Warning: This blog has not been reviewed for gramarical errors or mental lapses, or scattered brain syndrom, read it and take from it what you can...I'm going to watch some tv now.
As I was lying in my bed at the Golden Arrow Hotel in Lake Placid on the day before the race I had written down some thoughts that I had intended on putting up on my blog. Unfortunately my iPad along with my iPhone both lost their charge very early on last week and I therefore did not have any access to the internet and could not put up and blog posts, or answer any phone calls, or respond to texts, or talk to people who were in Lake Placid. Leave it to me to completely forget my chargers when going on vacation. It wasn't to much of a big deal since I needed to get as much rest as possible but I would have liked to get some good posts up along with some other things that required the use of a computer (iPad) or phone.
With that said I am going to post what I wrote in my journal (word-for-word). I will say that I wrote down these thoughts on the Saturday before the race and have not changed them since. They especially go out to Don and Chris, two great guys who have shown me a lot of kindness, and in the spirit of the smurfing that I attempted to do but was sidetracked due to technological lapses, I will officially name Don Ehinger "Baldy Smurf" and Chris Leonardi "Clumsy Smurf". Don is admittedly the baldest member of Team Train This and frequently perpetuates the situation by spending countless hours shaving or "bic'ing" his head until is has a shine that would rival that of my 7th grade science teachers...and for those of you who knew Mr. Larock you know what I am talking about! As for Mr. Leonardi, Clumsy Smurf just really seems to suit him well based on the mental lapses that have seemed to pop up during his Ironman stretch run. Chris will admittedly say that "Ironman ate his brain" and one only has to look at a few prime examples of his recent on-goings to see this. Take for example the day he went into work carrying his transition bag instead of his briefcase..(I don't think your body glide and powergels are going to solve any insurance claims), or the time when he forgot to put his van in park and witnessed a "ghost-driven" van rolling down the driveway. Needless to say his wife was on the floor rolling...I can only imagine what was going through Chris's head, then again it was probably nothing seeing how Ironman had eaten it all away, Well, I can only hope that now that the race is over that your brain will be able to re-grow.
And so onto what I had written down last Saturday...
7/24/10
Well today is the "mandatory get off your feet and rest day". I have heard that their was one such triathlete who spent a whopping 28 whole minutes on his feet before an Ironman race. Now I am not sure I will even come close to this number seeing how I have already been on my feet for at least 20 minutes to go the bathroom, and get coffee at Starbucks, but I just thought I would throuw that little tidbit of knowledge out their because its simply amazing. And even if you do not come close to this number the mere fact that you (in my case me) are thinking about it, you are bound to think about how much time your actually on your feet and will hopefully take the necessary precautions to get off them and rest up for your challenge on the following day.
Moving along, I must say that usually on vacations and training weekends where I am sort of off the grid I find it really easy to relax and focus on writing down my thoughts and writing about the world and whats going on around me. However, I have not been able to catch the writing bug yet. I think it all correlates with the amount of free time I have or the amount of free time I make for myself and thus far I have had lots to occupy myself. Each day I have had some sort of task to accomplish and I guess this has not enabled me to truly "un-plug" (even though I have been electronically unplugged since Wednesday as I forgot to bring my iPad and iPhone charger). With that said I've got to believe that today will be a good day for relaxing and for writing some thoughts down. My parents will soon be arriving and even though some stress will be brought with them (anyone who knows my dad a.k.a. Dicky C knows that he is a walking talking ball of stress) but I usually egg him on so I probably perpetuate the situation more than I should, but what can I say. I grew up predominently as an only-child (my siblings were many years older than me) so it was my dad who I joked with, played with, fought with, made fun of...he takes it well (sort of, haha...but in his old age he gets funnier by the moment with his "tendencies" so he really makes for an easy target to crack jokes about). I love you dad, even if I do poke fun..its because I love you :) and since my dad will be arriving shortly he will make a welcome addition to the "hole up in your hotel room with the shades drawn and the tv on crew" since that is what I am doing today and that is what he does on every family vacation. My mom will take care of walking around LP and seeing the sights, you can count on that.
Well just because I am sitting in my hotel bed and looking at random things I might as well give you a little caption of what it looks like without the visual aid of photography...(as I wrote this I was beginning to grab my iPhone which had about 1/2 a % charge to take a picture of the room, and guess what..as soon as I snapped the picture the phone went dark again...fiugures!)So as I sit here I am now completely and utterly unplugged from the world around me, as I should be the day before my first Ironman. So as I was beginning to explain....my current room situation is me sitting on my bed, a dead iPhone to my left and a garmin 310xt to my right, which will soon be adjusted so that the data fields read what I want them to on race day, then it will go back to being plugged into the charge so it will rest up and be fully charged and ready to go tomorrow morning, just like me ehh? wow..that's a great thought..how about a slogan for all triathlete's..when in doubt just ask yourself "what would your Garmin do?" (WWYGD) I know what mine would do! The day before a big event it would shut down and charge up. It would never leave the table that its resting on and it would be ready to go in the morning. Or just think WWYGD if it was tired or overworked (i.e. overtrained, battery dead)..it would just shut down, in fact Garmins have such great will power that they ALWAYS stick to their plan and adhere to protocol. Even if your 5.5 hrs into a 6 hr bike ride if it feels tired (battery low..nearing dead) it will just calmly call it a day and shut down. Maybe these Garmin things know something we triathletes don't!
Changing gears..something just popped into my head. It's probably the most noteworthy thing that has popped into my head in a long time and I guess because I really haven't had the time to stop and think about my thoughts that this is the reason why I have not taken the time to write them down. I mean ever since May 2nd I've admittedly been frazzeled. Back then I was fresh off my first IM 70.3 where I was able to hit all my goals within a few minutes. The 70.3 down in Texas was amazing not only because I was able to race down their but it was also just a sweet vacation. I was able to experience everything with my coach Mary who went down to race as well. She stayed at the same hotel I was at so it was super nice to have someone so close to keep tabs on me and make sure I was doing the right things before the race...like registering...and resting...and eating...etc..(FLORIDA WILL BE EVEN BETTER!) But I also met some new people like Don Ehinger and his family as well as Kim Hase and her boyfriend Jake. These people are teammates of mine who Mary coach's. Before the trip to Galveston I really didn't know who they were. But we ended up becoming fast friends...I kind of new Don and I would get along when at 4:30am on race morning he was outside his hotel lifting up his tri shorts with his hitchhikers thumb out as Mary and I pulled up to get him. Needless to say if he had on a speedo he would have been able to take shotgun from me...he'll learn next time (supposedly he has a BORAT type speedo/thong thingy..I don't even know what to call that thing but its nuts and if he ever shows up to some place I am at wearing that and only that..I might just not stop laughing for a good hour)..Well needless to say since the 70.3 my legs gave me huge issues and I ended up not being able to run for all of May and mostly all of June..it sucked but I got through it. But enough of that, the point that popped into my head when I was thinking about what has gone on since the 70.3 in Texas is that Don and I have become really good friends, and through Don I really got to know his partner in crime and fellow Train This teammate Chris Leonardi. All three of us even ended up going on a 6 hour bike ride together in late May. I just can't say how cool the sport of triathlon is in regards to these types of things. I probably would have never met theses guys had I not started doing what I am doing. They are older than me and have families so they respectfully have different lifestyles...well sorta different..after training and working they still have family type obligations and such...so really they have it a lot tougher than I do in respect to finding time for rest and recovery. I don't know how they do it because being a single dude with no real responsibilities I find it ridiculously hard to fit everything in. So kudos to them..i don't know how they do it. ...moving along, I must say that I really get a kick out of Don and Chris (Baldy and Clumsy Smurf). I guess we as humans just get along with different people for different reasons, its built into our DNA or something, but for whatever reason i really enjoy these guys and we seem to always have a good time when were together training, eating, shooting the obligatory "sh*&". So I just wanted to take the time and tell everyone how awesome these two guys are. I really can't thank them enough for all the generosity that they have shown me over the past few months and during our Training Camp and IMLP weekends. In specific I will list just a few things:
Don,
Thanks for riding with me in the early am before the sun has risen and chatting with me on google when we both weren't able to focus on anything work-related.
Don & Chris,
Thank you both for letting me crash in your extravagant honeymoon suite at the Alpine Aire during training camp.
Thank you both for having me over to your Lake Placid villa in the woods as well as dealing with my pre-race lunacy. Those dinners were really amazing and I had a blast hanging out with you guys, Corona, and Ken before the weekend really got rolling.
And lastly thanks for being great friends and treating me like one of your family members. You've both let me dine with your family on multiple occasions with your wives and your children and I cannot say how nice it is to be included. (Even though they might look at me strangely and think I am a bit "out there"..rightfully so) But really, you guys have a great support team and regardless of what they say or how they act you know that they were just as nervous and you were (maybe more) while you were out their racing on Sunday. When I had initially jotted down these notes I wrote that the family members probably have it more rough than we as athletes do. As athletes our minds pretty much go into survival mode as soon as then cannon goes off. ...back to the present time...I would have to say that as soon as the cannon goes off and you start swinging your arms to move yourself in the water you check into survival mode and start reacting and racing, gone are the butterflies, gone are the pre-race jitters..its time to crank out a good swim and get moving on the bike, I mean once your out their on the bike for 4+ hours a 1hr swim kind of becomes an after thought. I mean does a 1:05 or 1:10 really matter? So when we are out their just having a blast racing around to crowds numbering in the thousands are family and loved ones are sitting their wondering how we are doing, wondering if we crashed?..if we bonked?...if were just not doing well period...they are the ones that have to wait 3+hours just to see us for 10 seconds on the bike. They are close enough to touch us but can only shout at us while we give them a nod or a raised arm. Anyway, I know that they were out their cheering for you guys and everyone as I can distinctly remember them cheering for me on multiple occasions.
In summary, this post was direct towards you boys..Baldy and Clumsy...THANK YOU!
and since this post is coming about a week after the race I will add a short note. Congratulations to you two dudes, and the rest of the Train-This IMLP crew..and to the numerous other people I knew racing in IMLP from QT2 and elsewhere. It was an absolute blast racing in LP and seeing everyone on course. No matter where it was on course it was always special to be able to see someone you knew getting after it...no caffeine boost in the world can get your legs moving faster than seeing a familiar face. I will add that we are all FINISHER's now. We've got 1 or in some peoples' case many in the books. For I think all of the TT'ers we now have a marathon in our legs, for some its an IM marathon now..and for other its plain and simple a marathon. Either way you look at it last Sunday was like a graduation day for us TT'ers. I think we have pretty much all been on-board and prepping for this race in particular since about last October. In reality the only thing that matters is that we all finished this race happy and healthy. Just like the CPA or the bar exam, it really doesn't matter what grade (time) you got, its just the fact that you can say you passed (you finished). Now that we all have the experience its time to get down to business and GET SMARTER, GET HEALTHIER...AND GET FASTER!
And as my final "point" I personally feel that I can now call myself a triathlete. I can now make statements like "We triathletes are...blah blah"..you know things like that. Why? I think because I've now done this sport for about a year and I've completed an IM so I feel I am now justified in calling myself a triathlete. I'm not just a dude that jumps into a few races every summer without really dedicating themselves..but I'm a triathlete to the core. I can make broad ranging statements about the triathlon community because I am one of them. But maybe that's just me. I am not saying that you have to do an IM to be a triathlete but for me personally I know feel like I've crossed a little milestone. ONTO THE NEXT CHALLENGE!
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