What Up

I was "sick" Monday and Tuesday last week. Let's just call it exhaustion. It may have been helped by getting a flu shot, but after spending most of Monday in bed and taking it very easy on Tuesday, I felt normal again on Wednesday. Honestly, I wondered when I'd crash since I'd been trying to train hard, work hard, and run around like crazy to get a number of things done. Phew! Glad that's over!

I sprung to get my garage roof replaced as long as I was in the mode, and I finally finished the paperwork for the lawsuit against the old shingle manufacture. Hopefully, I'll recoup the cost of the garage roof.

I got my new mattress set on Wednesday. When the delivery guys arrived, I freaked out because it looked to me that they were missing a box. They said both box springs were in one box and the mattress in the other. The mattress looked right, but the box springs looks too thin. I called the company I ordered from, and she kept saying "we measured for this together." After a few minutes, she told me that the TOTAL height of the mattress plus box springs would be the same as I already had, which was news to me, and so we got everything set up, and I LOVE it. I can't believe I waited so long to get new mattresses!

Since the new box spring is lower than the old, my bedskirt is too long, and so I decided to make a new one myself. Of course, I want something with skulls, and I searched high and low online to find the right fabric. I found one I really liked, only nobody has it in stock. On Friday, I went to my local fabric store only to find it shuttered! Well when I checked online, it had a new address, and so I went there on Saturday morning and scored a different fabric by the same designer, and it's pretty wild, but it will be awesome. Plenty of skulls, and dead people, too!


It is nothing if not colorful, right?

On Thursday, I got my new treadmill, that I have named Hal, in honor of Hal 9000 from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Here's a picture of Hal next to LGL on the trainer:


I ran on it the day it was delivered, and I did an incline walking workout on it on Saturday. I LOVE HAL! I still have not been on the trainer, which is a good thing, as we have had just fine weather for riding on the MTB.

Oh yeah--Friday was my birthday. 54 years old--even I can't believe that! My age is visible in my face and skin, but I feel pretty darn good and am not on any medication except for Nasonex before I swim to prevent sinus blockage. I'm getting my blood drawn tomorrow to check out my cholesterol, blood sugar and the usual host of other measurements. I hope that all comes out OK! I did get a prescription for Ambien to help with the not sleeping, but I think that it's just a combination of trying to do so many things. I am starting to sleep a little more, and I've only taken the Ambien a couple of times. I really don't want to take anything on a regular basis.

Friday night, a friend bought me dinner, and as birthday gifts I receive the BEST bottle of olive oil from Italy and also a Barbie doll:

She's a collector edition from the year 2000. My friend Matt's wife, Jen, got it from her Great Aunt. And now I am about to be a Great Aunt myself! I haven't decided exactly where to put her, but she will be on display.

On Saturday, I did a 5K Breast Cancer Walk that was sponsored by my Y. I walked because I didn't need to run, but I enjoyed fast walking with one of the trainers there and we kept up a good pace. I had already biked 1:30 on a Star Trac spin bike, which was fun, and then after the 5K I got back on Hal and did another hour. I had to work Saturday afternoon, and I was frazzled because I had to learn how to do all these new things, but apparently I am still employed today so I must have done OK!

Yesterday morning I did a big home improvement shopping trip--paint for touchups, new hardware for all upstairs doors, a lampshade, some more CFL bulbs, etc. Then I went to Greene Valley to run in the flats. I did 1:45 and felt great doing it, then I saw a rainbow, which was awesome, then I ran partway up the big hill (sadly, my last time this year) and down to get to 2 hours total. I returned home and raked leaves for about an hour and then finally ate like a pig!

We are still having nice weather here, so off I go for a short run and then maybe I can get some more leaves raked up later today!

Coming Around

My life continues to be somewhat of a whirlwind of activity. Yesterday, I had the new roof put on my house. Despite the cost, I am so happy that I caught this before things began leaking. I now have all the required documentation to submit to the class-action lawsuit against the company who manufactured the shingles that were on there. Though it will cost me another $25 or so to ship the shingle sample and documentation to make my claim, I should recover about $1200, which helps!

I also had my annual OB-GYN exam yesterday and got a flu shot. My physician said it was time for a tetanus shot, but I'll wait on that. Actually I don't think I need one just yet. She probably doesn't have the record from when I was last bit by a dog in 2007. My left deltoid still is tender from the flu shot! In 2 weeks, I am getting a full blood workup and urinalysis done. With the stuff I put my body through, I will be doing this annually from now on.

I also paid for my new treadmill yesterday, that had been transferred from one store to the one closest to me. In the process, the price went down by $200!!! What a nice surprise! So now I just need to wait a few more business days when the installation group calls me to schedule its delivery and setup. I can't wait! I am doing a reorg of my downstairs where it's going. All I need in my house is an Endless Pool and I wouldn't have to go to the Y anymore. No way! I'll stick with going back and forth down the pool at the Y. At least it's only 1/2 mile from home. I may still go there on weekends to run on their treadmills, just because now that my long run is on Sunday, I like to go for a short swim afterward, and I dislike driving in the winter while I'm all sweaty. It will be awesome to do brick workouts this winter whenever I feel like it without trying to transition to outdoors!

Speaking of the treadmill, I ran on one Thursday. There is always an adjustment period, and this time was no different. Not only is my threshold down a bit, but the pulling motion of the treadmill feels unusual. But the good news is that my back and legs were delighted to be on such a soft surface!

I also went back to my chiropractor on Thursday. I took my 5 year old MRI's of my lumbar spine, and he discussed with me in detail just exactly what is going on there. The net net is that I have a bulge at L5-S1 that if I were an overweight, sedentary person, might be classified as like 7 or 8 out of 10 degree of impact. But because I am lightweight and highly active, John said that takes me down to about a 3. So really no big deal. Hopefully I am keeping things from worsening, too. John said he didn't think my glute/hamstring issues had anything to do with my back. It's just some bursitis is all, but that I should try and figure out whether it's caused by biking or running. I think it's from biking, actually, as I may have said before, the last few years as I really biked a LOT, I spent regular time on my MTB with the nice cushy saddle, but this past year I did not. So my lean butt took a beating. For the last 4 days or so, though, I have also been working standing up. It seems to me that sitting aggravates things, even though John says sitting is not the cause. So maybe it's coincidental that I am feeling much, much better by not sitting so much. I still need to continue stretching my left hamstring 3x daily. Its ROM has increased much since 2 weeks ago, but it's still not as good as the right.

My new mattress will be here in another week, too, and I also began work on my personal estate plan finally! It feels like I'm going through a massive life reorg/refurbish program. There were just so many things I put off while working on my Dad's estate and the stress prevented me from pushing myself further by trying to do a lot of my personal stuff. But that is behind me now, and I think I have become even more organized now. Either that or I am just procrastinating less.

I also just got a brand, spanking new iPhone 4G. I will activate the service this weekend and begin playing around with it. I know, I am slow on the uptake of some technology, but I'm sure I will enjoy this new gadget.

Today and tomorrow I will be running at Greene Valley. Today is hill day, and I will go up and down the hill probably 4 times, running at least half of it. Sunday I will run about 1:10 in the flats and then do a couple of hill repeats, and hopefully I can run all the way up! I can't believe it, but I am doing a 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks and then a marathon a week later! I'm pretty optimistic now that my full run fitness is nearly back and my butt will be just fine. After the marathon at IMFL, I drop my running back a little and pick up biking more, and it will probably be all indoors, damn! Oh well, at least I will have my house all fixed up, new phone, new treadmill, new mattress, new roof, and next I need to check if my new aerobars came in for Skull Kingdom!

Swimming is coming along nicely, too. I am picking up just a little speed, but realize that I need to really focus on my form continuously. That is fine by me--this it the perfect time of year for it. I only swam 5,000 yards yesterday. Funny how that feels like a 3,000 yard swim to me now!

Tomorrow I attend a baby shower for my niece. I have to con her into telling me the sex of the baby, which I will keep a secret, because I need to know whether I will be able to give some of my Barbie dolls away! Well I suppose if it's a boy and he wants Barbies, that's cool, too. I only have the one Ken doll, though ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Great Week!

I will call it a great week because I ran and didn't have to use elliptical or water run. I am still experiencing some bursitis, and my hamstrings are still pretty tight, but things seem to be improving. I go back to the chiropractor on Thursday, and this time I'll bring my MRI's from 2005 that showed disk herniations so he can decide whether he can adjust my lumbar spine. I still believe there is some nerve irritation coming from my SI joint.

I continue to have trouble sleeping more than 7 hours per night, although Saturday night I slept 9, and it felt so odd to have so much "extra" energy. So I take this to mean that maybe I am not needing so much sleep right now. Still, I see my doctor on Friday and will get something to help this along.

I got in about 15.5 hours of training last week, and the best part of it was this weekend. On Saturday we had beautiful, warm weather, and I rode my MTB wearing very little in glorious sunshine for about 1:30. This is the first time that it didn't feel hard to ride that bike. I am always amazed at just how fast adaptations to things occur. This was my second week back riding that thing, and it's good to know that I just needed to get used to it again. I am not trying to ride it hard--I typically average 15mph on it--but the strength to push that heavy thing is good for me, and I'm using different muscles than on the other bikes.

After the ride, I drove to Greene Valley to get some quality time on the big hill. There were no clouds in the sky! I decided I would try running partway up this time, so I ran the approach, then ran 5' on the way up and walked the rest of the way, then ran 5' down and walked the rest. I figured this would be a good way to build up my tolerance to run up the entire way. It was great, but I could really tell that my hill fitness was not very good. How do I fix that? Keep doing it!

After all that, I did some yard work--I removed all this weed grass from the perimeter of my yard next to the foreclosed house, because it's encroaching on my yard. It's one of those things that you start and then you just can't stop. I'm really enjoying getting some quality time with my landscaping. I also prepared my downstairs for the treadmill, which meant putting some things away that I just never got to over the summer. It will be a tight-ish fit down there with a treadmill and bike trainer and furniture, but hey, that's how I like it!

Then, of course, I took in some of Ironman Hawaii online. 2 of my very, very fast guy friends did quite well--one went 9:16 and the other went 9:32. For the guy who went 9:32, it was his third Ironman in 6 weeks! He did Louisville and qualified for Kona, then he did Wisconsin 2 weeks later and went faster and qualified for Kona 2011, then he went to Hawaii and went even faster! It seems to me we have another Petr Vabrousek on our hands! A woman I know just online did really well, using it as her tune-up for Ultraman Hawaii, and a guy I met who crewed at UMC also did really, really well, considering he has one good arm and 2 prosthetic legs (Raj Durbal).

See now, when I am feeling sorry for myself and like I can't continue in a workout, it's people like Raj that remind me that I have it pretty good. There is some true inspiration! Honestly, the troubles some people think they have are nothing. I am so grateful for my health every day!

Yesterday morning I watched the beginning of the Chicago Marathon on TV. It always gives me chills to hear a gun go off to start a race! The weather was nice again, but warm for a marathon, but not as bad as last year when it was in the 90's. Then I headed back to Greene Valley to run the flats. Right away as I started, I noticed a few things: my ankles were fine. This is Week 2 of this hill stuff, and last week I really did a number on my ankles, but they have adapted! Next thing is that my abs were still sore from my Friday strength workout. I laughed at myself and realized that I should have cut back the size of the medicine ball I was using, but hey, that's all part of the fun, right? Next thing is that my lungs wanted to go faster, but my legs weren't up to it. I actually had to work to slow myself down. I don't really enjoy running pure flatness, but it's needed so that I don't kill myself by running on hills every single run during a week. I still had to stop maybe every 5 minutes, so it was like I was doing an interval run, which is fine. My run fitness is coming back to me, and I'm not one to go easy on myself, but it was OK by me to just stop for a few seconds before continuing.

I ran the whole flat section, which is about 7 miles the way I do it. Then I figured I'd spend the rest of the time on the hill. I wanted to get in 1:30 of running. Since on Saturday I had been able to run 5' up the hill, I thought I would go all the way up, doing a 1 minute run and 1 minute walk. It worked great! It took me 12 minutes to get up the hill this way, and I felt great doing it! And then I got a real treat. I saw a small group of people looking at something so I walked over to see what it was. It was a man from the Willowbrook Wildlife Center, and he was holding a red-tailed hawk! So I tucked into the group and listened. At one point, the man asked us to guess what this guy (his name is Professor) weighs, and I was the closest--I guessed 2.5 lbs, and he weighs 3.1. The bird has a bum right wing, so he can't be released into the wild. Still, another man got close to him behind him and was told to back off! When you see that beak and those talons close up, you know not to mess with these birds! I learned that red tails are the most successful raptor in the US because of what we have done with habitat that they have adjusted to. For example, these birds are just fine perching on light posts along the major expressways, scanning the nearby open areas for prey. There is a pair of them that lives near me, and one or both of them land in my backyard frequently. I am happy that they are contributing to keeping the rodent and rabbit populations down. There is another pair that nests at the exit off of I294 to get into O'Hare airport. If you look at the trees in that area off to the right of the tollbooth just as you begin turning right, you can see the huge nest in one of the trees. I have seen one of the hawks perched on a fence maybe 1 mile outside the airport! So obviously, the birds don't mind the jet engine noise, and are most happy to have the open, flat areas with a few trees for perching to hunt for their favorite meals!

I just love birds, especially raptors, but I had to get going since I still wanted to swim. So I ran all the way down the hill, stretched a little, toweled off, and headed to the Y, where I swam just a nice, easy 1000 yards and noticed that I got quite the tan! I went home, ate some lunch, then headed off to run some errands. When I got back home, I finished weeding next to the foreclosed house, put mulch down, then cleaned up LGL's drivetrain and frame. I checked in on 2 friends who ran the Chicago Marathon, and they both did well--one woman doing her very first marathon that I had given some last-minute tips to (like use New Skin on her feet to avoid blisters), and the other who is now recovered from a broken back and this was her first comeback race (she is usually sub-3:30). So proud of both of them! Last thing was to sign the contract for the new roof, which will be put on this Friday.

This coming week I will add more running, and I hope I see even more improvement in my hamstrings. The dedicated stretching seems to be doing the trick, even as I am really pushing it running!

I wanted to take a picture of my birch tree while it is looking so lovely with its fall colors, and so here it is as well as a picture of my house with its fall look:

I'm SO Fucking Happy!

Why? Because I RAN 1:15 today. Outside. All running. Nothing hurt while I was doing it and nothing hurts now.

Let me back up. Yesterday was a frenzy of activity. I started out by going to my local Farmer's Market (it will only go another 2 weeks, how sad) for flowers and tomatoes. They sell tuberose stems there, and I bought some last week, and those were almost toast, so I wanted new ones. There was a time when I would buy tuberose bulbs and start them indoors in spring and have 2 large pots on my patio during the summer, perfuming everything! They smell like Hawaii to me--in fact, tuberose blooms are used in some of the better leis made there.

Problem was, I didn't have any cash left, since I used my last $20 to tip the guys who trimmed the huge tree on the south side of my property. They only charged me $400 for what could easily have cost $600 or more from other tree services, so I gave them my last $20 in cash.

But I thought, hey, don't I have something filled with coins? YES!!! I never carry around change, so when I get some, I put it into a container, and I dumped it on the floor and it yielded about $16 in quarters, and then I took it up to $18 with some nickels and dimes. That should be plenty enough for tomatoes and flowers! It turned out to be more than adequate, and I ended up buying more tomatoes than I perhaps should have, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Illinois-grown hand-picked tomatoes, so I will just eat like 2 a day this week, no worries!

Next, I went to Home Depot for various miscellaneous things (you know how that goes), but mostly to get replacement light bulbs for the track lights (yes, my house is old). A nice salesperson helped show me which CFL's would work in them, and I have to say the light from them is awesome! I will eventually replace all the incandescent bulbs when they go with the CFL's. In 2008 when I did a lot of interior remodeling, I did as much replacement of incandescent bulbs as I could. I think the only ones I have left are some outdoor lamps on the house itself, and my 2 nice chandeliers.

I also ended up buying some mums. I bought two (my Mom absolutely loved them) and will plant them soon enough. I used to grow mums, but they can be fickle as perennials, so we'll just have to see how these go. I got a few other things and looked at some kitchen cabinets while I was there. I don't plan on redoing my kitchen until maybe 2 years from now, and then I will probably move!

Next I went to do my weekly grocery shopping. I finished all this and was on my bike (MTB) at 10AM. It was pretty chilly, but it felt great to be outdoors. I only rode for an hour, as that was all I needed to do, as I'm chillin' on my biking through CheaterMan. I had located a gel seat pad cover that I bought years ago but had never used and slapped it on Clipless Fuck and boy did it feel good to ride on that! It made me realize that typically I have a Desoto neoprene seat cover on the saddle of my Griffen, but I don't have one on LGL or Skull Kingdom. That may be one reason my ischial bursae got upset with me--less padding.

After biking, I suited up to go hike and maybe run at Greene Valley. I was just so happy to get to that big fucking hill! I hadn't been there since last fall, and remembered how fit I was back then and hoping I could get it back! The plan was to just hike up and down for 1:15, but after hiking up the first time (at a 14:40 pace, which is respectable for that thing), I decided to try running down gently, and it was a go! So I hiked up twice more and ran down twice more, and it was great! I did feel my left glute/hamstring being slightly upset at me, and of course my shins weren't exactly digging it, either. I was laughing at myself at going from total flatness the last 4 weeks to this!

After my hill adventure, I went to 2 stores to try out mattresses and was snuffed, but did get a large standing fan that will help keep me cool once I get my treadmill. I got it at Sears, and the guy who helped me was awesome, because they had put all the fans away since it has become cold!

Finally, I made my biannual pilgrimage to my local Oriental Mart to stock up on canned and dry goods for cooking Chinese, which I love to do during the winter so I can freeze up a bunch of toppers for rice. Speaking of rice, I finally got a rice cooker! It is a cheap model, but should be just fine for my needs, assuming it works properly--haven't tried it yet. So I bought some actual bagged rice--jasmine and brown--and will give it a go next weekend.

I was pretty tired after all that, but did my additional stretching and icing of my left ischial bursa, had some steak and salad for dinner plus a spring roll, and called it a night.

When I awoke this morning, I felt strangely different. I didn't notice anything niggling in my left hip/glute/hamstring area! I did my morning stretching, set up my new printer/fax/scanner/copier (my old one was fine except scanner wasn't good enough quality to submit expense reports for work), then packed to run at Greene Valley, but also indoors at the Y if I needed to resort to treadmill, elliptical or water running, and I was going to swim a little anyway.

The plan was to run for 1:15, but I'd be happy if I could full out run for just :45 with no pain. I took 12 oz. of defizzed Coke left over from NothingMan IV and drove to the base of the big hill at Greene Valley. I started running, and while my run fitness is low right now, I could run, and I kept telling myself to just relax, because when I am having a muscular issue or actual injury, I think about it so much that it makes me alter my gait. So I just tried to relax, and as I was in a place that I really like, I started getting into it. Now, I did need to stop every 5 minutes or so because it was hard for me to slow down enough to run continuously, but I was running. And I was digging on the scenery--the wildflowers still blooming, the trees turning colors and the blue sky and everything! I love running there because it's crushed limestone over dirt, so it's nice and soft.

I noticed the fronts of my ankles were a bit sore from yesterday's hill adventure, and I laughed at myself what a dumbass for going from nothing to all that, but I was fine! I just kept plugging along at a relaxed pace (I haven't figured out yet what pace I was running), and got :17 out and was fine, then :30, then I figured I could do the whole 1:15 plan running, and I did! And nothing hurt at all! I was so ecstatic when I finished, if anyone could have seen me I almost cried! I realize that I do love running, if nothing more than for these little adventures to here and there that are nice places to run. I wish I had time to drive to this place all the time because it is so nice to run there, but I guess having different places to run at different times of the year is nice, too. I didn't care that wind was blasting my face--the sun was out and I was fine!

I stretched almost :10 at my car before heading to the Y to swim. When I got there, the water was nice and cool, and I swam just 1200 yards, but it felt great! On my way home, I stopped at a friend's house who lives right near the T intersection close to my house so I could borrow his garage broom to sweep up the glass at the intersection that's been bugging me for the last week or so. It won't hurt my car tires, but I don't like riding over it on a bike. Al came with me and we chatted--I swept and he manned the dustpan--and we got it all and then kept chatting for about an hour about this and that.

Finally I headed home and ate some lunch and then went back out for another odyssey. I call it an odyssey when I have to run a bunch of errands all at once, which is the only way I like to do it because otherwise it is a waste of gas and time. First, I went to Dick's to try out the treadmill that I think I want. They had it, and I decided I wanted it, but I would only buy it there if they beat the price of the OEM online with delivery and setup. Turns out they would, but then they didn't have any in stock. So I asked them to call another store, and it turns out their inventory software is crappy and they can't actually tell unless they go and physically look. The second store they called has it and will send it to MY store, but I will need to follow up to make sure the transfer happens. In this day and age, it entertains me that a big chain store can't get its shit together and use REAL software (like stuff my company sells he he) that will update all this crap real time. Anyway, it should be at MY store in 2 weeks and then I will have it delivered the following week. YAY!!!

Next I headed to one store to try mattresses only to find they didn't have any (only online), then I went on to find the next one but couldn't find the store (no big deal, and hey I'm getting an iPhone soon so I guess that won't happen anymore, right), but I did decide to stop at the craft store and found some cool skull stuff, then I saw the sign for the store that had gone missing and went in and tried out some mattresses, although there was only one that I liked. But I didn't buy a mattress just yet, since I'm not done finding that perfect one at the perfect price.

I was in the vicinity of Radio Shack, and I had a gift card with unused money on it, so I went in to acquire accessories for my soon-to-be iPhone. I got a pink shell case and car charger. Yeah!

When I got home (around 4:30), I realized that I had a serious PANCAKE FAIL this weekend. I have a Swedish pancake mix, and I really wanted to have some of those after a run, but I had too many other things to do and I get impatient when I'm starving after running, so we'll just have to try that out next weekend when I don't have to run around so much! Well, I WILL run around, but it will be just to RUN!

I am SO FUCKING HAPPY!!! I was able to run, and it will all come back. Turns out, my hamstrings (both sides, but left way worse than right) were so tight, and I think that is what caused my bursitis. So how is this being fixed? By doing a DIFFERENT HAMSTRING STRETCH. None of the typical standing ones were doing the trick, apparently. Nor were any of these. The one that IS working now is this one. I suppose it's partly because it totally isolates the one side, and if you don't do that, your other side "helps" it. Anyway, I'm stretching it for 3-5' 3x a day, and in just 3 days, well, I'm able to run 1:15. How great is that?

I am going to remain optimistic that I have licked this thing but ramp up my running conservatively. Once again I am reminded that I need to switch up my stretching protocol a little on a yearly basis, but in the process I learned that I have been taking great care of myself, so all to the good!

I am now exhausted from all the "running around" I did this weekend. I'm looking forward to next Saturday, where I will bike and run and then sit around and watch Ironman Hawaii! It's like a high holy day to me, and I hope the coverage is good!

Train HARD and HEALTHY!

State of My Back and Legs

The good news, is I don't have an actual hamstring injury. The bad news is I do have some bursitis, mostly on my left side.

I went to my chiropractor (that I haven't seen in 5 years) mostly because I figured I could use an adjustment and he's pretty good about these things, and then I don't have to go see some specialist and wait a long time.

I have been super conservative about not running for about 4 weeks (except for NothingMan, and I "barely" ran that). So I caught this thing early on. I also figured out I need a new mattress, and I have to get that ordered real soon, but meanwhile can cope by sleeping on the other side of my bed that isn't so worn out.

Yesterday was my first attempt at running since NothingMan. It felt like crap! Like I had no power at all! But I managed to actually run for about 10', do 10' of strides, 5' elliptical and 5' water running. Neither elliptical nor water running cause any issues, so I'm going to make much use of them in the next few weeks.

Today I did some running again. This time, I ran a mile straight (faster than yesterday, YES!!!), then did 10' strides, then went onto the treadmill to finish up. My left glute/hamstring complex wanted to tighten up on me, but I didn't go long enough for that to actually happen. It felt good to run! I iced my left side and then headed to chiropractor.

John did adjust my spine but commented that it's in really good shape. My orders are to stay conservative on the running (I will increase very slowly), ice after running or biking, stretch out that left hamstring gently 3x daily, and put a heel gel pad in my running shoes to temper the impact upon heel strike. I'm going back to seem him in 2 weeks and we will see how I'm progressing. I am also going to hit myself up with the NSAID's for 2 weeks. He explained my system needs to build it up in order for it to be effective, so I'm back on the pills. No worries! I never want to use that stuff for longer than 2 weeks at a time.

I get super committed to any recovery program, especially since this one is to get me back to 100% running, and this ties in nicely with The Hard Routine (see my previous post for my commitments). I did also jump rope for 5' today, and that felt good and has no impact on my bursa. I noticed that my arms have retained a nice shape from all the swimming, and I am adding in extra chinups and triceps dips, so here come my guns again! I just need to get my 6-pack all showing and I will be a happy camper looking good when I hit the beach at Ironman Florida in 6 weeks!

Right now I'm cautiously optimistic about getting my left hip all fixed up, but I think I caught it before it progressed to 4 weeks of no running at all, so we'll see how the next 2 weeks go. Also, I'll just be riding either my MTB or a stationary bike with a nice wide seat. John said that because I have so little fat on my backside (even though I still think I have a decent butt did I just say that?) that my bursa are going to be upset by a regular bicycle seat, but I had already known that and had planned on the cushier seating for the next several weeks.

This weekend, I begin my 2 back to back long runs/hikes, so I will be heading to the big hill at Greene Valley, weather permitting. I'm excited about this! This morning after I finished up on the treadmill, I saw a woman I know on another machine with a high incline holding onto the rails, and today I just decided I'd had enough of that and lectured her on not holding on. I also told her to go outside and go up some real hills. There were some other people on treadmills also hanging on, and they were listening to me intently. I really got into it, but why oh why would you hang on unless you can't stand up without support?

I'll keep everyone posted as to my running progress. I can't WAIT to be running a lot again!

Change Revisted

Other than the usual outdoor signs like shortening daylight hours, cooler weather and tree leaves turning colors, sure signs of fall in my house include:

• I have chosen my races for the next season and made my ATP
• I am no longer going commando
• I am wearing long pants, even flannel!
• I am wearing socks when not working out
• I put away most of my bike bottles, i.e., they are no longer on my kitchen counter or in the dishwasher
• My bike bag has been put away in a closet, since I probably won't be traveling anywhere to ride for many months
• I need to change the rear tire on LGL to get ready for trainer riding
• I am letting my hair grow a little
• I am going to start heading to Greene Valley to run up and down the big hill
• I am actually cleaning up my yard
• I can see bare surfaces on my kitchen table
• I turned on the heat in my house

Some people dislike the coming of fall because it means winter is on the way, and don't get me wrong--I'm not a big fan of winter--but for me, fall means I get to wind down my training somewhat which gives me time to do other things that I truly enjoy--spending quality time with my plants, cooking, maybe a little sewing, and most importantly, taking stock of where I am in my life and reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next one.

In the Crackhead company, I'm the CEO, and my 2011 fiscal year has just recently begun. I have a prioritized to do list, set forth a budget for triathlon and non-triathlon expenditures, and I am already executing my business plan. The plan calls for some physical plant improvements (and of course, routine maintenance), upkeep of my four Covey quadrants, and improvements to my financial and triathlon performance. I continue to have high expectations for myself, but also understand that there will be things beyond my control that will cause me to make changes to my overall plan, but for the most part I feel I can move forward in a smooth fashion.

Last year (fiscal), I did pretty well on all fronts, despite feeling like the company was going to go under at one point! But we rallied, ended up with good numbers anyway, and learning from that we think we are positioned for an outstanding performance this year!

I suppose in a way I think of my happiness as a sort of indirect result of my company performance. If I am covered financially and physically, and feel like I have a pretty good plan and ability to execute it, I am pretty satisfied. Yet I always feel like I could do better. Always be tweaking the plan and be prepared to adapt to change. Once again, I think back to a point when I had thought why did I go ahead and commit to something even harder than Ironman when I hadn't even finished closing my Dad's estate and still experiencing the lingering stress from that? And then why did I decide even while I was stressing about UMC that I was going to change positions at work (real work) once I was done with that? Because change is one of the things that drives me. You don't get better by doing the same old same old. You get better by injecting change into your life. I need change.

Each major life event that happens to me makes me stronger. I don't always like challenges arriving from negative events, but I have learned that even when faced with those, there are opportunities for me to learn something about myself, life or both, and I received that lesson once again in navigating myself towards a UMC finish, and I have knowingly subjected myself to a bit of stress by changing positions. But, can a new job be any worse than what I have been through the last 4 years? No. Especially when it's in an area that I absolutely love--pure technology. It's funny to me that I am thinking that UMH training will be a piece of cake this time around! It won't really be that way--it will get fucking hard at some point (check back in late April next year!), and I will no doubt question myself in putting myself into that position, but I used what I learned last year to hopefully make what I'm doing seem more routine rather than a complete surprise to my body.

Speaking of my body, I have verified that my bed has been causing much of my referred pain in my glutes and hamstrings. I may still have a slight strain in my left hamstring, but I'm going to the chiropractor tomorrow (first visit in 5 years!) to get checked out, ask for some ultrasound treatment, and I will proceed conservatively with my running, which I am going to test out this morning.

I had some major DOMS yesterday, and it felt great! Being sore because you did something is awesome to me. I rode my MTB, Clipless Fuck, and enjoyed the hell out of it! I hadn't ridden her since April, and boy did I notice the difference in weight as compared to my other bikes! It made me realize something about my body maintenance, too. During my 2008-2009 training season, I rode CF a lot to and from the outdoor pool. That had 2 impacts: first, adding to my overall cycling volume, which is never a bad thing; and second, it gave my backside a break from the more aggressive position of LGL and Bitch. This past season, I didn't have time to ride to the outdoor pool (although depending on how it goes, I may get there next summer), and so I didn't get that cross training effect, and I think that is something I need.

So for me, no it's not enough to just swim, bike and run--I need to ride 3 or 4 different bike positions, spend a few months not running on roads at all, strength train year round and stretch daily. I still find it interesting that many triathlon training plans and/or coaches say that strength training isn't necessary. It isn't necessary or required to get faster at S/B/R, that's a fact. But I do find it necessary to enable me to do my non-tri life (at least the way I live it) in good health and not sustain injury from day to day activities, and it helps keep all of my muscles at the ready.

I don't need 4 (really I have 5 but am trying to sell one) bikes, but have come to enjoy the different positioning of each one and how it lets me use my muscles in different ways. Same thing with spending a few months of the year running on a soft treadmill, and incorporating trail running wherever I can.

I just really like to mix things up! On that note, I am going to head to the Y to try a short run and then swim. Enjoy your day!

Planning, Recovery, Catching Up and The Hard Routine

I am 100% finished with my ATP!!! It just gives me this sense of well-being, plus I don't feel like I have to work on it in the wee hours of the morning. It really looks good and feels right. I learned so much from last year, for example:

• Trying to run, even for 30 minutes, on Friday afternoon when I swam for 2.5-3 hours in the morning (after running long on Wednesday morning and then doing about 2.5 hours of swimming biking on Thursday), is probably not going to happen. I need to rest after those long swims, "rest" being a relative term, to be ready to do 3.5-5 hours of training on Saturday and 5-6 on Sunday.
• I didn't need to do any brick workouts. Whenever possible, I ran before I biked. It made the quality of my runs much better, but didn't really impact my biking. But I will be doing some brick workouts, since I am doing an Ironman next year, and I believe in doing transition runs just to remember about running right after biking.
• On Mondays, when I rode 90+ miles on Sunday, I might not feel like running (but will probably be able to get in a swim).
• I will just feel better about myself if I put in frequent 100+ mile rides, and so I have set things up to enable me to do that on 14 Sundays (except for the one time I'll go up to ride the IMWI course for a race rehearsal on a Saturday). If I can pull this off, my cycling will be in excellent shape come UMH!
  
• I NEED recovery weeks, and I have scheduled 9 of them. I used to be paranoid that if I dropped my hours way down that I wouldn't feel like bringing them back up, but I proved myself wrong. Not to mention that I just need the extra personal time to catch up on whatever I can!
• I need to keep up at least the core part of my strength routine right up through race day (see discussion below about the state of my back and core). I just can't afford to slack in that department, since it is critical to keeping me healthy.

So I built all these reality checks into the ATP and now all I have to do is EXECUTE it, which is my favorite part anyway.

I feel pretty out of sorts since I barely did any training last week. I just don't feel right not exercising, but I know I need the rest. But I need to get back to strength training, and I have a million zillion other things I am trying to get accomplished. Here are a few of them:

• Roof work
• Major tree pruning
• Concrete work
• Keep pestering the city about the foreclosed dump of a house so it gets torn down
• Test out the treadmill that I want to buy. I wanted to do that this last weekend, but other crap came up.
• Figure out where I'm going to put said treadmill.
• Get my car washed and detailed. I haven't had this done in 2 years!
• Buy a new mattress set for my bed. I finally figured out why I haven't been sleeping well--the fucking mattress is not supporting my back properly! I came to this amazing conclusion around 2AM today, and now I just have to go try out a few and make my final decision
  

I am going to see a chiropractor on Thursday, after running into my former one at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. The objective is to figure out whether I have bursitis (ischial tuberosity), just some stuff out of whack in my back, a strained hamstring or what. My guess is that I may have slight bursitis that I can fix (can you say water running/elliptical?), need that new mattress, and need my spine looked at after the abuse I put myself through this last year. It has become difficult for me to tell what's going on here since there is always so much changing. I know that my bed is toast--I spent more time in it last year than every before--and I know that I should have replaced the mattress a few years ago, so now it's just become urgent. My body has become more picky, probably somewhat just from age, but also I feel like a highly tuned machine that needs certain things just right. I have been experiencing referred pain in my glutes and hamstrings, and it seems to move around, which is indicative of nerve irritation--at least that's what I hope is going on. It has been noticeable while biking on the road-ish bikes, but not in the more upright position of a spin bike, and I will test my MTB tomorrow. Again, this would seem to point at nerve irritation. So I'm off running until I get this figured out. But if I can water run and/or elliptical, no worries--I'm just fine with that.

Swimming is coming along. I can really sense my rotation integrating with my kick and my stroke, and I can tell how much I was doing wrong, and that I have a ways to go, but it appears my brain finally understands the motion of swimming from a neuro pathway perspective, if that's the right term. I mean, I can feel what I need to do and what the effect is of doing it differently without thinking about it--I just feel it. I began rereading my Maglischo book, Swimming Fastest, and it makes sense to me now, and I can actually try something in there and feel what it's doing. All this has come about because I swam more than ever last year, but I also worked really hard on my body roll, or more specifically, connecting my head to my hips--I don't lift my head to breathe at all--it goes with the rest of the rotation. I also worked a lot on the high elbow during the catch (I already had it above water). So now finally, I've locked my head to the rest of my body and can make myself rotate more and my head doesn't have to think about it! And I can rotate and keep my elbows high and I don't have to think about that! So now I am trying to think about my hand position on entry and during the catch, and I am feeling how it should be done! Today, I "thought" about how I was swimming during my warmup, and then I just swam intervals, and while they weren't super fast, I felt pretty smooth and didn't swim too slowly considering I haven't even tried to swim fast in weeks! So I am encouraged that I am going to see some huge improvements to my swim this year.

I have restarted my strength training. I was such a slacker and did almost NONE for about 10 weeks up to and post UMC. Which is why I think my back is jacked up. So today I lifted for just 45 minutes, and I am such a pussy fucking wussy girl! Weight that used to be easy for me felt hard, but I know it will just be a few weeks before I'm headed back in the right direction. At my age, I have to keep this up to hold my muscle mass and sustain the S/B/R training load I am throwing at myself. I want to head into fall and winter strong for raking leaves, shoveling snow, and maybe I will pull out the cross country skis this winter!

In a few days, I am going to start in on my own Hard Routine. Ok, so it's not like what I am doing isn't already hard--it's fucking hard (go ahead and try and do my training and report back to me)--but I can always do better. So I need to go all public and say what stuff I am going to do better between 10/1 and 12/2/2010. First, let's start off with what I am doing well:

• Executing boatloads of training
• Generating some pretty respectable racing results
• Staying relatively healthy and injury free
• Staying employed
• Eating pretty healthily
• Stretching nearly daily
• Helping others out in the sport to achieve their goals
• Attending to my personal wealth plan
• Keeping in reasonable touch with friends
• Watch very little TV
  

So where can I improve? Plenty of places, but here are the ones I am going to shoot for:

• Jump rope for at least 5 minutes at least once a week.
• Do at least 20 pushups per day.
• Drink only 1 beer per day (yeah yeah this will be tough)
• Stretch my back over the stability ball or by hanging off the bed daily
• Take my calcium supplements daily (I hate taking pills)
• Do extra pullups at least twice weekly before I swim
• Put my legs up against wall for relaxation for at least 5 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays after I am done working out

How much "extra" time does this take? Really not much. Mostly it takes cutting myself off from spending time on the computer away from work hours. Maybe my hard routine doesn't look that hard, but hey, I'm a total slacker and I had to pick something! And I never know where these small things will lead.

So there. Go and make up your own Hard Routine. Just do it. Oh--you're already perfect? I think not.

NothingMan IV Report and Other Neat Stuff

Here are pics from NothingMan.

While I'm on the subject of pics, here are a massive amount of pics from Ultraman Canada. I suggest you look through them all rather then me telling you where I am in them. It is good to look through them all; unfortunately, there is not a slide show option.

NothingMan was not epic--it was really nothing! I forgot that it takes time to get ready for one, and the week before I had been out of town for work training, got home late Thursday, and then on Friday I had to work and sort of begin preparations. But Saturday was the big get ready to do it day.

I prefer to do NothingMan on a Saturday, because my Y's pool opens at 5AM. The reason I chose Sunday instead was because I needed Saturday to get ready! Then I looked at the Y schedule for Sunday and the pool didn't open until 7, so I decided I'd swim at Good Sam instead so I could start at 6AM. Because of the transitional logistics for NothingMan, I like to start swimming as early as possible. I would start at 5 if I was doing it on Saturday.

I had some other things to do on Saturday like go to the Farmer's Market, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, finally go to Binny's Beverage Depot (OMG the wall of craft beer had me looking like a deer in the headlights), etc. The "etc." included getting a Brazilian wax. Now, I know some ladies would not do this the day before an Ironman, but hey, I'm tough, no worries, besides it doesn't hurt anything like the actual doing of the NothingMan!

I had to keep watching the weather so I could choose my clothes and decide if I'd need chicken broth or not. I think I finally had my shit together by around 5PM so I could finally relax, eat a big dinner and relax.

Sunday I had the alarm set for 4:30AM but I was up at 4. I am still waking up around 4AM no matter what, although I had a few longer sleeps this week. I chugged down the Ultrafuel (yum--insulin coma!), ate my usual Power Bar Triple Threat with a cup of coffee, and then had to make my final clothing selections and load up my car so that I could drive to Fermilab to ride as soon as I was done swimming.

When I got to Good Sam, they charged me $15 just to swim there! What a ripoff...and the guy asks me why I'm not at the Y and I had to tell him because the Y wasn't open yet and I needed to get going. I didn't tell him what I was doing, but he was nice enough to take some pics of me.

When I got in the pool, I thought I would split the 4200 yards up somehow, but once I got started, I developed this mentality of "it's ONLY 4200" so I just swam it straight. The week before I'd swum 6000 on Friday, so really 4200 is not much anymore.

I took time to get in the hot tub for about 10 minutes afterwards because I was chilled from the water (remember I have no bodyfat left these days and a pool temperature less than about 84 leaves me cold), and hey, I paid $15 so why not? It felt good and then I got to the shower and dried off and changed into my biking clothes.

When I got to Fermilab, it was still pretty cool out, and I methodically got Skull Kingdom out of the car and 2 women rode up next to the car parked next to mine. Of course they ogled Skull Kingdom and guessed I did Ironman (or maybe it was from the stickers on my car?). Anyway, they were quite nice and even tried to set up a few shots that came out nice.

Ride, ride, ride, and I took a few pics and you can see someone took one of me in front of my favorite liquid nitrogen tank, #42 (if you haven't read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, then you don't know why that's special, so read the fucking book, ok?). I did my mileage by making "grand" laps at the lab, and I did 5 of them, each but the last including the Big Ring Road. I had total fun riding, all decked out in my Headhunter's Tri Club jersey that goes well with Skull Kingdom, and my aero helmet, why the hell not?

I ended up riding 114.5 miles in 6:31. Not a bad effort. Then I headed home, and thought I might go run at a trail, but I was running late and thought I'd go to the Y, but it wasn't going to be open very long, and I knew I'd be out in the dark, so Plan C consisted of running laps around what I call the "big block" from my house. It's 1.15 miles around, so let's see that is like 23 laps, and I think I did them all, although my count could be off. Let's just say I took it real easy, as my back is still not happy and I didn't want to end up injured.

So there's another NothingMan. Woo hoo! Of course I drank some beers and had some pizza, slept like a rock and felt like a truck hit me the next day. I took Monday off because, what the hell, no way I would be able to work. But I had things I wanted to do, and I didn't need to be 100% lucid to do them. First order of business was some bike maintenance and a trip to the bike shop.

To get ready for my bike shop trip, I finally began changing the tire on my MTB rear wheel that had gone flat some months ago. I thought I had a spare tire, but I just could not find it. I'm sure it's somewhere in my house, although it's odd it's not on the shelves with all the spare tires and tubes (I have many). So I decided, what the hell, I'll just take it to the bike shop, especially since the rim tape also needed replacing. Then I figured I might as well look at the front tire, and decided it needed replacing, too. I grabbed my HED disk wheel to get a new tubie put on it and also to have the shop look at it to see whether it can take a 10-speed cassette (I bought it for Bitch and she's only 9- speed). While at the shop, I picked up someone's spare Ergomo to see if the meter will work with LGL--I'm still not sure whether LGL's bottom bracket gizmo is toast or not, and if I can get another meter to work with it, I'd be very happy. Also while at the shop, I asked them about sponsoring me, which they might do. Finally, I mentioned I wanted different bars for Skull Kingdom (I dislike the arm rests that she came with and the base bar is not carbon), so we looked at the new Profile bars coming out, and I have mine on order. They are WAY TOO SEXY for any other bike but Skull Kingdom! Just kidding. I will also be putting red Nokon cables on her.

That was about all I could handle the day after an Ironman, but I must say, it sure is nice to sleep in my own bed the night of an Ironman and not have to drive very far or fly home the next day.

In other news, I have finished my ATP and am printing the calendar model so I can make one more check that the workouts make sense in aggregate (like maybe I shouldn't think about running the day after I ride over 100 miles and also work). I can tell you that the total hours look reasonable--for the 52 weeks from 8/9/2010 through 8/7/2011, it comes to 831 hours, which is about what I did for the 52 weeks through 8/29/2010. So I know I can do that much training. Of course I've made various changes to how I will train, and that 831 doesn't even go through Ultraman Hawaii (it goes through Ironman Sado), so I am going to be putting in one massive training haul. BUT, I have built in some serious recovery as I found out I need it. But also more fun stuff, too! I always get this sense of peace when I have my ATP finished.

In other news, I am going to become a faster swimmer! Rather than formal coaching, I've made a handshake deal with one of the guards at my Y who seems to know how to communicate with me when it comes to swim technique. So he's going to watch me and pick up on what I can change. He's already told me to try some new stuff that has already had the magic effect of making me swim a bit faster! But it will take some time to get it ingrained. I figure in about another 3-4 weeks we can move on to catch and pull, and once I get that right, I should be in a good place. I am just so excited, because I can finally sense where my hips are in relation to my arms and now I just have to connect the dots. Seriously, if I can pick up 5-10 secs./100 yds. I will have accomplished much!

My theory on the whole swimming thing is that you just have to put in a lot of yards in order for your technique to "click" and also to develop the appropriate musculature in order to swim well (I'm talking only about freestyle here). Before this past season, I didn't have the upper body required for me to swim well, but now I do. My whole shoulder/upper back area is much different than before, and I have a lot more strength up there. Why? Because I swam A LOT. Also, I am almost never tired while swimming. There used to be times when I could barely swim when bike/run had worn me down. Now that is not an issue. I am still not up to "swimmer" par in that department, but I am close. I feel like I can always swim well, maybe not fast, but I can almost always knock out 3,000 or so yards.

In other news, I started my new position at work, and I'm excited about it. It's good that I am resting this week so I don't feel all distracted right at the get go, so my timing for all these things has worked out really well. By the way, I passed my test from the training thing with flying colors! I did way better than I thought I would, so that's cool.

In other news, I am dealing with a mess next door to me. The house is foreclosed, and it's a wreck and really needs to be torn down (AFAIK, a new home cannot be built on the property because of the flood plain, so this means I should have a nice empty lot next to me). On Labor Day, a tree crashed down over there, taking the power line down. The former occupants assured me before they moved out that they had turned off the utilities, but when ComEd came, the answer was NOPE. ComEd cut the line, so no more power over there! But the gas was on, and I did get the gas company to shut that off. Now my battle begins with the city to get the water turned off and the house torn down. I am going to do my level best to get it dealt with before end of the year.

This weekend 2 friends of mine are doing the Texas Time Trials, so I will be watching for updates from them. It is a RAAM qualifier. I will also go treadmill shopping and Halloween (skull) shopping and get some yard work done. I'm glad to have a really light weekend, training-wise, so I can get caught up on "regular" life. Which I still enjoy! I can't wait to begin cooking more on the weekends, and soon the leaves will fall, so that whole cycle until winter needs to get done.

Hope everyone is keeping healthy and happy!

NothingMan IV

Wow, I can't believe my FOURTH one is coming up this Sunday.

I have been experiencing some glute/hamstring pain that I know is being referred from elsewhere, since I haven't exactly injured those muscles. I have recommitted to my core work, and it's gotten much better. I still don't know whether I can actually RUN in NothingMan--I will test the system out tomorrow--but if I can't, I will just do 5 hours on elliptical trainer as substitute. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Well, I am committed to NothingMan and it WILL get done. Maybe the taper I've been doing plus core work will do the trick and I will be just fine to run 26 or 27 miles on Sunday, which I would totally enjoy.

I look forward to every NothingMan because each one is different--there are different things going on in my life or not going on in my life and NothingMan is always a marker of where I am with myself in time. Right now I am at a great place with myself--Ultraman Canada is done, I am changing positions at work and getting some home tasks done that languished during my last training cycle. Hell--I am excited about taking this Saturday totally off from training! Halloween is approaching, which means I can shop for all things skull-related, my niece's baby shower is approaching and I will get a reverse taper after NothingMan. What is NOT to be happy about?

NothingMan, more so than any organized race I have ever done, is an opportunity for me to delve deeply into myself for an entire day. I rely on only myself, I need to derive my motivation completely from within, and perhaps during the last 1 or 2 hours, I need to convince myself that finishing up is the right thing to do. Even though I won't be racing, I won't be exactly fucking off, either. NothingMan is fun to me, and Sunday should be no exception.

NothingMan is completely unnecessary. I don't need to do it to prove anything to anybody. It just is my way of celebrating the incredible joy that I receive from my fitness. I don't need a medal, t-shirt or spectators. I don't need to be told, "YOU CAN DO IT!" because I CAN and WILL. This time will be particularly special, because I get to feel how "just" an Ironman feels after having done an Ultraman. Damn--I am so lucky!!!

Usually I put out the word that if anyone wants to come and do part or all of it with me to get in touch, but I really could care less this time. I am going to do it by myself, for myself, and if someone happens across my path while I am doing it, great--they can join in! Truthfully, I know very few people who will do this, and probably few who understand why I choose to do it.

Checking In

A friend of mine told me after I had finished UMC that he had been concerned about me for a bit because I wasn't blogging so much. He related that the health of the athlete is directly proportional to the amount of blogging they do!

Since I'm allegedly in my off season, I don't have so much to write about just now, but will soon. This weekend I am heading up to Madison to do a little training and then spectate for the Ironman. I have a few friends racing, and I will get to hang with a few more. It is odd that I have not been up that way since May. Usually I am up there riding 2 or 3 more times during the summer, so it will be special for me.

Next week I will be in a training class for work for most of the week, and then on that Sunday, I'm doing a NothingMan. If the weather was good for IMWI, it means the weather will suck for NothingMan, but I hope this year is an exception and that the weather is good BOTH weekends. In 2007, weather was good for IMWI and then it was in the 30's the morning of NothingMan. In 2008, weather was good for IMWI and then we had torrential rains the weekend of NothingMan. In 2009 for PirateMan, which was before IMWI, it was cold AND rainy! So I'm hoping for 70's and dry this year for both IMWI and NothingMan.

Right after NothingMan, I begin my new position at work. I am so excited about it for a number of reasons. First, many of the people in that group already know what a crazed endurance freak I am, and some of them are, too! Second, I hope this means I will earn a few trips out to Colorado Springs to work and hang with some of them! When I do, I will use that time as a run focus, because I just love the Santa Fe Trail. Also I hope to once again run part way up Pike's Peak on the Barr Trail. The last time I was there was in 2007, and I totally enjoyed myself as you can read here.

After NothingMan, I am going to do a little run focus to prepare for the CheaterMan (aka IMFL) marathon. I am looking forward to the running, as I will begin visiting my big hill at Greene Valley. I still remember last year thinking that it was going to be so hard for me to run up the hill and that I would have to just hike it; but I found out that I could run the entire thing and it really gave my running a boost. And I remember 3 years ago going there to ride my MTB and going up the hill on the bike and thinking it was crazy that people were running up it! But hey, I had run part way up Pike's Peak, which is way worse, so I don't know why I thought I would have trouble. My how my perspective on things has changed!

Meanwhile, I have been training too much for someone who is supposed to be "taking it easy." The thing is, I feel so not stressed out right now that the hours don't bother me. But I am doing a proper taper for NothingMan which is sorely needed. Look at my weekly training hours and weekly bike and run miles since May 17:

Week Beg.	Training Hours	Bike Miles	Run Miles
5/17/2010	20.34	177	34
5/24/2010	14.83	125	27
5/31/2010	8.43	37	12
6/7/2010	19.64	170	37
6/14/2010	16.37	121	26
6/21/2010	15.94	171	31
6/28/2010	18.23	152	36
7/5/2010	18.60	176	41
7/12/2010	17.72	154	27
7/19/2010	13.09	94	26
7/26/2010	26.48	291	10
8/2/2010	17.17	74	52
8/9/2010	17.00	173	25
8/16/2010	17.93	172	28
8/23/2010	19.50	172	33
8/30/2010	18.09	168	24

Now, UMC was the week of 7/26 and the run kicked off the following week, in which I did no running at all. But still...I guess that is why my metabolism has been in high gear since UMC. It may also be, combined with my lack of other stress, why I am getting by on less sleep than I think I need. Maybe, though, I only need 7.5-8 hours of sleep when I'm not feeling stressed!

Meanwhile, I am slowly chipping away at my non-athletic to do list, and that is a good feeling. While picking up fallen twigs and branches from my former neighbor's tree yesterday, a woman 2 doors away that I have never seen nor spoken to yells, "Did you see what happened?" And I turned around and a huge tree was down in the lot next to mine taking the power line to the house with it. The young couple who had lived there left a few months ago, and the house, which was owned by the guy's Dad, is in foreclosure. The day the couple packed up a truck and left, I asked whether they had turned off the utilities. They assured me they had. More on that in a bit.

So I begin talking to this neighbor and ask her if she knew when it happened, and she said she heard the crash the night before. So I next asked her if she'd called ComEd (our electric company) to report the downed power line, and she said no. I asked her if she was planning on making the call, and she said I was being mean. WTF????? Another person who won't take action. I called ComEd within minutes, and when they arrived later in the day, they severed the power line and said that it HAD BEEN LIVE!!! Wow, nice, that could have caused a fire. But they didn't remove the downed tree, and I was chatting with the workman, and he pointed out that in fact the gas is still on (although not being used). So guess what? I am making it MY priority to find out what bank owns the house and get after them and the city to first clear the tree, and next to take the fucking house down. The reason it's in foreclosure is that the owner let the mortgage lapse when they discovered how damaged the house structure was (which if they had asked before they bought the dump I would have gladly told them), and because it sits on a lot with a creek running alongside it, the house cannot be improved upon structurally. The house will not be sold, and so I am going to make it MY business to get it dealt with. Once it's down, the creek drainage will be improved again, and if I can get my neighbor across the street to give the city easement, the creek can be dredged and widened along a significant portion which will be good for much of the surrounding area. But my main concern is eliminating a fire threat, and next to obliterate the pile of weeds that has grown next to my lot in my front yard. I have lived next to the eyesore for too long, and it's time to take action. I'm pissed the former occupants lied about the utilities, but they were horrible neighbors, so it doesn't surprise me they would lie. The guy's Mom was there yesterday to take some stuff out of the house, and I asked her if she would provide the name of the bank. One way or the other, I will find out and get it dispensed with. It will be nice to have an open lot next door!

So lots of things going on in my life, but it's all manageable at this point. I'm still working on my ATP (Annual Training Plan), and have most of it set through February of next year except for the actual workouts, which I am beginning to fill in. Since it's no big deal for me to swim 2 hours, I'm going to try and retain that level of swim fitness at a minimum, but also since I've committed on paper to doing a 10K swim on New Year's Day like I did last year. Only this time it won't be the big unknown--it will be, ho hum, been there done that and I am hoping to get a few other friends to do it with me. Also, instead of my traditional Thanksgiving weekend 1/2 NothingMan, I will be doing a 2x2x2 (2 hours each of SBR), which I think will be more fun. That about carries me through the end of 2010, but the best part will be when my great niece or nephew is born in November! I am still hoping for niece, but nephew will be fine. I am sure his/her Mom and Dad is already wondering when Great Aunt Sheila will start buying the little one sports equipment. As soon as possible!

That's it for today's update, so since I am going to be very busy for a few weeks, if I don't blog, don't worry!

Life is AWESOME!

I Know What the Birds Were Trying to Tell Me

Today around 1:30PM, I went for my usual Wednesday run. I headed out on my normal route, east from my house, and could tell I had no power in my legs, probably from not getting much sleep lately, probably from my metabolism racing, maybe because I have been drinking more coffee than I had before, but at any rate, I decided I needed to run a different course, and that whatever mileage it turned out to be would be fine.

The weather was pleasant enough--humid, but not too warm, and cloudy. I was about 1/3 mile from home when I noticed that little guy struggling in the grass. I figured he was at best injured and I might be able to help him get back on his feet; at worst he was about to die. I picked him up gently and held him in my hands and knew it wasn't good--he couldn't hold his head up and was gasping for air. So I just held onto him waiting for the inevitable, and it didn't take but maybe another 2 minutes before I saw his last big gasp of air and he died.

A few weeks ago, a chickadee nearly landed on me in my front yard, and then a few days later, another bird almost landed on me while I was running in Waterfall Glen. Today when this cedar waxwing showed up to me, I understood what it all means. Some of you might not believe in signs or supernatural phenomena--all I know is that what I see is open to interpretation and that my life is as I imagine it to be--how could it be anything else?

The cedar waxwing was the third message from my Dad. Before today, I had thought the message was that I should stand still more often and just take in life that way. But today I finally understood the message--don't forget about me! One might think that I haven't grieved "properly," since I was thrust into the role of Executor, and that didn't end until February of this year. Soon after, I acknowledged the stress I was feeling training for UMC. Was that a coincidence? Probably not. At any rate, I probably should have celebrated my Dad somehow at that point, but I did not. I did take him to UMC with me, though, and I plan on taking him to all my other races as long as his ashes last, which should be a good, long time!

Let's just say I was bawling my eyes out as soon as I saw the bird today. When I was a little girl, I regularly rescued baby or adult injured birds with quite a high success rate of return to the wild (at least that's how I remember it). I would cry if they died, I would be sad if they flew away, but I understood it to be part of the cycle of life and death.

So I feel like I need to tell Dad a few things. First off, I have never forgotten about you! I think about you daily, especially since people who knew us both usually say how much I look like you and inherited lots of your intelligence, ability to focus, and stubbornness in pursuit of a reasonable or unreasonable goal. I am you, through and through, and I think that is why Mom never did spend much time talking to me--all she would see was you--and when you two weren't exactly being lovebirds, she didn't need to be reminded of you through me. Although Mom did realize I picked up a lot of my "artistic" side from her--sewing, cooking, gardening and a huge appreciation for the natural world.

I've taken you to a bunch of races, haven't you enjoyed them? I have had only 2 bad races since you passed--IMLP in 2008 when it poured rain on me all day and I let myself succumb to being miserable and giving up in my effort, and Triple T 2009 when I got sick and then was stung by some sort of insect that caused a bad allergic reaction, coupled with a personal issue I won't go into. All my other races since 2007 have gone pretty well! Even considering I had to drop from North Face 50 miler last fall because of stupid gear mistakes I made, I still was well trained and was glad I did it. Everything since then has been spectacular! I hope you have noticed the joy that all this stuff gives me and the nice places I have left part of you.

And I am changing jobs at my company--at least this time I didn't wait 10 years, huh? The new position will be more befitting of my (and your) penchant for pure technology. I am proud to be a geek! I got that from you, you know.

And the last thing you should know is that you have a great-grandchild on the way. As far as I know, it will be your first (you may have another one, but as you might have predicted, 3 of your kids won't speak to me anymore). Your granddaughter, Michelle, is going to have a baby in November! I am excited about this because maybe I will finally learn how to take care of a little baby! You always told me how proud you were of Michelle and how you saw much of yourself in her. I think a new baby coming into the world around the time of your death anniversary will be a good thing for all of us--we will remember you and celebrate with a little one!

I am going to give the cedar waxwing a proper burial someplace in my yard together with some of your ashes, in a place where I can plant something so you can both give it life! Maybe I didn't grieve for you the same way other people might have, but I did, I still do, but I know you understand that it is also my way to live my life with complete exuberance despite the bad things that happen from time to time. You should know that I have developed an unusual obsession with objects with skulls on them. I blame it on you!

Stupid Body!

I thought I might have started running too much too soon after UMC, but as it turns out, my back/glute issues were caused by...drumroll please...RIDING MY BITCH! I got Skull Kingdom put back together on Saturday and took her for a spin, and I noticed right away that my left glute was feeling better. Then yesterday I rode 129 miles in 7 hours (which was a PR for me for 200k plus), and it appears I have confirmed that the other bike position of Bitch was the culprit.

I think what happened was that on Bitch I was stretching some things a bit too much in my erector spinae, and this jacked some vertebrae into different position which affected some nerves and so on. Glad I figured that out! But I think I can still ride Bitch--I think I just need to alternate bikes every so often.

I had been worried that I was creating problems for myself running, and I may still take today away from it since yesterday was a big day, but we'll see.

So I think something I need to practice this new training and racing season is to "look at change." Perhaps I am too immersed in the NOW that I tend to not take into consideration changes which have occurred in the past, and I can't see them for what they are worth. I'm a big fan of NOW, but I am also a big fan of reflection. I can't change the future except NOW, but I can continue to learn from the past. It's funny that this same thing happened to me several times in my run up to UMC--my body would tell me something was wrong and I automatically assumed it was a result of my usual abusive style training (or at least that is how it appears to some people). And I would miss the obvious--like I have to acclimate to orthotics or I need to change to different running shoes and need NEW orthotics.

Perhaps it is just part of the aging process that my body is so sensitive to certain types of change. Or maybe I just have this threshold for overall change in my life, and since UMC there are all sorts of changes in my life that are wonderful, but they have nothing (or maybe everything?) to do with triathlon, and maybe that means my physical body is less tolerant of change. Or maybe I am just ignoring some things that I shouldn't.

This is all so fascinating to me to observe myself impartially and see just what a marvelous life I am having right now. Much of it is focused on my physical body, but the whole reason I began this blog was in honor of my desire to integrate my physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual sides (a la Stephen Covey, eh?). It has become more difficult for me to separate one from the other now, and maybe that is why I sometimes miss an "obvious" sign of something that has changed? Isn't that cool? The "reason" eventually comes to me, but in the process of that happening, I do tend to look around and make some other changes that always turn out to be positive, so I guess "missing" some things isn't always a bad thing.

If you read my UMC race reports (novels!), you see that I wasn't entirely happy with the level of bike training I did, and I had concerns that this would make for a sub-optimal race for me. But I also realized I've done a whole lot of bike training in prior years, and that carried me through. So yesterday when I began the Bike Psychos 200k ride, I was wondering just how I'd be able to ride with a bunch of people. I hadn't ridden with groups since Quadrupedal Century back in May. I started out the ride with a friend that I hadn't seen in years, although we keep in touch via Facebook. We took off and were chatting up a storm while keeping what I figured was a good pace, although I have taken to not looking at my speed. And how pleasant it was to be able to get some draft! We ended up riding almost together (we caught a pack, but I couldn't hold their aggressive pace entire time, but still was riding well) for about 30 miles, and then he peeled off with some friends who wanted to ride less, which was fine.

I took off and continued riding, mainly by myself, but used the opportunity to catch "targets" along the way. Most of the riders doing either 100 miles or 200k were guys, and as is customary, many of them do not take kindly to a girl riding up on and then passing them. That's cool, I was in such a happy mood, I was saying hi or waving and always smiling at everyone. I was just so happy to be out riding for no good reason! I mean, sure I am doing a NothingMan in 3 weeks, but I did not NEED to ride 200k. Still, I wanted to see how that would feel after UMC.

It got quite hot and windy, and we had several sections right into headwinds that felt like a hot blow dryer. On one stretch when we caught a slight tailwind or at least just crosswind which I know how to handle, I just took off, and was riding by myself when I looked behind and there were I think 10 guys lined up behind me in a paceline. I honestly don't know why they weren't passing me, but it kept me motivated to keep pushing hard. When we reached the next aid station, I got several compliments on my riding, and this was coming up on 91 or so miles. I had no idea how fast I was riding, only that it felt good.

After that stop, we head up a slight hill that sucked. While the ride would be characterized as "mostly flat," there are some solid climbs out of river valleys that can test you. And now we were back into the headwind, and it sucked badly. We went by a wind farm, and I kept thinking I was in Hawaii, because near South Point on the Big Island there is a giant wind farm. I watched the blades turning and thought what a good day for them!

Luckily, some guy about 10 miles later was handing out more cold water, because it was now so hot that I was just guzzling water and wanted to pour it over me, too. The guy had a huge (I think 160-lb.) brown Newfoundland that was just a giant puppy. I was worried he would just knock me over, but he was well behaved. I drank 2 full bottles of ice water and took one to go and continued on my way. I thought all these people would catch me, but that didn't happen either, even though I was struggling a little into the wind, but I just gritted my teeth and persevered, since I knew it was going to end. Here I was "just" riding 200k and feeling like I was suffering!

When I finished, my legs felt predictably worked, and when I got home I downloaded the PowerTap and saw that I had, in fact, ridden well for me, and it just made me smile and think that I guess I really haven't lost any cycling fitness, and I've still got about a month or so to keep it rolling. But why should I? Because it's using the opportunity of good outdoor riding weather and appreciating it and sucking it in before I'm relegated to the trainer. I thought yesterday was a good reality dose of how Ultraman Hawaii might be, too. Although the heat in Kona doesn't feel like it does here, but still the headwind and not shutting down and knowing how much I have to drink when it's like that was a good lesson.

Well, I've been wavering on whether to go and swim, and I think a short recovery swim is in order! Have a great week!

Gotta Come Down

Here it is Friday, almost 4 weeks after UMC, and I am still riding a very real high from it and other things happening. UMC photos keep being posted on Facebook that I must look at, my friend Lee is uploading videos to Flickr (more to come so keep an eye out), I'm checking back in with friends who were neglected during my intense training period and they want to know all about it, I'm preparing for my next NothingMan, I'm working on my ATP, my Y is undergoing huge physical plant improvements that will make it a better place to train, I'm in process of buying a new or used treadmill so I can run even more but really just save time in the winter by not having to drive to the Y except to swim, I'm about to close on my first sponsorship, I'm about to transfer to a different position at work that I've thought about for about a year, I'm thoroughly enjoying the end of summer weather, I'm going to train and spectate at IMWI in a few weeks, I'm already planning for my trips to Japan and Hawaii next year (wow writing that down just gave me chills), I've already located a teammate for Furnace Creek 508 2012 and am making a list of additional gear I will need to train and race for that, I got my annual batch of pesto made and frozen, I'm looking forward to post-NothingMan for some real rest and time to engage in one of my other favorite hobbies, cooking and one more thing I can't disclose just yet!

While all this is going on, I am managing to get my household reorganized and cleaned up, and am slowly picking my way through a to do list. Despite all this activity, I feel pretty relaxed and confident that I will get through a bunch of stuff before the weather turns bad, or November, whichever comes first. It seemed like my last training season lasted so long, but this next one will be longer, so it's good that I don't really have to train super hard until January. But you know I will anyway--that's just how I am.

This morning I swam for 2 hours, and I really enjoyed it. So much so that I was thinking I want to try a new training event this winter: 2x2x2. Swim 2 hours, bike 2 hours, run 2 hours. Shouldn't be any harder than a 1/2 IM, right? As much as I like biking, I think it will be fun to just do each sport for fixed amount of time. I actually think this would make for a fair triathlon. Swimmers get their time, but then bikers and also runners. Whoever goes the farthest wins, with no handicaps for any sport. So I mentioned this on Facebook, and a friend there suggests a variation on this called Sinister 7:

• 1 hour swim
• Transition to running and strength clothes.
• 10 min strength core training
• 1 hour Bike
• 10 min strength core training
• 1/2 hour rowing or similar/elliptical
• 10 min strength core
• 1 hour Run
• 10 min strength core
• 1 hour swim
• 10 min strength core
• 1 hour bike
• 10 min strength core
• 1/2 hour run

So all in all, that's 2 hours of swimming, 2 hours of biking, 1.5 hours of running, .5 hours of other cardio (or I could just run again) and 1 hour of core/strength. Looks pretty fun to me! Now, when I did my birthday workout 2 years ago, it ended up being 52' swim, 52' bike, 52' run and 45' strength/core (no rest time was counted), and I suppose because of the strength exercises I chose (lots of leg stuff) and the reps (52!), I was pretty whacked the next day. Plus I did it on a work day, squeezing things in here and there. If I do Sinister 7, I'll do it on a Saturday and then take Sunday off, and I'll skip my weekly strength session. I guess I will call it NothingSinister!

I am finding it interesting that the more energy I put out, the more I have. Life is good!

Putting Things in Focus

It is that time of year when I need to begin planning out my training for the next season. Right now, I'm winging it in preparing for my next NothingMan on 19-SEP. I am doing as little (ha ha) or as much (more like me) training as I want.

This Sunday I'm riding in the Bike Psychos 200k. I've done this ride a few times before. I missed it last year because it conflicted with ROTPM, so I'm looking forward to it again. I still haven't decided whether I will ride Bitchie with the Cane Creek race wheels or Skull Kingdom. I still haven't put Skull Kingdom fully back together. The funny thing is that Bitchie used to be my lightest bike--now it's my heaviest! Skull Kingdom is the lightest, closely followed by LGL. I've been enjoying riding Bitchie knowing that she's my heavy bike, and that it will feel good to ride one of the lighter bikes, too. But putting the Cane Creeks on Bitchie will lighten her up by a few pounds.

The following week I head up to Wisconsin for the Ironman weekend, staying with a friend, and I'll get in a swim and run on Saturday and then ride in the race against traffic on Sunday. Then I have a training class for work most of the next week, and I'll be tapering for NothingMan 2010, my 4th self-supported Ironman.

I have put a number of things on my race/event calendar for the 2010-2011 season already, and while I have learned to train by feel and make it up as I go, I still like to have a plan to keep me honest. So I started by expanding the ATP (Annual Training Plan) I used for UMC to add through the end of next year, and typed in some of the events. Then, I reviewed what I did last year (actuals) to see which sorts of things I might want to repeat this time around. In doing this, I am being Coach Crackhead, not Athlete Crackhead. When I put my coach hat on, I am able to be a bit more objective about things. Last year when I made my UMC ATP, I was wearing the Athlete Crackhead hat, which is why I created a plan that worked through March, but then I switched hats and Coach told me to back off my original plan.

In looking what I actually accomplished the past training/racing season, I am somewhat amazed. I knew I did a lot of running, but I'd forgotten just how much I crammed in last fall and winter. I was a running FOOL! Coach says we will try and do some of that again, but maybe just a tad less so I can keep my base bike fitness a little higher than I did last year during that period.

Right now, I'm just doing "basic Ironman training," and it feels pretty comfortable to me. I did my first training ride of 100 miles on Sunday (actually 101 miles) for the year. I was a bit slower than I'd hoped I'd be, but I attribute it to some lingering fatigue from UMC. Aside: I know several UMC finishers who are racing Ironman Canada, and kudos to them--but I think I'd dig myself a deep, deep hole if I were to do an Ironman this weekend.

I put in 18 hours of training last week, and that is a "basic" Ironman training week for me, and I didn't even run that much! But it's like a build week, one of those in the last 8-12 weeks before an Ironman, and I felt pretty strong doing it. That ride on Sunday reminded me once again just how much I love riding, and riding long. The need to hold back early on (which I did for 2 hours--no big chainring during that time), the rising strength approaching the 4-hour mark, the inevitable feeling of "maybe this sucks" around 4:30, and then just the single-minded determination to get it done for the remainder.

The day before, I rode for 2:30 and then ran (cough, cough) OFF THE BIKE for :25. I hadn't run off the bike since those indoor triathlons early this year. But, like I've said here before, running well off the bike is not about running off the bike--it's about overall run fitness, and for me that means running FREQUENTLY, 4-6 times per week (5 being my preference). So even though I hadn't done a real brick workout since March, I knew the first mile would suck, like it always does, but it always feels worse and that I am running way more slowly than I am actually running. The suck felt good! After just 3 hours of training, I wasn't trashed, and managed to do some other stuff around the house, including preparing for Sunday.

I saw a great quote in this blog post by Gordo Byrn: "It takes all day to train 4-6 hours per day -- even with support." My Sunday ride was like that. I woke up, ate my normal breakfast, woke up, did some computer stuff, drank my Ultrafuel, pumped my tires, chose my clothes, applied sunscreen and Chamois Butter, washed up a little, got suited up and headed to Fermilab. I was riding just before 7AM, and I was only stopping briefly at my car about every 1:15 to get a new bottle of Infinit and maybe pee and maybe eat some snacks. I was doing well until I was 92 miles in when I was a dufus and used both derailleurs at once and locked up my chain. Oh well, stopped and fixed that before I did any damage, rode some more trying not to touch my pristine bar tape, made it to Wilson Hall and went in and cleaned up my hands and finished my ride. I always take a frozen washcloth with me on these rides, and when I finished, I first cleaned off myself, and then used it to clean up the bike, loaded everything back into the car, began drinking the Endurox R4 and drove home. When I got home, I ate lunch and drank more water, then had a beer, mowed the lawn, showered, stretched, made my annual batch of pesto, ate some dinner and then crashed. I am surprised I still had energy to do the things besides eat and stretch after riding, but I needed to get those things done and out of the way due to some special work duties this week.

All I'm illustrating is that there's a big difference in a 3-hour training day on a weekend, and 4+ hours. On a 3-hour day I can do all sorts of things afterwards, but more than that and I had better not have any urgent plans. I try and make my weekday goal to "get one thing done after work if possible," since I'm usually training 2-2.5 hours on a weekday. But those 3-hour Friday swims (which I gladly won't see for awhile) required I not have any plans other than to make it through the work day. So what I'm doing now feels almost easy to me!

I am totally excited about working on my ATP. That is the thing that gets my juices really going for the approaching training season. How much do I need to do? How much should I do? What fun self-supported things can I do to keep up my motivation? How will I use the holidays to do something fun? Which of my friends can I rope into doing crazy stuff with me?

Each time I begin working on my ATP, it brings into full focus how I did the prior year and what I learned from it, what I will need to do in the coming year to improve, and how what I accomplish prepares me for the years beyond the next one. It's all about focus--right now I am focusing on making sure I am recovering from UMC but also preparing for NothingMan, and my focal point is now shifting to preparing my ATP, then I will flesh out the training behind it, and then I'll move right into training.

I've been told many times by many people how focused I am. Ya think???