Don't Sweat The Small Stuff

"The most important things in life aren't things."

On Saturday, the 23^rd of June, we had Amanda’s and Matt’s wedding shower down here in Austin. Amanda wanted to give the Austin-area friends and family an opportunity to meet Matt, with full expectation that most of them will not make the drive to Frisco for the wedding. Her friend Bess, Bess’ mother Jean, and a friend of Jean’s – Emily, hosted the event. It was a nice brunch, and although there were some folks missing, it was still a decent turnout.

I was a little sore last week, which I think was a combination of the handlebars on my tri bike being set in too close and soreness from the motorcycle incident coming into play. Given my medical history, I went in to the doctor just to make sure the tightness in my leg was just from getting banged as I came off the bike. Dr. O said it was okay; no heat or swelling at the sore spot, though there is a small knot at just below the knee…just some soreness that he says will probably take 4-6 weeks to diminish. He did tell me to wrap it and use some heat when I can sit for a while. I am okay with that.

This coming weekend is the Iron Brothers Sprint Tri up near Dallas. I wanted to go up and check out the hotels for the wedding and possibly drive the bike route planned for that Saturday morning, so I figured I may as well see if there was a race going on nearby – pretty convenient!

On that same line of thinking, I decided to look for a jersey appropriate for the day, for the Saturday ride. I went looking at the websites of the jerseys printers, but could not find anything that both caught my eye and was available. Oddly enough, I decided to look on eBay, and lo and behold – I found something that works, and I got it pretty cheap! I am going to print “Father   Of The Bride” on a black placard and attach it to the back.

I got to thinking about the whole IronHeart thing, and the documentary. I decided I wanted something to keep my thoughts about the loss of Scott on an even keel, so I ordered one of the TeamBlaze running shirts. Pretty cool, huh? I hope I don’t embarrass them too badly when I am seen wearing this in public…

On another front, I received an email from the gift-giving manager at Dell. David’s donation to the DILIMS non-profit has been processed, so between David and Selene, we will get over $1000 in matching from Dell. Pretty cool!

Speaking of the non-profit, I hope to finalize a logo design this week, so we can look at getting some jerseys and running shirts put together.  I also registered DILIMS.org as another website URL, and auto-forwarded it to the original website – it fits a LOT better on the back of a shirt than the whole name of our non-profit!

Training continues…have I mentioned lately how much I “love” running?

Testing, testing, 1,2,1,2...

June 25, 2012

Today is my annual stress test – FINALLY! Because of insurance policies and the new relationship my cardiologist has with the hospital, what used to be a one-time visit, complete with doctor consult, test, and review of the results, has turned into a 3-visit ordeal. All this is a result of distorted reimbursement practices with insurance companies. Here is the problem…

When the stress testing was done in Dr. V’s office, he was allowed to bill $305 for a $300 test, and given his staffing, equipment and no-show costs, a losing proposition. The hospital on the other hand can bill for 10 times that amount. To their credit, Dr. V’s group went through a long and hard decision process, knowing the impact it would have on us patients. Now, you are not allowed to see the doctor to get the orders written for the test, and have the test on the same day. Nor will the doctor see the test results the same day it is completed. And THAT scares me – my triple bypass need was identified during my test in 2008, Dr. V. immediately pulled me off a bike ride I was supposed to do that afternoon, and two days later, I was in the hospital. This time, I am roughly two weeks away from the 4-year anniversary of my triple bypass surgery, which was 4 years after my heart attack. So you see where my mind is going…

Just to be able to stay in business, over 80% of the Austin-area docs are now affiliated with the hospitals in town. But this could turn into a patient’s nightmare. While I know my docs are a very passionate group when it comes to patient care, I don’t expect to see that same level of concern from the medical behemoths.

Back to the timeline…

not being an emergency, from calling to request the test to seeing Dr. V.   5 days;

seeing Dr. V to getting a call back from the test registration clerk                 7 days;

test registration to test date                                                                                     5 days;

test to Doctor’s review                                                                                                ?

…yeah, not so good. We’ll see…

Into the Summer Heat…

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.  - Shel Silverstein

So the month of June brings a number of activities into my life that I have never done before -completing a trail run; hosting a wedding shower – and some things I will repeat – kayaking the Danskin women’s triathlon, riding the Atlas 4000 ride and completing the Pflugerville Triathlon.

This was the 3^rd year in a row that I have kayaked the swim for the Danskin Tri. I enjoy the opportunity to get out on the water when I can, and this was a chance to give back a bit. There are a lot of first-time triathletes doing this race, so I feel like I owe somebody for being there as volunteers for my races. After the last swimmer is out of the water we usually have to hang around a bit before they will let us drive out, because all the bikes are out on the road course, so I went up to the finish line to cheer for a bit. I listened to the interview with the pro who had won the race, and then wandered back to my truck.

This is also the 3^rd time I have ridden the Atlas 4000 ride, but this time it had a little twist. With the 121212 challenge, Kristi MH and I decided we would turn the 70-mile route into our June century. We both rode from our houses to the start line, and then in the middle of the ride route we added an additional loop to get us over the 100-mile mark. It was a bit windy this time around, but we got it done. I was also very happy that none of the aid stations along the route ran out of ice. It was very refreshing to be able to actually drink something cool throughout the ride.

One of the volunteers at our Tri Camp in April suggested doing a trail run. He was originally going to sign up for this Rogue Running Ranch run, which took place at a big trail run/mountain biking ranch in Burnet, so a number of us signed up as well. I signed up for the 10K and dragged out the old road shoes. This was a very interesting experience – running/walking on huge slabs of rock, through the trees, crossing small creeks which were running down the rocks, climbing down some drops – definitely different from the usual running in my life! But it was fun, and given the right pair of shoes, I may be inclined to do another one after IMAZ.

Seems to be a month of 3s - on Father’s Day, as I have done for the previous two years, I participated in the Pflugerville Triathlon. This time, however, was preceded by a minor motorcycle accident the day before. No broken bones, no major blood loss or anything like that. It was a very slow (2-3 miles an hour) turn across very soft tar (because of the 100-degree weather) and I basically just slid off the bike as it spun around. So I was pretty much just sore in general. Given that, I didn’t expect much in the way of my finish in the tri. But I managed an improved finish time for the 2^nd consecutive time, going from a 1:43 in 2010, to a 1:41 in 2011, to a 1:37:22 finish this time around. The swim and the run were slow as usual, but I had a good time on the bike, with a 19.8mph average. And this year, I felt better coming off the bike, in that the hips did not feel like they wanted to lock up on me right off the bat.

The annual stress test is this week too; hopefully, no surprises there. I REALLY don’t want to mess up the IMAZ plans.

This coming weekend, we will be having the Austin shower for Amanda and Matt. Since they are getting married in Frisco, north of Dallas, I don’t expect many of the Austin friends will make that drive, so we wanted to be able to share this exciting event in Amanda’s life with the folks here. Beer and mimosas… I am just saying.

Okay, back to the regular training schedule.

Memorial Day Weekend, and then some!

"The most important things in life aren't things."

Busy 3-day weekend, with training wrapped around real life… Friday pm was a long run on the treadmill after work; Saturday was a 2-hour bike ride with more-of-the-usual Texas winds; Sunday was another 1-hour run outside, followed by a motorcycle trip to Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio to visit my dad’s grave, and ended up talking to a few military veterans also visiting their lost loved ones –hard to believe it has been almost 50 years since I lost my father; and Monday was a short run after 4 hours of kayaking the swim portion of the CapTex Tri. - truly an awesome experience to watch and support the challenged athletes taking part in the paratriathlete championships.

Next weekend, the June century ride is Saturday. I am riding the Atlas 4000 for the third year in a row. While the Atlas is actually only 70 miles, my plan is to ride to the start, which is about 20 miles or so from the house, and then finish whatever is left once we get to the winery - yes, we finish the ride at Pillar Bluff Vineyard!

Sunday, I am kayaking a race again, this time the Danskin women's triathlon - come to think of it, I will be doing this for the third consecutive time as well. Another opportunity to give back.

Training for IMAZ continues. Yesterday was a one-hour run in the heat followed by a swim at the pool. I hit a wall about 43 minutes into the run, and the heat got to me. I don't think I recovered from the run very much before the swim, so it got shortened to 1500 meters from the 2500 originally planned. Oh well, it is what it is!

Training, Volunteering, More Training, Charity…

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. – Muhammad Ali

We are now about 4 weeks into the Ironman Arizona training. A lot of pool swims, a few at the lake, more miles on the bike, and the usual slow plodding through the run, but I am happy to be back in the swing of training. Makes for longer days, but I still enjoy it all.

I volunteered as a bike course marshal on the motorcycle for the Ironman Texas event last weekend. I had some friends racing, and I figured as long as I was down there, I may as well volunteer. I went down Friday after lunch, and once I checked into the hotel, I got the motorcycle off the trailer and drove the bike course so I would know what to expect Saturday morning. I kept thinking “this is not a bad bike course” the whole time I was out there.

I learned a lot from the race officials – and how much of a variance there is from one official to another.  I was able to ride alongside some pros for a while, and later many of the age-groupers.  There were a lot of participants dropping out of the race during the bike portion, because it got hot and windy. The headwinds they faced were on the second half, in-bound part of the ride, and it had indeed started to get hot. I pretty much decided that if I was ever going to do this event, they would have to schedule it in much cooler weather! Speaking of that, we found out that while volunteers normally can register for the next year’s event the morning after the race, the Ironman folks have delayed opening registration because they supposedly have not obtained the permits and such – a number of us were talking, and we think it is more likely because some of the political supporters of the race were up for re-election, and until that was determined Ironman might not get approval – and maybe they ARE trying to change the date of the race. I am guessing a lot of the volunteers who had made the trip specifically so they could register Sunday morning were quite frustrated.

My friend Kristi completed IMTX, her first Ironman! Definitely something to be proud of! A couple of the athletes and volunteers from our Team Red, White and Blue tri camp in Austin also were racing, and I saw in the results that they also finished, with great finish times. So congrats to all the finishers!

Other news – on Thursday before I left for the race, I received the letter from IRS approving Do It Like It Means Something as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charity! So we can now accept tax-deductible donations! Very exciting for me – another big step in my support of the fight against cardiac disease.

June 2nd, I will be riding the ATLAS ride, the first leg of the Texas 4000. We will finish the 70-miler at Pillar Bluff winery, which is a great way to end a long ride. I am also riding from the house to the start so I can make this my century for June.

On the 3rd, I am volunteering as a kayaker for the Danskin women's tri. It is always good to give back when you can.

Father's Day I will be doing the Pflugerville Tri for the 3rd year in a row. Sprint distance so it will be fun on the bike.

Onward - rubber side down...

HITS Olympic

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.-- Mark Victor Hansen

On April 28^th, I participated in the HITS Olympic Triathlon in Marble Falls. My original plan for that day was to ride the Red Poppy century with Carl, since I couldn’t be there in Tahoe for his 5-year remission ride. But that ride fell through when Carl got scheduled to work. Bummer – so then it was a choice between the Marble Falls race and the No Label Tri in Katy. I just couldn’t bring myself to wanting to drive all that way for a sprint in a pool, so I looked at the Marble Falls race.

HITS is a new race organization that has scheduled a number of sites across the country. Their concept includes scheduling sprint and Olympic distance races on Saturday, and the half-iron and full-iron distances on Sunday, at each site. I opted for the Olympic distance this time around. My only other Olympic-distance tri was in Waco last year and that was no fun, so I thought I would have another go at it.

I drove up to Marble Falls Friday night after work to pick up my race packet, check out the race site and hear what they had to say at the athletes’ meeting. Turned out to be a good decision, since they told us the swim course had changed from a straight out-and-back swim to a two-loop triangle (pretty evident once I got there, since the buoys were already set out) and the run course had been moved, since USAT doesn’t allow courses to cross. And the Age Group start had been pushed back to 7:40 for the Olympic men. Oh well, it is what it is. Interesting note, though: I had never seen stools included in transition, nor had I seen the box-type bike racks rather than the usual pipe-bar racks. And my spot was at the very end of transition – but what you don’t see in the pic is that the bike out/in was just to the left of my stool! No running with the bike this time!

Saturday morning I was up at 3:30. I had packed most of my stuff in the truck after I got home Friday night, so there was not a lot left to do. Mixed my Infinit, grabbed the PB bagel and water, and off for the 45-minute drive. I got there a little after transition had opened but there was not yet a crowd. Got my bike checked in, transition laid out, and went back to the truck for a nap.

We watched the Sprint swim. For the Saturday races, there were one men’s wave and one women’s wave 3 minutes later for each of the sprint and Olympic. We were a couple minutes late starting, waiting on the last of the sprint swimmers to finish. In-water start, and we were off!  I was glad I had decided to swim in the sleeveless wetsuit, because the water temps would have made the sleeved suit a bit hot. Almost exactly 38 minutes later, I was crossing the mat coming into transition; ran the length of transition in the wetsuit, on the stool to peel, and into the bike shoes. T1 time was decent – 4 minutes.

Out of transition to the bike – you had to be careful here, because there was a bit of gravel at the first turn, and it was a bit crowded with the first sprint riders coming in. There was a short section of road under repair, which the race director had said would be hard-packed, but the construction crew was out there and had wet the road base so it was slick in places. Fortunately I did not see anybody go down on it. The course was 14 miles out and 14 back on the same route. The first half went pretty well, but there wasn’t a flat spot in the ride. I realized I probably should not have even bothered to put the race wheels on, since there was so much up and down, curves in the road, and speed changes. I don’t think I gained anything with that choice – in fact, I realized at the turnaround I had made a mistake because I spent the ride back just trying to stay upright with all the winds! I would get gusts hitting the wheels from the side, and you could feel the push to one side. Whenever I was passing somebody on the way back in, I made it a point to be in the left half of the road, rather than anywhere near the other rider – I didn’t want to risk getting blown into them!  1:32:46 on the bike; 2:21 in T2

So I felt pretty beat up getting off the bike. About that time, it started getting pretty hot. So I knew from the outset the “run” would be ugly. The run course had been changed to be the same first 3.1 miles of the bike course, and back – which, again, was not flat! I did a lot of walking, and I knew that I had not hydrated very well on the second half of the bike (I didn’t want to risk taking my hands off the bars!), so I carried one of my bottles with me on the run. that turned out to be the right thing to do, because there were only 2 aid stations on the run, and they ran out of ice and water on the second one. I couldn’t stomach the Gatorade at the strength they were mixing it, so I drank my Infinit and got water when I could. Suffice it to say, I was happy to be done with it! 1:30:32

3:47:40 total

Not my best performance on the course, but I was approached by a number of folks at the finish line, inquiring about my jersey. I explained my story, and was humbled by a number of those sharing their stories with me. I met Paul, who is a few years older than me…he is doing 2, and maybe 3, Ironman events this year! He has lost one kidney, has had colon cancer and continues to fight some medical issues – if there ever was a poster boy for determination, this is the man! He did tell me he was racing Ironman Texas, so I hope I get to see him since I will be there.

Maybe the best part of this day was the crayfish boil at my favorite vineyard, Perisso’s out by Inks Lake. I first met these folks when a number of us did a wine tour which included Perisso’s as our first stop. We ended up talking to the owners for a bit, as it turned out the two guys were getting into triathlon. Extremely nice people – and great wine! I also had stopped out there for a glass of wine when I was out on the motorcycle checking out the wildflowers this spring. Seth, one of the guys, actually did HITS sprint that morning. I had a blast that evening, and even noticed that the malbec grapes were doing fantastically well, so I will be looking forward to that come early next year.

Not a bad way to end a race day, huh?

Ironman LoneStar 70.3

It has been a fun time since my last post. One Saturday I rode the Rosedale Ride, a 42-mile ride which was supplemented by the 15 miles to the ride start, and followed by another 45 miles to get my March century completed for the 121212 Challenge. It was a foggy and misty morning, and I spent a bit of time wiping the mist off the front of my helmet camera.

The following day I ran the Capitol 10K, and had the opportunity to have a conversation with a weight-challenged man who also has cardiac issues. His doctor had told him he must lose weight, and this run was one step in the process, so to speak. He is an inspiring individual, committed to having a future with his family. I was happy to share my story with him.

That is an ongoing occurrence… whenever I wear my Cardiac Iron jerseys, I often receive a number of comments from those runners passing me by – and there are a lot of them. Whether it is just a run or a triathlon, I have received many comments such as “I like your jersey…very thought-provoking”; “You are right, we are ALL designed by God”; “Very inspirational, man; keep it up.” It is true, I believe, that when you are passionate about a belief or cause, people see that and many times acknowledge the impact on THEIR life. It seems to raise the awareness a notch or two, and that is the intent.

Anyway… last weekend, I completed the Ironman Lone Star 70.3 in Galveston. If you have read past posts, you probably know that this is the race I did last year where I had the bike crash, and was not able to finish. Well, I admit I was a bit apprehensive going into it from the start. The swim was about the same as it was 2 years ago, right at 50 minutes, and I felt okay getting out of the water after swallowing quite a bit of salt water as a result of getting kicked in the head 5 or 6 times. I felt bad about one guy, though…he kept swimming back and forth in front of me, and I swam on top of him once. Oh, well.

The bike portion was what really tensed me up, for obvious reasons. I took way too long getting out of transition, because I was trying to find my chamois butter someone apparently had borrowed or kicked, and once on the bike and out on Seawall, you could tell we had a bit of a headwind. It really sucked briefly, though, because I flatted at mile 12. Fortunately it was the front wheel so it didn’t take awfully long to fix, and the staple I had picked up in the tire was easy to find – a good thing since I don’t ride with reading glasses in my pocket. Back on the bike, I passed a few riders and got passed by a number of younger ones. Once I reached the San Luis Pass Bridge, the south end of which is where I had the wreck, I was probably being overcautious. I actually wanted to see if I could figure out what might have happened last year. Judging by what I saw, it was mostly likely one of the very many small potholes immediately at the end of the bridge that I hit, because there really weren’t any grooves in the road like I thought there might have been. And I know that was where the wreck happened, because when I came out of the blackout last year, I saw my bike leaning against the wall of the bridge. Needless to say, I breathed a very deep sigh of relief getting off that end of the bridge still on my bike this time. It was kind of odd though, because there actually was an ambulance sitting there when I went by this time.

The return half on the bike was a little faster, and the whole ride basically uneventful. I did see the pros on their return leg, with Lance Armstrong out front by about 10 seconds when I counted, and I saw Kelly Williamson was in the lead of the women, judging by the cameras on her.

Once I got back to transition, I didn’t really care how long it took me…I had made it through the bike unscathed, and was ready for a long, slow, very hot run. They changed the run course to 3 loops instead of 4 and the route went out onto the airport tarmac this time. I stopped at the transition exit to let the volunteers lather me up with sunscreen. Then it was off to the slow plodding elephant routine. I made it through the first lap after realizing how windy it had been out on the tarmac. On the second lap I came up on a man who is in my age group, moving pretty slowly. I slowed to ask him if he was okay, and figured that was a good a time as any to do my walk portion… yeah, my runs are not as well-structured as they should be. While it is the portion where I could most improve, it is also the part I care about least. Podiums will never be in my future, so what the heck. We talked his story and mine, and then I trotted off while he waited for his son to catch him so they could finish together.

It felt good to finally finish that third lap. I crossed the finish line and grabbed two bottles of water from the tub, draining the first before they even got the timing chip off my ankle. By the time I finish a run, there usually isn’t much food left in the athlete’s tent, so I didn’t even stop to check…I didn’t want pizza anyway. Back to the condo to shower and load up all my stuff, and then headed home.

Now it is time to focus on the Austin Tri Camp for TeamRWB. A lot of last minute details to make sure we don’t miss anything. It should be an exciting 3 days – Thursday dinner, Friday and Saturday training, Saturday Roundtable with the athletes, coaches and pros, and a morning run Sunday. We have 16 athletes coming in, and I get to see Jessica Jacobs again, as well as meet a few others. Fun stuff!