Iron Pol

Okay, I have a confession to make.  Past comments that I never dreamed of becoming an Ironman until the very recent past aren't quite accurate.  There was a time when I was younger when I wanted nothing more than to be an Ironman.  More specifically, I wanted to be THE Ironman.  Of all the superheros from my childhood, Ironman was always tops.

Let's face it, Ironman could do everything.  Start with the nearly indestructable exoskeleton.  Add the ability to fly via thrusters in his boots.  Top it all off with the various beams he could shoot from different parts of his outfit.  Ironman was the coolest.  It didn't hurt that he was friends with some of the other mega-cool superheros of the day.

Now, Robert Downey, Jr. gets to live the dream of many kids, both past and present.  Playing the role of Dr. Tony Stark, Downey is receiving wonderful reviews for bringing this comic book hero to the big screen.  This is one movie that may motivate me to hire a baby-sitter, spend (quite) a few bucks, and take the wife out for a bit of "adult" time.

And when Tony Stark takes his suit out for a test flight and Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" is playing in the background, I can hold my head high.  I might not have an indestructable, rocket-powered suit.  But I did manage to become Ironman.

Anyone of my close friends and family can confirm I'm a bit of a computer geek.  I'm not an uber-geek who sits around trying to figure out how to reprogram Windows or hack into the federal government.  But I do have a networked house complete with a couple of servers and numerous computers.  I'm also the first person called when my church, dad, or any of several friends have computer problems.  I can't solve every issue, but know who to call when that happens.

When it comes to triathlon, I sit on the fence when it comes to technology.  While I have decent equipment, the latest and greatest toys are a good bit beyond what I can afford.  Still, I have a decent stopwatch, a heart rate monitor, and a reasonable cycling computer.  The true "geek" part shows itself when looking at my training logs.  And yes, "logs" truly is plural.

I have one log for my employer's wellness initiative.  I log workouts online at Buckeye Outdoors.  When I have official training plans, I will use Training Peaks to log sessions.  I also have my personal training file in Excel, complete with graphs of current and past years, target and actual distances, and notes about whatever seems important.

To ensure accurate data is entered, I closely track distances and times, along with various other information.  Both my stopwatch and my heart rate monitor were selected based on their lap capacity (150 and 100 respectively).  In addition to allowing me to track very long workouts, this allows me to complete several workouts without having to worry about whether I've logged the last session.

This has been a very successful process.  Until today.

This morning's swim was little different from any other day.  Going into the swim, I had 112 laps available on my watch.  The rest contained my swim and run workouts from the weekend.  I completed a swim including a moderately complicated pyramid from 50 to 200 yards and back.  After a few other intervals, I hit the final wall and clicked "Stop."  As I hopped out of the pool, I glanced at the watch to verify it was actually stopped (sometimes I miss or forget to hit the button).

What I saw was a fairly odd grouping of numbers across the top of the watch, followed by a time of 12:00 AM, Monday 1/01.  Knowing what was coming, I switched to Chrono.  Sure enough, it showed 150 available laps.

I sat there dumfounded, knowing I was going to have to try to reconstruct 4700 yards of swimming and a 10.5 mile run.  Luckily, I can be a bit obsessed with times and distances DURING workouts, and I was able to make a good guess at the numbers.

So, there were two lessons learned.  First, technology is great so long as it is working properly.  It can be a real bummer when it dies.  Second, paying close attention to your workout during the workout can be a good thing.

I think I'll back up my jump drive to the server, this evening...

In the 80s I liked to watch Hill Street Blues.  This police show opened each episode with roll call where the precinct sergeant went through important news and information.  At the end of each roll call, as the officers headed out to work, the sergeant would remind them to "Be careful out there."

Such words of caution are important to triathletes, a fact reinforced this past weekend.  Two local cyclists had the limits of their luck tested when an inattentive driver struck them from behind.  Driving at an estimated 50 mph, the driver hit the trailing cyclist.  After slamming into the car's windshield, she was thrown forward into her husband, who was biking in front of her.  They both wound up in the ditch on the side of the road.

Miraculously, both were able to walk away from the accident essentially unscathed.  They took the wife to the hospital for x-rays, and she is, so far, fine other than some significant bruising.  Obviously, her bike did not fare so well, and I imagine the driver's insurance will be taking a hit for a new one.

The driver, who was cited for inattentive driving, stated that he was unable to stop in time.  An interesting statement considering he was coming from behind them, and stopping should not have been required.  In the end, it was one more driver oblivious to at least some of the conditions around him.  Luckily, the cyclist wasn't seriously injured or killed.

As triathletes, most of us are fairly confident in our cycling abilities.  We are also aware that even a momentary loss of focus can turn a great race day into a painful trip to the hospital.  Sadly, it is the inattention of others that proves most devestating to bikers on the road.

So...  Be careful out there!

Related news update:  A group of triathletes participating in a group swim at Solana Beach in San Diego, California are trying to deal with the tragedy of a fatal shark attack.  We sometimes lose sight of the dangers associated with swimming, particularly swimming in ocean venues.  Please keep the family and friends of this unnamed triathlete in your prayers.

Update 2:  I just got an E-mail back from Kahuna.  It was short, but removes any vestige of concern he was involved.  A stop by Commodore's site to check up on him provided further information, as the victim was a "friend of a friend."

As if there is any further proof needed that the Fox cities Triathlon Club is THE coolest tri club in the country, nay, the world, here is a picture of our team mascot hanging with seven time Tour de France champion and recent Boston Marathon finisher Lance Armstrong.  Foxie was in Boston supporting Tri Foxes participating in the race.

Rumor has it that Lance wanted to share tips on community programs and learn some of the secrets of Tri Fox success.  We can only hope there was a fair exchange of ideas and that Foxie returns with lots of good information.

Apparently this week is "National Turn the TV Off" week.  The only reason I know this is because of signs they have at the YMCA where I swim in the mornings.  The signs indicate that TVs in the facility will be turned off in support of the event.  It won't really impact me, though I wonder if they are perhaps hitting the wrong audience with their efforts.

Is there really a concern that individuals spending their mornings or afternoons at the YMCA are getting too much television?  Even without workouts (my wife was out of town all weekend), the total extent of my weekend TV time was a two-hour movie late Saturday night.  In fact, most days, the majority of my television viewing comes in those few minutes changing at the gym.

Then again, perhaps there is a growing population of "gym locker TV watchers" in need of a reason to head out and exercise.

In the end, it makes no difference to me, either way.  I won't stop going to the gym because they turned the TVs off.  Then again, having them off isn't going to dramatically increase my training volume.  Actually, it won't increase it at all.

Perhaps a better means to support the "turn off the TV" campaign would be to offer discounted or free passes for families to encourage them to get out of the house and into the gym.  Or set up daily events for youth, and provide incentives for participation.

And the kids could see that the YMCA was serious, since they have their own TVs turned off.

Those old enough to remember The Tonight Show prior to Jay Leno may remember a Johnny Carson character named Carnac the Magnificient.  Carnac could hold a sealed envelope up to his head and provide the answer to the question in the envelope.  So, with all honor due to Johnny Carson and Carnac the Magnificient...

Keys, Clothes, and Kids.

"Name three things that can derail a training session before it even starts."

My day started about 35 minutes before the 4:30 alarm.  Somewhere in my house is my daughter's "keys."  The keys are attached to a keychain that makes lots of neat sounds.  Well, neat unless it's four in the morning.  Whether beneath one of my children or simply possessed, this thing started making noise and woke the only light sleeper in the house.  Me!

A quick trip around the house yielded no keys, but it had stopped making noise.  Of course, anyone with kids knows where this goes.  Yep.  I climbed back into bed and fell asleep.  For about five minutes, when the keychain started chiming in, again.  I gave up on sleep and never did find the toy.

It worked out well that I was up a tad early, as I had some ironing to do.  My wife generally handles that, and she got sidetracked by something.  Everything was set up, so it only took a few minutes.  And 10 years in the Navy helps me appreciate whatever clothes I DON'T have to iron.

And the kids?  They were up late, so I was up late.

Piled together, these little things add up to little sleep and lots of distractions.  Since it's all in the life of an Ironman, I went about my business and headed out for training.  One night of short sleep isn't actually enough to derail my training.  Just enough to provide a topic for blogging.

In many situations, odds of 1 in 4 would be pretty good.  Considering multi-state lottery odds are usually in the 1 in 150 million range, 1 in 4 is pretty decent.  Of course, there are situations were 1 in 4 is something we'd rather not hear.  Most people diagnosed with a condition that kills 1 in 4 patients would have grave concerns.

Then there's the Bellin 10K run.  Last year, a sub-42 minute 10K was sufficient to qualify for the elite start corral.  This year, they changed that requirement, lowering it to 40 minutes.  That's a thousand meters every four minutes.  1 in 4.  Long odds, as I see it.

With the race a few short months away, I wanted to get a feel for where I was in the quest to meet the new time requirement.  So I ran a 5K training run using intervals of 4 minutes in zone 4 and 2 minutes active recovery (trying to get my heart rate back down near zone 2).  The actual distance I covered was 3.14 miles.  My time was 19:55.

Given the same pace over the second half, I would complete 6.28 miles in 39:50.  That's just enough to meet the new target.  The one minor positive is that the race is only 6.2 miles.  The one HUGE negative is that I don't think I could maintain that pace for another 5K.  Of course, I do have until June 14th to add speedwork to the training mix and improve those times.  Still, running sub-40 this year requires an improvement of nearly two minutes over last year.

Since nobody ever accused me of being sensible and realistic when it comes to improving my times, I think I'll shoot for it.  My first Bellin was 55 minutes.  The second was 45 minutes.  The third was 41:22.  Of course, I'm getting closer to the pointy end of the field, and shaving time is becoming more and more challenging.

Still, it's good to have goals...

It was a major weekend in many respects.  First, since it's the elephant in the room, we've obviously made some changes to the site.  A little different layout to change the feel.  This layout got my wife's approval, so it must be okay.  The banner still needs a bit of work, and I'm willing to offer a case of Vanilla Power Gel (plus any others I have) for anyone willing to help out a graphically challenged blogger.  Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Second, it was Ironman weekend, with at least a few blogger toeing the line in Arizona.  Iron Benny finished the course in 13:39, and I look forward to his race report.  Commodore ran into some issues on the bike and showed discretion by leaving the course.  I'm hoping there were fewer issues than last year, and anxiously await the post saying all is well.

Update: Mistress put up one post about Commodore's condition, and it seems the race took more out of him this year than last.  Keep Commodore in your prayers.  She also posted about his obstinence.

Regardless of the outcome on Sunday, both of these guys as well as a sizable crew of others showed just how big their hearts are on Saturday.  Anyone questioning just how committed they are to both triathlon and giving back to others should read Commodore's post from Saturday night.  Benny and his wife, along with Stronger and many others did a wonderful thing for Duane, and deserve a tremendous amount of recognition.  They are all winners in my book, and a shining example of what makes the triathlon community truly special.

Finally, I got a call on Saturday about two more youth interested in our growing youth triathlon club.  We started with three, last year.  This year, we look to have a minimum of eight.  If everyone who has expressed an interest joins, we'll have ten.  And I'm hoping a few of those already joining will encourage others to sign up.  Even so, if we have eight youth participate, this year, that will be nearly 200% growth.  I'll take that.

So, a new look for the blog.  A new ride for Duane.  And two new names for the youth tri club.  Sometimes, change is a good thing.