When will they put in lanes?

“I swam 4,000 yards today. It was only two laps.”

Behold the world’s largest swimming pool. And no, it’s not a hoax. One lap would be the swim leg of a 1/2 IM! Click on the pic for the story and more pictures.

Although I find it funny that it’s a saltwater pool, separated by 40 yards of sand from more saltwater.

Personally, I’ll swim OW.

News You Can Use

Marathons Cut Risk Of Fatal Vehicle Crashes

So register, run and save a couple of lives.

Oh, but don’t sprint at the end.

Not much news on the training front. I’ve mainly been running for the past month since my marathon. The work schedule has really kept me from the pool during lap swim times. And since the sun sets before I leave work, I haven’t been doing much on the bike. I abhor trainers, even rollers, but I need to get back on them. And with zero triathlons on the horizon, it’s a bit tougher to jump on the trainer, even though I keep telling myself that it’s good for the soul.

Just over nine days until the Mississippi Blues Marathon. I’m running the half, which I’ll treat as a training run for my next full, the 26.2 with Donna, in February. The half is just a good excuse to get out of town for a day and see another part of the country that we haven’t yet, plus get out and shoot some photos. I can certainly run the 13.1 from my front porch, but what’s the fun in that?

Here’s hoping the Holidays are everything you want them to be. We’re nice and relaxed here.

Shirt Rules

Should they apply to swimwear too?

 Let me explain - I’m working a slow, slow night shift.  So I’ve plugged in to EndurancePlanet.com to catch up on podcasts.  The one I’m specifically listening to right now is from September 26th and relates to Race Shirt Etiquette.  It’s an interesting one, since I’ve thought about whether or not I should wear my pullover from my DNF.

Anyway, at about 9:37 into the commentary, Ben brought up a point that got me to thinking about the start of my DNF.  Ben states “…Never wear a shirt that is so old, thin and threadbare that you can see the color of your nipples or chest hair through it.”  Good rule, don’tcha think?

So why did the rule immediately make me think about the guy at the start of my DNF, standing in the lake, just deep enough that his coin purse could get wet, in a Speedo that was so thin you could actually see the color of his ass hair?

Why?

New Directions

Well, recovery is done.  It’s time to start focusing on dodging the flying monkeys on November 18th.

And that race gets me to wondering about my sanity.  Why can’t I pick a relatively flat course for my first time at any distance?  Especially since I’m not light, bordering on Clydesdale at times.  I’m not what you would consider a climber.

But that’s part of the challenge, right? 

The last couple of weeks since my DNF have been interesting.

- Juggling three college courses.  For some reason I decided that I could handle three at once, since IM training was done.  All three are keeping me quite busy.

- Last weekend saw by brother-in-law and his family visit.  We had a wonderful time with them, although the time was short.  The photos I posted last week were from a trip we took with them.

- Working on my new photography web page.  I had sold a fair bit of my photos online over the past couple of years, but I’m no longer comfortable with the company that I was using.  So I’ve switched companies and am starting the web page development.  It’s a work in progress, but if you’d like to browse over and have a look, please do.  It’s billanders.smugmug.com.  I’ve got quite a few more photos to upload as well as working the layout.  And if you see any that strike your fancy, there’s a purchase option, if you’d like.

- Last week and this have my schedule flip-flopped, covering 12-14 hour night shifts, so I’ve been sleeping the day away and missing the beautiful weather.  At least I’ll be done Friday morning, right before my two long runs this weekend.  Then my work schedule is back to normal.

So what does this mean?  Six weeks of focused running, with a swim and bike thrown in each week to keep the muscle memory alive.  Lots of stretching, lots of miles, but quite a decrease in weekly hours compared to IM training.  So it is a break.  Of sorts.

Hope all is well with each of you!

Friday’s Quote

Getting ready to pack the car, head out to registration, enjoy the buffet and sit through the pre-race briefing.

Who cares what you’ve already done; it only matters what you go out
and do right now.
- Kristine Lily, US Women’s National Team

And to put it in context, I’ll include the rest of the e-mail:

A quote from my favorite soccer player who happens to be playing in her record 5th World Cup at the age of 36…She says this in her new adidas commercial, and of course, since it’s an adidas commercial, it ends saying “Impossible is Nothing.” More good words for you.

Thank you, Beth! I hope I live up to the words you’ve inspired me with this week.

See ya’ll Sunday.

Countdown and Quotes

Race minus 3.5 days. I’m relaxing and actually haven’t been getting nervous, although as soon as I counted backwards on the calendar just now to come up with “3.5 days”, I could feel that faint tightening in the chest. No worries, though.

What’s done has been done and I can’t do anything else to get me ready. But I can throw it all away (I won’t). I have had a niggling pain behind my left knee for about a week now, so I’ve kept away from running. I’ve been getting my bike and swim in though.

Friday night I checked the water temp and saw that it was down to 80F, five degrees colder than the week before. We had a good couple of days of thunderstorms, so the heavy rain helped drop the temp. Of course, the “what if’s” kicked in and I realized I needed to think about renting a wetsuit. Turns out that I needed to order it by Friday noon in order to get it in time. So much for that idea. There’s no place local to rent, either. So what must one do? Punt.

I got out to the lake Monday morning, sans wetsuit. Conditions were similar to what they’re forecast to be Saturday, so it was a good test. I jumped in and it was fine. The beauty is that I generate so much heat when I exercise that I’ll be plenty warm. A wetsuit probably would have made me overheat.

The beach where we’ll race from is closed for the season, so I parked down the shore then hiked the path most of the way to the beach. I found a spot that let me spot a dock about 1/2 mile away and I figured that was a good swim plus sighting test. Straight line all the way, baby! And that’s what I swam. When I got the the dock, there was a couple bundled up in fleece jackets and jeans, looking at me like I was nuts. But the water was about 15 degrees warmer than the air, so I was good. I smiled, turned and spotted my way back to my starting point. All in all, a good swim.

Traipsing back through the forest to the car, I realized that I was walking in sandals through prime copperhead country, since I decided to depart the path. Not a good feeling, especially since I was out there alone and my goddess was in the airways between Oklahoma City and Chicago at the time. Not much she could have done for me there. Oh well, at least they could have used my Road ID to identify my body.

Water temp today is 79.

Yesterday, a good friend of mine surprised me with a wonderful e-mail. Apparently she’s been waiting for this week to send me some inspirational quotes. And she started off with a quote from one of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand.

In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice your world to those who are at its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man is at his best with uncompromising values, and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.

Today she sent her favorite poem. Amazing words here:

Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.

Thank you so much for the inspiration and support, Beth!

I’ll continue to share throughout the week.

Time to go get my bags ready…

Jane Tomlinson, 1964-2007

A tip of the hat to Karl for this, which is very appropriate for the post yesterday about my Goddess’ efforts.

From the website janesappeal.com, look at these CV:

“During this period Jane, a mother of three from Leeds, took on a series of apparently impossible challenges, for someone suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy treatment, including a full Ironman (4km Swim, 180Km bike ride and full marathon – completed inside 17 hours), two half Ironmans, the London Marathon three times, the New York Marathon, three London Triathlons and three long distance bike rides – John O Groats to Lands End, Rome to Home and her final huge challenge a 6781.8 km ride across America”

One of our own.

I’ve just been introduced to you, Jane. But we are connected.

RIP.

Six Months Down

I quit posting weekly and monthly numbers, mainly because other than numbers, I wasn’t adding much to them. And I sure hate to bore the two or three of you that read this. But I was curious about how the first six months of this year added up, so I was looking at them over the weekend. I hemmed and hawed about how to present them, then saw JP’s tally today.

So with apologies to JP, and certainly no comparisons, here they are:

15 January – 30 June 2007

• Total miles: 1,982.8
  • Total Swim: 65.87 miles (115,931 yards)
  • Total Bike: 1,433.7 miles
  • Total Run: 405.6 miles
• Total time: 226 hours, 37 minutes
  • Total Swim: 43 hours, 4 minutes (19%)
  • Total Bike: 82 hours, 32 minutes (36%)
  • Total Run: 67 hours, 53 minutes (30%)
  • Strength, etc.: 33 hours, 8 minutes (15%)
• Number of rest days: 33
• Average hours per week: 9 hours, 28 minutes
• Shortest training weeks: ZERO (active recovery week after my ½, with no planned workouts)
• Longest training week: 15 hours, 20 minutes
• Longest swim: 2.73 miles (4,800 yards)
• Longest bike: 73.53 miles
• Longest run (not counting race miles): 10.5 miles
• Rides that have finished with “Honey, can you come pick me up?”: 1
• Number of races: 1
  • Length of race: 70.3 miles
  • Time of race: 6 hours, 6 minutes
• Weight change: - 21.2 lbs
• Body Fat percentage change: - 4.7 % (according to my uncalibrated Tanita home scale)

There are some interesting numbers in there. The ones that I’m most proud of are the bottom three bullets (race, weight, BF). The last two came from training for the first. And that 70.3 was my first at that distance.

As I looked at the percentage of time spent in each discipline, it confirmed what I already knew and that was that I’ve been spending too much time swimming and not enough time on the bike and run. So the focus has started changing. However, I’ve found that my relatively sudden increase in run time wipes me out mid-way through the week and I start skipping workouts because I know I can’t perform with the correct form. So it’s been a juggle.

Today is R-82 days (or 11.7 weeks) and counting until my full Iron-distance race. I’m starting to worry that I’m falling behind on building the deeper base necessary for the full race. But I also suspect that part of it is mental, since I haven’t committed to the race by paying for it. Guess I need to get off my butt and do that, since there aren’t too many full 140.6 mile races available where I can sleep in my own bed before and after.

Looking toward the rest of summer, time is tight. With a wedding to attend, a move of the family across town, my college class and several work projects looming, it’ll be tough.

But who said it’s supposed to be easy?

Take care,

Bill

Train as you Fight

Ooops, I meant “train as you race”.

Heisted from XT4’s blog. I almost didn’t keep my coffee in…

Catching Up

Rain, rain, go away.

Well, not that I mind the rain, especially since the corn needs it. And I don’t mind the rain during runs and rides. It’s the lightning that’s a bitch. And the rest of this week doesn’t look any better.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but that’s life.

So what’s been going on?

Music-wise, we drove up to Evansville a week ago Sunday to see Tool in concert. Excellent show.

The warmup band was a Japanese noise band called Melt Banana. The best way to describe them is that you’ll have to imagine a band that combines the best of Discharge and Einsturzende Neubauten, fronted by Kate Bush on speed. Although you’d have to imagine that Kate would actually deign to let out dog yelps on occasion. Definitely too esoteric for the Midwest US crowd.

Tool played for right at two hours. Nice to see, given ticket prices. Now, I find the ticket prices to be reasonable; it’s the t-shirt prices that have gone insane. I guess it’s been 10 years since I’ve gone to a large arena show, but $38-$43 for a t-shirt is starting to gouge the fans a bit much. Anway, the music was solid and filled the arena well. We had general admission tickets for the floor, so for the first half of the show we weren’t but 20 feet away from the stage. After a while, we got tired of standing on the concrete floor, as well as having smoke (both legal and otherwise) blown in our face by the considerate ones that decided that the no smoking regulations of the venue didn’t apply to them, so we bought some sodas and grabbed some seats way up in the nosebleed section. Actually it was a much better view of the entire show and the sound was better. Imagine that. Definitely a worthwhile move.

Next concert on the schedule will be Alison Kraus and Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas. My lovely bride and I are definitely looking forward to this show, although the 16 year old boy has opted out. We were about to pounce on tickets for the following weekend to go see Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution 2007 up in Indianapolis, but then realized that although the ticket prices were good for an all-day festival, we had no desire to see any of the supporting bands. Too emo for my taste.

I’m going to have to get a second job to support my music habit. On top of my other second job to support my tri habit. On top of my other job to support my (fill in the blank) habit. Ad nauseam.

Training’s going well. I’ve shifted my focus more to getting in time on the bike and on the run and cutting back on the swim. I can swim like a fish, so I really don’t need to grind out a gazillion yards. That won’t help my race. But higher bike and run volume will. So that’s where I’m headed.

But it’s been so bloody humid here lately. This morning’s 10.5 mile run was good, except it was 70F and 100% humidity at sunrise this morning. It was bad enough that I actually carried water for the first time on a run and drained the 20 oz bottle by the 7 mile point. And the bad part about my sweating out every ounce of moisture in my body is that the shirt gets soaked. That’s when I realize that I forgot to put bandaids on; now the pink stain on the shirt looks real yummy! Perhaps it’s time to buy some Nippits.

On top of all that, I had a 1000-1500 word essay due yesterday. And in fine Bill form, I started researching on Saturday night and wrote on Sunday while watching the four different Ironman-branded races. Got it done with time to spare. The worst part about it was doing the research on Physical Education classes in the US. Do you realize that on a daily basis, only 18% of all students actually partake in a PE class? And only about half of those actually participate? Is it any wonder that we’re getting so fat as a nation?

Ah well, time to knock out the homework for this week. Business travel at week’s end up to St Louis. Luckily it’s close enough that I can drive, so the family can go with me. What a deal.

Hope all’s well with you.