Winning isn't everything!

Winning is everything, or so they told us. The thrill of victory was supposed to be the be all end all, but was it? While I was never the star athlete or the top dog at anything, looking back I can say I have had a pretty good resume. I ran some impressive times in high school, as a 7th grader in was running Varsity Track and X-Country at a Junior Senior High School, I moved to California and ended up as the 4,5, or 6 guy on a USA Today Honorable Mention Team, Northern California State Champs and Top 5 in the State my senior year. In my post, high school days I took up triathlon at age 33, have been fortunate enough to compete in 5 Iron Distance Races including Kona and 4 marathons including Boston. Along the way I won a single X-Country Race, several track races, and won a 10K overall, and even have been able to win my age group as a 39 year old and 40 year old in a few local 5ks, but the memory of those races hold almost no significance in my mind and heart. What I remember fondest is competing with my teammates, pushing each other to get our best, pushing myself to not let them down and the sense of team and camaraderie. My most vivid memories are of a warm night at UC Davis where I ran a race I consider to be perfect, and finished 5th, but I qualified for the Section Meet as an individual my final goal as a high school athlete. Even getting outkicked didn't knock the luster off that memory. Nothing is more satisfying that reaching a goal you worked your tail off to achieve.


Triathlon has fortified this belief. I have done things I thought were impossible. I've covered distances which boggled my mind, persevered through days when I had every right to pack it in, found myself in a place I truly had no business being at. But each time I found a way to rise to the challenge. Rev 3 Knoxville where I finished 192nd and 26th in my age group is one of the most vivid memories of my life. Getting up off the ground and finishing that race was special and I can take you through so many vivid details to this day. To see the race to its end under those circumstances was an amazing experience. Overcoming my fear, my pride, and the pain taught my so much about myself. I will treasure that experience forever as bizarre as it may seem.

Finally, I take more pride in a 1482nd place finish than any victory. Floating down Alli drive some 5 hours after Macca and Chrissy Wellington was the culmination of a dream I had ever since I was a 12 year old watch ABC's Wide World of Sports. So many incredibly improbable things had to come together for me to be there, but against the odds there I was finishing the greatest race in the world being welcomed home by Mike Riley. Nothing you will ever do can compare to achieving that impossible dream. I'll take that over a victory any day.

Race T shirt scenario- Why this reaction?

I need a ruling from all my triathlete friends.

I went to the SouthEast Pennsylvania Multisport Expo this weekend, brought my two boys and had a great time. We hit the Tri Columbia Tent (Club that puts on the Eagleman 70.3 and Chesapeakman Endurance Festival) and got into a nice conversation about Eagleman, which I am signed up for this year and did before in 2007. They had some really nice Technical T shirts with the Eagleman Logo which I mentioned I liked and then she gave me and both my boys an Eagleman T-shirt and a Aflac IronGirl Tri Tshirt for my wife. I thought that was very nice and gladly accepted the gift. My oldest son immediately put his shirt on.

Well for the rest of the the expo, Adrian got the "YOU did Eagleman!!??" comments from a lotta folks and I noticed the shirts were event shirts from the 2009 race. Some folks seemed downright offended that my son was walking around in a race Tshirt and he had not competed in that race. It sort of reminded me of the reaction we got at an Iron Maiden Concert Last summer where Adrian was wearing a replica T shirt from the "Killers" Tour which took place about 16 years before he was born.

SO the question is..1) Is it Ok to give a race Tshirt (actual event tshirt which the racers get not a souvenier) to someone who did not do the event; and 2) Is it OK for me to wear a Tshirt for a race I have done albet a different year? 3) What is with all the haters giving my 13 year old son a hard time? (Don't get the attitute at all.)

Thanks for your opinions in advance.

It's a small world!

No this post is not about that evil ride at Disney, although that did make for a really funny thread on BeginnerTriathlete.com a few year back. Check it out if you dare but don't blame me if that tune is stuck in your head. http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=48893&start=1

No this post comes from a little encounter I had the other day at A.C. Moore. My wife sent me out on a mission to pick up some craft supplies. So I head out wearing my Steelman Triathlon sweat shirt, find the supplies and go to check out. The elderly lady at the counter sees my sweat shirt and asks, "Oh a triathlon, is that the one in Hawaii?"

Long ago I realized that no matter how obsessed I am with the sport of Triathlon, I shouldn't expect anyone else to know much about my sport other than "that triathlon in Hawaii they show on TV." But I really like being able to say, "Why yes I have done that race in Hawaii." Having won a lottery spot in 2007, I was able to make one of my dreams come true. So that race is very special to me, and it is great way to start a conversation share my passion the wonderful world of triathlon.

So back to A.C. Moore, I replied,"No this race was up in Quakertown, but I have done the race in Kona." Turns out she used to live in Kona back in the early 1980's and had a house overlooking the ocean. The store wasn't busy so we talked for about 15 min about Kona, how much the city has grown, how the race moved to the island and went it was moved to the island they could watch the swim from there backyard and the run from their front porch. I told hear about the "new high school" (used to be only the school was the one on the upper part of Palini), and the new shopping centers (Lowes, Walmart, Boarders, etc). It was really nice to share perspectives about a place were both had very fond memories of.

On the ride home, I also remembered, back in 2007 after we checked in for the race and were wandering around the shops at the King K hotel, we shopped in an artists studio and one of the artists recently moved from Collegeville, PA (the next town down 422 from where I live) to Kona. I remember having a similar conversation with her and we brought a personalized piece of art by her (Triathlon themed).

So you never know who you will meet out there.

Finally a plan for 2011

It has been a fairly busy couple of weeks and I keep having good intentions about blogging but just missed the mark when it came to sitting down and typing something.

Somewhere between the unannounced trip up to Susquehanna for their scram and subsequent startup (and missing two snow days if I had stayed in the Regional Office),bringing having my "free cat" diagnosed with a floating knee/hip and having to go into othropedic surgey ($2800 and not covered by my insurance since it is considered a congenital defect), pumping out End of Cycle Packages, and Inspection Reports, and shovelling 10,000 pounds of snow off my driveway, I finally came up with my evil plans for my triathlon season.

May 15 Revolution 3 Knoxville - Half Rev Knoxville, TN
May 22 Escape from Fort Delaware- Olympic Tri. Deleware City, DE
June 4 Revolution 3 Quazzy - Olympic Rev, Middlebury, CT
June 5 Revolution 3 Quazzy - Half Rev, Middlebury, CT (The Revolution)
June 12 Eagleman - Half Ironman Cambridge, MD
August 7 Brigantine Island Tri - Sprint, Brigantine, NJ
August 28 Ironman Canada. Full Ironaman Penticon, BC, Canada
September 11 Revolution 3 Cedar Point Half Rev or volunteer audible, Cedar Point, OH
October 8 Revolution 3 South Carolina Olympic Rev Anderson, SC
October 9 Revolution 3 South Carolina Half Rev Anderson, SC (Double Revolution)

I would like to qualify for the USAT Half Maxs at Knoxville or Eagleman but other than that this year will be all about endurance and perseverence and of course enjoying the ride. I'll be putting my First Endurance products to another test continuing with my Ultragen and EFS regiment and trying out Prerace and Optigen HP to see how they will help me on this quest. Triathlon is an adventure, it is a sport where we push our limitations right off the page. Hopefully 2011 will be one of those years.

Product review-UltraGen the real deal.

Last winter I conducted an experiment to see if I could prove if UltraGen would make a difference for me, a middle aged MOP AGer. I started using UltraGen last winter. I have tried two flavors (Fruit Punch and Orange Creamsicle) and the flavor grew on me (I prefer Orange Creamsicle), they also have Cappuccino. I drank a water bottle of UltraGen within 30 min after my last workout of the day. I did a 90 day test to see if would help and the results jumped of the page.

Prior to starting I took some baseline data for comparison:

Vitals Age 40 Weight 171

1) 40 K time trial on my CompuTrainer: 1:04:14, 24.84 miles, ave 260 watt,s and ave BPM 170 Max BPM 191
2) 90 min HR ride on CompuTrainer: 1:30:00 30.30 miles, ave 160 watts, HR 115-124 max ave 118 BPM
3) 5K : Ran my post 15 year layoff PR 21:12 just prior to the test (11/28/09). No HR data (didn't bring my watch).

While I haven't done a 5K since Nov, I have seen noticable improvement on the other two.

1)40 K time trial on my CompuTrainer 1:00:36, 24.84 miles, ave 280 watts, and ave BPM 159 Max 172 (Better yet I ran 7.7 miles about 2 hours prior to this ride)

2)90 min maintaining 120 BPM or lower went 30.82 miles Ave watts 170, Ave BPM 119

I have also clearly noticed how much fresher my legs have felt the day after a hard workout. I have had 3 of my highest volume months ever on the bike 601 miles, 532 miles, and 668 miles and my legs feel great, no aches or pains and I feel stronger.

I certainly proved to myself that UltraGen has made a huge difference for me. I had done the chocolate milk and Whey Protein thing before but UltraGen made a noticeable difference within a few days and has worked great for me. It passed the feel test and the numbers seem to back it up as well.

Note: Later that year I also hit my Iron Distance PR by close to 15 minutes at age 40.

I would recommend this product to everyone

Why?

A new year and I have been seeing a theme out there. Why. Why do we chose to be triathletes? Why do we put 10-14 hour weeks in even though it isn't very realistic that we will ever find our way to the podium (OK I'm talking for me is this case). In a 2nd place is the first looser world, why do triathletes seem to have a different take on things?

There isn't a great reason. I am a typical performance driven person in almost every other aspect of my life. If my boss has something negitive to say about my performance I burn inside and make sure I find a way to fix the problem and crank that performance back up. I played college Basketball, Volleyball, and WaterPolo at Cal Maritime and ran Track and Cross Country at a high level in High School. But taking 15 years effectively off, I had to accept I wasn't going to be competeing for the win anymore.

But I found that working hard had its own rewards. Rising to meet the challenge gave me a sense of pride that was in many ways even greater than what I experienced earlier in life when i was vying for a win. But after 15 years and 100 pounds, everything was a challenge. So I started with a goal to lost 25 pound in 90 days-Done, then another 10 in 60 days-Done. Then it was to Run a 5 mile race-Done. Next a friend of mine challenged me to tri the Carpenteria Triathlon. That first race was an eye opener, I swam just fine, but found bicycling on rolling hills killed me (2nd slowest bike leg and I had to walk) and it carried over to the run 29 min 5k. But the goal was to finish and I had to work my tail off to do it (and so many folks who seemed to know what I was going through and encouraged me to stick with it). The feeling of pride and accomplishment was amazing. That became my why. The goal changed My first Marathon, my first Olympic, my first HIM, and my first Ironman. Then it was Kona (I won the lottery), then it was an International Ironman, then it was a pair of Hilly HIMs on back to back weekends, then it was do back to back races (Oly and HIM at Quazzy-the Revolution) and to complete the entire REV 3 Series. For each of those crazy goals the why was the same, recapture that feeling.


The Why is a very important reason I find my way to the finish line. Occassionally the Why had nothing to do with a finish line. At Boston, in 2008 it was about coming full circle. In 1982, my 6th grade math teacher convinced me to try running and later brought us out to watch the race and cheer him on on Heartbreak Hill (just below the firehouse). In 2008, when I reached that spot and was on the other side of the tape being cheered on by a bunch of kids.. it was amazing! That feeling, the feeling at mile marker 25 of my first Ironman (OMG, I'm about to finish something I though was impossible), the electric feeling of hope and tension floating in the water just before the gun and the out of body experience of trotting down Alli Dr at Kona (my feet never touch the ground that last 1/2 mile). Moments like those last a lifelime and you never know when the next one will come.

So remember, no matter where you go, there you are! Stay in the moment, keep you eyes open and enjoy the ride. Amazing happens, whether we are there to experience it or to witness it the reward is the same.

A blast from the past

I was logging my workout on Beginner Triathlete.com and came across my Podcast interview from Nov 2009, when I was selected at the Begineer Triathlte of the Month.

http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1850