Cry For Help

There is a real point I have crossed. I would imagine it is the same point someone would get to when they realize rehab is the only answer, I need help. You can stop and look back and just think, how did I get to this point, how did this snowball so quickly?

I am going to Ft. Worth to run in Saturday's ultra marathon. I didn't register in advance, I am just going to sign up on race day. 6 a.m. buy a bib number, put it on and subject myself to 31 miles... of fun.

Where is the clinic?

Becoming Bunsen Honeydew

I think I like what I am doing, what I am trying to do, but I can really see the line. I don't know what I am searching for in books and articles about becoming better at this sport, simply a story about survival and what limb to cut off first I suppose. It is clear though, you better become a scientist if you want to improve.

I do this because it is fun but getting better at it is a world of complication that requires tests and lab studies using numbers and terms like: aerobic capacity (ability to transport oxygen to working muscles), lactate threshold (level of exertion at which the blood lactate level begins to increase), VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen a person can use to fuel exercise), pedal cadence (I had to look up the word 'cadence' in a dictionary) and just trying to make sense out of Lance Armstrong maintaining a steady heart rate—just a hair below his lactate threshold heart rate, which for him is an inhuman 178 to 180 bpm—for a long duration of up to two hours.

It is all very interesting, if you are trying to win an Olympic medal. I think I just want to have done it, first or last place.

Believe In The Run

And some other signs will make you run faster and farther too...

Encouragement

Encouragement can make you do big things.

Sunscreen, Sunscreen, Sunscreen

Two More Miles

It really isn't good to get an email with race updates less than 24 hours before start time:

"In an effort to make sure that we have the safest ride possible, the Katy Police Department asked that we do a minor change to our routes at the beginning of the ride. We have done so but the change added approximately 2 miles to each route. We now are riding 28, 46 and 70 mile routes."

Today I went for a bike ride, 70 miles. For those keeping track at home, 14 miles longer than I have ever gone. Today had about 15-20 mph winds. Luckily, we were only dead into the wind for about miles 50-60. I finished at about 5 hours and 15 minutes. I stopped at all 5 rest stops and had about 4 hours and 30 minutes of actual ride time.

The question you ask yourself after such an event is, could I have gone 42 more miles, completing the 112 mile ride in the IRONMAN. Also, you think about how you feel at the finish of that ride knowing you have a marathon to run after that. Oh, and to start the day you have to swim 2.4 miles.

But that is really a rhetorical question.

Wile E. Coyote

I have been signed up for a little over 6 months, I have another 6 months to go and not until this week have I had this bad feeling.

I feel like the race is an anvil hanging above my head.

Training Wheels

Yesterday I did something I normally only do in a big triathlon, I rode my bike. I did a 46 mile race and the only positive I can take from the day was that I didn't have to walk my bike. About mile 36 my legs said adios, which turned out to be a little early not only because there were 10 miles left but the final 3 miles were basically completely uphill. The road bike is an evil invention. If you want to know uncomfort just sit on a bike seat for an extended amount of time.

I probably should admit myself or rethink the 68 mile ride next Saturday.