Goin' Up the Country...

I used to know this guy many years ago who was on the USA Biathlon team. You know...cross country ski so hard your heart rate is plastered to the roof of your mouth, then pull a snugly slung rifle off your back, drop your heart rate to nada and shoot at 5 targets, skiing off again and repeating the process for some insane distance. He used to train at Lake Placid.

I'm off To Lake Placid, NY to train for a few days on the Ironman course! Swim the swim, bike the bike and run some... Leave tomorrow and back on Wednesday. Looking forward to getting away and bashing around the High Peaks region for a few days. I find it quite relaxing to get out in the middle of Mirror Lake, stop and look around at the trees and the sky line of the town...

Contrast that with long climbs and white knuckle descents at 60 mph on 1 inch tires.

Running is well, running it's part of me so I enjoy it anywhere in any weather...

Maybe as I ride by the Biathlon range I'll stop and for a fee take a few cracks of the old .22 and see if I have an eye left for it. I used to shoot well.

Training rehash when I get back.

Keep turning those cranks, putting one foot in front of the other and get busy livin'!

Why I have an IM tat...Redux.

This is a post for 2006 when the topic came up on the Trifuel website.

I've added a few things and adjusted some of the writing. Maybe it's better, but really I don't GARA if it is or not:

After I did my first Ironman in 2003, I got an Ironman logo tattoo. The one you see here.

It was just a few days after the race and I fell asleep in the chair. Some folks thought I was bragging, self-focused and big headed to have that thing on my calf. "Oh! Look at me! I'm an IRONMAN!

They don't know me.

Getting the tat had NOTHING to do with finishing Ironman. It did have everything to do with getting to the start line in one piece and with some sanity. The previous ten years of my life had been tragic and I mean that in the classic sense.

Tragedy: Noun Dealing with a serious theme, typically that of a noble person whose character is flawed by a weakness which causes him to break moral precept and which inevitably leads to his downfall or destruction.

My Dad died and for awhile I lost my moral compass. My marriage shattered, I ended up in a relationship I should never have been in, lost everything including my self respect and almost didn't make it. There were days I wanted to jump off of something really high.

Little by little, I started to come back.

I started to train for Ironman Lake Placid in 2002, but my Mom became ill and died. My sisters and I cared for her. It was ugly. With the help of family and a good therapist I was able to leave a horrible relationship, get myself righted and see my situation for what it really was.

"Re-called to life" if you read Dickens.

I signed up for IMLP 2003 and, despite some brief mis-steps in my personal life, was able to get back what I had lost.

My dignity, self respect, and the goodness inside that had been lost too long under an bad influence.

Training was hard...there were days I didn't want to get out of bed, but did, because Ironman was the path back to myself.

Standing there on the shore on Mirror Lake the morning of Ironman I knew...the kid was alright.

The Tat was a symbol of all that, of being back among the living, of being whole again, of being better than the darker angels we all carry inside of us.

Things have come together, now, and as I prepare for Ironman Lake Placid on July 26th of this July, my fourth. I am back to who I always was.

Time. Time. Time.

Where does it all go?

Mom's birthday was this week. She would have been 86. This is the 65th anniversary of Dad being drafted. It's been 17 years since we buried him.

Mary Lou and I have been together for five and a half years, every minute a hoot!

I'm ending my 19th year in my current position.

I started running 40 years ago this fall, and biking not long after.

This July, about the same time I'm doing IMLP, will be the 4oth anniversary of when I started climbing...while I don't get out much now due to time constraints, it still calls to me and I miss it. It's just too hard to find climbing partners in my age group and, sorry to say, I don't have the patience with youths the way I used to.

Classes are done for the year at the high school. Finals Monday. The long looked for break is here. I'm tired. The kids are tired. The other staff are tired. This school year has gone on about two weeks too long.

Suddenly,too, there are 6 weeks till Ironman Lake Placid. Where the other 20 weeks of the training schedule went, I am not sure...

This is currently a low volume week. Well needed. I was cooked at the end of the last training cycle. But that's the point isn't it? Not complaining...as I tell kids at school: "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

Have 2 centuries (100+ mile rides) under my belt this 3 week cycle with weekly totals around 200.

The long runs are building and 3 hours now is easy. Swimming still seems to be a problem. Doing ok, but losing the high school pool was a blow. Now I have to swim with...people! Share lanes and all that. Now my momma taught me to share but having a pool to yourself sure is nice!

Heading off to Placid at the end of the month to train for a few days.

Medical terminology class is going well. Learning tons, but If you've been around awhile and have had some of the procedures we talk about it helps. "Why yes. I know exactly what a cystoscopy is! And yes, they do put you to sleep." Also good that I've already had Anatomy and Physiology.

In fact, time to go study...

Training on the Hamster Wheel

Must be a BIG wheel!

For some folks when they are training for an endurance event, they go for long bike rides or long runs in an out and back format, running or riding to hell and gone.

I Like that too, but I'm not afraid of "The Wheel." Riding or running a shorter course in loops...one after another, after another, after another....

This weekends training is a case in point.

Saturday I rode 106 miles. All of it on a 7 mile rolling course. Some good little climbs and descents and NO flat areas. 

Took the first hour easy, getting out the kinks and making sure all felt well. Brought the pace up for four hours, sticking to a revamped eating and drinking schedule. and just hummed along.

The beauty of a loop course is that you can gauge how you're doing from lap to lap. You can go easy one lap and hard the next...you see the same big hills each time and can gauge your performance 6 hours into a ride... I know what some of you are thinking. No, I don't listen to music while riding..that's just stupid. One must be aware of what's going on all around, with cars, dogs, walkers and who knows what else.

The real benefit of this kind of riding , for me anyway, is that it gets me ready for two fall events on the schedule. The 24 Hours of Booty, a fund raiser for the Lance Armstrong foundation, is ridden on a 3 mile loop for 24 hours. Several weeks later The Triple Ironman.   The bike portion is 336 miles on a 5 mile loop. I have found from years of training for Ultra marathons that the mental game is most important. Now, loops drive some folks insane, but I've learned to not even notice the loops anymore...I just ride.

A good point to point trail run is fun...Fastpacking large sections of the Appalachian Trail is just too cool...but stiff mental training can be found running a two mile loop for hours on end.

Running through the day and watching the light change and seeing wildlife drift in and out of the scene. Today's 2 and a half hour run in "The Park" next door ( a 6,300 acre state park and wildlife management area) was on trail and road loops...saw two fox, some deer, including the smallest button buck I'd ever seen, Some Great Blue, Turtles galore and the odd ground hog...and I mean odd. He at up to watch me run by. They usually tear off in another direction.

Loops rock.

Training is going well...the big bummer this week was that the school at my high school (where I can swim alone) is closed for repair. Now I HAVE to go to the local aquatic center to swim...laps.  My nutrition for the the longish ride yesterday was spot on.  

Taking a Medical Terminology class this summer which has started, so I've shifted my training week to run from Tuesday to Monday. Tuesday off for class and additional course work. Career change here I come.

One more week in this three week cycle. IMLP in 8 weeks.

12 days of school left until summer vacation. Wa-HOO!

Where's the fork...

Put a fork in me..I'm done. Busy week and all went well...sort of.

Managed to get in 215 miles on the bike in the last eight days and I'm quite happy with that...hit the other Ironman training stuff, pretty much. 27.5 miles instead of 30 running and got in 3 swims with the longest at 1:15. Also was out for three hours of Trail work on the Greenway Trail Saturday with a crew including ML. (That's her in the pic) Lots of heavy lifting and digging and general manual labor.  The trail is the site of the Greenway Marathon and 50 K each spring. ML and I run on it often and we are overseers for a small section down by the Potomac.  We can reach it easily from our front door. Anyway, all that work made for a very interesting 76 mile ride in the afternoon. Todays 2 hour run just sucked. That's running...somtimes you have to "carry the bear."

Looking down the pipe line at a rest week this week. Will drop form 16 hours to 8. Yeah! Now don't get me wrong: I knew the job was dangerous when I took it, but rest weeks are great! Lower volume, a bit of a mental break and a chance to catch up on everything that slides by the way side when training is like a second job.

Mothers Day, today...what can I say. Mom has been gone since 2001. I miss her at times but more often that not, I don't.  To each their own relationship with their parents, I guess.

27  days of school left and it can't come too soon.

Signed up for the 24 hours of Booty this week...a fund raiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Ullman Caner Fund. September. Two weeks before the Triple Ironman and perfect for a last loooong ride before the taper.  If you'd like to donate to my total you can do so at www.24hoursofbooty.org  Thanks!

Weak 14 (sic)

Week 14 of the current Ironman training cycle....was more like "Weak 14."

I'm feeling much better after having had a cold since the 24 hour run but am still building back up. Glad I was sick well before the piggy flu hit or I would have been off to the doctor and probably stuck in the house. Not a lot of energy at times.

Had some good rides this week for a total of 135 which isn't anywhere near where I wanted to be this week, As to running, I still seem to be a bit congested and running, while better isn't the best. Swimming was fine with a long swim on Thursday with a main set of 2000 meters sustained.

All in all, while I feel weak, I had no ill effects, muscle wise from the 100 kilometers I ran two weeks ago...no soreness, no aches and pains and the feet healed up wicked fast!

The coming week will have swims at the 1 hour 30 minute mark and I hope to crack 200 miles on the bike. Running will still be modest. Hour total for the week should be 16 to 20.

On the advice of one of the students at school I downloaded some Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and 12 Stones to the ipod. Not bad...

Racing into the future...