I finished!

If there is still anyone that checks this blog, this will be one of my last posts. This post is simply to share a video that Mette has put together of my Vineman event. I had an absolute blast and really tried to enjoy every minute of this experience. The video is posted on YouTube and is a little too long to just upload here. Follow this link to the video.

What a difference a letter makes.

After all that noise I made about making a doctors appointment, I didn't even go. It's almost like my leg knew I was talking about it and decided it had played out it's hand. I woke up last Thursday morning and it felt better. My thinking is that it is getting better on it's own and in general I feel the best medicine is to allow it to rest and recover on it's own.

Good news is I did run for about 2 miles on Sunday and it felt OK. Not great, just OK. I'll continue to slowly build up my workout routine again over the next few weeks in hopes to get back on track. There is still 5+ months of training remaining before my event on August 1 which I am confident will be sufficient. If I end up a little undertrained, but healthy, that will be so much better than overtrained and hurt. This is what I have always stressed to the runners in the marathon program and now it is time for me to listen to my own advice. I even got a reminder of this in a fortune cookie the other day. It said something to the effect of... To be successful in life, you must learn to listen to your own advice... Sounds good to me, I'll have to do that.

I did get a new bike last week and I'm looking forward to getting on the road with it. I'm going to do a trainer workout tonight with the team. Depending on how that goes, I'll do a real ride later in the week.

I've got to be careful not to become too much of a whiner. It's been three weeks since I got injured and it's still not good enough to do any serious working out on. It's driving me nuts and now doubt about my ability to stay (get) healthy is starting to creep into my mind. I'm not sure why, but I have been hesitating making an appointment with the doctor. Perhaps it's because I am so sure by the time he got around to referring me to the right specialist, my leg would be all better on it's own. I did break down finally, so now I do actually have an appointment on Thursday... Any one want to take any bets on what he's going to do? Here is the scenario as I see it going down. After I tell him how I injured it, he tells me about Rest-Ice-Compress and Elevate and here is a prescription for some industrial strength anti-inflammatory (basically 800mg. of Advil). "Call me in a week". Guess what doc, I've been doing that for 3 weeks... This is the Kaiser way I swear. If they hold you off long enough you won't need to see a specialist because you get all better (maybe) on your own. Of course I do it to myself by not making an appointment right away. Had I done that, I would have been in the system already and who knows, I might not be in the same boat as I am now.
I really shouldn't be so cynical. Kaiser has been good for our family as a whole. I just have to play the game. I'm hoping I can convince the doc to get me in line for an MRI so I can get a better picture of whats going on in there. I'll give an update on this later in the week. In the mean time, I'll try to keep enjoying laying around getting fat and lazy.

STOP, THIEF!!
Some jerk stole my bike out of my truck last night. I was parked right in front of my house and this asshole had the balls to break into my truck and make off with my bike... Can you tell I'm a little upset off about this. In the grand scheme of things it's not the end of the world, but it still hurts a little. I've been trying to see the upside of this situation, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. My bike was getting a little old. I mean I bought it almost a whole year ago and the rear tire was getting a little worn from the trainer sessions... No it's not working, I liked my bike and it's going to cost me to replace it. Maybe that's the upside, I get to help the economy by going out and buying a new bike. Anyway, in the end it is just a thing that can be replaced and it will be fun looking for a new bike. I'm a little torn if I should get a triathlon specific bike or another straight road bike. Any thoughts?

JAZ IS IN THE HOUSE!

On a much happier note, meet Jaz, the latest addition to the Thallaug family. We adopted him last week and he is a sweetheart. The SPCA estimated his age at about 4-5 month, I think he might be a little older. No matter, he's going to be a great dog as soon as I get him to stop chewing on everything. He was listed as a hound mix and his markings are almost spot on for an American Fox Hound. I'm not sure what else he might be. All I know is that he is going to be a great running companion one of these days.

Things have been hit or miss as far as training goes. A couple of weeks ago I injured my quad and it is still not good. It's probably time to see the doc, just to be safe. I don't think it is anything really serious, but it is not getting better fast enough. I know the best thing to do is to lay low for a while, but it's hard sitting on the sidelines when you know there is so much you need to be doing. I will try to do the smart thing and back off till it gets better. At least I can still swim. I thought that cycling would still be OK, but I know better now after the bike leg last Sunday. Running is definitely out of the question. Any kind of load on the leg is painful in a really bad charlie horse kind of a way

Financial Planning

Mettes cousin from Norway sent us this. I thought it was pretty good.

Dan was a single guy living at home with his father and working in the family business.


When he found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he decided he needed a wife with which to share his fortune.
One evening at an investment meeting he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.


Her natural beauty took his breath away. "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said to her, but in just a few years, my father will die, and I'll inherit $200 million."
Impressed, the woman obtained his business card and three days later, she became his stepmother.

Women are so much better at financial planning than men.

I'm feeling a little reflective today and I've been thinking a lot about the things and people in my life that keep things real. I recently received an e-mail from a friend that was not so good. To be brief, she has recently found out that she has breast cancer. Being as active in the Leukemia society as I am, it is unfortunately not uncommon that I am exposed to such bad news. It never fails to put things into perspective for me however. Mardie has been a stead fast supporter of me and my efforts with the Leukemia Society and whether she knows it or not, she was one of a few key factors that motivated me to become and stay involved with Team in Training.
At a New Years Eve party 2004, I made a resolution that I was going to start running and that I was going to enter a future running event to help me stay focused and committed. I had no aspirations of running a marathon, I was just going to set a modest goal and strive for that. A friend of mine however, gave me a flyer for an upcoming information meeting for Team in Training. Both my father and father-in-law had passed away from blood cancer so I decided that I would go to the meeting and see what this was all about. Incidentally, I went for my first run on January 3rd and promptly pulled a muscle in my calf. I think I was almost a half a mile into my run when it happened. None the less I went to the meeting and I actually signed up despite being very sceptical of my ability to take on such a challenge as a marathon. I could not fathom running 26.2 miles, but I set my sights on the June 5th Rock'n'Roll marathon in San Diego. At the time I was volunteering in the the library at my sons school. Mardie was the librarian. During a conversation with her I mentioned that I was going to run a marathon with Team in Training and that I was nervous about my ability not only to run, but to raise the money I had committed to. During this conversation I learned that Mardie had herself completed the Honolulu marathon several times and every time for charity. I can't remember exactly haw many marathons it was she had completed, but I remember being blown a way and thoroughly inspired by her accomplishments. I had not yet officially begun my fundraising, but before I knew it Mardie had figured out how to contribute to my cause. Ever since that time there has been a competition between Mardie and I to see who can contribute fastest to each others fundraisers. I'm pretty sure she is winning. Many people helped me that season, but Mardie was the first and that will always make her special to me.
Read more about Mardie through her blog mardiesmarathon.blogspot.com.

Been licking my wounds this last week. Nothing serious, I think. I have some tightness in my calf and hamstring that has been bothering me for a long time now and I can't seem to work it out. I got new running shoes and I've scheduled more time with a massage therapist so we'll see what happens. So far this hasn't held me back too much since we haven't been running a whole lot, but that is starting to change.

Yesterday I had laid out a 60 mile bike ride with a fair amount of climbing. I was going to be a little pressed for time, having to be at work at 12:00, so I had planned a couple of shortcuts just in case. I met with my team mate Lulu just after 7:00. Both of us ended up having our share of mechanical problems so the going was slower than we wanted, but we plugged along. At about the 30 mile mark it was obvious I would have to cut it short in order to get back in time. The short cut took us down a a road called Pinehurst. It is a pretty steep grade with lots of switch backs. At about mile 35 Lulu blew out the side of her tire and that pretty much sealed the rest of the ride. It was a pretty scary moment, but Lulu controlled the bike nicely. We were able to fashion a temporary patch using an empty GU packet and replacing the inner tube. It worked quite well, but it was a little un-nerving to ride on. I had called Mette while patching and she picked us up about 5 miles further down the road. So after all that we got in all of the hill climbing but was not able to enjoy the downhill ride to the finish. Oh well... I think I'm going to try to do the whole ride again this coming week.

Wow, it's been almost a whole month since I posted anything? So much for trying to stay on top of this with timely entries, but I won't dwell on that.

We are now in the 10th week of training and have just started our second build phase. During this phase we will continue to build on the foundation we have laid in the previous weeks just with a little more intensity. We'll be doing more "brick" and two-a-day workouts. In case you are wondering, a brick is a workout where more than one sport is involved and the transition between each activity is rather fast. No long shower, big meal or baseball game on the boob tube between sports. In a Bike/Run brick you will get off the bike, slip out of your bike shoes and into your running shoes, grab a little run hydration and hit the road.

So that maybe you can follow along more easily, I have started showing a two week workout schedule (in brief form) to the right on the page. I will show you what is on the schedule for that coming week and also what I actually acomplished the week prior. These two will differ slightly since my work schedule demands that i change things around a little.

Following are some pictures from the first part of the season including our first open water swim a Lake Del Valle in Livermore, CA. It may be california, but it sure was cold enough. I had to scrape the ice off my windshield that morning. The air temp was 31 and the water was about 50.