Gravel Grinder!

Fun awaits!

New road bike with disc brakes and now equipped with gravel tires. Looking forward to Washtenaw and Wayne County dirt road riding on Sunday!

Quote I Relate To

Sometimes I think about why running and triathlon are important to me. I suppose there are lots of reasons but when I read the following quote, it spoke to me in connection to my why:

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." ~ Norman Cousins

I love living and experiencing everything that life has to offer. I endeavor to feel it all....good and the rest.

Sometimes I think about or notice how life has changed since being a kid. Not surprisingly, things that make me happy or are fulfilling in some way never get old. Running is one of those things for me. It all started with Dad as a 10 year old. Cycling is another. I still love the feeling of getting out and exploring on my bike. Running and cycling are connected to my soul I guess.

Shared this with SJCK. She related too sharing, "yeah, I'm still waiting for the parachute (from elementary gym class) to come back out."

That's my 10-minute reflection for the day.

Boston Marathon Gear

Here's what I'm wearing at the Boston Marathon tomorrow. Look for me if you are on the course!

There are two pictures. After I took #1, I decided I should reorient my socks to make more clear what gear I would be wearing...so took #2.

Leaving for Boston!

It is 5 AM and I am ready to leave for Boston! Can you see the Creamsicle orange Boston marathon jacket from 2014 that I only wear for this weekend? I love it.

I am reminded that this weekend was a dream that started in the spring of 2017 as I was recovering from a plantar fascia tear in my left foot. That injury had kept me on the sidelines for more than a year. As I build myself back up I had hoped to qualify to run Boston this weekend at the Chicago Marathon in the fall of 2017.

Happily I achieved my goal of qualifying and made my 50th birthday celebration connected to running Ironman Lake Placid 2018 and the Boston marathon 2019.

Even though a second plantar fascia tear-this one in my right foot-will cause me to walk more than I run this weekend, I am so excited to be going to Boston and having the chance to be a part of the oldest running marathon in the world for a third time! Looking forward to this fun.

I want to thank the family and friends who have always been supportive and encouraging of me. Most of all thanks to Stephanie, Ryan, Mom and Dad!

Current Foot Recovery View

Not missing Michigan coldness.

Nate Karr = Bad A$$

We all have our bad ass sides. This one popped up in my FB feed today from the record board at Pioneer High School. Nate Karr ran 1600 meters (i.e. the mile) in 4 minutes, 8 seconds. Nate is a bad ass.

So What’s Up? Injuries Galore!

So it has been a winding journey leading up to Boston 2019. Like 2015, the road has been littered with the type of potholes called injuries. Let me recount them for you: 

1. December 2018: The now infamous broken collarbone and resulting in surgery and a super cool stainless steel plate being implanted in my left shoulder area (i.e. screwed in with a DeWalt 18 volt). 

2. February 2019: Pulled hamstring. Sometime that month, I visited the surgeon for a follow up visit and heard "yeah, go ahead and run."  So I did...like right out the gate I ran hard.  Bad idea. Left hamstring yelled back at me and caused me to slow down for about a week. 

3. March 2019: Plantar fasciitis (or maybe even a small plantar tear).  This is the one that that put me over the edge.  Did a ten miler at marathon pace on a Saturday. Then the Sunday run was supposed to be 20 at about 9:15 pace. I was having some foot pain but decided to push it...it is the Boston Marathon. I always go for it. I started out the Sunday run and felt the tension and pain every step on the left foot but figured things would loosen up - like they always do. Well, it didn't loosen up. I finished the run putting in about 2 hours 50 minutes and went home and got on the couch. My foot was sore but I thought it would be fine. Long story short...I knew I had a problem 5 days later when my foot still hurt. Now two weeks later, I haven't run again. 

But...will I run (or somehow finish) at Boston?  

Are you kidding me?  Hell yes. It is Boston. 

Here's the plan right now: 

- I've been keeping all training intensities where they should be....but on the bike. It is the best I can do. Some visuals of those workouts are attached.  

- The foot is improving. I'm doing PT exercises everyday frequently. Yesterday and today my foot feels a little like it could survive a little running. But I'm not going to push it.  I will wait a few more days and decide then what might make sense in terms of the next run. I might not run until Hopkinton. I might even walk Boston if it means being healthy for tri season. 

I'm proud of myself for slowing down for this injury. In the past few years - Boston 2015 is an example - I would have just pushed through and likely made the injury worse.

Stay tuned. I will let you know how things go between now and Patriots Day 2019. Peace.  

New Bike Day

Not new tri bike but really excited all the same. More info later along with some great news from the orthopedic surgeon.

Happy New Year Updates and Totals for 2018

I hope you are well and are conquering any challenges the end of 2018 presented.  I am!!!   As some may know, the end of 2018 was a bit challenging for me. While riding the DTE Energy Foundation Trail (close to Chelsea), I took a fall on my mountain bike.  The fall wasn't caused by landing a big air jump or speeding over rocks and roots.  I recall a rather low speed turn with my rear tire sliding out and a force I don't recall ever feeling previously as my left shoulder hit the ground.  After the forceful fall, I sat up, reached over the feel my left collarbone area and immediately realized something wasn't right.

Here's what it looked like:

About ten days later (after surgery), I had another new look with a titanium plate six titanium screws binding the two ends of the broken collarbone:

 

As I write this, I am about two weeks post surgery, feeling better every day, and I am Iron Man!

I am also hopeful about the outcome of my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on January 2.  I'm mentally ready to run again even though this is likely premature. My questions will be like:
- What can't I do?
- Is it OK to ride a stationary bike and put weight on my left hand?
- Is running slowly on a treadmill at an 8% incline OK?
- When can I run outside?
I'll report back about what the doc says.

More than anything, I happy to report I'm getting better.  Thanks to all my family and friends for their texts, call, notes, care, support and love!  

Totals for 2018  

Let's check out how the year went relative to working out along with comparisons from two other years when I ran full Ironman races: 

	2012 - 43 years old	2015 - 47 years old (hamstring injury Feb - Oct)	2018 - 51 years old   (broken collarbone in Dec)
Swim	137561 yards = 78 miles	120884 yards = 69 miles	198935 yards = 113 miles
Bike	2721 miles	2811 miles	4768 miles
Run	897 miles	1069 miles	1025 miles
Time	374 hours	352 hours	424 hours
Races	-  Ironman Muncie 70.3 -  Ironman Mont Tremblant - K2 Marathon	- Boston Marathon - BQ! - Ironman Muncie 70.3 (sub 6 hours) - Ironman Boulder (huge bonk)	-  Ironman Wisconsin 70.3  -   Ironman Lake Placid

Highlights of 2018:

- I was amazing this year!  More swim and bike miles than every before along with 50 more hours working out than every before.  Wow!!! 

- Swimming - 113 miles and almost all of that happened from January through July. As you know, swimming is hard for me so I'm particularly proud of this stat.  The outcome of this work was a pretty darn good swim for me at Ironman Lake Placid.

- Biking - 4768 miles...that's a big number for me.  There were a lot of hours on the trainer this year and quite a few road miles too.  

- Masters 50+ records this year!  Since I turned 50 this year, all races were records but my time at the Detroit Turkey Trot 10K in November was one that stood out for me...something like 40:17 on a course that Garmin measures at 6.37 miles every year I run it which comes out to something like 6:20 miles.  Not bad for an old guy.

- Using TrainerRoad for triathlon workout plans. This was new for me in 2017 (thanks to RCK's encouragement). The plans ask for a lot (as I've written here a number of times), but they work for me.  I wish I had been able to run some flat races like at Muncie or Steehead (instead of the insanely hilly Ironman races in Madison and Lake Placid).  It would have been fun to see how this year's fitness played out at those courses.

- ALL WORLD ATHLETE! BOOM!!!  For the first time ever, I was awarded All World Athlete bronze by Ironman based on my results from this year at Ironman Wisconsin 70.3 and Ironman Lake Placid. 

Overall it was a great year.  I just have to get by the rather large end of year bump in the broken collarbone road.  I will share an update about that soon.

Thanks for reading....hope you are getting through your end of 2018 challenges.  It really is a good idea to get out for a run/walk or hit up the gym for a 20-30 minutes :-).  Take it from this broken collarbone guy who spent 60 minutes on the stationary trainer this afternoon.