I got feelings?

I am being encouraged by my writing mentor to explore my feelings and publicly post them. A couple of items to note here

• Encourage is another word for nagging, bugging, and pestering when you are reluctant to do something
  
• Writing about my feelings is something I reserve for notes written on paper, which gets folded up, burnt, and the ashes placed in a dumpster behind an un-disclosed fast food restaurant on Bee Caves Road.
  
• My blog, aka public writing place, is for light hearted observations, training things, and race reports, not for feelings.
  

Well, my writing mentor (who I like to refer to as the Word Nazi) is telling me that I cannot progress in the craft of writing unless I can put it all out there for others to enjoy. He wants me to take some risks. He thinks I am holding back because I am worried about who might read what I write and how they will interpret my words. He thinks that if I start putting down in my blog my deepest feelings, then by risking ridicule I become a better writer.

I put some thought into this and I figured he might be right. After all hundreds of thousands of people are writing about how they feel and they are posting it out for everyone to read. They can do it, so why shouldn't I? These are times when it is okay for men to explore their feelings and impressions. It is easier nowadays for a man to write about sensitive natured subjects, not just about the old-school acceptable things like sports, wood working and critical evaluations of what wood is best for smoking meats (which is oak, BTW). Also, I have age on my side. I have seen a lot of change in the world; I can rant and rave about the pitiful state of things, the poor quality of music and how the kids these days don't know anything about fun. Or, I could write about the "good old days", how all we got to play with were rocks and occasionally a bottle cap.

Maybe the Word Nazi is correct and I need to change my attitude about exploring my feelings and putting it down for others to read. Starting right now, I am going to do that. I am going to dig deep, think, analyze, and explore my soul. I am going to figure out how I sense things, what makes me feel that way and then I will provide details on who I am. My fears, what worries me, what I love, what I sense and what I experience. This may not be pretty and this may shock people, but that is the risk I must take. So, here goes,

,,

,,

I'm Hungry.

I am a classy guy

For Mother's Day we went to the Austin Ballet production of Coppelia. It was billed as "ballet's greatest comedy". Let me start out by saying, I like funny. I am a big fan of comedy. Mel Brooks, Brandon Fraser, Kathryn Madigan, slapstick, parodies, I like most comedy. To be honest though, the ballet brand of comedy escaped me. Not funny. Many of the more refined audience members were amused. They laughed at the simplest things. They may have never seen an episode of Lucy or Dick Van Dyke so they have been comedy deprived. I may be jaded by the likes of Airplane, Blazing Saddles and the 2000 Presidential Election. I just did not find it funny. The ballet has no dialog so it relies on facial expressions, hand gestures and an occasional funny dance move. That pretty much limits their bag of tricks when it comes to being funny. They could have at least called on some a pie fight, some pratfalls and even some old Three Stooges gags, minus the nyuck nyuck's.

Even though the humor was beyond my comprehension, I have to say that the ballet was great. The dancers have some amazing athletic abilities. For a classy guy like myself, the talent of the dancers and the complexity of their moves, did not escape me. There were a large number of women in the audience and I think it is partly due to it being an occasion to dress up and be seen. I think it is also due to the butt factor. The male dancers wore very revealing tights and the muscular definition of their butts was not shrouded by anything. Many women were women leaning over, whispering about the "fantastic butts". I hated to shush my wife. When not balleting, I think that the male dancers must model their butts for mannequins used at Nordstrom's, or Macy's. The choreographer missed out on a great comedic routine. He should have integrated the muscular butts of his dancers into some kind of routine where they bounced things off their asses. Ping Pong or tennis balls, anything, maybe have one of them do some stunts where he picks up quarters with nothing but his butt cheeks,, now that would be funny.

Maybe I found the ballet amusing after all and maybe, just possibly, I am not so classy?

 

 

 

 

Lessons Learned

Okay, this is the last of the Galveston posts,,

Gladly, each race and training session is a learning experience. At the Galveston race I learned a lot:

• Never under-estimate the power of visualization. Meditating and going through every aspect of the day had great value out on the course. It especially came in handy when the more adverse elements came into play.
  
• Always keep a sense of humor. During the run, we looped around a lot and we had plenty of chances to see other runners. Whenever possible I would acknowledge / encourage my fellow T3 athletes. On one loop, I moved across to give a high-five to Jane Kang. It was hard to not see her since she runs with a blue feathered boa. I inadvertently got too close to another runner and he yells at me to "Watch your line!" Luckily, a couple of my friends, Brittany and Travis were nearby and caught the incident. They both reassured me that "watch you line guy" was the real jerk and not to worry about it. Later, as I was running, Travis came up from behind and yelled, "Hey watch your line, asshole!" Hard to believe but in the midst of a 70.3 mile race, we were laughing. I still laugh when I think about that. Thanks Travis.
  
• There is a zone that you can get into during a race. The zone is a focus or a trance. Outside factors do not exist. It is living in the moment. I think every sport / activity has a zone. I know that meditation is like that. It is hard to get in and stay in the zone. It does not happen every time but when you do make it into that place, it is awesome. Everything clicks but is all dependent on training, nutrition and attitude plus probably a hundred other things.
  
• Don't forget to care. During the run, a lot of people were hurting. Many were walking; some were sitting down and resting. No matter what, you would always hear someone ask, "You all right?" , "You need anything?" I have been a walker and occasionally a sitter so it was always reassuring to know that someone cared, even if they could do nothing for you. I was especially touched when one of my teammates stopped to help a woman who was visibly cramping. You could see her legs locking up, every muscle tightening. I did not know if Chris knew this woman or not but he stopped his race, took the time to help her out, give her some electrolyte pills and water. The age group athletes are the heart and soul of this sport because of this caring attitude.
  
• After many races, some good and some bad, I have not been able to learn how to express my appreciation to family, friends and my T3 teammates for all their support and encouragement. How do you do that? A simple "thanks" is all I can come up with and it seems to fall so shy of how appreciative I really am. So, if this blog serves any purpose what so ever, please know that I am truly thankful for the spirit that you provide me.
  
• Never, ever throw out a nutrition bottle. If I do, I will try to land it on its side, not the top.
  
• Although it has nothing to do with the race, Galveston is getting back on its feet. You could still see a lot of damage from the hurricane but you also could see that an amazing amount of progress has been made. (Prepare yourself for the selfish segue) There is good news article from a Channel 39 broadcast about the race and the economic impact to Galveston at the following link. It features my daughter, Kelly Jones and some T3 athletes. http://www.39online.com/news/local/kiah-islandcompetitions-story,0,5930952.story
  
• I need to work on my non-obvious transitional writing.
  
  

 

Galveston Half-IM Race report

Race planning

Carrying on from the previous post, race day prep actually started about two weeks out. After going through training and knowing my capabilities, I began visualizing the entire race from start to finish. I pictured every part of the race, down to the lowest level possible. Let me just say that visualizing a race was hard work for me. I would no sooner imagine myself getting in the water and I would get distracted by a butterfly or something of importance like a shiny object. Then I would start all over, getting further into my imaginary race day, and then be distracted again. I would repeat this over and over until I could put together a complete race. I tried to foresee every possible condition and how I would react. I knew I would get butt punched and jostled in the swim so I imagined it and how I would react to that. I visualized how I would exit the water, unzip and get out of my wetsuit. Luckily the race organizers had wetsuit strippers. I had high hopes that they did not visualize stripping off my wetsuit and dragging me across the ground. I was blessed that they and I had both planned the perfect wetsuit strip. I visualized the wind because I knew it would be a factor and I imagined how I would mentally deal with it for 3 plus hours. So long story short, visualization was a key part of race day prep.

I used a clean slate for figuring out my race day nutrition. In the past, I had a routine for nutrition, one cup of Carbo-PRO, one scoop of Pure Workout into a water bottle and that would last about 6 hours. This time, I started from scratch and figured out my estimated number of hours out on the course and calculated the caloric needs and grams of carbohydrates that I could consume. I went with a less concentrated mix as well. What I ended up with was two bottles that would each last me about 90 minutes. I also planned on one water bottle per hour and four electrolytes per hour. Two other items that I picked up from the pros, water only for the first 10-15 minutes of the bike. This would allow blood to be focused on my leg muscles and not so much on my digestive system. After all the capillaries are open and blood is moving, then I can start on my nutrition. At the other end of the bike, I stopped consuming nutrition and only took in water for the last 20 minutes of the bike. This would settle my stomach and allow me to get ready for the stress of the run.

Primary goal – to finish, secondary goal was to come in under 6:00:00. It would be tight but I knew I could do it. Everything had to work.

"Da Race"

I will skip some of the race day minutia and stick with what I feel is important for me (and or you). As the day started, I had the usual nervousness and jitters but it is all good stuff. I hope I never go into a race without that. If it ever gets like that, I may have to move on to something else. The pre-race nerves are good, I need that because once the race starts, the nerves turn into focus. The old fart group (50+ age group) went last of all the men so that meant we would be chased down and passed by the first wave of women. Even with our 5 minute head start, these ladies chased us down and passed us. Of course I was able to do the same for a couple of waves that went before me. Before we started, as we were bobbing in the water waiting for the start, one of the old guys said "Okay guy's, let's chase the young ones down and be sure to show them the age on your calf!" With that, the gun (actually a guy on a bull horn yelling GO!) went off, we headed out into the water. I had visualized the rough water so it did not bother me, I just tried to get into a rhythm and swim. A couple of things I did not visualize we getting elbowed in the nose and getting my heel cut by a swimmer. The blow to my nose was stressful. I heard my nose crack when I got hit and I lost focus for a few minutes as I tried to get back in the moment. Actually I was in the moment, the "That hurt like hell" moment. During the later part of the swim as we headed into shore, I got hit on my heel really hard. I did not think too much of it but when I got into transition, I had a two inch slice on my heel. I do not even want to think how that happened. The swim was good. I was about 6 minutes slower than I expected. The current and rough water took its toll.

Swim time: 41:25 (10th out of 32 in age group)

Transition: 2:51

Bike was uneventful, strong wind going out and a strong one coming back. Trouble was, it was never either at your back or in your face, it always came at you from the side. It was always at an angle. It was also flat so this meant aero position and constant pedaling for 56 miles. Visualization helped here also. I knew that wind would be a factor so I never let it get me down; I just kept pedaling and focused on my heart rate and pedal stroke. If my mind started drifting off task, I would verbally shout "NO" and get back in the right mindset. I did one bad move during a water bottle hand up; I mistakenly threw out one of my nutrition bottles rather than an empty water bottle. For a fraction of a second I thought about leaving it behind. In that same split second, I also imagined the consequences of running on no fuel for the last half of the ride. So I took the time to stop and retrieve my water bottle. When I started drinking from that water bottle, it was then that I realized I tossed it so that it came straight down into a mud pile and the mouthpiece was covered in dirt. The bike ride was great. It was hard but I stayed focused.

Ride time: 3:03:17 (8^th in age group) Average - 18.3 MPH

Transition: 2:25

The run was also uneventful. My bike nutrition plan worked great so I was well hydrated and had enough energy to head out onto the run feeling great. It took me a while to get my legs but, I had prepared myself for that freaky feeling. After using your legs to make a pedal go around for about 3 hours and then all of a sudden directing them to run, you feel like a spaz for the first 10 minutes. It was a four lap route so I got to see lots of teammates out on the course and I knew right where family and friends were camped out. There is not much I can say about the run, other than I ran the whole thing except for and occasional water stop where I stocked up on water and gel. It was hot so I poured water on myself as much as I could to cool down my core and head.

Run Time: 2:04:26 (5^th in age group) Average 9:30 minute miles

Final Time: 5:54.24 (7^th in age group)

 

There is not much I can say but that I am very happy with these results. There is actually a lot more to say, because I learned so much this time around. I will save my reflections for another post. Let me emphasize, I am happy with this race.

It’s Catch up time

There had been a lot going on the last three weeks. The one thing that has not been going on is blog posts. Although there is no set schedule for posting updates, I really want to update them more frequently than I do. In reality, I just do not have that interesting a life so I have to wait until races take place or something worth writing about. Actually, being a "old dude" I am allowed to post cranky notes about how the world is going crazy and that America is falling apart, but I have relegated that to the Tea Party people, or as I call them , "The Angry old white people party".

The last few weeks have been devoted to closing out work projects, race planning, vacation planning, then the execution of said race and vacation. So, to catch up, here is what I have planned over the next couple of days. I plan on writing several updates to cover the race and post race activities. It is important to capture these thoughts and actions before they get replaced with a diatribe on the neighborhood kids trampling across my lawn or how the neighbor's dogs keep crapping on my lawn.

In reality, capturing the race experience and putting it on paper allows me to analyze what I did right and what I can improve on. Making it public allows others to learn from my experience and also lets others suggest areas and means of improvement.

About The Race

The Memorial – Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas or as I like to call it, the race in Galveston. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. This was my A Race. I have been planning / training for this race since November 2009. Back in November, I had just finished the Conroe Half-Ironman and my race results matched the training effort that I had expended. Putting it in other words, my training was half-assed due to many different variables, most of which are my own fault. So, my race sucked, but I learned so much from that race experience. I was able to finish the race but it was not pretty and it was not something that I was proud of. As soon as I had finished Conroe, I knew that I was going to sign up for Galveston and I knew at that moment, I was going to have a great race. Going into Conroe, from the start of training, I did not have a goal, and my training reflected that. Immediately after I finished Conroe, I started planning my Galveston race. It started out with a very simple goal; I was going to have a great race. A great race was beating my previous best time of 6 hours and one minute. I did not go public with that goal but I did talk it over with Chrissie. I had several weeks to go before I started the training schedule for Galveston so my mindset was all oriented towards the goal of having a great race.

I went into training with secondary goals of a) changing my eating habits and b) training with a purpose.

Previously, I ate anything and everything without any thought to what I was putting in my mouth or how it impacted my athletic capabilities. So, by changing my eating habits, I was hoping to improve the way I fueled the engine that carried me from workout to workout and ultimately through the race. What I did not think about, was how, by changing my diet, I would be improving my whole state of mind and well-being. Over the years of training, I have fallen into a rut that was driven by "just getting in the hours". I made sure I was logging in the right number of training hours. I had forgotten that training sets up the habits that I carry into a race. Racing is not about going through the motions and training should not be that way. "The habits of success are forged in practice" – Gary Mack

"Practice time is when you put brain into your muscles" – Sam Snead

For 2010, I tried to train with a bigger purpose than to just log hours. Sounds simple, but like I said, I forgot.

That is enough for now, I need to go pick up dog poop from the yard and yell at the neighborhood riff-raff. Next Blog post, I will re-cap the race.