Zero Regrets

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Happy friday everyone! Yep, we made it through another week. Work this week has been somewhat stressful so I'm looking forward to the downtime of a weekend. Today is a rest day for me because I want to take a rest day. I don't have a plan. There is no schedule. My body is tired so I'm going to let it rest. I've been riding like a fiend for the last week and I also two very intense strength training days. Time to heal and rest and get back to it tomorrow. If there is one thing that I learned through Marathon training was the true value of a rest day as a vital component of being an athlete. You need to rest as much as you need to work hard. You can consider it a reward for hard work!

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Two months ago I read a book called 'Zero Regrets' written by Apolo Ohno, olympic short track skating champion. It covers his life growing up with only his dad, his trials and tribulations as a young person and ultimately his decision and then committment to become a champion skater. He points out struggles that we have all wrestled with at one point in our lives. As he was competing against the best skaters in the world occasionally he would have doubts about whether or not he could beat them. He took on a personal mantra of 'Zero Regrets'. What he meant was he would train his absoutely hardest and give skating every last drop he could give it and then in the end the results would be what they would be. He wouldn't focus on wins and loses only if he had given it everthing that he could. It was a really great, uplifting, positive book. After the Salt Lake olympics he really struggled with coming back for another olympic games.

Ultimately he decided to compete in the Torino games but he also comitted to one very hard core training regimin. His trainer had him put up a list of 'positives' everywhere in his house where it could be seen at any point in the day no matter where in his house he was. I wrote it down myself and actually have it pinned up at work. I wanted to share it with you today to keep you all positive, motivated and uplifted no matter what is going on in your  life. I've been going through boughts of doubt now and then healing from my stress-fracture, but I won't let it keep me down. I hope it inspires you as much as it did me!


(Substitute 'skates' with 'running shoes', 'ice conditions' with 'open road' and 'skater' with 'runner' and this completely applies to all of us!)

THE POWER OF POSITIVE THOUGHT AND ATTITUDE

            THOUGHT = IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE, IT WILL HAPPEN!

            ATTITUDE = POSITVE ATTITUDE WILL ALLOW YOU TO

                        PERFORM MAXIMALLY, BOTH

                        PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY

THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THOUGHT AND ATTITUDE

            NEGATIVE THOUGHT = WILL DESTROY ALL DREAMS

            NEGATIVE ATTITUDE = WILL RESTRICT PERFORMANCE,

                        BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY

METAL CONDITIONING IS AS KEY AS YOUR PHYSICAL FOR SUCCESS

            YOU WILL BLOCK ALL NEGATIVE THOUGHT!!

            YOU WILL REPLACE ALL NEGATIVE AT ONCE WITH

                        POSITIVE THOUGHT AND ATTITUDE.

            YOU WILL VISUALIZE SUCCESS EVERY NIGHT

                        THROUGH THE GAMES.

            YOU WILL BELIEVE YOU CAN DESTROY ANY

                        OTHER SKATER IN THE WORLD.

            REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU THINK OF THEIR SKILL!

            REGARDLESS OF ICE CONDITIONS!

            REGARDLESS OF THE FEEL OF YOUR SKATES!

WHETHER YOU TRULY BELIEVE SOMETHING OR NOT, YOU ARE RIGHT!

            YOU ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD. DO NOT LET

                        YOUR MIND DESTROY THAT REALITY.

IT IS WHAT IT IS!

MENTAL WILL DO ONE OF TWO THINGS:  HELP YOU OVERCOME OR DEFEAT YOU

To accomplish your goal, you have to be willing to sacrifice beyond what others are willing to sacrifice; you have to be willing to train at levels others are not willing to train at; you have to be willing to accept accomplishing goals that others never reach.

Have a great weekend everyone! Make sure to stop by and wish my blogger friend Amanda good luck on her very first Marathon! She's going to kill it!! What do you have planned for the weekend? Any races/long runs or rides?

Open Letter To Cyclists

Let's stay safe out there.

Happy Thursday everyone! Today is hot here in North Carolina. It is going to be the second day in a row where the temp’s will top out in the low 90’s. Crazy! A week ago it was only 60 degrees by noon and by the time I headed out the door to go to the gym at 8am it was already 63 degrees. I went to the gym to do some strength training and stay out of the heat. Tomorrow is a rest day and I have at least 45 miles that I’m riding on Saturday morning. I noticed some good strength gains today. My body is adapting well to the strength training. This made me realize that when my stress-fracture is fully healed and I can return to running that I need to include much more strength training and cycling as ‘cross-training’. I was strictly a ‘runner’ and occasionally lifted weights when I was Marathon training. It’s interesting the things that you realize when you are forced by injury to slow down and ‘smell the roses’.

As promised I’m putting out this post about what cyclists can do to keep themselves safer while riding out on the open road. My last post, ‘Open Letter To Motorists’ really struck a nerve with cyclists. I put that post out on my Runner’s World blog and received the most responses by far compared to any other post that I’ve ever done. I wanted to talk to the cyclists today and offer some hints/tips/suggestions to keep us safer out there.

Dear Cyclist (If you ride on two wheels, this is you),

Please stay to the right side of the road. This is a tough one. I usually ride as close to the shoulder as I possibly can. Yes, that means to the right of the white line. When you start seeing bits of glass, stones and other debris you have to bail on that plan because it doesn’t take much sometimes and you’ll hear the dreaded sound, -PHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHH!!!- Damn, Flat! (knocking on wood, I can’t believe that I even just mentioned that!) I see a lot of cyclists that fade into the middle of the lane when they ride or worse, they are down on their drops or in aero bars when the conditions aren’t safe. We need to save the ‘aero’ ride for when it is truly safe around us. Also, the number aggravating claimed by riders is when they come up on us and we are riding two abreast in large groups. Now, this is a survival move because it does cause the cars to slow down. Safety in numbers. Believe me, I get it. I’ve been in the safety of that pack before. It’s wonderful. I’m just pointing out that if it’s busy we should be single file.

Don’t yell at drivers, even if they yell at you. This one baffles me. I’ve had drivers go by and yell at me and be rude with fingers or throw trash, etc. I even had a full beer can just miss me over my left shoulder but I get the beer splash in the eyes. Fun stuff. I’ve yelled back at drivers before and then they get mad enough where they want to pull over and rip you off the bike and beat you up. Who started it anyway? Seriously though, we just need to get a thicker skin and let it go.

Be a defensive rider. This is probably the most important point. Here is what I mean. You need to be constantly of your surroundings. Develop that rider’s ‘sixth sense’. I like to tell my kids at lacrosse practice, 'keep your head on a swivel'. Constant awareness. When I ride I’m always looking about 15 feet in front of me and then scanning into the horizon for road hazards, oncoming traffic, etc. Every 15 seconds or so I take a quick look over my left shoulder to make sure no traffic is coming up from behind me. I also try not to take a drink from a water bottle when the traffic is heavier. I always have to look down for a second, get the bottle in the cage and then refocus ahead of me. That second could be critical to survival. I also assume that there is a car coming down every side street or driveway. Just 2 days ago I was in my neighborhood, roughly 300 feet from my house when this huge SUV came barreling down his driveway and never looked for a second. It’s only when I shouted out ‘Hey, I’m back here!’ did he even bother to look and then eventually stop. If I had assumed that he saw me I would have been wearing his license plate as a necklace. When cars approach from a side street I look them right in the eye so they know that I know they are there and that they can’t pull out in front of me. If someone let’s me pass without killing me I give a smile and a quick ‘thanks for giving me the right of way’wave even though it was mine in the first place.

We need to lose our bad attitudes. What I mean is, we don’t own the road. The cars do. I know that it’s unfair but as my manager says, ‘it is what it is’. We’re entitled to our rights and the law protects us out there but the roads don’t belong to us. We’re trying to do what we can to get some respect out there. We need to smile and wave no matter what. We can only change the hearts of minds of the drivers one at a time.

Just as a courtesy can we wave at each other? There have been plenty of times where I've passed a fellow cyclist and waved only to get that 'I'm ignoring you' look. C'mon people, we're all in the same boat. Would it kill you to wave, nod, grunt, something? 

I hope that this has been helpful. Have a great night!

Sincerely,

Open Letter To Motorists

Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?

I woke up today and realized that I only have two more training weekends until the Bloomin' Metric 100K. That's not a lot of time. Luckily I was able to get in a long ride on Saturday (finally stopped raining) of 45 miles. Last week I was able to ride on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - all about 25 miles each. This ride isn't a race it's just a 'ride' so it's more like making the distance than getting there quickly. But there are massive hills and plenty of them so training a lot of miles is especially important because there really aren't any big hills around here.


While I was riding this week I started to realize why I had gotten away from a little bit. One important factor is that riding in traffic is dangerous. There a lot of distracted drivers out there. I decided to put together a letter to motorists and then I will be writing one to cyclists to try and bring some understanding out there. There is only one road, we need to be able to share it.


Dear Motorist (if you sit behind a steering wheel, this is you),

I wanted to bring some awareness of a situation that I've been noticing over the last week of riding my bike. These are a few tips/tricks/strategies that I think if followed would make you a whole lot safer to be around. I know that I'll be using a fairly broad brush stroke with this but for the most part it holds true. Now, before you get your undies in a bunch, you are not completely to blame for the traffic mess around cyclists out on the open road. Cyclists share a part of the responsibility and I'm getting a letter ready for them next.


A few things to know about cyclists so that you'll know what it's like to walk a mile in their shoes (um, ride a mile in theiur shoes):

When you approach a cyclist from behind you don't have to 'honk'. Believe me, we know that you are back there. We know well before you think we might know that you are there. We can here your tires coming for at least 1/2 mile away. Sometimes when it's windy outside we can't hear you from that far away but we can always here you coming. If you honk it's more than likely to scare the crap out of us and cause us to swerve and crash.

Don't yell at us to move over as you pass because we are as far over as we can get. I ride on the right side of the white line as much as I can but we I start seeing gravel and glass that plan goes right out the window. I don't want to ride my bike there anymore than you want to drive your car there. Enough said.


The brake is not an optional piece of equipment. I know in the days of satelite radio, heated leather seats and side curtain air bags, the brake is not sexy. You won't see it listed on a list of new car features at the dealership. It is really important though. It's that pedal on the left of the accelerator which you all know very well. You like to pound on it as you pass in a way of saying 'stupid biker, get out of my way'. The only you really are doing by doing that is wasting gas. Hey, I'm only trying to do my part, gas is expensive these days.

You need to slow down as you go by. It's okay if you're two seconds later to wherever it is that you are going I'm sure.When you pass by, just do it at a medium speed. You don't have to pretend that you are a missile going by. The worst is when I couldn't cross traffic because of all of the cars. I stopped on the side of the road and stood there waiting for traffic to clear. The driver behind me literally stopped dead because she didn't know what to do. Seriously? I didn't know that a person on the side of the road was such a distraction.

When the road gets rough it's really hard to ride in a straight line. I know that it's hard to imagine but a 14 pound bike with a 190 lb. rider on it does tend to get rocked around pretty good. Please keep that in mind when your shock-absorbing 3,000-5,000 lb. vehicle floats by.


Iphone toting mini-van moms are the most dangerous specious on the planet. Yep, I said it. I'll put you up against a Great White Shark or a charging Rhino any day. You're crazy! Get the hell out of my way and screw you if you don't like it. As you pass by I notice that the most important thing in the world is whatever is displayed on your Iphone. Guess what? Whatever it is, it can wait until you stop at a light or when there is no traffic around. That's all I need is to get run over because you're texting your trainer to let them know your running late because Jr. wouldn't get out of bed. Just think of what actions you're teaching your child in the back seat. Kids learn by watching you, especially at a young age. You're showing that it's okay to drive while distracted when actually it's not.

Mini-van driving dad is the second most dangerous specious on the face of the planet. Either you really don't care about anyone else on the road or you're just really upset about having to drive a mini-van. It's not my fault so don't take it out on me please.


Then there is the 'gear-geek'. This is the person that is trying to go by you and scope out what kind of rig you are riding and if you are sporting the 2012 version of Giro's latest helmet. Eyes on the road please my friend.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to start a fight. If it ever came to a physical altercation the motorists would win 100% of the time hands down. From you're biggest Escalade to the smallest Smart car. You would all win. I do what I can out there but some of really just don't care. I've almost been T-boned twice from cars pulling into the road I was in. We just need to come together out there. There a lot more of you than us out there but I'm going to tell you something that may shock you. We aren't going anywhere.


Even in your best attempts to drive us from the road. We aren't going anywhere. I've heard from motorists that have said that the reason that we are so hated is because we ride in the middle of the road and sometimes in large groups we ride next each other (or as we say, two abreast) and take up a lot of room on the road. It's a valid point and one I will address to the cyclists. It's aggravating but there is a reason why we do it. Safety in numbers. If we stick together then we are more likely to make it home alive. It's kind of like a school of fish scaring of a predator. If we look bigger then maybe you wont mess with us. AND it gets you slow down.

I leave you with this. On Thursday I was riding along minding my own business when I saw something in the road. It looked some birds or something. As I approached I saw that it was 3 turkey vultures eating some road kill. Now, if you know anything about those birds you know that they are the size of a medium-sized dog with razor claws, massive beaks (for tearing flesh) and they were cleaning up what looked like to be a decent sized snapping turtle that had gotten squished. They weren't going to move for anything or anyone. Since they were real close to the side of the road I only moved over about a foot to get around them when this car went by at about 60mph and nearly clipped me. The 'WHOOSH' scared the hell out of me and nearly made me crash. As I looked up, I noticed the Toyota Prius fading in the distance with a big bumper sticker plastered on the back. Know what it said?? Coexist. How ironic. I suppose if he had left my broken carcus on the side of the road the Turkey Vultures would have taken care of me. As long as my demise didn't harm the environment, I'm sure it would have been okay to leave me on the side of the road. Get the point?

Love and Kisses,

New York Dreams Delayed

Nope!

Nope. I didnt' get in. After waiting around all day, whining on blogs, waiting for emails and even baby sitting my credit card statement all day, I didn't make it. I have to say that the whole process with getting into the New York Marathon has been a bit of a disappointment. The website had problems all day the only way that I finally learned what the heck was going on was from some one's twitter feed. I was finally able to log into the NYC website and find that I would not be a participant in 2012.

I don't want to bring the whole thing down but I bet they'll be hearing about it for awhile from the masses.

Congrats to all of my friends who did manage to make it in! I'll be running the NYC Marathon vicariously through you! I want details!! I'll focus on healing and the half-marathon in Falmouth, MA that I will now be running in October.

Did you manage to make it into NYC? Did you not get in? Did you face the same frustrations as me?

Believe. Achieve.

It was a very cold and rainy weekend and I didn't get any workouts in of any kind due to my brother-in-law paying us a visit this weekend. It was great to see him but it's also nice to have your home back to yourself. Today I was determined to get a ride in before coming in to work. My attitude has been a little off the last few days. I started drifting into a bit of a 'poor me' mind set because I can't run right now. I had to reel that in quickly.



My two-wheeled best friend!



 It was cold this morning, about 40 degrees. That doesn't sound that cold when you run, but it is when you are riding roughly 19mph into a headwind. By the time that I had all of my riding gear on I basically looked like a snowman on two wheels. It's important to get everything covered because wind will find any bare spots and make you pay for it. I got about 1/2 mile down the road and realized that I didn't have anything covering my ears. That made for a rough start.

This is about how I looked! (Source)

As I was peddling along I noticed that my legs weren't as strong as they have been in the last month or so when trying to power up the slight hills around here. I have to admit that I started getting a little down on myself. 'You're not training as hard', 'You're not working out as much'. Isn't it funny how negativity, even slight negativity can quickly creep into your head? When you are working out by yourself it's very important to start talking (not actually talking, that would be a little weird, just in your head) right back to the negativity.

I started thinking about all of the positives in my life in the last 30 or so days.

1. I just completed my first marathon. Are you kidding me? Most people in the world, including runners, will never attempt that much less finish it.

2. I just got my series 7 at work and got a bit of a promotion. More opportunity is never a bad thing.

3. I started this blog roughly 6 months ago and have met all kinds of awesome, positive people. You always have to surround yourself with positive people. There are too many negative people out there. It's easy to find them especially at work. Schedule stinks, not paid enough, can't stand the boss, etc. Try and find the people that smile through the day and cling to them like grim death.

4. Despite a stress-fracture minor set back, I'm healthy and will be back stronger than ever. This goes without saying.

5. I'm motivated to always be improving and accomplishing new goals. Even if regaining lost strength/fitness is one of those goals, I'll make it happen!

If you believe, then you will achieve!!!

After I got back from the ride I was a new person. Not once have I ever regretted a work-out. Not once.

Today is the selection day for the New York City Marathon! I'm hoping to be one of the thousands running on November 4rth! Please send positive vibes my way!! I'll let you know how it goes.

How do you stay positive/motivated during times of trial or stress?



Small Victories

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Happy Friday everyone! Over the last week it's been tough not being able to run. I finally came to grips that for the next 6 weeks running won't be in the training plan. There is this walking path that runs directly behind my house and I see runners going by all day long. It's like they are laughing at me. 'Ha,Ha. You can't ruuuuunn!' Whatever. You'll see you braggy runners. I'll be back stronger than ever! Hahaha!!

All this running downtime means is that I've been able to dedicate more time to strength training. I'm noticing that I'm pushing more weight with the upper body exercises that I'm doiong which by my calculations means that I'm getting stronger! (Duh, obvious right?) That's progress....and a small victory. It's the small victories that add up. Still training for my 100K bike ride coming up near the end of May...the Bloomin' Metric.

The ride starts on the Connecticut coast (beautiful) at a state park and then slowly goes into the hills. The hills are brutal but at the same time the downhills are amazing. It makes the effort of climbing totally worth it. We totally lack hills here in the general area so it's hard to train for them....but you make do with what you have. The ride takes you by lakes along quiet country road. It's a great ride and very peaceful. We used to ride it all the time as kids and last year was the firs time that I had done it in years. We had so much fun last year that my dad, brother and I are going to make it an annual event! My dad will coming up from Florida to pick me up on the way to CT. Once there, it is a total family reunion! I'll get to see my brother (who will also be riding with us) my two nieces and my nephew and my sister-in-law. Fun times to be had! And of course.........post ride victory margaritas!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Any big plans for the weekend?

Maybe I Should Have Been A Doctor???

Yep, those are my toe/ankle bones. Pretty cool!

I went to the orthopedist yesterday and here's what I found out. I more than likely have a stress fracture. The circle in the x-ray is about where I was feeling the 'discomfort'. According to the doctor there is no 'smoking gun' screaming out stress fracture and that my discomfort zone is not in the typical area of stress fracture. Why would I waste his time with a 'typical' stress fracture? If I'm paying you then I'm going to challenge you!!

The doctor would have had to do an MRI or bone density scan to see it really well but he said I was spot on with my diagnosis. The MRI was going to be, in the words of the doctor, very expensive. Ya, we can hold off on that. I'm not sure what this whole thing is costing me as it is so no challenge here to make the bill bigger. He prescribed some anti-inflamatory medication and basically said, 'Ice, rest, and give it some time to heal, about 6 weeks of recovery'.

I must be psychic! Maybe I should have been a doctor instead of a financial guy? Ya. Maybe not so much. So really I need to cross-train like I've already been doing and stay away from running until around the end of May. It was a bitter-sweet diagnosis. At least I definitely now know what I'm dealing with and what the time frames are for recovery. The bummer part of course is no running for 6 weeks.

What this means now is that I'm going to have to live my running life vicariouly through all of you! That's cool I guess. I'm thinking about volunteering at some races coming up so at least I'll still be around the running scene. It might be nice to get a 'behind-the-scenes view' of how a race is run.

Have you ever worked behind the scenes/volunteered at a race before?