Posts from — September 2006

It is a beautiful clear full moon on a perfect September evening. I just rode my bike home from a Safe Haven class I had to take to coach my son’s soccer team. It’s a class that’s meant to teach you how to provide a safe, fair and fun environment in which to play sports and one that promotes their physical, psychological and emotional well-being. Too bad there isn’t a class that teaches you how to do that for yourself.

As I hauled my bike into my house I thought about heading back out and going for a ride in Prospect Park. It is such a perfect night and bright enough to ride by the moonlight. I tried giving my friends Larry and Todd a call to see if they would join me, but both were disinclined to do so. Such a perfect night should be shared with friends and I didn’t feel like going on my own. I was a bit deflated when I hung up the phone, but still seriously considered going by myself getting. I told my wife I was going and she responded “what am are crazy?” Perhaps I am because I think it is a perfectly reasonable thing to do. But then I began to over think it, began to lose the desire and I could feel the tiredness from the day starting to overtake me. I rationalized that I have two small children at home and perhaps it was best if I just stayed home. Hopefully I can sleep soundly enough so I can wake up early and refreshed enough to do my ride in the morning.

I wish I had someone that I could share moments like this with. Next time I am just going to go for the ride before I have second thoughts.

This morning I did get up to do a run. However it was bad from the start. My body was for some reason bonking. I wasn’t surprised it happened since I woke up at 2am feeling like I was starving. I should have gotten up to eat, but I forced myself to go back to sleep. I paid for that decision by not having enough energy to do more than a pathetic 3.3 miles. I thought I ate enough at dinner time, but evidently not. I am going to have to start keeping better track of what and how much I eat. That’s all for today… off to bed as soon as the Yankees close out the last two outs against KC.

I guess it is a lousy day when you go to take a crap at work and the toilet seat that you sit on is wet from the piss of the guy before. Usually I am quite adept at checking out the bowl before I sit down, but somehow this one got away from me. I even placed one of those toilet seat liners down before I sat. Unfortunately it didn’t lay down flat on the seat until my butt cheeks pressed against it. By then it was too late and all I could do was get some paper towels, wipe down my leg and move to another stall.

This wasn’t the only piss issue I had to deal with today. I decided to stop by the men’s room for a quick one before my subway ride home. This was a dreadful mistake. Because of the time I took to relieve myself, I had just missed a subway train as it pulled out of the station. The next train took over 20 minutes to arrive, was already packed and I wasn’t able to get my usual seat. Next time I just hold it in until I get home. To add insult to injury when I got off the train, I realized that I left something under my seat and had to dart back on to retrieve it. The doors closed before I could get back off and then the train went express taking me many stops beyond my destination. Ugh!

I’ll probably have to skip my morning workout tomorrow since I am schedule to give a presentation to a large audience (around 100 people). I don’t want to take a chance on being late and don’t want to have to worry about anything beforehand. I am not nervous about it, I just don’t want to stress about getting in a workout and then driving out to Long Island for an early morning meeting. Maybe I can stop at Eisenhower Park on the way home for a swim. I wonder how many people piss in the pool.

Fall is officially here. The kids have started school and the weather is turning cool in the morning. I woke up around 5am feeling chilled from the breeze coming in my window and all I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep. I didn’t see how it was possible that I would get up and do a 24 mile bike ride this morning. Was there ever a day when I would eagerly jump out of bed to do a workout. I know there was a time, but it seems so long ago I can’t remember it.

I let myself flop around my bed until 5:45am. That is when I finally decided that I may as well try to make myself do the workout. I checked my email quickly, grabbed a water bottle, inflated my tires and made it out the door just past 6:10am. I had to wear a long sleeve jersey because I would have been too cold without it.

I didn’t remember where I put the light colored lenses for my Rudy Projects so I wore my regular eyeglasses. It was too dark outside to wear them with the colored lenses. It’s such a pain in the ass to bike ride with them since I look out over the top of the lenses when I am in the aero position. I get this split image with the top blurry and the bottom clear when I lookout onto the road. Or I get the bottom blurry and the top clear when I look down at my cycle computer.

While riding I noticed that someone tied a yellow ribbon around a large tree. The song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” began to play over and over in my mind. It was quite annoying. I wonder which situation most people would find more annoying; having a song trapped in your head or having to clean up the dead rabbit that I saw along the Prospect Park loop. The poor rabbit must have been struck by a car as it lay dead in the road right on the painted line that separates the bike lane from the traffic lane. Its red blood was a stark contrast to the white line as it flowed down it on a slight incline. I think I would rather have to clean up the rabbit. At least once the cleanup is done its over, whereas the song may remain in my mind all day long.

Ugh, I am feeling hot, sweaty and nauseous right now. At least I have a seat on the subway. I got it just before the train was delayed in the station due to a sick passenger. If I didn’t have a seat, I am sure I would have been carried off the train as well. I don’t know why I am feeling sick now, I felt pretty good when I got off my bike. I usually feel better after a workout and I am always glad I forced myself to do them even though beforehand I just want to lie in bed. Maybe I am feeling awful because I feel restricted around my neck now that I am wearing a tie again for work. Summer is over and it is back to the old dress uniform. Maybe if I win the lottery I’ll show up for my last day at work wearing my tri clothes all sweaty from a workout.

I need a haircut. I haven’t had one since before IMLP. I have SOS this coming weekend and I always like to have my hair short before a race. I will have to try to find time this week to make it to my barber. I rode pretty good today so I am feeling confident that I will have a good race.

It’s Labor Day. I wonder why it is called Labor Day if everyone takes off from work. Work out wise, today was a recovery day for me. What I am recovering from I don’t know. I didn’t exactly have any intense workouts this weekend except for the John Daly Swim.

I went to run long on Saturday, since it was Tropical Storm Ernesto was in town and doing a long bike ride in that out of the question. I was looking forward to the run, since I thought that running in a tropical storm would be really cool. I love everything about stormy weather. I love the smell, the feel of the wind and the rain hitting my face. Something about it just makes me feel so alive.

My run started out ok, but as I approached the 7th mile, I suddenly felt something wrong with my bowels and it was all I could do to run the mile home. I don’t know what came over me, but my HR tanked and I thought I would have to duck into the woods to do my business. Fortunately I was able to hold it together and made it home where I spent the next 20 minutes locked in my bathroom.

All that being said, I didn’t do anything over the weekend that required my legs to recover. I got to bed late last night though so I was feeling kind of sluggish this morning. However, for motivation I had my daughter accompany me on her bike while I ran this morning. She is getting very strong on the hills and the pace she sets keeps my running honest. I can’t dog the workout when I am with her since I have to try to keep up with her.

On our second trip up the hill in Prospect Park, my daughter got quiet as she struggled to pedal up it at a speed where I can still run. I didn’t tell her to try to move faster, she just did it on her own. I didn’t say anything to her so as not to break her concentration. As we approached the summit though we looked over at each other and smile broke out on our faces. We both knew that she had climbed the hill better than she has had before and the look of satisfaction on her face was priceless. I told her if she keeps this up she will be so much stronger than her friends when the time comes that she goes bike riding with them.

When we returned home I felt true disappointment that we still weren’t out running. I suddenly felt like I had just warmed up and wanted to be outside much longer. Maybe she is ready to do a 20 miler with me. The marathon is coming up.

Today I swam the John Daly Ocean Mile. I suspected that it might have been cancelled due to tropical store Ernesto the day before, but the day dawned clear and calm. That was except for the surf in the ocean which was breaking on the beach with gusto. This necessitated a switch from the ocean side of Long Beach to the bay side. This happened the last time I did this race and I was actually glad. I liked having the shore on my right as we swam east. The structures on land were very close and it gave you a good sense of your forward progress. Often I find in open ocean water swimming, you lose all sense of motion and it feels as though you are going nowhere.

At the race sign up I ran into my friends Capri and Tom from the Cibbows gang. It was nice to see some friendly faces among the crowd. Even if they hadn’t been there, it is always easy to make some new friends while hanging out before the start of the race. One such friend was athlete named Erica who drove in all the way from Montauk to swim 1 mile. She won first in her age group, so I guess the trip was worthwhile.

A bunch of us were talking before the swim start, saying how we couldn’t wait to get in the water so we could pee. We jumped in off a small dock to enter the water and it was quite a shock. It was a cool 65 degrees and the cold temperature made it impossible to let go. It took intense concentration to allow my body to relax so I could go.

I felt myself getting cold while I waited for the gun to go off. I was hoping that I would warm up once I started moving. I was swimming pretty hard and I was happy with my stroke and progress, but I never really warmed up. I drafted other swimmers when I could, but for the most part I swam alone. After a while it felt as though the fingers of my hands were starting to splay. I tried to swim harder to generate more heat, but it wasn’t helping. There was nothing I could do except keep my pace and try to get it over as quickly as possible.

As quickly as possible translated into a 45:15 finish. This is very slow for me for a mile, but everyone agreed the distance was well over that. When I exited the water I was very surprised to see the time. It didn’t feel like I was swimming that long, but I was glad it was over. We were all bussed back to the beach and awaited the awards ceremony. The sun was shined brightly by now and it warmed me up. I hung out for the awards and then grabbed a bite to eat.

After it was all over, I went to my brother-in-laws house a bit down the beach. My family was meeting me there. I was feeling really good and spent the rest of the day playing with my kids in the sand and teaching my daughter how to boogie board. It was a great day sun, sand and surf.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think the guy in this picture is an Ironman. Maybe at some point in the past, but definitely not now. This being the case, I question whether it is proper for him to being wearing a Timex Ironman watch. Somehow, I don’t think Timex had this person in mind when it came to a target audience.

Maybe I am just being mean. After all, he could be aspiring to lose weight and get in shape to do an IM. Perhaps the watch gives him motivation. Who am I to judge?

Speaking of Ironman and Ironman type events, I am giving serious consideration to doing the JFK 50 Miler. My coach thinks it is ill-advised. I think it is just the thing I need to get my training act back into gear. Something about traversing 20 miles of rugged Appalachian trail, followed by 30 miles of a tow path and asphalt is appealing to me. It is supposed to take the same amount of time an effort as an IM, so I know I am cut out for it. I’ll just have to see how it goes as September rolls on.

Now that it is September, it means that the Red Hook municipal pool will be closing down. It will be back to my twice/thrice weekly commute by bike to Asphalt Green. I can honestly say I am not looking forward to it. Maybe I will just stop swimming.. Maybe I’ll just do ocean swims until it becomes too cold to do so.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain frogs, fire and brimstone; at least according to my friend Chris, who is trying to bag a scheduled run for tomorrow. I intend to go no matter what. A 20 mile run is just no longer challenging, so I am hoping a little wind and rain will make it more of an effort. The great thing about running in the rain is that it is so easy to stay hydrated. Osmosis is a great trick once you learn how to master it.