Ned1313

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 15-17?

The inevitable slide into madness, its gaping maw hot with sickly breath.  Perspiration gliding down my forehead to rest at the outer edge of my cornea; a stinging mote pulsing in time with my heartbeat.  Each pump a black spot, each breath a shudder.  The craggy red-limned outline of Mount Doom squats on the horizon.  It beckons me forward, coaxing me to take one more step forward.  To dangle at the precipice.  Caution thrown to the wind, and blared back at me in resonant heat waves that shimmer the summer air and distort my vision.  The Eye of Sauron is upon me, and its weighty gaze threatens to pierce me and render my remains to ashes.

So it was hot this week is what I am saying.

I am way behind in my posts, and for that I apologize.  Somehow I thought that training for a triathlon and moving to a new house, while delving into a new project at work would leave me time for writing on the blog.  I was wrong.  Incorrect even.  Unfortunately this week provides little in the way of relief.  We have to actually do the moving of physical objects from one location to another, while also transferring a rather large amount of money from one entity to another.  One requires extensive preparation with weeks of packing and organizing.  The other simply requires the intestinal fortitude to look at sums larger than your current net worth and say, "Yeah, I'm good for that."  The most shocking portion is that anyone believes you.

Adulthood is not something that just happens one day in your mid-20s.  I mean maybe that's what happened to you, but I'm speaking anecdotally here; maybe I'm the anomaly, but I doubt it.  Anyway, you don't just wake up one morning and realize you're an adult and convey yourself in a manner befitting a mature human being.  Nope.  It's a gradual process with its share of pitfalls and pratfalls and a learning curve just steep enough to be occasionally uncomfortable.  When I bought my first house, I didn't think about this too much, at least not enough to actually feel the gravitas of the situation.  Some very nice institutional lender had decided that I was a sufficiently low risk based on a paltry amount of information, and as a result lent me a significant amount of money.  Of course this was early 2007, and I'm pretty sure my cat could have been approved for a 0% down 5 year ARM at less that 4% APR for a $450,000 house.  It was a weird time in general.  Mortgages were being approved about as fast as the underwriters could pump out the appropriate forms, and sometimes not even then.  It's like I could hear the director in the background yelling "That's fine we'll fix it in post", post being the point at which the bank forecloses on the house Mr. Jangles bought with a meow and a knowing grin.

My experience this time around was more like a trip to the TSA, except with slightly more courtesy.  Financial records were combed over methodically, paystubs copied and forwarded, bank statements signed by bank managers.  This is how the operation should be run.  It's ridiculous to expect a lender to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars on the basis of a credit report and a handshake - not even that really, a virtual handshake.  The housing crash that followed the building tsunami in 2007 is still being felt, and judging by the number of foreclosures on Trulia, I was not the only buyer who received less than ample scrutiny.

But that's not really what I was talking about.  My point was that adulthood creeps up on you, and you find yourself contemplating what order to pack your house rather than what to pack for an overnight at a friends house.  A busy Saturday consists of packing and haircuts and a trip to Toys'R'Us.  All of which is over before young people have started their night.  In bed by 9pm and ready to start the whole circus over again at 5am, when the youngest will wake up and demand to be fed.  One of the things that you lose with your youth is the amount of free and unplanned time.  No obligations and little responsibility.  That would be awfully convenient, especially if you were trying to train for a triathlon.  Alas, children and pets need to be fed.  Lawns need mowing.  And work needs to be completed.  Time is a precious resource, and everyday you have less of it.

Raise a glass dear friends, and then get back on the bike, cause there's more training to be done.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 14

Boy howdy, did I do a number on my left foot!  After the Broad Street Run I took a few days off from running to let my foot heal.  Then I tried to run on it two days in a row at the end of the week.  Saturday morning I was hobbling around like a cripple.  it's a good thing we didn't have anything to do that weekend... oh wait we totally did.

For this week (which is basically over), I took the entire week off from running and only cycled and swam.  Like I said before, these are the two things I need to focus on most.  The injured foot gave me a good excuse for something I needed to do anyway.  Tomorrow we have a team brick workout with 90min on the bike and 20min running.  My foot feels 100% better, and I am not worried about the run at all.  Actually, I am more concerned by a 90min bike, since I don't normally go for more than an hour.

Speaking of being out on the bike, there's one thing you have to deal with when cycling that just doesn't come up in running, and that's flat tires.  Of the multitude of ways you can get a flat tire, I think mine was about as good as one could hope for.  I must have sprung a slow leak on Monday while I was out, and when I wheeled my bike out of the basement (don't ask) on Tuesday, it had a flat tire.  In fact, I didn't notice till I went to put it on the bike rack.  I brought the bike back inside and went into the satchel under the saddle to retrieve my patch kit and spare tube.  That's when I discovered that I didn't have a spare tube.  Now bear in mind this is my first flat tire with this bike.  I've been riding around for months thinking I had things covered with my little pump and patch kit.  And now I discover that I hadn't possessed a spare tube at all.  Well, if I'm going to discover that I have a flat tire and no tube to replace it, that's really the best circumstance I could hope for.  Of course at the time that's not what I was thinking.  I was thinking...well let's keep this PG shall we?

I was also supposed to swim that morning, and in the confusion I managed to forget that I hadn't packed my swim trunks in my gym bag.  Everything else was in there - towel, goggles, etc.- but nothing to swim in.  When I arrived at LA fitness I realized my error and...well I'm still trying to keep this PG okay?

I also hit my head on the trunk of my car and I think I spilled coffee on myself.  It was a FAIL day all around.

Despite some setbacks and a less than stellar start to the week, I still managed to finish strong and get all my workouts in.  The Philly Tri is coming up soon, sooner that I had realized.  It's becoming a bit more real, and if freaking me out a bit more.  I hope I can do it.  After all the support from everyone, I don't want to let them and you down.  It just means I have to work extra hard in the next few weeks before the pre-race taper.  

Enough talk then, back on the bike!

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 13

The Broad Street Run was a mix of awesome and annoying.  As for the actual race, it was a lot of fun.  Running through Philly was great, and there was an amazing number of people out to support the runners.  Temple University had their marching band out and playing for us.  Every block there was a group of people with signs, or free high fives, or drums, or something to cheer you on and put a smile on your face.  The course itself was super fast, and almost entirely downhill.  I ended up running a 1:15:44 which is a 7:32 mile!  That beats my previous best ten mile by about 4 minutes.  Unfortunately with all that speed my form was not all that great, and I ended up bruising the outside of my left foot.  It hurts to walk on today, and I may have to take the rest of the week off from running.  So I'll just focus on swimming and cycling instead, which is what I need to do in general anyway.

There were a number of things that I found irritating about the race, and they will probably prevent me from doing it again.  First off, the race was simply too big.  I generally prefer to run alone or in a small group.  Some people are into running for the social aspect of it, and I understand that.  Some people also really like being in big groups, which I also understand.  I don't like either of those things.  When it comes to events, I would much rather go to a small intimate affair than a packed stadium.  The BSR was very much a stadium affair, which coincidentally ended near three stadiums.

Secondly, everything that was not the race was frustrating.  Endless lines everywhere would be a good way to describe the rest of the morning.  I waited in line to get on the subway, then to get off the subway, then to go to the port-o-potties, then to get out of the port-o-potty area, then to get into the corral, then to drop off my gear, then to go to the starting line.  And that's all before the race even began!  After the race it was time to wait in line to get water, then to get food, then to get my gear back, then to get on the subway, etc.  It was a lot of time and effort.  I left my house at 6:45AM and returned at noon.  That's five and a quarter hours, during which I ran for one and quarter.  The other four hours?  Waiting in line.  And I took the train and subway to the starting line.  If I had driven to the stadium first, then add another hour of traveling.  For a ten miler, it's just not worth the hassle.

Third, this was such a commercialized affair that it started to really grate on me.  You have to pick up your packet at the expo, which is inconveniently located down in the city.  In order to actually get your packet, the expo designers decided to make you walk to the very end of the hall.  But that was just to get your bib.  Then you had to walk to the other end of the expo hall to get your gear bag.  This was no accident.  They made sure you walked past every exhibitor twice!  I tried walking back down the hall after getting my gear, and an expo official made me walk down an additional isle of exhibitors.  It was under the guise of traffic flow, but I could tell it was a petty attempt to make me walk past the maximum amount of vendors.  At the actual race the opening announcements mentioned every sponsor multiple times.  Each mile had some type of branding.  At every step of the way I felt the marketing message being forced down my throat.  Now, don't get me wrong, I understand that sponsors serve a purpose and that the race is a commercial event.  But it was so obvious that it felt oppressive.  Maybe this is the way all the big events are these days, and I don't notice because I avoid big events as a rule.  When the advertising is so pervasive and so constant, I feel like I am being yelled at; and my response to being yelled at is to ignore what the yeller is saying.

Fourth and finally, and I'm really starting to nitpick here, people refused to follow corral assignments.  The BSR sets up colored corrals based on how fast you think you will finish.  That way you are paired up with people that run at a similar pace.  In theory, you won't have to jostle for position too much, and you can set your pace to the other runners around you.  People completely ignored the corral assignments.  While I waited to start, I looked around me, and 1 out of every 3 people had the wrong color for the corral.  The end result is that I literally spent the entire race passing people who started in the wrong corral.  It was annoying and at times hindered my progress as I had to try and make a hole through packs of slower runners.  40,000 people is a lot of dang people, and the BSR was trying to make it easier for everyone.  Way to screw it up jerks.

As a coda, I do want to say that I understand what a massive undertaking the BSR is for its organizers.  Getting 40,000 people, their family, friends, and supporters moving from one end of the race to the other is a monumental task.  The fact that it works at all, let alone smoothly is a tribute to the efforts of all groups involved.  I want to thank the race officials, volunteers, the Philadelphia Police, the FBI, and anyone else who contributed to a safe and enjoyable atmosphere.

Ultimately, the BSR is a huge success, which ironically for me is its biggest flaw.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 12

Halfway there!  My donation total crossed over the halfway mark this past week.  It's amazing to be surrounded by so many generous friends and family.  The actual total is $1,105, but I haven't had a chance to mail in one of the checks.  Rest assured that as the race looms closer, I'll be reaching out to each of you for what phrase or name you want me to yell during your portion of the race.  Some have already chosen, and it's a mix of sentimental, inspirational, and downright silly.  

This week I realized that the pool at LA Fitness is most likely 25 yards not meters.  It was during the team swim practice at St. Joe's U. that I figured this out.  I've been counting my strokes per lap, partly as a way to distract myself, but also as a way to monitor my progress.  I was averaging about 22 strokes per lap at LA Fitness, but closer to 24 at SJU.  Let's break it down shall we?  22 strokes per 25 yards is 1.14 yards per stroke.  Converted to metric that is 1.04 meters.  24 strokes times 1.04 meters per stroke is 24.96 meters, or basically 25 meters.  If you ever wondered when you would use math in everyday life, well there you have it.

That also means that the distances I thought I was swimming at LA Fitness were all wrong.  I was assuming 25 meters per lap, so 1500 meters (the race length for an Olympic tri) should work out to 60 laps.  I was swimming 64 laps on my long swim days to round it out at an even 1600 meters, aka one mile.  That was actually 1600 yards, which is 1463 meters.  Now I know that I must swim 65.6 laps to hit 1500 meters.  It would have been nice if LA Fitness had put up a sign saying "Pool length 25 yards", or just made the pool 25 meters like a normal person.  Is that what hotels mean when they say they have an Olympic pool?

The moral of the story is that I am glad I was counting my strokes, and had the chance to swim in a true 25 meter pool.  You wouldn't think the difference of a few strokes is a big deal, but after 60 laps you definitely start to feel it.

I'm a big fan of technology and gadgets.  That's pretty obvious from my use of endomondo, and I talked about it at length during my post about RPGs.  When I started swimming, I was just using the clock on the wall and counting my strokes.  It would be really nice to have something similar to my setup for running and cycling.  GPS, heart rate, and pace.  So I looked into what is out there, and there are swim watches that have the features I am talking about, and a price tag that gives me pause.  The cheapest one I could find that had the heart rate function was $230.  That's too much for a sport that I am not sure I will pursue beyond this triathlon.  Fortunately there is a much more low tech option, the good old stopwatch.  I found one on amazon for a whopping $7.  Now that I know that actual distance of the pool and am armed with a stopwatch, I can start logging my workouts with a bit more accuracy.  The heart rate thing will just have to wait.

This Sunday is the Broad Street Run in Philadelphia.  I will be participating through my job.  That's really the only way I could get a slot, so I am lucky that they had a team.  I tried to run the Broad Street race two years ago, but I hadn't really thought through the logistics when I signed up.  My son was due at the end of March that year, and the run was less than 8 weeks later.  If you have a child, then you know the first 8 weeks are a lesson in exhaustion.  The last thing I wanted to do after 8 weeks of sleep deprivation was run 10 miles.  In fact, I hadn't run at all since he was born!  I chose not to run, and that was probably a good call.

In all likelihood this will be my first and last Broad Street Run.  The cost is too high, the field too packed, and once I move it will be too far to travel.  Instead, I expect I will be participating in the Bucks County Ten Miler.  It's a smaller event with a lot less hype and a lot less cost.  And it's on the same day as the Broad Street Run.  I am going to run the Bucks County Marathon this year, and it's the same group of people setting up both events.  They're even considering setting up an ultra next year.  I don't really have the time to train for that right now, but maybe one of these days?  Probably not.

I think that's it for this week.  Have fun out there!

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 11

Happy Earth Day!  If that's your thing.  Which it probably should be since you ostensibly live on Earth and all.

It's a sad week for runners the world around, and I am not sure how to address the Boston Bombing.  First and foremost, it's a tragedy for those who were injured or killed by the bombing and my heart and thoughts go out to them, their family and friends.  There are many ways to look at the attack, some positive and some negative.  My initial reaction was one of disgust.  How can such depraved people exist?  Then anger.  How dare they attack my fellow runners and countrymen?  Then sadness.  But as the reports kept coming in I saw a different side.  In the videos you can clearly see people running towards the explosions to help rescue the injured.  There are reports of runners who kept running, after finishing a marathon, to donate blood at the nearest hospital.  Doctors, nurses, and hospital staff worked tirelessly to save as many people as possible.  These are heroic acts by everyday people, and it underscores the fundamentally good nature of people.  

Religions and pessimists alike will tell you that humanity is intrinsically flawed.  We are greedy, selfish, animals; one crisis away from degenerating into a mindless, murderous mob.  Without laws, we would be lawless. And crime and depravity would run rampant.  But that's not what I see.  I see people defying logic and their own self preservation to help complete strangers.  That kind of person is the rule, not the exception.  Patton Oswalt wrote a great essay about it, which you've probably already seen on Facebook or the Twitter.  If not, here it is, please read the whole thing.

I am proud of humanity for making it this far, and I have faith that we will continue to go on long after I have left.

The bad guys in all this were monsters, no doubt.  Aberrations, anomalies, etc.  And that is another good thing.  I would not want to inhabit a world where they, Tamberlan and Dzhokhar, were the norm.  Where their actions were not shocking, but commonplace.  If that were the case, humanity would eat itself alive.  

In a few weeks I am running in the Broad Street Run.  My wife was concerned about my participation, and I don't blame her.  Initially we didn't know anything about the bombers motivations.  If it had been related to some weirdly specific grudge against running, we could have seen a rash of these bombings at more running events to come.  While the motivation of the terrorists is still not fully understood, it certainly looks to be a toxic combination of radical Islamic beliefs and disaffection with the US.  There was no obvious animus against runners; it was simply a big public event that would garner a large amount of attention.  There are lots of public events, and any of them could be a target.  I won't live my life avoiding all public events for fear of being attacked.  Evil doers will do evil things, but I believe in the good outnumbering them.

So, long story short (too late!), I am still participating in the Broad Street Run and the Philly Triathlon.  And I plan to wear Red Socks (or compression sleeves as it were) to show support for those in affected by the tragedy.  And if I see a fellow runner out on the road, you bet I am going to give them a big friendly wave.  Because we are the good, the rule, the norm, and I am proud to be a runner and a human being.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 10

As I mentioned in the previous week, it was time to step things up in the fundraising department, and step I did.  In just one week my total went from a paltry $200 to almost $800.  That's amazing, which means that I have some pretty awesome friends and family.  If you donated, you have my thanks and gratitude.  It sounds cheesy, but I actually started getting a little choked up as the donations started coming in.  It's a humbling experience to realize what fantastic people you've managed to surround yourself with.  I am truly lucky to know all of you.

If you haven't donated yet, why not?! (Peer pressure, peer pressure, peer pressure)

Just kidding.  I still think you're pretty nifty.

This weekend I participated in the Rumspringa half-marathon out in Lancaster County.  It starts and ends at the Stoudt's brewery, and like all uberendurancesports events, there was a bratwurst and a beer waiting for me at the end.  That is a fantastic way to end a good run, as long as you have a little water too.  Even better though, was that my wife and two kids came out to cheer me on at the finish line.  This is the first time I've ever asked her (or anyone) to come to one of my races, and I think it made a big difference for me in those last few miles.  I just imagined my wife smiling, and my son clapping, and my daughter... well, sleeping (she's five months old), and it painted a big grin on my face and helped me pick up the pace.  My previous personal best for the half-marathon was 1:48:37.  I don't have the official results yet, but I crossed the line around 1:45:xx.  That's at least three minutes faster!  That's awesome, and I think I have my family cheering me on to thank.

Spending one and three quarter hours out running gives you a lot of time to think, but honestly I became focused on one thing for most of the run.  Other runners I talked to before the race mentioned that there was a huge hill around mile 9.  The biggest and toughest hill of the whole race!  That became my obsession   Every hill we went up, I kept thinking that I better save something for mile 9.  When we were going down a hill, I thought that I better slow down and take it easy because I still have mile 9 ahead of me.  Mile 9 became a mantra that I repeated over and over in my head.  About halfway through mile 7.5 we started climbing up a pretty steep ascent, and I thought that it was tough, but mile 9 was gonna be the killer.  As we crested the hill, I looked out onto the horizon searching for the mile 9 hill.  Soon I saw the sign for mile 9 and braced myself for a steep climb.  Bring it on, I saved up plenty of energy for this!

Mile 9 was all downhill.

Without even knowing it, I had already conquered the monster hill a mile and a half ago.  Looking back at the course elevation chart, I can see how the climb wasn't even that tough.  It was about 250 feet over the course of a mile.  I have practice runs around my house with steeper and longer ascents than that!  I think if I had known, I probably would have pushed even harder, but I kept thinking I needed to leave something in the tank.

So much of running is psychological.  You can psyche yourself up or psyche yourself out.  My family got me psyched up for the final stretch, but mile 9 psyched me out for the earlier part of the race.  When it's just you and the road it's easy to get obsessed over one little thing.  As important as it is to train your body, it is also important to train your mind.  And maybe that is the muscle I need to work on most.  

This coming week, and for the remainder of the Triathlon training I will be focusing more on cycling and swimming than running, but in the fall things turn once more to marathon season, and that is where psychological conditioning really pays dividends.  Last year I hit the wall at mile 23 and I was not mentally prepared for it.  This year I'll crash through that wall like the Hulk.  Ned SMASH!

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 9

It was a really good week of training.  Even though the weather remains somewhat fickle, I still got in all my workouts and finished the week strong with a 10 mile run.  There's really not much to say about the week.  That's just kind of the way it is when things go well.  There's just not too much to say.  The old newspaper adage "if it bleeds, it ledes" is probably apropo.

It's hard to focus on the workouts of the week when bigger things are happening.  This weekend we sold our house and hosted our son's 2nd birthday party!  That's two pretty big milestones that sort of eclipsed everything else that was going on.

I also stopped slacking in the fundraising department and finally started trying a few things.  I wrote a personal letter to family and friends asking them for support.  I've also started thinking about what else I could do to try and meet my fundraising goal.  Here's a few quick things.

1. Get the word out through FB and Twitter - I've already done this, but I haven't asked people to share my posts with their friends.  The audience expands quickly if each of my friends re-shares my posts.

2. Cookies against Cancer - I thought I could bake some cookies and bring them into work with a donation box.  I'd like to try and do that every week starting next week.  With any luck I can drum up a few extra funds and maybe spark a conversation!  

3. Local fundraising event - I was considering asking a local bar if they would mind hosting a happy hour for LLS, or something along those lines.  That could probably raise a few dollars.  If you own a bar and are interested, let me know!

It's really about raising awareness and making sure my message reaches a large group of people.  That's what I need to focus on, and what I have been thinking about during my runs.  If you enjoy my more esoteric posts, then you might be slightly disappointed this week.  I promise that next week I'll get back to my usual M.O., but I really did have fundraising on the brain for the last week.

If you have any good fundraising ideas, I encourage you to leave them in the comments.  I can really use all the help I can get.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 8

We had a nice warm spell for a few days, and then Greenland (or something) came along and crushed it.  I'm getting a little tired of numb toes and fingers when out on the bike.  There's probably some sweet cold weather gear that would help, but it's too late in the season to reasonably spend money on that kind of thing.  I'll just deal with it until April finally gets its act together.

In another life, I was the store manager of the fine retail chain Hot Topic.  It was a bizarre job filled with odd people, myself included.  I had a part-time sales associate with a piercing that went through his tongue and the bottom of his mouth and out the underside of his chin.  He also liked to do suspensions in his spare time.  If you don't know what that is, you're probably better off.  We wore ridiculous clothing and did ridiculous things, and because of the semi-high school atmosphere of a mall, we were the cool kids on the block.  A few of us even had what I would term Hot Topic groupies.  They were people who would come in almost daily to see if their favorite employee was working, and them bother them ceaselessly for as long as I would allow.  I can't say any of us minded basking in the glow of their teen adoration.  It was occasionally creepy, almost stalker-ish.  But that's another story, for another time.

The story I have in mind was about young lad, who started as a groupie and then graduated to employee.  He was short (5'4"?) with long, dark hair.  His passion was martial arts, and he would extol the virtues of it to anyone who would lend an ear.  Kung Fu, Karate, Tai Chi, and some other more obscure fare were all included.  He would go on and on about the discipline and the clarity of mind that martial artists had.  He told me that he was trying to master certain Tai Chi poses for extended periods of time, and with reverence related the tale of a sensei that held the Horse Stance for twelve straight hours.  I called BS.  The reason I'll get to in a moment.

Earlier that same year, I decided I was going to try a purifying ritual.  I was going to shut myself up in my room and meditate for three days.  My plan was to fast, drinking only juice and water.  I would leave my room only when it was necessary to use the facilities.  It was supposed to be a time of serenity and reflection.  No TV, no music, no distractions.  I would sit and ponder the great mysteries of life.  

I lasted approximately 45 minutes.

I was bored.  Just utterly bored.  Sitting there in my room, with my eyes closed, letting my mind traverse the mysteries of the universe was incredibly dull.  

In retrospect there's two things I've come to understand about my epic failure.  The first is that I did no training leading up to it.  You don't try to run a marathon before you run a mile.  You don't try to take the bar before law school.  And you don't try to meditate AND fast for THREE DAYS without practice.  It was incredibly ambitious and probably a bit dismissive/smug of me to think I could do so.  The other thing I've realized is that I am not a person who sits still.  I need to be out there, doing things, making progress, accomplishing something... Sitting in a room for three days doesn't feel like an accomplishment, it feels like a cop out.  That's not actually true, but it is how I feel about it at a fundamental level.  As an intellectual exercise, I can appreciate the mental and physical discipline it takes to meditate or just sit still for a long period of time.  But I can't do it myself.  It's the same reason I hate the elliptical and the treadmill and the stationary bike.  I don't want to be stationary.

So I called BS on my friend's story.  Not because I didn't think it was physically possible, I just couldn't imagine standing still in one position for twelve hours.  It was inconceivable.  But in a way it's another endurance sport, this time one of the mind.  I seek clarity and understanding on the road, and he sought it standing still.  There are many paths, and one of them is the non-path.

I guess I am just too literal to stand still.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 7

A healthy Ned is a happy Ned, and I am happy to report that I am healthy.  Try saying that five times fast.  Probably not at work though, your coworkers might give you a strange look.  Last week was nice despite some unseasonably cold spring weather.  Rumor is Greenland is holding spring hostage with a low pressure front.  They're probably mad that their name is so ironic considering they are mostly covered in glaciers.  Too bad for them I guess.

My family takes a vacation to Cape Cod for two weeks every year.  One the highlights of the yearly trip north was a full day spent shopping and exploring the delightfully eccentric and scenic Provincetown.  A fixture of the Provincetown shopping district is the head shop, otherwise known as a store that sells tie-dye and "tobacco-only" smoking accessories.  I loved going into these esteemed establishments as a youth and marveling at the counter-culture on display.  How delightfully subversive!  

The summer before I started my seventh grade year, I finally mustered up the courage to make a purchase at one of these fine purveyors of all things groovy.  My choice?  A Grateful Dead baja hoodie almost exactly like this one.  Suspiciously so in fact.  As the seller is from Massachusetts  there's a high probability chance that he purchased the exact same one in 1990.  Hopefully, his has served him somewhat better.

I was proud of my purchase.  I couldn't wait till the first day of school, wherein I would proudly display my subversive threads and take my place in the annals of cool-guy-ness.  That did not happen.  In fact, it was probably in part because I oversold my coolness.  Cool guys do not talk about how cool they are.  During lunch on my first day of school, I sat with my chums and we discussed how totally bitchin' each of our respective summers were.  When it came my turn, I talked about how awesome the Grateful Dead were, and how my cousin and I bought these super-cool bajas, and how I might try to tour with the Dead.  Like I said, I oversold it.

My buddy called bullshit.  No seriously, I am pretty sure he said "bullshit, name one Grateful Dead song that's not Touch of Grey".  And I couldn't.  Not a single one.  I was a fake, a hack, a... Poseur!  Nothing could be further from cool that being a poseur.  My friend had slapped away the flimsy facade and I was revealed to be a fraud, and interloper, a wannabee.  As a seventh grader desperate for the approval of his peers, this was a devastating blow.

The net effect of this experience was tremendous.  Aside from deciding that I would never like the Grateful Dead (it was in some small way their fault right?), it also gave me a deep-seated fear of being found counterfeit.  I was constantly on guard thinking that I would need to prove my legitimacy.  Whatever the topic, interest, or hobby I would always have this nagging thought in the back of my head that I didn't belong.  I wasn't a real Grateful Dead fan, or a real Grunge kid, or a real IT Admin.

When I first started running, I didn't think of myself as an athlete   I wasn't a runner; I was simply someone who started running.  There were all these real runners out there.  They raced in competitions and wore special gear and ran in college, and could out-race me any day of the week.  The first time someone referred to me as a runner, I corrected them.  This was shortly after I had finished my first half-marathon.  Despite doing that, I still couldn't consider myself a runner.  Like I said, legitimacy issues.  When I finished my first marathon, I still felt the same way.  I had just read Eat and Run by Sott Jurek. How could I call myself a runner, when these guys were eating marathons for breakfast?  I wasn't a runner, I wasn't cool enough.

That fear persists, but I have found solace in a simple observation once made by a friend:

"There's always going to be someone punker than you."  

It's true.  Almost without fail, someone is going to be more into something than you are.  They'll have run more miles, eaten more hot dogs, or seen more Grateful Dead shows.  There is always going to be someone better than you.  Faster, stronger, etc.  It doesn't matter.  There is no magical line of legitimacy which you cross after so many miles or so many hot dogs.  You can let someone else inform your opinions, but you can't let them be your opinion.  You can desire approval from your peers, but you can't need it.  I am a runner because I am.  Not because someone else says so.

(I never wore the baja again.)

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 6

You’ll probably find it amusing that within hours of my last post, I came down with the stomach bug I thought I had dodged.  I was just sitting at work, minding my own business, and wham! Stomach bug flattens me like a pancake.  It wasn't terribly surprising, but it did cause me to miss my Wednesday and Thursday workouts.  By Friday I was feeling better, and I got my butt up on the bike and pedaled for 35 minutes.  Saturday was an eight miler on foot, and Sunday was 60 minutes on the bike.  All in all, I feel good today and ready to tackle this coming week of training without illness (I hope).

There’s nothing like a long workout to let the brain wander into strange nooks and crannies.  This past week I was thinking more about why I run.  If you haven’t already done so, please go back and read this post about gaming and its impact on my enjoyment of running.  That still stands true, but the gossamer web of reasons expands well beyond gamification and into the realm of accomplishment and learning.  Let me tackle this from an oblique angle, and I promise I’ll tie it back in good time.

I’ve always liked school for two primary reasons; I love learning new things and I am good at school.  It’s easy to like things you are good at.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you like something because you like it or because you are good at it.  Anyway, the point is, I am good at school.  Whenever I applied myself, I was almost always able to pull straight A’s.  That’s not to brag, it’s just the way I am wired.  Some people are good at sports, some are good at running a business, and I am good at school.  It’s probably why I kept going back every few years, first to finish my Bachelor degree and then again to get my MBA.  Since grad school ended though, school’s out forever (as the Alice Cooper’s chorus instructs us).  

My love of learning extends into my career choice as well.  I work in Information Technology, which changes about as fast as you can blink.  Additionally, I work in consulting, where the expectation is that I know about the latest and greatest products.  I have to be an authority on these topics to my clients, and thus I always need to be learning and achieving new certifications.

So how does running fit into this framework?  Just like the aforementioned parallels to gaming, training and competition also have links to schoolwork.  A training program to be followed is very like a curriculum and syllabus of assignments.  Competitions are the tests along the way, and the final event (marathon, triathlon, etc.) can be thought of as the final exam.  Every morning I am out there doing my “homework” and “studying” for the final exam.  I’ve noticed that if I do not have a training program and a goal, I quickly get bored with working out and start skipping days and weeks.  I need the structure of an assignment and the promise of an exam (competition) to fulfill my need for accomplishment.  I am doing something.  I am working towards a goal.  

Gaming and School, two of the reasons why I run.  They are not the only ones, there’s more strands left to follow, as paths on an adventure.  Each is interconnected and they all trace back to the center, the core, my impulse to go out.  To run, bike, or swim.  To do something.

Like I said, nooks and crannies.  Hope you enjoyed the journey this week.  I think next week we’ll follow another strand: “There’s always someone more punk than you”.  Till then, enjoy the week!

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 5

There really is nothing like working out when you have a cold.  Actually, when I was in the middle of a workout that was about the only time I could breathe.  Something about exercise seems to temporarily clear the nasal passages.  I wonder if that's an evolutionary adaption to escape predators even when you are sick.  Someone much smarter than me has probably already done a study about that.  Let's do a quick Google search...

"Exercise can temporarily relieve nasal congestion. The increase in circulation clears sinus pressure and allows for easier breathing. An aerobic workout is especially successful in clearing congestion with its cardio focus. Although you may want to blend in with the bedding, movement provides the best relief.  A stuffed nose is worse when lying down. Sinuses don’t have gravity working with them to drain cavities blocked by mucus."

http://fitnessandwellnessnews.com/work-out-sinus-pressure/

So the answer appears to be yes!  Isn't the internet amazing?

Speaking of illness, there seems to be a nasty stomach bug going around.  How do I know?  My son was kind enough to bring it home from daycare on Friday.  At this point it has reeked its havoc upon my household, resulting in an emergency room visit for my poor wife.  Dehydration is never fun.  Amazingly, I have managed to fend off the bug so far...*excessive wood knocking*.  The plague upon my house did cause me to miss my team training on Saturday, so hopefully I didn't miss anything earth shattering.

Despite the cold and the disheveled house, I actually had a good week of training. I can tell that my running pace is getting back to what it should be (7.5 to 8 min miles) and biking is getting easier as well.  Swimming is still the challenge, but I can feel my form getting better and the laps getting a little easier.  My favorite drill so far is the slow-medium-fast drill, where the first lap is slow, the next medium, and the last is as fast as you can go.  It's awesome to push yourself to the limit for one lap and feel the water churning under you.  

Spring is finally on its way, and even though the weather may be a little unpredictable - it snowed on Friday, then hit 60 on Saturday - I am really looking forward to slightly warmer temperatures and beautiful spring mornings.  Daylight savings time robbed me of my morning sunshine, but it will be back in a few weeks.  Till then I will savor the lighter evenings, and after dinner walks with my son and dog.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 4

RPGs - no not rocket propelled grenades although those are neat too, I'm talking about Role-Playing Games - are something I love to play.  More specifically I am talking about video game RPGs.  Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts, Ultima; all games that I enjoyed tremendously at particular times in my life.  I have always enjoyed video games in general, but I always had a special place in my heart for RPGs.  There was even a time that I dipped into the world of D&D briefly.  I believe my stay would have been longer if I had hung with a slightly different crowd.

Why do I play RPGs?  What is it about that particular genre that keeps me coming back for more?  Without a doubt, RPGs can be onerous, time-eating, soul-sucking affairs that clock in anywhere from 20-80 hours.  And I am not even talking about MMORPGs like WoW, that crush your social life and toss you into a pit of eternal blackness illuminated only by the soft glow of a monitor.  

What I like about RPGs is the sense of accomplishment and constant betterment.  You have defined goals and a means to reach those goals.  The road is not always easy, and to beat the boss at the end you will need a lot of practice.  There are stats and metrics to track, and you can use them to improve your performance.  Boy this sounds familiar, like maybe another activity.  One that I participate in quite a lot.

I came to running (and endurance sports in general) pretty late in life.  Once I hit my mid-20s, it became increasingly obvious that my metabolism was slowing down.  Eating crap, sitting around, and drinking were no longer without their side effects.  I "filled out" and then kept filling.  Not fat, but not the lanky youth I once was.  The solution was obvious.  Join a gym, right?  That's what you did to get in shape.  So I joined a gym and spent six miserable months trying to get in shape.  The target shape became more ambiguous by the week, until I decided that I was already in a shape, and I quit the gym.  

This process continued in fits and starts for the next 5 years.  I would decide to get in shape.  Either join a gym, buy an eliptical, or try a diet. And then ditch it after a few months.  Apparently this is fairly common, which is why there is such a lucrative secondary market for exercise machines, and why gyms overbook their capacity constantly.  

What was it that finally made running stick?  Two very important technological developments.  First, the iPod.  Second, the Nike+ for iPod.

Some people love to run without music.  Good for them!  Not me though.  I listen to music almost all the time.  In fact, I am listening to random stuff on Bandcamp right now.  The advent of the iPod (specifically the nano) allowed me to listen to music while running and not worry about skipping (remember CDs?) or getting bored with the selection.  16GB of music on shuffle is more than necessary for the average run!

The Nike+ was the second piece of the puzzle, and it directly ties back into my love of RPGs (seewhatididthere?).  The Nike+ website and sensor allowed me to create a goal, set up a training plan, and then track my stats and progress towards that goal.  Each run was a training session.  Each week I was grinding and leveling up.  The goal was my boss fight at the end of the level.  First I wanted to run a 10k, then a half-marathon, then a full marathon.  Eventually, Nike+ gave way to Endomondo and the iPod gave way to my cell phone.  I bought a heart rate monitor to enrich the data I was already collecting.  I had gameified exercise and it was awesome!

Would I have eventually become a runner without these technological leaps?  Maybe.  But they make exercise more fun and rewarding for me. If you are a gamer or a gadget person, I highly recommend gameifying your workout.  There's a lot of technology out there trying to help people do this right now, such as FitBit, Nike Fuel band, and Fitocracy.  Some people like to decry this sort of thing as poisoning the purity of the sport or some other such nonsense.  If you run for purity of soul and spirit, that's fantastic.  Me?  I'm trying to get ready for my next boss fight.

Oh, and BTW this week I leveled up to amateur swimmer, and I didn't fall off my bike (AGAIN)!

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 3

Week three kicked my butt.  Seriously, it was tough going all around.  It reminded me of my short time at Drexel University.  I was admitted to their college of engineering to study Computer Engineering.  The very first week they hit you with a design project competition and assigned you a team of three other people.  They were trying to wash out those who were not up to the challenge of becoming an engineer.

Two weeks later the various engineering professors conspired to assign an unbelievable amount of work as well as make us start our Freshmen Design Project.  It was "ON" as they say.  The whole point of those first few weeks, was trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.  They even did that famous and somewhat hackneyed exercise of looking to your left and then your right and knowing that two of you were not going to make it through the program.  Like it was Navy Seals of the mind or something.

I was one of the two that didn't make it.  Though in my defense, I did make it through the first year with a 3.78 GPA.  Ultimately my immaturity and inviolable right to party like it was 1999 (which it almost was) got in the way and my Sophomore year was marked by low attendance and a swift departure.

But I digress... Seriously, let's reel this puppy back in.  My point was that week 3 threw the kitchen sink at me.  Two double activity days, with strength training on the other weekdays, and a full weekend of 45 minute plus workouts.  This was what I will call a Washout Week.  It was designed to make quitters quit, as they do.  I slogged it out though, and I am currently being rewarded by a lighter week.

The best part of the week was probably the swim practice on Saturday, though NOT falling off my bike again was a close second.  My TnT coaches gave me some good pointers and a solid set of drills to practice on my own.  Swimming is by far the scariest of the three activities, and I am glad to have support from my coaches.  I already feel more comfortable in the water.  With almost four months of training left, I'm confident that the actual swim will be no problem.

If this whole thing goes well, I might be tempted to try a half-IronMan next year.  I did buy a pretty nice bike after all.  It would be a shame to let it gather dust.

I've also been thinking about the off season, i.e. October-January.  Maybe I could try something new and interesting during that time.  Yoga, karate, or basket weaving.  Who knows?  The possibilities are endless, or at least part of a large data set.

[ned1313]

Tri Training Week 2

This week got off to a great start, hit a rocky patch in the middle, and then finished strong.  On Wednesday night I got home from my work's annual meeting, and I immediately felt ill.  I initially thought it was something I ate at the meeting, but then my wife started complaining that she didn't feel so good either.  What followed was a long night of trading visits to the bathroom while tending to our 3-month old who has a cold.  Needless to say, (weird expression btw), neither of us got much sleep.  I called out sick from work on Thursday, and also called out sick on training.

Friday I felt better, but still not quite ready to get back to vigorous activity.  Instead I took one more day to recuperate.  Saturday I was back on the training regiment.

On Sunday I went for a 45 minute ride, and the inevitable finally happened. I fell off my bike.  Not gracefully either, if that's even possible.  No, I fell over when trying to stop at a red light.  It was very strange.  I rolled up to the light.  Unclipped my right foot to stand on.  Leaned forward off the seat.  And rather than tilting to the right, my body erroneously decided to list left.  As I fell, I managed to unclip my left foot just in time to hit the ground.  

I was very fortunate in that I was at a red light (no moving cars), it was 6:15AM on a Sunday (no cars at all), and I was wearing sweatpants (minor abrasions).  It did take a little wind out of my sails.  After a few weeks of accident free biking, and a little chuckling at the admonition from the bike clerk that "You're gonna fall, everyone does", the pendulum of fate swung and knocked me off my high horse.  At least now I can stop worrying about falling.  It happened.  The other shoe did not drop as it were, and I can learn from my hubris and move on.

Moving on....

I've got a pretty tough week ahead of me.  Two days have a double (swim and bike or swim and run).  This is difficult not only physically, but logistically.  Do I get up super early and try to do the workouts back to back?  Or do one in the morning and one over lunch at work?  Or one in the morning and one in the evening after the kids are in bed?  I think for this week, I will swim in the morning on Tuesday and bike in the afternoon while at work.  The gym there has stationary bikes, which is not the same, but is convenient and keeps the evening free.  On Thursday, I think I will get up a little earlier and run at the gym before swimming.  As the workouts get longer, I'm probably going to need to revise this plan, but for now it works.

Hopefully you saw my last post and were inspired by the awesome idea of buying a length of the race from me.  Remember it's $25 per 1k of biking, $50 per 1k of running, and $100 for 500m of swimming.  I will yell, very loudly, whatever you would like me to at the beginning of your length.  This is an ideal chance to embarrass me, or honor someone else, or both!  Just hit up the donation bar on the side and I'll reach out to you to find out your preferred phrase.

Thanks for your support.  Have a great week!

[ned1313]

Incentivize

Giving to a cause can be it's own reward, but it's nice to get something tangible, like a tote bag. That's probably why people keep giving to PBS, it's for the shwanky tote bags. Well, I don't have a tote bag to give you for your pledge, but how about something else? I thought of this yesterday, and I think it's a pretty awesome idea.

The olympic triathlon has three parts: 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. That's 51.5k of distance for me to cover. Swimming will take the longest per kilometer, then running, then biking. How would you like to pledge a portion? For $25 you get 1k of biking distance. For $50 you get 1k of running. And for $100 you get .5k of swimming. What do you get for pledging a portion? I will yell your name (or a name/phrase of your choosing) as loud as I can as I start the portion you pledged. This is your chance to get me to say whatever you want, in a public setting, very loudly.

So far two of the swimming slots have been claimed (only one left!) and two of the biking slots. If you have already contributed, I'll be in touch about what you want me to yell for your portion. The slots add up to $1,800, which is $200 shy of my goal. I'll think about what other incentives I can provide for pledges, and I am open to suggestions.

In the meantime I'll be out training. Thanks for your support!

[ned1313]

Tri Training - Week 1

The first week of triathlon training is complete, and it was pretty tough.  I am definitely not used to training six days in a row!  The added challenge is all the new muscle groups that are being called into play.  If I had to just run six days a week, I would probably feel fine.  Instead, I ran, cycled, and swam twice.  Plus I did strength training twice as well.  All that added up to one sore Ned.

So what did I learn from week one?  Let's see.  First off, I need some warmer clothing for cycling.  My running stuff just isn't going to cut it.  There's so much more wind, especially when I hit 30mph going down some of the hills.  I need some gear that is wind-proof.  I also learned that I am totally fine without music when swimming.  Initially I was worried that no music while swimming would make it really boring.  I almost bought a pair of waterproof heaphones and mp3 player from amazon.  It turns out that I am so focused on breathing properly (i.e. not drowning) and maintaining some semblance of form, that I don't even notice the lack of music.  That might change in the future, but for now I am happy.

Cycling and swimming are new to me, and I am not entirely comfortable with either yet.  That might actually be understating the case.  Both activities make me nervous b/c I don't know what I am doing or what to expect.  Same thing with strength training.  I had a previous routine, but the Team In Training coach recommended a new one that is better for triathletes.  Who am I to argue?  But the end result is, I am basically starting three new things simultaneously, and it is difficult from a psychological perspective as well as a physical one.  I also started a new job, which is a consulting position.  I am assigned to one client for the first six months.  So that's kind of like starting two new jobs at the same time as well.  I do not recommend trying to do all these things concurrently.  Of course doing things the easy way is not really my style.

I expect that as the weeks progress I will grow more comfortable with each activity and start to see progress in cycling and swimming.  That will be the payoff for all the anxiety right now.  Monday is my rest day, so I am going to try and post on Mondays in lieu of a workout.  

Quick reminder.  If you enjoy these posts or just like being an awesome person, please take a moment and hit up the donation link on my sidebar.  If you already have, then I thank you for your support!  

[ned1313]

Yay! Triathlon Time!

Well, after a  ridiculous hiatus I am back on the scene.  I hope too many people didn't decide to stop following, but it's okay if you did.  I'm glad you're back.

So what's the deal?  My wife and I had a beautiful baby girl in November of last year.  I also changed jobs a few weeks ago.  There was basically no time to work out, let alone blog about it, until now.

Now that my little girl is a little older, and sometimes sleeping through the night, I have the energy and time to get back to running and working out.  I really wanted to participate in the Philly Tri this year, despite the fact I don't swim or bike!  A good friend of mine recommended that I check out Team In Training to assist with coaching and advice.  That was a great call on his part.  As you might have noticed, I now have a Team In Training donation widget in my sidebar.  I have signed up with TNT, bought myself a road bike, and restarted my LA Fitness membership so I have somewhere to swim.

This is my first week of official training.  It's a six-day-a-week program, which is a bit of a step up from my four-day-a-week marathon training.  I know it's going to be difficult, but the payoff will be sweet.  I'm raising money to fight cancer and getting healthier in the process.  Would you like to help?  Here's two ways:

Make a donation to LLS through the widget in my sidebar.  All donations make you eligible for free hugs from me, and the triumphant feeling of being an awesome person.

Spread the word to others.  Why not share my blog with someone else?  I'd sure appreciate that!

That's all for now.  Later this week I'll have a status update on those SeeYa shoes I was complaining about a few months ago.  (Hint: it did not go well.)