Tri-Ku XII

Alarm sounds at four

His wife groans and turns over

Ironman looming

John Thum

Back From The Wilderness

I have been very limited on the blogging because the DSL was down. This is the forth long term outage we have had with Earthlink. After hours on hold and their tech support not being able to do anything, we switched to Time-Warner Cable. I called their tech support to see how long it would take to get through and they answered right away. Sold!

The Great Magnetic Wife seemed to have her whole world pulled out from under her by not being able to get on the internet. After ten days in the wilderness, we have finally made our way back to civilization.

Oh, yeah. I did a bunch of training and I will run the L.A. Marathon this Sunday!

John Thum

The Tin Man

The Great Magnetic Wife and I celebrated out tenth wedding anniversary last night. We had a lovely dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and very much reflected on ten years married. A very good decision.

I’m sure she couldn't have anticipated getting up at 5:00am every morning so that I could train, but either could I.

John Thum

Another Brick In The Wall

Was it a brick or just three training sessions in one day? I ran ten miles with the L.A Leggers on Saturday before I rode my bike 36 miles before I swam for a half a mile. Sort of a brick, except there was about a half an hour between each activity. Ah, who cares? Not a bad workout for a Saturday in February.

The run was great, finished strong, ran up the hill from the pier to Palisades Park. I don’t know why it is so much easier to run with a group than it is to run by myself, but it is easier without a doubt.

I drove to Ocean Park and was considering a swim in the ocean, but it was awfully choppy and there wasn’t a lot of people out. I decided to ride the bike first and then do my swim in the pool. I rode north from Ocean Park to the end of the bike path in Malibu. I am starting to think that it is safer to ride on the streets than it is on the beach portion of the bike path. There are just so many bad riders/roller-bladers/walkers/etc. on the sandy bike path, that I think I would rather deal with the traffic.

Once I was in some traffic, I was behind a guy on Washington Blvd. Who must have hit a rock or something and just went down hard. I passed him and stopped as fast as I could. Another cyclist and I helped him to the sidewalk and picked up the large chunk of his helmet that was still on the street. He was shaken up, but okay. If he didn’t have his helmet, he would have been in very bad shape and possibly dead. Scary.

It was my first ride with my new aero-bars. It certainly took some getting used to, but I could feel the difference as soon as I went into the aero position. I spent about an hour getting a new fit on the bike with the aero-bars, but still need to do a bit of tweaking.

I did the swim at the Bally’s West Los Angeles pool. A 20 yard pool. Not ideal, but it works. The odd thing is that there was a guy in the pool who looked to be world-class. He made it across the 20 yard pool in about 4 strokes. I am not kidding. The ease and grace was really something to watch and to envy.

John Thum

Red Square/Green Square

A lot has happened, but not much time for blogging. I signed up for the L.A. Marathon! I actually meant to do so last Saturday, after my 23 mile run. But somehow it slipped my mind. I paid my money, so I’m running the race!

I put together a new training chart that seems to be quite helpful and motivational. It is essentially the same one I had before, but now I assign colors to every square. If I complete something or achieve a goal, that square becomes green. If I don’t complete something or don’t achieve a goal, that square becomes red. It is quite motivational to have each square be green. There have been a few reds, but mostly they are green. There is that point in every training session when I think that I don’t have to do this. But I know if I stop, I will have to put red in that square. It has helped me to go on a number of occasions. Whatever works.

I had a 90 minute run scheduled yesterday and it was one of those days where I did not feel great from the start. I’m sure my heart-rate was elevated, I could feel it. However, my Garmin was flashing “Battery Low” as soon as I turned it on, and then went dead about five minutes into the run. I was not feeling very good throughout the run and because I didn’t have my watch, I’m sure some of my walk breaks were longer than a minute, but I did complete the whole route and persevered. I wanted to stop many times, but the thought of a red square under my 90 minute run inspired me to keep going.

John Thum

Tru-Ku XI

Sunscreen in T1
Sits so snuggly in its tube
His skin turns crimson

John Thum

Did I Bonk?

Yesterday was the last long run before the L.A Marathon on March 2, 2008. The run with the Leggers was 13 miles and I figured I would run home afterwards for a total of 23 miles.

  

The first 13 with the Leggers was no problem. When the Leggers finished, I did stop to go to the bathroom and fill up my water bottles, about a five minute break. But when I started running again, things were a little different.  For one thing, I was very thirsty and started drinking a lot of water. I was also a lot more tired. Running back to West Hollywood from Santa Monica, I had to wait at a lot of traffic lights. It didn't seem like rest time, but like my energy was being drained every time I had to stop. I did have a gel at about 15 total miles, but I was soon out of water. I knew there was a water fountain coming up in a mile or two, but the run was getting increasingly harder and my pace increasingly slower. 

Finally at about 19 miles, my legs just started cramping like I had never experienced.  I knew the problem, because I have heard it discussed: lack of electrolyte intake. I finished my Accelerade about 5 miles in on my run with the Leggers and had been taking a lot of water since then.  The cakes of white all over my black running tights proved that I had lost a lot of salt and I hadn't replenished any for 12 miles. There was a 7-11 up the road about a quarter of a mile and so I went in and got a Big Gulp of Gatorade. It felt great to drink it what I could and I replenished my water bottles with it, but the damaged had been done.

  

I managed to painfully run for about another half-mile, but eventually I just decided to walk. The whole 23 miles took almost five hours. I did, however, learn a valuable lesson: proper nutritional intake.

 

Did I bonk? I still don't know. I think of bonking as being deprived nutrients so that one's energy level is so low that you can't go on. I could have continued to run, but it was the pain of the cramps that was stopping me.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, the bottom line was that I was unable to finish the entire 23 miles without walking a significant portion.  But I also finished the 23 miles, so that is something.  At the L.A. Marathon there will be Gatorade stations at every mile.  I will also bring salt tablets and make sure to eat at least every hour.

  

John Thum

Early Morning Ocean Swim

Up at 5:00 and down to Santa Monica to do a morning swim in the ocean. Went swimming with Tim Bomba and a new guy named Rick. Rick said that he probably couldn't keep up because he hadn't been swimming in the ocean for a while. Then he said something about "doing a little swimming in college." Rick was about 6'5" and had a swimmer's body. Both Tim and I said, I think you're going to end up way ahead of us. We were right.

Rick has done the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon and encouraged me strongly to do it. I'm sure I will. My earlier post on the subject indicated I would. It is expensive, though. Enough excuses, I should do it!

There really is nothing quite like starting your day by seeing the sun rise as you're swimming along out in the ocean and witnessing the majesty of God's creation.

It was pretty cold, probably about 55 degrees, but once I started swimming is was nice. I am certainly grateful for my neoprene cap and booties. A great way to start the day.

I'll do some strength training after work.

John Thum

Tri-Ku X

Bladder is full, but
The port-a-potty is foul
Holds his breath and goes

John Thum

The Mental Side Of Running On A Treadmill

It was a very busy day yesterday. I had to vote, I had to go out to Mojave to the Hyundai-Kia Proving Ground for work, I went to "The Mental Side of Triathlon Training" seminar at 7:00, and, of course, I had to train.

Normally, I run for 40 to 50 minutes on Tuesday morning, but I was not going to be able to do that and vote and get to my first appointment in Mojave on time. I decided I would run after work. I did get to the Bally's West LA gym at around 5:30 and did some speed work on the treadmill. It was much harder than it should have been. I don't know why. I guess those one minute bursts of speed to eight minute/mile pace every five minutes did me in.

The seminar was good. Three motivational speakers from the telling us that we have choices in life. We can choose to be happy, we can choose to train, we can choose to striver for excellence or we can choose to make excuses. All things I have heard before and all things I intuitively know, but it is good to hear these things every once in a while. I also got a free DVD of "What The Bleep Do We Know?" a film that Tim Bomba, one of the speakers and one of my occasional swimming partners worked on.

John Thum

Tri-Ku IX

Why an Ironman?
Not because it is easy
Because it is hard

John Thum

Escape From Alcatraz!

A couple of months ago I entered the lottery for the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. I was sort of hoping I would get picked and I was sort of hoping I would not get picked. Well, I got picked. I have until the end of the month to sign up. I guess I will, but I am still somewhat ambivilant. I keep telling myself, "this is going to be really hard." And then I answer myself, "you do this because it is hard!" And of course I am right. (See the post above.) It will be a great experience and an Ironman would never say no to this challenge. Okay, I'll do it! Better start doing more training in the cold ocean.

John Thum

22 Miles (In Two Shifts)

While I was injured, I volunteered to work the water station during the Legger's 26 mile run. I was pretty sure I would not be ready for it. Since I have recovered, I wanted to get a long run in, but still wanted to honor my commitment to work the water station. I decided that I would run to the beach (about 11 miles), work the station for four hours and then run back. Overall a good plan. I had fun at the station and did manage to get 22 miles of running in today, even if it took me over eight hours.

John Thum

Tri-ku VIII

GPS on wrist
Carbon fiber bicycle
The tri-geek is bad

John Thum