Outlier?

A few days ago on Facebook, I shared an article about recovery. Someone chimed in that it didn't mention one of the obvious factors in recovery--one's age. I took that to be a given, in that it's widely recognized that as one ages, the ability to recover from hard workouts diminishes somewhat. To which I added, but if one practices good recoverability, then as one ages, the impact of aging alone can be significantly mitigated.

And then I was called an outlier. I didn't take that as a compliment or insult--just something to ponder. I took the comment to mean the second of the definitions below:

out·li·er (outlr)
n.
1. One whose domicile lies at an appreciable distance from his or her place of business.
2. A value far from most others in a set of data: "Outliers make statistical analyses difficult" (Harvey Motulsky).
3. Geology A portion of stratified rock separated from a main formation by erosion.

I don't now nor have I ever considered myself an outlier athletically. I didn't come from "good" parents (good in the sense of being gifted athletically or genetically), I didn't deliberately engage in sports (unless you count riding a bike maybe 2 miles to an outdoor pool in the summer and flopping around for an hour or so) until my 20's (and even then it was just rollerskating), and I didn't begin serious training until I was the ripe old age of 42. All I have done is make choices and seized opportunities that improve my ability to train hard and recover from it.

I will now tell the complete story of how I got to where I am today in triathlon. This may bore the hell out of you, but I enjoy writing about it and have never really gotten the entire thing together at once, so here goes.

Oh, sure I'm damn lucky that I get to work out of my house. It wasn't always that way. I was a workaholic in my 20's and early 30's, regularly putting in 60-80 hours per week. I got married at the age of 29 and saw my hours spent working out decline to a pitiful amount--near zero. I found that that made me an unhappy person, although I thought it made my marriage better, because I worked tirelessly at it to try and be the perfect wife. You can't be the perfect anything unless you are being true to yourself, and I wasn't. I began a slow return to "working out," (which is what I had considered my exercise in my 20's to be--it was certainly not training), while continuing to pile on the hours at work.

I became happier with myself. I got divorced. I began a new job in the software industry, and there was a gradual acceptance of doing the computer/phone thing from home a few days per week. And if you were good at managing yourself this way (and I was) and being productive, you were able to spend progressively more and more time working out of home, until well now, where it's more the norm than the exception for many people in the industry to work from home full time.

So sure, I'm lucky that I get to work out of my house, but the opportunity to do so only came after I'd worked myself into the ground for many years. So I earned it, and then I began using it to my advantage. And I rediscovered the joy I get in movement, and it just escalated from there. From 1997-1999, I was only running and lifting (and a little miscellaneous "cardio"), maybe 8-10 hours a week, which is still a lot for most people, but it was manageable, and I wasn't yet working at home full time.

Then I got bit by the triathlon bug. Or, should I say, the opportunity presented itself. I had run 2 marathons with Team in Training, and my local group was starting up a triathlon program, and I was asked to be a mentor. ME! What the fuck, right? I knew NOTHING about triathlon and figured I had better start reading up, and so I did. I bought books, I found all the best websites from which to glean information, bought a decent road bike (which is now in the loving hands of my massage therapist), took some swim lessons (Cindy can attest those were good times indeed!) and pronounced myself a triathlete. A crappy triathlete, but at least I had some of the best gear around (not my bike yet, though).

Meanwhile, in April 1999, a dude in Kona had suggested that I would do an Ironman someday. Here's the back of my then business card that I made him write it down on:


Here I was practicing being a crappy triathlete (and I did suck) and this idea was now rolling around in my head. I announced at a summer track workout in 1999 (preparing for my second marathon, the Chicago marathon) that I was going to do an Ironman. I sure got some interesting looks. I wasn't exactly svelte at the time, and I didn't (and still don't) run very fast, either. So it was, at the time, a rather bold statement. But anyone who knows me, knows that when I decide to do something, I do it. I usually need to make myself a plan, and in my head, the plan was to do my first Ironman in 2004 or 2005.

As fate would have it, though, a person (let's call him Steve) suggested that I register for Ironman Lake Placid in 2001, and like an idiot, I did. So, OK, I was ahead of my plan, but I rationalized that I wasn't getting any younger (I was 43 in 2001), and what the hell, why not?

I got a coach (whose first triathlon was an Ironman, by the way, even though he told me right off the bat that I had no business doing an Ironman so soon), and he put the hurt to me real bad. I was able to do the training, but it was still a huge leap for me to go from 8-10 hours of training per week to an average of almost 14 per week. Along the way, I osmosed whatever I could about training and recovery, and thus began my quest to figure out how I could keep training at or above this level and feel better while doing it. As beat up as I was that first Ironman season (and I was told a few years ago by someone I admire that she could see just how beat up I was back then), I really did enjoy the training. I was still lifting, which I loved, and running, which I was coming to enjoy more and more, and I had always like swimming and biking, and I enjoyed the process of trying to get better at all of it. And also improve my race time, duh.

It took me a few years to get comfortable with the fact that it would be better for me (and my left knee which has no ACL anymore) to drop some weight in order to protect my running health mostly, but also maybe improve my race time. And then the lights went on about stretching and massage, and well, an athlete (such as it was) was born. It is no coincidence that I had an Ironman PR in 2004 that stood up until 2009, when I finally cracked it. Between 2005 and 2009, my life was a hell of sorts, with my Mom's declining health and then death, my Dad's death and then the whole executor thing which finally ended this past February.

I am rereading a book that I finally got back from a person I lent it to like 8 years ago called Long Distance: A Year of Living Strenuously. I can see myself in the book, as sometime around 2003 or 2004, I had decided I wanted to see what it would be like for me to really explore my athletic capabilities, despite a full time job and regular life. The author's Dad dies while he is on his quest for personal athletic excellence. Was it a premonition that I had read it back then before I went through the same thing myself? Who can know.

It is a wonderful book, and there are so many statements in the book that resonate so much with me, like:

• "In the end, endurance sports are a test of yourself against yourself; they require nobody else, and sometimes they can hardly tolerate anyone else."
• When Rob Sleamaker is watching the author reach for some chips to go with guacamole he says, "You know, we all like chips. But they have an awful lot of fat in them." And in that moment was born The Man Who Reads the Sides of Every Can.

And so it was the year 2004 where I got into Ironman Hawaii via lottery and was already registered for Ironman Canada that I made the conscious decision to go for it. I had no designs of qualifying for Kona or anything--I just wanted to see what I could make of myself athletically.

So maybe it was making that choice is what people think makes me an outlier? Well, if so, fuck it. Anyone can make the choice, and I don't want to hear any excuses like I'm married, I have kids, I don't work at home. I am not who I am by chance--it's by choice. I've worked damn hard in my career and athletically, and yes, I have sacrificed some things along the way, but in the end, I don't consider my life any better or worse than anyone around me. It's the life I chose, and that's what I like most about it.

Since then, I've discovered a bunch of things about myself, been through a bunch of life crap, and now here I sit being able to say that, for a person my age, I tend to recover quite well from heavy training. Outlier? Nah, I just work my fucking ass off.

Bike Porn!

bling...bling...bling...Hello? It's SKULL KINGDOM! I finally got worthy aerobars on her and recabled her with red Nokons. All that's left to do is get flames on the rims...getting that looked into. She is truly the sweetest ride I have ever had or seen!

Ready to Settle In

I am back to running. The legs are feeling pretty good, so I hope I can find some speed in them now that I'm about finished with a bunch of errands I did over the weekend:

• See my chiropractor. We had a LONG discussion about me and my feet and legs and hips and back and running shoes and what works and what doesn't work. I was pretty agitated. I am not an easy patient. What we concluded was that the orthotics made for me in May had too wide of a heel cup resulting in my heels sliding all over the place while running which led to muscles in my hips, glutes and low back getting fucked up. They aren't totally unfucked up yet, but they are getting there. We decided to refurbish and replicate orthotics I had made like 6 years ago. When doc was looking at the old ones, he kept saying over and over, "these have a lot of mileage in them." Yep, about 8,000 miles!
• Dropped off hazardous household waste (from my garage cleaning a few months ago) at a special drop-off center.
• Deposited some checks into bank
  
• Dropped off about 12 pairs of worn running shoes at a Nike outlet store for recycling, then since it's been years since I've been at an outlet mall, I spent a short time shopping and got a new pair of winter Merrell's and some Jockey underwear.
• Got a massage.
• Dropped off Skull Kingdom at The Bike Shop to get her new bars and Nokon cables put on. The new bars are SWEET! I'm also replacing an alloy cage on the downtube with carbon. These stylistic improvements had to be done--she wasn't worthy of my stable without this bling!
• Got waxed
• Went grocery shopping
• Cooked up farfalle with salmon
• Ate some of that pasta and drank an entire bottle of wine that I am paying for today
• Bundled up and cleaned up after a bunch of perennial stems that I cut down during last week and covered a few rose bushes for the winter

All I've got left of yard work is to cover 10 remaining rose bushes, and I'll do that next weekend as it's still really not that cold here, but the weather will turn any day now.

As I was sweeping my driveway this afternoon, I was thinking what I will be doing next year at this time. I will be tapering for Ultraman Hawaii or starting to, anyway. I think that I will not have time to fix up my yard for the winter next year and will need to allocate money to pay someone to do it. I really do enjoy doing it myself, but the timing will not be good for me. But I still will get to enjoy all the flowers as they begin arriving just 4 months from now!

Every year about this time as I've taken some well-needed rest from training (yeah I know a marathon last week but still...), I think about how I was able to do the things that I did the prior year, and I am still amazed. But now it's getting time for me to buckle down and resume building that huge winter base that enables me to bust out the door in spring pretty strong. Only this time I actually believe I know what I'm doing and that will be a huge stress relief! I was worried that I had lost all semblance of speed for awhile there, but I proved my biking is still strong, and now that I have figured out my running issues, hopefully I'll be back running tempo and speedwork pretty quickly. I was reminded today, though, that running with a hangover is not exactly fun ;) I can't remember the last time I had a hangover--it must be at least a year--but hey the wine tasted great.

Now I make the transition to training indoors 100% (or nearly so), which is always a bit traumatic. I do like Hal, but I still hate the treadmill in general. But I have to say having one at home now is great. If it's dark out but nice weather, I can start indoors and then head out like I did this morning. And I can transition to the bike right quickly. After some nice outdoor rides this week, I was on the trainer today, and it sucked, but it also made me feel that feeling of "when I'm on the trainer I must work extra hard." It is just a psychological thing. And I'm getting my Ergomo head unit repaired, so I should be back in the power business on LGL which is cool. Can't wait to see just how much I suck (or not)!

I feel like I'm picking up after the last 5 years of my life--that I finally have time to do what I need to do for myself. Even though it appears I've been doing that anyway, it's the non-triathlon things that I had seriously slacked on, but I'm nearly back on track. I have made my estate plan, done my medical appointments, had much work done on my house, and I feel really ready for the next big adventure. Which I think means I will enjoy the hell out of this next year of training and racing! What a great place to be!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Over a New Bridge and Vigor

I don't know how else to describe the way I am starting to feel other than "like myself." The past 5 years have been a whirlwind of life changes--parents passing away, coming into my own as a long-course triathlete, and now I'm on the verge of my next big life decision which is when and where to retire.

Why does that make me feel "like myself?" I suppose because it feels like I have a semblance of control over where my life goes right now, and I've reached another 5-year mark (I have observed a general pattern of 5-year cycles for myself) where I feel I've achieved a high level of competence at something (triathlon) where I can now just sort of go on cruise control for a bit.

I am just now realizing that I have reached another echelon in triathlon. I know that sounds crazy to a lot of people who think that happened years ago. I still do not consider myself particularly fast or better than anyone else, but I now know that I am able to do things that I once thought of as pretty out there just 5 years ago. One way I can tell is how I've recovered from a marathon just 5 days ago. I feel more than ready to get back to running--there is no muscular soreness, I was able to ride pretty hard a few days ago and I've been a bundle of non-training activity. My brain feels wired up to begin pretty heavy training again, too. Since UMC, I've had numerous offers to engage in some pretty wicked events, but I have had to decline (except for NothingMan IV) for the sake of letting my body get used to what it just did in the last year, or my idea of an off season.

I'd been pushing my personal envelope for the last 5 years in terms of the amount and intensity of training I've done. I know some people think all has been pretty much the same during that period, but that's not true. Each year I try and incorporate something new, something more challenging and something harder. Sure there are a few events that I like to repeat from year to year, but that list is too big for me to do everything, and I'm just like the next person in that I like to try new things.

Part of me thinks I am too old to keep up my training level and part of me feels like I'm 25 years old! Something came to mind the other day that made me think of one of the things that drives me: I want to live vigorously as long as possible. My definition of vigor consists of:

• better than average benchmark numerical measurements like blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar. This is achieved by diet and stress management.
  
• lack of need for prescription meds. See above! Unless proven that I develop a condition that is genetic requiring meds, I will do everything possible to avoid them. I do use Nasonex before swimming in a pool, as I appear to have minor allergy (enough to send me into sinusitis) to chlorine/bromine.
  
• better than average body composition, which is needed not just for me to remain competitive in triathlon, but as well to ensure my skeletal health, staving off arthritis and discogenic issues. I know too many people who are carrying 10+ extra pounds around that will be surprised when they begin experiencing chronic back, hip, knee or foot pain due to those extra pounds, so yes, size does matter! For me, as I already have joint issues (lack of some knee cartilage from a skiing accident and some disk degeneration which may be from the same accident or possibly just wear and tear), I have made and kept a promise to myself to not have any excess weight on my joints.
  
• ability to engage in day-to-day infrastructure maintenance including yard work like gardening, mowing, basic tree/shrub trimming, shoveling snow, occasional gutter cleaning and generally hauling stuff around, as well as grocery shopping, cooking, driving, taking out the garbage
  
• general state of personal and social content arising from connectedness with family and friends
• financial security--enough money to cover my basic needs and then some and the ability to keep it that way barring unusual events. I could have left this off as it defines financial vigor, but for some people this interacts with the other components so I left it in
  
• ability and desire to engage in deliberate moderate to intense exercise at least 1 hour per day on a consistent basis. Here I'm suggesting something where you are burning 500+ calories per hour, which is a good amount even for a small person, but I suppose that figure needs to scale somehow based on sex and weight. Note that I included desire here. While it appears to some that we have evolved to the point of not needing or wanting to exercise, I believe it is the other factors above that may interfere with desire. So I truly believe that a person who does not want to exercise has other areas of their life that bear examination.
  

I think that's a good, basic definition of vigor, yet when I look around me, the number of people that I know my age and older who meet it is quite small. As time marches on, we may be forced to relax some of these standards, but it need not be a noticeable drop. Maybe I just have high standards, or maybe people are just OK not being vigorous. I watched my Mom lose her vigor beginning in her 40's, and I just do not want to go down that path. If any of my personal components begin to decline, I will know that I have a problem. So when you are thinking of what constitutes health, I would say consider vigor instead. We are not designed to want to sit around typing into phones and computers in a temperature-controlled environment while we blissfully ignore tending to our physical and psychic vigor. So until we evolve into a small blob with a huge brain, I think we need to attend to our overall vigor.

Anyway, I feel pretty vigorous! During the last year, I became accustomed to a level of training that is pretty high. I have become used to it now physically and mentally, and yet I am able to maintain my other components of vigor. How great is that? I'm not saying I'm great--I'm just saying I feel great. And honestly, I wish everyone could feel this great. Too often, I am viewed as just this triathlon machine when in fact, I have to tend to the other areas of my life just like everyone else. I've had my moments where I feel unbalanced, lacking in one thing or another, but I'm completely OK with where I am right now.

I am also very grateful for everything that I have achieved in my life. I am trying to spend more time paying it forward in my own unique way, but I hope to do something more formal--I'm just not sure how/when that will occur. Some sort of volunteer work, perhaps. Apparently I am blessed with a capacity for a lot of output, and so it would be a shame to keep spending it just on triathlon!

I know that something can happen to me at any moment that could derail many of the plans I've laid out for the coming months, but for now, I am truly happy with where I'm headed and feel super ready to hit my training hard. It makes me laugh that I have wavered over the last few years about turning down the volume, when in reality, I think it was just my mind and body learning how to get used to it! So I can say that training for and finishing my first Ultraman has been a truly life changing event. But I don't see myself reaching higher and higher at this point, for I feel like I have crossed over a bridge into territory that many people will never see. I'm very grateful to be where I am and have a renewed sense of wonder about the next phase of my life's journey. What a wonderful place to be!

And Now the Fun Begins!

I have confirmed with 100% certainty that the orthotics that I began using in May were the cause of my last 8 weeks of sub-par running.

I ran about 27.5 miles at IMFL on Saturday with no issues! I also now checked that I am almost back to 100% ROM on my left hamstring. I am really excited now about returning to good, fast running, as I've got some fun things coming up for Thanksgiving weekend.

Oh, by the way, that "marathon" at IMFL was my 25th. How about that?

I just found out that the town of Schaumburg is hosting back-to-back 1/2 marathons on Sat/Sun of Thanksgiving weekend. But I am an idiot and didn't sign up for Saturday, which has closed. So I signed up for Sunday. And I also registered for my local 5K, Bonfield Express, that is on Thanksgiving Day. But I really wanted to do 2x2x2 (2-hour swim, 2-hour ride, 2-hour run) during the holiday weekend, so I will do that on Friday. Saturday will be a rest day ;) I hadn't planned on running a marathon that weekend, but I guess I will get a broken one in, huh? How great! This will kick off my "official" training for Ultraman Hawaii 2011!!!

I am still plotting what to do about change of plans since I am no longer going to Japan for an Ironman next year. I could spend some $$$ and get into IMWI, or I could do another NothingMan. I kind of like the idea of another NothingMan, since that would be #5 for me, only this time I would do it the week before IMWI which is guaranteed to be good weather, as has become a tradition!

I had so much fun at IMFL with my friends Brad and Morgan, and Brad's parents (that I'd met last year at IMLP and saw again at Goofy Challenge), and now I met Morgan's Mom, Melinda, that also does IM. Brad and Melinda raced IMFL and both set huge PR's, so I was honored to be able to help them any way I could with pre-race nonsense and also a few race day tips. I'm not sure whether I was of any help, but I sure enjoyed witnessing their race.

I began running just before Brad came out onto the run course. I didn't expect to be able to run very fast, but that was just fine, and I almost regretted that I'd run a 1/2 marathon the week before, but oh well, this was just for "nothing" so it didn't matter. Once again, I realized just how much a "just" marathon sucks, as it hurts and it was cold, and I just HATE the IMFL course--it's totally flat with just these speed bump things that are just plain ANNOYING. After doing 1/2 the course, I really wanted to just stop, and one of the other kids in our entourage asked me how I felt and I said, "like crap," which was true, since I had eaten a bunch of things I don't normally eat and my stomach was doing flip-flops, and my legs weren't quite in shape for a marathon. But I just turned and kept on going.

When I finished my marathon, I saw that Brad and Melinda's entourage (I stayed with Morgan and Melinda) had migrated to the finish line, and I knew I wouldn't be able to find them in the melee, so I began walking back to the condo because I was freezing. But that was just agonizing, so I started running again. You should have seen the looks on people's faces because I did have...um...race-ish paraphernalia on my body, and I was running more! But it felt fine to run, and if I had put on warmer clothes, I would have run another 13.1 miles just because. But, I'm still glad to have completed a marathon plus.

There is something else really special that happened over the weekend to Morgan and Brad but I can't say just what publicly--it will come out soon enough (tonight). They are going to crew for me at UMH, but that's not the news ;)

Anyway, I'm just really excited about having had some time off from work and a great time with friends, and I'll see many of them again in February at Gasparilla Pirate Festival to run a bunch.

I am still pretty tired today (I forget just how much a "just" marathon tires me out), but coming around and am looking forward to getting back on a bike tomorrow. I did swim today, which felt great (I never did swim in Florida--just didn't feel like it), and also lifted a little bit, so I should be back on my game in no time.

I am renewed about beginning some hard training--my body and mind are ready for it, and now even my legs!

EVIL ORTHOTICS MUST GO!!!

I have been battling some unknown condition in my left leg for about 8 weeks. One might think that I was just experiencing an overuse condition because of all the running I'd done in the last 2 years. I suspected my back might be out of whack, saw my chiropractor, he said nope that's fine, and he even instructed me to wear my orthotics more often. Meanwhile, it was sometimes hurting for me to sit on one or both sit bones like ischial bursitis. But you know me, I kept right on going, even adding lots of hill work just for fun.

I didn't always feel bad, but there was this hitch in my left leg that just wasn't right. I was icing my glutes after running or biking, and I also have been stretching the hell out of my left hamstring. The stretching is necessary for sure, but why that hamstring tightened up so much went undiagnosed.

Until last Thursday. I had begun noticing that my right foot wasn't enjoying the orthotics that much and that I had to slide my foot forward in my shoe for them to be positioned properly. I was running on Hal, and all of a sudden, I had this flash. What if the orthotics were putting my left foot into a position that affected my running mechanics leading to an overly tight hamstring and all the rest?

So for the last 10' of my short run, I ditched the orthotics and slipped on a pair of running flats. Right away, I noticed that I didn't have that hitch in my left leg, but I thought maybe because I was already warmed up that's why I didn't feel anything.

So yesterday, I just went from my house, no warmup or anything, without the orthotics again, and voila! No left leg funny business!

Today I had a half marathon scheduled--one I signed up for awhile back because the finisher medal is a belt buckle with a skull on it. I am such a sucker for skulls! So this morning I had to decide what I was going to do about the shoes. I haven't run that far without orthotics since last winter, and of course I was worried about my RIGHT foot since that is the one that was injured. But I figured worse case scenario would be I needed to walk a bunch, and so what, I am doing a marathon in 6 days so I really shouldn't be running fast anyway.

So I ran the whole thing without orthotics! While my time sucked because I haven't been able to do any fast running for weeks now, I ran and no pain anywhere, except maybe just my head since I had a wicked hangover from just a few beers yesterday. Also my upper body hurt like a mofo because I raked leaves for like 3 hours yesterday (why would I rest up for a half marathon anyway?). But after 7 miles, I decided to do run 5'/walk 1' just to ensure I didn't really beat the crap out of myself.

Since I hadn't run that far without orthotics, I do have some interesting aches and pains in my legs, but I expected that. Mostly I wanted to test out my hypothesis about the orthotics causing my left leg ailments. And I think I was right!

So now what do I do? Back to the ortho. I think the problem here is that my left leg has no ACL and this automatically puts my left leg and hip complex into a position that "works" for me, and the orthotics put me into a bad position. I probably can still benefit from orthotics, but I think I will need some redesigned ones. The right one is not working for me anymore, either, although it did fix the issue I had in April. I am sure that I am a non-standard patient case, and maybe what we will decide is to just do different things for each foot. It may be that the right orthotic is perfect for my right foot, but because the left one messed up my left side mechanics, the right side then followed suit and I grew to dislike the one on my right foot as well.

I do know one thing, though, that in my case, just scanning my feet is not sufficient anymore to construct orthotics for me. I had been trying to wean myself off them, and my old ones were actually fine, so maybe I can just get those reconditioned and off I go. I am pretty sure that my body has changed, too, so that makes things a bit complicated.

For now, if I can spend some weeks running on treadmill without orthotics and perhaps gradually reintroducing a new set then maybe I will be fine. Last year was not optimal for acclimating to orthotics--I basically got out of the pool, onto the road and within 8 weeks I ran a 52.4 miler in them! I already knew my body was finicky when it comes to keeping me aligned because I have experienced ITBS and other issues and because of that I changed where I run.

So once again it will be time for change, but if I can get my left hamstring happy again, that will be a great start!

In other great news, I got my bloodwork back and I have pretty good cholesterol readings--HDL is 70, triclycerides 76 and LDL 123. The nurse called me with the results and then mailed them to me and she said to keep doing whatever it is that I'm doing! All my other bloodwork looks just fine, too.

So now onto my next challenge which will be to keep both feet AND both hips happy!

Happy Halloween, too!

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.