ICEtrekking and a Race to The Pole

Amundsen: an endurance athlete of a different caliber!
South Pole and back: 1,860 miles round trip.

Roald Amundsen would be proud. I had the distinct pleasure of portraying the guy in a recent local production of Ted Tally's Terra Nova @ Riverwalk Theatre's blackbox. Even though the show is over I still carry the character with me at odd times, like last night when I went running with my new ICEtrekker Diamond Grip traction slip ons. In Michigan if you run outside during the winter, there are times when the pavement has ice that you can't see or is covered by snow. I put these on my shoes and ran right across some icy spots on the sidewalk and in the streets but there was no slipping. No indication that I was even on ice whatsoever. They are amazing. Since it wasn't overly icy out, I could also test running on bare pavement and the ICEtrekkers didn't feel weird at all. They live up to their advertising. Even though Amundsen used skis and dogs to get him to the South Pole 100 years ago, if he were training for an Ironman today, I'm sure he'd endorse these things (actually if Falcon-Scott had used them it might have turned out differently for the Brits). Also, as it happens when I blog, I sometimes Google two search terms I might not ordinarily think of together otherwise, such as the two words: Marathon/Antarctica. Well what do you know, there IS a marathon on the seventh continent. In fact there are two! The one I want to do would cost me around $12,000 dollars to do, so I may have to wait until the kids are out of college to seriously contemplate doing it. Maybe I'll start a new blog when I'm 59, and do the Ice Marathon when I'm 60. For that I won't need a Norwegian accent.

"You feared life had passed you by, that you couldn't keep pace with the younger men. And yet, you see -- it's the younger men who are falling by the wayside, and you who are still strong. You thought it was a kind of death at the Pole -- yet I tell you, you were never so alive as now, and the moment you were born for is here...Live it well."

http://www.terranovaatriverwalk.blogspot.com/

A better cast, crew and director I could not ask for.

My Friend Kurt...

Hanging out in trash bags before the 2009 Chicago Marathon to help keep warm from the 33 degree near freezing starting line temp.

I would not be writing this blog if it weren't for my friend Kurt (pictured on the right). Five or so years ago he prevented any polite way for me to say I didn't think I could do a half Ironman by deftly removing any excuse I could come up with for saying no: 
Rich, "I don't have a bike." 
Kurt, "No problem you can ride my old Fuji." 
Rich, "It's too far isn't it?" 
Kurt, "I did it! What...are you a wimp?" 
Rich, "I don't know about the swim." 
Kurt, "It's fun, you'll like it. Didn't you used to have your WSI?" 
So Kurt's Sam I am tenacity finally won me over, although I really did want to do it. I was just intimidated by the task if I remember correctly. Everyone should have a Kurt to show them what to do for a first time triathlon (or a second or a third). I remember seeing him wearing one of those long pointy helmets for the bike. To me it looked like moon-man fashion through my runner's eyes. I still had my number pinned to my chest, road race style, because I didn't know what a race belt was. That first 70.3 I also did the bike leg in toe clips and running shoes too. I counted only two other people with toe clips that year @ Steelhead. My feet were burning up! I soon learned that there was a reason behind every seemingly strange triathlon innovation. The next year of course I had my race belt and Speedplay pedals and cleats. Kurt and I ran cross country and track together in college and he is still faster than me. In fact, after doing Steelhead in 2009, he went on to qualify for Boston two months later that year in the Chicago Marathon! I have yet to qualify for Boston. Besides being a great athlete, anyone who knows Kurt knows how sarcastic and combative he can be. I thought maybe that was changing a bit as we both approach 50. A few days before Christmas this year I found a package in the mail from Kurt. He had sent me his old aero helmet. Later, on the phone, he told me not to get too excited, "I'm only giving it to you so I don't have to stand around so long waiting for you after I'm done." There we go, that's the Kurt I know. Now I can be a moon-man too.

Success is counted sweetest...

Moving on to the State meet! October 29th, 2011.

This past XC season, my eighth year coaching but the first at my daughter's school, the girl's team took third at our regional in Allendale, Michigan. This qualified the team to move on to the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) state cross country meet. I was overjoyed of course but I did wonder about a comment made by one of the parents I overheard at the starting line of the race (not directed at me). The comment made me ponder for several days about whether I would've rather gone to the state meet as a coach or a runner. The "either/or" thing*. My team in high school won our league and went on to the state meet the year after I graduated. We failed in our bid my Senior year due to our top two guys being out for injuries although we still took second in our league. I have, after thinking about it, concluded beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would rather coach a team to the state meet rather than go as a runner. Probably a good thing since that's how it happened anyway. But still I marvel at my capacity to be so happy for others. Maturity is shocking sometimes. In any case I just want to share with blog readers an unforgettable group of girl's on one of the happiest days of my life.

*not an allusion to Kierkegaard

George Sheehan

When I was in high school I read a book by George Sheehan entitled: Dr. Sheehan on Running. It really grabbed my imagination at the outset of my first years of running. Made me see that running could be something more than exercise. Well as I enter, or have entered middle age, whenever that happens exactly, I don't know, a friend of mine recently loaned me a copy of the last book Dr. Sheehan wrote called Going the Distance: One Man's Journey to the End of His Life. It is amazing to me in this life how friendly voices come back to you. Reading the chronicle of Sheehan's dying of Prostate Cancer, well of course it will be a bittersweet read. But one I would expect from him as well. I will echo the words of the introduction written by Robert Lipsyte. At the end of the introduction Dr. Sheehan was saying that "this book I'm doing is going to be good, but the epilogue is going to be a problem." The introduction goes on to say "And no problem on the epilogue George. We are your epilogue, all the people to whom you gave courage and inspiration, all the people who want to say, again, thank you." I guess maybe middle age is that time of life when you realize how much there really is to be thankful for. Thank you George Sheehan. For writing and living and dying the way you did...inspiring others.

Max Heart Rate

Well it's two days after Thanksgiving and I went out to do the Max Heart Rate (MHR) workout after warming up with my wife a couple of miles. I did almost what Parker suggests in his book but stopped after two hill climbs because my own breathing was freaking me out. I hate hearing myself pant audibly. It makes me think I'm worse off than I probably am. My Max after two repeats (Parker suggests five) was 177. My formulaic Max following the Karvonen method is 181. I'm pretty sure that's very close to what it is. I'll have to take it to the Track I guess and see what happens there. I've always disliked speedwork. Probably because it hurts.

My Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is 51. Taking that is a little awkward because you have to move to get everything in place (making your heart rate go up) plus I haven't mastered my Timex Road Trainer and I guess it was beeping and woke up my wife last night. So I've decided to track my weight, BMI and RHR and see if those three variables mean anything in the coming months. I really haven't had this much fun since I filled out my Jim Fixx Runner's Diary in the late 70's and early '80's (high school days for me).

Heart Monitor Training

I imagine I've been a little slow to take up heart monitor training. But in the end... I've heard, and agree with, the truism that distance runners are a little more traditional than triathletes. So anyway I bought Parker's Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot and, much as I dislike that sort of dummed down type of title....I really like the book. It works for me. And he's really funny. So in my road to IRONMAN Wisconsin when I turn 50 years old in 2013, I intend to keep this blog as both a record of my travails and reach out to a community of people to whom I can be accountable.