The seed starts out so small and frail
With so much potential, will he grow or fail
It’s a struggle form the start an all out fight
He needs soil, nutrients, water and light
He cannot do it on his own
To be a tall tree full grown
He needs the giver to straighten and build him up
To shine her light and feed him from her cup
The giver gives her whole life through
Serving is what she knows how to do
Never a thought for her own needs
Always involved in the noblest of deeds
Guiding the seed from the earliest age
It’s coach, it’s hero, it’s guide, it’s sage
The seed loves the giver for all she’s done
She is his soil, his nutrients, his water, his sun
Thank you giver for being so nice
I would never have grown without your sacrifice
It is Marilyn Woolston's (my Mom) 70th birthday today. She has spent those entire 70 years serving others. I am thankful for her, she is an amazing AMAZING lady. I am so glad that she raised me. My Father, my brothers and sisters and myself are all very blessed to have her in our lives. Thanks Mom for being The Giver!
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Swimming focus paying off
I have continued to have swimming as my primary focus, and I feel like it is paying off. I was happy to swim 4000 yards in 59:40 today (with a pull buoy of course), a significant improvement over my old PR. I happened to arrive at the pool today at the same time as David Warden. (David and I have a history with our swimming. We are pretty much exactly the same speed in the water and we are both competitive so some of my best ever workouts have come when I swim with Dave. A year or so ago we did a long set of 100’s killing ourselves side by side trying to beat each other only to touch the wall simultaneously on almost every 100. We looked like synchronized swimmers. Thrashing, exhausted, learned how to swim in our thirties, can’t catch our breath synchronized swimmers.) I told Dave I was doing a 4000 time trial and I wanted to break an hour. Dave offered to swim behind me for the first part of my 4000 today and I definitely swam faster with him right behind me pushing me. I looked at my watch after every 200 or 300 and I was going faster than I had planned, I thought I might be blowing myself up trying to pull away from David and I thought I might have started to fast. But luckily even though I did slow down after the first 15-20 minutes I was able to hold it together just enough to finish under an hour. Thanks David, you bring out the Mr. Hyde in me.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Iron War by Matt Fitzgerald: Book Review
I just finished reading Iron War by Matt Fitzgerald. I enjoyed the book.
It did not focus only on Mark Allen and Dave Scott’s great attributes. It showed their weaknesses as well as their strengths. For instance I had always heard about Dave Scott’s amazing discipline with his workouts and with his diet (like rinsing his cottage cheese). I was surprised to hear that he would go through depressive low points when he would stop working out and sit in his bean bag chair for days at a time and gorge himself on food. He once called Scott Molina to tell him that he skipped a workout sat down in his bean bag chair and ate 12 power bars.
Mark Allen is CRAZY, literally crazy. He sees visions, hears voices and he once had a nice chit chat with a deer while he was meditating by himself in the wilderness.
Dave Scott is CRAZY, literally crazy. He has an intense physical mental and emotional addiction to large amounts of intense exercise.
I will never even sniff the level of success of the two greatest Ironman athletes of all time, but I did see some of their less desirable attributes in me. I’ve never had a conversation with a deer but I can see a bit of Mark Allens weirdness in me. I also have Dave Scott’s addiction problem, the difference being that my addiction has taken different forms throughout my life. (I have been addicted to football, missionary service, my job and now triathlon.) The biggest difference between myself and these two amazing athletes is they got paid a lot to do what they did. I on the other hand pay a lot to do what I do. I guess that makes me the crazier (less intelligent) one.
I recommend Iron War, it’s a very good book.
It did not focus only on Mark Allen and Dave Scott’s great attributes. It showed their weaknesses as well as their strengths. For instance I had always heard about Dave Scott’s amazing discipline with his workouts and with his diet (like rinsing his cottage cheese). I was surprised to hear that he would go through depressive low points when he would stop working out and sit in his bean bag chair for days at a time and gorge himself on food. He once called Scott Molina to tell him that he skipped a workout sat down in his bean bag chair and ate 12 power bars.
Mark Allen is CRAZY, literally crazy. He sees visions, hears voices and he once had a nice chit chat with a deer while he was meditating by himself in the wilderness.
Dave Scott is CRAZY, literally crazy. He has an intense physical mental and emotional addiction to large amounts of intense exercise.
I will never even sniff the level of success of the two greatest Ironman athletes of all time, but I did see some of their less desirable attributes in me. I’ve never had a conversation with a deer but I can see a bit of Mark Allens weirdness in me. I also have Dave Scott’s addiction problem, the difference being that my addiction has taken different forms throughout my life. (I have been addicted to football, missionary service, my job and now triathlon.) The biggest difference between myself and these two amazing athletes is they got paid a lot to do what they did. I on the other hand pay a lot to do what I do. I guess that makes me the crazier (less intelligent) one.
I recommend Iron War, it’s a very good book.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Swimming: I do not love it
I need to improve a lot on my swim. Since Kona I have been steadily increasing my weekly yardage. This week I did 32,000 yards. I peaked out on Friday with a 10,000 yard day. For good swimmers that really isn’t that much but for me 10,000 is the farthest I have ever swam at one time. I started by doing 4,000 steady in 1:07:45, I was pretty slow for the first 1,000 but then I stayed just under 1:40 per hundred for the rest. I then did the main part of my workout, a 4,000 yard time trial as fast as I could go. I did it in 1:02:50. I ended up averaging about a 1:34 per hundred for the whole time. I was pretty tired at this point. I then did 5 200’s on a 4 minute send off. I averaged 3:00 per 200. Then I did an easy 1,000 to finish it off. I hope that doing a lot of yardage at a fast pace (fast pace relative to my ability) will help me find that elusive “feel” for the water. I’m also trying a psychological trick. I have never really loved swimming. For a long time I felt that I needed to develop a love or a passion for swimming in order to get better, so I have tried to mentally force myself to fall in love with swimming but it just is not going to happen. I don’t love to swim but I think I have figured out a way to capture the next best thing to loving swimming. I do love to go down to my corner room of my basement and get on my bike. I love the feeling of pushing the limits of what I can do and I love to see the quantification of my improvement. When I think of doing a really challenging bike workout I can get that feeling like I will bash my head into a brick wall trying to break through. So before key swim workouts I imagine getting on my bike and I focus on that feeling and I try to apply that feeling to my swim workout. I hope that this will help me to have a swim breakthrough this winter. I am sick and tired of being so far behind after the swim. I am doing IronMan St George again in 2012 and if I don’t come out of the water before 59:59 I will be disappointed.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
IronMan World Championships race report 2011
Swim: I was disappointed in my swim I thought I should have been at least 2-3 minutes faster. I felt fast in the water so I was surprised to see the time 1:12 when I got out.
Bike: I felt great on the bike. My hip did not hurt at all. My heart rate was in the right range. I pushed hard for the first 4 hours and then took it down a notch for the last bit to get ready for the marathon. I biked a 4:44:14. This was the highlight of the day for me as things turned south on the run. I am happy that my bike is continuing to improve. I was glad to have a comparable bike split to some of the pros that I have looked up to.
Run: I felt really good running. My plan was to ease into the run and see how my hip handled it. It was working great and I was feeling like I could start to really get going down to a pace of around 7:00-7:15. But then I got to the hill on Palani. Running up hill must have really engaged the damaged tissue because it absolutely zapped my hip. My hip was painful, but the worst part of it was my glute. Where my glute connects to my hip was giving out. So after 12 miles I quit.
This is my 5th Ironman and the only one that I have not finished. It was tough not finishing. I thought about trying to walk the last 14 miles just to finish, but walking hurt my hip as well and I thought it would be better to not aggravate whatever I have hurt in my hip. I came into the race in the best run shape I have ever been in, but then last week I fell off my bike and banged up my hip. It is very disappointing to have my race end this way but luckily I let things go pretty easily. When I played football I played to win like the world would end if we lost, but when we did lose it never really destroyed me. I remember losing a game and our star player was crying on the bus and I didn’t understand. To me it’s like we lost it stinks but it’s over it’s done let’s learn from it and move on. That’s how I feel about this. I am not devastated. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing at all. Megan and I are excited to get home, be with our kids and attend to the more important things of life.
Bike: I felt great on the bike. My hip did not hurt at all. My heart rate was in the right range. I pushed hard for the first 4 hours and then took it down a notch for the last bit to get ready for the marathon. I biked a 4:44:14. This was the highlight of the day for me as things turned south on the run. I am happy that my bike is continuing to improve. I was glad to have a comparable bike split to some of the pros that I have looked up to.
Run: I felt really good running. My plan was to ease into the run and see how my hip handled it. It was working great and I was feeling like I could start to really get going down to a pace of around 7:00-7:15. But then I got to the hill on Palani. Running up hill must have really engaged the damaged tissue because it absolutely zapped my hip. My hip was painful, but the worst part of it was my glute. Where my glute connects to my hip was giving out. So after 12 miles I quit.
This is my 5th Ironman and the only one that I have not finished. It was tough not finishing. I thought about trying to walk the last 14 miles just to finish, but walking hurt my hip as well and I thought it would be better to not aggravate whatever I have hurt in my hip. I came into the race in the best run shape I have ever been in, but then last week I fell off my bike and banged up my hip. It is very disappointing to have my race end this way but luckily I let things go pretty easily. When I played football I played to win like the world would end if we lost, but when we did lose it never really destroyed me. I remember losing a game and our star player was crying on the bus and I didn’t understand. To me it’s like we lost it stinks but it’s over it’s done let’s learn from it and move on. That’s how I feel about this. I am not devastated. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing at all. Megan and I are excited to get home, be with our kids and attend to the more important things of life.
Friday, October 7, 2011
IronMan World Championships Race Plan
I like words. I have special words that I repeat over and over to myself. They all mean basically the same thing. My words that I use change over time and they vary quite a bit. “Fight” is a word I have used a lot along with “die, Kill and death”. (My youngest girl gets mad at me when she catches me saying these words, she tells me “you only say that downstairs” meaning when I am downstairs training). Now fight, die, kill and death are not pleasant words but I also have nice words, I have used the words “peace” and “sometimes” quite a bit. These words all have a similar meaning to me. In different ways they all mean GO! Lately I have liked the words super massive and supersonic. My race plan for The Ironman World Championships is to go harder and faster than I have gone in the past. This poem describes how I want my race to go.
It is time to go supersonic
Time to kill like the plague bubonic
From deep inside feel the sonic boom
Bursting out with a humming zoom
Let it come, allow it to flow
Hear it whisper,” it’s time to GO!”
Clear the mind, no need to think
Finding speed beyond the brink
It’s Time to go super massive
Be insane reject the passive
Lose your mind breaking through
Destroying limits is what to do
Push the brain past what it accepts
Making smoke of its past precepts
Emerging through the ashes all brand new
The super massive breakthrough is part of you
The big question mark for me in this race is my hip. I fell off my bike a week ago and bruised my left hip. It hurts a little to run but I hope it’s the kind of thing that will go away as I run rather than the type of thing that gets worse as I run. So my expectations are very broad. I can see myself having a very fast race but I can also see myself having to drop out of the run if my hip is bad. I hope to go super massive and supersonic the whole race, hopefully it works out.
It is time to go supersonic
Time to kill like the plague bubonic
From deep inside feel the sonic boom
Bursting out with a humming zoom
Let it come, allow it to flow
Hear it whisper,” it’s time to GO!”
Clear the mind, no need to think
Finding speed beyond the brink
It’s Time to go super massive
Be insane reject the passive
Lose your mind breaking through
Destroying limits is what to do
Push the brain past what it accepts
Making smoke of its past precepts
Emerging through the ashes all brand new
The super massive breakthrough is part of you
The big question mark for me in this race is my hip. I fell off my bike a week ago and bruised my left hip. It hurts a little to run but I hope it’s the kind of thing that will go away as I run rather than the type of thing that gets worse as I run. So my expectations are very broad. I can see myself having a very fast race but I can also see myself having to drop out of the run if my hip is bad. I hope to go super massive and supersonic the whole race, hopefully it works out.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Dreams and Reality
For me I have seen the most success in my life when I can simultaneously accept the reality of a situation while still believing that I can conquer that reality and Improve. In working with others I have noticed that the Dreamers usually fail because they do not accept the reality, they just focus only on their belief. The Realists fail because they focus on the dire situation of reality and aren’t inspired by what could be. I believe that to achieve a high level of success in any endeavor you must max out both your realist side and you dreamer side. I don’t think that the word “balance” is any good in describing the relationship between these two concepts. Balance denotes giving up a little bit of one thing to “balance” the other. Just do both of these things to your best ability. Max out your belief while embracing your life’s reality. I was thinking about this concept on my flight to the Ironman World Championships. I was really bored so I wrote this poem to describe how I feel about the dynamic between Dreams and Reality
Two truths I present to you
Radically different in their view
First: Our universe has laws by which its run
Nothing goes faster than the light of the sun
I can’t flap my arms and fly
Never, no matter how hard I try
Second: Dreams inspire and lift us higher
They make impossible an ugly liar
Using broken laws to fuel dreams fire
Overcoming the Universe by Pure Desire
But what happens when Dreams and Reality collide
When Laws face off against our believing side
Just embrace and accept the laws present state
Still believing in your dreams triumphal fate
Because reality is law but can be bent a bit
We can twist and mold it to make dreams fit
But where’s the line tween laws failure and dreams glory?
............. You decide, ......... this is your lifes story
Two truths I present to you
Radically different in their view
First: Our universe has laws by which its run
Nothing goes faster than the light of the sun
I can’t flap my arms and fly
Never, no matter how hard I try
Second: Dreams inspire and lift us higher
They make impossible an ugly liar
Using broken laws to fuel dreams fire
Overcoming the Universe by Pure Desire
But what happens when Dreams and Reality collide
When Laws face off against our believing side
Just embrace and accept the laws present state
Still believing in your dreams triumphal fate
Because reality is law but can be bent a bit
We can twist and mold it to make dreams fit
But where’s the line tween laws failure and dreams glory?
............. You decide, ......... this is your lifes story
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