Training day.....

Well ok this post is not about a movie with a courrpt Cop stelaing most of the drug money, but rather what the main extent of the last 12+ hours were like for me.
6:00am Alarm goes off...hit snooze...
6:30am Alarm goes off get up and throw work clothes in the dryer to "de wrinkle" them...hit snooze
6:45am get up pick up work clothes drive to the Dirty Water Y
7:00am-7:20am swim 1000 yds...cussing silently to myself that I should have bit the bullet and left a 6 like I had planned.
7:25-7:40 Shower, lavatory, dress and take off for work
8:10 Dunkin Donuts run Yay!
8:20 get to work.
11:30 Power outage cause 10 minutes of havoc
11:41 start taking care of customers when power is restored...
11:42 power goes back out for a minute
11:45 Power comes back on
11:48 finally resign onto computer
12:15PM take care of my last customer of the day after stating open 15 min. late to comphensate for power failures.
12:30Pm Blow the pop stand that is Webster.
12:35 Get Angry's voice mail that he will be unable to run this afternoon go home and work on plan B rails to trails ride. Take the siblings ( Chrissy and Michael)
12:45-1:45 do bicycle surgery on Chrissy's bike, fit mike's ride in the back of the car, set up bike rack drive out to Cheshire.
2:00Pm arrive at Cheshire rails to trails inflat everyone's tires and ride.
Now since it's fall and last night there was a torrential rain storm the path was lined with soaked leaves making the entire path a skating rink. To make matters worse as I repassed Chrissy and mike Chrissy's bike had gotten a flat and I didn't have a spare tube. I went and finshed my 20 miler as Chrissy walked and mike sort of rode at a slow pace. Meanwhile I tore up as much of the trail I could. Everything was fine until about 5 miles from the end. As I was riding down one of the more slick sections I approached a kid who was weaving back and forht on his mountain bike I shouted " Heads Up" and the kid turned left directly into my path. I turn to the left as he was trying to also go left for the grass, needless to say front wheels touched and we went sliding off road. I managed to unclip and stay up right as the poor kid fell over. After checking to make sure we were both alright I took off again and sped through the last 5 miles of the ride ( Viva Enrico!) . average speed was about 14 mph a little slow but considering the slick conditions and the NDE ( near death expereince) it wasn't bad.
4:30PM Went to dinner with the sibblings, then drove home.
5:30 unloaded bikes, went to room and changed into the most reflective run gear I own.
6:00-7:05 I ran a new route through Wolcott, I tried to stick to Route 69 and the newer developments on the side roads, you know the kinds that have street lamps. Well needless to say theses new developments are also some of the hilliest neighborhoods in town, so needless to say I got a nice 7-8 mile hill workout. I know it's usually a dangerous and possibly deadly propostion to run in Wolcott after dark ( not because of gangs of Ghetto Wantabes but the fact there are not many street lights and everyone ( myself included) seems to think 40 is the minimum speed in town.) but i want the experience of running in full gear ( ie fuel belt, hat, long sleeves) in the dark just in case something goes horribly wrong in IM NZ ( I bonk, crash on the bike and have a slower than expected ride, blow up on the run, take crap out to fast, do an extra loop of the run...etc) and I end up coming in inthe 14, 15, 16 hours or racing to just beat the 17 hour deadline mode. Also as winter approaches I am coming to the realization that 95% of my run training is going to happen either before 7am or after 5pm which means I'm going to be running in the dark, so I had better get used to it. Afterall if I'm going to be one of the top age groupers out of the water I would like to have a run split to match...

Ok enough of my training tales and not-so-secret ambitions to do well I am wondering if it would be too presumptious of me to write to my local paper and tell them I doing this thing. Now Normally I'd like to be quiet and low key, but another part of me is screaming, Human interest story! $ponsor$hip! Benifit$! so I am taking a poll should I write to the Dirty Water's rag of a newspaper and tell them of my New Zealand Plans or leave it all to the inner circle who knows I psycho enough to do this thing, my fellow athletes and bloggers, Please post a reply.

R.D.

My Classes are inteferring with my IM NZ training schedule.

Yes that's right my glorious week off from the rat-race that is Webster will instead be ruled by the rat race that is Central Connecticut State University. My History Professor revealed that he wants us to write an 8 page take home mid-term on the current Israeli- Palestinian situation ( I can wrap that up in one sentence...Mr. Ouimet tear down this wall...) and the Situation in Iraq ( again another one liner..." Poorly planned Money pit/Vendetta gone wrong.") Also in that same week I have an 8 page Anthropology paper due on the effects of cholera on society as viewed by the Victorians ( up tight as all hell but drinking from the polluted, shit filled, and bacteria ridden Thames...Man I love the 19th Century Brits. ) So my time will be split between the library, pool, bike paths/back roads of CT and late nights on my laptop.

Training Plan Far.
Mon. swam 2000 yards straight in under 30 min. ( 28:30 to be exact..go my auqa stud self.)
Tue. Swam 3000 yards
Today Ran 4.5 miles this morning my usual hill climb and fly by of the high school. Tonight I'll lift and maybe some trainner time as I crank up the i-pod and look through books explaining how a bug one millionth our size can cause us to ..ummm..err... well..dehydrate us from both ends , or how the Paelstinans were booted from their land and the "tricky" political situation it has caused in either case my reading material is sort of a downer.

Tomorrow: try to wake up early and get 3000 glorious yards in at the Dirty Water Y. Maybe another 4-6 miler in.

Fri: Run 6-10 miles in the morning Work then get in 3000 yards at masters.

Sat. Long Ride ( hopefully other wise I'll be loafing a brick on the Cheshire trail...Angry you down...)
Sun: Again another ride possible swim but definately getting the bike out for at least 2 hours.

so that's my training for this week next week I have to play by ear. Workouts are always subject to Work Schedule, classes, classwork and fatigue. I will be Ironman ready some day.
Well like I said Lifting to do....gotta get jack so I can intimidate guys as I squeeze my bulging biceps into my wetsuit.
R.D.

All Hail the King of Kona!!!

Yes I know this post is 3 days late, ( just wanted to make sure Macca cleared doping, that and I have two 8 page papers due about bacteria and political leaders with names that are both hard to spell and pronounce.) But yes, the man I most fashion my racing style after has finally come through and become Lord of the Lava Fields, Empitome of Endurance, The Arrogant Chap with the world's best aerobic threshold...Chris Mc Cormack You are the Ironman World Champion and you'd had a hell of a race to do it. On the Women's side Chrissie Wellington Won in a blow out. Her nearest competition was Sam Mc Glone and she was six minutes back getting off the bike and that's where she stayed, Kate Major had been second but faded to third nine minutes behind the unstoppable Wellington. The sad thing is Ironman .com stayed gluded to the Women's race or lack thereof...as Macca, Crowie ( Craig Alexander) Trbjorn Sinbale, Chris Lieto and Tim De Boom waged a 5 man Ironwar. Granted when I saw Sinbale only had a 7 min. lead off the bike I knew it was all over for him....let's face Macca proved he could chase down Normann Stadler ( who dropped out via stomach virus...somewhere in the backround I can hear Peter Reid shouting "suck it up, I puked all over myself in 03 and still won." Or De Boom shouting " Whimp!" * Tim DeBoom dropped out of the 2003 Ironman due to passing a kidney Stone at mile 14 on the marathon. Granted I can't Blame Normann for dropping out this year..after all there is a difference between puking like a cholera patient and having a temper tantrum over a "Flat f&*king tire!") The guy that impressed me was the USA's Chris Lieto
For the second year in a row he was the 2nd guy off the bike. Then he took it out hard on the run. He passed then Leader Sinbale and led until about the half marathon point, when Macca and Crowie sort of said "thanks for the lift mate we'll take it from here." Lieto was repassed by Sinbale, Tim De Boom and some other dude. I will say this 6th in Hawaii is damn good! Now if the guy just puts more into his run focus we might just have another American capable of winning in Kona.
So in a quick Kona Recap:

Lava= Hot

Queen K = Hot and Windy

Macca = The MAN!

Wellington= The Woman ( or possible EPO we'll see when the doping report comes out. sorry I'm a little untrusting of big breakthrough wins after the Nina Kraft, Floyd Landis, Vinokorov scandals)

Tim De Boom = still has it.

Stomach Viruses Suck! ( especially for Brown, Stadler, Jones, Al-Sultan)

Normann Stadler= Win or DNF

Bike Crash = No win and No smile for Natascha

Chris Lieto= Next American Champion?

and Max from HEAT finished in 9:55 no age group bling but still a kick ass time. Way to go Max!

So any Kona perdictions for Next Year?

R.D.

Run on Angry Runner!

Yes tomorrow is the United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon/Half Marathon and Huck Finn 5k. Unfortunately this endurance minded blogger has been chained to a desk and will have to miss the Angry Runner's Rendezvous with Half Marathon Greatness as he races all 13.1 miles in the Purple livery of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, after raising well over $1500 to help bitch stomp the diseases. All I can say Sir Angry is stomp that bitch, stomp it for those suffering, for those that believe in you, and for one cantankerous bank teller who will be handing out envelopes of cash and saying "Thank You ( especially for cussing me out you psycho) Have a Great Day!" as you march on toward destiny...also for any other blogger preparing to Bitch Stomp Hartford. or Central students preparing to do battle in Stanley Park .....I will paraphrase ACDC ......" For those about to Run I salute you!"

R.D.

Human Krakatoa

Well as you can tell from previous posts pressure has been building on me, with school, work, training, trying to finance New Zealand, help out my family, bail my self out from helpping out, trying to manage the stress of two jobs as well coach the fledgling swimmers of the tri club. Well last night I exploded...maybe not Krakatoa-like but I did let off some steam in a rather negative fashion that could cost me my lifeguard job ( which I desperately need.) On Monday Night the Aquatic director went off on me when he saw two lap swimmers using equipment THAT IS ONLY FOR THE SWIM TEAM!!!!! Now it's not our fault that the age groupers don't put away their shit so I rather forcefully and bluntly told my tri swimmers that unless they want to swim in the Stanley Park Lake NOT TO USE ANYTHING THAT HAS A NAME ON IT OR SAYS SUNOCO OR CCSU SWIM TEAM ON IT!!!!! Bjoern and I then took a look at the budget and decided that swim equipment might be a smart investment...

fast forward to Tues. As I was warming down from my 3400 yard workout I spied on of my fellow guards coming to swim laps using a Sunnocco Kick board Sure enough in half panic half Rage I told her anything that has SUNOCO OR A NAME IS OFF LIMITS!

but it was in the lap swim bin she Retorted.

IT DOESN"T MATTER IT"S THERE CRAP AND UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE KICKED OUT YOU CAN"T USE IT.

she grabbed another kick board how about this one..

does it have an name on it?

yes NO!

needless to say the guards currently on duty were bewildered at my rather childish actions and I then passed along the message given to me last night. One lap swimmer said that these rules were ridiculous but I informed him THE SWIM TEAM HAS PRIORITY again he muttered something about this shit being unfair and that if the swimmers left their shit out they deserve to have it used by someone else..as much as I agree with his sentiments I was hired by the aquatic director and his rule is law and as far as he's concerned Sunoco are the golden children and we lap swimmers are the peons. Needless to say my outburst was recorded and I was confronted by my supervisor who pretty much went through the if you're not on duty keep you big mouth shut...or deal with this in a more calm responsible tone...which sorry to any one who expereinced my out burst ...my shouting was the result of a lot of already built up pressure and this trival little incident was the spark that inginted an minor explosion. Needless to say I felt like shit the rest of the night, I fell like shit now, I will probably feel like shit the rest of the day for acting like such a 5 year old...and yes this is the reason I stay single...no one should have to deal with my problems first of all and no body deserves to be on the end of one of my out bursts! So if people notice I tend to be isolated, I don't talk much, I don't really hangout with anyone this is why...at least if I'm a lone and make a fool of myself I won't bring anyone down with me. Well that's my neagative rant...I've got to clean myself up and get in 7 hours at the shop...maybe a run..and then class...the same old shit just like every other day.

R.D.

Enough about baseball..my Ironman training so far....

Well my last few posts have dealt mostly with the New York Yankees post Season performance (or lack there of) so I guess now I should deal with my own post season evaluations. As many of you know I am training for Ironman New Zealand ( the financial implications are difficult to explain but hopefully I will pull this off...I'm filing my taxes at midnight Jan.1 so I can get my refund quickly to pay for this bitch...) So far the training has been not as intense as I would have hoped for, granted I'm only two weeks in . In the past week my runs have consisted of a 4 miler last Tue. on Central's rock hard knee killing indoor track, a 6 miler on the pitted back roads of my home town last Thursday, and a 12 miler on the same roads on Saturday Tomorrow Afternoon I'm hoping to cram in a 6 miler before class.. My pool performances have ranged from the grand total of 8, 200 yards I did last week ( 2000 on Mon., 3000 on Tues. and 3200 on Friday) this week I'm on pace to crack 10,000 ( I did 3200 yesterday, will do about 3500 tonight, and hopefully another 3000 tomorrow morning plus my Friday 3000 + master's workout) Yet the finding time to get in the necessary bike distances is tough. Last week I managed to get in a 50 miler on Sat. This week I only eked out a 25 mile ride on Sunday night and nearly killed myself on the trainer ( stupid uneven floor surface) causing me to feel shaky at best on it ( so much for my idea of watching the playoffs while riding to better fitness, granted now that the Yankees are done there is little point for me to watch accept that Colorado might Win the World Series which would be sweet for them, so the Ironman/TDF highlight dvd's will be getting much use.) Indeed I want to get as much time on the Bitch Stomper as possible. I know my reliable road bike ( Enrico) can handle any terrain and high cross winds but I really need to get used to how TBS ( The Bitch Stomper) will handle on varied terrain, and variable weather, also the fact I have to get used to clipping and unclipping into my Look pedals ( which I am very comfortable clipping in but bailing out is still a chore.) the unseasonably warm weather seems to be at an end which means the window for me to get in real long rides and not trainer simulations is closing rapidly by the day, ( and sadly my town is mostly hills that are not plowed exceptionally well and I do not find the idea of riding on a icy and steep descent while dodging speeding traffic fun. So on tap for the week are a lot of swim and run work outs ( which I can easily fit into my packed schedule) and trainer sessions in my room ( which has a steadier floor surface than my living room) and Hopefully long out door rides on Saturday and Sunday. At the End of the Month I have a week of vacation, so if the weather co-operates with me I will be able to have a real hammerfest bike focus week. (I will be stringing 25 mile daily rides together with a 75-100 mile ride and 10 mile run brick that Saturday. )All in all I'm hoping to at least have the base for the Ironman by Jan. and hopefully mother nature will bless Connecticut with a warm apocalyptic style global warming , winter ( you know the kind you can wear shorts on Christmas kind of Winter) So I will have the ability to still get in long rides on roads that are not covered in icy, snow, rock salt, sand, calcium brine, or some sick combination of all of them.
Well that's all I've got for now...If any one has any winter biking tips please post them on the comment board...any help I can get in this department is appreciated.
R.D.

Humble pie.....I cursed the Yankees.

Well my beloved New York Yankees are out of the playoffs ( cusses to self as he hears dead Red Sox fan uncles laughing and giving each other high fives from across the rift.) Which now leaves me more time to train and study. I believe that their playoff failure this year was not due ( as Steinbrenner seems to think) to Joe Torre's incompetence ( come on under his leadership the team cut a 7 game defecit to win the Wild Card and nearly snatched the divison from the Sox who once lead by 14 games), Player Cold streaks ( Jeter, Mr. Clutch was cold, Abreu cold, Wang, looked more like sum ting Wong....although Peittite, Rivera, A-Rod?, Damon and Caberra proved to be clutch and worth the money spent, they could not carry the team. ) No my fellow Yankee Fans ( or smart Alec Sox fans or Indians Fans reading and preparing to rub salt in the wound.) The Yankees loss was due to my cocky Remark...." And the Red Sox still suck " made to one neoprene free Sox fan when it seemed they were on the verge to losing the division to the then Red Hot Yanks. So Joe Torre if you can read this as you empty your desk, please forgive me.
R.D.