Certifiable
Swam 2200 meters on Thursday. Attended a wine tasting fundraiser for a TNT participant doing another event late Friday. Got 5 hours sleep then woke up at 6:30 AM for my bike/run group training Sunday morning. I knew training was going to be tough but not like this.
Also, I just learned that “5150” is a section of the California Welfare and Institutions Code which allows a qualified officer or clinician to involuntarily confine a person deemed to have a mental disorder that makes them a danger to him or her self, and/or others and/or gravely disabled. (Also the basis of the name of Eddie Van Halen’s studio for which the album was named after). Coincidence that 51.50 KM also happens to be the distance of the olympic triathlon? I think not.
Training Update 12/7
The past 3 weeks have been very busy, what with all of the family gatherings around Thanksgiving and working on the fundraising/holiday letter. As many of you know, I’ve gotten a bit creative with my holiday letters in the past few years… a Prairie Home Companion-like recount, a parody of The Onion (complete with an area man struggling with how to write a better holiday letter than last year), a “meta” holiday writing story. This year I struggled a bit more than usual. I spent a week struggling to write it as a dialog between two animals (ala David Sedaris’s Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk) before scrapping the idea and going with the concept of recalling our memorable moments from the year and providing the opportunity of similar big and little moments to those less fortunate, a notion I encountered at last year’s hike kick-off meeting.
We’ve had a number of group swim and bike/run training sessions. It’s been interesting to see the varying levels of experience in the group. Some people are just learning to swim while others have done several triathlons in the past. Similarly, some people have some very nice road/triathlon bikes while others (like myself) are currently using the only bikes we have… mountain bikes.
The swims haven’t been as tedious as I thought they might be, repetitively swimming back and forth in the pool. The first training we swam “marker” sets to be used for measuring progress over the course of the season. Subsequent training sessions have involved performing drills to emphasize certain aspects of form during the front crawl, such as body rotation, finger drag, and arm entry.
Though I was a swim instructor and lifeguard in high school and college, I have never swam competitively. I have swam laps before, even doing over a mile (more than required for the triathlon), though that was with a few breaks in between. I won’t have that luxury during the event, so I’m a bit nervous. I’ve started to focus my training on a technique called Perpetual Motion Freestyle which emphasises dynamic streamlining rather than brute force power in order to conserve energy. There are several multi-part videos available on Youtube describing the technique (search for “Total Immersion Perpetual Motion Freestyle“, “How to ‘Work Less, Swim Better’ in triathlon“, and “TI Swimming Faster Presentation“) So far I’ve been very impressed with how I can keep up with most of the better swimmers on the team yet feel very little fatigue afterward. The training is more about engraining muscle memory than building muscle.
We’ve had two bike/run training sessions so far. Each has involved riding on trainers at different intensities and intervals for about 45 minutes followed by a short run (1 and 2 miles respectively) to get us used to transitioning.
As far as individual training goes, I’ve been hitting the gym to swim laps and take advantage of the spinning classes since I don’t have my own bike trainer yet. On the Saturdays we haven’t had a bike/run training session I’ve done some long runs with a neighborhood running group I started running with before signing up for the triathlon. The Saturday after Thanksgiving I ran 10.5 miles with them, the furthest I’ve gone in my Vibram FiveFingers.
I’ve also been trying to fit P90X workouts into my schedule, though those have taken a backseat for the past week just trying to take care of the fundraising letters and holiday obligations. I hope to pick that back up this week as things settle down.
Snow Drift #firstsnow #thatdidn’ttakelong
Running with a Pier
Running with a Pier.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on the west side of the state with Jennifer’s side of the family this weekend. I squeezed in a 5.5-mile run this morning that took me to this pier that juts out into Lake Michigan. The waves were about 5-6 feet high crashing hard against it. It’s too bad more of my runs don’t have such dramatic scenery.
First Group Training
Spinning at Performance Bike. That’s me above the sun towel.
We had our first group training on Saturday: a 40 minute session on the mag trainers on our bikes followed by an easy 10 minute run, just to get us used to the idea of having a transition. Everyone brought their own bikes; some had some very nice (expensive!) tri bikes, a few (like me) just had mountain bikes. I don’t know if I’m ready to spend the big bucks yet but I would like to at least have a decent road bike to use. An avid cyclist friend of mine, speaking from years (and miles) of experience, indicated that being fitted for a bike is more important than the components. I’ll probably track down an inexpensive bike on sale in the off season and pay the extra money to have a comprehensive fitting done. We shall see.
Tri-ing to find a cure for blood cancer
Five years ago I started on a journey that has taken me hundreds of miles, across dirt and pavement, all in the name of finding a cure for blood cancers. Over the course of the next few months I’ll be adding water to that list.
It all started back in 2006 with a desire to get back into running while doing something for a worthy cause. I signed up for a marathon through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. Initially I didn’t have a connection to blood cancer, but it soon became personal. Shortly after I signed up I learned one of my wife’s grandmothers Dorothy Andrews had passed away due to a blood cancer. The other, Barbara Pugsley, was diagnosed during my training and passed away 6 weeks after the marathon. While pounding the pavement for 5 months (over 900 miles!) I raised over $3000 to go toward research to find a cure for blood cancer. If you helped me reach that goal, thank you.
Two years later in 2008 I decided it was time to fundraise again and signed up for the Team in Training hike program. Within the first week I learned that a college friend, Anil Arora, had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Now this was getting really personal. I hiked over 100 miles during the training, culminating in a 13-hour, 16-mile roundtrip hike to the top of Half Dome (4800 ft. elevation change) in Yosemite National Park. I raised over $5000. If you helped me reach that goal, again, thank you.
For the past two years I have continued to contribute my time and passion for hiking to Team in Training as a coach for the hike program. Though I’ve spared you the requests for donations over the past 3 seasons, I’ve spent many hours on the trails whipping participants into shape and crafting weekly messages covering various training topics. But I can’t complain. It’s a great organization to be involved in and I know the lives of thousands of people affected by blood cancer are all better off for it. Nearly 50% of all cancer drugs approved by the FDA during the past decade were for blood cancers. And they are helping other patients as well. Five of those drugs have been approved for patients with solid tumors and others are being tested for other indications. Survival rates for children with leukemia have improved from 3% 40 years ago to 90% today; Hodgkin lymphoma patient survival rates have more than doubled to 88% since the 1960s. And the survival rate for myeloma patients tripled in past decade.
Here it is almost 2012 and I figure it is time to earn my triple crown with a new event: St. Anthony’s triathlon in St. Petersburg, FL. I will be spending next 5 months swimming, biking, running and fundraising in memory of Dorothy and Barbara and in honor of Anil. My goal is to not only cross that finish line 51.5 km later (1.5 km swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run, a.k.a. “olympic distance”) with flying colors, but to also beat my fundraising PR from years past. It’s going to take a lot of sweat, discipline, and support and compassion from friends and family like you.
Please help me reach my goal by making a donation today (it’s tax deductable!). Whether it’s $5, $51.50, or $500, every single penny helps. LLS prides itself in ensuring 75-76% of every dollar contributed goes toward the cause; the vast majority goes to funding research projects happening locally at the University of Michigan. I won’t complain if you send a few words of encouragement my way either.
Thank you.
The Ambassador
Kicking the Tires
As many of you know, I’ve been running in a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOs for a while now; since last April to be precise. It’s been a rocky road, so to speak. Running in minimalist shoes has made me learn a lot about my feet, legs, and how far I can push them. I’ve learned the hard way about not ramping up too quickly… from major calf cramps to cuboid syndrome, weak ankles to an apparent metatarsal stress fracture. Despite the pain and injuries, I’ve found the whole experience liberating. In fact I have a hard time imagining going back to running in traditional running shoes. And I’ve learned that as long as I don’t get so wrapped up in that liberated feeling that I turn a blind eye to warning signs my body may give me, I’ll be fine.
Though my KSOs have majorly changed my relationship with running, all has not been wine and roses. By the end of last summer, the liner/insole had started to break down. It manifested itself in causing some chafing on the bottom of my largest toe and the pad on the ball of my foot below the toe. The chafing usually began after about 3 miles to start, but then gradually started getting worse earlier in the runs. Washing the shoes seemed to help for a few weeks worth of runs, though that also got worse over time to the point that it no longer helped even immediately after washing.
It got so bad that on one of my runs through the neighborhood back in July I decided to just take the FiveFingers off and run the last 1/2 mile home completely barefoot. It felt surprisingly great, though I realized when I got home that once again I had let my enthusiasm get the best of me. My feet hadn’t built up the proper calluses for running even that short of a distance on the asphalt and I ended up with large blisters on both feet on the top, inner portion of the pads of the balls of my feet. Another lesson learned.
After a few days to let the blisters “cool off”, I decided to try the barefoot thing again. This time I was able to do it on a trail on the sandy soil on of western Michigan while on vacation. Since I still had the blisters, I took it slowly at first. I ran 2.2 miles total: the first 1.2 out in the FiveFingers, the last mile back barefoot. I figured the sand would treat my feet better than the asphalt and I was right. The next day I did 2.3 total, with 1.5 of that barefoot. Then 2.55 total, with 2 miles of that barefoot.
Since I’ve returned home, I’ve tried to find trails around here to do more barefoot running. It’s been harder than I hoped. Three weeks ago I tried the mountain bike trails at Stony Creek Metro Park. I ran about 1.5 miles in and decided to take off the FiveFingers. I made it 1/2 mile barefoot and decided I had had enough. Not so smiley. There’s a reason they call it Stony. I finished up with another 1.3 miles back in the FiveFingers.
The next week I tried the North Unit of Bald Mountain State Rec Area. I ran about a mile of the orange loop to a point were I thought it might be good for barefoot. I was able to go about 2.4 miles barefoot, though there were definitely some uncomfortable areas.
Last week I checked out the bike trails on the south side of Bloomer Park. I ran the first 0.7 mile in the FiveFingers and then 3.5 barefoot. That was the most promising trail so far, though again, there were several very uncomfortable sections.
I have yet to have an issue with sharp pointy stuff causing a cut or puncture, which is what most people’s primary concern is when they think about barefoot running. However, after each of these barefoot runs I have noticed that the forefoot pads of my feet have been fairly tender afterward, most likely due to minor bruising (no outwardly apparent contusion) from the stony parts of the trails I’ve encountered. I generally have to wait a few days before I’m comfortable running again.
My search for an ideal barefoot running trail in the area continues. I wasn’t able to fit another barefoot excursion into my schedule this weekend, though it’s for the best. The past two days became a recovery weekend — well, if you don’t count the 4 hour hike and 2 hours of mowing the lawn! I’m in my third week of Insanity (the second time through! — that’s a story for another post) in addition to my normal runs and rock climbing. I bought a pair of FiveFinger KomodoSports earlier this week from my local Moosejaw and tried them out on Friday. The shoes were fine — it was great to once again go more than a mile and a half without experiencing any hotspots — but I totally struggled with the run. I must have over-done it this week.
12 Beers that Cure Blood Cancer
Potentially. In a round about sort of way. Got your attention, though, huh?
The Team in Training hike team that I coach is having a group fundraiser this Sunday to raise money for blood cancer research. Four flights of three craft beers. Munchies. I’ll be there. It would be great to see you there, too. Tickets need to be purchased ahead of time, so please contact me ASAP if you are interested.
Here are the details:
“BEERS OF AMERICA”
Presenting 12 Premium Craft Beers
from across the country!
SUNDAY, AUGUST 21st
Featuring Dan Bristow, Beer Expert and Tasting Guide
Hosted by The Basement Burger Bar
33316 Grand River, Farmington, 248-957-8179
Doors Open at 3:30pm-Tasting begins 4:00pm
TICKETS-$35
*Seating is limited-Purchase your tickets early*
A FUNDRAISING EVENT
FOR THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY
Appetizers, Raffles, Prizes, and a Satisfied Palate Included!!
Invisible Elevators 