TIMEX / TRISTAR SHOWDOWN!

A few weeks ago our little training group of Billy Edwards(www.billythekidtriathlete.com), Carole Sharpless(www.carole-sharpless.com), Joanna Zeiger(www.joanna-zeiger.com) and myself were at the pool doing our Saturday AM swim workout. Usually it is some form of torture that JZ has come up with. Anyway, I am not really sure how it came to be, but a swim challenge between Sharpie and myself developed. I think JZ said that Sharpie could "kick my ass" in a 1500 meter swim. I love it when my coach has 100% faith in me! Probably pay back from when she was drinking something out of an Ironman Arizona glass and I said; "Sure ya can finish that?" Clearly you have to have thick skin in this group.

Anyway, the TIMEX/TRISTAR challenge is set for the second Saturday in Jan. It will be a 1500 short coures meter race at altitude in Boulder! I am calling it the TIMEX/TRISTAR Challenge because Sharpie races on Team Timex(www.timex.com/gp/node/n/242470011and) I race for Tristar(www.tristarathlete.com).

My background is running and Sharpie is one of those "fish" people. In 2007 she came to support in Kona (she is the worlds best cheerleader!) and was out for a ride with Billy and JZ and had a horrible crash. Broke both wrists and and really busted her already "not so great" back as well as some other stuff. Basically she was messed up pretty bad. Long story short she is on the mend and as the rest of us proceed to get fat in the off season, Sharpie seems to be getting fitter as each day goes on!

Right now we are very similar in the pool. I know she HATES that I can keep up right now! However, with her swim background, I could be totally screwed by the second weekend in Jan. Swimmers don't loose their mojo. They just put it away for a while and with her new found motivation to humiliate me at the Flatiron pool, it is clear she is polishing up the swim mojo to be nice and shinny!

Lets not forget to mention the fact that I think both her and JZ are trying to sabotage me. First, I show I up to our lifting session and Sharpie is all bubbly and hands me a loaf of pumpkin banana bread that weighed around 12 pounds. "Happy Holiday honey!" Then I go over to JZ's for one of our group training rides because it is as cold as witches fart outside and JZ hands me a basket of homemade chocolate truffles. I know what's up. They know I have no self control and they are trying to fatten me up before the race. Clearly it is working because I ate both treats in one sitting. JZ called to inform me that she made more but this time I stayed away from the house! I'm on to you both!

Regardless of how fat I get from now until the second Saturday in January the race is on. I really think that a swim race is a wonderful idea for triathletes. We rarely do that and in my mind you NEED to race to get better. I think we should race once a month in the pool to get that burn and use it as a marker for where our swimming is. Plus, the race has been a great motivator for the both of us. Sometimes in the winter months (I have been in summer for the last 3 years so I am talking out of my ass) you need that extra motivation!

This race is not just for bragging rights. If I win (which I will!!! OHHH!! YEAH!!!) Sharpie has to scratch my head for 30 min while I lie back and make uncomfortable sexual type groans. If she wins (Whatever!) I have to clean her car inside and out. I might just do it for her anyway cuz that is the kind of guy I am....Awweeeeeee. NOT! Take that shit to the car wash and get back to scratching my head! Haha!

Seriously though, both Carole and I have been working really hard at our swimming and general training. We have the best crew and are so fortunate to be living in Boulder. I think we may film the race so I will try to post some clips if we do that. Even if I get my ass (and mouth) handed to me, I know the effort will ultimately help both of our swimming and that is the real goal at hand.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. I will be sure to post a blog after the Beer Mile and New Years party at JZ's. I have a feeling there will be plenty to write about!

Cheers,
bdc

Proposition 8

Some time has passed now since the historic presidential election of Barack Obama. I am a supporter of Obama and voted for him because of his stance on many of the pressing issues this country faces. However, I do understand the importance of him being the first black man to become a US President. Politics aside, I think it should be recognized as a milestone, even if you did vote for the other guy.

Unfortunately while we took this great step forward, we also took a few back. There were several issues on ballots across the country that pertained to the equality of gay people. Yes, in the "Land of The Free and The Home of The Brave" we spent millions of dollars and hours of time focusing on whether or not two people that love each other can take part in the same union that people with opposite genitalia do. Sounds kinda silly when you put it that way....

The biggest loss gay people saw in the election, besides the one in Arkansas that bans gay and single people from adopting children, was Prop 8 in California (which I will be focusing on) and proposition 2 in Florida. The proposition amended the constitution of California to ban same sex marriage. The issue was previously granted by the California Supreme Court, saying that it was "unconstitutional to deny same sex couples those rights". That is why the opposing side had to attempt to amend the constitution. Now it is "constitutional" to ban same sex marriage.

Organizing my thoughts on this issue is a bit challenging because I have so many. Clearly there is plenty being said about the Mormon Church that encouraged its members across the country to donate to the "yes" side of the proposition. Twenty two million dollars of encouragement. But let’s not give Mormons ALL the credit. You had plenty of other religions with their hands in the cookie jar. Not to mention the hordes of minorities, who continue to suffer from discrimination, casting their vote to ban marriage. I mean, even Dr. Laura Schlesinger, a Jew, is against the idea of gay marriage. I sure wish I could invent a time machine. I wonder where and when I would send her? Perhaps to a time where she could see just how far discrimination can go. Nazi Germany did not start on a large scale. It was a seed that continued to get watered. Prop 8 is a seed.

That last comment might get me in trouble but it leads me right into the sub discussion of this issue which is that of comparing struggle. A huge majority of the Californian black community played a role in passing Prop 8. Many black people do not see the parallels between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement. It seems they feel that it takes away from their hard times. Well, I guess it is more that, what gay people go through is nothing compared to what black people went through and still go through to this day. I totally get that but still think they need to take the time to examine the issue purely from the perspective of discrimination. A perspective they should fully understand.

I think black people should see the comparison to the civil rights movement not as an insult or threat to their struggles but rather a compliment. HELLO! Black people have paved the road on the idea of anti discrimination. And another "HELLO!", Gay people aren’t just white! We come in all colors, except of course, that shade called Iranian. Apparently they don't make that color.

And you also have to think of the issues in terms of percentages. Black people make up a larger percentage of people in this country than gay people do. If there were as many gay people in this country as there were black people I think you would see a higher percentage of anti-gay crimes being committed than you do now.


But let’s forget all that and discuss why so many black people didn't have our back on this issue. Plain and simple, you have religion, misinformation and CHOICE. I am a huge believer that the main reason gay people struggle on these issues is because it is seen to most as a choice or "lifestyle". Can I tell you how much I HATE it when people refer to my being gay as a lifestyle? Doing triathlon is a lifestyle. Being gay is like being left handed. But again, even if it WERE a choice I’d say "SO WHAT!"

Arguing against racism is a lot easier than arguing for gay rights because there is no way to deny the color of one’s skin. Homosexuality is not as “black and white”. Black people don’t have to come out with their “blackness”. It’s hard to continue to argue for discrimination on something that "just is". However, I bet if we put a proposition up in the South to take away some of black people’s rights it just might pass. But hey, it would have been voted on by the people. I guess that makes it okay!

Part of this issue seems to also be that everyone is so nice. I have gotten quite a few "nice" e-mails from my Mormon friends that I had in high school not understanding why I am so enraged at the Mormon Church's role in this. They say things like "we don't hate gays. We just think marriage should be kept between men and women. Would it be okay if we gave you the same rights but didn't call it marriage?" I feel some cursing coming. FUCK OFF!!

It should be noted that Mormons prohibited blacks from holding the priesthood in the LDS Church until 1978. Holding the priesthood was a right given to every other adult male. Without the priesthood, blacks were forbidden from entering Mormon temples like the big one on Santa Monica Blvd that you see in all the protests. They also could not participate in eternal marriage ceremonies there which effectively consigned them to a lesser version of heaven. Mormons place their whole concept of heaven on forming eternal families through marriages or “sealings” in their temples.

Mormons are finally coming around to the fact that people are born “homosexual”. They don’t really like the word gay. The catch for them, which is also the catch in a lot of other religions, is that it is a sin and it should not be acted on. So basically they acknowledge you are born that way but you are never supposed to act on those urges and desires for love, sex and compassion that heterosexual people have. Do Mormons really believe that a god would ever create so many of his children to be gay and consign them to a life of loneliness? And per religion, aren’t we all created in God’s image? Doesn’t that mean that there is a part of God that is gay too?


I am really getting sick of being nice about this. Everyone is hiding behind the "nice" side of this. It is time to get mad. Is it worth getting mad over marriage rights? You bet it is because this goes deeper than marriage rights. Look up the suicide rates of gay youth. Look at how gay teens have been treated. Look at people like Matthew Shepard. When the COUNTRY allows for some of its members to be seen as second class citizens which this marriage crap does, then you justify the public treating them that way.

The part that kills me on this is that it was the Churches that made this happen. I really think the Mormon Church should become an example and loose their tax rights. They had their hands too deep in this political arena. If Mormons were going to lose their rights for practicing religion I would certainly vote for them to be able to keep them. They should be able to practice their religion even if I feel it is a stupid religion. I think most religions are lame but I don't want to take that right away from people. Believe whatever you want just don't impose your views on everyone else, let alone the government. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!

I have heard the argument that some are worried that if gay marriage passed and their priest or whatever didn't want to perform the marriage, he or she could be arrested for discrimination. Give me a fucking break! Churches are absolutely protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and have always had restrictions on who they choose to marry. It's their choice to perform marriages OR NOT and always will be. First off, if your church doesn't believe in gay marriage and you are gay YOU NEED TO FIND A NEW RELIGION!! Secondly, you don't see Catholic priests being arrested for discriminating against people that have been divorced.

Let’s talk about how sacred marriage is. Really? Is it sacred? Is there something sacred about two drunk people in Vegas that get married in a drive through? Look at the freaking divorce rate! Tell me what is so damn sacred these days about it? If you want to save marriage you need to make DIVORCE illegal. Then maybe people would think a bit more before they tie that knot which usually ends up around their neck. If you ask me we need to take marriage out of government all together. Make everyone able to get civil unions and if you wanted to get "married" in your church then so be it. Just don't invite me.

Another problem right now is that people think civil unions are the same as marriage. They aren't. If I have a civil union with your brother and he dies, you, as the sibling, have more rights over him and the estate than I do. I’m talking about inheritance rights -- automatically rather than having it have to go through probate, not having to pay tax upon inheriting the property, and not having to adjust the tax basis of the property if you decide to sell it. The biggest "right" is actually attached to Federal law -- it's rights of survivorship to Social Security and other retirement plan (pension) benefits.

Some people have said "why don't gay people just set things up contractually then?" Well that costs money and we shouldn't have to do it the longer and harder way. EQUALITY people. It ain't that complex. Besides, many of the rights attached to marriage cannot be set up via contract. Same sex partners in a civil union or even opposite sex domestic partners aren't entitled to federal Social Security benefits. That only comes with the word "marriage." Not to mention that if I wanted to add a domestic partner to my health insurance, I would have to pay tax on it. My employer is kind enough to offer it, but because the IRS doesn't recognize same sex couples as "married" even in MA and CT where it is legal, I would still have to pay tax on the cost of that insurance because of the word "marriage." Again, please tell me how my getting married affects you?

I have done quite a bit of world travel in the last 3 years. It sure would be nice to know that if I met someone in another country and it went well that he could come back and live in the US with me. Straight people can do this. I have plenty of friends that are married to no US citizens. In fact, two of my friends that were both non US citizens actually got married in the US. Does that make any sense?


One more issue and then I am done. About the whole "I don't care what people do in the bedroom”: Is your straightness restricted to the bedroom? NO! Is being gay only about having sex? NO! People that say “I don’t care what you do in the bedroom” make me want to drop kick them to the moon! If you are in a straight relationship I want you to take a few days and see how many times a day you throw your sexuality in my face.

“Man! All that straightness just makes me SICK! Do they have to hold hands and wear those rings? It just makes me so uncomfortable when they talk about it. I can't even get dressed in a locker room with out hearing about all those straight guys’ talk about the pussy they got on Saturday night.. And what about those women that go on and on about planning their weddings or talking about how their boyfriends don’t pay any attention to them. ICK!

Clearly I don't feel this way and I hope what I just said sounds ridiculous. "Yeah but if we let gay people have equal rights I don't want my kids seeing that and turning into a Mo." Look people, I have been hanging with straight people all my life, and as much as they try to convert me, nothing has happened thus far. I mean, I do tend to smell my clothes to see if they are clean but as far as having a taste for pink taco.....hasn't happened.

I think the best way to really understand how I feel is by watching this video clip below. Keith Olbermann is not my favorite but he really hits the nail on the head here. I would love to hear some arguments against what he says. And please, get out those bibles so I too can find fun and utterly retarded reasons for stoning you!

Actually, I think I am going to go make up some signs right now and go harass all the fat people for their gluttonous behavior. GOD HATES FAT PEOPLE!!!!! MAYBE IN HELL YOU CAN LOOSE SOME WEIGHT CUZ IT WILL BE LIKE A SAUNA!!!! JESUS DID IRONMAN!!!! THINK OF ALL THE STARVING KIDS IN THE WORLD NEXT TIME YOU GO TO WENDYS!!! FAT PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO BREED!!!! MOOOW!!!! ....Ohh this is fun! Now I see what all those crazy FAG HATERS get out of this. LOL...I'm just kidding of course....

This is the link to the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnHyy8gkNEE

Here is clip with screenwritter and executive producer, David Lance Black. He produced the upcoming movie "Milk" with Sean Penn about Harvey Milk. He was also a writer for the HBO show Big Love. Black is gay and grew up as a Mormon.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

As well, "Talk of the Nation" on NPR had some intersting points about Prop 8. Less than 20 min.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97266934

In The Works....

Hey All,

Don't you worry! My blog on PROP 8 is in the works.....

bdc
Second Class Citizen of The United States

Hawaii IRONMAN 2008

Well the race here in KONA has come and gone. I wasn't very good about writing prior to the race (actually I wrote nothing at all) so I will make sure I keep this short (yeah right). I don't have any pics to put up right now either. Man! What a slacker I have been! I guess it was really just one of those times where ya had to be there.....

Going into this race I had to be very careful not to mistake what I really wanted to do (my ideal) and what I was going to be capable of doing for where I was with things (my reality). Last year I had a pretty good race and a successful season that included many other races. This year was very much the opposite. Less "success" with almost no racing. Ultimately this has all been an effort to get rid of a long standing injury in my foot. In the end, I think my choices this season have been wise and my race in KONA was a step in the right direction.

The one thing I really noticed this year was that I was much more relaxed going into KONA. I never really got that nervous about it so when race day rolled around it just felt like another training day. In fact, I was actually excited to race because I felt like I had just been sitting on my ass for weeks. And that wasn't even true as my taper was only 5 days. The decision to make the taper short was due to my lack of a season and how horrible I felt in the 1/2 I did a month before where I tapered a bit more. Anyway, I was very eager at this point to get it going.

My bike spot in T1 this year was in the coolest place. I was the first bike you saw when in transition. I had number 97 as that was my place last year. 97 racked first in the isle that was closest to the T1 exit. I was the last male number before you started the pro women (how ironic lol). There was no 98-100 so those spots were left empty and then you had 101 which was the number of the new Queen of Kona, Miss Chrissie. I have the strangest feeling that she won't be handing over that crown any time soon (flat or no flat). Since I was in the age group wave that started 15 min later, my bike was going to be standing there all by itself. I would have all the room in the world and not far to run with my bike.

Before the race I was in the same area that I was last year, right near that giant blow up Power Bar Gel. This year every person in my group had a Power Gel in their pocket due to the fact that I didn't have mine last year. It was kinda funny but nothing really comical happened so I might as well fast forward to getting in the water.

I had decided that my swimming was strong enough where I could hit it pretty hard and try and get in with a slightly faster pack. I swam an hour flat last year and wanted to be in that 57-58 group this time round. My plan was to go line up with Scott Davis and use his feet to get me out in the first 400 meters and then I could settle in knowing that he is ultimately too fast in the water for me.

We swam out and got right on the front line dead center. They had us roped in a tighter line this year so it seemed a bit more crowded than last year. As we all floated around nervously awaiting the cannon I started asking people nearby what their projected swim times were. I heard times that made me feel confident that starting where I was would be a good idea (note to self- it was a DUMB idea).

We kept waiting and waiting and finally I looked at Scott and said "When do you think this race is gonna sta...BAAAM!" That always happens to me LOL! I started swimming as fast as I could. And when I say as fast as I could I am not exaggerating. I felt like my life was in DANGER! Never in my whole experience of triathlon has anything like this happened to me in the swim. It was a disaster. I was being engulfed by people, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't take a real stroke I was fucked. That's the king of bad language- but that's what I was. I tried to stay calm even though I have a huge issue with claustrophobia, HUGE! I began to tell myself "this will only last for another min and then it will clear up. I was in shape so just put your head down and swim". Well that was too late. I started to panic. And when I say panic I mean I started to PANIC. I was gonna be that guy that dies in the swim.

Once that feeling kicked in I stuck my head up, stopped swimming and looked both ways to see which was the shortest way out of this mess. I just wanted out of the swim and to be in clear water. This didn't go so well with the rest of the people in the race as I was now in their way and getting pounded by fists. At least my head was out of the water and I could breathe. I did what I had to do and climbed over a lot of people to get to the side. Once there I had to pull myself together fast or I might pull the plug entirely.

Luckily when I came to watch this race a few years ago I was one of the guys on a surf board and had pulled a pro out of the water because he began to panic. That guy decided not to finish the race and I was now in that exact situation. I tried to get that guy to keep going but he decided against it.

I took my own advice that I gave a few years ago and started swimming at a very relaxed pace and tried to find my breathe again. I was so far away from anyone that it was easy for me to do this. The next two buoys I came to, I passed with them on my left. Technically they are supposed to be on your right but we were going in a straight line so it didn't shorten the course at all. There was no way in hell I was going to go near anyone yet. Plus I saw plenty of people ahead of me do that and the officials seemed fine with it.

Slowly I got my confidence back and found some feet. I thought for sure my swim was now blown but it didn't phase me that much. I was just happy to be calm again and before I knew it I saw the turn around boat. This was a bit of relief but I also knew it was going to get crowded again. Sure enough it did and things got physical. I was fine now and did my best to just let my hands glide off anyone I made contact with. Unfortunately some dick head in front of me thinks it is okay to violently kick his feet if he gets touched. His violent kicking came so close to really knocking me out. I understand that some people swim on you to draft and you can get annoyed but in a situation like this, purposely kicking that way could have really hurt someone (me). There is no excuse for violent kicking. I'm having rubber wrist bands made immediately LOL!

The best part of that swim was when I got to the pier I thought, "Boy, this was a piece of cake minus the panic. You aren't even tired!" In all my Ironman swims I always get out of the water being very thankful that it is over. This one felt like a 1/2 Iron swim.

Transition was SOOO crowded. Last year it was pretty empty but this year it was standing room only. I felt like I got out pretty fast and decided to put all my stuff on near my bike. And sure enough it was just me. I looked like I was a pro that really sucked!

Heading out on the bike was business as usual. I passed a few people that I knew straight away and though "that's odd?" thinking they would be miles ahead by now. Then I passed Mark Pietrofessa in the exact spot I did last year. We both commented on it. The bike was turning into dejavu. Lots of people all riding a very uneven pace.

Out on the Queen K there were draft busters all over the place and they were handing out yellow and red cards like a fat geeky hall monitor on a serious power trip. I get that they were trying to fix the drafting issue but doing it in the first 10 miles of the race is a bad place to do it. There are too many people and I don't think anyone was drafting to "get ahead". This race does need some time to thin out a bit and if we can't achieve that after an hour or so then something needs to happen.

Knowing that the motor bikes were hovering around us I tried my best to stay back from other riders but again, people would jump into my legal zone. It was frustrating and equally frustrating if you made a pass and then 5 seconds later they passed you back. There was a gap between myself and another pack up the road. I wish I had the strength to put the hammer down and dump these guys that were around me but I wasn't willing to do it. We came through the 40K mark in 1:04 and that felt pretty easy. I felt good that I was riding well and then WHAM "Number 97! YELLOW CARD!" I looked over and the draft buster was telling me that I got a yellow card. Me and my big mouth had to say something and turned that yellow card into a red card. It was so unfair. Now I had to stop at the next penalty tent and stand down for 4 min. When I got to the tent I couldn't believe how many people would go by in four min. It was killing me! Not to mention that as they went by it looked like giant pelotons. I was so pissed.

Once I was released all I could see were hundreds of bikes up the road. The wind was howling and I was having a hard time shaking the penalty. Staying in the game mentally was my biggest challenge of the ride. Not only was I now much further back than I wanted, the wind had picked up and I wasn't making any ground. I kept getting passed by people and couldn't understand what the hell was going on. Where was my power?

I climbed up to Hawi at a snails pace due to the wind and was again a bit discouraged when I saw where the riders that I wanted to be riding with were. They were miles ahead of me. The only thing that kept me going was to say that they will all implode on the run.

The decent from Hawi sucked donkey balls! I am so glad that I only had 404's on because the wind was not taking prisoners that day. I had gotten out of my aero bars because I felt like I couldn't control my bike. A guy rode up to me and said to get aero and put my weight on the front of the bike. Good advice but it was Kevin Moats giving it and I couldn't keep up. Kevin is in his 50's and I am being dropped. Fun. Well wait, it gets better! I saw a 70 on another guys calf. Funner!

Clearly I wasn't having the ride I wanted but it didn't "feel bad" I just wasn't going anywhere. When I finally got off the decent and made it back to the Queen K I thought I felt fine so maybe now I can try and put out a little more power. The wind was bad the whole ride and any extra power I put out didn't show. Ultimately I decided to just keep riding and hope it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

The last 20K of the ride felt great minus the issue I started having with hot feet. I haven't had hot feet in ages and for some reason they were both burning up. Possibly the scorching KONA sun?? It was just one of those things that I had to block out. For some reason pain like that works well for me. It helps me focus. I have run some of my fastest runs with blisters that felt like cattle prods.

As I got off the bike I wasn't able to get my shoe open so I just clicked out and ran towards the tent. As soon as I made the turn and hit the AstroTurf I went a sailing! My cleat slipped and I went right down on my side and into a a guard rail. That must have been comedy to anyone that saw it. I wasn't too happy but luckily I wasn't hurt. I took the shoes off and ran the rest of the way in my socks.

The next 5 min were chaos in the transition tent. People everywhere and my brain just couldn't really think. I was happy to get out of T2 but as I started running I had this feeling like "this isn't going to go well." I had to think back to a training run I did off the bike where I felt like passing out and then had some sugar and was fine. I knew not to judge things until I had gone about 15 min. Maybe I just had left over issues from the bike. Lord knows I didn't ride very fast so I shouldn't be that affected on the run.

Things did start to open up for me. My legs felt as if I was out for an easy run. I had my Garmen on so I could tell what my pace was. I wanted to know that so I didn't run too fast. Last year I had a 5 mile section that was really bad. I wanted this run to flow the whole way and not have any evident "dips". My goal was to run 3:05 or faster and not have another IM run in the teens.

I had been thirsty all day on the bike. My nutrition plan went out the window because all I wanted to do was drink Gatorade. I only had 1/2 of my gels but went through I don't know how many bottles of drink. On the run it was a similar situation. I just wanted coke. From the first to last aid station all I took was coke. No gels. Just as much coke as I could get in. I did have some water but not very much. It was a gamble but it tasted so good and seemed to give me a nice lift every time I took some.

As I ran down Ali'i Dr. I was passing people with every step. I'm not sure why all these guys rode so hard? They exited transition on pace to run a 4 hour marathon. But I guess that is what happens when you start the run so far back.

I noticed up the road a pro female that seemed to be clipping along at my pace. I figured that if I caught up to her I would have someone to run with, so I picked it up a tad and settled back in when I caught her.

We were moving along at a nice steady pace. I said hi and we had a quick chat about the race. I asked her if she could keep this pace up and she replied with an enthusiastic "oh yeah". I didn't know who she was and when I looked at my watch I became a bit skeptical of the pace. So I waited a bit and then slipped in "soooo what is your fastest IM run?" She responded with 3:00 and I was sold! This was my girl. She knew what she was doing so I thought I would just run with her.

It was really fun to have a buddy on the run. She would drop me in the aid stations as I was having issues with running fast through them and getting in all that tasty coke. But I would catch back up. One aid station I was able to keep it rolling and we made note that it was my best one yet! lol

It was really hot on Ali'i and my shoes were soaked from all the sponges I was grabbing but I felt totally fine and comfortable. I told my new found run buddy that last year when I got to the top of Palani, things feel apart a bit for me. It came out of the blue so I was a bit tense that it might happen again. She reminded me that we were just out for a run and this pace wasn't super fast.

Once we made it up the hill and started our trek out to the Energy Lab, I realized that it wasn't going to be that far. Last year I felt like it took forever to get there and that it was a never ending road. While in Kona this time, I studied that section of the course thoroughly and found it to be mentally short. That made all the difference in the world.

I still managed to drop the ball a bit. About 1/2 way up I was pounding coke and when I looked up my run buddy was now a bit further up on me. This was my worst aid station and I got dropped. That was a crucial mistake. Once the link was lost it was harder to keep moving. I should have made it so that my life was dependant on staying with her. I still kept it going and didn't loose too much time but she ended up running 3:01 and I did a 3:06. Had I stayed with her I would have been around 2:59-3:00 (I caught her about two miles in). But that wasn't the case and I now had to do the rest of the run on my own. We exchanged words when we passed at the turn around in the Energy Lab. She wasn't that far ahead but I didn't have the ability to bridge the gap.

The biggest issue I faced on the run was the weakness in my hips and issues in my foot. My core has been very week from an old injury that prevented me from working on it and at the end of all my runs (last 4 miles or so) I would feel the hip area break down. Since my longest run this year was only 16 miles I could feel the breakdown happening at about mile 18. I knew all I had to do now was just suck it up for less than 10 miles and I could stop.

Running back on the Queen K went by a lot faster than I thought it would and the only slow down I was experiencing was still from muscle breakdown. I wasn't really "tired" and I knew the pace wasn't fast. Once I saw Palani I knew I had made it. Not only had I made it, I looked down at my watch and realized I just might hit my 3:05 run goal. And if I don't, I will still be really close to it. I was so over running outside of the :00's. No more :10's and above for me!!! It put a smile on my face and made dealing with the hip/foot pain easier. Honestly my feet at that point were so bad I actually thought "screw it. Just run em to the nubs and you never have to do this again." I was in the "negotiating" phase of the race LOL...

When I crossed the line my body was done. I saw my dear friend Linda Bless from Bike Works waiting with a towel. I just grabbed the two closest people as my legs went on strike as soon as they crossed. For some reason, even if I feel great after an IM, my legs just stop. I guess they have that right.

Anyway, the race was not really where I wanted to be in regards to placing and the time was slower than I wanted. But I have to walk away from it knowing I had a good swim and solid improvement on the run. I learned alot form the race and dealt with some of the days adversity well. Now it is time for a rest and a plan to fix some things in the gym! I am actually pretty geeked up to race IM again. The biggest thing I take away from this race is confidence. Something about the distance and pressure of racing it clicked in my head. I think the best is still yet to come!

Thanks to everyone that supported me and congrats to all that raced! It was an awesome time and I look forward to next year!

Cheers,
bdc

Go Mary Jo!

It has been a while since I have updated this thing. Honestly nothing that exciting has happened as of late and when I wrote about my training I read it over and thought I had developed a sudden case of narcolepsy! Seriously, nobody needs to hear what I have been doing. I mean, I won't have any numbers to give you and the only people that actually enjoy hearing about training are the UBER number geeks. Shit, I haven't even timed my long rides lately LOL...I just do em.

So what should I write about? The DNC? My mother didn't watch Obama's speech and I nearly ripped her a new one. (As much as a son can truly rip their mother a new one, which isn't much!) I'll just say that I think it is "Un-American" (I love that lame ass term) to not watch both candidates speak. For the last 8 years we have watched G-Dubb's try and talk. The least we can do is watch both of these guys say their thing....But I am not going to ramble on about politics other than saying you need to make sure you are registered and just get out there this November and do it. I don't care if you vote for Gramps and the Tina Fey look-a-like (even though that is a horrible mistake and only a fool would).....JUST VOTE!

The highlight of my recent weeks has actually been regarding my mother. She had come to visit about a month ago and we got to talking about her health and well being as she enters the next phase of her life- 60 and up! She was such a great runner in her day and had all sorts of things go wrong with her feet that led to surgery's and ultimately the end of her running. I have a whole differnt opinion of what happened in the last 20 years that is too long and complicated to go into. Ultimately she had developed some "ideas" in her head that over time led to her getting out of shape.

I used the word "ideas" because that is really all they are. The biggest idea that she had was that she can't loose weight. The second biggest is that she will never run again. We sat and talked about what she does to stay active and what she eats (I am eating a burger from Wendy's right now- Do as I say not as I do!) and came to the conclusion that the ideas in her head were holding her back and that she needed to tweak what she was doing. I promised her that if she did what I said, she would loose weight. Her goal is 20 pounds and it has only been a few weeks thus far and she is already at a 7 pound loss!

One of my favorite quotes that I shared with her is "He who argues his limitations gets to keep them." People do that all the time!!! I can't do this. I can't do that. It's because of this. It's because of that....

Watching her make this shift that is both physical and mental has been very inspiring to me. Success in Ironman doesn't come over night and if it does you either were a kick ass short course guy in the past or have some of that "flax seed" that seems to work so well. My mothers success will not come over night either because she didn't get to where she is now over night. It was a build up of the last 10 years. As I see her make the smaller changes in her life to reach a long term goal it makes me reflect on my own training and lifestyle to see if there are things I can do to continue myself forward as well. I know- PUT DOWN THE WENDY'S BAG!!!!

My mom is my new project. I told her that if she looses 20 pounds we will talk running. She has had some really bad surgerys on her feet and ankles but I refuse to believe that she can't run again. From my own experience with injury I think I can build her up to something. She seems to have the fire now. I will keep my blog posted on her success. I see a marathon in her future at the age of 65! How kick as would that be!!!

Well I talked about my mom this round. And here I thought I was going to talk about how I think there should be category's in Volley Ball LOL. I decided that there should be a division of V-Ball that is for teams with people 5'9" and below with a lower net. Maybe I will get into that next time....Or maybe I will just spare everyone.

later,
bdc

Fitness Update

I haven't really had anything exciting happen in my life lately that is worth Blogging about so I thought I might actually do a real update.

I have not raced since Hawaii 70.3 and have been focusing 100% on getting my fitness where it needs to be and the left side of my body back in balance. I had a minor setback with my foot but patient and smart training has shown to pay off.

The best way to describe what is happening with me is simply a major shift in fitness. In the last few months I have gone from feeling injured and out of shape to quite healthy and fit. I decided to go back to solo training (no coach) after Hawaii because my injury has been so complex that coaching me is a bit of a challenge and ultimately I am the only one who truly knows how I feel. As well, I came to the realization that I know what I need to do. Getting fit is not rocket science.

Today I ran the furthest I have run since the the Hawaii Ironman 07. For me that was a huge milestone. Not only was it the furthest but it was also the most enjoyable. I was off by myself utilizing both trail and road holding a nice sub 7 min pace for the entire run. The best part is that my fitness is 100% on the way and my leg/ankle/foot is only a small step behind. Each time I bump my long run up I do get a tired foot for about the last 15 minutes but after the run it seems to be okay and retains strength that allows me to up the distance for the next one. Distance is one thing that I have added to my training. I run for a specific mileage rather than time.

I am excited to have the itch to race. I still have an entire month before I get to a start line but that itch is going to be great motivation for this next month.

Cheers,
bdc

Fun Shway!

I was going to continue with my "BDC in The City" postings as I had a few more things come up that seem blog worthy. However, I was sent this link from the Slow Twitch forum that was pure comedy! I am not a frequent visitor to the site and a posting like this could be part of the reason.

http://www.forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Thinking_about_a_fern_for_my_workout_space_P1882194/

Hmmm...I guess you will have to cut and paste. ENJOY!

P.S. Parts of this conversation was described as "gay" and I totally get where that is coming from but I gotta say in all my years of being a gay (31) and all the gays I have known, we have never had a dialogue about ferns LOL. I think the real word we are looking for here is NERDS! And I don't mean the kind that get branded "Nerds are Hot". I mean the old school definition of Nerd. Similar to the new school definition of gay. haha.

Okay, enough of this blogging, I better get back to tending to my house plants so that when I ride inside I can increase my wattage and normalized power.......NOT.

cheers,
bdc

BDC in The City: OOOMMMM My God!

It was my first real day in the city. I could hear all the honking cars, sirens and construction that had been going on since about 7am. Coming from Boulder I am used to birds chirping, squirrels climbing on trees and the occasional dog bark. I decided to jump start the day with one of those yoga classes I had found on line the night before. According to the map it was just an elevator ride and one block down the way.

Walking to class made me realize why there were so many yoga classes in the area, There was so much foot traffic that no doubt everyone on the side walk was a constant stress case. I was in awe of how many people there were. I have been to the city many times before but this just seemed unusually high. Maybe it was because Martha Stewart films her show just across the street? Although, who really wants to go see her? "And now we will be making a beautiful and tasty center piece out of fruits and chocolates" *SNORE*

The Yoga studio was on the third floor. It was Beikram yoga like I had been doing back in Boulder which means the room should be around 100-103 degrees. I had become so addicted to it in Boulder that I couldn't wait to get my sweat on! When I got to the studio it seemed really nice inside. Everything was zen as usual and the woman at the front, who was also going to be the instructor, seemed very pleasant as well. She asked me if I had done hot yoga before and I told her I had and was really enjoying it etc. She also asked me if I would like to buy a water for the class. Normally I don't drink water during the class. I seem to be fine and just hydrate after. I told her I would pass. She looked at me as if I was one of those guys who has to do everything the "macho" way and prove themselves. Really I wasn't, I just don't drink water in classes.

Once I was signed in she went over a very strict policy that the studio has. It says ONCE IN THE ROOM YOU WILL NOT LEAVE THE ROOM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. Basically they want you to stay in the room and go into child's pose or something if it gets too hot. I was like "fine whatever". I wasn't planning on leaving anyway. I signed the notice and went to change into my shorts.

The class was just about to start and I walked into the room directly followed by the instructor who proceeded to close the door. "HOLY HELL! WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!!!!" I had not been in the room yet but when I did the smell was seriously making me want to vomit. Literally I had some dry heaves and developed a minor moment of panic. I looked down and saw that the room was carpeted. How can a hot yoga studio have carpet!!! There were about 7 others in the room. As I tried my best to breathe though my mouth I looked around trying to make some eye contact with anyone that might share my issue with the smell in the room. Nobody seemed to have issue but me. All these crazy bitches were breathing hard through their noses and exhaling with that "HAAAAAAAAAAA" sound. The room was extra hot as well. I was used to hot but the temp in here was CRAZY hot. Honestly you could have baked a pizza in there.

My manly pride did get the best of me and I missed my chance to run out of there before the class started. I set my mat up and quickly went over to get some water in the spray bottles that you use on the soft matt to help you from slipping. I didn't pay attention to the bottle I was grabbing and before I knew it I was spraying matt cleanser all over the place. Honestly I didn't care because it was the best smelling thing in the room. I sprayed the shit out of my matt. Sure I would probably have soap bubbles on the mat by mid class but I didn't care! I even managed a quick spray on my finger and rubbed it on my nose to try and kill the smell of the room! The girl next to me saw me do that and moved her matt over a bit LOL. I think people in the room could sense my discomfort. How was I going to make it for an hour 30 of this. I was in Yoga HELL.

Once we all got to the top off our mats for the opening breathing exercises I was getting a bit acclimated to the smell. Or maybe it was the ammonia in my nose? Anyway, as soon as the class started, the instructor who had put on a Madonna like headset was now shouting out commands at mach one to us. Was this really happening? She sounded like a yogi auctioneer. "SHiiiiiivasinavasinavasinavasinavasina, DOWNWARD DOG, UP DOG, DOWNWARD DOG going once, twice SOLD to the lady doing Cobra in the back row!" It was the most uncalled for way to run a yoga class. She kept telling us to "stretch, go further, FURTHER, feel the pain, go beyond the pain, pain is good" etc. Since when is pain a good idea in a yoga class?

My past experience in yoga has been that time can go by rather fast. Classes for me in Boulder are over before I know it. It was no wonder that when I looked up and saw the clock I only had about 45 min to go. Thank the lord! I was already dying of the heat and smell. My matt was soaked and in fact did have a few bubbles on it from the soap spray. Of course the room stank like bad booty as most of my sweat was rolling onto the carpet.

We were doing some poses that had us facing the front mirror for most of the time. But finally the yoga auction was going to take a break and she had us turn around and face the back wall for some seated stuff. My relief of all the standing pose came to a halt when I realized that all this time, which I thought was a lot, was in fact almost nothing. I had been looking at the clock in the mirror. In reality only about 15 min had gone by. How can one mistake 45 min when it is actually only 15? It must have been the heat. I don't know. All I did know was that hope was fading away and I had well over an hour left in the room. I was so thirsty, so hot, so miserable and so annoyed! There wasn't even anyone hot to look at in the room. In fact there was only one guy who was in front of me. He was mid 30's, somewhat over weight and needed a good back waxing. I didn't care. I was desperate. I gave him a mental make over LOL Not bad.

As I cleaned up Mr. Big (We'll call him that to stay in line with the Sex and The CITY theme. Besides he was in fact "big") I noticed he had two bottles of water with him. Only one had been opened and the other was totally full with delicious beads of moisture running down it like it was about to be shot for an Aquafina add. I wanted it bad. I needed it! I MUST HAVE IT! We were all down on all fours doing some easier stuff and I was trying as best I could to get "Big's" attention. All I needed to do was make him understand that I had to have that water and that I would get him a new one when it was over. That is alot harder to do with just your the eyes. I suppose I could have said something as Miss Crazy teaching the class was so loud that you probably wouldn't hear me whisper. Alas I couldn't make contact. I thought about just grabbing the bottle and acting like it was mine but I could totally see myself grabbing it and running to a corner in the room screaming "IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE!" A heat induced tantrum.

I was screwed. I had exhausted everything at this point and was stuck in the room for another 50 min with no water and no hope. We were in triangle pose and I was looking up at my hand as hoards of water came running down my arm at my face. It was at that moment that my inner Miagi kicked in. "You want race Kona! You need deal better with heat!" This whole class was in many ways like my 5 miles of crap on the run last year in Kona. When I realized that I decided that this was my lesson for the class. Sure I was uncomfortable and things stunk (literally). The only thing I could control now was my mind and holding poses. Everything else was out of my control. I decided to go deep within and stay centered for the rest of this class. I focused more on the poses and less on everything else. Of course Miss Crazy had to add one more element and turned up the heat a notch. As if we weren't all dying already! I figured at some point I would stop sweating all together. I mean how much water can I actually have in my body.

We got down to the last 5 min in class. I had made it!!! I felt so much better and really think that if anything this class was mental training for Hawaii. Well it was training for any situation in life that is beyond uncomfortable. When I picked my mat up water went everywhere. I really didn't give a shit. That studio deserved to have a giant puddle left from me. I was leaving my mark!

I took the biggest breath of my life when I got out of there and ran for the shower. I had thought for a while that I would buy several waters and chug them but now I was kinda interested to see how much water weight I had lost. I held back and stumbled my way back to cliffs. He had a scale at the Apt and when I got on I was 152 pounds! Normally I weigh around 161-164! Even if it read low, that was still some decent water loss. I grabbed a huge jug and even found some Salt stick pills and took it all in while again having a nice ice cold shower.

Later that day we were going to head out on a ride into the park. It is about 20 blocks from Cliffs place which would mean some serious city riding for me. I can only imagine what kind of blog worthy stuff it will bring!

BDC in The City.

A while back I agreed to take some time away from my Boulder life and go to The Big Apple to train a bit with my buddy Cliff Scherb (a.k.a Cliff Bar, but I guess now that I have the Power Bar Sponsorship I should just go back to calling him Cliff). Cliff started an online coaching company called Tri Star Athletes ( www.tristarathlete.com ) and we thought it would be fun to do an inner city camp for all the die hards he coaches here in Manhattan.

I was very excited to go on this trip especially because I wasn't going to bring my bike. Cliff has and extra Scott road bike that he was going to let me use. The last time I came into the city with my bike was a complete nightmare! Not having to deal with all that and save on the added costs got my trip off to a very enjoyable start.

When I got on the plane I could tell right away that it was a NY based crew. Everything is very "to the point", efficient and has just a hint of friendliness so that they don't come off rude. It was very impressive the way they can say "All you's people needs ta sit down now!" and not be rude. True skill.

Anyway, somehow I got stuck sitting in front of this woman that had two over grown monkeys...I mean kids...that decided to scream and climb all over the seats for the entire flight. When the flight attendant came by with her cart there was no hint of friendliness but instead a rather large dose of an "un friendly" hint. "Lady your kids cant be climbing all overs the seats and screaming bloody murder while the captains got the seat belt sign on! Are you crazy or something?.....Pretzels?" Okay she didn't say all that but when she got to me I gave her the eye roll and wink letting her now that all of us passengers would back her up if she decided to go off on this women. She didn't and I just got my usual extra snack, a shoulder squeeze and wink back from her. *Sigh*

I of course forgot my headphones and with the new airline crunch they weren't giving any out for free. Jet Blue had the Wimbledon Final on so at least I could watch something that really didn't need the sound. The match between Federer and Nadal was so good it took my mind off the screaming, chair rocking and occasionally peanut flying over my seat. I really wanted Nadal to win. I love Roger and think he is an awesome Tennis player but I go for the underdog 99% of the time. When Nadal took it in the 5th set I found out how many people were watching the match. The entire plane made this huge gasp. You would have thought we were going down. The lady sitting in the aisle across from me was a real hoot as well. She was a blonde (dyed for sure) in her 40's (total cougar) that looked as if she may have been trying to make it in LA for a few years and finally realized Tinsel Town wasn't calling and decided to cart her ass back to NYC. She was watching as Nadal gave his speech and she had her head set on and I am assuming that her ears were a bit clogged because she kept going "AWWWWEEEEEEEE...." followed by a lip smack sound that was so freaking loud you could no doubt hear it from both ends of the plane. Literally every 5 seconds "AWWWEEEEEEEE.....*lip smack*" I couldn't control myself and started laughing. I was so embarrassed because she could tell I was laughing at her. Luckily the captian started the final descent although I would have liked to get up and go to the can so I could stop my laughing. "Awwwwweeeeee *lip Smack*"

I will admit that I felt a little displaced when I got into the airport. I have become so accustomed to traveling in smaller cities except for LAX where I really know where I am going. Here it is like a zoo. Actually it is a public zoo like Lincoln Park. What a dump! But I guess that is part of the lure to NYC.

Cliff had given me two choices to get to his place. I could either take a cab or hop on the train. I only had one bag so I decided to catch the subway. Honestly, taking a cab is like doping. It is expensive and totally cheating! Getting the train was no big deal but when I got off at 23rd st. I soon found out that I was in Queens rather than Manhattan. A cab was tempting but I just got back on the train and took one that was headed towards Manhattan. The great thing about NYC is that you have plenty of landmarks to go off. Cliff was right down the street form the Empire State Building so I just got off when I was in Manhattan and walked towards that.

When I made it to the apt I was quite impressed with the pad. The last time I stayed at a friends in NYC, the bed took up the whole place. cliffs was more like Jerry Seinfeld's place. I can do this for a week!

I settled in and got on line to see if I could find some Yoga classes in the area. Sure enough I found plenty and figured I could go all week for free. Then cliff and I walked downstairs to Whole Foods. It was just like being in Boulder but I was trapped in cement! Hopefully I won't die when we go on some rides. I'm sure there will be plenty to write about in the next few days.

Cheers,
bdc

Half Naked Cougar Spotted In South Boulder.

Well I am back in Boulder after a week of really "bummer" weather in Canada. Ben and I went to watch the ITU World Cup race in Vancouver which was pretty awesome. I have never been to an ITU race before. Matt Reed was racing and I was stoked on that as I have never seen him race in person either. Fifth over all and a damn gutsy effort our there! I hooked up with Kelly (his wife) to watch the race and got a little race of my own helping her run after her very energetic two year old!

Anyway, when I got back to Boulder I was very excited to see my peeps. Teressa Rider who is abandoning us all for a, get this, "MAN" was going to come over to my house for a run before she flew off to be with that "MAN"! Teressa of course had on one of her super cute Jagged running outfits. A nice spandex bottom with a very small jog bra top thingie-ma-whats-it. Shit, if I was rocking her body you can bet I would have something cute like that on too...

The run was nice. I went her pace which is a bit slower than mine and that afforded me to run a tad longer time wise with her. She was complaining that she had a stomach ache when we turned around. Apparently she had a decent amount of beets for lunch. Who hasn't gone for a run where you had a little too much in the belly? Normally when I have these problems my running companion gets blasted with some pretty toxic farts of mine. I'm a little notorious....

We got to about 33 min into it and Teressa wanted to run further before we went back. I had been having issues with my foot again since the race and didn't want to go further so I told her that I would just wait on this bridge near the East Boulder Rec Center while she ran out and back to a parking lot. Teressa has been known to get lost on her way to the bathroom in her own house so I thought it would be safe sending her on this out and back. "Just follow the stream and turn around when you get to the parking lot". She looked around as if to get the land marks in her head before she took off. "OUT AND BACK! GO!"

I waited patiently on the bridge stretching, enjoying the views, finding my inner zen so that I don't go into freak out mode if my foot decided to hurt the next morning. When I noticed that I was feeling quite calm I also noticed that it was because so much time had passed and the Cougar was taking a really long time to do this out and back. "I swear to god....if she got lost....."

A little more time goes by and this women comes running over to me. "Are you Brandon?" she says. "Yeah I am." I must say I was concerned now. Something was definitely wrong because this woman seemed very nervous about whatever she was about to tell me.

"Well your friend is in a bit of distress." Oh shit she's probably hurt I thought. "Ummm she is down by the creek and is bottomless." I don't think my mind registered what she said right away but then I got it and thought, has Teressa pulled a Margo Kidder (Lois Lane) and gone nuts, taken her bottoms off and started running around South Boulder? I know she has been a bit stressed these days but...

"Actually she was going to the bathroom by the creek and some man startled her and she dropped her bottoms and they went down the creek and she couldn't get them. So she is just naked by the side of the creek." When I stopped laughing I had to actually grab the woman's arm and ask her if she was serious. "For REAL!?!" There was no joke here. Teressa was somewhere down South Boulder Creek trying to get it renamed to Beaver Creek. I hoped to god she wasn't running towards the bridge with her hands over her WHO HA. I was fully prepared to pretend I didn't know her and run off! But then I realized how "real" this situation was and that her bottoms were not coming back. I started running down the trail calling out her name. I figured she wouldn't be easy to see so I was looking near bushes and stuff. The women had told me that she was trying to hide near a bridge.

I ran all the way to the parking lot and couldn't find her. It was funny because for some reason when I was calling out her name I was whispering. I was waiting for a "Psst. BDC, I am over here and I lost my knickers." That didn't happen so I started to ask a few people if they had possible seen a small, fit, 1/2 naked Aussie women running around. Most said no, key word MOST, and after I told them why she was 1/2 naked they gave me this look like "That's what you get for having sex with your girlfriend down by the creek!" Now I was getting embaraced. Well, okay I wasn't. I admit, I was feeling like a stud. "uhhh yeah, that's it, she couldn't resist me and made me take her right here on the trail." Everyday I understand the straight male mentality a little bit better...

So when I didn't find her and had asked every person around me if they had seen her, and quite a few had, it gave me the idea that she had gotten help from someone. With that I decided to run back to the house and hope she was there.

When I got back my roommate Lindsay was home and I asked her if Teressa was here and she said no. When I told her what happened she immediately went into "nurse" mode (she's a nurse) and got some shorts a towel and grabbed her car keys STAT! "Come ON! She can't be left out there with no bottoms!" I explained that I didn't know where we should look so she said that we should go to the parking lot. That was where Miss Godiva was spotted last.

Lindsay who is a runner as well couldn't understand why she would take off her bottoms all the way to go to the bathroom. I was dumbfounded as well. I mean Teressa is a veteran athlete, multiple Kona Age Group Champion and was 17th overall at the LA Marathon in her FIFTIES. There is no way this is the first time she has pulled a road side service dump. I was really looking forward to an explanation on this one. We couldn't come up with anything.

Lindsay and I decided to split up when we got to the parking lot. She took the towel and drove over to East Boulder Rec and I took the shorts and ran the track. I couldn't find her again and when I made to East Boulder Rec I went inside and asked the front desk if anyone nude had come in lately. They looked at me like I was nuts but I really didn't want to explain the story. So I left and sat outside waiting for Lindsay to come here. Hopefully she had found her.

Lindsay rolls up in the car and sure enough the cougar had been caged. They were both laughing hysterically. When I got to the car I looked down and she had a United Airlines blanket wrapped around her waist. Apparently some guy ran back to his car and gave it to her. He later saw her running up and down the trail looking for me. His exact words were "Oh, good job. You are going to finish your run."

Teressa was in shock at how many people had been on the trail. "Bloody HELL. There were couples, baby joggers, dog walkers FRICKEN HECK! I just said "Hi" and pretended nothing was wrong. It wasn't until some man offered me some help by getting this blanket." Then she proceded to talk about how cute the blanket was with her top LOL!!! You should have seen how she had it on. It looked taylored!

The only thing left was to get the scoop on why she had taken her bottoms off. Well, she did have stomach problems and went to use a Port-A-potty but, well, just didn't get there fast enough. DOOH! Don't laugh, we have all been there. When she saw the creek she thought "Oh I can just walk down and rinse them out." While in the process of this some man said hi to her and she freaked and dropped them and the current took them away. I guess this actually leads to another question. "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUMP IN AFTER THEM!!!!" With my little Cougar, we may never know.

Fear not Boulderites. The 1/2 Naked Cougar spotted in South Boulder has been caught and transferred to Seattle for the next week. She will be released back into the Boulder wildlife for another two months when she returns so make sure you keep on the lookout!


P.S.- In order for me to get permission to tell this story I had to ad that I am the only one that gets to call her "Cougar". All others must refer to her as Kitten.

Cheers,
bdc

Hawaii 70.3 HONU Race Report 2008

Well the first race of the season is under my belt and I have some really good information on where I stand physically and mentally. I had two goals for this race which were to grab a Kona slot and not get chicked. I know that sounds a bit lame but there were some top notch females in the race and I felt that if I could hold them off, my day wouldn't be too bad. However, as you will see, both goals were just barley met!

The week leading into the race did not consist of much. My training had just started to come around and I didn't want to do anyting the week leading up that would make me tired. The mind set was still focused on health and not doing anything that was going to upset my foot. The race would be enough.

The days leading into the race were really windy down by Hapuna Beach. I wasn't too excited about that because I knew deep down that a windy day for me was going to be a hard day. Granted, all windy days are hard, but I knew where my bike strenght was and for me to ride strong I was going to need a calm day with favorable winds. Race morning was anything but that.

I had to accept what I was in for and try and go at this with a positive attitude. I had been swimming much better lately and thought I might be in the position for one of my all time top swims. Unfortunately that did not happen and the swim was in many ways a wash. The race changed its venue to a deep water start rather than a beach run in because last year certain people decided to run along the beach and cheat. Stuff like that just gets me. Anyway, the set up was that all swimmers needed to be between two orange bouys. I decided to line up towards the deepest one to avoid the merge of people as much as possible. The problem was that all swimmers on the line were shooting for one bouy that was about 600 meters away and then will have to make a 90 degree turn. With the Hawaii IM start you have such a long way to go before you merge that things thin out a bit. This was looking like it was going to be pure chaos.

It actually got worse before the gun. It seemed that more and more people were coming over to the section that I was in. The pro filed was over here as well and they kept inching forward. To be fair, the current was pulling us all past the line and the swim crew kept trying to push us back. I of course decided to grab the bouy so I would stop drifting. That was dumb. I should have stayed on the front line and just got yelled at like everyone else. There were several people with surf boards and a guy on a jet ski right in front of us screaming that they would not start the race until people got back. There was no way that the race would start with this entire section blocked by officials. "BANG!"

I couldn't believe the race gun just went off. I was about two rows back and had a jet ski right in front of me. I got stuck so far back and was getting kicked and whacked more than I ever had in any triathlon. It was so bad that it was just stupid! There wasn't a damn thing I could do. When we got to the first buoy I thought I might have a chance to get out of it. But no, I was with people that felt a break was needed when they hit the buoy. I stoped being nice and started pushing people under. I was the jerk grabbing legs and heads and literally crawling over you. Even that didn't work. I was just stuck. The swim was going to be a write off at this point. I just put my head down and smacked feet for the rest of the way. It felt like we were going so slow. It was like a Dave Scott workout on a hot summer day!

At least I wasn't expending that much energy on the swim. When I finally got out of the water the time was a high 28 min. Bad but not horrific. When I saw some of the people that I came out of the water with I knew that it was most likely that way for everyone unless of course you can swim sub 26 min. I don't care that much about my swim times though. They are what they are...

The run to T1 is a bit long and up a decent hill. It is best that you don't run up it like Carl Lewis. Of course some people do and it just makes me smile.....well laugh. Another thing that makes me laugh is my transition times! What the hell was I doing? I must have sat down and had a coffee or something as I checked them against other peoples and I was 2 min slower than everyone. TWO MIN!!! That is so lame. At least I know I have some "free speed" for my next race. That could have moved me up a few places overall in the race.

Once out on the bike I tried to find a rhythm. Ben Cotter and Mike Montgomery were in T1 with me and I know that both of them are very strong riders. I wanted to see if I could keep them in site. That so did not happen. I did move up a bit but then we turned around to head up towards Hawi and the wind was taking it's toll on me. I actually got passed by quite a few people on the bike. There was a group ahead of me that I figured had Sam McGlone in it and I couldn't make any ground on them to save my life. Johnathin Toker passed me on the climb as if I was standing still. I think I have ridden longer and harder in training rides. But none the less it was where I was at. I thought that I would get a break when we turned back down but it seemed that we only got a brief tail wind and then it was back to a cross wind. I just wanted off the climb at that point.

When we got back on the Queen K I was passed by a good number of people including a female pro. But wait it gets better. I couldn't even sit legal and keep up with her LOL! Mitch and a bunch of others rolled by too. I was now getting a bit discouraged. Even if I could pull off a good run I was now pretty far back. I think there was a bit of concern on my part about the run as last year it was my slowest run in my entire triathlon endeavor. This was going to suck if we had a repeat of that.

When I finally made it to T2 and got off the bike the legs felt like I rode all out. My quads were heavy and running through T2 was not pretty. I had a really hard time finding my rack number and had to stop and get someone to find it for me. I was in super lame mode at this point. But none the less the shoes went on and off I went.

Mitch was stepping out of the porta potty as I ran by and he said something to me. I think he wanted me to run with him but the way things were going I needed all the time I could get and just ran off. I had my Garmin 305 on for the first time and the damn thing didn't pick up the satellite until about 2 miles into the run. Part of the reason I am not a gadget guy is that when they don't work it frustrates the hell out of me and causes my mind to think about things other than running. My goal on the run is to get to that point of ultimate discomfort as fast as possible so that I can acclimate to the feeling. One of the keys to running fast for me is to get as uncomfortable as possible and then bank on my fitness to tolerate it. If you are in shape then each mile should feel a bit better and you can push the level of discomfort. Hence my ability to run negative splits on the run. I don't recommend that in an IM though...It doesn't work!

I achieved that level of discomfort from step one and when the watch finally kicked in I couldn't believe how slow my pace was for the perceived effort I was putting out. There was still a part of me holding back though because I really didn't want to bonk on this course like I did last year. I just kept focusing on the next person in front of me and roped them in. It wasn't until some guy with a 43 on his leg passed me that the fire really got lit. I know I wasn't having my best day but I rarely get passed on a run and to have it be by some 43 year old guy was just not gonna happen. Not that 43 year old guys can't run.....

He was moving at a good clip when I caught back up to him but I could tell by the way that he was breathing that he had bitten off way more than he could chew with his pace. I used him for a bit to get my own pace up and then took off. I saw the pace on my watch start to drop and began to feel the best I felt all day. I was now on parts of the course that was pure hell to me last year. Feeling good at that point was the green light to turn it on. I had about 3 miles to go and I was able to drop sub 6's for all of them. My last mile and a 1/2 felt really good. I now had people insight that I thougth were out of my reach. Sam and Jonathin Toker were two of them. I really did not want to get beat by Sam today and knew that JT was in my age group. At this point it wasn't a matter of "Can I?", It was a matter of "Do you want it bad enough?" My body wasn't going to fail but it would be hard to convince the mind to go to a place that is that uncomfortable. I didn't have much time left so I really had to treat this like I was in a 5K road race.

I passed 2 others on my way up to them, all of which were in my own age group, and then saw Sam take off away from JT. There were two aid stations left and I had to blow them all. In fact, I should mention that this race was somehow done on almost nothing. I had a Power Gel before the swim and on the bike I had one Gel and a bottle of sports drink with a few chugs of water. I think the wind was one of the main things that prevented me from getting more. But on the run all I had was coke at every other aid station. I had JT's salt stick pills with me and never took any and only had a sip of water. Not sure why, but I never felt like I needed anything. So by this point skipping an aid station was no biggie.

I didn't catch Sam until the last 400 meters. As I ran in I could hear "And here she is. Defending champion....". All I wanted was to get to the finish and get out of there. I felt like a dick passing her at the end and didn't want to be in the way of her glory moment LOL. None the less my fast last 1/2 got me my Kona slot. I would have been about 4th in my age had I not got motivated to pick it up. I didn't win but finished second and luckily first place was from Hawaii so he got an island slot and I got the international one. His name is Flanagan and he swam something crazy like 23 min. I think he went to the Olympics for swimming. Anyway, he and I were on the bus to the airport and he said this was his first 1/2 and that Kona will be his first full. I think you will see something special by him on his first go at it.....just a hunch.

It was a great trip and if you look at the results our entire crew there took a good number of the Kona slots! Ben Cotter (25-29) Myself (30-34) Mike Montgomery (35-39) Mark Peitrofessa (40-45) Scott Davis (40-45) Linea Alford (35-39)

Great job to all that raced!

Big Decisions

This was a pic taken up in Canada. I was on a run with Ben (who is Ben you ask?) and I saw this giant log thing and realized that it looked like the worlds largest turtle! It really looked like it might get up and walk off at any moment.


So this last week was filled with a few big decisions. The first being the Supreme Courts ruling in California on gay marriage. I am not going to get into that now but will later as the whole thing is more complex than it appears and I want to spell it out with all the facts. The second is related to my triathlon life. I decided that I am going to race one more year as an age grouper and have given up my pro card.

This was a decision that I was thinking about for the past few weeks. I talked to a few friends around here that I trust and it seems that everyone was in favor of me switching back. With the injury I faced this last year I don't think I am ready to step it up a notch just yet. I may still make the gains that I want to this year but I think that it would be a lot harder with the added pressure of racing pro. Even though racing "pro" is in some ways just a "classification" I still found that there are pressures around it that I really don't need right now.

I do eventually want to race pro but only when I am confident that I can race at that level. I see a lot of guys out there that have the talent but don't cut the mustard when it comes to results. Having a year like that will not benefit a guy like me. Gordo and I talked allot about the "enjoyment factor" and I realized that I wasn't enjoying what I was doing as much anymore. I think it came from this feeling that if I raced pro I was going to have to be spot on every time I came to the line. Granted, that is based alot on just worrying what other people think and maybe that is the case. I just don't want to go to a race as a pro and finish 3rd in my age. I think that's silly. But that's just me.

What I want to focus on now is having a solid year so that I do make even more gains that allow me to have the confidence to race pro. Part of that is going to be having an injury free year. So far we are still on track. If I raced pro I think I may have felt the need to rush things and that might put me back to square one with my foot. In the age group field I can relax a bit and go at my own pace. Besides, there are PLENTY of awesome age group athletes that make the field pretty damn competitive!

Some may ask how I was able to have a pro card and go back to age group this year. The simple answer is that I haven't raced yet. I never raced pro in 08 and called USAT to make sure all this was kosher and have been cleared etc.

With the switch back I also found some fire starting around an Ironman. I clearly don't have the fitness right now to do an Ironman anytime soon but as my body becomes stronger and the injury, plantar faciitis (AKA Schizophrenia of the foot) goes away, I think I would like to get a Hawaii slot and build up for it later in the year. I'm not totally sold on the idea yet but I will take my slot if I get it in Honu or anywhere else. I just love that race and had a blast last year. Having another crack at it as an age grouper seems like a great challenge to me. I was 97th overall last year so 75th seems like a nice target :-)

Training is going well and I just had a test on the bike over at Gordo's "Endurance Corner Lab". I showed signs of improvement and have actually found the testing to be helpful. I was such a skeptic before and really had no interest in it. But now I quite like it and enjoy using my power meter and dare I say heart rate monitor a bit. If anything I think it is fun to go in the lab and try and beat your last test or show that the bod is more efficient. Matt Steinmetz does the test and is really good at getting you to give it towards the end when it gets hard. And yes, this is a blatant plug for Endurance Corner! Those guys have been really good to me from the start and they have a good little show going on over there.

Well I am now a few days out of leaving for paradise to go race Honu. Lots of great friends racing from all over the world and Ben! "Whose Ben?"

Cheers,
bdc

Denver Academy Diversity Day

I haven't got my site complete yet so I am going to use this blog for a non tri post (like I said I wouldn't LOL) The pic above is an attempt to balance it out. Marky V had asked me if I wanted to go Snow Shoeing up in the mountains for some "cross training" and this pic is from that day. That is actually Mark in the pic....

This last week I had the privilege of being a guest lecturer at The Denver Academy High School for their Diversity Day. I was asked to speak about the Matthew Shepard murder and also share my own personal experiences with coming out and growing up gay.

The day was broken up into two 55 min sessions followed by a lunch session with all the speakers and students for a larger discussion section. I didn't have that much information on what the day would be like so I kind of went into it a bit blind. I had several things prepared and decided that I would make a really quick assessment of the situation and go from there. For the most part I am really good at "winging" it.

When I got there I found I was a bit nervous. I haven't really talked on this subject to a group this young and wasn't exactly sure how they would react. I figured it would go both ways with some kids being accepting and others not so much. I decided that I would try and make the sessions as interactive as possible and encourage questions and sharing. However, I was going to stay away from anything that dealt with sex, religion and politics. That isn't so easy to do with this subject because right now that is the "hub" of homosexuality. It is heavily in the political arena, religions battle about it and well, part of being gay obviously involves sex. So how was I going to go about this staying away from the big three?

It turned out to be much easier than I thought. Most of the kids were really interested in my story and I easily transitioned most of the talk into a larger scope that dealt with the way in which we all judge people. I think the idea is not to stop judging but rather, where do you go after your judgment? It would be nice if we didn't judge people as much as we did but it seems we are hard wired to do it. We need to start taking our judgments and question the reasons we have them. Much of the information that we obtain on a certain subject or group of people is not correct. Taking a moment to think about things a bit more will help with that realization. I catch myself doing it. I will have developed an opinion on something and then realize that my information on it is limited and sketchy.

In regards to homosexuality, many people have very strong opinions about it that are based on miss information. Some of the questions I get absolutely floor me. "So when you are in a relationship, who is the guy and who is the girl?" That is my favorite one!

All in all I found the kids at this school to be WAY smarter than most adults on issues of diversity. It gave me a lot of hope to see so many smart young individuals that get "it" on so many levels. My talk probably would have been more effective if given to the parents.

It really is all about education and obtaining truthful information. I try to check myself when I have an opinion about something that I don't have that much information on. Even if it is as simple as my thoughts on a movie that I haven't seen. I realize it isn't fair to comment on it. People need to stop making comments on things that they know nothing about. We do it ALL the time. I do my best these days not to. It is okay to not have an opinion on something and just say " I really don't know". Lets all try it.

UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race

What a difference a few weeks make! I have noticed that in the last few weeks things have really turned around. I was in a physical and mental slump in regards to triathlon for a decent amount of time and I am seeing a very bright light at the end of this tunnel. I say "this" tunnel because as we all know, it would be foolish to think that it would be the last "tunnel" when doing triathlons. It's part of it and the people who manage those times best seem to do quite well.

Anyway, as I said, things are on the up and up. I had made a quick last minute trip to LA this weekend. It just so happened that I had a meeting out there on Friday and the UCLA Cross Country Alumni Race was on Saturday. I had not been able to go to the race in the last two years so I was pretty stoked that I would be out there.

The race is a 2,400. I think we figure that is long enough but not too long while short enough but not too short. The race had been taken off the track because it was felt that the track was too intimidating and attendance became low. That was fine with me as I was in no shape to run a 2,400 on the track.

The race site was on our old stomping ground in Brentwood. We met at 26th and San Vicente which is one of the major running areas in LA. I can't begin to tell you how many times I ran up and down that strip while in college. Even when I was younger I ran and raced there as my parents always took me to the Brentwood 5K/10K race. I think I actually ran it when I was under the age of 10!.

San Vicente has a huge grass median that we run on and there are these really big trees that have roots that pop out of the ground about every 20 feet. If most people are not careful they are sure to go down. Back in college we could run that strip with our eyes closed and never hit a root!

So the race, which I decided to take part in, started at the top of SV and 26th. When I rolled up in the car I was shocked to see Bob Larson standing there. I had no idea that the "Bobcat" would be there. He had his mega phone in hand just like old times. Bob is now the head Olympic Track Coach and well known for coaching my former teammate and high school rival Meb Keflezigi. Meb had that extra something back then that we all lacked which took him to a Silver Medal in the Olympic Marathon. That extra something wasn't necessarily athletic potential. The guy was just mentally mature to a point none of us were. I guess that is what happens when your family flees a war torn part of Africa. Most of us were taking our college time for granted......

Meb wasn't at the race but he had planned to be at the UCLA/USC track meet going on later that day. A few of the guys I knew and ran with were there, most noticeably Matt Olin. He was my best friend in college and is exactly the same today. It was a real trip to be lined up on SV next to Matt with Bobcat giving us the workout.

I had debated not to do the run because of the fear of possibly injury. But I gave in and decided that I would do it. I figured I would have a "get out of jail free" card on this one. I was the most "trained" guy there and to sit on the sideline was just dumb.

After Bob got done making his jokes like he always did (some funny, others horribly painfull!) he sounded his horn and off we went. It didn't seem like we were running that fast but in a few min a could feel my lungs burning a bit. That could have been from the speed or the smog! I just kept chugging along and was laughing that I was so far back. I had to take it out a bit slower as I think all this IM training has made me slow. I haven't done any top end running in a few years other than races and boy could I feel it.

Bob was standing at the mile marker with his horn yelling out splits. I didn't have my watch on and figured we were running about 6 min mile pace. We came through at 5:01 LOL! No wonder my lungs were burning. Who knew I could run a 5 min mile out of the blue like that?? We kept the same pace for the rest of the race which was only 800 meters more. When it was done I felt like I had taken a shot of battery acid. To think we would do 8 of those at a pace much faster and not really even notice it until number 7.

Matt and I decided to go on one of our old runs since we were down that way. We headed to the Santa Monica Pier and actually ran our to the end of it. Matt and I were the only guys who used to run all the way to the end. We always felt that if we were down there we might as well enjoy it. The water looked really nasty and it pains me to think LA Tri Club people swim in it. I used to do that. Yuck!

Once back from our run which was about an hour total we gave a good stretch and then I had to rush off. I was doing a charity spin class for the Aids Life Cycle. It was an hour 30 class and was trying to figure out how I was going to be able to do that now. All in all the class was fine. Spinning is so hard if you don't do it. Even with bike fitness it still gives you a much harder workout. I think that is because it requires a strength that we don't really use on the bike. I liked it alot and found myself super sore the next day.

I was worried that my decision to do the race and the spin class would hurt me but it didn't at all and I really think I might be able to start training my top end a bit more. After the the Alumni race it made me realize that if I was injury free I could totally get myself back in to 15 min 5k shape. That is only 3x4:50 mile. If I can do a 2,400 at 7:20 pace off nothing a 15 min 5K is not that far off. But not that I am going to train for that. However, it did give me some confidence that I could get down to my 1:15 1/2 ironman run time. So we will see what happens.

As of now I am still going to proceed with caution. I have decide that Hawaii 70.3 (Honu) will be my first race. Looking forward to it and will keep the postings current on how the training is going. The new site should be up around Friday where I will be starting my other blog that doesn't talk about triathlon or sports.

Cheers,
bdc

Update

So I never wrote about that last day in AZ. It isn't really relevant anymore but lets just say it was a long day with a super climb and plenty of heat. Good times as usual.

I am not the best at keeping up on a blog and I think it is actually because I have too much in my head and I can't decide what to talk about and then I just end up saying nothing. I pride myself in being a triathlete that can think beyond SBR and don't like to blog on and on about training, watts and heart rate. But it seems that most of the stuff I want to talk about these days revolves around my training and I just decide to not geek out and end up with a blog that isn't updated.

With that said I think the best decision is to start two blogs. It may sound crazy but I think I will actually be more consistent with writing if I have one that is dedicated to training and one that is just about "stuff". I suppose there are people out there that might enjoy reading about my trials and tribulations in triathlon. It would also be a good exercise for me. Writing tends to ease my frustrations. With that said I will make this update about training....or lack there of.

It's funny that I use the word "lack" in my description of training because I am clearly not "lacking". I'm just not going as long or hard as I have in the past. This is a very deliberate choice. After my time in NZ, Canada, and AZ I got back to Boulder and just realized how deeply tired I was. Tired may not be the correct word because it seems to be both physical and mental, but none the less I wanted to slow down.

The reality is that my training has reached a point where gains are not really happening. I see repeated injuries and with that I see mental burn out. You can only go so long dealing with the S.O.S. I talked a little bit about some of the changes I made in the run department in a prior blog. That ultimately led to even bigger changes.

Gordo and I had a chat about things and we both came to the conclusion that it is in my best interest to not do an Ironman this year. I had been on a program that was geared more towards health but G and I made some big decisions that really back that up. Here they are:

* No Ironman this year.
* No rides over 3:30, runs over 1:30, swims over 4K.
* No Bricks
* No back to back hard workouts
* Riding only ever other day. Swim every other day. No swim, bike, run day.
* Get running consistant.
* No racing until healthy.

When I decided to make this my new training "law" I felt like a million brick were lifted off my shoulders. Don't' get me wrong, I still have some challenging goals in the sport, but I just dont see them coming true until I get a break. Not to mention I was turning into someone that just didn't really enjoy it anymore. Ultimately I enjoy training sooo much that it would not be wise of me to continue down a path that makes it my enemy. I mean, if that happens all goals in the sport are done.

In the past few weeks I have been following my plan and the great news is that my feet don't hurt anymore!!! I took my orthodics out of my bike shoes too and the very next day I didn't wake up with heal pain and I haven't since. You may think that is because I haven't been running enough but I have run 20 days in a row in racing flats with my most recent runs being between 30-50 min.

All the bike sessions I have done have been around 2 hours just cruising. I go out with Marky V on his easy days and ride with people that I don't normally ride with because I am just chillin. It is really nice. Too bad I am not straight as I am finding all sorts of hot girls to ride with LOL!

The funny thing with this new plan is that even with the time off swimming because of my shoulder, I am swimming faster than I ever have! I went to a Dave swim the other day and lead my lane in a main set of 15x200 and was hitting 2:40-2:45 (meters) on a good number of the back end with my slowest one being 2:55. I think it was one of the first swim workouts I have had in a long while where I felt truly present. I didn't have that tired feeling that I always seem to have. And then to know that I don't have to go ride 90 miles just put a big smile on my face! I went home took a quick nap and then went about my day. I think the reduction and rest is going to be really good for me.

So that is the athlete update. I should actually have a website up by May 9th and I am very excited about that because with the reduction in training I am going to focus a bit more outside myself with some added coaching. I get a huge kick out of helping people meet their goals and pride myself with getting people under 3 hours for the marathon!

I will make the switch to two blogs once the new site is up. It will be brandondelcampo.net as I lost the .com on accident and now some British guy owns it and wants $1,500 dollars for it. Good luck with that!

Cheers,
bdc

Arizona Training- Final Days

Well the last three days of camp are done with and I am back in Boulder. It was basically a 2 day block for me as I only did a 45 min run on day 6. It was too bad that I wasn't running more as we went to the Cactus Forrest which is filled with some really awesome trails. I was jealous of all the guys that got to do a 2 hour+ run. I still noticed some twinges in my feet. Honestly I am more concerned about the right one now as it is "new". The left one just feels bad in the AM but seems to go away. I am making some changes that I think may help in the long run (no pun intended)

My last two days at camp were really solid. On day 7 JD, Matt, Jonas and I went out for a separate ride. The main group was going on a two hour ride in preps for the long day 8 "Kit Peak" ride. I opted to go longer because of the lack of swimming and running. Plus it gave JD and Matt some extra people for their ride.

We went out on 86 which would be the direction we go out on Day 8. The plan was to ride 40 miles out to the base of the Kit Peak climb and then turn around. We turned off onto 286 at some point which was the wrong way to go. We just went out until we hit 35 miles and then turned around. Going out we had a bit of wind and some rollers that were more "up" than down. It was a main ride for JD and Matt so they were going at a good clip. When we turned around we dropped Matt but I think it was just that he didn't have any aero bars on his bike. Gordo seems to think we smashed him which may be the case as he has ridden pretty hard all week. But I am sticking with "lack of aero bars" as my story :-) Jonas randomly turned back 10 miles into the ride. He had a blister or something LOL.

When we got back we did a little run in the trails behind the compound (camp home base). The run was pretty good for me and I am always thank full when I get to run. I have noticed that one of the problems I have is that running on a surface that is not flat or level like a street, I really run a high risk of twisting my ankles and feel totally unstable. This should not be the case with me given my cross country background. I love trail running but over the last years I have noticed some issues with it.

What I have decided due to a few things I have read and some basic common sense is that I need to get out of my current shoes and orthodics. When I ran in High School and College I was not accustomed to running in super supportive shoes. We ran in light trainers and even lighter racers. I have a pair of my old CC racers at the house and was looking at them. I put them on and could not believe how "nothing" of a shoe they are. Then I put on my current trainer and felt like I had on platform shoes that someone might wear because they have issues with being short.

Here is what I think happened:

Over time shoe companies started making training shoes that had more and more support and over time most people ended up in a much firmer shoe than is needed. I did a decent amount of running in shoes like that but would also switch down to an ultra light racing shoe that didn't have anywhere near the support. So over many miles in the more supportive trainer, my bodies own muscles that are used to keep me stable became weak. Finally one day when I put on the light racer and ran hard I injured my foot because I was overworking weakened foot muscles and tendons.

Of course when you get injured you end up being told that you need more support, motion control, orthodics etc. And maybe you do in the early stages of the injury. But after a while you become so "addicted" to them that you find walking bare foot or without the support terribly uncomfortable.

It has been argued in several articles that I have recently read that states people who wear cheaper, less supportive shoes have lower rates of injuries. Some of these articles have also stated that the impact your body takes in these heavier shoes can be worse than if you were running with bare feet. Hard to believe for most. I was for me but when I really sat down and gave my running some thought certain parts of this theory started to ring true.

For one thing, not only do I feel less stable in the "more stable" shoe, I also feel that my body is not reacting to the surface of the ground as fast as it needs to. Think about it, When you walk or run your body is sending signals to your brain that tells your body what muscles to fire to keep you up and going. If you have all this shoe under you, well you are going to be getting "blurred" messages and delayed signals. Running for me in the past two years has taken a toll on my hips as well and I am wondering if it is because my form is being altered due to the thick shoe?

The question now is really to figure out what is going on. I can't continue on the path I am on. I am often angry and unhappy about my injuries and if they continue I will need to stop all together. That would suck. But at least at this point I have less to loose with decisions I make.

Here is what I have done:

I got out my racing flats that I ran in all year. They are much "less" of a shoe than my trainers. I took out my orthodics and put in the standard insole that comes with the shoe. Then I proceeded to put on way too many clothes as it is cold as crap here in Boulder and went out for a little jog.

I could tell instantly that I had a better "feeling" of the road. It almost felt barefoot to me! But I kept on and ran out for 10 min and then turned around. The feet felt pretty good on the run. I understand that making the switch back to a basic shoe is going to take some getting used to. I won't be able to jump right into this but I am hopeful that if given the proper acclimation period, I will get back to my roots of injury free fast running. Like I said, I have nothing to loose at this point.

Here is my plan:

I was scheduled to race Wildflower and Ironman CDA. All that is on "pause". It is uncertain if I will do either. It is also uncertain if I will even do an Ironman this year. The stress of trying to train for a race while you have multiple injuries going on is too hard and ineffective. This is a bit hard for me to digest as I love to race and proved it last year by racing a ton. Granted I did quite well for where I was but it seems I am left now in a state that is unproductive. Is that due to all the races I did on an injured body? Maybe? Does that mean that racing alot is a bad thing? Not in my mind. There are plenty of people out there that race all distances all the time and do VERY well. I think the key to that success is that you can only race a ton when you are injury free. As of now, I am not.

This week back in Boulder is going to be filled with VERY short runs in the lighter shoes paying close attention to how the feet and body are adapting to the change.

The bike is going to be cut back as well. There will be no long rides and nothing too fast. That won't be hard with this weather! For the most part my riding focus is going to be about recovery. Gordo and I both agree that I have put some decent work in and that letting the body absorb it is not a bad thing.

At camp I got a second cortisone shot in my AC shoulder joint and that took a large majority of the inflammation down but swimming still aggravated it and I have pain throughout the day. However, I took the last few days off from the pool and have noticed that many of my muscles in my arm and shoulder are sore from that one simple 2K swim that I did on Day 8. That is probably a good sign because it just means that the surrounding muscles need to get back up to speed in order to support the joint. Dr. J thinks that that shot may take a few days to have a full effect and that I can work swimming back in at small doses. I am also going to schedule an MRI as the burning sensation I feel might indicate a tear. If that is the case then we deal with it. I know plenty of people that have had a tear there and a simple procedure can be done to fix it and the success rate is very high. But I would really prefer avoiding that route. I am going to try a 1,500-2K swim every other day and see what happens. Again, nothing to loose.

Once I get some of these things sorted then I can figure out what a good basic week will look like for me. Until then it is operation "Fix BDC"!

I guess I never got to Day 8 of the camp. I will write about that in a separate blog as it was a very decent day and deserves it's own blog. I am SOOOOOO glad to be off the road and back HOME! IT has been a long 3 months.

Cheers,
bdc