formulaic..at its best

The joys of mediocrity

2011-03-30T22:55:00.000-07:00

The workout was simple, an hour hard on the trainer followed by a hard 3 miles. Burn the body into the ground, because after all the Jack in the Box burgers, I deserved a little burning.

But I wasn’t feeling it. After a miserable day at the office, the last thing I wanted to do was push hard. The burgers were settling in and I could feel the metamorphosis of burger fat to human fat taking place. Why not take the easy route and let the process take place without struggle?

After much hemming and hawing and secret deals and broken promises, I finally found myself on the trainer. I hoped and prayed that after a few minutes I would feel good and feel ready. And true to exercise form, I did. I felt good and was actually having a great ride. Perfect pacing and I was sweating bullets. Reach down for my water and realize that I forgot to get water. No problem, hop off, pause the workout and get me some aqua. Only as soon as I was off the bike, my energy level plummeted. I was done. I could not get back on the bike. Give it a few minutes to recharge right? Nada. If anything the sugar rush had officially worn off and now I was lethargic and fat all over again. On top of that I felt even worse, because not only had I not gotten the work out done, I only got 1/3 of the workout done.

Epic fail.

Who cares if I had a great 30 minutes? Who cares if it was 30 minutes more than I was afraid was going to happen. Who cares?

Not me. All I am left with is a feeling of failure. I couldn’t even buck up for a full hour. I suck. I am so tired of sucking. I am just so tired of being average. I am tired of failing to rise above the typical and achieve greatness. I am tired of being mediocre.

Mediocre is exactly it. I am not fast, my endurance is at an all time low and apparently, I have zero mental discipline. I feel pathetic. I am pathetic.

I have found that after Ironman, everything seems meaningless. Who cares if I can run 3 miles? I used to run 10 miles as my first workout of the day with 2 more workouts to follow. Swam for 30 minutes? IM training had me in the pool of hours.

Everything pales in comparison.

Ultra running was different. In training for an ultra, I would run a marathon and keep going. A full 26 miles was not something that was the end, it was the middle point. Again, I felt like I was doing something.

Yet even then, I would be struck with my mediocrity. Yes I finished 140.6 miles. But I am slow. After 3 tries my times are no were near fast. After this last IM, I realized that even on my best day and everything lined up perfectly and I was strong throughout that I could not beat 12 hours. Hell, I will probably never even see 12 hours. Realistically, 13 hours is probably the best I will ever get and that is with several years of training. 13 hours? 13? People do better than 13 on their first try. They just learned how to swim one month ago and they beat 13 hours. The blog world is full of people who lament that they had a bad day with 3 flats and bad cramps and have to walk the entire marathon and they STILL BEAT 13 HOURS! Let’s face it, maybe IM is not my thing.

Ultra? One would think that since the top 50% of ultra finishers complete an ultra with a 12-15 minute pace and since I happen to run an IM marathon at around that pace, that it would be a perfect fit, right? Nope, it turns out that while it looks good on paper, the reality is something much slower. My 12-15 translates to a much slower 15-17 minute pace. Again, I am regaled with the back of the pack.

That’s fine, I am not complaining about that. Except I am…

I am tired of being the back of the pack. I am tired of being “happy for the accomplishment”. I am tired of beating my mind silly with the “Even attempting to try equals success” and “You are doing more than most people in the world are”. Great! Most of the world is not doing this, but I have the sneaky suspicion that if they entire world would spontaneously go out and do this; I would be at the back of the pack all over again.

Now serving number: 4,591,834,140!

So if I am so tired of being last or near last, then get off my ass and do something right? Right! Only that leads me to here. Sitting on my fat ass (getting fatter every second) while I feel sorry for myself for not having the chutzpah to pedal myself into the ground.

Even my backup plan is mediocre. This post is a prime example of why I don’t post. It’s lame. It’s long winded and not even an iota of funny. Originally, I started the blog in hopes that my creative writer skills would come flowing out, or my comedic talent would garner instant likeability in the blogosphere. More than a year later and not only do I not feel like a world class writer, I am now acutely aware of that fact. One more fantasy to scratch off the list. Everyone talks about wanting to write their lives story, but they are afraid of having nothing to write and no one to read it. I am happy to say that I have been blessed enough to make that nightmare come true.

Is there a point to this post? Like the origins of this blog, it was started with the best of intentions. Maybe it was just to get the feelings off my chest or maybe because typing seems more therapeutic then screaming. Somehow in all the rambling the point got lost and all that remains is a meandering tale of depression. Is there a point to this blog? I am not sure. Perhaps as a kind of measuring stick. “You think your life sucks, well look at this blog” or maybe as a way to get your kids to eat their vegetables and scare them into doing those 1 mile repeats. “KIDS! Finish your workout or you’ll end up just like me!”

Burning ring of fire – Javelina Jundred Race Report

2010-10-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Alternatively titled:

My Balls, what happened to my balls – balls of my feet that is!!

OUCH!!

First off let me say that this was one hell of a painful day. I got through it and for a lot of it, I thank you guys. Just knowing that you guys were lurking out there waiting to for me finish and report back, really helped give me a little motivation.

Thank you guys!

Second of all, this report is FREAKING long. I apologize for that. I guess I had a lot of details to get out and once I started, I could not stop them.

About two months ago, JohnnyTri threw-out the idea of me joining him for Javelina. He was on a down cycle and was having a slow week, so technically our mileage was similar. Never mind that immediately after that he ramped up his training and became an ultra fit stud. I dismissed his idea, but secretly the idea began worming its way into my subconscious.

Seemingly out of the blue, on Monday, I emailed Sweet Baboo (Ultra running man extraordinaire) and asked him how crazy I was for even thinking about signing up for a race that despite the two months prior warning, I had not trained for. Instead of calling me stupid and shutting me down, he actually did exactly what I needed and laid out the race in plain and simple terms. He broke it down and explained that if I could do a marathon, then a 50 could be probably be done too. And that technically, I have 30 hours to finish the 100k, so even if I had to walk the entire thing, I could probably do it.

Little did I know how close to walking the thing I would come.

On Tuesday, I became the last official person to register for the race and on Friday, Dez and JT picked me up and we headed out to packet pickup. On the way we got to cross over the new Hoover Dam Bridge! Unfortunately, there is NO view from the side of the road unless you happen to be a semi truck. Otherwise all you get to see is a concrete wall. However on the way back, we found out that you can park at the dam and walk up to and across the bridge! Even without the view, the bridge is very nice because it cuts A LOT of time out of the drive, within 30 seconds you are across the dam and on your way as opposed to the old way that could take at least 20 minutes and sometimes 2-3 hours!

Once we got to Phoenix/fountain hills, we checked into the hotel and found our way to the race site. I know this may come as a big surprise to some but a trail run tends to happen on a trail…in the middle of nowhere. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it seems like we drove to the middle of the desert far removed from all society. Somehow I had envisioned a trail run that would be surrounded by the city or at least semi-nearby. Maybe I am thinking of Rio de Lago or I need to change my training environment (oh wait, I don’t train!)

The Javilina Jeadquarters was a nice little campground area that included a place for tents and coolers for those people who wanted to stay on site or more importantly as it later became clear, the tents and coolers helped those who were coming in from their run stay out of the chaos of the main tent and gave them a place to cool off.

Immediately you become aware of the party environment of Javelina. There is music playing, the tents are set up with people hanging out. Everybody is relaxed. Contrasts this with Ironman where everyone there is stressed out. People are trying to avoid hanging out and they want to get back to their hotel as fast as they can. At Javelina, everyone is smiles and hugs. Everyone is good friends; everyone knows everyone and honestly wants to know how their kids are doing. It is a completely different scene.

Packet pick up is the same way. The booth opens at 3 (even though its 3:15), they start to hand out the packets, but then they stop because they haven’t established an assembly line. They finally get the assembly line going but after 10 people it falls apart and people start grabbing everything as they need willy-nilly style. Sounds like chaos? Nope, everyone works together and no one seems worried about the time and their egos don’t get involved. Again, it all very low key.

As it turns out, I am a little high strung and nervous and when I go up for packet pickup and they don’t find my name, I get a little freaked out. I start to worry that I am not able to race, or that I have to prove myself and provide the registration printout, etc. All this comes for not, I stand around for a while, talk to the race directors who find my name on the updated list and hand me my packet and I am all set. It turns out that I was the last person to register for the race, and they were going off an old list. No biggie for them, but it did get my heart-a-thundering.

We meet Sweet Baboo, GeekGirl and a couple other people including some from Las Vegas. We hang around the expo for a while and pick up a few things but for the most part the highlight was getting the packet and then we are out.

Being as I am flying by the seat of my pants, I take an in ordinarily long time to get my gear together and by the time its bed time I am already several hours late.

Race Day

A 3 am wakeup call comes way too early for me but JT and I shlump our sleepy butts over to Denny’s which conveniently enough is in the hotel parking lot. We are supposed to be shooting for 1000 calories however I am still stuffed from dinner, but I know how important a good breakfast is and I manage to stuff almost half of my meal down. We finished breakfast off by talking to another racer who showed up as we were about to leave. Honestly I thought that the restaurant was going to be packed but it seemed that we were the only two groups there.

At the race start, I of course instantly had to go to the bathroom. Despite there being 8 port-a-johns lined up at the Jeadquarters, there was also a nice long line. I eventually gave up on the idea and decided to wait until the race got underway. If anyone knows me, they know that I have a small bladder. Like my two year old son who has no bladder control and pees in diapers has a bigger bladder than me! So needless to say that I could NOT wait for the race to start. I am sure that I met a lot of interesting people and saw some funny things but honestly, I was up to my eyeballs in pee. One thing I do remember is JT leaning over and saying that at least with an Ironman we can pee in our wetsuits, here there is no hiding! How very true. And while I did entertain just letting it fly right there, I assumed that no one would buy the “I am a leaky fire hose costume” joke. I took solace in knowing that soon would be on the trail, and I could sneak behind a bush and go. At least as a guy we can do this; I can only imagine how hard it must be for a girl out there.

There was the customary countdown; there was an air horn and we were off! Just like almost all the marathons I have been too, there is a rush to get out of the starting gates as fast as possible. Everyone wants to hurry up and run which pretty much means that everyone gets to hurry up and wait. The start of these races are always so bunched up that it doesn’t really become clear until a mile or two. When you add in a single track trail, the congestion is even worse. But luckily, I was able to hold my bladder until a mile or to down the trail and was then able to sneak off to a bush. I can only assume that it was a mile or two because, like a complete idiot, I left my Garmin at home. I charged it up made sure that it was ready to go and then I went! Being as I was flying by the seat of my pants, I wasn’t even sure if I would use it being as the trail is 5 miles from one aid station to another, but it turns out that 5 miles feel like f-o-r-e-v-e-r out there on the trail. This fact would come back to haunt me multiple times throughout the long weekend.

The race starts at 6 am which technically is before sunrise so it is dark outside, but within a mile or two the sun had peaked through the clouds and it was starting to lighten up. I ran without a headlight for the morning and found that it was perfectly bright outside. Other people had a light, but it seemed like they only needed it for about 20 minutes at max. Even without the headlight it was still pretty bright out. For those looking to do the race in the future, I would not recommend a light in the morning or at the very least make sure it is a light that is light and you can stow and run with.

As I said, about twenty minutes in the sun came up and we were greeted with a beautiful sunrise. Actually the sunrise was behind us so if you wanted to see it, then you had to turn around. Funny enough, this is exactly what a lot of racers did. In fact so many racers turned around and took pictures that I stopped and looked back just to make sure that it wasn’t the coming of Christ or something important. Nope, it was just a sunrise. It turns out that I am a non-sunrise kind of guy. If you’ve seen one then you’ve seen them all, but these ultra running types are a different breed. They stopped and admired the sun rise, not once but several times as the sun moved over the mountains and into and through the clouds. Truly it was beautiful or at least I am told.

After the sun rose up, there was not much to do but keep running. We ran and ran and ran. We may have gotten a whopping 2 or 3 miles before I began to think that we had gone past the 5 mile aid station. The lack of a Garmin was starting to get to me. I had gone less than 3 mile and I was already wildly overestimating the mileage. Not good!

Luckily, Baboo was able to keep me pretty much distracted with his wealth of knowledge of not only the course, but also the fellow racers on the course. He would describe the upcoming hills and the hard parts where it was needed to go easy and the easy parts where we could go hard. He seemly knew every inch of the course (as the day wore on, I was able to see how he was able to remember so much, after hours and hours, it begins to become burned into our minds). He pointed out which runners have a history of going out too fast and which ones are strong and consistent. He knew which runners are good at pacing themselves and therefore should be followed and which runners are the bad type to follow. Really having him out there was a great boon.

Unfortunately, at the first aid station, JT and I got behind him and GeekGirl. JT had his water pack and while the aid station is great and super helpful, there was one guy who grabbed JT’s pack and instead of filling it up with water, filled it up with Gatorade. JT took one sip and knew that the mess up had happened. He had to pour out everything and start with fresh water. While this wasn’t a big deal, it did put the Pilgrims (Baboo and GeekGirl) way ahead of us. After we left the aid station, it felt like we were behind the eight ball and we had to work extra hard to catch up to them. Of course, this is a silly idea. On an ultra race like this, you don’t waste precious energy trying to play catch-up. Otherwise, you risk wasting all your energy on the start of the race and having nothing left over for the rest of the race. Yet, even knowing this, JT and I worked to reel the Pilgrims back it. Not only did we reel them in, but by the second aid station (10 miles), we were feeling pretty good so we went ahead and ran a little faster and passed them.

Funny thing was, shortly after that, the trail began its long downhill decline. For some reason that I can’t remember why, running went out the window (even though it was downhill it felt like you were going uphill) and often we were reduced to walking. This was very frustrating especially when you consider now many runners were running back towards us, meaning that they were on their second loop. After you have runner after runner pass you, you start to think that I am either WAY too slow or the end is right around the corner. So despite the fact that we were ahead of schedule and we were actually trying to slow ourselves down a little bit, we found our speed picking up and came into Jeadquarters in about 3:15 hours. This is over an hour ahead of schedule! Normally this would be a good thing but Javelina is notorious for racers going WAY TOO fast for the first laps and then blowing up later on in the race. Despite this warning, we were right on schedule for a blow up. Next loop would need to be a lot slower (turned out this would not be a problem!).

T1

We showed up to the Jeadquarters and were able to avoid the semi chaos of the main changing area and instead went around to the tent area where Dez and Courtney (GeekGirl's crew member) were at. They rushed to help us out, JT changed shoes and socks and I grabbed a bit of food to eat and then we were off.

Lap 2

Despite our quick turn around, the Pilgrims had shown up after us and gotten away before us. I guess that is a testament to the power of having a plan, a crew and past experience. We were able to keep them within sight for most of the loop, but was never able to reel them back in.

As soon as we started, it instantly became clear that we were heading uphill. Not sure how I didn’t notice that we were going downhill just a few minutes ago, but it was certain that we were going uphill now. The hill just never seemed to end and to just kept climbing and climbing. About this time, I began to see the power of having long legs and more importantly a high walk speed. Most of the hill was done at a walking pace and it turns out that JT’s walking pace and my walking pace are completely different!

I felt like a little kid following after his parents in the mall. We would walk for a hundred yards together and slowly but surely he would start to pull ahead of me. Then I would find myself having to do a sort of mock jog/run to get ahead of him. Then in a minute or two, he would catch me and the whole process would start all over again. This leapfrog style run went on for almost 7 miles (Turns out that the uphill climb is almost exactly 7 miles long).

Finally after 7 miles of chasing him only to be put to shame thanks to his walking speed, I had had enough and was able to use the first downhill to get a little speed going. I began to pull away from JT and before I knew it, he was out sight. I was feeling good and I just kept putting on the speed and the distance.

Just when I had visions of me finishing the second loop way ahead of JT, the rocky area of the trail started. Instantly, my feet let me know that they were not happy about this. As the trail went on, my feet became more and more sensitive. It wasn’t long before I was reduced to a walk. Shortly after that, JT came flying by me.

The last few miles up to the Jeadquarters were miserable. We were trudging through soft sand/gravel which should not be bad but my feet were crying out for relieve. My Left foot was developing a blister and I felt miserable. Add on to this the fact that I had no idea how far away the aid stations were because I didn’t have my Garmin. I kept psyching myself out thinking that the next turn will be the aid station or maybe in the next 10 minutes. What this meant was that I was constantly looking at my watch and constantly searching for solace. Instead of putting my head down and trudging through it, I was getting desperate with wanting. Finally the last straw was when I started to see some of the runners going back out again with popsicles. POPSICLES! I wanted one! And that must mean that the aid station was close by right? I mean the Popsicle would have melted if it was far away so it had to be close by. Little did I know that I was still a mile or two away from help and that the popsicles must have some super anti-melting power to them because it was forever before I got to the Jeadquarters. In the meantime, I saw Baboo and GeekGirl go back out and they seem to be deep in conversation and cruising along. I guess that about this time, GeekGirl was starting to feel like me about her feet and was in pain but on the outside she looked fine.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, I saw the home base.

T2

As soon as I got there, I saw JT heading back out. It had taken me about 4 hours for this 15 mile loop and while that was 45 minutes slower than the last loop, we were still on schedule for the plan. Being as I was the last person in from our group, I got the full attention of Dez and Courtney. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I needed or what I wanted. I mentioned that I had run out of water and Courtney generously offered me an extra water bottle to use. That was great, because I was trying to avoid using my CamelBak until I absolutely had to (I don’t know why, I like my pack, but at this moment I wasn’t thinking too clearly). She quickly filled it with succeed and I felt like I was good to go hydration wise. The real question was what to do with my feet. In the end, I decided to switch shoes and change socks. Anything I could do to get some more padding for my poor balls of my feet. Courtney suggested that I visit the med tent, which I thought must have meant that I looked like shit, but she explained that they were taping feet there.

I hobbled over to the med area and they instantly got to working on me. They cleaned and dried my left foot and began applying some moleskin like tape to me. They explained that it was Kinesio tape but it looked like mole skin to me. Either way they went and cut several pieces to match the shape of my feet and really took their time and customized it to help me out. At the previous aid station, I had asked for tape and they threw a roll of Duct tape and said have fun! Not knowing what I was doing, I placed a piece over my heel (where a hot spot was building up). Unfortunately, this self tape job wasn’t enough to protect me and by the time I got to the med tent, I had a nice sized blister built up on the side of my heel. They quickly drained it and taped this up too. They were able to get both feet and get moving without too much fuss or loss of time. I felt like it was taking forever, but in reality, it was probably just what I needed because it allowed me to cool down. I was able to drink a red bull and by the time that the caffeine kicked in, I was ready to go.

Lap 3

I am not sure if it was the caffeine or the new set of feet I had just got, but I felt great! I took off at an easy pace and was cruising along. I had visions of catching up to JT and Misty and even thought that maybe if I was able to recover, I could finish the 100k and go for more.

That lasted for about an hour and then either the caffeine wore off or the rocks got too be too much, but soon thereafter I was reduced to walking again. A slow painful walk, where every time I put my left foot down, it felt like I had a rock in there. This caused me to walk with a sever limp and my walking speed slowed down even more. It was about this time that the leaders of the race started to come back and actually pass me. Yes, this meant that I was being lapped. They were on mile 65 and I was only on mile 35! I had joked with Dez that I was so far behind that I was actually in the lead, and sure enough I had the 2nd place runner come up to me and asked if I was the 1st place person! I pointed out my sever limp and stated that I was not; she took back off and nimbly leaped back down the path.

As I mentioned, I had been drinking my bottle pretty regularly, because Baboo had pointed out that dehydration could be a killer out here. Without a clear guide for mileage out here, I had decided that a goal of finishing my bottle by each aid station was a good goal. This seemed to work fine for me until I started walking too much and then I found myself drinking all the water way before the aid station. So at T2, I picked up another bottle, thinking that this would be perfect. I am not sure what happened to my brain, but now it seemed that I was drinking both bottles before the next aid station! I had doubled my capacity and I was still drinking it all. I couldn’t tell if I was drinking too much or if I was drinking so much because I was so thirsty. I know that midway on Lap 1, JT had started to mention that he was swelling up a lot. He thought that maybe this was because he was taking in too much salt, at this time I was feeling fine. But on the second loop, I started to swell up myself. In fact I actually had a nice little scare when I couldn’t get my wedding ring off my finger. I started to freak out a little bit after even with water I couldn’t get it over my sausage like fingers. It’s Tungsten Carbide so I don’t think that it is easy to cut off. I had visions of having to cut my finger off or my finger turning black from the tourniquet. All these images danced in front of my mind in the split second that it took me to get my ring off. Luckily, after a few minutes of praying and wetting it down and pulling, it finally came off, Crisis averted! But now that I was on the 3rd loop and drinking both bottles down, my bladder started to become full all the time. At one point it seemed that I was peeing every 20 minutes and not just a few drips, I am talking a full on complete torrent. I was clearly taking in too much liquid, but I was not getting any cramps so I kept letting my body do what it felt like. If I was thirsty, then I drank if not then I didn’t worry about it. I stopped worrying about it.

My feet were killing me, by the time I hit the first aid station (Mile 35), I was reduced to a crawling pace. My mood had taken a major crash and I was done. I had decided that maybe I would work to get to mile 50 and then call it. By the time that I got to the second aid station (Mile 40), I had completely given up. I was done right then and there. If I could have surrendered my chip there I would have. I thought about lying down in the desert and letting the world pass me by. I thought about begging for a ride back. I thought about trying to walk on my hands just to save my feet. I was desperate.

By now I assumed that my mileage was low. I would have been lucky to maintain a 30 minute mile. I am sure that at some points I was even slower than that (That is super slow, like old man on walkers are faster than that!). Baboo passed me on his way back out and it wasn’t too long before GeekGirl passed me too. They were all heading back out for their 4 and final lap and here I was completely downtrodden still on my 3rd lap. I figured that I passed them at 3-4 miles out which meant that they were 6-8 miles ahead of me. At my current pace, that would mean they were 3-4 hours ahead of me. JT passed me on his way back out looking spry. He told me that I was still 2 miles out. I told him that I was done. I couldn’t even walk and couldn’t imagine going for another 15 miles.

I started to do the math, at this pace a 15 mile trail would take me 7-8 hours. 7 to 8 hours! For 15 miles!!! Are you FREAKING kidding me! That is longer that walking a marathon. There was no way that this race was worth 8 more hours! If I kept this up, I wouldn’t be done until 4 or 5 in the morning. I was looking at 23 hours and that is if everything kept up at my current pace. I could not imagine going any more. Let me remind you, this was for a 100k not a 100miler. 23 hours for a 100k is unbelievable.

Needless to say, I was done. I walked even slower and mentally checked out. It was nearing 8 pm and it was dark outside. I had brought my handheld flashlight with me on this loop, but almost instantly, I decided that I didn’t want it. I was in no mood to see anything and I enjoyed my misery in darkness. As you can see I was in a very bad place.

To be honest, the full moon was up (the race is built around this, so that there is always a full moon) and with the full moon shining down on us, there was enough light to be able to see the ground without any issue. Lots of people had a headlight on but I just found that having the light on made me blind to anything beyond the light. I found that without the light on, I could see much better.

As I neared the Jeadquarters for the end of lap 3 and the end of MY race, I was passed by another runner. He looked like he was moving along at a good clip and seemed to know what was going on. I asked him what his pace was and how far until the end. He said that it was a mile left. He was trying to maintain a 20 minute pace; he was going to finish this thing.

“Not me, I’m done. I can barely walk my feet feel like they are broken.”

He slowed down, looked over at me and then looked down at his legs. He had a headlight on so I could see his knee by the light. His knee was swollen up to the size of a grapefruit, he had deep scars and it was clear that he had had some intense surgery on it. He looked back at the trail and over to the Jeadquarters way in the distance.

“It’s an ultra man, we are all fucked up. Come on lets finish this thing”.

And with that he picked up his 20 minute pace and left my in the darkness.

That was it. Just that simple phrase changed everything for me. Here was a guy in serious pain, with an actual medical issue and yet he was trudging along. If he could do it then I could do it right? I hadn’t even gotten 50 miles yet, was I really going to give up so easy? I could barley feel my feet but like Baboo had pointed out, I had 30 hours to finish. I could crawl on my knees and still finish.

I worked my way up to him and we talked for a little while, his name was Mike and he was from NY. He was here to run the thing because his doctor said that he couldn’t. He reassured me that come hell or high water he was going to finish this thing.

About this time, we made our way into Jeadquarters

T3

We walked into screams and shouts from the volunteers and the spectators (who probably thought we were a lap ahead of what we were). I found Dez and SWTrigal (she was here to crew for GeekGirl and Courtney was out pacing her now). They looked pretty dubious at me. I am sure that JT had told them that I was done, but I insisted that I was going to go for it. They rushed to get me anything I needed.

I grabbed my pack, my IPOD, my headlight and filled my water bottle up with two red bulls. To top this off, I slammed one while I was there on site! I begged and pleaded until SWTrigal gave me a couple doses of meds. Put on some super thick socks over my original socks and with a hope and a prayer I was off!

Lap 4

I told Dez that I would most likely be out there until 4 or 5 in the morning JT should be done way before that, so if they needed to leave then I understood. I would find a phone or something. (But the truth is I didn’t know anyone’s number!) They did their best to fill me with encouragement and told me that I would be done earlier, but I had resigned myself to a complete sufferfest.

Lap 3 had taken me over 5 hours and I didn’t feel that this one would be any better and truly expected this lap to take up to 8 hours. I grabbed a slice of pizza (How nice is that? The Race brought in Pizza, Popsicles, Sandwiches, etc!) plugged my IPOD in my ears and took off like a herd of turtles!

I knew that with the caffeine coursing through me and the meds kicking in, I would be able to fake a good pace for a while. I had hoped that by constantly sipping the red bull, I would be able to keep the illusion going.

I was able keep this lie going for a while and even though based on my time, it is clear that I wasn’t moving very fast, I felt like I was cruising. However at about 3 1/2 hours, the pills started to wear off and my world came crashing down on me. I felt every pebble in the trail (and that’s all were). I was under strict orders from Dr. Swtrigal not to take my second dose until 4 hours so that meant 30 minutes of complete and utter suffering.

One good thing that came out of this sufferfest was that I was able to notice the wild horses on the side of the trail. They were completely silent and just standing/eating off to the side. If I had been faster or had my light on (Even with the headlight, I preferred the darkness), I would not have seen the 4 horses standing there. When I got to the aid station, it seemed like only one other runner had noticed them. They were about the only other wildlife that I had seen out there, with the exception of a few rabbits and a huge tarantula and about a billion ants, the trail and wilderness was pretty mellow.

After the second aid station (mile 57-58) it was clear that I was done. The new dose of meds were not numbing the pain enough and no amount of caffeine could give me a second wind. It was clear that it would be me and only me out there fighting my body.

My solace was that I was still ahead of a couple people out there. Mike and I had split up but I knew that he was behind me and at every aid station I would find this group of girls who would show up just as I was leaving. They pushed me to finish the last 5 miles. I felt them breathing down my neck every step of the way (it turns out that Mike would later join up with the girls and they would all finish together about an hour after me).

As I neared the final stage of my race, I saw a constant stream of people coming back towards me with the insignia that they were on their last little loop (only 9 miles) and when finished they would have completed 100 miles. It was shocking to see how strong they all looked. Most came by with their entourage with a pacer or two and some had joined up with other groups so it appeared that a caravan was coming and going. All seemed full of energy and while I am sure they felt like crap, I would have given nearly anything to feel THAT good.

The last few miles were complete hell. Each step felt like my bones were broken and that I was now grinding the broken bones into each other. On top of that, I had developed a blister and a bruise on both feet that occurred between the big toe and the second toe. Right between the webbing. This was weird and turned out to be excruciating. I never realized how important this area was, but it seemed like I couldn’t lift my foot up or down without using this area.

I just could not wait for this event to be over with and as I neared the finish line I had a resurgence of energy. I started to pick up the pace (probably to a blazing fast 18 minute pace!). I was cruising along and had visions of me looking strong for the finish line until about a quarter mile away from the end; I felt a sudden gush in my foot. I must have popped a blister or something because my pace suddenly crashed. With this last blow to me, I hobbled into base and over the timing mats. I handed in my chip and they handed me a belt buckle!

I went to go and find JT or Dez or the Pilgrims. Instead I found our campground area completely packed up. The coolers were put away, the bags gone. The only thing remaining was the tents. Even the chairs were gone! Damn, I couldn’t even sit down.

Luckily at this moment, Courtney happens to come by. I am not sure what brought her over or why she was still there, but I was so very glad that she was. She eventually found JT and Dez who had decided to stay and had fallen asleep in the car. I can’t say how thankful I am that they remained there. I am sure that they would have been so much more comfortable back at the hotel, but looking back on it now: 1 – I didn’t have their numbers so I would have had to play phone tag with everyone to track them down and 2 – the wait for someone to come from the hotel might have been too much and I think that I may have just laid down and cried!

My final lap was 6:45. That is a long time to be out there for 15 miles. If you take away the 30 minutes I sent in T3 that still means I was out there on my feet for over 6 hours. I finished at around 3 am and clocked in a blazing fast time of 20:54:54.

By the time we got to the hotel room, I had been up for over 24 hours. My feet were hamburger, I was smelly and hungry and exhausted.

But I was done!

I completed my first 100k!

By the seat of my pants

2010-10-22T21:15:00.001-07:00

Typically you update your blog when you do something. Go for a long ride, put it on the blog. Have a great run, put it on the blog.

Honestly I've been pretty much faithful to that. But as you may have noticed there have not been any updates. That's because I haven't done ANYTHING!!

I have been fat and lazy. Each week I plan on doing something, anything to get me off the couch but alas it all comes down to nothing. That's not entirely true, I have ben on a small bike ride of 10 miles and I've done some runs but they've all been small runs mostly around 3 miles. So I just haven't felt like blogging because I just haven't done anything.

But recently the Mrs. decided that the only way to get me off the couch was to train for a half marathon. It worked like a charm and I've been running several times per week with her. We are starting small but working our way up. Heck, even with just 3-5 miles several times power week it is a lot more than I've done in the past month.

Yet strangely it doesn't feel like enough. I am used to training for an Ironman. My body is used to being out all day and coming home exhausted. Now I'm done in less than an hour and that's it for the day or even two. My body cries out for more!

So I restarted my P90X program. It's still a killer. I'm sore after every workout and I am hopeful that if I can stick to the program, I'll have a new body and a new attitude.

But...

It still feels like something is missing. I feel like I still have some endurance left in me and as hard as P90X is, it isn't an endurance workout.

So I looked around. There are lots of events around me, but most are all biking events and right now I am sick of the bike. That means that the local triathlon is out too. For run events, we have a marathon and while I honestly feel like I could run a marathon right now, I don't think it will be a fast one. And dammit I want a fast one. But that means months of training and while I'm restless I am still lazy.

What to do? Well if I can run a marathon then 'theoretically' I can double that if I include walking in there too. So that means that I'm already at a 50 miler. If I push it a little farther then maybe I can get a full 62 miles in. Let's go for a 100k!

It just so happens that JT and Baboo are doing a race this weekend and as a bonus Misty will be there too. I've always wanted to meet the woman behind the Baboo and see this wonder woman in person. So why not?

Who cares that I haven't run, or done any sort of training? Who cares if my longest run since CDA is a whooping 9 miles? What is life if you don't push the limits right?

With that I'm here in Fountain hills getting ready to run the Javilina Jundred. I've got my race number and my gear. I've got NO idea what the hell I'm doing but I don't care.

JT asked what I was going to do regarding hydration, wear the pack or just do a bottle? I don't know!

What about nutrition, Gu's or race food?
I don't know!

How about lights? I don't know!!

I have realized that I am completely flying by the seat of my pants. and you know what? I'm perfectly ok with that.

Let the fun and games begin!

Is this thing still on??!!

2010-09-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,

Today was a good day! Instead of eating two donuts, I only ate one! Yeah me! To celebrate, I ate a pound of ice cream!

I am trying to go from Ironman to Biggest Loser!

Red Bull saved my race!! - IMCDA Race Report

2010-06-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

Round two of CDA for me.

Going back this year was full of déjà vu. It was a weird level of déjà vu because as opposed to remembering things, I would be doing something and then memory would spring out on me and attack me. But beforehand I would have no recollection of it. For example, I was trying to determine where to park for the event. It wasn’t until I was driving along that my déjà vu hit and suddenly I was guided into almost exactly the same parking spot I had last year.

Unlike last year, I didn’t show up to the event until the last day to get registered and therefore was a little behind schedule. They recommend staying off your feet the day before the race, but instead I did a small bike on the course, followed by a quick brick and finished with a quick swim on the course. But I guess going in the face of tradition is par for me! The swim on the Saturday (the day before the race) was rough, lots of chop and high winds. It actually brought back a little déjà vu about last years swim. I had blocked out how hard that swim was, but being back in it brought it all back up. I was glad that the weather forecast said the weather would be a lot better this year.

Unlike last year I did not lose my wetsuit the day before the race! Kind of anticlimactic! :)

Race day:

The morning started bright and early for me. I spent most of the night worrying about waking up and because it was just me (the family stayed back home this time); I was doubly worried that I would miss my wake up call. Lo and behold, right when my alarm went off, I get a message from the Mrs. waking me up. What a gal, supporting me from long distance!

Down to the event, I was afraid that I had sabotaged myself as I had frozen my water bottle the night before and when I took it out in the morning I realized it was a solid block of ice (well duh!), but it wasn’t until then that I realized that the ice had frozen over the straw and that the ice was blocking my access to the water. Well normally this wouldn’t be a problem in Las Vegas and the ice would be melted within 30 minutes (if that!), but here in cool and mild CDA, I was afraid that the ice would stay solid forever. What was the adage? Never try something new on race day? Luckily, the morning proved just warm enough to melt the ice and by the time I got on the bike, I was greeted with a bottle full of refreshingly cold water.

After watching the pro’s go off first, our swim started off at 7. I wish I could tell who the pro swimmers where or even who was male vs. female, but in the water everyone looks the same and the announcer wasn’t announcing so I was at a lost.

The cannon boomed and we all dived in (ankle deep beach start as opposed to an in-water start). Immediately, I found some fast feet and held on for dear life. The first buoy flew by and before I knew, it the second buoy was already in sight. But I knew something was off. At every breath I would hear this huge vacuum sound. It was me! I was sucking in a deep gulp of air and loudly too. That is bad, because I never hear myself breathing, I checked in on myself and realized that my heart was racing. I was going way too fast and my body was struggling to maintain the pace. No point in exploding so early in the race so I decided to back off. Unfortunately, it was too late and my body started to freak out. I just couldn’t catch my breath. I kept taking breathes and finally I had to stop and take my face out of the water. Now I am an obstacle treading water with 2000 swimmers behind me trying to go through me. It wasn’t long before I was getting swam over or bumped. Combined with my racing heart and my lack of oxygen, my mind started to freak out. I wanted out and wanted out now. Unfortunately, I had positioned myself near the middle and the only way out was to swim through an ocean of bodies to the nearest kayak. I told myself to relax and keep treading water. “Ignore the people around you and breath!” Slowly, it seemed to work and I started to catch my breath. Several times I tried to swim again and each time I had to stop and breathe again. It seemed like an eternity out there but finally I started to gain control of myself and was able to swim again. In ended up finishing slower than I wanted to but I was just thrilled that I was able to finish at all.

Swim time: 1:44:04

This actually is only about 5 minutes slower than last year’s time. But I had wanted to do something within the 1:20 to 1:30 range so it felt a lot slower to me.

In Transition, I hurried and got changed into my bike clothes. It was harder than I expected as my hands seem to be sluggish and my mind was foggy. I looked around and noticed all the guys were shivering. Some were shaking so hard that there body looked like it was in a seizure. I would find out later that hypothermia was a big issue for people out there. Several people were pulled and I talked to one lady had to lie her way out of medical just to get out of transition before the closed it down. And she had been there for 40 minutes already!

T-1: 7:58 (a minute slower than last year. Not sure what happened, but I am going to blame the cold….sure why not!)

The bike started off awesome. I was flying along. And felt strong. My shoes had been bothering me the last few days and this time I actually brought an extra pair of extra cushy socks just in case, but in the end I didn’t need them at all. They always warn you to take it easy on the first loop otherwise the second loop will kill you. With this in mind and more importantly, I was desperately trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s ride, where my knee mysteriously locked up on me and ruined my race. This time, any time I felt even the slightest twinge of pain or even the hint of what could be a twinge of pain, I backed off and rode easy. Even with all this slacking, I was flying. The race checkpoint says that I was averaging 16.76 mph but I think I was hitting 18 mph avg before the hills. I felt awesome. This is why I am at a lost to figure out what happened on the second loop. Just like last year, my body started to slow way down. Some of the people I had been leapfrogging or had passed a while ago were now passing me. UGH!! This drove me crazy, but I was determined not to get overwhelmed or down about it and just kept trudging along. I knew that I had to keep up on my nutrition but my perpetium was making me retch every time I drank it (which it never does in training). Finally I gave up and poured it out when just the mere though was enough to cause me to gag. I switched to GU’s, which was handed out on the course. By now my stomach was sick feeling. Truth be told my stomach had felt sick since midway through the swim (which I found out was a sign of hypothermia) and it never seemed to get 100% better. Despite my upset stomach, I had been keeping up on the salts but it didn’t seem to help and I would get tremors of cramps in my legs. I was able to resist a full on attack but only by avoiding pushing or pulling with that leg until the tremor had passed. Obviously, this wasn’t helping me get through the bike. Someone suggested drinking more water, which seemed counterintuitive to me; it seemed like more water would diffuse the salts and make me more likely to cramp even more. Finally, I gave up and followed her suggestion. Either it was the water or the timing but the cramps went away. For at least a little while. Eventually they came back and this time, neither the salts nor the water was helping. A light bulb went off in my head, I decided to get a banana at the next aid station. Again, like magic, the cramps disappeared. Unfortunately, my stomach was too soupy and I could only take in a few bananas before I had to call it. I knew from all the past reading of everyone's blogs, that once you have a soupy stomach, sometime the only hope was to stop taking in so much and let your body deal with what it had.

Bike: 7:05:57 almost 35 minutes better than last year, but still not as good as I was hoping for. I was really hoping to negatively split my loops.

In transition, I was completely brain dead. A volunteer came up to me and asked if I needed help. I said no, that I got it, which is what I truly meant. I am glad he ignored me. He dumped out my bag out and handed me the contents. I slipped on my shoes, filled my pockets and heading out. I got three steps and realized that I had my helmet on. I called out to him and handed it off. I got another 10 steps before I realized that my pockets were still full from the bike. I called out to him again and he helped me empty my pockets of the old bike stuff (a pair of socks, spare tubes, GU’s, etc.) This time I got to the exit of the tent and saw that they had Vaseline. I went to go get a quick swipe and realized that I swill had my bike gloves on! Crap, I AGAIN called out to my volunteer (right before he dumped my bag over the wall into the pile of done bags). I rushed over to him and peeled off each glove. I thanked him (for the 10 time) and grabbed some lube. I rushed out to the port-o-potty and finally found a free one, which wasn’t easy as all the girls were sneaking into any open stall before I could get myself in. Finally I stuffed that lube where the sun don’t shine and realized that I was still wearing my bike shorts on top of my run shorts (I double layer)! CRAP!! I ran into the changing tent and called out to my volunteer. He rushed around to the outside and found my bag in the pile of other bags (I can’t imagine how many times I thanked him!). Finally, I was devoid of bike gear and I left transition. Whew!!

T-2 time: 7:34. Over 3 minutes slower than last year. Yeah, well….

The Run: When I started the run, I was terrified that I would repeat last years experience where I was unable to bend my legs and was forced to walk virtually the entire marathon. I was thrilled to find that I was able to run. Not only that but I felt great! I felt like I could actually run and not just run but strategically run. Awesome! First order of business was to slow down. I knew that in order to run long, I had to go slow for the first loop. Despite my warnings, I could not slow down and every time I would look at my watch, I was running too fast. Finally I was forced to walk to slow myself down. Finally the thrill of being off the bike wore off and I was able to maintain an even 11 minute pace. This was still a little faster than I wanted but I was ok with it. I should have been more insistent and forced myself to a 12 min pace. When the climb to the turn around point hit I was still feeling fine, but on the way down the hill, my quads started to lock up on me. Interesting enough, it hurt more walking than running, but I was forced to slow down to a snails pace. By the time I got off the hill and onto level ground, my body was tired from all the stress of keeping the cramp at bay and I started to walk. By the time I hit the halfway point I was up to a 2:42 half marathon. There went my dream of a 5 hour marathon.

Still I had to keep the pace up and knew that in my special needs bag I had a secret weapon:

Red Bull!

At the special needs area, I stopped and took my time. Here I had removed my shoes and changed my socks (the old ones had rocks from the beach in them that I couldn’t tell where there until the run started), I also noticed how the timing chip had gotten rocks in it and was wearing a sore into my ankle. I took it off and stuck into my pocket. I opened the red bull and chugged half of it. I re-started the run and continued to sip on the Red Bull. Within less than a mile, I suddenly started to feel better. It is amazing how a little caffeine can change the whole world for you. I felt energized and my feet didn’t hurt. My mind felt clear and I was no longer in a fog. I felt awesome! I started to run again instead of walk/run. I was able to keep up the speed this time and every time I felt like my energy was declining (actually, before I felt like this), I would grab a coke from the aid station.

I can honestly say that Red Bull and Coke saved my race!

(Endorsement can start anytime….)

Unfortunately, my stomach never seemed to settle and I forgoed any type of nutrition for the last 10 miles (which is probably why I was so hungry after the race was over!)

As I neared the finish line, I was overcome with happiness. Last year, approaching the finish line, I was miserable. I was angry at my knee and this anger spread to everything. I was unhappy with the people around me; I was a grouch to the spectators and worst of all I was a grouch to my family. This time, I felt completely different. I wanted to make it all up and cheered on all my fellow racers. I high-fived all the kids I could find and I thanked all the volunteers. The one thing I could not do was make it up to my family as they were at home almost 1000 miles away. :(

As I was approaching the finish line I ran over the last sensor (I think this may be the ‘official finish line’ even though the real finish line is another 30 yards away). As I ran over it, I realized it did not beep. That is when it dawned on me that I still had the sensor in my pocket! Crap, quickly I ran back and rubbed it on the sensor, still I didn’t hear a beep but the people around me assured me that it was working. As I ran on, Mike Reilly announced my name and called me into be an Ironman!

After the race was over, I was still concerned that the sensor might not have worked. In hindsight I should not have worried, Mike called me in and he probably got it from the sensor, but I forced my volunteer to look up my time. Predictably, the final run time had not shown up yet, this was because I had just finished and it takes a little while to refresh. The volunteer explained this to me, but I was in an Ironman fog and had no clear thoughts. Besides that I realized that my 21 mile checkpoint was not there (because the sensor was in my pocket), now I was afraid that they were going to negate my run completely because I did not check in. Finally, the volunteer took my timing chip over to the supervisor who walked it over to the finish line and manually made it beep. Still my time was not showing up (duh! It takes some time to refresh), but finally the volunteer was able to convince me to go get some food and then check.

After I ate, I went over to the timing computers and made them show me the athlete tracker. By now my finish time was refreshed and I had a final time. Officially I was listed as 14:40, which I think is the time that the supervisor swiped the chip over the sensor. My watch says 14:37 and the Mrs. confirms this. But either way, I don’t care. 14:37 or 14:40 is a PR and I will take it!

Run time: 5:34:36

Overall time: 14:40:09

The aftermath:

I think one of the hardest things is collecting yourself afterwards. The race is done and all you want to do is relax and sleep or eat or anything else but collect your stuff. Typically this is where the family and friends are so helpful because they take care of this while you relax. This time I was on my own and I slowly made my way to the bike pick up area. On the way there I met a pro, Janelle Morrison, who managed to pick up 5th place on only her second year as a pro. Nice work! Last year she picked up 3rd place in IM-Canada too. We actually were able to talk for a while and she is an awesome person. She comes from Canada and told me all about Penticton, where IM Canada is held. She was trying to convince me to come out and that is when I realized that I am tired of Ironman distances.

Now I know that you are supposed to wait at least a week or more before you make any life changing decisions after an Ironman, but I think that I am done for a while. I know that I have Vineman soon (5 weeks). In fact, it is already paid for and I have been working on travel arraignments, but I think that I am going to bail on it. Ironman has taken a lot of time away from my family. I think that perhaps it is time for me to start repaying some of that time. I am not giving up on tri’s but I think that I will stick to the shorter distances. Quicker races and a lot quicker training times.

Of course, they hurt a lot more too! But at this moment, I am already pretty sore!

Thanks for reading, sorry it is so long! Talk to you soon!

Dancin in the Flame

2010-06-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a song just says it best:

Woke up this morning, a thousand miles from home
Praying for forgiveness
For this aching in my bones
It would be so easy
To find a better way
Oh but I know I'll never change

Cause I love the long shot
And the left out lost causes
Hanging out in the back of the pack with the dark horses
I ride the wrong road just as fast as I can
God knows there's no one else to blame
Sometimes I think I get off on the pain

This race dedicated to those who could not be here but are here in spirit:

The Mrs
RBR

Here is to “Dancin' in the flame”!

Go Time!

2010-06-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Another blog post…

Finally!

I don’t know what you mean ;). In my head, I have posted a least 20 posts. I have told you everything from how little swimming I am doing to how many rest days I am taking. I have let you know about each and every run and the victories and defeats of every bike.

Well….at least in my head I have said all these things. But of course, that doesn’t mean anything. I guess the results are what matters.

Speaking of which, it is just about time for Ironman CDA. It is time to put my money where my mouth is. It's time to see what I am made of. In my head, I am ready; in my head, I am ready to PR; in my head, I am Kona worthy (OK, maybe not even in my head am I Kona worthy!). But like I said, the results are what matters.

In all reality, I am trying to psych myself up. I am trying to energize myself and get excited. It is almost surreal, but I am not nervous. I am relaxed (relatively) and cool as a cucumber. I got my last bike ride in yesterday and I was trying to envision myself biking the hills or racing against the pros. But in my heart it just felt like another training day. CDA feels like another training day. It will be tough and it will be long but it is just another day on the swim, the bike and the run.

And maybe that is exactly what I need. Maybe I should treat it like a training day. Deal with the lows but don’t let them overwhelm me and deal with the highs (please let there be some of those!) but not let my head float away from me.

I am treating this like a long day of training. Pace myself, find my groove and most importantly race my own race.

Wish me luck!

P.S....
Hopefully I will find some Internet up there. I am staying at my families place and there is no Internet connection there (I know! How weird!!) But hopefully I will find some time to find some wifi somewhere!

If not and this is my last time (sounds ominous), then I wish everyone who is racing this weekend (at CDA, or Devil or Buffalo or France or anywhere) good luck!

My Number is 508 and you can track me at ironman.com. Just be sure to hit refresh a lot as I’ll be blazing so fast that the computers may have a hard time tracking me!! :)

Well done

2010-06-06T12:45:00.001-07:00

I am not talking about my training...

I am talking about me!

Its 107* outside and I've been riding my bike for the last 6 hrs. Even starting at 5 am (OK 5:30), it was hot. Now at 12 it is HOT!

Welcome to Vegas baby!

In need of motivation

2010-06-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

Oh whoa is me!!

I am feeling like a primadonna.

I need to get my butt of the couch and go train. according to the plan, I need to get out there and run 18 miles.

Tomorrow I need to bike 6 hrs.

Its hot. I don't want to run in the heat.

Its late. If I run now I wont be done until the evening which will bleed into my bike at 4 am.

I want to go out tonight for 'date night'.

and, and and....

wah wah wah!

Do you feel sympathy for me yet? Or are you as tired of the excuses as I am?

The good, the bad and the ugly

2010-05-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Well the good news is that I did Rage another year. I was able to eek out another 70.3.

The bad news is that I barely eeked it out! It wasn’t quiet up to last year’s performance (but just barely).

The ugly news is that I still have a lot of work to do before CDA. I need to work on something (read: EVERYTHING).

The number breakdown:

2010
Swim: 41:24
T1: 4:16
Bike: 3:41:03
T2: 2:54
Run: 02:27:40
Total: 06:57:16

2009
Swim: 47:27
T1: 3:34
Bike: 03:25:59
T2: 2:27
Run: 02:33:26
Total: 06:52:51

Right off the bat, I can see that I improved on something’s over last year but regressed on others.

The day started off anticlimactic. This was my first Rage that I planned on being alone the entire time. Usually the Mrs. comes out to cheer me on, but this year her schedule was full and she couldn’t get away. This was OK as I always feel so bad for dragging my family out to sit in the hot sun for 6-7 hours waiting for me to show up so that I can say “thanks” and then go to bed! Anyway, I started the morning off trying to make sure that I was on time for everything (and not still on the shore daydreaming when the swim starts like last time!). Of course, I failed miserably, and showed up to transition way later than I planned on. But in the end it worked out OK and I made it to the shore in time to see JT and Coach Jackie.

The swim started and I felt good and smooth, not fast but not awkward, which is a good thing because I had only had 1 or 2 OWS prior to the race. I was never able to latch on a set of feet but it didn’t seem to matter. I felt all alone out there on the water and had to remind myself to keep pushing the pace and not relax into a mindless pace. Either I took a really wide line or the women’s’ 70.3 start was delayed because I wasn’t passed by any women until almost the final 3rd of the swim. Just after that we joined in with the sprint people and I lost a lot time to beginner swimmers who were struggling out there. I had set my Garmin to yell at me if my paced dropped below a certain level and prior to joining the sprint, my watch had only gone off once (which is good!). Once we joined the sprint, it went off probably 5 times. This means to me that I slowed down a lot for the final part of the swim.

Still even with all the jumble of the sprint, I was out of the water and onto the shore by 39:xx. I think this a PR for me, but right after there is a long climb to Transition. It took me 2 minutes of running just to get to the timing mats! Along the way, I passed Stef, who was out cheering people on. As I passed her, I said the same thing I always seem to say “God, I am so tired!” I don’t know what it is but it seems that every time I see Stef, I am exhausted.

After T1, it was onto the bike.

The whole week leading up to Rage, I was feeling apprehensive. I have been doing a lot less training that last year and I just didn’t feel like my bike was up to the same par. Plus this year I didn’t have JohnnyTri out on the course chasing me down and pushing me forward.

I had talked to coach about my race plan and we agreed that I should just goes as hard as I could on the swim and bike and screw the run. I know I can run that far so what if I had no legs. It sounded great on paper, but unfortunately, my body just wasn’t following the plan. I just never could maintain that feeling of anguish on the bike that tells you that you are working it. Instead, my body fell back on getting through the mileage and keeping the pace nice and easy.

By the time I hit the halfway point I already knew that this was going to be slower than last year, but I was secretly hoping that my body was planning on a negative split. Actually, I did negatively split, but not enough. I was able to pass about 5-10 people on the way back, and most of that was on the hills as I think the heat and hills were starting to wear everyone else down.

I was even able to save a racer. She was having trouble getting water from the aid station people and kept dropping the water. I watched her as she (now gun shy) moved from the far outside of the road to the middle and then finally almost all the way across the street trying to get away/maintain a safe distance from the water boys. Predictably, they didn’t pass off the bottle well and it dropped and rolled away. Luckily I had a spare bottle on me and as I rode passed her, I handed it off to her. I am sure that I FREAKED her out giving her a bottle while I rode passed her but she was able to maintain a straight line and nobody crashed! I felt like a stud!

Onto the run, which started off pathetic. I have been working on progressive run (making every mile slightly faster than the last). I figured I would start it off slow and finish with blazing speed. But the second I hit the hill (and the first 4 miles is one big uphill climb), I knew I was in trouble.

I couldn’t maintain any sort of a run pace for more than 15-30 seconds and I was forced to walk almost the entire first 4 miles. It was during this time, that I saw the first and second women coming in. I got to see Hillary Biscay as she ran passed on her way to a strong second place finish!

I didn’t start to feel better and actually feel like I could run until trail evened out and joined up with the 6 tunnel path. Here it is all level and flat and hard crushed dirt. It was also about this time that I was surprised to be joined by the Mrs.! She was able to get her schedule cleared and decided to come out and join me for the final part of the run, plus she was able to get in her workout too!

She ran with me for a few miles and then waited for me to go to the turn around point and I would rejoin her. It was great having her there! It was such an uplifting moment to see her out there. I was glad she hadn’t joined me a few miles earlier as I was down in the dumps and would have been poor company, but I was so glad to have her then.

She ran with me all the way to the final mile. From there I was feeling good enough to (finally) put some speed on and blazed through the last mile, passing about 5 runners in the process. Of course it helps that it was mostly downhill, but I will take whatever I can get!

Now that the race is done, I have time to consider what went wrong and what went right. My swim seems to be going good, I need to work on OWS and on maintaining speed over long distance. The run needs some work. I need to do more hills and more bricks. Mainly, I see the most room for improvement on the bike. I really got work on speed. This year was one mile per hour slower than last year and made a big difference. If I had been able to maintain the same speed as last year, I would have had bettered my Rage time by 14 minutes.

Before the season started for me, my goal was to work on speed and then work on distance. Somewhere down the path, I got lost and now I need to improve by my speed and my endurance at the same time.

And I better hurry up too! Not much time left!

Where can I get a horse?

2010-05-03T12:03:00.000-07:00

Because I am freaking starving!!

All this Ironman training is starting to hit me. Am I faster? No! Am I stronger? No (but maybe stronger smelling)!

But I sure am hungrier!

In traditional Formulaic style, I am WAY behind on my race reports and I think I will actually get one out soon, but in the mean time lets do the numbers:

April Totals:

Swim:
Workouts: 11
Distance: 17408 (10.88 miles)
Time: 07:32:32

Bike:
Workouts: 15
Distance: 344.13
Time: 24:39:52

Run:
Workouts: 14
Distance: 84.32
Time: 14:46:41

This is better and worse than last month.

Both the swim and the run are slightly lower than last month, but the bike is 31% higher! So overall, I am 17% higher this month than last month.

I only have 8 weeks until IMCDA, so it’s about time to ratcheting it down and begin hell month!

For the next month and half, I am thinking lots of bike, lots of run and lots of swim over and over again!

Originally, I started the year, thinking that I would go fast and later, about now, I would start working on distance. Somehow I screwed up my training plan and forgot to work on speed on the bike so now I am forced to work on speed and distance all at once.

Hence the 'hungry as a horse'!

I’m looking forward to the end of this training cycle so I can get back to a normal life.

Anyone know what that looks like? What is normal nowadays?

Some Days You Got It...Some Days You Don’t

2010-04-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend is one of those times where one day you are great and the next you got nothing.

Saturday went way too fast and before I knew it, it was already evening and I still had a 12 mile run to get in.

I don’t know what possessed me, but I convinced the Mrs. to pop a squat on the floor and put in Dexter as I toiled away on the treadmill.

I was originally terrified about the prospect of running so long on the dreadmill. My previous longest distance was 10 miles and by mile 8 it was a non-stop struggle! However, once I started up, I quickly found out that the distraction of blood and intrigue from Dexter coupled with the pleasant company of the Mrs. made the miles fly by.

Before I knew it, I was nearing mile 12 and was feeling great! In fact I was feeling so good, I decided to go for the whole enchilada and shoot for a half marathon.

129 minutes later (the treadmill actually counted to 99:59 and then reset to 0:01), I was done. With a new PR for a half marathon distance!

Afterwards, I stretched and ate and relaxed. I quickly hit the protein shake but being as it was already 10pm, I didn’t hit the ice bath and instead put my feet up and crashed for the night.

The next morning I had a 70 mile bike ride planned and decided (it being Easter and all), that I wouldn’t leave first thing in the morning but I would wait until midmorning.

I should have known better. It always seems that if I don’t get out of the house by dawn, my long bike is ruined. Life comes at you fast and there is no stopping it, especially on a holiday. As it was I barely managed to get a 38 mile ride in. By then the wind had picked up and I was struggling just to maintain 10 mph.

After 3 hours I called it and headed home for fresh turkey and mashed potatoes (Gotta love holidays!!). Even though I was only out there for a little while, I felt wiped out. Any plans I had of coming home and finishing the ride on the trainer was out.

I was exhausted.

Some days you got it - some days you don’t

Proper Prior Planning

2010-03-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

Just stuffed myself with homemade salmon pizza. Damn! It was good!

But now I am supposed to run 6 miles at tempo!!

How do I get myself into these type of scenarios?

What would you do? Go out and bang out the miles and suffer (read: die) through them? Or wait until early the next day (get that early morning exercise in to stimulate that metabolism)?

Of course you could just wait an hour or two, but by then it'll be too late and I'll be jonesing for my pillow.

Is it too early to panic?

2010-03-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

I don’t know what has happened to my swim. It has gone from slow to god awful.

I mean I never was fast but at least I could hang, but ever since I got back into the pool this season, it has been horrible.

I am talking 30 seconds slower than last year!

30 seconds!

That’s enough time to eat a sandwich, make a phone call and take a (quick) nap.

I don’t know what the hell is going on. But I am starting to freak out.

At first I tried to write it off. Maybe its just because I haven’t swam in a while. I’ll get the mojo back soon…..sooon….um…mojo?

[NOTHING]

Today was no better. In fact if anything it was worse! How can you get worse! I don’t know but I found a way. After 800 I was ready to call it a day. I still had 1200 to go!

By the end I was 10 seconds slower than I started at. And I started 10 seconds slower than my 30 seconds.

So let’s recap shall we:

30 seconds slower
Plus
10 seconds slower
Plus
10 seconds slower
Equals
….
I might as well walk!

HOLY CRAP! I suck!

Inquiring minds want to know...

2010-03-18T16:34:00.001-07:00

I am feeling sick (mild cough and slightly sore throat). Today I donated blood.

As I sit there on the bed watching my blood flow through the tube, I wonder

"will they throw away my blood because I am slightly sick?"

More importantly, could I get some one sick from my blood (I'm talking cold not some bad disease - you sicko!)?"

And finally most importantly, "Can I get sick from someone giving me blood (in case I need a blood transfusion)?"

I am almost certain that question 2&3 are no. But does that mean that 1 is true? Or does the cold virus not hang out in the blood?

Does anyone out there know how they filter the blood?

Run tip of my day

2010-03-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

Tuna = bad vurps! (vomit & burps)

Apparently, eating a subway tuna right before an intense brick leads to some intense vurps!

Burt DAMN!! Those subway tuna sandwiches are sooo good!

Spill the beans on the table

2010-03-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

It’s time to fess up!

It’s the start of a new month and, knowing that I am a numbers nut, it’s time to look at the numbers.

Let me just warn you: It ain’t pretty!

*************************

February 2010 Totals:
10 Swim – 15650 yd – 06:54:24 (9.78 miles)
12 Bike – 241.60 – 15:22:35
9 Run – 37.90 – 06:16:55

31 Workouts
28:33:55 Hours
288.4 miles

Compared to Last Month:

January 2010 Totals:
3 swim – 3000 yd – 1:58:42 (1.88 miles)
5 Bike – 82.3 – 5:17:52
6 Run – 111.0 – 23:05:28

14 Workouts
30:22:03 Hours
195.0 Miles

*********************************

On the surface it looks good. All my numbers look good (except the run, but that includes a 50 miler race too). So what is the problem?

If you look at last years totals at this time, it looks bad!

February 2009 Totals:
9 Swim – 16000 yd – 11:25:00 (10.00 miles)
14 Bike – 466.0 – 35:20:50
13 Run – 78.40 – 13:39:26

January 2009 Totals:
5 swim – 8150 yd – 6:35:00 (1.88 miles)
6 Bike – 159.4 – 11:30:20
13 Run – 74.3 – 13:26:05

My last year’s numbers look way better!

Not that this means anything except I am do a repeat of last years events.

Last year I did Rage and then IMCDA this is I am doing the same.

Yep, I said that I am doing IMCDA again!

I feel the need for redemption. I know that my performance there could have been a lot better. One problem here…so far my training times are sub-par, meaning that redemption could be hard.

For the past two years, it’s been all me-all the time. And while I think that has worked out OK, it didn’t go great. Now that I have more responsibilities in my life, I have even less time to train.

I need to get faster and stronger on less time and less training. I need a solution.

With that in mind I have buckled down and decided that maybe it’s time to look at a coach.

While I am excited to be training under someone, I am sad to say goodbye to the title “Self-coached”.

The quick brown fox leaps over the lazy black dog

2010-02-18T00:55:00.000-08:00

In this case, I am the lazy dog.

After the 50 miler, I have had no motivation to get back into it.

I am blaming it on the weather and how the cold makes you feel like doing nothing. Combined with the darkness of the morning and I am shut down and can’t even crawl out of bed. Most times I barely even make it out the door in time for work so working out is completely out!

The problem is that I know that I should be hitting it hard. I got a half iron coming up in April and I think it’s early April! That doesn’t give me much time to get my butt in gear.

The quick brown fox is JohnnyTri. After his last fake “I’m struggling with the running”, he has been going gangbusters out there. Every weekend he is hitting the trails for marathon+ runs. On top of that he is coaching a tri-team! Add it all up and it makes me feel like the lazy dog my workout planner says I am!

Here’s hoping that the bug bites me soon!

*Title: The sentence includes every letter in the alphabet, I think I heard of it from typing class and fell in love with it. It is compact and complete. Completely the opposite of me! (especially if I keep eating like this!)

Nice bike, but a bad helmet!

2010-01-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

OUCH! This training stuff hurts!

This whole time I have been worried that I would be losing my training fitness. Slower on the bike; slower on the swim (as if that was possible); slower on the run.

It turns out I should have been worried about losing the fitness in my butt!

Um….

I mean…my butt is sore…

Um…

I mean…It hurts to sit down…

Um…

I have saddle sores….

DAMN!

OK. I mean that I seem to have lost my endurance to sit on the bike for prolonged periods of time!

Whew!

By sit, I don’t just mean sit, but ride! As in ride my bike!

By prolonged, I mean more that 10 seconds.

HOLY COW!

I remember being able to ride 8+ hours without complaint. Now I ride for more than 2 minutes and I am squirming around in the saddle.

Screw losing my athletic fitness, I should have worried about becoming a tender piece of tail/Butt Buster/A Butt Bruiser/A Nice ride/A pair of nice pants

Title

How stupid can one man get? – Arizona Marathon Race Report

2010-01-20T16:27:00.000-08:00

Remember last week when I did a ‘surprise’ 50 miler? You may recall how I was in pain and my feet hurt; my legs hurt; hell even my shoulders hurt! You would think that something like that would teach a person to take a break right?!

NOPE! Not even close.

Instead I find myself lining up on the start line for the Phoenix (Arizona) Rock and Roll marathon.

Just to add insult to injury, I have strapped on my feet a brand new pair of shoes that I have worn exactly zero miles! My last pair of shoes got me through all my training and my ultra and were pushing 550 miles. So I decided that it was time to retire them. Besides I had gotten these shoes on a great deal at a local tri-store going out of business sale. Great deal for me but bad for the company and the tri-community as a whole.

JohnnyTri and I start the race running stride for stride. This is a training run for him on his way to his second 50 later in the year and for me this is a test to see if I can survive.

Everything is good until mile 3, when we meet up with the Mrs. and JT’s girl. Around this time, we lose contact with a TNT member from Las Vegas, Ester. This is her first marathon and she had decided to run along with us. However, at this point she was gone and we never caught her again.

With only JT and me to keep ourselves entertained, we start examining the run gate of other runners. JT also manages to tease the any Viking fans about the Dallas game (unbeknownst to us- Dallas would get KILLED!!). I realize that JT could be the only person in the history of running that creates an angry mob! My hope is that this will help us run faster!

By mile 15, all teasing and critiquing of others has stopped. There are no words. Each of us is in our own private hell. The 50 miler is starting to wear on me and my feet are starting to get sore. It is about this time that the crowds also are tired of the run and start to dissipate. All the cheerleaders are barely there and the bands are taking breaks. How come it always seems that way? Right when you need the bands the most they shut down?

As we reach the home stretch, it’s pure determination pushing us though. I’ve gone this far and I am not going to quit now! Are only salvation is the walk breaks we take, which lead to the inevitable struggle: Walking feels so good, but it’ll take forever; the run is going to hurt, but if I can just hurry it up it’ll all be done soon!

Once the finish line is in sight, I find the Mrs. and pick up my 7 year old niece from out of the crowd and she runs into the finish line with me. JT makes a mad dash and beats me to the finish line, but I get him back by monopolizing his finish video!

Next up? Hopefully a whole of speed training! I’ll keep you posted.

I am stupider than you are! – Angel 50 mile Race Report

2010-01-13T22:36:00.000-08:00

First off I want to thank blame Baboo for this. He is the one who implanted the thought. As a matter of fact I believe his exact words were “You seriously need to try your hand at an ultra.”. He even furthered my delusion by providing me a nice training plan.

It got me thinking that maybe just maybe I could do a 50 miler. I mean if you look at the bike mile to run mile equation it reads something like every 3 miles on the bike equals 1 mile on the run. I like to make it more conservative and go for 4 miles per 1 mile. But either way:

112 miles on bike = 28 miles
28 miles + 26 miles = 54 miles

In theory, I have already done an ultra! At least in theory!!

My next step was to find an ultra that fit my needs. I don’t want any of the trails or impossible heights that Baboo and JohnnyTri thrive on (I mean, how many roots can I fall over before I call it quits?) and I didn’t want to travel far. I really don’t want to spend a lot of money (travel +race fee) if I am not really sure that I am actually going to do the event.

As luck would have it, there was a local Ultra here in Las Vegas put on by Calico Racing.

Secretly, I began my training. I say secretly, because I didn’t tell ANYONE! Not Baboo, not JohnnyTri not even the Mrs! There is something about committing to 50 miles that equals crazy! I mean training for a marathon is no biggie; lots of people do marathons but only ‘those’ people do ultras! I wasn’t sure that I was ready to become one of ‘those’ people. By not telling anyone I was training for it, I didn’t have to commit myself one way or another. I was avoiding the craziness!

Training for an Ultra is surprisingly easy. I don’t know why I say surprisingly. Everyone says it’s easy. It doesn’t take nearly as much time as training for an Ironman, you only run a few days a week, so you have more downtime (family time) and most of your training during the week is not too long so it can happen without interfering with your ‘normal’ life. The weekends and the midweek run were the only long training sessions. I found just like IM training, I could do it either really early or really late. Actually, because it was only running and not bike or swimming, I could do it anytime I wanted to. Midnight? No problem! When you wrap the holidays (and the time off) and the year end ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ vacation leave my company has, I was able to get runs without too much issue and the late night runs still allowed lots of recovery.

Before I knew it was packet pickup day.

I still hadn’t registered for the race and up until now still hadn’t truly committed. OK, so perhaps I was committed but I hadn’t admitted it to myself yet. Now I really had to do it! Sign up!

I have to admit that I actually had gotten to the point where the runs didn’t seem all that bad. 13 miles? No problem. 21 miles? Sure, let me grab a bottle of water. In fact I had gotten so used to the training that I rarely even brought food or water if the distance was less than 13. Less than 15 wasn’t even worth a recovery drink! So, I guess after all this training I was committed. I would have been pissed off if I did all this training for nothing!

After packet pickup, I finally told the Mrs. Or more precisely she figured it out before I could tell her. Understandably she didn’t appreciate about being kept in the dark the whole time! Oops! Now that the cat was out of the bag, I felt much better. Keeping this whole thing a secret was wearing on me.

Come race day I felt completely calm. Too calm actually! The race starts just before daylight and I stayed in the car until it was go time to stay warm. Unfortunately, I stayed a little too late and the race started while I was walking up to the start line!

CRAP!! I quickly ditched my warm-up clothes and took off. I didn’t even have time to put on my timing chip (Although I should have done it the day before), so as I ran over the timing mats, I just swiped it over them, like a credit card!

Almost two minutes behind the group. Well that takes care of getting caught up in the group and going out too fast. Instead I was the guy at the very back. Normally that would mean bad things but instead I felt no pressure and looked forward to passing the people in front of me.

Nowhere to go but up!

I don’t know if I had mentioned this before, but I hate taper! I know that in theory it makes sense and it allows my body to heal up and recover but it always seems like I do best when I am taperless or at the very most only a few days taper. In this case, I settled on a week.

During that week, I went swimming a few times, hit the spa, and just generally relaxed. Whilst relaxing, I became aware of my feet and how banged up they were. I set about restoring them. A lot of lotion, a few sessions with the pumas stone and my feet were able to lose most of the ugly calluses and rough spots. NEWS FLASH!! You NEED those calluses and rough spots for when you are RUNNING! They are there for a REASON!

I found that out at about mile 15. I continued to remember this lesson for the next 35 miles!

Also as a side effect of all those wonderful days relaxing, my body felt rested and recovered! This should be a good thing, except I don’t know how to run like that! I know what my body is capable of when it is tired but now I am fresh and full of vigor. How long will this last? How much do I scale it back? Am I going too fast too slow? I don’t know! I check in mentally an ensure myself that I have a few more gears left and that I am not pushing it fast. This last until about mile 15!

At mile 15, the blisters start and my energy starts to decline. By mile 19, I am tired and by mile 24 I want this to be over! This is not good. I am less than half way there and I am already toast. Hell! I am not even done with a marathon yet! UGH!

I brought along a big ass Rockstar (Think Monster energy if you don’t get Rockstar in your neck of the woods) and two 5 hour energy’s. I am carrying on of the 5 hour energy and the Rockstar and remaining 5 hour is in the drop bag.

With this race, you get to pass by your drop bag twice. Once at 19 and again at 31. Since I started to feel like crap at mile 19 and I had a back up, I popped the first 5 hour energy around mile 20. ….

…

…

Um, OK. No problem. Let’s just give it a few minutes to kick in.

….Tired…

….tired –er…

…tired-er-er…

DAMN! This sucks. It’s now mile 26 and I still have no energy. My butt is dragging and my feet hurt. My world is dark and grey! I secretly and publicly declare that if I see a familiar face this race is over for me.

This is precisely why I didn’t tell everyone about me running. It’s the failure factor. If no one knows that I am running it and I DNF then no one can say “he DNFed”. For all the world knows it was just a long training day. I can go cry into my pillow without anyone knowing it!

But alas, my Mrs. Knows! The RD knows! And damn it, I paid good money to suffer out here! I at least have to do as much as I do during my training runs. That means 30 -34 miles.

That goal seems unachievable right now. I am finally heading into my drop bag area. I have walked more than I have run. Despite my promise to myself to keep going, I am looking for a way out. I know there is a medic on the course. I desperately look around for the ambulance. Unfortunately, my prayers go unanswered. I am stuck out on the course. I could cry! (If only I didn’t need the salt and the water).

At the drop bag area, I instantly slam my Rockstar (I had let it go flat before) and exchange my 5 hour energies. I scarf a few more food items and begrudgingly head off. This time I know that my Rockstar won’t fail me and thankfully I only have to wait another 10 minutes before I began to feel a new life being breathed into me.

Coincidentally, it is also at this time that I set the Garmin for 4x1 repeats (4 run 1 walk). Having a predetermined time to run and a whole minute to recover is a life saver. Having the calories and the caffeine from the Rockstar is a life saver. I am not sure what it is that got me moving again but I am ever so thankful!!

Even with all this new life, I don’t allow myself to even believe that I can last until I hit Lakeshore road and am finally out of Northshore Hell. By now I only have 10 miles left and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have 4 hours left to finish. I could walk 10 miles in 4 hours! At this time I am flying high! I am almost detached from myself. I am once again glad that my Mrs. is not here. If I had seen her or my son I think I would have broken down in tears! I am high on caffeine!

The Rockstar high lasted until about mile 44. By then I started to feel tired and lethargic again. I still had the 5 hour energy. Last time I had split it up into two doses, thinking that I would save it for a few miles apart. Not this time, I downed the whole thing all at once.

…

…

NOTHING!

Damn! I hate the 5 hour energies! They may work at office life but they don’t do crap for endurance training!

The last 6 miles are all up to me. I know that I can make it but I still have to fight for every inch. At about this time I become friends with another guy who is doing his first 50. He is an older guy but very friendly. He has been chasing me for quite some time now and finally I can’t hold him back any longer and he caught up to me. We exchanged pleasantries and then he takes the lead. Unfortunately for him, he is now the leader and feels the pressure of me behind him. I start to match his pace and he naturally picks up his pace (probably without even being aware of it). At this point in our lives we are exhausted and even the slightest increase in our pace wears on us quickly and predictably it is only a matter of minutes before he is walking. As I pass him, he teases me and states that he is an old man (he’s probably only 43-ish) and I should be blowing past him.

I take a minute to think about his comments and decided to let my body feel the speed (that is a relative term here). I slowly let off the brakes and let my body unfurl and to my amazement it responsed! It is thrilled to not be forced to go slow. I start to pick up the pace and before I know it I am out of sight of my friend. I am only two miles away from the finish line and I decide to go for it. To hell with the 4x1 and to hell with the consequences. I want to be done with this race and I want it done now.

My legs are turning over and with each step I feel the throb of my new blisters but it doesn’t stop me. I feel the ache in my hip flexor and the tightness of my calves but it doesn’t stop me. Just ahead is another racer and I think that if I keep it up I can pass him before the finish line (which I feel rather guilty about). Amazingly my body responses and I dig a little bit deeper and fly past the racer. It is just me and the finish line. I can see it and I’ll be damned if I give up before I hit the timing mat.

I fly through the finish line and realize that I have done it! I have done the impossible! I have become one of ‘those’ people!

A big fat santa!

2009-12-26T21:03:00.001-08:00

I'm turning into a bowl full of jelly! Ugh, it's been so long since my last workout that I can feel the muscle withering away. Lucky for me I've been eating (gorging really) on proper Christmas food, so there is LOTS of fat waiting to replace the muscle.

By the new year, I'll be a whole new person! Or at least I'll look like I've eaten a person!

Is it time for a new years resolution yet??

Fake Race Report

2009-12-18T11:37:00.000-08:00

Imagine something pithy and witty here:

It is good and funny. It makes you laugh and cry.
It is well worth the wait!

Perhaps you can actually imagine it so well that you can actually write some of it in the comments. Because, I seem to have completely forgotten what I wanted to say. It's been so long that the details have slipped out.

I have sometime off next week, so hopefully I will be able to find the mystery that has escaped me.

In the meantime, please accept this as my fake race report post. At least this way, I can move on and post things that are actually going on right now!

Quick Update

2009-11-10T04:44:00.000-08:00

First I want to say Congrats to everyone who did B2B. For a lot of people, it was their first half or their first full. I am so happy for you all! Way to go!

Secondly, I now have not one but two race reports to get out! Last week I did the Hoover Dam Marathon and this weekend I did Silverman Full.

I am going to gather my thoughts, figure out what the heck to say and hopefully get a report out to you guys soon!

In the meantime, I plan on SLEEPING!!

Purgatory

2009-11-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I have never understood the point of sauna or steam rooms even the spa is bit of a mystery to me. I understand that people think that they are therapeutic. Somehow spending a few minutes in the magical room will wash all away all the soreness.

It has never happened to me. I sit for ages in the spa and feel…prune-y. It just feels like a hot bathtub for me.

Regardless, I am still sick so I decide to suffer through a few minutes of the steam room to ‘flush’ out the sickness. I love the idea of flushing it out. Like somehow the cold will just magically be gone. Washed away in the sweet sweat of the steam. I imagine this will work for other things too like alcohol or cancer.

As soon as I enter the room it seems like a bad porn movie! The steam is so thick I can only see a foot or two in front of me and I can vaguely see the shapes of people in the room. Not wanting to be caught in some errant orgy, I head to the back and the top step.

It is here that I am reminded of common thermodynamics. Hot air rises ergo it is HOTTER on the top step then the bottom step. Let’s do some simple math: if it is an inferno on the bottom step then it is an inferno times X on the second step and on the third step it is now inferno to the power of X! Simple math really.

HOLY CRAP is it hot! Never mind the orgy anxiety, it is too hot to move let alone copulate. I am struggling to breathe. Every inhalation brings a searing sensation to my lungs. I have long since abandoned the idea of breathing through my nose. Every nasally attempt feels like some one is shoving a red hot poker up into my nose in search of my brain.

Speaking of brains, mine wonders what in the hell I am doing here! Why would anyone want to do this? And I am reminded of my eternal quest for that answer every time I partake in an endurance event. Why in the hell I am out here? And just like that, the comparison of the two has linked them in my mind. I am now associating the steam room to an endurance event. And just like it’s sacrilegious to quit an event merely because it is hard, it’s now impious to leave this room simply because it makes me uncomfortable. No, Now I am stuck. I have to get through this. I need to prove that I have the mental endurance to last it out. Damn!

So I settle in. Try to make the most of my penance. Block out all thought of the heat (it’s hot…really hot…seven inches from the midday sun hot); block out all thoughts of how nice it is outside this room (It’s so nice…like eating ice cream nice…like cold water fountain nice); Block out all thoughts.

I am in my happy place, I am one with the universe and all that jazz. Just about that time, a searing hot pain goes through my foot. My foot has been nailed to the cross and I am crucified. OUCH! WTF?!

I can barely see more than a shadow of people but is no one around, no one has moved, I can’t see a culprit. My foot has just the tiniest dab of water on it.

Water on it? Like something spilled on it. Something from somewhere?

Suddenly another sensation. Something hits my bare shoulder and I feel the sting of a whip across me! Good lord! It only last a second and then it is gone replaced with a cooling burn like you feel when you burn your finger and then run cool water over it. Burning but not hot, burning but not from a specific source. Burning but mild.

My back is to the wall there is no one behind me. I look up in time to see a drop of water from the ceramic ceiling tiles drip down. This drop falls away from me and I watch it splash into the tiled ground.

The steam has condensed and built little drops of moisture on the ceramic tiles. Little mounds of intensely heated water. Each drop the cumulative equivalent of a thousand hot suns.

There are hundreds of drops up there. All of them hanging down like deadly icicles. Waiting to drop their little death upon you. They fall at random; no logical way to determine when they will swell to such a size that they can no longer resist nature and gravity hurls them down upon you and your unsuspecting skin.

Little lashes and whips to torture you! Exactly what I need! Thanks! Like the intense heat wasn’t enough. Now I have to deal with random floggings too!

The heat has peaked now. I am breathing in slow and deliberate breathes. Too quick of a breathe sears my lungs, so each breath is long and deep while still somehow remaining shallow and slow. The singe of the heat is no longer noticeable until I turn my head or move my body. If I look around, then the stinging needles of the heat attack me. It cuts at my skin like razors. It burns my eyelids like being too close to a roaring fire. But it subsides once I stop moving.

For god sakes don’t move!

Splash! A surprise drop of water whips down on me and jerks a sudden movement out. Damn!

I go deeper into my pain locker and wait until my time for freedom is here.

Why am here? I don’t know. But I know being here will make me stronger. Every searing breath I take and every drop of hot lava I endure will only make me that much of a better, stronger endurance athlete. If I can endure this then the race will be nothing. Every moment I am here is another moment longer that I can be out there.

So I wait. I endure. I strive.

The Irony of it all

2009-10-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last post I said that I could not imagine a day without working out. Every day I had to do SOMETHING! I had to feel the struggle of my body fighting gravity and my genetics. Striving forward. Struggling ahead, getting stronger and faster. Becoming a better me.

And then it happened. Struck down. Not by car or truck or even a bus. No, no man made creation had touched me. Rather it is a viral sickness that now runs through my body and debilitates me.

With the sickness raving my body, I have decided to forgo my daily pilgrimage into the torture chamber of training. Probably a smart idea, let my body rest and recuperate but it is still a little unnerving.

I have sat restless for several days now. I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time, I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time and edgy. I had expected all that. But instead I felt fine. I felt restful. I felt like I was doing the smart thing.

That was several days ago. I still feel like that. Still feel sick.

Now my resting days are seriously starting to interfere with my training days.

Like that old commercial “I haven’t got time for the pain”. I don’t have time to feel sick. I need to train, I need to get going. I need to be out there training.

And so I went. Against better thinking I rode. Of course, it had to be a windy day. With wind battling hard against me, I struggled for 30 miles. No hard effort, no tragic turn of events. Nonevent.

Until I got home. Then my body revolted, shut down and fought back. Now I am suffering all over again.

Two steps forward…one step back.

Good thing I have a race this week!

Ignosce mihi, Pater, quia peccavi

2009-10-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

It has been 66 days since my last blog. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to blog. I have. In fact every time I work out I think of what I am going to say but inevitably once I get back home I feel that I can’t post yet because I didn’t post the workout before that, and the one before that and the one…So finally I have thought that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Just get it out and if it doesn’t make sense or is meaningless then oh well. I feel that I’ve got to get at least some of it out otherwise I will never post again because I have such a backlog. So here is my confessional:

I have biked a great many times. I have biked long and hard and repeatedly. I have biked in the wind and up hills. I have swore while biking, I have laughed while biking; I have surrendered more than once and called for a ride while biking. Please forgive me.

I have ran a few times. Not nearly as much as I have biked. I have biked 4 to 5 times as much as I have ran. I still loathe running. I still enjoy running (but only after loathing it first). I have not run for very long but I have started to run faster. I still suck at running. Please forgive me.

I have not swam! Whew! Well ok, I have swam but only a few times and even when I did I didn’t want to, so that doesn’t count right? I have swam in the gym pool back and forth until I have lost count and knowing that it was not enough, I have swam even longer. I have not even SEEN the lake since early summer! I am not even sure I know how to put on a wetsuit! Please forgive me.

I have thought the thoughts of a Triathlete. I have thought about biking and running and (occasionally) swimming. I have friends (YES! I do have friends 1 and 2) who have wisely chosen to enjoy their off season, but I have found that I cannot stop working out. Everyday I take off from working out, I feel like a lazy slug! I feel like I am losing fitness with every breathe. Somewhere out there some one is getting faster than me (which is not hard to do!). I become grumpy and moody when I don’t work out. Please forgive me.

I have signed up for races that I am vastly underprepared for (just my style). I have no fear. I know they will suck and I don’t care. I am ready to suffer. I am looking forward to it. The insanity is overwhelming. Please forgive me.

I have abandoned all thoughts of P90X, almost as soon as I posted my last blog post (the one that says I am “renewing my energy into it”). I just couldn’t do it. Not yet. I don’t really have an off season, and every day that I wasn’t riding the bike or doing something cardio intense, I felt like I was loosing my (limited) fitness. I know the benefits to weight lifting are huge, but I just could justify it during training season. Perhaps I’ll pick it up next off season (if I ever get one). Please forgive me.

OK. I think that is it. Or at least all that I am willing to confess to at this moment. Thanks for hearing my confession.

A work in progress

2009-08-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

I still haven't figured this whole P90X thing out yet.

The first week I hit it hard, and I paid for it hard. My arms hurt and my body ached. I continued to hurt for the next three days!

The next week, either I got stronger or I got a lot more timid, because I didn't feel overly sore after any workout. I felt like I worked but I didn't feel beat down.

The third week, I think I became complacent. I barely put effort into the workouts. Once I hit my max rep I stopped. I told myself not to push it too hard and that my body will get stronger naturally. This may be true, but really I think that I just got lazy.

By the fourth week it was recovery time and I screwed up and forgot my workout CDs at home while on vacation. I tried to do my best, and I went for a few aerobic runs but it was a far cry from the pescribed plan.

On the Fifth week, I was at a lost. Do I pretend like I never missed a week and keep going? Do I repeat the recovery week? Or do I start all over again? In the end, I realized that my motivation was slipping and I most likely wouldn't recover from starting over again. This all meant that I shouldn't go back and do the recovery week, so de facto I was moving ahead. Unfortunately, my motivation did not move ahead with me and I rather pathetically tackled the weeks workouts.

It was right about this time that I seriously considered dropping out and beginning another triathlon training schedule. I know these workouts. I know the exhaustion I feel and what they mean. I know what progress is. This was also the time that I decided to blog about P90X. If its out in the open then maybe it'll be harder to abandon.

Now that I am on my sixth week, I still feel undermotivated. I have missed several workouts and feel so far behind that it seems impossible to get ahead. Curiously, this is also the time that I decided to start picking up some cardio exercises too.

Funny enough, that seems to have helped out. With my cardio exercises lined up, I feel more energized to do the P90X. I have a plan and a psuedo schedule. I feel like I can do it.

Which brings me to my latest revelation regarding how to tackle these workouts. It seems to require a change in mentallity. I have been focused on the (long)endurance aspect of training so long that I try to leave a little in the tank, not to exhaust me so much that I can't do another long hard workout the next day. But P90X wants you to go full out. Blow every bit of strength you have on that pull up. Be exhausted after your workout. Because the next workout is going to be something completely different.

I am not sure how this different is different from triathlon different. I mean each day in Tri training is a different focus too. I am also not sure how exhausting myself each workout is going to effect my cardio workout but this is all just a big experiment.

I'm gonna roll with the punches. Drink my protein shakes and nurse my sore muscles.

Wish me luck!

And now for something completely different

2009-08-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

Despite what I do, I actually believe that you should take some time off after an Ironman. Or at least after your first one, you should take some time off. The body is in shock; you deserve a rest; in my case, you have a new family to enjoy. Blah, blah, blah…Truth is I wanted to relax for a little while.

That didn’t last long. Before too long my mind was raring to go. I needed something to do physically. I needed some way to make the body tired and the muscles sore. I needed to hurt.

P90X

P90X is a ‘revolutionary body changing program’ (the program doesn’t say that…but I am hoping….). Basically, you follow the DVD program for 90 days and viola! A new fitter, leaner and better you. Each day consist of either a muscle or a cardio exercise with a few stretch or rest days thrown in too.

Each day is a different type of exercise and the basic idea is shock the body so that it never plateaus or gets lazy on us. It’s right up a triathletes alley! Each day something different? Each day my body is getting stronger and better? You mean I might actually have some arm definition after I am done with this? I just might have the shoulder strength to swim without having to resort tot the doggy paddle?

Well…the program doesn’t say that…but I am hoping….

So, what the hell. I went for it! I mean what do I have to lose? I am on ‘vacation’ right? Time to shake it up a little bit. “Shock and awe” the body!

I started the program right after the 4th of July, so I am a month into it now. I’ll post soon in more detail on how things are going but let me tell you, there is nothing in this program that doesn’t make you sweat! Even the silly Stretch X (the ‘lazy’ day) makes me sweat! The Yoga is a grueling and slow torture session that finds me dripping in sweat before I am 30 minutes in. And the Chest and back?? Forget about it! My first day I was sore for three days! I have since learned to pace myself better.

Before you start, you take your measurements and ‘before’ pics. Soo….

That’s right! I am going to do the unthinkable. I am going to post my before pics (or at least a cropped down version of them. Trust me; it’s for your safety. You don’t want to see this thing a swim suit! They harpoon things smaller!)

Now before I post, I just want to remind you…ah screw it! I had this whole speech about ‘cast not the first stone, lest he be judged’ and crap about courage and what not, but screw it! I started this blog to prove that the average man can do it. That holds true even to this, so here we go:

You would think that after 8 months of training for an Ironman, a body would look more ironman-sh?

I'm told there is a six pack in there....somewhere!

This explains my swim times!

Dude! Where you been?

2009-08-08T23:48:00.000-07:00

I have been a bad blogger! Not only has it been a month since my last post, but I also stopped reading other people’s blogs. I basically fell off the blogging world!

Luckily I have been training although it’s been a far cry from what it once was. But I’ll get to that next time.

For now, I wanted to say "I’m sorry" for dropping out of the world. Hopefully I can make a return to my former glory.

In the meantime, I wanted to show off my little man, and how awesome my wife is!

She surprised me with these pictures. How freaking cool are these??

Devil of a race - the Run with a Devil Marathon Report

2009-07-10T17:08:00.001-07:00

My son is screwed! I am sooo going to be the parent who says “Do what I say not what I do!”

Everyone knows you do an Ironman; you are legally obliged to sit on your butt! Do nothing, recover, and relax. Enjoy life without training!

Do what I say…not what I do!

Run with a Devil Race Marathon Report:

Just for a quick review – the race is held in the middle of the day right when the day is at its hottest. The sun is beating down on you from every direction, there is no shade and there is no escape! There are some major hills with a few 8% going on for a mile at a time. BRUTAL!

Sounds like the ideal thing to do after an Ironman right? To be precise it was less than a week afterwards. 6 days! Could I really do a marathon 6 day after doing an Ironman? And especially one so painfully brutal?

Honestly, I had never planned on it. I know how ludicrous it is to do. You have just destroyed your body. It has worked harder than it ever has before. You just pushed it for 15+ hours! You need to recover.

But the thing is…I didn’t. I didn’t feel bad. I wasn’t sore (the first few days yes, but afterwards…). Actually I was still pissed off at my IT Band for failing on me. I think I was looking for a way to punish them. Or maybe I was just looking for justification.

Whatever I was looking for, I found myself at the registration desk at the Devil race. I know the RD and she congratulated me for the IM and the baby and then asked “what in the hell was I doing here?”. Even the RD knew that running this race was crazy. So I looked for a way out “Need any help volunteering?” “Nope! We are all set.”

DAMN! Guess that means I am racing!

The next day, I stepped on the starting line, feeling scared out of my mind. What was I doing? Would I hurt myself? Would I finish? I think I was more nervous now then my first marathon.

Right before the race started, the RD pointed out a few secrets to staying cool. These turned out to be a life saver on the course. She told us all to dunk everything we could in the water. Shirts, hats, bandana’s. Soak them thoroughly in the ice cold water. Don’t worry if its dripping wet, it won’t be for long.

And she was right. Just before the start, I dunked my shirt and while I felt like a drowned cat with my wet shirt dripping water and sticking to me, I was cool. In fact I was cold! My body had just gone from 100* to ice cold. Unfortunately, the feeling of being cold didn’t last very long. As we made our way on the course, it was probably within the first mile, that I was nearly dry already. And this is at 10 in the morning. The day was just starting to heat up!

Woohoo!

The whole way out I kept waiting for my body to rebel. Waiting for the pain to start or my knees to buckle. I listened for my feet to complain. Silence. Hmm… so far so good. But I was scared that it wouldn’t start until I was too far out to quit easily. Knowing my luck, all hell would break loose on mile 13!

But in the meantime, all I could do was plod along. And plod is exactly what I did. There were no speed records broken here. First I was taking it easy because I didn’t want to blow up too soon; next I took it easy because I didn’t know how my body would handle the intense heat. Finally I took it easy because everyone else was too. When you are running along with a group of people and they all slow down and walk up a hill, you think ‘maybe they are saving their energy for the return. Maybe they know something I don’t. Maybe they are smarter than me so they are taking it easy’. Well, not wanting to be dumb or stupid, I slowed down too. I am not sure it was the right thing to do regarding speed, but it seemed to do the trick for taking it easy.

By mile 10, my left foot was starting to hurt. It was just a dull throb. Not like it was bruised inside, like I normally feel at the end of a marathon. When that happens, every step I take feels like I am stepping on glass. Every step is excruciating. This was only a dull throb, but I was troubled that it would bloom into something more painful.

By the time I hit the 13 mile turn around, I was feeling pretty good, except for the foot. No knee pain, no overwhelming foot pain. Pretty good all around. The race was sponsored by some ‘pain relieving cream’. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to provide any ‘pain relief’ as I put in on my aching feet. I actually talked to another racer (who was doing his first marathon…Umm…dude! This is your first marathon?? Are you crazy?). He had placed the cream on his calf. We decided that the pain relief came from the fact that the cream burned so much that the original source of the pain seemed insignificant!

While placing the cream on, I decided to do both feet, even though only the left foot hurt. Better safe than sorry. Murphy’s Law struck, and my right foot that had nothing wrong with it, now started hurting. Crap! It was a rubbing pain, but I couldn’t find out why. I took off my shoe and looked at the sock, looked at the shoe, no matter what I did I could not find the problem. Finally I just gave up and just ran.

No surprise, but after the race I had a nice big fat blister.

On the way back from the turn around, I started to hit the pain medicine. A couple ibuprofen here, a few Tylenol here and before I knew it I was feeling good! Damn it! Why did I not hit the medicine on the Ironman? It takes off the edge! If only I hadn’t been so stubborn and refused Tylenol.

By now the sun was full bore and bearing down on us with intensity. At every rest stop I would drip my shirt and hat into the ice water (they had buckets set aside just for this). It would instantly cool my core down and keep me going. Right around the mile 9/15 aid station, I found a girl passed out under the tent. This is the spot that I had volunteered at last year, and for whatever reason, this is the spot that a lot of people quit at. The girl was OK, she was awake and coherent, but she was done. As I ran in, the local paramedic pulled in (The RD hires a Paramedic rig for the race). They discussed whether to go the hospital or back to the finish line and in the end the racer decided she was OK; just transport her to the finish line.

As they pulled away, I had topped off my water and was now on my way. It wasn’t until I was ½ mile away that I realized that I did not dunk my shirt! That’s ok right? I mean I’ve gone this whole way without any issues, how bad can it be right?

Let me tell you, it can get BAD!

Less than a mile from the aid station and I am dying. My core has heated up; I feel my skin frying from the outside in. My energy is gone. I am exhausted.

By two miles from the aid station, I am walking. I am ready to give up. If some SAG car drove up, I wouldn’t hesitate.

It was only by some miracle of God that a spectator was on the side of the road, handing out water. First off, how cool is it that this person is actually spectating? I mean we are in the middle of the desert. There is nothing but the heat to entertain you. Second, how freaking blessed are you to be handing out water. ICE COLD water!! Sweet mercy from the heavens!

She soaked me down and saved my race. I know she was there for her husband who was fast approaching from behind, but at that moment she was my savior.

I have done this course before. The sister twin of this race. This was the Devil, run in the middle of an inferno. I had run the Angel, run on the exact same course, but done in January, in the cold morning.

The RD does this to show how drastic of a difference the course can be. And I was fully aware of it now. My finish time on Devil was just over an hour slower than my Angel. At the end of Angel, I was exhausted. My feet where killing me, my legs were done. It was my second marathon. This time, I was still exhausted. My feet hurt but weren’t killing me and I was on my 6th marathon.

Overall, I am glad I did it. I still think it was crazy and I would still advise people to rest after an Ironman, but I am glad I got it done. I am glad I proved to myself that I could do it. I am glad that I was able to make my body suffer for punishment. And I am glad that my IT band/knees didn’t hurt once!

Impossible is nothing - Ironman CDA Race Report

2009-06-28T16:06:00.001-07:00

First off, I want to say thank you everyone for the kind words; the encouragement and the support. I thought of you guys so much out there.

Also a big thank you to the people of CDA. The people on the course, the volunteers and so many spectators who cheered us all on (for hours, in my case).

Not to make this into a Hollywood acceptance speech; but thanks also to Stef and RBR along with her gaggle of friends. Stef rushed to support me when I lost my wetsuit the DAY BEFORE the race! She was quick with a kind word and advice. Once RBR found out, you would have thought I called in the national guard! Within seconds she was calling the expo, contacting the local sport stores. Within minutes she had mobilized her friends and had wetsuits lined up waiting for me. I seriously think that within 30 minutes, she had 2-3 suits waiting in different sizes and shapes!! Somewhere there is a politician looking for her mobilization skills!

Finally, I need to say a HUGE thank you to my wife, who stood outside in the rain and the cold cheering me on. She was there to support me when I was thrilled to be racing and when I was miserable and done racing. She stood out there and took care of a 3 week old child (who stayed properly bundled up and was warm and toasty the whole time). I may be an Ironman, but she has earned new levels of spectathlete-ism. There are not enough words to say how grateful I am.

I've been sitting on this race report for a while. I have had complete novels of this rolling around since the race was midway done, but every version was the epitome of a bitter ungrateful brat! I was in a bad place mentally and the only thing that would have come out of me was bitterness, bile and BS.

You deserve better than that. I deserve better than that! So I've waited. I am not sure I'm ready to be fully mature yet, but I can try. I know that in 2 months from now this will be stupid; in 1 year it'll be meaningless and in 5 years this will all be forgotten. My IM experience will have only been a brief paragraph in the novel of my life. Why stress??

Which brings me to my point. I did it! I am a Ironman!! It may not have been pretty but I got it done. I conquered the impossible! Which what my original goal was. When I started this IM adventure, I sought to prove that anything is possible. If I can do it, then anyone can.

Before, during and now afterwards I would hear people say they could never do an Ironman. They put Ironman at some great high pedestal. Unreachable except by those god like men. Only those blessed with natural talent and washboard abs could do an Ironman.

Well, I am here to tell you that I don't have natural talent and I sure as heck don't have washboard abs, but I got it done. I can't run 8 min/miles, but I got it done. My body may have failed me at mile 50 on the bike, but I got it done.

And I wasn't the only one. We had a huge amount of people do this for the first time, and they got it done.

We have proved that nothing is impossible. My dear friend RBR had trouble out there but and was not allowed to finish, but never once did she think that the distance is too much or that it was impossible to do. She was ready, her body was ready. She can do the distance, she knows that she can do the impossible.

And you can too.

I started the whole experience with a wild roller coaster of emotions that never ended.

As I said before, the day before the race, I lost my suit. I had gone out for a test swim and was letting the suit air dry on the car. I had finished packing my Transition bags and we headed off to drop of the bike/bags at the expo.

It wasn't until we had done all that and driven half the course when I realized that the wetsuit was still drying on the top of the truck. Correction it had been on the top of the truck now however, it was probably somewhere in the middle of the road lost somewhere between home, the expo and here(the middle of nowhere).

After a frantic search retracing all my steps, desperately looking through all my gear and praying that somebody somewhere had it, all to no avail, I gave up. I considered my options: I could go buy another suit ($300+ of money I didn't have); I could go suitless or I could quit.

I decided that I would go suitless. It was only when I had convinced myself that I was manly to go without a suit and not suicidal (And believe me it took a long time to convince myself), it was only after I had convinced myself that I was manly that I got the call that somebody had found my wetsuit! Crap! So much for being the tough guy. I almost cried when I got my suit in my sweaty little hands. Sweet salvation!

The next morning, with wetsuit firmly donned, I greeted the shores of CDA along with 2200 of my closest friends.

I didn't know what to expect, I had heard to avoid the washing machine cycle, you should line up way to left or way to the right, but it looked like I wasn't the only one who had heard that. The middle was virtually empty while everyone flocked to the sides. I placed myself 7 rows back and in the middle and waited for the countdown to begin.

Over the loud speaker I heard Eminem's one chance.

Suddenly the mood all changed for me.

"If you had one chance..."

BOOM! The cannon goes off! No warning, no preparing. We are just off.

The first few hundred yards fly by, however the rest of swim doesn't. I never ran into the fist and kicks that are legendary for these types of mass swims. I definitely found a lot of rubber-clad bodies to bump off of/in to/go around. But I never got punched.

Now the waves on the other hand…They showed no mercy. I was slapped; mashed and slammed seven ways from Sunday! Each time I found a set of feet to follow, the waves would split us in two.

By the time I hit the second loop, I had lost any sense of direction. I gave up looking at the far buoy and simply followed the feet in front of me. Each buoy was the last one for me and by the time I hit the shore, I was as surprised as I was relieved!

Swim: 1:39:08

I am not sure what happened to my mind, but I was completely unprepared for the wetsuit strippers. I walked up to them like I was a zombie (which may not be too far from the truth). Once I finally got my wetsuit off, it was fumbling around in the transition tents. BTW a little bit of helpful advice, the doors to the tents don’t close, so if you plan to strip naked, you may not want to stand in the middle of the doorway. HELLO WORLD!!

T1: 6:58

Once I hit the bike, I was pleased to find how familiar the course was. The time on the computrainer was very helpful. However it doesn’t really help you out with the hills. Not so much the intensity of the hills but rather the psychological effect. Nothing is as depressing as seeing the hills looming in front of you. Seeming endless.

But I behaved. I sat down for most of the hills. This was a two loop adventure and I planned on hammering the second loop.

And I would have…had not my IT band acted up on mile 50 of the first loop.

I was infuriated! My IT had not hurt in more than 6 months. Since that time I had done 10 centuries, 4 marathons, and countless bricks. And never once in those 1000’s of miles did my IT band even hint at hurting.

So there I was, 50 miles out and my race was about to go down the tubes. On the second loop, my bike average started slowly slipping away. By the time the hills hit, I had already lost all the people I had ridden the first loop with. Now it was a whole new bunch of people that I played leap fog with. On all the hills, I would power through, passing people without an issue, but on the downhill, they’d all fly by me. Now, I am not the lightest guy in the field. I carry a certain amount of momentum, so when realized how easy I was getting passed, I knew something was up. It seemed to get worse on the way into town. By then it was all downhill or flat and all my new friends seemed fit to take off and leave me high and dry. My second loop was a full hour slower than my first! OUCH!

Bike: 7:40:26

Back in the transition tent, it was a different environment. Coming in from the swim, it was a mad house. People everywhere, it was nearly impossible to get a volunteer. This time it was totally different. It was a nice quiet environment. The volunteers rushed to everyone who walked through the door. We were taken care of. We were treated like royalty.

T2: 4:43

Once I stepped off the bike, I knew it was over for me. I could no longer bend my right leg. I was now faced with running a marathon with only one leg. Yippee!!

It actually started off not too bad. Even though I was hobbling, I was able to keep a pretty nice pace. Unfortunately that wore off as about the same time the awe of being on the final stage of an Ironman did.

After that it was nothing but tottering at a snails pace for me. As I slowly made my way through the 26 miles of CDA, I realized a few things. One, the people of CDA really do like the Ironman. I am not sure that I would like it in my town. We are a big pain in the butt for people. We close their roads, we pee on their yards, we make lots of noise and stay out really late at night. It must be like having 2200 frat boys hold a convention in your town. But despite all this, the people really like us. They are out in the front yards cheering us on. They hand out bottles of water, and food. They play loud music and scream encouragement to us (of course, they ‘might’ be drunk at that moment). They truly support us.

Second, I realize that at an Ironman you don’t have to be a great runner to be a good marathoner. I was slow, god awfully slow, but I still finished with a lot of people behind me. And had I been able to hold the pace I was planning on, I would have finished ahead of a lot more. Let’s be honest, we triathletes suck at running. But that’s OK. We know it, we are OK with it. And the best thing is, at Ironman, you are accepted and welcomed because of it.

Run: 6:18:37

As I ran down the finisher shoot, I stopped and took a deep breath. The finisher shoot is something magical and it should be taken with joy. Prior to this, in fact almost the entire back end of the second loop, I was in a bad mood. Not just bad but down right wicked. I hated the run, I hated my knees, and I hated pretty much everything. I was unhappy with way the day had unfolded for me and I had crawled deep down into myself to escape the reality. It was a dark day.

But nearing the finish, I realized that this was it, maybe it wasn’t the Ironman that I had wanted, but it was the Ironman I had. All I could do was accept the reality. Was I bitter? Did I want revenge? Was I still pissed off? Hell yeah! But there was nothing now that I could do.

Total time: 15:49:50

All through the race, the officials had said “You only have control of one thing today. Your attitude. Make it the best you can”. And they were right; in the end I had control of nothing. Not the weather, not my body, near the end I didn’t even have control of my emotion (every time I heard/saw ‘happy fathers day’ I would well up with tears and wish I could be home holding my son). In the end, the only thing I had control was my attitude.

One year prior, the though of doing an Ironman seemed impossible. I could never swim that far. I could never bike that far within that limit of time. I could never run a marathon after riding for 112 miles.

I have done the impossible. Impossible is nothing. With time, with training, the human body can do the impossible. I am living proof.

If I can do this, you can too. You can do the impossible. You can make the improbable, probable.

You can do it. All it takes is everything you have. Every inch of you. They’ll be times of hell and times of thrill. But when it is over with, you’ll be a new person.

You’ll be an Ironman!

There’s something in the water...

2009-06-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Oh wait, it me! Over the last month, it has been all swimming all the time for me. It started out as daily quick trips to the pool, then it evolved into long OWS and now it’s me guiding a group swim!

On Tuesday, SWTrigal and her husband “H” came through Las Vegas (on their way back from being jet setting tri-athletes); they hooked up with me and JohnnyTri for a quick dip in Lake Mead. The quick dip quickly moved into a full bore swim workout and we covered 1.5 mile swim with me guiding the adventure. Now I use 'guiding' as a loose term here. Both SWTriGal and her hubby are natural born fishes in the water so they’d take off and swim to the buoy and then patiently wait for my slow butt to arrive and point out the next destination on our scenic tour.

All in all it was a great workout and I had a fantastic time.

On Sunday, LV Swim group had a meet up at the Lake. This time it was no doubt about it, this was a workout from the start. We gathered the group and mosey down to the water’s edge and I look around and notice that I am the only one not in a wetsuit. Everyone is fully donned in latex and neoprene, except little old me and Kara (but she wasn't there so she doesn't count). Crap! I can already tell you who the slow person is gonna be!

Kara the normal leader of the group is doing leadership things and swimming with a couple new swimmers and as we start out, everyone is looking to me for guidance on where to go and how long. I somehow manage to mumble a few intelligent words that sound vaguely like a half way decent plan that includes a way to keep the slow swimmers (me) and the fast swimmer (everyone else) together. Again, it is me leading from the back as all the fish (everyone but me) zoom to the buoys and then patiently wait for the slower swimmers (me). Which happens to work out great for them, they are all rested and ready to go and I am still coughing up seaweed.

We finish with 1.8 miles that day, but it felt great. It felt fast (for me) and it felt like we all had a good time.

I have now done the OWS swim so many times that it old routine. I know I can swim the distance, now the only question is can I swim it fast? Or at least fast enough to get under the cutoff!

Garmin 305 Sale at Costco

2009-06-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

For you out there that have not yet decided to get a Garmin 305, here is one more push for you.

Now through July 5th, Costco is having a sale on the Garmin Forerunner 305. The price is $149.99 and that includes shipping and handling to your house.

It’s a pretty sweet deal…. Which leads me to my next problem…

We know that the new 310xt is coming out. Unfortunately it won’t be coming out in time for CDA, which seriously sucks because it last for 20 hours and that way I could have one watch with me the entire race.

But because it is not going to be here I am going to need two Garmin 305’s. One for the swim/bike and one for the run. It just so happens that I used to have two 305’s. One for me and one for the Mrs. unfortunately, ‘Used’ is the optimal word here. Mine died on the road while I was going through a particular bumpy section of the Solvang Century.

Since then, I have been using the Mrs. Garmin and it’s been going great. However, soon enough she is gonna need it back so she can get on with her exercise plans. That leads me to either get a 305 or wait and get the 310.

My question is: Do I buy the 305 or wait and buy the 310?

Here are a few points to think about:

JT has already offered his 305 up for the race, so I have a backup plan there.
The 310 is freaking expensive! I know that it’ll go down after a few months.
Once the 310 comes out the 305 will suddenly be cheaper, but Costco’s sale puts it at a pretty low price already. If I look at the old Garmin (301), it is still selling for about a $140-150, so it’s a reasonable price.
I miss having my own watch. I am constantly afraid of damaging the Mrs. watch, if I break that one, then I have to get TWO watches!
I could always go watchless! (Sacrilegious, I know!!)

Reassurance Insurance

2009-06-14T21:52:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned it before, but Dave the president of the Las Vegas Tri club, has a computrainer with the CDA course.

I've used it before and while I had a mediocre resulting time for riding the 56, I enjoyed seeing the course and knowing the turns and hills.

I figured I'd go for it again. I am in taper and could use a easy spin and another chance to see the course.

I should have a much easier time right? I mean I've done umpteen centuries since then. I've conquered the King of the mountains series for goodness sake. What can CDA hold compared to that?! Easy peasy right?

WRONG!!

Everything started out great. The first part is nice flat/downhill area. I'm flying along feeling fast. Watching my mph average climb, even the first little hill didn't take the wind out of my sails.

I have visions of greatness dancing through my head. Then I hit the first real and my speed crashes to the ground. I feel like I'm stuck in the mud. My speed has dropped to 6mph and its not even a bad hill! I look ahead and realize how long of ride this is gonna be!

After a while I cease even caring. I am just mashing the gears, hoping that this will end soon. I put my head down, close my eyes and just keep pedaling. At one point, I think I have actually fallen asleep! My legs are still moving, but my mind has lost track, I suddenly become aware of where I am (in Dave's garage), and what I am doing. I look up and try to get my bearings. Luckily I am staring at large TV screen and not a large vehicle as it comes barreling down on me!

After that, I realized I needed some distraction. I found solace in watching a DVD of Lance ride his way to his 6 TDF victory.

While it helped pass the time, it wasn't the best at keeping me focused on the course (putting my head down wasn't a big help either). I am not certain I know the course any better than the first time I rode it.

Well that's not entirely true. I now have a crap load of respect for the course. It was tough, it was tiring and I only did one loop!

I had hoped that all my King of the mountain rides would make this a breeze.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the reassurance I was looking for.

Really gonna happen...

2009-06-10T22:20:00.001-07:00

Got my race number!

546 baby!

Woohoo!! Guess that means I am in

(Gulp!!!) and its real!!

Crack baby!

2009-06-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

No, not my baby....

ME!!

It's definitely official. I am in taper. While I don’t have full taperitis yet, I have WAY too much ENERGY!

In the last few days, I have swept the floors x2 , done the laundry x 7, brushed the dogs x1, cleaned the stove x1.5, and done the dishes x3. Now I am ready to do it all again!

And who knew how intimate you could get with the each item. Usually it’s a quick glance over and move on. But this time, I am delving DEEP into everything.

Did you know that the stove has removable knobs? And under those knobs are removable rubber rings? And that under the oven burners are removable metal pieces that I have no idea what purpose they serve and that under that is…

I am a CRACK baby!

Everything holds my fascination, but only for a minute. Then it’s on to the next bauble of useless fascination.

It may be the summer but for me its spring cleaning (but only for at half of everything).

Months later, I fully expect to find that one side of the window is back to factory clean while the other side is left completely untouched.

I have so much excess energy that I am ready to tackle cooking again, but I am worried we’ll either end up with food to feed an army or we’ll have uncooked twice-baked potatoes.

How long until the race??!!

Oh the places you'll go...

2009-06-03T15:40:00.000-07:00

...and the people you'll see!

I am officially on taper now, have been since the a few days before Kian was born.

Now that I finally have some time, I plan on getting back into the blog world again. I have been called out for falling off the face of the earth.

And it's true. I disappeared.

Not that I wasn't training. Not that I didn't have anything to say. Rather I think it’s because I had too much to say.

I have wanted to post ever since I did the Breathless Agony ride. I have visions of songs and dance...it's gonna be a musical!

Unfortunately, I am not a very good producer. So the idea has sat there. Sat there and grown stale. "Pretty and unused" "rotting on the vine" so on and so...

And while it sits there and spoils, it's blocking up the rest of the post. I have a whole plethora of ideas that are slowly curdling like spoilt milk.

So...I have decided to just start tossing my ideas out there. Willy-nilly!!

It may come out discombobulated (like this post) but at least they'll be out there.

So...

Look for more wild tails of mirth and folly (or sweat and tears).

I'll also be catching up on everyone's blog too. Everyone is out there doing great rides, and finding new PR's.

Right now I am so far behind, I'll never die.

A new addition to the family

2009-05-29T08:02:00.001-07:00

Kian Jacob Rowe
6 lbs 3 oz
19.5 inchs

Both him and Mom are doing great!

Signs, Signs, everywhere are signs!

2009-05-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

The day started off early, it was still dark outside. The air is crisp and there is hardly a soul out.

It is a beautiful time. It is also the time that my bike light goes dead! Ughh! NO headlights. Not a problem. Instead of riding into the desert, I’ll ride in the city.

I’m feeling good. The wind is in my hair, I am motoring along, but my mph is slow. First hour shows just less than 14 mph. If I am going to knock out a 100 miles before noon I better pick up the pace.

Second hour shows just about 12. WHAT!!!? I have actually gone slower? Crap. Double time it!

Third hour shows just under 11 mph!

F@#$^$!!!!!

I blow up! I hop off my bike; let it crash to the ground; I fling my helmet off into the desert; I slam down my camelbak onto the pavement and scream!

Full blown hissy-fit!

After a while .... I gather back my things. I debated about calling the Mrs. and having her pick me up, but one: I am completely as far as I could be from her. Meaning it would take forever for her to get my pansy ass. And Two: I am ONLY at 34 miles. I need to get some kind of workout here!!

I decide to hop back on the bike, if nothing else so that passing riders will stop asking if I am OK. I mean there is some serious rider love out there and while I appreciate it, I just want to pout!

As I hopped onto the seat, I noticed that I could barely sit down! My hindquarters were on fire! Every pedal stoke was painful and in short order it was miserable to sit down at all. I was finally able to stop at rest room and switch my shorts from the tri-shorts to the riding shorts (I had them layered).

Ahh!! Sweet relieve!

All these stops and all the tantrums combined with the extremely slow speed, made it impossible for me to knock-out a century today and so I settled on the idea that 80 miles would be close enough!

I am at mile at 73 and suddenly my chain starts acting weird. It keeps dropping to the smaller ring in the front. At first I think that perhaps it fell off but it’s still there. I shift it up to the big ring and then a few strokes later it pops down again. This happens over and over again.

What the???

Finally after a few more strokes...the chain snaps in two!! Yep! Cleanly in half.

The benefit of having your chain broken? You get to run the last few miles home with your bike…barefoot! Good way to toughen the feet.

So…

In closing:

1 – My light ran out of batteries and failed me
2 – My body ran out of batteries (I had NO power to ride fast) and failed me
3 – My bike ran out batteries (and broke) and failed me
4 – Even my clothes failed me!

Perhaps the gods are trying to tell me something?

So for those who wonder 'what does a chain break "feel" like::

Having your chain fall off feels just like you 'dropped your chain'. There is no big explosion (but there was a loud clang). It doesn’t hurt and you don’t suddenly go flying over your handlebars. Nothing BIG!

Really, it’s kind of a letdown! Then the realization that you’re out in the middle of your ride sinks in and then it’s a real letdown!

April Totals

2009-05-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Only 50 days left!!

Not that I am panicking or anything but.

AHHHHHHH!!!!!

What a month it has been. Two half irons, two centuries, and a whole lot of hanging out with blogging friends.

I know it’s seems to be a reoccurring theme, but somehow this month was still lower than February. I don’t know what I did for that month, but I must have been superman!!

On a good note, while I notice that something’s are lower than February or March, the time it takes me to get to those totals seems to be going down. I hope this means that I am getting fast and not that I am just going on easier courses.

7 Swim – 16199 yd – 06:05:46 (10.12 miles)
10 Bike – 395.0 – 28:59:42
13 Run – 70.9 – 12:09:19

Total:

30 Workouts
47:14:77 Hours
475.2 miles
22544 Calories Burned

Let’s see, how does that compare to last month?

Swim: 28% less than last month
Bike: 7% more than last month
Run: 4% less than last month

Total Mileage: 4% more than last month
Total Time: 2 hours less than last month

I think for this month, I will need to focus on speed (like last month) and also work on tying up the loose ends. This probably means more bricks and more form.

Hopefully, I would like to try to hit the pool more often too!

Right now, it’s time to focus on the bike. Breathless Agony (isn’t that a GREAT name!)

Oceanside vs. Rage - the tale of two Race Reports

2009-04-28T16:20:00.000-07:00

Some would say that doing two half ironman’s within two weeks of each other would be stupid.
Some would say doing two half’s back to back with a crazy ass century in between would be suicide
Some would say that if you have the energy to do all that, then you should have pushed yourself a lot harder!

Who the hell are these people???

Yes, I did the stupid and competed in two half’s basically back to back.

This puts me in a unique position where I can compare the two races. One an official ‘ironman’ 70.3 and the other a local hard as nails ‘long race’.

Oceanside was my first brush with the power that is ‘Ironman’ and my first impression is … uhh. Not ugh but rather uhh. I liked the race but I don’t see the “whoa! It’s Ironman! We got to do it!” effect it has.

The day before:

I will say that the race is incredibly organized. The roster had more than 2200 people and I expected a mad rush for packet pickup. I expected people crawling all over each other trying to pick up their packet. A mad zoo as people looked at the cool products at the expo. General chaos!

Instead I walked into a library. There were only a few people walking around (about 15 people). Everyone talked in hushed voices. The volunteers were laid back and looked bored. The pickup was broken in several ‘stages’.

First was USAT check (which I felt cheated at, when they didn’t check the card, but instead went off a “yep, I have one!”)
Second were name check and sign waivers. This was very easy. They had it broken up by last name and each table was spread way a part. Athletes milled from the door to the table in a very quiet manner.
Third was swag bag pickup. Again they had it broken up into different tables and they were spread way apart. Everything was already pre-sorted out, so it was as simple as name? Here’s your bag!
Lastly was the door! Just walk out. There was a video that talked about the rules and general Q & A. But honestly, most people just walked right though without stopping.

Typically, I do the same thing. I mean I am so far from the front that I don’t need to know the ‘special rules’, I just follow everyone else. If they are lost, then at least I know I’ll have good company!

However, this time I did stop and watch. It was a nice video, nothing special. It was basically the RD talking about the course and transition. No demo or anything special, just a general talk. It was set to loop so that you could walk in at anytime and it would just repeat over again.

Honestly, it was a very clever idea. Athletes floated in an out and it was no big “the video is starting in 30 seconds, hurry and grab a seat” event. Very laid back.

The expo was separate from the pickup by about 300 yards. In fact if you didn’t look around you would never see it. I think a lot of people missed it as there were not a lot people there. It was very humdrum and featured only Ironman 'approved sponsors’. I am not sure what I expected but I thought there be a lot of competing vendors and some killer deals. Instead it was ‘the Ironman store’ which sold anything you wanted as long as it said ‘Ironman’ on it! Ironman hats; Ironman cups; Ironman shorts; Ironman jackets; they even had Ironman shoelaces.

There were no free samples of items or fun booty. Everything had a price and usually it was expensive! You can have any nutrition you want as long as it was made by Gatorade. Want Heed? Nope! How about Endurox? Nope! But you can have all the powerbars and Endurance mix you want.

Rage on the other hand was almost completely the opposite.

Pack-it pickup was a complete nut house! People were stacked wall to wall. The expo was in the same location as pick-up so the sound level was LOUD!

At pick-up, you had to wait in line for the one table that helped distribute packets (where they did ask for my ID and USAT card, but JT did not get questioned at all). Then it was swag bag but it was located only 2 feet away and it wasn’t long before the backed up line flowed into each other and everyone was confused.

After pickup was the expo which had a nice selection of vendors. Maybe not a lot of competition but there seemed a wide ranging mix. One nice thing was all the freebies that you get from the vendors.

Thank you Fluid!!

Overall, I liked the laid back pace of Oceanside over Rage. Maybe it was the overabundance of volunteers or the massive amount of space they had but it seemed very low key and relaxed. Whereas after Rage, I needed a beer to calm my nerves (of course, It could have been the fact that I was doing a hard ass race the next day too!)

Swim:

I was initially concerned that 2200 people would be chaos at the swim. Imagine 2200 people all swimming at the same time! Reminds me of something (like a…..IRONMAN).

But they broke down each age group into lots of little mini-waves. In fact they broke into so many little waves that my wave didn’t start until almost an hour after the race began. They still closed down transition before the race started, so that meant we had to be in transition and get everything set up early and then WAIT!

Lots of waiting! Lots of nervous, freezing my butt off waiting. Lots of watching other racers come in and go waiting. Lots of ‘good God! Hurry the hell up’ waiting.

Each wave would wait until the other wave went off, then enter the water and swim to the start line, some 100 feet away. They’d wait there until the horn went off and then all 100+ people would take off. This would be my first ‘deep water’ start!

While waiting, I was freezing. The outside air was so cold and while the rest of me was covered in neoprene and latex, my feet were frozen. Had I known, I would have brought a spare pair of socks to toss at the last minute.

(Side note: While standing in line, waiting your turn to get in the water, nature inevitably hits. The RD actually had several port’o’potties in the waiting area!

Another side note: Not everyone used them! I made the mistake of looking down and noticing that a guy had ‘water’ coming out of his wetsuit and dripping down his feet into his sock. Mental note: don’t look down and don’t pick up any ‘used’ socks)

By the time I hit the water, I was afraid that if I dropped another degree, I would go into hypothermic shock. Imagine my relief when the water was actually warm! Who knows, it could have been 50 degrees but as long as it was 1* warmer then the outside air, it was WARM!

We swam out the start and waited for the gun to go off. Everyone tried to space themselves a part from each other, but it was either the current or the competiveness, but in a matter of seconds we were all bunched together. Once the gun went off, there were arms and legs everywhere! It wasn’t bad and within the first 200 yards it was fine.

The race itself is very well marked because it the buoys are all spaced about 100 yards apart.

Once I followed the buoys out the main sea, the rolling waves hit but it was more big rollers than crashers, so it wasn’t a problem. On the way back, Nate had told me to forget the buoys and instead focus on the big hotel. Sight on that and I’ll be perfect. He was exactly right! The sun was blinding and I couldn’t see anything on the water.

Thanks Nate!

If I could give one hint (beside focus on the hotel, it would be to stay closer to the docks than the buoys on the way in. The docks are the best line as the buoys take you out and then back in.

43:12

Once we were out of the water, we had to run down the entire length of transition to get in the back. With 2200 athletes, that’s a long run! One nice thing about the Ironman race was the carpet path they provide for entire swim to transition and through most of the transition area. My (pansy-ass) feet thank you so much!

5:09

On Rage, I seemed to take the exact opposite approach and showed up to Transition way after everybody else did. I had to fight (almost literally) for a spot for my bike. And while there, I must have zoned out, because I looked around and noticed that I was the only one in my area. Hmmm….where is everybody? Oh the water! Why? The race is about to start!!! Crap! I don’t have my wetsuit on, I haven’t eaten, and I am way on the other side of the transition area.
As I am making my way down, they start the countdown and I barely reach the water’s edge when the gun goes off. I slap my goggle into place and dive in.

Holy Crap! The water is cold! So much for a warm-up or even a chance to let the water soak into the suit. I am have way to the first buoy when the water makes its way down to the lower back, WAA! I am almost to the second buoy when the water finds my lower section. He-ll-o shrinkage!

By the third buoy and I started to adjust and am making some headway. About mid way back, it dawns on me that we are not heading straight back but rather going past the entrance to the next buoy and then in . At this point we are joined with the sprinters and I am mauled as I get swam over by the fast guys. But this gives me the chance to draft off of them for at least a few minutes.

47:27

Unfortunately, Rage does not have carpet in the transition area. For those who don’t know me, I have the weakest feet in the world! I am a little baby for walking barefoot!

Ouch!

3:34

OK. So overall, I think I would give this to Oceanside. They had a great support on the swim course with the buoys and the carpet, not to mention the volunteers in the water! Who helped you unzip. No strippers but a boy can’t have everything!

Bike

Oceanside starts off nice and flat. There are a few hills but all in all, nothing that slows anyone down too much.

Again the power of Ironman lies with the volunteers. The bike course had an overabundance of volunteers. Volunteers directing you; Volunteers feeding you; even volunteers in the middle of nowhere whose sole job was to cheer you on!

The bike course also had powerbar gels which is nice!

They’ll tell you that Oceanside has one big hill. They lie! It has a one BIG ass hill and several hills. And then a few minor hills (but by the time you get to them, they FEEL big).

Of course, the problem with all these hills is that they don’t happen until way over half way into the race. By then you are feeling good, feeling like you are flying; you’ve been enjoying the flat fast ground and you feel f-a-s-t! Right then the hills hit and all thoughts of good are gone!
You’re struggling to get up the first hill (there were some people walking it) and then the remaining hills are just vampires sucking the energy out of you.

Luckily, I started to feel better right around mile 50 and got my second wind. Nothing feels better than passing people on the last 6 miles in!

3:27:21

On the way out of transition, you run past the finish line (where there is an aid station, very nice of them to think of the beginning runners) and you get to see all the bikers coming in and the runners who are finishing. Personally, I would rather NOT see the finishers but it was nice to see the bikers, so you knew where you at.

2:59

On Rage, the bike (as always) has this huge hill climbing out of transition. Nothing like hitting zone 5 off the swim! But the good thing about the hill is that as soon as you are up, it everything else feels better.

It’s like when you tense every muscle in your body and then relax. Go ahead try it: tense up your arms and then your legs; work on tensing up your whole body. Now in one big motion: RELAX! Ahh! Everything feels so much better!

After that brutal hill, all the minor hills felt like cake, at least until hitting North shore road. Then the hills really began!

On this race, I had a few things going for me:

I knew the terrain. I knew what hills to push on, what gear to be in and what was on the other side of the hill
I had the Mrs. on the road. Gotta look good!
I had JT breathing down my neck. Johnny is a beast on the bike, so I knew that I would have to have my best day out there to have a hope of holding him off.
I had RBR and LA run buddy racing too. I had to represent!

Once I hit the turn around point, I knew that I was doing good. I felt strong and I felt fast. Went I hit the hills, I was able to stand up and work it! I was able to pass a few people and only got passed a by a couple people.

On the final hill, I was ready for the run.

3:25:59

I don’t know how the women do it. They can hop out of the water onto the bike wearing nothing more than a padded bikini. Not me! (You don’t want to see me in a padded bikini!) I need not just one pair of riding shorts, but two! If I could somehow get three on, then I am sure that I would!

Why oh why do bike seats have to be so freaking hard!! Would it add too much weight to add in some padding? Because it sure adds time to me, to put on the padding. For Oceanside, I swam without the extra riding shorts and then in T1, I put them on. (Nothing like nylon and wet skin to slow a person down). So this time, I swam with them on (probably sucked up half of the lake) and then I didn’t have to worry about putting them on in T1. Of course I have to remember to take them off in T2. Oops! No wonder it felt like I was running in a diaper…I was!

2:27

The Run

Oceanside is mostly run all on the street. I say mostly because there is a small section (1/4 mile) where it is through deep loose sand. That sucks! But the rest is all on the street and the pathway. Unfortunately, the street and the path are concrete. While it didn’t affect me much, I saw some people out there were feeling the beating.

My whole goal was just to play it smart. Run slow and steady for the first half and then add in the speed for the second half. A sort of negative split.

The problem with this idea is that it sucks to watch all those people you just passed on the bike come pass YOU on the run. My body is screaming to go faster and I have to check my ego at the door. I can almost hear the smugness in the steps!

On the second loop, it’s my turn to shine. I finally am able to put on the speed (that being a relative term – it’s me we are talking about after all). I finally get to pass (almost) all the people who flew by me. I also get to pass the people who went out way too hard.

It’s great! Until around mile 11 and I start to realize that I should have eaten more. My body is hungry and I am starting to feel fatigued. The sun is beating down on me and I am starting to feel fatigued. The sand gets in my shoes and I am starting to feel fatigued. The concrete is wearing me down and I am starting to feel fatigued. I guess what I am saying is that I am starting to feel fatigued!!

When the final stretch for the finish line is there, I am almost too gassed to put on the sprint. Almost! It feels good to be so close the end. I see the arches and I hear Mike Reilly announcing names. I don’t know if he says my name or not, but I feel like I have just finished an Ironman!

2:12:27

Continuing with the tradition, Rage is almost exactly the opposite of Oceanside.

Almost of all of Rage happens on gravel paths. There is only a small section (2 miles) that is on anything paved. The rest is all on trails. Some are groomed and well maintained and others are just a corridor through the desert, full of rocks and sand.

Add in that the first 4 miles are uphill and I knew that I would not have a repeat of Oceanside.
Well before the halfway point, I am feeling tired. My only saving grace is that I have been shoving food down me at every few miles and I have been dumping water on me at every aid station.

It’s HOT! There is very little shade and it’s us vs. the desert sun and I am starting to lose quickly.

Right after the halfway point, I see JT and he is looking strong. If he keeps up his pace, he’ll beat me to the finish line! This thought alone kept me going for more miles than I can remember.

Once I finally see the finish line, I take my time and enjoy the finisher chute. My family is there and I get to enjoy their company. I am happy to be done!

2:33:26

Aftermath:

After Oceanside, they direct you into a line. Get your medal, move to the next line, massage? No, next line; food? There is a wide variety of food, pizza, pizza and pizza! Lots of different types. Plus there are also the oranges, cookies and pretzels that were standard run course fair. Unfortunately, I am not in the mood to eat and just grab a quick bite before heading out.

Security is good in Oceanside, In order to get your bike you have to exit through one exit and they inspect you and match your race number with the bike. Very secure.

(I appreciate that. These bikes (not mine) can cost a lot of money. It would REALLY suck to have someone walk off with your $3000 bike, while you were getting a massage! At Silverman, you were completely cutoff from the bikes and the only way to get yours was to have a volunteer retrieve it. Nice! Of course it helps not to have some high school kid who couldn’t care less. I got my bike and then asked if Stef’s bike was there (because I hadn’t seen her on the bike/run course) and he comes back WITH her bike and gives it to me! Dude! You just gave me my bike, how many bikes do you think I rode today?!!)

After the bike security check, it was a LOOONG walk back to the car (no shuttle??) and then the long drive back to home. But not before JT and I stopped at an awesome BBQ place. True Texas BBQ! Now that’s recovery!

After Rage, we stuck around and cheered on everyone. This was nice because I was able to soak in the lake a little bit for a nice ice bath. JT came in only a few minutes behind me (I ‘knew’ he was right behind me!). After that we cheered in the finishers until near the official end. We are waiting for RBR and LA run buddy to come in and we are getting close to the end and I am worried that they’ll shut down before they have a chance to finish.

I go and talk to the RD and the announcer and get their assurance that they’ll stay open until they come through the finish. Right around then the announcer sees someone way in the distance and starts cheering them on.

“Come on Sally! Sally you are going to the last official finisher and I have a bag of goodies for you but you HAVE to hurry. You have 5 minutes to be official.”

Now Sally is WAY up the hill, she looks to be almost a mile away. There is no way she can make it.

But we all (including the volunteers) start cheering her in.

“Come on Sally. Hurry Sally. Hurry!”

And to my surprise, Sally is running. I mean Sally is RUNNING! This is the end of the race. This poor girl has been out there for almost 8 hours. It’s hot; she’s got to be tired. She has got to be exhausted. But here she sprinting for all she is worth.

And the crowd is going crazy!

But the race clock doesn’t care. It’s still ticking down. 4 minutes; 3 minutes; 2 minutes.

“Hurry Sally. Hurry!”

She is almost full sprint now. There is a small dust trail behind her. She is giving it her all and it may not be enough! I feel for her. If it was me, I would have given up a long time ago. I would have walked it in and been satisfied with finishing, but Sally is trying. She is pouring her heart out.

And it’s not going to be enough!

1 minute left!!

She is on the flat now, just the long, straight path left. She can almost see the clock.

50 seconds!

40 seconds!

She is so close, less than 100 feet to go and I am waiting for her to collapse. She has just ran down a hill full bore, she is sprinting hard.

The crowd is so full of tension; you can cut it with a knife.

By the grace of god, she finishes with seconds to spare!!

The crowd goes wild with cheers and hollers. She gets more applause than the pro’s.

I am near tears. I can’t handle this. Finishing the race was hard enough for me, now watching a made for TV drama has me near a breakdown!

And that is nothing compared to RBR’s finish. The RD and the announcer have made true to their words and are waiting for RBR to come through. But not only have they stayed behind but so have the volunteers and their families.

Everyone understands that Rage is not about finishing in a certain time, it’s about finishing! RBR is out there, fighting against the desert heat and the sun. It is nature vs. woman and she is about to prove that she is the victor!

The whole crowd has come out to join her. She is surrounded by all the volunteers and my family. They all run with her down the finish line and through the arches. Everyone is cheering and calling out her name!

If it was load for Sally, it was nothing compared to this!

Congrats to RBR. She showed true spirit and finished strong, where many would have given up!

Much later that day, we all meet for dinner and exchange war stories. We are sun baked, sun burnt and exhausted.

It was a GOOD RACE!

Overall:
Oceanside – 6:31:06
Rage – 6:52:51

I would have to say that each was great in its own way.

I learned so much at Oceanside. It was over an hour faster than Silverman! It was my fastest half marathon ever (closed or open) and I felt great the entire time!

Rage was so hard. The sun and the hills were real killers. When combined with the run, I think Rage was harder than Silverman (although, it’s very close). Yet, I was able to smash my bike time. Way faster than I have ever done on that course and faster even than Oceanside!

I loved the volunteers at Oceanside. There was so many of them. And I think that is where Ironman races really have their power. In the people who support them. The people who come out to volunteer for them, the people who come out to watch, the people who permit the races to even happen in the first place.

Would I do them again?

…..

Well, I mean I liked them a lot, but I may need a little break! Oceanside sucked the life out of me and whatever was left, Rage swallowed whole!

I loved each race, and I would definitely recommend either race to anyone. Oceanside is beautiful, with the beaches and the mountains. And Rage is beautiful with the desert landscape and the lake in the distance.

Neither is a cake walk, so before you come, make sure you’re ready!

I was running!

2009-04-23T19:44:00.001-07:00

( I swear a RR of Rage is coming. I swear, but in the meantime, I have mental diarrhea and I want to get it out)

Holy crap!

Did you know that IMCDA is only a scant few days away? In 58 days away! As in 37 days when you take away taper.

37 days!

Are you listening? 37 DAYS!

That doesn't leave much room for me to run.

I figure, I could run the marathon like I always do.

(that would be on a hope and a prayer!)

I can make it through like I always do. With my feet on fire and my knees about to buckle. Its a struggle, its a fight.

Right!... So I could do that or...

I could follow a actually training plan and slowly work my way up to a marathon distance.

Every week build slowly. Make my body stronger and more ready.

But of course, need I remind you: 37 DAYS!!

That's 5 weeks. 5 weeks does not leave much time for me to build up.

In fact, it only leaves 5 weeks!

Not that I am counting or anything, but...

HOLY CRAP!!

Shut-up; Hang-on and keep pedaling – Mulholland Challenge Race Report

2009-04-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

Shut-up! Hang-on! Keep pedaling!

These three phrases describe my feelings for this past weekend, but first a little background

This past weekend was the Mulholland Challenge. It’s one of a three part series of centuries that when completed make you the ‘king of the mountain’. Head over to JohnnyTri's blog. His has pictures!!

Seriously, this was the hardest ride I have ever done. I would be willing to say it was the hardest thing I’ve E-V-E-R done!

Not only was the ride hard physically, it was hard mentally and in the end it was hard spiritually.

I feel wiped out on all levels!

******
The ride started with a very casual beginning. Basically it was a quick check in grab a race number and go. No ‘official’ bang! No gun to go off; no big crowd just a few people going off at random times throughout the morning hours.

Got to love road race events. So laid back!

Right off the bat, the road does its best to lure you into a false sense of confidence. Nice easy descents and flat roads all equaling an easy 18 mph average for the first 12 miles. Nice! But the only problem was the weather was so cold it was a whopping 44*! I realize that is NOT cold for you back East, but for the Las Vegas-er who is used to 60-80* it was FREEZING! Like a moron, I had not brought real gloves and my fingers were so numb I almost canceled my ride right there! I was afraid that I could not hold on to the handlebars or the brakes! The downhill was great, but I would love an uphill to get the blood pumping.

I should have been careful what I asked for because I got it!

Which brings us to our first phrase: Shut up!

I am on what I swear is a downhill. I mean it looks like I am getting lower, if I look back it looks higher, but I am not cruising like its downhill. I am actually working HARD just to keep going and then another guy comes the other direction and looks like he’s flying downhill….but I swear he’s going UP hill.

And then the uphill really begins. 7 miles climbing 1500 ft. Long and steady.

It’s not long before the sweat is pouring off me. Damn! I am working so hard my glasses are fogging up!

And that’s just the first of miles and miles of climbing. Another peak of 6 miles with 1360+ ft climbing. I am in the granny gear. I am pushing the pedals down with all my strength. I am crawling at along at 4 miles per hour. I am miserable!

I can’t breathe. I can’t speak. I can’t think. I am going to DIE!!

I am in my own private sufferfest and I hear two riders coming up from behind. And they are catching up with me. They're voices are getting louder and more defined.

They are TALKING. Talking! How dare they! And is it a gasping/dying conversation? Surely the only reason to talk is to express how close you are to death. “Please tell my wife I loved her…”

No. They are talking about….

-“So, on Wednesday or maybe it was Thursday, the wife and I went to this place called the “chop shop”
-“Oh! As in ‘car chop shop”
-“Yeah, It was very cute. They were a haircutting place. Everything was designed in Car motif. And then after we got our haircut we went to eat”
-Really? Where at?
……

O-M-G!!!

They are talking about a haircut!! A haircut! I am wondering what a heart attack feels like and whether it’ll hurt to die and they are talking about a haircut and dinner!!

DEAR GOD,

Strike them down or strike me, but either way….please end this!

Hang-on!

The wonderful things about climbing uphill f-o-r-e-v-e-r is that is that saying “What comes up must go down” and that means soul saving, heart recovering downhill. Easy no spin. Breathe!

That is ‘normally’ the case, but Mulholland doesn’t work like that.

It took you 8 miles to get up here? How about we get you down in 2?

2 miles means the grade has to be STEEP like HOLY CRAP! Steep.

Steep enough that if you don’t keep mashing down the brake then you will fly out of control, hit the curb, and scream over the edge of the cliff, the bike flying one direction while you fly the other. You hit the ground and crumple into a pile while your bikes careens down the mountain, until finally hitting an out jutting rock and the bike splits in two with a sickening crunch.

Or maybe that’s only in my mind.

But either way my hands were numb from smashing the brake so hard.

It wasn’t long after that hill that we had another screaming downhill, this time the dangerous curves were replaced by the worst road known to man. Seriously, a gravel road would have been easier. And we are not just talking about a mile of crap road? No, this is a 6 mile (steep) downhill with the road constantly rattling you to death. Nuts and bolts are flying off the bike and it’s all I can do to stay on the bike and pray that my hands don’t go numb and my brakes don’t fail.

At the end of the hill my rim is on fire! My brakes have 1-2mm of brake pad left and my nerves are shot!

Keep pedaling:

By now, I have decided that I am done. If they said ‘turn here and you can be done’, I would not have blinked. I can’t feel my hands, my arms are sore from being tensed for so long and my legs are tired from all the climbing.

I am beat all over.

Mile 60.

Mile 60!! Are you kidding me?? Mile 60? I have 40 left!!??

And I have Decker canyon left??!! 3 miles straight up? 20+ grades on some parts. I am in my granny gear for the umpteenth time. I can hardly move and I have so much farther to go.

I am passing no body! It feels like I am at the end of the pack. I can feel the double century people breathing down my neck. I am down in the dumps and I could quit at anytime.

I am told that I am almost there. There are still people behind me. Keep going. Finish! Keep pedaling!

With the finish line in sight and my bike ride finally over, I feel exhausted. I am tired and done with the bike.

Could I run?

YOU BET!!

Cause and effect

2009-04-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

I still am working on the Oceanside report (not that it’s long or anything, but I am trying to make it sound ‘fun' not: I swam blah; and then I biked blah; and then I ran blah).

In the meantime, I figured I throw out a quick post

My morning workout:

I wanted a hard and long and run with hills.

First mile said “no hard”!

OK fine, I can 'roll with it'. I've still got long and hills.

By the time I finished ‘warming up’, Clock said “not enough time to go long”!

OK, FINE! Let’s at least do hills!!

First hill said “You suck! Go home!”

Second hill said “GO HOME NOW!”

I listened.

Maybe I shouldn’t have had that beer and burgers the night before??!!

Oceanside

2009-04-03T11:48:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow is Oceanside, and its starting to sink in how BIG a deal this is!

Everyone is always talking about "At Ironman they do this" "M-dot they do that" "Ironman is the greatest" "Once you do an Ironman event, you can't go back" blah, blah, blah!

OK I get it! Ironman organization is great! But I don't believe it, I don't understand what makes it 'so cool'.

So I signed up, I'll see firsthand what makes these events 'the best'.

First, I had to sign up almost a year in advance. For a 70.3! Not a full Ironman, but a half. A half, people!

Apparently, I was the only to sign up but 2,681 other people signed up with me. Let me say that again

2,681 people! For a half!

I love Vegas races. They are tough and draw an international crowd and some of them are big, we even had one sell out.

At 700 people!

OK. So perhaps I am in for a rude awakening. If I think 700 is big I can't even imagine what 2,600 feels like.

Washing Machine?! Chaos?! I wonder what it feels like to come in last with 2,600 people in front of you?

Let me remind you....

This is a half!

It seems that the pro's love it too!

We have 40 male pro's and 30 female's.

That's a crap load of pro's. Hell, I am didn't think there WAS that many pro's!

We have:

Matt Reed (Olympian)
Amanda Lovato
Michael Lovato (Ryan's secret crush)

There's even a rumor that Macca is going to be here (or New Orleans).

Is there any one not here?

I was originally worried that I would hate being lapped by that mean people, but then I realized that they'll be done (and showered and napped) before I am done with the bike (maybe the swim!).

I'm on my way to the expo now, so I'll you know what 2,600 people shoved into one room feels like.

Oh by the I don't if this race is broadcasted on ironmanlive.com, but my number is:

2512

If I don't talk to you again:

See you at finish line!

March Totals

2009-04-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

Another month in the books, and I am feeling pretty good about it. Got to work on a few more centuries, got to meet up with RBR (Yeah!) and even got a marathon in too!

With all that going on, you’d think that I was flying along with my training, but this month I am actually less than last month! I think that I have been taking it easy on my workouts, thinking that I have already done the distance now it was just build the endurance up.

9 Swim – 22481 yd – 09:04:31 (14.06 miles)
10 Bike – 370.7. – 26:50:33
10 Run – 73.7 – 13:25:33

Total:

29 Workouts
49:20:27 Hours
458 miles
29948 Calories Burned

Let’s see, how does that compare to last month?

Swim: 41% more than last month
Bike: 20% less than last month
Run: 6% less than last month
Total Mileage: 17% less than last month
Total Time: 11 hours less than last month

I think that coming up in the remaining months; I need to work (focus) on building up the speed. It probably means that it’s going to suck!

Speed hurts!

I’ve got a heck of month in April. Races or events pretty much every weekend.

My First Tri of the year is this weekend. OceanSide! Who would have thought that my first tri would be a half?!! Last year I trained ALL YEAR for a half and now it’s just a building block!

Finally, I’ll leave you guys with a bit of motivation. I find that it get me through the day!

http://www.bringvictory.com/

Mortal City

2009-03-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

I know that people all around are dealing with horrible weather right now. Colorado is covered in snow, back East is cold and/or wet, and all we have here is some wind.

It's Wind! How bad can it be!! It's not like there is anything attached to it. There is no tornado warning. No Lightning storm. Hell, we don't even have a risk of rain.

Just wind.

Apparently, wind makes BIG difference. I first went out, thinking I'll go for an easy run loop and then follow it up with another long faster run to negatively split the workout. But one mile into it and those plans were changed!

The first mile was great, wind at my back; I could barely keep my pace in control! I LOVE RUNNING!

Second mile was into the wind, but had a slight downhill. I kind of still LOVE running!

The third mile was parallel to the wind and uphill. Running? How about walking??

I don't know what happened, one minute I was good, I mean running into the wind was tough but I was able to maintain my desired pace, but one I turned up the hill and sideways to the wind, I was d-o-n-e. I ended up walking the last bit home, shivering from the cold. Now I still have to a long run and I have one pissed off dog who was 'promised' a run outside!

One thing I did find was that even though I was sideways in to the wind, I could not catch my breath. I found myself having to cover my mouth with my hand so that I could grab a passive breath. Otherwise the air was forcefully injected into me!

But other than the air, I can't figure out what was up, but I just know that I was miserable.

Actually, now that I put this down on paper, I think it has to do with tired legs. If I recall right, I think this is almost exactly how I felt when I tried to run after Solvang Century. Oh! That sucks! I just got done with another 100 and felt great! My legs are sore, but not tired.

Apparently, they are more tired than I thought.

Well, I don't know which is better. Having a miserable run because of the wind, or having a miserable run because of the tired legs?

Looks like I still have more work to do.

The title "mortal city" comes from Dar Williams. It's a great song and when it was 'Earth hour', I couldn't help but think of this song. Combined with the way I feel about the wind and....

For the love of it

2009-03-22T20:24:00.001-07:00

Today, I tried out the computrainer CDA course offered by the Dave Carlson (the president of the Las Vegas Tri club).

The computrainer (for those who don’t know) is a trainer hooked up to a computer that automatically changes the resistance on the bike to simulate the hills and the terrain of a course. Dave actually has the advanced model and has a simulation of the CDA course!

Basically, it is a real movie of the course done on race day that shows everything about the ride course. Complete with transition, water stops, the multitude of turns and of course the hills!

The coolest thing about this is that Dave offers his garage up for free! He freely lets riders who are doing CDA come over and ride the computrainer. Anyone who lives in Las Vegas and doesn’t come over is a fool. (Seriously, go see him!)

JT did it last year and raved how much it helped, both physically and mentally.

Anyways, While I sat there struggling through the ride (and I did struggle! Just because it’s a trainer doesn’t mean it is easy on you) a random thought occurred to me.

During the Red Rock Marathon, I finished up with a group of marathon maniacs. I love the marathon maniacs, especially the older guys. These guys are usually retired and they (and often their spouses too) float around the country hitting marathons in each state. It’s not uncommon to hear guys doing one each month. A few of the guys boast 100+ marathons!

But one guy in particular had more marathons than anyone: 209. Two-hundred-and-nine!

He had just done a marathon the week prior to this marathon! He was doing Boston in April and between this marathon and Boston he was doing 3 more!

That's 213 marathons before May!!

I don’t know about you, but 213 is huge!!

I like ice cream. A LOT. I really like ice cream. But a marathon isn’t just an ice cream scoop; it’s like eating three-four scoops of ice cream all at once. You have to be determined to eat ice cream. You have to really love ice cream.

As much as I love ice cream (and I do LOVE it), 213 big bowls of ice cream??!!

In my entire life, I don’t think I’ve eaten that many. 213 ‘full size pizzas’? Nope! 213 ‘bloody Marys’? Nope! 213 ‘all day naps’…ooh that’s a close one but...nope!

213 marathons…that is a P-A-S-S-I-O-N for running!

It's Official - St George Ironman

2009-03-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Looks like I finally got one right!

http://www.ironmanstgeorge.com/

It's official!

"St. George, Utah will serve as the host city for its newest Ironman event beginning in 2010. Taking place on May 1, 2010, the event will consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run"

It' s the inaugral run of the event. I know that makes some people jump!

So...any bets how long it will take to sell out??

Update:

I just looked at the course. Looks like it's a point to point.

They are starting the Swim at Sand hollow and the bike/run finish in St.
George.

Looks like you CAN'T park at Sand hollow. This is true for Athletes and spectators.

That could turn into a major cluster. Imagine having to take a shuttle bus to the swim. I already thought we had to get up too early.

They offer a free shuttle, but still...

"For the convenience of athletes and spectators alike, we have arranged a race day shuttle bus service from the Washington County Fairgrounds to the swim venue at Sand Hollow State Park. Public parking will NOT be available at Sand Hollow State Park."

My date with Mary – Red Rock Marathon Report

2009-03-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

I know I said I’d right the report for the last marathon, but you know how after a while you forget what the whole experience was like??

Well, that’s how I felt about the marathon. I remember running for a long time. I remember it was hard. But everything is kind a blur (my mind has blocked out the horrible experience).

So…what’s the best way to remember something? DO IT AGAIN!

Red Rock Marathon

Take a look at this profile:

That is the most climbing I hope to ever see.

To start out this story I need to confess that Mrs. Mary (marathon) and I haven’t been the best of friends.

Usually before one attempts to ‘mount’ Mrs. Mary, there is a little courting that goes first.

You do a few practice runs. Getting close to Mary but never quite touching her. Getting the body used to the feel of Mary, how hard she can be, where is she soft and you’re hard.

You know…get a ‘lay of the land’.

Also, there are some basic ground rules when courting Mary.

Don’t try anything new. Once you’ve established your routine and Mary likes it, don’t vary from it!

Don’t get new clothes. If Mary likes what you’re wearing now, then don’t change it!

But this here buckaroo went the exact opposite approach.

My last long run? The last marathon. Over 60+ days ago. Since then the longest run has been 9 miles.
New Clothes? Sure, why not? Might as well get new shoes, right? I mean what better time than the week before the bid date with Mary.
Something new? What is all the gels and water? I've only been doing 9 miles, so my body isn't use to all these fluids at every mile

Needless to say, when it came time for my fling with Mary, I was woefully underprepared.

The event started out awesome! During packet pick-up, the RD held a drawing for lots of little prizes. My name came up and I won a big fat bottle of Hammer Gel. Sweet!

Came race day the morning was so freaking cold. We all huddled together under the propane heaters exchanging war stories.

Most of the war stories are about the coldest race they’ve ever done, or the strangest race, etc.

One question is asked “how much longer does this time add to your marathon?”

It’s a very interesting question, one that Las Vegas events seem to get a lot. They say that a Silverman time is really an Ironman time +2 hrs, meaning that Silverman is two hours tougher than ironman. Where it’s true or not, I don’t know, but I like the idea of it!

Once our date with Mary officially began, it was a slight downhill. "Hmm, I think I might like Mary!"

However, the luv was short lived. Once we started to hit the hills and began climbing, I had the dubious pleasure of feeling an ache in the bottom of my foot. I am only at mile 4 and I already feel my foot! Not a good sign.

By mile 10, I am in new territory with Mary. I have gone farther with Mary than I have been in the last two months. “I have that fluttering feeling in my stomach”

The next few miles are all downhill (yes, the next FEW MILES), so I am just floating along. At this moment, I think I am in LUV with Mary. So nice and easy to get along with. HEAVEN!

Unfortunately, it must have been something I said, because Mary decided to show me her ugly side.

Now I have those same few miles uphill (yes a few miles UPHILL).

UGhh! I have the feeling that I am on a BAD date! You know the time when your date does something so obnoxious that it makes you regret agreeing to go on the date in the first place? That is where I am at this moment.

By the time I reach the top of the hill, I am d-o-n-e with my date!

You know when the date has gone so bad that you are willing to fake illness to get out? You just want out! It’s at this moment that you realize that your stuck, you have no car and you’re out in the middle of nowhere without a way home. In the back of your mind, you're thinking of how you can convince your friends to come pick you up while you ‘step out to use the bathroom’??

I was there!

By the time I reach the bottom of the hill, I am willing to give up any goal as long as I can finish NOW!

Another runner obviously feels the same “I usually wait until mile 21 to start bargaining with the devil, I started bargaining at mile 15 and now I am just giving stuff away!”

Now I should be happy. This date is almost over, we are paying the bill. It’s almost over! YEAH! Except, I am not. I just want to be done. I don’t care about finishing. I don’t care about anything. I just want to be home, in bed, eating bonbons!

But Mary isn’t done with me yet, not without a good-bye kiss.

I am within spitting distance of the finish line, which of course is uphill, and I couldn’t care less about running. My feet have long ago mercifully gone numb, but there is no drive in me. I can’t imagine running. I look around at my fellow runners and most are the same way. We are DONE.

Everyone is agreement; Mary is a b-i-t-c-h!

5:05:50.52

Update:

Now that my fling with Mary is over and I am no longer walking funny, I have to say that I enjoyed my time.

I had a good time with Mary, I would have loved to had a GREAT time but...

It turns out that Mary didn't mind my shoes all that much after all. No blisters, no dead nails. All in all I fared quiet well.

My only complaint is my balls(of my feet). They hurt so bad, I was walking funny for days.

I suppose that is supposed to happen. I mean you try doing Mary for 5 hours and see if your balls(of your feet) hurt!

I hope that in the future, I'll respect Mary a little more. Give her the kindness and patience that she deserves. A little more courting , if you will.

It's scary to think that the next time I'll be with Mary will be at the end of a threesome!

Triathlon and bowling

2009-03-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Excuse my rambling. I have guests in from out of town (the nice thing about living in Vegas) and we've been drinking.

I am bowling. My 'best' sport ever. I am a self-professed loser in bowling. Hold on a minute while I put the lane bumpers up....

OK. I'm back.

It's only the third frame and I'm already out of the running. It's not that I am that far behind. I am close. But I can feel the lead getting bigger.

Much like my life in triathlon:

I am coming off the bike and onto the run and while I feel good, they feel better. I know they do. I can feel their power. This is 'their' game. It's all I can do, to make it to the mile marker.

I can run a 10 minute mile, they'll run 9:30. I run a 9:30 they'll run 9's. Just enough to stay in sight but far enough out of reach to make a sprint pointless.

That's OK. I am getting used to this. This is my genetic/physical lot in triathlon.

I don't mind this. I used to. It used to drive me crazy. I have hated this sport because of this. But I am getting better. I have "redefined what victory means".

Despite what my race results say, I am getting better. I run with a new; better; faster crowd. And yes, they will beat me. Be it a mile or minute.

But I don't care. I have learned that this is for me. I am out to beat myself.

I win!

Open mouth

2009-03-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

It was a great weekend for laziness/Recovery bad weekend for training.

I was giving back to the community and was volunteering to man an aid station for Calico Racing's Marde Gras race.

Its a great event, all done on the bike trail, so it completely cutoff from the road. Plus its close to my house, nice bonus.

Rather than do the event and then go workout, I figured I'd run from my house to the event and get if over with.

Right off the bat, I knew something was up. My PE was high, I was full of snot and I felt god awful.

Crap, I remember this feeling. I felt just like this before I got sick last time. Well, there goes my plans for an intensive workout.

Instead I took it easy and while I got less mileage than I wanted, I still got to the event in plenty of time.

I was in charge of aid station #1. Which is great because you get to see everybody as they come in and go out. Sometimes that doesn't happen for the far out aid stations as the race has different lengths.

Originally, I thought that I'd be the only person there. Its a small race, one person should be OK. But when I got there I found a couple of people already there. I should have known that the RD would take care of everything. Her races are always so well supported.

There were two ladies setting up. One dressed way up for the theme (Marde Gras) and the other had on some beads.

We got everything all setup and started talking. The bead girl was a newby to running but really liked it. The dressed up lady was only 4 years into it but had already done a lot of races.

One thing leads to another and we start talking about races, which one to do, which RD's are cheap, etc. Eventually it comes out that I'm a triathlete.

Oh! If your a triathlete, then maybe you know my husband? Mr. X.

(Now I hate it when outsiders think that you MUST know this person because they do what you do too! I mean come on, the triathlete world is huge! What is the chance that I know this one person??

Of course....

I do actually know this person! What's worse? I know the history of this person.

Mr. X was a local coach around here. He always struck me as 'off', because he looked and acted like a total skater boi. Turns out that he was actually a good coach! Lots of locals used him. Big ego, but great guy!

Anyway, Mr. X took a wild turn in his life and right out of the blue he decided to join the Military. Skater boi with big ego becomes straight lace "no 'I' in team" guy. A complete 360.

Why? I don't know. But here was a great chance to find out.)

Now as I already mentioned Mr. X was a skater type, but this Marde Gras dressed woman seems like a total hippie chick to me, a great person but a hippie chick nonetheless.

Me: I didn't know he was married.

Her: well, we are not married anymore. He's my ex.

"Wow! I didn't even know he was married"

Yeah, we were together for like 15 years. Until one day he just said 'ok, we're done'

OK. Little awkward.

"Yeah. I heard he just up and joined the military what happened?"

"He felt like he needed to do something with his life. He had a near death incident and felt that he had to change his life."

OK. At this point I feel stupid for asking the question and dragging out the painful memory. I am trying to find a way to make this better.

"Well at least you know he didn't leave for another woman"

As soon as the words left my mouth I knew it was the wrong thing. I had meant that he was surrounded by a bunch of guys, training the hardest he has ever trained in his life. Everyday was a struggle. You can be confident that he is not off travelling the world eating cherries from another woman's navel. That is what I had meant to say.

Her: "Actually, do you know woman Y? Apparently they are engaged and they're going to get married next time he's here".

OK. Really awkward.

Me: "OH look, here come the runners!"

A Tale of two shoes

2009-02-24T17:22:00.001-08:00

Dear shoes,

If you are reading this, then know that that I love you both. The same.

I could never choose between you two. I have room in my heart for each of you. Equally!

Ok…

Now that they are done reading let me tell you the truth!!

I have never had a problem with running shoes. Strap any old thing on my legs and I am good to go. Army boots; ballet slippers, doesn’t matter to me.

My knees may hurt but that does seem to be due to my shoes.

Regardless, at the end of 2007, when the Mrs. and I decided to get started in the whole ‘running thing’, I went ahead and bought a new set of running shoes.

I did the whole thing. Walk across the sensor so that it can analyze my running style. Buy a pair of shoes that matches me, looks good, feels good. All set.

They worked great. I felt good in them, ran good (but not faster unfortunately).

Everything worked fine. I ran those things into the ground within 15 months. I retired the shoes right around 400 miles or 75 hours. They had started to hurt my feet a little bit when I ran long distances. I could feel the ground a little too much.

I kept the shoes because they still looked good. Now they’re just my ‘tennis shoe’. I still love them, they fit like a glove and I have to confess, I secretly wet myself a little every time I put them on. Sooo NICE!

The next pair I got was a serious pair. Even did the treadmill test. I knew I was getting serious when the pair was U-G-L-Y! This pair was a trail rated shoe. Good for holding on to the loose rocks and good at keeping those same rocks out.

I found that they were great for the road too. Awesome! I tore through those shoes in NO time. 451 miles in 7 months.

Rumor has it, that running shoes should be retired after 350 miles. Well, crap! I am way past that.

The shoe still feels fine. Maybe I can keep running in them. Maybe all that junk about changing your shoes is hogwash. Advertising to get the public to buy new shoes.

Regardless, the new shoes are way over the limit. So maybe it's time to go back to the old shoes?

I mean they fit like a glove. They feel so good when I wear them out. Low mileage and smooth to boot.

So I took the old shoes out for a spin. A morning run, easy on the streets, no rocks no trails; easy.

BIG MISTAKE!

My feet are K-I-L-L-I-N-G me! Appearently, the shoes have this knack for finding every freaking rock out there. If there isn't a rock, they'll find a pebble and make it into a rock.

My feet are so sore, it hurts to walk around the house.

So it's offically time. Time to re-retire the old shoes to 'fashion wear'. As for the newer shoes? I don't know. They still feel great, but maybe it's time to retire them too.

My worry is that as ugly as they are, there is no retirement job for those babies.

Off the Reservation

2009-02-17T16:22:00.000-08:00

Forgive me father for I have sinned:

I may have deviated just a little from Dave Scott’s recommended workouts.

Let’s just clear the air and announce that Dave did not prescribe the century ride to me.

That was my own stupid decision.

First we’ll go over some back history (because there is always back history).

When I first joined up for CDA, I blindly jumped in. I had never done a Marathon, never done anything near 100 miles. Basically I was a stupid as stupid comes.

Realizing my idiocy, I looked around for was to fix my condone.

I stumbled on to the local Las Vegas Cycle group. They had just started a new challenge. “Century of the month club”. The rules…pretty simple, ride a century each month.

Well, that sounded perfectly up my alley. Never mind the fact that I was nowhere near prepared for a century. I went ahead a signed up and let the peer pressure build.

Never mind the fact that I had done all this without consulting my new coach. I had alluded to it but never came right and boldly asked about the idea of a century each month.

In fact he pretty much directly denied me to ride distances longer than 65 miles.

Ehhh! What does he know right?! I mean, it’s only a hundred miles. I can slip it in and he’ll never even know the difference right?

Wrong! Apparently, it actually does make an impact on the body to ride for 8 hours over hills and more hills.

While mentally I felt good. My body needed some time to recover. The next day I took off, but my body still wasn’t up for all anything and felt that it should let me know.

My Tuesday run S-U-C-K-E-D! It was supposed to be a Tempo run but midway through the warm-up, I knew it wasn’t going to go according to plan. My legs felt like I was slogging through mud and my perceived effort was through the roof! Only problem was my STOOPID heart. It barely even moved. I could have been sleeping for all my HR monitor told me!

But wait…there’s more!

I had thought that one day was enough; surely by now my body was done having a hissy fit. It was time to get back to working out in style. Again, I was wrong!

Next workout was a HR based workout where I had to bounce my HR between two different levels. One easy and the hard.

Nope! Heart rate wouldn’t even get close to the easy zone. And the only way I could get even close was to throw the body into high gear and crank the effort up to 10. Clearly, this wasn’t going to work for me. I finished the workout with a modified easy/easier workout and the body was very happy.

Luckily the body seems to have forgiven me since then. My third workout seemed to be back to normal. Mind you it still sucked, but that was more because it was a hard workout and I suck and less due to the fact that I was overtrained.

So what did I learn? Well first I am going to go all out there and say that I am not sorry I did it. It was a good way for my body to learn the mileage. It was also good to know what it ‘feels’ like to have my body overworked.

I learned that coaches KNOW what they are talking about. That they don’t just arbitrarily assign workouts.

Maybe there’s a purpose behind these workouts!! HUH! Groundbreaking stuff I know.

So while I can’t promise not to deviate now and then, I think it was good for me to truly appreciate the training that is prescribed to me.

Ironman Utah

2009-02-09T17:08:00.000-08:00

Guess what Southwest state is going to be home to the newest Ironman?

If you said Utah - you are smart (or you can read!)!

Looks like Utah is going to be hosting the new Ironman. Currently it’s scheduled for the first Saturday of May 2010 (May 1st).

There has been no official announcement but from the city council minutes there was talk and agreement to have the Ironman event.

The swim will take place in Sand Hollow and the bike portion of the race will go through the town of Gunlock.

The run portion of the Ironman will finish in the city center of St. George.

Again, there was no official announcement, but it looks to be a Full Ironman which would be awesome but it would seem to be in direct competition to CDA. But then again, Louisville and Wisconsin are also a month apart so who knows?

I’ve spoken to the Local RD for the Utah area and he has confirmed the event is going to happen but can’t speak regarding the length or who will run it. But if Ironman knows what is best for them, they’ll use a local expert and a RD who knows how to run big races.

I’ve done a couple of courses in the exact area that this event will be in and let me tell you, the area is hard! Not only is the area hilly but the road is rough and curvy. I hear the St George Century and the Marathon are no jokes either with all the hills.

But then Ironman is not supposed to be easy and the beauty out there is breathtaking.

I’ll let you know more when I hear (read) about it.

No good deed goes unpunished

2009-02-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

One of my runs for this mesocycle, is a 'swing' run. Basically it’s a butt kicking run where you run at near lactic threshold for one mile and then back it down for the next mile repeat and repeat until done.

It’s sure to get the blood pumping!

I'm already mid way into it. My blood is thumping in my ears, my breath is shallow, and sweat covers my body.

Recovery is done and it’s time to run hard again. I have my dog at my side and we are flying down the hill. Now hills are tricky. With a hill you can just relax and let gravity pull you down. But you can't so that with this. You've got to keep the HR up. Basically it translates to running even faster. I'm now flying down the hill, feeling like Bolt! At the corner is construction and I have navigated myself and a clueless run happy dog through a traffic congested 4 way stop. Add in the blackness of a dark night and we've got a cluster on our hands.

Nothing like taking the exhilaration of flying down the hill and slamming into a wall.

I'm antsy, I want to run again. I NEED to run again.

Finally I'm through the traffic and it’s time to hit the high HR again.

Ready, focus, RUN!

Step, step, step. Feel the gravel crunch beneath your feet hear the rhythmic clicking of the dogs nails. Feel the...

HONK! HONK!

Crap! I think I pissed myself!

There's a car directly behind me. Barreling down on me.

What the? I'm off the road, I'm not blocking traffic. What!

The car pulls beside me. It’s a beat up bronco. The engine is loud. The windows are manual. The paint is faded.

She's yelling something from the window but I can't understand. The passenger window is up and the engine is too loud.

I motion that I can't hear here and almost take off. But she seems adamant. She seems desperate.

The traffic is starting to back up behind her and I get the feeling that she needs help.

Crap! Woman! Can't you see I'm running? Running! Not ideally wandering around. I have a goal. I have a purpose. I can already feel the air cooling around me. My heart is slowing. I imagine I can feel the lactic acid building in my muscles.

I need to get out of here. Soon. I finally relent and pause the watch.

The lady motions to back window. It’s down. Finally I can make out her voice.

She is lost. Where is this street? I quickly give direction, but I can see that it doesn't sink in.

Hand motions. My body tells her where she needs to go (hopefully not telling her my body doesn't convey where she could go!).

Traffic has now built up behind her. She needs help turning the car around and now me and the dog are directing traffic.

She turns around and opens her door (to hear me better? Maybe the window doesn't work?). She starts to mumble her way through the apologies. She got lost. She's not from here. Her friend gave bad directions. She tries to continue on, but I don't care. I am busy. I NEED TO RUN!

I point her in the right direction. Stay around to watch her go and make sure she's going OK.

FINALLY! I can get back to running. By now my bodies cooled. My HR is relaxed. My body is done running.

I have to coax it back into it. Start slow. Build up again. Work the heart and body back into the mood.

It's not until the end of the road and about a .5 mile later that I'm back into it.

I can run again! I'm running. And running. And....running.

Where the hell is the mile marker? The watch should have alerted me by now.

I look down. Nothing. Nothing as in not turned on!

Arghhh! I forgot to turn the damn thing back on again!

The whole run since the car incident has been extra! I know I ran it but the official log won't show it. Either I end my run 'short' or I go the entire distance and go 'long'.

No good deed goes unpunished!

Ode to the trainer/Ode to the treadmill

2009-02-04T10:59:00.000-08:00

Dear god, man!

Have you no mercy?

Does the wetness of my tears mean nothing to you?

Does sight of my blood and salt of my sweat not move you?

Nay, I say! You are a machine. You are cold, you are hard, you are steel.

You were created for a purpose and you pursue that purpose without stopping.

You are driven. You are relentless. You are near unstoppable.

I should not mock you. I should pursue your ideals. I should follow your path.

I will become driven. I will become relentless. I will become near unstoppable.

I will. Just as soon as I stop crying.

There is beauty in the desert

2009-02-02T21:54:00.000-08:00

At least that's what they tell me.

Personally all I see is the white stripe of the road.

I'm at mile 50 and its all I can do to pedal.

There is no admiring the brown/beige of the desert. No chance of daydreaming at the crystal blue sky watching the clouds float by. I can't watch the lizard watching me.

All I can do is pedal. I have given up on looking around. I have given up on looking at the horizon. I have even given up on looking more than 4 feet in front of me. It's too much effort. Effort I can't afford to loose.

The wind is howling at me. The sun is beating me down. I am t-i--r-e-d! I've been pedaling for almost 4 hours. I am struggling up the umpteenth hill and my energy is at an all time low.

This hill alone must be a mile long and I swear it is a mile high! My speed has crept down to almost a stand still. I am struggling to maintain 4.5-5 miles per hour.

Lake mead has beaten me down. I can't stand to see another hill. My body quivers at the thought of more wind. Finally I give up. Lake Mead has beaten me. I had meant to turn at mile 57, but I relent and turn around at mile 50.

Suddenly, I don't feel the wind. I feel the exhilaration of speed. I am pedaling at 30 miles per hour with no effort. You can't even call this pedaling!

I am on top of the world. At least until I change direction and face another hill. Then it's back to a crawl again.

It's either effortless pedaling or it's a death crawl. When its effortless, I feel like I could go forever. Otherwise, I can't go another step. Time to call in the Calvary.

I compromise and head towards home. By the time I reach home I've hit 75 miles and I am struggling.

It's time to relieve the Mrs. from house duty. But I still want to get more mileage in.

What to do?

The trainer. The god forsaken trainer. The cursed devil spawn trainer.

Not that I'm biased or anything.

The last 15 miles took over 2 hours. Bike time is much lower, but I had to take a break every couple of minutes.

Maybe it was being home. Maybe it was because I was too tired. Maybe I just got wimpy. Whatever it was, I was d.o.n.e.

Finally I had to just shut up and pedal. Stop thinking and pedal. PEDAL!!

100 miles. 100.7 to be exact.

I did my first century. It was my longest ride ever and I earned every mile of it.

I am exhausted.

If I never ride the trainer again it will be too soon. I swear, I will scream if I ever have to ride it again.

Oh wait! I've got to ride it again this week. Oh great!

Good grief Charlie Brown

2009-01-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

When will you ever learn?

It was all "worry worry worry. This person is doing this and I'm only doing this. I'm not working hard enough...blah, blah, blah".

Now look at you. You're working harder than ever.

Just one conversation with Dave Scott ends all worries about not doing enough.

No wonder they call him 'the man'.

Doing his workouts and you're guaranteed to do well on Ironman!

After a quick chit-chat we got right down to business. What are you doing now? What have you done? What do you want to do?

Get this...I told him my goals and...he didn't laugh!

Now that's a good coach!

Then he lays it out for me:
3 runs
3 bike
3 swim
Some weights

Umm...I'm not a mathlete, but that seems like there are more workouts then there are days in the week! Oh no! Double workout days!

So the freakout about not doing enough is GONE!

Thanks everyone for all nice, supportive comments. They really helped ease me back from the edge.

I don't know what the next freakout will be, but I'm sure that there's more in store for me.

Ironman here I come!

so...this is what a freak out is...hmmm

2009-01-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

So...It's 22 weeks until IMCDA. (I like I.M.C.D.A. It's some how dehumanizing to the event. Some how all those intials blurrrr the cold hard reality)

22 weeks. That's like...um NOT a lot of time!

NEWS FLASH! I SUCK! I SUCKy suck.

Let's talk about race times. Never a good thing! Truth is, I am not the fastest boy out there (shocking!).

My run times are slow, averaging about 12 min/mile for the marathon. I am getting nice and fast (for me) on the short miles but it is not translating to long distance.

My bike times are not much better. My typical average speed is right around 14 mph. That seems to be case no matter how hard I push the pace, big ring or small ring; Hills or flat; none of it seems to matter. It always averages out to 14. If I take that speed to CDA, I'll be out there for a looong time.

I've got to find a way to get better and I've got to do it quickly.

22 weeks is not a lot of time and I need to get faster. Faster running, faster swimming and heck of a lot faster biking.

22 weeks.

No pressure.

I actually thought that I was doing good. Not Ryan good but first-timer good. If the race was today, then no way, but come D day then sure. Good to go.

But then I check out Shannon's Blog.

Umm..she's doing a double workout. E.v.e.r.y.d.a.y! That means wake up at 5. Workout. Work, Come home, Workout, sleep. Repeat and repeat and repeat!

That's not me! That's not me by even half.

So...should that be me? I mean this is my first IM. But..this ISN'T hers!

Maybe..just maybe (more than maybe), she knows something that I don't.

Not that I'm freaking out or anything but!!!!!!

This Wednesday, I start with David Scott. It looks like it'll be about 6 weeks of schedule training with a consulte at the beginning. I assume he'll send me a training schedule and then we'll have a couple e-mails during the weeks.

After that we'll start over again. For 4 months. That should take me right about into taper. Either this will be great or this will be a total flop.

Either way it'll involve some seroius training.

I can't wait. Because, I mean REALLY I need some help!

*******

On a side note, I found out that I can still swim! I still suck, I am still slow, but at least I found out that I can still make forward motion in the water!

We have a new swim/masters group here, and they are offering a month of stroke drills. Easy no pressure. Emphasis on technique not speed. Sounds like a great way to get back into the water.

One good thing I've noticed is that my cardio is still pretty good. Now mind you these are only drills but I actually found that I wasn't dying for breath at the end of each lap; As a matter of fact I was relaxed and calm. I didn't need to worry about breathing at all. I actually found that I could do the whole 25 without breath at all. NICE! And the best thing was that at the end I wasn't hypoxic, I actually felt fine!

That is awesome. Each 25 was breathless! Of course, this was only doing drills and it doesn't translate to hard swimming, but still it was cool.

It's was a nice first time back into the water.

OK! So to review. I have just under 6 months to become a faster runner. I need to be a heck of a lot faster biker and still have a lot of work on the swim.

Run; bike; swim.

Work your weakness!

Rock N Roll Vegas Style!

2009-01-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

The Race Report is on its way, but in the meantime:

What’s that?

Rock and Roll?

Marathon?

Las Vegas?

OH yeah BABY!

The Las Vegas marathon is now the Rock n Roll marathon!

Rock n Roll has bought the Vegas marathon and let the good times roll.

If you love the rock n roll type of marathons with lots of live music and huge support (and who doesn’t love it?).

If you love a nice flat course (And who doesn’t?)

Then why have you not registered yet?? I mean come on! You got me, you got Las Vegas, and you know you’re gonna have a rockin good time!

What else do you need?

Borsch, you asked where do we go next? Here

I'm so far behind, I'll NEVER die!

2009-01-12T17:06:00.003-08:00

(I wanted to steal Calyx's title)

I’m not DEAD!

I know…I SUCK! It’s been almost a month since I have reported in.

I should be slapped.

But never fear, I haven’t been eating bon bons on the couch (OK that was ALL I have done!), I actually got out there a rode the bike, ran a marathon and more!

Oddly enough, it’s all these activities that have prevented me from writing. I want to do a race report, but before that I have to write about my long bike ride, and after that I need to write about my fun run and don’t forget to write about the snow mountain and don’t forget…..

At this rate, I am so far behind that I’ll never get caught up!

So screw it!

Here I am and we start from here!

Love/Hate

2008-12-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Running,

I hate you! I F-ing hate you!

I had hoped that after the Marathon you and me would be good friends I had hoped that a new trail and new outlook would make us BFF's.

Nope! I still hate you.

Signed,

-Bitter

P.S.

How many freaking miles do I have to run before I get skinny? I mean come on, I keep running and see some huge calories numbers but I'm seeing huge numbers on the scale too!

Dear Bitter,

HTFU!

Really! No offense but I'm not you're friend. I'm here to make you strong and faster.

If you don't like running for five hours to do a Marathon, then run faster! The faster you go the sooner you'll be done.

P.S.
Let's not kid each other:

STEP AWAY FROM THE PIZZA AND BEER!

You can run and bike all you like but if you keep eating everything in sight then the weight loss is going to be VERY slow (just like you).

So stop blaming me for you wide load and start watching what you eat. And yes, I am talking about Christmas Dinner!

Hope to see you on the trail!

-Running

Couvade Syndrome

2008-12-13T00:37:00.000-08:00

Something is UP!!

Here is a hint:

-0r-

Get it yet?

OK how about this:

Get it NOW!

We’re pregnant!

All I can say is:

We are having a baby!

You can read all the details here (the Mrs.)

Here’s the executive summary

Who: We don’t have a name yet, but it’ll be strong and powerful. It’ll scream sensuality. It’ll be the best name ever: We’re leaning towards ‘Macca Wellington Rowe’ or ‘Christie McAlexander Rowe’. Personally I am leaning towards Izaac Jr.

What: Um...A baby (DUH!)

Where: Las Vegas, NV (but I’m trying to convince her that Spokane is a beautiful city)

When: June 21, 2009

Why: Well….you know….practice makes pregnant!

OK, enough about her, let's talk about ME!

To those that are astute or those that actually looked here, you noticed that the due date is a rather common date.

Not only is it Father’s day (what a present!), but it has some other significance.

It just so happens to be on the exact day of IM-CDA. Yes the exact day!

Now I know what you’re thinking (because I thought it myself), it’ll be perfect, do CDA then have a baby all in the same day. PeRfEcT!

Alas, apparently pregnancies don’t work like that. I guess there is this whole rule about not flying when you’re due (like that day!).

So flying is out…

And the Mrs. has this silly thought that she doesn’t want to have a baby on the side of the road, while we are driving to Coeur d'alene.

So driving is out

Maybe CDA is out? I contacted NAS, and while they were extremely friendly, they explained with no uncertain terms that there was no getting out. No transfer, no postpone, nothing. A small refund but other than that I was crap out of luck.

Add in the Dave Scott story and how cool of an opportunity this is and it means that dropping CDA is a hard decision.

Of course there is NOTHING more important than being there for the birth of our baby.

It’s a pickle! No doubt about it.

Statistics say that it being her first born that she won’t deliver until after her due date but…that’s a big gamble.

What do you guys think?

In the meantime, I’ll probably just train like CDA is going to happen and we’ll make the plane tickets or not later on. Still got 190 days (Ahh only 190 left!)

Surprise - The Las Vegas Marathon Race Report

2008-12-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Or “How not to run a marathon”
Or “What the heck I am doing out here??”

Surprise! I decided to run a marathon!

What? You don’t wake up on Sunday morning an say “Today is a good day to subject my body to absolute torture?”

Truth be told, I’ve been sandbagging my post since Silverman. I have been secretly training (if that is what you call it).

I am not sure if I did it for the ‘shock’ factor or so that you couldn’t say “Jeez, man. You just finished your first Half ironman. Maybe you should take it easy. You know, you have 6 months of intense training coming up. A month off wont kill you!”.

Of course I know that you guys wouldn’t say that. Hell, if anything you’ll point out Baboo’s schedule and tell me to get moving!

How about a recap?

First lets cover my pseudo training and then we’ll eat the big enchilada.

Since Silverman, I have had 4 weeks to train. I need one week to taper so essentially I have 3 weeks.

As I said before, miraculously, I had almost no soreness from Silverman and that very next weekend I was out there running.

I figured I already had a base, I mean I had just finished running 13 miles! Never mind that they were brutal miles, I did them. I also have read (somewhere) that biking can equate to running. So for the Silverman, I did bike/running mile = 15.85 and for the run I did = 13.1 equaling 29 miles! Woohooo! I have this distance in the bag! Of course, the trick was to put this to the test and see if it was anything like real life.

To be smart, I broke my long run into separate runs. This way I can still cover the distance but not put too much stress on my body.

3 runs for 21 miles!

The original plan was to do this the (semi)smart way and get two short runs in during the week and one long run at the weekend.

This is the ‘what not to do’ so let me dispense with a nice little gem. Don’t be an idiot and try to combine your two short runs (that you missed, because you got lazy) into one run. That would be a LONG run!

1 run for 12 miles

Another gem??

Don’t go bike riding with your friend who is ‘dying to do those sisters’ on the same day that you have your long run planned! Nothing like tiring out your body on some monster hills and driving your HR up to 181 and then turn around an run.

For my long run, I decided to combine all last weeks run into one run. I got it done, but it wasn’t easy!

1 run for 21 miles

Want another gem of ‘what not to do’?

If you are following your own plan, follow YOUR plan, not listen to someone else and taper when they taper. They have been training properly, they’ve followed their plan the entire way, you on the other hand are flying by the seat of your pants. You need to get all the mileage you can.

Needless to say I either got REALLY lazy or I followed someone else's taper program.

Week 3 runs:

5 miles!

My training fell into a deep abyss. Which bring us to the final week, which conveniently is another taper week!

First order of business, donate blood!

I like to donate, I think that it’s easy to do and helps the world, but it probably shouldn’t be done the week of your marathon. I’m just saying!

Now that that beauty was out of the way, it’s time to help a friend move. I recommend spending both Friday night and Saturday helping. And for extra kudos, stay up extra late on Friday.
One more thing? OK, How about fight a cold. Nothing says Marathon ready like itchy throat and a deep cough.

OK. Let’s race!

Not to be outdone, let’s leave some surprises on race day too. First off let’s not wake up until an hour past time! Now rush, rush rush. Get out of the house.

And because you’re in such a rush, now is a great time to forget your morning nutrition. Just leave it there on the counter.

Despite all these shortcomings, I have a damn GOOD race!

Because we were so late, we rushed right into the race. Parking was surprising easy to find and it was a breeze to find the race. I was able to slip in the queue near the front and actually had better placement than last year!

There was no warm-up but there never really is any warm-up at a big race like this. This meant that there was no sitting there in the cold for twenty minutes freezing. Just show up and run!

I will say that last years race was a lot better! Last year there was a band every couple of miles and that really kept a person going. This time there was nothing.

But they did seem to learn their lesson from last year and there were lots of Port-potties. Seemed like there were a row every couple miles. Even out in the boonies, there were random honey pots.

Last year, I ran the half with the Mrs., this time I was lucky enough to have the Mrs. sherpa for me. It was great to have the family show up at random spots throughout the course.

Thank you!

The miles didn’t exactly fly by but they did go by a lot easier than for my 21 miler.
I finished the half in 2:29, which was perfect. If I could keep that pace up I’d finish the full in 5 hours.

Based on the pace of my 21 miler, I was looking at a 5:30 race. I had hoped that the taper and the race would bump me up to a better rate.

So far it was going good. I made a goal of mine to run the entire way. I only walked the aid stations. It was easy at first but come mile 20+ it was nearly impossible.

I started to slow down around mile 18 and come mile 20+ it was a slog fest. I never walked but it might have been faster to.

In the end I was able to finish, but my 5 hour goal was lost. I finished in 5:17 and change, which worked out to a 12:07 pace.

The jury is still out on the biking miles equals running miles. According to the equation, I can do 29 miles. I couldn’t imagine going any further. But then again, for Silverman, I was limping and crawling my way to the end. Perhaps if I had to do 29 miles this time, I would look almost exactly the same.

SO that was my first marathon. At least that is out of the way, but I still can’t imagine doing this after biking a 112. This seems impossible!

A passion for running

2008-12-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

I have a passion for running…

I passionately hate running!

I hate running.

I used to like running.

I’m not going to say I loved running, but I used to like running.

I used to enjoy the feel of the road beneath me. The long hours of solitude. The bittersweet cold crisp air.

It was beautiful.

Now it’s a different story.

It’s my feet flapping on the ground, I’m alone, and I’m cold.

I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know how it happened but for some reason I can’t get into running.

Today was a simple 5 miles. 5 miles on a route that I’ve done a bazillion time. It’s easy; it flows; I enjoy every mile.

Not today. Today and the last few days have been anything but easy.

I know this will pass. I know that I’ll enjoy the lonely road again.

But in the meantime…I’m passionate!

Seefood Diet

2008-12-01T11:07:00.001-08:00

Remember when I said time to run?

Yeah. So apparently I meant time to run to the dinner table.

And boy howdy! Did I run.

Run for an extra helping of mashed potatoes; Run for an extra helping of turkey; run for an entire extra Thanksgiving dinner!

The only thing I barely did was run on the street.

The grand total for the week.... (Awaiting fanfare :) 5.5 miles!

WooHoo! 2000 extra calories consumed and 600 calories burned.

Now I'm no mathematician but I don't think that this plan leads to anorexia.

How about some monthly totals?

Nov Monthly Total:

2 Swim – 2799.4 yd – 01:17:25 (2.26 miles)
5 Bike – 116.5 – 08:34:25
8 Run – 76.4 – 15:06:06

Total:

16 Workouts
28:27:57 Hours
199.9 miles
17162 Calories Burned

Let’s see, how does that compare to last month?

Swim: 52% less than last month
Bike: 66% less than last month
Run: 4% more than last month
Total Mileage: 53% less than last month
Total Time: 17 hours less than last month

So to all you people who think that I am training too hard: this month was 53% less than last month.

I think it is safe to say that it I am in the off season!

And to all those people who think I should be training more:

[begin Raspberry]
:P - ptzzzzss
[end Raspberry ]

Yeah, Yeah I know! Pathetic!

2008-11-26T10:35:00.000-08:00

I haven’t posted a single blog since Silverman.

Just so everyone knows, I am still out there. I have actually been running a lot (well kind of, compared to Silverman training it’s not really a lot).

Also, I noticed that I had just about zero soreness from Silverman! I expected my knees to be killing me (they were during the race!), but the next day I felt fine. I even went for a ride with my friend and we tackled the 3 sisters again. No problem!

I’ll post more soon and I know that I still owe everybody a race wheel report.

In the meantime, enjoy the turkey and eat as much as you can – for Friday we run!

Half Silverman – all crazy

2008-11-11T01:55:00.000-08:00

I signed up for this?? Really! What the F@ck was I thinking?

This thought went through my head many, MANY times.

It was a long day that started off longer thanks to the rain and this little thing called lighting!

Apparently the Rangers thought that it would be unsafe for us to be swimming out there in the middle of a monsoon.

While we were waiting for the ‘all clear’, we froze our fins off. We were herded into the changing tents to preserve body heat.

Imagine…400 pent up athletes shoved into tents made for 40 people max. There were men in the women’s and women in the men. Now imagine that the full people are still out there swiming.

Finally, imagine that you are coming in from a looooong swim and as you hit the shore there are 400 people cheering you on, you grab your bag and run into the tent and strip down to 200 people hooting and hollering!

Imagine your best locker room fantasy! Now add Macca! (Well maybe that only works for the girls)

Somehow I think that the RD could sense a revolt happening (or a whole other scene on the girls side) and he found a clear moment in between the lightning to get the ranger to call the scene safe enough to swim.

HA! Safety! As if... don’t they know that we are triathletes? We laugh in the face of danger. We ride headlong into trouble. We run whether others fear to tread. We are electrified by the possibility of electricity. OK. That may be pushing it...

Regardless, they finally got the swim underway and I was able to latch on to someone’s feet all the way until the turnaround point. After that I was distracted by this weird tapping sound on my head and the feeling of water on my face. Every time I turned to breath, I would get a face full of water. What the heck? There was no wave, so what is going on?

It took me a good 10-15 breathes before I realized it was the rain. And it was raining H.A.R.D! After the rain left, it was the wind and then after the wind, it was the rain and then after the rain it was… the shore!

It was an eerie feeling to have your name called by strangers. At first I thought that I should know all these people but when I ran into T1 and the 5th person said my name I just figured it was one of the benefits of a well supported race. Nice volunteers!

Another great benefit? Wet suit strippers! It may be old school to you IM people, but for me it was awesome. Lay down and 2 seconds later, you're off and running wetsuit in hand!

Swim: 47:25

Despite the help the strippers gave me, it was my socks that caused my undoing in the changing tent. I had chosen a double layer sock that would last me through the bike and the run. What I didn’t count on was that double layered meant double trouble for my waterlogged brain.

Maybe next time, I can skip the strippers and request some put-on-ers?

T-1: 6:11

Some cool things about the ride?

I rode up the ramp chatting to another local. We laughed and made fun of our plight so that the hill that never ended didn’t feel soo bad.

Another cool thing? Reaching the top and slamming down that pedal. I went from 6 mph to 30 like nothing. I was enjoying the new wheels!

I was able to feel the speed like a pro out there; I also got my chance to act like a pro on the aid stations. Each aid station must have had 10+ people and you’d just call out your needs and someone would have it ready for you. Just snatch and go!

Awesome! No stopping. Just like the pros.

My Pro dream ended abruptly as I witnessed Macca climbing out of Northshore as I was descending into it. I then realized that the speed I felt on the downhill, he feels all the time.

What I would have loved to see was him climbing the 3 sisters. I am certain it would have been a thing of beauty. As it was, I was spared the agony of the sisters thanks to my family. They had shown up throughout the course cheering me on and they surprised me by being at the first hill.

Now with camera in hand, I HAD to look good climbing the hill. 'Smile pretty! No walking'.

Once I was past them, I figured that with the zoom on the camera, they’d be watching me climb the next one too, so better look good climbing that one too.

Finally the third hill. I’ll be able to relax on this one, right? No such luck as Nate and Bailey come flying down the hill dress as superman. Well maybe superman is a little too nice. How about dressed in a red cape, riding shorts, a sh!t eating grin and nothing else! To top it off, Nate was still wearing his heart strap. This picture was too much for me and I burst out laughing!

Thanks Nate and Bailey, you made that hill fun!

When I finally made it to T-2, I must have been in a coma. The last 6 miles, I just couldn't wait to get off the bike and when it finally came time to, I was totally unprepared.

I’m heading to the volunteer and I realize that I need to get off the bike soon. I try to do the cool thing and leave my shoes on the bike. I get one shoe unstrapped and pop out my foot when I suddenly realize, “I’m not going to make it”. If I don’t do something quick, I’m going to fall over and be laying on the side of the road in front of my family and 300 spectators!

At the last minute, I unclip and come to a complete stop. No professional hopping off the bike while it is still moving. No. It’s a complete stop and I am straddling my bike. My Garmin is still on the bike, my last minute items are still on the bike. I am a mess!

Finally, I makeshift my way enough to get off the bike and run up to the tent.

I am hobbling to the tent with my Garmin in one hand and my food in the other hand. I have one shoe on and one shoe off. I have this zoned out look on my face looking for directions. And about this time, I realize that the one foot that doesn’t have a shoe…it’s asleep!

I am a hot mess!

Bike: 3:59:29

Nothing special in T2. Except I finally found some salts! Like an idiot I forgot mine at home and I have been looking everywhere for them. Luckily, the weather was cold and I was not in dire need, but I was so very happy to find them here.

T2: 3:24

At about mile 2-4, I realized what else I had left at home. A knee brace. Right about now my IT band started acting up.

Now you may see pictures of me and notice that I have a knee brace on. Well at this moment I was wishing that I had two. I had decided to wear one for the entire thing. I’ve had it on since the swim, through the bike and now onto the run. That knee felt great! It was the other knee that was feeling left out and wanted some attention. And why didn’t I have a knee brace on this knee? EGO! I had decided that I didn’t want to look that lame out there and be the ‘guy with both knees in braces’. Well, what is better? Be ‘that guy’ or be the guy who hobbles through the entire run?

Next time wear the brace (or toughen up those legs!)

I’ll tell you who didn’t look lame out there. Jason. Jason did the entire race in a wheelchair (minus the swim part!). He overcame obstacles that would have made lesser men cry. He persevered over hills that were an almost overwhelming struggle on the bike. He overcame the three sisters when most everybody was abandoning the bike and walking up them. He is awesome. As I ran through the small part of the run that had a 100 foot section of dirt, I witnessed Jason first hand struggling to make forward progress. I cheered him on and watched him grunt and struggle his way forward.

I was impress and inspired.

I was less impressed when he F-L-E-W by me at near the end of the run. He was sailing down the hill and my knees where buckling at every step.

Less impressed, but no less inspired. Way to go Jason!

I was also inspired by Frank’s (The RD) signs. Or perhaps inspired is not the correct word.

Motivated…to kick his butt!

At the end of the bike and all around the run, he placed little ‘motivational’ signs:

For a good time, call Frank!
When you get close to town call my cell…If I don’t answer, I am getting a massage!
This hill is going to suck…so is the next one!

And my favorite:
Damn, this burger tastes good!

The one sign I did find actually motivational was:

Suck it up, buttercup!

For whatever reason, that one helped push me through.

Another motivational thing? The run through the District. It’s an area that has lots of nice restaurants and shops. Basically it’s a place full of people, especially for the race.

There is nothing like having a few hundred people you don’t know cheer you on. Or as I like to think of it, it was the “crap! Can’t stop running now, or I’ll look like a moron in front of all these people” time.

My last bit of motivation happened at mile 12.5. A friend/volunteer was directing foot traffic and passing out food.

“What do you need? Water, Gatorade? Or we have beer!”

Beer. Sweet nectar of the gods.

Yes, I had a beer at mile 12.5 Right in the middle of my race. It was truly motivational!

And now the part where JT will be pissed off at himself for not doing the Silverman because ‘it’s not an m-dot race’ - - - It was sponsored by MGD! You know what that means?? FREE BEER! The recovery tent was a happy place!

Run: 2:43:01

Overall, it was a great race for me. I met my swim goal, blew away my bike goal, and came relatively close to my run goal.

I kept going over the time goals in my head and no matter what I did, I could not realistically come up with a time less that 8. I know that others do it, but I couldn't imagine it. Not here. Not in Vegas. Not on these hills. Not at Silverman.

Imagine my happiness

Total: 7:39:29

I’ll come up with another report later on regarding the wheels but this one is already too long.

I just want to thank my family and especially the Mrs. for being there for me. It was great! There is nothing like having your family there for you.

Finally, a big congrats to Stef. She prevailed were I would have failed. I think I speak for a lot of people out there when I say Stef has more endurance and perseverance that most people in our community and that is saying a lot!

Congrats Stef, it took two years but you met your triathlon dreams! You earned it, every inch of the way!

Home again, Home again

2008-11-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

It's done!

I had a great time as opposed to Stef who had every possible obstacle placed in front of her and kept going!

Stef is a hero, I would have rightfully given up along time ago!

I have the next few days off, so I'll give you an update and full race report sooner than later.

Also, Check out the SWEET shirt than the Mrs bought me!

Silverman is coming!

2008-11-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

This is the sign I see everyday as I drive home. For the entire LAST WEEK!

Thanks, as if I could forget!

OK, Lets talk about goals.

I don’t have any!

There...next?

OK, fine, some kind of goal.

To finish!

Something MORE?

To finish on that same day!

OK…OK…my goal is to finish somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. That means if I get to the finish line in 5:50, I’m gonna sit and wait until 5:59:59.9999 rolls around. I don’t care if I’m ahead of Macca or not!

A real goal for me is to beat the clock. Last year I volunteered and was able to watch the full finishers come in. It was great to see these guys coming in, guys who had given their all. But, right before the first place full finisher came in; they switched the timing clock from displaying the half time to displaying the full time.

That meant that any half finisher would have to convert the number back to their half starting time (about 90 minutes difference). The math wasn’t a problem, it was that suddenly the half’s were anonymous. They where the lost in the excitement of the full.

Their names where mentioned but not in the same excitement of the people who had just done a FULL IRONMAN DISTANCE.

They had only done a 70.3. Hurry up and finish so we can get to the full. You had your chance and now we’re moving on.

They lost their own clock. Just another number.

I understand that it has to happen. You can’t keep the clock turned back forever; you’ve got to make room for the new, but…

My goal…beat the clock. Finish with a name. Finish.

Daddy’s got a brand new bag

2008-11-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

I know the rule…never try something new on race day, but I think this is an exception to the rule.

I’ve got RACE WHEELS!

Check it out; I am riding on a demo set of Flash-point 60.

Here’s a pic:

It turns out that our local Tri store (Las Vegas Multisport) has a demo program. Basically, you contact Larry and he’ll hook you up with a set of Zipp or Flash-point wheels for your race.

And here the cool part: there’s NO charge!

I’ve seen this on the web and it cost $200 or more, so when Larry offered his services, I had to jump on it.

Just come on in talk to Larry and he’ll figure out what you need for your race and viola! Sign a waiver and they’re yours!

Larry made me feel real relaxed the whole time; he even switched out the cassette from my old wheels to the demo wheels.

Easy peasy!

I know that I am a rockstar, but he’ll demo the wheels to all local athletes. So for your next event, come on down!

Now for a quick review:

I HAD to give them a test drive before the main event.

I did a quick test ride for an hour just to get a feel for them and refresh the legs.

I’ve got to tell you…they felt awesome!

I’m not sure they increased my overall speed that much but I sure FELT faster! And that means a lot right there.

I was originally concerned that the extra weight of the deep rims would adversely affect me on those hills but I honestly think that my old wheels weight the same if not more.

I was able to climb the sisters without a problem (well…besides the usual problems…it is the sisters after all).

Again, I felt faster than normal but when I got home and compared the numbers, everything was just about the same. I had more energy but I couldn’t tell if that was the wheels or the taper talking.

I’ll give a more complete report after the main event.

Here is the whole set-up

I am all sorts of lucky this weekend!

First, the Demo race wheels and now this.

At the pasta party tonight, they were raffling some SWAG, a mountain bike and a training plan with Dave Scott (the Man).

I put my name in and guess what??

I’ve got 4 months with DAVE THE MAN!

I couldn’t be happier. Talk about a perfect gift. Right before the IM.

WooHoo!

Is it Sunday yet?

2008-11-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

It’s only Tuesday and I have already washed the car, mopped the floors, done the laundry. I even washed the bedding, the sheets and even turned the mattress around.

Is it Sunday YET??

I’ve detailed the car, detailed the bike, cleaned the workout clothes, and finished my last couple bricks.

Is IT Sunday YET??

I’ve talked to old friends, made new friends. I’ve walked the dogs, brushed the dogs, washed the dogs.

Is IT SUNDAY YET??

I have run out of things to do!

Here are last month’s totals:

Oct Monthly Total:
3 Swim – 7533 yd – 03:06:41 (4.7 miles)
11 Bike – 339.2 mi – 25:24:10
17 Run – 73.8 – 13:32:03

Total: 31 Workouts
42:02:55 Hours
417.3 miles
27669 Calories Burned

Wow! Look how many swims I had. A whopping 3! And all those happened just last week. But take a look at my bike and run. Way up from last times. In fact those are my highest bike and run times ever!

Let’s hope I can make it through the swim!

IS IT SUNDAY YET!!

Gone baby gone. The love is gone!

2008-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

As I woke up this morning, I could feel the aches in my muscles. All I could think was:

I cannot wait until the weekend, so I can finally rest!

Wait a moment, this is Monday. That was the weekend!

I wasted my weekend working out!

UGH!

I feel the ache deep in the muscles. Not the soreness on the top layer of the muscles. This is D-E-E-P. This is down to the bone. I swear, I think my bones ache.

Apparently, I had a good weekend.

Saturday was the RTC ride that goes through the Las Vegas Valley into Red Rock and then back.

For the entire time leading up to the event, I was debating about what to do. Stick with the 50 or go for the gold: century. Not just a century, a double metric century. 118!

*I think my hand just trembled putting that number in.

118 – It’s just a big number. Especially when you have only done 80 miles before. More especially when you have a Half in two weeks.

In the end, I wimped out and went for the 50. I figured it was a smarter move and safer than going full bore and blowing out my legs for month or so. Besides the route went up the pumpkinman route and…like I said I wimped out!

But I did do the 50. And in record time too!

It took me 1:45 to get to the turnaround point but only 1:20 to get back! I was flying.

It was all good until the end. Then I ran into about a gazillion stop lights. Go a good pace for 200-300 feet and stop at a light. Then go another 300 feet and stop. Repeat and repeat Ad nauseam.

It was good to get out there and get in the mileage. But the problem is that is nowhere near a proper comparison for Silverman. No hill after hill to the point that it makes you want to cry, no desert monotony, no three sisters.

But regardless, I was glad to get out there. Glad to see a fast time in my log book. Man, I can’t tell you how much I would love to see 3 hours for 56 miles! Talk about a dream come true. I’ll be lucky to see 4-4.5.

Sunday was filled with a monster swim, which the devilish Stef, talked me into. She billed it as a good workout: Fast and fun. Apparently she meant fast as in Sprint 100+ yards repeatedly. To the buoy. And back (SPRINT!) To the buoy and back (SPRINT!).

My arms are about to fall off!

Then Stef dragged me to the shore and forced shoes on my feet and away we were running a grinding and grueling 8 miles.

No wonder my body is achy!

Ants-in-my-pants

2008-10-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve got ants in my pants!

Of course, I’m not actually wearing pants, I'm wearing my running shorts.

I am doing intervals. On a cold autumn night. Perfect!

The air is crisp, the night belongs to me, I have energy in the legs and nothing but time.

It’s run hard for 30 sec and easy for 2 min. Nice, perfect interval run.

The first 30 is on the downhill. I’ve got nothing but energy in the legs. I go hard! It’s the first one, right?

It just might be the last one too!

WAY TOO HARD!

My legs are turning over so fast, they are just a blur. There is no way my lungs can even think about keeping up. I am so anaerobic that I’m turning blue.

The first 20 seconds flew by. The last 10 seconds are an eternity.

Finally the interval is up and it’s all I can do not to collapse. Two minutes cannot last long enough. I keep hoping that my heart will calm down or my breath will realize that I’m at the bottom of the hill and not at the top where I left it.

“Hello! Down here!”

About the time my breathing is returning, the ants find me.

I have itches all over. My lower back. My forearms. My scalp.

And then it’s gone. Sweet relief. No itch. Anywhere.

The next 30 I take it easier. Much easier. Like the kind of pace that I can actually hold. As in hold in my dinner.

No problem. Good fun.

Next up: Two minute easy.

But the ants are back. I swear I am itchy everywhere. It’s feels like an allergic reaction.

Maybe I’m allergic to exercise! PERFECT! If I can get a medical note then I am exempt from workout! Couch potato here I come!

Sadly, it doesn’t last. The itch goes.

It’s just me and the cool night.

It’s just me and the cool night.

Cool night. So cool its stealing my heat. I’m getting the pre-sweat itches. Over and over again.

If only I can just work up a true sweat then these itches will be gone. But it’s no go. 30 seconds hard doesn’t even out two minutes of easy.

This is formula is working perfect for my run but its doing a number on my skin.

Finally, the interval is over and it’s on to a tempo run.

I’ve never been so happy to run so hard.

Sweet sweat! Sweet relief.

Spinach and kryptonite

2008-10-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

65 miles

Who the heck knew it would take sooo long?

My goodness that is a lot of miles.

Random things on the bike:

While riding up the three sisters, I passed a few kids who where pushing their bikes up the hill. They see me coming up the hill and stop and watch.

As I pass them (while staying seated), they say “Wow! How do you do that?”

I swear I actually said “Eat your spinach kid!” and pedaled past like nothing had happened.

I wanted to break into song:

“I'm Popeye the Sailor Man,
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.
I'm strong to the ‘finich
Cause I eats me spinach.
I'm Popeye the Sailor Man.”

I say wanted to, because at this point I was hypoxic from the several lack of oxygen of pedaling up this 'hill from hell' while trying to look cool.

Needless to say I waited until I was over the hill and out of sight and then I passed out!

Also on this trip, I realized my kryptonite (one of two million).

The Freakin’ heat!

Over the ride the heat steadily climbed from a comfortable temp to an oppressive energy draining heat. Now it wasn’t bone searing heat, because I am apparently used to this type but rather it was a slow succubus heat that drained the live from me.

Like superman I was faced with this invulnerable invincible enemy and there was no place to run to for safety.

The water was hot, the nutrition was hot and thick; the GU’s were hot, thick and sticky. Everything turned against me!

In SCUBA, they have a sign of panic called ‘equipment rejection’. The pivotal moment when you body is freaking out while your mind watches through the looking glass as you throw the very equipment that is keeping you alive. Like being under water and feeling like you can't get a full breath of air so you throw away you breathing tube (regulator)! Now you’re breathing sea water! Illogical but panic never is very logical.

I was nearing that point. I wanted to take off my shoes; I could feel THEM suffocating me! I wanted to get off the bike. It was slowing ME down! I wanted to get rid of my water, IT was the reason I was so thirst!

I was nearing meltdown. I had to do something quick or I’d be on the phone calling in support with demands of ice cream and air conditioning.

Finally I found a tunnel on the trail, got off my bike and rested. When that wasn’t enough I took of my shoes. (I swear I saw steam rising out).When that wasn’t enough, I was worried. Normally when I get this hot I take off all my clothes and stand under the fan. That thankfully is at home. Here, I am out in public, While I don’t mind being naked, I didn’t want to frighten any young children or give older people heart attacks.

Finally in desperation I laid down (clothed) on the concrete tunnel floor. To hell if another biker came around the corner and rolled over me. It might be a blessing, give me something else to focus on.

As I lay there, I wondered what had happened to my heat training. I had just trained through the entire summer hadn’t I? 110+ degrees. And here I was on laying a semi-cold floor watching the ants crawl over me, dying in 90 degrees!

I had gotten soft!

In the end I finished the ride but it wasn’t without promising myself a week of cold showers and a pint of ice cream.

Ice cream is part of the triathlon diet right?

Change - Change - Change

2008-10-17T16:55:00.001-07:00

It’s the new season.

You can feel it in the air. You can smell the crispness in the October sky. You can see the leaves changing and watch the darkness overtake the day.

It is a new season.

Of course, with this being Vegas, we have no seasons!

There are no leaves (just Palm trees).
There is no crispness just cold air (soon to be followed by 80+ air next week).

Regardless…it is a new season. And the blogsphere is alive with new training. Can you feel it? Can you read it?

It’s MARATHON season!

It seems that EVERYONE I read is training for a marathon or just did one (or ten!) an ultra (or ten!).

I think it’s because of the cold and the darkness. Things that make bike riding miserable, but aren’t too bad for runners.

The cold and the darkness…Perfect environment for slow, plodding runs that last forever and never seem to have an ending.

I must admit. It sounds fun!

I think that I need to try out at least 1 or 2 marathons before CDA.

Have you checked out JT’s blog? He blew me away with this one! Awesome medals, great area, and a beer GARDEN. Not just a tent but G-A-R-D-E-N!

Now that sounds worth running 26 miles for (but not the 0.2)!

Oh! It’s not like I’ve given up on the Triathlon thing. I’m still biking and running and I drink water (HEY! That still counts right?)

Last weekend I biked another 56 even included the three sisters just to make it a good workout. And NO! I did not stop midway. Thank you very much.

Fearing that come race day, I would be a floundering fish, the Mrs. has forced me to swim. So I’ll be hitting the lake and hopefully follow it up with a long run. I also plan to ride the Silverman course again.

Wish me luck!

PS-

Go Stef! She's gonna rock this Pumpkinman!

Oh what a difference a day makes

2008-10-08T22:54:00.000-07:00

Last time I went out for a long ride, it was disastrous.

This week, I did not one but two long rides.

I have decided that I H-A-T-E Northshore road. There are so MANY hills. Hill after Hill after Hill after…well you get the picture.

You know that means? …Non stop Northshore! If you hate it, that means do IT!

Saturday, I went out for a long ride on Northshore solely. I parked on the top of Northshore, which coincidently starts with the humongous hill. SWEET! Nothing like starting the ride off with a fast 30+mph!

Unfortunately, the Northshore start is this “V”. Big down hill followed by BIG uphill. And then it was Hill after Hill after Hill afte…well, you get the idea.

I saw where I decided to quit the race last time. In Hindsight, I get to see how close I was to almost passing the hell known as Northshore (two miles), but I also realized that at the time the run would have been impossible.

I also saw how freaking hard the race was. My “spot” was right after a major hill and another major hill was directly ahead. If ever there was a good time that was it!

One uncool thing about Northshore? The “V”. It was there going out and it was there coming back. Big fast downhill and long slow climb out.

Did I mention the hills? Hills; Hills; hills...well, you get the idea.

Sunday was a Silverman supported ride. Silverman is the local Ironman-like event. Toughest most grueling event in the world (honestly, that’s what the website says). So tough that certain Californian’s are a leetle afraid.

4 and a half hours. 65 miles! I pushed myself hard on those hills. Hills; Hills; Hills…you know.

Pushed myself hard and all I got was 14 miles an hour! But I did feel good the entire time, that is until the end. At the end I was beat up! Tired.

And then the slave driver known as Stef, forced or rather dragged me through the desert kicking and screaming on a run!

Running after 65 miles on the bike? So tough! I swear, I’ve done so many bricks that this should be easy right? Nope! Talk about hard.

Stef (the evil maniacal slave-driver that she is), eased through the run like a deer through the forest. I think I even saw a smile at the end of the run! Evil!

But the overall point is… damn good! I’m not back, but I'm getting there.

5 weeks. Silverman…I’m gunning for you!

And now.. in other news

2008-10-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

OK. Enough with the depressing "woe is me". For now on it’ll be "Whoa! It’s me!"

Or it’ll be useless stuff like this:

I just found out from TRI-DRS, that the American Triple Desoto is coming to the West coast.
For those who don’t know what the Triple Desoto is, it’s a kick in the pants event. 4 triathlons in 3 days. Starting off with a sprint and moving all the way up to a half by the final day. It can be done in a team format with drafting off your team mate allowed.

Really, it sounds like a lot of grueling work. And surprisingly, people actually have a great time at it!

It’s going to sell out quick, so if you’re thinking about going for it, go fast!

Here’s the copy of the notice:

AMERICAN TRIPLE-T CALIFORNIA ANNOUNCED
(Columbus, Ohio). Victory Man Racing, LLC is pleased to announce the expansion of the American Triple-T Triathlon format to a second venue in Lakeport, California for the 2009 season. This race will be the sister event to the current American Triple-T event based in Portsmouth, Ohio that is going into its seventh year. The new triathlon event is sure to become a classic throughout the west coast.

This epic event is scheduled for the weekend of September 18th through 20th, 2009 in beautiful Lakeport, California, which is just two hours by car from the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento Valley and the Pacific Coast. Lake County is known for its spectacular beauty, unsurpassed recreation, and fine wines as it is nestled between three of the most famous wine areas in the United States - Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa counties.

The American Triple-T California is a unique 3-day, 4-event, long distance format triathlon with participants competing on 2 person teams or in the solo division. The American Triple-T California is unlike any other triathlon and offers participants intimate camaraderie not often found in traditional triathlons.

"We're excited to bring this fantastic event to Lakeport, California and to the West Coast, showcasing Clear Lake and the area that makes up this great region," said Doug Grout, CEO of Victory Man Racing.

"The athletes should expect a "red carpet" experience featuring lots of attention by the community in Lakeport that is extremely accommodating; and excited to have these athletes competing in their community says Grout." Athletes will also receive their race shirt, event towel, water bottle and many other goodies provided by key partners and sponsors. The athlete also should look forward to the exclusive "finisher only shirt" that will place them in a select group of athletes throughout the world.

"Get ready for a "World-Class" triathlon event - the American Triple-T California will have it all, added Shannon Kurek, Victory Man Racing President and Executive Race Director. From elite athletes to top age groupers and weekend warriors, the American Triple-T California will truly be special for all participants, spectators and the surrounding communities."

Register today by visiting http://www.americantripletcali.com/, the field will be limited to first 500 registered participants, which means a very quick sellout. The entry fee for the event is $300 per solo person or $600 for the two person team.

Go to http://www.attcali.com/ to get registered.

turn, turn, turn

2008-10-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

I first want to start off by saying thanks to everyone who left nice comments out there for me. I was in the dumps something fierce and while I am still not out of them completely, I am loopy enough on cough medicine to pretend that I see a light at the end of the tunnel and if I just keep going, I’ll get there. Again, thanks everybody. Your support means a lot!

Well…first the bad news then the good.

First off, I am still sick. It’s been two weeks now and everyday I wake up and feel completely great. Then I get out of bed and the sickness hits me.

I can’t wait until I am better. This cold has been so subtle that it doesn’t feel that it’s really there but then the coughs start and I am reminded that I’m still a sicky.

I went out for the race. I felt good for the swim. I was actually able to latch on a guys feet and have him pull me the first 800 yards and we flew past everybody, then the coughing attacks started and I lost him and then I lost the rest of the people. Then I came out of the water, back of the pack. But still it was actually a pretty good time all things considered.

The bike started off good too. I was able to concentrate on getting in the right amount of nutrition, drink a lot of water. Everything was going good. I even passed a pointy helmet in an Ironman kit no less!

However, Come turn around, I was feeling the heat. There were only two aid stations and this one had run out of Gatorade and was serving boiling hot water and GU’s.

I was able to hold it together for a while, but I knew that I was toast. The run seemed forever away and just didn’t have the energy to go on.

The opportunity was there and I took it. At mile 44, I ended my race! My first DNF.

I kept waiting for this overwhelming guilt to come crashing down on me. For something to break and for me to ‘realize’ what I've done. It never happened. I am not saying I am proud that it happened the way it did, but neither am I depressed by it. I think that I gave up too early. In hindsight, I think I should have finished that ride. But I knew there was no way I was going to finish the run so I was OK with ending the ride early.

Later on I heard that the run was a total death march for a lot of people. The temp was 103 and unfortunately, it seems that they ran out of water on some of the aid stations. I understand it was horrible. A lot of people have left a lot of hate mail for this race. Mountain Man Events is quickly earning a bad reputation.

Now the good news:

When I resigned, I was afraid that this meant I was done. Done for the year? Done for the season? Done with the sport? I don’t know. I just had this feeling that I was done.

But, as soon as I got home, I kept thinking of what I could do to get better. It just seems that this distance is a major butt kicker. It’s my second attempt (one race; one self supported) and each time, I am dead.

I REALLY need to work on my bike. I mean REALLY need to work on it. I am thinking of riding the course every weekend. I have got to get my body used to that distance so that it doesn’t even blink come race day.

If I’m going to commit to the distance, I am going to need to shut down some of the other workouts.

It’s about time to start focusing on the run. It seems that lately I loathe the run. I do every thing I can to avoid the run. That must mean that I need to do nothing but!

So for now on, it’s run twice a week (tempo; speedwork; hill repeats, etc) and a long distance run on the weekend.

I am sorta abandoning the swim, but it’ll just have to wait.

My hope is that I can build up enough strength that the 70.3 will be beat able. Maybe it’s the sickness. Maybe I was overtrained. Maybe I needed some rest. Whatever it was, I hope that when this sickness finally wears off, I’ll be ready.

Silverman…I’m gunning for ya!

Excuses are like…

2008-09-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Everybody has 'em and boy do mine stink!

So, where to begin?

How about at the beginning and work from there?

I was born...

OK. Let us take it from last post. Last post I had a miserable day. I went out for mock half iron and sucked on the swim, sucked on the bike and died on the run.

Everyone suggested taking time to taper and reevaluate the nutrition.

Honestly, I think everyone was right. So I took a mock taper.

I say mock because I still ran a level 4 (maybe 5) run but other than that, it was easy. Come the weekend and the Kokopelli Olympic.

This was my third and final Oly of the year and after all the training for the half, it really felt insignificant. I wanted it to be an A race, but I couldn't get my head around that. I was lucky to even consider it a C race.

Needless to say….the race sucked!!

After 5 months of hard training. 5 months of kicking the crap out of me and my body. 5 months of doing Olympic level bricks, rides, and runs, my performance was (almost) exactly the same as before!

DFL!!

Just to recap, the last time I was at this venue, there were hurricane like conditions, so bad that they cancelled the swim (after I was already in), and I felt like I was fighting in the ocean. After I struggled through the swim, it was onto the bike and by then I was exhausted. Finally, it was onto the run, my knees started acting up, and I had to walk most of the 6 miles!

All that easily made for a great excuse! I was OK being DFL.

This time?

Perfect weather! Like P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

There is no excuse. My swim? Actually not too bad. Then the bike, started off bad and downhill from there. I just had no pop no energy. Flash backs of my last post. I felt defeated and I was only 2 miles into this.

What has happened to me?

Finally, I was onto the run. And the flashbacks hit full force. I couldn’t run. Nothing! When I was running, it was an easy smooth 10 min pace. I felt like I could hold this forever no problem. 5 seconds later I would be walking. No clue what happened. Body said, “OK, walk now” and that was it.

End result? Almost the exact same time as last year! Both the bike and the run were within minutes of last years times. My only redeeming quality was my swim. This time there was no hurricane. There was no knee pain, this time should have been perfect.

What has happened to me?

All the training is for not!

All this effort and I am just as pathetic as when I started. I am utterly defeated. I want to give it up. Give the rest of the season up. Give up all the Half’s I have planned. Give up on CDA. Give it all up.

Maybe take up knitting. Something competitive that I can win at. Maybe eating? Or power napping?

Whatever, but not Tri. I am D-O-N-E!

What has happened to me?

Excuse #1
The few days prior my body was fighting a cold and it seemed that on race day my body gave up the fight and the cold hit full force.

Excuse #2
Somehow, my nutrition is still out of whack.

Excuse #3
I still need to rest. I didn’t really taper and my body is still feeling it.

Excuse #4
I can’t shake the failure of last time. It’s in my mind and I can’t get away from it.

Yeah, yeah yeah! Whatever!

The truth is…I don’t know. Perhaps I just suck. Maybe it’s time to recognize it. Either accept it and move on or accept it and move forward. Maybe.

Which brings me to now. Now is the Las Vegas Half-ironman.

This is on the same course as the mock ironman. Same swim, same bike, same run. I didn’t make it through last time.

I am nervous.

I’ve been forced to taper this whole week as I’ve been so sick that I’ve been coughing up lungs everywhere. I’ve been popping vitamin C and B like its going out of style and I am STILL sick. Still sick!

I am nervous.

I haven’t run or bike or done anything in a week. Nothing. I haven’t run anything over 6 miles or bike over 24 in two weeks. And the last time I did, it was a flop.

I am NERVOUS.

So here I be.

I’m full of nervousness and full of excuses.

I can easily not race tomorrow. I REALLY am sick. I really have no energy. I really don’t feel like I should be racing.

But I REALLY think that it’s because I’m scared. I'm scared of last time. I’m scared for this time. I’m scared for CDA time.

I’m scared that I suck and that its time to move on.

Full of nerves and full of excuses.

Sick day

2008-09-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

Friday I called in sick to work.

I should have called in Stupid!

This weekend we are going to California for a quick mini vacation. As much as I'd like to pretend that I'll run on the beach and swim in the ocean. I know the truth. I'll be swimming in Corona and running to the bathroom.

That meant I needed to get all my training in during the week. Friday was the big one. I was gonna put my swim and my 50 mile bike together and combine it with my 10 mile brick. Heck add a few and I've got a full half (full half?? Half full?).

It started off good and went downhill from there.

What have I done! I have a race in two weeks and I am so not ready!

I had a great swim. Felt strong fast fluid. Everything good. Except the time. 1:00 exactly! Crap! That's 20 minutes slow.

so much for that, how about the bike?

Last week I rode 50 hard miles in about 3:30. The next day I rode 52 harder miles on very tired legs in about 3:39.

Today on the very same course that I had just rode, this time with much fresher legs...4:40.

That's an hour slower! My average speed fell from 15 to 11. It was miserable. I had no energy. My feet were on fire, I was hot; tired. My back hurt from carrying the camelbak. It was a slogfest.

Miserable.

On to the run!

First mile - great! Good pace; good cadence.

After the first mile, I was working on a 7/1 ratio. First 7 minutes of running, no problem. The second round of 7 minutes was up hill. I stopped running after the first 3 minutes. That's about the time I realized I was in trouble. Less than 3 miles in and the best I could do was 1 minute of running. It wasn't long before I was in negative territory. I was now walking more than I ran.

Run/walk; walk/run; walk/walk.

By mile 5 it was pathetic. 20 seconds of running, several minutes of walking.

By mile 6 it was pure walking. Powerwalking that devolved into trudging.

By mile 7, I was afraid.

I wanted to lay down right there on the trail. My mind was planning. I had told people where I was at. I could just lie down and rest a while. Surely somebody would walk the trail sooner or later. And if not, it wouldn't take my family long to realize that I was missing. I figured come nightfall they'd find me.

By mile 8, I could see the road. By mile 8.5, I reached the road and had reception. I called the family and let them know where I was. I fell asleep.

All totaled, I was out there for 10 hours (I took some looong transitions)

What have I done!

In two weeks, I have to do this distance and be fast. There's no sleeping, there's no resting on the side of the road. There's no crying and wailing taking time to eat and drink.

In just two weeks I have to RACE!

Hell! In less than a year, I have to do double this and finish in less than 17 hours.

What have I done!

Jock math

2008-09-14T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was Michael Phelps, if only for a little while.
The training plan called for 3 x 800 non stop (well duh!, it is an 800 after all).

I really though that this was easy. I mean just the other day it had me swim 1.5 miles. So an 800 no problem. So I just jumped in and off I went.

Now lets see.

Each pool length is 25 so down and back is 50.
50 goes into 100 2 times.
There is 8 100 in 800

I swim 8 laps.

I did math 3 times. Just to make sure. I confirmed the math at least once during each 800 swim.

It helps that my brain is oxygen deprived.

I swam each 800 in 10. Actually 9:XX.

Had I actually took the time to analysis the time I might had figured something was up.

I mean...10 minutes for 800? That's like a 45 sec per each 50 for 800. That's fast, at least for me.

This week I had the same workout planned. OK, sure. No problem. 10 minutes per I'll be done easy.

Until the Mrs. Mentions 16 laps. (apparently she's much smarter than me. She did this without counting!).

16 laps?

Crap! Yep, just to confirmed I checked my time at 8 laps (400).

Guess what my time was? 10 minutes!

Rest assured, my actually 800 was much higher.

20 minutes each.

I was Phelps for a day!

Speaking of Jock Math,

I was thinking about my recent race.

I had a good time and it was a good test race, but it wasn't great. Yet everybody kept saying how good I did.

"My race splits were good."

OH! Wait a minute, you guys don't know the course.

See its the Lake Las Vegas course. We had to do loops around the course.

Sprint had to do 3, Olympic had to do 5 laps. 3 vs. 5. The Sprint was 10-11. That's about right, but the Olympic? 5 laps only equaled about 17 miles.

Way short for an Olympic!

You guys saw my time of 1:08 and thought "wow! That Formulaic guy is fast. He biked 25 miles in one hour". Good try!

Now I'm still happy with my average speed, after all 17 mph is tough to maintain in Las Vegas, but its a far cry from 25.

And since we are on the subject on the impossible. I don't get my swim.

Stef pointed out that there was a 2 at the start of it (28:36) not a 3 or a 4. That's great! Except it doesn't make sense to me. I usually swim in the 3X-4X range. Always!

But this time it was MUCH lower. According to the Garmin, the distance was right (.93) and I swear I didn't cheat.

So what gives? Either I rose to occasion or... Well I don't know. The race time is the official time, so its not my Garmin. The distance seemed right and the Garmin confirmed it.

So... Whatever it is, I know that I won't be relying on me to add it up.

M-athlete? Not I!

The one that got away

2008-09-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

For weeks now, I've been treating my body like a machine.

I expect it to keep going and going and never give in.

And that's OK. Because it is a machine. It can keep going. As long as I treat it right. Give it the fuel it needs.

My body is my temple, right? Well my temple feels like a landfill.

I watch(read) Baboo, who truly is a machine. Event after event. Tough! Or Lucho, talk about a machine. Watching him run is more like a work of art than a workout.

But both of these people and hundreds of people out there (including my competition) fuel themselves right.

This isn't a Sprint. This isn't an Oly. I'm working on the Half and focusing on the full.

I can't keep shoving crap into me and not expect me to be...crap.

Garbage in garbage out.

Sick Puppy

2008-09-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Like a spider, the lone cyclist rides alone lurking for the unsuspecting group riders to fly by. He flings out his web and latches on. He’s being pulled by the group. He is one with the group. He eats the group!

That’s the analogy.

Like a sad puppy that is put in the tub for his bath. He tries to escape, he jumps, leaps and scrabbles for the edge, hoping that his nails will catch and he’ll find his escape. You watch him; you know that he can’t escape. He flails against the side, nails scraping on the tub. Hopelessly he slides back down. Again and again, until finally he gives up and huddles shivering and shaking in his own pee and bath water.

That’s the reality.

And that’s how my group ride went.

Group after group flew by and my legs looked at me and defiantly turned the other way.

No way they were gonna join in anyone else’s fun. That day it was all about them and them alone. ALONE, I say!

It was their private revenge for two days of hard riding.

Two long rides in two days.

It took me two days to do it but 100 miles done!

Day 1 - 3 hours 48 minutes for 50.5 miles. That’s a lot of long grueling hills. I went from my house to Lake Mead and then back up through the Pumpkinman course. Here’s a profile of the Pumpkinman ride. Yes, that’s a climb of 1400+ feet

Day 2 – The group ride with the Silverman crew. That is where I learned how much group rides can suck when you ride alone!

03 hours 39 minutes for 52.54. Nothing can be as bad the Pumpkinman route right?? WRONG!

The Silverman route is tough! And that didn’t even include the sisters!

But hey! At least it's done!

Whew! In one week I got almost ¾ of all my bike mileage of last month in!

And this week looks to be about the same! I am so going to be ready for taper!

Week 36
2 Run – 3.8 mi – 00:40:01
4 Bike – 119.4 – 08:35:26
2 Swim – 5696 yd – 2:09:22

Aug Monthly Total:
10 Swim – 16985 yd – 08:25:20 (10.62 miles)
10 Bike – 200.2 – 15:16:22
12 Run - 52.3 – 10:21:29

Total:
32 Workouts
34:03:12 Hours
262.1 miles
20964 Calories Burned

Slow boat to China

2008-09-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

While watching the Olympics, I saw the open water swim event. It was billed as a 'marathon' swim, but in reality it was only a 10k.

ONLY!

The women finished just over 2 hours and the men finished just under 2 hours.

And I finished just in 2:09 minutes!

What??

Oh...

I did 2.4 in 2:09

They did 10k in 2:00

10k! That's 6.2 miles! That's 2.58 (3333) more times more than me.

That means that they did 2.4 miles in...

Um....Divide. Then take the quotient and then....

OK. Great!

Not only am I slow but I AM s.l.o.w.

I have the video and I'll be studying their form.

But don't worry; I doubt I'll be in London 2012

Signed-

On the slow boat in the short bus

The wheels on the bus - Lake Las Vegas Race Report

2008-09-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round:

5 loops! F-I-V-E! That’s a lot of loops. Especially when those loops are surrounded by hills. On both sides. The struggle of getting up one hill is rewarded with the thrill of flying down the other side. Hoping that your momentum will carry you up the next hill. Feeling yourself slow and feeling that deep burn as you have to pedal the rest of the way up. Up and down and up and down and up and down.

The wipers on the bus go "swish, swish, swish"; "swish, swish, swish"; "swish, swish, swish":

This was my first open water swim sans wetsuit (OWS WO WTST), but that wasn’t what worried me. I was afraid that I’d be DFL out there, again! After my pathetic swim, I realized how slow I am. So my goal here was to find a good pace and stick with it. OH! I finally found another person who had a Garmin in their swim cap! I’ve been doing this FOREVER, but up until now, I’ve never met anyone else who did it.

When the swim started, I was near the middle and got my first body contact. Yes, it’s been 5+ races and I’ve never been touched. Not so bad! One guy did try to dunk me but he disappeared after one attempt.

The rest of the swim was uneventful. It took a while to get into a groove, but once I did it was OK. Not true bilateral breathing but 5 breaths on the left and 15 breaths on the right. Close enough. I did find that I settled into an easy pace. My “I could go on like this forever” pace. Surprisingly, I actually passed somebody at this pace, but I need to work harder on these shorter swims. I’m not swimming “forever”, I’m just swimming for this race, and I need to pick up the pace.

The horn on the bus goes "Beep, beep, beep"; "Beep, beep, beep"; "Beep, beep, beep":

The great thing about the course is that there are so many loops and so many people. I have never heard “On you left”, so much in a race. From me to others; others to me; others to others; heck, a few times I said it to myself.

It is a thing of beauty to see the pro’s or at least the elites ride up those hills. They are smooth, they are fluid; they make me look like I’m standing still.

Whirl, whirl, whirl. Is it a car? Nope it’s the guy with the disk wheel climbing up the hill.

AWESOME!

The lady on the bus goes “Get off my feet”; “Get off my feet”; “Get off my feet”:

Consistency. That’s what it comes down to. If you’re going to do something, stay consistent the whole way through. The Lake Las Vegas Tri HAS consistency.

Hills on the bike and hills on the run.

So many hills! Long steep hills on dirt and gravel. I could not find a rhythm. I took it easy up the hills and pushed just a leetled coming down. But because I didn’t know the course, I didn’t know when to push and how hard to push.

When I finally did, it was too little too late.

The baby on the bus says “Wah, wah, wah”; “Wah, wah, wah”; “Wah, wah, wah”:

This is the part where I whine and mope. It was a good swim, but it wasn’t good enough. I still need to work on my technique. The Garmin guy used his Garmin as a pace setter. It warned him when he was going too slow. That is something I’ll need look into.

The bike was good but not good enough. As much as I enjoyed watching the elites zoom by me, I would have loved to pass more people.

The run was good but not enough. The hills really cut into my time on the run, but more than anything it was my mind that hurt me the most. I was afraid that my body would crash, so I held back for too long.

The mommy on the bus says “Shush, shush, shush”; “Shush, shush, shush”; “Shush, shush, shush”:

And this is the part where I tell myself too shut and train.

I finished the race. That is itself is a BIG victory!
I did a great job on the swim. I passed people! P-A-S-S-E-D! That is cool. Not only that, I decided to near the middle of the action. I found that it’s not really all that bad. After the first 200 yards everyone, who is going to pass you is already gone, but at least you didn’t what and you’re well into the swim.
As much as I wanted to pass EVERYONE, I did pass some people. I did a god job climbing the hills; I was fast going down the hills. I went through the curves fast and fluid. Plus as an added bonus, I was able to pass a pointed head guy! NICE!
It’s time to start pushing the run. I occasionally run with Frank’s group and while I still suck, I run faster with them then I do elsewhere. It’s time to step up to the plate and start running that pace all the time. My body can do it; it’s now time for the mind to admit it. My last mile 9:00 m/m. That’s after 5 miles of hills and dirt.

All the people on the bus say “We had a nice ride”; “We had a nice ride”; “We had a nice ride”:

All in all it was a good race. I beat my old time (although that wasn’t hard to do). I rode hard and ran semi-hard and still no knee pain. That’s big!

This race was really a bell weather for me to determine how ready am for Kokopelli. Now I know my strengths, I know what I need to work on.

Come on Kokopelli! I’m ready for you!

Results:
Swim – 29:23
T-1 – 1:23
Bike – 1:07:26
T-2 – 1:28
Run – 1:05:17

Total – 2:44:55

Recovery? What recovery.

2008-08-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

How sad. I had a whole week off and no update.

Truthfully though, I didn’t follow doctors orders and take the week completely off. I threw in there a few extra workouts and some long ones to boot.

I have pretty much given up on the catch up game (being as I am so far behind I’d have to run an ultra and bike a century or two just to make it all up), But I’m still feeling guilty for missing the workouts, so I am making the ones I do even longer or better.

My boo-boo while not serious, seemed to have a debilitating effect. I couldn’t run. At first it was the vibration of the impact hurt too much on bruised skin and once the bruises went away, it was the ankle wound that hurt too much from the shoe rubbing it.

I think that I’m pretty much over it all now, but it turned my ‘Monster’ week into a ‘Ghost’ week. Followed that by a week of recovery and I feel like I haven’t had a decent workout in ages!

Upcoming is the final build for the plan. It marks the “competitive” phase. I think it will call more on the mental endurance than the physical. Technically, I pretty much have it in me to do the distance now. I’ve done the workouts (most of them) and have conquered the distances so far.

I still can’t imagine running for 13 miles after being on the bike for 56, but technically I ‘should’ be able to do it.

Blue ribbon winner…I am not! YET!

A disturbance in the force

2008-08-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

Did you feel that? Did you feel the force? It felt like there is some new presence amongst us.

It feels like…no, it couldn’t be. I think there is a new blogger in our sphere!

HOLY COW! Run and tell the neighbors, the Mrs. is in the house!

Maybe it was my constant badgering. Or maybe it was the fact that she was already virtually blogging. Or maybe she just wanted a voice to defend herself in this blogosphere.

Either way, head over to her site and see why she is my BETTER half.

(Dang, that’s a cool url)

Hm…apparently she has brains as well as a knockout body. DAMN! The complete package!

P.S.

Ask her what she is doing on the 30th!

Fall down - go boom

2008-08-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

I am now one step closer to becoming a real cyclist!

Yes, I took my first real spill.

I was coming home and hit the corner too fast. I had crap in my hands and couldn't feather the brakes. By the time I was able to get my hands on the brakes, I hit them HARD! Locked up my rear tire; my bike went out from under me and I did my best first-base slide.

It's no biggie, but it did a number on my bike (the poor baby!).

Again, it's no biggie and I'm sure I'll be back to good before I know it, but I have a n.i.c.e. road rash and a sweet strawberry on hip and on my ankle too (I ruined a pair of socks [boo]).

On a side note: Remeber when as a kid you put Peroxide on? No pain right? HOLY CRAP!!! The pain radiated down through the nerves into the bone and seared my soul!! OUCH!! (and I used to luv peroxide).

All told I got off easy for my first baby crash. Unlike Kayvee who took a major crash and still went on to do her 70.3! Tough!

Funny thing, now that's bandaged up and the next day, it hurts more now then when it happened!

Run Formulaic! Run!

2008-08-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Now you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I could run like the wind blows. From that day on, if I was ever going somewhere, I was running! – Forrest Gump

Yes, indeed! I said I needed to run more and guess what??

Wow! Good guess! Yep, I’m running more.

In fact, in this last week, I ran more than half of my total distance from all of last month!

Whew!

Somehow, the dates conspire against me and half of my mileage was also in the last month, but for the week as a whole, I got in 27+ miles. And the good news (or the bad) is that I get to do the entire thing again this week! Yippee!

To keep on the run note, not only did I run Egads worth of mileage (for me). I also got in my longest distance ever.

It was hard, it was a struggle, it seemed like the distance would never end. I prevailed against insurmountable odds and overcame all. Yeah me!

What? The distance? Oh...um…

14 miles.

Yes, I realize that this is only 0.8 above half marathon mileage but still….give a boy some credit would ya??!!

Yes, it’s sad to say but I don’t think I’ve ever run 14 miles before. 13.1 sure, maybe even 13.3 or13.5 if the course was long, but never 14 miles.

So I have officially run farther then I ever have!

But wait! There’s more ground breaking news!

It involves my swim…no, no sharks…no, no banana hammocks (Thank GOD)…yes a new distance PR too!

I finally broke down and swam the Iron distance.

2.4 miles

Yippee for me again!

What? The time? Damn! Why do you ask so many questions??

OK, OK. Fine!

2.4 miles = 2:09 hours.

Yeah, yeah. Not rock star status. BUT, I did make the time cutoff (barely).

Now…actually getting on the bike and riding…yeah, I don’t think so. Don’t even get me started with the 112.

But I still have 10 months to get faster. (And I plan on using every minute, thank you very much!)