Well it's been almost too long since I last posted here. Time really does fly when you're having fun I guess and these past 4 weeks have definitly been a blast. It's funny but once you start making money and getting regular work things seem to go much better in Maui. Not that I'm really rolling in dough though. Mostly I am now making enough to stay on top of my bills regularly. For me that's plenty enough.
But life has been much better as of late. I've been getting regular call backs to sub all the time. Well not this week for some reason so this pay period is going to be super weak. I'll survive though. But I just finished 2 weeks of subbing for a 3rd grade class and it was a blast. I definitly need to get my certification for elementary school. It took me back to those months I taught 3rd grade at Nelson Place. Super fun and not too hard. I didn't have kids yelling at me and swearing at me all the time. I'm actually back in that class again tomorrow which I am looking forward to. Tomorow is also my secon to last track meet with Maui Prep. It's been an up an down season. I love the coaching and have a couple kids who are really into it. I've also had almost every kids run PBs and set new school records. It's amazing what can happen when kids get actually coaching and are forced to put effort behin their training. I've applied for a couple teaching positions out here for next year. If I get offereed a job I am really tempted to take it. It's kind of funny that the closer I get to leaving the more I am leaning toward coming back for another school year. I guess we'll have to see what my options are come end of august. These kids go back about 2 weeks earlier than those in Massachusetts. But they get out mid May. Not too shabby. Plus the schools have more days off than any other state.
Training has been going pretty well too. Not gonna lie, have not been swimming as much as I probably should have considering I live on a tropical island and the water is always warm. But the biking has been going awesome. I've done a time trial race that went pretty well and a West Maui Loop race that went awesome. Both races I had great closing miles. I think I could have gone faster in the time trial but I finished really well in the last 2 miles of it. Running is average. Not really hammering it quite yet but once I get home I am gonna step that aspect of my training up.
So it looks like I'm taking a trip over to Oahu the day before I leave for Worcester. Yeah, so I wasn't really paying attention to what airport I booked out of and accidently booked from there instead. So it only costs me about 75 bucks to fly over there. I'll stay with my friend Shana an get to spend an eveing in Honolulu so it's not a complete loss. Then... homeward bound. A month and a half in Worcester then the Cape. Life is pretty sweet.
I know I'm gonna get shit for this from alot of people back home but I didn't try surfing out here until just a couple days ago. The first day was only for an hour because Jon an I were a little pressed for time. But then we went out again today and within 2 or 3 tries I was up standing and even rode a wave in for about 5 seconds. But my problem is that its so shallow I bail out early. I am pretty paranoid since I gashed open my big toe 2 weeks ago. But Jon is saying I pop up super quick and have good mechanics. So I plan on getting out there at least 3 or 4 more times before I roll out of here.
So in the past 2 days I posted on craigslist to sell my scooter and camping gear. Within 24 hours I ha a buyer for the scooter. 800 dollars. Not too ba since I paid 1399 including taxes and handling. I get rid of that May second. And just a little while ago sold the camping gear for 100 bucks. A little cheaper than I would have wanted but not too bad since I thought I would not be able to unload it. So all in all I should be leaving here with an extra 900 dollars in my pocket.
I do have a good amount of cleaning to o around here before I leave. Everything from cleaning the walls to steam cleaning the rugs. There's also the bathroom I'll have to give another cleaning to. Though since I cleaned it a couple weeks back it is not nearly as bad as it was. God forbid anyone else stepped up and made an attempt. But I guess they would have if I wasn't here. Some people it seems felt my presence was a cause for them not to clean. Perhaps I was a bit too clean for them. You know, wanting dishes washed more than once a week, lights not left on all day. Those sorts of things.
But it's all good. I've have a really good time out here and am soon going back to Worcester and my friends. Then before you know it i'll be on the cape getting paid to sit on a beach 5 days a week, train as much as I like and hang out each night with a ton of fun people. How can one find any fault with that?
But what about the fall? Do I come back here for another winter season? Do I stay in Worcester and finally take steps toward getting my silly masters degree? It seems like getting one's master is the thing to do these days. What about a job? I got a couple interviews lined up for positions in worcester and wachusett. Then there is coaching at Clark. I definitly want to be there for the full seaosn. I was pretty bummed to miss out on the Conference race last fall. And I'm not gonna lie, I really missed everyone over there more than I thought. I think maybe if I have a reason to stay in Worcester I'll stay there. I can always come out here for vacations in the winter and spring.
It's something to think about. I got time. But not now. Now it's time to go shower, eat some oreos and milk and sleep. Tomorrow I got me a busy schedule.
Til then,
Stay classy
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Expecto Patronum!
Oh Harry Potter. I bet my Patronus would be in the form of either a black lab (Hope) or cat (Tigger). Though if it came in the form of Hope it would probably just run away from the Dementors.
Yeah I just spent the weekend watching a Harry Potter marathon. Really I will never get tired of reading those books or watching the movies. especially starting from The Prisoner of Azkaban and on. When things started to get really dark and scary. From the previews of the final movie it is going to be out of control. I don't know if I can really wait til like June 17th. That's a long ways away. Perhaps I'll reread the books to get ready for it. Yup, I have a lot going on in my life. Can you believe I don't have a girlfriend? Crazy huh...
So I just realized that it's been almost a month since I last posted here. My apologies to all those out there. Yup, all 10 or so of you that occasionally skim through this blog. I want to say it's because I have been so freaking busy these past weeks that I barely have the time to sit down and write. That would only be partially true. Most of my time this past month has been busy. I've been subbing and coaching a lot. But I was on break from subbing all last week so I probably could have fit it into my schedule. But to be honest I've been offline a lot lately.
A really good Pink Floyd song just came on. I pretty much am at the mercy of the radio since a month and a half ago one of the rapscallions here spilled beer onto my ihome and you can no longer use the ipod feature. This is annoying since the sole purpose of these things is to play your ipods on these. What can you do though...
Aaaaannnnyyyyway,
What's been new? Well I finally booked my ticket home for May 4th, landing in Worcester May 5th around 5pm. So anyone looking to pick up an out of work Maui bum from Logan Airport feel free to ring me up. I'm pretty excited to get back home. Maui is great and all. The weather is usually perfect but this is a place one wants to be on vacation here or just staying for an extended period of time without working too much. Having to work 40-50 hours a week between subbing and coaching kind of cramps into one's schedule. I also miss the friends and family. Sitting around playing Mario Cart, trips to The Boynton and Water Street. The usual. The countdown is on though. About 6 weeks then I'll be in Worcester.
Coaching is going alright. These kids seem to hate training though. I get a lot complaining from them and they always seem to be on vacation it looks like. Last week most of them were away for interm. This means they were all on service trips off island or something like that. I was left with one freshman "sprinter" who most girls are faster than. And he did nothing but whine and complain the entire time. This week they are all on spring break an I had 4 kids show up today. Maybe 5 tomorrow if I'm lucky. They complain when practice runs more than an hour. These kids have no idea what I could be making them do. 10 minute warm ups are too much for them. It's al about the Benjamins though. The Benjamins I won't see until after the season is over sadly. But it'll be a nice fat paycheck.
I survived the Tsunami, barely. Of course I would get sick the night of it. While the rest of my roommates all took off into the pineapple fields to party I spent the night sick in bed listening to the warning sirens going off between midnight and like 4 AM. Though I did really appreciate all the texts and phone calls from those worried back east. Even though they kept waking me up I'll forgive them all. Really though nothing came of the tsunami. It was a lot like how New Englanders freak out over northeasters. Everyone ran to the markets, bought a ton of crap they really didn't need an headed off into the hills. It sounded and looked like a major backup on all the roads that headed up into the hills. Most of the resorts along the water had to evacuate so all those vacationers had to sleep in cars parked up on hills. Pretty wild stuff.
Also survived St Patty's Day. Won't go into too much detail but I definitely found myself barreling up and down the pineapple fields at midnight with a bottle of wine an 5 or 6 beers in me. Pretty good times though can't really compare to last year with Noone and Duggan. It was fun hanging out at a random platform about 3 miles up into the fields, looking down upon Lahaina and the ocean. An almost full moon and stars made everything pretty clear.
So I have a friend coming later this week over from Oahu. This girl Shana is flying over with a friend of hers who is doing some sort of race. Randomly met her while guarding this summer when she overheard me talking about living in Hawaii for the winter. After random communication over the past 6 months I got an email from her last week and being the kind heart I am I offered up our place as a free place to crash. I feel bad for Curtis because it'll mean he has to give up his air mattress bed for a couple days. Oh well, it'll be the gentlemanly ting to do and it is my air mattress. Not about to let girls sleep on carpets and crummy couches that are peeling apart. It should be a good time though. I have that Friday and Monday off of school (and pay sadly) so I'll be able to hang out with them and still get in training. Perhaps some hikes or whale watches are in order.
Speaking of training:
It's been going alright. Not phenomenal but decent. I am not getting in the training I was hoping at this point. Like I said, been working. But I am in decent shape. Though I am typing this on a day where I didn't do anything. Pretty tired today and had 9 days of working out in a row here. So I am allowed this. That is another reason I am looking to get home. I feel like I am better at staying on task with training when I'm home. There are only like 2 ways to go biking and running out here where I live. I'm getting bored. But I'm trying to stay focuse and on task. It is getting tough cause I rarely get to train with Jon. We have the different work schedules working against us here. I am really eager to get training with Paul when I get home. Especially since 3 days after I land we are racing a sprint tri in Hopkington. I am not expecting anything stellar but I'll be really bummed if I can't break 1:02 on the course. I've been trying to put more emphasis on the biking this year since that is the biggest part of an Ironman. I'm not gonna lie, I'm already looking forward to being done this thing so I can just take a little time off and do other things.
I also have to get looking for a job for the fall. Over the next month I'm gonna have to start emailing school districts hoping something will come on. I swear I'll shoot myself before I go back to working full time at a place like Barnes and Noble. I keep telling myself I got plenty of time before the fall but in reality if I don't find a school by late June I am gonna be hard pressed to find anything at all.
Man, I really can't wait for the summer. I am really looking forward to getting back down to the cape. Thee is just nothing like that place. Where else can a person get a job that involves sitting around a beach, working out, and hanging out with a bunch of other people who do the same thing everyday. Where else will a boss come up to you and say "Louis, you look hot. Why don't you go take a swim for half an hour or take out the rescue board. I'll watch the water." or "Louis, you get a run in today? The comps are just around the corner. Why don't you go running and I'll watch the water for half an hour." I love Gordo.
So a couple weeks ago I got a wedding invite from my friend Becky (one of the greatest head guards ever by the way). Brian is the other greatest head guard. Her wedding is in freaking Disney World. How awesome is that? It's not until Nov. 22nd but I already can't wait. I love going to weddings, especially when the people are mostly around my age. The last one I went to was easily one of the best times I had in my life and left me wanting to attend another one. I know it'll be fun but even if it's not it's going to be in Disney World.
Whelp, I know I'm forgetting to add something but I have some core work to do since I did nothing else today and am feeling fat and lazy after eating dinner so I think I'll end it with the same way I started this post. I'll throw in some geeky Harry Potter:
"It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world. ~J.K. Rowling, "Horcruxes," Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005
My favorite book of the series.
Yeah I just spent the weekend watching a Harry Potter marathon. Really I will never get tired of reading those books or watching the movies. especially starting from The Prisoner of Azkaban and on. When things started to get really dark and scary. From the previews of the final movie it is going to be out of control. I don't know if I can really wait til like June 17th. That's a long ways away. Perhaps I'll reread the books to get ready for it. Yup, I have a lot going on in my life. Can you believe I don't have a girlfriend? Crazy huh...
So I just realized that it's been almost a month since I last posted here. My apologies to all those out there. Yup, all 10 or so of you that occasionally skim through this blog. I want to say it's because I have been so freaking busy these past weeks that I barely have the time to sit down and write. That would only be partially true. Most of my time this past month has been busy. I've been subbing and coaching a lot. But I was on break from subbing all last week so I probably could have fit it into my schedule. But to be honest I've been offline a lot lately.
A really good Pink Floyd song just came on. I pretty much am at the mercy of the radio since a month and a half ago one of the rapscallions here spilled beer onto my ihome and you can no longer use the ipod feature. This is annoying since the sole purpose of these things is to play your ipods on these. What can you do though...
Aaaaannnnyyyyway,
What's been new? Well I finally booked my ticket home for May 4th, landing in Worcester May 5th around 5pm. So anyone looking to pick up an out of work Maui bum from Logan Airport feel free to ring me up. I'm pretty excited to get back home. Maui is great and all. The weather is usually perfect but this is a place one wants to be on vacation here or just staying for an extended period of time without working too much. Having to work 40-50 hours a week between subbing and coaching kind of cramps into one's schedule. I also miss the friends and family. Sitting around playing Mario Cart, trips to The Boynton and Water Street. The usual. The countdown is on though. About 6 weeks then I'll be in Worcester.
Coaching is going alright. These kids seem to hate training though. I get a lot complaining from them and they always seem to be on vacation it looks like. Last week most of them were away for interm. This means they were all on service trips off island or something like that. I was left with one freshman "sprinter" who most girls are faster than. And he did nothing but whine and complain the entire time. This week they are all on spring break an I had 4 kids show up today. Maybe 5 tomorrow if I'm lucky. They complain when practice runs more than an hour. These kids have no idea what I could be making them do. 10 minute warm ups are too much for them. It's al about the Benjamins though. The Benjamins I won't see until after the season is over sadly. But it'll be a nice fat paycheck.
I survived the Tsunami, barely. Of course I would get sick the night of it. While the rest of my roommates all took off into the pineapple fields to party I spent the night sick in bed listening to the warning sirens going off between midnight and like 4 AM. Though I did really appreciate all the texts and phone calls from those worried back east. Even though they kept waking me up I'll forgive them all. Really though nothing came of the tsunami. It was a lot like how New Englanders freak out over northeasters. Everyone ran to the markets, bought a ton of crap they really didn't need an headed off into the hills. It sounded and looked like a major backup on all the roads that headed up into the hills. Most of the resorts along the water had to evacuate so all those vacationers had to sleep in cars parked up on hills. Pretty wild stuff.
Also survived St Patty's Day. Won't go into too much detail but I definitely found myself barreling up and down the pineapple fields at midnight with a bottle of wine an 5 or 6 beers in me. Pretty good times though can't really compare to last year with Noone and Duggan. It was fun hanging out at a random platform about 3 miles up into the fields, looking down upon Lahaina and the ocean. An almost full moon and stars made everything pretty clear.
So I have a friend coming later this week over from Oahu. This girl Shana is flying over with a friend of hers who is doing some sort of race. Randomly met her while guarding this summer when she overheard me talking about living in Hawaii for the winter. After random communication over the past 6 months I got an email from her last week and being the kind heart I am I offered up our place as a free place to crash. I feel bad for Curtis because it'll mean he has to give up his air mattress bed for a couple days. Oh well, it'll be the gentlemanly ting to do and it is my air mattress. Not about to let girls sleep on carpets and crummy couches that are peeling apart. It should be a good time though. I have that Friday and Monday off of school (and pay sadly) so I'll be able to hang out with them and still get in training. Perhaps some hikes or whale watches are in order.
Speaking of training:
It's been going alright. Not phenomenal but decent. I am not getting in the training I was hoping at this point. Like I said, been working. But I am in decent shape. Though I am typing this on a day where I didn't do anything. Pretty tired today and had 9 days of working out in a row here. So I am allowed this. That is another reason I am looking to get home. I feel like I am better at staying on task with training when I'm home. There are only like 2 ways to go biking and running out here where I live. I'm getting bored. But I'm trying to stay focuse and on task. It is getting tough cause I rarely get to train with Jon. We have the different work schedules working against us here. I am really eager to get training with Paul when I get home. Especially since 3 days after I land we are racing a sprint tri in Hopkington. I am not expecting anything stellar but I'll be really bummed if I can't break 1:02 on the course. I've been trying to put more emphasis on the biking this year since that is the biggest part of an Ironman. I'm not gonna lie, I'm already looking forward to being done this thing so I can just take a little time off and do other things.
I also have to get looking for a job for the fall. Over the next month I'm gonna have to start emailing school districts hoping something will come on. I swear I'll shoot myself before I go back to working full time at a place like Barnes and Noble. I keep telling myself I got plenty of time before the fall but in reality if I don't find a school by late June I am gonna be hard pressed to find anything at all.
Man, I really can't wait for the summer. I am really looking forward to getting back down to the cape. Thee is just nothing like that place. Where else can a person get a job that involves sitting around a beach, working out, and hanging out with a bunch of other people who do the same thing everyday. Where else will a boss come up to you and say "Louis, you look hot. Why don't you go take a swim for half an hour or take out the rescue board. I'll watch the water." or "Louis, you get a run in today? The comps are just around the corner. Why don't you go running and I'll watch the water for half an hour." I love Gordo.
So a couple weeks ago I got a wedding invite from my friend Becky (one of the greatest head guards ever by the way). Brian is the other greatest head guard. Her wedding is in freaking Disney World. How awesome is that? It's not until Nov. 22nd but I already can't wait. I love going to weddings, especially when the people are mostly around my age. The last one I went to was easily one of the best times I had in my life and left me wanting to attend another one. I know it'll be fun but even if it's not it's going to be in Disney World.
Whelp, I know I'm forgetting to add something but I have some core work to do since I did nothing else today and am feeling fat and lazy after eating dinner so I think I'll end it with the same way I started this post. I'll throw in some geeky Harry Potter:
"It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world. ~J.K. Rowling, "Horcruxes," Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2005
My favorite book of the series.
Monday, February 28, 2011
You smell that... It's the winds of change.
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...
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...
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.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Marathons in the dark...
So a lot has been going on in the past week or so... most not really that important really. It was the week leading up to the Maui Oceanside marathon. Mostly I had been working a lot with subbing and Barnes and Noble. I had been feeling pretty worn out as I was going on week 3 of about 60 hours a week working. Though the subbing was not exactly hard work. Mostly babysitting. Just the getting up at 6 AM was annoying.
Well in the days leading up to the race we had a lot of people being super nice to us with food and whatnot. One of our neighbors (Lisa) who was born in Worcester and grew up in Spencer invited us to her place for dinner the Friday night with her and her friends. One of them was running the race. Lots of good food was cooked. Little did we know that we were getting into a super religious group. There was praying and blessings being thrown all over the place. Signs were made with religious quotes. But they were really nice and friendly. Lisa was also driving us to the race at 4 in the morning. Plus her friend Lindsey was super cute.
Saturday was a day of relaxing and trying not to do too much. The shin was still sore but I was doing as little as possible to irritate it. Lots of icing. Gordo came over and I cooked a sweet pasta dinner with steak tips. A beer was drank, Gatorade and water consumed. After hanging out for a couple hours Jon and I head to bed around 10 since we have to get up at 3:15. Why do I do these things again?
3:15 AM: we're up and barely functioning. I get my gear together and eat a large bowl of oatmeal with a bottle of gatorade. We trek over to Lisa's and help her pack up her truck. Then at 4:10 its off to pick up some people. This takes way too long as by the time we get to the start of the race its 5:30 and the gun goes off at 5:45. I'm annoyed but roll with it. I take a quick piss, change into my racing shorts, shoes and get to the line. No stretching. Shin is a little sore.
5:45 AM: Gun goes off, Jon and I settle right into about 6th and 7th place. We hit the first mile in 6:07, slightly downhill. By mile 2 and 3 we are right on 19:45 5k pace. At this point we're now in 3rd and 4th place. At mile 4 Jon really has to use a bathroom. Just before the 5th mile he apologizes and veers off to a stall. I'm soloing it now. At this point we have been averaging around 6:30 pace for the first 5 miles. I am feeling pretty good so start increasing the pace. Miles 6-9 are run in about 6:15 pace. I pass the guy who went out with the leader around mile 9 and roll through mile ten in 63:42 feeling really relaxed and smooth. The leader is out of site. He goes on to run 2:37 alone. Since mile 5 I've been alone as the sun slowly rises. I am in robot mode here and not even thinking. Just running. Shin is alright. No major pain. Just a little sore. Before I know it I am coming up to the hills which start at mile 11 and go til mile 17. I've ridden them a couple times so I know what’s in store. Just before the hills though a stupid police officer actually makes me slow down to almost a stop to allow a truck by. This allows a guy who had been about 70 yards behind me for the past couple miles to close in on me. As we begin attacking the hills together we chat a little bit. Then he pushes ahead of me and drops the pace down even faster as we hit the first of the hills. We roll through the half marathon point side by side in 1:23.34. I take the lead and push the pace a little harder. At this point we are going around 6:10-6:15 through hills. No more talking now. Just hard running. Neither of us are breaking our stride as we hit miles 14, 15, and 16. Between 16 and 17 is a pretty steep hill. The last real bump in the road before a long straightaway that winds for miles. I make a hard move here even though we're both tiring. I move ahead of him and push the pace again. This last for about 400 yards when I feel my left hamstring just seize up on me. It felt like someone just gave me the hardest charlie horse ever in the back of my upper left thigh. I went down to the ground instantly. The other guy looked back and slowed a bit asking if I was alright. I got back up and started running again telling him I'd be fine. Getting back into it I ran with him for another 200 yards but the quad kept twitching with minor seizures. As I was forced to slow he pulled away and that was it. I kept runin but my pace dropped to 7 minute miles, 8 minutes miles. Then I had to stop and try stretching. I couldn't figure it out. I had hydrated almost every other mile. Taken in a goo. Sports drink and water. By miles 20 I was running around 8 minute pace and Jon went by me. I tried latching onto him but no good.
Now I was in 4th place. I was still well under 3 hour pace. If I could just hold onto the 8 minute pace I would still finish around 2:55. At mile 21 pony tail guy went by me. He tried getting me to run with him. I stayed with him a quarter mile until my leg seized again and I had to stop at an aid station. One of the people there looked at it and told me I hyper-extended it? A super bad pulled that would continue to hurt and strain while I ran on it. She took a minute or two to do some light stretching (hurt like hell). Then I continued on. I had 4 miles to go at this point. I was determined to finish. With 2 miles to go I was no longer breaking 3 hours. Now it was just getting to the finish. I hobbled, jogged, walked my way to the final mile. At this point I had no idea what place I was in. I was surrounded by fat people who were walking the half marathon race. Finally the finish line was there. I stumbled across it and 2 volunteers got me through the chute. I was checked out by a trainer who said it was not super serious. Nothing torn, some narly bruising along the hamstring. It was strained pretty badly though. No running for 1-2 weeks. Try not to put too much pressure on it for a couple days (I didn't mention that I would be working on my feet for 6 hours the next day). The trainer said it was probably caused from favoring my shin splints on my right leg. I was putting too much pressure on my left leg the past couple weeks.
Well what’s done is done. Jon and I are looking at another marathon in April in Lojola, California. I've come to the realization I race much better when I am doing triathlon training and not straight running. My body just gets too broken down when I am trying to do 80 mile running weeks on top of working 40 hour weeks where I am on my feet all day. Not as young as I used to be. I did take a few positives out of this race.
1. Up until my hamstring went on me I was feeling good. I was tiring but not exhausted. I knew I had a gear left in me for the final 8 miles of that race. I was confident I could have gone to the line with that guy who got 2nd. I rolled through the half point feeling good in 1:23ish.
2. I no longer beat myself up over "bad" races. Sunday I realized what happened was beyond my control. I didn't fall apart because I was out of shape or running poorly. It was a mechanical issue. It happens.
3. I only really trained about 3 months for that marathon and the last 3 weeks coming up to it were injury prevention training. Very little mileage and I still almost pulled off a good time. I figure if I spend the next 6 months seriously training for Placid now I will have a SICK race.
So there is a minor duathlon coming up February 13th I guess. Involves an 800 swim, 800 beach run, 3 mile road run. I think I will be planning on that depending upon how my hammy is feeling.
From this point on until Placid it is time to really get into it. I am living in the perfect training environment so I really have no excuses. I don't have too many distractions out here so I can really get to it.
Survivor Update: Have heard nothing as of yet. I just emailed my agent (yup, still sounds weird saying I have one) asking for the latest update so I will let all of you out there know as soon as I do. I will definitely be going out there for the casting call no matter when it is.
Lastly: This past Wednesday I had my key stolen while subbing a behavioral class at the local high school. I didn't know I was back in Worcester. I know the id who did it I just can't prove anything. It is going to cost me 200 dollars to replace my house key because the locks have to be replaced also. Just my luck huh?
I decided I wanna bump into the kid outside of school. 16 year old punk. Not even a local either. I got stranded at the school for 3 hours while I had to wait for Jon to get out of work and bring me my spare scooter key.
Gonna wrap it up there I think. I am going for a nice relaxing bike ride now then a nice 4 1/2 hour shift at barnes and noble.
Well in the days leading up to the race we had a lot of people being super nice to us with food and whatnot. One of our neighbors (Lisa) who was born in Worcester and grew up in Spencer invited us to her place for dinner the Friday night with her and her friends. One of them was running the race. Lots of good food was cooked. Little did we know that we were getting into a super religious group. There was praying and blessings being thrown all over the place. Signs were made with religious quotes. But they were really nice and friendly. Lisa was also driving us to the race at 4 in the morning. Plus her friend Lindsey was super cute.
Saturday was a day of relaxing and trying not to do too much. The shin was still sore but I was doing as little as possible to irritate it. Lots of icing. Gordo came over and I cooked a sweet pasta dinner with steak tips. A beer was drank, Gatorade and water consumed. After hanging out for a couple hours Jon and I head to bed around 10 since we have to get up at 3:15. Why do I do these things again?
3:15 AM: we're up and barely functioning. I get my gear together and eat a large bowl of oatmeal with a bottle of gatorade. We trek over to Lisa's and help her pack up her truck. Then at 4:10 its off to pick up some people. This takes way too long as by the time we get to the start of the race its 5:30 and the gun goes off at 5:45. I'm annoyed but roll with it. I take a quick piss, change into my racing shorts, shoes and get to the line. No stretching. Shin is a little sore.
5:45 AM: Gun goes off, Jon and I settle right into about 6th and 7th place. We hit the first mile in 6:07, slightly downhill. By mile 2 and 3 we are right on 19:45 5k pace. At this point we're now in 3rd and 4th place. At mile 4 Jon really has to use a bathroom. Just before the 5th mile he apologizes and veers off to a stall. I'm soloing it now. At this point we have been averaging around 6:30 pace for the first 5 miles. I am feeling pretty good so start increasing the pace. Miles 6-9 are run in about 6:15 pace. I pass the guy who went out with the leader around mile 9 and roll through mile ten in 63:42 feeling really relaxed and smooth. The leader is out of site. He goes on to run 2:37 alone. Since mile 5 I've been alone as the sun slowly rises. I am in robot mode here and not even thinking. Just running. Shin is alright. No major pain. Just a little sore. Before I know it I am coming up to the hills which start at mile 11 and go til mile 17. I've ridden them a couple times so I know what’s in store. Just before the hills though a stupid police officer actually makes me slow down to almost a stop to allow a truck by. This allows a guy who had been about 70 yards behind me for the past couple miles to close in on me. As we begin attacking the hills together we chat a little bit. Then he pushes ahead of me and drops the pace down even faster as we hit the first of the hills. We roll through the half marathon point side by side in 1:23.34. I take the lead and push the pace a little harder. At this point we are going around 6:10-6:15 through hills. No more talking now. Just hard running. Neither of us are breaking our stride as we hit miles 14, 15, and 16. Between 16 and 17 is a pretty steep hill. The last real bump in the road before a long straightaway that winds for miles. I make a hard move here even though we're both tiring. I move ahead of him and push the pace again. This last for about 400 yards when I feel my left hamstring just seize up on me. It felt like someone just gave me the hardest charlie horse ever in the back of my upper left thigh. I went down to the ground instantly. The other guy looked back and slowed a bit asking if I was alright. I got back up and started running again telling him I'd be fine. Getting back into it I ran with him for another 200 yards but the quad kept twitching with minor seizures. As I was forced to slow he pulled away and that was it. I kept runin but my pace dropped to 7 minute miles, 8 minutes miles. Then I had to stop and try stretching. I couldn't figure it out. I had hydrated almost every other mile. Taken in a goo. Sports drink and water. By miles 20 I was running around 8 minute pace and Jon went by me. I tried latching onto him but no good.
Now I was in 4th place. I was still well under 3 hour pace. If I could just hold onto the 8 minute pace I would still finish around 2:55. At mile 21 pony tail guy went by me. He tried getting me to run with him. I stayed with him a quarter mile until my leg seized again and I had to stop at an aid station. One of the people there looked at it and told me I hyper-extended it? A super bad pulled that would continue to hurt and strain while I ran on it. She took a minute or two to do some light stretching (hurt like hell). Then I continued on. I had 4 miles to go at this point. I was determined to finish. With 2 miles to go I was no longer breaking 3 hours. Now it was just getting to the finish. I hobbled, jogged, walked my way to the final mile. At this point I had no idea what place I was in. I was surrounded by fat people who were walking the half marathon race. Finally the finish line was there. I stumbled across it and 2 volunteers got me through the chute. I was checked out by a trainer who said it was not super serious. Nothing torn, some narly bruising along the hamstring. It was strained pretty badly though. No running for 1-2 weeks. Try not to put too much pressure on it for a couple days (I didn't mention that I would be working on my feet for 6 hours the next day). The trainer said it was probably caused from favoring my shin splints on my right leg. I was putting too much pressure on my left leg the past couple weeks.
Well what’s done is done. Jon and I are looking at another marathon in April in Lojola, California. I've come to the realization I race much better when I am doing triathlon training and not straight running. My body just gets too broken down when I am trying to do 80 mile running weeks on top of working 40 hour weeks where I am on my feet all day. Not as young as I used to be. I did take a few positives out of this race.
1. Up until my hamstring went on me I was feeling good. I was tiring but not exhausted. I knew I had a gear left in me for the final 8 miles of that race. I was confident I could have gone to the line with that guy who got 2nd. I rolled through the half point feeling good in 1:23ish.
2. I no longer beat myself up over "bad" races. Sunday I realized what happened was beyond my control. I didn't fall apart because I was out of shape or running poorly. It was a mechanical issue. It happens.
3. I only really trained about 3 months for that marathon and the last 3 weeks coming up to it were injury prevention training. Very little mileage and I still almost pulled off a good time. I figure if I spend the next 6 months seriously training for Placid now I will have a SICK race.
So there is a minor duathlon coming up February 13th I guess. Involves an 800 swim, 800 beach run, 3 mile road run. I think I will be planning on that depending upon how my hammy is feeling.
From this point on until Placid it is time to really get into it. I am living in the perfect training environment so I really have no excuses. I don't have too many distractions out here so I can really get to it.
Survivor Update: Have heard nothing as of yet. I just emailed my agent (yup, still sounds weird saying I have one) asking for the latest update so I will let all of you out there know as soon as I do. I will definitely be going out there for the casting call no matter when it is.
Lastly: This past Wednesday I had my key stolen while subbing a behavioral class at the local high school. I didn't know I was back in Worcester. I know the id who did it I just can't prove anything. It is going to cost me 200 dollars to replace my house key because the locks have to be replaced also. Just my luck huh?
I decided I wanna bump into the kid outside of school. 16 year old punk. Not even a local either. I got stranded at the school for 3 hours while I had to wait for Jon to get out of work and bring me my spare scooter key.
Gonna wrap it up there I think. I am going for a nice relaxing bike ride now then a nice 4 1/2 hour shift at barnes and noble.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Bbbbrrrrrrr.... it's a bit cold
So this is the second time I am writin this. A couple days ago I typed up a whole blog and watched it not get psoted when my computer decided it woul be funny and kick me off the internet. So, second times a charm.
So it's ben a little chilly here in Maui the past couple days. By chilly I mean still around 75-80 with a wind coming off the ocean. But at night its been chilly enough to use a blanket. Kind of like it. I am realizing that when I do go back to New England in the summmer I'm probably gonna be a serious wuss and complain when it is only like 70-75 degrees. I don't know if I'll ever be able to handle a winter again at this point. Though I have been missing snowboarding lately.
We'll start way back with New Year's Eve. It was a super blast. I spent the whole thing laying on the couch not feeling well. Not only did I work that day but I also had a migrane and sore thoat. It's ok though because teenagers were shooting fireworks off right outside my window for a good three hours until like 1 AM. Work the next day was not as much fun as I imagined it would be either. Had to also take the next couple days and ease back into training.
Barnes and Noble has become pretty much useless to me now. I am still on Nook sales and barely even trying at this point. I usually jsut spend my hours there walking around reading off the Nook and occasionally asking people if they are interested in demoing the thing. I think I have maybe sold 3 Nooks in the past week. Oh well, maybe they'll get the hint and move me to something else. Let me tell you selling those things is super boring.
But I have started finally subbing. I went in twice last week (Thursday and Friday). I covered an 8th grade american history class on Thursday. All I had to do was put in a documentary of the AR and have the students take notes on it. Well since I am pretty knowledgable of the War I took it upon myself to do a short lesson along with the movie, giving them notes and whatnot. They did not seem too happy about actually having a class. Friday was 6th grade math. Here it was a little more interesting. The kids were not as annoying either. I already have a couple gigs lined up for this upcoming week too so I'm pretty siked. The only drawback to this whole situation is working the two jobs. I had to work at B&N both days after subbing so I was pulling 14 hour work days. That on top of trying to train is not too fun. I was exhausted for the past couple days. But it's moneya nd right now I'm in desperate ned to the benjamins.
Got my marathon coming up in exactly 2 weeks. The training has been going pretty well, not as great as I wanted though. Got a pretty serious shin splint going on in my right shin. I don't think it will get any worse no that I'm started to taperfor the race. I know one of the reasons for it is standing all day in crappy shoes at work. It will be interesting how this goes though. I have been feeling strong the past couple weeks but also real tired. I have one more workout this upcoming Wednesday where I'll do an all out 5k on the track to get my legs turning over then a bunch of 400s varying in pace. After that it is all about letting the legs recover.
I am really looking forward to getting back to triathlon training. Especially the biking. Have done a couple bikerides in the past 2 weeks and they are so much more interesting than the runs I've been doing.
UPS is being super retarded with the whole bike situation. Apparently they have denied my claim twice saying that after viewing the pictures it does not seem like the accident was their fault. I have appealed them both times and the UPS store in Worcester where it was shipped from has also appealed them causing them to reopen the case. The latest is that I had to resend the pictures to the same place I have sent them 3 times already to be reviewed. This means I am still waiting on them to pay for the busted wheel I had to cough up more money than I could afford to fix it myself.
So the latest Survivor Update: I had posted my video along with the couple thousand other people who are trying to get on the show. That does not mean much to me at all. I did receive an email from the guy in charge of getting the best contestants in front of the casting directors the other day. Apparently my video was liked by the directors which is a good thing obviously. But I was told that the open open casting calls in LA may be happening oe of the last weekends of January. Possibly the weekend of the 22nd-23rd. The same weekend as my marathon; which I paid over 100 dollars to register for and have spend the last 2 1/2 months training for. Serious downer. I asked him how important it is to make the casting calls. I guess it is not mandatory to go to them. This guy told me that I could still get in without attending them but 90 percent of the people picked are people the directors have met in person and were able to have a conversation with. I wold have no real problem missing the marathon if I knew I was going to be selected. But what happens if I attend the meeting and not get picked? Then I am out being on Survivor, out the 200 it cost for the plane ticket to get to LA, cost of a hotel room, and miss out on the marathon I have been training my ass off for (not to mention the 120 dollars). I guess we cross that hurdle when we get to it. For now I'm just going to enjoy living in Maui.
So those who know me I think know that I hate seeing messes laying around the house. If they are in a bedroom thats not really a big deal to me. I'll be the first to admit I usually have clothes laying on my floor. Granted most of the time they are clean clothes and I am good about putting dirty clothes in my hamper. But I on't like having to deal with messes in the rest of the house. How hard is it to put your dishes in the sink? Or pick up trash thats on the floor or not leave messes on the table. It's one of my pet peeves and I try not to make it too big an issue. But when things build up and get really messy the it does get on my nerves. So lately thats what's been happening around the apartment. Not so much with Matt and Jon because they do most of their food eating and whatnot at work. I cook an average amount at home but the past couple weeks have been doing alot of my eating at work because it's quicker and pretty cheap since I get 50% off the cafe food. Which is really good.
So to wrap this blog up; since it's turning into a quite lengthy one, I had a really interesting if not awkward conversation with one of my bosses the other night. Most of my bosses at B&N are women and apparently they all talk with the females employees about guys and whatnot. They go out and get drinks together. well anyway this boss Deb decides to chat with me about whether or not I was seeing anyone, married, dating, the usual questions about my personal life. I reply no to all her questions. Deb is really nice, she's about 50ish and a real cool boss. Let's me do my own thing. Anyway, after she finds out that there are no women in my life she tells me that this girl Jordan who is the other Nook salesperson and I would make a great item. I almost laugh right there. I should have seen this coming. Deb and Jordan are pretty good friends even though Jordan is only 21. So Jordan has been working at B&N for a year or so. She just turned 21 just over a month ago and is not really my type. She is really cool and fun to work with but not the kind of girl I go for. Whereas I prefer the small, fit athletic types. Petite I guess one could say, Jordan is much heavier and does no type of working out. So I can't really tell this to Deb so I dodge the obvious truth as to why I wouldn't want to go out with Jordan and just say that I am not really in the market for a girl at this time. The whole "I don't have the time or money thing." I'm not an idiot. I knew Jordan had a thing for me. She made it pretty obvious at work. Well the next day she was in with me it was obvious Deb had said somthing to her because she definitly kept to herself for the most part while I was there. Oh well, its tough being a heartbreaker. Sidenote: Apparently my boss Deb has a really goodlooking daughter who is like 22-24 and recently became single. Found this out last night. How funny would that be if I got together with her? Cause some drama at work?
So I told this story to Jon on a run the other day and he appreciated it of course. Now him and Matt have been messing around with some girls since they've been on the island and Curtis has his little gf back home. Not sure how that is going to hold up with him being here til the Summer. Should be an interesting development. But Jon did bring up the fact that I have not been really trying to meet any girls since I've been here. I never really put much thought into it really. But I guess I just have no real interest in the whole issue. Most of the girls I've met have not really done much for me. I've never been too into pursuing girls. If one comes around that really knocks me of my feet then I'll do something about it. At the moment there's really only one or two girls I have any interest in being with and they're not located on this island. I;m here to train and enjoy the weather. So I'm just gonna keep on doing what I'm doing and not sweat it.
One final thing: In one night at Barnes and Noble I met Pink and her husband, Helen Hunt and Michael McDonald. Got to talk to all three of them. Pink was aweosme and super friendly. Helen Hunt was a bitch and stuck up, Michael McDonald was like a normal customer. I am told that Jennifer Aniston usually comes in at the end of January almsot every year. I can not wait.
Time to go running...
So it's ben a little chilly here in Maui the past couple days. By chilly I mean still around 75-80 with a wind coming off the ocean. But at night its been chilly enough to use a blanket. Kind of like it. I am realizing that when I do go back to New England in the summmer I'm probably gonna be a serious wuss and complain when it is only like 70-75 degrees. I don't know if I'll ever be able to handle a winter again at this point. Though I have been missing snowboarding lately.
We'll start way back with New Year's Eve. It was a super blast. I spent the whole thing laying on the couch not feeling well. Not only did I work that day but I also had a migrane and sore thoat. It's ok though because teenagers were shooting fireworks off right outside my window for a good three hours until like 1 AM. Work the next day was not as much fun as I imagined it would be either. Had to also take the next couple days and ease back into training.
Barnes and Noble has become pretty much useless to me now. I am still on Nook sales and barely even trying at this point. I usually jsut spend my hours there walking around reading off the Nook and occasionally asking people if they are interested in demoing the thing. I think I have maybe sold 3 Nooks in the past week. Oh well, maybe they'll get the hint and move me to something else. Let me tell you selling those things is super boring.
But I have started finally subbing. I went in twice last week (Thursday and Friday). I covered an 8th grade american history class on Thursday. All I had to do was put in a documentary of the AR and have the students take notes on it. Well since I am pretty knowledgable of the War I took it upon myself to do a short lesson along with the movie, giving them notes and whatnot. They did not seem too happy about actually having a class. Friday was 6th grade math. Here it was a little more interesting. The kids were not as annoying either. I already have a couple gigs lined up for this upcoming week too so I'm pretty siked. The only drawback to this whole situation is working the two jobs. I had to work at B&N both days after subbing so I was pulling 14 hour work days. That on top of trying to train is not too fun. I was exhausted for the past couple days. But it's moneya nd right now I'm in desperate ned to the benjamins.
Got my marathon coming up in exactly 2 weeks. The training has been going pretty well, not as great as I wanted though. Got a pretty serious shin splint going on in my right shin. I don't think it will get any worse no that I'm started to taperfor the race. I know one of the reasons for it is standing all day in crappy shoes at work. It will be interesting how this goes though. I have been feeling strong the past couple weeks but also real tired. I have one more workout this upcoming Wednesday where I'll do an all out 5k on the track to get my legs turning over then a bunch of 400s varying in pace. After that it is all about letting the legs recover.
I am really looking forward to getting back to triathlon training. Especially the biking. Have done a couple bikerides in the past 2 weeks and they are so much more interesting than the runs I've been doing.
UPS is being super retarded with the whole bike situation. Apparently they have denied my claim twice saying that after viewing the pictures it does not seem like the accident was their fault. I have appealed them both times and the UPS store in Worcester where it was shipped from has also appealed them causing them to reopen the case. The latest is that I had to resend the pictures to the same place I have sent them 3 times already to be reviewed. This means I am still waiting on them to pay for the busted wheel I had to cough up more money than I could afford to fix it myself.
So the latest Survivor Update: I had posted my video along with the couple thousand other people who are trying to get on the show. That does not mean much to me at all. I did receive an email from the guy in charge of getting the best contestants in front of the casting directors the other day. Apparently my video was liked by the directors which is a good thing obviously. But I was told that the open open casting calls in LA may be happening oe of the last weekends of January. Possibly the weekend of the 22nd-23rd. The same weekend as my marathon; which I paid over 100 dollars to register for and have spend the last 2 1/2 months training for. Serious downer. I asked him how important it is to make the casting calls. I guess it is not mandatory to go to them. This guy told me that I could still get in without attending them but 90 percent of the people picked are people the directors have met in person and were able to have a conversation with. I wold have no real problem missing the marathon if I knew I was going to be selected. But what happens if I attend the meeting and not get picked? Then I am out being on Survivor, out the 200 it cost for the plane ticket to get to LA, cost of a hotel room, and miss out on the marathon I have been training my ass off for (not to mention the 120 dollars). I guess we cross that hurdle when we get to it. For now I'm just going to enjoy living in Maui.
So those who know me I think know that I hate seeing messes laying around the house. If they are in a bedroom thats not really a big deal to me. I'll be the first to admit I usually have clothes laying on my floor. Granted most of the time they are clean clothes and I am good about putting dirty clothes in my hamper. But I on't like having to deal with messes in the rest of the house. How hard is it to put your dishes in the sink? Or pick up trash thats on the floor or not leave messes on the table. It's one of my pet peeves and I try not to make it too big an issue. But when things build up and get really messy the it does get on my nerves. So lately thats what's been happening around the apartment. Not so much with Matt and Jon because they do most of their food eating and whatnot at work. I cook an average amount at home but the past couple weeks have been doing alot of my eating at work because it's quicker and pretty cheap since I get 50% off the cafe food. Which is really good.
So to wrap this blog up; since it's turning into a quite lengthy one, I had a really interesting if not awkward conversation with one of my bosses the other night. Most of my bosses at B&N are women and apparently they all talk with the females employees about guys and whatnot. They go out and get drinks together. well anyway this boss Deb decides to chat with me about whether or not I was seeing anyone, married, dating, the usual questions about my personal life. I reply no to all her questions. Deb is really nice, she's about 50ish and a real cool boss. Let's me do my own thing. Anyway, after she finds out that there are no women in my life she tells me that this girl Jordan who is the other Nook salesperson and I would make a great item. I almost laugh right there. I should have seen this coming. Deb and Jordan are pretty good friends even though Jordan is only 21. So Jordan has been working at B&N for a year or so. She just turned 21 just over a month ago and is not really my type. She is really cool and fun to work with but not the kind of girl I go for. Whereas I prefer the small, fit athletic types. Petite I guess one could say, Jordan is much heavier and does no type of working out. So I can't really tell this to Deb so I dodge the obvious truth as to why I wouldn't want to go out with Jordan and just say that I am not really in the market for a girl at this time. The whole "I don't have the time or money thing." I'm not an idiot. I knew Jordan had a thing for me. She made it pretty obvious at work. Well the next day she was in with me it was obvious Deb had said somthing to her because she definitly kept to herself for the most part while I was there. Oh well, its tough being a heartbreaker. Sidenote: Apparently my boss Deb has a really goodlooking daughter who is like 22-24 and recently became single. Found this out last night. How funny would that be if I got together with her? Cause some drama at work?
So I told this story to Jon on a run the other day and he appreciated it of course. Now him and Matt have been messing around with some girls since they've been on the island and Curtis has his little gf back home. Not sure how that is going to hold up with him being here til the Summer. Should be an interesting development. But Jon did bring up the fact that I have not been really trying to meet any girls since I've been here. I never really put much thought into it really. But I guess I just have no real interest in the whole issue. Most of the girls I've met have not really done much for me. I've never been too into pursuing girls. If one comes around that really knocks me of my feet then I'll do something about it. At the moment there's really only one or two girls I have any interest in being with and they're not located on this island. I;m here to train and enjoy the weather. So I'm just gonna keep on doing what I'm doing and not sweat it.
One final thing: In one night at Barnes and Noble I met Pink and her husband, Helen Hunt and Michael McDonald. Got to talk to all three of them. Pink was aweosme and super friendly. Helen Hunt was a bitch and stuck up, Michael McDonald was like a normal customer. I am told that Jennifer Aniston usually comes in at the end of January almsot every year. I can not wait.
Time to go running...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
