10cm

In preparation for Lifetime Fitness and New York, we are once again heat training. Doing it up here in Victoria is nice for a couple reasons. The first, and main one, is that I get to suffer with other people. It is much more satisfying to abuse Colin, as opposed to my own reflection, when the delirium sets in. It’s also much better to do it in the MET (Mobile Environment Trailer… I think), which is much more hi-tech than the bathroom. Because of the bigger air volume and the big heaters, there is a lot more fresh air that can be pumped in, which makes a huge difference.

Lastly, well, that’s where those 10cm come into play. Normally, you might not think that one would be so overjoyed about sticking a couple plastic coated wires… Well, where do you think they go. I’ll give you a hint – they measure core temperature. Anyway, 10cm doesn’t seem like a whole lot. But then again, have you ever ridden a bicycle with the remaining 30cm of said probe coming out your bike shorts? If your answer to that question is yes, then you are either a training partner of mine, or you may have some personal issues that we’d rather not deal with. In any case, despite the awkwardness of riding with a rectal probe, it actually makes the whole affair much more manageable, since you know what your core temperature is, and you can adjust the workload accordingly. For the last half-hour, we basically just soft-pedaled to keep the temps hi enough. That’s a heckuva lot easier than trying to keep the effort up because you have no idea if your body is hot enough, too hot, or too cool. The necessary temperature to force adaptation is relatively low, and once you get up to it, you don’t need to work very hard to keep it high. So, those 10cm, they really helped.

I also got to enjoy the ice Gatorade slushies that come along with being adopted by the Canadian Team. Those were probably the greatest drinks of all time. All said, it was much easier than Day 1 of heat training before IMAZ. Day 2 tomorrow, and then we keep going until we finish up right before departure for MN. Colin and I were very lazy after being roasted, so Hernandez was in order. It was most delicious, as usual. Tomorrow should also be a fair bit easier than today since I won’t have kicked my own behind around the Waddling Dog before starting. And, I know I’ll still have Colin there to abuse…

Movie for Day 1: Disney/Pixar’s “The Incredibles.” You feel like you have kindred spirits as a triathlete when you see people saving the world in spandex.