oak hill flyer: base camp
it seems these days that i spend a lot of time writing executive summaries at work. in that spirit, i present an executive summary of the past several months to you. please call or email if you have any questions.
- my knee and i are exactly where we want to be. "the only way i'm going to get this knee to heal is if i sign up for an ironman," was my primary thought last october. this counterintuitive stratagem seems to be paying off. thorough the AMAZING work of arrosti specialist brian ellspermann at texas sports and family medicine, my knee experienced more healing in the month of april than it did in the prior eight months of attempts. at the end of may, i was tolerating 20-mile running/100-mile biking weeks with minimal knee issues that could easily be managed.
- the training calendar has been set. over the course of the next six months, i have selected five weeks for peak weekly mileage attempts, each of which is followed by a week of rest. i liken this process to a series of camps en route to a mountain summit. i welcomed myself to base camp last week with a 3/100/22 effort. grab your oxygen tank and your prayer flags; there's a long road ahead.
- six months until ironman arizona, and time is flying. when i signed up for IMAZ back in november, i knew that time would fly. i was right. as i get older, i feel like i handle the passing of time much better. surely we all remember gnawing our arm off as a child on december 1st; the thought of three full weeks until christmas was too much to bear. even as i entered college, four years of academic work seemed like a monster. after nearly twelve years of being in austin, i kinda shrug my shoulders at the thought of any 5-, 10- or 20-year project. as long as i'm enjoying what i'm doing i haven't been disgusted by the taste of warm clif bars, what better way to pass the time?
- i have pedaled through 47 of 79 star trek tos episodes. i have been doing two trainer rides every week since november, with the crew of the uss enterprise to keep me company. some favorites include the immunity syndrome, the doomsday machine, the changeling, amok time, the galileo seven, and the menagerie. Duds include who mourns for adonais, shore leave, and the corbomite maneuver. discuss amongst yourselves.
- rolling on a pvc pipe is my new recovery tool. i need to thank the arrosti clinic for this one. what started out as fifteen minutes of sheer hell on a foam roller in april has turned into fifteen minutes of relaxing, massage-like bliss on a 4" pvc pipe. it supposedly stretches out your fascia; i now have over a dozen data points where a very stiff knee was loosened by 15 minutes of rolling; i started calling it my 'magic roller' because the before-and-after really felt like voodoo. quads, calves, glutes: you name it, it can be rolled. have a watch of this demo video if you're curious.
- moving forward, my biggest concerns are my knee and my sinuses. until i'm dropping 8-mile tempo runs without any residual knee stiffness, my biggest concern will always be my knee. also as i do more open water swims, my sinuses are very susceptible to infection; i'll need to keep strict healthy habits to minimize the number of sick days i have. the summer heat will not help my immune system; rest, healthy eating and my neti pot are my best weapons. i can't help but think: 'rich, isn't your biggest concern DOING A FRICKIN' IRONMAN?' simply put, it's not. sure, it'll be work (a LOT of work), but i know i can hold my focus for that long. i remember gearing up for my first marathons, where my biggest concern was in between my ears. today i'm 99% confident in my grey matter; it's me bones that i think about most (and if anyone out there mentions anything about the 'O' word, be prepared for a smacking!).
- i am experimenting with forefoot running. you've heard the craze, and i have a number of friends who have had great success with forefoot running. i'm giving it a shot, and i like how it feels. no real empirical evidence yet, but i like how it feels (that is, until my calves get tired).
it feels so great to be moving and active. to get to the desert of arizona, i'll need to endure the summer heat of texas. let's go!
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