Le Tour

http://www.marcstdf.blogspot.com/

I haven't read any of this blog in a while. Good to go back to it as we approach the tour. Stage 18 this year is a TT around Lake Annecy. One of the greatest places on Earth if you ask me.

I was just on the phone with Doug and I talked to Chad this morning. Reminded me of the trip.

Insanely good times!

In case you are wondering, I'm doing a lot of running these days. Riding a few days / week but I need to really start focusing on that. I haven't swum in I can't tell you how long. Chad recommended a product called "Riptide" for distance swimming in a pool. Might have to get one of those.

Katie's out of town on a whitewater rafting trip with her Dad. It's been weird not talking to her for almost a week. My Mom's in town helping with Paige and Ken. She leaves tomorrow and I pick Katie up in Flag either tomorrow night or Sunday.

Better, and worse

I don't mind telling you that I was worried on Friday afternoon. My foot was really swollen and after the doctor poked, prodded, stuck, cut, and drained it; it really hurt that night when the anesthetic wore off.

They changed the antibiotic while waiting for the results to come back. As I said that seemed to solve the problem and things were looking up.

I went in yesterday for what I thought was a quick follow up but the doctor wasn't happy with it and I have now developed a really bad athlete's foot fungus.

She has me doing some other procedures to it and last night it felt just like it felt a week ago Monday. I hope it isn't starting again.

MRSA

Long weekend. Finally got my test results. Definitely MRSA but it isn't resistant to the Bacterium, the latest antibiotic I've tried.

I feel a thousand times better than I felt Friday. I get to wash the foot and then I have to place the corner of a swab in the cut on my foot to keep the wound open while it drains. Yuck.


Anyway, we'll see how long it takes to heal now.

Take the Vicodin early, take the Vicodin often

For the past 5 weeks or so I've been fighting a real bad cold. Seems like I've been getting sick this time of year for the past few years.

Anyway, I finally went to the doctor and after a Z-pack and some steroids I seemed to be getting better.

Then Monday the 2nd I woke up with a sore foot. The foot got worse Tuesday and Wednesday it really hurt so I went to see the Podiatrist. Turns out I had a bad infection. The sliced open my toes to clean it out and wrapped it up.

I've never taken Vicodin before. Wednesday as the anesthetic wore off during the night the pain woke me up so I took one. Not bad. Better than a few Advil. Last night same thing but I ended up taking two.

Today I went in for a follow up visit. The infection has gotten worse, not better so the doc switched my antibiotic. She re-opened the foot and cleaned it out again. Katie's worried that it is MRSA. I'm hoping for the best.

Update

Wow. OK. Seriously I actually used to write in this didn't I.

Let's give you some quick updates and then maybe I'll stick with this.

Escape from Alcatraz June 2007

Tons of FUN!!! Really. Swim was tough! Did a great deal of it on my back. It was cold. Had a blast. Ended up I think with a 3:20 or something like that.

Ironman April 2008

I really screwed up my shins in the fall / winter of 2007. I ended up not running at all and doing very little in terms of riding and swimming. I ended up getting out of the water within moments of my 2007 time. The wind was just as tough as last year but in the right direction this time, at your back while going downhill. Ended up getting off the bike within a couple minutes of my 2007 time.

The run was another story. I got about 1/2 mile when I realized I wasn't going to be able to run and ended walking about 25 of the 26.2 miles. Finished in just under 15 hours. Yuck.

Escape from Alcatraz June 2008

Maybe if I had trained a little I would have enjoyed this more. Ended up jumping in the water late. It was a beautiful day but the water was really choppy. I ended up getting repositioned in the water and just swam the mile from closer to shore. The bike and run stunk and I ended up with a 3:35 I think.

Ironman November 2008

Because April is really tough here, unpredictable winds, heat, etc. they moved the race to November. In 2008 there were two IMAZ races. From now on there will only be IMAZ November.

What can I say? I worked hard, remained mainly injury free and Mother Nature stayed away. With nearly perfect conditions I knocked 5 minutes off the swim, an hour off the bike, and ran just a touch slower to finish with a 12:21. That was a good time.

2009

I am actually signed up for a little Olympic distance in Rocky Point this sprint. I didn't get drawn for Alcatraz but I am registered for IMAZ in November. I recovered from the race in November 2008 pretty well but I really twisted the heck out of my ankle the weekend after the race and 3 months later it isn't completely healed.

I'm looking to start some moderate training again so I hope to keep posting.

thanks for reading.

Marc

Very sore

My legs were as sore yesterday as they have been since April 20th.  There's no damage unlike back then but man, my thighs are beat!

 

Going up North this weekend.  Friends are coming up so I can't bring the bike.  I'd like to get an hour and half run in on Sunday.

5.9 miles and counting

I finally got tired of sitting on my ass and got out there this morning.

 

Little one hour run.  Felt good but my HR was all over the place.

 

Gotta commit to something soon.  Possibilities for 2008 include:

 

1.  PF Changs Rock and Roll Marathon (January)

2.  Death Valley Marathon (February)

3.  IMAZ (April)

4.  IMWI (September)

 

More later...

Can't believe I never finished this blog...

I have a family reunion coming up and a couple people asked me how it went. I completely forgot about this. Well it's only been a little over 60 days.

Some more pics from that night!

Sitting on the dock

Lake openned at 7 yesterday but not until 8 today. Waiting.
Freezing...

Funny morning

This morning they opened Tempe Town Lake for swimming at 7:00 am.  I came into the office at 5:00 to get some work done before heading over.

 

I made coffee and waffles when I got in.  Then I walked over to my desk and took a big sip of my coffee and discovered that I had poured syrup in my coffee cup.  Yes, I also poured coffee all over my waffles.

 

Funny part is I remember thinking to myself as I poured the "syrup" over my waffles, "Boy, the butter sure is melting fast this morning!"

 

It's that kind of focus that's going to make me successful Sunday. :)

 

Swim was fun.  Short but actually kind of tiring.  I really don't get going for 600 yards or so.  I'll do it again tomorrow.

 

I found out my Garmin isn't water proof.  We'll see if it works after it dries. :(

I'm a trainwreck!

In all the advice I've gotten about this thing over the past 6 months, nobody warned me that I was going to be this nevervous / excited with a week left to go.

They don't list Ironman in the top stressful things that can happen to you but in the last three months my dad has died and I've moved. I haven't changed jobs or gotten divorced but it feels like a divorce with all the crap I've been dealing with regarding my Dad's ex-wife.

Slow. But not THAT slow!

This weekend I did a 2.4 mile swim in Lake Pleasant with a couple hundred other people and Ironman hopefuls.  Well, it was billed as a 2.4 mile swim but it only measured 2.26 miles.  I wish I’d had my GPS on me because in the last half mile I ended up swimming from one side of the lane to the other.  Not on purpose mind you but I think it added another .14 miles to the trip.

 

The water was cold.  But it really didn’t bother me at all.  I was more scared and excited than anything else.  I got there way too early!  I was walking around talking to people and I realized that I might be the most out-of-shape person there.  Jeez everybody looked fit! 

 

Anyway, I just sat down in my car and read a book for an hour or so until it was time to go.  We boarded shuttles, wetsuit in hand and went down to the boat launch.  There I put on my body glide and my wetsuit (kudos to me for putting on correctly this time) and walked into the water.  Everywhere people were complaining about the cold but it really didn’t bother me a bit.  My feet went numb pretty quick.  It’s hard to describe the feeling if you’ve never worn a wetsuit in the water.  You can feel the pressure of the water against you but you don’t really feel the water. 

 

Right away I had the same problem as last week; I couldn’t breathe in the water.  My chest tightened up instantly.  I guess that is to be expected since this was the second time in my life really that I’ve been in this kind of situation.  I dog paddled out to the start line and did what I’ve been dreading since the first time I read about it.

 

When you have a deep water start, which is when everyone in the race gets in the water ahead of time, you sit there and tread water until the race starts.  This can be up to 15 minutes depending on how early you get in.  I don’t know about you, but treading water is very tiring for me.  So, as I said, I’ve been dreading it.

 

Turns out I’ve been dreading it for no reason at all!  Piece of cake.  I can’t take credit for it though.  My Bat/Wolverine Suit really is buoyant!  All I need to do is move my hands or legs a little and I just sit there and float.  I did a few strokes in the water and all of a sudden I seemed to relax.  7 minutes later the gun went off.

 

I seeded myself at the very back.  This seemed like a good idea but it turns out that maybe it wasn’t.  Some of the people in front of me were much slower than even I was and it turns out that it’s pretty hard to swim around people.  I kept telling myself to go out easy but I think I was going too hard because I pretty much was exhausted after 3 minutes.  The next 15 – 30 minutes I spent switching between freestyle, breast stroke, sweet spot, and even back floating. 

 

The course pretty much a square with quarter to 1/3 mile sides to it.  Until I reached the first turn I thought maybe that I was going to die out there.  After that I figured that I’d get through the first lap and call it a day and then figure out what to do about the Ironman swim.  As I approached the last leg of the first lap though a funny thing happened, I really think I started to find a groove.  I found myself worrying that I was about to get lapped.  I figured that the good swimmers would do this thing in 50 minutes and it was going to take me 1:45 – 2:00 so I realized that I stood a good chance of getting run over in the water.  I just focused on technique and not speed or cadence.  I realized as I went around the start buoy that I was starting to feel good!

 

That feeling lasted most of the second lap.  I went to my back a couple of times to recharge and I was really doing a good job of sighting.  It’s hard to know where you are going in the water so you have to keep sticking your head up.  I really didn’t have a problem with it.  I made the final turn for home and I was filled with a confidence that I’m not sure I’ve ever felt in water before.

 

That’s when the wheels came off the bus.

 

I sighted a little rock in front of the cove where the finish line was located, put my head down and just stroked.  After a couple minutes I looked up and there was no rock, no cove, no buoy, no nothing.  What the hell?  I had just veered like 45 degrees off course.  I looked back and saw that the people behind me were also swimming in the wrong direction.  I changed direction and swam again.  Must have been a few minutes later I hear this loud splashing by me.  I look up and it’s one of the support people in a kayak warning me that I was WAY off course.  Like 180 degrees off course.  I looked back, and again, the people behind me were also veering in the wrong direction.

 

Now I decided to just keep sighting as I swam.  I think I figured out why I was so off course.  When I went through this particular stretch of water on the first lap the water was very calm.  Now I could see the waves and I could feel the water pushing me around.  I guess as the boat traffic increased during the morning it moved the water.  The problem here is that with all the picking my head out of the water and worrying about speed and stuff my technique really went out the window.  My coach Bill was careful to warn us that on the last third of the swim make sure you don’t lose focus.  I lost focus.  By the time I got it back I was kind of tired.  I swam to the finish and stepped back onto the boat launch ramp.  I talked to some people on the ramp as I made my way up and when I finally reached the top I saw the clock.  It clicked to 1:19.  “That can’t be right.”  I thought.  I must have read it wrong.  It must say 2:19.  I checked.  It said 1:19.  My official finishing time at the bottom of the ramp was 1:18:11.

 

So, that’s a really slow Ironman time.  I know that.  But it’s not the 1:45 I thought it was going to be and it’s not the 2:00 I was afraid it was going to be.  That put me 167 out of 236 finishers and another 27 people didn’t finish.

 

I’m very happy right now.

 

 

What a moron!

In general, I'd say that I think that I'm smarter than I really am.

 

Conversely, people in general seem to think that I'm not as smart as I really am.

 

Lately it seems, people in general know me better than I know myself.

 

This morning I decided to drive to work and then run on the canal by the office.  I got all decked out in my running shoes, shorts, and shirt.  I put my heartrate strap on my chest and even put my phone on the holder on my arm.  All I needed to do was put my headphones in and I could be off.

 

I had a big glass of orange juice and I couldn't hold it, my keys, and my work clothes all at the same time so I put the orange juice on top of Katie's Nissan Armada, her 7 foot tall newly washed and waxed Nissan Armada.  I turned my back and as I went to open my car door I could see in the reflection of my window the orange juice sliding down the roof towards me.

 

So I ended up with a back that was soaked in juice.  Nice.

 

Took me a while to get cleaned up and changed.  Run was fun though.

Can you identify this quote?

This should be agony. I should be a mass of aching muscle, unable to move. And, were I an older man, I surely would... ... but I'm a man of thirty -- of twenty again. The rain on my chest is a baptism -- I'm born again...

Feeling a little better.

Feeling a little better today. I must have had 5 little panic attacks yesterday.

I ran on a treadmill yesterday for the first time. Boring!!! My toe next to my big toe on my right foot is actually a little longer than my big toe. Anyway that nail fell off. Pretty gross.

Anyway, no real pain to speak of so I'm pretty excited about that. I took Paige with me over to the gym and she had a good time in the Kid's Club at LA Fitness.

Checked my body fat % - 10.4%. Down from 13.7% in December or January or whenver I had it last checked.

Swim at lunch today. I'm sure that will go well. I want to try and get a haircut as well. End of the month is coming and I want to keep that New Year's resolution going.

A post I will delete before long...

Fear is not a word that I use to describe how I'm feeling usually but it probably best captures what's going through my head right now. 

 

When this started I said to people, "The only thing I'm not going to be able to say is that I didn't train enough."

 

I didn't train enough.

 

That's what's going through my head right now.  I'm not thinking about the weekends of 5 - 7 hour bike rides and 2 - 3 hour runs; the weeks where I rode or ran for an hour every morning and swam every lunch.  I'm not thinking about the nights when I was so exhausted that I couldn't stay awake late enough to put my daughter to bed.

 

I'm thinking about the 45 minute run and the the 3 1/2 ride I didn't do in December because it was cold and windy.  I'm thinking about the swims I missed at lunch because I was working 80 hours / week in February and March.

 

I'm thinking about my knee.  I'm thinking about the swim.

 

I'm stuck with too many negative thoughts.

 

I need to change the focus.  That's what I'm going to work on.

 

Marc

The water was very cold!!!

I needed a $600.00 state-of-the-art top-of-the-line Zoot Zenith wetsuit. My kid needed a diaper.

Open Water Swim

OK.  Let's rethink this whole thing.

 

It seems like when I bike and run I get faster but every time I do something swimming related I have to push my time out a little more.

 

I put on my wetsuit and went for a swim in Saguaro lake Sunday.  Good time.  It's really freaky if you've never done it.  Anyway it took me a few hundred yards to get comfortable and then it went OK.  I don't think I'm particularly fast though.  No big surprise there.

 

Next week is a 2.4 mile swim in Lake Pleasant.  I guess I'll know what's what then.

 

Ran on Saturday.  Lots of knee pain.  I'm a little concerned here.

Good to go!!!

Yee Ha! I'm good!
I went for a surgical consult this morning. While I do in fact have a hernia the doctor said it would be three years before it will cause me any problems. I asked him if I needed to curtail the training, he said, "Do whatever the hell you want. It's like a pulled muscle."
I'm going to schedule the surgery either right after I get back from vacation in May or maybe mid June.
Anyway. Good to know I'm fine.

What did the doctor say when he saw you?

Same thing he always says, "Wow!" - Sam Malone "Cheers"

Good news! My knees are perfect. No problems, no swelling, nothing rubbing.

I said, "Then why do they hurt so much?"

He replied, "Because the human body wasn't made to run for 3 hours."

Hernia doctor tomorrow. I hope things go as well.

Marc