Still Undecided on Triathlons

I'm seriously at a loss. I'm in the worst shape I've been in in nearly 4 years and I'm following an Ironman training routine. After yesterday's [disasterous] run (dare I even call it a "run") I have no choice but to consider my life as a triathlete and if it's worth it. If someone has a strong opinion or knows I'm doing something wrong please leave a comment or send me an email. Otherwise, no matter how alluring the call of an Ironman distance event, after this year I'm done with triathlon and going back to strictly running and biking as cross training.

We as athletes spend far too much time training to be spending it unwisely. That said, I've been doing two workout per day for the past several months: morning cardio and evening weights. I've been doing this in as much as my body will let me. I'm very conscious about when my body says it needs down time and I give it to my body.

After spending months following an Ironman training program and skipping out on my running I've reached the following conclusions:

• Cycling and swimming in no way keep a person in excellent athletic shape unless done in extreme distances or conditions. Need proof? Go to any lake or pool and check out all the overweight swimmers who are actually good at swimming (hint: there are a lot of them). As for biking, go to any place bikers like to go. You'll make the same observation. Good bikers are a mix of thin and overweight but mostly overweight.
  
• The return on the investment of time made in swimming and biking in no way matches the return from running. I've spent more time exercising for this Ironman than I have for any marathon and I'm in the worst shape I've been in in recent memory.
  

I'm very seriously trying to give this sport its due but to be perfectly honest I'm not seeing what people enjoy so much about it and after this season am most likely going to give it up unless someone can point out what I'm doing wrong. It's expensive, there's a very short season in which it can be done, and a lot of these people I've met are very elitist (go to Gear West for a healthy portion of I'm-better-than-you attitude). Marathons have been an amazingly rewarding experience. Triathlons... almost exactly the opposite.

Below is the horrible run I had which spawned this note.

Getting back out

Wednesday I did manage to get out and get that 6 miler in. It was so fun. You know those spring rains that produce large, dense droplets? Well, that's what happened. One solitary dark cloud rolled in, stopped right over Hopkins/Minnetonka, and let us have it. I wish I had a picture. It was so fun. I love running in the rain. The wet shoe part sort of sucked but otherwise it was solid. I'm not sure if my shoes are dry yet but they certainly have a bad odor about them now. And it's not dog poo.

The unfortunate part about the run was the the fact my legs felt like lifting lead plates. I think between a sugar heavy (read: poor) diet and a overtraining, I think I've killed my season. I peaked in the early spring and it's not been the same since. This is probably just my body telling me that it's time to cool it down, take it easy, and stop beating the crap out of myself. Put another way, it's active recovery time.


As for yesterday I had a lovely bike ride with Kris and her friend Mark. It was one of those days where a casual ride was all my body could take. The day was so amazingly beautiful that you knew G-d was smiling on us. The sky was painted brilliantly with the clouds and the sunlight. It wasn't too hot or cool at all. The humidity was low. The wind was mild and almost completely still. It was the epitomy of why we live in this area.

Other than one small bike spill and a flat tire (which was changed in record time BTW) the ride was flawless. I've got some pictures too and will post as soon as I get home.

Leisurely Stroll About Lake Minnetonka

Today was a terribly frustrating day at work and it left me agitated to no end. One nice thing I learned about exercising is it has this mystical way of resetting our mind and flushing out the crap. That is, if we have the mental discipline to let that happen. Granted I don't always have that discipline (today was one of those days where it wasn't there) and it works much better for me while running than it does any other sport. But, today was cross train day and in the spirit of cross training I did exactly that.

Swimming sounded nice but I've been swimming too much recently. It was time to take on one of the other sports I have to do. The one I do but literally can't stand doing: cycling. As far as I'm concerned, a bike is a great to get get around without spending coin on gas. I don't like it as a sport because (a) I'm not good at it, (b) I'm as aerodynamic as a parachute, (c) it's expensive, (d) there's just too much that can go wrong, (e) if you wipe out you're out for the count, and (f) did I mention I'm not good at it.

What a great way to start out a sporting activity. Four immediate and negative thoughts that would nag me for the two hours I'd be out on the bike. But I wouldn't let that get to me. After all, this isn't about racing. Like I said, there are positives to biking and I need to focus on those. For instance, biking is excellent cross training. My bike isn't exactly bad either. In fact, it's pretty pimp. It hasn't gotten me a girlfriend yet but all things in due time.

After spending a few moments concentrating on the positives of biking I headed out to circle Lake Minnetonka in the hopes of mapping out the 33 mile course of the Tour de Tonka.

The first half of the ride was virtually against the wind the whole way. And on top of that my bike brakes were squeaking. It was very obnoxious and only intensified my negative thoughts. The only thing that kept me from throwing my bike into the lake was the fact that I'd be forced to walk home in my bike shoes and the beautiful scenery that was calming my soul.

On the last half of the ride I was really starting to get into the groove. The lake was gorgeous, the partial sunset was breath taking, and the atmosphere was everything a resort town can possibly offer. It was going great until I noticed that I missed a few turns so I failed at mapping the tour. Aggravated from that I turned to go home along Minnetonka Blvd and went down a street that must have been paved by a pack of drunk geese. The pot holes were almost unbearable and I was just waiting to hear that fateful sound of a tire popping. There's nothing like taking on a pot hole while going down hill at 27-30 mph. You may as well just throw yourself to the ground. But, to my luck and astonishment, all was well and I was on my way.

I finally made it home after a tally of 33.66 miles. At the end of the day, all that aggression I had must have worked itself out because when I rolled into the driveway I felt great. Like a new man. Biking makes no sense to me. Why must the process of biking completely suck in order to feel better on the other end. Why can't it be like running? With running, the whole event is fun and in the end you're so wasted it feels amazing. A win-win.

Here's the course I took. It's not the entire 33 mile tour but a lot of it is mapped out here. I really want to map it out because they have this lame not-to-scale course map. I'd love to get this done for them so they have a real map to use.

Much Needed Recovery Ride

Actually what was much needed was recovery sleep. But I did get a lot of that yesterday and last night. A friend of mine from Team in Training asked if I wanted to do a 15-20 mile easy ride. That sounded like a good idea so she and I met at the Hopkins Depot and we took off to uptown Minneapolis and the Great River Road. Needless to say, our 15-20 mile ride turned into something more like a 27 mile ride. But it was fun. Other than being a tad chilly, the route was great and so was the company. Here's where we went.

Maple Grove Half Marathon

It's been obvious to a lot of people that I overdo my working out. I know that because they're very blunt with me (Note to women: I do NOT pick up on hints. Not in any form. If you drop a hint and get ticked off that I don't pick it up, I don't care. I'm telling you right now. Don't do it.) It is now obvious to me that I overdo it.

Today was the first ever Maple Grove Half Marathon. They did a good job for a first time too. There were, of course, some things that could have been handled better. But all things considered, everything was handled well. This is definitely one to keep your eye on for next year. They're already off to a great start and it can only get better from here.

As for my workout today, I'm still in no-buying-gasoline mode so I hopped on the bike at 5:00 a.m. and headed over to Maple Grove (see map below). It was... a hard ride. I had an hour and a half to make 20 miles and I did it with about 15 minutes to spare. Talk about timing. I hopped off the bike, changed clothes, got in line and headed off to start the half.

The course itself (also below) was challenging. It was very challenging. Check out the elevation map to see what I mean. This course would have been tough even if I didn't bike there. My quds were tight and my calves were impossibly sore and hurting so I gave up running for time and decided to run for fun. This is of course entirely my fault since I ran a marathon last weekend, had a hard week of training, and biked to the event.

Enjoy the course. I'm heading for bed. It's been a long day and the one thing I need right now is some sleep. A massage wouldn't be all that bad either though.

Back at Blogger

I've been using Apple's iLife suite to publish my rants, raves, and random accomplishments on the web ever since they came out with the '08 version. It seemed like a great upgrade to an already great software suite. They added a bunch of new features and in short sight it seemed like the way to go.

But, as the months moved on, I came to realize that the iLife suite, in particular iWeb, had a few short comings. Don't get me wrong. It's great software and makes publishing websites a breeze. But for my particular blogging needs, it's insufficient. It isn't well suited to day-to-day posting. It also doesn't work well as a blog editor unless you are on your own computer. It's completely insufficient for traveling unless you have a Macbook of one flavor or another.

Rather than rant and rave about some software that really is good but doesn't suite my particular needs, I'll focus on the task at hand, which is fitness.

I met up with my friend Kris - actually she drove over here because I'm too cheap to buy gas - and she and I did a nice leisurely bike ride around the area. Check it out below.

I've got a marathon this coming weekend and she was to take today off so rather than push ourselves we both just trotted along and enjoyed the beautiful non-snowing Minnesota evening.

Tour de Tonka - the real thing

Today's ride wasn't what I thought it'd be. In fact, putting it into words isn't a simple thing. "Bad" is an understatement but "horrible" is too strong. It simply wasn't good at all.

I was signed up for the 65 mile ride and was completely stoked about it. I woke up early, had some oatmeal, got everything together and headed to the Deephaven Education Center (DEC) to drop off my bike and participate in the pre-ride festivities. All was well at this point. The people really set up a good show at the beginning and they were a joy to talk to. I even met up with a fellow I met running around Lake Calhoun: Teeto. It was good to see him again and we talked about our running experiences and upcoming goals.

As the start time drew near I met some other cool people. One of them was a pastor at a church just down the road. He seemed like a quality guy and it was a treat to hear from him about his church and congregation. Maybe one of these Sundays I'll make it out to the church for a service to see what it's really all about.

With one minute before the ride, it all went down hill. The weather turned on us and it got cold and rainy. None of you probably know this but a little known fact about me is that I break out in hives when I get cold. It's nothing serious. Mostly it's just not a pleasant thing to look at. But it's really annoying. Plus, one thing I do think most people know about me is I have a deep dislike for being cold. So my mood went immediately from "This is going to be great" to "screw this." At 17 miles into the ride, I have hives all over my torso and arms, couldn't see from all the water dripping on my lenses from my helmet, and my feet were impossibly drenched. All this, compounded with my complete lack of motivation by this point, made me drop out of the 65 mile ride and do the 33 mile ride. I'm not proud of it but the only valid rationale I have is it was a decision to avoid getting sick. I've put in too much time to be out of commission from the rest of my training.

After pulling in to the finish area and going back to my car I did meet a very nice woman. She invited me to do rides and other events with the Twin Cites Tri Club. It'd be nice to see her at one of these events. She seems like a very decent woman to get to know.

So, in short, my first group bike ride turned out to be borderline nightmareish. I guess there's always a next time.