Three Gap / awash in memories

One thing that makes a race really cool for me is doing it somewhere I feel connected to.  Not that I wouldn't love to travel to do a randomly located exotic race, but I have tended to stay in places either closer to home or that have other meaning.  As an example, the ironman I did in 2003 (Great Floridian) was the same race I had a few years earlier watched a friend of mine finish, when the seed was planted for me to do that.  Most marathons and my lone ultra have been near home (Vermont City Marathon, Vermont 50, Five Points of Life in Gainesville, FL).   For bike trips, I rode Ride the Rockies in 2005, days before moving away from Colorado (also the state where both of my parents grew up).

My most recent effort, the Three Gap Fifty, fit into this pattern.  Gary Wimsett, a good friend and a fine upstanding citizen, came up with the idea after we had spent a few months discussing an adventure of some sort.  Unfortunately, we decided to go a mere six weeks before race time, leaving minimal training time.  The actual race, a road bike ride, is the "Six Gap Century," which takes place in North Georgia and has several solid climbs for a total elevation gain of 11000+ feet over 103 miles.  It sounded fun but the reality of training in flat Florida for only six weeks made us realize that the short version was a better goal.  A few of Gary's friends were doing it, and it was in an area I had visited before at least three times, for hikes on the southernmost section of the Appalachian Trail.  In fact, the place names are so burned in my memory that I felt like I would be riding through familiar territory despite never having cycled anywhere near here.   Gary and I planned to do the ride, then spend a few days hiking in the area - the makings of great road trip.

So, we trained as best we could -- in fact, as I wrote last time, I felt that the minimal but efficient training had been fruitful.  The few days before the race I felt good (though Gary was battling a respiratory infection with a little help from the pharmaceutical industry).  We packed up the car and left, each debating for a while whether we out to stick with the plan and do the 58 mile ride, or just go for the century.  As is usual for me, I changed my mind to the 100, only to change it back the morning before the race.

We met up with Gary's friends, Isaac and Dave, and stayed in Dave's brother's cabin (I think I have that right, although the "relative of a friend of a friend" relationship is a tricky one).  A fair amount of trash talking ensued as we ate a gigantic pre-race meal and watched football.  Though we went to bed early, I couldn't sleep thanks to the double espresso I had earlier that day.  Par for the course before a big event.

Riding partner, Gary

 Race day was outstanding, with temps in the high 50s and sun.  We drove to the start, and from the first few miles I knew it would be a good day.  I felt strong, and the climbs were reasonable (in fact, despite being a flatlander I felt as good as I had climbing similar hills after living and training in Colorado at altitude)  What I really enjoyed was the fun of riding, and the purity of climbing.  This is hard to explain but I have talked to others who have had the same experience -- whether walking up a long snow climb with an ice ax, pedaling in low gear for an hour straight, or running up a mountain, the meditative quality of working hard in a repetitive way while in a beautiful place is incredible.  I have never been ashamed to have and use a triple chain ring, and I used it then.  The race was well supported and the cyclists were friendly.   The toughest climb for me was Wolfpen Gap - a shorter but more consistently steep effort than the earlier longer climb up Neels Gap.  The weather got warm later in the day, but this was after the major climbs and we finished up with a sunny ride through a pleasant valley.

Recovery meal.

We finished our portion in just over 5 hours, enjoyed the post-race festivites, and went to Gary's father's house (also in the same area), where our post-race recovery "meal" spanned 48 hours.  A sampler:  spaghetti and meatballs, steak with homemade potato salad, biscuits and ham with grits and eggs, Bavarian sausage and pretzels with beer, fried chicken and potatoes, pancakes and ham.  A particularly gluttonous episode was eating and drinking the aforementioned Bavarian "snack" in Helen, GA at 3 pm knowing that friend chicken dinner awaiting us at 6 pm!  We did hike that  day, enough to loosen up our legs and enjoy the scenery (as well as make me recall, quite fondly, the 800+ mile hike I took with Jess the summer before we got married).

View from hike

Feeling good afterward

All in all, this was a great event and a great road trip.  I plan to return next year for the big boy version, and I think having that goal will provide a nice motivation to cycle more (as well as a nice distraction from not running, depending on how my knee does).  All for now.

Training - Proof of Concept // Roadkill

First, the roadkill: on the bike this morning conditions were perfect for the ripest collection of roadkill I have ever seen and smelled. I'm not sure what made all of the animals run out onto the pavement last night but the humidity was perfect for transmitting the odor of armadillo, possum, and other creatures. Yuck.

Now for the meat of the post: for years, I trained without a particularly scientific approach, except for trying to run, bike, or swim frequently and for nearly as long a distance as I would need to travel in the upcoming event. I would even say I was stubborn in this approach, since I read and spoke with many people using better and more scientific training methods. I think I accomplished a few neat things, but it wasn't until 9 months ago that I really applied some novel (to me) training techniques. Specifically, in December I got a fancy new GPS watch with a heart rate monitor. In testing out its features, I did a bunch of interval workouts, though certainly not an intentionally designed interval training program. The marathon I ran in February was a personal best, by quite a bit, beating an 8 year record for me. Not much else was different in my training, other than an injured knee and less overall training mileage. I was able to start at and maintain a faster pace and had a great race.

About six weeks ago a good friend suggested we ride an upcoming hilly road bike race in North Georgia (no, not the Tour de Georgia, but the Six Gap Century--really we haven't decided between that and the kiddie version, the "Three Gap Fifty", but I have a feeling we may say fuck it and just go for the gold). So, with little training time and few substantial hills around here, not to mention a busy work schedule, I decided upon a simple training schedule: one longer ride weekly, and one interval ride weekly, as well as some lifting, yoga, and light running. The interval rides were either a short Tabata protocol, longer power intervals on the indoor bike, or, once, 10 repeats on one of the better hills in town (Chestnut Hill). The amazing part is that today, on a short shakedown ride two days before the race, I can feel the difference in a big way. My average speed is faster, I want to ride in a higher gear, and I felt great--not really the result of tapering as I haven't been training "hard" enough for the concept to have meaning.

To some of my faithful readers this will come as no surprise, but to me it was almost a revelation: the last two training cycles produced good results with the introduction of a minimal amount of interval training. So yes, I may be the last convert, but here I am. We'll see how the ride goes, in the beautiful mountains of north Georgia and through the very mountains and gaps that loom large in my memory after many great hiking trips in that area. One in particular I remember because Jess and I had stopped there to rest and watched a sheet of driving rain pour down the mountainside, pass over us, and recede up the other side.

Finally, my knee has been quite good for the last three weeks. I have run once weekly and haven't felt pain during or afterward. It is getting stiff lately in the mornings, though, so if there is no lasting improvement after the steroid wears off, I guess I'll talk to the surgeon again...

More after the ride.

A Blog in 3 Acts: Knee, Superdad, Workouts

A blog in three parts (a la This American Life)


Act I: a knee, a needle, and running.

This morning I got my knee injected with a mixture of lidocaine (a nearly immediate-onset and short-acting anesthetic), Marcaine (longer acting anesthetic), and triamcinilone (cortisocosteroid). I did this primarily as a diagnostic step to make sure I really want/need to have surgery on the knee. Sure enough, after watching contrast fill my joint space on a fluoro (real-time X-ray) screen, and after having the medications injected, I drove home and took a run. Since running is the surest way to get my knee to hurt, I figured if this injection let me run without pain, I would know the problem is in the joint space and feel more confident about pursuing surgery.

The run was probably the most comfortable run I've had in six to eight months. Certainly it was the only one in the last five months that didn't just plain hurt. Sure, I had a few creaks that lasted the first two minutes (expected) and sure, my knee joint felt fuller (well, I had just had a teaspoon or two of extra fluid injected into the space), but man, it was so nice not feeling a deep, vague pain and a sensation of instability in that knee. I tried to play it very safe so I ran for 22 minutes around the neighborhood and stopped, despite feeling like I could have gone 15 miles. I got back and did some pushups, pull ups and kettle bell swings, iced my knee, and called it a day. At this point, the anesthetic has worn off, and the steroids have not fully kicked in, so it aches but still feels better than "usual" after a run like this. I am hopeful that in a few days it will feel good and remain that way for at least six weeks. After that, probably surgery.

So I have to sit back and wonder how I have come to this place of planning completely elective knee surgery for a problem that really only has (strong) circumstantial evidence to show that it is there. The best direct evidence I have is on MRI: a congenitally abnormal right lateral meniscus (discoid), but we have seen no tear. Why then, when six months ago I swore repeatedly that there was no way I was letting a surgeon touch my knee etc. etc., does this seem so reasonable? I'll tell you: I love running, and I can't do it. I've tried two rounds of physical therapy, four physicians in three specialties, changing my running form, resting, and cross training, and the fucker still hurts. The last straw was when, a few days before my appointment with the surgeon--a great guy, by the way--I went running and had fun for 40 minutes but my knee hurt for four days. If it doesn't work and I can't really run anymore, at least I tried. But, damn it, I still want to have a go at a few more marathons and a hundred miler, even if I only get another decade of running in.


Act II: Superdad rides again

Jess (my wife) was away for five days recently. It was planned for four days but because of a certain hurricane Irene, she was detained in Portland Maine for an extra day. I had never had all three kids for such a long time before, and certainly had a lot of help from my parents but as we ultimately settled into a rhythm I realized that this was a milestone for me: it was a positive and productive time that despite being challenging was not overwhelmingly stressful. I spent all of my waking non-work time with the children, got a much better sense of their daily routines, complete with ebbs and flows, and was so happy that Jess got to have a substantial trip both mourning the loss of her aunt and visiting with close family members.

So, Superdad rode again, and he's not even dreading his next ride...


Act III: Working Out and Lifestyle Modification

My garage "home gym" -- >

I read two interesting books by the same author recently: Four Hour Workweek, and Four Hour Body.

The first is a somewhat cohesive look at how to game the system, outsource time consuming tasks, and live a life of travel and leisure. I have to admit it has a certain appeal but seems limit for me - whose job depends on time with people, and who has three fairly young children. The take home message was setting firm limits on work and sticking to them without remorse. Easier said that done?

Four Hour Body is a less cohesive printed collection of blog entries on nutrition, weight loss, fitness, sleep, sex, and general approach to life. My favorite thing is that it doesn't claim to cure cancer or solve all problems, just provides some interesting ways to achieve certain goals that worked for the author. As such, I took a bunch of workout ideas and a few nutrition ideas and have been incorporating them into my workout rotation. As I am still struggling to reach "race weight" after sixteen months now, I may try out the food part as well...


In any case, here's a sampling of the last week or two:

Sunday, Aug 21: run 4.25 miles, proving my knee just ain't right.

Wednesday, Aug 24: 55 pull ups, 110 pushups. The pull ups are mostly standard grip with some chin up grip and a few wide and narrow grip, in sets of 2-7 The push ups are mixed standard, military, decline, and wide grip, in sets of 115. Done in mid afternoon in a local park after work.

Friday, Aug 26: indoor bike 12.5 mi hill intervals, yoga 45 minutes. The bike was s poor effort but the yoga was fantastic (dagmar's afternoon grounding practice on YouTube, if I remember correctly)

Sunday, Aug 28: Bike 40 miles in the hilliest section of town. Yes, I know in Gainesville that isn't saying much, but we tried. I rode this with my friend Gary. It was about 94 degrees with 70% humidity. We are going to north Georgia in a few weeks to ride the Three Gap Fifty, the junior partner of the Six Gap Century (http://www.cyclenorthgeorgia.com/). This will be challenging given the lack of available hills and mountains here, but we are counting on training in extreme heat and some intense intervals to pull us through...

Monday, Aug 29: Lifting for core stability, biceps, triceps, and shoulders:
Hip flexor stretch
Kettle bell swings 30 x 30 lb (my first time doing this)
Handstand pushups x 10 (with wall support!)
Swiss ball crunch x 20
Bridges x 20 and Flying Dog x 10/side (on all fours, extending opposite arm and leg)
Bicep curls max weight 6 reps
Hammer curls max weight 6 reps
Tricep overhead lift max weight 8 reps
Tricep kickback max eight 8 reps
Cat vomit exercise x 8 (this one is straight from four hour body - search for it on YouTube)
Plank hold 60sec, side plank hold 45 sec each side
Turkish getups, 20 lb dumbbell, 5/ side (again, I am a rank beginner at these)

Wednesday, Aug 31: Kettlebell swings 30 x 40 lb, torture twists 3 x 3/side (unweighted), indoor bike Tabata intervals, yoga 25 minutes (a "shiva rea" video with my own additions). Torture twists are also from the four hour body book, basically lie perpendicular to a weight bench with your butt on it and feet hooked under something solid, turning your body all the to one side then the other. These will be great when I work up to weighting them. My max instantaneous power output on the bike was 540 W. For me, this is good, and I was happy about it.

Friday, Sep 2 (today): run 22 min, kettle bell swings 35 x 40 lb, 60 pull ups and 150 push ups with bars (push ups and pull ups again a mix of styles).

Where to go from here / states

It continues to be a little bit odd to write a blog that has been about running when I haven't really been able to run in nearly four months. It's not that I don't have other things that I think about or want to write about, but the format seems to have lost its glue. I debated ending the blog entirely, putting it completely on hold until I am running again (if?), or some other dramatic gesture. But the reality is that running is just a means to an end, as much as I like it, and the blog is really about staying fit and trying to capture some meaningful and interesting moments in life.

So, what has been going on with my running? I have been continuing with physical therapy, including standard and like stretching and building strength in those sneaky weak muscle groups. But I have also been working on radically changing my running for, to something like a combination of the POSE technique, chi running, and the trendy barefoot running techiques that are out there. I suppose progress is difficult to measure when you are building from the ground up, but I have felt a natural flow s times with the new form, and can see how this could work well in the long run. Not bad, I suppose for changing a decade worth of cerebellar neural connections. So, in order, my goals are simply to be able to run again for fun and fitness, to be able to run mid or long distances and return to marathons, and to pursue the long term goal of running a 100 miler in the next 5-10 years. We shall see, but I haven't given up yet by a long shot.

In the meanwhile I have been continuing to explore yoga, lifting/calisthenics, cycling, and swimming. I haven't forgotten the 100 day clean living challenge, although the first 35 days were more successful than days 36-70. Put in the context of summer vacation, though, I suppose staying reasonably fit and eating reasonably well is success after all, even if I am no closer to returning to "race weight" now than on day 1. I will tell you that reconnecting with friends and family, which was really the unifying theme of our vacation, did resonate with the spiritual / intentional living portion of the clean living challenge, so in the last 30 days I will commit to getting back on track in all three areas: food, fitness, and compassionate, intentional living.

I have been thinking a lot lately about motivation, as I find myself noticing how widely my mood can swing during the course of a day, and I change mental-emotional states. One morning I can be fired up for the day, think about how lucky I am, make all kinds of plans for projects and trips, and a few hours later can be feeling tired and overwhelmed and without motivation to do anything at all. I notice this at work a lot, but really it applies to other areas of life too. What I came up with (during a less motivated period, even) is that I/we experience life in a series of overlapping and shifting states. These aren't meant to described in words so much, but I could certainly call one of them "post-poor-sleep-but-coffee-rally-happiness", and another "unmotivated-and-down-for-no-reason", and feeling-healthy-happy-and-mellow", or "jacked-up-and-thinking-of-a-million-things I want to do.". Etc etc. So how to live within this context? Is what works bet to manage and control the states, to switch freely between, or simply recognize and accept them? Can one change the tenor of a given state over time? am tying to pay more attention to these.

That's about it for now. A some point soon I will start posting workouts again.

Clean and fun living

Currently I'm on vacation at a beautiful lake in western Maine. Life is good.

On the advice of my physical therapist I am revamping my running form to a higher-cadence forefoot striking approach. This style has a name but I don't remember it. It is coming along but it will be a while before it feels natural or efficient. Still, if it enables a return to running I will be happy.

Eating well and trying to focus on local food. Dinner menu from last night: salad with almost all local produce, local sweet potatoes, local wine, and grass fed bison steaks. Tasted good too.

Summer rhythm

This post will be a bit shorter than usual, since I am typing on an iPad and not as used to the keyboard. It's big enough to type in standard fashion, but does require some adjustment. Why typing on an iPad? We are on our old school summer vacation, a three week family road trip extravaganza from Florida to Maine and back.

I've lost track of how far I am into the clean living challenge--probably around day 35 or so---and it is going fine. Even after three days of car travel, I have exercised 2 of those 3 days and only had one unhealthy meal. Yoga and calisthenics are great for the road.

Clean living includes keeping connections with others healthy, and from that perspective things have been great. Because we are driving up the coast, we thought we would visit as many people as we could along the way. So far we have seen family in Savannah, an old high school friend and her family, in Richmond, whom we haven't seen since before either of us had children, and good friends in Providence, where we are now. It is wonderful to actually see people, to meet their kids or see them getting bigger, and to catch up a little bit as the river of time flows by. God I'm feeling poetic. In addition to visiting friends and family, and staying at a beautiful lake for two weeks, our own family is strengthening our connection and developing/reinforcing the rituals that are the backbone of family life.

I'll post some pictures when we get to the lake. I'm off now to do some outdoor yoga in the breeze. More is to come about running and my knee also, since I had my first session with the running physical therapist back in town, and he wants me to revamp my entire stride and form. I've changed long-term habits before, but it's not easy...

Day 28/100: A lotta variety

It's been a good week+ since my last post.  My "clean living" challenge is still on.  The nutrition aspect has been fair.  I've been successful with reduced portions and very few desserts or sweets, although I am still far from true "healthy" eating (whatever that is).  Borrowed and read The Paleo Solution, which was better than expected.  Jess and I may explore the Paleo eating concept more during this 100 days, although I'm not sure it's the ultimate answer in terms of balance and healthy approach.  We will have the opportunity to eat a largely local/organic diet while vacationing this summer, so it might be a good time to experiment.  Exercise and body work are going well also, and I've detailed these below.  Finally, I think I have noticed a change in attitude, a (slightly) more relaxed and accepting approach.  Have others noticed?  Not sure.  I do feel better, but I'm not sure whether that is due more to my intentional changes or to an easier month at work and an upcoming vacation.


The workouts:

Day 20: Mountain Bike ~45 minutes; Yoga 15 minutes (surprisingly intense vinyasa flow)

Day 21: Yoga 30 min, "Yoga 201" on iPad.  This was a very nice practice, with some attention focused on balance poses including crane and sideways crow.  A bit of a breakthrough for me in terms of figuring out what to relax and what to hold in tension in order to achieve balance in these poses.

Tuesday, Day 22: Rest Day.  Although my intent was to do 100 days of yoga in a row, then 100 days of workouts in a row, I accepted a day of rest after 3 hours of sleep the night before and mental/physical tiredness.  I think this was the right thing.

Wednesday, Day 23: Road bike, 21+ miles, 96 degree heat.  Wow, I am somewhat deconditioned but very poorly heat-adapted this summer because I haven't been running.  I rode a familiar course with some very mild hills and got my heart rate up much higher than usual for a short road ride!  So I guess it was a good workout despite the objectively "easy" terrain.  Never underestimate a heat challenge.

Thursday, Day 24: Swim 1200 yards at the good old YMCA.

Friday, Day 25: VO2 Max testing,  Lifting/Calisthenics
This was a really cool day.  I had the opportunity to undergo some metabolic exercise testing on an indoor bike, equipped with oxygen and carbon dioxide sensors.  In addition to estimating my VO2 max (46 ml/kg/min - above average for my age but below average for a good athlete!!), I got a sense of my anaerobic threshold, heart rate response, and several other parameters.  This is actually pretty cool, since I am probably the least cardiovascularly fit I've been in years.  Once I get my knee in line and begin running again, I will repeat this to track progress!
Also did some pull-ups (30), core work (weighted incline situps), and bicep dumbbell sets.

Saturday, Day 26: Yoga 1:05- a fantastic practice from an iPad app ("Fire" TotalYoga TV).  This was the the fastest and most sustained vinyasa progression I've done, along with some inversion and headstand work.  In fact, I've added a few yoga poses to my Fitness Goals list, including headstand and a few others.

Sunday, Day 27: Rest Day.  Best intentions, but long day at work.

Today (Monday), Day 28: Indoor bike power intervals 9 miles / 30 minutes; lift shoulder & triceps (dumbbell work), push-ups, swim planned for tonight.


We are preparing to spend part of the summer at Kezar Lake in Western Maine, where part of Jess's family has gone for decades and where I have had the privilege of joining them now for 10+ years!  This is a relaxing, renewing spot (pictured on the top banner of this blog), and also the site of many a nice run (including a 35 miler around the lake in 2007) and a few nice rides over the years.   This will not be the summer for an epic run, but I am hoping to run a few times, swim some, and generally enjoy the area.