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

Some thoughts

"Start slow, arrive early"

From the moment you wake up on race morning, everything you do has an effect on how well you can run the Ironman marathon.

Swim strategy: Seeding is critical. Conserve energy.

Always move!

Bike strategy: Respect the marathon! This is not a bike race!

Ironman begins at mile 90 on the bike.

"An Ironman marathon is 20 miles of hope and 6 miles of reality." - Cam Brown

The marathon begins at the 13 mile mark.

(c) Camelback Coaching - used without permission :)

To Clarify

There is no way that I'm letting a little thing like a tear in the muscles of my abdomen keep me out of this race.

I finally got a wetsuit for God's sake.

I have a surgical consult with a doctor on Friday. I'll know more then.

Injury

On Friday I noticed a little sore spot on my lower abdomen. I didn't pay much attention to it but I did notice it enough on Saturday to draw a little circle around the area that hurt.

I knew what it was immediately. At least I thought I knew. I was afraid that I was wrong and that it was my appendix. It wasn't.

Anyway yesterday I decided that since my knees and my stomach hurt that I would go to the doctor. Diagnosis: Hernia.

Now I have to go get a surgical consult to see if this is something I can wait to fix until after the race and my vacation right after.

Wish me luck.

So let me tell you about my weekend!!

Let's start with the funny part. The part about me not being able to read a calender. For the second time this year I have looked at a calender, and just completely missed something by a day.

So I show up at Saguaro lake, new wetsuit in hand, to do an open water swim (my first) with my swimming coach. After I walk around for a while I looked at my phone/pda and realize that Saturday, March 17 was actually yesterday, Saturday March 17. Nice. I'm such a bonehead.

Don't know if this should be filed under funny, tragic, or lucky: About two hours after I left the area that I was supposed to swim at someone was shot over a pickup football game. I did see a couple guys throwing a football around.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/0319abrk-FootballShooting0319-ON.html

Now to the cool stuff.

Saturday. 130 mile ride to Coolidge, AZ and back. A little tour of the economically depressed areas of Arizona.

After last weeks successful ride, Doug and I got a little cocky and didn't show this ride the respect it probably deserved. It was very windy going Southeast. Mostly in the face but a bit of a crosswind as well. So we figure, this will be great going home. WRONG! The wind changed direction and we had in in the face for 45 of the 65 miles coming back. Very nice.

It took us about 7 1/2 to complete. Getting hot in Phoenix. Lots of sweat. Drank lots of water and didn't have to make any pit stops on the way home.





Sunday: 3 hour run.

Stopped for 2 minutes to take these pictures.













Hmmmm. I don't think I felt real confident here. My knee had not recovered completely so I wrapped it up so tight that I'm not sure my foot was getting any blood.



The fist 30 minutes went OK. I could feel that the knee wasn't 100% but I decided to keep going. Next hour or so I definitely knew that this run was a mistake. The hour after that was pretty much excruciating pain with every step but then the pain pretty much went away for the last half hour.

Aerobically I felt fantastic! No fatigue, no breathing problems. I actually felt great! Leg hurt a lot! I had to help with Paige's Sunday School class an hour after I got home. That wasn't a whole lot of fun. All standing and sitting and walking and playing. Jeez. I sound like a real wussy.

Result: Better than 10 minute miles but not much better. I wanted to get 20 miles in but I ended up just shy of 19.

So that's pretty much it. This is a rest week. Then a taper. I'm really not sure what's involved there other than I have to get my ass in the water.

As long as my knee heals I'll do OK.

Who's that fat guy?

I was looking at my blog from this summer and I was thinking, "Am I going to look like that a couple months after Ironman or maybe Alcatraz?"

I'm not saying that I'm big in that picture, but you can see some fat under my chin and a bit of a belly that is no longer there. Any fat that used to be on my forearms is gone as well. All you see are a lot of veins.

I'm not sure I'm the healthiest person in the world.

10 - SPEED!!!!!

I may have mentioned in the past that my bike is in rotten shape.

No longer true. Last night I purchased a Dura-ace 10 speed group. Very nice. I wonder how long it will take me to wreck it! :)

33 Days of the Condor

So let me tell you about my AWESOME WEEKEND OF TRAINING!

On Saturday Doug and I set out to go to Wickenburg. It's a little town about 60 miles from my house. Turned out to be 60 to the click! Very cool. 120.5 out and back.

Anyway we took a road that we'd never been on before that far west. It was increadible. 4 lanes, paved, and no stoplights for like 70 miles.

I pulled pretty much the whole way. We crossed the century mark at around 5 1/2 hours which is not too bad for that course. The rest of the ride is pretty much steady uphill and straight. I yelled back to Doug that I wanted to make it home in an hour. A hard 20 mph 1 hour pull is tough enough but doing it after 100 miles seems even tougher. So I hammerred away and even though I never let my pulse stray above level 3 and we stopped to look at my new house, and I slowed the last 4 miles for a 10 minute cool down, we were home in 55 minutes.

We did a 20 minute run after to check nutrician. No problems. I no longer get shin splints there but my achiles tendon bothered me a bit. Need to keep stretching.

Next day was another story.

I was scheduled for a 2:50 run. I got 1:25 away from my house and I started experiencing what can be best described as a little weakness in my right knee. I ran through it and then it started to hurt. By the time I reached my house at 2:50 (I ran slower but it was downhill home) every step seemed like torture. Then I stopped running and immediately my leg felt like it locked up. An awful lot of pain there.

I skipped my Tuesday run. I was hoping to do it today but I'm not 100% yet and my bike isn't quite ride ready. Really need to be healthy for the weekend. 7 hour ride to Florence and back and a 3 hour run on Sunday. Sunday afternoon I'm doing an open water 2.4 mile swim in Saguaro Lake. Water is 50 degrees. I guess I only have a couple days to get a wetsuit.

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