10/08/07: This just in.....

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had a bad day yesterday. In fact, by comparison, mine wasn't so bad:

Runner dies, 300 treated as heat ravages Chicago Marathon
Story Highlights
Marathon run in record 88-degree heat, high humidity

At least 49 people taken to area hospitals due heat-related ailments....

.....CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Organizers shut down the course four hours after the start of Sunday's Chicago Marathon because of 88-degree heat and sweltering humidity that left one runner dead and sent at least 49 to area hospitals. Another 250 were treated at the site.

Chad Schieber of Midland, Michigan, 35, collapsed while running on the South Side and was pronounced dead shortly before 1 p.m. at a Veteran's Affairs hospital, the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.

George Chiampas, the race's medical director, said witnesses reported seeing Schieber collapse and become unresponsive. "It sounds like he lost his pulse very fast and died on the race course," Chiampas said.

There was another running death Sunday in Arlington, Virginia. An unidentified runner from Virginia died during the Army Ten-Miler, collapsing near the finish at the Pentagon. The race started in 70-degree heat and high humidity.

The Chicago race was run in record temperatures, topping the mark of 84 degrees in 1979....

Runners were diverted to the starting area, where they were provided with medical attention and cooling misters. Shortages of water and energy drinks were reported along the 26.2-mile route.

Race director Carey Pinkowski said organizers were concerned that emergency medical personnel wouldn't be able to keep up with heat-related injuries.

"We're seeing a lot of our participants slowing," Pinkowski said. "It was a contingency plan we had in place and we decided to implement as a precautionary measure."

At first, organizers hoped those who passed the halfway mark could complete the run. But eventually even those recreational runners were told to turn back.

Still, some runners persevered, although organizers said they didn't know how many completed the course.

Helicopters hovered over the race course while police officers shouted through a bullhorn and warned runners to slow down and walk.

Lori Kaufman, a runner from St. Louis, said she was told to start walking at mile 14. She said the fire department turned on hydrants to hose people down along the course.

Paul Gardiner, a runner from England, said the weather made for a "brutal" run.

"We were at about 18 miles and we heard they canceled it and that kind of sent a little bit of concern through the crowd," he said. "It's just it's impossible to run."

Almost 10,000 of the 45,000 registered runners chose to not race in the heat despite more mist stations, cooling buses and water-soaked sponges.......

10/08/07: 112 Ride? Not Exactly.....

The last thing I wanted to do yesterday morning was to get up and ride 112, after doing my peak 3 hour run on Saturday, although that's what makes triathlon training so much more challenging than marathon training (I mean no offense to marathon runners by that statement, as I've done a couple).

In marathon training you get to recover for a couple of days after a long run; in triathlon, the day after the my longest run of my training, I find myself doing the longest ride of my training, or at least that was the plan. The ride seemed to be doomed from the start.

Want to know if god has a sense of humor? Just tell her your plans.....

:)

I started out with the velobrew b ride for a 55 mile ride, and was going to do another 57 on my own. Not 5 minutes into the ride we had our first flat of the day; unfortunately, that was a bad omen of what was to come. 10 minutes or so later the flat was fixed and we were on our way again.

About an hour later we had our second flat, and this time it was me :(

No big deal....change it and keep going.....and then 10 minutes later another flat....me again....UGHHHHHH....

After the first flat I felt around the tire and didn't see or feel anything, so I replaced the tube and kept going. After the second flat, I looked VERY carefully, and found a TINY piece of glass that had lodged in the tire.....No big deal, except I had only brought one tube with me.

The smart thing to do would have been to borrow a spare tube from someone else in the group. Unfortunately for me that's not what happened. Instead someone suggested patching the tube, which I did....I few minutes later we're rolling again.....and a few minutes after that....Yep, you guessed it...another flat....the patch didn't hold....

So of course this time I borrowed another tube, right? No, that would have made way too much sense...the person who suggested patching it the first time suggested patching the old tube....so I did, and so I flatted again a few minutes later....This time we did finally put in a new tube and the rest of the ride was uneventful, other than the group was LONG GONE...

I'd like to thank Richard for staying with me, giving me his spare tube, and making sure I got back to the start ok.

4...yes 4, F&^$ING flats in one ride.....I managed to go just over 40 miles in 4.25 hours......UUUUGGGGHHHHHH.

Since it was now 12:30 and the ride was pretty much shot for the day, I headed over to the bike shop a couple of miles from my house to get some new tubes, CO2 and to get the speed sensor for my computer fixed, since it was already 12:30 and the day's ride was shot. To make the day complete, so was the sensor on my computer. Although I could have grabbed a new tube and CO2 and kept riding for an hour or two, sometimes it's best to live to fight another day.

Needing to drop my bike off for it's pre-race tune up anyway, I drove down to Ponte Vedra Beach, planning on leaving my bike at Bike Fitters. Just to make the day even more fun, they're no longer open on Sundays.....just one more annoyance for the day and another hour and a half wasted.....not that I was mad at them, since the last time I checked they don't need to check in with me when they change their hours....just one of those things.....

After a 4 hour ride (3 hours of actual riding time), only 42 miles, and a wasted trip to PV Beach, I headed home, Dos Equis in hand to at least try to enjoy the afternoon......

I've already gotten in one century ride, a couple of 90 miles rides (including the 6.25 hour ride in the wind last weekend) and a couple of 80 mile rides, so I'm confident that I'm ok for the race....I have one more long training day left before my taper: a 6 hour brick this coming weekend (5 hour ride, one hour run).

Fortunately the weather was REALLY nice early in the evening, and we were able to take the dogs for a walk to the lake for Kramer to get his swim on and Sophie to...well...watch Kramer get his swim on.....she's a pug, what did you expect?

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure.....

A good, although wet start.....

to IronWeekend....

This weekend started out with the Marine Corps 1/2 marathon, plus an hour tacked onto the end, making my 3 hour run reasonably entertaining. It was raining throughout the whole race, but what are you gonna do?

My plan for the race was to keep my heart rate in zone 2 for the first hour (155ish), zone 3 for the second hour (165ish), and after the finish, to run another hour in zone 2 again.

My plan worked perfectly, giving me a great negative split for the race. I really enjoyed the second hour, passing LOTS of people. Although this was a training run for me and not a race per se, my competitive spirit kicked in the last few miles and I broke two hours.

Although I finished a few minutes slower than last year, overall the race was much slower. Last year's time was 1:52:08, which was good enough for 34/81 in my age group and 275/606 overall. This year's 1:58:41 placed me 22/82 in my age group and 177/550 overall.

I'm admittedly a bit surprised at how well I did, since my focus has been on biking and swimming much more than running, and I went so easy for the 1st half of the race. I guess it really is all about the bike.

I really enjoyed the hour I added to the end, as I did the course backwards and got to encourage all of the BOPers that were still finishing. That was probably the highlight of the race, and made the last hour go by pretty quickly and painlessly.

After watching Maryland hold on to beat Ga Tech (FEAR THE TURTLE), I DRAGGED myself to the pool.....1:36 and 4300 yds later (2.44 miles, ever so slightly farther than the IM swim), the day was at long last done. I did a continuous swim, stopping after 45 minutes for a quick drink of water. The plan was for 4250; somewhere I added an extra 50. Better too long than too short.

Tomorrow Ironweekend continues with a 112 mile ride followed by a 1/2 hour run...should be thrilling after trashing my legs breaking 2 hours today....in hindsight that may not have been the best idea....I guess I'll find out in the morning....

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure....

10/05/07: This week so far...

I didn't exactly get off to a stellar start to Ironweek.

I was scheduled for a run and a swim on Tuesday, neither of which happened....I enjoyed being lazy Tuesday morning and missed the run, and we got home way too late from Naples, and I missed the swim.

Originally I had scheduled a massive 18 hours for this week, which isn't going to happen. In an attempt to at least get to 17, I'm changing today (Friday) from a day off to a 1.5 hour easy brick (1 hour ride & 1/2 hour run). The downside is that the weather once again sucks (a technical term) and it's going to be an indoor brick...welcome back to the rollers.....

Speaking of, Wednesday was a 1.5 hour ride, 40 minutes on the rollers and 50 minutes on the trainer. Yesterday (Thursday) was an hour run in the morning and 1.5 hours in the pool. The pool workout got cut a little short by lightening at the beginning, although we still got in 2700 yds:

100 swim warmup

9x150 pull on 3'10"

4x50 sprint on 1'5"

6x150 swim on 3'15"

150 cd

I'm praying for the weather to cooperate for ironweekend, as I'm planning a steady 4225 swim, 112 ride and 3 hour run, although not all together.

Tomorrow I'm mostly likely going to do the



and add an hour onto the end of it. I'll hit the pool later in the afternoon, and hopefully get plenty of sleep for Sundays LONG ride.

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure....

10/05/07: Last Week in Review

At long last....I know you've all been patiently waiting for this :)

Last week's plan was for 16.25 hours, and I came very close, although traded some cycling time for some running time, getting in a total of 16 hours and 155 miles....

Swimming: Plan 4.5 hours
Actual 4.5 hours, 5.28 miles

Good swimming week. Not too much to add, other than thanks again to Kevin and his masters group in Naples for letting me drop in for the day.

Cycling: Plan 7.75 hours
Actual 8.41 hours, 130.72 miles

It's all about the bike. Extra time was mainly from fighting the wind on my long ride. Great training for the race in case it's windy (let's start praying now that it's not).

Running: Plan 4 hours
Actual 3.08 hours, 19 miles

Moving my long run to Wednesday worked out great; unfortunately moving Wednesday's short run to Saturday not so much, since I didn't do it :-(

Although I've been great about hitting my key workouts (e.g. long runs), which I've NEVER missed, I haven't been so great with a handful of the shorter runs. Even though they're filler to a certain extent, they still play a part in overall training volume. I promise I'll be better in the next few weeks....

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure....

10/04/07: Catching up on my Blog

Lot's of catching up to do, starting with the trip to Naples.

As all trips seem to go, we left later than expected, and it took longer to get there than expected...we got in around 2 am on Friday night, which definitely took a toll on me 4 1/2 hours later went the alarm went off for me to get up and swim.

A huge thanks to Kevin Erndl, the masters swim coach, for letting me drop in for the day. Kevin has not only put together a great masters group, he's competing in the 70.3 Championships in Clearwater in November. Best of luck Kevin.

If you're ever in Naples, and in need of a swim, check them out. We did some interesting drills including some with a longer stretch cord, which made it VERY difficult to get to the other side of the pool....overall it was a good workout and enjoyable to do something out of the ordinary.

Sunday was time for my long ride. I had been warned over and over about the lack of bike lanes/shoulder and the prevalence of older drivers, the combination of which is every cyclists nightmare come true. Fortunately for me, the snowbirds don't show up in Naples for another month or so, and I had absolutely zero issues on my long ride.

My initial plan was to meet up with a 6:30 group at Clint's bike shop; unfortunately, no one from the 6:30 group had the same plan. Their 7 am group was sizable, although had a very different agenda for the day (shorter and faster), so after getting their thoughts on my route, I set out for a century ride on my own.

I followed the route I had created on mapmyride, going through Fort Meyers beach, over the causeway, and through the very beautiful and very remote Sanibel Island and Captiva. If you've never been there, do yourself a favor and go. It's absolutely beautiful, with spectacular, unspoiled beaches.



The downside of the ride was the wind, which was blowing HARD out of the east. I knew I was going to be in trouble on the way back when I was going 30+ with virtually no effort once I was on Sanibel....on the way back I was going ~10, and that was a struggle. I was going pretty much straight into the wind the entire way back, so much so that I was only going 10 mph on the way DOWN the causeway.....hmmmm....good practice for Hawaii one day....

(just kidding Lori)

At my usual pace, a century ride should be right at 5 1/2 hours. Well.....this definitely was NOT my normal pace.....I ended up with 91 miles in 6:10, giving me a pace under 15mph....I was good for the first hour or so back into the wind...after that my attitude went downhill FAST (even though my speed was anything but).

Riding into a wind like that just wears on you....needless to say I wanted off the bike badly....and finally I got my wish after a very beautiful and thankfully uneventful ride. Thanks to everyone from the Naples velo group and the Naples triathlon club for all of their input. I would have been much more lost and nervous without their help.

Of course after every long ride, no matter how miserable the last couple of hours were, it run time. I put in 20 minutes, which actually felt pretty good, considering...

After a MUCH needed shower, I enjoyed the rest of the weekend with Lori and her mom exploring Naples and their favorite sport, SHOPPING, along with one of my favorite activities outside of tri, EATING.

Coming up is the week in review and this week's posts, which I'm already behind on. Speaking of, this is IRONWEEK....the peak of my training....all of my training over the last 22 weeks, and indirectly over the last year and a half has led up to this week....The weekend alone has me doing a 6+ hour ride, a 3 hour run, and a long swim....The good news? It's all downhill from there....

Live with purpose....enjoy the adventure.....

09/28/07: So far so good....

So far I've managed to get in all of my workouts this week. Doing my long run on Wed night made it a little bit tougher to get in my two rides, since I had to do them on the trainer on Tues & Thurs mornings, and everyone reading my blog know exactly how I feel about my train.

Speaking of feeling, Lori's feeling good these days, as the morning sickness from hell is gone for the most part (thank god!)...stay tuned for a quote from konamommy (ps...don't tell her that's her new blog nickname)

Last night was a solid 3500 yds in the pool:

warmup: 200 x swim, kick, pull

12x100 on 2'15", sprint every 4th....I've gotten to the point of swimming 2 minute 100's very consistently...the sprints were consistently 1'47"

6x150 pull, descend 1-3 & 4-6

8x50 kick

4x75: odds - 50 hard, 25 easy; evens 25 easy, 50 hard

cd: 100 swim

This weekend I'm taking my training on the road to Naples...we're heading out to see Lori's mom. I was fortunate to find a masters group to swim with on Saturday, and a group to at least start my ride with on Sunday. Unfortunately Naples may be one of the most unfriendly cycling places anywhere, since there are practically no bike lanes or shoulders, combined with lots of old people.

I'm planning on doing a century ride while I'm down there, which tentatively has me doing an out-and-back up through Ft. Meyers beach to the very beautiful Sanibel island:



Check in early next week to read my thoughts on sharing the roads with Naples' q-tips...

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure