Getting Excited Again...

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
-- Mother Teresa

Well, the training continues... I still have some soreness in the shoulder, but I think it is much more manageable now. Still have a few visits left with the chiro. (speaking of my chiro, John Tuggle, you ARE an Ironman!  TriDoc finished the Ironman Texas this past weekend, wearing lime green jersey AND lime green hair!) 

The swimming seems to be helping, in that I can stay in the aero bars longer. 

The running is improving, I have managed 2 occasions where I did sub-10 minutes-per-mile averages. They were not awfully long, 4 - 4.5 miles each.

I went down to Ironman Texas to watch some friends participate, and to volunteer at the run aid station set up by Team RWB, which is a group which supports are returning warriors. Our friend Brittany, herself a multiple-Ironman finisher, was there and needed help working the late shift. I know that I will hope to have friendly faces on my late run in Florida, so I felt like the IMTX folks probably felt the same way. I watched the swim start and then the swim finish until all the folks I knew were out of the water. After grabbing something to eat, we went back and watched the first bunch of pros coming in off the bike. After that, I headed out on the motorcycle to Mile 100 to see if I could catch my friends on their return trip. Was excited to see not only my friends, but so many participants happy for a face on the side of the road. Some lady pulled over, said she was stuck in the traffic for quite some time trying to get through the ride route, so she figured she might as well cheer the riders on rather than sit in her car going nowhere. Pretty cool... we got a number of drivers cheering out their windows instead of griping about traffic.

Sunday I rode part of the bike course to get in my workout, then loaded up the motorcycle, the bike and stuff, and drove home, seeing a lot of Ironman finishers along the way.

After watching these folks, I am getting pretty excited about the Ironman Kansas 70.3 on June 12. Looking forward to the trip. Time to start the packing list.

Found out today a high school girl is going to ride from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, raising awareness of Heart Disease, and will come right through our area. I hope to ride part of the trip one day or the other. I would love to be able to do that ride some day.

Finally got the new jerseys designed and ordered, but it isn't likely I will have them in time for IM Kansas... darn it.

Oh, well, I will look good doing the training.

	It's a long, hard road and it's going to have its bumps;  there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focusing on that one step you're taking.

It's a long, hard road and it's going to have bumps; there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focus on that one step you are taking.

Woohoo - the Plodding continues

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.   - Anatole France

Yeah - hard to believe it has happened, but I ran the calculation, and then ran it again... for the first time in my life, I have run a little over 4 1/2 miles with an average of LESS than 10 minutes-per-mile! Last night, I ran 4.53 in 45:00 which is a 9:55 average! I am so stoked. For some reason, the usual 5.7 - 5.8 on the treadmill seemed slow and I felt like I was trying to run off the front of the treadmill, so I cranked it up to 5.9, then 6.0 and then to 6.1 for the last 15 minutes... 

Let's just hope it wasn't a fluke (maybe the calibration on the treadmill was off?)

Shiner GASP -- first 100-mile challenge of the year

It's a long, hard road and it's going to have bumps; there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focus on that one step you are taking. -- Ryan Hall

Saturday I rode the Shiner GASP, a 100-mile Austin-to-Shiner jaunt. I had been told by my cycling teammates that in years past this ride was really windy, with a lot of chip seal, rough road. But I mentally needed to do a long ride after crashing in Galveston, and I had not done this ride before. Since it was a point-to-point ride, Friday night I drove the truck and trailer down to Shiner and parked it at the brewery – yes, they at least had planned a great finish… more on that in a bit. Rode the motorcycle back in the cooling evening air; pretty nice road trip to keep the carbs blowing in sync.
My sister MJ was willing to take me down to the start, so it was up early to get ready, and encountered police on my street dealing with some nitwits breaking into cars – good thing mine was in Shiner, so that was a good sign. Originally had the HED wheels on the tri bike, but even in the driveway already I was thinking the winds were picking up, so I put the 58s in the car… figured I would decide for sure when I get to the start.
Sure enough, pulling into the parking lot, I knew the wheel change was the right call; flags were already blowing, and I didn’t want to risk getting caught up in a group of riders and getting blown over. Got the wheels changed, helped a newbie get their tires pumped up, and met a bunch of the Team In Training folks from the Dallas/Fort Worth area… this was their local ride option for those choosing to not go to Tahoe, I was told.
Promptly at 7am, we were off and rolling. Great police support for the first 20 miles or so, and then we were pretty much in the back roads. But even the intersections in the small towns we went through were managed by the local police or the county sheriff’s office. Aid stations were placed pretty well. All of them had the giant water “monster” towers, so we had plenty of water (I heard that late in the ride some were running out of water). About mile 75 my thighs started to cramp, and I knew it was because I hadn’t been drinking enough. I stopped at the next aid station, re-filled my bottles and drank quite a bit before getting back on the bike. 10 minutes of easy spinning and changing to drinking every 5 minutes instead of every 10, and the cramps subsided. Again, the Infinit worked well all day; I am really happy with that part of the ride training.
One freaky moment - I was in a group of about 14-16 riders and in the middle of the pack on the left side, when a rider on the right side and just in front of me all of a sudden turned 90 degrees left, straight across in front of me and others. He took the guy right in front of me down, and all I could think was somebody was going to run over me from behind. Fortunately everybody saw it and reacted at the same time, scattering and braking. As the crash unfolded, a car came past us and barely missed the rider who went down. A little shaking of the nerves there.
Winds were out of the SSE about 15-20 ALL DAY, with some gusts closer to 25-30. And the last 10 miles, you turn from Moulton onto 95 straight south into Shiner – and directly into head winds. I passed a number of riders, and rode the last few miles with a struggling young lady. She did the half-ride and had not been on her bike much prior to Saturday. She had run out of water, and I felt bad because all my bottles had Infinit in them and I couldn’t offer her any not knowing how she would react to the mix.
The finish… I managed a 5hr 50min ride. I was surprised how few riders had finished before I did, but I got the bike into the trailer and went to the showers. They had 3 shower trailers lined up, so it was REALLY nice to be able to wash off all the sweat and get into some clean clothes. Grabbed a cold Coke on the way back to the truck, and then grabbed a beer on the way to the finish line to wait for some friends to finish. Yes, they had 4 different Shiner beers on tap and cold! I only drank one since I knew I had to drive home… but could have had at least one more of the 4 you were allowed, since I ended up waiting so long… but drank those ice cold Cokes (and lots more water) instead.
A meal of sauerkraut and brats was included as part of the deal, but that seemed like it would mess with your stomach after the workout on the bike, so I ate some of the coleslaw and figured I would eat something else later. But overall, the ride is very well organized, there were plenty of volunteers at all the aid stations, and the finish was pretty neat – food, beer, cold Cokes, cold water, showers, and bands playing for the entire 4 hours I was standing around waiting! You could even tour the brewery.
I think this is a great training ride for Florida - a few rollers but without any super steep hills, the winds and the terrain overall would be good prep. I may try to do this route again in early October. We'll see...

	It's a long, hard road and it's going to have its bumps;  there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focusing on that one step you're taking.

It's a long, hard road and it's going to have bumps; there are going to be times when you fall and times when you don't feel like going on anymore, times when you're just crazy tired but it takes focus on that one step you are taking.

Hey, Crash-Boy! Get back out there!

Accept challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory. -George S. Patton

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.  -Joshua J. Marine

So – it has been a couple of weeks now since the bike wreck in Galveston. All the stitches are out, the healing is taking place, and I am back in the pool and back on the bike. I admit to a bit of apprehension about getting back out on the tri bike the first time. But if not now, when, right? Anyway, I rode out Parmer Lane into the wind tunnel that it is – what better place to jump back in… actually rode in from 1431 to 620, and then out to Hwy 29, turning around, and back into the wind to the HEB parking lot. The right arm was a bit stiff and sore after a while, and I realized that going from sitting upright to the aero bars meant having to lower the left arm first, or I wouldn’t feel quite as stable. This is just opposite of what I am used to doing, I guess because my left side is the dominant one, the last to let go of the brakes when transitioning from up to aero. But once I figured that out, the ride went pretty well.

Saturday’s ride was a lap of the Pflugerville Tri course, followed by a memorial ride in downtown Austin for a cyclist killed last week in a hit-and-run accident. The tri course was naturally windy, but it was a good ride on the tri bike after the Parmer ride. I took the road bike for the memorial ride, since there would be so many people participating, many of which a) are only occasional, “casual” riders, b) don’t understand cycling etiquette, and c) don’t particularly pay attention to cyclists around them while they are jaw-jacking, I noticed.

Sunday, I ran for the first time since the crash. I ran in the Schlotzsky’s Bun Run, a 5K downtown. Not a big long race, but enough to test the body with the impact of running again. The run went okay, in that I managed to complete the run, ran without any walking, no dizziness, no pain from the running afterward. I managed a 32:10 time, so I wasn’t complaining.

Yesterday was a rest day on the calendar, but those are history since I had to sit out so long with the crash. But it was pretty chilly and windy out, so I went to the gym – rode the bike for 15 minutes, ran for 10:29, and swam for about 45-50 minutes. The swim is really helping me work the right shoulder and get the freedom of movement back into the arm. I went for 1800 yards with the pull buoy, and will again Wednesday, I think.

Things are starting to come together pretty well with the “Shave The Dome For The Cure” event. I got a number of vendors to provide door prizes, and am hoping to get the food and drinks donated as well. Looks like Coach Jeff will be doing the shaving by proxy from Patsy’s husband Bruce.

Anyway, onward with the training…