Where did Day 3 in Melbourne go?

Day 1, then Day 2 and then supposedly there should be Day 3 in Melbourne.  Well I had good intentions of  writing about my day three but something happened.  First off, it was another work day so you know that means I had to work.  I had hoped that while here in Melbourne I could stay with my training program.  The hotel web site showed a nice fitness center and a swimming pool.  True, they did have a fitness center and they did have a pool but both are woefully small. In typical hotel fashion, the fitness room is a closet with three pieces of equipment, an exercise bike, a treadmill and a mop.  The mop was the most modern piece of equipment.  Luckily there is a health club around the corner from the hotel so I got a three week membership.  I negotiated a cheap price with them.  I was brutal with them.  It was tough but I got the price down cheap and the only concession is that I cannot use the showers, sauna, and steam room.  I do not have access to any lockers and cannot use the hair dryers.  I can only use the gym between the hours of 12:00 Noon and 12:15.  But, here is where I whittled them down, I get unlimited use of their mop.

 

All of that has nothing to do with Day 3 except that I came back to the hotel room after doing some mop presses.  I fired up the computer, laid down on the bed and woke up in Day 4 in Melbourne.

 

I did have lunch in a small noodle shop in Chinatown.  My table was right next to the kitchen, as were the other three tables.

 

So to summarize Day 3,  work, noodles, mop and sleep.

 

Good night / morning / day,, whatever

TSA to the rescue

I cannot imagine any job that has to be tougher than the TSA screeners at the airports.  No one in line appreciates them.  People view the TSA folks as being a major pain in the ass.  Airline passengers want easy access to the planes. They want to be able to get from their home to their seat on the plane.  Anything that stands in their way,, the TSA,, airline personnel or slow ticket kiosks are just barricades thrown in their way.  But, in the end,, everyone wants the TSA there to stop terrorists.  So,, everyone really is thinking,, "Yes,, TSA, stop everyone,, x-ray them,, metal detect them,, take away their liquids,, strip search them,, but let me pass through un-impeded.  At least that is the way I feel. 

 

I think that part of being a TSA screener is that you have to disregard common sense.  I think when the TSA screener arrives at work,, they  log into the computer,, the go to their locker,, drop off their keys, lunch and common sense.    Recently this was proven by an ever alert TSA screener in Minneapolis.  I have a small tube of toothpaste that I take with me in my travel kit.  I have had it for many , many trips.  It has made it's way through at least a few dozen security checkpoints.  In Minneapolis,, my toothpaste was confiscated.  The alert screener found that I was sneaking a 4.5 ounce tube of toothpaste through security.  I was limited to 3.0 ounces.  Here is where the common sense part comes in,, my toothpaste was about 80 percent gone.  So, although in a container marked 4.5 ounces,, it only had about a half of an ounce of toothpaste in it.

 

Somewhere in the government's filing cabinets,, there is probably a file with my name on it and an entry that on such and such a date,, I tried to board a flight with a container marked 4.5 ounces.   That's right,, I'm bad...

Something bizarre happened

I am haunted by something that happened over the weekend.  There was nothing going on this past Sunday so I decided to go down to the lake and relax on the dock.  I took a book to read and something to drink.  My only plan was to sit back, read and relax.  Sounded pretty simple.  The weather was great.  There were lot's of boaters and jet skiers speeding back and forth. 

 

I was not there for more than five minutes when a boat came by that caught my attention.  It was a ski boat that had three guys in it and they were all looking back at the guy they were towing.  The skier was on a boogie board and was using the ski rope to pull himself in closer and closer to the boat.  He got within 5 feet of the back of the boat and he dropped into the wake zone immediately behind the boat.  He let go of the roper and was now surfing on the wake wave.  He stayed on the wave for about 20 seconds and then he wiped out.  The board went one way and he the other.  He popped up and started swimming Tarzan-style to his boogie board.  At that point,, there was nothing to watch so I turned back to my book and started reading again.  Within a few minutes,  things in front of me started catching my attention.  I looked up to see the guy's in the boat pulling the surfer guy's body from the water.  A jet-skier had stopped to help, as well as another boat.  They pulled the guy in and laid him on the side of the boat.  They started yelling into his face trying to get him to regain consciousness.  The slapped him on the back and tried to shake him.  This was all happening within 20 feet of the dock.  I could hear everything.  The driver called 911 and told them what was going on.  The current was carrying the boat past me.  As they drifted away, one of the guys in the started doing CPR on the surfer.   He continued doing compressions on him as they drifted.  Once they got even with the boat ramp across the lake, the started the engine and drove onto the boat ramp.  The lake at this point is only about 100 yards across so even though they were on the far side of the lake, I was still able to see everything that was happening.  Within a few minutes the Fire Department showed up,, then a few minutes later,, Life Flight came flying up the lake and hovered near the boat ramp. 

 

Life Flight made its way across the lake and landed near the ramp.  I could not tell what was happening but besides Life Flight, EMS and the Lake police,, there were a lot of bystanders.  Within 10-15 minutes, everyone started leaving. First Life Flight,, then EMS,, then Fire Department,, police and then last but not least,, the guys in the boat. 

 

I have been watching  the news (YUCK) to see if they say anything (they did not),, I scanned the newspaper for information (there was nothing) and I checked out the Life Flight Logs posts (Nothing there either).  SO,, I have no clue what happened,, how the surfer guy is or anything. 

 

Like I said,, this whole event, which lasted not more than 40 minutes,,,continues to haunt me. I am not sure why I am dwelling on it.  I wish I could have done something.

 

Another thing that lends to the surreal images of all this is that there was a woman on the far side of the lake who watched all this activity.  She was standing out on her covered patio,, waving her arms and yelling at he boat guy's.  She had nothing to say or suggest,, she just stood on the patio,, waving her hands above her head and was screaming to catch our attention.  Over and over,, she would wave her hands above her head and yell "Yoo-Hoo".  Almost like we left our keys on her countertop and she was trying to get our attention before we got to far away from the house.     It would have been much nicer if she would have yelled,, "Hey,, I know CPR" or "Yoo-Hoo,,, I called 911",, anything would have been better than just standing there waving..

 

So much for my relaxing afternoon on the lake.  I had to pack it in after all that.. Although, I think me day was inconvenienced in a very minor way compared to the surfer guy and his buddies.  I hope that he is okay. 

 

It is just so strange to think that I could have gone during any part of the day. Any other moment,,, and I would not have seen any of this tragedy.  And, I would not have anything to write about,, which would be okay by me... 

 

 

Finally,, a good solid week

At long last,, I finally got in a full week of training. It has been a long time,, probably 2-3 months since I have been able to really have a full focused training week. It has been one thing or another. I lost 4 weeks to letting my surgeries heal. Although, I have to admit I was glad to use them as excuses to not train. Then I lost a couple of weeks due to traveling. So all in all,, I had plenty of excuses. I have been able to make a few of the long rides and I have been pretty good about making sure I got my running in. So, I am not that far behind,, just because I missed the group workouts.

This week was a bit different. No traveling so I was able to make all the scheduled workouts. I made two swimming sessions. I really lost a lot of endurance. I was struggling to keep up with the lane. We did about 3600 meters at each workout. I started fading about three quarters of the way through the workouts. I felt good though that I hung in there. Mostly I was glad to be in the pool again. It sure helps start the day a lot better when you do something so early. The rest of the day just feels easy. I even made a track workout. I was very apprehensive about the track session but I forced myself to make it. Once there,, I was okay,, it was just the initial part of getting to the track that was the hardest part.

"There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a regained desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure". Mark Twain

Somehow.. someone hid my treasures in pools, tracks, on the trails and on the roads... I guess if it was left out and easy to find,, it would not be called a treasure.

Another Race - and another week

Jack's Generic Triathlon was today.  It was my second tri of the summer since Arizona.  It was a good day.  Part of the fun was the large number of T3er's out there.  I was a bit baffled by my race day preparations.  I took everything so lightly.  Usually I feel like I stress out over my preparations.  I lay everything out and double check all my equipment.  Now,, I just start putting stuff in my backpack and head out to the race.  I guess it is normal and that this what comes with being well prepared.  Who knows.    The race went well.. I finished in 1 hour 23 minutes.   I am sort of ,,, almost,, pretty close to being happy with my results.  I am slower than last year by a minute or two, and as usual, I am normal.  Or, I should say that I am average.  I always come out in the middle of the pack in my age group. 

 

 

 

I was inspired by a noticeably larger number of kids in the triathlon.  I may just be that I am able to take more of the event in and am noticing the things that have always been there but it seemed like there were a lot of teenagers in the event.  When I was a teenager, there weren't any triathlons and even if there were, I probably would not have been interested in them.  It was nice to see the change. 

 

 

Back to me,,, I am looking forward to kicking off the organized training for Arizona. 

 

This week, I need to compress some training that I did not get in due to the race.  On top of that, I am supposed to go out of town so that will throw a monkey wrench into my training.  It is up to me to pull it off.. everything else is just excuses. 

Piney Woods Bike Ride

I went to East Texas last week. I contacted the Angelina Bike Club to see if they had any organized rides on Saturday. I was planning on joining them for a ride. It turns out that there were several of them that were planning on riding. At first, and I am not sure why, I was reluctant to go with them, even after I contacted them. Not sure if it was an apprehension about meeting new people, new route or possibly not being up to par with their abilities. All reasons are silly. Silly or not,, I went to bed on Friday evening hoping that the ride would get rained out. Saturday morning arrived and it was a beautiful day. Not too hot,, no rain and gorgeous blue skies.

I hooked up with the ABC guys on Saturday morning at Lufkin High School. They turned out to be a great group of guys. So,, any fears about that were quickly put aside. We planned on a 60 mile ride. So off we headed towards Zavalla Texas. The road was perfect,, it was a fairly new road so there were no potholes or rough spots to worry about. Once we warmed up,, they started picking the pace up. We had a great pace,, one that actually worried me because I was fearful that I could not sustain that pace for very long. I remembered what Maurice told me about being uncomfortable on the bike and to push myself. So,, that is what I did. It was a hard ride but man it was fun. At about mile 17, two of the riders had to turn around so it ended up with just three of us. We had a great pace line going and we rotated through the line, each taking a turn at pulling. We were cooking along,, through some beautiful landscapes,, covered in huge pine trees that stood out so amazingly. At the half way point, we had about 27 miles under our belt and the average speed was 19.8 MPH... as we headed back towards Austin, I though we would slow down a bit,, but we didn't. We kept hammering back to town. When it was all over, we covered 55 miles and 19.5 MPH average speed. That is an awesome pace for me!! I really enjoyed going that fast for that long. I was beat when we got back to town. I could tell that I pushed myself really hard.

Here is the best part,, after the ride,, I stopped by Smoothie King for a Smoothie (what else would you get at a Smoothie King?) and it was great. It really hit the spot. Simple pleasures.

Here we go again!

This is a long overdue post to the BLOG.  I have been AWOL for awhile.  First thing and main thing to mention is that I have signed up for another Ironman.  Ironman Arizona April 13th 2008.  I am actually looking forward to it,, although I cannot seem to get my ass in gear and start training again.  I have a long ways before I need to start training in earnest but in the meantime, I need to stay in shape.  Plus I have a triathlon per month scheduled from now until October. Last week was a good week for training.  I managed to get in some good runs and some biking.  It is funny but the months of being sedentary not only threw a monkey wrench into my fitness, it also messed up my rituals.  During the IM training,, everything had a place and time.  I knew where all my equipment was, I had everything strategically placed in either the garage or the Pathfinder.  I had my post-workout drinks prepared each day, I logged my workouts on Sundays, and did wash on Fridays.  Right now, I am all over the map.  Nothing is gelling yet.  I am not quite in the swing of things yet, so it is frustrating to me.  I do manage to arrive at the workouts with clothes,, not the right clothes but clothed none-the-less.

 

Last week, I did 2 hours of biking, 1 hour of swimming , 2 hours of running and two hours of core.  I missed all the log stuff due to being in Houston over the weekend.  I know,, not much of a log but it is a start.