Cozumel???

I will certainly be jealous of you studs and studetts opening your wallets and purses to hit Ironman Cozumel next Thanksgiving. "Back in the day" I would say, "of course!" and hit the registration button along with you, logistics be damned. But this year...

• Flight to Cozumel: $717 (each)


• 4.5 star hotel: $100+ per night


• Bike transport: ??$200??


• Doing and Ironman on an Island with all your creepy Internet friends: Priceless.

One thing I noticed that really is a no-go in my book - a one-lap ocean swim with no wetsuit. Last time I swam 2.4 miles at Clearwater Beach for the Hurricane Man with no mid-point break and no wetsuit, I was rubbed raw in my armpits. Granted, I could have used more body glide...but my distain for ocean water in my mouth is well documented. I'll take the toxins in Tempe Town Lake over salt water any day and twice on Sunday.

Sorry, I'll be staying stateside for a while, and keeping my eye on IMAZ09...

Handi-work

Di scored some free window treatments - the place that made them (the workroom for all you non-decorators or installers out there) screwed them up, so now they are in our office.

I did all the hanging. Di showed me how to "dress" them up, and I even did the pretty work. They were not at all made for our windows, so we did our best to make them work. Took the pic with my web cam, so it's not the best quality...sorry.

You know, along those lines, I saw some really gorgeous shoes the other day out at Dillards....

Dark Running

Oh the joys of running in the dark.

We all know that cobwebs = spiders. Number of webs I ran through this morning....countless. My least favorite insect - spiders. Sure, wasps are a close second.

Lazy dog owners. Gotta love them. Let them dogs out unattended. Out the front door, no less. Meeting up with 2 medium sized dogs on your bike is one thing. You've got a buffer. 2 dogs, in the dark, while running - not much fun. Especially when one's getting behind you! Luckily they were barkers, and I had a moment to prepare. I didn't run, I turned and faced them, and yelled "NO!" as loud and as mean as I could. They still came - crossed the street - at a full run and barked and growled waaaay too close for comfort. I backed further away from their home, still yelling at them and trying to keep both in front of me. I got out to a main street with some traffic on it, and they did not continue the chase. Nice adrenalin rush in the first mile of the day!

Being a tall runner. Being a sidewalk runner. These things don't' mix well. I have to duck for every branch, bush and creepy vine that the city workers, in their infinite shortness, fail to trim away. Night running only makes it even more fun to negotiate this maze of eye-hunting twigs and leaves.

Oncoming traffic. Why do people think it's a GOOD thing to turn on their bright lights when they see a runner? I've got crappy night vision to begin with - sometimes I like to run with no contacts or glasses, so essentially I'm running by feel more than anything. It gives me an excuse to run slowly...like I really needed another one. Lights head on only make the ground surface that much more a mystery.

Humidity. Ah, the morning humidity. Sure it's cooler before sunrise. My lungs feel like I just got done swimming.

The alternative in August in Tampa - run when the sun comes out. Not a very good alternative. I guess there's always a dreadmill inside. How much fun could that be?

Rain

You know, if I were training, I'd probably be even more pissed. As it is, this current system over Florida is giving me fits! It looks like this every day, now, since Tuesday. I work for about 2 - 3 hrs, then get deluged with the accompanying lightning. The rain isn't quite as limiting as the lightning, but really, heavy lawn mowers and wet, water-soaked ground don't mix very well.

Today looks to be even worse. It's Saturday - so do you really get started on someones lawn before 9am? If I was sleeping in on Saturday and my lawn guy showed up at 8am, well, I'd be a bit miffed, right? Oh yea, we are all triathletes...sleeping in is like, sleeping to 6am....

Tampa's forecast for next week is more of the same if not worse. Great. The phone calls aught to be hitting here pretty soon. See...this is where an I-phone would be perfect. These rain cells come in, sometimes only in one part of town - but how can I know that driving around in my truck? The answer - an I-phone with 3G digital service and the trusty "Weather Underground for I-Phone" application (my buddy Greg has it on his phone). Pull up a map with the radar on it, and bamb! I know if it's a thunderstorm or an all day "cats and dogs" work-buster.

No, I'm not paid by Apple or representatives of I-phone....I just lust after one. Oh, and yes, this would be another one of those, "it's your blog, dammit, and it's all about YOU - so go ahead make another negative post, why don't you....".

Low Motivation

It's funny just how accurate this little triangle can be some times. I can barely remember discussing it in college psychology 101 class: Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs. In a nutshell, (as if I truly understand it, shaaah...) lower needs in the pyramid take priority over higher ones. Until a pressing problem in a lower level need gets fulfilled, it's dang hard to focus on needs in a higher level.

Now again, I'm not expert, but I'd put fitness and racing in the "Esteem" level of this pyramid. I'm sure one can make an argument that fitness is very much physiological, but it would take a lot of convincing to make me a believer. I've been fortunate in life that my own personal physiological needs tend to be pretty "healthy". I've never been in such dire straits that my sole focus has been at that level. Thankfully!

But very easily, I believe, one can find themselves in the "Safety" needs level. Get yourself short of cash - I mean really short, like "how in the heck are we gonna pay the rent this month" short, and when your diet consists of Ramean noodles and PB&J's for 2 out of 3 meals or worse, and you are there. Unfortunately there are many important things that take a back seat when you sink to that level. Friendships, family relationships, spousal interaction...and it's weird. It's not like you don't have the time, you just don't have the energy....

Of course, these "levels" are not absolute, and a person will devote energy and resources to areas that need attending to while still operating at a higher level. Hence, a relationship may get strained while you put more hours in at work, but one wouldn't give up the relationship totally, for example.

Maslow calls the "love/belonging" level a Social level. It's interesting to me that as important to many the relationships formed in "blog-land" and even the therapeutic effect that maintaining a blog has for some, there will still come time in all of our lives when the blog - the relationships - will take a back seat to more pressing needs. That's just natural - unfortunate - but it's the way things are.

So, for whatever reason - perhaps it's the echo in the bank account, or the lack of satisfaction with my business, or wanting to spend more time at home with my wife - or - I'm just dang burned out from all the training...I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to train. It's been 5 weeks now since Iroman CdA...and I've only run once for all of 2 miles. Sure, I sweat my ba**&ack off every day out cutting grass, and fortunately I've only gained 6 lbs in 5 weeks, but somewhere I need to find the motivation. Or get all those other damn needs taking care of. And quick!

Iron Guilt

You know, I've been feeling guilty as of late.

I see the results of my bloggie peep's toils - their training volumes posted in their buildup to Ironman, and mine sooooo pales in comparison. The first step in the "healing" process is to fess up, right? I started the whole process a bit earlier than some, but not all - I was 30 weeks of Ironman focused training. Yea, you can question the "focus" part. Here goes:

Average swim volume per week: 3,545 yards. Result: 2.4 mile swim in 1:34 for a 2:29 per 100 meter pace, which I think is a 2:13 per 100 yd pace. I have a hard time complaining about that. I didn't even average the length of the Ironman swim per week! I wouldn't recommend that to everyone. Or, maybe I would. I did do 3 swims of 2.4 miles or more leading up to the race, however.

Average bike volume per week: 77.1 miles. I know, I know - "its all about the bike" - right. Result: 112 mile bike at a 17.4 mph pace. I passed 679 people on that ride. I did 5 centuries in 9 weeks - I'm sure that helped my bike a lot. Of course my advise is to ride long...often.

Average run volume per week: 16.6 miles. That there was my downfall. Not that I didn't finish. Result: 14:18 min/mile "pace" - where 749 people passed me back on the run. It was ugly, partly due to my stomach issues, but more probably due to my lack of run volume leading up to the race. Most of that 16.6 mile volume took place MONTHS before the race during my marathon train up. If you were to see my volume for the last, say, 12 weeks leading to CdA...you'd laugh. Longest "long" run between Feb and June - 11 miles.

Average Total Training Time per week: 8.5 hrs. Result: 14:32:23 We'll do better next time. Not that I could have had more fun. Weight for Ironman: 254 lbs. I'd really like to get that down to 225 lbs for the next one. I just have to want it bad enough...that's the big question...do I?

A lot of nothun

So there's a lot of nuthun going on in the life of the M-Dot Bigun. Yes, we've podcasted. Yes, we did an Ironman. But after that...well -

• No workouts yet. I miscalculated, and Monday coming up marks the 18-week start of the Marathon trainup. So I've got that to look forward to. That was a healthy 5 week break from all things run, bike and swim. Can we say, "burned-out"? Bigtime.


• Work sucks. Royally. It's so blooming hot, and humid, that by 3pm I'm absolutely smoked. Unfortunately, I need a couple more hours to get them all done. Hence working on Saturday and Sunday this week. Crap.


• I get to do my first "install" this Monday. It's something akin to hanging a picture, but I'll take it. Ya gotta start somewhere. It just so happens the "economy" has a strangle hold on every one's money these days, and window treatments tend to be one of the things put off 'till later. Now why couldn't that be the yard work instead?


• Yes, the bike is still in the box. It's doubtful I'll do another Tri this season. I just don't see it as being in the cards. I saw some folks on their bike today...and was jealous that I had to cut grass and they were out pedaling. I wonder if you heard a loud and resounding "FU&^!" this morning at around 9:30am? That was me.


• I'm escared to step on the scale. No workouts = a rounder M-Dot Bigun. Granted, I've been sweating my ass off every day outside. So, it may not be as bad as I think. I'm just not checking...

On the good side, TriSherpaDi's started her new J.O.B. this week and seems to be hitting it off famously with her co-workers and boss. Lets hope this economy turns around soon so we can all go back to making money and spending it on fitness instead of having it all go to pay for the lights. Can I get a "here, here!"?

I've got my resume out and about. I'm looking. I'm looking for something interesting. I don't want to settle, and I'm afraid that I'm gonna get into desperation mode sooner rather than later. The fingers are crossed, and the feelers are out. More on that as it develops, I promise.

What else? You all know that IMAZ'09 is shaping up to be the next IM for me. I'd like to go and Volunteer at the '08 race, but that's only 4 months off, and financially it's not looking good right now. We'll see. If worse comes to worse, I'll try and sign up on-line - it's scary to think that IMUSA sold out on site - but whatever happens, happens. We really, really, really want to go and spend the weekend in Scottsdale, however.

Jenny and Brent are heading to Tampa tomorrow night and will join us at the casa d' bigun for some eats and drinks - looking forward to that! Trisherpadi ususally pulls out all the stops cooking-wise when visitors are coming over....mmmmmmm....dinner-guests......some pictures of the food should be forthcoming.

Episode 11 - IMCdA Race Report Published

Our latest podcast is out! Enjoy the show, if you can...it's a bit on the - boring - side, if you ask me, but there are some funny parts in there. Like when we talk about poop.

Knee Deep

I'm knee deep in the Post-Ironman Non-working-out Blues these days. It's a self-imposed moratorium on working out - and it was necessary! In case you are wondering, I still, to this day, have yet to break a sweat in a fun, workout-type activity, since CdA. That's a long time between workouts.

Tomorrow, Monday, begins my 18 week Marathon Training Plan. It couldn't come too soon. Of course, looking at the plan, Mondays are cross training days. So I guess I'm swimming tomorrow, which I also miss. I guess, if I plan on biking any time soon, I'd better take it out of the shipping box and put it back together. Is that bad karma? I'm sure my bike needed a break too.

I'm working on a montage using a slew of pictures from CdA using Microsoft Movie Maker. It worked fine to a point...now I have so many pictures in it, I think, that it locks up if I try to add any more. Friggin Gates....

Oh, and the TB&B Podcast...um...sorry folks - Tacboy and I talk about calling each other - the conversations go something like this:

Taconite: We really need to finish up this episode....
Bigun: Yea, when do you want to do it?
Taconite: Any night this week is good for me...oh wait, I've got a thing on Wednesday and Thursday, so I guess Tuesday, or maybe over the weekend.
Bigun: Na, Tuesday's no good for me, I've got a really long day that day. Maybe Sunday then...
TriSherpaDi in the background: Don't forget about going over to Dawns Sunday night for Mexican....
Bigun: Oh crap, that's right - dude, we need to get this done.....

And it plays like that week, after week, after week. Please! Don't hate us!