Tripped and Grounded

There was something in the air. I had to go west.

"Took a bead on the northern plains and just rolled that power on.

And I was singn', roll, roll me away, won't roll me away tonight."

I know I'm getting close to home when I cross over the Little Missouri and the Yellowstone River. Just a few more hours now and I'll be breathing the rarified air found at altitudes above 6,000 feet. My asthmatic lungs will finally get relief from the exhaust fumes and city smog.

The familiar signs tell me I have arrived. Grounded again in the Gallatins, my back yard.

I met the girls for lunch at 7,000 feet a couple miles up the Deer Creek trail.

Did a late afternoon swim at 7,500 feet at the pool with aspen leaves drifting along the bottom.

Steaks on the grill and smores for dessert.

Happy children make me happy.

And there was fresh snow beckoning me to carve surpentine lines...and I obliged.

Montana is a place where I feel I belong, and I like it that way. If dogs don't go heaven it's because they're here in Big Sky Country.

Vernal Equinox, the first day of spring

The first day of spring in the northern hemisphere and the first day of fall, autumnal equinox, in the southern hemisphere.

Let's think spring, shall we?

Equinox "equal night."

Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

Ostera or Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. In Germany, Ostara, this comes from the German word Ost: “east,” which is the direction of dawn, the place of awakening, of birth and of spring.

Daylight hours now begin to grow longer than nighttime hours and triathletes embrace the prospect of early morning workouts and long evening training sessions OUTDOORS!

We are solar powered gods and goddesses aren't we? There is something about the dawn of a day when most mortals are asleep that we rise with the sun to ply open water, to ride to the crest of a hill to meet the rising sun, and to run as the sun casts our first silhouette as a long shadow on the ground. We are vibrant and alive like no other creature on earth.

Triathletes, the crazy people our parents warned us about.

Have a beautiful and uplifting day. They only get better.

Beannach tai na Feile Padraig

pronounce; bann/ockt/tee nih fail/eh pawd/rig.

Translation;

HAPPY SAINT PATRICKS DAY!

Sla`inte chugat, saol fada chugat (good health to you and long life to you).

Four-leaf Clover Poem. Author: Ella Higginson

I know a place where the sun is like gold,

And the cherry blooms burst with snow,

And down underneath is the loveliest nook,

Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

One leaf is for HOPE,

and one is for FAITH,

And one is for LOVE, you know,

And GOD put another in for LUCK

--If you search, you will find where they grow.

But you must have HOPE,

and you must have FAITH,

You must LOVE and be strong

-- and so --If you work, if you wait, you will find the place

Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

In Irish tradition the Shamrock or Three-leaf Clover represents the Holy Trinity: one leaf for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. When a Shamrock is found with the fourth leaf, it represents God's Grace.

My great grandmothers' clan are from Northern Ireland in the districts of Antrim, Derry, and Tyrone and it is from there, over the ocean to you, that I wish you all the luck of the Irish and many blessings to you and your family.

Sla`n go fo`ill (goodbye for now).

"All because of you bud"

Me: "Hey Jer, you've lost some weight."
Jer: "Ya, I thought about what you said and I told myself I'm gonna lose 25 pounds."
Me: "So how's it going?"
Jer: "I did it, I'm down 25 pounds and it's all because of you."
Me: Big grin on my face, gave Jer a high five, and went into a meeting.

I hadn't seen Jer in about 2 months so when I bumped into him, I noticed his belly wasn't hanging over his belt and his profile looked svelter. Jer is in his early 60's and we've known each other about 2 years. Jer always asks me about my triathlon and ski races and what my next race is gonna be. I told him about all the different types of people of all shapes and sizes that I see at the races and kinda joked to him that he should do a sprint tri sometime just for fun. He hasn't done any races yet but he's looking better than ever and I hope I see him again soon...at one of the races.

You know it's almost springtime when...

1. Nighttime temperatures stay above freezing and 50 deg. F feels like t-shirt weather.

2. The snow gets too slushy to xc ski.

3. Five-month-old dog poop becomes visible as the snow melts from the yard.

4. The Chinook winds blow across the alpine snowpac.

And finally, the geese return to the river as the current swells and the ice begins to break up.

I do sooooo love the change of seasons in the North country. Except the dog poop part. And it seems that this change of season happens overnight. It's been a few days now with temps in the 40's and 50's and I feel like a caged animal that has been released from capture. I put the splash fenders on my old mountain bike and went for a cruise on the wet and sloppy roads. Like a kid again, I purposely splashed through the puddles and pot holes and sucked in the balmy air to fill my lungs like manna to my soul. The dirty splatter freckles on my face were so cool. I am 10 years old again, pedaling my metallic blue schwinn stingray around the old neighborhood with my pals and kicking up rooster tails of muddy water and slush in each other's faces as we ride like a breakaway pack from the Tour peleton. It's a good day to be alive.
My tri bike is all cleaned and tuned and ready for pave`. I'm twitching like a horse kicking at the stall to get out to the spring pasture.
"hak, turn me loose, I got ta go, I'm doctah feeeel good." James Brown.

"Dolphin-Human" is not just a myth

This question was asked to the Nutrition experts on the Powerbar Feb. Newsletter.

Q: I am a 35–year old Master’s swimmer who swims 20–25 miles 6x per week with five dry sessions. I wish to improve my recovery, especially muscular pain. What do you advise?

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy!

Whatever this person is eating, I want some. Sushi?

I had to break this down for myself. I average about 3,000 yards for a 1 hour swim session including warm up and cool down. If I attempted to match this super human/dolphin feat, I'd be in the pool about 11-12 hours a day even with one of those 'fast skin' swim suits. I'm pretty sure my general appearance would not be like the cute marine mammal Tursiops truncatus unless during that time in the pool, I went through an evolutionary time warp and grew a dorsal fin, a fluke tail and a single blow hole. My skin would not feel like wet slippery rubber, I'd be "Raisin Man."

I had to check the link to see if this was for real.

http://mail.powerbar.com/Key=44405.C1N.K.l.Lg1vMc

Girl Scout Cookies...stop me now!

Every year I fall off the wagon[cartwheel]. I consume more than my share of Girl Scout cookies and I'm proud of it. Most of the time. I try to avoid too much simple sugar in my diet but I can not resist my favorite cookies from the girls in khaki. I am such a sucker for these young sales people and I always order my 2 favorite flavors...anything with chocolate or peanut butter or my ultimate weakness...chocolate and peanut combined. The oatmeal ones are so, ah, healthy too. Oh my g-. I just don't have the wil power to turn them down. I end up suplimenting my mid-morning and afternoon snacks with Do-si-dos or Tagalongs. Oh sure, I eat my usual fruit or nuts but capping those off with a few (or a whole sleeve) of tasty bite-size delights is dang near nirvana. I am so easily pleased. Any bad mood or crappy feelings disolve the instant I take a bite. The rest of my day is happy and gay...and tomorrow I'll do extra yardage and mileage so I can snack with impunity.

I am NOT shrinking...or am I? Honey!?

I just went shopping for some new tech-t-shirts for training (my current collection of 3 were getting a little funky even with regular washings) and my current size is now a medium. I used to be a large. How is this possible? I am a typical American male in every aspect of the demographic...or so I thought. I've been the same height and weight for the past 15 years. I fit into the "average male" category like water is wet. I'm so average it's not funny. When I used to go shopping for clothing items, the racks were either full of the size I needed or empty depending on dates of the clearance sale. I used to always grab the size large shirts, shorts, etc. and rarely even tried them on cuz they always fit just right. Recently this has changed. Now I wear medium in almost everything from socks to skivies, shorts, shirts, tights, jackets...everything. I ended up talking with my girl friend about this and she set me strait. She said I'm no longer the "average American male." American men are bigger now then they were 15 years ago and the clothing industry has kept pace with those big studs. OK, I didn't need that blow to my ego but I took it in stride. After she gave me many examples from our general population, I was pretty convinced she knew what she was talking about and I felt a bit more enlightened. I then asked her if this same dilemma effected her or the general female population? She said it's a bit different for women and can be a double edged sword at times. She wears mostly women's medium and some large depending on brand name. Then she hit me with "now, bra sizes are a whooole different story." Great, now I'm a dead man. She said that many women's bra sizes are labeled a cup size larger than they truly are to make the women feel better about being "bigger"...or so they think. She said this is due to our society's, mainly men's, preoccupation with chest size for both men and women. OK, now I can see the obvious train coming. She said "just look at your typical male athletic club members who workout to get bigger pecs and it's those same guys who put way too much stock in large chested women and the women tend to play off that." Now, the obvious train just ran me over. I'm no longer the "average" or "typical" American male when it comes to clothing size or pec size. I'm below average. Boo hoo huh. Then I just remembered what a pro triathlete once said to me ..."it's most often the smaller [medium] guys that win ironman races." I feel so much better now about being non-typical and my new size. Now what's it gonna be 10 years from now?

DON'T PANIC! But if you do...

photo caption: Venice Beach. Somebody actually took the time to create this metal sign and install it at an intersection on Abbot Kinney. Instead of pointing across the street, the arrow guides pedestrians to a liquor store.

The sarcasm of this sign just cracked me up. Let's be clear that I do not support drinking booze as a means to solve any problem or crisis but I do enjoy witty stuff like this. Now, where is that EASY button for an ironman?

Today's command is "March Forth"

The only date of the year that is a command, March Fourth (forth). How neat is that? I'm taking this day/command somewhat seriously and moving forward from this past week of being sluggish, weak and tired. I'm sure the "weakness" was in my head but I know I started last week with less than adequate sleep and I never quite recovered from it as the week went on. My training hours per week are averaging about 14 and without good sleep, I'm doomed. OK, maybe I'm overstating "doomed" but I'm so dang sensitive to the relevance of good solid sleep and how it affects my quality of training. So today I woke up after a good night of sleep and I'm gonna put some quality time on running and xc skiing today. Heck, I might even have time to join my pals at the kickbox-do session between the run and ski. Nothing like getting my ego checked by a 120 pound kickbox-do master..."cheeyah"!

Well, I got my wish

SNNNOOOW! Gobs of it. Late winter snow finally arrived in Minnesota and xc skiing should be good...now. Last weekend's snow storm was 24 hours too late for a full 50K Birkebeiner. Oh well, fickle weather is the order of the day (this is the view from the company office window right now). The Birke trail was very severe. The first 3-5K was "truck load snow" brought in from whoknowswhere and it was very dirty so most of my wax was left there. Once the trail narrowed in the woods, it was very hard packed and icy with many bare spots of grass, dirt, leaves, twigs and human carnage. Most of the downhill sections had safety patrol warning skiers to slow down and space out. I managed to stay upright through all the descents (thanks to my teenage years of alpine skiing) and finished the 25K unscathed. The bottoms of my skis? What bottoms? I left most of the cintered base material ($$ the most expensive part of the ski $$) out on the course as ground cover for the rest of the skiers. Good thing I used my B skis but still made me cringe when I took a close look at the bases after the race. Thick and thin will race again...next year.

Happy March first. Daylight savings begins in 11 days and the Spring Equinox is in 21 days. There are snowflakes the size of paper plates falling right now and my coach has a 2 hour aerobic ski slated for me this Sunday. Yeah! I just love it when coach lets me cross train. It really breaks up the monotony of my past 3 months of indoor ironman training. Hey! I'd better go home and wax. Later skaters.