Time. Time. Time.

Where does it all go?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In fact, time to go study...

Training on the Hamster Wheel

Must be a BIG wheel!

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

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

This weekends training is a case in point.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loops rock.

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

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

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

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

Where's the fork...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weak 14 (sic)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Racing into the future...

Foot Lab

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...

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!