Back to training

Well after a few weeks I finally put the bike together ( since Singapore!) and went out for a ride. It was a beautiful day and it felt like a shame not to do something with it.

The past few weeks have been dedicated to recovery of sorts for me. At Singapore I hit a very crowded intersection in my life where I had so many competing stresses, that even something I enjoy like triathlon seemed to be a real burden. Between work, problems with the neighbors, illnesses in the family, and even more work, and trying to sell and buy a home at the same time. I just could not find the right time to fit in those critical workouts.

Well, that's not the whole story. I really just felt drained when I did find the time. The Singapore race felt like such a huge burden to me. Thats just not what its supposed to be about. It was just one goal too many for me to handle properly.

So right after that race, which in and of itself was not a shining moment for me. I decided to take a break from training. Not only was I dealing with all of the mental stresses but my body was just beat, I had a nagging extensor tendinitis that was just getting worse the more I ran. My body was just beat.

That was perhaps 3 weeks ago. Today feeling quite refreshed. I went for a 1 hour bike ride followed by a 30 minute run. I felt GREAT!

There is still allot of stress. In some cases more, but being on a two week "no contact" break from work has helped alleviate some of the stress. But My foot felt great. Not an incling of pain. mentally I feel almost ready again.

At least I feel ready to slowly get back into it. I think we should all at times take a break from our lives. or at least some portions of it. I guess that's what a vacation is about. But I do know of so many people that even when on vacation they simply cannot just stop and veg. I mean they take their vacation and then build a schedule of "Fun" things to do.

Athletes often stress on how they can continue their training in the new environment. Come on! Just enjoy the time off. That's where I found myself at. Once I let go of the "need" to train I was able to focus on the real priorities. Maybe that's what over training is about?

Anyhow now that I am in a better place, training is fun again. Looking forward to the challenges of IM Moo in 08!!

IM in :)

Well It seems I made it...Finally! Not that I had any friggin notice from them, or shall I say I have received 3 different notices that asking me to register to finalize the process. This time it seems to have taken because my name appears on the participants list. Thats good enough for me!

Now I have to figure out what to do from here!

Doggie Duathlon

Well I am still waiting for final confirmation about the IM Moo ( Wisconsin) entry. I did get a hopefull sign in that they sent me an email asking me to fill out the registration form and I will get final confirmation within 5 or 6 days. So hopefully that is going in the right direction.

In the meantime to be honest I have been vegging and taking it easy workout wise. Probably not the best thing to do but I do feel a bit burned out. I just have so many things going on at the same time between an indredible workload, and the selling of my condo and buying a house. Along with all other peripheral crap that goes along with life.

I did find out though that there is a Doggie Duathlon being run in conjunction with the NYC tri. Only 20 entrants allowed so I have to be quick about sending in my application.

I will be doing that race with Simba. Seen below in her patriotic American Flag attire:

She is a Border Collie/ Chow mix and she has teh Border Collie energy so she is athletic enough. She also likes to swim so she is a natural! We just need top lengthen her stroke on the swim :)

Anyhow the race is in July of next year so assuming that we get in we have plenty of time to train. She already runs 4 miles with me on many mornings so it should be no problem to build her up to 6 miles. I wonder how you put on Swim caps on a dog?

7 to 10 days

Well Since I fedexed the application for the community fund slot I am able to see that it has arrived and been delivered. Now I suppose is the waiting period, to find out if I got in. In the meantime I have decided to take a small break from Training so that I can focus on some areas of my life that are currently in dire need of my attention.

1) Finally looks like we are selling the damned Condo I live in. Now we are in a real need to find a replacement home.

2) Work has been insane and will get next since I will be on my mandatory two week break in a week or so.

Also since I have been travelling so much lately my wife has been taking care of all problems at home on her own. Its time I pitched in a little. I find that actually if I participate in my marriage it actually goes better :)

As predicted

I knew getting into the race would be hard. Just never thought this hard!!

Online registration for IM Wisconsin was suppossed to open at "around" 11AM race local time. Which for NY is around 12PM. I was online checking active.com for an hour before that to see if "about" meant within an hour. Well it was and at exactly 11:08 I first saw the Ironman Wisconsin link. Clicked on it and it said it was full!! What the .... FUCK!!!!!!



It was almost an hour before it was even supposed to officially open and it was already full!!

Anyhow, I had basically given up on signing up yesterday. I was bummed but what can I do. I was back to squar one. Then this morning Adam came up with a suggestion of me getting a community spot ( or actually Race with Purpose getting it for me) and then I could fundraise to cover the cost. I agreed and today we both sent out checks and applications. So here I am with some hope of getting in thanks to Adam and race with Purpose. But I still have "7 to 10" days to find out if I get in. If not I will have to rname this site to "Operationtryingtogetintorace.com" :)

Ironman Wisconsin 08

I watched yesterday as fellow TriScoopers were on the race course through Ironmal live. It was inspiring to watch them finish their journeys. Glad to say they all ended happily. Now its time for me to kick off my own journey. I sit here monitoring the online world to wait for registration to open. I also have Coach Adam onsite on line who will try to register me there. This part is almost as difficult as teh race itself! Lake Placid sold out in 9 minutes! Lets see how it goes.

HOME!!

Well finally I am home. After two weeks away in a completly different time zone, it feels great being home. Singapore was a great experience. Lots of fun. A HIM and lots of good people I met. But none the less I am glad to home. It was wonderful to see my wife again.

Now to deal with the jetlag.

The Singapore 70.3 - race day

To be honest I had no expectation of crushing any records in this race. I had not trained sufficiently to do this. I thought I would participate, have a good time and finish with a respectable time. Ummm it didn't quit work out that way. Although in the end all was well.

I had heard it happen to others but had never experienced it myself. The "Bonk" ( AKA Wall, Crash etc ). Overall, it was just a bad race for me. I had made an assumption that since I had already trained for and completed a 1/2 and a Oly and completed both in good form that I was in good enough shape to race here without much specific training. I was wrong.

First let me say that the race itself was well run and managed. The volunteers were awsome. The race itself was done mostly around Singapores bay with some beatiful views. However, the logistics for the race was just too complicated for my taste. The two transition areas was just weird to me.

I started the day waking up ready for breakfast only to realize the hotel has no room service at that hour. Thus I had Shot Bloks for breakfast. Yummy!! Not!!

That was mistake #1 did not consider that most people are still sleeping at 4AM, and that I was not home. Thus no breakfast. Anyhow I got in by Taxi at around 5:45AM, and headed into transition with my bike a swim stuff.

The swim was a rectangular shape, The race started at 7:15, but my wave started at 7:40. There was some chop in the water. ALOT of people for some reason were breast stroking from the git go, which I found strange. Other than that, nothing eventful here other than my right goggle leaked and the salt water aggravated my eye. Finished the swim in 49 minutes.

Then onto the bike. First thing I see, my bike computer, yet again is not working despite the fact that it was working when I put it together and tested it out just a few days before. This is a real pain for me during a race. I rely on the feedback from it to guage my speed and also I get pumped when I see that I am hitting high speeds. The backup is my HR monitor to guage effort, and that also for some bizzare reason was not working even though its a new Polar RS400. Never had a a problem with it.

So I just went along on effort. The ride is fairly technical with lots of turns, but also mostly Flat.
I started out hard, maybe too hard. The course starts with a 10 K route that leads into the city where you jump on a 20K loop that has to be done 4 times. By the time I finished the second loop I was not feeling right. My left foot was sore and I was feeling tired. Leading me too believe I pushed too hard in the first two loops. I toned it back for the last two but I think the damage was done.

When I finished the bike, the heat and humidity had settled in and it was bad. I did not expect it would effect me in such a way. Maybe because I was already in a bad way when I started the run. But I found the run to be unbearable. Normally this is my stronger of the 3 skills. I suffered no leg cramps but I was just out of it About 3 miles into the run I just walked. I had no energy left. The heat and humidity was killer. ALot of people were walking. It even got to the point that I wanted to just Stop. Just DNF because I knew this race was a goner time wise. But then I decided thats a bad idea, mentally I turned it into a training session and now my job was to acclimate mysef to push myself to finish even when I do not want too. Especially if I plan on doing an Ironman race. To get by, I focussed on reaching the next aid station and then the next after that, until reaching the end. Running in with all the other walking wounded.

It was just a bad race for me and I am glad that I at least finished. I am glad I did the race because there are lessons to be learned here.

1) I underestimated this race. I thought it was Flat and so it would be easy for me who is used to riding in Hilly terrain. Never underestimate a 1/2 iron or more distance race. It is still a substancial effort.
2) I severely underestimated the effects heat and humidity would have on me. It truly sucks the life out of you if you are not ready to deal with it.
3) I really did not train for this race. I had thought about it a few months ago, but did not decide to do it until a month before the race. As such I was just not physically ready to do something like this. A 1/2 ironman race is a substancial distance and should not be taken lightly. Not something to just throw in for the sake of doing a triathlon.
4) I did not really consider all the logistical requirements of doing a race when staying at a hotel in a foreign country. In NY in a pinch I could head over to a diner that are often open 24 hours. No such luck here. I just did not think of breakfast.

So what did I do right? I stuck it out and beat back my desire to quite. I finished :)