I woke up at 6AM, after a nice 9-hour sleep. I’d had some weird dreams—one of them included the words “KE PODU,” which I Googled and could only find what looked like some Slavic-porn site. The REAL turkey day porn, I guess. But when I clicked on the URL, I got “404 Nicht Gefunden.” My first German “Not Found.” So I’ll have to hold onto finding out what “ke podu” means until another day.
I had 3 small mugs of coffee and the usual PowerBar Triple Threat for breakfast, finishing it by about 6:45. I was hedging on whether or not to run a local 5K today. The race start is only a little over 1 mile from my house. I needed to run 1 hour today, and it would have to be outside, as my gym is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. The temperature when I woke up was all of 12, and the winds were running 20-30MPH, with gusts to 40. Oh joy! I hadn’t run outdoors in weather like this in at least 3 years that I can remember.
I rationalized that if I was going to run outside in this crap that I might as well spend some of it with a bunch of other crazies, and the race fee goes to a good cause, so OK, I’ll pony up $25. I decided I’d run 10-15 minutes before the race (warmup, ha ha) and after it, and that would be enough. My workout main set was supposed to be 15’ steady, 20’ Mod-Hard, 10’ steady. Well the mod-hard is taken up by the 5K, so I’ll just run easy to steady on the front and back ends.
Next order of business—what to wear? I have a lot of cold weather technical running gear, so it was just a question of trying to choose the best for what I was going to do. I went with a lightweight Polartec turtleneck, sock liners under my usual Ironman running socks, Coolmax undies, fleece-lined biking tights, and my brand spanking new *pink* Nike run top thingie, which I hoped would keep me warm enough. I topped off my head with a fleece hat and wore fleece gloves. I brought my glove liners with me in case I thought I needed them, but as it turned out, I didn’t. I would run away from the start initially and go back past my house (about .5 mile) and check whether I thought I was dressed appropriately. I took a 12-oz. bottle (I save those baby Gatorade bottles just for this purpose) and filled it with Ultra Violence, to have some when I arrived at the race start, since I’d have at least 20 minutes to wait before the start.
I went outside and began to run, and whoa, it was fucking cold! My nose immediately started running, but I felt like I got the gear selection just right. Ran up the hill away from home, turned around, saw one of my triathlete neighbors outside, told him I was running the 5K, and he said, “Warming up, huh?” Al thinks I’m a little nuts, but in a good way, you know? So with gear check just fine, I kept going past home and ran towards the race registration area. Only 9’, so I just kept going around the area, circled back and went to registration. I had forgotten to bring my race belt, so I was forced to pin my number to my brand new jacket! Oh well, now I also had this T-shirt that I didn’t know what to do with. I figured I’d tie it around my waist. I drank ½ the bottle of Ultra Violence (everyone else seemed to be drinking coffee), made one potty stop, and was ready to go.
I asked someone where the race start was and was directed, so off I went for another couple minutes of easy jogging. I found 2 of my masseuses with tables at the ready (one of them was racing), and was able to leave my T-shirt there to pick up afterwards. I had told one of them, Cindy, that I “might” do the race, and she was happy to see me. I told her how I had rationalized that as long as I had to run outdoors, and there would be plenty of other crazies, I might as well show up. AND then I could get a short massage afterwards!
The other masseuse, Mike, who owns the massage school where Cindy was trained (and also my friend Harlan, who can’t yet work on me until his doctor gives him the all clear after his September triple bypass surgery), is doing his first Ironman next fall (Wisconsin). Mike and I ambled to the actual race start, where they had pace cards for people to line up. I thought, my, this must be a competitive race! Mike advised to stay close to the front (something I didn’t want to do—I’m not very fast) because of all the walkers/wrongly seeded people, but I opted to move back to the “8 mpm and under” group. I ran into someone I know and she asked why I was there. I said because I’ll run about 8 mpm, and she said, no this is everyone over that, and she was running maybe 10mpm, so I moved up after all.
Soon enough there was some sort of signal to start running—I really don’t remember what it was, but people started moving. And there were lots of people improperly seeded anyway, so I ended up going up on the sidewalk to try and get clear of the pack.
The course was nice—through my town—and within about .5 miles, I thought my nose was going to fall off, it was so cold from running into the fierce headwind. But then as my body warmed up, things were just fine. I wasn’t counting on a PR today with the cold and all, but figured oh well, just run hard as best you can.
I bumped elbows a few times in the first mile or so, and then things started to spread out a bit. I really felt the lactic acid in my legs about 2 miles in. That was when I remembered that I had done my killer bike workout yesterday starting at 3:30PM—where I hit a new FT wattage value of 158—5 over my past test! I was pretty pumped about that, and here I was running at a good clip in Arctic temperatures, not bad for a Crackhead.
I seemed to think we kept running downhill a little bit, but I must have been delusional from the cold—eventually we got to turn onto Summit Street, and I hoped like hell they weren’t going to make us run all the way up! In August, they host a USCF Grand Prix here, and they go up the Summit hill each lap of the 100K race. Luckily, we turned back north just before the big climb by the firehouse.
My lungs felt like they were on fire the last mile, and I am just not a 5K runner, and as much as I wanted to slow down I just kept going. As soon as I stopped, I began coughing and dry heaving, which, of course, meant that I had run sufficiently hard. I was just glad it was over, as I was pretty warm. I ended up with a 5K PR for me by a little, but I don’t train for this short stuff, so no worries.
I went back by the massage tables and got my legs worked over nicely. Boy could I tell I had biked hard yesterday when she hit my quads! I think her name was Kyra, and she knew I knew Cindy, and she told me I should come to the massage school class and be a “body” for them. I told her that I’d already been invited and would see her in 2 weeks. THAT will be another great day—I’ll get an outstanding 1.5 hour massage followed by more work by the students.
I picked up my T-shirt, said my goodbyes, grabbed a butterscotch lollipop, and headed for home. After that brief cool-down, the cold and wind really hit me hard again, but my legs didn’t really feel bad at all, and I added a little extra distance and some hills on the way back home to almost get in a full hour of running.
When I got home, I had to put a ham in the oven to bake to take over to the feast I was attending, and I changed from my run clothes to other workout clothes, knocked out a 30-minute abs/core workout, still feeling pretty peppy, then I finally showered and dressed and got ready to leave again, only this time by car.
I just felt so good, and the running felt good today (except for the wind and cold), and my legs felt really strong, especially after having done a ½ Ironman last Saturday and some pretty good workouts before today. And my FT watts are up! And I’ve almost convinced myself that I need that carbon FSA compact crank/SRM combo. And I got to sit around and get fed a bounteous meal with family today. And I got leftovers!
I’m looking forward to my 3-hour brick workout tomorrow, and then I’ve got some big running for Saturday and Sunday (for the next 5 weeks, actually).
I really couldn’t ask for anything more right now. It’s been a perfect day. I’m very thankful.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Today's Workouts
7:30AM Swim 2800. Included 10x100, descending every 3, last one 100% effort. The pool was fucking hot, and I just couldn't get any speed going. But I did my best, finished the workout, so all was good.
3:25PM Bike 1:15. I am on 2x20' (2') FT intervals again. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!! But, I average 157 watts each one today. I am going to try and hit those same watts next week. I am somewhat rested on the bike, but I'm hoping I can start pushing up my FT watts. These intervals are hard, HARD, HARD!!!! But I know how strong they make me. When I do these workouts, my eyeballs sweat!
I may do a 5K tomorrow, I may not. The weather is not supposed to be good. I don't want to be judging my 5K pace in sub-optimal weather conditions. On the other hand, I can get a free massage afterwards, so I just might go anyway. I can jog to and from the race, which would give me about 5.2 miles total. I'm supposed to run 1 hour tomorrow, so this is probably enough, given race intensity. I'll see!
3:25PM Bike 1:15. I am on 2x20' (2') FT intervals again. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!! But, I average 157 watts each one today. I am going to try and hit those same watts next week. I am somewhat rested on the bike, but I'm hoping I can start pushing up my FT watts. These intervals are hard, HARD, HARD!!!! But I know how strong they make me. When I do these workouts, my eyeballs sweat!
I may do a 5K tomorrow, I may not. The weather is not supposed to be good. I don't want to be judging my 5K pace in sub-optimal weather conditions. On the other hand, I can get a free massage afterwards, so I just might go anyway. I can jog to and from the race, which would give me about 5.2 miles total. I'm supposed to run 1 hour tomorrow, so this is probably enough, given race intensity. I'll see!
The Path
In my quest to increase self-awareness through various techniques, I have begun observing in others the potential to walk down that same path, and I think I've developed a sense of people who are not on that path. At this point in my life, I will be most happy with friends who are moving in the same direction.
Today I tried to describe to a friend that I believe is ready to walk down that path why she's suddenly experiencing this awakening, using sports as the vehicle, just as I do:
Sometimes it's simply a matter of being ready to hear a particular message. I could almost see the lights going on the day I wrote to you about your past Ironman performances and how I didn't think you were seeing clearly, and I think that set the wheels in motion for you to look at yourself in a different way.
To cite a personal example, I'm rereading a book that I supposedly read over 5 years ago. At that time, I was locked into a repeating cycle of self-doubt and occasional depression, and the book brought me some comfort in a time of need. This time, when I began reading it again, it was with the eyes of a beginner--a novice--who needed to be more open to the messages contained inside. It has been a completely different experience of the very same book! I SEE so much more in the book, I've LEARNED so much from it, and I can INTEGRATE its messages into my practice of self-observation and awareness.
We are like books--there can be very deep messages in there if we have tuned (OUT, some would say) our perspective to see them. When we're not ready for our book's (life's) messages/lessons, our experience of the book can be based on what our current or past experiences are when evaluated from an ingrained, external and easily influenced point of view. When we ARE ready for those messages/lessons, it feels as though we're reading a chapter for the first time, even if we've read it many times before. After all, it's the very same information! And suddenly, the subtler messages become clearer, meaningful and weightless without all our personal mental baggage to weigh them down.
Some of us read the book and "get it" sooner than others, but no matter when that mind opening occurs, it's deeply personal and precious, and you need to let it be coaxed gently into the forefront of your consciousness, let others who have been there help you in your own journey, understand that there will be rocks and obstacles on the way (mostly of your own doing!), and most of all, enjoy the process!
Today I tried to describe to a friend that I believe is ready to walk down that path why she's suddenly experiencing this awakening, using sports as the vehicle, just as I do:
Sometimes it's simply a matter of being ready to hear a particular message. I could almost see the lights going on the day I wrote to you about your past Ironman performances and how I didn't think you were seeing clearly, and I think that set the wheels in motion for you to look at yourself in a different way.
To cite a personal example, I'm rereading a book that I supposedly read over 5 years ago. At that time, I was locked into a repeating cycle of self-doubt and occasional depression, and the book brought me some comfort in a time of need. This time, when I began reading it again, it was with the eyes of a beginner--a novice--who needed to be more open to the messages contained inside. It has been a completely different experience of the very same book! I SEE so much more in the book, I've LEARNED so much from it, and I can INTEGRATE its messages into my practice of self-observation and awareness.
We are like books--there can be very deep messages in there if we have tuned (OUT, some would say) our perspective to see them. When we're not ready for our book's (life's) messages/lessons, our experience of the book can be based on what our current or past experiences are when evaluated from an ingrained, external and easily influenced point of view. When we ARE ready for those messages/lessons, it feels as though we're reading a chapter for the first time, even if we've read it many times before. After all, it's the very same information! And suddenly, the subtler messages become clearer, meaningful and weightless without all our personal mental baggage to weigh them down.
Some of us read the book and "get it" sooner than others, but no matter when that mind opening occurs, it's deeply personal and precious, and you need to let it be coaxed gently into the forefront of your consciousness, let others who have been there help you in your own journey, understand that there will be rocks and obstacles on the way (mostly of your own doing!), and most of all, enjoy the process!
Stuff I'm Thankful For
US Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and it's common to sit down and think about what we are thankful for. Below is my short list!
General:
General:
- Life situations and people that keep presenting me with valuable lessons that I try to learn from
- All my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad are alive and (relatively) healthy
- Family, friends and acquaintances that accept me as is, which is an ever-changing proposition, and their unconditional love
- Friends and family that challenge my way of thinking and being
- Excellent health and fitness
- The ability to still marvel at nature—I saw (after I first heard them) a large flock of migrating sandhill cranes 2 days ago, and yesterday a rough-legged hawk landed in a tree in my back yard.
- My tenacity and desire for continuous learning that was the example set for me as a small child
- A growing ability to be content; yet not complacent
- Humor
- Humility
- Pink things
- Leather things
- Double entendres
- Champagne
- A really good steak
- Sushi
- Mountain Dew Code Red
- The unbelievable variety of food we have access to
- Biodiversity
- Great sex
- My life to this point
Sports: - A job that enables me to live the Ironman lifestyle on my terms
- My gym is only .5 miles from home!
- I can find open lap lanes at my pool many hours of the day
- Safe, wide roads to run on and plenty of challenging hills close to home
- A kick-ass 9.5 mile trail to run on that’s a short drive from home
- A rather large lake to swim in with beautiful views of a vibrant city
- A convenient, safe loop of road close to home where I can do my bike intervals in season
- An Ironman course only 2.5 hours from home that provides outstanding training opportunities
- All the fun and outrageous training and racing I’ve done to date
- An awesome triathlon coach who helps me push myself further than I ever dreamed possible
- 2 knees that still work (my dad’s had both replaced)
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Today's Workouts
Well, they were very short and sweet. Still in recovery mode from ChickenMan:
9:50AM Lift 2x12, 13'. This was to finish up what I started yesterday. A few leg exercises and some abs.
12:19PM Run 45'. This was basically an easy run, done on the treadmill. I could tell I just didn't have my "oomph" back. But at least it was just 45'.
1:15PM Swim 1750 yards, 37'. Did another easy, drill workout, finishing with 400 pull done as 25 hard, 25 easy. Swimming felt good. The pool temperature was nice and cool. I could tell my legs aren't 100% back yet when I did my 200 kick during the warmup. I sure hope they are back tomorrow for the FT festival on the bike!
There is a nice, spiral-cut ham sitting in my refrigerator, waiting to be baked and eaten on Thanksgiving. It stares at me every time I open the refrigerator. It will be tasty. Also blueberry wine, homemade cranberry sauce, turkey, and probably a lot of other stuff over at my brother's.
Good thing I'll be working out 2+ hours tomorrow, so I can work up an appetite for Thursday!
9:50AM Lift 2x12, 13'. This was to finish up what I started yesterday. A few leg exercises and some abs.
12:19PM Run 45'. This was basically an easy run, done on the treadmill. I could tell I just didn't have my "oomph" back. But at least it was just 45'.
1:15PM Swim 1750 yards, 37'. Did another easy, drill workout, finishing with 400 pull done as 25 hard, 25 easy. Swimming felt good. The pool temperature was nice and cool. I could tell my legs aren't 100% back yet when I did my 200 kick during the warmup. I sure hope they are back tomorrow for the FT festival on the bike!
There is a nice, spiral-cut ham sitting in my refrigerator, waiting to be baked and eaten on Thanksgiving. It stares at me every time I open the refrigerator. It will be tasty. Also blueberry wine, homemade cranberry sauce, turkey, and probably a lot of other stuff over at my brother's.
Good thing I'll be working out 2+ hours tomorrow, so I can work up an appetite for Thursday!
The Mind of Iron Motto
Harder, longer, faster, tougher, repeat.
This is how I train. It encompasses the basic principles of training for any endurance sport:
This is how I train. It encompasses the basic principles of training for any endurance sport:
- Harder = Force/Power
- Longer = Endurance
- Faster = Speed
- Tougher = Muscular Endurance/Mental Toughness
- Repeat = Consistency
Monday, November 21, 2005
Today's workouts and other stuff
11:00AM Lift 2x12, 46'. ALMOST finished entire workout, then I just wasn't into it any more. Felt strong. Gee, a day off (yesterday) really does wonders!
3:58PM Swim 1800, 41'. Started the drill workout, and apparently I had read the wrong day on the schedule and I got kicked out. That's OK, I really didn't have to swim today--I may do a nice 1500-yd. workout tomorrow after that piddly little run. It will help my legs, anyway! When I first started, I couldn't get that bad dream out of my head. I'm sure it means there is something that I need to think about.
On the way into the pool, I saw a flock of maybe 75 sandhill cranes flying south! I can recognize them by their chuckle. Then you look in the air and see them flying really high! When I saw them, I said out loud, "I am so lucky." This is 3 times this year I have heard and seen them flying either north or south. Yet I have never seen a live one up close and personal. But I know they are a very special part of nature.
3:58PM Swim 1800, 41'. Started the drill workout, and apparently I had read the wrong day on the schedule and I got kicked out. That's OK, I really didn't have to swim today--I may do a nice 1500-yd. workout tomorrow after that piddly little run. It will help my legs, anyway! When I first started, I couldn't get that bad dream out of my head. I'm sure it means there is something that I need to think about.
On the way into the pool, I saw a flock of maybe 75 sandhill cranes flying south! I can recognize them by their chuckle. Then you look in the air and see them flying really high! When I saw them, I said out loud, "I am so lucky." This is 3 times this year I have heard and seen them flying either north or south. Yet I have never seen a live one up close and personal. But I know they are a very special part of nature.
Thoughts and Dreams
There were no workouts to do yesterday. I needed to recover from ChickenMan!
So what did I do? I read the Sunday newspaper, then went outside to clean out the remaining gutter so that my brother Tom would have an easier time of putting the gutter guards on. After that, I covered 6 rose bushes in the back yard, and then Tom arrived.
I wasn't planning on raking the back yard, but I thought I might as well start. See, my new neighbor hasn't raked his yet, and I don't want his leaves blowing over my way, but I think they are pretty much tamped down with moisture, so I figured, what the hell, may as well rake. But I kept looking up at the large tree limb which hasn't fallen down yet. I was hoping that at least I would hear a warning sound before the thing broke free and either started swinging to hit me or crashed to the ground. I am still hopeful the thing will fall on its own and not hit my power lines or my house, but you never know. So all the while I was raking under that tree, I kept looking up hoping to not get killed. The branch still hasn't fallen. Perhaps the next big wind will do it.
After I finished raking, and Tom finished putting gutter guards on my house and the garage (and he also trimmed this pine tree next to the garage which belongs to my other neighbor, but he never trims the thing), we went to Chicken Basket for some food. A 1-day delay, since I should have gone the day before after my "race," but no matter, it was still good. I was so hungry I couldn't talk or move, but as soon as the biscuits came, all was good!
Then Tom worked on the switches for some lights in my family room. It seemed like it should have taken him maybe 1 hour, but I guess the wiring is a Chinese puzzle (sorry for the stereotype), so he spent about 4 hours on it! What we ended up with is completely satisfactory to me; however, it doesn't work the way it used to. There was much turning off and on of the circuit breakers. During this time, I was reading the newspaper, and frankly, I wanted to go to sleep! I was so tired, just fatigue incorporated!
This morning I feel pretty good. I can tell there is some residual soreness in my legs, and I don't have to run or bike or swim today, but I'm going to lift weights and if I feel like it, go for a swim at lunchtime. Hopefully that will shake all the cobwebs out of my body so I can get back to normal training.
"Normal" training? My coach is killing me! No, not really, he's just training me for that stupid Goofy Challenge, which is just running, but fuck, I'm a triathlete, so I also get to keep swimming and biking. Some pretty tough training coming up. I think these are the hardest weeks I've ever had during the winter, but if I don't fall apart during this 7-week stretch (yes, kids, it's only 7 weeks until that Goofy shit), I will have one fucking amazing solid running base to carry me into Ironman Brazil, where I'm pretty confident I can go sub-5 in the marathon. Woo-hoo, wouldn't that just be the shits? Well, I am NOT counting my chickens (or other animals) before they hatch, I will just keep keeping on. My swimming hasn't been too peppy, but now I realize that it's because I'm putting so much into my running and biking, and swimming is my worst of the three sports (let me qualify that: I have FUCKING TONS of swim endurance and can go all day; but I'm so totally MOP, and would prefer to be TOP OF MOP), so when I'm tired, it's my swimming that suffers the most.
I need to get on my nutrition more than I have. While I'm not gaining weight--in fact, I believe I'm the leanest, yet most muscular, that I've been in years--I could be eating better. In the late fall/early winter, though, I typically have problems getting into a nutritional "groove." My training now is different than it's been this time of year in the past, but it's not balls-out 18+ hours a week, either. So I need to find that middle ground.
I remember 2 dreams I had last night. The first was I was recently hired by this company, and first thing they wanted me to made modifications to this FORTRAN (I know, I know, how OLD SCHOOL) program that spit out information about people. I can remember looking at a printout of the current program, and then going around and finding people who could give me brief instructions on how to log onto the mainframe or main server or whatever, and then I would need access to some disk drives and then the location of the compiler and how to run it. I remember in the dream feeling quite confident in my ability to put all of this together and make quick work of the required program modifications. I also remember that the new information being added to the output had to do with who in the population were triathletes! What a way to put a bunch of elements of my existence together! At least it was a very positive dream.
Now the second dream was a little disturbing. I was shaving my legs, and on the back side of one, on the calf, I found this new growth thing. It stuck out about 1.5", was all this skin bumpiness with feathered, really dark edges. So I just continued trying to shave off these really long hairs growing out of it and though, "gosh I need to get to a doctor and get this thing removed." It's hard to describe what the growth looked like, but it was totally gross, and when I woke up from the dream, I was like what the fuck was THAT?????? I have goosebumps just thinking about this dream again.
I almost finished reading The Runner and the Path last night before I went to sleep. Good book. It is ending with the guy knowing he's going to lose his current job, and how he then ends up writing this book. Very liminocentric! What I have gotten out of reading this book is that some of us can use our sports as a vehicle to learn and practice observing ourselves and to get our mind out of its usual activities, i.e., sort of like meditation. And that if we can watch ourselves in difficult or uncomfortable situations, we can perhaps make sense out of our true feelings and possibly change our reactions or the degree of reaction. This is where I am, and I can't say I'm successful 100% of the time, but I have noticed a new degree of calm about myself that I've never experienced before. Even though my job has been quite stressful in the past few weeks, I think I'm learning how to separate that which I can control (my own reaction to a situation) vs. that which I can't control (how others perceive things or me), and while things aren't perfect, they are tolerable.
I wouldn't call how I feel right now "happiness," because I'm learning that that is mostly a ephemeral emotion. I would call it openness, heightened awareness and I'm really feeling more receptive to a lot of things around me. Whether that translates into new/deepening relationships is neither here nor there right at the moment; first and foremost is my relationship to my SELF.
So what did I do? I read the Sunday newspaper, then went outside to clean out the remaining gutter so that my brother Tom would have an easier time of putting the gutter guards on. After that, I covered 6 rose bushes in the back yard, and then Tom arrived.
I wasn't planning on raking the back yard, but I thought I might as well start. See, my new neighbor hasn't raked his yet, and I don't want his leaves blowing over my way, but I think they are pretty much tamped down with moisture, so I figured, what the hell, may as well rake. But I kept looking up at the large tree limb which hasn't fallen down yet. I was hoping that at least I would hear a warning sound before the thing broke free and either started swinging to hit me or crashed to the ground. I am still hopeful the thing will fall on its own and not hit my power lines or my house, but you never know. So all the while I was raking under that tree, I kept looking up hoping to not get killed. The branch still hasn't fallen. Perhaps the next big wind will do it.
After I finished raking, and Tom finished putting gutter guards on my house and the garage (and he also trimmed this pine tree next to the garage which belongs to my other neighbor, but he never trims the thing), we went to Chicken Basket for some food. A 1-day delay, since I should have gone the day before after my "race," but no matter, it was still good. I was so hungry I couldn't talk or move, but as soon as the biscuits came, all was good!
Then Tom worked on the switches for some lights in my family room. It seemed like it should have taken him maybe 1 hour, but I guess the wiring is a Chinese puzzle (sorry for the stereotype), so he spent about 4 hours on it! What we ended up with is completely satisfactory to me; however, it doesn't work the way it used to. There was much turning off and on of the circuit breakers. During this time, I was reading the newspaper, and frankly, I wanted to go to sleep! I was so tired, just fatigue incorporated!
This morning I feel pretty good. I can tell there is some residual soreness in my legs, and I don't have to run or bike or swim today, but I'm going to lift weights and if I feel like it, go for a swim at lunchtime. Hopefully that will shake all the cobwebs out of my body so I can get back to normal training.
"Normal" training? My coach is killing me! No, not really, he's just training me for that stupid Goofy Challenge, which is just running, but fuck, I'm a triathlete, so I also get to keep swimming and biking. Some pretty tough training coming up. I think these are the hardest weeks I've ever had during the winter, but if I don't fall apart during this 7-week stretch (yes, kids, it's only 7 weeks until that Goofy shit), I will have one fucking amazing solid running base to carry me into Ironman Brazil, where I'm pretty confident I can go sub-5 in the marathon. Woo-hoo, wouldn't that just be the shits? Well, I am NOT counting my chickens (or other animals) before they hatch, I will just keep keeping on. My swimming hasn't been too peppy, but now I realize that it's because I'm putting so much into my running and biking, and swimming is my worst of the three sports (let me qualify that: I have FUCKING TONS of swim endurance and can go all day; but I'm so totally MOP, and would prefer to be TOP OF MOP), so when I'm tired, it's my swimming that suffers the most.
I need to get on my nutrition more than I have. While I'm not gaining weight--in fact, I believe I'm the leanest, yet most muscular, that I've been in years--I could be eating better. In the late fall/early winter, though, I typically have problems getting into a nutritional "groove." My training now is different than it's been this time of year in the past, but it's not balls-out 18+ hours a week, either. So I need to find that middle ground.
I remember 2 dreams I had last night. The first was I was recently hired by this company, and first thing they wanted me to made modifications to this FORTRAN (I know, I know, how OLD SCHOOL) program that spit out information about people. I can remember looking at a printout of the current program, and then going around and finding people who could give me brief instructions on how to log onto the mainframe or main server or whatever, and then I would need access to some disk drives and then the location of the compiler and how to run it. I remember in the dream feeling quite confident in my ability to put all of this together and make quick work of the required program modifications. I also remember that the new information being added to the output had to do with who in the population were triathletes! What a way to put a bunch of elements of my existence together! At least it was a very positive dream.
Now the second dream was a little disturbing. I was shaving my legs, and on the back side of one, on the calf, I found this new growth thing. It stuck out about 1.5", was all this skin bumpiness with feathered, really dark edges. So I just continued trying to shave off these really long hairs growing out of it and though, "gosh I need to get to a doctor and get this thing removed." It's hard to describe what the growth looked like, but it was totally gross, and when I woke up from the dream, I was like what the fuck was THAT?????? I have goosebumps just thinking about this dream again.
I almost finished reading The Runner and the Path last night before I went to sleep. Good book. It is ending with the guy knowing he's going to lose his current job, and how he then ends up writing this book. Very liminocentric! What I have gotten out of reading this book is that some of us can use our sports as a vehicle to learn and practice observing ourselves and to get our mind out of its usual activities, i.e., sort of like meditation. And that if we can watch ourselves in difficult or uncomfortable situations, we can perhaps make sense out of our true feelings and possibly change our reactions or the degree of reaction. This is where I am, and I can't say I'm successful 100% of the time, but I have noticed a new degree of calm about myself that I've never experienced before. Even though my job has been quite stressful in the past few weeks, I think I'm learning how to separate that which I can control (my own reaction to a situation) vs. that which I can't control (how others perceive things or me), and while things aren't perfect, they are tolerable.
I wouldn't call how I feel right now "happiness," because I'm learning that that is mostly a ephemeral emotion. I would call it openness, heightened awareness and I'm really feeling more receptive to a lot of things around me. Whether that translates into new/deepening relationships is neither here nor there right at the moment; first and foremost is my relationship to my SELF.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Second Annual ChickenMan (Indoor ½ Ironman) Race Report
Note: This is a little long for such a silly event, my apologies, but I write these things mostly for my own posterity because when I reread them I usually find something good in them. I have no ego invested in whether anyone else actually reads this, but I know some people like race reports, so here goes.
Preamble
It’s called ChickenMan since last year (when I did it with 2 friends) after finishing, we went to Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, IL, which has the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Also the best homemade biscuits, hush puppies, mashed potatoes (WITH SKINS!) and chicken dumpling soup.
This year I decided to go solo, because I needed the timing of this to be far enough out from the Goofy Challenge to not impact my run training. Because of that, and the fact that one of the usual suspects has a sprained ankle and can’t run, and the other was out of town this weekend, and I can’t convince anyone else to partake in the lunacy, I was happy to do this alone.
The format is all indoors—swim in the pool, bike not on my own bike on a trainer, but on an evil Precor C846 stationary bike, and run on the treadmill. I say the Precor bike is evil because if I push known wattages from training on my bike on it, my heart rate is always higher, so I don’t sweat it and figure the conversion factor for me from regular bike to Precor means I need to bang out only 47 miles on it. It still sucks, and I know you, the reader doesn’t care, but it’s a technical detail. Trust me, it would be MUCH easier to do this on one of my own bikes, but then it wouldn’t be as fun or challenging to me!
I got 9 full hours of comatose sleep the night before. Not that I had anything to be nervous about that would disrupt my sleep—I figure I can get out and do a ½ Ironman pretty much anytime except for maybe the week after I just did one or within 3 weeks of an Ironman. And of course, my coach would NEVER have me taper for this—he thinks it’s crazy, but understands and helped me pick the right weekend to do it.
I awoke at 5AM with the intention of beginning to swim at 7AM, giving me plenty of time to finish before the Masters swim, which begins at 8AM. I live ½ mile from the YMCA that I belong to, which is cool because I don’t have to spend much time at all to drive there to swim or run (I lift weights exclusively at home, where I have a range of dumbbells from 2-30lbs. each, a 40-lb. barbell which can be loaded with way more weight than I need, and a Parabody machine, that provides high and low cables, a pec flye station, etc.). So I knew I needed to leave the house like 6:45AM, and I would already have my swimsuit on.
My pre-race nutrition consisted of 2 mugs of coffee with creamer, one Powerbar Triple Threat, and a ½ serving of Glycoload, for a total of about 500 kcal. I got the Powerbar down by about 5:30 while futzing around online, and then chugged the Glycoload at a little after 6AM. I then packed by swim and run/bike bags, put defogger into my swim goggles, put my swimsuit on (today’s choice was the black leather-look suit), got dressed and headed to the YMCA.
The Swim
Data: 2100 yards, leisurely (OK, I’m slow) pace, :39 on the dot. Average HR=101, Kcal=250.
Experience: The best choice for open lane had one guy in it, who had his name written on his pull buoy and Zoomers—Russ Nelson. I had actually met this guy before sometime at the Y, but I don’t think he remembered. No matter, I wouldn’t have remembered his name, either, except for it was there for the whole world to see. When he stopped at the wall, I asked if it was OK for me to swim next to him, and he said yes.
I then began futzing with my goggles, and I was watching Russ swim, and it seemed like he continued to swim down the middle of the lane. Apparently, out loud, I said (not too loudly, though), “Why are you swimming down the fucking middle, you know I’m going to be next to you?” Another man who had just arrived noticed the situation, and I said to him, “Did I just say that out loud?” He said, “You said why are you swimming down the fricking middle.” I smiled that he had made a word substitution, explained that I was sorry for my language, and that I thought I had worked it out with Russ. Russ returned to the wall, and I politely said he was kind of swimming down the middle, and he smiled at me and said, “You mean I need to move my ass over!” I smiled back and said, “Yes, come on I’m only half your size you can still have most of the lane!” and then I got in and started swimming.
Russ was pretty sweet to swim next to—he doesn’t create a huge wake, and he isn’t one of those splashy kickers. But I did notice from time to time he would veer a little too close to me, and since he was wearing paddles for a lot of his intervals, I was a little concerned. He rapped me lightly once, but other than that, I enjoyed swimming next to such a good swimmer! He has a really great backstroke. He’s not so bad to look at, either. Very tall, fairly muscular, not much fat on him.
The guy in the adjacent lane, though, not so much. He was wearing a swimsuit that should go in the rag bin, it’s so ugly and worn. And he’s got a nice pot belly, and his right arm just smacks the water when he’s swimming freestyle. I’ve seen him before and call him Splashy. He creates a lot of turbulence with his kick, too, and a few times I got a mouthful of water care of Splashy. Oh well. It made things interesting to focus on not getting smacked by Russ and not getting drowned by Splashy.
T1: 17:47. I obviously took my time here. Took a full shower, including washing my hair, because I didn’t want to smell too chlorine-y for the rest of the day. Plus I knew this would be the best I’d smell for about the next 5 hours.
The Bike
Data: 47 miles on Precor C846, Time=3:06.49, Average HR=118, Kcal=1550.
Experience: I took my trusty tall, 16-banger (that’s how many 12-oz. beers it holds) cooler plus a gym bag with my running shoes, gels and CD player over to the bike, loaded up a CD, put one 32 oz. bottle of Gatorade on the bike and 2 gels, and took off.
This part of the day was pretty boring. Just ride, internally curse the damn Precor machine for being geared like some alien torture device, sweat like a pig, hydrate (I drank ½ of a 12 oz. can of Ultra Violence (Code Red) about halfway through, and finished it at 2 hours in), occasionally look at the TVs on the wall, look around at the other crazies in the cardio area, change CD’s on the hour, wipe some of the sweat off my head every so often and stand up on the pedals every 10 minutes or so.
Things became a little more interesting with about 20 minutes (by my estimation) to go. I saw a woman get on one of the treadmills with a Timex M-dot hat on. And it looked like it had the Ironman distances printed on the back. My Kona hat has the distances printed on it and also Kona 2004, so I was wondering if it was a Kona hat. I was also wondering where she got the hat, since she didn’t look like someone who’s done an Ironman. OK, get your fucking grenades out and throw them at me for saying that, but you do know what I mean. She was wearing slightly flared Capri pants and “tennies.” That seemed to be the dead giveaway, and then she had the treadmill set to barely jogging. So I thought it was safe to assume SHE wasn’t the one who did the Ironman. I figured her husband. And I wanted to know. I was hoping she would tough out at least 20 minutes so I could ask her about the hat. Which I was obligated to do. Because I wanted to know who was the mystery Ironman at the Y? I thought she might be the wife of someone I know there who just did Ironman Florida for the second time, so I thought it would be nice to have her say “hi” to her husband.
As an aside, even though the effort was not easy, many times during the ride, my legs felt totally weightless, and I was truly in a “flow” state.
I finished my ride (after cleaning off the smelly bike, of course) and went over to the treadmill. I asked the woman in the hat, “Which Ironman did you do?” To which she said, “What?” I pointed to the hat and said “You’re wearing an Ironman hat, so I figure you or perhaps your husband did one, and I’ve done a few myself, which is why I recognized the hat.” She said she didn’t know what Ironman is. So I asked her where she got the hat and she claimed her husband got it at a 5K race where they were being given away. I just said, “Oh, how nice.” And walked away. Everyone who believes that’s how the story ended, raise your hand. Nobody? You can fill in your own blanks. At least it was free entertainment!
T2: 11:27—changed shoes, nabbed a treadmill under a high-speed fan, got some more fluids out of the cooler and 2 gels, and started out.
The Run
Data: 13.1 miles on the treadmill, Time=2:04, Average HR=125, Kcal=1225.
Experience: I noticed I had salt streaks on my bike shorts, how interesting! The treadmills at the Y each have their own TV, but I almost never watch it, and today I sure wasn’t going to. I’m on there to run, to focus on running, to keep running, and then stop. I just can’t pay attention to anything on a TV in front of me while on the treadmill. If I do turn it on, it’s usually The Weather Channel, where I can periodically go, “ooooooh---look at the pretty colors.”
My legs didn’t feel too bad coming off the stupid @#@^$&@$ Precor, but hey, treadmill running is boring no matter how you cut it. So I played with the speed control to mix things up a little, and wasn’t terribly motivated to go real fast, although this is probably the fastest I’ve run 13.1 on the dreadmill. For some reason, I can’t run as fast on it as I would outdoors, if you go by my HR, and I don’t let it bother me. I mostly run by time and intensity.
I had my “floaty” legs a lot during the run. I think the hardest thing was just being on the treadmill going nowhere! I probably could have amped up the intensity, but without a taper, and considering I will be back to normal training on Monday (I get Sunday off, oh joy!), I didn’t see the point.
The only excitement during the entire run was when I grabbed for a gel and spastically dropped it on the belt, and it went flying off. There were 2 or three guys who grabbed for it and one of them handed it up to me, and I thanked him. Whoa…..you could make an entire movie about THAT.
I drank primarily Ultra Violence while on the treadmill, as the caffeine makes it slightly less boring. I don’t remember much of anything else during the run except that I was running, and I felt like I kept up a good cadence.
Race Nutrition
Item Kcal
4 gels 400
76 oz. Gatorade 475
32 oz. Ultra Violence 450
Total 1328
Looks like I nailed it for calories taken in and fluids--about 22 oz. fluid per hour. Perfect!
Post-Race
Everyone knows that the BEST SHOWER EVER is after a hard workout, and this one was going to be no exception! I was just about done showering when an Asian woman that I usually see at the Y when I’m swimming came into the shower area. She’s all suited up to swim, and I’m butt naked. She remarks how she hasn’t seen me in awhile, and I told her it’s because I swim early in the morning most days now. Then I’m just staying in the HOT water because it feels great (I did manage to stretch about 15 minutes before I showered), and this woman looks at me and smiles and tells me I have such a nice shape. And while she’s saying it she’s making the outline of the, ahem, curvy aspects of my figure. I said thanks (really, I wasn’t the least embarrassed, why should I be?), and then she said, “No, really you have the nicest figure” while drawing the curves in the air again. What could I do but smile? I’m all endorphined up, someone’s telling me I look good, what the hell, I’ll take it. What I find interesting is how many women will be very direct (and they are not gay women, either), while men just stare. I have no problem going up to male bikers and telling them they have a nice ass or legs, though. I hope they appreciate it, because I only say it if I mean it!
I’ve just finished getting my post-race nutrition down, at least the start of it. I need to lie down, and this will be a good time, because I think the chain saws are about to be retired for the day, as twilight is approaching. Nothing more for me to do the rest of the day but eat, drink and rest!
Thanks for reading!
Preamble
It’s called ChickenMan since last year (when I did it with 2 friends) after finishing, we went to Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket in Willowbrook, IL, which has the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Also the best homemade biscuits, hush puppies, mashed potatoes (WITH SKINS!) and chicken dumpling soup.
This year I decided to go solo, because I needed the timing of this to be far enough out from the Goofy Challenge to not impact my run training. Because of that, and the fact that one of the usual suspects has a sprained ankle and can’t run, and the other was out of town this weekend, and I can’t convince anyone else to partake in the lunacy, I was happy to do this alone.
The format is all indoors—swim in the pool, bike not on my own bike on a trainer, but on an evil Precor C846 stationary bike, and run on the treadmill. I say the Precor bike is evil because if I push known wattages from training on my bike on it, my heart rate is always higher, so I don’t sweat it and figure the conversion factor for me from regular bike to Precor means I need to bang out only 47 miles on it. It still sucks, and I know you, the reader doesn’t care, but it’s a technical detail. Trust me, it would be MUCH easier to do this on one of my own bikes, but then it wouldn’t be as fun or challenging to me!
I got 9 full hours of comatose sleep the night before. Not that I had anything to be nervous about that would disrupt my sleep—I figure I can get out and do a ½ Ironman pretty much anytime except for maybe the week after I just did one or within 3 weeks of an Ironman. And of course, my coach would NEVER have me taper for this—he thinks it’s crazy, but understands and helped me pick the right weekend to do it.
I awoke at 5AM with the intention of beginning to swim at 7AM, giving me plenty of time to finish before the Masters swim, which begins at 8AM. I live ½ mile from the YMCA that I belong to, which is cool because I don’t have to spend much time at all to drive there to swim or run (I lift weights exclusively at home, where I have a range of dumbbells from 2-30lbs. each, a 40-lb. barbell which can be loaded with way more weight than I need, and a Parabody machine, that provides high and low cables, a pec flye station, etc.). So I knew I needed to leave the house like 6:45AM, and I would already have my swimsuit on.
My pre-race nutrition consisted of 2 mugs of coffee with creamer, one Powerbar Triple Threat, and a ½ serving of Glycoload, for a total of about 500 kcal. I got the Powerbar down by about 5:30 while futzing around online, and then chugged the Glycoload at a little after 6AM. I then packed by swim and run/bike bags, put defogger into my swim goggles, put my swimsuit on (today’s choice was the black leather-look suit), got dressed and headed to the YMCA.
The Swim
Data: 2100 yards, leisurely (OK, I’m slow) pace, :39 on the dot. Average HR=101, Kcal=250.
Experience: The best choice for open lane had one guy in it, who had his name written on his pull buoy and Zoomers—Russ Nelson. I had actually met this guy before sometime at the Y, but I don’t think he remembered. No matter, I wouldn’t have remembered his name, either, except for it was there for the whole world to see. When he stopped at the wall, I asked if it was OK for me to swim next to him, and he said yes.
I then began futzing with my goggles, and I was watching Russ swim, and it seemed like he continued to swim down the middle of the lane. Apparently, out loud, I said (not too loudly, though), “Why are you swimming down the fucking middle, you know I’m going to be next to you?” Another man who had just arrived noticed the situation, and I said to him, “Did I just say that out loud?” He said, “You said why are you swimming down the fricking middle.” I smiled that he had made a word substitution, explained that I was sorry for my language, and that I thought I had worked it out with Russ. Russ returned to the wall, and I politely said he was kind of swimming down the middle, and he smiled at me and said, “You mean I need to move my ass over!” I smiled back and said, “Yes, come on I’m only half your size you can still have most of the lane!” and then I got in and started swimming.
Russ was pretty sweet to swim next to—he doesn’t create a huge wake, and he isn’t one of those splashy kickers. But I did notice from time to time he would veer a little too close to me, and since he was wearing paddles for a lot of his intervals, I was a little concerned. He rapped me lightly once, but other than that, I enjoyed swimming next to such a good swimmer! He has a really great backstroke. He’s not so bad to look at, either. Very tall, fairly muscular, not much fat on him.
The guy in the adjacent lane, though, not so much. He was wearing a swimsuit that should go in the rag bin, it’s so ugly and worn. And he’s got a nice pot belly, and his right arm just smacks the water when he’s swimming freestyle. I’ve seen him before and call him Splashy. He creates a lot of turbulence with his kick, too, and a few times I got a mouthful of water care of Splashy. Oh well. It made things interesting to focus on not getting smacked by Russ and not getting drowned by Splashy.
T1: 17:47. I obviously took my time here. Took a full shower, including washing my hair, because I didn’t want to smell too chlorine-y for the rest of the day. Plus I knew this would be the best I’d smell for about the next 5 hours.
The Bike
Data: 47 miles on Precor C846, Time=3:06.49, Average HR=118, Kcal=1550.
Experience: I took my trusty tall, 16-banger (that’s how many 12-oz. beers it holds) cooler plus a gym bag with my running shoes, gels and CD player over to the bike, loaded up a CD, put one 32 oz. bottle of Gatorade on the bike and 2 gels, and took off.
This part of the day was pretty boring. Just ride, internally curse the damn Precor machine for being geared like some alien torture device, sweat like a pig, hydrate (I drank ½ of a 12 oz. can of Ultra Violence (Code Red) about halfway through, and finished it at 2 hours in), occasionally look at the TVs on the wall, look around at the other crazies in the cardio area, change CD’s on the hour, wipe some of the sweat off my head every so often and stand up on the pedals every 10 minutes or so.
Things became a little more interesting with about 20 minutes (by my estimation) to go. I saw a woman get on one of the treadmills with a Timex M-dot hat on. And it looked like it had the Ironman distances printed on the back. My Kona hat has the distances printed on it and also Kona 2004, so I was wondering if it was a Kona hat. I was also wondering where she got the hat, since she didn’t look like someone who’s done an Ironman. OK, get your fucking grenades out and throw them at me for saying that, but you do know what I mean. She was wearing slightly flared Capri pants and “tennies.” That seemed to be the dead giveaway, and then she had the treadmill set to barely jogging. So I thought it was safe to assume SHE wasn’t the one who did the Ironman. I figured her husband. And I wanted to know. I was hoping she would tough out at least 20 minutes so I could ask her about the hat. Which I was obligated to do. Because I wanted to know who was the mystery Ironman at the Y? I thought she might be the wife of someone I know there who just did Ironman Florida for the second time, so I thought it would be nice to have her say “hi” to her husband.
As an aside, even though the effort was not easy, many times during the ride, my legs felt totally weightless, and I was truly in a “flow” state.
I finished my ride (after cleaning off the smelly bike, of course) and went over to the treadmill. I asked the woman in the hat, “Which Ironman did you do?” To which she said, “What?” I pointed to the hat and said “You’re wearing an Ironman hat, so I figure you or perhaps your husband did one, and I’ve done a few myself, which is why I recognized the hat.” She said she didn’t know what Ironman is. So I asked her where she got the hat and she claimed her husband got it at a 5K race where they were being given away. I just said, “Oh, how nice.” And walked away. Everyone who believes that’s how the story ended, raise your hand. Nobody? You can fill in your own blanks. At least it was free entertainment!
T2: 11:27—changed shoes, nabbed a treadmill under a high-speed fan, got some more fluids out of the cooler and 2 gels, and started out.
The Run
Data: 13.1 miles on the treadmill, Time=2:04, Average HR=125, Kcal=1225.
Experience: I noticed I had salt streaks on my bike shorts, how interesting! The treadmills at the Y each have their own TV, but I almost never watch it, and today I sure wasn’t going to. I’m on there to run, to focus on running, to keep running, and then stop. I just can’t pay attention to anything on a TV in front of me while on the treadmill. If I do turn it on, it’s usually The Weather Channel, where I can periodically go, “ooooooh---look at the pretty colors.”
My legs didn’t feel too bad coming off the stupid @#@^$&@$ Precor, but hey, treadmill running is boring no matter how you cut it. So I played with the speed control to mix things up a little, and wasn’t terribly motivated to go real fast, although this is probably the fastest I’ve run 13.1 on the dreadmill. For some reason, I can’t run as fast on it as I would outdoors, if you go by my HR, and I don’t let it bother me. I mostly run by time and intensity.
I had my “floaty” legs a lot during the run. I think the hardest thing was just being on the treadmill going nowhere! I probably could have amped up the intensity, but without a taper, and considering I will be back to normal training on Monday (I get Sunday off, oh joy!), I didn’t see the point.
The only excitement during the entire run was when I grabbed for a gel and spastically dropped it on the belt, and it went flying off. There were 2 or three guys who grabbed for it and one of them handed it up to me, and I thanked him. Whoa…..you could make an entire movie about THAT.
I drank primarily Ultra Violence while on the treadmill, as the caffeine makes it slightly less boring. I don’t remember much of anything else during the run except that I was running, and I felt like I kept up a good cadence.
Race Nutrition
Item Kcal
4 gels 400
76 oz. Gatorade 475
32 oz. Ultra Violence 450
Total 1328
Looks like I nailed it for calories taken in and fluids--about 22 oz. fluid per hour. Perfect!
Post-Race
Everyone knows that the BEST SHOWER EVER is after a hard workout, and this one was going to be no exception! I was just about done showering when an Asian woman that I usually see at the Y when I’m swimming came into the shower area. She’s all suited up to swim, and I’m butt naked. She remarks how she hasn’t seen me in awhile, and I told her it’s because I swim early in the morning most days now. Then I’m just staying in the HOT water because it feels great (I did manage to stretch about 15 minutes before I showered), and this woman looks at me and smiles and tells me I have such a nice shape. And while she’s saying it she’s making the outline of the, ahem, curvy aspects of my figure. I said thanks (really, I wasn’t the least embarrassed, why should I be?), and then she said, “No, really you have the nicest figure” while drawing the curves in the air again. What could I do but smile? I’m all endorphined up, someone’s telling me I look good, what the hell, I’ll take it. What I find interesting is how many women will be very direct (and they are not gay women, either), while men just stare. I have no problem going up to male bikers and telling them they have a nice ass or legs, though. I hope they appreciate it, because I only say it if I mean it!
I’ve just finished getting my post-race nutrition down, at least the start of it. I need to lie down, and this will be a good time, because I think the chain saws are about to be retired for the day, as twilight is approaching. Nothing more for me to do the rest of the day but eat, drink and rest!
Thanks for reading!
I Am Getting This
Pele. The goddess of fire/volcano. I have this exact poster in my office/weight room. She has been with me the last 10 years of my life, which has been a period of change and increasing self-awareness.
I have been reading several books that contain common themes. One that I'm almost done with has a quote from Sariputta:
"Do not look upon your body as your self. Do not think that the body is the self or that the self is the body, or that the self is in the body or that the body is in the self. Do not look upon your feelings as your self, your thoughts as your self, even your consciousness as your self. Your body can change and become otherwise, but grief, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair do not have to arise."
I am finally getting this--that my thoughts, emotions and body are NOT MY SELF. Even as this should be almost obvious, and I've heard/read this before, now I KNOW IT. Yet, I can take comfort in using my body as a vehicle for my mind to LEAVE MY BODY. Pele is not the image you see--she is the spirit of Hawaii--its volcanoes, lava, lush green forests, deep blue sea, insanely colorful fish and terrifically handsome people.
Today I celebrate the totally fucking AMAZING body that I've been given to use in this short Earthly journey. It has opened up many new windows into my hearts, thoughts, but most importantly, MY SELF.
Friday, November 18, 2005
Today's Workout (YES, ONLY ONE!!!)
All right! Only one workout today, because tomorrow is ChickenMan 1/2 Ironman!
1:52PM Run 60'. The plan was easy to steady, self-selected upper steady. Ran on the treadmill, and at first I just wasn't into it, but then I "let go" and got that floaty sensation. Man, I am really running differently now! I feel like I can just drive my legs, and that my upper body is staying relatively still, i.e., I AM TRANSMITTING ALL MY POWER INTO FORWARD MOTION!!! How fucking cool is that? I am still not fast, but today was the first time I was thinking to myself, "Hey, maybe I actually like running."
I am tired, just because I trained hard this week, but also because I know I am "racing" tomorrow. I will not be going terribly hard tomorrow, but I do want to see how well I can run at the end of the festival. If I can be all floaty in a 1/2 Ironman, well, baby, that's pretty fucking significant, don't you think?
Winter is settling in here in the Chicagoland area, and that always changes my mood somewhat. It's dreary, cold, all I want to do is cuddle up in my bed (and yes, it would be nice if there was a hunky guy in there with me so we could have some raucous, enduro-sex) and sleep a lot. Thankfully, work wasn't a bitch today, and so I think some of the mental strain of the week is coming out, and I'm trying to let go of it.
Tomorrow will be happy happy with lots of Ultra Violence being drunk and then lots of beer afterwards.
And I truly believe my life is WAY MORE FUCKING OUTSTANDING IN PINK!!!!!
1:52PM Run 60'. The plan was easy to steady, self-selected upper steady. Ran on the treadmill, and at first I just wasn't into it, but then I "let go" and got that floaty sensation. Man, I am really running differently now! I feel like I can just drive my legs, and that my upper body is staying relatively still, i.e., I AM TRANSMITTING ALL MY POWER INTO FORWARD MOTION!!! How fucking cool is that? I am still not fast, but today was the first time I was thinking to myself, "Hey, maybe I actually like running."
I am tired, just because I trained hard this week, but also because I know I am "racing" tomorrow. I will not be going terribly hard tomorrow, but I do want to see how well I can run at the end of the festival. If I can be all floaty in a 1/2 Ironman, well, baby, that's pretty fucking significant, don't you think?
Winter is settling in here in the Chicagoland area, and that always changes my mood somewhat. It's dreary, cold, all I want to do is cuddle up in my bed (and yes, it would be nice if there was a hunky guy in there with me so we could have some raucous, enduro-sex) and sleep a lot. Thankfully, work wasn't a bitch today, and so I think some of the mental strain of the week is coming out, and I'm trying to let go of it.
Tomorrow will be happy happy with lots of Ultra Violence being drunk and then lots of beer afterwards.
And I truly believe my life is WAY MORE FUCKING OUTSTANDING IN PINK!!!!!
Something Besides Workouts
OK, so the topic of this post is: How do you know you are doing enough or too much towards increasing your self-awareness? Yesterday while getting a massage I made the statement about myself: "A few weeks ago I thought I was trying too hard, and now I feel like I'm not trying hard enough, and yet I know I was right both times." What does this mean? It's an intrinsic aspect of my personality, and yeah, go ahead and say it I AM NOT UNIQUE. I like things to be projects, with clearly defined entry and exit criteria (i.e., when it starts and how to know when it's done), yet I know that this process of increasing self-awareness isn't a project at all!
But what I find interesting is that I can look at myself and my desire for this to be well-defined and realize that's just another quirk of human nature and I can SEE that that's my instinct, and I can even sense when I feel anxious, and just let it be. So I guess that means that things are moving along quite nicely.
I am sleeping like a rock--or as I saw someone else describe what happens when you are doing consistent, high-quality lifting, like I'm in a coma. Coma, as in unconscious state, NOT the coma, or head, of a COMET. Not only that, but I can feel the fatigue daily now. I feel like I need a good 12-hour sleep. Maybe tonight...I have to give myself the best shot at feeling good throughout my 1/2 Ironman tomorrow.
What I'm trying to do is bring that ability that I have when doing my workouts to just go into my "flow" state outside of the workout realm. I'm sure I've said it before, but it helps to keep reminding myself where I'm heading. I've seen a similar theme expressed in a book that I'm reading--The Runner and the Path--so again, I know I'm not unique in thinking that I should be able to "extend" the gift I give to myself when I run or bike or swim into the rest of my daily life.
A good friend of mine thinks that what I'm doing when I exercise is just "focusing," and at one time it was primarily that, but now I have "refocused" that activity in just letting myself be in a free state where I am just letting my body go on autopilot.
There's a time and a place to let my brain do its thinking thing--and there's also plenty of time to let it shut itself down or become the third-party observer of itself.
But what I find interesting is that I can look at myself and my desire for this to be well-defined and realize that's just another quirk of human nature and I can SEE that that's my instinct, and I can even sense when I feel anxious, and just let it be. So I guess that means that things are moving along quite nicely.
I am sleeping like a rock--or as I saw someone else describe what happens when you are doing consistent, high-quality lifting, like I'm in a coma. Coma, as in unconscious state, NOT the coma, or head, of a COMET. Not only that, but I can feel the fatigue daily now. I feel like I need a good 12-hour sleep. Maybe tonight...I have to give myself the best shot at feeling good throughout my 1/2 Ironman tomorrow.
What I'm trying to do is bring that ability that I have when doing my workouts to just go into my "flow" state outside of the workout realm. I'm sure I've said it before, but it helps to keep reminding myself where I'm heading. I've seen a similar theme expressed in a book that I'm reading--The Runner and the Path--so again, I know I'm not unique in thinking that I should be able to "extend" the gift I give to myself when I run or bike or swim into the rest of my daily life.
A good friend of mine thinks that what I'm doing when I exercise is just "focusing," and at one time it was primarily that, but now I have "refocused" that activity in just letting myself be in a free state where I am just letting my body go on autopilot.
There's a time and a place to let my brain do its thinking thing--and there's also plenty of time to let it shut itself down or become the third-party observer of itself.
Yesterday's Workouts
Sorry, I ran out of time--well, really ENERGY--to do this yesterday, as work was just crazy. I went from one conference call to the next, but at least I got some public kudos about my work. Although it was funny, during this huge, departmental web presentation, I was referred to as "Lisa." I believe it was a dyslexic moment on the part of the speaker, where he combined my boss's first name with my last name. It didn't phase me, but she PM'ed me and said she was sorry! I replied that it was no big deal. After all, people who know me know me, and I was PM'ed by several people in congratulations.
7:30AM Strength, abs and core only, 29'. When I woke up yesterday I felt stiff and tense, but as I began to move around, I didn't feel so bad, and then this workout got things back on track. Although afterwards, I felt like I had done a major workout! And then the madness of the work day began.
Luckily, I had put time on my work calendar to get my second workout in--if I hadn't, no way would I have got to it, since someone would have scheduled me something during that time. After call #1, I had to hop to and update a spreadsheet to the best of my abilities, and the information needed to be passed along to someone else to add even more information, and the whole thing needed to be delivered by end of day. I was hoping that my morning additions would be all that I was accountable for, but I didn't know. Basically, I finished my contribution, and then did my next workout.
11:12AM Bike 1:20 on trainer. Same fucking workout as on Tuesday. I had known I probably needed to dump the SRM data and charge it, but I hadn't, and sure enough during my second FT interval the thing began to act flaky, so that was that. Part of me just wanted to stop the workout, or else ride easy for the remainder, but NOOOOOOOO, I'm not that sort of girl, so I pressed on, using only my heart rate to guide my effort level. The rest of the workout sucked just as badly as if I had power to go by, and my heart rates seemed to be in line. No matter, I certainly went hard enough, considering I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman on Saturday.
After the workout, I went right into my next call, which I didn't know was happening until a colleague asked me if I was dialing in. Thank goodness for friends! And this was the call where I was publicly thanked for doing such a good job on this messy situation which has been going on since last week. Can I please see some CASH if I'm so fucking good???? Gosh, that would be nice. On a positive note, my boss's new boss is someone I highly respect, although I have no clue about his abilities as a manager, but I think he will be great. And we've worked together before, so he knows how I operate. So this could be a really good thing. Who knows? I can't predict the future!
Then I went into my next crisis call, where we firmed up that I had no further commitment to finding out any more information for the infamous spreadsheet. THANK GOD!!! Because I needed to next go and get a massage and then come back for ONE FINAL CALL of the day.
The massage was, as always, great. Given by Cindy. She knows my body really well. I was amazed that for all the hard training I've been doing that when she got in there deeply into the muscles, they felt really good--nice and supple, no trigger points except the usual ones in my upper shoulders which are just stress-related. Even my right hamstring, which has been truculent in the past 6 weeks, has worked itself out. I think this is due to running more on the treadmill, so there is no lopsidedness as I experience when running on the roads. Don't get me wrong--I HATE the fucking treadmill as much as the next guy, but it's good for me to run on it through the winter precisely because it allows my body to get into better alignment.
I keep looking at my workouts this year as compared to last year. I feel like I'm working harder--either that or I'm just getting old! Actually, I think I'm just attacking things with more intensity than ever, and each fall I forget how extra tired the strength workouts make me.
I am SO looking forward to ONLY ONE WORKOUT on Friday, and then my 1/2 Ironman race on Saturday!
7:30AM Strength, abs and core only, 29'. When I woke up yesterday I felt stiff and tense, but as I began to move around, I didn't feel so bad, and then this workout got things back on track. Although afterwards, I felt like I had done a major workout! And then the madness of the work day began.
Luckily, I had put time on my work calendar to get my second workout in--if I hadn't, no way would I have got to it, since someone would have scheduled me something during that time. After call #1, I had to hop to and update a spreadsheet to the best of my abilities, and the information needed to be passed along to someone else to add even more information, and the whole thing needed to be delivered by end of day. I was hoping that my morning additions would be all that I was accountable for, but I didn't know. Basically, I finished my contribution, and then did my next workout.
11:12AM Bike 1:20 on trainer. Same fucking workout as on Tuesday. I had known I probably needed to dump the SRM data and charge it, but I hadn't, and sure enough during my second FT interval the thing began to act flaky, so that was that. Part of me just wanted to stop the workout, or else ride easy for the remainder, but NOOOOOOOO, I'm not that sort of girl, so I pressed on, using only my heart rate to guide my effort level. The rest of the workout sucked just as badly as if I had power to go by, and my heart rates seemed to be in line. No matter, I certainly went hard enough, considering I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman on Saturday.
After the workout, I went right into my next call, which I didn't know was happening until a colleague asked me if I was dialing in. Thank goodness for friends! And this was the call where I was publicly thanked for doing such a good job on this messy situation which has been going on since last week. Can I please see some CASH if I'm so fucking good???? Gosh, that would be nice. On a positive note, my boss's new boss is someone I highly respect, although I have no clue about his abilities as a manager, but I think he will be great. And we've worked together before, so he knows how I operate. So this could be a really good thing. Who knows? I can't predict the future!
Then I went into my next crisis call, where we firmed up that I had no further commitment to finding out any more information for the infamous spreadsheet. THANK GOD!!! Because I needed to next go and get a massage and then come back for ONE FINAL CALL of the day.
The massage was, as always, great. Given by Cindy. She knows my body really well. I was amazed that for all the hard training I've been doing that when she got in there deeply into the muscles, they felt really good--nice and supple, no trigger points except the usual ones in my upper shoulders which are just stress-related. Even my right hamstring, which has been truculent in the past 6 weeks, has worked itself out. I think this is due to running more on the treadmill, so there is no lopsidedness as I experience when running on the roads. Don't get me wrong--I HATE the fucking treadmill as much as the next guy, but it's good for me to run on it through the winter precisely because it allows my body to get into better alignment.
I keep looking at my workouts this year as compared to last year. I feel like I'm working harder--either that or I'm just getting old! Actually, I think I'm just attacking things with more intensity than ever, and each fall I forget how extra tired the strength workouts make me.
I am SO looking forward to ONLY ONE WORKOUT on Friday, and then my 1/2 Ironman race on Saturday!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Today's Workouts
Well kids, work was pretty stressful again, but the workouts, as always, did the trick:
7:15AM Swim 2800 yards, :59. The usual Wednesday workout, with 10x100 in it. However, the pool was FUCKING HOT. Like 87. And my arms were fried from yesterday's strength session. And my legs were fried from yesterday's bike session. So it was not a good pool session! I was swimming very slowly, but I focused on maintaining good form. Several other swimmers confirmed that the pool was hot.
11:00AM Lift 2x12, :18. Finished yesterday's mammoth session and did legs, finished back and tris.
2:24PM Run 1:00. I was tired before I started this, and while I didn't want to use any Code Red this week until ChickenMan, I just HAD TO. So I had a little of the Ultra Violence and was ready to go, but then someone from work just HAD to talk to me, and I had a delay of game of about 1 hour. I even had to eat a gel about 10' into the run. Oh, yes, this was on the treadmill. Only in the 20's here in Chicagoland today. Freaking high winds (the tree limb still has not fallen).
Now I am tired. Nothing left. Which means I've had a great day!
7:15AM Swim 2800 yards, :59. The usual Wednesday workout, with 10x100 in it. However, the pool was FUCKING HOT. Like 87. And my arms were fried from yesterday's strength session. And my legs were fried from yesterday's bike session. So it was not a good pool session! I was swimming very slowly, but I focused on maintaining good form. Several other swimmers confirmed that the pool was hot.
11:00AM Lift 2x12, :18. Finished yesterday's mammoth session and did legs, finished back and tris.
2:24PM Run 1:00. I was tired before I started this, and while I didn't want to use any Code Red this week until ChickenMan, I just HAD TO. So I had a little of the Ultra Violence and was ready to go, but then someone from work just HAD to talk to me, and I had a delay of game of about 1 hour. I even had to eat a gel about 10' into the run. Oh, yes, this was on the treadmill. Only in the 20's here in Chicagoland today. Freaking high winds (the tree limb still has not fallen).
Now I am tired. Nothing left. Which means I've had a great day!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Today's Workouts
7AM Lift 2x12, 51'. I didn't get my legs done :) I may skip them this week due to ChickenMan on Saturday, or do them tomorrow. I decided I'd do just one workout of 2x12, but I'll do another abs/core/PT workout on Thursday. Felt strong doing this.
2:04PM The now infamous bike workout included 3x15' (2') FT watts. Damn, the workout is fucking hard! But I did it.
No particular thoughts today about myself. Started the work day off with a fire drill, and although I didn't want to be the one delivering the hard message to upper-level Sales, I did it, and it felt good doing it. Maybe sometime, somwhere, this will earn me a couple of brownie points. Who knows!
As I expected, there were no responses to my tri-drs post in response to using my name as in reference to the pool rage incident. Perhaps there was discussion on some "secret" lists, but I really don't care. I made my point which was emotions just are; they are not to be judged.
I am mentally exhausted from my work day today and also the workouts. I feel like I need to be doing more on my mental front, but I also think I'm in a good holding pattern. I'm reading another book--The Runner and the Path--which is pretty good so far. I keep seeing recurring themes in the books I'm choosing lately, so maybe I'm on the right track here.
2:04PM The now infamous bike workout included 3x15' (2') FT watts. Damn, the workout is fucking hard! But I did it.
No particular thoughts today about myself. Started the work day off with a fire drill, and although I didn't want to be the one delivering the hard message to upper-level Sales, I did it, and it felt good doing it. Maybe sometime, somwhere, this will earn me a couple of brownie points. Who knows!
As I expected, there were no responses to my tri-drs post in response to using my name as in reference to the pool rage incident. Perhaps there was discussion on some "secret" lists, but I really don't care. I made my point which was emotions just are; they are not to be judged.
I am mentally exhausted from my work day today and also the workouts. I feel like I need to be doing more on my mental front, but I also think I'm in a good holding pattern. I'm reading another book--The Runner and the Path--which is pretty good so far. I keep seeing recurring themes in the books I'm choosing lately, so maybe I'm on the right track here.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Today's Workouts
7:22AM Swim 2750 yards 1:03. Did the drill workout I've been doing on Mondays for awhile. This was an optional workout, and truly I felt pretty tired this morning, but thought, oh well, I'll give it a whirl. Turns out I must have been doing something right, because when I played "swim golf," my score was the lowest ever. Sometimes it seems that when I am tired that I don't think so much and the swimming is better.
I need to remember my word from yesterday: HUMILITY. That's something I need to have, always!
1:12PM Run 50', including strides. Again, I was tired when I started, but I did most of this on the treadmill and kept a decent pace. I didn't need to go hard in this workout, so I didn't.
I did not drink any Code Red today! Also no beer. I am "cleansing the system" in preparation for this weekend's ChickenMan (indoor 1/2 Ironman), that I will be doing solo. Last year I did it with friends Matt and Judy. Matt seems unable to commit to anything lately (except he did manage to stalk the Ironman Florida participant list to notice I was registered), and Judy I wasn't going to ask anyway, and besides she fucked up an ankle and can't even run on it. I don't need any company to do this anyway. You know me (or might if you've read everything here). I just go and do stuff now. No spectators, no competition except myself, no expectations, no shirts, no medals! In fact, I'm sure that after this non-race event I will just go home, eat and pass out. Sounds delightful to me!
In other news, the tree limb is still being held up by the crown of the adjacent tree (don't remember if I posted about that). I had an estimate to remove it--$195!!! But also the power company came out with an arborist and said it probably won't fall on the power line anyway--it will just crash onto the ground. So do I take my chances? The entire tree is dying, and it will cost big bucks to get it removed--it's mostly on the neighbor's property, but I'm willing to chip in to have it cut down. Or maybe his dad will do it. Who knows? I just don't want this one limb falling on my power lines or whatever.
And then there's tri-drs. That bastion of stupidity and ignorance! Someone used my name today AGAIN as in "someone who's committed an outrageous act." This hearkens back to September, when I did have quite the pool rage incident. And I was fucking stupid enough to write about it publicly! I was totally honest about what happened and how I responded, and well let's just say it ended by me screaming at this man in the pool that the reason I got hit is "BECAUSE YOU FUCKING SUCK!" It was very memorable. I thought he broke my hand. He shouldn't have hit me except for him being such a suck-ass swimmer. OK, so some people reading my account figure that no matter how it happened, I shouldn't have yelled like that, it had to be accidental. Well, too fucking bad, because the asshole couldn't even figure out where he was in the lane and didn't even apologize to me, and then he insisted on arguing me about how it was MY fault and all. So I gave it to him. And I wrote about it! And ever since then, I have caught hell in one form or another from people on that stupid fucking list about my behavior. AND people use my name as in "pull a Sheila." Well, I decided enough of that. My name was used today as in "Sheila wouldn't have wanted someone filming her during that" in relation to Normann Stadler crying (it was on TV) after his second flat in Ironman Hawaii. First of all, dude has the right to feel HOWEVER HE WANTS. Secondly, nobody has the right to judge him for crying.
So I wrote back to the list as follows:
In case they didn't get it, that was a big FUCK YOU, and I did mean it about don't try and judge someone else's emotions. Fuck them all. And, no, I am NOT apologizing for what happened that day.
I need to remember my word from yesterday: HUMILITY. That's something I need to have, always!
1:12PM Run 50', including strides. Again, I was tired when I started, but I did most of this on the treadmill and kept a decent pace. I didn't need to go hard in this workout, so I didn't.
I did not drink any Code Red today! Also no beer. I am "cleansing the system" in preparation for this weekend's ChickenMan (indoor 1/2 Ironman), that I will be doing solo. Last year I did it with friends Matt and Judy. Matt seems unable to commit to anything lately (except he did manage to stalk the Ironman Florida participant list to notice I was registered), and Judy I wasn't going to ask anyway, and besides she fucked up an ankle and can't even run on it. I don't need any company to do this anyway. You know me (or might if you've read everything here). I just go and do stuff now. No spectators, no competition except myself, no expectations, no shirts, no medals! In fact, I'm sure that after this non-race event I will just go home, eat and pass out. Sounds delightful to me!
In other news, the tree limb is still being held up by the crown of the adjacent tree (don't remember if I posted about that). I had an estimate to remove it--$195!!! But also the power company came out with an arborist and said it probably won't fall on the power line anyway--it will just crash onto the ground. So do I take my chances? The entire tree is dying, and it will cost big bucks to get it removed--it's mostly on the neighbor's property, but I'm willing to chip in to have it cut down. Or maybe his dad will do it. Who knows? I just don't want this one limb falling on my power lines or whatever.
And then there's tri-drs. That bastion of stupidity and ignorance! Someone used my name today AGAIN as in "someone who's committed an outrageous act." This hearkens back to September, when I did have quite the pool rage incident. And I was fucking stupid enough to write about it publicly! I was totally honest about what happened and how I responded, and well let's just say it ended by me screaming at this man in the pool that the reason I got hit is "BECAUSE YOU FUCKING SUCK!" It was very memorable. I thought he broke my hand. He shouldn't have hit me except for him being such a suck-ass swimmer. OK, so some people reading my account figure that no matter how it happened, I shouldn't have yelled like that, it had to be accidental. Well, too fucking bad, because the asshole couldn't even figure out where he was in the lane and didn't even apologize to me, and then he insisted on arguing me about how it was MY fault and all. So I gave it to him. And I wrote about it! And ever since then, I have caught hell in one form or another from people on that stupid fucking list about my behavior. AND people use my name as in "pull a Sheila." Well, I decided enough of that. My name was used today as in "Sheila wouldn't have wanted someone filming her during that" in relation to Normann Stadler crying (it was on TV) after his second flat in Ironman Hawaii. First of all, dude has the right to feel HOWEVER HE WANTS. Secondly, nobody has the right to judge him for crying.
So I wrote back to the list as follows:
First, invoking my name as in some sort of
"episode" is now copyright infringement without my express
consent.
Second, if I had been caught on video, well it is what it
is, I would treasure the film as a learning experience. And sell
copies.
Third, emotions are emotions. Good ones,
uncomfortable ones. To cry, to lash out in anger, to jump for joy, all are
valid expressions. They come, they go. To judge them is
ridiculous. You don't have to like someone else's emotional display, but
it is not for any of us to tell another person that they had no right to
FEEL.
Yep, there's crying in triathlon. There's crying in
life.
Normann is still a champion. Even more so, in my book,
that he showed perfectly human emotions.
>Well, I certainly
wouldn't want to be photographed in my worst >moments..>and I don't think
that Sheila would have wanted to be on taped during
>her taper.
In case they didn't get it, that was a big FUCK YOU, and I did mean it about don't try and judge someone else's emotions. Fuck them all. And, no, I am NOT apologizing for what happened that day.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Today's workout
"Long run": 9:19AM 1:30, done on treadmill. 30' easy; 20' steady; 20' upper steady; 20' mod-hard.
I was tired and hungover when I started. Tired, still from Friday's festival of raking, gutter cleaning and working out 2 hours, and then yesterday working out pretty hard. Yesterday, Ironman Hawaii was on TV, and I didn't plan anything in between the morning workout and the broadcast, which started at 3:30. Good thing!
I am such a lightweight and shouldn't drink AT ALL....that will come in January when I go on my austerity plan.
So I used a little bit of the old Code Red (I should just call it Ultra Violence), and got through the workout just fine. I stretched afterward, and then came home to the high winds (25-35MPH sustained; gusts to 55) and saw a bunch of small tree branches in my driveway. I looked up at this one tree and see this large branch (about 6-8" diameter) breaking free of the main trunk. Luckily, the top of the branch is caught in the next tree, which seems to be holding it, and hopefully it won't break away until tomorrow, when I can get someone to cut it down.
I was checking out some triathlon forums this morning and people were giving Normann Stadtler shit about DNF'ing at Ironman Hawaii. Fuck, people should shut their fucking mouths until they are in his EXACT position. I've DNF'ed twice at Ironman races, and trust, me, it isn't fun. But you make the decision and then you move on. It's not fucking life and death to not finish a race!
My friend (and bitch) Shelley made the NBC TV coverage. I'm happy for her! We are designing these killer T-shirts together, and if they work, we will probably sell a bunch of them! They are pretty irreverent in terms of what they say, so they *will* offend some people. Too fucking bad!
I am currently being "pursued" by some guy....it makes me laugh, since I really don't give a fuck what happens now. I have goals, I am going after them, and that's that!
Oh--got some new pink shoes the other day--I should post pics of them they are AWESOME!!!
I was tired and hungover when I started. Tired, still from Friday's festival of raking, gutter cleaning and working out 2 hours, and then yesterday working out pretty hard. Yesterday, Ironman Hawaii was on TV, and I didn't plan anything in between the morning workout and the broadcast, which started at 3:30. Good thing!
I am such a lightweight and shouldn't drink AT ALL....that will come in January when I go on my austerity plan.
So I used a little bit of the old Code Red (I should just call it Ultra Violence), and got through the workout just fine. I stretched afterward, and then came home to the high winds (25-35MPH sustained; gusts to 55) and saw a bunch of small tree branches in my driveway. I looked up at this one tree and see this large branch (about 6-8" diameter) breaking free of the main trunk. Luckily, the top of the branch is caught in the next tree, which seems to be holding it, and hopefully it won't break away until tomorrow, when I can get someone to cut it down.
I was checking out some triathlon forums this morning and people were giving Normann Stadtler shit about DNF'ing at Ironman Hawaii. Fuck, people should shut their fucking mouths until they are in his EXACT position. I've DNF'ed twice at Ironman races, and trust, me, it isn't fun. But you make the decision and then you move on. It's not fucking life and death to not finish a race!
My friend (and bitch) Shelley made the NBC TV coverage. I'm happy for her! We are designing these killer T-shirts together, and if they work, we will probably sell a bunch of them! They are pretty irreverent in terms of what they say, so they *will* offend some people. Too fucking bad!
I am currently being "pursued" by some guy....it makes me laugh, since I really don't give a fuck what happens now. I have goals, I am going after them, and that's that!
Oh--got some new pink shoes the other day--I should post pics of them they are AWESOME!!!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Today's ONE WORKOUT
I like to call my brick workouts BRICK-O-RAMA. Makes it sound festive.
This was the same workout as last Friday: Bike 2 hours on the trainer, as 45' warmup, 15' HIM watts, 2' cd, 15' HIM watts, 20' steady watts, 20' HIM watts, cd 5'. Then run 30', and although there are some "rules" for the run, I just do what I can at a comfortable pace.
It seemed easier (also as evidenced by my heart rate, if you care) to hit the HIM watts, and I was using 125-130 for these, but I averaged like 136 for each of those intervals. Interesting, because I know at my fastest HIM that's about where my watts were. But using the rule of thumb that my watts outside will always be higher because it's easier to hit them actually riding outdoors, this should mean that I can race faster next year :)
The entire time I was running I felt like puking. My stomach just has not been right lately, but I had a thought today--that now that I'm able to work harder in workouts, it just means I should be taking in even less calories than I used to? Or else I'm dehydrated. Hard to say. During the ride I drank 32 oz. of Gatorade plus a 12 oz. Code Red. That's 22 oz. fluid/hour (which is plenty given the nice cool indoor temps), and about 200 calories/hour. I need to start tracking my fluid and calorie intake, as the fitter I get, the more precise I need to work it out, otherwise I will either be bonking or puking during races! Although I don't mind the dry heave gagging that I experience lately at the end of these workouts--it's quite entertaining.
Another thought I had today was that maybe I can't tolerate as much "sweetness" in my training nutrition as I could previously. I know that gels pretty much make me gag nowadays, but the one I ate today was an Energice gel, and it isn't that sickly sweet like Gu.
Oh well, stuff to think about and work on through the winter. Perhaps it's time for me to consult with a nutritionist to get this better figured out. I wish the fucking Gatorade lab that's not too far from home would let me in!!!
Time to go grocery shopping. I'm excited because I'll be buying more STEAK. I FUCKING LOVE STEAK!!
This was the same workout as last Friday: Bike 2 hours on the trainer, as 45' warmup, 15' HIM watts, 2' cd, 15' HIM watts, 20' steady watts, 20' HIM watts, cd 5'. Then run 30', and although there are some "rules" for the run, I just do what I can at a comfortable pace.
It seemed easier (also as evidenced by my heart rate, if you care) to hit the HIM watts, and I was using 125-130 for these, but I averaged like 136 for each of those intervals. Interesting, because I know at my fastest HIM that's about where my watts were. But using the rule of thumb that my watts outside will always be higher because it's easier to hit them actually riding outdoors, this should mean that I can race faster next year :)
The entire time I was running I felt like puking. My stomach just has not been right lately, but I had a thought today--that now that I'm able to work harder in workouts, it just means I should be taking in even less calories than I used to? Or else I'm dehydrated. Hard to say. During the ride I drank 32 oz. of Gatorade plus a 12 oz. Code Red. That's 22 oz. fluid/hour (which is plenty given the nice cool indoor temps), and about 200 calories/hour. I need to start tracking my fluid and calorie intake, as the fitter I get, the more precise I need to work it out, otherwise I will either be bonking or puking during races! Although I don't mind the dry heave gagging that I experience lately at the end of these workouts--it's quite entertaining.
Another thought I had today was that maybe I can't tolerate as much "sweetness" in my training nutrition as I could previously. I know that gels pretty much make me gag nowadays, but the one I ate today was an Energice gel, and it isn't that sickly sweet like Gu.
Oh well, stuff to think about and work on through the winter. Perhaps it's time for me to consult with a nutritionist to get this better figured out. I wish the fucking Gatorade lab that's not too far from home would let me in!!!
Time to go grocery shopping. I'm excited because I'll be buying more STEAK. I FUCKING LOVE STEAK!!
Yesterday's Workouts
OK, kids, I was too tired to post this yesterday.
You should be laughing about how I always title these postings as if they have just to do with workouts, when in reality, they don't. You should have figured out by now (if I haven't already said it) that my training and racing is a vehicle for my self-awareness journey, and besides the workouts take a lot of time, and I tend to structure my day around them, so I guess workouts are the *STAR*!
I started the day by waking up later than I normally would, because the night before I had trouble falling asleep, I think because I drank too much Code Red the day before so that I could get through THAT day's workouts because I was mentally and physically tired.
Anyway, I didn't make it to the pool to start my workout until 7:52AM!!! What the fuck? Oh well, life goes on. Thankfully, the day before I had almost scheduled a conference call for 8AM, but serendipitously, the conferee pushed it back to 9AM, so I knew I would have plenty of time to get my swim in.
7:52AM Swim 2800 56'. When I got in the water and looked at my workout sheet (I put all my swim workouts into a Word document and then the printed paper gets folded and put into a Ziploc so it stays dry on the pool deck), there was NOTHING for that day, and I was temporarily confused. I figured I was supposed to do the workout that has 10x100 then 4x200, since I've been doing that for a few weeks on Wednesdays and Fridays, but then I remembered that coach only scheduled one actual swim this week. So I was free to do whatever I wanted. I figured, well, let's just do the standard warmup (200s, 200k, 200p, 200d) and then figure it out before I was done with that. I decided I would swim 1500p straight. I started out, it felt good, but after 300 yards I needed to adjust my swim cap because my right ear was full of water and it was getting uncomfortable. So I did that quickly, and started back. As I was nearing 1500 total yards of pulling, I thought, what the hell, this feels good let's do 2000 straight, especially since next week I will be doing 2200 straight in my 1/2 Ironman. I got 1300 yards more completed, and then Crabby Old Guy started moving the lane ropes to close my lane for the Aquacise class. I moved into the next lane quickly, got another 200 yards completed, and then a third person entered the lane and demanded we circle swim. OK, I was already in a lane with the slowest person known to mankind, and this guy didn't look fast, and I only had 200 yards to go, so no problem. Of course, I swam around them all, and that was my fastest 200 of the session. I felt like I could have kept going another 1500 yards, which is good since it means my swim endurance hasn't suffered much.
I had a little bit of strength training to finish up, but for some reason I didn't get to it until:
10:40 AM Lift 1x12, 8'
It was only 8', but I had to finish the workout, you know! And then I received an email stating that there was going to be this customer call at NOON. My plan was to run at noon, and then my brother, Tom, would be arriving to work on putting gutter guards on my house, and I figured I would clean up leaves while he was doing that.
But the conference call put a damper on that, so I hurried up and got ready to run.
10:57AM Run 57:44
I went west on 59th street up to Dunham, but this time I just kept going straight south on Dunham until it dead ends at 71st street. But I wasn't quite 30' out, so I ran on the sidewalk north on Main Street until I hit 30', and then I turned around. This route is nice--there is basically 2 miles of rolling, mostly uphill on the way out, and you would think it's downhill on the way back, but not quite. At any rate, it's not totally flat, so it's a good strength-building run. In my usual fashion, I had absolutely no issue with the hills or the wind--the winds were pretty good WSW, so I ran into them on the way out. I negative splitted the run by about 2:30, which was pretty good. I was supposed to run for an hour, but oh well, close enough!
When I got home, I didn't even have time to shower before jumping on the conference call, and yawn, BORING! I stayed on it maybe 40', and then just dropped off. It was all technical, and there was no real reason for me to be there. Finally I showered, and then my brother arrived.
I should have continued working, and I did jump on ANOTHER call (listen mode only) at 2PM, but as he was throwing crap out of the gutters, I figured I should clean it up. I cleaned out the gutters on my garage and also cut down the white lace clematis vine (NEVER plant one of these--they are almost like kudzu!). Then while I was at it, I swept and bagged up the leaves from my driveway. I spent about 3 hours total on yard work, and can you say I was tired and sore?
Tom worked one more hour, in twilight/darkness, and then we shut it down and I went to get a massage. Boy did I need that massage!
This morning I am still yard work sore, and I need to stretch before I get on my bike today.
Ironman Hawaii is on this afternoon, so by 3PM I will be happily loafing on the couch!
Oh yeah--I met the "kid" who has moved into white trash's house next door--he and his father, Gary, are going to fix up the place (yeah!). His name is Matt, and he's pretty young--my guess is mid-20's--and sort of a hottie. Let the fantasies begin!
You should be laughing about how I always title these postings as if they have just to do with workouts, when in reality, they don't. You should have figured out by now (if I haven't already said it) that my training and racing is a vehicle for my self-awareness journey, and besides the workouts take a lot of time, and I tend to structure my day around them, so I guess workouts are the *STAR*!
I started the day by waking up later than I normally would, because the night before I had trouble falling asleep, I think because I drank too much Code Red the day before so that I could get through THAT day's workouts because I was mentally and physically tired.
Anyway, I didn't make it to the pool to start my workout until 7:52AM!!! What the fuck? Oh well, life goes on. Thankfully, the day before I had almost scheduled a conference call for 8AM, but serendipitously, the conferee pushed it back to 9AM, so I knew I would have plenty of time to get my swim in.
7:52AM Swim 2800 56'. When I got in the water and looked at my workout sheet (I put all my swim workouts into a Word document and then the printed paper gets folded and put into a Ziploc so it stays dry on the pool deck), there was NOTHING for that day, and I was temporarily confused. I figured I was supposed to do the workout that has 10x100 then 4x200, since I've been doing that for a few weeks on Wednesdays and Fridays, but then I remembered that coach only scheduled one actual swim this week. So I was free to do whatever I wanted. I figured, well, let's just do the standard warmup (200s, 200k, 200p, 200d) and then figure it out before I was done with that. I decided I would swim 1500p straight. I started out, it felt good, but after 300 yards I needed to adjust my swim cap because my right ear was full of water and it was getting uncomfortable. So I did that quickly, and started back. As I was nearing 1500 total yards of pulling, I thought, what the hell, this feels good let's do 2000 straight, especially since next week I will be doing 2200 straight in my 1/2 Ironman. I got 1300 yards more completed, and then Crabby Old Guy started moving the lane ropes to close my lane for the Aquacise class. I moved into the next lane quickly, got another 200 yards completed, and then a third person entered the lane and demanded we circle swim. OK, I was already in a lane with the slowest person known to mankind, and this guy didn't look fast, and I only had 200 yards to go, so no problem. Of course, I swam around them all, and that was my fastest 200 of the session. I felt like I could have kept going another 1500 yards, which is good since it means my swim endurance hasn't suffered much.
I had a little bit of strength training to finish up, but for some reason I didn't get to it until:
10:40 AM Lift 1x12, 8'
It was only 8', but I had to finish the workout, you know! And then I received an email stating that there was going to be this customer call at NOON. My plan was to run at noon, and then my brother, Tom, would be arriving to work on putting gutter guards on my house, and I figured I would clean up leaves while he was doing that.
But the conference call put a damper on that, so I hurried up and got ready to run.
10:57AM Run 57:44
I went west on 59th street up to Dunham, but this time I just kept going straight south on Dunham until it dead ends at 71st street. But I wasn't quite 30' out, so I ran on the sidewalk north on Main Street until I hit 30', and then I turned around. This route is nice--there is basically 2 miles of rolling, mostly uphill on the way out, and you would think it's downhill on the way back, but not quite. At any rate, it's not totally flat, so it's a good strength-building run. In my usual fashion, I had absolutely no issue with the hills or the wind--the winds were pretty good WSW, so I ran into them on the way out. I negative splitted the run by about 2:30, which was pretty good. I was supposed to run for an hour, but oh well, close enough!
When I got home, I didn't even have time to shower before jumping on the conference call, and yawn, BORING! I stayed on it maybe 40', and then just dropped off. It was all technical, and there was no real reason for me to be there. Finally I showered, and then my brother arrived.
I should have continued working, and I did jump on ANOTHER call (listen mode only) at 2PM, but as he was throwing crap out of the gutters, I figured I should clean it up. I cleaned out the gutters on my garage and also cut down the white lace clematis vine (NEVER plant one of these--they are almost like kudzu!). Then while I was at it, I swept and bagged up the leaves from my driveway. I spent about 3 hours total on yard work, and can you say I was tired and sore?
Tom worked one more hour, in twilight/darkness, and then we shut it down and I went to get a massage. Boy did I need that massage!
This morning I am still yard work sore, and I need to stretch before I get on my bike today.
Ironman Hawaii is on this afternoon, so by 3PM I will be happily loafing on the couch!
Oh yeah--I met the "kid" who has moved into white trash's house next door--he and his father, Gary, are going to fix up the place (yeah!). His name is Matt, and he's pretty young--my guess is mid-20's--and sort of a hottie. Let the fantasies begin!
Friday, November 11, 2005
A Little Bit of the Ultra Violence
Here's my buddy, Alex, from my favorite movie, A Clockwork Orange. The movie was also directed by my favorite director, Stanley Kubrick (may he rest in peace).
I have always felt that I have a little bit of Alex in me, and that we all do. What makes us different is how we choose to honor that presence (or not). I don't consider myself a violent person; although I have had a few episodes of extreme anger. When those episodes happen to me, I try to just go with it. I think that the better you "know" yourself, the more fully you're able to experience the anger without it controlling you.
When I was going through my divorce (11 years ago now), I was full of anger, and one evening I went raging over to my soon-to-be-ex's rental abode and ended up whacking him with one of my arms that was in a cast. I (and he) was a little astonished at the time at the level of rage I was experiencing. At that time, I wasn't seeing clearly, and the rage took over.
About one month ago (October 7, to be exact), I was out riding my MTB on a cool, but mostly sunny day. I was riding more or less carefree for about 45 minutes when all of a sudden I was overcome with anger. My first reaction was, "Wow, I don't normally let any strong emotions into my space when I'm exercising," and then I began to wonder if I could continue biking. My legs felt fine, my cardiovascular system felt fine, yet I could feel this anger seething throughout my being. Instead of trying to fully understand it or fight it, I just let it be. I thought how interesting that I can be fully aware of the emotion yet continue what I was doing. Since I was wearing a heart rate monitor, I was able to glance at it, and didn't see any increase in my heart rate, but who knows what was going on with my blood pressure? At any rate, as I tried to think about what the anger meant, all while continuing to bike, I thought it better to defer the deep thought until I got home. After all, I did need to get home safely.
But, the brain, as it is wont to do, decided, no let's try and think about what this is about, as I made my way home. To me, this was the ultimate in multi-tasking! I was riding my bike, making sure I wasn't getting hit by any cars or going off trail or off road, feeling 100% anger coursing through my veins, and being able to watch myself do this and think about what was happening! I did have the same fleeting thought a few times: good thing I don't have a gun on me, or else I might shoot someone or something! But then I would feel in control and press on. I figured out that I was angry at myself, and yet at the same time, I was forgiving myself, and so letting myself really feel the anger was helpful in letting it go.
Am I concerned about the extent to which I felt and experienced that anger? No. As much as some people feel that any negative emotions are harmful, I personally feel you have to just let them happen, as long as you know you are "safe," and that others are safe, and if you can observe yourself while it's happening, no harm done. And then maybe the next time there is the same trigger that would cause the welling up of that emotion, maybe I will figure out its source sooner or maybe it will pass more quickly. Emotions serve a purpose, right? We typically only learn from the negative ones--anger, frustration, sadness, loneliness--yet we have the capacity to learn from the positive ones as well.
I'm singggggggin' in the rain.....just singggggggin' in the rain.....what a glorious feeeeeling I'm happy again!
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Today's Workouts
All right--we are back on track after yesterday's debacle.
9:00AM Lift 39' Still on 1 set, 12 reps. I keep thinking how do I want to change weight/sets/reps in the coming weeks....it's getting to be time to change things, but I guess I shouldn't change anything next week, since I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman next week. Perhaps the week after, but then again, I will be recovering, so I guess I need to wait a bit before making a big change! This seems about right, since if I follow my original periodization scheme, that was when I would begin the "official" program. I think maybe I'll just skip the full 2x20 and 3x20 weeks and stay on 2x20 or else even skip those and just go from 2x12 to the power/endurance phase. The lifting makes me tired, even as the extra abs/core work seems to be doing wonders for everything!
1:41PM Same bike workout as Tuesday: WU: 15' warmup, 3 x SpinUps. Then 3 x 2' (1') Zone 3 MS: FT repeats: 3x15' (2'). In aero bars, normal TT cadence. CD: 4' Easy. FUCKING OUCH!!! These are SO HARD. My coach says that's because I'm doing them on the trainer, and my HR is higher than it would be outdoors. There's some truth to that, but also I think that I am actually hitting higher average watts than I was when doing these outdoors. So maybe that means my "outdoor" watts will be higher than they were last year??? Wouldn't that be fucking great?
My headache went away after taking (2) 8-hour Tylenol and drinking a can of Code Red to go along with it. At least I was feeling no pain during the bike workout. I mean, come on, I had my LEGS to worry about, not my head.
So I drink the Endurox R4, listen to voice mail and instead of showering right up afterwards, I have to jump on a conference call for work. It was useless for me to attend it, as it was all technical mumbo-jumbo, but it was a "show of force." Our technical guy is great--the problem is the customer may not be that good with their own environment. Oh well, I sat there, waiting to shower and all (I managed to wash my face while on the call). I also managed to get my LUNCH down. And then my stomach began to hurt again. I guess I have to stay away from the Sylvia's sauce and anything spicy for awhile. My poor little GI tract just isn't handling things well! Not like me--what the fuck, where's my iron stomach?
Well, I will be all over the Pepto-Bismol tonight BEFORE it's bedtime, so I can obliterate whatever the hell is going on with my stomach.
The training goes well, I'm on track, I'm sleeping and my mind is in the right place. Onward with
THE DARK SIDE: FUCKING HARDCORE AGGRO TRAINING
9:00AM Lift 39' Still on 1 set, 12 reps. I keep thinking how do I want to change weight/sets/reps in the coming weeks....it's getting to be time to change things, but I guess I shouldn't change anything next week, since I'm doing a 1/2 Ironman next week. Perhaps the week after, but then again, I will be recovering, so I guess I need to wait a bit before making a big change! This seems about right, since if I follow my original periodization scheme, that was when I would begin the "official" program. I think maybe I'll just skip the full 2x20 and 3x20 weeks and stay on 2x20 or else even skip those and just go from 2x12 to the power/endurance phase. The lifting makes me tired, even as the extra abs/core work seems to be doing wonders for everything!
1:41PM Same bike workout as Tuesday: WU: 15' warmup, 3 x SpinUps. Then 3 x 2' (1') Zone 3 MS: FT repeats: 3x15' (2'). In aero bars, normal TT cadence. CD: 4' Easy. FUCKING OUCH!!! These are SO HARD. My coach says that's because I'm doing them on the trainer, and my HR is higher than it would be outdoors. There's some truth to that, but also I think that I am actually hitting higher average watts than I was when doing these outdoors. So maybe that means my "outdoor" watts will be higher than they were last year??? Wouldn't that be fucking great?
My headache went away after taking (2) 8-hour Tylenol and drinking a can of Code Red to go along with it. At least I was feeling no pain during the bike workout. I mean, come on, I had my LEGS to worry about, not my head.
So I drink the Endurox R4, listen to voice mail and instead of showering right up afterwards, I have to jump on a conference call for work. It was useless for me to attend it, as it was all technical mumbo-jumbo, but it was a "show of force." Our technical guy is great--the problem is the customer may not be that good with their own environment. Oh well, I sat there, waiting to shower and all (I managed to wash my face while on the call). I also managed to get my LUNCH down. And then my stomach began to hurt again. I guess I have to stay away from the Sylvia's sauce and anything spicy for awhile. My poor little GI tract just isn't handling things well! Not like me--what the fuck, where's my iron stomach?
Well, I will be all over the Pepto-Bismol tonight BEFORE it's bedtime, so I can obliterate whatever the hell is going on with my stomach.
The training goes well, I'm on track, I'm sleeping and my mind is in the right place. Onward with
THE DARK SIDE: FUCKING HARDCORE AGGRO TRAINING
I think I just signed up to be someone's Mentor/The Dark Side
Which is totally cool by me. This is someone I know mostly just from online, although we met in person back in 2001. I will call her "Shelley." She has seen my online persona, which can be abrasive at times, and she has seen my athletic performance blossom over the years. Shelley has just recently decided she is ready to come over to the DARK SIDE, as I like to call it.
What is the Dark Side? It's a way of life where:
What is the Dark Side? It's a way of life where:
- You expect the best from yourself only because you want to find out how far you can go.
- You are willing to learn as much about yourself, mind AND body, as possible, in an effort to understand the complex being that is you, how it works, and what makes it work WELL.
- You are not afraid of bigger and bigger challenges, that once you actually begin them you are thinking, "what the fuck was I thinking when I signed up for this?"
- You are not afraid to dig deep in a workout if that's what it takes to accomplish what you need to do. But you are smart enough to throttle it back based on your self-knowledge of cause and effect.
- You understand that digging deep in a race is normal, not extreme.
- You are not swayed by the opinions/emotions of others. Opinions are to be considered and evaluated; emotions are for the other person to experience. YOUR emotions are to be experienced fully and guiltlessly--they are part of what makes life worth LIVING.
- You seek out and cultivate friendships/mentorships with those who challenge your way of thinking and being.
- You do not apologize to anyone for wanting to be in a different dimension of consciousness and physical achievement.
- You cultivate quiet confidence in yourself, knowing that revealing all about your thoughts and methods to those on the other side is a waste of your precious energy.
- You do not seek perfection; your aim is improvement through athletic performance while cultivating a mind of iron.
- You do not forget that a sense of humor about everything is necessary. Laughing at yourself is the easiest thing to do; laughing with others is infectious; and laughing AT others is even OK as long as it's kept in perspective.
- You are not afraid of labels like aggro, hardcore, extreme or crazy; in fact, you consider them compliments!
Yesterday's workouts
Sorry I'm late in posting this. You'd think I'd fallen into some sort of rut. God (or your favorite spiritual deity) forbid!
I had to meet business folk for breakfast at 7AM 35 FUCKING MILES FROM HOME. You'd think leaving at 6AM would give me plenty of time, but I made it, even about 8 minutes late, due to Mapquest not telling me whether to turn left or right on the road where the restaurant is located.
I had bad coffee (this seemed odd for a Walker Brothers Pancake House, but I just went bleah when I tasted it, yet they kept filling my cup), 2 eggs over easy and a stack of 4 rather small (4" diameter?) pancakes, with the butter moved off but plenty of syrup (SUGAR!!!!). This should have been fine for my stomach and all, but my stomach/GI tract didn't feel well the rest of the day. Maybe I had bad eggs, or maybe it was the bad coffee, or maybe the food was just too rich for my finely-honed metabolism.
It took me 1:15 to drive back home--the highway was a parking lot--so this just put me in a great mood after meeting with an irate, yet passive-aggressive customer (he seemed so nice), and I had to figure out when I was going to get my workouts in, since I didn't have time to do my usual 6AM swim.
After I arrived home, I figured I had better summarize the damn meeting from my notes, lest all those thoughts disappear. Synopsis (from customer's viewpoint): I WANT, I WANT, I WANT, I WANT, I DESERVE. OK, fine. SO I finished the summary, and then decided I would run first, since I couldn't get into the pool until noon anyway.
10:29AM Run about 1 hour. The workout called for 15' Easy, 15' Steady MS: 20' Mod-Hard/z4 CD: 10' Steady. I was going to run outdoors, and I knew it was windy (15-25MPH sustained, with gusts to 35), so I figured I'd run out against the wind as best I could, and then try and pick it up on the way back, figuring I'd negative split because of a tailwind. As I began running, the wind really didn't bother me, and neither did the hills. But my stomach felt like total crap. It had been 3 hours since that "breakfast," yet it felt like I had indigestion, which is not common for me. Then again, it's not common for me to eat a breakfast like that unless I've done a workout beforehand. At any rate, while my legs and power had their usual "floatiness," my stomach felt like crap. I didn't worry about my intensity level, I just let it happen. I don't know how fast I was running, but my guess is 8:45-9:00mpm, which technically is "steady to slightly hard" for me. As I turned around after 30', I noticed that I wasn't really going to have a tailwind all the way back. The winds were WNW, and they seemed to keep coming in my face a lot of the time. No worries though, about 15' from being done, finally my stomach didn't feel "rotten," and I was able to consciously pick up my pace, at least I did based on my HR. I negative split the run by about 1:30, which is fine, and I figure I got enough intensity in there, what with battling the wind the entire time. But I didn't walk any hills!!!
12:22PM Swim 2600 yards, 57'. The swim wasn't good. While my stomach calmed down due to floating in water, my arms were just dead, and I guess my legs from the harder-than-I-thought running. I was supposed to do 2800 yards, and really I should have stopped sooner, but for some reason I pressed on through 2600. I just felt sluggish and sore. Serve me right for swimming right after a moderately hard run!
I came back home to a few fires at work, and got to listen to another irate customer, oh joy. Meanwhile, I thought my stomach was OK, and later I ate a nice trout filet for dinner, but instead of eating starch with it, I ended up snacking on fat-free string cheese and leftover Halloween candy. Not your ideal combination! About 1/2 hour before bedtime, my stomach started feeling horrible, all knotted up, so I took 1/2 serving of Pepto-Bismol and a couple of Maalox tablets, and that was enough to calm things down so I could sleep.
But when I woke up today, I had (still have) a headache, and my stomach is not right. I don't know what's going on, because I rarely have stomach issues, but one thing I know it means I am having mental/emotional issues. I'm sure it's just a part of this lovely experience I'm having, so I'm not concerned, or maybe I have an actual stomach bug.
At any rate, I'm trying to be nice to my stomach today, since I really want this to go away.
I had to meet business folk for breakfast at 7AM 35 FUCKING MILES FROM HOME. You'd think leaving at 6AM would give me plenty of time, but I made it, even about 8 minutes late, due to Mapquest not telling me whether to turn left or right on the road where the restaurant is located.
I had bad coffee (this seemed odd for a Walker Brothers Pancake House, but I just went bleah when I tasted it, yet they kept filling my cup), 2 eggs over easy and a stack of 4 rather small (4" diameter?) pancakes, with the butter moved off but plenty of syrup (SUGAR!!!!). This should have been fine for my stomach and all, but my stomach/GI tract didn't feel well the rest of the day. Maybe I had bad eggs, or maybe it was the bad coffee, or maybe the food was just too rich for my finely-honed metabolism.
It took me 1:15 to drive back home--the highway was a parking lot--so this just put me in a great mood after meeting with an irate, yet passive-aggressive customer (he seemed so nice), and I had to figure out when I was going to get my workouts in, since I didn't have time to do my usual 6AM swim.
After I arrived home, I figured I had better summarize the damn meeting from my notes, lest all those thoughts disappear. Synopsis (from customer's viewpoint): I WANT, I WANT, I WANT, I WANT, I DESERVE. OK, fine. SO I finished the summary, and then decided I would run first, since I couldn't get into the pool until noon anyway.
10:29AM Run about 1 hour. The workout called for 15' Easy, 15' Steady MS: 20' Mod-Hard/z4 CD: 10' Steady. I was going to run outdoors, and I knew it was windy (15-25MPH sustained, with gusts to 35), so I figured I'd run out against the wind as best I could, and then try and pick it up on the way back, figuring I'd negative split because of a tailwind. As I began running, the wind really didn't bother me, and neither did the hills. But my stomach felt like total crap. It had been 3 hours since that "breakfast," yet it felt like I had indigestion, which is not common for me. Then again, it's not common for me to eat a breakfast like that unless I've done a workout beforehand. At any rate, while my legs and power had their usual "floatiness," my stomach felt like crap. I didn't worry about my intensity level, I just let it happen. I don't know how fast I was running, but my guess is 8:45-9:00mpm, which technically is "steady to slightly hard" for me. As I turned around after 30', I noticed that I wasn't really going to have a tailwind all the way back. The winds were WNW, and they seemed to keep coming in my face a lot of the time. No worries though, about 15' from being done, finally my stomach didn't feel "rotten," and I was able to consciously pick up my pace, at least I did based on my HR. I negative split the run by about 1:30, which is fine, and I figure I got enough intensity in there, what with battling the wind the entire time. But I didn't walk any hills!!!
12:22PM Swim 2600 yards, 57'. The swim wasn't good. While my stomach calmed down due to floating in water, my arms were just dead, and I guess my legs from the harder-than-I-thought running. I was supposed to do 2800 yards, and really I should have stopped sooner, but for some reason I pressed on through 2600. I just felt sluggish and sore. Serve me right for swimming right after a moderately hard run!
I came back home to a few fires at work, and got to listen to another irate customer, oh joy. Meanwhile, I thought my stomach was OK, and later I ate a nice trout filet for dinner, but instead of eating starch with it, I ended up snacking on fat-free string cheese and leftover Halloween candy. Not your ideal combination! About 1/2 hour before bedtime, my stomach started feeling horrible, all knotted up, so I took 1/2 serving of Pepto-Bismol and a couple of Maalox tablets, and that was enough to calm things down so I could sleep.
But when I woke up today, I had (still have) a headache, and my stomach is not right. I don't know what's going on, because I rarely have stomach issues, but one thing I know it means I am having mental/emotional issues. I'm sure it's just a part of this lovely experience I'm having, so I'm not concerned, or maybe I have an actual stomach bug.
At any rate, I'm trying to be nice to my stomach today, since I really want this to go away.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Musings
I am beginning to see that I am still who I thought I was, only now I can begin to know myself. And that knowing includes certain aspects of my personality that are just there, that some would argue are not "good," but I am not yet going for the complete overhaul.
I am still judgmental without expectations and realize that we all have our failings. That doesn't mean I can't make a conscious choice about who I associate with. Or that I can't have emotions about others that aren't necessarily shiny, happy ones. I do laugh at how I observe others judging me, and whereas it used to bother me, it no longer does. People like that just go on my discard list.
I am competitive. This is one of the big reasons for honing my mental skills. I want to see how far I can go in my athletic pursuits. Beginning after the Disney marathon in January, I am prepared to become more or less a hermit that eats, sleeps and exercises very precisely and purely. It will be an interesting experiment to see what life is like--not just for me, but how others react to it. Yet I know that I will continue to have my usual fun.
I did make a mistake the other day where I let my own curiosity get the better of me. I emailed J and asked what was going on with him. He did reply, but I am not going to read the email. I shouldn't have asked, and I don't need to know the answer. I am making progress!
Did have an interesting dream last night--I was at some sort of party thing that was divided into two rooms--the "cheap" room and the "expensive" room. I was at the cheap party. There was barely anything to eat or drink, but there were good, fun people to hang out with. I wandered into the expensive party, and there was a lavish buffet spread out, and most people had eaten, and I could have taken whatever I wanted, but I didn't. I returned to the cheap party. Then I put platinum blond hair color on my hair. In the dream I had a chin length, bob cut. I went outside to rinse off the hair color using a hose (!), and after rinsing and trying to dry my hair with a cheap towel, I went back inside to see how it looked. Well, I had these black roots about 2" long still showing! I wondered how I could have missed so much of my hair. Parts of it were a light brown, but the rest was platinum blond. I am not going to analyze this one!
I am still judgmental without expectations and realize that we all have our failings. That doesn't mean I can't make a conscious choice about who I associate with. Or that I can't have emotions about others that aren't necessarily shiny, happy ones. I do laugh at how I observe others judging me, and whereas it used to bother me, it no longer does. People like that just go on my discard list.
I am competitive. This is one of the big reasons for honing my mental skills. I want to see how far I can go in my athletic pursuits. Beginning after the Disney marathon in January, I am prepared to become more or less a hermit that eats, sleeps and exercises very precisely and purely. It will be an interesting experiment to see what life is like--not just for me, but how others react to it. Yet I know that I will continue to have my usual fun.
I did make a mistake the other day where I let my own curiosity get the better of me. I emailed J and asked what was going on with him. He did reply, but I am not going to read the email. I shouldn't have asked, and I don't need to know the answer. I am making progress!
Did have an interesting dream last night--I was at some sort of party thing that was divided into two rooms--the "cheap" room and the "expensive" room. I was at the cheap party. There was barely anything to eat or drink, but there were good, fun people to hang out with. I wandered into the expensive party, and there was a lavish buffet spread out, and most people had eaten, and I could have taken whatever I wanted, but I didn't. I returned to the cheap party. Then I put platinum blond hair color on my hair. In the dream I had a chin length, bob cut. I went outside to rinse off the hair color using a hose (!), and after rinsing and trying to dry my hair with a cheap towel, I went back inside to see how it looked. Well, I had these black roots about 2" long still showing! I wondered how I could have missed so much of my hair. Parts of it were a light brown, but the rest was platinum blond. I am not going to analyze this one!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Today's workouts
7:30AM Lifted weights, 1 set of 12 reps, except for abs/core where I do 2 sets of 15 reps. Took me 47' today. To give you an idea of my weight lifting routine, here are the number of exercises I do by body part:
Biceps: 5
Triceps: 4
Delts/rotators: 13
Pecs: 4
Lats/Traps: 5
Calves: 1
Ab/Adductors: 5
Glutes: 3
Hams: 4
Quads: 6
Abs/core: 12
No wonder my shoulders don't tire when swimming 2.4 miles! I will increase the sets to 2 in 3 weeks, and then hold there for quite a while. I used to go 3x12, 3x15, 3x20 and then 2x20 in my periodization, but since I added so many different exercises, it's just not practical for me to do that many sets, and it won't make that much of a difference anyway, as long as I keep doing 2 full-body workouts per week.
1:55PM Bike workout on trainer, 1:20, as follows:
15' warmup
3' spinups
3x(2' Z3 HR, 1' cd)
3x15' (2') FT
4' cd
Man, those FT intervals are FUCKING HARD!!! But I do them, and I make them HURT. I have to increase my cadence or gear on the 2nd and 3rd interval just to generate the same power. I averaged 155 watts each interval today. I want to be at 160 in 2 weeks. It's amazing I can even do this workout after lifting in the morning. 47' doesn't sound like a particularly long or intense strength session, but remember, I have all the weights in my house--no waiting, no wiping down, so my workouts are more like circuits, and if I rest more than 5", I stop the clock for how long I've been working.
I got a delivery of some new pink stuff from Nordstrom today. Cute, but I am not including a picture. I am waiting for new pink shoes to arrive.
I gave Shelley "the talk" today via email. By that I mean the talk about getting real about her training and racing goals. So many people say "I want to do X time" in a race without anything to base it on, other than the passage of time. Great, so you keep doing essentially the same thing, and expect to get faster. That's the definition of insanity! Anyway, I hope she doesn't get too pissed at me for telling it like it is.
My belief is that many coaches nowadays are actually capitalizing on the stupidity/gullibility of most athletes who figure if I just keep training long enough, I will achieve whatever arbitrary goals I've set for myself, and that if I also just pay a coach, I am even more likely to hit those goals. What coaches should be doing is understanding the athlete's past training and racing history, time available to train, expectations, and then work with the athlete to come up with a reasonable training plan that meshes with reasonable goals. This has to include periodic fitness measurements, or else it is just shooting in the dark. And the testing protocol has to be specific to the race distances. For example, it makes no fucking sense to extrapolate one's Ironman marathon time based on a 5K outcome, or even a standalone marathon! Triathlon running is not the same as standalone running, especially at the longer distances.
Enough of that rant.
Today's words of wisdom: GO FUCKING HARDCORE AGGRO OR GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!
Biceps: 5
Triceps: 4
Delts/rotators: 13
Pecs: 4
Lats/Traps: 5
Calves: 1
Ab/Adductors: 5
Glutes: 3
Hams: 4
Quads: 6
Abs/core: 12
No wonder my shoulders don't tire when swimming 2.4 miles! I will increase the sets to 2 in 3 weeks, and then hold there for quite a while. I used to go 3x12, 3x15, 3x20 and then 2x20 in my periodization, but since I added so many different exercises, it's just not practical for me to do that many sets, and it won't make that much of a difference anyway, as long as I keep doing 2 full-body workouts per week.
1:55PM Bike workout on trainer, 1:20, as follows:
15' warmup
3' spinups
3x(2' Z3 HR, 1' cd)
3x15' (2') FT
4' cd
Man, those FT intervals are FUCKING HARD!!! But I do them, and I make them HURT. I have to increase my cadence or gear on the 2nd and 3rd interval just to generate the same power. I averaged 155 watts each interval today. I want to be at 160 in 2 weeks. It's amazing I can even do this workout after lifting in the morning. 47' doesn't sound like a particularly long or intense strength session, but remember, I have all the weights in my house--no waiting, no wiping down, so my workouts are more like circuits, and if I rest more than 5", I stop the clock for how long I've been working.
I got a delivery of some new pink stuff from Nordstrom today. Cute, but I am not including a picture. I am waiting for new pink shoes to arrive.
I gave Shelley "the talk" today via email. By that I mean the talk about getting real about her training and racing goals. So many people say "I want to do X time" in a race without anything to base it on, other than the passage of time. Great, so you keep doing essentially the same thing, and expect to get faster. That's the definition of insanity! Anyway, I hope she doesn't get too pissed at me for telling it like it is.
My belief is that many coaches nowadays are actually capitalizing on the stupidity/gullibility of most athletes who figure if I just keep training long enough, I will achieve whatever arbitrary goals I've set for myself, and that if I also just pay a coach, I am even more likely to hit those goals. What coaches should be doing is understanding the athlete's past training and racing history, time available to train, expectations, and then work with the athlete to come up with a reasonable training plan that meshes with reasonable goals. This has to include periodic fitness measurements, or else it is just shooting in the dark. And the testing protocol has to be specific to the race distances. For example, it makes no fucking sense to extrapolate one's Ironman marathon time based on a 5K outcome, or even a standalone marathon! Triathlon running is not the same as standalone running, especially at the longer distances.
Enough of that rant.
Today's words of wisdom: GO FUCKING HARDCORE AGGRO OR GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!!!
Miscellaneous and Yesterday's Workouts
I am officially registered for Ironman Florida 2006, care of my friend, Shelley. My occupation is listed as "butt model," and hers is "butt model's bitch." Apparently, some participant list stalkers have noticed this and are "concerned." Fuck them. I haven't even seen Shelley since the first time we met in 2001 at our first Ironman in Lake Placid. Shelley is really cool--she's a little better at not appearing too aggro to others, whereas I guess I don't hide it very easily. Even though I really am not all that aggro, I mean how can you judge that from email anyway? (I know Shelley through the tri-drs LISTSERV.)
My friend Matt called me yesterday to tell me he noticed I had registered for IMFL. He also told me that Judy registered. I told Matt I didn't know that she was registering. He's probably a little confused by me saying that. Oh well. It is not like I'm going to call Judy and tell her, "Hey, I'm registered for IMFL TOO!!!" It's good to see she's making decisions on her own without my influence. She will, I'm sure, at some point be grateful that I "set her free."
I seem to be in a holding pattern. Right now I really don't care if I spend time at all with other people. I don't really need anything from them, or at least I want to not want to need anything from them. Oh crap--that is a desire. I didn't say I was perfect. I think I'm getting better at not caring about others' reactions to me or things I say, and I am also trying to just "be" without any qualifications. This is all very new to me. And I need to be careful that I'm not trying too much.
The fluidity and floatiness of my running lately is not due to more thinking, for sure. It's letting go. Funny thing is that of the 3 triathlon sports, typically I would say my worst is running. Now, I am still not a fast runner; but I am beginning to feel like a strong runner. I believe this is where some of the floatiness comes from. My legs are really strong, and I've practiced good cadence for a few years now, so I can finally stop thinking about that. Now, instead of feeling effort in my legs when I run, I only sense it in my cardiovascular system, mostly in the chest. This is a complete shift for me. Maybe this is how lifelong runners feel, but it's something I've had to develop on my own. I'm sure it helps to not weigh much, either, because I truly feel almost weightless now when I run. Then I also think it's affected by the extra core work I've been doing. Who knows? All I know is that this is a very precious gift I've been given to be able to experience this in the here and now, and what it has to do with anything else probably won't be revealed to me for awhile. But if it's only so that I can feel a pure sensation without any attachment to it, without any expectations of it continuing, without the need for my mind to interfere with it, then I am good with that.
The squirrels appear to have stopped digging at my lily bulbs. I may have a net loss of zero, but for sure all of the bulbs are not in their original holes! Oh well, so I will have mixed varieties here and there. If that's the worst outcome, I'll take it!
I had wanted to do 3 workouts yesterday: swim, lift and run, but I ended up only swimming and running. Swim: 2750 yards at 6:29AM for 1:03. Run: 50' at 1:48PM. I ran outside, it was coolish and windy, but still I was just in shorts and a tank top. Nothing else notable to report about the workouts. They were both good, and I was glad to get back in the swing of things after all the traveling this weekend, and taking a day off from it on Sunday.
Ciao!
My friend Matt called me yesterday to tell me he noticed I had registered for IMFL. He also told me that Judy registered. I told Matt I didn't know that she was registering. He's probably a little confused by me saying that. Oh well. It is not like I'm going to call Judy and tell her, "Hey, I'm registered for IMFL TOO!!!" It's good to see she's making decisions on her own without my influence. She will, I'm sure, at some point be grateful that I "set her free."
I seem to be in a holding pattern. Right now I really don't care if I spend time at all with other people. I don't really need anything from them, or at least I want to not want to need anything from them. Oh crap--that is a desire. I didn't say I was perfect. I think I'm getting better at not caring about others' reactions to me or things I say, and I am also trying to just "be" without any qualifications. This is all very new to me. And I need to be careful that I'm not trying too much.
The fluidity and floatiness of my running lately is not due to more thinking, for sure. It's letting go. Funny thing is that of the 3 triathlon sports, typically I would say my worst is running. Now, I am still not a fast runner; but I am beginning to feel like a strong runner. I believe this is where some of the floatiness comes from. My legs are really strong, and I've practiced good cadence for a few years now, so I can finally stop thinking about that. Now, instead of feeling effort in my legs when I run, I only sense it in my cardiovascular system, mostly in the chest. This is a complete shift for me. Maybe this is how lifelong runners feel, but it's something I've had to develop on my own. I'm sure it helps to not weigh much, either, because I truly feel almost weightless now when I run. Then I also think it's affected by the extra core work I've been doing. Who knows? All I know is that this is a very precious gift I've been given to be able to experience this in the here and now, and what it has to do with anything else probably won't be revealed to me for awhile. But if it's only so that I can feel a pure sensation without any attachment to it, without any expectations of it continuing, without the need for my mind to interfere with it, then I am good with that.
The squirrels appear to have stopped digging at my lily bulbs. I may have a net loss of zero, but for sure all of the bulbs are not in their original holes! Oh well, so I will have mixed varieties here and there. If that's the worst outcome, I'll take it!
I had wanted to do 3 workouts yesterday: swim, lift and run, but I ended up only swimming and running. Swim: 2750 yards at 6:29AM for 1:03. Run: 50' at 1:48PM. I ran outside, it was coolish and windy, but still I was just in shorts and a tank top. Nothing else notable to report about the workouts. They were both good, and I was glad to get back in the swing of things after all the traveling this weekend, and taking a day off from it on Sunday.
Ciao!
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Saturday's Workout and Weekend
Well, kids, on Friday afternoon I flew to Lost Wages. Took me about 10 hours total, between driving and flying to Atlanta, and then flying in. But I got to spend all of Saturday with my dear friend, Susan, and got to meet her SO, Wolfgang.
I stayed up way past my bedtime on Friday to talk to Susan about some of the stuff I've been blogging about. I've discovered I don't want anything from anybody right now. It may be hard for some people to deal with, but I'm not going to worry about it.
On Saturday morning, Susan dropped me off at a gym to run 2 hours. I decided on a treadmill run since it would keep me honest to not go too hard, plus I was tired, so the treadmill would keep me at a decent pace, and I just didn't have the planning fortitude to find someplace else to run. So I'm on there for maybe 2 minutes, and I have a power outage. In my CD player, that is. Damn it, I can't run 2 hours on a treadmill with nothing! So I called Susan, and nice person that she is, she delivered me some new batteries, and I was back in business!
I set the treadmill to a 6mph (10' per mile) and just ran. There was a guy lifting weights before I started, and we kept eyeballing one another sort of like who is going to last the longest? Well, that would be ME, of course! I can outwork anyone! He was taking all sorts of rest anyway, so he could have spent less than 1/2 his time in there.
I managed to have my floaty legs as I ran, and it didn't feel hard until about the last 10 minutes. But it wasn't that my legs were toast--I was just jet-lagged, tired, and messed up. Next, we went to Terrible's Casino for the buffet lunch, and I had a mimosa and a beer. That pretty much set me up.
Next we went to Tacopa, CA, to spend some time in the hot springs bath. It was me, Susan, Wolfgang, and Wolfgang's friend, Myron. We all got naked and went in. I am not shy, so I could care less we were naked. We only lasted about 15 minutes even though we could have stayed in for 1 hour. That water was HOT!!!
Then we went to a date farm, that was in this really cool area where you go into some of the mountains. It was nice and cool down there. They put old shirts on the dates so the birds don't eat them. Looks kinda funny on palm trees, but necessary. I bought some really good dates to bring home, and tried part of a "date shake," which was a little too rich for me. We drove back to Pahrump (where Susan lives), and then later, Susan, Wolfgang and I had dinner at a local Mexican joint with margaritas. They were GOOD!!!
I could have stayed up all night talking again, but I needed to catch a 7AM flight, so at 8:30 Susan and I bagged it so we could get up at 4:30. My body woke me up about 1/2 hour before to use the bathroom, as I was still on CST. Got to the airport, went through the X-rays, and they confiscated the miniature pyramid Susan had given me. I was going to put one or two Barbie dolls in there to meditate. Oh well, good thing I hadn't become attached to it.
I am finally back home, and fuck, I'm registered in Ironman Florida 2006 care of Shelley McKee. I actually hope I don't end up going because I have to do Ironman Hawaii right before it, but it's nice insurance nonetheless. Looks like I'll be doing 2 Ironman races next year either way!!!
I am wearing pink pajamas as I write, and I've ordered some more pink things which should come next week, and I am tired, but life is good, but as always BETTER IN PINK!!!
I stayed up way past my bedtime on Friday to talk to Susan about some of the stuff I've been blogging about. I've discovered I don't want anything from anybody right now. It may be hard for some people to deal with, but I'm not going to worry about it.
On Saturday morning, Susan dropped me off at a gym to run 2 hours. I decided on a treadmill run since it would keep me honest to not go too hard, plus I was tired, so the treadmill would keep me at a decent pace, and I just didn't have the planning fortitude to find someplace else to run. So I'm on there for maybe 2 minutes, and I have a power outage. In my CD player, that is. Damn it, I can't run 2 hours on a treadmill with nothing! So I called Susan, and nice person that she is, she delivered me some new batteries, and I was back in business!
I set the treadmill to a 6mph (10' per mile) and just ran. There was a guy lifting weights before I started, and we kept eyeballing one another sort of like who is going to last the longest? Well, that would be ME, of course! I can outwork anyone! He was taking all sorts of rest anyway, so he could have spent less than 1/2 his time in there.
I managed to have my floaty legs as I ran, and it didn't feel hard until about the last 10 minutes. But it wasn't that my legs were toast--I was just jet-lagged, tired, and messed up. Next, we went to Terrible's Casino for the buffet lunch, and I had a mimosa and a beer. That pretty much set me up.
Next we went to Tacopa, CA, to spend some time in the hot springs bath. It was me, Susan, Wolfgang, and Wolfgang's friend, Myron. We all got naked and went in. I am not shy, so I could care less we were naked. We only lasted about 15 minutes even though we could have stayed in for 1 hour. That water was HOT!!!
Then we went to a date farm, that was in this really cool area where you go into some of the mountains. It was nice and cool down there. They put old shirts on the dates so the birds don't eat them. Looks kinda funny on palm trees, but necessary. I bought some really good dates to bring home, and tried part of a "date shake," which was a little too rich for me. We drove back to Pahrump (where Susan lives), and then later, Susan, Wolfgang and I had dinner at a local Mexican joint with margaritas. They were GOOD!!!
I could have stayed up all night talking again, but I needed to catch a 7AM flight, so at 8:30 Susan and I bagged it so we could get up at 4:30. My body woke me up about 1/2 hour before to use the bathroom, as I was still on CST. Got to the airport, went through the X-rays, and they confiscated the miniature pyramid Susan had given me. I was going to put one or two Barbie dolls in there to meditate. Oh well, good thing I hadn't become attached to it.
I am finally back home, and fuck, I'm registered in Ironman Florida 2006 care of Shelley McKee. I actually hope I don't end up going because I have to do Ironman Hawaii right before it, but it's nice insurance nonetheless. Looks like I'll be doing 2 Ironman races next year either way!!!
I am wearing pink pajamas as I write, and I've ordered some more pink things which should come next week, and I am tired, but life is good, but as always BETTER IN PINK!!!
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