Posts from — June 2006

Words are escaping me. What can I say about taking another trip to Harriman State Park only to have my drive chain crap out on me? Blow up is actually more descriptive. Somehow I sheared the chain stay right off the frame and mutilated the derailleur so that it looked like a twisted chunk of scrap metal. I even prepared for a chain emergency by taking an extra chain and tool, however this was something unrecoverable.

The thing broke while I was climbing up Tiorati Brook Road. I was 54 miles into a 110 mile scheduled ride. Fortunately, I was riding with Todd and his friend/co-worker Sue who came up on me about 5 minutes later. He took my car key and got my car to come rescue me. While driving back to the parking lot I called my coach to find out where I should go to get it fixed. We decided it wasn’t worth going to get it repaired now and I was better off going for a run, while Todd and Sue continued their ride.

Maybe it all happens for a reason. While I was on the phone with my coach, my wife called and told me she needed me home around 3pm to help prepare for my daughter’s birthday party this evening. I had no idea she wanted me home this early, which was about 3 hours earlier than I had planned. If I hadn’t shattered my derailleur, I wouldn’t have even looked at my cell phone for hours. This break therefore probably saved me from enumerable grief with my wife later on.

After the phone calls, I ran for 90 minutes/11 miles while Todd and Sue did another two laps. We finished at just about the same time as each other. Todd and Sue wanted to go out for another loop, but I spoiled their party by telling them I had to go home. I really didn’t want to do it, but I couldn’t bare the guilt and grief I would get from my wife at putting my friends over her and my daughter. Deep down it was also a relief to have a legitimate reason to leave; it would have been very difficult to sit idle for another hour or so while everyone else got to ride. I think this fact made it all the harder for me to disappoint my friends and tell them we had to leave.

I am not sure how I am going to handle the rest of this weekend. I’ll do my scheduled 22 mile run tomorrow; although how that will go after running 11 today will be interesting. I’ll have to get another bike in at some point during the next few days. It’s very frustrating since this was supposed to be the last big finale before I started to taper for IMLP. I was riding exceptionally well today and felt like I could have hammered out the miles all day.

Perhaps this is God’s plan and this divine being is just looking out for me. This must have been the case yesterday when I did an evening run during a thunder storm. I was scared shitless that I’d be struck by lightening, but I managed to make it through unscathed. A lot of people were being looked out for last night as Prospect Park was filled with runners and cyclists despite the flashing sky.

One side note I’d like to make mention of is that I was treated reasonable well when I went to R&A Cycles to get my bike repaired. I’ve had issues with this shop in the past and it was very refreshing to be treated well. Several others have said that the shop has turned over a new leaf and this appears to be so. I’ll hold final judgment off until tomorrow when I pick up my bike and see the bill, but so far it looks good.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a sore throat and congested nose. I knew I was coming down with something so I decided to get some extra sleep instead of schlepping to the pool at 5:30am. It meant I would probably miss the day’s swim workout, but I wanted to see the doctor to make sure I took care of the bug before it got out of hand.

I was also scheduled to drive out to the east end of Long Island for a meeting. By the time I got out of the doctors office, I was going to be very late for the 11am start. I thought perhaps I could just rest in bed all day, but the person I was to meet with really wanted me to be there. So somewhat reluctantly I got in my car and drove the 100 plus miles to the meeting, making it there by 12:30pm.

The meeting was already in progress and I was glad to see some good work was already accomplished. It finally broke up around 3:30pm, whereupon I started on my long journey home. The traffic on the way back would be much worse, but I hoped that I would get lucky.

In a way I did get lucky. The traffic was clear until I reached the Meadowbrook Parkway. This is right near Eisenhower Park and the Aquatic Center. I was feeling a little better by this time and since I was stuck in traffic, I decided to get off the highway and get my swim in. Hopefully the traffic would ease up by the time I finished. Also, my coach would be happy that I got the day’s workout in. Fortunately, I had an extra set of swim gear in my car, although I didn’t have a towel or lock.

I never really noticed before, but Eisenhower Park is one gigantic indoor pool. The configuration when I arrived allowed for 8 x 50M lanes, plus 4 x 25M and a large recreation area for kids and families. The pool was very crowded with a kid swim meet going on. Fortunately, I was able to get one of the 4x25m lanes and even had it for myself for a while. I hope no one would steal my clothes which I left in a bag on the spectator seats.

I really didn’t want to swim and felt this way through the first few hundred yards. After a while I started to warm up and the meters starting ticking away. Towards the end of my 3rd 1000M set, another triathlete came into my lane and started to draft me. He was right behind me and I tried to hold him off from touching my toes for as long as possible. I was very glad he was behind me because it gave me encouragement and incentive to keep moving fast. I was supposed to do each of my 1000’s faster than the previous and had he not been there I am almost certain I would have started to slow down. I held him off for around 700 meters with about 200 to go before he finally tickled my toes. I had a feeling I was starting to slow, so I let him pass and then tried to draft him.

The last 1000 was the fastest of the workout. I did another 200 to cool down. When I got out of the water the triathlete called over to me and we proceeded to talk for a few minutes. We talked about our drafting session and I replied I was glad that he was there. We are both doing Lake Placid, so perhaps I’ll see him in a few weeks.

Without a towel I relied in the paper towels in the bathroom to dry off. I probably looked a little silly, but I didn’t really care. I was happy to get the swim in and just eager to start getting home. The traffic was a little better and I made it home in decent time.

Today started off sluggishly with a 20 mile ride out of a scheduled 40. Actually, I thought I was only supposed to do 30 miles, but when I looked at my training plan after the fact, I saw I really had 40 miles to do. So I went from feeling not so bad at cutting my ride by only 10 miles, to slight feelings of despair that I only did half my workout. In truth, had I known I was to go 40, I still would probably have stopped at 20 since I was exhausted. Is this interesting reading so far? Probably not.

Anyway, I suffered through exhaustion all through work and contended with another unairconditioned and crowded subway car. The appalling environment in the subway cars as of late, reminds me of riding the subways during the late 70’s, early 80’s. They were dirty, hot, grimy and slow; just like today. By the time I got home, I had a crushing migraine and just wanted to crawl under my covers. This is what I did for an hour, before I had to get up and to the Run Until the Violence Stops run in Prospect Park.

Now if this were just a scheduled evening workout, I would probably have skipped it since I was feeling so lousy. I decided though that I was going to do it no matter what for two reasons: 1 – It was too easy of a NYC Marathon Qualifier race to pass up and 2 – more importantly if I ever harbored hopes of doing the Badwater 135, I knew I would have to struggle through that race feeling worse than I do now, so I better start practicing running when I feel like shit.

As it turns out, I started to feel pretty good when I headed to the park. I felt good enough to run a 2.6 mile warm up and then ran 23:00 for the 3.2 mile race (yes, 3.2 miles). I attribute this evening burst of energy to the 2 Excedrin I took for my headache. It’s such a wonder drug.

My friend and business colleague just had a member of his team get killed today while riding his bike to work. It made the Top Stories on NY1.com. I’ve been thinking about him all day.

Derek was only 21 years old with model good looks and one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I was with him just several weeks ago when he was telling me that he just bought his bike so he could commute to work with it. We had talked in the past about commuting to work by bike. You can see him by going to http://www.fashiongps.com/. He is the person in the video.

My wife asked me if I would stop commuting to work by bike now. My contention when I hear about something like this is you can’t let such events stop you from living. However, I will be more cautious than ever. It is not so much my life that I worry about, but the impact on my family should something happens to me. It’s been weighing on my mind more than ever lately.

This morning I weighed myself for the first time in almost two months. The scale shows that my body is transforming into its Ironman configuration. Here is a comparison of my vital weight measurements:

These measurements were recorded with my Tanita Body Composition Monitor. It appears to be accurate and always gives me consistent results.

Another indication that I am getting Ironman fit is the fact that many of my clothes don’t fit me anymore. The waists are all too big, which means I have to bunch it up by cinching my belt very tight. It looks a little silly, but I am not going out to buy a new wardrobe or spend the money on tailoring my suits, only to have them get too tight in the fall and winter.

Physically, I think I am going to be fine for the race. I just need to complete my mental preparations. This year with almost all certainty, will be the last time I do Ironman Lake Placid; at least for a few years. Therefore, there will be no next year so I need to balance running a good race with pushing myself hard. Not so hard that I burn out too early and hard enough so that I push through the pain and make my body do what I want, even though my brain is telling me to stop. It is such a fine line between knowing you can do more, but just don’t want to push it and pushing so much, that you just can’t physically push anymore.

I know my children won’t be with me this year. This is definitely weighing on my mind. Running across the finish line with them is one of the greatest thrills of the race. I’ll have to know they are there with me in spirit. Besides, this will keep me from worrying about slowing down and letting another age grouper pass me at the finish to take my Kona slot. Only 27 days remain.

In order to recover from yesterday’s 102 mile ride, I decided to relax a bit and run a flat 20 miles in the Manasquan Reservoir. Actually, it was the only place nearby for me to run, since we spent the night at my wife’s aunt’s house in order to get an early start at Great Adventure this morning.

As I mentioned in a previous post this is a 5 mile loop over packed dirt trail. I intended to get some pictures of myself as a comparison between today and Thanksgiving 2005, but it was so humid that the lens of my camera phone was completely fogged over. For that matter so were my glasses. My Rudy Project glasses with optical insert are practically useless in warm and damp weather. I felt like Tommy of the famous song, especially when my mp3 player stopped working. I was running deaf, blind and definitely dumb since I could hardly see anything while running. It was a Great Adventure just making it through in one piece.

Other than my vision problems, it was a satisfyingly hard run. I did each 5M loop faster than the previous and finished just over 20 miles in about 2:50. The loop doesn’t have water fountains along it, so I relied on a water bottle stashed at my starting point. I took a healthy swig from it every time I passed it along with a Hammer Gel packet. It drizzled on occasion, but the thunderstorms the weatherman promised never materialized.

Fortunately, the lack of thunderstorms lasted through our days visit at Great Adventure. The threat of foul weather also kept most of the crowds away making for a very leisurely and line free day. We were able to go on all of the rides we wanted with minimal waiting time.

I am always amazed at the sight of overweight and out of shape America when I go to our nation’s amusement parks. It only seems to get worse as time goes on. I am so happy that both my wife and I stay in shape and set a good example for my kids. I wouldn’t want to be this couple who are so fat that their butts literally hang over the bench on which that sat. Their children were also huge and endemic of the couch potato type of kid who becomes susceptible to Type II Diabetes. I am sure if our nation’s parents would recognize and acknowledge the potential health consequences they are subjecting their precious children, they would do something about improving their diets and encouraging exercise over video games. If they want further encouragement, let them check out the unfortunate children who through no fault of their own are born with Type I diabetes and are subjected to drawing blood and checking their blood sugar 6-10 times a day and receive anywhere from 2 to 6 injections of insulin a day. I don’t wish such a fate on any child.

I really feel that allowing your child to become seriously overweight at such a young age is a passive form of child abuse and neglect. It sets them up for all sorts of health problems later in life, that could have been avoided had proper nutrition been taught and learned by setting good examples.

After we were finished with the rides, we went back to our car for a trip through the Wild Safari. You are supposed to keep your car windows closed, but of course I am not one to obey every rule I am told. This allowed a friendly animal to poke his head inside looking for food. I wanted to feed him some popcorn, but we were too busy looking, ducking and laughing to find it. It was one of the highlights of the day. Please let me know if you can identify what type of animal this is, as the website doesn’t have an index of the animals inside it.

After the drive through the park, we headed home for dinner at a local restaurant. Then it was take out the trash, throw the dirty laundry in the washing machine and the dirty children in the tub. It’s been a long day and I am ready to go to bed.

Perseveration
[L] continuation of something (as repetition of a word) usually to an exceptional degree or beyond a desired point; hence, perseverate, by back-formation “perseverate, perseverate, perseverate..” – anon

I suppose riding 30 loops around Prospect Park for two weekends in a row counts as perseveration. My desired point of riding around the park this morning was not at all, but still I did it. It caused me to wonder if the fact that I didn’t want to do this ride today, meant that I don’t really want to do Ironman. In the end I did the ride, so I guess I want to do the race.

Due to the threat of oncoming rain, I decided it wasn’t advisable to head to HSP. In a way, that suited me fine since I didn’t want to spend all of the extra traveling time to do a workout up there. I was hungry when I woke up, so I had a bowl of Kellogg’s Smart Start cereal. However, after spitting it up for the first 24 miles of my ride, I decided that perhaps that wasn’t such a smart start on my day.

I was really hoping for the rain to come down. This would alleviate my personal guilt about not going to HSP. I got my wish off and on during the ride, especially towards the beginning when the rain would come down with enough force to make my skin sting. Also during the first 20 miles of my ride, I had the company of Kona bound triathlete Jonathan. It was good to have company to break up a totally monotonous ride. After he left, I put on my MP3 player and just cranked out the miles. I maintained a satisfying 20.2 mph pace over the course of 102.5 miles.

When I returned home, I was caked in road grime. My once white socks were completely black. Even my buttocks were dirty from filthy water seeping through the fabric. I quickly took a bath and when I drained the water the white porcelain of the tub was covered with all the debris that washed off my body. The bath must have refreshed me, because afterwards I had enough energy to take my bike outside to hose off the accumulated gunk. Hopefully next weekend I’ll get in another HSP ride.

I hate when I screw up my schedule. This is exactly what I did this morning by sleeping in until 6am. My intention was to get to the pool around 7:30am and swim for about an hour. It wasn’t until I woke up that I realized that the pool closes at 8am in order to switch the lane configuration from 50m to 25 yards. I wouldn’t have enough time to get in a decent workout if I tried to get in before 8am and I would be late for several morning weekends if I swam until 9:30am. I love the 50 meter pool, but having to complete my swim before 8am is really becoming a killer.

So all I have to do now is bitch and moan about my screwed up day. I have no idea how I am going to fit everything in. I have several meetings throughout the day and I am wanted home early to help out with my daughter’s birthday party. Looking on the brighter side of things, I got to wake up and see my son this morning. He is having a sleep over right after school, so if I went to the pool I wouldn’t have seen him all day.

While waiting on the subway platform this morning, I found myself standing next to a woman with her 4/5 year old daughter. Seeing them next to me reminded me of a quandary I face whenever I am next to parents with small children or pregnant women.

I will generally give my seat up when I see small children or the preggers on the train. The only time I don’t is if someone beats me to it or if they say they are getting off at the next stop. However, in the case of standing next to them on the platform, I’ll generally move up or down the platform so I will enter through another door. This way I can get a seat without having to feel as though I took a seat away from them should seats be scarce when we enter the train. Is that wrong? I can’t help but feel that somehow it is.

I don’t exactly enjoy giving up my seat, but I know it’s the right thing to do. I wouldn’t want a woman to feel like this one. I’ll do it, but I wouldn’t mind in the least if they entered the train somewhere else. Riding the subway is one of the few times during the day I get to relax, which is absolutely impossible to do if your standing in a hot car packed in like sardines.

I think common wisdom dictates that raw oysters, clams and a raw sushi platter are not the appropriate items to eat before doing a race. That is just what I did though a couple of hours before this evening’s JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Race. I was taken out to lunch to Rue 57 and my benefactor offered up the Oyster and Clam platter as an appetizer. I didn’t want to turn down the opportunity to sample such treasures from the sea so I threw caution to the wind and dug in. I backed up the raw shell fish with a sampler of raw fish.

As the hours progressed towards the race, I wondered if such a protein extravaganza would have an ill effect on my performance. I was feeling slightly queasy throughout the afternoon and I began to worry about intestinal parasites. I figured what my stomach lacked was a dose of carbohydrates, so I added a blueberry muffin to the briny mess in my stomach. My stomach didn’t feel much better after it, but my mind was more at ease knowing that my body had a more substantial fuel for the race.

My fears of a bad race were unfounded. As I lined up with the 17,000 other people I could feel my body getting ready to run. The start of the race was extremely crowded and slow and I was only able to move myself at a 9:05 pace for the first mile. The next miles were much better. I snapped off a 7:31, 7:02 and 6:42 pace for the remaining 2.5 miles. I guess raw shell fish isn’t so bad as a pre-race meal after all.

I hung around my company’s meeting area for an hour or so after the race. I was finally able to get back to my office around 9:20pm to pack my gear for my bike ride home. I was still feeling strong and rode a brisk 38 minutes from 57th and Madison back to my home in Brooklyn. I wonder if I will still feel this strong in the morning.

When I came in from my 31 mile bike and 6 mile run this morning my wife asked me how anyone can run in this weather – hazy, hot and humid. I replied that I would rather run around in the heat, than have to wear a suit and tie and ride the NYC Subway. It seems as though every F train is without air conditioning making the ride completely intolerable. It’s like riding in a movable sauna only you are fully dressed.

Speaking of air conditioning or lack thereof, I still haven’t put in the window air conditioners for my upstairs bedrooms. The lack of climate control in these rooms has rendered them basically unusable. As you ascend the stairs to the second floor of my house, it is like going through a thermocline in the ocean. You can feel the temperature rise by about 15 degrees mid-way up the steps. It was so bad last night that my wife and I decided that we were all going to sleep on the living room floor. We have a permanently installed AC on the first floor so we are able to keep cool on it. My kids got a great kick out of it and I kept laughing as they continuously played and rolled around into each other. Its almost a shame that Todd is coming over this evening to help me put the upstairs AC units into the windows. However, m family is very grateful for his assistance.

I’ll probably get to bed late tonight and this will make tomorrow a very long and sleep deprived day. I must get to the pool in the morning (by bike) and then later in the day I am organizing the Corporate Challenge race for my company. So tomorrow will be a Bike, Swim, Bike, Work, Run, Bike type of workout day. It will also probably be hazy, hot and humid again; just like the first day of summer should be.