So, a week ago I went for the long bike ride you can find in my training log. It was a fun ride, but came with some unwanted excitement. Actually, the excitement wasn't long lasting and wasn't of the good kind.
I went riding in "uncharted" territory. Around the beltway on local streets until I got to a run/bike trail. While doing my ride, I had a very good idea of where to go because of driving those streets. I decided, however, that I wanted to try going through some residential streets rather than on the busy streets with no shoulders that were the major roads I could have taken. Probably should have accepted the danger of traffic over the danger of a quiet neighborhood with no traffic, only squirrels.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I was trying to get my bearings on these local streets, drifted into the curb cut and ended up head over heels across someone's driveway and onto their front lawn. It was a stupid crash. Shouldn't have ever happened.
Result was I jammed three fingers on my left hand. Thumb, index, and ring finger. Yeah, I know, weird. So, at any rate, it put me out of commission on the bike and swim until this week. Still today my hand aches and I can't really grip anything. Fingers are still swollen but not as badly as they were last week. Signing with my left hand is a joke. Can't make handshapes that require me to make any kind of fist or pinching motions. Also have to be careful about signing things that hit my left hand.
Anyway, back on the bike tomorrow morning and we will see how it goes. Swimming today was ok for the hand and running isn't a problem so working hard to take advantage of the last few weeks before the race on July 10th.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Killing the Dog - Almost
If you look at the training log you will see that I went for a run the other day and took Max with me. I should have left him home.
It was HOT out. 90 degrees or so. Humidity was low for around here so the temperature wasn't as bad as it is on some days. But it was hot.
Max and I drove down by the river, you know 19.7 feet above sea level, and started to run. From the parking lot at Belle Haven to mile marker 7 is about .8 miles I think. That's a guess. I haven't measured it but pretty close. We warmed up getting to mile marker 7 then took off. I wanted to run a quick race pace for the next three miles. Thought Max and I were up to it.
I was, Max wasn't.
At the end of the first mile Max started breathing really heavy. Wasn't making his piggy noises that means he is really working hard but he was breathing hard. By the time we got to mile marker 5, he needed a rest. He was in full piggy snort mode so we walked back to the "comfort station" that is right there by mm5 and I let Max drink some water. We walked the first 2/3 of the mile back towards mm6 then jogged lightly. At mm6 I picked up the pace but the piggy snorting was pretty bad. He made it to mm7 running the entire mile. It was a much slower mile, I think over 10 minutes, but he ran. We walked and slow jogged back to Belle Haven where another "comfort station" is located. Before we got to the comfort station, Max stopped. Didn't want to move. We were, literally, 200 feet from water and rest for him and so I coaxed and begged and he made it to the water. But he was unsteady on his feet and breathing hard.
The comfort station has a spigot and slow-drain dog dish specifically for dogs. Really great and it gets lots of use. The spigot is leaking and so the area around the bowl was covered in water and the bowl was full.
Max wouldn't touch it. He was so unsteady on his feet. He sat down first and I gathered some water up and threw it in his mouth. He drank it but wasn't interested in the effort to lap it up on his own. After about a minute he lay down in the water and I started covering him with the cool water filling the dog bowl. His sides were heaving in and out and the piggy noises coming from his breathing were awful!! I really thought I killed him.
We hung out for about 15 minutes there, him laying in the running water and me showering him with cool water and trying to get some in his mouth. His breathing was still very labored but he showed signs of life and got up. We made our way to the van and he was able to get himself in. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Got the poor thing home and let him hang out in the cool basement until he was feeling better.
Only good thing about the run was now I know I can beat my dog in a distance race on a hot day.
It was HOT out. 90 degrees or so. Humidity was low for around here so the temperature wasn't as bad as it is on some days. But it was hot.
Max and I drove down by the river, you know 19.7 feet above sea level, and started to run. From the parking lot at Belle Haven to mile marker 7 is about .8 miles I think. That's a guess. I haven't measured it but pretty close. We warmed up getting to mile marker 7 then took off. I wanted to run a quick race pace for the next three miles. Thought Max and I were up to it.
I was, Max wasn't.
At the end of the first mile Max started breathing really heavy. Wasn't making his piggy noises that means he is really working hard but he was breathing hard. By the time we got to mile marker 5, he needed a rest. He was in full piggy snort mode so we walked back to the "comfort station" that is right there by mm5 and I let Max drink some water. We walked the first 2/3 of the mile back towards mm6 then jogged lightly. At mm6 I picked up the pace but the piggy snorting was pretty bad. He made it to mm7 running the entire mile. It was a much slower mile, I think over 10 minutes, but he ran. We walked and slow jogged back to Belle Haven where another "comfort station" is located. Before we got to the comfort station, Max stopped. Didn't want to move. We were, literally, 200 feet from water and rest for him and so I coaxed and begged and he made it to the water. But he was unsteady on his feet and breathing hard.
The comfort station has a spigot and slow-drain dog dish specifically for dogs. Really great and it gets lots of use. The spigot is leaking and so the area around the bowl was covered in water and the bowl was full.
Max wouldn't touch it. He was so unsteady on his feet. He sat down first and I gathered some water up and threw it in his mouth. He drank it but wasn't interested in the effort to lap it up on his own. After about a minute he lay down in the water and I started covering him with the cool water filling the dog bowl. His sides were heaving in and out and the piggy noises coming from his breathing were awful!! I really thought I killed him.
We hung out for about 15 minutes there, him laying in the running water and me showering him with cool water and trying to get some in his mouth. His breathing was still very labored but he showed signs of life and got up. We made our way to the van and he was able to get himself in. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Got the poor thing home and let him hang out in the cool basement until he was feeling better.
Only good thing about the run was now I know I can beat my dog in a distance race on a hot day.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
No, I am not dead! (yet)
As far as the blogosphere is concerned, I may as well be dead. I haven't posted. I haven't generated little tidbits of information to spew into cyberspace for the consumption of the few who I force feed this blog by signing them up to receive automatic updates. (If I didn't then NO ONE would read it! Grin.) But, I am happy to report, I am not dead.
In fact...
I am training again! Training for a race that just may kill me. Then I will be dead. And then I won't be able to post. Sorry about that. Just how it goes when you are dead.
Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration. Just maybe. However, here are the stats. My house sits at, according to a cool site called at www.earthtools.org, 170.6 ft above sea level. I often do my riding and biking, aka training, down along the Potomac River which sits at 19.7 ft above sea level. Currently I am doing my swim training in our pool at the bottom of my street: 150.9 ft above sea level. Why do you care? Because on July 10th at 7:00 am, I will be jumping into a freezing cold lake to swim 750m, then biking 20k and running 5k at, drumroll please...
5567.6 ft!!!
That is why I might die.
So, enjoy the last few weeks of my life. I will try and come up with some vaguely interesting things to post and then you can all show up at my funeral and say nice things about me like: "Wow, he really knew how to take an idea and milk it for a really long and pointless blog posting." And I will be looking down (or up) and giving a little fist pump. Mission accomplished!
Til next time...
In fact...
I am training again! Training for a race that just may kill me. Then I will be dead. And then I won't be able to post. Sorry about that. Just how it goes when you are dead.
Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration. Just maybe. However, here are the stats. My house sits at, according to a cool site called at www.earthtools.org, 170.6 ft above sea level. I often do my riding and biking, aka training, down along the Potomac River which sits at 19.7 ft above sea level. Currently I am doing my swim training in our pool at the bottom of my street: 150.9 ft above sea level. Why do you care? Because on July 10th at 7:00 am, I will be jumping into a freezing cold lake to swim 750m, then biking 20k and running 5k at, drumroll please...
5567.6 ft!!!
That is why I might die.
So, enjoy the last few weeks of my life. I will try and come up with some vaguely interesting things to post and then you can all show up at my funeral and say nice things about me like: "Wow, he really knew how to take an idea and milk it for a really long and pointless blog posting." And I will be looking down (or up) and giving a little fist pump. Mission accomplished!
Til next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)