Valley Forge National Park

One the best perks of my job is the fact that me office is located in King of Prussia, PA about 2 miles away from the visitor's center of Valley Forge National Park. While I have always been a big American Revolution buff (I used to live in Lexington, MA, rode Paul Revere's ride, canoed under the bridge in Concord, etc) and being able to explore a place where one of the key moments in our country's history took place is amazingly cool. But Valley Forge is also a runners and cyclists paradice. Miles and miles of roads, hills, trails, fields, and breathtaking views to go along with history.

Friday, I took a ride up to the park and ran the multi purpose loop which takes you past Log City, the Masonic Arch, past cannons and statues and past Washington's Chapels. You also climb about 600 feet, pass within a few feet of the local herds of deer, got scoped out by a huge Golden Eagle, Redtailed Hawk, and a Turkey Vulture or two (that wasn't the best feeling). Throw in the bus loads of students, the lunch time walkers, runners, cyclists, the horseback riders, the model airplane pilots, and even a couple of Harleys.

A run like that just charges you up and make you feel glad to be alive, and makes the rest of the day smooth as silk. Location, location, location. I love my job.

Redemption

Redemption (n): 1)Recovery of ownership by paying a sum. 2)To pay off. 3) To fulfill. 4) To make amends for. 5) To save from sin.

12 days ago, I was healthy and in some of the best shape of my life and was about half way through a spectacular race to start of my 2010 triathlon racing season. I had PRed the swim by several minutes, had a solid transition and actual got my wetsuit off in record time, and was mowing people down on the bike leg. 12 miles in and a grand total of 1 person had passed me and felt strong.

Then in an instant my race turning into something completely different. A narrow two lane country road on coming traffic, no shoulder, and a white pickup truck in the lane with the cyclists. I was annoyed by this but as I started closing in on the truck, but just then the driver comes up on a cyclist thinks about swerving out to pass but sees on coming traffic and hits the breaks hard. Suddenly I am on top of this truck with on coming traffic in the other lane and no room to the inside and I jumped out of the aerobars and jammed on the breaks and suddenly was flipping and supermanning onto the pavement. From there, my race turned into a journey about nothing more than seeing this thing to its end. I finished, but underneath the pain from the road rash/brushed ribs/sprained wrist and mangled hands and gashed arms/hands/nose/mouth/and chin, grew another pain. The pain knowing what could have and what should have been. After the physical pain faded, that pain grows deep inside.

After a week off thanks to having to keep both hands clean and dry and baby my battered ribs, I got back on the horse on Monday and did a run at lunch and then a ride on a stationary bike Monday night. I was on the way back. I ran 25 miles this week with alot of hills and did some cycling as my bike was being repaired. What drives me to get back at it, the pain of what could have been. The only thing that will ease that pain is to get back out their and on June 5th at the Rev3 Tri make something happen. I have payed a heavy price, financially and physically, but when we are faced with adversity we find our true nature comes to the surface. The drive to redeem myself to take back the feeling, the pride, and glory that this accident robbed from me. I may not perform to the highest level on June 5th, but the pride to drag myself to the starting line and strive to get the most out of my battered body is my redemption.

Thanks to my Trakkers teammates, my co-worker who think I'm nuts, to First Endurance for providing some great fuel to help my body recover like it never had to before, and to my beautiful and loving wife for nursing me back to health and trying to understand my madness. Triathlon is about stepping up to a challenge and looking deep inside to find the strength to rise to the occasion.

Enjoy the ride. Pain is temporary, pride lasts forever.

Courage?

This weekend I had a very interesting race at the Rev 3 Olyimpic Tri in Knoxville, Tn. See the race report for some of the details, http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=207629 but the key moment was on the bike leg. I was flying on a narrow 2 lane road with lots of traffic in the opposite direction and one truck in the lane with the cyclists, being in the 8th wave you get to pass alot of slower cyclists from the eariler waves which really boosts your confidence, but it worked against me in this case as the truck came up on one of these slower cyclists, could pass due to on coming traffic and hit the breaks hard. Next thing I know I am closing fast on his bumper and no room to pass on either side and I jumped out of the aerobars and mashed the breaks and ended up to getting the fronts first and found myself supermanning over the handbars at 24-25 mph. I took most of the impact on my hands, chest, and chin and rolled off the road. After taking my time on my hands and knees to catch my breath, I took inventory off my head and teeth, I got up and discovered my legs were ok and nothing seemed broken, then I looked at my hands which were a bloody mess as was my chin and nose. My bike was ok except the head set was twisted and I had to straighten that and the big ring shifter was snapped off so I kept it in the small ring. So I found my water bottle, took a drink ( which hurt like heck) tried torinse off my hands, (which hurt even worse), And then popped the chain back on and started walking my bike down the road.

Now comes the momement, someone running back from the aid station I had been approaching asks me if I was the biker who fell and told me an ambulance was in route. For some reason, right then I hopped on my bike and told him, "I'm OK" and started riding. I rode pretty conservatively since I wasn't too sure of my bike but soon I was actally passing people and besides for being limited to the small ring and not getting out of the saddle since my hands hurt like heck. Those last 14 or so miles went by pretty quick and I resolved to finish out the race. Long story short despite several discussions with race officials and medical folks I would not let anyone deny me from finishing this race.

After the race and after my trip and care at the medical tent (which was outstanding), I had a good number of people tell me how couragous I was for finishing and how much of a trooper or inspration I was to refuse to let my accident keep me from finishing the race. Later I visited the ER and got stitched up and took many x-rays and fortunately nothing was broken but I had some serious road rash in my hands, arms, chest, and some on my face, a sprained left wrist and a nicely bruised rib and serveral days off work since I can"t drive with my splint on.

I can't say why I made the choice I did. I know I thought about what a waste to come all the way to Knoxville from Philly only to crash out while I was on the ground, but when I hopped on the bike it was almost an involuntary response. Once I didn't think I would make things worse, I made up my mind to see it out. Many people I greatly admire (Julie Moss, Chris S, and Natasha Badman) have had that same responce to fight on and try and finish even when it doesn't make seanse to a rationale person.

So you judge, was I couragous or stupid. Either way I can tell you, there is a strange sense of pride seeing the race to its end, especially when things really go bad. I discover this at IM Arizona http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... when the act of fighting though adversity gave me something fast more valuable that any medal. And it was 100x stronger at Rev 3.




(knoxville run 1a.jpg)

Keeping the world safe and other training obstacles

While triathlon is my hobby/sport/addiction/obsession but it is not my job. Most of the time my job and training/working out go hand in hand and are not mutually exclusive, but sometimes they end up butting heads and normally the job wins.

I am a Senior Project Engineer for the Division of Reactor Projects of the USNRC. My job is to protect Public Health and Safety thru ensuring the safe use of nuclear materials in power, medical, and other uses. It is a job and a mission statement I take very seriously and take a lot of pride in. I work in the nuclear power plant side of the house, so periodically I get to play in Emergency Preparedness drills. This week I got to travel to Pittsburgh to play in one of these drills. These drill a really a site to behold. Watching the plant, the local community, the counties, the PA State Troopers, the states of Pennsylvania, West Virgina, and Ohio, FEMA, the DHS, and the NRC, all working together to meet a common goal is a very impressive evolution and takes alot of work to get right. Problem with these drills is that the go on forever. This one started somewhere around 2pm and we wrapped up around 10pm. Then with the post drill, "wash down and critiques" I didn't get back to the hotel until about midnight. Throw in a pseudonormal work day before and a late flight the night before and working out just wasn't in the cards.

So I'll be juggling my schedule around for the rest of the week to catch up, but at least I can sleep well knowing I helped make sure the communities in the vicinity of the Beaver Valley Power Plant will be able to respond to any civil emergency (The Emergency Plan they exercised is used for smaller scale issues such as gas line breaks, severe storms, tornadoes, and transportation accidents as well as problems at the nuclear plant.)

But I'd be lying if I didn't tell you, I was thinking about riding or running thru the awesome rolling hills in this area, at several points during the exercise. But sometimes we have to make a sacrifice or two.

Have fun, be safe!

A tale of two races

Spring is that great time of year when everything feels fresh and full of promise and the last two weeks I finally toed at starting line to start the year. This winter I have worked really hard at improving my cycling but as a result I have done minimal work on my running. But of course, my first two races were running races; a 5K (Pottstown YMCA Spring Forward) and a hilly 5 miler (Valley Forge Revolutionary Run. Having not done anything resembling speed work in a loong time, these two were mainly just to see what kind of shape I was in.

Problem is I just am not very good a short races (or at least that is how I feel). The funny thing is I have actually medaled in 4 of my last 5 5Ks but I just can't seem to push myself hard enough and I always feel like I have way too much left over at the end. This was certainly the case last weekend. I had about 50 people pass me again in the first half mile, at that point I catch my rhythm and start working forward for the rest of the race, but this year I had several folks come up from behind my and overtaken me in the second half of the race, which just annoyed the heck out of me. So I felt like I ran a terrible race but I still ended up finishing 3rd in my age group by a comfortable margin and passed about 40 of those 50 people who blew past me at the start. Not a PR, but not bad. So the results were there but I didn't like race.

This weekend, I did a much larger race the Valley Forge Revolutionary Run, a very hilly 5 mile run thru the Valley Forge National Park. There were about 1200 runners on a very narrow road which slowed thing down for everyone and I felt like I ran a great race, even pacing throughout despite the hills. I stayed patient at the start, then smartly worked my way forward working both the uphills and downhills effectively. Felt like I parsed the effort just right and worked hard and was very satisfied with my race. The results, I was 15 seconds slower than last year, several spots lower overall and in my age group. So the result weren't great, but I was very satisfied.

I guess the same goes for Tris. I have never even come close to the medals in a tri, heck I'm lucky to get top half in an Ironman, but the satisfaction I feel doing those races is 100x better than any medal. So for me the effort is far more important that the final standings. It took two races n two weeks to drive that home yet again.

Have fun, enjoy the ride. And above all else remember, it is easy being green! Go Trakkers!!

Death to the King (Burger King that is)

Some times you’re the windshield, some times you’re the bug.. Well this week was one of those bug weeks. It started off with a trip up to Oswego, NY for work. Got in the car it was 71 and raining, got out of the car and it was 39 and raining. The most miserable conditions I could imagine and the hotel didn’t have a workout room and the only gym available was $8 a pop. So I decide I could shift my scheduled day off from Friday to Monday and avoid the wet and cold. The next day was about 35 and still raining and we didn’t get back to the hotel until 7:30, so another day went by.

Then the fun began, the next day I started home late in the afternoon, at 5 pm I stop at a gas station in Clay, NY, buy an Arizona Ice Tea and some Red Bull, and then saw a Burger King and my mind immediately informed me I was starving. So I went over and got 2 Whopper Jrs and an order of Onion Rings. Well about 4 hours later I started feeling bloated and getting cramps. Just made it home in time for that to turn into feeling violently ill. So for the next 10 hours my body decided to purge everything. I felt like death warmed over as my body was revolting and there was nothing I could do about it. Finally by morning, I was done being violently ill, which saved me a trip to the hospital at least, but I was wiped out for the next two days and could even think of eatting something solid until Friday morning without feeling sick. Finally feeling myself today but it ended up being a totally lost week.

Let’s put is this way, My new Kestrel Talon Tri SL arrived on Thursday and I haven’t even taken it out of the box. You know I’m feeling bad when I can’t even play with my newest toy.

BK is hazardous to your health.

March Madness

I love this time of year! The 70 inches of snow in my driveway (great cross training opportunity, eh), is finally gone and this week it feel downright tropical with temps reaching the 70s in the Philly area this week. Even had to extend a couple of my lunch runs this week to take advantage of the weather. Plus the NCAA basketball tourney is my favorite sporting event each year. With my DVR I can watch just about every game on the tube in front on my trainer.

Once the 3 layers of sweats are peeled off and the sun is shining, I am starting to get that itch to race again. This year promises to be alot of fun. I have a great group of Trakkers teammates to meet at Knoxville, Quazzy, and Cedar Point. I have an evil desire to do both the Olympic and HIM on back to back days at Quazzy to celebrate my 40th birthday with a final race to kiss 39 goodbye and another to welcome myself to the Master’s category. By the end of this year I should be able to say I have done more REV3 races that anyone else as I plan on doing the full series plus the double. Of course the cool thing about getting older in I get 5 extra minute for Boston and 20 extra minute for USAT Halfmax. I have my new Kestrel Talon Tri on its way, my first Tri bike, and have been having a great winter hammering the Computrainer and can’t wait to see how it translates to the roads. It’s almost time to get out there and have some fun. The thrill to compete and the joy of putting myself to the test and seeing what happens.

Have Fun!