A little Rant

It is such a great feeling to wake up the day after a long ride and to be completely refreshed. It's a dangerous thing too. All I want to do is go right back out there, get my bike dirty, have my legs ache, go to bed early and do it again tomorrow. However, I have to fight the urge and let those legs take the day off. Maybe I will go run. Maybe I will go swim. Both sound really good. Hmmm, whatever I do, I know I will have to hold myself back because I know I will go way to hard if I don't.
Anyway, thats not the main reason for this blog. The real reason is that I have been getting the same questions I got last year. Why do you do this? Don't you have a life? What do you do for fun? - These questions drive me NUTS!!! It implies that I a) don't have a life and b) do not enjoy doing these things. Sometimes I wish I could slap these people for insulting me in such a way. My question to them, that I wish I would ask more often, is what productive thing are you doing with your life? After all, and I may be a little biased here, I feel that those of us who compete in endurance sports are doing some of the most beneficial and healthy things we could do. We typically eat very well, exercise a lot and push ourselves to new boundaries, emotionally and physically.
Do I wish I could spend more time with my friends, absolutely unless of course all we are doing is sitting around. Then I would rather that they come out and do something active and rewarding with me.
Do I wish I had a relationship with a girl, again absolutely. However, it is hard to find someone who can keep up with my lifestyle and can understand the drive inside me. No way will I try to make a relationship with a girl who's main goal is to go out party and drink. I want someone who can enjoy life like it was meant to be, active. So until she shows up, I will be single, anyway its more time to train:)
And to answer why I do this, well unless you have experienced what it is like to go up to the wall of your limits and knock it down, then there is no way you could understand. All of you who have, know and need no explanation. There is no greater thing than to beat your own limits and discover that there is no limit unbreakable.

Ok, well I am done ranting for now. I will leave you all with a Happy Memorial Day and a farewell til next post. I think I will go swim by the way.

I love the Wind

As I headed out for my 90 minute recovery ride yesterday, I never thought about how windy it was and how it would affect me on the road. In fact, I didn't even notice that the wind was blowing fairly steady at a brisk 20-25 mph until I got 10 minutes into my ride. That all changed, however, when I got to my first downhill and the wind decided that instead of being on the shoulder of the road, I belonged in the right lane as it slid me 5 feet into traffic. Thank God there weren't many cars out. None the less, I was going to get my 90 minutes in, even if I was only doing 13mph. Fast Forward 30 minutes and I am coming off a big hill, getting ready to hit the flats and then I heard it. That beautiful sound your bike makes when its cruising along in excess of 20+ mph. So, not feeling like I was pushing hard, I was curious to how fast I was going and thats when I saw 31.3mph reading back and I was hardly trying! I love you wind. Fast Forward another 30 minutes, after I decided that I wanted to "Time Trial" again, and I am moving at a break neck speed of 12mph into the wind. Looking at my legs you would imagine I was going 60 yet all I could manage was 12 max. Then after 10 minutes of almost standing still, I hit the stop sign I was aiming for and turned around. That 10 min trip then only took 1 1/2 minutes to return as I topped out at 36.5 mph. Ohh how I loved the tail wind. All in all, I had a great time, enjoying stiff head wind and fast tailwinds that left me wishing I could have found a 20 mile flat with the wind to my back :)

Glad to be here

Well as some may already know, the race didn't go completely as planned. The short version is that I posted my first DNF(Did Not Finish) yesterday after basically collapsing on the run course.

The detailed version goes like this. I had a wonderful race, It was the first time that I felt comfortable in the open water. Not once did I get disoriented or did I get that lactic acid build up that makes contemplate if I can make it. In fact, I swam a 45 min 1.2 mile and I honestly felt like I was only out there for 15 minutes. Granted there were moments that snapped me out of the "zone" like at the first turn where the volunteer accidentally whacked me in the head with his surf board or near the finish when I ran head on into a guy who, being so disoriented, swam perpendicular to the entire course. But thats what open water swimming includes and I was glad that I beat my planned time and did so with minimal effort.
As for the bike, well even though that is where the fatal flaw that killed my race day occurred, it to was a good time. For the first 25 miles I was able to talk it up with a fellow competitor who was holding my same pace. It was a great way to pass 25 miles and I am glad for that. The flaw happened when I was able to stay in the "zone" and actually push through 15-20 mph headwinds for the 30 mile stretch and not lose speed. Looking back I probably didn't eat enough on the bike to match the exertion, but hey that is what the first time is about - to learn some lessons. Anyhow, I still feel I was within my limits when I came off the bike, unfortunately a stronger headwind and a weaker nutrition did me in.
Coming off the bike, you could tell I was hurting, but I pushed on. I found myself walking, which I have never done before, and would try to pick it back up to a run. I would go 1/4 mile and then the legs would lock up and I would have to walk. It wasn't until the 3 mile marker when I literally ran into a medic on a bike that I finally realized that I was done. I decided that it was better to drop out, lick my wounds and actually be able to race again in a month than to push on and do God knows what to my body - since it was already shutting down.

To sum it all up, of course I am a little upset I didn't finish, but I am happier that I at a place where I know I can overcome the rat race mentality and do what is best for my body and not my ego. I am glad that I was able to enjoy a wonderful vacation with my friends and glad to have learned some lessons out on the course. Anyway, there is always Half-Max and other Half's around here. (right Dishman).

Excited

So I am sitting here at work and I can't stop thinking about this weekend. I am so excited! In 5 days I will be competing in my first ever Half-Ironman ( a year ahead of schedule) and as per my last blog, I am a lot readier than I thought. This weekend once again helped me realize that, as I ran 5 miles in 35 min on Sat and 7 miles in 46 min on Sunday. The great thing about that was that when I finished my run on Sunday, my legs didn't even feel like I had ran. I felt great the whole run and even had a great time visualizing myself in the race. So with just over 2 days until I leave, I am restless and excited and can't wait to get down there. Wish me luck!

P.S. If you are up early on Sunday you can watch my progress online at www.ironman.com and there will be a link to track athletes. If you use my race number (2144) you should be able to see the progress.

More Ready than I realized

OK, so if you have been around me over the past few weeks you most likely have heard me mention(and probably more than once) that did not feel at all ready for my upcoming Half-Ironman in 2 weeks. And while I may not have trained to the extent that I wanted or as frequently as I wanted, today I realized that I am further along than I thought. You see I woke up this morning and decided that I had to do something about this self doubt, so I did what only seemed natural, I decided to run for 13 miles and see how long it would take. Well, as the title says it, I am more ready to race than I realize. I may not be ready to win it, but I am ready to race. At first I didn't think I was doing that well when I came to the 11 mile mark, that is until I passed a couple that I had already lapped once and they gave me that "didn't we just see him" look which made me look at watch to see just how slow I was going. Thats when I realized I wasn't going slow, instead I was setting a new Personal Record. I finished the 13 Mile run with a little bit of heaviness in my legs and my watch reading 1:28:28. Thats right, I set out for a 8 min/mile pace and inadvertently ran a 6:40 pace and still felt strong at the end.

While there were a couple of times that I was questioning my motive for the spontaneous long run, in the end I realized it was exactly what I needed to snap out of my doubting.

So I say with complete confidence that "I am ready to race, and I can't wait to get out there and push the limit"