What is it about Thai food? You take the very simplest basic ingredients and when combined they become the most amazing taste sensation. Perhaps it’s the craftsmanship in the kitchen that brings it all together? Not sure. Tonight I had a green curry chicken that was cooked inside a coconut. The flavour and texture was amazing and I devoured very molecule.
Yesterday I completed my recovery period from the Canadian Death Race. Therefore today I headed out for a 180 km ride, my last one before Ironman Canada which is only 2 weeks away. So I guess that means that I will be starting my 2 week taper for IMC tomorrow. This seems to be my cycle of life lately. Taper – race – recover – taper – race – recover. Not that I am complaining or anything but it does seem an odd way to live sometimes. I’ll bet that I am very tough person to coach (sorry Calvin).
Last night I watched a movie that took place during the ethnic cleansing that occurred during the religious wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The two main characters were a Muslim man and his Serbian partner. The story opens with a scene where troops were going through the city and forcing the men to drop their pants. If you were circumcised then you were assumed to be Muslim and therefore were shot on the spot. To escape this persecution, the Serbian guy dressed his Muslim partner as a woman and they escaped to a rural village. Their plan was to travel to the Netherlands however the Serbian was drafted into the army leaving his partner to fend for himself in the village. Man did that poor Muslim dude have a tough time trying to survive life in the village while trying to keep his religion and his sex a secret. The Serb was eventually killed in battle and the Muslim dude somehow managed to escape to France. It was a fascinating story of survival, it left me wondering how I would have survived in a similar situation where everyone hated you and was willing to kill you on the spot.
We are currently having a heat wave here. Well, a heat wave by Canadian standards anyway. Frankly I am loving it. It got up to 30 degrees today when I was out biking. It was tough to keep hydrated throughout the day and my tri-suit was caked in sweat and salt. I love that feeling, it is so cleansing to sweat like that. Besides, today’s cycling goal was distance and not time based which meant that I would stop for a swim whenever it got too hot.
I have been thinking a lot about my experiences at the Death Race. Here is one of the funniest things that happened along the way. I was running alone in the dark for about 30 minutes around the 110 km mark on leg 5 of the race. I was really enjoying running this section of the race however I was tired which made it tough to keep focused on variable trail conditions. At one point I stubbed my toe on a rock which sent an excruciating pain through my swollen foot. Without thinking, I yelled out “Motherf@*ker”. I was totally shocked to hear I a women’s voice respond through the darkness, “I heard that”. Seems I was not so alone in the forest. I called out a “sorry!” and ran off laughing into the night.
I have a new one piece tri-suit which I am hoping to wear at Ironman Canada. I have never had one before so I am finding it to be a whole new experience. The first thing I noticed was that the legs tend to ride up my legs which is something that I have not encountered with bike shorts. The other thing that was new was that the cycling pad is a mini-pad so there is not too much padding. I will certainly have to use some Body Glide on race day or I could end up with a nasty case of manstruation. You also have to learn how to pee by hiking up the pant leg which takes a bit of finesse in order to avoid making a mess. Jeez, I better at least look good after all of this adaptation.
