I had a weird dream last night. It was political in nature and featured my cousin K and President Jimmy Carter. Somehow she got a giant wood box, in the shape of a coffin that had things in it from the Jimmy Carter presidency.

In it was a giant cooked turkey with all the trimmings. It was obviously cooked a long time ago and sealed in the coffin. In the place where the turkey head should be was a picture of Carter’s face. I started to make a joke that it was the food from what should have been for a celebration party for the successful mission of releasing the American hostages in Iran back in 1979-1980. They placed everything in the “coffin” after the mission failed and put it in storage. How she acquired it was beyond me.

I wanted to take a picture of it as a supplement to something I was going to write about it on my blog. However, K wouldn’t let me take the picture, as she was afraid it was too inappropriate. I got furiously angry as I tried to snap some pictures and she kept swatting my hands so I couldn’t get the shot. We basically stopped talking after that, but later on I started to wonder if perhaps she were right. I was wondering if blogging about political stuff would cause nasty repercussions.

I don’t really know what the significance of the dream is, but I do know where some of the components for it came from. I was IM’ing a colleague over the Internet and the discussion went from current events to some history of the United States. The Iranian Hostage situation was one of the topics. I was probably thinking about my cousin earlier that day and the two and two went together.

I guess the dream just signifies my fear of blogging about some issues I would like to discuss. Unfortunately, it didn’t resolve the question for me.

I am at my brother’s house for his annual 4th of July family get together. It is three weeks before Lake Placid Ironman. Last year while I was here, I tripped on the steps walking down from the second floor of his house. The last step is black granite and blends in with the granite floor. I didn’t see the step, turned my ankle and went sprawling along the floor. I spent the next 3 weeks before Lake Placid icing it and going for acupuncture. I vowed to myself, not to make the same mistake this year.

To top off my training for Lake Placid before my slow taper begins, I put in several strong workouts starting on Friday. On Friday, I headed to one of my laps and finished with 5100 meters in 1:36:00. At one point during the swim, the lane line started getting slack and the lane started to get very narrow. For a few moments I thought I was going crazy and no longer able to swim straight.

We were the fastest in the lane and needed to pass slower swimmers on many occasions. During one of these moments, Todd was coming towards me while I was attempting a pass of a laggard doing the backstroke. We had a mid-lane collision which caused all of us to stop. The slower swimming had this look of “Did I cause this pile up?”

Later, we went to Central Park and ran 6 miles. I did mile sprints with a slow recovery, while ST did a steady 6M.

On Saturday I rode a fast paced 61 miles in Prospect Park. My goal was to maintain 21-24 MPH for 40-50 miles. I was successful in this goal. Several times during the ride a pace line formed on me. I liked when this happened, because it offered encouragement to ride faster. At one point during the ride, I had a bug splatter on the lens of my glasses.

Sunday was a 21 mile run, which each loop of Prospect Park being negative splits. It wasn’t easy, but I managed that goal. I was glad it was over. My elapsed time was 2:45. This included all bathroom and water breaks.

Monday was a more interesting workout day. I went to the boardwalk in Coney Island to run 4 miles, before my swim group – www.cibbows.org, met on the beach. It was a gloriously sunny day, with a warm soft breeze. I discovered that the boardwalk has mile markers along the straight planks closer to the street. I started at approximately the .5 mile mark and ran to Sea Gate. The return to the start should have yielded 4 miles, but I was curious to see how far off I was from the .5 mile mark. The entire boardwalk is 2.5 miles long. I ran past my starting point looking for the mark, but wound up at the beginning of the boardwalk without ever finding it. The pleasant run, more than compensated for the fruitless search and I got to run 5 miles total.

After waiting around after my run, my swim friends started to show up. Fortunately, one of them had an extra swim cap and goggles, since I forgot mine, along with my money, wallet, towel, change of clothes, etc. If I drowned, I would have been completely unidentifiable.

The swim going towards the pier was easy and quick. However, the return presented a fair amount of chop and wind. Truth by told, it was a pain in the ass. I am also not acclimated to cold water and my fingers were completely numb and tingling by the time I got out of the water, despite wearing a wetsuit.

When I returned home, I played with my children in my backyard, where we just installed a partially inflatable pool. It has a 15 foot diameter and is 3 feet deep. The kids loved it. We ran around the perimeter all day long to make a nice whirlpool/tornado effect.

Overall it was a great weekend.

Lately my son has been obsessed with thoughts of me dying. I think these thoughts were a slow buildup from the time that his pet lizard died. He keeps asking me why we have to die, when am I going to die and am I going to die. I just keep trying to reassure him that I am not about to die.

This morning, the conversation around the breakfast table was once again, when I would die. I said that it wouldn’t be for a very long time, possibly not until I was at least 100 years old. My daughter quickly calculated this to be in only 60 more years. For my son, this was not nearly long enough into the future for him. I tend to agree. I told him that I simply refuse to die. I am also hoping this will not be the case during the run am the upcoming Ironman Lake Placid.

Speaking of death, it strikes me that there are forms of death other than physical. It wasn’t that long ago, that I was suffering a form of brain death while I was preparing for Ironman Arizona. I recently came across an email I wrote to my cousin regarding my feelings at my previous job. I was a bit surprised when I read it. Here it is:

—————

From: Beast
Sent: 3/9/2005 3:28 PM
To: K

I think I will have a good race. Perhaps not a Kona qualifying race, but nevertheless a good one. This is not pessimistic, just realistic. But you never know. I will continue Searching… for the Kona spot.

Yes it is miserable here. Worse than working in a coal mine in the early part of the century before they invented dust masks. Instead of coal particles giving me black lung, I am absorbing negative energy that is turning my soul black. Soon it will be coated with such a morass of foulness that surely it will sink down to hell due to the weight.

The worst thing about this stressful and foul work environment, is that it saps my strength to think clearly. I know I need to improve the situation, but I am left with not enough energy to make any moves, much less think of any moves to a better situation.

I guess that’s why people go postal – like those chimpanzees.

I am so glad I am out of that company. I feel as though I am reborn – so far from death. I am in the best shape of my life and getting ready to qualify for Kona. I am confident and feel so alive. Hopefully my son will catch some of the energy coming from me, and forget about thoughts of death.

The other day a friend of mine asked me over AOL Instant Messenger if he could ask me a personal question, man to man. I of course said yes and was quite curious to know what he wanted to ask. His question pertained to a dilemma that millions of married men throughout the world must have; namely, what do you do when your wife won’t give you sex anymore.

I was able to answer this question without missing a beat. Having been with the same woman (my wife) for over 20 years inevitably brings you to such eventuality. I responded to him that he has three choices; 1 – Cheat, 2 – Jerk off or 3 – Do long course triathlon like me.

Personally, I feel that choice 3 is the best, and in reality, the only option. The first choice is just plain wrong is fraught with a high likelihood of becoming very messy. Choice 2 is simply messy. Yes, choice 3 is the best option. Here are the advantages:

1 – You are too tired for sex so you don’t really care if you get any.
2 – The lack of sex causes you to focus and train harder, thereby giving you some great performances out in the field.
3 – The backup causes, shall we say your package to appear large in those tight triathlon shorts.

I am not sure if my response helped my friend with his man problem. I invite others to respond should they contain knowledge of a better solution.

(Sent via email to Coach@slb-coaching.com)

Neil –

I had several strong workouts over the past 12 hours. Last night I did the brick like you told me to, even though you cancelled it for everyone else. I don’t know what it was, but I was unusually fast on the bike, with a relatively low HR. My loop splits were almost all sub 10 minutes and it felt very easy. See Table A.

I thought about bailing out on the run, since it was getting late (after 7:20pm), but I felt really good and went for it. My legs didn’t feel fast, but I felt good. I ran comfortably. I was probably a bit slower than usual, because I met a friend who runs slowly, so I just ran with him. See Table B.

This morning, I started out with the 4750 swim. I completed it without any problems and I felt very good in the water. I was pleasantly surprised, because I got to bed after 9:30pm last night and was in the water at 5:41am. I miss-counted one of my 500’s so I made up a 50 at the end. See Table C.

When I started my run to Central Park for the 4x1miles, my legs felt very slow. This has been sort of a pervasive feeling in my legs lately. The run turned out ok, but I definitely didn’t feel fast. It was a bit of a struggle to keep my pace high. I ran slightly over distance. My first to mile sprints were from EG to 72nd Street Transverse. I waited until my HR dropped to 60% before I headed back for the second. The next two were done on the reservoir, with an easy pace run from the 1 mile mark to the start between the miles. See Table D.

Later,

Charles

Today the pool at Asphalt Green was configured for 50 meter swimming. I love swimming long course and I had the added pleasure of having the lane to myself for almost my entire 4700 meters. I did a steady race pace swim for the entire set, counting off my distance at the end of each 100 meter.

My shoulders are a bit fatigued now as I recall my swim while riding the M31 bus to my office on 57th and Madison. I managed to steal some wireless internet access while at a bus stop and was even able to check my mail.

After my swim I ran four miles. I went to Central Park and ran to the 72nd street transverse. I ran a few 30 second efforts at a fast effort (it was supposed to be sub 7 minute mile pace), but my legs were feeling as thick as the humid air.

I sent an email to my coach yesterday stating that I suddenly feel very unprepared for Lake Placid. I don’t think my run is where I want it to be and I feel as though I’ve been slacking on my swimming. Perhaps this is why he gave me 3 swim sessions this week with a distance of 4750 yards. I went 4700 meters today as penance for slacking off on the swim the previous few weeks.

My coach’s reply to my fears of inadequacy for Lake Placid were as follows:

I suspect that your preparation is better than it has been at any time in the past two years. Your nervousness is due to not feeling run down, exhausted (any longer) and over your head.

You’ll be fine. We’ll get one (maybe two) long runs in, and start you resting and recovering from all your training.

I hope he is right. My last couple of runs in race day situations was horrid; at least as far as I am concerned. I am a better runner than I have been racing; I am just waiting for my “A” game to show up on race day.

I am exhausted. In the past two days, I cycled 100 miles, ran 5 miles and swam 2 miles all in Harriman State Park with my friend, rival and all around good guy Super Todd. I installed 3 air conditioners (2 with the help of Todd), mowed my lawn and removed weeds from my backyard patio. I had several water balloon fights with my son, both of which I lost and ate a ton of PB&J.

The cycle and run happened on Friday as part of a mega workout. It was supposed to be a 120 mile bike/20 mile run day. However, taking the terrain of Harriman into consideration, I decided that a 100 mile ride would be much more manageable and I would see how much I could do on the run.

The day started cool enough, but the heat progressed throughout the day. I don’t have much to say about the loops other than after 5 of them I was becoming severely dehydrated and my breathing was a bit labored and shallow. The humidity in the air was causing moisture to build in my lungs and it hurt when I breathed deeply.

Until the 5th loop, I finished well ahead of Todd on each circumference, but on the 6-7th loops, I had just about run out of gas. The heat is definitely a killer for me and I need to learn to adapt. On the several occasions we saw deer along the course, I figured if I rode into one, that at least I would get to rest. Todd finished the last two laps ahead of me.

At the end of the 6th loop, we ran into fellow Lake Placid Ironman aspirant Walter. He just finished riding 7 loops and looked about as exhausted as I’ve ever seen another human. He was just about to head out for a run, with the intention of going 10 miles.

At the end of the 7th loop, we ran into Walter coming in from his first of 5 miles. The first 5 were also his last, as he had enough. Walter now looked terrible and started to throw up. Todd and I hung around for a few minutes to make sure he was ok. After assuring us that he was, Todd and I headed out for our run.

I started to get several stitches in my chest, but I managed to persevere. I knew right away that I was only going 5 miles. It was just too hot and I was too thirsty to run for much longer.

When I returned to the car after the run, I felt horrible. I was dehydrated and afraid of being Hyponatremic. I drink some water and electrolytes and it was very difficult to keep down. I felt really sick for a while, but after 30 minutes or so I started to recover. I had to let Todd start driving us home though, as I was not yet up to the task. I think Todd was worried that I was going to die. Truth be told, I considered telling him to take me to a hospital. Workout summary: 100 mile bike – 6 hours, 5 mile run – 48 minutes, over 5000 calories burned.

That evening, I spoke to my coach about how I felt after the workout. He said I should have drank more water and spaced out my electrolyte consumption more evenly and regular intervals. I’ll have to try it, as what I am currently doing doesn’t seem to work.

I also installed the first of the 2 air conditioners, ate dinner and got soaked by my son with water balloons in the backyard.

This morning, Saturday, Todd and I headed back up to Harriman to do an outlaw swim in Lake Tiorati. We both had the feeling that we were not allowed to swim out into the middle of the lake, but I reasoned we should do it anyway without asking. Besides, we got to the lake so early, that there was no one around to stop us.

We headed out for a 2 mile swim, which took us out around two islands in the middle of the lake. The water was warm, calm, clear and pleasant. The sun was shining first to our left and then to our right for the return home. My favorite part of the swim was when we moved within the shadows of the islands. The water became darker until we swam past the islands and the sun was able to hit us again. When we swam directly into the sun, you could see the sun’s rays shining through the water. It was very peaceful and dreamlike. I started thinking about driving up on weekday mornings to do this swim, before heading to work.

We finished the swim in just under 1 hour. Todd finished first and told me that a Park Ranger had come over to him and said that we weren’t allowed to swim like we did. He apologized profusely, which is just as well, since if it was me who finished first, I don’t know if I would have been so apologetic. It seems such a shame not to be able to swim in such a lovely body of water.

We then went to my house where Todd helped me install two air conditioners, destroy a bees nest and have some more water balloon fights with my son. I mowed my grass and de-weeded the backyard on my own. Now it is time for a nap.

This is the closest I will ever get to a winners trophy!

Natasha and Tony with Same and Noreen

Me with Natasha Badmann holding her winners trophy.

Probably the worst I’ve ever looked at a finish.

Race Date: June 12, 2005

Race day dawned with clear skies, high humidity and warm temperatures. The same as it had been for the past couple of days. Talk the day before the race was that wetsuits might not be allowed, because the water was very warm. I wondered if that would be the case.

I woke up around 4am and ate a PB&J on white bread. It was delicious and went down easy. I dressed in my Hammer Nutrition clothing and adorned it with a yellow ribbon my daughter gave to me. I also found a small bracelet in one of my bags that belonged to my daughter, which I wore on my right wrist. I finished putting my gear together and headed to the race site with another athlete from my Home Stay – Andy.

For this race, all of your gear was stored in a single location. The bike rack area was tight, but I managed get enough space and lay out my gear in the order I would need it. I was determined to have fast transition times.

I was in the 8th wave of the day. This consisted of men in the 40-44 Age Group whose last names started with the letters O-Z. This meant I had over an hour wait from the time that the professionals started the race.

The officials decided that wetsuits would be allowed, so I waited as long as possible to put on my wetsuit. I was sweating just standing around and didn’t want to make myself warmer than necessary. Finally, my wave was called to the starting line and I was able to get in the water to cool off and take a few strokes. Truth be told though, the first thing I really did was take a nice long piss – along with many other athlete I am sure. This was not a location where I wanted to put my face in the water.

I lined up in the front and sprinted at the sound of the horn. I only got kicked one time, in the mouth, and I felt a slight fat lip brewing. I hoped that the cool water would keep it from swelling.

Several times during the swim, I could smell diesel exhaust from nearby boats. The smell was a bit nauseating, but not too over bearing. I was having a good swim and no problems spotting the line of buoys. I made the turnaround point without a problem and was pleased to see only swim caps from the athletes who started the wave ahead of me. I picked up my pace and started to swim hard for the finish.

The swim exit was up a boat launch that was marked with two large red buoys. I found this to be the most difficult part of the swim. For the life of me I couldn’t line myself up between the two sides of the launch and I had to keep correcting my position. I felt like the Staten Island ferry that plowed into the dock of the marine terminal.

When I exited the water my HR was pounding at 96 percent of my max. This was way too high, so I tried to calm down and keep my wits about me. I found my transition spot without a problem. I had marked it with a medal my son won in a recent pee wee race.

I ran out of transition, hopped on my bike and headed out for the 56 mile ride ahead. I pulled on my cycling gloves as I settled into a rhythm and spit up some river water. My HR was still high, around 88 percent, but I was feeling very good. I decided to hold it at this level to see what happened.

Once I got going, I immediately started passing many riders. I passed some guy on a tan colored Felt, who took exception to my maneuver and soon re-passed me. We played this game of cat and mouse for a mile or so. Each time I passed him or he passed me, I made it more and more difficult for him. Eventually, I grew tired of the game, so I dropped the hammer and left him for good.

The next 50 miles consisted of gusting winds, high heat and hundreds of riders passed. For the entire ride, only two other riders passed me. I couldn’t have counted how many times I needed to warn a rider up ahead that I was about to pass on the left. Most riders that I passed offered encouragement and it made me feel real good.

I slipped out of my shoes on the last quarter mile of the bike and started to run through T2 as soon as my feet hit the ground. I made a good, clean change and made it out of T2 in just over 2 minutes. My HR was still high and my legs felt good. This was the high point of the run.

The next 13 miles could only be described as pure hell. It was brutally hot, humid and sunny. When the wind wasn’t blowing, I could feel my face starting to fry. You had no way to escape the heat. The black asphalt radiated it right up through your body. I looked forward to every water station that I could reach.

Despite the conditions, I was managing to hold it together. I didn’t really start suffering until I reach the turnaround point at the 6.5 mile mark. This is where I took my first walking break. I followed it up a short time later to take a piss on the side of the road. I could have held it in, but the urge to go gave me a nice excuse to take a time out.

I started thinking to myself how it would be possible for me to complete an Ironman race. What I was doing at the moment was so physically difficult and I was in such discomfit that I could not imagine completing a full Ironman. The miles were dragging on and the heat, sun and humidity were relentless.

As I started to reach mile 11, my mind was telling me to take a walking break. I desperately did not want to walk, but once I hit the water station my body stopped running and made me walk through it. I goaded myself by asking where my mental toughness was that I bragged about just a few days ago. After dumping a bunch of ice in my shirt I started to run again.

The death mile – mile 12. I only had 1 mile left, but I was reduced to walking. I thought for sure it would take me at least 20+ minutes to make it the remaining 1.1 miles if I could do it at all. I walked about 100 yards passed the 12 mile aid station and managed to get running again. When I started to hear the music at the finish line I somehow picked up my pace.

I finished the race strong, but completely wiped out. I walked over to the medical tent just in case I started a collapse. They let me lie down and gave me an ice pack to put behind my neck. After a few minutes I felt better and left.

Post Race –

I drank my recovery drink, grabbed some food and put my gear in the car. I then hung around for over 4 hours to find out if I won a spot to the Florida Ironman. I had to stay to the end to find out I missed it by 1 spot. I thought back to the sprint to the finish and I wondered if I only kicked and caught that one runner ahead of me, would I have gotten the spot.

I didn’t dwell on this misfortune as I had better things awaiting me. My Home Stay was also where Natasha Badmann, the winner of the female race, was staying. She was going to be at my Home Stay for a post race celebration. She is an amazingly nice person and I felt incredibly lucky to have been invited. I am not sure what good dead I done in my past to deserve such a treat. The evening consisted of great company, great food and beautiful surroundings. Natasha and her partner/coach answered any question and we spent the night discussing, racing, training, and life in general. I didn’t leave until close to 9pm with Jason, the person responsible for my good fortune.

Here are my race stats:

Data Value Unit
Duration 5:06:00
Sampling Rate 5 s

Energy Expenditure 4638 kcal
Number of Heart Beats 48667 beats
Recovery -81 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 82 bpm
Average Heart Rate 159 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 183 bpm
Standard Deviation 9.4 bpm

Minimum Speed 0.5 mph
Average Speed 21.6 mph
Maximum Speed 28.5 mph
Distance 54.9 miles
Odometer 3162 miles

Minimum Altitude -1274 ft
Average Altitude -329 ft
Maximum Altitude -209 ft
Ascent 2360 ft

My official results.

I’ve discovered a new energy drink – Red Bull. It has a lot of pep and perks me right up. Natasha Badman drinks it and even suggests that you add it to your water bottle. It also has Taurine. I have no idea what it does, but Natasha’s partner and trainer felt that it was very good for you. She came in first place for the Eagleman Half Ironman, so it must do something for you. I just downed a can after getting my oil and anti-freeze changed at the local Jiffy Lube.

While my cars inner fluids were being changed at the Jiffy Lube, one of the Jiffy employees proceeded to clean my windshield. I was talking to someone on my cell phone at the time and mentioned to this person that the guy cleaning my window left a huge chunk of bird shit on it. I asked if she thought I should tell him to come back and clean it and her response was an emphatic yes.

I pointed out the bird crap to one of the other guys servicing my car and he motioned for the window cleaner to come back and to clean of the bird shit. The other attendants thought this was hilariously funny, so did I, and all the other attendants started to bust his chops while he went to go look for a razor blade to scrap off the shit. I don’t think he was very happy to have it pointed out to him that he couldn’t even get some bird crap off of a window.

The bird shit scrapper was a very heavy set guy, who apparently got the dirty jobs or non-auto servicing jobs around the shop. He appeared to be the guy who also got the brunt of everyone’s jokes. The whole scene was very suburban and stereotypical of the modern day, blue collar, high school educated, 18-21 year old worker. Sort of right from the movie “Clerks”