Dreary, drippy, drab day – and a great day for a run!
Just a quick 50 minute out and back; was planning on running on the farm, but that sloppy, squishy, soggy idea changed in about 100 yards. I hopped back on the driveway and just headed out, looking for a turnaround at 25:00. It felt so good to be out, running shoes on, iPod blasting, cars throwing water all over me (jk about that part).
For some random reason I decided to wave to each and every driver who passed me – kinda felt like representing the running population as a happy lot. It was amazing to see them wave back, smile, honk – I chose to interpret that as a little “attagirl” whether they meant it that way or not. I wanted them all to jump out of their cars and join me – especially when I’m totally groovin some rock-out, feel-good, Queen-type song – I can’t imagine how crazy I must look bobbing my head, singing my song, smiling and waving to everyone passing by. Don’t care. Life. Is. Good.
Got the whole calendar marked for the training sessions based on the March 6 race in New Zealand; still haven’t registered for it yet (don’t analyze that). Daunting distance, that 140 miles.
iPod shuffle choice of the day: from a mixed CD (don’t know the artist or song) “I’m happy, feeling glad, I got sunshine in a bag, I’m useless, but not for long, my future is comin on it’s comin on it’s comin on it’s comin on”. Some counter-culture kid could help me identify it???
So daughter Glenda is living in Paris for her sophomore year at UT. The Paris. In a flat. With other exchange students. Visiting the Louvre for fun on a Friday night to sketch Egyptian sculptures. Working in an Irish pub called, I kid you not, the Green Balloon. With her boyfriend across the Channel in England. The WHOLE PACKAGE. I’ve been just dying to see her (Skype is great, but not that great), so when hubby said he had a 24-hour layover in Frankfurt, and that we could arrange her a train ride to meet us, naturally I thought about it for 13 or 14 seconds before I said, in my quiet way, “Hells to the yeah!”
Once again, a quick flight to Atlanta, a very near-miss with a seat on the flight, and 9.5 hours later, there she was. Running to me in a train station in Wiesbaden, arms wide open, pink hair flying, smiling, laughing, almost as loudly as me.
me and my girlWiesbaden town square
Does any of this have anything to do with training for a triathlon? Well, in a word, yes. The visit itself was wonderful – strolling through the town, eating, having coffee, window shopping, trying to make a little sense out of the 9-syllable German words. It passed in a flash, and the next day we’re putting her on the train back to Paris, and we ourselves have another 12 hours or so before we head to the airport. The crew hotel loans out bicycles, there were 2 available, and we are Jordans, so..
our top-of-the-line gear from the hotel garage
We head out of town, in a random direction, and ended up on a delightful trail through a lovely wooded park that was a steady incline for an hour or so, but at its peak brought us to a beautiful view of the city. (You can see the church in the distance where Jesse and Glenda posed earlier).
City of Wiesbaden from atop a big-ass hill
Honestly, we were on the bikes about 3 hours (one of which was spent imbibing in what Germany seems to do best), but the bikes were 3-speeds, so the climb was a tad bit of a workout (not keeping a very straight face as I write this). I guess it WOULD have been a workout if I weren’t accustomed to 3 and 4 hour, 50, 60, 70 mile training rides. It was uphill a lot of the way. Did I mention they were 3-speeds? (Give a sister a break – it was all I had to work with – it COUNTS).
Anyway, back to the US and the grueling reality of training, but the little diversion was nice. Tomorrow: strength training and something else – bike or run if weather cooperates, swimming if not.
It’s September in Tennessee. The days are either brilliant, flawless, clear, beautiful college football days, or drippy, dreary, soggy too-cool-to-wash-the-car-in-the-rain/too-warm-for-a-fire days. Today is one of the latter.
One of the joys of training for an actual, outside event (as opposed to a PR or distance treadmill goal) is the opportunity to train in whatever weather the multiverse sends your way. Today’s challenge of choice is rain. Steady, moderately heavy rain. I’ve read since yesterday more than one Facebook status with reference to arks, canoes, and kayaks.
I strap on my Otter (waterproof iPod case), lace up my sneaks, put on a baseball cap, and head down my soggy, soggy gravel drive. Then I turn onto the soggy asphalt (soggy asphalt?) for my 4-mile loop. I have never minded running in the rain as long as it’s not too cold (it wasn’t), and I don’t mind running in the cold if it’s not too wet. I was drenched in a very short time, but the run felt terrific. Tunes were good, legs felt strong, attitude was right – run was over pretty quickly after it started.
soaking wetpost-run, cooling off, looking into my soggy backyard
This series of training I’m attempting to keep up with the accumulated miles running, swimming, and cycling – everyone seems to do that and it’s impressive, so in that spirit, today makes 16 miles running. (Not that impressive yet).
Heading to Europe for an extremely quick trip to see exchange-student daughter in France – only 24 hours on the ground, so likely no workout til next week, but I’ll get in a quick strength training tomorrow. Be back Monday to start it all over again.
Best random shuffle: Cash: Ring of Fire; Ray Charles: I’m Gonna Love You Like Nobody’s Loved You; Dylan: Desperation Road
I know it’s a big deal, but I am surprised by the limited number of Ironman events around the world. I haven’t given up looking, but so far I have found 3 races that fit my parameters: Taupo, New Zealand in March, Australia in April, or Utah in May. There’s one in China, but I’ve kinda ruled that out cuz trying to get ANYONE to go with me requires a Visa, shots, etc. The Taupo race sounds fabulous; its only drawback is that it is March 6, a smidge on the early side of my window.
Today was strength training and swimming, and both went very well. I had a reflective moment before getting into the pool, thinking about all the hours of training ahead of me, and the magnitude of what I am undertaking. My Sam is doing as big a race in February, it just has kayaking instead of swimming, but it’s a two-day run/bike/kayaking event in New Zealand. The date fits in quite nicely with the taper and travel and dateline adjustment. I have til Oct 31 to register before the fees go from extortion to blasphemy levels. Sam’s fees are more than mine, so is that better? Anyone wanna sponsor a slow, old, Athena triathlete?
The thing I’m most looking forward to after picking the race is the backwards scheduling written out in OCD fashion on my calendar, and the other race lengths along the way. I don’t want to be too influenced by those; I want to pick the Iron on its own merit, then see what fits rather than the other way round. They don’t all have to be tri’s either – I’m looking for bike and foot races.
I’m also looking forward to comparing training notes with Sam, as he will train just as hard as I will. (re: Tri-ing with Amy, blog, June 09). I’m so proud of you Samson.
Tunes in the water: Meatloaf, Bat out of Hell; Sheryl Crow, Run Baby Run
Tunes in the weight room: Woody Guthrie, Alice’s Restaurant; Johnnny Cash, The Wall
So…Jesse (husband) has just started flying the 747. He went to Shanghai last week, and had a trip to Japan scheduled for this week. It looked as if there were open seats (in first class – call me any name you want, that’s the only way I wanted to travel for 12 hours), so on Monday at 9am, I got on the plane to Atlanta where I met Jesse, who had had a layover in Atlanta. I got my little pod-like seat in the upstairs of the 747; Jesse got the first sleeping shift (2 complete crews), and the second flying shift. I, however, got the eating shift (see pics).
1st class meal
We land around 5pm, Tokyo time, got on the bus for the hotel, checked in, threw the bags in the room, changed into hiking stuff, and ran to get the last bus to the Tokyo train station. From there we got on the first of 4 trains to the town of Gotemba. Because we arrived at midnight, a bus was out of the question, so we got in the only cab there and off to the mountain.
This cab driver dropped us off at Station 5, which was about halfway up the mountain (at around 5000′, the mountain’s about 11,000′). It’s 1am, there is not another soul around, the cabbie honks, waves, and off he goes. We put on all 3 layers cuz it’s blowing and cold, our headlamps, and off WE go. We very soon find a sign that tells us that the mountain trails closed as of the DAY BEFORE, but things like that NEVER stop a Jordan.
rule-breaking
Now, when I say this hike was a 6-hour uphill hike, I don’t mean it meandered about the mountainside for 6 hours. I mean that aside from a few steep switchbacks at the beginning (2 hours’ worth), this trail went STRAIGHT up Mt. Fuji. Check the pic at our effort at bouldering, when we were using both hands and both feet to climb. This climb was extremely strenuous – Mom and Dad, there is no way you could have possibly done this – I was so glad we didn’t try that. There’s a train that circles the base that you could have done, but we never saw that.
bouldering our way up the volcano
On the trail on the way up, there are numerous “tea huts” where if it weren’t after the season closed, and it weren’t 3 o’clock in the morning, we could have had tea, beer, snacks; you can even make a reservation and spend the night in them. We found one open hut where we were happy to pay 1100 yen ($12) for 2 candy bars and a bottle of water.
crafty merchant
We saw the sky beginning to lighten around 5, and we hustled up the last hour (and by hustle, I mean huff and puff, stop and rest, suck wind, shuffle, stop, step, wheeze) to reach the summit by sunrise. It was absolutely worthwhile when we saw that burst of brilliance with the clouds below us, and clear blue sky above. It was FREEZING and windy up top, so we hurried over to look into the volcano (dramatic), made a stop at the summit potty, and headed back down.
That was strenuous too, and steep and relentless for 3 hours. We emerged at a different station than we began, but we only had about an hour’s wait til the bus showed up to take us in the reverse for the NEXT 5 hours.
Would we do it again? Ask next week when we are not so sore, and we’d have to have motivation – like maybe the kids going?!? Maybe we’ll just ride that train next time…
Today’s event was a nice, leisurely 30 minute jog about the farm. This is one of my favorite places to run – it has to do with the familiarity, the ownership, the terrain, having the dogs with me, and the spontanaety of being able to just walk out the door and run. On the trail today I saw an enormous owl swoop across the TVA easement right over the top of my head – what a thrill.
I want to spend a paragraph in review so that as we do this journey together you will know the background of my training:
Several years ago with a posse of girlfriends I made a drunken vow that I would celebrate my 50th birthday by completing an Ironman triathlon (at the time I had never done any distance triathlon). These women have been relentless in holding me to this, so over the past few years I have progressively trained and completed a Sprint distance triathlon, an Olympic distance triathlon, a Long distance triathlon (also known as a Half-Iron), and intend, in the spring of this year, 2010, to compete in an Ironman. I won’t bore you with the distances of all those races; the full Iron is 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run, and each shorter distance is about half of the one before it. My 50th birthday is November of 2010, but I don’t like to train in the summer, so I look to choose a race in March, April, or May; that gives me little wiggle room if I hit a glitch and have to compete through the end of the year.
My grown kids are all over the world, quite literally, so my choice of race locations is wide open, as are the shorter distance races I’ll schedule in leading up to Iron. Tennessee has no Ironman event, so that’s not an option. You may have read in yesterday’s blog I’d prefer a non-ocean swim, but that’s not written in Sharpie, it’s simply a preference.
My running companions here at the farm are: Boo, the golden retriever; Nala, her daughter who lives with the college boys who rent a house on the farm; and Uga, the English Bulldog who thinks she’s a golden retriever. The three of them ran with me today, the golden girls bounding over weeds and through thickets, and Uga, snorting and huffing her way to 3 miles. It’s not that she’s fat; quite the contrary, she’s very muscular and thick, it’s just that her build leaves a little to be desired for a running physique. The 4 of us jog merrily over rocks and sticks and roots, up and down hills, through a little mud from this morning’s rain, til 3 of us splash through the pond just before the finish line. Today I was iPod-free because it was sprinkling when I started out, but I like those runs just as well.
aforementioned UgameBoo and Uga
My nutrition is high-protein/low carbohydrate except for long-duration events when I add in a little simple carbohydrate mid-effort. Over the course of the blogging, I’ll post more about that. My weight this morning was 152, which is a little high for racing, but I’ll get it down to about 138 to compete. My training usually consists of: 2 days per week strength training, one day per week each for a run, a swim, and a ride, and one day per week of a two-event effort, which is called a Brick. (always swimming/riding or riding/running since that’s the sequence of triathlons).
I’ll close today’s entry with my first attempt to answer the question: Why would I do this? I’ll spend many hours thinking about that in the days and weeks to come, but here’s the quick response:
I love the training. I love the planning and scheduling, I love the competing on the way to the goal, I love watching my times improve, or not depending on the day. I love the companionship of other athletes, and the camaraderie of recounting races and training experiences. I love pushing my body to its limits and seeing and feeling it respond. I love the challenge and the distraction when the personal and professional components of my life are awry, unsettled, or frustrating. I love that my kids and friends are so proud of me. I love setting an example for other women, of all ages, to set lofty goals and go about accomplishing them.
Ok, that was easier than I thought, but I reserve the right to amend that list as time goes on.
Thank you for following my progress. It does me good to hear about your goals, projects, dreams, hopes, desires, ambitions; drop me a comment, and most certainly direct me to your blog if you are doing that.
Don’t just seize that carpe; grasp, wrestle, choke, manhandle, and strangle that bad boy until he lies gasping for breath, crying “Uncle, uncle!”
Well, it was bound to come. Time has a funny way of rolling around.
Today is September 1. September 1 is the first day of training for the Ironman. Oh yeah.
I started off this 210-270 days of training with a wimper. I had a good strength training session, and attempted a bike ride, but my brother-in-law who is temporarily living with us had already taken it for a spin just when I needed it, so that was a bust. The strength training session was not out of the ordinary, but it became special because it fell on the first official day of training.
I have not selected my race yet, but I think I’ve defined these parameters:
Race must be in Mar/Apr/May of 2010. (50th bday is November 2010, don’t wanna train in summer, so…)
Non-ocean swim. (see blog of ocean swim, May 2009)
Non-mountainous course.
And I feel the need to issue this caveat: Ironman Int’l gives you 17 hours in which to complete the race. I completed all three shorter distance races (Sprint, Olympic, Long/Half) in times which multiplied would allow for that; HOWEVER, I will allow myself an official finish even if it takes longer than that. My restriction: it all must be in one effort (no napping, resting, returning the next day, etc). If you don’t like it, you may comment here, and I will email you privately a very special expression I use for these certain situations. (Sounds a little like “Muck My Wick”)
I promise that this blog will become more interesting. I only blogged today because it’s the first official day. I haven’t written my schedule, picked my race, planned my strategy – all of this will be revealed in time, and this will be the place to find it!
Thanks for beginning this long journey with me – I’ll need all the support and encouragement I can get!
Yesterday I got to participate in a triathlon with my daughter. I don’t mean she was there and cheered me on, and I don’t mean that I was there and watched her compete. I mean she was a racer and I was a racer. As I write those few simple sentences, it doesn’t seem like it would have meant to me what it ultimately meant to me. It was one of the most powerful experiences in a relationship chock full of powerful experiences.
We got to train together before the race. We got to load the car the night before, racking the bikes, being sure we had all the crap you have to have for a tri. We got to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn together, and make the hour-long car ride together, trying to get out the heebie-jeebies you always get before a race. We picked up our packets together, got body-marked together, prepared our transition area together, and stood in the start line together. Then, because of the nature of a triathlon, we didn’t see one another again til the finish line.
The race was a sprint distance, and as those races go, it was a fun and well-run event. The bike ride was very picturesque around the lake, and the weather was flawless. It’s a small race (350) so it has a very festive, homey feel, and it has a post-race beer and food tent that is superior. Amy did a great job in her first triathlon experience.
I’m trying to come up with the words to describe why this was so meaningful to me. I love this sport and everything associated with it…the research, the training, the preparing, the event itself. To have Amy not only willingly but enthusiastically participate in all those steps with me was unbelievably gratifying. She has seen me repeat this process numerous times and chose to not only willingly, but enthusiastically want to accomplish this goal, attempt this undertaking, and that thrills me to the core of my soul. She was wide open to the suggestions I made about training, she asked me about the nutrition, she was interested in the strategy of each leg of the race, she worked out her own plan, and in so doing, made her mom spastically, deleriously happy.
Amy may or may not ever participate in another triathlon. She kicked ass in this one, and she may, as some triathletes do, feel the bug to do another one. She may choose to let this experience stand for itself and on its own merit. Neither of those decisions will in any way add to or detract from the opportunity I had yesterday to share in this demanding, intense sport with this phenomenal human being.
When you are in love with someone as I’m in love with Ames, and they choose to participate in something that holds great value to you, it moves you beyond words. It makes me revisit and recommit a promise I made to my children years ago: That anything they would allow me to do with them, I would do – whether that thing would require me to change my schedule, my fitness, my attitude, face my fears, my insecurities, my past, tax my wallet, my patience, my limits – I reaffirm that vow.
Thank you Amy, for your tremendous gift yesterday.
You CAN put a hitch and a bike rack on a Corvette...Finish Line
Wow, kinda weird to be back here…haven’t written since the day after the race.
I’ve had 2 weeks to recover, think, ponder, ruminate, chill, contemplate, and believe you me, that’s all I’ve BEEN doing…
I’m going to issue this disclaimer first and foremost: I will make the Final Decision on this matter in the fall, after the kids are dispersed to their appropriate places for the next year, and I am more centered and stabilized myself. Having said that, let me say that I think I have every intention of training for, and competing in, an Ironman Triathlon. That may seem surprising after having read the Half-Iron blog, but in spite of everything that happened in that event, I’m still driven to attempt the Big One.
I’ve got to do a lot of soul-searching and web-surfing to find just the right race…New Zealand in Jan 2010? Napa? Vegas? The year must be 2010 (the year I turn 50), and I’m seeking a non-ocean race (see Half-Iron blog, non-gill H20 aspiration), and I’m shooting for any possibility of one of the kids being able to be there. (Again, see Half-Iron blog for Importance of Children Present).
I will continue to minimally train through the summer, such as it is. Daughter Amy is participating in her first triathlon a week from Saturday, the sprint Tri in Tullahoma, and I’ll do that one as well. Then there’s the Olympic in Chattanooga in July, and I think I’ll do Tennessee’s Half-Iron in September (at Oak Ridge…maybe I’ll develop gills in the lake by the nuclear reactor before the swim’s end). I’d like to Iron by May, since summer is busy with kids, etc., but that may not work…I’ve got all of 2010 to get it done.
I swam, ran, and biked with Amy this past week, as well as strength-trained with Sam (is there anything better than training with your kids?). We’re headed to California for a week to see her school (Humboldt State University), and we’ll bring our running/swimming gear. We’ll also swing through Napa and Sonoma counties on the way, and the Redwoods too. Life is good.
Thanks for reading…I know this has been a long ordeal, and it looks to continue…let me know your own goals, dreams, aspirations, desires, hopes…you inspire me with your journey. Life is an adventure, and every moment counts (brought to you by Trite Expressions and Accepted Dogma…I’ll do better next time). Too much Blue Moon at the pizza place to think more deeply than that.
Happy. Healthy. Heathen. 