Old Post from October...

4,032 hours or 168 days or 24 weeks or 6 months

Working: 960 hours

Sleeping: 1,176

Commuting: 300 hours

Eating: 168 hours

Total: 2,604

That leaves one thousand four hundred and twenty eight hours to train. Awesome! Well, even at 20/week for the next 24 weeks will only get me 480 hours of training. Where the hell does the other ~950 hours go?

Especially here, training requires me to drive almost everywhere to swim, bike or run. Let’s estimate that every two workouts requires an hour of travel time. 12 workouts a week = 144 more hours. ~800 hours left

Whatever, trying to account for all the hours left before your Ironman is silly. It’s not in the numbers. It’s not finding the time suck. We all know where we have timewasters. It’s about doing something.

The one gem I gleemed from my “Time Management” course is it takes 21 days to form a habit. What new habits do I need? It’s not that I need a new habit. I have plenty, good and bad. What I do WANT is the following:

Wake up every morning at 5:30am è This allows enough time for shit, shower, dressing, coffee and last minute packing for workouts before I leave for work @ 6:15. I’ve been requested for 8:15 meetings everyday, no more late starts.

Continue Gluten-Free diet è I have not cheated very much…a beer here and there or a croissant. This habit is becoming pretty solid now that Jen and I have found things to cook and are experimenting with new foods. It has also made my diet 10x better than it used to be. My diet has more fruit/veg and much, much less reliance on carbs from wheat sources. I do actually feel better. I hear Jordan Rapp is GF, but so has been Desiree Ficker and she has all but disappeared…

Follow through with commitments è This takes many forms, some I will not share here, but the ones I will have to do with work and training. The “Inshallah” (god willing) attitude that is very prevalent in the Arab world I long perfected back home in the States. Thus, I have never truly been in control of my destiny, nor have I been happy at work. That’s going to change. 21 days to a new habit means I will take control of my days. Most importantly, not let others dictate my success or failures. If they aren’t providing me with something, take action, don’t sit there and pass the buck that it’s “not my fault.” Basic shit right? Of course. I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of my Tony Robbins CD…J Kidding, but maybe I shouldn’t be!

That’s plenty for now. I plan to address those three items in a many posts as I can. Notice, I didn’t say anywhere that I will update this more often! But, seriously I will. I hit my computer too hard, so I want to get a new one. I’ll get a netbook for Jen to use back and forth for school and keep her computer at home (for me).

Speaking of commitments and follow through. I accomplished my #1 goal in moving half way around the world è Paying off my credit card!!! It should feel better than it does, but it doesn’t because I had to use my UAE card a bit lately for some expected (poorly planned for) expenses (new tyres, gym membership, adventure race stuff, car insurance – all of which require yearly advance payments). They have since been properly placed (planned) into my budget.

Now if I can just hold off the temptation for a disc wheel and an SRM until I have the cash, I should be able to continue to live debt free.

I miss cyclocross…

More of France and Some of Italy

Monday after the race Jen, Rebecca, Matt and I set off on the train to Menton, France. Just a little town NE of Nice on the ocean. It was the town Jen and I’s TdF bike tour was supposed to go to, but has since been changed back into Nice.

Our plan was to stay here for two nights and then move onto Monterosso, Italy – the northern most town in Cinque Terre. Once checked into the next 3 Star hotel, which was better than the last 3 Star in Nice, we headed to another large smooth rock beach. We ran into our new friend

Matt (he also raced Nice and stayed with at the EST hotel) there only to get yelled at for talking on a public beach by some French asshole. We were a couple meters away from where they were sitting, but apparently too close to this guy… Matt G is also travelling to Italy and Monaco for the Tour. We wouldn’t run into him again, but it was funny to run into him in Menton – it’s not a tourist attraction.

After we changed we headed back into Nice for the awards dinner. Back on the train to Nice! As I mentioned the awards banquet wasn’t anything special, just free beer and crappy food. Back on the Tram to the Train and back to Menton.

The next day we did as any good Frog and walked down to the Patisserie and got some pain du chocolate and espresso. Then headed to the beach – correction, large smooth stony beach. We bought some bamboo-ish mats and relaxed. Did some swimming and lounging on the floating swim docks. Had some crepes and beer for lunch, laid around some more until the weather started to turn. At that point it was time for Mat and Rebecca to head back to Nice, Mat had a plane to catch as did Rebecca. Those two are getting married in Windsor Canada next month, which is why I will be travelling home for a days, since I already fly halfway around the world, might as well finish the trip to see family and friends.

That night Jen and I had mussels, frites and a craft of wine! It was a good meal along the waterfront, we have eaten a lot of meals along the water, it’s brilliant! The next day we were off on the train again to Monterosso, Itlay and Cinque Terre.

It was a rather long train ride, 3 or 4 hours I think. We had assigned seats for this ride. At one of the stops a couple Swedes, a father and two sons, joined us in our cabin. Kenneth is a good guy and it was fun talking with him about everything from his Charity Golf Tournaments in South Africa to Dubai. He will hook us up with a friend who knows all the tele ski routes in Sweden, hut to hut adventure! Jen is stoked! It was cool to see a father backpacking around Europe with his two boys under 13…the loved Amsterdam! The kids had pot leaf t-shirts and socks, pretty funny.

We got off the train in Monetrosso and walked to our B&B. It was a very nice little B&B. We had nice little small room with a bathroom down the hall. I told Jen in Nice that I can do small “Euro” hotels, etc that are nice, newly renovated and clean, but I cannot do dirty, old and smelly “Euro” little rooms – which our hotel in Nice was – Hotel Albert. This place was recently renovated with granite, marble and new furnishings. The outside wasn’t much, but come on, it was build in the 1700s. They do plan to paint and fix up the exterior, but frankly, it was fine. Our plan here was to relax tonight, hike south through to Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore to take the short 15min train back to Monetrosso, chill, but the feet up and then leave back to Nice the next day. Tonight we ate at “La Tortuga” on the cliffs of Monetrosso. Awesome. It was a little spendy, but we were below budget and it was worth it.

We started out from Monetrosso in the morning, expecting to visit and see the next 4 towns before coming home on the train. There are estimated hiking times that say between 4 and 5 hours to get to Riomaggoire. We found these to be very generous, like 3 hours tops of hiking. The trail out starts off going up endless stairs and is the hardest of the 4 trails and longest. I’m glad we started this way and not the other way. It was pretty humid and just coming off the race, the legs were a little fatigued, but they warmed up quickly. It would be a cool trail run – as we saw one couple running just as we were talking about running the route. It’s only 9ish kilometers, start to finish. Once passed all the climbing it was all downhill, which I didn’t like so much after awhile. The views at various points along the route are awesome, so worth it.

As we walked down the vary narrow path into town lined with buildings – very cool – we reached Vernazza. This is my favorite place of the trip and of Cinque Terre. The buildings seem very tall as you walk down the narrow streets to the water. It has a nice little beach, several cafes in the main square, very nice. We made it a point to eat and drink in each city, so here I got some pizza, a coke, a beer and some fruit. We sat in the square and chilled for a little bit. We made good time, so we took our time eating and people watching. It was early and we weren’t that hungry and we didn’t know this would be the coolest place we went to, so in hindsight I wish we would have spent more time there. Off to Corniglia…or Cornholio ala Beavis as I called it for the trip for no real reason.

Again this hike was 90-100mins reportedly, but we covered it in 60mins or so. It wasn’t hard, just a lot of steps up and then you go down. The routes get flatter and shorter as you go south. Cornholio is the one town that sits way up on the cliffs with no easy water access and maybe for that reason, it was the more boring, less interesting town. However, the vine covered café we ate at was super good. We had a cheese and honey plate with some different breads. Cheese, honey on bread was super good. A combination I have never had before, but will try to recreate soon. Don’t know the cheeses we had, should have written them down, but I have a picture! Jen sucked down a couple glasses of wine as I drank a beer under the shade of the grape vines, very nice.

Off to Manarola (or Motorola as I called it). The trail started by descending 100s of stairs to the train station. Motorola is the one town that if you take the train to, you have a nice steep stair climb to get to, the others are all downhill. The trail is a wider, more gravely trail now that goes pretty close to the cliff edge and water at times. The views are still incredible, not a bad view in the bunch. The hike was 30mins or less to here. Manarola has a smaller little cove similar to Vernazza. We stopped and got some ice cream here, it was kinda warm, so the ice cream was stop on.

Leaving here was a steep stair section that lead to the famous Via dell'Amore (Lover’s Lane). The trail was right on the shear rocky cliffs, well more like carved into the cliffs. Every once and awhile there would be a set of a dozen or so steps leading down only to stop – leaving you to find your way down the rock cliffs to the water. We ventured down to get in the water, but the good spots were taken. So, we just went to the town and hit that beach. This part was very short, like 15mins.

Riomaggoire is the jump off point for everyone going north as well as the cruise tours, so it was pretty busy and by that time the beach was very crowded as well. We headed to the beach (bought a few beers first) and walked past everyone to a giant somewhat flat rock were we could relax and get in the water. Not the best access to the water, but it will do. As I jumped in, my knee hit a jelly fish…that stung for awhile as we swam around. It was kinda cold, so we headed back to the rock to act like lizards. It wasn’t easy getting out on the big rocks. I had just got out as Jen gets stung by a jellyfish too! They got her hand and hip with some nice welts. I tried to help her get out, but I fell down a hole scraping my leg up. Her skin is really sensitive as here welts were far more worse looking than mine on my knee. They just seemed to get worse as the day went on and she wouldn’t let me pee on her… Oh well. We washed off the welts and my scrapes and took a short nap. Now it’s time to head back on the train.

Back in Monterosso we were hungry. However, everything seemed to have stopped serving food, it was like 3pm…WTF? We found an American bar which was right by the B&B to get something. We then wondered around Monetrosso, saw the giant (rock sculpture in the side of the cliffs – used to have a restaurant on top) and looked in the shops. Dinner was had at another café down the street, not bad seafood pasta, but sauce got all over my shirt, I was so careful though! After a cocktail at the American bar again, I needed some more food so we went to the pizza place next door. We got a pepperoni pizza in the shape of a heart – the pizza dude thought he was clear! It was very good though.

Back on the train to Nice! Going by train is great unless you the aircon stops working and you sit at planned and unplanned stops for far too long… As it so happened to us on the way to Nice. Alright, finally back in Nice after a pretty gross 3 hours in a sweat box train. We’re at the Holiday Inn, another 3 star hotel and still moving up as far as hotel quality is concerned and that is a good thing.

Tonight is the welcome dinner with the BikeStyle Tour group. We’ll be with these people for the next 6 days riding the courses and watching the Tour de France. Should be interesting.

IM France Race Report 2009

Overall, this was a good race. I performed worse than I expected, but I feel I did well. 465^th OA and 97^th in AG is nowhere near the stats from South Africa, but the Euros are fast blokes!

I can’t remember what happened the day before the race very well. We got in a quick swim, a short ride (legs felt good) and a short run (legs felt good again). Went and stood in the huge ass line to check in the bike and drop off the T1/T2 bags. Triangle Events really needs to get this bike check in sorted. South Africa was worse, but standing around for 30minutes is fucking ridiculous. Once inside, it was smooth sailing. Transition is a good 500m long, hence the long

transition times. I made a last second decision to leave my shoes on my bike, so I didn’t leave them in the bag – as we had no access to them in the morning. I was using my road shoes, so they were a little harder to get on, but no worries. After that, Jen and I had dinner and laid out the mornings gear and put the nutrition on ice, no fridge in the room.

Race morning was nice. The start only a few hundred meters away. The hotel was in a great spot. Had some peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and some Inifinit drink and headed down. I eventually made my way to the swim start meeting up with Jen and Rebecca along the way. I forgot to Body Glide my feet, as I always do and thank fully, it didn’t come back to haunt me.

The swim start was sectioned off in “estimated time” chutes. I didn’t pay much attention to them, I just saw the pros in the next chute and lined up. They were small, so I wasn’t front row, but the horribly rocky beach start gave me plenty of breathing room running to the water. No one moved very fast. As the gun went off, I had more trouble than usual getting

started and getting free water. Aside from my first IM, this was the most tugging and kicking I have done. At one point I got dragged backwards by a female! WTF? I turned around and pushed her off, kicked a few times real hard and never looked back. Crazy. I was breathing to one side for the better part of the 1000m+ to the first bouy. By doing so, I was faster and more relaxed, but I also was going off course. I felt I was swimming over/infront of lots of people. The lead kayak with a flag was moving from left to right… I was swimming diagonal. I realized this, but failed to correct soon enough and I was swimming back to the bouy instead of swimming to the bouy. I started on the inside and ended up too far outside. Either that or the current was taking everyone…

Once around the first of three outside bouys, it was back to the shore for a short run. Getting out on the large smooth gravel was ok, not easy, but ok. Back in the water for a short 1400m loop to finish. I had no idea where I was really, didn’t matter. I swam the last loop pretty good I thought, and the splits reflect that (1:37/100 in the first loop, then 1:27/100 on the second).

As I mentioned, the transition areas were really long. At least 500m. No wetsuit strippers either. Transitions are always pretty smooth for me. Lots of people sprinted past me with and without their bikes. Never made sense to me to run so fast in transition. There were over 50 racks of bikes, I was near the front, so I ran a long was without my bike, which is why I elected to run that distance without my shoes on. Also was sure if I could just run with them out of the tent or not since we had to have on our helmets. Got the bike, started the PowerTap and off I went running with the bike. As usual, there was a clusterfuck at the mounting line since everyone has to stop, put one leg over the bike and then get going…idiots. No offense to those who do that, but when you can swim under 60 minutes, you best be getting on the bike faster than that, especially if you just sprinted by me in transition and I just passed you on my bike while you were throwing a leg over the top tube!!! As I mentioned, I was using my road shoes so I had a few extra straps to fix and buckle, but it was fine.

Onto the bike course we go. In preparation for this course, Jen and I and sometimes many others would ride the one mountain in Al Ain and the only other hilly ride we have in the UAE almost every weekend. The mountain gains 900m in 10km and the hilly ride can get up to 2000m in 100km. This, I thought was great prep and it was, just wasn’t my day for bike legs.

The course is three sections, 1/3 flat, 1/3 hills and 1/3 descent. By the time I got to the descent and the rest of the flat I was done. My legs had recovered, but I was done. Long before that I was not in a good space. Things were good leading up to the race, but not so good once it started.

I kept things in check pretty well, much better than in South Africa. I was getting passed left and right by hundreds of people for at least 100kms. Some of these guys were just powering up the hills…I was at 250 watts for the long climbs and they flew passed me as I was standing still. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, I don’t think I say too many of them on the run course, like I would have hope. The Euros are beasts.

Anyway, the bike course is fantastic! Totally awesome and is now my favorite bike course. I have un finished business on that course for sure. I did not get to enjoy the descents as much as I would have liked for two reasons: 1) Legs were hurting and couldn’t push the watts I wanted to 2) Too many slower people. I think the later could have been solved if I could push the descents like I wanted to. I had hoped to “make up” time there, but it wasn’t happening. The last bit of flat was into a tailwind and I did reasonably well against that and coming into town good. I was getting tired and maybe slightly undernourished. I did eat better than I remember in any of my other races. Definitely worth mentioning is the fact that not once did I worry about the run when I was feeling my legs go and not holding steady.

They took my bike once I got to an open rack and for such a crappy bike split, there were 30+ racks still open, I was at #11…that made me feel somewhat better about my performance. Into the tent, on with the socks and socks and out I went. I had planned for 5:20/km pace and to eat every 5ish kilometers which just happened to be at each turn around. The run was 4 loops of 10ish kms. At the aide station following each turn around I ate. It was a good plan and definitely helped me keep on track eating and pacing.

I saw Jen as I was finishing my first lap, she looked good, I didn’t stop to chat. On the subsequent loop I saw her again and I stopped, she didn’t feel all that great. I gave her some advice to try and get food/water in and I was off. The next time I saw her, she was worse and still not able to eat. I was out of options for her to try. The stop was longer as I tried to keep her spirits up. I saw her once more before I finished on my way in and I was really hoping she got things worked out because she wasn’t too far behind me and that was very motivating for me. Not that she was so close, but rather she was doing well and I was very happy and proud of her. It was really good for me to have her in the race, better than having her watch. It gave more motivation and encouragement to know she was really there with me, not just watching.

Some people mentioned it was hot, I think it was over 30-32C (high 80s/low 90s). but it wasn’t a factor and I avoided the showers at the aide stations. I only saw a couple people not run through them. I guess living in the Gulf has it’s advantages. I just wasn’t able to capitalize on them as much as I could have done when I was in South Africa on that day.

I ran in under 11 hours and made it under a 4 hour marathon, which after my bike time, was exactly as slow as I was going to tolerate. My stops with Jen got a little longer as I saw her. I hope and I think I did help her get through some of the race and I didn’t mind the extra time on the clock. I could have saved 5 minutes, but it wasn’t worth it to me.

I didn’t have any expectations going into this race as the bike component was a bike question mark. I knew it was going to be a “slow” day, which is why going under 11 hours was perfectly ok, just not perfect. I learn more and more each time, but as Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” and so I think I am insane sometimes when I race Ironmans. I guess that’s why I keep doing them. It’s better than being Pavlov’s dog.

Post race sucked, no, really it did. We couldn’t find food anywhere. It was close to midnight as we left the medical tent. I should have got an IV along with Jen. I went and dropped off my bike after riding with Jen for her last 10kms. Still unable to eat or drink anything, I asked her to stop, but she wasn’t having any of it. I was with her, so I felt better about being there is something were to happen. And at that point the med tents seemed to sprout up all along the course. I don’t remember seeing them earlier in the day, but I’m sure they were there. I would meet her every aide station where we would sit and/or lay down depending on how she felt. With 5kms to go she ran it in. I waited every once and awhile to see if she was “ok.” I really happy and proud she finished despite her run troubles and even more excited that she did very well in the swim and bike, which means she will me back for more. I told her she needs 30 days before she can sign up for another one.

Again the best part of the awards (until I get on the podium) is the free booze. Nothing like going and getting 4 beers at time! Triangle Events is good about the booze, just wish they would have better food. Every place we ate in France was really good, but for some reason, their buffet for the races are crap. Deserts were good though.

Final Numbers:

Swim: 59:49

T1: 4:09

Bike: 5:53

T2: 4:24

Run: 3:57

Total: 10:58 (97^th AG, 465^th OA)

On A Plane in 3 Hours...

Here are some photos of our flat…and the new bike for France! Here’s a “neutral” take on Dubai, somewhat refreshing and it has its moments.

We leave tomorrow night for Ironman France. Am I ready you ask, well, as usual, “I am as ready as I will get.” Maybe I should find a new answer to that question? How about this, “My legs are tired, training in the heat takes it out of you…but I am good mentally.” Better, yes! Honest, check! My mantra for this race, never really had one before, “In order to push yourself, you will have to hurt!”

I think the new Cervelo R3 is all set-up and ready. Those mini ITU aerobars are NOT comfortable, not sure if I will use them, as they are heavy than I would like, but I will put one last effort on them tonight and make a decision. Tubulars are all glued up, bringing along two extra this time, no repeat of South Africa bike check-in. I’m weighing in at 79kilos (174lbs) and I think that is a good race weight, I wanted a kilo less, but I haven’t been disciplined enough in the last couple of weeks. This week is not the week to lose weight. Sleep lots and eat well, and don’t over eat.

The only thing not ready is the 11-28 SRAM Red cassette that I was going to put on Jen’s bike that has not come yet…it was supposed to come with the bike, but didn’t make it in the box and due to an error on the shipping label has been delayed from my Aramex box in NYC. We did swap in a 38 small ring for her, so I am hoping a 38x26 is good enough to spin up the 21km main climb.

We’ll be hitting the following cities on our Tour of Southern France and Northern Italy…

Nice, FR: June 24^th – 28th

Menton, FR: June 29-30th

Monterosso al Mare, IT: July 1^st – 2^nd

Nice, FR: July 3^rd and 4^th

Althen Des Paluds, FR: July 5th

Le Grau du Roi, FR: July 6^th – 7^th

The chaincondoms came today! Hopefully, now we can keep the rear of Jen’s Prado cleaner, less bike chain grease everywhere. Chain stains on beige interior isn’t all that pretty.