the other brother

Who Are You?

2011-08-04T07:51:00.003-05:00

I recognize it's been a while since my last post but now that I'm knee-deep in nursing classes and clinical rotations, I feel that I have something interesting to write about again. That said, I'll warn you that this isn't the most cheery entry.

I'm not exactly sure what HIPAA permits me to write about and what it doesn't, so I'll try to keep everything about actual people as vague as possible.

For most of July I spent a day each week in an Alzheimer's facility (as a nursing student, not as a temporary resident; my cognitive processes aren't that far gone yet). Throughout my time there I alternated between being really interested and really depressed. The interested came from talking with residents, learning about their lives and seeing the effects of the disease (from an impersonal perspective). The depressed came from seeing the effects of the disease from a personal perspective.

There's been a lot written about declining mental status and quality of life, and I don't really want to dig into all that. At the very least, my experiences in the facility reinforced my opinions about treating others with respect and allowing them to live their lives with as much dignity as possible.

There's been something particular weighing on my mind though.

On my last visit I encountered two residents who were very affectionate with each other (holding hands, cuddling, kissing, etc.). At first I thought they were a married couple who lived at the facility. When I was informed that they weren't, my reaction was, "Oh, that's nice, these two individuals found comfort in each other." Of course, because things are never that simple, the next thing I learned was that one of the residents was still married to a non-resident and the spouse was frequently upset upon visiting to see those overt signs of affection with someone else.

No one is really to blame or at fault. Obviously this situation is awkward, but I hesitate to say it's unfortunate. It's certainly unfortunate that anyone has Alzheimer's, but I don't think it's unfortunate that people nearing the end of their lives with a tragically debilitating disease are able to enjoy a small sense of comfort and happiness.

What's been weighing on my mind is the concept of self. I've always thought that a person's actions reveal that person's soul. If actions are what define a person, does that mean that completely "abnormal" actions from the way someone has lived most of his or her life mean that someone is actually a "different" person? Is the "soul" different?

Another thing this experience taught me is that the blood is easy, the brains are hard. I expected the strong emotional response from going into nursing as a new career. I didn't expect the internal metaphysical debate.

Aren't you glad I started blogging again?

EDIT: I showed this to Hannah before posting and her response was that presumably (and it is a presumption), the couple in the facility were always affectionate people so the big picture of how they act hasn't changed, therefor they still have the same "soul" -- at least as far as my definition of soul. They may not remember who they "were," but who they actually are hasn't changed; it's just that the people involved are different due to circumstance.

Train Smart, Race Fun

2011-03-03T15:04:00.008-06:00

Bear with me while I set this up:

A few weeks out from the Austin half marathon, I swam a 400IM on a whim during our group swim practice.
I also happened to be re-reading Gold in the Water as I typically do about once a year. The book mostly focuses on an elite swimmer trying to make the 2000 Olympic team in the 400IM (that might have been the impetus to give swim it at practice, I can't quite remember).
Around the same time, I found out short course Masters Zones would be in San Antonio in the beginning of April.
Also around the same time, I tweaked my Achilles training for the Austin run. That shot my mood way into the dumps. I still wanted to race, but my enthusiasm for it was lacking.
Right when all this was happening, over on Endurance Corner, team member Mike Coughlin wrote an article on "keeping it fun" during winter training.(I also interviewed Mike for an upcoming athlete profile -- keep an eye out for it).
All this got me thinking about a fun challenge. I've never raced the 400IM in a meet. I don't even think I ever did a 400 off the blocks in a practice as an age group swimmer. In fact, I don't remember ever doing a 400IM at all in practice without having to fall back on some one-arm fly.

You can probably see where this is going:

I've decided to take up scrapbooking. I'm very artistic.

I also decided to sign up for the 400IM at Masters Zones. It's a fun challenge for because it's such an unknown; the distance and strokes aren't a mystery, but it's the question of "how fast can I go?"

Gordo has me on a plan to get ready for the event without totally falling off my run and bike work.

At some point, I'll probably pick some other events to swim at the meet. Driving more than three hours for a 400 yard race isn't quite worth it. Tack on another couple hundred yards of events? Totally worth it.

Zeros Update
I mentioned in January that one of my goals for 2011 is to have less zeros than in 2010 (a "zero" being a day without some kind of exercise).

So far, I'm not off to a stellar start, but I've got 10 more months to go.

January 2010: 11 zeros
February 2010: 6 zeros

January 2011: 13 zeros
February 2011: 7 zeros

So I'm three zeros in the hole already. I've been righting the ship the last few weeks though.

Train Smart, Race Dumb

2011-02-23T09:36:00.010-06:00

The Austin Half Marathon was kind of a bust for me. For a little while I was trying to rationalize my not-so-good result as the course being tougher than last year. However, that wouldn't explain why I wasn't able to manage my effort to finish strongly -- I essentially slogged my way through the last two miles.

Despite practicing my efforts for the first three miles a bunch in training, I still went out too hard. While I recognized the mistake around the half way point, it wasn't until I reviewed my HR/pace splits that I saw how bad and how early things went screwy.

I don't remember going temporarily insanse in mile 2 of the race, but I suspect short term amnesia is associated with temporary insanity. Once I saw the numbers and realized where things went off track, I began kicking myself.

"I never race dumb, why would I do it all of a sudden in this race?" I wondered.

Then I started going over some of my other race results and notes from the last few years. Interestingly, I almost always go out too hard in running races. Other events (particularly triathlon and swimming) were paced much better, probably because I have a deeper background in swimming. Since tris start with swims, I do okay -- by the time the run comes along I'm usually in a groove to raise effort towards the end.

In most running races I've been able to fudge my effort management errors because I typically only participate in shorter stand-alone running events: 5k-15k. Last year's half marathon was the anomaly regarding pacing -- probably because I could see the first climbs on the course from the start (fear can be an effective governor).

So, it looks like I have two choices: stop competing in running events or learn how to control myself in the early miles of a race. I was leaning to the "no running" option because I'm naturally lazy and that's the pace of least resistance, but with 90% of the local events all beginning with a run (or, in the case of 5k and 10ks, also including a middle and end portion comprised of a run), I think I'll be better off adapting my racing strategy, otherwise I'll spend most of time sitting on the couch.

Knowing

2011-02-09T09:11:00.008-06:00

I had set a goal to break 1:30 in the Austin half marathon. In hindsight, that goal was completely arbitrary -- a nice, clean number, but not much else. I've done no testing to determine if the pace required is manageable, let along realistic (the workouts were on the calendar, I just didn't do them). That 1:30 reflects a six-minute improvement over my time from last year on a slightly different course. To run a 1:30, I essentially have to run the race in the same time it took me to run 12 miles last year.

A further challenge to my ability to hit the arbitrary goal is that I tweaked my left achilles two Sundays ago. Yesterday was the first time I ran in eight days.

I guess you could argue that I'm just making excuses. But I've been involved with Endurance Corner long enough to learn that you don't magically race faster than your fitness level just because you want to. My training paces aren't screaming sub-1:30. They're not even mumbling sub-1:30.

I'm not saying I don't have a chance at 1:30; I'm saying I don't know if I have the fitness to do it.

I still plan to PR. I'm still going to try for that 1:30. I'll know if I have a chance around the halfway mark as that comes after three miles of downhill. If I'm below 45 minutes, I'll have a shot. If not, I'll just race to beat last year's time. If my legs blow up on me... well... that's my own fault for going out too hard.

My best season ever

2011-01-20T08:28:00.006-06:00

Over on Endurance Corner, January's theme is "Your Best Season Ever." So far this month there has been a ton of great content about figuring out what you did in the past and what you are doing now to set yourself up for success. It's focused on sport, and triathlon specifically, but there's a lot of good stuff in there that's applicable to life in general.

I'm fortunate that in my editorial role for the site I get to see all the content early and mull it over in advance of posting. So if you wonder why I'm fast 10 days earlier than you, there's your answer...

The main objective of the theme is to help readers have their best season ever in 2011 (in case you couldn't figure that out by yourself). It's very Men's Healthish, I know. Some of the other contenders for the month theme were "Lose Your Gut" or "Fight Flab and Win!" but those don't apply to EC's general audience.

In reading through all the content, I began reflecting on my 2010. I've said before (but probably not on this blog, since I've been a little irregular with the updates) that I feel 2010 was a breakthrough year for me. I set a personal best in every event in which I competed -- ironman, half ironman, olympic distance, half marathon... even what I felt was an out of shape 5k in November was still almost half a minute faster than ever before.

To be sure, having a coach has helped tremendously. So has being permanently based in Texas. I suppose one could argue that returning to school allowed me more time to train, but as I noted before IMCdA, I did less volume this year than in 2009 preparing for Lake Placid. And honestly, I think I'm more stressed with academic life than professional life (I have another blog post rattling around in my head about that -- I dislike academia...).

So what made the difference? In my mind I was inconsistent in my training throughout 2010. But on paper (reason No. 1 for keeping a journal!), it turns out I was the most consistent I've been since I was training for Rowing Nationals and Canadian Henley in 2002. To be fair, my "remembered" inconsistencies weren't completely made up -- I did have a bunch of holes throughout 2010, but they were relatively small holes.

Many triathletes remember their huge, epic days as their "average" output. I have a tendency to get sucked into recalling what I didn't do and creating this mental image of myself as wildly inconsistent, which doesn't do much for my motivation.

My main athletic goal for 2011 is less zeros. I'm not going overboard and saying "no zeros" -- I know myself well enough to recognize that's a bit of a reach for me. Sure, I have some specific race objectives, but with the nursing program and other things going on, I'm going to keep it simple this year ("simple, not easy" -- I love that quote). If all goes to plan, I'll be able to create a multi-year block of "my best seasonS ever."

We made beer

2010-11-22T14:53:00.010-06:00

That title isn't some strange euphemism for getting drunk; we genuinely made our own beer.

Our neighbor is an experienced home brewer and after hanging out with him enough, it's hard not to get the urge to try it yourself. Luckily (for me), our neighbor is also used to helping people out, so he walked me and some other folks through the steps a few weeks ago (Hannah was away on "Teach a Friend to Brew" Day -- apparently a real thing).

We ended up with just shy of two cases of Scottish 70 Shilling Ale. I should clarify that I was attempting to make Scottish 70 Shilling, the end result wasn't just some fortuitous byproduct of "well, let's throw this stuff together and see what happens." We were short a couple bottles worth because my physics were off and I didn't have the primary and secondary fermentation carboys at appropriate heights. Ah well, live and learn. Our neighbor was nice enough to let us use his carbonation system to bottle everything, which let us cut about two weeks out of the conditioning process. Basically, we had drinkable beer eight days after starting.
Since San Angelo stopped recycling glass about five months ago, this let us put some of the bottles we've been stockpiling since the summer to good use.

The beer was/is pretty good. I'm not just saying that because it was homemade. Well, I am saying that because it's homemade, but other people have been polite enough to not spit it back in my face or get sick when they try it, so I'll take that as a compliment.

This past weekend, Hannah got to be more directly involved and basically made the whole thing herself -- an oatmeal stout. It's doing it's thing in the garage right now. "It's thing" means making a huge mess during the fermentation process. Last time I wasn't prepared for the bubble-over so I had to spend a good chunk of time scrubbing the floor. This time I put the fermenter in a plastic tub to make the clean up easier. My sister-in-law was concerned that the brewing process was similar to making meth. Luckily for my house, that's not the case, as I assuredly would have blown everything up by now.

Since the first round, I've also straightened up the garage to keep things better organized. There wasn't much risk of contamination of any kind since nothing can get in the fermenters, but sticky, oozy things and bike parts don't necessarily go great together. Or, more accurately, they do go great together, but I prefer to keep them apart.

Thoughts from Austin 70.3

2010-10-21T08:24:00.005-05:00

I should clarify that title: these are my thoughts about the race; the race itself did not have any thoughts (that it shared with me anyway).

I'm not really going to go into the boring details of my heart rate, watts and pace for the race, as they're not that compelling for the majority of folks who read this blog (all .5 of you).

Here's a quick recap though:

I swam with the front group in my wave and hung with them despite a few surges on the leader's part. This is the first time I ever tried to go with the fast guys in a big race and not just start out steady and build into the race. Things only fell apart when we rolled into the wave ahead of us and our pack disintegrated. I swam the rest solid, finishing fairly high in the overall.
Just past five miles into the bike there's a sharp right turn that immediately goes into a steep little hill. I hadn't previewed the course the day before, so I had no idea about the hill. Needless to say, I dropped my chain and had to get off my bike to fix it (and to avoid falling over). When I tried to get going again, I couldn't clip my right foot in. It turned out that I had broken my cleat when I stepped off the bike. So, I rode the next 49+ miles at a lower effort to keep my foot on the pedal. Still PRed the distance though.
I had gotten over my grumpiness from the bike early enough by focusing on having a good run. It sure wasn't a land speed record, but it was the fastest I've ever run in a half ironman. I came within 10 seconds of even-splitting the two loops, mostly with a very uncomfortable back half. I moved myself up a good ways in my age group with that effort.
Mishaps or not, I still went the fastest I've ever gone over a half ironman; with my previous best time on a pancake-flat course in south Jersey in the early spring. Austin was hot and hilly, not a pancake-flat course in south Jersey.

So what did I learn?

I can swim with the big dogs -- at least those in the AG ranks -- without detonating myself.
I should always take the time to preview the course if I want to do well. No more "surprise" hills.
I can still race well relative to myself despite setbacks. I knew I was never really in the hunt for a real AG placing -- my bike and run aren't anywhere near the leaders. But, there is some potential there; I just need to find the race that the real fast guys all skip.

What's up next?
Not much actually. I've got a couple local running races between now and the end of the year. Then it's a matter of picking a race for early spring: big event and attempt to PR or smaller event to race for placing (I was only half kidding about avoiding the fast guys, my fragile ego can only handle so much whupping).

Kona

2010-10-10T18:44:00.011-05:00

I spent most of the day yesterday yammering on about the Ironman World Championships. While I usually get sort of excited around the race, I think this year had more yammering than usual. Hannah knew what to expect though and let me wander off to the computer throughout the day to check in on the race's progress.

I think a big part of the excitement I was experiencing was because I know people that were racing there -- a bunch of people at that; many of whom I've actually met in person. Having a personal interest made the race that much more compelling.

What's also interesting is I have no desire AT ALL to go to the big show in Hawaii. Putting aside the fact that qualification is little more than a pipe dream, if I were to somehow qualify, I think I'd turn the slot down. I can completely understand the appeal of Kona to 99.99% of triathletes, but it's not a draw for me.

I used to think the same thing about 70.3 Worlds in Clearwater, Florida. Not only do I have less interest in visiting Florida in November than I do in visiting Kona in October, but the course would be the absolute worst place for me to race well. Unless I somehow pack on 10 pounds of muscle in my quads, I don't have the juice to be competitive in a pancake-flat half ironman.

Honestly, this is all just my roundabout way of saying I don't like palm trees.

However, now that 70.3 Worlds are moving to Nevada, I just might have an interest in dreaming about something a little bigger.

...Of course, there's the little fact that I'm about an hour outside of qualification speed... someday... maybe.

Progress

2010-09-23T07:16:00.005-05:00

I'm in the middle of my first wave of exams this semester. I'm hesitant to comment in any detail on the ones I've already taken because I haven't received all the grades back, but at this point I can say I'm more than a little frustrated with my performance. I still haven't gotten over my "B = bad" mentality, which makes me really nervous if I didn't even hit that standard. Maybe that's a good thing overall, but it certainly leads to some low self-esteem days.

At least I know I'm putting in some good work and I'm retaining a ton of (actually useful for my new career) knowledge, which is more than can be said for some of the other students I encounter. I think I mentioned that I picked up a job in the tutoring center on campus, where I tutor Human Anatomy... and little bit of Physiology if no one else is available. As part of that job I also run directed study sessions for the lab portion of anatomy. The first lecture exam for anatomy was last week and I was beset with anxious students, most of whom hadn't opened the text book.

One girl in particular was completely freaked out. She came into the tutor center asking for some help preparing for the exam. I said no problem and asked what she wanted to focus on. She replied that she needed help with everything. When I asked to see her notes and she had to rummage around in her bag and a couple different notebooks to find what she had, I began to fully grasp her anxiety about the upcoming test.

In addition to the texts, the professor provides tons of material to help students learn the material; the most useful is a list of open-ended questions that cover all the material for upcoming exam. A number of those questions are used verbatim on the exam itself (albeit as multiple-choice) -- so theoretically, just by going over this worksheet, you will know at least five of the exam questions. Needless to say, she hadn't even looked at it, so we spent about two hours trying to work our way through that.

Towards the end of our tutoring session, she wanted to know how I thought she'd do on the exam. I wanted to say, "You're screwed," but I thought that wasn't very inspirational.

Instead, I told her to do what she could on this test and not stress out about the outcome. The caveat to that was starting the day after the exam, she needed to completely change her study habits -- complete organized notes, all materials filled out even if they seem redundant (more than anything, I think redundancy is the key to learning anatomy) and regular attendance at tutoring or study sessions. With three more exams and a comprehensive final that can replace the lowest grade, there's no reason to fail (F fail, not Nick "B" fail).

I have no idea how her exam turned out or if she changed her study habits because she never showed up again. Maybe she'll be back the day before the next exam.

On the flipside of that, I have a bunch of students that come to every study session that I lead. The material is basically the same in each session, but they use that as time to consistently reinforce what they know and to get answers to what they don't remember. Smart folks.

Unrelated to my educational pursuits, we recently had some work done on the backyard in the form of a new patio. There was an interminable time (almost eight weeks!) where we were left with an enormous dirt pit right outside the back door. I don't exactly understand if that was the result of the heat wave preventing cement pouring or a disorganized contractor (why dig the hole during a heat wave if you know you won't be able to pour the cement until it cools off?), but I do know that only one member of the househould was happy with the hole:

It's all well and good now though; everything is done. The dude went out to check his refined domain the other day -- likely disappointed about the lack of dirt pit.

As you can see, we're a little short on patio furniture. The plan right now is to expand the current motif by picking up a couple blow-up pool rafts and scattering them around.

Where have I been and where am I going?

2010-08-17T20:46:00.011-05:00

I realize I sort of fell off the face of the blogEarth after my last post, so I'll give a quick summary of my last couple weeks.

Like I mentioned, I raced the Wool Capital tri. Apparently, less-than-optimal fitness for me means I can still crack the top 10 (9th overall) in a regional race. Despite that, I still couldn't get top three in my age group. Who knew the 30-34 age group was competitive? I was happy though. I had a really solid swim (second overall for individual competitors, I think I was top five when you put relay swimmers in the mix). My bike is where I expected it to be, which is perfectly adequate. My run was so-so, but again, that was to be expected. I ran solid, but had no real oomph.

After the swim I was in the unique position of being in fifth out of the water -- and that's after starting in the second wave. The three guys that caught me in my AG (four total guys passed me) all did so in the back half of the bike. Then they proceeded to run low/mid-6s compared to my high 7s, so the outcome was never in doubt. I did run with the women's winner for a while and she honestly kept me moving along at a good clip. I probably would have shut it down if not for her. On the back half of the run I moved away and finished 7th across the line, but two guys from the sub-30 AGs had a faster time.

And with that, I'm done racing for a little bit. I've deliberately let my training slide while I was focusing on school for the summer session, but if I don't get back on it soon, I'll be in trouble come Longhorn 70.3. And I'd like to do well there (relative to myself). If I enjoy the race, it'll probably be my big event for 2011.

Hannah and I went to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico last week. We wanted a trip where we could be outside, but with a limited budget, a short timeframe and the temperature consistently in the triple digits, we were stumped on what to do.

Then it hit me... caves are cool (both literally and figuratively)! We spent a couple days exploring the caves (guided of course; I think we'd still be "exploring" them otherwise). Because this was a whirlwind trip, I naturally forgot the camera, so you'll just have to visit the park yourself to experience the caves' grandeur.

I do have a picture from my drive to Idaho last month though:

What, no good? Okay, here's another of the Budweiser plant in Colorado:

Admittedly, these were taken during the drive, so the quality of any given picture was a crapshoot. I'll leave you with one that came out okay:

That's Montana. Not Texas.

School starts up again next week. On Thursday, I start an actual paying job (tutoring anatomy and physiology). Not that I don't have a job already, but this one will help contribute a little more directly to my planned career.

Hubris

2010-08-06T17:30:00.005-05:00

I had lofty goals to not only earn an A in my summer session Physiology class, but also to rip it up at the local olympic distance triathlon this weekend. I'm not exactly sure where things went off track, but I suspect it was right around the time I got a B (81%) on the first exam -- seven days into the class -- despite spending loads of time studying.

The nature of the class (four months of material condensed into five weeks) meant that I would have very little chance to "recover" -- so the triathlon goal went out the window, as did my training. I pulled up my grade going into the final test (91 and 90 on the next two exams, respectively), but that meant I needed a 96 or higher to get the A. Since the last exam was going to cover the most material (whole muscle, cardiac, respiratory and urinary physiology), the odds of me cracking the A were unlikely.

So, I was faced with a (admittedly not life-altering) decision: what to do? I only needed to "not fail" to hold my B. Do I phone it in as far as studying and settle for whatever I get? Honestly, that was never going to happen. I "gave it" and came up with A on the test (91 again). Unfortunately, I was not able to bend the laws of basic mathematics and wrapped up the class with a B average.

For whatever reason, I've been pretty bummed since then. I don't know when getting a B started equating to failing in my mind... perhaps if I earned the A, I'd understand the chemistry of my brain a little better...

I'm still going to show up at this race tomorrow, although the outcome isn't really in doubt. I'll do what I can on the day and I may even try the "never works but sure is fun to try" strategy of "go 'til you blow." On oly is too long to nail on less-than-optimal fitness, but we'll see what happens. If anything I'll have a rocking swim.

Key Words (or, The Soundtrack to My IM Run, as Programmed by the '80s)

2010-07-07T21:43:00.014-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that I used key words throughout my ironman marathon. I don't remember where I first heard of using them (Assault on Lake Casitas probably), but we definitely used them throughout my rowing days.

I'm not a sports psychologist, so don't hold me to this definition, but basically key words as I use them are triggers for focusing on something specific or making a change in race pace/effort. I trained with them for the last four months, so when I say them, I know what to do.

I used six key words throughout my IM run. For me, that's a manageable number. With the exception of two, they're based on songs -- none of which are particularly intense -- and that's for a reason. For whatever reason, three of the songs are from the '80s. Clearly I try to keep things a little light, even when I'm focused on a goal. I left my glowering intensity behind with collegiate rowing races (where we lost more than we won) -- it was in a more relaxed atmosphere that we usually came through big.

So here they are:

Light, Quick
I used both of these throughout the run, but specifically in the first two hours. Neither relate to speed for me, they're reminders throughout the run to try for an effortless feel and to keep my leg turnover high.

Man in Motion
I said this phrase at the one hour mark. It's intent is to focus on keeping things rolling -- not pushing the pace, just reaffirm my constant profess. Ignoring the movie (which I've never seen), this is an awesome song, especially if you know the real reason it was written.

Kyrie
I said this at two hours down. The song came up on my ipod in the middle of a tough training run when things weren't going so well. For whatever reason it relaxed me then. Saying it at about the halfway point of the race gets me to relax and keep things steady.

Dare
I save this for the 10k-to-go mark. Basically, it means it's time to go. It's cheesy, but it comes from my favorite movie from when I was a kid. And it's a good song! (...if you like transforming robots...) Truthfully, while its purpose is to get me to change gears, it's also to remind me that I do these things for fun... and you can't get more fun than giant, transforming robots. (Skip ahead to about the 1:00 mark if you don't want the exciting build-up from the movie).

Big Casino
The only non-'80s song that I use as a key word. Where "Dare" means start leaning on it, "Big Casino" means drop the hammer. In CdA I saved it for the last two miles, although in training I practiced dropping it in anywhere in the last 10k. Granted, "dropping the hammer" for me didn't set any land speed records in this race, but effort was at close to max.

Ironman Coeur d'Alene

2010-07-04T08:30:00.003-05:00

I'm going to share loads from my two week excursion up to, in and back from northwest Idaho, but I figured I'd start with the quick race summary to get that out of the way.

I arrived in town on Thursday morning, poked around the expo, registered and then went out to drive the bike course. I'm glad I took the time to scope out the course, otherwise I would have been really disheartened to arrive at the hills for the first time on race day and discover that they were all bigger than I had anticipated. We do have some steep rollers in the San Angelo area, but everything in CdA is twice as long and just as steep.

Once that was done I "checked in" to where we were staying. Through weird and happy circumstance, my friend Sam (who now lives in San Francisco) had mentioned that his boss, Tom, lives in Coeur d'Alene. Tom and his wife Pam were incredibly generous and let Hannah and me stay at their place for the race. Sam also flew up to spectate and volunteer.

After delays, both Hannah and my folks made it into town.

The Day
Hannah, me and Sam before the start
Race morning was uneventful, except for misplacing Hannah and my wetsuit before the start (they were together, but not with me... d'oh!). Everything worked out and I got down to the swim in time.

It wasn't until about 15 seconds before the cannon went off that I realized I was starting way wide. Ultimately, I missed the draft of the faster guys that I could have hung with and instead rolled through with an easy/steady effort. I checked my watch at the first turn buoy and saw that it was blank (I had taken it to a shop the day before to get the battery replaced but the waterproof seal didn't hold up). I had no idea how the swim had gone or where I was -- I only learned later that I popped out just under an hour and in 76th place.

I saw Hannah as I was exiting transition and swapped watches with her so I'd have a sense of my time on the course.

The bike went like it usually does with everyone passing me in the first loop. This time however, because I was riding smarter (thank you power meter), I was actually able to come back through a bunch of those people on the second loop. I rolled in around 6:26, changed and was off for the run.

For the last three IM attempts, I've wanted to go sub-12. That didn't happen at either of my Lake Placid races, but I had done the work and had paced the first parts of my race well enough that I was in a position to make it happen.

Short summary: the run was tough, but doable. I faded a bit in the middle, mostly because I was worried I was running at a pace I couldn't sustain (that's where the heart rate info would have helped). I came through mile 20 a few minutes past 11 hours and knew that the only way I was going to make my goal was through a strong push.

I had been practicing using key words for the six months leading into my race -- I'll write something up on those in a later post. As I had practiced, at 10k to go, I clicked in and ramped up the effort. Granted, my speed change was relative (I wasn't setting any records here), but it was enough to get the job done: 4:22 marathon and an 11:58:58 overall.

Overall it was a great day. Like usual, things went wrong. But this was the first long course race where I've been able to stay calm throughout the day and lift effort at the end. For that, I credit Hannah's patience in letting me get out the door to train, as well as Gordo's and the Endurance Corner crew's coaching.

I'll wrap this up with a quick photo. I was fortunate enough to meet up with some of the other Endurance Corner athletes in the days before the race. And man, there are some fast dudes (and ladies) on this team.
One of these things is not like the other. From right: Vince Matteo - Kona qualifier, 10th in his AG, 72nd overall; Kevin Coady - Kona qualifier, 3rd in his AG, 22nd overall (and ran a 3:10 marathon!); some other guy.

It's On

2010-06-27T06:28:00.002-05:00

...well, it'll be "on" in a couple hours. You can follow along on ironman.com -- bib # 418.

Looking forward to a good day.

Texas is big

2010-06-21T07:20:00.003-05:00

Just a quite update on my travels to Coeur d'Alene: I left yesterday around noon and drove the 400+ miles northwest up into that little bit of Texas that looks like the handle of a pan... I think there's a name for it, but I can't quite remember. Early last evening I rolled into The Land of Enchantment. I think the only really difference between northwest Texas and northeast New Mexico is that Texas has wind farms and New Mexico just has wind.

Today I'm driving up to Boulder where I'll see Bobby McGee speak as part of the Endurance Corner training camp. On Wednesday morning I'll join the campers for an open water swim and then I'll get back on the road.

On a side note, the iPad has been great to travel with, especially since we have one of those accessory keyboards. The weird thing is reactively reaching for the mouse and then remembering to touch the screen itself. I hope to figure out how to get some photos in these road trip entries, even if they're poor quality camera-phone pics.

On to Colorado.

Volume

2010-06-10T09:02:00.000-05:00

I decided to compare this year's training volume to last year's lead up to Ironman Lake Placid. The races are almost exactly a month apart, so it was easy enough to match up the six months building into each race. I was disheartened to learn that I had actually done more training last year.

I thought, "How could this be?" I'm solid in the water, my cycling efforts are more consistent across long workouts (no huge drop off at the end) and I'm running a lot faster with less effort. I'm rarely wiped out for extended periods after big days or long runs like in previous years. Overall, I just feel fitter too. How could I be training less?

The good thing about properly recorded training logs is that I can look back on the efforts I was doing -- and that's what calmed me down. While I trained more in '09, almost all of it was at a much lower intensity. That's not to say I'm drilling it now, but last year, the bulk of my work was "easy" efforts with occasional periods of steady, moderately hard and hard (and close to equal doses of all of those three effort levels).

This year, I've only gone "easy" during warmup and on recovery days. There hasn't been too much high end -- the majority has been solid, steady efforts; coincidentally, that's the effort I want to race IM. Funny how those things work out. So, if I did this right, I'll be racing the way I've trained all year, instead of hanging on for dear life halfway through the run.

Ultimately, my race day performance in Coeur d'Alene will reveal if I am actually faster. Until then, all I can do is follow along with the plan, rest up and get ready to execute on the day.

I've got a few more solid workouts spaced out over the coming 10 days, then it's off to Idaho by way of Amarillo, Boulder and a meandering trip through Wyoming and Montana. I'm hoping to stop for a little while in Bozeman and see if it's all I've heard it to be.

Will work for sugar

2010-05-30T18:03:00.000-05:00

With Ironman Coeur d'Alene scheduled during finals, I'm not taking any classes in the first summer session. Aside from training and a few side jobs I have going, I was concerned about sitting around the house for hours on end each day. I volunteered to help out the owner of the Eola School Brewery with some odd jobs for a few weeks.

The main job we're doing is adding a new roof to the school. My role is primarily moving stuff, holding stuff and getting yelled at (it's just like building something with my dad!) -- I've elected to stay away from the welder and hammer drill. Unfortunately, in this case "moving stuff" typically means hoisting steel c purlins and roofing sheets up 30 feet to the top of the building. Mark (the owner) is also particular about how things get done, which for some reason means he doesn't like pulleys or anything to give a mechanical advantage -- it's just two ropes and a pair of vise grips.

But things are coming along. Next time, I'll remember to bring my phone to the top of the roof to take a picture.

When I say I volunteered to help, I mean he is actually paying me, but not in any legitimate currency (I refused). Instead, I asked if he could pay me in maltodextrin -- something I use in my energy drinks to increase the caloric content. Normally that stuff is fairly expensive when it's marketed as "sports nutrition." But since he's a brewer, he has access to larger, cheaper quantities.

That said, I was still surprised when he presented me with my "payment" -- 50 pounds worth.

It might be hard for you to process how big a sack that is. For scale, here's a typical water bottle in which I add two or three ounces.

Hannah thinks we're going to be moving houses with this stuff. I think she's wrong. I think we're going to end up moving two houses with this stuff... if the ants don't get to it first.

A is for Anatomy and American History

2010-05-28T04:29:00.001-05:00

...strangely enough, A is also for General Psychology and Math of Finance.

That's one semester down and things went pretty well. I'm not naive enough to think that past success is a definite indicator of future results, but I do recognize what worked from a study perspective to be able to use it to my advantage in the coming semesters. Unlike endurance sport, there's no advantage to going continuously "faster" in academics -- I'll settle for repeating my results.

I attribute my semester's success to three things:

Setting my day up like I was still at work: Between 8 a.m. and about 5 p.m., if I wasn't in class I was studying, reading or doing homework. That allowed me to get my "work" done and then have time to train, hang out with Hannah, etc. The only variation to this was on Tuesday, when I'd do my long bike ride during the day. That also freed up the weekend a bit.
Consistency: This goes hand in hand with my first point. I studied every day (except Saturday). Oddly, that actually helped my ability to recall information. Who knew? (I sure didn't the first go round 12 years ago).
Setting up a team and taking advantage of experts: Just like in sports, I set myself up with a good team and sought out mentors to help me along. My anatomy lab partner and I worked our way to the top two grades on the final (incidentally, the only two As on that test) and two of the 12 overall As in the class. I also took every opportunity to get additional help that was offered from professors and supplemental instruction.

I didn't intend to brag (really!) -- I just found it interesting that successful habits translate across disciplines. Again, who knew that stuff would work?

Skillz

2010-05-06T16:53:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, Hannah installed a dishwasher. I dug a hole (no, not metaphorically). Can you tell which one of us has the engineering degree?

While there's a possibility that I could write a fascinating story about my hole, the practicality of that effort would be in question.

I'm sad to say I don't have a picture of my hole. We went and put a tree in it. And around that tree-filled whole we had some curbing added. So, between the dishwasher and front yard landscaping, you can guess how we've been spending our weekends.

The dishwasher -- part of my riveting series of home appliance photography

The tree-filled hole, complete with artistic looming shadow photographer.

On a potentially more interesting note, the semester is about to wrap up. I don't want to jinx anything going into finals, so I'll hold off on writing about how everything is going/went.

...and that's why I wear a helmet

2010-04-13T16:18:00.003-05:00

I know I've been lacking in my blog posting. I'm hoping to turn that around soon.

I crashed on my bike today. I came around a turn to find the entire lane covered in gravel (at least half an inch deep). I'm not particularly good at bike-handling on smooth roads, so you can imagine the challenge I faced when the smooth road stopped being road. I think I stayed upright for about three seconds before my bike came out from under me.

There's a quarry nearby, so I suspect that one of the trucks didn't have its tailgate locked. The gravel was just dumped for about 10 feet.

Short summary: Nothing's broken (on me or my bike). My homemade energy bars made for a nice cushion, but my right forearm is a little gross. I have some exciting bruising to look forward to as well.

I have a race this weekend and depending on how much it hurts my arm when I'm in the aero position on my tri bike, I may end up riding my road bike instead. So now I've got a built-in excuse in case I don't race well. And if I do race well, I've got a built-in reason for gloating.

On the plus side, my helmet works!

Efficiencies

2010-03-20T09:06:00.001-05:00

I ended my last post talking about me being inefficient in my days. Some things you should understand about me:

My natural inclination is to lay around on the couch and be bored.
If I don't keep structure in my life, I default to #1. I don't need or want concrete structure -- chicken wire is probably fine. I just need some general daily boundaries that I can adjust if need be.
The TV and computer are a huge time-suck for me. Last year I weaned myself off TV. I'm not as good as I used to be, but even now, I only watch it at night and occasionally on weekends. On the other hand, the computer is where I waste a ton of my time. I went through a period earlier this year where I essentially stopped using the computer at home. That did wonders for my studying, but led to two problems:
- I became incredibly boring. Since my access to news was Internet-based, removing the Internet from my life left me completely oblivious to the world outside of San Angelo.
- I still had work (both school and other) that I needed to do on the computer -- that made me even more inefficient since I would deliberately make trips to the university to do online work there.

So, I've gone about building my chicken wire weekly life. Since Hannah has to get up for work, I get up with her. Three days a week that's because I have an 8 am class. The other two days it's easier to keep with the same routine. My studying and training are coming along nicely -- I have a pretty good schedule that I maintain. It's flexible enough that I can swap some time between the two on any given day and still feel like I'm getting the work done that I need to get done. Housework is about 70% to where I need it to be (Hannah may tell you it's at 25% where I need it to be, so I'm still working on that one).

As far as avoiding my giant time-waster -- the computer -- I still struggle. I'm good when I have a specific task to accomplish. I'm not so good when I've got some free time and I think, "Oh, I'll just check my e-mail or Facebook." Two hours later, when I'm watching some weird video on YouTube, I'll realize I just lost a chunk of my day just so I could wind up seeing David go to the dentist again. So, I'll take any tips on not letting my day get swallowed up by random web surfing.

Expectations

2010-03-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

Before I started back up at school, Hannah and I had discussed our expectations for my weekly "output." I was going to handle most of the day-to-day household work (cleaning, bills, keeping up the yard, food shopping and preparation, etc.), as well as maintaining a full (albeit it lighter) course load. I even toyed with the idea of getting a part-time job since I wouldn't have class on Tuesday and Thursday. I was also going to get crazy fit for my ironman, since I'd have so much free time compared to when I was working.

This plan was largely based on my memories of the amount of daily work I put in to get my initial degree, especially my junior and senior years.

Imagine my surprise to learn that school was tougher than I remembered. Or, more specifically, taking classes that fall outside my natural skill set is tougher than I remember. I'm doing well (high 90s average in Anatomy for example), but doing well requires a lot of effort on my part -- strangely enough, a "full course load" actually requires close to 40 hours a week of work (including classes). It also requires Hannah putting up with learning all sorts of things that I learn, mostly a result of me wandering around the house repeating stuff from my lectures.

For a while, I was a mental mess regarding my training. I was getting fitter, but I had a ton of self-imposed guilt about taking the time away to ride/run/whatever. That made my workouts agony since all I could think about was getting back home to either study or to take care of something I had said I'd do. A lot of time, that meant missed workouts. My coach helped straighten that out by simplifying my approach. I had the time in my week; I just needed to slow myself down and understand that if ironman is important to me this year (it is), then I should give it the time it deserves. The specifics of the training protocol would come later, but first I just needed to get out the door regularly.

So, we've had to reset our expectations. Now, many things get done consistently, but I need to set aside chunks of time to get bigger projects done; I can't just plug away at them gradually every day like previously thought. I'm sure that's partly due to the inconsistent nature of class schedules, but it's mostly due to inefficiencies in how I go about my days when I'm not in school. Not having a standard workday can sure throw things out of whack, especially if you have a propensity for laziness.

Spring Break

2010-03-15T18:02:00.003-05:00

I appreciate it's been a while since I've written anything here (six weeks?!? Yeesh...) -- sorry about that. I've got a few things swirling around in my head that I'll catch everyone up on, especially now that it's spring break (wooo!! spring break!) and I've got some time to sort out the stuff I've been neglecting or deliberately putting off.

The first time I was in university, I never really had a true "Spring Break" experience. Instead, I traveled to Tennessee or Georgia for team training. Now that I'm reliving my college days, I thought I'd try for that genuine party atmosphere. Neither Hannah nor the cat appreciated being soaked with the hose, and the cat especially hated having to put on the t-shirt, so we scrapped my original plans and decided on a whirlwind travel weekend -- Fredricksburg on Friday night for some good beer, San Antonio on Saturday because I'd never been there, and Austin on Sunday to catch part of SXSW.

Apparently, I'll be having the same time of spring break that I did 10 years ago -- only this time it's triathlon training and my free time will be spent on yard work instead of hazing the freshmen rowers.

Mad genius

2010-02-03T15:40:00.006-06:00

UPDATED: I just realized I left out an important ingredient for the Apple Walnut bar recipe. On the off chance that you rushed to the kitchen to make these and they ended up tasting gross or at best incredibly boring, it's because of this oversight. Sorry about that. I amended the recipe below.

I've come a long way since my initial foray into making my own energy bars. I think I've got a good handle on the process. Full disclosure: Hannah rarely eats any of them now, but I think that's a learned response from a couple not-so-good batches early on.

While I started by using recipes from Brendan Brazier's Thrive, I've deviated far enough that I feel fine sharing my current iterations on my blog. I've gone the Lara Bar route and have really pared down the ingredients. That makes for a smaller margin of error and -- I think -- a better taste.

Also inspired by Lara Bar, I just made a coffee-based bar, which is probably the single greatest-tasting thing I've ever created. I'll explain how I made that batch as well as one of my easy standards.

What you'll need:
- Food processor
- Flat surface (you can probably use your floor if it's clean enough... or a cutting board, whatever)
- Rolling pin
- Plastic wrap
- Knife
- Common sense

Apple Walnut
- 1 cup dates (You can use fresh dates, but I've found dried dates work better. Use the highest quality dates you can find. Buy them from the produce aisle, not the ones from the middle of the store.)
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1 small apple, cored and peeled (I usually start with half the apple and depending on how dry everything is, add additional chunks of the apple as needed)
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (I don't think this is essential, but since I'm still working my way through the package, I continue to use it.)
- 1 tbsp hemp protein (Like the flaxseed, this probably isn't essential, but it was expensive and I have half a container left, so I continue to use it. I don't recommend whey protein though; I've had bad experiences experimenting with that.)
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon

1) Add everything to the food processor and let it do its thing. Process longer for a smoother bar or shorter for more chunky.
2) Dump it all out on a cutting board (or your clean floor).
3) Form it into a flat brick, about an inch thick. This is where the rolling pin and plastic wrap come in. I don't even use the rolling pin anymore; I just cover the mass with plastic wrap and form it by hand. When you're done, you should have a long, flat sheet, about an inch thick and about three inches wide.
4) Cut it into bars. Everything may be moist and sticky. If really moist (that is, gooey), I'll put the bars on a baking sheet or wire rack and add them to the oven set really low (between 170 and 200 degrees). Then I let them dehydrate. I imagine a dehydrator would work just as well.
5) When everything's all done, wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer so they'll firm up even more and so they'll keep longer. You can probably leave them in a cupboard or in the fridge, but remember that cut fruit and room temperature don't go so well together for very long.

And now, the best thing ever:
Dark Chocolate Mocha
I think "mocha" actually means the combination of chocolate and coffee, so that name is probably redundantly redundant. How about Mocha Hazelnut?

And now, the best thing ever:
~~Dark Chocolate Mocha~~
Mocha Hazelnut
- 1 cup dates
- 1/3 cup hazelnuts
- 1/4 cup (or less, I eyeball it) almonds
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed (Definitely not necessary, but I had it out on the counter.)
- 1 tsp ground coffee (Use good stuff, not Folgers. I used the "San Angelo Blend" from Eggemeyers that we've had in our fridge for a few months.)
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup soft dark chocolate (I don't know the technical term for this. Basically, since I had no wet ingredients except for the dates, I slowly heated dark chocolate chips until they began to melt. I also tossed in some remaining raw carob chips I had in the cupboard.)

Follow all the steps from the Apple Walnut recipe, except start by processing the dates and all the dry ingredients, then gradually add the soft chocolate so it mixes evenly. Once mixed together, you can form it into bars as noted above.

---
So there you go. There are a couple other recipes I've played around with, the most successful of which is Ginger Pear. I'll write about another day when I get it closer in quality to the two from this post. I also recently gave one of Brendan Brazier's energy gel recipes a go. I'll share that debacle another day. I can't think of a more appropriate word to define "gel" than "chewy."

Swim Game #2 and Back to School (three weeks ago, but whatever)

2010-02-02T22:30:00.008-06:00

The Endurance Corner crew is running another swim game. It's a little different than last time and I won't be swimming every day for the next two weeks, so there won't be regular boring updates with my daily workouts. Instead, there will be periodic boring updates. I'll get to the last two days down below.

More importantly, I guess it's worth writing about the fact that I took a major turn in my life recently: I left my good job at a good company to go back to school to become a nurse. There are a lot of reasons, but the shortest is that I didn't want to spend more time sitting behind a desk doing something I was very good at, but didn't find particularly enjoyable. The work was challenging and the people were great, but that's not enough for fulfillment. Assuming all goes according to plan, I'll have my BSN in a couple years.

I almost wore this shirt to my first day of classes: It wasn't deliberate; it was just at the top of the drawer. I had a pause and realized that might be too obvious.

And I'm not the oldest in all my classes -- just the ones Texas requires that Pennsylvania doesn't.

People keep asking me if it's weird trying to remember how I used to study. I'm lucky in that I have completely forgotten what I used to do. I was a horrible studier, so it's better to start off fresh. That means I actually take notes and read the textbook now.

On to the swimming:
---
This time I won't be going camp crazy trying to chase down the most volume. That's mainly because I'm just laying the swim game over what I (should be) doing in training right now if there was no camp. Not trying for the "win" because I'm working on my run/bike at the same time is also incredibly convenient since I'm nowhere near the swim fitness I had in November. If I'm not in the top bunch, I have my excuse all prepared: "Well, you see, I wasn't really trying" (just ignore the fact that had I been "trying," the results would be the same).

So what did I do in the pool yesterday and today?

Monday - 5500m as:
- 1000m mixed WU
- 2000m time trial (splits at each 400m: 6:18. 6:15, 6:20, 6:11, 5:55).
With the masters group:
- 400 easy
- 6x50 kick
- 2x (4x50, 2x75, 1x100)
- 6x (2x50, 2x25)
cool down

Today - 3300m:
- 250 WU (including 1x25m no breathing for bonus)
- 3000m straight (alternate 100IM, 150 free)
- 50 easy

My week as a layabout

2010-01-18T18:41:00.005-06:00

My week of no real responsibilities (thank you Hannah) was really good. Sustainable in the long run? Of course not. But a week was definitely nice.

As I mentioned last time, I started off with a trail race in Bandera, Texas. To say it was hard and hilly is putting it mildly. But it was also a blast. I never really went ballistic and walked most of the inclines, so I was surprised with my overall placing (48th of 230+). I rolled in around 2:50 for the 25km race.

The guy I traveled with did go in with an agenda. Last year, he injured himself during the 50k so he was looking for a little vindication. And he sure got it. Not only did he finish, but he won his age group (50-59) and set the masters course record. His pace for the 50k was also faster than mine for the 25k. He's a speedy guy.

This past Monday, I loaded up the car and drove down to Big Bend National Park for the week. I got some rides and runs in, plus a whole bunch of walking. Mostly, I was moving easily or steadily when I wasn't laying down to sleep. A big part of that was because of the cold (22 degrees the first night -- up to 35 by the last night). Continuous motion is a good way to keep warm.

I forgot my camera off and on throughout the trip, but here's some of what I did get.

My nice campsite:

Here's a riveting video I shot at the bottom of the Window trail.

I learned later that my depth perception is off. When I said it looks like "100 feet or so to the bottom," I should have said a couple hundred.

Mexico. Only a few small steps across the river to freedom... from most of the freedoms I enjoy. I opted not to take a picture of the dude crossing from the other side. He walked back though.
View on the way up from the Rio Grande.
Me looking sort of rugged (the helmet helps that look):
The views in Big Bend are amazing. But sometimes it gets a little lonely:

If I remember right from the Ken Burns National Parks documentary, this guy did a lot of good and then ended up being a big jerk. We're not related (although I can be a jerk, I haven't done the "lot of good" yet).
View up the road to the Basin. I stayed on the other side of those mountains.
This fox was very patient with me, until I lifted my camera. Then I got fox butt.
The view on my last morning. It started snowing on my way out.

So, good trip. Next up: school starts on Wednesday.

Changes

2010-01-08T05:00:00.001-06:00

This is a big week for me. Today is my last day as a paid communications professional. Tomorrow is my first day as a full-time, unpaid, unskilled, unremarkable athlete. I'll only hold that position for a week before my official title becomes "student" again. Note, that too will be an unpaid position (thank you savings and gainfully-employed wife).

I'm kicking off my week of athletic glory with a trail race in Bandera, Texas, about an hour north of San Antonio (two hours south of San Angelo). Over the last three weeks, I've prepared diligently for this race by running five times, three of which were in the last five days. It's a good thing I'm mildly fit and that I'm only doing the 25km option -- if need be, I can walk a good chunk of the 15 miles. Had I signed up for the 50km (as my friend encouraged me to), I suspect I'd be in trouble.

On Monday, partly to stay out of Hannah's way, but mostly to take advantage of my free time, I'll be heading to Big Bend National Park for a few days of cycling, running, hiking and sightseeing. While I am fit enough to run/hike 15 miles on Saturday, I'm not fit enough to fill my days with epic amounts of training, so I'm planning on a lot of sightseeing. Depending on how well I can handle camping in the cold, I'll stay for most of the week. I expect to come home with a clear head, ready to give up my highly lucrative athletic career and jump into school.

Checklist

2009-12-29T20:24:00.001-06:00

I have an issue with New Year's resolutions. Why wait until an arbitrary date to change your habits? Start tomorrow. Or right now. If it's worth resolving, resolve to start doing it immediately.

While I'm climbing down from my soapbox, I'll acknowledge that some resolutions are fine to start at a later date, particularly the ones I'm about to go into, which all happen to align nicely with the new year. It's convenient (but not at all hypocritical) how that works out for me.

These aren't all the things I'm planning, but they are what I'll share for now.

1) One of my favorite Zen truisms is, "When you wash the dishes, wash the dishes." It means live in the moment and stay focused on the task at hand. In this specific case, for me, it's literal: I'm going to wash the dishes each night instead of letting them pile up. I'm also going to do a good job of it. Simple things can make a big difference.
2) I'm going to get stronger. That means consistency in the gym.
3) I'm going to do fun stuff.
4) I'm not going to care about Ironman. If it happens, it happens. I'll be prepared either way. Fitness is useful, and not just for running around in lycra.

I've already started on two of them, so I guess I can keep one foot up on the soapbox.

Cheating

2009-12-17T07:18:00.001-06:00

I think I've been pretty lucky in my life in that the few opportunities I had to really cheat, I didn't realize I had the opportunity until the moment had passed. Or the cheating scheme seemed so blatantly obvious that I figured there's no way I (or anyone else) could get away with it. Of course, in the latter situations, the cheaters ultimately almost never got caught -- leading me to stop placing much value in my professors' observation skills.

To summarize:
1) I'm a little slow -- if you have a great scheme, why not just come out and explain it to me in detail.
2) If your scheme is so great, why did you have to explain it to me in such detail? There's no way that would work; it's too complicated.

Needless to say, I rarely get approached anymore with a "foolproof" plan for getting a better grade, earning "free" money, etc. My annoying qualities keep me in high moral standing.

One of my friends on the other hand seems to be presented with shady offers all the time. Most often lately, this happens with work colleagues, sometimes even at work. Apparently there's a whole slew of people that actually run side businesses (some not quite legal) while "working" at their primary job during business hours.

I'm sure this happens at my company too, but my perceived inability to comprehend shady dealings has insulated me pretty well. Incompetence is also my negotiating strategy: ask Hannah how many times I've bought jewelry at lower prices just by saying, "Hmmmm..." and pausing for a minute after being told the price. Either the jeweler thinks, "This guy's a really good haggler," or, more likely, "I feel sorry for how dumb this guy is; all I did was tell him a number and he's trying to figure out what it means... I'll sell it to him for less."

I believe in karma. Eventually, cheating is going to come back around. You might have the nicer car or the race trophy, but eventually you're going to wind up losing: either your job, your money or your friends.

Recipe for an Awkward Evening

2009-12-09T06:27:00.002-06:00

Mix in a small space:

- 45 people from a Marketing and Communications department for a life insurance company, mostly women over 40
- 12 comedians "performing" for over two-and-a-half hours, with talent ranging from awful to middling to genuinely funny (some recipes call for only six comedians and a show half as long, but only use that amount if you want a pleasant evening)

Add:
- Large quantities of classless humor (sex, rape, reproductive organs, racist comments, playing up stereotypes, etc.)
- As much profanity as possible
- "New material" night
- One guy who thought jokes about the annoying qualities of "It's a Small World" were original
- A healthy dose of Tiger Woods

Once combined, let simmer while sitting at a table with your manager and your manager's manager.

When cooked, you'll have my department's holiday party last night.

Swim Camp day 12 and day finished + snow!

2009-12-06T09:00:00.002-06:00

On Friday, San Angelo was hit with a blizzard the likes of which I've never seen (in San Angelo).

You'll notice the artistic juxtaposition of my wetsuit (which I had left out to dry after my lake swim a few days ago) against the stark harshness of a west Texas winter.

I think we had a total of at least a couple millimeters.

Friday's swim:
---
WU: 1000 easy

1000 pull with paddles/band/buoy

20x100 on 1:40 (arrive 1:28-1:30)

50 easy
---
Total: 4050m

Saturday's swim:
---
WU: 1000 easy

1000 as 75 free / 25 back

I did the following straight through:
- 20x200 (First 10 on 3:20, arrive around 3:08 / Second 10 on 3:15, arrive on 3:03 for first 7, 3:00 for last 3)
- 3x400 descend on 6:10 (5:56, 5:53, 5:43)

300 easy CD
---
7500m total

Total for the two weeks: 62.4k
(That's over 38 miles for anyone that doesn't want to do the conversion. Yay for me.)

Swim Camp day 11

2009-12-03T21:40:00.005-06:00

I thought I might be able to go for a monster session tonight, but got started a little later and had to wrap up early to coach the masters group. I've hit my target of 50k, but with only two swims left I'm barely on track for 60k. I'll probably need to throw down something huge on Saturday.

For a while I strongly considered swimming in the lake again on Sunday morning before my flight, but they just issued a winter storm warning (which I assume means we might get a flurry here in west Texas). All the same, there's not enough neoprene out there for me to swim in open water when the air temp is in the 30s. Getting caught up in the fun and challenge of the virtual camp is one thing. Getting hypothermia...

Today's workout:
---
WU: 800 free / 400 back / 2x200 free

54321 swim:
5x100 easy, 500 steady
4x100 easy, 400 steady
3x100 easy, 300 steady
2x100 easy, 200 steady
1x100 easy, 100 steady

8x50 as odds easy, evens mod hard

50 easy
---
Total: 5050m

Swim Camp day 10

2009-12-02T19:32:00.002-06:00

1000s day. Also known as the day Nick didn't want to bother with any math to figure out intervals.

---
1000m warm up

1000m as 75 free / 25 back

1000m as 10x100 IM continuous

1000m pull with paddles, band and buoy

1000m as 100 kick / 100 swim

250m easy CD to loosen up my shoulders
---
Total: 5250m

Swim Camp day 9

2009-12-01T20:03:00.005-06:00

The novelty has worn off.

Of course, I'm talking about the novelty of blogging my swims. I'm sure the novelty of reading them wore off days ago. I'm still having a fine time swimming though.

Today:
---
WU: 750 swim / 500 pull / 500 kick / 250 swim

750 swim as 25 fly / 50 free

250 easy

5x200 on 3:15

200 easy

1000 as 75 free / 25 back

50 easy CD
---
Total: 5250m

Swim Camp day 8

2009-11-30T21:20:00.002-06:00

Today's swim:
---
WU: 700 swim / 500 pull

2000m TT - 30:07.78 (1st 1k in 15:19, 2nd 1k in 14:48)

100 easy

400 pull / 350 swim easy
---
Total: 4050m

Not much to say here. I was really pleased with the time trial. I was concerned I might have gone out too hard, but when I came through the first half at a faster pace than my individual 1000s from the other day, I knew I'd be able to lean on it more in the last 500m.

Swim Camp day 7

2009-11-29T16:46:00.007-06:00

Yesterday I ran in a new pair of trail runners -- the New Balance MT100 (yes, another pair of shoes). They're essentially racing flats for the trail, although some of NB's sponsored athletes use them for ultramarathons. Whatever works for them I guess.

I will not be using them for ultras (of course, I won't be using any shoes for ultras since I have no interest in running that far, but that's besides the point). While they worked great for the three or so miles I ran on the trail, I took a beating running 2.5 miles on the road when I met up with Hannah for the run back to the car. My arches feel like someone went at them with a switch. Good shoes for short, quick trail runs. Bad shoes for pavement.

More swimming:
---
WU: 500 swim

4000 continuous -- 1:05:32 total -- I attempted to descend by 1000m (1k - 16:51, 2k - 16:43, 3k - 16:11, 4k - 15:45)

100 easy

400 kick / 400 pull / 100 CD
---
Total: 5500m
Weekly total: 31.1k

Swim Camp day 6

2009-11-28T16:45:00.002-06:00

We interrupt this regularly boring swim camp update to tell you about something cool we did last night.

Hannah and I had heard about a local brewery outside of San Angelo, but we'd had no luck finding it and no one we spoke with had any idea what we were talking about. On Thursday, I finally stumbled across something online, but it wasn't much to go on. All we learned is that there's a brewery/restaurant in the renovated space of an old schoolhouse in Eola, about 20 minutes east of San Angelo. We decided to give it a try for Friday dinner.

It was a little tough to find in the dark; small town Texas is like that. Eventually, we found the place and went inside. This wasn't like any upscale Colorado brewery, but was, without a doubt, the coolest thing we've seen in a while.

In the early 2000s, Mark, the owner, bought the old, abandoned schoolhouse (built in the early part of the 1900s I think). The school had closed in 1982 and had fallen into serious disrepair -- broken glass, missing roof sections, floor covered in mud and dirt, and fire damage.

Over the next few years, Mark basically renovated the building himself. He's still got plenty of work to do, but he's come a long way. A big chunk of the building is now the brewery. He's turned two rooms into dining rooms -- one with a bar and the other for private functions. The seating is old-style classroom chairs and tables. The menu is written on the blackboard. He also set up a bunkhouse for visiting hunters.

It's also worth sharing that this guy doesn't have any formal training in carpentry, roofing, pluming, etc. It's very impressive.

Oh, and the beer was good. I get the impression he usually has two kinds on tap, plus others in gallon jugs for purchase.

We'll be going back next weekend for a beer tasting. Should be fun. I'm also (not so secretly as of this post) hoping to get the running club to do a race out there. Prizes could be things like pint glasses. There's a lot of flat, lightly-traveled farm roads out that way. Could be really cool and encourage some folks to get out of San Angelo.

And here's the swim from today:
---
WU: 750 free / 300 kick / 500 pull / 250 free

10x200 (4 on 3:20, 3 on 3:15, 2 on 3:10, 1 on 3:05)

100 easy

5x100 IM on 1:50

300 easy
---
Total: 4700m

Swim Camp day 5

2009-11-27T16:17:00.004-06:00

My shoulders are starting to feel it, but so far, everything is holding up okay. I've also been hungrier lately, which is a good thing, since we have so much turkey left over.

---
WU: 500 swim / 300 kick / 500 pull

2x1000m (second 1000 faster than the first): 1- 16:26, 2- 15:27

100 easy (or 200, I can't remember)

4x100 on 1:15 (odd = backstroke, even = freestyle)

200 CD
---

Total: 4000m

Swim Camp day 4

2009-11-26T18:15:00.002-06:00

I'm thankful the university pool was open today. I don't think I could have handled another swim in the lake.

---
WU: 500 free / 100 kick / 500 pull / 200 kick / 200 free

5x400 (each one faster than the one before) all on 6:30: arrive - 6:22, 6:19, 6:16, 6:06, 6:01

200 easy

10x100 (evens = free, odd = IM) on 1:55

100 easy
---
Total: 4800m

Swim Camp day 3: Fail

2009-11-25T19:35:00.003-06:00

Today, due to holiday hours at the pool and the fact that I still had regular working hours, my only option was to swim at the lake.

Despite dressing like a lame superhero from head to toe (wetsuit, neoprene cap, socks and gloves), I was only able to get in 3500m before I started loosing some motor function.

Everything was going okay once I could stand to put my face in the water. I was ticking off 350m loops every five minutes. Pretty suddenly though, about 2900m in, I started shivering in my legs, so I tried picking up the effort to keep warm. That only lasted for another few minutes. The next split I took had me swimming about 30 seconds slower, which is not common for me. A minute later my whole body was shaking and I was having trouble getting my arms around. I called it a day at that point. Hours later, after a long, hot shower, plenty of food and beer: I'm still cold.

It might not help that I was also racing the sunset. Here in Texas, the minute the sun drops, the temperature plummets. My highly scientific personal measuring system put the water temperature at 33 degrees Fahrenheit... or maybe in the 50s somewhere, the system is kind of glitchy.

Anyway, no 4000 meters for today. Fallback goal is 50k over the two weeks. I'm just shy of 12k now.

Today's workout:
---
3500m continuous in the marginally above freezing lake. I saw a frozen snake. Or a reed. One of the two.

Swim Camp day 2

2009-11-24T20:36:00.000-06:00

The not exciting part starts right away (I warned you):

---
WU - 400 swim / 200 kick / 300 swim / 100 kick

2000m continuous with band and buoy

50 easy

10x100m on 1:55 -- first five freestyle (arrive 1:35), second five IM (arrive around 1:40)

200 cool down
---
4250m total

That band and buoy set and that 8x250 from yesterday are some of the "bonus" workouts for the camp that get me extra points that I can trade in for all sorts of fun prizes like a plastic sword or ray gun. I'm much better at swimming than skeeball, so I should be up for something good.

Swim Camp

2009-11-23T21:46:00.000-06:00

The Endurance Corner team is doing a virtual swim camp for the next two weeks. There are all sorts of points for hitting certain distances in a workout, as well as doing specific sets, but the details probably aren't that interesting for most of you. My personal goal for the camp is to swim 4,000 meters each day for 13 days. The camp is 14 days long, but I'm planning for one off day that I'll probably reserve for the last day when I need to fly back up to NJ/NYC.

With the holiday and wacky pool hours, I'm sure I'll be in the lake at least one of the days -- likely covered head to toe in neoprene (wetsuit, cap, booties and gloves if it's really chilly). The days have been in the 70s, but mornings and nights are down in the high 30s/low 40s. I might have a tough go of it.

The pool at the university where I swim is short-course meters (scm). Technically it's over 25 meters long (about 26 meters -- I have no idea what pool designer messed that up), but I'm rounding down to 25 meters for ease of math.

Anyway, today's workout:
---
Group swim (which I conveniently organize):
Warm-up: 200 swim / 100 kick / 2x100 swim / 2x50 kick / 4x50 swim / 4x25 kick
10x25 on :45
5x100 on 2:00
10x25 on :30

After the group practice, I rolled into:
8x250 (first 25 fly) on 4:20
200 cool down

Total: 4200m
---

So that's today. I expect if nothing else interesting happens to me, this will be the highlight of my blog for the next two weeks. For your sake, pray that I have some decent stories from Thanksgiving or my cold lake swims.

I'm full of energy... bars

2009-11-18T05:32:00.004-06:00

I recently picked up Thrive, by Brendan Brazier, which amounts to a vegan approach to eating for endurance sports. I have no desire to become a vegan, but some of the recipes intrigued me as well as his thoughts on eating in a way that puts less stress on your body.

I was most interested in his energy bar recipes, of which I've made six batches in just over a week. Some were success. Others... still edible, but bordering on gross in terms of both taste and consistency. This is coming from a guy who's go-to meal in my first few years out of college was canned tuna, rice and olive oil. I still look back fondly on that dinner/lunch/sometimes breakfast and even sneak it in every so often when Hannah is working late.

Anyway, energy bars.

Who knew they were so easy yet so much of a PITA to make?
- Ingredients required: Not much, just some dates, nuts, protein powder, seeds and ground flaxseed. Depending on the recipe and variation, you may also need fruit, chocolate, cacao and some more exotic ingredients (popped amaranth?).
- Tools/appliances required: Again, not much, just a food processor, spatula and plastic wrap
- Patience required: More than you can imagine, at least for the first few batches.

For my initial trials, I was successful in terms of taste because I followed the recipes exactly. But they had the texture of raw cookie dough, so you can imagine the difficulty of eating one while riding a bike.

My next batch was more solid, but tasted awful. I tried increasing the amount of protein powder to soak up some of the moisture. Ugh, that was a mistake. However, if you need a homemade recipe for something to "clean out" your system, let me know.

I found some measure of success by increasing the amount of dates and ground flaxseed and by baking the bars at low heat to remove some of the moisture. Since these are supposed to be raw though, I may be missing the point.

I finally discovered that the secret isn't necessarily in the ingredients, but in the forming of the bars themselves. Originally I had been trying to make them into PowerBar sized shapes: long and flat. Then it occurred to me: Clif Bars are pretty thick. And Lara Bars (made mostly with dates, just like mine!) are significantly thicker. So, some mashing and shaping later, I found success:
And they're good. I'm not sure they'll replace all the store-bought bars for long training rides when it gets in the high 90s, but they are a good addition, and they're definitely healthier than the big name energy bars. Since they're mostly fruit, nuts and seeds, they make a fine snack too.

And yes, that's hemp protein in the background of that picture. That's what the recipes in the book call for. I don't know that it's absolutely necessary or if it's because of the vegan approach. I do know that it was large quantities of regular vanilla whey protein powder that made one my batches gross.

Interesting fact: it's illegal to grow hemp in the US, because the government is afraid everyone would make lots of protein powder. But it's a-okay in Canada. The stuff I have is from Vancouver, by way of the local grocery store.

Goodbyes

2009-11-03T18:00:00.003-06:00

I would have sworn I had broken my foot after Lake Placid this past year. Actually, I was kind of concerned I had broken my foot before Lake Placid -- Hannah was the only person that knew because I didn't want the negative energy that would come out of my family's well-intentioned concern. I was already anxious as it was. 2009 was my least "mentally ready" IM -- even more so than my first. I think my choice to stay in a hotel 20 minutes away from all the activity in Lake Placid was a good one, otherwise I might have been a wreck.

But this post isn't about my fragile mental state, it's about goodbyes. Specifically, goodbye to some good friends.

Before the race I had some pain in the ball of both of my feet, but more significantly in my left foot. After the race I had an enormous bruise on the bottom of my foot that made walking absolutely suck. I'm not 100% sure what caused my foot pain, after all, I hadn't been running particularly fast or particularly long all year.

It might have been that my shoes were too worn down and I would have been better off switching to a new pair a few weeks before the race.

It might have been that my orthotics weren't doing their jobs.

It probably was a combination of both.

In any event, after the race I ordered a new pair of my super-favorite $60 Vitruvians for use when I could get around again without hobbling.

I'm sorry to say that Vitruvians are no longer my super-favorite. For whatever reason, I can't put those shoes on without my feet hurting. The shoe design didn't change, I know that. I guess it's possible that my feet changed from the pounding of the ironman, but I doubt it. Maybe it's psychosomatic... I guess that would mean this post is about my fragile mental state.

It doesn't really matter. I'm back in Brooks (the Ravenna and ST Racer 4, specifically). And I'm not wearing my orthotics anymore either. And, most importantly, I don't have any foot pain. At only $60 a pair, I don't need to spend any more effort figuring out why the Vitruvians stopped feeling good on my feet. It's just the way it is.

So, goodbye $60 running shoes. Goodbye clunky orthotics. You served me well ...until you turned on me like a pet tiger.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T20:26:00.002-05:00

For the past two years, Hannah and I had somehow missed out on Halloween in San Angelo. The first year, she was in an apartment complex with no kids and I was moving into a different apartment in NJ. Last year, we were prepared, but learned much too late that "Halloween" in San Angelo isn't always on Halloween. We had candy ready, but were out on the observed night. When we learned how the holiday is celebrated in town, we raced home, but the kids were done for the night.

This year, we thought we were prepared. Four-bags-of-candy prepared. Between the last two years in Texas and the previous two years in a condo complex (on the outskirts of town), we hadn't encountered many trick-or-treaters. So, four bags of candy should be fine, right?

We started by handing out two pieces to every kid. Based on our past experience, we still would have been left with a ton of candy at the end of the night. We got a little worried in the first hour when we started running low.

So we did the initial check of the pantry. We had some Dove dark chocolate individually-wrapped squares. Perfect.

Ten minutes later, we had to raid the pantry again. "Hey, we have a bunch of gum. Kids like gum! Who cares if it's sugarless."

Another 15 minutes later we started digging deeper into the cabinets. "Hershey's 100 calorie dark chocolate. Great!"

You can see where this is going.

We went through some individually-wrapped Easter candy that was in the freezer. Then some snack-sized popcorn bags. Then mixed nuts. When I had to bust out the mini-Clif Bars, we got very nervous.

Hannah found a full box of Quaker granola bars. She poured the contents into the "candy" bowl. She didn't tell me what else was in that granola bar box.

More and more kids came to the door. Some were genuinely excited about the Clif Bars and granola bars, others just thought there were getting big candy bars. Hannah just kept dropping things in their baskets.

Then she told me what else was she had slipped in... We turned the lights off after that. Hopefully those kids won't remember who gave them what.

We met somebody cool

2009-10-27T05:39:00.006-05:00

Hannah and I went down to Austin for the Livestrong Challenge this past weekend.

Long story short, we had a great time. We got to ride our bikes. It was for a good cause. And we met some really nice people at the Team Fatty meet-up on Saturday.

Naturally, despite having our camera with us the whole time, we only took a few pictures. But boy did we take the important ones.

Are you ready to have your mind blown? Or are you ready to have your mind perplexed while you try to figure out why we're so excited to stand next to a guy wearing the same t-shirt as me? If you're the former, be excited! If you're the latter, go read some other blog.

Hannah and I got the opportunity for a quick photo with Elden Nelson, the Fat Cyclist, and the ringleader for Team Fatty. It doesn't do him justice to just say how incredibly cool and nice he was. I'm pretty sure he made the effort to talk to everyone involved with Team Fatty, either on Saturday or on the day of the ride. Truly an awesome, standup guy.

Luckily we got two pictures with him because either he or Hannah had their eyes closed. I opted to stick with the sunglasses, as I'm sure I have my eyes closed in both pictures.
I found it interesting that I'm actually bigger than someone. Despite this, Elden still looks like he could crush me if he wanted to. I need to spend some more time in the gym.

Waiting at the start. Team Fatty members got to start before almost everyone else. Nice little perk. Another bonus: I learned the little logo on my helmet is reflective.

I'm willing to bet this is also the closest I will ever be to Lance Armstrong.In case you're wondering, no, his speech was not that inspirational. I'm sure he had gotten that all of out of his system in the previous 10 speeches he made over the weekend.

So, super cool weekend. Super good people. Awesome experience. And for a really great purpose.

UPDATE: I'm prominently featured in a well-read blog. Don't believe me? Here's the picture from fatcyclist.com.
What? You can't see me? Are you blind? I'm right next to him......about 20 feet back.

You can all say you knew me when.

Reflection

2009-10-23T05:52:00.001-05:00

The more I've been reading lately, I'm leaning towards the theory that my legs didn't cramp in Lake Placid because I was short on electrolytes, but because I just wasn't as fit as I needed to be.

That kind of sucks because I would have bet money that I was fitter than in 2007. My swim and bike splits would attest to that. And my recovery after the race suggest that as well. The fact that I didn't walk anywhere near as much as 2007 would make me think that I was fitter in '09 as well.

I do think that I was fitter overall. But my run fitness may not have been where I hoped it was. A little recap:

In '07 training, I:
- Ran a lot faster in training than in '09
- Did much less cycling compared to '09

While I ran much more in 2009 training, I also trained at a slower pace than in 2007. Do I think that training at a slower pace factored in my slower 2009 run time? Sure. But running slower more often also allowed me to consistently train -- something that I didn't do so well with in previous years.

More likely, my "running" legs still weren't quite back to 2007 strength levels. They were just fatigued during the race. I spent '08 breaking myself down without realizing it (leading to my injury). I'm still building back now, as evidenced by my hip still giving me a little trouble. I always knew getting to where I want to be was going to take a few years -- let's see what happens this year.

I believe my flaw in my '09 IM run was thinking that I was going to run as fast or faster as in '07, while not actually having anything to back that up. I had done no tests in '07 to compare with my '09 data. I had done no races in '09 to get a feel for my actual race speed.

So, what am I changing this year? Actually, not all that much:
- I'm not going to get injured again. That put me in a little bit of a panic. If I do get injured, I think I'm pulling the plug on CdA and getting myself 100% healthy, rather than getting myself healthy enough to train and race, but not okay for the long term. I'll talk about how I'm not going to get injured another day. Mostly it involves me turning my frail 140 pound body into a ripped, strapping 145 pound body.
- I'm going to have at least one test race in addition to all my standard training tests. I had one race in all of 2009: ironman. I might have gone a little extreme in my focus on that race. Gordo also recommends that I try to get one low-priority race in each month through the winter. I think that's mostly to keep me from going crazy. Luckily San Angelo has a ton of running races throughout the year. Hopefully I'll be able to find a masters swim meet somewhere too.

That's about it. I'll let you know how it goes.

The science

2009-10-09T18:05:00.003-05:00

I bet you didn't think the "science" portion of our vacation recap would have any interesting photos. But you're wrong! Ha ha!

Well, technically, you're right -- the science itself is incredibly non-photogenic (unless you want to see pictures of me riding a stationary bike breathing into a tube) -- but since the science part of the trip only directly involved me, Hannah was free to wander around Boulder. I'm pretty sure the picture above is the Boulder library. I think the one below is of the other direction.

So, about the science. This is the second year I've gone out to Boulder to have the EC guys put me through some physiological testing (Alan ran the tests this time -- boy is that guy smart). I did a lactate and fuel test on the bike and a run lactate test at the track. If you're wondering what any of that means, ask your local physiologist. You can ask me, but I can't guarantee I'll tell you a factual answer.

The numbers aren't particularly interesting to look at for most folks, so I won't bother to share them here (that and I don't have the charts on this computer). The tests were worthwhile to me though. Both Alan and Gordo gave me a lot to work on to improve my fitness/overall triathlon performance, without overwhelming me.

My big takeaway is that I need to get stronger. It's been more than five years since I could clean more than my bodyweight. I doubt I'll get back to that strength level again, but a good five or so pounds of muscle will do a lot to improve my performance and reduce my now-injury-prone body (five pounds is an approximation, I'm not going to be watching the scale).

So, what does that mean? Some solid time in the gym and lots of time on my bike. Bonus for living in San Angelo: we're entering the windy season (which runs October through September) so I'm sure to get lots of resistance work in outside.

The walking

2009-10-07T06:00:00.002-05:00

Since I think the pictures are more interesting that my narrative, I'll sum up briefly and then get to the goods. After my science stuff ended on Tuesday, Hannah and I drove up to Estes Park outside Rocky Mountain National Park. After we arrived, we went for a short walk around town. On Wednesday, we went into the park and did a shorter day hike to the top of Deer Peak. At this point, it had started snowing in the mountains, so we ended up wearing every piece of clothing we had brought. We then drove around the park, although most of Trail Ridge Road was closed due to snow and ice.

Wednesday night we went to a ranger-led talk about elk, who were in their rutting season.

On Thursday, we wore some additional clothing that we hadn't originally brought on the trip and ventured out into the snow to the top of Flat Top Mountain. While tough with a few inches of snow to push through at the top, it was a good pick since it doesn't actually have an actual peak to summit (being a "flat top" and all). That afternoon we drove up to Ft. Collins.

We saw quite a lot of elk on our trip. These guys (and gals) had moved down from the mountains to the Estes Park golf course.

I suppose there was some science involved in the walking as well. Nature, etc.

On the way up Deer Peak Trail. You'll notice the puffy clothing.

Top of Deer Peak... looking at snow.

On the way up Flat Top. Beautiful overlooks.

The snow starting to get deep. You'll notice I made Hannah break trail. I'm polite that way.

Me at the top. Had Gordo not given us the EC beanies, I'm not sure what we would have done (...actually, we probably would have just bought hats. It was cold and we're not that dumb).

We made the mistake of stopping to eat at the top, which is our usual practice when we go for hikes. Of course, we rarely hike when windy and snowy, so even though we talked about not stopping at the top, we did anyway... and proceeded to get really cold. Once we realized what was going on, we booked it down the mountain to get warm. That meant we didn't pause for many photos even when the clouds started to clear up a little.

I'll wrap this up with the stoic rodent we came across on the way up. We found a copy of Watership Down up the trail a little. I think he had just read it and was emboldened.

Vacation in reverse

2009-10-05T05:30:00.000-05:00

Hannah's and my vacation to Colorado can basically be broken down into three categories: science, walking and beer. Quick synopsis: we flew to Denver (me from NYC, Hannah from Texas), spent a day in Denver, spent two days in Boulder (where I did my science stuff), spent two days in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park (where we did the walking stuff), spent two days around Fort Collins (including a trip up to Cheyenne, WY), then flew back to Texas. Throughout the trip we did the beer stuff.

To keep everyone's interest, I'll start with the beer post, then I'll back into the walking and science stuff.

You might be surprised to learn that Colorado has quite a lot of good breweries. They also have Coors (ha. ha.).

Here's Hannah about to be crushed by a giant kettle (drum? vat?) at the Coors factory. She has a habit of standing in front of giant things that can crush her when we go on vacation. She'd probably blame the photographer for that.
This was the first part of our week-long beer tour, during which we tried to get to most of the local breweries on the Front Range. Between this trip and last year, I think we hit all of the ones north of Denver, except one in Lyons.

Not surprisingly, the beer tours didn't lend themselves to the greatest photo opportunities.
If you think that's exciting photography, you're probably going to be disappointed that we didn't take any pictures at the microbrew places. On the other hand, if you're bored (that is, normal), you'll understand why we didn't even bother bringing the camera with us to the small breweries. Everything was really interesting, just not photogenic.

While the Coors tour was neat, it would end up paling in comparison to the Budweiser tour we took at the end of the week. We were both a little disappointed in that -- since Golden is the flagship brewery for Coors ("tap the Rockies" and all), it was a bit of a let down. The sampling beers weren't all that impressive either, but it might be because Coors beers themselves aren't all that impressive. They're not bad by any means, but we were much more impressed by the Bud options. It might be because Coors doesn't have a "top end" option, while Budweiser has Michelob and a bunch of different seasonal options.

The packaging assembly at Budweiser was really amazing to see. At one point, there was this crazy articulated robotic arm that was doing something cool on the packaging floor. No, we don't have a picture of the cool thing, but we do have one of me staring intently at it.
They also have lots of vats of beer fermenting and whatnot.
Trust me, the pictures will get better when I get to the hiking.

Basically, all but a small amount of the beer we sampled was great. I assume the stuff that I thought was awful is good to someone, but I prefer my bourbon and my beer separate. By that I mean I'll drink the beer, but keep the bourbon in another room well away from me -- please don't make some super-drink. Hannah liked it though. And my brothers probably would as well. So there's clearly a market for it. Me and the sorority girls will take our wussy drinks over here.

The zero returns

2009-09-14T18:38:00.002-05:00

While I try to post a blog entry once a week (mostly for myself), sometimes that doesn't happen. So what have I been up to? I've been turning old.

Some brothers take their brothers out to do crazy adventures for a 30th birthday. RDM, JNM and I drove down to Austin. I'm not complaining; it was my idea for my brothers to visit me in Texas. I don't think any one of us was up for swimming in frigid Swedish waters. Maybe someday.

And Austin was plenty crazy with the first UT home game and all. Of course, we ended up picking the one bar that wasn't showing the game ("I wonder why no one's in here?"). But we did see some bats and my brothers learned some Texas history (and the girl working the ticket center at the Texas History Museum was a student from Sweden, so in a way, we were connected to the crazy race around the islands near Stockholm... yeah...).

So my brothers got to see our little area of Texas. They saw some flash flooding, some authentic cowboy boots (and cowboys) and some UT coeds. They had authentic Tex-Mex and both had a breakfast taco for the first time (I don't quite understand that one -- they exist in NYC too).

We spent about half the long weekend in Austin and half in San Angelo. On Labor Day we went for a walk in our local state park. These aren't the most fascinating pictures, but I wanted to capture the fact that both RDM and JNM were in Texas with me at the same time.

Here's RDM and JNM searching for the elusive San Angelo elevation change. It's out there, you just need to look for it.

And here are my brothers walking away, shortly before Joe imploded in the sun/heat (it's not just me!).

Definition

2009-08-28T18:19:00.000-05:00

With the exception of this post, I don't think I've ever actually called myself a "triathlete." More often than not, I usually say that "I do triathlons."

It's not usually a conscious effort, but it is something I debate internally from time to time. I definitely used to be a swimmer. I used to be a rower. I used to want people to know I was a swimmer or rower and address me as such ("The Esteemed Nicholas Robin Mathers the First, Rower").

Now I don't care. Or, to be honest, I try to avoid being defined as any one thing. Sure, it's partly because of the stigma associated with triathletes. But, the more I think about it, it's because I want to keep my options open.

I like being fit. I like training. I like having an event to use as a goal. I don't NEED it to be an ironman though. Sometimes I need to remind myself of that.

All this rambling might be me having a minor freakout because my hip is bothering me and I've already got this expensive race on the calender 10 months from now. It's probably worth noting that Hannah has made it quite clear that it's okay to walk away from a $500+ event if I don't want to do it. Having "permission" along with the financial means to not worry about that decision is reassuring (not that I'll be throwing away $500 weekly). But I still have anxiety.

Or it could be that I'm closing in on 30 and I'm having a mini identity crisis.

Whatever. I'm excited to get back to training -- even if it's mostly hikes and swimming until I resolve my various stability issues. Somehow I've also been appointed (I might have volunteered) as the key person to get a masters swim program started at the local university. Hopefully we can get something going. It'll be good to train with other folks and not worry that I'm going too fast for my own good or that I'm holding someone else back. The pool has a nice way of leveling everything out -- mostly because everyone is crammed into the same 25-meter box.

Back to basics

2009-08-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

This was originally a much more fatalistic-woe-is-me-self-flagellation kind of post. Then I edited it. Now it's just a me-being-grumpy kind of post. If you think it's overly dreary, imagine what it could have been like.

My hip hurts. More accurately, my hip hurts like it did last summer. The summer I trained and raced through some severe hip pain. The summer that led to the fall that led to this past winter where I did no running or cycling for three months.

So, I'm understandably a little frustrated and apprehensive. And I haven't really been doing any substantial training. What I have been doing is trying to figure out why my hip hurts. Here's what I know:

1) I was dumb. I raced a 6mi road race three weeks after LP, with no running between LP and the race. While my hip and knee didn't hurt specifically, I was sore for five days after the race. And I really overloaded my calves.

2) I was dumb x2. I went out for a ride with the local Loop Group. They go hard about 10 minutes into the ride and seemingly don't let up until they're in their cars driving home. I started with one group, got dropped, then got picked up in the back half of the ride by the fastest pack that was doing a longer loop. I blew myself up staying with them for as long as I could, then got dropped again. This was my first ride since LP. I was exhausted for three days. And since this overlapped with #1 above, I was still sore for another day.

3) I'm weak. Towards the end of the spring and the beginning of my build to LP, I was able to move some decent weight on the hip abduction, leg extension and leg curl machines at the gym. And I could do multiple sets of hip bridges and high rep hip abduction exercises using a high-resistance band without too much trouble. Right now, my legs get all wobbly and burny with one set of 10 hip bridges. I'm a little surprised my strength faded so quickly in a few months, but apparently that's what happens.

I'm pretty sure #3 is the problem here. And then #1 and #2 exasperated everything.

Fortunately, I'm aware that for me hip pain preceeds crippling knee pain. I won't spend the fall thinking that my belt is rubbing my hips weird (that was last year).

So, here's what I'm doing:

1) Get my stabilizers consistently stronger. I'm tired of feeling like I'm one run or ride away from ruining my season (a season that hasn't even started yet).

2) No fast running. It's part of the plan I'm supposed to be following (the no fast running part). I should probably follow the plan. Technically I was between plans when I did the race, but that's not much of an excuse.

3) No group rides. I thought I had enough self-control to not get sucked into the kill 'em all mentality. Apparently not.

So, if anyone wonders why I'm being all anti-social or spending stupid amounts of time in the "women's fitness" room at the gym, now you know.

Lots of effort, little change

2009-08-12T05:03:00.001-05:00

I swam as part of a relay in this past weekend's Wool Capital olympic distace triathlon (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run). Two guys from Goodfellow Air Force Base did the other legs, which was nice, since that means I only needed to show up with goggles and swim suit. I also opted to bring shorts and a shirt, mostly because I didn't want to scare any children after I finished my leg ("Why is that man walking around in his underwear?").

We handidly won, although things might have been different had one of the other teams actually had their mid-30s 10k runner instead of a substitute.

The relays go off with the sub-35 age group racers, so the majority of the fastest athletes are in this bunch. Since I didn't have to worry about the bike or run, I decided to open it up and see what I could do in the swim.

Incidentally, there's not much difference between me going all out and just putting in a steady effort. While the course probably isn't exactly the same (buoys move, etc.), I swam about a minute faster than last year, when I did the entire race and swam with a moderate effort. While I wasn't surprised at that outcome, it's still enlightening to experience first-hand.

Also of note: This is the first time I've raced that a bunch of people were wearing the various "swimskins" that have become all the rage since the last Olympics. The overall winner didn't wear one (he went the Speedo route the whole time, chafing be damned), but the top three fastest swimmers did. I don't know if I would have been as fast as those guys had they not been wearing those suits, but I don't think it would have required as much effort on my part to hang on their feet (which I lost when we started swimming through the earlier waves). They definitely are a device that improves speed in the water. In any event, I'm glad FINA is going to ban themfor pure swimming events. I don't think triathlon will follow FINA's example, but I'm not really bothered about that. If there's one thing triathletes love to do, it's spend money on "free" speed... or, to be more accurate, "expensive" speed.

I wouldn't have been able to hang with the top swimmers for the duration of the entire race, so the fact that they get a minute or so on me in the swim (as opposed to 30 seconds sans-speedsuit) doesn't really matter. And I can still beat the folks that are slower than me, swimskin or not. It just creates more of a margin between the fastest guys and me. Besides, I'm saving my $300+ for something that will improve my bike splits... like a motor.

Tough day

2009-08-07T04:58:00.001-05:00

Some of you already know about Fat Cyclist's wife's passing the other day. I don't remember when I first came across the FC blog, but I'm pretty sure it was before I started my current job (4+ years ago). That's a long time to be deeply interested in someone else's life, especially someone you've never actually met.

When Hannah and I were talking about it last night, we discussed that while we can feel sympathy, it's hard for us to feel empathy -- we haven't been in his situation (and hopefully we won't ever).

In any event, we'll be in Austin for the Livestrong Challenge at the end of October. I'll have a donation link in the sidebar in the next few days if anyone feels inclined to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Say what you want about the dude, but his foundation is making a difference.

Nostalgia

2009-08-06T05:00:00.005-05:00

I still keep a toe in the rowing world, mostly through friends, although at this point it's probably just my pinky toe. Whenever I go out to lunch with some of my post-collegiate rowing buddies, inevitably the conversation comes back to the current goings-on at our old club, what other old rowing friends are up to (very few of whom are still in the sport), or, most often, reflecting back on how awesome we were, or how awesome we almost were.

This week is the Canadian Henley, without a doubt the best annual rowing race in North America, and a tie with the Head of the Charles for best rowing "event" on the continent. It's also the most competitive club race. The elites are super fast too, but since the best elites are preparing for Worlds/Olympics, are in the middle of their trials or have just finished their trials, there's not much depth in the fastest events.

That doesn't really matter, as Canadian Henley is primarily a junior, under-23 and not-ready-for-primetime/past-your-prime event. There is a competitive field across the board in those categories (technically called Junior, Under-23, Senior), with almost every event requiring heats. The best, most meritocratic, most cut-throat aspect of the race is awards are only given to event winners -- there is no silver or bronze. So, you either win or you don't.

Anyway, I periodically check out a rowing news site and I saw that Canadian Henley is this week. So, I clicked through to the regatta page and looked at the results page. The picture on the page is a winning crew from my old club. I don't know any of these girls (I think they were in elementary school when I last raced), but seeing the picture gave me a little wave of nostalgia.

From there, I was pleased to see the Canadians really have it together. I don't know of any North American rowing event that archives their results as well as Canadian Henley. Certainly not US Nationals. So, since I was feeling nostalgic and all, I looked at my own results from the years I raced there. I was shocked to see the results haven't changed since I raced -- first in the 145lb 8+ and 3rd in the 145lb 4+ in '02 and 3rd again in the 145lb 4+ in '03. I would have thought that, by now, our years of talking about how the events unfolded would have at least moved us into 2nd in one of those two other races. Damn the Canadians and their effective record-keeping.

In a bit of irony, our coxswain in those two years of races ended up rowing in the 145lb 4+ in 2004. And they won. So maybe we should have had him rowing instead of steering and yelling.

Of course, I can take solace in the fact that I'm still part of the reigning champion crew in the 145lb 8+. It's not at all important that they retired the event after 2002.
I'm sure I have a non-watermarked copy of this somewhere, but this is what's still available online (7 years later!). For those that can't tell, I'm the shortest guy there (aside from the coxswain) -- second from the right.

Number 3

2009-07-31T05:03:00.002-05:00

Since most of the folks who read this blog aren't too interested in the gritty details, I'll keep it short.

Ironman Lake Placid went very well for me overall. After a series of injuries earlier this year (all self-inflicted), I was unsure of my true fitness. Now that the event is over, I can easily say I'm far and away much fitter than two years ago.

I made some mistakes during the day that hindered my ability to have a great run, but despite some rough patches, I still pulled out a PR. I knew halfway through the bike that sub-12 hours wasn't going to happen, but that didn't really get me down at all. I did what I could with what I had on the day.

You can see some photos on RDM's site. I might need to go with a crewcut next time, the spastic hair isn't too photogenic. But then again, neither were my facial expressions.

On a revelatory note, Hannah informed me that I'm not very enthusiastic to see my supporters during the run. Up until being told this information, I would have sworn that I stick my hand up and excitedly wave and smile as I run past. In fact, I have a distinct memory of doing so to Hannah and her parents when I came into the Olympic oval for the finish. Hannah's folks corroborated her story that I barely acknowledged them. Clearly there's some neurological disconnect going on here.

Thanks to everyone who came to watch: Hannah, my parents, RDM, JNM, significant others, Hannah's folks, as well as my college friends Trevor and Diana, and, of course, the other 50+ people that were there only for me. Also, thanks to Gordo at Endurance Corner -- I've learned a lot this year and I'm looking forward to what's coming up.

EDIT: Somehow in my early thanking, I left out the two folks that traveled the farthest to watch me: my aunt Robin and uncle Bob. Whoops! I blame the leg cramps on the run for that oversight.

My entourage

2009-07-22T06:27:00.004-05:00

Hannah and I fly from San Angelo to Philly via Dallas today. She's hanging out on Thursday in PA and driving up to Lake Placid with her parents on Friday. I plan to be in LP on Thursday in time to register and get that out of the way as early as possible.

Each time I do an ironman, my fan base grows -- I want to say exponentially, but with some simple math, anyone would be deceived into thinking that's not true. So, I'm going to explain it with some complex math. Those of you who aren't professional e-mail writers like me may have trouble following along.

I've created an intricate chart to illustrate my popularity. The x-axis represents the number of ironman races. The y-axis represents those individuals willing to lose a weekend to watch me wear lycra and run around in circles.

An obvious answer to my increased fan base is that my family has grown, what with inlaws and various significant others, most of whom were around before, but clearly deemed me not interesting enough. Or they had work. Or they got suckered in this time around ("Oh, the Adirondacks are so amazing when it's not raining. And the day-long race is unbelievably captivating.").

It then occurred to me that there are a few other attendees that I can appropriate as part of my own loyal crowd. I'll have some friends from college watching the race this year. It's not important that they're actually there to cheer on one of their family's friends; I'm not above Venn-diagramming them into my circle of well-wishers.

And then there are the other people I've met over the years, many of whom are racing. I'll just assume that they're on the course to cheer me on. They couldn't possibly have their own goals (other than to be my supporters). And let's also assume that all of their friends and family are cheering for me, in that they'll be cheering for their own racer, who is, as we've just established, only on the course to support me.

It's not so hard to put that total number north of 50. And, if you take my previous incredibly involved chart and drop in the new numbers...

...you can see that I can easily claim a more than exponential increase in fan base. And that, more than anything, is the reason I do ironman.

How it's going to go down

2009-07-16T05:55:00.003-05:00

I have a race number for Lake Placid: 262. For those interested, you can track me on ironman.com on Sunday, July 26. It should be pretty obvious how to do it once you're on the website.

The weather will probably be pretty cool compared with my current "I'm dying in the Texas heat" standards, so the temperature shouldn't really be a factor. I'm giving it 50/50 odds on if it rains or not. I lost my weather-control wand but I have a new jacket, so I'm not too worried.

Get the job done
My swim will be the easiest long-distance swim I've done. Part of that is because I haven't done the necessary swim training to mix it up with anyone and part of that is because -- after getting roughed up at LP last time -- it's not worth the mental energy getting frustrated. It'll be what it is.

I'm going to have a much quicker transition than my last two IMs. I've got a better wetsuit which shouldn't be too difficult to get off (unlike my last LP race, where I struggled with the top for five minutes and felt like I dislocated my shoulder). I'll probably be wearing my knee warmers under my wetsuit to save time during transition, so if you're there and looking for the dorkiest looking guy coming into the change tent, it'll probably be me -- essentially I'll be wearing capri pants.

I'll put on bike jersey, socks and shoes, put my gels and such in my pockets, roll on my arm warmers and grab my helmet and sunglasses. Depending on the weather, I'll either put on my rain jacket or a wind vest.

The bike is going to be controlled. I'm probably going to get passed by a lot of people. If everything works out, I'll see a bunch of them again in the last half of the marathon. We'll see how my bike fitness falls out. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I have no real sense of my actual race speed, as I haven't done any race testing. I have done a whole mess of outdoor riding for the first time this year, so I know what efforts I should be putting out. We'll see what happens.

My second transition is going to be quick. I'm doing a full change to running gear as I like to have something to focus on. If it's cold/rainy, I'll still be wearing the arm warmers. High fashion.

The first 18 miles of the run is going to be relaxed -- just rolling along. I'll be walking out of transition and waving at the crowds telling me to get running. Once I start my actual run, I'll be walking for a bit (15-45 seconds) every 10 minutes. If everything is going great, I'll open it up in the last 10k and see what I can do. If everything is going good, I'll maintain pace. If things aren't going so good, I'll do everything I can to keep the wheels from flying off. Whatever happens, I'm going to PR the marathon.

Will I break 12 hours? I don't know. But I'm going to race like I'm going for a personal best, whatever the day brings.

Bonus points if anyone knows who that is at the top.

Beards, Battle Scars and Bears

2009-07-06T04:54:00.003-05:00

Beards
Since I'm mostly working from home, and don't really have to worry about my professional appearance, I wondered what happens when I don't shave for two weeks (aside from keeping the scraggly bits under control). This: Despite the quasi-beard and no one to see me, I still make sure to wear a suit to the (home)office every day. Keeps me in the zone.

Battle Scars
The cat has been mixing it up with somebody. The other day I noticed his ear had dried blood on it. And there was a small chunk missing (we originally thought it was just some errant fur). Well, we cleaned him up and his wounds are healing nicely, although now he's the tough cat in the neighborhood.

Since he is a cat, it's virtually impossible to get any clear pictures of his scars (with those cat-like reflexes and all). Here's what you get:

Bears
Hannah and I went up to the Abilene zoo on Friday afternoon. Many of the animals were hiding in the shade, but we did come across a black bear who was very interested in one of the local birds.

Sorry about the picture quality. Everything is via my phone.

Meltdown #2

2009-06-25T06:00:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I had my long run scheduled. Even though it's only an hour difference between New Jersey and Texas, I've been having a hard time getting up the hour earlier (mainly because I've been going to bed an hour later).

I found myself unable to get out of bed to do my run in the morning, so I chose to do it in the evening. Since I'm still working on Eastern time, I was out the door by 5 p.m. Central. And that was a mistake.

A mile into my run, I passed an electronic sign at a carwash that read 95 degrees. "That's pretty hot," I thought to myself, as if I didn't realize it was hot without the temperature reading. "This might not go so well."

Things actually weren't so bad for the first 90 minutes, although I had to walk a few of the steeper hills to keep my heart rate from going out of control (yes, contrary to my own belief, there are hills in Texas).

For my longer runs when it's warm, I typically carry two liters of water in a backpack. That started to dry up around the two hour mark. That's also about the same time I noticed I was covered in salt, all my body hair was standing on end and I was feeling a slight chill. A few minutes after that I completely detonated. Walking uphill had my heart rate in the high 140s. My legs ached (and not from the blistering 10 minute per mile pace I had been running). My inner thighs were rubbed raw (no more short shorts for long runs).

I waved at a police car that drove by. He waved back. A minute later, he came by again. And then less than a minute later he came back again. Each time I waved and kept on my way (at this point, I was moving at an aggressive walk). I suppose I couldn't have looked that bad, or else he would have stopped, right? Maybe he thought I was lost. Or maybe he was checking out the short shorts.

In any event, about a mile from home I ducked into a convenience store, bought a 32 ounce Gatorade and trudged most of the way home, before Hannah stopped to pick me up on her way to a work dinner. After I got home I checked a few weather sites and learned the carwash sign was wrong. It was still 101 degrees at 7:30.

That's two big workouts where I completely fell apart in the heat. Maybe I need more water. Or maybe I need some new, trendy gear. All the cool kids are wearing this these days.

Or maybe I should just wake up early and not train when it's 100+ degrees outside until I'm used to the heat.

Implosion

2009-06-23T05:16:00.001-05:00

Now that I'm more or less set up down in San Angelo permanently (for those that didn't know that... surprise!), the weather gods have decided to mess around with me.

My last few trips down to Texas from NJ were leaving warm weather and coming in to warm weather. In some instances, it was actually cooler in Texas than in the northeast.

As anyone from the north knows now, the mid-atlantic region has recently been trying to one-up the northwest for the soggiest coast award. Temperatures have been consistently in the low 60s in NJ. So, that's two weeks of very mild temperatures.

Imagine my relief upon returning from my horrible long ride yesterday to learn that it was 96 degrees -- that gave me an easy excuse (actual or imagined) for blowing up (figuratively, not actual) three hours into the ride.

And for those that don't know, it's also incredibly windy in west Texas. At one point, after driving myself into a headwind for 30 minutes and not really moving anywhere, I decided to turn around. After spinning, just by picking my feet off the ground I was carried along at 6 mph. I'm not sure how strong that means the wind was blowing, but I assume it was strong.

So, Texas greeted my official move with a kick in the pants.

Where's the humor?

2009-06-14T17:59:00.000-05:00

I think I used to write a pretty clever blog. But lately, it's been sort of mopey. Or, at best, boringly factual.

There are some changes coming my way that should turn that around. Ironman Lake Placid being just one of them. The Adirondacks in general and LP specifically are a powerful place for me. Going there should lighten my mood, if only because everyone else is so intense (or pretends to be intense -- and we all know the importance of intensity in a day-long race).

That faux-intensity manifests itself in some strange ways. If you go to any triathlon, but especially an ironman, you're bound to see some of the most condescending bumper stickers or t-shirts around. I don't know what it is about triathletes, but the sport isn't short on egoism or self-importance.

These are two of my favorites, and are a good representation of the field.
Because nothing defines "excellence" like half-assing three different sports instead of committing to speed in one.

On second thought, I just might be too cynical. This last one isn't condescending at all. The sticker is just being exceedingly honest. Most ironman participants really do use the marathon as a cool down -- a 22-mile walk after they blow up on the bike and the first few miles of the run. As such, those with this sticker are genuinely impressed that someone ran an entire 26.2 miles.

Expectations

2009-06-12T04:54:00.002-05:00

I wrote this last Thursday. It's interesting what a week's reflection will do. Incidentally, I'm no longer worried about having a herniated disc. It's just my hips (always the hips!). Shouldn't be anything some diligent stretching won't take care of.
------------

I had decided a while back that I would only attempt another ironman if I felt my fitness was such that, in a year's time, I'd be able to put myself in a position to go sub-12. In the summer of '08, I felt I was fit enough to do that between '08-'09.

Then I got injured (IT band). Then I got injured again (rotator cuff). And now I'm a little nervous that I have a herniated disc. I've only had pain in my back twice -- both times after my longest runs and both times using a Nathan hydration vest. I need to do a very long run without the vest to find out. Of course, I'm writing this a day after my longest run this season and my back is killing me. So I'm not in any huge rush to go test things any time soon.

I'm not so sure that the sub-12 goal is going to happen this year. It's not really just my injuries/lost training time (although that doesn't help). Mostly, it's that my training results aren't matching up with what it would take to go sub-12. I used to think that you can rise above your training efforts, peak with a good taper and pop out a lifetime best performance.

After training under the Endurance Corner program, I realize that's not actually the case for ultra-distance events. Sure, for a shorter race (even including a marathon), there's the ability to transcend what you've regularly put out in training. But the transcendence in an ironman is really about pulling everything together in one day. Right now, the individual components aren't fast enough -- I won't get magically faster when I'm 10 hours into my day.

Do I still believe sub-12 can happen? Yes. But I'm basing that on the fact that I'm consistently throwing down workouts that I couldn't even comprehend two years ago. I'm also counting on the crappy chip-seal road surface in Texas slowing me down at least a mile per hour and that there will be a "magical" difference in Lake Placid. Here's hoping...

Good Samaritans

2009-06-03T05:30:00.002-05:00

This past weekend RDM and I visited our folks in Ocean City, NJ. They've had a place down there for a little while now, but this was the first time I had been down to see it.

On Sunday, I set out for a long ride. I had a pretty good route mapped out on mostly county roads with wide shoulders. As I was about to leave in the morning I decided to grab my windbreaker since it was a little cool and I'm awful in the cold. I figured I'd be taking it off once I got off the island and away from the early morning ocean breeze.

Needless to say, the jacket never came off. About an hour into the ride it started drizzling. "That's odd," I thought, "It's not supposed to rain today." Of course, that's when it started raining harder.

I rolled into the town of Woodbine and, with the wet roads, picked up a piece of glass in my front tire. In the time I stopped to change the tube, the rain had turned into a full on downpour.

I was all proud of myself for changing the tire in less than three minutes, but then I started the arduous process of filling that tire using my mini-pump. If you've ever used one of those pumps, you know what I'm talking about. Ten minutes later I figured I was around 80psi, which was good enough for me to get moving again, as I was completely soaked through.

I opted to head back to OC, still 75-90 minutes away rather than continue on. I only had one more spare tube and with the roads filled with grit and glass, I didn't want to take the chance of being even farther away if I needed to call for a ride.

Needless to say, about 20 minutes into the trip back I got another flat, this time in my rear tire. The plan at that point was to change the tire and get moving. If I got another flat, I'd have to call for help.

As luck would have it, a car pulled up ride after I pulled the wheel off my bike. Two cyclists hopped out and asked if I wanted a ride. It didn't take much internal debate for me to agree. 20 minutes later I was back at my parents' place.

So what lessons did I learn? Not too many actually. I've ridden in the rain before. I've changed flats before. I had enough spares and a patch kit. I had some cash. I had a cell phone. There wasn't much I would or could have done differently. And despite the cruddy weather, I still had a good time. My only regret was that I had to turn back early and had to finish the ride on my trainer later that evening.

The only things I could really take away are:

I didn't have a rain coat. Between watching Ironman Lake Placid last year and this past weekend, I've decided to pick up a good lightweight jacket. In fact, I already ordered it.

I didn't have my blinky light. That's not really a big deal, but it was kind of dumb of me. I had brought a light with me to OC, but decided to leave it behind. If I was going to leave one thing behind, I'm glad it was the light and not the windbreaker. That said, I could have easily brought both.

Filling a tire with a mini-pump is awful. I knew this already, but had forgotten.

I realize this little story probably wasn't very interesting. But if anyone asks why I'm bringing a rain coat or CO2 tire fillers on all of my spring rides in the northeast from now on, here's my rationale.

Neutral Sodium Diet

2009-05-28T05:14:00.000-05:00

I decided that beginning May 1, I was done with fast food. At least for a while. That lasted only a few hours.

On May 2, I again decided that I was done with fast food and have surprisingly been successful so far.

There were a few reasons why I wanted to change the diet. Most of them are the standard: save some money, eat better/real food, etc. I also finished reading "The Omnivores Dilemma" -- you try reading that and see if you want to eat any mass-produced beef. Or mass-produced anything.

All those reasons are well and good, but the tipping point came when I pulled up to Wendy's one evening, and the woman at the drive-thru recognized who I was by my order (and my voice) and asked how my day was going. While I have nothing against friendly fast food servers, I realized I was eating too many of my meals out of a bag.

An interesting side-effect is that for the last 10 days or so, I've been really dehydrated. I couldn't figure out what it was at first, but then I thought of all the sodium I dropped from my diet cold turkey. I've just started to get back to balance and no longer feel like I need to drink tons of water in a day.

Is this interesting? I'm not sure. But I'm curious how long I can keep it up. Ideally at least through the ironman. Then we'll see what junk my subconscious wants to use to refill the fat stores.

Change

2009-05-22T05:35:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure you've heard, spring is a time of change. I expect I'll have some news to share in a few days, but in the meantime, here are some of the changes happening in our backyard. What once was a barren expanse of dying or dead grass is now a veritable forest. Or, rather, an unveritable forest.

Okay, we have three new trees. But that's three more than before. And with great trees comes great responsibility. Like watering and stuff. And doing something with the rest of the yard so that they're not lonely.

Belated Grand Canyon post

2009-05-12T06:08:00.013-05:00

I realize I'm a little behind in getting my recap posted from my family's Grand Canyon trip, but hopefully the sheer volume of pictures below will make up for it.

We had a good walk from the rim, down to the river, and back up. We left just before sunrise, but 20 minutes in it already started to warm up. In hindsight, I could have gotten by with a lot fewer clothes -- probably just a t-shirt and pullover or windbreaker. It would have been a little chilly in the beginning, but, since I spend the entire trip from the river back to the rim in shorts and a t-shirt, the extra three layers were unnecessary.

Some of these photos are from the day after the hike when I got up early and walked to the rim to see the sunrise, so this isn't exactly a chronological photo tour.

RDM on the way down.

My dad and JNM on the way down.

The very bold squirrel that was trying to get in our packs at the river. I didn't zoom in for this photo, I just leaned in close. He was very bold.

Seemingly, I was the only one to bother taking photos on the way up.

It's a good place.

Save your money

2009-05-08T05:48:00.002-05:00

"The value in money lies in its capacity to support personal freedom -- possessions, by their nature, restrict freedom and promote attachment." - G. Byrn

The last time I went out with RDM a few weekends back, I went on a rant about saving money. It's one of my frequent/favorite topics of discussion with him and I know he's probably sick of it... so I'll broaden my audience and sicken all of you.

Like many companies in my industry, my employer recently went through a mass culling. Now, a lot of my work friends no longer have the "work" identifier. What's freaky is the number the people I've spoken with who are terrified of losing their homes because they won't be able to cover their mortgages, even with a decent severance package.

I was lucky in that in my first job out of school, my company went through a bad patch and cut salaries to 70%. I was living close to hand-to-mouth at the time (or so I thought) and as a result, couldn't afford my rent. Fortunately, I was able to move back in with my folks for a few months until I found a few roommates to share an apartment. That was the last time I ever wanted to be in a position of having no emergency savings. It takes a while for anemic bank accounts to grow, but it's possible for everyone to get there. You just might have to cut out some of the unnecessary things (TV, bar nights, restaurants).

My luck was that I learned that lesson at a fairly young age, at a time when I had no significant responsibilities (it's debatable if I even have any now...). I can't imagine being in my 40s with two kids and a mortgage to handle and not having learned the lesson already.

I place a tremendous value on money. But, the value is security, not its ability to be exchanged for stuff. I'm far from financially independent, but I'm not as worried as a lot of other people.

I don't have much attachment to the stuff that I own, with the exception of a few gifts and photos. Yes, I like gear (shoes? bags? bikes?), but I'm also okay with losing almost all of it. Everything is replaceable if I need it, and if I don't need it (shoes? bags? bikes?), then I'm not bothered about replacing it if something happens.

If I had a kid, the one lesson I know I'd teach him or her (probably right around the same time as toilet-training): "Save at least 10% of everything you earn. If at the end you have some left, you can always give it away when you die. And get a college rowing shell named after you. Because nothing says, 'he saved his money' more than a bunch of preppy kids rowing a piece of carbon fiber with your name on it."

I might omit all but the first sentence. I'm still perfecting the speech. I've tested it on the cat, but he doesn't follow my advice, which is why he has no savings and is a complete freeloader.

England

2009-04-28T05:50:00.006-05:00

It's been a crazy few weeks. Between loads of travel and loads of work and loads of changes at work, the blog has fallen by the wayside. Fortunately, my training hasn't completely fallen off; I was able to get through a particularly brutal, hot workout in 93-degree shadeless hills at Harriman State Park on Saturday. I then ran a not-so-fast local 5k on Sunday. I finished, and got $10 off at the nearby New Balance store for my efforts (the fact that I was one of only two people in my age group had nothing to do with it).

So, since I figure I owe pictures from my recent trips, but not much explanation, here's some photos from England. The Grand Canyon post will come soon.

Hannah declined to mention on our customs form that she came in contact with these ponies. If pony flu becomes a pandemic, you know who to blame.

The rest are from some of our walks around the countryside.

Sheep:

Goodbye my friend(s)

2009-04-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

On a sad note, I (deliberately) left my workhorse trail shoes behind in the UK. Over the course of the week, I wore the last of the cushioning and lugs down to nothing. We got some good walks in though. Photos and recap from the trip to come soon.

And while my shoes were sent to the great English rubbish bin in the sky, I successfully managed to (accidentally) bring the key to our B&B room back to the US. So, I left something behind and gained something in return. The circle of life continues.

(Yes, I'm mailing the key back to England).

The workhorse

2009-04-07T06:04:00.002-05:00

I understand you might be suffering from withdrawal since I haven't written about shoes in a while. That's all about to change right now!

I picked up a pair of Inov-8s on sale a little while ago (yes, another pair of running shoes -- but these fell within my ~$60 "why not?" price-point). They're made with an innovative (ha! get it?) design philosophy and are much less supportive than most other trail runners, while still being all grippy. The basic theory is that the shoe gets out of your way to let you run more naturally and efficiently. In those terms, they're very similar to my favorite, super-inexpensive, super-reliable Vitruvians, only the Inov-8s are meant for off-road running.

Unfortunately for my calves and IT band, the Inov-8s take the "natural" running theory a little farther than my Vitruvians. Since they have such a low heel and not much built-in support, you need to gradually get used to them so that your muscles can adjust. Needless to say, I spent no time adapting and dove right in -- wearing them exclusively for three days, including a couple hour walk on Sunday (after I had already worked myself over with a tough bike and run on Saturday).

So, I'm sore. My right achilles is really tender. And my IT band pain is flaring up again. Nothing like waiting until a few days before a big event (the Grand Canyon hike in this case) to try something new! That hike's still far enough out that I should be healed up, but in the meantime, I'm back to aggressive rehab for my achilles and IT band and I'll be back in my favorite old pair of trail runners for our trip to England.

Those shoes have been through a lot, including our first hike in the Grand Canyon, our hike in St. John and numerous shorter walks and runs through the woods (or brush, in the case of Texas). They're probably at the end of their active life, but I keep pulling them back out because they keep performing. Who knew $40 on sale at EMS a few years ago was going to be such a good buy?

I don't know why I'm so attached to a pair of sneakers. It might be because the reason I have my $60 "why not?" price point is a result of these shoes being so awesome for so long for so little money.

It might also be because I'm weird.

On a slightly less weird note, I'm sure you're saddened to know that many of those shoes in the above picture are no longer with us (or, more specifically, they're not with me -- they're still with us in a landfill somewhere). I'll also be donating any other non-frequently worn shoes to either Soles 4 Souls or a similar charity in Doylestown, PA.

Two weeks (give or take) of adventure

2009-04-03T05:54:00.002-05:00

Next Wednesday, Hannah and I leave for England for a week to visit her family and have some days of strolling around in the countryside (or what I perceive is the countryside. We're staying in a B&B, and last I checked, those typically aren't in the major metropolitan areas). We return to the US on Tuesday and Hannah continues on back to Texas.

On Saturday morning, I fly down to San Angelo for a quick visit. On Sunday morning I then fly to Phoenix by way of Dallas. Then I hop in a rental car and drive up to the Grand Canyon. I debated trying to do the short course Striders Duathlon in San Angelo on Sunday morning, but thought better of it -- no reason to make an already physically stressful trip even moreso.

Monday morning at 6:00 (if I have my way), my dad and brothers and I start our hike down to the Colorado River. If it all goes to plan, we'll be back up in the mid-afternoon. If it doesn't go well... then it'll probably be our last family trip. Ever.

Tuesday morning I drive back to Phoenix for a mid-afternoon flight to NJ.

Hopefully, I'll come out of all this with some good photos. But there might be an even bigger gap between posts. Somehow, I think you'll manage. If you need some excitement during the lull, check out my post about our new washer again. It's riveting.

Doing our part to help the economy

2009-03-27T05:43:00.003-05:00

Are you ready to see the coolest, most awesome thing ever? It's fully-assembled, fully-connected, and fully one of the most exciting things I've encountered in a while. It's not my new bike, but like my bike, it's not made in China (which makes it even cooler!).

Ready? You'll need to scroll down to see the photo. I don't want to give anything away too easy.

What? You don't think that's the coolest thing ever? Really?!? Maybe if you look at it from a slightly different angle.

Well, fine. You clearly don't know what awesome is. It's got a window in the front and it gets our clothes clean.

Still nothing? Whatever...

These are not the photos you're looking for

2009-03-25T05:32:00.002-05:00

These aren't the super-exciting photos I alluded to in my last post, but they are proof that Texas has hills (grainy, blurry, camera-phone proof).

They're from Burma Road, my new favorite road in (or nearby) San Angelo. I'm sure every other cyclist and triathlete in the area has already discovered it, but I feel special all the same.

Hannah had described Burma as being what she imagined the Ironman Wisconsin course was like (since she only saw me at one section of the bike course, she didn't actually see the hills).

To be honest, I didn't really believe that was possible. A tough, technical, hilly road in San Angelo? That can't be. There's no way it's as challenging as the really hard bits in Wisconsin (which I've ridden in case I didn't mention it a few times already).

As usual, when my ego gets the better of me, I'm usually quickly humbled. Burma is exactly like the tough rolling parts of IMWI, except swap out the green fields for mesquite, cacti and brush. And, with the added bonus of Texas being really hot in a couple months, it'll be just like the race in '05!

What have I been up to?

2009-03-20T07:32:00.002-05:00

It's been a slow few weeks in terms of blogeable content. I was down in Texas a bunch. It's nice there (upper 70s most days). It was snowing this morning in NJ/NYC on my way to work.

I've been training. Despite easing back onto the plan, a glimpse at my training log reveals that over the last few weeks I've actually had the most consistent volume since I was rowing two-a-days in the summer of '02. That bodes well for IMLP in July. I'm not even feeling 100% and I'm consistently throwing down workouts that I couldn't regularly handle two years ago. This is on top of the travel and economic-crisised-work-hours doing wonders for my free time and stress levels.

A big part of that is due to me hooking up with Endurance Corner. Consistency is easier when someone is putting out a plan to follow. They've got a five level program for the working athlete. I'm at level two. Level five is well beyond my comprehension. Seeing as how level one would have me doing more work than I did for any of my past IMs, I think I'm in a good place.

I also got my road bike built up (I know, you've all been waiting with baited breath). You'll have to wait longer for some photos since I won't be back in Texas until mid-April. I do have one exciting photo from my last visit, but you'll have to hold out for a few days. Trust me, it will be well worth the wait.

Mini adventure

2009-02-24T16:00:00.009-06:00

I ran home from the airport.

It's not often that you can say that, at least, not when talking about the airports that most people typically frequent. But, in San Angelo, it's possible to live the dream (assuming your dream is running home from the airport).

A few weeks ago, I flew into San Angelo earlier than usual so that I could get down in time to take Hannah out for her birthday dinner and to the rodeo. It's less than a six-mile trip from our house to the airport, so I went the fun route rather than taking a cab.

More exciting (for me anyway) is the fact that I was actually able to run. That's the first time I've gotten in more than a few minutes at a time in 12 weeks. So, after a gradual build up, I'm back on the training plan.

That's an Apache in the background. Must be the Army's. Or a really eccentric rancher's.

After taking this picture on the move, I decided to stop running for the rest of the photos.

This is the power plant (or the water treatment plant... or something like that).

No new gear

2009-02-24T05:33:00.000-06:00

I was struck by a thought about our Grand Canyon trip on my way to work today (I think some punk kid threw it). For the first time, I actually don't need any new gear for an "event." To be fair, I'm sure I didn't need new gear for many of my "events," especially the triathlons, but there's something to be said for having a newer piece of equipment or kit for race day.

Anyway, since I have more than enough gear to outfit both my brothers and my dad for this hike (ignoring sizing issues), I don't really need anything. I have a few pairs of trail shoes (as I'm sure you've heard if you've read more than one of my posts), I have a couple of day packs (I'm going to lend RDM the one I used at the Grand Canyon last time), and I have technical clothes out the wazoo.

It's a little weird to not have to (or even really want to) buy anything new.

I'm not a swimmer

2009-02-21T06:00:00.002-06:00

I'm not a swimmer. I used to be a swimmer. Now I'm a triathlete who is a faster swimmer than most (but a slower cyclist/runner than all). Somewhere between the two I was a rower. I'm not a rower anymore either.

There's a huge difference between being a good swimmer and being a good triathlon swimmer. In most triathlons I do, I finish easily in the top 10% of the swim, even in ironman. Masters swim races... not so much. I'm lucky if I'm seeded anywhere near the top 50% (and, assuming I wasn't overly delusional about my seed time when I submitted my entry, I'm lucky if I can finish in that top 50%).

There's an even wider disparity if you just look at age group rankings. I'm still usually top 10% in my age group in triathlon swims. But in pure swimming races? Ugh.

While some of my recent best times are good enough to qualify for Masters Nationals, they're certainly not good enough to even put me in the top 25, let alone anywhere close to the times of the top 10. The time standards are low enough so that more people can/will attend, which makes a lot of sense and is a good idea to boost participation. There's no such thing as a professional Masters swimmer, so why wouldn't they welcome all comers?

Why am I writing all this? I keep thinking I'd like to make a run at Masters Nationals one year soon. While I'm sure the trip would be fun, I really only want to go if I have a decent chance of finishing well (I don't feel like traveling far away to sit in the bleachers for hours at a time waiting for a two-minute race, just to get DFL -- I did that enough of as a youth swimmer).

But then I think about Open Water Masters Nationals. There's an event I might be able to train for and that would cater to my talents -- which is the ability to go slow for a long time. I'm still not at the level to finish in the top of the pack, but I'd be a lot more competitive than in a pool swim. That and Hannah could probably go off and have a decent time for an hour or so, and come back and watch the finish. The only thing worse than traveling far away to sit in the bleachers for hours at a time waiting for a two-minute race, is then having to sit around some more and watch that two-minute race.

Of course, she wouldn't even have to go at all. It's not like you can hear or see your supporters in a swimming race, especially open water events. I could just tell her how I did! And since Hannah doesn't check results online, I could "win" every event. Hmmm.

Supersuit

2009-02-19T06:05:00.003-06:00

If you watched any of this year's Olympic swimming, you saw tons of world and Olypmic records fall and you saw almost everyone in the newest technical swim suits -- mostly the one made by Speedo. Once the Olympics were over, you probably promptly forgot (or stopped caring) about the supersuits, or swimming in general.

Since the Olympics, a bunch of other manufacturers have developed their own suits that rival the one from Speedo. Some are from established players like TYR, but most are from triathlon wetsuit manufacturers. To be clear for the uninformed, wetsuits are illegal in most swimming events as they provide buoyancy (they are legal in most triathlons, supposedly for the insulation effect, but in practice, it's for the life-preserver effect -- some triathlons are not wetsuit-legal though, and that's where this new suit comes in).

Anyway, the "swimskins" made by the wetsuit companies are perfectly legal under the current world swimming rulebook. They're not technically wetsuits -- while they are made from neoprene, they aren't made with foamed neoprene (the material that makes wetsuits buoyant).

Where there were previously only a handful of manufacturers making technical swimsuits, the industry is poised to see a huge wave of new players, all capitalizing on the "non-wetsuit wetsuit design." Beyond the question of whether or any of these swimskins do actually create flotation, one of the problems is that these companies will all be using the same process and materials, making it virtually impossible for meet officials to be able to distinguish between an "approved, legal" suit and one that isn't. While these suits aren't buoyant as far as FINA (the sport's governing body) is concerned, if every suit basically looks the same, but is created by a different manufacturer, what's to stop someone from using a swimskin that actually does have foamed neoprene? It'd be really hard to tell.

This week (tomorrow, I think), FINA is meeting to decide the legality of not only the neoprene suits, but also Speedo's and TYR's latest suit.

For anyone that cares, my non-technical opinion is that the materials in an approved suit need to be more tightly regulated. I'm all for innovation and fewer barriers to entry within the industry, but these suits are going too far, or more specifically, going too far in a bad direction. Speedo, TYR and Nike all have other technical suits that definitely improve speed compared to a standard lycra suit, but: 1)they don't help you float, 2)they're not ridiculously expensive.

I've seen (and touched, but not worn) Blue Seventy's swimskin (the one worn by most of the Olympic open water swimmers, as well as that dude swimming breastroke in that triathlon this past summer) and Rocket Science Sports' swimskin. Interestingly, I wouldn't have really thought the Blue Seventy was based on wetsuit technology if someone hadn't told me. It just seemed like a super nice, super slick racing suit. The RSS one just seemed like a thin wetsuit. I suspect that some of the suits will be deemed legal, while others won't.

I can illustrate my biggest problem with all these suits with a quick story from this past weekend. Hannah and I were in Austin and we stopped in one of the better tri shops in town. I asked to see the RSS swimskin and the woman in the store said they only had one left, because all the high school kids had just bought them out for an upcoming meet. These are high school kids dropping $250+ on a swim suit. Suddenly, grassroots swimming has become this huge arms race. If I was a high school swimmer and all my competition had one of these suits, you can bet I'd get one if I wanted to be competitive.

I'm kind of indifferent about elite swimming and the suits. The fastest swimmers are winning anyway; they're just setting more records. But for high school and younger swimmers, there has to be a limit (some of these suits are only usable for a handful of meets at most -- the Speedo LZR is only good for about seven swims, according to the shop employee I talked to at a reputable swim shop -- I can't imagine what I'd do if my 14 year old said the only way he'd be able to compete was with a $400 body suit that we'd have to replace after one or two meets).

Masters swimming has already embraced the swimskins, as has the triathlon world. If they end up banned, it will be interesting to see what happens to the rules in these two organizations -- they both use FINA rules as a guideline, but I'm curious if they won't stray on this one -- there's a lot of money to be made selling these suits.

If you want to learn more, check out the series of articles at SwimNews.com (the first article is here).

I appreciate that was long-winded. But aren't you glad I didn't talk about running shoes?

More on sustainable footwear

2009-02-18T05:00:00.002-06:00

I came across this article about END Footwear the other day. It has some legitimate points (for example, I'm not too keen on the fact that the "green" shoes are made in China, then shipped across the world for me to buy them), but I think it's a bit harsh and unfair towards a company that genuinely seems to be trying something new and beneficial for the environment.

What END is doing seems to be on the right track, and there aren't many other manufacturers actively trying to change the marketplace, so I give them credit.

The big question about shoes (or any product for that matter) and sustainability that I don't have an answer for is, "what's ideal for sustainability?" It's great that END uses a good chunk of recycled materials, but ultimately, these shoes are still going to end up in a landfill. But is the best thing using recycled materials or creating a product that is biodegradeable like Brook's is doing? The best thing would be a product that is both made from recycled materials and is biodegradeable, but that's probably a little ways out (actually, the real best thing would be a product made from completely organic and biodegradeable materials, but I don't want to run in hemp sneakers).

This just in: More on shoes

2009-02-12T06:34:00.001-06:00

I'm sure you'll all be overjoyed to know that I have another (brief) post about running shoes.

It turns out REI's return policy is a lot cooler than I thought. Since the sneakers I just bought are still in great condition (I mainly wore them on indoors or on a treadmill for the few miles I put on them), I'm fine to send them back for an exchange. Yay for REI.

More exciting than REI's return policy is the latest word cloud I created for my blog on Wordle.net.

The word "shoes" have finally taken the top stop away from "much." Of course, I suspect I'm going to have a more feminine result on the GenderAnalyzer (but I'm too afraid to check). So this might be the last post for awhile about shoes. I'm sure the focus will shift to backpacks, as what's more manly than taking about a bag that I wear over my shoulders to carry all my stuff?

UPDATE: I sucked it up and decided to drop my blog back in the GenderAnalyzer to see just how non-manly my writing is now. And to my surprise, here's the result I received:

So, apparently prattling on about running shoes is manly after all. 90% manly even.

Some frustration

2009-02-11T06:18:00.003-06:00

There will come a day when I don't talk about shoes in my blog. That day is not today.

As some of my two devote readers might remember, I was super excited about END Footwear's road running line. A few weeks ago, despite still not being able to run because of my knee, I ordered a pair of the company's stability road shoes -- the OTG -- when they became available on REI.

I own a pair of their trail racers, and while really good, they're a little big (not so much that I can't run in them, but there's more toe room than I prefer). In an effort to outsmart myself, I ordered the road runners a half-size smaller. You can probably see where this is going.

The shoes are too small. The toe box has the right mount of space (so, I got that right anyway), but the sides and top of my foot are wedged in there. I can get around in them okay, but they are snug. And by snug I mean I'd probably hurt my foot if I tried to run in them for more than a few miles. I tried swapping in all different kinds of insoles that I have lying around -- strangely enough, the best fit are my custom orthotics, despite them having the most pronounced arch.

Long, uninteresting story short, these sneakers aren't for me. I've done a decent amount of walking in them, but they just don't work. I think if I kept trying to use them, I'd end up with some new injury, and I haven't even fully healed from my last injury.

Why didn't I return them for the a larger size? Well, because I'm an idiot and I was overwhelmed by their coolness factor. I was so excited about getting the shoes that I immediately tried them on and walked around. When they didn't fit quite right, I switched out the insole. Then walked around some more. Then the next day, I tried a little treadmill running. Basically, I think I used them too much for me to be allowed to return them (or to return them in good conscience). The perils of purchasing footwear online.

So, if you know anyone with size 8.5 feet who wants a barely used free pair of cool running shoes (I'm talking maybe five miles of walking and two of running), let me know. I really don't want to just toss them -- that's definitely not the environmentally-friendly thing to do.

Since these things were $90 ($30 above my "What the hell, I'll give them a try" price point), I'm a little frustrated. Maybe in the late spring I'll drop the money again for a larger size; but right now I'm thinking I'll stick with what works.

Although, with my family's Grand Canyon hike planned for April, maybe I'll pick up a new pair of trail runners. Because, clearly, I haven't learned my lesson. I mean, I only own four pairs of trail runners already.

Vindication

2009-02-03T17:00:00.001-06:00

I had my running evaluation this morning at the sports medicine center where I get physical therapy. I'm still managing some pain in my knee, but it's progressing quite well. In addition to the PT, I give a lot of credit to the Trigger Point Performance suite of products -- they're much more effective than any foam roller I've ever used.

In my first visits to the orthopedist and with Jeff, my physical therapist, I was told that my running shoes aren't supportive enough and probably are directly contributing to my problems. They asked where I got them and who told me to wear them. I explained that I talked to the owner of the company and picked the shoes that were right for me.

I also explained that, in my opinion, the Vitruvians did a lot to help my achilles troubles because they have such a low heel. It took some getting used to, but ultimately I ended with stronger calves. I also prefer to run with a mid-foot foot strike, rather than a heel-strike, which means I don't need/want the big, overbuilt heel that is common in a lot of running shoes.

Both the doctor and Jeff (who, to me, are fairly knowledgeable and objective, despite this experience) were dismissive of my $60 shoes and said that with my flat feet, I'd need something more. The underlying tone (either implied or inferred, I don't know) was that I needed something more mainstream -- not from some wacky sneaker guy in Vermont.

Longer story longer, the running eval guy said all the same things today. "You're going to need a more supportive shoe. I hope these didn't cost you too much."

So, I took the test -- Greg, the eval guy, took some video of my gait while I was on a treadmill. I walked barefoot, I ran barefoot. I walked with my sneakers on, I ran with my sneakers on. We looked that video at normal speed, then frame by frame. Greg also could measure the angle of my pronation with one of the tools in the analysis software.

Results:
- I overpronate (roll in) more with my left foot than my right
- When I run barefoot, I'm more of a fore-foot striker (I land towards the front of my foot, not my heel). There's a little overprontation when I run barefoot, that should be corrected with appropriate footwear.
- When I put my garbage-bin-destined shoes on, I have a slight bit of pronation when I walk -- within a natural range.
- When I run in my "non-supportive," non-brand-name shoes, I... wait for it... have no unnecessary pronation.

The reason I like this sports med place was summed up with Greg's next comment -- after watching the video a few times, then checking and rechecking the angles --"Your shoes are fine. I really didn't think they would be. And looking at them, I still wouldn't think they would be good. But when you run in them, you have good mechanics."

It says something about Greg's character (and professionalism) to admit he was wrong.

All that said, I still have other bio-mechanical issues: weak hip muscles (especially on my right side) and poor balance (related to the weak hips). My right hip drops when I run, because of the weak hip area, which is likely the underlying cause of my IT band/knee problems. So, more strengthening, more flexibility... and more $60 running shoes.

The bike build begins!

2009-01-30T06:00:00.005-06:00

With great excitement, I started my bike build the other day. I laid out all the various components, set up my bike stand and admired the beautiful frame. Knowing (or, not knowing, to be more precise) what I was about to undertake, there was a good chance that the frame wouldn't emerge unscathed, so I took a picture to capture it's unmangled purity.

Then, I got down to work. It was a lot of effort, but I'm pleased with the final result. What's that? It looks like the same picture?

Here's a better image, complete with graphics identifying my progress.

I'm still short a few parts, all of which are required before I can go any further. Basically, if you see a hole anywhere on the frame, it's because I'm missing the piece that goes there. I have cranks, but don't have a bottom bracket to attach the cranks (that hole at the bottom where the seat and down tubes come together). I have a fork and headset (the front end), but don't have a stem to keep the fork in place. I have a seat, but don't have a seatpost to put it on.

So, to tide you over until I have those pieces, here's a picture of cycling in San Angelo. Notice that Hannah's in front of me. That had nothing to do with the fact that she's getting fitter than me on the bike, but was because I was riding a bike with no wheels, cranks, seat or handlebars.

A Walk in the... umm... Brush

2009-01-29T06:37:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago, Hannah and I went for a longish hike in the state park in San Angelo. By "longish," I mean about three hours. By "about," I mean almost exactly three hours. By "almost exactly," I mean I'm filling space in this post since the actual content will be a little sparse.

The trail we walked was split into two paths: one for hikers and cyclists, the other for hikers and horses. I suppose the split is because bikes don't get along with horses. We chose to walk the hiker/cyclist path, if only to avoid the horse droppings (bike droppings are typically easier to spot, since they're usually metal).

Some of you might not be aware, but the State of Texas has made a concerted effort to be inclusive in their park system (walkers, cyclists, etc.). As such, they want to make it clear who can use which trails, and they've updated their signage appropriately.As you can see, this sign is very specific about who can use the trail. What you can't see is the little bicycle (the photo cuts off the image on the left) -- so this is a multi-use trail for cyclists, hikers and women.

That's all well and good. Unfortunately for our shared hike, we came across another sign a few miles down the trail.

It seems some old biases of the park rangers are hard to overcome. It was a shame to part ways, but Hannah had to sit down on a rock in her dress while I got to wander ahead.

Superpower

2009-01-21T05:45:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I performed the herculean feat of running across the street to beat a traffic light... twice (no, not the same light). I know you're impressed. My amazing ability to succeed at the ordinary is astonishing.

I'm quite pleased with myself, because at this rate, I'll be able to run a mile in a year. Actually, I suspect it will be somewhat sooner (two weeks), as that's when my PT scheduled me to have a running evaluation to measure my gait and form. I'm on the mend (I think... it might be that the PT just wants to watch me suffer).

PS - If you like that image at the top, check out Superuseless Superpowers. You should get a smile out of at least a few of them.

My new toy (some assembly required)

2009-01-20T06:00:00.008-06:00

One of my updates from last weekend in Texas is that my new bike arrived.

"New bike?" you might say. "Last year, didn't you go on and on about not buying a new luxury item from China?"

"In fact I did," I'd answer. "But this bike was actually made in Taiwan, of Columbus tubing (which is good stuff). Besides, that was last year."

And since I'm making up this entire conversation, I'd respond to your generous offer of a new car with, "Yes, thank you. I'd like the Volvo C30. I appreciate that's not too expensive a car, but I don't want to impose."

So I have a new bike. Or more specifically, I have a new bike frame. For my third bike, while I strongly considered a penny-farthing, I opted for a standard aluminum road frame, which I'm going to build up myself. This might go disastrously bad, but since there are few overly complex moving parts and no electrical or plumbing work involved, I'm not really worried about damaging anything, except maybe my ego when I need to bring the tangled mess into a bike shop to undo my debacle.

Also, apparently I was such a good customer over the phone that Fetish Cycles (the bike company) sent me two (2) frames for the price of one. I contemplated some kind of reverse training wheel build (two frames on one set of wheels), but thought better of it when I realized I wouldn't easily be able to mount the saddle without access to a machine shop. Besides, Fetish decided they actually want the "free" frame back.

Quandary

2009-01-15T06:12:00.004-06:00

I have a whole slew of upcoming posts about my last few days down in Texas. (On a side note, I don't think San Angelo is "deep in the heart" -- but the song doesn't work with, "the probable center of gravity of Texas, if you were able to pick the state up and needed to balance it." That's a shame, because the stars really are big and bright there.)

Anyway, to tide you over, and to keep up my regular babbling about new sneakers, I have a dilemma. You see, END Footwear has just released their road models. And, they're cool. And environmentally sound.

So, the question is, do I buy myself the new pair of sneakers I've been eagerly awaiting even though I can't actually run in the them because of my knee? What to do?

If you're interesting in any of END's products yourself, check out REI -- they have most of the trail models and at least the road shoe that I'm looking to get. However, if you're interested in END's water shoe, their women's road shoes or the other men's road model, the marketing manager at END told me Rockcreek.com would have the full line-up first (yes, I actually e-mailed the marketing manager at END to find out when the road models would be available).

Knee update

2009-01-07T19:24:00.004-06:00

Another visit to the PT this morning revealed a weak vastus medialis obliquus (VMO). There's some interweb controversy about whether or not targeting that specific muscle will do anything for my patellar pain (the pain I feel behind the knee cap when I do things like squats and hard cycling), but Jeff the PT hasn't steered me wrong yet (in the minutes and minutes I've known him), so I'll stick with his recommendation.

To learn if there was a problem, Jeff had me lay on my back and tighten my quads while he watched my VMO. After squeezing for all I was worth, Jeff said, "You can tighten your quads at any time now." Whether he was joking or not, the fact is the muscle needs work. So I've got a few more exercises to do this week. Maybe when all this is done, I'll end up with legs like the guy Hannah was oogling at the trail run last year. Maybe.

On another note, I was bored last night and created a word cloud on Wordle.net with my blog. For those not in the know, a word cloud is a useless graphical depection based on the words that most commonly pop up on a web page. The larger the word, the more often it's used.

I understand why "running," "knee" and "pain" are so big, as that's all I've written about for the last few weeks. But I'm a little suprised by "much." How much can I possibly write the word "much" in a post? I don't think it could have been that much.

I feel the need. The need for...

2009-01-06T07:00:00.000-06:00

sitting on the couch in frustration.

Things had been progressing nicely along with my knee. I've been doing all the exercises and stretches the physical therapist recommended. Twice a day (also as recommended). The pain in my knee has shifted from awful, to dull, to -- just yesterday -- a slight pinch. Even this morning, as I walked to bus stop, I thought to myself, "Wow, I feel this much better in only a week. I wonder how good I'll feel next week."

Then, because I was daydreaming about running free, I realized my bus was about to leave a block away from where I was. So, naturally, I started to run to catch it. I got exactly five steps before the pain from three weeks ago came hurtling back. So there you go. I expect that means I won't feel much better next week.

As far as an update on my physical therapy -- the therapist thinks I have a ridiculously week hip area. Weak hip flexors and abductors, and tight everything. The logic is that by strengthening those areas, I'll address the long term imbalance so that I don't have this problem again. Oddly enough, right now I'm interested in addressing the symptoms. Since they hurt and all. We'll see what happens tomorrow in my next PT session.

Injuries make for lame updates

2008-12-30T05:16:00.001-06:00

I haven't been up to too much the last few weeks. No running and cycling makes Nick a dull boy. With any luck, I'll have some news about the progress of my knee injury after my first physical therapy session this evening.

Even though I don't write too much about my actual training, when I'm not doing it, I become more deeply involved in my other activities. And with Hannah in Texas, that leaves me with work, which I haven't been short of in the past few months. But since writing makes up a good part of my work, I don't really want to spend more time writing about work.

So, to tide you over until I have something interesting/amusing to say, watch this trailer that I came across the other day. Since Tim Burton's involved, you can bet it's going to be really bizarre. All the same, it looks pretty cool. And it probably helps that they use a Coheed & Cambria song in the trailer, which ups the awesome factor.

Have a happy New Year. Watch out for post-apocalyptic robotic cats (or whatever that thing is).

Apocalypse... not now, maybe later

2008-12-18T05:14:00.004-06:00

I feel like I've avoided some personal disaster, at least as far as my sanity goes.

An explanation:

I've been dealing with some right knee trouble for the last two weeks.

It started during a run on Monday, December 1, hurt enough for me to cut my December 2 run short and then was bothering me at my track session on December 4, which I stupidly decided to finish. It hurt enough that I took the entire following week off from running or riding. On Saturday, December 13, I did an easy 90 minutes on my bike (very easy) and then lifted (very light weights). My knee didn't bother me at all during the ride, but I stupidly pushed through some light pain during leg lifts at the gym. I tried running on Sunday morning and got 20 minutes in before the pain became debilitating. I then walked it back home.

Yesterday I went to see a sport orthopedist, who, much to my surprise, said I didn't need an MRI. Basically, it's just very tight iliotibial band, tensor fascia latea, and the assorted inner leg muscles combining in a perfect storm to pull my knee out of alignment, which, not surprisingly, hurts a lot.

The prescription is some vitamin-I for the inflammation and physical therapy and strengthening/stretching of all the assorted muscles in the area. Interestingly, I learned nothing yesterday that I didn't already know from the interwebs (specifically, ExRx.net, the best little strength training/injury site on the Internet -- complete with anatomically correct 3D digital models!), I just wanted a professional confirmation.

So, I'm off running or riding until this clears up. If might be as much as six weeks, but since that would be awful, I'm hopeful I can be better sooner. If there's one thing I am, it's aggressive about recovering from an injury (I kicked the crap out of my achilles/calf trouble 18 months ago -- take that body weakness!).

If you're looking for a lesson here, it's that you shouldn't be stupid about stretching and strengthening the unused parts of your body. This is closely linked to the hip (TFL) pain I talked about last time. Sedentary office life doesn't naturally mix well with having a healthy lifestyle.

This just in: I'm not 19 anymore

2008-12-08T05:06:00.001-06:00

Hannah and I met in Florida over the weekend to visit her friend Sue who has a house in Sarasota. We're quite the ~~inter~~national travelers lately.

It was a nice trip: some sun, some beach, some strolling around. Lots of not-young people.

I've been having some trouble with my hips for the last five months, specifically my TFL in both legs. I'm pretty sure it's all related to tight/over-worked IT bands, in turn related to tight/over-worked soleus muscles in my calves. It's not because I do too much training, but it's because I do too much training after sitting in a desk chair all day (and with the current market conditions, I've been spending a lot more time in an office chair).

I still try to get the same (or more) exercise in as I have for the last few years. The problem is, with limited time and even more limited motivation, flexibility work is the first thing to get cut.

After watching the pained expressions on many slow-moving folks over the weekend, I've decided to recommit to keeping myself in good working order. Goodbye power-lifting, hello girly hip bridges.

Also, hello awfully painful foam roller. If you've ever used one before, I'm sure you're surprised by my reluctance to use it daily.

Lost and (thankfully) found

2008-12-01T05:41:00.006-06:00

I was down in Texas for the entire week of Thanksgiving. While you might think that San Angelo has no Internet access (based on my lack of blog updates), you'd be wrong. I was just lazy.

On Sunday, Hannah and I did a short trail run to try out our new END Stumptown trail shoes and see if they're as cool as they look. The answer: Yes. Very cool and very fast.

On Thursday, we were hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Hannah's brother and three airmen from the local base. Because Hannah had so much fun running on the trails on Sunday, we opted to go out for another trail run in the state park before getting ready for dinner. Hannah chose to wear the new shorts I bought her. (50% off on all running gear at Randy's Bike and Run! Of course, that's only applicable to my two San Angelo readers, both of whom probably already know about it...)

Anyway, they have a nifty little key pocket, in which she put the car key. About a mile into the run, we stopped for me to fiddle with my running vest (which I had just learned -- after seven years of ownership and clearly a lack of common sense -- folds into itself to become a hip pack). As I was about to bound off down the trail again, Hannah asked if she had given me the key. It was then we realized that Hannah's shorts had a key-sized hole.

Long, uninteresting story short, we searched and searched. We were both worried about getting back in time to make all the food for dinner, and beyond that, actually getting back to the house in time for dinner. Just when I was ready to give up and go run back to the ranger station to call the police or AAA to come help us out, I found the key, standing out in the middle of a clear patch of sandy trail. How we missed it twice before, I have no idea.

Thanksgiving was saved, dinner was prepared and the airmen were interesting to talk to. Since all three are in Intelligence, I now know exactly the same amount of secrets about our national security as I did when they arrived. In fact, I think they shredded some of my own stuff for good measure.

I'm (mostly) a man

2008-11-20T05:12:00.003-06:00

I read about the Genderanalyzer over on BikeSnobNYC and thought I'd try it out. Initially, I was apprehensive, because I'm sure I have stereotypical feminine qualities that pop out in my writing -- talking about shoes, for example. Luckily (for my ego), I'm definitively a dude. Well, the site is 70% sure anyway. I blame the talking about shoes and the cat (and the pictures of me in lycra) for any uncertainty.

What made my day was when I put in RDM's site.

It's always gratifying to know that you're more of a man than your brother. And he doesn't wear lycra and write about shoes, so I'm not sure what he can have as an excuse.

I ordered another pair of shoes

2008-11-12T05:36:00.003-06:00

I know, I know...

But these are so cool and they're green.

I read about END Footwear in a recent issue of Runners World that my friend gave me and my interest was piqued. The company's story is worth checking out.

Beyond the environmental impact, I was most intrigued by the minimalist design. I'm a big believer (as a result of my own injury experience) that many of today's running shoes are overbuilt. My current shoes (Vitruvian) are about as spartan as you can get and work great for me, but I wanted to try a "racier" shoe (in terms of weight, not sex-appeal). I'll be honest though -- the Vitruvians are not the coolest looking thing out there and the END shoes are pretty sharp.

On top of all that, these are $60 sneakers. For some reason, that's my "this is an awesome thing to try and if it doesn't work out, whatever"-price point (my Vitruvians are $60 -- and those worked out great). The more solid trail runners and light hikers are a little more, but the entire range is less than $100 -- that's almost unheard of in today's footwear marketplace.

Oh yeah, I ordered Hannah a pair too. Because -- clearly -- now I no longer only get excited about my own running shoes.

Crushing the dream

2008-11-05T05:45:00.005-06:00

On Friday, I was in Boulder for a bike fuel and lactate test. I wanted to do it for two reasons:
1) I feel like my training is a lot of shooting in the dark. I wanted a better sense of the efforts I should be using in my day-to-day workouts.
2) It seemed really cool and I didn't want another "thing" for my birthday. Instead, I got some neat looking spreadsheets (that you can see below -- exciting!).

What I learned: I'm not good enough to be a pro athlete. Once the shock has worn off and you've climbed back in your chair, you can read on to see what the test was like and what the results mean.

**Warning - This might be boring**
The test was basically on a very high-end stationary bike that is adjustable so it could mimic my exact position on my tri bike. After I warmed up for about 25 minutes, Mat, the tester, took a blood sample (by pricking my finger) and then measured my blood lactate for a baseline.

Then, I got all dorked out with a heart rate monitor and a mask that connected to a machine that measured my breathing output (and whatever sort of stuff is measurable when you breathe).

We started the test by ramping up to 110 watts. Every five minutes Mat would take a new blood sample then increase the resistance by 15 watts. To sum up, eventually I couldn't really turn the pedals anymore and there was all sorts of spit and sweat flying.

Here are the expensive graphs/charts:
This one shows what energy sources I'm using as the effort increases. It's good that my fat burning is pretty level the whole way across, although it could stand to be raised significantly.

I'm not exactly sure that this means in science terms, but you can see the lactate go through the roof once I pass 170 watts. In unscientific terms it means I can't go very hard for very long. And "hard" for me is not actually that many watts.

This is what I was most interested in. It gives me all the HR and wattage zones that I was looking for.

I didn't really know how to interpret all of this, so luckily, Alan, Endurance Corner's resident physio wiz, explained it to me. In a nutshell (mostly in Alan's words, pulled from the e-mails he sent me):

-My absolute power output is woeful (that's my observation; Alan was much more polite), but my power to weight ratio is decent. That means I have better potential for success on climbing courses. I have a good tolerance to a wide range of power levels and should look at courses like Placid or Canada for a best relative result. (Well, that works out).

- I have a good base-level of training. In terms of limiters, there's a lot of upside that can come from increasing my FTP (functional threshold power).

- I also need to do more at "steady" -- basically, try to close the gap between the black and gray fields in the second chart.

- More steady-state training will ultimately prove to be the quickest path to improving my short-term IM performance. Extending my FTP will help me out in the long-term.

Straight from Alan's e-mail: "In summary, you're quite 'fit' but not as 'fast' as you could be on the basis of your fitness. This is not to say that there is not more room for improvement in your 'fitness' but, IMHO, in the name of balance and getting some return on your investment, some of your basic week should be devoted to higher intensity training."

Now, everything's relative. I clearly have a lot more "fitness" I can attain. That's evidenced by the fact that I couldn't get past 215 watts (for contrast, there are a lot of people that race ironman at an average 215 watts).

So, the short answer that came out of the test for me: I need to be working harder (actual "hard" efforts or "steady." No more noodling around). There's more in the results, but it gets a lot less compelling for anyone that isn't me.

Was it worth it for me? Absolutely. I'd even consider going back a year from now to see if anything has changed.

Living the dream

2008-11-03T19:31:00.000-06:00

I was out in Colorado over the weekend living my professional triathlete dream and getting some physiological testing done. As it turns out, my pro-triathlete dream involves killing myself on a stationary bike, getting my finger pricked every five minutes, and wearing a Darth Vader mask. I should also add that this was my birthday present from Hannah. A present I asked for.

Not surprisingly, the test revealed that I don't have what it takes to be a pro triathlete. Luckily, we planned a weekend trip around it to soften the blow. I'll talk about the fun part in this post, then I'll talk hiking and beer and such, torture that it was.

I kid; I'll talk about the vacation first, then I'll talk about the fun stuff later. ;-)

Skipping around my lab test on Friday, I wandered about Boulder for a few hours, looking at all the fit people and getting accosted by what seemed like hundreds of college kids asking me if I voted yet. Seeing as how the election wasn't for a few days, I was a little confused.

Hannah came in Friday night and we went for a hike to the top of a peak (Bear Peak) on Saturday. Normally I'd post some awesome pictures, but our digital camera was playing games. When the battery indicator said it had 75% power (when I checked before we left the hotel), it actually meant it had 75% power for one more picture. So you get this one.

I was able to trick the camera into thinking it had a little more life in it once more at the top of the mountain.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Boulder, then headed back to Denver to shower and go out for dinner (elk burger = good).

Sunday was some more leisurely strolling around Denver, a visit to the REI flagship store, more people questioning us if we had voted yet, a stop in the Colorado history museum, and some more good beer and food. Then it was off to the airport and back to New Jersey/Texas.

Sometimes things just suck

2008-10-29T05:55:00.001-05:00

I know some of you read Fat Cyclist. If you don't, it's worth heading over there now.

It's hard to understand a range of emotions you can feel for someone you don't even really know, but learn more about every day. The few random blogs I read are my Access Hollywood; I'm more interested and involved in the goings-on of these people than the celebrities I'm told to care about.

It's times like these I remember I'm only a competent writer, not a good writer. If you want to read some good writing about this, go over to Up in Alaska and read Jill's latest post.