Posts from — July 2006

I am being told I should be proud of my accomplishment in completing this year’s IMLP. Someone reminded me that earlier this year I said I just want to get through this race. I don’t remember saying it, but I believe the person. It just goes to show my state of mind over these past months.

I don’t particularly feel proud of myself. It’s as if I feel that completing an Ironman isn’t any sort of great accomplishment. I guess I’ve become jaded having done several of them in my life. Yeah, I know I could do an IM, but how good am I at it? I feel as though by not living up to my own standards, that just finishing it is not something I should be proud of. Like doing a half-assed job; where is the pride in that? That’s all I have to say on this subject, it is time to move on and drop the negative. I finished, I was in the top 25 percent I am in great shape and I have another Ironman under my belt.

It is also time to move onto the next race; Survival of the Shawangunks on September 10. You can read my previous race report on it here. To begin preparation for this race I went out to Brighton Beach on Saturday to do my first open water swim sans wetsuit. I need to get my body used to swimming in cold water again. I swam slow and easy as I didn’t feel any urge to push myself. I am not ready to push myself yet. The water was about 74 degrees, but had a distinctive thermocline about 3 feet down. I didn’t get cold, but I didn’t exactly feel warm. I encountered plenty of jellyfish. I was like Spongebob strolling through the jellyfish fields. I got stung a few times, but nothing so bad. I swam for 35 minutes called it a day and went to play with my kids on the beach.

This morning I rode an easy 12 miles. Once again I didn’t feel like pushing myself and probably couldn’t even if I wanted to. It was just a recovery ride and a check to see if I could still ride a two wheeler. Later, for a change of the summer pace, we are going to Chelsea Piers to ice skate.

Thursday, July 27

I have done not much of anything the last few days. Monday when I got home I sort of took a brisk walk with my wife to a restaurant several blocks away, other than that, nothing. I suppose part of the reason for this is I had to go for a colonoscopy this morning and I wasn’t allowed to eat for 24+ hours. I didn’t want to work out yesterday or today on a completely empty stomach. I weighed myself before I left the house this morning. I came in at 146.5 pounds. I should probably put on some weight. They found some inflammation down below during the procedure, but nothing that raised any serious alarms. That probably accounts for the bleeding I’ve been experiencing when I take a dump. I’ll find out more when the biopsy comes back in a week or so.

Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get up early and do a workout. I am not sure I feel like it yet. I guess I’ll know when I wake up in the morning. I may just be happy to veg out in bed.

Friday, July 28, 2006

I am sitting in Union Square park passing time while waiting for a 4pm appointment. It’s warm and humid, but at least the sun is hiding behind some ominous looking clouds. In fact a drop of rain just hit me.

I finally managed to get in a workout. I went for an easy three mile run up the East Drive of Central Park during my lunch hour. I thought about going longer, but I could tell my legs were not really up to it. I just ran slow and easy and thought about running the Badwater 135. I figured with my tired legs, blazing sun and high heat, the conditions would be a hint of what Badwater would be like.

I’ve got to decide what I feel like focusing on next year. I’ll probably make a list of pros and cons as to whether or not I should do IMLP next year. I can think of reasons to go both ways and hence the need for a list. If I don’t do IM, I could just focus on shorter triathlon events or focus on my running and going ultra distances. Maybe that is the next kind of challenge I need. I know I can withstand the suffering that comes with Ironman, perhaps its time to see if I can withstand something a little that would pose a bit more of a challenge.

I’ll end this now and use my remaining time before my appointment to start my list.

As I entered the water for the start of the race, I felt myself getting emotional when I thought back to all that I went through to get to this day. This year was definitely not easy and the accumulated stress displayed itself with a tear running down the corner of my eye. I can’t say exactly what I felt whether it was joy, sadness, relief or combination thereof. However, the race was about to unfold and I quickly got myself together.

The swim was absolutely brutal. It started out being nasty even before the starting gun went off. Everyone was treading water in the same place and I was constantly being kicked while I was waiting for the race to start. One bastard apparently forgot to clip his toenails and I could feel them scratching into my feet from time to time. I could only hope it caused him to form a blister underneath it on the run.

From the very start I was knocked around by other swimmers. It was impossible to find clear water to swim. A one point I got kick in my eye so hard, I thought my eyeball would pop out into my goggle lens. I probably should have lined up somewhere back from the starting line to avoid getting trampled on by faster swimmers, but I didn’t want to waste any time. Several times I had a mouth full of water splashed into my mouth as I turned to breathe. This caused me to gasp and choke as my trachea closed up and my lungs struggled to get air.

As bad as this was, I was glad not to be the swimmer that I saw during the turn around point at the far end of the lake. This is area where there is a mass of swimmers congregating as they try to cut the turns as short as possible. This swimmer was for some reason treading water, facing the wrong direction, with his goggles off. He appeared to me as a battle field soldier trapped in the middle of a firefight with rockets and grenades exploding all around. Other swimmers must have been kicking and elbowing him while he floundered in the water.

It was also at this point where I questioned whether I was having fun doing this race. It wasn’t a pleasant experience so far and I just wanted it to be over. I thought about bailing out, but figured that the second loop of the swim would be better as the field further strung out. It was a struggle to push myself to make the second loop faster than the first. I did, but I could tell I didn’t really want to do it. I had an easier swim the second time around, but not by much. I still had my goggles kicked in (same eye) several times and had to stop a second to empty water from them.

I took my time in T1 to collect myself and think through what I needed to do on the bike. I was glad to be out of the water and headed onto my strongest discipline. It was cloudy, humid and raining when I entered the changing tent. My Rudy Project glassed were completely fogged over and I couldn’t see a thing through them. I yelled to a volunteer to point the way out of the tent and ran blindly outside it.

Once I started moving on the bike, the wind mostly defogged them. I felt mostly ok on the bike, but I could tell my legs were not completely with me. It was like they didn’t show up for the race. I rode relatively strong for the first two hours of the bike. After that my heart rate suddenly dropped and it felt like I had no more strength in my legs. I knew I was in trouble at this point, especially when I started to get passed by other cyclists. I realized that qualifying for Kona was out of the question and that if I was going to survive the race, I was going to have to adjust my racing strategy and go into survival mode. I seriously considered stopping after I finished the first loop.

I took my time through Special Needs (this is where you can pick up extra gear you stowed at the midpoint of the bike). I took a nice long drink, replaced my water bottles and decided to head out for the second loop. During the climb out of Lake Placid, I had the split second urge to turn around and quit. I was wondering the point of continuing if I was not even going to come close to any of my goals; qualifying for Kona, breaking 11 hours or setting a PR. I guess I didn’t quit because I didn’t want to hear anyone say that I went through all of this preparation not to finish the race or have my son ask me where my Finishers Medal was. Ultimately though, I really just decided that quitting wasn’t an option. I wasn’t injured and I didn’t have a major mechanical failure. I was just afraid that it would take me 17 hours to complete the darn thing.

Many times during the second loop I had spectators encouraging me to keep it up and telling me I was looking great. For some reason this reminded myself of the time I bailed out of the Staten Island Half Marathon because of an injury. I had received a 4 mile ride back to mile 12 and had to walk to the finish. While walking to it I felt foolish having people offer me encouragement when I had already dropped out of the race. I guess in my mind I felt like I quit, even though I was still going through the motions of completing the race. I knew I should be a lot better and I felt like I just didn’t show up to the race.

Despite feeling terrible on the bike, I still finished the 112 mile course in less than 6 hours (2:47 first loop, 3:09 second loop). I jogged into T2 and leisurely got ready for the run. By now it was sunny outside and fortunately there was plenty of sunscreen available that was applied by the volunteers in the tent. I felt ok as I began to run, but knew I had absolutely no speed in my legs. My HR was only around 70 percent and the fastest I could muster was a 9 minute mile pace if I didn’t stop at the aid stations. My 26.2 mile journey would be slow and tedious.

Once I got started on the run, I knew I wouldn’t quit. I’d come too far and too long to stop. I guess I had nothing better to do and really didn’t want to have everyone I know disappointed in me for stopping. It wouldn’t have been a good example to set for my kids. I didn’t want to hear my son ask where my finishers’ medal was. I took walking breaks at the aid stations and helped myself to chocolate chip cookies. At one point I saw a Tri-Life cheering squad and stopped to ask to use their cell phone. I wanted to call my father to let him know I would be much later than expected. They said I could as long as I wasn’t quitting.

The best part of the run was the climb back into town, where you make a left onto Main Street. They had someone on a loud speaker offering encouragement and he seemed to make a point of remembering me and cheering me on the 4 times I passed this area. Since I was also no longer competing and just going for completing, I would slap the hands of the kids that held them out. They seemed to enjoy that so I figured the least I could do was make the race fun for someone.

My father somehow missed me as I crossed the finish line. It took me about 15 minutes to find him. I was desperate to see him as he was holding my recovery drink. I felt much better after I found him, sat down and had my drink. He was very worried that something happened to me since I came over the line so much later than expected. He understood when I told him I just had a bad day. I told him one of the reasons why I continued on was so I didn’t have to hear him tell me “you came up all this way not to finish the race”. He replied that he wouldn’t have said that and I believed him.

There is not much more to say about the race. I got a post race massage, grabbed my gear, went to the hotel, showered and ate. I went back to the finish line to wait with my friend Larry for his daughter to cross the line. However, it started pouring rain and after about 30 minutes I was getting a headache sitting hunched under a Mylar blanket so I went back to my hotel. I was very glad that I wasn’t one of the athletes still out on the course.

In the end and 11:39:48 finishing time is not too shabby especially for having a bad day; or so what everyone is telling me. I guess in the end I am happier for finishing than quitting. Now I just have to decide whether I want to do this again next year. I have until August 15th to decide.

It is 3:15 am and I’ve given up trying to sleep. I took 2 x 10mg of Ambien and still I couldn’t fall asleep. I had some weird twisty turny dreams, but nothing that constitutes a good night’s sleep. I spent half the night counting backwards from 100 to see if I could get myself to nod off, all to no avail. I finally had to get out of bed as I was giving myself a headache with the back of my head lying down on my pillow all night.

My room has a king size bed and I am sharing with my father. He is a snorer, but on previous nights it didn’t bother me since I was successfully in a chemically enhanced slumber. Tonight though, the snoring would was really annoying and making it all the more difficult to fall asleep. I finally had to put my swim earplugs in to drown out the noise.

At one point during the night I heard a loud buzzing sound. I didn’t know what it was and thought nothing of it. Around this time though, my father stopped snoring and I was able to take out my earplugs. The silence was disconcerting as I couldn’t hear him breathing and I suddenly thought it may have been the fribulator that my father had installed several months ago. I wondered about this for a minute or two thinking if he just had a heart attack it would really ruin my chances for a PR today. His back was facing me and I touched it to see if he felt cold. Well, it was cool in the room so his skin was quite cool. I started to seriously worry for a second when he finally felt my hand on him and started to move. I felt much better, but still wasn’t able to fall asleep.

Well, that’s my night. I guess I will just wait for sunrise now. Hopefully the hours ahead will be more productive.

Day 3

It’s an odd feeling to be sitting around with nothing to do. I already did my easy workouts, previewed the bike course by car and ate lunch. Now all I am doing is sitting by the lake waiting for time to pass. If my kids were here I am sure I would be frolicking around with them in the water or perhaps paddling around the lake in one of the hotels boats. It wouldn’t be relaxing, but I’d be happier.

I ran into several members of the Asphalt Green Triathlon club. Many of them are getting together at various points to workout or eat. For some reason I don’t feel the urge to gather with them or seek out anyone for company. I prefer to be by myself to relax and let the time pass.

To pass some time, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean with my father. The movie was ok and nowhere near as good as the first. After we ate dinner and then took a walk around the lake. While we were walking we saw someone selling puppies from the back of their car. I thought of buying one and taking it home. That probably would not have gone over well with the wife, but I am sure it would have been the coolest thing I could have brought home to my kids from Lake Placid. After our walk, it was back to the hotel to watch some TV and go to bed.

Day 4

I did a short swim in Mirror Lake and a quick bike ride on the ending and beginning segments of the course. I stopped by Todd’s hotel and had the front desk call his room to say they were closing the hotel on the Health Inspectors orders. We hung out for a few minutes afterwards and then I continued on with my ride.

I finished packing when I returned and took a short nap. Around 1pm, I was going to head out to check in my gear, but it was raining at the moment. My dad and I stayed hung out in the room until just after 2pm, when we decided to brave the elements and check my stuff in.

I love this kind of weather – rainy and cool with a soft breeze. Best of all, I get to look out over the lake while lying in bed. As far as a relaxing environment goes, it doesn’t get much better than this.

We had dinner with Todd and his wife at Mr. Mike’s restaurant. We all had pasta with grilled chicken. It was yummy, simple and delicious. Todd and his wife tried to talk me into doing Ironman again next year. They think I should do it because it is something that I love and enjoy. To tell the truth, I don’t know if I do. I guess I will know if I don’t sign up for it and feel intense disappointment that I will not be in it next year. I suppose I could always sign up and just not do it, but that is an expensive way to insure I have the option. I could spend the race entry fee on lots of other things. I’ll just have to see how I feel Monday morning.

Today was a productive day preparation wise. I went to the Gatorade swim and one full loop of the IMLP swim course (1.2M). The water temperature was very warm (76 degrees) and I was overheating in my full sleeve wetsuit. I felt like a boiled lobster. I wished I had taken my long john style suit with me and realized that perhaps I could still get it in time for the race. I called friend Larry, who was coming up later today and asked him if he wouldn’t mind stopping by my house to pick it up.

Unfortunately, my wife wasn’t home this morning so I had to further hope that my father-in-law was home and that he would be amenable to going to my house, looking for my wetsuit and giving it to Larry. Fortunately for me he was, so I am now expecting it sometime later today. Thank goodness because if I have to race and the weather and water are so warm with my long sleeve suit, I will feel like a boiled lobster by the time I exit the water.

After the swim, I took my bike for a spin on the run course. It was an uneventful ride and pleasant enough. The ride served as a good refresher of the run course and the hills I will face on it. I rode back into town and headed for Planet Placid Bicycles. I wanted to get the tubes changed on my Zipp 404’s to 80mm stem tubes so I didn’t have to rely on the valve extenders. The VE on my front wheel was leaking when I inflated the tire; making it impossible to know whether I had the proper inflation. I decided to just get rid of them and have peace of mind.

Once this was done, it was time for some relaxation. I headed to the Massage Tent for my scheduled appointment. I had the knots worked out of my legs and shoulders. The massage felt great and it was long overdue. I can’t remember the last time I had one. Since I was already in the athlete village, I went to race registration after the massage was over.

Later, I had lunch with my father and then took a nap in my room. My father hung out by the lake while I chilled out. He came up a couple of hours later and then we went out for dinner. By this time I received a call from Larry letting me know he finally made it into town. He met me by restaurant where we were having dinner, just as we were getting ready to leave. I was gratefully reunited with my wetsuit. Larry was with his family and we all walked over to the merchandise tent to check out the offerings. It was very easy not to buy something, since the prices were outrageous. We hung out for a little while longer, snapped a picture and then my dad and I went back to our room to watch the Yankee game.

While watching the game, we are both sitting in bed using our laptops. Never in a million years could I have ever predicted that one day I’d be on a trip alone with my father, much less showing him the finer points of using the Microsoft operating system while sitting in a bed in our underwear. It’s like a tragic comedy in that I am being tortured by him asking me dozens of the most basic computer questions.

For some reason, I received a very low race number – 81. I suspect that might be because I signed up for the Janus Charity Challenge. Basically, Janus will match funds that an Ironman athlete can raises and the beneficiary is selected by the athlete. Since my employer’s designated charity is The Sunshine Kids, I decided to raise money for it as well.

The Sunshine Kids is a non-profit organization dedicated to children with cancer. It is sort of like the Make a Wish Foundation. The thought of children with cancer is just too depressing to think about, so perhaps that is why I haven’t made much of an effort to raise money for it. However, with the race being so close, I am going to feel completely foolish if I don’t at least make some effort. It is a good cause and will help bring joy to childrens lives during difficult circumstances. You can help me raise money by clicking here.

I am up in Lake Placid. The drive up was easy enough, although I fielded about a dozen work related calls while driving. Then when I got into my hotel room, I spent another hour on the phone handling some more work calls. It’s torture especially as I am trying to get my head onto Ironman.

After I was finally able to hang up the phone, I hung up the sign that my children made for me to cheer me on. It hangs prominently in the room and you can’t miss it. It will be a constant reminder of my children while I am away. I also had them give me something of theirs I could wear during the race. My daughter gave me her red “People First” wristband and my son gave me a necklace he made in camp.

I managed to get in an easy run around Mirror Lake with several pickups. I thought it was a 3 mile loop, but unless I ran sub-7 minute miles, it’s much less than 3. After, I donned my wetsuit and took a swim across the lake and back. I was a short swim, but it was getting late in the day and I was hungry. So was my father who was waiting for me to go to dinner.

Tomorrow I will register and hopefully get in some more productive taper workouts.

During the last couple of weeks and days to Ironman, I find that I am hyper-sensitive to any sort of bodily trauma. This includes getting bumped too hard on the subway, having my kids jump in my lap or pulling a muscle by taking the stairs to my bedroom too fast. Right now I am positive that I am on the urge of a hamstring pull/tear so I am taking two days off in a row (yesterday and today). I feel like my body still hasn’t recovered from the training, so I am taking tapering to an extreme form – total rest. It’s like putting in a mega weekend of training only in reverse.

One thing I am going to have to do when I leave for Lake Placid is turn my cell phone off. I need to get the worries and concerns of work out of my mind and want to black out any sort of input from the outside world. The problem is that when I turn it on, I can be guaranteed that the infernal contraption will start blithering and blathering that I have email and voice mail. It will be hard to ignore that when I go to call my wife and kids.

Tomorrow I am taking off from work in order to pack for the trip. I will probably do a light workout tomorrow and get a haircut. My daughter is telling me I should shave my chest and legs for the race, but my son wants me to keep the chest hair. He likes the feel of it on my chest and there really is no good reason to shave it since I will be wearing a wetsuit. Perhaps I will just shave my legs as a compromise.

I just have to make it through today in order for me to start forgetting about work. Hopefully it will pass quickly and I could get on with the business of relaxing before the race. I don’t like the thought of hoping for time to pass quickly, as it feels a little like wishing your life away. However, in cases like this, I will give myself a pass because I know better things are coming in the days ahead.

Saturday, I woke up still feeling tired, but good enough to go for a run. I met my friend Chris in the park and the plan was to run 10 miles. Prospect Park was crowded with large fields of cyclist racing around the loop. It was also a beautiful morning, which also drew a large number of runners. We were running against traffic and several times encountered asshole cyclists that felt it they owned the road. We were narrowly missed riders speeding by, including one schmuck who threw his elbow out at us.

After 5.5 miles of running, I decided that I would cut my run short. It wasn’t worth pushing onto 10 miles and further tiring my body out. I’ve been under a lot of stress at work and I didn’t need the added stress of trying to run a scheduled distance.

Chris and I got together later on with our sons to play catch and practice basic baseball skills. My son and I got to the park before him and after a few minutes of waiting I called him to find out where he was. Depending on your point of view it was either fortunate or unfortunate that he was late. When I looked at my phone I noticed I had several voice mails and missed calls from work. It could only mean something bad, which it was, and I wound up having to deal with work related issues while Chris (he had arrived by now) taught my son and his kids how to throw a baseball. I had to deal with work related issues for about an hour before I could finally join in the fun.

After a couple of hours in the park, we returned home and had lunch. My father-in-law was over and I had him drive me to pick up my bike from R&A Cycles. I brought it in for a pre IMLP tune-up. They were courteous and took good care of the bike. This is the second time I’ve been treated well in the shop and it looks like I will depend on them more in the future.

My son has also been bugging my wife and I to buy him a guitar and to send him for lessons. I found a local guitar place – Amp & Guitar Wellness Center which was very helpful and had the perfect guitar for him. I even signed him up for lessons while there. I was so incredibly happy to find a place literally around the corner from me. My daughter and her friend accompanied us to the store and we listened to the salesperson play it for a while.

After we left the store, I took the kids grocery shopping to get supplies for dinner at my home with Larry and Todd. It was the second annual Pre Placid Pasta Shindig. I had to deal with more work related issues while I was trying to prepare our food. Fortunately I cleared them up by the time we were ready to sit down and eat. While we ate, we were treated to a concert by the kids with my daughter on keyboards, her friend singing and my son strumming his guitar. It made for a cacophonous evening.

Around the time that Todd was getting ready to leave; my son got the idea of taking his guitar and case to our front stoop where he could leave the case open and try to collect money by playing for passing strangers. My daughter always being the helpful one, wrote a sign that said “Help Me Pay for Guitar Lessons” which we hung up next to him. My daughter and her friend would on occasion sing or dance while someone came by and played lookout for people heading down our block. Unfortunately, foot traffic down my block is not is not heavy, especially after 7pm on a summer’s weekend evening. However, by the end of the night he made close to 4 bucks.