Bloggister

Moving...

2008-05-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

I am moving this personal journal to my Facebook page. Look for the "Journaling" link.

Jen video

2008-05-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a video I created today while teaching myself how iMovie works...

Sooner or later

2008-04-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

This had to happen sooner or later.

The nagging pain in my forefoot; that intensified and moved into my toes a couple weeks ago... it's a stress fracture. Found out today.

Good news is that its a toe bone, not a foot bone, so it should heal faster. And I can continue to swim and lift weights. No running for a few weeks. No Flying Pig or Navy challenge.

No cycling either. Hopscotch and break dancing are out too.

I have never kept a good record of my running. I don't run for that. But I was thinking today and I think I guess I've averaged at least 35 miles a week since 1996. That's over 20,000 miles in those years. Lots of sore muscles and lots of overtraining. A couple of really gnarly feet. But until now, the frame has held up.

My Rate

2008-04-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Soon, you'll be able to buy auto insurance priced at a rate based on how, how much, and when you drive (ie, drive like a maniac, pay more). The new product is called My Rate. I've been working with the My Rate launch team for the past few months, working on the messaging and communication.

The Freakonomics guys wrote a blog post on it; its also going to appear in the NYT Magazine on Sunday. Check it out.

Its not the years, its the mileage

2008-04-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

Three weeks to go before Flying Pig and I decide that my foot is bothering me so much that I have to get it checked out...

I've had soreness in my forefoot since February. Annoying but not enough to stop me. In fact, two weeks ago I did a 20-miler. A little soreness but the run was great - one of my fastest long runs in years.

Then, about a week ago, it took a turn. The pain began to intensify and seemed to move into my toes. On a trail run last Wednesday I found myself limping. I rested until Saturday, when I ran a 5K in Berea. 22:08 - my fastest run in a long time. But that afternoon I was limping around the house like Ahab. Argh!

Off to North Chagrin Sports Med on Monday. X-Rays negative. Heading in for a bone scan tomorrow. Really don't think its a stress fracture, but I guess we have to know for sure before treating it.

I saw my GP yesterday for my annual physical, and I lamented about all the nagging injuries, soreness and tightness that no longer just go away. He sort of chuckled and shook his head and said, "Well, you are 36..."

Having to go easy on my feet is pushing me to come up with some creative workouts to keep in shape for the Pig (which I still assume I'll run). I find me enjoying these little challenge workouts a lot.

This was my two-hour all-gym session last Sunday.

Warmup - 20 minutes on the Concept II rower

Set 1 - 5 times through of the following; no rest between exercises

Bench press (8 reps)
25 Sit ups
25 Deep knee bends

Interval - 15 minutes on the stairmaster

Set 2 - 5 times through of the following

Dead lift (8 reps)
25 Push ups
6-10 Pull ups
10 Leg raises (Roman chair)

Interval - 15 minutes on the stairmaster

Set 3 - repeat over and over again for 15 minutes

20 Medicine ball "chops"
10 35# dumbell swings
10 Dumbell upright rows
10 Dumbell tricep ext
10 Dumbell reverse grip curl
10 Dumbell curl
10 Back hyper extensions

Finish - 20 minute on the Concept II

Score one for the liberal arts

2008-04-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Thomas Friedman's "The World Is Flat" - a book I'd highly recommend. He writes partly about the need for American students to get well-rounded educations, including study of the arts. He believes it's the ability to combine creativity and technology (I guess that's what we call "innovation") that's going to keep individuals, companies and countries competitive in the future. Just when you thought the nerds were going to rule the world. Score one for the liberal arts.

So to illustrate his point, Friedman referred to a 2005 Stanford U. commencement speech by Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. Jobs talks about how his love of calligraphy as a college dropout was a huge inspiration in development of the user interface for the Mac...which, in turn, "inspired" the creators of Windows. And of course, we're all working on Windows or Leopard now.

I googled the entire speech, and pasted a link below. I think the whole thing is full of good advice. As any good commencement speech should be. Read it when you have a few minutes.

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Is the end near?

2008-03-30T04:03:00.000-07:00

Robot video.

Cabin fever special

2008-03-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Had weather conditions not resembled the approach of Ragnarnok...

...and had my left foot not been sore...

...I would have done a long run today.

As it was, I instead went to the gym and did this:

Warmup:
15 minute run, 8:34 pace
15 deep knee bends

Set 1 - Repeat the following six times, with about 15 seconds rest between exercises

Squat - sets of 10, 10, 10, 8, 8, 8
25 pushups
25 situps
15 dips

15 minutes on stairmaster, level 10 (89 steps/minute)

Set 2 - Repeat the following six times, 15-sec rest between exercises

Standing overhead press - sets of 10, 8, 8, 10, 8, 8
15 back hyper extensions
5 pullups - alternate hand posistion (face in, face side to side, face out) with each set

15 mintues on the rower

60 minute walk on the treadmill, 15:00 / mi pace

The whole thing took about 2-1/2 hours.

101-year-old marathoner

2008-03-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

I think this guy has it figured out. Be sure to watch the video.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4385601&page=1

Books

2008-03-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Here are a few I've read recently.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Chip Heath and Dan Heath

If you enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's books, especially "The Tipping Point," read "Made to Stick. "

The Heaths explain why some ideas catch on and others never do. From urban legends like the "kidney thief." To effective corporate m.o.'s, like Southwest Airlines' guiding principle of being the "low cost airline" - a principle that guides decisions at every level of their business.

Their six key qualities of the sticky idea (don't be put off by this, really, it's good): SUCCESs - Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories (as in, use stories to explain your idea).

If you ever want to communicate something effectively to another person - I think we all do - you can learn from "Made to Stick."

They blog too

Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Levitt is a brilliant economist suffering from extreme curiosity. Dubner is a writer with the New York Times. Put them together and you get "Freakonomics."

The Freakonomics guys are a sort of mythbuster team. They look at the data behind commonly-accepted truths to reveal how things we take for granted aren't always backed up by facts.
And they look at all kinds of things.

What really motivates your realtor?
Are sumo wrestlers as "honorable" as they portray themselves?
What are the economics and organization behind street drug dealing?
What's the connection between the drop in crime in the US in the early 90s, and the social upheaval in Romania in the late 80s?
Will giving your child an ethnic name help or hinder their ability to get a good job?

As someone who thinks we all tend to worry about the wrong things, Freakonomics is fascinating.

They blog too

Population: 485 - Meeting Your Neighbor one Siren at a Time
and
Truck: A Love Story
Michael Perry

No, this is not the Michael Perry of football and fast-food-hamburger fame.

I first heard of Michael Perry - the author - last summer. And he's quickly become a favorite.

Perry writes about his rural hometown of New Auburn, Wisconsin. A town he left after high school to basically live all over the world before returning in his 30s.

His prose makes me smile, all the way through. Perry tells stories and waxes on his experiences in a small midwestern town, serving as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, restoring a 1951 International pickup truck (hence, the title of the second book), the evolution of his hairstyles (from mullett to receeding), gardening, the rednecks who live across the street, the names of NPR correspondents, falling in love and getting married. And much more.

His characters (real people in his town and life), remind me a bit of Lake Wobegon residents. But Perry is no Garrison Kellior (thank god!). He's one of the characters himself. His are actually stories of he and his neighbors. It's, for lack of a better term, down-to-earth. Genuine. Good reading.

Has a new book coming out this summer, supposedly.

His Web site
Some of his tips for cyclists (he's a runner and cyclist too)

Stupid human tricks

2008-02-01T07:12:00.000-08:00

Each month this year I have a goal to achieve some feat of strength I've never before been able to attain.

So far I've figured out four goals. All are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound.

Here are my first four months:

January 31 - Ten pullups, nonstop ... DONE

January was the time to tackle one of my long-time weaknesses. The absolute inability to do pullups.

There was a time, before I lost my weight, that I could not do a single pullup.

In recent years, on the rare occasion that I'd jump up on the bar to try, I could squeeze out 4 or 5. Embarassing.

But I focused on pullups all through January. The goal. Do 10 without stopping; and with good form.

So practically any time I was in the gym - even if I was passing through to go run outside, I'd take a minute to do a few. I kept a chart on the refrigerator to track my progress. Usually averaging around 25 per day.

In late January I got on the bar one morning and was able to squeeze out 10 full reps. No swinging, no cheating. Drill-seargeant approved.

On to February...

February 29 - Yoga Headstand, unsupported

My long term goal is to be able to do a handstand. But you've gotta crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.

Headstands have utterly escaped me in yoga classes over the years. Usually, it's either a half-assed attempt resulting in nothing. Or a more aggressive attempt ending in me crashing down to the ground like King Kong falling off the Empire State Building.

My current yoga instructor, though, typically dedicates a few minutes before shavasna to inversion poses. It's made me focus.

Last Thursday, using the wall for support, I was able to get into the basic pose as shown in the photo above. That, in itself, was huge.

Then the instructor helped me by pulling my legs away from the wall and gently letting me go. For a moment I was in the pose, completely unsupported. Then I finally got tired and came down (not too terribly ungracefully either).

By February 29, I'll do all that with neither wall nor instructor to help.

If all goes well, maybe handstand will be a goal for later in 2008.

March 31 - Bench press body weight 20 times

Right now I weigh in at about 203 - 205. There was a time I could easily crank out 20 at that weight. But I weighed 340 pounds! Today, I think I can do about 8 reps with 205.

This is quite simple. Weigh myself. Go to a bench. Press that weight 20 times. Good form.

And if I lose weight in the next six weeks (say, I get down to 200), then I can do it with 200 pounds. One more reason to encourage myself to lose a few lbs of winter weight.

April 30 - Swim non-stop 50 yards (2 lengths) underwater

I recently, for the first time ever, was able to swim a full length of the pool underwater using a hybrid breast-stroke and freestyle kick.

It's taken me years to figure out the simple secret to this. When you think you're going to drown, just keep going. You wont drown.

I think I can do another length without stopping for air. More to come soon....

Winter Buckeye Trail 50K Ultramarathon

2008-01-27T05:49:00.000-08:00

April may be the cruellest month, according to TS Eliot. But in Cleveland, January is definitely the coldest.

The average temperature is just above freezing, 33 degrees F. In fact, the coldest temperature on record in Cleveland, -20 degrees F, was recorded in January 1994.

I remember that day.

Every time I went outside, my eyeballs froze in place and I had to turn my head to get any peripheral vision. My exhalations froze midair in front of my mouth, dropped and shattered on the asphalt. It was really a day to remember.

I probably ran that day. Outside.

See, we Cleveland athletes are a hearty bunch. We embrace January's cold, wind, snow, darkness and holiday bills. And that's why the Winter edition of the Buckeye Trail run has grown.

It began several years ago as a "fun run" with just a handful of runners. Now, it's a full-fledged race, with 250 runners tackling a 50K, marathon and half marathon on the icy trail.

But it keeps its relaxed atmosphere. For instance, if you sign up for the 50K, but decide after 26 miles that you've had enough, you can finish and get credit for the marathon.

I wish I'd done more to prepare for this one.

In spite of the prospect of a seven-plus hour slog through the woods, my longest run in preparation was just 18 miles.

I haven't incorporated an eating or hydration strategy into any of my runs.

My trail shoes are terrible on my feet, but I haven't bothered to take the time to get a better pair.

No, I've been more focused lately on weight training, tropical vacations, holidays, work and some other things.

But there I was at about 7AM, standing on Boston Mills Road in the dark with 250 other runners. It was cold, but not bitter cold. About 25 degrees. And the wind was mercifully absent.

The race started. After a half mile jaunt on the Towpath, we turned off, ran by the Stanford hostel, and got on to the trail. My first mile went by in about 10 mintues.

I had dressed optimistically.

Layered running shirts but no jacket.

Tri shorts under my tights - I actually thought I might go with just the shorts, but stuck with the tights.

My crab gloves and a fleece hat.

The aforementioned trail shoes, which are great for shorter runs, but start to fatigue my feet and calves drastically after about 90 minutes.

A fanny pack full of gel and Lara bars. My pistol-grip water bottle.

I also had a complete set of clothes in my car in case I decided to change during one of the several pass-throughs of the start finish area at Boston Store. But I never needed this. I had a few "waves" of cold pass over me, but I thought my clothes were just fine for this.

The 50K course is divided into two parts.

A roughly 4.5 mile out and back between Boston Store and Brandywine falls. It's pretty hilly, but the surface was relatively easy to run on.

Then, an 8.5 mile out and back between Boston Store and Pine Lane. This is a little more technical, with some big hills, a (frozen) river crossing, and what turned out to be my nemesis: craters that formed when footprints made in the mud froze. That's 13 miles. Half marathoners obviously do this once, marathoners do it twice, and 50Kers do it twice plus an extra trip to Brandywine falls and back.

The first half of the race went well. I focused on keeping an easy pace, relaxing my legs, eating and drinking a lot. The Pine Lane section went fine for me. I was still pretty fresh, and was able to navigate the crater fields pretty deftly. I had a couple less-than-graceful manuvers on the ice, but generally I was doing okay.

I did have one little problem, though. My body, I guess, wasn't used to processing all that food. So I spent about 5 minutes in the portajohn at Boston Store. I ended up having to do this twice. I know, TMI.

The halfway point of my second trip to Brandywine, was the halfway point of my run, and my clock said 3:11. In spite of the long potty break, I was pretty happy with my split. Even my feet seemed to be holding out in those medieval torture shoes. And I felt good, overall. I said hi to Mike George, who was volunteering at the Brandywine aid station, and got on with the second half.

It was on the second Pine Lane out-and-back that the wheels fell off.

I tweaked my left ankle three times on those craters. The second time was bad enough that I had to swear loudly and limp a few steps. Within a few miles, my legs had gone from feeling fresh to feeling like I was running with bricks on my feet.

Near the end of the Pine Lane out-and-back, about a half mile from Boston Store, I saw a sight for sore eyes. Jen was waiting for me. She asked me how it was going. I grunted "Horrible." She asked me if I wanted to stop (this pass through Boston Store would make me qualify as a marathon finisher). I said, "No way, I am in this thing to the finish."

Although I did need to do another long potty break.

Just about five miles left, on the easier of the two course sections. I was at about 5:50 elapsed time, so a steady pace would easily get me a below-seven-hour time.

Jen ran with me to the Stanford Hostel, then let me go. We saw Elizabeth Hansen heading in for her finish.

I trotted along, continuing to focus on relaxing my legs. According to my Garmin, my pace was around 12/mi, which really wasn't too bad, all things considered. I sensed that I was near the back of the pack, but there were a few other runners around. Most looked in worse shape than me at that point.

Finally, I jogged to the finish line. My time was 6:53:49. Jen was waiting for me again and snapped my photo. Guess I don't look too bad here, do I?

Surprise 70th

2008-01-21T16:05:00.000-08:00

My dad turned 70 on January 10. We threw him a surprise party.

The conspirators: Jen, my sister Maggie and her boyfriend, Brad, my mom and me. We worked for months in preparation.

We held the party at Quail Hollow Resort in Concord. About 40 friends and family made it. And he never had a clue until he walked in that door!

I also created this video, which I showed at the party. This is lots of old pictures of my dad - some going back to when he was a baby.

The List

2008-01-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Eat:

Lean meats, poultry, pork and/or fish everyday.
Lots of vegetables.
Fruit everyday.
Some nuts.
Lots of water.

*Diet is habit. It's not a set plan, or a list of things you restrict.

Training:

Be consistent.
Have easy days.
Keep going when you're tired.
Rest when you're really tired.
Lift weights. I mean, really lift. Move heavy iron.
Do yoga.

Sport:

"Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." (Henry Ford)

Health:

Get a massage.
See the doctor.
Get enough sleep.
Like your job.
Like where you live.

Living:

Love someone.
Help someone.
Travel.
Eat something different.
Challenge bullshit.
Read.
Have a pet.

Attitude is the most important asset.

Recognizing opportunity is the most important skill.

Applying attitude to opportunity is art.

Paradise (Part 3)

2008-01-04T13:03:00.001-08:00

Been a while since I’ve posted. Just been a busy few weeks with work and the holiday, of course. But I wanted to provide my final write up of my trip to Hawaii before details begin to fade. Here it is.

Kayaking Kaua’i’s Wailua River and visiting “Secret” falls
On Kaua'i, Jen and I went out on a kayak/hike trip with a company called Outfitters Kauai. This was just a lot of fun, and a great way to spend a day.

We showed up at 7AM at O.K.'s office near our hotel, met our guide and another couple taking the trip with us. We each got a box lunch and a waterproof bag to carry our stuff in. Then the guide drove us and our trailer-full of kayaks from the office to the mouth of the Wailua River on the other side of the island. Along the way we stopped off at one of the hotels to pick up another couple joining us for the trip.

It's been years since I've done any canoeing or kayaking. But fortunatley I had experienced paddle-master Jen with me, and we were pretty quick to get the hang of our two-person craft. I just did what she told me to do. The first hour or so was a downstream paddle. The seven of us stuck together as a group, whicle our guide pointed out some of the unique trees and other interesting riverside sights.

We almost had the river to ourselves. About halfway into the trip, we passed a guy going the other way on a surfboard! He was standing on it and propelling himself with a canoe paddle. I've never seen this before, but our guide told us that "river surfing" is getting increasingly popular.We put ashore to begin the hiking portion of our trip - a mile or so to a place called Secret Falls. The trail was pretty easy, though a bit muddy in spots. As she did on the river, along the way our guide pointed out some interesting facts about the landscape.

In one spot she showed us where wild hogs had torn up the ground in search of food (they're getting to be a problem on the island). She also showed us some trees and fruits that the Hawai'ians have used as food and medicine for centuries.

After about 45 minutes of walking, we arrived at Secret Falls. Apparently the secret is out, because about 20 other hikers were there too! We took about a half hour to swim in the cold pond - we even stood under the falls - and eat our lunches (we had to watch for the wild chickens threatening to steal our food).

After a hike back to our kayaks, we faced an upstream paddle back to the riverhead. Jen and I had to put aside our sightseeing as we put our noses down and focused on the paddling.

One of the other couples was apparently pretty experienced at paddling, and they seemed to move upstream with ease. We worked to stay near them while the other couple and our guide fell back a way. But after about an hour and a half or so, we put ashore back at the marina and put a close to another great Hawai'i memory.

Surfing, snorkeling and swimming
I spent a lot of time in the water on this trip. The Pacific is clear, warm and salty. From our first full day there when I swam about a mile along Waikiki Beach, I swam about every other day, at least.

The neat thing was that the water was so clear and shallow enough that as I was swimming I could watch the tropical fish, turtles and other sea life. Of course, Jen and I rented snorkel gear as well, and enjoyed a couple of snorkelling sessions at Poipu Beach in Kaua'i.

One thing on my short list of things to do was take a surfing lesson. On Oahu, along with friends Tracey and Pete, we drove up to the north shore, home of the famous Banzai Pipeline, and watched the experts take on some really impressive waves. And every morning when you looked out into the ocean, you'd see dozens of people out there on their boards.

But I knew I had to start a little more modestly. So while on Kaua'i, I called up a local surfing school. We made an appointment for a 90 minute lesson, and the instructor had us drive out to a beach called Hanalei Bay on the island's north shore - the waves were good up there for beginners.The instructor was a young guy and a local, and I assume an excellent surfer, but really friendly and easygoing and patient with us greenhorn Midwesterners. We started on land with about 10 minutes of learning some basics of how to carry the board in the water and then how to get up once you catch your wave. Then we were off into the water.

For the first lesson, the instructor made it easy. As the wave came in, he'd push me off so I didn't have to paddle. But then it was up to me. It took me try after try to just get my big legs around and under me so I could stand up.

Jen seemed to take to it much easier. On only her second try, she got up and rode the wave all they way on to shore. I biffed spectacularly a few times, but little by little I was getting the hang of it. The instructor showed me some easier techniques for getting up (I think it's the technique they use for children or old people!), and eventually I was able to get up and have something of a ride.

The 90 minutes flew by, but when our time was up I was ready to finish. It was a lot of fun, and if we do go back someday, I want to do it again.

Well…just being there!

You're on vacation for two weeks in a tropical paradise and have no worries about anything. I mean, how can you go wrong?

The moment we first got into our hotel room on Waikiki Beach and opened up the curtains, and looked out on that most famous beach, with the endless Pacific to our left; to our last walk on the beach at Poipu Beach, Hawai'i was always what I'd dreamed it would be. It had all the exotic-ness of visiting a foreign country; but all the conveniences of living in the U.S.

And while I was often pleasantly surprised with things I hadn't thought to expect, I can't say I was ever disappointed. There's so much to do and so much to see and learn, a two-week vacation can't possibly even scratch the surface. I must get back there.

Paradise (Part 2)

2007-11-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

Hiking the NaPali Coast and Waimea Canyon

Kaua'i is known as "The Garden Island" and its easy to see why. It's perhaps the greenest place I've ever seen. Truly a tropical paradise, it's what I think about when I think about Hawai'i (which I do a lot these days). Kaua'i even has the distinction of having the wettest place on the planet - Mount Waialeale, which receives approximately 400 inches of rainfall a year.

There are so many great places to visit on the island, but I think anyone's short list has to include both the NaPali Coast and Waimea Canyon.

Na Pali is in northern Kaua'i (the North Shore). We planned to visit and hike there after a morning surf lesson in Hanalei Bay. We set out mid morning, and drove along the northern highway from Lihue, the main town on the island, towards Princeville and the most fantastic beaches you've ever seen. After a 90-minute surf lesson - Jen picked it up right away, but I struggled wave after wave to get up on my board - we had lunch and continued along the shore for Haena State Park. It's literally at the end of the road, and the farther we got, the more remote and wild the drive became. The views were incredible, and I was glad to not only have the top down on the Jeep, but to have Jen "Big Wave" Collister at the wheel so I could soak in the scenery.

We finally got to Haena, parked and set off on our hike. The trail is 11 miles long, one way, with several stops along the way at viewpoints and beaches (accessible by foot only) and side trips inland. We planned the shortest hike - 2 miles in to a beach called Hanakapa'ai and back. Any farther on the trail and we'd need a hiking permit from the state park.

The trail started with a rocky, steep uphill. Fairly rugged, but we were rewarded at the top with a lookout point over the endless Pacific. The horizon looked to be a thousand miles away. We kept on, and met a number of hikers coming back along the trail. Most were dayhikers like us, but a few had packs, indicating that they were on their way back from the endpoint of the 11-mile trail.

It was pretty tough hiking. Lots of rocks - some wet and slippery - lots of ups and downs. As we approached Hanakapa'ai I misstepped and twisted my ankle. It smarted pretty badly, and I had to sit down. Fortunatley the soreness eased up and I was able to continue - good thing 'cause I don't think Jen would have wanted to carry me those two miles.

We got to the midpoint of the hike and sat to rest and have a snack. The beach was really beautiful, although unswimmable due to strong currents. After about a 15-minute break we headed back, as the afternoon wore on.

A couple days later we visited Waimea Canyon. The legend is that Mark Twain nicknamed this place "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific" when he visited Hawai'i in the late 18th century. The name's stuck ever since. (Problem was, according to my guidebook, Twain never visited Kauai. But I'm sure he heard all about it on the boat, and maybe not wanting to miss a chance at a clever turn, coined the nickname?).

Waimea basically traverses the island from the southern shore to the NePali coast in the north. You get to it from the south, though, and beginning your drive inland at the shore, climb about 3,000 feet in 15 miles. The views really are stunning, though, and I am sure if Mr. Twain had visited it, he's feel satisfied that he nicknamed the place properly.

Jen and I parked our car at the park museum, and set off on a 10-mile hike, which actually took us away from the canyon itself and towards the Pacific at the western side of the NePali coast. The trail was fantastic. Through forrests and grassy areas, finally to a cliffside hike that gave Jen the willies (not wild about heights). But the views were unforgettable.

Although we were really enjoying the views, which included wild goats and other animals, we hiked pretty hard, and blew away the mile-per-hour estimate of our guidebook. We hardly saw anyone else out there. Truly paradise.

To be continued...

Paradise (Part 1)

2007-11-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

I've spent the last two weeks in paradise on earth.

It is Hawai'i, and if you've never been there, but have thought "I want to go there someday" do whatever you have to do to get there. You wont be disappointed.

Jenny and I visited three islands in 14 days: Oahu from our arrival on October 31 through November 4, Hawai'i ("The Big Island") from November 4 - 7, and Kaua'i ("The Garden Island") from November 7 - 14.

I thought a lot about how I would write about my trip. Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow, I thought I'd do something different. In my extensive research for our trip, I found that everyone I talked to had a list of things a visitor just has to experience. Well, I have my own list, and here it is:

Pearl Harbor

As every school child knows (or should know) Pearl Harbor was the site of the Japanese sneak attack on the U.S. Navy on December 7, 1941 that launched the U.S. into World War II. On that morning, a Japanese bomb penetrated the deck of the battleship U.S.S. Arizona and detonated near a weapons magazine, setting off a larger explosion that sank the ship and killed nearly 1,200 sailors. Most were never recovered, and the Arizona has remained sunken at the bottom of Pearl Harbor as a monument to all who died that day.

The Arizona memorial is one of the most-visited places on the islands. We visited it on our first morning in Oahu, bright and early. The first stop was is the visitor's center across the bay and a 20-minute movie covering the political events that led to December 7, then a description of the battle itself. The movie was very well done, and really set the mood for seeing the ship itself. Next, we boarded a small boat, piloted by active Navy personnel, and rode across the harbor to the memorial, which is erected over the sunken ship.

It was a beautiful, clear morning, but the atmosphere in the memorial was quiet and reflective. You can lean over the sides of the memorial to view the ship - several spots, including one of the gun turrets, poke out of the water; and it still leaks oil after all these years (the oil droplets are called "black tears"). At one end of the memorial is a room with the names of all the sailors who died - many of whom lie beneath the memorial today.

The memorial probably means different things to different people. A way to never forget. A symbol of how terrible war is. A place to reflect. Interestingly, many of the visitors were Japanese - a reminder that its their history too. As someone interested in history, I found visiting the Arizona to be a powerful experience. Being able to view the sunken ship makes the memorial so very real. Imagine if the wreckage of the World Trade Center were left at Ground Zero as a memorial. This isn't an abstract museum display, a page in a history book or a marble statue. This is truly living history.

When we returned to the visitor's center, we visited one of Pearl Harbor's newer sites - the U.S.S. Missouri. The Mighty Mo was commissioned in 1944, and was the last true battleship built. It saw action in the last year of the War, then was the site of the signing of the Japanese surrender terms in September 1945. The ship is now decommissioned and tourists can wander over its teak wood decks and through many of its cabins, view the mammoth 20-inch guns and 100-lb chain links that hold the anchor. Something I found intersting is that you can stand nearly on the spot where the surrender was signed by the Japanese, peer over the bow and see the Arizona. Sort of the bookends of the American involvement in WWII.

Beaches

As if you needed me telling you, Hawaii has the most excellent beaches, and an incredible variety of beaches at that. It started in Honolulu. After a long flight, I walked on to the lanai of our beachfront high-rise hotel room. To my right was Honolulu. To my left, the endless Pacific. And beneath me, the famous Waikiki beach. For once, I felt like I had really arrived in Hawaii.

We spent some time sunbathing and swimming at Waikiki, but the best was yet to come. Before leaving Oahu, we drove up to the north shore and visited Sunset Beach, one of the most prolific surfing spots. The waves were about three times higher than in Waikiki, and there were a bunch of people out in the water "shredding" the waves. They were da kine.

On the Big Island, we spent some time at Anaehoomalu Beach ("A beach"); a dark, coarse sand beach near our resort. I guess we didn't fully embrace beachgoing until we got to Kauai. Our hotel was on the shore of a wonderful beach, Poi'pu, with soft sand, good snorkelling and swimming and incredible sunsets (see video).

On the north shore, we visited the beach at Hanelai Bay, where we learned how to surf (Jen did much better than I did), and drove along the shoreline towards the NePali coast, passing beach after scenic beach. Each one seemed to offer something different, but they all had white sand and crystal clear water.

Volcanoes National Park

Jen and I visited Volcanoes on the Big Island. The park is on the eastern side of the island, about a three-hour drive from our condo in Waikaloa (on the western side). We left early and arrived around 9AM, which was a good thing, as we spent nearly all day there.

The landscape is just as described - extraterrestial. Kilauea's main crater floor is glossy black rock, probably 3-4 miles in diameter with steam puffing out of hundreds of vents. We drove the circumference of the main crater, then parked the Jeep and did a hike straight througha smaller crater called Kilauea Iki. It was like a walk on the surface of the moon. A few photos from that extra-vehicular activity:

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any lava. After our crater hike, we drove to a spot along the most recent lava flows and hiked a trail about a mile and a half to a lookout spot suggested by the Park Service. We were met by a ranger who had a telescope trained on the only visible activity for the day (it changes daily) - some gas escaping through a crack. Here's a photo:

To be continued...

Stomp the Grapes

2007-10-20T16:13:00.000-07:00

Me, Stompin' the Grapes on Saturday Morning

About three weeks ago, Jen asked me if I'd be interested in doing one more race this year - the Stomp the Grapes half marathon in Navarre, near Canton.

It's not been the best of years for me, race-wise. While I've come a long way with trail running, I haven't had good results at all in my road races. Just not mentally into it, and my times have gotten slower and slower. But I thought, why not? I'll probably be running that Saturday morning anyway.

So I was up at 4:45 to go through my pre-dawn rituals and be ready to leave for the 90-minute drive to Navarre. I seemed to have developed a slight sore throat overnight, but it wasn't too bad. On the way we picked up Jen's mom - she lives in Canton and hasn't had a chance to see her daughter (or son in law) run this year.

The start / end point was the Perrenial Vineyards in Navarre. We arrived about an hour before race start, and although the sun was coming up brightly, it was still cool and pretty windy, so we waited in the car until a few minutes before race time.

Fortunately, the temperatures warmed just a bit, although it was still quite breezy as the starter's horn went off. Really, as mid-October in Ohio goes, I don't think we could have wished for a better day.

So I took off at a good pace, covering the first mostly-downhill, wind-at-my-back mile in just about 7:30. It was the fastest mile I've run probably all year, in races and training! But I felt pretty good and my heartrate was nominal so I kept it up.

The first few miles of the race covered rural roads among farms, so there were several rolling hills to contend with, although with the stiff wind at my back those hills weren't too much of a challenge. The course then went into the town of Navarre crossed mile four in a little city park. My four mile split was 31:25, so I was keeping my pace under 8:00 per mile. At this point, I figured if I could finish the race at an eight minute pace, it would be a victory. Then again, I was starting to "feel it." My heart rate was creeping up in my upper aerobic zone, and I wondered what kind of fatigue the late miles would bring me.

Just before the halfway point, the course turned on to the Towpath. I've never run this far south on the path, and it was a very beautiful part of the run. We were also spread far enough that I was running alone, just cruising along at my just-below-uncomfortable pace. I crossed the eight-mile mark at 1:03:28. I'd slowed only slightly; still under an eight minute pace.

At about mile 10, the course took a turn - in several ways. We got off the Towpath and back on to the main road - in fact the last three miles went back the same route as the first three came out. Mile 10 was mostly uphill and into a sharp, chilly wind. It was tough. I just kept thinking like a metronome, thinking "no quit" over and over. I couldn't figure out how I was going to keep up any kind of decent pace in this. So many other times this year I might have just quit (maybe not literally, but just shut it down to ease the pain). I couldn't quit like that. Not again! I had to keep it up, to finish strong!

Then, at about mile 11.5, the original "Rocky" theme song came on my iPod shuffle. "It's so hard now...." Man, that was just what I needed. I know my pace was slowing, but everyone was suffering. But I was still going. Catching people. "Getting strong now.... Wont be long now...." I was passing people who had gone by me in the early miles, left and right. "Gonna' fly now...Fly high now...ahhhhh!"

That really carried me to the final test - a long, steep climb, into the wind, to the winery's driveway. I was drooling and my eyes were bugging out as I turned the final corner and ran in the last hundred yards.

I finished in 1:46:02, averaging 8:05s. 68th overall out of 293. 56 out of 162 men. While it was far from my best half marathon time, it was my best performance this year, in any race, especially when you take into account the terrain and wind.

Jen came in about 18 minutes behind me - she ran 2:04 - but placing at about the same relative position in her age group and among females! Solid! I know she was still suffering the lingering effects of a cold, but ran like a champ and deserves to be very happy with that run!

About the race
I have to give props to the race. It was really well organized. The winery was a good venue -- yes, wine was available at the finish, along with water, fruit, Subway sandwiches and some sweets. The course was tough but pretty. Roads were open to traffic, but there were very few cars. It was chip timed. Plenty of volunteers. Four aid stations with water and powerade. We got a nice long sleeve tech tee and a medal at the finish (although I refused mine...I really have enough).

I also noticed the care put into little things. The race information packet was simple, with clear, well-written instructions. Each of the miles were marked, and from what I could tell from my Garmin, marked accurately. I might have to plan on this one for next year.

http://www.stompthegrapeshalfmarathon.com/index.cfm

Running in Seattle

2007-10-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

I spent three days in Seattle last week for work. I worked all day Monday, here in Cleveland, had dinner at Heck's Cafe with Jen, then headed to the airport for a night flight to the Pacific Northwest. In my suitcase were my running shoes and shorts, as I was hoping to get in some running while out there.

The flight got in at about 11PM, Seattle time, which felt like 2AM to me with the time change. I had a reservation at the Holiday Inn near the airport. Got my car, left the airport parking lot and saw the Holiday Inn sign from the intersection at the airport exit. Drove straight there, got out and thought I had a good shot at being in bed within the next 15 minutes. But as I entered the lobby I was greeted by a long line and only one person at the registration counter. I was so tired. But I waited for about 30 minutes as the receptionist checked everyone in. Finally I got up to the counter and said I had a reservation for Collister. She looked in the computer, then looked at me a little puzzled. "We don't have a reservation for you here...are you sure you don't have a reservation at the Holiday Inn Express a mile down the road?"

I was so tired that I didn't even notice I went to the wrong hotel. Got back in my car and drove over there. Fortunatley I got checked in quickly and got to bed at about midnight.

Tuesday morning I had a meeting in our office in Bellevue, about 20 miles northeast of the airport. I packed a bag with my shoes and running stuff, as I was hoping to stop at a park I'd found in some online reseach prior to leaving Cleveland.

Apparently, morning rush hour traffic in Seattle is a bear, as it took me no less than 90 minutes to make the 20 mile drive. But after that, the meeting went well. I had a short presentation followed by an open discussion on some communications ideas I've been needing our sales managers' feedback on.

The meeting wrapped up at about 1PM, and I logged on to my computer to get some work done. By 3 PM the e-traffic had slowed down - all my co-workers back east were done for the day - so I packed it up and went to the bathroom to change.

Cougar Mountain Regional Park was my destination. It required only a slight detour from my route back to the airport area, and it was well, well worth it. The park boasts 36 miles of hiking/running trails. Some of it is very rugged and hilly, and its all very woodsy. It was about 60 degrees, damp and misty, and the scene looked like something out of a fantasy movie. I half expected the trees to start talking to me or Bilbo Baggins to come trundling around the bend. I ran for about 1:15 at a nice easy pace, just enjoying this wonderful setting. It was a great place for a run.

Although my trip had no stop in Seattle proper, later that night I figured, "I've come all this way..." so I got in my car and drove the few miles to downtown Seattle. I did sort of my own self-guided driving tour of the city (which can be dangerous, if you happen to leave your common sense at home). I never did get out of the car, but at least I can say I've been there.

Wednesday I did the "long" drive to Bellevue again and met up with our northern Washington rep. Spent the day with her visiting agents in her territory, which is north of Seattle. We parted ways at about 5:00 PM., and I headed back to that park for another run - this one only about 40 minutes, as it was beginning to get dark.

If I get out there again - for work or pleasure - I know where I am headed to run.

Sunday run
After attending a wedding last night then getting home and macking out on the sofa until 1AM, Jen and I slept in until the unheard of (for us) hour of 7:30 this morning. But we were determined to make up for it. The Indian Summer air was hot and thick as we left the house to run. Here was our workout:

--- Run easy to Chagrin River Park and run the "small" and "big" loops. About 4 miles.

--- Stair climbs at the sledding hill - 10 sets, fast up, easy down.

--- Run about a quarter mile to the playground; kick the little kids off the equipment. Then, using the equipment, three sets of:

5 pullups or bent arm hang
15 situps
10 pushups
8-10 dips

--- Run easy back home. About 1.5 miles.

By the time we got back home, I was a sweaty mess and dirty from doing situps and pushups in the sawdust under the playground equipment. Jen, for some reason, managed to look fresh as a daisy. I hosed myself off with the garden hose before going in.

We didn't really kick kids off the playground equipment.

2007-09-30T11:35:00.001-07:00

Much has transpired since I last posted.

Back in the saddle

After about a week and a half off and several visits to Dr Torzok's office, I'm back running. The swelling is gone and it feels fine again. This can be such a nice time of year to run, so I'm glad I wasn't off my feet for too long.

The big events are over for the year, but I have one more event on the horizon. Jen and I are doing a half marathon near Canton. It ends at a winery. Always nice to find races that have some sort of alcohol tie-in.

Seems like I'e been running much slower lately. I guess after Ironman I started focusing on trail running for Dances with Dirt, and really needed to practice long, steady runs on technical trails. Speed was an afterthought. I went out this morning, though, for an hour run, and stayed on the road the whole time. I averaged 8:47 over about 7 miles. Doesn't sound like blazing speed, but it's the fastest hour I've run in weeks. Felt good.

The other factor that's been affecting my speed is my body weight. I did Ironman at about 188, which is pretty slim for me. I weighed in this morning at 204. No mystery here - I've just been eating too much. It's about 10 pounds above optimal for me, I think. I've always been able to drop weight pretty fast, though, and I'd like to be back down to about 195 by the end of October.

Off season

I've been thinking a lot about how I'll prepare for doing a 100-miler next year. One conclusion I've come to is that while my running aerobic fitness is extremely high, I've lost a lot of overall strength, and with that, maybe some mental edge. I want to get that back this winter. Been reading some stuff published by Cross Fit, a company that counts among its fans a lot of military and law enforcement special forces people, like the Navy SEALs and Army rangers. Their approach is to foster the development of maximum fitness in an athlete by emphasizing a variety of sports to develop overall strength, and focus on interval training (rather than so much focus on the long, slow, aerobic activity) to develop cardiovascular fitness. I sense there is a lot there I can learn. Maybe the subject of a future post.

National tour

Spent a couple days in Houston this week for work. Tuesday I spent on the road with one of our reps, visiting insurance agents (oh BOY!). Well, they were all very welcoming and pretty helpful to me. I think they were happy to host a "visiting Yankee" in their office for a while. Wednesday was a couple of agent meetings with the state product manager.

Fortunately, I had a car, and when the visits and meetings were done, I drove out to a park about 20 minutes from my hotel. Huge city park with baseball and soccer fields, a zoo, a 2-mile paved running loop in addition to a 2-mile cross country course. It was pretty hot - in the 90s - and I enjoyed running there.

Tomorrow, I leave for Seattle. More agent visits and a meeting with our Washington sales team. Hopefully will have a chance to scope out the running scene too.

Tattoos

Finally, Jen and I got tattoos yeaterday. A fun couples activity, huh? Jen's is the Ironman M-dot. No explanation there - she earned that one putting in all those miles for the Ironman this summer. Looks great on her upper shoulder.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how she'd do in the chair. I could sense she was a little nervous going in - so was I, and this is my second tattoo. But she was a total trooper. Frankly, mine hurt like hell, and I was grimacing and chomping my gum and trying to think happy thoughts as the artict jabbed my shoulder. But every so often I'd hear Jen two booths over laughing and chatting away with the tattoo guy.

Here's mine:

That is a Manx Triskelion. A what? Ok... my heritage is Manx (Isle of Man, a British Isle between Wales and Ireland). The country's symbol is a triskelion, and appears on the crest and flag. The symbol is truly ancient - first appearing in the Roman culture, used by the Norse as well, and began appearing on the Isle of Mann in the 13th century. The flag of Sicily also uses a triskelion, although a different variation than the Manx, which features three armored legs joined at the crotch (mine - see pic - is based on what's on the Manx crest). The symbol was first popularized as a tattoo by 19th century Manx sailors (in fact, one of the characters in Moby Dick is described as having a triskelion tattoo), and I think is popular as a tattoo on Mann today, but I don't think I've ever seen one over here.

I've really been attracted to this symbol for a long time. Not only for the ancestral connection, but the fact that it looks like it could run forever. In fact, the triskelion on the Manx crest carries a Latin inscription - "Quocuncue Jeceris Stabit" - "However you throw it, it stands." Something I might add some day.

DWD video

2007-09-18T17:50:00.001-07:00

The Dances with Dirt Web site just elevated a video with race "highlights". The water, mud and sarcasm are all quite real.

Check it out ---> http://www.danceswithdirt.com/index.php

The week

2007-09-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't run a step since I finished DWD last Saturday. By Sunday night, I was swollen from my toes to my knee, in addition to having two toenails trying to fall off and the worst case of athlete's foot I've ever seen. I wish I'd taken pictures for you. It looked pretty freaky.

I went in for some PT on Monday morning...then on Wednesday, and again today. Good news is that the swelling is down and the foot looks much better. Even the fungus is gone. Bad news is that I am going stir crazy not being able to run. By about Tuesday I was over the most obvious post-race soreness and ready to get out and enjoy the beautiful September weather.

I think I still have a while before I should run again, but fortunately, I cross train. I did a short ride last night and plan to ride a couple hours with Jen tomorrow.

Other than that, it was a busy week. On Tuesday we announced a huge internal re-org here at work. Wont affect my job directly, but will affect a lot of the business areas I consult with. In the end its good change, and one that most of us knew was coming. We're just kind of in a spot right now where pieces are settling back into place and we kind of have to re-route all the synapses.

Wednesday night, Jen got back from Atlanta with her newly-minted FSA designation (way to go!), and we went to a speech by Dick Hoyt, half of the famous "Team Hoyt." Ricky, Dick's son, has cerebral palsy, and the pair run marathons and triathlons together - Dick is the legs; Rick is the heart. It was an inspiring talk.

Next few weeks should be crazy. My schedule isn't too bad next week, but I am going to block out some half days so I can get some work done. Then, I'll be meeting more insurance agents in the following two weeks than anyone should have to visit. The goal is to collect information we can use in our 2008 planning processes. So, week of September 24 I am going to Houston for a couple days to sit in on a couple of agent focus groups, then head out to the field with one of our reps as he visits agents' offices. Back home Wednesday night, but will be heading to Seattle the following week to present at our Washington sales staff meeting, then spend a day in the field with one of our reps there.

Hoping to have a little free time in Seattle. I did a search and found a park near where I'll be with 36 miles of trails!

Dances With Dirt 50 Mi... um, 50K

2007-09-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

It's over, I lived to blog about it, and although I didn't make my goal, I did something I've never done before on a minimum of preparation and a bum leg.

I arrived in Hell on Friday evening. Unfortunatelly, Jen (and her team) and I were staying in towns about 45 minutes apart. Since I decided to do this race only a few weeks ago, I was shut out of not only the hotel where they stayed, but all the hotels in that town. So after dinner with the girls in Ann Arbor, I took the long drive back to my hotel, figuring I was done with human contact for the day! But when I arrived I found to my surprise that I was only a couple of doors down from one of the teams of all Progressive people. We hung out on the porch for a few minutes talking about the race.

Prerace
It was good to do something different. The Ironmans have become so routine to me that the race day planning and final preparations have become a matter of just going through the motions. It was refreshing to put together a new race plan for a new (to me) race; to think through what my body would require nutritionally, how to pace, what to put in my drop bags and why, etc.

Race start
I woke up at 4:15 and loaded up on breakfast. Cheerios with milk, fruit, yogurt, coffee. Drove the 30 minutes to the park to make it comfortably before the 6:15 start. The usual bit of nervous energy in the race field of about 200 as we crowded around the start area. But I was totally calm; figured it was just another long run.

As the RD counted down, I turned on my iPod, started my garmin, flicked on my headlamp and flashlight and was off and running with the group as the gun went off. We went out as an elongated pack over the grass towards the woods. We must have looked like a big, luminous catepillar.

Then, stop. As we crossed the road to go into the woods, we had to narrow the pack down to a single line of runners for the single track trail. Bit of a logjam. Welcome to the woods.

The first miles were very easy and included a lot of walking (with the single line, when one person walked, we all walked). My entire world was the corona of my flashlight, looking for roots and rocks and not getting too close to the woman in front of me. My body and brain slowly awoke as I picked my way over the trail.

Finally, I began to notice a little light break through the trees. I stowed my lights and noticed that the line of people was starting to break up, giving us all some "breathing room." I'd already been running well over an hour when it occured to me that Jen and her team were just getting underway (relay started at 7:45). I also noticed that I was off my pace - was hoping to go around 12 minute miles for the first hour or two. But with all the walking I was at more like 13/mile.

My shin was touch and go. The pain would typically come in waves - was worst when going downhill - but I was always able to keep moving.

Wrong turn
The first miles were otherwise totally uneventful, until about 9 miles into it. I was running with two other people, silently through the woods. As I'd said earlier one of my concerns was getting lost. We were cruising along at a nice clip until a group of about 50 runners came running back towards us. "We took a wrong turn...you did too" they told us. There had been a turn about 1/4 mile back. The course was marked with colored flags, but a lot of the paths criss-crossed, making things a bit confusing at times. Nevertheless, I could have sworn we were going the right way, but apparently this group had gotten pretty far ahead and realized that they were all making a mistake. Well, I should say that there wasn't a consensus. We "discussed" which way to go, and a few of the people got sort of testy. I had lost confidence in my own judgement of the route, so I ended up going along with the group, and went back to that turn. AS it was, turning back was the right decision. Back on course with only a half mile detour.

I made a few other wrong turns, but always quickly realized the mistake, which were usually the result of focusing on the runner in front of me instead of the course markers. As the day wore on, I came to realize that I was much better off navigating when running by myself.

Aid malaise
My nutrition plan was solid. I was using my tried and true Hammer products - gel, HEED and the Perpetuum/CarboPro/salt mix I used at Ironman this year. I had extra bottles of everything in my drop bags waiting for me at miles 19, 31 and 36. I figured I'd supplement this with whatever solid foods were at the aid stations. And of course, I needed to rely on the aid stations for water.

Unfortunatley, the stations were pretty poorly stocked - maybe it was just the state of affairs when I came through - I gathered I was near the back of the pack - but one of the stations early on was out of water completely, and another later on was only able to give me half a bottle. Come on, RD. I don't expect a catered affair, but at least you could keep your stations stocked with water!

Around mile 12 I got into one of DWDs most notorious sections - "the stripper pole." It's a series of steep hills with loose sand surface. You literally have to claw your way up - which was kind of fun - but the descents were just killing my shin. I was starting to doubt the wisdom of going for 50 miles at this point.

A little later was the section known as "Styx, river of death" (they have some fun naming these sections). Three river crossings, followed by a "run" (more like a trudge) about a 1/4 mile in waist deep water upriver. I realized about halfway that I could have jumped in and swam faster than I was trudging, and I might have tried it had it not been for the electronics strapped to my arm. Styx ended at mile 19, where I had a drop bag with dry shoes and socks. A quick change and I was off.

The decision
The few miles after that were my low point. My pace had really dropped, even more than I thought it should have with the ruggedness of the course taken into consideration. And pretty quickly I made the decision to finish the 50K instead of going on to the 50 mile finish.

I'd be the first one to admit to myself and the world that I'd cracked. Could I have struggled on to 50 miles? Maybe. I probably could have suffered my way to a finish and maybe beat the 13-hour cutoff. But I felt like I'd already accomplished a lot this day. The decision to stop as a 50K finisher hasn't bothered me since I made it. You can only go to the well so many times, and I thought that this was the right thing to do.

So with that decision made, I refocused my energy and emotions on to having a good last 10 miles. I was running alone, which I liked. The trail was rugged but still pretty fair. I was running the flats at a good pace, running up the hills until I lost momentum - then walking - and walking the downhills to manage the pain.

The miles and minutes ticked away. Finally, I made the turn off the trail and back into the park. When I left 7-1/2 hours earlier, it was dark and quiet. Now it was sunny and hot and had a party-like atmosphere, as the relay teams were coming through that part of the course.

The end
I finished my 50K in 7:28. A 14:30 pace; I guess I was in the bottom tenth of finishers. My right leg was swollen and looked like a big sausage! But I didn't feel too terrible. If nothing else, I realized that I need to get more and more time on the trails to get faster.

I hung around the finish area for a bit. Ate an entire Dominos pizza, and ran into a few people I knew, including the Progressive team (they were having a great relay). Jen's team showed up a few minutes later, muddy and having a lot of fun.

I drove back to my hotel, showered, iced my leg for a bit and came back to the park. The finish area had transformed into a party - as teams finished, the coolers opened and beers came out. Jen's team finished and the girls ran across the finish line together in their Mardi Gras gear.

I think I'd like another crack at this course. Give me another year of trainig and racing, and a healthy body, and I think I can do a lot better than 7-plus hours. But I am not totally disappointed. As I said at the top, it's my first attempt at a new distance, on a course that's notoriously tough.

DWD photos

2007-09-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

The race

Taken right after I finished. Hard to tell here, but my right leg was a bit swollen.

Mardi Gras Mud Hounds parade to the finish.

The Mud Hounds model their headwear: Jen, Sam J., Carrie, Sam B and Nichole.

Sam and Jen at about the half-way point of the relay. That's the same white shirt Sam's wearing the post-race photo above.

Hangin' out after the race.

Team "Drain Bramage" (Progressive team) races to the finish.

Drain Bramage: Richard, John, Jen, Bill, Greg.

DWD Vehicles

Many of the relay teams decorated their vehicles to complement their team theme. Here are a few.

Plastic seat covers were a smart accessory.

Jen's team's vehicle - the Mardi Gras Mud Hounds' parade float.

Body is full of surprises

2007-09-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned some pain in my right shin that I thought was just a bruise, caused by wearing a too-tight gaiter last Saturday. Didn't seem like a big deal at the time - a minor annoyance I thought would clear up in a day or two.

Well, between the time I posted that and a short run on Tuesday night (my last run before DWD), the pain got increasingly worse. Four days to go before my 50-miler and I was hobbling around because of shin pain.

Shin pain. Ugh, why now?

They've never hurt before, but my right shin was clearly swollen and warm to the touch. I thought I could deal with the pain over a 12-hour day (one way or another), but I didn't want to get out there without knowing what was really going on. Maybe a stress fracture?

So I was able to get in to see Dr Torzok, Jen's PT, on Thursday afternoon. Took some X-rays and a couple of other tests, and it seems like it's just a simple soft tissue injury that swelled bad and hurts like hell. Did some treatments - electrostim, ultrasound and a little ART. Been icing and wrapping it and went back to the office on Friday for more of the same (Kristen, I like that electro stuff!).

So, less than 18 hours before I start running and the swelling is nearly gone, although it's still really tender. It's going to hurt running, and the doctor tells me to expect it to be pretty swollen by the time I'm done.

Well, I guess the good thing is that by the time I am done, pretty much everything will hurt like hell and be swollen.

See you on the other side.

Less than a week to go

2007-09-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Dances with Dirt 50-miler is next Saturday, September 8. Less than a week to go.

I'm planning to drive to Michigan on Friday. Because I entered so late, I was unable to get a room at the same hotel as Jen and her friends. I'm not even in the same town. So I'll be about 20 miles away, on the other end of the park. But I know that she and her friends will have a lot of race planning to take care of, and female bonding to do, so its probably for the best.

I feel pretty good. I've gotten in my long runs, and although my legs were a little fatigued last week, they seem to have bounced back this weekend. I did a two-hour run on easy trails at a park near my house yesterday, and my legs felt pretty fresh. I do have what seems to be a bruise on my right shin that was caused yesterday by my gaiter digging in to my leg (I don't think I'm going to use the gaiters, but will definitely bring them). It was bothering me a bit durng a short run this morning, but I think it will go away. So this week is just going to be some short, easy runs and cross training.

I know I have the general fitness. Curious to know how I'll feel in the late miles. Concerned somewhat with falling and getting lost. But, it's all good. All systems GO!

I got a packet in the mail last week with maps, course description and other information. Looks like I am in for a little bit of everything on this - from mud to steep hills and ravines to thigh-high water river crossings and more.

I'll be thinking this week about what I want to put in my drop bags, exactly what I want to eat and when, how often to change shoes, etc. They're important details, but in general I know that I'm ready and just need to finalize these things.

For inspiration, I just downloaded a few tunes from my favorite movies for my iPod. The Natural. The Right Stuff. Forrest Gump (Run Forrest Run), Rocky, and a couple others.

And I've been doing a lot of reading on ultras. A book called "Hitting the Wall," which is a collection of essays by 100-miler runners. Some of the stories are pretty good, although as I get deeper into the book they've started to get repetitive.

I also have the Dean Karnazes book, but haven't started it. Will probably begin reading it this week (maybe something to do at the hotel the night before the race).

Finally, I've been doing some reading on a guy named David Goggins. Goggins is a Navy SEAL, so you figure he's already one tough dude. He entered Badwater (135-mile run through Death Valley and up Mt. Whitney), without ever having done even a marathon; his only other race was a 100-mile loop run that he did in San Diego to qualify for Badwater. Finished fifth at Badwater in '06. Third in '07. Also entered the Ultraman Triathlon (double Iron distance) in Hawaii - again, without ever having done a triathlon, did not even own a bike until three weeks before. Finished second in that!

I will be happy with much more modest beginner's luck. 50 miles, 12 hours. See you at the finish!

Funny moment

2007-08-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

Jen and I have this little running joke when we're in the car and listening to the radio that we'll occasionally bust out a little "air instrument" and play along for a few bars with whatever's on the radio.

So, last night, driving home after going out to dinner, we were just about to pull in the driveway, listening to XM7 (70s) and the "Sanford and Son" theme came on. As I pulled into the garage, I cranked up the volume almost all the way. I was thumpin' on the air bass, while Jen wailed away on the air harmonica. At one point, we were doubling up on the air instruments - I had the bass and keys, while Jen blew harp and tapped that high hat.

We air played the entire three-minute song. Just the two of us, sitting in my car, "Sanford and Son" theme cranked up, jamming away on our air instruments.

Our neighbors might think we're nuts, but Quincy Jones would have been impressed, I'm sure.

Got Hornworms?

2007-08-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

I do, and its not a personal problem.

This year's tomato harvest is coming along nicely, but my garden is host to a special, uninvited guest: HORNWORMS!

I didn't even know what they were until last Tuesday night, when Jen and I were out to pick some tomatoes and spotted these guys munching away. Picture isn't so great, but you can see the green worm (actually a catepillar) rearing its tail with white rice-like projections on its back.

So here's the weird part. The white projections are actually the larvae of wasps. They feed off the worm, and when they hatch they kill the worm and fly around the garden looking for more worms to kill and eat. According to this Web site --> http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/vegpest/hornworm.htm

...I should leave those hornworms in the garden so the wasps have a chance to hatch and do their job. Apparently the wasps are a harmelss variety to humans (benign wasps).

Gotta love natural selection!

Here's today's pick:

And a lot more to come:

Meanwhile, this forsythia is once again out of control. Why can't the hornworm eat this thing instead of my tomatoes?

One of my favorite places

2007-08-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

South River Vineyard in Geneva.

It's an old country church that was originally in Parkman and was moved to Geneva to become a winery. Jen and I got married there, two and a half years ago. We stopped in last night for a glass of red and to relax in the field next to the vineyard. A few photos.

Me.

Jenny.

The picnic pavilion.

The vineyard.

The week in running

2007-08-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday: A very slow, very uncomfortable five miles, before dawn, with Jen. Legs ok, but ribs still really sore from the fall the day before - took us 60 minutes to cover the distance. Wanted to get the run in early before heading to Mentor Headlands to volunteer for the GCT.

Monday: Still a little sore, but feeling better. Got in two runs - a 6 miler in the morning at Chagrin River park, and a 9-miler at night at North Chagrin. Did the first couple miles witha co-worker; as we were covering a section of trail, he told me he recently saw a 6-foot black snake there (ok by me...I like snakes). Beautiful weather night.

Tuesday: Swam in the morning - mostly kicking (with the ribs). Ran at night - 7 miles on the trails at North Chagrin.

Wednesday: Easy bike in the morning - just did loops in North Chagrin while Jen hammered away with an interval workout. Met with Jen's weekly run group - this week it was Steve, Chuck, JT, and Alex (I think). And Jen, of course. I ran the 4 miles from work to Strawberry Picnic Area (where they met), then ran another 7 miles with them. It was really a beautiful night to run, although a little muggy I was drenched in sweat when I was done. Enjoyed running with the group. Ribs still sore at times, but feel fine when I run.

Thursday - Swam in the morning. Ribs were sore all day after that, although the pain was a little different - felt like a side stitch (not sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign). At night, 7 miles in North Chagrin. Tried a new section of trail that I was considering incorportating into my weekend long run.

Friday - Easy bike in the morning, walked 2 miles at lunch. No running.

Saturday - 21 miles in 4 hours at North Chagrin. Perfect running weather - ~60 degrees at the start, sunny but not overbearing. A little faster than last week's run, walked less, and I consequently felt a little more soreness afterwards. Good news is that the ribs didn't bother me at all. And I never fell - not once!

66 miles in 7 days!

The ribs feel much better now. They're sore at certain times of the day (like when I get out of bed), or for certain movements - a pushup would hurt right now - but otherwise I think I am recovering.

Dry Run

2007-08-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Alarm. 3:45 AM. Alarm again. Bathroom Breakfast (fruit, Cheerios and coffee). Running gear. Bags packed. Nutrition bottles filled. Bathroom, teeth. Awake? Kiss. Lights. Garage door. Ignition. Go.

Today's magic number was 4 hours. I figured I could run an easy pace of 10-12 minute miles and see where that got me. Testing out everything today - the clothes, nutrition, hydration system, pace, drop bag stop plans, etc. for next month's DWD50.

At 5:15 am, North Chagrin Reservation was completely dark and completely silent. I was the only person there. I felt like the only human being left on earth (like "The Road"). I peed right next to my car (why not?). Switched on my headlamp, locked the doors and started running.
***
About 20 minutes later I was lying on the ground. It happened so fast. I went down on a root or something, landed hard on my side and had the wind knocked out of me. I was hoping I didn't smash my cell phone, because I thought I might have to use it soon. To call for help. As my breathing steadied, my right side ribs, forearm and leg began to hurt. Music continued to blare out of my iPod headphones like nothing had happened (iPods are like that).

I laid there for a couple minutes. Wondering if I'd go on. Sat up. Stood up and looked to see if I'd dropped anything. Started running again.

My forearm, just below my elbow, was scraped. Leg wasn't too bad. What had me worried was my rib. I figured that if I'd broken or cracked it, I wouldn't be running at all. As it was, it hurt to cough and breathe deeply. Not very convenient for a 4-hour run.

I had two choices. What could I do, other that stop? I hurt, I was running. End of story. Yet, the voice in my head felt compelled to speak: "It hurts when you cough? Then don't cough. Or suck it up and cough and feel the pain. But don't feel sorry for yourself. Trust me. You don't WANT to feel sorry for yourself. You'll never make it if you start that shit. So deal with it."

The first light of day was beginning to peek through the trees. I stopped at a park latrine and got a couple squirts of hand sanitizer and used it to help clean out the wounds.

I started running again on a familiar trail. One I've run many times in the mid day or afternoon, but never at dawn. I've run that route maybe hundreds of times, but have never run it and seen the sun come through the trees to the east. It was beautiful.

I popped out on Wilson Mills Road, then made a left on River. It's the only paved section of my 8.5-mile loop, and it goes for about a mile or so; maybe less. There were no cars. Just me and the fog and my iPod mix.

I finished my first loop in about 1:45. Slower than I wanted, but that includes lying on the trail for probably 5 minutes, and the stop to cleanse my cut. I happened to run in to Jenny and Sam Joseph; heading out for their own workout (on the bikes).

Got a little food and off on loop two.

Much less eventful than loop one, and I ran it a little faster. The rib was very annoying, but manageable. Note to self: pack Advil in my race belt. Mentally, the pain was a struggle, but it was a good struggle. I figured out what I needed to do to manage it. And I did that. What else can you do? Listen to the voice in your head.

Nutrition was good. I carried about a 700-calorie of my Perpetuum/Carbopro/Salt slurry cocktail (it really is delicious), a bottle of 2x power HEED and a bottle of water. Nibbled on a LARA bar when I stopped back at my car. I was able to eat about 350-400 cal / hr with no issues.

At my second stop back at the car - about 17 miles into it, I changed shoes and socks. My legs had felt pretty good, but when I put the shoes on they felt like new legs. It was about 9:00 and the park was really beginning to come alive. Joggers. Bikers. Rollerbladers. Old folks with walkers. Kids on BMX.

Did three laps of a short loop trail that we call the "Flower" trail (the trail marker is a flower), near the Strawberry picnic area. Tweaked my ankle on a root, but it was very minor and I didn't even stop to walk it off. Finished running with 21.25 miles and 4:20 under my belt.

That was good. I would rather of not have fallen like that, but it gave the Voice a chance to speak to me. And me a chance to listen. And do.

So I have a nice scrape on my arm all bandaged up now, and a bruise on my side. It's a little sore, but I was still able to do a little painting around the house this afternoon, so I hope it's just a bruise.

More to come.

Fish out of water

2007-08-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

It's 4:50 on Friday and I don't much feel like starting anything new at work. So a quick update.

I think I've settled into a nice weekly schedule to prepare for DWD50. Lots of running, but I am getting in a couple of easy bikes and swims for cross training.

The runs are nearly all on trails - the only time I run on the road is when its the only way to get to the trail - and I've been trying to seek out the hillier, rootier, rockier, more technical paths in the parks, instead of the fairly pedestrian bridle trail.

I still feel a little like a fish out of water with navigating the obstacles, but its coming along. I went out yesterday right after the afternoon torrential downpour, and a section of trail had turned into river. Ran right through it. So in that case I guess I felt like a fish IN water.

I've put in some decent mileage. Some week days going 12-15 miles over the course of two runs (e.g., 4 in the morning, 9 at night). But I am going at a pretty easy pace and, between that and the commitment to the softer surface, my legs really don't feel too fatigued. I also just got a Garmin Forerunner 305, which is helping me keep track of my pace. I am comfortably holding a 10-10:30 per mile pace on these runs, which includes walking the uphills.

Tomorrow morning I am going to get up as early as I can and hit the trails for a long run. I want to begin in the dark and go about three hours to simulate race conditions (test out both lighting and nutrition).

Harvest time
I have a nice crop of yellow tomatoes coming up in my garden. Both smaller grape tomatoes and some larger tomatoes. Brought a container of the smaller ones into work and they've gone over pretty well. Most people bring in doughnuts or candy. I bring in tomatoes.

Burning River 100

2007-08-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday, I was up at my regular time and headed down to Bedford. I'd signed up to volunteer for the Burining River 100 Ultramarathon, at the mile 26.8 aid station, capatained by Jen's tri coach, Angela. I arrived a couple hours before my 10 - 2 shift start time because I wanted to get in a long run first, before the first ultrarunners came through our station.

I ran about 7.5 miles of the course from that point and back. A mix of the Buckeye Trail and Ohio Canal Towpath. As it happened, on my way back I crossed paths with the race leader. He was cooking at an 8:00 pace through almost 30 miles!

I got back to the aid station and met up with Jen, who had just arrived after riding her bike from home (she wanted to get in an early workout too). We changed and went "on duty"; the runners began to arrive with frequency as the temperature was rising into the mid 80s.

I've never observed an ultra. Figured it would be good to do, seeing as I'm running one in six weeks! I was impressed with the variety of runners who came through. You went from your typical 30-something athletic types, to much older runners and folks whom, if I saw them on the street, I'd never guess they could run a 5K, let alone a 100 miler. But they'd made it 26.8 miles on an oven of a day. ALready an accomplishment.

With the heat setting in and 5-8 hours of running under their belts, most were content to hydrate, fill bottles and eat just a little. A number were having some stomach distress. One guy sat for about a half hour to cool off before resuming his slog. A number of runners mentioned (complained) that the course mileages were off (e.g., the distances between aid stations were much longer than advertised), and a few mentioned that they were confused because some of the course markers had been torn down (one woman ran back 15 minutes, thinking she'd taken a wrong turn, before she realized she was going the right way the whole time!).

But all in all, most runners seemed to be in pretty good spirits and were on their way pretty quickly. Of the 143 runners who came to the station, 142 kept going. Only the last runner - who was bumping up against the station's cutoff time - decided to call it quits. I had a feeling I'd get a totally different perspective at my second volunteer post of the weekend - Sunday morning at 4:45 AM at the mile 91 station.

And now for something completely different

Got home in the early afternoon, relaxed for a bit then headed out for a change of pace. This weekend is the 2007 Vintage Ohio Wine Festival. About 25 local wineries, plus restaurants and other exhibitors set up shop at Lake Farmpark in Kirtland. You buy your ticket, get a glass, and go from kiosk to kiosk sampling what each has to offer. We liked Grand River's wines (winery in Madison), and St. John's (Conneaut). It was certainly good enough to wash down a pulled pork sandwich and a funnel cake.

It was a warm Saturday afternoon, and the festival was, as you would imagine packed with people. So we left around 7:00 and made it home for an early bedtime.

Early Sunday? Or late Saturday?

At 2:00 AM - yes, 2:00 - my alarm went off. After breakfast, coffee and a couple sun salutations (what sun?) I was out of the house by 3, heading to Akron. My volunteer shift didn't start until 4:45, but I wanted to get a run in the dark, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to do it.

I took off down the Towpath with a headlamp, but the sky was clear and the moon was out illuminating my way. I ran for about an hour, on the race course, passing three or four slow moving runners, all with pacers.

I got back to the aid station at about 5:00 - still an hour before sunrise. Jen was there - she came separately again, as our plans would diverge for the afternoon. The 142 runners who had made it through mile 26.8 had dwindled to about 70 runners. Apparently the heat of the afternoon and long dark night had taken their toll.

But those who arrived at our aid station, captained by e-speed, were treated to a fiesta-themed smorgasbord of fluids, soup, candy bars, crackers, cookies, grilled cheese and eggs. The soup and grilled cheese were actually quite popular - warm and salty.

A lot of the runners coming through were looking pretty haggard. Their stop-offs were typically much longer than the day before - most plopped down in chairs to rest and eat before trudging onward into the night. I heard more and more complaints about how inaccurate the published mileages were - one guy was quite angry - almost downright hostile.

A few more runners dropped out, but I also noticed a lot of runners I'd talked to the day before. Most left the station with a smile on their face. Hell of a thing to be able to do after going for 24-plus hours.

The last runner came through at a little after 8:00 AM. He'd been running for 27 hours and still had nine miles to go. Hope he made it.

As I'm prepping to do a 50 in a few weeks, and considering doing either the BR100 or Mohican 100 next year, I am still trying to get my head around all I observed. But I think what it comes down to is that this is all about grit. Unlike Ironman, there's no weeklong focus on the event by everyone in town. Hell, they didn't even have police to control traffic at intersections (runners had to wait until traffic let up). No cheering crowds - just a few very dedicated friends in your crew and some helpful folks at a lonely aid station to clap as you head into the night. There's no glory here except the glory you give it.

To complete my own weekend of endurance, I did another hour run after the race. A little rain fell as I was finishing up and getting ready to head for home - was nice.

Think I might take a nap now.

Into the deep end

2007-07-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've wanted to try an ultramarathon - a marathon with a distance in excess of 26.2 miles (usually 50K, 50 miles, 100K, or 100 miles). Figured I'd find a race close to home this fall that I could try, maybe a 50 K (31 mile) to "step up" from the standard marathon distance.

But in an assertive moment I hope I don't eventually regret, I signed up yesterday for the Dances with Dirt 50-mile run, held in Hell, Michigan on September 8.

Jen does "DWD" every year - a 100K relay race with four of her buddies. Her descriptions of the course: lots of hills, rocks, mud, water, heat and suffering. The solo race avoids some of the worst obstacles (e.g., the waist deep mud), but it still sounds like I am in for a tough run.

But I prefer the big challenge, and know if I can do this that I can do anything. A 50-miler would be a great accomplishement for me right now.

And I have options if things don't go well. The race features a 50K solo run concurrently, and a 50-mile participant can actually stop at 50K and be considered a 50K finisher. So there's that bailout. And if worst comes to worst, I stop even sooner knowing I've just done a long run in the woods.

And it will be good to be a part of DWD. As I mentioned, Jen does the relay, and I know a number of others who do the relay (there are a couple of teams of people from work who do it every year).

So I have a few training strategies in the weeks between now and September 8.

Run frequently, but limit the long runs. I'm not going to attempt to "build" to 50 miles. There's not enough time to fit those runs in and recover properly; especially as I am recovering from Ironman. I have a huge base now, generally, and I know I can last for 13+ hours. I'm going to have to have faith in myself that I can run/walk that long.
Strategic running on the rougher trails at North Chagrin, especially run/walk intervals on the steepest hills.
Get in a couple super-early morning runs, as the race begins at 6:15 AM and its going to be dark.
Learn / observe all I can at the Burning River 100 - I am volunteering at two aid stations (one early, one late in the race) next week.

http://www.danceswithdirt.com/index.php

IRONMAN - AGAIN!

2007-07-26T14:33:00.000-07:00

July 22, 2007
Lake Placid NY

6:15 AM
Observe closely and you’ll notice that there are two kinds of Ironman competitors: those who walk around the transition area pre-race with a smile on their face, and those who walk around looking like condemned men going to their death. I think Jen and I were of the former group. I’ve done this before and have long since made peace with the fact that I’ve done all I can to prepare. Jen was a first timer, and although I think she was a bit nervous, she was, overall, pretty cool. That chilly summer morning was the culmination of months of work for the both of us. Jen was a trooper, the whole way. Her commitment to this day was rock solid. I don’t think she ever missed a workout assigned by her coach. She was as ready to go as anyone I’d ever seen!

For me, a lot of soul searching paved my journey. I really struggled mentally to get to this morning. This being my seventh Ironman, and having long since felt that I’d achieved all I reasonably could with the race, I wondered when I registered last year if I’d have what it takes to make it through another Cleveland winter of indoor training, and another summer of long rides, swims and runs. But I made it; felt like I was in decent shape although it had taken a long time for my legs to spring back during my taper. We put on our wetsuits and walked together down to the swim.

On the way into the water we ran into Aimee and Eric Gibb. They had come up to Placid and signed on as volunteer wetsuit peelers. It wouldn’t be the last time I saw them that day, and every time I did they delivered a smile and huge words of encouragement. Thanks.Jen and I waded in, wished each other well, and split up to go to our starting positions. Jen was heading to the back of the start area. I picked a fairly conservative position about 30 feet to the left of the inside of the course and about 20 feet back from the start line - behind the big pack of people that were crowded up front.

AS the national anthem played, I looked off in the distance beyond the far edge of the lake. The sky was totally clear, and the rising sun brilliantly illuminated mountains in the distance. It was like I was getting ready to race in a painting. I said to someone next to me, “What an incredible morning to race!” He just gave me a nervous nod. The cannon went off.

7:00 AM
I thought my start position would help ensure a relatively trouble free swim. I was wrong. In my seven Ironmans, this was definitely the worst experience I’ve ever had in the first leg. You expect the inadvertent slapping and kicking. But this was nasty. I was grabbed. I was shoved. I was even punched (or someone chose a weird place to do fist drills). I can’t tell how many times I’d swim up on someone and they’d start kicking madly. It was so crowded at times that I actually had a sense of claustrophobia. I zigzagged all over looking for calm water - I couldn’t even find peace to the outside of the course.

I still haven’t figured out what the hell happened to me. All I know is that I struggled out of the water in 1:19 - way off my ideal pace - and worn out. It was all the more depressing because I had worked on my form a lot this year - in the pool and open water - and know I had a much better swim in me. I thought I could break my old record of 1:07. But I had to put it behind me. I just hoped Jen was having a better time of it than I did.

8:30 AM
I took my sweet time in the transition tent. It was still 60 degrees out, and although I wore arm warmers and put on a dry singlet, I was shivering as I started my ride. That changed quickly as I climbed the first hills out of Placid. I was in a fog that entire first lap. My legs felt like mud, my head was spinning, I couldn’t get into a rhythm on the flats and watched my heart rate redline on the hills. I just couldn’t get any traction. On the Hazelton out-and-back I was hoping I might see Jen. I kept a sharp eye out but never saw her. Hoped she was doing okay.

The end of the first lap was, as always, exciting. People line the roads approaching and into Lake Placid. It’s like the mountaintop finishes in the tour, without the drunk Basques and devil guy. I did see Sam and Joe Joseph, though - good to catch some friendly faces. They had come to Lake Placid for a little vacation and to cheer us on. (They left Lake Placid with a long year of IM training ahead of them!)

~11:30 AM
Wasn’t until the flat section of lap two (after Keene) that things started to click into place. The other riders were spread out nicely, and I was just riding up behind people, sucking their wheel for a few seconds (all within the rules), then catapulting myself by and towards the next bike. My nutrition was spot on. On the rolling hills after Jay, I decided to get out of the aerobars and stand, and I finally felt comfortable on hills. I was passing bike after bike and, for a brief moment, I felt good. It took me 70 miles of riding to warm up.

I rolled into T2 with a 6:15 bike split. It was disappointing, on one hand, as I’ve done the course much faster. Maybe I should stop comparing me to my old self and just be happy I was done with it!

3:00 PM
Here’s another “two kinds of.” There are two kinds of walk breaks in the Ironman marathon. The kind you plan, and the kind you don’t plan. The good thing about the kind you plan is that they have a start and an end (when you start running again). The problem with the kind you don’t plan is that once you begin walking, it’s very hard to begin running again.

I’ve walked at least part of all but one of my previous IM marathons, and I figured I better plan some walk breaks for this one. With training, I figured I could do 10 minute miles with a 9-minute run/1-minute walk. So that was the plan, along with walking all the major hills. The flip side of the plan was that the plan was subject to change during the race. If I needed to increase the walk interval, I’d do it. The point was to stay in control of when I was walking, and when I was running.

The muddy feeling came back to my legs quickly on the run course. But the conditions were good - sunny but not too hot - my stomach felt good, I was moving forward and confident. I had no idea where Jen was - I hadn’t seen my family / friends long enough to get an update - and I was anxious to know how she was doing. Then I came upon Eric and Aimee on Riverview Road, about 8 miles into the run.

Me: “Hey, do you have any idea how Jen’s doing?”

Eric: “Ummm…(pause)…she had some trouble on the bike and thinks she might have been DQ’d for receiving outside assistance, but I didn’t see her on her second lap. I’ll try to find out more.”

Me: “Huh?”

Well, it was a little cryptic, not exactly positive information, but at least I knew she made it through that swim alright. I plodded on.

5:00 PM
The halfway point of the marathon. The approach to Lake Placid includes a couple of long steep hills, and all my walking had really slowed me off my pace. My legs were just crying to stop. I felt like hell, and could have easily just quit then and there. I was half expecting to see Jen on the side of the course, having been disqualified. I could step off the course, walk home with her and have a beer.

Instead I saw my sister. She told me I looked great and looked strong. It was a lie, and maybe the nicest thing she’s ever said to me. I asked her about Jen. She told me she was okay, that she’d just finished the bike right before I ran by - I had just missed her. Well, Jen was slow on the bike too, but she was still in it - still going.

Buoyed, I quit feeling sorry for myself and picked it up. I adjusted my intervals to 8/2, then 7/3 a few miles later. But I was covering ground.

6:30 PM
I finally saw Jenny around the Riverview Road turnaround. I was nearly 12 miles ahead of her, and she looked pretty dejected. I told her to keep moving forward, that she was doing fine.

The final miles were tough. By mile 21 I adjusted my intervals to 5/5, but I was keeping in control of when I walked and when I ran. Tim Ritt passed me around mile 20, and looked like he was heading toward a strong finish.

7:45 PM
Back up those long-ass hills into town. On the Mirror Lake out-and-back I saw Jen again. She was power walking and looked like she had hooked up with someone to walk with. She’d grabbed a long sleeve shirt and had a smile on her face. Good.

At the turn I started running again - a mile to the finish. I looked out at Mirror Lake and it had seemed like days had passed since that beautiful sunrise. Now the sun was setting; but I entered the oval and crossed the finish line in 13:08 - my slowest Ironman! As I crossed the line, Mike Reilley - the "voice of Ironman" mispronounced my name but listed off my finishes... Ironman Lake Placid in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005; Ironman Wisconsin in 2004. I guess we're known for our accomplishments.

The first people I saw (whom I knew) were Sam and Joe Joseph. They were in the middle of being inspired to try this craziness next year. I got some food and found my mom and sister. After I changed, we (mom, Mag and Brad) ended up getting a table at an Italian restaurant with a view of the hill into town. I ordered a meatball sub and took a congratulatory call from Andrew Joyce of the Tri Club.

10:00 PM
By the time we’d finished eating it was dark. We went outside and sat by the side of the road. I was doing some math in my head, figuring when I saw her, what pace she was going, and wondering if Jen would make the cutoff... a little worried.

Fortunately, my math sucks.

With plenty of time to go, Maggie spotted Jen power walking up the hill - less than two miles to go! We cheered her on and hustled (as well as I could) over to the finish line. Jen crossed in a few minutes over 15 hours. I am sure she’ll tell you her whole story.

***Acknowledgements:
The Club - CTC was all over Lake Placid, and it was great seeing so many people in town and on the course.

The Family - My uber-supporters since I did my first IM in 2001. I know those are some long days for you, and I appreciate all you do for me.

Jen - You inspire me with your commitment and enthusiasm. You’ve come such a long way, and although I know there were aspects of your first Ironman that you found disappointing, you accomplished A LOT. And if you ever want to do it again to find out what you can really do on the bike, I’ll be there for you.

2007-07-10T06:37:00.001-07:00

My hero

My wife Jen, as you know, is doing her first Ironman in less than two weeks. I know she’s a little nervous about it – who wouldn’t be?

During a half hour treadmill walk this morning (taper time!) I was thinking about all the advantages she has. And I know from my own experience that while you can never prepare for every eventuality, I think you can prepare well from a broad perspective – she’s done that well.

Jen, you’re ready, and here’s why.

-- Simply put, you put in the miles. You’ve been extremely dedicated in training. You worked with a coach with a proven track record and followed her instructions to the last detail. Two images of your dedication that stay with me: Countless winter mornings that I would come downstairs and hear the hum of that computrainer. And, that Saturday afternoon in February I was driving home in a snowstorm. It was windy and the chill was below zero. I remember pulling on to our street and seeing some poor figure all bundled up getting in a run. I thought, “now there goes a dedicated runner.” Of course, it was YOU.

-- You identified your weak spot – swimming – and trained it. Your swimming has come such a long way. I know you still don’t consider yourself to be “fast” but with all the swimming you’ve done and all the improvement you’ve made, can you still consider it a “weakness”? I don’t think so.

-- You’re stronger than ever on the bike and run, and you know it.

-- You are experienced. You’re coming into this with several years’ racing under your belt – lots of sprints and Olympics, and steady improvement in your three half Ironmans. In those years, you’ve overcome a lot of adversity – injuries and other issues. You know what it takes to see things through, keep a positive attitude and get to the finish line when things don't always go well. A lot of first timers would do well to get into this thing with your level of experience.

-- You know the Lake Placid course and race, certainly better than a lot of first-timers; probably better than a lot of veterans. You trained on it forward and backward – literally – at camp a few weeks ago under the guidance of your coach. You’ve trained on it in years past when you came to watch me race. And you’ve done a variety of raceday volunteer jobs, giving you unique insight into what goes into this.

-- You have a practiced race plan, including pacing, nutrition, and plans for possible emergencies (stomach issues, etc).

It’s going to be a long day (which, depending on how you look at it, can be an advantage!). But I can tell you that the distance you have to cover on July 22 is far less than the distance you’ve covered in the last several months. Everything you need to get through that day is inside you now. Don’t let the butterflies in your stomach fool you. You’ve earned your way to the start line, and that, in my book, is a bigger accomplishment than making it to the finish line. The race is simply the event in which use the tools we forged in training.

Trust yourself. It’s all in there. Anything can happen on race day, and usually does. But I know that whatever comes your way, you’ll respond like a hero.

Save me some food at the finish!

Taper blues

2007-07-05T05:20:00.000-07:00

It must be less than three weeks and counting. I have "dead" legs and I'm tired all the time. Fortunately I haven't been to cranky, but week one of my three week taper isn't done yet.

I had a good long day last Saturday - 45 minute swim, 6 hour bike, 45 minute run. And suddenly, without any fanfare, the weeks of growing mileage were over. This week I'll get in about 2/3 of what I did last week, and next week will be about 2/3 of this week. Race week is mainly just short workouts each day to keep the boiler stoked. I'm cutting back heaviest on running and cycling, as that's where I feel I need the most rest, but continuing with about the same amount of swimming, at least for this week.

I always go through this stretch of fatigue when I start a taper. I think I hit rock bottom yesterday afternoon, though, and I felt a little better this morning, so I'm hoping that I'll slowly start to feel stronger and stronger over the next two weeks.

Big volume weeks

2007-06-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

People will occasionally ask me how much I train. And of course the volume varies throughout the year and depends on whether I am preparing for "something."

The last two weeks, though, have probably been around my heaviest volume of 2007.

June 10; Sunday (Race)
40 min swim
2-2/3 hr bike
2-hr run

Monday
--OFF--

Tuesday AM
1 hour run

Tuesday PM
2 hour bike

Wednesday AM
1 hour swim

Wednesday PM
1 hour run

Thursday AM
1 -1/2 hour bike

Thursday mid-day
1/2 hour run

Thursday PM
1-1/2 hour bike
1/2 hour run

Friday AM
1 hour swim

Friday PM
1 hour run

Saturday - continuous workout: 1-6-1 "big day"
1 hour swim
6 hour bike
1 hour run

Sunday - continuous workout
1 hour swim
1 hour run

Monday AM
1 hour run

Monday mid-day
1/2 hour swim

Monday PM
1-1/2 hour ride

Tuesday AM
1 hour run

Tuesday mid-day
1/2 hour swim

Tuesday PM
2 hour bike

Wednesday AM
1 hour run

Wednesday PM
45 minute open water swim (in a very choppy lake)

Thursday AM
1 hour run

Thursday PM
1-1/2 hour bike
1/2 hour run

Friday AM
1 hour swim

Friday PM
45 minute run

Saturday - continuous workout
1 hour open water swim
3-1/2 hour bike
1/2 hour run

Tomorrow sh9uld be fun. Start at 6:30 AM with a 90-minute run. I'll finish at Willoughby Hills City Hall just in time for the start of the "Run for the Hills" 10K race. After the race, it's an hour on the bike.

After Sunday this is going to be a "peak week." Some race-pace workouts, a little less volume, and some recovery. Another 1-6-1 Big Day on July 1. Then its taper time!

Thoughts on triathlon...and adventure

2007-06-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

One consequence of the eight-hour "long day" for preparing for Ironman is that it gives you time to pull together your thoughts. I composed this in my mind yesterday somewhere out on the long miles of roads in Geauga County.

****

When I first started doing triathlons, I had no idea what I was doing, no idea what I was getting myself into, and really only one objective - do an Ironman.

It seems like it was a long time ago, but it was only 2000 when I clicked “Submit” on Active.com and signed up for my first Ironman USA. To me, it wasn’t a goal, wasn’t just something you cross off your life’s “to do” list. It was an adventure. Like my personal Everest or Apollo 11.

Like I said, I had no idea what I was doing. I’d been running for several years and had several marathons to my credit. But was barely a swimmer and not much of a cyclist. So I bought a YMCA membership and a decent TREK bike - a solid road bike (which I still have and love; it sits partially dismantled in my garage right now, needing a new bottom bracket, but it and I have many miles left together ), but nothing like the slippery aerodynamic rides that it almost seems like you “have to have” now.

I didn’t have any plan to prepare except to swim, bike and run as much as I could. I hated (and still hate) sports books, because I found the information either way too vague or way to specific. I didn’t know people coached this either. And I hardly knew any other triathletes. I didn’t know about any triathlon club or even web forums, never had anyone to share ideas and experiences with on a peer level. I just got the job done, and it was great because it was me against the entire world. Everyone thought I was nuts when I told them what I did every day and what I planned to on a Sunday in late July. And I loved that.

The spring and summer of 2001 I rode and rode and rode and rode until my bike creaked and my knees ached, then I rode more. Good roads, crappy roads. Dodging cars. In rain and wind, on days (and early evenings) that I shouldn't have been on the road on a bike. And I’d go to the pool and just swim lap after endless lap. Do you know how tedious a 2-mile nonstop swim in a 25-yard pool is? I ran every single day in the cold and heat, pouring rain and humidity and dryness. My nutrition was fig newtons and power bars and GU and a lot of pasta. Anything I could prepare and eat easily at the beginning, middle or end of a long, long day. I got tired and sore and injured and I just kept going, damnit, because I needed to log the miles it was an adventure. I just did it.

On race day I didn’t know what to expect, but if there was one thing I knew for sure it was that I would either cross that finish line or they’d carry me off the course on a stretcher.

I have a lot of snapshot memories of that day. Of how I felt when I woke in the morning. The start of the swim. The speeds I reached on the downhills. Heading out of T2. But the one thing that really stands out from that day was the marathon. I discovered that an Ironman marathon is a lot different and a lot harder than the standalone marathons I’d done. A whole different ball game. A real paradigm shift.

But not only did I finish a lot faster than I expected, the whole experience was even greater than I expected. AS soon as I crossed the finish line I knew I’d be back. And I was. Lake Placid in 2002, 2004, 2005. Wisconsin in 2003. Vineman in 2006.

As the years went on I got more and more sophisticated with things. I bought a Cervelo bike because they were the shit and all the hot dogs rode them. I bought ZIPP wheels because there simply are none better. I got better wetsuits and other gadgets to help me go a little faster, be a little stronger, understand my body a little better. I began being pickier about what I ate, and exploring/using performance foods that wouldn’t make my stomach cramp in the heat. I began to read books and tweak the way I trained. I raced better and faster. I'd go to Ironman and have respectable finishes - top 20%. One year I finished eighth of the clydesdales - thought that was pretty cool. I got an M-dot tattoo. I got caught up in it.

I also began to meet people. Shortly after I did my first Ironman, I met Amy Lennon (Trejbal, at the time) and she invited me to join the Cleveland Triathlon Club. “You mean other people in Cleveland do this?” The Club has been, in many ways, invaluable to me, but mostly for reasons not directly related to triathlon. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people; good friends and many more acquaintances. Most importantly, I met JEN, my wife to be, at a tri club meeting. She’s fond of telling how it didn’t “click” the first time we met. But the fact is that I saved the little slip of paper she gave me with her email address (still have it!), ran into her again at a race a couple of months after we first met, and the rest is wonderful history. I am really enjoying watching her prepare for her own first Ironman. She is doing it so smartly and really working hard. I think she is going to do great.

I am preparing for the same Ironman race. The sport has changed a lot since I started doing it. It has many excellent aspects, but some things have changed that I don’t think are for the better. Some problems are symptomatic of the fact that it is still a young sport and in some ways is growing too fast for its own good.

One of the little ironies of doing ironman is that the race itself is just one half day (maybe a little longer) of a 365-day commitment. So I've asked myself a lot that if I were to take that half day away, would my commitment to fitness change or be any less rewarding? I don't think so.

So I come back to where I started. I just want to go out there and bust my ass every day and not worry about what people think.

This is going to be my last Ironman. I never say "never" and if I feel like its the right thing to do, I'll come back to it, but I have in mind some other things I want to try instead. I could very easily see me never doing another triathlon. I want to feel like its me against the world again. I want to jump into something without really knowing what I am doing. It's sort of come full circle. It's all about just getting out there every day and busting my ass and not worrying what people think about it. There are a million adventures right outside my front door, and On July 23, I am going to find a new one to tackle.

Racing for Recovery

2007-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here's kind of a bare bones race report from the Racing for Recovery Half Ironman, which took place yesterday in Monroe Michigan.

My race
Good race. I went in just wanting to get the day over with, but I ended up having a pretty good time.

Swim. Only my third time in open water in 2007 (and the longest of those swims was about 15 minutes) and it showed. 40 minutes for the swim. Ouch. My sighting was all off and the wetsuit was weirding me out a bit. I probably swam an extra half mile in zig zags. Well, I guess there were times where I didn't feel too bad. When I could relax, get into a good rhythm with the stroke and sighting. But in retrospect, if I had to do this one over again I might have gone without the wetsuit - the water was quite warm - so at least something would feel "right".

Bike was okay. Not the prettiest course around. Flat as a pancake, but I don't think its as fast as you'd think. Lots of turns, lots of bumps and broken/buckled road. I rode pretty conservatively - some knee pain was threatening to flare up so I didn't get too crazy with the pedal mashing. I ended up with a 21.1 mph average speed - my fastest ride of the spring - but think it could have been better, even on a hillier course with better roads.

Run. I've been running a ton this year, but I was dreading this all the way in on the bike. So I started out just thinking of running easy and keeping a consistent pace. I went out at my Sunday-morning-long-run pace of just over 9 min/miles. Surprisingly, my legs felt very fresh. Over the first 10 miles, with the exception of the mile in which I stopped to pee, I held within about 5 seconds of a 9:15 pace, and after about the second mile my HR was consistently in the 120s (both of which I would happily take at the upcoming Ironman). It wasn't until I had three miles left, and my legs still felt quite fresh, that I decided to open it up a bit and ran sub 9's to the finish.A 5:26 finish.

Overall, the race felt good. My average HR for the entire race was 126, which is just a little above where I train. It was good to get the race rhythm into my system again. I feel good about the upcoming ironman. Now, figure for the Ironman that I'll swim a little faster, bike a little slower, run right at that pace, multiply all the distances by two and I'll be all set.

Jen's race
One word - phenomenal. Jen PRd by nearly a half hour. She struggled with the swim too (we'll get some open water work in over the next few weeks!), but tore up the bike and did a very steady run. Her 19.2 mph bike average was just terrific and a reflection of all the work she's done. Way to go! Be sure to read all about it on Jen's blog.

Full results here.

If a tree falls in the woods...

2007-06-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I'm sort of like the tree in the forest that no one's around to hear. No one's around to hear me. Do I make a sound?

Well, I've been busy, and I've been making various sounds. Some smells too.

A few updates:

Cleveland Marathon

Maggie visited a few weeks ago and ran the Cleveland Marathon - her first - while Jen and I did the half marathon. I finished in 1:49 and immediately ran back out on the course, caught up with Maggie and ran with her for a little while.

Jen and I caught up with her again on Marginal, around mile 22. Again, we hung with her for a couple miles.

By the time Maggie had made it back downtown, though, the race officials were making runners get up on the sidewalk. Then, they took down the turn signs. Jen ran with Maggie to help her follow the course while my mom and I went over to the finish area.

When we got over there, they were beginning to take the finish chute down. I got into an argument with one of the workers, asking him why they couldn't just leave it up for a while longer, and he told me that he didn't care.

But Mag ran/walked her way to the finish, smiling pretty much all the way, in spite of the RD's best efforts to foul up the race and discourage anyone who finished in the six hour range. Quite proud of her - a great accomplishment.

Ironman

I think I am about at the end of my rope with triathlon. Ironman USA will be my last. I love the fitness, love the challenge. But I am tired of all the hassle, all the equipment, and the growing negative aspects of the triathlon culture. I think I just want to get back to focusing on distance running, and pare down my swimming and running to something I do to cross train.

Ironically, I think, I am having maybe the best IM prep of my life. I am running a lot and my legs feel strong. My swim feels as good and smooth as ever. I am a little slower than I've been in past years on the bike, but I feel super comfortable and like I can sustain race speed for a long time. Tomorrow will be abit of a benchmark, as Jen and I are going to Michigan to do a half Ironman tuneup. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jen's Jenuine Ironman adventure

Speaking of Jen, she is REALLY doing well. I've never known someone so dedicated to a training plan. Her swim has come light years, and she's made significant progress on the bike and run. Perhaps one of the most telling things is that we are training together more frequently. We did a six hour ride togehter a couple weekends ago. Occasionally I'd push off ahead of her and then let her catch up or loop around to get her (until we got split up because I didn't see her go by...waited and waited for her, finally called her and found out she was miles ahead of me); but for the most part we shared the road. I only put in a few more miles than she did. I am looking forward to seeing how she does in this tuneup this weekend.

Teeth grinding

Work has been killing me lately. It's been extremely busy and I feel like my performance has really been under the microscope. My nighttime bite guard has been getting a workout.

Transitions

2007-05-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

The past week was a recovery week on my schedule. I ratcheted the volume back to about 2/3 of my previous couple weeks' efforts and felt pretty good by the end of the week.

Saturday was a transition workout. After weeks of growing the distances of my rides (but not caring about the speed), I cut back on the mileage and focused on race intensity.

I returned to one of my favorite training grounds - eastern Lake county and Ashtabula county, riding out from Hale Road Elementary through Perry and out River Road to Madison, up the hill into Thompson and a loop into Ashtabula County, back into Thompson and back home.

I love the country, where the roads are smooth, the pickup trucks are huge, and there's never a shortage of road kill for the discriminating connoisseur! (KB - If I hadn't been so focused, I might have stopped in at the 84 Bar and Grill and had a smoke and a beer...I rode right by it!)

I rode 58 miles at about 19 mph. It was the bottom of my ideal speed range for the ride (19-20 mph), but I liked the effort, which included some good long hill climbs. After weeks of long slow rides on Dreadnought (topping out at a 90-miler last Friday), it felt good to move on my tri bike.

After the ride, I ran about 52 minutes. It was pretty rough going for the first 15 or so, but as usually happens, I got my legs and had a decent finish.

I was sore today and averaged 9:43s on an 11-mile run.

***

Jen and I took the SKY out to the Cleveland Tri Club picnic this afternoon, in Strongsville. Nice time - was nice to see everyone. You get a nice day in May, go for a ride in the park with the top down, and you realize how beautiful Cleveland can be. If April is the cruelest month (see below), windy and gray; and summer is as likely to be hot and burnt out; May is the time of transition, when colorful buds begin to blossom and the air is simply sweet. Yeah, it's for real.

More about milestones

2007-04-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

I was talking with Jen last night about her swim workout yesterday morning – a 4,000 yard long set. She talked about how tough it was, and how tired she was when it was over. She’s doing these progressively longer and longer swims to build confidence and endurance for the Ironman (and doing a great job at that, by the way), and contrasted her feelings yesterday to how great she felt at the accomplishment of swimming 4,000 yards the week prior – the first time she’d gone that distance.

I thought about it for a minute and told her that I bet her workout yesterday would have been easier if it had been longer.

Seems like so often for us, today’s milestone is tomorrow’s ho-hum. I guess its good knowing that you can cover the distance, but that fact doesn’t help much when your coach assigns you yet another 2-mile straight pool swim!

She asked me if I could remember some of my milestones. A few stand out in my mind.

My first six mile run. I was in my original weight loss phase, during 1993-1995, when I lost about 150 pounds. I had just started running and was aiming to do a local 5-mile race as a test. To get the confidence I needed, I went for this 6-mile run on a blazing hot Saturday afternoon a couple weeks before the race. I made it home, and remember telling my dad, “I can do this.”

My first sixteen mile run. A few months after the success of my five miler, I had increased the bar to the marathon. I trained through one of Cleveland’s worst winters, no idea what I was really doing, just went out and ran everyday. One weekend in February the weather broke, through, and I decided to try a “long run.” Sixteen miles. I carried no water or food or anything – I just ran. When I got back, I was so dry. I looked at myself in the mirror and had salt (road salt) caked around my lips. But I knew I could do that marathon.

The first time swimming “clicked.” When I first took up swimming as an adult, I struggled to do even a lap. One summer weekend, though, I visited my sister in North Carolina and we went to the beach. We were messing around in the water, playing with the dog, etc, but I began swimming a little bit, and for the first time, it felt “right.” Maybe it’s because I wasn’t trying, but the basics of balance and timing seemed to suddenly work for me. The next week, I was back at the pool, pushed off and knocked out 8 lengths. Not far by my standards now, but a huge accomplishment to me then.

Long distance athletes, particularly the new ones – and those of us not blessed with the natural abilities of the elites – tend to focus on the distances they need to cover, and a lot of training centers around confidence building and milestone distances. I think this is perfectly natural and to be expected. After all, the goal is to test ourselves over a seemingly “impossible” distance, why wouldn’t that mindset translate into training?

I think its good that we remember and reflect on these things from time to time. As the saying goes, you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.

20 hour week

2007-04-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

I like to keep things pretty simple and straightforward with training (or, at least I like to think that I like that).

I do measure some basic milestones, and one was last week - my first 20-hour week this year. It broke out like this:

Sunday - 2 hour road run, easy but steady pace
Monday morning - 1 hour swim, lots of drills
Monday afternoon - 1 hour trail run, very easy
Monday evening - 1 hour trainer ride, steady pace
Tuesday morning - 1 hour run, including fartleks
Tuesday evening - 2 hour ride; 32-mile loop from Mayfield through Chagrin Falls
Wednesday morning - 1:15 swim, 3600 yds, long sets
Wednesday evening - 1:30 run, steady pace
Thursday morning - 1 hour run, easy
Thursday evening - 2 hour ride, out and back through the Chagrin valley
Friday morning - 1:15 masters swim at CSU
Friday afternoon - 1 hour run, easy
Saturday morning - 4:30 ride + 15 minute run

This is nearly all zone 1-2 base building stuff. The first hour of my Saturday ride was probably the toughest hour of the week - cold and very hilly as I rode out of the valley at the start of a long loop.

I am feeling pretty good about things, here about three months out from Ironman. I need to watch my weight - it's crept up a bit in recent weeks as I've tried, not as successfully as I should have, to manage eating more to support my increased volume, but I think I can melt the extra pounds off pretty easily.

The cruellest month

2007-04-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Six inches of snow wasn't exactly what we had in mind for April 8, but six inches is what we got. A nice blanket of wet, white stuff, with the matching winds and temperatures thrown in for free.

So I approached my 90-minute run as more of an "adventure" than a training run, headed down to Chagrin River Park and tried to enjoy the surprise "Indian Winter." I took my camera phone and snapped a few shots while I was out and about.

The before shot (self portrait).

View outside my front window before I began.

On the trail.

Chagrin River

DREADNOUGHT

2007-04-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

With spring "technically" here and the weeks counting down to Lake Placid, I am beginning to get in longer and longer bike rides.

Yesterday's was a four hour, 60-mile sojurn through the east side "Emerald Necklace" of the Cleveland Metroparks. I am doing a lot of my early-season outdoor riding this year on a bicycle of my own construction, which I've named DREADNOUGHT.

It's battleship grey and heavy as a block of lead, so I figured it was a fitting name. And anyway, who has their own bike brand? I do! I even have a tagline:

"You don't merely ride a DREADNOUGHT...you captain it."

The DREADNOUGHT project began a year and a half ago. I built the bike from spare parts in my garage, a variety of items bought from eBay (including the Nashbar frame, which cost $40), and a few "new" items I bought at clearance sales from online retailers, including Nashbar, Performance Bike, etc. I think the whole thing cost around $350 when I was done with it. I christened it and put it in service in November 2005.

I rode it a couple hundred miles last winter - mostly 10-15 mile quickies to keep me in road shape, as I was planning to do the early-season DATT in 2006. It served me well - better to gunk that up with salt and dirt than my Cervelo or Trek bikes.

But when the winter was over I "decommissioned" it and put it in "mothballs" in my basement where its been rotting since (I didn't ride outside this winter).

However, a couple weeks ago I figured I'd clean it up and use it this spring as my daily rider while I build my base. Overhauled the cables, drivetrain and headset. Bottom bracket was good as new. Took the wheels off my regular training bike and put them on.

So I rode it on my 60-miler yesterday. So how does it ride? Well, the thing's gotta weigh 25 pounds. It wasn't so bad on the flats, once I got momentum going, but let's just say the hills were quite a workout. I ain't going to be winnin' any crits on it.

But look at it this way. You ever taste home-brewed beer? A couple sips and you're probably ready to go wash your mouth out. But to the guy who brewed it, that stuff he concocted in his basement is the nectar of the gods. There's a lot to be said for the satisfaction of doing something yourself.

So look for me out on DREADNOUGHT a lot this spring!

SKY

2007-04-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

I "officially" took my 2007 Saturn Sky out of storage this weekend. Closed out my lease on a storage unit for the winter, put it in my garage and got quite a bit of cruising in this weekend. Man, spring is in the air.

Short vacation

2007-03-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting much in the last couple weeks. Been very busy at work and with Ironman training. Work has been stressful and the training is coming along very well; but as always happens in the winter, it's become a grind. Lots of laps in the pool and time on the trainer and treadmill.

But things were looking up last week. My parents rented a condo in Madeira Beach, Florida (near St. Pete) for the month of March, and Jen and I spent a long weekend with them.

It was a terrific weekend. Jen and I both brought our training schedules, but we were generally able to get the swims, bikes and runs out of the way early in the day so we could spend the rest of the days playing and relaxing. But it was definitely nice to train in some warmer weather. On Saturday, for instance, we both did long runs on the Pinellas trail, a long, flat "rails to trails" deal. A 2.5 hour run would have been tough to do in the snowy weather we had back home.

As for "play" we did some beach walking, I went boogie-boarding one afternoon (it was a little breezy and the Gulf had a nice chop), did some shopping, and a lot of lounging around. I even put my regular eating habits on the shelf for a while. Man, I miss ice cream.

Was also nice to spend some time with the folks. It was quite generous of them to share their condo with us for a few days.

Sunday - the end of our vacation - came faster than I would have liked, but you've got to come back some time, right?

Molly the cat

2007-03-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

My parents are retired and, like many retired-folk from Ohio, are spending a significant amount of time this winter in - where else? - Florida.

So, they asked us if it would be ok for their cat, Molly, to stay with us while they're gone. I don't totally remember when I agreed to this, but I guess I must have because they came over last night to drop her off.

Molly's pretty ornery. She terrifies visitors with merely a hiss and snarl. And although declawed up front, she's far from defenseless - her scythlike rear claws are worthy of the velociraptors from Jurassic Park. Don't get too close or you may find your innards piling around your feet!

I digress, but its relevant. So I am planning to meet my parents two Thursday nights ago at 6:00 PM at our house. About 5:30 my mom calls.

"Hi Matt. Are we still on for 6:00"

"Sure are. Is she ready?"

"Oh, well... we just brought the cat carrier out of the basement and she got really upset and began to snarl and hiss, but YOUR FATHER will take care of putting her inside and we'll see you at 6."

45 minutes later they show up.

It's not unusual for my dad to look pissed off at something, but I could tell that something was up. As he approached the house, I noticed his hand was wrapped in a towel. A bloody towel. He unwrapped it and it looked like he had lost a fight with a weed whacker! Cuts and scratches all over his hand and wrist! Blood everywhere!

Poor man!

Apparently Molly wasn't too agreeable with getting into the cat carrier.

Took the girl a few days to adjust, but she's starting to fit in. She doesn't care for the other cats very much. Our cats' opinions seem mixed. Jack (female) seems interested in her, but a little apprehensive at the same time. As for Shadow, if it doesn't involve eating or sleeping, she's not interested, so I don't think she's even really ever approached Molly.

Molly's warming up to Jen, though. Sat on her lap last night purring. Maybe she's not so vicious after all.

Swim clinic

2007-02-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

I participated in a freestyle/backstroke clinic yesterday at Cleveland State. The clinic was organized by Laura Kessler - a coach I've been working with for a couple years, offered to masters swim team members, and featured instruction by Bob Bruce, currently coach of the masters team in Bend, Oregon.

About 25 people attended, including a lot of triathletes. Seemed like most of the participants were of what I would call the "intermediate" skill level. I don't think there were any absolute beginners there, but there sure was a lot of collective room for improvement!

We started with Coach Bruce discussing the bio mechanics of swimming, particularly the characteristics that make up a good front crawl form. Then it was into the pool for a quick warm up and underwater/over water filming. Everyone was filmed from both the side and head on doing both strokes.

Back on the deck, we had a little lunch and sat down to watch the videos and have the coach critique us.

I haven't been filmed in a couple years, but I do highly recommend doing it with a good coach who can watch the video and show you what you're doing wrong - and right.

For the front crawl, I felt pretty good about what I saw, as did the coach. First, my position in the water is very good: head down, swimming "downhill" with my feet close to the surface. I'm getting a good rotation along my central axis, which is something I've really been working on this winter with drills. My core looks stable. My pull looks good and I have a really nice high elbow throughout.

Two areas for improvement. One, my hand entry is in the right spot - ahead of my ear - but I'm not reaching deeply enough with my hand. I am trying to "catch" with my hand about two inches from the surface, whereas I should be 10-12 inches deep. It's messing up my tempo a bit, and causing me to have to do this adjustment as I transition between the initial catch and pull. And I'm not finishing - I'm releasing out of the pull just above my hip, instead of just below. Each of these issues is causing me to lose some power.

But overall, the coach was fairly positive about my stroke. To quote him, "Basically, you're good-to-go with this stroke." Just need to make some tweaks.

Even my backstroke looked workable on film (I've never seen my backstroke on video). My feet were too low in the water and I wasn't bending at the elbow as I need to, but it's overall very workable.

After the video review, we got back into the pool and the coach showed us some drills. A lot of the front crawl drills were ones I've done for years - one arm drills, etc. But we did the catch-up drill in a way that made me think a little differently about how I enter my hand, and I think its going to help that aspect of my stroke. He referred to it as the "archer" - hard to describe here, but you basically think of keeping your elbow slightly bent during the recovery and "shoot" it in the water ahead of the ear along a straight line to the imaginary point 10 inches deep where you immediately catch. Well...it made a lot of sense to me and gave me a good takeaway to work on in coming weeks.

Training update - the winter grind

2007-02-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything about my training, which is more or less focued on my A-race - Ironman USA - five months from today.

Winter is grind time, and I've been focued this season on a lot of running. I've never been a great (fast) runner, but I've always felt that I've been a strong one since I did my first marathon in '96. Strength has served me well in long distance triathlons, where the mararthon can seem more like a death march. But I felt I lost my legs last year, first during the Vineman, then during my late season marathon in Akron. I just didn't have the strength and endurance for running that I've always had. My goal for this winter has been to get the edge back.

I believe in volume. At one time I was regularly doing 50+ miles a week. The last couple seasons I've coasted with 3-4 runs / 30-35 miles per week. I was still pretty strong in 2005 but I think the lack of volume and run base really caught up with me in 2006. So beginning on Christmas day 2006 and going through to the end of February I've been on a run focus.

I've ramped up to running nearly every day - twice on some days - and 50-60 mpw. And its all very aerobic, zone 2 stuff. No hills or speedwork just yet. A lot of it has been on the treadmill; in fact with last week's heavy snows, I did all my running indoors (thanks to iPod, TV and people-watching to get me by). Longest runs have been in the 2 - 2-1/2 hour range.

I am still swimming and cycling a regular schedule, but do only one workout of each discipline per week "with heart." Typically my Monday night computrainer ride and Friday morning masters workout.

It's hard to gauge progress, and I'm not very analytical about it anyway, but I feel pretty good about things. My legs feel stronger and my confidence is way up.

The run focus ends next week (-ish) - I'll cut back the volume just a bit and focus on cycling more - but I'll have a few run tests coming up. I am thinking of doing the Shamrock 15K on March 11, and am definitely doing a longer run (3 hrs) when we are in Florida the following weekend. My early season "B" race will be the Spring Classic half in April.

But Lake Placid looms larger and larger every day, and I visualize fresh legs as I run the steep hill up towards Main Street on my final marathon lap!

Orchestra

2007-02-19T18:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I dragged Jen to Severance Hall to listen to the Cleveland Orchestra. I haven't been to a Cleveland Orchestra concert in years, and haven't been to Severance in ages, so I was really looking forward to it. The program was baroque music by Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, including the "Four Seasons."

The Orchestra only had about two dozen musicians playing for the show - strings and a few winds - and the group seemed small on the large stage. For as much as I was happy to be back in Severance Hall for a concert, and really enjoyed the performance, I think I might have liked to listen to it in a church or smaller setting. But it was wonderful - Jen enjoyed it as well. It is one of the best concert orchestras in the world, right?

Epic salad

2007-02-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

It's Friday night, I just finished an extremely long week of work, and I'm home alone because Jen's out of town visiting friends. On top of that, I did a 3000 yard masters workout this morning and a one-hour run tonight.

Time to get wild and crazy. Time for an EPIC SALAD.

It starts with the proper bowl. No mere standard salad bowl will do. Go for an epic bowl. I have a glass mixing bowl that I prefer.

Next, pour in a full package of Fresh Express Field Greens. Yeah, the whole package. Romaine, bibb, cabbage, even sliced carrots. Good stuff.

But that's not enough. Add in a handful of baby spinach. The "crack" of the lettuce world.

Every epic salad needs meat. Chicken is okay. Salmon is primo. How about some ahi tuna spiced and seared with a little olive oil. Divine. Slice it up and drop it on top.

A few cherry tomatoes and a sliced mushroom. A sliced up avocado...ole! Drizzle with olive oil and a little fresh pepper.

It's true beauty. It's perfection. It's delicious. It's all mine.

It's the Epic salad!

The New Year's Plague

2007-02-04T17:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's February and in spite of the deep freeze that has descended on this realm, things are looking up. The groundhog didn't see his shadow, and we seem to have deliverance from The New Year's Plague.

Train at a gym? You know what I'm talking about.

Beginning the first Monday after the new year holiday, the get-fit resolution crowd descends on the gym like a plague of locusts. They trickle away over the course of the month, and by February things are pretty much back to normal.

But may your God help you if you actually want to get a workout in during the month of January.

Looking for a locker? Booked solid.

Want to run on a treadmill? Not a chance. And the NYR crowd LOVES the ellipticals.

Need to lift some weights? Free weight area is packed.

The mens locker room is like those photos from Abu Garib prison, full of sweaty fat-men tripping over each other to shave or use the john. Ugh.

But the plague seems to have passed, so I guess I can quit with the selfish whining. The NYR crowd has moved its sedentary lifestyle back to McDonalds; better luck in 2008!

There are some folks for whom I hold out some hope. My current Progressive co-worker and former Ohio City neighbor Bob has been in our company fitness center so frequently that I've started to call him a gym rat. He said he needs to lose a few pounds (he told me how many, but I won't publish that here), and he seems like he's serious about it. He's going to spinning classes and doing a little treadmill running and all that stuff.

The funny thing is that, although Jen and I lived next door to he and his wife for almost a year, and he works two floors above me, I've barely ever spoken to him until this month. The New Year's plague brought us together, and I wish him the best of luck in his fitness goals. Looks like he has a good start.

Booze

2007-01-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

Jen and I are celebrated our two-year anniversary this weekend.

In what's becoming sort of a tradition, we first went out to the spot where we were married - South River Vineyard in Geneva, a winery housed in a rebuilt church. Had a glass of wine and toasted two great years.

Then off to Ferrante's winery for dinner. A couple more glasses of wine (for me, at least). Then, off to Geneva State Park lodge for overnight. I had packed the mixers for our favorite dessert drink - chocolate martinis. I had a couple of those, and a big shot of vodka for good measure.

See where this is headed? I did too, and yet I went there without any hesitation. I don't drink like that very often. Once every few blue moons. And its a good thing.

So this morning I was hung over and looking down the barrel at a 2-1/2 hour long run in 22 degrees on icy paths in falling snow.

Well, it wasn't too bad. I hydrated steadily from the moment I struggled out of bed and by the time I started running still had a bit of a headache, but my stomach was settled. I trotted at a pretty easy pace, slowed more by the weather than my state of health.

Although I did notice that my sweat smelled like Bailey's Irish Creme.

***

In more productive athletic news, I did a 50-mile running week last week; my first in years. I'm planning to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 this week.

Are you experienced?

2007-01-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

Somewhere around 90 minutes' duration a run becomes a "long run" for me, and I decided to do my long run today on the treadmill at the gym.

I don't particularly care for running on treadmills. I'm inclined to run outside throughout the winter, especially for longer runs. In fact, I don't recall - in my 12 years of running - ever having gone much longer than 70 or 75 minutes on a treadmill in one workout. Treadmills are just easy for runners to hate. Mainly because they tend to be boring to run on, even for the runner surrounded by state-of-the-art multimedia.

But yesterday, as I was thinking about where I wanted to do today's two-hour-plus long run; and knowing that I'd be facing a cold wind, icy pavement, and the depressing blanket of grey skies above, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I started out with a nonstop hour and five minutes, no incline, 8:34 pace - a good aerobic pace for me. Stopped for three minutes to use the bathroom and eat a gel, then continued on with a programmed run that Jen suggested. The 45-minute program had me keeping the same pace but threw in some long stretches of one, two and three percent inclines. I focused on relaxing and keeping my heart rate in the low aerobic zone. Finished with a 15-minute flat run at the same pace. As far as keeping my mind occupied, I had my iPod with me and watched the Club's TV as John McCain and Ted Kennedy duked it out on Meet thePress. Well, not particularly exciting, but the paint was already dry on the wall, so I had to watch something.

I ended up cranking out 2:05 at just a tick slower than an 8:30 pace (7 mph), which is probably faster and certainly more consistent than I would have run outside. Basically, it was a great workout.

As I wrapped it up, the Jimi Hendrix Experience song "Are you Experienced" came on, which I though was appropriate. I don't know that I've really changed my mind about treadmills, but just as running down a never-before-travelled trail or road is an experience that can make all the difference outdoors, apparently so can be doing a long run on a treadmill.

If you could just get your mind together
And come on across with me.
We'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sunrise
From the bottom of the sea.

Being healthy

2007-01-16T10:12:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about bodies and all that we put them through, and what it means to be healthy. I know I've had this on my mind because of Jen's experiences with both her dental work and physical therapy for her IT, which she's been talking about on her blog. But I guess I've been thinking a lot about it in general as well, for some reason.

I know that none of us are born perfect. Would be great if we were, but we're not. Nor do we stay brand-spanking new all our lives, in spite of how hard we try. Our bodies change and things wear out. That feeling of being indestructible as a kid is long, long gone; replaced by aches and pains, creaks and groans, fatigue and injuries. And we have to find ways to deal with that.

Sometimes there are things we can do to relieve symptoms. Take some Advil. Get a regular massage. Get orthotics to help stabilize the body or a splint to keep from grinding the teeth (incidentally, I now use both). Take a vacation.

Sometimes we need to begin doing without certain things or apply new discipline or break bad habits we've been able to ignore most of our lives (but that have now finally caught up with us). Stretch every day. Sleep more. Cut down on the soda and coffee.

Sometimes we need to put up with some discomfort. Ice bath anyone?

And before you say to me, "Matt, you sound like you're feeling old," know that I'm a guy who started to lose his hair before he had his driver's license. So I've been dealing with getting old for a while now.

Nevertheless, they say with age comes wisdom. And hopefully the indestructibility of youth is trumped by the knowledge of middle life.

The kicker is that I think it's really very simple. I think maintaining your physical health at any age is largely a matter of doing a few things right most of the time. This applies whether you're training for an Ironman or just trying to lose a few pounds and feel better.

Eat right.
Exercise - both cardiovascular and strength.
Listen to your body and get the rest you need. (Learning how to listen to your body is priceless, by the way. Your body is your most valuable source of information.)
Stay positive.

You can't get caught up in the little things and stress out about the holes in the dyke. Just be glad you're still - for the most part - holding back the lake.

It's easy to overcomplicate things. Easy to let yourself get caught up in other peoples' opinions or the never-stopping static of mass media hype. But I think when you shut all that out you come back to the simple truth.

Health is a state of mind, as much as it is a state of body.

And maybe you repeat to yourself that trite little prayer: "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

Surrogate playoff team

2007-01-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

Well, it's NFL playoff time. I'm a Browns fan (sounds like an intro at a 12-step program), and as tradition holds, I am spending January trying to erase the memory of the Browns' recent season, ruminating on the upcoming draft, and following my "surrogate" playoff pick: The San Diego Chargers.

Why the Chargers? Mainly because of Marty Schottenheimer, their coach. Marty, as Browns fans will remember, once coached in Cleveland. Back in the 1980's, when the Browns' stadium might have been a "Mistake on the Lake," but the team was a force to be reckoned with. Browns teams that won as many games in a season as the current Browns teams lose. Teams led by guys like Kosar, Newsome, Mack, Slaughter and Matthews. Back when the "DAWGS" were something new and truly on the cutting edge, not something branded by the NFL for popular consumption and corporate profit.

I always liked Marty. When he became head coach, he inherited the leftovers of the Kardiac Kids. Guys like Sipe and Pruitt had moved on, and the team was reeling from a couple of poor seasons. They were in the middle of what any current coach/owner - such as the Browns' present regime - would quickly label a "rebuilding phase" (nothing more than a convenient euphemism for putting a subpar quality team on the field).

I don't recall Marty ever settling for that kind of language in Cleveland. From the moment he took over he talked like a winner. His goal for the team from day one was the only goal that mattered - winning a Superbowl. And they had some great seasons under his leadership. The fact that his lofty goal always barely eluded those Browns teams somehow makes him all the more endearing to me.

Yes, he had some shortcomings when he was in Cleveland. Trying to fulfill the dual role of head coach and offensive coordinator was perhaps his most infamous error. And he butted heads with the owner, which will get almost any coach a one way ticket out of town.

But he was the last good pro football coach this city had. He built a great team, but never labelled that process as "rebuilding." He called it "winning." I hope 2007 is your year, coach!

Brain power

2007-01-11T11:23:00.000-08:00

In general, I am all for using one’s brain.

Most of the day I sit at a desk and consult with fellow professionals in a large, Fortune 500 company that is recognized as an industry leader. My company is loaded to the gills with very smart people who impress the hell out of me and with whom I feel priveliged to work. Most are skilled with math and / or technology in a way that I will never be. But I bring my own talent to the table. I (and the team I manage) listen to them explain their business activities and challenges, then figure out ways to use communications to help them. We create. We execute. We measure progress. We re-evaluate and adjust. We re-measure, in terms of growth and profit. We move on.

It’s all very well and good. I like the place I work, I like what I do, and they pay me well. We also have a kick-ass onsite fitness center. I can’t – and rarely do – complain.

Still, there are days where I wonder what would happen if I just chucked all this out the window. I was joking with Jen last week that we ought to move out to some paradise and I'd work out in the sun all day as a construction worker or landscaper. Use my body instead of my mind, and leave the work on the jobsite at the end of the day. We'd be piss poor, but hell, we'd be in paradise.

Aw, who am I kidding? I don't think she was too keen on it either.

But every now and then I stand in admiration of true feats of brainlessness and physical bravado. Take last Sunday’s Giants/Eagle playoff game. Giants’ tight end Jeremy Shockey – not on anyone's short list for winning a Nobel Prize or MacArthur grant – caught a pass over the middle, turned upfield and took a shot from one of the opposing linebackers. The shot was pretty hard, and it actually knocked Shockey’s helmet off.

But instead of just going down (to, like, protect his cranium), Shockey forged ahead for desperately-needed yardage, and wasn't stopped until a three-way collision with two more Eagles defenders.

Balls. Bravado. Stupidity. Call it what you might. But for some reason, the image of him blasting upfield with no helmet on was, to me, a thing of beauty. He laughed about it afterwards. They pay him millions to do that!

Back to work...

Bucks...what happened???

2007-01-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

I am not a particularly big college football fan (I prefer the NFL and all the suffering that comes with being a Browns fan...builds character), but when I watch the college game, my loyalties lie with Ohio State.

I watched many of the Bucks' games this season. What a terrific ride. The Michigan game was incredible. So, like pretty much the rest of Ohio, I had high hopes for another naitonal title as I tuned in to the BCS title game last night - Ohio State versus Florida. A showdown in the desert.

When Ginn returned the opening kickoff for a quick score, I figured a win was at hand.

When I went to bed, though, Florida was up 21-14 and looked like they were unstoppable. Still, as I set the DVR to record the game from the second quarter on (my plan was to wake this morning, not check the score, and watch it while riding my trainer), I was certain that Coach Tressel would pull the boys together and win on will alone.

When I awoke this morning at 4:45, I couldn't help but check the score before watching....

Sigh...

Well, the good thing about following the Browns is that it tempers your expectations and makes you stoic to what would otherwise break fan's heart. I applied this to the Bucks loss. I didn't watch the game during my ride; instead catching up on last week's "My Name is Earl" and a triathlon I recorded on FitTV a few days ago (DVR is truly great).

Better luck next year, guys. We still love ya!

Living the Ironman

2007-01-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

I first published the core of this piece this over a year ago on the Cleveland Triathlon Club forum. Thought I would pull it off the shelf, dust it off, and make some updates. Would welcome your comments, advice, and tips on what works for you.

***
When I tell people I do Ironmans, a frequent question is "what's the hardest part?" I guess the answer to that depends on how you think of the question. No doubt most people who ask wondering "what's the hardest part of the race?" and to that I usually say, "first five minutes of everything," but I don't think that's the hardest part of doing an Ironman.

For many who do it, Ironman is something that's "in our blood" 24 hours a day, and we know that preparation for the big event means a lot more than just swimming, biking and running a lot. It's a lifelong lifestyle. But regardless of the life commitment, anyone who pluncks down their $450 and is serious about participating in this thing is in for a multi-month commitment - one that's going to tax their ability to manage their life as much as its going to tax their heart and muscles. That, my friend, is the hard part - especially if you're new to this thing.

So I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the stuff I didn’t think about before I did my first Ironman, in 2001. Now that I have six under my belt and I can say I’ve evolved into some sort of lifestyle that, at the very least, accommodates the fact that I spend 20-25 hours a week at peak season on the road or in the water and can’t afford to screw around and waste time and effort. Just some little things I’ve taught myself.

Establish a good base of operations. You’re already training 20-odd hours a week. Why add to that total by driving across town all the time to get to your training venues? There are places in every corner of this town to swim, bike and run. The occasional group workout on the other side of town is fine, but I think if you establish a base of operations that is convenient to home and work you’ll be much happier and save a lot of commute time that you could spend resting, eating, sleeping or working. Or training. For instance, this summer I was living in Ohio City and working in Mayfield. So instead of driving home during rush hour then getting my gear on and getting back out the door for a workout, I brought my gear into work, changed at work, trained nearby my office, then by the time I was done and it was time to go home rush hour was long over and the commute to the west side was fast and easy and stress-free.

Have back up plans. Case in point: I have no fewer than four pools within a half hour of my home / office I can access: two for my YMCA membership, two as a benefit of my company’s fitness center program – plus a lake. There are other pools nearby I know I can access for a guest fee, and at varying times of the day. That’s nice, because when the Y (my “main pool”) closes for a week for cleaning, I just go to a backup pool. Maybe I sacrifice with a bit longer drive, but adding 15 minutes to my commute is better than missing the workout altogether. I am probably lucky to have that many options available, but I would bet that with a little research you can find backup training venues you can use.

Know how to fix your bike. I am not talking about being “Johnny Bike Mechanic” but geez, at the least you ought to know how to change a flat and fix a dropped chain. Better yet is knowing how to do minor wheel trueing and adjusting the derailleurs and brakes. None of this stuff is hard or requires expensive tools – have a set of allen wrenches, spoke wrenches, tire levers, and pliers. Have on hand a supply of new tubes and a couple spare tires. Do this and I bet you will eliminate 90 percent of the reasons you’d otherwise need to run to the bike shop. It's just silly to spend a half hour (or whatever) in traffic, then 20 minutes (or whatever) at the shop, then another half hour in traffic, for something that - with a little knowledge and elbow grease - you could have handled on your own in five minutes.

P.S., A bike workstand is very useful, as is the book, “Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance” (my bike DIY bible).

Related, check your bike immediately after every ride. Note I said “immediately after” because if you do find something wrong, you can address it yourself (if you know how) or have time to take it to the shop before your next training day. In less than 60 seconds, you can check to make sure your wheels are true, tires are intact, the wheels and cranks and headset are turning smoothly (and noiselessly), and your brakes and shifters work smoothly with no cable kinks. In another 60 seconds you can wipe the crud off the frame and components with a wet rag. Actually, many problems – like shifting problems requiring derailleur adjustment - will make themselves noticeable during a ride. Don’t ignore them. But if you get your bike overhauled in the spring then just do these simple checks after every ride, I bet you’ll get through the summer without any major mechanicals. But, get to know your local bike shop (LBS).

For all I am saying about taking care of your bike, the fact is that you are riding a lot and putting some serious wear and tear on your machine, and it is inevitable that at some time you will need a mechanic to work on your bike. And that “some time” will be in the middle of the summer, when the aforementioned mechanic has about 200 other bikes he needs to work on. So get to know the gang at the local shop long before you really need them. Take your bike in during the winter or spring - before the busy season - for an overhaul or tuneup. Be social. Be friendly. Buy some stuff. Leverage your good looks and personality (whatever it takes). Let them know you are training for an ironman.

Make reservations far in advance. Read triathlon forums like slowtwitch in July and it never fails that there are Lake Placid participants scrambling for leads on hotel rooms. If you plunk down your $450 for an Ironman 364 days in advance, by all means look for the lodging you want and reserve it right away. The good rooms get snapped up fast, and there is no benefit to waiting until the last minute. You have enough to stress over in the weeks leading up to the big day!

***

Jen's and my great swim

Jen and I had a great swim this morning at CSU Masters - and she hit a big training milestone this week. Read about it on her blog (link at right).

Today's workouts

2007-01-03T08:10:00.000-08:00

Today's swim - Like many of my swim workouts, I like to keep it fairly simple, focusing on form and steady swimming. This was also relatively short, at 1800 yards. Here are my sets:

1 x 500 Freestyle. Start very easy and build to a steady aerobic pace
1 x 100 Kick
1 x 15o Kick with fins. Use fins to really focus on pointing the toes and stretching the muscles of the lower leg.
5x50 Pull. Count strokes and breathe every two strokes. Think about perfect form and gliding.
6x100 Freestyle /2:15 Breathe as needed but continue focus on form and glide. These are on 2:15 to give me plenty of rest between sets.
1x200 choice / cool-down

Today's run - I haven't run since a hard 90-minute effort on Sunday. The two days' rest gave my legs a needed break (that's really an unintended pun), but I am going to head out today and enjoy the sunshine with an easy run.

Weights - I'm off to the weight room tonight for a stretch and half-hour weight session. Hope it wont be too crowded with the NYR crowd!

Polar Swim Survival Tips

2007-01-02T10:33:00.001-08:00

The Cleveland Triathlon Club held its annual polar bear swim in Lake Erie on New Year’s Day.

This year we were greeted by mild conditions – the air temperature was in the high 40s, and the lake was 46. We held it at Edgewater this year instead of Huntington, as in years past.

I hoped the central location would help with turnout, but I also hoped it would prompt some media coverage of the event. We weren’t disappointed. About 40 club members and some family came out to participate, and we had a crew from Channel 3 and a photographer from the Plain Dealer on hand to cover the event. Jen and I were both interviewed for TV and they got great shots of us all charging in. It all resulted in a five-minute segment on the news last night and a photo in the Metro section of today’s paper.

So without further ado, here are my tips for Polar Swim success:

1) Warm up beforehand. I did a 60-minute bike yesterday before heading to the beach. This seemed to help.

2) Beware the slightly warmer water. One thing about water at near-freezing is that it numbs your body. For yesterday’s swim, the water was in the 40s and it just felt COLD.

3) Wear shoes or sandals. When your feet get numb, you can’t “feel around” the bottom and can’t tell if you’re stepping on sharp rocks, glass, hypodermics, etc.

4) Have an exit strategy. Going in is the easy part, because you just rely on mindless adrenalin. Once that adrenalin leaves your body you just want to get out, you need to get out fast and get warm. Have a towel and have loose clothes that you can throw on easily ready and waiting.

My goals for the new year

2006-12-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

1) Get more sleep. I typically average about 6 hours a night during the week. I'd like to bump that up to 7 hours.

2) Keep the weight off that I've lost in the last two months. Simple enough. At the start of October I weighed about 205. Today its around 185 - fightin' weight - with about 6 percent bodyfat. It would be nice to lose about another five pounds, but honestly, this is about the leanest I've ever been - especially in the middle of the off season. If I can maintain this weight and body composition, I should be ready to go when Ironman crunch time comes this spring.

3) Finish the Ironman in under 11 hours. My PR is around 11:20. This goal is going to have its own subset of goals. More about this later.

4) Save money for the Hawaii trip. Jen and I have a lot going on in 2007, but we've talked about going to Hawaii in the fall and I really want to do it. We've just started to think more specifically about where to go / what to do, etc; but I am going to begin socking away some money as well.

5) Figure out what I want to do with my career, and begin to do it. I've been at Progressive for six years, and I've made incremental advancement in the area in which I work. I have a strong sense, though, that opportunities for me to really jump ahead are now closer than ever. It's sort of a non-specific goal, but I think I can be honest enough with myself to know, in a year, whether or not I've made serious effort to explore and take advantage of those opportunities.

6) Continue (I hope "continue" is the right word) to be a good hubby. Jen and I celebrate two great years on January 29. I know she has a lot on her plate this year, with her own Ironman and continuing to adjust to a new job and company. Anyway, its sort of a non-specific goal, but I strive to continue to keep up my end of the bargain and always make sure I am acting in the spirit of the vows we made two years ago.

7) Start a blog. Update at least twice a week. I copywrite for a living, and not to appear to be immodest, I am good at it. But the writing I do, and the creativity I apply, is nearly always to solve a specific problem. I never really write for the sake of writing. So, here I go....

8) Check on the progress of these goals at least once every three months. Goals can be just words that you forget about when you begin to be faced with the inevitable challenging distractions of life, or they can be a guide that keep you focused on where you want to go in spite of those distractions. I think there's no better way to give these goals some real meaning than to revisit them every few months, measure my progress, and move on. Some of these are pretty straightforward and easy to measure. Some are currently a little more abstract, but I sense that as the year goes on, I'll have to make some very specific decisions in some of these areas. These goals may not represent everything I need to do or think about, but I think these do represent eight very worthwhile things to me.