You Versus - a non racer perspective of IMLP

Last weekend I was up in Lake Placid cheering on a bunch of friends who were racing IMLP.  Everyone I know had a great day so congrats are in order. It was a great weekend and got me thinking about a lot of things. First, some back story.

I know Mel, the IMLP security volunteer captain. I think she is a saint and has been doing this thankless job for years. I had helped out in past Ironman races and the week before the race Mel and I showed up for the same group ride with TNT. Most people sign up to be ironman volunteers well in advance because they are looking for the golden ticket or fast track to register to race for the following year. In contrast, I am a pure volunteer as I have no desire to cash in that golden ticket and ever sign up for IMLP.  I have volunteered with Mel in the past so I knew what I'd be in for and I am thankful for when people volunteer in the races that I do race. I mentioned to her that my daughter wanted to come up and we might be able to help out. Mel told me the logistics and I told her I'd let her know either way.

My daughter and I left home on Thursday night as we had college tours scheduled for Friday. After work, I put the bikes on the back of the car and we drove 5 hours to get to Hanover, NH. We got there late, unpacked the car, and slept in at the local Comfort Inn. The next day after the tour, we put Lake Placid in the GPS and confirmed that the route was mostly 2 lane back roads. Off we went.

In the middle of Vermont near Killington, an engine light went on. Our car is 9 months old with just about 15k miles on it. This should not happen. The warning messages were to keep the car under 4000rpm and find a dealer ASAP. One of the challenges of being in the middle of nowhere is the lack of internet. We ultimately found an Audi dealer in Rutland, VT about 20 minutes ahead and pulled in there about 4:45PM. They said they could take a look.

The said the computer was erroring on the lane warning system. This system is designed so that when the driver starts weaving out of the lane like if sleepy, an alarm should sound. They conjectured that the bike rack was confusing it, reset the code, recommended to ignore it should it happen again but ultimately mention it to our home dealer. An hour later and no charge we were back on the road.

Of course it alarmed again about 20 minutes later. We ignored it but we couldn't ignore that we were getting hungry. Unfortunately, the little podunk towns that were were passing through had no restaurants. When a town is proud of a population of 266 the likelihood of a good place to eat, besides a campground, is slim. We surmised that the closest point of civilization was Placid itself so we short cutted over to the Tail o' the Pup for some serious barbecue.

Tail o' the Pup has been there since perhaps the beginning of civilization. It is a stop on the side of the road with good food, a band playing and picnic tables to eat on. We ordered and my daughter stepped away to go to the ladies room and I didn't realize that this removed the counterweight to me sitting on the other side of the table. When I picked up my beer and leaned back to take a sip, the table went over! I found myself on my back, the table on me, but most of the beer saved. Thankfully we didn't have our dinner served yet. They helped me up and mentioned that this happened all the time. I had road rash on my elbow from dinner! Oh, goody.

There is a new Hampton Inn in Lake Placid where I made a reservation. It was only open two weeks but they didn't require the typical 5 day minimum. It was expensive but had a great location on the run and bike course and overlooked the swim start. We were meeting some of the boys for a shake down ride at 730 so called it an early night.

We did the casual ride with them. Their nerves were sharpening so we told them ass down/feet up and headed back to our hotel. One of the iconic parts of the IMLP bike course are the 3 bears. The bears are small stinger hills near the end of the loop. My daughter wanted to ride the bears (she never had before) so we extended our ride by biking the run course and then short cutting up and over the bears. She liked that someone marked the road with "mama bear," "baby bear" and "papa bear" and  commented that the bears themselves weren't that bad and she had ridden worse hills herself. I explained the magic word of context of these coming about 108 miles in. As an endurance athlete herself, she got it.

We went to the volunteer meeting and Mel asked us to help out at Swim Security starting at 530AM. This is what I wanted as it would get us to places where the general public couldn't go (like right next to the water). We were keeping people out of the way of the races. I caught some coming down the chute but missed many too. We ran around all day. We were out at the bears, we were in town, we were at some of the hills on the run. This spectating thing is tiring. We went to the finish line and saw some of my friends finish. The last of my friends went by the 24 mile mark walking about 10:15. They were hurting but we knew that they would finish. We left to join my wife and other daughter who were at a resort about a 3 hour drive away. We got there a little after 2AM.

My coach wasn't at Placid this year but I offered to be his eyes and ears for some of his athletes. We were talking a lot (when the really poor cell phone coverage permitted it). During one of the talks he asked if this was helping inspire me to get back at it. I didn't answer then.

The weather turned cold near the end of the race so I put on my IMFL finisher jacket. Lots of people I know and train with were saying that they are scheduling racing IMLP in 2015. This course is completely the wrong race for me and luckily I know it. No signing up for 2014 for me.

What did get me thinking was that along the run course someone put up a bunch of small signs. They said things like "You vs. last year" or "You vs. Statistics" and thinks like that. One of them said "You vs. next year" and that did impact me. My mantra when I raced IMFL was "You vs. You." I kept saying that all through the end of my training. I realized that I could start with my coach but if I didn't follow his plan and advice, I would just be throwing money away and getting more frustrated.

I also realized that I am in no shape to attempt an ironman in 2014. I need to lose too much weight for that to be even possible. I'm still seeing doctors to make sure there is nothing physically wrong with me but am going to start training with the goal of getting my body composition under control (Note that Lake Placid on Iron Weekend is NOT the place to go if you have body composition concerns - everyone there that weekend does). This is all "Me vs. Me" I don't need an Ironman to validate myself - I've done that already. But I do want to put myself into a position to choose to do it or not. I don't have that choice now but do what it takes to have that choice in the futures.

Thanks for reading.

Clothing Cleanse

Most of the morning I spent going through each of my drawers and trying on all the clothes to make sure they fit. I was sorting them into 3 "groupings:" 1) stuff that fit (depressing since it was so little due to my fatness) ; 2) stuff that should go to charity; and finally 3) clothes that had a connection but do not fit anymore. The frightening point is that even though I have 4 bags of clothes designated for charity I still have plenty of clothes to wear.

I have yet attack the closet but that's on the plan. I also have the garage to attack but that has a real deadline as our garage door recently broke. The estimate to fix it is about the same to replace it. It is almost 20 years old so I think we got our money out of it. The downside is that they said we need to move all my bicycle stuff so that they can do the replacement. I think I may have more bicycle stuff than every day clothes, even after the cleanse.

This reminds me of the saying regarding spin class denizens. When you see them in real life the thought comes to mind of "I don't recognize you with your clothes on." You know what that means but it when said out loud it can mean something unintended to many.

Do you have too many clothes? How often do you cleanse?

The weekend in review

After my whining post from the the other day (link omitted on purpose), here's what actually happened at Lake Placid in Fireman Ironman:

• I wanted to swim on Friday night in Mirror Lake and I did. I brought all 3 of my wetsuits hoping one would fit. I was fairly sure my sleeveless would fit as I bought it when I was first getting into triathlons (read when I was fat) but I first tried on my sleeved wetsuit because the water was rumored to be in the high 60s. IT FIT! Hurray for minor miracles. A bunch of LITC/TRE folks and Mandy from the Internet jumped into the lake and we were off. I swam a total of about 25 minutes and declared success even though I crashed into a stranger in the middle of the lake (that always seems to happen to me). I had some aches in my shoulder/pec/ribs that I was hoping not to have so I need see a doctor after I figure out what kind of doctor to see.
• The next morning was to be the long ride. Most of the people who were dry-running IMLP were in for two laps. I originally hoped for one lap but struggled with my fitness from the get go. I decided to bail early, invented a very short cut, climbed the bears, and went to take a nap. All in about a 90 minute ride but I declared it a FAIL. I had lots of aches and no power nor fitness. No training with less hills will do that to you.
• Instead of eating a rubber chicken at the Fireman Ironman talk my friends convinced me to join them for a steak. We saw the 32oz Prime Rib called the Algonquin that was calling our names. I ordered one and didn't finish it. This steak was about 3" think! Call it a push.
• Sunday morning I was up early and although it wasn't raining it was very wet outside. I decided to run instead of ride through the puddles. One lap around Mirror Lake according to the Couch Potato was perfect to end the workout portion of the day. WIN.

Then I packed my stuff, ate some breakfast and hit the road back to civilization. Traffic cooperated but overall I hoped for more this weekend. The good news is that I came up with a plan. Stay tuned as the plan will be revealed over the next few weeks as I execute the steps.

I don't know a f****n' thing.

On my way up to Lake Placid today I was alone in the car driving for about 6 hours. Although there were periods of singing along (in key, of course) to the songs on the radio and that singing was loud, it did give me time to thing without a lot of distractions. The net of this soul searching was the title of this blog entry.

But Rock Star, you know stuff. Most of it is useless but there is a gem often hidden in the muck, right? You've done all sorts of events, coached people in endurance sports, got certifications and licenses, have hundreds of people working for you in real life, you have patents, you even worked on the Space Shuttle back in the day you real life rocket scientist. You must know some thing even if it is simply how to wipe your own ass.

If I knew anything why would I have gone up to Placid without being properly trained? Because I rationalized it. I convinced myself that I knew something and there are exceptions to the rule and because I did it before I should be able to do it again and, and, and, (you get the picture).

In summary, I've been listened to the voice in my head. That voice, I determined during my drive, knows nothing. It doesn't know when things are going good or when things are going bad. It keeps telling me not to train because there is plenty of time to make the training up but there isn't. When something hurts it convinces me to shut it down so I don't get injured rather than having confidence to tough it out. It rationalizes the amount of food that I eat and tells me that in spite of all evidence to the contrary I'll be about to lose a gazillion pounds almost instantaneously. All wrong.

So, what to do?

I'm here in Placid looking at Mirror Lake. I've brought all my stuff even though I doubt my wetsuit will fit. The bipolar voice in my head keeps telling me that I will amazingly gain all the fitness necessary to be amazing but then it changes its tune rather quickly and rather often. The new tune is a variation on a requiem.

I originally went into this weekend with the plan of swimming a lap (1.2 miles), biking at least a lap 56 miles on Saturday and see if Sunday mixes in a run or a swim or another shorter bike ride before the drive home. My new plan is that I'm going to try a bunch of stuff and see how it goes.

What that stuff winds up being will determine if I should listen to myself or perhaps revalidate the need for a coach to be that voice. Either way, the weekend will have value.

Smarticles

There are times where I feel I am smarter than most. There is a cause for this and a cure for this. The cause, besides ego, for me is often when I find myself surrounded by idiots. My cure is to surround myself with people who are, ahem, actually smart. The crux of this problem is figuring out who is actually smart when everyone is an idiot. Everyone.

I used to consider myself really smart. Not valedictorian smart like my wife was before I met her but more of the lazy flavor of smart. I got decent grades in school without much effort. I was able to be successful in technology stuff not by working so hard but by it just making sense to me. I was reminded that I still am fairly smart in that area as I gave a talk yesterday where the audience (yes there was an audience) lined up after my talk to continue the conversation and actually pay attention to my ramblings. In other parts of my life, though, I feel I'm more of the lazy flavor of dumb than the lazy flavor of smart. Lazy comes from the training that I should be doing but am not. Why not? Dumb not.

I'm not training like I should be and I think a cure for that would be to surround myself with people who are training like I should be. The catch, not 22 but there is always one, is that most people do not train like I do. I'm slower than most. I'm definitely fatter than most. But I can do what I can do.

Next weekend I've setup the whole weekend of training already in Placid. This weekend, with the seemingly monsoon like rains we've been experiencing, I'm planning on riding Saturday and some sort of run on Sunday. (I am breaking a cardinal rule of blogging here by talking about what I am going to do versus what I have done but I'm already on the dumb way to hell so what's the risk?)  Any smart people want to join me?

Indications of training.

Tonight I swam. Like in a pool and everything. It wasn't a long swim, only 30 minutes and about 1000 yards, but it was a swim and I'm hoping this could be the beginning of a "thing."

Earlier today I decided to go to the Fireman Ironman training camp in Lake Placid in just a few weeks. I'm expecting that I'll be able to swim a loop of the IMLP course on that Friday, bike a loop and perhaps a little more on Saturday, and finish up with weekend with a short run on Sunday after I swim another loop in Mirror Lake.

I think I learned my lesson last weekend. I won't be able to swim 1.2 miles without some swimming beforehand. So, why not try some actual training? There still could be issues with fitting into the wetsuit but that's a worry for another day.

I also ate healthy-ish today and wrote down everything I ate. If I keep this up a little more it might mean that I really am training.

Stay tuned.

The Ride to Montauk (in bullets)

• I haven't done a lot of training this year
• The last I was on a bike was 3 weeks ago.
• Longest ride this year has been 50 miles. 
• Somehow I didn't think this would be an issue.
• This ride had 73 and 109 mile choices.
• I chose 109. Should have chosen 73.
• Summer decided to start this week with temps breaking 90 on Thursday and Friday.
• Saturday was supposed to be not as hot.
• Woke up without a cloud in the sky.
• Up at 5am to met the TNT LI cycle group for a 6am departure. 
• In typical TNT timing, actually left at 7:15.
• Serious cross wind and sun beating down. Getting hot early.
• Realized I missed some key spots with sun tan lotion.
• First 30 miles was great. Rest of the ride less so.
• Didn't have any endurance (surprise!) but kept going.
• Lots of aches and pains since I wasn't used to being in the saddle this long.
• At the 3rd rest stop (76 mikes) decided to get in a SAGmobile to the end rather than slog it in. Could have finished with a high physical cost.
• Still think this was a wise choice.
• Waiting too long for the stragglers so got on the bike and rode the last 6+ miles.
• All in, 82 miles.
• Fairly happy with the 82.
• Realized, though, I have to actually train. Can't wing it any more.
• Had only one free beer at the end.
• Enjoyed scamming a way to ship my bike back to civilization.
• Not feeling so bad today (the day after).
• Looking for more rides to do better.
• Think I'll do the FiremanIronman training camp. One issue is that I'm swimming less than riding.
• There is an obvious solution to that. Just need to do it.

Quote of the Day.

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me." -Lee Greenwood

The trash can incident.

One of my garbage cans broke. I found it split down the side. I am blaming it on raccoons since I think they try to knock the cans over and hop on them to get to the feast (at least from a raccoon perspective) inside. The net of this incident was that I needed to buy a new can.

I didn't think that buying a can would be an issue but was more concerned with how to throw out a garbage can. People were recommending to leave a note on it, to put it in the back of the car and find a dumpster to dump it in or to just tip our garbage men to take it away. The problem is that we are the first stop for our garbage men in the morning and that means that they often are at our house before 5am so talking to them (or tipping them) would be a challenge. Our garbage men are good and take almost everything in the almost 20 years we've lived in this house.

While thinking of my approach on broken can disposal, I went to the local Lowe's where they had quite a selection of new cans. I chose a nice wheeled can that had a rather solid cover (to frustrate those pesky critters to the point where they'll go somewhere else for midnight snacks). I got two of the larger cans to minimize the schlepping. I've had an issue in the past where we've "lost" the top of the cans so I got some spray paint and painted our address on the cans.

The other morning I needed to go to work early so was leaving the house about quarter to five and heard the garbage truck. I grabbed the broken can and walked down to the street to give it to them. I said good morning and they said that there was a problem with the new cans. They were too big per the guys. They said that the town passed a law a while back that said the maximum size can be 32 gallons. Our old cans were bigger than that but they said they were grandfathered in so they kept taking the garbage. They said that they wouldn't take the garbage in the new 45 gallon cans. I mentioned that facts like this would have been nice to know BEFORE I brought new cans and asked why would the store sell cans that couldn't be used? They, of course, couldn't answer that. They did take the broken can.

I mentioned before that these guys have been great over the years. I checked the town code and it does say 32 gallons or 50 lbs. max. I can't return the cans because my address is spray painted in them. I can understand the rationale if some people loaded up these cans to the brim they could be extremely heavy and that isn't really fair to the guys who have to lift them.  I'm not blaming the guys. I'm blaming mysef a little but I'm more upset at the store for not simply putting a sign up with the regulations.

Now I have 2 new cans that I can't use, have to buy 2 new ones and do this all again. $80 down the drain. An expensive lesson. I'm sure I won't be the only one learning this lesson though.

Do you throw out new unusable garbage cans?

Not doing and doing stuff.

I took off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from work this week. I did not go away. I did not have a race-cation. I did not go looking at colleges for my daughter. I took off simply to help improve my mindset. I tried to avoid work as much as possible and I set some lofty goals to sleep in, do as much or as little as I felt, and to think about my personal goals for this year and beyond related to weight loss plans and racing. I think I met those goals. Of course, every time I put on the TV it appeared that "Office Space" was on and that kept me thinking of work.

The good news about this effort is that I came to some conclusions. Most of the conclusions have to do with desire and focus. I can still have a successful year but I need to prioritize and get to work. I've decided not to cancel on IMAZ. I have a couple of other training events that will act as checkpoints to see if I'm progressing. I remembered that this stuff should be fun. We get to do it - we don't have to.

I've decided to start the C25K as "Couch" is a good description of my running fitness at this time. My fitness level will change. It will improve. I still have the chance to do great stuff or at least damn good.

Stay tuned.