Iron Advisory

The dogs and I are indoors with the lights off and the shades pulled and the AC cranked on. Why? Because outside, you might as well be walking on the sun, and I'm still cooling down from a workout that ended two hours ago.

I was warned: stay indoors. The government said:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA
528 AM CDT SAT AUG 11 2007

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A HEAT
ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM THIS MORNING TO 9 PM CDT
THIS EVENING.

HEAT INDEX VALUES UP TO 115 DEGREES CAN BE EXPECTED...MAINLY
DURING THE AFTERNOON. HEAT INDICES ARE NOT EXPECTED TO FALL BELOW
108 DEGREES UNTIL AFTER 9 PM THIS EVENING.

DRINK PLENTY OF FLUIDS...STAY IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED
ROOM...STAY OUT OF THE SUN...AND CHECK UP ON RELATIVES AND
NEIGHBORS.

One Hundred Fifteen Degrees???!!!

**blink** **blink**

But Coach Book said I needed to do a brick with 3:30 on the bike and 60 minutes on the run. On a recovery week.

Uhm. Yeah. Recovery.

Only poetry can capture the inner drama of training in such conditions; but, everyone knows that men cannot express their emotions as well as women. So, rather than wax poetic myself, I refer you to a lovely, lyric poeme about summertime authored by Texas' own, the very lovely, Allez.

Wasn't that nice? She said it way better than I could have.

Well, I did my brick anyway, not because I'm a disciplined training animal. Nope. The long and the short of it is that I'm more scared of Ironman Wisconsin than I am of 115 degree heat index--more afraid of the four week Iron Advisory in my sidebar than the heat advisory from the government.

They say that Iron training changes you. What do you think?

Before--sunscreen slimied, bedecked in my "shrug," happy and ready to go:




After--a lean, mean, (and yet shattered) triathlon machine:





I'm a shell of my former self. I need a walk in freezer and in inexhaustable supply of Power Bar Recovery Drink, . . . .

. . . so I can do it again tomorrow. Four weeks to go.