Ironman Switzerland Race Report

I arrived in Zurich Thursday morning and nearly immediately met Chris and Jesse, 2 of the Gear West Tri Club crew that I would be hanging with for the weekend. We shuttled to the hotel, assembled our bikes and then went riding.

Ken Glah, the mastermind of Endurance Sports Travel and 51 time Ironman finisher (now that, my friends, is crazy...), led us on a 40 mile ride around the course. Let me pause here and say that this was an amazing bike course - a few super-challenging hills (fittingly called The Beast and Heartbreak Hill) mixed with some long flat straights and an occasional peek at the snow-capped Alps in the distance.

Thursday afternoon after the bike ride there was a knock on my door and - finally! - I got to meet IronMomJenny and see IronGirlNyhus again! Jenny is super - competitive and witty and inspiring.(in the 6 weeks before this Ironman she did a half ironman and 2 marathons!).
Friday I swam in Lake Zurich and - woohoo!! - it wasn’t 50 degrees as advertised! It was at least upper 60's water temperature and amazingly clear. My roommate for the week Andy and his dad David and I swam with the fish for a half hour, got registered, then went over to the pre-race dinner at a lodge overlooking Zurich.

Saturday we cheered Helen and one of the EST travel-assistants Richard (who runs

a company called Eurocycler that offers cycling camps/tours throughout Europe) as they raced the Olympic tri. It struck us as odd that the organizers separate the different waves by at least 30 minutes so there were racers starting and finishing all day long. This along with a relative lack of volunteers led Jenny and I to become temporary volunteers and help some of the racers find their way out of T2 while we were waiting on Helen to come in on the bike.

Saturday night I loaded up with a salmon lasagna (yummy!!), and a cheeseburger and then climbed into bed for a reasonably restful 5 hours of sleep.

Race Day morning started at 0445 with

breakfast and then a 0530 shuttle to finish setting up my transition zone. Our race numbers were organized alphabetically by country name, so all of the Americans were grouped together within about 10 yards of the bike exit/entrance. Perfect! I got organized, zoned with mellow ipod tunes, and then called Stronger in Coeur d'Alene for a final bit of inspiration and strength before I donned my wetsuit and headed to the beach.

Jenny, Laura, Greg, Nick, Timmy, and I all walked over together and then huddled for a prayer before staking out our respective spots. I moved far left on the beach to avoid getting pinched at the first buoy by the crowd starting on the right side.

And finally it started...

The swim started east into a blue sky and glorious sun that made it impossible to see any of the buoys. Race organizers -

MAKE CERTAIN YOUR BUOYS ARE VISIBLE!!!!!
The first 400 yards I was in survival-swim mode. Head above the water, breathing every stroke, anxious. Just like in every

tri I’ve done, there were a few minutes when I thought about pulling up and getting on a boat. Luckily, I recognized this anxiety as transient and pushed on, and the panic was gone by half a mile when we were now heading south and the buoys were visible.

Before I knew it, the first lap was over and I was feeling comfortable. The 2nd lap was about the best I’ve ever felt swimming. I had periods when I pushed harder and felt my stroke become smoother, and then I would rest for periods and do my lazy stroke. By the time my 2nd lap was almost over, I had lost track of time and effort and was simply enjoying swimming. It felt so good I almost didn’t want to get out, but alas I did. Swim time - 1:34:34

No wetsuit strippers in Zurich, so I stripped it myself and threw on my shoes and helmet and escaped from T1 in 2:26

The bike was a 3 loop course through and out of Zurich, through a bit of the Swiss countryside, up and over a mountain, then back into Zurich for a climb up Heartbreak Hill. The first 15k of each lap was flat before the first hill, "The Beauty." The only thing beautiful about this hill was that it wasn’t 5 kilometers long like "The Beast," which followed The Beauty by less than a kilometer.

After you conquer The Beast there is a 15% grade downhill for about 2 or 3 kilometers. It’s so steep and curvy in places that using your aerobars will cost you a 6 minute penalty. Jesse told me after the race that he was upright at 48 mph and was getting passed on this section. I went naked (no computer, no Garmin) for this race so I don’t know how fast I was going for my first pass on this section; but, I can tell you that it was too fast. I wasn’t on the aerobars, but I was crouched completely horizontal with my hands on brakes that I wasn’t using. I passed people like they weren’t moving coming down that hill... Until I got to the bottom of the hill where there happened to be a sharp and narrow right turn. I saw the curve with a 100 meters notice, but it wasn’t enough. I braked hard, and my rear wheel locked and shimmied. I released the brake then braked again trying not to lock it, but it locked again. I had just released and squeezed a third time when I realized there wasn’t enough time and laid the bike down just as I got to the outside of the curve. I crashed onto the sidewalk and into a chainlink fence erected to keep out-of-control bikers (uhm, like me?) from careening off the mountain. As soon as I stopped, I hopped up and glanced at my elbow (which was the only thing that immediately hurt) and saw no bones poking through. I then confirmed that my bike and wheels weren’t shattered. Everything looked good, so I jumped on my bike and took off again! As I was riding off the medics that were running toward me stopped with jaws open and pointed - "He’s up, He’s up" they shouted! I knew then that I had just given up one of my 9 lives...

The rest of the bike course wasn’t nearly as adventurous. The absolute best part of the bike, and the race overall, was climbing Heartbreak Hill. This is only a 0.7 km climb, but it’s steep. Spectators lined the climb, even spilling into the road and forcing the racers to ascend single file down the middle of the road. The crowd was yelling, making noise, ringing cowbells, running along side of you. "Hop Hop" was the favorite cheer. I felt like I was riding in le Tour de France... At the top of Heartbreak an announcer called out your name and country. Perfect!

By the 3rd lap of the bike my ass was hurting and I was ready to start running. My only crash related pain at that time was the roadrash on my left elbow since it was in the exact spot where my arm rests in aero. I finally got into T2 with a bike time of 6:15:11.

I changed shoes and discarded the helmet, peed, then ran out of T2 in 1:45. I didn’t realize I still had my cycling gloves on for about a 1/3 of a mile, and then I just tossed them at the first aid station.

The run was a 4 loop course that was flat and went out and back twice on each loop. This was a perfect set-up for spectators and for racers to see everyone in front of and behind you. There were ample aid stations, although they were unevenly dispersed at times. Sometimes they were 2 less than a half mile apart and sometimes it was almost 2 miles.

The first lap of the run I noticed that my left ankle was hurting. I took a look at it and noticed a nasty bruise on the lower 1/3 of my left shin, the result of the concrete block I hit as I slid into the fence when I crashed. It didn’t bother me initially, but by the time the first 10k was over each step sent a pain from my ankle up my shin-bone to my knee.

I started walking some on the 2nd lap, and continued to walk-run the remainder of the marathon. When I ran, I could keep the pace I wanted but there was the pain. I was having too much fun to be in a lot of pain, and I didn’t want to risk making any minor injury anything that might jeopardize the rest of my race season. So I walked periodically, encouraged the other racers, and had fun!

I was walking on my 3rd lap when Andy jogged up beside me on his 4th and final lap. He had about 2 miles to go, so I ran him to the finish line and got to hear his name called for his first (of many, I’m sure) Ironman finish!

Finally, I finished my last lap and ran across the line in 12:28:43.

I grabbed my medal, posed for the obligatory post-race photo, and then walked to transition to call Stronger and thank her for giving me extra strength and inspiration. My mom and sister called as soon as my finishing time popped up on Ironmanlive. I showered, scarfed the provided pasta, and then went to the finish line to cheer on the rest of the crew for the next 3 1/2 hours.

You know, several people who have finished an Ironman have told me that the race itself is almost anticlimactic - that once you finish, you realize it was the training and the journey itself that made you an Ironman, not the race. And I have to agree with this.

Finishing an Ironman is not a defining moment for me. It is not a notch in the belt, nor the best moment of my life. Ironman is neither magical nor epic. It doesn't make you better or stronger or more confident or more attractive.

But the journey to Ironman is a lot of those things.

Finishing an Ironman was the culmination of a 6 month training session in which I prepared my body and mind to stress itself for a 12 or 13 hour period. I learned a few things along the way, and I’ve met some people that will be forever a part of my life.

But Ironman isn’t - my life. And I’m no more special or deserving today than I was prior to Sunday.

That said, Sunday was a perfect and beautiful day, and I can guarantee I will spend more Sundays trudging along Ironman courses.

The destination is costly, but the journey.... the journey is priceless...

Somewhere between Switzerland and home about 300 photos have disappeared from my computer. :( Grrrrr.

I finished Ironman Switzerland!

I finished!

Lots of excitement, and tons of fun.

To sum it up, the first lap of the swim was chaotic, the 2nd lap i was wishing i could just keep swimming ' yea, i loved the swimming!

I crashed my bike on the first of the three laps. A 15% 2 mile downhill with a sharp right turn at the bottom caught me way too fast and - well, I crashed. No major injuries, but enough to make the run very painful.

So I walked about 30 or 40% of the run. It sucked, but it was just hard to keep running with nasty pains shooting up my shin.

Final time - 12:28. And I couldn´t be prouder!

Thanks to everyone that cheered and checked in from afar - you´ll never know how special that feels to me... There are 16 or so of us in our group that raced today - and everyone finished and did outstanding!

Full report soon!

Opportunity Time

It's finally here.

Ironman Zurich.

6 months of preparation are done.

Now, as Bold would say, it's time to let preparation meet opportunity.

It's time to Get.It.On.

Ironman style.

I get off work at 0400 tomorrow morning, then straight to the airport. A 12 hour stop in New York and then it's transatlantic overnight to arrive in Zurich Thursday am.

I'm packed, and so far I haven't remembered anything I've forgotten.

I even remembered the wheels!

There was a period a couple of months ago when I seriously considered dropping this race. I didn't think I would be adequately trained, I didn't think the finances would work out, I had an alternative trip that would have been a blast.

But I trudged along and stayed the course. Persistent.

And guess what? I am trained. Perfectly trained. Abso-effing-lutely perfectly trained. I won't be first at anything, but I will finish. And I will finish Proud. Strong. And courageous. Because this journey was never about being the best, it was about being. Experiencing. Living.

Know what else? I noticed yesterday on my checking account statement a couple of transactions that looked unusual. I called about it today; and, although it took 2 hours of getting passed from one person to another, I ended up with an unexpected extra $650 in my account! I honestly felt like someone was looking out for me, making sure everything would come off perfectly for this trip.

And the alternative trip? Well, I was able to reschedule the high altitude training even earlier PLUS sneak in a little racing at the same time.

So the training is done. The preparation is done. Everything has come together to create this opportunity. And now it's time to get it done.

Ironman style.

Check out my progress on Ironmanlive.com starting at 0100 on Sunday 24th. I'm #1974.

Photos!

My digital camera didn't like getting wet in my gym bag last week, so I've been camera-less until today when my mom gave me an early birthday/Father's Day present - thanks Mom! So I finally am able to get Anna and Tess's Wizard of Oz ballet pics posted, as well as today's lake-play pics.

Notice Emma knee-boarding solo on her first ever attempt!

Sick

"Daddy I'm about to throw up!"

Not exactly my first choice of words to awake to... I dashed into the girls' bathroom and found Emma cradling the porcelain.

"My tummy hurts daddy..."

I held her long curly locks back out of her face while she emptied her stomach for the first of multiple times today. And if she's not vomiting, she's either doubled over cramping or it's coming the other way. Or she's asleep.

My 7 year old that never takes naps has slept all day, unless she's in the bathroom. We had a few errands to run, and she had to make pit stops in EVERY.SINGLE.STORE. Twice in one. Then right to sleep once we were back in the truck to move to the next stop.

I tend not to get anxious about my kids getting hurt or sick. I know enough and have seen enough to know that time heals just about everything. Sometimes that backfires, like when Aidan cut his head open on a kitchen cabinet (or was it a slip on the rocks, I've forgotten the details now) and I opted to let it heal rather than get a few sutures put in. Months later it was still unhealed and scabbed over (interestingly, it wasn't until I shaved his head for his mohawk that it finally healed completely...).

But it still makes me feel awful to see one of my kids suffering. The absolute worst feeling is when she is vomiting, and I know that to her it feels like the contents won't stop coming up and she wants to breathe but she can't because this nasty bile is spewing endlessly from her. And then it stops but she can't breathe in yet because she still is retching. And finally she can breathe in, but when she does she has the horrible taste of stomach acid and partially digested food and she cries out for something, anything to make this stop.

And finally it does and she falls back asleep.

And I sit beside her, hand toying with her long curly locks, and I just want something, anything to make this stop.

2 weeks

Less than 2 weeks left until Ironman, and it still doesn't scare me like I thought it would.

This journey has brought me to places that I didn't know existed, and to people that I didn't know could exist.

I never knew sting like the dried sweat salt pushed into my eyes by the new and unrelenting sweat of 100% humidity combined with a 2 hour trail run.

I never knew hot like mile 60 of a 100 in 95 degrees when the hydration-replacement store that I thought was 10 miles ago was still 10 miles away.

I never knew incapacitated like the pain of finishing my first 26.2 with an IT band inflamed and hurting for weeks prior and that now had pea-sized knots visible on the side of my knee.

I never knew embarrassing like a 100 yards into the first leg of my first Olympic tri when I realized that no, I didn't know how to swim, and what the hell was I doing trying to pretend that I did?

I never knew persistence like the 20th mile of a treadmill run.

I never knew satisfaction like finishing my first non-stop mile swim, and then just a month later finishing my first Ironman length swim.

I never knew patience like 6 weeks of no running to let a broken body heal.

I never knew diligence like dozens of hours spent on a treadmill watching the mirror and learning to run while minimizing leg lateral movement.

I never knew community like the friends I've met along the way, online and off, who have supported and encouraged and taught and laughed with me and cried with me and shared with me who have made me realize that Ironman is not a destination to fear, but a journey of exploration to embrace.

Less than 2 weeks until Ironman, and it still doesn't scare me like I thought it would.

Taper Time!

Today marks the end of my highest volume week of Ironman training.

In the last 7 days, I have 18.5 hours of training (not including the prep, post stretches, etc), including

180 miles of biking (including 100 today - woohoo!)
40 miles running (with a long of 20)
5700 yards swimming (with a long of 4200)
and an hour of strength/core.

My typical week has included about 10 hours of training, so I'm essentially wiped out at this point and ready to taper (and sleep!)!

So I get a text message from IronJenny today saying that TriNick has a friend who says that Lake Zurich, in which I'll be swimming 2.4 miles in a couple of weeks, is right now 50 degrees F.
Jenny, are you effing with me? Please please tell me you are effing with me!!

Survival Flight Crash

As an emergency medicine resident at the University of Michigan I spent 3 years flying with the Survival Flight medical transport team. We mostly flew in Bell 430 helicopters, but occasionally we flew on the jet for longer transports.

I flew hospital to hospital transfers, a few organ procurement missions, and (the best) trauma scene calls. I landed in cornfields, on interstates and county roads, and all over the midwest.

On one of the most memorable missions, we flew to Ludington, a little city that sits on Lake Michigan. As we were getting close on the non-instrument flight (meaning we were flying by vision only, not by instruments), an unexpected snowstorm created white-out conditions and we ended up with a way-scary ride over Lake Michigan!

Monday at 4pm, the University of Michigan Survival Flight program lost a Cessna Citation jet with 6 crew and a set of just-procured lungs into Lake Michigan shortly after take-off from Milwaukee. 2 pilots, 2 nurses, and the 2 physicians on board are presumed dead. The patient who was supposed to receive the lungs is back in ICU in critical condition.

I didn't know any of the crew onboard, but it still tears at me a little. 6 highly accomplished people died trying to be the hero for a guy that might die without their help. He might get another set of lungs, but double lungs healthy enough to transplant are relatively hard to come by.

And their families... I flew close to a 100 missions in my 3 years, and I never once thought that I wouldn't make it home to hug my kids again. I feel so bad for their kids, for their partners, for their parents...

Sometimes life doesn't seem very fair.

Please keep in your prayers the families of these lost 6, and for the guy holding onto life by a thread who still is waiting for a set of lungs.

Here's a link if you want to read more:

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Passport to Ironman

My passport arrived today (finally!), and now I know it really is going to happen. 3 weeks to go before Ironman Switzerland, and I’m ready to get.it.on…

Well, my mind is ready. My body may or may not be ready.

Funny, but my swim endurance is what I’m most satisfied with right now. Although in January I was unable to swim more than 750 yards nonstop, my Friday 4200 yards was my second Ironman-length swim in the last month. I may be slow, but I’ll make it back to the beach, and that’s all I’m shooting for with the swim.

My long rides and runs haven’t been quite as long as they probably should be. My planned 3 hour run today became an hour and a half when stomach cramps forced 2 bathroom stops within a mile – and the promise of more to come… I haven’t figured out how to manage #2 stops on the trail unless there is a nearby bathroom, which luckily there was today. Maybe I need to pull out my college botany texts and re-learn what poison ivy/oak look like – I definitely don’t want to pick the wrong leaf for that little issue!

Wednesday will bring my final long ride of this training cycle, and my only 100+ mile ride for this Ironman.

After this week, the volume will start to go down while the intensity will creep up. Not that I really have a plan, but it seems like that’s what everyone else does during taper so I probably should do that too.

In other news, I tried today to learn how to tread water. Yea, that’s right, I have no idea how to tread water. I’ve always just used my arms/hands, but it was recently pointed out to me that if I’m in the middle of the lake and my goggles get knocked off I’m hosed unless I can tread water with my legs. So I swam into Lake Martin today and tried to do as it has been described to me.

Uhm, yea, this isn’t supposed to be hard is it? I can.not.tread.water. I tried to move my right leg forward and back and abduction to adduction and then my left leg forward and back and abduction to adduction. Clockwise, counterclockwise… I’m just thankful I still had my arms and my goggles were still firmly in place. I learned to swim essentially without a coach or lessons, but I may need a coach to teach me to tread water!

The fun never ends…

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Wizard of Oz Dress Rehearsal Photos

Anna and Tess have practiced since September for their first ballet production, the Wizard of Oz.

They've learned the 1st and 2nd position... They've learned to curtsy... They've learned lots of other ballet words that their Daddy doesn't understand.

They've become more flexible and more coordinated...
They've developed a lot of new friends...

And tomorrow, they get to be a poppy (Anna) and a snowflake (Tess) in front of about 1500 people.And Daddy gets to wonder once again how there can be such beauty in this world...

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Altitude Schmaltitude

This weekend I decided to try training at altitude, because

and I live at














So I flew to Denver Saturday morning where Stronger picked me up. Now Denver is about 5200 feet, and I was completely expecting to pant like a rabid dog walking off the jet. I was feeling good about my still-calm breathing when we walked with my overweight bike box to her SUV, and then she told me we were going to be riding up to nearly 11000 feet.

Can I handle it? Oh, I can handle it... The pre-trip altitude-schmaltitude smack was about to be tested.


We drove straight to Vail village and within about 2 hours of stepping off the jet I was stepping into my P2SL. Now she claims to not be training for anything particular, but make no doubt about it - Stronger is trained and tough. She's Marine-like, as in always ready for a little battle. I think she was taking it easy on me for the up-part of this ride - and there was a lot of up. The first 14 miles were straight up, and my previous longest sustained climb was the 3 mile leg-killer at Cheaha Mountain. Vail laughed at Cheaha...

We made it to the peak and I snapped this Kodak moment of us with the Vail Summit sign in the background...
Yea, well, obviously I was feeling a bit hypoxic since our summit sign pic turned into a Freudian slip of a pic focused on our quivering quads...


The summit was about 10 degrees cooler than where we started and it was snowing. Yea, snow. On Memorial Day weekend... That's right - sea level is for sissies!


We headed back for the fun downhill, where I found a top speed of 43 mPH on the reasonably narrow tourist-bike laden path. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE going down? Uhm, downhill that is...


We packed up the bikes and then headed a little further west to pick up a couple of kayaks. Now she offered to take me here:

but, since I had never stepped foot in a kayak she took it easy on me and took me here for my intro to whitewater... Just my speed!The following day brought a trail run on Grizzly Creek, a close tributary of the Colorado River, followed by a "reasonably flat" ride through the canyon. Sounded great! I think I assumed - evil laugh inserted - that since the ride was reasonably flat, the run would be likewise... Oh no... I quickly learned that running in this portion of Colorado implies running hills. There is no other way.

My Garmin didn't see through the tree canopy for this run, but here is the profile I later found for this trail. Here I started feeling the altitude, and I forced our run to become a run/hike. I think Stronger could have continued up indefinitely, but she was a good sport and made me at least half-way believe she was hurting a little too. When we had enough up, we ran briskly down and then biked through the canyon - my legs we so relieved the ride really was basically flat!.

The following morning I met up with Bold, David, Chris, and Stronger and we ran the Bolder Boulder 10k with 50,000 other runners. Yep, no typo there - 50,000! My wave started off at 7:04.30, with Bold 1 minute back and Stronger 2 minutes back.

This was the first non-tri 10k I've ever run, so I was a little unsure how to pace myself. Plus, it was in Colorado, which meant more hills! The first 3/4 of a mile was a fast downhill, and then it went up... and up... and up... Until shortly into the 5th mile when it started to descend again... A couple of brief uphills, and then course ended at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field football stadium.

I was in a wave with a predicted finish time of 46-47 minutes, and I was hoping to at least make that prediction. My first mile went by in 6:45, but then I hit the ups. The second mile dropped to 7:15, and each consecutive mile slowed slightly. When I hit the 4 mile mark in 30 minutes, I was doing the math on what I needed to run to make it under 48. Just under 9 minute miles - piece of cake! My fear of being passed by Bold and Stronger kept me pushing. Luckily the 5th and 6th mile downhills refreshed me, and I was able to slip past the finish in an unofficial 47:01. I love racing new distances because it's always a PR!

Well, that was my weekend. The rides and runs were memorable, the friends even moreso. Stronger was awesome for dragging me around for some amazing rides and runs. Maybe next time, I'll be able to keep up better climbing Vail. And maybe next time, we'll be ready for this:
Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

The Meeting

I was reminded tonight of the strength of anticipation.

You see, my kids' mom told me a couple of months ago that she had gotten engaged to J. My initial reaction I think was a mix of anger and shock - mostly I think because E and J had only known each other for at most 6 months prior to deciding to marry. 6 months when 4 young kids are involved just seemed hasty.

I had made a point of not asking the kids about J. He lives a few hours away, so they only see him every couple of weeks. They talked about him a little, revealing little bits of info that didn't exactly make me feel very secure that he was going to be permanently involved in their lives.

They told me he talks a lot about farting and has showed them a web site where you can download fart noises. I learned this after questioning my then 6 year old daughter when she used the word fart in conversation with my mother. Now I've nothing against the word fart or farting, but I'm of the opinion that the word is best left to conversations between teenage boys or adults acting like teenage boys (which I do, not infrequently).

The kids also told me J works with tools. Great! The roughly 1/3 of my multi-6 figure salary that I send to them is going to be supporting the guy that's swinging the hammer and smoking pot at the home renovation next door.

I had asked E about meeting J after they got engaged. We had a little trouble scheduling it, and finally tonight we met. They came to my house after I had put the kids to sleep, and we sat on the deck and all drank a beer and talked.

Now I had absolutely dreaded meeting J. I had him pictured wearing greased blue jeans with a black bowling shirt with his name engraved, a slicked back mullet, and a tattoo on his arm of a heart with an arrow through it. I was certain he was the picture in Webster beside the definition of redneck.

But guess what?

J seems like an alright guy. He doesn't swing a hammer - he sells industrial tools to commercial accounts for a multi-billion dollar company. He's roughly the same age as E and me (although he's already all gray - poor dude...), and he graduated from the same university.

He's easy to talk to, not physically intimidating at all (and no mullet, and no name engraved on his shirt...), and said explicitly that he is not an axe murderer or a child molester. He apparently has even gotten the FAA/TSA extensive security screen that's optional for people who fly a ton and passed that, so I guess he probably isn't on any sexual predator lists.

I didn't ask him about the farting infatuation...

I admit I still don't like another guy having such close access to my kids. But I also will admit that I think I'm going to get along with, and maybe even like, this particular guy.

Before they left after sitting around together for an hour and a half, I even managed to tell them I was genuinely happy for them.

And I was happy to get this meeting over with...

And I'm happy that the real reality isn't nearly as bad as the anticipated reality. At least not yet...

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Adversity - the Florida Half Ironman Race Report

Well friends it's time to tell the tale. I wish the tale went a little differently, but then I wouldn't have learned nearly as much.

The story starts, as it always does, with the planning. There was a lot of planning to do for this trip. I have 4 kids that divide their time between 2 houses. I took Emma to Orlando with me for a birthday trip, the kids' mom took Tess to the beach for her birthday trip, and my sister kept Anna and Aidan at her house for the weekend. Ever tried packing for 4 kids with stuff from 2 different houses for 3 different trips in 3 separate places? All the while trying to pack your own stuff for your first destination triathlon? Yea, it ain't easy...

The first inkling I had of things going wrong was on the way to the airport when I realized I forgot my razor and clippers. I know, not that big a deal, but I was hoping to exude the mohawk vibes again. Turned out that was the first and most minor of all the turbulence.

Now I'm no saint. Far from it. But I never ever once have dropped the F bomb in the presence of my mom. You see, I took my mom to Disney with us so Emma would have a peep to hang with during the race. So we were sitting in the airplane waiting to take off on the connector to Atlanta when I realized it, and my first reaction was turning toward my mom and blurting "Oh f*^%*!!!"

My mom looked at me and asked what was wrong. I laughed. Couldn't believe it. I looked at the clock on my phone - nope, no time... My wheels were still sitting in my bedroom at home. My bike was safely loaded in my new bike box in the belly of the jet but my wheels - still waiting by my bed ready to be packed.

So my first day in Orlando was divided between the Magic Kingdom and calling around trying to find a pair of wheels. IronGirlNyhus was awesome in trying to pimp her friend Andrew's wheels for me. Luckily, Andrew was a good sport about it when we met at dinner the next night. I finally did find a set of wheels to rent at the race expo (although they initially told me they were rented out but when i got on my knees and begged and cried a little bit (well, maybe I didn't actually cry and I guess my knees never touched the ground but if i needed to i was prepared...) the tech stripped the wheels off a rental bike that hadn't been rented yet), and I was set.

Well, kind of.

Saturday morning I met up with Laura, Nick, Tim, and Steve. We went for an illegal swim in the warm warm lake before being chased away by the pesky staff (no pre-race swims, no raceday warm-ups... what's up with that?). We then met up with Brent and went for a short ride.

While we were riding, my attention was focused on the wheels. I didn't really pay attention to anything else, and this would end up a another big mistake - read on...

During our ride we ran across the kids splash and dash race and got a healthy dose of inspiration...

Later Saturday Emma and I went back to Magic Kingdom and played with Mickey and friends until late afternoon. Then, I hurried back to our resort (Port Orleans Riverside - if you do this race, don't stay here. It's only 3 or 4 miles from the race headquarters but there is NO transportation to/from).

I hopped on my bike to ride over to transition and check my bike in when I realized there was no air in the rear tire. Hmph. Now one thing that had kind of concerned me about these wheels were they were tubeless and I had never been on tubeless tires. No idea how to change them. No extra tires. And I hadn't brought a pump because I've always just used someone else's in transition on raceday.

So I had about an hour and a half, a flat tire, and 3 1/2 miles to get my bike to transition before the 6pm cutoff. I checked with the bellboys and confirmed there were no Disney buses that would take me there. And the cabs would drop me off at the front gate of the race resort but I would then have a mile more to get to transition - I didn't like that either. So I tipped the bellboy an arm and a leg and he took me in one of the Disney vans to transition with an hour to go before closing. Whew...

After this I was frustrated enough to walk away with my tire still flat with plans to tackle it on race morning. And finally, it was off to dinner. Well, it wasn't quite that easy. From the wilderness campgrounds where the race was headquartered I had to take a ferry across the lake to the Magic Kingdom, then take a bus from there to my resort. Then I met up with Emma and my mom and we took a cab to Downtown Disney for dinner. 45 minutes late. I felt so bad when I called Laura to tell her we were going to be late and she said they wouldn't seat anyone until all 10 of us were there. I think I owe you guys a few beers in Zurich!

Finally, race morning. I woke at 0330 since I still had no idea how I was going to get from my resort to the race-site. I ate a bowl of fruit, yogurt, and a clif bar and then ventured out. I had no idea when I left the room at 415 that I wouldn't see Emma again until after the race...

When I walked to the front of the resort and saw a bus and a couple of dozen helmet-bearing triathlete-looking people boarding it, I thought my luck was starting to change. I jumped on, sat in the back, and started Chasing Cars on the ipod. Somehow a Disney bus can turn 3 1/2 miles into 30 minutes, so I repeated 4 or 5 times and then we arrived.

My first mission was to find a bike pump and inflate rear tire. Check. Now I had an hour and a half to kill before starting. I was in the 3rd race wave, starting behind the pro women, because of my Challenged Athlete Foundation involvement. So I laid on the beach for awhile,watched the sky turn from midnight blue to light grey, and then went to check my tires again about a half hour before racetime.

When I checked them, the tires seemed to be a little less than the 120psi I had inflated them to an hour prior, but I thought that was probably me just being overly-concerned and weary. So I called it good and went off for the swim.

It's a Beautiful Day from U2 blared into the morning sky as the air-horn blared signalling the start of my first half Ironman. Now it was real. I let the other 100 people in my wave run off the beach while I slowly meandered my way into the water. I was in no hurry... At this point I kept myself steady by constantly reminding myself that this was nothing but a training exercise.

Now I've heard it said a hundred times that the first part of the swim is like a washing machine, and now I can vouch for the accuracy of that analogy. Blue gray water became all white as arms and legs flailed. After a couple of hundred yards and no signs of clearing, I moved toward the outside and blue water where I remained for the duration of the 1.2 miles.

The swim was remarkably easy. I made a point of going slower than I thought I needed to. I absolutely did not want a repeat of my embarrassing doggie paddle/backfloat 55 minute 1500 meter swim at the Music City Tri last fall. And I did it - all freestyle - without ever needing a break and without any problems. Swim time - 46:32

I exited the water and ran into transition and discovered -

a flat rear tire...

So I ran around the transition area until I saw a free pump and pumped the tire up to 120 again. I didn't know how to change a tubeless, and I wasn't going to piss time away trying to get a tech guy to help me at this point. I figured I must have a slow leak and at worst I would have to stop and reinflate periodically during the ride. I kept steady by constantly reminding myself that this was nothing but a training exercise.

After a painfully long transition (4:52) I rode off into the sunrise. The first 5 miles were great, and then I felt like I was riding through molasses. The pressure in my rear tire was already low. I resigned myself to a slow ride and moved to the right and started taking in the sights.

At 20 miles I was completely flat. I kept riding - hey, they weren't my wheels or my friends' wheels, so no big deal... Yea, I was riding slow... I made it a couple of miles to the first aid station where there luckily was a support truck. He reinflated me to 140 and I was off.

I had about 10 good miles this time before the pressure dropped. I felt great for those 10 though and was passing EVERY thing near me. This happened to also be the only hilly section of the course and I dominated the hills.

And then the pressure dropped again, and I started sight-seeing. I never saw another tech truck, but luckily the tire never completely flatted again. When I pulled into T2 I'm guessing I had about 60 psi left... Bike time - 3:04.59

Now other than the tire issues, I discovered another bike issue almost immediately after exiting T1. My fit was off. You see, when I put my bike together and rode on the day before the race, I was concentrating enough on the wheel feel that I didn't pay attention to the fit. But the first time I went aero on raceday I knew it was off. My seatpost was too high. I couldn't get in the aero position at all. Wouldn't work, not flexible enough in that position.

So for the entire 56 miles of basically flat riding I was upright. Not the best way to get a good bike time on this nearly pancake flat course...

Finally I hit T2. I've never been happier to get off my bike than I was in this race. I made a porta-john stop and then started the run. T2 - 2:36

The run surprised me because I had no idea that 70% of it was trail-running. Don't you think they should have mentioned that SOMEwhere in the race literature/course description? Not that it really is a huge deal, but come on - let us know what to expect...

2 or 3 miles into the run and my quads were screaming at me to stop. You see, my quads aren't use to the extra work they were getting on the bike thanks to my high seatpost issue. Luckily the run was flat as a pancake and my mind was able to tell the quads to shut up and do your job. And they did their job, but with more pain than I wanted.

Now on the 3 loop run I kept looking for my mom and Emma, but I couldn't find them. Perfect run course for spectators, but no Emma. After the first lap, no big deal. After the second lap I was a little disappointed. After the final lap and when I finally crossed the finish line (Run time - 1:56.16), I still hadn't seen my daughter.

At the pre-race dinner my mom had said that she wanted to make sure Emma saw her daddy racing since the last race she went to she didn't get to see me finish. So here I am having just finished my first half Ironman and the thing on my mind is not that I hurt or that I was proud or relieved it was has something happened to my daughter? Why isn't she here? Why didn't she see me racing? My mom made a point of saying that it was important to her for Emma to see me - where are they?

I collected my medal and finisher's swag and stumbled around for a few minutes at the finish line, hoping they would have heard my name and found me. Nope... I started the search...

I walked around for 20 or so painful minutes before finally seeing my beautiful daughter and her gramma, both safe and happy! My mom tried so hard but had no idea where she was supposed to be. She had been waiting at the entrance to T2 for hours and never saw me enter and then leave to start the run.

After the race I got cleaned up and then headed back to the Magic Kingdom. I turned in the rented wheels on the way, and they didn't notice any damage from being ridden flat (whew!!).

The next day we played at MGM, and then finally we were done with Orlando. We were sitting in the airport about to board our jet when I realized my house/car keys were still sitting in our hotel room. After confirming with the resort manager that they were there and could be sent overnight, I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

We finally got to Birmingham about 11 last night, took a taxi home, and I shattered a window to break into my house. My friend Mike brought over my spare car that he'd been using for the last few weeks, and the saga was finally over.

I learned a lot from this trip. Most of all, I think I learned that I can't be everything and do everything all of the time. Between the kids, and work, and training and racing, I stay too busy. I don't sleep enough. This trip was the first trip I ever have made with my kid(s) that I wished I had a significant other with me. My mom is great, but she was just along for the ride. I needed someone there that had as much invested in the experience as me. Someone to help with a checks and balances system and help fill the gaps that I left. This trip was a big reality check for me. I can't do everything.

So that's the tale of my first triathlon travel adventure. Zurich is in 4 weeks - I hope to tell a much rosier tale after that race!

Final time - 5:55.15 (136/271 M30-34, 932/2048 overall)

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Florida 70.3 Race Report

In order of priority:

Emma and I are having a blast playing with Mickey and friends...

I finished the race under 6 hours. There were issues...

More to come...

New Journeys

Well, the time has finally come to put up or shut up.

Later today I will fly to Disney for a few days with Mickey and the Florida Half Ironman on Sunday. I will finally get to see what it's like to play this triathlon game on the national stage.

When I was first challenged to my first sprint tri last summer, I had no idea that I would embrace this sport like I have.

Triathlon has given me a focus outside of work and family, a focus that has been lacking for many years as evidenced by my various dabblings in everything from racing cars to political sport. Triathlon has taught me that my limits aren't really limits but rather are excuses for me not to do something. If I want something bad enough, and it is physically possible, then I can do it. It may take me a few months or years to figure out the right formula, learn the right technique, but I can do it. I will do it.

Triathlon has given my body bulges of muscle in new places - my quads, my upper back, my calves. It's given me a resting hr that hovers around 50. It's let me eat more ice cream... ;)

I was never really an athlete when I was growing up. Yea, I was athletic. But competitive athletics were not encouraged by my family. I played a little football but I had too many casts on various body parts to play consistently. I ran a little but had no role models and had no idea how to properly run or train. I played golf a little but, again, I had no role models to teach me.

But triathlon has taken me from athletic to athlete. While Crossfit introduced me to fitness, triathlon has taken me to the next level. I hadn't done pull-ups in a few months before last week when I easily pulled a set of 20. There are veins bulging on my arms that I've never before seen. I can go outside right this second and run 15 miles and actually be able to walk tomorrow morning. That to me is amazing... I feel like an athlete, like a competitor.

I doubt I ever will win a triathlon, and probably will never even be competitive in my age group. But that's not the point in triathlon. The point is getting yourself ready to go the distance. It's the journey, not the destination. And I think this journey is pretty damn sweet.

The journey.

So for this particular journey to Disney, I'll be taking Emma and my mom. Emma turns 7 on the 23rd so she gets a birthday Disney trip, and my mom is coming to play and help Emma cheer during the race. My mom is the best! Friday we'll play in the Disney parks, then Saturday will be split between race prep and probably another park. Sunday will be devoted to the race, and Monday will be spent playing in the parks until we leave Monday evening.

It's looking like the tri-blogger community will be well represented for this race. 6 or 7 of us are planning to get together Saturday for bike rides and dinner.
I can't wait to meet IronGirlNyhus and Tri Nick, 2 of the Gear West team that also will be travelling to Zurich for IM Switzerland next month.

In other news, I've added another race to my schedule. I'm heading to Colorado Memorial Day weekend for a couple days of cycling and then Bolder's namesake race, the Bolder Boulder. This will be the first 10k running race I've ever done, and I must admit, I'm more than a bit nervous about the elevation changes and the altitude. Boulder looks like it is about 5500 feet, and I live at - oh, about 700 feet. Yikes!!!

But no matter how much I suck at the race, I'm looking forward to meeting him and her, and other bloggers making there way to Boulder to run with 50,000 of their closest friends.

The next 2 weeks is going to R O C K!!

Until next time, thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Weekend Recap, and My First Ironman Swim

This weekend left me exhausted, sunburned, and proud...

Saturday morning Emma and Anna had their last soccer games of the spring. Emma, in typical fashion, scored 3 goals for her team. Anna, likewise in typical fashion, told the coach she wanted to play on the bench instead of on the field. Too cute... I forgot my a hat and sunscreen so my nearly bald head was an ultraviolet magnet that has had me on the verge of screaming with each shower the last 2 days.

After soccer and an early mother's day lunch with my mom and sister, I went to the Y to swim. Now I'm not following any training plan, and I basically just try to get 3 sessions a week of each tri discipline plus 1 or 2 hours of stretching and strength. I knew I was going to swim, but I didn't have any set plan for the session. So I just started swimming. And kept swimming. And swimming... For an hour and twenty-eight minutes until I hit 2.4 miles!! I swam the Ironman swim!!

After that, I was exhausted for the day and went home and napped before work Saturday night.

Sunday morning I travelled a couple hours north to pick up a bike travel case that I had bought off ebay. I spent a few minutes talking to the guy selling it to me. He had bought it to travel to tris, but then stopped racing when his 6th kid was born! Says he just lost the last bit of time he had to do any training when the 6th one came. Wow! And I thought 4 was alot...

After I got home I hurried out on the bike into the 90 + degree afternoon. I had wanted to get 80 + miles, but the heat and the hills and not much sleep were too much for me. I ended up with 60 miles and 4300 feet of elevation gain in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. I went for a quick 4 mile transition run in 31 minutes, then rushed home to shower and get back to work for the night.

Here is the Garmin graph from the ride:



I'm more than a little happy that this weekend's race, the Florida Half Ironman, won't have nearly that much elevation change!

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Newton Running Shoes - a Review

After the 15 miles on the treadmill Wednesday, I was going to run outside today no matter how hot. 90+ for my noon mile repeats on the soccer fields... I don't know which is harder, the treadmill or the heat, but I sure had more fun outside.

Anna and Aidan played on the playground outside the field while I ran, and every few minutes Anna would run my opposite direction to steal a daddy kiss. That girl...

So the last few weeks I've put about a 100 miles on the new Newton running shoes, and let me tell you - these things rock! They are different than any shoes I've ever tried in that they force you to run in a more anatomically correct way.

I've read their website a few times and looked over the information that came with the shoe, and I still don't understand how it works. Actuators, membranes, Sir Isaac Newton, reactions creating propulsion... It all sounds pretty damn complicated to me.

But it works. OMG it works. Before trying these, I thought I consistently landed on my forefoot. Oh no. Now I know what it feels like to really strike with your forefoot, and let me tell you - it feels great!

I honestly feel like I'm running like I would if I were barefoot. No heel strikes - it's basically impossible to strike with your heel first in these shoes. And my knees already notice the difference and are thanking me with pain-free runs over all surfaces so far.

I noticed another advantage to the shoes. I tend to have too much lateral motion in my legs, as opposed to strict anterior/posterior motion, while running. I'm hypothesizing that this issue is what has tended to give me recurrent iliotibial band problems. Well, for some reason with the Newtons and striking in the forefoot, I'm running with almost no lateral movement.

I don't know if these things will make me any faster or not. I feel like they will, like they already have. I do feel confident that I am running in a more anatomically correct way thanks to the Newtons, and I'm hopeful this will help avoid some recurrent nagging injuries that have plagued me in the past.

Newton running shoes - they don't pay me, but I still recommend them.

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Treadmill

A 15 mile run...
Treadmill or Ninety degrees?
Boredom is defined.

Hills, More Hills, and Mohawks

Another training week of IM Switzerland deposits has come and gone, and a quick check of the calendar tells me there are only 48 days until racetime! Aaaaaggghhhhhhh!!

Where have all those months gone??

This weekend I had a couple of key training sessions, not to mention a ton of fun doing them. Saturday I had a hills session on the bike. Big gear, 100% of time in the saddle, stroking going up and coasting going down. Can you say - BURN!!! It's 2 days later and I can still feel the burn from that one.

Then Saturday afternoon I swam in the lake to practice sighting. I only swam for about 10 minutes before I became paranoid of all the boats speeding past nearby. I hate the underwater sound of a boat engine - from the moment you hear it until it sounds like it is right on you happens so fast, I thought a couple times I was certainly about to be propeller turbulence. So I cut the swim short. But I was rather satisfied with my sighting and direction for the short time I worked on it.

During my bike ride Saturday I met another biker Brock who lives full-time at Willow Point at the lake. He recommended to me a nearby trail if ever I have my mountain bike with me. Well, no mountain bike this weekend; but, I figured if it was good for a mountain bike, it probably is good for running shoes!

So Sunday I set off to find this trail and it turned out to be incredible. Up and down hills on old fire road with a few creek crossings and noone - no one - else on the trail for the 10 miles I travelled. Sweet! For any locals that might be reading you can find this gem by turning off Hwy 63 onto Willow Point Cutoff Rd (about halfway between US280 and Kowaliga Marina), and then the trail is a half mile on your left and marked by several boulders at the trail head. I highly recommend it.

Little man Aidan and I got mohawks over the weekend. We snapped some pics to document it, but mine will be shaved off before I go back to work tonight - I don't think a mohawk is considered a physicianly cut... But Aidan gets to keep his for awhile - lucky guy...

Warning - potentially offensive

There are few scenarios I see in the ER which I find truly disgusting. I'm talking lose your lunch disgusting. Let me tell you about the worst one.

Now let this be your warning - if you are easily offended, or if your kids are reading this with you, don't read below this paragraph. Seriously.

Ok, so you've got a tough stomach? No, then come back Monday and read my next post - it will be gentler. Promise.

Now if you still are reading, don't say I didn't warn you.

The subject of this post is lost rectal foreign bodies that present to the ER.

Yea, I warned you...

So a few days ago a very nice, nice and sweet, middle age guy comes to see me.
"Sir, how can I help you tonight?"
"Doc, this is the most embarrassing thing I've ever done..."

Uhm, yea. I hope so.

He continued to tell me that he had been pleasuring himself with a jar of hair gel. No, not typos there. A jar of hair gel.

Ok, I think I missed that chapter in my 10th grade Teenage Sexuality textbook. Thank God.

So I take as much of a history as I can trying to put myself in the right mindset to examine this guy's problematic area. Finally, I pull one of my nurse's in the room so that my battle-story can be validated if need be, and I get to work.

First I probed enough to get an idea of the shape and size and location of this thing. Now hair gel containers come in many different sizes, and luckily this one was reasonably short. Short, but FAT. Way fat. As in the size of the big tub of Vaseline fat.

So, being the nice guy I am, I knock him out with a couple of potent injections, and I get busy trying to pull it out.

First with one finger. Uhm, not going to happen. 2 fingers. Nope. My right hand. Still can't get it. Both hands.

Now let's pause here for just a second and think about this guys. Both hands. All 10 fingers, up to about 2 inches on the wrist side of where your fingers connect with your hands. Feeling a little queasy right about now? Yea, me too.

I work at it for 15 or 20 minutes before realizing that I'm not delivering this baby myself. It had gotten stuck by the rectal vacuum phenomenon just above the curve of the tailbone.

So, after a couple of phone calls, he went off to the operating room for surgery.

Now this wasn't the first time I've dealt with rectal foreign bodies, and more times than not they end up in the OR. Over the years, I've extracted from the rectum cans of shaving cream, medicine bottles, packets of crack, vibrators, a razor blade and even a (dead) hamster.

So, 2 requests. Guys, ladies - don't do this to yourself. And if you for some ghastly reason decide that you need to experience this sensation, tie a string on it. Please. Pretty please... Your local ER doc will be much appreciative...

Thanks for reading My Daily Spin.

Birthday Party!

Yesterday we celebrated the 4th anniversary of Anna's birthday! I took cupcakes and party goodies to her school for her school birthday party, and then she had all afternoon and evening alone with daddy (a rarity for her to have time away from her 3 siblings).
We played on the playground, where she serenaded the other kids repeatedly as you can see from the video.
Then we went to DQ for blizzards and went home to open presents.

Swim Progress Update

I remember last fall when I started to swim laps when I would struggle to get in 500 or 750 yards over 20 or 30 minutes. More wasn't an option - I was wasted after that. I asked everyone around me how to swim and I tried anything and everything.

There was no magic that would make me an instant swimmer.

In January I boasted about completing a 750 yard straight swim, a distance huge at the time but which now seems almost laughable.

Flash forward to today.

This morning I swam 2100 yards of mixed intervals after a 400 yard warm up. This was a medium day both in intensity and distance, and I stopped when I did because my hour of allotted childcare had ended. This week I'll meet the 10,000 yard mark for the first time. My long swim Sunday will be either 3000 or 3500 (if I'm feeling it), both distance which I already have conquered.

There was no magic that allowed me to swim.

There was only persistence. And a stubbornness that I WILL.NOT.FAIL.

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Another Lesson Learned

I learned another lesson today that will pay dividends come race time.

I had a little more free time today than I do most Wednesdays, so I decided to go for an extra longish ride. I stopped by the LBS and got a couple extra tubes and CO2 cartridges, mixed a couple bottles of Perpetuem, and off I went.

I decided to ride the Hwy 78/119 route, which starts on the Powerman bike course and continues southeast before turning west toward Double Oak Mountain. This happens to be the route I flatted on last time I rode it (without a spare tube) and had to hitch a ride back to town - thus, the extra tubes and cartridges before I left.

Well, at least I can say that this time I was prepared.

I only made it 2 miles from home when - BOOM - the front tire exploded (at about 35 mph I should add - what a rush!). I was actually stoked by the pistol-fire like noise coming from my bike; I mean, if I'm going to flat I'd rather it be with a bang than a whimper like last time. So I rear braked to the side of the road with a great big grin because I was about to change my tire during a ride for the first time. Yea, I know... But I like novelty...

It only took a few minutes to get the new tube in and get the tire seated. I inflated with the CO2 cartridge, but I must have screwed something up somehow because just as the CO2 was almost done - BOOM - another explosion.

This time I wasn't nearly as excited...

So I repeated the motions, put my last tube on, and then started inflating. This time I pulled the cartridge off earlier than I should have to avoid blowing another tire before I could even get back on the bike. This left my front tire with only about 2/3 of necessary pressure, so I decided a long ride today was not going to happen.

I limped the bike back home, and then made a second trip to the LBS for more tubes and cartridges. LBS dude looked at me kinda funny-like, but I didn't let it phase me. I held my "I know what the hell I'm doing" look with perfect form.

I fully inflated and rechecked everything, repacked the extras, and walked outside to try for a short ride. But alas, now there was thunder and the first hints of rain. Sigh...

So my extra long ride became 2 hours on the trainer and then a strength session at the gym.

Oh well.... At least I got to change a couple of tires on the road for the first, but certainly not the last, time. Another small step along this journey to Ironman, and another lesson learned...

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

Weekend Lake Photos

The troupe and I made our first trip of the season to Lake Martin this weekend. We played in the boat and the water, and I was able to slip away for a long bike ride this morning.

The bike ride was the strongest I may have ever felt. I was able to stay hydrated and I think even had adequate energy intake thanks to some recent bloggerland advice.

On the lake Emma drove the boat solo for the first time, and she knee-boarded for the first time. The driving went well, but she still needs to get stronger to control the board. I think she'll have to stick to the tube again this summer.

Tess, Anna, and Aidan were worn out watching big sister in the cold water.
But even big sister crashed on the way home...

I'm taking the week off of running (and soccer) this week to let my left knee extensor mechanism (quad/patella tendon) cool off. It's gotten a bit inflamed I think due to playing soccer so much with the kids (3 days a week for a couple hours a day) the last few weeks. Although I think it is the soccer that caused it, it's irritated when I run too.

So, this week will be all about the bike and the swim. I should be able to get close to 15 hours of volume this week, so I'm hoping for some serious breakthroughs in the pool and on the bike!

Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin!

Feet

I was lounging in car line, feet propped on the side mirror, and thinking about some of my favorite bloggers when I thought of Momo. And Momo's now famous feet. And then I had to do it... This one's for you M...

Race Report

Some say that to be prepared for Ironman you need to be prepared to face ANY obstacle on raceday, because anything that can go wrong very likely will go wrong over the course of 140.6 miles.

With that in mind, today was a great Ironman training day.

This morning I competed in the 8k/53k/8k Powerman Alabama race. I treated it as a long reverse/regular brick and didn't taper any. Well, my only training yesterday was a mile swim so I guess I rested my legs yesterday. But I had run 10 miles Friday, which, after today's 10 miles gave me 30 miles running for the week (longest running week ever!)

Anyway, the race. Forecast weather was low this morning of about 44 and then mid-to-high 50's by midday with overcast skies, maybe rain this afternoon. Uhm, no. That didn't happen. Try low 40's at the start of the race and low 40's (with a feel like of 35) at the end of the race with wind swirling and gusting at 20 mph and rain. Yes rain - a mist for the first hour and then a constant light rain for a couple of hours and then back to a mist.

Now in case you don't know me, I don't like training in the cold. I'm all about snow runs, as long as I'm reading about them and not participating in them. I've never ever ever ever ridden my bike outside when it was in the 40s. Or when it was in the 40's and raining.

When I got to the race venue this morning, I was surprised to see my friend Mark already there and marked. Mark is the fool that talked me into my first tri last year, but Mark is almost always late for every race. In fact, for southeast xterra championship last year, Mark showed up so late the entire field had already finished their swim (lucky for him, the understanding organizers let him start anyway and he got the course to himself...)

Anyway, so I got marked and put on my tights that (thank God) I had stuck in the car just in case and then went to the start line to freeze while waiting for our signal.

The first run of the duathlon went as well as I could ask for. Mark and I ran together for the first couple of miles before he dropped back. I finished out strong and felt good, with a time (official results not posted yet) of about 35:30.

And then the misery started. The 2 loop Powerman bike course is hilly (not the steepest grades, but long mile plus 3 or 4% grades), and tends to be windy even in calm weather. And with temps in the low 40s and windy and rainy, I suffered.

The first loop I could still feel my feet, but by the second loop I realized that I couldn't. Ditto my ungloved hands. There was so much snot coming from my nose that I found it easiest to just collect it in my mouth and then spit. Yea, gross. Like I said, I suffered.

I noticed there was much less traffic on the course for the 2nd lap. Initially I thought I must be bringing up the rear. Then it dawned on me that people smarter than I were calling it a day after 1 lap. But I wasn't going to let that happen to me. I was out there for fun, and fun is what I was having. At least that's what I kept telling myself.

Actually what made the bike bearable was thinking about IM Wisconsin last year, with low temps and rain, and realizing that this race was preparing me, at least mentally if not physically, to be able to handle it if this year's IM brings similar ugliness. And after today, I have even greater respect for last year's IM WI racers. Dude, cold and rain on a bike suck.

When I dismounted the bike after (I lost count, but I think it was ) just under 2 hours, I stumbled when my feet hit the ground. I honestly could not feel them. I felt like a long-time diabetic with neuropathy. I gingerly jogged through transition. I never before have had so much trouble getting my running shoes back on and getting my helmet unsnapped. Couldn't do it. Couldn't feel what I was doing. My laces weren't the issue, they're the easy kind, but it felt like I was putting the shoes on someone else's feet. Weird. Then it probably took me a full 30 seconds to get my hands to find the right button to push to release my helmet.

After a mile and a half of the second run, I still couldn't feel my feet. It felt like I had bricks strapped to my legs. My knees were stiff. I was slow.

When I first started getting feeling back, it was painful. I felt like there was a rock under my arch in each shoe. At 2 miles I sat down and took off my shoes to inspect, but everything was normal. I trudged on, but it was probably the slowest I've ran in a long time. I even walked a couple of hills. I was spent.

I came across the finish line unofficially in about 3:20. This was much slower than I would have predicted pre-race, but that's ok. This race was huge for me in learning to overcome piss-poor weather, dealing with hands and feet that I can't feel, and taking in nutrition.

Oh yea, nutrition. It sucked. I am a chronic under-drinker on the bike, and today was even worse. With cold weather and rain, I just didn't want to drink anything. I drank nothing on the first run, and I took in a total of 6 ounces on the bike. The 2nd run I took a couple of powerades.

And I didn't eat enough either. 2 1/2 hours before the race I had 2 pieces of toast and an orange. Then I had 1 gel on the bike. I naively expected there would be some gels handed out somewhere along the racecourse so I brought only 1 with me. Rookie mistake that won't happen again.

Between the frozen feet and the lack of fuel and hydration, I knew the 2nd run was going to be tough. Yea, I bonked. Oh well. It was still fun (I mean, how often have you been able to spit your snot??) and a huge learning experience, and a deposit to the IM bank.

After eating the post-race meal with Mark, I was shivering uncontrollably. I had put some fleece pants on over my tights, but I was still wearing my wet top. There were no finish-line blankets or anything like that at this race. A couple of strangers said I didn't look well and asked if I was ok. Yea, I'm fine I lied. I realized then that I must look as hypothermic as I felt and headed home.

Once home, I changed into dry socks and the warmest fleece I own, turned my thermostat to 75, put an extra comforter on my bed and slept for 2 hours. Didn't change position once. I woke and felt great, with minimal aches (left IT feels a little tight) and no pains.

All in all, a great training day! Thanks for joining me for My Daily Spin.

What should I do?

As I begin writing this post, I'm at a crossroads. There is a decision that I need to make today. Within the next 30 minutes... And I am completely on the fence about the issue, although it is a decision that has potentially huge (well, relatively, I mean, it's not like we are withdrawing troops from Iraq based on me or anything...) ramifications.

I have 2 major hang-ups. Ok, I have a lot of hang ups but there are 2 that loom over all others and tend to create trouble for me repetitively. You see, I tend to jump into a game without thinking things through. I speak and write without realizing what exactly it is that I am saying, I commit myself to things that I really don't want to be committed to, and I start things without considering whether I can finish.

The biggest example of this is my relationship with my ex-wife. We met when we were freshmen in college. The first night I met her I told my roommate I was going to marry her. It only took a few months for me to realize that we weren't exactly the most compatible, or even a reasonably compatible, couple. But I was stubborn and felt that I said I was going to do it because I said it so I couldn't stop until I did it.

And that leads me to my second big problem.

I don't finish things. I can begin a million projects and get them to near completion and then walk away. I don't know why, but I don't need the satisfaction of the final destination to enjoy the journey. My marriage, my school science projects, entrepreneurial pursuits, books I've written... I take them to the point of no return, and then I return. I don't make the final efforts to realize the potential of what I start.

That's one of the primary reasons that I jumped into endurance sports. The only true measure of success in endurance sports is finishing the activity. Yea, you can argue that you can succeed by preparing even without finishing; but, while I respect this philosophy it just doesn't work for me. When my goal was to complete a marathon in December, I wouldn't have considered myself successful if I had only done a 20 mile training run without doing the actual 26.2 mile race. I think of Ironman the same way. I can train for years but if I never do it than I will never hear the dude say "DV You are an Ironman!" and I will not be successful. Some will disagree with this definition of success in endurance sport, but that's my definition. Finishing.

So endurance sport seemed the perfect way to battle this demon, in addition to a few others that I'll save for another day.

I planned on racing Ironman Wisconsin since last fall, and I added Ironman Switzerland to my schedule around the start of January. When I added IM Switz, the selling points were that it was a fun race with some new friends in a place I've never been. Sweet!

But I really didn't consider most of the things that a logical person should have considered prior to committing to 8000 miles of round trip travel and their first attempt at one of the most epic of endurance sports events. Money for travel and expenses (I now have learned that when you travel as an age grouper to an international race, you may as well make a vacation of it and include the race as the main activity but one of several activities...), childcare for a week, the loss of close friends and family presence at the event (my family could be at Wisconsin, but not in Switzerland), the inability to hold my kids' hands as I cross the finish line, the ramped up training schedule that would push me to and beyond the limits of my limited triathlon experience body and mind - all of these things I should have considered but didn't. Typical DV... Demons...

The last few weeks I've struggled a little meeting training demands. My long swims have gotten shorter and my long bikes; well, what long bikes? I have been running more than ever, and my run performance has been my sole confidence booster.

So, with my training not going as well as I hoped, and a million other things pulling at my time, and not getting finances to work out like I thought they might, my second demon started to show its ugly head. Why am I doing this? Why don't I just wait, be patient and let IM Wisconsin be my first IM as I had planned all along? More training time, family at the race, cheaper travelling....

I had already arranged childcare for the week of IM Switzerland, so then I started thinking of what I could do with a week off with no kids in mid June. How about a kick ass training week? Sweet, I could go to the mountains visit friends and ride and run until my legs were rubber. How about volunteering at a race? Hey, IM CDA is on the same day as IM Switz, so I could travel to Idaho and get some first hand IM experience before actually competing in IM. Sounds great!

And so the last week I've been struggling with this decision. Do I go to Switzerland under less than ideal conditions, ok in my opinion maybe even piss-poor conditions, suck up the pain from training that will probably be inadequate, and make the best of it? Or do I step back and be logical and take a more patient and calculated approach while letting my demons claim victory?

See the kind of crap I get myself into???

What if I get hurt between now and Wisconsin and can't race?

What if I push too hard to try and catch up with Switzerland training and I get hurt and can't race there?

What if I meet a lifer in the mountains or in CDA?

What if I still travel west and get some mountain training this summer on a different weekend?

What if my kids don't see me in Switzerland? It's me that want them to see me race, not them that want to see me race. And they could still see me in Wisconsin.

What if I am so burnt from being undertrained/injured in Switzerland that I can't recover enough to compete in Wisconsin?

What if? What if? What if?

Well, it's time that I have to make a decision.

Do I shoot down my second demon and go to Switzerland without the family presence that is so important to me and without the most appropriate financial situation and with the probability of inadequate training?

Do I back out of Switzerland and go train in the mountains with friends and volunteer/learn at CDA for the week I would have been overseas?

In the end, it's all about the Demons. If I drop out of Zurich, they win. Again. Like they have so many other times in my 31 years. And my epitaph may as well read "DV - never finishes what he starts."

Not this time.

I will finish what I started. I will toe the line in Zurich. I will finish Ironman Switzerland. And even if it is in French (or German, or whatever the hell language they use in Switzerland), dude will say "DV, You are an Ironman" on June 24, 2007.

I will win this battle.

Eccentric?

It was pointed out to me recently that keeping empties for the last year may be a sign of eccentricity...

Am I crazy, or am I just ready to store countless small item collections when the occasion might arise?

Intro to Trail Running

I learned the joy of trail running today.

I've always been a road runner. Well, let me clarify. I haven't always been a runner; but, in the past, when I ran it was always on pavement or sidewalks. I never did cross country, and I never before today have ventured onto a trail for the specific purpose of running.

I drove to Oak Mountain with my mountain bike with the intention of riding for a couple of hours. But when I arrived, I just couldn't get motivated to ride in the cold (ok, it was really only about 50 F but that's a LOT colder than my preferred 75, and yes, I admit I am a wuss about the cold.) So, I decided to run.

Much to my surprise, the first probably 2 miles of the trail were straight UP! Or at least it seemed that way. I started much faster than I typically run for a warm up, I think maybe because the ground was so soft and impact-free. But after just a mile or so, I realized that I was cruising along with a HR of about 170 - much much higher than I needed to be. The ground was soft and the air was so cool I didn't even realize that I had been running uphill the entire mile.

Adjustment, slow de eff down!

I ended up with about 8 miles for the afternoon. I walked some, in part because I overdid it the first couple of miles and my legs were already burnt from a computrainer session this morning. This was also the first time I ever had run with a pack, which I noticed much more than I though I would. I reasoned that since I was running in the middle of the forest and there was basically NObody nearby, I probably should carry at least a little water and money (as if I would just happen to run past a store at the top of the hill in the middle of the woods - not!) and phone (no one to hitch with here ;) )
Although it was only maybe 3 pounds, that's 2 % of my body weight so I guess that's enough to notice over the course of a few miles.

I didn't see any animals (no cows there, C), but I was amazed at the silence. I even turned the ipod off for a few miles and just listened to my feet strike the earth. It's such an elemental sound, such a simple feeling. I've learned that the most complicated situations almost always are made easier by focusing on the most basic components. Trees, dirt, rocks, and me. And silence...
It doesn't get more basic than that my friends...

Yea, I think I'm going to like running trails...

Perception

I believe that everything can be explained in a way that makes some sense. Call it spin, or relativity, but my perception will be different than your perception. And we both will be right, even when one of us is wrong.

Take the case of the "eye witness" to a crime. Now you would think that a person who sees a crime would be an excellent witness in the courtroom. But it doesn't always happen that way. It has been well proven that the eye witness doesn't always perceive the events the way they actually happen.

Another example: my residents present their patients to me after the initial evaluation. The resident physician tells me why the patient is in the ED, tells me their pertinent history, their physical examination findings, and then synthesizes a diagnostic and therapeutic management plan. Frequently, the resident reports that the "heart exam is normal" or the "neuro exam is unremarkable." On the surface, this seems a reasonable statement. But if I ask for the result of a specific neuro or cardio exam finding, I might find that they did not perform that part of the evaluation. So, what the resident reported to me was true to them because they did not know for which truth to look.

And the truth you seek frequently is both the result and the creator of your perception.

How does this apply to triathlon training?

I was running this morning on the treadmill. The temperature here in Alabama has dipped back to the 40's and I needed to run this morning, so I hopped on and started hamsterring.

I was planning on running 8 miles with negative splits and a tempo pace. I wasn't too excited to run 8 miles, but I knew it wouldn't be that difficult for me. Perception. You see, not long ago 8 miles was a long run for me. In fact, as recently as 6 months ago I had never run 8 miles in my life. Then, I would have told you that 8 miles was both a long run and a hard run. Then, truth to me was that an 8 mile run was hard and long.

Today, truth to me was that 8 miles was short and easy. Miles 1-2 in 8:31/mi, miles 3-4 in 8:00/mi, miles 5-6 at 7:30/mi, and miles 7-8 at 7:00/mi. And it wasn't hard either. I don't wear my heartrate monitor like I should so I can't tell you exactly how not hard it was, but I was breathing quite comfortably throughout.

My perception has changed.

It's getting to be that time of year when many of us are starting to realize substantial training gains. We have completed 1 or maybe 2 builds, and our aerobic base is (hopefully) solid. Our bodies are being trained to handle the rigors of raceday.

As we start our race season, our perception of our abilities will play a major role in raceday performance. If you perceive that you are supposed to be at the starting line, that you are fit and ready, you will succeed. But if you enter with a negative attitude, a perception that you don't belong or that you are undertrained, you likely will suffer. Even if you are in top shape, you have to be convinced of that.

So the mental approach to raceday is probably just as important as the physical training. I am the first to admit that I have struggled getting in some of my training sessions. My time is divided tediously and spread across a large number of demands, and quite frankly training for this hobby of mine is just not as important as some other things.

But I am seeing positive gains physically, and that is helping create mental gains to the tune of believing that I really do belong in this sport and that I can compete reasonably well. I could easily have a negative perception of my whole training process, and feel like I am ill prepared for racing, since I have not met all of my training goals to date.

But instead, I am happy with the progress I have. There is noone but me depending on my performance. There is no money, no sponsorships, no contracts - nothing is dependent on my outcome.

So progress is progress. Perception drives reality. And the reality, my reality, is that I'm going to kick ass come Ironman time...

Lock Down

Last night when we told the family of a 16 year old boy that he had been shot to death, the response was ugly and frightening. A riot, at least the closest thing I've ever seen to a riot, ensued. The hospital went on "lock down" and noone could enter or leave for an hour while dozens of police took control. Here is the initial story from the local newspaper...

Lessons Learned

1. It's not a good idea to bike without a spare tube. Especially when you are going for your long ride... Especially when your long ride involves travelling directly away from your house... Especially when thunderstorms are forecast... Especially when you also forget your cell phone...

2. Hitchhiking is an acceptable form of transportation. Especially when you are 25 miles away from home and you have flatted and you have no spare tire... Or cell phone... Especially when the first thunderstorm of the spring has struck 5 minutes after you flatted... Especially when the guys that pick you up live a mile from your house, are returning from a fishing trip, and were planning to stop for ice cream anyway so buy you a double scoop of mint chocolate chip because you also forgot to bring any cash...

3. Even 3 year olds feel really bad when they score a goal for the wrong team during the soccer game. Especially when it was her first goal ever. Especially when her coach, who is a patient fun-stressing guy most of the time, accidentally slips out a rather stern "Anna you just scored for the wrong goal!"

4. Luckily, 3 year olds easily forget mistakes when they taste success. Especially when it comes in the form of not one, but two, goals into the right goal... Especially when it helps her team notch their first win of the season... Especially when the coach gives her a popcycle reward...

5. Crushed strawberry makes a visually realistic fake blood and can create more than a few screams. Especially when poured over a finger bent in such a way to look realistically amputated. Especially when there is a preserved (real) amputated fingertip in a basin beneath the supposed amputated finger. Especially when it is a saturday night April Fool's Day in an already stressed ER and the staff need a little tension-breaker...