Friday's Quote

"You cannot tell people you're committed - You cannot just say you're dedicated - You cannot simply talk about your strength, your grit, your perseverance - You have to prove it"

Lance Armstrong

Kevin Goes Swimming

Like most kids that grew up south of the 49th parallel, summer meant one thing - swimming at the local pool. I was no exception. I got up in the morning, jumped on the bike and rode that 1/2 mile to the pool, lunch in hand. Swim team went from 9-11, then everyone ate lunch and spent the rest of the day messing around the pool. We played all sorts of games like sharks and minnows, marco polo, gutterball and the diving boards were hours of entertainment. Come suppertime, everyone went home, only to repeat the entire process the following day. Those really were great days.

So when I thought triathlon and swimming, I thought "no problem", completely blocking from my mind the corporate challenge 5o meter swim from last year where I almost drown (a story for another time). I knew, however, that before I could even consider an Ironman, I had to make my return to the pool.

And I did this for the first time Monday night.

Of course, I have no idea of how to start or what an appropriate warm-up entails, so I just jump in and go.

About 20 meters.

Unfortunately, the pool is 25 meters. So I take one huge gasp of air and finish it off.

Winded.

Embarassed.

I look around to see how many people are laughing at me. No one is. Good. I start trying to think about what I did wrong and then it hit me -

I FORGOT TO BREATHE!!!!!

That could cause problems. Serious problems. Breathing is important. You die if you don't breathe. Holy crap! How could I have forgotten that.

So, after catching my breathe, I start again, making sure to breathe every 2nd stroke. And, surprisningly enough, it worked much better. I managed to swim between 1200 and 1400 meters Monday night and made it up to 1800 meters tonight.

It is all starting to come back to me....

Like riding a bicycle - which I hope to have by the end of the weekend!

Potential

Potential?

What does that mean?

Sure, we can all look up the definition. Potential is defined as the inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being.

But what are they really saying when they say "You have potential".

For me...

It raises the bar. No longer is my current level adequate. I now have a new asprirations.

It motivates. I think to myself that if someone sees "potential", it must be there, I just have to find it, achieve it.

It is opportunity. Growth always leads to opportunity.

It means action. You cannout acheive this allusive "potential" by maintaining the status quo. You have to change something. Move forward.

And on Saturday, Koach told me I had POTENTIAL. He was clearly challenging me. I hate being challenged. Because nothing gets me going like a good challenge.

So I am now striving to find "potential".

Unfortunately, reaching "potential" requires, first and formost, changing my diet. And that is going to be harder than any marathon I have completed. It won't be an easy task. No more Dr Pepper. No more french fries. No more Chipotle (ok, I am not going to get that carried away, yet). But I will be eating the fruit I buy instead of letting it spoil in the frig. No more breakfast burritos. Pizza , probably not. Ice cream, forget about it. No more nachos. So I start asking myself, reaching "potential", is it really worth it.

And then I think of the bigger picture. An Ironman. The sub-5 (and possibly sub 4) hour marathon. And it just may be.

54 hours without a Dr Pepper and counting.

POTENTIAL, HERE I COME!

The bike delimma

I am convinced that the "endurance" athlete "cult" gets you hooked on marathons before dragging you into the tri-world b/c all a marathon requires is a pair of running shoes. And while there are different levels of running shoes, I won't run any faster in that $150 pair than I will in that $70 pair. I may feel better in the more expensive pair. But that is all.

Not so with bicycles.

I was hoping that I could get by with my hybrid Trek 7500. It's just 2 years old and in great shape. But I was told loud and clear I would be insane to try a triathlon using that bike. So I went bike shopping.

And I found out that more expensive bikes perform better. And ride better. And are more efficient. And are faster. And are fun to test ride.

And to make things even more complicated, there is not just one style of bike. There are mountain bikes, hybrids, road bikes and tri-bikes. My decision is between the road bike and tri bike. And yes, there is a difference.

The road bike goes a little faster, but the tri-bike has been modified to help "save" the muscles needed for running for the running part. So I should get a tri-bike. Except that the tri-bikes are much more expensive.

Naturally

what to do?

sigh...

Backhanded complement AND "tri"ing something new

So two interesting things have already happened today. Both involving my endurance training peeps.

First, you know when someone says something like "Don't take this the wrong way" or "I don't want to sound like a racist", you should just walk away and not wait to hear what they have to say. Well, Koach Karl, my running coach dropped something like that on me today.

We were all sitting around after our 8.5 mile run (cleared in under 1:30:00, averaging 10:20 miles, with mile 8 being my fastest at 9:27) and we started talking about training for other events and what we were going to have for breakfast as we were planning on looking at bikes with Karl later on that morning. Well, at some point, diets came up, mine in particular and Karl laid it on me, in front of 5 of my running buds

"Don't take this the wrong way, Kevin, but you run really fast for someone your size".

So what exactly does this mean and should I be offended? Well, on one hand, Karl is calling me, well, fat - and in all honesty, this isn't the first time that someone has hinted to me that I need to lose a couple (dozen) pounds.

On the other hand, Karl called me "fast?". I can't remember the last time someone called my fast, at anything. So, I think I should take this as a complement. I also think that I should probably really focus on dropping a few pounds in the next few months

BECAUSE

This morning I also commtted in the Redman Trialthon in OKC on Sept. 24. And I won't be doing any half-ass corportate challenge or olympic distant tri, either. I am going for the Ironman (or maybe the 1/2 Ironman). Yes. I said it. I am seriously contemplating the Ironman triathlon, and if I only settle for the 1/2 ironman, then I will follow up with an Ironman in 2007. Why? Because it is there to do. For those of you unaware, the Ironman is 2.4 miles swiming, 112 miles biking and 26.2 miles running (the 1/2 is half that long). But hey, I get 17 hours to finish.

WOW. Can I do it? Stay posted. I would rather do the whole Ironman because I never want to do 1/2 of anything.

Oh, and I have to buy a new bike for this. Can't wait to find the money for this!

Still Learning This Crap

Yea, its taking me a while to figure the basics out. But I finally know how to post pictures. Or at least figured out some back door, secret path that is ten times more complicated than it should be. Who knows. But look for more pictures to appear soon.

This is me after finishing the Goofy Challenge in Orlando back in January (13.1 miles on Saturday and 26.2 miles on Sunday). Don't I look tired?!?

Sucky Weather and Other Random Thoughts

Yea, so I the girl I ran 15 miles with yesterday is calling me "liver guy" on her blog. I may actually be changing my sig to that. Maybe the "Running Liver Guy". Who knows. It;s late. I'm tired. Perhaps my pending tattoo will be a running liver. Who knows. But the 15 miles yesterday was moderately challenging and there were a lot of hills. It was tougher than I expected.

And the Kansas weather sucks!!!! I mean, it IS the first day of spring and am wearing sweats. I want my 60 degree weather back! Hell, I even had to turn my heater back on.

Oh, and I think it is just to spite me, but the ol company voted for corporate challenge t-shirt design while I was mysteriously absent from work last Thursday and Friday and they voted for a shirt with the slogan "Geeks with Guts". That absolutely kills me. I have been fighting that steriotype for years and they go off and do that. I had a lot of problems with our t-shirt last year b/c it was a black cotton shirt that we were supposed to wear in the heat of the June sun. Now this. Hell. It looks like I will once again be a non-conformist. This may be a non-issue for me, though, as most of the events I was going to do conflict with my marathon and social schedule.

Brew to Brew

Yea, I am still trying to understand this blogging crap....Not even sure which site I really want to use, but I found out today that a couple of my running chums use blogger, so what the hell, here I am. Let's see what develops.

So I spend ALL day today running brew to brew, running 14 miles with Alejandra. It ws an excuse for a training run as I absolutely was not going to run yesterday (St Patty's Day celebrations Friday night. Running Sat. morning. Think about it. Not a chance!). So instead, I ran several legs of the brew to brew relay from KCMO to Lawrence, KS. It turned out to be a little over 15 miles. And not only did we get to run 15 miles, we got to
-rappel down a creek bed and take a boat across a large stream
-hurdled multiple roadkill including a possum, cat, bird, deer, birds and a couple of unidentifiables.
-be told we were the last people on the route (but we were slow and the team started in one of the later starting groups - had we just run one leg, we would have been done much faster.

But in the end, it was just a training run. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Oh, and it was cold.

And much of the route was on concrete...Not ideal for knees and ankles.

The Boulevard Wheat at the end of the run tasted awesome, though.

It's supposed to sleet and snow here tomorrow. Possibly a lot. I thought we were through with winter. I want spring back.

And for the tournament----
Hook'em Horns, Go Shockers, Go Bradley!