A Race On The Moon

I tried to search for a race on the moon, but no one is trying to organize one yet. I guess that would make sense. Do you think in our lifetime there will be a race on the moon? Certainly the rules would have to be tailored, no jet packs, no pushing into outer space, and you have to have your Nike Gravity Boots activated. Or maybe ONLY jet packs.

Anyway, first we have to figure out who owns the moon.

Crash

Due to a server crash the Ironman Lake Placid website had last week, Community Fund participants data was lost and not able to be retrieved. So, I had to register again. Bad omen? No, I just filled in my name, address and insurance information again.

One thing I noticed later, and apparently others noticed earlier, is that on the participant list it even lists your occupation. You don't have to fill out this field, but I think some people made the most out of their second chance at this description. Here are some of the occupations of the people signed up for the event:

"Nurse/Fitness Instructor"

"Evil Scientist"

"Wikipedia Fact Checker"

"Businessman"

"Assistance to the Regional Manager"

"Samurai"

"Good Deed Doer"

"Triathlete (And Recreational Dentist)"

"Fortune Teller" (Probably the best occupation to have going into a race like this)

"Shape Shifter"

"Duke of Awesomeness"

"Professional Thumb Wrestler"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor"

"Bathroom Attendant"

"Cat Whisperer"

"Pirate"

"Intergalactic Law Enforcement"

"Columbian Drug Lord"

"Gremlin Keeper"

"Professional Unicycle Mechanic"

"Goat Herder"

Sounds like a bit of a mixed bag. Let's race clowns.

Love Running More

A while back, I hated running. I could run while I did something else, like playing basketball or tennis, there was no joy in running without chasing a ball of some kind to redirect and lure my athletic talent elsewhere. But somewhere along the way, I stopped chasing a ball and no longer looked for a court, or any kind of special playing surface, everything became in play, everything became an obstacle to leap, bound and go past, and I just need shoes to play. It is different now. Now, I love running. We have a special relationship.

Editor's Note: Last Saturday, apparently I forgot my milk bottle.

Walking Until You Require A Walker

I really like testing my body's endurance during a performance and my brain's stupidity to comply. So, on Saturday, I put myself in motion for a continuous 10 hours.


This photo couldn't be more appropriate. I found this car around 8:15 a.m. as I began to walk. Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor?

The easiest way to prepare for a big walk is to run 8 miles, then walk for hours. Here is an outline of my pretty nice little Saturday:

SCHEDULE

6:00 a.m. - Woke up
6:15 a.m. - Left the house with my vest, wallet, keys, phone, hat, & trusty Gatorade bottle full of Instant Breakfast
6:15 - 6:30 a.m. - Walked and drank my breakfast
6:30 - 7:15 a.m. - Ran 5 miles to TEAM practice
7:15 - 7:45 a.m. - Ran 3 miles
7:45 - 8:00 a.m. - Drank water and stretched
8:00 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. - Walked (and questioned what I was doing with my life)

I tried to think about each hour differently and focus on what I would be walking past during that hour. One thing I like to do on a run, or in this case a walk, is look at my body like I am looking at a car dashboard - how's the old speedometer, fuel gauge, am I overheated, or see if the check engine light is on. I also like to monitor each part. Here is what started to break:

BREAKDOWN

Really early, like in the 1st hour (8:00-9:00 a.m.) I made up my mind I wasn't doing a round trip, way to taxing to decide to come back mentally. It was going to be far easier to just runaway (walkaway). My phone quickly became my most important possession.

My right calf became hard around the 4th hour (12:00 - 1:00 p.m.). It never cramped up fully, it just felt really tight and balled up, like I had a baseball for a muscle.

My right hip started to hate the continuous motion around the 5th hour (1:00 - 2:00 p.m.). Around this time I also started to feel pain on my feet. I wasn't sure if I had blisters or not, but it didn't feel good. It rooted from the fact that I was walking along highways, right beside the access roads, and often there was no sidewalk and I was mowing my way through knee high grass and weeds. The part of my feet that hurt were the side walls, my blisters were not on the bottom of my feet, it was a first and a wired hurt, not ideal.

None of this stuff got better or stopped hurting as a reward for walking farther.

MISTAKES

I didn't treat this like I should have, like a real endurance event. I should have made a lot more "race day preparations." I will spare details, but Body Glide (just check the product rating) should have been heavily applied.

I should have brought and used sunscreen. (No brainer? My head might be a no brainer.)

I should have mapped out a plan. I was trying to walk to the Premium Outlets and just had a general direction I was walking. I should have had a mapped out plan so I could avoid highways and utilize roads and sidewalks. I found that I walked about .5 - 1 mile per hour farther just by walking on a solid surface.

I should have brought an extra pair of socks and shorts. After an 8 mile run, I sweat, and I don't mean that in a "glistening" way. I mean, jump in a pool and quickly spring out kind of wet. It amplified a couple of the breakdowns.

MAP

The dots don't mean anything I just had to plot my course.

AFTERMATH & CONCLUSION

After I called in my AIRVAC, I was picked up at point "B" (290 and 1960). I was so tired, I only wanted a nap, a nap right after a shower, my legs were covered in lots of dirt and brush. It didn't help that I was so burned on my neck, heat felt like it was radiating from me. After the shower I had the chills pretty good, I haven't really had that after a race. I would be burning up and sweating, but felt like I was freezing under a blanket, that hurt the nap a little.

I wish I had of made it to my destination, but (in this case) there is always next time. If you have an idea of something crazy I should do, let me know and I will consider putting myself through it. One day I plan on being able to tell my body, "Quiet you, you've been through worse."

It Can Always Get Worse

This is actually a picture of me before knee surgery earlier this year in January.

However, Saturday I did do my best to put myself back in this position...

What Are We Talkin Bout'? Practice!

6:00 a.m. masters swim practice at Rice. Those mornings I wake up and think, it's just practice. I could sleep in, I might miss one practice all year. I mean we are talking about practice.

A Side Order of Liver

So an article read, "The Results Of A Famous United States Army Laboratory Study That Increased Endurance by 923%," I read it, and it is an infomercial, much to no one's surprise. However, now I know who Jack LaLanne is. How I didn't know before is fascinating because...

1954 (age 40): Jack swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks.

1956 (age 42): Jack set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes.

1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, Jack again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound boat.

Editor's Note: I do not plan to increase my intake of liver. Also, the attached picture of a liver has Cirrhosis, and that would make it perhaps less tasty.

Stay Strong

I don't run with music, but I do like to listen to something before I run and then pretty much just sing the chorus over and over in my head while I run. My first marathon involved a lot of the Karate Kid and Rocky soundtracks. Stay Strong by Newsboys is my current Ironman anthem.

Jump Rope

I think the most underrated piece of equipment an athlete can have is the jump rope. I use my jump rope I still have from my tennis team in high school, you usually don't have to replace these things too often. Simple, yet so difficult. My goal is to be able to jump rope for 30 minutes. So far I am at 205 jumps, and that probably took me a minute. Might need to work on this. Of course, if you get tired of jumping the rope you could always get three buddies and up the ante.

My Battle with 3 Pounds

I had a vanilla sky moment yesterday. Rather than seeing Benny the Dog on TV, I got glued on Discovery Channel's "The Human Body: Pushing the Limits." A couple things:

When faced with crisis or a life threatening situation, time can seem to slow down. Why? The show detailed that the brain takes in about 30 frames from the eyes a second. In a crisis, it takes in about double. The added frames a second gives you more information than you normally would have had and decisions become clearer because of the amount of information you have to process a decision.

The body is basically a nervous system with the brain at its core. The nervous system sends signals to the brain and the brain processes and recognizes the signals as an emotion. I am interested in pain, with my name on an Ironman entry list, I should be. What if I trained my brain to recognize pain as euphoria? In the program a dentist that uses hypnosis, no anesthesia, filled a crown in a patient's mouth. While, I'm not changing dentists, the detailed explanation of how the brain works and receives signals and translates them into emotions is become something science is very interested in learning to alter. If you are not sold on hypnosis, the program also detailed that similar nervous system responses can be achieved through meditation, used by the Shaolin Monks.

Another study had a person who feels chronic pain in their shoulder, set up on a machine that gave the patient visual imagery of the activity of their brain, the image the person saw was of a flame. The larger the flame the more pain the person was feeling at the time. By focusing on the visual imagery of the flame on a screen and trying to decrease its size, thinking about what part of the body didn't hurt or of happier feelings, studies showed that the chronic pain in patients decreased by 50 percent.

Someone told me the Ironman is just mind over body, the 3 pounds I'm struggling with is my brain.

Olympic Spirit

Someone once said to me, "I began training again!" I asked for what and she said she just wanted to start training and get back in that feel again. That is crazy talk. I only train when there is an event in mind in the hopes of making myself complete something without hurting something, or maiming myself. I love the idea of just training, but then you would never know if you pushed yourself enough to finish something you were sure you couldn't before.

And there is always the chance that you didn't train enough.

Walk Hard

There are about 50 days left until I begin to associate my body with the Ironman. Only, the only thing is, it is 70.3 miles rather than the full 140.6. My mind has started to wonder and take concern for my body. I am beginning to think about survival. Recently, I figured on my next free day I am going to get up, around 6:30 or 7 a.m. and head out. Walk a full day, constant motion. I am thinking a full Ironman will take me about 15 hours. Let's see how far I can make it walking for 12 hours.

The Olympics

I pretty much have Olympic Fever. I have watched a ton of the events and love the tension of the four years of preparation and dedication for, in some events, minutes of a performance.

Competing in an event for a bigger cause than yourself is amazing and I love seeing U.S.A. on an athlete's uniform. Also, the added pressure on the Chinese athletes that have 1.3 billion people behind them and are performing in their home country is mind-bottling. (You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle.)

There is comfort in the Ironman that my goal is not to finish first but to stay alive enough TO finish. Because for those that do, there is a medal and a t-shirt.

Just Finishing

I like to read and hear about training and what works and hasn't worked, what to expect and how to make your brain tell your body to become more. Oh, and I also looked up video of Julie Moss.

The Calendar

August 31, 2008 - The Nike Plus Human Race 10K

October 5, 2008 - Longhorn Ironman 70.3

October 12, 2008 - Austin Oyster Urban Adventure Race - Donations Accepted!
Rad Racing needs your help to keep HELLTRACK beautiful! Click HERE, select Austin and team Rad Racing. The Austin Oyster benefits the Austin Parks Foundation.

January 18, 2009 - Houston Marathon - Again, arms open ready to accept money!
I am running with Team In Training, raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You can click HERE, for my personal fund raising page.

April 5, 2009 - New Orleans Ironman 70.3

July 26, 2009 - Ironman Lake Placid

List of Crazies

Let's make it official, I am in the 2009 Ironman Lake Placid. A list of psychos can be found at ironmanusa.com, click on "Participants." From Houston, TX... Preston "PFUNK" Files!

Now, time to train...

Intrigue

I think one of the main reasons for my intrigue in the Ironman is that I have never actually met someone who has completed one.

My only knowledge of those persons are of almost legend, I heard of them from someone else or randomly in conversation, like hearing a tale of Keyser Söze.

[about Keyser Soze]
Verbal: Then he showed those men of will what will really was.

I have two accounts of these stories, both of the triathletes were women, one of whom has done it twice. I find myself fascinated with this fact. I want to be the guy that people don't know, but know of me through someone else who told them of what I did.

The Email

Today I got the email. My entry is pending approval. It was pretty exciting and crazy to fill out the race application. Just your standard race questions: Who is your emergency contact (name/number), What are the current medications you are taking, Are you allergic to anything, Who is your insurance carrier, What is your policy number, Are you a donor, Do you have any last words?

Standard stuff.

Planning Ahead

My sister Natalie asked me, "How many races are you going to do this year that would kill me?"

Interesting question, my answer was 3. The more I think about that question, I might have just tried to sign up for a race that could kill ME. It is interesting to commit to something so far in advance, basically all 6 of the US Ironmans fill up online within hours a full year in advance, if registration doesn't fill up completely on-site (as was the case with Ironman Lake Placid). 

Time and training can make your body do amazing things. There are 190 spots left. Hope one has my name. I like my odds.