Running in a heat index above 100...not smart!!

so yesterday i jumped back into my training. i have an easy week planned. not running any more than 3 miles at a time and no more than 15 miles at a time on the bike. next week i'll start back into my normal distances. this week is just to get the legs moving again and to test my knee out. i took two weeks off and it only seems to have minimal improvement. oh well i'm not gonna sit around and keep getting fat.

so anyway yesterday after stretching for about 30 or 40 minutes i took off for my 3 mile run. i had on running shorts and a white running tank. it was about 5:45 when i hit the road. i knew it was hot. i knew it was going to suck. i knew i would probably want to quit somewhere around the two mile mark...what do you know i was right!!

the first 300 yards felt good...but from then til i got back 3.02 miles later all it did was get hotter and hotter. my legs felt good but sluggish. this kind of bummed me out. after a long rest i figured they would be ready to go. not the case. i dropped into my normal pace and tested some faster paces. ultimately i was just trying to cruise at a 60% of max effort. for me this is about a 7:50 mile avg. however in the heat even this pace felt like a sprint. i guess that's why i typically do a lot of my racing in the winter. i would rather run cold then run hot.

so mile 1 goes by in 7:53 i believe. i'm hot but not to bad. usually on the green way where i run there are plenty of other runners and cyclist. today...just me. hmm i began to wonder if i was the only idiot who ignored the temps and everybody else was waiting for it to cool off a little. anyway i turned around at the 1.51 mile mark according to my trusty Garmin205. from here back to the house it's pretty much a steady incline with a head wind. and this is when things start to get foggy. at this point i'm getting very hot. i can feel my heart beat in my face and my head is pounding. i don't have water with me cause i don't bring any if i'm only running three. legs are still good, knee feels good, calves are staying cramp free. so it is just a mental game of overcoming the heat.

mile 2 goes by and i think it was in 15:40... 1 mile left to go..bring the suckage. no matter what my plans are, how bad i'm hurting, or even if you threaten my life. when i get to the last mile of any run or race i pick up the pace. even on easy runs where i don't want to push i still drop the hammer in the last mile. i can't control it. in this years Country Music 1/2 Marathon at mile 12 i serioulsy thought i was having a heart attack. my chest got tight my right arm ached and my neck had a sharp pain. i remember thinking..."what do you want to do? if we keep pushing we can PR but you might die. worth the risk?" yup i kept pushing and i made it across the line just 1 minute shy of my PR. so anyway i'm less than a mile from the house, my head is pounding, i can't catch my breath, my legs are only slightly burning. i'm pretty sure i'm getting delirious and my back decides to join the party. my sciatic nerve flares up and now i can't feel my right butt cheek, if you've ever run you know it's extremely important to have your glutes firing properly. so now i'm trying not to die in the heat and i'm trying to make my right leg run correctly despite the numbness in my butt and the pain in my L5 disc. "why didn't you just stop?" that's what a friend of mine asked me last night. haha it never occured to me to stop. call it ignorance or pride but if i'm only running 3 miles i'm not bringing water or stopping.

1/2 mile to go. can't really remember this part. its the steepest of the return incline to the house. i kept looking at my Garmin to make sure my pace wasnt fading. i believe i was inbetween 7:40-7:57 that last 1/2 mile, although i felt like i was power walking. i also can't seem to breath now, my heart feels ready to explode, again head now feels as if a horse has kicked it, back is on fire, butt is numb, legs are strained but plenty left in them, knee is doing just great. and all i'm telling myself is "just make it home Chris". which i did...3.02 miles in 23:49 avg 7:52/mile.

when i get to my drive way i feel about ready to pass out, i was very dizzy and extremely overheated. and i'm sweating so bad that my sweat is sweating. i head straight for the hose. i drenched myself and stood in the shade for about 5 minutes. then i head inside to the amazing coolness of my 70 degree house. all i want to do is get off my feet so i can get my back to calm down. so i lay my dripping wet self right down in the kitchen floor. of course now i have two dogs frantically licking my sweat off my legs, arms, face, and hair. you would think i was sweating out bacon or something.

anyway...overall it was a decent run. i didn't want that pace to feel so hard but i think it was the heat. if it had of been cooler that would probably have felt like the relaxed run that i was anticipating. i was definitely hydrated well and had taken my Base Amino blend before the run. so my body had everything it needed. i guess in this heat i'm gonna have to break my rule and take water even on short runs. i know for sure i will wait til at least 6 to run from here on out. if that had been an 8+ mile run i would have been in trouble. today i have an easy bike. even in the heat the bike is much easier. so i shouldn't have any overheating issues today. till next time.

Saturday Morning Swim

so after a two week layoff for a knee injury that kept me from pretty much doing anything i decided to get back on the horse.

i got up early this morning around 6 and had a banana and drank some water mixed with Base Performance Amino blend. then i limbered up a little and put on my wetsuit. the lake is about 5 minutes from my house and it has a beach entry and no boat dock. therefore it is calm and quiet and so far no boaters play in the area...especially at 7 am.

so anyway i get to the lake walk down to the water as their is a couple of folks setting up for what looks like a big group picnic or something. i love the looks i get when walking towards the water with half my wetsuit on. its like they are trying to figure out if i'm gonna swim or scooba dive haha.

anyway i drop my bag and wade in to about thigh deep and finish putting my suit on. on with the goggles and cap and off i go for a warm up swim...

now what i haven't told you yet is i'm afraid of water i can't see in!! so the minute i put my face into lake water its a battle of wills in my mind. i have to literally tell my body to relax, tell my breathing to stay controlled, and tell myself to stay calm. i can panic if i don't. so anyway i swim out about 50 or 75 yards and then head back in. my shoulders feel tight from softball the night before and my back is a little sore as well. i make it back in stretch up a little and then stand there about chest deep and think about my workout

my plan was to swim for 30 minutes straight...now in a pool this isn't too terribly difficult. yes it's a long time but you get a mini break each time you turn around at the wall. in a lake it's non stop. today the water was nearly smooth as glass. so i drop underwater and push off. i swam about 75-100 yards out then turned right. i stay in a cove that seems to be about 500-800 ft wide. it is C shaped with big trees at each tip. i use the big trees to mark the line i want to swim on. since obviously in the lake there is no black line like there is in a pool. so you have to spot up ahead where you need to go, then swim blind for a while and spot again to make sure you are on course.

the first few minutes were tense...i typically get freaked out if i let my mind wander. i've seen to many horror movies so i picture things coming from underneath me as i'm looking down into the darkness. the first time i swam in the lake i about near hyperventilated, mostly cause the water was cold and very rough...it was the weekend after the flood so the water was really high.

so anyway i had about 4 or 5 moments where i had to calm myself mentally. twice i thought i heard something behind me...yes i know that's crazy...like a bass is sneaking up on me or something. it was just the noise my arms were making in the water. once i ran into a twig or something. and once or twice i thought about what would happen if i cramped up...nobody would be able to get to me and i would more than likely drown if the cramp was bad enough.

so 10 minutes in and i've gone down and back between the two points a few times now and i notice i'm about 300 yds from shore!! i had been drifting out all along haha. i also take inventory of my limbs. my shoulders are really aching and my back is killing me. i have a pinched nerve in my low back and the wetsuit makes my legs float higher than normal and pinches the nerve. so i decide to go back to the other end turn around and then at the halfway mark turn back to shore. when i made the turn to shore i picked the pace up a little. everytime i spotted though it looked like i hadn't gone anywhere. it seemed like the swim back in took forever.

i made it to shore with a total time of 18 minutes and some change. probably could have stayed out their for 30 but with my soreness and the fact that i was alone, i would rather be safe than sorry. when i'm not fighting the open water demons i really do enjoy my lake swims. my next race is in July in the Cumberland river right next to LP Field. should be fun and probably will freak me out since i'll be in the water with a ton of other swimmers getting kicked and elbowed haha. either way i'll have my game face on and will be ready to go. probably gonna hit the lake again in the morning and start back running and biking on monday!! hoorah!!

Zero Training Blues

so i pretty much never take time away from training besides the normal day off here and there. however in my last 1/2 marathon something on my knee cap popped in the second mile while going down a hill. i kept training all the way up until last weekend when i raced my first triathlon. i was in a lot of pain most of May and was not able to run as much as i usually do. so i decided to just get to the race and then take two weeks off to let the knee cap heal. this is the start of my second week off and i hate it!! i feel like crap everytime i eat cuz i haven't done anything. i'm dying to get back in the pool before work, and to ride or run after. unfortunately my knee doesn't seem to have improved all!!

i'm starting back monday regardless though. i have another race, olympic distance, on July 25th and that will only give me 6 weeks to prepare. i should come out of these two weeks pretty fresh and i don't expect to have lost to much of my cardio. next week will be a light week just to get the legs back up and running, then i'll build back up. my race is in a river so i need several more practice sessions in open water to get comfortable. the bike is 24.9 miles which is no big deal, as long as i don't crush it i should be good to run. the run is a 10k, 6.2 miles. that is a easy distance for me as a stand alone but will be a little more difficult after swimming nearly a mile and biking 24.9. i can't wait though. the course will be much more challenging than the sprint course i did in McMinnville. i know the run is in downtown Nashville and those hills are no joke at all, even on fresh legs. it will be a fun race and i'm sure i will have to push through some mental walls to finish but i don't go into a race i don't plan to finish strongly.

my July race will be my gauge to see if i want to attempt a half iron distance of 70.3 miles in September. that breaks down to 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. i know i can do all three distances as stand alones, so putting them together will no doubt suck terribly!! sometimes i wonder why i put myself through this torture. then i remember the feeling i get after every workout and after crossing every finish line. the feeling that you took what the course threw at you and you mastered it. you took all the quit your body and mind gave you and you ignored it and pressed on. it truely is an amazing feeling to take the freakish distances and treat them like they are just another part of ordinary life. i remember when an 8 mile run seemed long and 15 mile ride seemed crazy. now i don't consider it a long run unless its over 12 and its not a long bike until i've gone at least 2 hours.

so for now heres to one more lazy week of zero training...next week it's back to the grind and some more interesting blogs on my thoughts while training. my mind wanders a lot when i train. you would think that i would think about what i'm doing...i don't haha.

Drama

first let me start with this disclaimer...i have a hurt knee right now so i am not training otherwise i would be blogging about my training...so you are stuck with rants and useless thoughts.

anyway what's the deal with drama? seriously the word is not in the bible, or at least i don't ever think i've seen it. but i think it should have been. i hate drama but it seems to follow me. i often wonder if drama follows all of us. most everybody i know would agree with my dislike for "D"!! Are we as humans really that complicated that we make even the smallest things overly complicated?

without getting into too much detail...why can't two people just be together? why are there always rules and stipulations and labels? do you like me? yes. i like you. ok so lets see where this goes. simple enough but it never happens that way. seems like outsiders always want to put their two cents in and next thing you know you're so turned around you don't know whether you are coming or going. you can't have a simple convo without analyzing every word and phrase. should i say this, should i say that. is that to much, to little, what will they think if i say that or do this. good grief! where did these rules come from that muddy up even the simplest of relationships?!?!?

i just wish things could be simple. why do we all play games? hardly anybody says what they mean anymore. we all hide behind our mask and secretly love to see each other hurt, fail, or just be generally miserable...just to make us feel better about our own lives. most love gossip and most talk about their own friends behind there backs. when people ask how you are doing in passing they don't actually care or want a response. i guess that's why the bible says let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. somehow we have gotten away from that. we hide behind social media and portray our lives through status updates and tweets. i'm even guilty of this. i put up status's all the time when i'm hurting. of course i do it in a way that everybody knows something is wrong but has not the slightest clue about what. why can't i or anybody else just post "i'm pissed because so n so is causing "D" in my life" ??? i guess that wouldn't be politically correct right? we sure can't allow that to happen.

so in closing...if i can even say i made any sense. i just wish things were simple. if you're pissed at me...then say it. if you don't like something i've done...tell me. but i know that won't happen. i know people will continue to go behind my back and yours...talking and running there mouth with "did you hear" or "did you see their status" or "omg i can't believe the pics they posted" but the next time they see you it will be all smiles and high fives. funny how we are like that. we live for Drama but hate it so much...

Grooming

so it's friday morning and this is what's on my mind....

last night i let a friend groom me. meaning trim my neck line and eyebrows. now the neckline is a no brainer every guy with short hair has his neckline trimmed. but the eyebrows?? i don't have the greatest eyebrows as it is but after having an eyebrow ring a few years ago and letting my xwife wax my eyebrows they became even worse. now they grow out of control and look like vampire eyebrows most of the time. so i'm always torn. do i continue grooming them to look presentable or let them go rogue and natural. eyebrow trimming for a guy falls in the same category for me as mani/pedi's for a guy...GAY!!

just doesn't seem manly. but then if the chicas like well groomed eyebrows do i suck it up and do it anyway?? i wonder how many men out there actually get there eyebrows waxed regularly...hmm.

Drug test

so today i had to go pee in a cup cause I'm getting hired on with Nissan. the worst part about a drug test...stopping the flow!! seriously you drink like 9 gallons of water to make sure you REALLY gotta go when you get there. then they ask you for what...a couple ounces? torture...pure torture. thank God the lady didn't have to watch me. then i would have had stage fright and flow stopping problems!! no fun at all. that's all for now...just thought I'd share.

My First Tri

so this past weekend i raced my first Triathlon. i am not new to racing, just to triathlon. i have run many different running races from 800 meters to 13.1 miles. i love the race atmosphere. i don't really get butterfly's anymore just a calm excitement. anyway let me walk you through it...

4:43 am...alarm goes off and i almost can't remember why it's going off! my plan was to eat a small breakfast, get my bottles ready, walk the dogs, and take off about about 5:15 since the race was about 1 1/2 hours away according to MapQuest. registration opened at 6:45 and if you know racing you know the later you get there the longer the lines. i don't like to be rushed so I'm always at my races early. so i ate my usual pre-race breakfast, cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and a banana. next i made one bottle for the pre-race and one bottle to take on the bike. my pre-race bottle was 16 oz of water mixed with Base Performance Amino blend (their website is in my links) this stuff is great for endurance athletes who need the proper nutrition for their muscles to handle the demand of a three sport race. my second bottle was 16 oz of water mixed with Accelerade. this is a carb and electrolyte replacement drink. third bottle was just 24 oz of water to drink up until i got to the race. anyway i got my bottles ready walked the dogs and then racked my bike on top of the truck and it was go time!

5:20 am...go time! on the road heading to McMinnville Tennessee.

6:50ish am...i roll in the parking lot and i look to be about the 30th person there. i have to go to pick up my race packet which has my number for the run, and my number to stick on my helmet. it also has tons of other brochures about other races and products. my number ends up being 76. this means there are 75 people that projected a faster swim time than me. at this point I'm kind of wondering how legit that is. (we'll come back to this in the swim portion later) i had heard the rumors already about slow swimmers submitting fast times so that they could be near the front only to get run over by the fast swimmers and causing a headache for everybody.

from hear on out i don't really remember the times until we hit 8 am...

after getting my race bag i head back to my truck to put my bike back together and to get my gear. next step is to head to the transition area. for those of you who don't know, a transition area is exactly what it's called. you go to this area to transition from the swim to the bike (T1) and from the bike to the run (T2). It's here where i am "marked". they write my race number on my right arm and right knee. then right my age on my left calf and my "class" on my right calf. this was my first Tri so i was signed up as a beginner so they stuck a big "B" on my right calf. turns out there were quite a few B's roaming around.

once marked i found my spot on the rack. the rack is where you hang your bike. time to set up my transition area. you want your running shoes, race number belt, and hat in one place and your sunglasses and helmet in another place. so my run stuff was on a towel next to my front wheel. the bike is hung on the rack using the tip of the seat so that your back wheel is off the ground and your bike is facing your exit. my sunglasses were inside my helmet which was sitting on my aero bars.

once i had everything set up it was time to warm up. i put my shoes on and went for about a 5 minute jog then stretched. at this point i think it was about 7:30. next i took my bike out and rode the first mile of the course then stretched some more. now i think its about 7:45 and i start drinking my Base Amino drink. i listened to the race overview and rules then headed down to the pool. i did a quick 200 meter warm up and then stretch and tried to remain loose. at this point it's around 8:15 and the pool deck is filling up fast with the 450 some odd competitors.

5 minutes before race starts...so they are shouting out directions trying to get the first 30 swimmers in the pool. here's where the fun begins. i know you can't really judge a book by it's cover but for the most part you can just a swimmer by their "cover". remember I'm number 76 with a projected swim time of 2:55 for 200 meters which isn't too bad, and 75 others say they will swim faster. i was being modest with this time. so they load the 2 min swimmers first and start the race. 1 swimmer every 10 seconds swam 50 meters went under the rope then back down, under the next rope and back out, under that last rope and swim to the exit, which was a zero entry so that made the exit very smooth. anyway as they are moving through the first 25 swimmers I'm watching and noticing nobody looks nearly as fast as their projected times, even the very first guy. so they start getting the 2:30 swimmers in the water and i say "what the hey" so i get in with the 2:30 swimmers. at this point there are no thoughts. I'm in the water following the line to the starter and I'm in full on race mode. i don't hear anything and my peripheral vision is black.

SWIM...i get to the starter, put my feet up on the wall and hold the wall with my right hand. my left hand is already pointing down the lane...GO!!...I'm gone and i think i might have been smiling underwater!! i catch the person in front of me and tap their foot(means I'm passing you at the wall). i have to slow up a little. she moves over and i pass her at the wall. i catch the next person in the middle of the lane and motor on by. these are the folks i spoke of earlier. they put down swim times that they can't actually finish. anyway after passing this guy in the middle of my second lane i catch the person in front of him and have to do the slow up tap on the foot method again. i pass him at the wall and head down my third length. I'm slightly annoyed because I've had to slow down twice already to keep from bulldozing two swimmers. third length i pass another swimmer in the middle of the lane and again catch the person in front of them and AGAIN the slow down foot tap is in full effect. we get to the wall and i head under the rope. i have one swimmer in front of me that i want to catch before we exit. i catch them half way through. so i think i was about 35th-40th swimmer in the water and i passed 6. now the slow downs actually helped cause it saved my legs a little. total time 2:53

T1...the run from the pool to transition was about 100 yard on the sharpest pavement I've ever seen. extremely painful to run on which slowed my down to hobble. i probably looked like an old man trying to hold in diarrhea while walking on hot coals!! of course we all looked like this. i get to my bike and notice about 10 swimmers still putting on helmets, sitting at their bikes, putting on shoes. i had practiced this part 100 times already. my shoes were already locked into my pedals and i don't wear socks. i simply put my sunglasses on, put my helmet on and grabbed my bike. just in transition i lapped about 10 people. more sharp pavement as I'm heading to the bike loading area. i get to the mat and step on top of my left shoe and swing my leg over. total time 1:11

BIKE...I pedal with my feet on top of my shoes for about 25 yards up a hill. then while rolling down the hill i slide my feet in and adjust the Velcro straps. now it's off to the races. at this point i notice and unusual feeling in my legs...they fill like they are inflated! i don't remember at what stages but i passed 4 more folks on the bike and had 3 people pass me. anyway the bike course had some decent hills on it but if you go up you get to go down. so at some points i was going 15 mph and others i was going 34 mph. i ended up averaging 20.8 mph. it took me nearly 6 of the 11 miles to get my quads to relax. and once they did i felt much more comfortable and was really having a great time out there. the last three miles were entertaining to say the least. now you are seeing the slower folks make their way out onto the bike course and i got to see all types of bikes some nice some not so nice. one thing i noticed. a lot of people riding bikes that they had no business riding. now if i had the money i would be on a 5000 dollar bike too so i can't really blame them. in the last 100 yards i notice the kid up in front of me has a B on his calf. at this point i decide i need to stay ahead of him on the run if i want to place. so i slide my feet out and pedal on top of my shoes towards the dismount. I'm over joyed as i notice he takes one foot out but leaves his other in. he stopped his bike, stepped over the seat, unclipped his shoe then ran to his rack with one shoe on and one shoe off. however i was balancing on my left pedal with my right leg already off the bike. so i was completely on the left side of my bike as i was coming to a stop. i hit the breaks and went straight into a run...back onto that SHARP PAVEMENT, i swear satan must have paved that parking lot!! total time 33:07

T2...i "ran" to my rack and racked my bike by hanging it from the handle bars. i took my helmet off and dropped it while slipping my shoes on. i grabbed my hat and race belt and took off running. i put my hat in my mouth while i clipped my belt on then put my hat on. just in time to grab some water from the first station. which i swiftly dumped on myself since it now seemed to be about 100 degrees. total time :56

RUN...here's where the fun started. when you come off the bike and into a run it feels horrible. imagine trying to run after doing 100 squats. your quads feel like they are filled with silicone and the motion from pedaling throws off your running motion. not 20 yards into the run my left calf begins to cramp. this isn't a shock as it had done it several other times when practicing going from bike to run. it took me a 1/4 mile and three quick stretches to get it to relax. on the run i pass two and nobody passes me. the first mile felt horrible. i didn't wear a watch because i wanted to enjoy my first race and not be caught up on pacing and splits. however i couldn't tell how fast i was running because of how my legs felt. i could tell by my breathing that i was running fast but i felt like i was crawling. the second mile was all about keeping my pace and not dying. i thought to myself "holy crap it's hot out here, keep pushing, i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, geez i want to jump in a pool, i think my legs are going to explode, i can't believe I'm finally doing this". the run at 2 hills, not really that big but after swimming and biking first they might as well have been Everest! they sure felt like it!! so i round the corner and see the finish line. i hear them announce my name and city and the crowd yelling. i gave a goofy pose to the photographer as i passed and a solid fist pump as i crossed the line. i was finally a triathlete!!

after the race i cooled down with some water and waited for the awards. Mom says i crossed the line in at least the top 10...i had trouble believing that. i ended up being 18th over all and 2nd over all in the beginner category. had i raced as an individual i would have been 2nd in my age group. it was the first time i have ever placed in a race. my highest place was 4th in my age group at a local 5k. so now i'm definitely hooked. my next race is in July and its an Olympic distance race. it will be much harder much more painful and much more rewarding. until then i'll keep you posted on my training adventures. hope you enjoyed the read...i know its kind of long.

Test Blog

this is more just a space filler. i'll put something real up tonight when i get the chance.