It Could Be Cancer

I don’t know what is wrong with me lately. Over the past 3 days, I feel like I’ve completely fallen apart. On Wednesday I set out to do an 8 mile run. I barely made it 2.5 miles, before I was reduced to walking and just limped my way home.

Yesterday, I had to take my wife and children to the airport to catch a 6am flight. I had to wake up very early to take them to JFK and by the time I got back home, all I felt like doing was going back to bed. I had intended to either cycle or run in the evening to make it up, but after dealing with some hideous rush hour traffic that kept me in my car for over 2 hours, all I felt like doing that night was eating and vegging out. I further justified skipping my workout because I still had to pack in order to join them late this evening. By the time I went to bed, all I had packed was a pile of clothes on the floor that I intend to shovel into a suitcase just before I leave for the airport today.

This morning I decided to run 5 miles. I wasn’t going to do it hard, since I didn’t want to kill my legs just before a long flight. I needn’t have worried as I could barely manage an 8 MM pace. It felt like I had lead in my legs.

Perhaps I am dying. I’ve felt some strange congestion in my lungs that I am convinced is an early form of cancer or asbestosis. I base this conclusion on the fact that I probably breathed in a lot of dust several years ago when I self renovated my basement. I’ve had my lungs listened to by doctors several times over the past few years, but they could never hear anything that would be indicative of a problem. Maybe I just am developing asthma; but that doesn’t explain why my legs feel dead.

I am probably a bit burnt out from the training leading up to Lake Placid. I wish I could just hang around with my children all day and watch TV all night. Work is interfering with the former and my need to wake up to train for the marathon is interfering with the latter. It is definitely a crime against humanity to require working during the month of August.

I will be in Puerto Rico late this evening, where I will soon join my wife and children. Perhaps I won’t run at all while I am there, or if anything, just do some slow runs on the beach and snorkeling with the kids.

As a parting note, I better get myself healthy soon. I noticed that the Lottery entries for the 2006 Kona Ironman Championships is now available for registration, so I signed up.

Lack of Inertia

My family suffers from a lack of inertia, myself included. Too often I come home from work or a workout and I suggest to my wife and children that we should go outside and ride bikes or go to the playground, etc. I am usually greeted with howls of despair at being forced to get up off the couch or to leave the television.

Being myself tired from a hard days work, I usually just relent instead of trying to create the momentum to get outside. But just like Newton’s law of an object at rest, tends to stay at rest, for every action there is a reaction. In this case the action is my family’s inaction, building a volatile rebellion inside me.

Yesterday, I decided that I was no longer going to stand for this lack of inertia and I was going to take my children out for some exercise whether they liked it or not. I had missed my active recovery run earlier in the day and I felt that doing an easy paced run while running next to my bike riding children would be the best way of accomplishing two goals: Getting my run in and getting my children off of their asses and away from the TV.

My daughter immediately started to howl like I just handed down a harsh punishment when I told her to get ready to ride her bike. My son started to follow her lead and began to complain as well, albeit not as much. It took a fair amount of yelling on my part for my kids to get their sneakers on and to get ready to leave the house. After about 15 minutes of ultimatums to get ready, we were finally able to get moving.

Pleasantly enough, the screaming stopped as soon as we started to move. I suppose the pleasure of being on a bicycle under ones own power proved to be soothing to the savage beast and my children were soon laughing and smiling as we entered the park.

I did have a few moments where complaints were uttered by my son as we hit some of the hillier sections of the park. However, every time he crested the hill, he would scream with joy as he barreled down the other side of the hill. My daughter was able to ride around the park on her own and I helped my son up the hills during the more difficult sections.

When we returned home, my children looked very happy and content. My daughter took the opportunity to hide behind a wall in the basement and scare the crap out of my when I brought the bikes downstairs. If she wasn’t such an innocent child, I would say she did that as revenge for making her ride. I think she was just feeling good and wanted to play.

My lesson learned for the day is not to let a lack of inertia stop me from doing what I know is right. Even if it means some yelling, screaming and inconvenience, I think I will be better off in the end. My children got some much needed exercise and I think they were very happy in the end to be outside with their Dad.

Sweat Hog

I describe today’s run in two different ways; “It was a good strong workout and I felt like I ran well throughout” or “I felt weak and slow and am discouraged by how difficult it became towards the end”. I am balancing on the sea-saw, trying to figure out which was the more apt description. So far, I am going to give myself some credit and say it was more of the former, rather than the latter.

Weather.com says the humidity is around 76% with the temperature around 82°F, with it feeling like 87°F. According to my watch, the temperature was more like 86°F and to me it felt like 90% humidity. My pace was nothing so great considering my HR, but I guess I run slower when it is warm and humid. I certainly sweat a lot.

I stopped at a bagel store on my way home from Prospect Park and I handed the cashier two 1 dollar bills that were literally dripping with sweat. A drop or two fell onto the counter when I handed her the bills. When I walked into my house, I had to go into the backyard in order to take off my short cropped Tri top. I was able to wring out a cupful of water from a top that barely covered my chest.

I wore Tri shorts for the run. I wear these types of bottoms, since I am able to tuck a gel flask on my left hip and a coin holder containing Endurolytes on my right hip. It is the simplest method of carrying fuel and electrolytes that I have found. The only drawback to wearing these shorts is that the bike pad was as wet as an overflowing maxi-pad by the time I finished.

During the run, I started to feel really fat. I’ve always had a layer of fat over my abdominals that stubbornly refuses to go away. At one point during my run, I could feel this layer of fat jiggling. The momentum of the fat moving in the opposite direction of my stride was very disconcerting and annoying. I am once again wondering if I can make positive gains in speed through liposuction induced weight loss.

For recovery of my run, I made myself a large glass of chocolate milk with some Hammer Whey Protein. I made sure to take some Lactase enzymes to keep my lactose intolerance to a minimum. So far it appears to be working. I then showered and returned to my kitchen to make blueberry pancakes for me and my children.

Here are the workout stats:

Lap Time Lap Time HR Max Avg Min Dist min/mile
1. 0:32:06.8 0:32:06.8 154 157 141 108 3.7 8:40
2. 0:59:51.4 0:27:44.6 155 166 155 130 3.4 8:09
3. 1:26:43.0 0:26:51.6 160 163 158 142 3.4 7:54
4. 1:46:34.6 0:19:51.6 160 163 160 155 2.5 7:56

Sweat Hog Run

Emergency Room

Actually, there is not much to review this week. It has been a hum drum week of some easy running, swimming and biking. The only excitement I experienced occurred on Wednesday evening as I returned home from work. I walked in the door about 1 minute after my son had his finger smashed in said door.

We waited an hour or so to see if the pain he felt would dissipate. It wasn’t getting better, so we went to the emergency room at Methodist Hospital on 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. This was a highly unpleasant experience.

The ER was packed and they only had one Triage nurse on duty. We sat in the room for well over an hour without making any progress towards seeing the duty nurse. My son’s finger looked to be ok or at least not getting worse, so we decided to leave since he was no longer crying. My son though wanted to stay, because he liked the idea of getting an X-ray.

After we returned home, my children fell right to sleep and my wife and I soon went to bed ourselves. About an hour later, my son started screaming about his finger again, so I took him back to the emergency room at my wife’s insistence. I didn’t think we needed to go, as I could tell the finger wasn’t broken, but my wife said that we shouldn’t take a chance.

Off to the hospital I returned. This time, we made a little better progress and saw the nurse within 40 minutes. She took some basic information and asked us to return to the waiting room to get registered. Only one person was handling registration, when she wasn’t busy running off to do a million other errands. She told me I would have to wait to register, as she had 5 other people ahead of me. During the next 30 minutes, she registered one person. What was killing me about this was I had to go to Pediatric ER and the people ahead of me were all adults. Even after the adults got registered, they still had to wait for the dozens of people ahead of them. I appeared to be the only one with a child in the ER and probably could have seen a doctor pretty quickly.

I wanted to shout at this woman to have some common sense and compassion, but I knew she wouldn’t hear me.

After an hour passes, my son was begging me to take him home. He was able to open and close his hand without trouble and just wanted to go to bed. I couldn’t stand waiting anymore, so we went home.

When my son started crying again, my wife became furious with me because I brought him home. In a way I couldn’t blame her, but I knew the hospital would do nothing. She took him back to the ER, where eventually they took an X-ray and pronounced that his finger wasn’t broken and that there was nothing they could do. They returned home around 5am.

All day Thursday, my son slept or cried/complained about his finger. This morning when I looked at it, it was all swollen with the nail completely black. My wife took him to a different hospital, where they drained the blood from under the nail. Hopefully, this will significantly reduce the pain he is feeling and he will soon forget about it.

It broke my heart to see my son in such discomfit. I felt though, that I handled his pain much better than I may have done so in the past. I was able to keep the obvious pain he was feeling in perspective and deal with it in a way that was much less troubling to my inner emotions.

Before I began training for Marathon, Triathlon, etc., the site of my children in pain and crying would bring tears to my eyes. I felt their pain as if it was affecting me directly. I think I have developed the ability to compartmentalize feelings of pain and discomfit not only for myself, but for my loved ones as well. I am able to keep feelings and observations of pain out of my conscience self. This is a welcome ability as it allowed me to offer comfort, love and care to my son, without letting myself breakdown and cry along with him.

Anyway, alls well that ends well. My son is home happily playing as if nothing ever happened. He had Ice Cream and Candy for lunch and is no worse for the wear.

Lactose Intolerance

It has been a positively soupy weekend, perfect for some hard efforts. I’ve become very accustomed to the heat and don’t mind training in it at all. Yesterday, I did a moderately paced 52 miles on the bike and today I did 10 miles worth of running.

The run today was a bit of a struggle. I set out to do 2 miles at 8mm, 2m at 7:45, 2m at 7:30 and 2m at 7:15. The fastest I could manage was a 7:31 pace which I did beginning at the 3 mile mark for 5 miles. Once I got to 8 miles, my legs developed a leaden feeling so I just took an easy jog for the remaining distance.

I cooled off at home by going in my inflatable family size pool. My son joined me in the water and we spent the next hour playing shark attack, Seahorse Bronco busting and underwater explorers. The cool water was the perfect way to let my legs and body recover. My son really seems to enjoy the water and my optimism remains high that he may follow in my Ironman footsteps.

As I write my journal for today, I sit at my brother’s house away from almost everyone else. I decided to have a post run recovery drink consisting of a large glass of chocolate milk with some whey protein. It was positively delicious and refreshing. However, I am somewhat lactose intolerant and my colon is blasting out incredible amount of foul smelling gas. I suppose I should be happy that I am at least passing this gas, instead of being double over in pain from gas cramps.

I guess the fact that so many people are lactose intolerant is one of the reasons why no one has invented an energy drink/gel with lactose as its main ingredient. Imagine a marathon where the energy drink was milk instead of Gatorade?

Stone Face Challenge

This past Friday I set out to do a run workout consisting of a 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at 7mm, followed by a 1 mile cool down. I found myself feeling very sluggish and I wasn’t even sure I would be able to run 1 mile, much less 4 at a 7 minute mile pace.

While I was warming up, a regular in Prospect Park, whom I nicknamed Stoneface speed walked/ran past me. I call him stone face since he always has the same fixed expression. I have never seen his face move. It is as if he suffers complete paralysis of his facial muscles. This runner is hard to miss. He is always wearing long pants and a cotton t-shirt. In the rain, he will run with an umbrella.

Anyway, Stoneface passed me about a half mile into my warm up. I was going very slow and contemplating how difficult is was to be running, much less how hard it would be to pick up my pace to 7mm. The one mile mark had me at the top of the hill, so at first it was pretty easy to start to pick up my pace. As I got to the bottom of the hill, I caught up to Stoneface.

Stoneface was the last person I would ever have expected to put up a challenge to keep me from passing. I never really saw him move with anything other than a very fast speed walk. This day however, he saw me coming an refused to let me pass.

I found the situation quite amusing. It was just the inspiration I needed to hold my pace. For a while I was concerned that I wasn’t even approaching a 7mm, but I was running as fast as I was capable at the time. Stoneface match my pace stride for stride and refused to let me pass.

I know for a fact that if he didn’t mount this challenge, there was no way I was going to be able to hold the pace. We ran this way for about 2 miles, just until the bottom of the next hill. By this time I finally wore him out and my legs found their pace. Like the space shuttles solid rocket boosters, I was now launched into a respectable speed.

I completed 1 loop of the park in 24:38 which is just slightly over 7mm. I’d had enough and started to walk to let my HR settle and then started an easy run home. Stoneface caught up with me by this time. I could only wonder what he was thinking. I would have said something to him, but I don’t think this man has communicated with another human being in years.

Marathon Training

Today I began training for the 2005 NYC Marathon in earnest. My first workout towards running a sub 3 hour marathon consisted of a 1 mile warm up, followed by 4 miles at a 7:00 minute mile pace, followed by a 1 mile cool down.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to run the 4M at the 7mm pace. However, at the end of the 4 miles, I accomplished that goal with time to spare. My HR for the 4 miles hovered between 89-95 percent of my running max – a bit higher than where I would have liked it to be. Perhaps it was a bit high due to the warm weather and humidity.

This year, I hope that my legs do not fall apart before the marathon. For the past two years, I had to drop out of it, due to highly painful shin splints. If I can manage to stay healthy, I think I have a better than reasonable chance to accomplish this goal.

Creams and Lotions

I happen to be a fanatic for clear and healthy skin. Nothing turns my stomach more than seeing someone with a nasty rash, sore, pustule or other skin affliction. I suppose this stems from the days when I worked as a volunteer in Coney Island Hospital. While on the job, I was unfortunate to have experienced the site of nasty Decubitus Ulcers (bedsores), the round diabetes skin lesions and various other skin afflictions. Seeing those ailments convinced me that I was not cut out to be a doctor. I could get past the disgust and fear of catching something while I was doing my duty in the hospital.

I remember a time a few years ago, when my wife had a bad case of Poison Ivy. Her skin became red, swollen and blistery as a result. I was horrified and could barely stand to be next to her. Heartless you may say, but it was either that or freak out and puke.

This fear of skin ailments has me applying various creams and lotions to make sure my skin stays perfectly clear. During the course of a morning, it is conceivable that I will apply no less than 5 creams or lotions to keep my skin clear. This also does not count other products I apply to my skin such as shaving cream, deodorant and hair gel.

Grimaldo’s One Miler

Today I was on the other side of the race scene, in that I assisted with the running of the first annual Grimaldo’s Mile; a one-mile open water swim from Brighton Beach to Coney Island.

The race was put on by a group called Cibbows (www.cibbows.org) – Coney Island/Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers. I am part of the group that helped the founding of the organization and participated in organizing the race.

My responsibilities for today’s race included the provisioning of electrical extension cords, chairs, tables, fluffing of the buoys and a whole lot of schlepping. I was also an assistant timekeeper, responsible for marking down any swimmers who did not complete the race.

I also managed to get Prudential Douglas Elliman and Asphalt Green to sponsor the race as well as my side enterprise www.runnyc.com.

The race went off without a hitch on a perfect day for an open water swim. 97 swimmers started the race and all but two completed it. Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn Borough President was in attendance to hand out awards, as well as a Parks Commissioner.

Next year we plan to put on more than one race. These include a swim from Staten Island to Hoffman Island, a swim from Coney Island to Breezy Point and a swim across the Narrows.

Forgetfulness

I hate when I forget things. It drives me crazy and is a complete waste of time when it requires you to double back for them.

As I’ve been getting older, I’ve discovered that two types of forgetting exist. The first kind is simply aggravating. It is of the nature of when you forget to take something with you as you run out the door. You knew you needed to take it and realize your mistake soon after you leave.

The second kind of forgetting is a bit more scary and shocking. It is when you don’t even conceive of needing the item, until you get to where you are going. This type of forgetting means you didn’t even think of taking the item when you walked out of the door. This has been happening to me more often lately.

I have started to compensate for this by leaving things right in front of the door to my house. This serves two purposes. The first is that I can’t avoid the item as I leave, the second serves as a way to trip any burglars that try to enter my home.

Sometimes this method works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. While I was in Lake Placid to do the Ironman, I had left my wetsuit on a hanger, right next to all of my transition bags. This stuff was right as I walked out the door and couldn’t be missed. That didn’t stop me from walking down to the start of the race without my wetsuit. Fortunately, I was walking down to the start with a friend who asked if I had my wetsuit with me. I was completely shocked when I realized I forgot it – I didn’t even think of taking it with me as it wasn’t even a thought in my brain.

IMLP Recap

I feel as though I've let my reading public down. I noticed when reviewing my sitemeter statistics, that someone arrived to my blog page after searching for Ironman USA Lake Placid elevation information.

I am usually quite diligent about posting such information, but I suppose in the days after the race, all I really wanted to do was rest and relax. So in order to make it up to future generations that may arrive at my page, I am now posting this information.

For the record, the bike portion had me climb for 6,640 feet. The run had an ascent of 1,385. The total ascent for the day was 8,080 feet.

The following chart shows the elevations graphically.

Elevations of IMLP from Bike through Run.

Wait 'till Next Year

I found the following email chain between ST and myself in one of my folders. I felt it worth sharing with the world. I spoke to my coach about it. He said the following:

Just tell him he needs a good coach! '06 will be even harder for him to
swallow - sort of like wasabe without the sushi. It brings tears to your
eyes, but provides no nutriment.

nlc
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil L. Cook
SLB Coaching & Training Systems
Asphalt Green Triathlon Training Institute
http://www.slb-coaching.com


------------------------------
Here is the email chain...

----- Original Message -----
From: "ST
To: "BEAST
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:24 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Math Lesson


Uh, no. Did I write it?

No-longer-Super-Todd,

Todd

PS Charlie the Tuna is going DOWN in 06 (my new signature).

-----Original Message-----
From: BEAST
Sent: Jul 30, 2005 3:31 PM
To: ST
Subject: Fw: Math Lesson

Remember this email?

'nuff said.

Beast

----- Original Message -----
From: "ST
To: "BEAST
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 5:38 PM
Subject: Math Lesson


Actually Miss Beast, I'm 5-6 minutes faster than you in the swim and nearly 20 minutes faster in the Run. If the tables were turned you'd be renting billborads in Time's Square to announce it to the world. I quietly assert my superiority, with class and humility.

Biking, you got me by 12 minutes. Proportionally 5 minutes in the swim is like 30 minutes in the bike and 20 minutes in the run. Assuming the bike norm is 6 hours and the run norm is 4. I win 2 events to your 1, sad yet?

Your stand alone marathon time beats mine only by 10 seconds or something...where did you do it? Out in Jersey in some flat as a pancake uncrowded course. Oooh I'm scared. My best half-marathon time: 1:25 in Prospect Park (4 loops). Yours? I win yet again. I can't wait for Placid so that I can put all this "who's better at IM?" to bed, forever. Please Charles eat right, take yr vitamins and try to keep your delicate girly body healthy so that I can run past you at Placid and not slow down to see how your feeling as you shuffle home. Remember: please stay healthy so Super Todd can have a tasty Beast snack in the mountains.

See you in the park.

The (Far) Superior Athlete,

ST

-----Original Message-----
From: BEAST
Sent: Apr 16, 2005 12:45 PM
To: ST
Subject: Re: Today's Ride

S.D.T (D for Delusional) -

My god man 165 pounds!!!! That is Athena class, which is sincerely how I think you should enter yourself with your girlie running form. Biking for that matter as well.

You will never catch me on the bike. Never. It is a fact, get over it. As for the run; let me just remind you of which athlete has the faster marathon PR. That athlete would be me, posted only last year when I was not Nearly in as good of shape as I am now.

Yes, your lone IM marathon posting may have been faster than my two IM marathons. However, it is simply a matter of me getting my nutrition right. I will be working out this problem in race conditions while you tool around Prospect Park endlessly.

For now I concede you the swim. Take your extra 3-4 minutes and have fun. I will save that time in transition alone. Work up a good appetite my friend. You will need your calories to have any chance of catching me this year.

Beast

----- Original Message -----
From: "ST
To: "BEAST
Sent: Saturday, April 16, 2005 12:09 PM
Subject: Re: Today's Ride

Hey Beast:

I had a feeling you were in deep recovery mode so I rode on. I did 60 miles and then went over to R and A to have the creeking sound checked out. They greased up the seatpost and tightened everything, so far so good. I'm right at 172lbs, which is good for me this early in the season. Getting down to 165lbs will be a breeze in the coming weeks with these 16 (+) hour weeks, up to 20 (+) come May and June, whew! I am so going to kick your ass at IMLP, especially on the bike (swim and run I could kick your ass right now). Thank you for understanding. Tomorrow is a brick day for me. 4 hour ride, 1 hour run or 2 hour ride 2 hour run. I'll see how the bike feels tomorrow. I'll be out early to avoid all the yahoos, who seem to take over the park after 9:30 AM. Idiots! Letting their little children swerve into the bikes, people crossing the road without even looking and then shouting at you when you shout to warn them. Idiots!

ST

Click here to find out how many more days until ST takes another whooping!

Lard Ass

Normally, when I think of an observation, it is a discovery I made with my eyes. Today, however, it was my nose that made a very unpleasant observation. I was sitting on the steps leading down to the subway platform at 57th Street and 6th Avenues, minding my own business and reading a book. The station was hot and steamy and the still air was stifling. This station for some reason has no benches, so I decided that I was going to sit down and risk a ticket (fine).

This proved very unfortunate for my nose. While I was sitting on the antepenultimate step, a woman with a rather large ass decided to lean against the hand rails. To be fair to the woman, describing her ass as quite large would not be doing her justice. It was enormous.

I would imagine that having such a large ass poses difficulties when it comes to wiping it. From the smell that rose up into my nose, I could tell that this was the case with this particular woman. Maybe the stall she defecated in was just too small for her to maneuver her girth and she just couldn’t wipe all the crap away. I am still struggling now to get the smell out of my olfactory sense as I ride home on the air conditioned train.

The smell reminded me of another and even more unpleasant experience I had with a lard ass back in my youth. This memory was safely buried away in the forgotten recesses of my mind until today.

It involved a neighbor who was also generous in his size. He was an electrician and a friend of the family. He was asked to come down to my house to help fix a problem we were having with a wire that delivered TV signals throughout the house. Unfortunately, the problematic wire happened to be in my bedroom.

To fix the wire, Mr. Lard Ass Electrician sat on my bed. He didn’t bother to move my pillow before he deposited his shit stinking ass on it. After he fixed the problem and departed, my pillow, the thing that I rested my head on each night, stunk like an overflowing cesspool in the heat of summer. I have no problem with people being fat, but if that is how you want to be, please do try to wipe your ass clean after you get off the bowl.