Making a Difference: Retirement and Another Chapter

When I was a young boy, I wrote a letter to President Johnson asking him to stop the war in Vietnam.  As a teenager, I wrote a letter to Manachem Begin suggesting a plan to  bring peace to the Middle East.  In 1980, I had a year before starting medical school.  I wrote a letter to President Reagan suggesting that, since he wanted to abolish the Department of Education, that I would be happy to run it for a year!  Just two years after joining Kaiser-Permanente, I applied for the job of Regional Medical Director.  As I look back at my life, it is clear that I have always been driven to make a difference.  Whether it be domestic or international politics, or related to work and business, I set a very high bar for myself.  It’s ironic, noting my recent blog regarding setting my race goals too high to achieve.  I guess that I set my life’s goals pretty high as well.  

Ultimately, I not only reached my goals, but in some ways, I may have exceeded them.  First, I became president of a physician practice management company in the late 1990’s.  Dealing with large insurance companies and millions of dollars at risk was not a simple or easy task.  I spent 3 years commuting from Denver to Orlando, working long hours away from my family.  I learned a lot, but ultimately decided to take the chance of developing my own business.  Co-founding Senior Care of Colorado in 2001, little did I truly know what type of bar I had set for myself and what the ultimate consequences would be.  When you own your own company, you have no choice but to put yourself at personal financial risk.  Hiring the right staff, making critical decisions on a daily basis, it wasn’t just about working from 9 to 5.  I spent most nights calculating budgets and planning strategy.  I also found myself dreaming, or having nightmares, about work just about every night.  This only served to highlight the fact that work was all consuming.  

I could recount the various stresses and crises that seemed to be around every corner.  There were highs and there were lows.  There were good decisions and bad decisions.  In the meantime, Senior Care grew from a small business with about 20 employees and $2 million in revenue a year to a complex entity with 160 employees and over $17 million in revenue a year in just 10 years.  The opportunity to sell Senior Care was not only a reflection of today’s health care environment, but it was also an opportunity to move on to a new chapter in my life.

People ask me if I’m retiring.  I feel uncomfortable saying yes, for a number of reasons.  Having been a workaholic for the past thirty years, it seems strange not to have a job.  At the same time, it makes sense not to have to go to work anymore.  What I’m entering is another chapter, where I will still have opportunities to make a difference.  This chapter can’t be defined by anyone but myself.  When I sold my business sixteen months ago the first thing I told my wife was that I never wanted to be in a position to have to fire or lay off anyone ever again.  That is not my nature.  That is not who I want to be.   

As I’ve been winding down at work this past month, it has become clear that I have a lot to share.  Normally, I share my knowledge and insight with a select group of patients and their families.  I want to share my knowledge with more than a small group.  Our society and health care system is woefully lacking in it’s ability to care for seniors.  At the end of the day, my heart has always gone out to the elders around me.  This is one of the places where I have been led to make a difference.  At the same time, this has to be on my own terms.  I am excited to be moving to a new home with my wife, who has been at my side for the past thirty years.  I look forward to not having anywhere to be in the morning other than in the kitchen making breakfast for her.  I will be near my daughters, who mean the world to me.  Work will not define me.  That is why I will be retired.  

My new chapter will be about my family and me.  That is where I will make a difference.  It will be about exploring all of the things that interest us and inspire us.  It will be about enjoying the little things in life.  There are a lot of things around us to appreciate.  There will be no more bars to set, just roads to travel.  As with my triathlons, it’s not about the results, it’s about the journey.  

Yet Another Ironman Weekend

I thought that I had done plenty of ironman weekends and that I was beginning a long taper.  Little did I know that my coach had a very interesting week in store for me.  Yes, I got more rest than usual, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  But Wednesday was a very long hard day, and this weekend, well, I'll recount the weekend.  Saturday morning began with a 2.4 mile swim broken up into four pretty solid 600 yard efforts of swimming and then 1500 yards of pulling with paddles (good upper body workout).  I changed into my bike clothes, drove home and began my biking adventure.  101 miles of mostly ironman effort, so that I actually averaged about 19mph for the whole ride.  The first half of this was pretty comfortable, but it kept feeling harder.  I think I got enough nutrition, but I wonder if I went into the day a little light.  No matter, I made it through.  This was as mentally tough as it was physically, and took me 5 hours and 20 minutes.  Just 11 miles short of the full ironman distance, which I could have done, but I needed to get my 2 mile easy run in prior to going to the movies with my wife and daughter.  Oh, yes, I also needed to hydrate and nourish.  The popcorn and root beer was good!  I was feeling pretty fried all night, finally got to bed, wondering how in the world I was going to do a long run today.  Fortunately, as seems to happen all of the time these days, I woke up without any soreness and actually with some energy.  Grant you, I wasn't bouncing off the walls, but the instructions today were to just run easy and get as much mileage in as possible.  I did just that, running as easy as I could, never looking at my watch, so I had no idea how fast I was going, but I didn't care.  It just felt good to run easily.  I visualized the entire St. George course, starting with the swim during the first third of my run, shifting to the bike for the second third, then finishing up with the run.  By the time of got to mile 17, feeling good and not knowing exactly how long I'd been running, I did do one mile on the track fairly hard and then coasted  home for the last 2 miles.  So, 19 miles of running in 3 hours and 3 minutes.  The pace is slower than what I'd like to do at St. George, but that wasn't the point.  I realize that St. George is at lower altitude, which always gives me some extra speed, and, I'll be well rested going in.  Plus, this run did feel easy!  This was also one of those runs that make you think about doing ultra distance running.  I just enjoyed the weather and the surroundings and the feeling of running easy.  So, instead of stretching my ironman weekend over three days, as I have been doing recently, this time I did it in just two days.  In fact, 27 hours.  So, swim, bike, run for 10 hours over a 27 hour period.  I was just 11 miles short of a full ironman bike, and 5 miles short of a full ironman run.  Ironically, this puts me in the 11 1/2 hour ironman range.  Hopefully, that's a good omen for my goal paces!  I have absolutely no soreness today, and went to another movie with my wife and daughter (more popcorn and root beer).  Now, just chilling.

Goals and Dreams

They say to never set a time goal for an ironman.  I understand, you never know the conditions, how the day will go, etc.  But, I always set a time goal when I race.  One of the most interesting things about doing that is that I'm not sure if I've ever actually hit one of the goals I've set!  And that's ok.  There is actually some comfort in setting the bar high and just almost reaching it.  In a way, my goals are like that carrot that is just out of my reach, and I stretch my fingers ever so slightly longer, trying to grab it.  Considering that over the past several years of racing triathlons and running races, many of my results have been personal bests, one can't argue with this approach.  Besides, what do we have if not our dreams?  While my ultimate dream is getting a Kona slot, that doesn't seem realistic.  I'm reaching the other side of my age group, and the "younger" guys are just too good.  Last year I was 29th in my age group.  My goal this year is to break the top 10. That will still put me 30-40 minutes outside of a Kona slot, but one never knows.

So, for every race I've ever done, I love to analyze the probable time splits that I will achieve.  I'll usually set a "perfect" goal, and then a more reasonable range of times.  I tend to look at previous races, how I'm training, etc.

My swim has been up and down this year, but has really been coming into focus lately.  I'm pretty happy with my ability to get in the pool and swim 4000+ yards and feel good getting out of the pool.  My 100 yard pace is about where it has been in the past, so to summarize, my endurance is excellent and my speed is good.  I did just get a new wetsuit, and I'm hoping it's as good as they say it is.  Once again this year, I'll start in the front.  However, I'll try to go out a little harder in the first 100 yards in order to set myself up for some better drafting than I've had previously.  Also, I tend to get in this "go easy" mode at some point, and I think I've been learning that I can maintain a fairly solid constant effort for the entire swim and still feel good.  The last two years my swim has been 1:11.  If I have the best swim of my life, draft impeccably, take advantage of my new wetsuit, I think that a 1:05 is possible.  However, my main goal would be 1:08, and I certainly know that I can swim 1:11 (having done it twice before).

Transitions are usually my best event, the first year at St. George was horrible, last year was pretty darn good.  My goal here is 4 minutes.  I should be close to this, last year was 3:30.  Get out of the water, get my wetsuit off with the help of the wetsuit strippers, grab my bag and find a spot to sit down in front of the tent (I won't go in the tent again, it's too crazy).  Shoes on, sunglasses on, helmet on, put on race belt.  Stand up, let a volunteer slather me with sunscreen (didn't do that last year, won't forget this year), get to my bike, give my bag (with wetsuit in it) to a volunteer.  Walk/jog down the path, get on my bike and go.

The bike is going to be interesting.  I am probably in the best bike shape of my life.  That was the idea this year.  I've done a lot more volume, I've trained smart, and I've got a great new bike.  I really need to take it easy for the first part of the race, last year I averaged 18.5 mph for the first 23 miles, which I really did keep a low key effort, the first year just 17mph.  That said, I'm expecting a better pace this year with all of my training, and could even find myself starting out close to 20 mph.  The first year I did the bike in 6:49, my first loop was actually done at 17.4mph, but I bonked as I started the second loop and really slowed down.  Last year my bike time was 6:24 (17.5mph) and I averaged 17.5mph on the first loop and 17 mph on the second loop.  My power numbers are better this year, I'm definitely fitter and stronger, and I feel like I've finally got my nutrition dialed in (I did have some abdominal cramping on the bike last year).  If I can keep an average pace of 19mph for the entire bike, I would have a bike split of 5:54.  That would be spectacular.  Realistically, I think I can expect somewhere between 5:58 and 6:10.

T2 was 4:30 last year, it's simple, get off the bike, give it to a volunteer, get my run bag, go into the tent, sit down, take off my bike shoes, take off my helmet.  Put on hat, put on socks, put on shoes, grab my fuel belt (with arm coolers attached to put on once I get going), give my bag to the volunteer and get up and get going.  Stop again to let volunteers slather me with sunscreen, grab some water, and start jogging out of transition.  Again, I expect another 4 minutes.

Now it's time for the run.  This has been my Waterloo the past two years, but they have changed the run course and I'm excited.  Furthermore, my training has been great.  Six weeks ago I ran 21 miles, albeit on very flat course, @ probably ironman effort and managed an 8:35 pace.  I've been able to go hard off the bike in training on a course similar to this year's St. George course and hit 7:45-8:00 pace for a couple of miles (that's definitely unrealistic).  That said, I did run 5.5 miles off a hard bike two days ago on a course similar to St. George while maintaining an 8:15 pace.  I don't think that I can do that for 26 miles, but I have to say, I'll be tapered and ready and who knows?  I've also done twice as many long runs this year than last year, and I'm feeling good.  I'm excited by the three loop course, and my friend Rudy will be giving me splits along the way.  That should give me some adrenaline!  So, if by some stretch of the imagination, I can have a great run and maintain an 8:30 pace (wild and crazy dream, but that's what dreaming is for), that would give me a 3:43 marathon.  My "realistic" goal is to keep 9:00 pace, which would translate to a 3:56.   I absolutely would love to go under 4 hours, and I think that 4:02 is quite reasonable based on the fact that I've done 5 hours on a much harder course, walking 1/2 the distance and running 1/2 the distance each of the past two years (bonked the first year and abdominal cramps the second year), I think that my goals are reasonable.

So, time to add up the numbers:
             Best  Realistic Reasonable
Swim    1:05    1:08       1:11
Bike      5:54    5:58       6:10
Run       3:43    3:56       4:02
T1/T2               0:08
           10:50   11:10     11:31

On a personal note, my family's favorite number/time is 11:11:11.  I'll be really happy to hit the finish at this time, and judging on the past two years, that would put me close to a top ten finish in my age group.

No matter what, I'm looking to put plenty of distance in between last years time of 12:45 and this years time.  Going under 12 hours on this course will be an accomplishment in and of itself.

29 days to go to St. George, already did an easy recovery ride this morning, will be spending the day with my wife and daughter.  I think we're going to see Titanic 3D!

"Tapering"

So, this is what my "taper" is going to look like.  I spent Monday and Tuesday in rest/recovery mode.  Today I did a hard 3300 yard swim, and followed it with at hard 3 hour and 40 minute bike, with about 2 hours and 40 minutes of alternating 15 minutes at ironman effort with 5 minutes of olympic/sprint effort; and then, ran 5.5 miles about as fast as I could at the end of a  5 hour and 40 minute workout!  The best part of this is that after eating and drinking, I'm feeling great!  Tomorrow and Friday will be rest/recovery days and then, I repeat this type of workout on Saturday.  It's hard to believe that there are just 31 days before St. George.  I've never really felt like this prior to my first two ironman's, and it's really an awesome feeling!

Another Ironman Weekend

I've now spent two three day weekends in a row essentially doing the equivalent of a full ironman.  Friday I swam 3800 yards, then rode my bike for 5 hours, with 4 of those hours being at ironman effort and pace.  A total of 93 miles of cycling.  Then Saturday I put in another 3 1/2 hours of cycling, 61 more miles, with about 90 minutes forcing myself to push ironman + pace.  That was mental, all mental!  My body didn't want to cooperate, but I forced it to by setting an average wattage goal on my power meter and then holding it.  When I got off the bike, I went on a solid 3 mile run and my legs felt surprisingly ok.  Sunday was my run day and 15.5 miles later, I knew that I was ready for St. George!  My legs were dead, but they cooperated.  Included in this run was 5 one mile intervals at faster than ironman pace...and I held the pace pretty well!  Doing an ironman within 48 hours is a great way of tricking the body to get the work in.  I'm feeling a bit of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness tonight (monday), but not too much.  Tomorrow is another recovery day and then back to the grind in Wednesday.  Two weekends in a row of doing ironman volume with tons of ironman effort is serving to improve my confidence levels to never seen before heights!  I'm even starting to have some "time goal" thoughts.  You're not supposed to do that with ironman, but, what the heck!  I might as well dream!

Taper Time!

Tomorrow is five weeks from race day, and this is when I usually start thinking about my taper! So, I called my coach this morning and we discussed two different types of tapers. The first would have been taking a rest week next week and then doing a very heavy week after, and begin a traditional taper the week after that. This would be the more standard approach. We also talked about a "trimming the fat" approach, since my training has been going well and my fatigue feels manageable. The next few weeks will involve 2-3 ironman specific intense days, with easy recovery days in between to gradually "trim" my fatigue. I've done all of my long runs, done plenty of long bikes, and so, this approach feels right to me. The other thing I like about it is mental, really getting into the mental side of Ironman. As I'm trying to improve this year, getting into the "zone" is something I want to practice and gain confidence with.

I think if you still need those long runs and long bikes in preparation, a traditional taper makes sense. If training has gone great and you already feel ready to race, the gradual approach maintaining some good intensity seems very interesting. Tapering is both an art and a science, one of the things I love about triathlon and Ironman in particular!

Finally, it's also mentally quite invigorating to say that I'm starting my taper!

In preparation for this, I swam 3800 yards this morning and then biked 93 miles (5 hours), four hours of which was right at ironman effort/pace. This is to get my legs "softened up" for a bike/run "brick" tomorrow, and a quality long run on Sunday. I love ironman training! I realize that today's workout was essentially 85% of the swim/bike component of an actual ironman. The best art is that my legs feel fine, as do I, just an hour after finishing the workout. I keep gettng excited!

Ironman 3 Day Weekend

So, friday morning I got up early and went to the pool.  Swam 4500 yards with a solid and consistent effort from the beginning to the end.  We then had meetings and errands to run the rest of the day, so I didn't get to do my bike ride until after 5pm, when I made my way out for a very solid ride until the sun went down.  I got 38 1/2 miles in in under 2 hours, and my quads even felt a little tired and sore.  Tried to eat and drink as much as possible and get a good night sleep before getting up before sunrise and getting out for my long ride as the sun came up.  It was chilly, but I dressed warm and got in 3 1/2 hours of riding prior to meeting up with my friend Rudy, who rode with me for the rest of my ride.  The ride included well over 4 hours of ironman paced riding and I felt better at the end of the ride than I did at the beginning of it!  We stopped after I'd ridden 103 miles because Rudy bonked, I could have kept going, but I quickly put on my running shoes and did a hard 2 mile run at 7:45 pace.  I couldn't believe it!  It was hard, but I still did it.  More eating and drinking the rest of the day.  Was curious how I'd feel this morning, must admit my quads felt tired and a tad sore, but I was ready for my run workout of 2 hours and 15 minutes.  Three 30 minute "tempo efforts" later, right around 8:40 pace, while my heart rate stubbornly wouldn't go up.  Three days, 141 cycling miles, 16.5 running miles and 2.7 swim miles later, and I was ready to kick back and relax.  With six weeks to go to Ironman St. George, this was my best indication that I'm ready for the race.  In fact, I'm not sure that my legs will feel any worse when I hit the run in six weeks than they did today!