At the Altar of Liz

Six of us, in sundresses, stood on the Manhattan street corner post baby shower/tea.  Passersbys, if asked to guess what we were discussing, would have chosen baby stuff, boys, shopping or maybe evening plans.  They would have been wrong.  We were discussing triathlon in general and  Liz, the coach of three of us, specifically.  Eavesdroppers, if asked to guess what we were discussing, likely would have chosen  some new fangled  religion.  They wouldn't be quite right - not a religion, just a triathlon coach.  But, once you become accustomed to having thoughtful workouts planned for you, you do become quite devout.  And if coaching by Liz were a religion, I think I'd play the role of  Moses - having brought her to the group on the corner - except if triathlon Nirvana were hiding on top of a mountain I don't think I'd be the one chosen to find it.  I climb in constant fear of toppling over because I am THAT slow and I descend gripping the breaks in terror.  So, I need to think of a Divine messenger that finds the hidden message other than on the top of a mountain and analogize myself to him or her.  But I think you get my point. 

The Girl Who Liked Pop Tarts

Once upon a time, in a far away land known as New Jersey, there was a girl who liked to do triathlons. She wasn't very good at them but she persevered because they were fun, and they attracted cute boys and they made her arms look pretty.

But sometimes, the triathlons made her hungry. Very hungry. And one day in a state of extreme hungriness, she ate a brown sugar pop tart. It was good.

And the next day, when she was hungry, she wanted another one. So she had another one. And before long she came to crave a pop tart late every afternoon. So she would take $1 and her building id down to the convenience store and indulge. Sometimes they had no brown sugar so she would have strawberry, which wasn't as good, but she needed something to satisfy the craving. She couldn't resist, she was addicted.

But she tried to control her addiction - sometimes she thought about buying a box (or two) at the local food store but she always resisted for fear that she'd come to eat more than one package of pop tarts a day. She thought she was in control of her addiction, but the first time she craved a pop tart on the weekend she worried that her life was spiraling out of control.

So that Monday, she decided to go cold turkey. Instead of her late afternoon pop tart she had gold fish from the vending machine (a dubious choice, but at least not a pop tart).

When, on her first pop tartless day the girl left the office to head to the pool, her tummy was rumbling. And as she swam her laps the rumbling got worse and her head got fuzzy. Withdrawal is rough, so she hopped out a few hundred yards early to head home for some dinner.

In a light-headed daze, the girl showered quickly and threw her work suit back on. She was heading out of the locker room when she got a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Something wasn't right. Upon further review, it seemed that the girl had put on her bra and blazer but NO SHIRT. Horrified, and in the nick of time, she retreated back to her locker and found the missing shirt.

A close call for sure.

The girl had learned her lesson and the very next morning she went to the local food store and stocked up on brown sugar pop tarts. Addiction is a powerful thing not to be messed with 3 weeks before the big race unless you want to risk citations for indecent exposure.

The end.

*Good* News

Athlete guides for the Big Race came out today. You'll all be happy to know that on the run, crawling is a legal form of forward movement.

Awesome.

Other facts of note: public nudity is *strictly* prohibited, give someone the special ticket to retrieve your bike from T2 *just*in*case* you can't do it, pump your tires race morning in T1 but your pump *will*not* be transported to T2 (which makes me wonder: do that many people have friends/family that will get up to watch a mass of colored heads swim at 6am?).

I'm nervous. But ready to get this done. I just wish that accuweather looked that far ahead, because you know that it is almost time when someone out there is predicting the weather.

Pat Griskus Triathlon

aka, a lesson in confidence

On many levels.

This was a Saturday race that required an overnight stay and thus required me to get from work to CT with a stop at the bike store for gels using a route that was not entirely map quest endorsed (I wanted to take a less direct route to avoid city traffic).  Back in the day when I lived here and drove to and form school and had friends that were scattered far and wide I knew my way to everywhere I needed to go.  I never got loss or felt like I didn't know where I was.  Now that I apparently live, work and summer in the garden state I find myself driving more than I have in years and in parts of the state different than the ones I grew up in.  I always figure it out and I've never (NEVER) had to ask for directions but there have been some where-on-earth-am-I? moments.  Not to mention that I'm not the most aggressive driver.

Anyway, I made it to the race site in time for an evening check in with no issues and then had a nice solo dinner at the bar while chatting with some people who were also doing the race and just felt content.  I obviously would have been happy to have someone there with me but I was totally fine making small talk over a beer and a turkey club.  It was something different and made me feel grown up.  Sort of.

Race morning was uneventful (despite eating my oatmeal with a straw) - the race site was super close to the hotel which was nice.  We got there in plenty of time to set up transition and I wandered down to the beach to check out the swim course.  It was pretty.  The lifeguards were hanging out on the beach being briefed on how to guard us.  It reminded me of my lifeguarding summer and the quiet cool of the beach calmed me.

And then everyone else made their way to the beach and it was filled with adrenaline, neither quiet nor cool.

I put on my wetsuit and got into the water for a 5-10 minute warm up.  And before I knew it, Sara's dad took a pre-race photo and we were off.

The Swim -swimming with geese-es

What a difference 20 degrees makes.  Not being terrified by the cold  was nice.  I got in a bit behind the fray and just swam and swam.  And swam right to the first buoy.  And then I kept swimming to the second buoy which was a bit harder to see ... I've never been in a triathlon where there aren't smaller little yellow buoys in between the big orange ones that tell you where to turn, and while I have really good vision, goggles cloud and sun glares and its hard to know where to go.  Pre-race I identified a house on the horizon that helped guide me to buoy 2 but once I rounded that buoy I had no idea where I was.  So I swam, and swam and swam and realized I was pretty far off course.  So I swam and swam some more trying to right myself and found myself even more off course.  I kept swimming and a kayaker noted that I was doing well but sort of in no mans land.  Thanks, dude.  I kept swimming and made a WIDE turn at buoy 3 and then tried to take the most direct route to shore.  At one point I looked up to sight and realized that I did have a good line to the finish but then nearly jumped out of my wetsuit because there was a large object just to my right ... which I quickly realized was a family of geese.  And the geese aren't exactly hanging out in the midst of the pack of swimmers so I really was no where near everyone else.

At any rate, I focused on strong pulls and on kicking (I tend not to kick at all in the wetsuit but it obviously helps you go forward) and swam at race pace confident that I could go the distance and didn't have to go super slow just to make it through.  I finished in 40:xx minutes which I was pleased with considering the detour. 

I suspect I swam the Big Race distance, and if I didn't I was close and am not worried about the July 13th swim (as long as the waves cooperate, which I obviously can't control).

T1 - I hardly even remember this.  I was breathing hard from the run off the beach, got my stuff on and got out.  Post swim is the only time I'm not last in a triathlon and I try to make it last!

The Bike - "Take it as it comes and be thankful when its done."

My problem with the bike is that I either go All Out or Real Slow.  When riding outside I go All Out more often than not, so its hard to differentiate between racing and riding.  In addition, there were some hills with bizarre grades on this course and they tended to go straight up so you knew that while the bizarre grade might end quickly the overall up hill portion would go on potentially forever.

Not really knowing the course, I told my self that my only option was to "Take it as it comes and be thankful when its done."

I did take it (into a really low gear up all the hills) and, just shy of 2 hours later, I was thankful when it was done. And it left me confident that I'll be able to finish the Bike Race bike in 4ish hours (maybe?) - I'm hoping the hills are better.

T2 -  Can I get your autograph?

When I rolled in to T2 some triathlete was standing there cheering for everyone to transition well. At first I just thought she was enjoying some sports drink before she headed onto the run but then I started to suspect she had FINISHED THE RUN.  So, on my way out, I stopped to talk to her and confirmed my theory and congratulated her on coming in first.  Probably not the best use of my time!

The Run - Apparently what you don't know can't kill you.

I never really grasped that this was a 2 'loop' out and back UP A MOUNTAIN.  Had I known this I might have stayed in bed.  I made it though.  Down and up.  And then down and up again.  My run time of just over an hour makes me really, really want to Race a stand alone 10K.  And I think I'll be able to run most of the Big Race run at a decent (for me) pace.

Finished the run in 1:02ish for a total time of 3:42:22, which I'll take (not that there are a whole bunch of other options at this juncture).

So, the dress rehearsal for the Big Race is done - final push and then its time to head to RI.  Which, despite my new confidence, is still terrifying!

Today was awesome!

And there will be a race report, but first a few questions:

1.  To the three guys that got to packet pick up at the same time as me:  I get that you weren't keen on leaving your bikes unattended on the bike rack while you one friend figured out the issue with his registration.  But, I don't understand why when the two of you went back to the car to wait you tried on your bathing caps?  Why?  WHY?

2.  To the guy walking around the lobby of the hotel in bike shorts and a tee-shirt:  Did you not bring real pants?  Why?  What part of you thinks that this is socially acceptable??

3.  To the guy or three that swam the swim in a speedo:  Do you not watch the olympics?  This might have been cool when you were 3 but times have changed and people wear bike short looking speedos.  Please do us all a favor and give this style a try.  Please!

Finally, RIP in Tim.   I'll miss Mr. Russert.

"This course is a tough one!"

Said by my coach in response to my statement that I'd be happy just to have a decent bike this weekend because if it took me 4 hours to bike 24 miles, the outlook for finishing the Big Race in one day was not good.

And, at first blush it seemed not the response I was looking for.  The race was a late add when I got shut out of the (much more convenient) race that I wanted to do and I honestly never looked at the elevation profile until Liz's comment.  Coming off of Harriman it doesn't look that bad, but if Liz says its tough, I believe it.

Anyway, after a pre-dinner nap last night I started thinking about the race this weekend.  Prior to my nap (and well, after my nap too) I was over tired, not feeling great and generally cranky.  This race is sort of a huge PIA for me to get to, I have to find some of my favorite gels between now and then and I was generally stressed so I napped and then started thinking ... I'm looking forward to the swim, it won't be super cold, its in a lake (and not a crazy big midwest lake) so it shouldn't be too rough and I like to swim.  I'm looking forward to a strong swim.  The run is two loops so the second time around you know what's coming - hopefully this will help me power through and finish strong.  The only real issue for me is getting from the swim to the run ... biking with its fancy shoes, gears, breaks & balance issues STRESSES ME OUT!

I know I'll finish, I mean, I got up the big hill at Harriman and I'll get up the CT hills as well and then I'll cover the distance in the Big Race, but its the freakin bike that takes me from slightly above average to much below.  And it just seems that riding a bike should be easy. And I guess that's when I realized that riding a bike is theoretically easy, until you decide to do really hard things on the bike.  Like ride up a mountain, or ride 56 miles after swimming 1.2 miles and before running 13.1 miles.  These things are really hard.  But I do them.  Maybe not super well, but well enough to finish (err, at least so far, knock on wood) and in the grand scheme of things - if you add up the freaky fast people that are finishing before me AND the lazy couch potatoes I AM SO COMING OUT ABOVE AVERAGE and by not devoting a million hours a week to becoming freaky fast I'm doing what works for me, what I need to do to have So.Much.Fun!  

So yeah, above average and So.Much.Fun is cake and icing too.  It just took someone pointing out that its REALLY HARD for me to realize.  Stubborn, I am (and that is the second time I spoke Yoda today.  odd.).  

Where I've Been

Hmmm, where to start.

Memorial Day I was at the beach, but I think you knew that. I deemed it acceptably fun, maybe not my first choice, but since I have to work and don't have a private jet, most likely the best I'm gonna get.

The next weekend was my 10 year college reunion. I've never done drugs or had a flash back, but if I had, I think that the experience would have been similar to my reunion weekend. Chicago has always been one of my favorite places, a couple of times I've even considered moving there, but the timing has never been right and in the end I prefer it to be the place where I go to see some of my favorite people in the world. The problem is that they've now mostly moved out to the suburbs and to a certain extent I knew this trip was going to probably be one of the last and maybe for that reason it seemed that where ever I went the whole weekend I was remembering a special moment that will likely never been repeated ... the nights in Chicago friends apartment (that she moved out of while I was in town), the places I went with Ryan - the mall type place on Michigan Ave. where I met his brother and sister (I think I was more nervous about them than his parents) the day I was on the plane that was subject to a bomb threat, the awesome downtown apartment where I went to a party with a then close friend that I no longer talk to, a lakefront run or two to clear my mind from the emotions that have lately accompanied trips to Chi-town. Even back at school, walking through the bar without the crowds of a football weekend and remembering the first night I kissed the special boy and how I woke up with gum in my hair and despite the gum and the hangover knew that I had met someone who would always hold a very special place in my heart (obviously at the time I had hoped it would be a very special place in my life, but that didn't work out as planned), walking through the quad where on a warm dark night our senior year a good friend made a startling confession, eating the same bbq food that we had at freshman orientation but realizing that as alums we're allowed to have fruit AND BEER!

I came back from school, worked a million hours and was back at the beach this weekend. And all I have to say about that, is if you're almost 30 and you decide to not sleep in the room that you are sharing with 2 of your friends, accept the consequences, whatever they may be. Do not sneak into the room at 8 am and ruffle the bed to make it look like you slept there. I mean really.

This weekend I have a triathlon on Saturday. Not sure how I feel about that, I know it'll be fine, I've done the distance before blah, blah but I feel like the past 2 weeks I've really only gotten my long workouts in (better than nothing I suppose). This isn't entirely true, I've gotten a bunch of weekday workouts in but, when you're working in excess of 12 hours a day it just gets hard to get them ALL done. And this scares me for the Big Race, even though it probably shouldn't. I mean, a few missed workouts won't cancel out months of training, but it still make me nervous. Anyway, as long as I can catch up on my sleep and this strange tickle in the back of my throat doesn't turn into a full fledged cold, I think it'll be fun. More on that later.

Good day.