All Systems Go!

Great news this week – The cardiologist cleared me to resume training and referred me to an electro-physiologist for treatment of atrial fibrillation. I slept hard this week with my mind now free of worry.

So looks like it’s “game on” for 2008. Don’t feel much like writing complete sentences tonight. Here’s a sketch plan of my 2008 athletic goals:

Goal Race: Chesapeakeman Ultra Triathlon http://www.tricolumbia.org/ChesapeakeMan/
September 27, 2008

Race Goals: Show up to race with 4W/kg functional threshold power.
Cycle closer to my “ceiling” than last year.
Follow ride with a sub 4-hour marathon.

Training Calendar Overview:

January: Re-establish consistent foundation
Feb & Mar: boost VO2 max & threshold strength. Focus on cycling and running.
Apr thru Jun: Base training
Early July: Transition & Recovery – Family vacation time!
Jul & Aug: Big block of training.
September: Taper toward race.

Other events: Got the Nerve? Sprint triathlon on May 24.
Nightmare Ride around Lancaster County on August 16.

Keys to season:
· Cardiac response to training.
· Staying consistent through base training, which will be very difficult in a busy spring. Higher priorities in April through June include coaching baseball (Colin this time), a couple of camping excursions with the boys, and helping to organize the Tri For Kids’ Sake on April 22.
· Quality cycling sessions.
· Quality race simulations.

Looking Back

I turned 40 a couple weeks ago and I’m already sidelined with a health issue. You can see what’s happening by looking at this heart rate data. During intense exercise my heart has been going bonkers, with 30-second episodes of excessively rapid beating. For the past five weeks I’ve been going through a series of evaluations to determine the cause. We now know that the condition isn’t being caused by anything imminently life threatening, but I had a few uncertain weeks right around the holidays.

I came across this meaningful passage yesterday, “It is true that, as a society, we have a tendency to greatly overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, while grossly underestimating what we can achieve in a decade purely by applying unrelenting patience and persistence." (http://alancouzens.blogspot.com/). Wow… What a timely summary of my current state of mind!

After almost exactly a decade of consistent and persistent fitness building, my body has now forced me to pause and exercise “relentless patience.” In the narrow terms of 2008 athletic goals (trees), my health issue is a serious setback. As compared the coming decade (forest), it’s a blip – and a blip that will surely cause me to gain broader perspective on athletics and life in general.

My heart has given me a proverbial slap in the face. Truth be known, I needed it! My athletic goals had become incongruent with my vocational goals. A relatively short-term goal of qualifying for the Ironman World Championships would have massively interfered with my higher vocational priorities. It wouldn’t have worked.

Forced to slow down, I’ve had a lot of time to think with more clarity about the next decade. What does it hold? I only have vague ideas at the moment, but big changes are likely on the way – kids leaving home, career transitions, falling away from my physical prime, etc. A part of me (Mr. Type A) wishes I could control every outcome over the next ten years, but I only need to look back to realize it’s best to leave someone else in control.

I find myself frequently thinking about the past decade – like yesterday when I was driving Kyle to his basketball game. It occurred to me that his lifespan coincides almost perfectly with my adult athletic development. Kyle turns 10 this week. It was 10 years ago, at age 30, that I resolved to make physical fitness a central component of my life. I’ve persistently stuck to it and can clearly see a steady upward trend since my epiphany in 1998. Had you told me 10-years ago that I would complete an Ironman triathlon by age 40, I would have suggested you find a good therapist. A lot can happen over the course of 10-years!


Kyle’s now a strapping and industrious young lad. The comparisons between his development from infant to bright young boy and my athletic growth flow easily. To name a few, I’ve experienced metaphorical teething pains. I’ve had growth spurts followed by plateaus and aggressive behavior followed by time-outs. I’ve had a few night terrors (before triathlon #1 and during IM training). Just like him, I’ve explored with curiosity and surrounded myself with like-minded peers. I’ve attached myself to a few mentors and bothered them with unending questions. I haven’t peed in my bed, but I have peed in my saddle! OK, enough of this. I now need to give myself the advice I’d give to my son in this situation, “Take your time. You’re growing fast enough.”