Anton's Path

Times change and so do I!

2011-07-06T13:17:00.000-07:00

Have re-booted the old blog http://agingsuperhero.blogspot.com
Slide on over there and so what I'm up to!

My take on the food in BA

2011-04-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't have a morsel of bad food in BA. Not a single glass of so-so wine. Every beer was good. The food in BA is just killer....

When we arrived in BA we were starving and just wandered up the street from the hotel until we found a little hole in the wall Locuteria (internet cafe) that was also a sundries shop and had some guy cooking food....Ham sandwich, Quilmes beer and a few empanadas later...I was hooked on BA food and I hadn't even had the good stuff yet!

We hit a landmark old school restaurant the next day and here's a pic...Ensalada mixte, befe "mini" and papa souffle (puffed up french fries cooked in fat and just wicked good. I'd never had anything like it. That's it just below.

And that STILL wasn't the good stuff. Some good friends had us out to their "campo" for an Asado (barbacue) a few days later. All the meat you see below was from the farm. Goat, pig sheep and all sorts of other things that melted off the bone. All natural, grass fed, no chemicals and that's not some special thing they do on the property. ALL the food is like that. Fresh. Local. No crap. Real food.

The Argentines take great pride in the quality of their food. From breakfast in the hotel (included) to the stuff off the street it was all good.
Out to eat one night with a family friend we went to an Italian restaurant. I had the best pasta I have ever eaten. La Parlaccia. Fabulous. Period. And this was just a neighborhood place!

Some remarkable points: I didn't find a single product with High Fructose corn syrup in it and that included a Coke and Pepsi. The labels read Water, Sugar...
I don't do that well with red meat. It bothers my gut. In BA I had it everyday and it was delicious and I didn't have a single problem. Meat with no chemicals in it. No hormones. No God-knows-what. My wife is lactose intolerant (we call her a lactard). She drank milk, ate cream and ice cream and not a single stomach issue. She didn't take the lactaid pills she does here. She remembered when she grew up there it wasn't an issue either. Milk with no garbage in it.

We drink Argentine wine here at home, the same brands we did there and they were very inexpensive and all good to the last drop. Quilmes beer? Muy Bueno!

Meals in BA are a languid affair. Restaurants outside the tourist zones open for lunch, close about 2 or 3 and don't re-open till around 8. It's common to be eating a great meal at 9 or 10 in the evening. We ate at private homes and the the same applied...we were expected for dinner at 8.

Food costs far less than it does here, even with 25% inflation. At La Parlaccia we got out the door for $90 including tip, a bottle of wine and bottled water for a meal that would cost 200 or more here. Sandwiches on the street? About 8 pesos or $2 U.S. A local told me that "In Argentina, even the poor eat well." Argentina ranks equal to the U.S. In food availability according to the CIA fact book.

ML and I didn't deny ourselves anything while in Argentina. We ate it all. A good breakfast, a lunch then a late dinner..steak, cheeses, ice cream wine, beer. We lost weight! Sure we were walking a lot but our activity level was less than we normally have what with all the running and biking and walking and such. The only conclusion I can come to is that the amount of basura (garbage) in our food, especially HFCS is why our nation suffers so many health related issues.
One sees very few over weight Argentines.

Buenos Aires: City of Opposites

2011-03-30T17:23:00.000-07:00

Beautiful and Ugly. Wonderful and Boring. Happy and Sad. Hopeful and Dismal. Safe and Dangerous.
Masterpiece. Graffiti. Clean and Dirty. Old World and New World and so much more.

This is just a snap shot of my recent visit to BsAs. A brief over view with bits thrown in of things I've read from solid sources and news and ideas from Portenos themselves.

It will take some time to write but I'll try to keep the number of blog entries to just a few.

Recently had the chance to travel to BsAs with my lovely wife...she grew up there and is, at heart, a Porteno....a person of the port, which BsAs is and was.

I wasn't sure where to start writing about this adventure but opposites seemed appropriate. Driving and walking around the city and the country I was struck by all the things I mentioned above. The two pics I've chosen to start this entry aren't mine and thanks to those who lent them...
At the top is the Avineda 9 de Julio take from the air. The Avenue is the heart and soul of part of the city. Running North to South it is the largest Avenue on the Planet (some dispute on that) in one of the largest cities on the planet (9th). It is home to the Teatro Colon. El Obelisco, 16 lanes of traffic and up close...the homeless, the dirt, the petty crime, the beautiful women, the men of business, awesome restaurants and holes in the wall with the best empanadas on earth.

The second photo is, in the foreground, the Villas Miseria...the Neighborhoods of Misery. Homes without water and sewage disposal slapped together by the people who live there from material they find or steal or make. They are mostly made up of immigrants who have no place to live except here. They dot the city.
Passing one on a Sunday, it was obvious that they not without hope.... a dirt pitch ringed with spectators and leaning out of the windows of the shacks more people watching a futbol match and clapping and cheering...

Graffiti is a low art form here. It's everywhere. Usually a sign of social decay. It's not like some of the scrawl you see in some places that could actually be classified as art. This is rough and crude and usually political in nature when it isn't obscene. It's nasty but at the same time it's expression in pure form. Vandalism of the Heart...words from a frustrated people blasting the government and all those who make Argentina less than it could be.

Everywhere is the New World. Internet cafes, cell phones, up scale shopping and new ideas. Asados (barbecues) Gauchos. (cowboys, who are actually still cowboys) Everywhere is the Old World. French and Italian influenced buildings and art. European style greetings and meals. French, Italian, German, English and Argentina's own brand of Spanish spoken here. Devoted Catholics, Masses in Latin, Fascism and anti-semitism. It's all there.

I loved the place. I loved the people. I was saddened by the misery. I dig it's history. I could eat like an Argentine for the rest of my life and never look back...and that's what I'll cover next. The food.

Everything I know about endurance sports I learned from Les Paul

2011-01-26T11:45:00.001-08:00

I love this picture of Les Paul. In his 90's and still kicking it.

If you don't know Les, you should. He has been called the father of the solid body guitar. He invented new and exciting ways of recording. He played the guitar well into his 90's and was playing well just a few days before his death. If you've never heard him, download some of his tunes and listen to clear, sharp virtuoso playing by someone of your parents (or grandparents) generation.

I'm not a guitar player, although I gave it a shot once. I used to play the bass and can still roll off a few licks if I find one in my hands.

Endurance sports like running an cycling and triathlon, at their core, involve the kinds of things Les used to talk about all the time. As I get older even more of his wisdom applies because it deals with longevity.

"Don't touch it if it gets complicated."

Running, and cycling and doing tri's shouldn't be weighted down by the tyranny of technology.

The more you let yourself be sucked into things like a GPS watch and computer programs to track your fitness, power meters and all sorts of other technology, the farther you get from the core of the sports: Being fit, having fun and becoming a better person. They may have their place for you, but they aren't necessary. Often they get in the way.

"Be patient. Learn one thing at a time. Don't worry about being fast. That comes with practice."

We live in a culture of "Gotta have it now!" I meet so many athletes who are new and have a bucket list and have no real sense of their sports history or what it means to do something for years upon years. They simply have to have that marathon NOW. That Ironman NOW! They simply have run Boston NOW! Be patient. Truly learn your sport. Know it's history. Become a part of it, if you love it, let it become part of you. Learn to swim well. Learn to bike well. Learn to run well. Learn how to handle races and how do deal with things when it all goes bad (and it will). Stay healthy and don't get injured. In time your speed will come and you'll find all your patience will pay off. Bear in mind "fast" is a relative term and different for everyone. Be your fast, not someone else's.

"It's what you do with what you have that counts."

I beat my head against the "Boston" wall for years and just never managed to get there. I'm just not that fast. I have managed to pull down some Age Group awards over the years, but to be honest, most of those were before the current triathlon and running boom so my age group was kind of light. Being able to go long was my strength. I can run all day. Literally. I can bike all day and all night. Literally. I can stay upright and keep moving for hours upon hours. Literally. It's what I do, with what I got that counts. Do your best with what you have.

When Les was 33 he was in a car accident and had his right elbow broken. Once set, it would be immovable for life. He had it set at just less than 90 degrees so he could still play the guitar...something he did for the next 61 years. With a fused elbow! It was what he did with what he had that counted.

"It's not technique, it's what you have to say."

Many folks who are involved in endurance sports look like they have no business being there. Their arms are all akimbo when they run. Their swim technique is more dog paddle than anything and don't even ask them to hold a line on a bike!

They are all heart though. Despite how they may look, they love what they do and are successful at it. So many who strive for perfection suffer on the altar of that perfection. They don't stay around long. Sports for them is full of pain and angst, most of it mental and self inflicted. Those other folks? The ones who just get out and go? You see them year after year. There is more to endurance sports than medals and finishing. What are you saying? What example are you setting? What are you saying about the quality of your life? Are you mentoring other athletes? Are you making a difference in your sport?

"There are times when you want to go where you used to go and you can't go there."

We all get slower. Can't ride as far. Running times slow and distances shorten. There is a time when the PR's just stop coming. That's life. It's doesn't mean you're less of a person. It doesn't mean you have failed. It's not an indication it's time to quit, it's just that time is leading you down a different path.

Les never quit. He never stopped playing. He loved doing what he did. He inspired others to do the same.

Be like Les. Never quit. Never stop playing. Love what you do, even when it all goes bad. Inspire others to get off the couch and move.

Observations on running with the Mouse.

2011-01-18T15:14:00.000-08:00

Compression socks don't help you walk any faster.

Compression socks really do help AFTER the event.

The number of newbies that have no idea what they are doing is staggering,

they can be dangerous to those around them.

Don't get pissed...your number says Corral E and that's why they won't let you in Corral B.

Race starts with fire works are so cool!

D tags come off really easily...there were tons of them near mile 18 and 19 just before the place where you can cut the course.

Running a half marathon in the dark makes for easy pee stops.

Does everyone who runs on the road in VFF's tape ice to their knees after every race?

You meet the nicest people during a race but the relationship usually doesn't last long.

Arm warmers look dumb with a singlet.

I swear the largest age group seems to be women 20-24.

Real runners wear split shorts.

Those folks that come in in 3 hours for the half and 7 for the full...they're tough.

Disney has the nicest volunteers.

Screaming at your boy friend won't get him to go faster. I know this from past experience.

Everybody deserves a pat on the back.

Hot tea heals all wounds....so does a kiss.

Running 5 abreast on a one lane road can piss off 21,000 other people.

He really does look like Jack Sparrow.

If you drop something during a race and stop to pick it up you WILL get knocked flat on your ass.

If you stop ON THE FINISH LINE to wait for a friend you WILL get knocked flat on your ass.

Looking at your watch as you cross the finish line at your first marathon just eliminates half a dozen pictures that you'll buy to remember the race.

Just because you finished before 18,000 other people doesn't mean you get all the water/bagels/bananas that you can carry.

If you're cold standing at the start line you're dressed right. My guess is you wouldn't be drenched with sweat and could have finished your race faster if you weren't over dressed.

Running is truly a great equalizer.

Finally, as always, the number goes on the front.

Time to hit the pavement!

2011-01-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

There are times when hitting the road is a good thing. There are times when hitting the road isn't such a good thing.

This is about both.

My 6th Goofy Challenge at Disney World was this past weekend and having finished all six makes me "Perfectly Goofy"! I hadn't really had the intention of going but the ever lovely ML thought it would be fun to go and get her 5th half marathon there.

Last May 12th I was on the couch medicated with really good drugs staring at a post surgery ankle propped up on a chair. My doctor said my ankle should be solid within the year but that running might be a problem, he just wasn't sure. After 40 years of running well, if that was it...that was it. As it turns out and much to my doc's glee, it's just fine and running isn't a problem. Well, I have had a few gait change issues that I'm working through, but they'll pass.

What can you say about running at Disney? It's fun and cool and expensive and worth it.

The hardest part of the weekend is getting up at two in the morning to get to the race venue. Do Goofy and you have to do it two days in a row. Fine.

We were up at the right time and on the bus and off to the race sight getting there at 3:15. Now previous years and increasing years have led us to get slots at the runners retreat. While expensive it is worth it to ML and to my creaking bones. We meet some nice folks at our table and nosh on bagels and hot tea and enjoy the private porta- johns. Nice.

At about 4:45 we head over to the race start which is now the same for both races. Kisses, hugs and I leave ML in her corral and walk up to mine. We wear only the best in lawn and leaf bags which block the wind and provide a great place to pee in plan view of twenty thousand people.

At 5:35 the wheelies go off and six minutes later the first wave goes off. Six minutes later I 'm off. It's 5:47. It's a cool morning.

Running in the dark is good. I like it. It's fun with fire works! Away from Epcot and off toward the Magic Kingdom the miles tick by and hitting the road out here is cool...lots of fun and happy folks and it's neat to be running up Main Street with all the lights, including Christmas lights. I never get tired of it.

With so many folks it does get tight in a few places, and I'm in an early wave! It must be really tight for folks at the back.

I spin along and the ankle feels good and I've taped my knee to help with a tracking issue. It feels good too. (KT tape rocks!)

Before long you can see Spaceship Earth and are back in Epcot and at the finish. 2:08 for the 13.1 miles at an easy pace. Now in my neighborhood, 2:08 is slow. My PR is 1:38. and I usually run a 1:45, but I'm running a marathon the next day so a lollygag is good. almost 22,000 finishers for the race and I'm 4,800th-ish.

ML, my hero, rolls in at 2:45, quite happy. Not bad for someone pushing 58 in her 5th year of running.

Back to the hotel for a stand in the cool pool water, a shower and off to the parks! Can't pass up fun.

ML sleeps in the next morning and I repeat the previous days awakening and repeat the process to get to the start line. While waiting in the corral the announcers are interviewing some woman who is all fired up about doing Goofy and se boasts how she resisted going to the parks after the half so she'd be ready for the mary. Myself and the other Goofies around me laugh..."Who does that?" someone said You're supposed to run the half, go walk around the rest of the day and then run the marathon. It's part of Goofy.

The fire works and cannon go off and off we all go into the dark but only 17 thousand folks this time. (13,522 finishers)

The miles go by kind of quick...I'm listening to music and it really helps things go faster. I never do other races or train with tunes so pulling them out on this day, a really bumpin' play list, makes it even more fun.

I'm just humming along, ankle and knee solid, leaving The Animal Kingdom park and passing mile 18 then 19 and thinking about a 4:30 finish. Two wide open lanes on the road and the pack has really thinned out. It's all good when....SLAM!!!! I'm face down on the pavement. I'm a little dazed and have the wind knocked out of me and have no idea what the hell happened...

Some great runners around me helped me up and stayed with me till I could breathe. One of them, a woman, told me what happened: A "young girl" (her term) passed her, running with her head down...she came right up behind me and when she realized we were going to collide she pushed me. BAM! Down I went like I was spring loaded. She didn't stop. It took a bit (three miles) to pull myself together and feel ok and I was able to finish in about 5:19 with two sore hands and some chest pain. All that sort of dissolved when I crossed the finish...Perfectly Goofy!

Now If I realized I was going to hit someone with a back as sweaty and hairy as mine I'd have pushed them too, but at least I would have helped them up and said I was sorry! She probably hasn't learned yet that what goes around comes around. I just hope she doesn't get hurt when it does.

Just a few...

2010-12-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

Just a few thoughts as we head toward the end of the year...

Things that rock: (in no specific order)

Dr. Skippy

KT Tape

New running shoes

Hand made custom bikes..in steel

A job

Great co-workers

An awesome wife

Trail runs

Franken-brace

Home made chocolate chip cookies

Incubus

Friends

Family

Being on this side of the dirt

Being there for others.

A really good baseball stitch

Our Holiday card

2010-12-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Don't care what you believe in.

You can be a runner, a triathlete, a bikie, a shredder, a climber, a couch potato, a Jew, an agnostic, a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a non believer or even a Jedi, all the best to you and yours this Holiday season!

Anton and ML

All"s Fair in Fun and Sore

2010-11-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

Folks that do triathlons are familiar with the term "brick." Basically it's stacking two workouts on top of each other to mimic race conditions. They are supposed to be hard.

Lately I've been using "reverse bricks" to help bring my fitness level back up after the broken ankle hiatus.

( I tried to find a picture of a reverse brick on the web...but this is as close as I could get)

A reverse brick involves running first then riding your bike as opposed to the other way around.

On the schedule for today was a ten mile run and a great way to get in a longer workout, without all the pounding, is to hop on the bike and go for a ride.

Off to the canal this morning in what could be called our first winter morning with wind and temp in the 20's. The ten miles goes well. I have no speed and that's fine. (It bothers me a little) I'm only trying to get milage back up and endurance is king right now. While I used to be able to hammer out a ten miler in 1:20 it's more like 1:40 now. I'll start working on that this spring.

It's just beautiful on the tow-path this morning although it's the first day of rifle season for deer and the staccato hammer of small arms echos in the woods to the north. I run and ride South bound as there is no hunting down toward the city. North bound and I'd have to wear one of those nifty orange camo suits. A few folks out running and a few biking who are gloveless and in shorts and are obviously cold. Summer's over folks.

Come in off the run switch out the shoes and sweaty clothes for dry stuff and grab the mountain bike and go south. Now...I've turned my bike into a single speed MTB since I only really ride it on the canal and the shifting wasn't working anymore and the beast is on it's way out.

The gearing is sporty. 44x17 which I'm not going to explain here, just suffice it to say that my legs get pumped...but that will happen pushing a 28 pound bike in a single gear on a dirt road!

The ride toward the district is SA-WEET! A very nice ten mile spin. (tail wind) On the ride down my mind is sort of ignoring the fact that the wind is picking up and is getting quite blustery!

At the turn around I start north and am just smacked by the wind. I mean it's sort of like trying to pedal into a wall you can't see. Despite feeding and drinking the power level drops so much that the last two miles it's seems I'm pedaling through wet concrete.

Done and heading home the radio talks about winds to 30. The funnel of the river just sends the wind right up your kilts...

My legs are tired and I'm just a little wacked.

Ankle is holding up well, right knee a little sore but no worries. (It took a hit last summer with crutches and walking boots and such)

I loved it.

W had a great Thanksgiving here at home. Big thanks to Kim and Jim and Janet and Fiona for joining ML and I. Here's to friends.

I hate it...

2010-10-22T15:43:00.000-07:00

I hate cancer.

It killed my parents but that was self inflicted.

My last remaining uncle has it.

It got Mary.

Malia.

Kathy.

Suzie.

Many others I know.

And now it has Mike.

He's a friend. A man who turned his life around and went from an over weight out of control type to someone who runs 100 milers.

A good guy. I admired him.

Lung cancer. Stage four.

It sucks.

No one gets out alive but I've seen that and it's ugly.

But it's is a part of life. It's the way many of us leave.

I wish him well and hope he has all the time he needs.

I've put the bracelet back on for Mike.

Newbie 2.0

2010-09-18T13:38:00.001-07:00

If you have been running down the path with me (which is funny now, because I can only run on paved paths) you know I am the owner of a repaired ankle. Following the advice of a stellar running coach and author of a great book on running and having been through the RRCA certification process to become a running coach myself I've set a schedule for my return to running. Things have been going well for the last few weeks, but the milage has been low and slow.

I'm a newbie. I'm starting over. Being off from running for almost 15 weeks means I have to start over. Sure, I was able to bike and build my CV system and my muscles up some, but that was on the bike. I could bike for about four weeks before I could start running again.

Running is running. Nothing prepares you for the pounding on the pavement like pounding on the pavement. Biking doesn't help though walking does. Still...I feel like I did years ago and I mean years...

It hurts some times. Breathe hard when I shouldn't be. Dread hills. Feel all akimbo (my favorite word) when I run. Have no speed. Have no endurance.

I feel like I did 40 years ago this October when I first started to run in PE class after Coach Payne (Coach Pain!) asked for volunteers to help flesh out the cross country "B squad" for the Allegany County Cross Country Championships. I was over weight from stress eating. I wasn't an active kid...although that summer I had started to rock climb near home with a few friends and knew I need to drop fat. Running was it. Ran every day in PE class and a few weeks later the race came. I ran in cut offs and Chuck Taylors ("B squad" didn't get uniforms). Dad watched. I threw up. Loved it. Haven't stopped since. Had some thin years, like when I was raising a daughter, but I still managed to get out and run a few days a week. Mom said I lost my hair because I was running so much. Raced everything you can race from the 100 meters to 100 kilometers. Run all night. Run all day. Like Forrest "From that day forward, if I was going somewhere...I was Runnnning!"

So, I'm back at it. It sucks from time to time. I love it, this new rebirth to running.

Yes, I'm a Newbie!

Get your shoes! Lets go for a run!

HoBbled...

2010-09-03T15:47:00.001-07:00

Two-thirty in the morning with a sore crotch. Yup! it's the 24 Hours of Booty! The only 24 Hour road bike ride that benefits the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Last weekend was the time and Columbia , Maryland was the place for riding a long time on "The Circuit of Suffering".

As events go...it's not a race although some treat it that way. It's not Ultracycling, but there are some UC's out there crawling into that little space they go to.

It's not a party, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone say it isn't. It's full of bike posers in the latest kit with 6K bikes and full of folks on cruisers with out a stitch of spandex.

What it is, is a group of people coming together who have been touched by cancer. Their Mom's or Dad's, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Sons, Daughters...themselves, touched by the disease.

They ride to raise money for the LAF and the Ulman cancer fund, great organizations that do so much to help cancer victims with quality of life issues.

It was up in the air that I would even be able to ride this year since, having broken my ankle, I was still on the mend, when i started building milage to get ready for the event. With the Doc's Ok, I could cycle and so I started with about 7 weeks to go. Lots of hours on the trainer in the basement. In fact most of my milage was done down in the dungeon. After a few weeks, I got the go ahead to begin cycling outside...which was a huge rush having been limited to what I could do during recovery (NO running!)

In a few weeks I had built up to 150 mile weeks, which is nothing compared to what I had built up previous years. I would be enough though.

On the events weekend, after a week long taper I was off to Columbia in what would prove to be just stellar weather. Riding began about 1 in the afternoon after speeches and and what not.

The first miles were nice... settling in and getting used to the flow. I tend to turn inward at events like this..saving energy for what's to come. A few hours pass and the crowd thins out. It's HOT and I think it's taking a toll and I even hear a few folks talking about bagging it and coming back out in the evening after the sun goes down. Dinner break REALLY drops the numbers out on the loop. I stop for a nosh but am back out quickly. I had been coming in regularly for fresh bottles of Infinit and pocket snacks. Dinner break just came at a time when I needed to break, or I may not have stopped.

Miles fall away and it's fun to see the other folks riding...Full kit bikies hammering the loop. It's obvious they are taking long breaks on a regular basis. They come out fresh, mash for awhile, whip past you, then disappear for quite a bit of time. If you're not stopping, your either getting passed on a regular basis or you're doing the passing. I talk for a bit to a couple of UC's (Ultracyclists) quietly cranking out miles. Turtles and rabbits, and we all know how that turned out. 1 in the morning...2 and the number of riders thinned out to the point that for awhile I feel like I'm riding alone.

For my part, not much to tell really...just a quite spin paying for the donations so many kind folks made in my name for the event. Keep pushing food and fluid, keep checking the color of my pee to make sure I'm not dehydrated. Crawling into that little space in my mind.

100 miles, 120, 150, 180 and I'm done. The lack of time for proper training, which includes getting my bum used to being on a bike seat, takes it's toll. I tell my self to get some sleep and see what the morning will bring. It's 3:00. At 5 I'm up and decide that's it.

No worries. Very happy to have been a part of the event for another year.

Not going to wax on about mom or dad or the other folks I know who have died from the disease or who battle it now. Death is, after all, " Just another path. One that we all must take."

Snap Crackle Pop (weather,not ankle)

2010-08-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

Woke to a big 'ol thunder storm this morning...A right gully washer. All around us the community is without power but the neighborhood here is just fine...

Got out this morning for my longest run since ankle surgery. Four miles. Yes, I know it doesn't seem like much but baby steps getting back up to where I was.

I'm following the Galloway method...a mix of running and walking. Gives me a chance to keep an eye on my ankle and to make sure I'm not overdoing it.

Have used this method since it really took off and have done a goodly number of marathons Ultras and Ironman using it.

For training right now I'm going 5 minutes running and 1 minute walking, or 5/1. For marathons walking for one minute at each mile marker works well for me. I've finished everywhere from 4:00 hours to 5:12. No injuries. No burnout and I actually like myself the next day.

The pic above is from a event last year where I ran 100K (62 miles) in about 16 hours following Galloway's method.

Still riding the bike well and am almost two weeks out of the 24 Hours of Booty.

Hope to get in a bunch of miles this weekend before I start my taper.

Ankle at 12 weeks...

2010-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

12 weeks since ankle surgery! Mobile! Moving! Biking! Running! Pushing metal around! The ankle no longer flops around! ROM sucks!

Actually the ROM is improving and I just have to work at it everyday. PT says that I'm advanced now and that she's quite happy with where things are now. At the doctors last week he was very impressed to see me able to do toe raises on the foot and ankle involved.

Running continues to improve but I'm still acting the soul of caution. No reason to push it. Pushing it now could set me back and that's the last thing I want.

Biking is sorta normal...was out for 51 miles on the canal towpath yesterday and it went well. Could have used a bit more food...just wasn't sure how long I was going to be out and one thing led to another and 3:15 later I'm back at the car and starving. Ankle held up well and no swelling post ride or this morning.

Have to keep up the biking...24 Hours of Booty in 23 days. I may not be able to bike as much a I'd like but here's the plan: Bike as consistently as possible taking frequent breaks and hit a century. Take an extended break then lather, rinse, repeat. Just see what I can get into.

This event has become important to me even though I'm not much of a fund raiser. I'm not interested in providing funds to find a cure for cancer. I'm interested in the quality of life that cancer victims are leading and how best to improve it...since that is the aim of The Lance Armstong Foundation and the 24 Hours of Booty, I'm in.

As noted at the top of the page I'm also pushing metal around..body weight exercises and work outs with kettle bells...curls for the girls. that sort of thing. feels good and Mr. Ankle tolerates it well.

School starts soon...and that's fine with me. I left school early due to surgery and hated to miss the end of the year. It really wasn't a longer vacation since the first three weeks I was propped up and painless. After that it was life on crutches or in the boot or at PT....getting back to school will make things seem normal.

Had a great time at IMLP even though I didn't get a chance to volunteer all day on race day...my ankle finally started barking after 8 hours and I couldn't ignore it anymore. It was great to see Scott and John and meet some new folks. Made some more observations about IM's and the folks that do them...but that's fuel for another post.

ML and I got out for a hike to the top of Cascade peak ( near Lake Placid) one day...beautiful and tough...that's our summit pic above.

10

2010-07-21T15:10:00.001-07:00

10 weeks ago, I was in bed in a narcotic induced haze, just having had my ankle flayed open.

Today I ran 2.1 miles.

Yes, things are coming along nicely!

Have been doing other stuff too. Should be up to around 100 miles on the bike this week.

I hope to run/walk 10 miles or so...and even swim a tad.

PT has been great and Gwen is workin' me good. Some of the things I'm doing involve a ball and if you follow this blog at all, you know that I bloody well SUCK at anything that involves a ball. Home PT is just as tough as in office, but no complaints...that's a self inflected wound.

We're off to Ironman Lake Placid to volunteer at the boat house aid station, and there will be plenty of opportunities to have fun!

I know some folks doing the race (My friend Scott is shown here with his wonderful wife Melissa among them) that has really piqued our interest and to be honest...we love it there. Sure, race week is crazy and much less pleasant than when we go up at other times. Still, the energy is fantastic and it's a good way for me to kick off coming back to the active world.

A 'New Wave"?

2010-06-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

I read a piece by someone the other day where they said they just LOVED the "New wave" of minimalist running. The trend that less is more and you should be running bare foot or in Vibram five fingers...

"New Wave" my ass!

Pictured above are my first real pairs of running shoes. Look at the soles on these things!

The left is the Onitsuka Marathon (Onitsuka later became Asics) And the right is the Boston '73. I went through three pairs of those and several pairs of Marathons before trying Addias, Etonic Street Fighters and then on to Nike Waffle trainers....

The first great running wave, that I was part of in the early 70's were bolstered by shoes like the ones above...you could wear them till they fell apart the soles almost never wore out and you could run 100 mile weeks in them, and I often did when I lived in Colorado. If the bottoms got funky you slapped on some Shoe Goo and went back out on the road.

Talk about strong feet!

Now were into the third (some say fourth) running boom since running really took off in this country. During every up tick in running in this country, at some point someone runs out the less is more thing, the Tarahumara indians, and running barefoot. It's here for awhile and then fades.

Oh, to be sure...there are people that run barefoot all the time and have for years and that works for them. There are folks that never stopped running in minimalist shoes all the time, but they call them running or racing flats which is what the shoes above were called, even though you ran in them ALL the time.

Running this way ISN'T for everyone...just like running marathons or even 5k's isn't for everyone. Many folks would have you believe it is. Don't be a sheeple. Try it and if it causes problems switch to what WILL work for you.

Vibram Five Fingers look really interesting and couldn't have existed years ago because the technology wasn't there to make them.

I've talked with many runners who have tried running barefoot or with VFF's or even minimalist shoes...they they talk about about their injuries and how much they still love the VFF's and happy to say they still get out "once in awhile" barefoot.

Now, tomorrow, I hope to get off the injured reserve list and get back out on the road. (read some previous post to find out what's been shaking with me, if you don't already know).

I am going to return to running the way I started, in "minimalist shoes" Nike Frees and racing flats and see if I can re-build the kind of foot strength I had 30 years ago. I believe that running in super cushioned shoes have made my running more sloppy and have caused more injuries than they prevented. I can say that...I have a frame of reference.

Recently had a chat with a lass who waxed on quite well about how people were meant to go about barefoot. "Why, they have always done it." she said.

I pointed out the the "Iceman" from an Italian glacier was found in leather shoes with moss stuffed in them. The Roman legionaries walking across the globe in leather hob nailed boots with foot clothes in winter. Felt shoes in ancient China, leather shoes on European mummies, rope sandals on the dead found in the High Dry of South America.

Yeah, sure people walk about barefoot, but given have a chance they'll put shoes on and with good reason. Going around barefoot will mess up your feet.

Thera -Band Land

2010-06-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

Six weeks post surgery now...Wo-Hoo! One more week and I'm off to the doctor again and hopefully get this bloody walking boot off, can go back to shoes on BOTH feet and being able to drive.

Any way...WHO came up with the term "walking boot'? It's really a "hobble boot"! If you limp in it you run risk of messing up the opposite side hip or knee, so if you try and walk in it correctly...it's all baby steps.

Have been going to PT for two weeks now and things are improving daily. I'm in the office three times a week and continuing PT at home, x2 daily, in between. The exercise shown here is just one of the ones I do.

It's done with a Thera-band which is a big rubber band. They come in different strengths. I'm on "Green" which is the easiest one. It's where I should be. The last thing I'd do is jump into a hard one out of hubris and mess up my ankle. It's not my choice really...PT handed me that color and and when I asked about harder...they pointed to the green one. Nuff said.

The therapist does some massage, ultrasound to help break up the swelling, stretching and working with the bands, some ankle weights, toe raises...then electrical stimulation, icing and done. Doing the same thing at home...

I like the office and the PT is just aces.

I'm keeping the PT time in my training journal, as well as some upper body work I'm doing and also working on the next 50 Core Challenge over on the Trifuel website to get my core nice and strong.

Looking forward to next week...I'm ready for this to be done and despite what some folks think (and you know who you are) return to running.

Arg! Pfffft! ugh! huhhh!

2010-06-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Don't use a muscle for four weeks. I dare you. Not some weenie muscle but one you really need like...your quads or hammies or your GASTROCNEMIUS! (calf)

After four weeks of being bound up in fiberglass and having no use of my lower leg muscles now I can use them again.

Wednesday I was off to the doctor and got my walking cast, as noted in a previous post. Yesterday morning I woke up and following doc's orders I used my crutches until I got the feel for my walking boot...It didn't take long. I'm in good shape and have good balance and know my body pretty well..so by yesterday at lunch time I'm clunking around the house like a zombie in "Thriller." At least I'm mobile!

By yesterday evening...my calf was cramping and seizing and I even noticed it in my quad.

OK ,so I walked a bit too much on it. The doc did say use it "just a bit" at first...well my "just a bit" is one hell of a alot bigger than most folks!

Still...I hadn't used those muscles in 4 weeks, not to mention the abuse of surgery that my ankle had undertaken...Sore today. Wearing a compression sock under my walking cast.

So today I'll back off and ease into it.

PT starts Monday! I'm sure that will be "fun!"

I have been able to keep up with some core work during all this but not much. I even managed to lose weight instead of pack it on...but that may have been partially because of the narcotics!

They Gave me The Boot.

2010-06-09T16:19:00.000-07:00

Today was just great! Just as I reached the "Get me out of this thing!" point with my cast, I had a doctor's appointment. Esposa Favorita drove me as I 'm unable to drive. Once there, waited for just a bit and off to get the bloody hard cast cut off. Wonderful little device. Looks like a Dremel Moto Tool ( the coolest tool ever) except that this one vibrates back and forth instead of whirring. No damage to skin that way... The tech cut through the cast, which I kept.

Skippy ( the teen age looking doctor came in) and took out my stitches and complimented me on being a fast healer. (I had an advanced healing class in college...you got to love a liberal arts education) He said it looks like I'm doing everything right. Yeah!

He dressed the wound and said I could start showering again tomorrow. Yes, I've been keeping clean but when you're a one a day shower(at least) guy cutting way back makes you feel...yucky.

Three weeks in the walking boot, take it easy and walk on for short bits at first, start PT and still no driving. I don't think the boot would fit in there anyway and he really wants to make sure the reattached bone stays put.

Hopefully in three weeks I'l be able to get back to some form of aerobic exercise.

Feeling good about things right now...next appointment on June 30.

I d have to say...I am absolutely pleased with this doctor and his office and the staff. They have done a great job and I have no complaints....

S-l-o-w M-o-t-i-o-n

2010-06-02T06:33:00.001-07:00

Now...three weeks post surgery and everything seems to have shifted into slow motion...At first the time seemed to be going quickly, but now it's not. I have to check a calendar to see what day it is...my days are marked by what time Mythbusters comes on and bed time is usually after Cash Cab.

I miss work like mad. I know if I were still able to get to work and ...work, the time would be just ripping by. It always does this time of year. But here at home with my leg up the time just drags...I miss the kids.

I'm not having much pain now, but still take a half a pain pill from time to time when I get this disquieting uncomfortable feeling inside my foot. I understand why I have to keep my foot up most of the time. My skeletal/muscle pump can't work in my right foot as it's completely immovable...so leaving it down for short periods of time makes the toes turn blue and look like sausages...it gets uncomfortable. Put it up, and in a few minutes, it's good to...not go anywhere.

One more week till I'm back at the doctor and get my stitches out. I'm hoping for a walking cast, but ML reminded me that I'll probably be in a removable boot...but still unable to walk on it.

Nuts!

Two Weeks

2010-05-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

Two weeks have gone by since surgery...and my! It seems like it was yesterday! That, I suppose, is a good thing. It means that time is going quick and that in only two more weeks I'll be out of this cast and in a walking boot and into PT.

I'm dealing OK with it but that's probably because I'm NOT one of these wrapped tight folks that go nuts if they aren't doing anything. I actually like having to take a break...I've been going fairly hard for a number of years so don't mind the time off..

Have been watching a lot of movies. reading some, spending time on the computer and watching the Giro d" Italia bike race, live, everyday. I'd have missed it if I was still able to go to work.

Pain comes and goes and the pain meds REALLY help with that but I've noticed that I'm needing them less and less which is good. I'm not a fan of narcotics so the sooner I can leave them behind the better.

ML has been a jewel waiting on me and carrying things around the house for me since I'm crutched...

Baseball stitch

2010-05-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot from yesterday, when I was between casts. Doc was great and he explained the cut well. The curve under the malleolus was for reaching and repairing the three ligaments. He had to go high in the back to replace the bone that had broken off the talus.

He used a baseball stitch.

Now casted again for three more weeks , then be in a walking cast after that to start PT.

So I'm thinking a little tattoo of a ski jumper? Incorporating it into the Nike Swoosh? A lopsided smiley face?

1000 Channels

2010-05-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

Have been relegated to sitting on the couch and watching movies, reading and...watching TV.

Many of you who know us know that ML and I are not TV watchers at all. So much of it is inane and vapid and that's not snobbery. It's the truth. You can find some interesting things though:

The weight of the Sun in grams is 92 to the 36 power.

You can be fined $10k if ANY of your crabs are undersize.

The Strada Bianca get muddy when it rains:

Plasma coolant can destroy organic matter.

Folks that win the London Marathon are impossibly small.

"Gold diggers of 1935" was probably just as bad then as it is now.

There's a 90% chance that the world will be destroyed by a meteor...and we won't see it coming.

The only news channel worth watching is the BBC.

You can make "happy trees" very easily using the tip of the brush.

Rick Steves has a VERY cool job.

Today is big day number one in the recovery phase. Off to the Doc this afternoon to have my bandages removed and then get casted. I am excited as I'm dying to know what the incision looks like. Have been trying to cut back a bit on the pain meds but sometimes it just hurts like a mamma jamma. Not sharp pain but a throbbing ache deep inside...the same kind I had as a kid in the hospital.

One week down and five more till ML and I can have a normal life...If you can call our life normal!

Weak End Uodate

2010-05-13T06:16:00.000-07:00

The doctor told me the surgery went fine...I was asleep at the time.

This is going to be short, because the pain meds are making it sort of hard to type and I keep making mistakes!

Turns out that Larry, Moe and Curly were damaged. This marvelous drawing shows the three ankle ligaments torn...

In my case one was torn completely through the second was stretched badly and was flopping around and the third was torn running with the grain. Doc stitched the tears and tightened up the floppy.

The BEST news came with the broken bone on the Talus. It was still viable and was partly attached. It was still innervated and vascular! All he had to do was put it back in place and sew it on!

Just great news...no pins, screws ,staples, chicken wire or spit!

Still stuck on crutches for 6 weeks ABSOLUTELY no weight allowed on it.

In a side note, I couldn't have been more pleased with the level of care received at Frederick Memorial Hospital! The staff, from the folks in registration to the woman who rolled me out the door were just top shelf! Was very comfortable and was well taken care of...Many thanks to my ankle geek, the gas passer the OR nurse and the surg tech!

On the road to recovery!

Many thanks to all those folks on Facebook for their kind words and support and to my family too. Mary Lou...you're aces!

Nyuck, nyuck...woo woo woo

2010-05-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a great drawing of the three lateral ligaments of the ankle. I've named them Larry, Moe and Curly. (L to R) Two of mine, Moe and Curly) are torn...to what degree, we don't know yet. The large hunk of bone below the Tibia/Fibula is the Talus...that's the one that's broken.

The official procedure I've consented to is Right Lateral Ankle Ligament Repair/Right Open Treatment Talus Fracture.

I've been told by the Doctor that he'll fix the ligaments and see what he can do to the bone fragment...If it's viable, he'll drill holes in it and the talus and put them together and let the osteo-genic cells do their thing. If that's not possible he'll put a pin in it. If that's no good...he'll toss it. That will mean 6 weeks non-load bearing. Crutches. a brace/cast and NO using it. I can't even drive. I thought I might be able to drive left footed, but I tried it...YIKES! Breaking was fine but I couldn't even reach the gas safely, so no dice.

Maybe I could one leg it around the neighborhood on the bike? I'll definitely try biking on the indoor trainer with just my left leg...but not too much. Can you imagine that? After six weeks my left leg a bulging mass of knotted muscle and the right one that looks like the leg off a sixth grade girl? I'd be biking in circles after that! Running will be a different matter. That may take awhile, but pool running will help.

Plan on downloading some music while I'm down...listening to Moby right now.

The HRM (heart rate monitor) won't be that hard to figure out but it has features I haven't checked out yet. The Nano? Oy!...it does have video!

My boss has been awesome and folks at work supportive. I may be out the rest of the school year and I'll for sure miss the kids.

This time Wednesday night, I won't know what the hell is going on! Better healing through Chemistry!

Lemons? Lemonade!

2010-05-08T12:15:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, I've been struggling with an ankle that won't heel since I rolled the bloody thing on the 29th of November...

Saw my doctor, did some PT...even ran a 1/2 marathon,Marathon and 10K on it...I mean It doesn't hurt when I run! After though, it swells. Gotten to the point where it swells after biking, standing on my feet all day, driving the car, hurts all the time, interfering with sleep...you get the picture. Last weekend, a short run brought lots of pain and a big swell.

Finally have had enough and went to the ankle surgeon...a fine young man I call "Skippy" because he looks like he's 16. He's young it seems (to me anyway) and that's what I want. Someone young who knows all the latest "ankle geek" stuff. I have great confidence in him. Anyway, an x-ray and MRI later Skippy and I have a sit down and he gives me the news. (drum roll) Two torn ligaments and a hunk of bone off the back of the Talus that's floating around in the gunk. Wheeee!

Surgery this coming Wednesday.

If things go well, four weeks on crutches. If not six weeks non-load bearing.

No worries here. It's the first time in 40 years I've had a running injury...well there was that sprain In "The Valley" after a fall on this big climb. Oh, and the busted ribs from the bike wreck....then that sprain at mile 6 of the JFK 50 miler (I finished)...there were those several skull wacks (climbing) that required stitches...ok, ok I have had a few injuries over the years but this is the first one from running that's going to require surgery!

(I can't tell you the number of times I should have been dead, but got up and walked away without a scratch.)

Routine stuff in an active life where you go to the edge sometimes.

Now at least I'll have time to catch up on reading, movies, watching "The Giro" live on TV, plotting the next adventure and actually figuring out how my heart rate monitor and iPod nano work..not mentioning getting to be near my awesome wife...

I'll be blogging here pre and post op and during the recovery and return to an active life.

Oh, if you're looking for a piece of bone in this pic...it's not me. Just an ankle pic.

May Day!

2010-05-01T04:58:00.000-07:00

Finally! May is here. April just dragged, the school days and workouts and yard work just all being blenderized in a mess that was hard to keep track of.

On the athletic front, things are improving. Bike rides are getting longer and I have my running up to 30 miles a week on a regular basis.

Last weekend I ran the first 10k I've run (as a stand alone event) in probably 3 years! The Pikes Peek 10k runs from the Shady Grove metro station to White Flint on a course that drops almost 200 ft. It has it's up hill sections but the downhills are fast. Smooth road surface and great organization make for a good time.

Hadn't been doing any speed work so I felt I'd be lucky if I broke an hour. Of course that's the beauty of having poor self confidence. You always do better!

I ran in :50 minutes and change...I'm running in the 55 -59 age group now and it's interesting to notice that the times generally slow. However...if I had been doing speed work and had been working at it, I would have run my usual time of 43 or 44 minutes, which would have put me on the podium in my AG.

Felt good the whole time...afterward my ankle even felt ok. But I'm still guarded on that. Still have bits of discomfort and at times it feels weak despite PT and my keeping up with that program.

Wanted to bike a century on the eastern shore today, but am fighting a cold...better to lay low and do something short.

Have to look at the various schedules for bike, runs, and other races and see what I can get into.

Realized I haven't been here much as of late...too much time on Facebook! Need to get back over here..this is much more fun!

Keeping Track

2010-03-13T15:17:00.000-08:00

When I came in from my run today one of the first things I did, after icing my ankle, was to head for my training log. No, not the kind of log people carry around for a workout, but a written log of every run, bike ride, swim, hours in the weight room, rock climbs in West Virginia, Colorado or California, cold sniff, illness, busted ankle, sore shoulder, miles on shoes, static line jump, replacing of a chain, five pound weight gain (or loss), new apartment, first kiss, big mistake, death, life... Not all, but many of the moments of my life. For years. There are 17 logs in the stack to the right. Number 18 sits on my desk.

There were another 20. They were lost to an ex-wife who thought they took up too much space and pitched them when I wasn't home.

"All those moments, lost in time..."

Altogether 38 years of that stuff. 38 years of running logs, triathlon logs, Sierra Club Desk Calenders( before real running logs) and an Accounts Receivable ledger which I really miss. It was from my first year that I kept a log...1972 when I graduated from high school and went off to college.

They mark the passage of my life...

On March 13, 1996 I worked on my flexibility and ran for 30 minutes, and turned in my time sheet.

On New Years Eve at midnight 1999/2000 I can't sleep and run laps UP Washington street in Cumberland.

On June 8th, 2006 I did...nothing.

All those moments are still in my memory, but just in case...I can look them up. Well at least the last 18 years.

I've kept an electronic log the last 5 years...but to be honest, it has no soul.

I can't pick it up and feel it, see it, smell it. There are no tea stains or dog eared pages, no crisp sound when I flip the pages... On a rainy day, like today, I can grab one of the logs at random and be transported to another place and a different time. As soon as I read an entry...I can shut my eyes and see, and feel, and hear and sense all that went before on that day.

Yikes! Part 2

2010-02-09T06:07:00.001-08:00

"Nothing like this has ever happened before."

That's what they're saying around here. Since they started to keep these kinds of records there has never been a case where the Mid-Atlantic has been hit with two blizzards in one week. In-fucking-credable. This area is already a mess and to think were getting 16 to 20 inches more on top is nuts....or will drive folks nuts. This area of the world tends to be hyper mobile and in some areas ya just can't get out. We were out a bit yesterday and everybody was in panic mode...

And don't give me this "AL Gore was wrong " stuff. It's Global warming...not local.

For whatever reason you believe, man made or not, The world is getting warmer.

I just wish it would here for a bit.

Yikes!

2010-02-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

Yikes! What a storm THAT was! We had 31 inches here in the front yard this morning...Very cold. Teens last night and calling for single digits tonight.

No organized workouts yesterday as ML and I shoveled snow three different times in a effort to stay ahead of the mounting white stuff. About 4 hours of digging altogether, if you count the time we spent on a neighbors drive way.

I here tons of folks bitching about it and even some complaining about missing work.

Please.

How often does this happen? What's wrong with a little down time? Can't you just see the beauty of it all? I feel sorry for them.

The cats are in a snit as they hate the snow. I dug paths for them to their favorite pee spots. Mrs. Norris won't even go out. She just uses the box and spreads cat litter everywhere. Riley is out now but he is a fan of warmer weather and won't be out long.

Ankle gave me a bit of a fit yesterday shoveling...all the twisting and torquing. It feels ok now. Back to the Dr. on Tuesday and on to some PT on Friday.

Riding the indoor trainer today. Contemplated X-C skiing but it's actually too deep. I'll let it melt off a bit then set some track in the woods near here..

Caw.Caw. Rarrrr!

2010-01-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

Adventure IS out there and Mary Lou and I got a bunch of it this past weekend at the Disney Marathon weekend.

As seems to have become habit, we go to Florida every Winter to run at Disney...ML does the half marathon and I do the Goofy Challenge. I run the Half Marathon on Saturday and then get up and run the Marathon on Sunday. Goofy...This year, if completed...I'd become "Perfectly Goofy."

The weather forecast for the weekend is NOT the best. 35 degrees on Saturday and then mid 20's on Sunday for the long one.

The ankle forecast for the races is 80%. It's runable, but gets testy at speed...so a slow race. Most every year I tell myself I'll hop out of the race and have pics taken with Disney Characters, but I never do...this year will be the year for it.

Saturday Morning at 2am we're up and rolling to the race. My wave goes off at 5:40. ML at 6.

Thank goodness Disney provides a bus from their hotels...

It's 35 degrees with wet stuff possible. On site we go to the Runners Retreat (money well spent) and while there, the sleet starts. Sleet. In Florida. Last year it was 70 degrees.

We meet Becca, a cranberry grower, who we instantly like. We chat and then about 5:15 we head off to the start, which is a bit of a walk. Into our corrals and getting ready. Besides our race togs we sport nice thick plastic bags for warmth and wind protection....the sleet comes down heavier.

At 5:35 the wheelies head off in a shower of fireworks. My wave is next at 5:40 and off we go in a shower of yet more fireworks!

Not much to it after that just running in the dark...good lighting when needed though and a few places on the course it's a bit tight, but no worries. At one point though, a woman tries to come around me on the shoulder of the road trips and falls right in front of me! Jedi reflexes and I vault over her hoping for a good ankle landing. I stop to help her up and she is quite sheepish and says she's sorry, but sprints away. Over and through the Magic Kingdom and back to the finish area at Epcot. I'm in at 2:12, a PW (personal worst) for me, but the ankle holds up well and I'm ready for the Marathon. ML comes in in 2:37... PR for her! (she IS my hero!)

The sleet and rain never really stopped the whole time.

Folks at cold races bring throw away clothes to wear to the start. Old shirts. jackets,sweat pants, that they toss when the gun goes off. Usually the clothes are donated to charity after cleaning. This was the first race I've ever seen where folks would discard clothes and people behind them would pick them up and put them on! Nothing Compared to what I'd see on Sunday.

2am comes early (duh) two days in a row. and this time I'm off to the bus alone. The TV said 25 degrees. The bus driver says it's 22. In Florida.

Runners Retreat where I meet Becca again (running her first Goofy) and together we walk over to the start...off again at 5:40 this time I'm loaded for bear. iPod, camera, gels and three layers of spandex. More folks scarfing up tossed clothes AND plastic bags. From Epcot over to Magic Kingdom...to Animal Kingdom then the long bit to Hollywood Studios and back to the World Showcase at Epcot. This time though I'm snapping pics of the course, mile markers and of course Characters. Mary Poppins IS quite lovely. The Princess and her Frog are out and stunning... Alice, Tweedle Dum and Dee, a Wicked Step Mother or two... and later Mr. Incredible, Mike Wishowski, Green Army Men and the two above. Russell and Mr. Fredrickson from the movie UP! (See it, you'll cry).

The aid stations become skating rinks in the cold but the Disney crews are out quickly with sand...still, trying to run through them is foolish. I see several falls. My energy gels are chewable and I never really break a sweat it's so cold. Definitely Jens factor 5 (see previous post)

All the pictures and the fact I have to pee like a race horse every so often (kidneys over produce in the cold) make for a slow race. Another PW (5:12) but I just don't care. This was F-U-N!

The Jens factor

2010-01-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Jens Voight is a pro bike racer. He wins classic one day races. He wins stages at the grand tours. Jens is a hardman. He's also the niceest most widely loved bikie in the pro Peloton. His fan base is huge.

Here's a little something I found that puts riding (or running) in the cold in perspective.

Click on the image for an bigger view...thanks to pezcyclingnews.com

Mush!

2009-12-20T16:41:00.001-08:00

Had to get in a long run this weekend...with the ankle feeling better it simply had to be done. Before I had sprained my ankle I was up to 70 mile weeks and damn my running was good...like it was before I started all this triathlon business!

So...major snow storm on the horizon

(which turned out to dump a record snow on the DC area) I had to decide which day to go...Saturday or Sunday...

With an eye to weather reports I figured Sunday could be an icy mess, so Saturday it was...

Couldn't run the usual routes as the Park was closed and I needed to run roads not trails because of the ankle. So nothing for it but to run in the neighborhood. Laps. Lots of laps. Now I don't mind laps on a short course because, to paraphrase this other endurance type, I can crawl into this little corner of my mind and not come out.

Made it easier, too, to have the house for an aid station complete with warm air and smiling wife.

When I left the house the storm wasn't too bad although we already had about six inches on the ground. The plows had been by so the road was only covered by a thin snow pack. Run much in snow? Well, it can be like running in sand, which is tough. It changes your gait and has you working harder than you might normally. Add to that , my neighborhood has no flat areas. None. I looked for them. Nada. It's either UP or DOWN. Period.

The storm picked up in intensity...at times you couldn't see more than a tenth of a mile. cold...windy and ...well, it was a blizzard! I've been in blizzards where you'd expect them...Maine, Colorado, Canada, a Kansas wheat field, places like that. Saturday was a blizzard.

One foot in front of the other, stop at the house every 40 minutes or so for for an unfrozen water bottle, some Gu Roctane, a smile and a smooch and go.

Finished 19 miles in 3:16 which was slower than normal but, duh! To honest, my legs were trashed...like I'd just run a 50 miler or more. While a run of over 20 would have been good, I figure with the extra work involved...19 was just fine.

Starting the taper for Disney..will keep the runs easy ride the bike indoors and treat the ankle gingerly and just use the weekend with the mouse as a training weekend!

Oh, today is the 8th anniversary of Mom's death.

Yes Mom I'l still running. No, I'm never going to stop and no that's not why I lost my hair...

Ankle update

2009-12-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago I sprained my right ankle while out on a casual 12 miler...Oh man it hurt and since I have a high pain threshold...it must have REALLY hurt! (It's been said I could give birth to an elephant through my nose and would wonder what the big deal was.)

I've been very diligent in rehabbing it and today I got out for 12 miles and while sore...it didn't suck! Wore the ankle brace and went easy till I warmed up...now I finished the last hour in the dark which meant that last hour was a really paranoia fest! "Is that an acorn/pothole/sidewalk crack?" Afraid to turn the ankle again and really muck it up this time! Got home with no problems....

I'll push the milage a bit this week. Can't make up for lost miles while I was getting the joint back in working order, but I'll feel MUCH better going to Disney for the Goofy Challenge a bit back on form.

Haunted

2009-12-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

On Thursday of this week, I'll be 55 years old. It's time to give voice to this:

Haunted

To give you an idea of what the early years of my life were like, I had two stuffed animals whose names were Needles and Ether.

People often ask me why I run a lot and bicycle a lot and compete in Ironman and other things like that and the answer I give is always trite. For years I’ve been asked why I’ve worked with challenged kids, when I could make more money doing something else. The real reasons are much deeper, both light and dark.

I am haunted by the faces of boys who would never run and bike or hear their name at a finish line. Boys who had no one to help.

Keeping it simple, suffice it to say I was born with what used to be called birth defects. Like all medical conditions there are big Latin rooted words that tell you exactly what the problem was. By the time of my last surgery at age eleven I knew a lot more about medicine and what could go wrong with the human body than most adults do now.

A series of surgeries starting at age two would put everything right.

There isn’t much I remember about those early trips to the hospital but of the later ones at age nine, ten and eleven, I remember every detail.

At Kernan’s Children’s Hospital there was a ward of across from the nurses station where the boys would be. We were boys of all ages, some younger than eight, others sixteen or older. Twelve or more of us.

It was a place where we were repaired for in all cases, in one way or another, we were broken. Physically, we were not normal. They did a lot of reconstructive surgery there.

When I went back for my last trip in the summer of 1966 there were other boys there I recognized from previous trips. We were brothers of a special darkness. I won’t say I remembered their faces, because some of them had no faces. Others, no legs. A few, no arms. Some laid on their stomachs all day in hard body casts. Quite a few had multiple problems capped off by faces better left to Picasso.

Usually it would go like this: Mom and Dad would make the long drive from Cumberland to Baltimore on a Saturday. I’d have surgery on a Monday and after making sure I was fine they would go home. The next weekend they would return to pick me up, the back seat made into a big bed because I wouldn’t be able to stand or sit for any length of time. I’d spend some weeks in a bed in our TV room reading comic books with friends. “Classics Illustrated” were a favorite but only because I wasn’t allowed to see other kinds.

On this trip, I arrived at the hospital and after my parents left for the evening I would join the other boys and we would talk and watch TV and laugh and play games and just be, well...broken. If you couldn’t walk, others would get things for you. If you couldn’t feed yourself we would take turns doing it. It was no problem to dump out a urinal or empty a bed pan. If you could walk, you wheeled the legless around the floor. Some of the boys were always alone. During visiting hours no one came to see them and they kept to themselves.

Having seen each other before and being friendly I spent time reading with The Boy with No Face. There really is no other way to explain him. There was a gaping hole in the front of his head, a few teeth, and two eyes in places eyes should never be. He wrote since he couldn’t talk and we’d read comics and laugh at each other, his laugh being more of a flexing of the throat that made a “Gaa” sound. He read by holding comic books up by the side of his head. Another lad, Legless, brings us drinks from the nurses station and shares his comic books.

Monday came and off I went to surgery. It took quite awhile according to the records and it was afternoon before I came into recovery. I stayed the night there with Mom. The next day I was wheeled back up to the ward where the boys checked me out and looked at the stitching and drain tubes and the gauze. (We were always keen to see each others work)

Mom and Dad left for the drive home and were reassured I would be fine even though I was still a bit sick.

Drifting in and out I was feeling more alert by evening although I still felt ill.

The evening calms down and the TV goes off. We boys settle down as best we can.

During the night (I have no idea of the time) I get sick. Real sick. I start to heave and it’s everywhere. It doesn’t stop... I’m retching and heaving and before long I’m ripping stitches and there is blood mixed in with the vomit.

I remember yells for a nurse, words I can understand and throaty yells by those who can’t make speech. The night nurse doesn’t come. There are no bells to ring, no buttons to push.

It’s hurts in ways I can’t describe.

Suddenly there is an arm around my shoulder and someone holds my head. Another has grabbed a basin for me to throw up into. While the retching doesn’t fade for a bit a calmness comes and soon the vomiting passes. There are hands with folded towels that stop the bleeding. I am not alone. Lifting my wet face, It is Legless who holds the basin and the arms I feel belong to The Boy with No Face.

The nurse arrives and is quite upset. She yells for help and I’m wheeled out of the ward on the way to get cleaned up and re-stitched...I leave the ward to the sound of Faceless yelling at the nurse in a way I am sure she has never forgotten.

There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of them. They would all be my age or older, some a tad younger. Some lived through a hell I can only imagine. Years of surgery. Pain of many types. Some would be gone by now.

When I stand at a starting line, I think of my parents, now long gone. I think of my wife and how lucky I was to find her. When I cross a finish line, however, it is the boys I think of. It is they I have carried across the finish line all these years.

Well...that was hard.

2009-11-29T17:01:00.001-08:00

We've gotten in the most wonderful habit of spending Thanksgiving in Medina, Ohio with friends...family really, of my wife. Several years ago Mary Lou got the idea she'd like to do a race on Thanksgiving day. I took a look around and found the Run for the Homeless in Akron, just down the road from Medina.

ML had done the race twice now and since I didn't do the JFK 50 Miler this year I, well, I had no excuse.

Now ML had told me it was hilly...but well, to be honest I wasn't worried....this is northern Ohio, right? How bad could it be?

The Run for the Homeless is a nice affair but no frills...still, this year they pulled in three thousand runners all for a good cause!

The race got off to it's start a few minutes late and it took me a minute to cross the start line but the street was still so packed I couldn't open up...If I do this again I'll be nearer the front.

Downhill start...then flat then the first hill...an on ramp to a local throughway with a great view of downtown Akron. Down a bit then into the Glendale Cemetery. There are audible gasps from the crowd and in unison many folks yell "OH MY GOD!" Look to the left and it looks like the race is going up the side of a building! The whole cemetery is like that...UP...down...UP down...The UPs are steep and the downs steep and the roads packed so, while you are having fun, but can't make great time. Before too long though we are through it and up one final steep hill before we head back through a residential area and to the downhill race finish...

A stiff four miler. I finish in 33:46 (my time). Chip time 34:44. ML finishes in 44 and I hand it to her...kudos for her third finish of this race!

The picture is of one of the grave statues in Glendale Cemetery. Founded in 1839 it is the resting place of many of Akrons notables, including two women who had survived the sinking of Titanic. It really was quite beautiful.

Dr. John

2009-11-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

No, not the Dr. John of "Night Tripper" fame, but Dr.John Sarno.

That's him in the picture.

Tiny, 83, Head of Rehabilitation Medicine at NY University. This guy is no slouch.

But what he has to say may kick your athletic ass.

I read about him first in a Runners World article titled "The Big Hurt" by Ben Cheever.

He goes on about a problem with his Piriformis and his inability to run...and then he gets to Dr. Sarno. The Good doctor examines him, tells him there is nothing wrong and that his problems are coming from his head.

Having been through a bout of pains this summer, my foot my neck and left shoulder, this really made me come to attention.

I surfed a bit and found several books by Dr. Sarno. "Healing Back Pain" and "The Divided Mind". Both books deal with an idea of his, TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome). The sort version of this is that often the pains we suffer are due to rage and anger we carry inside of us. Anger over any number of issues or problems or things that have happened in life. This anger manifests itself in physical pain...pain that can be debilitating. His ideas are discounted by a doctors schooled in a era when the power of the mind in illness has been givin short shrift. (This is so far outside the mainstream of medicine, that even Runners World buried the meat of the article in the back pages and the only letter to the editor they printed on the subject though it was irresponsible for them to have printed the article in the first place.)

Having a Masters Degree in Counseling I have to say that saw this almost immediately as a real possibility of my recent pains. Over the years I've seen the power of the mind do some really strange stuff. I'd had pains that had led to a sub par Ironman finish and having to drop out of another race as well as all the money I'd spent on PT this year on my neck and shoulder.

I read the books, thought about them and was thankful I'd finished Anatomy and Physiology last year as it gave me a good back ground to understand how Dr. Sarno's ideas work.

All I needed to do was test it out.

Several times in the past weeks since I was able to return to running, I've had a few issues pop up during a run or a bike ride...I asked myself, out loud even, What was I angry about. I even answered myself...sometimes out loud. The pain went away almost immediately.

More reading to do, but as far as I'm concerned...nuff said!

I'm back up to running 50 mile weeks with no problems.

Civil Twilight

2009-10-09T16:28:00.001-07:00

They're out there. I'm not. At 7:00 this morning just about Civil Twilight the Triple Ironman got off to a start. I really wanted to be there but it wasn't to be.

Now I realize I was WAY too wrapped up in the "injury" and let it get the best of me. Stopped running because that's what I supposed to do. And now basically, I have to start again. Slowly and get the running legs back that I had.

No biggie...just time and as you know" Time" is the avenger...it lays everything low and that will include me. I have a whole list of goals I have yet to achieve...all I need is time.

Listening right now to an alternative band "Civil Twilight." Good stuff....power trio and I LOVE power trios!

Rain,Rain Go Away!

2009-09-28T08:29:00.001-07:00

They say it rains "Cats and Dogs" which always makes me remember that line from that fun movie "GhostBusters" where Dr. Venkman is explaining what will happen if the evil forces at play get control... "Dogs and Cats living together...mass hysteria!"

While mass hysteria wasn't prevalent at this years 24 Hours of Booty...the "Dogs and Cats' were very much falling from the sky...

The event, a fund raiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and the Ulman Cancer Fund was scheduled to start at four this past Saturday afternoon and indeed it did...albeit a few minutes late. It started just about the same time the rain proceeded to come down in earnest. It rained in earnest for the next 19 hours.

I had visions of riding at least three hundered

miles but my training had been lacking due to a foot injury and time off. I surely had less milage in the legs than last year when I rode the three hundred on the trainer when Booty was canceled. This time out it was just a spin and a time to ponder the past present and future...

At about 4:10 the cancer survivors and major fund raisers were off in a lap of honor and the rest of us waited a few minutes. We began our first lap of the course...a 2.5 mile loop in a business park outside of Columbia, Maryland. The first time the Booty folks have done an event away from the original "Booty Loop" in Charlotte.

The loop is a combo platter of flats, slight up hills, and a good descent with a 90 degree turn at the bottom. One easy climb. Overall a fun and safe course...

Every type of rider is there. Little kids on BMX...a hoot to watch, once in awhile bikies and some hammer heads. Most are in teams and take turns doing loops while the others on the team sleep, snack and hang out. There are a few solo riders, of which I'm one..but they don't make themselves obvious till late in the evening in the pouring rain and you notice they haven't gone in for a break either.

There is one guy on a Unicycle. A woman, a cancer survivor, being pulled along in a pedi-cab.

Bikes worth thousands of dollars and rusty clunkers squeaking along. No ego here, which I liked...just folks riding together for a cause. Rusty Clunker chatting with Mr. 5K Cervelo about the rain, cancer and their families.

I ride pretty consistently even though the rain just comes down in sheets at times I roll in for water and snacks and to smooch the wife who has come to support me...bless her. Standing in the rain, sleeping in a wet tent and all the time a smile...

About eight p.m. ML heads for the tent and I head into a cold night. The rain picks up and the temps drop after dark. It's obvious. I'm wearing three layers, one water proof, and if I stop moving...i get cold. As I talk to folks I find it doesn't matter what you're wearing...plastic, rubber or Gore-Tex...it doesn't take long until you're wet. It reminds me of Spanky, who told me quite a long time ago, "Rain gear is only meant to keep you dry till you can get the hell out of the rain."

The laps zip by and after awhile you notice who to avoid because of sketchy bike handling skills and who it's OK to ride next to. On the descent with the turn, in the pouring rain, some are confident and others a screaming mess quite gripped with fear.

As the evening wears on the rain picks up and just pounds folks. By ten p.m. numbers on the road thin and by eleven the riders have thinned even more. It's cold, as in see your breath cold, raining and a bit windy. By midnight I'm alone with the exception three, maybe four other riders.

I'm starting to have trouble staying warm. Calories don't help and dry clothes would be useless in a few minutes. I'm at 128 miles ( 12:30) and decide it's time for some solid food from the midnight pizza party. I don't make it back out. Shivering I head to the Honda get into some dry clothes and go over to the tent and the somewhat sleeping Mary Lou. I decide to wait two hours and see which way the wind is blowing. As I zip up the tent, another solo rider is getting into her tent nearby. She's had enough too.

One o'clock, two, two- thirty...it just pours and the wind picks up. Finally about three I'm up and about and the rain is better but only just. Dry clothes on, food and I'm back out. The forecast calls for clearing, but that must be in some other state, because it rains here all morning.

By ten, I'm wet, shivering and just about had enough...ML left for home at sun up and can't say as I blame her!

I decide that I'll go another 122 miles to make it a round 250 and then bag it. At 11:30 a.m., DONE and MAN! It feels good to get dry clothes on. I chat with a few folks, get breakfast, and some are just heading out to ride...with a good number just arriving to ride. They told me they didn't want to ride in the rain last night so they decided to come in the morning.

Lots of riders there wearing "I'm riding in Memory of..." signs and I thought about what I was riding for while there. Was I riding in memory of someone? Mom and Dad? Mary? UJ or anyone else I know who has had to deal with cancer?

I decided I was riding for everyone who hasn't been stricken yet and considering how cancer has hammered my family, probably myself.

Pain, Pain Go Away

2009-09-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well...When last I had time to be here and post something it was all fun. In the post about Lake Placid Ironman you'll recall that I had major foot problems...which lead to stress fracture worries.

I was able to get out for a great ride In Lancaster, PA and keep up with my riding, even though it was painful at times. After a bout of physical therapy for some neck problems I was able to swim more...but running? Completely out of the question. This led me to make a tough decision: Pull out of the Triple Ironman for the third year in a row.

This coming weekend I'm looking at the "24 Hours Of Booty" a biking event. It's the largest 24 hour fund raiser in the country with proceeds going to The Lance Armstrong Foundation, The Ulman Cancer Fund and Johns Hopkins.

I'm really looking forward to this since last years event was a literal wash out with a tropical storm and I rode the event...at home...in the car port..on the trainer! It will be nice to actually do it!

Now the foot is questionable, but money was donated and promises made, so at least a good faith ride is in order.

We start at 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday and plow through till the same time on Sunday.

Hopefully all will go well, but if the foot bothers...I'll bag it and head home. Everything right now is about getting the foot back in order and getting back to running since as many of you know is my first love.

I've had a fair amount of pain issues the past year and have been drawn to some of the pain management books by Dr. John Sarno. "Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection" and "The Divided Mind" He feels that much of our pain...foot pain, back pain, trouble with the piriformis or the IT band. is psychlogical. The pain came from rage and anger that we carry in us. (That's the simplistic version of course) Interesting for me, since I had a professor in college, Denis Lindberg who felt the same thing and from him I developed the felling that it was probably true...

I'll let you know how the 24 Hours Of Booty goes and some more stuff about Sarno later.

Man! That was buggy!

2009-08-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

The 2009 Covered Bridge Metric Century

I love this organized bike ride...I've been half a dozen times and it's always a great morning...

Pulled out of here at 4:30 this morning to drive the few hours to Lancaster, PA to do the ride which is sponsored by the Lancaster Bike Club.

Inexpensive at $20 with good food great views and 3,300 other people...

The ride s supposed to start at 7:30, but it's "Show and Go" so after registration and getting my wrist band I pulled out of the parking lot at 7:05. 65 degrees and misty and almost as soon as you leave the lot, you're in Amish country... Quiet on a Sunday morning, until the buggies start making their way to meeting. The Amish are always friendly to cyclists and I've often pulled up along side and chatted about the horses or the buggy or the speed at which those things can move! A crack of the whip, a snort and some flaring nostrils on the horse and you will be hard pressed to keep up!

I fell in with a group of riders of various ages a few miles out and ...well riding in group is ALWAYS faster than going it alone , so I jumped in and took some pulls at the front and drafted when I had the chance...the group seemed to be getting along fine and we got to 20 miles in an hour, on a rolling course....

Two of the group , big strapping lads, solid bikies for sure, (Note: team uniforms and big meat (legs) are always a dead give away that they're serious) decided to shred the group and so went to the front and hammered the pace. Five of us dropped the group as we flew off the front. I was able to hang for a few more miles finally getting buried on the big lump of the day. No worries...they're probably 25...I'm 55. Lets see if they 're even still riding in 30 years!

The next twenty miles found me in a gap so I had the road to myself with no one passing me and no one to the front...nice! Just an exquisite morning to be out.

Rolling into the "lunch stop" at 9:00 was fun...just a few folks and lots of food, no lines for the port-o-john and quiet...Later in the morning the place will be packed with riders. I like it this way better.

After the stop (10 minutes, maybe) I pick up a "buddy." Now I don't mind riding with folks ...but this guy. Oy! The bike course is so well marked the Three Blind Mice could follow it. Signs and arrows painted on the road. HE'S following the cue sheet, the written directions.

At EVERY intersection he's like, "Are we still on the course? Are you sure this is right? I didn't see an arrow!" If I said "Just follow the arrows" once, I said it a dozen times and that's NOT hyperbole! Several times he went ahead of me and at clearly marked intersections...went off course. The first time I yelled for him. The second and third time..I left him to his own devices.

He'd realize his mistake at some point and come back up chattering, talking to me long before he got near enough for me to make out clearly what he was saying. At 58 miles the Metric Century and Half metric ( that's 62 and 31 miles respectively for the metric impaired) He zipped ahead and I never saw him after that...

Arriving back at the start at 64 miles ( the course is obviously long) I was a bit cooked, but that's ok...an 18mph average and a 3:45 elapsed time (not bike time!) was just fine by me! I haven't been working on speed recently so going harder than normal was great.

Got some ice cream...chatted with a few vendors then toweled off and headed home....

Post Placid Plague...

2009-08-15T10:11:00.000-07:00

Post Placid Plague... or Hygiene, how are ya?

Ugh...the Tuesday after Lake Placid Ironman...that's the 28th we're driving home. I'm feeling worse and worse as we go. Finally, getting home I confess to the spouse that I'm sick. Off to bed and a fever check and sure enough I'm spiking at 100.9. Yes I know that the standard human temp is 98.6, but if you've spent anytime around the medical field you also know that base temps vary from person to person. I'm usually 97. So ...yup...I'm sick. The next two weeks were a drag especially because ML came down sick a few days after me...We are just now coming out of the funk and are both sporting a bit of a cough...

Why did I get sick?

Iron Hygiene or lack there of. When I look back to race day I possible to see SOOO many places you could pick up a virus. (I'm sure it was because a virus because of it's sudden onset, the fever and a number of other symptoms that point that way.)

How many little kids did I high five or fist bump? No idea, but you know kids...there is NO telling where their fingers were just before you made skin to skin contact. At Ironman, on hot days, they had out nice cold, sopping wet sponges. You toss them on the ground when you're done swabbing yourself ...the volunteers pick them up and re-soak them so they can be again handed out. YUCK! I am sure that cold water is not doing much to inhibit bacteria or viruses.

You don't think of it at the time but lying in bed with a fever you sure do!

Grabbing cups of liquid from aid station volunteers who's hand cleanliness might be questionable...bless 'em they work their asses off and it's hard to keep yourself clean.

And finally...the swim. An article at Slowtwitch.com recently suggested you shouldn't get anywhere near the swim course until race day because of all the foul stuff you can pick up in the water...even a nice cold Northern New York Lake. And race day! 2,300 people all taking the opportunity to pee in Mirror Lake, even though the Mayor reminded everyone not to!

Any way back on the up swing except I made an appointment to get back to the podiatrist to see about managing my metatarsalgia. (right foot pain that's keeping my running in check right now.

IMLP Geek-o-meter!

2009-07-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

Time for the IMLP 2009 Geek-o-meter!

The sole purpose of this entry is to spit out numbers for those of you who get a throbbin' bobbin over anything that involves digits.

(As you may have read in the previous post I did Ironman Lake Placid with an injured foot...that said, here we go!

Finish time: 15:38:51

Swim time: 1:24 (in my usual ball park)

Bike time: 7:23 (includes pedaling the last 20 miles on one leg.)

Run time: 6:29 (that's an average 14:50 per mile)

I wore a Qunitana Roo Ultra Full wetsuit and Aqua Sphere goggles for the swim.

My bike is a 2001 Specialized pro edition frame, alloy, 54cm, zebra stripped.

Drive train is a combo platter of Dura Ace and Ultegra with Zero G brakes.

Bontrager wheels with Conti Competition tires.

Thomson seat post, Bontrager stem and Salsa Handlebars

Seat is Teri Fly

Computer is Cat Eye Strada and the Orca Squeaky toy was made in America by Co-Union.

On the run I wore Nike Vomero size 11.

I wore the same outfit all day...A nice orange/white and grey number from the 24 Hours of Booty. It was my way of helping to bring awareness to a bike event that raises money for the Livestrong Foundation and the Ulman Cancer Fund.

No hat...too damned hot.

The most frustrating part of the day was that I had tons of energy as my nutrition was spot on.

I went through 30 servings of Gu Roctane and water (7 bottles on the bike) all day with a little solid food on the bike (PB and J) and soup and cola on the run (walk). One Succeed! Capsule (electrolytes) per hour but none on the run. I never really flagged all day.

There were 2,531 registered athletes.

2,258 Finishers

140 DNF's (did not finish) for Men

68 DNF's for Women

65 DNS (did not start)

There were 93 starters in my age group (55-59 Yikes! am I that old?) and 84 finishers. I was 67/84

In the Year leading up to IMLP my training consisted of:

105 Kilometers of Swimming (about 64 miles)

4220 miles on the bike

1,278 running miles

615 hours worth of my time.

Toss some time in the weight room and yoga in there too.

Totals are from my paper training log and may vary slightly from my on line log. My paper is more accurate, but when it comes to this kind of thing I tend to not be wrapped that tight.

On the bike I saw 6 folks with flat tires. It was obvious that some of them had no idea how to fix it. Witnessed 2 bad crashes. And 3 folks who were DQ'd although I can only find one on the record. Saw a number of folks pinged (penalized) for drafting but not sure how many....I saw at least 5 in the penalty tents.

This was my 4th Lake Placid, my fourth Ironman and my Ironman PW (Personal worst) and I told Mary Lou that if I ever want to do Lake Placid again, she has permission to beat me senseless with a ball peen hammer.

I enjoyed this IM better than the other three...it was fun even though it hurt, and I think that's because I was real good about my training...got to experience some new stuff, like finishing late,

and just how dark it can get on the River Road. I was also witness to the legend of Matt Long become even deeper and richer...a very special part of the day.

All in all...No complaints! It's just Ironman.

Wanna Squeak my Whale? IMLP 2009

2009-07-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Even though some of the kids at school call me "Mr. Serious", I am anything but. I've learned through time that life is too serious to take seriously and that a sense of humor is what is often needed to get through the day. With an eye to Ironman Lake Placid this year I wondered what I could do to take the "Land of the wrapped too tight" (Ironman) and spin it, just a bit, on it's ear. (Some of you may remember I wore a kilt at IMLP 2007.)

It hit me in a bike shop a few weeks ago. A bell! Better yet...a squeaky toy.

Here it is mounted on the handle bar of my bike fresh off of my fourth Ironman.

Race day comes, as it always does, way too early. This time at 3am. No rushing for me or our friend Janet or May Lou for that matter. When you're staring at a long day you want to ease into it. Mary Lou is volunteering and Janet, the Iron Virgin, will find out what she's made of.

Breakfast, a shuttle ride, body marking, a last check of the bike then waiting for Godot at the swim start. Scott and John, Trifuelers, show up to breathe in some of the big grip. They'll spend the day volunteering at the Boat House aid station (Best aid station EVER!) then stand in line on Monday to sign up for next years bru-ha-ha.

Janet and I and our new friend Sylvie, wetsuits high and tight, stroll into the water and wait for the gun. In short order the cannon fires and we don't move. I've learned to wait about 40 seconds after the gun...keeps me out of the "rugby match in a washing machine." Then we're off...and swim through many of those folks who were cudgeled at the start. while some folks look like a windmill I remember that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I glide through the water and finish the first lap of the the two lap swim. I take a second to accost the crowd ("Hey Everybody!) pee in my wet suit and slide back into the water for another lap...it goes well and I have NO idea how slow or fast my swim time is...It simply isn't important. Stripped of my wet suit I see my sweety at the rail and get a smooch...the run on carpet to the transition area and I know how the day is going to go. It's going to get ugly, but that's Ironman.

I've been dealing with Metatarsalgia in my right foot and it seemed to have gone away only to resurface two weeks ago. It's an inflammation of the distal head of the third metatarsal. It feels like a hot poker being rammed into your foot by gremlins. By the time I hit T1, the Gremlins are shoving away...hopefully it will calm down on the bike.

On the bike and facing the first lump of the day (see the bike course elevation in a previous post) I feel great...light and steady. I scream down the drop into Keene at 58mph. Bike handling skills or hospital bills. No room for error here. Through Keene and on to Jay on the flattest section of the course...with a tail wind I'm humming at 24 mph. Passing folks I squeak the whale on my handle bars and get laughs from other racers, volunteers and spectators. A few folks look at me without smiling and shake their heads. They must be taking this seriously. Upper Jay, Black Brook, Wilmington all slide by. I pass Janet on an out and back section (she's a wicked swimmer!) spin the eleven miles uphill into Lake Placid to start lap two of the bike.

I squeak the whale going through town and the crowd erupts and cheers..."Go Orca Go!" someone yells.

By mile 70 I'm feeling the foot. Nothing to do but smile, squeak the whale and keep moving forward. On the 10 kilometer "Drop" into Keene a lad screams by me low in his aero bars. A mile later he is laying on the surface of the road, contorted, helmet smashed blood running from his nose others cyclists already lending a hand...an ambulance wails in the distance.

I pass Matty Long on the climb towards Wilmington. He looks rough. I squeak the whale and he laughs. As I pull away I tell him "Hang in there Matty, there have been worse days than this." Matt was dead a few years ago. Now he's alive. He will finish the race with two minutes to spare. I can't complain about my foot, it's just what it is. It's Ironman.

Around mile 90 my foot is done. Can't put much pressure on it and so the last 20 miles into town are mostly on the left foot and leg. The gremlins have moved on to filling my foot with lava. Despite that, my energy is good thanks to Gu Roctane and just plain old water.

Into Placid now and off the bike...Volunteers cheering as one takes my bike I ask him if he wants to squeak my whale...he does then a whole pack of Vols jumps on to squeak it...howls of laughter, a few pats on the back and a "Man, that whale is AWESOME!"

I manage to run a good portion of the first six miles...but it doesn't last. The pain in my foot smacks me down to a walk with running breaks...but I keep moving forward. I miss the whale.

Frustrating because my stomach is good, I've got tons of energy, it's just my paddles won't work right...I'm walking on the outside of my right foot, which changes my gait and causes a huge blister on the bottom of my left foot.... That's Ironman.

Passing Janet going in the opposite direction and we high five and giggle...even though we're going slow, I'll finish number four and she'll become an Ironman. Ironman is about finishing, even when things get bad.

The dark quiet of the River Road is replaced with the yells and cheers of all the folks on Mirror Lake Drive...Scott walks with me toward the finish and then changes direction to walk with Janet. Harangued by the crowd I run the last half mile down the street and onto the oval..I am alone. I've never finished this late before. I've never had the oval to myself. Eric had this finish line to himself when he won all those gold medals and now I have it that way. In the past there have always been other athletes around me... a pace or two behind or just in front. Looking back, no one there. I come to that last fifty yards and the music is pumping and the crowd is cheering, yelling. They are yelling and cheering...for me. That's Ironman.

Torque

2009-07-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is me cleaning "Torque." My 2001 Specialized Aqua and Sapone zebra stripped bike.

All good machines have names. Dad always referred to the car, no matter which one, as "Bessy." I have no idea why. Cold winter mornings:

"Come on Bessy!" Up a steep hill: "Come on Bessy!" On the side of the road: "%$#(*&*^%@# Bessy!"

It's not easy to come up with a name for a bike. You don't buy it then name it. It takes time to show itself. I've had lots of bikes and have found that if I don't have a name for it in a few weeks, it usually ends up sold. It shows I'm not in love with it the way folks fall in love with mechanical objects. Of course, any real bikie will tell you a bike has a soul and a personality.

Torque does.

Torque is short for Tomas de Torquemada. He's the monk that organized the Spanish Inquisition.

It's named Torque because I suffer on it so.

Not a (insert whiny voice here) "oh my legs hurt and lungs are going to bust" suffering. But emotional, gut wrenching, soul laid bare stuff.

It's a pro quality frame that I bought from a friend some years back. The whole bike, with race wheels, weighs 15.5 pounds. It climbs like a machine possessed and descends like it was born for the 9th circle of Hell. It's comfortable to ride and springs to life when I get out of the saddle and kick it with the spurs. Sometimes..it won't let me stop. A ride comes to an end and it calls to me and demands to be ridden more and I give it a few more miles. I've ridden it all night and all day in sleet and rain and baking sun and it still demands to be ridden more...On it, I have been frozen and wet and cold and hungry and miserable and sad and angst ridden. On it, I have actually cried. On it, I have been tortured. The two wheeled rack of pain. Like "The Machine" in the movie "The Princess Bride" it can suck the life out of me. In the end though, I am "only mostly dead."

I love cycling, and I love Torque...the way that humans can love machines and I wouldn't have it any other way... even though I suffer on it so.

One week to Ironman Lake Placid. and the training is over pretty much. A few more evenly spaced workouts and rest days and that's it...hence the bike washing today before a final trip to The Bicycle Escape for a last mechanical check. I always like a shop to look over the bike one last time, in case there is something I've missed and the guys there are always spot on.

I'll post again on Tuesday with a few final thoughts before next Sundays tomfoolery!

Upsey-Daisy

2009-07-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, my Dad or Mom would often pick us up or throw us into the top bunk or hold us up to put the star on the Christmas tree with the words "Upsey-Daisy." I used it through out my life from time to time and now it's snuck back into my lexicon because of bicycles and hills.

I'm sixteen days away from my fourth Ironman National Championships in Lake Placid. I've been riding in the hills a lot and found myself at the bottom of a long climbs saying..."Upsey-Daisy!"

Got back several days ago from Lake Placid from a few days of training...which included riding the course. (That's the bike course profile above) At the bottom of the big lumps it just seemed to pop out on it's own..."Upsey-Daisy." And I was sort of reminded of all those times as a kid when someone bigger than me, could lift me up, and say the words. I have to say them myself now but that's ok. It's life. Life is full of Upseys and downseys.

Training in Placid went well. A great week with 221 miles on the bike, 48 running and about 10,000 meters of swimming. Not all of that at Placid, of course, but it sure helped the totals!

In the midst of a three week taper right now...decreasing amounts weekly till the last week is damn near nothing. Not easier, just shorter.

In 16 days and change about 8:30 in the morning, when I hit the first lump of the day....

Goin' Up the Country...

2009-06-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-06-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

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.

2009-06-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T14:29:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-05-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-05-03T13:37:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-04-25T11:45:00.000-07:00

Foot Lab

2009-04-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

While it didn't turn out the way I would have liked, I really can't sneeze at the results of my attempt at the Virginia 24 Hour Run for Cancer. When you do endurance sports for a long time you end up in this sort of rarified atmosphere. When you hang out with folks who do this sort of thing all the time you end up in this sort of rarified atmosphere. "What do you mean you only got in 18 hours of training this week? Lightweight!" That sort of thing.

I was reminded of that today when co-workers asked how the race went..."Oh, Ok..I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I only made it 16 hours and 60 or so miles." Blank looks, quiet faces all around. "Only?"

I wanted to go back to the race this year and try and better my last years milage and use the event as a sort of lab for getting used to dealing with my feet and blisters and what not. After 25 Ultra marathons, 15 marathons and some Ironman events, I'm starting to have foot issues. Odd. Well...things change, we change. Adapt or stop. Stop is dead. No choice...figure it out.

Got into VA on Friday with Mary Lou along. Her schedule cleared and she was able to come along which made me feel just aces. Her presence and attitude and kindness help me see just how lucky I am to have found her. Made the race easier, too.

Saturday Morning comes early at 4:30. Break camp and get some food down walk over to the race start and set up an aid station. Food, fluids and the aforementioned Blister Kit, extra clothes, shoes and odds and ends.

After a brief talk by George Nelson, the RD, in fine Ultra fashion, at 7:03 he says "Go!" and we are off.

Things go well at first and I'm running 5/1. Run five minutes and walk one. As the morning is cool I feel cool and smooth. I hit the marathon in under 5 hours. The day warms up into the 80's which I am NOT prepared for, having had nothing but 50's and 60's here for weeks. 50k in 7 hours. The next 50k will take 9 hours. Despite pushing plenty of fluid, my pee is the color of 10W-40 Motor oil. It takes awhile to get it back to pale yellow. I'm able to remain chipper though...how can you not? It's a warm, sunny day, whatever distance you go is good and my baby is there every 3.75 miles when I go by the aid station. Besides, as I always say, "Any day you wake up on this side of the dirt, it's a good day!"

Steve Kirby, the RD for the Double and Triple IM, drops by for a howdy and it's good to see him.

At dark out come the head lamps and well...it must be me, although lots of folks complained about their head lamps. The LED kind? No shadows. Almost impossible to see the tree roots on the trail portion as they blend in well in the flat light. I stumble a number of times.

At eleven PM I'm not feeling right and sort of weaving around a bit...but I got what I came for. Blister experience. I pull the plug and feel bad about it afterwards, but with Ironman and then the Triple in the fall, this was not the year to push it. Other fish to fry.

Now the Lab part:

I began the run with feet that I had body glided very liberally, covered with Injinji socks and then covered again with Thor-lo. Wore the Brooks shoe. The night before I used New-Skin to cover blister prone parts of my feet. At 50k I was getting hot spots on the balls of my feet. Stopped. Peeled everything off and took a look. Nothing. No blisters, but developing hot spots. I covered them with 2nd skin and tape. The remaining 50k they gave me no problem. I did have two blisters develop. One on the sole of my left foot which popped on it's own and didn't bother me anymore and another on the heel of my right foot UNDER the callous! Not bad then but it's sore today! No blisters on any toes and that I think was because in the Injinji toe socks.

I changed socks every three hours, tried powder once to soak up sweat. (didn't work)

A little more practice and I'll get it. The next long run I'll try pre-taping to see how that goes. All the experienced loooong distance ultrarunners I know seem to swear by it. Also tried Compression socks (CVS $14:95) Post race and for the drive home. They did seem to help with leg soreness and my lower legs do feel better than they normally do after an ultra. Drew up a "foot map" on getting home to keep track of what happened to my feet and how it was or wasn't fixed...that's it above.

Eating and drinking went well..at the 12 hour weigh in I was down by 2.5 pounds. (8 pounds or 5% would have gotten pulled from the race. 4.5 pounds or 2% would have been enough to hurt performance.) Ate well and even had a P&P break at 50k! (Pepsi and Pringels)

Thanks to George for a great race. Kudos to the male and female winners. (120 and 82.5 respectively)

Now, if I can just shake this cold!

3 pounds of prevention...

2009-04-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

You know the adage...An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?

A year ago I ran the Virginia 24 Hour Run for Cancer...but I didn't make it the whole 24 and pissed off at 11 hours and 52 miles...due to blisters I couldn't manage. I went light on the prevention, because I'd been running 50k and 50 miles with no problem....but as I've found out, blisters cannot be told what to do or when to show up. What works fine now might not the next time...

Long story short, At 48 miles, at the pit area (It's a loop course) I felt some hot spots on the balls of my feet...told myself I'd take a look at the end of the next lap...by the time I got back I had full blown blisters...big juicy suckers right between my metatarsal pads..Yuck! Toes too. Both Feet. That was it...done. I tried a fix but on the next lap it was obvious it wasn't going to work...things were getting worse...lesson learned. Be Prepared. A lesson I should have NEVER forgotten.

After picking up a copy of "Fixing Your Feet" and reading a lot about blisters and what causes them, this time I'm ready. I'm a master at Hydration in long events but still get nailed from time to time. This time I'll be more diligent with my fluids and electrolytes, dehydration being one reason for blisters. My blister kit weighs close to 3 pounds! Pads, tape, ointment, needles, duct tape, mole skin, Body Glide, Vaseline, 2nd Skin...you name it. This, and practice about what works and what doesn't in the prevention department as well as methods to deal with big blisters and keep moving...

This year...this weekend, as a matter of fact, I'm going down to do the event again. As I do with any distance event I have no expectations. Start at 7 this Saturday morning and just keep moving till Sunday Morning...Currently working on the ipod for the wee hours. Red Jump Suit Apparatus, Neil Young, David Bowie, Midnight Oil, ELP...new U2. Eclectic tastes.

NB: When Baden Powell was asked for what Scouts should "Be Prepared" he replied:

"Why...any old thing."

See ya next week with the event report!

8 weeks in.

2009-03-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Eight weeks into my Ironman Lake Placid and Triple Ironman training schedule...things are going well. Bike milage is coming up nicely and I'm back to a more fluid run and no pain with new orthotics. Swimming is...well, swimming. Although I have to say today's dip was smooth and fluid and I felt like it was through air instead of water. Time to up the meters.

Looking at a 20+ hour training week with a lot of run/walk milage as I get ready for a 24 hour run in April. Just coming off a rest week it should be fine. Man! Ya have to love rest weeks. At the end of the next three week cycle it will feel much different! (Ugh!)

The 24 hour run is a fund raiser for Hospice. The same Hospice folks in South East Virginia that helped with Mom before she died. I wouldn't miss it.

If the rain holds off...I be out in the lumps tomorrow afternoon. (Riding in the hills.) If not...another trainer fest!

Owls

2009-03-12T16:08:00.000-07:00

Many years ago on a road trip flying low over the Interstate near Hayes, Kansas, we slammed into road debris form a dead semi. The van came off the ground slammed back down but my ex wife in a fit of denial yelled "We're OK! We're OK!" I'd been sleeping, she was driving. All the warning lights ever put in a mini-van proceeded to blink and ding and holler, putting an abrupt end to her fantasy. On the side of the road I looked under the van...oil was spraying everywhere, gas gushed from the tank and my cut throat sign finally made her kill the engine.

It was 3:00 AM.

The lights of the now distant Hayes glowed, but out here on the road it was wicked dark.

We'd just spent three weeks in the West seeing where I had lived in Colorado and wandering through the Yellowstone and Wind Rivers. It's impossible to see these places, hear the tales and not think that the Souix and Nez Perce, Blackfoot and Crow were on to something. The interconnectedness, the circle of life, spirits everywhere.

Standing on a dark road, feeling a bit overwhelmed I ask my Dad for help. I'm not religious but knew my Dad, who had died the Winter before, had a loving spirit.

I heard the owl before I saw him. A call that chilled me in the hot summer night. Then it flew over us. Broad winged, beautiful, even in the glow of the headlights. An omen. A spirit guide. Dad.

It wasn't ten seconds later that a car pulled up..."You folks alright?" A second car, a state trooper...whistled at the the sight of the under carriage and ushered us off to a nearby hotel, where breakfast appeared from a closed kitchen. Tramp thankful we "crept off to sleep like refugees."

Ever since then when I hear owls I think of Dad and know he is near.

On my run this evening, lots going through my mind...Home, work, Ironman Lake Placid and the Triple Ironman in October. I asked Dad to watch over me and keep me and Mary Lou safe in this tough time.

The hoot of an owl. Twice, three times, again and again. In the pines by the trail on the way home. I am followed through the trees and hear him till I turn out off the trail and onto the road.

Don't care what they say...Spring!

2009-02-15T10:40:00.000-08:00

Out for a long-ish run this morning...15 miles, on a beautiful spring morning...

Yeah, I know, February 15th...but running through the park (Seneca Creek State Park) this morning there, in the meadows, were robins! Rushing around worming, bouncing along, head cocked to the side, looking for worm sign.

The poet Linda Pastan wrote."It is the light that tells us...Spring!" Too true, the days are longer, but the sight if a robin tells you that nature confirms.

Great run this morning...tooling along on the trails and roads in the park. The pace was at 70 to 75% of my maximum heart rate...a pace I can hold for hours. The best part...here in the middle of the Washington DC area, I can go for a 15 mile trail run and see two other people!

The week coming up is a low volume week in my training schedule. WAHOO! Now, don't get me wrong...I love training for races and what it does for my body and mind...but MAN! One week out of every four with more time on my hands is great!

The Pool at 5:00am

2009-02-13T16:46:00.001-08:00

The Pool at 5:00am

A lane for myself.

Fluid that pushes back,

swimming downhill. Balance in the water. Catch and Release.

Arm down the sleeve. Pull. High Arms. Roll right. Left side breath. Catch, release, roll, breathe, sleeve, pull,roll, breathe...

Silence except for the muffled sound of the water and the bubbles underwater, breathing out. Swimming through a hole in the water heeled over like a sail boat for a split second, without the sails. Pull, pull,pull. No kicking here. No splash. Smooth is fast. Fast is smooth. Meters fly by. 200, 300, 500, 500, 300, 200 done.

A whistled tune in a hot shower.

The Pool at 5:00am.

The Blizzard of '66

2009-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Was driving along yesterday and the weather guys on the radio were chatting about the impending snow storm next week...in the process they mentioned it was the 43rd anniversary of the "Blizzard of '66."

My head spun...one of those things that you remember very clearly but that gets shoved into some drawer in the grey matter to be pulled out when the time stamp gets triggered.

This photo is from the web of the Blizzard of 1966 posted by a fellow named "John. " Thanks! I looked but don't seem to have any pics around of the event...I was only in 6th grade at the time.

My parents, Tony and Stell, had gone off to an Elks convention somewhere on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the weekend so we had been shunted off to one of my aunts. Asked Mom about that once and she said the only reason the convention finally broke up was because the liquor finally ran out!

This being the days before The Weather Channel or 24 hour news, when things were slower...it seemed to come as a surprise to everyone.

Mom and Dad didn't make it home till Wednesday of that week. I abandoned my Aunt Margarets house on Monday for the much more interesting Aunt Mea's. She was a little crazy and had a son about my age. There was a lot more freedom there. Down at the end of their street was a little Italian market and sometime during the whiteout we managed to walk there and bought a pizza to take back. It may seem crazy in this day and age, but it was my first pizza. You couldn't buy a frozen one and so if you wanted one you usually had to go to an Italian place, which where I grew up in Cumberland were few and far between.

You often hear stories of that time about how schools never closed in bad weather and people still got around OK. Well that's a bunch of tosh. We were out of school for more than a week, and being downtown I could see that streets were empty with folks having to travel on foot. I remember lots of storms like that.

I seem to remember the National Guard coming out with Duce and a half's (Trucks) to help essential personal get to where they need to be.

Now if only this storm on Monday night materializes...so I can enjoy yet another weather induced free space! It will be fun to hear..."We never closed schools..."

Free Space!

2009-01-28T03:50:00.000-08:00

Ya have to love a snow day!

Well actually two...

I WISH this was a picture of my house! Alas...

This is the second day in a row my school system has been off due to poor weather...Snow yesterday and today it's ice, so everything is slicker than snot.

The training cycle for Ironman Lake Placid started on Monday... So things are cranking up as far as that's concerned..trying to get to the pool, running, biking ad pushing metal around...

I was going to focus on just Ironman this year but am having just too much fun right now doing long stuff, so Im trying to do a long distance event of some kind every month this year...sounds like a lot, but really it isn't. A Marathon/Century or better every month. No big deal really when you consider for Ironman I'll have to ride that long, at least, once every week before too long.

Swimming is the problem...just not hyper motivated to do it, but I'll get in enough to go 1:20 at Placid...I do plan to get in much more time on the bike and up the running some.

Mary Lou and I are still coming off the Disney High...it was such a great time. We'll go back and run there again next year.

Today's workout: One hour on the bike (indoors) and a lifting session. Was supposed to swim but school's closed and I don't feel like schleping over to the swim center...

Old Dog...New Tricks

2009-01-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Running with "The Mouse" down in Florida is a different kind of day. Or, in my case days. Last weekend my wife and I decamped to Disney World for the WDW Marathon and Half Marathon.

It's always a good time. Mary Lou ran her third Half Marathon and I succumbed to the draw of my fourth "Goofy Challenge." Run the half on Saturday and then the Marathon on Sunday. Easy. It's not bad actually, the hardest part being getting out of bed a 2:00 am two days in a row!

We're up at 2:00 on Saturday morning to get going and get on the Disney supplied race transportation at 3:00...Just a quick spin over to the Epcot Parking lot (we stayed on the grounds at Disney) a bit of a walk over to the race site and then settle in. My first Goofy the temps were in the 30's and windy...it was not good sitting out there on the blacktop waiting for the race start.

Ever since and especially with ML's first Half three years ago,we sign up for the Race Retreat...carpeted, warm, with food and tea and coffee and Mickey Mouse and private Porta-Johns, expensive, yes and worth every bloody penny!

At 5:00 we start the walk over to the start which takes about 20 minutes and it's a good time to chat and people watch. It's 55 degrees and I can't believe the number of folks in tights and jackets. Then you ask them where they are from and it's always somewhere in Florida.

We're in different start corrals so we smooch up our goodbye's and I wander up to my area...although ML moved up a corral this year based on last years time.

With Fireworks, we're off at 6:00...and I settle into an easy flow. The roads at the start are broad and still the road is packed. I actually run into some other "Goofy" runners I met last year and we chat a bit. If you're going fast enough most of the race is run in the dark and heading into the Magic Kingdom is a huge change from the dark roads. All here is light and sound and action and fun! Characters abound...Piglet, Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook, Jack Sparrow... "Storming the Castle" is always a hoot and it's fun to sun through it to the sound of trumpets and with waves from a bevy of Disney Princesses...Quickly, we're out of the Park and heading back toward Epcot and in what seems like a flash are zipping back around Space Ship Earth, past that wonderful choir that's there every year and then the finish....1:59, Chip time.

Fine with me as I have to run twice as far tomorrow. I grab some snacks and wait for my sweetie....she arrives in 2:42 better than last year but not as well as she could have...she stopped for ten minutes to care for blister at mile 6...smart move. It turns out to be a big one and would have ruined the rest of her race not to mention another four days of having fun at the theme parks! We finally meet up, have our picture taken and head back to the Retreat for Breakfast...ice bags shoved into the legs of my shorts to mitigate some swelling.

I'm so proud of my girl...The next day,she tells me she feels like a runner. A big step.

We walk around the parks with our good friends Tim and Emily the rest of the day, but are off to bed early as I'm up again at 2:00.

Marathon day sneaks up on me. I'm sleeping and dreaming. I walk over to myself in the dream and say "Wake up! You have to go to a race!" I'm immediately awake and look at the clock...it's 2:00 and the alarm just begins to ring...

The same routine as the day before...Up, organize, bus,walk, Race retreat...

Training buddy and good friend of ML's, Janet, is already there...she's a denizen of the Disney Races, but we figure out it's her first full Mary in 7 years... We chat with others and eat bagels... Walk the walk at 5:00, into our starting corrals...

Now the title of this post is "Old Dog, New Tricks"... For the first time I'm going to run a race with an ipod. I know that just saying that will send some of the readers of this apoplectic.

I'm one of the folks that rails against folks running in races with headphones especially those who do it irresponsibly. (too loud, don't pay attention to what's going on around them...that stuff) How can I complain about them, if I don't know what it's like to run a race with them...Know thy enemy, right?

Off at 6:00 with better fireworks than yesterday....a loop around Epcot...through that park and off toward Magic Kingdom on the same course as yesterday although we'll get there at mile 10 instead of 6. Ipod on, I'm stoked with ELP, Kings of Leon, Pretenders, Cream, The Call, Incubus and all sorts of other hair raising stuff. I am surprised at how fast the tunes seem to make things go...It keeps the mind off the pain at hand, and mind you now...Disney is a great production with lots of music and DJ's in the middle of nowhere...Music doesn't help with the GI problems though and I have to make two pit stops and lose some time...

Feel better and out of the MK and off toward Animal Kingdom... on the lanes that run through areas we never see as "guests." It's a lovely morning with the sun now up and temps heading up...again I see folks in tights and jackets. It's over 60 degrees now and they are suffering... (I'll count 7 people down in the last 6 miles...all wearing tights and long sleeves.)

Maintaining a steady pace, I'm slowing a bit but it's ok... Despite the headphones I chat with some folks and hear all the shouts of the water stop crews...years of biking have taught me to be hyper aware and I always look before I move right or left and point out my intention if I need too.

After AK the road hits a long empty bit before the Hollywood Studios...The music pumping in my ears makes this section easier, mentally, than the previous 3 years.

Through the Studios and down the path to Epcot...Walking a bit now the crowd is just stellar.

Before you know it I'm in Paris and mile marker 25...I wrap up the phones for the finish line pics...I have met the Enemy...and it's me! I won't train with music or run short races with one but long stuff? Oh, Yea!

No real "Wall" for me today...done in 4:34 by chip.

I recently read that listening to music while running (Runners World) increases endurance by 15%. I don't know if it does...but it sure makes it one hell of a lot more fun!

Disney is a slow race: of 14,940 finishers I'm 4,647 in the Mary. Average finish time 5:08.

of 12,434 in the Half Mary I'm 1,902. Average finish time 2:35

While the Disney races aren't for everyone...it's a great first time race for those not focused on time. Even the Winner, who seems to win there yearly (2:20 this year) does it because it's so much fun!

Thanks to the ever beautiful ML and to Tim and Em and Janet for making this an especially good trip...

My Hero

2009-01-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Mary Lou is an accidental runner. She didn't mean it to happen but after we met, one thing led to another and she started. In her 50's she STARTED running. She went a bit at a time and took walking breaks and did her first 5 K and then did another... Three years and some months ago she said she wanted to try a Half Marathon...the one I do at Disney World. This weekend she'll be starting her third Half there...and I couldn't be more proud.

She says she's not a runner but she still gets out, even when the weather is bad.

She says she's not a runner but she knows what kind of shoe she should wear and what socks work best for her.

She says she's not a runner but she knows where the body glide will do the most good.

She say she's not a runner but she knows she doesn't like Gu as well as which kind of blocks she prefers.

She says she's not a runner but she reads Runners World when it comes in the house.

She says she's not a runner but she'd like to finish the Half this year close to last years time.

I tell her she's a runner but she shakes her head and disagrees.

While she may not see herself as a runner, I do... others do too.

It's easy for me...it has been since I was a kid.

It's not easy for her but she still goes. Some days it's great and some days it sucks. Just the way it is for every other runner. She stays with it and starts a training plan and sees it through even on days when she would rather do other things...

She wanted to do it because she wanted to understand me better, because it meant something to me. She also found out things about herself, things she is proud of.

She is a runner despite her best intentions...

She is also my Hero.

Goofy...

2009-01-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Life really is too serious to take seriously, hence: The Goofy Challenge!

Off to Disney World this week to run the GC for the 4th time.

It's a wonderful event and all about the fun.

On Saturday the 10th I'll run the WDW 1/2 Marathon (13.1) miles. Leaves Epcot and heads over to the Magic Kingdom and back.

On Sunday...I get to do it again but this time running the WDW Marathon (26.2). This race leaves Epcot and runs to hell and gone all over the theme parks. It's really a good time. Disney does an outstanding job of moving people ...even those that happen to be running.

Mary Lou is running her third 1/2 Mary on Saturday...In fact a repeat of these shinnanigans is her fault! I was willing to not go back the run there this year, but lo and behold, the announcement came in January that the races were open for registration and she said she would love to back...

This Year Emily and Tim will go with us and I'm sure that will provide even more fun.

Running at Disney isn't about negative splits and pace and such (although I am sure it is for some...it's not for me.) Doing a race there is about seeing Alice in Wonderland and doing the "terrorist fist bump" with Mickey and Minnie! Fireworks in the pre-dawn darkness and the sun rise over the Magic Kingdom. It's about the church choir that comes out and the high school bands that play and cheer and the special needs kids who sit on the roadside and just hope for a high five from a runner...how can you pass them up?

If you run there and go head down,hell bent for leather you'll miss a lot. Better to stay home and run a race without the all the ...fun!

(Please note: Race distances in parenthesis are for those folks who can't remember.)

Changes.

2009-01-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is the third incarnation of a Blog I started years ago.

It started as "The Razor's Edge." Over on Trifuel.com

Way too serious of a name! I mean how many people do YOU know who've actually read the "Upanishads?" It 's true that life is like walking the edge of a razor...but enough with the possible doom already!

Incarnation two was Aging Superhero." Jeepers...who am I kidding? After all the name just popped into my head while I was searching for a new name and wasn't intended for long term use anyway. I deleted that Blog...which was fun because life isn't about permanent anyway.

So here we come to Anton's Path.

Some are rocky and steep and others are easy and flat. You never know what the day's path will be like until you're well on it.

Tolkein wrote something to the effect of: "When you go out your door, keep to your feet for there is no telling where you may be swept off too."