Rosy and Grey: 2006

Needless to say, getting back into shape after an extended period of working, traveling for work, missing sleep for work, not being able to sleep because of work, sitting under the fluorescent sun for 15 hours a day is very challenging. It has had some benefits - one person at work asked if the stress was getting to me because I apparently look like I lost a little weight!

In any event, one month after my brother (in jest) challenged me to sign up for the Ironman USA Lake Placid here is where I stand:

Swimming: I finished my collegiate swimming career a little over nine years ago with a somewhat disappointing time in the mile (1650 yard swim): my time was like 16:05 or something. Evidently my swimming really just wasn't natural talent, as I now cannot believe that i actually swam any where near that time. My feel in the water is starting to return, but I still don't feel that smooth or consistent in the pool. However, I certainly do know that the swimming is by far my strongest leg of the three legs of a triathlon. The focus of my workouts have not been on swimming, but I am hitting the pool for about 3,000 meters (the indoor city pool in Alexandria is meters) a pop. Mike mentioned that I should not focus on the swimming portion of the event, but that I will need practice with open water swimming - to that end, i believe that I'll be part of a relay at "The Nation's Triathlon" and do the swimming part - 1,500 meters in the beautiful Potomac River at Washington Harbor. I believe that this swim will lead to something I have not done as part of the swimming training: spend money! I'll have to get a wetsuit, as I've heard it helps with swimming faster.

Biking: My last bike experience had to be the summer I turned sixteen. That summer I learned how to drive and left the old schwin bike to collect dust in the garage. Well we ain't in Kansas anymore. Bikes today: expensive and they don't even come with a kickstand. Based on feedback from Mike, a few co-workers and the guy at the bike shop I bought a Fuji Roubaix RC. You can see the bike here. My bike was upgraded from the "base model" with better wheels and tires -or so the guy at the bike shop said! Additionally bikes these days do not have pedals. One may ask "well then, how do you pedal?" Answer: You have to buy special shoes with cleats that will attach on to the "crank shafts". In English you are attached to the bike! This leads to some very interesting and painful learning experiences. I basically had to relearn how to bring a bike to a stop...with the old schwin I would just stop and put my foot down, with the "clipless pedals" you have to "unclip" yourself from the non pedal or else the bike falls over. My first day out I fell about 20 times and in the process got some pretty huge bruises and cuts. One cut in particular from the "teeth" of the thingee which holds the chain looked like a shark took a bit out of my lower leg - that damn thing is still not totally healed after three weeks! Regarding the non pedal-pedals, I got something called Speedplay X/5 Chrome-Moly, which can be seen here. Other items which are required for biking include bike shorts. Bike shorts are skintight shorts with a gel like pad to protect one's backside from the terrors of the bike seat. My longest bike ride so far has been to work and back (about 30 miles round trip - all up hill on the way there). Believe me when I say that I'm glad that the gel pad is in place and I might be forced to invent something more comfortable for the longer bike rides up ahead of me. One kick ass part of the biking experience is the biking jersey - these are tight shirts which are made of a fabric that helps to "wick" away sweat to keep you cool and aerodynamic. The jerseys also have pockets along the bottom in the back to keep stuff you need to grab (sunglasses, food, cell phone to call for a ride, teddy bear to keep you company on long rides, etc). Jerseys as also know for interesting and cool designs and motifs. At the bike shop where I purchased the bike shorts, i had the option of two Jersey types in my size southpark or The Beast from Avery Brewery. I'll let you guess which one I went with!! The OTHER neat thing about biking is the socks - I've just received six new pairs which i bought off of Amazon. The socks were a good price, so I was not expecting anything very interesting...however the six pairs included one which states "Canada Kicks Ass!" and a second one with the catchy slogan of "PBR me ASAP". I can relate to that - a beer is what I need after getting off the bike!!

Regarding the training on the bike - this is so far my weakest leg. I do not recall that biking was really that difficult back in my schwin days. I have a lot of wood to chop as far as the biking goes. On an upside, a gentleman at work is doing an Ironman in Florida this fall, so I am going out to ride with him in a few weeks on one of his "easy" two hour rides. Hopefully he'll give me some pointers on how to actually ride the darn thing!

Running:
Ahhh running. What can I say about running. Let me begin with a short story about running and me. Let me take you back to winter 1998. I had been working at an investment bank for about 8 months by the time the winter holidays rolled around. The first couple of years at an investment bank are pretty rough - lots of late nights and weekends spent in the office basically not really doing all that much, but waiting around for other people to figure out what they want to do - sort of a rite of passage in the industry. The firm (really your clients) provide you will three square meals if you are at the office 24 hours a day. This is great as you don't ever spend money on food, the down side if that you end up eating crap all of time. I think that I gained like 40 pounds in eight months. In any event, my parents lived in Atlanta, GA so I had to fly down there to visit. This was before all of the security concerns, so my brother (mike) was waiting at the end of the jet way to drive me to the parental units house. As I waddled (yes waddled) off the plane my brother looked at me in surprise and said "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!?!?!". I started running right after that. Through non eating (well, no fries, no mayo, light beer, no fried food and no snacks) and running I lost like 45 pounds over the next few months. Note: I don't think that's really healthy, so I don't really recommend that to anyone. I've been running on and off since then. I think my longest run was like maybe 10 miles at one time, but I'm getting back into the flow. Coach Mike is pushing for a marathon this fall / winter. I'm looking into it now, so perhaps that's a halfway goal for the ironman.

One month down, Eleven to go!!!!

Rosy and Grey

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Training is Hard and Expensive!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Weird Cheese

The Weird Cheese