The Four Goals of Ironman July 13, 2008
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 1 comment so farJust in from a long ride on the C & O canal…92 miles in 6 hours. It’s HARD pushing that mountain bike up the dirt towpath! A great workout none the less.
Heading up to Lake Placid this coming week to volunteer and Probably sign up for Next year. It will be a whole new gig…I’ll have moved up to 55-59 age group and it may well be my last for awhile, being involved in trying to get into Nursing School.
Ironman is about goal setting. There are the day to day goals that get you to the pool or out on the road. There was the goal you set for yourself to sign up in the first place and the goal of trying to do something positive in your life.
To get that medal though, to hear those words:”…you are an Ironman!” There are four goals you have to meet and surpass.
Goal One: Get to the starting line healthy, fit and with the right attitude.
All the training and work and everything else you do means nothing if you have to cancel the trip two weeks out because your knee is the size of a basketball and you’ve been told to lay off for six weeks. Standing on the shore of the swim in one piece is the hardest part of becoming an Ironman. Six months or more of training mean nothing when you have to stand there and watch the start instead of be in the start.
To that end: Be realistic about your Ironman. Be careful of “goal inflation.” Get a good training plan and work the plan…don’t let the plan work you. Ironman race day is a long lonely day at times. Make sure plenty of your workouts are done alone. Group workouts are fine but they can lead down paths that your training plan does not follow. Most “Iron Hopefuls” who fail to get there can usually pinpoint a day when it all went bad. A crash on a group ride, an out of control lifting session in the gym with the local muscleheads or a long run done WAY too fast with folks that aren’t training for an IM. One that I hear often…”WE were just shooting hoops!” Ball sports can wreck and Iron Hopeful. Be careful.
Practice your mental game. Keep a positive attitude and always be helpful and kind to the other athletes that cross your path…Good Karma works wonders. While you may have hopes for a certain finish place or time…the start is a good time to let go of that and face the day with no expectations. It WILL be a long day and too much can happen that can derail your plans. Face all race day problems head on..then move on.
Goal Two: It’s race day and you’re in the water. This goal is to finish the swim with your heart still in your chest and a gleam in your eye. You want to get out of the water saying “Yeah! What’s next?” If this is your first IM…hang back a little. I sometimes wait on the shore for thirty seconds and still turn in a good mid-pack time. Don’t get in the “Rugby game in a washing machine.” I’ve done it and had my worst swims there.
Once under way…swim your swim. Keep to your pace and your breathing. relish in the feeling of moving smoothly through the water. If you trained well you will see those folks who fought and kicked and punched through the swim start later in the day.
Goal three: Make it through the bike with gas to spare: So many first time IMers and even experienced ones will make mistakes on the bike that will cost them a good marathon or maybe even the race. Again…you’ve trained for this. Ride your bike ride, not the ride of the guy on the seven thousand dollar Tri bike who just whipped past you. Drink early and often. Stick to your nutrition schedule. Don’t eat something new on race day.
Drink early and often. Pay attention to how you FEEL ,not what you heart rate monitor says or how the others around you seem to be. We rely too often on technology and if your technology fails on race day, you have to know how it feels to be where you are now. Drink early and often. In training you practiced bike handling skills. On race day you may have to use them. While you need to be in the moment and connected to yourself to gauge proper nutrition..don’t “zone out.” A moments inattention can be dangerous on the bike, especially in the aid stations or on a course with big descents. Drink early and often. A Pee stop is time better spent than all the time you’ll waste trying to get your hydration level back up.
Goal Four: Finish. Many IM hopefuls say their goal is to finish. I do. If however, you ignore the first three goals…you might very well fail.
For many IMers the run often becomes a “walk-a-thon.” Those folks who screamed past you on the bike or clawed their way through the swim will be “running backwards” by now. As you’ve done all day, keep to your schedule and your pace and your nutrition. Be Happy! Avoid those who are not. The gloomy runner can pull you down. Pat them on the back, tell them “Good Job!” and move on. Perhaps your kind words will be the salve they needed. Drink early and often and thank the volunteers. Finish! Revel in your accomplishment and hug those who helped you get there.
Ironman:Bake Flacid July 25, 2007
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 3 commentsRain. Everyday the week before the race…gully washers at times…cool and overcast the other times. Folks out riding the Lake Placid course or running or swimming in the rain, but not a harbinger of what was to come on Race day.
I won’t write about all the hype and shinnanigans that go on the week before the race with the “I’m faster than you” looks or “Look at me ,I’ve done 12 IM’s what about you?” questions. ( Folks with lots of IM finishes are, A: In the sport for many years, B: have LOTS of disposable income, or more often than not, C: Both.)
Race day dawned bright,clear with a promise of a warm day…maybe too warm,at least for my liking. Off the the transition area and get sorted out getting my nutrition on the bike and in bags and chatting with a few folks… back to the room on with the wet suit and down to the start with my wife Mary Lou…The best support ever.
With the cannon boom I hit the start button on my watch and waited 15,20,30,finally at 45 seconds. I started to swim on the far outside of the scrum. Had clear water the whole swim…I bumped someone, or was bumped, three or four times. Thats it. Easy…it was pleasant really.
My only contact came in the chute to transition. After seeing the wet suit strippers, I heard Mary Lou yell for me and there she was on the rail…we chatted a bit about the swim and handed up my wet suit…and headed off down the chute toward transition…I heard a woman’s voice say “Move!” I heard it again closer and then was shoved out of the way by a small woman in a Tri Life suit as she hurtled down the street. Rude. Saw her shove several others who, I guess, wern’t moving fast enough.
Lollygagged through transition and got out on the bike…and felt…happy.The hills wern’t that difficult as in past years because I’d spent more time training on the big knobs this time. Passed Kona Expat (Sheila, trifuel denizen) on the road out to Black Brook and it’s Halloween decorated aid station…saw her again when she passed me later and never after that…she’s a motor! I love this course…the big ups…the 50+ mile per hour decents the stunning views…awesome.
The first lap went well for me…but the sun was OUT and the day warmed…Stopped and chatted with Mary Lou on Parkside drive for a minute or two…and off on the second lap. Late in the second lap…my mouth went dry and things got a little hazy and I recognized some heat related problems (No sweat,chills, headache) and decided to stand down on my second visit to the Hamlet of Black Brooke. Was there for a good 15 minutes pushing fluids till I peed a nice Amber Bock Beer color…The Vols were helpful and got me whatever I needed. Felt tons better and pushed on but at a more relaxed pace…Had been pushing the fluids all day and supplimenting with elyctrolytes…but got behind and paid for it. The temp at the time was 81 degrees F. (Courtesy of Lake Placid News). 417 people went through the medical tent for dehydration I was told by a local Vol on Monday.
Saw ML again at the end of the second bike lap and scooted off to start the run…ok…walk.
This was going to be a long Marathon…would run for a bit then get sick and stop and walk and feel better and repeat the process…Not till mile 17 after a steady diet of pretzels and hot chicken broth did I get on an an even keel… but the really cool part?It was the first time in an IM I was out on the run course in the dark…what a hoot! It was actually fun to be out there on the road with a bunch of folks who felt and looked just as miserable as I! We laughed, shared stories and commiserated as we schleped toward the finish…My biggest regret of the day was that the race folks wern’t handing out the glow in the dark bracelets and such…I really wanted one!
Mary Lou was like a cold drink of water when I saw her on the run laps and she’d walk with me a bit up Mirror Lake Drive…on the last lap she handed up my kilt which I wore for the last several miles and across the finish line. I was hoping to get a good finish pic with it on but don’t think that happened.
As I approached the finish and came up behind a woman she glanced over her shoulder and I caught her meaning…”No..you go ahead” I said.
But she slowed at the finish…so my finish pic will be with someone I don’t know…
To my surprise Ryan or “Fitty-cent” of trifuel fame was there filming and being a VIP and seemed to be having the time of his life…Sorry I didn’t get get back to the finish area after a shower Ryan…I was a tad trashed.
This was my third and Last IMLP..There are too many other great IM’s, especially independant races, to do.
Learned a great lesson about hydration..again. Ya think ya got it all figured out…then ya don’t. It’s beautiful really. Keeps one humble.
Was happy to get through the training and the race itself without any major injuries, which was the point…More training to do…Double Ironman in 72 days.
Cue the pig. July 16, 2007
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 4 commentsMonday evening and leaving for Ironman Lake Placid early in the morning…
If you’re looking for me to post a bazillion reasons why I won’t do well or anything like that…forget it.
I hate it when I read peoples blogs and they go on about…”I don’t plan on doing well because this hurts/is broken/doesn’t work/haven’t slept
work has been pressing….” Blah Blah woof woof…. I don’t believe in couching events before hand with excuses about performance…you won’t hear me complaining later either.
Everything is as it is. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.
The training is done…the long hours and all the synthetic food and all the gatorade and the sore muscles and the crisis of spirt and all the other stuff that rolls through the life of a race participant.
I’m a little more nervous than usual for this one…can’t put my finger on why…and it doesn’t matter. When the gun goes off all that stuff goes off too…
I truly don’t care about my time…and will make no predictions…that way is frought with too many pit falls/ land mines/IED’s. I will predict I’ll be in Lake Placid on Sunday…that’s about it!
As I get older I sort of feel an need to have a purpose for the things like this that I do…can’t explain why.
So why am I doing this? For no other reason than to be an example. An example to people who don’t run or workout or what not. I can name a dozen people at least that over the years have come up to me and said they have started running or walking or they’re doing their first triathlon …because of me. I was an example to them that they didn’t have to feel or look the way they did…and they like themselves better now and that their life has improved. If one person would have said it…it would have been enough to have made all the years of running and biking,swimming and whatever…worthwhile. It’s my legacy I guess…I won’t leave much else.
I’ll try the internet cafe this week in LP and try to send along a note from the road….but don’t count on it.
All that being said…the car being packed… and the bike ready to roll…
Cue the pig:
“Ba-bah,ba-bah,ba-bah…that’s all folks!”
Nudge,nudge…wink,wink. June 23, 2007
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 2 commentsThis is NOT original to me…it’s been floating around that web for awhile…I just found a copy and thought I should post it…for fun. (Thanks to www.trihawks.com.)
The Joke is…alot of this is absolutely true! I did add a few things…
Schedule for IMLP…nudge,nudge,wink,wink.
1. Arrive in town.
2. Find over-priced accommodations you are staying a minimum of four nights at
3. Unpack bicycle, spread gear around room randomly.
4. Attempt to reassemble bicycle, realize you forgot to mark your seat and handlebar position before disassembly. Guess position and tell yourself it won’t make a big difference.
5. Drive bike course at slow speeds while making wrong turns. Annoy locals.
6. Find swim venue. Put wetsuit on, stand around for 15 minutes. Swim 10 minutes, take wetsuit off. Look around to see if you impressed anyone.
7. Walk around expo looking for free stuff.
8. Go to registration tent, stand in line, get bag, check bag for goodies.
9. Go back to hotel, arrange energy products into different piles. Stare at piles.
10. Spend 2 hours preparing for bike ride with race wheels and drink systems. Go for 30 minute ride. Go back to hotel.
11. Decide that this would be a great opportunity to learn how to rebuild your rear hub to fix the play in it. Disassemble hub.
12. Drive to house where your club mate, the bicycle mechanic, is staying. Show him the pieces of your rear wheel. Beg for help.
13. Go to swim start Friday morning. Look for tell-tale wrist-bands on other competitors; look condescendingly at all those swimming who aren’t participating in the race. Secretly wish you wern’t either.
14. Go back to hotel, spend 4 hours attaching numbers to your bicycle, helmet, and race outfit. Panic that you don’t have 8 pieces of reflective tape for your run outfit, even though IMNA has never been known to enforce the rule.
15. Drive down to expo at the last minute, stand in line, pay $10 for a strip of reflective tape.
16. Drive back to hotel, place energy products into various bags.
17. Pack transition bags.
18. Unpack transition bags.
19. Repack transition bags.
20. Drive to Carbo-dinner. Stand in line, proceed through buffet with poor food selection, sit at crowded table, where everyone has done more IM’s than you and who appear to have a bottomless trust fund. Remember you paid an extra $20 each so your family could enjoy this food. Listen to IMNA personnel tell same jokes as last year. Realize that Dave Scott has apparently discovered the fountain of youth. Stand in line to leave.
21. Prep bike to drop off on Saturday, discover your tire has a slow leak. Drive to expo, stand in line, pay $80 for tubular tire. Get back to hotel, realize you don’t know how to glue on a tubular, drive back to expo and have them do it for you. For $30. (For the record,I can do this.)
22. Drop bike off, spend time covering bike with various plastic bags because everyone else is doing it.
23. Drop off your transition bags, realize you forgot your salt tablets, drive back to hotel to get them.
24. Drive back to hotel again, arrange race gear for tomorrow morning.
25. Pack special needs bags.
26. Unpack special needs bags.
27. Repack special needs bags.
28. Realize there is nothing more you can do to get ready. Sit down and relax.
29. Panic.
30. Eat early dinner
31. Go to bed, lie there in a cold sweat.
32. Wake up at 2:00 am for 1000 calorie bottle of nasty-tasting concoction, “because Gordo does it”.
33. Lie awake listening to horrible weather move into town.
34. Wake up at 4:00 am, listen to spouse complain.
35. Get in car, drive to start. Stand in line to enter the transition area.
36. Check transition bags.
37. Stand in line to get body marked.
38. Check bike, stand in line to get tires pumped up.
39. Stand in line for porta-john.
40. Realize you left your water bottles with special nutrition needs in the fridge at the hotel. Drive back madly to get them.
41. Get back to start, wait in line for parking spot.
42. Stand in line for porta-john.
43. Get wetsuit on, stand in line to enter swim area.
44. Realize it’s too late for a warm up. Stand in line to enter water.
45. Stand in water with 2000 other people while sun comes up and national anthem is sung by local high school girl. Realize that few moments of your life have been this beautiful.
46. Gun goes off, 2000 people attempt to swim on top of you, realize that you are in mortal danger or drowning and few moments of your life have been this dangerous.
47. Get kicked in face, goggles come off, panic and tread water trying to get them back on while people hit you. Remember you paid good money to do this.
48. Exit swim, stand in line to get into transition.
49. Stand in line to get out of change tent. Get bike, stand in line to get out of transition.
50. Start bike, realize that there is no way 1000 people can pack onto a course within 20 minutes without massive drafting problems. Hope that poor bike handlers don’t crash in front of you.
51. Ride bike.
52. Panic that you’ve already fallen off your nutrition plan that your coach gave you.
53. Make up for lost calories and fluids in the next 15 minutes. Feel ill.
54. Ride bike.
55. Get saddle-sore.
56. Ride bike
57. Decide to piss while riding to save time.
58. Spend the next 30 minutes soft-pedaling, coasting, and practicing mental imagery trying to relax enough to let it go.
59. Give up, get off at aid station and spend 30 seconds in porta-john, get back on bike.
60. Ride bike, feel queasy and bloated, take 3 salt tablets at once to make sure you’re not low on electrolytes. Throw up.
61. Get off bike, sit in change tent wondering why you are doing this. Listen in disbelief to volunteer telling you you’re almost done. Proceed to marathon course.
62. Realize that you should have practiced the 1000 calorie drink at 2:00 am before race day.
63. Throw up, walk, jog, repeat for 26 miles.
64. Start gagging at the thought of another energy gel.
65. Sample the variety of food at aid stations. Discover Oreos, the food of the Gods.
66. Invent the form of locomotion called the ‘ironman shuffle’. Feel proud that your 12 minute mile is technically not walking.
67. Pass your spouse. Make them swear to never let you do another one of these.
68. See finishing chute. Sprint madly down the road high-fiving people and cheering while announcer screams your name. Realize it was all worth it.
69. Get to finishing chute, wait in line while a man takes his extended family over it with him.
70. Cross line, collapse into arms of patient voluneteers.
71. Spend next two hours in med tent realizing that you should have drunk more fluids when it got hot.
72. Go to massage tent, eat cold pizza and wander around in a daze while wearing an aluminum foil blanket.
73. Stick around finish line until midnight to share in “the ironman spirit”. Beat off 12-year-old to grab free socks thrown into crowd.
74. Look in disbelief at fresh and bouncy professional athletes dancing at the finish line.
75. Cheer last few athletes into the finish before midnight. Ask your spouse if you looked that bad. Be amazed that they spent 17 hours out there moving the whole time.
76. Go back to hotel, collapse in bed.
77. Wake up, go to bathroom, collapse back into bed. Repeat all night until the 6 IV’s the med tent gave you are through your system.
78. Wake up at 4:00 because your legs hurt so much. Wonder why you’re having hot flashes.
79. Eat first breakfast.
80. Sit around until spouse wakes up, eat second breakfast.
81. Shuffle around town Monday morning wearing finishers T-shirt and medal. Smile knowingly at other fellow shufflers. Graciously accept congratulations from locals thankful you came to their town to spend money.
82. Eat third breakfast at all you can eat buffet.
83. Go to Official Finishers merchandise tent. Stand in line. Pick out $200 worth of clothing with prominent logos on it. Stand in line, pay $600 for clothes. Contemplate getting a tattoo to immortalize your achievement.
84. Fall prey to peer-pressure and marketing techniques. Cough up $450 to sign up for the race next year - since it will sell out today, and this is your only chance to sign up!
85. Proceed to IM Hawaii role-down. Hold out hope that, even though you finished 80th in your age-group, this will be the year everyone leaves early and you get the last spot.
86. Eat first lunch.
87. Go back to hotel, stare at the disgusting, sticky, smelly mess that is your bicycle and race clothes. Start packing things up to fly home or realize you have to drive 8 hours with that stuff in the same car.
88. Eat second lunch.
89. Go to awards dinner, stand in line. Get poor food from buffet, remember you spent $20 a head so your family could enjoy this magical moment with you.
90. Watch hastily-produced race video. Closely examine each frame hoping they caught a glimpse of you on the course. Be disappointed.
91. Watch age-group athletes get their awards. Wonder how many of them actually work for a living, and where you can get some of the performance enhancing drugs they appear to be on.
92. Realize that you have to go all the way up to women’s 70+ age group before you find an age-group your time would have won.
93. Listen to long, excruciatingly boring thank-you speeches from various professional athletes.
94. Stand in line to get out of awards dinner.
95. Go to Airport, stand in line. Deliver $5000 bike to Neanderthal-like baggage handler. Pray. Reluctantly take finishers medal off to pass through metal detector. Proudly tell TSA personnel what you did on your weekend.
96. Get home, contemplate unpacking disgusting bicycle, decide to leave it until tomorrow.
97. Eat Bon-Bons and watch TV. Contemplate unpacking your bicycle and training again, decide to leave it until tomorrow.
98. Repeat above step for 2-10 weeks. Step on scale. Look at your fat, disgusting self in a mirror and remember you signed up for next year’s race. Unpack bike, chip mold off of seat tube. Show up at swim practice again.
99. Get ready to do it all again next year…
Why I have an IM tat. September 12, 2006
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 1 comment so farAfter I did my first Ironman in 2003, I got an Ironman logo tattoo.
It was just a few days after and I fell asleep in the chair…
Some folks think I’m some bragging,self-focused type to have that thing on my calf. “Oh, look at me I’m IRONMAN!
Couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Getting the tat had NOTHING to do with finishing Ironman. It did have everything to do with getting to the start line in one piece and with some vestage of sanity. The previous ten years of my life had been tragic, and I mean that in the classic sense.
Tragedy,Noun: Dealing with a serious theme, typically that of a noble person whose character is flawed by a weakness which causes him to break moral precept and which inevitably leads to his down fall or destruction.
My Dad died and, for awhile I lost my moral compass. My marriage shattered, I ended up in a relationship I should have never been in, lost everything, including my self respect and almost didn’t make it. There were days I wanted to jump off of something really high.
Little by little I started to come back.
I started to train for IMLP in ‘02 but my Mom became ill and died. My sisters and I cared for her. It was ugly. With the help of family and a good therapist I was able to get righted and see my situation as it really was.
“Re-called to life” if you read Dickens.
I signed up for IMLP ‘03 and despite some brief mis-steps in my personal life was able to get back what I had lost.
My Dignity,self respect, and the goodness inside that had been lost too long under a bad influence.
Training was hard…There were days I didn’t want to get out of bed, but did, because Ironman was the path back to myself.
I stood there that morning on the shore of Mirror Lake and knew… The kid was alright.
The tat was a symbol of all that, of being back among the living.
My healing was not without mis-step. With friends, Family, and the finest person I have ever met, IMLP ‘07 will be a breeze!
Numbers July 27, 2006
Posted by anton in : Ironman , add a commentIt really is all about numbers and …I hate that. I am NOT a numbers guy. I am such a non-numbers type that in the next months you will probably read one of my rants against Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs),GPS and the like. Joys of the “New Math” I suppose. While I hate to mess with them I do like to look at them,especially when It’s about a goal I have.
According to The folks at Ironman (WTC) at this last weeks Ironman Lake Placid, 2,402 people registered. I had to go dig around on race day and then at the results to get some numbers that show how devilishly hard an IM can be.
2,160 people finished. there were 120 DNFs (Did not finish) *Note: Until my family gets up to speed,I may have to explain some stuff that is obvious to those of us who have raced for years.
Probably the most telling number is the number of NO-Shows.
No-Shows are the folks that signed up and didn’t even make it to the start line.
Injury,pain,death,fear,bad hair, whatever…They just didn’t make it to Mirror Lake.
242. Take that with the DNFs and you get 362. Roughly 15% of the people that signed up for IMLP….didn’t make it.
Worth the risk…certainly better odds than say… getting married!
It just points out that despite what you read or what your coach tells you or what you feel inside, Ironman is not a “lock.”
It’s The Razor’s Edge.
Swam yesterday…first time in weeks. Felt all akimbo and nothing flowed. It will come back.
Of all the things I have to do to get to Ironman next year, getting a hold on my swimming is THE thing.
I also invite you to click the tab to the right “Training Log” to see what I’ve been up to.
The Razor’s Edge July 26, 2006
Posted by anton in : Ironman , 1 comment so farZippy the Pin Head says that blogging is just “Ego Blather”
A recent article in the WP said something about Bloggers as “Super narcissists of the look-at-me generation.”
Or maybe they are just folks who are trying to stay in touch with family and this is a way to do it.
Monday, I signed up for Ironman Lake Placid. It will be my third. While I am not the kind of person who blows my own horn, members of my family always seem to have questions about what I do when it comes to endurance sports. I decided to give them a place to check it out for themselves.
All psyched up about the sign up I went for a run and promtly twisted my ankle. (Oh,I finished my run.) Not a good start. The real action doesn’t start for another few months when the training cycle kicks in but until then, I’ll fill in whoever is interested on whatever goes on.
Oh, about The Razor’s Edge….It comes from the Upanishads,a hindu religious text. ” The road to salvation is as narrow and treacherous as the razor’s edge.” That’s Endurance Sports…the smallest thing can ruin weeks of training and smash desire.The smallest thing can send you to heights of personal joy and fullfillment you didn’t think were possible.
Just getting to the start line in Lake Placid a year from now…THAT is the real struggle.