Its almost time.

Well its tuesday morning and I swear I feel like im back in HS waiting on the last day of class before summer break. I just want to get out of Dayton and on the way down to Panama City Beach (PCB). Real quick reminder that anyone who wants to can keep track of me on race day via the Ironman website. You should just need to navigate to the Ironmanlive link and that should do it. I would link direct here but it wont be active till Saturday so this is the best I can do right now. Again my race number is #358 and you should be able to use that or my name to find out where I am. Lastly for anyone wanting to invest a wee bit more time they will have a live webcast going all day long with cameras set up at key points of interest. Mostly this includes the exit of transition and the finish line. SOOOO that means anyone on the net should be able to watch me finish if they want to. right now I think I will be finishing in the 13-15 hour range which puts me around 8-10pm CDT or 9 -11 EST.

Last minute prep is going ok. I am starting to stress a bit over all that has to be done before I leave and just worrying that I am going to forget something crucially important like my bike helmet or my bike! I realized last week that I had a tire issue so I went to the shop last night and my coach helped me swap out my tire and mount my spare. That went really well and I was feeling really good about it until this morning when I went out to the garage and the tire was totally flat. I had a 160psi (yes you read that right) in that tire and it was totally flat this morning and that shouldnt be. SO I pumped it up again this morning and we will see how it is when I get home today. Im hoping that its a temp / press change thing but that seems a bit drastic to me. SO im not happy about that. Also I have been trying to get arm warmers for like a month now and my coach finally got some and I forget them at the shop. DOH! SO lisa is going to pick them up for me or I might be making another trip out to the shop to buy a new rear tire. DOUBLE DOH! SO outside of the mechanical issues on the bike things are looking good. Im totally immersed in my taper right now and its driving me crazy! I just want to go out and workout and push hard but heres my schedule for the week

sunday - off
monday - off
tuesday - off
wednesday - 30 min easy ride
thursday - light swim in ocean
friday - 30 min easy run, light swim in ocean
saturday - BIG RACE DAY!

SO yeah im going a bit nuts since im used to working out for like an hour each day and now im just doing nothing. But I know this is very important as its time for my body to recover a bit from the training and re-energize!

Well I think thats it. I dont know if I will blog again before the race. I might who knows take some pre-race pics of the expo and what not and throw a quick post up, we shall see.

Real quick I just want to say thanks to everyone who has supported my journey here. The support from all my friends and family has been really great and despite being told "im totally crazy" more times than I can remember I know everyone is really excited for me with this. I cant believe its almost here. This has been one crazy long year filled with many ups and downs. Im just so thankfull that I am getting this opportunity and that I am healthy and injury free.

See you guys at the finish!
Cheers

Bring on the Taper! +Take a # please!

I have my race number!!!! I am number 358! SO know you guys can track me online during the race!!!!

Well I did my "mega" workout this past saturday and WOW it was a total test of both physical and mental toughness. I went 5 hours on the bike and 2 hours of running, but its a little more interesting than that. Since I was going for a 7 hour workout and it does not get light here till 8am right now I did not want to start that late as it would put me finishing around 3pm and that would just take up to much of the day. SO I got my butt out of bed and on the indoor trainer at 5am. OITS! I can officially say that is too early to start working out. SO yeah I did 5 hours on the indoor trainer which my coach says that every hour on a trainer is like 1.5 hours on the road. SO that means my bike effort was equivalent to 7.5 hours of riding which is way longer than I project to be riding in the ironman so that is pretty darn cool. But WOW was that boring. I watched a TON of anime on my laptop and that is the only thing that kept me sane. Also I am officially sick and tired of gels, bars, and sports drinks. YUCK! SO that was pretty tough to just get through. I was getting so antsy by the end of the bike. I just wanted to get off that darn thing. SO I went for the run and I have to say my legs feel so fresh off the bike. I love riding a steep 78-80 degree seat angle, it makes a huge difference. SO I decided that I wanted to bonk on the run and test my mental toughness some more so I didnt bring any water or gels or anything. About an hour in I did in fact bonk and I pushed through it and kept running for the whole 2 hours. Do I think I could have kept running for another 3. Probably not but I do plan to keep eating and drinking on the run in the ironman and I do not plan to bonk. But if I do I am prepared.

SO all in all things are going well. Its 10 days to go and I just want to get there. I still have to much to do to pack and prepare and I just got my new wheels in yesterday so I have to get them mounted and take them for a few spins to get used to them. I have a 4.5 hour workout this saturday so that should be a good time for me to get a feel for them and break them in.

Well thats all for now
Cheers!

Im almost there!

Well things really feel like they are coming together for me and my first Ironman Experiance. I will in no way be doing anything "Amazing" by other athletes standards but I think this is going to be a really good experience for me. Im really getting excited about doing this event which I have to say is really surprising me b/c a month ago I was in sheer terror about the whole thing. Now im so excited its like X-mas!!!!! SO let me give some highlights of what all has been happening:

Last weekends workout went really well. Despite terribly crappy weather 37 degrees at the start of my bike ride and me with little cold weather clothing I managed to still maintain 15 mph avg for the 3 hour bike and put in a solid 45 miles. Had it been warmer I could have gone a lot faster! Then my coach wanted me to run 4 5k's and negative split them.

5k #1
I started on the first 5k and it was purely awful. My feet were so frozen it was a good 2 miles into the run before I could even feel them so that 5k was pretty rough. A little bit of walking and stopping to try and stretch out my frozen muscles in an attempt to get them warmed up.
time of 38:50ish

5k#2
by this time my feet and legs were back in business and I was just fighting to not run faster. Really watched the HR and tried to stay in control and keep myself in zone 2 which is the zone I will spend most of the Ironman in. I felt great during this 5k and ended up with a time of like 38:30ish first negative split!!!!

5k#3
I decided that if I was going to negative split I needed to step up to zone 3 and turn off my heart rate monitors beep function and just ignore the fact that I was out of my "ideal" zone. I instantly picked up the pace and felt really good. I couldnt believe that I was actually accelerating after biking 45 miles and already running 6 but I was. I went entirely to fast and ended up running a 32:30ish for the 3rd 5k. WOW for super negative split

5k#4
I tried to keep up the pace of the last 5k but I just couldnt do it. By this time I was in the upper limits of zone 5 which is not where you want to be. I realized I really blew myself out in the last 5k and should have toned it down a bit. I could not get my heart rate to settle back down to even zone 4 so the last 5k was really hard but I kept running through it and just pushed through. end time of like 38:10ish -- not a negative split but more inline with what I need to be running.

SO yesterday I went and saw my coach and for the first time he was excited with my results!!! This is how our mtgs usually go.

Coach: Ok so how are your workouts going?
me: well I have gotten a few in but have missed these.

Coach: I cant believe you think your going to do an ironman. Do you realize how underprepared you are. Im sorry but your going to die out there. Do you have a good life insurance plan? Man you are going to be hurting bad I hope your ready for a long painfull day. Hey your about the same size as my wife. Can she have your bike when you die from being so out of shape.
me: ummm I dont....know....I guess.....maybe

SO yeah they are usually pretty depressing and he usually tells me there is no way I will make any of my current time goals and that im going to have a tough time even finishing. But after this past weekends workout he was really getting excited. He was all like WOW your going to do this and we did some figuring and if I can keep up the paces that im shooting for I might just be able to break 14 hours which would be sooooooo amazing. Im still thinking 14-15 is where I will be but if I can transition well I think sub 14 is a real possibility. Provided I have a great day and nothing goes wrong. But hey this is ironman racing what could possibly go wrong!

On another note my wheel situation has resolved itself in quite a wonderfull way. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! Here is the quick rundown. I put basically an SOS message on a tri forum that I frequent (ok I live there) sometimes and got a reply. What I have been offered is a pair of carbon fiber tri spoke wheels that retail for $1500 for the pair. Oh but it gets better. I asked the guy if they came with tyres. Long story about why that is important but it is. He said let me check. Oh yeah they come with Continental Competition tyres. I know that doesnt mean anything to any of you but they go for $85 a tyre. yes for 1. SO thats $170 worth of amazing hand made german rubber. SO thats a grand total of $1670 worth of wheels for the bargain price of $200 yes you heard me right. 2 to the 0 to the big ol 0 SO im sooo excited and I have wanted carbon tri spokes forever!!! SO this is really like the coolest thing ever for me.

Well thats about it. I will probably post again after my next workout. ITs a mega workout. 5 hour bike (on the trainer ZZZZZZ) 2 hour run.

Cheers!

T - 24 days and counting!

Well its a little over 24 days till the ironman and I have to admit Im starting to get pretty excited. I watched a video clip this morning from the 1986 ironman and it really helped to put some things in perspective. People have been racing this distance for years without all the high tech gear that we have today. Back then they did it on bananas and water. There were no specially formulated energy drinks, no powerbars, no gu, just normal people making a go of it. I feel that is a pretty good description of me. Just a normal guy making a go of it. SO I wanted to take some time to reflect on the past year. I have realistically done maybe 40% of the training I would have liked to have done. What does that mean? Well it means this is not going to be easy for me. It means I will more than likely be closer to the 15 hour mark of my 13-15 hour time goal. It means this is going to hurt. Im going to feel very alone and Im going to want to quit this more than I have ever wanted to quit anything in my life. But I wont. The Ironman means so much to me. Its a dream I have had for at least the past 10 years and is really symbolic of a lot of things to me. Its a journey that has been going on for a long time and it will be really nice to arrive at the destination. I have read a lot of stuff on positive visualization and I have to say I think its working. About a month ago I was feeling down right freaked out and like there was no way I was going to finish but I have since spent a lot of time just thinking about what its going to be like to be out on the course, how im going to feel and what im going to be focusing on to get to the finish. I think its working and I think I owe some of that to me feeling better about things. I also am starting to realize that I dont have as much to prove as I thought I did. I am not only an athlete but I am a long distance tri-athlete and im learning that my body is really well suited for that. If I had the time and a few less severe injuries in my past I think I could have actually been something maybe not so special but competitive. And im ok with that.

SO in 24 days I will be more than likely somewhere between the bike and the run and thinking about how cool it is that Im doing this. Im going to be hurting, hungry (sick of gels and bars), tired, but most of all I hope im really happy. But the coolest part of the day is going to be when I cross the line and get my congratulations hug and kiss from Lisa and Kaiya!

this is going to be soooo freaking awesome!!!!!

WDW race report wrap up! ~BONK!~

Well im back and as promised I have Pics from the race! w00t w00t! Ok so I know you all are wondering how did it all go? Well let me tell you. I think this distance could really suit me well for racing and hey maybe if I got real good I could get an olympic spot some day since this is technically the olympic distance for tris -- LOL can you say pipe dream! neway on to the race report.

About a week before the race Disney released information that had most of us a bit concerned. It seems there is this killer amoeba that lives in lakes and it seems this little bugger loves to swim up the nose of unsuspecting swimmers and then it proceeds to eat away at your brain and spinal chord until well to be blunt your dead. The total time for this little guy to work his magic is roughly 3-5 days from first contact. Now your saying why am I bringing this up. Well it turns out that the lake we were swimming in meet all the criteria to be optimal for this little bugger to thrive and well yeah when they tested the lake he was there. YIKES! so what did disney do??? they suggested we all wear noseplugs and provided pretty nice noseplugs at the swim start. They also allowed everyone the option to bail out of the swim however their time would not be counted in awards. SO that was a bit of a scare but the closer we got to the race the less "ideal" the lake became and I actually heard volunteers saying they were testing the lake everyday just to be sure that the lake was in acceptable levels and safe to swim in.

SO at 7:50am I along with 61 other people in my age group ran into the water with noseplugs on! I do not feel like a very strong swimmer so I really kinda seeded myself near the back of the back b/c I really didnt want to get in anyones way and I really didnt want to get swum over. Boy was I wrong! It turns out compared to the people there I was not that bad of a swimmer and passed a TON of people in the swim. I still dont think im a good swimmer I just think I was more prepared for the distance then a lot of the guys. I was really surprised how many people were having to take a break before we even got to the turn around in the lake. In general I was really happy with my swim. I stayed very calm kept my heart rate down and just swam at my pace. My ability to sight in the water still sucks big time but thats ok with me. I got through it and I feel good about my swim.

Swim Time = 37:44

T1 sucked big time. I swear we had to run like a 1/4 mile just to get into transition and once there they had all the age groups racked together so you were climbing over tons of people just to get to your gear. These were some of my slowest transitions ever and the course and layout had a lot to do with that.

T1 Time = 3:57

The Bike -- Ok heres a shot near the end where I am looking all aero and studly. I was super duper scared of the bike, not for the distance but b/c I was doing something that you just dont do in Triathlon. I was running new untested gear for the first time in a race. YIKES! So what was new??? Oh only my wheels - nothing major there. Also I got a visor for my helmet and opted to try that over sunglasses. I liked it and the wheels worked great!



SO I decided that I would do the first 20 on the bike easy and then crank it up after that. Well the first part of the bike was awesome and I felt like I was barely working yet I was avg 21mph which is smoking for me! My strategy turned out to be a good one as around the 21 mile mark we really nosed into a head wind and I needed fresh legs to be able to maintain the pace I had been going. And I had those fresh legs. I had an absolute blast on the bike! The course was very very fast and despite it being pretty crowded and a lot (I mean a TON) of unexperienced riders on the course it was just so much fun. I really started hard into my nutrition plan on the bike and was taking in a gel every 30 as well as lots of water and endurance energy drink. I felt like I was really doing well and then something happened around mile 31. My legs started to get cold. Now you might be wondering how that would be possible. The temps were in the upper 90's with 100% humidity. And my legs were getting cold??? Your saying to yourself, now sparky that doesnt make any sense???? Well let me tell you something. The human body is pretty cool and when you get really dehydrated (like severely dehydrated) your mind tricks your body into thinking its cold, why???? So that you stop sweating and conserve water. SO I knew that was a bad thing and kept trying to rehydrate in the last few minutes on the bike but I knew that this was bad and that it was going to be hard to recover and get rehydrated on the run. As I entered the dismount shoot for T2 I sat up off the aero bars and got a nasty cramp in my tummy. Turns out my stomach was pretty unhappy with me too and that was just the beggining.

Bike Time = 1:50:44

T2 Time = 2:09

Onto the run. WOW things went from bad to worse very very quickly. I was glad the photographer was close to the run start b/c I still had enough in me to run hard for the photo and get a good "action" shot.



You would think from this photo that I was feeling really good and going really hard. Well I wasnt. I think I started walking as soon as I passed the camera guy and I ended up walking most of the first loop. How come you ask? Well I felt like total and utter crap. My stomach had claimed mutiny on me and I discovered that I could no longer even take in water without getting sick. I decided I really needed to focus and regroup. I hate walking during a run and it a real big issue for me to be able to stop running and start walking. However this is really a "ego thing" and not a "whats best for me thing" so I re-evaluated and changed my goal for the day from finishing under 3:30 to finishing without ending up in the medical tent. The run was two 3.1 mile loops and the first one was just awful I felt so sick and just like I couldnt move and I was getting more dehydrated. My legs started cramping pretty badly and I was so hot I just wanted to be done with the whole thing. After the end of the first loop I saw my two coaches. Bob yelled out "pick it up and try to run the second loop faster than the first one" I thought to myself "well since I have walked most of the first loop I dont think thats going to be too hard"



So after getting myself settled down and composing myself I decided two things. 1.) I wasnt going to try to drink anything else for the rest of the race. And 2.) I was going to try to run the whole second loop. Well I took a 2 very small sips of water and did run most of the second loop. I was slow but I was moving faster than walking. Below is probably my favorite pic of the bunch. I really like how I look in this pic and I think it really captures how I was feeling and how determined I was to finish this race. Side note. At this point in time I was freezing and had goos e bumps all over my body. What fun it is to race!



SO I got to mile 5 looked down at my watch and figured out I had roughly 20 minutes to finish under 4 hours. This gave me a new goal and one I felt I could achieve. I at least wanted the first number in my time to be a 3. A 4 was unacceptable. SO I kicked it in and ran the whole last 1.2 miles and ran through the finisher chute and was soooo happy to be done with that race.

Run Time = 81:06

Total Time = 3:55:38

Age group place = 35 out of 61
overall place = N/A

SO what happened to me that really threw the wrench in my race? Well I spoke with my coach afterwards and we feel that b/c of the extreme heat and humidity in the start of the bike that I probably lost more salt than I was used to losing and in a very short period of time. Salt is really important in your bodies ability to retain and process water and once you become deficient in it well you see what happened to me. SO it was a good learning experience and one Im taking with me in a month to IMFL. I think I will have some salt tablets or something to try to help avoid this again.

SO that was my race. I want to give a big shout out to Hannah Rumping who is the big reason I did this race. After the race Lisa asked me if I thought about her at all while I was racing and I said "yeah actually I did a lot" I really struggled in the run and just wanted to quit so badly but I kept thinking about hannah and how strong she has been and that if she had quit on herself she would not be with us anymore. She really was the strength I needed to finish and was such a great motivivation to finish strong. SO thanks so much hannah your awesome!

well its about a month till ironman so look for that race report too!

cheers!

SO ive been like ummm busy and stuff.

Ok the last month or so has been really hectic and I have not gotten to blog nearly enough and I know Lisa keeps saying "I need to update Kaiya's blog" We really do have lots to post. TONS of cute pics and even some new super cute video clips of her. Shes growing up so fast but I will leave that to lisa and her update that I promise is coming soon.

Well im like I dunno 43 or 42 days from Ironman Florida and depending on the day you catch me will depend on my response. Most days im pretty freaked out but some days I feel pretty ok about it. I have been getting some longer 5+ hour workouts in and thats helping to boost the confidence but I still need to get to the 7+ hour range to really have the confidence to push through this behemoth of an event. I have really been working on dialing in my nutrition and thats going well. Here is a little lesson for anyone who cares. While exercise the human body can only take in about 400 cal/hour. Yet I will be burning roughly 800-1000 cal/hour so its very important that I take in enough calories so as to avoid the dreaded "Bonk." Racing Ironman is not like most races its a very delicate balance of basically keeping your body just a little bit ahead of the bonk and maintaining that level of energy for the whole event. SO my plan right now is a energy gel every 30 min which gives me 200 calories and then half a bottle or about 10 ounces of powerbar endurance sports drink. Which will give me about another 200 calories or 400 for the hour. SO thats the plan.

SO thats the big thing on my mind but another thing I got going on is another race this weekend. My Team in Training race has finally come and I leave for Florida on friday morning with lisa and kaiya to go down to disney and race. This will be the longest race I have done in awhile and should be a pretty good warm up for my Ironman. My coach wants me to race this all out but im not really sure how to do that. I know how to all out a sprint Tri but the disney tri is like 3xs longer than the longest sprint I have done so if I go all out im going to burn out before the finish. SO im going to have to try to balance and find a pace somewhere between the sprints I have done and the pace I am using in training for the Ironman. The distances for the race are .9 mile swim (in killer amoeba infested waters, im not even joking) Then a 35 mile bike followed by a 6 mile run. Thats pretty long but im shooting for a time of 3 to 3.5 hours. We shall see how I hold up. SO wish me luck. Im totally stressing over my bike. I had to give it up last week to be shipped down and its just feels so wrong to not have it.

Theoretically next week I will have a post up with lots of pics from the race as well as my results.

cheers!

Simpsonized!

Here is a little bit of fun for everyone. Burger King is running this thing that "simpsonizes" you and it works so so but it lets you tweak stuff a little bit more if they didn't quite get it right. Not as good as the mini wii stuff but not bad. SO here is Lisa and Me as Simpsons characters.

Shifting to a harder gear...maybe

Well I have taken a bit of a hiatus from posting lately and I just spent a few moments reading back over the posts I did in july of 2005 and 2006. WOW I couldnt believe how long ago some events happened and it just got me thinking. This whole blog thing is pretty cool. It not only provides up dates for friends and family but it also gives me the ability to look back on my life and remember what was going on at any given point over the past years since I started this. If you know me you know my memory is not the greatest so its nice to have something available to help me remember. SO on to the posting!

SO what is up with me??? Well since last posting in june (sorry its been so long) I have traveled to CA for the first time to see Tim Kochendarfer and meet his family. That was really cool. Highlights of the trip include:

1. Seeing the giant redwoods. I honestly thought this day trip was going to be gay but I went along and WOW was I wrong

2. Pismo beach. Running on Pismo beach is the bomb bizzle. I got to do a nice easy 4-5 mile run with Tim on the beach. WOW did this bring back memories as we used to run together A LOT! but have not in many years.

3. Disneyland. Ok the whole disney thing doesnt mean as much to me as it does to lisa but I gotta tell you. Seeing Kaiya's face during small world made it all worthwhile.

4. watching tims kids try to kill each other and realizing if I have more thats whats in store for me.

5. hearing Tim say "hey we need to buy a house out here b/c this is the spot that would be perfect" roughly every 1/2 hour of time spent in the car. (which was close to 24 hours)

SO that was cali and as neat as it was I actually missed Ohio when we got back. thats not to say that I still want to live in ohio im merely stating that I like ohio better than cali.

This month I FINALLY met with my coach and have spent the last week doing heart rate max and avg tests so that I can get my zones properly set up. Oh the fun! Im feeling better about this Ironman thing, well at least today I am! LOL NEway I should start having structured workouts designed for me and that is really really great. Plus that my coach says a lot of nice encouraging things which I think I really need to hear right now. Im a little over 3 months out and I cant believe it. In like 3 months im going to be getting ready to drive down to FL and compete in one of the hardest single day sporting events in the world.

Work. BOOO HISS for work. Im still "transitioning" and well it kinda blows. Plus that I just found out today one of the co-workers I really like and who has made being here a bit better has taken another job and will be gone in two weeks. BOOO HISSSS on Andy.

Gaming - well I am playing games a lot right now with lisa which is totally cool but they are not the conventional games like you would think. Im playing on XBOX live Arcade a lot now. Uno, Settlers of Catan, and Carcasonne are the games we are playing the most and they are nice 15 min distractions. Well catan is like an hour but you get the point. whats also been nice is hooking up with friends and family on live and playing games with them. I really like the online features modern consoles like the xbox are not only offering but really supporting well so that its a great experience to play in.

Training - well it could be going better but I hope that changes soon. I have felt lost and without direction and now with a coach I hope both of those go away and that I start to get back on track. I am just really lacking the volume that I need right now and its just hard to juggle work, family, and training. Lisa has been a champ though and lets me have saturday morning to go off to the park and swim, bike ,run. thanks honey!

Well I think thats it for now. I dont like the post I just made b/c I feel like I just glazed over a whole month and I could probably write a few short novels about stuff recently but just dont have the time. I will try to invest some more time into this and even if its something short post a bit more regularly.

cheers!

Happy Fathers Day to me!

Ok I know Fathers day was a couple of weeks ago but I didn't really get my big fathers day present till yesterday so I was waiting to post. What did I get??? Something I have been asking for, for months. A night out with my girl Lisa. We have not gone on a date or just had some time for ourselves since december and thats really too long. SO for fathers day lisa arranged a fantastic date for us. It started with me getting to pick where we went to dinner. I chose Perkins which has a ton of benefits. First off they have like the best chicken sandwich on the planet. 2nd only old people eat at perkins so they are usually quiet and not full of rowdy roughians. and "C" most perkins are on the verge of going out of business which means that it doesnt matter what time you show up there you are seated instantly and if you know what you want like lisa and I do you get your food within about 15 minutes of arriving at the restaurant. SO its a good time. Next we went for a couples massage and I gotta tell you - WOW - that was awesome. I got a 60 minute sweedish massage and all I can say is God bless the sweeds. It was amazing and I purposely worked out extra hard yesterday knowing that I was going to get things worked on later that night. After that we went for a bit of ice cream at graeters and that was really nice too. Mocha chip = big time yummage. SO that was the major part of my fathers day present from lisa but wait theres more. She got me the "in training" shirt for my ironman which I have wanted since about January and she also booked me another massage in July which I have to tell you is really going to help the body deal with the training. SO thanks honey last night was really special. SO after the date we came home and played a match of settlers of catan online and just barely lost. I swear we had 9 points and the winner had 10. As we finished our last turn I looked at lisa and said the next guy is our only competition and unless he wins on this turn the game is ours on our next. SO thats cool and we are getting a lot better at it. I think we might get our first win soon!

Training stuff -- Oi! I kind of had a bit of a hiatus which is not good. I got really sick for about two weeks and just could not train consistently and the workouts I did get in were absolute WIC. But im back in the saddle again and trying to get back into it. Im trying to convince myself that waking up an hour early in the morning to run is a good idea but so far my mind has not agreed at 6am when the alarm goes off and so I go back to sleep. I really need to start ramping up the volume but I just dont know where the time to do it is going to come from. OH OH OH big news on the Ironman front. We have secured our lodging and its at the host hotel which is the ROXORS!!!!!!! This is going to be so freaking awesome as we have a condo now that is close to 1400 sqft for the week and Im litterally going to be able to walk out the condo in my wetsuit onto the beach and be at the start. Lisa made the comment. "does that mean we can watch the swim from the balcony?" and I said yuppers. SO im really excited and the place is AMAZING. Truly spectacular.

what else is up. hmm not a whole lot else but hey thats ok.

cheers

Updatage

Well its been a bit of time since I posted anything on here so I thought I would give a quick update.

Training stuffs:
I went to Wheelie Fun last night and got my professional bike fit done. All I can say is wow! I thought my coach Bob was going to do the fit but instead it was this really nice lady named Kathleen. She's learning the ways of bob and I was a good learning experience for her since she had never fit someone to a softride. She was a really neat lady who has done 14 yes count them 14 Ironmans! OMG!!! And 11 of them were on the big island! She has also won her age group at least once in Kona and that means she knows her stuff. She also did Florida so I got to talk to her a bit about that but since she makes her living by coaching triathletes for Ironman I tried to respect that and not be a nuisance. SO onto the fit. I really wish I had gotten the chance to take before and after pics b/c their is a quite a big difference. I thought my back was flat before but it was not and now its really flat. Both Kathleen and Bob were really excited with how well my fit turned out and how well it translated to my bike. w00t! And I have not spent a lot of time on the saddle yet but so far its so much more comfortable than it was before. SO what does all this mean???? It means im going to be able to go faster, longer, and with more comfort than I was before. SO im pretty jazzed. I still have not had time to talk with Bob about my training schedule and just feel a bit lost right now. I know I need to be doing more but im just not sure what. And my motivation has been sapped a bit lately. Hopefully that will turn around soon.

Life at home:
Life at home is good. I love my lisa so much and I love my kaiya bear too. Right now the girls are having a bit of a break from me and are in Boston with Sue and Sara. SO I have been a bit of a bachelor this week but miss them a lot and cant wait for them to get back.

Gaming:
Im a bit dissapointed as I thought I was going to get a lot of time to game this week but due to a deacons meeting on tuesday that just has not happened. Oh well I am still playing FF XII and will be for some time. I also picked up burnout again and have been enjoying that.

Well thats about all that worth mentioning.

cheers!

Im on a Team again!

Yes the joys and delights of being on an organized team are once again upon me. SO what does this mean?? It means 7am workouts in a freezing lake! Thats what it means. Seriously though I have Joined Team In Training (TNT) to compete in the Walt Disney World Triathlon. This is an olympic+ distance event that I will be competing in for a little girl I know named Hannah who was diagnosed with leukemia just a few months ago. I will have a static link in my links section soon but if you cant wait go

HERE

to find out all about it and maybe throw some coin my way!

Thanks everyone!

Cheers!

Taking a Breather

Well Sunday is typically my off day of training and then I go back to hitting it pretty hard with a 60 min or roughly 6 mile run on monday. Well today I said meh to that run! I had a really good workout on Sat. That was a brick workout and consisted of a 20 mile bike followed by a 3 mile run. Plus I have a small race tommorow night 2 mile run 10 mile bike 2 mile run that I am going to really push myself on. SO today I decided I needed a breather. I am back to not sleeping well again - Hooray for sleep depravation! And that coupled with a few other things leads me to think that taking another day off isnt such a bad idea. SO Im taking it easy today. Im gonna mow some grass so im not totally dormant or slouching on the couch but im definitly taking a rest. Oh I got my new helmet in the mail today!



I got the white one and its super cool! It fits really well and I think it will help me go just a smidge faster as it has less drag then my previous helmet. You might be surprised to find out that an aero helmet can have as much of an impact on aerodynamics as your wheels! SO its a good cheap investment in speed. And it looks cool too! And again anything that helps me go a smidge faster and means I will be on the bike less in florida is worth the money to me. Now if only I could find that spare $500 for wheels I would be in AWESOME shape. Well thats about it for me. I was just excited about having a bit of energy and about my new helmet.

cheers!

Can I get some BASE with a side of LSD

Ok ok yeah Im being punny. whoops I did it again. Anyway the phase of Ironman Training im in right now is considered to be base training or slowly getting my body to understand what I want it to do before I start trying to make it realize I want it to do all this faster as well. Oh goodie! And the best way to build base is Long Slow Distance or LSD workouts. SO yeah thats what I have been doing and I gotta tell you im starting to feel the effects. My endurance is definitely increasing but my little cutie Kaiya got me sick last week and that is really sapping my energy as well as ive not been sleeping well again so its monday morning, its 11:40 and im supposed to go for another 6 mile run and im just like ungh so tired. I just want to crawl into bed and go to sleep. I think this is what truly makes someone an Ironman. Its not just the event and the day its all the crap you sacrifice to get there. Well since im not doing anythign else productive I think im going to strap on my shoes and get out there. At least its nice outside!

Other things of note - Mothers day went really well I think I nailed that holiday very very well. Thanks Sue for the contribution to the Bling I know it means so much to Lisa and it will be a very special thing for her for a really really long time. SO thanks again.

Well thats about it for me. My job still has not changed much I have been given a few small tasks but its still business as usual. I'm still playing FF 12 and really enjoying it. Such a good game. Thats about it.

Cheers!

: - (

Ok so things have been a bit frustrating lately and thats partly the reason I have not posted. When all you have to say is bummer stuff I dont tend to like to dwell and thats what I feel like I am doing now. SO I will briefly put up the good stuff.

My first race of the year went really well. The weather was perfect and I felt really good. I shaved 9 min off my time last year and did the whole thing in like 1 hour and 18 minutes so I nailed one of my two goals. the other goal was a top 10 finish. well my age group this year was a lot larger and a lot more competitive and I was 20 out of 33. SO still not bad. I only have a few pics and they are only ok. We forgot Lisa's camera so she took a couple with her phone while taking care of Kaiya so they are ok but not like last year. I have them but just dont feel like posting them today. Maybe tommorow.

Now my frustrations!

Training is going ok but not as good as I would like. Im having a lot of issues making all my workouts and in general and getting maybe 60-75% of them in. I have not swam in over 2 weeks and yeah im just trying to get it all in but its really hard to juggle the training and work and family. I thought I had it down for the first couple of weeks b/c I shifted my work schedule from 7:30-4 to 6:30-3 and that made a world of difference and gave me a good block of time in the afternoon to get a second workout in. But I was told to go back to my other schedule and I have to say im still pretty annoyed by that for a number of reasons. SO thats been really frustrating. However I have made a solid effort to not miss the long workouts for the bike or the run. Each week I have a long bike and a long run and these are key workouts so at least that is good.

My other frustration is equipment. I started off the year with some ideas of some things I wanted to get to make the ironman easier on me. Now im finding that some of my neccesary items are no longer functional. Since I have gone back to training full time I discovered my bike pump no longer worked so I had to replace that. cant really make it through the year without a bike pump. Next my Heart Rate Monitor has crapped out on me and I have had to replace that. Those are not cheap by the way. But my whole training program is based around time excersising and heart rate zone so I cant really make it through the year with out it. And now lastly my helmet is starting to leave a lot to be desired. Besides being hmm oh I dont know 10 years old and probably in need of replacing anyone the interior padding has deteriorated and has exposed rusty metal grommets and hard plastic which is starting to cut into my head while riding. SO I feel like I need to replace the helmet now too. This is just starting to feel like one thing after another and is kind of getting annoying.

SO thats pretty much what im up to. Trying to maintain my training schedule and keep all my crap from breaking down while trying desperately to get my workouts in and I feel like im failing miserably.

Cheers!

Season Opener tommorow!

Ok well its spring and the Tri season is officially upon us! My first race is tomorrow and for the most part I feel pretty good. Im doing the Miami University tri again and this year they have made some changes. First off they pushed it back 2 weeks. Last year is was april 8 and this year its the 21st. I think they realized it was too freaking cold to be racing that early in april in Ohio. Next they pushed back the start time from 7:30 to 8am. I think this is once again an attempt to squeeze out as much warmth as possible. Last year it was seriously 28 degrees when I came off the bike which would have been around 9:15. According to weather.com I should be able to expect temps around 49 degrees at 9am. SO thats a dramatic improvement of like 20+ degrees warmer which will make a huge difference and hopefully I will not have the transition issues I had last year. My final time last year was like 1:26:51 and I placed 11th in my age group. last fall I really wanted to focus on this race and try to win my age group. More on that later. Now I'm shooting for top 10. Im looking at the results from last year and I was just 20 seconds off of 10th place. Thats not that big of a gap to fill. Plus I think I will ROCK my transitions tommorow and I think I can grab close to 4 minutes just from transitions. First place was 1:06 min which I dont think I will be able to touch. My run is just not fast enough however I know the course now and I know what to expect. The bike course is really hilly and I have been focusing on Hill work (kinda) this season and I remember thinking last year that the run course just felt fast to me and I kept holding back not wanting to blow up. Well this year im rocking the run course too. I guess my general point is I have TONS of room for improvement over last year and I think this year race will be a good one for me.

Now on to some of the negative stuff. I know some people think oh this stuff is just easy what issues could you be having. Well heres my bulleted list of monkeys on my back for tomorrow.

1 - earlier in the year I spoke of weight loss that I was hoping to achieve. You may have noticed I have not mentioned that again. The reason is that I have found out its virtually impossible for me to lose weight over the winter time (thanks to my thyroid). I have stayed at a constant 145 without budge at all. well it goes up some days but never below. SO I am still 10 lbs from my 135 goal and 15 from my ultimate 130 goal. what does that mean? It means im still dragging around 10+ lbs of dead weight tomorrow that will slow me down.

2 - I have been having real issues swimming in pools lately. google "sinusitis" and thats basically whats happening to me. Its been awful and I have only been swimming 1 day a week because of it. SO my swimming has not improved as much as I would like.

3 - My Heart Rate monitor has decided that even though I <3 my <3 rate monitor it shares no love for me. It basically does 1 of 2 things. Either I cant pick up the signal so I get no reading at all or, and this is my favorite, I get some kind of echo I think and it says my heart rate is much higher than I know it is. For example I went for a run earlier this week with it. I started to jog and had gone half a block. According to my HRM my HR was 290 beats per minute. Lets just think about that for a second. SO long story short I need a new HRM. booo hisssss

4 - I got a new bike! Ok thats a good thing. Whats not a good thing is like last year I have made a major change to my bike and have had virtually no time to test it or ride it on anything but the trainer. SO im a bit nervous that my first real ride on it is going to be a race and im really nervous about having a mechanical that I have to deal with b/c in a sprint race that pretty much kills you.

5 - last night I went to take my bike out for a spin in the neighborhood to get a better feel for it and try to work out the kinks. Well I found one kink right off the bat and that is my bicycle pump has a whole in the tube that it uses to fill the tires with so the max I can get my air pressure to is 50 psi. Now for people not in the know that doesn't sound so bad. However my bike tire pressure is usually 120psi so 50 is unusable. SO I gotta get a new pump today and im not happy about that.

6 - I really have no clue what to wear tomorrow. I just dont know how cold its going to feel and am going to bring lots of choices which means my transition area will be a little clogged up.

SO in a nutshell thats what im facing tommorow. Im fatter than I was hoping to be. Im not as fit as I was hoping to be. But hey its the season opener and most people are probably in the same boat I'm in.

SO tune in next week for results and photos!

T-30 weeks and counting

Well its 30 weeks till the Ironman and right now I feel like balsa wood man. I would be lying if I were to say the whole thing doesnt scare me. I mean c'mon lets think about this - 140.6 miles covered over Land (running), Sea (open water ocean swim), and I know its a stretch but Air (the bike, my body wont be touching the ground now will it!) and my goal is 12-13 hours. 12-13 hours!!!! OMG thats a freaking long time. thats like driving to florida long time and thats the optimistic side. It could very well take me roughly 15 hours to complete. 15 HOURS! Now thats a freakin long time. SO yeah at this point I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about the whole thing. I know that I can do it and I know that even if I cant quite keep up my training that as long as I put a solid effort in I will finish but there is still so much of the unknown out there. SO many things can go wrong in that race. The Ironman is really different than anything else out there in a lot of ways. Many races that are open to the public most avg joes can enter and they wont win but they will at least finish. The ironman is a different beast altogether. This race demands respect or else it will spit you out and forget about you faster than you can say D-N-F. DNF is that horrible phrase that nobody likes to see next to their name on a results sheet. Did Not Finish. I think thats the fear of most first timers and thats what im facing now. Will I be able to actually train for this monster of a race? Will I be able to anticipate things that will go wrong? will I be prepared for them? What about the things I cant predict, will I be able to improvise, adapt, and overcome them? I know im not alone though. Right now there are at least a couple of hundred other people who for them, Ironman florida is their first race and they are just as scared as me. Right now they are obsessing over things like bike wheels and hydration racks. Trying to shave valuable minutes off the bike with the latest in aerodynamic wind cheating carbon fiber. Wondering what shoes to wear for the run and wondering if a wetsuit can really float the boat anchors that are my legs into a proper swim position.

SO todays the day that my training really kicks off. Today is my inaugural day where I can say I am actively training for an Ironman. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Learning to Run Again

SO ever since I broke the ol femur I have just never felt really "on" again with my running. I have felt really clunky and just like I was moving really unnaturally. In the past 3 years I have had a few runs I would consider good. Runs where I was able to settle into a very nice pace and maintain that for 3-5 miles. This however has not been the norm. Also back in my Cross Country days I got some pretty severe stress fractures in both my shins which still bother me a little bit even today. SO proper form and good shoes have always been on my mind especially with starting to train for the Florida Ironman. I am going to be doing a LOT of running over the next year and thats where I see my biggest opportunity for injury. Its just funny how things work out though. In the past I have tried to get the cushiest shoes I could possibly get. For years I ran only in Nike Air Max's which use Nike's air bed in both the heel and the forefoot. These are not cheap shoes but they felt the best to me. In the last couple of years since starting to run again I have been using the Nike shox system. These shoes use 4 elastomer pillars in the heel to act as shock absorbers that cushion then propel your foot forward again. I ran in about three pairs of those and thought that I really liked them. Heck I ran my marathon in them! However I always had a little beef with them in that they are super duper heavy. SO last fall I was at a store and found a pair of shoes by a company that makes running shoes for woman called Ryka. I was pretty impressed and did some research. They got Cushiest shoe of the year from runners world. SO I thought I would give them a try. What I found was that I couldnt run in them at all. My calves would just lock up and I believe now it was becuase of the nike shox shoes I had been running in. The heel on those is really high and it had totally changed the way I was running. For the worse I might add. SO I really didnt like that and started to ween myself off of the nike shox and back onto the ryka's. I was running mostly with them and that was working but I had a trip the nike outlet a few months ago and they had Nike Free's for dirt cheap. I thought I would give them a try. You see what makes Nike Free's different from other shoes is that they are made to mimic running barefoot. The sole is supper flexible and very thin. I thought they were kinda gimmicky but for the price I thought I would give them a try. WOW was I wrong. A gimmick they are not. SO I have been doing all my running pretty exclusively in them and have gotten up to 5+ miles in these almost barefoot like shoes. Oh yeah and you dont wear socks with them. I'm getting zero blisters! SO this concept of running barefoot was kinda sticking with me so I did a google search for barefoot running. WOW I couldnt believe what I found. TONS of people are throwing away their running shoes and going au natural. And whats weird is it makes sense to me. SO I have started to incorporate barefoot track work into my running workouts. Im up to maybe a 1/2 a mile so far which is not very much but it feels so good. You see to run barefoot is to completely go against the way running shoe companies (RSC) want you to run. RSC's want you to take long drawn out strides and land smack on your heel with your leg extended. Why do they want you to run like this? B/c it hurts! It hurts a lot. your ankles, knees, hips, back, just about everything. However if you run barefoot your heel never really hits the ground. You use your ankle and knee and hips to absorb the shock naturally when you land on your fore foot. SO tell me. what makes more sense to let the impact of your weight in forward motion be controlled by 1/2" of high density rubber foam or for that weight to be evenly distributed over three different pivot points in your body. I just cant believe it still. when I run using the "conventional" method im pulling 40 second laps on the indoor track. at 15 laps to a mile thats a 10 minute mile. Thats pathetically slow. But running barefoot im easily in the 30 second range for the same laps. Thats a 7.5 min mile! And its more comfortable and is requiring less effort to go faster. But heres the catch. Im discovering what many other people like me have discovered. That years of running in super cushy shoes have caused the muscles in my feet to atrophy. My feet are week and fragile and I have to take this barefoot thing slowly to build back up the muscles in my feet and avoid injury. SO how far will I go with this? I dont know. I have read about several people who have become barefoot marathoners. That the asphalt really isnt that bad. I am probably not going to go that far but I am really looking at alternative shoes. Im looking for shoes now that allow freedom of my toes which im discovering can really aid in balance and control while running. Im also looking at shoes that have primarily no heel cushion at all to them. I see now that the heel cushion is evil and even in my Nike Free's the heel is so big that I cant avoid landing on it and therefore it messes up my newfound stride. SO I'm really interested to see how this goes as men in my family have often been plagued by foot problems and have had to wear orthotics of some kind. Im starting to realize those are part of the problems as well. A stong foot and is an injury free foot. But thats a whole other rant ^_^ SO if you see me running barefoot dont ask me if I forgot my shoes, just try to keep up!

cheers!

If I could save time in a bottle...

Ok I'm not a big Jim Croce fan and if it were not for Time life music collection commercials aired when I was a child I don't think I would even know about his music or who he was but that line has always stuck with me for some reason. SO yeah im sitting here on Monday morning and I just feel really overwhelmed with everything I have to do and whats really frustrating is that the "have to do's" are trumping the "want to do's." I wonder sometimes if this is what its like to be an adult. Do we really lose all say over what we do and where we go? Do we just become a slave to our lives and sit idly by and watch the years pass? I have been fighting that notion but I feel like I am losing that battle. It just seems like the older I get the more responsibilities I have to take on and the more people expect of me and that leaves little time for hobbies or activities I would like to do. I think I have really been noticing this with my training for the 07 Tri-season. I am still really excited about it and really looking forward to the various races I will be competing in but my expectations are starting to wane a bit. Back in Nov. If you asked me about the Miami University tri I would have told you that I thought I could place. Maybe even win my age group. Now I'm just hoping that the weather is nice and that I beat my time from last year. Or I could just be hitting my annual cold ohio weather funk. Lets give it up for seasonal depression! I'm so sick of the cold and just want it to get warmer. Oh well enough whining from me. SO whats going on with me???

Work. ugh. Things are super busy and I'm anxiously awaiting my new position.

Training. - Is going ok but the big news is I got a new bike!!! Its a kind of bike I have wanted for a really long time and its a size that will fit me! Its so tiny it rocks. Its a softride lite and when I get done updating the cockpit I will snap some pics and post them up. w00t for bicycles!

Family - Kaiya got her first cold last week and its still lingering. She has now gotten lisa sick and me slightly sick so thats fun too. She is about the most pathetic thing I have ever seen when she coughs and it makes me wonder how my parents ever handled my bronchitis and pneumonia filled childhood. However, and this is the cool part. Last night, for the first time ever, she giggled and then she laughed. Now im not talking a little laugh, im not even talking LOL kinda laugh. I'm talking about the full fledged ROTFLMAO kind of laugh which got lisa and I laughing which just egged her on and made her laugh even more. It was awesome. Whats even funnier is what triggered it all. Lisa looked at Kaiya and said "are we gonna see bobba fett?" and Kaiya just LOST IT!

Gaming - Lisa and I finished up both Lego star wars games and wow was the second better than the first. the first was a total letdown after playing the second one so if anyone out there has only played the first one. Get the second its so much better and so much more fun. Im still working on enchanted arms and thats cool and really picking up but I'm just DYING to play FF12 and just cant wait for it.

Well thats all for now - cheers!

spillin the beans

Ok so yeah I was a bit vague in my last post but well I had to be. SO what was I reffering to. Well my job. Ok dont get me wrong I do like the place I work and for the most part things are pretty spiff but I have to tell you that when I signed on to this gig 6 years ago I didnt think I would still be doing essentially the same tasks today as I was when I was hired. SO yeah to say that I am burnt on this job is pretty accurate and im tired of feeling crispy! SO whats the change? Well they created a new position here called server specialist. Basically the position will revolve around maintianing all the various systems that we have here and keeping them up to date. As well as learning SQL and doing a TON of stuff with SQL. I actually kind of excited about the SQL part b/c its something I know nothing about. An uncharted area just waiting for me to explore and conquer. Also the big pull of the new position is it will get me out of purgatory or what most mortals refer to as first level phone support. sigh -- 6 years of that has taken more than 6 years off my life. From arguing with various Telco's why a T1 was down and if it was in fact their problem to actually getting into a yelling match with an in-duh-vidual over weather or not a T1 was 1.5 mb/s total bandwidth (the worlds viewpoint) or 1.5 mb full duplex therefore 3mb/s (his viewpoint) have left me jaded, bitter, and in general pretty unhappy. I pretty much cringe when the phone rings and the hair stands up on the back of my neck. Really how many times can a person hear "umm I think the internet is slow" before it kills a little piece of their soul. SO the good news is that at least in the near future that chapter of my life will be behind me and I can move on to brighter sunnier pastures. SO as exciting as this is it comes with a bit of a delay. I cant assume the new spot until my spot is filled and I have trained the new "person" SO it could be upwards of 4-6 months before any of this takes effect which stinks but at least their is hope on the horizon and as Lisa has said, shes happy I stuck up for myself and actually tried to change something instead of just being a doormat. Ok I paraphrased a bit but you guys get the point. SO thats the latest with me.

cheers!

Where are you?

Ok i know I have not posted in a bit but yeah ok whatever. SO whats been up with me lately? Well i'm going to be a bit vague on one area of my life but if you are sharp you might pick up on what im talking about.

begin rampant vagueness

Ok so have you ever been in one situation for a long time and started to feel like maybe it was not the best situation to be in anymore but you were just sticking it out? Did you ever get to the point where you started to try and change that sitch? Well I have and what funny is its making me realize just how much I dislike the current sitch im in. However an alternative prospect is on the horizon that would be, in my opinion, leaps and bounds better. I just want to get out of purgatory!

end rampant vagueness

Training:
Ok so Ironman !! w00t w00t! My training has take a hiatus this past week because I suffered what I think to be my first moderate injury of the season. Whats weird is its nothing of what I expected. I think I got chlorine or some kind of chemical poisoning from the pool I swim at. I felt awful for about 4 days, sneezing, majorly congested, with burning eyes and skin. Yes thats right my entire epidermis was experiencing a mild burning sensation for roughly a week. However yesterday I hoped back on the horse and did a nice 40 min run. Today I have a 45 min easy spin on the bike scheduled but I don't know if I will get to that. more on that later.

The Ironman Florida store finally updated their products for the year and this little baby is going to be added to my wardrobe very soon I hope.

Life at home!!!!:
Things at home are awesome. I always liked coming home before but now that I have Lisa and K-bear (he he he) its just so cool. I love my little girl so much and shes so gorgeous and just so amazing and everyday im just so amazed that she's real. Ok enough gushing so whats really up at home? Well Kaiya is really growing and we go for her 2 month appt on monday so look for updated height weight info on her blog either mon or tues. what else....hmm....Oh yeah we got another car! Kinda came out of the blue and its a really long story but we bought a 2003 ford focus ZTS sedan from my neighbor. I say bought but I should really say stole b/c he sold it to us for roughly half its value and im not kidding which is why we even got it. SO the current Knodel vehicle count is this:
1999 Mazda Miata - our date car ^_^
2005 Hyundai Tucson - Lisa's new ride (my old car)
2003 Ford Focus - My new ride
2000 Honda CBR F4 - my motorbike.
Yeah thats right so we now have 3 cars and a motorcycle and two drivers, although I think kaiya will be asking for the keys to the miata very soon! Right now we are not planning on getting rid of any of them but in the spring we will re-evaluate and might get rid of the bike. Just not sure. Other than that this weekend the fam is going down to Nashville to meet up with the wrights to have a fun filled weekend of hanging out telling old stories and just relaxing in general! The hotel says it has a fitness center so we shall see what that means. Im hoping for an bike and a treadmill that both work b/c then I will still be able to get my workouts in. Otherwise this weekend might be a wash. Well see.

Gaming:
right now im playing enchanted arms which I have to say finally at around the 20-25 hour mark the story started to pick up and get interesting. Man was that a slow starter. But so far its a good game and im not rushing it despite the fact that I have final fantasy 12 calling to me in my sleep. play meeee plaaaaayyyyy meeeeee!!!! LOL

Lisa and I also started Lego star wars the original trilogy and its GOBS of fun. Lets just say the best moment in videogame history is lego chewbacca jumping on the chest of a lego stormtrooper and ripping its arms off!!! It just makes me so happy to think about it!

Well thats all for now I thinks

Cheers!