WOW,CLUSTER!!!!

So I get to use so many aspects of my leadership training while trying to return to my home from the leadership workshop in Omaha. I got into Omaha from Wayne Nebraska way later than I thought and when I set up the hotel doing a search for a hotel online I ended up getting one about halfway across Omaha!!! How did that happen? I think after working from 8 in the morning ( after a run and workout at 6:30) and then not getting done with the workshop until literally 11:30 each night……I may have been sleep deprived when I sent that hotel request.

So I set both my phone alarm and hotel alarm to get me up at 6 so I can drive to the airport and drop off the rental so I can get to the desk about 90 minutes before my flight at 8:45. I get to the gate at 7and I am the only one there. Good, I am early. The desk agent asks where I am going and I explain I am off to Redmond via Salt lake and he says “oh that flight left at 6:20 AM…….WHAT??????

I pull out my itinerary from the travel agent and it says 8:45. So the great Customer service idea of the airline ( DELTA) is to put me on a phone as opposed to having actual people at the gate that can help me…..strike 1.

I literally and I am not exaggerating spend the next 90 minutes on the same phone call with an agent trying to figure out how to get me home. There are flights but they are full and all she has is me staying at the airport (remember I returned the rental) for the next 9 hours and then catch a later flight that would get me home about 11 PM. I use many different problem solving ideas with her about putting me on another airline and also being very patient with her as she had the power not me so I needed to show great frustration but also that I understood it was not her fault and I was solution oriented.

While I was waiting another guy came up and he was trying to check in like I was….they did not tell him about the change either…..oops strike 2, well 2 for Delta but only 1 for me. I was able to get the best I could of the worst choices and it was routing me through Denver to Seattle to Redmond giving me a home time of 7:30 PM instead of the noon I had booked. She did give me a $100 travel voucher and free cup of coffee for my trouble thought I would have easily given it back and been home at noon as my preference.

Of course last minute changes in tickets alerts the TSA and I was run through the wringer but knew they were just doing their job so no big deal.

Half way to Denver I am sleeping and wake up to “Welcome to Chicago O’ Hare airport”…………WHAT??????? HOLY %^$##**()()+………………….after the stewardess talks for about another 2 minutes someone alerts her we are going into Denver and she corrects herself. Wow that one got me.

I find my flight gate in Denver to Seattle and I realize while walking to the back of the plane my seat is a center seat….crap I hate those. I do not have a window vs. aisle but center always sucks. So I get to the back of the plan and there is some one in my seat. What is it with people and the seat assignments that half the planes in my life there is someone in my seat…..PEOPLE!!!! WHAT PART OF 15B DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND??? I swear every aisle in every plane I have ever been on since the start of time has the seats labeled with a picture. So I tell the guy I think he is in my seat and he says “Oh I must have made a mistake, I guess I am in the row ahead” and I slowly turn my head to the row in front where there is what is left of an empty seat in the center book ended by two 300 pound guys that are latterly swallowing up the whole row. I am thinking this guy did not make a mistake he made a calculated move. I look at him and ask if he wants to get into his seat (while trying to picture if I think he may actually fit??) and he says that its no big deal to him I can grab his. I took a deep breath and realized that I was the better person and we were making the big dudes feel bad. One says he would scoot over to his buddy and give me the aisle and I just sit down and had no fight left in me. Strike 2. 90 minutes with a customer service agent at the crack of dawn will do that to you.

I made it to Seattle and sit here waiting for my final leg…….oh please no strike three.

In Middle America

So i have spent the past few days in Wayne Nebraska teaching a t a leadership conference and it has been a great experience although hard to workout with the long days. We are working from about 8 in the morning to midnight. I have been getting up at 6:30 and going to the school track or running around the county with Garmin 305, I have done a little plyometric work as well doing box jumps and pushups etc but man I would like to get on a bike. I may just not have time with this schedule. there is one set of precor bikes in the school gym and I tried them one morning and the really suck, it is old equipment and has flat pedals and a tractor seat ( not really a real tractor seat since you do see those around here but a large padded seat). I think I will do pseudo lifting tomorrow morning and take a day off from running.

The nutrition here is a challenge though I did buy some healthier snack for in between meals to help and I am drinking lots of water instead of the free pop. ( oh and coffee too but they do not take real coffee serious here so blows on the espresso end of things).

i am here until Sunday so will try and drop a few pics later in the week.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

building up frequent flyer miles as I travel across the country for work this week. a few days ago I was in LA for a meeting and found myself running in not the best air quality I would say. The traffic there was the worst. I sat in a 6 lane superhighway going 25 mph for miles and miles. no accidents or anything holding things up just traffic and cars making lane changes and getting on to other highways.....WOW.

Then on to Salt lake City for a few days with my bro Adam and his wife Melissa. Now Adam was the kid in breaking away growing up. I had Ford Muscle cars in the driveway and he failed to get his license on purpose and rode Italian rode bikes and wore lycra out and about way before that was trendy. But he got diverted to rock climbing for many years so not so much a biker anymore but still has the skills. We rode a few Utah mountain biking trails . We hit the Wasatch trail which goes from way up cottonwood canyon at 10,000 feet to the SLC, nice long one. pretty scenic. Then we hit the bobsled run after riding
from his house to his lab ( yeah picture smart dude in a white lab coat) to see what his bike commute to work is like and then we hit the trails over to bobsled. this is a trail system that is just above the city.

So Adam got me an old Santa Cruz HECKLER mountain bike to use. Worked decent but just glad to have a bike to use so no complaints from me. He used a fully rigid old school Gary Fisher and did pretty well on it. you have to check out his shoe setup!!!! he normally rides just his road bike but he swaps out his old school road pedals and actually mountain bikes with these!!!! I could not stop laughing but seemed to work. He can mountain bike as he had one of the first mountain bikes back in the eighties.


We then had some killer real italian pizza that was thin and fresh! Melissa being real italian can find these great places to eat......YUMMY!!!

Now I am off to Nebraska for a week to teach at a leadership workshop. I will be trying to hook up with a few other Triscoop Triathlon bids while I am there and get in some runs and rides!!!

exterra pics

Ben coming out of the water

Transition area

finishing in 1:55 middle of the pack

Ben and i talking post race ( talking smack that is)

the Boys from Bend...Matt 1st Clydesdale, Dave 1st over all, Bruce 1st age group, Me...slacker and Ben 1st age group

Vashon Island Exterra

Well you will have to wait a little for the pics but they are coming thanks to Steph. Roadtripped to Vashon Island near Seattle. On Saturday we took the ferry over and met with Ben and Dave Clonninger ( who later won the whole thing) and his brother Matt. Ironiclay I had worked with Matt at a ski resort almost 13 years ago....small world. we all pre rode the run course and the bike course. same course as last year for the run a a very small change on the bike course.

We went out and had pizza and beer to carbo load in Tacoma and then had a great nights sleep in a cheap motel ( but they had vs. so we could watch the tour replay at night and live in the morning).

Ferry back to the island and there were about 110 racers. we all walked out to the end of the dock and the swim was an open water start in the pacific ocean but a pretty sheltered bay so water was very calm. Who knows how far the swim was since they kind of wing it. Race director says " ok swim out around that red sailboat and then go over to that buoy out there and then come into the dock" and then before we can get clarification he says" 30 seconds...."

off we go and I love it because you can see jelly fish in the water below you. I thought I was swimming well, I was with a pack around the boat and the buoy and then grabbed some feet for the long haul in and he must have been going slow because i came in towards the back but fresh.

out of the water and into the T1 fast change and i am right with Ben.....up the hills and feeling good.1st lap lots of technical passing and caught Matt and he pulled over for me. Off I went gangbusters on the technical. lap two of the bike went better as not congested. Ben and i back together again and off to T2 where we started the run and he is a strong runner so he took off. The first part of the run is brutal up. I am smart so I took it easy going up and then once on the flat trail run I kicked in and felt awesome.

ran hard and finished in 1 hour and 55 minutes exactly middle of the pack. Middle of the over all and middle for my age group. very fine as just a fun race before Ironman.


I rowed 3500 meters this morning watching the tour as they climbed a big pass, makes the rowing easy if you see them suffering up a big pass. off to swim at lunch and then I am off to LA for a few days. will post photos as I get them.

HOT

I think the heat either has me baked on the inside or i have been a little dehydrated. I really feel tired this week. I took for the most part Monday and Tuesday off although did about 10 minutes of rowing each day while watching the last 10 minutes of the Tour stage races. Yesterday I rode from work ( oh yeah by doing nothing i do mean I am still riding at least 15 miles a day to work and back but that does not count) I wen to Juniper to swim. well I am not used to going at 5pm and WOW there was a crowd and the lanes were full with lappers and a swim team....so bag that. I went in to see about grabbing a spin class but the next one was over an hour later sop i hit the gym and surprisingly there was not really anybody inside ( likely since they were all in my pool!!!)

So i went in and did a min circuit.

5 min treadmill at 5% grade

1 leg squats with med ball

pushups

back to the tread for repeat

Chest flys

1 leg squats with med ball

pullups

back to the tread for repeat

pushups

mini jumps on bosu ball

pullups


and then I realize this one girl in there looks really familiar and looks really fit and I mean Uber fit.....ahh that is Kami Semick who is a hardcore trail runner and wow does it show. Sh was doing on leg raises on a machine and her legs looked ripped!!!!! smaller girl than I thought from pics but I was very impressed.


Today trying to hydrate before my last KMA for awhile. rest on Friday, preride the course for exterra on Vashon Island on Sat and race on Sunday.

777 number of the ass kickers

Well thanks for the positive feedback on "bag-gate" what a joke.... I must have told about 10 people by now and more will read the blog....vote with your dollar. I will keep all posted on my dealings with corporate. By the way the movie I was going to see was "LIVE FREE-DIE HARD", and I almost said "yippee k........." when I left.

Today was another sweet long day followed by a killer ice bath. 77 mile ride followed by a 7 mile run thats right 7-7-7......and yesterday was 7-7-2007.......freaky huh???

left the house at 6:30 am while it was still cool out and Bruce and i rode to Redmond and did the twin bridges ride backwards. we dia few small variations but here is a basic map


we rode most of the way chatting so it was good as we averaged about 18 mph and I did not really draft at all except for two highway sections so it was more realistic of a tri as opposed to going out with a big group and riding the draft all day.

came home and did a quick transistion to the run and it was really hot ( about 88 degrees) and I used this tip from runners world magazine to freeze a baseball cap in water frozen and wear it on the run to keep cool. the hat was frozen and kept me cool for about 5 mionutes and then all the water had evapoarted in the heat and the hat was dry as a bone....weak tip.

Bag gate

Rest day on Sat. I actually rowed about 2000 meters and did some bicep curls but nothing really, saving it up for Sunday morning 70 mile ride followed by a 10k run.

I decided to go into town and see an early movie while it was really hot in the middle of the day. I threw some things in my smaller messenger bag to go to the movie and run some errends. My moto battery died last week so I have been 100% bicycle this last week and no problem since the weather is warm and I got bikes. I have rode my fixed gear, my mountain bike with the BOB trailer, my cruiser, the road bike......really been getting all of the horses out of the stables. however when I got to the movie I ended up getting kicked out. Yes kicked out.....here was the email I sent their corporate office when I got back home:

It was an unfortunate morning as I decided to spend a casual Sat. riding my bicycle to town to see a movie and visit the library and go by my office to do some work. I came to the 10 am showing of a film and purchased a ticket with my credit card and went in. Now allow me to paint a picture of myself. 36 year old white male with short hair and very clean cut conservative attire carrying a bike helmet and a small messenger bag for my bicycle trip. after being allowed into the theater and presenting my ticket I was chased down the hall by a young lady in a sport jacket ( I assume a manager type??) asking me to return to the front to leave my bag in the front ticket office. I explained that I would not like to do that as I had valuables in my bag ranging from cash to an ipod to my dayplanner (for my mid level corporate job that spends a lot of time working on customer service issues) but she was welcome to search through it as much as she wanted before I entered the theater to make sure. I can only assume she was looking for hidden popcorn or a secret box of sour patch kids I had subversively smuggled in???? However she declined to even look in my small bag ( about the size of a womens purse although dayglo orange for bike safety) and said it was "for the safety of the patrons". Safety? first off it was 10 am and appeared I was one of about 4 people in the entire theater, second What was I going to do? Throw my cash and ipod at someone for kicking my chair? I again explained I was not comfortable leaving my personal items in care of the young staff ( hey I was a curious teenager 20 years ago myself.....lets see whats in the bag) and I am sure if anything was missing that they would direct me to the all too regular "not responsible for lost or stolen articles" sign. As I had no vehicle to stash my bag in I requested a refund which they gave me and I left. No money for you. No film for me and one unhappy customer that shall tell this silly tale to others. Sorry but wishing this could have been handled differently by your staff.


So next time you go to a part of the Regal cinemas chain, do not ride your bike with a messenger bag unless you want to leave it with Billy or Jenny or whatever other kid with a summer job is hanging out. I on the other hand will just not go and spend my entertainment dollars elsewhere and tell this tell to my friends .

KMA with tri Rob

recovery trio after Wed super brick: ice, martini and fitness mag

So I come off a huge day and am thinking the KMA is going to hurt but I do it anyway and actually felt pretty good. I guess my recovery is doing well.

Here was the KMA as best I can remember:

10 minute treadmill warmup

we alternated betwen two exercises back in forth for 1.5 minutes then 1 minute them 30 seconds:

first set: chest presses with back on balance ball and holding pushup position feet on half ball and hands on balance board.

next set: kettlebell hops on bosu ball and box jumps holding med ball

next set: scissor hops lunging while pushing med ball over head and backwards ab roll on large ball

then on to the treadmill skipping at 9% then running

25 pushups

2 minutes hard jump rope

2 minutes on bike standing entire time

abs:

50 regular, 25 reverse, 30 biccycle, 20 bicycle in v up position, side v ups, then plank.


I think that was it. does not seem like that many things but we did each exercise three times.

Then we went back to work, had awesome sushi later and met up the next morning for swimming at Juniper. The water was great and I did about 1600 meters and Tri-Rob did a bunch more...GREAT workout block.

For Sat and Sunday......I will kill myself and rest on Monday.....just wait and see

Huge block of days

So on the fourth I got up and headed up over the pass at Mt. Bachelor with a few guys ( who I trailed behind about 100 meters) and we went up and over Mt. Bachelor to Green lakes trail head qhich is about a 25 mile road ride. I parked the bike and locked it to a tree and put on the running shoes and ran up to green lakes and back on a super killer trail run. This is one of the most scenic trails around and in the summer can get a lot of hiking traffic but i really did not see that many people. It is 8 miles roundtrip and has 1100 foot elevation gain. Ohhhhhhh the calves were hurting and the few times i stopped to stretch them a bit the mosquitoes came out. They were not a problem as long as you kept moving so that was motivating. going up the Fall Creek drainage is so scenic it is sick! coming back down was just as hard on a new set of muscles and technical so you had to pay attention. I have to say I was hurting. got some ice cold water out of the creek and splashed myself which helped but the climb back up to Mt. Bachelor from Sparks lake was brutal. I had no gears left and was barely keeping the bike upright. I was almost at a bonk for sure. I had food, i had water but was just really tired.

5 1/2 hours later came home, took an ice bath and had a martini then took a 2 hour nap.


HMMMM??? what should I do the next day? Rest?..................nope off to a KMA session and bringing Tri-Rob along for the ride.

Tuesday

So i came home for lunch yesterday ( the rest day) and i could not find my keys to my motorcycle when i was headed back. after looking around I relaized i had left them o
in the ignition of my moto and the battery was now DEAD. I tried to push start it but no luck ( I later found out I was doing it wrong so now I know how). SO I changed clothes and jumped on the bike back to work. then I rode over to give blood and they say no strenous excercise before of after you give blood but I had ridden over. I explained to them it was a rest day so i only road10 miles and it was an easy 10. The nurses said "10 miles??? how do ride that easy???" I am always astonsihed by the fact that medical people know about health but fail to act on it???

So I donated blood which has to be the easiest volunteer gig in the world, they give you magazines, you just sit there and the after they give you free cookies. I think everyone should donate blood. I admit I did not do it until later in life but nagging at me was the subconscious signals from my parents who have been lifelong blood donors and never suggested it to me but I saw the pins and the 5 gallon donor coffee mugs. It was not until after 9/11 that i started. too bad it took something like that.

so I ended up riding about 20 miles ( easy pace) on my rest day which felt good, more like active recovery.

This morning I got up and rode 15 miles on the mountain bike on single track trails ( see pic above from this morning) and then came back and rowed 2000 meters on the erg. I love that thing, I can watch the news in my gym while getting some upper body workout. Well actually it is more like a whole body workout.

Now I am off to bike commute to work on the cruiser and then later tonight a run or a swim, have not decided......

Solid Sunday

I felt a little tired on Sunday morning but with the family gone I really had nothing better to do so MURPH it was. I headed out for the 1 mile run at 11 am with music cranking in the garage with some old school eighties tapes running through the system. White Snake, Billy Idol, Over the top soundtrack.....I mean old school gym music.

I did the one mile run and came back to do the pullups and pushups and squats and started doing them in bunches of 10 pullups, 20 pushuops and 25 ball squats.

Wow those add up fast. I got to the half way point and was SPENT!!!!!!

I ended up doing 50 pullups, 100 pushups and 150 squats ( half of a murph)

I then went and ran the last mile for a total of 46 minutes. I guess this is a good group challenge to keep you going as I was tired but should have kept going. The pullups were the hardest part in my opinion so I will work on those.


However a few hours of rest and then Ben and I went down to the Deschutes and swam the Deschutes dash swim course of 1500 meters on the Deschutes river. Water was clod but with wetsuit pretty decent as it was 78 degrees outside. The cool thing is at the end you can turn around and swim upstream like an endless pool. We ended up doing about 2000 meters I figure.

Today: rest and donate blood this afternoon. ( I am A negative in case you want to know)