldn't swim more than 5 or 10 strokes without gasping for air.  I finally turned for the last 250 back home and the wheels really came off the bus.  I couldn't swim freestyle and it seemed like I wasn't getting anywhere with the breaststroke.  All of a sudden I totally started hyperventilating.  I kept trying to calm myself down but nothing worked.  Finally, in spite of how rotten it felt I floated on my back and just pushed my way to shore.  It felt like an eternity.  When I got out of the water I was totally disoriented.  Every step I took forward I fell two steps to the left.  I had to actually try and walk "right" into the water so that I could walk up the pier sideways. 

I went really slow into transition and crossed the mat.  I sat down and tried to take my wetsuit off.  Big mistake!  First of all, start taking your wetsuit off the moment you get out of the water because it comes off easier.  Second, never ever sit down unless someone is helping you take off the suit.  Use gravity, don't fight it.

Anyway, I finally got the suit off, and somehow got into my bike jersey and shoes.  I decided for this short race to go sans socks and see if I had any problems.  It went OK I guess.  I was still a little shaky as I left transition but felt good enough as I crossed the timing mat to make a flying mount of the bike.  The race organizer commented that it was a pretty cool mount.  I went pretty fast on the bike which is to say that I didn't relax at all.  I didn't really hammer it but I honestly don't know if I could have if I wanted.  Nobody passed me, that much I know. 

I was really surprised at how fast the 6 mile turn around appeared and a little disappointed at how long it took for me to get back.  I couldn't get out of my shoes while I was riding so I just unclipped and did another flying dismount as I crossed the timing mat.

T2 went a little better.  Again, I went with no socks.  I had to take off my right shoe once though to knock a stone out from the GC from the previous day's hike.

I did the run in just under 10 minute miles.  I walked through the one aid station and I had a pretty good kick at the end.  Legs felt good but sore.  We sat around talking with people for a little while and then got in Don's car and headed to:

SNOWBOWL

Don commented that he never really rides hills and wanted to try one.  How he picked this one I don't know.  I tried to dissuade him since he had his tri-bike and really expensive tires and wheels but he wanted to try.  I honestly didn't think we would get very far.  I was only afraid that I was going to be the one to cry uncle.

Here's Don on his $5,000 bike, $2,500 wheels, and $25 helmet (which is broken and needs to be replaced)!

A couple action shots taken on the climb.

Turned out that the ride went rather well.  Because of the road conditions at the top we went to the signs at the top instead of the lodge 1/2 mile further up.  We rested for a moment and then turned around and did a descent.  I think I had about 3 minutes on Don with a mile to go.  I wanted to time it but the only thing I had was my phone and so I spent the last mile coasting and trying to get the stopwatch ready for when I crossed at the bottom.  He ended up pulling back almost 2 minutes on that last mile.  Good times.  I really scared the heck out of him on the downhill.

Rim to River to Rim - Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon has never really held any kind of special place in my heart.  I've only been to the South Rim, what everybody thinks of as "The Grand Canyon", once and that was probably 10 years ago.  I've hiked some other easy trails in the canyon but never this one.

The idea struck me at some point this year to do a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike in a day which is something like 40 miles.  I was thinking late October and that would coincide with my Ironman training pretty well.  Doug and I were throwing the idea around, but obviously he won't be making the trip.

Never having really hiked in my life I decided to do a shorter Rim-to-River-to Rim hike.  It's 16 miles.  You go down the South Kaibab Trail to the Phantom Ranch Campground and then up the Bright Angel Trail.  South Kaibab is 6.5 miles and really all descent.  Bright Angel is 9.5 miles with some flats which turned out to be lousy because they are all sand trails.

Got up at 2:45 in the morning and I was on the road by 3:00 am.  I arrived at the canyon at 4:35.  I didn't have to be that early as the bus doesn't leave until 5:00 am sharp.  There was a small bit of panic when I got off the bus and realized that I did not know where the trail started.  Fortuneately someone appeared out of the restroom and pointed me in the right direction. 

5:12 - Just got off the bus. I love these posters.

5:13 - I begin

5:35 - First place worth stopping for a look.  People were setting up to get pics of the sunrise.  I'm not going to sit around that long.

5:55 - I think this is where I'm heading.  At this point I'm trying to run.  Originally I figured that I would get down to the bottom in 60 minutes.  It is 6.5 miles and downhill after all.

5:56 - Better picture.  You can make out the river at the bottom

5:57 - Switchbacks that I will be decsending soon.  The problem is that in order to prevent errosion, they have put railroad ties on the trail.  The dirt and sand between them has washed in away in many places and the ties are spread further than one of my strides so I end up either jumping over them or pushing off them.  Either way, I can tell that this is going to tire my legs out in a hurry.

6:17 - River is getting closer...

6:27 - Closer...

6:33 - Closer... I don't have to climb over those rocks :)

6:42 - River level.  I am really starting to get a good pace going at this point.

6:42 - Look a tunnel

6:42 - Nobobdy said anything about crossing a bridge

6:43 - Over the river!

6:44 - Mules carry stuff down

6:44 - And they have the right-of-way.  And they stink!

6:48 - Good!  Another bridge.

6:56 - A quick water stop and I'm well on my way back up.  Which means of course, another bridge!  This one goes over some rapids and has a mesh bottom.  I started to jog over it and realized that I hadn't zipped my pack shut and a couple things fell out and scattered over the grid.  Good thing I thought to clip my keys.

7:01 - Another mule train.

7:20 - Dear Lord!  Is that where I'm headed?

7:51 - The trail is pretty deep sand at this point.  Kind of sucky and slow but after 30 minutes I've climbed quite a bit.

8:15 - 4.5 miles up the trail (about halfway) I've reached Indian Garden.  I've been climbing for about 90 minutes I guess.  At this rate I'll get out in an hour more than I predicted.  Don't let the thermometer fool you.  It may be 110 in the sun but right behind me is one in the shade reading 85.  It's still early enough that the sun isn't baking everything yet.

8:21 - I've screwed around for a bit getting water and I'm just about to leave.  The squirrells practically walk up to your feet and beg for nuts.  The guy sitting on the right was there with his family and they were trying to convince him to start hiking.  I don't know if they had come down from the top or up from the camp ground but he knew how hard the next few hours were going to be and he was in no hurry.  Little does he suspect how hot it's getting out there.

8:40 - I think I'm another mile-and-a-half up at the next rest area.  Katie tells me that the patch of green in the middle between the two peaks is Indian Garden.

9:28 - I am right around the last rest stop around 1.5 miles from the top which means that it's taken me the better part of 50 minutes to climb 1.5 miles.  At this point I'm running every other switchback.

10:03 - I'm out!  I don't think I stopped the clock until I got to the lodge a few minutes later.  I originally thought I had done it in 5:05 but it turned out to be 4:50.

I really feel pretty good.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Got home safe

What a terrific ride home.  It was really hot but I made sure I had a lot of ice water with me and I made sure that I was drinking enough that I went through a bottle every half hour.  I figured that way I would have to stop at the Super Pumper by my house and refill.  Resting and staying hydrated and holding my threshold ride to below LT I figured would work out and leave me fresh for tomorrow.

I was right, except....

As I exited the Super Pumper with my fresh ice water the wind kicked up and I got caught in a wicked dust storm.  It was blowing cars around pretty good so I was careful, and slow.  The wind was right in my face and there had to be 40 mph gusts.

The sand finally stopped blowing and then it started to rain.  It was OK, I made it home safe and happy.  Just about to leave to go up north.

Tomorrow

Last night I didn't run but I did ride to work this morning.  Have a 23 mile ride home in this 115 furnace that we call Phoenix.

Here's the plan:  Go up to Flag tonight and get to sleep in time to bounce out of bed at 3:00 am and get moving.  I'm going to drive to the Grand Canyon hopefully in time to get on the 5:00 am bus for the South Kaibab trail.  It's 6.5 miles or so down to Phantom Ranch and then 9.5 miles back up the Bright Angel path.  Don't ask me why but that's the order everybody does this hike.  I think Bright Angel is longer but there's water on it.

Pretty much all the advice I've gotten on this sounds like, "OK, but bring plenty of water."

After I get home my buddy Don is coming up and we have to go to register for the Mountain Man Sprint Triathlon.  That goes off Sunday.  I hope I feel ok.

More about this weekend

Every single website I go to advises NOT to do the hike that I am proposing.