Back On The Map

 

If I keep feeling like I'm feeling now (which is better), I'll be back into my normal routine tomorrow.  Actually, I'm fixin' to push it a little.  I've got a lot going on tomorrow, but I think I can pull off the following:

6:30 AM    - Get Up

7:30 AM    - Ride to work the long, long way (15 miles)

8:15 AM    - Arrive at office

9:00 AM    - New employee starts

11:00 AM  - Lunch ride (20 miles)

1:00 PM    - Meeting at office

2:00 PM    - Ask/beg a co-worker for a ride to my house so I can pick up my running gear.

5:00 PM    - Run home the long way (5 miles)

6:00 PM    - Pick up Ian from his after school program

8:00 PM    - Write a blog post about how great it was to be back in my routine.

I don't want to do anything stupid given I've not been feeling well, but man I need this.  Hopefully, it will work out.

The Last Mile

I've always had a weird relationship with the last mile of a run.  On the one hand, I look forward to finishing.  In about 8 minutes I'll be stopping to enjoy the tingle of a receding blood flush and the calmness that washes over me as my breathing and heart rate returns to normal.  I'll soon be in the shower.  And since I usually run in the early evening, finishing marks the end of the last "must do" task of the day.  Rest and relaxation awaits. 

On the other hand, I don't want to stop.  There is a part of me that rebels against the knowledge that I am almost done.  Like a school kid fighting to lengthen the last days of summer vacation, I'm content in a moment that I don't want to end.  Some days, I feel like I could run forever. 

I think this internal dissent is a hold over from the days before my training came consistent.  I loved training, but still felt like I had to take the joy as it came.  Because I wasn't entirely convinced that this lifestyle would (or could) truly become a part of my life.  Everyone has times in their life when things suddenly come to an end.  Sometimes these things are out of your control and sometimes you think they where out of your control.  Sometimes it was never meant to be.  I was enjoying an upswing for the first time in many years and It felt almost too good to be true.  It took time to get both my self esteem and a belief in myself back.  I had to rebuild my library of reasons why I should do something and then dispose of my collection of excuses I had to do nothing.

But time heals.  These days I'm confident that I've found a true life long passion in endurance sports.  Or maybe it found me, and I never really had a choice in the matter.  Either way is fine because it turns out it wasn't too good to be true.  It may even have been meant to be.  So by the time I've got a quarter mile to go, I'm at peace with the fact that I'm close to finishing the last mile.

At least for the day.

The Office

I had to move a cowhide sofa with the Patrick Nagel print throw pillows to put my bike there.  That's a joke.  I actually don't have any Patrick Nagel print throw pillows.  Or a cowhide sofa.

It's official - I no longer work from home.  Last Thursday and Friday we moved into an office space in Huntington Beach.  Friday afternoon the Internet and phones went in.  Today was our first full day in the new place.  And it's a pretty cool space.  We've got a small front room we'll use for samples and an open floor plan everywhere else with high ceilings and a roll up door that lets in the ocean breeze.

I say "we" and "our" because I've started hiring. Since last October, I've worked for a Canadian based music apparel company and I was tasked with opening up the US market.  For awhile, it was easy to handle everything myself and use the central services in Vancouver for administration.  But it's got to the point where that isn't working anymore so we are putting some people in place in the US.  Sadly, California's unemployment rate is currently at 12.2%.  But that does make for some quality people looking for work and I think we'll end up with a good staff.

Though I'm going to miss lounging around in my boxer shorts all day, I think it will be cool to get up and go someplace to work again.  I'll get more done and I'll have someone besides the dogs to talk to.  Though the last time I did this it ended in disaster, there are some key differences.  I'm not the ultimate boss as I still report to HQ in Vancouver.  That will be nice.  And it will only be 4 people in 800 square feet, not 30 people in 20,000 square feet.  That will be nice too - low key, chill and theoretically much easier to manage.

I had to unpack a few boxes of "personal office" type stuff that had been stacked in the corner of my garage for the last two years.  To be honest, I was a little worried about how that would go - I really didn't want seeing a bunch of this stuff to trigger bad memories.  In the end, it didn't.  My biggest problem was cleaning two years of dust off of everything without sneezing.

 View from my desk.  I still need to get a power strip so I can plug the external monitor in.

I don't think the move is going to affect my training schedule too much.  Due to the lack of a shower, lunch time runs are now out of the question.  But I bought a case of wet naps and I'm hoping that will be good enough to clean up after a bike ride.  Ultimately, whether or not this plan works will be up to the staff and not me.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I'm going to try out a new cycling route tomorrow.  It's a 20 mile loop that isn't too much different than what I would do from home, except the PCH portion is farther north into Long Beach and Seal Beach.  But it's still fairly traffic signal free and should be doable in an hour.

Possibly the best part of the deal is that our street is named Triton lane.  Gotta love Greek mythology.  It also sounds kind of tough.  There is a Boeing plant across the street where parts of Skylab (remember that?) where built.  Yes, I'm a bit of a space dork.

Athlete Profile: "Big Daddy" Riley

"Big Daddy" Riley - His other ride is a Specialized Allez Comp

Meet my friend "Big Daddy" Riley. Ours is a classic post web 2.0 friendship - we've never actually met. Both of us work in the apparel business and where introduced by a mutual colleague who thought we could "do some business" together. We are working on some things, but I've recently realized that most of our conversations, emails, or Facebook messages revolve around triathlon instead.

I don't remember how we found out that the other was into triathlon, it was probably through a Facebook post one of us made. Originally, I was expecting him to call me for opinions about artwork and retailing, not the merits of 2 piece tri-suits. But that's OK. The truth is, it's actually a more interesting subject.

Like me, Riley is 40. Unlike me, he is a natural built endurance athlete, 6'3, 175 lbs, currently with 9% body fat. Tall and lean.

He was going to do his first race - a 70.3 - on May 8th. But some knee problems sidelined him. In retrospect, I think he's glad. Because once he started training he realized how important training really is. Which is cool, because this is all one big learning process. Everything happens for a reason and injury aside, I think he welcomed the delay. Now his first triathlon is in July in New Jersey. He's also doing a time trial in Philadelphia next week. So his season is about to kick off.

Riley, correct me if I'm wrong, but you where going on about how you only wore black. Isn't there some red and white in that jersey? What's up with that?

Riley has got style. He's Johnny Cash with tons of tattoos and a sick bike. He was telling me today that when he showed up for his first ride with a local bicycling club, he was the only one driving an old hearse with flames painted on the side. It made for some awkward moments in the parking lot, but he quickly earned the respect in the peloton. And apparently he's dropping everyone on the hills now. Well played if you ask me.

When he's not sleeping, training, or eating way healthier than I do, Riley is the owner of Evil Brand Clothes. I like his stuff. Other fashion trends come and go, but the hot rodding & rockabilly scene will never go away.

Riley and the legendary Alice Cooper

We have a lot in common. We both came into the sport at about the same time. We both have wives that are non-participating but very supportive, and we both agree that triathlon is one of the most important things that has happened to us in our adult lives. We also both come from climbing backgrounds. And we both like to rock. I noticed he referenced an AC/DC song on Facebook today. I did the same thing about a month ago.

The coolest thing Riley told me today was how training has had such a positive impact on him mentally. He says that in the past winters where always tough. Before he started Evil Brand he was a freelance photographer and there just wasn't much work around at that time of year. Plus the weather didn't help. As a result he would get depressed. But this last winter, the training kept him occupied and his mind and body fit. I can completely relate.

Inevitably, I'll meet Riley in person soon, though I don't know if it will be at a business function or at a race. But until then, we'll have plenty to talk about.

http://www.facebook.com/bigdaddyriley

My Garmin

I was a little out of sorts earlier. Because just like that, my Garmin stopped working. I had turned it on and then put it back in the charging cradle. When I pulled it back out to head off to run, it shut off and wouldn't come back on. I looked for some sort of reset button, but it doesn't have one. I tried a couple different combinations of button pressing to find the hard reset. But nothing worked and the screen remained dark.

It was 5:30 and I promised Mary I'd be home by 7:00. So I had to get going. I grabbed my old school sports watch. The watch is so 2 years ago when I could barely pull off 3 miles. But at least I could get an elapsed time. That would have to be good enough.

But things where not good. In fact, they kinda sucked. First off, I had to remember to manually start and stop the watch at traffic lights. The Garmin does that automatically. I remembered to hit the start/stop button every time except once, but once is enough to throw everything off. I forgot to hit start at one particular intersection and didn't notice until 1 minute and 36 seconds later. I know that it was 1 minute and 36 seconds because later I drove over to the intersection, parked my car, and re-timed the segment.

I have a thing about accuracy.

I like (and have become very used to) knowing what my pace, heart rate, accumulated distance, and elapsed time is whenever I want. And even though I have this route memorized to the foot, it still felt wrong. I didn't have my training partner.

I was alone. Because today there where not 3 satellites in a geosynchronous orbit somewhere overhead quietly working away keeping me data rich. And I would not have anything to upload into my training log (even though I rarely use that data for anything useful anyway).

I used to proclaim, somewhat proudly, that I was not dependent on technology. I now realize that is complete bulls**t. After all, I almost had a meltdown today. I never leave the house without my Iphone. I have not touched a book since I got a Kindle. And I use AOL Instant Messenger & Skype, at the same time!!!

Then there is this blog. Lately I have been installing every 3rd party blog aggregating widget I can find. I can't go to bed without looking at Google Analytics first. Blogging has created a whole new community, and I want my 40 acres and a mule. Or at least a mule avatar.

Fortunately, the Garmin is working again. I did a Google search for "Garmin 305 will not turn on" and easily found the right combination of keys to press. And by the way, I didn't get the information off the Garmin website. Somebody's blog came up first.

Bike Ride Video Journal

Why am I up at 1:30 AM posting on the blog? Not sure.

I got it into my head that I want to make a video journal about next week's Encinitas Triathlon. And since I've never used either this memory stick video camera we have nor have I ever used the i-Movie video editing software, I thought maybe I should practice. So I took the camera out on my ride today and put some of the footage together.

Or it could just be that I wanted to get a new post up so Kovas could get his 5 comments and get the free t-shirt.

Either way, here is my first attempt. At least now I know what video making stuff I need to work on. Which is pretty much everything.

You can check the video out here.

Training Schedule

Since I log my training at begginertriathlete.com, my training weeks run Sunday-Saturday. Which I guess makes sense since weeks run Sunday-Saturday. Did you ever wonder why that is? I never did until 2 seconds ago. This article sheds some light on the answer, but it's honestly more than I was asking for. You've been warned.

Wikipedia

Anyways, I think I've finally found a training schedule that not only addresses my volume/recovery requirements, but manages to make the family and the boss happy. The only thing I'm going to need to work on is finding some more time for the Sunday long bike ride (need to get that up distance-wise). That will inevitably be a case of me getting my lazy butt out of bed earlier.

Sunday: (Morning) 1:30 Bike (25 Miles); Sunday (Evening) :40 Short Run (4-5 Miles)

Monday: (Lunch) 1:00 Bike (18 Miles); Monday (Evening) Weight Training

Tuesday: (Late Afternoon) 1:00 Medium Run (7 Miles)

Wednesday: (Lunch) 1:00 Bike (18 Miles); Monday (Evening) Weight Training

Thursday: (Late Afternoon) 1:00 Swim

Friday: (Late Afternoon) 1:20 Long Run (10 miles)

Saturday: (Morning) 1:00 Swim

I don't schedule days off. I'll take one if I need to, but with my swimming being the only thing I do on those particular days, it seems to work pretty well as active recovery. And I usually need to take a quick trip somewhere for work that by default gives me 2-3 days off a month.

I work at home, so the prep time for a run or bike is minimal. And the deal I cut with my boss is that I can either do a "lunch" or cut out a little early. It's good to have the support of your job to stay in shape. It must be because they are Canadian - this seems to rarely be the norm here in the US.

My family is happy, because except for the weight training sessions, I'm finished up by 5:30 or 6. So we have plenty of evenings together.

So there you go, it may not sound like a super huge deal, but I'm pretty stoked on it.

One Year Down

My feet ready to run as I finished up the last business call of the day.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from KOZ Enterprises, an event management company that puts on a bunch of races every year down in San Diego. The e-mail was related to the Solana Beach Sprint Tri on July 25th. It was one of those urgent "register NOW - we're filling up fast" emails that I always fall for. So I basically dropped everything and registered so quickly that whoever is doing the marketing over at KOZ will probably get a promotion for stellar engagement and conversion metrics.

The truth is, I'm pretty pumped on this race. Last year's race was my first triathlon ever and the first race I will do for a second time.

I don't remember the "official" first date of my triathlon training. I'd been running for about a year as of last Spring. But my credit card statement shows that I bought a bike on May 10th of last year, and buying the bike was so I could get ready for the Solana Beach race.

I ended up doing the 1/4 mile swim in 13:39, the 9 mile bike in 40:19, and the 3 mile run in 26:28 for a 1:20:26 finish. I finished 781 out of 1071. But never once did my results (or lack thereof) cross my mind. Running the last 100 yards down the finish chute ranks as one of my top 10 all time epic life experiences. I was hooked. Actually, I remember thinking to myself that I was hooked as I came out of the water, because there was a (pretty big) part of me that thought my race would begin and end with the swim.

Finishing that race was a gift that keeps on giving to this day. It's been like that sweet remote control car I got for Christmas when I was 12, but it's never run out of batteries. In the time since, I can count on one hand the times when I lacked the motivation to go out and train. Triathlon is truly a part of my life.

And it couldn't have come at a better time. For that I am thankful.

I can sit here all day and run the math. I've knocked at least 1:20 off of my running pace. On similar courses, I've ridden my bike an average of 9 miles an hour faster than I did at Solana. The swim? Well, that needs some work, but it's better too.

All of this is well and good, but the reason I am pumped is because I can go do this race and see what I've REALLY got as compared to last year. Forget the stats, this is a rematch. I'm really looking forward to that.

I celebrated my 1st triathlon training anniversary with a 10 mile run this afternoon. It was one of those typical California Friday afternoons - warm but not hot, and plenty of others out and about getting a few hours jump on the weekend. It was a great run and I'm feeling pretty strong. And there was no way in hell I was running 10 miles a year ago. So bring it, Solana Beach.