One Quote Review: It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life

“What ever your 100% looks like, give it.” – Lance Armstrong

Just finished reading Lance Armstrong’s “It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life” on my Amazon Kindle which is way more convenient than carrying a book around.  Was able to download the book using the WIFI feature, which was nice.

Picked that quote to summarize the book. To me it explains everything you need to know about Lance, his philosophy on life and how he inspires others to do great things. All you have to do in life is give 100%, no matter what it looks like. There is no prejudice in him, as long as you do the work then you have nothing to be ashamed of. Even if you don’t succeed, at least you will know that you gave it all.

The book itself is well written and is very interesting.  It provides you with Lance Armstrong’s detailed history, from his childhood troubles, to his early start in triathlons, the cancer that taught him to live, and an improbable comeback to cycling that many people, including Lance, did not think was possible.  Throughout the book you see the man that is now Lance Armstrong form piece by piece.  There is also a very nice recap of Armstrong’s first two Tour de France wins.  You get a little peek at what’s going on during the tour, between the teams, riders and the media.

The cancer that threatened to take away his life, taught him to live life to the fullest, to take care of himself, and take care of others.  It seems that Armstrong was brought to this world to endure, be born again and live to tell others, encourage them and inspire.

Think what you want of Lance but when he was winning the Tour de France in the years of 1999-2005, I became a cycling fan and started cycling, which later brought me to triathlons.  When I learned about the Armstrong foundation, I became aware and in my opinion that is why he is still here now, to spread the word and get people involved.

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Ultra marathon anyone? Maybe…

Ultra running? Maybe…

Just finished reading the Dean Karnazes book – Ultramarathon man: Confessions of an all-night runner.  Very easy to read and is pretty interesting.  At times, some people may think that Dean seems a little cocky but as you read the book you start to realize that it is just confidence in himself, his training and his goals/inspiration.  He has great respect for the distance and the people who take up this or any other sport. You can see why many people would get into ultra running after reading something like this.  It displays some of the joys but mostly the masochistic pain, both physical and mental, that you have to Ultramarathon manovercome.  Ultra-marathons have their appeal, and some people love the pain and the ultra runners high associated with them.  I am in awe of what some people are able to accomplish every day.

“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” – Dean Karnazes

I learned never to say never 7 years ago when I said that I would never participate in a marathon, and now here I am: a multiple marathon finisher with several long course triathlons and Ironman Wisconsin under my belt planning on when I will do another Iron distance race, an ultra or any other adventure that I can get myself into.  I will never say no to an endurance event, if it comes my way, I will do it. I doubt that I will ever do a 100 mile race but I will not rule it out either.  I will stick with triathlons for now and keep spreading the TriBug the best I can.

Any ultra’s on your schedule for 2013?  Would you ever consider one?

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One Quote Review: A Few Degrees from Hell

“Three weeks later Chris’ legs are still numb. Four toenails have fallen out. He’s removed a large patch of skin from his severely-blistered foot. Another week later he is still having nightmares about his physical and psychological breakdown.”

- Chris Bergland and Scott Ludwig

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It is beautiful though!

This is the quote I thought would perfectly describe Scott Ludwig’s book, A Few Degrees from Hell: The 2003 Badwater Ultramarathon.  Right away I have to tell you that I didn’t really have a desire to do Badwater before I read this book and after reading it and after my last long run training for a marathon in 80 degree weather, I still have no desire to put myself in the Death Valley.  Badwater Ultramarathon is one of the toughest challenges a runner can face.  Runners have to face temperatures that go to 130 degrees on a regular basis, melted shoes, sunburn, dust storms, blistered feet, hallucinations, exhaustion, scorpions, and anything else that you can imagine.  There is a reason why every year so few people from the millions of runners even consider participating in this event.  Even if you do decide on participating, you still go through a selection process and if you are selected you can try and conquer the 135 miles of pain that try and do their best to make you quit.

This book is composed of 26 different stories, different views of the same race.  From ultra-marathon veterans like Pam Reed, Dean Karnazes, Marshall Ulrich who have completed Badwater multiple times, to first time Badwater participants like Scott Ludwig, the books author, who decided to brave the Death Valley and its dangers.  The last story was written by a crew member and gives you an inside look at what the runner’s crew goes through.  At some points all of the stories seem to be repetitive but each one has something that you can take away from it.

A very interesting read and if you ever considered participating in Badwater than this book has a lot of good information and insight that will be pretty useful for you.  This book among a couple of others, made me want to consider getting into running ultras. Good luck!

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from TriBug!

 Be merry, be happy. Love your family and dream big!

 TriBug

 

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Ironman Wisconsin 2012 Race Report

I can now say that I am IRONMAN! After following my

Ironman Wisconsinbrother’s training and his race at IMWI in 2010, I can finally join him. We are now the Ironmen, as one of our friends called us.

All I have to say about the whole year is that it has been tough, especially in the end where you can almost see the light but it is at the end of a 100 mile training bike ride or a 15 mile training run. Getting in those few last weeks of high volume training was really hard.Then came taper, a period where you let your body rest and by rest, I mean REST. Workouts are cut to a minimum. Instead of training 16-18 hours in your high volume weeks, you are down to 9-12 hours and lots of time to do nothing else but rest. You are going crazy waiting for race day to get here but on the positive side, you suddenly have the time to do things that you haven’t done since your Ironman training began. Now, I will go over almost everything that happened on that beautiful day in September. Almost everything, because there are some things that I just don’t remember.

Friday: Athlete Check-In & Thai

The day we left for Madison, WI was here before I knew it and we were off on our 140 mile drive to Madison. What a great city and what great support they have for the race and triathletes who come there from around the world to do their best on the course. We arrived to Madison Friday around 4 pm and I was dreading standing in line at athlete check-in for a couple of hours, at least that’s what I heard it can be toward the end of the last day. Surprisingly it went by pretty quickly. Got my weight recorded, signed some waivers and picked up the race packet. I was very excited to finally get all of this stuff, it meant that the race itself was not far away at all. Soon I was done with the check-in and decided to go through the Ironman store with my wife, Julia. After the store, we decided to take a stroll through downtown Madison and then headed to the hotel to check-in. Friday was the evening for me to load up on carbs for the race. Anything in the downtown Madison area pretty much guaranteed that we would be standing in line since all of the athletes needed to carbo-load, so we picked Sa-Bai Thong, a Thai place just outside of Madison, which ended up being a pretty good idea. After dinner we went downtown once again to walk around and then headed home to get some sleep.

Saturday: Bike Check-In & Italian

Saturday was a pretty uneventful day except for bike check-in and transition bag drop off. After dropping off the bike and making sure everything was OK, I dropped off the run and bike transition bags and headed to the Ironman store once again. I was eying some things that I would get after finishing the race. After bike drop-off we decided to get some lunch at a place downtown where me and my brother ate when in Madison for training, Francesca’s Al Lago. It seemed like they were a little understaffed for that busy weekend but the food was good and we were not in a hurry. After lunch we headed back to the hotel where I passed out on the bed for a couple of hours, even though I was trying hard to stay awake so I can get a good night’s sleep before the race.

Around 8:00 pm, my brother Konstantin, his wife Anna and their daughter Gabrielle drove up. They came for mental support for me and to take photos of the race for www.tribug.com. While waiting for them to drive up from Chicago, heavy rain started coming down in Madison and all of my thoughts were concentrated on them getting to us safely and my bike not getting washed out into lake Monona. We chatted for a couple of hours and soon it was time to say good night. Julia and Konstantin would drive up with me at 5 am and would be there the whole day, Anna and Gabrielle would join us later.

That night I did not go to sleep till about 1:00 am. My alarm was going to go off at 3:30 am. I knew sleeping earlier during the day was not going to be of any help.

Sunday: Max…You are an Ironman

Ironman Wisconsin BreakfastMy alarm rang at 3:30 am. I was already too nervous and excited to go back to sleep so no snooze this time. I got up, ate breakfast, drank some coffee and went to take a shower to warm up and wake up myself even more. Before I knew it, my brother was knocking on our door, he was all ready to go.

We packed our things into the car and headed to the race site. It was about a 10 minute drive and soon we were parking and walking down toward the Monona Terrace. The town was still asleep by the terrace was filled with athletes, support crews, relatives, race organizers and pets.

I went to the bike transition area and dropped off water bottles filled with Gatorade and water, then I went to get my number marked on me and at the end, dropped off a few things that I forgot to put into the transition bags. Then I met up with Julia and Konstantin and we just hung out until about 30 minutes before the start.

Monona Terrace before Ironman WisconsinBody Glide is a lifesaver and if not for it then a lot of athletes would be in a lot of pain. Soon my wetsuit was on and we were heading down the parking lot helix to the swim start. That nervous feeling was beginning to creep up again. I said “Bye” to my wife and brother and got in line to get into the water. As soon as I hit the water, the nervous feeling was gone and I started making my way further away from the shore. After wading for a few minutes, the canon went off and the race was on.

First 20 minutes of the swim is pretty much like swimming in a washing machine. You are hitting the people ahead of you with your arms and the people behind you with your feet. For the most part, I swam the first 20 minutes with my head out of the water so that I see who is in front of me and so that I don’t get hit in the face. After the first 2 left turns, the crowd thinned out and I was able to get into a nice pace. My left shoulder started to hurt a lot, not sure why. Other than the shoulder hurting, the rest of the swim went great.

Swim: 1:07:10

Transition from the swim to bike was 9:39 minutes and I thought I was moving fast. The volunteer tossed everything out of my transition bag and helped me put everything on. It was a bit chilly so I decided to put on my arm warmers and kept them on until the run.

Bike started out great. I felt rested and nothing hurt for the first 40 miles. At mile 60 I started to have doubts whether I can run a marathon after biking for 52 miles more. I saw my wife and brother on the first loop and saw them with Anna and Gabrielle on the second loop. It was great seeing familiar faces and knowing that they were out there tired and hungry but still waiting to see and support me. At mile 90, I could not wait to get off the bike and the last 22 miles seemed to go on forever. Soon though, I saw the Monona Terrace, was

riding up the parking lot helix and was handing my bike to a volunteer. I took my cycling shoes off and tried to run into the transition area on my wobbly two legs. That was an interesting experiment.

Bike: 6:12:04

Transition to the run was much faster but it could still be improved. It took me 5:06 minutes to get all of the bike gear out of my jersey, take the arm warmers off, put gels and a 5 hour energy shot in my pockets and get in a quick bathroom break.

The first 3 miles were more of a shuffle then a run. I had to walk a few times to get my Another 6.5 miles of running and we are back in downtown Madison, so close to the finish line and yet we still have 13 miles left. I asked for my special needs bag, looked into it, dropped off a small body glide that I was carrying with me and left. I was happy that my feet were not rubbing and nothing was hurting. The next 6 miles included more of the same, some running but mostly walking, especially on the Observatory Hill. I get to the second loop turnaround and once again see my wife and my brother which, with a ton of other people and volunteers, helped me run through that portion of the course.feetready for the 26 mile trek. After the first few miles I got into a rhythm and would walk only the aid stations. I would alternate and take in water at one aid station and take in Gatorade at the next. The cramps that showed some sign of life on the bike never appeared and I was very happy. Mile markers for the first and second loop were placed close together and all through that first loop I was imagining what it will be like running the second loop and wishing it was the second loop already. After walking/running the Observatory hill, I was finally at the turnaround and that is where I got to see my family and friends. I ran through the whole portion, hugged my wife, high fived my brother and felt great. 18 miles to go.

The next 6.5 miles were the toughest and the best for me. I knew that this day would be over soon but it was coming to an end much faster than I thought.  The Observation Hill seemed much longer this time around and seeing my family seemed to help a lot more. The miles kept going by and soon I was at the State St. heading toward the finish. I was trying to push it at the end but a slight uphill took it out of me and I had to walk a bit. Once that hill was over I regained some strength and started running towards the finish line.The finish line chute was amazing. I was pumped up on the energy of all the spectators and volunteers, high-fiving the families and kids who came out to see their athlete finish this amazing journey. When I stepped over the finish line, I knew it was over. I cannot say that I wanted to do it all over again that minute but I knew that this wasn’t my last Ironman triathlon. A little later I got my medal, my Ironman hat and t-shirt and some water. I made sure that the volunteer who helped me walk everywhere knew that I was ok and that I didn’t need any medical attention. I made my way to the exit, saw my wife and gave her a big hug. Everything felt great!

Total: Swim – 1:07:10 + Bike – 6:12:04 + Run – 4:46:32 + (T1 – 9:39, T2 – 5:06) = 12:20:31

We met up with my brother, his wife and their daughter after the race, got my bike and transition bags and went to the hotel. I took a long hot shower and then we ordered a couple of pizzas as an additional prize for finishing the race. We wanted to go back and watch the athletes who would come in closer to the cut off time but everyone was a little tired so we didn’t, which I still regret. We will definitely do it next time.

Gear review

I was worried about what I would wear for the race but at the end I decided to go with the De Soto TriBib shorts, which worked out great. It has side pockets that I used to hold my gels on the run and bike and it has the bib part that held it nicely in place for the duration of the race.

The other gear was the same as I have always used: TriBug.com jersey, Asics Gel-DS Trainer, Balega Hidden dry socks, gels, bars, and a pair of sunglasses.

After completing this race, all I have to say is “I WILL BE BACK!”.

 

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Stampede on the morning run

I went on a run this morning. I woke up at 5:23am and decided that I can get four miles in before the day starts.

As I walked out the door, I saw my neighbor. He was chilling in the 40F degree weather and smoking. He told me he couldn’t sleep and that he should be doing what I’m doing.

Usually, when I go on the run that early, I only see an occasional skunk that is coming home after a long night. This time I met face-to-face with eight different runners on the way. I felt like there is a race and I missed it, and I hate missing races close to home.

Then I realized, after all, it is the marathon season and Chicago marathon is just around the corner. It will go back to normal in a couple months; it will only be me, my smoking neighbor, and my little stinky friends.

 

-Konstantin

*Image taken from http://www.fanpop.com/spots/skunk-fu/images/5456114/title/running-skunk-photo

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Lance is done fighting…!?

“Over the past three years, I have been subjectedLance Armstrong training to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart’s unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense.” – Lance Armstrong, August 23, 2012

When I heard the news about Lance Armstrong quitting the fight with the USADA I really did not know what to think; however, at that moment I felt like I wanted to give up as well. Then I realized that I was not fighting USADA and did not have several Tour de France victories, either way I was still upset. I am not really sure why he would quit, but then again, when someone (USADA) keeps harassing you for the longest time, the only thing left to do is give in.

I was not a big Lance Armstrong or cycling fan, but you could say that I became one after reading his book: “It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life”. To me, the book showed who Lance is inside and what he had to go through to get to the top. Lance inspired me to follow cycling and lead a much healthier and fuller life.  Even though I will never compete at a professional level in sports, Lance does show that anything is possible and that a human being can come back from the “dead” to win the Tour de France 7 times in a row.

Over the course of his career, Lance was considered guilty without any chance of proving his innocence. He has been tested hundreds of times, but that didn’t mean a thing to the USADA, they were out to get him just to get him. If Lance cheated in a land of cheaters, then he was still the best. If he did not cheat and still beat everyone for 7 years, well then, he is just superhuman.

Lance will probably lose his 7 Tour de France titles and will never be able to compete in professional cycling events, he is done fighting but I don’t think he came out of this a loser. To me, USADA looks like a bunch of fools who will crucify anyone they think is guilty without giving them a chance to fight back. All I have to say is that I will miss the witch hunt but I am happy that Lance and his family will live a quieter life from now on.

*Image was taken from http://bikereviews.com/2010/06/final-tour-de-france-lance-armstrong/

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Triathlete’s wife

Triathlon is a beautiful sport that requires a lot of work, willpower, extensive workouts, strength, patience, and much more. Indeed, it is not easy to be a triathlete, nor it is easy to be a triathlete’s spouse.

Being married to a triathlete is challenging, emotional, time consuming, yet exciting and rewarding. My husband has a full time job and runs TriBug.com with his brother; meanwhile, he tries not to miss some triathlons and marathons in the area. Once in a while he likes to treat our family with trips out of state where he also signs up for a race.

I rarely see my husband in the morning. He gets up around 4:30-5:00 am every morning, and then he goes for a run, rides his bike, or goes to a pool. He works out during a lunch break at work. When he was training for the Ironman triathlon, he worked out after work as well but I’m glad that is over for now. I must say that I am very thankful to my husband that he tries to fit most of his trainings in the early morning and during the day, and spends most of the evenings with his family. Weekends are for long and extensive workouts which usually means breakfasts alone.

Lonely breakfasts and waking up alone are the challenges of being a triathlete’s wife. But, I love what comes after that – my exhausted and ABSOLUTELY HAPPY husband comes home! When he comes home and walks through the door, his smile brightens my day, our little girl starts smiling and gets very active and excited, our pets are running to meet him, and everything comes alive. (Well, usually it happens during weekends.) Even if I already had my breakfast, I am happy to have one more breakfast with my husband and listen about his long run or ride, what animals he met on his way, how beautiful the forest was, etc. I really enjoy seeing how happy my husband is after the (long weekend) workouts and I know it makes him happy to know that I support him, miss him, and anxiously wait for him to come home. I also learned to take advantage of the time when he is not at home by either sleeping in, or doing things that I enjoy to do such as spending time with our baby daughter.

Something that is unique only for spouses of a triathlete is accepting the bicycle almost as a family member and having a space for the bicycle inside the house. My husband’s bike is set up the trainer in our living room, where we could have a couple of bar chairs and nice bar zone that connects the living room and the kitchen. But, this space turned out to be perfect for the “almost family member” because it faces our big TV and my husband can watch movies while training on the bike. I can only add that I enjoy seeing my husband at home and like it when he is staying on the trainer, so having a bicycle instead of a bar is not a problem. In addition, we have a separate bathroom for my husband’s training clothes where he can wash them and hang them to dry. I am ready to accept anything that comes with the triathlons and the training but not the smell of the gear in my bathroom.

When I started to write this post, I was going to share my challenges of being a wife of a triathlete: getting up at 3:00 or 4:00 am, waiting for him from start to finish for God knows how many hours (in case of Ironman it was 13hrs), looking for him in the transition area, being on a diet and tapering with him, and so on. But, writing this post brought so many wonderful memories to my mind, and now I can only think of how I am proud of my husband and his achievements. I would never trade my athletic husband for anything in the world and I consider myself to be the happiest and luckiest wife ever.

-Triathlete’s wife

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