Ironman beginnings

The journey started a year ago when 14 type 1 diabetics got together for the first time. We had been asked to join Triabetes as team captains for 2009 and in doing this we signed up to compete in Ironman Arizona. We all took to each other quickly and had a great time trading stories of our lives with diabetes. We volunteered to work at the run aid station with TriSports so we could gain priority entry into the following year's event and as quickly as they appeared they all went home. But after this wekend we had started to formed bonds. The kind you can't form with your coworkers, friends, or even relatives. We all had a couple of things in common: We were all type 1 diabetics, and we all had lofty athletic goals. Although every one of us comes from different backgrounds these commonalities were enough to hold strong our bonds.

Over the following months we followed each others journeys. Anne spent a great deal of her year recovering, first from a debilitating bike wreck which took place in the sprint finish at a crit race near her hometown, then from overuse injuries preventing her from getting the run training she had wanted. Bill rode 118 mile bike rides in 118 degree heat. Sean started his race career fresh, jumping right into half iron distance races such as Wildflower and Hi 70.3. Jerry steadily improved his swimming from that of a non-swimmer through lots of grueling swim workouts. We watched Denise struggle with her lifelong battle with candy - often having it get the best of her, but she battles it all the way. Heather dealt with balancing her intense and demanding workouts with her equally and often more intense and demanding work of teaching children. Sebastien kept everyone's spirits up with NSFW images whether we wanted them or not! David humbled me by kicking my ass at several local races. Jim struggled though sickness and injury and got to represent Triabetes at the famous Escape from Alcatraz. Reid had to keep his workers in line and this made him struggle to keep workouts going while working long hours himself. Mark somehow balanced countless projects and still continued to train regularly - I don't think he ever sleeps. Casey ate up the competition on his continued quest for Kona. This only touches the surface of the things we all went through together, even though much of it was spent with us spread out throughout the continent.

Without all of these people the impact we had last weekend at Ironman Arizona would not have held as much meaning as it did. Knowing that all of them were there, whether sick, not feeling ready, or whatever the situation was we all made it to the line together that day. I am proud to be a part of this group of individuals that all understood that we weren't just trying to do some crazy race, but we were trying to spread a message with a resounding blast that could be heard far and wide. Based on the support of all of the Triabetes vvolunteers, the Triabuddies and their families, and everyone involved we have made a great and lasting impact on the lives of many that we saw firsthand, and likely many we will never know. In fact after reading the blogs of my teammates, the volunteers, and those who just saw us out there I find that being a part of this is far greater than the selfish desire to look cool because I competed in an Ironman race.

I hope that if you are diabetic, or know anyone with diabetes, you can point to us and say "See, those 15 Triabetics did it, and they had the support of dozens - neigh hundreds of others pulling for them the whole way.

Soon I will recap my race, but I wanted to thank everyone involved in making Ironman weekend one to never be forgotten. My teammates who helped me gain the confidence, knowledge, and power to come to this race prepared and as healthy as I have ever been in my life - even pre-diabetes. The staff at Triabetes, who had a vision of something that could be great, and went for it. They have truly created something special that has already and will continue to change lives. The volunteers, one of whom loaned me a bottle of Novolog when I was without insulin during the marathon (whoever you are give me you address and I will get that bottle back to you!). They did an amazing job of motivating, and from what I have read they created lifelong friendships with other diabetics along the way. And finally to my girlfriend who has been put through the wringer by my selfish demands so I could continue training the long hours required for a race like this one.

Anyhow, this is a lot of babble. I expect most will have glossed it over, but I thought it was important to express just how much the race weekend meant to me. Look for my race report coming up soon. Lots of things were learned during this race. And what is in store for me into the future...?

Looking back at my training..

With only 8 days left until Ironman Arizona I am well into my taper for my "A" race of the year and finally get to slow down. Looking back I have always been unsure about my capability of completing all the distances involved in this race.

2.4 Mile Swim. Having little to no swimming background my swim performances have been quite abysmal. In nearly every race I have competed in I have been either last or second to last in my age group. During the last six months I have spent 3-4 days a week in the pool working to improve my swim abilities. This morning I did a race prep open water swim at a local lake. With this I can see that i now have the potential to beat my goal time of under 2 hours by a considerable margin.

112 Mile Bike. I had never ridden a bike this far. My longest ride was 100 miles before I bgan training for this race, but in the last six months I have logged thousands of miles. Although I don't expect to fly through the bike leg at 25mph as the pros can do, I am realizing that I will be able to finish this bike - and the key - still have the ability to use my legs for the last portion of the race...

26.2 Mile Run. I have competed in 1 marathon in my life. It was a harrowing experience that saw me struggling just to shuffle through the last 6 miles. It was one of the hardest things I had done at that point and considered quitting and walking home several times since my house was closer than the finish :P After 6 months of focusing on pacing strategy I feel I can complete this run and not want to die at the finish.

I want to be there for all my teammates. If any of them are still racing when I am done I plan to see them all in however long it takes. This group of diabetics that are all part of Triabetes are an enormous inspiration for me. Many of them have their own businesses, children, work crazy long hours, and more. Seeing them do this thing which has been so hard for me to prepare for and must be twice as hard for them will be quite gratifying. I can't wait until they start showing up in town in the coming days!

Come on out to the race - Ironman Arizona, Sunday Nov. 22nd. It starts at 7AM and runs til midnight. The course is at the Tempe Town Lake. Hope to see ya!

Triabetes Documentary

Please contact me if you would like to be at the premier of our own Triabetes Documentary. It is the child project of award winning Andiamo Productions and will be a great tol for promotion of Triabetes into the future. The show will be at tyhe Valey art Theater in downtown Tempe, at 10AM Saturday, November 21st. I hope to see you there!

My upper limits.

I have come to the realization that I do have upper limits. Boundaries that are just to great to get over, but these limits are far higher than I ever imagined.

Just a few years ago the thought of doing any kind of race, whether running, cycling, or anything seemed far too ambitious for me. I was fine sitting in front of the TV watching re-runs of Seinfeld every night. After changing that and competing in several Triathlons and run races I met the guys at Triabetes, and they convinced me that an Ironman could be within my reach. Up to this point the thought seemed impossible. Once I got tother with the team, and we all signed up this barrier inevitably broke. And even after this, I saw my teammate Casy's Ironman training plan. I saw that he had to work out EVERY SINGLE DAY! This was crazy, or so I thought. Now I am 5 months in on a training plan that has me working out every single day in prep for Ironman Arizona in only 22 days.

So now that all the glass ceiling have been apparantly removed, I see they do still exist. Today's long (5-hour) bike ride was an arduous task that I just could not hold together and had to cut it short. It appears that I am at the point of burnout with all this training. The cure it seems will be that I see my workout load drops to a lower level after today. Thank god, as I don't want to cut short any more workouts, and really want to do the best possible performance out there on race day!

The image above portrays my feelings right now, but looks like it is in German so there may be a humorous message that I am missing.

FASHION SHOW
If you are in the Phoenix area I urge yo to go to the Triabetes Sportswear Fashion Show I am hosting! Tell all your friends - See the flyer below:

Oh no!

While cruising along the highway like I normally do on my Saturday long rides I feel like I sometimes zone out and become unaware of my environment. I guess that is only partially true, because even though I go into a zone where time vanishes I am constantly aware of road hazards, cars driving to closely, winds, my heart rate and more.

On yesterday's ride I was clearly more observant than the drivers. I saw someone on the side of the road, but not all the way in the shoulder. There is plenty of space but they were actually putting themselves in danger parking partially on the highway, not to mention I had to ride halfway into the highway lane to get around them. As I rode by I noted that the car that was pissing me off was an unmarked police with a radar detector in hand. As I continued on another unaware drive got pulled over by this police car.

And finally, the most oblivious driver I saw was a woman making a U-Turn. This wouldn't seem all that unusual except for she was doing this particular maneuver on a divided highway. So she turned around and continued to head the wrong way in the fast lane. When I saw what she was doing I started screaming and pointing at her. She just kept on doing her turn so I swerved around in my bike right behind her screaming and flailing my arms. The driver just kept on going. After about 1/4 mile of me riding the wrong way on the highway she was out of sight and I got out of the highway as it has fairly heavy traffic on weekends like this. I had no phone and no way to catch up to her. I hope she was alright and figured out she was going the wrong way without incident. When I got home I looked to see if I could find any accident reports online and found none.

Then I noticed my heart rate was too high...

Review: Giro Havik Sunglasses

Giro Havick Sunglasses
As a Triabetes team captain I get a few goodies provided by sponsors. One of those is the Giro Havic Sunglasses, designed specifically for cyclists. I have used them now for about 6 months so the following is my analysis.

Design Elements
Unlike your typical daily driver shades, these are made for cyclists. The frames are designed to blend seamlessly with your bicycle helmet. Most helmets have similar designs, but Giro advertises that the combination of these sunglasses and their helmets are ideal of course. Luckily I happen to own 2 Giro Helmets, the aero "Advantage 2" and the well ventilated "Atmos." The first is only really useful in races, and I ride with the Atmos the majority of the time with the climate in Phoenix as hot as it typically is.

The glasses come with 2 removable lenses. One clear and one shaded. Again the climate here is such that I have not even taken thee clear lens out of the package. The lenses are large! I suppose that is typical with cycling shades to give you unobstructed view for your full range of peripheral vision. Also, the shape of them matches the front of the helmet, in what appears to be an attempt to make your face more aero. I have not been in a wind tunnel, so I can not measure the effectiveness of this, but given the shape of the frontal exposed area this at least seems like a plausible claim. But I often ruin this effect anyhow by wearing a pair of regular glasses in front of them. Passers by look at me like I'm an alien, but I really hate wearing contacts. Also Giro advertises that these lenses are "Carl Zeiss Certified." I don't know what significance that has in the real world, but Zeiss makes some great lenses for photographers.

The frame is all plastic, but quite durable and does not have the cheap feel of all of my other sunglasses. Of course all of my other ones were bought for 5 bucks at a convenience store. I doubt I will ever break these things (knock on wood).

Fit
Sunglass fit is highly individualized so my advice is to go find a pair at your local bike shop and try them on for yourself and see how they fit your head shape. That said, they fit very tightly on my head. There is about 0 chance they will ever accidentally fall off me. I have heard that the Irish have big heads, and since I have some of that heritage maybe this is why. Who knows. I prefer not to wear these while driving for this reason. I will get a headache and pinching above my ears when wearing them. However for cycling I always wear them. They do a great job of blocking 40mph winds in your face. This leads to a more pleasurable experience riding when your eyes do not dry out, and contacts will stay put. Somehow when cycling I do not get the headache or ear pinches when wearing them, even on 6-hour training rides. Maybe the pain of the ride itself takes my mind off the glasses. I will even wear them right into the run of a triathlon and until the event is over the comfort is just fine.

Overall Impression
These glasses are very strongly made. The lenses have been abused quite a bit by me using my t-shirt to wipe off sweat, dropping them on the sidewalk, and also by the elements. Last week while riding a truck kicked up a rock that nailed the lens hard, and not a scratch to be seen! Plus I still have an eye so I am happy.

These sunglasses do a great job of helping me see and protecting me from the UV rays while I am out frying in the Arizona desert. I just wish they were more comfortable so I could use them all the time. I don't care if I look like Terminator X of Public Enemy fame, they work great!

I do wish they had some kind of way to allow clip-in prescription lenses for a blind guy like me. And the shape of the lenses does not lend well to having custom Rx lenses made for them, so either get your eyes ffixed, wear contacts, or maybe look at another pair of shades.

Overall I do like them for their durability, wind blocking, and the fact that they do not interfere with my helmet, but due to fit and limited options for those needing corrective lenses I will only rate them a 3 of 5.



Next

If you want to get faster on your bike, look out for the next review of the Giro Advantage 2 aero helmet.

The key is pacing

Pacing is one of the key factors in Ironman distance racing. Or so my coach tells me, and I can see it on a small scale already.

Take my weekend long ride for example. My house is only a couple of miles from the Beeline Highway which constitutes a major portion of the Ironman Arizona bike leg. Because of this many of the local tri-clubs will train there as well as individuals there just to ride the course. Many are undoubtedly training for the same race as me, but many are training for smaller races like SOMA put on by Red Rock Co.. I do a majority of my long rides on this same route. I find that going out on the slight uphill as I am trying to hold my HR at a steady 140 an awful lot of the others will pass mt by. It is discouraging to say the least when all your potential competition is leaving you in the dust. But I hold back knowing there is still a lot of miles I plan to cover. I ride out further than pretty much everyone else there and turn around. As I get closer to the end of the ride I tend to pass at least as many as have passed me before. It seems everyone slows down - even with the slight decline in elevation as I keep holding that steady 140 heart rate.

The people I am passing may not be training for Ironman, but it does instill a lot of comfort in me that my goal race will go down much like this. If I can hold a steady pace I shouldn't break down and lose my ability to keep moving along.

I suppose this applies to living as a diabetic as well. The goal is not to be healthy for a short time with some crash diet and magic pills that supposedly will cure diabetes. Rather it is to consistently practice behaviors that will keep you steady and healthy over the long haul. Frequent testing, exercising, and eating a healthy diet are all things that must become habitual and practiced regularly. The more consistently we do this the better off we will be in this long life that similar to Ironman, isn't really a race - but a plan executed as best we can to allow us to reach our potential.

Coming up

I am nearly done with my review of the Giro Havic Sunglasses. I'll post in the the next day or 2. Also if you are in the Phoenix area I will encourage you to come see the Sportswear fashion show I will be putting on in early November. Details comgin Soon!

Iron Nightmares

Typically I am calm and collected at the start line of a given race. The race morning buzz is always evident, but I seem to be able to keep my heart rate low, and not get overly excited as the race start approaches. My dreams however are quite different. Take for example the dream I woke up to last night that caused me to sit up and yell curse words out loud. This is something of a recurring dream I have now had a few times...

I started my race in some sort of huge warehouse that held an Ironman distance lake. I swam out of the side exit of the building then ran around to the front where my bike was. Absolutely everyone in the race had beat me and my bike was the only one left so I was in a hurry to get moving out of transition. I realized that I had forgotten my testing supplies and freaked out. After cursing a couple of times I realized the tester was already attached to the bike. Then I realized I had no shoes. And even worse my tires were flat and I had no pump! Somehow I figured out a way to continue on the race and I looked up to see my bike was gone. Someone told me it was in the car and I said "Why the %$#$@ would you do that?" and they said they thought I had given up. So I pulled the bike out of the car and realized they had loosened up all the bolts for the aerobars to fit it into the vehicle. At that point I thought "I will use my multi-tool to fix it, even though my bike fit won't be correct"

Then I realized my multi-tool was missing - ARRRGGGHH!!!!

Hopefully my Ironman experience is not like this.

Fundraiser News

If you haven't yet done so, please consider donating to Triabetes. We are working to complete a documentary that will take our message to thousands, maybe even millions of people worldwide and help to fund it's completion by the schedules premiere of Nov 21, 2009. It will be the beginning of preparation for Ironman Arizona, in which we will compete in the following day.

Of course your donation is tax deductible AND makes you eligible to win my bike as, so it is really a win-win situation! Please Click Here or look at my fund-raiser button at the top left of this blog for more details. Donations of all sizes are appreciated, and in these times of lean budgets your donations are even more appreciated. Those of you that have already lent your help, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart (Why is the bottom of the heart the best part anyhow?)!