Some loose ends on Florida

For those of you doing Florida I have some questions and maybe we can get some concensus.

1. When do you plan to go to Panama City and when plan to leave? I haven't bought tickets yet but plan on arriving on Tuesday the first and leaving either late Monday or sometime Tuesday. The race is on Saturday. I know Kahuna wants to have a margarita party at a Mexican place Sunday night. I'm in. Are you?

2. What airport are you flying into if you already have tickets or what is the best one to use? I have not bought mine yet, doing so this week. I am planning on renting a big SUV or minivan. It can be a shuttle around town or loan it for quick trips for those on a tight budget. I'm on a tight budget too don't get me wrong. I am going to probably be stressed to the gills and not really into being a shuttle captain, but it will be nice to just load people in and go places as opposed to a five car convoy.

3. I am staying at the Inn at St. Thomas Square. From what I can tell its about a 1/3 mile from transition. Of course if you have ever been to Vegas its like saying the Rio is right off the strip.

4. Whom is bringing family with them? Mistress and Mighty Mo are coming down.

5. Whom is even considering tattoo's? I will do the leg work on this and find a close, highly rated (read: safe) place. Having just watched three good friends get tattoo's after Arizona this month I would suggest creating your perfect template before going down there and handing it to the artist when you get it done.

Something to keep in mind is that the M-Dot logo has several variation based on color code of the race (orange, red, blue, brown, black) and the thickness of the 'M' character is different on almost everything. At the race expo you can buy a M-Dot rub on tat for the race, which were very popular race day. You can buy them online to test them on your intended body location before you get it permanently done. They are about an inch high.

I will post the tattoo's my team got as soon as I get the pictures. Some ideas based on what I have seen:
*M-Dot logo on the middle of the calf belly (centered backside).
*M-Dot on the outside of ankle. Seen large ones and small ones.
*'Ironman' surrounding the ankle, the image similiar to the one at the bottom of my blog page.
*Creative design of swim, bike, run icons placed in a band around the bicep.
*M-Dot logo with the state flower on either side (female)
*Using race font to write 'Florida' on top, 'IronMan' underneath, state flag underneath, year underneath. Actually a very cool tatoo that I will post up.

Whats your design going to look like?

6. Do we have support shirts yet for family members to wear on race day? I remember Sheila or Shelley maybe coming up with something. Even if its just bright yellow Tri-Geek Dreams shirts.

7. For those that have family going, we need to plan on giving all our support teams each others cell phone numbers. When they are scattered around the course, they can call each other to let everyone know who is coming their way, keep everyone up to date on our conditions, get cameras turned on and ready, signs held high, kids alert. This worked so well at Arizona. We had four groups staggered around the run every couple of miles, no one got past us without us being ready. One person with a wi-fi laptop can be posting to our personal IMFL website or as a back up we could link all their cellphones up to blogger on the go so they could each text an update to a central location. I think using the imflo6.blogger as a central info dump is good idea and then later we can individually draw from it for our own race reports.

Plus let's be daring. It would look like a private Ironman live feed. All our friends and family around the country could be getting info from one place instead of jumping to ten or more seperate blogs. It becomes fun for them too and getting a glimpse at the unity we have all shared over the past year or more in this race.

_______________________________________________
Update@ 11 am: I just went to Orbitz and looked into flying from Phoenix to Panama City (PFN) tickets are roughly $550 a person on Delta with one plane change.

Well I wanted to prove a point with a video clip, yet after 45 minutes or surfing I can only come up with the transcripts. More on that in a minute.

Yesterday I was a bit dissapointed in my training. For a 90 minute drive in and out of Canyon LakeI got in 10 minutes of swimming.

Some was mental. I still have fresh memories of my drowning episode out there last year and every time I hit that buoy in the middle of nowhere I have to check myself. However the vast majority of my problem is this damn head cold that will not go away. I could not breath to save my life. I was having a hard time exhaling and had post nasal drip that felt like I had a blockage in my throat when I inhaled.

I had been feeling nauseous all day long and after about 500 meters I started to throw up a bit. I swam over to shore and vomited twice. Thats not a good way to go throw a swim. So I pulled myself out of water.

By the way I wanted to link to the Martin Short and Harry Shearer Men's Synchronized Swimming clip from the 80's because I was reminded of the comment, "Cause I'm not..I'm not that strong a swimmer." Instead you get a transcript and couple of pictures. Still timeless.

The head cold continues.

A Mo Photo Update

Mighty Mo turned three the other day. He says he is four. I will have some party pictures soon but these were taken within the last two weeks.

A Mighty Mo in his more normal surroundings; naked and running around like a dinosaur. This is his growling face, right before the roar. Yes he is wearing a dinosaur head hat. No his eyes are not normally greenish, they are a very striking and noticable blue.

I think I mentioned that Mighty Mo likes to dress very preppy in collared shirts and dress shorts. We really have nothing to do with it. Sure we have the clothes but as parents know, a childs will is a childs will when it comes to what a child will wear. I just added the racquet to complete the tennis club look.

Here is more proof of his royal preppiness. He picked out this sporty pink polo and blue short pants for a birthday party. Other than dinosaurs, his new BIG thing is bubbles. I thought the kid my have a heart attack when he saw this bad boy bubble machined fired up. Mistress couldn't get a shot of his face because he kept whipping it around looking at bubbles.

A blurry picture but look at that swing. Look at that form at 3 years old. My deep desire when my son was born was for him to be a left handed middle relief pitcher for the Yankees. The highest paying job for the effort in all of sports. He's not a lefty but there is still hope.

From the beginning...

I am so amazed at the explosion the 'Triathlete Alliance' has had over the last twelve months. God I remember when it was just me, Kahuna, Wil, Flabby Ironman, Flatman, Shelley, Trimama and Nancy Toby. We added a couple every week and dropped a few along the way. We all lamented the immediate and sudden withdraw and subsequent rebirth of Bolder. (Now the darn SOB can post about changing the color of his kitchen cabinets and get 25 comments on it) It was so easy to jump from blog to blog and we all pretty much were starting or re-inventing our sites at the same time. Since then my blog family has swollen another 70 sites of great like-minded people that I can't wait to read every day. Thank you internet for Bloglines.

But very seldom do we get to see a new triathlete blog from the beginning, almost from the very first post. Andy, who since we met last year has been a re-occuring training partner but not re-occuring friend, has started his own blog. The name should say it all, 140.6, my journey to arizona ironman 2007.

Give em' some love gang.

Touring about town

I used to hang out with this Englishman whose last name was Couch, so of course everyone called him Couch. Plus he was lazy as hell. Anytime he was asked what he was up to he would charateristicly state, "I'm touring about town, I'm on the couch." But he pronounced touring like tooling and about like a Canuck (ah-boot) and the couch meant sitting on his ass. Well its sounded funny if you knew the guy.

But I was thinking about my personal "tooling ah boot town" yesterday while doing laps around a hill that uses using some familiar IMAZ and Soma 1/2 IM bike course terrain. On my last lap going up Pagago hill, I saw a shadow in my draft zone. A cyclist caught up to me and said, "Hey didn't I see you at Tribe yesterday getting your bike worked on?"
"Yeah that was me?"
"Yeah man I thought that was you, I recognized the bike, sweet ride."
"Ah schuck (thank god the heat covered the blushing), you can ride my draft any day sailor. How far are you riding today...."

Turns out my new cycling friend is a New York transplant, triathlete and endurance sport photographer by trade. We had a good conversation over the next six miles and even set up an open water swim date for Thursday with the AzTriClub. (I'm a sucker for flattery).

You never know who you'll meet when you're "Tooling ah boot town"

For the Ladies

I have been in a four month debacle with getting the AzTriClub clothing line up and running. Vendors closing doors and not telling anyone their orders will not be processed. Vendors lying about not recieving our orders when in fact they did and just sat on them. I might as well be working on the 2007 line instead of 2006.

One of the great things about our club, is that we encourage Clydesdales and Athena's to join us for training in a non-elitest atmosphere . When it comes down to it there is nothing different between a newbie who wears medium and a newbie who wears XXL or size 18 except for the way they are precieved by the group. We have no preception. We are preceptionless. Probably because the majority of us work in the fitness/health industry and/or have lost tremendous amounts of weight through the sport of triathlon.

Its been really hard to find a clothing distributor that would even send a clothing sample packet that had a large womens set or an XL mens set, let alone anything bigger. So I was happy to see that Team Estrogren is a line of women's clothing that cater to size XS-4X. The nice thing is that their clothing actually has some great looking products and not basic, bold color stuff. It has some of the coolest womens bike jerseys I have ever seen.

Do some online window shopping today gals, its Tuesday, you deserve it. Tell your husbands and boyfriends that I said it was okay to buy something snazzy for yourself.

For some reason i cant post on my computer. Longer post later.

A confession of sorts

I must confess that I learned a valuable lesson over the last three weeks. I truly am a Common Man at heart. Between a IM taper minus the IM, torn hamstring, a wicked sinus cold and a pain on my heal, I have not done much training. In fact I haven't wanted to do much training, just sort of putting in the minimum effort.

Running has been out because of the heel. Swimming has been out because of the head cold and biking has been down because basically it takes me longer to do everything and I'm wiped out by the end of the longer day. Excuses, excuses.

Mentally I just wasn't into ramping up again. I stared at the switch in my head for a week too long. I finally flipped that switch. I AM BACK BABY! I am mentally ready to attack the next 190 odd days before Florida. So what if I have pain in my foot, I am running today. I went for a good ride yesterday and have many more planned this week. I think the new pedals have corrected my left knee diviation which is very cool. I will get in my swims this week for sure.

God, I love today!

Remember These

I posted a few days ago that I have been dealing with a wicked sinus problem for many, many days. The doctor said no infection which is good and he gave me a script for some cold medicine that was not an antibotic to knock out the sinus pressure.

Holy Crap. You people have got to remember this product, its called AlleRx. Its super-sudafed with another chemical that works on vertigo by clearing pressure around the eardrum. Its prescription only so don't look for it on the shelves. It comes in a 14 day pack, a yellow morning pill and a blue evening pill. Each pill lasts about ten hours before the symptoms come back. Its not an antibotic so you can save some of them for future use. Mistress caught my cold and had a miserable sinus day, the next day I gave her one of the morning pills and she said its the greatest cold pill she has ever taken.

I went from seven days of unmerciful sinus pain to overnight absolutely nothing. Nothing. In fact I had the exact opposite reaction. My head dried up, cotton mouth, dry and itchy throat. My head felt like it was going to float away. Talk about a turnaround. In fact it worked too well which brings up my second product.

My nose had been swollen for days from blowing it and from pressure build up and suddenly it was dry, dry, dry. So dry that as I was driving down the freeway I suddenly had a gushing bloody nose happening. I had blood all over my WHITE Nike Dri-fit shirt and khaki shorts. I was trying to reach for a towel on the floor and blood is streaming down my face.

I knew there was no way I could go into anyplace covered in blood so I took an extra few minutes and drove to where a Sports Authority was and figured the shirt was ruined, I would go buy a new shirt and shorts and get on with the day. As I was grabbing an extra t-shirt from my gym bag, I remembered I had bought a Tide-To-Go pen and stashed it in my bag in case I splashed some lunch on a shirt someday.

Holy Crap. You people have got to buy one of those. That one pen removed every evidence of blood on a bright WHITE Nike Dri-fit. As in not one drop was found. I wore the shirt for the rest of the day and nothing every came back after it dried. I even told some people and they got up real close and couldn't even find a telltale ring where I had rubbed out an area. I probably cleaned off a sold 8" x 1/2" line down the middle of the shirt and a large circle around my shoulder when I leaned over to grab the towel.

I have never, ever, ever seen a stain remover work like that. I would guess some of the blood had dried for 30 minutes or so before I got to it.

Thats my good news for you today. Got a head cold, ask your doc for AlleRx. Get a bloody nose or a stain on your shirt have a Tide-To-Go pen with you.

Big John IMAZ Report

My good training partner and motivator Big John did a great write up on his first time experience at Ironman Arizona. John is a good swimmer, good cyclist and a great walker.

In all seriousness he is fully aware of his limiters and plans around them with the methodology of mad scientist. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it takes a little bit more than ever imagined.

I was there at 11:34 pm when he came down the chute holding hands with his family and not ashamed to admit I was bit kvetched. I couldn't yell any words, they were stuck in my throat. Far to often I read of people doing extraordinary things and that night I watched it happen.

So please indulge me and read this often funny, very inciteful race report from Big John and give the guy some love in my comment section. Lord knows he gets none from me.

ITB research

A fascinating article on Illo-Tibial Band (ITB) diagnosis, injury and rehab. I take no credit for the article just posting the link.

Like New Shoes

Do you have a favorite pair of shoes that still have life left in them but look like the dead? How about a comfy pair that you can't run in anymore but would love to wear them around town, if they didn't look like you ran through a mile of mud in them?

Well I have a solution for you, my fine folks. Lean right in and take a read.

First you need these items;
1 meduim tupperware tub
Dry Tide laundry detergent, 1.5-2.0 cups per shoe
garden hose
nylon brush or scrubby pad

Pour the tide into the tupperware and mix just enough water to make a thick batter. Then slop the batter all over the top and sides of the shoe, getting the tongue and the sides of the soles. It is not neccessary to remove the laces. It will dry quickly. Place in a dry place for a few hours, overnight being the best case.

Using a garden hose, (a high pressure nozzle being optimum) spray the tide batter off the shoes. Use the brush to scrub the mix completely off and removing any of the slickness that remains. Be sure to spray into the shoe cleaning the insert and draining any remaining tide out of the shoe. You will know the detergent is gone when there are no more suds showing and the shoe does not feel slippery.

I guarantee amazing results or you can have your old look back.

Not the worst that can happen

Well thankfully I don't have a sinus infection. I do however have a very nasty head cold. The doctor gave me two scripts, one over the counter to fill for a massive head cold and one for antibotics to hold on to in case things get worse.

Other than the vise squeezing my eye sockets and vertigo every time I stand up, I feel good from the neck down. I may even try to run for a couple of miles (I actually typed "hours" instead of miles out of habit, haha).

Lord knows the whole chocolate bunny I devoured with crunchy peanut butter last night did me know good. I heard that if you can't taste it or smell it the calories don't count. Have you heard that too? Well I tried to put that past my scale and it only worked 1 out of 3 weigh in's this morning.

In other news, still no sight or sound of my lost iPod, though I am considering a support group. Do you know how many people have lost iPods? I keep telling people my plight and they tell me they have lost one at some point as well. No wonder they keep making them smaller.

I haven't had a chance to put my new shoes or pedals to use. This week for sure. Maybe. I think the only thing for certain this week is that it I certainly will think.

Holding Pattern

I have been dealing with an unpleasant sinus infection since last Thursday. I was able to get in a strong bike on Saturday but couldn't swim worth a damn since I couldn't exhale without my throatclosing on me. Its life, I will get better. I have an appointment with me doctor today to check me out. No use in machoing my way through this with training on the line. But thats holding me back.

What is also holding me back today is the information I just recieved by phone and e-mail regarding Ironman Arizona. Today was to be the day that sign ups and information were to mbe made available for 2007. Now sources deep inside the WTC (World Triathlon Corp) who put on the Ironman races have said,

"...the information will be posted today, however registration will not be open today."

Very interesting and of course I will keep you posted.
_______________________________________
Update: According to the ironman arizona website, registration will be postponed until the end of the month. No new insider information but I will keep the ear to the ground.

Peripheral Bike Porn

I am learning the hard way that having a training bike and racing bike are two completely different animals. I have already blown through a rear tire with my PHX up on the trainer. It was my fault totally for not double checking my adjustments to the fly wheel of the trainer and essentially shaved the rubber down. Probably a common issue for absent minded trainer users like myself.

But the root of the problem is that I have my PHX on the trainer and not my old trusty Giant I want to use as a trainer bike-cum-back up for guest bike. However I only have one pair of clipless pedals, Speedplay Zero's and no quick way to interchange the pedals.

Problem solved. I bought a 15 mm pedal wrench. Oh yeah I also bought new shoes and pedals. This put a dent on the ol' card...but it's for the better good, isn't it.



SH-TR02
• Elite Multi-Sport Racing
• Specifically designed for elite triathalon and duathlon competition.
• New Hollowtech carbon fiber sole reduces weight by 20% and enhances stiffness to make a super-efficient pedaling platform.
• Single wide 45mm strap for a secure fit.
• Seamless interior with quick drying mesh is designed for use without socks









Description
Look has gone lightweight with its newly designed Keo pedal. A thinner, lighter carbon pedal body and lightweight chromoly spindle paired with a Keo specific cleat to provide smoother entry and exit with less wear. The cleat also has a memory tab to insure correct cleat replacement. Red cleat: 9°. Black cleat: 0°(FIXED). Wt. 115g. Lightweight carbon injected body, chromoly spindle, KEO specific cleat.

Who's coming to dinner?

The time has come for Ironman Arizona 2007 sign ups.

Put Monday, April 17, 2006 on your calander. Pssst. That gives you the weekend to make your plans.

This the day WTC opens the entry gate. I should know this but I think Easter is the first weekend of April next year so my guess is that the Ironman will on Sunday, April 15. But thats tax day...you never know. You would think WTC would race on tax day over Easter but you never know.

We Got A Thing

I have a good internet friend, lets call him Bolder. Well he and I are very much alike. He is Canadian, and I like Canadian bacon on my pizza (with pineapple). He is about 140 pounds with abs like a action figure and I'm two bills. He works as a thinker for a Fortune Top 10 company and I own a fitness company (i.e. were not talking rocket science here). He lives at altitude in the mountiains and I live in the desert. See lots in common.

Actually all kidding aside he and I do have one common goal and that is Ironman Florida. Now I know that my friend, lets call him Bolder again, loves the bike. Its all about his bike. So I decided that in the spirit of competition I am going to challenge him on the bike split at Florida.

Competition is good. I know that he is going to train 30% harder on the bike over the next 200 days before Florida. I know I will train 25% harder. I don't have as much to improve ;)

We have agreed on one thing though. I will wait for him at the finish line so we can go back to the room and have a beer together congratulating our much hearlded and of course lauded success.

I don't really think any two people will be crowing louder on Sunday. By crowing I really mean hobbling in lactic torture to the tattoo parlor-cum-maragrita place.

Do they charge extra for crutches on an airplane?

The Machine on the course

The Machine, right,coming out of the water 1:05. The seat issue behind him, The
Machine attacking the run.

The Machine aka Jeff, finishing his first IM with
son Jordan and daughter Kallan trying to keep up.

The Grinders

I use the term 'Grinder' as the highest complement. The Grinders are those triathletes who stay on the course the longest. Its never about the splits or the passing of others, its all about pushing the body to its limits. The Grinders are the ones who get the glow bands because they are still on the course when the sun goes down. The Grinder Never Gives Up.

Big John you are an Ironman.

Hardcore you are an Ironman.

My Contribution

This was the vaseline stand Mistress made for me for the aid station. I went through 5 large jars of the stuff. More than that I got a lot of smiles out of the triathletes who probably needed something to smile about.

The Weirdness of Racing

There is just some things that are unexplainable during a race.

Take 'The Machine' for example. He and I have ridden well over a 1,000 miles on our bikes together in preperation for Ironman Arizona. Never would he have thought that 95 miles into his ride that his seat would fall off.

He was lucky enough to have a support truck nearby but their fix only lasted about minute before it happened again. The Machine sparked a MacGuyver and wrapped an innertube around the seat to keep it in place.

"I wasn't going to stand for the last ten miles of the ride."

Furthermore, everyone in the group had their nutrition stuff down pretty good before the race, yet to the man all suffered terrible GI issues. I suppose it was from the water they drank during the swim (the lake is not the cleanest) however they all have their own excellent thoughts on it.

Part of the mental prep I must use for Florida is that no matter how confident I might be, I have to be strong enough to suffer Uncle Murphy obstacles and strong enough to create solutions.

A Glimpse of Things to Come

Ring Ring. Ring Ring.
"Hello."
"Hey Jeff, how ya feelin?"
"Commodore I was just gonna call you. Come down here, were getting our tattoo's right down the street from your club. Dan's on the table. Take University...."

A little later, all my training partners, a couple of wifes and myself all sat around an outdoor table eating pizza and laughing and joking as each one had their body worked on next door. I watched with beaming pride and a little jealousy as they emerged onto the shaded street a clear plastic wrap protector around a freshly engraved tattoo.

My partners were finally relaxed. The bill for hundreds of training hours finally paid in full. The near future did not have a looming deadline or monumental never-before-attempted feat. Ahead of them was just training for the love of the sport and to help me reach my goal of Ironman finisher like I helped them.

The Machine, aka Jeff, became a USAT Level 1 coach in March and plans to fix many of the mistakes we made in training. My other partners; Big John and Hardcore, even San Deigo Dan, all tell me they have information to impart but its still to close to express it well. Yet they have already conveyed so much by their actions on the course and by their atittude the day after.

It makes me think whimsically of November 5th, the day I and many of my blogging partners will have a similiar mark of pride placed on our bodies still healing from a 140.6 miles of Ironman the day before. Too sore to move fast, but not feeling the pain. Dinner at a Mexican place and margaritas flowing. Everyone wearing their 'Finishers' Shirt.

Kings and Queens of the world.

IMAZ: From Behind The Table

I volunteered for a run aid station at Ironman Arizona. After participating in scores and scores of events it was about time I gave back and in doing so learned a good many lessons that will help me in November.

I arrived to help set up the run station at 1100 and all was set just in time for Michael Lavato the enventual winner to blaze through at what looked to be a full sprint. Then a sprinkling of Pro's. I was really excited to see Tim Deboom, of course he didn't stop to sign pictures.

I took an hour to go to the transition area to see Nytro and Rainbow and support IronBenny as he came through T2. Good times.

It became a stready stream at the aid station from that point onto about 8 pm. I had set up the Vaseline stand with a clever little box that got lots of laughs and many thanks from those that chaffed like crazy in the dry heat.

Okay enough summation. I'm not getting anywhere.

I realized that 17 hours is a long time. Long enough to finish an Ironman. Really folks, I am telling you that if you put in your training and have the heart, it is yours. I watched good people, no different that you or I, in many cases in worse condition that you or I, determined to cross that line and fulfill their destiny.

The run course was three loops. My station was only two miles from the finish line on the third lap. With the ability to witness my close friends on the course three seperate times I was able to tap into a tremendous amount of mental energy that is just as important as my nutritional plan to finish Florida. When each one came through I would walk or run with them for a 1/3 of a mile and listen to them vent, cry and dream. There were some very personal conversations that occured in such a short period of time that can only occur when an athlete has tapped the only strength left in their body, The Heart. I thank each of you for giving me the opportunity to see your souls laid bare. I gave each of them what encouragement I felt they needed at the time and counted the minutes until I saw them again or hear that they had crossed that line and heard Mike Reilly say those magical words.

An Ironman is really two seperate events, not one race, not three disciplines. Its a swim and bike followed by a marathon. Whether you plan to run it or walk it be ready for it. Really the one person that had the best atittude on the run course was Big John who's race plan was to walk it with 17 minute miles. That was his plan going in and he stuck to it and he did it. Win by an inch or mile, his only goal was to beat midnight, which he did by 20 minutes.

I witnessed men and woman in a daze, completely bonked. I performed risk assessments on many of them as they walked through the aid station and they were completely out of reality. Some unable to apply a thin sheen of vaseline to their lips without using the deliberateness akin to moving a radioactive isotope. Would that be me? Would that be someone I know in Florida?

Last year I watched the beginning of IMAZ. I felt the super-charged electricity in the air, I heard the cannon boom and the watched the swim start; destiny heading due east into the rising sun. My heart was touched.

This year I watched the last Ironman cross the finish line four minutes before the cut off. This year I watched hundreds of people struggle like never before and succeed.

This year I learned what the face of ironman looks like. And it pleases me.

30 weeks is not soon enough.

IMAZ: Tale of Team AzTriClub

Michael Lavato wins IM Arizona. Congrates.

First I want to give my praise to the close personal friends that finished Ironman Arizona yesterday:

The Machine, aka Dr. Jeff Banas 13:53 Finish/ 1:05 swim/6:27 bike/ 6:03 run

IronBenney 12:53/ 1:09/ 6:10/ 5:18

Big John 16:34/ 1:31/ 7:19/ 7:27

Hardcore Mike 15:54/ 1:33/ 7:44/ 6:07

Super Steve 15:19/ 1:33/ 7:04/ 6:13

SD Dan 14:55/ 1:20/ 6:30/ 6:28

I am so proud of all of you and learned amazing things from each of you as we talked on the course. You have given me a tremendous amount of mental preperation.

Great News!

In a year so far filled with tremendous blessing, the greatest came today in a phone call from Mistress.

"Mo's bloodwork came back and his immune system has been healed. The doctor says all the low immune precursors have been removed and he is as healthy a boy as you could ever expect for a three year old based on this information."

I am of course completely ecstatic and thank the Lord for this information. It has been my dominant prayer for 1,078 days, every day of his short life. I have probably prayed on it five times a day but its that many days. A quote I have used many times is, "If someone can hold onto their dream for five years that dream will become a reality, but most people can't hold onto a dream for five minutes."

Whether you believe in the power of prayer or karma or positive energy or whatever, I am filled with joy and love for this miracle. So many times in that last three years Mo was given bleak projections for a normal life. To have recieved this information is just....its validation for keeping the faith of a better life for him.

Much of this I believe is attributed to Mighty Mo's naturally cheerful disposition. He has always had a good heart and smile through all his trials. Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps the strength."

We still have the asthma and allergies to deal with but millions of americans deal with one or both of those on a daily basis in some form or another and have very healthy and poductive lives. Mistress is one of them.

Its a beautiful day with blue sky for my son.

Let the Festivities Begin...

Tonight was an informal kick off to Ironman Arizona festivities. I attended a mixer last night at Tribe for three guest speakers and general mingling with other triathletes. Kevin, the owner, did a great job transforming his shop into a party atmosphere complete with raffle prizes and snacks.

The main guest of the evening was Heather Gollnick, three time Ironman winner. Her first win was her 2nd Ironman, 1st as a pro, it was IMMOO. She said it is her favorite course and from my vantage in the room, many people nodded in agreement. I guess the alternate Tri Geek Dreams Florida team (just kidding guys and gals) have much to look forward too.

Heather spoke about having reverence for what makes you tick when your facing the demons on the IM course. She talked about how she was mentally drained at the end of an IM run and how badly her legs hurt but then she saw her daughter on the side of the course, confined to a wheelchair due to Cerebal Palsy cheering her on. She told people to remember why they were there when they were doing it.

Luc Morin, is a pro triathlete, Canadian and a sponsored Valdora rider. He is racing this weekend and gave a talk on nutrition. I wish I could say that I heard it but I was outside talking to two business contacts. I had to do a little work.

The last seminar was a Trigger Point group who has a recognizable product but I was half listening to them and half explaining their lingo to others around me who were asking,
"What's Plantar Fascitis?"
"What's a Psoas?"
"Where is it again?"

Amongst all that was raffle prizes, including a $700 Valdora frame as the big daddy, then all kinds of shirts, hats, socks, Rudy Project shades, racing tires and the like.

I waited in line to met Heather and have her sign an old photo of her I found online with her holding her bike over her head. Sound familiar to some of you? Thats why I chose it. She thought it was sweet that someone actually brought something for her to sign. I also brought my camera and had a picture taken.

The atmosphere was nice and loose. I would say 60% of the crowd was entered in IMAZ. I ran into some old friends I have seen around the Tribe and at races. I made some new friends and potential new aztriclub members. Which BTW you can become a member and not be in Phoenix.

Most surprizing is that some people came to me and introduced themselves to me saying they had seen me or heard my name in the crowd and had heard of me through the store or through Pure Fitness.

My mom once told me that she loved watching me work a crowd. That I was a lot like a politician. Of course my brother remarked, "What is he mom, the Mayor of Simpleton?"

I approve this add.

How Cool Is This...

Dear Athlete,

Congratulations! We have finalized our first 50 athletes and are excited to announce that you have been selected to become a member of 2006 Team Polar.

After reviewing your application and speaking with you on the phone, we are confident that your athletic goals, enthusiasm and peer influence is a perfect match for Polar. As a brand ambassador, we will look to you to not only be dedicated to athletic excellence, but also 100% committed to the success of the program. This means, that in addition to the 2 training club clinics and 2 retail appearances that are required of you, we hope you will continually be seeking out opportunities to promote Polar.

I apologize to the Kahuna and my Tri-Greek Dreamer teammates out there but I will not be wearing the awesome blue and black at Ironman Florida. Polar HRM is my new clothing sponsor and I am required to wear their team clothing at my races this year and through Ironman Arizona next year.

As part of the contract I get custom team apperal, an RS200sd running computer system and a CS200cad cycling computer system. I am also sent a dozen watches to run local clinics.

The great news is that my training partner, Jeff aka "The Machine", also made the team. Its nice to know that we can do all this together.

Free Money?

I would highly recommend you search this site to see if you have any loose income floating around. Be sure to check all the states you have ever lived in. Do you whole family while your at it and guys...don't forget your wifes maiden name.

Nothing for me and mine but searched my biz partners and found them some extra cash. What did you find?

Tensed Up...

I am getting a little frustrated at this hamstring issue. No I still haven't got the shot yet, though I still need it, but the belly of the muscle is all jacked up now and its hemming up my runs. I feel that it is so jacked that to run on it will cause a more serious long term injury. I haven't run in a week.

I have become Mr. Bike Trainer Guy. I am stuck riding my trainer in the little chainring and slowly moving up into the higher gearing of the big chainring getting my legs nices and warmed up. I rode last night and would guess just based on my high cadence work I only rode 16 miles instead of my usually estimated 20 miles.

Oh well, its all good.

FCA-Endurance

A few months ago I joined a group called FCA-Endurance. FCA stands for Fellow Christian Athletes. I have a link on my sidebar.

This group has been just another of a long string of blessings in my life. First off it costs nothing to join. Its a body of athletes who train in triathlon or other endurance sports and follow a code. Now whether your a Christian or Muslim, Jew or Athesist, at least you can appreciate community. This 'code' happens to be racing and training with biblical principals. Its called the Competitors Creed. I already followed these principals based on my faith, so it was nothing to link up with them except for one more way to recieve encouragement and motivation from like minded triathletes.

I spoke on the phone recently with the President of FCA-E, Chris (a midwest guy, he is from Minna-So-Cold) because he wanted me to know all the wonderful things going on at IMAZ this week. Some Ironman expo's have an event called IronPrayer. I went to this last year. Heather Gollnick was the main speaker then and this year as well. I think I recently posted that Barb Lindquist recently became a Ministry Partner with FCA-E.

If your a Christian I say, "Sign Up!" You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If your not a Christian, thanks for reading this far and being a fair and open-minded person. Regardless of your position 'Favor' will find you.

Smooth As Silk

Well the weather is getting to the point that 'diapers' aka running shorts are replacing most clothes for everyday wear. Its going to be almost 90 degrees today.

That being said I want to write a bit about how to keep the chaffing down to a minimum. I recommend two products, BodyGlide and BlisterShield.

I hate chaffing. Nothing bothers me more in a run than feeling the after effects of constant friction, in my case, along the inside of my upper thighs. The crotch to be specific. I Occassionally I get friction on the inside of my arms if my sleeveless jersey rubs against the skin. know women whom often complain that their bra straps create friction. We are all susceptable to this happening.

BodyGlide is the ubiquitous stick seen pretty much anywhere outdoor products are sold. This product is sanctioned by USAT and also sold at all Ironman and USAT races. I like this product. I have two or three around the house or in my bags incase of emergancy need. Its a fairly thick coating, thicker than deodorant. In my use of the product a couple of swipes and I am chaff free for two or three hours. The drawback if you live in extreme temperatures like say Phoenix, is that if BodyGlide is left in your workout bag, which is left in your car during a hot day, it will melt down. Not exactly what you want to have occur to your clothing.

I prefer BlisterShield in roll-on form. There is also a powdered form for feet or other body parts. It is a specialty product and more difficult to find. I would look at running stores first or online for sure. Now this product uses a different chemical that applys like a slick, teflon feeling. Thats not to say that it 'feels' weird, quite the opposite. I think it feels great, since it creates a frictionless surface that the skin glides across. It is non-staining to clothes as well. The roll on is a liquid quality so it will not melt in the heat, another big plus.

Of the two products I recommend BlisterShield over BodyGlide. Its a better frictionless product and easier to use.

Saturday

Off to the pool for some drills. Probably a short day of 2500 yards. Then Mighty Mo and I will be going to Ice Age 2 before his nap. Then this afternoon a one hour run.

Have Fun. Spring is here and for those of you with Daylight Savings time, "What are you going to do with your extra hour?"

Scottsdale Triathlon Photos