Will It Get Better, or Worse?

Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have. -- Louis E. Boone

I got to thinking last night about the events in which I have participated over the last year or so, since I was comparing this Cap 10K to last year's. So I put together a table of the events and times. Let's hope I improve between now and November! At any rate, I have something to compare myself with, and that IS the only person I compare myself with when it comes to this stuff...

Date	Event	Time
04/11/10	Capitol 10K	1:16:00
04/25/10	LoneStar 70.3	7:29:16
05/09/10	Rookie Tri	1:16:14
06/20/10	Pflugerville Tri	1:30:54
07/10/10	Triple Bypass – 120 miles	13:20
07/18/10	Katy Flatland Century – 103 miles	5:56
08/21/10	Red Hot Chili Pepper 64 miles	3:50
09/25/10	Redman 70.3	7:17:21
11/25/10	Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot 5 Miles	50:50
12/03/10	Ronald McDonald House 5K	32:11
12/05/10	Round Rock Reindeer 5K	30:14
12/11/10	Project Overflow 5K	32:20
12/26/10	Zilker Tree 5K	32:03
01/30/11	3M Half-Marathon	2:26:41
03/26/11	Rosedale Ride 62.5	3:35:00
03/27/11	Capitol 10K	1:08:27 (7:30 improvement)

Good times, bad times... it all works

Don't wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater.  -- Mary Manin Morrissey

This past weekend, I rode the Rosedale Ride, a pay ride to support the Rosedale school for challenged individuals. I have ridden this ride a number of years, since Team In Training opts to use it as a supported training ride; which was great for me this time around, because I haven't seen some of these folks in a while. They offer 40-mile and metric century (62.5-mile) options, and I chose the longer route ahead of LoneStar 70.3 in two weeks.

Driving over to the start and looking at the flags blowing, I knew I would be changing the 90s off the bike and going with the 58s. Just too windy to risk it. Met up in the parking lot with the TnT folks.  I think I was the last 60-miler to get started because I was too busy talking with some TNT friends who were doing the 40, so that was kinda funny when I got up to the rope and they let me squeeze under it. But it didn't matter too much, because I caught up with the crowd pretty quickly. I caught up with Jeff, Amy and John. Once John figured out I was going to push it a little harder than the Team folks, he and I cranked it up. We ran around 20-22 for most of the first half of the ride. About midway John hooked up with a friend of his and took off. I knew I had to run Sunday, so I let them fly without me.

Just before the New Sweden church, I ran into Carl, Tom and and some Team newbies I didn't know. Carl was going to pull one young lady in - ride in front and take the wind so she wouldn't have to work as hard - so Carl and I rode side-by-side and jaw-jacked the rest of the ride. Really good to catch up with him and ride with him again.

Sunday was the Capitol 10K, the biggest 10K race in the state. So I was out there with 23,000 of my closest friends -- REALLY close at the start! (just for the record, she backed into ME!) I was hoping to just finish better than the 1:16 I did last year. It was cool at the start, but once I actually started moving (7+ minutes after the gun we crossed the start line) I started sweating pretty quickly. And once again, traffic bottled up a bit at the bottom of the hill of Enfield going over Lamar, and again at Enfield going under MoPac. Once past that though, it thinned out a little bit - enough to where I felt like I wasn't going to trip over somebody racing past me. I managed 1:08:27, which was about 7 minutes faster than last year, so I was pretty happy with that.
Oh, the bad times? -- Got home from the Cap 10K to find the water heater had busted and water everywhere in the garage.

I got a lot of comments on the cycling jersey this weekend, so I am going to see what it would cost to get some printed, assuming there truly is enough interest.

The Things You Can Think About On a 2-Hour Bike Ride!

So -- this crossed my mind... when I started this Cardiac Ironman journey, I committed to providing reviews of all the products I included in the Cardiac Ironman "kit". And I will, starting with today's review of my new HED 9 wheels. You can read that on my website, at www.CardiacIronman.com/review.html. It will be there sometime tonight.

But something else I thought people might enjoy reading, and contributing to, is a review of a different kind... not vendors, not products, not even how well our events are produced/managed. I want to know what people think is the event with the best community support. What gets the local folks out there? What vibe do you get from them, as you participate in the event? I can tell you from my experiences as a volunteer at a number of events, and as a spectator at others, the athletes literally feed off the positive emotion you give back to them.

I don't mean this is any kind of rating process, one over the other. I just want to see what events participants come away from with a positive feeling, one that says "I am DEFINITELY coming back to this one!"

So I am going to put the question out on Facebook, and maybe some other places. Hopefully, folks will leave comments here for the rest of us to read.  And I will even start it...

For me, the #1 event so far has been the Hotter Than Hell 100, in Wichita Falls, in August 2009. This ride offers multiple distances, up to a century, which naturally is the reason I went in the first place. The event was huge in 2009 - over 14,200 riders -  and I heard even bigger in 2010. Some of the shorter-length rides actually take you down the tarmac of the Air Force base, and you get to see all the aircraft. The soldiers are standing out there cheering on the riders, and I am told they have as good a time as us riders. In the century ride, which honestly is fairly flat, we passed by hundreds of people, the grandparent types to small children, sitting out alongside the curbs, cheering and waving, or the little kids who are "racing" alongside you for about 50 feet. There was a short section out in the rural part of the ride where there weren't as many supporters, but even out there, you come across farmers who have set up a table, a "rest stop" of their own making, where they are slicing up watermelon and handing it out to the riders. Let me tell you -- when you have ridden 80 miles basically non-stop, and you come across these folks, you STOP! And you almost hate to leave, they are so friendly!

The race support staff is pretty great too. All the rest stops (yeah, we passed all but two) appeared to be staffed sufficiently by volunteers, many of which were standing there willing to hold your bike up while you went and grabbed a PB&J or more Gatorade. A few of them had young kids available with loaded water guns willing to hose you down if you wanted to cool off from the humid heat. They were having a good time, too.

So, there you have it.... now it is your turn. Leave your opinion in a comment for others to read. Who knows - you might give somebody a reason to try a different event. Thanks!

Forgot Something...Changes to the Cardiac Ironman Kit

OK, so with the new HED wheels from Austin TriCyclist (same place I got the 58s, by the way), the Cardiac Ironman "kit" is:

     Cervelo P2 Tri bike, Ultegra components;

            HED Jet 9 90mm Wheels wearing Continental 4000 Grand Prix Tires; 
            American Classic Carbon 58mm wheels, also wearing Continental 4000 Grand Prix Tires; 
            Shimano R500 (stock) wheels, wearing Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick;

     Fuji Team Issue road bike, Dura-Ace components; 
            Custom-built wheels by Bobby Fiddes (BobbysBikes.com), 30mm, wearing Panaracer Stradius Pro
                  or Continental Ultra Race;
     Rudy Project helmet;

     Steel MX Optics sunglasses, Radian 4410s, Black;
     Wetsuit, Nineteen Pipeline;

     Infinit Custom-Mixed Nutrition (designed by me, for the bike portion of the race);

     Athletes HoneyMilk recovery drink;

     Chevrolet Silverado; and

     Jerseys and shirts printed by Champion Printing in Pflugerville, and cool embroidered ball caps from Anne's Embroidery. (You can buy these at www.LikeItMeansSomething.com).

JeffG thinks I should add the kayak to the kit, but that might be stretching it a bit. I am working on getting into a new pair of running shoes, though, so there may be additions to the list still to come. I will start posting the product reviews as promised, to the Reviews page at www.CardiacIronman.com.

It's getting CLOSE!!

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. -- Zig Ziglar

Well, quite a bit of news this time around -- We are about 3 1/2 weeks out from LoneStar 70.3, and I am feeling pretty good about where I am at training-wise. (After all, last year I was training for the Sprint and ended up doing the Half-Iron!) I still need to get in some longer distance swims, and a couple open water swims at the lake. I will also be doing longer runs after the bike rides on the weekends.

I rode the "warm-up" ride for Spokes N Spurs this past weekend, which left from Bicycle Sports Shop up north and went out the "Parmer Wind Tunnel" to Andice and back. About 200-250 of us cruised outbound at 18-20+ speeds, and then hit the wind headfirst on the return trip. I was fortunate to even see 12 or 13 mph on my bike computer! And a whole bunch of people were having flats, me included... definitely made for a really long return trip. And the ride was followed by a 2-mile brick run, which normally would have been reasonable and short, but after that ride, it beat me up to do the run too.

I am so excited about a bunch of things all going on at once... I ordered some deep racing wheels from Austin Tricyclist (my newest Cardiac Ironman sponsor), they came in yesterday, and I got them put on the P2 today! Gotta thank Don and Adam at ATC bunches! I am really anxious to get out on the road and try them out. But that is going to have to wait a couple days.

One of the reasons the ride will have to wait is because I am taking Mom out tonight for her birthday for dinner and to see Cirque du Soleil. This new version of their show is supposed to be pretty awesome. So hopefully Mom will have a good time.

But the way I got these tickets is kinda cool too. My friend Cortney ran the Diva 5K, and won the grand prize drawing - the 2 tickets. (Congrats to Madison Roehling for placing 3rd in her age group, by the way!) But rather than go herself, Cortney auctioned them off to the person bidding the highest number of pounds of rice they would purchase in exchange for the tickets. This will support the PFUMC food pantry, so I had 2 reasons to bid - support a great cause AND get off the hook for a birthday gift for somebody who "doesn't want anything" -- she ALWAYS says that! I think mom will enjoy what I bought for 350 pounds of rice!

Another great thing -- Jeff G., my newbie triathlon buddy at work, ran the CowTown races recently wearing his Cardiac Ironman "Crew" shirt. Apparently, he had a number of people make comments or ask questions, so I guess he spent some time explaining me to them. Way to run, Jeff! So be aware - the Cardiac Ironman shirt could be seen at races all over the place!

And the fun continues... with my experiences with Team In Training, and the "marketing" I have done in the past (read:searching for charitable donations), I am setting up a website and a developing business to sell shirts, ball caps and the like, for the "Do It (Whatever) Like It Means Something...Because It DOES!" belief that I have. I have had a number of people ask in the past about the phrase, and if they could "borrow" it for their fundraising, and I just thought it was the right time to get all that stuff trademarked and licensed, etc. So I am drafting some designs which surely will evolve and improve. You can check it all out at www.LikeItMeansSomething.com - just recognize that we are in the early evolution of this whole concept.

Last night was a pretty good swim. Got to see a number of familiar faces at the pool, and managed a decent 2000 yards. Time to soak the wetsuit for the OWS...

I think that is about it for now. Talk to you next time.

Your Opinion Counts! (At least, that is what they are telling me!)

As of this past weekend, I have received the products from my sponsors. I made the commitment to provide feedback over the course of my training going into Ironman Florida. 

So here is what we have on hand, and what is now part of the "official" Cardiac Ironman kit:

     Rudy Project helmet

     Steel MX Optics sunglasses

     Infinit Custom-Mixed Nutrition (designed for the bike portion of the race)

     Athletes HoneyMilk recovery drink

     Cervelo P2 Tri bike

     Chevrolet Silverado

     Shirts printed by Champion Printing in Pflugerville.

There are a couple of other components to the kit, but I am still working on those, so I will let you know how that works out... think round, aerodynamic objects.

I am still working on the Eat N Park food and the Smiley Cookies testing (read:eating) -- one of the Cardiac Tri Team members, Brooks, runs the place with his family, and I am trying to figure out the best way to get the great food down here from their restaurants. Presently, they are only located up in the Northeast... maybe some dry-pack stuff. But any of you who get the chance, definitely stop in one of their locations - the menu is awesome, with loads of healthy choices!

You already know by now how successful I think the HoneyMilk is working for me. You only have to ask all the people I have given my own product to for their own experience, to know this stuff works -yeah, you guys are costing me money :-). My own workout recovery has tremendously improved as a result of these drinks. The variety of flavors (vanilla, chocolate, coffee, honey and the new strawberry-banana) offers athletes a broad choice. Personally, I have no flavor preference - I like them ALL!

So keep up - I will post after this weekend's ride and run. I am looking forward to reporting back.

Cold Water, Wind and Funky Knees - What A Great Training Plan!

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me. - Carol Burnett

Things are looking pretty good since the last post. I am getting more time on the bikes, though that also includes more opportunities to change flats lately; the swim is getting better, putting in the longer sessions and alternating between distance swims and speed work; and the run is what it is. I have been doing multi-sport workouts, adding in the transitions, and going from the bike to the run is not bothering my hips as much as it used to. In another week or so, I will try to get into the lake - hopefully it won't be quite as cold.
The nutrition is coming together really well, too. The Infinit on the bike feels pretty good, in that I think the nutrition balance and the hydration is working... but I still need to remember to drink more. The gel buttons and water seem to work on the runs, and the Athletes HoneyMilk really kicks in post-workout. 
We are only 33 days out from LoneStar 70.3 at this point. I want to at a minimum improve my time, and preferably drop it by 30 minutes. That's the goal, anyway.
I am excited too about the rest of the Cardiac Ironman stuff... the t-shirts turned out nicely and I got them mailed out - from Hollywood to New York and Pittsburgh - and the Rudy Project helmet and Steel MX Optics sunglasses came in last night. So I am looking forward to getting the whole package together this weekend. I will at least LOOK like I know what I am doing...
On a different note, my sister's lumpectomy went well, though apparently in the post-surgery biopsy there was a small amount of cancer in the lymph node. P1 will be doing the chemo and radiation, and afterward said she will be "a damn good looking bald woman!" -- prayers and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
So onward toward Galveston. See ya there!