Another Ironman Ramble

Christmas night I finally sat down and watched the NBC coverage of the Ironman World Championships in Kona, HI. I see this program every year and it's the first time that I can remember them showing how brutal an Ironman bonk can be. Did you see it? Folk staggering, sobbing, crashing, barfing, and getting carried off on stretchers. Good family fun! They still can't do the race justice by editing it down to a little over 1-hour of air time, but I applaud them for allowing viewers to see it's not all about story book endings.

I read and copied this quote when training for Ironman in 2007. I can't remember who wrote it (maybe it's in "Going Long" by Friel & Byrn?), but I used this passage to keep me focused during training,

"The Ironman rewards preparation, planning and patience and it can brutally punish those under prepared, those with self doubt, those who are physically under -trained and equally those that assume their right of passage instead of earning it.
I often think a video clip showing athletes at the back of the run course, sobbing in pain or just sheer fatigue would portray a very realistic side of the Ironman. This portrayal would not be good for marketing, but the reality of the event is that if you get it wrong, you usually get it horribly wrong."

Most athletes have a good healthy respect of the Ironman distance. But I can attest that it's easy to fall into the trap of feeling this "right of passage." In the past couple years I've surrounded myself with Ironman freaks - literally hundreds of athletes that live and breathe Ironman. We publicly track training metrics. We talk about training, gear, and nutrition. We plan epic training weeks and share race reports. Training and racing is still cool, but the magic can get stripped away. It's like waking up one morning and realizing Santa isn't real. Christmas is still cool, but the mystique is gone forever.

Converting my mindset from simply wanting to finish strong to wanting to compete and contend is proving to be so very hard! My ego has taken a good healthy pounding by masses of athletes that can just simply kick my ass. I've been practicing what I preach to my boys, "If you want to get stronger, you should play with the bigger boys." It's a difficult position because, even though I can't keep up with the varsity kids, many of my JV buds no longer want to train with me as I get faster. The way I see it, the only thing to do is keep my foot on the gas pedal.

Holiday Run Challenge

I'll be interrupting my normal training to participate in the Endurance Nation holiday run challenge. http://www.endurancenation.us/en_coach/challenge_run_Dec2008.php. If you have any interest in participating in one or all runs with me, let me know! I'm thinking a group run on New Year's Day might be fun (& interesting)!

Craving a Silent Night

My little experiment netted a little over 20 less e-mails per week. The past two weeks I’ve sent 51 new e-mails as opposed to my previous 70+ weekly average. This was a really healthy exercise that I hope to sustain over the long haul. If you figure that an e-mail consumes 3-minutes of time on average, I’ve either gained an hour per week or used that time communicating with colleagues in a more effective way. Win – win.

This time of year is pretty tough on me. My quiet alone time almost completely evaporates among the cacophony of parties, sporting events, travel time, & church activities. Work doesn’t slow down for the holidays anymore (I’m thankful for this given our economic crisis). Added to the noise this year is the ongoing renovation to our home. We’ve been living in a partial, dusty home for quite a while now. Introverts need their sleep & quiet brain recharging time! Two moments in particular sustained my week – One evening Kyle & I shared a couch and read in a quiet room for an hour. Last night we sat and watched a movie in a quiet room. No channel surfing, no kids arguing, no telephone rings, no food / candy negotiations. Just quiet – family – time.

Planning the upcoming triathlon season has also been therapeutic. I’m thinking of turning exercise ascetic for some time this year - Just me, my bike, some books, and a bed.

My body seems to be adapting to the new off season training stimulus. No arrhythmia issues for a couple of weeks despite pushing hard on several workouts. This makes me very happy! Last year at this time was one of the more stressful periods of my life as we were trying to diagnose my condition.

I wish you a peaceful Christmas. Count your blessings. Reflect on the past year. Listen to your calling and plan accordingly.

Tough Love thru E-mail

My "in box" is completely out of control. Last weekend I cut the in-box count by 300+ e-mails and I still can't dig my way out. That only scratched the surface. For the past month or so I've been dishing out some tough love and only reading those e-mails that seem truly urgent or important. Everything else has gone unread. If you are one of those unread affected writers just know that, yes, I still love you. I AM JUST LOSING MY FREAKING MIND with these darn e-mails!!! Ahhhhh (eyes dancing, fingers quaking)!!!!!

I've been looking at my own sending patterns just to make sure I'm practicing what I preach. This week I sent 74 e-mails. Of those, only 16 were initiated by me with new content. My goal next week is to improve that ratio of new content versus perpetuating discussions via Outlook. There are just much better, old fashioned ways to communicate! (Sometimes we don't need to communicate at all - you know, the FYI e-mails and cc: deals)

Just doing my part to stamp out adult ADD.

Change of Seasons addendum #1

Friday evening I forgot to mention the importance of nutritional discipline, and how it basically tends to disappear once the triathlon season ends. This fall I started to fall off the caffeine abstinence wagon (I never fully abstained, but managed to reduce daily intake to somewhere around 40 to 50 mg). So yesterday, in my predictable overly reactive fashion, I COMPLETELY abstained from caffeine. I felt fine until I woke this morning with a raging migraine headache! A nice breakfast, a couple Advil and a stiff cup of coffee later and I am now back among the living. Obviously pumping my body full of stimulant has adverse effects on heart rate. Caffeine addiction is practically celebrated among endurance athletes. Not good...

So yesterday morning I said yes to a game of pick-up football. With the stop & go sprinting involved in that sport, I had legitimate fear of bad Afib onset. Early in the game my heart was fluttering a bit, but I was able to keep a quiet mind (also a factor in preventing onset) and prevented my heart from racing. As my body adapted to the game, all symptoms completely disappeared. My old fast twitch gifts kicked into gear and I generally had a blast. So what happened? How could I possibly completely redline and avoid Afib symptoms? I HAVE NO IDEA! It is simply a mystery. Somehow my cardiovascular system found a state of equilibrium as it was simultaneously being thrashed.

So what will happen today as I complete my run workout? My main set will be 2 x 2.5 miles at a zone 3 pace (of 5 training zones). My prediction... If able to keep a quiet mind I'll complete the main set without having to shut it down. If not, I'll be walking. We'll see what happens!

Change of Seasons

Alrighty… time to post. Life marches onward.

The boys both won their respective football championships last weekend. I’m proud of them. Not because they were on the winning side, but because they are thriving and generating their own glory days (Although I must admit, watching Kyle pick off two passes and score two touchdowns & a 2-point conversion in the semi-final game caused my voice to disappear for a couple of days!). Their discipline and attitudes remained strong through a long season. I’ve become a big believer in youth football. I could go on about that subject but will save it for future post. Suffice to say, I welcome the youth football debate!

On to basketball we go. Kyle made the Hempfield 5th grade travel squad. I’ll be coaching Colin’s 7th & 8th grade team. Hope the boys are ready to run! :-)

Unfortunately my incidence of heart arrhythmia is on the rise. This is precisely the time last year that it first surfaced with some continuity. (Reflecting on my life before triathlon 7+ years ago, I can remember some incidences during pick-up basketball games). Why? My theory – that no doctor seems to fully comprehend – as follows:

• Stress... October through March is “make or break” time for my department. During these months we simply must acquire about 80% of the work that will carry us through the coming year. Finding, advocating, proposing, defending, risk reviewing, and negotiating… I take these responsibilities and the livelihoods of my employees to heart. I think literally.
• Change of seasons... Darkness. Cold. Cold weather seems to make a difference. Of interest, my father died from a heart arrhythmia in late October several years ago. I don’t think this is coincidence! I think it’s genetic.
• Change in training stimulus… By now I’ve cycled down from my late summer – early fall training peak. I’ve gone through some period of “de-training.” Now I hit myself with short & intense workouts aimed at boosting functional threshold and VO2 max. This might not be the best approach for a chap with my condition.

I’m going to stick with my training plan unless the Afib turns chronic. If it does, I’m going to have to shift gears and follow a more traditional training approach. I’ll keep you posted! My outlook is good, regardless of outcome.

Happy Thanksgiving…

Playoff Bound...

Both boys' football teams look strong heading into the playoffs this weekend. Kyle had another big 50-yard reception last week to help seal a 14 - 0 win. So cool! Hopefully we have games for a few more weeks!

I started my Endurance Nation Off Season plan this week. My focus for the next 15-weeks will be low volume, high intensity - an attempt to boost my top end speed on the bike and run. I'll say bye-bye to the pool for a little while.