As I contemplate.....

as I contemplate the thoughts of doing a 1/2 IronMan in Sept. I think about the blogs I read, and of folks I know personally that have done more than one... a FULL IronMan that is - 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run, YES all on one day, with a 17 hr cut off time, one event right after the other.....

First my hats off to anyone and I don't care if your the one that comes across that finish line without one millisecond to spare, or one who crawls across the finish line, to ME anyone that even attempts such a feat is... well... in a word, is one tough fucking cookie and I personally am in awe - but I wonder.... does doing multiple IM's ever loose the same excitement as the first one? or are they just different?

I mean do you ever get tired of hearing at the finish line

"John Doe YOU ARE AN IRONMAN"

or does each time you hear it mean just as much as the first time? And to that end, what possesses a person to do such multiple grueling races? And how do you feel at the start line when you KNOW what's ahead of you?

I mean the first time out, you have NO idea - you know what you've done in training, the long hours, the long rides, the brick workouts, all that stuff, but the adrenaline of that FIRST time must be one hell of a rush - is it always like that?

I just can't imagine, but then I never imagined I'd even do a sprint tri... now this year, at the very least I will step up to Olympic distance and possibly, still kicking it around, think of a 1/2 IM, but OMG a FULL IM?????

I know how totally emotional it was for me as a spectator when I was in Louisville KY last year and watched my S.O. Kevin and his friend Lori do IM KY.... I was not ever prepared for how emotional EYE would be and odd it was not just for Kevin and Lori, it was for complete strangers - seeing one gal on the last few miles of the run, it was dark by this time, and she was struggling, about 2 miles or so out from the finish, her friends were by her side, telling her come on you can do this, you can finish your almost there, its right around the corner..... Geesh months later thinking about this scene still makes me teary eyed... and mind you I had NO idea who this person even was - they never left her side, she'd walk and say I can't go any farther.... they'd be right there saying yes you can, come on your almost there, and she'd pick up the pace to a very slow run....

then my emotions for Lori who had a great finish and knew I was worried about Kevin, he had troubles on the bike leg, plenty of flats, and was tired and struggling on the run.... I hugged Lori and broke down and cried told her I was so happy for her but sad for Kevin... and she looked at me said here take Marc's bike, go find Kevin, he needs you... so I rode the run course till I found him... getting ordered off the street the whole way by officials... I finally found him he said I'm not going to be very talkative - I said I didn't care I wasn't leaving his side, he could talk if he needed to or not, either way I was there.... I didn't help him in any way, I just needed to be there... probably more for me than him, although I think he appreciated knowing I was there - anyhow about 2 miles out he told me to go ahead he wanted me to be at the finish line.... I raced ahead, found lori/marc handed off the bike and was there when Kevin came thru the chute..... as skanky as he was, I mean who wouldn't be after a hot day in the KY sun, let alone after biking and running in it, I hugged him and cried!

and just could not even imagine how that finish must feel, but wonder does it always feel like that?

Bike the Drive

How sad that a ride I've done for the last 4 years I won't be able to enjoy this year...Bike the Drive - while I've not seen it first hand I can only imagine the pothole land mines on Lake Shore Drive - in the previous years I've done this ride, there were sections of the road that needed some work then and now with the winter we've had its got to be horrible... there was even a piece on the news about it a few days ago.

Its not a race or anything but just a fun way to see/ride Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. They close a 30 mile stretch of the drive to all vehicle traffic for about 4 hrs on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. I like to get there right when the ride starts to see the sun rise... 2 years ago I actually talked my friend Robin into doing it with me, prior to that I did it solo, it was still fun - last year we spent the weekend in Chicago, did the Soldier Field 10miler and Bike the Drive the next day - last year it started out raining, but about 7 miles into the bike... the sun started to peek out, in the end it turned out to be a nice day. The year before that (first year Robin did it with me) I had been feeling a bit under the weather but was determined not to miss out, plus I had talked someone into doing it with me... night before I took my temp just to see.. it was 101 didn't think anymore about it, took some tylenol and called it a night. We did the ride the next day, I felt better, not feverish, but had a slight headache, so I toughed it out...

Boy by the time we finished and I got home and took a shower I was wiped out, laid down to take a nap and woke up in a sweat and with 103ish temp.... I fought as long as I could NOT to go to the DR... finally when temp got to 104.something, I couldn't say no any longer - went to the ER, was subjected to a spinal tap because I had all the symptoms of menegitis - turns out it was just some wicked wicked virus that took a week+ to get over - in retrospect it was silly to ride when I had been feeling so poorly the night before AND running a temp - but sometimes I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Anyhow - I WILL miss not doing this ride this year... I'm sure I can find some local ride to make up for it...

Swimming, swimming in the swimming pool

when days are hot or days are cold oh wouldn't it be nice to do.... side stroke, breast stroke and fancy diving too, oh wouldn't it be nice if we had nothing else to do but swimming swimming in the swimming pool.....Ok sorry some little chant I remember from when I was a kid.

Anyhow guess what EYE did this morning.. yeap you guessed it, I swam - now I'm not fast by any means, and that's ok, I'm just happy I'm finding that I'm able to swim, non-stop (well cept for having to turn at each end since I can't do flip turns YET) for distance.... oh not the distance I read about some doing... but I'm working my way that way... Its funny but the other week I just made myself do it and I found if I take my time, concentrate on breathing, I can go longer... so today was 1250 yards of total swimming for me... I know not much for some of you, but do remember prior to Oct 2006, I could not even swim one length of the pool at all and TODAY it was 25 laps or 50 lengths.

I use to swim 2 lengths of the pool and feel all out of breathe, but I found if I just kept going, it did get easier, you get into a rhythm and your breathing calms down - kind of like the first 1/2 mile of a run... I always feel like I'm not going to make a mile the way I'm breathing, but then you relax and settle into it and it seems to get easier, well swimming has turned out to be the same - so for now I'm just going for distance and I'll worry with speed later.

So I'm working my way up to 36 laps (1 lap = 2 lengths of the 25 yard pool) and that, according to signage at the gym, is 1 mile of swimming - today was 25 laps, non stop and I probably COULD have done 10 more but that ole time limit and having to get ready for work thing came upon me.

Now of course how this will translate to open water and wetsuit swimming and triathlon with lots of peeps around ya is anybody's guess, but I did sprint distances last season and didn't drown, and NOW at least I know I can go the swim distance of an olympic length tri... and I THINK if I can do that without a wet suit in the pool... I should be able to do it in open water with security of a wetsuit - it was odd but the fact of peeps around me didn't really freak me out as much as I thought when I did tri's last year... I'm sure it was the practice I got from swimming lessons with tri club, and Kevin and Kristin playing triathlon with me in the pool...

Of course siting in open water is another issue, but all things in time right!

First outdoor ride

Sure was hesitant about getting up to go, but glad I did. Didn't think it was as warm as it turned out to be at 4:30 this morning, so duh, I over dressed BUT I'd rather be too hot and have to take off a jacket, then too cold with nothing to put on.

Ok the first couple of rides, before the sun even comes up, take some getting use to again. Last summer, no problem, now its just getting use to it again. Along with getting use to cycling in traffic - first time of the season you hear those cars on your ass and then whizzing past you, your butt cheeks kinda tighten up.

We didn't ride far but damn what the winter has done to the roads around here. Couple that with morning darkness and... well... I'm sure I burned up a few more calories worried about hitting a huge pothole and going over my handlebars. Lights on the bikes but you are damn near on top of the ruts before you can see them.

I have to say my new seat and bike fitting feel so much better. I don't feel like I'm stretched to far out - now of course we didn't go very far so after 50+ miles, things can and probably will feel a lot different.

I'm hoping Sunday turns out to be as nice... Steppin' out of my comfort zone and driving to Governors State University to meet some fellow bloggers and ride the Folks on Spokes Easter Ride - nervous AND excited, as usual about meeting new peeps, but more worried I will be the slowest in the bunch - by end of last summer I had managed to get my speed up and could keep up with the 15-17mph crowd without a lot of effort, but struggled to do that this morning - I know some of that was that it was the first time out this year, it was dark and I was in unfamiliar territory and I didn't sleep the greatest last night either - so well see what Sunday holds...

At any rate I hope this weather holds out...