Iron Pol

Over a dozen half-marathons.  Approaching 10 full marathons.  Preparing for my fourth half-Ironman.  One Ironman and two ultramarathons.  So far, none of them has brought me to my knees and required me to concede defeat for the day.

So why is it so hard to hit the dentist's office and let them work on my teeth?

I went in to have a filling repaired.  They have me now, and have no intention of letting me off easy.

I'd rather do another Ironman.  It's easier.

Steve, of Steve in a Speedo?! Gross is well known for his foot issues.  He is equally well known for posting pictures of his battered feet.  Since I very rarely get blisters, I had to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Steve and his blistered self.

This little beauty snuck up on me, and I'm not entirely sure it didn't start, get worse, and bust open in nearly one fell swoop.  I ran at the YMCA Tuesday morning without any noteable heal pain.  It was, in fact, a very mundane run off a modest swim.

After my workout, the kids wanted to go sledding, so I loaded up the gear and we headed to the hill.  It was during the walks up the hill that I noticed the stabbing pain on the back of my heel.  My first thought was something in the shoe (or perhaps a bunched up sock).  I pulled the boot off right there on the hill and adjusted everything.  That did little to relieve the pain, so I spent a lot of time walking backward up the hill, thinking there was something wrong with my boot.

It wasn't until we got back to the car and I switched to street shoes that I realized the blister was there.  I have the distinct impression it was the result of old socks, my boots, and the uphill walks.  I wore very poor socks to make sure my feet would get cold before the kids' feet.  Normally, I wear much better hiking socks.

I've run marathons with no socks, and don't wear socks in triathlons except for Ironman distance races.  I very rarely get blisters, so this surprised me.

The dry skin on the feet is pretty common, though.  And they're always that ugly.

My plan for the day included a 40 minute run.  I put my running shoes on, and decided it was a bad idea.  I replaced it with a two hour ride on the trainer.  Though the band-aid and the socks I wore to prevent further damage made my shoes pretty tight, I figured it was better to be on the trainer with the option to stop than out on the road if the blister started bothering me.

Luckily, the snow should be melting, soon, and sledding won't be much of an option for the rest of the season.  And if the blister doesn't heal quickly enough, I'll have to break out the super-glue...

About 10 days ago, my kids started coming down with colds.  They had slight fevers followed by lots of congestion and coughing.  We spent several days wiping noses, pushing fluids, and occassionally disregarding alarmist warnings by providing medicine.  Having two sick kids meant a lot of nights sleeping on one floor or another trying to comfort them, or at least keeping them company when they couldn't sleep.

Even so, I managed to fight off what was making them sick.  Well, for a while, at least.  I consider it good timing, as I'm in the first week of my taper heading into the Fall 50 race on October 25th.  It's good that it's taper so taking some time off is a minor deal.  It's good that it's the first week of taper as that gives me a couple weeks to fully recover before running 50 miles.

I did manage to get my final long run of 30 miles done on Sunday.  And there are a couple of "lessons learned" from that run.

The run went fairly well, though it started a bit late in the day for my liking.  When I headed out just after two in the afternoon, it was about 60F.  I spent some time debating what to wear, since it was currently warm but likely to get cooler before I finished.  In the end, I went with my wool tights, a tri-top for carrying nutrition, and a long sleeve technical shirt over that.

After about 60 minutes, I was regretting that decision.  I was getting hot, and I forgot to add Endurolytes to my Gatorade, and figured dehydration might become an issue.  That all changed about two hours into the run.

That's when the temperature dropped to between 50F and 55F.  And the rain started.  And that's how it stayed for the remaining three hours of the run.  In the end, I lucked out with my choices, and stayed comfortable despite the deteriorating conditions.

For this run, I tried two "new" products.  And I must say, I have a new BFF.  By "BFF," I mean Best Flavor Forever.  Remember last week's post talking about the sickly sweet taste CarBoom's Kiwi Strawberry gel?  After consulting a few people at my local running store, I tested the Apple Cinnamon flavor.  In a word, YUM!  It's nowhere near as sweet (though still sweeter than Gu), and actually tastes like apple-cinnamon.  I'd almost put this stuff on pancakes.  While I won't switch from Gu to CarBoom, I will certainly use the two for variety.

I also picked up another pack of Clif Shot Bloks.  Last week, I used a sample pack of the cola flavor.  I liked the concept, but the flavor was sort of "blah."  This week, I tested their black cherry Bloks.  They were awesome.

So, after years of testing different products, I'm narrowing down to a "menu" that will work for extreme distance races.  Mixing TriBerry Gu, Apple Cinnamon CarBoom, and Black Cherry Shot Bloks I will have a good variety of flavors with a combination of textures.  Add to that any flavor Gatorade with Endurolytes powder, and I have a plan that has been quite successful over the past several months.

And now, I'm going to wait and see what happens first.  Will I run out of tissue, or will my head explode from sinus pressure?  The suspense is killing me.

Anyone familiar with Chris McCormack's history at the Ironman World Championships knows he paid some heavy dues on his way to becoming world champion.  His early attempts at winning in Hawaii ended in failure as he struggled with heat, dehydration, nutrition, and the worst the course could throw at him.  By constantly learning the lessons taught at Kona, adjusting his plans, and, most importantly, making changes to his electrolyte intake, McCormack fought his way to the top of the podium.

Last year, after learning about McCormack's plight in past races, I started looking into electrolyte replacement techniques.  I saw a lot of what he experienced in myself.  In many training sessions and most races, dehydration led to problems at the end of the event.  Anything over a couple hours would find me caked in salt and dehydrated, regardless of fluid intake.

In the best of conditions, I am unable to swallow most electrolyte supplement in pill form.  The one I was able to swallow caused GI issues both times I tried it.  And one powder form I learned about, Gatorlytes, seemed unavailable for the average joe (if they're even still produced).  Finally, last year, I learned that Hammer Endurolytes were available in a powder form.

The perfect solution!  Well, almost perfect.  It seems that while Endurolyte capsules are available everywhere, the powder is much harder to locate.  In fact, the only place I was able to find it was Online.  So, last week, I gave up on local sources and ordered a can direct from Hammer.

This past weekend was a great opportunity to test it out.  With a four hour run on Saturday followed by a three hour run on Sunday, dehydration was sure to be a problem.

Saturday, I went with one scoop of Endurolyte powder per eight ounce bottle of Gatorade.  I carry four bottles on my belt, giving me 32 ounces of fluid and four scoops of Endurolytes.  During the run, I have to refuel, and opted to skip carrying additional powder for those bottles.

Saturday was already warm when I started the run at 5 a.m.  Twenty-three miles later, at 9 a.m., it was considerably warmer.  And I was still sweating.  Normally, after this kind of run, I would be totally dehydrated, and perhaps a bit bloated.  I considered this a good sign.

Sunday, I headed out late in the afternoon.  Though it was a bit cooler, I went with about 1.5 scoops of Endurolytes per bottle to see if taste would be an issue.  I will continue to increase the amount until it becomes unpalatable.  With 1.5 scoops, it tasted fine.  Again, I was still sweating when I arrived home, and didn't feel that fluids were staying in my stomach.  Good sign number two.

Most importantly, I didn't spend all day Saturday and most of Sunday dehydrated.  In fact, I felt very good on my run Sunday.  Compared to past runs in this range, it was the best set of consecutive runs I've completed.  It was also the longest run weekend I've ever completed.

I will continue to test the Hammer Endurolyte powder over the next couple of months.  So far, they get a big thumbs up for resolving my "no sweat" issue.

In everything we do, the piper must be paid.  And the better we want to be, the higher the price.  The only thing left to us is deciding just how much we are willing to pay.  Any time we misjudge the costs, we can find ourselves stuck paying more than we originally intended.

This might be applied to the current housing situation as people find themselves facing foreclosure, but it wouldn't fit the triathlon theme.  So, I'll have to apply it to myself as I recover from the past month of racing.  With a marathon, hard raced sprint triathlon, and full effort 10K all within three weeks, I'm paying the piper, now.

Let me tell you, it's really a pain in the a$$.  And no, that's not figurative.  It really is a pain in my butt.  Between overworking my legs and apparently putting a bit too much stress on some tendons, certain activities have become quite a chore.  Things like standing up.

I'm fine when I'm standing.  I can make do sitting down.  It's the transition from sitting to standing that gets a bit comical.  Every muscle in my rear gets kind of comfortable in their disuse.  When I stand and everything has to release and go through various contractions, the real pain starts.

This is new to me, and I've been having my son help with stretching at night.  It's a bit much for me to physically push enough to really stretch, so I relax the legs and let him push them up and back.  I get stretched and he gets a kick out of it.

The plan is to take it relatively easy for a week and see how things are after that.  With a half-IM on the horizon, I can't sit on my laurels, too long.  Not that my laurels are all the pleased about sitting, either.  Sitting is only a bit more preferable then standing up.

Luckily, it isn't all pain and suffering.  The doctor had moderately good news with relation to the biopsy on my ear.  The tests showed a benign growth, and the doctor wants to just watch things for a bit.  He believes the growth will return, at which point he will schedule surgery to remove all the "offending" tissue.  There his, however, a chance it will clear up on its own.  So long as it's non-cancerous, I don't care too much either way.

Sadly, swimming is still out while the area he cut open heals.  That puts me in a tight spot.  Running is bad.  Swimming is out.  And biking means I have to sit.  Talk about options.  Tear the legs apart, rub an open sore with ear plugs, or sit on my decidedly sore a$$.

Apparently, I'm a wreck.  The good news is that I only have to deal with that for four weeks.  I have a race on July 20th, and I won't have any choice but to deal with it.  Well before that, I'll just suck it up and decide that I'm ACTUALLY fine and just get back to training.

I can go back to being a wreck on July 21st.

Eight years ago, I sat in a doctor's office as he threw around words like surgery, biopsy, and non-Hodkin's lymphoma.  Though somewhat stunned at the urgency with which the doctors were considering options, I was fairly stoic about the overall discussion.  There was little to be gained from wigging out over "possibly" and "potentially."  A minor bit of surgery and some time with a microscope was all that was needed for concrete information.

Those results and the doctor responsible for my care thrust me onto the endurance scene.  Well, to be fair, the doctor accepts no responsibility for my becoming an endurance athlete.  He says that's all on me.  I blame him.  He's the one who told me to start running.  Who knew that like Forrest Gump, I'd still be running years later.

It seems I have now gone full circle.  Biopsies performed nearly a decade ago were the starting point in my journey from out of shape sailor to marathoner to triathlete to Ironman.  Recently, while preparing for a training swim, I noticed both a "bump" and blood in my ear canal (I wear plugs and routinely clean the ear to ensure a secure fit).

A visit with the ENT identified a couple things.  First, I seem to have yet another (or still existing) rupture of the tympanic membrane (eardrum).  Given the lack of any real symptoms, the doctor is fairly unconcerned with this.  He'll keep an eye on it and see if any reasons to treat it develop.

He was a bit more concerned with the bump in the ear.  Eight years after surgery for lymph node biopsies, I sat in a doctor's office as he removed a sample from my ear.  It will be sent to the lab for testing.

The doctor had two positive comments.  First, he is fairly certain this is a fairly common and routinely benign growth.  If so, we'll add it to the "wait and see" pile along with the ruptured eardrum.  Second, he was amazed at how quickly I identified the new growth.  While it seemed huge (in ear terms) to my wife and me, he said it is relatively small and is most likely a recent development.

In the event it isn't benign, we are ahead of the curve with the quick discovery.

Who knew that one biopsy would so directly result in another.  That was one big circle.  Next Tuesday I will know if I'm once again dealing with a minor inconvenience or if it's a bit more serious, this time.