8 weeks in.

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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...