SpongeBob Fun

Never mind how or why I found this video. I thought it was amusing and I like the song. I will say that it's partially Joey's fault and leave it at that.

A picture speaks a thousand words

I wanted to write a post about Danica winning her first race earlier in the week, but then it was Earth Day, and then I was busy. I started writing all this stuff about gender barriers and role models and nay-sayers and then I saw this picture, which I think says it all, and is hilarious as well.

Happy Earth Day!

I hope everyone has a chance to go outside and appreciate this beautiful world that we live in. Take a moment and hug a tree. No, I'm not kidding. I'd encourage everyone to climb a tree, but I think most of my readers - myself included- would probably hurt themselves if they tried.

I was going to share some excerpts from Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac as some food for thought today, but my friends have been making me laugh all day and I've completely lost my train of thought. Not that I'm complaining, laughing is a good thing. Anyway, Leopold wrote an insightful and philosophical essay titled "The Land Ethic" that everyone should read.

Here are a few significant excerpts from "The Land Ethic" that I have highlighted in my copy of the book:

An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social conduct. These are two definitions of one thing. The thing has its origin in the tendency of interdependent individuals or groups to evolve modes of cooperation. The ecologist calls these symbioses. Politics and economics are advanced symbioses in which the original free-for-all competition has been replaced, in part, by co-operative mechanisms with an ethical content.

All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts.

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

-Aldo Leopold

5K Fun addendum

Turns out that my time from the race on Wed - see previous entry - is a 5K PR for me; at least as far back as 7 years. I don't have any of my 5K times before that. Wohoo! Let's hear it for getting a PR without really trying. It kind of makes up for the crappy race on Saturday.

5K Fun

Wednesday evening was the Community 5k run for Junior Achievement at Ironwood Golf Course. Now I know that a race in the middle of the week might seem odd, but it's on the golf course so it pretty much has to be during the week. I don't normally run on Wednesdays and I teach an evening yoga class so I had to scramble to get there, but I'm missing all the spring 5Ks because of my training, and I feel like I've abandoned my group. Plus how often do you get to run on a golf course and apparently the post-race food is really good and there is a bar in the clubhouse so really what's not to like.

The race was fun - some on the grass and some on the golf cart path - and pretty flat, too. The weather was perfect! We've been having a bit of a mini winter and it was about 60 with only 30% humidity. There were lots of Track Club members and many of the people from my stadium workout. I wasn't out to race, just to run comfortably hard - no heavy breathing, no suffering. I wanted to put in a good effort, but not go overboard since I have a crazy 5 hour brick on Saturday. I ran a 26:40 very comfortably. I also had an opportunity to run in my new Zoot shoes, which I love. Post-race food was bbq chicken, brisket, ribs, potato salad, beans, etc. and friends buying me beer. Wohoo! A good time was had by all.

All done!

The Veteren's Admin Team aka my Tuesday night stadium group
Left to right: Paul, Barry, Me, Bert, and Tony

Maasai Warriors Follow-up

Here is the update from the Maasai warriors website. Way to go!

On Sunday April 13th 2008, a team of six Maasai Warriors ran the Flora London Marathon. Their aim was to raise enough money provide the village with clean water, anything up to £60,000.

Nguvu, Lengamai, Kesika and Ninna completed the race in 5 hrs 24 minutes alongside Soldier Bob and Matt, their personal trainer. Isaya was taken ill half way through the race and was taken to hospital as a precaution with Taico accompanying him. But showing the pride typical of the Maasai, Isaya walked out of the hospital that afternoon and the following day, on Monday 14th April, determined to complete the race they had come to England for, Isaya and Taico returned to the part of the course where they had to drop out and continued around the 14 miles of the course which remained. Aided by professional runners as pacemakers, they crossed the finish line on Monday afternoon in a total running time of 4 hrs 45 for the 26.2 miles.

Having completed the race, it was announced that the warriors had achieved their target of £60,000. We have been overwhelmed by the support shown by the public and this figure will rise as we continue to log all the donations which are coming in. A final total will also be posted in the coming days.

Escape from Ft. DeSoto

Saturday was my first triathlon of the season at Ft. Desoto State Park in St. Pete Beach - 800 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 4 mile run, supposedly. I was looking forward to this race. Joey and I had done a race last August at the same park and had really enjoyed ourselves. The course was a little different for this race, but not by much from what I could tell from the course map. I was especially looking forward to pushing on the bike, but mostly I just wanted to see what I could do. Well, it turned out to be a disappointing race both from my performance and from the race itself. The race report includes some ranting about the race so be forewarned. Let me say that I fully acknowledge that none of these things were a big deal, but all of them together just bugged me, and I also acknowledge that racing in Texas has completely spoiled me, and things like not being helpful when someone has their own chip or having to look at race results in a crappy text file or not have results posted on raceday shouldn't bother me as much as it does. Anyway, here goes.

Race morning started out just fine. I got up, ate, loaded the bike and left. No problems getting to the race site, no problems parking. I even ended up parking next to a bathroom so I went before heading to transition - no port-a-potty for me! 30 minutes before transition closes, doing just fine. Got to body marking - fine, didn't need to get a chip since I have my own AND I had checked to make sure it was in the computer at packet pick-up. It wasn't, but they fixed it. Heading into transition - "Where's your green wristband?" "What green wristband?" "It was in your race packet. You can't get into transition without it." WTF? I do remember seeing a green plastic strip in the packet but there was no instructions about it so I didn't think about it, and I didn't bring my race packet with me because I had put my numbers on everything the night before and packed everything in my tri backpack. I had the race instruction sheet in the car but nothing else. Normally, I bring everything - it figures the one day that I don't, I actually need something. So I explain to the volunteer that I don't have it, where can I get one. He doesn't know, maybe ask the chip people. I'm sure you can see where this is going - after getting pointed to several different places and told that it was explicitly stated in the race packet that I needed the green band, I finally get directed to pre-race packet pick up. Now let me first say that everyone was lovely and polite - they were all volunteers - even if they didn't know anything, which isn't their fault. I kept my cool even though I was getting irritated. I get to packet pick-up and a lovely lady helps me. I ask if she works for the race director. No, she's a volunteer. So I thank her and get ready to head to transition. There's no point in unloading to a volunteer - it certainly isn't what they signed up for. She says she can pass on the complaint so I very calmly explain to her that there was no information in the race packet about the wristband. She said there was supposed to be, but she would pass it on. I thanked her and headed to transition. 20 minutes to go - still plenty of time, and I've moved past the whole wristband thing. I find my rack, set up, sunscreen, and am chilling and drinking water. 10 minutes before transition closes - the announcer guy has been going on and on about how if you are just getting into transition YOU ARE LATE! Like those people don't know that. He also kept going on about how you should always arrive at least 1 hour before a triathlon and that EVERYONE knows that - whatever. This guy had a serious case of passive aggressive - Dude, you are not helping anyone at this point.

I decide that I'm ready to head to the swim start so I start walking, and walking, and walking. Really what Announcer Guy should have been saying is that it is a freakin' mile to the swim start so get going - that would have been helpful info. The swim is a point-to-point so as I'm walking along the beach, I'm walking parallel to the course. First I note that it is a good distance from the swim exit back to transition - about a half mile. Then I'm looking at the buoys and as I get to the start, I'm thinking "That course seems long". I guess other people noticed that because I hear the announcer explaining that the course is 800 meters from orange buoy to orange buoy - that the out and back aren't part of that measurement because the water is shallow for most of the way out. Seriously? Who taught these guys how to set up a swim course? Now I know several of you are thinking "So what? Everyone still has to do the same distance so it's all relative." which is true, except that I have been working on my swim and I wanted a good measurement of how I'm doing and now I don't know the actual distance. The other problem is that the announcer kept telling everyone that they could run out almost to the buoy, so what do you think everyone does - they run. Again, so what you say? Well, once you are past the breakers and the water is over your knees, it's actually easier to swim, but if everyone around you is running it makes it harder to start swimming. I was almost waist deep before I could start swimming - talk about a waste of energy. The swim itself was uneventful - not too choppy or wavy, the water was warm, it was easy to swim straight and sight the buoys. I felt okay, but not great. I must have passed at least 10 people on the way in to the beach because they stood up and started wading at waist deep and I swam and rode the waves further in. I stood up at just the point where the water is still deep enough that it can give you enough support to get your feet under you, and came running out of the water and up the beach. Let's hear it for being able to run barefoot!

I headed into transition and realized something I hadn't processed before - the transition area was long and narrow, just two racks on each side. I was right about in the middle. I guess it's relative - a long stretch to get to your rack or a long stretch down the racks but it seemed like it took me forever to get to my stuff. Helmet, glasses, bike shoes and go! I get out on the road and am starting to get up to speed when I feel the wind - damn it! Okay, it's not a brutal wind - maybe 15 mph tops, but it was steady. I don't remember it being windy last August, but it is the beach. The bike course goes South, East, West, North so I figured there's bound to be a break in the wind and maybe even a tailwind, but not so much. It was a lot of crosswind. There were a few places where the live oaks were close to the road and provided a nice break. I was doing about 16-18 mph in the wind and 22 mph easy out of the wind. Unfortunately most of the course was in the wind. I was feeling frustrated that the wind was bugging me because it's windy in Gainesville in the winter and spring so it shouldn't be a problem. Then I realized that it hasn't been that windy in Gainesville - I've been complaining about how erratic our weather has been this winter and I never noticed the lack of wind. Then I got bummed because I've been biking so much faster this year compared to last year, and I was really proud of how hard I've been working, but how much of that was the lack of wind? It's a good thing it was only a 10 mile bike - who knows what other depressing thoughts I might have had? I will say that I'm glad I didn't ride my tribike. I passed quite a few people in aero that were clearly not used to being there, and were wobbling all over in the wind making it hazardous to pass. No one wants to be one of those people.

I dismounted the bike barefoot - again, so nice to be able to run barefoot. Of course, the transition area pavement was that gravelly type, which is really hard on the feet, so I don't think it saved me any time. I can jog pretty fast in my bike shoes. Off with the bike glasses and helmet, put on running shoes, grab my bottle and hat (with all my other things stuffed inside) and off on the run. I get my sunglasses, hat, and race belt on, eat a Clif Shot and try to settle into a pace. At this point I realize that this is not going to be a good run. Nothing felt bad, but I just didn't feel like I had a whole lot in me, and I had some sore spots in my muscles. I was also having some breathing issues. I was only going about 11 minute mile pace, and I was breathing harder than I should have. I think it's because I had to double up on the sports bras. The bra I wore for tris last year bit the dust, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. Of course that style isn't being made any more. I will spare y'all my rant on larger-breasted women and tri bras - suffice it to say that it takes a bit of time to find a bra with enough support to run in without smashing your chest or giving you the dreaded uniboob, but that is still swimable and doesn't chafe when wet. After the run turn around, which seemed short to me for a 4 mile run, we headed out on the beach. This was an unpleasant surprise for me - nowhere in the race info did I read anything about running on the beach. If I had known that, I might have pushed harder the first half of the run, knowing I wasn't going to do much on the beach. Right at the mile 2 mark, my left foot comes down on a stick in the sand, which pops up and jabs me in my right leg and then scrapes it. I started cursing like a drunken sailor but kept running. I was pretty frustrated at this point, and just wanted to get done. I hit the mile 3 marker and I realize that we are pretty close to the finish - I guess they shorted the run course. I had opted to not wear my Garmin so I have no idea what the actual run distance was, but it felt like about 3.5 miles. I had no kick in me for the finish and just ran in at the same pace I'd been running. I grabbed some water and went looking for the first-aid tent to get my leg cleaned up. I couldn't find the tent. Shouldn't it be right by the finish chute? I spot an ambulance and go ask them. The paramedics pointed me to the first-aid tent, but also offered to clean me up. I thanked them, but said that was okay. I wasn't about to monopolize a paramedic for a superficial wound. The sign for the tent was on the ground facing away from the finish chute so it was easy to see how I missed it. I got cleaned up and decided to head over and get some post-race food. My coach had put an optional 45 minute cooldown run in my schedule, but I decided against it. I didn't think it would do me any good and I was feeling really frustrated to boot.

Now I have to say that the race redeemed itself a bit with the post-race food catered by Macaroni Grill. I ate some and drank and chatted with the other athletes, and started feeling a little better if still bummed about my performance. I found out via word-of-mouth that the deal with the 4 mile run distance is that the distance from the swim exit to the transition area was included in that 4 mile total. Are you kidding? What is up with this race? It's been going on for 22 years AND it's USAT certified so what's up, and why wasn't that bit of info included with the race info. Whatever.

I decided to check my time then go get my stuff out of transition. There was lots of food and beer, but Brian was waiting for me. We were going to get lunch and then go to the beach. Yay beach! I'm looking at the times in my age group and I don't see my name. Okay, well I know my chip was working since I heard the beeping as I crossed the mats so I wasn't worried. I know enough about chiptiming - thanks, Joey! - to know that my time was in the database so I go searching for the timing company. If it had been Run-far 1) they would have been easy to find, 2)this wouldn't have happened in the first place because they would have taken my chip code off of my race registration, and 3)I would have just gone home and sent Raul an email. I start asking around and finally find the timing people in a trailer. It was the same woman who had put my chip in the system at Packet pick-up. She had missed a number - no problem, she apologized, fixed it, and pulled up my time. I thanked her and headed out.

I go into transition, which is getting fairly empty at this point, but there are still a few full racks and some random bikes, and start cleaning up my stuff. This is the part of the race where it's really nice to have a sherpa. At any rate, guys are in there starting to break down the racks, and they are just bitchin' and moanin' at the top of their lungs about people not getting their stuff out of transition. It was after 10am but there was still someone out on the course - an elderly woman cancer survivor who finished in just under 3 hours. I was fortunate enough to get to see her finish. Besides someone still racing, there's a big post-race party going on with good food and beer, and the awards ceremony just getting underway. If you want transition cleared quickly, then you should make announcements saying so. At that point, I had had enough and decided to throw a little passive aggressive fit of my own, so I sat down in front of my racked bike and sent a few text messages. Yes, it was juvenile, but it made me feel better. At least I didn't stick my tongue out at them - although I considered it. I packed up and headed back to the condo, where I had Brian take this lovely post-race picture of me. After all, it was my first tri of the season - even if it sucked. If you look closely, you can almost see a bicep muscle.

Here are my results and post race analysis: Swim 20:52, T1 5:47, Bike 32:27, T2 2:47, Run 39:16, Total 1:41:06 I really can't say much about these results since the distances are wonky. All I can say is that going in to the race I thought 1:25 was a reasonable time and after seeing the distance from the swim to transition, I figured 1:30 was probably more realistic. It is important to note that there was no taper for this race, it wasn't an A race, just a training effort, and my coach had said I would be tired, but I still feel like I should have been able to run 10 minute miles. The bike ended up being about 18.5 mph average, which I'm also not pleased with. I can't even really comment on the transition times since the gravelly pavement definitely slowed me down. I don't know how people run full speed on that stuff. As for the race itself, it's unlikely that I'd do it again. There were just too many little things that added up to make it a mildly annoying experience, and the shwag consisted of a technical shirt, and a Gatorade bike bottle - lame.

Post-race authentic Maryland style crabby patty - mmmmmm!!!!

Afternoon on the beach - it was beautiful!!!!

Happy Birthday Danny!

Today is my youngest brother Danny’s birthday, and like I said previously everyone is getting a birthday post this year. Danny is getting short-changed a bit because Brian and I are in St. Pete Beach for the weekend and the only internet we have is what little wireless we can steal from the neighbors. I had planned on writing this post on Saturday night, which I am, but I didn’t bring my laptop, since Brian brought his, and all the pictures are on my computer. So much for thinking ahead. Luckily I have some photos on the web that I can share - just not necessarily the ones I wanted.

Like I said, Danny is the youngest of the clan and doing quite well for himself. He got married last year to a wonderful woman, and they recently bought a house. I would have to say that he definitely has it more together than I did at that age – no I’m not divulging his age. Men seem to be more sensitive about that than women - at least the men I know. Anyway, I’m very proud of him.

Danny, I hope you have a great day!

Getting the hang of it

Today when I took my tribike out for my Thursday easy ride, I rode it almost as well as I ride my roadbike. I barely even gave it much thought. I rode a little slower in traffic than I do on my roadbike, but it was faster than I have been riding, and I felt really comfortable. Once I got clear of the traffic lights, I got into the aerobars and pretty much stayed there for about 20 minutes until I turned around - downhill, uphill, and even a couple of wide curves. After I turned around, I got back into aero until I got back to town. What really made me happy is that I was able to go over 18 mph and I was able to spin around 80 rpm while in aero. Wohoo! Speed and spin have been the two things that have been giving me a hard time riding aero. For awhile, it's felt like I've been going so much faster in aero than I actually was, and higher spin makes me swerve all over the place. I still have some room for improvement on both the spin and the speed, but it's getting closer to what I do on my roadbike. My control in the aerobars is almost exponentially better than it was last week. I guess the weeks of riding around the neighborhood everyday for additional practice have finally paid off.

I had decided last week that I was getting comfortable enough on the tribike that last Sunday would be my last long ride on my roadbike for awhile. After today's ride, I feel really good about that decision. I really love the bike - it's so light that once I'm on open road I pretty much live in the big chain ring, and it's such a smooth ride. I have still decided to ride my roadbike for the tri this Saturday. It's only a 10 mile bike and the course is flat and fast. It's made for a tribike but I'm still not as fast on the tribike as I want to go for this race. I rode this course last August averaging 19.41 mph and I'm riding much better now than I was then. I'm hoping to go above 20 mph for the race, but after Saturday I'm retiring the roadbike for awhile.

Freak out moment

The countdown clock hit 30 days today. 30 days and counting until Gulf Coast. Tomorrow the clock will be at 29 days. It will be officially less than a month until the race. I'm having a freak out moment, which will soon pass - I hope.

Maasai Marathoners

I've written in the past about why we run marathons or do triathlons, but this evening when I got home Brian told me about six young men who are running the London Marathon this Sunday, April 13th, for a very different reason. Six Maasai warriors are traveling from their village in Tanzania to run the marathon to raise money to find clean drinking water for their village. Years of drought have reduced the amount of potable surface water and the goal is to raise enough money to drill a well to support the village. The warriors will run the marathon in their traditional Maasai garb - just like they dress every day when they are searching for water, herding cattle, or lion hunting. Yes, I said lion hunting. This story is quite compelling to me for a couple of reasons. I love that six young men from a remote, and primitive by our standards, region of the world are playing the charity fundraising game with modern world savvy. Sure, they have help, but still. Just goes to show that you can't judge someone by where or how they live, and in the case of the Maasai, how they choose to live. Check out their website, maasaimarathon.org, and here is a news article with some great photos of the warriors in London. They are still short of their fundraising goal so feel free to spread the word.

How much fun would it be to run a marathon with these guys as company? Awesome!

3 hours can be a long time

I know what some of you are thinking "two posts in two days -what's up?" Rest assured the world is not coming to an end. There really isn't much point to this post, other than I feel like complaining a little out loud.

Sundays are my long ride day and as the Gulf Coast Tri is fast approaching - see the countdown clock to your right - my long rides are 3 - 4 hours long depending on what my coach schedules. Today was supposed to be a 4 hour ride, but the weather gods have been extremely uncooperative. It's been raining off and on since yesterday morning, and today was more on than off. I considered my options and decided against riding in the rain. I'm sure most of you are thinking that decision was a no-brainer, but it really wasn't. There is some value to riding in the rain - what am I going to do if it's raining for Gulf Coast or Ironman - not race? I don't think so - aside from the amount of money the race itself cost, there is the countless hours spent training for the event, and unless the race is canceled, you go no matter what the conditions. That being said - if it rains for either of those events, I might seriously cry. Anyway, it just didn't make sense to do a 4 hour ride in the rain today. Aside from being bad for the bike, the last thing I need at this point is to get sick. Plus I rode in drizzle last week, and I seriously wasn't in the mood. My long run yesterday had been tough, and I was soaked for at least half the run. I had no desire to be wet again.

So what are my other options? Postpone the ride until tomorrow - always a possibility, but it means rearranging my training schedule to accommodate, which is not ideal, plus there is great value in doing your long run and ride on consecutive days; or ride the trainer. The thought of four hours on the trainer made me want to cry, but not as much as riding in the rain. I decided that I would go for three hours on the trainer, but really push it. I knew I was going to need some visual stimulation so I chose The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, the Extended Version for my entertainment. Nothing like a four hour movie to keep you entertained. It's two discs, but I've got the portable dvd player set up so that I can change discs without having to get off the bike. I like to be prepared. So with the movie in, my energy bars, clif shots, and water bottles all set; I got going. I started to lose it a bit around 2 hours - mostly because my girl parts were not too happy. That seems to happen more on the trainer than it does on the road. By 2.5 hours I was getting fairly uncomfortable, but decided if I pushed it just a little harder, I could make 56 miles in 3 hours. I swear at that point, the timer on my bike computer started going backward - it was a very long 30 minutes. I hit 56 miles with about 30 seconds to spare. I almost kept riding at a slower pace because the Battle of Helm's Deep had just started in the movie - a really kick-ass scene - but the girl parts were definitely done for the day. The legs felt really good, though, so that's promising. Now if I can just ride 56 miles in 3 hours on the road, that'll be something.

Coke!

I keep starting posts with the intention that I'll dash off something quick and get it posted for everyone's reading pleasure, and then the post turns into something lengthy and my Attention Deficit kicks in before I get finished. Yes, that happened just a few minutes ago when I gave up on yet another blog entry because I'm tired, my lunch is ready, and I want to go to the gym and get in the hot tub. So here is a quickie for you.

I love Coke! Now I know what every one of you that knows me is thinking, and no, I haven't been brainwashed by aliens, and I haven't suddenly started drinking soda on a regular basis, and I do still think soda is bad for you in general, but there are times when Coca-Cola is a like a minor miracle. Today was one of those days. I came in from my long run - 2 hours in hot, humid, frequent downpours, and sometimes windy weather - and I couldn't tell if I was hungry or nauseous. After a few minutes in the air conditioning, I started to feel a little lightheaded, and decided I was probably nauseous so I grabbed one of the bottles of Coke I keep in the pantry for occasions like this, and after a few sips of the warm beverage - yes, warm - I felt infinitely better. I'm so glad warm, flat coke is a regular item at the aid stations for Ironman. I am sure I'll need it.