Ohio Turnpike

We said goodbye at Grandma's this morning, after a really nice visit with her, finishing up with breakfast this morning. I think the girls enjoyed it. They got to see a couple fresh inches of snow on the ground, which they probably don't remember from last winter, so it was a new adventure!

Halfway through the day when we arrived at a rest stop Catherine asked about Grandma - as if she thought we'd see her again at the stop, not quite grasping these difficult concepts like time and distance quite yet.

Now we're out of the snow, fortunately. We're parked for the night somewhere around mile marker 193 on the Ohio Turnpike between Akron and Youngstown. I'm camped at the RV parking area in the turnpike rest stop, plugged in, with plenty of heat (good thing - it's 23*F now, going down to 17*F), propane, and wifi service! Yay! All the comforts of home, though with slightly more highway noise! I have to hand it to the Ohio Turnpike Commission - they've done a great job with their rest stops!

We just went in to the food court and had our Happy Meals and now we're so happy with our toddler toys we can hardly stand it. :-) I've also bribed the girls with a huge bag of their toys and stuffed animals and books on the floor next to me that I'm hoping they will give me a couple minutes on the computer to catch up on my email. If they will just play nicely for a few minutes.... life is good!!

I've got about 350 miles to go on the road over two days, so it should be a fairly easy trip - probably 200-250 tomorrow into western Maryland (or maybe I should check the weather reports before I decide?), then the remainder on Saturday along with the chore of emptying, cleaning, and returning the rental Winnebago in Annapolis. That's the worst part of the whole trip! But it's always good to get back home again.

I heard a good saying on the radio today (yeah, I was listening to conservative talk show radio on the road, go figure) that is appropriate to that 50-week training program that I'll be launching next week:

"You don't have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great."

Adventures in RV land

Brr!! It's 27 degrees here in Michigan now! And starting to flurry! Which means, of course, that my two girls and I are VERY dependent upon the heating system in our rental RV.

And I'm an RV newbie. There's a lot I don't know about the systems on board this thing, but I'm learning quickly, by trial and error. I could use a hotline to Ellie for technical advice, probably.

Item: I didn't realize the propane furnace pulled so much electrical power!!

The RV really has to be plugged into some sort of power supply in this kind of cold or you have to keep the generator running constantly. (Which I just learned by making a phone call back to the service guy in Maryland.) The generator is fairly noisy, and of course burns gas at a pretty good rate. So instead of doing that for the last two nights in my ignorance I've been waking up every hour or two to start the generator for five minutes, then turning it off and going back to sleep. Which I'm sure has not made me popular with Grandma's neighbors!

But now we've got a heavy-duty electrical cord rigged up to a plug inside of Grandma's garage, and I think that should take care of us. MUCH better!! Live and learn!

Today's other adventure with the girls was taking them to the pizza buffet at Pizza Hut for their first time. Catherine ate two pickle slices with all the gusto that we normally apply to ice cream, plus drank a ton of water. Elisabeth liked the sausage pieces from the pizza, and the garlic bread, but not the actual pizza so much. There's no predicting what they'll like!!!

We also went to the grocery store and they had those carts with a pretend car on the front with two little seats, each with driver's wheels. They were in two-year-old Hog Heaven. Especially when they got to lean out while we were in motion and pull grocery items off the lowest shelf onto the floor in Baby Drive-Bys.

Wi-fi

Wylie asked what a wifi signal was. Wifi rules!! It's a wireless internet connection which is like a radio signal that projects over short distances (a few hundred yards). You can access it with a special card on a laptop, or similarly set up accessories to broadcast and receive a signal on your home computers. That way at home you can use wifi to connect up more than one computer to one incoming signal (like from a hardwired cable connection).

On the road you can sometimes access wifi signals at places that broadcast them (usually as a sort of marketing gimmic or add-on service) like coffeeshops, truckstops, hotels, campgrounds, marinas, etc. and pick up a free Internet connection (or pay a nominal fee in some places). Right now I'm picking up a signal from some nearby neighbor's house.

The problem is that the signals don't transmit very far, so they only work within a few hundred feet of whatever is broadcasting them, and can be kind of flaky. But when you're traveling, wifi is the best way to go!

Only in.....

Many of you may know towns similar to the one Grandma lives in. It probably hasn't changed much since she first came here as a girl, many decades ago. Midwestern, semi-rural, backwards, and a bit red-necky. Some folks here call it Dogpatch - affectionately or not.

Just to illustrate - I was in the grocery store today waiting behind an old codger checking out. The checkout girl -- yes, girl, probably all of 18 -- concluded the transaction and asked the old guy if he wanted his receipt.

His reply? "It's not big enough to wipe on, so you might as well keep it."

Back from camping

I've got a flaky wifi signal this morning, so I'll be brief!

We just returned from taking Grandma camping for the night down in Indiana. Hopefully (despite the wild twins the whole time) it was a nice break for her to get out of the house for a while!

It was an unexpectedly lovely place: Potato Creek State Park in northwest Indiana, just outside South Bend, on six square miles. It has extensive attractive camping areas. They had closed down the larger area for the weekdays, so we stayed in the horse campground, next to a playground. It would have been a great place if we had a few horses - huge sites with hitching rails between each one! They also had very modern-looking 2-bedroom cabins for rent - I might check those out on a return visit! Also swimming and biking trails - looks like an excellent place for a workout, too!

We had rain overnight, plus some problems with the camper battery running low, so we got an early start back in the morning through drizzle and fog. It looks like we'll have storms and high winds again tonight (they said 10 to 15 foot waves in Lake Michigan!) so I won't think about hitting the road until this weather system has all passed.

We have wifi!

Who would have thought that a nice neighbor in this little town would have provided us with wifi service? But there it is! Sure beats checking in from Grandma's Jurassic dialup!

The cats are fleeing in terror, the bric-a-brac is endangered, the photos on display on the tables have been upended - will Grandma's house ever recover from the Terrible Twins? Stay tuned!

We went to the park today - a good dangerous old-fashioned down home one with teeter-totters and jungle gyms and everything. An endangered species. Of course the girls liked jumping in the piles of leaves best of all!!

The winds have been gusting up to 45 mph! Good thing I was able to get here early - it is NOT fun trying to control a 24-foot Winnebago in these conditions!

Day 2-3

First of all, sorry I don't have time to answer emails right now....

Yesterday was a beautiful, windless late autumn day. In the morning the leaves lay still on the glassy creek and the jet trails hung in the air. We drove through the Alleghenies in southwestern Pennsylvania. The hills were violet in the distance and as we approached resolved into clumps of mustard, burnt sienna, and Indian red. The valley meadows were still verdant and every so often we would see groups of Holsteins lounging near a huge Pennsylvania Dutch barn.

As we continued northwest into Ohio the land leveled out into rolling plains, getting ever flatter as we headed northwest, and the trees were more bare. This was the true Midwest, very familiar to me from growing up and years of college in Illinois. Not much has changed in the vistas since I left in 1985, except cell phone towers are now parts of the landscape. Oh, and we passed a herd of BISON! Nice to see that they've returned this far east, with some help!

We covered a lot of ground: 435 miles in all in one day! In the morning I stopped every 60-90 minutes to give the girls a few minutes out of their carseats and offer them something to eat. Later in the afternoon they both fell asleep, so instead of hunting up a campground I continued driving past dark.

I made a few discoveries! Many roadside rest stops have wifi connections, but in Ohio I had to pay $8 for access for 24 hours. So I paid it to quickly download my email before I headed off. Ohio seems to have tons of money for their Ohio Turnpike (I-80) rest stops, since they were mostly huge and freshly remodeled. They thoughtfully included paved segregated RV parking areas with electric hookups for $15/24 hours, so I thought I had it made! I continued west. BUT unfortunately the last two rest stops on the turnpike have not been remodeled yet. On the very last one I found an RV parking lot without hookups, empty, and I parked there for the night. It was supposed to cost $5, but I didn't want to walk inside by myself and leave the babies in the middle of the night just to pay $5, so I stayed out there and waited for someone to come ask me for it, and no one did. No one else parked in the RV area and we were back on the road by 7AM when it was just getting light. Not long after starting we were across the border into Indiana, along a seemingly endless row of motorhome and travel trailer manufacturers.

Today the girls will go into their 10th state: MI. They've already been in VA, MD, NJ, NY, MA, NH, PA, OH, IN and DC. Forty more to go!

No telling how long this battery charge will hold out, so I'll conclude quickly: we're safely at Grandma's now, and a nice neighbor is providing a wifi signal for us! Yay! More later!!!

On the road: Day 2

Up early (whoever put that 6:45 alarm on my cell phone is a moron). Elisabeth spent the night head-banging (a frequent pastime for her). Catherine woke up every so often to talk to herself in the night about "our car". Now she won't wake up, and shakes her head violently when I ask her if she wants milk, and goes back to sleep.

Ellie, we're in the Antietam/Hagerstown KOA - which is actually in Williamsport, Maryland. It's a pleasant little place on a nice little stream with canoe rentals. I may come here again on the return trip. They say Williamsport was once considered for the capital of the USA (mainly because it was founded by a buddy of George Washington's), but I think that it probably received very brief consideration! The Marine Corps Marathon would have been a lot hillier if it had been chosen.

Time to hit the road - will end up in Ohio tonight, most likely. More whenever I can get a signal!

On the road: Night One

The girls and I are at a campground somewhere outside Hagerstown, Maryland, not far from the Antietam Battlefield. Hooray, a wifi connection! We made perhaps 150 miles progress today. Catherine has just calmed down from a screaming fit that I thought would surely attract Child Protective Services. Elisabeth is doing her best to climb out of her crib and get the knives out of the drawer, probably with the intent of murdering her sister.

I tried to get my digital camera to upload some photos from the lovely autumn day here, but as it happens I have the wrong freaking cord for it. Never mind.

You'll have to be happy with some New York City Marathon photos instead. I can't believe I looked that HAPPY! This is Mile 1 and Mile 26.

Starting out: From Virginia to Michigan and back

I'm doing last-minute preparations and packing our ENORMOUS amount of stuff for 8 days in a rental motorhome, me and my girls. My posting will be sporadic for the next week, based on whenever I can get a wifi signal or dialup access.

Until then, be sure to check into the Carnival of the Triathletes that Mica put together. Well done, girl! Thank you for taking it on!

Good old Christian values

I can't help myself. I try to steer clear from most religious and political button-pushing topics on my blog, just because I don't want to call down the Religious Right Spammers in my comments, but I can't sit on my hands on this one. It's just a quote from good old Pat Robertson -- his response to the voters exercising their right to replace each and every one of the eight members on the board that had voted in favor of a policy that required teachers of ninth-grade biology classes to read a statement on so-called intelligent design before starting lessons on evolution.

Robertson said, in response:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected him from your city. And don't wonder why he hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there."

I'm just glad I wasn't drinking a soda when I read that, or it would have been sprayed all over my keyboard.

Tinfoil hats NOT for training

Omigod. My world is shattered. Remember way back last March when we had that little anthrax incident and I had to wear a tinfoil hat for training because the goverment was trying to implant thoughts in my head?

As it turns out, MIT researchers have found out that the tinfoil only amplifies the signals, and probably their use was promoted by a government conspiracy.

"Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government's invasive abilities. We theorize that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason."

Then again, would you believe research published by somebody named Ali Rahimi?

Pre-road trip notes

Arrrgh!! They got me!! McDonald's has a trip planner where you can map out your route and find all the wifi hotspots along the way, along with their restaurant attached to it, of course. I guess the girls will be getting a few servings of their favorite vegetable (don't tell Grandma!) that they rarely get to eat.

And I also may be checking into the Walmart Store Locator along the way, just for emergency backup for overnight parking. From their site: "Wal-Mart permits recreational-vehicle (RV) parking on our store lots, as we are able. The ability to accommodate RVs is determined on a store-by-store basis, contingent upon available space, local regulations and ordinances."

I feel like a real, true American now. God bless the U.S.A.

Now if only I can find a 7-11 each morning for one of those great big coffees full of lots of amaretto creamers loaded with tasty hydrogenated fats, I'll be all set!

Another secret PSA

I'll let you in on another secret for "going long" successfully, that many people don't talk about, but that can be incredibly important for a good race - or at least, avoiding a very bad race. Imodium. It's a Godsend, and one of my essentials for marathons. Yep, every marathon, and any half marathon or triathlon where I'm going for time.

You see, many of us have a funny reaction to working hard in the heat for long periods of time. For whatever reason, fluids start to accumulate in our lower gastrointestinal tract. The results after 2 to 3 hours of this activity are uncomfortable, crampy, distressing, potentially dehydrating, and wreak havoc with your finishing time. (If you have never experienced this issue while running for a long time in the heat, well, just skip this whole post and forget that I said anything. Some people don't get this. You'll know it when it happens.)

Remember that hydration, sodium replenishment, refueling, and managing our digestive tract issues may be even more important for us slower athletes who are out there on the course a long time. Many of the really fast people are off the course and eating post-race goodies long before they experience the problems that many of us slower folks experience. Those fast folks are often the ones that turn into coaches, too, so they often don't know anything about managing the problems of people who are out on the course for hours and hours and hours, and often don't advise them well on these aspects of successful completion of the event.

The Imodium label warning says: "2 caplets (with 4-8oz of water) after the first loose stool; 1 caplet (with 4-8oz of water) after each subsequent loose stool; but no more than 4 caplets in 24 hours".

Well, I'm not going to tell anyone not to follow the label directions to the letter. But I'll tell you what I do. I know I'm doing to have very very loose stool without them, so I just take them pre-emptively. I do this, for events lasting 2-3 hours or more: Two caplets as soon as I wake up, first thing in the morning (which is sometime between 4AM and 6AM for big races). Two more caplets as close to the start as I can take them (usually some time between 7AM and 8AM).

That totally solves the problem for me. Less dosage than that doesn't do the trick, and earlier/later doesn't seem to work well either. I haven't experienced any adverse reactions from this regimen, except possibly some abdominal cramping when I stopped running. And no, it doesn't turn everything to concrete. Just so you know. :-) It also means I don't have to be quite as particular and superstitious about what I eat the day before the big event, because I don't have the digestive problems that I once attributed to bad pre-race foods.

I'd tell you from whom I learned this regimen, but I'll just let her chime in herself.

Vacation starting Friday

No, I'm not taking a lackadaisical so-called "off-season", otherwise known as "Slack Time". But I am taking a full two weeks OFF from running to let my joints and ligaments fully recover and heal from this 2.5 marathons in 3 weeks nonsense. Yay! I'm not sore at all today! Recovery is sure faster when you walk a large part of the course. Yes, this vacation is in accordance with coacherly advice from Yurtie.

Tomorrow the girls and I pick up the 24-foot rental motorhome, I load all our tons of stuff aboard (I can't believe how much stuff two tiny little girls and one big girl require), and we hit the road for Grandma's. Whee! Maybe if I have a chance I'll drive over and visit the Steelhead course, not far from Grandma's, and see if that's a possibility for next year.

I'll take the laptop with the wifi connection and check in here as often as I can. I can't stand to be disconnected from the Internet! In addition, I'll still be watching my food intake and doing some core exercises and walking as much as I can arrange. I'm an ATHLETE, it's what I do! (Isn't THAT a change in perspective from the old days!?)

My Fifty Weeks of Training for Ironman Florida begins on Monday, November 21st. I've already got my spreadsheet prepared and my workouts for that week planned. I'll hit the ground running, swimming, and cycling on that date, and I won't stop until I have that medal around my neck some time before midnight on Saturday, November 4, 2006. Ooh, one exciting development I have to share: I just found a Stroke Development Class early on Saturday mornings at a local YMCA that will be reasonably convenient for me to attend regularly! Cool, eh?

Until I return from the vacation and launch my Ironman training, I'll be posting updates on the blog, but (just as a warning) they're unlikely to have much of anything to do with fitness or triathlon!

Calibrating sodium

Getting your nutrition and electrolytes right is one of the hardest challenges in endurance events, and one of the most important for successful completion on the course.

Mentally fuzzy? Nauseous? Fingers swelling? Feel especially cold after the race? Lack of sodium is probably your culprit. Most people take in way, way, way too little sodium on marathon courses. They rely inappropriately and mistakenly on negligible sources of sodium like Gatorade and pretzels and sports gels. It's even more critical to get your sodium replenishment correct when you've already done a 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike earlier in the day.

That's also why experience helps so very much in these long-distance events. You only truly know after you've completed numerous events what your own particular body needs in different weather and exertion conditions, and how much sodium and fluids and how many calories to replenish along the way.

For me, doing the two consecutive marathons in very similar weather conditions was extremely instructive. At Baltimore I took 12 Succeed caps (4092 mg sodium), which was a bit too much, based on uncomfortable urinary symptoms afterwards (um, burning pee, if you must know). At New York, under similar ~70*F weather conditions, I took 6 Succeed caps (2046 mg sodium), which was not quite enough, based on a little bit of finger swelling I experienced on course and the nausea which I had afterwards. I didn't bonk and I didn't experience substantial mental fuzziness or dizziness at either marathon, in contrast to some of my earlier attempts at the distance when I took in much lower levels of electrolytes.

That information is worth SOLID GOLD to me in tackling an Ironman next year. I have narrowed down my requirements for sodium fairly precisely to somewhere around 2500-3500 mg for every 6 hours on course, or ~500 mg per hour. That is money in the bank for me which will help ensure a successful completion of Ironman Florida in November, 2006.

I may not be able to train this body to be very fast within one year, but I can certainly do everything I can to get the nutrition part of the Ironman equation correct. It won't make me faster, but it's one of the most important things to help prevent me from slowing down or stopping. One step closer to my goal!

New York City Marathon Race Report

Short version: Warm, humid day in New York; finished marathon #8 in 6:33 on very sore feet

Long version: I learn something at every race.

On the morning of the NY City Marathon I woke up in my cramped little cheap (uh, $140 per night is cheap for New York) hotel room at 4:45 AM, ate and dressed and headed downstairs at 5:30. Bonnie and I walked over to the bus and boarded promptly, after passing a couple dozen racing wheelchairs lined up to be shipped over to the start. It put some early perspective on the day.

We arrived in the staging area quickly and were greeted by cheers from the volunteers in the early dawn. I thought they would certainly be hoarse in a few hours but their enthusiasm was fun.

We headed over to the Orange area and looked for Daniel Wellner (who had organized a wonderful Italian dinner for us the previous night) in the tent behind the medical area where we thought he was going to be, but were unable to find him. We availed ourselves of the great hot coffee they had in abundance and settled down for a long, long wait. Four hours worth. The ~40,000 other assembled runners soon overwhelmed the portapotties allocated for them and were abandoning the huge lines and peeing everywhere. Everywhere. I felt a little sorry for the people who worked on Monday in the buildings surrounded by a moat of runner's pee.

Somewhere the cannon went off, and somewhere "New York, New York" played, but we didn't hear it. We could see the bridge dimly through the morning fog and approached it slowly in the crowd. 17:07 after the race actually started, I crossed the initial timing mats to begin the marathon.

I loved the first two miles over the Verranzano Narrows bridge. The fog prevented us from seeing the city, but we had a beautiful view of the fireboats below spouting colored water. It was peaceful and quiet on the bridge and the main sounds were the footfalls of the other runners. The sun was getting warm and I quickly shed my long-sleeved shirt and was fairly comfortable in a sleeveless top. There was a nice breeze on the bridge, but it didn't take long for me to get sweaty. That foretold a long, hot day.

At the end of the bridge we were greeted with friendly cries of, "Welcome to Brooklyn!" in authentic local accents. The crowd of thousands of runners jogged down the road, soaking up the good will of the crowds. I kept my pace well into my "slow, comfortable jog" zone and just trotted along at a speed I thought I could maintain all day, adding on a one-minute walk break at the end of each mile just to give myself a break and hopefully give my muscles a rest for later in the race.

But it was warm, and my body just wasn't responding as I had hoped. I had done the Baltimore Marathon 3 weeks before and a 12-miler on the Marine Corps Marathon course a week earlier, and apparently I just hadn't recovered from those efforts. My mile splits started out in the 12 to 13-minute per mile range, but they were all slower than I had run in Baltimore, I was sweating hard, and by mile 8-9 I was starting to see some 14-minute miles. That confirmed my fear that it was going to be a long, difficult day.

Before I made it to the halfway point (when Bonnie passed me looking strong and was quickly out of sight in the distance ahead of me), I started to experience some pronounced pain in my feet. I had just trimmed back two toenails to nubs that I had lost after the Baltimore Marathon. I suppose I still had some leftover wear and tear inside my joints or tendons or ligaments which I had been unaware of. Every so often I had a few steps of acute pain in my ankles or less frequently my knees left me hobbling. Those made me fear I would have to drop out of the race, but after stopping to walk it usually subsided to a painful ache in my feet which never left me.

Nutritionally, I think I did everything right - I felt well-fueled and never really bonked or felt exhausted during the day. I kept up my hydration well and took electrolytes on schedule and never got mentally fuzzy. My clothes were fine, I had no chafing nor blisters. My feet just hurt. A lot. Enough so that by mile 15 I was walking a significant portion of the time. By mile 20 I was walking all the time.

I enjoyed the spectacle of the course as much as I could - the thousands of different accents from the runners and specatators, the diversity of the neighborhoods, the colors of the autumn trees, the dramatic views of the New York skyline. I like running on bridges, so even that part was enjoyable.

I didn't like being stopped short by lines of walkers when I summoned enough will to begin jogging again for a while, but I told myself that's the price you pay for the huge races. I felt badly for the few people that I saw down by the side of the road getting medical help. I got annoyed at a couple of vehicles that were apparently allowed to drive down the course with us, which I kept having to breathe exhaust from, or dodge around.

I wondered why the only kids on the streets watching the race in the Hassidic neighborhoods were girls, and nobody there cheered for us. I wondered why they had numerous signs posted around the neighborhood warning people to wear loose clothing covering their skin to prevent skin cancer - I'd never heard of a connection between clothing tightness and cancer.

I thanked the volunteers. I gave thumbs up to the hundreds of spectators that called my name, encouraging me on. I enjoyed the crowds and the bands that could stay on tune and the energy.

Danny has some wonderful detail in his descriptions of the course and the neighborhoods. If I knew New York City better, I might have known where I was more often than I did, and I might describe them all to you too.

I was surprised to spot Karen Bingham by herself at a couple spots in the race where there were few spectators. Way to go, Karen! You gave me some great encouragement when it was needed.

I walked from mile marker to mile marker, and it often seemed like I'd never reach the finish line. I did the math at each and it always seemed like an impossible distance to finish.

Finally we entered Central Park and were surrounded by trees and rocks and people cheering us on. I enjoyed seeing the panther atop Cat Hill again and Balto the Wonder Dog with kids seated on his back. I trudged up each hill, attempted to jog on the downhills but usually abandoned that after a few painful steps, and just kept going.

Finally across the finish line! I was done with number eight. Whew! Final time was 6:33, a 15:00 minute per mile overall pace. I got my medal and a Mylar blanket and a bottle of water, but saw no food anywhere before the turnoff for the subway stop. It was pitch dark by now. I wasn't going to keep walking around Central Park in the blackness searching for food.

I found my way into the subway and started to feel nauseous. I was on one train and was talking to a nice marathon finisher from Charlotte, but at the same time I was fighting back the urge to throw up and was looking around for somewhere convenient to do it among the crowd of people, but there wasn't any space that wasn't occupied by a person. You know it's bad when you seriously consider taking off your Mylar blanket in order to use it to catch puke. I was able to hop off the train for a transfer before I reached that point of no return, fortunately, and the feeling subsided when I got outside into fresher air.

On the return I ran into Bonnie and her friends, so fortunately I didn't have to walk those last few blocks through the streets of New York by myself in the dark. I limped back to my room and holed up for the night with some leftover mixed nuts and a muffin for dinner.

Lessons learned: Always book a hotel room the night after the marathon, but make darned sure they have room service. And oh yeah, perhaps reconsider that "2.5 marathons within 3 weeks" training plan.

NYCM numbers

Ken has already run some numbers on the 2005 NYC Marathon. Interesting stuff! Even though I'm not included in anything but the total number of finishers, since he only used the top 2000 of each gender. Shucks, I didn't even make the New York Times listing of finishers published in the paper the next day, since they stopped at 6:00. If I had known that I might have limped faster.

Letterman's Top Ten for November 7

Top Ten Things Overheard During The New York City Marathon

10. "Thousands of New Yorkers urinating in the street - - Typical Sunday"

9. "Only 25 miles to go"

8. "Wait, I could have taken a bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn?"

7. "These wooden shoes were funny the first half-mile"

6. "Is that the finish line or crime scene tape?"

5. "Bus exhaust make daddy dizzy"

4. "Instead of carbs, I loaded up on Cool Ranch Doritos"

3. "Hello, Triple A? I'm at mile 23 and I need a tow"

2. "Help...Heart...Gonna...splode"

1. "Taxi!"

In the tri-blogs

Mica is organizing a virtual carnival of the triathlete blogs! How fun!

Bolder from Boulder is back! Hooray! And he's coming to Ironman Florida! We've compiled a list of our online buddies that have entered IMFL06 here.

Tri-geek Kahuna is looking for another Tri-Diva. Why is it that I suspect that facial and figure attributes are primary considerations in the selection process? My vote (as if I had a vote!) is for someone like the indomitable Tara Norton or the amazing Sarah Reinertson. They have each faced down personal challenges that make our own difficulties pale in comparison, and have risen to triumph. They inspire me!

And me, I'm trying to summon the energy to write a race report about the New York City Marathon. It still makes me tired just thinking about it. I'm glad I have a vacation coming up!

In other marathon news, there's a new one planned for next March in Washington, DC - the "National Marathon". The second half goes through some fairly nasty neighborhoods that I don't like to drive a car in, much less run in. You have to submit a qualifying time to enter. My race time for the 2005 Cherry Blossom Ten Miler would qualify me to enter - if I were fifty years old already, that is, which I won't be for another 19 months. Several DC marathons have already failed - my guess is that this one will never, ever get the 5000 runners it will need to fill. But if it succeeds - great! Maybe I can run it in 2008 after I turn 50!

Back from New York!

I'm home, and I finished the New York City Marathon yesterday (although my feet were trashed so I ended up slowly walking in the last 6 miles)! Thanks for watching out for me! Unfortunately the scan doesn't do the medal justice, it's deeply sculpted and didn't all get in focus in the scan. There were 36894 official finishers, so only 2.2% of them finished behind me! But we finished! I'll post a long report when I've recovered a bit, and when I get my mind around the fact I'm actually entered in Ironman Florida a year from now....

First Name

Last Name

Age

Team

Runner #

Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Pace

Finish Time

Net Time

10K Split

Half Split

20M Split

Nancy R

Toby

48F

VA

USA

44100

36075

11621

1216

15:00

6:50:30

6:33:23

3:14:57

5:04:07

(Splits include starting delay of 17:07).

Off to New York!

That will be me, one of those crazy people on the Verranzano Narrows Bridge on Sunday morning!

Thanks for all your good wishes! I'll save you the gory details of the story about how my two bad toenails from the Baltimore Marathon decided to come off last night.

I'll be back from my whirlwind trip and blogging by the middle of the day on Monday, but until then, watch for me on TV or find my NY City Marathon results online!

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere. It's up to you, New York, New York.

Aches and pains

What is it about marathon tapering that brings out all the old aches and pains in a body? I hate that!

Today, bringing in the big box from the porch, I pulled something in my lower back. Like near my hip, or my sacroiliac, or somewhere like that.

Then I'm getting these weird pains in my ankle and neck.

Let's hope that the first mile or two takes care of it on Sunday.

The rocking horse winner

Grandpa sent the girls an F.A.O. Schwarz rocking horse and it arrived today!

Catherine was not quite ready to commit herself to climbing on this strange beast, but she pronounced it a "nice pony" and "good" and made the sign for grandfather, so I think she gets it!! She also said the plastic bridle was "glasses". So I guess it's a nearsighted pony.

Elisabeth - well, Elisabeth wasn't having such a good morning. She sat down and cried. But I'm sure she'll like it later.

We just have to think up a name for it now.

Then, naturally, both girls proceeded to play at great length with the BOX it came in.

Following the NY City Marathon

For those who wish to follow along from home:

I have heard that TV coverage will begin at 2PM EST on NBC. I can't seem to find a link to confirm that, however. Perhaps check the local NBC affliate site, WNBC or your local listings.

Runner Tracking: Can probably be done here. I'm #44100, and I should be on about a 6-hour finish pace, I hope.

Review of some of the elite contenders: wheelers; women; men.

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Update: In the United States, NBC Sports will broadcast a one-hour highlights show nationwide beginning at 2:00pm EST on November 6; check your local listings for details. In New York City, it will be on Channel 4.

Congratulations to losers

Fat politics aside, I'd like to offer my congratulations to the Biggest Losers from TRI-DRS:

Linae, who lost a total of 35.3% (body fat reduction and body weight loss), winning a total of $450.22; and
Brad*, who lost a total of 25.6% (body fat reduction and body weight loss), winning a total of $226.10*.

Well done! Full results for the 12 weeks are tabulated here.

I did okay, with a total of 9.3%, which is just fine for slow and steady body composition change. Let's just keep headed in the same direction. While I don't believe that a modest amount of body fat is the dire health threat that it's made out to be, it sure slows a triathlete down doing all the work of lugging it all around.

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*Late Edition: Brad directed me to send his $226.10 winnings to the Challenged Athletes Foundation in support of their efforts in making athletics accessible to everyone. We were all particularly inspired by CAF-supported Sarah Reinertson competing at Ironman Hawaii this year. Thank you to Brad and the members of TRI-DRS who participated in the challenge and made this generous contribution possible.

Fat politics

Has anyone read this book? Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic by J. Eric Oliver.

I just heard about it and I think I have to buy it. Except I think it might be preaching to the choir, because it seems to echo exactly what I believe:

"Political scientist Oliver condemns what he feels is a self-interested "public health establishment"-obesity researchers seeking federal funding, pharmaceutical and weight-loss companies peddling diet drugs and regimens, bariatric surgeons and other health-care providers angling for insurance reimbursement-for spuriously characterizing fatness as a disease. . . . Arguing that fatness is perfectly compatible with fitness, [Oliver] contends that scapegoating obesity drives Americans to experiment with dangerous crash diets, appetite suppressants and weight-loss surgeries, while distracting us from underlying harmful changes in the American lifestyle--mainly our incessant snacking on junk food and shunning of exercise and physical activity, of which weight gain is perhaps merely a "benign symptom." . . . By telling us we need to be thin without providing a safe way of losing weight, the same proponents of the "obesity epidemic" are also pushing millions of Americans towards dangerous surgeries, crash diets, and harmful diet drugs."

I'd also love to see a well-researched, factual expose about the dangerous metabolic effects of yo-yo dieting. I do think the most-frequently-used "remedies" to obesity often have much worse health consequences than the obesity itself.

I also think we experience major problems from far, far, far too much emphasis on the superficial appearance of health (leanness) rather than the actual fact of a healthy mind in a healthy body.

The latest weather for Sunday in New York

I'm like Danny - I can't help myself from looking at the forecast for marathon day over and over. Here's the latest prognosis from Wunderground: Rain, rain, go away! Otherwise it looks almost perfect - a little on the warm side!

7 AM
Temperature / Dew Point (°F) 58 / 52
Humidity (%) 74%
Wind (mph) SSW 7 mph
Conditions Partly Cloudy
Probability of Precipitation (%) 10%
Cloud Cover (%) 61%

1 PM
Temperature / Dew Point (°F) 68 / 50
Humidity (%) 42%
Wind (mph) SSE - 9
Conditions Chance of Rain
Probability of Precipitation (%) 30%
Cloud Cover (%) 67%

Ironman Florida 2006 blog started

Come on over and join the fun as we head for Ironman Florida in November, 2006!!

Holly rocks MCM!

Holly and me on the Marine Corps Marathon course last Sunday out near the end of Hains Point, coming up on Mile 19! Courtesy of Ron Horton, who has posted more photos here. I wore my neon cycling vest so that she could spot me easily when I joined her at Mile 10. Hmm, I didn't think we were both listing like that, but the horizon in the background looks level . . . actually, those two guys behind us are both listing too!!!

November goals

Here's what I'm planning to accomplish this month. November will include a trip to New York City for a destination marathon, plus a nine-day vacation with my girls shortly afterwards when I won't be getting in many workouts. The beginning of the month I'm tapering for the marathon, and then the time just after the marathon is a step-back recovery time for me.

This month I'm adding a weight loss goal for the first time. I don't like specifying it in pounds, because that's not something that's directly under my control - only what I put in my mouth is under my control, and how my body (and the scale) responds is up to physiology. However, for the sake of simplicity in this blog I'll just call it a conservative number. Mostly this is a reminder to myself that I need to pay strict, particular attention to changing my body composition during these times when training volume is light. Or, to put it another way, I'm going to pay attention now to creating good eating habits in the off-season.

* Swim: 4000 meters.
* Bike: 50 miles.
* Run and walk: 40 miles (including 26.2 miles in the marathon).
* Crunches: 1000.
* Weight loss: 4.0 pounds.
* Events:

• November 6: Complete the New York City Marathon upright and smiling. No specific time goal. My pace plan is to finish under 6 hours, but if I don't, that's fine.
• November 6: Hope that my husband gets me signed up for Ironman Florida in November 2006.
• November 11-20: Take a nine-day vacation trip with my two girls in a motorhome.
• November 21: Launch a 50-week training program for Ironman Florida.

October summary

Well, this month it is True Confessions time. I didn't follow through exactly as I had planned.

• Swim #1 goal: 5 miles (8047 meters). Completed 2297 meters or 28%. Grade: F.
• Swim #2 goal: Complete a one-mile time trial in the pool (using only freestyle stroke with bilateral breathing) for a benchmark to work on improving over the winter. DNS. Zero. Grade: F.
• Bike goal: 140 miles. Completed 62.2 miles or 44%. Grade: F.
• Run and walk in workouts goal: 90 miles (including 26.2 miles in the marathon). Completed 74.8 miles or 83%. Grade: B.
• Crunches goal: 1000. Completed 1060 or 106%. Grade: A.
• Events goal: Complete the Baltimore Marathon upright and smiling (as a final long run in preparation for the New York City Marathon in November): Completed. I'll give this one a grade of 95%, A.
• Dream goal (optional!): Complete the Baltimore Marathon in a PR, under 5:40. No PR! Finish time was 5:59:51.

If I count the two swim goals as one goal (and don't count the optional dream goal), then I average 71.2% for the month. Overall grade for the month: C-.

I think that counting a month as a C- when I completed a marathon that month says something about how my priorities and definitions have shifted! It also reminds me that I'll need to plan ahead for a taper and recovery for those races that I consider "A" races, and train through those races that I consider "B" and "C" races.

Waist pack supplies in marathons

Mica asks another good question: What do I carry in my waist pack for a marathon?

I have to qualify my answer a bit. I'm a back-of the pack runner, so I have to plan to a) be out there a LONG time, and b) figure that the aid stations will run out of stuff before I get there. I've run lots of races where the aid stations were dismantled before I arrive. I try to be dependent for the aid stations for nothing besides water, and even then as I've described I try to carry a little water bottle along for emergencies. I read the race website carefully to know what to expect, but I also don't rely on race management to keep their promises. Better happily surprised than sorely disappointed.

That said, any added weight slows a person down when running. So I have to strike a compromise between added weight and being prepared for anything.

For a full marathon, I wear:

* A bandana around my wrist or tied on my waist strap. This is mostly for wiping sweat or washing off salt, but I'm also prepared to abandon it in a portapotty should that become necessary.

* A gel flask filled with my home brew clipped on my belt, or I carry 5 sports gel packs (for every 4 miles).

* ID is velcroed on my shoe

* Sunglasses and a visor to reduce eye strain/fatigue

* A waist pack with my essential supplies (everything that will get ruined by sweat is inside plastic):

• A pace chart covered with clear tape and safety-pinned on the outside
• 1 car key - safety-pinned in so I don't drop it
• $20 in a ziplock - safety-pinned in so I don't drop it (plus a subway pass, etc., depending on the race location)
• 10-12 salt capsules inside a plastic canister (a mini M&Ms container)
• A copy of the race map inside a ziplock (for emergencies or meltdowns)
• A few hard candies and/or glucose tablets to fight off the wall at bad stretches of the race
• Chapstick (can double for sunblock or temporary lube in emergencies)
• Eyedrops (I wear contacts and when you're dehydrated they can get bad)
• A few emergency drugs (NOT more than the maximum I think I need, because I tend to lose track of what I've taken when my thinking gets foggy late in the race), including:
• two 8-hour Tylenol
• two ibuprofen
• two Rolaids or Tums or a Pepcid AC
• two Benadryls or other allergy drug in summer

Lots of people have other strategies, and if I were faster I wouldn't be on the course so long and wouldn't need so much stuff, but for marathons I'm equipped more or less as a self-supporting ultrarunner. I've found out through long trial and error that this works for me!

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Perhaps I should add: I almost always go to races alone - which means I don't have someone to meet me at the finish line, or to take my warmups, or hand me some Gatorade at the halfway point, or carry the car keys for me, or that I can phone to bail me out if I have problems. Everything I carry is something that I've really, really needed at one time or another that has turned out to be a life-saver on a race course. I may be able to pare it down a bit if I get faster and/or I'm at a race where I know that I can count on the aid stations being well-stocked.

Carrying water bottles in marathons

Danny asked me a good question about my previous post, which I'll answer here.

For NYCM, I've heard it's important to bring a water bottle to the start, because you'll be waiting for the start in the park a long time, and you may be standing on the bridge for a long while, and I don't think the water stops start until after the bridge (at 2+ miles into the race). By the time I arrive at the back of the pack, the supplies are often low!

I often carry a bottle in longer races to avoid the crowds at the water stations and in case the water stations run out of water. I'm not sure if it saves me time (because it does take a while to stop and refill the bottle compared to just grabbing a cup), but it does save me annoyance to just fill the bottle about every 2-3 stations and just jog through the others.

I don't like using a water-carrier pack as much because mine doesn't hold as much (sports gel, Kleenex, etc.) as my waistpack, plus they tend to bounce and chafe.

A hand-held water bottle allows me to keep hydrating more or less continually, instead of chugging water just at the aid stations. Keeping my water always on hand helps me pay close attention to it.

Plus I can monitor my intake a little more carefully if I pay attention to how many bottles I have drunk. Or if I think I'm getting a bit low on fluids, I can make a point of drinking half a bottle within the next mile, etc. I can also adjust my salt capsule intake more precisely to how much water I'm taking in.

I always throw the bottle away by about mile 22-23 (to save the weight at the end) because I won't be absorbing too much more water from my stomach after that to help me get to the finish line. (I use a cheap rinsed-out throwaway bottle for that reason, and not a fancy $14 handheld with a strap.) I can refuel and re-hydrate after the finish line.

It works fairly well for me in marathons, as long as I use a small, lightweight bottle. My shoulders just get a little sore if they're not accustomed to it.

Post pacing recovery

I'm definitely a little more sore from that dozen miles at MCM yesterday than I would like to be. It was probably that dumb dancing around that I did while the high school band was playing Tequila. Yeah, that's it.

I also got a blister on the top of my ankle from my too-tight tri laces. Gack, I thought I had fixed them. I guess my feet swell more than I had thought! I've loosened them again, and hopefully that will do the trick for NYCM. I'll take the girls on a walk to the park this afternoon to work some soreness out of my legs and enjoy the beautiful weather.

I also get a little shoulder soreness from carrying a water bottle for 3 hours. It may be only a pound or two, but the stress adds up after a long time! I debated about using a water bottle carrier versus hand-holding it, and decided to hand-hold since that's what I did for most of Baltimore. I'll probably hand-hold at New York, too, but maybe bring a smaller throwaway bottle to carry and lose it about Mile 23, just like I did in Baltimore.

Otherwise it's back to intense tapering before I go to New York next Saturday! Not much mileage today to add to my puny October totals, I'm afraid!

I won't be going for a PR in New York - I'm going to be running with a friend and we plan to enjoy the spectacle of the world's biggest marathon and pace ourselves for some comfortable sightseeing and a sub-6-hour finish.

I'm also working hard with pencil and paper on my big 50-week Ironman training plan. I'm not setting down exact workouts now - just distance targets for the long swims, rides, and runs (and bricks) each week so that I know I'm progressing correctly throughout the year towards taking on the whopping distance of a 3862m/4224-yard swim, 180km/112-mile bike, and 42 km/26.2-mile run all in one day.

IM emag

A new online downloadable Ironman magazine: IM emag. I asked some folks before I did the download of the reader, and they assured me it was all right - and sure enough, it's excellent! Definitely worth subscribing if you want some Ironman inspiration!

Living Strong!

I had the pleasure of running a few miles today with Holly (and 25,000 or so of our running buddies) as she completed the Marine Corps Marathon in fine form!! I jumped on the course with her about the 10 mile mark and we had a beautiful day for a jog up to the Capitol, then down around the Tidal Basin, out to the end of Hains Point (where we ran into Ron Horton!) and then up onto the 14th Street Bridge with plenty of time to spare.

We continued into Crystal City and I left her on the course at 2:04 PM at the turnaround at 23rd street, just before the 23 mile marker. She just finished in 6:08:07 as I was home on my computer watching the runner tracking. What a remarkable woman, and what a fantastic example of how to LIVE STRONG!

And thanks for getting me out for a final warmup run for New York next weekend, Holly!

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Note to the concerned: I wasn't totally banditing the race - Holly had a paid-for race number from a friend that I wore on course (to help pay for the water and course support I took advantage of), and I did carry ID with me in case of emergency. Just so you know. :-)

Ten Day NYCM Forecast

Woo! The ten-day forecast for the New York City Marathon looks perfectamundo!!

"Sunday: A few clouds. Highs in the low 60s and lows in the mid 50s."

Yay! Anything but cold rain. I can't stand cold rain. Please no cold rain. Please no cold rain.

Good luck to everyone running the 30th Marine Corps Marathon tomorrow! The forecast looks similar - possibly a bit on the warm side. It should be a great day! Go Holly go!

Racing or training: pick one

I just snuck a look at my October swim/bike/run totals. WHOOPS! They're way down. I doubt that I will hit many of my goals for this month.

That's okay with me, because I'm taking it a little on the slow side before I launch my 50-week IM training plan on November 21st.

I can't believe I'm calling a month in which I have completed a marathon and I'm preparing for a second marathon "a little on the slow side", but there it is. What a change in perspective, eh?

Lesson learned? As much as I like doing races, and as much as I hate to admit it, they DO cut into my training time. It's difficult to keep up the daily training grind when you're gearing up for a race or winding down from it. I need to keep that in mind when I formulate my training plan for the Ironman. I need to be sure to keep my Eyes On The Prize and be strict about limiting my taper and recovery periods for the "B" and "C" races on my schedule, or skip those races entirely.

A successful post?

Here's a re-write of the post that disappeared Without A Trace.

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I was contacted recently by someone who was compiling weight loss success stories and asked for mine. That made me stop and think.

I don't consider myself a weight loss success story. Since I began running again in 2000, I'm down about forty pounds (interrupted by having babies), although I tend to say "Yeah, BUT....". I'm still not anywhere near my ideal body weight, so I still consider it a work in progress. I'm on the slow and gradual and hopefully permanent weight loss plan, not on the rapid makeover lifestyle change and temporary yo-yo weight loss plan. I don't diet and I rarely deny myself foods that I truly want.

Even if I were still at my top weight, I'd probably still be doing road races and triathlons today. I'd just be doing them at a slower pace. I enjoy them and they keep me motivated to keep working out, regardless of what the scale says today.

I know lots of people that I do consider weight loss success stories: Linae, Tory, and Holly are good examples.

I'm not a weight loss success story. But I am lots of other kinds of stories.

• An aspiring triathlete success story? Maybe, maybe not. It's certainly something I'd like to continue to pursue, although I'll probably never be someone who stands on the podium in open or even age group competition. But every race I finish feels like a successful achievement to me.
• An academic professional failure story? Maybe, maybe not. I worked hard for years to earn a Master of Science degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree by age 27. I worked as a college professor for fourteen years and although I ultimately was not awarded tenure, mostly because I was unable to raise sufficient research funds in my area of study, I directed, authored, and published a body of world-class research, and taught hundreds of students. I'm proud of that.
• A later-in-life marriage success story? I hope so. We got married in 2001, when I was 43. My first, his second. And so far, so good! We're happy. Of course, that means that prior to that I had a quarter-century of many questionable relationships, some of them abysmal, many decidedly unsuccessful.
• A later-in-life fertility success story? Yes and no. I had triplets in 2003. Anna died at six months of age, due to the complications of extreme prematurity. Heartbreakingly sad, but that was one of the risks we accepted when we decided not to "selectively reduce" her (i.e., abort her) when we found out I was carrying triplets, a very high-risk pregnancy for a 45-year-old woman. We have two gorgeous two-year-old daughters that I cherish every day.
• A parenting success story? I sure hope so, but the jury will be out on that one for another couple decades.
• A success-through-hard-work story? I hope so. I'd like to be that.

Life is complicated. Hopefully life is long, and every life has lots of stories behind it. Perhaps it's that I don't look at it as a binary, simplistic, black-or-white success or failure thing any more. Life stories aren't told in a before-and-after photo. Life isn't the movies. There are no happy endings in real life. Life just goes on, or it doesn't.

Or perhaps I've learned that each of us makes tradeoffs in life, and for every success story, there's also some kind of failure story. Maybe that's just a teensy touch of maturity finally sinking in after all these years.

I've also stopped thinking that it's all about the weight. If I really want to do something, these days I just go ahead and do it, regardless of what I weigh. I like the attitude of Jayne Williams: pursue your athletic dreams in the body you have now.

That's what Run Big! is all about.

Are you a success story?

(Some previous comments on this topic are here.)

Badfoot

I can't believe I have to run a marathon in nine days on this fugly duck foot. The right one isn't much better. I'm amazed they work at all.

Can you see why I'm often incredulous when women worry about having pretty toes for sandals or what color to paint their toenails? Jeez, I'd need a foot transplant to have attractive feet. Hey, at least I have two, right? I should count my blessings!

The Reveal

Here's our utility room in late summer:

Here it is now, from practically the same view, with practically the exact same items stored in it:

I think I might put some type of screen in front of the ugly hot water heater, and buy a new 24" stool to use instead of that chair, but otherwise, I love it!

This is the opposite view, with the four big slide-out bins that we got for sorting and storing recycling items. We have a big recycling deposit center about 200 yards from our house, next to the local high school, so we really have no excuse not to be good recyclers!

The whole room is about 7 feet by 13 feet, but now it holds about 2 or 3 times the stuff in a much neater way. I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

lost

My previous post just disappeared. The comments on it remain. Crap.

That's just bizarre. I posted it at 5:49, edited it a couple times, and then went to watch TV. It was up long enough for Dawn to comment on it at about 10:30. Then at 11:00 when I was done watching Without A Trace it was gone. *poof* I did NOT delete it - I wasn't even near my computer at the time. No, I don't have a backup copy.

I guess the moral to the story is to write and save everything offline. How extremely annoying!!

Success stories?

Heart rate zones

Phil posted this, but I hadn't seen it before and I think it bears repeating: A heart rate calculator which tells you what your zones are, based on your resting and maximum heart rate. This is helpful for those of us for whom the standard formulas don't work very well.

My calculated zones, just for the record, are below. I find it fairly difficult to get under Zone 4 when I'm running, and hard to get up into it when I'm cycling. Haven't checked my swimming heart rates for a while, they're probably through the roof.

Zone 1, walking: 127-138
Zone 2, jogging: 138-149
Zone 3, running: 149-160
Zone 4, hard: 160-171
Zone 5, all-out: 171-182

Actually, now that I look at the numbers, as a mnemonic device you could probably take the highest heart rate you've ever seen on your heart rate monitor (182 for me), and then simply count down in ten-beat increments from your maximum for the lower limit of each Zone (172, 162, 152, 142, 132 for zones 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and that would give you a pretty close approximation of your zones, too.

USPS phobia

I think my daughter Catherine is developing phobias. Or I'm giving them to her, somehow.

First it was the elevator phobia. That one manifested as a tantrum waiting for the elevator inside Sears, and the only thing I could figure out is that she thought it was the same as the elevator that takes her to the pediatrician's office.

Today she had a similar unfathomable meltdown inside the local small-town post office. I had to maneuver the double jogstroller though the narrow door that was built some time well before the Americans With Disabilities Act. THEN she has a major tantrum, for no apparent rational reason.

She won this time. I wasn't going to get in a line of eight people with a screaming baby in a double jogstroller taking up half the small room. I couldn't even buy stamps because the antique machine in the lobby only took coins.

She calmed down the second we got out the door. Go figure.

Now I could totally understand it if she screamed at the sight of a bunch of posers and Lance-wannabes wearing USPS cycling jerseys, but no....

Hooray for Sarah!

Another athlete on the course with Shelley in Kona was a woman who had a score to settle: Sarah Reinertsen, who missed the bike cutoff by 15 minutes last year. She was the first woman with an artificial leg to compete in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships - and in 2005, the first to complete the course (with a whole lot of people cheering for her). Here's her blog.

Slicing up the elephant

Fifty weeks of training. Ack, that sounds like the Sentence of Doom. Far too much to contemplate! I mean, we're talking about a tired, rapidly-aging, not-so-spry, way-too-heavy old lady here! How do I break it down into manageable bites?

One resource that's been very helpful so far has been the gold standard of ironman training texts, Going Long by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn, that I've already quoted.

(Excuse me while I think out loud and make notes to myself on my blog).

Here are the punctuation points for my Bigass Year of Training, so far:

• Macro Cycle 1: 7 weeks - November 21 to January 9, ending with the Goofy Challenge at Disneyworld (26 km Saturday, 42 km Sunday)
• Macro Cycle 2: Approx. 11 weeks - January 9 to March 27, ending with a spring marathon (Ocean Drive in Cape May, NJ on March 26?)
  
• Macro Cycle 3: Approx. 11 weeks - March 27 to June 12, including an Olympic triathlon on May 21 and a half IM on June 11
• Macro Cycle 4: 12 weeks of summer - June 12 to September 4, including a marathon in Calgary on July 9 and a sprint tri on August 27
  
• Macro Cycle 5: 9 weeks - September 4 to November 4, leading up to the full IM on November 4
  

Now the challenge will be setting the priorities and objectives for each macro cycle and fine-tuning it for each discipline (swimming, biking, and running) within each cycle.

That's how I'll cut apart the elephant into easily-consumed tasty bite-sized morsels. Preferably thin marinated strips roasted on skewers with a piquant Thai peanut sauce, please.

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Note to self: Yurtie recommends that I do another Olympic or half IM in August/September. Think about Steelhead (~August 5), Timberman (~Aug 19), or Diamondman (~Sept 11).

Quote of the day

"Anyone can do the distance if they want it badly enough. There is no bigger challenge in triathlon than the Ironman distance, and ultimately the decision is yours and yours alone. The right answer lies inside you. You will do the training, you will make the necessary commitments, and you will miss out on certain other aspects of your life. For many, the trade is worth it. One is never "ready" for a ironman-distance race. The event is far too big for that. However, we firmly believe that anyone (and we mean anyone) can complete the distance so long as they have one ingredient: will. The will to train and, most important of all, the will to finish."

-- Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn in Going Long

Ironman professions

I submit, without comment or editorial alteration, some of the self-proclaimed professions of participants in Ironman Florida 2005:
PROFESINAL STRIPER
CONSULTOR
GEOLOGIST,HOMEMAKER
PSYCHOTHERAPIST
POWER TRADER
BUTCHER
STRESS ENGINEER
SELF-EMPOLYED
JEWLER
IT'S A SECRET !!!
MANAGMENT
PIZZERIA OWNER
UPS DELVIERY MAN
TRUSTED ADVISOR
CONDOM TESTER
CAT HERDER
SHIT PEDDLER
OPTITION
FUN SEEKER
ARMADILLO RANCHER
BIKE STORE MANEGER
HARIDRESSER
VC
ANIMAL HEALTH SALES
COMERCIANTE
HOOCHY MAMA
ALL AROUND SWELL GUY
POTATO FARMER
CABANA BOY
OXEGYN THIEF
BANKER/TURTLE CHASER
COLONOSCOPY TECHNICIAN
DOG PSYCHOLOGIST
MERCEDES DEALER
DOGLADY
SNAKE CHARMER
PLATYPUS WRANGLER/PHYSICIAN
FISH CHASER
COMIC BOOK HERO
IRONMAN ADDICT
BEER DRINKER
MY BABY DADDY
POST PUNK ENDURANCE JUNKIE
SLAVE TO THE MAN
RESTARAUNT
GEEK

and my favorites,

STAY AT HOME DAD
MOMMY

Rant

PuddyRat's post made me smile. I'm in complete agreement.

Gack! TriathAlon drives me nuts! People should at least have to be able to spell TRIATHLON as a requirement for starting the swim leg, as well as pronounce it correctly with three syllables.

The swim may be postponed for lightning. Not lightening. I hope you don't have to start in the dark.

You pedal the bike. Not peddle, unless you're trying to sell it.

And finishing CHUTE. Not shoot, people! Arrgh!! Shoot them all!

You get a medal at the end of the chute. Not a metal. Nor a meddle.

Web SITE. Or website, if you prefer. Not sight.

I know I have lots more to add here, without even getting into apostrophes and possessives ... or should I say possessive's? Heh.

Yes, I cut slack to people for whom English is not their native language. And anyone in a hurry who doesn't proofread may be permitted one or two inadvertent typing errors per day. And "weakened" may be an appropriate substitute for "weekend", on occasion. Otherwise there are no excuses.

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I just thought of another one. EXERCISE. Practice it at home, kids.

The plan

About that Ironman thing ... hmm. This is a major decision with a lot of ramifications, and I've given it a lot of thought. While in some respects it's a life-altering project, in other respects - hey, it's just another triathlon, right?

My current plan is yes, to have someone register me for Ironman Florida 2006 while I'm in the New York City Marathon. I'm not totally getting my heart set on IMFL, because of the vagaries of registration - it won't be in my direct control, it's a popular event, and it's quite possible that a lot of people who hope to do it may not get in.

If that happens, most likely I'll target another iron-distance event next fall as an alternative. There are several to choose from, but the easiest logistically for me would be Chesapeakeman.

My objectives? No, I'm not going to worry about my times for my first attempt at an iron-distance triathlon, other than making darned sure that I can beat the cutoffs. That would be getting the proverbial cart before the horse. "To finish is to win", and becoming an Ironman is a big enough project without cluttering it up with time concerns and a zillion subordinate and perhaps contradictory goals. Best to keep it simple.

My non-quantifiable ultimate goals for the next year are these:

• Train intelligently and effectively for an iron-distance triathlon while keeping my life in balance with my other responsibilities.
• Get to the starting line in the fall of 2006 in the best shape of my life.
• Enjoy the race day as a celebration of my training.

Notice how it doesn't say: swim leg x:xx, bike leg y:yy, run leg z:zz and cross the finish line by whatever:whatever? Or that I'll weigh 110 pounds or look just like Karen Smyers or bench press double my body weight? Those are incidentals and performance outcomes that are not within my direct personal control.

Precisely how my ultimate goals will be translated into concrete, objective, quantifiable subsidiary objectives in a sensible, logical, and progressive training plan will be detailed in a future post. Said plan will be written some time after I get my 2006 laminated wall calendar and mark it up with three or four different colors of Sharpies.

Fifty weeks of training begins November 21, 2005. And I'll need every week of it. An off-season? Not for me, not unless I want to have a off race.

But before then, I have to get the utility room remodeling done. And change a couple of diapers. And oh yeah, before I forget, finish another marathon and spend another week in a motor home.

What would it mean to excel?

At Ironman Florida, just for a wild-ass example, what would it mean to excel in the event? For me?

I'm all about objectivity. It's all in the numbers.

In iron-distance events, in highly objective terms, "to finish is to win". So crossing the finish line and doing the distance, while meeting the swim (2:20), bike (10:15), and total (17:00) cutoffs and earning a medal, is to earn the name Ironman. That's a victory for anyone who accomplishes it. Period. That would be my primary goal in any Ironman triathlon.

But at the same time, I'm interested (just for curiosity's sake) to see how fast the people in my category did the course. It is a race, after all.

What would it take to be "above average"?

Clydesdale women 40 & over, median -1 performance:
2004: Swim: 1:25:08, Bike: 7:00:24, Run: 5:20:34 Total: 15:03:27
2003: Swim: 2:07:29, Bike: 6:46:00, Run: 6:12:50 Total: 15:30:59
2002: Swim: 1:17:16, Bike: 5:55:08, Run: 4:23:31 Total: 11:53:42 whoa!

Women 45-49, median -1 performance:
2004: Swim: 1:44:43, Bike: 7:01:17, Run: 5:11:41, Total: 14:14:59
2003: Swim: 1:41:36, Bike: 6:39:22, Run: 4:31:05, Total: 13:13:48
2002: Swim: 1:56:10, Bike: 6:41:22, Run: 5:10:15, Total: 14:00:02

Jeez. Those are some fast women. Impressive performances! That seem right now, by the way, totally out of reach for this old body. I think I'm scaring myself. I also think it would be very wise to wait until I age up a group or two, and get an IM finish or two under my belt, before I even consider looking at those median age group times again! I'm kind of surprised how much spread there is in those numbers, as well. They're not as clear-cut as I had hoped - between 11:53 and 15:30 is a gigantic spread. I'll be watching the 2005 Ironman Florida results with interest to see how fast the competitors do the course this year.

Unrelated news bits

Lance Armstrong and Sheryl Crow are going to be hosting Saturday Night Live this week! Fun!

And for my buddies who are looking for the TRI-DRS email list and the DRS email list, they have been down since Friday and hopefully will be up and running again soon. I'm having major withdrawals! I miss my peeps!

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I started a new Yahoo triathlon discussion group today as an emergency backup and place to post photos and use the calendar, etc., just in case TRI-DRS breaks again: Tri-talk. Anyone is welcome!

Not a matter of if, but when

That's what roadies say. It's not IF you're going to have that embarrassing non-clipping-out crash, it's WHEN.

For me, today was my special day.

Jeez. I've been riding in clipless pedals regularly ever since I got my new bike, Buttercup, way back in early March. I felt quite comfortable in them and had no problem clipping in and out, or so I thought.

I went out for a ride today in the nice cooler weather, and headed out down the peninsula for a dozen miles. I was doing great, staying down in the aerobars, feeling good. I even was able to take a water bottle out and get in a good drink even while staying in the aerobars. I thought that was slick. I thought I had finally gained some coordination. But no....

I came to my usual turnaround point, the little parking lot just before Knapps Narrows Bridge. I swung in there, slowed down, clipped out my right foot, came to a stop, and set down my right foot.

The only problem was that I (apparently) was leaning left at the time. And my left foot was still very, very firmly clipped in.

I had a sudden brilliant flash of clarity: there was absolutely, positively nothing that I could do.

In slow motion, I tipped over directly onto my left side, my knee and elbow hitting the asphalt in deliberate sequence with two terrific thuds.

Ouch. Ouch.

I lay on the ground, pushed the bike off my leg, and finally twisted my left foot out of the pedal. I slowly extricated myself and gingerly stood up, and realized that I would have a couple of new painful bruises, but nothing was badly hurt except my pride (and some scuffed handlebar tape). Luckily nobody was in the parking lot but me.

I pedaled home slowly and with great humility.

I hope that I've successfully passed the initiation test, and we don't have to do that again.

Uh oh!

Recommendation to boaters: Don't go anywhere off the east coast of the US this coming week. Bad plan. This may make the Perfect Storm look like a pleasure cruise.

I'm just hoping this means we'll have a nice fair-weather high following it up after the bad stuff passes by so that Holly has gorgeous weather next Sunday for the Marine Corps Marathon! I'll be doing 10-12 miles of it along with her, just for the fun of it. Can't wait!

Death to ants

Thanks for all your suggestions on my little issue with the ants! I bought these little party gazebos for them today. I hope they enjoy their visit, and bring home samples for all their cousins back home.

If this doesn't work, I'm bringing out the tactical nuclear warheads.