Posts from — January 2006

Earlier this week I asked my children if I should continue to train for the Ironman. I am worried that I am spending too much time away from them, which is giving me feelings of guilt and depression. I asked them each individually and they both smiled and said yes. I asked again if they are sure and if they minded all those times I was out of the house training. Once again, they both said that I should train for the Ironman and that they didn’t mind that I was out training.

I guess these responses reaffirm two things to me. Guilt* is an emotion that you can only give to yourself and I must be doing something right with my children, because they aren’t feeling like I am abandoning them in pursuit of my Kona goal. This is much needed reassurance from the ranks.

Now since my children appear to be all for me training for the Ironman, would I be setting a bad example of I were to quit? It appears based on the comments I occasionally hear from my children that I am now expected to reach Kona. I’ve talked about Ironman and Hawaii for so long now, that this process has become part of our lives. I guess I am stuck pursuing it so as not to come off as a quitter.

I rode 61.7 miles today. The most remarkable thing that occurred during the ride was the realization as I passed mile 56, that I was 13 minutes past 3 hours into my ride. Now I know this is very early season, pre season in fact, but still I should have been able to ride 56 miles in under 3 hours. I am definitely feeling slower and older.

The next time I go out, I need to make a concerted effort to remember to bring my camera. Several times during my last few workouts, I missed opportunities for what I think would be a very interesting picture. Today, what struck my fancy was the long shadow my cycling body cast from the rising sun. The shadow must have stretched for 30 yards and I felt that capturing the moving image while cycling at 18 mph would have made a very interesting picture. I guess I will keep my camera right with my workout gear.

ST met me about 30 miles into my ride. It was clear that I was going to have a difficult time keeping up with him every time we hit the Prospect Park hill. We were soon joined by Robert, another friend and triathlete, both of whom dropped me for good about two loops of the park later. It was just as well. I was tired of trying to keep up the pace and preferred just to grind out my remaining 20 miles.

During my ride, I received a call from Brooklyn who was at the Manhattan Half Marathon. He asked if I was doing it. I didn’t even know it was today, but in truth I doubted I would have even if I’d know. I haven’t run a mile since my run last weekend. I couldn’t even walk normally until Thursday. Hopefully my last run won’t be my last run.

A couple of hours after my ride today, I went for a bonus bike ride with my children. This was very painful since I appear to be very saddle sore. I really must remember that wearing jeans commando style and bike riding don’t mix. Fortunately, we didn’t ride far and took lots of breaks.

I do certain exertional physical challenges just because they are hard. It amuses me to know that so few others would be doing what I am doing. Examples of this were my two journeys this past week to the Asphalt Green pool at 5am by way of my MTB. For some reason, I get off being the only cyclist, or pedestrian for that matter, traveling over one of NYC’s major bridge crossing.

The Manhattan Bridge at this time and conditions gives off the aura of a menacing post apocalyptic landscape. Dozens of sodium arc lamps cut through the darkness of night and form a forbidding line down a desolate path. The only companions you have at this time are the howling wind, sub freezing temperatures and the occasional thunder of a passing subway train. From this vantage point I can see hundreds of buildings with many thousands of occupants still sleeping in their safe, warm beds.

When I did this trip on Tuesday, it was my first since the recent transit strike. I was taking a chance that I would be allowed to bring my bike into the office, since I didn’t verify that the building where I worked would allow it in. For some reason, I suspected it could be a problem, which is why I didn’t ask for permission in the first place. It is better to ask for forgiveness afterwards than to do be told no outright.

The security guard of the building didn’t even hesitate a second after seeing me before he told me to get out of the building. I explained to him that I am a senior officer of one of the buildings major tenants. This was a stubborn fellow and he reacted to this information with as much concern as he would show a homeless person who wandered into the building. I asked him to speak to the building manager and his reply was that “He was too busy for me”. I told him I needed to bring it upstairs as I didn’t have a lock and had no choice. He said “Too bad, take it back home”. You would have though I wanted to bring in a dirty bomb the way I was being treated.

In any event, I am not one to back down from a challenge and I told them they had three choices, let me go up, call the building manager or call the police because one way or the other I am going upstairs. A second security guard finally called the BM, who allowed me up after I explained to him I didn’t know the restriction, I had no lock and if he would let me pass, I wouldn’t do it again.

I figured I would call the BM after I changed into my suit and settled in. However, the BM decided to pay a visit to my office and chastise me for giving the security guards a difficult time. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The BM turned out to be a real BM, so I abandoned any hope of bringing my bike inside in the future. For revenge, perhaps I will visit various floors and stuff the toilets with great wads of paper towels.

It is 5:50am, I’ve been up for an hour and I’ve done shit. What a waste of time.

Go Global Warming!!! I don’t know about you, but if the balmy temperature over this past weekend is a result of Global Warming then I am completely in its favor. It was a great weekend to get outdoors, one in which my daughter accompanied me on her bicycle while I did my long run.

I know Sheila from Chicago is hoping for Global Warming to take off. The warm weather is like Spring can’t hold itself back much like Wil. Unusual temperatures in the winter can make it hard to figure out how to dress. I went out with a balaclava, toe and hand warmers and thought I was going to melt. Shore Turtle however, caught the clothing thing right on.

Derek ran the Frostbite 10 Miler, which I felt considering the name and balmy conditions should have been cancelled due to foul weather.

Chelle appears to prefer running in solitude as of late in nasty rainy conditions. I know what she means, which is perhaps why she didn’t blog over the weekend – Too many people outside due to warm weather which ruined the conditions for peaceful rumination.

This weather is definitely out of whack, much like Geaux’s blog which appears to not be behaving normally right now. However, I am sure the weather and his blog will return to normal conditions soon.

Running Chick was able to resist the siren call of running in the warm weather to let her ITB injury heal. Personally though, I would have gone outside to ride a bike. Too bad it’s not warm enough to swim in the ocean.

Nothing gives me the Monday morning blues quite like coming off of a good weekend. Everything was perfect over the past two days. Great weather and lots of quality time with my children. Now I am faced with another Monday and a full work week ahead of me. I guess the bright side to this is that the weather today is completely nasty. If I had to stay home with my children today, I suppose we would have gotten cabin fever after a few hours.

My soleus muscles are very sore today. Plus my left shin hurts in a new place in a strange new way. When I walk down steps, the pain is in the front, above the bone after I plant my right foot on a lower step and bring my left foot forward. While my shin is moving forward a feel a dull ache.

I debated taking this morning off, but my coach had an excellent quote of the week in my training plan. It inspired me to get on my bike in a very subtle way. I didn’t do the workout as prescribed – strong effort, hard on hills – but at least I rode for an hour. I could have gone longer, but then I wouldn’t have had any time with my kids this morning and I would have been very late for work.

It is just as well that I head to work today. I need to go to an optometrist to get a new pair of glasses. The left arm of my frames broke late yesterday. It is now being held together by some Crazy Glue. I brought the tube with me, because it only holds for a few hours at a time. In truth, I am glad the frame finally broke as I hate it. The frame and lenses are 11 years old and out of style. I was only wearing them, because the two sets of frames I bought after these broke and were lost in a river respectively.

Right now I am riding on the F train heading into Manhattan. The crowded car I am in is being forced to listen to a religious sermon by one of NYC’s multitude of unstable individuals. I don’t quite get what he is saying, but he quotes lots of scripture and talks about how he has never killed anyone. I could argue with that as listening to him is killing me now. To the left is a picture of him. Notice he is violating one of the subways 10 Commandments – “Do not lean on the door”. Perhaps he will go to subway hell for that.

I wish I could fake him off the train like I did to some crazy person many years back. I was with my girlfriend and her two friends from suburbia in middle New Jersey. I an extremely drunken fellow got on and started making very lascivious remarks and gestures to the women on the train. The highlight of this was when he walk up to a woman, thrust his pelvis towards her face, grabbed his crotch and said “I want you to suck my cock”. After this he started to walk to my party.

I started to gear myself up to shove him away if he got close to us and take whatever other course of action necessary to keep him at bay. Fortunately at this moment he realizes he is not sure where he is and asks “Yo man, how do I get to East New York?” Calmly looking him in the eye, I tell him to get off at the next stop. For some reason he listens to me and staggers off the train when the doors open. It doesn’t take long for him to realize I told him the wrong information, exhibited by the fact that he curses and turns around to head back into the train. Fortunately the conductor closes the doors right in his face before he is able to get back on. I should probably put these tales on The Subway Chronicles.

Definition -

1. exclusive control or possession of something; “They have no monopoly on intelligence”
2. dominance, ascendance, ascendancy, control — the state that exists when one person or group has power over another.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Monopoly. That could be because I played it with my children a couple of times over the weekend. That is an exercise in patience, arithmetic, deal making and decision making; all in an attempt to gain as many monopolies as possible to take control and win the game.

I suppose if you have multiple personalities that you have control over, you have a monopoly over yourself. That is what I am going to strive to achieve. While I do not believe I have multiple personalities in the classic sense, I do wear many hats that require different aspects of my personality – husband, father, athlete, employee, etc. If I have complete control over every aspect of my life, then technically speaking I have a monopoly on myself.

One thing I need to get control over is my running. I am suffering from wicked shin splints in my left leg and I need to make a change that will let me get the problem under control. I am a hard heel striker. My coach advised me to shorten my stride, which will hopefully cause me to land more towards my forefoot.

Starting out my run with a new form wasn’t the only thing that was going to be different today. My daughter decided that she was ready to ride her bike with me while I ran around Prospect Park. I was very happy and excited to hear this. She has said for a while now that she would one day ride alongside me while I ran.

It worked out as good as can be. She was able to keep up with me or stay ahead of me over the hills and 6.5 miles of riding. Absolutely no complaining and only one snack break. I asked her if she wanted to try some of my vanilla Hammer Gel. She did, but did not find it to her liking. She decided to stick with her bite size tortilla chips, while I downed some gel and a swig of orange Heed.

I was amazed at how fast the miles passed with her. I would have liked her to keep me company for longer, but I knew she was tired and ready to go home. We stopped at a local pastry shop for a well deserved slice of chocolate fudge cake. I dropped her off at home to enjoy it and I continued for the remainder of my run.

By now my soleus muscles were pretty sore. I went back to my old stride and my muscles couldn’t take the new form any longer. Now that I was alone, I decided to incorporate a trail with that had a long stairway built into it. It was very enjoyable and allowed me to get in a few extra hundred feet of climbing for my run.

In total I ran approximately 16 miles in 2:21:55. All totaled it was a perfect day all around. I had great weather (go global warming), great company and a satisfyingly completed scheduled run.

If global warming means calm 50 degree temperatures in the middle of a New York City winter, then I am all for it. It gets two thumbs up from me. It is great to be able to ride outdoors in January, rather than being trapped on the trainer in my basement.

Today’s great weather inspired a great ride from me. I felt as good as I can remember feeling in a long time. My power, cadence and heart rate were all indicating good numbers, which echoed the way I was feeling. If anything I had to concentrate on taking it down a notch instead of trying to spur myself to pick it up.

The only negative for the day was that I stopped my ride short from the amount I was supposed to do. For some reason I thought I was only to go 50 miles and when I clicked off my 51st mile I headed home. I feeling good enough to go more, but I didn’t want to push it. Turns out I should have pushed it, as I would have got in the 60 miles I was supposed to do. Hopefully, inadvertently cutting my ride short won’t ruin my upcoming Triathlon season.

Ride Stats:
Time: 2:55:05
HR: 145/163
Distance: 51.4
Cadence Avg: 99
Average Temperature: 48 Degrees
Power: 256/520
Pedaling Index (how round): 25/73
Left/Right Balance: 50/50
Calories: 2287

I could have looked at today as the cup is half empty, but I decided to have a more positive outlook. My day started around 3:45am, with my wife having a coughing and sneezing fit, which made it impossible for me to sleep. Instead, I chose to use her racket as incentive to get myself out of bed. She was infinitely better than an alarm clock.

I still wasn’t convinced I wanted to go to the pool this morning, but I decided to forge ahead. I took my daily dose of Race Caps, a Gurana pill and a pre workout shake and then moseyed to the bathroom. I took a nice little rest on the porcelain throne.

After I finished my bathroom business, I found myself dilly dallying ferociously, but at least I was still getting ready. About this time, I felt a migraine headache coming on so I popped a couple of Excedrin – the wonder drug when it comes to curing headaches. My wife then came down from our bedroom since she couldn’t sleep, so I took the opportunity to delay my departure to the pool some more.

After a few minutes of talking, I was fully dressed with my coat and hood on and she was ready to go back to bed. At this point, my headache was in full bloom, so I took a bonus Excedrin pill. I closed my eyes on the couch for a few minutes and then got annoyed at myself and left the house.

About a mile after leaving my house, I made a right hand turn through a stop sign. It was still very early in the morning and I didn’t even come close to making a full stop. My heart almost stopped though when I saw the flashing lights of a police car through my rearview mirror pulling me over. I thought for sure I was being pulled over for not waiting out a red light a block earlier.

Being in the cup is half full frame of mind, I was grateful for the fact that I was pulled over for the stop sign instead of the red light – a much more serious offense. The officer asked for my license, registration and insurance certificate. I gave him the first two items, but I couldn’t immediately find my current insurance card. This turned out to be a blessing, because it gave the officer an excuse to write me up for a missing insurance card, instead of the stop sign. Now at least I have a way to beat the ticket; again a half full cup. Also the time it took for the paper work to be completed gave me enough time for the Excedrin to fully kick in and get rid of my headache.

After parking my car and walking to the pool, some maniac decided to make an illegal turn by gunning his car in reverse into a driveway for maneuvering room. This driveway was the exact place I happened to be standing. Fortunately it is my cup that runneth over and not my body. The car missed me by just inches. The driver didn’t even pause to issue an apology. Where are the police when you need them?

Finally in the pool, I entered a 50 meter lane that was occupied a bunch of people that looked to be pushing the age of death. It was the least crowded lane and really my only choice. This actually worked out well, since I was able to throw in the occasional sprint to pass these slower swimmers. It made for a satisfying swim workout.

The rest of my day from that point on has gone pretty good. I got in a nice 10K treadmill run, with limited shin pain. I think I will stick to my weekday runs on a treadmill to allow myself a softer surface in a warm environment. My shin definitely hurts more when I run in temperatures below 40 degrees, especially on the cold and frozen surfaces.

After I finished my run, I had less than 20 minutes to shave, shower, dress and move my car. I skipped the shave, showered quickly, threw all of my belonging together is a large sweaty pile and dashed for my car. I made it with plenty of time to spare. Too bad I didn’t use that extra time to brush my teeth before I left, but at least I have all of my teeth to brush later.

Ok, I am up and ready to head to the pool, but I am not convinced I want to go. I guess I’ll find out after I do my swim.