Man in the Arena

 Getting over my Ironman Lake Placid medical withdraw.......it goes like this...

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while DARING GREATLY, so that his place shall NEVER, be with those COLD AND TIMID SOULS WHO KNEW NEITHER VICTORY OR DEFEAT."

Ironman Disappointment

Well we made it home from Lake Placid and I'll admit my ego is still bruised.  My body is fine and I'll get back on the horse Wednesday as I have other races this year, so I can't sulk forever!  Especially for the Wildwood Sprint Triathlon on August 18, and the Wildwood half marathon on August 26th.

Here is basically what happened in a nut shell without sending you to sleep or to the Grey's Anatomy/Physiology dictionary.  A medical withdraw is what it is called.  The medical staff termed it heat exhaustion with extreme dehydration.  I spent 1 hour and 7 minutes in the medical tent after completing the bike portion of the race.  The last 10-12 miles of the bike ride are pretty tough, and I really don't remember a whole lot about it other than pulling over for a few minutes and trying to cool off by dumping my water bottle over my head and body.  Obviously it was sunny and hot during the bike.

When I made it back into town and went to the tent to get ready for the run, a volunteer was there to help me, just like last year.  I got dressed and went to get up, took a few steps and almost fell onto the row of chairs.  The guy made me sit and got me plenty of water.  After a few minutes I said I was ok and tried to get up again, but almost went down again.  He said he had to get a medical person at this point, I agreed because I knew something was off.  The guy escorted me (held me up) to the medical tent.  There I was met by a few nurses and techs.  They weighed me in and I had lost 8 lbs since the weigh in on Thursday, not really that bad.

After 1 hour and 7 minutes of trying to pass a few basic tests, the Dr said he could not let me continue.  He was afraid I would only get worse with having to run a marathon still, and the fact that I had not gone to the bathroom since 6:30am, and it was now 4 pm (9.5 hrs later).  My skin looked like sandpaper from all the dried up salt from my body.  My race kit is green and black and was covered in a white powder, also the salt I had lost.  During the bike I drank over 160 ounces of water and gatorade, so I thought I was doing ok.  I ate plenty and even stopped at my special needs bag after the 1st loop so I could refill my bike with food and fluid.

Some days it is not meant to be.  I held it together pretty good in the tent until the Dr took my timing chip off.  It was also a horrible walk back to Cathy and the kids with all the participants running past along the street and me walking without a chip, what a total bummer.  Once I got back to the room I lost it pretty good.  The kids were great and gave me lots of hugs and kisses and told me how proud they were of me know matter what.  Conor even said he "wanted me to have a great day today."  Boy is that kid a suck up!

I looked back at last year and did a comparison because I thought maybe I did not do enough training.  After looking at it I am confident I did everything I could have.  I did 878 more miles and 46 more training sessions.  I am really confident that it was not my training and simply the heat.  My 2012 swim was over 2 minutes faster.  T1 was 2 minutes faster.  First lap of bike 5 minutes faster..thought all was going great.  Then the wheels fell off the last 12 miles!

The heat beat me down that day, but all the encouragement I have received from so many has made it more manageable.  The most important thing is that it looks like we have raised over $4,500.00 this year in our fundraising efforts.  We will be able to help so many children this year.  I will send out an official notice once the summer is complete.  In the mean time I hope to enjoy the rest of the races I have planned and the summer weekends at the shore.  

Thanks so much for your support, both from your donations and your helpful words of encouragement this year.  I will still update everyone as the summer goes along.

PS--before Lake Placid I had made Cathy a deal that I would not do an Ironman next year.....but I never said I still wouldn't race and raise money for special needs children.  She just smiled and said "I know."  How is that for team support on the home front!

I may sill aim for a half IM in the fall, maybe Pocono since I did it last year.

After I was feeling better we went t the Lake Placid Pub and Brewery and we met Logan Franks.  He finished 9th overall.  Kristina was happy to take this picture, just look at the smile on her face.

10 Days & counting!

Well it is all coming to an end.  Lake Placid is only 10 short days away.  Since July 2^nd I have been in the Peak Block of my training program.  I have had some of my best runs of the year during this 2-week period.  I have also focused on my nutrition on the bike to see how I will react off the bike, and have had no real GI issues adjusting to more Gu and Gu Chomps; less Clif Bars this year.

I have managed to hit almost all my sessions during this block.  I did take a Saturday (7/7) off and missed an 8 mile run and 2 mile swim.  I needed to pick Kristina up from camp that day, 2 hours away and I had a party the night before and later that day.  When I woke up that Saturday (7/8) at 4:30 AM, my body said WTF and I listened!  Getting that 2 extra hours of sleep before I left to pick her up was great.  A two hour ride up, one hour to pack her stuff, and two hour ride back knocked out 5 total hours from the day.  I would have made up the session later that day, but we had another party in the afternoon.  I guess when you have two friends turn 40 on July 3 & 4^th, you have to expect a few parties.  That is when training for an Ironman sucks!

Brian’s party was Friday night July 6^th, a surprise from his wife and I was the person who had to get him out of his house for 7 hours.  So I got to work at 5am to get in my recovery bike ride, then I took Brian to golf at 12:30pm in 98 degree heat.  We had a good plan however to not dehydrate…for every beer we had we also had a Gatorade and water with it.  After golf we were a little early, so off to Union Jack’s Pub for some air conditioning, wings, and beer.  I got Brian out of the bar; that was a major accomplishment, on time and he seemed really surprised when we got to his house.  My work being done, I only made it to 10pm, then I had to go home and sleep.  I can’t hang like Training Payne can, I am still an amateur when it comes to Ironman training and partying.

Scott’s party was July 7^th at his house.  Thank god he has a pool because it was 103 degrees that day.  After I got Kristina from camp, we picked up Cathy, Emma, & Conor and headed to Scott’s.  Scott has a great pool at his house; the only problem was it was so hot that the pool water was warm, like a tub.  It was still better than no pool, but on a hot day you need a nice cool pool to relax in.  We had a great time at his party.  It was another long day for us.  Late in the day, it looked like a storm was coming so we packed up and headed home.  I had to do one more long ride so I wanted a nice restful sleep Saturday night.

During this Peak Block you train differently than the other blocks.  You essentially do four Bricks of bike/run with different emphasis….hour bike and 90 minute run…2 hour bike and 45 minute run….hour bike and 75 minute run...90 minute bike and 55 minute run.  As you can see these sessions each focus on a different discipline.  All still have a swim session on that day, but done later in the day.  The Peak Blocks still average about 16 hours of training for the week.

I’ll finish up this weekend down the beach at my parents house.  That will be nice for the kids.  Next week will be race week and the sessions are just to keep me loose and recovering from the past 6-months of training.

Here is Conor and Emma "helping" me take the bike off the car.  The seem excited to go back to Lake Placid and do a little more stuff this year since mommy is coming!

Tapering Down

Well I am closing in on Lake Placid faster than I realize.  It seems like yesterday it was February and I was just getting in the pool.  So far I have accomplished my main goal, and it is not even triathlon or training related.

We have raised a lot of money for special needs children through our events this year.  It started with the beef and beer, continued with businesses, and friends and family members.  It looks like we will go passed last years total.  For me that is what it is all worth...all the early morning swimming, miles biking and running.

On the training front I have managed to stay healthy so far...I probably just jinxed myself right?  Right now I am in the final two weeks of Peak training and then its taper time.  The past few weeks have been really good.  I had a week of vacation(6/18) at the beach with my family and used it as a training camp week.  It turned into almost 20 hours of training time, with two long rides of over 5 hours each.  The only bad thing about the week was I hit a big pot hole and lost my rear water bottle holders at some point.  Oh well!

I won't bore you with the past months details on each workout, but I know that in comparing last years actual totals to this years I am way ahead, but last year I dislocated my right shoulder June 1 and lost most of the month.  I still am not the most proficient swimmer, but I can handle the 2.4 mile swim.  I compared all of last year to this year, and am ahead in sessions completed for each discipline and averages per session for the swim and run.  The bike is just a little lower by .75 miles per session.  I have logged a few more longer >4 hours bikes rides, so I am hoping that helps.
Junes totals are below:
Swim: 6 hours--19,500 yards
Bike:29 hours--495 miles
Run: 25 hours--230 miles

June was super busy..end of school for three kids, vacation, Mooseman 70.3, and trying to still be a good husband.

Last weekend I had a bit of a scare.  While on my last long ride my phone starting ringing right in the middle of a long steep climb.  I did not answer it.  No less than 10 seconds later it rang again, I knew something was up.  Once I reached the top of the hill my text message ring went off, now I really knew something was up.  Short story is that my dad was admitted to the hospital with something called Global Amnesia.  At first it sounded like he had a stroke or TIA.  I had to cut my ride short, get a ride home so I could go to the shore and be with him.  It was a very scary situation, but he went home the next day is is feeling OK, just a little sluggish.

Here is Emma and Kaitlyn racing on the Slip n Slide with Conor being the Judge.