On the road again

On the road again
I'm back in the road. That isn't such a bad thing. I planned this trip much better than the last. 
The last trip was to Seattle. I tried to maximize my time in the office and in so doing, well, screwed myself. 
I went to work early that morning after getting up at 5:30 am. I worked until around 1:30 or so and hopped on a flight to Seattle. The plane landed around 8:40 pm and I then had time to rent a car, drop my bags at the hotel and then drive 2 hours to the job site where I was meeting the crew. 
I got back to the hotel around 6:30 am and had to be up at 10:00 am to meet the crew for some training. So a 25 hour day followed by a "full" 3 hours of sleep. There's a good idea! 
The rest of that day went fine but I only managed another 3 hours of sleep before I headed off to meet the crew at another job site about 1.5 hours away. 
I did finally manage a few hours of sleep that week. No workouts though. Only 2-3 meals. 
I followed that week with the LA 13.1 mentioned in a previous post. I did fine. 
So this week is much better planned. 
First, the job sites are within 30 minutes or so of the warehouse and they don't start until 5:00 am. I am using today to travel and visit some previous job sites and I will get to bed early after a short run.  Tomorrow will be an early morning but the day won't be too long.  I will visit the crew at a job site, do some more store visits, and drive to Colorado Springs. I have one more store to visit there but that will be a fairly short trip and then I am done. 
Much better planned. And besides, killing yourself for a boss who doesn't even know you are gone seems silly, don't you think?

On a side note. I'm a bit worried about this flight. They said it was full but there are only about 7 of us here at the gate. I got a seat at the "back" and I'm in isle 4. This should be fun. At least we don't have to go over any mountains to get from LA to Denver.     

Success!!!

There are various kinds of success when it comes to sport. Most of them are related to finish times. You want the best one you can get, usually. I had a different kind this weekend when I did the Los Angeles 13.1. The kind of success I had isn't graded by my finish time, which was a PR by the way, but was graded by my ability to stick to a plan.

I had a few people comment to me something along the lines of, "You sure do blow up a lot," and "Why do you keep doing exactly the same thing and hoping for a different result? If you go out too hard you are going to blow up."

Amazingly, I took this to heart.

I decided that instead of trying to "race" the LA13.1 I was going in with a plan!

PLAN:

Run 10 miles at a 9:00/mile pace.

Run 3.1 miles as fast as I could.

Do it in that order, not the other way around, like you usually do.

RESULT:

Ran 10 miles at an 8:57/mile pace.

Ran 3.1 miles fast as hell.

Success!!!

Final time, not that it matters was 1:53:39. Most importantly, I ran really strong at the end of 10, I have never done that before, and I ran my desired pace and proved to myself that I could do it. Pacing and patience, never really a strong suit of mine. I know I have a long way to go before I can say that I am good at it but this was a huge step in the right direction.

Writing blog posts in your iPhone sucks.

No really. It sucks. I say this not only because of the difficulty of typing on this litle tiny screen bit also because, aparently, if you don't finish your post before you have to go find your gate, it erases the entire thing. Well, that would suck if I had just finely crafted a brilliant blog about why my travels suck more that yours. Of course that would be whining and self serving so I probably didn't do that. Probably.

Of things learned, and then forgotten.

I ran today. It went terribly. Oh, the first part of the run was good. You know, the first half, the part where you run as far as you are going to be from where you are done. That's the beauty of the out and back, you have to run back.

It's also the pain.

I started the run around 11:00 AM. I went down to Santa Monica with Charrissa and we met up with Eve. It was a beautiful day, as soon as we got there we started stripping off layers. It's January for god sake, we should need layers. I had an 8 mile run. 4 miles of warm-up and sub-tempo pace and then descending pace on three of the 4 miles back with a 1 mile cool down.

I should have figured something was up when I was about to start and I realized that I was thirsty. Oh, there's good news.

I felt good at first, easy miles, had to hold myself back to keep my pace where it was supposed to be. Then at about mile 3.5 everything fell apart. Just before my turn around the wheels came off. The respiration rate shot up, the legs felt a bit wooden, and I was no longer having much fun. It no longer felt as though I was running with a tail wind, it felt just the opposite.

At the turn I did stop for a second and get a drink from a fountain, my second stop, but at this point I think it was already over.

Post run analysis: I ate about 1700 calories yesterday, didn't drink enough water, and had dark urine when I woke up. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially when you combine it with a rough bike ride spent mostly in zone 4 two days prior. Not a good idea, not a good time.

Positive observations:

1. I don't suck. Well, I do, but mostly because I can't seem to remember simple things like, "You should not be dehydrated before you start running and you should probably eat enough that you don't bonk." As for the not sucking, well, I felt great and ran well until I ran out of calories and fluid.

2. My new shoes rock! They are like strapping pillows to your feet. I felt no pain, and for the first time in a bit my Achilles didn't hurt at the end of my run, good news.

3. It was 72, sunny, and beautiful. What a great run in Santa Monica. This is one I won't forget for a while. Oh, don't worry, I will likely forget the lessons. That seems to be what I do.

Ok so lets have some beer then...

Here is the workout on TrainingPeaks.

Beer of the Month Club

So, I am sure I am not the first to say this, but this has got to be one of the coolest presents ever. No, really, it's the greatest. The beer of the month club. Here's the idea. Somebody goes out, drinks a bunch of beer, and then sends it out to a bunch of people to try. It's great! (and by the way that sounds like the coolest job ever!)

My sister and brother-in-law got that for me for Christmas. So what am I going to do about it? Well, I am going to write about it. Yep, I knew you didn't care, but I am still going to do it anyway. Suck it up. Oh, and enjoy, lord knows I will.

Ok, maybe I suck a bit less now

I raced LA Triathlon this weekend. I did well. Very well, in fact.

On my swim I was pretty pleased about my ability to actually get through the waves. Many did not, in fact there were a few people who saw the waves and decided not to even start the race, a concept I can't even fathom (hee hee, nautical humor!) but I am sure they couldn't comprehend why I would even go out there. The surf was nasty, and so much fun. Fortunately I realized this on my warm-up so I was prepared for the ferocity of the waves. They were easily 5-6 feet and breaking in three surf lines. Once you got through one, you had another right behind it to contend with, and because they were right on the beach you had to get all the way to the bottom to avoid getting tumbled.

Once out, there was still a pretty big swell and on the return leg of the swim you were nearly in one of the breaks so you had to be careful not to get too close to shore you you would get tossed.

I got out of the water, completely dizzy and struggled up the sand to transition. I found my bike, pretty much all alone. That was disheartening.

The ride was nice. Not nearly as flat as everyone told me it was, but that was ok. On the plus side, we had a head wind for two of the 3 legs back and forth from the Staples center. I listened to my coach and pinned it pretty much the whole way. At the end I felt good and just barely managed to keep the girl who passed me in the last 2 miles of the ride in site. Sweet!

The run, well that was a kick in the junk. At mile 1 and 4 there was a nice big hill. About 300 vertical feet. We got to run it twice. But, on the other hand, you have the downhill! Yea, no you don't. That sucker was so steep you really couldn't run down it, you had to just hold on and hope you didn't blow a knee.

I came across the finish line in 2:41:41. That was good enough for 31 of 149 in my age group. Top 20%. I can live with that. If you want to see the splits you can see them here. Then type in my bib number (736).

Wow! I suck at this!

So I might be fighting a bit of burn-out. I raced this last weekend and I am really unhappy with the results. I did fine, 9th in my age group and 9.5 minutes faster than last year but I was hoping for so much more.

I am sure that there are people out there who will tell me that I wasn't prepared for the heat, or that my GI problems that caused me to throw up at mile 20 on the bike are partially to blame. The problem with that is that I don't buy. I wasn't ready. That's it, I simply wasn't ready.

I'm now torn between being upset by that and a single minded drive to prepare for next season NOW, and the realization that I might need to go play some other sports for a while and come back to this in a few months.

I have 2 more tri's this year. That will take me to 12, I think, races overall this season, certainly a lot but I am trying to catch up on race experience and the only way to do that is to... well, race.

I am also looking into the Cyclocross series and a winter mountain bike race series nearby. Both of those should help. Great for staying fit and a good break from what I am currently doing.

Anyhow, more later.

I ran into the ass of a bee today

Yea, you read that right. I was just cruising along, minding my own business when I ran into a bee. He was probably a happy bee, returning from a long day pollinating strawberries in Oxnard, California when I abruptly ended his life.

Well, I'm not sure I ended his life immediately, but I am sure I significantly shortened it. I don't think bees do first aid or have prosthetic stingers. I am pretty sure I ended his life because I distinctly had a stinger stuck in my leg.

I think what happened is that I actually ran into his stinger. I don't think he had time to actually hit me, it was probably an accident.

Either way by the time I stopped I had a welt with blood running from a small hole above it. Not only did I get stung, I also got poked by the same stinger.

Today it is a golf ball size bump on my left leg above the knee. I'm not letting it slow me down though. I can drink beer just fine with this thing all swollen up!

I might actually be Canadian now, eh.

I set off from Seattle early in the morning on the 27th of March in the year 2009. Ok, it wasn't all that early, I somehow managed to get people buying me drinks in the hotel bar the night before and well, it hurt to blink the next day.

So anyway, I set off from Seattle, driving the company truck filled with parts. I was going to import the vehicle into Canada. I had no idea what the process was. I had not idea what I was doing. In fact, I thought for sure I was going to get arrested so I secreted a paperclip into my hair, not because I thought I could use it to get the cuffs undone, but simply because I think that is what you do when you are about to get arrested.

I made it to the border in record time. The record wasn't a speed record, it was actually more of an amazement, but I couldn't say that in the last sentence, it doesn't make any sense.

So there I was...

It was ugly.

I won't bore you with the details but after several hours, a customs broker, several calls to the home office, and a large payment in small bills dropped behind the third bush on the right side of the building, I was permitted to enter Canada.

The welcome was actually sort of nice. I crossed the border to fanfare (in my head) and was immediately flagged down, pulled from the truck and forcefully kissed full on the mouth by the sweet smelling, flaxen haired border patrol.

Too bad it was a dude...

More Racing

Yep, I went out and did it again.  This time it was a national caliber race held right here in good old Phoenix.  What that means is that I raced the same course that the Pros did, except that I did it the day before, and FAR FAR slower.  

I still accomplished my goals though:  Don't fall down (much), and have a good time.  

I know I beat somebody in the race though.  I know this because he got a flat tire and as he was about to get back on the course I flew (its all relative) by him I kicked him into a cactus where he remained for the remainder of the day.  Part of that is not true.

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

I didn't come in last in the Gardner Canyon Grind.  As a matter of fact I absolutely destroyed, well, one guy.  I beat him though and that is an accomplishment I can stand on, point to and say, "See!!!  I have arrived!"  

Now if you continue to look at those results (click the link dummy), you will notice that every man over the age of 39 who raced beat me.  That is irrelevant.  You see, my excuse... uhh, er, the REASON that happened is because they all cheated.  Yep, we are going to go with that answer.  Cheated I say!  To be honest I don't even know if they did the same number of laps as I did.  If I had to guess though, they did a longer one and still destroyed me.  If you remember a previous post these are the guys who passed me within the first 2 minutes 15 seconds even though they started after I did.  

Good on ya guys!

Death by Mountain Bike

Apparently I'm not a smart man.  I went riding today.  I did almost everything right.  I ate well before I left the  house.  I had a bottle of sports drink on the way to the trail.  I brought plenty of food and a full camelbak on the ride.  I took it easy on the trails: stopping when I needed a rest and taking it easy through the washes and rough parts.

Now we get to the almost part.  I almost remembered to put on sunscreen.  I had it with me, I just forgot to use it.  I almost stopped after the first 3.5 hours.  Almost.  You see, at this point I am down to a half liter of water and thinking that I really ought to call it a day and ride tomorrow.  Then someone offered me some water, so I took it and I went riding some more.  

I decided to go up to a trail called The National.  This is an absolute bear of a trail that I have heard is well on the expert side.  I only intended to check out where the trailhead was.  Then someone offered to show me exactly where it started and actually recommended a different loop that wasn't so difficult.  At some point I met up with another rider and he lead me through the tough parts and we rode for another 2.5 hours.

My legs cramped up when I got out of the car after the ride.  Well, they cramped quite a few times before that, but that was the last one, and the one that almost made me fall down.  Fun.

I wonder how tomorrows ride is going to be.

My light is possessed

It's really annoying.  My light in my office (my only vaguely furnished room) is possessed.  I bought a torch lamp, even though my sister told me that they aren't cool any more for my office because I knew that it would provide lots of light for my desk as well as my bike work stand.  I bought the cheapest of them, and it had a nice feature.  It is a touch to turn on light.  All you have to do is touch the metal and it turns on, or more specifically goes through the three steps of a 3-way bulb.  

Unfortunately, for some reason it will just cycle through all the modes.  Just a moment ago it went from full on, to off, to low, med, hi, off, low, med... hi... off, low... med, hi, off.

Fun.  If it were slightly faster it would be like a strobe and I could turn on some techno music and have a rave.  Hmmm.  I think I need a new light.

My first race

I raced in the Gardner Canyon Grind in Sonoita, Arizona this past weekend. Ok, so this didn't go very well. No really, that isn't just me saying that, I really did poorly. I raced in the Sport 30-39 group.  My group started 2 minutes ahead of the next group to go.  Technically we should have been faster and the reason we started sooner is so that the group behind us wasn't slowing us down.

After about 2 minutes of racing I think I was about 3 minutes behind the rest of the field.  After about 2 minutes and 13 seconds the majority of the group behind me passed me.  Not sure how that happened, I think I was in a time warp, yea, time warp, that explains it.

I went out there this weekend to have a great time.  I did.  I went out there to finish. I did.  I went out there to validate my nutrition strategy for longer events.  I failed miserably.  Ok, not really, I validated that I have no idea how much food I need per 30 minutes on the trail, so I succeeded, but not exactly how I planned to.  Back to the drawing board on that one.  Not an excuse, but I didn't do myself any favors when I went on a 3 hour bike ride the day before the race.  Not a great idea but I knew that and it all works out in the end, I accomplished what I set out to do.

The Pivot did fantastic.  As happens with nearly every new bike, the cables that control the shifting stretched.  Unfortunately they did this about half way through the race.  I had to stop and adjust the shifters and that was when the 60 year old passed me.  I never saw him again.  

That made me sad.

All in all a great time.  I am now attempting to put the bike back together.  I think the roughness of the trail actually loosened every single bolt.  I am going through and checking them one by one.  I found one that might have been responsible for some of my shifting woes.

Or it could be that I suck.  I think I will go with that answer. 

Exactly where is "here" and why is it different?

I am no longer in the Army.  It is official.  Ok, no it isn't.  It won't be official until the end of April, but it might as well be.  I am starting a new job on Monday the 17th that I am extremely excited about.  I am going to be a Value Stream Manager with a company called Triumph Air Repair.  What that means is essentially that I will be a production manager for a company that repairs Auxiliary Power Units that go on commercial and military aircraft.  Lots of fun and I have always been fascinated by the aircraft industry, so this is perfect!

I now live in Chandler, Arizona.  It is part of Phoenix and is a wonderful place to live.  The weather, so far, is fantastic.  The people are friendly.  The drivers are non-aggressive.  The stores and restaurants are plentiful and I live in an apartment complex that has a sand beach at the pool and two sand volleyball courts.  Very nice, I should probably go take advantage of that some time...

Here is a shot of me entering my apartment for the first time.  Cheesy, I know, but here you go anyway.  I did some painting in the apartment, more on that later.

I've got a new ride

Yep, I went ahead and bought a new bike.  I know, that isn't much of a surprise for anyone who actually knows me.  I rode it today at South Mountain in Phoenix.  It was fantastic.  Now, I know I don't have the bike dialed in yet, I still have some playing to do with the suspension and I really need to get used to the way the tires bite (of course that could just be my lack of familiarity with riding in sand.)  None of that seemed to matter though.  The ride was fast, very fast with me taking sections of trail that would have scared me too much to even try on other bikes I have ridden.

The bike is made by a company called Pivot Cycles beautiful.  She is anodized blue with red bits all over.  Here are some gratuitous bike shots, because I like to do that.

The ride was fantastic.  I kept thinking, "I shouldn't be able to go this fast on a bike I have never ridden on trails I have never seen." On the other hand I was able to do it just fine.  No problems at all.

The trails are fast and swoopy.  The trail I rode was called Desert Classic and I started from the Pima Canyon trailhead in Phoenix.  Lots of fun, and while a beginner trail, it was perfect for me today, I didn't want to ride too hard and I haven't been off-road in over a year, and then only for two rides on a borrowed bike.

So tomorrow I will go out for a short ride.  Pivot is doing a demo at South Mountain in the morning and I want to see if I can score a free t-shirt by riding up on my Pivot.  We will see but I don't want to ride too hard because I am going to go to a race this weekend.  Yea, that's a good idea...

Now this doesn't really make sense...

I recently bought a pair of sport sandals from Keen.  

I know, the idea of a "sports sandal" doesn't make a huge amount of sense but that isn't the really foolish thing.  The really foolish thing is that little yellow tag in the center there.  I will zoom in on it so that you don't have to squint to read it.

Yes, it says, "waterproof."

 

IT'S A SANDAL WITH HOLES IN IT!  EXACTLY WHAT IS THE "WATERPROOF" PART?

That being said, they are really comfortable and have a reinforced rubber toe that comes over the top.  No more bashing my toes on stuff when I wear them.  Since the weather here is wonderful, I suspect that I will get lots of wear out of them.  

Oh yea, more on "here" later. 

Full Update is in the Offing

No really, I mean it.  I am going to do a full update here shortly.  So much has changed, so much needs to be said.  

Not tonight though.  I don't want to.

By the way, does anyone know if I even use the word offing correctly.  Or even better, is it even a word?

The state of the internet, such that it is…

So, I am spending far too much time and money in McDonalds these days. No no, don’t get me wrong, it isn’t to eat, as I am still on a diet, it is to use the internet. Yea, you may want to re-read that. I am using the T-Mobile hotspot at the McDonalds.

Why, you might ask. Well, so glad you asked.

I went to sign up for internet service the other day. It took forever. I waited in line for nearly an hour to talk to the lone representative only to have him tell me in the first 30 seconds that he couldn’t help me because I owed him money. What!?!?! Apparently, the phone provider that I go through didn’t receive my final payment when I turned off my service before I left for Iraq, over 15 months ago. For some odd reason, even though I clearly remember getting my “final bill” and paying it, they say I owe them 48 euro. Except that it isn’t 48 euro. You see, the bill was turned over to a collection agency and now I owe the collection agency 48 euro and a bunch of fees and probably a bunch of interest. Well that isn’t cool. I now have to search my apartment to find that final bill which I am sure I kept, because, heck I didn’t have much going on the last few days before I deployed.

So what does that have to do with internet you ask? Well, 19 months ago when I moved into this apartment I attempted to get internet hooked up (apparently it is a good thing I failed because that 48 euro would probably be 150 euro) and was told that internet wasn’t available where I live.

What?

Now it isn’t as though I live in some tiny backwater town surrounded by cows. I am a mere 8.4 miles from Schweinfurt, and a quick 2 minutes from a major autobahn. I’m not in the styx here! The problem is that I can’t find out if that situation has been remedied until I pay that outstanding bill or prove to them that I already did. So first, I have to find the bill, then I have to wait 2 weeks while TKS verifies that I actually paid it, then I have to go back to TKS, wait in line again, and then wait 2 weeks for them to tell me that I can’t get internet. Is anyone else here frustrated?

I have to have internet. I just do. Internet is what separates us from monkeys. Yea, I said it, but I don’t have to worry because monkeys aren’t going to come after me because, as I have so definitively pointed out in the previous sentence, monkeys don’t have internet, and this blog is only posted on the internet. I am safe. Monkeys do have art and literature and all that, but not internet. Oh, you need more proof huh, well I read somewhere that I won’t bother remembering where, that there is a monkey somewhere with a typewriter and he has pounded out all of the works of Shakespeare, or will shorty. I have it on good authority. There may also be more than one monkey working on the project, but I am sure it doesn’t matter to my point.

So there you have it, I have provided definitive proof and flawless logic, the internet makes you human. (If you can’t follow, I recommend drinking more and re-reading the blog. Repeat as necessary.)

So here I sit, in McDonalds happily posting to my blog; getting weird looks from the other tables as a laugh maniacally at daydreams of monkeys trying to use the internet. Stupid monkeys.

Oh yea, and occasionally I’m doing my schoolwork too. I think I need some fries now…

I am officially a bike commuter...

... at least in my mind. I have ridden to work before. I did it a handful of times before I deployed. Today though, I consider myself an official bike commuter. Today I did it without the benefit of all of my clothes waiting for me at the office. Heck I did it without the benefit of an office to go to at all. I also did it without the benefit of nice weather. It snowed today.

I got up at 0645. I laid out all of my stuff last night, checked the tire pressure, installed my head and tail lights, put some food in my bag and budgeted an hour and a 45 minutes to get to work and change.

When I looked out the window I saw something that confused me. White. Lots of white. Now admittedly it was merely a sprinkle but to me it looked like a blizzard. Especially since last night was so clear. I expected cold, I didn't expect snow.

So I made the 20 second decision to go ahead and ride in, despite the weather. I tossed a couple of extra clothing items in my bag and then just got to it. It was fantastic. I had a blast. It wasn't too cold, I had no problem with traction, and I left early enough that I didn't have to push myself (traction again.) The only issue I had was once I got into town the snow went away and I had wet roads instead of snowy trails. I started getting damp. I got to work in about an hour and then had time to eat and change before anyone got there.

So now I am sitting at the library on post contemplating my ride home. This might suck a bit. The damp clothing has not subsided and while my base layers are dry the outer ones aren't, nor are my gloves. Guess I will have to break out the extra gloves and socks. No problem.

I won't say that I am morally superior to everyone who drove in today, but then again I shouldn't have to, it should be obvious.

HA!

Oh yea, and despite the weather, I grinned like an idiot the whole way in. I think I chapped my teeth.