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Tonight on my run I was taken back in time.  Back to a time when things were simpler when there weren't fancy fabrics, watches that tracked everything from HR to pace to distance, to a time when I ran just for the joy of it, for the love of it. 

Yes I trained and I raced, but at the heart of it I just enjoyed running whether it was a long easy run, racing the boys on the trails in the fall getting ready to do battle on the cross country course, or hammering around the track trying to find that elusive speed to fly around the track.

I always loved finding the flow, cadence and that mental zone that you felt you could hold forever.  Everything would be perfect.  I'll be honest I've been struggling finding my groove on the run since the bike crash at IMC over 2 months ago but I have kept at it knowing that things would come around.

I'm not sure what it was about tonight.  It wasn't an easy run, it was over an hour of running with 40 minutes at tempo, with the second half harder than the first. I didn't feel particularly loose as I started the run.  It might have been the last gasp of fall in the air.  The fall has always been my favorite time of year to run, there's a cripsness in the air, leaves rustling on the ground and the twilight seems softer.  It might have been watching the NYC Marathon and feeling that fire again as the Americans more than held their own in the race. Meb, Hall, Magda and Ficker all inspired me with their performances.

That feeling was back tonight just the simple joy of running my heart pounding, my arms flowing, my legs lifting flowing foward lightly touching down before launcing me forward into my next stride.  I was running hard but I didn't feel it and when I ran harder I just found more flow and I just felt stronger and stronger as the run went. 

Normally my legs feel a little rough after this workout but not tonight as walked to my car in the fading light I felt loose, strong, and joyful. Like that kid who used to go out in any weather in his nylon shorts and raggedy t-shirt and just run for the love of running.

My triathlon season did not end the way I had hoped or envisioned so I decided it wouldn't be the end of my season.  I've decided to make a run at a marathon in a couple of weeks at the Seattle Marathon.  I'm still on the bike once a week and in the pool a couple times a week but my run is the focus and my fitness is coming around so I'm hoping to finish the season off with a good, honest marathon. 

My history with this race isn't great, the last time I had planned to run this marathon I was 22 and well I was fast.  I woke up on the morning of the race and my father and I stared out the window at the rain drops bouncing off the ground they were so big an it was raining that hard.  I looked at my dad and said "I don't think these are the conditions I want to race my first marathon in" he winked and said simply "good, I'm going back to bed" and with that he did.  It rained like that all day and I didn't race.  I've alway regretted that decision as a month later I ran a 10 miler in 51 minutes and won by 14 minutes, like I said I used to be fast, today I'd blow a gasket if I ran one mile that fast (if I could).  My re-entry into the marathon distance wouldn't happen for another 9 years and I had lost that edge, the fitness and speed.  So I have no plans of backing down I'm going to go out on November 29th and run for the love of it.

I step through the door of the plane and onto the jetway stairs and the humidity and and smell of jet fuel and pungent humidity and earth hit me.  I'm back in Hawaii, Kona to be specific.  It wasn't the way I wanted to arrive, no bike case, no urgency to acclimate to the heat and humidy, or register for a race.  I was unsure about how the week would play out for me as I wasn't there to race as I had crashed on the bike at Ironman Canada just 5 weeks before and was still recovering.

In the end it was a great week.  I had no workout schedule no place I had to be and day 2 on the island I came down with a sore throat (all the better I wasn't racing).  This year my girlfriend and I stayed at the Kona Reef which is just about 1 mile south of the Kailua pier on Ali'i Drive.  A perfect location for getting into the village of Kona, and to Lava Java for yummy coffee and great food without getting in the car.

The first day arriving on the island I got checked into my condo at the Kona Reef.  The Kona Reef although an older condo is a nice facility.  My specific condo wasn't the greatest as it was next to the road, had no A/C and was a little run down but it was all we needed.  I think the units further from the road and facing the water would be great.  The pool and pavilion area by the pool were very nice and relaxing and popular with the guests.  After getting settled a bit I headed out for an
late afternoon run.  In a word it was HOT (and humid).  I've still been recovering from the bike crash and that combined with the conditions made it a tough run but it was a good 8 miles and a good way to hit the island.

The first morning there I walked down to the pier first thing in the morning for a little morning swim on the Ironman course.  I was suprised by the number of people out swimming.  Although it was just a casual swim morning it felt like race morning bumping and dodging swimmers left and right.  It's always a great place to swim, getting to cruise through the warm water over the reef with the fish and turtles.  After that I headed over the the center of the food universe during Ironman week in Kona, Lava Java.  This place has a line out the door the week of Ironman from the moment they open until they close at night. My favorites at Lava Java, Breakfast Burrito, Cinnamon Roll, and the Fish Tacos!!!

My girlfriend and I spent the rest of the week, swimming, eating, running and doing a little outrigger paddling and watching the Ironman freakshow which starts before sunrise each morning on Ali'i drive and contines well past dark with athletes of all description running and riding in all manner of clothing.We hit the Ironman Expo one day and I have to say it's far better than any of the other race expos.  Everyone is giving stuff away.  The haul this year visor, arm coolers, compression calf sleeves, multiple t-shirs and a pair of shoes.  It was also great to get the chance to make some more contacts with clothing and equipment manufacturers.  Gotta keep working for some sponsors and supporters. 

Race morning it was nice not having to get up in the middle of the night.  We got up and rolled down to Lava Java to get coffee, breakfast and watch the swimmers cruise by.  We then headed back to our condo to get our cruiser bikes and headed up to Kuakini Hwy to watch the out and back section of the bike.  Then we headed back to get a little snack before heading out to the Queen K.  We set up shop at mile 110 of the bike and mile 12 and 23.5 of the run.  We made friends with the police who were on intersection duty and they were gracious enough to share their sun tent with us as well as their camp chairs and food and drink.  It was hot, I mean really hot on the Queen K but was a great spot to watch the race. 

Our spot was great for getting up close to the race.  As the leaders came through 110 miles on the bike Lieto was leading by a whole lot, six minutes over the next guy and 12 minutes over the main group of contenders.  My thought was maybe this is a big enough lead for Chris to hold off the great runners as has been working hard the last few months on his running, unfortunately it takes more than a few months to make that kind of improvement in your run.  Of the contenders Alexander, Colucci, Twelsiek, Al-Sultan, McKenzie, and Raphael looked good at this point on the bike.  Not looking so great included Stadler, Macca, Llanos, Bozzone and Potts.  On the womens side well let's face it it was Wellington crushing all the other women and lots of the men, she looked effortless at 110 miles. 

The real telltales were to come on the run you can tell a lot about someone by looking into their eyes at this point of the run.  Like a mirage arising from the heat of the Queen K, Lieto materialized in the distance.  As he rolled by you could see his stride was still strong and he was sharp and focused.  It wasn't long though and the hunters were coming by Raelert and Alexander were flying and in perfect stride and had closed Lieto's lead to 6 minutes.  My guess was by the time they would come back by Lieto would no longer be leading.  Next came Macca and he didn't look good, he looked cooked and I would guess his day was done.  Next Llanos and Potts came by and they didn't look great either.  The Queen K was cooking everyone.  Then came the women well....woman.  Chrissie look solid but not great.  Berasategui, McGlone looked ok but the one that really impressed was Mirinda Carfrae she looked great and was really flying in the end she would run a new marathon record of 2:56:51 which would be the 9th fastest run of the day overall. 

Soon the leaders were coming back and headed for home.  As I had expected Lieto had surrended the lead but not without a fight.  Alexander was first to come along and he was still running strong.  Next came Lieto, he was holding on but it was ging rought at this point.  In third was Raelert and he looked pretty solid all things considered and then to my suprise came Macca, back from the brink.  Most of the other runners coming didn't look great except for Potts who still looked pretty solid.  Finally came Wellington she was still moving but you could tell she was hurting at this point she wasn't her bouncy, energetic self anymore but she still had a 20 minute lead so unless she stopped she had the race sewn up with only 2.5 miles to go.

We headed back to town after Wellington as it was hot out there on the Queen and we needed a break and some food.  Later that evening we headed down to the finish line to watch some of the finishers.  If you've never spent some time at the finish line of an Ironman you should.  It's an emotional experience to watch these individuals who have suffered through the one of the toughest days of their lives.

I came away with a renewed energy for the Ironman and I'm sorting out my options for 2010.  I'll keep you posted on the plans and developments for next season. 

We will all get knocked down from time to time in life.  Sometimes it might be physically, mentally, at work, at home, financially, spiritually, emotionally. For the most part what's great about humans is that we have the capability and capacity to bounce back.  This doesn't always mean we will but mostly we have the opportunity and ability to. 

I've been knocked down a few times in life and I think I've always come through the other side stronger and with more knowledge (doesn't always mean I applied that knowledge in the future).  At the time it's happening I don't always think about the knock down in the moment as an opportunity, but at some point theres a trigger that says "OK" what do I do, how do I overcome, what's the plan and I go formulate, and put into action the "plan". 

If you follow this blog you know recently I was actually knocked down, well more accurately fell down.  In the moment I thought I might actually die, then I though no I'm just going to be in the hopital for months (all of this happened in a second), then in the moments following hitting the pole I realized I was alive and really not that seriously (life threatening) injured. 

The crash has forced me to put a big part of my life on hold at least temporarily.  I really love training and racing trialthon but for the time being neither is happening.  What's different this time is that from all the knockdowns in life I'm taking a different approach and frankly handling this one really well.  In the past this would have devastated me, other than the physical devastation there would have been mental and emotional devastation which would have been far worse and acutally much more damaging.  I could have been mad, disappointed that I didn't finish, that I didn't have a good day in the race, or that I didn't qualify for Kona.  I mean my expectations were that finishing an Ironman isn't a problem for me, qualfying for Kona is a no brainer and that I should be able to race to a PR.  Not doing any of these could have crumbled me.  I've talked to a few people who had a rough day at IMC that didn't go perfectly for them, that didn't meet up to their expectations and I can feel the bitterness, the dissapointment and to some degree anger and I know where their heading and it's not good.

So what am I doing to to deal with this knockdown. 

I'm healing physically it's been 11 days since the crash and I still hurt, my legs are swollen, black and blue and sore but they get better each and every day, my ribs are sore but again getting better.  I've just come to the realization that it's going to take a couple more weeks before I can begin to train again in the meantime I'm doing what I can to speed the recovery, massage, icing, and now walking.  Yep walking is my workout, and that is very hard thing to do for someone who truly races 140.6 miles.  I know when I start back it will take a while to get back to where I feel fit again but it won't really take that long.

I've just said my season is over.  I had hoped to race Silverman in November but now I'm not planning on it.  It still might happen but my expectations are that it won't and I'm Ok with that.  Instead I've started to think about and plan for next season, laying out the races I want to race and the challeges I want to take on.  Kona is always in the back of my mind as it's such a special race but honestly I'm not planning any races that are qualifiers.  Instead I'm looking at mixing things up a bit and racing a mountain bike, road bike, paddle, run relay solo, in addition to several half Ironmans, some sprints, and maybe an international Ironman race (Western Australia sounds nice).  I always race better when I'm doing it to have fun, this season was mostly fun.

I'm going to Kona.  I had already booked my trip to Kona for October with the expectation that I'd either be racing or relaxing.  So I'm going and will be relaxing, spending time with Kristen, hopefully feeling good enough to do a little bike riding, some swimming, a little running and some paddling. Taking pictures of the race and taking in the race as a spectator (I still believe that everyone should experience the Ironman as spectator, TV just doesn't do it justice). 

I'm focusing on work. Work is always there and it's always busy, part of why I started doing triathlon was to get in shape after several years of too much focus on work (working 6 days a week 70-80 hrs a week for a couple of years).  I can use this time to buckle down for a few weeks and do a little above and beyond effort and get ahead of the curve.  At Microsoft we always seem to be just behind the curve no matter how much you work, that actually probably won't change but hey it's worth a shot.

So I'm in a good place overall.  Went to the doctor yesterday and he said he didn't think I had a broken rib, offered an x-ray but I declined as the prescrption was the same no matter what, rest it so I thought I'd do my part to reduce the cost of healthcare.  I expect to get a little irritable, that's just a fact that exercise is my outlet but I'm taking it all in stride and moving forward.

A couple of announcements coming up in the next couple weeks regarding coaching and charity events so even though there might not be much in the way of updates on the racing front there will be a few blog updates. Now I need to go enjo

Well as most of you know things did not go exactly as I had hoped at Ironman Canada last Sunday.  It started off well enough but ended with a pretty nasty bike crash and ride in an ambulance to the medical tent.

My injuries mostly consisted of some serious contusions on my upper thighs and bicep and some scrapes and scratches.  It also appears now that I may have cracked a rib.  In short it's just more than a week later and I'm still pretty sore but I'm healing. 

Interestingly enough I didn't really have much in the way of dark bruises where I hit considering how hard I hit, but they're showing up now.  The bruising is no where near where I hit the light pole.  Basically all the soreness and bruising is moving through my quads and thighs as the deep pooled bruising is moving through my muscles.

The good news is that I can actually bend my knees now more than a few degrees but my legs will still cramp up going downstairs or a ramp.

My trouble is the sore rib.  Why? Basically the legs will be back to a point where I can be active again in few days but the rib, well that's another story.  That's going to keep my inactive for a while. 

So for now I don't have any plans but recover and relax.  I was thinking about racing at Silverman in November but we'll see how quickly the body heals up.  For now I'm just looking forward to some relaxation in Kona in a few weeks. 

I've been asked a few times now about whether I'm worried about getting on the bike?  Absolutely not, to the contrary I'm ready to get back.  One of the things you find when you ride is that it's not if you'll fall it's when and how hard.  In the past three years I've ridden nearly 14,000 miles and have crashed 3 times.  That's a lot of miles and not a lot of falls.  So far the tally a broken hand, some scrapes and scratches, two big thigh contusions and a sore rib.

More recovery updates as things improve or future race plans solidify. 

Packing all the stuff for my trip to IMC has slowly been refined and confined from five rooms in my house to two, soon it should all be contained in my foyer and living room and then I have to delicately and strategically load it in my car.  In an effort to help the environment, reduce the chance of a search of my car (not that I have anything to hide), and force me to not pack everything and anything I might possible need I'm going to drive my Mini (clubman that is) up north.

The decision of what to drive (I know a luxury most people don't have and one that I probably shouldn't) is not taken lightly nor is it an easy decision.  It's like every single decision that goes into packing for the Ironman from the smallest of things to the big things. 

Things to consider when considering what car to drive up north.  Bike inside the car saved from wind, rain and the smash of bugs or strapped to the roof exposed to the elements.  Passing efficiency let's be clear it's a 7 hour drive and if I can shave 15 minutes off that I'm going to, god forbid I get stuck behind an Okanagan farmer (nice people but slow drivers) on one of those north eastern Washington roads that passes for a highway, Mini wins (heck 70 to 100 in 2 seconds). 

I'll digress for a minute for non Ironman racers we've been waiting months for this event patiently training away and so we're anxious to get there and want to get there as quickly as possilbe, hell I'm showing great restraint in having not left for Canada on Wednesday.  The funny part is everything leading up to an Ironman race cannon is one big slow line. Wait in line to register, in line to eat at the reception dinner, in line to check in at my hotel, in line to cross the border, in line to purchase race logo clothing we really don't need, in line to get my tires pumped on race morning, in line to pee on race morning and finally in line to get into the water so we can finally get going.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I need to decide which tools to take in my bike tool box since I only know what half of them do so I took those that I don't know anything about out of the box, it didn't make more space in the car but I was able to get more other stuff in the box thus reducing the clutter in the car.  I have to decide which camera(s) to bring and how many the fact is I'll probably only use one of them so I'll bring 4.  I need to decide which clothes to bring, both for looking fancy around town and looking fancy and keeping cool or warm on race day (down to two relatively small bags.  How many helments,  how many spare tires, how much nutrition (for training, pre-race, during the race), how many pairs of run shoes, how many pairs of bike shoes, swim googles, mirrored, clear, tinted, which race wheels disc or 1080 or 606... this is the mind of an Ironman in the week before race day it would make most people dizzy but for an Ironman athlete it keeps your mind busy in the week leading up to the race and keeps your demons and doubts at bay. 

Things not too think (and fret) about, the weather, your race number (#976 has a nice ring to it), the training you didn't do, the nagging aches and pains, what other people are doing.

So what's the point Ironman athleletes are generally a nuerotic, compulsive, list obsessed bunch but really I'm just trying to keep my mind off the race until it's time to race.....12 hours until the strategic packing of the car begins.

I hate tapering.  My body always starts to get cranky when I start my taper, my body seems sore, and by the end of the taper I'm anxious and ready to bust down the gates. 

Tapering is a pretty individualistic thing but for me it's about a slow reduction in volume and intensity.  So for exampe three weeeks ago I put in 21 hrs of training, two weeks ago I put in 19 hours and last week I put in 13 hours which was the beginning of the taper.  I still did some hard efforts including a longish run on Saturday with hard tempo.  This one of those confident booster runs, 15 miles the first hour at low end aerobic effort (for me it was sub 140 bpm HR and around 7:20 mile pace then crank it up for the last 45 minutes which I was holding 6:35/mile pace at 158 bpm.  My race threshold HR for the marathon in the ironman is right around 161 bpm anymore than that and I'm cooking the engine.  So what does all this tell me?  If I'm having a good day, good energy, body loose, hydrate well, fuel well on the bike and don't go anaerobic on the bike much I should have a good run in me.  It won't be 6:35/mile pace but I don't think low 7's is out of the question.  That's a lot of variables however. 

My bike power and endurance is there and my swim should be a good one based on my workouts and other races this season.

This week I really back off the volume as I'll drop to 10-11 hours of total activity, while maintaining a bit of longer workouts (not really long) and some intensity workouts but these are much shorter than normal the goal being to keep the muscles firing and sharp.  This was a problem at Kona last year.

Next week will be much lower volume but it doesn't dry up as I'll still be doing workouts and keeping some short intensity in there.  Most of all I'm getting really religious in my eating and hydrating the next two weeks. 

Other than that I'm picking up the last few things I need for the race, my bike is in the shop getting some much needed TLC so I hopefully don't have any problems on race day and I'm getting all of my race stuff laid out so I know I have everything I need and starting to glance at the forecast so I can get an indication of what the weather is going to be like on race day. 

The reality is that I like to race with as little as possible in my transition bags and on my bike.  Just keep it simple.   

More updates to come with pictures hopefully.

I'm in the final push to IMC.  This past week was a big week, not my biggest in terms of volume or time but seriously big in terms of the combination of volume and intensity and just plain suffering.

The week opened up on Tuesday with some hard running.  30 minute negative tempo, 10 min warmup, 30 minutes at a good clip of 6:49/mile pace then I heated it up for the same 4.4 miles I had just covered at 6:18/mile pace followed by a 10 minute cooldown.  It was comfortable, that in and of itself is a little scary.

Wednesday was a nice solid swim of 4K comprised primarily of 6 x 500 all of which were near my fastest ever for that distance. That was followed up later with a nice little 2 hour ride, nothing big just easy tempo.

Thursday was another good solid run of a little over an hour with a bunch of fartleks.  Another solid run.

On Friday I headed south to Hood River.  I arrived early and headed out on a nice little 5.5 hour ride.  East I headed out past The Dalles, the wind was light, slightly overcast, feeling perfect.  Up over the top of State Road.  As I started down the crazy descent I noticed the wind had picked up, it was a white knuckle descent but just a tast of things to come.  I headed out through The Dalles and onto 7 mile road before turning onto Emerson Loop.  Cruising along at a flat section feeling great holding 28 mph, damn I feel good.  After turning onto Kelly Cutoff I understood why I felt so good a few minutes earlier, as I headed west I came to a standstill.  The wind was raging in my face, I was working huge effort and only moving at 6 mph (on the flats).  Twice I was actually blown to a standstill by the gusts and twice blown off the road.  Now I'm not the most sensible person and sometimes I just like to suffer well this is a bad combination as I came back I debated and headed out for another loop, just plain stupid. I realized the error of my way about halfway through the second loop.  At the conclusion of the second loop I then realized that I still had 25 miles of riding directly into the teeth of the wind (I would only find out later that the reported average in The Dalles was 46 mph with gusts to into the 60's).  It was pure suffering, the only time I've ever been scared on my bike, and much windier than anything Kona and the Queen K can throw at you.  The only highlight was riding up to the Rowena Butte.  Riding uphill (7%) grade as I turned around a switchback the wind was at my back, I going uphill at 14 mph, not pedaling.....sweet, but it only lasted for about 50 yards.  I was cooked, fried and pretty much done and never wanting to get on the bike again.

Saturday started off a little stiff but I headed out early for a nice little run.  I ran a new route on Klickitat trail which goes along the Klickitat River.  One of my best runs ever.  The trail climbs at 1% for I don't know how long but I went 9 miles before turning around.  It was beautiful, peaceful and relaxing.  18 miles of pure bliss.  After a quick nap and food I headed out a nice little ride.  I found a ride which is supposed to be good for windy days.  The ride headed out towards Mt. Adams and started off climbing for the first 20 miles for 3000 feet (into the wind....sigh).  The road was beautiful however, butter smooth and almost no cars.  I was supposed to hit a turn off but never got to it as the road turned to gravel before I got to the turn, so I turned around to head back the way I came.  After climbing for another 2000 feet I started my descent with a tailwind.  It was a nice way to end a tough day, riding for 15 miles averaging 35 mph, probably the most fun I've ever had on the bike just flat out going fast with not much effort.  When I was done though I was tired, dog tired.

Sunday going to be another good ride effort.  Again I found a new ride that again was supposed to be good on windy days.  It was definitly better wind-wise but the ride was anything but easy, it climbed for the first 30 miles, nearly 5000 ft of climbing in total.  The ride went onto the approach of Mt. Hood.  I finally turned onto a fire road called Wathum Lake Road and then onto Branch Lake Road.  It became clear early this road didn't see a lot of traffic as there was debris all over the road and a few weeds growing in the cracks.  At one point I looked up and the road just continued to climb straight up for what seemed like ever.  The ride as bit eerie as I was very alone climbing through the forest on the deserted road.  I finally rounded a bend in the road and I suddenly wasn't alone, rumbling down the road towards me about 100 feet in front of me as a huge black bear.  I began yelling "go home bear" and waving my arm, only later did it dawn on me that telling the bear to go home probably didn't make much sense to the bear since he was home.  The bear reared up on his hind legs looked at me for moment, then in a single instant motion he turned and began galloping up the road and into the woods.  I was glad he ran away because with the speed that bear was running I would have been toast if he decided I was lunch.  I rode past where he went into the woods and continued checking over my shoulder to make sure the bear hadn't had a change of heart.  Just about the time my HR had come back to reasonable level I looked up the road and what do I see....another bear, this one was much smaller just as scared of me.  That was the highlight of the weekend.

Needless to say it was a tough week and a hard weekend of training, but I'll put those hard efforts in the bank for three weeks from now.  Just 250 miles on the bike and 40 miles of running and a little swimming.  This coming week will be some pretty serious swim volume and still as solid volume week but the taper is underway.