What a year 2010 has been. It was a year full of first and amazing experiences - athletic or not. I ran my first Road race (ING Atlanta 13.1,) Trail race (Red Top Rumble,) and Ironman (Wisconsin.) Often times it felt like I had bit off more than I could chew but thank God I have a big mouth. While it wasn't always fun during the preparation to these events, the sum of it all was a good time, not to mention the great relationships that were built too.
2010 also saw the last of the Warren men. After a brief but harsh battle with Cancer my last uncle was ushered away leaving my generation to fend for ourselves. Thankfully the women of my family have always been good guides, investing lots of ass whoopings and verbal lessons so I would be prepared. They are where my true strength comes from.
Spent the night on top of a mountain in a tent with 2 to 3 feet of snow. At the time of typing this I still don't have feeling in the tips of three of my fingers. This was an incredible experience spent with one of my best friends in the world. While it was suppose to 5 days, i'm pretty sure we would have died around day 3, the two days were enough to make it one of the most memorable experiences in my life. Not to mention the hardest. That mountain will see me again in 2011.
Last but not least, 2010 brought lots of new people in my life. Some for shorter periods some for forever. All are special in their own way. There is one very special person who barely made her way into my life for 2010 who thinks the world of me and tells me she plans to be around for a while .... and I actually hope she's right. Us agreeing on that part alone is a pretty big deal. Only time will tell if she's right. So, while 2010's final hours slowly pass, 2011 looks pretty bright on the horizon.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
I'm alive
Well of course Ironman is over, and it turns out the journey through life continues. It's been sort of a struggle deciding what direction I should go with this blog. These days my time is spent going to work, the gym, and laying in bed. Some where in there I manage to eat and maybe socialize. Nothing special, most times it's either Ramen or Rice and all the time grill fish (George Foreman makes it too easy) and socializing usually means Gchat or a random gym conversation. So I definitely can't write about food. Relationship - doesn't exist so I can't write about that (if it did exist and I wrote about it i'd probably get my ass kicked- hypothetically). So I'm not left with much. Really, the only thing I come in contact daily that puts me in a great place is my conversation with my mama and hearing songs and the lyrics speaking to me. So I could write about that and sound like a big baby, rehash some old wombs, or just sound like a bizarre crazy person. Honestly i'm not strong enough to write my feelings on the interwebs on a regular basis, if I actually had feelings, so I think for now this is just gonna have to be a blog about the random shit that pops into my head. Could be one line. Could be a novel - time will tell. So like time we move forward.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Laugh for the day
So today I was rushing to the gym to make a pilates class. I get to the locker room and start changing. I stand up to drop my boxers to put on compression shorts. While i'm pulling my leg out of my boxers I begin to fall over so I try to put that leg back on the ground and right through the bottom of my boxers my foot went. Thats right I ripped the bottom clean out of my boxers. That's probably the most awkward series of events i've experienced in a while. Talk about a transition. After class, I get back to my locker and pull the bottom-less boxers out of my locker and can only stand, look, and laugh. Rather than sport the plaid skirt I created I decided to pass on a shower and sport my compressions for the rest of the day. Commando is just a bad idea.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
I believed, so I went for it
Pre race:
Wednesday I woke up finished packing and headed to the airport to pick up the rental car. After stopping to pick up salt sticks, Justin and I were off to Wisconsin. Driving through Tennessee and part of Kentucky isn’t bad, but Indiana is the worst. There is absolutely nothing in Indiana but the gigantic electricity producing windmills (not very entertaining at the 9th hr of a road trip.) Finally around 11:30 pm we arrived in Chicago and crashed at a friends place. Thursday woke up around 7 and got back on the road to finish the last leg on the ride. The ride between Chicago and Wisconsin was just as boring as Indiana. Then finally out of nowhere the little oasis of civilization that is Madison appeared and we were finally there.
We arrived too early to check-in but the hotel let us lock our bikes in a conference room so we could go out and explore Madison. Madison is a college town where most of the people walk around frowning, until you talk to them, and then they turn into the nicest people imaginable. With not much to see besides the university, I grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel to finish check-in.
Once checked in I headed to Monona Terrace to check in for the race. At the race packet pickup I nearly lost it. The nice volunteer asked the simple question “you ready?” and I had to fight back tears. My stomach was in knots. That simple question changed things from a thought of a race that had been looming in the distance for what seemed like forever to being a real thing. I was really shaken. Wondering around lost, thinking I had gotten myself into something over my head, I bumped into Jody who was very encouraging and tried her best to get me to think positive, but I had already lost the battle that day. Afterward Justin and I headed back to the hotel and later out to dinner and called it a night early.
Friday morning I woke up to the best continental breakfast spread I have ever had. Sausage Biscuits, eggs, fruit, bacon, 4 types of juice, and fresh fruit was standard. After the nice breakfast, I rode back to Monona Terrace with Justin to register since he had left his ID at the hotel on Thursday. After our trip to the Terrace we decided we would skip the group swim after talking with a local and instead ride the run course on our bikes. The local guy told us how disgusting the lake is/was and how it affected him the prior week. If someone from Madison had that to say about their own lake I was compelled to listen. During the bike ride we decided that we would jump in the lake for a few minutes the next day just to see the water temperature. The bike ride was uneventful, though the run course seemed interesting with a lot of turns and changes in scenery. I knew that would help me being such a weak runner, visual stimuli are always a plus. After the ride I had the smallest noodle bowl ever for lunch and headed back to the hotel to pack transition bags and rest up before the athlete’s meeting later that night. The athlete’s dinner/meeting was not what I expected. The food was absolutely horrible. I’m not even exaggerating. The energy in the place was cool but the people who missed it didn’t miss anything. Afterwards a few people went to a local pub to have a drink and just reflect and enjoy each others company. Later my friends from home arrived so I headed back and went out with them for a few minutes before retiring for the night.
Saturday was really uneventful. Woke up to same amazing breakfast then laid around watching football and playing on facebook until about 1, then I finally got up and took my transition bags and bike to be turned in. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the group dinner later than night. During the day my only focus was to keep drinking water and reminding myself that I could do this. My fear was starting to be replaced with the pure feeling of being crazy. Crazy doesn’t walk around scared, crazy finds humor in the fear, I was all laughs. During the day I got a couple good luck calls and voice mails that kept me entertained. My attitude was the complete opposite of Friday at check-in. Maybe it was the two days spent verbally telling myself “I can do this” or just fate but things were looking up. Some of the others went out for runs but I decided I would take the day completely off. Instead of running I went out to a local grocery store to look for cheese wheels. One of my friends who came to support me made a bet that he would finish a cheese wheel in the 17 hrs I had to complete the Ironman. Sadly finding a cheese wheel in Madison proved to be too great of a task, so my challenger and I settled on a 5 lb brick of cheese. Had dinner with the group, where the food was much nicer than the Ironman dinner, and got to enjoy the company of my fellow racers from Atlanta Tri Club (thanks for putting this together Annie.) It was nice and low key and perfect for the night before. Really did calm what nerves were left knowing I wasn’t alone. From dinner I took that energy back to the hotel and shut down for the night. Tomorrow was the big day.
Race Day
Pre race:
Sunday morning I woke up around 3:45 and headed down the hall to breakfast. The hotel started breakfast at 4 on race morning for the racers. For breakfast I had two sausage biscuits, and a muffin with honey and a banana. Went back to the room and packed my carbo-pro and special needs bags for the day and I was ready to head to Monona Terrace. Matt’s brother was kind enough to drop Matt, Justin and I off at 5 which gave me one less thing to worry about Body marking at the Terrace was not very organized but fighting through the crowd gave me something else to focus on which was good. Justin and I made it through body marking and headed to drop off special needs bags. Only we didn’t know where special needs drop off was. After asking around I found out drop off was a few blocks away, which ended up being a good thing because it was right in front of a Starbucks with no line for the restroom. During this time Justin and I got separated but we ended up finding each other in the transition room where I put on my wetsuits and set out for the water. Time was flying, I remember asking what time it was and someone saying 6:20 so I knew I had to pick it up. On the way to the water Justin and I got separated and I was on my own ready to start my journey. Nervous yet confident, I finally made it into the water with about 10 minutes to spare. Saw Ron and Amy before entering the water exchanged good lucks then we too separated right when we entered the water. I spent the first couple of minutes getting acclimated to the frigid water, focusing on not hyperventilating while the ice water took my breath away. I made my way to the back because I honestly didn’t know what to expect and this was the part of the race I was most afraid of. Calm and listening to the commentator, there was a pause in him talking and unexpectedly, “boom” the race was on.
Swim:
The swim start was like nothing I had ever experienced. While I started way back there were people still trying to swim over me and pulling my feet. In my mind I was sure we looked like spawning Salmon. It felt like survival of the fittest. Sometime before the first turn I swam up on Amy, I could tell from her stroke, and stayed for a few strokes until I realized I could go a little faster and still be completely comfortable so I pressed on. Swimming along I found myself stuck behind the world’s largest/fastest breast stroker. This guy’s legs were like weapons. Every time I thought I had passed him he would reappear just kicking folks. Reached the first turn, which made the connector at rush hour look like a running faucet, and was slowly pulled around by the heard of people going through the same thing. All the turns would be like this, in retrospect it was sort of nice to break up the long straight-aways. At the end of the first lap I got extremely cold. I was shivering and swimming just wanting to get out of the water. I did the trick that every child knows and it helped for a while but eventually I got back cold and stomach issues came with it. On the second lap my stomach was bubbling uncontrollably and I didn’t want the wet suit stripper to have any surprises so that was my complete focus on the second lap. Luckily the second lap seemed to go by really fast.
T1
I got out of the water got my wetsuit stripped right behind Julie and began the walk up the helix. At first I tried to run but I was just too cold. Walking up the helix I tried my best not to make eye contact with people because I didn’t want to become emotional, but I could hear everyone saying “look at him he’s shaking, he’s so cold” they were absolutely right. I was freezing. Once inside the convention center I knew there was a restroom in the building that I could use to avoid the porta potties so I went there and took care of the bubbling from the swim and while washing my hands I saw my eyes were blood shot red. I was little nervous but I knew it was going to be a long day and there was no reason to rush. Since I was so cold I decided I would wear the leg warmers I purchased on Wednesday in Madison and my arm warmers hoping I would warm up. A helper came and helped me put on socks and my jersey and suggested I take a few minutes to warm up It wouldn’t benefit me to rush out and have to drop out. He told me “it’s a long day, be smart about things.” That was good advice that I took with me for the rest of the day. I was off on the bike.
Bike:
The Start of the bike was pretty uneventful and I was just calmly taking it all in, not going too hard, just maintaining a comfortable pace. I was still cold but in retrospect I think I was working against myself with the leg warmers and maybe even the arm warmers. I was sweating under the warmers and the little wind that would make it through the warmers would only make me think I was much colder. I was drinking and taking 2 salt pills an hour really just moving along comfortably making great timing. Then the cramping hit at about mile 30. I was in such good shape psychologically that I told myself “good thing it’s the quads and not the hamstrings, because you can push through this.” I was absolutely right too. I finally reached the 3 big hills of the course and had no problem with the first, it was long but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Then at the second hill I turned the corner and my eyes locked on an Indian that looked eerily familiar. It was Tracia. Once I figured it out my eyes zoomed out to see Jeanine as a Pirate and Jody as Superwoman. Trying hard not to laugh at the girls, Beau dressed as Elvis popped out from the other side of the street. This street was filled with spectators but none were as decked out as the ATC four. Beau ran all the way up the hill with me giving me motivation. I felt like a star it was an awesome experience. I can’t say enough how much it meant to me to have their support. They were the best part of the bike course. Then the third, and worst in my opinion, hill came I had to get off my bike at the top to stretch. Got off the bike and a spectator from Chicago held my bike and gave me a pep talk to help me keep my head in the race while I was stretching. Then back to riding it was. Saw my friends Josh, Andrew, Adam, Jonathan and Chad in some town where the streets were lined with barricades and crowds and wondered how Chad was doing on the cheese challenge but I didn’t stop. My mind was locked on making it to special needs to take off the warmers. Pulled in to special needs and a volunteer took my bike while I took off the leg warmers and placed them in my bag and tied the arm warmers around the seat post of my bike to use later on the run if necessary. Ate half of my peanut butter and honey sandwich and made my way to the port-a-potty to re-lube for the second lap. I sat my water bottle outside of the potty while I went in for obvious reasons, and when I came out it was gone. That hurt a little but gave me idea of the next water stop to focus on for the next leg. Annie pulled up all smiles, I was happy to see her. Together we set out on the second loop.
On the second loop Annie and I passed each other a couple of times before my quads began to twitch so I backed off. I had to stop at the next water stop to stretch some more, but never thought I wouldn’t make it. While riding I knew I was going to make the cutoff and with Annie in front of me I was excited that she would make it because I knew she had been worried about it. Riding a long a lady as she passes me (no I’m at all embarrassed) tells me “you’re hot.” Completely in a stupor I reach to feel my forehead before realizing she wasn’t talking about the temperature. As awkward as probably possible all I could come up with was “thank you.” After debating for the next few miles if I was insane and imagining things, or what other words I could have confused with hers, I decided everything was real. It was something else to go in the smile bank. The lady and I would keep passing each other until we got back to the hilly section where my legs locked up again and I would have to get off the bike on the first hill. I stopped and stretched some more then got back on the bike. I made it up the second hill okay, saw Jeanine and a few other cheering spectators, before my legs completely locked up on the third hill. Got off my bike and my legs were spazzed completely straight. One of the spectators, Chris from Chicago dressed in a too small cheerleading outfit came to help me out. This dude reminded me of a little league coach, well besides the cheerleading outfit. He completely took over. He told me take my time let my legs calm down and that I was gonna make the cut off so the only thing I needed to worry about was letting my legs calm down. While I was there waiting he ran back down the hill and got a coke and couple of bottles of water. He made me wash the salt off my face, because he said it would make me feel better, and repeatedly tried to get me to have some Coke until I finally relented. The Coke was pretty good but I could only handle a few sips. Then he ran back and got a banana told me to eat as much of that as I could. This dude is going to be an awesome Dad some day. Finally he told me to enjoy the next 20 miles and that he would see me at the finish line. I left there feeling confident and completely amazed that some random stranger made me feel like his day hinged on my success. Back on the bike and I saw my friends for the second time. It’s cool they stuck around to see me for all of about 10 seconds definitely helped. After seeing them, for the first time since being on the bike I had to pee. Pulled in to the last water stop handled my business and I was on my way back to Monona Terrace. Excited at first, then a huge hill popped out of no where and I had to pee again. There weren’t anymore rest stops before transition and in the athlete’s meeting they were pretty adamant about not peeing outside of the provided portables, so when I crested the hill I decided to pee off the side of my bike. Wasn’t the neatest but I had dry socks and I hadn’t disobeyed any rules. On the worst road of the course, I was becoming mentally tired and was pretty close to losing it. The bumps in the road were spaced perfectly about 3 seconds apart. I wanted nothing more in the world than to be off the bike. I came up on a guy from Air Force and passed him. This gave me small comfort knowing someone else was hurting worst than I was. After what seemed like forever, I was finally crossing the parking lot we had to cross to get out and entered the no passing zone, I knew it was almost over. Going up the helix at Monona my smile returned and I was excited to be done with the bike. Took my arm warmers off my seat post and my shoes off and in to transition I went.
T2:
Once I got to transition a volunteer came and dumped my things out began taking off my socks and putting the new ones on and my shoes then my legs locked up again. He went and got what I think was a Chiropractor and they guy began ART on my leg. Hurt like hell, but I knew it would help during the run. Didn’t seem like long but once I learned my transition time it must have been a while he was there helping me. Even after he finished I was still cramping and he said just give yourself a few minutes to let your legs calm down but you’ll feel better once you start moving. So I sat there until I was able to bend over and tie my shoes without cramping. Once I tied my shoes I still had to changed shorts so I got that done and the volunteer repacked my things and told me I had seven hours to get it done. He too wished me luck and told me he would see me at the finish line.
Run:
I walked out the door and head to start the run and I hear “William Archie”, I turn to see Amy. She yells “I am so happy to see you” as she gets her sunscreen applied, and I walk back to see what the hell she’s doing so far back. She tells me how horrible of a day she has had and we start the run. I ran all of about 100 yards with her before she was gone. I don’t know if I have ever smiled so much during those first few miles. I was so happy to be off the bike, words can not explain. After I came down off the high of not riding anymore around mile 3 I began to focus on rest stop to rest stop. Run as much as I could and to smile at every one I could. While I was moving pretty slow, I was having fun. The crowd and the volunteers were amazing. People would call out your name like they had known you all your life, and at this point in the day my name was about the only thing I could comprehend without thinking. At about mile 8 my legs cramped up again at the end of State Street, probably because the street was lined with people and I inadvertently picked up my snails pace from the adrenaline. I stretched and pressed on. At mile 10 I sat down to tie my shoes and when it was time to get up, I had a problem. Right while I’m trying to get up Justin passes on his second loop, and hears me call out to two volunteers for help up. He walks over to help me and all I could think of is the both of us stuck on the ground so I told him “get out of the way and go finish your race.” Afterward the two volunteers came and pulled me up and I was back to moving. On the way back in I did some math and realized I was going to finish the first lap in about 3:30ish and that was cutting it a bit close so I tried to pick it up for the last 3 miles in. Coming in to the turn around everyone thought I was coming in to finish, it was a tad bit of a let down having to explain to people that I had 13 more miles to go. Once I would tell them they would all go in to motivational mode telling me I had it. Turned around checked my special needs for more Gu’s to find the first thing I had forgot to do. Still I wasn’t worried the course was well stocked with food and my spirits were really high. Re-tied my shoes and started the second loop. On the second lap I began drinking chicken broth which was amazing. I had never had broth alone as a drink, and it absolutely blew my mind how incredible it was. I would run for a few minutes walk for a few. Around 18 or 20 I knew for sure I would make it and I was truly on cloud nine thanking the spectators and talking to everyone who wanted to talk to me. It’s funny every time I would say “thank y’all” the volunteers would give me a weird yet appreciative look. I’m guessing they only hear y’all in movies. At about mile 23 I came up on a walking brigade of about 10-15 people. I walked and talked with them for while before pulling away. Most yelled in shocked when they saw me run ever so slowly away “you can still run, dude that’s awesome”. About this time I started thinking of my Mom waiting on me. Sadly she couldn’t make it up to Wisconsin, but all I could think of is the bear hug she gave me after I graduated from high school. I imagine she would be that excited when she saw me cross the finish line. Then finally I could tell I was getting closer, emotions started shooting all over the place when Brendan, Katrin’s business partner appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t recognize him but he was wearing an ATC shirt. Initially I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating when I couldn’t figure out who he was. I had met him the day before but my memory had completely failed by that point. Our conversation went like this
Brendan: Everyone is waiting for you just around the corner
Me: Really
Brendan: Yeah, Katrin, David, the whole gang, are waiting for you just around these couple of blocks
Me: (smiles) Alright
I started back running and turned the first corner thinking I would be able to see the start of the finishers shoot but I couldn’t. Immediately my emotions tanked, then I heard Claire call out, again my emotions started swirling. Luckily Claire approached me super intense telling me to “Get it William” “Go, Go, Go” without even thinking I was running again. I’m sure if she had been soft spoken I would have lost it, been all crying and shit. It’s funny I met Claire at the John Tanner sprint triathlon she was cheering at the top of lungs for me at the finish line, she didn’t know who I was only that I had an ATC jersey so she cheered, kind of cool that this race ended the same. I ran on and right when I turned the corner I could hear the music and see the start of the finishers shoot. As I made the turn I could hear Mike Reilly “Here he comes,” while he was saying this people were reaching out giving me high fives, I couldn’t make out any faces in the crowd. It was a very unique feeling. “From Atlanta, Georgia, William Archie, You. Are. An.” and the crowd screamed “IRONMAN!” I felt like I was floating. I couldn’t stop smiling nor did I want to
Post Race:
The song Dynamite was blasting and David Cater came from around the corner and he looked as happy as I felt. Cater escorted me out of the finisher’s area where Josh, Adam, Jonathan, Andrew and Chad were waiting. I was happy to see them and they looked super excited too, since my Mom wasn’t able to come they were my family. They spent 16 hours seeing me for all of maybe a minute and even relayed info to my Mama back in New Orleans. I asked Chad about the cheese, he dodge that question like the guy in the Matrix dodging bullets. Justin congratulated me, it was awesome because we set out on this journey together knowing we’d have someone who would keep us honest on the training. The endorphins were at an all time high. Jody came around the corner and gave me the biggest hug and I nearly lost it but I kept it together. She’s been so supportive through it all. Before I knew it everyone was around, I had a huge family of friends there supporting me it was an incredible feeling. We took some pictures and I swallowed a sandwich that I couldn’t taste and pondered on what I had just accomplished.
Summary:
I set out and completed something that I didn’t even know I could do when I signed up for it a year prior. I had never completed a century, run a road race (I think my farthest run was about 12 miles), or swam farther than 1200m when I committed to this race. Faith, family, and friends help me through a lot of the training days. The training had been a roller coaster, there were days where I was certain I could do it, others where finding a word other than curse word was hard to find in me describing it. On this day none of those things mattered. In my house as a child “I can’t” wasn’t allowed to be said to anything. If you didn’t know how to do it, you’d say “I don’t know how,” and was taught, but never were you allowed to say “I can’t.” I owe my parents the world for teaching me this lesson. I never once thought “I can’t” during this race. I had the choice to fight or make excuses and I fought through it all just like I’ve been taught all my life. Thank you everyone for all the support and kind words you’ve given through all the training. Who knows if I could have done it without this, but if I had to choose I’d choose with you every time.
Wednesday I woke up finished packing and headed to the airport to pick up the rental car. After stopping to pick up salt sticks, Justin and I were off to Wisconsin. Driving through Tennessee and part of Kentucky isn’t bad, but Indiana is the worst. There is absolutely nothing in Indiana but the gigantic electricity producing windmills (not very entertaining at the 9th hr of a road trip.) Finally around 11:30 pm we arrived in Chicago and crashed at a friends place. Thursday woke up around 7 and got back on the road to finish the last leg on the ride. The ride between Chicago and Wisconsin was just as boring as Indiana. Then finally out of nowhere the little oasis of civilization that is Madison appeared and we were finally there.
We arrived too early to check-in but the hotel let us lock our bikes in a conference room so we could go out and explore Madison. Madison is a college town where most of the people walk around frowning, until you talk to them, and then they turn into the nicest people imaginable. With not much to see besides the university, I grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hotel to finish check-in.
Once checked in I headed to Monona Terrace to check in for the race. At the race packet pickup I nearly lost it. The nice volunteer asked the simple question “you ready?” and I had to fight back tears. My stomach was in knots. That simple question changed things from a thought of a race that had been looming in the distance for what seemed like forever to being a real thing. I was really shaken. Wondering around lost, thinking I had gotten myself into something over my head, I bumped into Jody who was very encouraging and tried her best to get me to think positive, but I had already lost the battle that day. Afterward Justin and I headed back to the hotel and later out to dinner and called it a night early.
Friday morning I woke up to the best continental breakfast spread I have ever had. Sausage Biscuits, eggs, fruit, bacon, 4 types of juice, and fresh fruit was standard. After the nice breakfast, I rode back to Monona Terrace with Justin to register since he had left his ID at the hotel on Thursday. After our trip to the Terrace we decided we would skip the group swim after talking with a local and instead ride the run course on our bikes. The local guy told us how disgusting the lake is/was and how it affected him the prior week. If someone from Madison had that to say about their own lake I was compelled to listen. During the bike ride we decided that we would jump in the lake for a few minutes the next day just to see the water temperature. The bike ride was uneventful, though the run course seemed interesting with a lot of turns and changes in scenery. I knew that would help me being such a weak runner, visual stimuli are always a plus. After the ride I had the smallest noodle bowl ever for lunch and headed back to the hotel to pack transition bags and rest up before the athlete’s meeting later that night. The athlete’s dinner/meeting was not what I expected. The food was absolutely horrible. I’m not even exaggerating. The energy in the place was cool but the people who missed it didn’t miss anything. Afterwards a few people went to a local pub to have a drink and just reflect and enjoy each others company. Later my friends from home arrived so I headed back and went out with them for a few minutes before retiring for the night.
Saturday was really uneventful. Woke up to same amazing breakfast then laid around watching football and playing on facebook until about 1, then I finally got up and took my transition bags and bike to be turned in. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for the group dinner later than night. During the day my only focus was to keep drinking water and reminding myself that I could do this. My fear was starting to be replaced with the pure feeling of being crazy. Crazy doesn’t walk around scared, crazy finds humor in the fear, I was all laughs. During the day I got a couple good luck calls and voice mails that kept me entertained. My attitude was the complete opposite of Friday at check-in. Maybe it was the two days spent verbally telling myself “I can do this” or just fate but things were looking up. Some of the others went out for runs but I decided I would take the day completely off. Instead of running I went out to a local grocery store to look for cheese wheels. One of my friends who came to support me made a bet that he would finish a cheese wheel in the 17 hrs I had to complete the Ironman. Sadly finding a cheese wheel in Madison proved to be too great of a task, so my challenger and I settled on a 5 lb brick of cheese. Had dinner with the group, where the food was much nicer than the Ironman dinner, and got to enjoy the company of my fellow racers from Atlanta Tri Club (thanks for putting this together Annie.) It was nice and low key and perfect for the night before. Really did calm what nerves were left knowing I wasn’t alone. From dinner I took that energy back to the hotel and shut down for the night. Tomorrow was the big day.
Race Day
Pre race:
Sunday morning I woke up around 3:45 and headed down the hall to breakfast. The hotel started breakfast at 4 on race morning for the racers. For breakfast I had two sausage biscuits, and a muffin with honey and a banana. Went back to the room and packed my carbo-pro and special needs bags for the day and I was ready to head to Monona Terrace. Matt’s brother was kind enough to drop Matt, Justin and I off at 5 which gave me one less thing to worry about Body marking at the Terrace was not very organized but fighting through the crowd gave me something else to focus on which was good. Justin and I made it through body marking and headed to drop off special needs bags. Only we didn’t know where special needs drop off was. After asking around I found out drop off was a few blocks away, which ended up being a good thing because it was right in front of a Starbucks with no line for the restroom. During this time Justin and I got separated but we ended up finding each other in the transition room where I put on my wetsuits and set out for the water. Time was flying, I remember asking what time it was and someone saying 6:20 so I knew I had to pick it up. On the way to the water Justin and I got separated and I was on my own ready to start my journey. Nervous yet confident, I finally made it into the water with about 10 minutes to spare. Saw Ron and Amy before entering the water exchanged good lucks then we too separated right when we entered the water. I spent the first couple of minutes getting acclimated to the frigid water, focusing on not hyperventilating while the ice water took my breath away. I made my way to the back because I honestly didn’t know what to expect and this was the part of the race I was most afraid of. Calm and listening to the commentator, there was a pause in him talking and unexpectedly, “boom” the race was on.
Swim:
The swim start was like nothing I had ever experienced. While I started way back there were people still trying to swim over me and pulling my feet. In my mind I was sure we looked like spawning Salmon. It felt like survival of the fittest. Sometime before the first turn I swam up on Amy, I could tell from her stroke, and stayed for a few strokes until I realized I could go a little faster and still be completely comfortable so I pressed on. Swimming along I found myself stuck behind the world’s largest/fastest breast stroker. This guy’s legs were like weapons. Every time I thought I had passed him he would reappear just kicking folks. Reached the first turn, which made the connector at rush hour look like a running faucet, and was slowly pulled around by the heard of people going through the same thing. All the turns would be like this, in retrospect it was sort of nice to break up the long straight-aways. At the end of the first lap I got extremely cold. I was shivering and swimming just wanting to get out of the water. I did the trick that every child knows and it helped for a while but eventually I got back cold and stomach issues came with it. On the second lap my stomach was bubbling uncontrollably and I didn’t want the wet suit stripper to have any surprises so that was my complete focus on the second lap. Luckily the second lap seemed to go by really fast.
T1
I got out of the water got my wetsuit stripped right behind Julie and began the walk up the helix. At first I tried to run but I was just too cold. Walking up the helix I tried my best not to make eye contact with people because I didn’t want to become emotional, but I could hear everyone saying “look at him he’s shaking, he’s so cold” they were absolutely right. I was freezing. Once inside the convention center I knew there was a restroom in the building that I could use to avoid the porta potties so I went there and took care of the bubbling from the swim and while washing my hands I saw my eyes were blood shot red. I was little nervous but I knew it was going to be a long day and there was no reason to rush. Since I was so cold I decided I would wear the leg warmers I purchased on Wednesday in Madison and my arm warmers hoping I would warm up. A helper came and helped me put on socks and my jersey and suggested I take a few minutes to warm up It wouldn’t benefit me to rush out and have to drop out. He told me “it’s a long day, be smart about things.” That was good advice that I took with me for the rest of the day. I was off on the bike.
Bike:
The Start of the bike was pretty uneventful and I was just calmly taking it all in, not going too hard, just maintaining a comfortable pace. I was still cold but in retrospect I think I was working against myself with the leg warmers and maybe even the arm warmers. I was sweating under the warmers and the little wind that would make it through the warmers would only make me think I was much colder. I was drinking and taking 2 salt pills an hour really just moving along comfortably making great timing. Then the cramping hit at about mile 30. I was in such good shape psychologically that I told myself “good thing it’s the quads and not the hamstrings, because you can push through this.” I was absolutely right too. I finally reached the 3 big hills of the course and had no problem with the first, it was long but nothing I hadn’t seen before. Then at the second hill I turned the corner and my eyes locked on an Indian that looked eerily familiar. It was Tracia. Once I figured it out my eyes zoomed out to see Jeanine as a Pirate and Jody as Superwoman. Trying hard not to laugh at the girls, Beau dressed as Elvis popped out from the other side of the street. This street was filled with spectators but none were as decked out as the ATC four. Beau ran all the way up the hill with me giving me motivation. I felt like a star it was an awesome experience. I can’t say enough how much it meant to me to have their support. They were the best part of the bike course. Then the third, and worst in my opinion, hill came I had to get off my bike at the top to stretch. Got off the bike and a spectator from Chicago held my bike and gave me a pep talk to help me keep my head in the race while I was stretching. Then back to riding it was. Saw my friends Josh, Andrew, Adam, Jonathan and Chad in some town where the streets were lined with barricades and crowds and wondered how Chad was doing on the cheese challenge but I didn’t stop. My mind was locked on making it to special needs to take off the warmers. Pulled in to special needs and a volunteer took my bike while I took off the leg warmers and placed them in my bag and tied the arm warmers around the seat post of my bike to use later on the run if necessary. Ate half of my peanut butter and honey sandwich and made my way to the port-a-potty to re-lube for the second lap. I sat my water bottle outside of the potty while I went in for obvious reasons, and when I came out it was gone. That hurt a little but gave me idea of the next water stop to focus on for the next leg. Annie pulled up all smiles, I was happy to see her. Together we set out on the second loop.
On the second loop Annie and I passed each other a couple of times before my quads began to twitch so I backed off. I had to stop at the next water stop to stretch some more, but never thought I wouldn’t make it. While riding I knew I was going to make the cutoff and with Annie in front of me I was excited that she would make it because I knew she had been worried about it. Riding a long a lady as she passes me (no I’m at all embarrassed) tells me “you’re hot.” Completely in a stupor I reach to feel my forehead before realizing she wasn’t talking about the temperature. As awkward as probably possible all I could come up with was “thank you.” After debating for the next few miles if I was insane and imagining things, or what other words I could have confused with hers, I decided everything was real. It was something else to go in the smile bank. The lady and I would keep passing each other until we got back to the hilly section where my legs locked up again and I would have to get off the bike on the first hill. I stopped and stretched some more then got back on the bike. I made it up the second hill okay, saw Jeanine and a few other cheering spectators, before my legs completely locked up on the third hill. Got off my bike and my legs were spazzed completely straight. One of the spectators, Chris from Chicago dressed in a too small cheerleading outfit came to help me out. This dude reminded me of a little league coach, well besides the cheerleading outfit. He completely took over. He told me take my time let my legs calm down and that I was gonna make the cut off so the only thing I needed to worry about was letting my legs calm down. While I was there waiting he ran back down the hill and got a coke and couple of bottles of water. He made me wash the salt off my face, because he said it would make me feel better, and repeatedly tried to get me to have some Coke until I finally relented. The Coke was pretty good but I could only handle a few sips. Then he ran back and got a banana told me to eat as much of that as I could. This dude is going to be an awesome Dad some day. Finally he told me to enjoy the next 20 miles and that he would see me at the finish line. I left there feeling confident and completely amazed that some random stranger made me feel like his day hinged on my success. Back on the bike and I saw my friends for the second time. It’s cool they stuck around to see me for all of about 10 seconds definitely helped. After seeing them, for the first time since being on the bike I had to pee. Pulled in to the last water stop handled my business and I was on my way back to Monona Terrace. Excited at first, then a huge hill popped out of no where and I had to pee again. There weren’t anymore rest stops before transition and in the athlete’s meeting they were pretty adamant about not peeing outside of the provided portables, so when I crested the hill I decided to pee off the side of my bike. Wasn’t the neatest but I had dry socks and I hadn’t disobeyed any rules. On the worst road of the course, I was becoming mentally tired and was pretty close to losing it. The bumps in the road were spaced perfectly about 3 seconds apart. I wanted nothing more in the world than to be off the bike. I came up on a guy from Air Force and passed him. This gave me small comfort knowing someone else was hurting worst than I was. After what seemed like forever, I was finally crossing the parking lot we had to cross to get out and entered the no passing zone, I knew it was almost over. Going up the helix at Monona my smile returned and I was excited to be done with the bike. Took my arm warmers off my seat post and my shoes off and in to transition I went.
T2:
Once I got to transition a volunteer came and dumped my things out began taking off my socks and putting the new ones on and my shoes then my legs locked up again. He went and got what I think was a Chiropractor and they guy began ART on my leg. Hurt like hell, but I knew it would help during the run. Didn’t seem like long but once I learned my transition time it must have been a while he was there helping me. Even after he finished I was still cramping and he said just give yourself a few minutes to let your legs calm down but you’ll feel better once you start moving. So I sat there until I was able to bend over and tie my shoes without cramping. Once I tied my shoes I still had to changed shorts so I got that done and the volunteer repacked my things and told me I had seven hours to get it done. He too wished me luck and told me he would see me at the finish line.
Run:
I walked out the door and head to start the run and I hear “William Archie”, I turn to see Amy. She yells “I am so happy to see you” as she gets her sunscreen applied, and I walk back to see what the hell she’s doing so far back. She tells me how horrible of a day she has had and we start the run. I ran all of about 100 yards with her before she was gone. I don’t know if I have ever smiled so much during those first few miles. I was so happy to be off the bike, words can not explain. After I came down off the high of not riding anymore around mile 3 I began to focus on rest stop to rest stop. Run as much as I could and to smile at every one I could. While I was moving pretty slow, I was having fun. The crowd and the volunteers were amazing. People would call out your name like they had known you all your life, and at this point in the day my name was about the only thing I could comprehend without thinking. At about mile 8 my legs cramped up again at the end of State Street, probably because the street was lined with people and I inadvertently picked up my snails pace from the adrenaline. I stretched and pressed on. At mile 10 I sat down to tie my shoes and when it was time to get up, I had a problem. Right while I’m trying to get up Justin passes on his second loop, and hears me call out to two volunteers for help up. He walks over to help me and all I could think of is the both of us stuck on the ground so I told him “get out of the way and go finish your race.” Afterward the two volunteers came and pulled me up and I was back to moving. On the way back in I did some math and realized I was going to finish the first lap in about 3:30ish and that was cutting it a bit close so I tried to pick it up for the last 3 miles in. Coming in to the turn around everyone thought I was coming in to finish, it was a tad bit of a let down having to explain to people that I had 13 more miles to go. Once I would tell them they would all go in to motivational mode telling me I had it. Turned around checked my special needs for more Gu’s to find the first thing I had forgot to do. Still I wasn’t worried the course was well stocked with food and my spirits were really high. Re-tied my shoes and started the second loop. On the second lap I began drinking chicken broth which was amazing. I had never had broth alone as a drink, and it absolutely blew my mind how incredible it was. I would run for a few minutes walk for a few. Around 18 or 20 I knew for sure I would make it and I was truly on cloud nine thanking the spectators and talking to everyone who wanted to talk to me. It’s funny every time I would say “thank y’all” the volunteers would give me a weird yet appreciative look. I’m guessing they only hear y’all in movies. At about mile 23 I came up on a walking brigade of about 10-15 people. I walked and talked with them for while before pulling away. Most yelled in shocked when they saw me run ever so slowly away “you can still run, dude that’s awesome”. About this time I started thinking of my Mom waiting on me. Sadly she couldn’t make it up to Wisconsin, but all I could think of is the bear hug she gave me after I graduated from high school. I imagine she would be that excited when she saw me cross the finish line. Then finally I could tell I was getting closer, emotions started shooting all over the place when Brendan, Katrin’s business partner appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t recognize him but he was wearing an ATC shirt. Initially I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating when I couldn’t figure out who he was. I had met him the day before but my memory had completely failed by that point. Our conversation went like this
Brendan: Everyone is waiting for you just around the corner
Me: Really
Brendan: Yeah, Katrin, David, the whole gang, are waiting for you just around these couple of blocks
Me: (smiles) Alright
I started back running and turned the first corner thinking I would be able to see the start of the finishers shoot but I couldn’t. Immediately my emotions tanked, then I heard Claire call out, again my emotions started swirling. Luckily Claire approached me super intense telling me to “Get it William” “Go, Go, Go” without even thinking I was running again. I’m sure if she had been soft spoken I would have lost it, been all crying and shit. It’s funny I met Claire at the John Tanner sprint triathlon she was cheering at the top of lungs for me at the finish line, she didn’t know who I was only that I had an ATC jersey so she cheered, kind of cool that this race ended the same. I ran on and right when I turned the corner I could hear the music and see the start of the finishers shoot. As I made the turn I could hear Mike Reilly “Here he comes,” while he was saying this people were reaching out giving me high fives, I couldn’t make out any faces in the crowd. It was a very unique feeling. “From Atlanta, Georgia, William Archie, You. Are. An.” and the crowd screamed “IRONMAN!” I felt like I was floating. I couldn’t stop smiling nor did I want to
Post Race:
The song Dynamite was blasting and David Cater came from around the corner and he looked as happy as I felt. Cater escorted me out of the finisher’s area where Josh, Adam, Jonathan, Andrew and Chad were waiting. I was happy to see them and they looked super excited too, since my Mom wasn’t able to come they were my family. They spent 16 hours seeing me for all of maybe a minute and even relayed info to my Mama back in New Orleans. I asked Chad about the cheese, he dodge that question like the guy in the Matrix dodging bullets. Justin congratulated me, it was awesome because we set out on this journey together knowing we’d have someone who would keep us honest on the training. The endorphins were at an all time high. Jody came around the corner and gave me the biggest hug and I nearly lost it but I kept it together. She’s been so supportive through it all. Before I knew it everyone was around, I had a huge family of friends there supporting me it was an incredible feeling. We took some pictures and I swallowed a sandwich that I couldn’t taste and pondered on what I had just accomplished.
Summary:
I set out and completed something that I didn’t even know I could do when I signed up for it a year prior. I had never completed a century, run a road race (I think my farthest run was about 12 miles), or swam farther than 1200m when I committed to this race. Faith, family, and friends help me through a lot of the training days. The training had been a roller coaster, there were days where I was certain I could do it, others where finding a word other than curse word was hard to find in me describing it. On this day none of those things mattered. In my house as a child “I can’t” wasn’t allowed to be said to anything. If you didn’t know how to do it, you’d say “I don’t know how,” and was taught, but never were you allowed to say “I can’t.” I owe my parents the world for teaching me this lesson. I never once thought “I can’t” during this race. I had the choice to fight or make excuses and I fought through it all just like I’ve been taught all my life. Thank you everyone for all the support and kind words you’ve given through all the training. Who knows if I could have done it without this, but if I had to choose I’d choose with you every time.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Don't sweat the small things
So it's Friday and it's been a rollercoaster of a day. For the last week i've been waiting on today to get my new bike (yes i'm finally getting a new bike) and today arrives and the bike store let me down. After getting my hopes up only to be shot down, I finally reeled myself in. I mean, my best friend is dealing with her grandfather being in the hospital and i'm thinking about a bike - Ding! welcome back perspective. I also took the time today to read a race report from Ironman Wisconsin from 2005 when it rained all day and the temps were in the 50's. Yeah that definitely was what I needed to let me know without sacrifice and determination, I won't make it to the finish line. So now I go on my second century in as many weeks on my faithful roadie with no bitching. I should be thankful I even have a bike period.
My training this week has been okay but I did take Wednesday off from running and biking to give my legs a chance to recover after last weekend. Spent some time doing swim drills Wednesday trying to get stronger. I am definitely getting closer to reaching my goal. After Thursday's Buckhead Bellyache ride I upped the brick mileage to 4 miles, in the next couple of weeks I plan on getting that to 6 or 7. Bricks, I feel, are definitely underestimated in my current circle of friends/training mates. As we get scarily closer to September I want this now as much as I wanted it before. It's crazy how far i've come yet how much farther I have to go in such a short time. There is a slight chance I may get to Wisconsin before September to see the hellish bike course, the jury is still out on that though.
Sunday I give back to the triathlon community by voluncheering at the Iron girl triathlon. Good luck to all my friends racing. See you on the course. I hope everyone else is well.
My training this week has been okay but I did take Wednesday off from running and biking to give my legs a chance to recover after last weekend. Spent some time doing swim drills Wednesday trying to get stronger. I am definitely getting closer to reaching my goal. After Thursday's Buckhead Bellyache ride I upped the brick mileage to 4 miles, in the next couple of weeks I plan on getting that to 6 or 7. Bricks, I feel, are definitely underestimated in my current circle of friends/training mates. As we get scarily closer to September I want this now as much as I wanted it before. It's crazy how far i've come yet how much farther I have to go in such a short time. There is a slight chance I may get to Wisconsin before September to see the hellish bike course, the jury is still out on that though.
Sunday I give back to the triathlon community by voluncheering at the Iron girl triathlon. Good luck to all my friends racing. See you on the course. I hope everyone else is well.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Where in the world is
I've been missing for a while, but i'm okay. During my hiatus from the blog life has been a roller coaster ride. The roughest period being May 14th to June 4th. During that time I lost all interest in Triathlon, from the training, to the nagging injuries, to the simple conversations. I went through three weeks of absolutely miserable workouts. Luckily I train with a group of which I can call quite a few friends. Some of my friends could see me falling off and really helped get me back in the right mindset, with simple words. Sometimes being surrounded by good people makes all the difference, especially women with their nurturing skills.
Also in my time away I completed the swim and the bike leg of the Macon half ironman distance race. This race came right in the middle of me being sick of everything and I really wasn't prepared, nor did I actually want to do it, period. Everyone told me I should make it a training day so I did. Going into the race I decided I wouldn't do the run leg because it would take longer for me to recover from that scorching hot run, and cause me to miss out on valuable training time. One okay swim and miserable bike ride later, not running was the smartest decision i've made in a long time. Macon never has to worry about me coming back. That place threw the first the perfect storm of misery at me and definitely made a point
This past weekend I completed my first century ride on my third attempt. The third definitely was a charm. A hot, hilly, charm. Now it's time to go out for a run on my super tired legs in this Georgia heat. I hope everyone has been well.
Also in my time away I completed the swim and the bike leg of the Macon half ironman distance race. This race came right in the middle of me being sick of everything and I really wasn't prepared, nor did I actually want to do it, period. Everyone told me I should make it a training day so I did. Going into the race I decided I wouldn't do the run leg because it would take longer for me to recover from that scorching hot run, and cause me to miss out on valuable training time. One okay swim and miserable bike ride later, not running was the smartest decision i've made in a long time. Macon never has to worry about me coming back. That place threw the first the perfect storm of misery at me and definitely made a point
This past weekend I completed my first century ride on my third attempt. The third definitely was a charm. A hot, hilly, charm. Now it's time to go out for a run on my super tired legs in this Georgia heat. I hope everyone has been well.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Happenings
It's been a while since i've posted but the feeling for me lately is it's been a while since i've done anything not related to swimbikerun. Thursday, I hit a low point and made myself step away from the group training on Friday and Saturday. I really needed the drinks I had Friday night and to suffer through my run Saturday (at 3 in the evening it was super hot) alone. It was a nice break from the norm, though it was also nice to meet back up with the gang Saturday night to just hang out for dinner. I knew when I signed up for the Ironman it would take a lot of sacrifice, but my idea of a lot does not give this commitment justice. From talking to others, it's hitting everyone like a stomach bug at a buffet. Hopefully this is just a fad and the other 23 people make it to Wisconsin with me.
Coming up i'm going to attempt another 70.3. According to most this race will be much more difficult than Gulf Coast (which was completely flat, besides the water). Word around the block is this is one of the hilliest 70.3 bike courses around and it has absolutely no shade on the bike or the run and we've been close to 90's here lately. If cramping was a competition, i'd win, so what better time to work on nutrition. I have a good feeling after this race, whether I finish it or not, i'm going to have a reason to Hate Macon Georgia.
Looking forward to this extended weekend, if only there was kareoke on tap like last year. Happy Memorial Day!
Coming up i'm going to attempt another 70.3. According to most this race will be much more difficult than Gulf Coast (which was completely flat, besides the water). Word around the block is this is one of the hilliest 70.3 bike courses around and it has absolutely no shade on the bike or the run and we've been close to 90's here lately. If cramping was a competition, i'd win, so what better time to work on nutrition. I have a good feeling after this race, whether I finish it or not, i'm going to have a reason to Hate Macon Georgia.
Looking forward to this extended weekend, if only there was kareoke on tap like last year. Happy Memorial Day!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Gulf Coast Triathlon Race report (working title)
Gulf Coast Triathlon 70.3
Date of Race: 5/08/2010
Total Race Time: 6:49:42
Overall Place: 479/614
Age Group: 25-29
Age Group Place: 44/51
Pre-Race:
Rode down to PCB Thursday with Jody and Todd, listening to Jody sing every song ever made, even the bad ones. Got dinner and ended the night early back in the room looking forward to practicing the open water swim the next day. Friday morning woke up and headed down to the gulf for a practice swim. I’m happy I had the chance to practice because I learned Ocean motion + me on my back = vomiting, and that no matter what I would float in salt water with a wetsuit. This was very comforting to know, and would really help come Saturday. After regaining my sea legs I spent the rest of the day hydrating and trying to calm my nerves.
Warm-up:
Race morning woke up at about 3:30 had a banana and saw the white caps in the ocean and laid back down telling myself it just looks bad from the 10th floor. At about 4:15 I woke up for good had 4 pieces of peanut butter and honey toast and headed down to transition. After setting up transition, I went to the shore and watched as the waves before my wave entered the Gulf and got my feet wet.
Swim: 51:28
Before the swim started Matt (a clubmate) and I gave each other last words of encouragement and he moved to the front of the wave as I creped to the back. When the horn went off I slowly made my entrance to the water, not wanting to fight people and waves, and began my way out. Almost to the first buoy, I threw up a little and thought it’s nice to get that out of the way and just kept swimming. Also there was a huge wave with little bait fish jumping out of the water, that was a little scary. They don't call them bait fish for nothing. Later when I brought this up no one else saw this, so maybe I was hallucinating. After the first turn things got a little better and I was able to get some kind of rhythm, I should have recognized this omen because when I made the turn to come back in it seemed like all hell broke loose. The waves were exponentially worst going back than coming out. I threw up four times losing everything in my stomach, but quitting never was an option (I believe, I was so far off course that they wouldn’t have found me if I wanted to quit anyway). I remember coming up for a breath and almost being flipped completely over, thinking “that would have surely broken my spirit,” thankfully I didn’t roll. After finally exiting the water, I slowly made my way to transition thanking the higher powers.
T1: 6:28
The day before the race Todd Laberge pointed out to drink a lot of water once you exit to dilute the salt, so once I got to transition a drank a complete bottle of water. I was really thirsty after throwing up so much but I felt pretty good, other than being thirsty.
Bike: 3:05:48 18.1mph/avg
On the bike I had a plan to drink two bottles of Carbo-pro and Gatorade, to take two Gu’s and to get a bottle of water once my first bottle of Gatorade and carbo-pro was gone, and to stay in the saddle the complete time and not spike my HR. I never pushed out of my comfort zone the entire ride, my Garmin had my avg HR at 134. There was wind on the bike but I was focused on not letting anything out of my control be an issue during this race. I don’t think I have ever been this focused during a race. I felt like I nailed my nutrition and didn’t let the people around me alter my plan, I was truly racing myself at this point in the day and I knew my goal was to finish. I stayed very consistent, and knew I would need to if I was going to finish, especially without cramping. Around mile 35 I got hungry, and had half a cliff bar. Getting off the bike I felt great.
T2: 3:26
I entered transition with Mark Holder and he told me “he had pushed way too hard on the bike,” this helped my confidence heading to the run knowing I managed my bike really well. I watered off my feet reapplied some vasaline and slipped on my shoes and off I went. Exiting the transition, I reminded myself what Ron told me, “this is your 70.3 experience, enjoy it and have fun.” I exited T2 with a smile ready for the run.
Run: 2:42:35
I started the running feeling really good. I didn’t have any pains at all. It seems as soon as I began to run the sun came out with a vengeance and there was no shade the entire run. I ran all the way through mile 10 with a smile on my face, only walking through the water stops. At mile 10 things began to fall apart. I had blood coming through the top of my shoe from not running with socks. My foot didn’t hurt but I was mentally spent and the sight of the blood stain gave me an excuse to walk. So I began to walk/run. Finally someone from my age group came up and passed me and that motivated me not to be last in my age group, if we were indeed the last two people on the course, so I started back running. Around mile 12 I passed two of PCB’s finest sitting in the back of their pick up truck smoking cigs having a beer, and the guy yells “You’re fit, what in the hell are you doing way back here”, even I had to laugh at that. If only the drunk bastard knew how far I have come. That lightened the mood at little heading around the last corner where some North Georgia Multisport loser succeeded at being annoying and down the road to the finish I went. Coming up on the finish I saw another guy from my age group so I picked it up a little more making sure to cross the line before him. Once I crossed the line and stopped running, I instantly went scatter-brained. I stood there not knowing what the hell to do.
Post Race:
One of the volunteers kept asking me if I wanted him to go with me, and I kept saying no. It was really weird, I felt like a little kid with a stranger approaching. After getting away from him I wondered into the convention center and saw they were giving massages. As soon as I signed the paper for the massage I began to cramp. Two ladies came over and began icing me down and making me drink more Gatorade, last thing in the world I wanted at that point, but they were extremely helpful. Eventually I came too and the nice massage lady walked me to the ATC tent where the rest of the club was waiting. I spent the rest of my time there cramping, hanging out with the gang.
What would I do differently:
I definitely need to increase my run and cycling volume A LOT. I also need to incorporated salt sticks into my nutrition. My face was caked with salt by the end of the race, surely that will help some with the cramping (post race or during). I also should have started off the run with a higher cadence. Once my body was used to running, I felt like it was nearly impossible to speed up my cadence.
Rate your overall experience with this race:
The volunteers at this race were the best I have experienced. Everyone was extremely helpful and seemed excited to be there. I really enjoyed the positive energy. The bike was boring and flat, though I like flat, and there weren’t many if any spectators on the run, but the volunteers were incredible. I would defintely do this race again.
Date of Race: 5/08/2010
Total Race Time: 6:49:42
Overall Place: 479/614
Age Group: 25-29
Age Group Place: 44/51
Pre-Race:
Rode down to PCB Thursday with Jody and Todd, listening to Jody sing every song ever made, even the bad ones. Got dinner and ended the night early back in the room looking forward to practicing the open water swim the next day. Friday morning woke up and headed down to the gulf for a practice swim. I’m happy I had the chance to practice because I learned Ocean motion + me on my back = vomiting, and that no matter what I would float in salt water with a wetsuit. This was very comforting to know, and would really help come Saturday. After regaining my sea legs I spent the rest of the day hydrating and trying to calm my nerves.
Warm-up:
Race morning woke up at about 3:30 had a banana and saw the white caps in the ocean and laid back down telling myself it just looks bad from the 10th floor. At about 4:15 I woke up for good had 4 pieces of peanut butter and honey toast and headed down to transition. After setting up transition, I went to the shore and watched as the waves before my wave entered the Gulf and got my feet wet.
Swim: 51:28
Before the swim started Matt (a clubmate) and I gave each other last words of encouragement and he moved to the front of the wave as I creped to the back. When the horn went off I slowly made my entrance to the water, not wanting to fight people and waves, and began my way out. Almost to the first buoy, I threw up a little and thought it’s nice to get that out of the way and just kept swimming. Also there was a huge wave with little bait fish jumping out of the water, that was a little scary. They don't call them bait fish for nothing. Later when I brought this up no one else saw this, so maybe I was hallucinating. After the first turn things got a little better and I was able to get some kind of rhythm, I should have recognized this omen because when I made the turn to come back in it seemed like all hell broke loose. The waves were exponentially worst going back than coming out. I threw up four times losing everything in my stomach, but quitting never was an option (I believe, I was so far off course that they wouldn’t have found me if I wanted to quit anyway). I remember coming up for a breath and almost being flipped completely over, thinking “that would have surely broken my spirit,” thankfully I didn’t roll. After finally exiting the water, I slowly made my way to transition thanking the higher powers.
T1: 6:28
The day before the race Todd Laberge pointed out to drink a lot of water once you exit to dilute the salt, so once I got to transition a drank a complete bottle of water. I was really thirsty after throwing up so much but I felt pretty good, other than being thirsty.
Bike: 3:05:48 18.1mph/avg
On the bike I had a plan to drink two bottles of Carbo-pro and Gatorade, to take two Gu’s and to get a bottle of water once my first bottle of Gatorade and carbo-pro was gone, and to stay in the saddle the complete time and not spike my HR. I never pushed out of my comfort zone the entire ride, my Garmin had my avg HR at 134. There was wind on the bike but I was focused on not letting anything out of my control be an issue during this race. I don’t think I have ever been this focused during a race. I felt like I nailed my nutrition and didn’t let the people around me alter my plan, I was truly racing myself at this point in the day and I knew my goal was to finish. I stayed very consistent, and knew I would need to if I was going to finish, especially without cramping. Around mile 35 I got hungry, and had half a cliff bar. Getting off the bike I felt great.
T2: 3:26
I entered transition with Mark Holder and he told me “he had pushed way too hard on the bike,” this helped my confidence heading to the run knowing I managed my bike really well. I watered off my feet reapplied some vasaline and slipped on my shoes and off I went. Exiting the transition, I reminded myself what Ron told me, “this is your 70.3 experience, enjoy it and have fun.” I exited T2 with a smile ready for the run.
Run: 2:42:35
I started the running feeling really good. I didn’t have any pains at all. It seems as soon as I began to run the sun came out with a vengeance and there was no shade the entire run. I ran all the way through mile 10 with a smile on my face, only walking through the water stops. At mile 10 things began to fall apart. I had blood coming through the top of my shoe from not running with socks. My foot didn’t hurt but I was mentally spent and the sight of the blood stain gave me an excuse to walk. So I began to walk/run. Finally someone from my age group came up and passed me and that motivated me not to be last in my age group, if we were indeed the last two people on the course, so I started back running. Around mile 12 I passed two of PCB’s finest sitting in the back of their pick up truck smoking cigs having a beer, and the guy yells “You’re fit, what in the hell are you doing way back here”, even I had to laugh at that. If only the drunk bastard knew how far I have come. That lightened the mood at little heading around the last corner where some North Georgia Multisport loser succeeded at being annoying and down the road to the finish I went. Coming up on the finish I saw another guy from my age group so I picked it up a little more making sure to cross the line before him. Once I crossed the line and stopped running, I instantly went scatter-brained. I stood there not knowing what the hell to do.
Post Race:
One of the volunteers kept asking me if I wanted him to go with me, and I kept saying no. It was really weird, I felt like a little kid with a stranger approaching. After getting away from him I wondered into the convention center and saw they were giving massages. As soon as I signed the paper for the massage I began to cramp. Two ladies came over and began icing me down and making me drink more Gatorade, last thing in the world I wanted at that point, but they were extremely helpful. Eventually I came too and the nice massage lady walked me to the ATC tent where the rest of the club was waiting. I spent the rest of my time there cramping, hanging out with the gang.
What would I do differently:
I definitely need to increase my run and cycling volume A LOT. I also need to incorporated salt sticks into my nutrition. My face was caked with salt by the end of the race, surely that will help some with the cramping (post race or during). I also should have started off the run with a higher cadence. Once my body was used to running, I felt like it was nearly impossible to speed up my cadence.
Rate your overall experience with this race:
The volunteers at this race were the best I have experienced. Everyone was extremely helpful and seemed excited to be there. I really enjoyed the positive energy. The bike was boring and flat, though I like flat, and there weren’t many if any spectators on the run, but the volunteers were incredible. I would defintely do this race again.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Panama would be more fun with Booze and Tyedye
So i'm in Panama City Beach on the eve of my first 70.3 triathlon. Thats 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking 13.1 miles running. Yesterday was spent driving down to the beach with two of my favorites. I rode in a car for over 5 hours and I promise for the first 4 my biggest rival and one of my biggest friends Jody knew every song that came on the radio. Lot's of random filler songs that just make it on to albums to fill cds (or tapes, lots were old) she sung along ... quite amusing. 
That amusment did a great job of keeping my mind off of the task thats ahead of me in the next couple of days. But as the sun set, a beautiful sunset it was, my mind began to wonder thinking about everything that could go wrong in the next couple of days. 
Went out to dinner with the gang with the gang to get some seafood and seeing the other athletes out, really got me to thinking that i'm not ready for this. Luckily they are here also offering for positive words.
Today, friday, I don't feel the exact same way after a practice open water swim and calming down a bit. I learned today during my practice, that if for some reason I need to rest during the swim tomorrow don't roll over and stare in the sky. That coupled with the motion of the ocean will trigger some severe nausea. I definitely ended my open water swim today puking, somehow it's sort of comforting. Maybe it was the Transformer on lunch who I consulted with about a Tri Model. Swim/fish, Bike/Gizmoduck, Run/Kenyan maybe. He gave me pretty sound advice that hopefully i can use tomorrow to help me stay calm. (awesome statue in a mellow mushroom on the beach) Aldrin also pointed out that he thinks God put my arms where my legs should go and vice versa. One day he will eat those words. 
As the sun sets on this day I hope and pray that tomorrow is kind to me. At some point during the week hopefully i'm posting a race report on a huge step on my journey to ironman glory, and not a post of all the things i've done wrong. Thanks everyone for the encouraging words, hopefully I will you and myself proud in the AM.
That amusment did a great job of keeping my mind off of the task thats ahead of me in the next couple of days. But as the sun set, a beautiful sunset it was, my mind began to wonder thinking about everything that could go wrong in the next couple of days. 
Went out to dinner with the gang with the gang to get some seafood and seeing the other athletes out, really got me to thinking that i'm not ready for this. Luckily they are here also offering for positive words.
Today, friday, I don't feel the exact same way after a practice open water swim and calming down a bit. I learned today during my practice, that if for some reason I need to rest during the swim tomorrow don't roll over and stare in the sky. That coupled with the motion of the ocean will trigger some severe nausea. I definitely ended my open water swim today puking, somehow it's sort of comforting. Maybe it was the Transformer on lunch who I consulted with about a Tri Model. Swim/fish, Bike/Gizmoduck, Run/Kenyan maybe. He gave me pretty sound advice that hopefully i can use tomorrow to help me stay calm. (awesome statue in a mellow mushroom on the beach) Aldrin also pointed out that he thinks God put my arms where my legs should go and vice versa. One day he will eat those words. 
As the sun sets on this day I hope and pray that tomorrow is kind to me. At some point during the week hopefully i'm posting a race report on a huge step on my journey to ironman glory, and not a post of all the things i've done wrong. Thanks everyone for the encouraging words, hopefully I will you and myself proud in the AM.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
This Tri has me as nervous as a Fart on a long ride
What's good folks? Me, i'm here nervous thinking of what's going on this weekend - My first Half Ironman distance race. Frankly, I don't think i'm ready but the show will go on whether I am or not. So i'm sitting around creating scenarios in my mind where some end with great joy others with ambulances .... I'm obviously rooting for the joy, if only it was that simple. Seriously my goal is just to finish. People say I should firmer goals that relate to time, but this is the way I have approached all of my other tris; Complete the distance, next time set a time goal. I hope to work on being mentally stronger this weekend. Next to cramps, my brain is usually my next biggest hurdle. I hope Sunday i'm writing a glorious post of how I was able to overcome and keep my mind on the task at hand for however long it takes. Stay tuned.
On the training front, I pulled things back last week hoping to be prepared for what this weekend has for me. Man, i'm nervous. I hope I have some interesting pics to put up too. In honor of the redneck riviera, that is Panama City, i'm thinking of wearing my party like a rock star hat while crossing the finish line, mullet and all. Odds are i'll be struggling so bad at the point that I won't remember, but I hope I do. Thanks for the well wishes.
On the training front, I pulled things back last week hoping to be prepared for what this weekend has for me. Man, i'm nervous. I hope I have some interesting pics to put up too. In honor of the redneck riviera, that is Panama City, i'm thinking of wearing my party like a rock star hat while crossing the finish line, mullet and all. Odds are i'll be struggling so bad at the point that I won't remember, but I hope I do. Thanks for the well wishes.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
John Tanner Sprint Triathlon
John Tanner
Triathlon – Sprint
Total Time :1:20:42
Age Group Rank:23/32
Pre-race
Saturday morning I woke up had a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter and honey and two bananas and loaded my things into the Green Machine and hit the road. I woke up with a sore throat that I hoped wouldn’t affect me and I honestly don’t think it did. On the road to the triathlon I happened to see two cars flipped on the interstate and I was calm the entire time. The thing I did the best on the day was not let the weather become a distraction for me. After a hellish run in October, not letting the weather become a distraction is amazing. Got to park ran straight to the bathroom and headed to get my packet and set up my transition area. I somehow was smart enough to bring a garbage bag to set on my transition bag so I was lucky to have dry shoes for the bike and run.
Warm-up
Right before the national anthem (best I’ve heard at a tri) I dipped myself in the water to get rid of the initial shock and went and hung out with the group. I haven’t exactly grasped the concept of warming up. This would later turn out to be huge mistake on my part during the swim.
Swim:
Goal - sub 12 mins
Actual – 12:48.2
I started the swim and felt fine for what seemed like the first 50 meters, then it was like all of hell broke loose. I have never been so afraid in the water in my life. I could not breathe at all. I swam out to the side to avoid the swimmers behind me and still could not catch my breath. So there I was floating on the outside thinking I was on my way to see Elizabeth like Fred Samford. I’m so happy there wasn’t any canoes on the outside of the loop because I seriously considered quitting after starting a second time and still not being able to breathe. After strategizing for what felt like forever I rolled over to my back and began back-stroking and saw blue caps (my wave) behind me and that gave me the confidence to continue. It wasn’t until the last 100 to 200 meters that I felt comfortable in the water. The timing mat wasn’t at the edge of the water but rather at the beginning of the transition since I walked from the water to transition I probably came in closer to 12. I've been told since the race that you should always get in the water and go as hard as you can for a few meters to warn your body of what's to come. Next time hopefully i'm smart enough to fix this.
T1 3:22
I should probably start my race reports after the race …j/k I walked all the way from the lake to my transition and slowly talked myself back into the race. I put on my race belt in hopes I would save a few seconds in the next transition. For some reason I wanted to sit down so badly in transition. That swim really had a adverse affect on me. I am notoriously bad at transitions and definitely need some practice.
Bike
Goal
Actual 37 mins (my watch)
I started the bike rather conservative not knowing or trusting where my level of fitness truly is on the bike. The one thing I focused on during the bike was drinking. Last year I had a really bad problem of cramping on the run and I think a big part of that was not drinking until I became thirsty and that usually didn’t happen til the run and that always was too late. After playing leap frog with some guy the first 9 miles I pushed as hard as I could the last two. I really need to spend more time focusing on the bike.
T2 1:29
Thought I had a relatively smooth transition but my watch says otherwise. I thought this transition would have been much faster being that I didn’t wear socks and I wore my race belt on the bike portion. After getting my shoes on I had a problem of getting them tied but I prefer to run with laces and not the quick strings so this is something I need to practice for the future. I honestly don’t understand how I’m so slow. I really need to improve my transitions.
Run
Goal 27 mins
Actual 25:22
Coming out of the transition I felt great. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so good starting out a run. I exited the transition with a All3Sports girl and ran with her until I realized that I should probably slow down if I didn’t want to be forced to walk later. In retrospect, I wish I was able to turn my mind off and run with her longer, because I was in no pain, and she was moving. While cruising along on the run, my mind began to wonder and it convinced me that I hadn’t press the timing button for my transition on my garmin, which I had. So for the last 2.25 miles I was on my own without any idea of how fast I was running or my overall time, which wasn’t a bad thing, but I definitely needed to something to occupy my thoughts. There was one section where I had to walk and Matt came up and told me not to stop, which helped me find a cruising pace. There I was cruising along until I passed Jon Reckers on the way back in and he warned me that he was going to catch and pass me. Now, Jon is a much faster runner than I am, but the challenge to not let him catch me was very good motivation to find a pace where I was working. Needless to say Jon never caught me but he definitely pushed me to a PR on a 5K (I’ve never run a official 5K but I have had a timed 5k run and it was 26:16). Overall this was a really good run for me, made even better by teammates. Hopefully the running improvements keep coming and the injuries stay away.
What would I do different
Well I only beat my rival by seconds so I really need to work on my transitions for Chattanooga. I'm sure I gave up at least a minute in the transition. I also need work on my focus on the run. I have to be mentally prepared to race a long with the physical part. Outside of the swim and transitions, I was satisfied with my effort. I know going forward if you're allowed to warm up for the swim, jump in the water and warm up. I never want to experience a swim like this again in my life. If my schedule allows I think I may do the second John Tanner later to see just how much I have improved.
Triathlon – Sprint
Total Time :1:20:42
Age Group Rank:23/32
Pre-race
Saturday morning I woke up had a couple of pieces of toast with peanut butter and honey and two bananas and loaded my things into the Green Machine and hit the road. I woke up with a sore throat that I hoped wouldn’t affect me and I honestly don’t think it did. On the road to the triathlon I happened to see two cars flipped on the interstate and I was calm the entire time. The thing I did the best on the day was not let the weather become a distraction for me. After a hellish run in October, not letting the weather become a distraction is amazing. Got to park ran straight to the bathroom and headed to get my packet and set up my transition area. I somehow was smart enough to bring a garbage bag to set on my transition bag so I was lucky to have dry shoes for the bike and run.
Warm-up
Right before the national anthem (best I’ve heard at a tri) I dipped myself in the water to get rid of the initial shock and went and hung out with the group. I haven’t exactly grasped the concept of warming up. This would later turn out to be huge mistake on my part during the swim.
Swim:
Goal - sub 12 mins
Actual – 12:48.2
I started the swim and felt fine for what seemed like the first 50 meters, then it was like all of hell broke loose. I have never been so afraid in the water in my life. I could not breathe at all. I swam out to the side to avoid the swimmers behind me and still could not catch my breath. So there I was floating on the outside thinking I was on my way to see Elizabeth like Fred Samford. I’m so happy there wasn’t any canoes on the outside of the loop because I seriously considered quitting after starting a second time and still not being able to breathe. After strategizing for what felt like forever I rolled over to my back and began back-stroking and saw blue caps (my wave) behind me and that gave me the confidence to continue. It wasn’t until the last 100 to 200 meters that I felt comfortable in the water. The timing mat wasn’t at the edge of the water but rather at the beginning of the transition since I walked from the water to transition I probably came in closer to 12. I've been told since the race that you should always get in the water and go as hard as you can for a few meters to warn your body of what's to come. Next time hopefully i'm smart enough to fix this.
T1 3:22
I should probably start my race reports after the race …j/k I walked all the way from the lake to my transition and slowly talked myself back into the race. I put on my race belt in hopes I would save a few seconds in the next transition. For some reason I wanted to sit down so badly in transition. That swim really had a adverse affect on me. I am notoriously bad at transitions and definitely need some practice.
Bike
Goal
Actual 37 mins (my watch)
I started the bike rather conservative not knowing or trusting where my level of fitness truly is on the bike. The one thing I focused on during the bike was drinking. Last year I had a really bad problem of cramping on the run and I think a big part of that was not drinking until I became thirsty and that usually didn’t happen til the run and that always was too late. After playing leap frog with some guy the first 9 miles I pushed as hard as I could the last two. I really need to spend more time focusing on the bike.
T2 1:29
Thought I had a relatively smooth transition but my watch says otherwise. I thought this transition would have been much faster being that I didn’t wear socks and I wore my race belt on the bike portion. After getting my shoes on I had a problem of getting them tied but I prefer to run with laces and not the quick strings so this is something I need to practice for the future. I honestly don’t understand how I’m so slow. I really need to improve my transitions.
Run
Goal 27 mins
Actual 25:22
Coming out of the transition I felt great. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt so good starting out a run. I exited the transition with a All3Sports girl and ran with her until I realized that I should probably slow down if I didn’t want to be forced to walk later. In retrospect, I wish I was able to turn my mind off and run with her longer, because I was in no pain, and she was moving. While cruising along on the run, my mind began to wonder and it convinced me that I hadn’t press the timing button for my transition on my garmin, which I had. So for the last 2.25 miles I was on my own without any idea of how fast I was running or my overall time, which wasn’t a bad thing, but I definitely needed to something to occupy my thoughts. There was one section where I had to walk and Matt came up and told me not to stop, which helped me find a cruising pace. There I was cruising along until I passed Jon Reckers on the way back in and he warned me that he was going to catch and pass me. Now, Jon is a much faster runner than I am, but the challenge to not let him catch me was very good motivation to find a pace where I was working. Needless to say Jon never caught me but he definitely pushed me to a PR on a 5K (I’ve never run a official 5K but I have had a timed 5k run and it was 26:16). Overall this was a really good run for me, made even better by teammates. Hopefully the running improvements keep coming and the injuries stay away.
What would I do different
Well I only beat my rival by seconds so I really need to work on my transitions for Chattanooga. I'm sure I gave up at least a minute in the transition. I also need work on my focus on the run. I have to be mentally prepared to race a long with the physical part. Outside of the swim and transitions, I was satisfied with my effort. I know going forward if you're allowed to warm up for the swim, jump in the water and warm up. I never want to experience a swim like this again in my life. If my schedule allows I think I may do the second John Tanner later to see just how much I have improved.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The will to win means nothing if you haven’t the will to prepare
Things are again looking up. After suffering through a few runs I finally had a good one. Tuesday night I set out to have what I thought would be a medium effort run but it felt so good that I had to just had to push. After looking over my previous times, it wasn't a PR but boy did it feel good. Runs like the one I had must be what people who love to run feel when they go out for their much faster runs. Today i'm sore in the right places and i'm really encouraged going into the rest of the week. Especially considering I did leg weights on lunch and I really pushed during that workout too.
Last week things were blah on the work out front. My right IT band tried it's best to convince me working out wasn't a good idea but, I fought through it and got the work I could get done. Someone posted a quote that was right on time for the motivating factor "The will to win means nothing if you haven’t the will to prepare”- Juma Ikangaa. I won't be winning any races no time soon, but I do have personal goals that aren't just going to magically become attainable without busting my ass. I shockingly even missed what looked to be the best birthday party of the year to get in a bike ride. I also finally splurged and bought myself a Garmin. 
I have to say so far there is no buyers remorse on this one. I like being able to see all the information it gives, especiailly in the charts and graphs. Here is what my training looked like last week (pre-Garmin):
I have to say so far there is no buyers remorse on this one. I like being able to see all the information it gives, especiailly in the charts and graphs. Here is what my training looked like last week (pre-Garmin):- Monday- Weights on lunch, Monday night swim where I felt like I was dying
- Tuesday- Pilates on lunch, TNR 6.2 @ 9:59 (easy)
- Wednesday - Weights on lunch, Spin Class LT test (kicked my ass)
- Thursday- Bike Hill repeats (30 miles)
- Friday- Swim 2000m
- Saturday- long run 13 miles
- Sunday- Long bike ride 31 miles (Cartersville Ga was tougher than I expected can't believe it took so long for me to make it to one of these rides)
This week has been going good so far, hopefully me going so hard during the week won't have too much of a adverse effect on my first race this weekend, the John Tanner Sprint Triathlon. I'm not going to taper off my training for this race, since it's definitely a C race, but it will be nice to kick off the triathlon season with 40 people from my club. Let's hope i'm not #40 to cross the line, that would be a little embarassing. This race will be a good test of how to take off/swim in/everything else that goes a long with a wetsuit, before Gulf Coast Half Ironman in a couple of weeks (which i'm not even close to being prepared for.) Hope all is well, for everyone out there on the interwebs. Race report will soon follow.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Well it's the Big Show...
Well, we are 5 months out from the big show. I am still battling the same right leg issues. Some days are better than others, but I’m going to battle with it. If I can make it off the bike I can crawl 26 miles if need be.
After not being able to go home for Easter, last weekend I had to go home to show my condolences for my brother-in-law’s mother. Death is not something I deal well with, but it’s something that will one day be upon all of us. The silver lining in it all is that I got to see my Mama and the rest of my family. Friday morning my mama woke me up in bed with a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. There is nothing higher than #1 and she already has that, but I’m sure she will cash in on the gesture at some point. Man, I love that woman. I also changed the oil in the Green machine, I really enjoy working with my hands fixing (and/or breaking) things.
Enough of that, back to the last week, training was going good til I took a trip home and ate pretty much nothing but shit til it was time to come back. I've been paying for it my first few workouts this week. My workouts last week were.
After not being able to go home for Easter, last weekend I had to go home to show my condolences for my brother-in-law’s mother. Death is not something I deal well with, but it’s something that will one day be upon all of us. The silver lining in it all is that I got to see my Mama and the rest of my family. Friday morning my mama woke me up in bed with a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. There is nothing higher than #1 and she already has that, but I’m sure she will cash in on the gesture at some point. Man, I love that woman. I also changed the oil in the Green machine, I really enjoy working with my hands fixing (and/or breaking) things.
Enough of that, back to the last week, training was going good til I took a trip home and ate pretty much nothing but shit til it was time to come back. I've been paying for it my first few workouts this week. My workouts last week were.
- Monday - Yoga on lunch, Swim at night 1850m
- Tuesday - TNR 9.1miles 1:27
- Wednesday - Morning swim 500m (pretty much got in the pool so the horrible morning wouldn't win), 1 hour on the trainer
- Thursday - Swim on lunch 35minutes
- Sunday - 8.2 miles 1:32 very bad run very bad
Hopefully this week improves from the beginning of the week. I hope everyone elses training is going smoothly. 151 days to IMMOO
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Week 1 is in the books
What a week it has been. With the nice weather came a huge increase in volume with the workouts. Nothing to complain about .... yet though. I am going to do my best not to complain about the heat, lord knows I don't like running or biking in the cold, so I'm going to embrace the heat- let's see how long this last. Last weekend was a great way to lead into the triathlon season winter left with a bang, now it's time to work. First race looks like it may be April 24th, a short sprint. The first real test will be May 8th with a Half Ironman distance race and i'm not prepared for it at all. Let's hope I can prepare in a month - don't plan on dying in Panama City.
This week the training looked like this
I went to the bike shop hoping to order a Tri Bike, and they weren't taking orders on the model I wanted. This was definitely a low moment of my weekend. I really like this particular bike shop because it's small and I know the owners, and they look out for me, so I really hope I get to order the bike from them. Hopefully I will hear something from them in the next couple of days and we can get the bike ordered. It would be nice to do the May 8th triathlon on my new bike. Lord knows I need as much saddle time as I can possibly get (on a new bike or my current one.) Easter came and I got to break my fast of Little Debbie's and Ramen. Welcome back to my diet deliciousness.
Week 2 Let's Go. 161 days til Wisconsin.
This week the training looked like this
- Monday - 50 mins Yoga on lunch; Hour and a half Bikram Yoga in the evening (great for hangovers)
- Tuesday - Pilates on lunch; TNR 7.1 miles @1:03
- Wednesday - Morning swim 1600M; Weights on lunch; Hour on the trainer in the evening
- Thursday - 3.92mile run @ :33 on lunch; Cycling Hill repeats 12 miles
- Friday - 1200 meter swim (fail) endurance swim
- Saturday - 12 mile run @ 1:55
- Sunday - 52 mile long ride @ 3:06, Brick run .85 mile run (IT band not participating)
I went to the bike shop hoping to order a Tri Bike, and they weren't taking orders on the model I wanted. This was definitely a low moment of my weekend. I really like this particular bike shop because it's small and I know the owners, and they look out for me, so I really hope I get to order the bike from them. Hopefully I will hear something from them in the next couple of days and we can get the bike ordered. It would be nice to do the May 8th triathlon on my new bike. Lord knows I need as much saddle time as I can possibly get (on a new bike or my current one.) Easter came and I got to break my fast of Little Debbie's and Ramen. Welcome back to my diet deliciousness.
Week 2 Let's Go. 161 days til Wisconsin.
Friday, April 2, 2010
In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb
Wow, time is really flying by especially now that the warm weather is finally here. Last weekend I had a blast with friends for my birthday. Celebrating 21 never gets old, in fact I think i'm going to keep doing it until someone is calling me dad or i'm married and it gets vetoed (hopefully i'm married before any kids - there is a chance the wife may be cool with it so both are valid.) I'm a firm believer in "you're only as old as you think you are." I really appreciate everyone who played a part in my weekend I truly had a good time. Oh I also have this jewel to tape to my handlebars at Wisconsin. 
This is my little brother Chad in a tri suit that doesn't belong to him. If this can't get me through a Ironman bike ride, I don't know what can. Well with Monday came the official "i'm not going to miss anymore workouts my life is completely devoted to being a finisher at Ironman Wisconsin" mode. Should be a interesting yet fun journey. I think mother nature was on the same schedule because since Monday the weather has been pretty nice. Also after my Tuesday night run, which I struggled a little bit with but decent overall, I went in to see the Chiro and I haven't felt this good since last year. Went out to test my legs Thursday and ran 4 miles at a 8:17 pace (great for me) and didn't feel like I was pushing - talk about a confidence boost. Hopefully things are looking up from here on out. May 8th is my first big race. A half ironman which is a new distance for me. So I hope April takes it's time.
You can tell tri season is here, all of the triathlete blogs on my reader are updatting less and less. Hopefully I will have internet this weekend and can recap my week on Sunday. Not that anyone reads this or cares - but yeah. If you do read I hope Chad brought a smile to your face (yes that is a star wars tattoo - he puts the C in cool.)
Friday, March 26, 2010
Tonight, we drink
Last Sunday I ran the ING Atlanta Half Marathon my first road race. Going into the race the only thing that really bothered me was the strong possibility of rain that the forecast called for, but in the end the weather during the race ended up being perfect (post race it was freezing.) The first ten miles of the race my right knee was all "clicky" and in pain and really had me frustrated. Around mile 8 or 9 I reached a point where people who weren't suppose to passed me was passing me and that really ticked me off. I know i'm not a great runner but yeah I do have some pride. Going in to the race my goal was to run the entire race and come in under 2:05. At mile 10 I couldn't take the pain anymore and decided it would probably be more beneficial for me to stop and stretch than to keep struggling along. So, at the million dollar bathroom in Piedmont park, where we start some of our weekend long runs, I stopped and tried my best to stretch and it actually work. Coming out of the park on 10th street I felt like a completely different person and decided I would push that last 3.1 as hard as I could. I finished the last 3.1 in 27 minutes (a minute off of my best timed 5k) not winded feeling like I had a few more miles in me which is encouraging, though I wish I would have felt better a little earlier 2:05 was definitely a attainable goal. I actually think I could have went sub 2 hours but talking to others my time of 2:13 isn't bad for my first road race ever. So i'm encouraged looking forward.
The encouragement given by my clubmates has been awesome. Not to mention the impressive times they put up in this race. There is a general consensus that I should race more often to raise my confidence in my running ability. Which after hearing a few times I agree with. This whole endurance thing is still relatively new to me. When the idea of not being able to do something creeps in during a run, i'm pretty much doomed. Racing more often would definitely teach me to manage those thoughts.
Since the race my training has looked like this:
The encouragement given by my clubmates has been awesome. Not to mention the impressive times they put up in this race. There is a general consensus that I should race more often to raise my confidence in my running ability. Which after hearing a few times I agree with. This whole endurance thing is still relatively new to me. When the idea of not being able to do something creeps in during a run, i'm pretty much doomed. Racing more often would definitely teach me to manage those thoughts.
Since the race my training has looked like this:
- Sunday - ING 13.1 @2:13:36
- Monday- Yoga on Lunch, Swim 2000m
- Tuesday- Pilates on lunch, TNR 4.8 @:43
- Wednesday- Morning Swim 1300m, Afternoon Swim 1400m, Hour Spin
- Thursday- Pilates
And the weekend will be a complete drunken good time. Just so happen this is the weekend of my annual 21st Birthday. Starting monday I intend on following the training schedule as best I can, actually spending some quality time on my bike so I don't DNF at Gulf Coast Triathlon but it's party time this weekend. I dipped my feet into the waters last night going to a salsa set to see friends I never get to see. It really has me excited for the weekend now. Here's to a DUI free, nobody going to jail good time weekend.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Time to channel my inner Forrest Gump
So, we are three days out from ING Georgia and I'm not really sure i'm prepared, though I'm not really nervous about the race(more worried about the weather.) The forecast calls for thunderstorms, not just rain but thunderstorms. I know i'm not made of sugar but running in the cold and the rain is terrible. Last time I ventured out in these conditions I ended up with a cab ride back to my car and taking 2 months off to get better. Really don't want to go through that again.
After the race I think i'm going to make a ortho doctor appointment. Something in my right knee is just not right. Going to 1st Choice has helped manage the pain but it's not fixing anything. It's so discouraging with spring being here and a looming Ironman, but something needs to be done to fix this. Not only am I experiencing pain and a lack of power while running, i'm also having the problems while riding my bike. I want it to be something thats a quick fix but i know that is never the case, and i'm a little nervous about it all. I'll keep the blog posted.
I'm looking forward to updated my ING experience be it positive or negative. My second running race (not taking place in elementary school) ever should be a interesting one. I guess I should go buy a rain coat.
After the race I think i'm going to make a ortho doctor appointment. Something in my right knee is just not right. Going to 1st Choice has helped manage the pain but it's not fixing anything. It's so discouraging with spring being here and a looming Ironman, but something needs to be done to fix this. Not only am I experiencing pain and a lack of power while running, i'm also having the problems while riding my bike. I want it to be something thats a quick fix but i know that is never the case, and i'm a little nervous about it all. I'll keep the blog posted.
I'm looking forward to updated my ING experience be it positive or negative. My second running race (not taking place in elementary school) ever should be a interesting one. I guess I should go buy a rain coat.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Six months til certifiable
Well we have reached the six month mark til Ironman Wisconsin. It's still a little surreal when I think about the fact that I'm going to be during a Ironman in six months. Funny thing is there is a lot of work to be done until then ... a whole lot. Since my hip flared up last week I took the advice of the doc and didn't run or bike after Tuesday last week. Making for a pretty light week for me.
I've come to the realization that I kinda like swimming just because it doesn't hurt. I mean it's a work out and I reach exhaustion but I don't get the kind of pain I get from running where i'm questioning my sanity. I have to keep pushing past my hatred for running and cycling to get stronger though. I have one more weekend of hanging out (last weekend of March for my birthday) then it's full time training.
Next weekend is the ING marathon Atlanta, i'm going to attempt to do the half and hopefully I won't end up in a SAG wagon. I haven't had a long run in a couple of weeks but I feel like my fitness is at a point where I should easily be able to run 13 miles as long as the injury bug doesn't hit. This will be my second running race with the first being two months ago so we will see what happens. However it ends, I have my birthday, friends, and crawfish to look forward to the next weekend.
This weekend ended up being a good time. The bond of working out is so strong between the people in my tri club. It's funny whenever someone has a birthday or some kind of party, in the end all their other friends are gone and the Tri club is all thats left. Endurance athletes - endurance drinkers, crazy combination but it works.
- Monday Swim 2000 meters
- TNR 6.6 (hurt the hip again)
- Wednesday morning swim 900 meters (felt horrible)
- Saturday swim 2500 meters (felt great) 15 pull ups on the I-beam in Twisted Taco
I've come to the realization that I kinda like swimming just because it doesn't hurt. I mean it's a work out and I reach exhaustion but I don't get the kind of pain I get from running where i'm questioning my sanity. I have to keep pushing past my hatred for running and cycling to get stronger though. I have one more weekend of hanging out (last weekend of March for my birthday) then it's full time training.Next weekend is the ING marathon Atlanta, i'm going to attempt to do the half and hopefully I won't end up in a SAG wagon. I haven't had a long run in a couple of weeks but I feel like my fitness is at a point where I should easily be able to run 13 miles as long as the injury bug doesn't hit. This will be my second running race with the first being two months ago so we will see what happens. However it ends, I have my birthday, friends, and crawfish to look forward to the next weekend.
This weekend ended up being a good time. The bond of working out is so strong between the people in my tri club. It's funny whenever someone has a birthday or some kind of party, in the end all their other friends are gone and the Tri club is all thats left. Endurance athletes - endurance drinkers, crazy combination but it works.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Brown Coyote
Guess who is hurt again? You got it, it's me. I'm so sick of dealing with these pains. Just when I feel like my fitness level is back up, I wake up and can't walk with out looking like Fred Samford (Lizabeth it's the big one.) Today the pain level in my hip reached a all time high, I would say a 9 out of 10. I would like to think because of my past i'm pretty familiar with pain - I mean I did have my achilles cut in half. I have never heard of anyone have as many hip problems or any hip problems anywhere close to my age - even Bo Jackson was in his 30's (i think.) So i've been told not to run or ride the bike for the next few days, and when I do run Saturday to go short and slow ... uh, I only have one speed and that is slow so I already have half of that j/k i've recently added another speed thats more of a "faster slow". If only all my runs felt like the first 3 miles of my Tuesday night run. I'm convinced I was under 9 minute miles and I felt pretty good until my knee quit on me. I actually felt like a runner, it was completely surreal .... then reality hit me with the punch line. I was back to struggling. My right knee needs to get it's shit together, I think it is truly the real thing holding me back.
So since I can't exercise right now, i'm going to spend my time playing the guitar, and facebook, and eating, and reading, and being super bored - I've been told i'm a Jack of all trades, master of none. I hope my legs loosen up soon and things get back to normal because honestly I can't handle sitting around doing nothing. I did get to hang out with one of my best friends seeing a B.O.B. concert (this guy is a pretty good performer). Hopefully tomorrow i'm ready to run "short" without it ending with me being Redd Fox again.
So since I can't exercise right now, i'm going to spend my time playing the guitar, and facebook, and eating, and reading, and being super bored - I've been told i'm a Jack of all trades, master of none. I hope my legs loosen up soon and things get back to normal because honestly I can't handle sitting around doing nothing. I did get to hang out with one of my best friends seeing a B.O.B. concert (this guy is a pretty good performer). Hopefully tomorrow i'm ready to run "short" without it ending with me being Redd Fox again.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Can montages have hiccups?
So i've been on the shelf since my Tuesday night run. Putting a small hiccup in my montage. Running in the cold and getting rained on, I guess was just a little too much for me. It never fails that when my body wants to quit it starts in the right knee and ends in the left hip. While the knee pain is usually gone in a day or two it usually takes about a week for the hip to be pain free. So from Wednesday to Saturday i've been slacking (I intended on running Saturday but life outside exercising caught up with me.) So I will just think of last week as my "recovery week" and continue pushing on to the ING half marathon. Last week my training looked liked this
So in my last post I talked about being moved into a higher swim lane and my friend over @ penatpeace commented on her struggles of making it to the pool. Well Pen here is a special call out just for you. Last year I remember you were a far better swimmer than I was (and runner but there isn't a chance in hell of me beating/keeping up/seeing you longer than 30 secs in running) gliding through the water with ease, well don't let me beat you out of the water at Wisconsin. Maybe there should be a friendly wager?
Last night while out celebrating a fellow triathlete's birthday, I had a small conversation about the mental side of triathlon. It's no question i'm much much stronger mentally this year than last, though still very weak. While talking to BR, who is a amazing runner and insanely competitive, it was brought up how I need to find "my thing" I can channel to get me in "my zone". I truly believe that being able to tunnel their vision is what makes great athlete's great. The only thing that matters, is the end. I usually trip myself up with thoughts of pains and any and everything else way before the end of any race. Before the endurance sports, I usually only needed to focus 8 to 10 seconds at a time. Making the switch from fast-twitch to slowtwitch the mental is definitely one of the toughest parts. I think i'm where I should be for this being my second year of doing any kind of races. Al'ls well that ends well. Now i'm just typing incoherent thoughts and blah blah blah so I probably should end this.
- Monday - Swim 2200m (very tough swim)
- Tuesday - TNR 6 painful miles
- Sunday - Base ride 23ish miles @ Stone Mountain
So in my last post I talked about being moved into a higher swim lane and my friend over @ penatpeace commented on her struggles of making it to the pool. Well Pen here is a special call out just for you. Last year I remember you were a far better swimmer than I was (and runner but there isn't a chance in hell of me beating/keeping up/seeing you longer than 30 secs in running) gliding through the water with ease, well don't let me beat you out of the water at Wisconsin. Maybe there should be a friendly wager?
Last night while out celebrating a fellow triathlete's birthday, I had a small conversation about the mental side of triathlon. It's no question i'm much much stronger mentally this year than last, though still very weak. While talking to BR, who is a amazing runner and insanely competitive, it was brought up how I need to find "my thing" I can channel to get me in "my zone". I truly believe that being able to tunnel their vision is what makes great athlete's great. The only thing that matters, is the end. I usually trip myself up with thoughts of pains and any and everything else way before the end of any race. Before the endurance sports, I usually only needed to focus 8 to 10 seconds at a time. Making the switch from fast-twitch to slowtwitch the mental is definitely one of the toughest parts. I think i'm where I should be for this being my second year of doing any kind of races. Al'ls well that ends well. Now i'm just typing incoherent thoughts and blah blah blah so I probably should end this.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Little Fish in the Big Pond
Yesterday I was shown the affirmation that I can actually swim and moved to a higher lane. Once in that higher I was then shown that I can't really swim but i'm close. It's crazy, last year when I started triathlon (and organized swimming) I was in the second to last lane. The only people below me were the people who were learning how to swim, and now i'm in the second to highest lane. Granted i'm the weakest in my new lane, i'm still there (sounds like Celie from The Color Purple.) This really makes me excited because I know it's only going to make me better, and shows i've been doing the right things. Since, my hiatus from blogging i've actually started swimming on Wednesday mornings with a clubmate, yes I wake up before work and go swimming and on Friday afternoons. I usually don't realize that it's 6:30 in the morning and i'm in a pool on Wednesdays til about 100m in. Straight cruise control. My clubmate and I sorta have a deal that if one of us doesn't come we get to talk trash about them in internet world. It's got me out of bed the last three weeks ... whatever works. Shout out to TL for sharing what he's learned in his swim lessons, his pointers have definitely helped my swim stroke.
In other news it's actually snowing in Atl... again. Stopped me from going to my lunch workout today. I think i'm going to regret that later, but I will worry about that bridge when I get to it. The weather in Georgia has been like a bad Roller Coaster (space mountain with the lights on), snowing today 60 on Saturday. I'm getting rather tired of this ride, the General said spring was coming. It has to be right around the corner.
Tonight i'm thinking of braving the elements and running in the snow/rain at least for 3 or 4 miles. I can't really afford to get sick right now with ING so close but I also need the miles. It will be a game time decision.
In other news it's actually snowing in Atl... again. Stopped me from going to my lunch workout today. I think i'm going to regret that later, but I will worry about that bridge when I get to it. The weather in Georgia has been like a bad Roller Coaster (space mountain with the lights on), snowing today 60 on Saturday. I'm getting rather tired of this ride, the General said spring was coming. It has to be right around the corner.
Tonight i'm thinking of braving the elements and running in the snow/rain at least for 3 or 4 miles. I can't really afford to get sick right now with ING so close but I also need the miles. It will be a game time decision.
Monday, March 1, 2010
1/01/10
I'm back. Well the last couple of weeks have been pretty good for me. I have said since new years this would be a great year and so far so good. I mean, I haven't been able to blog about it but if not having the internet is your biggest problem, things are pretty good. In terms of training I have been slowly building my workout volume and focusing on the fundamentals especially in running and swimming. In swimming the results have been great, in running .... well it's still a work in progress but I'm headed in the right direction.
My last week went something like this
- Monday - 1500m swim followed by a upper body circuit
- Tuesday - Pilates on lunch. 7.2 mile run in 1:07 that evening (run felt great)
- Wednesday - 1200m swim before work. Lower body weights on Lunch. 500m swim and a hour spin class
- Thursday - Pilates on lunch. 3.1 on the Treddy after work
- Friday - 2000m endurance swim (first endurance swim of the year for me)
- Saturday - 10 mile run in 1:38
- Sunday - 20 mile bike
Since last week I have been having some ITB issues. Hopefully with more biking and cross training my recovery time between runs will speed up. We are a couple of weeks out from ING Atlanta and I would like to break 2 hours in my first half marathon. I don't think thats too outrageous of a goal especially if I can get the pain worked out. A positive attitude will take farther than healthy legs i'm convinced. Let's go March! (the month not a rally)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
this is sorta like calling someone and asking them to hold on
I'm alive people. Just been without internet the last couple of weeks. Hopefully that will change soon and I will be able to update things. Hope all is well for everyone.
Monday, February 15, 2010
30 weeks til the showdown ...
Well I have been a bit missing in action due to lack of internet at home. In the last week things have been pretty good. Last Sunday I ran the Red Top Rumble 11.5 trail race. I really enjoyed this race. Coming off a ten day rest my body responded really well to jumping back into it at 11 very hilly miles, well besides the swollen left side of my face. It's probably a good thing I didn't notice the swelling myself before the race - alls well that ends well. I registered for this race in October before I hurt my hip so it kinda just sneaked up on me. My time was 2:07 but that included a few minutes of me stopping at some cabin and waiting to use the restroom-eventually I gave up on waiting and just went around back and watered the grass. If after September I ever want to run again, I will probably do this race again. The biggest part of the day was my father's Saints winning the Super Bowl (the God's accepted my offering.) The people who raced got together that night and enjoyed the game and a roast wrapped in bacon, this thing rivaled my Jeff Ruby's (best steak I have ever had) experience.
I went to the Cardiologist Monday (funny this follows a bacon wrapped roast) and he didn't seem too concern with the findings of the ER doc from a couple weeks ago. He says my EKG is abnormal but it's nothing to be concerned about it, it's just the way my heart operates. We scheduled a followup in six months to monitor the thickness issue, but he didn't seem to concern about anything. So that's nice to not have to worry about.
Club swim workouts have started back up which is really cool for me. I do better with structure so it's nice to not have to go to the pool and make my own workouts, or to not have to worry about going to the pool and sitting on the wall and thinking about swimming (it's seriously happens.) The new swim coaches have really been stressing technique and the basics which I really like. It's almost like i'm just learning to swim. Last year my swim stroke was extremely inefficient. Last week we ended the workout with a 100m (actually 114m) swim time trial and I was first out of my lane. It was really encouraging because there were some really good athletes in my lane. In the coming week there is talk of meeting up before work to swim. I hope this happens, having someone waiting on me at the pool may be the incentive I need to actually get out of bed.
After snowing 2-4 inches Friday in Georgia,
Saturday was a beautiful day. I went out for a run and actually had to take off clothes. The temps were in the 40's and there were only a few icy spots that had to be avoided. This was my first run not on a treadmill since last weekend's race and my legs threw a hissy fit just about the entire time. My achilles in both legs were (and still are) on fire. I'm not really sure what I can do to fix this but I do have a appointment today with Dr. Nik. Hopefully he knows something that will provide some relief.Here's a recap of what I did last week
- Sunday- Red Top Rumble (11.5miles)
- Monday- Swim (1650 m)
- Tuesday- Pilates, Treadmill (3.2miles)
- Wednesday- Swim (1600m) Spin class (hour)
- Saturday - Hour and a half trainer ride
- Sunday- Stone Mountain run (12.5 miles)
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
If you're sick and you know it clap your hands
I don't feel well and I really want to do some kind exercise and making myself not do something is rediculously hard. I haven't gone to any classes on lunch because I sound like Tone Loc's bastard child. I looked online and it said swimming while congested is good so I did do that Monday. It sucked and I was freezing the entire time in the water.
Tuesday I woke up feeling like complete crap. I couldn't get up, my body was completely beat - either somebody kicked my ass in my sleep or a break was really needed. I finally made it to work around 12 and started to feel a little better. I went to Dr. Nik and he exclaimed he's been suffering from the same thing I have. The evil post nasal drip that has developed into a monster. Makes me believe he gave it to me but no pointing fingers. Not running Tuesday was super hard, in fact I had to leave my running clothes at home so I wouldn't do it. Turns out I wish I would have brought them so I could have went to Bikram, but it didn't happen. I did go and hang out with the group for dinner. That is by far my favorite part of the Tuesday Night Run, I don't know if I should let myself experience the dinner without the run could be a dangerous precedent. Not really, i'm dying for the warm weather to get here and the outside training to pick up. The doctor showed me some exercises I can do at the gym, but to be honest I want to be outside without layers not coop up in the gym. I'm ready to unhook the bike from the Trainer.
Wednesday I tried to go to a spin class and I thought I was going to die. I should have just quit like somebody with the initials BR, but I pushed through. I'm 100% team JR this year :-) I hope General Beauregard Lee (Georgia's ground hog) was correct and spring is on the way because i'm ready. Well not quite but this sickness can't stick around for too much longer. Wisconsin, you ready?
Tuesday I woke up feeling like complete crap. I couldn't get up, my body was completely beat - either somebody kicked my ass in my sleep or a break was really needed. I finally made it to work around 12 and started to feel a little better. I went to Dr. Nik and he exclaimed he's been suffering from the same thing I have. The evil post nasal drip that has developed into a monster. Makes me believe he gave it to me but no pointing fingers. Not running Tuesday was super hard, in fact I had to leave my running clothes at home so I wouldn't do it. Turns out I wish I would have brought them so I could have went to Bikram, but it didn't happen. I did go and hang out with the group for dinner. That is by far my favorite part of the Tuesday Night Run, I don't know if I should let myself experience the dinner without the run could be a dangerous precedent. Not really, i'm dying for the warm weather to get here and the outside training to pick up. The doctor showed me some exercises I can do at the gym, but to be honest I want to be outside without layers not coop up in the gym. I'm ready to unhook the bike from the Trainer.
Wednesday I tried to go to a spin class and I thought I was going to die. I should have just quit like somebody with the initials BR, but I pushed through. I'm 100% team JR this year :-) I hope General Beauregard Lee (Georgia's ground hog) was correct and spring is on the way because i'm ready. Well not quite but this sickness can't stick around for too much longer. Wisconsin, you ready?
Thursday, January 28, 2010
un-Break My Heart
So I've been going to First Choice Healthcare for two weeks and I can't say enough positive things about the place. Dr. Nik's listening abilities may be as great as his Graston Technique skills. After battling with problems for the last 5 years and reaching a point where I thought it was just something I had to deal with, it's awesome to see results so soon. In just a week I shaved 8 minutes off of my TNR 7.2 mile time. That is a pretty sizeable amount in a very short period of time. Not only has the doctor been working on my left knee, the cause of the right hip problems, he also has me doing exercises that are teaching me to engage my core. When I finally figure out how to get everything working together it's going to be pretty amazing.
So far this week my work out has looked like this
With freezing rain in the forecast for Atlanta on
Saturday, I pushed my long run back to Sunday and prepared to go out on a Friday night. Since I haven't able to hang out with my college friends in a while, I took the drive down the road to Auburn to hang out and crossed a major milestone in the life of me and The Green Machine. 200k miles, now that is a lot of living. While the plan was adult beverages and good times once I got to Auburn, my body decided something else. All Friday evening my chest was tight and I wasn't really able to breath deeply though I thought it was just sinus congestion. I truly was hoping some Whiskey would knock it out but the whiskey and I failed at that one. Well it only got worst and Saturday I woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe and some sharp chest pains so I reluctantly went to the hospital. Well long story short they thought I had a heart attack. Yes, scared the shit out of me too. The EKG machine was full of shit. So then I spend the entire day in the ER getting the full work up of blood work, cardio sonograms ... everything. It's funny while the nurse is drawing blood she breaks in to friend mode with her "so do you do steriods?" huh ... this is the guy who just started drinking beer in 2008, really makes me laugh. I'm 6'2 190 lbs and pretty lean maybe I don't know how steriods work. I guess it's flattering. "No bff I definitely don't do steriods, hell I rarely do caffeine." So the bloodwork comes back to show I didn't have a heart attack, nor had any drugs in my system (Drug Free class of 2000 here, thanks Nancy Reagan.) Doctor told me to take a few days off. I sadly do have to follow up with a Cardiologist when I get back to Atlanta, I hate going to the doctor, in fact I hate it so much I don't even have a primary care physician. So now I need to find a primary care doctor and a Cardiologist. What sucks is now every time I think i feel something in my chest, it's going to go back this. I don't want to be a self diagnosing fool.
The ING Marathon is looking more and more like a half marathon now.
I leave you with quite possibly the best super bowl pray for victory dance on this side of the Mississippi. Blue Jay and the Russell Experience
So far this week my work out has looked like this
- Monday- Swim(I think it was 6 or 700 the pool is really short) and Yoga
- Tuesday- Pilates and 7.2 mile run
- Wednesday- Swim (900m) Graston Technique (not a exercise but it hurts worst than all the others
- Thursday- Pilates and treadmill intervals
With freezing rain in the forecast for Atlanta on
Saturday, I pushed my long run back to Sunday and prepared to go out on a Friday night. Since I haven't able to hang out with my college friends in a while, I took the drive down the road to Auburn to hang out and crossed a major milestone in the life of me and The Green Machine. 200k miles, now that is a lot of living. While the plan was adult beverages and good times once I got to Auburn, my body decided something else. All Friday evening my chest was tight and I wasn't really able to breath deeply though I thought it was just sinus congestion. I truly was hoping some Whiskey would knock it out but the whiskey and I failed at that one. Well it only got worst and Saturday I woke up feeling like I couldn't breathe and some sharp chest pains so I reluctantly went to the hospital. Well long story short they thought I had a heart attack. Yes, scared the shit out of me too. The EKG machine was full of shit. So then I spend the entire day in the ER getting the full work up of blood work, cardio sonograms ... everything. It's funny while the nurse is drawing blood she breaks in to friend mode with her "so do you do steriods?" huh ... this is the guy who just started drinking beer in 2008, really makes me laugh. I'm 6'2 190 lbs and pretty lean maybe I don't know how steriods work. I guess it's flattering. "No bff I definitely don't do steriods, hell I rarely do caffeine." So the bloodwork comes back to show I didn't have a heart attack, nor had any drugs in my system (Drug Free class of 2000 here, thanks Nancy Reagan.) Doctor told me to take a few days off. I sadly do have to follow up with a Cardiologist when I get back to Atlanta, I hate going to the doctor, in fact I hate it so much I don't even have a primary care physician. So now I need to find a primary care doctor and a Cardiologist. What sucks is now every time I think i feel something in my chest, it's going to go back this. I don't want to be a self diagnosing fool.The ING Marathon is looking more and more like a half marathon now.
I leave you with quite possibly the best super bowl pray for victory dance on this side of the Mississippi. Blue Jay and the Russell Experience
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Oh when the Saints
This has been a pretty good week. While i'm not in the best shape, i'm confident that I will be a lot closer soon, and the desire inside of me to get there is getting bigger. When I think about what has lit the fire under me (I feel like i've done a lot this week but I didn't touch a pool at all hmm) I can't really come up with one thing. Some of the things I did come up with is visiting Dr. Nik and seeing instant results along with my fellow TNR buddies treating me like the red headed step child for not making weekend runs. Well, not only did I make the weekend run this week (10.1 miles, I had it at 1:29 while someone else had it at 1:38- so somewhere in between was my time), I also woke up early and went to the gym Thursday before work (i'm so proud of this) and ran a few miles on the treadmill with intervals. Sounds like i'm cooking with gas, just kidding I won't get ahead of myself - but the future does look bright. I also picked up some new shoes, that I ran in today, that I have to get much faster to pull off (at least thats what the fast people said.)
These shoes are cool, though they have a smaller toe box than I'm used to and I have a blister to show for it. Maybe just maybe i'll be lucky enough for Newtons soon (fingers crossed-wallet empty.)
I'm really looking forward to going to the doctor next week continuing treatment. Before I went to the doctor, I couldn't do a one legged squat on my right leg, and hadn't been able to since I had my achilles cut in 2004. In just a week I can almost do a one legged squat, it's shaky but it's an improvement. The sky is the limit it seems when I think about the possibility of having both legs in complete working order. It makes you think how did I make it this far already, I have asked myself the same thing, but if you have ever ran with me you could hear it in the sound of my left foot hitting the ground and I never had a answer.
Also I bought some Sugoi recovery leg sleeves today. I have heard good things about recovery sleeves from a lot of people, I hope I will be saying some positive things soon. Here's to next week being like this one (sans MLK of course), and the Saints making the Super Bowl!
These shoes are cool, though they have a smaller toe box than I'm used to and I have a blister to show for it. Maybe just maybe i'll be lucky enough for Newtons soon (fingers crossed-wallet empty.)I'm really looking forward to going to the doctor next week continuing treatment. Before I went to the doctor, I couldn't do a one legged squat on my right leg, and hadn't been able to since I had my achilles cut in 2004. In just a week I can almost do a one legged squat, it's shaky but it's an improvement. The sky is the limit it seems when I think about the possibility of having both legs in complete working order. It makes you think how did I make it this far already, I have asked myself the same thing, but if you have ever ran with me you could hear it in the sound of my left foot hitting the ground and I never had a answer.
Also I bought some Sugoi recovery leg sleeves today. I have heard good things about recovery sleeves from a lot of people, I hope I will be saying some positive things soon. Here's to next week being like this one (sans MLK of course), and the Saints making the Super Bowl!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Debbie it's not you ... it's me
Well it's the middle of the week and so far so good. Attitude has been good, and i'm very optimistic about about working with Dr. Nik and my health going forward. There is one thing that I need to change and that's my diet. I have been pretty much eating whatever I have wanted to of late, and I have to say I feel like it. So rationalizing my diet with my lunch workouts ends today. To be clear though, a diet for me doesn't mean I can't have something, focuses more on quantity and timing. 2 hotdogs is probably enough, don't need to buy Little Debbies every time you buy bread they aren't related - just those types of things.
So far this week my exercising has looked like this
Which leads me to this. It's about time for me to buy some new shoes and i'm considering some Newtons (so expensive) and the Nike Lunaracers. If you have used either of the two what feedback would you give?
So far this week my exercising has looked like this
- Monday- Celebrating MLK day and Doctor in the evening
- Tuesday- Pilates on lunch, TNR 7 miles at 10 pace (Jody beat me by 11 minutes- more on this later)
- Wednesday- Abs class on lunch (the lady who led this class was the most intense teacher I have ever seen - she won't break me though)
Which leads me to this. It's about time for me to buy some new shoes and i'm considering some Newtons (so expensive) and the Nike Lunaracers. If you have used either of the two what feedback would you give?
Monday, January 18, 2010
Long Weekend = no Long Run
I haven't been much on updating the blog lately. I think the idea of the looming season and continuous exercising has me sort of in a "i'll slack now and hopefully it will work itself out" mode. Which is crap. Nothing comes to a man asleep but dreams. So now I'm going to make a conscience effort to up the ante now, rather than wait til later. I can always experiment with hotdog ingredients later.
Last Sunday I went on a cross country ski/run on the snow covered Silver Comet Trail. On Monday I did Yoga on lunch, went to the pool to swim after work but the pool was closed. Tuesday, Pilates on lunch and a 7 mile Tuesday night run. On Wednesday I hit a low point during week, after work I felt like shit and really had no desire to do anything though I talked myself into going on a very short swim. Followed by a spin class that I quit in the middle of. Thursday, Pilates on lun
ch and 2.5 miles on the treadmill after work. I intended on going longer on the treadmill but I had really good tickets to the hockey game so me and couple of friends checked that out. Friday, Yoga on lunch. I didn't do anything else til a 2 hour Trainer ride on Sunday. This wasn't the kind of weekend that will help me on my endeavor to become an Ironman and that's not acceptable - thankfully this isn't May. I probably should have done the Hogpen Hill climb considering I had a long run of zero this weekend. It's getting more and more inevitable that I will be running the half marathon.
Today I went to First Choice Healthcare, a Chiropractic clinic specializing in athletic injuries, and I have to say I was impressed after the first visit. The stigma I had in mind about Chiropractic services was wrong I must say. I also felt good seeing the other athletes there, most look to be better athletes than me. So for about a month i'm going to go to the clinic a couple of times a week to see if it doesn't help my ailments. I'm encouraged from it today so that is always a good start. Thanks for the encouraging words from all who offered.
Last Sunday I went on a cross country ski/run on the snow covered Silver Comet Trail. On Monday I did Yoga on lunch, went to the pool to swim after work but the pool was closed. Tuesday, Pilates on lunch and a 7 mile Tuesday night run. On Wednesday I hit a low point during week, after work I felt like shit and really had no desire to do anything though I talked myself into going on a very short swim. Followed by a spin class that I quit in the middle of. Thursday, Pilates on lun
ch and 2.5 miles on the treadmill after work. I intended on going longer on the treadmill but I had really good tickets to the hockey game so me and couple of friends checked that out. Friday, Yoga on lunch. I didn't do anything else til a 2 hour Trainer ride on Sunday. This wasn't the kind of weekend that will help me on my endeavor to become an Ironman and that's not acceptable - thankfully this isn't May. I probably should have done the Hogpen Hill climb considering I had a long run of zero this weekend. It's getting more and more inevitable that I will be running the half marathon.Today I went to First Choice Healthcare, a Chiropractic clinic specializing in athletic injuries, and I have to say I was impressed after the first visit. The stigma I had in mind about Chiropractic services was wrong I must say. I also felt good seeing the other athletes there, most look to be better athletes than me. So for about a month i'm going to go to the clinic a couple of times a week to see if it doesn't help my ailments. I'm encouraged from it today so that is always a good start. Thanks for the encouraging words from all who offered.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Here's to Shi++y days
I have been in a horrible mood the entire week. I have made it to Yoga, Pilates, TNR, and part of a spin class tonight-that I quit in, and I still feel like shit. It's funny that I was convinced that quitting was the best option during the class now I feel like shit for quitting on myself. Tomorrow I will try to have a more thorough update but now the quitter needs to go to bed.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Happy New years
I've been a little missing in action. I blame it on me battling some sickness and actually working out when not battling. After a quick trip to Chicago to visit some of my favorites 
and 
also to celebrate New Years with one of my best friends, but now I'm excited to be training with a purpose again. Now I pray for health and discipline. Also thanks to Frayed Laces I won some new Earbuds. Who doesn't like free stuff. I've come up with a preliminary schedule of races for this year.
I felt great starting off the week but after a frigid 7 miles Tuesday night this week ended up being pretty light.
I didn't like it nor did the Green Machine. Sliding into to work is not fun.
and 
also to celebrate New Years with one of my best friends, but now I'm excited to be training with a purpose again. Now I pray for health and discipline. Also thanks to Frayed Laces I won some new Earbuds. Who doesn't like free stuff. I've come up with a preliminary schedule of races for this year.- Red Top Mountain Trail Race 9 Miles*
- ING Atlanta Marathon March 21st *
- John Tanner Sprint Triathlon April 24th
- Gulf Coast Triathlon (Half Iron Distance) May 8th*
- Macon Rock and Roll Triathlon (Half Iron Distance) June 24th
- Chattanooga Waterfront Tri (Olympic) July 11th
- Ironman Wisconsin * Sept 12th (*registered already)
- A lot of Century Rides littered in between (I hate Century rides)
I felt great starting off the week but after a frigid 7 miles Tuesday night this week ended up being pretty light.
- Monday 800m swim (cut short by a meeting)
- Tuesday Night Run 7 miles
- Wednesday fighting death
- Thursday 4 Intervals 1:30 at 8:34 min/miles with 1:30 recovery @ 10:00 - 3 @8:12 with recovery and circuit workout
- Friday rest
- Saturday hopefully some miles
I didn't like it nor did the Green Machine. Sliding into to work is not fun.
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