Bob-o the swim coach....

Last night I filmed Bjoern's stoke and gave him some technique advice: the short of it is, I don't think I'll be beating him by the healthy margin I did last year. I did notice one thing as I filmed, he suffers the same stroke malady that plagued me for years: sliding the elbow through the water. Now luckily this is an easy fix, just do the one and a half cycle drill, or better put making your arm look like it's going into freeze frame mode right before it enters the water. His technique is improving and he is definitely in better shape than he was last year, So I'm confident sub-30 min half iron swims are in his future.

On the workout end of things I did 600 yards in the pool waiting for Bjoern , I did the whole analysis thing then threw on my running stuff and got a nice 4 miler in. ( I know the pool yardage was crap but I don't normally like to swim on Tuesday...I like to do the whole Mon. Wed. Fri. and occasional Sunday thing, plus I need more time running and on the bike...but rather than stand around looking like a tool I decided to do a few laps. ) The 4 miler was done in New Britain, at night, alone.... hopefully the CCSU T-shirt stood as a symbol of carries less than $5 after dark. I any case I stuck close to campus on the well-lit side walks, it was a good little two looper, some minor hill work, unfortunately not a lot of female posterior chain to gaze upon at 10:00PM.
So in essence that was Yesterday.

Upon reading the comments on my last post:

Why do people equate my crushing on Mystery girl with desire to have kids? Seriously I'm cool with not having kids for a while...besides I don't think I have the patience to rear children, I mean seriously In 50 years I don't want one of my brats sitting in therapy saying " It's all dad's fault that I'm a drug using punk rocker, because ,damn it, he was just too hard on me. " In either case I think my cycling escapades have rendered my childbearing capacities useless. Also Claire are you harboring a secret desire to be a godparent?

Angry : my Grandfather used that line on an Australian nurse once, I believe it ended with a slap accross the face.

Well that's all the crap I can post for now, unless anyone wants me to go on a rant about a lecture I saw on campus Yesterday on the Arab- Israeli conflict...let's just say this despite the lecturer's beliefs to the contrary a unified Israeli- Arab State is a "utopian idea at best."

R.D.

Reflections

To all my dear readers who have put up with my crap for the last 5 or 6 posts thank you and my sincerest apologies...



As everyone knows I'm in my last 3 semesters of college...and I am taking the last of the required course for my major.. unfortunately, I got a low grade on one quiz and it sort of put me in panic mode as I was emailing the stuff I needed to hand in yesterday, the thought hit me...I've survived 3 other semesters of college with a " I'll handle it before the deadline" attitude and it's worked so far, why am I getting so stressed out over this paper, I'll do it like all the others, just I'll be very careful on format ( Chicago style.) because I am taking a style course. I've also noticed I tend to not use the whole , outline then write, then critique, then write again method. This can explain why it takes me an entire day to type a ten page paper, but at the same time I find my writing style to be more shoot from the hip, the outline tends to upset my rhythm, and I only do one when it is required..so I've come up with the following conclusion, write my rough draft with my usual shoot from the hip style, and if it utterly sucks, then write with a more pompous outline adhering style....in essence I just want to pass this class so I can start on my thesis.



Another apology is for my cocky, attitude toward Tri, to quote Macca, " Anyone who's met me knows I'm the least cocky person in the world, I'm just passionate." I have put up a poll asking whether or not I should enter one of my tris this season in the open/elite catagory. Upon the poll results and comments,I have come to the realization, that yes I'm a good athlete, but I am the perverbal big fish in two small ponds. New England, which is not really known for its triathlon prowess ( Karen Smyers is the odd ball.), and the 20-24 age group, in which the attitude of most competitors is go out drinking the night before and haul ass the following morning to keep the beer weight off. In essence all I have to do is show up, show up sober, do some training, and I'm almost guaranteed a podium spot. New Zealand taught me that I'm fast but not really anything special especially because of a weak bike leg, but at the same time it also showed me with some more organized and thought out training I could fare pretty well. Sadly at this moment in time Training tends to be wedged between my two priorities, the job, and class, so I'm sort of on a play it by ear, hodge podge sort of schedule, in May that should change.



The third apology is I'm smitten over a girl that realistically I can't have, yet my reason cannot seem to get that through my emotions' thick skull to let go. It's not like I can say to said mystery girl " Hey I like you, want to go out for a drink Friday night." First off I don't know if she feels the same way about me as I feel about her and I dare not tell her how I feel because I don't want to seem like a weirdo, granted I do Ironman for fun, so I'm already a self confessed Weirdo. The second is it is no exaggeration to say that an ocean stands between us. I seriously wish I was as emotionally numb as I was a year ago. Damn you hormones! Damn you Emotions! ACK!



Ok I cleaned out the closet, I feel pretty good now.

There's a first time for everything.....

For the first time in my career, I used a sick day (gasp).....yes that's right It's the end of the world as we know it. I have troopered in to work and class with 100 degree fevers, coughing all over myself, and mucus running out my nose like a fountain. Burning the candle at both ends going to bed at 1am and waking up at 5am. I've shelped in on days many people would have been pondering hospital admission on. This time, it wasn't as extreme but I decided to take the day off from the bank and class, to get some rest, do some classwork ( and email it. email is my savior.....or to paraphrase Ben Franklin: Email is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.)

I have discovered that the Victorian House wife was the equivalent to Today's paramedic, and that she was expected to do everything in the house...and in 3 petticoats and a corset, no less. Seriously these chicks were like F**king field medics " Quit moaning dear.I'll set your broken leg , right after I give Junior Opium for his toothache and put the roast in the oven." type of girls. Seriously these chicks must have been mentally and physically hard for all the crap they had to put up with....either that or they knew just how wonderful sedatives were.....reciepe for Turkey, 1 x 11lb.Turkey, 2 tsp. cloves, 1 bay leaf, 3oz. of opium, 4 oz. of Arsenic... roast until the arsenic is no longer detectable serves 3-8 ....hold the arsenic if you love them..... no wonder the life expectancy was 50........Kudos ladies, kudos.... ok I'll put the Robitussin down now.....


Tonight not much on tap, rest, more work, one of my friends wants me to flim his stroke, I might do it tonight otherwise there's always tomorrow. I might have to go to Yale in my quest for sources, maybe this will lead to one of those crazy, Bobby goes Ivy Leauge Posts. Two weeks until D-day when the first draft is due I'm hoping that I'll be able to Get it done quickly and painlessly. I know the point I want to make and now I just have to use a lot of quotes to back me up. Seriously as soon as I'm done with this paper I'm going to hit the road like it's never been hit before, and I will fly on my aluminum beast like I've never flown before....oh how I pine for the open road, and how I hate the colleague who gave me this dreaded upper respiratory bug. Oh Curses Upon You....(Cough Cough Cough!) I spit mucus in your genreal direction ( hawks a lugee Cough Cough , Sneeze, Cough!) Ok over dramatic Plauge upon who ever gave me this thing rant done. ( cough cough, sneeze.)
Alright, on that note I'm going to grab a cup of tea, leave the computer lab for my nice warm bed, and get some shut eye. Until next time.

The Hallucinating Historian
R.D.

I feel a tad bit ill....

Well Today I was supposed to go to the Waterbury Y and get my swim on, but a lovely developing sinus infection had me against the pillow. Tomorrow I might do a pre work run or lift, followed by either pool or bike time, then lots of research, like into the night research, I need to grab a couple of household manuals and piece together my outline and bibliography. Seriously the way this course is setting me up It's not going to be all that difficult to crank out this paper,granted her criteria might be a little stricter.

I had planned to do a mock Borat post, about what my observations are a month past New Zealand, I can only come up with 3

1. the Kiwis are a lot more laid back, than all of us Puritanical New Englanders.
2. If you're a vegan, you might want to vacation elsewhere, or at least look up the vegetarian restaurants because all the little cafes were filled with meat and dairy goods.
3. Litchfield, NZ pop. 1500 cows, 500 sheep, 250 people, 1 alpaca
Litchfield, CT, USA pop. 1500 cows, 500 sheep, 250 people and 1 alpaca in essence no change.
ok had to share that a month late but better late than never.

I sent Catherine an email stating : " I think you're kind of cool." I hope that didn't freak her out, and yes those were my exact words....hopefully "cool" down there means the same as it does up here and isn't slang for cold hard bitch, because she was really awesome... if alot of this doesn't make sense I blame it on the Robitussin, well I'm going to crash and continue to chill.

Chillin' like a villin'
R.D.

To go elite or to go age group, that is the question....

Well I was looking at the results from Last Year's Patriot Half I was an hour and 4 minutes off the overall winner's time. 35 min. of that gap was from the bike split the other 27 coming from the run, and 2 from the swim. Now upon analysis of my training and equipment one must remember, my longest ride pre-Patriot was 48 miles, my monthly long run was 12 miles, and I was swimming 3300yds. 4x a week. Also I did the swim in a $50 surfing wetsuit rode a 23lbs. Road Bike, and had to ...umm...ditch some clif bars and their wonderful overabundance of fiber.... on the run. Anyhoo...the cranium got to working ( on something over than Victorian England.) I train like a beast, I've got better gear, I've steered clear of clif bars for the last 3 months ( shot bloks are a different story, guys at Gu I'm telling you a semi-solid chewable would be great...call um Gu-bers....) Patriot offers an elite, open catagory, which unlike most races you do not need an elite licence to compete in. It qualifies these entrants for the cash prizes, which is a bonus, but the one draw back, if you race as an open competitor you cannot be eligible for prizes for the age group and your time only counts toward the overall. So in essence my poll for this week is do I take a shot at the Patriot Half in the Open Catagoryand potentially a pay day, to see where I rank with New England's elites, or do I continue my reign of terror in the 20-24 Age Group for a bike jersey, nice trophy, and beers from the guys at HEAT? Realistically I have nothing to lose, I'll be competing in my age group at the Griskus, RI 70.3, and the rest of my races. So do I take a gamble or keep the status quo?

Analyzing the data.....

Well this has 3 fold application at this point.

After talking with my professor, I decided to limit my topic to medicine in the house in Victorian England. ( ie what was Dr. Mom responsible for and when did you bring in the high priced quack also what did the Docs know that the women didn't..and vice versa. ) So I will be analyzing Victorian periodicals as well as Doctors manuals of the period to compare and contrast. Needless to say this make research less of a headache.



Part of me is begining to think Eagleman might have been a mistake, but its too late to backout now, I don't want to eat a $200 entry fee., so I will train as best I can and see what happens, I'm not counting on the sole Kona slot in my age group ( but hey miracles do happen.), but maybe I can steal a slot to Clearwater in November. When I signed up in August I forgot how difficult it is to train in April, the weather is bi-polar, my professors seem to think that we really like our old, dusty, outdated library, that and all the family money drama that disappears for a month when the income tax refund check comes in begins to resurface ( granted this year it shouldn't be as bad as in the past, my mom's got 4 deals on the table...low interest rates and low house prices are good for something: Buyers Market Baby!)...oh and I get a year older.....like I said April =lots of STRESS a few more grey hairs, and a birthday cake...well at least I get a cake:)

The last Analysis seems to disprove the theory that Triathlon was the sport of bored runners.
1 of the 7 people who voted on my poll stated that their best discipline was the run.
2 of the 7 myself being one of them, say they were transplated swimmers
2 more claimed the bike as their true love.
and 2 more claimed that they rocked all 3 sports with equally.

This week's poll :
I haven't thought of one. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

The neurotic number cruncher.
R.D.

Kicking it Old School.

YesterdayI decided ( probably stupidly) to get in a nice little threshold workout. I dropped my sister off at the movies ten made my way to my Alma Mater, Holy Cross High School in Waterbury. Normally I do my track work in Wolcott, but decided to visit my old stomping grounds, I can say this I don't miss the hill down to the track. The memories of having to sprint up this 10 percent grade in the begining of summer start flooding back, the super studs racing ahead, and me hanging toward the back. I got down to the track and did an easy mile to warm up. The smell was the same burnt ground up tire smell I remembered, the lines were a little more weather worn and the surface was ground down a little more than it was when I last graced its surface almost 5 years ago. Some football player was doing laps, running a mile, walking a half as he conditioned himself for spring training as I made my way to the inside lane after I finished my warm up. The words of my track coach ringing in my head 4x 800m thresholds, use the first one as an easy one then descend the remaining 3 between 5-10 seconds. 60 seconds rest between each, feel like you could have pushed harder at the end of the workout , don't thrash yourself. 9 years ago as a feshman these words seemed like blasphemy by senior year I understood. This workout was a gas gauge, how fast was your "go to pace." A test to see what was possible, after more base, more hills, and a little speed. a test to see if your training plan was working or if you should go back to the drawing board. A test of lactate, before all the high tech toys of Garmins, HR monitors, powertaps, GPS Monkey Calibrated thingambobs, just you 400 meters of rubber and a stop watch, training as ,dare I say, it should be. I did my first 800 going noticeably slow. 4:10, took my minute walking around not to get stiff, cleared the stopwatch and off on to number 2. This is where it would get tricky, in high school I would suddenly blast off and try to catch the faster guys and blow up. Today there were not faster guys, just me and the clock. I took off on Number 2. I finished it in 3:58. 18 seconds, maybe I pushed a little too hard but set my goal for # 3 3:53 Took my minute then it was off again. I kicked it up just a little bit more on this one, running down some older guy who was doing his distance run on the vulcanized surface. 3:38...20 seconds. I took off the long sleeve for the next one, I need to fly, crack 3:30. My minute rest finished and off I went. I did the first lap fairly hard I didn't take a split I was just running by feel. I continued to push trying to pick up the pace on the second loop, building through the turn, cranking down the back strech, building through the final turn and sprinting down the home strech. 3:21. Not a bad one, I felt like I could do another but decided not to push it. I did an easy 800 and stretched before making my way back to the car. It was a good workout no frills, no fuss, the way I like it. Is this the best kind of thing to do to improve a half marathon split, not really , there weren't enough repeats, but a least I know my progress. Right now I know that I can easily sustain 7 min miles so hopefully I can break the 20min. barrier at the Griskus sprint, and maybe have a crack at the overall.

I plan on doing this workout, or some longer varation to track my progress throughout the course of the season. The days of just doing easy base rides and runs are over, I need to get my body to suffer, I need to get faster, I want to feel like I did in high school, tired and sore before the races began but knowing when the time came to race I could drop the hammer, my racing is starting to become more than just a weekend hobby, where I throw on my running shoes, crank out a 5k and then guzzle a little brew at the post race? Will I still keep it fun, yeah, if it's not fun why do it? That's why I sign up for most of my locals every year. The other part of me wants to know just how fast I can go.

Dreaming of the day he goes pro.
R.D.