Beyond Kona

24 mile Winter run with Zoolinder

2012-01-22T04:10:00.000-08:00

· Cat wakes me up at 4 and I put him out to catch mice in the snow – take that you little bastard

· Just getting back to sleep when the alarm goes off at 4:50 –get your ass up, it's time to run

· Zoo texts me at 5 sharp – ready to roll

· Put all my stuff in the car, but can’t take a dump– screw it, the snow will hide it on the trails

· Roads are snow covered – looks cool – no snow plows yet

· 2 miles from home and realize I forgot my watch – damn it

· Get to the start, freezing my ass off waiting outside for Zoo to get ready in his nice warm car – what the hell is he doing in there?

· 5:40, on the trail, dark – new fallen snow, crunch, crunch, crunch of snow under the feet – easy on the legs, nice – I could do this all day…

· Crunch, Crunch, CRASH – Whoa – Zoo takes a spill – he’s ok, good– now I can laugh my ass off

· Beautiful Snow falling, quiet, head lamps - should've brought my GoPro camera, left it in the car – easy does it – it’s going to be a long one

· Porta John stop – nice, no need to go in the woods – dark - cold, wet seat – damn it

· Climb the hill – footing a bit slippery, but good enough – easy does it

· Tire tracks to run in – nice, good break on the legs

· Loop 1 done… easy does it

· Loop 2 done… starts raining on and off – sheet of ice forms on my vest, hat, eyebrows – what the hell are we doing out here?

· Loop 3 stop at car, get fuel, drop headlamps, check time – Zoo can only go a little longer

· 8:15 - Loop 3.25, Zoo turns around to take care of wife and kids– good man that Zoolinder

· Loop 4 done after one more porta john stop – still feeling ‘ok’ – Zoo said the record is 4 loops - how long was each loop? 4.6 miles + the run from the car - can I do one more?– wish Zoo were here to work through this, it's gonna hurt – roll the dice – go for it Kona – you can do this

· Get to turnaround before big hill, see 2 more runners about to start - dumb bastards

· Start the climb – plow has been through but what is left is a sheet of ice – small steps Kona, easy does it, find the traction…

· Damn this hurts, back, legs, foot – relax, just keep moving –you’re too wet and it’s too cold to slow down

· 9:30 – Loop 5 done – get to car, start ‘er up – drink a shit load, eat banana, soaking wet - no place to stretch in the snow – painful ride home as legs start to stiffen up – get home and stretch like a mother – hot shower – food – nap - read – rest is history

I love this epic shit – you only live once, gotta soak it in

Getting back into the swing of things

2012-01-07T18:13:00.000-08:00

I did the Ragnar Relay after the Poconos 70.3 and then shut down for a while. The holidays really slowed me down and I put on some pounds.

It's time to get started again. I've got my races planned for the year and the beginning of a workout schedule.

I rode 51 miles today after swimming 3000 yards. I took it easy for the first half of the bike and did the last 10 miles pretty quick.

Neck has been sore for months. Right hip has been sore for about a week and it's messing with my sciatic nerve, which made for an interesting bike ride.

I plan to do a longish run tomorrow - I've been doing loads of trail running in prep for my first race - Hat Run in March. It will probably be a suffer fest, but I'll train as much as I can. I don't expect to do great, just going for a finish. Something about doing a 50K now that I've turned 50.

Poconos Ironman 70.3

2011-10-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

I did Poconos 70.3 a week ago. I had what I would consider a terrible race, but still managed to get 2nd place in my division and qualify for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. The benefit of turning 50 and racing in a new age group.

The swim was cancelled due to heavy rains and a very swift current in the Delaware river. This worked to my benefit I believe, as my swim is not great.

Race prep was logistically a pain in the ass. The expo was pretty far from T1, but we were required to go there first to get your race numbers etc. T1 and T2 were separate by a long distance. We had to drop the bike off at T1 the night prior, and of course it rained all night. We also had to drop our running kit off at T2 prior to race start and were not allowed back in on race morning.

On Sunday morning, the buses were lined up to take us from T2 to T1 bright and early - I took the 5:30 bus. Fortunately the rain had stopped and managed to hold off the entire morning. Because the swim was cancelled, there was a TT start; that is, 1 bike after another only 2-3 seconds apart. I had a low number (211), so, after the pros went off, there was only one wave in front of me (women 40+ and athenas), and about 20 in my age group before me. This was good, but there were also a lot in my age group behind me, this wasn't so good because I couldn't keep track of them.

Well I learned that the swim is actually a good thing for me, because it forces me to ease into the bike. Since the swim was cancelled, I hit the bike hard from the words 'ready, set, go!'. There was a 50ish yard run from the timing mat to the bike mount area and I had already passed 3 people in my age group by the time I mounted. I passed another 3-4 racers in the 200 yards across a parking lot to a 'speed bump' (yes, a speed bump), then another 3 going up a short hill after the speed bump. That is when I hit the major traffic of the older women and athenas on River Road.

They changed the course slightly on race day due to flooding, so we had to turn left onto River Road, ride about a mile, then do a 180 degree turn and come back the same way. Given that we started on the left side of the road, everyone was confused on whether they should stay to the right or the left.

Fortunately I am a somewhat technical rider and passed and passed and passed for the next 3-5 miles, on the right, on the left and sometimes in the between 2 riders because there was just no other way. I let the riders know I was coming and where I was going to pass them. It was a bit slow going because the road was wet and there were some nice descents with some turns on which less experienced riders slowed significantly. By the end of River Road, things had cleared quite a bit and it felt more like a triathlon, except there was almost no one left to pass. I passed the occasional woman rider in the next 5 miles on hidden lake drive, but after that, it I was alone, with the pros so far ahead and the rest of the age groupers behind... it was a bit surreal.

Riding alone was mostly good. The course was marked extremely well, with cones marking the entire course. This was fantastic! It was hilly and I had to take it easy on the wet downhills with sharp turns since I didn't know what was coming around the next bend. My legs were kind of shot after hitting the first few miles pretty hard - especially the up hills. So I got into a nice rhythm and waited for people to pass me...

The hills were relentless and I felt like my spare water bottle wasn't going to be needed so I dumped most of the water from it around mile 20.

It wasn't until mile 25 that a rider 20 years younger than me passed me on a straight away. Dude had a damn nice bike - way better than my 2003 $1800 QR with Spinergy wheels. Envious, yes. Made me resolve to get a new bike if I keep racing.

I realized around mile 35 I was running out of nutrition and water - what was I thinking. I also knew I did not leave a water bottle in T2 as I usually do. I was getting thirsty and trying to conserve the little water I had left - not a good place to be. I was hoping for a water stop soon.

The course goes from kind of hilly to very hilly after mile 40 and my legs were not holding up well on the climbs, but I was managing ok on the flats and downhills. At mile 50, they placed a water stop at the bottom of a downhill - I was going too fast and couldn't grab a bottle - damn it. I just kept going.

I was struggling with the last few climbs and 2 more guys from the 30 age group passed me around mile 53. I kept them in sight through the end (not drafting of course).

I zipped through T2 and ran the first mile in 7:02. I was breathing too hard for this slowish pace, but had to slow more. When I hit the first water stop, I grabbed a quick sip and kept going. What was I thinking! I should have walked through and just guzzled water and powerade

Well no one in my age group passed me, so I was feeling like I should do ok - not sure because it wasn't a wave start. As it turns out, one guy ran faster than me, bike a tad slower and took his time in T2, but still beat me by 30 seconds or so. I never saw him which is a bit frustrating, but pretty happy overall with the placement.

Training leading up to the race was sub par. Race day execution was very poor. I am hopeful that I will do much better in Vegas next year at the world champs when I work out the kinks in my racing.

How to Win MM 2012

2011-09-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

So I did MM a week and a half ago. Finished well, but did some things wrong:
- average swim
- trouble getting wet suit off in T1
- tried to balance a water bottle on aerobars with a gel pack while running out of T1 - had to abort that idea and lose the bottle and stuff the gel pack in my shorts
- gearing to hard to start the bike - wobbled sideways to get started
- went out too hard on bike and lactic acid took all the fight out of my legs in the first couple of miles and had to recover for the better part of a short bike
- missed dismount zone
- didn't sprint out the finish
- didn't do a bike warm up

So I finished in 57:12; the winner was 53:31 - so how do I make up 3:41 next year?
- 30 seconds off the swim - go out behind a fast swimmer and follow their feet - clear water - doable
- 45 seconds from T1 - just learn to get out of wetsuit fast out of the water and don't screw around with a water bottle on the bike - others were 45 seconds faster or more, so this is doable
- 2:20 minutes off the bike
     - 30 seconds will be gained from getting up the hill faster, mounting right and not balancing a water bottle and tucking a gel in my shorts
     - 1:40 faster by: warming up on the bike, faster mounting start (easier gear), and starting don't burn the legs out too early (easier gear)
    -10 seconds with a good dismount
- 15 second faster run - push hard at the bottom of the hill to the finish

Man, this is a tight race - no mistakes!

Good season so far...

2011-09-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Just read my January post. I've continued to build throughout the season with only a few set backs. I haven't gotten much faster, but a bit more comfortable. I have done 5 races this year:
- Broadstreet 10 mile in Philly at a 6:20 pace (went out hard (sub 6) and faded)
- Escape from Fort Delaware Olympic (Swim kicked my ass, and felt like I never recovered) - finished 2nd in age group
- Pat Griskus Olympic in CT - NE Regional Championship (3rd in my age group - fought through some hip injuries and didn't train like I wanted)
- Marshman Sprint Tri - 4th overall, 2nd age group - pretty good showing, but could have done some things differently
- A 5 K down in NC with my daughter - Tiger something. 19:02 or something like that - went out too hard and went into oxygen debt in mile 3 and never recovered

So far so good. Poconos 70.3 is next weekend. Then Ragnar Relay.

Running again and signed up for races

2011-01-31T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm running again. Three days a week right now. Tuesday (Intervals); Thursday (Tempo) and Sunday (Long).
It took me a looong time to get back, and while I'm still not 100%, I ran 12.5 miles yesterday with only a slightly sore foot afterwards.

I am wearing the Vibrams everywhere I can, except for running and they are helping - not only strengthening my feet, but also they are very supportive - or at least they feel better than wearing shoes.

I had to creep up to add the miles, and while 12.5 isn't easy, I'm still pretty damn comfortable at a sub 8 minute pace and can drop it down to sub 7 minute pace for the last couple of miles.

My tempo runs are 4 miles at a 6:30 pace, so pretty good there too. I have dreams of getting back to a 6 minute pace, but not sure if these old bones (and heart and lungs) can get there. We'll see.

I'm signed up for Escape from Fort Delaware Olympic distance triathlon in May. Somewhat of a redemption race, as I really screwed the pooch the first time I ran it - bad swim and flat tire on the bike.

I'm also signed up for Poconos half Ironman. I hope my foot can handle the training required for a half IM.

Oh yeah. For those of you that want to know what I did about the torn plantar fascia...
- I stopped trying to stretch my calf and foot (bad idea as that only made it worse)
- I started foot strengthening exercises
- I messaged it very often, including the calf to increaese blood flow
- I gave up on Prototherapy, although that might have helped
- I decided NOT to do PRP as the doctor was a bit skittish and suggested that he might hit a nerve, etc. and if it wasn't really bad I should wait

Enough for now. If you're reading this, let me know what you think.

Improving my swimming through video

2010-11-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

I've been bringing my underwater high def camera to the pool. Not perfect since no one is actually following me with the camera, so I see a few strokes than get too far away, 20 seconds later I'm coming back in the other direction...

Anyway, I bring my video in one panel and Phelps or Thorp in another panel. Then I compare strokes (why not compare the the best). On one side I do ok - that is, when I breath to the left and my right hand is in front. However, when breathing to the right, I completely SUCK. This is the side I used to breath on exclusively until I learned how to bi-lateral breath.

It took me a while, but I really studied it TODAY with BEER IN HAND. My whole body twists for air... my legs splay to balance... and my left arm is ineffectual in lengthening my body.

What a revelation! I kind of knew this WAS happening a while back, but thought I had mostly worked it out. But the VIDEO DON'T LIE brother. So, I've really got to improve my left hand entry and my right side breathing. Two main things will be to lead with the top of my head and keep my legs in check. I must fix this first.

first new pair of running shoes in 2 years

2010-11-24T18:06:00.000-08:00

I bought a new pair of running shoes today. I've been running pretty regularly with a mishmash of older shoes. I settled in on a 6 year old Brooks Adrenaline that I didn't originally like and therefore had few miles on them. But they felt pretty good so, that is what I've been primarly using for the past month. I bought the latest model today.

I'm also looking to get the Vibram 5 finger 'barefoot running' shoe. I have to say, just waling around the store with them on felt 'right'. Not sure that I can explain it. I'm thinking I'll get them for Christmas, but may pick up a pair sooner.

Running has been going pretty well, but my foot really bothered me after running 8 miles on a Sunday (~7:15 pace) then doing speedwork on a Tuesday on the treadmill. So I've taken a week + off and the foot is feeling good again. Tomorrow is thanksgiving, so hoping to do a run first thing in the morning with the new shoes.

Morale of the story - Prolotherapy didn't fix things, but I think it made it better. More importantly, I STOPPED STRETCHING my foot and started messaging it and my calf several times a day and at night and first thing in the morning. Makes a BIG difference to helping the blood flow and circulation. Not 100% yet, but getting there.

Also, the speed work on the track seems to work better than speedwork on the treadmill - that is, I can go faster and more repeats on the track with less pain later (~6min pace 800s for example). However, I can do longer runs at a slower pace on asphalt - 10min pace, no problem, 7min pace or faster over becomes a problem.

Learning, but hopeful things are going in the right direction.

Checking in...

2010-10-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't raced this year - I kind of miss it...

I've been running a bit - my foot is usually sore afterward and pretty weak during... oh well.

I did 6 miles last weekend - 3 with Sena - 3 on my own. Gravel trail. Ran about a 7:15 pace for the second half - felt 'ok', but hobbled around the rest of the afternoon.

I think it is safe to say that Prolotherapy was a bust. 8 treatments and a year later and I don't feel like I've gotten any better.

Did 3 miles this morning - 1.5 with Sena, 1.5 on my own. Didn't bring my Garmin, so not sure of the pace, but did a relatively hard pace - probably 7min pace or so. Focused on control - solid foot steps. Foot feels ok today. Defnitely not 'race to win' shape, but hopefully it will strengthen over time - baby steps.

Got new tires for the bike - was feeling a bit unsafe on the old tires. Haven't been riding much. Will try to get out tomorrow.

Swam my fastest ever this past week. 80 second 100s x 4. Goal is 75 second 100s x 8. Not sure why I swam so fast, but can't complain too much.

Saw a chiropractor to check out my hip this past week. The left hip gets out of place over time. Not sure it made much of a difference. Might need to try someone else.

Need some goals.

Foot update - starting to run...

2010-09-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

Went to the foot doctor a couple of weeks ago to get my PRP treatment. I told him my foot was feeling pretty good - of course, I hadn't been running and it should be feeling good. He suggested that instead of the PRP, I should try to start running again. So I started...
on the treadmill,
Day 1: 1/4 mile walk, 1/4 jog, 1/4 walk
Day 3: 1/4 mile walk, 1/4 mile at 9 min pace, 1/4 mile at 8 min pace, 1/4 mile at 7:30 pace, 1/4 mile walk
Day 5 1 hour on eliptical, then to the treadmill... 1/4 mile at 9 min pace, 1/4 mile at 8 min pace, 1/4 mile walk, 1/2 mile at 7:30 pace, 1/4, mile walk
Day 7: 1/4mile walk, 1/4 at 9 min pace, 1/4 mile at 8 min pace, 1/2 mile at 7:30 pace, 1/4 milew walk
Day 10: Track workout - packed limestone track: 1/4 mle walk, 1/2 mile slow jog, stretech, 1 mile at 7 min pace, 1/2 mile walk, 1/2 mile in 3:10, walk 1/2 mile
Day 13: Back to treadmile: 1/4 mile walk, 1/4 mile at 8 min pace, 1/2 mile at 7:30 pace,1/4 mile at 7:20 pace, 1/4 mile at 7:10 pace, 1/4 mile at 7 min pace, 1/2 mile walk

whew - that's a lot to type. My foot is a little sore today, 2nd day after the last workout. Trying to decide if I should run again today.

My legs are tired too.

I have also been swimming and riding.

Ride to the Oregon Coast

2010-08-22T06:12:00.000-07:00

Had a nice ride from Eugene to the Coast a few weeks ago. Route below with some pics. Riding a vintage Mercier 10 speed with standard pedals and camelpack backpack with bladder (no water bottle holders). Nutrition wasn't that great - had to stop when I wanted something other than water. Sore knee in the last 20 miles, but it was a fun ride... OLD SCHOOL STYLE.

Not so fast, are you now?

2010-07-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

Riding home from work 2 days ago. Backpack on - waiting for the light to change green... when it does, another rider comes flying past me in a Time Trial bike - he gets in is aero position and puts down the hammer. I decide to jump on his wheel. Usually these guys are wanna be speedsters - this guy was for real. Shot from 12mph to 30mph in a few seconds and held it for half a mile, until we got to the next traffic choke point coming into West Chester. We hit a slight incline and he slowed - I could have easily passed him a that point, but I didn't want to be a dick.

He turned to check traffic and the look on his face was priceless when he saw that he didn't drop me. Ha! take that TT boy!

I love being a speedster.

54:51 - Racing the Clock

2010-07-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

Fastest time into work today by far. I knew I could break 55 if I had just the right conditions, a bit of luck with traffic, and was feeling strong. I hit every intersection just right, no delays for stopping - always slowing to check for traffic. I was in the zone the second half of the ride - not so much from the start. So damn fast - I don't think I'll be breaking this time anytime soon.

160 BPM

2010-07-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

Riding with a group yesterday, trying not to go too fast that I fragment the group. I found that if I ride at heart rate of 160, they can keep up. When I get to 165, I lose them. I can go for a good period of time at 160. I can probably maintain 165 for only about 10 minutes before my legs start to feel like rubber. My heart rate usually gets that high only when I'm climbing or pulling at the front. I peak out at about 180-185 - I can only hold that for about 30 seconds on a steep climb out of the saddle, and then I really have to slow down to catch my breath. It's good to know this sort of thing when you're trying to keep the group together.

Swam today

2010-07-11T16:47:00.000-07:00

YMCA by jlsturino at Garmin Connect - Details

57:14 - another fast ride into work

2010-07-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

80 degrees at 6am - feeling pretty good even though I rode hard yesterday too. I believe this is my fastest ride to date.

That bike crash last week really did a number on me...

2010-06-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Man, I am still very sore from that crash. Ribs, Chest, Back - all on the left side. Swimming was painful yesterday - had to do back stroke and breast stroke... forget about freestyle... also did kicking... lots of kicking... I hate kicking, but I know it is good for me.

Trying to do yard work, but that hurts too. Finally taking some ibuprofen - maybe that will speed things along.

Riding home after the big storm

2010-06-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

We had a crazy storm on Thursday afternoon. Killed power, took out some major trees, traffic was terrible.

Fortunately I took my bike to work. It was really kind of cool in a 'end of the world, major catastrophe movie' kind of way. Wish I had my video camera.

There were more cars that usual trying to avoid the main roads and taking my favorite back roads. I had to take it easy, because everytime I got some speed up, I'd find a tree laying half across the road.

One time I went through a closed road and found the tree across the road, but about 6 feet up - I rode under it. Another time, I had to get off my bike and climb over a fallen tree. I've done that plenty off road - not used to it on my road bike.

There was debris all over the road, making it slippery and nerve wracking. Having recently crashed, I really wasn't in the mood to go down again... and fortunately didn't.

When I did get to the main roads, many of the traffic lights were out. That sucks for everybody, but especially cyclists. Fortunately, the drivers were mostly being pretty cool (except for that one moron lady that nearly hit me while she chatted on her cell phone).

Strange ride, but pretty cool experience.

Strange bike ride on Wednesday

2010-06-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

My ride home on Wed was strange - I left work early - 90 degrees.

About 7 miles into the ride home (out of 20), I my rear derailleur cable broke leaving me in a hard gear for the remaining 13 miles and the next 10 miles had some bad ass hills and my back and side are killing me when I get out of the saddle to ride due to my crash 4 days before (bad news), but I was only 1 mile from a bike shop (good news), then mechanic said it probably couldn't be fixed (bad news), but he gave it a shot and was able to pull the broken cable from the shifter (good news), it was only going to be $22 (good news) and my 'points' had accrued to pay for it (nice).

On the ride home, I'm thinking about this lady that lost it at work and 2 miles from my house, I see her standing on her front lawn having a glass of wine. I stopped to make sure she was ok, and she apologized for losing it.

Another mile on, a kid comes flying down from the left, blows through a stop and nearly takes me out, but doesn't even see me. I go to pass him on the left and he keeps drifting across the road until he nearly hits me again! I two feet from him (wondering if he is blind or something) and tell him to look out - he turns and is completely surprised to see me "where did you come from?" he asks. "Uh, you almost took me out twice kid".. "Sorry dude"... must have been 13 years old... no helmet.

Bike Crash

2010-06-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't have gone for the ride yesterday - I was tired from traveling the week before - then I rode the day before - and I skipped the long ride the previous Saturday - I just wasn't feeling it... and yet I went out for a group A ride.

It was a large group to start, 20+ riders - several very fast riders - a few that would just hang on. At some point we would break into two groups and I would be with the faster group.

We started easy, then got faster as the day went on. The stronger riders rotated pulling at the front, many just hung in the back and took advantage of the draft. A tight paceline is a beautiful thing and we were in a pretty good groove with a nice solid pace on a road with gentle hills.

When we got to the bigger hills, the group broke in two and met a while later at a rest stop. I bought a bag of ice and shared it around - it was a hot day and the other riders seem to appreciate the idea.

After the turn around point, we hit Shed road, a 2 mile long climb - not too steep, but tiring. Another strong rider joined us and helped pushed the pace to the top. I couldn't keep up with the top 3 guys, which was a good signal that I wasn't on my game, but did lead the next group to the top at a steady, strong pace.

At the top, 8 or so of us went ahead, while the rest regrouped. A couple of minutes in, I lost my chain, recovering quickly, only to lose it again on an uphill, requiring me to dismount and put it on. The rest of the group slowed allowing me to catch up - this wore me out a bit. We then picked up the pace, and got faster... and faster...

Over 55 miles into the ride we are hammering down 282, going between 25 and 30 mph... I was pretty tired and had just finished pulling at the front and was at the back of the pack. I was drafting really close and a loud Mustang drove by - the rider in front of me swerved to the right and caught my wheel. The rest happened in slow motion...

My front wheel twisted and jerked the handlebars in my hands - I lost my balance and before I knew it, I was skidding along pavement with the wind knocked out of me. I could hear the other riders yelling 'rider down!'. I got up and moved my bike and my body to the side of the road as I watched the other riders turn around to help. I was having a hard time breathing and my back, left side, and chest were aching... the shaper pain from scrapes and road rash were a bit more acute, but familiar.

Eventually I was able to breath, but couldn't take deep breaths without pain in my back and chest. The first couple of times I tried to get up, I got dizzy spells, with tunnel vision, but after about 10 minutes was feeling like I could ride home. The other riders were checking my bike, looking over my helmet, trying to decide what to do next. There was a widespread 'AUGH' when I pulled up my shorts to show off my road rash. They weren't sure if I could ride back (because of the dizzy spells). There were several ideas on how to get me home, but I eventually assured them that I could ride. They kept a close eye on me for the first few miles, then realized I was ok (I was riding pretty good, except any climb or bump was a bit painful).

I came home and took a painful shower, fell asleep, then put some second skin on (tegaderm).

Still sore today, but glad it wasn't worse.

Prolotherapy update

2010-06-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Not happy to say that I've had 8 prolotherapy treatments now and my foot(torn plantar fascia) is still not better. We thought we had it pretty close after 7 treatments, and I started running on the treadmill 1/4mile walk, 1/4 run, 1/4mile walk, increasing the run portion by 1/4 mile each time I ran (ever other day). This was working well, but then I went to a picnic, running on uneven surfaces with no warm up. The next day, my foot was really sore. I wasn't planning on going back to the doctor, but I did and the ultrasound showed a larger tear than the previous visit, so I went with another prolotherapy treatment.

The other bad news is the prolotherapy went from $100 out of pocket to $175 out of pocket - I'm now over $900 out of pocket. Not happy.

I've found another doctor that will do PRP for under $400 out of pocket. Not sure if it will work. My current doctor wants to charge me $800 for PRP. I'm really getting tired of all of this crap.

Of course there is always the ESWT (extracorporeal shock wave therapy) option - $2500 out of pocket with no guarantees.

Appt. with Dr. #2 in two weeks for PRP consultation.

Sounds of Cycling

2010-06-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

My senses tend to sharpen when riding my bike, particularly in the early morning ride to work. The course I normally take has many twists and turns, hills, and blind spots. It is a beautiful ride, but requires that I listen carefully to everything going on around me. As I road in to work yesterday, I contemplated the sounds of a bike ride and decided it would be a good blog post to include the best and worst sounds.

Best Sounds and Smells

"Click" into the pedal
Wind in your hair
Birds chirping
The occassional horse neighing
Whir and hum of your machine
Your own breathing
A waterfall or fast moving river
Wind and road shift as you accelerate around a corner
'click' followed by a soft 'clunk' when shifting

Worst Sounds
Car breaks squealing behind you
Metal against pavement
Teen drivers yelling at you when they pass, trying to... what... make you fall?
A car horn from a car you can't see
PSSST - a blowout
Whir and hum of someone elses machine passing you in a race
Tires spitting up on wet roads
Thunder
Sqeaking bike brakes
Any creaking, clicking or ticking noise from your bike that isn't normal
The muted crunch of live chipmunk or squirell bones under your tire

committed

2010-05-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

I look for those key words in life at times. My new key word is around commitment. When I get really committed to something, I become passionate about it. The key thing is whether I have control over the thing I am committed to. For example, I was committed to doing each Ironman race, and I felt that I was in control of the outcome and had to make many individual choices along the way to achieve my goals. On the other hand, at work, I often do not have control about many aspects of getting something done, so it is hard to get committed, stay committed, and stay passionate. So my advice is to find the things that are important to you, get committed to them, find the passion to achieve your goals, and stay committed. One more thing... it isn't about the words, it has to come from the heart - it has to be something that you think about when you're not thinking about anything else - something you research because you are interested in it, not because you said you were committed, but because you are committed.

SNOW!!!

2010-02-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

I love the snow and we got loads of the lovely white stuff this month - yeah man! I don't mind shoveling out the driveway, although it does take a lot of time. Shoveling out in blizzard like conditions was pretty cool. I know, I'm sick that way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekgNOJ8bJy4

After all the shoveling is done, I get to cross country ski. My Karhu Meta skis are make for for hiking in the snow, than smoothly sailing across the snow. They are like any hybrid product, they aren't great at snowshoeing and they aren't great at cross country skiing, but they are adequate at both.

I just did a run at Stroud's preserve - made the disasterous mistake of wearing my xc running shoes with 1 pair of wool socks - too much friction on the back of my foot and a nice blister effect half way through. Also set my Garmin to pause when going less than 3mph - I kept looking down and seeing that very little distance was being added to the total. I guess I was going too slow. I did find a nice downhill...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_qHc4O7PlE

And of course some nice wild life - a bit hard to see the geese on the video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKt1U4oID6E

Hitting the Reset Button on Life

2010-01-16T19:06:00.000-08:00

Every December I take a few weeks off and just read, relax and enjoy my family. Not sure what happened last month, but I'm not feeling that I got my annual reset. Maybe too much sugar, caffiene and beer over the holidays without enough sleep. I need to figure out how to slow things down a bit, relax and refocus.

I had my first long bike ride in a while today (50 miles). It was tough - it alway is this time of year - but it was great to just mentally unwind for 3 hours.

Unfortunately I had a sharp pain in my chest about 3-4 miles into the ride - I finished the ride, but the pain is still there 15 hours later - not so acute. Scary. Maybe a good nights rest will help.

Had a nice Sushi dinner with Sena tonight - new place 5 minutes from home. The service was over the top, but that is expected of a place that is 2 days old.

My foot is finally starting to feel better. Another Prolotherapy treatment next week - hopefully good news.

So, I'll try to take a relaxing day tomorrow and see how that goes.

Bike ride

2009-12-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

I scored a high def, point-of-view camera (Hero HD) for christmas. Great gadget. Still figuring out the best way to use it. Here is a early video of a downhill on Allerton Road.
Down Hill Ride

Don't feel compelled to watch the whole thing. Sometimes when blogging, it is pretty clear that if I had a video, it would be so much more interesting. I don't think I want to wear it on my helmet all of the time, but I may spring for the handlebar mount (an extra $20) so that if I see something cool (like a 10 point buck crossing the road in front of me), then perhaps I'll have the presence of mind to actually hit the record button without putting myself in jeopardy.

I've also tried it for swimming. The underwater shots are a bit embarrasing, since I more clearly demonstrate my poor form, but the surface shot, whilst a bit boring, is pretty cool...

Surface Swim

Now I just need to figure out how to better link my blog with my youtube videos. Open to ideas.

Oh yeah, what happened to the spell checker in this blogger editor?

Rachel's Birthday

2009-12-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

Nice night out with the family. Rachel and I polished off a Sushi boat at Shangri La. Had some laughs and good, relatively healthy food. Yum!

Paddling a couple of weeks ago

2009-11-28T06:02:00.000-08:00

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Prolotherapy - treatment #3

2009-11-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

last post on this here: http://beyondkona.blogspot.com/2009/11/prolotherapy.html

I went in 2 days ago for my third prolotherapy treatment. Each of these treatments is $100 out of pocket. The treatments are 1 month apart.

I was hoping for much more significant improvement, but with the way my foot felt, I am not surprised that there really wasn't much improvement since the last time.

It may be my fault to some extent. I continue to ride the bike, do elliptical, paint the house on a ladder, and after reading "Born to Run", I've been getting around in bare feet much more than I should.

So treatment #3 he tells me is going to hurt much worse and I should have to use pain relievers (but not anti-inflammatory meds). Well, I'm tough and so far haven't used them. Actually, I really don't like to mask pain (to a point). I figure that if something hurts, I should compensate (e.g. walk with a limp or not walk at all).

So yes, it is much more painful (not during the treatment of course, but a few days after). The reason for the additional pain is that he not only put dextrose in, but also fish oil. The idea is to invoke a healing response... that part seems to be working - let's hope anyway.

Well, the good doctor also tells me he is back from a conference where he was showing my ultra sound to his podiatrist buddies and they all seem to have had a good laugh on my account. Bastards! Apparently, the tear was very significant and barely hanging on the bone. He admitted that being the patient in this situation isn't the best thing, but he and his friends were looking to learn a lot from me. GRRR

So I'm trying to take it easy. I'll be swimming for sure. Probably biking. Avoid barefoot walking. Trying to use the boot around the house to stabilize things a bit.

I'll be going back in 4 weeks. Hopefully we have some good progress this time and don't have to resort to PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) treatment, because each of these is over $800 out of pocket and I'm just not down with that!

Swimming for speed

2009-11-17T17:57:00.001-08:00

I swam tonight and whilst driving home, had a few thoughts...

- did 25meters in just under 15 seconds
- did 50 meters in 34 seconds (very fast for me)
- if I learn to flip turn, can I do 50 meters in under 30 seconds?
- can I then manage 100meters in 1:15?
- getting a bit carried away - I was exhausted at 34 seconds for 50 meters
- my swim stroke is just about there, so if I focus on speed, will my stroke automatically get better?
- I've been doing 50m repeats on 1 minute (finish in 45 secs with a 15 second rest) - I recently did this 16 times in a row
- Can I do 50 meter repeats on 45 seconds? sounds painful - would have to do 35 sec 50m - would definitely need to learn to flipturn
-My fastest 100 meter is 90 seconds - I'm not ready to try to break that record

I worked on my kick - my new theory is to do 25m kick, 50m freestyle, repeat... instead of 400m kicking. The reason is that when I freestyle, I forget to kick! I think if I can get my brain kicking, then do freestyle, the kick will start to be a natural part of my stroke. Seems to be working... time will tell.

I'm also working on my pull... something I've never really done, so I'm pretty weak in that area. It really shouldn't be a 'pull your arm' instead it should be a 'pull your body over your arm'. Well, I was pulling my arm a lot and my arms got tired. I've got a lot of work to do on this.

So, I think my body and head position are good. My breathing is almost there. Now if I can get my kick and pull working well, and do a kick turn, I should be on my way to being a moderately fast swimmer. Goal is to be able to swim 2.4miles in open water in under an hour - very challenging goal - my best time so far is 1:09.

rules of the road revisited

2009-11-15T05:11:00.000-08:00

In previous blogs I attempted to justify blowing through stop signs and traffic lights. Bottom line, I will follow the rules of the road from now on.

Why the change of heart? I've been reading a lot about this issue and talking to people about it. I'm not in that big of a hurry. I don't really want cars to be be pissed off at me when I'm on a bike. I usually follow the rules of the road anyway. I don't have THAT many stop signs and traffic lights that I deal with. By making my own rules, I run into many cases that are not so clear-cut, so I was sometimes finding myself in precarious situations that really were not necessary.

I've already started this practice and it really isn't that hard. It does take a different mind set. In only a few cases is it frustrating (coming downhill to a stop sign with absolutely no traffic around), but I can live with that.

Prolotherapy

2009-11-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

"Prolotherapy uses a dextrose (sugar water) solution, which is injected into the ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone. This causes a localized inflammation in these weak areas which then increases the blood supply and flow of nutrients and stimulates the tissue to repair itself. "

It turns out that my Plantar Fascia is torn - the wonders of modern miracles - the ultrasound...

So all of this stretching I was doing for a year to improve my PF has probably continued to make it worse... not to mention the night splits and Strassburg sock that continued to pull on my foot at night, not letting it heal...

I've had 2 Prolotherapy treatments - Sept and Oct... next one is Nov 23rd. It doesn't seem to be getting much better - we'll see.

I can always go for the PRP (Platlette Rich Plasma) treatment, but this is $800 a pop out of pocket. My Dr. tells me that will be a much quicker healing process (2-3 treatments), but that's a lot of dough.

So, I'll stick with the $100 Prolotherapy treatments for a bit longer - Dr. tells me 4-6 treatments, but could be more.

Unfortunately this is all taking too long and I'm going to want to run this winter or I might just go insane! I wish I had started earlier in the summer!

Swim Tip - breathing

2009-11-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

I read a while ago that you should look straight down at the bottom of the pool when swimming... wrong.

Recently I stumbled upon much better advice that seems to be working well.

First, your head position should be looking slightly forward, not straight down. This position helps with the next step.

Next, try to keep one goggle eye in the water and the other one out when taking a breath. This helps to make sure you don't lift your head too far out.

This seems to be helping me quite a bit. Still working on my right side, which wants to pull my head too far out.... I get it right about a quarter of the time on that side and about 3/4 of the time on the left side.

Squeeky bike... some quick fixes

2009-11-08T17:52:00.000-08:00

My bike was making this terrible creaking noise evertime I climbed a hill and put a little torque on the front. It sounded like it was coming from my handlebars.

I hate taking my bike to the bike shop - I want to be the master of my domain as much as possible, so I began my research to try to figure out what was wrong.

Based on advice from 'experts' on the web and my "Zinn and the art of bicycle maintenance", I ended up taking my whole head tube apart and greasing it up. No joy.

It turns out, that all I had to do was take my front wheel off and on again and the noise went away.

The other creaking noise I've found easy to fix is at the cleat/pedal. Just spray a little lube on your cleat and this often solves the problem.

Of course, there may be much more serious problems, but I like to start with the easy fix first.

Group Ride - not so meditative

2009-11-01T02:43:00.000-08:00

I recently wrote how long solo rides create a meditative environment for me allow me to experience a timeless internal state of relaxed awareness. The wind blowing in my ears, my steady breathing, automatic shifting of the gears, steady pumping of the legs all contribute to creating that environment for me.

Yesterday was a group ride and there is clearly too much going on at one of these to get that meditative experience. That isn't a bad thing because these rides are great for the social side of things. I got a chance to talk to Jules about his Philosophy instruction business while riding down the road at 20 miles an hour. Jules is one of those interesting guys on these rides - he rides a sturdy (heavy) touring bike - no cleats - cotton T-shirt - sneakers, etc., yet somehow manages to hang with a pretty fast pack of riders in the latest cycling technology known to man. He is a Dutchman that takes multi-day cross country international cycling tours with his family, including children and wife.

We also had a few flats in the group yesterday. Everyone pitched in to help - no complaining even though it was raining and cool. 14 riders all patiently helping or waiting for the task to finish so we can get on with things.

When we got to the 10 mile stretch down 282, 6 of us took off and moved at ungodly speeds, pushing our bodies to the limit. My legs were fried.

time travel

2009-10-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

In the zone, you are left to your own thoughts and the world around you zips by and everything is automatic.

I just came back from a medium length bike ride (2 hours) just out to enjoy the fall leaves... no course in mind... no training goals... just go.

I'm not sure if it's the continuous body motion that creates this meditative atmosphere, but time just passes so quickly as if I'm in a trance. Same thing happens on long runs.

do more, feel better, live longer...

2009-10-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago when I started this blog, I put on the title 'do more, feel better, live longer...'

I nabbed this from my company's mission ' to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer '.

It sounded pretty good at the time and I felt that I should shape my life around it.

Last night I was in a reflective mood and starting asking myself if I am living up to this goal? Am I using my good fortune to help others do more, feel better, live longer?

I think so...

Every day at work I am a contributor in a large group people working hard to eliminate or reduce the impact of serious health issues like Cervical Cancer, Swine Flu, Lymphatic Filariasis, Malaria, Aids, and so many more - www.gsk.com. This is a big one for me. I've worked in a lot of industries before, and while Big Pharma gets a bad rap sometimes, the reality is that there are tens of thousands of good hearted people working with incredible passion every day to create medicines to help improve the quality of life and save lives.

In my view, a pill or a shot should be used only when necessary and after already living a healthy lifestyle. So, in my personal life, I focus much more of my time on 'the healthy lifestyle' side of things...

Outside of work, I informally coach people, and challenge riders, runners, triathletes to become stronger / better.

I like to praise people for their achievements, small and large - I am constantly humbled by those less capable individuals working so hard every day just to stay healthy or participate in a race or set an example for their children.

I try to lead a healthy life and share my experiences, and hope to inspire those around me as I have been inspired by others.

My hierarchy of needs starts with good health as my foundation, and I firmly believe that I am much more capable of being a positive influence in the world if I am healthy.

Many of life's pleasures are healthy (riding a bike, going for a walk, eating fresh berries) and I balance that with a moderation of things that are of dubious health benefit (an occasional beer or glass of wine, spicy food, red meat). Keeping things balanced should keep one healthy whilst enjoying life.

...it will never be enough, but I'll keep trying in my own small way... and keep asking myself - am I doing enough?

riding fast - riding safe

2009-09-26T08:43:00.000-07:00

A+ ride yesterday – survival of the fittest. It was a good time, and everyone was smiling at the end of the ride. Sure we dropped some people, but we had the A- ride behind us, so they would have been picked up.

One guy got in my face early in the ride telling me I was going too fast… I don’t know why someone would come out to an A+ ride and complain about the pace. Fortunately the ride leader had a talk with him, but only after he nearly took me out by swerving within inches of my front whilst I was leading the group at a fast pace – not sure why he chose that moment to debate the speed of the ride.

Once we got through that early hiccup and the group got into a groove, the ride got to be lots of fun. Dick was there to push the pace with me on the big hills. Tim and Ian were showing me how to rotate quickly through a pace line – it’s a pretty cool skill – something we should practice more – could come in handy if we ever race together. Victor kept everything running smoothly and I did my part to keep things safe at high speeds.

There were a couple of moments where trucks passed the group at precisely the wrong time, endangering an on-coming car in one instance and a couple of on-coming cyclist in another. Near the end of the ride, I was at the front of the group again and my front wheel hit a rock and nearly took me out as I zigged and zagged for a very long 1 second to get it under control. No one else seemed to notice. Fortunately, no harm during the day, but it highlighted one of the challenges of riding with a big group.

After a shower and a burrito and bean salad, I took a nice 30min nap, then did yard work.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.

The curse of the three legged dog and the dead snake

2009-09-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Riding to work yesterday on wet roads, making a 90 degree downhill turn whilst passing an unlikely cyclist on a foggy morning when my tire hits a newly smashed snake in the middle of the road. Fortunately my spidey senses kicked in and I stayed upright - just - and avoided a painful body-hits-pavement scenario.

Riding home on the same day, I'm on a long gentle descent straightaway moving at 30+mph along a row of parked cars when a very cute fluffy black three-legged dog steps out from underneath one of the cars directly in front of me. He/she was as surprised to see me as I was them, and my reflexes once again took over, saving me from that devilish hound.

MTB with Ian to Marshman

2009-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

So I decided to ride up to spectate Marshman, a local sprint triathlon at Marsh Creek, and asked Ian to join me in a bit of Mountain biking while we were up there.

After a late start, we headed down Hillsdale at 25+ MPH in sub 50 degree weather. It was tough to stay warm in the first couple of miles, but eventually warm blood reached our extremities and we had a nice easy ride up to Downingtown and along the Struble trail. When we got to the trail head, we saw the cyclist racing down the road toward the 282 turn. We made our way 100meters up the hill and carefully crossed, taking some nice pictures of the cyclist before we continued our off-road journey.

After 12 miles on pavement, it was nice to get off-road and do some single track. When we got to where I thought the race start/finish was, we found out it was on the other side of the lake. We took a break and a picture of the fog clearing off the lake, then headed back along the trails to the other side of the lake.

Once on the single track again, I almost forgot about the race and just enjoyed the trails, but this was a fairly short ride in the woods and soon we were back on the roads heading to the race.

It was fun being at the race - the energy level is high and everyone is having a good time. I got to see some friends, including Andy H (he actually one the race!), and met his friend who came in third, then saw Rob J who came in 4th. Pretty funny. I rode with Andy a few times this summer, and of I've run and raced with Rob many times before. Small world.

So we headed back to the trails, and I soon realized that I am way out of MTB skills - just not riding enough. The first clue was when I endo'd going over a pile of logs, which would have been no problem a couple of years ago. Then, about 20 mins later, I was following Ian down a partially overgrown single track, not particularly difficult, but I wasn't really paying much attention and my front wheel went slightly off the track into the wet grass and I was down for the count. Ouch. It didn't help that I only had one treaded MTB tire on the rear, so my slick road tire on the front did not handle tall wet grass very well.

Anyway, most of the riding was awesome. My skill level is spotty. On the way home, we did small section of Harmony Hill which was fun.

Good times. Peace.

agressively defensive and sometimes illegal

2009-09-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

We were all taught to drive defensively. When riding a bicycle, being a defensive rider is even paramount to one's safety.

When riding in a group, I like to be the one in front, especially on the downhills. I typically have no trouble going faster than everyone anyway and I don't like the restricted response time a group of riders has when one rider makes a mistake or runs into trouble.

When riding in traffic, I do as much as I can to stay away from the cars. For example, I will ride through a red light if there is no cross traffic and if I have an upcoming turn which will take me out of traffic.

Sometimes I use other cars for protection. Going through a stop sign at the same time as a car is a good example of this.

I also try to stay highly visible. Lights and reflectors at in dusk/evening of course. Riding in the middle of the road when making a left turn sitting up high, signaling with my arm. I have a bright yellow backpack - pretty hard to miss.

Of course having a good cruising speed gives drivers more time to see you. So I try not to lose momentum when going up a hill. Sometimes that means buzzing through a stop sign or not slowing too much at a turn - of course I would only do this if I can see the cross traffic from the distance.

my first bike race

2009-09-13T04:48:00.001-07:00

I've done plenty of racing... triathlon, adventure racing and running; but until now, I haven't done a pure bike race.

Yesterday I rode the Univest bike race. (http://www.spartacycling.com/rides/) ...

Wake up at 4:40, in the car by 5 at the course by 6:15. Race start 8am - could have slept an extra hour.

Constant drizzle sucked the energy out of everything.

Lined up too far back with someone I knew and spent the first 20 minutes weaving through wet roads, on-coming traffic, and slow / inexperienced riders to get to the lead group of riders. Bobby Julich, celebrity pro rider was at the front group which was pretty cool.

Once we caught the lead group, we were moving at a really BORING PACE - I like to go fast and I expected to go fast today, but it was early in the ride, in a big group of unfamiliar riders on an unexplored course in rainy conditions, and everyone was being conservative.

Visibility sucked through my prescription cycling glasses due to the rain and the fact they were fogged up. Water was spraying up into my face from the rider in front of me, so taking off the glasses wasn't a good option either (not to mention my nearsightedness).

At one point, while I was leading the pack, I started to shift over to let someone else lead, and I bumped into the rider next to me (apparently he was looking back to the left and I was looking back to the right - bad timing) - fortunately, no harm done, but a scary moment going 25mph or more in the rain.

5 minutes later as we descend a bumpy downhill, I hear a KLUDUNK - not sure what it is, but a moment later when I look at my bike computer... IT HAS VANISHED - CRAP... Decision time - stay the course or go back and see if I can find this $150 bike computer. I decide to go back and find it...

... there are a few hundred additional riders coming in the opposite direction., visibility sucks and I'm going up hill now and they are barreling downhill at 30mph or more not expecting me... so after scanning for the bike computer for 5 minutes whilst dodging other cyclists, I decide to give up this effort and try to play catch up.

It didn't take long for me to over take the next group, but soon after I passed them I missed a turn. I didn't find this out until I had already gone halfway up a big hill, and an grizzly old dude pulls next to me in an cool vintage car and tells me I missed a turn.... ugh...

... so I turn around, get back on course and hit a monster hill that pretty much everyone is walking up (IT WAS THAT STEEP) - I was glad to have made it to the top without walking, but it took a lot out of me. Brutal!

At some point, I decide to take off the glasses so maybe I can see the course markings telling me when to turn! I catch up with another group, but the splash from other riders burns my eyes, so I pull ahead and ride solo the rest of the course, having to stop only one more time to look at the cue sheet to make sure I was still on course.

I didn't catch back up with the lead group - but was only a couple minutes back at the finish.

I might have to try another race with better conditions.

Shimano SH-R300 Shoes

2009-09-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

After a few days of researching various bike shoes, I narrowed the list to two shoes: SIDI Ergo 2 and the Shimano SH-R300.

The SIDI were more money, but had the promise of a good quality, long lasting shoe that could be adjusted to fit my foot as needed.

The Shimano was a custom form fitting shoe that had the promise of a perfectly comfortable shoe after I went through 30 minute custom fitting process.

For about $100 less, I ended up going with the Shimano shoes at $250. That is a lot of dough for me to spend on bike shoes!

So, now I've done a few wrides with these shoes, here is what I think.

At first, I thought I made a mistake. My foot seemed loose in the shoe, I wasn't getting much power, and the tongue was rubbing my right foot on climbs.

I then changed cleat location and pushed them all the way back. That helped a lot with the power. Then Iwas a bit more careful with the tongue when I put the shoe on and was careful not to over tighten the shoe, that seemed to fix the rubbing problem.

The extra room in the shoe actually adds to the comfort. A bit hard to describe, but my foot is snug after getting these shoes heat molded, but other shoes were so constricting, I thought that is what bike shoes were supposed to feel like (of course my feet got numb after long rides in these other shoes). In these shoes, they are fit snugly without feeling constrictive. The main benefit is comfort. After a few long rides and many short rides, I really like these shoes. They are responsive and comfortable.

At first I didn't like the way the looked and almost decided not to buy them, but they are actually pretty cool and very visible in dark situations. Being very light in color, I was worried about them looking dingy. I did a 3 hour ride in the rain, and they still look great (and held up fantastic for the ride).

I've read some reviews suggesting that the heel pad on the bottom of the shoe wears out quickly. I've used them for several weeks on over 20 rides and have not noticed any significant wear - and I do a lot of commute miles that requires frequent dismounts. So, I'm not worried about this. I also checked an 8 year old pair of Shimano shoes that I have put thousands of miles on and have not yet worn down this pad, so I don't think this is an issue.

voodoo donuts

2009-08-22T08:08:00.001-07:00

Trip to Portland was cool. Especially voodoo donuts...

dirty old bastard, voodoo, memphis mafia, arnold palmer, mango tango, maple bacon bar... yum

I met a group of touring riders just finishing their cross country tour after graduating from JMU. They left from Harrisonburg PA, and ended up in Portland Oregon. Nice! I bought their donuts and we got a picture together.

Need a plan

2009-08-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Biking a lot of miles, but until my foot gets better, it is hard to consider serious racing...

Off to Oregon next week - maybe I'll get some inspiration!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

2009-08-16T18:09:00.001-07:00

Day off - played with computers all day

Bike to Work

2009-08-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

I've been doing tons of miles into work. Averaging over 100 miles a week on my bike commute alone. I have a couple of 160 mile weeks. My car is feeling neglected.

It is tough doing this back to back to back.

Basically it is 20 mile ride, 8 hours off, 20 mile ride, 12 hours off, repeat. It's not the mileage, but the lack of recovery that makes this difficult.

I definitely try to do some easier rides, but I get bored and impatient going too slow.

Typical Stats for my commute:
average heart rate ~ 130
elevation gain round trip ~ 2,200
average speed ~ 17-20
commute time ~ 56-75 minutes

missing the water

2009-07-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't been swimming since this time last year. It's taken me a while, but I miss it. I have a bunch of traveling to do in August, but I think I'll join the pool in September and maybe start taking classes all winter. There are four things I want to work on right off the bat... kicking, a faster stroke, a stronger pull, and keeping my head straight. Once I feel like I have those things down, I'll probably start classes up again. Maybe ; )

another 'too' fast ride

2009-07-18T17:52:00.001-07:00

I've been biking over 200 miles a week for a while now. I think that's a lot of miles, but the pros do 500 miles a week - unbelievable!

I did a 65 mile ride with the club. It was listed as a full on 'A' ride. I was pretty excited, thinking there wouldn't be much holding back.

On the first big hill (Skelp Level), I decide to try out some new climbing tactics I've been using during my bike commute - maybe too fast too early.

Then we hit the relatively flat section of 282. The group was holding back for some reason, but I decided to be patient and fall back into the peleton and not jump to the front right away.

Then the A-minus group catches up with us at about mile 11. Now we have over 30 people in the peleton - waaay too many on these roads.

After a mile or two on this flat stretch, I find myself at the front of the peleton and decide to kick it up a few notches. Apparently I was pulling at over 30mph and the paceline got disconnected - I didn't realize it until I ended my turn up front - it was me and two others. Ian was a beast and hung on my wheel the whole pull. I'm glad I wasn't alone!

We split from the A-minus group and start another minor climb and people are joking about how fast I was going. I took a little heat for going 'too fast', but I think if we hadn't mixed in with the slower group, the group I was riding with would have stuck together.

It was a good ride - we just need to work on a consistent, steady pace.

At the end, my legs were toast. I loved every minute of it (except the whining).

Day off tomorrow I think.

Independence day

2009-07-09T18:13:00.001-07:00

Had a great Independence day - nice hard 60 mile ride - two crashes and a blowout. Started with 25 riders, finished with 1. The last one standing is one tough dude - he just wanted to crush the last 8 miles, so I pulled most of the way, but I was really surprised he was able to keep up. He had done 100 miles the day before. He died on the last hill and his legs were literally shaking a the end, but it was way fun to go fast and long and have someone that can actually hang in there. Maybe I should jump into a bike race soon.

Anyway, had a fun lunch with the family when I got back. We had gone to the beer store and picked out a huge variety of beer, roasted little neck clams on the grill, potato salad, corn on the cob - yum.

Later, one of my neighbors put on a very professional fireworks display and I was glad we didn't try to fight the crowds to see another one.

Father's day

2009-07-09T18:06:00.001-07:00

ok - I'm cheating - posting this a couple of WEEKS late - what can I say, I'm a busy boy. Anyway, had a good day on Father's day - bought my wife a bike, did a nice bike loop in Philly with the ladies. Toured the Philly Art Museum part way through the bike ride. Nice... here are some pics...

63 miles today

2009-06-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

I road with a good group today. We started with 25, ended with 3. Hmm. I'm sure everyone got back ok. At the half way point, about 12 of us were left, then we started to jack it up a bit. Unfortunately, we (I) missed a turn. 6 followed, 6 made the turn. I found a nice recovery route, but my credibility was shot, so the other 5 went back. I met them on the short cut. One guy asks me if I think we can catch the other 6 - I said doubtful, but possible. He said let's get organized and go for it. I started moving quickly and lost three of them. We just kept going.

Near the end, we passed Ken Glah and Jan Wanklyn out for an easy ride. I told the other two guys to go ahead and slowed to chat with Ken and Jan.

Overally a good day, but I've got to get better at reading queue sheets when going fast downhill.

nearing 200

2009-06-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

I rode into work 4 times this week - that's 160 miles before the weekend.

Our little 35 mile ride in the rain put me at the 195 mark. I might have to get out for another ride tomorrow (fathers day!).

riding wet

2009-06-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

The forecast wasn't good, but you never know....

I arrived at the meeting place and was happy to see a few others as optimistic as I.

The word was that the ride leader had cancelled the 70 mile 'A' ride, but several of us still wanted to go for a ride. I offered to lead a 50 miler - 5 die hard riders joined me.

1 rider (Andy) introduced himself as a former high school classmate of my 21 year old daughter. He had just qualified for Kona with his 4:45 finish at Eagleman. Nice.

Another rider is part of my Tri club - and works at my company - they would both be doing Philly Tri next week (I am so jealous).

It was a good start - no rain, everyone at roughly the same ability level - no stragglers. Andy was a beast on the uphills - taught me some humility.

10 miles in, the sky opened up and the roads turned to rivers. I had to take off my prescription glasses to see better. The rain was pelting us hard as we road down hills at 30mph.

At 15 miles in, I gave the group a bail out option to head for home. It was unanimous - we started to head back.

The rain slowed a bit, so I added on several loops to get in some extra miles. We finished with 35 miles under our belt - not bad for a rainy day!

Philly Pro Bike Tour

2009-06-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

I rode from my house down to the Philly International Pro bike tour today - about 70 miles round trip. http://www.procyclingtour.com/phila-home.htm

It was fun watching the pros - those guys and gals are amazing. I watched one pass at the base of the infamous Manayunk wall, then climbed to the top myself to watch another pass. It is amazing how fast they can climb. I don't think the climb is THAT hard, but to do it at a high speed, now that is impressive. I'm going to have to check it out sometime when it isn't so crowded.

I met a few cycle club friends throughout the day. That was neat. I guess I'm starting to feel a bit more at home in Philly area.

Speaking of crowds - the whole area is a great big party. I had to travel quite a few side streets to get to various places on the course, and everyone was having a good time!

The River Trail going out and coming back was super crowded. I went to pass a group, and a little girl on her bike lost control for a moment and almost shot out in front of me - she was well hidden behind mom, so I didn't even see her as I started to pass. Could have been a disaster!

On the way home, there was a big motorcycle gathering at Valley Forge Park. I stopped by and took some pictures. The bikers were very cool - only kind words for the skinny cyclist in spandex.

Well it is my lovely daughter's 21st birthday. Crazy!

Ricketts Glenn

2009-06-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

This is a real gem of a state park about 3 hours north of us. We've postponed going here for many years, but the stars must have been aligned yesterday and we could find no more excuses to avoid the 3 hour drive and the 20+ waterfall trail hike.

It was spectacular and I only wish we would have done it sooner and more often! We had heavy rains for the past 4 days, which I'm sure helped the waterfalls put on their best show. It was just Sena and I and she did great on what was classified as a very difficult trail. My daughter Rachel was there a couple of years ago, and she suggested that we might not want to do this very difficult trail - I guess she just thinks her parents are too old (does she know us?).

Anyway, if you get a chance, don't miss this one - fantastic!!!

Next time, I would want to get there very early or perhaps camp there the night before, then do the trails to avoid the crowds.

Transformer: MTB=>Touring

2009-06-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

I've begun to transform my mountain bike to a touring bike. A few minor tweaks so far...

Road-ready tires, strap on pedals, aerobar, rack and packs. Looks good, now I just need to find a time to try it out...

I hope to do some bike camping this summer, and I didn't want to dish out $1K for a new touring bike... not until I decide that I like this new adventure sport!

another fun and wild ride

2009-05-24T17:58:00.000-07:00

For something different, I got to the WCCC ride early with a queue sheet for the A- ride. I'll go out easy, and pick it up in the last 10 miles of a 65 miler - good plan.

So my friend Joel was running late and wasn't ready as the large group of 30 riders took off, so I waited for him to help him catch up. Well, it only took 5 minutes for him to get ready, but the group was really moving. So we saw them in the distance a few times and thought we were making up some ground, but Joel just wasn't feeling the hills climbs, so we would pull them close, then they would drift off again.

10 hard miles later, we caught them stopped at a traffic light. The next few miles were easy pedaling in the draft of the pack, talking to a few few folks here and there.

Eventually I found myself near the front of the group again, charging the hills.

After our mid ride break, the ride leader decided to divert us from a long stretch of a major road. This detour wasn't on the queue sheet, so I wasn't quite sure where I was.

I found myself at the front of this run away train with 30 passengers going downhill at 30 mph, when suddenly a gap revealed itself in the road, which I had to bunny hop over, which in turn dislodged my water bottle, which I was bobbling between my legs as I tried to keep it from landing in the spokes of one of the hapless 30 riders behind me, just as the road dropped into a steeper, shady descent full of potholes. Okay, are you following this so far?

At this point I decide to move into the oncoming traffic lane and let the rest of the group pass as my water bottle falls to the ground and rolls who-knows-where, and I hit the breaks. Of course there was no on-coming traffic, but not a very sophisticated ride move and probably shocked the crap out of several of the riders behind me, who where holding on for dear life down this sharp descent full of pot holes moving at high speeds.

Well it didn't take long for the train to pass and for me to begin to search for my water bottle. I found another one before I found mine and thought it was nice for the group to wait for me at the top of the next hill.

As I rode up to the group, it turns out that 3 people got flats along that nasty little section of road, and much grumbling from the ride leader.

Eventually we regrouped, got our nerve back, and attacked the last 10 miles of the course, of which we were all familiar.

4 dogs, 2 bikes and a car

2009-05-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

I decided to kick my weekend off early yesterday and called a couple of friends for lunch and a beer at 4 Dogs Tavern.

4 Dogs is only 4 miles from my house, so I decided to ride my bicycle over. 1 mile down hill, 1.5 miles flat, 1 mile uphill and then a short ride in. I took my mountain bike and got there in 15 minutes, just before my body started to auto-cool itself with heavy perspiration ; )

My friends were late and I was a beer in when Joe called, trying to figure out where he was, coming all the way in from Philly. Turns out he was just about there and he drove his car into the lot a moment later.

Fred comes in on his beautiful Harley - seriously nice bike, but a bit different than mine ; )

It was a good lunch and I was feeling no pain as I rode home with 3 beers in me a couple of hours later. I don't remember riding my bike after drinking before. Probably safer than driving, but not much.

It was pretty cool, flying down the gravel hill in Strouds preserve - I was being pretty cautions knowing that my motor skills would be somewhat impaired.

The final hill coming home could have been a chore, but I put it in an easy gear and just cruised up. Nice ride!

Black Bear

2009-05-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

I met some Tri Club friends up at Beltzwood Park yesterday - home of Black Bear Triathlon. I thought I might do this course this year, but I'll want to wait for another year. It was good to see the course.

Swimming was closed, but I brought my kayak. So after a riding the very hill course (2 loops - 55 miles), they went for a run and I mountain biked the run course, then kayaked around a bit.

The run course looks pretty easy, but a lot of trails, lots of turns and small hills, so not a super fast course.

The kayak was nice - it started raining just as I was getting onto the water. It was warm, so I was comfortable.

The calm lake was covered with tiny white water 'pearls' - as the rain hit the lake, droplets bounced forming white balls of water for a half a second each 1 inch above the surface of the water - as far as the eye could see - it was beautiful too see as my kayak silently knifed through the still lake waters.

It's funny how you can go your whole life without noticing something like that.

I left my house at 7:30am, and returned home at 6pm. It felt good just to get away and relax.

Charleston

2009-05-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Had a great trip to South Carolina. Swam 3 times in 2 days! The first time out was pretty awkward, but then things felt a bit more natural.

Got a little sunburn on the first day, but we had some rainy weather, so it wasn't too bad.

It was great to see the Erika and meet her boyfriends family. Spending more time with my wife is always a plus - life gets so busy, we don't get enough relaxing time together - she is an awesome chick - no wonder I married her!

58:19 - best bike commute time yet

2009-05-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

I was moving pretty good today, even with several slow downs at stop lights and bad traffic patterns. It's almost 20 miles for me to get to work, so 58:19 is pretty damn fast with a 12 pound backpack and plenty of hills.

Now I intended to ride hard today, knowing I'll have all weekend to rest up with no bikes available.

I could knock off over a minute if I have a good traffic day and don't need to slow down so much.

The good news is that I'm in pretty good shape to pull off that kind of time.

Anyway, just another ride that keeps things interesting.

Polska!

2009-05-03T03:29:00.000-07:00

Last week I found myself in Poland on a business trip.
A 7pm flight out of Philly put me in Munich around 8am on Monday morning.
My 4 years of German in high school provided me with a small bit of confidence as I went through passport control, security, and an German eatery.
After my short layover in Munich, a twin propeller plane to Poznan Poland, and a short taxi ride to my office, I found myself entering an eastern European version of my companies offices at 1pm.
I met with several counterparts and found them quite open and knowledgeable. By 6:30pm the out-of-towners were on a coach bus south to Sierakow, a small resort town 70 kilometers from Poznan.
I brought my swim suit in hopes of finding a pool, but the pool was closed and the lake would have required a wet suit.
When I asked to see the exercise room, I was guided into a very narrow, windowless storage space where the limited circa 1950 equipment was collecting dust and not set up for use. The receptionist offered to get the equipment set up, but I declined, knowing that I would find it very difficult to workout in that environment.
I then asked her if they had any bicycles, she said no, but offered to let me use hers! I took her up on the offer and road into the town only 2 kilometers away. Hey, it was something to stretch my legs out.
Other than that 1 bike ride and a game of volley ball, I did nothing all week but stay up late, drink beer and vodka, dance, etc. It was lots of work during the day, but everyone partied late into the night - I probably averaged 5 hours sleep.
Many of the people were very interested in my Ironman status and thought it was great. One guy was trying to break a 4 hour marathon, and wants me to send him some training plans.
So now I'm trying to get motivated to begin exercising again. I'm pretty worn out, but managed to get a 25 mile bike ride in last night in between rain shower episodes.

100 MILES (non of this sissy metric century stuff)

2009-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, that's right - I knocked out 100 miles today. This metric stuff is for wimps - Imperial system is where it's at - long live the King!

100 miles - not bad, but even better was that my average speed was 17.7mph - even better than that is that the total ascent was over 10,000 feet. Ok, my average heart rate was 144, a bit high for a ride that long, but it was friggin' cold when I started - and that adds added at least 10bpm for the first hour or so.

So the deal was this, I would ride from my house to a metric century ride, do the ride, then come home. I was trying to do around 100, the only problem was that if I did the whole enchilada, it would have been 115+. My longest ride this year has been around 60, so that was definitely pushing it.

So, I cut a chunk out of the metric century and headed home early - not sure that my fellow riders understood all of this, but that's too bad - not to mention, I was tired of riding in a pack after 50 miles with them or so - I really like some alone time when I ride, so this was a good time to break off.

Anyway, aside from the cold start and a bit of wind, the weather was fabulous. The course was awesome - particularly the new route I came up with getting to the park. No pics. My pockets were overflowing with cold weather gear after a couple of hours in, so really no room for a camera.

I felt a little queasy and realized I was getting a bit dehydrated. Had to stop by a Wawa for some water only 10 miles from home, but felt much better after I took in some fluid.

So, my first century ride in early this year. Cool.

foot plan

2009-04-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

I've take 10 days off and have been thinking about the advice I've been given and the research I've done. I've already tried quite a few things to address my plantar fasciitus, but thought it would be good get it all down on paper. Here is what I think the priority should be to address Plantar Fasciitus. This assumes you already have it and it has moved from acute to chronic.

1. Rest (no running - but you must do 2-7 if you stop running or it will just get worse)
2. Stretching - calf and hamstring
3. Ice
4. Self Message
5. Orthodics - check
6. Strenghening Exercise
7. Night Splint
===================
8. Deep Tissue Massage
9 Cordizone shot
10. Accupuncture
11. Alcohol shot (still investigating this one)
12. Topaz (minimally invasive treatment)
13. ESWT (Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy)

Step 12 and 13 could be reversed if your insurance pays for 11.

Spectatorship

2009-04-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

I'm not a good spectator - never have been.

I like to be out there doing stuff. Training or racing - I don't care, just want to be in the mix of things.

I went to the BVD sprint race this week to support my club. It was nice. I learned a bit. But I just wanted to be out there racing.

Sucks... sucks, sucks, sucks that my foot is messed up.

So I'm planning my life for that day when my damn foot is better. I decided to shave over 3 minutes off my BVD time. That is a lofty goal - I think I can do it if I can ramp up my running again.

riding strong

2009-04-03T19:05:00.001-07:00

Tuesday night is pirate ride. Fast and furious, take no prisoners, last man standing kind of ride. We pushed really hard. I finished with two other guys, a forth not far behind. We dropped about 10 guys. My legs nearly fell off at the end - yes I cracked on the last climb. That is my idea of fun!

If that wasn't enough, I decided to go for the Thursday night hill ride. My left knee was a bit sore, so I decided to try to take it easy. I started off easy, but once I met the group at the top of Alerton hill, things started getting out of control. We just hammered. One of the Tuesday night guys showed up and we just pushed each other on each hill. We were jammin' - it was great having someone to ride with that could keep up. Knee feels fine today (Friday).

Foot is toast

2009-04-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

So I went to the podiatrist yesterday with my MRI films of my left foot in hand.

He concluded that I should stop running for at least the next 18 weeks... 4 weeks off, then either get ESWT (Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy) or TOPAZ (minimally invasive Treatment for Tendon and Fascia Symptons)... either will require 14 weeks of recovery.

I am so bummed.

I'm going to get a second opinion. I think he skipped some steps. I never got an alcohol shot into my foot (some friends say they have done this after cortezone). I haven't tried acupuncture.

So I rode hard on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I'm thinking about a mountain bike race tomorrow. Fortunately I can still ride.

I guess all of that stretching and icing isn't paying off.

We will see how it goes.

3 key indicators

2009-03-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was running through Valley Forge Park yesterday. About a mile in, I glanced down at my Garmin. It showed my heart rate in big, bold letters, then my lap pace and my distance.

These three indicators are really all I need for a good run... here is why.

I want to keep my heart rate in check at all times. For example, when I plan to run a relatively easy 5 miles, then I want to build my heart rate as I go. So the first mile or so, I keep it under 150, then below 155, then below 160, and not worry about it in the last couple of miles.

Lap pace is important too. I don't really care what pace I am going at any point in time. But if I plan to go out easy, say a 9min pace, then drop it as I go, then I can use the lap pace to keep me close to the mark. If I have .25 miles left in mile three and I was trying to do a 7:30, but I'm at 7:35, I can pick it up a bit. This is good practice for race pacing on longer races.

The distance indicator is more to feed the other two indicators.

With all of that said, I will sometimes use total time for my primary indicator, if I plan to do a 90 minute run or longer.

a long week

2009-03-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

My daughter came into town with her boyfriend last weekend. It was GREAT to have them and we had loads of fun. Nice dinners, movies, Wii games, shopping, sight seeing in Philly, etc. It was nice to get to some places that we haven't been to in a while (Victory Brewing Company) or I haven't tried at all (Simon Pierce). All very good.

At the same time, work was insane! Several things hit at the same time and I'm still trying to sort through it.

I got a small cold - tickle in the back of the throat with a cough that kept me (and Sena) awake at night.

Somehow I managed to get 7+ hours of training in for the week. I snuck in a 1 hour bike ride here - an hour on the eliptical there and when everyone slept on Saturday I did an hour on the trainer followed by a 9 mile run with a guy less than half my age and 25 pounds lighter - I struggled at the end of the run going up Hillsdale Road - nice 3/4 mile climb.

Today after my daughter and her boyfriend left, I did a 50 mile ride with Joel. We were both feeling a bit ragged, he more than I (thankfully). We stopped by Jacquie and Joanne on the way home and had a cold beer when we got back. It was a good ride.

10 mile run, 60 mile ride, 30 something degrees

2009-03-01T17:17:00.000-08:00

Had a pretty good workout yesterday. I posted a run/ride workout with our tri-group. Only one guy showed up for both, but fortunately I schedule these things to coincide with the local run club and the local bike club, so there were plenty of people for both legs.

The run ended up being hilly, which was ok, but I'm surprised how high my heart rate gets and I'm not feeling tired - I'm talking in the 160s - no problem.

So I was going to be the ride leader for the bike segment, consisting of a 60+ mile ride with an option to bail out at mile 40ish. I posted it as an A- ride, meaning 17-21mph or something like that.

There were 10 people. Those that were planning on the full 60 were taking it easy and were not going the A- pace. Those that were planning on the 40 miles were hammering pretty good and getting a bit frustrated when we had to stop several times.

So I found out that I'm not the greatest ride leader - I started with 10 riders, and ended up with just 1 (myself). Ha! Well, the first 5 took the bail out option. Two told me they would drop early, so that left me and two other guys. They weren't really going an A- pace, so I told them I was going to head back at my pace. I felt a twinge of guilt, but got over it. I think they had a good ride and no one would have been happy had we tried to stay together.

3 Amigos

2009-02-21T16:05:00.001-08:00

Did a 9 mile run followed by a 45 mile ride today with two amigos - John and Joel.

The day started at 26 degrees. It got up into the 40s some time today.

The run: met a group of runners at the running store in West Chester. I did 2.25 mile run to the store before we started.

We stayed with them for the first half of the run. Then John and I got to the front of the group and started shooting the shit and before you knew it, we were running a 7min pace and had dropped most of the group. Joel is a good runner, but 7min pace is his race pace, so he fell behind. We did 5.25 miles with the group, then I ran another 1.5 miles home, changed my clothes and got on my bike to meet back up with John and Joel.

We met with the rest of the bike club, but only one brave soul (Todd) joined us for the second part of our workout. The first 20 miles were a bit of a struggle, but we were pretty steady. John kicked it in at the last mile or so of the first twenty and we dropped Joel and Todd, but took a nutrition break. On the way back, Joel, John and I were all strong, but Todd was struggling to keep up. I used my rear-view mirror to keep him in sight when he was right behind me, but if someone else was behind me, I couldn't tell if we were dropping him, and we did, a few times. Not to worry, Todd knew he was a bit out of shape and wasn't worried about getting dropped. We soft pedaled often to let him catch up, so it's a bit difficult to gauge our average speed.

I stopped at Ironhill Brewery for a beer after the ride - Joel joined me and one of the runners from early joined as well. Kevin was also there to let us check out the new Tri Jerseys. We almost got kicked out because we were taking off our shirts to try them on... the bartender was not too pleased with us.

Then I rode 1.5 miles home. I wonder if there is a law against drinking and riding. Don't worry, one beer didn't impair my balance... just wondering.

my lunch box

2009-02-21T15:55:00.001-08:00

I've been eating pretty healthy, but I stepped it up a notch lately. Carrots, Celery, Tomatoes, Grapes, Hard Boiled Eggs, Clementines, Grapefruit, and one of my all time favories, PB&J on whole grain white bread and 100% peanut ingredients in the PB.

Yeah, it looks like a lot of foot, but better than eating junk.

Those bananas hiding in the back go into my big bowl of oatmeal.

ride to french creek

2009-02-14T13:29:00.000-08:00

ahh - one of my favorite local rides - about 60 mile round trip from my house - lot's of flat, and about as many hills as I want to add along the way

my wife is the best - it's valentines day, so we make plans for the afternoon and I'm off on my morning adventure

it's been a while since I took this ride - funny, I wasn't looking forward to it, but once you get going... well, you know

about 24 degrees at the start, but I'm used to it by now - knowing it would warm up as the day went on...

I threw in harmony hill at 5 miles in (really warmed things up), and climbed to the north entrance of the park when I realized that I wasn't going to hit 60 miles if I didn't.

I get to the lake and it's been kind of warm lately, so I was amazed to see this old dude ice fishing in the middle of the lake. It looked to me that about 30 percent of the lake was thawed already.

Here are some pics.

and the zoom...

And I thought I was crazy!

big blue bowl and green mug

2009-02-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

I got a big blue bowl from my daughter a few years ago.

The bowl sits on my shelf at work.

Every weekday morning I load it with oatmeal, walnuts, roasted almonds, raisins, and bananas.

It's the perfect size for my healthy appetite.

Some days I use it for a bowl of soup, or some left over spaghetti or chili.

My blue bowl is good for the environment - I used to use a new Styrofoam bowl every day - not so good for mother nature.

I like my blue bowl - it makes me smile.

My green mug was made by my daughter - it makes me smile too. It is thick and heavy and keeps my water cold. It is blue on the inside and makes my water look cool and refreshing.

Sometimes it is the little things in life that make me most happy.

I hit a deer

2009-02-08T07:53:00.001-08:00

or should I say, the deer hit me?

Driving home from work, not going fast, a deer appeared out of the woods. I slammed on the breaks, skidding to a stop, while the deer simultaneously ran into the side of my car.

In one moment, I see the deer bouncing off my car and the next moment, it is laying on the side of the road. I figured it was dead for sure and I watched at it for a minute, but there was a truck behind me waiting for me to move on, so I drove home (which was only a quarter mile away).

I felt pretty sad about it.

It had sprayed some nasty brown crap all over my car - I thought it was literally crap, but it didn't have a bad smell.

After I got home and had dinner, I went to wash my car, but the deer was gone. I'm assuming it wasn't hurt that bad - one can hope anyway.

The brown stuff was very sticky and was difficult to spray off the car, even with a high pressure hose. I have no idea what it was - may need to do some research.

Now I have to get the dent in my front quarter panel fixed. What a pain.

Enjoying the cold

2009-01-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Most people hate cold weather - I love it.

Always have.

Makes me feel more alive.

I wouldn't like it all of the time - I'd get tired of it... but change is good - keeps things fresh.

I was out for a run recently and it was cold - no one in sight.

It was quiet. I heard a tree moving with the wind. I heard the subtle flow of the river.

Everything around me seemed dead - I love the contrast of how full of life I feel when I am running in the winter. I am this warm body moving through the cold air.

A cloudy day intensifies the effect.

A run on a winters night is surreal - the dark against the white snow. My body warming the cold air. The air so clean - the smell of nothing... and then suddenly the wonderful smell of a wood burning fire.

The silence against may rampant thoughts.

getting the most out of your Garmin "Workouts" Feature

2009-01-13T15:25:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm a gadget freak sometimes - at other times, I want nothing between me and the great outdoors.

But in the winter, when I'm stuck inside training on my bike, I tend to play with my gadgets a bit more.

Now Garmin sports devices come with software called Training Center. This software has some really nice features when using it with the Garmin.

The main one I want to talk about today is the Workouts. If you haven't used this, give it a shot.

I've never used this feature outdoors and not sure that I would bother.

But indoors, it is fantastic!

Why? Because you can set up your workout using the Training Center Software, download it to your Garmin Device, then run the workout when you are on your Bike trainer in the basement watching TV.

Why? Because if you're really tired of using those Training DVDs, you can program the exact same workout into your Garmin and watch 24 or a full length movie and just let your Garmin tell you what to do next.

So how does it work? It's pretty easy, but let me screen scrape one of my workouts and I'll explain how I workout against it....

For this workout (I call it Strength/Speed), I do 2 mins in Heartrate zone 1, 5 minutes in HR2, and 3 mins in HR3 (ok, the graphic doesn't show all of that, but trust me it's there and it does show up on your Garmin). After that warmup, I rest for 2 minutes then go to a big/hard gear keeping my Cadence between 60 and 70 for 3 minutes. I do this 8 times, then I move to the fast feet, where I rest for a minute and kick the cadence up to 100-110 for 2 minutes - I do this 6 times. Then I do a cool down.

Piece of cake! The Garmin beeps at me when it is time to change, and tells me if I'm going to fast or slow. You can set this up for Cadence, Speed, HR, Distance. (You need to add extra Garmin hardware to do all of this - or you can just go by Heart Rate or use the cyclometer and go by time).

So set up some nice workouts on your Garmin and watch something good on TV instead of following those boring training videos!

Next Time - Garmin Training Partner

on the trails again

2009-01-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

The early dawn twillight woke me this morning. It must have been 7 or so.

Ate some cereal with frozen blueberries and read the paper.

I was cold - didn't want to ride yet, so fixed the treadmill (a couple of washers) and the eliptical (paper in the roller track).

It took some doing, but I finally convinced myself to go for that MTB ride in the cold (30 degrees - not so bad).

Got to the end of the driveway and decided to go back and fill my tire.

The first mile is mostly downhill and it chilled me to the bone.

2 miles in, the tongue from my shoe was bugging me - must be twisted - I stopped and fixed it - cold hands.

3 miles in, I had to dismount - construction zone on a little used gravel road that I take.

On the trail I felt totally out of my element - it's been a while. Ground was frozen, lots of leaves still, light dusting of snow on the trails.

Just not feeling it, but going to stick it out, just relax and enjoy it.

45 minutes in, my balance comes back, finding some nice new trails, an old stone building where the trail runs through - kind of neat.

A few more climbs, feeling good. Rarely dismounting. Feeling the trails, not having to think about it so much, just riding, not so tense.

Back at home, nice lunch, play Wii with Sena. Good day.

January Doldrums

2009-01-09T18:19:00.000-08:00

Not a lot of motivation this year yet. Limited running (Doctor's orders); not enough daylight to ride during the week; too cold to ride regularly anyway; I quit the gym 6 months ago; no training plan; treadmill and eliptical broken; new car doesn't have a bike rack; I haven't signed up for any races yet; ate loads of unhealthy food over the holiday and gained 10lbs... too many excuses.

So tomorrow, I'll fix the treadmill and hopefully fix the eliptical. We'll have some snow, so either I'll go for a MTB ride locally or ride on the trainer; lift some weights.

favorite quotes

2008-12-29T05:08:00.000-08:00

be careful of looking for adventure, it is ridiculously easy to find - William Least Heat-Moon

live the life you've dreamed - Henry David Thoreau

do more, feel better, live longer - GlaxoSmithKline mission

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand - Kurt Vonnegut

each time I ride my bike is an adventure - I'm sure someone must have said this

(will add to the list over time)

60 mile ride - another near crash

2008-12-28T18:25:00.000-08:00

I did the Dog Daze Southern loop today.

The temps were in the 50s! The wind was in my face for the first 1/2 of the ride, but it was a pleasure coming back.

25 miles in, a bridge was out, so I... climbed down, walked planks, stepped in mud, gunked up right cleat.

Tried to clear it out a few times - it seemed clean, but wouldn't catch into the pedal.

At one point when I was moving pretty fast, I went to return water bottle to cage and my foot slipped off the pedal - lost my balance, swerved across wet road, nearly wiped out pretty good.

Dumb ass.

So I stopped and spent some time with the cleat and a stick. I'm not sure what I did, but it finally 'clicked' into the pedal.

Need to pack a small screw driver in my bag.

Otherwise, ride was pretty cool. 3200 foot elevation gain.

Better to be thought a fool, than to blog and remove all doubt ; )

50 mile ride

2008-12-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

50 miles yesterday.

It took 10 miles for my hands and feet to warm up - good to remember, because the ride was fine after that.

I live at the top of a hill - on cold days, it sucks because I'm not warmed up yet and I start by increasing the wind chill factor by 35mph or so - on days that are 30 degrees or below, that wind chill factor is brutal.

I got some compression pants for Christmas. Can't wear them until the foot doctor gives me the thumbs up to run again (well I suppose I could wear them around the house, but my daughters would not approve - not so sure about the wife ; )

So I call my brother - catch him and his family (2 sons under age of 5) on the car speaker phone on their way to the airport for a week in Mexico (they're livin' the life!). My nephews tell me about the dinosaurs and trucks they got from Santa, then ask me what I got....
'I got tights from Santa' - the line goes real quiet, so I follow up 'they are magic pants that make me run real fast' - now they get it - like a super hero - right ; )

Other than that, lots of normal Christmas stuff... wife has the flu... rescue niece and nephew from being stranded at Philly airport... way too much food, especially cookies, cake, chocolate... visit with family... start to think about next year...

I really have to get motivated on my race schedule. I'm looking for a good half IM.

best and worst tri-stuff

2008-12-23T05:51:00.000-08:00

I pulled out an old Spinergy DVD yesterday - 90 minute Time Trial video. At 75 minutes I realized what a crap video it was when none of the riders could keep up with the trainer Troy Jacobson (who doesn't ride, just coaches from the sideline).

So I got this idea of sharing the worst, and best training / racing ideas on my blog.

My opinions - happy to hear comments...

Bike Training Videos
Best - Train Right - Carmichael
Worst - Spinergy - Jacobson

Power Bars
Best - Hammer Bars
Worst - Most non-organic power bars laden with preservatives

Most Productive Bike Training
Best
#1 - indoor training intervals
#2 - outdoor flat time trial 3x20 minutes 3-5 min rest

Worst
Most Group rides (yeah, they are fun, but only good for base training)
Commute to work (too much stopping and starting - good for some hill work or base training)

Swim Suit
Best - Jammer
Worst - Brief
Even worse - Swim Shorts

Goggles
Best - anything that keeps the water out and doesn't fog up - I like Aqua sphere Seal XP
Worst - cheap brands that don't adjust well, slip, let water in, fog easily, scratch easily

Race Tire Choice
Best - Continental Supersonic Clinchers
Worst - Tubulars - I don't like the idea of glue on race day

Training Plan
Best - Joe Friel Triathletes Bible custom fit for your needs or one developed for you by a qualified triathlete trainer
Worst - generic web training plans that don't address specific racer needs

Training Computer
Best - Garmin with Training Center
Worst - Separate devices - cyclometer + heart rate + running pace watch with pod, etc.

new bike workout - strength and speed

2008-12-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

I set this one up on the Garmin Training Center and downloaded it to the 305 for an indoor workout...

Warmup
-2min HR Zone 1
-5min HR Zone 2
-3min HR Zone 3

Strength Repeats x 8
-2min easy
-3min high resistance (HR Zone 4+ / RPM 65)

Speed Repeats x 6
-1min easy
-2min fast feet (over 100 RPM)

Cooldown
- 2min HR Zone 3
- 5min HR Zone 2

the foot doctor

2008-12-17T13:18:00.000-08:00

Took the trip down to Delaware to see the locally famous Dr. Feehery - a local podiatrist with a strong following amongst the elite endurance athletes.

It took 2 months to get on his calendar, but so far it seems worth it.

Over an hour later, 6+ X-rays, an ultrasound, numerous foot and gait checks, a Cortisone shot, and a long list of recovery procedures (ice, stretch, message, etc.), I'm on my way to better foot health (I hope).

The Xrays were pretty scary, showing a heel spur which has been the source of the pain.

No running for 2 weeks. I might just go crazy!

But no, kids are home for college break (freaking smart kids too - it's raining A's around here - whoo hoo - makes it easier to foot those monster tuition bills).

Sena's birthday today - some sushi, gourmet cupcakes, hi-def Harry Potter with the whole family - life is good.

I think everyone is now melowing out while I repair my daughter's PC - major virus just before she came home. It looks hopeless, will probably take most of the day - ouch.

So I'll blog on whilst I wait for crap software to uninstall so I can get to a relatively clean state.

Of course the restore points were wiped out by the virus, so it's manual clean up time.

brrr - cold

2008-11-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

e-mail from a friend... ride to Philly marathon in sub-freezing temps - cool.

meet at 7:30am - first 15mins, my face hurts because it is so cold, but then warms up... next 30 mins, toes and feet are frozen

ride is pancake flat, so no chance of getting warm on a hill climb

get to the 20 mile mark of the marathon - Matt buys me a hot chocolate - good chap

we watch the leaders head to the finish and we ride behind for a while, then find a spot in the sun to stay warm - it doesn't work - standing still is a bad idea

we ride to the marathon finish and watch the top woman and some friends cross the line - then we head home

good day

dark drizzle

2008-11-16T10:32:00.000-08:00

Friday - riding home from work in the dark with my headlamp taped to my handlebars - I forgot the helmet strap at home.

Drizzle - a light mist really, speckling my classes with minscule driplets of water over time until I can barely see the road in front of me.

Slippery road - wet leaves, moist pavement, down hills and curves.

Blinding lights - high beams from cars heading in the opposite direction on small curvy country roads - I am totally helpless until the pass - and then I can see again.

Bam! - a pothole that I couldn't see because of the lights.

A better way? - what is the right way to ride a bicycle at night in the rain? No glasses? Maybe.

House Painting

2008-11-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

Little known secret - I'm afraid of heights...

So this past weekend I rent a 32 foot ladder and paint the outside peak trim of my house. Of course there is the prep work - electric sander, painters tape... then painting - look mom, no hands!

Anyway, it was character building, at least mentally / emotionally. Getting to the top was the hard part, with all the movement. And of course when my wife Sena would sneak up on me and yell up the ladder to get my attention... yeah, well that was a bit on the nerve wracking side. Maybe I should lower my life insurance ; )

The physical part was exhausting. My 24 foot aluminum ladder was relatively easy to manage. Moving up to a 32 foot fiberglass ladder was brutal. Very heavy and hard to move. Had to call in the reinforcements (Sena) to get it up and down every time I moved to another part of the house.

Then there was the standing on my toes for many hours of the day - my calfs and feet were killing me.

And of course I banged my sore knee about 100 times - ouch.

My neck - what a pain.

So I guess it was a good workout? Maybe I'm just looking for the silver lining.

time off

2008-10-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've taken some time off. Ever since the Xterra run I've decided to give my body a break.

Three weeks off and my foot and knee are still not fully recovered - you would think by now, right?!

Since the Xterra race, I have done one 4 mile run and two bike rides 20 miles and 40 miles. I got on the eliptical for 1 hour this week and did about 40 minutes on the bike trainer just now. I have been lifting weights and stretching a fair bit.

So what's next? Well I'm thinking about Brians Run. 6 weeks away - not in great shape. I have never run a 10k faster than 39 minutes - so that might be a good goal. Brians Run is a tough course, but I'm pretty sure I can pull off a sub 39min PR.

Or maybe I'll just relax and enjoy the fall.

resting up

2008-10-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

no running this week - the compression socks worked really well for recovery of the achilles and calf muscles / tendons, but my plantar fasciitis is killer - last race really tore it up.

Work was crazy this week, so I really didn't have time to train, just recover - woo hoo!

I did get out for a short (20 mile) bike ride today. I hadn't been on my bike in weeks! Felt good to get out, but my knee is STILL sore - I'm not sure if it will ever recover - crap-ola.

My focus will be on strength, flexibility and recovery for a while. We'll see hot that goes.

A few friends from the TRI-SIG group kicked ass in recent races, which is really great to see. If you're reading this - congrats!!!

Off to the UK in a couple of weeks for business. Time to really buckle down at work - a lot of change - hopefully some opportunity.

Adios Amigos & Amigas

end of the season - PDR & XTERRA

2008-09-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today I ran the XTERRA Trail Run national championship in Bend Oregon. I came 4th in my age group. Not bad, considering I hadn't recovered from last weeks Philly Distance run.

This was a race of convenience. I was in Eugene Oregon getting my daughter settled in at U of O and I realized this race was only a couple of hours away.

The landscapes between Eugene and Bend area awesome. On the way home, we took the scenic route - http://www.planetoregon.com/mckenziepass.html. Cool volcanic flow, beautiful waterfalls.

The race was pretty cool. XTerra are a very tight race organization and the entry fee was only $35 for a 21K race - nice. The course was much flatter than I expected - spectacular views - nice single track, tough hills - I haven't done much hill work this year - shameful.

My plantar fasciitis was really flaring up since the PDR race and the last few miles were painful - on ice as I write this. My achilles tendon and soleus on both legs were also still very sore from PDR, particularly when I get past mile 4. After the race today I bought a pair of compression socks. Let's hope they work out.

Wilderness Kayak Trip

2008-09-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

My younger daughter is going to college in a few weeks (University of Oregon). Last summer she discovered that she actually liked camping. So we have been trying to get out for a nice overnighter.

A couple of weeks ago I found this place up in New Jersey called Round Valley Lake. They only have wilderness camping (no RVs and you can't drive to the camp sites). So you either have to paddle or backpack to the campsites. Cool! My daughter was very into it.

Earlier in the week a friend of mine suggested we get together on the kayaks before work... so on Tuesday we did a short paddle down the Schuylkill river. It was good to get out on the water again.

Unfortunately rain was in the forecast, but we decided to go for it.

We got there about 4pm after driving in the rain for 2.5 hours. The lake was much larger than I thought it would be based on the map. With the rain and my daughter being fairly inexperienced on the kayak, I felt a wee bit of trepidation overpowered by the excitement of adventure.

We put all our stuff in garbage bags to keep them dry and loaded up our one touring kayak. Rachel paddled the loaded kayak and I took the white water kayak - she got the better deal.

The lake was beautiful and deep dark blue. It was rain/drizzle for the hour+ paddle that it took us to get to the site. We basically had the place to ourselves. Way cool.

We set up the tent and we were smart enough to bring dry wood and newspaper which, through a lot of patience, my boy scout ways, and Rachel's innate firebuiding skills, allowed us to get a really good fire going.

Weenies, soup, s'mores and a lot of nice conversation followed - the rain stopped for a couple of hours and we just enjoyed the fire.

There was no rain the following morning and we had a nice breakfast and a long hike. Great trails for running and biking btw. We did a little fishing, but were not very successful.

We broke camp at mid day and headed back. It was a really nice time.

white butterflies on crap

2008-08-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

I went out for a little adventure last weekend with Don - it was Don's idea, so we'll call it Don's totally cool mini-adventure.

The plan - run a 4 mile race, swim in Blue Marsh lake for a while, then do some mountain biking around the lake.

At 9:15, I arrived at the race site "Run4Sam" (I have a nephew named Sam to whom I will be giving the give-away race t-shirt. I didn't see Don around, but hit the rest room, registered and did my warm-up run. It looked to be a flat, gravelly course - and it was going to be hotter than I expected.

At the starting line I found Don at when the race started, Don was like a rabbit. Keep in mind, Don is more than 10 years older than I am, and I'm getting pretty old. Also keep in mind that Don is the XTerra Triathlon national champ for his age group. One other thing - I've never run or raced with Don before.

So the beginning part of the race is downhill, over a bridge, then a very sharp U-turn, then under the same bridge, then easy going for a mile or so.

Don is the third racer to the U-turn, a tactically smart thing to do. I'm there about 10 people in. I'm pushing pretty hard and Don is about 10 meters in front of me. At the top of the first hill, I sidestep another racer and head down the hill just in front of Don. At the bottom, I pick up the pace slightly and pass another racer.

After the third mile I get a good look at who is in front of me and who is behind me and I realize that I would have to go significantly faster of significantly slower to change my position, so I put it in cruise control and have a solid finish in 5th place - first masters across the line. Don is just 20 seconds back with only one runner between us. Pretty incredible for a guy 12 years older than me.

So then we head over to our swim - get lost on the ride over, but it was a beautiful day for a ride. Nothing really memorable about the swim, except that my goggles kept flooding, I finally took them off and, low-and-behold, I started swimming pretty well. Hmm.

Next was the mountain bike section. Don is pretty good on the old MTB. Took me up a ski slope - neither one of us made it up, but Don shared some secrets about Xterra racing - like don't even try to ride up if you think you will get stuck part way. I was able to manage some technical climbs, but had some trouble on the big technical downhill.

During some of the flat sections, I followed Don and noticed thousands of those little white generic butterflies swarming up from the ground as we passed. It was actually pretty cool, until I realized they were congregating on a pile of horse crap and each time we passed they would leave the mound so as not to be run over. Something odd to me about these lily white butterflies hanging out on a pile of horse crap.

Anyway, it was a good mini-adventure.

According to the Orthopedist

2008-08-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

So I finally went in to have the Dr. take a look at my knee last Thursday morning. Xrays were good - yeah! He said to use ice - a lot.

So after my 100 mile bike I took an ice bath, but didn't use ice much the rest of the day.

My 10 mile run on Sunday was a bit painful in the knee, so I iced it - a lot. Seemed to have worked pretty well and most of my Monday run was pain free... and my Tuesday run was pain free too.

Of course he did send me to the PT on Tuesday (yesterday) to learn some strength training exercises and stretches. The PT was a bit stumped as she couldn't find any imbalances causing the pain, but gave me my stretches and exercises anyway. She also did a ultrasound massage deal.

Things seem to be getting better. I'll try to keep tabs on it.

Donating Blood

2008-08-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I donated blood.

I ran a 3 mile tempo on the treadmill on Thursday night - felt sluggish.

I rode 100 miles on Saturday - really tired.

I ran 10 miles on Sunday - dragging ass.

I ran 5 easy miles on Monday - harder than it should have been.

Did 8x800 yesterday - I couldn't believe how slow I was going.

So now I'm wondering how long it really takes to recover from a blood donation?

(I took today off - sort of - actually I'm on my way to lift weights)

100 miles never felt so hard

2008-08-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't been putting in the big bike miles this year, but decided to do the Dog Daze Century yesterday... on my new bike (pictured left).

Initially I was going to get up at 5am, ride the second 50 mile loop and be back to the start at 8am, then ride the first 50 mile loop with a group from the WCCC club.

At 4:30am I got up and started to get ready, when I realized how dark it was going to be and I didn't want to carry a bike light all day long.

So at 5:15am I went back to sleep, got up a 7am ate a banana and a bagel with peanut butter and rode 5 miles to the start with a new goal of riding straight through - no rest stops.

At 8:10 we (a group of strong WCCC riders) finally got rolling and the pace was quicker than I would have liked for a 100 mile ride, particularly on the uphills. On the other hand, the downhills were slow - something that normally happens with a group ride.

Victor and I rode at the front in the beginning to keep things at a reasonable pace. Over the next few miles, Tim, Bob P., and others started to hammer like we were doing a 50 mile ride.

I wasn't really feeling it - my legs were tired - not a lot of energy, but I kept going.

About 15-20 miles into the ride the group needed to 're-group' at the top of a hill. I started to wait with them, but remembered my goal of no rest stops, so I forged ahead solo, passing small groups along the way.

My right arm was getting really sore and cramped, but I just kept stretching it out - I missed my aero bars. I was beginning to think I would quit after mile 50.

The strong 'peleton' that I started with caught up with me a couple of miles before a rest stop at mile 39. I drafted behind them which was so much easier (except on the uphills which they pushed pretty hard). When we got to the rest stop, they stopped, I kept going.

At mile 50 I had to sign-in, get a new cue sheet, and get some water. The peleton came in right behind me. They stopped for lunch, I kept going.

There was another solo rider just in front of me. My right knee has been sore lately and I'm just not climbing hills fast. So he slowly pulled away, but eventually I caught up with him - we rode together side-by-side for a short while - nice guy (Mike from New Jersey). He had never done this ride before and he reminded me of how beautiful it was. He said the first loop was too hilly and preferred the second loop since it was more wooded and less farmland. He stopped at the mile 68 rest stop, I kept going.

There was some seriously steep climbs soon after I left Mike - Bucktoe Road being one of them. I kept looking back to see if Mike was going to catch up - he never did.

The volunteer at the mile 81 rest stop was tempting me to stop - I think he was bored and I would have been his first customer. I kept going.

A mile or two later I sucked on my Camelback and it was empty. Crap! I kept going.

At mile 86 I stopped at a store and bought some water. It was getting warm and I was dehydrating. Getting off the bike felt great and allowed me to stretch my back and legs. I'm not sure how people do these rides without aero bars - it was painful.

As I crossed the road, I noticed lots of bikers apparently on the first 50 mile loop, or perhaps on the 27 mile loop. Anyway I figured I would take the 'blue' course and maybe shorten things a bit (I knew I was already doing an extra 10 miles by riding to and from the start and I really only wanted to do 100 total).

Soon after I saw another rest stop intended for the first loop and I asked the volunteer how many miles left - 14 miles he yells to me. So I didn't save many miles and, as it turns out I added a lot of hills. Oh well. I kept going.

I made it to the end and never saw New Jersey Mike or the Peleton. I even stopped for a quick snack, but I couldn't seem to get excited about solid food except watermellon and potato chips.

On my ride home, I rolled up to Frank heading the same direction. We had a nice chat on the way back. I slowly made it up Hillsdale and was happy for my ice bath. I watched Sena crush all of my Wii Fit scores, then I sat on the couch and watched the olympics the rest of the day.

Share the Road

2008-07-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

same day as previous post...

I'm riding up to a stop sign - I'm only 50 feet away - there is a car 50 feet behind me - I put my arm out signalling my left turn and begin to move to the left side of the lane - car fires the engine, jumps in the opposite lane to pass me - I move over so as not to get hit - car stops at stop sign - I ride up to driver window - window is down - young female driver - "Share the Road", I say in my stern-Dad-voice (I didn't realize I had one of these until one of my daughters pointed it out) - driver does not look up, but does look frightened - maybe she will be more careful next time.

SCREEETCH

2008-07-31T14:49:00.000-07:00

That's always a scary sound to hear behind you when you're cruising on your bike down a country road. I was barreling down hill at 30+ mph and apparently a car decided to pass me (speed limit was 35mph). He/she apparently didn't expect to see a car coming in the opposite direction and probably didn't expect me to be going so darn fast!

Well, I didn't crap myself... but I did have a lot of thoughts run through my mind in rapid fire...
- what the???
- oh shit!
- here it comes!
- I'm still alive
- don't jerk around and look - I may swerve into the car or run into the grass!
- stay in control
- end of screetch - sounds like he stopped
- why isn't he passing?
- what is he doing back there?
- everything under control... time to take a peek
- dumb ass - why the hell is he way over in the other lane
- what just happened?
- should I be doing something different?
...yada yada

Building a fire

2008-07-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

"I am building a fire, and every day I train, I add more fuel. At just
the right moment, I light the match." -- Mia Hamm, Olympic gold
medalist, 2004 U.S. Women's Soccer Team