Posts from — March 2006

I am not sure if today is actually St. Patrick’s Day, but the parade was most definitely streaming down 5th Avenue this afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any of it as I was busy working all day. It is annoying that I sometimes can’t get out of my office.

Another point of annoyance this morning was that I slept through my alarm clock again. By the time I woke up, it was too late to get to the pool. I guess I really shouldn’t sleep with ear plugs, but sometimes the machine noise from a commercial building down the block drives me crazy and won’t let me sleep. I probably should have just stayed awake when I woke up at 3am instead of trying to go back to bed until 5am.

I made the best of the situation though and did a trainer ride in my basement. A solid 75 minutes on the bike while watching “Assault on Precinct 13”. It was pretty good fodder for entertainment during an indoor ride.

For the remainder of the day I had illusions of making it to Asphalt Green to get in my swim. I was hoping to leave early, but something kept coming up, causing me to remain in the office. It was all petty nonsense and bullshit and I am pissed at myself for not saying “fuck it” and getting the hell out. Other than the crap that came up it was a very quiet day and the perfect opportunity to cut out a bit early, especially considering I have to leave for a business trip tomorrow morning.

By the time I was able to leave the office (5:30pm), it was too late to get to the pool and make it back downtown for a 7pm appointment. I called my coach and explained my frustration, who advised me to just get an easy run it at a nearby gym. Fortunately I had running gear in the office so I was able to fill some of my waiting time with a leisurely run. By the time I finished, I was nicely mellowed out and miraculously calm. That type of feeling hasn’t come over me in a while.

It is a little late now, so I am hoping I will sleep well enough for tomorrow’s Brooklyn Half Marathon. I am going to run to the start (about 7 miles), so I need to wake up extra early. Normally I would want to get to bed earlier, but that’s what happens when you get home late. I think I’ll make my children tuck me in.

I skipped Thursday’s workouts, but the reason was due to a triathlon obligation rather than slacking off. Last night was the Asphalt Green Triathlon Club awards dinner and I was requested to make an appearance. Actually, I think the wording was more along the lines of “don’t be such a cheap fuck and come out to support your tri club”. My coach told me to take the morning off and not to stress about getting a workout in.

I wasn’t actually moaning of the cost to go, it was more along the lines of I just preferred to go home to be with my children. If I knew I was going to win an award, I was more inclined to go, but of course those things always remain secret. The basic response to whether I got an award was along the lines of “you may be part of an award”. No matter though, after the come out to support your club comment, I decided that I should go.

Of course when I heard my wife tell my son that I was coming home late from work while I spoke to her on the phone, I heard him let out a loud “Awwwwww”. I felt terrible after that, but realized I should just explain to him that I may be winning an award that night and if I did I would wake him up and give it to him when I got home for coaching me so well. He seemed happy with that and told me to go.

In the end I did win a “gag” award, albeit one that came without any sort of physical evidence. That is no trophy, medal, certificate, etc. It was an award for most outrageous postings to the clubs discussion boards. He read a sample posting to the audience and I admit I forgot all about this one. The posting was in response to an organized training week in Florida during the month of February. Here is the post:

“Despite what Paul said regarding New York winters sending you into paroxysms of despair and sorrow, for those of you who want a winter training event closer to home, I am planning for The Frozen Century Ride on February 18, 2006.

This has nothing to do with the suspension of time. It will be a bone chilling ride of 100 miles in the beautiful mountains of Harriman State Park. Forget about the sunburn when windburn is waiting for you right at home. Besides, the human body can’t tell the difference between hot and cold at extreme temperatures. So with a little imagination you can make believe you are training under the hot Florida sun.”

I was then reminded of several other posts and really don’t see what was so odd about them. The post I made about doing a trainer ride in the sauna in order to winter train for a warm weather event caused many to wonder about my sanity. I can’t think of a more logic thing to do.

Unfortunately, in regards to my Frozen Century post, I didn’t get any takers and I also didn’t do the ride. Back in February I was lucky to get out of bed, much less workout. I am starting to itch for a trip back to Harriman though, so I will make a post looking for other who would enjoy 100 miles of hills and springtime chills. It should be fun.

I find that so much regarding training is unpredictable. Time, places, circumstances and injuries could conspire to derail your training, none of which you could possibly foresee. This unpredictability could be from the mundane to the more serious.

When I woke up yesterday morning at the early hour required to get in my swim, the last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed and head to the pool. At that point I could not have predicted that a little more than an hour later would see me not only getting my swim in, but going over distance. I felt so good, I didn’t want to stop. After I left the pool for the ride to work, I had no idea that it would be raining, which is a good thing; had I predicted that, I may have used it as an excuse to stay home.

Unpredictability regarding my training also takes on some amusing forms. If I look back just a year ago while working at my former employer, I never in my wildest dreams could have predicted that I would be using their number one competitor’s computer as a changing room to change from my bike clothes to my work clothes. Every time I do that, I look back and say “how improbable is this?”

This past fall, I was looking forward to having very strong training through winter. I could not have predicted the mental vapors that practically incapacitated from training for the first two months of the year. Where that came from I have no idea.

Sometimes unpredictability is something annoying, like riding down Second Avenue on my way home last night to find that overnight they ground the road up in order to repave it. That was very annoying and treacherous. At least later on in my ride a branch that broke due to the high winds that night missed me instead of clocking me on the head.

The morning sky is always unpredictable. I need to remember to carry my camera so I can take pictures of the beautiful dawns that appear on occasion; if only for evidence of what I saw.

Email to coach@slb-coaching.com
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Neil -

I swam a steady 2600 meters. I decided to skip the drills since it takes much longer to do and I got in the water a little after 7am. They close the pool at 8am to make it 25 yards and I wanted to get in some distance. With drills I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get it in.

After I hit 2000 meters, I decided I may as well continue to swim until they kicked me out. I was starting to feel good and comfortable so I just went on; keeping the momentum of working out for time and utlizing the time I have.

I thought of running a bit after, then thought better of it, since my legs are still a bit sore. I then thought of stretching in the gym, but then I figured why rush anything and to let myself leisurely get to the office.

The ride to the pool is only around 10-11 miles, then 2 miles to the office. I’ll ride home tonight to get some more bike mileage; that’s if the thing isn’t rusted solid – it was raining when I locked it up.

Charles

I appear to be on the verge of making my comeback. I made sure to get in a 4 mile run in the middle of my work day. This is a good sign. The run was an easy way for me to kill two birds with one stone; I ran to my accountant to drop off my tax information and I got in the scheduled workout. Fortunately, it was a relatively quiet day in my office so I didn’t have to worry about stepping out while the place was burning down.

About the only problem I had during my run was some residual chafing on my nipples as they rubbed against my shirt. Yesterday’s rainstorm caused my shirt to give them a stinging abrasion. At least the abrasions didn’t leave bloody streaks down much shirt in the form of the number 11.

Spring is definitely in the air which means it is time to consider using sun block again. I noticed I have a bit of sunburn on my face from Saturday’s ride. I think I prefer avoiding skin cancer more than avoiding the greasy feel of sun block on my face. I’ve already burnt my nose severely several times in my life, but hopefully the future risk of skin cancer is somewhat exaggerated.

If I can manage to get to the pool twice this week, I’ll feel more comfortable saying that I am back. So far I find waking up at 4:30am for the ride to the pool remains unappealing. Maybe with the earlier rising sun it won’t be as bad. I’ll know I am back when I start cursing myself for all the wasted time over the past 2 months. While I know at this moment I didn’t have much choice in the matter, in the future I’ll have just the fading memories of my reasons why I didn’t train properly to which I’ll say “what was so bad”. I am looking forward to that day, because when it comes there will be no denying my return. I’ll have to refer back to my blog for a refresher so I don’t punish myself too much.

What is pain except for the memory of it? Once it’s gone can you really conceptualize what it felt like? You can know it was bad, intense or the worst you ever felt; but could you really feel it again after it’s gone. Once it leaves, if it wasn’t for the memories, did it ever really happen?

I think I am over the hump. I did two strong workouts this weekend and I felt pretty good while doing them and afterwards. I can feel my inner beast starting to break free of its chains. It’s not quite free yet, but it busted 3 out of 4 arm and leg shackles. Hopefully it won’t be long before he is roaring along. He definitely came out today as I ran a hard 14 miles in the rain. He could be heard shouting at me to move my fucking ass.

Saturday’s workout consisted of my first “big” ride of the year; a 75 miler up to Nyack, with some extra hills thrown in. I wasn’t as weak as I feared. I was afraid that my dearth of 2006 bike mileage would make me a laggard. I rode with Todd and several other guys from the Prospect Park peloton. In the end I finished strong and had no problems keeping up.

During the ride I wondered at several points if I would start to become overly fatigued as the miles ticked on. Perhaps any fatigue was staved off by our stop at the famous coffee shop in Nyack. I’ve ridden through Nyack dozens of times, but I never made this stop. I’ve always preferred to just hammer through my ride and only stop for water refills and bathroom breaks. Chilling at the coffee shop for about 30 minutes was pleasant, but it was not my cup of tea when it comes to training. After all, I don’t have such a luxury when racing.

The place was a cyclist’s version of a Hells Angels gathering. There must have been over 50 bicycles in racks and leaning against any available wall or post. The crowd consisted of showboaters, weekend warriors and many other types sporting untold sums of the fanciest bicycle gear and a montage of colorful cycling clothes. I wonder if the fancy stuff makes you go faster. I think I’ll stick with my secondhand jersey with the broken zipper.

On the way home from Nyack, we formed a paceline and flew back to the George Washington Bridge. We probably averaged around 23 miles per hour. Once back over the bridge, we leisurely strolled back down the Westside and to the Brooklyn Bridge. I could have ridden longer, but I was glad to be home.

After the ride, I still felt good and had minimal fatigue. I started to wonder what type of run I would have today, considering I haven’t done a run, followed by a hard ride in a very long time. My legs still felt fresh this morning and I was eager to get started – another feeling I haven’t had in a while.

It was raining when I began the run, but the temperature was almost warm. The day called for 2 miles warm-up, 10 miles acceleration run – 8:30 mpm down to as fast as possible increase pace every mile, 1 mile warm-down. I did the workout pretty much as proscribed. During my penultimate lap, I wasn’t able to keep increasing the pace. I suppose the sogginess of my sneakers added weight and made it harder to maintain an increasing pace. I actually went over distance for the day. The last few miles were slow, but not laborious. I guess the rain made it easier to go on. I’ve always enjoyed running in it.

Run Stats:

I am annoyed. I didn’t wake up in time to get a ride in, much less get to the pool. Even my daughter said something to me. She saw me in the bathroom, getting ready for work and she flatly stated “Daddy, you were supposed to go to the pool this morning”. I’ll never get my swimming fitness back unless I solidly get with the program.

The reason for my inability to wake up had much to do with the fact that I didn’t fall asleep until after midnight. I went to bed around 10pm, but all I did was lay there, stubbornly refusing to fall asleep. Around 11pm my wife entered the room and expressed some surprise that I was still awake. When I said I couldn’t fall asleep, she asked why I didn’t come downstairs to watch TV with her. I thought about doing so during that hour, but I was hoping I would nod off.

For the next hour, we talked and pleasingly engaged in carnal relations. I am sure the greater part of the hour was spent talking. Anyway, after we were through with each other for the night, I popped an Ambien on top of another sleeping pill and finally fell asleep around 12:30am.

My alarm clock going off this morning rudely awoke me and I knew in that instant I was too tired to get up. Had I gone out to ride to the pool, I undoubtedly would have some sort of incident as described in the New York Times about people being arrested while driving under the influence of sleeping pills.

Getting out for a lunch time workout was out of the question. I worked non-stop from the moment I entered my office until I forced myself out the door at 6:30pm. By the time I get home, eat dinner and tuck my children into bed, I’ll be completely wiped out. I stand no chance of doing a workout tonight, not if I want to have a chance of waking up tomorrow.

I enjoy my sleep too much to wish I could do without it. I guess I find it precious since I have such difficulty attaining it. I no my body and I am definitely no good trying to work out when I am tired. My form is completely off, my heart rate low, and I wind up either shuffling or rolling at a speed barely necessary to stay balanced. And staying balanced is one of the keys to maintaining a healthy and happy life.

This morning I was reminded of a turtle I had about 15 years ago. I found him walking along the sidewalk in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. It was quite an incongruous place for a turtle to be and I never was able to figure out how he arrived at that place.

I was excited at my find and immediately went to the nearest pet store to find out how to care for him and purchase an appropriate habitat. I wound up getting a 10 gallon fish tank with some fake grass and some rocks. The guy in the pet store said he probably came from around a lake outside of the city and was abandoned by some kid. Once inside his new home, the turtle walked to one side of the tank and insistently tried to walk through the glass. He kept on trying to get out of his confinement in this manner for the next couple of weeks.

Eventually, the turtle gave up and would just sit in his tank forlornly. He gave up trying to succeed in accomplishing his goal of moving beyond his confines. He would barely move and I started to feel very bad for him. I did take him out regularly, but for the most part he would stay still in the tank while I was out.

Eventually, I couldn’t take looking at him, sitting in his tank with this depressed look about him. I decided to take a trip to upstate New York to find a lake and set him free. I put him down by the shore and off he went. Hopefully he went on to live a happy life.

The story of this turtle came back to me as I thought about how I want to accomplish or do certain things in life. I realized that I can’t be like the turtle and just give up. Granted, the turtle didn’t have much choice, but I can still take a lesson from him. I can’t just keep doing the same things when they are clearly not working. I need to keep trying different things to get what I want and never give up.

Speaking of turtles, I am a bit dismayed that my running speed has been as fast as a turtle. I suppose it will come back, once I really get back into training, but the lack of speed is annoying none the less. Today I went out for a 6 mile run, which I did along my High Points route. The brilliant orange sun was just peeking over the horizon as I reached the highest peak.

At the completion of my first loop, I flirted with calling it quits. I was hungry and my Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) was very high compared to my heart rate. Just as I was about to give in and go home, an annoyance flooded my body at the thought of quitting and I forced myself to go on. Even though one part of my brain was telling me to do an easier route to complete the run, I wouldn’t let myself and stuck to my High Points path. Every time I thought about taking an easier route or cutting it short I let the thoughts of my children encouraging me to do Ironman and get to Hawaii flood my mind. They are expecting of this now and I owe it to them and myself to give it my best shot.

I made it to the pool this morning. It’s the first time since January 26. It seems like a lifetime ago and my apparent lack of fitness in the water echoed that fact. I quavered about getting up this morning to go, but in the end I am glad I did. I have much to make up for to get ready for IMLP.

As usual, I got to the pool by way of bicycle. The ride was part of my scheduled workouts for the day. It was probably less than 15 miles, but I was carrying a lot of weight. I propose that the extra effort to move such mass, made up for the lack of distance. The bike fully loaded with my gear must weigh 60 pounds.

The sky was already illuminated by an early dawn brightness by the time I started riding over the Manhattan Bridge. The last time I did this ride it was pitch dark and gave the bridges bike path a lonely and desolate feel. With some light outside it was quite pleasant as you could see the entire city waking up.

My day was pretty much non-stop from the moment my feet first touched my pedals. After my bike and swim, I had a meeting at 8:30am. My day stretched on continuously answering email, telephone and attending meetings. It was past 5:30pm by the time I looked up.

I had another appointment over on the Westside of Manhattan starting at 6:15pm, so I quickly changed into my bike clothes and freed my bike from a sign post along 56th Street. When I first started locking my bike outside and leaving it for 9 hours unwatched I the street, I was worried that it might be stolen. However after looking at many of the other bikes locked up around Manhattan, I realized that my bike was one of the biggest pieces of shit chained to a pole. I could probably just lean it against a fire hydrant and find it untouched at the end of the day; no one would want this thing.

My appointed ended very quickly which capped off the day. I contemplated either riding home or taking it easy and riding the subway home. In the end, I figured I am getting off to a good start, so I rewarded myself by relaxing on the train.

I am going to take the fact that I woke up this morning and got out of bed a good sign. Not in the sense that I am alive for another day, but in the sense that I got up to do a workout. I wasn’t sure I would be able to rouse myself for another weekday, early morning workout for a while and the fact I was able to do so today is reassuring.

Granted today’s workout just consisted of an easy 4 mile run. I did it in Prospect Park and my reward for getting outside was the spectacular view of the sun rising over Prospect Heights and reflecting over the lake. While I didn’t physically find anything during the run like I did yesterday, mentally I was very happy to find that I was enjoying the run. It was a welcome change of pace to the nervous feelings I’ve been experiencing over the past several weeks while training.

My severe curtailment in training has put a damper on my once springtime plans. I was hoping to be run a sub 3 hour marathon at the NJ Shore Marathon, but it is obvious I am not going to be ready for that. In truth, this isn’t bothering me in the least bit, since I no longer have to worry about the suffering I would have to face to peak for this race and the physical discomfit I would have attempting such a distance as such speeds. My coach advises me to still do the marathon. He states “Two months and a marathon as a goal will help keep your running “honest.”

I asked my other coach, that being my 5 year old son, if I should do Ironman this summer. Once again he said yes, even if it means me being away sometimes in the morning and not being around on Saturdays until noon. Both my children feel this way so far and as long as they do I will continue.

The true test towards my getting back in action will come tomorrow morning. I am scheduled to swim. This always takes a bit of effort as I have a lot of preparation required to fit in this workout. I’ll have to pack everything I need for a day at the office, commute about 12 miles by bike to the pool, swim and then change and ride my bike to the office. All this at approximately 5am through the streets of Manhattan. This hasn’t bothered me in the slightest in the past, but recently, it was the last thing I wanted to do especially after working 10 hour days. If I swim tomorrow, I’ll know I am coming back.