Category Archives: Random

Oh right. So all of that happened

Posted on June 15, 2013 by | 1 Comment

I had the post-marathon blues pretty bad: I wasn’t super psyched to train, I wasn’t super psyched to race. Life was good, don’t get me wrong. But I felt like the marathon training, coming back from the mangled ankle, and a general lack of focus and fitness in the biking and swimming left me far behind where I wanted to be. I traveled to Knoxville to help out with timing for Rev3, and while that was a wet and wild weekend (torrential downpours, driving all over Knoxville, etc), it didn’t bring as much of a fire to my belly as I might have hoped. So going into Quassy, I was not expecting good things.

The swim at Quassy probably went as well as I could expect. For the first time, I felt a lot of contact at the start, but I felt consistent (albeit slow) in the water. The bike was as difficult as I remembered. Up, down, around… I hit a high speed of ~50mph. While I didn’t blow up my race on the bike, I did drop my feed bottle around mile 20. Compounded with the fact that I had very little nutrition pre-race, I was going to be in a world of hurt. I was already feeling a bit of a bonk coming off the bike, and then the run… oh boy. It was 90 degrees out, and while my body might have been strong, my mind was not. Last year I had been able to run the entire course. This year, after mile 2, the course turned uphill and my mind just kind of shut the day down. I’m not sure if it’s the extra weight I’m carrying around from the lack of focused training or if I’m just being a giant wimp, but something has to give.

Today was the Mount Washington Road Race. I wish I could say I’m a mountain lion or mountain goat or whatever, but nope. The course is spectacular with views of the surrounding White Mountains. But there’s really no way to soft peddle the fact that the course is a bear. An average 11.7% grade. No downhills. No respite from climbing. No shelter from the wind above the tree line. A cruel finish that pitches up ridiculously. Yes I walked. Quite a bit of it in fact. But in doing so I had a great time with a bunch of people and prevented those thoughts that keep on telling me: just pick one sport, you’re not good at this. So up we went. Up up up into a stiff winds that were godsends when they were tailwinds and the coldest winds from the depth of hell just about any other time. And I can’t wait to try again next year: hopefully a bit lighter [1], hopefully with strong mental resolve, and hopefully, if I buckle down, much better fitness.

  1. Hopefully the June of Sobriety (except for one birthday that deserves celebrating) will help shed a few pounds. ↩

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Waxing and waning

Posted on March 19, 2013 by | Leave a comment

I’m still alive. I got through dog sitting, and while I enjoyed it, I don’t think I’m ready to have a dog just yet. I’m sometimes bad at budgeting time, and while Kaipo forced me to get a little better at that, it meant that I had to reprioritize things, like some training. But right now, every run counts, so I’ve only been putting the cycling by the wayside.

As cold as it looks, and windy to boot.

As cold as it looks, and windy to boot.

This weekend was supposed to be a 16 miler. As a result of late nights Thursday and Friday, I decided I needed to head up to NH to get some quality training and avoid the craziness that is St. Patrick’s Day in Boston. Unfortunately, I woke up Sunday to temperatures in the low teens and a brisk[1] northerly wind. I had enough gear that I thought my workout (1 mile easy, 2 @ 6:45-6:55 repeat until complete) would be doable. But as I started, I quickly realized that 1. my legs were still, for some reason, incredibly dead and 2. I can do headwinds, I can do cold, I can do hills; I can do two of them at once, but all three during a hard workout? No thank you. That said, I think if it weren’t for the pace requirements, I could have gotten 16 miles in. Instead, feeling exhausted and slightly upset with myself, I drove home and fell asleep around 9:30PM.

As a bit of a sidebar, my confidence with regards to running ebbs and flows from day to day and even within runs. I see friends setting PRs, and I haven’t even really raced yet in 2013. The mangled ankle is still swollen from time to time and there are small aches and pains associated with the entire lower leg. As I’ve said, I’m constantly adjusting my expectations with regards to Boston. Some days I worry that qualifying is out of the picture. But for the most part, this is out of my control. All I can do is move forward.

With all that, I got home from work yesterday and decided to get my 16 miler in (as Steve said, “At this point, miles are you friend”). Set off, and was really trying to hold myself back around the 6:55 pace for the first couple of 2 mile intervals, but that’s easier said than done (5 seconds/mile slower is just 1.25 seconds a lap slower on a track, and splitting the timing that fine is just not really all that easy). So I just continued on my merry way, sometimes into the damp wind that was a prelude to the mess that is today (in which case I was not so merry), sometimes with the wind at my back. And though it was cold and partially miserable, I was able to run in shorts and a long-sleeve bike jacket. All of which made for a bit of an easier workout.

It turns out I ran the entire 16 in 1:51:43, which is about 8 minutes slower than my first ever half-marathon. I got stronger as the miles progressed, even if there were some stomach issues cropping up. So the run was a great confidence booster (especially in preparation for my 18 miler this weekend). Maybe sub-3 is still in the cards, but I am confident another BQ is in the cards… so long as I Tri-Slide up my nips. Because cold weather and cutting glass don’t play well together.

How are you feeling about your end of winter fitness?

  1. Does a brisk wind by definition always occur when it is cold outside? ↩

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Be calm. Be brave. It’ll be ok.

Posted on February 20, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Before I get to running, I had a 5 minute TT on the bike today. This was actually my second go in two weeks at this, as two weeks ago I flew out of the proverbial gates and was crushed before 2.5 minutes were up. Today, with targets in mind, I rode a much smoother (full) 5 minutes. That’s not to say I felt good afterwards:

I had one of those runs on Monday where everything just felt pretty good. Easy pace felt easy. Nothing hurt. But the path to getting out the door was far less than easy. I had to convince myself, really convince myself, that 25 minutes of easy running had to get done (it was on the schedule). And I think I know why.

Just like Costa Rica and Quassy last year, I’m afraid that I might have to adjust my goals. The #mangledankle set me farther back than I’d like to admit. While I was out in Boulder, Steve made it pretty clear that <2:50 at Boston is pretty much out of the books. I’m beginning to wonder if sub-3:00 is even out of the books as well. Too be honest, Monday’s run was the first run where I actually felt back to my “old[1]” self. Maybe it’s because I haven’t raced in 3 months (even Super Sunday, where I ran tempo and that felt easy, didn’t feel like a great run and definitely wasn’t me racing). Maybe it’s because I’m a bit heavier right now than I have been in a year or two. Maybe the ankle isn’t fully healed (it’s still in a perpetually swollen state, even if it doesn’t hurt at all). What I do know is that there are still 7.5 weeks to get ready (or as ready as possible) for Boston. Running will get easier. Trust the plan as it is formed now (as much as I can).

What do you do when you think you need to readjust?

  1. Emily, I think, will get a kick out of this because my old self, the old self she remembers very well, is not someone who could run the 4 miles easy and feel like it was easy. What I meant was pre-injury me ↩

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Boulder, Sponsor Style

Posted on February 18, 2013 by | 1 Comment

So last time I wrote, I told you I’d talk about the tri-specific stuff (aside from meeting people) that we did in Boulder. It’s odd; I never thought I would be a sponsored athlete of any sort (although I suppose you could say that growing up, most of the time I was sponsored by my parents). But aside from hanging out with the Normatec people at almost every Rev3 event last year, I hadn’t really spent any time with any of my sponsors. So it was a real treat to hear from them.

First up was SBR Sports, the makers of TriSlide, Foggle, and TriSwim. While the amount of time I spend in the pool could best be described as minimal or lacking, I’ve loved these products when I’ve used them: the TriSwim stuff is fantastic, and last year I never had a problem extracting myself from my wetsuit like I had in years past. We learned quite a bit about why the product was created and that TriSlide was for external use only (seriously, this stuff is ridiculously slick to the point that it makes dry tile into a veritable sheet of ice… TriSlide hockey/broomball anyone?).

Next up was a new sponsor, Compex. I’m really interested to try out E-Stim. A few years ago I got to play with some e-stim stuff in a professional PT environment, and I’m curious to see what effect it can have.

Later in the afternoon, we headed out to the Pearl Izumi US HQ. We were taken on a tour to see some of the past ad campaigns (some of which were deemed to be too racy to release to the public), meet the custom kit creators, meet the President (of Pearl US), and see where the pros’ kits are made. Cool thing that Pearl does for their pros? Each kit is custom built to a pro’s specific build. So it’s not a Medium, it’s a Jesse Thomas. We also heard from Tim DeBoom about how awesome Pearl is to work with (he’s helped design some of the graphics for the shoes). We then heard about the upcoming run and triathlon lines from Pearl, and the complete relaunch of their running shoes (which are currently being launched). This was quite the treat, and I look forward to getting to try them out.

That evening, we drank.

The next day was more sponsors. First up was Biotta. We got to try the beet juice and the nutritionists on the team went way into depth about how fantastic beet juice is for you, so I’ll have to acquire the taste. I was able to drink the whole sample I had, so I’m assuming I’ll be able to acquire it. There were some worrisome moments later in the day, as beet juice is very red and looks a bit like blood in certain situations.

Next we had Reynolds wheels. So cool to hear about how they make their race wheels (I love load testing stuff, when things are pushed to their breaking point). And um, if anyone wants my SRAM S80s, I’m willing to give you a good price so I can get me some Reynolds.

Quintana Roo was up next, and we heard about their bike lines. The biggest concern is that you don’t always fit on a bike, so if I’m not on a QR, that’s the only reason why. The bikes are slick and sweet. But we’re going to try and fit me on one (sorry wallet!).

Last up was Powerbar. I had the same pre/misconception last year as I think everyone does about Powerbar: it tastes like crap. Well, it did back in the late 80s/early 90s, but I can say they’ve definitely remedied that problem. They’re releasing blends this year that are the consistency of pureed fruit, which should be pretty interesting and probably more conducive to ingesting during longer (10+ hour) efforts.

While it was really cool to be out in Boulder, the key takeaway that I got from hearing all of the sponsors was how invested they are in creating the best product possible. It’s one thing to just receive stuff from sponsors; it’s quite another thing to have them come in, explain their philosophy, explain how much you (as a customer and sponsored athlete) mean to them, and display their enthusiasm. And I know that this can all sound very arrogant; I don’t mean for it to be. I’m truly humbled by all of this.

Want to try some of the gear that I’ll be getting[1]? Let me know. I’ll see what I can do.

  1. The compex, Normatec, Biotta, SBR and PowerBar stuff is probably the easiest to share. You cannot ride my race wheels. You cannot ride my race bike. ↩

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Ode to Boulder. Or Oh Boulder. Or Uh Oh Boulder.

Posted on February 1, 2013 by | 5 Comments


For now, I’m going to gloss over the actual meetings and celebrations of the Rev3 summit out in Boulder and focus on the rest of the trip out West. Next time I’ll tell you all about the sponsors and the team.

Driving in to Boulder was somewhat spectacular. Even in the dead of night, the shadows of the Flatirons and the Rockies (not knowing the region well enough, maybe it’s the Front Range?) are spectacular. During the day, they are even more spectacular.

Thursday
The snow pack in Colorado has been disappointing this year. The bases at most of the I-70 resorts (Keystone, Copper, Loveland, Vail, etc) are right around 30 inches right now. But it’s a totally different type of terrain, snow, and altitude. I didn’t know how long I wanted to ski on Thursday so I headed to Loveland Ski Area. Much of the more extreme terrain was closed, and the wind was whipping across the ridge, but still, I was out skiing (and freezing). While small and mostly above the treeline, there are some magnificent views and you can see the exhaust pipes from the tunnel (the tunnels are a marvel; when an overheight truck approaches, a loud siren goes off and all traffic is prevented from entering the tunnels.
As the day wore on, I decided I needed to get back to Boulder so I could meet teammates for dinner. But first, I wanted to drive over Loveland Pass (pass #1 of the week) and see what the drive was like (I had never driven over the pass, just through the tunnels). The view at the top? Truly awe inspiring.

Met some teammates for dinner. Someone confused architecture for archaeology (Indiana Jones designs the best buildings). We drank Imperial because it reminded us of Costa Rica and opportunities missed. Later that night I drove back out to the airport to pick up Maggie, Ryan, and Tonia. We got back to the hotel, Ryan and I cracked a beer, and we watched the end of one of the American Pie movies before crashing around 2AM MST.

Sunday
We made the decision early in the weekend that 5 of us (Ryan, Jeff, Maggie, Lauren, and I) would be going to one of the resorts to ski on Sunday. We met in the lobby at 8AM, jammed the trunk full of equipment, and started off for Winter Park. Once again, the mountain pass (this time, Berthoud Pass) was beautiful: low clouds, snow, tree lines, and switchbacks. Maybe someday I’ll bike the passes.
Gang of five.
We had a great time at Winter Park. We spent the majority of the time in the trees (my first time ever) finding what powder we could, falling into wells over and over again, and laughing it up.


We drove back to Boulder that night and Lauren, Maggie, and I met up with Courtenay Brown for dinner: Tibetan food. I had a yak stew (yup!) because when in Tibet, do as the Tibetans do. While I had met Courtenay briefly before and talked multiple times at length with her, it was the first time we had actually sat down together and talked. Didn’t disappoint: she’s just as cool in person as she is online.

Monday
Headed out to Copper Mountain on my own. It was nice to be back at the place where I learned to ski way back in the day. They even still give out Jolly Ranchers at the ticket window like they did 20+ years ago. During the day it started to snow, and while the visibility wasn’t great, the skiing was: there were steeps with deep powder, endless bumps as big as a sumo wrestler, and tree skiing galore. Got in a full day there.
Trees please!
That night, I headed to Avery Brewery. They do a number of taproom only beers, so I had a mint chocolate stout and an IPA that was taproom only[1].
Mint chocolate stout
Tuesday
Decided against skiing (gasp!) and went running up in the foothills/Flatirons/Front Range/whatever. It was there I came up with a brilliant business idea: truck in a ton of oxygen to Colorado. Up the trail into Shadow Canyon, lungs burning, feet searching the snow for good footing… just totally at peace with everything. The run included a lot of stops going up (to catch my breath) and down (to take photos). I thought about stopping at 1 mile going up. But I kept going. At 1.25 miles, I thought about stopping, but still, I went up. At 1.75, I decided that I would get to two miles and turn around.


Lunch was with Steve and MarkyV. I had never met MarkyV (nor Steve for that matter, though we had corresponded). We had a raucous lunch at Rueben’s Burger Bistro, which had 42 beers on tap (including nitro Mojo) and a terribly misleading signpost for the mountain passes in Europe. It was a very motivating (there are things I might be able to achieve), comforting (seems even the really fast people lose their motivation in January), and hilarious (Newton pumps: not happy with 0mm drop? 4 pumps to 4mm!) lunch. Finally had dinner with my cousins in Denver, then drove to the airport and waited in a nearly deserted terminal for my redeye flight back to Boston.

And now I am seriously considering a move to Boulder if I could only keep everything the way it is now. I love living near my family. I love the feel of Boston. But I also love the feel of Boulder/Denver. And the mountains. It’s not an easy problem to solve. It has very little to do with multisport and more to do with comfort. Any suggestions on what I should do? You ever come across this situation?

  1. Next time you go to Boulder, I recommend you go there. The staff there was pretty awesome (though perhaps that was only due to the weather which was nasty) ↩

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Death to the MangledAnkle! Long live the MangledAnkle!

Posted on January 13, 2013 by | Leave a comment

I’ve run twice this week. Where in previous weeks I might measure my running in miles, this week I’ve been mesasuring it in minutes. And this week was somewhere around 40 minutes (as opposed to 40 miles). But no matter. I AM RUNNING! Boston is however many weeks or days or months away (13 weeks, for those who are counting). But I am excited for triathlon and running.

I’m not going to be racing competitively any time soon (the mangledankle will do that to you), but I’m running and I’m not worried about my ankle going to shit and being in massive pain… I run. It’s what I do.

But my body doesn’t seem to appreciate my desire to continue running (from nothing and everything). It seems I’ve come down with a low grade misery of the sinuses; nothing nearly as bad as it could be (I even got 3.4 miles in tonight). Nothing to prevent me from training. Nothing to prevent me from anything really. But enough to make me feel unpleasant. But still, I run.

There’s some exciting stuff coming up. Sponsor stuff. Racing stuff. Ideas about life stuff. Stay tuned. But in the meantime, go for a run or something.

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It should make you happy

Posted on January 8, 2013 by | 3 Comments

I was talking to the smartest person I think I’ve ever had a chance to meet recently, and the discussion was focused around how corporate America and academia seem so incredibly different: she’s a researcher at a lab, I’m pretty firmly planted in the corporate world. Her experience in the lab is as follows.

  • Everyone in the lab is there because they are incredibly passionate about what they are doing
  • If they are not passionate about it, the research will suffer, funding will suffer, and eventually, the lab will fold

Now granted, this is probably me oversimplifying the argument a bit, but that’s pretty much it: Love it or leave it. She was amazed that there are people who are not doing the things that they are passionate for their employment. I thought that was pretty rare in the corporate world: you get a lot of people who either get comfortable or don’t have a passion for what they are doing (or at least that’s what I’ve observed… I’m willing to accept that my position could be totally wrong). Ideally, this should be possible: anyone should be able to find employment in or around something they are passionate about (e.g., a triathlete may not be able to go pro, but there are entire industries around triathlon that exist). But I also think there are tradeoffs that might need to be considered: family, money, location, etc. And perhaps it’s very easy at our age to pick our careers based on passion, but as we grow older and more experienced, it might also be true that various pathways get closed off to us. Anyhow, it was a very interesting and thought provoking conversation.

Anyhow, I was thinking about this this morning, and realized that I am suffering from an embarrassment of riches, especially when it comes to my athletic pursuits. Yes, the #mangledankle has been a setback, but in the grand scheme of things it’s a really small setback (3 weeks? a bit of extra gained weight?). But I do find myself wavering between ultramarathons and triathlon: with triathlon there’s the constant pursuit to get faster; with ultra there’s the question of whether I can actually complete the race. And then managing the two: I know it’s doable. It’s a lot of hard work. But I’ve wanted to do both for years now, and I can’t think of any reason not to anymore. I don’t want to realize too late that I love ultras. I don’t want to realize that I could’ve done both but didn’t.

So that’s the plan. Go big. All in. Adding JFK50 to the plan this year.

What about you? Are you passionate about what you are doing? Do you think the job exists for everyone where they would be passionate?

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Giving a damn

Posted on January 7, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Fantastic news. Two rides were completely on the weekend. I feel/am fat and out of shape (for me, what with my triathlete BDD), but what I don’t feel is my ankle giving me a ton of pain while riding. Even better than that news? On the schedule for this week is some running! Only 15-20 minutes of it… but since I can’t remember the last time I ran, I am kind of thrilled about it. To those of you worried about the ice and snow and everything outside, I’ll be doing my running on an indoor track, if only so that I don’t have to worry about stepping in a hole, slipping, etc.

A few other quick hits:

  • We moved office last week, and I’m using a standup desk. I’m not sure how long it will last, but I figured if I didn’t start off this way I’d never try it. So far today has been interesting, but good.
  • I finally figured out a resolution for 2013, but it’s nothing really measurable or anything. Simply, give a damn more often this year. So obviously, that’s not a SMART goal, and it’s not breaking things down into any small steps, but it’s something new. I’ve been called out for not showing disappointment, for not seeming like I care… and while I do, I’ve tended to be very private about that. So the goal is to make things more clear.
  • Fingers crossed for snow in Colorado, and lots of it, before I head there at the end of January. Should be a fun fun trip with the Rev3 team.

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Wait Till Next Year

Posted on December 24, 2012 by | 1 Comment

So the ankle is fractured, but the fracture is small enough that because I can walk around, there’s no reason to put me in a boot or anything. I’m starting to bike and swim again this week and running will come when I am 100%.

We went around the room this morning, before everyone left, to ask what everyone’s new year’s resolutions were. As open as I often am and am willing to be, telling people how I want to change my life and what my goals are seems the most personal thing I can do. So I don’t. And I won’t. But what I really want, for everyone, is for people to find Happiness. Maybe it comes from being with someone else, doing something you love, some inner peace. Whatever it is, I hope in 2013 you find it.

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Pop Pop

Posted on December 19, 2012 by | 2 Comments


Last year around this time, I got the hives. This year, I fractured my ankle. I shudder to think what is in store for me next year…

I once thought I sprained my ankle, and it turned out I had three fractures. So I think this is a sprain, but let’s get an X-ray just in case — Doctor

After much kvetching and waffling about whether I should go see my doctor about my ankle, I bit the bullet and scheduled an appointment with my PCP. Went in, got weighed (didn’t want to take my shoes off because it hurts, but even so, holy shit diet time), and then waited to see him. He came in, looked at my ankle, pressed on it (ow), and then sent me on to get an X-ray.

Now, I’m not a doctor so you should wait to hear from them, but there’s definitely something funky going on in your ankle — X-ray Tech

Never good to hear that from an X-ray tech. She’s probably seen 1000s of X-rays, and even if she’s not an MD, probably knows what a bad ankle is when she sees one. We had a good laugh as she looked at my foot and the bruises on it, and then asked if I was sure the right ankle was the one that was hurt.
The next morning, I got a call from my doctor. Yes, it is fractured. It is a small fracture on the lateral aspect (whatever that means). I just need an air splint.
30.6+ year streak of not breaking a bone? Broken[1].

So what now?
The ankle is currently in one of those air splints. I’ve got an orthopedist appointment tomorrow. My guess is they’ll want to do some more scans (of one kind or another) to make sure I didn’t tear anything as well (I heard two distinct pops when I went down). I’ll also find out from the ortho when I can start training again. Steve is being really good about telling me to rest. My friends have been really good at reassuring me that I’ll get back to things better than I was before. Medical friends (Jen, Rehan, Ally, Ashley) have been looking out for my best interests. Bartender friends have been amazing (gin, honey, simple syrup, orange zest… holy shit). My family especially.
It would be very easy for me to say that this is a fitting end to 2012. But that’s not true. I can’t take for granted all of the good and great things that happened in 2012 just because some not so good things happened. These things, good and bad, are shaping me for the better/stronger.

  1. It’s one of the streaks I was really proud about. Another was never using a port-a-potty. I think I made it something like 27 years. Pretty much until I started racing. ↩

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