A very classic line from a classic Pixar movie. Anyone able to name it?
Anyway, so it's definitely been over two weeks since my last post and I apologize to the one or two people who actually read this.
So since my very near death experience (see last posting) things have changed around here for me.
Most prominent is I no longer work at Barnes and Noble. That means no more standing there for 20+ hours a week trying to sell Nooks to people who really could not give a damn. No more fake smiles and pretending I don't notice you smell horrible or are wearing just way too much Tag body spray and it's all I can do not to cough and gag. Though let's be honest. The last couple weeks there I pretty much stopped putting any real effort at all into my job. I also stopped caring once I stopped working with Bethany who was easily the only real good looking girl there and most fun to work with. Lost alotta motivation to go into work once our schedules started to no longer match up.
So after I almost died on that bike ride 2 weeks ago I decided I would pretty much stop doing what i didn't enjoy. This led me to talking to my boss at B&N the very next day and informing them that the next week would be my last week there. So what do they do? A couple days later I am called in and offered another $1.50 an hour to stay. I turn them down. Not worth it. The job was causing me to develop shin splints from standing there too long in crappy shoes.
So a couple days before that fateful biking day I had received an email from Maui Prep asking if I was still interested in coaching. I didn't respond right away because I figured it would be too much of a time commitment and not as much money as B&N. Well having missed coaching I call them up and decide to take the job. The principal informs me that because he did not hear back from me within a couple days he decided to offer the job to someone else. Bummed I thank him and ask him to keep me in mind if he doesn't hear anything.
Fast forward 24 hours, he calls me back telling me he decided I was much better suited for the job. Plus I'll be making 2500 for a 2 1/2 month season. Cha Ching!
I've been there about a week and a half so far and am loving it. It is like coaching at SPM all over again. I have like 12 kids on the team, only 2 girls. The top distance runner is named Caitlin and never has anyone to run with. Pretty good but has never had a real coach, never run anything more than 25-30 minutes at once. But she's built to run long distance. Ton of potential and never been pushed. Sadly I only have 2 months to work with her. The sprinters are classic slackers who are there cause they have nothing else to do and are required to do 2 activities a year.
It'll but a little strain on my training schedule but I am having fun with it. I figure if I could make myself train last year in the evenings in cold New England this won't be nearly as bad. To add to the sweetness of the job: The XC coach hooked me up with one of the super expensive Garmin GPS heart rate monitor watches he bought for the XC team to use next fall. He wants me to try it out and see how it handles. The thing is pretty awesome.
Not sure what's going on with Survivor at this time. I went through all the steps needed so far and at this point I guess it's just a waiting game as the casting people wade through all the potential candidates for the casting calls in LA. But I have received emails from casting directors for other shows who are interested. Mostly it’s Big Brother like shows. Not interested in that stuff at all so no chance am I responding to those. I am not about to be tied down to a house full of drama kings and queens in a real world situation. Not my cup of tea.
Subbing is going well. Getting alotta calls every week. Though because of coaching I am now training from like 5-8 and find myself missing alotta sub calls. Because it's an automated machine calling you can't call back. It's more of a first come basis thing. Like last Friday I missed 6 calls from the sub listing for this upcoming week. I'm already booked for 2 days and most likely will get calls for the other days but it is super annoying that the call window is usually from 5-10 on weekdays. Now I just try to have the phone with me no matter what. Even out on runs I not take the thing. Kinda a hassle. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do to make the Benjamins.
So it appears my roommates are planning on heading back to the east coast around mid to late April. This will throw a little wrench in my plans since I had assumed everyone would be staying until sometime in May. Now my options are go home at the end of April and try to find a job for the next 2 months until the Seashore, try and find some roommates here so I can stay living at Kahana Ridge or start looking in the papers for a place to rent for 1 month somewhere else. All options I'm not too keen on I'll tell you. But whatever, not gonna sweat the small stuff yet. So long as I have a bed to sleep in, a paycheck coming in on a regular basis, Oreo cookies to chow on and some place to work out I'm pretty happy.
Speaking of working out... things are going pretty well. I'm getting in some serious biking these past couple weeks. I've been averaging around 150 miles a week. Alotta tempoing on the aerobars for an hour or so at a time. Lots of 10-20 mile tempos. Been feeling really strong so far. Have a century+ ride planned with Jon for Wednesday. I'm looking to get in about 110-20 miles on the ride.
Swimming is about what I expect. Getting in 2-3 ocean swims o 35-45 minutes each week. I also try and get into the pool once a week. Had a tough pool workout today. Body was tuckered out after the West Maui Loop ride yesterday (see pictures on facebook). But I am slowly getting back into decent swimming shape. If I can gt back to where I was 2 summers ago I will be ecstatic.
As for running, I am not going to put as much into the running as I have in the past. I've come to realize that no matter what my running will be at a better level than most triathletes out there. So I plan on sticking around 40 miles a week running and just making sure I'm getting in a lot of brick workouts with biking and running. Plus a 16-20 miler every other week or so. The bulk of my work is going to be on the bike.
Put all this together and there is no reason why I shouldn't be going under 11 hours.
What has all this led up to so far? Well a leaner tanner me for one. More like a faint red color to be honest. Not so much a sunburn. Just a little cooked form being out in the sun for hours at a time. But I have definitely leaned out a little more. No worries though cause I've stepped up my eating to keep pace with my calorie burning. So right now I'm sticking around 140-143. After a tough couple days of training I tend to dip down to 138ish but after a couple easy days and lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I'll rebound back over 140. Lately it's been lots and lots of chicken and pasta. Chicken drumsticks have been on sale. I took advantage of that.
Really not much else has been going on though. Lately life out here has kind of slipped into a routine. I sub, coach, train, relax for a couple hours, sleep. I do have to work on getting a little more sleep. I figure at this point I get anywhere from 5-7 hours a sleep a night. About 5-6 on the week days and 7-8 weekends. Oh well, I can sleep more when I'm dead right?
Cape Cod is almost around the corner. I am soooooo siked. I am ready for it to be here. No matter how awesome this place is I still would choose the Cape every time. There is just something about that place that makes it perfect. Sitting around on the beach and getting paid, working out and getting paid, sitting around the table all evening shooting the shit. Maybe a couple north eastern hurricanes to shake things up a bit. Countdown: 4 1/2 months. Plus if Wes comes out and guards. Life will be pretty sweet.
So I think I'm just gonna end it here. Everyone is watching Talking Heads in the other room so I should go be social.
Stay classy everyone...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
All in an instant...
We've all heard the classic if not cliche saying "My life flashed before my eyes." I've never really put much stock into it. You can't really understand what it means until it actually happens to you. Can one's entire life really flash before your eyes in the matter of a second or two?
Without joking and really being serious for a change I can say that it does in fact happen to a person. Today I experienced something of the sorts though I wouldn't say that my entire life flashed before my eyes. It's difficult to explain before I get into the story so I guess I'll have to start from the beginning. It's usually the best place to start these kind of experiences off at.
Today I didn't sub so I decided to go out for a 3 hour cruising bike ride. Something easy after a tough workout yesterday. I headed South to avoid the hills up North and I was planning on hanging out at one of the lookout spots to watch the whales. After a loop around Kapalua then past Whaler's Village I set out along 30. Highway 30 is perfect for biking by the way. A nice 10 breakdown lane the entire way is ideal for biking. The wind was around 15 miles an hour coming off the ocean so nothing too serious to knock me around.
I'd been riding for a good while. Cruising down in the aero bars. I'd just gotten out of the hills and was riding along a stretch with long stretches of trees blocking the ocean, acting as a nice buffer from the wind. At this point I was moving around 27-30 mph kind of in robot mode on the bike. I usually zone out on these kinds of rides when I get in the zone. Traffic is constant but never really heavy in this area.
I'm riding along when I come up to a big ocean patch in the trees that opens up the ocean view. Suddenly I'm hit with a strong wind gust (around 20-30 mph gust) that just rocks me from the right side and shoves my bike into the road. Since I'm in the aero bars I'm nowhere near the brakes and in a very unstable position on the bike. I have very little control over the bike. It shoves me a goo couple feet over the white line as a large sand carrier is coming by. All I hear is an earsplitting horn, airbrakes slam on as I'm literally throwing myself and my bike back across the white line. As this is happening I can actually feel the truck going by me. I can't see it as my eyes are squeezed shut as I wait to feel either the side of the truck slam into me and drag me under or the wheels roll over and suck me under them. At this point I'm still traveling over 20 miles an hour. Somehow I've unclipped my right foot and have gotten my left hand onto a brake as I'm toppling off the road. I come skidding to a stop/crash and hit the ground going about 10 mph, become completely unclipped and crash into some underbrush and dirt. The bike comes to a rest next to me. The truck had slowed down and the guy in the passenger seat looks out and at me. I give a wave letting them know I'm alive and they continue on. This entire time no other vehicles go by. After a couple minutes I recollect myself; very minor scrape on the elbow and my bike survived with no damage. I get back on the bike and continue the ride with no other issues other than a car cutting me off within the last couple miles of the ride.
So that's the physical aspect of the ride. An outside observer would have see everything I just described. The entire incident took about 3 seconds from horn to me tumbling to the ground.
Here's what happened to me as it happened. When the wind hit me I was zoned out. I can't even remember where my mind was. I didn't hear the massive truck coming up on me. I didn't hear anything. The wind hit me and the next thing I know I hear the horn. My entire body tenses up and I am expecting death. No lies, no exaggerating. In my head I'm just saying "Fuck!" and I cry out. I don't really remember throwing myself to the side. You know when something really bad is coming like when something is thrown at you and you don't see it until the last moment? You know you can't avoid it so you close your eyes and wait for it to hit you? That's what this is like only about 1000 times worse. When I say I felt the truck going by I mean if my eyes were open and I looked over at it I could have banged my head against it. Try to imagine laying your body along a road and having a large truck drive by you at about 40 mph only to miss your head by inches. The force of the truck going by actually shook me.
At these moments time does play games with you. To me it felt like the whole thing took like 20 seconds instead of the two or three. In the few seconds this was going on my mind froze. At this point I don't think I actually had time to be really afraid. This is where the whole "Life flashing before your eyes" thing happened. Cause in a way it really does only for me it wasn't some played out story or a series of moments that happened or one day would. From what I can remember it was just a couple of images of things that went through my mind before suddenly I was back and tumbling into the side of the road. They kind of flicked through and that was it. There was no order of relevance like the most important thing in my life came first. Just a series of quick images like I was quickly scrolling through a camera. In a blink I was out of it and watching the shoulder of the road coming at me at 20 mph as I am coming out of the aero bars, unclipping a foot and reaching for a brake all without thinking.
Then it's over. The truck is past, I'm alive and I'm slowly and shakily picking myself off the ground. I vaguely remember waving the truckers off. and biking up my bike. My body won't stop shaking and my heart almost hurts it's beating so hard. I feel like I'm in a daze and things around me are almost surreal. I look over my bike to make sure it's not damaged. I check myself. Other than a minor scrape on the elbow I'm fine. No bruises, broken bones, nothing.
I swing my leg over the bike as I begin to get back on and continue the ride. Then it all hits me. I've never experienced anything like it before. It was like complete terror suddenly envelopes me. I have to take slow deep breaths to try and calm myself down. It sinks in how close I was to being killed right there. I've had close calls before with vehicles while I was running and biking. When I did the West Maui Loop for example. I've been in a car accident where it could have been a lot worse than it was. But as far as I can recall I've never been in an incident where I should have been killed. This is one of those times where I should not have walked away alive. I go over it again and again in my head and I can't fathom how I did not wind up under that truck.
I stood there on my bike shaking a little with my elbows on the aero bar pads and my head in my hands. My eyes were closed as I relived what happened over and over again. I didn't want to get back on the bike; actually at that moment I couldn't get back on. I listened as cars went by and I couldn't help but wonder if one of those would hit me if I continued riding.
Right now as I type this I can remember every instance of that experience and still my heart jumps into my throat and I get scared. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of pure terror that went through me right after that happened. It's one of those things you experience in nightmares even years after it happened. For a couple moments I was not sure I was going to get myself back under control. I guess the best way to imagine the jarring shock I went through is to picture one of those movies where you're in the car with a group of characters and everything is all peaceful. Then suddenly another vehicle smashes into the car and the camera is still there. Everyone in the theatre kind of cries out. That's a diluted version of it.
I don't know how I convinced myself to clip back into the pedals and get back on the road. But within three or four minutes of almost dying I was back on the bike continuing the ride. It had nothing to do with not wanting to miss a workout or anything stupid like that. It just seemed like the thing I had to do. I kept riding.
But the incident would not leave my mind. It all stayed in my head like it just happened. There was no zoning out the rest of the ride. I just went over everything that happened like a hundred times. If this was one of those theories where there are like a million different dimensions and only 1 small thing is different in each one well in every other Earth I would have died. Every way I look at it I can't figure it out. How did I survive that?
I've never been a super religious person as everyone knows. I obviously believe in God. I know there is that spiritual aspect of life but I don't pretend to understand it. I go to church when I'm peer pressured. But even I'm not an idiot. There is no other reasonable explanation about this. I can play this over and over for the rest of my life and still I won't be able to explain exactly how it all went down.
Even as I sit here and stare at the screen I am still in shock. I managed to get home, stretch, eat, go to work all evening, pretty much function like a normal human being with all this running through my head.
Then it just brings up the questions:
How the hell did I not get crushed by that truck?
What decided upon the images that flashed through my mind and what was the significance of them?
How was I able to keep biking? At this point having thought everything out I feel like I should just head right back home.
Why me?
Does this mean I'm going to turn over this new leaf and live a pure and honest life? Will I attend church all the time and become a better person for the world? Obviously not. I know there are people out there who would but as I see it something like that is not feasible for everyone. I am going to continue living the life I've been given. Do I see things different or more clearly now? For the most part no but there are some things I want to look into now. Not so much Carpe Diem but there is that whole "It's never too late..." tagline I want to invoke.
I tried really hard not to change anything about this experience or exaggerate anything about it. From what I could recollect everything happened as I wrote it. I obviously kept some of the more personal things to myself as I am not really into exposing my deepest darkest things to the world. As time moves forward I will probably follow up on this posting. Probably when some enlightened thought or revelation dawns upon me.
It’s funny cause there was so much more I wanted to write but as I look at this now most of it has left my head and this is already pretty long.
For now I'm tired and must sleep. Work in 5 1/2 hours.
Goodnight world...
Thanks for another day on this planet.
Without joking and really being serious for a change I can say that it does in fact happen to a person. Today I experienced something of the sorts though I wouldn't say that my entire life flashed before my eyes. It's difficult to explain before I get into the story so I guess I'll have to start from the beginning. It's usually the best place to start these kind of experiences off at.
Today I didn't sub so I decided to go out for a 3 hour cruising bike ride. Something easy after a tough workout yesterday. I headed South to avoid the hills up North and I was planning on hanging out at one of the lookout spots to watch the whales. After a loop around Kapalua then past Whaler's Village I set out along 30. Highway 30 is perfect for biking by the way. A nice 10 breakdown lane the entire way is ideal for biking. The wind was around 15 miles an hour coming off the ocean so nothing too serious to knock me around.
I'd been riding for a good while. Cruising down in the aero bars. I'd just gotten out of the hills and was riding along a stretch with long stretches of trees blocking the ocean, acting as a nice buffer from the wind. At this point I was moving around 27-30 mph kind of in robot mode on the bike. I usually zone out on these kinds of rides when I get in the zone. Traffic is constant but never really heavy in this area.
I'm riding along when I come up to a big ocean patch in the trees that opens up the ocean view. Suddenly I'm hit with a strong wind gust (around 20-30 mph gust) that just rocks me from the right side and shoves my bike into the road. Since I'm in the aero bars I'm nowhere near the brakes and in a very unstable position on the bike. I have very little control over the bike. It shoves me a goo couple feet over the white line as a large sand carrier is coming by. All I hear is an earsplitting horn, airbrakes slam on as I'm literally throwing myself and my bike back across the white line. As this is happening I can actually feel the truck going by me. I can't see it as my eyes are squeezed shut as I wait to feel either the side of the truck slam into me and drag me under or the wheels roll over and suck me under them. At this point I'm still traveling over 20 miles an hour. Somehow I've unclipped my right foot and have gotten my left hand onto a brake as I'm toppling off the road. I come skidding to a stop/crash and hit the ground going about 10 mph, become completely unclipped and crash into some underbrush and dirt. The bike comes to a rest next to me. The truck had slowed down and the guy in the passenger seat looks out and at me. I give a wave letting them know I'm alive and they continue on. This entire time no other vehicles go by. After a couple minutes I recollect myself; very minor scrape on the elbow and my bike survived with no damage. I get back on the bike and continue the ride with no other issues other than a car cutting me off within the last couple miles of the ride.
So that's the physical aspect of the ride. An outside observer would have see everything I just described. The entire incident took about 3 seconds from horn to me tumbling to the ground.
Here's what happened to me as it happened. When the wind hit me I was zoned out. I can't even remember where my mind was. I didn't hear the massive truck coming up on me. I didn't hear anything. The wind hit me and the next thing I know I hear the horn. My entire body tenses up and I am expecting death. No lies, no exaggerating. In my head I'm just saying "Fuck!" and I cry out. I don't really remember throwing myself to the side. You know when something really bad is coming like when something is thrown at you and you don't see it until the last moment? You know you can't avoid it so you close your eyes and wait for it to hit you? That's what this is like only about 1000 times worse. When I say I felt the truck going by I mean if my eyes were open and I looked over at it I could have banged my head against it. Try to imagine laying your body along a road and having a large truck drive by you at about 40 mph only to miss your head by inches. The force of the truck going by actually shook me.
At these moments time does play games with you. To me it felt like the whole thing took like 20 seconds instead of the two or three. In the few seconds this was going on my mind froze. At this point I don't think I actually had time to be really afraid. This is where the whole "Life flashing before your eyes" thing happened. Cause in a way it really does only for me it wasn't some played out story or a series of moments that happened or one day would. From what I can remember it was just a couple of images of things that went through my mind before suddenly I was back and tumbling into the side of the road. They kind of flicked through and that was it. There was no order of relevance like the most important thing in my life came first. Just a series of quick images like I was quickly scrolling through a camera. In a blink I was out of it and watching the shoulder of the road coming at me at 20 mph as I am coming out of the aero bars, unclipping a foot and reaching for a brake all without thinking.
Then it's over. The truck is past, I'm alive and I'm slowly and shakily picking myself off the ground. I vaguely remember waving the truckers off. and biking up my bike. My body won't stop shaking and my heart almost hurts it's beating so hard. I feel like I'm in a daze and things around me are almost surreal. I look over my bike to make sure it's not damaged. I check myself. Other than a minor scrape on the elbow I'm fine. No bruises, broken bones, nothing.
I swing my leg over the bike as I begin to get back on and continue the ride. Then it all hits me. I've never experienced anything like it before. It was like complete terror suddenly envelopes me. I have to take slow deep breaths to try and calm myself down. It sinks in how close I was to being killed right there. I've had close calls before with vehicles while I was running and biking. When I did the West Maui Loop for example. I've been in a car accident where it could have been a lot worse than it was. But as far as I can recall I've never been in an incident where I should have been killed. This is one of those times where I should not have walked away alive. I go over it again and again in my head and I can't fathom how I did not wind up under that truck.
I stood there on my bike shaking a little with my elbows on the aero bar pads and my head in my hands. My eyes were closed as I relived what happened over and over again. I didn't want to get back on the bike; actually at that moment I couldn't get back on. I listened as cars went by and I couldn't help but wonder if one of those would hit me if I continued riding.
Right now as I type this I can remember every instance of that experience and still my heart jumps into my throat and I get scared. I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of pure terror that went through me right after that happened. It's one of those things you experience in nightmares even years after it happened. For a couple moments I was not sure I was going to get myself back under control. I guess the best way to imagine the jarring shock I went through is to picture one of those movies where you're in the car with a group of characters and everything is all peaceful. Then suddenly another vehicle smashes into the car and the camera is still there. Everyone in the theatre kind of cries out. That's a diluted version of it.
I don't know how I convinced myself to clip back into the pedals and get back on the road. But within three or four minutes of almost dying I was back on the bike continuing the ride. It had nothing to do with not wanting to miss a workout or anything stupid like that. It just seemed like the thing I had to do. I kept riding.
But the incident would not leave my mind. It all stayed in my head like it just happened. There was no zoning out the rest of the ride. I just went over everything that happened like a hundred times. If this was one of those theories where there are like a million different dimensions and only 1 small thing is different in each one well in every other Earth I would have died. Every way I look at it I can't figure it out. How did I survive that?
I've never been a super religious person as everyone knows. I obviously believe in God. I know there is that spiritual aspect of life but I don't pretend to understand it. I go to church when I'm peer pressured. But even I'm not an idiot. There is no other reasonable explanation about this. I can play this over and over for the rest of my life and still I won't be able to explain exactly how it all went down.
Even as I sit here and stare at the screen I am still in shock. I managed to get home, stretch, eat, go to work all evening, pretty much function like a normal human being with all this running through my head.
Then it just brings up the questions:
How the hell did I not get crushed by that truck?
What decided upon the images that flashed through my mind and what was the significance of them?
How was I able to keep biking? At this point having thought everything out I feel like I should just head right back home.
Why me?
Does this mean I'm going to turn over this new leaf and live a pure and honest life? Will I attend church all the time and become a better person for the world? Obviously not. I know there are people out there who would but as I see it something like that is not feasible for everyone. I am going to continue living the life I've been given. Do I see things different or more clearly now? For the most part no but there are some things I want to look into now. Not so much Carpe Diem but there is that whole "It's never too late..." tagline I want to invoke.
I tried really hard not to change anything about this experience or exaggerate anything about it. From what I could recollect everything happened as I wrote it. I obviously kept some of the more personal things to myself as I am not really into exposing my deepest darkest things to the world. As time moves forward I will probably follow up on this posting. Probably when some enlightened thought or revelation dawns upon me.
It’s funny cause there was so much more I wanted to write but as I look at this now most of it has left my head and this is already pretty long.
For now I'm tired and must sleep. Work in 5 1/2 hours.
Goodnight world...
Thanks for another day on this planet.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
West Maui Loop of Death among other things...
So lets start this post with a funny if a little groos stoy about my bikeride today. So there I was about 6-7 miles into my ride. Felin like crap really after this past week of training and I'm also biking into a very stiff headwind. So I'm breathing pretty heavily and also have a little cotton mouth. Suddenly BAM! large bug right into my mouth. Instantly start choking a little. I'm tryingt o stay upright on the bike as cars buzz by and the wind is doing it's best to blow me over. The bug is still alive in my mouth as I am trying to spit it out. But having cotton mouth means NO SALIVA! So now I'm trying to push the damn thing out of my mouth with my tongue and I can fel the thing freaking out against my tongue. All I can think is "Shit, what if this thing is a bee!" Finally I am able to work it to the front of my mouth and spit the bastard out. It's some kind of large greenish beetle thing. I bike away recovery from my epic tongue battle; leaving the bug to reflect on its near death experience. This whole episode took place in the span of probably 7 seconds by the way.
So in the past couple weeks since the Marathon life has slipped into a pretty basic routine. Each day has been following a tiring loop. Up at 6 AM to go sub, out at 2-2:30, swim and or run for a couple hours, work at B&N from 5:30 til 10:30 or 11:30, scooter home, dinner, bed around 12ish. Repeat the next day. On Wednesday opt not to sub so I can get in a nice longer bike ride. The weekends have consisted of more biking, swimming, and light running. Thankfully I can now start cutting back upon my B&N hours. I can also start eating more food now that my teaching paychecks have started coming in. I've noticed that I'm starting to drop in weight again since I've been upping my training on the bike and the swimming. Floating around 140 lately.
So one of the big things I've done lately is ride the West Maui Loop. I've heard the stories from Jon that this is a pretty intense route to attempt. 2 days after the Marathon I biked a part of it out and back. I only went about 13 miles north before turning around and got a little taste of the climbs and down hills. We're talking Tour de France Pyrenees and Alps shit.
So this past Wednesday I decided to attempt it myself. It's a 60 mile ride that takes good riders 3-3 1/2 hours to complete. Right away you’re climbing up a gradual hill from my house. The route follows the coast so the entire first 28 miles is amazing views as you get higher into the hills. To picture it imagine the green cliffs of Ireland and Scotland everyone hears about. Those Isles of Scotland you see in postcards. This is what I was experiencing the entire time. The first real hill I hit is "The Wall." Named because you pretty much come to a complete stop as you crawl up in the easiest gear you have. Steeper than Chester Street your legs feel as if they're gonna fall off. It's only like 150 yards long but end around a crazy switchback that gets steeper and you can't see anything around it. From there you level off and enter the real climbs. Over the next 5 miles you are rolling through hills and watching the waves come crashing into the cliffs off to your left. There are also a couple nice little obstacles thrown into the mix. Cattle traps. These are 2 sets of grates laid across the road that are wide enough for cattle to get their hooves stuck in and prevent them from wandering past. Cars can easily drive over them. Bikes? Not so lucky. I notice the first one a little too late but am fortunate I am moving fast enough where I pretty much bunny hope the 5 foot grate. I catch my back wheel barely. Luckily no pop. The other one appears about 3-4 miles later. I walk the bike across it.
From this point I enter into the REAL hills. We're taking massive climbs where I ascend 500-600 feet in the span of 2 miles, descend at breakneck speeds (30-35 mph while trying to brake)noly to climb another 400 feet in a mile. The road has turned into a single lane with blind switchbacks. Vehicles blow horns as they come up to these turns because it wraps around the edge of a cliff. It is really something out of that show about the World's most dangerous road. At times vehicles have to reverse because there is not enough room to pass. For the most part I was not in any danger, a couple of close calls with cars passing me and coming within inches with their mirrors. Near the end of this one lane road a mini school bus did whip around a blind turn as I was only about 30 yards from it. No horn or anything. It had to swing to my left while I had to force my bike hard to the right (pretty much into the cliff wall) and close my eyes in a quick prayer. I felt the bus go by.
These were easily some of the hardest climbs I've ever encountered. It was like putting Dead Horse Hill on top of Chester then placing a couple dozen of these combos over the course of 25 miles. Between these throw in lots of Wachusett climbs and descents. There are no flat areas. Either you were climbing at about 8 miles an hour or descending at 25-30 miles an hour while riding the brakes.
I cover the first 13-14 miles in a little over an hour fifteen minutes. I was traveling less than 14 miles an hour. That's pedestrian pace. Near the top of one of the bigger climbs I take a food break. Nothing like a peanut butter and Oreo cookie sandwich to refresh yourself before hopping back onto the bike. Thank God too cause the next 5 miles were definitely the toughest. From where I was I could look down these wild switchbacks that would take me down hundreds of feet in the span of a mile then right back up hills that made me legs jelly just looking at them. Still on this one lane road the benefit was I could see the cars coming at me well in advance so kinda knew when to expect them. The downside: I could count at least 5 blind turns I would have to make it through. The next 40 minutes took me down some of the craziest roads that ended deep in valleys deep in the shadows of the cliffs surrounding them then saw me bouncing out of my seat as I dragged my bike up into the sunlight.
Finally I burst out of the cliffs about 27 miles into the ride. My single lane road turns into a 2 lane normal road that descends back toward Route 330. What’s great is the speed limit is only 25 mph as the road gradually winds its way back toward Wailuku about 10 miles away. Behind me are about 5 cars who had to sit on me because there was nowhere for them to go on the tiny road. Here they are expecting me to pull off to the side and let them go. I wasn't having it since the lead car blew its horn at me a couple times over the last climb expecting me to stop mid uphill to let me pass. As soon as we level off I drop into areobars, ratchet up my gear and begin a wild Tour de France descent that sees me going from 10 to about 25 mph within a 100 yard span. Much of this descent I'm cruising around 30 mph except when we hit some pretty sharp turns. Every now and then I'll glance back to see these cars strung out behind me. I feel like a pace car. Then we hit a mile long stretch and I just open it up. With its slight downhill I am able to go close to 35 mph over that last mile before it turns into 2 lanes on each side. At that point the lead car blows by me laying on his horn. I feel real bad for him. A couple other cars go by and one gives me the thumbs up.
The rest of the ride is uneventful. I make a pit stop at a McDonalds where this cute local girl lets me pretty much abuse the PowerAde dispenser on the soda machine. She charges me 2 buck for a large drink then lets me fill both my water bottles along with a large couple multiple times. Must be the tight cycling shorts.
By the time I get back to the house it's been a 3 1/2 hour ride and I'm tuckered out. I drag myself through a hot 25 minute run where I pretty much want to die. Once done I shower, eat alot of food, stretch, eat a little more and crash for the next 4 hours.
Since the poor Marathon experience I've definitely rededicated myself to Ironman training. I realize I have about 133 days until the race and have not been doing everything I should be. Granted the past couple months it's been more marathon training but really now there is no excuse. After taking the Monday after the marathon of I've been pretty good at doing at least 1 thing every day. Now that the hamstring is feeling better I have also included running into the mix and been adding in more brick workouts. The whole goal from now til race day is to keep up this intensity. I figure 1 or 2 days off each month will be good for me. Days where I just swim will count as easy days. At this point I am averaging about 2 hours of training a day. This means some days I may only have time to get in an hour workout but throw in a couple 4-6 hour days and we're good. The goal is to hit at least 1 week a month where I bump that average up to 4 hours a day average. I pretty much wanna be around 15-20 hours a week with a few 25-28 hour weeks scattered in there.
I've also been giving a lot of thought to what I wanna do after this next summer. Without a doubt I am going back to the Cape for the summer. How could I not. But after that it is pretty much a blank slate. The more I've been thinking about it the more I think I want to stay in Worcester, try and get another teaching job somewhere and start working on my masters. I also think after this next triathlon season I am gonna take a break from it. I definitely wanna do the Phili Marathon in November though. I feel the need to redeem myself as a runner after the debacle out here. I've notice I tend to do better with all the cross training that comes with triathlon training anyway. My body it just to fragile to handle straight running anymore. But a much needed break is on the horizon. I figure take the winter and spring off of serious training, give my body a chance to heal and fix all its little problems. This will also allow me to focus on getting into some part time master's program and get back into real teaching. Without the added pressure of trying to train for 2 hours every day I feel it will be more enjoyable. This spring I'm going to start applying to all the surrounding central mass towns and cities to see what I can come up with. If I don't get myself a teaching job or some decent paying job while in Worcester then I can always come back out here. Now that I'm in the school system I am guaranteed an ongoing sub job.
I've also missed everyone back in the Woo. I love the training and weather out here. There is no beating that. And apparently there's been a little snow in New England this winter. But as great as it is out here I'm definitely not making this an every year thing. There are just people back in Massachusetts I miss and I look forward to going home to start that routine over again. Plus I have plans for the next year or so I want to see too.
Side note: Biking the other day I pulled up at a light next to my Saturn Ion. I miss the silver bullet. I'll have to give Joyce a little wall post checking in. I hear my little car has an injured leg.
One thing I've been doing now more than ever before is reading books. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on. With my nice little Nook Color (boo to the Kindle) I've been downloading tons of books. Actually the Kindle is pretty nice reader. I’ve had the opportunity to mess around with a couple. Plus at work since it's my job to walk around with a Nook and sell it I download and read books while working. Since September I've read over 20 books. While I've been here I've been averaging about a book per week. These past 2 weeks it's slowed down because I spend more time training. But while subbing I've been able to get some reading in. That is definitely one benefit about out here. Over the past couple years I have noticed the amount of reading I do has declined. It's nice to get back into that.
Subbing is going well though. Been getting a lot of calls to sub. I have also been able to teach a good number of the classes too. All the English classes I actually teach. The teachers will leave vague lesson plans so I just take over and go with it. I guess it's OK cause I've been getting call backs form those teachers to cover more of their classes. The elementary grades are pretty easy too. They leave more detailed lesson plans and I just follow them. I have also noticed I've been having more fun teaching those classes too. The kids all get a kick out of my Worcester accent.
Last note: I can't remember if I posted this in my last post and I'm too lazy to o back and check. Saw a couple whales last week. As I was biking there was a pod of a dozen or so about 1200 yards of the shore. I pulled over along the highway which was about 40 yards above the ocean. I look down and se 2 humpback whales hanging out in the little bay about 70 yards out in the water. I could have thrown a rock at them from where I was. Epic.
Wow so this has been a long post people. Sorry to have dragged on for so long. Actually what do I care? You can easily just skim the whole thing so whatever. Really looking forward to this summer: Cape Cod is gonna be a blast.
Peace out homefries. I'm off to veg out with the fan on cause it’s like 80 and kinda humid here. Geez, sometimes my life sucks. Next post I’ll add pictures of West Maui Loop.
So in the past couple weeks since the Marathon life has slipped into a pretty basic routine. Each day has been following a tiring loop. Up at 6 AM to go sub, out at 2-2:30, swim and or run for a couple hours, work at B&N from 5:30 til 10:30 or 11:30, scooter home, dinner, bed around 12ish. Repeat the next day. On Wednesday opt not to sub so I can get in a nice longer bike ride. The weekends have consisted of more biking, swimming, and light running. Thankfully I can now start cutting back upon my B&N hours. I can also start eating more food now that my teaching paychecks have started coming in. I've noticed that I'm starting to drop in weight again since I've been upping my training on the bike and the swimming. Floating around 140 lately.
So one of the big things I've done lately is ride the West Maui Loop. I've heard the stories from Jon that this is a pretty intense route to attempt. 2 days after the Marathon I biked a part of it out and back. I only went about 13 miles north before turning around and got a little taste of the climbs and down hills. We're talking Tour de France Pyrenees and Alps shit.
So this past Wednesday I decided to attempt it myself. It's a 60 mile ride that takes good riders 3-3 1/2 hours to complete. Right away you’re climbing up a gradual hill from my house. The route follows the coast so the entire first 28 miles is amazing views as you get higher into the hills. To picture it imagine the green cliffs of Ireland and Scotland everyone hears about. Those Isles of Scotland you see in postcards. This is what I was experiencing the entire time. The first real hill I hit is "The Wall." Named because you pretty much come to a complete stop as you crawl up in the easiest gear you have. Steeper than Chester Street your legs feel as if they're gonna fall off. It's only like 150 yards long but end around a crazy switchback that gets steeper and you can't see anything around it. From there you level off and enter the real climbs. Over the next 5 miles you are rolling through hills and watching the waves come crashing into the cliffs off to your left. There are also a couple nice little obstacles thrown into the mix. Cattle traps. These are 2 sets of grates laid across the road that are wide enough for cattle to get their hooves stuck in and prevent them from wandering past. Cars can easily drive over them. Bikes? Not so lucky. I notice the first one a little too late but am fortunate I am moving fast enough where I pretty much bunny hope the 5 foot grate. I catch my back wheel barely. Luckily no pop. The other one appears about 3-4 miles later. I walk the bike across it.
From this point I enter into the REAL hills. We're taking massive climbs where I ascend 500-600 feet in the span of 2 miles, descend at breakneck speeds (30-35 mph while trying to brake)noly to climb another 400 feet in a mile. The road has turned into a single lane with blind switchbacks. Vehicles blow horns as they come up to these turns because it wraps around the edge of a cliff. It is really something out of that show about the World's most dangerous road. At times vehicles have to reverse because there is not enough room to pass. For the most part I was not in any danger, a couple of close calls with cars passing me and coming within inches with their mirrors. Near the end of this one lane road a mini school bus did whip around a blind turn as I was only about 30 yards from it. No horn or anything. It had to swing to my left while I had to force my bike hard to the right (pretty much into the cliff wall) and close my eyes in a quick prayer. I felt the bus go by.
These were easily some of the hardest climbs I've ever encountered. It was like putting Dead Horse Hill on top of Chester then placing a couple dozen of these combos over the course of 25 miles. Between these throw in lots of Wachusett climbs and descents. There are no flat areas. Either you were climbing at about 8 miles an hour or descending at 25-30 miles an hour while riding the brakes.
I cover the first 13-14 miles in a little over an hour fifteen minutes. I was traveling less than 14 miles an hour. That's pedestrian pace. Near the top of one of the bigger climbs I take a food break. Nothing like a peanut butter and Oreo cookie sandwich to refresh yourself before hopping back onto the bike. Thank God too cause the next 5 miles were definitely the toughest. From where I was I could look down these wild switchbacks that would take me down hundreds of feet in the span of a mile then right back up hills that made me legs jelly just looking at them. Still on this one lane road the benefit was I could see the cars coming at me well in advance so kinda knew when to expect them. The downside: I could count at least 5 blind turns I would have to make it through. The next 40 minutes took me down some of the craziest roads that ended deep in valleys deep in the shadows of the cliffs surrounding them then saw me bouncing out of my seat as I dragged my bike up into the sunlight.
Finally I burst out of the cliffs about 27 miles into the ride. My single lane road turns into a 2 lane normal road that descends back toward Route 330. What’s great is the speed limit is only 25 mph as the road gradually winds its way back toward Wailuku about 10 miles away. Behind me are about 5 cars who had to sit on me because there was nowhere for them to go on the tiny road. Here they are expecting me to pull off to the side and let them go. I wasn't having it since the lead car blew its horn at me a couple times over the last climb expecting me to stop mid uphill to let me pass. As soon as we level off I drop into areobars, ratchet up my gear and begin a wild Tour de France descent that sees me going from 10 to about 25 mph within a 100 yard span. Much of this descent I'm cruising around 30 mph except when we hit some pretty sharp turns. Every now and then I'll glance back to see these cars strung out behind me. I feel like a pace car. Then we hit a mile long stretch and I just open it up. With its slight downhill I am able to go close to 35 mph over that last mile before it turns into 2 lanes on each side. At that point the lead car blows by me laying on his horn. I feel real bad for him. A couple other cars go by and one gives me the thumbs up.
The rest of the ride is uneventful. I make a pit stop at a McDonalds where this cute local girl lets me pretty much abuse the PowerAde dispenser on the soda machine. She charges me 2 buck for a large drink then lets me fill both my water bottles along with a large couple multiple times. Must be the tight cycling shorts.
By the time I get back to the house it's been a 3 1/2 hour ride and I'm tuckered out. I drag myself through a hot 25 minute run where I pretty much want to die. Once done I shower, eat alot of food, stretch, eat a little more and crash for the next 4 hours.
Since the poor Marathon experience I've definitely rededicated myself to Ironman training. I realize I have about 133 days until the race and have not been doing everything I should be. Granted the past couple months it's been more marathon training but really now there is no excuse. After taking the Monday after the marathon of I've been pretty good at doing at least 1 thing every day. Now that the hamstring is feeling better I have also included running into the mix and been adding in more brick workouts. The whole goal from now til race day is to keep up this intensity. I figure 1 or 2 days off each month will be good for me. Days where I just swim will count as easy days. At this point I am averaging about 2 hours of training a day. This means some days I may only have time to get in an hour workout but throw in a couple 4-6 hour days and we're good. The goal is to hit at least 1 week a month where I bump that average up to 4 hours a day average. I pretty much wanna be around 15-20 hours a week with a few 25-28 hour weeks scattered in there.
I've also been giving a lot of thought to what I wanna do after this next summer. Without a doubt I am going back to the Cape for the summer. How could I not. But after that it is pretty much a blank slate. The more I've been thinking about it the more I think I want to stay in Worcester, try and get another teaching job somewhere and start working on my masters. I also think after this next triathlon season I am gonna take a break from it. I definitely wanna do the Phili Marathon in November though. I feel the need to redeem myself as a runner after the debacle out here. I've notice I tend to do better with all the cross training that comes with triathlon training anyway. My body it just to fragile to handle straight running anymore. But a much needed break is on the horizon. I figure take the winter and spring off of serious training, give my body a chance to heal and fix all its little problems. This will also allow me to focus on getting into some part time master's program and get back into real teaching. Without the added pressure of trying to train for 2 hours every day I feel it will be more enjoyable. This spring I'm going to start applying to all the surrounding central mass towns and cities to see what I can come up with. If I don't get myself a teaching job or some decent paying job while in Worcester then I can always come back out here. Now that I'm in the school system I am guaranteed an ongoing sub job.
I've also missed everyone back in the Woo. I love the training and weather out here. There is no beating that. And apparently there's been a little snow in New England this winter. But as great as it is out here I'm definitely not making this an every year thing. There are just people back in Massachusetts I miss and I look forward to going home to start that routine over again. Plus I have plans for the next year or so I want to see too.
Side note: Biking the other day I pulled up at a light next to my Saturn Ion. I miss the silver bullet. I'll have to give Joyce a little wall post checking in. I hear my little car has an injured leg.
One thing I've been doing now more than ever before is reading books. Pretty much anything I can get my hands on. With my nice little Nook Color (boo to the Kindle) I've been downloading tons of books. Actually the Kindle is pretty nice reader. I’ve had the opportunity to mess around with a couple. Plus at work since it's my job to walk around with a Nook and sell it I download and read books while working. Since September I've read over 20 books. While I've been here I've been averaging about a book per week. These past 2 weeks it's slowed down because I spend more time training. But while subbing I've been able to get some reading in. That is definitely one benefit about out here. Over the past couple years I have noticed the amount of reading I do has declined. It's nice to get back into that.
Subbing is going well though. Been getting a lot of calls to sub. I have also been able to teach a good number of the classes too. All the English classes I actually teach. The teachers will leave vague lesson plans so I just take over and go with it. I guess it's OK cause I've been getting call backs form those teachers to cover more of their classes. The elementary grades are pretty easy too. They leave more detailed lesson plans and I just follow them. I have also noticed I've been having more fun teaching those classes too. The kids all get a kick out of my Worcester accent.
Last note: I can't remember if I posted this in my last post and I'm too lazy to o back and check. Saw a couple whales last week. As I was biking there was a pod of a dozen or so about 1200 yards of the shore. I pulled over along the highway which was about 40 yards above the ocean. I look down and se 2 humpback whales hanging out in the little bay about 70 yards out in the water. I could have thrown a rock at them from where I was. Epic.
Wow so this has been a long post people. Sorry to have dragged on for so long. Actually what do I care? You can easily just skim the whole thing so whatever. Really looking forward to this summer: Cape Cod is gonna be a blast.
Peace out homefries. I'm off to veg out with the fan on cause it’s like 80 and kinda humid here. Geez, sometimes my life sucks. Next post I’ll add pictures of West Maui Loop.
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