How bad does it have to be?

So this article reports that Dave Chappelle was recently hospitalized for exhaustion. I know a lot of the people that read this blog are cyclists and/or triathletes that are in very serious and demanding training regimens. Personally I feel kinda tired everyday because of my training. I mean Dave seriously whats up? Were you like falling down every few steps. Were you frothing at the mouth like Linus Gerdemann after climbing up to Tignes?

Seriously he's a freaking stand up comic. There is mention in the article that he recently broke the endurance record of continuous stand up, 6 hours. Really! That's all he could muster? I mean I have workouts, which as the name denotes require physical exertion, that last longer. I was expecting something ridiculous like 24 hours or something.

Don't get me wrong, Chapelle is freaking hilarious. But when you hear about stuff like this it makes you wonder what was really going on with people when they had to check into the hospital. I'm off to the ER.

I hope it doesn't happen to me

On my way home from my ride tonight a saw a bunch people heading in to a picnic/barbecue. Most of them were casually dressed, a little more dressed up than casual I suppose. It was probably a birthday party or something. Anyway, there was one older dude walking in and he was way more casual, pretty much sub-casual. He had a super old T-shirt on that was so tight over his belly that there was a gap between the bottom of the shirt and his shorts. When you get old do you just totally lose your mind, completely stop caring, or are these people like that all there life and just never change? Regardless I hope that I always care enough and have my wits about me to look suitable for public appearances.

My Job, My Achilles, New Interpol

Fucking Sucks

Fucking Suck

Fucking Sucks

Lame Race Report

I learned a lesson this week about vacationing and racing. We went up to Grand Rapids on Wednesday the 4th to stay in a cabin for a long weekend and to race the Timberman Triathlon. After about three days of total relaxation and eating like crap I lost all motivation to race. I was staying off of my Achilles (which I injured in an earlier race), but did manage to get the weeks swim and bike workouts in. I showed up at the race and felt like bagging it the entire time. To top off the lack of enthusiasm I was having some serious GI issues. Here’s how the race went:

Swim: First 500 meters I felt great. The final 900 meters or so I really struggled. I realized the day would be about survival. I saw G and Louie standing by the swim exit and wanted to just chill with them and watch other people race.

T1: Felt like throwing in the towel, but thought well lets just get it in as a workout.

Bike: Man I had no energy. Every time I tried to push it there was nothing in the engine. The course was challenging, but even if it was flat I think I would have struggled.

T2: Surprise, I felt like throwing in the towel. I REALLY took my time and composed myself. Most peoples T2 times were around 1 minute, mine was over 2. I looked through my race bag and got some fuel, chatted with G for a bit, took a couple salt tabs and reluctantly headed out for the run.

Run: The achilles felt pretty good, I however started to really break down at the halfway point. I was so exhausted I had to walk for a few minutes. I struggled the rest of the way, cramping in my hamstring and suffering from lots of side stitches.

This was the worst I have ever felt in a race. At no point of it was I enjoying it (well except for maybe that long downhill on the bike where I was in my 53x11 and couldn’t keep up with it). I came in at 2:27:03 or something like that. The only victory I felt was that I didn’t record a DNF. I realized that my racing needs to be at the beginning of a vacation rather than at the end. We went back to the cabin and I iced my achilles with margaritas, on the rocks with salt.