Just Can't Stop!

Just when I thought I had all the sporting equipment to meet my "high octane" needs, I discovered something new last night. Next to the surfboard, wakeboard, snowboards, golf bag, tennis rackets, fishing poles, back packing gear, triathlon bike, mountain bike, wet suits, soccer cleats, and running shoes will be a spot for a BMX bike! After my open water swim and run yesterday I saw some people practicing at the BMX park. After watching a few runs I was immediately floored! I wanted a bike and I wanted to ride! You go so fast and the sport seems really technical and competitive. Just what I need! Another adrenaline infused sport to throw money at! I don't know what it is about my personality that compels me to chase after anything with excitement. This may expalin why my relationships with women are short lived... but that's another topic for another day. I can't help it though. I find it thrilling to push my limits and fully enjoy life. My way of enjoying life is to be outside, experiencing nature through exhilarating sports. Since we're on the subject, here is a list of things I'd really like to try before one of these current sports I do kills me first!
• wing suit sky diving aka proximity flying
• swim with/feed sharks
• kite board
• fly my own plane
• experience zero gravity
• ride in a fighter jet
• summit Mt. Everest
• Ride a lap around Daytona @ 200 mph
• tow in surfing at Mavericks or Teahupoo
• hang glide
• scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef
• Heli boarding trip
• Kona IronMan

What do you want to do?

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was a blast! I went to a friends wedding on Saturday and saw some old buddies of mine that I hadn't seen in a while. The guy that was getting married was Canadian and all his family and friends flew in from Canada. Boy can those people drink! The reception was at the club house of a golf course and somebody had the brilliant idea of sneaking into the golf shop, taking some pitching wedges and hitting range balls! After the wedding I drove down to Tims Ford Lake to a friends lake house. I was hoping everyone would still be up but evidently 2:30 am was too late! I fixed breakfast for everyone the next morning and we proceeded to spend the next 48 hours on the water! Wakeboarding and wake surfing are my two favorite summer time activities and this weekend I logged several hours behind the boat doing just that. With the music playing on the boat, some close friends, sunshine and beautiful scenery, I couldn't have had a better weekend!

First Taste of Xterra

Last Thursday I borrowed my room mates very expensive mountain bike and went to Hamilton Creek to ride around. This was my first time to ever mountain bike and I was pretty excited about it considering I'll be doing a triathlon in a month or so that involves a trail ride. I've heard that Hamilton Creek has some very technical trails but my ego was way bigger than any trail I could possibly imagine. Honestly, besides swimming, I pick up on new sports extremely fast and usually excel at them. I wish I had before and after pictures of this day because I went into the trail head scratch free and came out looking like I've been put through garbage disposal! I started off on the beginner trails and got to my first technical rock garden. I slowly approached the section and just as I was going over the first set of rocks, my back tire began to lift off the ground and I slowly began to roll forward over my handle bars and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it! Did I mention that I am wearing shoes that allow me to clip into the pedals. In other words, I'm attached to the bike! Luckily I came out of the pedals before I flew over the handle bars. Laying on my face with the bike a few feet away, I took a deep breath and picked my pride off the dirt. I had officially met my match. Most people would just walk back to the car but this sparked an animal inside of me that wanted more. Since I survived my first wreck, I wanted to go faster and hit bigger, more technical sections of the course. I eventually got the hang of going down hill over large rocks and logs on the beginner section. That was enough confidence for me to try the advanced/expert course. It's a 6 mile loop that includes 3 emergency stations and a heli pad for life flight. I basically played pin ball through the entire 6 miles of grueling hills, rocks and trees. Evidently your speed and the gear you're in is very critical. If you go to slow down a steep rock section, you can go over the front of your bars (which I did twice) and if you go too fast, you'll be out of control and won't be able to hold your line. Completely exhausted, I made it back to the trail head and loaded up my bike. I looked down at my legs and I had tire tread on the back of both, rock scrapes that were on the front of my legs, 2 of which made me bleed pretty good, fire ant bites on my arms, a few scratches on my face from low hanging limbs, and a partially bruised ego! Overall I was pretty stoked about coming out alive! I actually like the fact that I royally sucked! It gives me motivation to get better and go back to conquer more difficult areas of the trail. I've got a lot to learn before my first race!

Friend In the Front yard

Once I got home from Mt. Biking last week, I hobbled my scraped and bruised body down to the mail box at the end of my drive way. After shuffling through the junk mail I had received, I noticed something moving around in the grass. There in front of me was a baby rabbit hopping around in yard. I got down on one knee and tried calling it towards me as if it were a dog. Thinking about it now, that made no sense! However, this seemingly unconventional technique was working. The rabbit hopped right up to where I was standing at the edge of the road. I feared this was too close to the road so I moved into the middle of the front yard and sat down. The baby rabbit came right over to me and began to hop around me in circles. He then started crawling around on my legs and once he seemed comfortable around me, I was able to pick him up in my hands and hold it. I knew that people wouldn't believe that a rabbit just came up to me and played for a while without some pictures. Luckily I had my camera phone and tried to take several pictures of me holding the rabbit. Unfortunately my neighbors and any passing cars probably saw something completely different. After biking I had taken off my shirt and bike shoes and put them on the tail gate of my truck. I was only wearing my spandex bike shorts. So as people were out for a walk or driving past my house, the only thing they saw was a guy laying out in a front yard taking pictures of himself! Shirtless! I probably looked like the biggest tool ever! I don't know what it was about this experience that got me so thrilled. Maybe the fact that this is a wild animal... even if it's found in the suburbs of Nashville! Secondly, I appreciated the innocence and trustworthiness of this baby animal. If you've ever tried to get close to an adult rabbit, it always runs away. But this rabbit had so much curiosity that I really enjoyed. It was beginning to get dark and I had to go back inside. When I got half way back to my door I turned around the the rabbit was right on my heels going down the drive way! For some reason I felt sad. I don't know why this emotion came over me but it seemed as though the rabbit wanted to play some more! I actually felt bad about leaving it in the yard. I'm sure this rabbit got a scolding from his mother because she was sitting in the front yard watching my every move. The next morning as I was pulling out of the drive way for work, I saw him and his mother in the front yard. I actually waved good bye in a humorous manner as I drove down the street! Moral to the story: Being able to find joy and excitement in your everyday life is definitely a key to happiness. This is impossible though if you keep your eyes closed and your heart shut.

An Overdetermined Phenomenon

(an excellent description written by Matt Fitzgerald on the fascination with endurance sports) The term "overdetermined" applies to phenomena that have more than enough causes to explain their existence. In other words, an overdetermined phenomenon is one that might still exist even if you subtracted one or more of its apparent causes.

The potency of the dream of qualifying for the Hawaii Ironman is probably one such phenomenon. At least that's what I believe after interviewing Michael Atkinson, PhD, a sociologist at England's Loughborough University whose research focuses on explaining why endurance athletes train and race. I contacted Atkinson last week specifically to ask for his take on why so many men and women around the world get caught up in the quest for Kona. Atkinson, I found, approaches the question in slightly different terms, more like, "Why did the Hawaii Ironman catch on after its inaugural staging in 1978?" He places the birth and growth of this event in the context of the broader individual and extreme sports explosion that popularized everything from windsurfing to mountain biking at about the same time.

Atkinson, who became a distance runner and a triathlete himself for the sake of his ethnographic work, sees a laundry list of factors ranging from the rapid growth of the service sector economy to the landmark women's sports opportunity legislastion, Title IX, factoring into the phenomenon. He calls it a "perfect storm" of social and economic factors coming together.

I can't share too much of the interview because I'm using it in my book, Kona or Bust, which chronicles my individual quest for Kona as a vehicle to capture the universal essence of this overdetermined phenomenon. But here are a couple of choice excerpts:

I’m really fascinated with suffering. You don’t go into an Ironman thinking, Tra-la-la-la-la, this is going to feel fantastic. You know it’s going to ache. Learning to like that ache becomes part of the process. And if you want to look at why, most of the people who become engrossed with the long-distance events come from middle-class backgrounds and have middle-class work ethics and ideas about setting goals and about learning to achieve a sense of identity not only though the business and family things that they do but through leisure pursuits as well. So if I can set goals and train toward them and work my body toward them, that just reaffirms my identity elsewhere. I’m a person who can set goals, plan things out. I have will and determination, and that really sets me apart from the herd.

And what’s interesting to me too is that when I first got into these groups I expected to encounter a lot of arrogance, but I didn’t. There are really a lot of humble people who just really like doing what they do and enjoy that suffering. In our culture we are told that suffering is a bad thing, and you should never do it. But these people say to me that when you discover that suffering isn’t going to kill you, a lot of really important things about yourself are revealed to you. You learn a ton about who you are and what you’re capable of, not just physically but also mentally. This becomes a vehicle of self-exploration.

Shin Splints

I've always had shin splints when I ran. I can remember getting them as far back as middle school. It was just something I put up with. Now i'm getting to the point where i'm serious about IM's and i'm consistently having set backs because of the way my legs are performing in a run. I decided to go see the guys at Fleet Feet in Brentwood, TN to get their insight on my shin splints. They suggested I use one of these highly compacted styrofoam cylinders and place my body weight on it to roll out the tightness in my shins. You get in a semi push up position with one shin on top of the cylinder and your other leg on top of it for added weight. Then you roll your body back and forth so that the cylinder makes it's way up and down the leg. It's basically like a deep tissue massage. After trying that last night I woke up this morning to find that my legs felt surprisingly great. I had worked the majority of the soreness out. Today on my lunch break I broke out the new Saucony Type A2's that came in the mail the day before and did a short track workout. 2X800 and 2X400 with active rest @ 75% of my run splits. Other than my legs being tired from this past Sunday's olympic distance triathlon and yesterday's 5am track workout and kick drills in the pool, I felt as if my times were significantly faster and my shins didn't feel the way they did yesterday. Hopefully with some care and attention I can work these shin splints out of my system for good. Other ailments: my lower back has been feeling a lot better partially because i've laid off the bike over the past 2 weeks. I know I need to get properly fitted and possibly need a whole new set up but the expense is outrageous. I'll end up spending several hundred on the bike fitting and necessary upgrades or spending a few thousand on a new Cervelo. I've always said, "it's not the machine, it's the person using it." However, the science and technology behind aerodynamics and efficiency in endurance sports can vastly improve your times on the swim, bike, and run by simply upgrading your gear. In a sport where seconds, ounces, and speed matter a tremendous amount, I want my gear to perform at the same level I am. This memorial day weekend i'm wakeboarding at a friends lake house Fri-Mon. It'll be a excellent opportunity to relax because the next 2 months of training will be exceptionally difficult.

L•I•V•I•N•G

Last night I went to Endurance Sports to listen to professional Xterra/Triathlon athletes talk about their sports and give some novices some insight. Before the discussion began, I was standing by myself just looking around at all the expensive gear when I was approached by one on the pro's. He introduced himself as Dan Hugo. We talked about the differences between his hometown in South Africa and America and some general triathlon stuff. But what really struck me the most was the sincerity and genuineness of his personality. He sincerely wanted to know what I did and why I liked doing triathlons. The conversation seemed to be going the opposite direction of how I anticipated one would with a person of his caliber. Usually I'd just ask questions and they'd just talk about themselves. This particular instance was surprisingly different. Once we finished out little conversation, I still didn't know exactly who he was or how famous this dude actually is. It became very apparent when he was introduced to the entire group who Dan Hugo was. I had been talking to someone who was one of the top Xterra racers in the entire world! The discussion panel of professional athletes shared a lot of useful information revolving around training techniques, nutrition, racing strategies, and life as a pro. Out of the entire discussion, one thing really connected with me on the way home. Each pro athlete was living their dream. They talked about what they did with a great deal of passion. They got to travel, race and make a living doing what the really love doing. I thought to myself, those guys are really living the life. They're livin' it! Once I said this to myself, a light bulb came on in my head. True, they're living a life most only dream about, but at one point i'm sure they didn't feel like they were living the dream. I'm talking about before they went pro. The hard work of keeping a full time job and training for races that take up the same time as full time jobs. That last sentence describes exactly how I feel and I don't feel as if i'm living the dream at all. I think the key to it is learning to "live it" in whatever situation you find yourself in. Why wait till you're a professional athlete with all the benefits that encompass this privilege to start living the dream. I need to remind myself that I am living the dream that so many would love to have. I've got a job, a roof over my head, great friends, and have been blessed with genetics that allow me to compete in endurance races. I'm already livin' it and I didn't even take the time to notice it. This was a valuable lesson learned last night and special thanks to Dan for opening that door for me.

Memphis Olympic Distance Triathlon

Okay... so i'm an idiot! I decided to go wakeboarding Friday evening and Saturday morning. Not very smart. I haven't boarded since this time last year so I woke up saturday morning with a sore back. Not exactly how I wanted to go into my race on Sunday. The drive to memphis was full of anticipation. This was my first open water distance swim. When we arrived at the race site, I was greeted by howling winds and not so inviting waters. 1500 yards in a pool is 60 laps. Not so bad when you break it up into 25 yard increments. However, 1500 yards in open water looks like miles upon miles. The magnitude of this swim was also amplified by the white caps that formed from strong winds. I went to bed that night with only one thing on my mind... Don't drown!! With my alarm set for 4:30am, I was ready to get this thing over with. Sunday morning was colder than I expected it to be. With wind gusts up to 15mph and 52 degrees, it was chilly. I got a really got spot in my transition area because I arrived at 5:30 when the transition area opened. After warming up and thinking about all the technical things I needed to remember, it was time to line up for the swim. I was in the first age group and had an excellent spot in line. The anticipation that builds up for a race like this is incredible. I was just waiting my turn in line, like ants marching in a row, waiting to be released into the water. Once I crossed the timing mat and dove into the water, this was not a race against other competitors. It was me versus mother nature and physical and mental pain. Almost the entire swim was faced with a cross current, fogged glasses and a glare from the sun on my fogged glasses which made sighting near impossible. I was relieved to get out of the water and change out of my wetsuit for the bike. I thought that my bike would be the strongest portion of my race. Eh.... not so much! I've never biked in really strong winds before and I had a wake up call after mile 10. The first half of the 24 mile bike was really fast. The course was flat and I had a good wind at my back that allowed me to average almost 23 mph. The second half of the course was met with a cross wind that nearly knocked me over and a vicious head wind that proved to cripple my average speed. It was depressing to see my average dip below 20 mph, and sadly I couldn't do anything to stop it. Not to mention my lower back was all in knots. It was painful during the entire race. My run wasn't any better. I averaged a 7:30 pace for the 10K (6.2miles). This was awful considering I can run a 6:15 pace. My quads cramped up really bad within the first mile and I had to run through the pain for the entire run. It sucked! The old adage, "pain is temporary" definitely describes the feeling as I crossed the finish line. The feeling of accomplishment trumps the beating I just gave my entire body for 2 1/2 hours. Not bad for my first olympic distance race. I could definitely take some positives and negatives from it. It's given me a whole new perspective for the half Ironman in July. The swim would only be a few hundred yards longer but I would double my distance in the bike and run to 56 miles and 13.1 miles for the bike an run. All that said, it's just a motivator for my next race... STAY FOCUSED!!!

Weekend Outlook

After work I'm driving down to the lake house on Tim's Ford Lake! I'll be wakeboarding this evening and early tomorrow morning. Then I'm driving back into Nashville to ride to Memphis for the Memphis Triathlon. On a scale of 1-10 for being prepared for this triathlon, I'm feeling about a 6. Getting sick twice in the same month and continuing back pains have kept me from really pushing it as hard as I wanted to. Most important thing is that I know I can swim 1500 yards. Having that in my back pocket as a confidence booster will definitely be helpful. Between the swim, bike and run, i'm covering 30 miles! It's a very small number compared to the Half IronMan that I WILL complete in late July that will cover 70.3 miles!! With the concert last night, wakeboarding Friday and Saturday, Memphis in may festivities Saturday evening, the triathlon on Sunday and back in Nashville for a friends concert at the famous Blue Bird late Sunday night, it's looking like another awesome weekend! Keep em' comin'!

Cross Canadian Ragweed

Last night I went to the Tin Roof to see Cross Canadian Ragweed play. The day was looking pretty bad but somehow the clouds decided to roll back just in time for the concert! It was a perfect evening to see a great Texas Country band. I got a really great spot by the stage and about half way through his set, Dirks Bently came up and played a song with Cody Canada! Being that close to my favorite country performers was pretty amazing! I was around good company, good music and I acted like I didnt' have to work in the morning! Chalk this one up to be another fun night in Nashville, Tennessee!

Texans invade Tennessee

My family drove in from Texas for my brother's graduation this past weekend. I allowed them to stay at my place for some reason. I hadn't had that many people stay in my house at one time in a very, very long time! With one dog that is partially retarded (my dog) another dog that has two paralyzed back legs, and a mom, father, and sister all sharing one bathroom and shower, things were pretty congested! But I wouldn't have had it any other way! We ate at Cracker Barrell two mornings in a row, had a cook out, listened to all of Clint's friends tell stories about their college days, spent time with relatives and future family members. All in all, it was a great weekend!

Aww Crap!

I was in between appointments at the hospital for my back and I decided to go enjoy the beautiful day outside. As I was walking down the street I was thinking about how amazing the sun felt and the light breeze that carried the smell of fresh cut grass through the air. Sounds too good to be true? (which is beginning to be a reoccurring theme in my life!) This is the part where you envision someone awkward walking into a party and you hear the sound of the record player coming to a screeching halt... In the midst of feeling utterly content with the nice weather, I have another sense that kicks in to tell me something is wrong. I feel a wet sensation on my left shoulder, followed by a stench that can only be described as crap. Yes, that is correct, CRAP! A bird had decided that today, he (or she to be politically correct) was going to use the restroom on my shoulder. But not just my shoulder, my brand new white polo from Express I had bought the day before. I find it odd that when I was born back twenty somethin years ago, my life and this birds life were set on a collision course. Not quite the greeting I was expecting! I haven't figured out if this whole situation was just a metaphor for something completely bigger that I can't comprehend. Hopefully it won't be a predictor of future events because really, who wants to get crapped on??!!

Memphis in May Triathlon

I first started this blog to keep track of all the adventurous things I do and/or want to accomplish. However, it's turned into a series of random stories from my everyday life. I'd like to get back to the original basis for my blog. Here's what's next...
On May 17 I am doing the longest triathlon I've ever competed in. This is nothing to get excited about since I've only done 2 triathlons EVER. I will be swimming .95 miles, biking 23 miles and running 6.2 miles. Swimming is definitely my weakest category, followed by the bike, and my strongest category is running. Unfortunately I tire myself out so badly on swimming and biking that by the time I get to my best event, it feels like my worst. You shouldn't feel like you're in survival mode during these events. The main principle of triathlons is all about efficiency. If you're not an efficient swimmer, you'll be fatigued during the bike, and if you're fatigued on the bike and you're not an efficient biker, you're doomed in the run. Since I decided to compete in triathlons back in January, efficiency has been a constant struggle with me. I'm finally up to where I can swim 1800 yards straight in the pool . This has been the largest obsticle for me to overcome. However, most triathlons involve an open water swim with several hundred participants and in this particular triathlon in may, 1700 people in the water! It quickly becomes a full contact sport. .If you don't have an efficient stroke already, trying to navigate an open water swim, weave in and out of people, and take kicks to the face, you're going to struggle. My bike riding is coming along pretty good. I'm trying to average over 20mph for however long i'm riding. I'm beginning to develop some lower back problems which is greatly hurting my ability to bike long distances and run directly afterwards. Last night I ran 10.5 miles in 76 minutes and it felt pretty good. I definitely could've gone faster. This will be a tough week of training and next week i'll taper off and rest for the race.

"Oops I did it again!"

Last night after my run (10.5 miles in 75 minutes!) I went to Kroger and ordered a pizza from Dominos. On the way home the smell was irresistible I could taste it. So I proceeded to open the box and take out a slice to eat while I was driving. I blew on the pizza for a second to cool it down because it just came out of the oven. I took a big bite and was surprised by the burning sensation on the roof of my mouth. Evidently the cheese was still too hot and it stuck to the top of my mouth when I took my first bite. The same thing happened to me last week and has been an ongoing, common occurrence since I was a child. You'd think the roof of my mouth would have developed a callus by now. But it hasn't. So here I sit trying to enjoy a sandwich and all I can think about is my pizza burn from last night... Will I ever learn?! I told my boss this story and she said I've got an issue with instant gratification. Could this pizza burn be a metaphor for my life??!! There may be something to that!!

Firm Foundation

At church on Sunday the preacher ended his sermon with a really good point. "Storms will come... Is your house going to stand."



When events in my life are going as expected, I always forget to upkeep many of the principals I base my faith on. Maybe that explains the tough fall I take when things go from good to bad. It's easy to forget about what's important when you feel like you're on top of the world. The times i've felt the closet to God are when i've been as low as I thought I could ever go. I am reminded in those times how good i've got it, what I need to be thankful for, and my purpose of being. I am also reminded to take inventory of what makes up my life, both good and bad. Why is it that you need God the most when you're on the bottom but rarely acknowledge his presence when you feel that you're in complete control of life. At this point in my life, I'd have to admit that things are looking pretty good. Coinsidently, I've recently been reminded that my spiritual life has seriouly lacked the enthusiasm it used to have. Though my current situation seems very bright, storms will come. The real question I need to ask myself is if i'll be ready for those storms. Will I be able to stand on firm ground?