TRAGEDY, DIVORCE & ENGAGEMENTS

It has certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions in the family this week.  From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows we have covered it all. On the low end..... Vince my thoughts have been with you all week as you cope with the tragic and sudden death of your girlfriend. As I plan to do on race day you must take it one moment at a time and one step at a time.  Whatever you do make sure it is the best thing for you and your well-being.  There is a cute little girl named Emily and a soon-to-arrive baby named Liam who need their awesome Uncle Vince. We all love you and are here for you.  Then on the high end we have Josh and Jordin.  The competed in and conquered the Tough Mudder race in the Poconos this weekend.  They ran 11 plus miles and tackled 27 obstacles in the process.  Any race that features an obstacle named Artic Enema is not for me.  Oh and there was also one called Electroshock Therapy that featured shocks of 10,000 volts!!!!!  Umm....NO.  In addition to those fun sounding ones many of them included water which would be great if it was 80 degrees out but alas the temperature at the start of the race was a balmy 21 degrees with a feels like temp of 17.  Despite being as Josh so aptly put it "broken down and brought to places he has never been before" they did it.  Oh and after they crossed the finish line Josh proposed to Jordin and she accepted.  CONGRATULATIONS on both accounts.  I love you both.

Josh & Jordin ready to get wet, freezing, muddy and shocked!

My week of training was relatively uneventful.  It has been a recovery week so the volume has been low. Of course my idea of low is 14 hours. When I got my schedule from Jeff for the week it said to include a hour of sweet spot riding in Saturday's bike workout.  Now my idea of sweet spot is my couch but I was guessing that wasn't what he was referring to.  Just for the record it refers to 88-93% of FTP. I think they need to change the name to something more appropriate like "Oh sweet Jesus will this ever end spot".  Just sayin'.  Saturday's bike ride was downright demoralizing.  4 hours on the bike isn't a problem.  4 hours on the trainer because it is only 30 freakin degrees out is a problem.  On the positive side I was reunited with the Penguins of Madagascar and got to see two episodes.  I also watched some show featuring Otis the Party Cow who apparently fancies himself as the king of the barnyard.  Quinn mentioned yesterday she needed some giddy-up in her get up so I offered to introduce her to Otis because he is clearly the man.....er cow....for the job.  I mean just look at him.  I want to jump out of my chair right now and bust a move!!!!

He is a total party animal

On the negative side it occurred to me that my bike trainer and I need a divorce.  I love the thing...I really do.  It has made me stronger and more fit.  It has provided me with shelter from the rain and snow and safety from traffic but after 4 hours today of giving it everything I had all I got was a sore back, sore legs and a sore ass.  We are a great team for short periods of time but we simply can't spend more than two hours together anymore.  Sayonara bike trainer.  Ok not really...I still need you but I really hope the rest of the weekends between now and July 22 feature temps greater than 45 and limited rain.
Today's run was only 10 miles.  Who says that???  If you say only and 10 miles in the same sentence you are clearly insane or training for something big.  I happen to be both.  The weather was perfect...42 and clear.  Kerry joined me for the whole thing which was awesome.  We blabbed non-stop the entire time and the run passed rather quickly and uneventfully.  There was one point when Kerry decided to run the wrong way away from home as opposed to toward home.  I asked her where the hell she was going but she really didn't have an answer.  It is just one of those things that happens during these runs....we occasionally lose our ability to speak, do simple math, form a sentence, follow directions etc.  So Week 17 is done and Week 18 starts with a day off.  Cue the angels and harp music.  I only had to wait 21 days for this one.  Off to my sweet spot now!!! 

SUCCESS, FAILURE AND THE SIMPLE THINGS

This week made me think that the Ironman people should provide one simple add-on for paying $656 to register for their race......therapy.  For the love of God sometimes I don't know which way is up anymore.  It isn't the time commitment of training but the mental toll it takes on you.  During any given workout I can be thinking "This is ok, I can do this" or "Oh Lord I might not even make it through this workout, how the hell am I going to do an IM?".  Usually it is both alternating several times during said workouts.  The longer the workout the worse it is.  I honestly have not reached that place where the I can do this personality routinely beats out the OMG this is impossible personality.....but I know it will come.  In the meantime, come on IM people, a few gratis therapy sessions would be nice.

Along those lines I had some successes and failures this week.  For the first time in 15.5 weeks I quit on a workout.  It was a 45 min run on Tuesday.  I felt ok for the first 25 mins or so but then not so much.  My heart rate was sky rocketing, I felt abnormally out of breath and was getting heart palpatations.  I made it to 32 mins and stopped.  Unfortunately I was 1.5 miles from home so I did a walk/run routine till I got home.  While it was partly heat related (86 degrees) that was only a small part.  I actually didn't feel overly hot.  The majority was simply stress related.  I NEVER let what happens at work affect me once I punch out but I lost that battle this week.  Tues was just the culmination of too many days dealing with overpaid, inept and ineffective people who should not have a job.  Thankfully it is better now but it pisses me off that I let it affect my personal life.

Unfortunately this is the motto of a few co-workers

Oh yeah and as far as the heart palpatations..no worries.  I have had them for years and have been evaluated for them.  Thankfully I very rarely get them while working out.
     Onto the good....still making progress in swimming and actually spent 4hrs 15 min in the pool this week.  This was a big week biking with 8.5 hrs.  My 4 hr Sat ride went well and the weather was nice enough to get outside for it.  I covered just under 70 miles and averaged 17.3 MPH.  That is actually slow for me compared to last summer but it means I am riding smarter and learning that I can't ride balls to the walls and expect to run a marathon after.  My hardest bike workout was Thursday's 1:30 ride which featured 5 10 min intervals at 88-93%FTP.  I knew I was in trouble when the first one hurt and couldn't imagine how I would do 4 more.  There was plenty of moaning, groaning, hyperventilating and invoking of Jesus' name.  Thankfully Quinn wasn't home to hear any of it.  At one point I was totally convinced that my worst fear had been realized and my legs had fallen off because I couldn't feel them anymore BUT thankfully when I looked down they were still there.  Crisis averted.  I am not afraid to admit that the ONLY thing that got me through the last interval was listening to Lady GaGa's Bad Romance twice.  I also managed to successfully put my back tire on my bike all by myself which is progress. Now I need to master CO2 cartridges to inflate the tires and I won't be so mechanically challenged anymore.
     The last workout of the week was today's 16 mile run.  Since last week's 14 miler damn near killed me I wasn't sure how this was going to go.  I felt ok when I started which was good.  I ran 7.5 by myself then met Kerry.  She ran 7.5 with me which helped tremendously.  It was great to be able to talk to her and share training stories.  Unless you have done one or are training for one you just can't understand the physical and mental toll that this stuff does to you. We did provide someone with a funny story as we both tried to avoid her car as we were crossing a street and each turned the opposite direction and ran right into each other.  Amateurs!!!! My legs were pretty fatigued but talking to Kerry kept me occupied enough to deal with it.  When she was done I only had one more mile to go and I just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I was done.  As soon as I am done with this blog it is naptime.  By 11 am I will have run 16 miles, eaten breakfast, taken a shower, done a load of laundry and written a blog.  I deserve a nap.
     Onto the simple things.  The best part of my weekend was yesterday afternoon when my beautiful sissy Tray and beautiful niece Ariel joined me and Quinn at Lynn beach.  We spent almost an hour just sitting on the bench talking, laughing and enjoying each other.  It was unplanned and wonderful.  I left there with a feeling of happiness, well-being and content.....all from being with family.  The simple things matter!!!!!
16 weeks down....13 to go....naptime.

WEEKS 13-15 AND A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

While I understand that a lot of my posts are on the humorous side this will probably not be one of them.  There are a variety of reasons for this including mental and physical exhaustion, various reality checks and the lack of quality time with the fanastic programming of Nickelodeon.  I will get into all that stuff shortly but let's review the past three weeks of training.  Totals came in for the 3 week period at 8.5 hrs swimming, 16.75 hrs biking, 12.5 hrs running and 3 hrs of strength training.  Last week I did my third FTP (functional threshold power) test workout on the bike since I started.  This consists of a 30 min warmup followed by an all out as much as you can handle but in a steady fashion for 20 minutes effort.  I dread these.  Those 20 mins hurt and feel like an eternity.  Just to review my FTP was originally set at 160 watts which means that is the maximum amount of power I can pedal with for an hour before my legs fall off. During my first test I averaged 171 watts, my second 173 and my third 186 watts.  YIPPEE.  I immediately got an email from Coach Jeff saying what a great job I did and that he was upping my FTP to 180 watts.  This is kind of like your boss saying you are doing such a wonderful job that we are going to promote you and oh yeah...by the way your job just got a lot harder.

 So I am thrilled I am getting stronger but wasn't so happy this week when all my bike workouts were now 12.5% harder.  Believe me....I could feel the difference.  OUCH. 

These are some of the nicer things I have uttered during bike workouts.

Swimming continues to annoy the hell out of me but I am still trying very hard to get better.  I am making progress but I won't get majorly faster by race day and I am ok with that.

Glad this dude doesn't swim at the Y

On a very good note with swimming my finger doesn't hurt.  The cortisone shot really helped and now I can't wait to have a needle jammed back in there for some more.  Whatever it takes!!!!  After a little adjustment period I am finally getting used to the longer distance runs again.  That is not to say they are easy because they certainly are not especially since they follow long bike workouts on Saturdays.  Yesterday's bike was 3.5 hrs and today's run was 14.  It is all about getting used to running on tired legs because that is what I have to do come race day.  Since the weather was a balmy 47 degrees yesterday morning at 6AM, Kerry and I were able to get outside for a ride finally.  It was very nice to be off that damn trainer but I did miss my mindless Saturday morning cartoons!!!!!  Due to scheduling conflicts with Kerry and Cindy I had to run my 14 by myself today.  The weather was good, 57 and clear, which means shorts and short sleeves.  I ran with music which really helped pass the time but I was struggling around mile 12.  Things were hurting and I just wanted to be done.  I always look at these runs as mental training for the IM because I know there will be plenty of times during the race that I just want to stop and I need to learn how to block that out and keep going.  I did.  In the 2 hrs and 17 mins it took me to run that far I had a lot of time to think.  I can't remember most of it but what I do remember is important so listen up.  Not once but twice the week something happened to someone I know that made me thankful for what I have.  A friend from work's father died suddenly and unexpectedly and Quinn's nephew was one of 5 police officers shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant in NH.  Thankfully after some recovery time he will be fine but one of the officers with him was killed.  Two very tragic examples that you just never know what is going to happen so Garth Brooks had it right when he said "So tell someone that you love just what you're thinking of if tomorrow never comes"  With that my dear family I will leave you with this...I love you all and feel extremely blessed to be part of such a close family because not everyone is and I will never forget how lucky I am.  Be safe. Go after what you want.

THE VILLAGE PEOPLE PART 4......ARIEL AND JOSH

They don't call them peeps for nothing!!!

Happy Easter peeps!!!! After 26...yes...TWENTY-SIX...days straight of training I have finally been given a day off.  YIPPEE.  Surprisingly enough I feel pretty good although there have certainly been times over the past three weeks that I have felt like I got run over by a truck.  I will tell you all the gory details of training next week because it is my day off so I choose to not think about training.  So there!!  Instead I will talk about two more village people...Josh and Ariel.  Since I will NEVER EVER have kids these two are the closest I will ever get.  I can't believe my niece and nephew are 13 and 25 respectively.  Where did all the time go? I still remember when both of them were born. Josh was born the summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college.  While I got to spend all summer with him I hated being away from him when it was time to go back to school.  He did some pretty amusing things as a kid and some of my favorites were him putting waffles, orange peels, hot dogs and a number of other things in the VCR.  If something was missing chances were Josh stuck it in the VCR.  After watching his Gram sprinkle Carpet Fresh on the rugs for years he decided one day to try it out on the chair in the living room.  Too bad he used the parmesan cheese shaker instead.  That chair NEVER smelled good after that.  Despite growing up in a household full of woman he turned out pretty darn good.  I think it is simply awesome that he is an xray tech like me.  I also think it is amazing that he is a firefighter.  No one should be surprised at that since his favorite toy was a fire truck and his favorite movie is Backdraft.  Some of my fondest memories of Josh are when we went to Cancun together.  After check in at the resort we dropped our bags and went to get something to eat.  Then we hit the pool and sat by the edge on two lounge chairs and proceeded to drink and drink and drink for the next four, five or six hours.  At one point we were laughing hysterically over a straw floating in the pool because after that much alcohol everything is funny.  Sometime around 2 am we went to get some food but I think we may have fallen asleep halfway through.  Josh continued his drinking spree the next day with tequila volleyball and the following day he was popping champagne in the hot tub on our balcony around midnight.  Of course he fell asleep out there and I had to wake him up and make him get out.  The best part was having so much time to just talk and talk to him about everything and nothing.  You are one hell of a man Josh.  I love you and I am extremely proud of you.  Josh is training for his own race right now.  He and Jordin are doing a Tough Mudder in the Poconos in April.  They are going to run 10 miles while navigating obstacles containing fire, mud, water, walls and oh yeah..electric shocks.  And they call me crazy!!!!!

Me and Josh at his graduation from Rad Tech school.

Friday was Ariel's 13th birthday.  Unbelieveable.  She slept over Thursday night and I took her to the Anime Convention in Boston that she wanted to go to.  I am still not really sure what exactly this anime stuff is all about except it has something to do with Japan, cartoons, characters and very weird people.

some anime freak and not even the freakiest by a long shot

 All that really matters is Ariel wanted to go and I would do anything for her so I took her.  I think Ariel and I have an awesome relationship.  It has been wonderful watching her grow up and I am so impressed with the way she has turned out..especially considering the amount of time she spends with me and the fact that I traumatized her on a sled years ago.  I accidentally lost hold of  her sled at the top of a big hill and she took off at warp speed stopping only after getting hooked on a tree branch.  This led to one of our favorite Ariel sayings.....Dee...I'm Stuck. Oops.  Ariel is a fantastic artist, extremely intelligent, a non-conformer and a kind soul (although she would prefer people think otherwise).  She is the reason my immediate family calls me Dee.  Before she came along I was Deanne and my Mom was Dee.  When Ariel learned to talk she called me Dee and it stuck.  When she was a baby I would babysit her every Thurs after work.  I spent many years going to the parks, beaches, Chuck E Cheese, Bonkers etc.  We spent hours finding crabs at the beach, playing games at the Willows, drawing pictures and making things. Nowadays we still have sleepovers and can likely be found sitting next to each other on the couch sharing a pair of headphones listening to some obscure music she digs up.  If I go more than a week or two without seeing her I miss her.  Thankfully the child hasn't developed my affinity for the F word which really is miraculous considering the amount of time we spend together and the amount of times I say it.  I am immensely proud of you Ariel and I love you.  It means the world to me that the two of you are following this journey of mine and are going to be in Lake Placid.

Yes she is taller than me!!!

SO MANY QUESTIONS

3.5 HRS.  That is how long I spent on the trainer Saturday morning.  Considering one minute on that thing feels like 10 then I FELT like I spent 35 hours on it.  My ass thought so too.  During that time an amazing amount of thoughts and questions ran through my head.  Some were deep and meaningful but most were trivial and humorous.  Let's face it... I am NOT going to cure cancer or create world peace while I am sweating to death pushing 130 watts on the trainer for hours at a time.  It takes all my concentration to keep my legs from falling off.

I don't want to have to buy this shirt!!!!

Anyhow here is a very small random sample of what went through my head.  How could I possibly have only been on this thing for 45 mins so far?  How come they didn't have cool toys like this when I was growing up?

I totally love this toy.  We never had fun stuff like this!!!

 What the hell have I gotten myself into signing up for an IM?  If he lives in a pineapple under the sea why does Spongebob have to take a bath?  How could I have possibly only been on this damn thing for 48 mins so far?  Why would anyone buy  a toy called Princess and the Potty for their kid?

This is wrong on so many levels. Why not call her Queen Crapper instead?

What ever made me think doing an IM was a good idea?  Is it just a coincidence that Evanescence's song "My Last Breath" keeps coming up on my MP3?  How could I have possibly gone 53 miles and still be in the same damn place?  That plankton dude is pretty clever.

This dude has mad skills!!!  He is a modern day MacGyver.

Why did I let Kerry talk me into this?:)  I feel like a total Western PA hick right now knowing that CCR's "Looking Out My Backdoor" is the ONLY thing getting me through this interval.  Why, why, why aren't the penguins on until 10?  How is it possible that my legs are still moving?  More importantly, how the hell are they going to run 15 miles tomorrow?  And so on and so on but I did it.  Mission accomplished.  So now onto Sunday with 15 miles to run. Luckily the weather was much better than last week.  32 and dry trumps 45 and rainy anyday.  Also lucky for me, Cindy had to run 12 miles today.  Perfect.  I left my house at 6AM and ran to Cindy's which is convienently located just about 3 miles from my house and we headed out for 12 more miles.  The run started on a kind of surreal note as there were two deer at the bottom of Cindy's street.  She lives in Marblehead..not in the middle of the woods.  The view from her back deck is the harbor not trees.  Weird.  We also saw a cardinal which made me smile because cardinals remind me of Meema.  The first part of the run went ok but we were both feeling our prior day's workouts.  Cindy is training for 50K (31 MILES) run in May so she ran almost 6 hours in the woods yesterday.  Her legs were probably far more fatigued than mine.  Misery loves company though and having each other to talk to was invaluable.  By the time we got to only having 4 miles left I was hanging on by a thread and Cindy promised to tell me a very long story to keep my mind occupied.  Her story lasted about two miles and then even she gave up and we continued on in silence occasionally interrupted by grunts, groans and invoking of God's name to please let us be done.  Finally..15 miles done.  We walked a bit to cool down and stopped briefly at Cindy's where she filled my water bottle and put it in one of my hands and a hot cup of coffee in the other and drove me home.  You just can't beat friends like that!!!  Thank you Cindy.  After breakfast, a shower and a nap (at 10:15 AM) I went to pick up Ariel for lunch.  She is pretty much a carbon copy of Tracie and I personality wise minus the F-bombs (thankfully).  At lunch she was telling me about her dentist appointment yesterday and the whole time I was thinking "This is like looking in the mirror and listening to myself talk!!". Her version of her dental cleaning went a bit like this..First there were  all these bratty kids in the waiting room running around all over the place.   Some other kid was freaking out in the dentist chair...come on kid...you are getting your teeth cleaned NOT getting brain surgery.  And then it is finally my turn and the hygienest is asking all these questions like.."How old are you? Where do you go to school?  Who are you here with?"  Really lady..are you some kind of stalker?  I am not here to make friends.  I just need my teeth cleaned.  Then she finally has me sit in the chair and says she has to go get some stuff.  Really....shouldn't she have had it ready to go??!!!  If she was prepared and would quit asking questions we would be done by now.  Holy freakin Deanne Jr batman.  By the way Ariel...If I had the Play Doh dentist toy from above I could have cleaned your teeth in half the time.  Just sayin!!!!