Feeling Better

I must say that I feel better about my chances next week. Sunday's run, a 10 miler, felt good. My legs had some spring in them and the effort felt comfortable, considering that had worked all night on about 7 hrs of sleep. This run was basically caveman. I did have my watch and there are mile markers on part of the curse I ran so I did check up on my pace a few times. But for the most part it was just by feel. I was about 4 seconds/mi faster than my goal pace and I felt like could hold it for a long time. So I will continue the same rest,hydration,diet as I head into the race weekend. The pisser is that I'm working an extra day this week for a total of 8 nights= 80hrs in a row. Which does take it's toll on my old ass. But nobody said it would be easy, or at least not to me.
In my quest for for complete and total understanding of everything :) I have ordered a couple books that I'm looking forward to reading. The first came to me from Gordo and will hopefully help me make some sense of the economy going forward. The other book has more to do with this blog and may be more interesting to my faithful readers ALL of you. :) Lucho has been reading this book by Mat Fitzgerald about the mental aspect of running. So being the thinker that I think I am I think it may give me some things to think about. I will let you know waht I think when I think it.

The Final Stretch

With only 11 days and just a few more training runs before Portland there is not much left but to get'r done. I would be less than honest if said I was ready. I'm really not sure. After yesterday's run I came home and looked back at my training plan and compared it to what I actually did. NOT SO GOOD....I got a 70%. Now this grade is miles ran divided by miles should have ran. I also did not quite make the mark on hitting all of my paces. And in the last few weeks my motivation has been for shit. But as I head into this last week and try to absorb the training that I did do. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope it's not a train. Bottom line I going to run Portland and I'm going to do my best, even though I didn't do my best in training. At the end of the race I will either qualify or I won't. Neither my life nor my livelihood are dependant on this race. I will have as much fun as you can have while running 26.2 miles as fast as you can.
On another note you will notice a something new on my page it is the Endurance Corner badge. This is an online community set up by Gordo that has some great discussions as part of the forum. This is unlike some of the forums out there in which there is a lot of information spewed by so called "experts". These are some of the top athletes and coaches in triathlon. If you're interested in taking a look let me know as Endurance Corner is by invite only at this point.

LAST LONG RUN

I have to apologize for my last post as I know it was a bit of a ramble. I was totally procrastinating my long run on Thurs. Normally I do my long runs on Sun with the Hobbit but I have a real hard time with runs longer than about 10 miles after I have worked all night. So to solve this problem I decided that I would do my long run on Thurs. which is the day I start back to work. Confused, me too. Anyway I was not looking forward to this weeks run, a 20 miler. So rather than getting out the door when it was nice an cool. I came up with a whole host of things to do first and blogging was one of them. Again ,sorry. As I predicted 20 miles is along way and in no way fun. I did, however work on my nutrition and hydration with some success. The course I ran was brutal lots of hills something like 4700 feet of elevation gain. All this up and down took it's toll not only on my body but also on my pace. The goal was to average 20-50 sec slower than goal pace which would make it 8:20-8:50 pace.How about 9:30 pace.....3 pee breaks and 1 stretch. Boob and the Hobbit assure me that I'll be fine at Portland. I, on the other hand, am less than confident. We shall see.

Sunday Sundae

This race course as I mentioned in the previous post is tough. My goal for this race as with all races is to do better than last year. Well this was the 1st race that I did not improve my time on in the last couple of years. I was actually about 30 seconds slower this year. The week leading up to the race I had to many excuses not to train. Notice I did not say reasons, but excuses. Normally I hate excuses they go against everything I believe in. But the fact of the matter is my motivation is waining and getting out the door just did not happen. So one would think that I was well rested for the race, and I was. But I still just felt kind of bla. A 10 mile race on some tough hills just did not sound like much fun and it really wasn't. Anyway I started out running with a girl that lives down the lake from me who I ran the course with a few weeks ago. She and I had the same pace goal, 7 min/mi. The 1st 2 miles is nice and flat then comes the steep downhill that is about 1/4 mile long. My goal was to have us right on pace when we got to the bottom of that hill. I nailed it almost perfectly. The next 5 miles are mostly flat with couple little hills. But at about 7 3/4 miles you start a climb that last until just over the 9 mile mark. The last 3/4 is pretty steep. Then it is flat to the finish. So back at about the 4mile mark of the race Kerrie, the girl I was running with, pulled away from me. She did not speed up I had slowed down. I felt like I was in survival mode already. I was really trying to stay focused because if I didn't I would began to slow down. Anyway I putted along trying to muster the motivation to pick up the pace but legs were having no part of it. When I got to the 8 mile mark I was right at 58 min. So I new with the big hill still to come I was going to have a tough time beating last years time. And as I started up the hill my legs felt like they had no spring at all. At the top of the hill some guy passed me that looked like he was race walking, that was it. I had to pick it up. I started calling myself all kinds of names, making promises to myself I knew I wouldn't keep. I pulled out all the psychobabble bullshit I could think of to try to get my ass moving a little faster. Then I looked at my gadget and saw I had 3/4 of a mile to go. "Dude it's 3 laps, you've been doing those at 6:30 pace". Finally I started to speed up. When I rounded the last corner for the finish I could hear footsteps and that was the push I needed. I was able to put the hammer down for the last 800 I passed about 5 people. And when I ran through the shoot a voice behind me said "man I tried to get you but I couldn't". I turned around and shook his hand, he was about 25 yo, and I said " I heard you coming thanks for the push".
We hung around for the awards because they usually give away some good stuff. And to my surprise they called my name as 3rd place in my division.Wow! I even got a little coffee cup for my trouble. My friend BOB got 2nd in his division. And the girl I started the race with got 1st in her division and by the way ran 1:10 flat with no gadget, now that is knowing your pace. The Hobbit set a PR by 5 sec. but the 45-50 yo group is pretty tough.
The next day they had the official times posted and much to my dismay I actually did not get 3rd. They must have missed someone or had someone in the wrong division but I actually got 4th. So I will give up my coffee cup.Damn! My time was 1:14:28
The next race is the big one Portland Marathon on October 5th, my 45th birthday. I need to run 3:30 to qualify for Boston. Wish me luck I think I'll need it.

Training,races,work and poiltics

Yes I'm going to touch on all of those topics, but just touch. Training has been sparce since Sunday's run....0 runs. Which leads me to the 3rd subject in the title work....If you know any Pharmacists, will you send them to Deaconess Medical Center please. I would really like to get someone to take my job so that I could start my new job. As it stands right now I'm doing both jobs but only getting paid for 1. But to be fair I'm really only doing the new job about 1/2 assed, so maybe I should get 1.5x pay. As for the 2nd item in the title I will be running the Sunday Sundae this Sunday, DAH. This is a tough 10 mile race that has 2 killer hills. The first one is a down hill that is a quad killer. It come about 2 miles into the race. The 2nd is an uphill gaurenteed to peg your HR. It begins at the 8 mile mark as a rather gradual climb then the last .5 miles is not quite "oh my God" steep but will definitly get your attention.
And as for politics I'm going to vote and so should you.

Rainy Days and Mondays

This is a picture from our deck. I would put our sunsets up against any in the world.

Well today is a rainy day and a Monday so it is a good time blog. This past weekend I had the whole house to myself, except for the dogs and cat. Jayne went up to Penticton to watch IM Canada. We had several friends doing the race one of which Jess is a good friend who has always been so supportive of Jayne. She, by the way took ~ 1 hr of her previous IM times. They were on different courses but it is still a significant accomplishment. Jayne is such a good friend to people. The most selfless person I have ever known. Jess did not finish until ~8:30-9:00pm and Jayne stayed until the end to see her finish. It's about 4 1/2 hr drive from Penticton and Jayne had to be at work this morning at 0745. She got home at 0220 and the alarm went off at 0600. She is going to be dragging her ass today. But to her it was all worth it because she got to see the look on her friends face when she finished. And I'm sure there are a 20-30 pictures to document the occasion.
Another friend Jon Moen did his first IM. Jon and I met last year at IM Canada. We were there to watch and he was signing up for this years race. Jon and I rode the course together, kind of, he kicked my ass. He had a great race 10:45 with a 5:19 bike split, good job Jon. Jon is on our tri team Tri-fusion. We had a couple of other people from the team do well as well Martin and Vicki Scates both went ~ 10:50.
The weekend did give me time to paint and to run. I ran a total of 32.5 miles. Friday was an easy 6.5 Sat. a fast 10 and Sun. 16. 16 miles is just hard. I held my goal pace for 14 but the last 2 had a couple of good hills and they spanked me. I ended up a little slower than planned and mentally I was whipped. This was ~ 30 seconds/mi slower than what I need to run in Portland to qualify for Boston and right now I don't see it. We will see what happens the next long run is 20 miles, that doesn't even sound fun.

addendum

I went to see a ENT(ear nose and throat doc) yesterday. Apparently the ER doc was wrong and I did not rupture the eardrum. Instead it is bruised with a bit of a blood clot behind the eardrum. Bottomline good news, I'll be skiing today.

Pleasantly Confused

Today I planned on doing a MAF test followed by some 1 mile repeats,which I did. However, the results have me a little confused. The MAF went terrible, from a pace vs HR standpoint. A total backslide from my last test. I don't know if this means I'm ready to add more intensity. Or did my drop off in volume last week have that dramatic of an effect. Or was it just a bad day, dehydrated etc. I don't know. But since I'm 8 weeks out from Portland I will assume it is time to add more intensity. So I did that today in the form of 5 x 1 mile repeats. The plan was to do a ladder off sorts with times not distances. So I would adjust my pace for each mile. I was to start at 7 min/mi for 1 st mile then 6:45, 6:30, 6:45,7:00. This is how it turned out.
mile 1 6:50 HR 169
mile 2 6:38 HR 172
mile 3 6:21 HR 175
mile 4 6:41 HR 171
mile 5 6:49 HR 170

Now the part that is cool, to me. The last 2 miles felt easier and not just because I was going a little slower. The pace seemed slower and easier with each rep. My 9th and 10th mile of this whole workout felt good. I've always had a tough time with the concept of perceived exertion. Hard is hard and easy is easy and all the rest is either not hard or not easy....I know you'd think I was smarted than that. but I'm not. But today I actually could tell that miles 9,10 were easier from an effort standpoint than miles 6,7. I liked this workout and will repeat it a few more times before the race. I will track them and see if there is any trend.
AS for the MAF here are those numbers. As I said a little disappointing.

mile 1 8:40 HR 141
mile 2 8:49 HR 145
mile 3 8:46 HR 147
mile 4 9:00 HR 149
mile 5 9:29 HR 147
So HR's are a little all over the place and this was my 1st 5 mile test as opposed to the 3 mile tests I've done in the past.

WHAT! I CAN'T HEAR YOU

Well the best laid plans can often go to shit. So yesterday I went skiing,as I often do this time of year. Actually before I got into the triathlon thing this was how I spent most of my time in the spring,summer and 1st part of the fall. The past few years though I have stayed off the water until my major race was over.This is because I didn't want to take a chance on getting hurt. If you have ever watched competitive water skiing then you'll understand this. But suffice it to say that the combination of speed and water can prove to be very painful. The picture is of a pro showing what the turn should look like. My turn coming out of the 4 ball did not go quite as planned. As I came around the ball my ski washed out and I basically smacked the side of my head on the water. The force was enough and the angle just right to cause my eardrum to rupture. OUCH! Long term prognosis is good. However I do have to stay out of the water for a week or two. So no race today. No water skiing for a while. So needless to say I'm pretty disappointed in how my summer is turning out. Next week I will go see a ENT and see how it is healing and find out if it will have to be surgically repaired. This could really screw up a dive trip planned for October but I will wait until I know for sure before I get pissed about that.


On a better note I am very happy to report that my brother has safely made it home from Iraq. I know his wife and 2 kids are thrilled to have dad back in the house. Welcome home Ron and thanks for all of your service to our country and the sacrifices that I know you have made.

TOUR DE 9 MILE

I went on a great ride yesterday with my buddy Pat. We always have great conversations with lots of laughs. It was Pat's longest bike ride ever, with just a little climbing. Needles to say he is in pretty good shape for an old man. And if you ever find yourself lost in the back country he IS the man you want looking for you.

CHANGING PLANS

Due to a work conflict I will not be able to do Troika this year. So instead I 'm going to do the CDA Scenic Challenge. This is an Olympic distance tri. It is actually the first "big" tri I ever did back in 1998. Of course the definition of big has change quite a bit since then. In 1998 I defined a long swim as a mile, a long bike was 30 miles and a long run about 8 miles. That same year I ran my 1st 1/2 marathon and it nearly killed me. The day after the race I went deer hunting and my legs were so toasted all I could do was walk out into the woods about 110 yds. and take a nap.I digress, I remember back then as I was training for that 1st oly. thinking how big of deal this was. Yea I've come a ways since then. Of course that makes me wonder what "big" will be in 2018.
This weekend I'm also going to run a little 8k cross country race that a friend of mine puts on The Toaster Splash after the race I'm heading up to Deer Park for our tri clubs kids triathlon to help out, should be fun/funny.

T.Boone Pickens

I like the sound of this.

MAF Test

Yesterday I did a MAF test prior to doing some 800's with Bob. The results of the test are pretty amazing. First though let me show you what my previous test results were.
test #1 11/3
mile 1 @ 141, 8:51/mi
mile 2 @ 144, 9:08/mi
mile 3 @ 143, 9:16/mi

test #2 12/4
mile 1 @ 143, 8:34
mile 2 @ 145, 8:48
mile 3 @ 145, 8:58

So as you can see I was making progress. This was doing exclusive MAF training. Of course since Jan. I was building up for IMCDA so most of that training is pretty low intensity as well but alot more volume. Then as you get closer to the race you add more intensity.

test # 3 7/15/08
mile 1 @ 144, 8:09
mile 2 @ 144, 8:14
mile 3 @ 144, 8:29

notice that my 3rd mile is faster now than my 1st mile was back in Dec. I guess that's progress.

Sharing Ideas

In the past couple of days I've some interesting,at least to me, interactions on the Internet. A couple were simple Q&A kind of things with Lucho another was a little support/pat on the back thing with Angela. The one that I found the most interesting though was a discussion with KP. He had quoted something on his website that I had commented on over at Alan's blog. The discussion in general is about aging as an athlete. Attitudes about it and attitudes in dealing with it and the like. So I wanted to share part of our discussion. You can go to the specific sites to piece it all together if you like but the last couple of emails should give you the gist.

KP-"Thanks for your post on my forum. I like to have lots of ideas on there and they don't all have to agree with me. However, I understood that you and I mostly agree on this subject of aging; but I wanted to comment to you privately so that it doesn't look like I am at odds with you if we are actually agreeing.

The point should be made that as we age and slow down we may be performing better than ever relative to our competition. Gordo's blog article on the 'aging athlete' http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2007/11/aging-athlete.html uses Ron Ottoway as an example. At 65 he went 11:57 and was second in Kona by 3min. At 70 he went 13hrs and was first by 60min. If he had stopped training and racing because he would never go sub12 again he would not have been the champion and missed great experiences along the way.

Are you sure you meant to convey the message you wrote about "aging big time athletes that won't quit and move on" to be part of your post? That doesn't sound like part of what I have been talking about and goes against what I hope we continue to see from Gordo and Molina, which is staying in the sport and maintaining great perspective."

Me-"Thanks for the chance to clarify my meaning. I'm talking about athletes whose prime in their sport is behind them and there is no room for future growth. For sports like football and basketball where there really is no way to continue to compete past a certain point.It would be great if MJ could play forever but I don't want to see him get smoked by Lebron. For Gordo and Molina and you and I we can continue to compete. Our times may get slower relative to our previous times but we can improve within our AG.Actually just continuing to push our bodies this way into the later years is a huge victory in and of itself. I'm kind of banking on that very thing. Like I said on AC's blog I did not even start this until I was 43 so I have lots of room for improvement. I'm kind of hoping that if I can stay healthy that at some point I can go to Kona. But hell at CDA this year I was 180/332 in my AG. Not exactly competitive, but an hour better than last year. This year I plan on qualifying for the Boston marathon not because I've gotten so fast but because I turn 45 on the day of the race and the required time decreases by 10 minutes.
I can see in Gordo's writing that he is coming to grips with the reality of age. I think he is dealing with all of those questions we all have as we get older in a very public way with alot of people watching and with an enviable amount of class. I personally can't wait to see what he is capable of accomplishing. He and Molina and all of you Epic guys pushing yourselves is one of the things that motivates me on a daily basis. I'd like to see Gordo be the first 60 yo go under 10hrs or whatever. It is about perspective. Even in the example I used above I would like to see MJ play with a bunch of guys his age. I'm sure he can still dominate them.
Does that make more sense?"

So what is so interesting to me about this?? For one thing all of us are spread all over the place and still able to have essentially live conversations. Secondly, people can actually have civil discussions and truly share ideas. And 3rd is the old idea that if a butterfly flaps it's wings in Japan does that cause the wind to blow in California. Sometimes it does.

POST IM GOALS

Well now that I feel fairly recovered and have started hitting it again. It's time to lay out the goals for the rest of the year. The original plan was to waterski a lot. With the new boat sitting in the garage all winter and spring it was calling loud. However thanks to $4/gal gas I can't seem to hear it calling as much. That combined with the fact that our ski clubs slalom course got totally trashed over the winter. Thanks to the people in the club that used it on a daily basis but seem to think that they shouldn't take it out without the help of those of us that have always done it. I digress. Next race Troika 8/3, local 1/2 IM with great point to point route. I've never done a half, but all the while I was training for CDA I was thinking that a 1/2 sounds like the perfect distance. One that I actually feel like I should be able to race, not just do, like IM. After that it's Portland's marathon 10/5. This just happens to be on my 45 birthday. Which means that my qualifying time for Boston gets pushed back by 10 min. So I need to run 3:30 to go to Boston, and that's the plan. My run fitness has gotten so much better since my only other marathon. Not to mention that I've learned so much about fueling and hydration. I know I can break 3:30 and I'm going to.

JAYNE

Let me tell you about my girlfriend. She IS an Ironman. To some of you her times may not sound to impressive. But those in the know, know just how impressive they are. Jayne finished this years IM in 14 h 20 min and some change. That is a modest 6 min. improvement over last years times. But a 6 min improvement is still pretty good. Most people that know her know she is a good swimmer and might think that she improved her swim time. Wrong!It actually was about the same. But because the water was pretty cold and she was fighting leg cramps she swam way wide in the course to minimize contact with the other swimmers grabbing her legs.
So was her improvement on the bike?? No that actually was slower this year. She too did not have as much bike time this year. With her longest ride also 82 miles,not the same 82 miles though as mine. She also had a few more stops this year.
No much to my surprise and everyone elses including Jayne herself. She improved her marathon by about 30 min. This is huge and I'll tell you why. 8 miles, that's the distance of her longest run leading up to IM. I'll bet she did not run 30 miles in the last 2 months. She had been fighting a nagging leg injury basically all year. Every time she ran she would re-injure her leg. A few days before the race though she was thinking that the seat height on her bike just didn't feel right. She had worked with Steve at 2 Wheel Transit on getting position dialed in, but the seat height had slipped or something. Anyway, the day day before the race we stopped at the bike shop and they made a cm increase in seat height, that's alot. So her plan for the race went something like swim her best,bike her best, then walk the marathon. We were expecting a midnight finish. But every time I saw her on the run, she was running. I thought cool, but she was way back. So after I finished and Tony and I loaded the bikes. We got a call from Janine,who had driven out on the course to see where Jayne was. She said Jayne has about 3 miles left. "Get the Fuck out of here" or somehting like that was my reaction. So we hobbled, I guess I hobbled, Tony was fine, back to the finish area and met up with Janine. And about 10 min. later here she came. Totally running and stroking it pretty good. Grinning ear to ear, she said "I'm going to beat last years time" and she did. I have never been prouder!! what a studdete!!
Lots of people would have never started that race given her prep. Not doing it was never even an option for Jayne. She is as tough as they come. She is an IRONMAN!!

IM CDA 2008

Well I did it, again. If you have been following along on this blog then you know I was less than optimistic about this year. With my work schedule 7x 10hr nights in a row then 7 days off it was hard to be consistent. Working nights adds an element of sleep deprivation that cannot be good. This combined with the addition of Otis, our Chocolate Lab puppy in Dec. made for many days with 4-6 hrs of sleep. The weather also took it's toll on my training plans. With the limited number days that I could ride my bike to start with being ruined by rain,snow and freezing temps. My pre race mileage was down over 900 miles from last year. with my longest ride being 82 miles.
The icing on the bike riding cake though was being hit by the car 3 weeks prior to the race on what was to be the beginning of my biggest week. My running, the 1 bright spot in my training early on, had fallen on tough times as well in the last 6-8 weeks. Minor injuries and a slightly mistimed peak had left me feeling a little flat and less than fast. As for the swim, I hate swimming! I never have like to swim. As far I can tell the only good thing about swimming, other than keeping you from drowning, is girls in swimsuits. The SWIMP3 made the training bearable but still not something that I looked forward to.
Ok so enough excuses you get the picture. Ironman is not for pussies,excuses or whining.
Race day morning came early 0330. Jayne and I opted to stay at home this year vs staying at her mom's house. We stayed at her house last year, and it did save us about 40 min, but sleeping in our own bed is sure nice. So after we both had some coffee and a successful BM we were off. We were about 8 miles from the house when I realized I had forgot my IRONMAN swim cap, shit! But it was not worth turning around for and we were sure they would have extras for all the other morons, they did. When we got to CDA we were a little concerned as we drove down Northwest blvd because the flags were flapping in the wind. But after parking and getting a look at the lake a feeling of relief no real waves to contend with. Compared to last year it was glass.
We dropped off our special need bags and drinks and helmets at our bikes. Filled our tires and double checked all the gear. I made sure my bike was in a lower gear so I could start off easy. After the body markers we put on our wetsuits and headed for the beach. We got to see Al and wish him luck. Boom! and we're off. The mass start of an Ironman is a clusterfuck beyond belief. Imagine 2000 people thrown into a 2 million gallon washing machine, and everyone trying to go to the same place. I think this actually works to my advantage though because it's the only part of triathlon which is a contact sport. For the 1st 1000 meters it's basically a fight for a place to swim. By the time we made the 2nd turn and headed back to shore it had spread out and I was able to get into a rhythm. I finished the 1st lap in 37 min. WOW! for me that's great. The 2nd lap was uneventful. But I was getting hungry, swimming makes me so hungry. Out of the water and to my surprise my legs felt springy, so I ran up the beach and to the wetsuit peelers. After they peeled my suit and stood me up I got one of the best head rushes of my entire life. Re-caged the giro and I was off to the change tent again with springy legs. I was actually high stepping over the other t1 bags on my way to the tent. T1 went faster this year but not much. swim time 1:17:07 T1 11:13
The plan for the bike was to start slow enough that I could eat a pbj, then hit it. Well I ate 1/2 the pbj, the rest was blob of mushy goo in the bottom of the baggy. Lesson learned do not cut into quarters. Time to cruise, now this is where I get confused. I passed tons of people all day long. Up hill, down hill and even on the flats. Now I did get passed but it sure seemed like I passed alot more people than passed me, but my bike time relative to others in my age group pretty much sucked. The difference between bike split and my bike computer was 8 mins. so with stopping to pee and getting my special needs bag that's not to bad. My garmin was a huge disappointment. About 3 hrs into the bike it starts telling me it has a low battery. The damn thing had been on the charger for like 4 days straight without being used. I don't understand what the idiot that designed a recharging system that actually loses a charge while being plugged in was thinking. I would think that the software could assess the charge and act accordingly, but what do I know. The Garmin issue was not that big of a deal on the bike but the run would suck without the pacing info. I digress. Towards the end off the 1st loop as you head back into town the head wind was brutal. I remember thinking that if this wind keeps up the 2nd loop will kill me. The wind must have subsided a little because the 3rd 1/3 of the ride was faster than the 2nd 1/3 but not as fast a the 1st. make sense?
bike time 6:29:27 t2 4:31
I do want to thank all of the volunteers that helped with this race. Having been a volunteer in the past myself I know that I liked feeling like I really helped someone have a good race. And for me it was the guy who helped me in T2. I don't know his name but this guy was great. He dumped my bag and was taking my bike shoes off. After changing socks he put my running shoes on my feet and my hat on head while I was eating and drinking. I know he saved me 2-3 minutes and allowed me to relax a little. I got to talk to Mike Bresson a friend who was also helping in the tent and got some words of encouragement from him. Which means alot coming from a guy that can run a 2:20 marathon. Got some sun spooge rubbed on me as I left the tent and back on the road I go.
With no gadget to tell me my pace nor a watch to figure it myself I was left to be a caveman. I ran on feel. I have no idea what pace I was running at first, or at second for that matter. But I did have an idea. When I would get to a mile marker I would ask someone standing there what time it was. Now this was not going to be a very good system for figuring my current pace, but it would allow me figure out roughly when I might finish. When I felt like I had settled in I passed my buddy Stan only he was going in the other direction. He is great rider and had pretty good day on the bike in retrospect he was about 41 mins ahead of me. Stan's a big boy though and I thought I could catch him if just stayed consistent and tried to push myself. I would know when I got back towards the second turn around if I was going to be able to run him down or not. It was a pretty nice day for a run the wind was a non factor and the support was great. My feet were killing me though. One of the nagging minor injuries I had been dealing with just would not go away. Of coarse my fix...a new pair of shoes... a model that I have run in but still brand new and a 1/2 size smaller than the other 2 pairs of those shoes that I have. So now not only do I have the normal soreness of my right foot, but now I have a whole new soreness of the big toenail of my left foot, gotta have balance. Like I said Ironman is not for pussies. keep plugging away counting my cadence in my head. People yelling "good job" "nice pace" "your doing it" for the first 5-10 miles I would say "thanks alot" or "thanks for your help" but by mile 10-20 it was reduced to "thanks". And from mile 20 on it was more of a grunt. By the time I got to the third and final turn around I knew I could catch Stan if I could maintain my pace and keep the wheels from falling off. We high fived each other as we passed, what a great competitor. 5 more miles of pain, I was drawing deeper and deeper into my own head. Counting cadence focusing on form the the occasional grunt towards a spectator. Now I have intentionally left Jayne out of this blog because her story deserves it's own blog entry. But I will mention her here just before mile 25 I saw her, we kissed, that's all I needed. I could see Stan in front of me now maybe 2 blocks. Right at mile 25 I caught him. I told him he was one tough MF to catch. What a great race he had. Last mile gotta pick up the pace, finish strong. I was passing people some with a second loop still to come and others on their way home with me. But nobody was going to pass me in the last mile no matter what, and they didn't. Now when I made the last turn and headed toward the finish line I would have sworn I running 7 min/mi pace. But according to the Hobbit no not quite 7 min pace, maybe 9:30. I felt fast, to bad that doesn't count. I was able to get the crowd fired up though which was fun and when I came down the shoot this year I did hear him call my name and call me an Ironman. run time 4:34:53 total time 12:37:09
For those of you keeping score that's a 57 min improvement over last year.
After the catcher helped me out of the finish area and I was waiting for Tony an Janine. I actually got a little choked up. Knot in the throat, watery eyes the whole thing. So for those of you that say I only have one feeling, I found it. Huge thanks to Tony and Janine for being there and Tony for helping me load everything up and Janine for keeping track of and continually motivating Jayne. Thanks to everyone that sent the good vibes my way it was appreciated.

TAPER???

This year has been weird. With the new job, doing part of the job not getting paid for it though. The new puppy, nearly 8 monthes old now. And weather that it indicative of the end of times. My training this year has been marginal at best. So there is no real need to taper. Trying to make sure that I'm getting enough rest. I'm not pushing if I feel tired. I am trying to make sure that all workouts are on pace though, after a warm up. I'm also trying to eat right, not just a lot, but good stuff. Big salads almost everyday with chicken or tuna. Fresh fruit and veggies as much as I can. And I've really cut my ice cream intake, one of my only vices. The other being coffee, forget it, maybe I can cut that down when I get off nights but not now.
On June 10 it snowed ???? WTF crazy weather.
The bike is dialed in I just got some new Pro race3 tires that I will mount later today. I plan on riding today and Sunday ~ 3hrs each with a short brick run. Next week will be a couple of short bricks a few open water swims and some strides. Then it's time to step up and see what happens.

POTENTIAL

This morning,as most mornings, I read Chuckie V's blog. He had a link to Kevin Purcell's page and a discussion about potential. They raised some very good points and below is my 2 cents.


As a 44 yo man preparing for his 2nd IM, I have been giving this a lot of thought. And not to be to argumentative but I think the question should be "what is my eventual" rather than potential. According to wikipedia,sum of all universal knowledge, Potential,n.1.Currently unfulfilled capacity to improve, develop, and achieve impressive feats. adj.2 Existing in possibility, not in actuality. Therefore a potential can never be reached. However if one asks himself/herself "how good will I eventually be if I".....fill in the blank.
1.continue this protocol
2.get a coach
3.spend more time on the bike
4.etc,etc,etc.
Chances are you still won't get the answer you probably want. We all want some finite answer and there isn't one. But you would be asking a better question of yourself. As for "knowing" if your close to your potential or not, I'm not sure. I do think we all have a sense of whether we are ready or not. Even then as Chuckie pointed out"HR does not not measure heart". Until the deed is done and we reflect upon it can we then say we did EVERYTHING we could, and got the most out of ourselves at that particular time. But I could potentially do better next time if I change xyz.
At this point in my life I just want to get the most bang for the buck so to speak. If Gordo is right and it take 10yrs/10000 hrs to get good. Then I won't be good until I'm 50-52. Hell, if I can still do this when I'm 50-52 that WILL be good.

Another First

Well today June 1st I had another first in my life. I joined the ranks of thousands that have gone before me. And, as with most things, it never quite turns out the way you thought it would. I'm not sure if it is unrealistic expectations or misinformation or just plain naivety that leads to that surreal feeling after a first time experience. Your head swims. Replaying the event over and over trying to figure out exactly where it was that what ended up being fate became inevitable. At what point was it destined to happen and/or could you have affected the outcome in some other way. So what "Cherry" did I have popped today.....I got hit buy a car. Yep, t-boned complete with a ride on the hood of he car. And just like on TV when the car came to a stop I went flying off the front. But being the stud athlete that I am...yea right. I was able to hit the ground running... sort of. I don't think I went down to the ground. My confusion has nothing to do with a head injury or loss of consciousness or anything I'm pretty sure it was anger. I saw the whole thing develop I knew it was going to happen. I was watching the girl that hit me as she watch the bikers I was following pass in front of her. And as is the case far to often she did not look back to the left before pulling out. The weather was crap and it was raining. I was on the brakes hard and was skidding slightly sideways. My years of motorcycle riding paying off so that I did not lay the bike down. Which would have allowed her to run OVER me, rather than into me. I was yelling at her NO!!!!! to late...BOOM! Time slowed way down as I was riding on the hood I swear I saw her mouth the words "I'm sorry" right before I launched off the front. She was terrified, poor girl was about 17. She was crying and apologizing. At first I was so pissed I told her not talk to me. The people that I was riding behind had heard the crash and had turned around to see if they could help. Thanks, to the 2 members of Badlands Cycle Team for helping me out. One of them tried to calm the girl down while the other tended to my bike, after I assured them that I was ok. The girl said she would pay for any damage to my bike to which I exclaimed "you don't understand I have Ironman in 3 weeks and you may have just screwed up a year of training". But as I began to understand that I truly was ok and that my bike was ok I calmed down. I then tried to interject a little humor by stating that the worst part is that I blew a hole in the toe of my favorite sock. Which is true I love those socks. I apologized to the girl for losing it and said "you had every right to lose it". We exchanged information and I told her it was ok, I was fine. My only real injury is a very sore left quad, she hit me on the right side. I think my quad hit the top tube of my bike. I climbed back on my bike and headed down the road. This happened at about 20 miles into a 100 mile charity ride the Loreen Miller Ride . I rode about 4 miles further at which point I decided that the pain in my leg was getting worse not better. So I thought it would be better if I called it a day and got some ice on my thigh. So at the next intersection I waited for Jayne and Jeff and Sean, who I started the ride with. Jayne decided to bail with me so she could drive me home, she IS the best girlfriend...ever.
Hopefully this will heel fast and I can ride by Tuesday at the latest I need a 100 miler.

IM CDA "uniform"

I've decided what I'm going to wear for this years IM CDA. Now those of you that know me know I generally put about 3 seconds thought into what I'm going to wear anywhere. But IM is different for one thing I'm going to wear it a long time. And for another I want to wear something that is meaningful in someway. Last year I wore a University of Washington jersey. And that was great I got a lot of cheers from the local Husky fans and some jeers from the local Cougar fans. And it's purple so it stands out and people can find you easier. This year however instead of making it all about me I've decided to do something for my brother. As you may know my brother is over in Iraq right now with the Marines. Now what you probably don't know is that I was in the Navy 20 yrs ago. And anyone that has been around either of these two branches of the service know of the love/hate relationship between the two. Very similar to Ronnie and I's relationship. At any rate to show my support for our troops and in particular my brother this is what I will be wearing come race day.

Been Busy

Yea it's been a few weeks since my last earthshattering entry. I've been busy trying to make up for all the time I lost due to crappy weather. Since I got off work Thursday morning I have road ~194 miles, run 31 miles. I have also missed 2 swim workouts. But trying to get time on the bike, takes time. I work with a guy, Eric, who's younger brother Brian is somewhat of a cyclist. Now when I say somewhat I mean he is the #1 ranked CAT 1 rider in Washington. Last year while riding for Western Washington University he took 2nd at the Nationals.A real Puss, if you know what I mean. He has been nice enough to ride with my old slow ass on a couple of rides during this 5 day stretch. We rode 82mi this morning and a had great ride. What's really cool about this kid, kid being 24. He seems to have a really good head on his shoulders. We talked world politics and religion and economics and relationships. 80 miles is along way and it gives you time to cover a vast array of material. At any rate we plug along at my slow pace and he never complained. He was just accepted into med school starting in 2009. So he is planning on riding his bike from here to Glacier National Park then down to Boise on ever to somewhere in Oregon then back here. All in all about 1600 miles...wow!! So until he leaves on that journey I hope to be able to get in a lot of good miles with him.

Bloomsday 08

Well Sunday's Bloomsday race was interesting to say the least. On the worldclass side of things a new course record was set by Micah Kogo in a time of 33:51. Which for those of you that don't know is superhuman fast. But on the local and frankly more interesting front, I ran a 51:36. I know what your thinking.....33:51 vs 51:36... you suck!!! and you're right I do. However, I sucked less this year than last. So I consider it a victory. In all seriousness though I had a pretty good race
and it was a 1:31 improvement over last year. But I did not meet my goal. I had hoped and really thought I could break 50 min. Now I'm not going to make any excuses but I do wonder if last weeks ankle injury and subsequant rest days without any running hurt me. I did run short 2 mile run on Saturday just to make sure the ankle was ok. But even on that run my heart rate seemed to go through the roof. At any rate I executed my race plan nearly flawlessly I went out a little to fast in the 1st mile 6:12 vs 6:30. But by the 2nd mile I had settled in at 6:31. When I rounded the corner at the college I was right on track at @ 6:42. Here is where I screwed up. This section is pretty flat so I should have been able to speed up to 6:30 pace again. Operative word being should. I did not. I actuallly slowed a little.So that when I started the down hill towards the bridge I was actually a few seconds behind. I did make this time up on the down hill. Thank god for long legs. So as I started up doomsday I was in pretty good shape. I think I was right around 6:31 pace(average). By the top of the hill my average had dropped to 6:52 and my HR was 174. But the hill had taken a toll and I slowed a little. I was able to pick it up again but it was to little to late.
The Hobbit and I were talking about why it is you just can't seem to make yourself push sometimes. It's so mental at that point. I mean hell I had even planned for this. The only reason I wore my HR monitor was so that when I got to the 2 flatish spots in the course that I could look down and see that I had plenty of room to push. In the case at the top of the hill my HR was 174. My LT is 177 so I should have easily been able to push 4-5 beats harder. Probably would have made the difference. Definitly would have allowed me to beat Tony, he got me by 21 seconds. All in all it was a good race. The weather was perfect. I continue to learn and I continue to improve. So I guess I'll keep trying.

CLUMSY BASTARD

Well I really screwed up on my long run on Sunday. 10 miles into a 16 miler and I roll my ankle and end up tits up on the sidewalk. After I get up and finish cussing at myself. I see Tony crossing the street ahead of me, he didn't hear my rant. So I start walking back towards where we started. After about 1/4 mile or so I decide to test it with some easy jogging. It goes ok as long as I land on a completely flat foot. so I plod along @ 9:30 pace taking a shortcut through the ghetto for 3.5 miles. I still only beat Tony by about 10 min.
So when I got to work I had my foot x-rayed,which was negative. So just a good sprain. So I'm icing it and resting it. Not sure if I'm going to run Bloomsday or not. I won't decide until Sat. Going to swim today and try my bike on the trainer to see if it hurts to pedal. If I can I will ride outside but I'm betting on the trainer for now. Just have to keep my fingers crossed. I'm just glad it's not broke. That would have ended the IM plan. Worst case now is that I will miss a little running. But I have built a lot of running fitness over the past 6 months so hopefully I won't lose much.

Back to Work Day

This is my least favorite day. I have to go back to work tonight. Not that I mind working, that's not exactly true. If I didn't have to work I wouldn't. I have plenty of things to do to keep me busy. But since Jayne is not independently wealthy and refuses to win the lottery. Then I must work. I am grateful though that I have a job. And that my profession is in such high demand. I got called by 4 head hunters last week. There are ~16 hospital pharmacists jobs here in the Spokane area. So it's good to be needed. But it's still a drag to go to work. Pharmacy, as you can imagine is a very boring tedious job. It's all about details, no mistakes,ever. It has it's excitement, going to codes always gets the HR up a little. And sometimes I know the outcome was improved because I was there. And that does provide some satisfaction. But this is not a fun job. Satisfying,gratifying,needed,important yea it's all of those but it's not fun. I guess that's why it's called work. I guess we all can't fly jets or play baseball for a living. And I know that everything becomes "work" after a while. Hell when a I was on the the ski patrol I got paid to ski and cause avalanches with dynamite, how great is that. But I also had to babysit people that couldn't ski and would get themselves into predicaments. So yea it's all work. So what does this ramble have to do with triathlon.....It too is all about work. It has some fun times with friends and the satisfaction that comes from a great workout. And don't get me wrong I like training. But bottom line it's work, hard work! The difference is that this is work I choose to do as opposed to work I have to do. So before I have to go to work tonight, I choose to get off my ass and run and ride my bike.

Weeks Highlights

Well this was a week of transition of sorts. From this point forward most of the workouts will be longer but less frequent. Thursday was a long day in that I worked all night Wed. stayed up and then met up with Stan and his buddy Tim at 1 pm for a ride. I had only planned on about a 30-35 miler. However I felt good and kept going. When we got to CDA I decided though that I had better not continue to hammer with these guys because I didn't want to screw up the rest of the weekends training. To ride from Spokane to CDA is very slightly uphill. The issue here was one of knowing my own fitness. This was the longest ride of the year, which totally sucks. So it was more important for me to get the saddle time without killing myself. The first 25miles I hammered with them and felt great. As the fatigue of the 25 miles@ 19 mph combined with the nearly 24 hrs without sleep began to get the better of me. So I made a choice. I told Stan and Tim to go on and I cruised at a comfortable yet steady pace. We had a pretty good headwind which upped the challenge and I also picked up a tail. Some guy that got on my back wheel and I pulled for about 10 miles.
Every time I would slow up a little he would then pass me thank me for the pull then ride ahead. But he was not able to hold his pace then I would catch him again and he would latch on again. Probably good for me.
Friday was a good 8.5 mile tempo run through the woods,caveman style. Felt real good. Swim later on Friday didn't go as well as I had hoped but I logged some time. Saturday was weights and fun. We got together with the Hobbit and his wife and took the dogs up to their lake place. The pups had a blast as you can see in the picture. Those 2 love to play with each other. The cool thing was since we were on neutral and new territory. They actually stopped wrestling a few times and just explored together. Which is what Tony and I hoped would happen.
Sunday was a 20 mile run. Hard! that's just along run. It went ok though. My training plan called for me to run this at 8:36 pace. I pushed it a little and was on pace to run it at 8:10 pace. The last 3 miles were a bit of a challenge and my pace fell off. Total for the run was 8:18 pace. I plan on doing this run 2 more times so I hope to run this more consistently as I get closer to IM.

Tough Finish

Sunday was a tough day for me. The plan was to work all night ride for ~2.5 hrs then run 9 mile brick. However, Jayne wanted to swim before our bike ride. So it was decided, notice I didn't say I decided, that I would run with the Hobbit then we would ride. So I met Tony at his office after I get off ~0815. It was a gorgeous morning. Sun shinning bright, actually warm in the sun. My run plan called for a 9 mile run since this is a run recovery week. Dumb dumb on the other hand wanted to go 12-14 miles. We compromised on 10-11 miles. So as we start out I fell like crap. My legs felt tired and heavy no springiness at all. Felt like I was running on a couple of salamis. But I figured I would loosen up an all would be ok. NOT!! the whole run was hard. My HR was ok, low 138-145. But my legs sucked. But it was a beautiful morning we saw AL, twice actually. We were running the same loop but Al was going the "wrong" way. In any event I logged 10.6 miles that felt like 26. Tomorrow will be a day off.

Finally Some Sun

Wouldn't you know it, now that I am back to work the sun is going to come out. I had 7 days off and saw the sun maybe twice, for a few minutes. Then the day I go back here comes the sun. The forecast is sunny and in the upper 60's this weekend. So we are looking forward to some riding outside.
Jayne and I rode today. I drove out to her work dropped off her bike and some clothes then I went ahead and started without her. I was able to get about 45 min. in before she got there. I actually could have got about 1.5 hrs before she finely got there, but that's another story. The ride went well for my longest so far this year a whopping 39 miles. But hopefully the weather will hold and I can really start to hit it hard.
The swimming is going ok. Elbow seems fine,for swimming, it still is screwed up though. I think I will be able to hold off until after IM to get it scoped.
The 18 mile run on Sunday was F&*^%*G hard. The Hobbit is no longer allowed to pick the route on long runs. This is not just me being a pussy either. We did a combination of the Sundae Sunday and a backwards Bloomsday. My gps is retarded so I won't tell you the elevation info that it showed but we did some climbing.
Speed work on Tues. went well, except I was late and really did not warm up. Unless you count my jog to the bathroom to pee before we started. We started with a mile, then 3x 800, then 2x 400. I tried to be smarter this time at least on the mile and the 800's. I let it rip on the back half of the 400's.
This is an easy run week. More of a bike and swim focus. I think this will be the first week that I ride more than I run. That's sad!

Back to the Pool

So on Friday after my PT appointment I went to the pool for the first time in a month.
The elbow felt fine but my swim fitness was crap. After about 800 my form started to waiver and by 1200 I'm sure it looked like I was having a seizure. But I know that will come back pretty fast. Now I just have to figure out how to fit the swimming back into my schedule. Jayne won't admit it but I think she was a little happy with my swimming performance. Not that she wants me to do bad or anything. Those of you that know her know she has never had a mean thought. But she likes being better than me at swimming. Before my elbow issue I was more than giving her a run for her money. But on Friday I could not keep up with her. And I think I saw a little smile on her face. Good for her.
We woke up Sat. to snow again!!! So it was bike on the rollers. I'm determined to figure those things out. I as able to ride with 1 hand and pull my water bottle out of the cage, take a drink and return the bottle without crashing or grabbing the wall. I was quite impressed with myself.
Today, as I'm typing this at the crack ass of dawn on Sun. is pretty much going to be hard. 18 mile run.....no matter how you slice it or the route you run,that's a long way. The route the "Hobbit" and I are going to run will totally suck. Lots of hills, but at least it's not snowing.....yet anyway. I will post more after the run as well as some pics of the puppies, Tony an LO are bringing Hudson over to play with Otis. As of Friday Hudson got off of his grounding by the vet. So we are looking forward to a fun play day.

Long Run, More Snow

I can't believe we are almost to April and it is still snowing. We got about 4-5 inches today, almost all while I was running. It was beautiful, but a little annoying. The flakes were huge and kind of wet. Towards the end it was balling up in the heel of my shoes. So it was like running in high heels. No I haven't actually run in high heels but you know what I mean. Part of my run was on a trail through Riverside State Park and that really slowed me down. The new snow was covering the frozen mtb tracks that are left from the winters snow in the shaded areas. So it made for some treacherous running and a few close calls. It would really suck to sprain and ankle or tweak a knee at this point.
As for the run stats, 16.5 miles 2:26:40 with avg HR of 149 and a max of 166. Pace was off due to that trail section I was nearly walking a few points. All in all it was a good run. When I was done I had about 2 inches snow on the bill of my hat.
This gave me just over 40 miles for the week running only 30 miles on the bike,what a puss.

More Snow

2-4 more inches are falling as we speak, or as I type. So it will be bike on the trainer again.....shit! The running is going ok though 24 miles so far this week with a 16 miler planned for Sun. Today my legs were a little tired the goal for the workout was 1 mile warm up then 5 miles at tempo pace ~ 7:30/mi. but after 3 miles at pace I was struggling a little. I think this is because Tony and I did speed work on Tues. with Bloomsday Road Runners at the SCC track. Then yesterday we ran most of the Bloomsday course, including the hill. So, long story, longer, I was tired.
Also on Tuesday I went to the doc about the elbow. I actually saw the PA. She shot an x-ray which shows a spur, but that's not the problem. She thinks,and the doc agreed, that I have a messed up elbow. So she shot some depo-medrol, steroid, into the irritated area and sent me to talk to the PT guys. The PT guy did some ultrasound, then some message,hurt like hell. Then some electrostimulation thing while it was wrapped in an ice pack. I'm continuing my NSAID and seeing the PT guy 2x week if it's not better in 2 weeks it may have to be scoped. But so far it is feeling better with the current regiment but I have yet to swim. We will see if I can't get to the pool.

Take the Test

This is a great video.

March in Spokane

So far I have missed 2 bike rides this week because of this weird spring weather. Yesterday it rained,snowed,haled, was sunny and windy. My plan was to ride after I did my intervals at the gym. The run was 8 miles total. 3x 1 mi @ 6:49 pace with 1/2 jog, warm up and cool down at <8:41 pace. It went well but was tough. Will have to put the bike back on the trainer, it going to rain again today. So I will ride and watch college hoops.

GOOD WEEK

This week was my first real build week. It was also the first outside bike ride of the year, sick of that trainer. Totals for the week 37.5 mi running, 67 mi biking. No swimming, my elbow is dorked up. You may remember I broke my elbow a few years ago wake boarding. And out of the blue it started hurting a couple of weeks ago. Then 1 day in the pool I was cruising along and it was sore, but bearable. Then my hand hit the wall,not hard, but it sent a shock through my arm and my elbow was done. Ever since then I can't even do a push up. So I go to the doc on the 25th.
The running is going well. I actually ran a 5 mile race yesterday, The St.Paddy's 5 miler. I had worked all night then ran from the hospital to where the race started, 4 miles. Then ran the race, then ran back to the hospital. This gave me 13 miles for the day with a Heller 5 mile tempo run in the middle. The race went well for me 34:10 6:50/mi. I was happy. The Hobbit wasn't happy. He went out a little to fast and was sucking ass by mile 4. He still beat me though,bastard. All in all it was a good race, great temp. They do not have results posted yet so not sure how I ranked, except I know BOOB beat me, but not by much.

17 MILES

Today the Hobbit and I set out to run 17 miles. That's a long way! Beautiful day here in Spokaloo. This morning it was a crisp 39 with a layer of fog that would burn off about 6 miles into our run.Now my goal for the day was to keep my HR below my MAF at 145. The Hobbit, being a lying piece of poop said he too was going to run off his HR. I wasn't until we were about 4 miles into the run that he fessed up that he didn't even have his HR monitor on. Which would explain why when I looked down we were running 8:20/mi and my HR was 153. So I gave him the 1 finger wave and proceeded to run my run. There were quite a few people out walking their dogs and riding bikes and even a few other runners. It's always nice to see alot of people out using our great resources here. For those of you that have not been to Spokane. We have a paved bike/walking/running path, The Centennial Trail that is protected from traffic for most of it's length. It starts out by my house in Nine Mile and goes all the way to CDA,Id. about 65-70 miles. I digress, stats for the run are 17 miles 2:40:47 9:27/mile ave HR 145

SNAKE RIVER HALF REALLY BLEW

But I mean that in a literal way. The freaking wind was crazy. Not sure how fast it was blowing but there were white caps on the river. The temp was great about 44 but because of the wind blowing off the water it felt about 24. So I started out wearing to many clothes. By about 4 miles I was stripping. There are a couple notables with this race for me. First off this year I ran 7 minutes faster than last year. That is a huge improvement. Now the Hobbit thinks that last year I ran like a puss. Which is possible but I don't think so, maybe a little, but not 7 minutes worth. Last year's condition were also perfect,cool, no wind, perfect. Which means this years result are that much more meaningful. I know what your thinking the wind was at your back going one way and in your face going the other. No! the first 6.5 miles the wind kind of swirled, sometimes at our backs sometimes in our faces but mostly hitting us sideways. But on the way back particularly miles 7.5-11 it was dead in our faces. At mile 10 with the exact same cadence and stride length my pace dropped from 7:10/mile to 8:15/mile and my quads were on fire definitely above LT. Needless to say I had to back off a little. I was saved at about 11 miles when a woman who was pretty tall passed me. I was able suck in behind her and draft for about a mile to recover. Then I passed her and left her, it's a race right. I think I beat her by 55 sec.
The Hobbit beat me again,Bastard!!!. I think he benefited from being 3ft 6". the wind went right over his nappy little head. At any rate he ran a 1:35:25 and I went 1:37:44.

TRAINING

I know I have not been writing much about the training, mainly because I've been busy training. Last week was pretty big ending with a 15 mile run on Sunday with the Hobbit. I've been riding on the trainer about 3x a week with the long ride being about 1.5 hrs. It really sucks too. I don't know how these people put in 5-6 hrs on a trainer and go 20+ mph. The sun is suppose to come out pretty soon and melt this snow then we will be able to put in some good miles. As for swimming well I still suck but I suck less than I used too. This Sat. we are running the Snake River Half Marathon. This is a totally flat run right next to the Snake River. Last year was our 1st time running it and we had a great day. From what I've been told though when the wind blows down there it really rips. Forcast for Sat.....windy and rainy., Should be great! I'll post our results on Sat.

PUPPY PICTURES

Just a couple of pics of Otis and his brother Hudson. Jayne has taken about 1000.

BEEN BUSY

I have been real busy. If you have been paying attention to the weather, we got pounded with snow. So like any good triathlete I have been cross training. And by cross training I mean I have been running, biking, skiing and swimming in just about that order. This past weekend my best friend from high school came out from Indiana, with his son, to go skiing. The week was quite full before they got here on Thursday. We skied Friday, Sat. at Silver Mt.
Then Sunday the Hobbit and I met at 0700 for a 13 miler. We had a great run even though Tony had to make 2 trips to the crapper. Must be some kind of record. At any rate I was home and in the shower by 0930. Then I took Mike and Vader up to MT. Spokane to ski. It was alot of fun to ski with Vader, he is 13, so pretty fearless. So I took him with me for most of the day and made him ski off the groomed and in the trees. We had a blast hitting the jumps in the woods then racing to the lifts. By about 3 pm though I was toast. I was at that dangerous stage wear your brain sends the signal and body says yea, sure, right.....were you with us when we went for that run this morning????? Maybe we miss this turn here and run your dumb ass into that tree. So I quit. The rest of the day didn't go quite as planned thanks to a car malfunction but Tony and Laura came over and spent most of the day at our house and brought Hudson, Otis' brother. And I don't care what anybody says, 2 puppies playing is one of the funniest things on the planet. These guys beat the crap out of each other for hours. So much so that the next day Otis layed around all day. Dogs too need recovery days. I'll post some pictures later this week.

I Needed This

This week has been tough. Coming off last weeks cold/cough and limited training. This week it has been hard to get going. But I think this video is the spark I needed

THE PUPPY IS GROWING

I took Otis to the vet this week for his last set of shots. 3 months old and the vet said he looks a month older. He weighed in yesterday at 28 lbs. Here are some pics.

YEAR END TOTALS

Well this is a little late due to holidays and going to see Ron and his family. At any rate here are my totals.

Swim Distance: 72.88 miles Swim Time: 51:18 hrs 73% OF GOAL
Bike Distance: 2567.95 miles Bike Time: 165:28 hrs 64% OF GOAL
Run Distance: 1256.98 miles Run Time: 200:02 hrs 84 % OF GOAL
Total Miles: 3897.81 miles Total Time: 416:48 hrs.

I'll tell you the truth it sure seemed like more than that. I fell short of all of my goals, but was pretty close on a running. My goals were swim 100 miles, run 1500 miles, and bike 4000 miles. And its pretty easy to see that time on the bike is a problem. 64 % of my bike goal directly correlates to my less than great Ironman. If you average out the % of goal for all events that would give me a ~74 % a low C, that's about what I think about my Ironman a low C. So needless to say I have a lot of room for improvement. So goals for this year will stay the same as far as my distances, but I have to improve on the completion rate. My emphasis though has to be the bike. I think a 10%-15% improvment in the bike would make a huge difference in the race. We shall see.

HTFU

I found this video and had to share it.....Man after my own heart.
Hey Hobbit HTFU

Fell off the Wagon

Well today I was at the end of my rope. I just couldn't take it anymore. I got on the treadmill and started my daily slog. But 2 miles into my Max HR of 145 running I couldn't take it any longer. I pressed the button to increase the rate thinking I would speed up just a little. But as I sped up it felt great. The faster I ran the better it felt. I quit when I got to 6:58 pace. I ran at that pace for 1/2 mile, then 1/2 mile at my slog pace. I repeated this for 3 reps, then a mile of cool down at slog pace. It felt so good to feel my lungs just beginning to burn a little. I got my HR up to ~176 on the last rep. This is just below my LT .I was a little worried that I may have screwed up the past 2.5 months of MAF training but Lucho assured me that it will be fine. I new that if I was at a plateau that it was time to start adding some speed work. I'm actually due to do anonther MAF test this coming week. But after this past weekend long run, 13.1 miles. I felt totally stale. I needed something,I hope this was it. We will see on Saturday when we retest.

1 WEEK WITH OTIS

This week has been fun with Otis. We have got to discover so many new things. He got to play in the snow and play with his new toys. Today we are taking him with us over to Tony "the Hobbit's" house. As it turns out Tony and his family got one of Otis' brothers. They got a yellow one and after much debate have piked a really bad name, I think. His name is Hudson.....I know a river, a crappy car.....Hudson stupid....Tony had come up with a great name....Miles. That is perfect...after all one of the reasons we wanted these dogs is to run with us, hunt with us and in general cover alo of MILES. I thought it was a great play on words but his stupid girls out voted him. Oh well. Here is a great video of Otis with one of his toys.

Tough 12 mile Run

The long run this week was a 12 miler. It was a crisp 27 degrees with cloudy skies, snow didn't start until we were done. The weird thing about this run was that my HR seemed to creep a little higher than I thought it should have. This then made me run a little slower. The tough part was that "the Hobbit's" HR was low....meaning he could have left me in the dust. We are pretty sure that his HR monitor is a piece of crap. Hopefully Santa will bring him a new one.
Otis got his first exposure to snow and loved every minute of it.

My New Training Partner

With Tony "The Hobbit" getting slower I thought I should get a better training partner. And like Tony this one too shits in the woods ,but does not need to rip off his sleeves to wipe his butt. I would like you to meet Otis. He is not quite as fast as Tony yet, but he is almost as tall.

MAF TEST #2

Last week marked the fourth week of our MAF only training. We had planned a test for Sat. but as luck would have it the track had about 6 in. of snow on it. Thanks to the pineapple express we had 2 days of rain and today's temps were ~50. So off to the track we went. We did have about 25 mph winds to contend with but it was OK. The wind was blowing such that we either had it in our faces or at our backs on the straits.
test #1 11/3
mile 1 @ 141, 8:51/mi
mile 2 @ 144, 9:08/mi
mile 3 @ 143, 9:16/mi

test #2 12/4
mile 1 @ 143, 8:34
mile 2 @ 145, 8:48
mile 3 @ 145, 8:58

So I have improved!! Bottom line. Even though I actually thought I was getting slower, I wasn't. Tony improved as well but not quite as much as I did. I think he is running with a slower cadence to run slower. With his little hobbit legs he always ran with a high cadence but now that we have slowed down I think his cadence has as well, which is making him work harder, ie increased HR. It's not a big difference but by the end of the 3 miles I was about 3/4 of a lap ahead of him. Well I guess if you extrapolate that out over 26 miles....that would be a little over 1.5 miles...I'll take that.

PICS FROM CANCUN

Here are some pictures from our trip to Cancun.

ANOTHER 50+ MILE WEEK

Tony "the Hobbit" and I had another big week. I had 51.3 miles and Tony had 56. This was a pretty big jump for us from last week. But we both feel pretty good. My left ankle is a little tender. My new shoes are not quite right for me. I bought a pair of Saucony Trigon 4 shoes this week. They felt great out of the box but not so great after 30 miles. I hate trying find new shoes. I wish the Newtons had a little more support. They are good for the 1st 13 miles. I just don't think I could run a marathon in them. They do make me faster though.

Dr.J had a real nice post on his blog about he and his brother's. It got me thinking about Ronnie and I and the fact that we have spent all of our adult lives living so far apart. Despite our differences when we are together we have alot fun working out together. We always play some basketball, he is tough on the boards. When he was up here a couple of years ago I took him mountain biking over in Idaho and we had a blast. He sucking wind on the 7 mile ride up this logging road but ripped it up on the singletrack through the woods. He even had a pretty crash. My friends that went with us were amazed that it was his first time on a mountain bike. But Ronnie and I both rode a million miles on our bmx bikes when we were kids.We also have had alot of fun running together. I'm lookng forward to running with him in January. I'm going down to San Diego to spend a little time with him before he heads back to Iraq. This will be his 3rd tour over there, this war. He was also there in the first war. We should all sleep better knowing that he is one of Marines helping protect our country, I know I do. As for my other war hero/daughter, Shandra will be getting out of Navy soon and be coming back to Washington as a civilian. She has been in Iraq/on the carrier for the past 6 months. I'm really proud of her!
I guess this is what Thanksgiving is about, for me anyway. A brother and daughter

The Streak Ends at 38

Well as much as I hate to admit it life got the better of me on Wednesday. I ran out of time then motivation. So 38 days in a row of running. By far the most I have ever done. So since I had had a day off Tony "The Hobbit" and I ran 12 miles on T-day. It was a great run. Cold, about 22 when we started,may have warmed up to 25 by the time we were done. Still on track for a big volume week with 27 miles heading into Friday. I started back to work today though so that will slow me up a little.
But I should be able to get 7 a day for the next 3 days.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

The Streak Continues

Well, now that I have successfully completed the 30 in 30 I'm well on my way to the 40 in 40. As it stands right now it's 36 in a row. What is surprising to me is how well I feel. What is frustrating to me is that my HR has yet to respond. But as I've been told over and over, I need to be patient. I have been logging alot of miles, for me anyway. This past week was no exception with just over 37 miles. Tony "The Hobbit" Dibartolo and I have been talking about increasing the volume. After talking to some of friends that are better runners than we are. As well as my continued reading of Chuckie V, Lucho and Gordo. We are convinced we need to get closer to 70 miles. However we also think we need to build up slow, 10-15% per week. This of coarse was totally screwed up a few weeks back when I jumped from 30 miles to 51 miles then back down to 35 miles. So I will just add them as they feel. I'm going to increase the daily runs to > 1 hour and the long runs to > 1.5 hours.

Great quote

I just read this quote and thought it was profound enough to share with the world. Or at least the people in my world.
I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all. -- Leo C. Rosten (1908-1977) American Writer
As hard as it would seem to be able to sum up a human life in a single paragragh this comes pretty close.

FINISHED THE 30 IN 30

Today wraps up the the 30 in 30 challenge. I had to run a double today. Which meant I had to run this morning after I got off work, then slept about 7 hrs and got up and ran again. It also meant that I missed my son's band, Drawing Two, second live performance. But they have another show on the 28th that I will go to.
As for the last few runs they were all run on the treadmill. We have a new treadmill that has been in the garage since early Oct. We had no place to put it in the house until Kellen got his drum kit out of the way. But now it's set up and has already made life easier. It's a pain in the butt to go to the gym before work and about half the time when I try to use the treadmill we have at the hospital some fat chick is walking on the damn thing.
Anyway the last 2 runs went like this.
29 /4.65 /45:00/141/9:40
30 /4.32 /45:00/140/10:25
This treadmill has a program that allows me to put in a target HR and it will make adjustments to keep it there +/- 3 BMP. All but 2 of ther other runs throughout the month were outside using my Garmin 305. So I'm sure that there is some variability between those 2 HRM's and also pace calculations via gps and treadmill.
If you read the comment Lucho put on my last post you'll see that he is suggesting that I continue as I am. When I whinned about not taking a little break to recover. he said "Taking your fatigue and muscle breakdown to the edge of "too much" and then resting is the true art of training. In order to stimulate growth we need to force our bodies to adapt and that's never a comfortable thing". And if you have taken a trip over to his blog and seen the kind of numbers he puts up then you know that I'm going to keep plugging away. Of course I'm listening to my body because unlike Lucho, I'm old. And I haven't been doing this endurance stuff most of my life. Tony is being a bit of a sissy about the whole thing though. Whinning and crying about how he has been looking forward to a break. I told him to take his skirt off and put his running shoes on.

30 IN 30 UPDATE

Well, I think I'm going to make it. Right now I've done 28 runs in 29 days. So with a double either on Su or Mo I'll have done it. Here are the numbers through run 28.
23 /5.3/51:10/138/9.39
24 /5.63/55:46/140/9:54
25 /4.85/47:04/138/9:42
26 /5.32/50:59/139/9:35
27 /4.85/45:00/141/9:16 on treadmill at work
28 /4.59/45:00/144/9:48 on treadmill at home

I think my body is feeling the cumlitive effects of this challenge. Not that I feel tired or sore or anything but I don't feel fresh. So when this comes to an end on Monday I will take 2 days off then start my next phase. I'm not sure exactly what that will entale but I think I will run 5 days a week 1-1.5 hrs with 1 long run closer to 2 hrs. I want to keep my milage up above 40 and my running time >8 hrs. I will also begin to focus more time on swimming. DR.J and his crew have started 30 swims in 30 days....that ain't happening. But I will get to the pool 3-4 times a week. I will also ride the mtn bike, nothing technical just climbing and spinning. The Serotta will be on the trainer for 4-6 hrs of spinning per week.

BIG WEEK

Wow this was my biggest week ever in terms of miles ran and number of runs. Total miles for the week 51.6. Total number of runs for the week 10. So I was able to make up 3 of the runs that I missed earlier. I also did a MAF test yesterday. For those of you not familier with this test it is a way to gage your fitness. After a warm up you run 3-5 miles at a constant heart rate (HR) as your HR increases you slow your pace to maintain the HR. You do these tests every 3 weeks or so and watch the trends of each mile. The HR that is used is based on a formula 180-age. There are also some adjustments that can be made. So for me 180-44=136 then based on my current fitness I added 5 beats. This gives me a max HR of 141. However I have also had some physiologic testing done that measured my lactate thershold (LT) at a HR of 177. Based on this number, using Joe Friels/Training peaks this calculates the top end of my zone 1 at 151. So what I did was split the difference and set my Garmin to a range of 135-145. And this is what I got when I did the test.

mile 1 @ 141 8:51/mi
mile 2 @ 144 9:08/mi
mile 3 @ 143 9:16/mi

So we will repeat the test every 3 weeks for a total of 12 weeks. All of my runs will be at this slower lower HR as well. As for the 30 in 30 challenge here are the runs to finish out his week.
16 /5.33/ 47:16/157/8:52 this was the 1st make up run, 2nd run of the day
17 /5.3 / 49:39/144/9:22
18 /5.29/ 45:00/146/8:30
19 /5 / 45:00/143/9:00 MAF test with wu/cd
20 /5.04/ 49:06/138/9:44 2nd run of the day and 2nd make up run
21 /5.24/ 52:43/138/10:03
22 /4.94/ 51:11/141/10:21 2nd run of the day and 3rd make up run also went for short mtn bike ride in between the 2 runs.
So this puts me at 22 runs in 23 days. A little sore but not to bad. Lucho gave me some needed encouragement with regards to the discipline and patence required for this low HR training. And for some great reading check out Chuck V