Day 38: Observations from Training Long

I just finished up my last 8+ hour training day, a 202K (126 miles) ride and an hour brick run. The ride was no Death Ride but it did have 4000+ feet of climbing and a gnarly head wind the last 15K, the type of headwind that makes you question what the hell you are doing. The run off the bike made me realize that a 3:17-3:20 marathon might be a bit ambitious. I managed to average 4:38 per kilometer but I seriously don't know how I can keep that up for another 2+ hours. Right now, I'm thinking 3:30. Training long has afforded me a lot of time to think and make observations. Here are the thoughts that swirl in my head when I'm out there:
• Four months ago, I was taking 4-5 salt tablets for a 4-hour ride. These days, I'm averaging zero to 1 salt tablet for a 6-hour training day. The more fit you are, the less salt you need.
• I made a comment awhile back that if you think you're overtrained, you're actually undertrained. The last 5 weeks confirmed this. I've done the most volume I've ever done, and to date, no night sweats, and only one full day off.
• You can get some pretty good natural speed just by doing volume.
• I heart running again after putting in 4 straight weeks of 40+ miles.
• You can indeed run on fumes, approximately 3-5K worth.
• I can confidently say that I could never be a pro triathlete, it takes too much dedication.
• Drinking water alone will make you flush out your electrolytes.
• Who needs masters (or squads as they're called here) when you have the 5000-6000 meter swim workout.
• How does Charisa and Ian do this stuff with a full-time job?
• When I'm dehydrated, the right side of my jaw hurts.
• Though my legs and arms are in shape to go long, my ears still need some training to support my sunglasses for 8+ hours.
• There are some psychos out there, yes, I'm talking about you the aussie doing 4 ironmans in 4 months.
I'm sure you notice the lack of videos on my blog of late. I assure you, I've got some new videos but I will have to wait until I return to Sydney to post them. Wifi works a bit different here. Rather than paying for a flat usage fee, you actually pay for data usage/downloads. Thus, it gets real expensive to watch and download multimedia. I've scoured the Gold Coast for cafes with wifi, even McDonalds Cafe (yes, they consider McDonalds to be a cafe here). But McD's only allows you 50MB of data, and the other cafe with wifi charges $3.95 per hour. Enjoy the pics from the past seven days here.