Back to BASE

Ok so I am finally back training FULL schedule this week - I could not help myself and took a couple of hour long easy runs over the weekend to get the legs warmed back up. I must say I feel full of energy and ready to go after two weeks off. Weights this morning and swiming session at lunch will be a good start. I plan on working in this new class - supposedly a mix between Yoga and Pilates. Wonder what you would call that - Yo Ga Pil, How about Pi Late Yo Ga. Better leave that one to someone else. I will probably be the only guy in the class - that seemed to be the case when I was taking Pilates, oh well, trust me it will not be the first time I looked like an idiot in front of people in my life and I doubt the last time. So what the hell! I have done Pilates in the past and I thought it was very helpful. Everything I read says Yoga is great for Tri people and should be especially helpful with getting a more agressive fit on the bike. Free speed as they say, the more aero you can get while not losing power is the key. Working on the diet too, decided to really try and do the Paleo diet as much as possible. Joe Friel is definately the man in my book when it comes to Tri training! Basically most people like Gordo, Strause and others with there own web sites are just rehahsing what Joe "The Man" Friel has been saying and doing for years. Time to get rid of that Turkey Butt! See you out there!

It seems all I do is think about food!

OK I have only been off from training for one week and yes the rest felt good, but now I am starting to go crazy wanting to get out and run, bike, swim something. However, I know I need to rest one more week. However I admit I did do some easy weights on Monday and I will today the same at lunch as well. Just want to get the first initial soreness out of the way before I start back full training next week . See the picture on the right, this is what I am going to look like if I don't stop eating. Good Grief Charlie Brown it is down right unreal! OK so maybe I am kidding myself a little but it really is tough to control your appetite when you are used to training 6-7 days a week and burning more calories in one day than some do in 3 days. All I can say is someone please hide the turkey from me because that thing does not have a chance come Thursday!

I am an ALS Warrior

So here is my story about the "Blazeman". Sitting at the post race dinner in Clearwater on Saturday night, Delane and I sit down to eat and listen to the band and awards ceremony. Everything is setup right down on the beach, it is a beautiful evening, not a cloud in the sky with temps dropping into the 60s reuqiring a sweater or coat. Fish and chicken dinner, a little rice, desert of course. Yes my appetite is starting to come back. Can't do another beer though, I am such a lite weight now after starting this Tri thing, 3 beers and I am pretty wasted. I earned those beers today though so they went down just fine. Half way through the ceremony the anouncer tells the audiance he has a treat for us and ask us to watch this short video. The Video is about Jon Blaise - most people now refer to him as "Blazeman". His story is so insperational to my wife and I. Jon was a vibrant young athletic person who always wanted to do an Ironman, for years he played many sports and ran over 200 Triathlons of various lengths, but never an Ironman. However, life would deal Jon a tough battle, one in which he would show how much of an "Ironman" he truly is. Jon was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) but more commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease". According to Jon, he knew at that very moment he would fulfill his dream of becoming an Ironman. Jon was awarded not just a chance at any Ironman race, Jon would race in the Kona World Championships in 2005 and boy did he. ALS had already started to ravage his body making it difficult for him to use his hands but this did not stop Jon. The video showed Jon's fight to overcome the ALS deamons and his triumph in becoming the first man to finish an Ironman with full on ALS. Jon's now famous "log roll" across the finish line was just the touch needed to make us never forget Jon. In the past few years I have done many cycling events and running events that were for great causes such as cancer or MS. My wife had ask me many times if I knew of any events that would help with ALS; but with ALS being such a rare disease there just seemed to be very little awareness and focus on this horrible disease. You see my wife and I have witnessed the killer ourselves. I met my wife about 14 years ago sailing on lake lanier. Before long I was meeting the family, a large family of six siblings. Andy her dad had an influence on me almost immediately. Andy and I had some similar interest and he was a geek pretty much like me. Strong and vibrant he had raised a large family and was now getting close to retirement. So like many, Andy and his wife Collette move to Kentucky to build their dream house on the water front. Andy worked tirelessly after retirement and built the perfect house for the two of them. Not much is known about ALS, but they do know that if your family has a certain gene then you will most likely develop the disease at some point in your life. However, at the same time people with absolutely no family history of the disease also get ALS. Andy knew his family had the gene and unfortunately Andy developed ALS and started showing symptoms very quickly just shortly after retirement. Delane and I had decided to get married and had set a date in late fall of that year but watching Andy it was clear he may not make it long enough to see the wedding. Something he told Collette he wanted to live long enough to see. Delane and I moved our wedding to July 5th of that year and Andy was there to see and rejoice in our day of happiness. It was not long before Andy was gone; it was tough seeing someone you had just got to know, go from being a strong and capable person to someone who had trouble speaking. You see ALS is a progressive neuromuscular disease that causes degeneration of some of the largest of all nerve cells, called motor neurons. Motor neurons control the movement of voluntary muscles. This was my first exposure to this disease, unfortunately that was not the end of it. Only two years later Delane's older brother also developed ALS. Darryl was just a great guy as well; this guy would give you the shirt off his back. Darryl and his wife Becky had worked to build up their body shop business. Darryl was known by everyone in town and if you wanted your car fixed right after an accident, Darryl was the guy to go to. Darryl would suffer with the disease for 5+ years before passing just a couple of years ago.

So as I sat listening to the Jon Blais story and watching the video, once again, I thought about Andy and Darryl and thought there must be something more that can be done. After the video they brought Jon and his parents on stage to a standing ovation. Jon spoke about how Ironman and he would now continue the battle for ALS awareness and hopefully one day a cure. Ironman will have one person wear the number Jon wore in his Ironman race in Kona #179 at each of their events. In additon, many ALS warriors came out to help in this year's Kona race by wearing ALS mesages on jerseys and contributing to the cause. More than 50 athletes did the now famous "log roll" just like Jon across the finsih line. Upon hearing all of this, it was like someone tapped me on the shoulder at the point and said. You know "You are now an ALS warrior - Right"? It was obivous how I could help and that is exactly what my wife I plan on doing. From now on, I will support the ALS cause in all my Ironman races and work to raise money and awareness of the disease. Pleas help me keep up the fight! Here is a link to Jon's web site where you can start to help.

ALS Warrior Poet

Ironman 70.3 World Championships Race Report

Not much more to say other than it was all the words people use to
describe great events all rolled into one - great, fantastic,
wonderful, special. I guess I will start with the swim practice the
day before. Perfect weather about low 70s at 8am calm water. Head out for a nice
swim to get acclumated to the water, get in my wetsuit, water temp abut 72 degress. Just hate that first bit of water trickling down the back - Burrr! After that everything is fine. Swimming back in I see a Coast Guard boat hanging out and chatting it up wiht the guys on Sea Doos (Safety Crew) so I decide to ask about current, you can bet the Coast Guard knows all the local currents.
He told me to expect a mild current to the north - which seemed to be confimred as I slowly drifted North away from the mark, while talking to them. He also confirmed we would have perfect conditions for tomorrow's race, low to mid 80s for a high and calm water. First time
I had been to Clearwater, really a great area, might go back for some
R&R one day. Noticed swimming back in the sun was dead in my eyes - should have
brought DARK goggles - Oh well (Live and learn). Took a short ride on the bike to test
eveything else and spin the legs a little - followed that with the
race meeting. They run everything just like a FULL Ironman race (So
now I know what to expect in Arizona April 2007). In transition you have 3
bags, one for each discipline - Volunteers help strip your wetsuit at T1 and you grab your bike bag which has all your gear accept your hemet - you can clip your shoes to the bike if you so desire. After the ride at T2 the volunteers grab your bike and rack it for you while you continue to the bag rack and pickup your running bag that has all your running gear, like shoes hat, shades etc.
Race day morning starts early. Nothing much to do since all your gear and bike had to be checked in the daybefore. It makes for a no rush effort on race morning with little or nothing to forget on race day. You can tell Ironman has perfected this system over time. Bottom line it simply works very well. Race day jitters - go for a short run to free up the nerves. Run feels good but not sure the nerves are gone. Everyone seems uptight. Very little idle chat, boy these guys are dead serious!
Get in my wetsuit and head for the start. Beach Start - Wave starts
but BIG waves 300 or more in my group, split by 5 minutes apart. My age group is 40-44 but they also decide to add the 18 -24 year old age group. this really stinks. I have been here before in local races. Nothing against the younger guys but they tend to "lose it in the water" and hammer the bike way too soon. However this is Worlds so clearly these guys should be better at keeping their emotions in check. Our wave is now lining up, I find myself about one 3rd back from the front of the pack and roughly somewhere in the middle. I know from previous experience this is going to be a slugfest and I will shortly be proven correct. Gun sounds! I am off, head for the water struggle several times with my goggles immediately leaking water. Seems no matter what I do sometimes I just cannot get the fit I want. Roll over on the back re-seat the goggles multiple times, getting tons of salt water in the eyes, finally get it right. Got killed, hit on the head, slapped in the back, run over from behind, nearly kicked in the face, you name it, it happened. The washing machine last the entire swim no way to find clear water to swim in with this many people but I was finally swimmming in my own space by about 400 meters or so. I am definately aenarobic - keep trying to calm myself down and get into any kind of rythum. Every once in a while I end up running into other people or them running into me. By this time though I am somewhere in the middle of the pack and just being towed along
nicely. Make the two turns and start heading back in, now we start catching some of the slower swimmers in the wave that started 5 minutes ahead of us (Blue caps we have purple caps) GREAT more people to contend with! I cannot see a thing between the sun and salt water eyes. I breath on my left and bouys are on the right, so every once in a while I roll right and pick
up a bouy - must have been swimming pretty straight since when I roll I always manage to be relatively close to the bouy. In the back of my mind I know I need to swim as if I am headed more to the right - towards the bouy to counteract the current. In my sailing days we would call this sailing high of the mark due to the current pushing you down. (thanks Coast Guard!) a lot of people do not realize they are getting pushed to the left by the current and thus swim farther while I am able to stay closer to the bouys and swim more of a stright line. Somewhere along
here is where I get the black eye (however I will not even know this
until after the race when my wife ask me what happened to my eye and
then as the day goes on it starts to turn black on the bottom corner -
(I never knew IM was a full contact sport!) the best I can figure is
when I roll to breath on my left the guy next to me landed a perfect
elbow in my eye. Swim over I forgot to start my watch but knew
what time I started the race so I thought I swam about a 35 minute leg
(typical for me - but it ended up being better - 33:42 that is a PR) After standing
up from the swim I had to walk all the way out of the water due to
cramps - never had this happen either, usually have no problems. Once again you have to deal with what race day brings and some things you simply have no control over. Don't panic, walk slowly the legs will come back I tell myself. Once blood started to flow to my legs again I was able to jog up the beach and over the timming mat. Into T1 and out on the bike, no problems here just a standard T1. Oh yea - I forgot a lady started laughing at me as I grabbed my bike going through T-1 they were playing a cool song on the radio and I started singing - I remember her pointing at me and laughing and saying - "Look at the singing Tri-Guy! Pretty funny in retrospect. Really not much happening on the bike, this is my strength, I stayed in my aero position really nicely, felt pretty good the whole ride and according to my splits held
a constant 22.3 or so average for the ride. Lots of people riding in
packs I hope they got penalties but it did not look like many were
handed out. 4 miles or so from the end of the bike is where this
knucklehead decides to ignore the cop directing traffic and he pulled
right out in front of me while I was doing about 30 or so down a
slight hill. Of course he hears everyone yelling and instead of
continuing on, he stops dead in front of me. I locked up the back
wheel and slid sideways and just knew I was toast but some how stopped
literally one foot from his right car door - had a few choice words
for him as I pedaled around the front of his car . At this point I
tried to calm myself down - get those emotions in check - that is just wasted energy! Let's just get the bike back to T2. Bike ended up being 2:30 and some change - decent (Fast course a few causway bridges to cross for hills but pretty much flat - a little wind on one
long bridge but not too bad) Home safe and through transition. Out we
go for the run, the first 3 or 4 miles I just felt bad, but that is normal and I am somewhat used to it, I knew the legs would eventually start feeling better. Mile 6 or so
it felt better. The course had us go over a causeway bridge 4 times
which made the run a little tougher than I anticipated. Comming home I
was definately on empty, a sure sign of this is when your heart rate will not go up but your legs feel like dead weights. Basically you are starting to bonk, not from aerobic (lung) issues but from Muscle fatigue/Mulscular endurance. This is the key to IM racing and something we all strive for in our training to develop - better Muscular Endurance. I knew I was not going to break 5 hours but I also knew I would be close and set a knew PR - so no complaints with that. Came home in 5:04 and some change, an 8 minute improvement over my Cancun 70.3.
Overall just a great day, a great experiece.
Overall
I was somewhere in the middle of the pack like 8 hundred and something
out of about 1600 or 1700 particapants. I was only 164 out of about
200 or so in my age group (tough age group). When I think about that I
qualified with a roll down slot and I am only in my second year of Tri
that seems about where my fitness is, but I know I can get to the
level many of these guys are at, I just need another year or two. I plan on taking a couple weeks
off but I am reenergized to start training for IM Arizona soon. All I
can say is I can guarantee you this 70.3 thing is going to be huge and
I think will shortly gain the respect that Kona does, giving more
athletes a chance to race a World Championship at this very fast
distance instead of the much different Full IM distance. The race
directors at IM said this is exactly what they are trying for. As far
as I am concerned they sure have a good start. So get out there and
race one of the 70.3 races and try to qualify for Clearwater - trust
me you will love it!
See you out there!
Got good SWAG (Shit we all get!)

P.S make sure to come back and look for my links about another even more rewarding experience I had in Clearwater. It is the "Blazeman" story. This one you cannot miss! During this experieince I was literally tapped on the shoulder as if someone was saying to me - that is you buddy, your ticket has been punched! I will be an ALS Warrior in my future Ironman races. Look for details in future posst.

My first post!

I am just getting home from Clearwater Florida and the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. But first a little back ground is in order. Over the next few weeks I will try to post some older races etc. to even things out a bit. I started Triathlons about two years ago, after a number of years of working and stressing out in an effort to find something meaningful in life. Once I was totally burned out and had some time to sit back and look at what I was doing; it was obvious to me that what I missed was my previous athletic life. A life that was a big part of who I was in my teens and my 20s. Since that time I had focussed on work and let my fitness get to embarrasing levels and my weight balooned to 30-40 pounds over what it should be. I purchased my first road bike about 3 years ago and found some group rides - I loved it from day one. Over time the weight came off and the fitness started to return. My job was - well just a job and in my oppinion the way it should be. No longer was I thining about work all the time, instead I was always thinking about the group ride that afternoon. Nothing wrong with having goals with your career but most people really have no life and think their job means everything. Of course they never admit this, they say things like my family comes first, etc. however these are the very people that you see working late, comming in early, claim to have no time for working out and eat fast food at lunch every day. This was me as well just a few years ago. Not any more, not for me. I have always wanted to ask these people just one questsion: Have you ever met a man on his death bed that said "I wish I would have just worked a little harder at work to get that promotion" I doubt it! A little later I will tell you about a true hero and someone who really understands the meaning of life; but for now let me use some of his words to give you more perspective as to what I mean about work and life in general. As "Jon Blazeman" would say I do not want to know what you do for a living, I do not want to know how much money you make. I want to know what your passion is. I want to know do you have the guts to go and try something even though there is a very good chance you may fail. I want to know that if you fail you have the guts to pick yourself up and keep trying. I want to know are you someone who ignores conventional wisdom in an effort to find wisdom. I echoe those thoughts and have found Triathlon a place to find peopel just like that. Maybe that is what is so appealing to me, "The people" the people you meet in tri are just great, you see very talented people that have been doing tri for years helping out pure amatuers like myself and you see those same veterans finding renewed strength from seeing the effort of the newly annointed in the sport.

Ok just getting back from Clearwater like I said earlier what a great experience. At the end of my second season in triathlon I had signed up for an innaugrual 70.3 Ironman in Cancun. Upon doing this I saw that Ironman was also starting and will be having the first ever 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thougt, "While that is cool" but knowing I was only in my second year of Tri and that I had not even done a half Ironman at that point I doubted I would be at that event. "Anything is possible" as Ironman said and after racing my first Half at Whitelake and training hard through the summer I went to Cancun in what I thought was pretty good shape. turned out to be barely enough - I finished 16th in my age group and grab a roll down slot to the Clearwater 70.3 World Championships. Needless to say what a year for me. I could not beleive it. I think this really proves a point - sometimes you just have to go for it and let the chips fall where they may, you never know and you will never succeed if you do not show up first. I learned a lot about myself and fell in love with Tri at that point. Sure I had done some local races but nothing compares to the way Ironman races are run and the competitors, volunteers and fans that are associated with such an event. So after finding myself qualified for Clearwater I knew I would be a Back of the packer due to the very talented people qualifying for this event but that was ok. I was there, I qualified and I will always be able to say I was at the very FIRST ever 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater. In my oppinion this series and this championship will grow very rapidly and will be very competetive in just a few years and could even possibly gain a similar status that Kona has today. I guess time will tell. I had a great race, set a new PR for me, had perfect weather and had a great day. I will post a race report for Clearwater and Cancun and maybe a few other things in the next few days.