Why I ‘do’ Ironman

Last week Iron Daughter added a post that in part talked about why she ‘does’ triathlon.

I’ve struggled with that as well from time to time, and from one year to the next

…aside from all the foo-foo stuff, there’s one compelling primary reason that I ‘do’ Ironman:

my love of great food, fine wines, and creative craft beers

Following the spirit of ‘listen to your body’, I’ve had a recent craving for a rack of ribs…hard to get it into the eating mix since it’s so high in calories…even with 10 hours of exercise a week….although soooo much fun.

This morning, I woke up with the same craving so decided to do something about it…my wife is going back to the doctor tomorrow (Monday) to have her stitches removed, so as the good nurse that I’ve been, on this last day of my official requirement, I’ll drive her to her mid-day appointment, which splinters the day, and makes ‘work’ and ‘exercise’ doable, but too much stress…

…so I combined the ribs thing with stacking workouts into today…95F outside…no problem

So instead of a normal light exercise day on Sunday, I:

• ran for 35 minutes…488 calories…since my knee has been acting up, I was originally not going to run until Tuesday, but I _really_ wanted to ‘test’ it again today anyway…run was ok…felt the knee, but no specific pain, so good
• swim for 55 minutes…441 calories…working on Tempo between 1.1 (seconds) and 1.2 stroke rate…took the outdoor option so the water was bath water warm…outfitted in my Speedo, maybe I softened the triathlon shorts tan lines a bit
•  bike for 45 minutes…360 calories…fairly easy bike, on a soft lakeside path to the store to buy dinner ingredients

So there it was, added 1289 exercise calories, contained what I was eating the rest of the day, and sat down with a calorie budget for dinner of 2,246 calories left for the day…beautiful!

Our picture today features the dinner that I prepared…out of the picture the 2 Kona Fire Rock Pale Ales already consumed while cooking and ‘rehydrating’ from the hot day :

• butternut squash ravioli…on the plates…soft and delightful
• 2 types of salmon, both fresh, wild and line caught…King and Coho for a variety of taste and texture…both grilled on the BBQ…beautiful
• Sashimi grade tuna…seared 1 minute per side to give it a variation of temperature and texture…excellent…so good…so lean…so perfect
• sourdough bread toasted on the grill…great compliment to the rest of dinner
• antipasto: sliced cucumbers, grilled sweet red peppers, marinated beets, grilled zucchini, and marinated, grilled artichokes
• ah…the ribs…baby back, full rack…sooo fall-off-the-bone exquisite
• spinach salad, with bella mushrooms…always a good choice…my nightly habit
• my wife’s favorite Pinot Noir, my glass of an lovely buttery Chardonnay

…no we didn’t eat it all…but made a dent…I don’t know how many calories I actually did eat, since with a focus on squeezing off a few pounds, I’ve been coming into dinner with a 1,500 calorie budget, and don’t go through the brain damage of counting the minutia of my dinner calories, and just enjoy it

…and tonight it was a 2,246 calorie budget…so whatever it was, I’m under that…might not be a lot under, but under…

…that’s why I ‘do’ Ironman 🙂