admin – Page 23 – No Crappy Excuses

Indoor Riding – 9/17/16

“I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like” (Queen)

Last fall I joined a gym so that I would have a place to workout during the winter. I thought I’d get a lot of use out it like I did the previous one. But with displays on the machines hard to read, the only things I ever used were the bikes (spin and trainers). When it got warmer in the sprint, I put things on hold and thought about looking for an Airdyne to replace the monthly membership.

But thanks to my uncle, I don’t need to look for one. And I will be cancelling the gym membership at some point this week. He gave me a 10 speed bike and a bike stand, which I’ve now got set up in my bedroom. It’s a manual version of the CompuTrainer system and will help tremendously this winter. I’m very grateful to have this now!

Bicycle Ride – 9/4/16

Earlier in the year, I decided to do the North Shore Century (NSC) ride with my uncle. The NSC offers distances from 25 – 100 miles, and we will be doing the 50 mile ride. To get ready for the NSC, we did a training ride on Sunday.

After he got the tandem set up, we headed out towards Evanston and Lake Michigan. The first stop after about 7 miles was at the Bahai Temple. Really neat building from the outside. We continued on through Evanston to Glencoe, eventually stopping at a small convenience store. Once refueled in one sense and removing fuel in another, we headed back to their home.

On the way back, we went through the Frank Lloyd Wright street that’s in the area, stopping for photos. We also stopped at Lake Michigan on the way back for another break. I should have taken a gel when we stopped at the lake, but felt fine. A couple miles from the goal, I ran out of energy and had to stop and use it.

In all, we did 37 miles of riding for the day. And just like every long race deserves a beer, so did this ride. We headed to Ten Ninety afterwards for some great beers! I’m confident that we’re all set to ride 50 miles on 9/18. Come out and join us if you’re looking for a really fun ride and a great event!

No word in English – 9/2/16

On a daily basis, we use all types of language. Whether it’s in our native tongue or a foreign language, there are always words that we’re searching for. But there’s no word in English for ‘season break’; although I’ve heard the Eskimos have a lot of words for ice.

Yes, the Triathlon season is over for me. But that doesn’t mean I can or will just sit around until next spring when the season resumes. That would be a bad idea for far too many reasons to mention (including coaches yelling at me… 😉 :P). So in addition to several training opportunities between then and now, I’ve got a 50 mile bike ride and a Half Marathon scheduled before year’s end.

While it would be nice to take a chunk of time off, I know that doing so will derail my progress. I have several goals set for 2017, and the only way to reach them is to keep pushing forward. I realize it won’t always be perfect, but I will keep pushing forward. Nothing good ever comes easy.

And while I’m looking forward, I still wanted to reflect back on the season. During 2016, I did a total of 12 triathlons (6 indoor and 6 outdoor). I was able to cut significant time off of my swim and improve on the bike/run. I had to push through some obstacles, including 3 flats during 2 races, and work through some of the mental pieces (see 8/26 blog). All in all, I consider it a successful 1st full season, and a starting point to improve from for 2017.

Even though it was a success, I wouldn’t have made it this far without support from my coaches and Dare2Tri. The amount of support on so many different levels has helped to push me, to motivate me and to help make races possible. As well, because of their support, I will soon have a tandem to use. That will make a HUGE difference as we practice for / during the 2017 season. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that I am extremely grateful to both my coaches and Dare2Tri. If you would like to help support Dare2Tri, please click here It will take you to my fundraising page.

Leave it all on the course – 8/28/16

With the Chicago Triathlon being the last triathlon of my season, as well as PT Mid-East Regionals, I had a lot I wanted to accomplish. One set of goals was related to the time ahead; the other set was to a final show of the 2016 effort. I’ll have more to say on both of these in the future. For now, I want to just focus on the event.

After arriving and getting transition set up, we all made the long walk to the starting area. I am glad that Luke convinced me to keep my shoes on instead of going barefoot, and I now see why they give you a swim check bag. Trying to do about 1/2 mile in bare feet would be a VERY bad decision. We did a team photo and then got into line for the start.

Lake Michigan was very calm and with a 70 degree water temperature, I went without my wet suit. We were the second Sprint group into the water, and it went very well. I’m still slower in Lake Michigan than I am anywhere else; not sure why. After about 28 minutes in the water, I had a little bit of trouble getting up the stairs (swim exit). But Luke and others at the exit helped steady me and we made it towards transition.

As I mentioned earlier, swim out to transition was a LONG way away. We made it back and headed out on the bike after about 12 minutes (swim out to bike out). With the exception of the second turnaround, the bike went great. On that turn, we ended up hitting the curb and having to do a quick dismount to avoid falling.

Up to this point, things had gone extremely well. Perhaps not as fast as I had wanted, but a good swim followed by a good bike. Then things unraveled a bit.

Whether the sun had been behind clouds or the breeze had masked it, it got extremely humid on the run. To the point where I was struggling to run for even a full minute. I had some tighthness a couple of times, but managed to stretch it out. So after crossing the finish line, I was surprised when I could barely stand. Long story short is that I was dehydrated and didn’t realize it. Enough fluids fixed that pretty quickly.

If you would like to see photos and full result information, please click here

While it didn’t go exactly as planned, there were still a lot of good things that came out of the day. As well as some benchmarks to push forward from for 2017. I also learned a very valuable lesson about hydration, which I will have a chance to put to use during the remainder of my 2016 events.

Finding Perspective – 8/26/16

Whatever sport you choose to do, success isn’t just based on strength. You can be the fastest person in the world, but if you don’t have the mental edge (to handle both the successes and challenges), others will pass you by. In this week leading up to Chicago, I’ve been struggling with, and unfortunately losing sleep over, some of the mental aspects.

The short version of mental battle was this — Chicago is not only PT Mid-East Regionals, but also the last race of the season. In other words, my last chance to strengthen my 2016 resume, on which a couple of 2017 items are dependent on. The hang-up was being concerned that if I fell flat on my ass (aka multiple flats like at Pleasant Prairie), and it derails what I’d like to have happen next year.

Earlier this morning as I was relaxing and having a beer, I finally got perspective on everything. Two different, but convergent views on the entire situation —

1) In 2015, an overwhelming majority of the support / help I had was grassroots. Even though there were some struggles (see ITU Chicago swim), there was still talent seen there, enough to get the additional help and support I’ve had in 2016.

2) While I want everything to continue moving forward, if catastrophe struck on Sunday, resulting in a step backwards, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Yes, I want to keep things moving forward, but I believe that even a step backwards could be corrected because of how I was able to progress in 2015.

So the bottom line here is that I plan to succeed overall on Sunday and get redemption in the water (aiming to cut about 24 minutes off ITU swim). But I also know that if something goes wrong, it’s not going to be the end of the world. There’s a lot that I can’t control, so I’m just going to put the effort out there and have fun.

And while this will be my last triathlon of the year, that doesn’t mean I just go into hibernation until March of 2017. There will be a lot in the works to keep moving things forward WELL before the 2017 triathlon season starts.

If you want to track my progress on Sunday, use the Race App and enter bib 4055.

Answering Comments – 8/23/16

II get a lot of questions in the comments. Instead of having to respond to each one individually, I’ve created this blog post. I will continue to add to it as needed.

1) No, I don’t have any intention of changing the layout or structure at this point. The main focus of this project is to get the information out there. When I’ve got extra time to work on custom coding the layout, I will think about it.

2) If you want to share my articles in full or links to them on your blog or web site, you are welcome to AS LONG AS the site they’re being shared on is a legitimate PG rated web site that does not have any trojans, viruses, scams, etc. to try and do malicious things. If you do share a post, please let me know so I can add a link back where and when appropriate.

3) If you want to discuss content swaps, guest-writing or anything else with me, please send an e-mail to admin@nocrappyexcuses.com . I will reply to any of the legitimate e-mails / requests.

Thanks, and keep visiting!

Odd Man Out – 8/23/16

Last Sunday, a large group of my teammates competed at PT Nationals in Santa Cruz. Of the 23 total team members, 19 competed. Two of the remaining four are on their way to Rio shortly, so they may have opted out of Nationals to keep training for Rio. All of this means that I was literally the odd man out of Nationals from the Dare2Tri teams.

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you know of the struggles I’ve had this year. A short synopsis for those of you who haven’t is 2 races with flats, equipment delays and challenges while training. It hasn’t been the year that I had envisioned or hoped it would be. So knowing that I hadn’t qualified for Nationals, I could look at the situation from the normal glass half empty or glass half full scenario.

Instead I choose to look at it from a glass present scenario. What I mean by that is the opportunity to do triathlons in general, and Nationals (and beyond) might not even be there. If it weren’t for the tremendous support of Dare2Tri and my coaches, none of what I have done, do or will do, would be possible.

So even though I wasn’t at Nationals this year, I know it will happen very soon. My goal is to be there in 2017, and I’ve started to build a pencil schedule around that goal. Once I know where a few Tetris pieces will fall, I’ll work on a final one. And I know that I’ve got the coaches and support system to help me reach that goal for 2017, as well as a VERY strong desire not to be the odd man out again.

While I wasn’t there, my teammates did an AMAZING job. IIRC, 5 National Champions and a lot of total hardware!

And while I’m starting to think about 2017, my focus is on the PT Mid-East Regionals this coming Sunday. The event is the Chicago Triathlon, where Lake Michigan kicked my ass last September. I’m looking for redemption in the water and a strong showing overall! For those of you who want to follow me through the Race App, my bib is 4055.

Naperville Sprint – 8/7/16

(Photo courtesy of Diane Gilliard)

This is truly one of my favorite races Not just because it’s put on by an amazing Race Organizer (RO) and Race Director (RD), but also because it gives me an opportunity to thank those who have and continue to support me. Between the Tri kit, hat, body marking and race belt, all of them got a shout out.

As with last year, I suspected that I would be the only ParatTriathlete (PT). I was surprised to see two of my Dare2Tri teammates that are headed to Rio soon and the Executive Director of Dare2Tri show up! Very nice surprise, and I found out that they all did it last minute.

The swim played out pretty much like last year. We entered the water right after the Elite athletes, had assholes trying to swim over us and through the tether, and having to fight said assholes off. I understand competitive drive, and it’s a race. But FCTFOL, you have decent vision; USE IT and observe the fact that we’re tethered.Even with getting tied up twice in the water because of these ‘lovely’ people, we still made it out in about 12 minutes (4:15 decrease from 2015).

T1 and the bike mount went well, and we were off for 12 miles. While I still don’t have clips, I was trying to consciously pedal the way I would if I was clipped in. It seemed to work a bit better than bike has in the past. While everything went well for us, we did see someone completely total out on the course.

Back to transition and then out on the run. We walked for about 3-4 minutes before starting to run so I could get the legs stretched out. And when we started to run, instead of doing the 5/1 interval, Terri did it with a distance interval. The run still wasn’t perfect, but it seemed to go a lot better. During it, I had a lot of people encouraging me on, and even had a few people recognize me from last year. One of them commented that I was looking better than last year.

We finished about 20 minutes faster than 2015, including a sprint of the last 100 yards. Great to see this improvement, but still much more to do. I would like to shave a few more minutes off of that before Chicago at the end of August.

This was an amazing day and only possible because of the help and support of so many. Thanks to those who came out to cheer us on, and expecially to Terri Hayes of Artistic Creations Salon for guiding me along with everything else she does, and Art Black of Oswego Cyclery for letting us use his tandem.

And while my focus is on Chicago Tri for now, I will also be stalking 2017 Naperville Tri registration. Yeah, it’s that damn good of an event…

Failed Brick – 8/3/16

Knowing the schedule for the rest of the week, this was our final work out together before the race. For it, we had a swim/run brick planned out. The swim went well, with us getting about 800m in. However, the run did not. About 1/2 way though, my ankles started to hurt. We made it back without any real incident; just not the brick that was planned.

I will be taking it easy (RICE) between now and the race on Sunday. I am confident that things will go well on Sunday!

I Need Your Help – 8/2/16

As many of you know, in addition to doing triathlons, one of my other passions is football. In 2007, I started a journey. When that project started, Notre Dame’s camp was a big desire, but nowhere near affordable.

And at this point, it still isn’t. But I would love to be there in 2017 as the next step forward. I need YOUR help to make this happen. There is a GoFundMe page set up to help achieve this goal.

If you can support it and me, I would greatly appreciate the support. If you’re unable to financially support me, you can still help by sharing the link with your friends, family and colleagues. Thank you in advance for your help and support!