Fueled By Beer

I survived the New Year...Barely.

2012-01-02T14:17:00.001-05:00

Since Thanksgiving I gave into the temptation of xmas ales, chicken wings, late nights and poor recovery. My body wasn't punishing me like it should have been. I'm running well, biking often and swimming 12-15k a week. Now it's January and my foot hurts and I can barely rotate this right shoulder. Paybacks I suppose. Two weeks ago I said I wanted to enjhoy the rest of the year and draw in focus after the New Year. Hear we and here I go. I was considering a race schedule change. Instead of The Columbia marathon I may add TryCharleston Half in April. That is still up in the air. Back before Thanksgiving I did a 10 day detox and it worked great. I felt good and really think it made a difference in recovery and healing. The holidays got me off track a bit and now I want to go through the whole program. 28 days. Now if I were to pay for all the supplements it's like $250. That's a race fee to me so I'm not going that route. I am planning the stick to the program but, cut back on the amount of supplement. The first week allows for some meat. I'm just cutting it out all together. I actually feel better when I take in only small quantities of animal protein. The program also calls for "light walking for 30 minutes up to 3 days a week" Right. So I'll have to increase my calories or life will be tough. Day 1-7 it's basically no meat, no gluten, no artificial anything, no dairy, no corn, no oranges, no refined sugars (alcohol), no caffeine. Day 7-13 is really tough and that's where I'll need to food supplement. I'll post about that in a week.

So here's to a new year. Lean and fast.

December Training and 2012 Race sched

2011-12-23T08:53:00.000-05:00

Since the detox I've actually sped up quite a bit. I've signed up for several races and now that I look at my calendar I see that I may have done it again. I will have a huge opening season...

Feb 26- Augusta Half Marathon
March 04- Early bird sprint
March 10- Columbia Marathon
March 17- Columbia (or something) sprint
April 21- Columbia Half iron............maybe.........This one is pending
April 28- Langley pond Int.
May 18-20- Triple T
June 2- Potomac river swim
June 24- Morgantown Half

I suspect I will be in great shape come June. I'm hitting it hard right now. About 10-13 hrs a week. Now, I know there are some people out there putting in like 15-20 in the middle of winter but, my season starts in 8 weeks and goes until November. On that, I just don't get the retarded workouts with no real advantages. I guess if it takes that much to be somewhat decent then go for it. I also vowed to not get sucked into "paying for speed" thing. I don't care how light, how aero, how coached, how much you pay....Bottom line, it's the effort, it's the flat out hard work that I will use to stomp your ass. The big difference this season is that I am taking that every 5th week is a rest week. I am a hypocrite I guess. I'm 10 days straight into my 6th week and I just bought a sufferfest video....ha. Not quite the same as buying powertaps and putting in century rides right now.

I let the detox diet/ nutrition slide a bit. I started to really miss candy, wings and beer. So much so that I wasn't happy. I'm enjoying the holidays in a responsible way but, come Jan 1 I am running through another detox cycle. I'm thinking of running it out 21 days with a "special" day in there for Natalies Birthday. I really want to run Augusta Half well. I think my 13.1 PR is 1:29:30. That's unacceptable. I need to finish my 70.3 in 1:26. I've been focusing there a bit. The legs are strong and I'm getting faster. Turns out that I can easily pace 6:20 off the bike (60 min tempo) for about 3 miles. It's odd, my perceived effort is low, and my HR is in the 140's for 3 miles then BAM! HR spikes to 185 and I'm cashed. It's likely a fuel/endurance thing but, I'm 10 miles short so that needs worked out. I also hit a hill at 3 miles and that doesn't help. My longer runs sit around 705s but, I'm mostly concentrating on form and I'll admit that after 10-12 miles I start to feel it.

That sums up what's going on right now. I'm headed off for a quick spin. It's another 70 degree day and I like sitting on the trainer for now. I've never biked this much in the off season but, I'm shooting for a 2:16ish bike at Augusta 70.3 so I need to have these legs road ready in a month for when the temps warm up here.

Day 9 of 10

2011-11-14T18:18:00.001-05:00

So that's pretty much it. Day 7 and 8 were uneventful. Basically I just ate baked apples with cinnamon and saurkraut soup. By the end of the day Saturday my stomach was a mess! I made it through though. I got my interval bike in and my long run. I even felt good enough to get a 2 mi open water in Sunday afternoon. Natalie has decided she wants to detox now. I sent her over to the chiropractors office and pick up a kit for herself. While there she asked about some of the side effects that I had early on. The back ache and leg cramps mostly. I guess I went through it too fast. That's ok because I'm done...sort of. I decided to continue with Natalie. I am going to go through the program with her except I won't take the supplements. That being said I will obviously need something. I will make an adjustment and keep some extra fruit and veggies throughout. I may also keep beans as well. Even with some tough days I still enjoyed the experience. I've learned a lot about what I eat and how it effects me. For example, I did eat a scoop of homemade cookie dough. Now it's not really bad chemically but, it has sugar and butter in it. My stomach is bloated and I'm nauseous. I think it's the butter. I also watched a movie called Forks Over Knives. It's basically about meat killing us. NOW DON'T EXPECT ME TO SAY I'M GOING VEGGIETARD*. I'm not. There is a balance and I have to find it. According to the documentary it's 5-10% animal protein. So with a little math 1gr protein is 4 calories. 5% of a 2500 calorie intake is 125 calories of protein or 31 gr. I would like to think that is expanded to total calories because we aren't counting cholesterol or fats. So basically I'll try to shoot for <250 ca a day from an animal source. Why so drastic? Because I feel good. I'm running well, I'm healing well, I'm sleeping well, I'm crushing the bike and swim. The best part is that I'm losing weight but, not strength. HAHAHA it's only been a week. I could be so wrong. What's the worst that can happen? I eat a lot of veggies and fruit for a month. It's not like I'm suffering.

Today's tally: 167lbs. lost 5 in a week.

Back to basics. no meat, no dairy, no artificials, no alcohol. Everything else is game.

*Def.- VEGGIETARD (n) one who does not eat meat and lets everyone know. Bacon Deficiency Syndrome (BDS) falsely allows a feeling of superiority. Symptoms also include anger for taking responsibility and desire to have what is not earned. syn. Mac owner. Occupier. unemployed

Best definition ever! Makes me laugh.

Day 6- Got the hang of it

2011-11-11T20:18:00.001-05:00

Day 6 went well. I slept well, I ate well...as I could. I got the hang of the apple/broccoli diet. I've been cutting up apples and pouring apple sauce on them then sprinkling cinnamon on it. After 2 minutes in the microwave it's as good as pie filling and about 180 ca. So far today I took in about 1200 calories. I was able to get 30 minute spin warmup followed by a 5 mi run in a new pair of Brooks PureFlow. I was amazed that I was running so fast. I was easily running 6:30 though 3 miles. Not expected with the reduced intake. I followed it up with a 3700 yd TT swim workout where I dropped quite a bit of time on my 500, 300, and 100. So all in all it's going well.

Day 6-168 lbs

Diet remains the same for Saturday. Oh let me add that I went to lunch with Natalie and she order a big ass plate of bbq and I ordered a plate of raw greens with vinegar...Not nice.

Day WTF (5)

2011-11-10T20:07:00.001-05:00

Day five on the detox. It was going well after a good nights sleep. I started the day with an apple and the detox shake. I proceeded to eat an entire head of broccoli before noon. After 2 more shakes and 3 apples I was was having a lot of trouble not being hungry for flavor. I wasn't able to get my run in due to work priorities and once I got in the pool I was extremely tired. Then some fat moron hopped in and took up the entire lane and had no respect for real swimmers. So I got out after 2000 yds. When I arrived home I needed to have something different so I cheated a little. I skimmed the vegetable broth off the cabbage soup and mixed cauliflower, water, and sauerkraut into it. It was very good considering. I'm not sure how the next 2 days will go. I am having horrible cravings for candy, pizza, bacon, wings, bbq, cheese, steak, olives, butter, ice cream, Popsicles, icees, elephant ears, corn on the cob, fried pickles, french fries, Five Guys, ranch, dum dums, skittles, nerds, reeses, pepsi...This is only a few things I will dream about tonight.

Today: 170.5 very hydrated. Food allowance for day 6-7 is apples, raw greens, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and pears. Blah

Day 4

2011-11-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Day 4 was much easier than I anticipated. I slept almost all night. I was only up for around 10 minutes. I got up at 4:25 for work. I had to make lunch so I started chopping up a mango which I ate half of. So good. These things are only $1 down here. I made another smoothie. Today required 2 scoops of the the detox powder. It is so awful. During the day I ate 3 apples, 2 bananas, 2 cups almond milk, veggie chili, 140 oz water, and cabbage soup. I am stuffing myself with the cabbage soup because it's really low cal and I want to run and swim tomorrow. Plus the next 3 days are the tough ones. I am no longer eliminating anything but, the list I have is only the foods I can eat. Oh....I forgot. I also ate about 40 hot chili's. This did come back to haunt me...I weighed in tonight and I'm not all that pleased and I look in the mirror and hate what I see. I may actually extend the detox diet 4 days. We'll see. I still have a light headache and my legs ache pretty bad but, I think I'm just used to it now.

Here's the menu for days 5-7:
broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, brussel sprouts, lettuce, apples, pears, and apple juice w/ no sugar added. BUT I get to eat as much as I want. That's sarcasm.

My one big problem is I want to long run on Friday. I will let tomorrow be the judge. I got a kick ass pair of shoes so I can't wait to try them. My achilles is hurting pretty bad but, it's time to move forward so it needs to stop. I'm done dealing with it.

Tomorrow should be interesting...

Day 3-detox

2011-11-08T20:30:00.000-05:00

Day 3 actually began at 1:52am when I woke up to terrible lower back and leg pain. It was awful. However, when I got out of bed for work I was alert and wide awake. That lasted all day. As soon as I got to work I did a quick yahoo search on detox side effects and sure enough it seemed to fit. Something about toxins entering the blood stream and thickening blood and whatever. It hurts. I started today with a smoothie (blackberries, banana, almond milk, and 1 scoop detox powder) Throughout the day I had 3 apples, 2 bananas, a salad with red wine vinegar and 3 bowls of vegetarian chili. Yes 3 bowls because after a lunch run and a swim I needed it. The run was very painful. My legs ached with every step and I realized very quickly to drop the watch and enjoy the leaves. Day 4 brings some challenges.

Here's what has been eliminated:
1- meat, sugars, alcohol, artificial everything
2- also removed dairy and egg
3- eliminated wheat, rye, barley, corn

Day 4- eliminate remaining grains, nuts and seeds. Wait to see what 5-7 is.

I'm still at 171lbs but, I am way hydrated with over 200oz of water today to combat the leg pain.

End of Day 2-Detoxorama

2011-11-07T18:59:00.000-05:00

So far so good I guess. On day 2 I had to eliminate dairy along with Day 1's stuff. The worst part so far is the caffeine withdrawal. Last night I was in a cold sweat, my eyes were red and watering, and I had a headache that rivaled some of my worst hangovers. I had to drink a cup of tea before bed because I wasn't going to be able to sleep. Today I had an almond milk/banana smoothie, 3 apples, 2 bananas, a small salad with vinegar and a rather large dinner of curried veggies and rice (4 servings). Tomorrow I lose bread and rice so I was kind of stocking up knowing that I want to run and swim Tuesday. I skipped my workouts today because of the headache. I'm taking the supplement they provided and I have to say that the shake actually tastes pretty shitty. Bacon won't even help it taste better. Hopefully I can shake this drowsiness but, it helps me realize how much crap I was taking in. Without the caffeine I have a feeling that I may get some rest. Fingers CX'd!

So what's the tally?

Day 1: 171.4 lbs
No Meat
No Sugar
No Artificial sugar or colors or anything...
No Alcohol

Now:
All of the above and
No Dairy

Day 1...

2011-11-06T11:52:00.000-05:00

Here's where I am at now. After a tough season and some health issues I've come a long way in the last 6 weeks. After Ironman I started right down the same path. I took the "What went wrong" and turned it into "Just work harder". That had me sidelined pretty quick with some nasty Achilles and planter fascia issues. So instead of running I just drank beer ate wings and wallowed on the past. I came home from work one day and checked to see when swim team started for the kids. Sure enough it was the following week. I figured I'd just get them involved and do whatever. That's where it all starts. The same week I went to a Sports physiologist about my foot. He is certified in ASTYM and the work was so agonizing that the only thing I could do was swim it out. Well my kids swim from 530-645 3x a week and I figured I could hop in an open lane. I gave it a few tries and it turns out that I can get 3 swims in pretty easy. After 2 weeks I was running a little and swimming alot. After a month I'm down 11 lbs and feeling better. Now this is where I got stung by 2 fireants sitting by a bonfire. It took 2 weeks to get the fluid out and the sting areas still aren't healed. That gets us up to speed...

It was recommended that I do a detox and try to flush all this crap out of my body that could theoryetically be causing a ton of my issues. Today is Day 1. It's a 10 day detox and I plan to do a daily update here. The first day is just a restrictive diet as follows:

NO Refined sugars, Alcohol, HFCS, added sugars.
NO Caffeine
NO Artificial colorings or flavoring or sweeteners
NO Flesh foods...meat.

We will see how this goes considering I already have a bad caffeine withdrawal headache. The program also restricts activity. 30 min exercise 3x a week... That's not going to happen.

Lastly, the good news. Signed up for the Potomac River Swim again. I am training for that and other open waters next summer. No Ironmans. Just random half irons. Natalie is now massaging full time and is working towards being the onsite therapist for all the local tri's. She also now works for the Chiropractic office that does my ASTYM. Since the kids are swimming and there is also a new kids tri team starting up my life is surrounded by this. The intensity and the focus I had in 2008 is back with more force. I let to many things get to me before. It's about focusing on what makes you happy and everything else just seems to fall into place.

The Aftermath-A wordy description on how bad I sucked.

2011-09-14T20:26:00.000-04:00

I waited awhile to post this. It's been done for a few weeks and I am still heavy with emotion from this years waste. To make it worse nothing is going right for us. Every week something big happens that costs a lot money and time. I'm tired and I'm fucking frustrated. Here's my end of season thoughts on Placid:

The race is over and I am very happy for that. This time around was much different than my first Ironman. I am not excited that I finished. I don't any special feelings towards the race. It's just sort of Blah. I don't know why I feel this way. I tried to get fired up and it never manifested. I do feel like I let a lot of people down and that really bothers me. I thought about my season up to now and I know what went wrong. I am going to be brutally honest and lay it all out here.

1. Too much on my plate! (or too small of a plate)
There is only so much one person can do. I tested that. There is also no shortage of people reminding me that I did this to myself. I like to be challenged and I thrive under adversity however, there is a breaking point. I made a big boy decision to pursue another aspect of myself. I enjoy being an Industrial Hygienist and I left Ohio for an unbelievable opportunity to better myself and my family. I have never been good in school and was always considered the dumb kid. I'm not that dumb I just don't care to be competitive on what I know. I'm better off being physically challenged. My point is this. I signed up for TTT, Morgantown, and IMLP last year. I moved to GA in Feb. We purchased a house in April. I began a big renovation on the house, got a barn ready, finished fencing a small pasture, built a new chicken coop, moved, unpacked, etc. On top off the moving I have this new job, 2 weddings (one in vegas), all while trying to maintain a consistent training schedule. The plate was too full. I had no time to recover from anything. What would happen is that I would just crash and have to take an unplanned rest day. A lot of the house work got to me, try crawling around on your knees for 8 hrs plus the added up an down to make trim cuts. When that's done go nail a key ride or run. It doesn't happen.

2. Opinions and Expectations
I had a good day at IMKY. I know I had a lot of room for improvement and I tried to start attacking that. Problem is that everyone around me started developing these expectations and opinions of everything I did. I could never win. I could never breath. Why aren't you at the pool, why aren't you out running, why did you drink last night, why aren't you training more. Well...Pools closed, it's raining, I'm stressed, I'm tired. I had some wonderful people reach out and take care of me this year and I am truly grateful and I feel horrible I couldn't pull it off.

3. Swimming
This is huge. I listened to some others people opinions. Swim less run more. I barely swam this year. No kidding, less than 25% of what I have done in the past. Here is my theory on that. I understand that swimming takes more time to get fast. I'm already fast but, swimming is so much more to me. It's 7 hrs a week that I have at 5am to recover. When I run or bike my mind wanders. When I swim I am always focused. Focused in everything. I physically recover in the pool while gaining cardio as well. It's my cornerstone and without my entire foundation crumbles. Next IM season I will base my week off of masters swimming.

4. Too much other crap
I let a lot of things cloud what I love about triathlon. If you let the tri culture and athlete into your head then everything becomes too mechanical. Measure this, weigh that. Who cares if your wheels are 14g lighter than mine. If you aren't out there busting your ass it doesn't matter. If you don't walk away from every workout thinking " Damn, I put it out there today". I'm proud I haven't been injured in 20 months. I shouldn't be. No overuse injuries because I never overused anything. I tried to let all this science dictate what I should be doing. People said "Don't swim, Run. You can't win in the water" BS I say. I may not have won but I sure stomped everyone. I doubt I will be buying into very much after this. I'm tired of the whole "buying performance". I was guilty. I served my time. I always did well with the minimum. I don't need a powertap, a computrainer, compression anything, oakleys, ten pairs of shoes...etc etc.

5. Arrogance and Focus
I had a great 2009. It came pretty easy too. I though I could continue with that. I was wrong. 2010 wasn't so great and this year sucked. I felt so guilty all year because I moved my family here and now I was never around. I'm sure they didn't really miss me but when anything went wrong I was sure reminded over and over. I lost all of my focus, there was so much shit going on in my life I couldn't handle it all. I tried and failed. Next time I will only take on what I can handle...actually I will only focus on the training.

Where we headed:
I have big plans for the next two years. My goals are simple. Train hard. Race harder. Leave nothing. A week after Placid I rode in a benefit for the local ballet. I rode hard with the front group and actually split the Augusta 70.3 course in a PR 56 mile time. Somewhere along the ride I was stung by something on the knee. I felt like I was choking and had a little heartburn. By the time we were done I was covered in hives and my face was swelling. I took 2 benedryl and 4 beers and felt better. I didn't think about it again until a few weeks later. I had been on a 3 day drinking binge and at 1am on a saturday I was stung by several fire ants on the foot. Within 90 minutes I was in the ER having an anaphylactic reaction. I was unconscious at this time. Turns out I now have an allergy. Unfortunately it's one that can kill me and almost did. I was pretty sure I was done when I was just too tired to breathe...This is the point where Natalie epipenned me. I think I saw her smile as she did so. I realized something in the following week. WTF am I doing? How could I let all this happen? I am taking until January 1st to figure some things out and just run. At that time I am starting back into a regular swim schedule and long ass events. No way am I letting an ant take me out. I imagine my day is going to come at full speed downhill or 10 miles out in the ocean during an out and back swim. I've wasted 2 years of my life being a pussy. I know I should be putting 100% into developing my kids athletic future...I'll find a way for both and soon enough we will do it together. As for the future, I want to race IMCDA in 2013. In 2012 I'll hit a few local oly's, TTT and Augusta. I'd love to throw REV3CP in there. That course is ridiculously fast. Pepper in some 50k's and maybe a 50 miler. Hopefully I can get out to the Potomac river next year too...That's it.

The Race

2011-07-26T19:43:00.001-04:00

The night before I didn't sleep real well but, who does. I got up at 430a and took a warm shower and ate my normal pre-race food. Nutella, honey, and cranberries on an english muffin. I gathered my stuff and began my 1.5 mile walk into town. It was still dark so I had a great opportunity to enjoy my Ipod and coffee while preparing myself for the day. I checked my transition bag and let the water out. Apparently it had rained. No big deal. I found out it was a no wetsuit race. I was a little disappointed because I was looking forward to a an easy 53 min swim. Everything was in check with the bike so I went down to warm up a bit.

This was a new type of swim start for me. I am not accustomed to the mass beating you get from a mass start. It was fine, I settled into a small group of about 6 of us. There was even a pretty fast chick that kept swimming up my feet. I was worried I would accidentally kick her in the boob. I found that thought a little bit funny considering the day I had in front of me. We came through the first lap in 27 something and I wasn't pushing it. About half way into the second loop my lower back and calves started to cramp. I wasn't expecting this at all. I was able get through it and after 56 min I was headed to T1. The long run up actually allowed my to shake off all the muscle tightness.

T1 was fast and on my way out to the bike my Hammer pill case full of salt tabs fell out of my pocket. I stopped and picked most of them up and headed out. The first 10 miles of the bike I was relaxing and but, not having fun. My legs just felt dead. The decent into Keene sucked as well. I remember pushing hard downhill but, only going about 14 mph. The wind was fighting me and everyone else I could see. That decent gave me time to warm up and get into a comfortable rhythm. My timer beeped every 20 minutes and I took in 100ca and 9 oz. of water. Nutrition was on and I started to feel good. A lot of people told me to take it easy on the first loop. I didn't push the climbs but, I was rolling right by everyone. During the out and back I counted 36 people including pro's ahead of me. Not bad I was having a good day. Things were looking up. I came through town on loop one feeling fantastic and was ready to pick it up a little. I started to passing people down 73 into Keene then at mile 60 (after 5 minutes of picking it up) I got a really bad cramp on the inside of both legs. I had to stand and drop down below 20 mph to loosen up. Mile 75 came and I took a swig o HEED. I swallowed about half and I immediately rejected it through my nose and about half my stomach contents. I was really surprised. Why did this just happen? After that I couldn't even look at my gel without getting sick to my stomach. Within 20 minutes I slowed to around 15 mph. The cramping got worse and my day was no longer looking good. There was actually a point where I didn't think I could finish the bike.

T2 was a long discussion with myself. What am I going to do? Run? Quit? I was in so much pain and I couldn't stop the cramps or take in nutrition. It was only around 2pm. I could walk the marathon and still finish. I bought a Lake Placid coffee mug the day before and I didn't feel like returning it so it looks like I'm walking...I started running and immediately cramped my hamstrings. I was literally 10 yds out of T2. I was able to hold it off a bit and got through mile 1 in 7:10. I felt good but, my legs were not cooperating and the soles of my feet were on fire. I felt like I had a huge blister on my foot too. Then it started. I couldn't run more than a minute without a cramp. I started eating oranges but, they too were giving me a nasty side stitch. That pretty much sums up the run. I averaged 12:30's working as hard as I could. And that blister...well actually it was a piece of glass.

I finally finished in 11:57. I never set a time goal for myself and I certainly earned the finish. I even ran the last 1/10th of a mile with a full calf and hamstring cramp. To sum it up, that race hurt a lot. It was only physical pain though. The pain I feel inside is much worse. Just plain disappointed in myself.

Check out the right lower leg...

Ironman Lake Placid- Preshow

2011-07-26T11:34:00.000-04:00

I have not blogged since January. Actually I have but, I never posted them. We just arrived home after a long ass drive home from New York. A wonderful slap in the face to an already bad weekend. Where do I start? How about where I left off in January. So much has happened in the last 6 months and every bit of it came into play while racing IMLP. If you are reading this I'm sure you are wondering why it went down the way it did. I had a long 5 hr walk on Sunday to mull it over. So here it goes...

It was a Thursday afternoon I think when I got the call from HR at Savannah River Site offering me the next stage of my life. Training up to this point was going well. I was swimming and running a lot while peppering in a few trainer rides. I accepted the job down south and so began the whirlwind of uprooting my family and depleting every resource I had. Before I go on I need to make this very clear, I do not regret for one second my decision to move here. I love my job, my new house, and this heat. We have a horse barn and a small pasture. I couldn't ask for anything more. Well that being said, moving is hard. I came down by myself for a month in the beginning. That alone had it's own challenges. My swim routine was erased. The pool down here is not what the brochure said. Turns out they open at 6a (I leave for work at 5) and it's apparent that the local swim team rules that place from 3p-close. I tried swimming at the Y and that was an experience for a different blog! Basically I dropped down to 1-2 open water swims a week of no more than 2 miles. That's ok right? I can swim. On my worst day I'll still be one of the first ones out. I should just run more, 2 minutes lost in the swim is nothing compared to the 45 minutes I could gain on the run...Well that's wrong. And I'll come back to that. So now the family moves down and we buy a house.   An awesome house that sat vacant or a year and had all original carpet from the 80's. With a severely allergenic son I decided to rip all the flooring out the day I got the keys.  Made perfect logistical sense. If I wasn't training for an Ironman. Here is when things started to really get of track. I am now working 10 hrs a day, remodeling a home for 3 hrs a day, and training for 2 hrs a day. I discovered real quick that laying floors is the same as doing like 200 squats a night. I never recovered. I was putting in the miles but, I just wasn't hitting the key workouts. All endurance no speed.

Now it's May. The week before Triple T I went to Vegas for a wedding. I literally drank for 3 days straight with less than 4 hrs of sleep. If you know me you know that when I'm off the wagon I am OFF the wagon! I rolled through TTT with a somewhat respectable showing. Now here's the catch. I came home and it took me almost 3 weeks to recover. All the while I'm working and fixing up the house. During this whole transition period I had real issues with sleep too. I was getting maybe 3 hrs a night of solid sleep. Hopefully that's over. (doubt it).   Last note...I am still not swimming much. 1:12's were hard to maintain.

On to June. I got a letter back from Tulane University. I was not accepted into their Masters program. I spoke with my boss, I needed to get my Masters and certification in Industrial Hygiene ASAP. The person I was hired to help is now now retiring in 2 weeks. There was only 2 of us in the facility.  (By the way my job is to basically identify potential health hazards for people trying to mitigate nuclear waste from the cold war.) Life just got a little tougher. Mid June I went up to Morgantown to race another half. The race went OK but, I realized something about 6 miles into the run. I was tired. Something was wrong but, I figured I'd still pull it off. Maybe I forgot to mention that I still have a house in Ohio that I'm paying a mortgage on. I also didn't mention that it was broke into and all the copper pipe was ripped out. That's ok. I'm still training for an Ironman.

July 4th weekend I went like I was supposed to. Problem is that I was overcome by a little heat stress on My last long bike. I never really got to hold the pace I needed for 130 miles. I began my taper and was so relieved that I could finally relax that maybe I relaxed too much. I did the same plan I did in 2009 but, this time it didn't work. I never hit it.

We decided to drive up to NY the Thursday before the race. On the way quite a bombshell was dropped. Our homeowners insurance was dropped in Ohio because we were not fully occupying the house. Now the mortgage company was going to penalize us 4x the amount we were paying per month. Note:  My wife is not working yet. I know I did this to myself. Secondly, my realtor in Ohio has dropped the ball and told the person making an offer on our house how bad we needed to sell. Now they counter offer 7k less than their original offer. WTF. That sucks because we can't even afford to close on the house now. In the meantime my legs are sore and I gained 6 lbs since 4th of July. I wasn't feeling it.

We arrive in Placid and I have one goal. Get registered and rest. Turned out I was on my feet until 3:30 pm on Saturday. Nobodies fault but, my own. I didn't plan my day properly.

I know it looks like I am making excuses. I am not. The next blog will summarize the race. That 3rd blog will tie it all together and it will all make sense. I know what went wrong and now I have to admit it. I know my friends well and I know all the speculating that's going on.

Race day....next blog.

Another Brick In The Wall

2011-01-12T10:43:00.001-05:00

I stand there sheepishly staring at the ground in front of a darkness, an unknown, a horrible place that every triathlete knows. Most talk about all the time they spend in there but, do they? Really? Entering is sometimes the hardest part. But, not really once you enter. It's not easy. I know how much I want to go in but, I know what's in store once I commit. It's worth it though. I need to be there. No choice unless I like losing. What hurts more?
I commit to the first step, it's not so bad. Except a fear starts to well up inside. What if I don't make it in. What if I slip on the way? What if I go and quit? What does that say about me?
40 minutes later and I haven't crossed over. I'm alone. Pushing myself towards a place of uncertainty.
But, there's still something, someone calling me. It seems like I'm being pushed and pulled at the same time. I pick up the pace. I'm going to need the confisdence to make the jump. Damn, it hurts though. My ears are starting to ring a bit. Balls of sweat are flinging off my elbows, leaving small puddles where ever they land. Oddly, the tops of my feet feel warm and tingly but, my kneecaps feel cold. I'm thinking I'm ready. I'm looking for some hokey motivational quote or some type of inspiration. The hard part is coming, the harder part is staying. I'm envisioning one of those people who jump through fire or walk over hot coals. It's really nothing like that at all but, that's what I think. Not to much is clear right now. Everything is dark in my periferal. My vision is somewhat skewed. Leaving me just enough focus to not run into something. All I can hear is my own breathing and I feel my heart beating in my ears. Pretty hard too but, most of the pain is gone. Don't get me wrong this hurts, just not like it did a minute ago. Now the clock starts. This is when I can make a difference I think. I think.
Did I make it? Who's talking to me? I know I am alone. I think I am. Who am I talking to?
It's the sweetspot...the 30 seconds of freedom right before I enter the metaphoric pain cave.
Pain Cave? Woodshack? Hurt Locker? Suffer Dungeon? I usually say I'm layin another brick building this shithouse. What is it? It's a place we go to make big gains. It's not the 5 minutes of a 150 bpm that most guys brag was their big bad ass day. It's getting there and staying there. Pushing that 170 bpm and not backing dow. Forcing yourself to handle it. Waiting for your body to control itself. Get ready for the long haul because I am certainly not giving in so the rest of my body needs to understand that.
One of the toughest parts of training here is answering all those questions with a NO.
This is the only place where I am my own company. It's a battle with my conscious saying "Stop. You're going to hurt yourself." No I am not. I am only making myself better but, I want to stop. I need to stop. If I stop I'm a pussy. If I stop I will not even be able to look at myself in the mirror.
The pain is back. Everything burns. My lungs, my legs, my left ankle every third step, my right should every stroke. I'm pretty sure if I stop it may hurt more. I love it here. I hate it here.

During my time in the "pain cave" I often make the most mornic things make sense. I can virually justify anything, especially if it means I can back off. However, this time I think I hit on something a bit. One of the songs tha meant so much to me for all the opposite reasons it does now was on my Ipod. I was hurting too much to focus on changing it. Pink Floyd performed Comfortably Numb. I applied it here. See if you agree...

Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?
Come on, now,
I hear you're feeling down.
Well I can ease your pain
Get you on your feet again.
Relax.
I'll need some information first.

Just the basic facts

Can you show me where it hurts?
There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

O. K.

Just a little pin prick.
There'll be no more aaaaaaaaah!
But you may feel a little sick.
Can you stand up?
I do believe its working good.
That'll keep you going through the show
Come on it's time to go.

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

Welcome to the balls of the winter training.

Now that that is over!

2011-01-04T16:38:00.000-05:00

Ok. Back to regular blogging. Now that 2010 is history I feel like I can turn a new page to something better. That last 12 months just sucked a fat one for me in terms of triathlon. Can’t blame anyone but myself. My workouts are picking up a bit. I’m now running more than ever without pain. Last year at this time swimming was a priority. I had some periodic cycling going on as recovery and the run was around 30 miles a week with a long run on the trails of about 22 miles in 3:40. Now I’m not doing that long run and my weekly total is closer to 40. Hills are my concentration. I feel that I am behind though. Many other people are training a lot more than me right now. I have a strong feeling that some mid season burnout may be thrown into their race plans. And what’s with everyone buying computrainers this year? Geez, I would kill for that disposable income. I guess it doesn’t really matter though. I’ve always fought the uphill battle and come out on top. I’ve thrown out the option of a coach this season. I had one for a short period of time last year and I was still making all the decisions and then I ended up with a torn calf. Peace out to that. I know me better than anyone. Now I guess it’s on to a proper diet and some alone time pounding concrete. It really helps that Natalie is running again. The wine and beer isn’t around to derail us. I guess a 430 wake up call does that. It’s one of those things and I’m glad she is part of it. She knows how much it sucks to be dead tired and then try to push a workout with a headache. That’s if you even get out of bed. So that’s one more thing I got in the bag.
I am truly amazed how slow I have become in the pool. I am actually embarrassed about it. This morning I was struggling on 300’s on 1:10 100 pace. Last spring I was swimming 300’s on 3:03’s. I also wonder what will happen when I lose these 10lbs. I am running faster than I ever have and I’m pushing almost 180 lbs. Trust me, it’s not muscle. I think it’s mostly gummy bear…

The resolutions are in place and so far so good. I didn’t choose just one, I went for it all. I’m a little miserable for it but, who cares. What doesn’t kill you right?

No added salt
No caffeine
No gummy bears
No chips
No dips
No pointless snacks
No pre-swim snack
No Fried food
Low Bread
Low Beer
Low days off.

Quick follow up

2010-12-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well I didn’t want to blog again until I dropped below 166 lbs. Looks like that just isn’t possible right now. So rather than having to lose 10 I now need to lose 13. I know I have been really loving the xmas ales but it just doesn’t make sense. I really don’t want to dwell on it as there is so much other crap going on in my life. To focus on the point of this blog I won’t get into any of that.

I’ve made several additions to the 2011 training year. The one big thing is biking. Yes, I am actually on the bike at least 4 hrs a week. I know to some that’s nothing but, for me it’s big. I am typically able to average 22-25 mph over from 40k’s to half irons. (IMKY was 21.97). I don’t have to work all that hard at it and have never biked before March. Hopefully the added effort will show some new gains. I’ve been running a bit as well. Beginning of December I saw that some people were running a lot of trails. Well I need to burn the calories so I hopped on the band wagon. Just starting to wonder if maybe I should have signed up for a January 50k because I’m trained for it. One big training goal is to get through these holidays! I hate taking days off and have had 3 in December. Problem was that they have all been in the last 8 days. The schedule of running all over the place and then celebrating something every 2 seconds is making it tough (hence the 13 lbs.). This winter so far I decided to cut out the swimming. As I approach Jan 1st I think I will knock that crap off. I really enjoy swimming; even a moderate day is still recovery to my legs. I will not be swimming the Potomac River in 2011 so I won’t need 35k weeks in Feb. and March. That will free up a ton of time. I still want 3-4 swims a week at a distance of 4k and one day at 6-8k. It’s just been real tough getting up in the morning. Blah. It’s the lack of sun I’m sure.

January 1st always seems to be that day to bring relentless focus back into my life. I’m looking forward to it. I have been thinking of a few resolutions. Here they go:

1. One cup of coffee a day. NO redbull.

2. Cut back on the starchy whites.

3. More sleep! That means in bed reading or watching re-runs of teen mom by 10.

This all seems pretty easy to handle. Well, the caffeine thing is going to suck a fat one. Hopefully I ease right into my regimen of over training and exhaustion bliss.

Ask and You Shall Recieve

2010-09-23T16:55:00.000-04:00

So I keep hearing “You need to blog”. Really? I don’t think I’m that interesting of a blogger. Actually I think I do it just to hear myself talk. I’m not even sure what I have done since my last blog. Maybe I just can’t remember. So here it goes, I’ll just throw it all out there. Here is how I am feeling and doing.

I finished my 2010 season with great disappointment. I met none of my goals and I slipped deep into the ranks of the common age grouper. I received a letter from USAT 6 weeks ago congratulating me on All-American HM for 2009 with a ranking of 250 something. I was ashamed to see. I truly did not live up to it in 2010. I swam well but, I didn’t do anything special on the bike or run. I never really took hold of that fire I had my first 2 yrs in tri. You know, the obsessive Type A that sickens a non-triathlete to even be in my presence. I had gained 15 lbs, some muscle but mostly fat. I never lost it. My self image was poor. My performance showed it. Well that was 2010. I’ve packed up all my awards…I even blew some up as part of an 8 day bender I was on. I wanted all of it gone. I wanted to start over. I still keep the Rhode Island Medal above my bed. A reminder.

In the past 6 weeks some really positive things have happened. I gave up on racing for awhile. I ran a lot, became marathon trained and was ready to PR at Akron Marathon. Being low on funds and little self conscience of my doughier image I decided to hang it up one morning and sleep it off. This is not a bad thing. I went back to everything that was bad for me in the past. Beer, chemicals, shitty food, no sleep, just plain out not caring. It didn’t take long for me realize that guy was gone. Sure, I’ll still get shitfaced on occasion and ride aero naked with a water bottle…well never mind. In the time I spent goofing off I began a relationship with Planet X bikes. Who says speed isn’t in the bike. Hell, I rode my Leader at 23mph average, I hopped on the Planet X and held over 30 on straight and upped my average to 26. Holy Crap!!! I furthered my good fortune by picking up a sponsorship from FLUID nutrition. This is great for me because they are great people over there and their product is strictly for recovery. With my tendency to over train this is perfect. One of my main selling points with this company was that when I asked if they could get involved in local MS fundraising stuff they were actually excited about it. This is something near and dear to a good friend of mine and I was happy I could pull some support for his cause. Oh, and the product is bad ass and works really well for me.

What else???

I’ve put my Ironman Lake Placid training plan together…mostly. I have the last 5 weeks and the first 8 weeks done. A 44 week training plan. WHAT???!!! 44 WEEKS? Ok, it’s like this…I am taking the first 8 weeks (currently my off season) to stabilize and reel in proper nutrition for the physical training season. Sure I’m still running, pretty hard at time. I mean, You don’t want to let your sports car rust in the garage right? Take it out and do some hole shots! Just don’t break it. I am doing a lot of research. I can’t afford a coach and my past Ironman training brought me a 10:09 so I had something right…but, what was it? I’m figuring that out right now and I’m learning a ridiculous amount of new stuff. For example, no mater how hard I train in the pool, the most it will get me is 7 minutes. If I don’t get in the pool until January I bet I still drop a 52 min swim. That may even be the plan.

Now let me get all tri-dramatic.

It’s back. I feel it. Every second of the day. Every minute of my sleep. I wake up thinking Placid. I go to bed thinking Placid. I catch Natalie changing I think…where the kids, lock the door. Hahaha. Then 2 minutes later I think Placid. I’ve warned everyone. I said when the fire gets burning it will be hotter and more intense than ever. Stand back or get burned…ug, gay. But I don’t care, 90% of the time it takes a short motivational quote to get my ass moving. That’s all. So Shake and Bake!!! My world is so stressful right now with other things in the happenings. Work, Life, Family. Whenever I hit rock bottom all I do is think placid. I’d rather fight the urge to go faster than fight myself to go at all. This is probably it for me so IT is going to count.

See you in 10lbs.

Just a little update

2010-08-24T16:49:00.001-04:00

I let this season settle into a close. Man, it sure went fast. Seems like just the other day Frank and I were on our 8 hour B-day training adventure (that was January). I’ve eased myself into a Fall off season that permits a little excess indulgance but, also keeps some events on the calendar. I would really like to do 1 or 2 marathons soon. I have some base from the summer that I could role over. I know I won’t PR but, that’s not really what I’m interested in. I want a race atmosphere with some hills. I want to bike hard the day before. I want this marathon to hurt. Two weeks later, I’ll do it again. After that I’ll take 7 days off of running and chill a bit. Then it’s time to start building that base. Ironman Lake Placid. Yep, that’s the big show for me in 2011. 100% focus. Eat, Sleep, Breathe IMLP. My wife is a massage therapist so I have the luxury of pushing it a bit harder more often. She will fix it. I know I can bump running mile 20% 3 weeks in a row, she’ll fix it. I did not have fun getting dusted this summer. I did not like the feeling that I never really achieved the level of fitness I wanted. A lot of other things were acomplished though. My kids started BMX and are doing well. My daughter got a pony and is working that whole thing well. Natalie finished school and is just waiting for State Boards. And some other stuff I’ll just keep to myself for now.

Big things for 2011. I am really excited to have an Ironman on my plate. 2010 was just not a challenge, and I trained that way and I paid for it. The 2 year plan is tough. One year down and in most aspects I’m ahead of where I wanted to be. Number 1. My move to full carbon with a set of race wheels. That’s huge. I’m dropping from 24 lbs down to below 19. 5 lbs I don’t have to lose off the belly. Number 2. I have joined forces with a great nutrition sponsor that will help in all aspects of recovery. Hell, I’m well known for “overdoing it” so this will help in monstorus ways.

Lot’s of exciting adventures for 2011. Can’t wait to share them.

Thanks.

2010-08-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

Individual sports. I have always said this is way to define yourself as an athlete. It’s up to you and only you. In a team sport all you need is one all star to carry a bunch of losers to the end. Or vice versa, a bunch of losers can mask the true shine of one great athlete. In an individual sport there are no excuses. You are responsible for your own fate. Countless mornings I mash the alarm clock and hop out of bed. 4:17 am and I hear the same life mantra day in and day out. The first few steps out bed, knees clicking, ankles popping. I can hear the coffee pot brewing. Usually my cat walks me downstairs and sits on the counter as sleepily bumble through my routine. She says good morning with every pass. I head out the door with my swim bag, run, bag, bike gear, coffee, and oversized lunch, the stick, and whatever work I bring home. That is the start to a typical day. It’s all on me to get up and go. Sometimes I roll over, and I pay for that. Looking at some results this year, it shows. I was responsible for the. So to my point. That was a little look at what I do. However, my individual sport relies on a lot more than me. To be successful I rely on a network that usually gets overlooked.

The ones that take the hit the worst. Natalie and the kids. This woman shuffles 3 children out of the house every morning by herself. Some evenings she’s on her own while I’m at the track, on the hills, or at a team meeting. She’s the true endurance athlete putting up with this crap for 4 years now. My children get a lot of good nights over the phone. Then I drag them out of bed at 5 am on the weekends to make it some event. There’s the backbone to what I do. Without their continuing tolerance I wouldn’t be top 10% in everything I do.

My “sponsor” support. The group that takes the financial hit. My parents. Without them I wouldn’t be on competitive equipment or even have fresh rubber under me. Their support at my events gives me comfort that most athletes don’t get. Usually seen with them are my brother and his girlfriend. Talk about having nothing to gain from my racing yet they still show up and support me. For that I am grateful.

So maybe my sport isn’t so individual. I am lucky to have all these people in my life. I know I don’t thank them enough. That’s hard for me as it requires emotion. I don’t know how to handle my own feelings so it’s hard for me to deal with all that. Maybe one day I’ll figure myself out but, for now…I want everyone to recognize that I really don’t do this all myself. To those who are always there, Thank you. It means more than know.

Just an update.

2010-07-30T15:07:00.000-04:00

I haven’t posted in a few weeks because I’ve been a bit busy righting some some wrongs. After Rhode Island I skipped my recovery and went right back to training. I put on some hard bike miles. I hit the hills several times. I lost 6 lbs and all my clothes are loose. I did 2 sweat loss estimates and it seems as though I lose about 38 an hour in 88 degree weather during race intensity. From the research I did an efficient body can take in up 33oz per hour leaving me with a deficit if 5oz. If I do the math right I would hit a critical heat stress point in about 90 minutes. Well bike and run together is almost 4 hours…See my issue? So that’s why I cut a little weight. I have a strong mental plan in my head for next weekend. I will have my nutrition planned and this time I will run with my own stuff. The following days will be dialed way back. Nothing over an hour except for a brick on Sunday. M-F will be short and tempo.
Sunday I can toe that line knowing I’m ready. Seconds before the gun goes off my mind clears, I hear nothing . It is almost like a free fall. My body’s version of a cntrl/alt/del. The gun will crack and I will be in motion. All at once the silence will be filled with sounds of racing. Water gurgling, breathing, wheels humming, wind zipping through my helmet. Who knows what the next couple of hours will hold but, to me it doesn’t matter. Trust in myself backed by the knowing of proper preparation will surely reward me with success. No matter how it’s defined.

That’s what it is all about.

Makes sense now.

2010-07-13T16:32:00.001-04:00

So what did I do wrong? I thought for 2 long hours as I fought off cramping and an overwhelming desire to just quit.

1. Undertrained.
I just didn’t get out on the bike enough. I was hoping that my swim fitness would carry me through. I was wrong.
2. Nutrition
In the month leading up to the race I ate and drank freely. It caught up to me when I couldn’t control my body temp. Wrap an engine in insulation then redline it. It won’t run for long. I didn’t eat well in the week leading up to the race and I skipped a meal the day before. That just doesn’t work. To top it off I gave race day nutrition no thought. During Ironman I had it nailed. All it took was 15 minutes of planning.
3. Hydration
Probably the nail in the coffin. I hydrated all week then on Saturday I let it go a little. I walked into this race on half a tank and paid for it. If I stayed hydrated and kept up on the salt tabs I would have likely finished the run around 1:35.
4. Focus
I had none. Haven’t been able to focus on training since Ironman was done. I have forced a lot of workouts, cut a lot short, and skipped more than I want to admit. I had no focus because I thought 70.3 wasn’t a challenge anymore. Hell, I did 3 and an Olympic in a month in 2008.
5. Arrogance
This is the one that is the hardest to admit but, I have to. I know it. Everyone knows it. I thought I was better than I am today. I’m not saying that I’m not good, I’m just saying that if you put the time in you don’t get the reward. What’s it worth to you? I didn’t even take the time to double check my bike. I spent the entire 56 miles in the big ring and cramped hard for it.
6. Life.
Sounds bad, but I let life get in the way. I let stress at work curb my workouts. I didn’t even try to make up a workout when I got delayed at home. That would never happen in the past.
7. Calling my shots.
To me this is one of the biggest offenders. It pretty much takes everything and wraps it up into one big faux pas. I told family and friends where I was going to be and when. My shots are not unrealistic. I just pissed off the Spirit of Triathlon by thinking I was the one in control. I was afraid that everyone would miss me going by. It happened in IMKY and it made for a lonely day. Well, not my problem anymore. You’ll see me when I’m done. All day Sunday I would look at my watch and as soon as I got a little off time it began a downward spiral which inevitably ended in pain.
So there you have it. I know where I went wrong. In all reality it’s about time. I’ve set a new PR in every single race I’ve run in the last 4 yrs. I was feeling invincible. I’ll say this. No matter how bad it hurt or how bad the cramping was. It sucked that my blisters were ripping open on my feet. It sucked that I puked out my nose and that’s all I could smell. When I ran that last 400 to the finish and I was feeling this ball in my throat my thought was here comes more puke. It was different though. This was the worst pain I have ever felt. It was the realization that I had failed. I let it happen. I wasn’t strong enough to stop it. I let everyone down. I could imagine my parents sitting by the athlete tracker in disappointment. I could see my wife and kids standing there thinking what a waste. I posted a link on Facebook to track me. Everyone could be sitting there watching me crumble. That there was my hardest day of triathlon.
Today my race T sits folded on my dresser. It will stay there until I deserve it. It’s only a t-shirt but, I don’t care. I shouldn’t wear something I didn’t earn. I gave my hat to my 6 yr old. He deserved it just for being there. The finisher medal hangs right above my bed. The next time I go to roll over to sleep a little more I will know it’s there and it will serve as a reminder of how that day felt. I have a race poster at home. It is going up in place of my IMKY poster. I will print my splits out and hang it there in the hall. Every time I pass it I will feel that sinking in my chest. I am an athlete like everyone else. I am not special, I am no better than the guy who always says “I was training for a sprint but, I got injured”. There is no what if’s today. There is only what happened. I WAS in 3rd until I blew up. That means nothing.
The next step. Simple. Never forget what has happened. Man, has this put things into focus for me. This isn’t tough. There’s only trained and untrained. What am I going to say after my next race? Do you know how fast I’ll go? Me neither. I won’t even speculate. Train hard. Train smart. Show up on race day knowing that you did everything you could to get here. Be grateful that you have these abilities and give thanks before the gun goes off. I guarantee a good day.

That was tough...

2010-07-12T22:17:00.002-04:00

Never, Never, NEVER ever ever call your shots in triathlon. I've said it a hundred times. Just don't do it. It's a sure fire way to wreck you're day. So what did I do? I called a completely reasonable time and and missed it by almost an hour. Yes, an HOUR! Yes I did an Ironman. I did it well. And somewhere along the way I thought I knew it all and I was above the simple rules of endurance racing. The following is going nail down everything I did wrong. I had 2 long hours to think about it as I was being humbled by this great sport.

Lets go back early April. I am at my weekly track workout pushing harder than I should. I knew this but, I'm invincible. I'm an Ironman. Suddenly with less than 40 meters before my cool down it felt like I got shot in the calf. With that torn muscle I began down a path that eventually lead to this very second. I rehabed my calf quickly and got right back to running. I kept my issues to myself and was running faster than I ever had before. I began to tell myself that I was so strong that not even a torn muscle was going hold me back. I began taking a day off at least once a week. In the past I took one day every 21 days or at the start of my rest weeks. Once positively negative aspect was that I was swimming more than ever. 25k on my easy weeks. My 100 splits were well below a minute and I was swimming 5:10's for a hard 500 a couple times a week. I was spending a lot of time in the pool. Too much. This time would be better spent on the bike. But hell, I'm an Ironman right.

Race weight last year was 162. This season I am 172. That's 10 lbs I shouldn't be carrying. It's not like I eat like crap. I just love candy and beer.

So here I was 5 weeks out from Rhode Island. I took a solid 2nd at he Potomac River Swim, I took 2nd at Clays park, I was just about to take 2nd at munroe falls. I walked into both tri's just wore out. Not really from training but, from staying up late and drinking at bachelor parties and weddings. I've been really stressed at work and a few beers at night would help me relax. Still, I'm an Ironman and kicking ass this year.

I made a promise to my wife that I wouldn't do an Ironman this year so that she could finish school. Well I seemed to lose myself as Iwas having a lot of trouble stepping back. Every time I would go out for a long training I would feel really guilty not being at home. Instead of looking for a balance I just hated myself and cut 9/10 workouts short. My longest bike in the last 2 months was 55 miles after the Potomac. So that explains the massive leg cramps on the bike.

Looking at the week leading into the race. This is where I made so many mistakes. 9 days out from race day I stopped to say goodbye to my aunt at Wing Warehouse. Well, I opened the flood gates. I had a few beers there and then grabbed a 12 on the way home. I drank them all that night. I know why too. I knew I was unprepared for RI. I needed and excuse and was looking for a way out. I was taking terrible risks on the bike while training, I was running sub-6 as much as I could. I just couldn't get hurt . I was too rested.

Now there's all the mental crap. Let me break down the rest of the week. I went into Friday with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I know, Big troubles huh? I do have a lot of other stuff going on right now besides tri. That was definitely taking from my focus. We got at 430 friday morning and sat in the car for 12 hours. When I got into town my legs were cinder blocks. I tossed and turned all night too. I new it was coming. Saturday I got up early and went to the expo and like a pit bull I sized up every athlete to a point I had to leave. I proceeded to spend the entire day on my feet and even skip lunch. Don't worry, I made up for the missed calories with fatty cheese bread and gummybears.

Race day. I get to start. I am warmed up but not really at all. There are so many things that I usually go over a 1000 times before a race. I never really checked my bike. Is my aero helmet snug? I didn't even plan my nutrition. I talked about it because i know everything. Hell, I'm an Ironman. I listen to nobody. I have 700-900 calories sitting on my bike and 20 oz H2O. I didn't know how to use it. The swim was off and I flat out crushed it. My heart rate hit 145 maybe once. 1st out of the water 12th overall. I'm on the bike. I started to push early. Last years splits were up over 24 and I wanted to beat that. 21mph was with everything I had. There was a mild headwind, just enough to piss you you off. I was passing pro's and although my average was low I was holding on. One problem. I wasn't eating right and...I was stuck in the big ring. I used a set of Bontrager for this race and the gearing was a little different too. I didn't get passed until mile 48. It only happened because my gracilis was cramping. Both sides. Possibly because I'm not fit well. Oh, and I'm under trained on the bike. I came into transition and I'm not kidding when I say only 15 bikes were there. It took me 2:40 to ride 56 miles. 25 minutes more than I planned. The bike course was a challenge. I was off and running. My legs felt good but my mouth was dry. I knew I needed water. I took a total of 60 oz on the bike. That's a lot so this felt odd. Mile 1 was 6:50. I went out long and easy and felt great. I then turned a corner and standing in front of me was a wall. I ran the first half and began cramping in my right hamstring. I split mile 2 in 7:15. Miles 3 and 4 were 7:20's. That there was the end of my race. The next 9 miles was hell. I walked every aid station and drank 2-3 cups of water.

Hell. With every step I fought off cramps. My feet were on fire, blisters were forming and breaking. I think my teeth were sweating. My thermostat was way red. I stopped sweating and I was covered in goosebumps. I couldn't cool down. Go figure, fat boy was retaining heat. I had nothing except 2 hours to think of everything i did wrong. To aid in my penance I couldn't breathe. My back ad chest began to cramp. I was starting to throw up my water. I was getting dizzy. 50 yr old woman were running me down and I am staggering through aid stations...I was shivering but on fire. This was the worst day of my triathlon life.

I will write what i learned later this week.

Just whining.

2010-07-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

Another week of training done. Last week I hit it pretty hard. I’m not doing the long stuff I did for Ironman but, I’m getting out there with some hard efforts. I think I’m afraid to train too much because I don’t want to piss anyone off. If I sign up for Ironman Lake Placid in 10 days I will be solely focused on that race for 13 months. This is a challenge that scares me. That’s awesome…I think.
Lately I’ve been running well, biking ok, and swimming better than everyone. I can’t figure out why. Sunday I races the Summitri in Munroe Falls. I went into the day dead dog tired. I ran 16 tempo the day day before and hit the bike real hard the 4 days prior. I got off the bike running 6:10-6:20 comfortably. That’s fast for me. I usually run 6:50’s on a sprint. The only thing I can think of is that this pre-injury fitness. Yesterday I got out to ride some hills. I went down to the valley for 90 minutes and climbed almost 3000 feet. Not very much I know. Some people without jobs or responsibilities do this in a half hour everyday. So what. I ran a bit after and returned home close to 9:45p. This morning my alarm goes off at 4:10a and I must have reset it or turned it off. I got out of bed at 6a and I was pissed. Immediate justification wheels started turning. Then I hear “this seems to be happening a lot lately”. Well I don’t know. Lately, I drink then go faster. I skip a workout and go faster. Where’s my punishment for cutting back? I think that question will be answered next Sunday in Rhode Island when I hit the wall 50 miles into the bike. Or maybe not. I do put many 3-5 hour training days in. The bottom line here is this. When I sign up for a 2011 Ironman I will do everything to make sure that I am 120% ready to toe that line. I’m sure that’s good for a few midnight MF-ings.
Next up. BMX racing with my boys. This is going to be great. We have Sarah swimming somewhat almost sort of with a little structure. She has a meet tonight. That will be cool. Can’t wait to see what kind of talent she has in the water. The boys are starting bmx this weekend and I see talent in both of them already. It’s tough raising star athletes…

Sorting it all out

2010-06-24T09:23:00.000-04:00

A quickie update here. So far the past month my training has been rather unfocused and I forsee that the rest of the summer. We are just killer busy. I get out on the bike twice a week for about 100 miles total. I’ve been spending about 3-4 hours in the pool with a horribly painful elbow and my run is mediocre at best. I raced Clays Park 2 weeks ago and just slowed up real good on my feet. Timewisw I am looking at around 14-15 hours a week. Seems like enough I suppose. Maybe I feel this way because I’m not trainign for Ironman so it just seem s like I’m not training that much. I don’t know. Plus I’ve been having all sorts of equipment issues and no money to fix them. I may be switching back over to my road back, I think I have a hairline crack on my Leader. That will really suck. Work is super busy. I have people here who are dead set on forcing me to work extra hours and weekends…I’ll quit before I skip a big event to push paper. Frustrating.

Beyond all that. I seem to be running faster, biking faster, and swimming faster than ever before. I have no idea why. So in 3 weeks when I finish Amica 70.3 I will get in line at 1pm and sign up for IMLP for 2011. I won’t be doing another IM for awhile so I think this is a good one just in case it’s my last. Support has dropped off pretty hard so getting the miles in will be tough. Triathlon is just irritating to other people but, that has been view from the inside for some time. Just now it seems like all I get is “ ya, ya, go ride your bike. Hurry up so you can be done” Well that eats at you. Makes it hard to motivate when you know there’s other things that should be getting done like mowing the lawn or weeding the stupid flower beds.

So you see, this year is offering some new challenges. My performance is expected but, the time I need is resented I think. In all honesty, IM last August came pretty easy. I only suffered for about 90 minutes. The reason for that…preparation. I just need to get back to that mindset.

_________________________________________________________________

I wrote this yesterday to post today. After a re-read I am thinking that this “off” feeling is for a reason. I am not doing Ironman this year. I am probably training just fine for a half. I’m just afraid to look. This year was dedicated as an “easy” year. I made that decision in August of 2008 when I got the family onboard for IMKY. I wanted to give Natalie time to concentrate on school and I wanted to get the kids involved in a managable sport. So far that’s a sucsess. So maybe everything is fine? Maybe once I sign up for another IM I will regain that relentless focus that took me to a 10 hr race last year. Funny how trying not to burn out is burning me out. It will be interesting how all this plays out.

Potomac 2010

2010-06-08T09:38:00.002-04:00

First off I should say that the following blog is just a recap of last weekend events. No philosophical ramblings on how I'm a changed person or how inspiring I found the river.

I’m sitting here at my desk thinking how quickly the past 4 days went. Hell, the past year. My second go at the Potomac River Swim went well. I dropped 33 minutes from last year and have been recovering well. My only complaint is the tendonitis in my left elbow. That only tells me that I didn’t put enough distance swims in this year. Leading up to Saturday I was plagued with a pretty bad ear infection. The antibiotic I was on made me feel like crap and unfortunately I felt that way through most of the swim. Right from the start I had gone after a pace which should have felt pretty good but, didn’t that day. About 400 yds in my lower back was tight and sore. Less than 45 minutes in I was fighting off calf cramps. Now I should have left the wetsuit behind. 75 degrees was way to warm. I started off taking fuel every 25 minutes then quickly changed to 30. That way I could track my pace easier with Mike’s GPS. (Mike was my kayak support.) My goal from the start was to push 3 hrs. I was way ahead at 90 minutes and was pretty much looking at a 2:40 swim. I was pretty far ahead at this point so I decided to dial it way back in case I had to deal with the current like last year. In hindsight I wish I would have just pushed through. It’s easy to say that now; I was hurting pretty bad come 90 minutes. Thanks to the antibiotic I’m sure. By 2hrs I was ready to be done but, only had 2.2 miles left. I could see the shore and the orange finish buoy so that put a small hop in my step. I took my second roctane and washed it down with some Heed. 10 minutes later nothing happened. Dud. I could see that it was sheer will that was going to get me into that shore. There wasn’t much left. I did however think I was winning so that helped. In the last 800 yds I basically grit my teeth and pushed through the pain. At this point there is a lot going on. The kayakers are eyeing speed boats, my stomach is upset from the roctane, I am horrifically thirsty, My head is hurting and I feel a bit dizzy, my elbow is burning, my triceps shoot pain down to my pinky with every stroke, my left forearm is throbbing from a bit of man to kayak contact, my calves are cramping, I have my first side stitch in about 3 yrs, now my stomach is growling, my left goggle lense is half full of salty water, my wetsuit is rubbing everything, my wetsuits feels like a 1000 degrees, I just want a nap, yes, I feel sleepy. All this is going on in my head with every arm rotation. I finally finish, and was so happy to see Natalie and everyone else. I was in pretty good mood for about 5 minutes until someone mentioned that the winner already went home. Huh? Winner? I thought I was right here. Nope. I got beat by some guy with out a wetsuit by almost 10 minutes. So that sucks. Mission: Failed. Maybe next year.

The rest of the day was pretty good. I hung out with last year’s winner, Tim and someone I met through the forum e-mails. Her name was Christina and she had a pretty solid swim. The sun was hot, the food was good. We drank all the beer and I had some awesome littlenecks in June. My kayaker was great and is probably more responsible for the PR than I am. All in all it made for a great weekend. We shall return next year and will leave the wetsuits at home.

So weird

2010-05-27T16:39:00.002-04:00

The human body is a funny thing to figure out. I hit that downward spiral of hard training and fatigue then all of a sudden I'm moving strong again. Monday sucked. All around 100% blowy. Teusday morning I show up at the pool. I can't warm up, my arms are sluggish, my entire body ached. Well we started off with a set of 5x 300's on a 3:40 decsend. I knew it may hurt a bit. Well I causually rolled into my first 300 around 3:25. Second was 3:22, then a 3:19, 3:18 and finsished up with a 3:15. The entire time I felt like shit but, I was moving along pretty well. And yes, we moved onto 200's and 100's all sub 2:10 and sub 1:05's. Yesterday I felt like I was coming down with something. I took an easy 5.25 miler...35 mins...and a 2.5 hr bike where we sat above the 22 mph mark for most of the time. This morning...repeating 100's from 1:03 down to 57's. Still feel like shit. Somethings up here. I am not sure what but, this whole controlling fitness and understanduing recovery and gains is a bunch of snot. It's May. There is no reason why I am moving this fast right now. Compared to last year I am between 12%-18% faster (depending on discipline). However, I also see many others moving along pretty well too. Must be the mild spring or something. Who knows.

Cycles

2010-05-24T09:02:00.000-04:00

Not like popcycles or the obvious…bicycles. I’m talking about this rollercoaster of fitness I seem to go through. Now I have had a really good go of it the last 4 weeks. Last week I swam 37500 yds in 4 days. Day 4 I made a comeback and was repeating 1:05’s on 1:10-1:15 send offs. So here I am thinking that I hit hard outside of the pool this week. Nope. Guess not. If there is something I’ve learned is that I can NOT take days off. What I need to do on my “off” day is hit a 30 minute easy spin or a 2 mile run or something. I took yesterday off and I feel like ass today. I also seem to go through these mental cycles too. Last week I couldn’t get enough. I would have gone up over 20 hrs if I could get it all in. Who knows maybe this is how my body is designed. After a really good training block I also feel really unfit. I look in the mirror and my skin looks pale and pink, I feel like I have size c bitch tits, like my gut hangs over everything. I won’t weigh myself for a week I will actually avoid areas with mirrors. Lastly, one more tell tale sign that I’m on the down side. I get a mouth full of canker sores. As of this morning I have 6. Painful ones too. I have to take ibuprofen to sleep. The big issue is that I don’t eat or hydrate well when it happens so it’s kind of a double edged sword. Pile all that crap on an irritating work atmosphere and an exam I have this week which I now feel underprepared for…so all that makes for a rough Monday.

Where’s the good news in all this? Well it’s cyclic. Although I’m on the way down right now I should be headed back up in a week. That’s good because I have the Potomac River swim in 12 days. I foresee a good day. Hopefully. I put the time in. All I have to do is perform. Problem is that it seems like I am not doing this one for me. I have 12 days to get my head straight.

While writing this blog I stopped and looked at my training log. What do you know…It’s my easy week. I also added um….14 miles to my running and um…14000 yds in the pool. I didn’t bike as much but, still. No wonder my body is fighting me. Bastard.

Diet. There is a lot to be said here. All I have to say is I need to get with it. We really haven’t grocery shopped in almost a month so I’m scrounging to piece meals together and sometimes my selections aren’t the best. Some may think that I drink too much but, in all reality I only have a few beers on the weekends and it’s very likely that is what keeps me from over training…

BTW-I know its popsicles not popcycles.

Who Cares?

2010-04-14T11:18:00.001-04:00

It doesn’t happen all that often but, when it does you take hold and give it hell to the end. What am I talking about? It’s that workout that you just hit dead on for some reason. A spontaneous burst of fitness. You know what I mean, out on a long run and you check your mile split and find a 6:30 average then you just keep hammering but, it feels like an easy pace. Or that day where the wind seems like it’s at your back the entire ride. Or for me this morning during a 1000 yd warm-up with heavy sluggish arms but, still splitting 1:10’s with ease. I decide to go with it. Pick up the pace and turn this into a lactate threshold kind of day. My plan for this morning was to swim 8k straight. When I saw some hammerin’ potential I took it. Changed the workout into 7x1000 descend on 13:30 (about 1:15 rest) then take 250 to stretch it out and then use what’s left on a hard 500. Everything was under 12:20 with the last 1000 at 11:45 and each 100 was getting faster. Sure I was feeling it but, there was just something so serene and perfect. My body seemed as though I was in a vortex of rushing water compounded by the repetitive beating each arm took with every stroke. My tunnel vision was narrow. There was this icy rush of the blood being pulled from my skin into my muscles I entered a cyclic perfection. Into every turn my feet seemed bound perfectly at the ankles as I fled from the wall in 2 seconds of absolute silence. I can not help but, think those moments off the wall must be what flying feels like. My unity with the water was absolute and every movement was flawless. My shoulders were sore, I could feel every heartbeat in my eyes…all 170 per minute. I was being driven like an addict looking for a bigger fix. The more it hurt the more I wanted. Almost at any price. After each 1000 I stood there at the wall with my stomach and arms on fire. Heat was radiating off my chest and back and with the excitement of a kid on Christmas eve I watched…56…57…58…59…Flying. Call it a gift from the spirit of the chlorine underworld. Who knows? Lately I have been getting the piss beaten out me in the pool. It’s been a long time since I said I’d never swim again. Apparently clouded by some misconception that it was time to grow up and give up everything I knew as a kid, I was wrong. I even still have some of my GI Joes. Random. I know but , not really.
So in a world that so many people fueled by their own personal tank of narcissism blog everything about nothing to no one…I add some mindless rambling about a random swim set on an average wed. morning. Blah blah blah right?

Real Swimming.

2010-04-12T10:14:00.001-04:00

It’s now been almost 3 weeks since I tore this calf muscle. The rehab has been slow but, finally I’m beginning to see some progress. The good thing is the amount of swimming I’ve been doing. I was swimming some masters workouts on Monday mornings over in Shaker. I quickly noticed that if I was paying 5 bucks a workout then I want something more than 4ooo yds. It was quickly apparent to me that this team was not for me. I think they have a motto over there ‘when the going gets tough, get out and say you’re late for work’ My last workout over there this guy named Chris came by. He mentioned that Solon had a good team. I shrugged it off and began our main set. This set ended with 6x100 on a 1:10. We were cruising these around 1:03-1:06. It felt real good to open it up a little. Since this guy was on me the entire time I decided to head over to Solon for a try. When I showed up last Tuesday I could see these guys were fit. They looked like swimmers. They talked like swimmers. And after the set, I knew these guys are swimmers. They all come from the same philosophy that I did. ‘Go hard or Go home’. The coach was immediately correcting my bad habits that the rec center had gifted me. The pool hovers around 74 degrees, and every set feels like a race. I didn’t think I was going to or needed to get much faster for tri. So I say this, why the hell not. I know I drop a 2.4 mile OWS in 54 minutes during IM. What if I got that down to 46 minutes? What if I qualify for short course nationals? What if I am a swimmer who cross trains tri? Maybe the change I’m looking for. Plus there’s something to be said about getting smoked by a 16 yr old girl…I am the slowest person in this pool. It’s awesome.
So I guess What I am getting at is that this calf injury was a blessing sort of. Everything was coming too easy for awhile. What’s easy about 7 hr workouts one may ask. Nothing, but anyone can move for 7 hrs. Moving fast is hard. Now I have to work to stand out in the pool. All this swimming is giving my calf the daily therapy it needs while my endurance is skyrocketing. Of course my ½ marathon time may increase 4 minutes, but if my swim decreases 6 what’s the difference right? It kills me that everyone is getting some monster workouts and races in. One of my biggest takeaways is that I am observing a huge layer of self control that will hopefully pay off in 2011.
Then there’s this other thing. A change that may take everything I know and shake it up like an etch-a-sketch. Something so big and so exciting. I feel like I’m looking down a tunnel, I can see some light at the end but, I have no idea how long it is. I do know that on the other side it is warm, and sunny, and different, and the roads are smooth and snow free. All I need to do is put one foot in front of the other and start walking through. Ready…Go.

snap crackle pop...uhoh.

2010-03-25T13:49:00.000-04:00

So what’s on tap for tonight coach?
400’s? Sounds good. Can’t wait to try these spikes out. Coming off a rest week I just needed a change. 3 week burnout ya’ know.
………
So 4x400’s go by. I’m pacing 62-70 seconds decending. I’m feeling great. Then we start the 300’s. I’m running around 45 seconds confortably. Rounding the last turn of the 3rd 300 I pick it up a bit. My mantra, thumbs up stay on your toes…suddenly I must have kicked up a rock or something. I even heard hit my calf. Damn, this burns. Maybe some asshole shot me with a pellet gun. Really, this hurts. WTF. Then as if I just turned the switch off I was done. I stood there on the side of the track thinking to myself. I know what this. I can’t believe it. I just ruptured my achilles…
Pain like this is new to me. I can’t put weight on the leg and I’m already feeling real down on myself. I just threw away a whole season. Sure, I’ll swim more and win that stuff but, what’s the challege in that. I was running faster than I ever have in my life. It was going to add up to monsterous season.
Good news. Just a torn calf muscle no surgery but, I have a long road ahead. I have some good takeaways. Recently I’ve been going through a lot of depression/anxiety about triathlon. I want to do it but, I don’t want to makes others sacrafice for me. I know I have this ability I haven’t even tapped yet but, again, I’m afraid my goals are selfish. As I lie there awake lastnight in bed it occurs to me. I’m taking the fun out of my own hobby. The best part about me last year is that I was training for fun not a goal. This injury puts me back in that boat. Pressures off. Back to having fun. Who cares if I break 10 hrs in an IM? Won’t happen if I’m not having fun. Last year in KY. I hit a 10:09. I also smiled that whole race. So what I’m saying, I brought negativity into my training by tainting my fun with setting goals. There’s a lot going onin my life right. More than there’s ever been. So let it be, let it lie where it lies. As long as I walk away from everything I do knowI put it all out there. The thought that my triathlon days were over really scared the shit out of me. The love is there.
Sometimes you just need a good ass kicking to put yourself back in its place.

40 and rain...nice.

2010-03-22T09:39:00.000-04:00

Update. Last time I wrote I was going into my 3rd big week in a row and was feeling pretty burned out. I also had some big pressures from work and was just plain tired and fed up with everything. It’s amazing how a recovery week can change an attitude. By Thursday I was ready to hit again. I’ve made a few more tweaks to the overall training plan. Mondays are historically low on the motivation list. I now attend a masters practice up in shaker so I kick off my weeks right. The workouts are only 4-5 k but, at least I’m moving. I find them quite easy for the most part. This morning was a little more challenging. We did a decline set of 3 sets of 6x100’s. 1:20, 1:15, 1:10. I was pretty surprised that I held those last 6 on 1:03-1:04 to 1:07 as the slowest. After 4 days straight of strength training and a lot of drinking I was satisfied. My next swim is Wednesday which is now BIG Wednesday. Last tally was 9100in 2 hrs. I’ll probably go for 8500 this week. Really no need to go farther. Hopefully I can get back in the evening for 4k more soon. 12-13k once a week is mandatory for terms of not losing any swim events this year.

Lately I have been a little stressed. This issue with my leg is annoying me, and in general I am need of a change. My sleep patterns are way off. I wake up every 30-45 minutes for 2-3 minutes at a time. It just seems like there is a lot of ‘noise’ in my head. I just can’t seem to organize anything. There is one place I find some peace. I can drive myself nuts trying to figure out life’s messes and as soon as I hit the water it’s gone. The cool feeling of the pool, the sound of nothing but bubbles, the sense of weightlessness. I’ve tried to work stuff out while I swim. It’s like the pool and my life are like poles of a magnet. They repel each other. So needless to say I’ve been improving a lot in the pool. On average I repeat 6-8 seconds faster per 100 while pacing 2100yd (1.2 mi) swim. Doesn’t sound like much but, that’s an extra 2.5 minutes where I’m not tired in a race. I can be out of T1 before fastest runners are out of the water. I don’t care much about the fastest cyclists because I can hold my own with little effort.

So that sums it up a bit. My training cycles are shorter due to intensity so now I’m crabby every 3 weeks instead of 5. This is the week 1 of 3 in my next cycle and I have some good workouts planned. If I push the next 21 days I can definitely compound this fitness. I will lose some workout time but, the good thing is that my boys start baseball in 2 weeks. That’s exciting. AND my littlest keeps bugging me about bike racing. He’s 5. I am going to feed that desire as much as possible.

...bottom of the barrel

2010-03-05T16:15:00.002-05:00

It’s been a bit since I posted a real blog. Of course I screw around a bit but, nothing of interest. Another week has gone by and I’ve been crushing the shit out of my workouts. I don’t know what’s going on in the pool but, every time I finish a warm-up I go out hard in my first set then hammer for 90 minutes. Yes, I’m sore as hell from P90x and re-introducing the bike again but, I am amazed at how fast I’m becoming. I cut back to 3 swim a week at around 20 k. I will add a Wed. double real so that I can have a 12-14k day. I’ve been fighting an ear infection for almost 3 weeks now. Comes and goes. I thought I had it all figured out…Then life screws with I all. It appears as though I’m on my own again at work. This is tough because the workload doesn’t change. The stress brought on by recent commitments is driving me crazy. I think I can only swim so hard for so long before it catches up. I do sort a lot out during a hard pool effort. The best part is that no matter what is bothering me I can hit the pool and as long as I’m moving nothing else matters. Hence the hard 8k swim on Wednesday. I was trashed when it was over but, everything seemed so mush simpler. I only wish I could sleep at night. I have so much in the works right now that the gable just scares me. Do or die right???

In a positive note, I am attempting to aquire a cx bike. Cyclocross is something that looks really fun to me and I plan on using the bike in some early season outdoor efforts...and in the rain. Great, more race fees right?? I'm pretty excited but, on the other side maybe I should use the money for something else. I did work hard to ensure a good bonus, coming in on the holidays and at 2 am and stuff but, i still feel I shouldn't haven't. Maybe I just don't want it brought up in a divorce record...ha

Sidebar

2010-03-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

It’s been about a month since I had anything to say. Well, since I felt like writing. I always have something to say. I’m going into my second week of Lent which, means I haven’t had candy since Fat Teusday. Man, it’s killing me. I sooo want to crush a bag of SweetTart Gummy bunnies. Fried food had been pretty easy, Cola/Pop was OK. Then I screwed it while I was in Tampa for work. I ordered a Stoli ginger. Double hit… Open the floodgate and lead the way pop. Needless to say by 12am after much warning to those buying the drinks, I had become shitfaced Not just a little either. So then I was sent to the bar to buy a round. Guiness. Damn, I just drank beer. So it’s been almost a week and the guilt is still thick. I did have an interesting conversation though. Let set the stage. Me at 11:30p, 2 random guys who had noticed my IMKY t-shirt I had stripped down to. So the conversation was all about me. Christian likey, we could talk all night. At the same time 2 players from the US national soccer team, an amazing looking blond, and a fat pharmatard walk in. The pharmatard leans into the bar by me and starts running his fat mouth. Now I tend to get rowdy at the end of a night of drinking and this fatass thought he was amazing. What he didn’t realize was that I am amazing and he interrupted a conversation about ME. Completely out of character I begin harassing him using every bit of sarcastic wit I could conjure. Somehow the conversation went back to Ironman, Hmmm, imagine that. Now here’s where I begin to fade in and out. Kind of like trying to use a cell phone in a bomb shelter. I do recall a few main topics and now the response make sense.

1. I am arguing with an idiot, however, when he challenges me to an Ironman right now and I accept. That makes me the idiot. Doen’t matter, he’s fat and ugly and truly less of a person.

2. Soccer players and their hot sluts do not care that I can almost break 10 hrs for 140 miles. They are soccer players. And they have a hot slut. My PR is meaningless. They should have beat me up just to impress their slut.

3. Crabby bartenders do not like it when people ask them why they are crabby especially when we refer to their career choices.

4. No. I do not want shots, a beer, or another drink. But since you handed me all three, OK.

It was a rough morning.

The training is going well. I am faster, stronger, and leaner than last year. However my stress levels are through the roof. I toss and turn then cut swims shorts. I think it’s the weather. Plus, I am so busy at work and at home that I barely have time to think. Oh well.

Just another random 6hr workout.

2010-02-02T13:44:00.001-05:00

There’s another week in the books. What a bad ass week too. I started P90x the day after my first 50k and have been sore ever since. What a great feeling. What a motivator too. I’ve dropped 8 lbs in 2 weeks and it seems to just keep falling off. There’s definitely something to be said for running 50k in January! Last week started some pretty intense running again. I must continue to remind myself that I am only training for 70.3 miles. Not the 140.6 I was after last year. My natural ability to progress keeps pushing me way past a reasonable endpoint though. Natural ability refers to recovery. With that all said, here’s a summary of last weeks “Birthday” workout. Frank Dejulius joined me for a day of self inflicted pain to celebrate another year on both of us.

I met Frank at Macedonia Rec at 7am. Neither of us were moving all to quick. We got changed and headed to the pool to begin. However, it was polluted with noodlers and middle aged yuck. Up to the treadmill instead.

Run 30 minutes 3.75 mile
6 min. “transistion”
Swim warmup 1000
Swim 25 minutes…2000
“Transistion”
Run 30 minutes 3.9 mi
Swim 25 minutes…1900
Run 30 min. 4.35 mi
Swim 25 minutes....2100 (just rounded it out to hit 7k)
Spin easy 25 minutes.

That there by itself is a decent workout since there was some intensity at times. We went and had subway and chilled at Franks for almost 2 hrs. Then we got some cold gear on and headed out to the Towpath for a 10 mile run. So lets sum it up.

22 miles running
7k swim
easy spin
Just a random 6 hrs total.

I then met my parents for dinner and got all shitfaced. Not a part of the P90x plan…either was trufing my front yard thoughJ

I see that a lot of people are putting their race schedules out there. So I’ll do the same. As I was getting a nice little massage Sunday (Which I have to say once again is truly my saving grace…) I began to contemplate another 50k in March. See, there I go. If one 50k is good, 2 is better right? Damn. This structure to a season is tough on me. I have me mental goals and I need to stick to them. I’m fully recovered on the outside from the last race. Better not push it yet. I am going big this year…not huge, just big.

2010 Race Schedule

May 16th……..Cleveland Marathon
June 5th………Potomac river swim
July 11th……...Rhode Island 70.3
July 24th………OHIO masters 2 mile open water
August 1st…….Steelhead 70.3 *still funding not confirmed
August 8th…….Morgantown ½ iron
Sept 12th………Rev 3 ½ iron *still funding not confirmed
Sept 26th……….Toyota Challenge *still funding not confirmed

There you have it. The races I'm still funding are last minute additions. Depending on how I feel and how I've done. Everything else is paid for.

Same old...and a 50k

2010-01-25T09:47:00.000-05:00

Finally. I was able to get through a full 50k without injury. I will say my overall persona; fitness is at an all-time high. My body always wants to progress. I am sure that this is a push from my mind and the body’s along for the ride though. I had a good day on the trails; I went out a bit too easy and at 13 decided to pick it up. I negative split the second 13 by 5 minutes and was feeling some big-time pain. Well that was what I was there for so Mission Accomplished. The muscles hurt but, what was the worst was 3 of my toenails were smashed in my shoe. They were all black at the finish and will soon depart from my toes. Good thing triathlon doesn’t have a pretty foot contest…After all was said and done we went and had a few beers and some cheese fries and wings and regular fries and gummy bears, ALL my favorites. Monday I woke up sore but, something was off. Natalie bought P90x for her birthday and I really wanted to do it. I am an Ironman, not video fitness guy. Well I had the day off so I set everything up in the workout area in the basement and hit Day one. Chest and Back. One of the most wonderful ass kicking’s I’ve had in awhile. With P90x comes a diet plan. No way can I stick to something like that. Or can I? I upped my protein; cut the carbs a bit, eliminated refined sugar and HFCS, and added a ton of veggies. It stuck. I eat because I have to, not because I want to. In 5 days I was down 4 lbs and fully hydrated. Then Friday hit, I got the most awful 12 hr flu. I was at 1100 calories when it hit so I lost a day of nutrition. By Saturday morning I was down another 8 lbs. A gallon of fluid I assume. Sunday night I was back up 4 and sitting around the same Monday. However, I feel like garbage but, there’s this thing. I just want to hammer every workout. I swam this morning and felt like crap. P90x definitely affects my swims. So I think I’ll give it until March 1 then hang it up. It’s more important that I have a strong swim than a not so doughy body. Tell you what though, I’ll be digging deep to pull it out until March. This is in addition to not instead of.

RE: Interbody Memo

2010-01-19T10:43:00.002-05:00

Dear Ego and Brain,

I want to start out by reminding you that once you ask me to get my act together, DON’T go and run a 50k trail race. You are truly an asshole for that. Mind over matter my ass when I can break you... Think about it. Not a threat. A promise! Also, how am I supposed to step up when you consider recovery drinks in the form of 22oz. Guinness with Capt. Morgan chasers? Who the F chases Guinness with rum anyway?! That's not what I want. I want protein and water, maybe some clean carbs. BTW- How’d you like that hamstring cramp at 49.98k ??? Keep that as a reminder of what I will do to you if you try that crap again. 32 MILES!!!! Prick! So I need to step it up. Stop feeding me beer and gummy bears all the time and maybe try a little protein and amino’s. FOR REAL. I’ll meet you half way…So Help me God if you start singing Black Eyed Pea’s I will cramp you in places you don’t know you have!!!

Go eat a plain chicken breast. I’ll see you in the morning.

Go F yourself.
-Body

Interbody Memo

2010-01-13T15:50:00.000-05:00

Dear Body,

I know that I have let you do your own thing since September. You had all that fun and beat yourself up pretty good. That’s fine. You did well last year. My point…it’s 2010 now. I’d say the new season has begun. Training is a little more focused now and I would really appreciate you showing up when I need you. This morning for example, 5000 yds in you were hurting real bad. C’mon now, why so tired? You definitely packed on some “extra energy stores” I struggled through 2000 more on my own. By the way, how the hell do you cramp a hamstring when all I need is upper body? I never cramped your forearm when you were doing all those shots! So basically, I just need a bit of cooperation on this. I’ll get you set up with a massage tonight and we’ll coast through the rest of the week. But, on Sunday you need to be there for this 50k. And after that, no easy go of it for a few weeks. We bike on Monday and hard swim on teusday so…I assume you understand. As a reward I’ll give you 8-10 12 oz treats after the race.

Your Friends,
Ego and Brain

It's on.

2010-01-06T11:15:00.001-05:00

I found that the Holidays were a bit tough. Glad they’re over. The food and drink was wonderful but, I’m ready to concentrate on a good season. I dove right into the New Year with a strong schedule and if work doesn’t get in the way I should stay on track.
Day 2…I’m doing my second Tuesday workout and get called into work during warm up. Not only does this kill the Brick but, it also screws with the family pretty hard. Really pisses me off when that happens. So I stayed at mom’s and hit the pool early. After 7500 in the pool I decided to head up and run a few miles. A nice solid 2.5 hr effort. I find that I have one big issue. Really big actually. I dread my next workout. I lose all motivation on my downtime. I still get there and get it done but, for some reason I just get so blah in between. As soon as I hit the water or get warmed up on the bike everything is great. I thought I was hammering everything but, I think that’s just my pace now. I paced my 7500 all below 1:15. I know that seems slow, and really I think it is…for 500 yds. Do it for 7.5k and see what happens. I think I know what a partial cause is. I’m afraid to put strain on the family. I went big last year and didn’t want to do that again. Well it turns out I did OK at Ironman and stopping would be a waste. It seems as though I have support but, I’m just not sure. Am I taking to much? It’s hard to tell, at least from my perspective. I like to deal in facts not speculation, that’s why I’m in a field of science.

The food restructuring is hard. I’m having a difficult time with the candy. I NEED IT. No weekday beer and no cola has been easy. Portion size still sucks. I am always hungry. It will pass soon. Once I’m on a roll I think I can drop down to 160 and stay. That’s only 13 lbs.

I think the new year has been kicked off ok. So far this week I had a 3hr 40 min trail run in 5” of snow and another long Wed. Plus my daily 80-90 minutes. I just love this feeling of being whooped.

Clark, That's a gift that keeps on giving...

2009-12-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

These Holiday’s are killing me! I looked back to last year and I had taken the last 2 weeks of December off the pool, so I guess 10k a week is still better. I am kind of tired of the Christmas ales, the cookies, and the excess food. That’s good. My work schedule has been tough. Coming in at 4 am trashes a day of workouts. I managed to get a 20 mile trail run in Sunday after work…at 730a. I also managed to roll my left ankle worse than ever. 2 days later I’m a bit swollen. Not good. It’s feeling very weak and I’m afraid of a worse injury if I keep it up on these trails. January 17th I’m running a 50k trail race and I’m thinking about cutting down to 13. Not sure. Although challenging none of this has been more difficult than the way I’m I’ve been feeling. I’m not sure why but, I’ve become extremely stressed and rather aggressive. I was once able to deter these feelings with any type of workout. Now I find it takes me at least an hour of intense training to not want to hold a noodler under water. This is something I need to research little and try to determine what chemical is out of balance and then find a way to restore myself to normal. I guess I could have bigger problems.

On the positive note, training has been going well. I’ve completely ignored any form of a proper diet to a point where I’m sick of junk. I’m biking a few hours a week with some high intensity intervals that I’ve never done before. I know my swim is fine but, with the changes I’ve made I have found that my speed is picking up. I did my time trial workout and I’m quite a bit faster than last year. I may even do it again this week. So check this out:
1000 warm up
400 sub 4:25, 200 recover
200 sub 2:08, 200 recover
100 sub :59, 100 recover
50 sub :27, 50 recover
6x50 IM no free
500 kick

It’s a good TT 3k workout. I like to gauge myself on it. The run is going well also except for the ankle. My overall speeds up but, so is the weight. I’ll get on that next week.

Merry xmas

2009-12-22T14:31:00.002-05:00

After being sick most of last week I made a come back and hit it pretty hard this Xmas. My swim fitness is definitely improving on a log scale. Where I was sore and tired 2 weeks ago and was struggling to hold 200’s on 2:25 I roll into a few mid distance workouts with sub 3:30 300’s. Yes, there’s an ‘s because I can repeat 9 for sure. I added a lot of stroke work. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, my stroke is fly. So most workouts have incorporated about 600-800yds of the nasty beast. I’ve always said distance swimming is made easy once you can comfortably complete a 200 fly. Natalie has her work cut for her though. My elbows have been hurting pretty bad. Reminds me of college and I’m kind of OK with that. This time last year I was only working out 6 times a week for a total of about 7 hrs. I actually took the last 2 weeks of December off from the pool. This year I am training 10-11 hours easily with 4 swims all over 1:15 each with one pushing 2 hrs. So I guess I up’d the ante a bit. Big difference is that last year I was in it for Ironman. So that sums up the last 10 days. Having fun right now. Looking to hone into some real focus come Jan 2. Drop the off season weight and maybe hop on the bike a little. Wonder what I can do if I cositently ride 3-6 hrs a week through the winter instead of cramming some quick bike fitness in june...Good times.

Last update of the off season

2009-12-08T13:39:00.000-05:00

In the past few weeks I’ve went through my past training and goals and attempted to make some sense of it. Last week I took the time and put all my goals on paper and stretched them to the appropriate time frame. It’s very hard because part of my goals involve getting my kids into tri as well. I see a very small window of opportunity for me to succeed. So I need to go after it. Looking at last year it’s evident that I had no real training plan. I was a very progressive athlete and never really had a concentration on anything. I just went with it. I was able to identify more issues and now my training is taking a new turn. I have a detailed outlook that should be pretty easy to execute. My goals are set for 3 years/seasons. I need to hit a few milestones to reel in my end achievement. I see so many people set a goal then publicize it then fail and I feel this is totally the wrong way to look at it. For IMKY I had the ultimate goal to finish in good standing, a secondary goal of 11hrs, and a dream goal of 10 hrs. Well, I went and worked hard and had a good day. I see people so serious on race day. That’s a mistake in my book. Go out and do it, if you took the time to prepare the execution should be easy. I taper well and I know so I draw confidence from that. Mines new goals are just that…Mines. The biggest set back so far has been the “Gimmie’s” you know, Gimme’ a beer, Gimme 3 hot dogs, Gimme a pounder of Haribo. The good news is that I’m stabilized at 171 lbs. I race long at 157 and was in the low 180’s last yr. this time. I have a horrible diet right now and it’s affecting the workouts so naturally it will change on its own.
In other news, I originally thought that I was going to be a part of a local elite tri team. Unfortunately it’s rolling back into a club like gathering. With that lost motivation I was a bit bummed. On the positive, I started posting some swim instruction and have been well received with a few people that are pretty fast. I see a few people helping and pushing each other well above elite status. The desire to achieve some big things is coming. These are a few people who have no problem dropping someone on a long run or hard bike. Maybe on the next ride you get dropped. No ones going to get better if we all just lollygag a 60 miler together except for that guy in the back. Yes I said lollygag.

So I thinks that’s all for the off season summaries. Training is picking up. Speeding up. Everyone has their goals set and everyone has an eye on the competition. Time to grab some equipment upgrades…ya right, not with 3 kids. Well just shine up what you got and get after it.

A new season

2009-11-24T09:14:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I was thinking no way on a half this Sunday. I just got back into a semi regular training 2 weeks prior. My run mileage is barely in the 20’s. So I signed up for the Fall Classic and said F it. Natalie ran it as well and the weather was perfect. Getting there was a little hectic, I’m usually much more organized. Here I am running to and from the start line trying get situated and all. We finally get started and of course I’m over dressed but, I was running OK. Hanging out around my normal tempo run pace. I wasn’t expecting anything except to run out of energy around mile 8. I did. However my pace stayed the same as the pain level increased. In September I set an optimistic milestone goal for myself at this race. Well I lost 3 solid weeks of run training back to back and I let my diet go out the window. I do not regret this. I needed the time to goof off. I hit that point where a 3 mile run would bring my whole day down. I had no events lined up in 2010, nothing to shoot for. Then 3 weeks ago I decided it was time to swim a little and begin some conditioning for the Buckeye Trail 50k. So to sum it up, I am trying to find some satisfaction in a PR that I don’t really feel was an accomplishment at all. That’s my own problem. The posistive is that I was able to touch base with Pat and Brian and some FF people.

The Good News!

Put some events on the calendar now.

Winter Fun Run 50k (what's fun about that?!)

Rhode Island 70.3 (courtesy of Natalie)

Potomac River 7.5 mile Open Water (with the added challenge of jelly fish season)

In my time off I had a chance to enjoy the accomplishment of Ironman. While doing so my competitive side kicks in and I was able to identify last season's deficiencies. They were very apparent and numerous. So I have made a major overhaul to my training plan for 2011...I mean 2010. There will be many more early mornings and some very creative workouts that will test my fitness and keep my body guessing.

Catching up.

2009-11-10T16:43:00.001-05:00

I would say that I’m back at full time. I’ve hammer out a nice plan for next season and unfortunately had to change it up a bit. The Tampa Bay Marathon swim raised it’s entry to $1200. Add that to travel and some other expenses we’re looking at $2500 easy for Natalie and I to go down. Sorry, I need more than a T-shirt for that crap. A short e-mail to the RD received no response either. I politely expressed my opinion on the whole thing. Besides all that I went ahead and set some personal goals. Some will be a challenge. That’s fine. I need a challenge to stay focused. I pulled a few other things together and I really think it may all work out. Then today at lunch, on an easy trail run I took a nasty roll on my rt. Foot and followed it again with the very next step. I walked it out for about 5 minutes and started a light jog back. As soon as I hit normal pace I rolled it again. Now it’s a little black and blue but, no worse for wear I think.

I got the Ironman itch again…just my competitive side making decisions for me. I think I’ll train for IM but, just not do one. $550 a pop with little return is a hard one to swallow. I’ll just get out there and support the ones racing next year. Plus, I don’t think I can handle that post race depression again. Geez. Damn near checked into Betty Ford! Still might.

Like I said. Trainings back on track, weights coming back down and the fun is back. So I’m in good shape. I think I’ll still goof off a little. Can’t quit those buffalo wings just yet.

Get on it.

2009-10-26T16:08:00.000-04:00

I’ ve hit that point. I waited and waited now finally my body says it’s time get back to it. I tried to start a few times then I get the flu and get laid out for 3-4 days. I’m sure all the beers had nothing to do with it. I’m about a month behind last years schedule but, I think it’s ok since I’m not doing an Ironman in 2010. I have that itch though. What I’ll probably do is train as if I’m doing Louisville again and see what happens. I am writing the next chapter much like the last one. Long endurance type stuff early in the year to build a big base then cruise through the rest. I am really hoping to swim a relay across Tampa Bay in April. However, it makes for a tough early season, having a 12 mile swim, a marathon, then a 7.5 mile swim all within 5 weeks could be pretty taxing. On the body and the checkbook. All in all, I’m ready now. I had some time to enjoy all sorts of fall brews and lots of buffalo wings. I ‘ve got an extra 13 lbs on me right now. Good news is that last year at this time I weighed 179, I’, only 169 this year. Won’t take long to cut it. The last tattoo session is Thursday, then 6 days later I’ll be swimming again. It’s going to be tough to bump up to 35k a week…in 3 days a week. Good thing my wife knows how to release a rotator cuff. I have some other plans for next season too. I’ll keep those to myself.

2009 recap

2009-10-08T09:51:00.003-04:00

So lets sum up this season…November 3rd 2008 I got back in the water with a 2300 yard workout. Every m-w-f until September 11 2009 I was there at the pool dropping 3500-12000 yds a day. This year…Same thing. Got me a few more weeks and then it’s time to look towards next season. 2008 is over for me, no need to look back after this.

Buckeye Trail 50k 1/17/09 stopped at 26 miles 5:30
Cleveland Marathon 5/17/09, first full 3:17:15
Potomac 7.5 mile OWSwim 5/30/09 2nd overall 3:28 (long)
NEO Kickoff Sprint 6/7/09 3rd overall 1:06
Maumee Bay Oly 6/21/09 10th overall 2:05
Miltonman Oly 7/13/09 4th Overall
Musselman ½ iron 7/20/09 30th overall 4:50:20
Edgewater 2 mile OWswim 7/24/09 2nd Overall 47:15 (long)
Carnation Oly 8/16/09 1st Overall 2:13
Ironman Louisville 8/30/09 72nd Overall 10:09:57
Portage lakes Oly 9/13/09 4th overall 2:02

You can see that these events are pretty darn close together. It was a good year. I'm pleased with the outcome, I know my weakness is running and I'm working on that. Swimming comes easy, cycling comes easy, I don't really work at it. Hell, I didn't even get on my bike for real until June. Besides that I’ve been taking it pretty easy lately. I want to start training again so that’s good. I was getting real close to burning out. All these pumpkin ales are helping me put some of the weight back on. I’ve been working on a schedule for 2010 and 2011. If money permits I may do something real big this year. 12.2 mile Open water as part of a relay. That will surely blow my lats up. That’s all for now.

If it were easy everyone would do it

2009-09-24T07:44:00.002-04:00

Deeply I pull thick air into my lungs. My calves are on fire, for a moment I look forward and this road seems to never end. Out of the saddle, the pistons pump energy into forward motion. My heart is beating into my ears, my surroundings pull in as a grey fog invades my peripheral. For what feels like eternity I clench my eyes tightly trying to clear my vision. Only a little longer. I look back over my shoulder. I see no one. I can’t seem to catch that pace vehicle but, something inside is making me try. Rationale indicates I never will, raw competitive instinct isn’t always rationale though. Sweat runs down my chin, dripping in a slow motion play onto my knee. I notice this, drip, drip. I am earning this. That’s the only way it means something. My lungs are audibly crying out for relief. Nausea enters my gut, but over my shoulder an invisible competitor is closing in, my fear of failure is becoming stronger than me. My heart feels like it skips a beat, a cold rush tingles over my skin. My brain sends all resources to my legs. I am gripping the machine, tossing it from side to side. I hear nothing but, a steady ring now. It’s getting easier, I move faster, then effortlessly I begin a the decent, wind whipping my jersey across my shoulders. I can feel blood pumping through my muscles, moving waste away along with the thoughts of those last moments. That challenge is in the past. Looking ahead, I see my next climb stands in greatness over where I just came.

This is where I need to be right now.

Part 3/3. Recovery

2009-09-08T16:39:00.003-04:00

Final installment. I bet nobody could sleep awaiting it’s arrival…All 3 people who see this.

Well let’s talk recovery. After the race I was forced to stay on my feet for a few hours. That was fine. I enjoyed taking it all in. I had a lot of trouble eating, the roof of my mouth was blistered and everything burned. I have no idea why. Around midnight I was able to get some cheese and nacho toppings down. This went on for 3 days, so most of my calories came from soft food. My muscles were soar, not as bad as after Cleveland Marathon though. The only trouble I had was the weight of the bed sheets on my bruised toes. I too 3 days off…which was incredibly weird. I didn’t know what to do with my self. Thursday I swam easy, Friday I swam and ran. I was really slow but, nothing hurt. Friday night I got good and drunk, enough to taste those last 2 beers twice. Sunday I hopped back on the wagon. Biked 45 minutes ran 8 miles. Although I was slow and ran out of energy fast nothing hurts. Now I’m back to normal, 2 hr ride Monday, hour swim 45 minute run today. I ate almost 2 lbs of gummy bears and a 2 lb bag of twizzlers over the weekend. So you can see I’m really enjoying my favorite foods now.

So it’s over. I am having a little trouble with all that. Lot’s of unnamed guilt. I’ve lost something that I held very close for a year. Right now I have no goals set, my 2010 race schedule is a mess, who knows. I’m looking forward to some trail running, and concentrating on an early season run goal. I just miss it a little. I am happy to be around the family more, although I’m not to sure they are. Oh well, they just have to get used to me again.

I’ve evaluated my race and broke down my deficiencies. I know exactly what they are and with a few changes to my training I think I can drop quite a bit of time. Am I looking too far into the future? No. I just need to train some speed on the run, maybe get on the bike before June. Up one more swim day. Remember I did 95% of my weekday training in the morning and at lunch. Only a few Thursdays at night.

I’ve met some wonderful athletes. I’ve seen how supportive my family is, and that makes me luckier than most. I had an entourage of 12 in KY. Pretty cool. I like to give them a show when they come out. So it's not all about the race time, it was everything. Lots of memories.

That’s it. Thanks.

Part 2/3 Ironman

2009-09-07T08:13:00.005-04:00

Athletes were launching themselves into the river 3-4 at a time. I was about 100 back but, I was moving down the dock fast. Quickly anxiety filled my entire chest, my speed suit now felt tight, my goggles just didn't seem to fit right. I felt like every noise in the world was screaming into my head. No time to think, no time time to change m mind, or even evaluate what was happening. My muscles kicked into an involuntary autopilot as I jogged closer to the end of the dock. Ironically the volunteer standing on the dock kept yelling "All the Way To the End, All the way to the end". Since I my body was obviously more ready than my mind and I WAS running down the dock, that sentence made sense. I knew as soon as I hit the water, I am going All the way to the end. I leapt in a sort of foot first/oops I started to dive/ belly floppish kind of way, trying not to hit another swimmer. Underwater I heard was bubbles mixed with silence. When I popped up something switched on. Maybe I was comforted by the warm waters of the channel, I am not sure. I started swimming, winding my way through the pack. Many people were splashing and kicking like they were victims of an alligator attack. Possible, I thought. My goggles were a bit dark and I couldn't see that far but, the crowd was getting thin. I had only been in the water for about 2 minutes. This was nice. I opened up my stroke and kept telling myself to hold a good pace but, don't anaerobic. When I hit the first buoy I had a group of 3-5 guys on my feet. I thought i felt someone back there I just don't ever stop to look. I picked up the pace a little and opened up a good lead on them. I would look under my arm down my body and there was nothing. Sighting was tough if you looked buoy to buoy. I just swam. When I would spot another swimmer I would slowly reel them in and pass. I could see the green kayak that lead the AG swimmers, I just couldn't catch it. I was passing pro's left and right though. Kind of made want to stop and tell that from the dock that "I told you so". So far the the race felt good. It always does during the swim for me. That's my thing. Soon I came up ladder and ran up into transition. I wish I could have enjoyed the crowd more but, after 2.4 in the water I had a little tunnel vision going. The change tent was empty. Just me. Pretty cool I guess. I ran out grabbed my bike...and socks for the run, and took off.

As I was biking out of town I looked down at the speedo making a mental note that I need to stay above 20 mph. That was a goal I set and I don't know why. As long as I was off the bike at 5:40 I would still have a great day. Just need to be done sub-11 hours. At this point though those numbers were reading 27. My heart rate was low, I already fueled, and I was flying. I just kept telling myself, "Back off a little, still got a run". So I held back a lot it seemed. I was passed by a 30 year old at mile 4, I figured I see a lot of that. At mile 8 a pro passed me. He was a nice guy, said hi and told me to watch my heart rate on the hills. Thanks. I will. We turned down the out and back and this section was beautiful. I was enjoying this ride. I hit the turn around and came back. No other athletes came by for almost 10 minutes. Crap, I better back off, I must be working this too hard. Coming up through LaGrange was awesome. I played a little here, Got up out of the saddle and got up around 32 mph then dropped aero to fly by the crowd. It was really cool...until I hit the timing mats and was raped by my bike seat with the prison name of "taint smasher". That'll teach me to showboat. Just before I met back up with the rest of the race on their first loop a race official pulled up next to me. He said I was the 2nd overall amateur and 3 was about about 5 miles behind. Then he pulled off. Of course he meant 2nd in succession not overall. Right? I came back into the turn, my watched beeped, as it does every 20 minutes to remind to take in a 100 calories. Now it's crowded, really crowded. I was just right of center blowing through the crowd. I came upon Phil, he was looking pretty good. Just before Lagrange I went by Brian Kostura, I didn't stop because it was so crowded I didn't have a chance. 15 seconds later Brian was kicking me down. We rode together for about a mile, it was nice to see someone. The race was pretty lonely up to this point. LaGrange was crazy this lap. A huge moral booster. My speed was still up over 22, I needed to back off. At mile 90 it hit me. I sat up, fueled and smiled. Iam going to do this. I am going to have a great bike and I am putting the whoop on here in KY. Right then, at that very second, my inner leg cramped HARD! I couldn't even pedal while seated. I laughed a bit, Ironic. I had to ride out of the saddle for almost 3 miles but, finally it let go and I was feeling strong again. I didn't want to crush the last 20 miles Still had that run. I had passed a pro awhile back and he told me I was crushing the bike, I really didn't think so but, hey whatever. I backed off for a second and he pulled along side of me, I just said "I heard there's a marathon coming up, and the race begins at mile 13." He laughed and said I was right. So, anyway, rolling back into town I biked pretty easy to rest the legs a bit. I was really worried about the run. During this time 2 age group males passed me putting me in 4th numerically. I came to find out I was really in 6th overall for real. Probably a good thing I didn't know this today.

I ran threw another empty change tent and out on the streets of Louisville I went. My first order of business was to fill my run bottle. I was pretty worried about going to far without fuel. My legs felt good and I made a conscious effort to take it real easy. Mile 3 I'll pick it up if I needed. As I turned out onto the street I saw Mr. Loman and Brian. A nice little pick me up. First mile I looked at my watch and I was at 8:53...actually my watch read 58:53, I'm not sure why, I picked it up a little, just a little, and as I passed mile 2 my watch read 5:05. Nothing was making sense except for the fact that there was only 2 athletes on that bridge when I was there. Me and the guy behind me. That was pretty cool. As I ran onto the streets I saw the other runners coming up onto the bridge, it was a nice lead that I didn't care about losing. I still had 24 miles to go. I made myself a promise, no walking until special needs. That's mile 13. No problem right? Well when I tried to take my gel fueling it didn't happen, immediate stomach pains and side stitch. I continued with the 275 calories I had. When I hit special needs I still felt good but, no fuel now for 30 minutes. I didn't walk, I just pulled out my powder and dumped it in my bottle. At the next aid station I called out for ice water and was handed very warm water. The next cups were cold but, there was a problem. I shook the bottle and took a big swig. It was bad, real bad. Gatorade endurance mixed with perpetuem. I was not happy. And again my stomach was mad too. I stayed with it though and tried to drink a lot of water with it...just no more than 30 oz an hour. I can role with it, that's because at mile 13 I was at 8hrs. I could walk half of the next 13 and still be in by 10:30. Now I was having fun. Then I crossed mile 17. Here's what's funny about mile 17. That's the same as my longest long run almost a month prior. Now I am hurting a bit but, hell this is Ironman. It's not easy. My pace was just below 9 min miles. All of a sudden there was this knot welling up in my hamstring. I had to stop. If it took hold I would be walking for sure. I popped 2 more electrolyte tabs and swigged some nasty. 30 seconds later I was running, and not fast. As I began to move I began to cramp. I wasn't run trained for this. All endurance doesn't compensate for muscles that just had too much. This is when the deal making began. Run for 5 minutes, walk an aid station...I saw a lot of hurt out there. The face of pain were extraordinary. Men that I knew as strong athletes were beginning to crumble. All those miles of preparation and we still have to earn this. One foot at a time slamming into the ground screaming lighting bolts of pain through my legs and back. I put my head up and as others made that right turn I ran straight down a cobblestone road covered with carpet. mdot, mdot, mdot, I focused on the those red numbers clicking by and finished 10:09.57.

72/23 hundredish, 20/350 in my age group.

That's it. I did it. Now where's my family. It's been awhile.

I was extreemely please with that race. I know where my flaws were and I really don't care for this one. My first Ironman was for learning. I soaked it all in and loved the experience.

Part 1/3 The Taper.

2009-09-03T20:44:00.007-04:00

Standing here in my kitchen I 'm in front of my last month of workouts. I hung them right on the cupboard so Natalie knew what the last 3 weeks held. To me this was the most important 21 days out of the last 10 months. I tapered once in May and knew that I could get another good one if I trusted in my years of distance swimming training. You see, tapering is something you can only do 2, maybe 3 times in a year. Like always I also knew what a challenge a 3 week taper would be. This one was going to be hard, and my longest. Let's look closer though, how does one break themselves down for 10 months and expect to fully recover in only 10-14 days? It's just not possible. So that first week wasn't so bad. I kept my run mileage up a little and swam at 90% of normal, the big decrease came on the bike. I dropped volume down from 20 hrs to 16. 25%. During that week I concentrated on increasing calories in stuff I really wanted like a whopper Jr, and some pizza. Fat intake was high but, not so much I couldn't digest it all. My longest ride was 4hrs on Saturday which put me at 82 miles that day. I ended Sunday with my first Overall Win at Carnation Tri. I was able to grab such a lead that I could relax and ease into a finish not overdoing it.
Week 2-
Dropped volume to 10.5 hrs. almost 50%, I decreased my fat intake and added proper servings of complex carbs. I began hydrating already and maintained weight at 163. This week I was in bed around 10p, which is 90 minutes earlier than usual. Falling asleep to Discovery channel every night was fine. Swimming volume stayed the same, run dropped, and my bike dropped. Saturday was my last "longer ride" of only 3 hrs. By this time I was really feeling like crap. Super sluggish and just tired of it all. Everything hurt, every spot of tendinitis was flared.
Week 3-7 days until race day-
I was now having a serving of complex carbs with every meal. I wasn't all that hungry though. I had certain workouts planned but, made a last minute decision to cut a lot out. Instead of the longer tempo I opted for short workouts with a period of "Balls out" intensity with a long recovery. By Thursday I only had 2.5 hours in. I was still feeling really sluggish and my nerves were starting to climb. Monday night I packed all my nutrition and while doing so I noticed my Perpetuem had expired last May. So I got on the phone with Loman who suggested I just call Hammer. Well they indicated that it's fine unless...unless...unless it smelled even a little sour. Well it's smelled sour since the day I got it. Hammer said no way, toss it. So here I am 5 days out and no one in town has Perpetuem except Nate Loman. My man hooked me up with 12 servings of cafe' latte. New to me but oh well. I had to do a little last minute design because of the caffeine but, I was no worse for wear. so what I had is this:
Bike- 900 calorie perpetuem/gel mix
900 calorie Infinit
600 calorie espresso/vanilla gel
240 calorie hammer bar
Special needs- 600 calorie perpetuem/ 400 calorie gel/ hammer bar
Run- 360 calorie cafe' latte
600 calorie espresso/vanilla gel
Special needs- same.

I know that's a lot of calories, I was taking in a count for spoilage and launched bottles. So what do I lose? $10 in fuel and bottles? It's great insurance policy. Back to taper. The pool was closed this week so I swam open waer in Lake Milton in my race gear to identify and chafe issues. I wouldn't leave the trainer with my bike in fear of chip and seal, and my runs never exceeded 4 miles. The week went fast, I was incredibly busy at work which helped keep my mind off the weekend. Everything was ready to go Wed night and Thursday I came home, packed up the car and went to bed. Natalie drove most of the way down, I tried to rest with 3 excited kids in tow. I mean this was their 'tucky 'cation! When we arrived on Friday the place was crawling with athletes and the busy energy was crazy. I went straight to athlete check in and got my pre race medical. 7.5% body fat and 65% water content, 164 lbs fully clothed. Perfect. This is when I hooked up with Patrick and Kostura. Together we went through and got all race essentials complete. Good thing they showed up because I was going to go nuts with nervous energy. That night we went out to dinner with some CTC and SPIN guys at the Spaghetti Warehouse. I ate a salad and some garlic toast. No need to pound the calories now, I needed easily digestible foods. Saturday I got my warmup swim in at 9am. There was killer current flowing down the Ohio river. I swam about 1/2 mile upstream and it took me almost 20 minutes. 7 minute return. Good news for race day. All afternoon I held up in our hotel room, stayed off my feet and chilled the room to 60. I sat there on the couch eating some dried fruit and watching Dirty Jobs. One last check of the race gear and I got my bike checked. At 9 pm I realized my race socks were still on the table. Not that big of deal though, I wasn't worried. There was something much bigger looming over me. After a horrible friday night sleep I turned in around 10 pm. Fell right to sleep and woke up at 4am to my ringtone alarm. Holy Shit, this is it. Immediately my nerves redlined. Only after one, yes just one cup of coffee was I able to mentally calm myself down. I went through my pre race, got dressed, ate 2 English muffins, lightly toasted with low fat PB and blackberry jelly, topped with a drizzle of honey and a little bit of dried cranberry. Don't mess with that combo. Time to walk to the race start.
The line for the swim start was a rumored mile long. I planned on swimming close to 50 minutes so I wasn't having it. About 100 people back I ducked into line. The dude standing there was a little mad, I just put it into perspective..."It's either over you or in front of you". We waited for a bit then we were corralled into position for a time trial start. I only drank 16 oz. of water this morning, no need to over hydrate. We sang the national anthem then there was a large boom from the pro start. I watched swim by thinking..."better swim hard, I'm coming after you in ten minutes", only I said it out loud and Mr. Dickface scoffed and said, "Riiight". That's ok, I'll never see this man again.

Next up. Ironman.

So close

2009-08-21T13:10:00.003-04:00

Here we go! Last week. Looking back takes some time. It just seems like the other day when I was sitting on the couch at my moms on Labor Day 2008 hungover signing up for Ironman. It’s been a tough taper week. After a good training weekend and a race win on Sunday I found myself rather sluggish. I couldn't get moving to save my life. Last night and this morning things were looking up though. I’m a little heavy in the pool but, some of the speed was coming back. Everything is healing nicely and my energy levels seem to be increasing. I have developed this back pain though, right in the middle. Not sure why or what to do. Seems a bit late to worry about it. Not much left, 5.5 hrs of riding and running this weekend and then 4 short days of high intensity long rest training.

One last comment, along with the back pain I have had a very sensitive stomach. A constant knot or cramp. This has been going on for a week now. I thought it had to do with overuse of NSAID's. Jody made a suggestion...maybe it's an overdose of nerves? I think he's right because every time I think of that my stomach turns and tightens.

So once again, to one of my favorite quotes that has suited me very well in the last 2 yrs. Compliments of Natalie:

"Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deads can be accomplished" -Jack Lovelock

Taper Town!

2009-08-11T14:09:00.000-04:00

Well that’s it. Hours and hours of training, months and months of work. The taper has officially begun and I even threw in an off day. Just one though, I feel as though and easy 2000 in the pool is more beneficial than doing nothing. I sat down today and wrote out the last 3 weeks of workout before IM. I was getting very excited. Already I feel rested, not sure why though. Since June I have been training from 17 to 22 hrs a week depending on time (and injury), the last 3 weeks I concentrated on long runs and bikes. Friday’s long run was cut short at 17 miles since my IT band was reminding that I’m only human and several 4+ hour workouts in one week is not a good idea. That’s fine I didn’t really mind. So what happens now?

Week 1 of 3 will be driven by the thought that I’m kind of on a downhill. I’m still training, just not as long. It’s really important to fully concentrate and streamline my diet. In the past week or so I let myself indulge in some chicken wings and a few beers. It was the only thing keeping me sane after 6+ hours on the bike and runs that last way into the dark. My swims will stay long. I can’t wait to feel the last mile!

Week 2 of 3 is dialing way way back on the distance but, ramping up intensity with lots of recovery time. Again the diet is crucial. Last weeks Diet Pepsi is this weeks water and green tea. I will be in bed before 10, maybe reading a mag or watching shark week reruns.

Week 3 of 3- The final days. A few hard efforts that are very short with nice recovery. I suspect I will be feeling very anxious and have nowhere to channel that energy. The biggest challenge will be staying calm. I will pack and repack my gear, just like I’ve done twice a week for a month now. My only setback was not renting some race wheels. That won’t keep me from the starting line though. I will be in bed at dark, just like the kids. Topping this tank off is vital

I am ready for Ironman. I know I will finish. I’ve been making deposits in the bank of hammer since September. 2 marathons, an ultra swim, a half iron and bunches of small events…all have been successful. As others were sleeping I was putting the time in. When others were training I was putting the time in. Everything feels strong and pain free. Natalie has worked wonders on everyday tightness and recovery while the good doc worked out the massive overuse junk. I never got the heat training I wanted, just lost about 10 lbs of fat to be sure. It’s all good from here, holding it together will be a small challenge compared to what has been done already. Just resting in the faith of my taper and I taper very well, I break way down and have an awesome gift of recovery…

Tick, Tick, Tick

2009-08-07T11:52:00.001-04:00

Good volume last weekend. Got up nice and early Saturday and rode up 303 and wound my way to the valley. Ended up just over 100 Miles and then at work. So that makes 2 weekends in a row where I had to work. Oh well, I’m getting it all in. Sunday I did a nice variation of a long run. Since I’m so close to IMKY and I need the run miles I’m afraid of irritating old injuries. The run was as follows:

15 minutes ride, 5.25 mile run. Repeat 3 times with a 20 minute ride warm down.

It was raining when I started so I rode the trainer in the garage. When the workout was over I was pretty thrashed but, in the best way possible.

This is my last super volume week. Around 21 hrs. Friday I am doing my last long long run in the same manner. Looking at 20 miles this time. I’m learning that persistence is more valuable than intensity. Makes recovery easier too. I’ve been doing these really long days followed by and easy day and the recovery has been amazing. Good for me right now. I also think that the Iron supplement I’m taking now is helping a bit. The fatigue isn’t as bad.

Get this, I got an e-mail today asking me if I was accepting my slot to the ITU Long Course World Championships in Perth Aus. To race w/ team USA. Sounds pretty cool. Also sounds like $4000. Ouch. Maybe in another lifetime.

Well, it all comes down to this last weekend and then taper time. Increasing calories and sleep, decreasing volume. Fun Stuff.

keep on keepin' on

2009-07-29T16:05:00.000-04:00

Another decent few days of training. Since I’m completely exhausted everyday which means that I am out there enough. I sat down and did my final month of training with taper. What a challenging 9 months this has been. Lots of ups and downs…injuries, accomplishments, first times. Never thought I’d bike 90 miles then go to work. Never thought that I’d think sleeping until 5am was late. This year I’ve run 2 marathons, one on a trail in 10” snow and one downtown, both were firsts. I swam across the Potomac just a bit over 8 miles. I did another 70.3 and went into it like it was an Olympic. Thanks to my wife who has repaired many sore legs with some massage. Thanks again to my wife who has to ultra plan her weeks around my training. It needs to be known that when I finish IM that she was instrumental in my success! And get this- 4 years ago I was 233 lbs. Never would I have thought I’d be where am at right now. Training 20 hrs a week and eating everything in sight just to stay above 160lbs. 31 days left, just got to hold it together a little longer. 2 more crazy, crazy, hard weeks of miles and miles….then taper time. So with all that said…

An incident occurred recently that has really made me look at things differently. I followed this story of a child who battled a brain tumor for almost 3 years. Unfortunately she lost her battle last week. Absolutely heart breaking reading her blogs and always knowing that this child was probably not going to win. Beyond all that, take a moment to keep her family in your thoughts. I’m sure they need it right now.

This is an opportunity to look at what we, as athletes have. So we are tired, so we come in 2nd, oh, my IT band hurts…that’s it? That’s what we have to complain about? We are not really a big deal like we want to think.

Looking for that elusive W.

2009-07-25T15:38:00.000-04:00

I meant to update last week but, work has been killer busy. Raced Musselman ½ iron July 17. It was a good race. I stretched the swim out and couldn’t quite kick this one guy. So about ½ mile in I picked up the pace and took the heart rate to what felt like 150-160. If I was in a group I would have let go but, being in the first wave and out in front I got all excited. So the swim went well and then I lead the bike until mile 28ish. That’s when I was passed by a <30 yr old meaning that he was actually 4 minutes ahead of me because of the wave starts. I was just happy to be holding 24 mph comfortably. Then we came into this 3.5 mile section that was like biking on fresh chip and seal w/ potholes and broken glass. I never mf’d a race so much. Finally when I was out of it we hit some real nice newly paved asphalt. It seemed like I was bouncing as I biked. Well of course I was, with both tires slowly going flat with about 16 miles to go. I only had one spare and one refill. I actually ended up finishing the bike on 2 flats, oh well. Better now than at IMKY. I wanted to treat the run to something I could hold for Ironman, I did just that and came home with a dismal 1:44 half marathon. The good news is that I technically qualified for ITU long course world whatevers in Perth, and even better…NO INJURIES!. By backing way off I was able to preserve my body. An ice bath within 3 minutes of the finish was also very helpful. The whole weekend was great, I got to hang out w/ Bryan form the team. It’s nice to get to know these folks, good people.

This morning I went down to edgewater and raced an open water 2-miler. I just wanted to do 2 things. Progress the swim and win. Pretty easy in my eyes. At the last minute I decided to go no speedsuit, just my everyday training suit. I went out strong and built the pace to a hard finish. I had quite a bit leftover too. Don’t get me wrong-47 minutes of hard swimming still whoops me a bit. I was tired. When the awards were handed out I come to find that I was 2nd overall. I was beaten’ by someone else’s equipment. One of the deciding factors to ditch the speedsuit was that an OW like this should be done at a purest level if you are there to compete. It also felt funny to swim with too. If I could afford a $300 speedsuit I would use one. I can’t. In the end I guess I’m just mad that I got beat. At 47 minutes I found that course a little long. I swam well and should have been closer to 41-42 for 2 miles. Looking back at this morning…the best part was how peaceful everything is at mile 1.5 hammering along the shore of a glasslike lake. At least I have that.

Last note: loving the support from family. So happy they are helping me get through these last weeks to Ironman. When that 3rd workout comes each day and I just don’t want to, I hear “have at it pussy, you look fat”. Ha! 3500-4000 calories a day and I just dropped below 157. But it works.

Just an update

2009-07-16T16:17:00.002-04:00

After last weeks issues with injury and drag assin’ things are looking up. I got the bike out for a hard ride Saturday. I was planning on 30mi tt w/ 10 mi warmup 10 mi warm down. Well the warm up went fast as I dropped a 5 hr energy. Since I was already warming at 21 mph I’ll just push a little harder. Everything was great until mile 28…Thunder and the heaviest downpour I ever rode, let alone 22 miles in. In the end call it a 50 mile Time Trial. Sunday we raced Milton Man Olympic. I was out of the water way first, off the bike first and then finished fourth. The legs fell off around mile 4.5. I had the guts, just lead in the legs. After the past month I figured it would happen so I wasn’t too mad. The Tri team filtered into my house for a great picnic revolving around rum soaked peaches and Hefe-Weizen. At some point my left calf got super sore. I couldn’t even walk for the evening. I guess I strained it. Who knows. Feels better now.

Workouts this week have been moderate but longer. Over 3hrs a day with some hard swimming. I’m going to use the pool to add some late season endurance. There’s just one problem with all this hammering. We are headed up to NY this Saturday to race a half-iron. Yes, that’s 1.2 mi swim/ 56 mi bike/ and 13.1 mi run. Since I am managing this ankle and IT band the run has picked up but, I’m definitely feeling the pain. That adds a huge mental strain as well since I’m always worried that I will be too hurt for IMKY. What I was learned lately is that most of it is in my head. When I believe that everything’s manageable. So on we go. I cut my junk diet out. So no more candy or cola and, limited beers untill september. Guess what was put in our vending machines less than 24 hrs after I quit the junk...

Lastly, This Saturday is my daughters Tri training weekend. She biked 40 minutes Tuesday and made me very proud. I think tonight I may do some rocky training for her. I need to mow and she needs to run, so maybe she can jog slowly behind the mower for 20 minutes. Something easy and fun. She made me a very proud father when she biked without complaint and did really well. I see a future endurance junky…

Who pissed in the closet?

2009-07-10T10:00:00.002-04:00

Good new is that last nights bike and short run went well…mostly. The IT band felt good and I continue to stretch and ice. I’m feeling achy with some tightness today but what would one expect after 4hrs training yesterday. Easy training though.

So this wonderful woman I know gave me a quote she found in a magazine. It was during a time where injury and work was kicking my ass.

“Adversity causes some men to break,
and some men to break records”

I want to follow that up with another…

“Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance” Bruce Barton

Why do I bring this up? Besides this battle with an insistent injury that has been beating me physically and mentally, I have had one of the most hap hazard, comical, and down right stupid 24 hours ever. So it begins like this…I screw up my routine by taking almost 4 days off of training so I, the over planner, get all thrown off my schedule. Besides the injuries, My bike is fighting me, bolts are coming loose, my seat fell off last night, the chain keeps popping off…only while climbing, animals are playing chicken with me, my cleat pops out and damn near fly head first into the asphalt…thank god for my nuts catching aerobars or I would have fallen for sure. This morning after over sleeping and getting to the pool late my suit felt funny…it was inside out, then my goggles broke… and here’s the best one. Last night I stayed at my moms, I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Getting out of bed like I do at home, I pass a large window, like at home, and continue walking straight towards the bathroom, like at home. Well at home there is not a wall like the one I ran right into. Bam, now the best part is my confusion. I was like “Uh what the hell? Where did thi..huh? Ow, my, how the, huh? Oh, I’m at moms”
Good thing I didn’t make it to the bathroom, I may have pissed in the closet.

Panalized 3 minutes for over comma use.

That's 1

2009-07-09T09:42:00.001-04:00

Got in the water this morning. Warmed up a 1000 yds. I at the wall stretching my hamstrings when I looked at my watch and said “Screw It.” For the next hour I swam hard. The good news is that my left shoulder gave in first at around 3800 yds, my rt. Elbow started to burn around 4200. I finished the workout at 5600 yds and felt pretty good. As I walked to the locker room I could feel a little “sensation” in the IT band. I’m really hoping it’s just me being over sensitive. I’ll keep stretching and icing, tonight I have an AR appt followed by a 2 hr ride. I may even run 10 minutes when I’m off the bike. Tomorrow I got another hard swim and a 45 minute easy lunch run. I have a good feeling that I’ll be OK. I see all my runs for the remainder of the season being easy. Long and easy…

Lastly, Ever have one of those good music days. Every channel you turn on has a great song playing. Well I’m having a day like that. All the songs I hear are from the mid 90’s and just take me back to when things were just plain simple. Then I realize, things still are pretty simple. Eat, sleep, live, train, work. Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think? I just have to keep reminding myself, it always works out.

Avoiding an untimely end

2009-07-08T11:08:00.001-04:00

Once again, I’ve neglected my blog. It’s been a tough few weeks. I’ve been hitting it hard. After a middle of the road race at Maumee bay I picked up the bike a little. Aero has proved to be a problem. After 20 minutes I get real uncomfortable in my right hip and lower back. I think I’m in the need of a good fitting. $$$$, so not now. Last week was good, I started to pick up the run a little more, this IT band had been plaguing me for about a month now. So naturally I’m pretty worried as I am doing a ½ in 12 days and 6 miles is the furthest I’ve run since May. Last Friday turned out to be my 6th straight day where I rode in the rain. I guess that’s OHIO for ya’. So what’s up now?

I’m riding up the bike and hike from my house last Saturday. I’m pretty tired from the headwind and the 130 miles the day before. I look down and notice a big dent in my top tube. What’s this about? Where? I mean what the hell? I don’t think it will harm anything but c’mon I just bought it. I fell off it once but, that was a grass landing. So I’m a little worried about that. I finally get to my moms and put the shoes on to crank out 7-9 tempo miles in the sun. Miles 1 and 2 I’m pacing 7:15 and just enjoying myself. By the time I hit mile 3 I could feel my IT getting awful tight. I stopped and stretched it but, going up hills was impossible. This is something I can handle…if it were January. IMKY is 8 weeks away and I can’t run. WTF! WTF! How do I go 8 months without an issue then this. I’m following the rules mostly, I did bump up the bike miles by 200% but, I’m not out there hammering.

It’s now teusday. I can’t even swim. I saw Keyes Monday, and have been in dire panic mode since Saturday. I can barely sleep, I get up at 2 am and find myself stretching in the hallway . I sit here at my desk on an ice pack w/ one on my knee as well. I’m eating NSAIDS like candy. My stomach is on fire from stress and anti inflammatories… I’m feeling fat and out of shape.

What’s next? Maybe nothing.

Figure it out on the trail...

2009-06-17T09:05:00.006-04:00

Life only demands from you the strength you possess.

Only one feat is possible--not to have to run away.

Dag Hammarskjold

Potomac River Swim 7.5 er, 8.5 miles of something.

2009-06-03T16:32:00.000-04:00

The race is over and now I think I’m ready to talk about it. Natalie and I drove down to Point Lookout State Park, about an 8 hr drive with stops for veggie subs and Gatorade. The race director was kind enough to put us up in a 100 SF cabin, which was actually quite nice. After the drive down there was only one thing I could think about doing…and Natalie wasn’t up for that so I talked her into a run. I was also planning on a swim too but, some pretty nasty T-storms rolled in. Now of course I’m ion a panic. 12 hours from this point I’m supposed to be swimming. It rained until at least 10pm, after that I don’t know because I fell asleep.

I was up at 5:30, we brought a coffee pot so it brewing away making all sorts of noise. I grabbed a cup as I emptied out my fuel bag for the 5th time. 3pairs of goggles, Check. 20 oz. orange accellerade at 220 cal, check. 350 calories hammer gel, check. Powerbar in case I need solids, check, Vaseline, check, waterproof camera, check. I put on a thick layer of bodyglide and had the biggest PB&J w/ honey and banana’s ever! Off we went over to the marina to help load up the skipjack. You see, a swim of this distance isn’t done around a bunch of buoy’s. They feel the need to boat us over to Virginia and have us swim back. My nerves were running pretty high, my Ipod was full blast just trying to get a Rhianna song out of my head. I really didn’t want that for the next couple hours. I met up with Mike my kayaker and gave him my feed plan and the bag. I didn’t really know Mike yet but, he did tell me he has served in 2 branches of the military and id getting ready to retire. It didn’t take much for him to gain my trust. I mean really. Natalie put a thick layer of Vaseline on all my potential rubbing parts and then all of a sudden everyone’s yelling get on the boat! So I did, and off we went. You could see some very nervous faces, and why not, it’s a big day. The boat captain let us all know that it’s only an 18 minute ride and we’ll be there shortly…in 40 minutes. As we headed over the water was very choppy, my PB&J was not sitting well, more nerves than anything. Captain Jack took us about a half mile from shore where we unloaded all the kayaks. The race director announce that the race start is on shore…so get swimming. At this point I wasn’t planning an adding another mile to this day. Note: at this point. We were lucky enough to have the whalers take us in. So that’s how we got there. Not to eventful.

I heard the words “Time officially started” I guess that means go in open water swimming land. However, only one swimmer took off while everyone else waded in slowly. Water temp was about 66 so I wanted to get moving, problem was I didn’t see my kayaker yet. I could stand around and wait or just trust in something I can’t control. That’s big for me. Off I went, sorta. Immediately I was getting my ass kicked by the waves. I just couldn’t get my timing down. The good thing was that 30 seconds in up came Mike out of nowhere. It’s important to know that Mike is a rookie support guy and I am a rookie OW swimmer. So who knows if we are all wrong. Earlier I had set my watch to beep every 25 minutes to eat, and that’s what I did. After the first beep I popped my head up and Mike hooked me up with some Hammer Gel. Mmmm. We switched sides to get my face out of the sun, next stop…25 minutes. After my first stroke I took a mouthful of brackish water and up came lunch. I kept going after I chummed the waters to hopefully settle the stomach. I stopped at about an hour in and fueled again, Mike informed me that we had 4.6 miles left. I was moving at a good clip and I was catching the guy in front. At this point I was in second. At my next fueling I past the leader and felt great. Then we hit this current, It was like I came to a stand still, I’m swimming as hard as I can using tons of energy just to move a little. I got to a point where I was getting pulled towards a monitoring station, this thing was scaring the crap out me. I just didn’t know what it was so of course I was nervous. I took a quick fueling and started to swim hard to get away from it. At this point I could see the finish , looked 10 minutes away….I decided to stop fueling because I was so close. The watch kept beeping I kept swimming. At 3 hrs I just wanted to be done. I was back in second place and not catching up. I was whooped. Every stroke hurt, a lot. Mike didn’t have to be supportive, he probably knew by now that all I need is data. He kept me informed and guided me in. I finished in 2nd place out of 28 starters. When I was done everyone wanted pictures, all I wanted was some recoverite and Mike. He was a part of this just as much as I was. (Little easier for him tho…) It was really great to see Natalie, may parents and my brother too. So after 3 hrs and 28 minutes I was all done, and hurting. I got one hell of a sunburn, so I learned that. I also found out we swam closer to 8.5 miles. That current was a bitch. Sunday morning hurt more than I expected. Couldn’t even lift my left arm By the time I hit the pool Monday morning I was pretty much A OK. I think I’ll go back. Still need to get the W.

Lets break it down

2009-05-21T14:57:00.003-04:00

Here's a little graph showing how I died after mile 21. Everything else went as planned, go out easy for the first downhill, (unplanned Bathroom Break) then fall into a nice pace. I stayed right around 7:05-7:12 until that last little part where I stopped to stretch a little and just wanted to go home. The graph is a little fuzzy because I used snagit...for the first time.

Swam this morning- only 6k but I did 5k straight in the wetsuit. Rolled in at 58:50 ish. Feeling good, only 8 days until the Potomas River swim. I' am hoping to ease into a 1:15-1:20 100 pace to put me around a 23-24 minute mile. It all depends on conditions. The best part is that my kayaker will guide me so I won't really have to site that much.

In the mean time I am planning on killing some miles on the bike this weekend. My poor legs are going to hate a century weekend, which is approximately 90 miles more than I have been biking per week...Good thing Natalie has those magic fingers. (she's practicing massage, not proctology)

2 days later...

2009-05-19T10:07:00.002-04:00

I woke Monday morning and went to swing the legs out of bed and nothing. I had been graced with non compliant quads and IT bands tighter than a guitar string. I gathered everything I needed because going down those steps was only happening once today. After my family was on their way I decided to throw a quick load of laundry in before I had breakfast. I stood there at the top of the basement steps with mental images of an old lady laying on the floor crying "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up". Not even a chuckle, a smirk, or anything. I just slowly turned away defeated in the fact that I could not tackle this task. After that I watched a movie and went to the pool. 1500 yds later I was on to work where I rode the elevator all day.
This morning when I woke up all was good. Some sore quads that's it. So it was 5k in the pool. It was like pulling dead weight...but, what does one expect after completely draining the energy stores.
I have this ability to recover amazingly fast. Now, with the magic fingers of my favorite massage therapist...aka my wife, I can recover even faster. She has truly grasped an understanding of the art and I am truly grateful. Without the weekly massages I think I be quite the broke dick at this point. Probably wouldn't have even made it to the marathon.
Next stop....Potomac River 7.5 miles. 12 days.

The Failed Success a Cleveland Marathon recap.

2009-05-17T19:45:00.004-04:00

In the week leading up to my first road marathon I was extremely busy with an corporate audit at work. This even included a late night with beers. I did my best to get back on track but, that damn wagon seat must be greased because I keep falling off. Thursday thru Saturday I made sure to hydrate and stay as focused as possible but, on what? I don't even know how to run a marathon. My training up to this point was way off track and I just wasn't getting the quality long runs or tempos that I should have. So how did this all turn out?

I was up nice and early Sunday. I limited myself to one cup of coffee compared to my usual 3-4. I lightly hydrated with some HEED and we headed out. I got a great parking spot as a volunteer hooked me up at the finish line as we dropped off Natalie's massage set up. The wind coming off Erie was awful and it was only about 45 degrees. I met up with some Tri Team members and ran over to the start line. Now where do I line up? 3:10 seemed too fast but, 3:20 maybe did too. I just didn't know and now I had to pee again. I was feeling quite anxious at this point. So I lined up in a 3:15ish area and decided to run my race as I felt. I wanted to take the first 2 miles out easy. People were flying by. Old women with walkers were dusting me. By mile 1.5 I had to make a pit stop, and here's were everything changed. I came running out of the porta-jon figuring I was way behind the 3:20 group so I was trying to catch up. My mile splits dropped down to 7:00 and I felt great. I got 6 miles out and I could see the 3:20 group so I thought. I held the pace and mile 11 I ran up behind them. Turns out these are the 3:10 guys. I am sub Boston pace and feeling good. What a day. However, I told myself just to run. whatever happens does. I ran through mile 13 where Patrick was pacing the last half. I just wanted to stay put for awhile and hang with him. I felt great but, I knew this couldn't last.
Fast forward to mile 20...
Here it goes. All at once both IT bands locked. I started a loping stride to stretch out. It was working a little but by the time I got to 23 I had to stop twice and stretch. My hamstrings were cramping and it was all about pain. I just wanted to be done. No fun. Frank and Jody biked up and kept me company for the last few miles...That's all?
Well my title is The Failed Success. What that mean? Well I went into this race naive and blind. I ran very well. I showed discipline, I came to understand why long runs are important and I paid for it. I wasn't qualifying for Boston today, not in my first marathon attempt. I am not upset at this. I realized I was off pace and I let it go. I'm not here to get hurt, I'm saving that for Ironman. So as 3:10.59 ticked by there was a rookie marathoner 5 minutes 7 seconds away death marching towards a Failed Success. What a great day. 3:16.06

12,500 yds.

2009-05-07T10:22:00.006-04:00

Here’s the post.

I planned very well for my Wed. big swim day. I was up and out of the house in time. I was cruising down RT.5 at 4:50 am when the lights appeared. Apparently some of OsHP wanted to stop me and talk shop on Triathlon. Maybe not. He was more interested in issuing me a ticket for going 60 in a 55, unless you read the ticket which states 65 in a 55. He was concerned for my safety. Here’s the dilemma. Now I’m 15 minutes off track. So again- I speed. Well, I made it to the pool at 5:40 and was attempting to enter the water. This has become increasingly difficult with the amount of morning manatee’s that insist on their own lanes. I am gunning for 10k this morning. I brought some gel to see how it settles with some Heed and I was ready. Despite all my efforts and another 15 minutes lost to chatting I ended up with 9k. Oh well. Bad Cop.

I returned later in the evening after work and turned another 3600 with the wetsuit. Did some hammering until my deltoids were destroyed.

What’s the next step?

Dial it down a bit
My runs and intensity coming down the week before Cleveland Mary
Drop the yardage to 16k next week, then 14k, then 8k.
Increase the Sleep! Hammer the Potomac

The Weather Outside is...GOING BIG.

2009-05-05T16:26:00.000-04:00

Had a good weekend. The weather outside was weather and I ran 22 Saturday. It sucked, not sure why except for the obvious. I now realize that Cleveland Marathon is going to be a bitch. I won’t enjoy it. Maybe I’ll be surprised…doubt it. The cool part about the towpath was meeting up with Natalie and the kids about 9 miles in. I ran an 11 minute mile there, approximately the all out effort of a 4 yr. old on a tiny bike. Sunday I woke up all nice and early and took the new tri ride out with some folks from the Tri team. 45 miles later my legs were toast. I assumed that this was going to be a tough week because of the 6 hours of training over the weekend. Monday’s swim proved it. I was tired. Woke up Tuesday morning feeling all types of groggy and rolled back over. My lunch run was nice. Legs felt all lite and energetic, something I wasn’t expecting. Well tonight’s movie night with the family as I rest up a bit for the Wed. morning suffer fest. I was able to snag and extra 20 minutes in the water so you know what that means…another 1700 yds. Hopefully I’ll head on back to the pool in the PM and get a 3k wetsuit swim in. Why am I swimming in a wetsuit? Potomac River 7.5 miles of who’s my bitch Open Water swimming contest in 22 days! That’s why. I need to find all the chaffing spots before the Chesapeake bay does. That’s all for today. Maybe I’ll update leter in the week on what actually panned out at the pool. GOING BIG though! Last week of 20k+ yardage.

Digging deep.

2009-04-29T15:04:00.000-04:00

Better today. I left work at noon yesterday feeling tired and like crap. I slept from 1:30 to 5, then through movie night and eventually went to bed at 10p and slept until 4:20a. That’s more sleep than I got over the last week. I hopped in the pool with the intention of swimming 7000 yds. Well that didn’t quite work out for me so I went 8500. I am wore out. In a really good way though. I have zero appetite so I’m forcing calories in today. I had a real nice lunch run of 4 miles which made my day. So what’s next? I will keep that to myself because, every time I propose a training schedule it falls apart. That’s that!

I mentioned that I’ve made some way on temp management. Simple as this. I dropped almost 10 lbs. of body fat. Holding a weight in the low 160’s. That’s down from 177 on Ash Wednesday. No insulation to hold the heat in. Now when it comes to blazing sun and race day…well lets says I got a few tricks up my sleeve. Let’s see if it works.

Today’s swim set-
Warm up- 500 swim, 500 pull, 500 swim. On 21:00
Main set- 1500 on 19:30
1500 on 19:00
1500 on 20:00
2500 on whatever’s left.

phazers set to lazy

2009-04-28T07:24:00.000-04:00

Been a little off for a couple days and now I think I may be a little sick. Not a good time for this to happen. Cleveland Marathon in 20 days and Potomac river swim in 33 days. Cut this morning swim way short and I think I’ll cut back to 17k for the week to allow for some rest. I am way ahead on the swim training so I can afford it. I’ve just been really tired and sore for the last few days. Now my sinus’ are keeping me stuffed up and my throat burns. Good thing I wasn’t in Mexico last week or I may be worried.

So here’s what I think is going on. On ash wed. I gave up beer, soda, and candy for lent. That was 40 days. I cut a lot of fat, I made awesome fitness gains and I felt really good. Then on Easter I drank a bakers dozen worth of high powered beer and ate candy all day. For the last 2 weeks I’ve been on the candy, cola, beer diet. I tried to keep at the same training level but, for some reason my body rejected it. Some reason? I think I know the root cause. A perfect example of you are what you eat. It has effected everything in my life. I’m snapping at the kids, I just have no patience with them, this in turn makes me feel guilty, which makes me feel more crabby. I am having trouble sleeping, stress dreams about everything from my kids safety to my wife leaving me because of Ironman. The same goes for work. Low motivation, then guilt, then low performance. All I’m concentrating on is the negative which takes away from family and training. See the cycle.
So what to do?

First off, I am getting out of here early today, getting a haircut, picking up some groceries, skipping my lunch run, and going home for a nap. Then I will chill with the kids, go to bed early and be real careful about what I use for fuel.

It kills me. I had a major breakthrough in heat management when I run and didn’t even have the sense to bask in the victory. One of those things that would have drove me for 2 weeks and I let it go. Not good.

I’m out, going to take my multi vit and get some good calories in.

Friday!!

2009-04-24T14:47:00.003-04:00

Good week of training. I know this because I have a golf ball sized knot in my rt. shoulder blade. The good news about that is the day and a half of muscle relaxers I get. I went back to the pool Wed evening and swam 3500 in a wetsuit. The life guards were laughing at first. Then after 45 minutes of 1:05 repeats not so much. I could keep that crap up all day. Wetsuits are for sure a form of cheating. I will join the dark side for awhile. I'm not too proud.

The only bad thing that happened this week was that there was an attack here at Ben Venue. It was horrible. I call it a hate crime, since the basis for attack was the flavor of his sugar...

The offenders were punished without trial through consumption.

I love Wed.

2009-04-22T16:16:00.003-04:00

What a better day. Yesterday only got worse culminating at 6pm with what I want to call rock bottom. I picked up a battery and proceeded to install it on our van. She fired up and all engine codes were gone. Seems as though that Broke Dick at the dealership needs to head back to car fixin’ school. Well cross your fingers, I need this to be fixed.

Today started off at 0418 as every m-w-f does. It’s a special day. It’s the long swim day. Two workouts, one long in the am and one about 3-4k after work just to suck what was left out of some tired muscles.

After 8k this morning I sat in my car for a moment sipping on some recovery protein. I thought to myself, Remember it. This feeling, right here. I don’t get it often anymore but, it’s what keeps me pushing farther. My body is temporarily shot. Totally broke down for a bit. My shoulders are (good) burning, water sloshing in my ears, my eyes are swelled up from the goggles but, I feel really great. I hammered long and now I am receiving the endorphin reward. My addiction. After 18 miles running last Saturday, I got nothing. Maybe I’ll get it after 20 next week. But for now, who gives a shit my bank acct. empty, who cares my car is broke down. I am content.

Side bar- WTF is up with the swim crowds in the morning? Macedonia Rec is getting crushed from 530a-730a. I actually saw some noodlers trying to circle swim.

WTF Week 2009!

2009-04-21T16:14:00.004-04:00

What's been going on? Geez! When it rain it pours I guess. Seems like lately everything has been going wrong in life. I pissed something off. Whether the Karma keeper, a divine being, or what. The unforeseen bills are flying in at a rate that would have Bill Gates counting pennies. I'm running low on recovery protein, hammer gel, and patience with pool noodlers! After today's debacle regarding our 2 yr old van and the $1000 I don't have to fix it,... I went for a lunch run to calm the nerves. Nice and easy. My IT band was on fire afterwards...now what? Wound so tight lately that my stomach burns from heed. Usually it just my taste buds...

Here's a kicker. I would bet half a paycheck that something goes massively wrong with my bike. I just completely disassembled it last night to the point of no return. As I swap over to my new frame all my pennies is gone. Just waiting.

Now this thought, I left my impact wrench and my Dura Ace RD on the floor next to my bike last night. Betcha' the basement floods today.

So that's where we stand. Broke and walking with questionable health. See you in the pool in the AM...my one constant right now.

Blah, blah, blah, was that 450 or 500...

2009-04-16T14:32:00.008-04:00

1… swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
150… swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
2… swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
250…What’s for dinner, I should more chicken.
350…wait 200, no, 300. K. 350…
400…arms feel good, I think I’ll refuel at 1700
450…500…hmm, 6:05, not a bad pace. I can hold this
…
750…lets fuel at 2000, man, my ankle hurts. These turns suck
…
1000 12:13. Ok just fine.Maybe I should site more. What time is it? I think I’ll be a few minutes late today. That’s ok, I’ll skip a little lunch probably not.
1500…pace feels good. Almost fuel time. I think I’ll do a sprint workout tonight. What’s a good set?
1800… swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
1900… swish, breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
2000… mmm, a little Heed, what was that about 30 calories. That’s not enough, I only ate grapes, what’s for lunch, ooo I got a PB&J in the car. That’s for breakfast.
2500…still a nice pace. I’m going to start fueling every 1000. My shoulders are warming up… swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
3000…I’m going to push through 3500 then grab a drink. I wonder what a redesign of my wastewater sample log could entail…What’s on TV tonight…was that 3100, no. swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
3050…How the hell did I get this song in my head. I don’t even listen to Miley Cyrus…Bug on a wall, WTF does that even mean. I think she’s a stalker, Mullets are always funny…
3500…good thing to. I’m thirsty. Why are all these old people aqua jogging today? Feels like I’m swimming behind a boat..kinda am.
4000…I’m like 2 seconds from a calf cramp. Son of a… how did I get water up my nose? Geez, my lats getting tired. swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe
4800…wow that was close, My calves are ready to quit next turn for sure. Why are these walls so close together. My neck is killing me, gotta’ keep sighting though. Where am I putting my kayaker on race day?
5500…1.5 k left, lets pick up the pace, my eyes are burning for some reason, my deltoids are trashed, I’m out of drink, and this life guard is creeping me out, I think he’s staring at me.
5700… mentally reviewing OSHA’s confined space regulation. Do I need to revise that SOP this week or next?
6000…ok, lets hammer the rest. My splits are way off I’m losing concentration, I kinda just want to be done. Man, I need to stretch my back. This knot is all the down into my ass.
6200… perceived effort has doubled but, 1:12’s are tough. I’m dying here. These arms are like lead. My calves are shot so my turns stink! I could really go for a smoothie, not for 5 bucks though.
6400… burn burn burn
6600…I sure hope I leave something for tonight’s swim. I need to do a sprint work out…maybe I should stop. Why am I trying to rationalize? This hurts, 400 left lets pick it up.
6800…perceived effort at 90%. Speed the same. Not fun.
6900…ok lets dead sprint the rest
swish, breathe, swish breathe, swish, breathe, swish, breathe, flip, gurgle, kick, swish, breathe, burn, burn.
7000. Done. My ears are ringing. That wasn’t so bad, lets warm down. Next week I’m pushing 8000. What am I going to think about?

Later in the day I went back and got my sprint workout done. Great swim. Averaged 1:05's for the main set of 3x (1x200 on 2:45, 2x100 on 1:25, 2x50 on 40). I was pleased with that.

So that's what a 11,200 yd. day feels like. Insert work in the middle. Next week...13000 on Wed.

Back on the wagon

2009-04-14T15:11:00.002-04:00

Good day in the water this morning. only swam 5000 but, put together a nice set of 500's working then down to a 5:50 w/ sets of hard 100's in between. I'm still not swimming fast but I'm swimming real consistent. I can push 1:10-1:13's for several thousand yards. That'll come in handy for some open water. What really sucked is me trying get the rest of the beer out of my system. I was paying for it during those 500's!

Tell you what. I really need to get on the bike. 1-2 hours a week not so good right now. My schedule's been tight so it's hard. Balance...

The Puppy Who Lost His Way...

2009-04-13T15:23:00.002-04:00

WOW. So after 40 days without candy, diet soda, and beer I let it all go Sunday. There’s not much else I can say except that I feel like garbage. The worst part is that I continue to eat like crap today just to overcome the hangover. There is a Brightside though. I went without things I really loved for a long time. I was beginning to get to a point where I was really unhappy. So these last 2 days has allowed me to indulge a bit. I think that’s ok. Now I just need to refocus.

Training last week went well. I lost a lot of steam late in the week because I had gone 16 days without a day off. I decided that I would take Sunday since Saturday was a long run. I hit 10,500 in the pool on Wed and wasn’t revoverying quick enough. My hamstring was really tight and I was honestly feeling like an injury was coming. Natalie worked my upper body wed night and lower body after Saturdays long run. I really think she may have found her calling. She has done wonders for my recovery. Now that I know she will massage the overworked muscles of the day I seem to hammer a little harder. I ran 16.5 on Saturday an I’ve started negative splitting all my workouts. I went out in 1hr 4 minutes for 8.25 miles. It was a variable pace and I was fighting off a hamstring cramp for miles 5-8. On my way back I started to pick up the pace and the legs figured it out. I was able to get my last 3 miles under 7:15. I know that’s not that fast but, for me it is. I'm happy with 16.5 in 2hrs 6 min as a traiing run. As soon as I was done I walked about ¼ mile and got a good stretch in. On my drive home I took in 220 calories full of BCAA’s and about 25 gr. Protein. At bedtime I took in another 15 gr. Protein along with normal eating throught the day. I woke up Sunday and was a little sore that’s it. So this new approach to training is helping out. Negative splits and ultra slow recovery runs twice a week (like2-3 miles) have allowed me to comfortable incease mileage.

We are 5 weeks from Cleveland Marathon and 7 weeks from the Potomac River Swim. May is a big month! Nutrition is very important. That’s why I need to cut the candy (beer can stay) and the cola. FOCUS! We had our fun. FOCUS!

Lucky’s Lake Swim

2009-04-03T14:03:00.007-04:00

What is it? Well let me tell you. Of course you get the back story too. Well a few weeks ago I posted on the USMS forum looking for some Daytona area open water swims. Several posts game back saying bad idea to swim the beaches that spring weather and cranky lifeguards will spoil the fun. I was like Oh no you didn’t! Then I get a post to check out http://www.luckyslakeswim.com/ . Turns out this eccentric dermatologist in Orlando lives in a gorgeous house along a lake. He swims the lake every morning at 0630 and loves company. I finally got to hop in with him and some others Friday morning before I left. It went a little like this…
The family was loaded into the WIFE'S minivan and we were headed back to Ohio but, there was something I needed to do first. I had been violently ill for five days of my 6 day vacation and I’ll be damned if I was leaving Orlando without a workout. It was around 0620 as I pulled up to the gated property of Lucky Meisenheimer. I was a little reluctant to pull up to a strangers house and make myself at home. About a week ago I was able to check out Lucky’s website and watch a video about this morning swim. So I pulled in and parked…in his lawn because the driveway was full of other swimmers. I left the family to sleep in the car and I walked down to the dock, it was easy to find my way since it’s the only lit piece of acreage around the lake. Spring mornings in Orlando are rather cool, air temp was 56. I see that this worried some people as they were trying to squeeze into full wetsuits. They must be triathletes because no real swimmer is donning a chunk of neoprene in Florida. I stood there on the dock finishing my coffee trying to spot our destination. I hear this voice, louder than all the rest and this 6’ 3” man wearing only an old skool style speedo comes walking down. This had to be Lucky, and since everyone was saying “Good Morning Lucky” I used my finely tuned skills of deduction to solve that equation. Now here’s something, umm, interesting. I figured since he was there it was time to swim, so I turn my back to get undressed and I hear something that sounded like pebbles hit the water the a bit of splashing. So I assume this is the point where you feed the predators before we jump in. What if they didn’t eat enough? What if they are still hungry when I get in? Hmmm…or should I say mmmm. Well at this point I walked around the dock into the water where Lucky has two 4’ alligator statues in the water. I knew those were there by watching that video. There were these dark 18” circles all around, I assumed they were rocks. So now it’s time for the big start, Lucky’s dog stands at the end of the dock and barks a few times which means get your ass moving in caninese. I let others move out ahead of since all I know is that I’m swimming towards someone’s kitchen light , I’ll follow for now. Remember it’s still dark and as I dive into the 68 degree water it’s complete darkness. I can’t even see the other swimmers splashing around. Needless to say I’m a little nervous but, it was awesome at the same time. I managed to find my way across, it was only 500 meters to the other side, and by the time I was halfway back I see better as the sun began to rise. After the first lap I had caught up to Lucky and another swimmer. Time to hammer a bit. After a week of no swimming this is what I needed. The next lap was a pace swim where the 3 of us were challenging one another a bit. After the second lap one guy got out and Lucky made the suggestion to turn another. Why the hell not I though, what’s 2 miles open water among new friends? On the way out we paced nicely and stopped at the other side to BS for a minute. Lucky turned and began his “decent”. I could tell right away the pace had picked up. These are my favorite times. When your body wakes up and screams lets go. Like a red lined tach at a light my excitement was crazy loud. I opened up the stoke and began a small kick. I started sighting every 10 strokes and kept an eye on the others as we hammered towards the shore. I began to feel my shoulders fatiguing and my lats were on fire but in the chilly water I had this hidden energy. I've noticed that my open water splits average around 1:10-1:15 per 100 which is good considering my pool splits are pretty close. When we arrived at the shore Natalie and the kids were there taking some pics. She informs me of the wildlife swimming around. Now I know what those dark shapes were. Turtles. Pretty benign in my book. She also indicated a snake in the area. But Hey, that's the point of the swim.

At the end of one passing you have earned the right to sign the wall behind the house. You bet I was looking forward to it. We went up to the house and BS'd a little as Lucky gave me a patch and a bumper sticker with the logo on it. I proceeded to sign the wall and then Lucky took my kids inside to see his collection...of YoYo's, which happens to be the worlds largest (according to Guinness). My kids received a complimentary copy of his book on Yo'Yo's as well. A book that I have enjoyed just as much as the kids. So as you can see, this was fun little swim. The best part was interacting with Lucky. I found it most enjoyable to swim with a little competition and I think he felt the same since 2 people showed up that day and swam a little harder than usual.

After it's all said an done I am feeling more confident that I'm prepared to swim the Potomac. I was feeling a little anxiety for awhile but, i thinks it alls going to be just fine.

Lastly, just an FYI. Lucky is also in the Guiness book for swimming 800 meters...with his foot in his mouth.

Vacations over. Lets Hammer.

2009-04-01T16:11:00.003-04:00

I’m back from the family vacation and trying to get everything normal again. I had the perfect plan before we left to skate through the week and get a little hot weather running in and that would be perfect…not so much. The day before we left I got 4.5 hours in and my final weight was 164. That was dead on for where I want to be for season. We packed up the mini van and headed south to Orlando. After 17 hours of driving I needed to stretch my legs a bit so I went out for a timed run around the condo. 80 minutes of pain later I grabbed a Miller Lite and took a nap. Before we left I was going through some serious back pain. Luckily I got all that under control thanks to some muscle relaxers and pain killers.
So here’s the crappy part about vacation. We drank a little Saturday night. Enough for Natalie to fall off a curb (yes 6”) and take a bad sprain to the ankle. Sunday, with hangover in tow we go to the emergency room to get her fixed up. Now we can start the vacation right? Sunday night I’m laying in bed not feeling all so good. Note, I only had like 4-5 drinks, but I did some Hooters food. A quality restaurant…not really. Even the sluts were no good. Anyway at 2am, my stomach gurgled and off I ran to expel fried pickles and a hamburger. I though that maybe this was because I ate so poorly. Well it lasted until Thursday afternoon. I couldn't’t really eat, when I did I was punished, beer was out of the question, and my stomach was a knot the entire time. No working out.
One thing I really wanted to do was called Lucky’s Lake Swim. It’s a daily early morning Open Water done at this guys house. It’s a free 1000 meter out and back that starts in the dark. I was aiming for Tuesday but, was too sick. So Friday morning as we left Orlando I decided to swing by at 630a for lap or two. I was able to get 2miles in with Lucky and about 8-10 others. I will detail this swim later as it’s well worth it’s own post.
So that’s how it went. I enjoyed my vacation as it was a short escape but, it sucked I was so sick and that I dropped into the 150’s. I’ve been back at it this week including my 10k wed. What so big about a 10k wed? It’s in the water. Yes, I typically swim more during the week than I run.

Question to ponder- Does one really need to wear a swim cap and goggles while kicking with fins and a board?

My answer- Only if you insist on taking up an entire lane.

State of the Season

2009-03-18T14:20:00.003-04:00

As I look back at the first section of a season that started January first I see some holes that need filled in. I also see some positive changes that I’ve made. First off, I should be on the bike more. 2.5 hours a week is not enough. However, last season I didn’t bike that much either. My peak week was 125 miles, my secondary week was no more than 80. I think that will come together after I swim the Potomac. In By June I will be out more probably rolling 100 miles a week and will jump up to 150 quickly. Right now I am swimming 12-13 miles a week. After the Potomac I will drop this down to about 7 miles a week in 3 workouts. My running is getting better. I am by no means a good runner. It is my weakest link. The good news is that I seem to have injury under control as long as there is ample time to stretch with some “luxury icing” during each day. I spent a good portion of the pre-season doing some core work and strengthening all the assistance muscle groups and that seems to be working out. So all together I am happy where I’m at for now.

That being said…WTF?

I wake up Friday morning with a pain in my neck. No big deal, I know I’ve slacked a bit on upper body stretching lately so I figured I ca just stretch more. Saturday it was worse but, bearable. I went and ran the St. Malachi 5 miler. I actually held back on this race. I never do that, and in the end it backfired on me. I still went anaerobic in the last mile and blew it. 32:05 that day. I should be running in the 30’s. oh well. Anyway, Sunday morning, again a little sore but, bearable. I went and lifted for 45minutes and tore the shnot out of my new 10 medicine ball. I then biked an hour and ran 4 miles. Monday morning. Here it was. So much pain I had to cut my swim to 3400. I was planning on 6500. Today I wanted 7000, I laid there in bed in pain. I’m wondering what caused this. I’ll roll with it though. This changes my plans completely this week. I wanted to get a big week in before I left for vacation. Looks like I’m starting a little early. As one can see, I’m desperately looking for a positive spin on all this. Here’s a training lesson…ready…stick with the plan, just because I’m not swimming for a week doesn’t mean I have to pound the miles on my feet. Right? Lets see if I can hold that true. I can also write this with a smirk on my face, that’s because I just took a cocktail of prescription muscle relaxers and pain killers. So right now it doesn’t seem to bad.

So get this….I had secretly planned on buying a tri bike this spring. I was shooting for a Specialized Transistion. I claimed 1 on my taxes knowing I have that little bit of savings. Well things changed, more important issues needed dealt with. I don’t want to be one of those 8% that 92% needs to bail out. And surprisingly, that was OK….but I still had the itch. I looked and looked and looked for a perfect deal. Finally something popped up, oddly though. I was on ebay and found this company in San Diego called Leader. They make aluminum frames out of Taiwan and sell them, lets say, cheap. I took a few minutes for due diligence and what did I find? Only positive glowing reviews. How can this be? The frame I’m looking at closely resemble the geometrical specs of a P2. So I give Leader a call. This dude’s chatting it up with me like we went to High school together. I told him that I’m strapped for cash. So this guy was like “Let me check our demo’s out and some of our team trade ins and get you a good deal” Service with a smile motha’ Sucka’! I know some will scoff at this. Some already have. However, some don’t have 3 kids and expensive tastes in microbrews. How does $500 sound? Like a tri bike to me... minus the zipps.

One last thing o here. A little rant. Why is it that athletes such as ourselves are persecuted on a regular basis? Whenever I’m in a meeting, someone (usually a chubby someone) must bring up that I run at lunch. Today, I went to the site doc to get a shot in my neck to get this pain under control. Nope, not allowed. He figured I would feel better then go running. Well, Duh! That’s why I want to shot. The comments are endless. I rarely talk about it at work but, I’m asked whenever I leave the office. No matter what happens around here it’s because I run. If I sneeze, I hear “All that running must be making you sick”. I f I come in early, “You must be planning a long run lunch” If I’m late for anything…Again, “You must have been out running”. Ok sure, Ironman training apparently eats up a lot of time. I could do the minimum but, why? Use what you got until it’s gone. Exploit the gifts God gives you. In the end I think I figured it out. Those people that criticize us, the ones who always have something sarcastic or borderline negative. Those are the people that wish they do it, the people who are to scared to try. An excuse…like “Running ruins your knee’s”, or “Your heart only beats so many times…” I heard sitting on the couch being a fat ass ruins your knee’s. Maybe I’m just jealous of them?

The economy made me forget my shorts...not my fault.

2009-03-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

I keep saying I will post more then I get distracted. That last 2 weeks have gone well in the world of training. The good doc is helping work out this butt cramp thing that tightens up my hamstrings and IT bands. My ankle tenderness is back as well. It seems that if I ice it every night and wrap it for a few hours a day and throughout the night that it doesn’t get worse. That’s good. I kinda’ need it. It’s been 16 days since I have had any candy, beer, or cola. I have also lost 6 real pounds as well. I don’t think there’s a connection…
So I’ve been watching the Potomac River Data. Good news is that the waters up 48 degrees. We got 11 weeks to hit 60. Yes, 11 weeks. I can’t believe we are in March already. That means I’m probably swimming a lot right not. Note sure if 22k a week is a lot. Feels like it. Wednesdays are my long endurance days where I try to see how my body reacts to distance. Here are some of those workouts:

5x200 warm up. Pull/drill mix
5500 straight pace swim
300 stroke warm down

next:

500 Warm-up
60 x 100 as:
1-5 pull 1:30
6-10 swim 1:25
11-15 swim 1:20
16-20 swim 1:15
repeat 2 more times
Warm down 300

I got a break coming up. Taking a vacation to Florida. Yea, right? Well here’s the problem. I miss Friday workout as I travel That’s ok. I then miss Saturday 14 mile run as we arrive (we’re driving). No Sunday Brick. However! I did find this guy named Lucky who does an open water swim every morning in his lake. He has bunches of people that do it with him. Looks pretty cool so I e-mailed him and I’m in for about 5k. Pretty awesome. Only 10 miles from our Condo. The rest of the week is going to be a bunch of shorter runs. I’m hoping to get a 5 miler Sunday, and maybe a 10 on Thursday. Then drive back Friday, lift Saturday night, maybe bike then 15 on Sunday. With all the days off I should be able pull everything back together. I think.

Lastly, Today I come to work prepared for a 3’fer Thursday. I got up and Biked at 0425. At lunch today I had 6 tempo planned. I go to get dressed and realized I forgot my shorts. What now? Do I run to Fleet Feet and get a pair? Do I hop in the car and drive to the park and run in my boxer briefs over my under armours? (I gave this real thought, I think I have a problem) In the end I decided to save the public indecent exposure for Drunkin’ Face Bookin’, a special time I reserve for late September. AKA-the off season. Now I have to rearrange. I lose tonight’s 4k swim, bump tomorrow mornings up to 6k instead of recovery 5k an I run tonight. What a mess.

Now I’am screwed up. And I can’t even have a beer or Now and Later to decompress!

See that fish. Well they are invading the potomac. It's called a Snakehead and it looks like it sucks.

Hyperglycemia????

2009-02-24T11:40:00.000-05:00

ug.

Eating candy untill I puke! Twice.

2009-02-24T09:20:00.000-05:00

So I woke up Thursday morning with a pounding headache. I knew something was up. I slept through the night which never happens. My body ached and I felt bad…real bad. It’s 4:22a and I’m supposed to be downstairs getting ready to leave for a swim. I have to go. I wrote it on my blog. There was no way, so I rolled back over and got an extra 90 minutes of rest. Thursday night I suffered through a 2 hr spin class with Spin/Second sole. I stayed at my moms so I could get up and swim Friday. Guess what, Friday came and no swimming. I was hurting real bad and actually took the day off.

So what is the moral of this story? Don’t fillet your chickens until they hatch or everything gets scrambled? Wow, sometimes they are so bad I even wince a little. Now I have to revise last weeks workouts.

Saturday I hoped on the treadmill late in the day and was able to move along pretty well. I was splitting 6:45’s for 5 miles and was pleased. Sunday I went ahead with my longer run which is only 10-11 miles. I went up to my mom’s and ran through Bedford Reservation on the bike/hike

trail. Again, I felt really good and had no issue splitting 7:15’s, which is good for me. I felt great when it was done. Later that evening I got some soreness in my hamstring/hip area. Now insert panic here. Am I sore or is this piriformis syndrome again?

I’ll post this weeks workouts next week.

Today is Fat Tuesday. That means as of Tomorrow I will deprive myself of Candy, Pop, and Beer for a period of 40 days. (Beer for 3 weeks, I can not lie). Today I will make myself sick several times over as I only eat Now and Laters and drink Diet Pepsi.

I am Rod Berry…I sweat sugar.

Chlorine overdose induce ramblings

2009-02-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

It’s been a good couple of days here. I’ve been hitting the pool pretty hard and find it frustrating that my 100 repeats aren’t coming down. In college repeating 500’s on 5:30 was easy. Now of course I realize I was 20 and I fueled primarily on beer and freshmen. Each lane had 6 people in creating quite the whirpool effect. Now let me stop here…I’ve just reminded my self of a serious issue plaguing the pool each morning. I know exactly how it’s going to work as soon as I walk up to the doors. Now that each workout is around 6000 yards I need to get there right when the pool opens, so I’m stuck in the breezeway with the “early” morning elites (hardly) rolling their eyes at my presence. As soon as that door opens it’s like a bunch of 3rd graders rushing out to recess. Clothes are flyin’ as they sprint for the locker room. A virtual congo line form for 3 second showers, dripping water all over my shit as they jog through the locker room. Now I am trying to be accepting of these people. Their eagerness to own a lane is unprecedented. Usually I get out their and take the far left double lane where I have to flip in a 22” opening between the geriatric ladder while trying not to splash ol’ betty as she aqua limps. On Wednesdays I’m going long and want a lane. I get out there and there it is. A spectacular showing of sidestroke and fins. I especially love the guy with the swim cap (over ¼ inch hair), paddles, fin, and kickboard. Hell, wear if you got it his t-shirt says. I suppose this is all my fault. I didn’t read the morning swim etiquette that states in section c titled sucky swimmers, sub part a, reading…no one shall knowingly enter the lane of a person who flips and flops for almost 300 yards a day like a flaming idiot. Maybe, I’m being a little rough on these people. However, half of NE Ohio is doing IMKY and would like a lane or 2. I only request half a lane. I can do it, I can swim in a strait line. It’s tough but, I practice really hard on it. I wouldn’t have gone off on this rant if one of these people didn’t roll their eyes at me as I asked them to share a lane and reply with an “I guess”. For the record, most everyone else is nice. Since they dropped the pool temp the elderly seem to workout in the hot tub more. Another comment was, “They need to have signups like the treadmills, and only give people a half hour” OK tardo, you go float on your back for 30, I got 120 minutes of a big boy workout to do. Why?...cause I sweat awesome and fins are for girls. (zoomers excluded)

Huh. I feel better. Much better.

This 4 day week is killing me. I’m trying to drop a few pounds before I go on vacation. I mean fat guys don’t look cool drinking natty lite out of a plastic cup poolside. So I figure lets get a little skinny. As if the wife and kids won’t ruin my game anyhow. JK. Natalie has gone on the movie star diet…workout and don’t eat. I ve told her that’s bad but, she wants to look like Veronica Vaugn…one piece of ASH, I should know.

Here’s how the week looks:

M- 60 min. spin, 15 min run
T- 5500 swim, 4 mi. run
W- 6500 swim (1500 WU, 2000pace on 25min, 2x1000 on 13 min, 2x500 on 6:30)
Th- 5000 swim, 5 mi. run, 2hr spin
F- 4000 swim
S- 10-11 mile run
S- 60spin, 4 mile run

That's it. Maybe next week I'll complain about the cars on the road when I run .

In case you were wondering what that picture is. Yesterday I had witnessed a horrific attack by the elusive Loch Desk Monster on a Gummy bear family picnic. He must have been hiding behind my coffee cup next to my pc. No one could have for seen this tragedy. They will remain in my prayers...and belly.

Arg...Where in the hell is it....?

2009-02-06T15:52:00.000-05:00

I was jolted awake by the horrible song of a stock ring tone as my LG sung that awful tune. Ruby was not all that happy, maybe not because of the noise but, because I’m not her people. I’ll do for now. I got up sat there on the edge of the broke down daybed in an unfamiliar room. By the time I opened my eyes after a hard blink I knew where I was and why. Problem is that I’ve misplaced something. It’s lost, can’t find it. So I get dressed and sip down a hot cup of domestic from an old jelly jar now kids cup. I’m looking around the kitchen and it’s not here either. I spotted my shoes and decide that maybe tackling that task will help me find what I’m looking for. Nope. I pull on my Craft FF coat (insert plug) and grab my overstuffed bag that reeks from last nights workout clothes then head out the door. As I stepped outside I hope that icy cold air could possibly bring some sense back into my actions. Maybe it’s out here…or even in my car. Unfortunately the only thing there is my frozen bike that I’m sure feels neglected for being abandoned on a sub 20 degree night in the hatchback. I begin my drive to the pool looking over my shoulder at her sitting there giving me the ol’ stink aero bar. I turn the wipers on and spritz the window a bit, just then realizing the windows aren’t fogged, it’s just me not finding what I’m looking for. The drive was just long enough to tease me with a little heat. Hoping out of the car I envision an early season demise as I slip in the parking lot and undo 3 months worth of fitness. Not the lucky today because I’m confident if I did fall the sudden pain still wouldn’t help me remember where I left it. As I entered the building the receptionist smile and said “Good Mornng”, I only sorta smiled back, I could see she didn’t have it. I walked into the locker and slowly got dressed…or undressed and walked into the pool area. The smell of chlorine was comforting, as it has been for 20 years. I brief smile crossed my lips as I approach the edge of the pool. Looking across my crystal blue drawing board I could see it’s not in the pool. I didn’t get it. It’s always the last place I look. There’s no further to go. It should be here. A heavy feeling crosses my entire body and crushed the spirit I usually have every morning before I jump in. I snapped my goggle straps across my head, lightly pulling at the ends of my already chlorine deteriorated hair. Little pinches that I’ve felt a thousand times before, except not I find them extra irritating. One big jump out and I splashed into the coldness I didn’t want to feel at all, surely this will bring me to my senses…

I was jolted awake by the horrible tune of a stock ring tone as my LG sung that awful tune. Ruby was not all that happy, maybe not because of the noise but, because I’m not her owner. I’ll do for now. I got up sat there on the edge of the broke down daybed in an unfamiliar room…Oh. Crap. No. All that in the time between my snooze alarms. I couldn’t believe how real it felt. I went through the motion, just as I had thought I did. This time when I hit the pool is when I had realized that no little saying like “Go Hard or Go Home”, or “Just Do It” or any Ironman video, or Linkin Park song was going to get my ass going. This morning I had lost it. I think it’s all part of the process. Now it’s up to me to figure out how to find it. It being my motivation. Yep. That’s it. All that BS above because I didn’t feel like working out. I still went. I still swam 3000 yds. I still did some awesome negative split 300 repeats on a 3:45. But again, where did it go? I had it but now it’s gone. I can only pretend that somewhere in a parallel universe there’s a motivation writing a blog on how it lost it’s Christian. Let’s hope we both wake up and meet for a brick in the morning.

A wordy explanation of how 31 becomes 26.

2009-02-03T16:37:00.000-05:00

A couple weekends ago I got up real early at my mom’s on a Sunday morning. I went downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee and made myself a PB&J with extra PB. I sat down in the family room with only the light of my Facebook profile page to light the room. The sandwich went down before the coffee could cool as I inserted some type of witty comment into my status. Natalie’s IPod was still in my sweatshirt pocket so I pulled it out, wiped a couple lint bugs off it and began to set the tune that will stick in my head for the next 6 hours. My next stop was www.weather.com and that’s when it hit me. Ohio was entirely blue and looked like it would be for awhile. Any other Sunday this wouldn’t matter. I walked over and pulled the shades open to see cottonball sized flakes of snow on their final approach to the previous 4 inches that will undoubtally haunt me at some point. I took my new found nausea into the kitchen and began to get dressed…2 layers on top, bodyglide the unmentionables, man tights, and an awesome pair of trail shoes (with no ankle support). Natalie came to join me in the kitchen. She wasn’t all that hungry after looking outside. I filed her gel container and topped off my perpetuem. We headed out in the dark to join all the others at the Boston Store. I’ll say, that when we arrived I was feeling much better. I could see Natalie was not, or maybe it was just the odd yellow reflection of car lights off of the snow covered roads that made her that shade of worry. What we have decided to do is run a little diddy called the BT50K. Natalie was running her first half and I was planning on the full 31. Why not run my first marathon as an ultra in the snow in January…?

Fast forward a little. We start running in the dark. Not so bad except that it feels like I’m trying to run on the beach. The pace felt really slow but, no one is jockeying for their final position. Everyone is running in a row. I was thinking this going to suck when we cross back through and there’s 2 people on a single track. About 3 miles later that’s the case, except everyone coming at me decided that they were not moving. Oh well. I was running 10 minute miles with a 19 yr old kid from Kent and I was feeling great. Around mile 14 I decided to back off a bit. We were still running in sand. No grip. My ankles were screaming and these other runners would not get off the single track one bit. I was always jumping into the deep snow on the downhills. The group I was running with started to pull away a little and I stuck with my decision to back off. The fuel was going, and I stuck to my Hammer. Problem was that no gel was put out for the runners until mile 19. That was not cool. I had my own but, I planned to mix in theirs as well so I didn’t have to carry all this crap.

Now for the hard part…

My group was long gone, no one was behind me either. My ankles are screaming, or maybe it’s just the my body trying to reason with my will to keep going. The math has begun. Ok, in about 15 minutes I will be at the 9 miles left mark. IT bands hurt but still tolerable. Ankles hurt, quads on fire but, I’m starting to feel better…right? This is that part where I sorta of detach from myself. There’s this quote that I always here from ultra runners. “If you start to feel good during an ultra, Don’t worry it’ll pass”. Not true for me right? This is my final surge. I’m going to kick ass today. I finally enter the “9 miles left” aid station and I did something stupid. I walked. I bent over and stretched my back then turned around and headed out. The person at the aid station offered me some ramen noodles. I ain’t eating that. It’ll make you fat I replied. Funny? She didn’t laugh either. So in the next 200 yds I began the end of my day.
I’m coming down a moderate hill and my right knee is starting to make this clicking sound with a lot of pain every time I bend it. I figured it would work itself out as usuall. Ten minutes goes by and I’m only ½ a mile further and hurting real bad. It would be real nice to have a running buddy right about now. So I’m starting to think to myself, can I even make it back to Boston Store. 4 miles aint so bad, who cares if I can’t lift my legs anymore. Over the next 45 minutes I find that powerwalking (that is walking real fast like) is my best bet. I have decided that 26 miles will do it for me today. I’m about 1.5 miles out from the store and here comes Pat. Apparently I had just missed him when I ran by an hour ago. He came to help me get through that last 9…or 4 now. I keep trying to run but, it’s just not happening. I could hear my IT bands clicking and the pain at this point was not even worth enduring at this race. At Ironman I’d go for it. Not in January. I finally make it back and go for some chili. They gave me my jacket but, I don’t think I’ll really wear it. One, it has VR real big across the back and two I don’t think I earned it that day.
Natalie did real good. She finished her first half marathon graced with a new understanding of what longer running is about. I’m proud of her. Now if she could take the time and train properly and allow her body to absorb and adapt, maybe she would be able to walk the day/week after.

That’s all for now.

The First Stupid Thing I Did In 2009.

2009-01-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

As I get ready for the Buckeye Trail 50k next weekend I start asking myself if I'm prepared to run 31 miles on frozen trails. Typically when I feel a little pressure I start having stress dreams. You know, the ones where you are trying to run but can't.

They go something like this...Well, here I am running in 8" of fresh snowfall. My van is nearly stuck up at the gate and wind is blowing new snow sideways into my face. I look at my HRM and see the reason my ears are ringing but, I'm not hardly moving. My feet feet keep slipping and ice is building up around my ankles. Every so often I find myself playing leapfrog with a dog named Luna who seems to know the trails better than I do. The woods are mostly quiet though. Very peaceful. The only real thing I can hear is my heart pounding and the sound my lungs make when I'm sucking wind. But that's not all bad. Then to make things really odd, I hear something familiar but new?

"Hey, Man. Do you really think you should run your first marathon, swim 7.5 miles, and do an Ironman all in one year on your fragile base...I don't know, I'm not telling you what to do. Just giving my opinion."

Maybe it's the cold setting in? Maybe my brain is misfiring like my quads. What was that? The voice of reason? The wind?

Nope.

It's Nate Loman...Ahhhhh! Is it true? I don't even smell Hammer products. Then I realize my blocked nasal passages completely prevent me from smelling anything and this isn't a dream. Now it makes sense that I'm leapfrogging a dog...sort of.

Here's what happened. Friday night I text the guy and request his presence at 8am at the West Branch MTB trails regardless of weather. I love running during snowfall. Since it looks like there will be plenty of the stupid white stuff on the BT I figured it was a necessary challenge. Although it was somewhat tough, I see time spent on the trail in the snow is time well spent. After 90 minutes or so, we called it a morning. A good morning.

As for Nate and Luna. I always enjoy the random conversations and advice I get from this guy on an early morning effort. All we needed is a cask of whiskey (or xmas ale) for Luna to carry.

The Second Stupid Thing I Did in 2009.

I have been officially accepted into the Potomac River Swim for the Environment. 7.5 miles of fun. Why do I sign up for things when I am in massive pain. In this case shoulders and back.

And Lastly...

I woke up this morning got dressed and left the house at 4:55a. A few things occurred to me. Damn, I forgot my insoles. Why? Because my feet don't hurt. Then realized I feel pretty rested. Why? Because I slept through the night without shoulder or back pain. What does this all mean. Well, it means that for the first time in 3 years nothing hurts. I'm running far and swimming hard, biking when I can, and lifting, and shoveling snow and blah blah. Today I feel good. And that makes me smile. Just like an early morning trail run. (or when my 4 year old insists that everything is "stupid, stoopid, i hate stoopid".)

and Lastly, Lastly...

"You know what man, I don't say this often or about many things but, this may be 'Epic'."

Really Really White...like an albino

2008-12-15T13:11:00.000-05:00

It's been about two weeks since my last post so I feel like being long winded. It was a good two weeks. The Cleveland Turkey trot went well. I am consistently getting faster. I ran a 32:40 for that 5 miles without killing myself. When I got tired I just slowed down. Perfect. Afterwards I met up with some others in Lakewood for a few beers. Of course that set that ball in motion. After a few Christmas Ales it was Friday morning.

The workouts are moving along. Swimming about 14-15k a week. Natalie's doing well in massage so she keeps me moving. Ran 18 miles last Saturday. It felt ok then I did the math. I though i was moving faster than 8:50 miles. Just doesn't make sense at all. I was able to solve that stagnant swimming issue too. I think i just got used to long and slow. Now I hammer through at least 2k per workout. I also get at least 2 smoothies a week from pulp.

The big story is the successful Deer gun season I had. Dropped a 6pt at 11am on day one and then by the end of day 2 had two more does in the truck. I got good shots on all of them. quick and easy. So my freezer is full and I'm happy. Now to the venting.

I this page on a small "social networking" site. I've been very adamant on only being friends with people I actually know. I post some deer hunting pics and people cry about it. Anti hunters. People that I would say don't understand that their Wal-marts and Home Depots are responsible for the over populations of deer in this area. It is these same people who push for no hunting zones which again, pushes up the populations. This leads to starvation and disease. So I get to hunt. I sit in the cold for hours and then kill a deer, I then gut, and process it myself. My family is fed. So back to where I started. My page. There were complaints about my photo's and they were removed. This created a few awkward feelings. At first I let it go but, after a week I'm still mad. What to do? Right? How about stop trying to pussify my America. I'm tired of it. I don't care about your feelings, I don't care if you are fat, gay, queer, skinny, black, white, or really really white like an albino. Your feelings are yours. Stop trying to make your fat lazy ignorant child feel good about themselves. You want to feel good? Do whats right, Don't be selfish, don't be greedy, mind your own business. Realize when you and your kids are assholes. I shoot deer because I can, then I drive it home, hang it in my garage and go run 12 miles. How does that affect you? It doesn't. So shut it fatty.

What's funny here is that anyone who falls into the above mentioned categories wouldn't read my blog anyway.

Merry Christmas!... and a Happy Holidays to those of you who may get offended by me saying Christmas.

Go run off those Christmas Ales :)

Beer and Blisters

2008-11-25T14:51:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful day to be inside. All this snow and rain and sleet is making it very difficult to run outdoors. However, I may give it a try anyway tonight. What doesn't kill you right?

Gearing up for a Thanksgiving holiday 8 day weekend. Yes, 8 days. Monday-Wed. next week I will spend some time in the woods harvesting next seasons protein. That means I will be deer hunting. Good times. Although I need the meat it makes it tough to get any workouts in. After sitting in the cold for 4-5 hours I just don't feel like running. Getting up to the pool is impossible since I hunt in Columbiana county. That's why i hit the pool a little harder this week.

I put together some decent workouts that surely pass the time quickly. I noticed that I've become stagnant in the water and this greatly frustrates me. Just 2 months ago 1:02 repeats on a 1:15 was a good set of 100's. I'd be lucky to break 1:10 off the blocks right now. Utilizing the scientific method I have developed a hypothesis that is currently being tested...sort of. What has been the one big difference since September? The addition of mass quantities of beer, reduction of quality sleep, and convincing myself that I need to go long and slow. I think I drink too much, too late and barely squeeze out 2.5k . This has allowed a certain level of laziness to settle in. The following workouts aid in fixing that.

Warm up-4x250
10x50 on 45sec
800 on 10 min
2x 400 on 5:15
4x 200 on 3:00
8x100 on 1:30
400 kick

WU- 4x250
600 on 8:00
2x300 on 4:00
3x200 on 2:45
4x 150 on 2:15
6 x 100 on 1:30
8x100 kick/swim
200 wd 400 drill wd

See, not all that hard but, it seems to be getting me out of a rut. As for the beer. I think I'll worry about that in March.

The running is going ok. My 13 miles last Saturday sucked due to 4"of snow on the bike and hike. I've got a blister on each foot that will feel great during this weeks 14.5. oh well. There's always Christmas Ale.

Fo' Shizzle! vahahoe...

2008-11-17T16:08:00.000-05:00

What an busy week or so. I've been up to many things as of late. First of all, What is going on with the 70.3 scene in Ohio? Tons of racers no races. There's one trifecta type massive insane weekend put on by HFP but, besides that nothing. In my opinion...not important, so never mind that.
I spent a little time doing some race research and it looks like Muncie in early June or Geneva PA in mid July. So explain to me this, It's only November, why do we care? I think it has something to do with a little bit of OCD that we all have a bit of.
The workouts are rolling by 5-6 times a week. 3 swims, 3 runs, and a day of lifting. Swimming is progressing nicely, so is the shoulder pain. I figure I'll schedule an ortho appt. while my insurance is still good. Let them take a look. All I need to hear is that my shoulders will survive until next October without a catastrophic failure. Pain is ok, losing function is not. I made the comparison to one of my festiva's I used to drive. Just because the engine is knocking doesn't mean you have to park it. Try some oil first but, remember, you'll eventually throw a rod (not a Berry) somewhere far away from home. I'm just afraid my far away from home will be in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. The running is going well. The new insoles changed my gait a bit so that was a new adjustment. I have to say that it's funny that my body thinks an 11 mile "long run" is really far right now. I can ease that sore vahahoe by looking forward to having the West Branch trail covered in snow. I recommend those trails to anyone, Just wear a bit of orange and stay out of the woods the week after T-giving. It's a shared hunting area.
Looking outside right now as bands of lake effect trail across Cuyahoga county I'm aching for a Christmas Ale (192 calories). I have to say that Pumpkin ales, Oktoberfest, and Holiday beer makes me smile. I even laugh as I head out for a hangover run. Yes, beer makes me smile that much.
Well that's about it for now. I for see an incredibly busy 6 weeks ahead of me here at the Ben Venue. I'm not sure when I'll post again. However, I'll leave you with this. Something I learned last week. I came home from work last Tuesday having a real bad day. Not just perceived but, a real bad one fo'shizzle! I walked in my house and began the nightly routine. My kids must have picked up on something because my daughter caught me off guard with a real good hug. I know this doesn't seem like much but her and butt heads a lot so it meant that much to me. I guess all I'm saying is that sometimes that's all you need get back on track is a good hug from some of your kids, and that makes me smile too.

Whoa...Slow down.

2008-11-07T14:33:00.000-05:00

I have been slacking on the blog here. Honestly, there isn't much to say. The last two weeks have been rather boring. I'm getting killed here at work, our weekends are swamped, and now it's dark at 530. Geez, I can hardly wait to start the basement treadmill work.

The good news is that this foot rehab stuff seems to be working. I am running regularly and getting ready for the BT50K which Natalie and I are signed up for. I figured the next 2 months is going to be a lot of long slow trail runs. I'm not really in the mood to run fast anyway.

The swimming is progressing. Unfortunately it only took 3 weeks for the should pain to return. It's been especially bad this week. I can take a little more but, at some point I may have to think about what I'm doing. Shoulder exercises and massage 4 times a week is holding everything together. That's what is with my title. What I started to do is add too much intensity. My problem is that I'll do a 500-1000 yd pace and get an idea where Iam at. Then the following week I want to destroy that time. I think I got lucky one morning when I popped off a 5:35 500, so if I do the Christian math, my next swim should be around 5:15 then close to 5 in 6 weeks. See the flaw here? So now i am slowing it down. I changed my plans to enter some fall masters swim meets just for 1500's and will now concentrate on long and strong.

The best part about all this is Natalie's being in massage school. I am a very happy practice dummy. More dummy than anything.

So what's next? More running, more swimming, more Christmas ale. Long runs, long swims, 3 day benders...

Undone...The Weekend Song

2008-10-24T14:01:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a good week. I picked up my new custom inserts last Thursday and was instructed to introduce them 1 hour a day, then at 8 hrs of wear time try to run in them. I wore them all day Saturday, which wasn't my intention but, I got drunk and forgot to take them out. I interpret this to mean I can now run in them and that's what I did on Tuesday. I took a run over to the post office to get a stamp. there's this trail that drops down behind it into the Bedford Reservation but, has a 3' deep creek crossing to get back up onto the return trail. It was a bit chilly and as i headed over there I became concerned for my new inserts getting wet. I headed back onto the road and scrapped the idea. I did a 4 mile trail run in them on Thursday and I have to say that they are quite nice. My gait has noticeably changed and i have become sore in all new areas. So now I see why a slow intro is needed.

The big fun has been in the pool this week. Only upped the distance 1000 yds but, I increased the intensity a little. I'm still concentrating heavily on the long slow technique with a bit of speed. My shoulders feel good for another week which is great. i think the strengthening exercises must be helping.

Monday thru Friday goes great. Good diet, good workouts, good sleep. Then Friday 5pm rolls around and Rod Berry takes over. It always starts the same. Just grab a six of some type of micro brew and head home. It doesn't help that Natalie brings 12 miller lites home. Next thing I know it's Sunday evening and recycle bin is about 40 bottles deep. This is just too much to work off in a week. I was was thinking about that as I sat at the dermatologists office today. Nothing but a paper towel covering my lap as my hot ass doctor (she) checks my ball bag for "abnormal" spots. I'm thinking, Wow, what a lucky lady, having to look over some chubby guy that stinks like chlorine.

So that's what the today's title means. Check out the picture. Rod rearranged my nutrition shelf after Portage Lakes with all his favorite stuff.

If I can figure it out I will get a few pics from the weekend posted.

Self prescribed (and medicated)-recreationally

2008-10-15T12:56:00.000-04:00

Things are better now, not like an hour ago. I knew I was going to hear a bunch of crap about my companies new insurance so I hit the pool a bit harder this morning in an attempt to take the edge off. I even prescribed myself a dose of lunch running in the case of a severe BS overdose. Take a guess what happened. At one point I was so angry I believe I stated "I am so angry I could punch myself..." Any rational person could realize that would be a dumb idea, especially since I would have to fill out an accident report and probably be terminated for assaulting an employee. I know that sounds ridiculous but, you should have heard my new insurance plan.

OK, Let me get off my main thought here by stating this- They actually compared our insurance plan to a local banks that is on the verge of total failure. They said "Look how much they pay per month". OK that's fine but, apples to apples folks. We are a pharma company not a bank! I don't get a better checking account by working here. Yes, one of my new perks is $0 co-pay on OUR drugs. Great. We make cancer drugs!!! WTF!

Let me take a moment and say something horrifically off color out loud. OK, I just said the big C word. it made me feel a little better. Actually I whispered but, it still felt dirty.

Anyway, the bottom line is that banks do money, we do health care. They aren't comparable. Back to the lunch run.

At first I was going to run my usual 5 mile loop through Walton Hills, then I thought Maybe the park would be a bit more relaxing. What to do? Hmmm. At last, there was only one run dosage to ease the burning of BSitis. Trails. What a good idea. Take note though, Busted feet still in full effect.

I took off towards Bedford Resrvation and hooked up with the bridal trail that turns Buckeye and drops quite sharply to the creek. When I entered the woods I was surrounded by yellows greens and orange. Immediate relief of symptoms. A lite breeze was dropping brightly colored leaves through a hardwood maple mix where the ground was hidden by a half inch of last years needles and detritus. The sweet odor rotting organic material reminded me of high school cross country. Playing capture the flag throughout Virginia Kendell. Although I'm a bit out of shape, and was sucking wind a bit, I would say that my heart rate was in sync with my surroundings. I dropped down by the creek where I took a moment to send a picture message to Natalie. The water was flowing a bit since it rained earlier. I dipped my hand along the edge and felt the urge for a quick dip. It's about 4 foot deep in this area, I know because there was a hot day this summer and my lunch run that day was a bit longer. As my breathing slowed I could hear the water running through the rocks. It was either time for a nap or to start moving. I took the climb up the trail pretty easy. I couldn't justify running any faster since I didn't really want to leave. On the way out I passed a group of school kids. I was rather jealous. There they are, strolling through the woods learning about Ohio's Forests only worring about who likes who and nothing about a POSII plan. However, at this point, I wasn't caring either. There was only 20 minutes left to my time here and I was enjoying it.

I came back and immediately wanted say something about that. I am sitting here at my desk in front of an empty container of Smart ones 3 cheese ziti and a half cup of warm coffee. I will spend the rest of my day coordinating noise surveys and tracking down a fugitive ozone source. And in the end, I guess the insurance really doesn't matter. We run, we eat healthy, we are rarely sick. If it starts to bother me again, I'll just head down to the creek for a bit.

As a final note, self medicated-recreation actually refers to Oktoberfest, dark ales, and Gods gift known as Guinness. Which can be just as therapeutic as a good run.

Enjoy the leaves. There's only a few weeks left.

Another year...poor woman.

2008-10-13T09:43:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here thinking about the best way to write today's post. I feel like I am now under the scrutiny of Natalie the Nazi blog reviewer. Plus, I am attempting to write about a wonderful weekend away from reality. When I say reality I am referring to the kids.

Friday after work I decided to squeeze in a quick 2000 yds up at the rec. The sun was shining into the pool water and drilled through my warmup it occurred to me. It's only October, we have a long nasty Ohio winter ahead of us. These workouts are going to get pretty tough come late December with the 20 degree weather and Christmas ale. Oh well. As always though, I can't seem to finish a swim with out producing some lactic acid. I put together a quick little set that would burn a little. As follows:

100 sub 1:10 100 kick 30 seconds rest.

100 @ 1:08 100 Kick 30 sec. rest

100 @ 1:05 100 kick 30 sec rest.

100 @ 1:02 100 kick 1 min rest.

100 @ :57 100 drill.

See, nothing too extreme. I feel like 2000 yds drill just doesn't cut it. It's kind of like wasting good pool time, plus if you let your body relax to much it eventually takes advantage. But, that's my opinion and from the amount of rehab and icing I do I would say that further research is needed.

Well that wraps up week 1 at 6300 yds. Just writing that makes me laugh considering I'll be dropping 6k twice a day in April. This week is a slow start already. The bed and wife felt too good to leave this morning so it looks like I'll be swimming T/W/F. All I need is 6500 this week anyway.

So back to this weekend. Natalie and I got a hotel w/ in room hot tub to spend our anniversary. We drove all the way to...Twinsburg. Friday night we bough some beers, and let me get off topic for a moment. I have to throw a shout out to my homies at Breckenridge Brewery for developing the almighty wonderfulness they call Vanilla Porter. Well worth the 8.99. I must also say that Goose Island has put together a top 3 Autumn Ale that is light enough one could kill 6 easily. Which brings me to Saturday morning. We got up around 8 and said "Good Morning" then went down and had a romantic continental breakfast consisting of an unidentified meat sausage and preformed egg saucers. Yum. I added an exquisite taste of Section 8 with the addition of Valuetime Louisiana "style" hot pepper juice. As a side note...If the sauce cost 88 cents, don't. Natalie and I then took a Little trip to Fleet Feet to drop some coin on a sale rack. We hung out until real customers started coming but, did enjoy some Kona open water swimming. On to Saturday's highlight.

A little trip down to the Boston store gave way to 90 minutes on the Buckeye trail. After two weeks of not running and a strong concentration on repair and rehab I decided this was a good idea. It is wonderful running in the Cuyahoga Valley during fall. However, I am quite disappointed that the leaves in the valley are somewhat behind. Natalie and I ran 50 minutes out which felt great but, on the way back I started tripping and twisting things. I took a nice full leg twist on my right side which is sore 2 days later. WTF? All in all the run was nice. I had fun out there taking pictures and running with my wife. Something we never get to do. It's really hard to convince a 3 years old to drop below 9 minute miles...on his bike.

Saturday night we went to dinner at Blue canyon. I won't go into it but, let's just call it a waste. Natalie and I were both on the fence about it anyway. Any place that thinks they can charge $4 for a miller lite can kiss my ass. I really don't like those uppity dilweeds with their stupid sense of entitlement. I guess I'm the dummy who paid $30 for a steak that would be considered average at Lonestar. Natalie got the Lobster and bacon pizza. It was good, and further proves one of my life theories that bacon is the crack of the smoked meat world.

After dinner we stopped at Pulp, the juice bar on 82. I have to say that they take premixed juices and scoops of powders and yogurts to a new level. I think I found a new place to drop $5 after a tough morning workout. These little creations come in 24 or 32 oz sizes. Both which are too big to consume at one time without being nauseous. I tried.

So that's a weekend recap. Really, who gives a sheep you are probably saying. Right. It's now back to work. I'm sitting here at my desk rocking out to some new Metallica and switching from blogging to writing a report on some sampling research I just finished. Maybe I'll blog again later this week, maybe I won't. All I know is that I need to get up and stretch my calves.

What am I doing?

2008-10-08T14:38:00.000-04:00

It's been a few days since my last post. I haven't really had anything to say. My feet hurt, so I'm in rehab for that. I'm putting on "winter weight" by not running. And now I've have done something I really wasn't planning. The story of my life...

Since I have been sidelined with the foot rehab I wanted to stay in shape. How do I do that? I stopped swimming a month ago and the StairMaster is my version of a soccer mom nightmare at the rec. Well, it's old faithful. Back to the pool. Why? Well I'm always up for a new challenge. this year I had some really defining moments while racing, mostly in the swim part. I don't want to get out, I just want the swim to go on and on. Apparently I like the open water, bacteria and driftwood are my thing. I did some research, a little. Actually I googled "open water swimming" and I came up with a Little one that raises money for the Potomac river. There's less than 30 people in the event. The best part is that it starts with a boat ride. I like boat rides. They take the swimmers to Virginia and drop everyone off. Then you swim back to Maryland. 7.5 miles. I look at it this way. Any issues that may be bothering you will be put into a serious perspective over the course of one Chesapeake Bay. So what did I do?

I emailed the race director and asked if I could give her $300 for a boat ride. She said OK I'll see you in May. Here's the best part...There's this other thing I signed up for called Ironman. But that's not until August. Oh yea, There's the Cleveland Marathon two weeks prior. (and the BT50K) What does this all mean?

It means that over the course of the next 12 months I will be completely redefining myself as a the person I thought I knew. Many questions will be answered. How bad is the rotator cuff? How bad are my high arches? How much does my wife love me? Will I ever be in my house during daylight hours?

I put together a basic training plan. It's just weekly yardage at this point and the ramp up to 30,000 yds in May. Each of these weeks have one day that makes up 40-50% of the weekly yardage. this changes in Feb. where one day will be at least 50-60%. At the end of April I will have a weekly swim of 12,ooo-15,000 yds with a 85% being my main set. Here's the fun part, at the same time I will also have a long run around 15-20 miles. The caloric intake of a 40 mile run week and 12k in the water will be around 3500 a day, this includes workout nutrition. So if we break this down I can have 5 hammer gels, 20 Miller Lites, and 12 chicken wings a day. Or something like that.

If anyone even cares, keep an eye on this blog. If no one reads that's fine, At least I will have a forum to keep myself motivated.

Lastly, This weekend is my eighth wedding anniversary. Natalie, and I grabbed a local hotel to get out of the house for 2 nights. Saturday, we will head down to the Cuyahoga valley for a little Buckeye trail running. My first run in 2 weeks. I have to say that I am quite excited to be going on a trail run with my wife in the heart of Autumn.

Ug. A post season mess

2008-09-30T09:08:00.000-04:00

Portage lakes was last triathlon of the 2008 season. I ran well but, was ready for a break. My feet have been hurting and I felt like I am missing out at home. My favorite part of fall is all the color changes, especially the deep amber and tan that one would find in a decent Oktoberfest or Pumpkin ale. 200 calories of autumn greatness. That was all fine and good, and I surely take part in a big way for a few weeks. This year I planned on a month off of working out to let everything heal for IMKY. An off month basically means I run occasionally and do some rehab type resistence training. Sounds good. Maybe. Last Friday I went to an ortho specializing in feet. Since mine hurt it was logical. After x-rays and a 30 minute sit down it turns out I beat 'em up real good. I have picked a sweet case of bursitis in my left foot followed by planter fasciitis, perineal tendonitis, and a fracture of my rt. tarsel. (big toe area). I have been put on an immediate 8 weeks off which I bargained down to 2 as long as I go to rehab (the kind for my feet, not my liver) I find it rather depressing, and now I have to drop the beers as well. If I'm not running I will get fat. sucks.

So what's next?

Looks like I will be icing and resting. I also figured that I will start some NSAID's for a few weeks. Looks like i'm back in the pool so maybe swimming the Potomac is a late spring possibility. I need to get my feet back on par especially if I am runnng the BT50K in January. Also there's this thing I do in the fall where I kill ducks and deer then eat them with bbq and hickory smoke.

I am going to try to keep up on this blog. It would be nice to post once or twice a week with pictures. Plus there's always the legend of Rod Berry...

Getting set up

2008-09-22T15:48:00.000-04:00

This is all new to me. I am planning to set this up over the next few weeks. However, there seems to be a learning curve for me. Once we(I) get this all figured out I want to put all sorts of triathlon and random stuff in here. My facebook is fun but limited. So here we go.