The Journey

The journey is more important than the destination.

Several years ago a friend of mine asked me if I would do the Fairlee Triathlon in Vermont. After training for three months, feeling like I was going to drown in the swim, feeling nauseus on the run, I crossed the finished line and was hooked.This led to my triathlon journey.

Please consider supporting my latest effort to raise money for Bretton Woods Adaptive through the Janus Charity Challenge at Ironman Lake Placid this July. Check out the Links I Like section of the blog or explore the BWA Fundraiser links.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Running on the Sun

I watched a great movie last night called Running on the Sun about the Badwater 135. A 135-mile running race from Badwater in the middle of the California desert up to Mount Whitney (Amy has already told me there is absolutely no way I'm doing this race!).

There are plenty of inspirational stories, sad stories and stories that make you say WTF! But I laughed outloud at the quote below. It was said by Ephraim Romesberg, 68, at the 65 mile mark of the race.

"When I start these events with very loft goals, like I think I'm going to do something special and after a point of body deterioration the goals get evaluated down. I always get to a point, which is basically where I am now, where the best I can hope for is to avoid throwing up on my shoes"

This is a great documentary that I would recommend to any endurance athlete.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Reality check

I've been focusing so much on the Pumpkinman race coming September 6th that I haven't thought too much about the fact that I'm signed up for Ironman which takes place in 11 months!


I was checking out the Lake Placid website and figured I'd look up my name in the participant section. I'm not sure why it surprised me as much as it did, but there it is!

Think it is too early to count down?

Bah Harbah

I had a great weekend. Amy and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and used a generous gift to go to Bar Harbor for the weekend. After the horrible weather we've had this summer, we weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be beautiful. Dry, sunny, low humidity and a beautiful resort.

We went up on Friday and that morning I did a swim at the outdoor pool in Dover. We wanted to get an early start so I got to the pool for their opening at 6AM. The outside temp was in the 50's and it was a clear morning. It made for a great sunrise with a mist on the water while I was getting my swim workout in.

Saturday morning I took advantage of the carriage roads in Acadia National Park and did an 11 mile run on them. It was very nice to run on crushed gravel all morning with no cars and only cyclists and runners. I felt great afterwards. Amy and I actually went out for about 1 1/2 hours on the mountain bikes later that morning.

Sunday I had a 1 1/2 hour bike on the training schedule. Again, I took advantage of the carriage roads and ended up staying out for 2 1/2 hours (which included probably about a 1/2 hour of picture taking and stopping to check out the views).

I actually laid by the pool for a couple of afternoons also, which I normally do not like to do, I get too restless. But I think with all of the training I ended up doing, it was good for my body to just take it easy.

Another benefit....I was able to enjoy a lot of great food without having to worry about the caloric intake!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Love the weather, hate the loss of daylight

It's been a good but challenging week of training. I was hiking this weekend up and around Mt. Cardigan (pictures to follow soon) and I started off the week already sore from the terrain. It was more challenging than I was expecting. Sleeping in a tent didn't help either.

I've had to rearrange the week's training because my 15th wedding anniversary is next weekend and I figure Amy wouldn't want me training all weekend while we are celebrating.

So last night I had to get in both a swim and a run, but it's getting dark pretty close to 8. So, I had Amy drop me off at Masters and swam from 6:30 to 7:30, then got on my running shoes and reflective vest and started the 7 mile run home. About 1/2 way into it I turned off of the main roads onto back country roads, with no street lighting, and no day light. Luckily I knew the roadsd and could tell roughly where I was but it was a little strange running in complete darkness, since I didn't bring a headlamp or any other lighting.

The upside - the temps were in the 60's, the air was crisp, dry and perfect for running. I'll have to plan a little better next time and make sure I have some lighting.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hint of fall

Fall is my favorite season. Even though the official start of fall is over a month away it felt like a preview of it on my ride this morning. The temp was in the low 50's and after weeks of mostly rain there were no clouds in the sky which made for a beautiful sunrise. I actually had to dig out the armwarmers this morning.

The training plan for the day was an easy one hour ride which allowed me to enjoy the crisp weather and sunrise.

The cell phone photo doesn't nearly do it justice but I thought this shot over the old greenhouses in Madbury was worth stopping for mid-ride.

I can't wait for more early morning fall rides once the foliage starts to turn.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I thought Ironman was a big deal

I thought doing an Ironman was a big event to prepare for. Check out this guy who is going for the record to complete the Appalachian Trail which means an average of 46 miles per day!

News story is here

And the racer's website is here. This link has his current location - and he is in my home state of NH!

Nice day off

As much as I enjoy swimming, biking and running, it was really nice to have a day off yesterday. With Connor home from camp it was nice to be able to see Connor for as much as possible last night. We watched the Olympics for a while and saw the US Men win the 4 x 100 relay by 8 1/100th of a second! It was great to see him so excited about it. How could anyone not be excited after watching that race!

Masters swimming tonight and an easy one hour ride tomorrow morning make the beginning of this week pretty low key.

I'm 99% committed to doing a fall marathon. I thought it would be a good challenge to the end of the season and set me up nicely to starti Ironman training this fall. There is a small one in mid-October called the Green Mountain Marathon, in where elses...Vermont. All I need to do is sign up, and it is only $22! I've paid more than that for a 5K.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Not eating enough?

I'm glad this is a recovery week. I'm not sure if it is allergies or an actual cold but the last few days I've had a tickle in my throat and today my nose is really stuff.

I'm a little concerned that I haven't been eating like I should. The type of calories I've been taking in has been good overall but I've been at a net daily deficit of about 1,000 calories for the past week. I would like to drop a few pounds to improve my power to weight ratio to improve my bike and run times, but I probably need to make a concerted effort to be more like 200 - 300 down a day, net, instead of 1,000.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Recovery week

I've been out of the blogging loop for a while now, but for good reasons. I've had a great stretch of training for the past three weeks. I've done 12, 10 and 13 hours for the past three weeks so needless to say I haven't had enough time to do much other than work and train.

What has helped significantly with fitting all the trainings in is that my son has been at camp for the past two weeks leaving me a little extra time. Though I'm really glad to have him home!

This week is a recovery week with two full days off and only 8 hours scheduled.

I've exchanged e-mails with the Executive Director for Bretton Woods Adaptive and I'm planning on heading up there in September to coordinate plans for fundraising for the Janus Charity Challenge. She seemed really willing to work with me so I'm looking forward to meeting up with her.