The RACE REPORT PART THREE
PART THREE:
I get to the top I figure stop for extra water (4 stops) cool off head down. Again the drafting police are pulling people over. They are kind of taking the passing lane and I am pushing. So I figure what the heck I will tuck in behind the drafting police. Well that didnt last long till we start exchanging words me telling them they are blocking and they are saying I am drafting.
Anyhow they then fall in behind me. Going down this last hill it feels like the winds have changed and they are blowing into us instead of going 33 -34 now I am working to go 27. ( I spoke to another finisher and he felt the same).
Ok off the bike on to the Run. I hear Carla asking the question did he leave any for the run. My Answer Is I have NO IDEA. My legs were tired and I think we the seat adjustment might have worked some muscles slightly different, my right hamstring was screaming.
I will say this now at Mile 8 if I was not doing this for Barry and the ALS cause I think I may not have finished I was beat. I just kept telling my self go by feel, perceived effort as Danny would say. At 15 miles I have to pee no matter what, my legs are seizing. There is a boat launch into the lake. I say ok here is the plan I take socks and shoesoff go wade in the water (which was 63 degrees) cold enough to get the blood flowing in the legs and maybe cold enough to dull the pain when I pee. Literally I tell myself not to go to far out in case I was to pass out. I am in the water I have 11 miles to go I tell my self no walking through aid stations slow and steady and see what you have at 22. I come out of the water throw on socks and shoes AND BAM I feel much better. at 20 miles I see the Blazeman Warriors I tell them in one hour I am doing the roll. I get a huge cheer. At 22 I see antoher group of blazeman warriors I another big cheer when I tell them I am rolling. The last 11 miles I walked through 2 aid stations and up two inclines.
I saw Carla’s time, I saw Jason’s time and I saw Ryans time, I knew if I stayed focused I would be right there with them. Without the Brightside of the road foundation and the ALS cause I would have quit this race. (as Jack Subel, the director of BrightSide of the Road foundation says, You cant quit ALS if you have this disease) Instead I Pr’d by 1 hour and 5 minutes. I thank my family and I thank Multisport Madness.
PS: Today I took the kids horseback riding and literally drop my phone into a fresh very fresh puddle of Horse Urine and my phone is not working right now.
The RACE REPORT PART TWO
PART TWO:
So now I am just swiming and it feels like i know how to swim. Reach and Glibe Reach in glide in a tube. I remember seeing Sun Devil Stadium and thinking about a half a mile to go. Out of no where this PINK CAP and it had to have been the same one comes and kicks me with a perfect roundhouse kick to the face. I took the blow well with my iron jaw however the blow knocked off my beloved nose clip. Holy Cow!!!!!!!!! this completly threw off my breathing the last half mile I did not think I would make it.
Even my Mantra and the tube no longer helped this was survival then I heard TED saying expect all the bad stuff on race day and Wellman saying PUCKER up. I knocked 9 minutes off my last Ironman time and I know the loss of the nose clip cost me 4 minutes minimum.
On to the bike. First in Arizona partly cloudy means there may be 1 cloud all day and light winds means the flags are blowing and somtimes snapping. So I was expecting light winds chicago style, any how I take off I am going faster than expected and my heart rate is a bit higher than I want. However my bike power tap is below the wattage I want. I was taught to obey the power tap.
So the first loop I felt great and I kept telling my self easy easy.On the way out heading up the hill I am pushing harder than I want but only going 12-13 mph. At the water station at the top I figure I got a couple minutes so I stop to adjust my socks and a quick potty break. Heading down the hill I realize I do not have the correct cassette on I am going 33 34 mph with only about 140 watts.
Wellman always says I am a great downhiller. The second loop I forced my self to slow down and I thought I was drinking every 10 minutes , the desert just sucks the moisture from you so I am not in the aero as much even though I hear Ted’s voice get in the aero bars. Lieto must have been leading the race at that time because he passed with with the film crew. I start thingking like Adam and Lindsay there is some bike congestion and I am saying to myself maybe I will just suck a wheel to get through these winds.
I am thinking there is no way they will penalize someone as far back as me. I kid you not within five minutes the motorcycle pulls up and tells the guy pretty much next to me he has a four minute penalty I am thnking holy cow I never saw that before. (Side Note I changed my seat height for a slightly more agressive position for the race. On the first loop I saw Renee and the kids and I asked her to get my Chamosis Butter now I am afraid to accept that from here since it is against the rules.
WELLMAN sold me the shorts blame it on DICK PONDS). So Now I know drafting is out. I stop for my special needs bag and add 3 new bottles to my bike. (2 stops so far) . Third and final loop. I need to pee. I figure I am ok lets not loose it now I stop and pee. BAD IDEA I now know what it is like to give Birth now. Only some salt crystals passed and I thought I was going to pass out. So I know I got to take in more fluids. I figure 30 miles left part down hill. If I can ride with the NUTS listed above I can do this. Plus the winds seemed like they had died down.
The RACE REPORT PART ONE
PART ONE:
The cost to read the race report is $1. I dont care if you charge to your credit card or mail 100 Pennies to me at 1051 Douglas rd Batavia IL 60510 C/O Bright side of the road Foundation.
This blog goes to 16,000 viewers and the cause is worth the money, if everyone gave $1 think of the power we could give a researcher to help fight this disease.
Most of you know that I add humor to most things I do and say. However ALS does not allow for humor. Yesterday in my race there were several valleys where I was ready to throw in the towel. However there was no way I was not rolling across that finish line. I had Barry and the Blazeman Warriors carrying me the last 10 miles of the run.
Please Help me pay them back by donating one dollar and not one penny more.
I will try to add some humor to the report
Recognition of the Support Crew. Wife , Renee and Kids( They made signs that said go big or go home) were great during the race but more importantly during the last what year of training. From time away, to taking my sons socks when natured called to making all three kids ride while I ran. Thanks to coach Carla for putting up with the Antics of by personality and all my complaining. Thanks to the NUTS that I train quite a bit with Andy Wellman, Danny Delgado, Jim Vidmich, Tom Nelson, Dr. TED and ERIC the communist. TED I heard you screaming get in the aero position and its ok to bonk all day yesterday. thanks to Jason Huey ( I felt your presence at 12 miles) Ryan Whilhelm, Mike Platzke. Special thanks to Noreen (Swim Coach) for the mantra she gave me to swim by and that to Jeane who gave me a visualization on the swim. Thanks to Mark Dzuiban for the Aero Helmet thanks again to Danny for the race wheels . Thanks to Sue Dzubian for a long indoor bike ride partner.
The morning of the race: I slept well the night before I woke up had my typical breakfast of ensure bagel and peanut butter. I was at transition by 5am and justed waited and froze. The Desert is a bit chilly in the morning fyi.
Time to get in the Water and I was instructed to stay to the left part of the course. Jason Huey had said that there should be a good draft so I made the last minute decision to make sure I was swimming some what in the pack. Thats where the fun begins (boys in blue caps women in pink swim caps), those of you that know me know I swim with ear plugs and a nose clip (some olympians wear nose clips SO SHUT UP) . I am swimming remembering my mantra from Noreen reach and glide reach and glide I must have said this 15,328 times. Jeane had said to pretend I was in a tube. So here I am saying reach and glide while being in a tube.
I went through the traditional underwater karate moves you do in an Ironman and my goggles got kicked off but I noticed I was approaching more people than were approaching me and I felt very good. There was one particular PINK CAP that kept hitting me and I felt like she was trying to hold on to me for a free ride like I am some Humpback. I think what should I do, the first thing I thought was a flying knee kick to her ribs should do the trick (it works on UFC). I give her this knee and literally she is gone I am thinking there is enough support here if I broke a few ribs they can help her.
Ok basically 30 more days
Here we go the training volume has increased. I have been more focused on nutrition . I am injury free (even though I need rotator cup surgery ) . I will start my taper right around November 10th. This is where the nerves start becoming a factor
an 8 hour training day
WELL an 8 hour training day is a Long day. I had some company during a good chunk of this and that helps.
Thanks to Jim Vidmich, in earlier blogs I mentioned Jim was always up for a longer ride. Thanks to Dr. Ted he made me work very hard PLUS he made me CRASH at about the 70 mile mark on the bike. Ted likes to say that you need adversity when you train. I had to chuckle when I crashed because I noticed we were going 19mph and Ted made the comment at least we were not going fast. For me when you hit pavment at 19 mph it feels like you are going fast. Michelle aka Lola then ran the first hour with me and then Brian, Brianna , Isabel (my kids) pedaled their bikes while I ran the second hour.
ALL thanks for the help
So where do the 3 kids and a wife and a dog fit in
Without the full force blessing and support of one’s spouse (assuming they are not training for an ironman) and family I think this could be a very very difficult event. Well now my son Brian is old enough that he can bike while I run and actually he is able to go 2 hours straight on the bike not bad for a nine year old. The other day my wife Renee and I loaded up the kids Brian 9 Brianna 6 Isabel 6 and they all rode for an hour 15 while I ran on our like prarire path. At the age of 6 it is still a bit like herding cats when they bike but it helps me keep my mind off of the miles. RENEE thanks for the SUPPORT and Understanding
more web cams sorry for the delays
A little rain and a WELLMAN
On Saturday September 12th the Chicagoland area had one of the hardest rainfalls in our history 1.5 to 2 inches per hour. Well this day pretty well ended my hopes of running 2 hours. Sunday the 13th I had to get a 5 hr or 90 mile bike ride in this was a must do workout. Sunday it was raining probably closer to 1/4 inch to half inch an hour. No way would I have made this ride on my own for that distance and no way did I want to sit indoors on a trainer for that long. Well ANDY WELLMAN came to the resuce. at 630 am in the rain Andy and I met up for a 90mile bike ride. As ANDY puts it after 5 minutes what do we care we are already soaked. So we rode and we had all of 3 minutes without a steady rain. It was a ride I will always remember but in particular I will remember this ride NOV23rd when I am doing the IRONMAN in Arizona
ANDY thanks for the ride
Web Cam: How Kevin Starts His Day
Should Napping be punishable and more
This morning, well let me back up. Starting tomorrow I will have a video camera and I will start video taping many of the workouts and kind of the daily routine. This past monday I was given a nice little workout just a small track workout. Started with a warmup then I ran 4×200 (tad bit slower than the new record of 19.30) I averaged 37 seconds on these followed by 4 x400 at an avg of 1.28 followed by 2 x800 at an avg of 3:17 followed by 2miles at 15:49. I was still sore on Wed when I had to do the TIME TRIAL bike ride. So back to this morning I was running with Michelle (aka Weather Girl/Lola) and we were discussing NAPS. A bit of History, Winston Churchill took a nap everyday even during WWII when England was being bombed. He would often work till 1 am. As for me as my training ramps up and I start having 18 hours of training per week with some of this being 6 plus hour days on the weekend I often find a need for a catnap. However my lovely wife, RENEE (aka The Gestapo) believes a nap for an adult is a waste of time. So this morning I was explaining to The Weathergirl that I have to often hide in order to take a nap. Often I will hide inbetween our daugthers two beds and sleep on the floor or like yesterday morning after a hard bike workout I told the lovely Gestapo I was going for a shower only to climb back in bed for a 15 minute power nap. This am was no exception. The Weathergirl has me doing MILE REPEATS so we will warmup for 2 miles then run 5 1mile repeats at a 730 (I am more like 733) pace. This is a very hard run for me. I happened to explain to the WEATHERGIRL that on monday I had this difficult track workout. Her first comment is CARLA (aka THE COACH) must be mad at me giving me two hard runs like this. Well maybe I need to change CARLA’s aka to the Gestapo??. In truth I dont want my wife mad about the nickname (and she has heard me call her this) she is very supportive of the training I do. As you will soon see most of my training is done while the rest of my household is sleeping.
