Made of steel ... perhaps aluminum instead?

I thought I had built up both a butt of steel and stomach of steel, but apparently not so much.

Saturday, Paula and I went for what was supposed to be a 5-hour ride on relatively flat roads. So, we finally got to do Paula's "peddle to the point" route, which took us from her house to the causeway of Cedar Point and back.

I decided to try out my new tri shorts to see if I could withstand them. I figured if I could go 5 hours on a flat course, I could go the duration of the IMLP course in them. It would be nice to make transition simple.

However, my butt didn't agree. About 45 minutes into the ride, it already ached. Boy, was it going to be a long day! Eventually, you can block out the pain (or maybe it just goes numb), but by the time we got back to Paula's house after 80 miles (at 4 hours and 40 minutes), my butt screamed "ENOUGH already!" Okay, I get the message. I will be wearing my bike shorts for the Ironman course. At least I've already proved that I could go 100 miles on the course with the bike shorts and not have issues.

My stomach was the other problem on Saturday. Everything was going fine until about 3.5-4 hours into the ride when I got the same pain in my stomach as last week's 100-miler in LP. I slowed down and drank only water and it eventually subsided. I keep trying to figure out what the issue is, but Matt, the Shaolin monk apparently, only advised "You can't prevent a fire with a smoke alarm" and "You can't prevent rain by carrying an umbrella" when I tried to hash it out with him. Huh?! I guess his point is who knows if it will happen on race day, but at least I know it will get better by slowing down. I'll carry some Tums too.

However, I still want to try to figure it out. I'm beginning to think I'm over salting myself. I am paranoid about cramping, so I've grabbed onto any easy salt addition I can get. The pills are just too hard to remember to take. So, I've been eating Margarita Clif Blok Shots (with 3 x the sodium) and drinking Gatorade endurance (one bottle has 600 mg of salt). Just recently, I started adding Enduralyte powder to the Gatorade mix as well. Me thinks I might have a tad bit too much salt now and it is making my stomach unhappy. So, my new plan for IM is to go with the Gatorade Endurance without the Enduralyte powder. I'll still have the Clif Blok Shots, but cut my Margarita flavor consumption in half. I'll carry salt pills just in case, but unless it is very hot on race day, this is the plan.

Well, it is just 19 days to race day! I probably have run out of time to figure stuff out like nutrition and clothing, so now I will hope for the best.