Wednesday, May 18, 2005

What are you listening too?

I am writing this blog listening to the new Weezer album, “Make Believe,” which makes me wonder what new music other people are listening to. To be honest, I know that I have “grown up” as I am now musically stuck in a time warp. Yup, think about it; what did your parents listen to? They were not the keenest on the latest music, but listened to the music of their generation, whether that was the 50’s, 60’s or 70’s. Sure, they occasionally found something new to listen to, but for the most part, it either had to sound like something from their generation, or it was a new release from an artist from their generation. For me it is bands like Luna, Weezer, Lush, the Cure, Ben Folds, some hair metal (twisted I know), and Sebadoh or music that falls into their genre and styling that I tend to lean to. Looking at my purchases as of late I have downloaded songs from Ben Folds latest album that sound like music from “Whatever and Ever Amen,” Weezer—as mentioned earlier, Lou Bartlow, Bloc Party, and Monade (thanks J.K. for pointing this one out). To add to the signs that I am now officially a grown up (other than being 31 years old, married, and a corporate slave) I now get angry at those damn kids and their devil music. Seriously, I actually will wave my fist in the air and yell at them. Someone put me out of my misery… but then again, at least I have acknowledged it. So, what are you listening to? Are you in the same boat? Write me a comment.

On a secondary note, it looks like I have avoided knee surgery for at least the time being. I am going to try physical therapy one more time to try to get the ilo-tibial band to stretch more. The doctor also wants me to see a podiatrist to have some custom inserts made to reduce the pronation of my right foot that may reduce the pressure on the injury. If this does not work I am then looking at knee surgery again, which if I have not noted, will suck. I like the wait and see approach at this time, although I am getting the itch to ride at least 1 century this year, or even enter one more adventure race (For those who think I am nuts, it is like a drug, an accomplishment high that makes you want to do it again and again).

OK one last thing. My two favorite shows this year are “Lost” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Until next time…..

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Pride and Accomplishment

It is an interesting concept for me to wakeup in the morning and be totally afraid to move. It was not like I was afraid of some intruder or that some strange creature was lurking near me, but rather a fear of pain, the soreness that typically follows a day of over exertion, a pain that comes from areas of your body that you did not even know existed. So I opened my eyes slowly, and began the process of rolling out of bed. To my surprise, I was not sore at all, or at least nothing more that what I feel after a good workout. Even my knee was surprisingly pain free. It is as if Saturday was all a dream……..

The day, Saturday May 14, 2005, began at 3:00 AM after a night of restless slumber (is that an oxymoron?). Ken and I had to be in Defiance, Ohio by 7 AM to check-in for the race. I pulled myself out of bed and took a quick hot shower to begin the process of loosening up my muscles for the day. After the shower I began the layering process that is a sign of any good outdoors person, of course, this would have to have a slight adjustment for the race. Bike shorts first, nylon pants next, Smartwool socks, long-sleeved nylon/polyester shirt, followed by polyester/nylon fleece pullover (note: notice there is no cotton. Cotton is the enemy of warmth). I put on the junk shoes that I would use for the first leg of the race, canoeing, and then loaded the car with my remaining gear (bike helmet, hiking shoes, jacket, change of clothing, etc.). After a quick breakfast that was carb and potassium loaded, I was on the road to Ken’s house. By 4:45 AM, we were on our way to lovely Ohio.

The drive was on the surreal level as it did not feel like the middle of the night, but rather more like driving back from the bar. Maybe it was the number of drunks on the road, or girls with regrets (you know the ones who drank too much and woke up next to someone), or maybe it was the fact that we were both anxious to start our first triathlon. The drive was going well as we headed into Ohio when Ken asked, “can we stop at the next rest area?” Little did we know that on US-23 there were no rest areas in Ohio. In fact, we did not find the opportunity until we were about 10 minutes from our destination, and 50 minutes after the request. With the need taken care of, we were ready for the race.

Ken and I arrived at the section of the race where we would begin our second leg. It was here where we needed to have our backpacks weighed in and certified. Both of our packs were at 33-34 lbs, but we added about 6 more with food, beverages, and spare clothing (the rule of this segment was that the packs had to maintain a minimum weight of 20% of your body weight). I have to point out that I was amazed at what people would do to reach the 20% weight mark for their packs, or even what some people used for their packs, such as book bags filled with weights. It made me shudder to think about carrying 40 lbs of weight for 8 miles totally on ones shoulders. Anyway, after we stashed out backpacks, we headed over to the start of the race. It was 7 AM, which would give us time to prep for the start.
We reached the starting point of the race and went to check-in. We were both amazed at how disorganized the people seemed. It was like no one had their coffee yet, or that they had never done this before – did I mention that this was the 20th edition of the race? We stood in line for 15 minutes before checking in and getting our number. It was now time to get our gear for canoeing, but where was it? It seems that the guy who was in charge of the rental gear was not there yet. So, we, as well as about 40 other people waited for him to arrive. At 7:58, he arrived, and I was pissed. It was not until a quarter after 8 that we were able to get our gear (Our supposed launch time was 8 AM). Ken and I grabbed our canoe and began the ¼ - ½ mile portage to the launce point. We had procured a fiberglass canoe that was light, but it had two flaws. First, it was not designed for 2 people to portage it correctly. Secondly, it had a flat bottom so it did not want to track straight on the river. This made the canoeing much more difficult and time consuming for us, with a time of 1 hour 30 minutes. We then had to transition to backpacking.

The backpacking section was my biggest fear. I am a decent canoeist, and I am a strong bicyclist, but I have never been really strong at backpacking long distances without breaks. We changed our shoes and socks, and shed a layer of clothing (it was humid and warm), and threw on our packs. To my surprise, we did the section very well, averaging 15 minute miles. I will point out that there were people who actually ran the 8 miles with 20% of their body weight in their packs. That was not for us. The hike was actually enjoyable and time flew as we were able to talk and make note of nature (Buckeye trees, natural chive plants, etc). Little did we know that the worst was yet to come.

Ken and I arrived at the third leg of the race at 12 PM, 3.3 hours after the start. We were doing great, pretty much on schedule, and our heart rates were at the perfect level. Yes, we used heart rate monitors to pace ourselves. This is important as you do not want to move at your lactate threshold, 90% of your max heart rate zone, or else you will burn out quick. Anyway, we checked it, dumped our packs, and changed into our biking gear. At this point, the weather was still decent, although a light drizzle had developed. We ate some power bars and drank some liquids, then launched into the final leg of the race, a 33 mile bike ride. Things were going great for the first ¼ mile of the ride when the weather turned for the worse. It began to rain harder and the wind picked up. Ken and I did not let it faze us as we set and kept our pace of 15 mph. We hit the first checkpoint when the weather went from bad to worse. A torrential downpour started about 5 miles into the ride, which not only made it difficult to ride, but also made it nearly impossible to see. Ken and I worked like true champions though, as we pushed through all that Mother Nature threw at us. We were soaked to the bone, our shoes full of water, even the pockets on the back of my bike jersey were filled with water. As Ken put it, it was like riding through Niagara Falls for 45 minutes. It was about 24 miles into the ride when the rain let up enough for us to pick up the pace again (We held at about 12-13MPH during the storm). Unfortunately, a cold front had come with the storm and was now inducing hypothermia into us. I honestly thought that I was shaking my bike apart from all the shivering that I was doing. It was lucky for us that the finish was only a few miles away. We reached the finish with little fanfare, ending the race in less than 6 hours. We were cold, we were tired, but we both felt great that we had successfully completed the whole race. The event organizers were supposed to have medals for all those who finished, but apparently, they got lost.

With the race over, Ken and I changed out of our wet clothes, and we hopped into the truck and cranked the heat on high as we drove home. I would say that it took a good hour to kill the chill from our bones, but neither of us complained once. I did not go to bed that night until 10 PM, but I did sleep soundly the whole night.

I woke up to a new day today, and I have this awesome sense of accomplishment and pride. There is no pain, just lots of wet shoes. I even had to laugh when I went to load Ken’s rental bike into the truck and out from the tubing poured about 3 cups of water. It was a good day.

A warm welcome to the world to my new nephew, Ari Petre Oostlander. He was born 1 week ago today.

Monday, May 09, 2005

One Week to Go!

Well, 5 days until my first adventure race and I hope that I can achieve my goal of finishing in under 6 hours. Of course as luck would have it, I over exerted myself on Sunday, causing my Ilotibial band to inflame and lock up. I had a feeling this would happen sooner or later, as this is not the first time this has happened. I was just feeling so good, and the weather was so nice, that I could not stop riding. In fact, my race partner and I did near 45 miles yesterday (and I had done 25 on Saturday and 20 on Thursday). Looking back on it, I believe that it was the three trips up the 1/4 mile hill on Hines drive (Just past 5 mile) that did me in. You see, I use this hill as a training mechanism because it is long and just the right grade. Plus, you can get going over 40 MPH on the way down. Anyhow, I was going to only do it twice, but my race partner went back up a second time and stopped at the top. Not knowing his plans, I figured I was supposed to ride back up to meet him (my 3rd time). It was a little tough and my knee started to hurt a little. So, after that, we started to ride home, and by the time we hit Nankin Mills, I thought I was going to pass out. I mean it really hurt, like driving a nail into my leg. Anyhow, We were still about 15 miles from home, so I just toughed it out and barely made it to my buddy's house. Anyway, I freaked out, as this race is really important to me, so today I called my Orthopedic surgeons office and begged to get in (explaining the situation about the race). Well, like any doctors office, there is rarely an same day open slot and the receptionist was offering me up next week. Fortunately for me, my father and the doctor are buddies, so he used his influence to get me in. Once at the office, the doctor injected my knee with an anti-inflammatory that greatly reduced the pain and he also gave me some drugs to take to keep the knee working during the race. We also spoke about surgical options to resolve this recurring issue, but like the awesome doctor he is, recommended me to go see his partner, a sports medicine specialist first. I am hoping they can find a nice permanent solution to this so that I can speed hike the Pictured Rock section of the North Country Trail in August. For now though, I am on a rest and ice regiment until Saturday.