Iron Pol

In an odd twist of fate, yesterday started and ended much the same.

I was up early to get to the YMCA for a run workout.  I got through 7.3 miles in an hour, and headed off to work.  I had to leave work early in order to get to the Boys' and Girls' Brigade for an 8th grade ski trip.  By reason of being the last experienced volunteer leader going with the kids, I was "in charge."  (Anyone with a bunch of 8th graders in their care knows that "charge" can be very theoretical)

Years of military experience helped both leaving the building and arriving at the ski hill.  We were able to move very efficiently and the kids were skiing in no time.  All went well, until...  (cue ominous music!)

About 30 minutes after the kids started skiing, one of the youth found me helping teach at the bunny hill.  He let me know one of our group was at the first aid station with an injured arm.

That led to 90 minutes of calling parents and Brigade staff, working with the ski patrol to stabilize the young man's arm, and making arrangements to get him to the hospital.  As soon as we got him into a car headed off the hill it was time to chase the rest of the group toward the bus so we could leave, ourselves.

After I got back home, I had to write out an accident report for the Brigade staff detailing the situation and then get my stuff ready for work.

Like I said, I started and ended the day the exact same way.  Running around in circles, getting nowhere fast.

One common feature in the houses of every member of my family is the presence of tissue boxes.  Now, I understand that most people will have boxes of tissue in their homes.  In our family, they can be found in just about every room of every house.  You might call us a very sinus-deficient group of people.

Normally, it's just a fact of life.  I take Claritin every day (and they're welcome to comp me for the free plug).  I used Sudafed until stores started making me feel like a felon each time I asked for more than a week's supply of pills.  Between allergy medications, tissues, and a reserved acceptance of being "the sniffle guy," I get by.

Sometimes, though, the allergies take over and everyone I meet is sure I have a cold.  Now happens to be one of those times.  Sadly, training suffers when it gets like this.  Because few things are worse than trying to pound through a run or trainer ride without being able to breathe through the nose.  Have you ever tried to take a drink from a bottle with completely clogged sinuses?  It isn't pretty.

And one of those "few" things that ARE worse than a bike or run with a plugged nose is swimming with a plugged nose.  I will confess that I can be quite a sight walking into the pool.  Ear plugs, red and runny nose, watery eyes.  Then, when I start swimming, it's impossible to breathe out through the nose, which creates its own comical situations.

So, for those of you out there struggling with allergies, colds, swimming related sinus issues, and just plain nasal nightmares, know you aren't alone.  Others are sneezing and sniffling with you.  And if you hear what sounds like a giant nostril, take a look and you just might see Iron Pol and his nose both running behind you.

Yeah, I know, it's an odd title.  It is, however, fitting.  It describes quite a lot in my life, right now.  I'm experiencing quit a bit of "lack of," right now.

I have a lack of time as family, work, church, volunteer roles, and training take up time.  Too many days I find myself crawling into bed, later than desired, wondering where the day went.  Other days, I don't even make it to bed.  I just fall asleep while reading bed-time stories to my kids.  And if you want a good laugh, come by and watch as the kids try to keep me awake long enough to finish stories.

Lack of sleep is obviously another issue.  My kids are now old enough to fight the 7:30 bedtime, and it is no longer an option to disappear into the basement while my wife wrangles kids to sleep.  So, I find myself training later or missing workouts, altogether.  It winds up being a bit of both, depending on how sleep deprived I feel.

Lack of motivation is always an issue during the winter.  With the winter we've had, running outside has been less convenient than the past, and I'm only good for 10-12 miles on the track at the YMCA.  I have more time on the trainer than last year, but that is affected by other things (see items one and two).  Luckily, I have a half-Ironman on the horizon, and that helps ensure I focus on base workouts.

Lack of inspiration has slowed things down on the blog.  Without major races, there are no reports to file.  I haven't had any major events like nearly getting hit by a car or meeting famous celebrities to fuel the posts.  Then again, the Tri Foxes are hosting Sister Madonna Buder at a series of events this coming weekend.  In addition to our monthly meeting, she will be the official starter at the Valentine's Day 15K and will take part in our first ever "Run with the Nun."

So, I trust you'll now agree that "Lack Of" might be an appropriate title.  And if that's the case, you might want to stay tuned for the next post, "Walk of Shame."

Sometimes, you just have to wonder who's minding the store.

With the flurry of activities surrounding Christmas, New Year, work, etc, I seem to have missed an important post.  Then again, perhaps it was intentional.

I have officially changed aged groups.  Now, to be fair, I actually changed age groups at the beginning of the year (I turned 40).  USAT rules state that you are to be assigned to your age group based on your age as of December 31st of the current year.  So, I should have been lumped in with the 40+ crowd.

Practice seems to differ from theory, though.  Every race I did had me with the 35 year olds.  Again, in the name of fairness, it made very little difference.  Some quick cross-referencing of the results confirms that I am equally "middle of the pack" in either age group.

As an added bonus, I am now five minutes closer to qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  That means I only need to shave about 20 more minutes off my marathon pace to achieve that goal.

This morning, I had what I am calling my first official "40 year old moment."  I got to the gym, opened my bag, took out my dress shoes and threw them in the bottom of the locker.  I then turned back to the gym bag, looked in it for my dress shows, and started cursing myself out.  A friend asked what was up, and I explained I didn't have my dress shoes.  I grabbed my street shoes to throw in the locker for after my workout, only to find my dress shoes.

I didn't know whether to be happy or sad...

One of the recurring topics in my experiences as an endurance athlete is the "that guy" situation.  As has been stated in the past, I was never really "that guy" growing up.  Well, at least not in any really cool sense.

Tuesday, I had a message waiting for me when I got home.  I returned the call to the friend and found out that he is working with a local Christian radio station, Q90FM.  In particular, he is part of a show called Sports Faith Radio.  After a recent interview with a fellow Tri Fox, they had received quite a bit of correspondence regarding endurance faith, sports, training, and youth.

They contacted me as they were looking for someone with experience in all three areas.  My friend helped set up the youth triathlon club with the Boys' and Girls' Brigade, and figured I would be able to answer the kinds of questions they and their listeners were asking.  So, Wednesday, they contacted me and conducted an interview of about 20 minutes.

We covered a lot of ground, and the show should be broadcast on Saturday.  Anyone interested in finding out just how much I sound like a cartoon character can swing by the Q90 website and follow the links to listen to their on-air broadcast.  I'll be listening, myself, as it's always hard to judge how well a presentation went without listening to what the audience hears.

But I already know I sound like a cartoon character.

My biggest hope is that I did a good job representing the triathlon community.  Outsiders are often unaware that triathlon means everything from a few miles to Ironman.  If someone believes they have to travel 140.6 miles to become a triathlete, they are likely to dismiss the sport as insane.

If they realize that triathlon can be approached by taking baby steps, they might make the leap.  And who knows, in time, they might become "that guy," too!

Monster Girl wandered into our bedroom around 5:15 this morning and woke me up.  With one little push she managed to give my day a pretty rough start.

When I woke up, I was torn between, "Why did she wake me up so early," and, "Why didn't my alarm go off at 4:30?"  She did a pretty good job of splitting the difference between my normal wake-up times.  Apparently, she was hungry.

But only so long as her daddy was willing to sit with her and let her watch a t.v. show.

Which I wouldn't.  So I didn't.

As an alternative, she picked "sit and sniffle and cry while trying to drink milk."  That made me sufficiently nervous that I gave up trying to get back to sleep.  When I went to take a shower, she dragged a pillow and blanket into the bathroom.

And promptly fell asleep.

The score as I walked out the door for work?  Overslept by 45 minutes.  Missed training.  Woke up 45 minutes early for a non-workout day.  Everyone involved in my sleep being disrupted still sleeping.

In other words, about par for the course.

The good news is that it's another long weekend.  Full, but long.  We have a birthday party for the kids on Saturday, and Friday will be a day off to help get everything ready.  That should give me a good opportunity for a long swim and run in the morning.  If things are going smoothly enough, I'll be able to do the same on Saturday.

As for today, I'll have to make the training up on the way home.  That will be the second workout this week.  At least the first was due to snow.

And just because a picture of Monster Girl must be balanced with a picture of B-Boy, another from the Oshkosh Area Kids' Triathlon.  It's fitting as my son woke me up, today, as well.  He was just less thorough.  I never saw the alarm clock as he was roaming about.

Swimming Notes

The Spirit of Racine 70.3 race started more than an hour late this year, due to fog.  This picture says it all.  And, no, the water in the foreground isn't the swim start.  That's a puddle.  The lake is just on the other side of the participants.  If it weren't for the fog, you would be able to see it.

While that race was started in the fog, the conditions rapidly improved, and we were soon biking and running under clear skies.  Lately, my swims seem to be "in a fog," and I'm pushing myself toward clearer skies.

At a recent Tri Fox meeting, I was discussing my recent challenges after the long swim break.  I commented about all of my other training and how little benefit that training was providing.  His reply...

"Swimming is the only thing that helps swimming."

I guess that's a "good news, bad news" response.  Good because there is a lot of swimming on the horizon.  Bad because I despise swimming more than running.  Where's Mary Poppins when she's needed?  If swimming is the medicine, I would take a spoonful or two of sugar.

Blog Notes

In the midst of some extraordinary technical issues at Weebly, my sidebar got hammered.  While it showed up on the site, I was unable to make any changes.  Their support crew did a good job restoring the sidebar, though there were a few notable changes.  Like certain elements being repeated an extra time or twelve.

Rather than worry about it, I pretty much reconstructed the entire sidebar.  If you notice something horribly wrong, please let me know.  If there's something you think is missing or would be beneficial, tell me that, as well.  I tend to limit it to the basics, keeping anything unrelated to the site and teams with whom I race to a minimum, so there might be useful links or tools I'm missing.

Race Notes

A few races are starting to materialize on the horizon.  Next year looks to be similar to 2008, with some of the race names changing.  Several co-workers are interested in the Green Bay Marathon, so I'll likely join them.  Spirit of Racine is out due to scheduling conflicts with a youth camp leadership role, so I'm planning on revisiting the High Cliff Triathlon.  I don't know if I can set a 70.3 PR there, but I can try to beat the time from my first attempt.

I'll be coaching kids, again, next summer, and might race the Oshkosh Area Triathlon with them.  In the "insane" endurance department, I'm in discussions with the owner of the Fox Valley Running Company to tackle the Fox Cities Marathon as a double.  We'll start about 3:30 a.m. and run the course in both directions for a total of 52.4 miles.

That will work out well as other co-workers and friends will be tackling that race as their first marathon.  If I can keep up, I'll be able to run with them as the celebrate that accomplishment.

Iron Challenge Notes

Training numbers for the first week of the Evotri Iron Challenge!

Swim - 6850 yards

Bike - 0 miles

Run - 11.82 miles

Obviously, the goal for this week is to find my way to the trainer and watch a few movies.  My bike isn't going to pedal itself for 112 miles.

And that about wraps up the news for the week.  Have a great week of training and stay safe!

Going into the Fall 50, I knew there would be a certain amount of pain associated with finishing.  I just didn't realize the worst of it would come some five weeks after the race.

Beginning with preparations for the Green Bay Marathon, my swimming took a back seat most of the summer.  Though I swam during workouts with the youth tri club, and hit the pool a few times, my swim totals for the past several months have been pretty close to zero (something around 130K total yards for the year).  With the start of the USAT National Challenge Competition, the Evotri Ironman Challenge, and the off season swim focus, that is changing.

Several of the blogs I read have stories about long absences from the pool and the ease with which people got back into swimming.  Apparently, that applies to people who were already good swimmers.  Me, not so much.  After nearly six months of minimal swimming, it's been an interesting few days.

One thing I have learned is that while aerobic base picked up in the pool translates well to biking and running, the reverse isn't true.  My base from training for and completing my first ultramarathons is pretty solid.  Somehow, that didn't make my arms and core uber-strong.

Translation?  I kind of stink in the pool, right now.  Oh well, that's what they make drawing boards for, right?  So we can go back to them.  Since the December focus of the USAT Challenge is swimming, I'll be working on my 30 swim month.

Week 1 is basic training.  I will use 1000-1500 yard swims to remind my body what it feels like to swim long distances.  Week 2 will be form drills with the goal of reminding myself that good form does a lot to improve both endurance and pace.  Weeks 3 and 4 will be dedicated to practicing skills from the SwimSmooth DVD.  Watching highly proficient swimmers has been a huge benefit in the past.

By the end of the month, I will have more yards in December than all of June through November combined.  If I really push, I might be able to throw May in there, and swim nearly a third of my current total for the year.

Of all the Christmas gifts I might give myself, getting back into proper swim shape is probably the best I could do.

It is amazing how quickly things can fill a schedule.  At work, I found myself struggling just to get through all of the "must do" projects that came out of the budgeting process.  It can be disheartening to look at a day's work, see how much was accomplished, only to realize that none of it was normal workload.

At the same time, I look back at the past week, see all the physical activity in my life, then realize that virtually none of it was endurance sports related.

I spent over an hour designing an obstacle course for kids, then running them through it.  I spent an entire day in the woods cutting wood for my house.  That wood had to be loaded, unloaded, split and stacked.  Over three days, that represented many hours of wielding a chainsaw and/or axe.

All of that work was good for my body.  It just won't help much in the swim/bike/run department.

And then, I stop here to vent only to find that my last post was nearly two weeks ago.  Luckily, I don't have enough hair left to pull out.

The good news is that I have been putting time in on the trainer.  I'm struggling with a cheap cycling computer trying to get it working on the rear wheel so I can get an indication of "mileage."  Unfortunately, the receiver seems to stop receiving when speed gets up over about 8 MPH.  So, for now, it's just time (and too little time, at that).

Perhaps I need to sign up for another Ironman to focus the efforts.  Which generates an interesting line of thought.

Many people ask why endurance athletes seem to find more and crazier ways to push their bodies.  Perhaps part of the answer is that it prevents apathy.

After running several half-marathons, the next one started to be a "given."  While I might not set a PR at every race, finishing wasn't really a question.  Over time, the same thing happened with marathons.  Ask me to run a marathon tomorrow and I can.  I might not do it in 3:30, but I'll finish.

But a 50-miler, that's not a given.  A great deal of very specific training was required to complete that distance.  And I wouldn't be comfortable doing another event without a similar plan.  The question is, what happens if I complete five or six 50-milers?

The same is true of triathlons.  Anything shorter than half-Ironman wouldn't phase me.  The biggest challenge at the half-Iron distance is beating PRs.  Barring extreme circumstances, I am confident of my ability to finish.

Ironman is another story.  I finished one race at that distance, and will face many of the same fears when I sign up for the next one (whatever that is).  Everything went pretty well in Louisville in 2007.  Would Beach 2 Battleship in 2009 or Wisconsin in 2010 be the same?

New challenges.  Perhaps that explains some of the "why" in what we do.  Once something has been done again and again, it becomes a given.  The next "impossible" challenge arises from past successes.

I really need to find a way to do another Ironman!

Okay, here's the question of the day.  Why is it that my body seems to want more food when my training volume decreases than during some of the heaviest training/racing periods of the year?

Is it simply the timing?  The times when training volume drops just happen to correspond to things like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas?  Is the sudden urge to eat everything in site related to the holidays?

Is there a scientific explanation?  Is my brain directing me toward every morsel of food in an attempt to pack on weight before I go haywire and start training like a maniac, again?  Is the change in seasons or daylight somehow responsible?

Is it perspective?  Am I actually eating less, but FEEL like I'm eating more simply because my training volume is down?  Is the "everything in sight" that I eat during the heaviest training periods actually considerably more than I eat now?

Just to keep things straight, I eat like a horse when I'm logging a lot of training hours.  I maintain a very good diet of things I should be eating, and throw in a lot of whatever else I can find to fuel the body.  Since I'm not putting on a great many pounds, my intake is fairly even with my training volume.

But it FEELS like I've always got something in my hand.  Breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, etc.

Is it just me?