Jeff the Killer?

What's up all you savvy Internet people? Another week of training and fundraising has gone by and it was a doozy.

Throughout the week it was pretty standard training, short bikes, short runs,  and some short swims. I did do a 3000m swim, which is about 75% of the swim at the Ironman, so that made me feel good.

Something I started doing while I was deployed was, when I'm riding indoors, every fifteen minutes I get off and do a wall sit for a minute. If you're one of those people that think time is going by too fast, do a wall sit for a minute. It slows time down dramatically.

Then on to my long workouts. 4.5 hour bike on Saturday and a 2.5 hour run on Sunday. My bike on Saturday was pretty fun, and I felt good the whole time. At one point I saw someone riding ahead of me. And since 4.5 hours is a long time to be by yourself, I was dying to catch up, even if it was just to say, "Good morning!" But he/she slowly got farther and farther away. It was like the scene on Cast Away when Tom Hanks loses Wilson. 

So, after I lost my friend who I never met, I actually ran into a group ride. It was a beginner group of people for the most part. But after I passed them, a guy caught up with me and we chatted for a bit. He was confused when I told him I wasn't a part of the group and I was by myself. After a couple of miles (going faster than I wanted) we parted ways.

So I still had a couple hours of climbing hills and cursing the sun. For some reason I had a bunch of Muhammed Ali quotes in my head, so that kept me busy for a while. "I'm so mean I make medicine sick!" "I'm so fast, last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark!" I don't know what any of that has to do with biking, but it got me through the hills.

Finished up my long ride on the trainer.  Sweat  marks on the floor = a successful ride. 

Then, the Sunday run. I started out with Katie and Benny. We ran for about an hour and it was pretty hot. I hadn't pushed the stroller on a run in a while so that was a rude awakening. When I dropped them off I felt pretty good. I went back out into the inferno for an easy hour and a half run.

No. Within 1.5 miles I was walking. The heat felt like it was melting me. It was 11:30 in Middle Georgia, but I felt like I was running on the sun in a sweat suit. As I got to my first aid station (a Shell gas station) I noticed they had slushies. Sometimes you have to get what sounds good. So I ran the next couple miles sipping on my high fructose corn syrup and ice mixture. And then it was gone and I was again completely over heating. I stopped at another gas station and got a Gatorade.

I had to stop at home to get more water. With only 30 minutes left in the run I laid down in the living room covered in sweat asking myself a bunch of questions about why I'm doing this. I don't think I answered the questions, but I did get up and finish the run. Holy hot town batman.

After some recovery Skyline Chili, and a nap we went over to The Methodist Home to go to their chapel service. It was really awesome! They started with three girls doing a choreographed dance. Then a couple more kids spoke about their recent mission trip experiences, then I was on. 

"Open with a joke," I tell myself. "Well I won't be dancing.." Two people laughed. I like those odds, so I kept going. I told them all about the race and they were actually pretty interested. "How long will it take you? Is the swim upstream? Can you shower afterwards? You do it on ONE day? What's your baby's name?"

Afterwards, a boy named Jordan came up to me and asked me some questions. Then he asked what my name is and I said Jeff. And he said, "Oooohh. Jeff the killer!" I'm almost positive that was a compliment.

Donation Update:
We are so close to reaching the half way mark for our $2,000 goal!  As of today, we are at 45%!

Thanks to:
Kelly, Casey & Kelly for sponsoring a total of 3 miles!

Also, My mother-in-law, Patty, & brother-in-law, Danny, sold a couple event tickets to a friend for $40 & donated the proceeds to sponsor 4 more miles!  Thank you!

-Jeff

Key West for work? I guess I'll go

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. That's because, any time I'm not swimming, biking, or running, all I want to do is sleep. Really, the only time I sit down is to watch Jeopardy, and I'm usually too busy heckling Alex Trebek to enjoy it. But anyway, there's about five weeks left until the race and I am really starting to feel the exhaustion setting in. Luckily, I'm not some Nancy pants, and I'm going to make sure I finish my training plan with a bang. Plus, it helps that my taper is only two weeks away (a taper is the last couple weeks before a race, when you begin to tone it down a bit, to allow your body to recover.)

But anyway, I'm having fun, and we're raising money. Life couldn't be better. This week should be awesome. I have a 4.5 hour bike on Saturday followed by a 2.5 hour run on Sunday (followed by sadness and soreness on Monday). And for the first time (since Christmas 2012), we get to go visit The Methodist Home and hang out with the kiddos! I'm hoping to convince some of them to think about doing a triathlon one day. But we'll start with baby steps.

The past couple weeks of training have been brutal, but awesome. I had a 2 hour and 45 minute run (my longest run yet), a 4 hour bike where all I did was hills, (my highest elevation gain yet), and a brick workout of a 4 hour bike immediately followed by a 1.5 hour run. Yes, that is a five and a half hour workout. And yes, I am a crazy person. But, is it really so crazy to enjoy running until you nearly collapse? Dean Karnazes would disagree. Look him up; he's insane! He has run the Bad Water Ultramarathon (135 mile running race..through Death Valley..in summer) and a multitude of other crazy distance races (some over 200 miles). He sums it up best with this quote, "Somewhere along the line we seemed to have confused comfort with happiness." I agree, Dean.

One thing that I have found the most fun and challenging of this endurance training is the logistics. If you go run for nearly 3 hours in the sun, you run out of food and water. This is fun because I get to stumble into gas stations (like a zombie) and grab whatever looks good at the time. On my long run the other day, I had three stops; 2 at gas stations and 1 at home. All in all, I consumed all of the water, a coconut water, a large Powerade, a cranberry Red Bull, a bag of pretzels, and a large pickle. There are few feelings that are better than running down highway 41, on mile 14, chomping on a zesty garlic pickle. I know that I am not an Ironman yet, but I do, in fact, have an iron stomach.

Another thing I've noticed while out on long runs and bike rides are my mood swings. I'm sure most people are familiar with, "Runner's High." It's a feeling people get while running when they feel "in the zone." If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Then there is a, "runner's low," where you feel like you can't get into a groove and the world is against you. Well, as the miles get longer, the highs get higher and the lows get lower. At mile 12 I can be yelling at cars that pass too close, and mile 13 I can be fighting off the urge to dance because Party Rock Anthem came on Pandora. It is like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing.

Oh yeah, then we went to Key West. I was asked if I would go down to Key West on a business trip for a week. So, I stepped up and said, "Yes." Listen, I'm no hero. But when my country needs me to go to a beautiful tropical island, I grit my teeth, and I go.

Truman Annex NAS from the plane

Of course I'm kidding; I love it there. This time, (since it was the week of our 4 year anniversary) I flew Katie and Benny down too. So, it was half work trip, half vacation trip. I was also able to get some open water swims in at Zachary Taylor State Park. Between all of the working, and mahi-mahi sandwiches, I was able to get some decent workouts in. But I just mainly focused on being relaxed and having some fun time with the family.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

Fort Zachary Taylor Beach

Taking a break to play with Benny during my open water swim training

Relaxing family beach day 

When we got back from the work-cation, we went to a going away party for some friends, went to bed, and I was up at 5 the next morning; back to the grind. I had a 4 hour bike ride scheduled. When my alarm went off, I immediately thought of all the reasons why I shouldn't go out and ride. "It's probably raining. Am I sick? I bet I'm sick. I shouldn't ride because I flew on a plane yesterday. I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere." But, for some reason, I stumbled out of bed to make a cup of coffee. If I can just make it to the kitchen and start making coffee, I'm good to go.

I decided to do the last hour or so on the trainer because I was bored of the road and out of food. So, Katie surprised me with some graham crackers and peanut butter, and a fruit smoothie! And then, of course, goetta for breakfast.

Donation Update:

We hit a BIG milestone today! Half of the 140.6 mile race has been sponsored!  We have raised over $800 so far, which brings us to 41% of our goal!

Thanks to:

Jim, Barry, Penny, Scott, Kelly, Annie, Del, Julie, Nicole, Doug, Edmond, Jenny & Zach for sponsoring a total of 20 miles!!

We had a huge jump in donations in the last few days.  Let's keep them coming!

Well, I think that's everything. Until next time!

Jeff

"Sometimes the road less traveled, is less traveled for a reason."

-Jerry Seinfeld

Birthday & Training

It's been a busy couple of weeks. So, for the two or so people that read this blog (one being my mom) I apologize for my tardiness.

Last week was Benny's big birthday bash. So, I had a lot of dad stuff to do (cut grass, grill food). But the miles were not going to get done by themselves, so there still had to be early mornings filled with bike rides on the trainer and runs before dawn.

Friday, everyone came over for a pre-party. Knowing I had a big bike ride the next morning, I decided it was best to carbo-load on some Marco's Pizza and IPA from the Lazy Dog Growler store. It was not ideal, but it was delicious, and I do not regret it in the least.

Our friends, Brittany and Brandi, came in from Cincinnati and stayed at our house during the party weekend. One morning I came back on a bike ride to refill my water bottles and get some food, and head back out into the relentless Georgia sun. Brittany asked Katie, "Didn't he just get back?" I guess it's confusing to normal people why someone would ride a bike for several hours, come into the air conditioning, only to leave again. Yeah it doesn't make much sense to me either.

That was on Saturday morning, before Benny's birthday party. Around the time people started arriving for the party was the time I realized I had a fever and was sick..again. I can't imagine that the hilly 3.5 hour bike ride helped any. But, we kept on with the party, and it was a blast. Everyone, including the birthday boy, had a lot of fun. It was awesome seeing all of my family and friends.

The next morning I was scheduled to run 2.5 hours. There was no way. I was beyond exhausted and still pretty sick. I really wanted to run still, but Katie told me how bad of an idea it was. If it wasn't for her, I would do a lot of dumb stuff. But luckily she lets me know when I am being irrational. Then, minutes later the heavens opened up and it started storming. She was right. But still, having missed such a big workout really bummed me out! 

The following week I hit all my workouts pretty much right as planned. My brother Scott, his girlfriend Jenna and their dog Stella came to visit us this weekend. Then, I woke up sick again on Saturday! What?! I felt really nauseous and decided it was better to get some rest and do the ride on Sunday. Mondays are my rest days, so I could do my long run then! No big deal!

Sunday's long bike (4 hours) was awesomely brutal. I only averaged a little over 15mph, but I had 3000ft of elevation gain. This is super important because Louisville's bike course is filled with hills, and I plan on showing up prepared! I pretended I was some Tour de France guy climbing the Alps or something. It helped. Don't judge me. When you're alone for 4 hours you need something to pass the time.

Next week is a big week! On Saturday I'm doing a 4 hour bike and then a 1.5 hour run. For those of you not familiar with triathlon, this is called a "brick." Where you go from a bike ride, ditch the bike, change shoes, and go for a run. For example, "I had a brick workout today, now I can't walk." I was told that it got its name from your legs feeling like bricks afterwards, but who knows.

Donation Updates:
We are 31% of the way to our goal!  So awesome!

Thanks to:
Matt, the Brunsmans, & Jamie for sponsoring a total of 6 miles!

Benny also received $40 as part of his birthday gift from his Grandpa Tim to sponsor 4 miles!

Also, a big thanks to my in-laws, Patty & Gary, for collecting enough money from their guests, at their annual Music fest, to sponsor 6 miles!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."