well, time to get the teenagers, mice and dust out of the RV. we are hitting the road again! same as last year, just drive about 3000 hours and ta-da, Canada!
See you guys on the other side, this is going to be the last entry "pre-ironman attempt".
i dont feel like i am much better shape, i think i am, and i know the numbers say i am. but just sitting here i feel pretty un-super. :-) but the resa had a good point the other day. rather than getting our second wind after being too tired to go on we now get fifth, sixth and seventh winds. sure makes me smile.
I guess i am finally out of words or thoughts on the whole thing. :-) just a HUGE thank you to Theresa. my best friend. well, let me re-write that. rather than a thank you, i am thankful. yes, that's it.
and...
today she invited me to lunch. no biggie we meet for lunch about once a week or so. i show up and we sit down and at the table she has the printout for next years ironman races.
she starts looking over the list. "Okay Ken, you got to pick the last one..."
i pretty much teared up there. as i had no idea it was coming.
"Oh, come on." she is staring at me. "ok, ok, ok geeze what a pain you are. we can BOTH pick one."
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
10 days out.
wow. just ten days now. started this project about 500 days ago.
had our last hard week. it wasn't all that hard so on the weekend we bumped the bike ride up a bit to include some pretty hard hills. managed to handle them pretty well. the resa was a bit nervous about her knees so skipped some of it - which i thought was very smart.
also so the show Wicked, it was better than i thought it would be. the story was about what i thought, but the skill of the people in the show was so good that you forget to think of them as people, like in movies. ( at least for me ). we go to plays now and then and the less the skill level, like highschool, i hold my breath the whole time, hoping they dont have some really embarrassing moment. the local pros are a bit different, i think they wont have an embarrassing moment and so i just enjoy the show. but its people being other people that i see. i try to separate out what is really them and what is their effort in being something else. this show, they were the characters. at least most of them were. a few minor chars were just people being a made up something. but the main two witches and most of the next 5ish mains were absolutely wonderful. really fun to go to that show.
and i feel my emotions taking some swings over the last few days.
it is just a swim a bike and a run. and i am pretty unpatriotic as a person. i very rarely make more of something than i can laugh at later. i have been serious in my effort on many things, but also know that i am not a true believer. all along i knew it would be the journey and not the destination that was the true reason for the whole thing.
well, the journey is now over. it ended with the last run on sunday afternoon. a five and a half mile 98 degree scorching hot struggle that we managed very well. and we sat on the cement and i created a lake of sweat beneath me as we sipped some drinks. we have some half speed and half distance things planned for the next 10 days. tapering all the way in. and the next time my heart should be pounding like its off the chain will be on the beach before the start.
i have done zero triathlons and i am hooked.
i think sheila is too. and probably the resa - but she wont ever say before the end of any event if she is going to do one again. i think she likes to keep them events and not lifestyles. which is fine with me. if she was the other way we would never have done any of the amazing things we have over the last 12 years. although she did mention that it would be cool to have the p4s from cervelo.
hooked on the life style if not the actual race.
not sure who reads this. the only one i know that does is someone i have never met or talked to, Julie. i think my friend Dave has read two or three posts in the 20 months. also the canada poop fairies have read a few now and then when i pestered them with questions. also i believe a friend kim reads now and then. i guess i would have to be my own biggest reader, as i go back to stuff a year or more ago and just re-live some of my better or worse moments.
but thanks for spending some time here all of you!
i imagine things will be pretty different in 2 weeks. i will either have or not finished the event. and if i dont i will try again. but this will of course always be my first shot at it. and i am sure as i get older this will be one of the easier events i will do.
so, five hundred days and where am i?
i can swim! this alone would be worth going through the whole thing. i lost my fear of being under water. i think i will take up scuba again. i had some pretty disasterous attempts at that over the years. but i was, i think just too afraid to want to go in the water. now i really enjoy the swimming part and look forward to it.
i lost 30 pounds. not as much as i thought i would. i feel i just haven't gone all-in on the food part. ate a cookie today, a chocolate chip muffin yesterday. ah well, 30 pounds makes for a happier me... next year i lose another 10 and be in better shape.
learned a lot of stuff about hi-tech gear and clothes. :-)
learned that i cant go 2x harder on any one day, but i can recover 2x as fast as i could before.
ran my first ever marathon! big smiles for that.
ran 10 miles in 100 minutes.
saw more trails, birds and had more fun outside than in my entire lifetime.
the next post will be on next monday. on tuesday we load up the camper and head out to the race. the post after that will be from after the race, and i hope its a long and happy one. but! if it is not... well, that post will just have to wait a few more months.
the final phase of training is over and what a ( bike ) ride it was. again, thanks for the reading... :-)
SCORES!
mentally - 10. did everything i wanted to do to get ready. if i wipe out or anything happens when up there that keeps us from finishing, well, i came in to it as ready as i could have hoped.
physically - 10. not sure what to say. i could have been in much better shape. or much worse. but i am completely healthy.
workouts - 10. did them pretty easily on the book's hardest week. next year we skip from level 3 to level 6! i mean, common! lol.
whether you think you can or you think you cant... either way, you are probably right.
had our last hard week. it wasn't all that hard so on the weekend we bumped the bike ride up a bit to include some pretty hard hills. managed to handle them pretty well. the resa was a bit nervous about her knees so skipped some of it - which i thought was very smart.
also so the show Wicked, it was better than i thought it would be. the story was about what i thought, but the skill of the people in the show was so good that you forget to think of them as people, like in movies. ( at least for me ). we go to plays now and then and the less the skill level, like highschool, i hold my breath the whole time, hoping they dont have some really embarrassing moment. the local pros are a bit different, i think they wont have an embarrassing moment and so i just enjoy the show. but its people being other people that i see. i try to separate out what is really them and what is their effort in being something else. this show, they were the characters. at least most of them were. a few minor chars were just people being a made up something. but the main two witches and most of the next 5ish mains were absolutely wonderful. really fun to go to that show.
and i feel my emotions taking some swings over the last few days.
it is just a swim a bike and a run. and i am pretty unpatriotic as a person. i very rarely make more of something than i can laugh at later. i have been serious in my effort on many things, but also know that i am not a true believer. all along i knew it would be the journey and not the destination that was the true reason for the whole thing.
well, the journey is now over. it ended with the last run on sunday afternoon. a five and a half mile 98 degree scorching hot struggle that we managed very well. and we sat on the cement and i created a lake of sweat beneath me as we sipped some drinks. we have some half speed and half distance things planned for the next 10 days. tapering all the way in. and the next time my heart should be pounding like its off the chain will be on the beach before the start.
i have done zero triathlons and i am hooked.
i think sheila is too. and probably the resa - but she wont ever say before the end of any event if she is going to do one again. i think she likes to keep them events and not lifestyles. which is fine with me. if she was the other way we would never have done any of the amazing things we have over the last 12 years. although she did mention that it would be cool to have the p4s from cervelo.
hooked on the life style if not the actual race.
not sure who reads this. the only one i know that does is someone i have never met or talked to, Julie. i think my friend Dave has read two or three posts in the 20 months. also the canada poop fairies have read a few now and then when i pestered them with questions. also i believe a friend kim reads now and then. i guess i would have to be my own biggest reader, as i go back to stuff a year or more ago and just re-live some of my better or worse moments.
but thanks for spending some time here all of you!
i imagine things will be pretty different in 2 weeks. i will either have or not finished the event. and if i dont i will try again. but this will of course always be my first shot at it. and i am sure as i get older this will be one of the easier events i will do.
so, five hundred days and where am i?
i can swim! this alone would be worth going through the whole thing. i lost my fear of being under water. i think i will take up scuba again. i had some pretty disasterous attempts at that over the years. but i was, i think just too afraid to want to go in the water. now i really enjoy the swimming part and look forward to it.
i lost 30 pounds. not as much as i thought i would. i feel i just haven't gone all-in on the food part. ate a cookie today, a chocolate chip muffin yesterday. ah well, 30 pounds makes for a happier me... next year i lose another 10 and be in better shape.
learned a lot of stuff about hi-tech gear and clothes. :-)
learned that i cant go 2x harder on any one day, but i can recover 2x as fast as i could before.
ran my first ever marathon! big smiles for that.
ran 10 miles in 100 minutes.
saw more trails, birds and had more fun outside than in my entire lifetime.
the next post will be on next monday. on tuesday we load up the camper and head out to the race. the post after that will be from after the race, and i hope its a long and happy one. but! if it is not... well, that post will just have to wait a few more months.
the final phase of training is over and what a ( bike ) ride it was. again, thanks for the reading... :-)
SCORES!
mentally - 10. did everything i wanted to do to get ready. if i wipe out or anything happens when up there that keeps us from finishing, well, i came in to it as ready as i could have hoped.
physically - 10. not sure what to say. i could have been in much better shape. or much worse. but i am completely healthy.
workouts - 10. did them pretty easily on the book's hardest week. next year we skip from level 3 to level 6! i mean, common! lol.
whether you think you can or you think you cant... either way, you are probably right.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Uphill both ways
So they ranked all 20 some ironmans from hardest to easiest:
“Whichever one you are in the process of doing, about halfway through the run, that one is the hardest one of all time.”
went for a long run for the first time in about 6 months. by long i mean about 4-5ish hours. the book has called for shorter runs all the way through - but we decided to bump it up a bit as we have the full on thingy in only 20 days. ( FOCK! )
well, we found a trail that was really wide and smooth. and hilly as all fock. we ended up parking about 1/4 from the end, staged about 3 gallons of water at the other end, also about 1/4 from that end. and for no particular reason, we started running.
uphill.
whoooh. about a year ago i would have walked the grade we ran up. it was pretty steep. the tricky part though was that the hill went on for about 2.9 of the 3.0 miles. then it was just about all downhill coming home. then, after 6 turn around and do it again, and again...
we did end up walking about half a mile all told but. wow, what a difference a year makes. also our pace was faster than our best ever half ironman from january. nice to be 185ish pounds now. also feel a ton better with the breathing. only once was i totally out of breath, and that was on a downhill section - so i must have been running all stupid or something for a while there.
average pace was 10:40. did about 18 miles. got really thirsty! it was about 88 degrees out although as the day wore on the temps plummeted drastically into the low 80s.
managed to eat a banana, 2 hammer gels and some cheatos. the drinking i kept up with even though the amount of sweat i put out was pretty comically ginormous.
i bit sore today as that was probably the hardest running i have done in my life. although for sure i have been pushed a lot harder in runs, i would roughly say i have done 6-8 runs that were harder. none hillier, only a few hotter, none faster... :-) so big improvement. might even run the marathon in canada under 7 hours now. :-)) and The Resa had a slightly better day than i had. she likes hills and heat a bit more than i do.
just to keep me level headed i got stung by a bee. really itchy now.
and sure did meet a lot of interesting people on the trail...
many people parked at the top of the big hill at the end of the trail. we *always* park at the point where you can run up the easiest. so picked the bottom of the run. that way we dont have to dread the last heartbreak hill. well, anyway, we are running up the hill towards the end and a lot of people are ripping past us downhill. the resa and i took a look at each of them after the first lap and made bets on who would be running back up the hill as about 70-80% walked back up. there was the occasional "runner". we saw 2 very good runners, about 7ish people that were better than we were - the rest were in tears.
one of the two fast people was a guy that looked like he stole a car sterio. long stringy black hair and a do-rag to tie it to his head. no shirt. about 140 pounds and maybe 5-8 tall. and he was bombing up the hill at about i would guess an 7min pace. just really going fast. but he looked like he knew what he was doing, not just running a fast quarter mile. did some kinda flicky finger thing at us that we practiced a few times with other runners, but they just stared at us. they were not as cool as we had just become obviously.
the other fast guy was mr hightech. like us he had the underarmor stuff on, the new shoes, also had the ipod going ( which we dont do ). ran along really smooth and just slipped past us at also probably 8min mile pace. this guy looked like he could do several laps at that pace.
of the 7ish people that were just faster, like slowly or somewhat quickly going past us, all of them were women. the resa would yell out stuff like "she is trying to beat us! trip her!" or i would say something else probably both annoying and also unheard through the Lady Gaga.
the biggest group was the what looked like first timers. cotton clothes and goofy running looks. these people all walked back up the hill. although one fat old guy surprised us with doing 2 laps.
at one point in the third lap we saw a chick running downhill towards us. after she went by the resa wondered if it was "Chicks with huge boobs running with a bouncing motion day" at the park as there were plenty of them.
we looked like the shuffling dead most of the run ourselves. but we tried pretty hard to keep from walking. we didnt walk at all until the last lap, and did that pretty much in small sections. another youtube video we like is by a guy Voit who rides the tour, he is from germany and has a very thick german accent. they asked him what does he do when he is climbing the big hills and his legs are screaming at him: "Shuts ups legs! Shuts up!" so we say that as we run when it starts to suck.
so how did it feel?
stingy.
my knees were a bit more sore than they have been in 8 months. also my push to the edge was a lot closer yesterday than in about a year. the book pretty much doesnt ever take you beyond what you can recover from and the longest run up till yesterday was about 90 minutes. so this was almost 3 times that. and i started getting the dizzy, stomach, blistered feet thingies going on. but we think we could have pounded out another lap if we had to. my biggest fear ( and most of my later whining ) was that it would take about a month to recover from this. but i think i overestimated the uncomfortableness and underestimated my new body. :-)
well, that was week 1 of 2 hard ones. 7 days from now the training will be complete... one way or another that is. then its taper to the day of the race. we both surprised ourselves on our good run. sheila joined up and also had the same run as we did. she used to do 4 hour marathons so she is getting stronger faster than we are on her feet.
SCORES!
mentally: 9 - i feel very good about the run, but i found myself being a pain in the ass to the resa... just need to shut up and find help inside myself more. of course all three of us were a pain at some point... but... :-)
physically: 10 - have some small technical issues yet... still not sure what i am going to run in. going to drop the blue jean cutoffs and find some tri-shorts maybe. ( welcome to the 2000s!! )
workouts: 9 - did them all. did them pretty strong. might be blowing off the swim too much. but if we swim hard i think we can get 1:25 and an easy swim would get us 1:35. so... might be better just to take our time, lose the 10 minutes and just get out of the water really happy and ready to go. ( the shear tonnage of stuff i dont know yet is pretty staggering. )
one more week. hardest one ever! then... ? ? ?? ? then we wait and see.
“Whichever one you are in the process of doing, about halfway through the run, that one is the hardest one of all time.”
went for a long run for the first time in about 6 months. by long i mean about 4-5ish hours. the book has called for shorter runs all the way through - but we decided to bump it up a bit as we have the full on thingy in only 20 days. ( FOCK! )
well, we found a trail that was really wide and smooth. and hilly as all fock. we ended up parking about 1/4 from the end, staged about 3 gallons of water at the other end, also about 1/4 from that end. and for no particular reason, we started running.
uphill.
whoooh. about a year ago i would have walked the grade we ran up. it was pretty steep. the tricky part though was that the hill went on for about 2.9 of the 3.0 miles. then it was just about all downhill coming home. then, after 6 turn around and do it again, and again...
we did end up walking about half a mile all told but. wow, what a difference a year makes. also our pace was faster than our best ever half ironman from january. nice to be 185ish pounds now. also feel a ton better with the breathing. only once was i totally out of breath, and that was on a downhill section - so i must have been running all stupid or something for a while there.
average pace was 10:40. did about 18 miles. got really thirsty! it was about 88 degrees out although as the day wore on the temps plummeted drastically into the low 80s.
managed to eat a banana, 2 hammer gels and some cheatos. the drinking i kept up with even though the amount of sweat i put out was pretty comically ginormous.
i bit sore today as that was probably the hardest running i have done in my life. although for sure i have been pushed a lot harder in runs, i would roughly say i have done 6-8 runs that were harder. none hillier, only a few hotter, none faster... :-) so big improvement. might even run the marathon in canada under 7 hours now. :-)) and The Resa had a slightly better day than i had. she likes hills and heat a bit more than i do.
just to keep me level headed i got stung by a bee. really itchy now.
and sure did meet a lot of interesting people on the trail...
many people parked at the top of the big hill at the end of the trail. we *always* park at the point where you can run up the easiest. so picked the bottom of the run. that way we dont have to dread the last heartbreak hill. well, anyway, we are running up the hill towards the end and a lot of people are ripping past us downhill. the resa and i took a look at each of them after the first lap and made bets on who would be running back up the hill as about 70-80% walked back up. there was the occasional "runner". we saw 2 very good runners, about 7ish people that were better than we were - the rest were in tears.
one of the two fast people was a guy that looked like he stole a car sterio. long stringy black hair and a do-rag to tie it to his head. no shirt. about 140 pounds and maybe 5-8 tall. and he was bombing up the hill at about i would guess an 7min pace. just really going fast. but he looked like he knew what he was doing, not just running a fast quarter mile. did some kinda flicky finger thing at us that we practiced a few times with other runners, but they just stared at us. they were not as cool as we had just become obviously.
the other fast guy was mr hightech. like us he had the underarmor stuff on, the new shoes, also had the ipod going ( which we dont do ). ran along really smooth and just slipped past us at also probably 8min mile pace. this guy looked like he could do several laps at that pace.
of the 7ish people that were just faster, like slowly or somewhat quickly going past us, all of them were women. the resa would yell out stuff like "she is trying to beat us! trip her!" or i would say something else probably both annoying and also unheard through the Lady Gaga.
the biggest group was the what looked like first timers. cotton clothes and goofy running looks. these people all walked back up the hill. although one fat old guy surprised us with doing 2 laps.
at one point in the third lap we saw a chick running downhill towards us. after she went by the resa wondered if it was "Chicks with huge boobs running with a bouncing motion day" at the park as there were plenty of them.
we looked like the shuffling dead most of the run ourselves. but we tried pretty hard to keep from walking. we didnt walk at all until the last lap, and did that pretty much in small sections. another youtube video we like is by a guy Voit who rides the tour, he is from germany and has a very thick german accent. they asked him what does he do when he is climbing the big hills and his legs are screaming at him: "Shuts ups legs! Shuts up!" so we say that as we run when it starts to suck.
so how did it feel?
stingy.
my knees were a bit more sore than they have been in 8 months. also my push to the edge was a lot closer yesterday than in about a year. the book pretty much doesnt ever take you beyond what you can recover from and the longest run up till yesterday was about 90 minutes. so this was almost 3 times that. and i started getting the dizzy, stomach, blistered feet thingies going on. but we think we could have pounded out another lap if we had to. my biggest fear ( and most of my later whining ) was that it would take about a month to recover from this. but i think i overestimated the uncomfortableness and underestimated my new body. :-)
well, that was week 1 of 2 hard ones. 7 days from now the training will be complete... one way or another that is. then its taper to the day of the race. we both surprised ourselves on our good run. sheila joined up and also had the same run as we did. she used to do 4 hour marathons so she is getting stronger faster than we are on her feet.
SCORES!
mentally: 9 - i feel very good about the run, but i found myself being a pain in the ass to the resa... just need to shut up and find help inside myself more. of course all three of us were a pain at some point... but... :-)
physically: 10 - have some small technical issues yet... still not sure what i am going to run in. going to drop the blue jean cutoffs and find some tri-shorts maybe. ( welcome to the 2000s!! )
workouts: 9 - did them all. did them pretty strong. might be blowing off the swim too much. but if we swim hard i think we can get 1:25 and an easy swim would get us 1:35. so... might be better just to take our time, lose the 10 minutes and just get out of the water really happy and ready to go. ( the shear tonnage of stuff i dont know yet is pretty staggering. )
one more week. hardest one ever! then... ? ? ?? ? then we wait and see.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Spark
Someone once asked me what i was good at...
"The more I practice, the luckier I get." - Gary Player - golfer.
So I was sitting on the couch.
It must have been 25 years ago. And there I was sitting there. In front of me was, as always, a TV. I probably watched 5 hours of tv every day from 3 years old to my early 20s. Being fairly introverted I watched to get away from people.
On the tv was some pre-game show for an NFL football game. The Giants need to blah blah today if they hope to beat the Eagles because the Eagles can blah blah blah better than anyone... All very interesting.
"Now, let's go down to the field and join Mark."
"Thanks Jack, as you can see, I am down here on the field. The players are warming up and maybe we can get a quick interview with one of them."
Mark walks on the field towards some guy doing leg stretches.
"Here is the newest running back for the Giants..."
Mark stuffs a microphone into the guys face.
I am slunched on the couch, thinking I know just about all there is to know about pre-game 30 second interviews with guys who have the IQ of a springer spaniel... "Just glad to be here, one game at a time, thanks mom, thanks JC, hope to contribute, we play a really good team today."
The guy looks up, answers a few questions like I thought he would... something about glad to be there or something. And the reporter is just about to walk off. And the guy gently grabs the microphone. And he turns away from the reporter and looks right into the camera. Right at me. And says something I will never ever forget: "Limitations are largely a matter of habit and conventional thinking." The reporter is staring at him with a surprised look. And the guy turns to him. And says with absolute conviction. "And, it's VERY important that you remember this." Then he turns back to stretching his legs out.
"Again." - Herb Brooks, hockey coach.
Got off the couch. Walked in a circle. Not much else all that interesting happened that day. Other than I thought over and over about it. Habit. You *are* what you repeatedly do. And what was it that I was? A guy on a couch. Within a short time of that day M*A*S*H had their last ever episode. I remember watching it and feeling kinda sad that it was over and that everyone was now gone. I think everyone in the world watched that last show. I decided right then not to watch TV anymore. And I haven't. Never saw a Sienfield, or a Simpsons or a South Park or any of the other shows on. Lost, Dancing, American Idle - no clue at all about any of it. I decided ( like fish vegetarians ) that I could watch sports. So I have watched a lot of that over the last 25 years. Not telling you guys this for any reason other than I freed up about 30 hours a week. But the big impact wasn't the TV time. It was the thought that my limits were as the guy said due to habit and conventional thinking.
What could I do? Looking around. Shrug. What looks like fun? Computers looked like fun... so I wrote programs for a living. Spock even played chess against a computer. Chess! Chess is fun too. Run around and see stuff. So I went to Europe and lived in Africa. Climbed mt. K and played in the snow on the equator. Wondered what it would be like to build a house. So I built one myself. Wired it, plumbed, framed it, installed the duct work and the geothermal heating system. Was about to buy the cabinets but figured what the heck, I can learn how to make them. Took a few months. Laid the flooring and did all the trim work from rough wood, poured the cement, dug holes and filled holes. ( filling holes is not as hard as you would think it to be ) Took an IQ test and got into Prometheus. Met a supergenius, fell in love and married her. Learned to play guitar and bass and played for years in a band. Got good at golf and softball, learned to skate and play ice hockey. Bought a mountain bike and fell in love with the forest. Ah, the forest in the fall! the dry leaves rustle and whoosh behind you and you dont know if its the last ride of the year and you just want to live forever. Did adventure races. Doing my first ironman triathlon in 3 weeks. Been a professional model. Tracked and found wild lions on foot with no weapons. Jumped out of airplanes and laughed over and over at how incredibly awesome life is.
"Such amazing dreams and horrible nightmares." - Carl Sagan. Science weasel.
I looked for that spark. That jump in people. All my life I looked. And if you are willing to look you can see it sometimes out of the corner of your eye. Just a quick st. elmos fire flash of green. But you have to be patient beyond all fucking common sense. In a huge bar full of people we are only as smart as the dumbest person in the room. But... there, in the corner of your eye, in the pinched back crawly edge of your ear you hear it. Something... said with thought and passion. And it's the grabbing of that. That makes the whole of the waiting worth living for.
"It never gets any easier, I just get faster." - Greg Lemond, cyclist.
So, what do I feel I have gotten good at - and how did it affect me... I thought about this a long time. I am good at many things. Really good at a couple. Not sure I am great at anything. And so I was stuck thinking of things that marked some change. But I was missing the whole picture. :-) And so I would say that what I became really good at, was, living itself. Just that. Grabbing the fucker and squeezing, squeezing it. Taste as much as I can. Incredible disasters and awesome victories. Spinning and falling and shredding my body and more painfully my mind over it. Getting up. Again. Again. Again. Habit and conventional thinking. And it is beyond all words *staggeringly* important that you remember that.
Some people get nicknames, others get a stamping. "John the good looking guy." "Lisa the athlete." I never did get a nickname. But people always tell me how lucky I am.
The more I practice, the luckier I get.
"The more I practice, the luckier I get." - Gary Player - golfer.
So I was sitting on the couch.
It must have been 25 years ago. And there I was sitting there. In front of me was, as always, a TV. I probably watched 5 hours of tv every day from 3 years old to my early 20s. Being fairly introverted I watched to get away from people.
On the tv was some pre-game show for an NFL football game. The Giants need to blah blah today if they hope to beat the Eagles because the Eagles can blah blah blah better than anyone... All very interesting.
"Now, let's go down to the field and join Mark."
"Thanks Jack, as you can see, I am down here on the field. The players are warming up and maybe we can get a quick interview with one of them."
Mark walks on the field towards some guy doing leg stretches.
"Here is the newest running back for the Giants..."
Mark stuffs a microphone into the guys face.
I am slunched on the couch, thinking I know just about all there is to know about pre-game 30 second interviews with guys who have the IQ of a springer spaniel... "Just glad to be here, one game at a time, thanks mom, thanks JC, hope to contribute, we play a really good team today."
The guy looks up, answers a few questions like I thought he would... something about glad to be there or something. And the reporter is just about to walk off. And the guy gently grabs the microphone. And he turns away from the reporter and looks right into the camera. Right at me. And says something I will never ever forget: "Limitations are largely a matter of habit and conventional thinking." The reporter is staring at him with a surprised look. And the guy turns to him. And says with absolute conviction. "And, it's VERY important that you remember this." Then he turns back to stretching his legs out.
"Again." - Herb Brooks, hockey coach.
Got off the couch. Walked in a circle. Not much else all that interesting happened that day. Other than I thought over and over about it. Habit. You *are* what you repeatedly do. And what was it that I was? A guy on a couch. Within a short time of that day M*A*S*H had their last ever episode. I remember watching it and feeling kinda sad that it was over and that everyone was now gone. I think everyone in the world watched that last show. I decided right then not to watch TV anymore. And I haven't. Never saw a Sienfield, or a Simpsons or a South Park or any of the other shows on. Lost, Dancing, American Idle - no clue at all about any of it. I decided ( like fish vegetarians ) that I could watch sports. So I have watched a lot of that over the last 25 years. Not telling you guys this for any reason other than I freed up about 30 hours a week. But the big impact wasn't the TV time. It was the thought that my limits were as the guy said due to habit and conventional thinking.
What could I do? Looking around. Shrug. What looks like fun? Computers looked like fun... so I wrote programs for a living. Spock even played chess against a computer. Chess! Chess is fun too. Run around and see stuff. So I went to Europe and lived in Africa. Climbed mt. K and played in the snow on the equator. Wondered what it would be like to build a house. So I built one myself. Wired it, plumbed, framed it, installed the duct work and the geothermal heating system. Was about to buy the cabinets but figured what the heck, I can learn how to make them. Took a few months. Laid the flooring and did all the trim work from rough wood, poured the cement, dug holes and filled holes. ( filling holes is not as hard as you would think it to be ) Took an IQ test and got into Prometheus. Met a supergenius, fell in love and married her. Learned to play guitar and bass and played for years in a band. Got good at golf and softball, learned to skate and play ice hockey. Bought a mountain bike and fell in love with the forest. Ah, the forest in the fall! the dry leaves rustle and whoosh behind you and you dont know if its the last ride of the year and you just want to live forever. Did adventure races. Doing my first ironman triathlon in 3 weeks. Been a professional model. Tracked and found wild lions on foot with no weapons. Jumped out of airplanes and laughed over and over at how incredibly awesome life is.
"Such amazing dreams and horrible nightmares." - Carl Sagan. Science weasel.
I looked for that spark. That jump in people. All my life I looked. And if you are willing to look you can see it sometimes out of the corner of your eye. Just a quick st. elmos fire flash of green. But you have to be patient beyond all fucking common sense. In a huge bar full of people we are only as smart as the dumbest person in the room. But... there, in the corner of your eye, in the pinched back crawly edge of your ear you hear it. Something... said with thought and passion. And it's the grabbing of that. That makes the whole of the waiting worth living for.
"It never gets any easier, I just get faster." - Greg Lemond, cyclist.
So, what do I feel I have gotten good at - and how did it affect me... I thought about this a long time. I am good at many things. Really good at a couple. Not sure I am great at anything. And so I was stuck thinking of things that marked some change. But I was missing the whole picture. :-) And so I would say that what I became really good at, was, living itself. Just that. Grabbing the fucker and squeezing, squeezing it. Taste as much as I can. Incredible disasters and awesome victories. Spinning and falling and shredding my body and more painfully my mind over it. Getting up. Again. Again. Again. Habit and conventional thinking. And it is beyond all words *staggeringly* important that you remember that.
Some people get nicknames, others get a stamping. "John the good looking guy." "Lisa the athlete." I never did get a nickname. But people always tell me how lucky I am.
The more I practice, the luckier I get.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Weekend Half and PB race
the football hall of fame has a 5 mile race they do every year. one of the resa's weasles is the run race director. he runs like 3 min miles and coaches the track team and is all skinny and stuff. well, he said we had to do the race, so we signed up. we were number 60 and 61 of 1600 racers. people all checked out my number and then me. then looked at the number again. they are pretty interested in giving out numbers based on previous years events. so, after looking at the 60 ( which for a small time i had purposefully upside down to show it as 09 ) and then at me they had a "Oh, i am SOOO sorry" look. as if they knew i had gained about 30 pounds over the last year. but hahahaha! they had it backwards! i had lost 30. i was just still 30 pounds heavier than a runner that would have come in 6oth of 1600.
well, there is ten minutes to start and the resa and sheila decide to use the one port-a-pot at the start area. the line was only about 700 people long so we waited in that till the starting gun. we had made it about half way through when it went off. everyone ditched the idea of peeing and just took off. so - now, me too - went in and got happy.
this got us to the start line about 3 minutes after the leaders took off. so they were almost to mile one when we started. not bad really, we have done several races, both running and biking where the winner was already done when we started. the cape argus race in africa had the winners already showered and to the airport before we started. so anyway we are running all by our selves for a few miles. and we start passing people. and... wow. what a difference a year makes. the people we passed were running about 12 min miles and breathing like they had some horrible chest cold. struggling and gurgling. just like we did a year ago. amazing. really brought it home to us how much better we were at running. and! of course the flip side of that coin was how much better we can still get. my nephew mark ran his first marathon in under 3:30. running with him was certainly different. he just sorta plods along at an 7-8 minute pace, talking and looking around. no biggie. well, that was us at 9:20 pace yesterday. we chatted, dodged people, got water 2 times, ran over to a sprinkler to run through. mile 3-4 was up a long slow one mile hill and looking at the splits we did that one at 9:24. ran down the hill to the finish at 9:02 pace and then up the very steep hill at the end. probably the steepest hill in the city - up to the hall of fame front door. finished on my watch at 5.03 miles, 47:27. but it was just a normal jog to us... that was part of the really cool part. that we probably could have done it much faster. but all in all it beats our last 5 mile personal best of 55:19 - 4 years ago.
after the run we headed home for a bagel and then grinded out our half ironman. all went really smooth for everyone, no hurties or mess ups. really it went so smooth i kinda went into another world for most of it. just kinda faded out and when we were done i got some dinner and went to bed. oddly i didnt sleep all that well though, got up about 5 times to pee and had some weird annoying dreams. also really sore this morning. but pretty happy with the weekend!
that was the taper week. the next two weeks are the hardest in the set. we hope to do all of the workouts over the next 14 days. then the book calls for about a 75% week and a 40ish% week. i am going to adjust that downwards - against the book for the first time ever. although we have gone against the book many times in the other direction - especially in the early months. so the adjusting ( as of now ) is going to be more like 50% and then 5% of a normal week. :-D
and here is everyone's favorite video right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHJErrp4eOw
we could be riding along and a hill would come up and then... "if this dont make your booty move your booty must be deeeead!!" from at least one person. on one hill The Resa was just in front of me. she turned around and gave me the hard stare and then took off, "ohhh! and Ken has NO ANSWER for this attack!!!", "3 meters of snow, sheila says there is no way. no way you can ride, no way." "Whoes that?"
four to go! 2 hard, 2 easy. and then, well... hopefully 4 weeks from today i am an ironman. if not - well, i will try again.
SCORES!
mentally - 9, hate to say 10 so close to the end here. was more tired than i thought i should have been off the bike yesterday. but it was 90 degrees out.
physically - 9, tired today. good thing it was an easy week! nothing hurts, the hole in my foot is looking pretty good and i have no injuries. just a bit heavier than i want to be at 189. but thats only ( still!!! ) 5 pounds. eating and drinking like maniacs on the bike has us weighing almost more at the end of the bike than the start.
workouts - 9, did them all except i think we lamed out the swim once.
2 hard ones to go!
well, there is ten minutes to start and the resa and sheila decide to use the one port-a-pot at the start area. the line was only about 700 people long so we waited in that till the starting gun. we had made it about half way through when it went off. everyone ditched the idea of peeing and just took off. so - now, me too - went in and got happy.
this got us to the start line about 3 minutes after the leaders took off. so they were almost to mile one when we started. not bad really, we have done several races, both running and biking where the winner was already done when we started. the cape argus race in africa had the winners already showered and to the airport before we started. so anyway we are running all by our selves for a few miles. and we start passing people. and... wow. what a difference a year makes. the people we passed were running about 12 min miles and breathing like they had some horrible chest cold. struggling and gurgling. just like we did a year ago. amazing. really brought it home to us how much better we were at running. and! of course the flip side of that coin was how much better we can still get. my nephew mark ran his first marathon in under 3:30. running with him was certainly different. he just sorta plods along at an 7-8 minute pace, talking and looking around. no biggie. well, that was us at 9:20 pace yesterday. we chatted, dodged people, got water 2 times, ran over to a sprinkler to run through. mile 3-4 was up a long slow one mile hill and looking at the splits we did that one at 9:24. ran down the hill to the finish at 9:02 pace and then up the very steep hill at the end. probably the steepest hill in the city - up to the hall of fame front door. finished on my watch at 5.03 miles, 47:27. but it was just a normal jog to us... that was part of the really cool part. that we probably could have done it much faster. but all in all it beats our last 5 mile personal best of 55:19 - 4 years ago.
after the run we headed home for a bagel and then grinded out our half ironman. all went really smooth for everyone, no hurties or mess ups. really it went so smooth i kinda went into another world for most of it. just kinda faded out and when we were done i got some dinner and went to bed. oddly i didnt sleep all that well though, got up about 5 times to pee and had some weird annoying dreams. also really sore this morning. but pretty happy with the weekend!
that was the taper week. the next two weeks are the hardest in the set. we hope to do all of the workouts over the next 14 days. then the book calls for about a 75% week and a 40ish% week. i am going to adjust that downwards - against the book for the first time ever. although we have gone against the book many times in the other direction - especially in the early months. so the adjusting ( as of now ) is going to be more like 50% and then 5% of a normal week. :-D
and here is everyone's favorite video right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHJErrp4eOw
we could be riding along and a hill would come up and then... "if this dont make your booty move your booty must be deeeead!!" from at least one person. on one hill The Resa was just in front of me. she turned around and gave me the hard stare and then took off, "ohhh! and Ken has NO ANSWER for this attack!!!", "3 meters of snow, sheila says there is no way. no way you can ride, no way." "Whoes that?"
four to go! 2 hard, 2 easy. and then, well... hopefully 4 weeks from today i am an ironman. if not - well, i will try again.
SCORES!
mentally - 9, hate to say 10 so close to the end here. was more tired than i thought i should have been off the bike yesterday. but it was 90 degrees out.
physically - 9, tired today. good thing it was an easy week! nothing hurts, the hole in my foot is looking pretty good and i have no injuries. just a bit heavier than i want to be at 189. but thats only ( still!!! ) 5 pounds. eating and drinking like maniacs on the bike has us weighing almost more at the end of the bike than the start.
workouts - 9, did them all except i think we lamed out the swim once.
2 hard ones to go!
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