Journey to Kona Day 84: Confidence

If you don’t believe you can do something, it’s unlikely that it will ever happen.  If believing was all that mattered, one wouldn’t have to train or prepare, but that’s just life.  Confidence matters in everyday life.  It certainly matters in athletic endeavors.  Yesterday, I laid out a plan of attack for the next six weeks.  It’s a fairly ambitious plan.  But I’m confident that it’s doable.  For my own internal confidence, I decided to look back at the weeks preceding one of my best ironman performances ever, Ironman Boulder in 2016.  My major achievement in the months leading up to that race was doing 20 mile runs every week.  My cycling, however, never really rose to a significant level of volume.  However, during weeks 4-6 prior to that race, I did put in some solid cycling volume.  My goal over the next 3-4 weeks is to exceed that.  And, somewhere in this time frame is at least one 20 mile run.  At the very least, this will let me know if I’m prepared to give this race my all.  My fall back has always been to use the race for training purposes.  I can’t really lose, as Kona is my ultimate goal.  Still, I harbor some hopes of finishing close to or on the podium in my new age group at Boulder.  So, I look for ways to stoke my confidence.

Traveling on a plane for 5 hours is never fun, and yesterday, after arriving in Philadelphia, I went to the fitness center, got on the treadmill and worked out for an hour.  As the treadmill can sometimes be monotonous, I alternated running for 8 minutes with walking on an 8% incline for 2 minutes.  My running pace was around 6.8-7 mph, nothing too fast.  My walking pace was 4 mph.  Since I was just one day removed from my first truly long bike ride (five hours), I wanted to see how my legs felt.  They felt fine!  Check.  

Traveling to the east coast always presents sleeping issues, but I managed to go to sleep by 10pm EDT and woke up at 6am, giving my the opportunity to hit the treadmill again.  My legs felt a little sluggish, and it would have been easy to just run for 20-30 minutes, but as the session went on, I actually increased my pace.  I ran 5 miles in 44 minutes, most of which was at a 6.8-7mph pace, but I increased my pace during the 4th mile to 7.5mph, and felt fine.  I often like to do faster, shorter intervals on treadmills, but felt the risk of injury was too great and the benefit to my ironman run was probably nil.

A 5 and 6 mile treadmill run in a 12 hour time period, following a long bike, give me the knowledge and the confidence that I’ve got my running legs despite my recent layoff.  Before I fell, I had been getting close to doing a truly long run closer to 20 miles.  I’m thinking that I’m almost there again.  The power of knowing that a 20 mile run is a matter of course is key to a successful ironman run.  The next three weeks will allow me to test my fitness and bolster my confidence even further.  Let’s see what happens!

Journey to Kona Day 83: Selfishness

I’m a workaholic.  I probably always have been.  My drive to multitask and keep my mind busy has been great fodder for my workaholism.  I’ve always wanted to make a difference in the world.  As far back as writing a letter to President Johnson asking him to end the war in Vietnam, to writing a letter to Menachem Begin with suggestions on how to bring peace to the Middle East, to letters to President Reagan and Clinton offering my services, I’ve wanted to make a difference in the world.  I saw my most recent job as an opportunity to change the long term care industry.  In a certain way, focusing on my work is selfish, when viewed through a lens that says that I gain satisfaction out of helping others.  What about gaining satisfaction from helping myself?  My ironman training has always been a bit of this, but in my incessant need to keep busy, has always struggled for time and balance with my other priorities.  And so, as I find myself 24 weeks from Kona, I think that it’s time for me to get selfish.  It’s hard to think of the concept.  I have many competing priorities.  I have a wife, two daughters, a son (in-law), and a grandson who means the world to me.  I have parents who aren’t getting younger.  I have a book project, consulting opportunities, writing opportunities, educational opportunities.  I have 24 weeks until Kona.  I will never have that time again.  Most likely, this will be a one time event for me.  What’s wrong with being selfish?

For the next 24 weeks, I will wake up every day with one priority.  Preparing for Kona.  I have other tasks and commitments that I’ve managed to put on my schedule.  Being who I am, I will hold myself to them, but will find a way to maintain the Kona focus.  Extraneous tasks need to be set aside.  Necessary tasks need to be  prioritized and scaled down to their most bite sized components.  I can start with my calendar.  The first order of business for any day on my calendar will be training and recovery.  Sleep is my friend. Lack of sleep is my enemy.  

I already know what I have to do.  Twenty by twenty was my running mantra that prepared to be a better ironman runner.  I need to make a similar commitment the bike, and to the swim.  My recent injury set me back for Boulder, but I can make a “micro” attempt at the commitment to training volume over the next five weeks.  This past week has been a 14 hour training week.  Next week, despite travel and meetings will be hopefully be in the 10-11 hour range.  The following week will be big:  I’m hoping for nearly 24 hours of training.  The following week, despite a work related trip will still clock in at close to 23 hours.  That will bring me to three weeks prior to Boulder, and my wife and I will be taking a leisurely drive to Denver.  If I can manage about 10 hours of training during that week, I’ll be pleased.  I’d like to manage another 14-15 hours the following week, much of it being at altitude.  This is a very ambitious schedule, with solid swim, bike and run volume planned.  

The key to achieving this ambitious training schedule will be selfishness.  I have one priority, and that’s my preparation for Kona.  I need to pay attention to having down time, rest time.  Meditation and sleep need to take the place of trolling social media for opportunities to opine on topics of meaning to me.  I do need to put some solid work into my book project preparation and legal cases I’ll be working on.  Every minute will matter.  This is my journey.

Journey to Kona Day 82: Why Kona? Part 3

Slogging through Ironman Santa Rosa in 2018 began to make it clear to me that I didn’t want to “just finish” Kona.  I wanted to compete.  Don’t get me wrong.  No amount of training is going to put me in a position to compete with many of the Kona participants who qualify in my age group. However, I recognize that I’ve finished in the top ten of my age group at least few times.  I know that with proper training I can acquit myself pretty well.  And, there’s always the most important individual to compete with, myself!  

I decided to take a circuitous route to my Kona training by starting with the Snowdrop55 Ultra.  My first experience completing a 100 mile run/walk was complicated by another nasty cold just four weeks before the event, challenging both my body and my immune system.  Recovering from a 100 miler is a process in and of itself.  To add to all of this stress, quitting my job, buying a new house, moving, making a few other momentous life decisions.  My focus was helped in October by a three day trip to Kona to cheer on my friend Robert in his Legacy race.  Those three days solidified a few things for me.  Kona isn’t about the spectators, there really aren’t any.  Kona isn’t about a breathtakingly beautiful course.  Kona isn’t even about the festivities leading up to the race.  Kona is about Julie Moss crawling across the finish line.  Kona is about never giving up.  Kona is about setting the bar high.

Here I am.  Six weeks from today, I’ll be at Ironman Boulder.  I signed up for Boulder for a couple of reasons.  The first was in my typical mindset of still trying to qualify for Kona.  Yes, I’ve already got a guaranteed slot due to the Legacy program.  I’d still like to get there the old fashioned way.  My recent physical setbacks have forced me to be realistic about this goal, though I’m intrigued with what I can do over the next five weeks from a training perspective.  The other reason is that I know that I’m capable of getting on the podium  Being in the top five in my age group is within my capabilities.  Again, this will be dependent upon how much I can prepare myself in the next five weeks.  Finally, it will be great preparation for Kona.  When I finish Boulder, I’ll be 18 weeks away from Kona.  That’s the perfect amount of time to get myself ready to have the race of my life in the race that I’ve valued for so long.  

Which leads me to one last concept.  In order to be fully prepared for Kona, I’m going to need to be selfish.  It’s an interesting concept.  While I’m an admitted workaholic, I’ve generally seen my work as benefiting others.  Kona is solely about me.  Sounds like an interest topic for my next blog.

Journey to Kona Day 81: Why Kona? Part 2

When I was laying on the grass in Boulder in 2016, realizing that I’d run down over 250 people and run from 17th to 6th in my age group during the marathon, something clicked for the moment.  The idea that I could compete for an ironman qualifying slot became a little more real, while at the same time, a little more daunting.  Two months later, at Ironman Chattanooga, I gave it everything I had once again, didn’t quite hold to what I’d achieved at Boulder, but still acquitted myself well.  During this time I also decided to retire again.  The reasons were complex, but in retrospect were related to my internal quandary between making a difference in something that mattered to me while staying true to my principles (also, a blog for another day).  Once again, I thought, an opportunity to focus on training for ironman and preparing to compete for a Kona slot. 

My training leading up to Ironman Santa Rosa in 2017 was decent, though not necessarily what I needed to do to achieve my “high bar” goal.  It didn’t matter, as whatever training I’d done was derailed by a nasty cold that started three days before the race.  I had a so-so swim (imagine doing a 2.4 mile swim with a full blown cold), a fairly solid bike (my ironman PR for the bike, despite slowing down during the latter half of the bike), and then felt the full impact of my cold during the run.

I’d started a new job in 2017, which was part-time and without any major stresses attached.  I had no authority or responsibility, and I was just having fun talking about the things that were important to me.  I began wondering whether I really “needed” to do Kona.  I’d also begun questioning whether it was right to support a race that had been hijacked by corporate interested that didn’t necessarily appreciate nor respect both the iconic nature and the purpose of Kona.  But then, the Legacy reality began to percolate.  It became obvious that my Legacy opportunity would arise within the next couple of years.

Once I knew that I could be competing at Kona in 2019, I also knew that I still needed to go, that I still wanted to go.  At first, it was just as a fulfillment of my thirty year dream.  Kona was still the iconic ironman race.  It was the birthplace of the demonstration of willpower.  It was the highest of bars that I could set for myself from an athletic perspective. It also was my channel for my inner athletic competitor.  I’ve loved sports from my earliest recollections.  I was never very talented or fast, but the inner competitor in me has craved the ironman concept.  And then, life happened again.  An opportunity arose to make a difference in my chosen field, and I took it.  It consumed my life for over a year, and relegated my ironman training to a focus on muscle memory.  Just to throw salt on the wound, I again got a cold 10 days before Ironman Santa Rosa in 2018.  In order to hold my 2019 Kona Legacy slot, all I needed to do was finish, which I did.  But, I didn’t enjoy it.  And, I began to figure out, Why Kona?

Journey to Kona Day 80: Why Kona? Part 1

Why Kona?  I asked myself this question in my last blog.  I know that I’ve tried to answer this question before.  I’m certain that I’ve blogged about it.  But one thing is clear to me and that is nothing is certain.  What we think one day is just what we think that day.  We can change our minds, we can learn new things, we can recognize that our motives can shift.  As I start my journey of evaluating my priorities, I begin with my journey to Kona.

As I written before, this journey began when I watched Wide World of Sports in 1982 and saw Julie Moss crawl across the finish line at the Ironman.  Something connected in me about committing to a goal to a degree that nothing could stop me.  I believe in setting the bar high, so high in fact, that sometimes it is unreachable.  Kona has been that bar for me over the years.  From the time I set a goal of doing an ironman when I turned 40, to when I absolutely committed to doing an ironman once I turned 50.  I remember that first ironman, done just 6 months after breaking my hip socket and clavicle.  In my mind, I was trying to figure out how to qualify for Kona.  It’s kind of silly, looking back, how in my mind I would calculate what I needed to do, even though there really was no evidence that I was capable of doing it.  Yet, the bar was there.

After retiring for the first time, I thought that I’d increase my training and work towards qualifying for Kona for “real.”  Life happened, I got plantar fasciitis, a new business venture, other life stressors.  I made my prioritization decisions.  Qualifying for Kona moved further away for a period of time, and might have fallen off my radar if not for the brilliance of the World Triathlon Corporation.  They came up with a device called the “Legacy Program.”  Complete 12 Ironman's and qualify for Kona.  The game was on, in earnest.  In 2014, I completed three full Ironman’s.  I registered fo three more in 2015, but skipped the first one due to an injury and starting a new job.  I managed to do the second one, though it was tough, and I was fortunate that the third one was cancelled (I was actually relieved).  In reality, I’d already moved on in my life to deciding that I still had a career related priority that mattered.  My desire to help advance the health and wellbeing of older adults in our society had managed to work its way to the forefront of my desires.  Ironically, once I felt settled in my new work endeavor, the Kona desire reemerged.  

Twenty miles every week for twenty weeks became my goal in 2016.  The near term goal was clear, the long term goal was Kona.  It was obvious that the marathon was my “weak link” in ironman competitions.  my swim was decent, my bike was solid.  If I could run a fast marathon, I could be competitive.  And, in fact, I was.  My showing at the 2016 Ironman Boulder confirmed my suspicions.  I ended up 6th in my age group, just one place off the podium, still 45 minutes from a Kona qualifying slot, but more tantalizingly, I would have won the 60-64 age group.  Yes, three years was a long way to go to try to hold my form and fitness.  And, in many ways, 2016 was my “last hurrah,” until now.  So, why Kona?  I haven’t answered that question in this blog, so I will continue in my next one!

Journey to Kona Day 79: Priorities

I’ve always been someone who likes to keep my brain busy.  As a kid, I set up a few television sets to watch different sporting events at the same time.  I often did my homework while watching t.v..  I suppose I was a multitasker before the word was actually invented.  As I’ve gotten older, my tendency is still to have my brain engaged in more than one area at a time.  I have to admit, however, that it’s actually gotten more difficult for me to do this.  It also detracts from my ability to maintain a focus on any one thing.  It also has led to greater anxiety when it comes to determining my priorities.  

In my 14 months as CEO of a company that had me overseeing a near one billion dollar operation, my priorities were pretty clear.  Initially, I took over an organization where morale was horrible, communications were lacking, and our reputation to the outside world was less than stellar.  My priority was to improve all of these things.  I often like to joke that I’ve never taken a business course during my lifetime, but that I’ve learned business through “on the job” training.  My task as a leader might have seemed daunting, but to me was just another challenge to face.  I’ve not taken much time to write about this part of my experience since I resigned from my position nearly 6 months ago, and will put a placeholder on that right now.

Since I left my job, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in reflection.  I’ve also spent more than enough time in self doubt.  It’s always easy to question one’s past decisions and actions, although that rarely leads to anything construction.  Reflecting on the past, however, can be helpful in understanding one’s future.  Too much focus on the past, though takes away from the present.  And so I struggle with how to prioritize.  Too many things, and none of them will get the proper amount of attention.  

In one respect, I’m fortunate.  I have one priority that is crystal clear.  I’m going to compete in the Ironman World Championship in Kona in October.  This is something that I’ve thought about for over thirty years.  It’s something I even started to question as I got closer to qualifying through the Legacy program.  Why is this important to me?  What does it take away from?  What value does it bring? Why Kona? I’ll answer that in my next blog.  In the meantime, I need to identify my other priorities and find a way to simplify rather than to complicate my life.  I don’t need three television sets to be on at the same time.  I don’t need to “focus” on multiple things at once.  I need to pick my priorities.

Journey to Kona Day 78: Volume over Intensity

With just under seven weeks before Ironman Boulder, and coming off a few weeks of little to no  training due to my rib injuries, my coach gave me my marching orders today.  Volume over intensity. It's going to take patience on my part to not want to push up a steep hill, or to not want to keep up with someone who passes me, or to not want to monitor my pace in the pool  None of the above! My focus, at least for the next 3-4 weeks, MUST be on getting in as much bike, run and swim volume as possible.  Which means aerobic efforts only!  It doesn't always seem obvious how even an extra hard short effort might limit what I can do the next day from a volume perspective.  That must be top of mind from here on in. And, Need to plan to squeeze in as much volume as possible.

Getting the time in on the bike takes some planning.  This week is a little challenging due to babysitting duties and other things to get done, but we'll see how tomorrow goes as a test. Sometimes, it's just a matter of getting on the bike a few times a day, or running a few times a day, when the opportunity arises. It all adds up!

The body is remarkable.  The volume focus is very specific to ironman, as I definitely won't be putting in any hard efforts on race day, or rather, if I do, I'd be stupid, because they'll come back to haunt me. For that reason, my top end bike wattage or top end run speed are irrelevant.  At the same time, my body will absorb large volumes of training right now and that will prepare me well for race day.  I've never really been good about doing super high volume on the bike prior to an ironman, which I'll try to start for Boulder, but will definitely ramp up for Kona.  That's the only way that I'm going to acquit myself well in Hawaii.

It's about commitment.  Cycling volume takes time, and time can seem to be at a premium at times.  But it comes down to what my priorities are and what's important.  There's certainly nothing wrong with hours in the saddle from a meditative perspective!  So,volume it is.  This is going to be interesting.

Journey to Kona Day 77: Run Streak Revisited

My run streak ended abruptly five weeks ago with a right sided rib injury, and after just two days of running three weeks ago, before I even had a chance to contemplate starting another streak, I fell and injured my left ribcage.  I've spent the last six days on my bike every day, and my cycling legs seem to be coming back into form.  So, today, I ventured out for a short run.  I just ran for about 2 miles, running easily and comfortably.  I then threw in another 5 miles of walking (I had phone calls to make, better to make use of the time than to be sitting down).  I realized as I finished my last walk that it was time to start another running streak.  In fact, with seven weeks to go before Ironman Boulder, a 49 day running streak sounds about right!  I'd put myself in the mentality that a daily run was a matter of course for me, and I want to be in that place for both Boulder and Kona.

I'm about to embark upon a journey.  It's a journey I've been on to some degree.  My preparation for Ironman Boulder has been less than stellar, but some of the pieces are there.  I got my running legs back at the end of last year, culminating in a 100 mile run/walk.  I had gotten my cycling legs close to where they needed to be a few weeks ago.  My swim still has a lot of work to do, but I'm thinking that  I can get up to speed in the next seven weeks.  I went into Ironman Santa Rosa with little training and a cold to boot.  I should be able to go into Ironman Boulder with a significant amount of training.  I just need to make sure that I don't overdo it.

So, my run streak starts again today.  This week will be a big cycling week, as I'll be traveling most of next week, making next week a significant run focus.  That will bring me to the last five weeks before Boulder, and I'll leave it to my coach to develop an ingenious plan to have me prepared for Boulder!

Journey to Kona Day 76: Cycling Legs

Two weeks of no training, and I've now cycled for 5 straight days.  The first four was just for an hour, today, I rode for 2 1/3 hours, getting in 34 miles and 2300 feet of climbing.  I rode the first hour pretty comfortably, averaging pretty close to what I would consider my Ironman wattage of 150-160w.  Then I allowed myself to pick up the pace a bit.  I started with a comfortably hard ride around the Westlake loop, which I've done many times. Since I did this on my road bike, speed was only going to be so-so, averaging about 18 mph.  I usually pick up 1-2 mph on a tri bike. Most important, however, was my wattage over this 18 minute effort.  It averaged right around 180w.  This is solid for me, especially after having the downtime that I'd recently had.

On the ride back home, I allowed myself to do some 1 minute hard efforts, and just did them by feel.  Prior to my injury, I'd been doing some computrainer workouts of 1 minute at 270w, and lo and behold, my three 1 minute efforts, with just one minute of easy spinning in between, were right around 270w.  I then hit the climb coming out of hidden valley, which is ~0.4 miles at 7% average grade, and managed to maintain a 250w effort for 3 1/2 minutes.  On the final leg home, I have a downhill that I'm working to perfect going fast, and today I nearly averaged 30 mph on this one mile leg, averaging ~160watts on a 3-4% downhill.  Let's see if I can increase my downhill wattage and increase my speed!  Turning for home, I went all out on the 1 minute climb to my house, and managed to average 347 watts, as I reached the top, my legs actually felt numb.  I'm not sure that I've ever experienced that feeling before.  They didn't feel sore or burning, they literally felt numb.  Might be a good sign!

I'm ready to start pushing the volume this coming week.  I have time to ride and start running (I hope that will be ok).  The following week, I'll be traveling, so that will have to be a running week.  Seven weeks until Ironman Boulder.  Let's see how things go.

Journey to Kona Day 75: Habits

My dad once told me that if you do something for 21 days it becomes a habit.  I think that there's a lot of truth in that. Hence, my daily writing, and my daily run at the beginning of the year.  Unfortunately, my daily run was ended by a rib injury, but not before the idea of the daily run got locked into my brain.  That's the idea of the habit.  I want to write every day now.

There's another side to habits.  I always tell people that I'm a "creature of habit."  I can eat the same thing for breakfast day in and day out.  I like things just the way they are.  I really don't like change or surprises. Who does?  There's something to be said for the brain not having to work extra if it's used to not only it's surroundings, but what is going on in them.  That's really where the daily run idea came about.  I wanted  the idea of getting up and running every day to seem habitual.  This is very similar to what I did with my twenty weeks of running twenty miles a few years ago.  Running twenty miles became so habitually ingrained that even today I believe that I can do it at any time.  In fact, I'm looking forward to doing it!  I was probably going to try a few weeks ago when I fell and sprained my ribs.

I'm sitting and writing this morning while sitting in my new front yard.  While I enjoyed my old house and it's surroundings, my new front yard has a great view of the mountains right behind us, with a corresponding view of the valley in the other direction.  It's also peaceful, which is something I crave, while often not knowing what to do with.  That's because I'm always trying to find something to do, something to occupy my time with.  Habit.  I guess that's become habitual.  On the other hand, I can with the small bird that's prancing across my yard instead.  Or the crows that are fighting across the street. Or smell the air and the trees and just feel the peacefulness of my surroundings.  Those are good habits too.

There's always a time to learn new habits.  It just takes 21 days.

Journey to Kona Day 74: Importance of a Good Bike Fit

I got a new bike!  My present triathlon bike is now 7 years old, it's still a solid try-bike, but with changing technology....ok, it was time to get a new bike!  I had heard about the new Cervelo P3x and it just seemed pretty cool.  Since about the only thing I splurge on is bikes, it just felt right.  My bike came in last week, and today I got fit on it.  It's always fun to see what goes into the process of getting properly fit on a bike.  In this case, I'm trusting my bike fitter, Brian.  He knows what he's doing, and my new bike has infinite adjustability.  The cool part was having him make an adjustment, and voila!, I just seemed to comfortably settle into the aero bars.  At the end of the day, ironman bike fitting is about comfort.  The less stress and strain on the arms, neck, shoulders, the better.

My first real serious bike fit was probably about 13 years ago, and I even got checked out in a wind tunnel at the time.  I've tweaked that position with each new bike over the years, and even had adjustments made on my last bike a couple of times.  I'm sure that my basic position has been pretty constant, but, as Brian noted, sometimes a small change can have a significant impact.  Whether we've nailed the aerodynamics is hard to know without being in the wind tunnel, but my position looked pretty good today. Moreover, I felt comfortable, and I did the fit at the tail end of my rib injury.  The good news was that my rib felt fine, which it actually has been over the past few days as I've ridden my old triathlon bike.  Fortunately, it feels even better in the aero position.  That probably reflects the importance of feeling comfortable and not having too much pressure on the upper body while laying forward in the aero position.  Over the course of 12 hours, one wants to conserve all the energy that they can!

Journey to Kona Day 73: Progress

Yesterday, I got on my bike for the first time in nearly 2 1/2 weeks.  My rib was still sore, but it didn't get worse during my ride.  I was careful not to do anything that might make the rib worse, though at the end of my ride, I did do a hard 2 minute effort up the hill in front of my house.  That's going to be a reference point for me going forward.  While the rib still ached a little back and forth yesterday, my movement felt ok and I never felt like things were unravelling.  Rib injuries really do suck, especially when you feel like your on a precipice.  That's how this injury has felt.  One wrong move, and I'm incapacitated, just like when I sneezed 10 days ago.  Will be glad when that fear if gone.

Today, I did the same ride as yesterday.  I love the roads where I live, they have lots of long rolling climbs.  I was actually surprised to learn that in one hour of cycling today, I'd climbed 1100 feet.  I'm going to really enjoy the area, and it will prepare me well for both Boulder and Kona!  Today, my ribs  felt even better than yesterday.  They hurt a little when I take a deep breath, but they feel much more steady, and I feel almost none of the "anchor" feeling that I've had in my chest for the past 2 1/2 weeks.  I'm seeing and feeling the light at the end of the tunnel.

At the end of today's ride, I did three one minute hard efforts on the hill up to my house.  I didn't look at my wattage, but it turned out that I was holding 350 watts for the minute.  Prior to my injury, I was doing repeats at 270 watts, so now I have a point of reference for upcoming workouts.  I promised my coach that my limit for cycling would be 1 1/2 hours this week.  I'm going to hold to that.  I might be able to try out the pool and see how my ribs are doing with swimming as well.  I'm not going to think about running until I'm pain free, that is just the nature of this rib injury.  The last thing I want to do is set myself back again.  I've had my fill of setbacks, first with the right rib injury, and then with the left one.  Normally, I can maintain aerobic fitness despite an injury, but this one kept me from doing anything at all for a little over 2 weeks.  The good news is that my starting point was close to my peak recent fitness, so I think that I'll be good.

The other interesting thing will be to see how my body responds after this amount of physical rest.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to quickly ramp up my training in preparation for Ironman Boulder.  Still, I've made progress.  That's what matters.

Journey to Kona Day 72: Owning It!

It's easy to complain when things don't go right.  It's bad luck, or someone else's fault.  In my present training state, I stumbled on the trail and fell, and it's set my training back.  I could wallow in sorrow over my inability to train (which I'm trying hard not to do), I could blame myself for enjoying my trail run so much that I let my concentration lapse briefly, or I could blame the trail!  How about none of the above.

There are always challenges in our lives.  I'm reading today about the challenges that nursing homes are up against when it comes to both regulations and reimbursement and I realized, how is this any different?  It is what it is, and complaining without having solutions and a plan is no different than giving up and giving in.  When there is a challenge, one needs to look at the causes, for sure, but only to develop solutions. Complaining is never a solution.

In my field of geriatrics, and specifically in the realm of nursing homes, I've been guilty of complaining about regulations and fear mongering and inadequate reimbursement.  Yes, many these issues are problems.  However, complaining hasn't really changed things.  Why not?  Because people are scared. They're scared of getting old and becoming vulnerable and being taken advantage of and ignored.  Politicians are scared that they'll look like they don't care about older adults if they don't "do something" to protect nursing home residents.  Nursing home owners are scared, well, maybe not so much, or at least not as many. That's another story for another day.

I got on my bike today.  My ribs still hurt. I got into my aero position.  It was ok.  I rode for an hour and survived.  I have pain, but I was functional.  I'm owning my training and I'll move forward as best I can, doing what I can.  It's also time to write another article about nursing home care.  It's going to be about owning it.  It's going to lay out the challenge of focusing on solutions and not getting caught up in complaining  Yes, everyone wants more money. They always do.  That's not always the answer. Besides, where will the money go?  Where does it go now? There are always questions and there are always different views on any given topic.  One thing is for sure, if you own it, you have no need to complain!

Journey to Kona Day 71: Paying Attention to Details

I got a letter yesterday saying that my health insurance was terminated.  I'd spoken to someone about a month ago and thought that the problem had been taken care of. I didn't open the letter until last night, so I got to think and dream about it through the night.  If I have one fear it's to not have health insurance.  As expensive as health insurance is, and as much as I never go to a doctor, if I had something catastrophic happen during a window of time that I didn't have insurance, well, you know the rest.  So, first thing this morning I called my insurance company, just like I did a month ago.  When they told me that my payment for the month had been cancelled, I at least knew that I hadn't forgotten anything.  When I spoke to the agent last month, we reengaged my autopay and it clearly worked, until it didn't.  And that's why it's important to pay attention to the details.

Last month, the agent made an assumption that made no sense to me.  He said that my credit card charge for my insurance had been cancelled because I'd moved and since I was living in a new zip code, that my premium changed. That didn't really make any sense to me, especially as my payment had been cancelled before I'd moved.  But heck, he must know what he's doing? Right?  I had thought that I'd left the call knowing that my autopay would kick in on April 1st. Which it did, but then it got cancelled again!

Finally, it hit me.  Maybe it was my billing address, which my bank hadn't effectively put on all of my accounts, and I'd had to fix that recently.  But, it turned out to be something more nuanced than that.  I had changed my address with my health insurance company, but didn't change the zip code for my credit card that did the monthly autopay.  And so, when the charge went through, it got cancelled. What's more crazy is that the health insurer doesn't think about what happened and notify me.  They just let me know that I hadn't paid, which didn't make sense to me because I'd set up autopay.

Finally, this agent figured it out, changed the zip code on my credit card and told me that I was still covered.  Sometimes the smallest details can have the largest impact!

Journey to Kona Day 70: The Meaning of Retirement

I tell people that I've failed retirement two times.  Will the third time be a charm?  My wife and I were at a deli for breakfast this morning and overheard a 75 year old guy comment on how glad he had time to just enjoy things.  I'm only going to be 60 this year, so perhaps the idea of retirement and "enjoying thing" should be a foreign concept.  However, there's a reason that I've retired three times, and that reason is that I was tired of the stress of my work life.  The first time was after owning a business and growing it over ten years.  Looking back at those ten years, which came after running another company for the prior four years, I can count the litany of highly stressful experiences. I encountered everything from internal operational and financial stresses to external regulatory stresses.   There are always personnel related stresses, as well as ongoing business decision making challenges. By the time I retired for the first time, I was ready to take a break.  What did I do, I invested in another stressful business!  Ultimately, I went back to work.

My next "job" was relatively free of stress, until I made it stressful by caring too much.  Therein lies the rub.  I can "blame" a lot of work stress on the job itself, but I can also blame myself for always caring so much about what I do.  Even when I'm not working, I care about the things that are important to me. Do I hear that nasty "E" word cropping up? Expectations?  Most definitely.  I always tell people that I set lofty goals.  Kind of brings it's own stress with it?  So, after my second retirement, which was very short-lived, I took a stressful job with lofty expectations.  I hit the daily double of stress related work challenges.  In the end, I retired for the third time, with the idea of enjoying my life.  Yet, I am constantly looking for things to do, for projects, for opportunities.

When I was younger, I loved to read.  I read for knowledge, and I read for enjoyment.  I can't recall the last time that I truly read for enjoyment. I've been stuck in the revolving door of finding purpose, although I'm not sure what that purpose is.  And so, I ponder the meaning of retirement and try to find some peace and enjoyment in my days.  I'm not sure why I struggle to just do that, rather than always having to seek out new challenges.  Even my ironman goals are their own challenge and own set of lofty expectations.  Why? Why not just chill and enjoy the moment?  We'll see.

Journey to Kona Day 69: Staying Focused

Watching Tiger Woods win was a reminder of staying focused.  You could see it in his eyes all day.  Things didn't always go right, but the focus was always there.  Right now, with my fairly constant rib pain, I need to remember that as well.  At the same time, I've got to be smart.  Pushing to hard to soon will just set me back, and I've done my share of that over the last couple of weeks with our move and my tendency to pick up a box or two.  Focus doesn't have to mean exercise or movement.  It's an opportunity to practice meditation.  I haven't really thought about that.  My "downtime," that I'm essentially having right now should be an opportunity to enhance my mental abilities, my mental toughness, rather than allowing myself to wallow in the sorrow of being unable to run, bike or swim.

One of the interesting thing about Tiger's return is that the mental aspect was always one of his strengths, but you could see that he'd lost sight of it at some point.  Well, today he got it back.  It was there in every stroke and in every step.  Despite the human body's knack for getting it wrong every now and then, the mind stayed focused and clear and got things immediately back on track. There was no time for elation, no time for anger, no time for disappointment.  There was just time for focus.  As always, it reminds me of the feeling I had during the swim at St. George in 2012.  It reminds me of how I feel during a "successful" ironman. I'm able to stay focused, which means staying in the moment and never letting doubt get in the way. That will be my watchword for the coming week, staying focused.

Journey to Kona Day 68: Nursing Home Industry Musings

“How many nursing home administrators have you met who think they know clinical better than physicians?”  This is one of my favorite questions that I’ve put to colleagues over the past year.  It is actually common to see a nursing home administrator opine on a resident’s clinical condition and care needs.  Under what basis do they have the knowledge to understand an incredibly complex patient population?  What are their goals and how do those goals mesh with the delivery of high quality care? The major goal of a nursing home administrator is to keep occupancy high, which means filling beds and keeping them filled.  Similarly, they must endeavor to maintain a profit, balancing the expenses needed to care for highly complex patients with the revenue received from the government.  Furthermore, the mix of employees run the gamut of nurses, who are well educated and devoted to caring, to housekeepers and nursing assistants who have limited education but have hearts of gold.  The front line staff, with its limited educational background, provides the bulk of direct care to the most frail and complex group of individuals ever seen.  And yet, nursing home administrators often think that they know clinical better than physicians.

The nursing home industry, for all practical purposes, is a real estate play.  The incentive for the owners of the nursing home real estate to hire high quality administrators is questionable.  At the very least, the most important attribute of an administrator will be their ability to fill beds and bring about a profit. The investment in having administrators with excellent leadership and management skills has a limited return on investment, not because it’s not possible, but because ownership doesn’t believe it can happen, nor do they think it matters.  This may sound cynical, and while it doesn’t represent all nursing home owners, it does represent the norm.  Why does society put up with this?  Ageism, pure and simple.  We don’t put the same value on a frail older adult with  cognitive dysfunction as we place on others. We also don’t know what to do.  And we go back to the fact that many nursing home administrators think they do know what’s best for their residents.  Which, by all logic, is nonsense.

Geriatricians spend their entire career working with frail older adults.  We also work in a team environment, melding knowledge from various disciplines into one cohesive view of each individual that we care for.  Geriatricians pay attention to input from social workers, nursing assistants, nurses, therapists and family alike.  To ignore all of the data at our disposal goes against the core principal of person centered care.  Geriatricians are the experts in the care of older adults.  Where are they in the nursing home hierarchy?  Unfortunately, many nursing homes don’t have geriatricians as attending physicians, much less as medical directors. So the default for the administrator is to assume that they know what’s best for the patient.  What other business would we allow to run like this?  I believe that the only reason that we allow this to happen is that at the end of the day it’s really only the real estate that matters.  And, because grandma really doesn’t have significant perceived value.

Journey to Kona Day 67: Excellence

We saw a Twilight Zone Improv show tonight.  Wow!  All I can say is how much I value excellence of any sort.  The actors were spot on in just about every way. Because it was improv, they were making up the stories as they went along, which is always remarkable in and of itself.  In the Twilight Zone setting, that also meant they had to maintain not only the spirit of the show, but the actual execution.  It was amazing.  I felt like I was watching the original Twilight Zone series.  Every actor nailed it, and the introductory and final commentaries were right out of the original series.

This is also the week of the Masters golf tournament.  It's my chance to watch Tiger Woods.  Once again, I enjoy watching excellence.  Despite Tiger's inherent personal issues, the one thing that has always been compelling is his excellence.  When he was in his prime, there was never any doubt as to his ability to make even the most difficult shots.  I've always enjoyed that.  It's not unlike watching other great athletes.

The "Iron War" between Mark Allen and Dave Scott was a race between two of the greatest triathletes of all-time, battling one another for the first 138 miles of an ironman.  It was arguably the greatest ironman race of all time, with two incredible competitors going toe to toe from the gun to the finish.  Both approached their training differently, but both had incredible mental fortitude and confidence.  Several years later, Dave Scott, at the age of 42, managed to finish second at Kona. Excellence.

It's not whether one wins.  It's not whether one nails every performance, however, as perfection is an illusion. It's the constant pursuit of excellence that is enjoyable to watch.

Journey to Kona Day 66: Patience

My rib pain persisted today.  I generally tolerate pain quite well.  In fact, I'd like to think that I'm willing to embrace pain.  However, the pain that I presently have is unique.  It's location is such that it  is like virtual kryptonite to me.  The wrong move, and the pain is pretty bad, and impacts my breathing.  The other aspect of the pain is that it just seems to wear me down as the day goes on.  I'm reminded of my shoulder and hip fracture nine and a half years ago, and recall the fatigue that chronic pain can bring.  There is also a mental frustration brought on by the fact that I'm chomping at the bit to reengage in my training.

I must maintain patience.  In fact, I probably need to turn things around right now and look at this as an enforced "taper" in the middle of my training.  If my reduced training lasts a few weeks, perhaps I'll be able to quickly ramp up my training and go full bore up until Boulder.  No matter what, Boulder will be training for Kona anyway.  I must maintain patience.

I did manage to walk three miles today.  My legs feel fine, part of my walk was uphill, and that also felt fine.  Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that my walking did no favors to my rib pain, but I'll live with the balance today.  At least I was good about not lifting anything, and spent as much time as possible sitting or laying down today.  And so I must continue to practice patience.  One day at a time, my situation will be what it will be, and I will respond accordingly.

Journey to Kona Day 65: Joy

Watching my 3 1/2 year old grandson is an exercise watching unbridled joy.  He is the epitome of independence and he clearly feels great joy in everything he does.  We get older and we have expectations. We worry about consequences. We think.  And the joy disappears. I continue to feel like  my grandson is around to remind me of the important things in life.  The most important of these is being able and willing to experience joy.  It is a little ironic that I was in a state of joy when I tripped and fell and injured my rib.  I should remind myself that while I enjoy running on the trails, there are other ways of experiencing joy.  They don't all have to come from exercise.  Watching my grandson is one way in and of itself.

As I experience the twelve to fourteen hours of an ironman, I've learned that discomfort will come and go, as well doubts and fatigue.  When this happens, the one thing that works is to look around and appreciate my surroundings.  I will also remind myself of why I do ironman's and of how much I enjoy the journey itself.  I often find myself smiling as I do this, which provides positive reinforcement in and of itself.

The last week and a half has been a struggle for me. Bending over to pick something up hurts.  Getting out of bed is painful, with the soreness in my chest feeling like a lead weight as I stand up.  It's hard to feel joy in these moments, especially as the pain is a constant reminder that I'm not able to train as long as I'm in pain.  But then I see my grandson, and I am reminded that there are lots of things around me to bring me joy.  And that's what matters.

Journey to Kona Day 64: Reserve

I've realized in the past few months that my reserve is not only limited, but it's probably completely lacking.  I need to build it up again.  I'm talking primarily about my emotional reserve, which was emptied by an incredibly challenging job, in addition to a number of life circumstances.  Today, I lost it over the timing of some construction related work that is happening at our new house.  The timing of the work has been problematic, and I had set an expectation in my head (there I go again), of having more work done by the time moved in.  When the plumber put his knee through the ceiling yesterday, it added more drywall work to the schedule.  Drywall work is messy (what do I know about construction?).  It seems that my wife is constantly vacuuming and cleaning, because I'm relatively useless due to my injured rib. I hate that she's doing all of this, and I hate that I can't help.  I really do need to rest my rib, so that I can get restarted on my training, lest I lose my physical reserve, which I've probably lost some of by now.

I've written a lot about how emotions and our physical being intertwine.  I'm sure it's fully engaged at the moment.  Pain with deep breaths are a constant reminder of my rib injury.  Dust and boxes are a constant reminder of the work needed to be done on our house.  Yet again, my life has become an ironman, but I forgot that today and lost my cool.  What have I said about this in the past?  I need to meditate.

Meditation is the key to building and retaining ones emotional reserve.  Staying in the moment and not allowing the bumps we face every day are the key to not using up this reserve. It's amazing how often I come back to ironman as a metaphor for life.

Journey to Kona Day 63: Reality

I saw my chiropractor today.  He said that I'd sprained my 8th rib on the left side of my chest.  He also said that it would take 6-8 weeks to fully heal. I'm doing Ironman boulder in 8 weeks and Kona in 26 weeks.  Hmm, what matters the most here?  The answer to that question is pretty easy, taking the long view.  From the perspective of "the moment," my shorter journey to Boulder has been something that I'm really looking forward to.  So, it kind of sucks.  It doesn't mean that I can't do Boulder, it just means that I have to set more rational expectations of what I can do there.  And, I can also hope.  Hope that my body recovers faster than my chiropractor said.  Hope that I can manage to put in more training despite some discomfort.  Hope that I don't mess anything up by pushing too hard too soon.

And so reality confronts me.  I've never been one to pay much attention to reality.  But this reality gives me a constant reminder in the form of pain.  Moreover, it's pain associated with breathing.  That truly does suck.  At the same time, as I always say, maybe my body's trying to tell me something.  I'm not sure what, other than the fact that maybe I should stay away from trail running when I have an important event on the horizon.  I guess I just made my decision about doing the Bulldog 25K in August, which has been one of my favorite trail races.  But, it's just 7 weeks from Kona, so that won't do.

As always, I'll play things by ear.  Each day can be a little better than the one before, and I can adjust my goals and my training accordingly.  There are other things to focus on, although unpacking and moving boxes around our new house also don't fit into my rib rehabilitation. I can write, and I can read.  I know that my daughter won't mind watching some television shows with me.  And I have to be a little careful around my rambunctious grandson.  Then again, what would life be like without reality?

Journey to Kona Day 62: Patience

Patience is something that has never come easily for me.  As I sit here writing this today, I know that my left ribcage is going to take at least another week to heal.  Even then, it might need a little more time.  Yet, I want it to be fine tomorrow so that I can go out and start riding my bike.  Patience.  I've always had a tendency to want to act on an impulse once I feel confident about it.  In fact, I often tell people that many of the major life decisions I've made have occurred in an instant.  My recent choice to quit my job literally occurred in a moment.  However, in that moment, I knew what I had to do and why I had to do it.  When I was swimming at Ironman St. George in 2012 and I'd swallowed water, my calf cramped, the waves were 5 feet up and down, I instantly knew what I needed to do to survive (which was putting one arm in front of the other until I got out of the water).

This is a funny way to talk about patience, by bringing up how I've made decisions in an instant, and acted upon them almost immediately. I guess it goes to show that we get to choose when we'll utilize patience, and it's a judgement call we have to make. If there's a bear chasing you, you don't have time to be patient, but in most other circumstances, you at least have time to stop and ponder.  I can come up with numerous ironman analogies, not the least of which are how to respond when you suddenly aren't feeling good during an ironman. The wrong approach is to push forward blindly.  The correct approach is to stop and think, and then to slow down, hydrate, fuel and take stock of where you are.  My best example of this was at IM Chattanooga a few years ago when I became dehydrated just a mile into the run.  I took the next five miles to walk and hydrate, allowing me to run the last 20 miles and have a respectable result.

Patience in life has always been a challenge to me. Wanting to skip the eight grade, which I did. Wanting to graduate high school a year early, which I ultimately chose not to. Compromise becomes an important element of patience, in order to find a middle ground. I ended up taking college courses during my last year of high school and actually failed the only high school class I took during my last quarter (I refused to do any homework, and only took the exams, which I actually did fine on). Did I mention that I had a stubborn streak.

Last week, recovering from my right rib injury, I took it upon myself to do a trail run.  My legs felt great, I loved it, until I tripped and fell and injured my left ribcage.  Patience might have helped, but I can't ponder what could have been. Now I must patiently wait until I'm ready to resume my training and my rib injury is adequately healed so as not to cause more problems and set me back further. I must be patient.

Journey to Kona Day 61: When the Universe is Telling You Something

Nine and a half years ago I was in the midst of my typical, all consuming work lifestyle.  Working long hours, running a large business. Preparing to do my first ironman at the age of 50.  And then it happened.  During the Long Course World Championship in Perth Australia, I crashed at the beginning of the bike.  I've written about this before, my broken clavicle and hip socket and my first DNF (after biking 48 miles and walking 3.5 miles).  What I haven't thought about in a while is the impression at the time that the universe was sending me a message.  The message was to slow down! We spent 3 weeks in Australia and New Zealand, and I wasn't able to carry any bags, or walk very far.  In fact, I was reduced to a shuffle, and often had to stop and sit down to rest.  At the time, I learned that there was a world around me that was much easier to appreciate in slow motion.  I postulated that the universe was sending me a message, a message to slow down.

Here I am, with two rib injuries in the past 3 weeks.  Is the universe telling me something?  Two good friends told me today that I needed to slow down and focus on just one thing (from a work perspective).  I knew that they were right.  I've been looking for things to do, and in doing so, have had a variety of opportunities.  All, while moving into a new house and ramping up my ironman training.  The universe may be telling me something again.  Time to slow down.

I'm going to pay attention to the message.  I had hoped to ramp up my cycling training this coming week, and I still may be able to.  First, I'll need to be able to breath without any pain.  Once I can do that, it's time to start racking up the cycling miles.  I have my priorities and ironman training is at the top of my list.  While I have a variety of work opportunities, I need to chill a bit and not jump into them.  I don't have to do everything that comes my way!  I've written about focus and I've written about enjoying the journey.  I need to maintain those approaches before the universe sends me another message!

Journey to Kona Day 60: Rib Pain Sucks

I write this from my hotel bed, where I'm laying down after sneezing and barely being able to breath.  In fact, I don't think I could breath for about 20 seconds.  Fortunately, I was finally able to breath before I would have passed out.  Rib pain sucks.  I'm hoping that this pain will only last a couple of more days and that I will recover like I always do. I'm supposed to focus on cycling this coming week, and I know that I could't cycle today.  In fact, it would be quite dangerous to try under these circumstances.

This is the perseverance that I often speak about when I talk about training for an ironman.  It can be frustrating, but it's necessary.  The body sends us messages, and ultimately, we need to accede to these messages.

The last week was non-stop.  In fact, the last few months have been non-stop.  In the past, I've taken an injury like this as a message to slow down.  Maybe I need to listen to that very message right now.
Rib pain may suck,  but maybe it's a sign.

Journey to Kona Day 59: Focus

I've been procrastinating on a book project. That's not hard to do, as it is a pretty big project.  Also, in the course of moving, I let a number of things on my "to do" list pile up.  So, this morning, in the hotel lobby, I got caught up on my major "to do's" in just a couple of hours. It's amazing how much a singular focus and taking things in bite sized increments can help with accomplishing tasks.  That's what I'm going to have to do with my book project.  Just like ironman, it's about putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward.

Stress can be insidious in its' impact on ones ability to complete a task.  The anxiety bubbles up and before you know it, time has passed and you've got nothing done.  The first time that this really hit me full force was during my second year of college.  I was taking a physics test (multiple choice, of all things), and I really hadn't been studying (too much time focused on intramural floor hockey). One moment I was taking the test, the next moment, time was nearly up, and I'd hardly been through the questions!  It was probably the first panic attack I'd ever had, and really didn't have any other ones until years later during a triathlon swim.

Staying focused is the key.  Approaching a problem or task one step at a time is the next.  I have to say, my "relatively short" streak of daily running, interrupted by my rib injuries, has helped with this concept, but more so is my daily blog.  Today is 59 days, it's hard to believe that my dad has been doing this for decades!  Nevertheless, I'm getting into a daily rhythm of consistency and purpose around this one task.  It's also providing a great means for off loading things from my mind.  All while maintaining a degree of focus.

In my constant refrain that ironman is a metaphor for life, the idea of focus and incremental progress towards a goal is one of the ultimate comparisons.  Staying in the moment, and not allowing the external stressors and stresses to invade ones mind are essential to appreciating our lives and the journey that we're all on.  There is no right or wrong, there is no good or bad, there is just an appreciation for what is.  Stay focused.

Journey to Kona Day 58: Caution

We've been moving for nearly two weeks.  The last two days have been non-stop.  My rib injury seemed better after my chiropractic treatment on Monday, but two days of constant lifting, turning and driving finally took its toll.  Aside from the stabbing intermittent pains and the constant ache, my back muscle were completely locked up.  When I asked my chiropractor if some of my bones were out of alignment, he said that all of them were!  So, I tried hard not to do much of anything the rest of the afternoon and evening, but it's not something that I do well with.

Caution has its place, even for a Type A, goal oriented person like myself.  Tonight is a time for caution, as are the next few days.  Fortunately, I have a meeting to go to this weekend, so my risk will only entail tomorrow morning, when I will be tempted to do too much.  My most important short term ironman goal is Boulder in 9 1/2 weeks, and I'm really hoping to do a ton of cycling next week.  Picking up an extra bag, or squeezing in a workout will not be of much help if it sets me back. Ribs are very tricky, you don't want to mess with them.

I recently joke that I have a bimodal risk profile from a financial perspective.  I hate the stock market, while on the other hand, I've invested in a website entertainment business and a restaurant.  I think that my risk profile in training is not dissimilar.  I can be tempted to push beyond my ability and capability based on my interest in the workout.  Sometimes I'll go to hard, push too many watts, run too fast.  The true conservative training approach will rarely be seen by me.

If I need to lift tomorrow, I'll get help.  Caution is my friend.

Journey to Kona Day 57: Dusting Off

When I fell yesterday on the trail, I was initially pissed off.  I'd just recovered from a rib injury two weeks earlier, and was excited to be running again.  I actually felt like crying for a moment, although that was for a wide variety of reasons.  Stress release, anger release, all of the stuff that my run and not so regular meditation are supposed to deal with.  I've fallen before, in fact, I've fallen on this trail before.  I remember falling during a race going downhill on the Barr Trail (Pikes Peak), I passed people, I was sliding forward so fast!  That day, after a second fall, I got home, bloodied and battered, promising myself never to run on a trail again.  Not so fast.  I love trail running, although, these falls don't love me.  I remember my bicycle crash at Long Course World's in Perth in October of 2009, I dusted myself off, got back on my bike, rode 48 miles and walked 3 1/2 miles before nearly passing out in the medical tent and being taken to the hospital (broken clavicle and hip socket, by the way).

So, as I sat there, ever so briefly, on the trail, different thoughts and emotions flooded my head.  And then, just as quickly, I dusted myself off, got up, and started running.  I had a 5 mile run to complete in order to get home.  I'd already put in 6 miles on quads that were sore from a hard downhill mile two days earlier.  I knew that adrenaline would kick in and help.  I could only hope that the pain in my left ribcage would not get too bad.  Damn, I'd just recovered from the right rib injury, what was the universe trying to tell me?

That's an interesting question.  When I had my bike crash nearly ten years ago, I felt that the universe was telling me to slow down.  I don't think that's the same message this time, although perhaps there's a subtle version of it.  Things are starting to pick up in my newly (for the third time) retired life.  Opportunities are coming my way. We're moving this week.  I've got Ironman Boulder in less than 10 weeks and Kona in less than 28 weeks.  Maybe the universe was just trying to tell me to be a little more careful when I run on a trail.  I always tend to overthink things.

As I ran home, I did think, it would be hard to complete the last 5 miles of an ironman feeling much worse than this.  Ribcage hurting while breathing, quads sore, body tired.  Hey, that's the perfect ironman training run!  Leave it to an ironman athlete to rationalize like that.  So, another training day in the books.  Probably won't be running again for another week or two, but should be able to put up some stout cycling volume next week.  The swim might be a bit touchy with the rib, but that's ok.  My ego? Well, it's intact.  You've got to find humor in these small stumbles.  And that's the point.  Dust yourself off and keep moving forward.  That's life, that's ironman.